Kojima and Death Stranding 2 are Going on Tour

<v Speaker 1>You'll be don't be bad.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Breaking News with me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 2>your host from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in.
<v Speaker 2>In this episode, we're gonna be talking about switch to hardware,
<v Speaker 2>reviews or lack thereof, and a huge game shows signs
<v Speaker 2>of life. It's gonna be a good one because we
<v Speaker 2>have Ajmonatti on the show as guy. How are you doing?
<v Speaker 1>What's up? I'm doing good? Jeff. How you've been hell
<v Speaker 1>of a week?
<v Speaker 2>Huh, it's been a hell of a week. Absolutely, I've
<v Speaker 2>been good. Busy obviously, gonna stay busy for a while now,
<v Speaker 2>although you know, every day something's come together in a
<v Speaker 2>way that feels very satisfying and like we're making progress
<v Speaker 2>and then of course, you know, new problems arise, but
<v Speaker 2>we got a lot of momentum, so that's feeling good. Really,
<v Speaker 2>just trying to lock down SGF and if we can
<v Speaker 2>do that then I'll be like, Okay, we can really
<v Speaker 2>start planning for the future at this point. But uh, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we're doing good over here. You you know, tell people
<v Speaker 2>a little bit about yourself. You're not Mike MANAUGHTI, but
<v Speaker 2>you are a host of nineties Disney. I want why
<v Speaker 2>do you fill people in? So?
<v Speaker 1>Nineties Disney is a podcast Mike and I do with
<v Speaker 1>our brother Chris. We talked about Disney stuff from the nineties,
<v Speaker 1>so theme parks, movies, TV shows, video games, anything else
<v Speaker 1>we could think of. That's been going on for six
<v Speaker 1>seven years now. So check that out if you're at
<v Speaker 1>all inclined. If you want to hear about Mike's recent
<v Speaker 1>trip where he was not at the PAX's panel, we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna be talking about that. We're recording Sunday Night. And
<v Speaker 1>you were on the show as well. You talked about
<v Speaker 1>your recent trip a few months ago, so you want
<v Speaker 1>to hear more. Jeff Grubb, there's also up there. There's
<v Speaker 1>a duel right now between whose trip report is more popular,
<v Speaker 1>Mike's early Epic Universe trip or Jeff's family Disney World trip.
<v Speaker 2>There everyone knows how to vote for the good guy
<v Speaker 2>there for sure, just gonna go listen.
<v Speaker 1>That's how you vote.
<v Speaker 2>I totally said game breaking news, didn't I I like,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't even hear myself said it didn't register until
<v Speaker 2>I saw the cursor moving on the doc and I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>I looked over and it was jan updating it to
<v Speaker 2>Game Best Mornings for me, so I don't make a
<v Speaker 2>mistake again, and I appreciate that.
<v Speaker 1>Chant.
<v Speaker 2>Hey, let's I just read what's on the screen everybody. Okay, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>so people should check out nineties Disney. I mean, listen,
<v Speaker 2>you used to run Exploding Barrel podcasts. You you podcasted
<v Speaker 2>about games for a long time there, right.
<v Speaker 1>It's two thousand and seven. That show ran for a
<v Speaker 1>long time, back back when not every celebrity in the
<v Speaker 1>world had a podcast, and we thought we had a
<v Speaker 1>chance of making something.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you were podcasting before. Who invented podcasting most recently
<v Speaker 2>Joe Rogan? Since Joe Rogan invented podcasting.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, sold it from me. And I've been in
<v Speaker 1>litigation for years and nobody knows about It's really sad.
<v Speaker 2>All right, we do got a lot to talk about.
<v Speaker 2>So let's explain what we do here most weekdays. I,
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Grubb, will help piece your gaming life back together.
<v Speaker 2>That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
<v Speaker 2>own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
<v Speaker 2>input of a bona fide expert who will make me
<v Speaker 2>look smart. If you were watching live on Twitch, welcome
<v Speaker 2>you can always listen to the show later on podcast
<v Speaker 2>feeds by searching for Game mess Mornings. I'll fix that
<v Speaker 2>here too. It still says game breaking News. Or find
<v Speaker 2>the r feed on giant bomb dot com. Speaking to
<v Speaker 2>giant bomb dot com. Go to giant bomb dot com,
<v Speaker 2>slash join, or an independent company. Now it's the five
<v Speaker 2>of us trying to figure this thing out. If you
<v Speaker 2>go there, you could support us. All of that money
<v Speaker 2>goes back into making us make this website. So if
<v Speaker 2>you like what you see, if you like what you're watching,
<v Speaker 2>if you like any of our stuff, blight Club, anything
<v Speaker 2>like that, go over to giant bomb dot com, slash join,
<v Speaker 2>and let's make it happen. You can also catch this
<v Speaker 2>show later though on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we
<v Speaker 2>have a lot to get into, so let's start the
<v Speaker 2>show with Nintendo switch to final tech specs and system
<v Speaker 2>reservations confirmed. Basically, this is a breakdown of the switch
<v Speaker 2>to hardware as we finally have the full information by
<v Speaker 2>Richard Ledbetter of Digital Foundry, writing over at Eurogamer. Nintendo
<v Speaker 2>has released its own technical specifications through the switch to
<v Speaker 2>console hybrid, but it's fair to say that the detail
<v Speaker 2>is somewhat selective and that's okay. It's been a long
<v Speaker 2>time since the firm ducked out of the technological arms
<v Speaker 2>race again and Sony and Microsoft but at the same
<v Speaker 2>time and information void demands to be filled. We've covered
<v Speaker 2>compelling leaks about the new Consoles T two three nine
<v Speaker 2>processor in the past, but today we can rule out
<v Speaker 2>the various asterisks and caveats surrounding unconfirmed rumors and deliver
<v Speaker 2>what you might call a final specification, along with some
<v Speaker 2>of the limitations developers are dealing with in working with
<v Speaker 2>the new console. We'll get to those here in a second.
<v Speaker 2>Starting with the let's see the CPU. Nvidia and Nintendo
<v Speaker 2>have indeed settled on the ARM Cortex A seventy eight
<v Speaker 2>c basically just like an eight core processor, six cores
<v Speaker 2>for developers to work with. That This is ampere architecture
<v Speaker 2>for the GPU. It has one thousand, five hundred and
<v Speaker 2>thirty six coup de coors. Really, all this aja stuff
<v Speaker 2>that did leak before we did know about it. I
<v Speaker 2>think there's a couple of things worth pointing out for
<v Speaker 2>people who are like, I don't care about these numbers.
<v Speaker 2>Tell me just what this might mean for me? Not
<v Speaker 2>much this is going to be a good handheld, right that.
<v Speaker 2>That's all you really need to worry about. It's going
<v Speaker 2>to have those Nintendo games you buy the system for.
<v Speaker 2>And then in terms of like, hey, it optimizing itself
<v Speaker 2>for either the home console on the TV experience or
<v Speaker 2>the handheld experience. Looks like they've made some improvements there where,
<v Speaker 2>like in DOC mode, the memory bandwidth almost doubles, which
<v Speaker 2>is nice, and that seems to enable the CPU the
<v Speaker 2>down clocks it won't run as hot thing along those things.
<v Speaker 2>Along those lines, they also have a custom firmware AHA
<v Speaker 2>for decompressing files so they don't have to put as
<v Speaker 2>much work on the CPU. Just seems like they did
<v Speaker 2>a lot of customization within Nvidia to make this handheld
<v Speaker 2>make sense. And that's the sense I get like from
<v Speaker 2>the early previews of people playing this thing and being
<v Speaker 2>really impressed by the visuals, is that this isn't just
<v Speaker 2>that tablet hardware that n Video was making slapped into
<v Speaker 2>a handheld. They really did the work to make this
<v Speaker 2>thing feel like a switch to that can last for
<v Speaker 2>the next five to ten years.
<v Speaker 1>Right. Yeah, it seems like they learned a lot of
<v Speaker 1>lessons of what they wanted after taking the Switch one
<v Speaker 1>hardware as far as they possibly could, and how they
<v Speaker 1>had to kind of get to make things work. You
<v Speaker 1>talked about, like the decompression of loading tech. One of
<v Speaker 1>the tricks they did on the Switch one was they
<v Speaker 1>would actually downclock the GPU during a loading screen, so
<v Speaker 1>the CPU could rev up and would kind of like
<v Speaker 1>thermally throttle anything. So now they just have like a
<v Speaker 1>bespoke method for kind of achieving a similar goal there.
<v Speaker 1>So obviously a lot of custom work went in. This
<v Speaker 1>isn't off the shelf components like the Switch one was,
<v Speaker 1>so it should be exciting to kind of see how
<v Speaker 1>developers go to tap into this at launch and in
<v Speaker 1>the system's lifetime.
<v Speaker 2>As far as some of those concerns that Richard Ledbetter
<v Speaker 2>of Digital Foundery was pointing out, they seem to worry
<v Speaker 2>about game chat and that running at the same time
<v Speaker 2>as a game, And I think the way he put
<v Speaker 2>it is some developers are concerned because Nintendo gave them
<v Speaker 2>this tool to test their performance when game chat is
<v Speaker 2>turned on. Basically it just seems to simulate a game
<v Speaker 2>chat session, and so they're like, Okay, this will have
<v Speaker 2>an effect on performance to some degree. What that degree
<v Speaker 2>actually is does still seem undetermined. Are you worried at
<v Speaker 2>all about running game chat or is that something you
<v Speaker 2>don't even think you're ever gonna use.
<v Speaker 1>I could see myself using it. I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>it's something I need to be worried about. Maybe it's
<v Speaker 1>a developer concern. It sounds like what happened with the
<v Speaker 1>Connect on the Xbox One. There were system resources set
<v Speaker 1>aside for that because every game had to support it,
<v Speaker 1>and then eventually, as kind of Microsoft is like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>Connect's not so important anymore, they remove that kind of
<v Speaker 1>system level occupation. So maybe we get to a situation
<v Speaker 1>three four years down the line where it's not required
<v Speaker 1>that every game has to support game chat. The games
<v Speaker 1>that do can leave that headroom, and the system could
<v Speaker 1>take advantage of the space to run it. But if
<v Speaker 1>you want to be like, no, this game needs everything,
<v Speaker 1>game chat is not supported, which you know they have
<v Speaker 1>games that don't support game recording on the switch. They've
<v Speaker 1>done something like this before, so it could be an
<v Speaker 1>option down the line.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I do wonder. I'm sure there will have
<v Speaker 2>to be some stuff reserved in case someone turns on
<v Speaker 2>game chat, but I imagine it's not turned on. It's
<v Speaker 2>not like game recording, right where that is just always
<v Speaker 2>happening in the background. If games, if you're not using
<v Speaker 2>game chat, it shouldn't really be engaging much of those
<v Speaker 2>resources at all. So hopefully this is a situation where
<v Speaker 2>it's like you understand the performance hit you might be taking,
<v Speaker 2>and hopefully hopefully it is negligible. I know, as guy,
<v Speaker 2>there are a lot of people who are never planning
<v Speaker 2>to open game chat once at all.
<v Speaker 1>And I get I don't think they'll I don't think
<v Speaker 1>they'll make it seems to me like like this, this
<v Speaker 1>this resource is set aside, whether using it or not,
<v Speaker 1>because I don't think they want a game to run
<v Speaker 1>worse if you turn it on, because you know you'll
<v Speaker 1>never turn it on, they want you to use it.
<v Speaker 2>I guess that's a point.
<v Speaker 1>My guess would be that that again, it's like a
<v Speaker 1>connect situation where it's it's always running, always using it.
<v Speaker 1>That way, they know the games will have a consistent experience.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's see that. I do have concerns about that.
<v Speaker 2>Then I think you're probably right, and it's like, man,
<v Speaker 2>most people probably aren't going to use this thing and
<v Speaker 2>they probably aren't going to want to hear that their
<v Speaker 2>game is running just you know, two to five percent
<v Speaker 2>worse because of this thing happening in the background that
<v Speaker 2>they've never engaged with. Now I've been having you know,
<v Speaker 2>Emmy's been playing Minecraft for like the last two three weeks,
<v Speaker 2>and now she's been playing with her cousin who's up
<v Speaker 2>in Michigan, and I've set it up so she's got
<v Speaker 2>this app where she can talk on her phone to
<v Speaker 2>her cousin while while they're playing the game. So I
<v Speaker 2>already see a future where game chat and the switch
<v Speaker 2>to and my kids all make a ton of sense.
<v Speaker 2>Like that that seems like a really great solution for me,
<v Speaker 2>So I will probably use this thing a lot. So
<v Speaker 2>I'm glad it's there, even if it, like in demonstrations
<v Speaker 2>with that fifteen frames per second video and stuff like
<v Speaker 2>that looks really rough, and that's how it's going to
<v Speaker 2>work in the real world as well. Still, though, for
<v Speaker 2>my purposes and connecting the kids in the simplest way possible,
<v Speaker 2>I'm totally going to use this thing all the time.
<v Speaker 2>I suspect overall though, for the switch to when it
<v Speaker 2>comes to its you know, hardware performance. I'm still of
<v Speaker 2>the opinion AJ that this thing is going to surprise
<v Speaker 2>most people. For the first year or so, I think
<v Speaker 2>people are expecting like something worse than the Steam Deck.
<v Speaker 2>And I think once the game's like putting the actual
<v Speaker 2>specs on paper aside, once all the specialized tools and
<v Speaker 2>ndidious software integration with its entire like hardware stack are
<v Speaker 2>implemented in each game for the switch to, I think
<v Speaker 2>things are going to run way better than people think.
<v Speaker 1>I think Cyberpunk is going to be an interesting flashpoint
<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people. You'll see a ton of
<v Speaker 1>videos Cyberpunk on a steam Deck versus a switch to.
<v Speaker 1>You know, people are trying to draw the equivalences between
<v Speaker 1>the power of the CPU and the switch to versus
<v Speaker 1>the steam Deck, which is hard because it's armed versus.
<v Speaker 1>But again, console development always has that benefit, right you
<v Speaker 1>have that one spec that's what you're developing for, you're
<v Speaker 1>optimizing for, you always get a little bit more out
<v Speaker 1>of it. So I think, especially in the early going,
<v Speaker 1>you're going to be beating what a steam Deck skipble
<v Speaker 1>of now a steam Deck two or this rumored rog
<v Speaker 1>ally to slash Xbox device. Could that all already come
<v Speaker 1>how strong out of the gate, it's possible that's also
<v Speaker 1>potentially gonna be a nine hundred, one thousand dollars device.
<v Speaker 1>Now you get into even though the switch to is expensive,
<v Speaker 1>you get back into this weird cost analysis paralysis thing,
<v Speaker 1>you know, where a thousand dollars handheld doesn't compare to
<v Speaker 1>a five hundred dollars console handheld, And you know what
<v Speaker 1>does that mean?
<v Speaker 2>Yep? God, we probably do get to the point here
<v Speaker 2>where maybe the next maybe not the next Steam deck,
<v Speaker 2>the one after that could be ARM. Right, they got
<v Speaker 2>to be heading towards ARM for that thing. It just
<v Speaker 2>seems like for all the improvements and you know X
<v Speaker 2>eighty six or the chips that are in your desktop
<v Speaker 2>computer and your laptops everybody, ARM is what's in your
<v Speaker 2>phone and now in Apple computers, and it's the reason
<v Speaker 2>you can have like a really powerful MacBook without a
<v Speaker 2>fan in it, because it's these really efficient chips. That's
<v Speaker 2>the big difference between ARM and X eighty six. Your
<v Speaker 2>consoles have X eighty six processors in them, and it
<v Speaker 2>seems like we are at that inflection point where one
<v Speaker 2>of these things really does have to kind of win
<v Speaker 2>going forward. X eighty six did win these spaces for
<v Speaker 2>the last forty years or whatever. It does feel like
<v Speaker 2>now X eighty six is improvements in terms of efficiency
<v Speaker 2>are not keeping up with arms improvements in terms of power.
<v Speaker 2>So I think everything kind of slowly shifts to ARMS
<v Speaker 2>as quick well as quickly as it can.
<v Speaker 1>So well, I think that's the future of Proton. It's
<v Speaker 1>not going to just be translationally for Windows, but X
<v Speaker 1>eighty six instructions as well.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's exactly right, all right. Media will not
<v Speaker 2>have switched To reviews before launch day due to significant
<v Speaker 2>day one patch. This is from my Nintendo News. Those
<v Speaker 2>of you hoping for early reviews for the Nintendo Switch
<v Speaker 2>To hardware and software shouldn't expect to see them popping
<v Speaker 2>up anytime soon. The Game Business shout outs to Dring
<v Speaker 2>has been doing some digging and the reason for the
<v Speaker 2>lack of pre launch hardware reviews is that Nintendo Switch
<v Speaker 2>to will require a significant day one update. Further details
<v Speaker 2>on set update we're not disclosed by the Game Business.
<v Speaker 2>We will hopefully have our switch to review coverage published
<v Speaker 2>at the same time as other publications. That's from mid
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo News. Some media have even been warned they will
<v Speaker 2>not have their machines until launch day. Nintendo has told
<v Speaker 2>journalists that this is due to the requirement of a
<v Speaker 2>significant day one patch. I bet that it's a big
<v Speaker 2>part of it. I think Nintendo's also just weird about
<v Speaker 2>these things, and maybe maybe more weird than ever where
<v Speaker 2>they really are only going to trust the biggest of
<v Speaker 2>the bit, like I think IGN gets one. Like I
<v Speaker 2>think IGN probably gets one early for review and then
<v Speaker 2>and then I think they have like a tier system
<v Speaker 2>and they're very very selective creators, even like the biggest creators,
<v Speaker 2>independent creators on YouTube probably aren't going to have one,
<v Speaker 2>because again, Nintendo is very weird about these things. Does
<v Speaker 2>this affect you in any way? Do you feel this?
<v Speaker 2>Because I'm just like, at this point, I get it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to get a switch to no matter what,
<v Speaker 2>and then I'll make my own decision. But that's because
<v Speaker 2>it's the job.
<v Speaker 1>How are you feeling, Yeah, I mean I'm pre ordered
<v Speaker 1>in going to a midnight launch, I mean, right, anymore
<v Speaker 1>console lunches a kind of review proof, like this thing
<v Speaker 1>is functionally is sold out before it's even released, so
<v Speaker 1>like they don't need the press coverage for that I
<v Speaker 1>can understand. You know, people in your industry who rely
<v Speaker 1>on that traffic on day one, so they had to
<v Speaker 1>have something. They're gonna have to have some kind of content,
<v Speaker 1>write ups, videos, whatever on launch day. So that's you know,
<v Speaker 1>a stress for the media industry. But Nintendo doesn't need this.
<v Speaker 1>You know that the switch to is kind of, you know,
<v Speaker 1>a controlled message that they're putting out through things like
<v Speaker 1>the Nintendo Today app. You know that they are very
<v Speaker 1>much in control of their messaging and they like it
<v Speaker 1>that way. I mean, you got you talk often about
<v Speaker 1>how you got this switch one early and you played
<v Speaker 1>Breath of the Wild. How how early did you get
<v Speaker 1>that console before launching?
<v Speaker 2>I remember pretty early, so I think like three weeks
<v Speaker 2>something around there.
<v Speaker 1>That's a lot, and that's I mean, we're three weeks
<v Speaker 1>today from the system coming out.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, so you don't have one now if we
<v Speaker 2>know that, Uyes.
<v Speaker 1>You're I've got a really good poker face. I'm looking.
<v Speaker 1>I'm looking in your.
<v Speaker 2>Shelf, right, Yeah, just a look behind me and you
<v Speaker 2>might spot something for sure. May fifteen, Jesus go aid.
<v Speaker 1>Sh Yeah, I mean I know that they're having events.
<v Speaker 1>There's public events, there's I've heard reports of press getting
<v Speaker 1>extended playtime with Mario Kart. So, like you said, the
<v Speaker 1>big outlets will have something. This hurts the smaller outlets,
<v Speaker 1>the smaller creators who are gonna, you know, be busy
<v Speaker 1>because it's going to be launched, of the switch to
<v Speaker 1>and Summer Game Fest all going on at once. So
<v Speaker 1>b yes, everybody, it's gonna be a crazy week.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. And I think, like you're right, review proof the
<v Speaker 2>people who are showing up for this launch period are
<v Speaker 2>all the true believers, the ones who are like, I
<v Speaker 2>want a Nintendo console even if it turns out to
<v Speaker 2>be terrible, because I just like have all the terrible
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo stuff and all the good Nintendo stuff and there's
<v Speaker 2>my we use still and I'm not getting rid of that. Uh.
<v Speaker 2>And I think you know, that's how a lot of
<v Speaker 2>the people who are showing up day one feel. As
<v Speaker 2>we get a few weeks removed from that, reviews will
<v Speaker 2>matter more to it to that next tier of people
<v Speaker 2>who are like really looking at that price, really looking
<v Speaker 2>at the value, looking at the hardware, looking at the software,
<v Speaker 2>and trying to make a more informed decision and feeling
<v Speaker 2>better about it at a certain point like, I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>feel good about it no matter what, because I'll be
<v Speaker 2>able to make content on it. Still, though Nintendo Weird
<v Speaker 2>Company not surprised to hear this. Do you have a
<v Speaker 2>sense overall that this is a weird launch? Some people
<v Speaker 2>have said that to me, and I'm like, yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>guess so, but all launches are kind of weird.
<v Speaker 1>Now, I feel like nothing about the launch of the
<v Speaker 1>system has gone the way they would have liked.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like, yeah, that's true.
<v Speaker 1>It's later than they wanted. The tariff situation is screwing
<v Speaker 1>with their pricing messaging. I feel like if they had
<v Speaker 1>a do over, this would have come out at a
<v Speaker 1>different time and in much different circumstances.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, definitely all right, we got more to get into,
<v Speaker 2>but before we do that, let's take a quick break
<v Speaker 2>to hear from our sponsors. If you don't want to
<v Speaker 2>hear this, there is ad free versions go to giant
<v Speaker 2>bomb dot com slash join. But you didn't do that,
<v Speaker 2>So here we go with our ad. This episode of
<v Speaker 2>Giant Bombs brought to you by kind of Funny. When
<v Speaker 2>we said we were going independent, kind of Funny was
<v Speaker 2>the first group in our inbox because they believe in
<v Speaker 2>and want to support independent media because that's what they are.
<v Speaker 2>For more than a decade, kind of Funny's been making
<v Speaker 2>YouTube videos and podcasts about video game reviews, previews, and news,
<v Speaker 2>but they also review and rank Marvel movies, Alien Versus
<v Speaker 2>Predator movies, and just about every other film front franchise
<v Speaker 2>you can think of. Kind of Funny is an independent
<v Speaker 2>eleven person talk show network that's live Monday through Friday
<v Speaker 2>starting at ten am Pacific time. The day starts with
<v Speaker 2>kind of Funny Games Daily, leading into the Kind of
<v Speaker 2>Funny Games Cast, usually giving you a rotating podcast like
<v Speaker 2>they're weekly the Last of Us In and or Spoiler Cast,
<v Speaker 2>and then later they stream a game. If you like
<v Speaker 2>give bomb, chances are there's a kind of Funny show
<v Speaker 2>that you'll like as well. Check out their full slate
<v Speaker 2>of programming on YouTube, dot com slash Kind of Funny Games,
<v Speaker 2>which dot tv slash Kind of Funny Games and podcasts
<v Speaker 2>services around owned the globe, then subscribe on whatever platform
<v Speaker 2>works best for you. Just like Giant Bomb, kind of
<v Speaker 2>Funny only exists because of support from their audience, So
<v Speaker 2>give them a chance, whether it's your first listen or
<v Speaker 2>your first time in ten years. All right, we are
<v Speaker 2>back at it. Let's get into the news. I'm Jeff
<v Speaker 2>Grubb from Giant Bomb. That's aj Minatti joining me. Let's
<v Speaker 2>do it here with Sony claims it's considering manufacturing PS
<v Speaker 2>five consoles in the United States due to tariffs. This
<v Speaker 2>is from Sophie McAvoy at Games Industry.
<v Speaker 1>Dop is excuse me something I wrote?
<v Speaker 2>No, God, that Colt's really been getting your whole family
<v Speaker 2>over there. I'm sorry about that. Sony has revealed it
<v Speaker 2>as considering manufacturing the PS five console in the US
<v Speaker 2>as a result of tariffs. During an earnings call following
<v Speaker 2>the release of its full year financials, Sony president and
<v Speaker 2>COO Heroke Totokey told investors that manufacturing hardware in the
<v Speaker 2>US needs to be considered going forward. However, he noted
<v Speaker 2>that the firm wasn't in such a critical situation for
<v Speaker 2>this decision to be implemented immediately. Yeah, no shit, so
<v Speaker 2>ash guy. Obviously, this is the thing you say when
<v Speaker 2>you are worried about like how anything else you might
<v Speaker 2>might say might be perceived by let's just say, the
<v Speaker 2>US government. You open up with this so they can
<v Speaker 2>hear what they want to hear, and then you say
<v Speaker 2>the other stuff, which is probably more true, like we
<v Speaker 2>might raise the price of the PS five to deal
<v Speaker 2>with tariffs. Like okay, let's just say that they really
<v Speaker 2>were considering this since they've said this. In fact, I
<v Speaker 2>think even it was happening like almost simultaneously, like and
<v Speaker 2>within hours of when they said this, the tariffs between
<v Speaker 2>the United States and China like dropped, So it's like
<v Speaker 2>down to thirty percent from one hundred and forty five percent.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like if you were just about to open
<v Speaker 2>your factory in the United States because of tariffs, it
<v Speaker 2>just changed again. And of course no one was doing
<v Speaker 2>that because it's been weeks, and even then a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people are like, this is not financially viable. For example,
<v Speaker 2>the building a PS five in the United States, even
<v Speaker 2>with tariffs, wouldn't be financially viable. So so this is
<v Speaker 2>just them saying things to kind of soften the other
<v Speaker 2>things they're saying.
<v Speaker 1>Right right, Yeah, if I'm one of these companies, I
<v Speaker 1>am doing two things right now. First of all, I'm
<v Speaker 1>trying to just say, Okay, we just need to survive
<v Speaker 1>the next three and a half years. Yeah, get through
<v Speaker 1>all this nonsense back and forth till things hopefully level out.
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, Hey, we could raise the prices and
<v Speaker 1>we have a scapegoat. Yeah, and then we don't have
<v Speaker 1>to bring them back down. Prices never go down price.
<v Speaker 1>I mean honestly, they're probably in a weird way, like
<v Speaker 1>just could work in our favor if we play this right.
<v Speaker 1>And that's saying you're opening a factory in the United States.
<v Speaker 1>Is trying to play it right?
<v Speaker 2>Yep, I think you nailed it. They are definitely looking
<v Speaker 2>at the silver lining here of it's very likely that
<v Speaker 2>these tariffs, most tariffs do come and it's hard to
<v Speaker 2>get rid of them. These tariffs, they probably will be
<v Speaker 2>will be gone within the next you know, two to
<v Speaker 2>five years or whatever. And so in the meantime, you're right,
<v Speaker 2>they can position again, and that's the boogeyman they can
<v Speaker 2>point to, and they can get away with a lot
<v Speaker 2>in terms of public perception. Yeah, it sucks, and you're right,
<v Speaker 2>they're not going They're not going to back off those
<v Speaker 2>price increases, even if the tariffs are not hurting them,
<v Speaker 2>hurting them in the same way I would tell I
<v Speaker 2>would point to GPUs. I've pointed to them before, as
<v Speaker 2>they've used every excuse they could possibly find over the
<v Speaker 2>last ten to fifteen years to raise prices in every way,
<v Speaker 2>and the mid range or like the you know, the
<v Speaker 2>starter cards have gone up hundreds of dollars in that time.
<v Speaker 2>It's kind of nuts, and consoles are trying to do
<v Speaker 2>the same exact thing now.
<v Speaker 1>I mean Microsoft raised the price of xboxes because of tariffs,
<v Speaker 1>and then it's not like when these China tariffs are
<v Speaker 1>put on hold, they're like, oh, never mind, we'll bring
<v Speaker 1>the price back down now.
<v Speaker 2>No, it's yeah, yeah, and they like they never even
<v Speaker 2>intimated at that, like, oh, this is going to be
<v Speaker 2>a temporary They definitely want people to get used to
<v Speaker 2>these prices for sure. All right, glad you're here, Gonna
<v Speaker 2>need your opinion on this. Next story, Kingdom Hearts four
<v Speaker 2>team provide's development update and shares new screenshots. This is
<v Speaker 2>from Liam Doolan at Nintendo Life. Square Enix ended up
<v Speaker 2>releasing the Kingdom Hearts series as a cloud game on
<v Speaker 2>the Switch, and while it wasn't exactly what fans wanted,
<v Speaker 2>blah blah blah, if you did happen to play through
<v Speaker 2>the cloud version of on Switch or just curious to
<v Speaker 2>know what's up next in the Kingdom Hearts series with
<v Speaker 2>Kingdom Hearts four. Here's some details. This is what they
<v Speaker 2>sent to our Kingdom Hearts community. We're currently working hard
<v Speaker 2>on Kingdom Hearts for and we'll continue pouring ourselves into
<v Speaker 2>the games development. We're dedicated to making this an experience
<v Speaker 2>that lives up to your expectations. We've seen how excited
<v Speaker 2>you are, and we are truly grateful from the bottom
<v Speaker 2>of our hearts. We are equally excited and can't wait
<v Speaker 2>to share more about Kingdom Hearts for when the time
<v Speaker 2>is right. Until then, we appreciate your patience, Thank you
<v Speaker 2>for your continued support. And then there were a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of screenshots. Just tell me, what is your reaction to
<v Speaker 2>this update? Does it like this give you a lot
<v Speaker 2>of confidence that you're going to be playing this in
<v Speaker 2>a reasonable amount of time? Does this make you worried
<v Speaker 2>for any particular reason? What are you thinking?
<v Speaker 1>I'm not worried and I don't think I'm playing it
<v Speaker 1>anytime soon. But that was always the expectation going into
<v Speaker 1>any new Kingdom Hearts project. I mean, we all remember
<v Speaker 1>how long it was between two and three the exciting
<v Speaker 1>thing I guess about the screenshots is that it does
<v Speaker 1>seem to imply we'll be playing as Mickey, which I
<v Speaker 1>find actually very enticing. That was actually the original premise
<v Speaker 1>of the game was You're supposed to be Mickey. That's
<v Speaker 1>why Sores got those those big shoes. But no, So,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I know what you said, but I'm the
<v Speaker 1>Minati and I think I don't know where Chris really
<v Speaker 1>falls in. I don't quite jive with Kingdom Hearts the
<v Speaker 1>way I should. I feel like, sure, I didn't play
<v Speaker 1>any of the side games, so the story completely got
<v Speaker 1>away from me. I've watched YouTube videos to try to
<v Speaker 1>grasp what's going on, and I just I never liked
<v Speaker 1>the way they played. It's something always felt off about
<v Speaker 1>the gameplay. You said it, I mean, Mike Manati's not
<v Speaker 1>here is he's not in my house? Okay, he's in
<v Speaker 1>chats and just be careful. Oh god, he's bullying me.
<v Speaker 1>He knows this. We've talked about this. I mean, like,
<v Speaker 1>I was hoping three would be a little bit more
<v Speaker 1>of a step forward for the series, but that was
<v Speaker 1>also kind of trying to wrap up a story. So
<v Speaker 1>maybe this is a good chance with the series to
<v Speaker 1>reboot and and modernize a bit. I think I'd like
<v Speaker 1>it too, and I wanted to see I wanted to
<v Speaker 1>be big. Like Kinghar's three felt like a very small game.
<v Speaker 1>There was only a handful of worlds where that was
<v Speaker 1>like the one thing I did enjoy about the game
<v Speaker 1>was like, what what Disney movie am I going to now?
<v Speaker 1>And we kind of already knew about it before they
<v Speaker 1>I mean, granted, it's it's a different time. All this
<v Speaker 1>stuff gets revealed before the game's out, but it didn't
<v Speaker 1>have that kind of you know, I didn't even see
<v Speaker 1>people after the fact like, oh, I didn't know there's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be a level based off the black Hole, like
<v Speaker 1>something goofy like that, Like we just don't we don't
<v Speaker 1>get that anymore. And maybe that you can't put that
<v Speaker 1>toothpaste back into tube. But yeah, I want I want
<v Speaker 1>the game to be surprising. I want to go deep
<v Speaker 1>with deep cuts. I feel like we kind of missed that,
<v Speaker 1>uh this time around in three.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you're so right though, that like it's a different
<v Speaker 2>time because in this era, with how expensive games are,
<v Speaker 2>if the teams do all this work to get something
<v Speaker 2>like the black Hole and put it in the game,
<v Speaker 2>they can't not use it in the marketing like they
<v Speaker 2>have to use in the marketing to justify the whole thing,
<v Speaker 2>because it's like, we have to be able to sell
<v Speaker 2>it to the people who will be excited about this,
<v Speaker 2>so we can't hide it away and not trumpet the
<v Speaker 2>fact that we've done all this work. So you're right,
<v Speaker 2>I agree that the idea of Kingdom Hearts at this
<v Speaker 2>point for what that game is and how it plays.
<v Speaker 2>For me, the thing I would be excited about too
<v Speaker 2>is what game or what movie setting am I going
<v Speaker 2>to next? And they kind of lose some of that
<v Speaker 2>luster just based on the fact that's probably hard one
<v Speaker 2>to make those settings, so they can only do a
<v Speaker 2>limited number, and then too they have to kind of
<v Speaker 2>like like sneak those out and tell people about them
<v Speaker 2>before you even get into the game. That said, what
<v Speaker 2>would you want in terms of modernization and improvements from
<v Speaker 2>a Kingdom Hearts four?
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I think when you look at something like
<v Speaker 1>Foul Fantasy seven remake and how those games play, I
<v Speaker 1>hope they go a little closer to that. Again, I
<v Speaker 1>didn't really play much three, so I can't even speak
<v Speaker 1>to how how truly differently it played. I just it
<v Speaker 1>didn't appeal to me at all, which is again, it's
<v Speaker 1>weird because I'm I host a Disney podcast and I'm
<v Speaker 1>on this video game podcast and I love Final Fantasy.
<v Speaker 1>It should be all the things I like, and yet
<v Speaker 1>here I am. I just want to see I want
<v Speaker 1>to jump and not feel like I'm flying through the
<v Speaker 1>air like Princess Beach and Mario two.
<v Speaker 2>Sure, yeah, I think they could just make it feel
<v Speaker 2>a little bit i don't know, more instant when you're
<v Speaker 2>playing that game, just to give it a little bit
<v Speaker 2>more joy when I'm playing. And I agree. But yeah, Also,
<v Speaker 2>I've accepted it's not for me, so I don't need
<v Speaker 2>to need it to change for me in particular. But
<v Speaker 2>I get it it it should be for me.
<v Speaker 1>That's what it really should be.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's get onto this next story. Prince of
<v Speaker 2>Persia Santa Time remake is on its way and will
<v Speaker 2>be released by the end of March twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 2>Basically that's just by the end of their fiscal year
<v Speaker 2>over there at Ubisoft. This comes from Marcus Person at
<v Speaker 2>Game Reactor. After years of delays and hiccups, it seems
<v Speaker 2>that UBI Soft has finally got the Prince of Persia
<v Speaker 2>the Sands of Time remake back on track. The reworked
<v Speaker 2>version of the classic two thousand and three game is
<v Speaker 2>now expected to be released before April twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 2>The game, originally developed by Ubisoft Poon and Ubisoft Mumbai Poone,
<v Speaker 2>maybe faced criticism for the new graphical style, which was
<v Speaker 2>one of the reasons why development was instead shifted to
<v Speaker 2>UBI Soft Montreal in twenty twenty two. God was it
<v Speaker 2>really that long ago nowez? According to Ubisoft's latest financial report,
<v Speaker 2>the game is now scheduled to be released before the
<v Speaker 2>end of their fiscal year twenty twenty five twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 2>which means a launch by the end of March next year.
<v Speaker 2>I guess when I hear that it shifted in twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty two and they've kind of been working on it
<v Speaker 2>somewhat steadily since then, I suppose a release within the
<v Speaker 2>next six to nine months sounds reasonable. What do you think?
<v Speaker 1>I mean? God, yeah, how long does it take to
<v Speaker 1>me Prince of Persia? I guess, especially for Ubisoft, you
<v Speaker 1>have the people and the resources to throw at it.
<v Speaker 1>One would think. I hope this set comes out. I
<v Speaker 1>hope it's good. I mean, the original is a fantastic
<v Speaker 1>game that still holds up. I'm a little worried they
<v Speaker 1>poisoned the Prince of Perso well a little bit when
<v Speaker 1>they laid off the team who made the last game
<v Speaker 1>that everyone really likes, Like there could be a bad
<v Speaker 1>sentiment over here. But yeah, I mean, if this is good,
<v Speaker 1>plays good, looks good, I'm excited to get my hands
<v Speaker 1>on it. We'll just kind of wait and see.
<v Speaker 2>I guess. Yeah. I love Santa Time so much that
<v Speaker 2>that game was just like exactly what I was in
<v Speaker 2>the mood for back on the GameCube, and that's that's
<v Speaker 2>where I played it, where I'm like, man, I want
<v Speaker 2>something that kind of feels like it's cool that this
<v Speaker 2>cool new three D stuff is really being taken advantage
<v Speaker 2>of it and at the same time has that uh know,
<v Speaker 2>two D platform or feel. And this one really got
<v Speaker 2>all that stuff right, some good ideas to make that
<v Speaker 2>stuff work in three D.
<v Speaker 1>It really wrote off the coat tails of Blinks to
<v Speaker 1>Time Sweeper in a good.
<v Speaker 2>Way, of course. But what game hasn't Like that's every game.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, that's really like an inflection point for like
<v Speaker 1>all video games. Real, Yeah, just all of art.
<v Speaker 2>You be stopped as making a Rider's Republic movie. Gota
<v Speaker 2>forgot about this headline as I started to read it.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Ben Lyons at Game Reactor is once
<v Speaker 2>once again trying its hand at a big screen adaptation
<v Speaker 2>of one of its core franchises. No, we're not talking
<v Speaker 2>about Assassin's Create a Fork, far Cry or Splinter Cell
<v Speaker 2>or Rayman or Prince of Persia or Watchdogs or even
<v Speaker 2>Rainbow six. The game that will be getting a movie
<v Speaker 2>adaptation this time is Rider's Republic. That's right, the Open
<v Speaker 2>World Extremes sports title movie by both you we Saw
<v Speaker 2>Film and Television and Gamo. I'm assuming that's French. It
<v Speaker 2>will It will be set on the Alps, will offer
<v Speaker 2>a ton of impressive stunts and be sculpted by the
<v Speaker 2>vision of Bad Boys for Life and Bad Boys Rider
<v Speaker 2>Die director Adil al Arabi or RB excuse me, And
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be written by still Waters No aj Debris,
<v Speaker 2>Debrie god Man. All these accents on these names. I'm
<v Speaker 2>falling over today. Okay, hey, go for it. I guess
<v Speaker 2>it just feels like an empty canvas for an action
<v Speaker 2>movie right with vehicles.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's all it is. I mean, you know, they
<v Speaker 1>kind of did it with Grants tourism, I guess, but
<v Speaker 1>even that like tied back to the video game in
<v Speaker 1>a weird way. I don't think I try to do
<v Speaker 1>something like that or like, is it really just we're
<v Speaker 1>Riders Republic and we're here to ride the movie? Like
<v Speaker 1>what that means?
<v Speaker 2>It's certainly gonna be an Isa Kai right, it's gotta be.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, some kids get sucked into the game and now
<v Speaker 1>they got a snowboard. Yeah. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's probably just like every one of these
<v Speaker 2>movie studios wants to have their fast and furious, right
<v Speaker 2>vehicle based action movie where with cool people doing cool stunts,
<v Speaker 2>and this just felt like, hey, we can pick this
<v Speaker 2>one off the shelf and do something like that with that,
<v Speaker 2>And sure, maybe you can. I don't know. I I like,
<v Speaker 2>I've liked some action sports movies in the past, point
<v Speaker 2>point point Break being the most obvious one there. That's
<v Speaker 2>a great movie. Uh, this is probably not gonna be
<v Speaker 2>as good as Point Break though.
<v Speaker 1>Now it just goes to show how desperate these studios
<v Speaker 1>are to latch onto any sort of established ip, no
<v Speaker 1>matter how minor that may be. Like they don't trust
<v Speaker 1>us to come in at the ground floor. Then there
<v Speaker 1>has to be something they can latch onto with some history.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and I mean kind of like working in corporations,
<v Speaker 2>I kind of understand what that is. Now. You have
<v Speaker 2>to be able to tell a story of some something
<v Speaker 2>you can leverage. There is excitement for this brand. This
<v Speaker 2>brand sold this many copies, it has this many active players,
<v Speaker 2>and we can leverage that excitement for our purposes in
<v Speaker 2>the movie industry. And you know, I think most of
<v Speaker 2>the time, when if you were to like bring one
<v Speaker 2>of us into that room while they were having that pitch,
<v Speaker 2>we'd be like, that's excuse me, that's bullshit. No one
<v Speaker 2>that's not going to do anything.
<v Speaker 1>Who cares about writers republic to that degree that they
<v Speaker 1>give like, well, I have to go see the movie.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's like you are just making all this up.
<v Speaker 2>But that storytelling is very important for getting things done
<v Speaker 2>inside of like corporations with people who are a little
<v Speaker 2>bit disconnected sometimes. And that's one percent what this always
<v Speaker 2>is these days, all right, Test Death Stranding two reviews
<v Speaker 2>are scoring far higher than the original, and I'd say, wait,
<v Speaker 2>are these leaking? How do we know this? And that's
<v Speaker 2>according to Kojima, who is actually sharing this himself. This
<v Speaker 2>is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Hideo Kojima has claimed
<v Speaker 2>that audience test reviews show that players are feeling far
<v Speaker 2>more positive about Death Stranding to on the Beach than
<v Speaker 2>they did about the original game. However, the creator says
<v Speaker 2>this puts him in a conflicting situation since he's not
<v Speaker 2>motivated by making something that appeals to everyone.
<v Speaker 1>This is this much too successful?
<v Speaker 2>Hey, what is your biggest weakness? I make games that
<v Speaker 2>are too good. This fucking guy. Oh shit, I love
<v Speaker 2>him so much. Oh God, I'm so glad. We are
<v Speaker 2>so lucky that we are alive at the same time
<v Speaker 2>as this guy. Okay, he says, I I do listen
<v Speaker 2>to criticism if the controls need tweaking, or if a
<v Speaker 2>camera pan is too slow or too fast, but I
<v Speaker 2>don't alter themes or story based on feedback. Kojama said,
<v Speaker 2>of course, I want people to play my game, so
<v Speaker 2>I must listen to them to a certain extent, but
<v Speaker 2>also I'm not interested in making something that appeals to everyone.
<v Speaker 2>Asked about audience review testing and how much he pays
<v Speaker 2>attention to it, Coachuma replied, in fact, I did a
<v Speaker 2>lot of monitor monitoring of tests for the original Death Stranding.
<v Speaker 2>I'd find that four out of ten people would love
<v Speaker 2>the game, but six would say it was a terrible game.
<v Speaker 2>For me, I think it's a good balance. But with
<v Speaker 2>the play test for Death Stranding two on the Beach,
<v Speaker 2>everyone seems to be positive. He added, Sony as pleased,
<v Speaker 2>of course, but I do wish I was a bit
<v Speaker 2>more controversial. Blockbuster films need an eighty percent of percent
<v Speaker 2>approval rating. I don't want to make games like that.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not interested in appealing to the mass market or
<v Speaker 2>selling millions of copies. That's not what I'm aiming for.
<v Speaker 2>All Right, dude, he is an altour just incredible. Yep, yep.
<v Speaker 2>I wouldn't I wouldn't change anything about him. Like again,
<v Speaker 2>I feel lucky to have him. How are you with
<v Speaker 2>your anticipation for desk Stranding two, Because I got to say,
<v Speaker 2>I'm getting in the mood for it.
<v Speaker 1>I have never touched the original game. After hearing Dan
<v Speaker 1>talk about his time with two and how he's kind
<v Speaker 1>of turned around this franchise, I just the other day
<v Speaker 1>installed it to my Steam deck. I haven't started it yet,
<v Speaker 1>so I'm gonna. I do want to give it a
<v Speaker 1>shot to see if there's any meat on those bones.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if I'll play through all of one.
<v Speaker 2>Or maybe you need to play through all the one.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, may you see if I jie with it and
<v Speaker 1>then like watch a video and then go to two,
<v Speaker 1>we'll see.
<v Speaker 2>Not trying to run the play right now, just rush
<v Speaker 2>through it until you get the chapter three and if
<v Speaker 2>you kind of can't make it there, I think you're
<v Speaker 2>fine to just jump into two. You'll be fine, okay.
<v Speaker 2>In chat, Mike Minatti is talking mess about Kojima, and
<v Speaker 2>we all know why that is. It's because he wants
<v Speaker 2>to protect his autur buddy Tommy tell Rico who is
<v Speaker 2>he's just stick as thieves with? And all right, fine, dude,
<v Speaker 2>you know, don't I think there's enough space for multiple
<v Speaker 2>though maybe not Tommy, but if you disagree, that's fine.
<v Speaker 2>Kochuba will two or twelve cities ahead of destranding two
<v Speaker 2>on the beach launch. This is from Dean Takahashi at
<v Speaker 2>games Beat. Kojuma Production said the studios creator Hideo Kojima
<v Speaker 2>is gearing up to visit twelve locations across the globe
<v Speaker 2>to celebrate the launch of des Straining two on the Beach,
<v Speaker 2>which arrives exclusively on PlayStation five on June twenty six. Basically,
<v Speaker 2>he's gonna hit a bunch of cities. I guess maybe
<v Speaker 2>in a bus, I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>He doesn't want everyone to like his game, but he's
<v Speaker 1>gonna tour the countryside. Yes to bask in the iteration
<v Speaker 1>of fans.
<v Speaker 2>These positive reviews are going to ruin the tour. What
<v Speaker 2>what's the world tour? Because he's going to Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, London, Soul, Taipei,
<v Speaker 2>Hong Kong, Shanghai, Riad, Sal Paolo and Luke Luca god Man.
<v Speaker 2>I knew I was gonna get one of these names wrong. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>So he's going He's popping all over the world. He's
<v Speaker 2>gonna start in Los Angeles on June eighth, though, and
<v Speaker 2>that's the weekend of Summer Game Fest, So there we go. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I think I do think that they probably will go
<v Speaker 2>hard on the marketing for this one because the first
<v Speaker 2>one seemed to pay off really well in terms of
<v Speaker 2>they found its audience. They probably can build this into
<v Speaker 2>something more, especially if like reviews start coming out coming
<v Speaker 2>out and they are really popping off. Like, do you
<v Speaker 2>have like an open critic slash Metacritic guest for this one?
<v Speaker 2>I mean, just go on vibes. Obviously, I don't know what.
<v Speaker 1>The first one got, but something tells me it's going
<v Speaker 1>to be higher than you think, like like the good
<v Speaker 1>old eighty nine. Yeah, it feels about right for this,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't it.
<v Speaker 2>I think, hi, eighties? Yeah, And you know, for people
<v Speaker 2>that you know, first of all, none of this matters.
<v Speaker 2>You play the game like whatever you want. But in
<v Speaker 2>terms of like a game being able to get a
<v Speaker 2>high Metacritic, getting up to eighty eight eighty nine is
<v Speaker 2>very difficult. Most games can't do that. I do think
<v Speaker 2>this one has a chance for that though. All right,
<v Speaker 2>a handful more headlines. Epic ceo says Apple still hasn't
<v Speaker 2>approved its Fortnite iOS submission, suggesting it's obstructing the process.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Chriscoing at VGC. Epic CEO Tim Sweeney
<v Speaker 2>says Apple has still yet to approve the addition of
<v Speaker 2>Fortnite to the iOS app store and has suggested it's
<v Speaker 2>obstructing the process. The game was submitted to Apple for
<v Speaker 2>a review on May ninth, but on May fourteenth, Sweeney
<v Speaker 2>told followers on Twitter that Apple still hadn't approved the
<v Speaker 2>game's release. After one follower asked Sweeney where the game was,
<v Speaker 2>he replied, no news from Apple yet. They've had it
<v Speaker 2>since last Friday, and another follower asked top Epic had
<v Speaker 2>reached out to Apple to find out what it was
<v Speaker 2>going on. He replied, we emailed yesterday but haven't heard back.
<v Speaker 2>Apple's official developer site states that on average, ninety percent
<v Speaker 2>of submissions are reviewed in less than twenty four hours.
<v Speaker 2>Looks like this is one of those ten percent. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna take a little bit longer. I mean, we mostly
<v Speaker 2>know what's going on here, right Apple still very bitter
<v Speaker 2>about this legal fight with Epic. Epic has run, has
<v Speaker 2>won the last few rounds, and has basically is in
<v Speaker 2>a situation where Apple's being compelled by the courts, by
<v Speaker 2>the judges to enable Epic to put Fortnite back on
<v Speaker 2>iOS globally, including including the United States, which has been
<v Speaker 2>sort of one of the places where they haven't had
<v Speaker 2>to do that. And when they do that, Epic is
<v Speaker 2>also going to be able to introduce web payments through
<v Speaker 2>its app through Fortnite, where people can see the price.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, if you want to just use your iOS account,
<v Speaker 2>here's the price. And if you want to pay less
<v Speaker 2>and pay us directly, click this link, go to our website,
<v Speaker 2>putting your credit card information there, and we can make
<v Speaker 2>this all work over here. And they're going to have
<v Speaker 2>to do that now, even in the United States, so
<v Speaker 2>we know Apple doesn't like that, but they are. You know,
<v Speaker 2>right now they're facing criminal contempt of court charges for
<v Speaker 2>dragging their feet on this, so they probably can't put
<v Speaker 2>this off too much longer, right right right.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I've had in the past some apps I've
<v Speaker 1>submitted for a review that I've worked on. I've had
<v Speaker 1>a take up to two weeks, you know, like I'm
<v Speaker 1>sure that they'll go as long as they can and
<v Speaker 1>feel like they got away with it. But it's the
<v Speaker 1>whole thing's so fascinating. It's truly the Godzilla let them
<v Speaker 1>fight moment for me, because, yeah, I don't have any
<v Speaker 1>true skin in this game. I mean, I'm an iPhone user.
<v Speaker 1>I play Fortnite, but if one wants to beat up
<v Speaker 1>the other, go for it. You know, we'll see what happens.
<v Speaker 1>I did see. I don't know what app the screen
<v Speaker 1>came from, but like an app that does have this
<v Speaker 1>new payment system in place. When you clicked it, like
<v Speaker 1>it popped up this really scary warning that's like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you were about to leave to a third party payment
<v Speaker 1>portal that's not protected by privacy and security. It's like,
<v Speaker 1>whoa Okay, are they allowed to say that because that
<v Speaker 1>just sounds a little like it's a pretty nice payment
<v Speaker 1>for it. You guy, you have be a shamed of
<v Speaker 1>something happened to it.
<v Speaker 2>You know it definitely that's because it is that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that's one we you know, we just know historically that
<v Speaker 2>any sort of friction at all like causes people to
<v Speaker 2>like be like, well, I could just put away my
<v Speaker 2>credit card instead of figuring out if I should be
<v Speaker 2>worried about this. And that's you know, for the most
<v Speaker 2>basic stuff. A big scary message like that. We know
<v Speaker 2>the intent there. Uh and and Apple's intent is we
<v Speaker 2>really like getting thirty percent of you even buying things
<v Speaker 2>on the internet through a browser like that. We like
<v Speaker 2>that too, so we're gonna we want that money. It's like, man,
<v Speaker 2>that's just so crazy to me that they were ever
<v Speaker 2>able to do that. It would it would be like
<v Speaker 2>going on the browser on your window or on your
<v Speaker 2>Windows machine and buying something through Amazon and Microsoft getting
<v Speaker 2>thirty percent of them just so stupid. Apple's been doing
<v Speaker 2>that for years.
<v Speaker 1>There was a time early on when you could look
<v Speaker 1>at it led the way of consoles treated this closing
<v Speaker 1>system device. But I mean the phone and the tablet
<v Speaker 1>of superseded. The personal computer is the device you use
<v Speaker 1>for your just day to day stuff, and it just
<v Speaker 1>it logically doesn't make sense as the walled garden it
<v Speaker 1>once did anymore. It's just not in the same category
<v Speaker 1>like it used to be. I mean, my mother for
<v Speaker 1>years we had to keep her up to date with
<v Speaker 1>a okay computer so she could look at photos and
<v Speaker 1>send email. She just has an iPhone now you know
<v Speaker 1>she doesn't need that. And frankly too, she's not gonna
<v Speaker 1>be bothering with the payment for it, like you said,
<v Speaker 1>even though it was a price break. Maybe she called
<v Speaker 1>me and asked for help, but generally she's just gonna
<v Speaker 1>do the path of least resistance. It's why I use
<v Speaker 1>the default mail app in my phone instead of something
<v Speaker 1>like Spark. In the end, it's just kind of easier
<v Speaker 1>to stay in Apple's lane. And that's to their advantage.
<v Speaker 1>They make the hardware of the software. If they want
<v Speaker 1>their software to be a little more convenient, they have
<v Speaker 1>that ability, same as Microsoft with something like Windows Defender,
<v Speaker 1>you know, instead of installing Norton. But at the end
<v Speaker 1>of the day, you make yourself look a little better
<v Speaker 1>by being open to other avenues. That's saying. But here's
<v Speaker 1>why ours is the best and why he should use it.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, exactly, all right, So let's see here. S and
<v Speaker 2>K CEO steps down after heavily marketed Fatal Fury City
<v Speaker 2>of the Wolves seemingly seemingly muted launch. This is from
<v Speaker 2>chriscoing to VGC. S and K has announced that its
<v Speaker 2>CEO will be stepping down following the release of the
<v Speaker 2>heavily market fighting game. The company announced that Kenji Matsubara,
<v Speaker 2>who joined as CEO in August twenty twenty one, will
<v Speaker 2>transition to an advisory role where he will continue to
<v Speaker 2>lend his expertise and vision. Says the quote. During his
<v Speaker 2>tenure as CEO, mister Matsubara has been instrumental in driving
<v Speaker 2>the company's growth and innovation. Of statement reads they that
<v Speaker 2>game was everywhere right. It was on w w UFC
<v Speaker 2>it was everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>They heavily marketed all the ick factor of the game. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>they told me a lot of reasons why I don't
<v Speaker 1>want that game.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And so that was like them bringing in MESSI
<v Speaker 2>I'm not messy, I'm sorry, Ronaldo, and then yeah, mess
<v Speaker 2>he's all right, yes exactly. And then that DJ who's
<v Speaker 2>just friends with MSB and so they put him in there,
<v Speaker 2>and that why does that matter? Because S and K
<v Speaker 2>is owned by a company that is owned by Saudi
<v Speaker 2>Arabia's royal family. And yeah, they play played up those
<v Speaker 2>components of it, and I was like, that's probably not
<v Speaker 2>going to hurt it. I think, really what happened here
<v Speaker 2>is I think there's a lot of people, just like
<v Speaker 2>Fatal Fury. What is that there's a younger audience that
<v Speaker 2>just has no reference for why this franchise matters. And
<v Speaker 2>this game didn't necessarily answer any of those points. They
<v Speaker 2>just played up some of these other factors, and then
<v Speaker 2>that turned away some of us.
<v Speaker 1>That sucked the air out of the room instead of
<v Speaker 1>focusing on A, what makes us a good fighting game?
<v Speaker 1>And B here's my in her various DLC outfits. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they were wasting time and resources putting Ronaldo trailers out
<v Speaker 1>and all this nonsense, and that that wasn't what was
<v Speaker 1>ever going to sell this game. No one, no one
<v Speaker 1>really cared that a DJ you've never heard of is
<v Speaker 1>in this game, even if his move set's cool and
<v Speaker 1>he kind of looks like a maximum dude, Like, that's
<v Speaker 1>not selling the game, you know, bringing back and rebooting
<v Speaker 1>this storied fighting game franchise, and why is that cool
<v Speaker 1>and why is it relevant and what is it doing
<v Speaker 1>this unique? They didn't do any of that, and that's
<v Speaker 1>what has sold.
<v Speaker 2>The game exactly. Yep. It's you know, a game that
<v Speaker 2>does play pretty good, but I just didn't I wasn't
<v Speaker 2>in the mood ever play it because of all this
<v Speaker 2>other stuff that was happening there. You're right. It sucked
<v Speaker 2>the air out of the room for me. All right.
<v Speaker 2>Last headline here EA pushes for return to the office
<v Speaker 2>is remote work is scaled back. This is from Samuel
<v Speaker 2>Roberts at Games Industry dot biz. Electronic Arts has sent
<v Speaker 2>employees a notice that it's scaling back remote working, implementing
<v Speaker 2>a new hybrid policy of three days a week in
<v Speaker 2>the office. At least according to IGN and the email
<v Speaker 2>sent around the company by EA CEO Andrew Wilson said
<v Speaker 2>that employees will spend a minimum of three days a
<v Speaker 2>week in their local office, with off site local rules
<v Speaker 2>steadily being phased out. Wilson's justification is that in office
<v Speaker 2>work generates quote agent kinetic energy that fuels creativity, innovation,
<v Speaker 2>and connection, often resulting in unexpected breakthroughs that lead to
<v Speaker 2>an incredible experience for our players. It's you know, I
<v Speaker 2>mean okay. A follow up by EA Entertainment President Lower
<v Speaker 2>Emil explained that the changes will not take place immediately,
<v Speaker 2>with work model transitions having a minimum twelve week notice period,
<v Speaker 2>so three months. I mean, I think what we have
<v Speaker 2>learned a jan You tell me if you think that
<v Speaker 2>this is any different in this case, is that these
<v Speaker 2>moves are stealth layoffs because there are people who have
<v Speaker 2>shifted their entire lives to working remote in a place
<v Speaker 2>where they can afford more things, that the cost of
<v Speaker 2>living is lower, and they've now built their lives around
<v Speaker 2>making a certain amount of money, making a certain amount
<v Speaker 2>of money, and then a certain amount of money going out,
<v Speaker 2>and they kind of can't upset that by moving back
<v Speaker 2>toward the office that they moved away from. In the
<v Speaker 2>first place. So a certain percentage when this happens, are
<v Speaker 2>going to stop working at the company no matter what.
<v Speaker 2>They're not going to make that change back. So this
<v Speaker 2>is a way for them to cut staff without saying
<v Speaker 2>they're having layoffs. Right, do you think that's what's happening here?
<v Speaker 1>You don't have layoffs, you don't have severance because it's
<v Speaker 1>voluntary separation. At that point, you know, it doesn't it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't speak to the human situation that they've created that
<v Speaker 1>they don't seem to want to own up to ye
<v Speaker 1>in five years, you're working remotely and you've come to
<v Speaker 1>rely on that. It's like you said, maybe you do
<v Speaker 1>move somewhere where the cost of living is cheaper. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>you have children now and now your your childcare situation
<v Speaker 1>is going to be thrown out of whack. Maybe you
<v Speaker 1>just don't want to drive two hours a day because
<v Speaker 1>you don't have to do that anymore. And you know
<v Speaker 1>they never want to address that. Sow as all want
<v Speaker 1>we want to foster collaboration. What does that mean, Like
<v Speaker 1>you're gonna go back to the EA of twenty eighteen
<v Speaker 1>or you were just cranking out hit after it hit,
<v Speaker 1>Like what are we trying to get back to I
<v Speaker 1>don't understand it. And we've seen so many successful not
<v Speaker 1>even just in gaming, but so many successful companies and
<v Speaker 1>products and projects that have been you know, not hampered
<v Speaker 1>by remote work at all. The games and we won't
<v Speaker 1>talk about the director and his whole thing, but just
<v Speaker 1>the games themselves. And the team who made those Moon
<v Speaker 1>Studios is always remote, and those are two of the
<v Speaker 1>best games ever made, like with dripping with creativity, yes,
<v Speaker 1>and unique ideas, So like what like they couldn't they
<v Speaker 1>couldn't do it? They would it have been better if
<v Speaker 1>they were in an office. I don't think so.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean, I think we know that this is
<v Speaker 2>mostly bullshit. It's a different kind of creativity that can
<v Speaker 2>happen if you work remote. Then if you have people
<v Speaker 2>in office, sure I'll buy the serendipitousness of someone being
<v Speaker 2>like I have an idea and then someone over hearing
<v Speaker 2>that in the office. Sure that could happen. But you
<v Speaker 2>only get the people that could work in the office,
<v Speaker 2>not the people on the other side of the world
<v Speaker 2>that could work remotely. They have a completely different perspective
<v Speaker 2>than you. And then you can add in sort of
<v Speaker 2>like multiply that factor by going in all these different
<v Speaker 2>places and getting all these different kinds of people to
<v Speaker 2>work together in a remote setting where that would have
<v Speaker 2>a different kind of creativity. So we know this is bullshit.
<v Speaker 2>It's just about cutting costs in a way that is stealth,
<v Speaker 2>and I just hate that. This is where I think personally,
<v Speaker 2>there's got to be a law against this. There really
<v Speaker 2>should be, because this is a new lever that they've
<v Speaker 2>discovered for point like dropping people off, cutting people off
<v Speaker 2>at the bottom so they can make some more money
<v Speaker 2>by saving on labor costs, and I just don't think
<v Speaker 2>they should be able to pull this lever. I think
<v Speaker 2>it should be against the rules we've already sort of
<v Speaker 2>codified that they can just lay people off as a
<v Speaker 2>lever to make more money. And that sucks. But at
<v Speaker 2>a certain point, that's like we just said that's okay,
<v Speaker 2>and we didn't stop it, so here we are. I
<v Speaker 2>think the idea that they can basically have effective layoffs
<v Speaker 2>without saying they're laying people off because they've changed the
<v Speaker 2>rules on them for how they can work their job,
<v Speaker 2>I think that should be illegal. This sucks.
<v Speaker 1>And at the end of the day, if you think
<v Speaker 1>remote works not working for your company. That is a
<v Speaker 1>management issue. And we've said a lot of failings of
<v Speaker 1>the game industry seem to come down to management issues
<v Speaker 1>that they don't want to address or do anything about.
<v Speaker 1>They just want to keep it business as usual. They're
<v Speaker 1>not willing to kind of challenge that like upper mid
<v Speaker 1>tier of director management whatever it is. Uh, you know,
<v Speaker 1>they don't want to meet the challenge, which is frustrating
<v Speaker 1>because again we've seen people who have met that challenge
<v Speaker 1>and it's led to great things.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. All right, that does it for the headlines. We
<v Speaker 2>have poll question to get to and then we'll have
<v Speaker 2>the new one to talk about here in a second.
<v Speaker 2>Let me refresh Giant bomb over on YouTube. That's YouTube
<v Speaker 2>YouTube dot com slash at Giant Bombs. You click on
<v Speaker 2>the community tab, you can find the poll question like
<v Speaker 2>this one. Are you going to a midnight launch for
<v Speaker 2>switch To? It's a mid midnight launch for switch To?
<v Speaker 2>Yes or no? Ten percent said yes they are going
<v Speaker 2>to a midnight launch. Ninety percent said no they are not. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that sounds about right. A lot of people were probably
<v Speaker 2>able to get those pre orders in where they're going
<v Speaker 2>to get it sent to them or whatever. Ash Gay.
<v Speaker 2>You are going to a midnight launch, right, I.
<v Speaker 1>Am the ten percent. Yeah, yeah, that's by is where
<v Speaker 1>I got night switched to, and they are doing midnight
<v Speaker 1>store launches. I could have had it chipped to me,
<v Speaker 1>but I like midnight launches. It's a nostalgic thing for me.
<v Speaker 1>Chris and I were at the Switch one launch while
<v Speaker 1>Mike was at I think GDC that year. He kind
<v Speaker 1>of missed out on it, but we both got our switches.
<v Speaker 1>We got his too. Actually, I think we're able to
<v Speaker 1>pick his up. And you know, that night we got
<v Speaker 1>home at twelve thirty and we were playing Switch. Now.
<v Speaker 1>The funny thing that I did laugh about is we're
<v Speaker 1>going to get back to probably Mike's house, and first
<v Speaker 1>we got to install this Day one patch and download
<v Speaker 1>Mario Kart because it's just a code for that game.
<v Speaker 1>So we won't be playing anything till god knows when
<v Speaker 1>if the servers hold up. But I do like that
<v Speaker 1>kind of weird coming together, especially like here in Youngstown, Ohio,
<v Speaker 1>there's not a lot of like public gaming stuff, if
<v Speaker 1>that makes sense. So this is like one of those
<v Speaker 1>few times where like I'm in a line with fifty
<v Speaker 1>other people and we're all excited about you know, a
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo console coming out and you know, getting to experience
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of that also. So Mike and Chris
<v Speaker 1>did not get there at best but I think they
<v Speaker 1>got Walmart or Target being shipped to them. But Best
<v Speaker 1>Buy did announce that they are going to have limited
<v Speaker 1>in store stock at these midnights. Sounds for non pre orders.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to say Mike's an impulsive person, but
<v Speaker 1>he did also important incube from Japan instead of waiting
<v Speaker 1>three months for it to come to the States. So
<v Speaker 1>I wouldn't be surprised if he also tries to get
<v Speaker 1>one at midnight and either cancels his Target order or
<v Speaker 1>you know, do like you've talked about, like reselling it
<v Speaker 1>a costs or giving it to a friend or something.
<v Speaker 1>So he might pull that move the opportunity presents himself.
<v Speaker 1>I think we all did get pro controllers and accessories
<v Speaker 1>for midnight at best Buy, so they'll get that stuff too.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I went forward to it. It's just you know,
<v Speaker 1>I did the midlight launch for the Wii and a
<v Speaker 1>Toys rust in Pittsburgh with Chris with two hundred people
<v Speaker 1>at that It was huge. I was the first person
<v Speaker 1>line at a target for the three sixty when I
<v Speaker 1>came out when Mike was going to school in Toledo,
<v Speaker 1>so I didn't even know. I didn't have anything with me,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't know where I was. I just showed up
<v Speaker 1>this target because it was the only place that didn't
<v Speaker 1>have a line, and I asked if there was a
<v Speaker 1>line that said not yet, and I said okay, and
<v Speaker 1>I sat it line. That guy showed up. He goes,
<v Speaker 1>are you in line for the Xbox? He said, yep,
<v Speaker 1>right here.
<v Speaker 2>Well, yeah, I love those things. I love going to
<v Speaker 2>going to going to them. It's always been I would
<v Speaker 2>do it more frequently for games than hardware. I can
<v Speaker 2>never like usually couldn't afford the hardware at launch, so
<v Speaker 2>it was like a situation. I wish I could go
<v Speaker 2>that midnight lunch, but I won't be able to make
<v Speaker 2>that happen. So the fact that maybe there's a chance
<v Speaker 2>to do at this time, I keep thinking about it.
<v Speaker 2>Although if I do it, I think I will be
<v Speaker 2>in LA at that time. So we'll see, all right,
<v Speaker 2>a new polk question. We'll get to it here in
<v Speaker 2>a second. Ask promise before we do that, though, as guy,
<v Speaker 2>why don't you tell people once again where they can
<v Speaker 2>find you on the internet and what you have going
<v Speaker 2>on all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I'm on Blue Sky at Age Guy, and
<v Speaker 1>then that's all where you can find nineties Disney, which
<v Speaker 1>is at nineties disney dot com or the website. We
<v Speaker 1>do a monthly show on the first of the month.
<v Speaker 1>That's our main topic, and then somewhere in the middle
<v Speaker 1>of the month, as a bonus episode, like I said,
<v Speaker 1>we'll talk about Mike and Chris's recent trip to Disney
<v Speaker 1>and Universal's Epic Universe. We're recording Sunday night, So if
<v Speaker 1>you want to ask anything about the chip, hit us
<v Speaker 1>up on plusky and ask your questions. And yeah, you
<v Speaker 1>might see more of me now that apparently my brother
<v Speaker 1>owns part of this company. That's crazy. You saw that coming. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>So I think that makes me like like a a
<v Speaker 1>first gentleman or something like that. We're gonna go take that.
<v Speaker 1>So I think I'm the first gentleman of Giant Bomb.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm gonna go with that title. And if you will,
<v Speaker 1>all would please fall in line. I would appreciate your compliance.
<v Speaker 2>That's what we've been doing in our discord. So yeah, absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>We'll just keep calling you that for sure. All right, excellent. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we'll get you back on Game Mess Mornings for sure
<v Speaker 2>at some point in the future. This was great new
<v Speaker 2>poll question. Are you excited about death stranding to yes, no?
<v Speaker 2>Or I am waiting for reviews? Those are your three options.
<v Speaker 2>You can vote for this poll question on YouTube dot
<v Speaker 2>com slash at Giant Bomb. Hit the community tab there, vote,
<v Speaker 2>we'll get the results. We'll talk about it on Game
<v Speaker 2>Mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking of Giant Bomb,
<v Speaker 2>what do we have going on? Well, we are gonna
<v Speaker 2>be doing voicemail dump truck here very soon. Uh, and
<v Speaker 2>then later I'll be on the Aftermath podcast to talk
<v Speaker 2>about what we're doing over here at Giant Bomb. Things
<v Speaker 2>like that. We're everywhere this week, so you're gonna get
<v Speaker 2>sick of us for sure. And then I think Mike
<v Speaker 2>and I might try to get a quick look done
<v Speaker 2>of that Capcom Fighting collection too.
<v Speaker 1>If you haven't, go back and watch Blake Club from Wednesday.
<v Speaker 1>Mike looks really cool.
<v Speaker 2>I'm glad you said it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. At first, I was like, is this like another
<v Speaker 1>sub zero thing? Where are we going with this? I
<v Speaker 1>in my wildest dreams. I never thought he'd look so cool.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, it's Rascal but Mike. Everybody. Blake Club available now
<v Speaker 2>on YouTube and then you can tune in next Wednesday
<v Speaker 2>for the next episode. You're not gonna want to miss it.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be very good must see TV.
<v Speaker 1>All right.
<v Speaker 2>I think that's going to do it. Aj Minatti, thank
<v Speaker 2>you so much for taking the time to talk with
<v Speaker 2>me about video games.
<v Speaker 1>Jeffs and this was super fun.
<v Speaker 2>Appreciate it absolutely no. Yeah, thanks, I think, like I said,
<v Speaker 2>we'll have you on again very soon. In the meantime,
<v Speaker 2>thank you everybody for watching and listening. You were the
<v Speaker 2>best audience in gaming. Do you want to support what
<v Speaker 2>we're doing over here? A giant bomb dot com, slash
<v Speaker 2>join everything goes into supporting us as independent creators for
<v Speaker 2>a self owned company. It's employee own. We're gonna keep
<v Speaker 2>this thing going with your help. Until next time. Have
<v Speaker 2>a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.
<v Speaker 1>Hey you don't men, don't be bad.