Details on Blizzard's Scrapped Survival Game and Switch 2 Specs?

Yo, beare it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for January
twenty sixth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let
me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with
me Jeff Grubb. Today, more fallout from the massive Microsoft layoffs and we
keep finding reasons to say the word switch to But first please join me and
welcoming today's co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's Tomorro, who's saying,
everybody, Tam, how are you doing? I'm here. I am ready
for Dregs Day. I cannot wait. I'm very excited for Dregs Day because
you know, I love dregs. I love the drags. And let me
tell you some some dregs. Actually, there's some pretty big stories there as
well. Actually, yeah, yeah, we got We've got some actual stuff
to talk about it. Yeah. I'm very excited about the uh the Nintendo
One. Yeah yeah, I mean yeah, we'll get to it. Well,
there's there's plenty. I also I also love hunting for antiques. Uh
yeah, it's I do look forward to getting a Friday for Dregs Day.
Absolutely, go through the dregs when you make your tea. Do you did
use the tea bags or are there They're actually like loose leaves, so there
actually are tea dregs in there. So I have two types of tea in
a In a normal day, I'll have two types of tea. I will
sometimes well, actually these days I'm more bag focused, but I will usually
sure that I am am secure in the bag will I will try and make
it in the style of a South Asian chai, which means I'll add like
cinnamon and cardamom and clothes to it and ginger and that kind of stuff,
so it has a chai vibe to it more than a just a straight up
you know, like te tea, right A Weston T Well, T T.
That is what a tea is, right T T. Yeah, that
is exactly what it is. Yep, T T. Coffee. Yep.
I was actually you mentioned that to me recently. I think that chai tea
is repetitive, and I got a crossword puzzle where it's like a repetitive way
of saying like tea or something like that, and that that was the solution.
I'm like, oh, thanks, tam uh came in handy. Yeah,
we're off next week. Well, excuse me. I'm off next week,
So this show is off next week. That's what I mean by we
the Giant Bomble still have plenty of stuff happening. Definitely tune in for that.
But I'm streaming into a microphone every day in the morning. Yeah,
we'll just show up and see what happens. If Tam might be here yelling
at you about video games, I'll watch. I'll be excited about that.
I'll be sitting there with the now five year old. We'll just we'll tune
in and be like, hey, look a look at Tam doing his thing.
But in the meantime, let's make this a good show, and then
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little bit after you know, tenniche days or something like that. All Right,
if anything wild happens, I will try and make it a thing where
it's like, jan can you just get me a microphone tomorrow? All right?
Deal, definitely definitely do that. All right, fantastic, and again
I'll be tuning in. All right, Let's explain what we do here most
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If you were watching live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to
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with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube, All right, helly,
Hello YouTube. We have a lot to get into, so let's start the
morning mess with a rumor that Microsoft could be looking to limit physical game releases.
This is from Marcus Person at Game Reactor. It's been a dark day
for the games industry, with almost two thousand employees being forced to leave their
at Xbox Game Studios, as well as Blizzard CEO mikey Bars stepping down from
his role. Dark day dark direct effect of the overemployment that occurred during COVID,
but also a reflection of the difficult economic times. However, it seems
that not only developers have been affected by today's layoffs at Microsoft in Xbox Game
Studios, because, according to a report from Jess cordon Over at Windows Insider,
it seems like they are shutting down their internal team that publishes games physically.
He says he's been told that the entire team over there has been let
go that handles that, and that team was previously at Xbox. Like,
it's not like a new team coming in from Activision Blizzard. This is maybe
a little surprising, not too surprising, right, Tam. Physical game sales
seem to be a less important factor with Xbox these days, more so than
ever still though, that is it's like, Oh, it seems like if
you were going to be having big games coming out Xbox, get them in
retail, making a big all about that would still be important. What do
you think? Yeah, I would like to know what this divisions, as
it's been referred to, does. Like physical game division is very broad.
What does that mean? Is it the people that deal with, you know,
the marketing element of having physical games? Is it the people who you
know are in charge of making sure that discs are physically pressed? Is that
the thing? I feel like this that would be I can see the logic
behind it, or I can make it make sense. It just feels very
premature to me right now. Too. I'm not saying it isn't the case.
I'm just saying like, I feel still skeptical about the idea that Microsoft
is like everyone who is involved in making sure we have physical games available is
gone at a time when when you know people are still buying physical game.
The conversation around the physic the call games and owning games hasn't been settled.
It's still very much in process of being selled. Unless this is a case
of Microsoft like moving a piece on the board to say we're going to sell
this and just kill physical games on our things in the next you know,
and it could you know, it could be them to just being like,
listen, this is a thing that we had been doing internally internally because it's
a major part of our business, and now it's definitely less of a part
of their business than it has been in the past, and so they're like,
we'll just outsource it going further. It still is it's shocking and deplorable
that all those people lost their jobs. Microsoft's a big business. It's likely
a lot of those people could have got shifted around instead of just being left
or right and kicked out of the building. But in terms of Microsoft strategy
here, Matt Piscatla does point out from Sircana's retail tracking service in the United
States. In twenty twenty three, physical spinning on software for Nintendo platforms accounted
for more than half of total physical software spending. Meanwhile, physical spending on
software for Xbox platforms accounted for less than ten percent of total physical spending.
So that's I mean, and I you know you once we start thinking about
it a little bit timent, Well, they did sell a lot of Xbox
Series ESSs, so just inherently like there are fewer people out there who are
even considering physical games. Uh, and it seems like that has had a
really good that's done quick work. And at the same time, a lot
of people getting Xbox Series x's are like, yeah, I mean, I
want the disk drive for when I get to the disk based games, and
then they get game Pass, then they play a lot of online digital games
that they're downloading a lot more Fortnite and stuff like that, and they just
end up buying fewer physical games. It seems like for Microsoft it is come
down fast. What do you think about that? Yeah, I like I
said, it makes sense and I'm not surprised if they do this. I
think the case is more the thing that confuses me about it is like the
perception part of it. I don't think Microsoft is already in a spot where
they're willing to take the kind of parts and minds hit that would come from
being like, all right, we're done with this. It's it's again,
it's too early. It's and especially them with the memory of the Xbox One
still lingering constantly, it's something that they can bring up and they know that,
oh, if we start making moves towards this, people are just going
to throw this in our face and then we've got to deal this. From
a deal with this From a marketing perspective, I think, like my in
my like mind, I think the slow like bleeding out of the process is
what I would expect them to do. Maybe they're like, this is our
opportunity to just get it done with and over with. I think both.
I think that this is I think it's still part of the slow bleeding.
It's just like it is exposing that that is like they're end what they're eyeing
as the end goal. But I think you're right, like the overt strategy,
the public facing strategy will be a slow bleeding of well, yeah,
help, A two is not gonna get a physical release that's only a fifty
dollars game, it's eight hours. It's better if that's just digital. And
you know, handful of games more here and there don't get physical releases from
from Microsoft. And I think in the meat they'll keep offering like when they
have a digital only a like big big boy console coming down the line,
which probably will happen eventually. That those are the rumors that came out of
the FCC documents that there would be like a revision of the Xbox Series X
that didn't have a disk drive. They might sell a separate disk drive separately,
because they'll be, yeah, we're still going to sell physical games to
people who want it. And it's like, I think they expect fewer and
fewer people to want it, to the point when they one day stop making
physical games, it'll be like, make just a small little squeak when they
do it. The other thing is like I'm trying to think about how many
big games they've put out in the last year plus that have warranted like a
major physical push, and I can't think of anything that maybe the Last Force
and Halo Infinite are the ones, like in my mind, the next since
then, the big Xbox games that have come out have been like high fire
rush, I mean, you know Starfield, I mean Starfield and even like
it's wild that I just don't even think about Stallfield in that in that regard
where it's just like, well, I mean, we got we got work.
I mean, you know this is related that story we heard about Walmart
uh destroying Starfield discs and there they're not going to sell Starfield discs anymore now,
fun they do. I think I think they just like we're letting off
some steam, you know how sometimes just frisbeeing discs into the air. Apparently
they're just going to take about backing him with the hammer. That's a normal
thing at retail, which I find to be very strange, but I guess
that's something that retail does sometimes. Yeah, it's it's maybe I don't know,
maybe we aren't seeing it, Tim, Maybe this is all just gonna
happen real fast here. And they later this year they announced some new Xbox
revision that doesn't have discrive and there is no disruption, and it's like,
no, we're all digital, fuck you, I did you help think?
I hope they surprised us and announced new version of the Xbox with two discs
Russ. Yeah, it's got a disc rewriter in there. We we're gonna
go back and make a mixed mixed CDs. It comes out and someone's like,
what the fuck is there a UMD reader on this? That's going on
many discs? Yeah, it just has all the physical formats. Uh,
that's the way they really are going to go. Yeah. I mean Nintendo
Switch, I think like capture a lot of collector's imagination and I think people
were happy to keep buying physical games for that. But you know, based
on these numbers, Switch is maybe like fifty five percent according to Mac Piscatel
here just kind of estimating, he said more than half. Uh, we'll
say that, like, you know, Xbox is at like five to eight
percent. That puts you know, PlayStation physical sales somewhere between thirty five to
forty percent of the market in that range. And it's like, yeah,
that that's that's also probably like drifting down a little bit, but probably much
slower. There is a digital version of the PS five, very few people
have that. They do have the new model now that doesn't come with the
discrive necessarily, you can get it included, but that's probably also drifting down
slowly that I think that's what I was expecting Xbox to be. More like
the fact to hear it like it's oh, it's already blow ten percent.
And here they are not concerning themselves with selling games physically internally, and when
they are going to do that, they probably will just hire someone out externally
to handle that. For them, It's like okay, for Microsoft, it's
here, they're moving on. I've asked this kind of every one we had
this conversation with. I might ask to you, but like disdrive on the
next like big like when we go from Xbox Series X not to a revision,
but what whatever is next generation? Will there be a disdrive of any
kind for Microsoft specifically? Yeah, hmmm, that's a good question. I
feel like no, like we might have a switch around where it's like they
have a version with a disk drive, and either it will be something that's
like oh you can you know, buy it as an option and bolt it
on, or I think at the very least we're gonna get a kind of
switch around where, you know, how the Xbox Series X is currently the
golden child or the favorite child, and the Series S is like just kind
of the one they're like, oh, we've also got this. It's going
to be the other around, whether they like, we've got this thing,
it's a circle. It doesn't have a disk drive. If you're if you
want one of those things, We've also got that thing over there, which
is like the other version, the next gen version of A series X series
S that will have the disk drive and they'll push the one without it and
its Sony's done the same already. Yeah, it's only's done the same already
with their like the disc one and whether and the digital one, and now
the PS SLIM has that detachable disc drive, which like I've got I've got
a Slim, I just don't have the discrive connected to it like it is.
I just you know, you know what, Yeah, I I originally
I'll give on digital. So yeah, yeah, However, I do still
like owning things, so of course, yeah, I mean it's I think
that's the real thing for like us as like people trying to exist in the
video game industry or like consume video game media. It's complicated. I like
the idea. I still like the idea of owning stuff. I don't want
to go away in my personal life. I like the convenience of having everything
on the device digitally, but that could you know, if I suddenly I
was like, oh, you know what, maybe I wouant to have shelfs
full of games again. That could happen at any moment. To me.
I'm forty. My midlife crisis is just going to keep developing in many new
and exciting ways, and I don't want that to that option to go away.
So it's going to be it's going to keep getting kind of messy,
and I think we're probably it probably is going to keep deprecating to the point
where we're going to look around, like most of these games that we are
that we would have thought would have been on disc, you know last generation,
now that's not happening as much. And Grant AFT all six definitely will
be on discs on shelves. But there I think there's gonna be a tier
below that, maybe two tiers below that that. It's like maybe it's gonna
be a roll of the dice. I feel like there is a really good
opportunity to like do what I can't remember what company it is, but like
they do the special editions of games I always forget. Yeah, there's limited
run, there's a handful of limit and something where it's like, you know,
you know, Helpla two comes out, it does well, let's say,
and people are super into it. They looked at that. They know
that our people are really into this game. Let's make a very nice,
high end physical version of this. This is what happened with Bolderskate three right.
Balder's Gate Preak doesn't not necessarily a physical edition. There is a collector's
edition though, that has physical I think a physical disc in it, but
definitely is like for the physical collector. Yeah, yeah, I would.
I feel like that's a good middle ground as long as they do don't like,
as long as they make sure that they're actually putting in the work and
making nice stuff instead of they're like, is it one of those plastic green
cases that comes with all these Xbox games have fun? Yep, all right,
sticky kind of in the same vein here, New details about Blizzard's canceled
survival game have been revealed. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC. Fresh
details about Blizzard's canceled survival game have been revealed. On Thursday, Microsoft announced
plans to lay off nineteen hundred staff across Xbox, Bethesda, in Activision,
Blizzard. Alongside the news, it was confirmed that Blizzard's president Mikey Barra and
its chief design officer Alan Adham are leaving the studio and that it's untitled In
that it's untitled survival game, which was announced in January twenty twenty two,
is no longer in development. Inspired by games like Minecraft and Rust, the
project was co named Odyssey, was set in a new universe, and had
been in development for six years. According to Bloomberg sources, staff were only
informed of its canceled cancelation on Thursday, and it's claimed that many of the
one hundred plus people who had been working on it there were told that they
were being let go, and a leaked internal email Microsoft's Game Content and Studios
president Matt Booty said that the company would be shifting some of the people working
on it to one of the several promising new projects Blizard has in its early
stages of development. According to Bloomberg, the project was ultimately canceled because of
technical issues with the game engine being used to make it. While it was
originally prototyped on Epic's Unreal engine. Blizzard executives felt that technology wasn't the right
fit because it wouldn't support the goal of having vast maps supporting up to one
hundred players simultaneously. Instead, they wanted the Odyssey team to build the game
using Sinnapps, an internal engine in the studio had originally created for mobile games
and wanted to be shared across many of its projects. However, it's claimed
that this suite of tools and technology was slow to coalesce, and honesty was
ultimately canceled when they concluded that sinnapps was not production ready. As difficult as
making decisions are and this is a quote, and experimentation and risk taking are
part of Blizzard's history and the creative process, spokesman Andrew Reynolds said, ideas
make their way into other games, or in some cases become games of their
own. Starting something completely new is among the hardest, hardest things to do
in gaming, and we're i mentally grateful to all the talented people who supported
the project. Damn a couple things here. One of this seems to be
something that is maybe it's not more common at Blizzard, but if maybe because
we just hear about it, but maybe it is more common at Blizzard.
Of them trying to do something big and new and it not working and them
having to shift all those resources to something smaller and more refined, and that
got us Overwatched. That's great, but now looking at the state of Overwatch,
it's like, man, maybe what if one of these projects just worked
when you started it? And then the other thing of Yet again, this
story of executives wanting to use their internal goddamn engine in a world where it's
been proven over and over again that you should just use the engine that developers
are most comfortable with and has the most variability. And I know people have
some like hesitation about, oh, everything's on an unreal engine. We used
to have so many different things. It's like it's just not the way the
world works anymore. You could do anything with unreal engine, and we got
to work where everyone's using that, you know, a couple of guitars from
a couple of guitar manufacturers, and yet we still have a lot of different
kinds of music. It's going to be the same thing with games going forward,
right, Yeah, Yeah, this is like who made the judgment called
that, oh this doesn't work with unreal engine? Yeah, because I imagine
if it was I imagine it being one of these executives. And the thing
that sticks out to my mind is like Unreal Engine is so popular now that
developers work directly with Epic to get stuff that they need to make their games.
I just cannot fathom a world where Blizzard goes to Epic and it's like,
yo, can you help us make a hundred make this work in a
massive open world with one hundred people, and Epic is like condit man,
condu, it's not possible. That sounds that sounds like a straight up lie
to me, Like I don't. I do not like the things that they
make the Unreal Engine do is baffling. Like the stuff that they do,
it's like, oh, this is working on a movie. You're using this
in XYZ. Thing like that engine is basically putty. Yes, they mold
to anything. So the idea that, oh, we finally found the thing
that Unreal Engine isn't capable of and there's nothing we can do about it,
so you have to use this engine instead, it's like weird. I don't.
I don't get it. Like I again, I don't make games.
I'm not super familiar with Unreal Engine. I know there have been some issues
with unreal Engine here and there, but something so severe that a major developer
with that much talent and know how, it's just like, can't do it,
can't do it. Let's let's use an internal engine. Doesn't seem right
to me, And I think what is likely more the case is like how
do we save money on developing this spending a lot of money on unreal engine,
but we have our own engine. Why don't we do that? That's
exactly right, and and like hearing it was prototyped on unreal and then move
to something else internally that's like sets off alarm bells you had. The studio
been like, no, we're very comfortable working with the tools that we have.
Someone chat mentioned like IOI, Like IOI probably never considered unreal engine for
Hitman. They didn't need to. They were very happy working with their tools.
They knew how to use them and knew how to get the most out
of them. But when like mass effect, like mass Effect five, it's
like, man, what are they going to use? Or like the whole
the biowhere, like you going from unreal Engine and then swapping over to cross
by. Thank you. Yeah, It's like that was clear, Like,
oh that was an internal demand, and they went from Unreal to this other
thing. Had they just stuck with Unreal, they would have been better off.
Seems like the same thing would have been true here. Yeah, I'm
trying to figure out what games have been made using the Synapse engine, and
I I mean, like, it doesn't look like it's super popular, but
I can't. Like, you type the name in of an engine and usually
games pop up and they're like, oh, this is made in this right
they said that. They said it's Blizzard Mobile Games. I imagine that doesn't
mean necessarily like Hearthstone. Fucking there are a couple like Wow Mobile Games.
I honestly don't keep praying that. I don't know how you make a like.
The only engine that I know of that is really good at making mobile
games and can also scale up to tripa A Games is Unreal AG and maybe
maybe Unity if you're like real good at using that thing. This feels like
a executive decision through and through, and it's one that has done irreparable damage
to people. And this is the story of the video games industry, especially
over the last few months. It is the consequences of people who have no
clue what they're doing no clue what they're talking about, making people who know
everything about it and probably know the right thing to do do things that make
no sense, and then forcing them to live with the consequences. And meanwhile,
a smaller team in Japan is like, let's make a Pokemon with guns
in Unreal Engine, and they're selling eight million copies in a week, in
which they would kill to be, like, oh, to have that kind
of success. Blizard does usually have that kind of success, but to have
a new game just launch and do that well immediately, they would kill for
that too. Yeah, I mean, like, I'm sure this conversation around
engines has way more nuances and and like, like I said, we're not
developers. We correct. I have only messed with Unreal Engine just for funzies,
and I do not know the full extent of what you can and kind
of do with it, So maybe I'm completely wrong, But again, like
I just the way this is set up and explained, it feels like the
people who have that knowledge and to make that decision accurately on the people making
that decision. Yep, it's and you're right, the real word, real
world ramifications of actually ended up hurting people now with this whole team basically getting
kicked out the door. They said they're going to move some people to other
their projects, but it sounds like most of them are lose their jobs.
And yeah, and it's just another cost cutting measure that was basically led into
by a previous cost cutting measure. Whether like we could save more money by
not going with Unreal and let'sten. I get that to a certain extent,
profit margins on games, if you're not sure that it's going to be an
infinite money maker like a Fortnite or you know, I guess Overwatch. At
one point you're like, you like, look at like fifteen percent margins,
so every little bit matters. And when you're maybe you have to get three
I don't know how much is like like five percent you have to give to
Unreal or give to Epic That can cut into a big time. I get
that. But again, like Power World's doing just fine eight million. If
if you even this big team was selling eight million copies, that would be
more than fifteen percent, and I bet Blizzard would find ways to monetize it
beyond that as well. All Right, one last thing in this only twelve
percent of German game companies expect industry growth in twenty twenty four. Just figured
this with cap off this conversation. This is from James Bachelor. Games Industry
up is. German developers and publishers largely have a negative outlook when it comes
to the year ahead for the country's video game industry. That's according to the
annual Industry Barometer survey conducted by German trade body Game Yes. This study of
one hundred and twenty five member companies shows that only twelve percent of respondents expect
a positive economic development for Germany's game industry in twenty twenty four, significantly lower
than forty eight percent of the companies that were optimistic in twenty twenty three.
Why are we talking about Germany, That's where we have the data from.
Can this be extrapolated across the globe? Maybe not one for one in every
territory. I bet this is pretty indicative of how developers are feeling worldwide.
Maybe not to the point where only twelve percent of developers, and let's say
the United States are feeling like they're going to grow, but I bet a
similar like decline has happened from forty eight percent to twelve percent in Germany.
I bet something similar is happening about every territory in the world right now.
This is what we're dealing with, and this is like the underlying thing that's
the it's behind all this. The industry isn't growing really, and it was
expected to grow keep momentum coming out of the pandemic, and those were like
already inflated highs and now we hear we're not even crashing back down to Earth,
Tam. It's just kind of stagnating, and that's enough to do this
much damage. Imagine if like the industry was shrinking. Imagine if we were
like down two percent, Tam, how much on like the fire would be
so much worse. It's kind of it's actually a little bit scary to me.
It is scary. I think that we are now a lot of people
are realizing this is an industry built on sand and there's a house of cards
made of glass whatever, every other fucking you know cliche that you can add
to talking about how vulnerable and fragile. It seems to be like I don't
know how you fix that. I I mean, like I have ideas,
but like I'm a dumb dumb who sits outside and like comments on games and
like the people who are in What I do know is it doesn't feel like
there is a concerted intent or even a desire to fix it or like find
ways around it, because the the kind of path is being led by people
who are very, very focused on margins, revenue corner for the next quarter,
for the next quarter, and nothing more. That is the biggest issue.
Like beyond that, it's like whatever, and like it's a cliche at
this point, and it's romanticized because of how long we've had them. But
like the only company that feels like it is doing kind of like forward looking
planning for its future is Nintendo out of all of these And and it's like
it's not they're not doing it in you know, there's when people say that.
When I say that, in my mind, I think about the way
you know it Water would talk about like you know, looking after developers and
and you know, working within the legal system to make sure that it's you
know, they're not doing anything weird and all that kind of stuff and thinking
about the future of the game's business. So that's the romanticized version. But
also Nintendo these days has taken a very like clinical approach to future proofing and
stuff like stuff like dumb shit, like they've made this game and they've got
it on a shelf and they are not publishing it. It sucks fast.
We're like, what the why is it out to them? Make it me
look like an asshole primary master, keep cutting my hair, damn it.
But but like for them, like the reasoning is probably we see a gap
head that could be potentially hurtful faust If as a company and the way we
run, and we can potentially fill that gap and minimize the issues there by
moving this there and not you know, having it come out right now,
that kind of approach, or it's like it could be like they're looking at
Okay, so we have five games ready to go, and it takes us
into in order to Q and market these things that takes a lot more people.
What are we going to do about this? Are we going to higher
up while we have these five extra games at the moment so that we have
to have these teams And then we get to a point where we're past all
that, and then we're looking around and being like, uh, well,
we got nothing for you to do. Get the fuck out the door,
or do we just put these things in a line, and we slowly higher
up and we'd be very responsible and cautious. This is the story of the
Japanese game industry right now. I think the lesson there is that some of
those regulation laws do cause them to be very hesitant about hiring up. But
it means like when you get hired there, you are locked in and it's
very unlikely you're going to get laid off. And it's like which is better,
where it's easier to get a job but much easier to get laid off,
or a little bit more difficult to get a job and much more difficult
to get laid off. I think I know which one I would pick,
but I get why people do pick one or the other. And that just
seems like Nintendo's benefiting from this right now in the current scenario that we're in.
I mean, like they still have the issues contractors in Japan, but
also like on the flip side of that, I think the Japanese law and
the language around it protects people or it has very specific kind of uh guardrails
against layoffs there. Yes, that's why they're that's why they're afraid to hire,
because they're like it will be difficult to these people there, which we
are, which is an argument against regulation. I get that. I hear
that. I understood, Like you want like people. It creates more jobs
by just making it easier for people to get laid off later later. It's
like, oh, okay, that feels like a catch twenty two. It
feels like there is something fundamentally unsound about that. Still, maybe there's a
middle ground here. I don't know if we Yeah, I mean, like
the end of that the kind of like the message behind that law is they
are protected to a degree, you know what I'm saying, Like the developers
at these companies are protected and have bargaining power. When they are the late
the essential labor that makes the game, they have some control over that labor.
And that's something that doesn't exist most places around the world. It definitely
doesn't exist in America. Unless you implement that one you would so usurp the
ruined class exactly. These bitches I'm saying spoken, we're on Nintendo and this
is this is gonna lead in the thing that we're gonna talk about after the
break in some ways. But I do wonder do you think the industry is
kind of like like, for the most part, a lot of these third
party developer especially are kind of playing wait and see until those switch to launches,
and they're like kind of hoping that that is going to be the thing
that breaks the fever, because we could see a lot of quick growth based
on that, and they're like, well, let's just wait and see.
We should we shouldn't make any bet until we know how the next Nintendo hardware
is gonna go. Is it gonna be another switch a Wei or is it
gonna be a we U or or or is it gonna be something like in
the middle, it's gonna be a GameCube. Uh, And they're gonna kind
of start making their decisions based on how that. Do you think that's having
an effect? Is it that big of a deal? I honestly, I'm
not sure. I've just been completely derailed by the thought of a you like
products. I'm just like your brain, Yeah, fortunate son is playing in
my head and I'm having ADSD I'm like, no, the Transparent it was
just flashing behind you. Yeah, I can see it right now with all
the games. It's just it's just on me. You over the over again.
I'm like, oh no, what happened. Yeah, I feel like
Nintendo is in a much stronger position, especially like they don't really make consoles
anymore, which is kind of funny if you think about it. They were
like look over there, just like absolutely around the consoles. They were like,
goodbye, look at this the game boys for your new console. Yeah,
all right, well I guess so, Like I don't know, I
think Nintendo's in a very privileged position and secure a person in most but like
they put themselves there, like it's it's not like developers and publishers and companies
in the West. I look at them and being like, ah, man,
that's impossible for us to do. No, it's very possible. It's
doable. It just requires some kind of like empathy and even thinking a little
less selfishly. I think that's that's the main thing. Capitalism is driven by
being selfish, Like that's kind of the point. But like in this day
and age, it is destructive to the point where there was a time when
any any old Joe Schmoe could become a capitalist, you know, success at
some point that ain't the case anymore. Like that is it's not happening.
You are going to be part of the grunt class for most of your life.
And and you know what, I'll take a new GameCube. I would
look at that sad the rest of my life. Give me a game cube.
Yeah, he will keep the sadness at day a little bit. All
Right, we're gonna take a quick break, everybody. When we get back,
we will have switch To stuff to talk about, I guess, and
a handful of other things right after this. All right, we're back,
and I got a headline here. Switch To launching this year with eight inch
LCD screen. This is a report, and we're gonna get the report.
Via Evan Campbell at game Spot. While Nintato still hasn't unveiled a switch success
or, a new report says the company's next system will sport an eight inch
LCD screen LCD not O lead, and we'll arrive later this year. That
would be the biggest display ever for Nintendo. A media analyst Hiroshi Yama hayasay
Roshi ya Yasa is the source behind this latest info for the switch To.
According to Bloomberg, the source is like he's an analyst. He is making
an analyst prediction. I do think that the reason Bloomberg was kind of hot
and heavy to post this though, because I think it lines up with what
they're hearing that this is from. Is it the guy that Bloomberg? Whoway
says the Nintendo rumors, I'm sorry the name is escaping me. But the
story goes on to say an LCD screen could also be seen as a step
backwards for Nintendo, since switch o led launched in twenty twenty one. The
upgraded hybrid console features a seven inch screen, while the original model had a
six point two inch screen. The latest info lines up with a report from
last year that Sharp was making LCD screens for a new game console. The
company was cag at the time about the collaboration, even apparently taking down presentation
slides after the fact. Meanwhile, the most popular PC handheld system just upgraded
from LCD screens when Valve unveiled the Steam deck o Lead in November. Earlier
this month, analyst Cercin Toto predicted that switch to would be a more iterative
that iterative than revolutionary. The founder of the consultancy group Catan Games also believed
that the system would launch this year, costing four hundred dollars. Tam,
were you all reiterating a lot of predictions? That have been made a lot
of rumors that now feel like they are being accepted as probably likely fact this
year eight inch screen l c D, four hundred dollars. I think I
bet every single one of those facts is probably going to happen. Tim,
what do you think this was by Takushi chuk? Thank you for that?
Thank you the name escaped me. Yes Uk for a call as well,
I believe right. And what I'd say to that is, it's not about
the size, it's about what you do with it. That Jesus about the
motion of the Mode seven graphics, I think exactly. Yeah, I so
what was the question? Was your question on this? My question? Think
about this? But those like four facts, the this year eight inch screen
l c D and four hundred dollars, all that sounds right to me.
I think. I think that. I think that given the when Nintendo is
what factors have led to its success in the last years, especially in the
switch generation, pivoting away from the WU, those they want to replicate as
much of that as possible. That goes from how much they spend on R
and D and production, manufacturing and marketing, to price point of the thing
and all of that kind of lines up with the timing of how long the
switch has been around and what the next step for them logically is. So
all those kind of elements that have been reported feel like they make perfect sense.
I agree it lines up so well. The circumstantial evidence is all there
as well, like where we look exactly the way Nittendo behaved with the switch
as the as the generation went on, where they never lowered the price of
the of the switch, not really, and then they had to switch O
lead and they raised that up to three fifty, making it very easy to
make the next system four hundred dollars. That's only fifty dollars more than the
O lead and then they will have an O lead down the line that could
be four to fifty even five hundred. Uh. There is they are giving
themselves flexibility by training the consumer because they kind of have a lot of us
in their the palm of their hand, and they know that and they're going
to take advantage of it. They're a capitalist corporation like that. Yeah,
the LCD element of it is a bit of a sticking point for me,
and it's confusing. It does suck, but it's shit. So one shit.
I think the bigger the bigger question. The bigger issue is why and
what does it mean for this new hardware? So like to my mind and
you can correct me if I'm wrong, like in this line of thinking.
Nintendo, one of the reasons they do stuff like this where they use old
tech is because they usually have some sort of gimmick to their consoles or they
have some sort of kind of idea that they're trying with a content. They're
a company that always feels like, oh, they personally believe they're trying something
risky, and in order to kind of do that, you know, execute
on that risk and minimize the potential damage that it does to them if it
goes askew or doesn't work out, they kind of rely on all the technology,
so it's not like crazy expensive. The PlayStation three huge risk used cutting
edge technology was a disaster for Sony in PlayStation whereas to the point where they
almost didn't make a profit that entire generation. Yeah, yeah for them,
Whereas Nintendo will do something wacky with old technology and if it completely ships the
bed, they're like, we didn't lose much money on it. The idea
of that going into it kind of carries through into the next iteration of their
console or their hardware. But if the next iteration of their hardware is already
a proven gimmick, why the step back? You know, if the switch
is going to be if the next switch is going to be iterative on the
switch to switch one, which has a proven success to it, what is
stopping them from going, Okay, we know that everyone loves this shit.
The thing that they want now is that but better, So let's put an
old ed screen in there. But instead we're like, we've got a new
switch, let's take it back a nut so then we can go forward again.
I think you're right there. I think you set it up where it's
like I think they believe in their gimmicks. The switch too, is probably
gonna be editive. It will still definitely have those headline gimmicks that Nintendo always
does with like the three DS Nub is always the one I new. Three
DS Nub is the one I always go to. They'll have something at least
of that level, probably something a little bit more marquee than that ir camera
on the bottom of the joy Con for the switch, things like that.
There will be something along those levels. And I think the Tindo is a
company that sniffs its own farts on this stuff. I think they buy.
I think they buy what they're selling a lot of times, so we believe
what we're doing here with this gimmick actually does matter and does make a difference.
And six months from now everyone will stop talking about it, or six
months after the system launches, everyone will stop talking about it. Even Nintendo
won't really have much of it anymore. But leading up to selling the system,
I think there's a lot of drinking the kool aid on it. So
I think that they feel very comfortable going back to that old technology. The
reason it's easy for them to buy in on it is because it saves them
money. You nail that as well. That's what it's really all about.
They want to make money selling their hardware from day one, and that means
the big deal is this little three three cent thing that we added in that
makes you know, the HD rumble or whatever, and they'll have some new
version of that that kind of it will be the thing that they talk about
in their marketing a ton and no one actually cares about because they're just happy.
It's basically a switch again. Yeah, I think like we're past the
past, the era of big swings, like where everything every new console is
a drastic difference from the last one. Is I think that like it or
not, the foreseeable future for Nintendo hardware is going to look like a switch
to some degree. So I feel like the gimmick days, and when we
say gimmick, we know it is a negative connotation to the idea of gimmick.
Four stop so lescens it's the you know, it's the new thing when
you get the twenty twenty four Ford F one and whatever they talk about in
the commercial. It's it's that bang, we get it. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's that element of it. So like the ideas behind a
new new hardware are going to not be like too outside of what a switch
like device is capable of. The maybe in the previous that when motion control
was becoming a thing, they were leaning into it. That was definitely like
the I think, like more Dictionary definition of a gimmick. But yeah,
I feel like I'm definitely interested in seeing it, and a lot of the
response to it has been this sucks because we know what it can be without
within an old LED screen. Interado has done it, but like LCD screens
are still ridiculously cheap comparatively relatively speaking, they can also look really nice,
like that it's not the end of the world, but like the thing that
pisses people off, and I think the thing that the issue that a lot
of people are having and maybe they're not like vocalizing it in this way,
is the lack of progress, especially relative to other companies. It feels like
when we got we go from the last Madden of one generation to the first
Maden of the next generation. They strip all those features out so they can
slowly add them back in over the course of the generation. Again, it
feels like that we know we're gonna get who knows, it will probably be
an O lead for Nintado, it will probably be an old when they do
a revision of this new device. They could be micro l c D or
whatever, micro micro l ED. There's a bunch of different competing technologies now
that are looking to kind of sneak in on Old and also in one of
those like very rare positions where it's like they can be like, look,
we made dog shit, and then like then they know, and then they
and then they make they show you dog shit. New Super Mario, New
Supermero game running on the dog shit and people are like, I want to
smear that. I mean when they got me in their palm, they have
me I wrap around their finger like I was shopping dog shit. It looks
stupid and on paper until they show you the next Mario game or the next
Elder game or the next Metrod game and be like, hey, this is
the game that was running on it, and everyone will be like, all
right, I guess I'll buy this and it will fly off the shelves and
Nintendo will love its way to the bank again. Pardalas asks Sount how much
a Labbo I bought. I think I bought the first Labbo and then I
think Nintendo sent me the second Labbo thing, so there might be other Labo's.
I got the two big kits that had a bunch of little things in
there and actually just got them out to do all the rest. I haven't
done yet with the kids this week while STEP's out of the country, so
looking forward to that. A SU's plans to release a second gin roj ally
later this year. Darren Bonthu said, Game Spot, I'm begging you,
let's go relax on the window shit, Okay, I know you're gonna put
Windows on there. I know it. You had a good device. The
Windows part of it sucks booty hole in the worst way possible. It's very
frustrating. It's still will plug it in and still won't go in the standby
mode if it's pluged in occasionally, if I'm lucky. It's what it feels
like. It decided to listen this time A sister Roger ally is a very
very good device. Armored Crate sucks. Yeah it does. And I've been
using that Ioneo Slide and like that on you slide has its own problems and
I'm gonna probably I'll talk about all this in a more detailed video at some
point. But the Ieo slides software way more responsive than Armory Crate, and
I was like, oh, this can work on top of Windows. I
thought it was like Windows holding these things back, and obviously that is still
part of it, but it's like, no, it instantly responds every time
I press the button, and Army Crate's like, give me a minute,
Yeah, I get off this couch. I feel like I am using a
Motorola device in the age of an iPhone. Yeah, that is how it
feels where it's like you look at it and you're like, why does it
look like this? Why does it perform like this? I hate every part
hardware companies, and then they have to become software and it's like they definitely
have software teams, but that is not their focus and they're bad. Yeah,
but like they're on the onto such a good thing with the work Ally,
Like the Roger Ally is a fantastic little bit of hardware. I went
back to it after the after using the slide and it was like, oh,
this is actually so comfortable to use. I forgot how comfortable the Ally
is and then it's really powerful. Yeah, it's it is surprisingly light.
Yeah, I love my steam Deck, especially since led one favorite. Right,
there's still fantastic. But I also still played the Roger because I'm like,
this is a I feel like the Ally is a really good travel device
because it doesn't take up a lot of space, it's lightweight, and and
it like performs really really well. So I'm just like, you're so close.
Just don't do the MRI cra thing again. Well, the good news
say they're releasing a new one this year, and you got to imagine that
they are seeing enough investment from the public enough buy in on this device that
they will invest a little bit more than else unimproving armory create and improving and
improving that software. And it's like, if you can get it close enough
to fixing these annoyances of how Windows behaves on a handheld and get Microsoft to
like pick up on their in on that bargain as well, make Windows eleven
but better on these devices. I get they're probably gonna stick with Windows eleven.
There are some third party devices that it's beginning to ship with steam Os.
That's not necessarily what we're asking for either. I love steam Os.
Stemos is great, but I do want devices where it's like, oh,
I actually can play Destiny on this. I can play a bunch of Windows
games that won't work on Steam or cause a lot of headaches to run on
Steam, all the game pass games. So get Microsoft to pick up their
end of that and then just make the software a little bit better, put
an O led screen in there, use the new generation of chips whatever.
I probably will be all born on this. But how do you feel about
the Hey, we got the Roger ally last year, We're getting a new
one this year. How do you feel about that cadence, because that's not
what Steam is doing about is doing with the Steam Deck. I I don't
love it, but I also understand it. This felt like a bit of
a shot in the dark or like a thing that they were like, let's
try this, and I think they might have been caught off god by the
success of it and how well it actually like turned out. And they're in
a position now to be like, oh, people really like this thing.
They keep saying XYZ should be better. Well if we made that better quickly,
to capitalize on the awareness around this thing, because right now, like
there's a lot of these devices out there, I feel like they're in a
position to be but I feel like the Roger ally is the one that stands
out after the Steam Deck as being the thing too to talk to get and
to talk about, like it's it's it's the Xbox to the Sony to the
Steam Decks PlayStation, if you know what I mean, Like in terms of
profile. So I feel like this cadence I'd be interested to see if this
is the cadence going forward or if this is a this is a like this
is the moment where they really want to plant the flag and they need to
do this to make it happen, and it just so happens. It's a
yearly kind of one year after they put the original version out. I would
I hope that it's more a case of the second where it's like, oh,
we tried this, it worked out really well, Like everything is pointing
towards us doing this again and making it better. While the strike, let's
strike while the iron is hot, put out a better version of this,
give people and make sure that it's got enough like a runway to last a
few years, and then down the line will put another one out. Yes,
I'm right there with you. That's what I hope as well. I
hope this isn't actually going to be a yearly thing, but that'll be the
pull question later everybody, Well ask kind of how you're feeling about the updates
to these handle PCs. Well could then answer when I return to do the
show. All right, last story, Harada thinks about how hot teeth it
is just like the rest of us. In response to a fan on Twitter
dot com I'm asking for the final Fantasy seven character to be headed to Tech
and eight through DLC, the series producer said, we all know she is
attractive and understand that, but as yet we have not decided anything about guest
characters, et cetera. Uh. And then a little addition here from the
editor. Sorry, Jeff, this is very important news, Tam. I
know you get it anyway. Watch the Scrub League on UPF today, love
Sean. Yeah, thanks for your input, Sean. I appreciate it.
Yeah, yeah, he does. Of course he thinks about it. Of
course Harada gets it. Oh boy, do you think who's more likely Tifa
or like my from from King of Fighters. Yeah, I mean the souper
freaks both get get what they want either way. But who do I want?
I want Tifa, Like Tifa is the goat, but I think I
think like Tifa is the smaller epic you want. I think Techan is good
about grabbing characters. That makes it, and Tifa just makes sense. Well,
you know what people say about Tifa, She's the vegan of Final Fantasy,
So that who you're saying this. I just said, sorry, please,
I would love it if they were like, we made a deal with
Final Fantasy and we got all the punching people from every Final Fantasy in this.
We've got Zell, We've got Yes, we've got. It's just all
the different sids. I don't know anyone. Yeah yeah, said yes Sabin,
But yeah, I'm getting I would like Tifa, I would like you
for I'm trying to think about who else I would want in Tech and I
had it. I had had one the other day that I was like,
would be cool, but they put this in Tech and oh yeah, put
in there, That's what I was saying. Or like more I think more
appropriate would be Magma, like I would yeah, yeah, and like that
would be Sock or have Kiri, but like have Maguma like just every now
and then and deimally run in and do a punch because he's everywhere. That
would rule. Yes, Mike, and Chat says he doesn't believe Harada,
that he doesn't thought about guest characters. Do you believe him? Because I
think I'm with Mike on that one, But he's the one hundred. This
is lying to everyone's face. Okay, that's what I figured, all right.
I also want to acknowledge that Curriu does have rules that prevent him from
being in playing games, including he doesn't hit women, so uh, then
he just automatically loses those matches that would be great, but also like it's
the King of Ie fifth tournament here, you grow up? Yeah, come
on in the s punch of some women. Yeah, they're gonna Yeah,
it's gonna hurt, so let just get on with It'll be don't be sexist,
cury if they can handle it. Yeah, Uh all right. Uh.
We did no pole question yesterday because I wasn't the moon after those layoffs,
so we we will have a new pole question. We'll get to that
here in a second. In the meantime, Tam, what are you gonna
do while I'm gone? What's what do you have happening over in games?
It's gonna be chaos, So I don't As you mentioned, next week,
I'm gonna chat to Jan and be like, Yo, we should maybe think
about if there's a way to just do something in the morning. Maybe I'll
John, let's chat a am every every day next week, Like, I'm
sure we can, like at the very least nine am. You guys could
do it later if you, I guess you guys are probably I've got stuff
to do. Yeah, but like maybe we could just like shoot the ship
every day except Tuesday. I guess maybe I'll figure out a wayfucking just like
stream something at a am every every if you guys, if you gotta stream,
like, I'm just gonna be sitting around, So I'll call in every
once in a while and I'll give you guys to quick run yeah or yeah,
or or you guys could play poker. There you go. I'm not
great at poker, so I wouldn't mind just a bunch of us jumping on
just playing like poker for a bit and being like, how do we play
this game? That's Chang's in the same exact boat and Jam wants to learn
lad So that would be fun. That'd do it, John, Let's talk
man, Let's talk j Chew and showing as well, and whoever else there
will be. There will be fun stuff on the site for sure, you
guys. Next week doesn't happen still is still going down to Jeff Cheffs is
back next week, right, Jeff Jeffs is back and it's back to JoJo's
Bizarre Adventure next week. That should be fun. This week, Game Spot
has the latest spot on with me and Lucy has been will be going up
today we talk about power World and what the fuck is going on over there?
And then upf is happening today. What's the PF today, Teken eight
tec and yeah, if we can get the you know, the servers working.
I was thinking if we can't get service, like if there's connection issues,
because we had trouble making our own private room last night. It was
crashing on us. If that happens, maybe we'll just part second to one
device and we can all still keep playing that way. Sean says, server
team fixed though, So that's really good news. Okay, So I got
my leave lest controller yesterday. Really that okay awesome? How have you tried
it out? How's it going with the hands? I've not tried it out
yet, Like I felt better? Okay, good, But I imagine it's
also going to be down to how hort I'm hetting things, So chill a
bit on that respect and my hand placement. I need to do the Yeah,
Wiggly's right. You gotta just like gravity, do most of the work
exactly exactly. So it's gonna be scrub league, that's what That's what Sean
was talking about in his his teeth of Horning this earlier. The check and
eight scrub league will be happening today. We're gonna just kind of do round
robin or maybe a little tournament style where we kind of play against each other,
and that'll be a lot of fun. I can't wait. There is
a BCR today as well, BombCast Revengeance. I'm I was gonna be on
there. We're going to do a like a Dragon review. Jan. I
don't know if you saw on Slack. I can't make that. I gotta
take some kids to a dit dis appointment. They'll still be doing it though,
I believe Lexi. I believe Amron's gonna be on there as well.
Make sure the m Ron gets connected with you Jan to talk about that game,
So look out for that, and then yeah, next week, there
will still be some fun stuff Blake Club. I'm still gonna show it for
Blake Up next week because I could just sit here and watch Mike's misery.
That totally works just fine, all right, I think it's going to do
it for the show. Tam, Thank you so much for hanging out with
me today and talking about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
Thank you for having me. Yeah again, I love being here and I
will hopefully see you next week. Yeah, I'll pop in here and there.
I'll be around for sure. Thank you everybody for watching. You're the
best audience in gaming. Thank you for the nice things you've all said this
week. And you know, especially if like we're dealing with the tough news
the way we all are in this together, that's how I feel as well.
Let's keep it going until next time. Have a good one, take
care of yourself, and goodbye.