Sony Revokes the Helldivers 2 PSN Linking Policy

He'll be go'll be bit It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this
for May 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 Graub. Today, the hell divers psn Login Saga has reached
its zenith with a stunning twist ending and Activision hates us and we now have
the proof. Also, Nintendo just said they're going to talk about the new
switch tomorrow in some way, but first please join me and welcome to today's
co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's Emma Fife. Everybody, Emma,
how are you doing? Just great? I got my coffee, Yeah,
I got my cat. Yeah. Right here, he's just barely out of
brain. You can see his little nose poking and he'll probably be around mostly
he'll just lay on my hand. That's the thing about this cat. This
is yeah. He time I come down at this desk, like he's doing
it right now, but you can't see because he's in front of me.
But he just like will lay on my hand or rub his face all over
my hand, or stand directly in front of the monitor. That I'm working
off of. Yeah, he just really really likes to be involved in everything
that I do. Oh kitty cat, Yeah, my cat now just basically
yells at me for more food. That's it. That's his main His main
mode in life is just a yell old man. Right. Oh, yes,
he's about he's got to like thirteen fourteen old and big. That's the
way we like him. Brown here yep. Yeah. How was your weekend
though? How you get get any games played? You? Oh? My
god? Yeah? So yeah, yesterday I spent some good time with and
I threatened to do it earlier on this show a few weeks ago to download
star Os in the Second Story are even though I was like, I don't
need to play star Os in the Second Story again because I played it on
PlayStation. I've played it on the PSP version, and yep, now I'm
playing it again. And you know what, it is great love all the
quality of life improvements. Some psychopath went in there and they re rendered all
the maps in like a three D like following the back of your character type
perspective. Yeah, it's fanta love the new character art. Yeah, absolutely,
totally totally enjoying it. And then the other thing I did this weekend
was my fiancee has a friend who is in a group called Extra Lives.
So basically they're all like studio and touring musicians, but they have this other
project they do that is all like rock renditions of video game music, primarily
from the sixteen bit and earlier era. But the way that they do it
is go to choose your own adventure format. So basically there's a story that
you're following effort, and periodically it comes up in the audience and you have
to like make the next choice. And so they play songs for video games
and they'll use like b roll from games. Yeah. So the new one
that they have a new show, Now, this one's like a post apocalyptic
one where you live in this world of robot overlords and are trying to like
free the people. Yeah, it's it's really really fun. That sounds great.
Yeah, and my friends we went with some other friends and one of
them he said afterwards that they, you know, three minutes of them playing
the music from Dire Dire Docs. He's getting married this year, but he
thinks that might be the best moment of all of twenty twenty four. That's
incredible. Okay, yeah, that sounds really fun. Yeah, it's really
fun. I spent basic all day yesterday taking care of my yard. It's
getting out of here. Yes, yeah, I'm over it. A kid
came by and he was like, do you need help with one care?
I'm like, get out of your kid. And then I'm like, wait,
I should have said yes. What was I thinking? Yeah, like
I need to read think. Thanks, you're back here. I'm so sorry
for me. I'm be an old man. Yeah, but next time,
next time he's next time I see him, I'll just yell at him to
come mow my lawn. Instead, I'll be kind of yelling. All right,
let's see here, you know what, let's explain what we do here
most weekdays, I, Jeff Greb will help help piece your gaming life back
together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert
who will make me look smart. If you are watching live on twitch welcome,
you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for
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can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube,
All right, we have lots to get into, so let's start the
morning mess with. Nintendo says it will talk about the next game console at
its investor meeting this week. This is something that just popped off right before
I came online. Let's see. At ten forty am, Andrew Marmo on
Twitter captured this from Nintendo's Earnings Relation investor portal or Investor Relations. I should
say, and yeah, I'm just kind of I'll read what they're what they
say here. They said the main dialogue topics and matters of interest to investors.
These are the things that it's planning to talk about at its financial earnings
call with investors. Topics covered include financial results overview and business outlook, business
momentum of Nintendo Switch, the next game console, and business impact of a
hardware transition IP strategy, including the visual content, business capital policy ESG,
and sustainability initiatives. That is kind of what I was expecting, Emma,
in terms of, Hey, this is Nintendo, and they when they start
talking about these things, the first place we usually hear about it is in
a very vague reference in an earnings report. In some like official SEC approved
documentation where they say this thing is going to happen, let's all get ready
for it, and here we are. I mean, it feels momentous,
even if it's also extremely boring. What do you think? Sure, Yeah,
it's one of those things where everybody knows that Nintendo is going to make
another console. There you know the Nintendo's not going to just give up certainly,
and and we've talked about this before that Nintendo is in this very advantageous
position of having these ip that nobody else can touch that are extremely beloved,
like your Marios and your Zelda's. So yeah, I mean it's like,
we know Nintendo is going to make another console, uh, and that it's
about time, and here we go, we're gonna here that it's definitely happening.
So but again, it's it is that confirmation of this is happening,
even though we all knew that that was definitely I feel like I'm talking in
a circle here, but it is circular, right, And we knew this
was going to happen here it is now now it's happened, and they did
it in the exact way we're expecting, So right, we kind of know
what like how this dance goes a little bit. I think when it comes
to Nintendo, we always look for pad. They don't always abide by those
patterns, but this one is I think dictated by a certain obligation to investors
that they don't normally ignore. So here we are, we're getting this.
What do you think this means about the timing though? Do you think that
they say this little tidbit here in this document that when they actually have the
call, what do you first of all, what do you think they're going
to say to investors. Do you think it's going to be anything in depth
or is it just going to be vagaries. I think at this point we
might actually get something in depth, because once again, you know, we're
already hearing talk about PlayStation sixes and Xbox infinities, whatever the heck Xbox is
going to call our next console. So I do think that we are in
an area wherein we need some more concrete discussions about when we are getting this
hardware. I maybe it feels like the time I'm for new hardware is holiday.
I feel like saying holiday twenty twenty four might be a bit ambitious,
But then again, they had a whole Lass Mario game last year that nobody
knew about. Yeah. True, you know, it's an interesting call with
Nintendo. Yeah, so, you know, we've had some conflicting reports and
they are all just reports and rumors at this point, but conflicting reports that
hey, maybe the switch could still come out this year. Most of the
reporting, most of the rumors say, now, the thing is is that
Nintendo's pushing it back internally. It's coming out sometime in twenty twenty five.
Yeah, there's obviously a question. And then do they still try to get
it out before March, which would be before the end of their fiscal year.
They probably would like that. But also, this is not a company
that is like looking around being like, God, we got to make sure
this fiscal year looks good or else we're boned. I think they have a
the investors have a pretty good idea of like, Intendo's going to release something.
If it's not this year, then it's next year. So if we
want to like see, you know, reap those rewards, let's stay on
and keep our investments in this company. So I don't think Nintendo would panic
necessarily unless they are ready, right, But I think that you know,
the chances are if they were trying to launch this thing this year originally and
the games were coming, and they're pushing back the system so the games are
ready and so they can get enough hardware made, I think that probably does
mean we get it early next year. I agree. And again, it's
like it just doesn't feel like in a year after they had a gigantically successful
Zelda title, that they would have something ready for launch, and they're going
to want to launch with big Nintendo IP titles. So I agree with you
that realistically next year yep. Also, apparently Fami boards, the Nintendo fan
board has just crashed. H oh no, that's where we're at. This
is this is what's happening right now? Is uh is this this kind of
news happens and the nerds freak out? Myself included, uh so, yeah,
I think, you know, I'm trying to remember how it went down
with the switch. I think, you know, it was very similar.
And then and then I think they what they did is if my member is
correct, and Chap, feel free to hop in here and correct me.
When they did have the actual earnings call with investors, I think they did
mention the code name like the uh you know, Project NX or whatever they
called it. It was NX, but like Project NX or something like that,
and they didn't really provide much beyond that. That's what I expect to
be happening at this call is they'll be like, hey, yes, we
are working on Project blank, and we will talk talk about more and more
of that later. Here's what you should know otherwise though, in terms of,
hey, what's this transition going to be, like, here's the vague
ideas. What we're trying to do to make sure it's as smooth as possible.
Intend to switch online will be completely excuse me, We'll continue completely uninterrupted,
so you can expect those revenues to continue unabated from those from those kinds
of things. I think they'll talk about the busy, this optic side,
and they will be very vague about any specifics for this device except for a
code name and then maybe some allusion to some big, you know, new
new feature that they put on the side of the box that may or may
not matter in the end. And you know with with Nintendo, for these
big consoles they have, they always have something, and when it's like the
Wei, it's like, oh, the most controls were central to that thing.
It was super important. And when it was like the New three DS,
it was here's an analog nub that no one's ever gonna use. You
should buy this thing for that, which I did, and you know,
but they always have something. Maybe they allude to that, but probably not.
So Okay, So we get through, we get through this call,
and then we we expect the thing sometime next year. Maybe do you think
that means we get like a video teaser of this thing this summer? I
mean yeah, I mean one would think that we would get some sort of
sample of I don't know what stuff is going to look like. It's so
interesting. Nintendo is so interesting because, as you point out, it's more
about feature innovation than it is about like keeping up graphically with what's going on
on PC, et cetera. So I don't know, maybe they tease a
Donkey Kong like we have it on a Donkey Kong in a while, you
know, So yeah, so we'll have news about that here in a little
bit. So yeah, yeah that maybe maybe Now I guess it's been so
long since that maybe they switched to something else. Either way, I think
this is like definitely going to kickstart a lot of we were already in Hey,
Nintendo switched to speculation mode. But there is a difference between like we
all expected to be happening and now Nintendo could be talking about at any moment.
There was there was no real chance, no real opportunity or likelihood that
Nintendo would have started talking about this thing before this moment, before they warn
their investors, Hey, we actually are now in that mode. Get ready
for it. This is like the starting gun. So now we are at
the point where it's like, okay, this thing probably is getting manufactured right
now, so leaks probably can be a little bit more trustworthy and probably come
a little bit more frequently. One of the reasons they're very likely talking about
this thing to investors because investors are going to start hearing about it. Nintendo's
like, here, just listen to us, we got some actual facts for
you. And then exactly and then you know, like they could drop a
video at any point this summer or later this year, whenever, but it's
like now it officially could happen, So it's it's worth getting excited about.
And I'm kind of I'm relieved because I think at a certain point, you
know, the switch. I am starting to feel nostalgic for that device,
where it's like I have kind of put it in the past a little bit
now at this point because I've just played all the games I wanted to play
on there, and I'm like, I'm ready for a new Nintendo device.
So it's exciting. Yeah yeah. I mean my cat's clearly excited about it
because he's in here and he's screaming about it. So we're we're ready Nintendo.
But I once again, it's like Nintendo has their their their uh pie
is in so many of its Yes, yeah, it's just like they Yeah,
they're there to be Nintendo and and be able to just kind of,
you know, really let stuff cook until it's perfect. Uh that's nice for
them, yep, really nice. Yeah, you know. And I'm gonna
bring this. Uh, let's just bring up this little thing on screen here
for everybody. Sure, let's see here. I got it right there.
There we go. Okay, now it's news assets and this is on the
Nintendo dot co dot JP investor relations page and again main dialogue topics the next
game console and business impact of a hardware transition. Now again, if this
is what they're saying here in this thing, it could be no more than
like that little thing there is a next game console, or even like they
just they like they just gesture at the idea that something will be happening,
and it doesn't have to be more than that either. So it's like,
you know, we're getting excited. We're starting to speculate in a big way.
It also, there's no guarantee that that's how it'll go down. It
could be very much like, yeah, of course there's going to be a
next generation, and that's the most they say about it. You although they
probably would still answer questions about like what does a transition look like? They
do say that, you know, a business impact of a hardware transition,
that's probably what they're most interested in talking to investors about. So yep,
we'll see how that goes down. All right, moving on here to the
hell of a story out of Arrowhead about Hell Divers too. Let's let's go
through this chronologically a little bit. So last week. Last week Hell Divers
two was hit with some some tough dudes for a lot of people, where
Arrowhead told told there's community that PlayStation was forcing them to add on PSN like
a PSN log in requirement for the game on PC. There was a huge
reaction to that, and that started with a bunch of negative review bombing on
Steam, to the point where the developers came out, We're like, holy
crap, this is nuts. We are talking to Sony. We'll see if
there's anything we can do. We're kind of basically they said, we're on
your side. So Hell Divers Do two devs apologize as it hits. As
it's hit with over one hundred thousand negative reviews. This is from Andy Robinson
at VGC. The developer of Hell Divers two, is apologized after fans barrage
the game's Steam page with negative negative reviews over news of a mandatory PlayStation account
requirement. On Friday, publisher Sony announced that from May thirtieth, the Steam
version of Hell Divers will require all players to sign in with a PlayStation network
account. This requirement was briefly present when Helldivers two launched, but it was
removed after the game's huge early success led to technical issues. Many PC players,
particularly those in countries where the service is not available, are clearly not
happy with the return of the PSN requirement, So this was like a weird
scenario, how Emma, because it was something that was required at one point,
they did mention it on their Steam page. It was something that you
could have expected to come back, and yet it has been months and it
wasn't there. The game clearly works. People are wondering, one, why
do I need this? And two, Hey, I'm in a country where
this is our PlayStation network is not available, so I can't even sign up
for it. So I'm going to lose access to this game that seems bananas
and that they're they're right, And so they just got slammed with negative reviews.
And I don't know if it was like really hurting the daily active users.
I was kind of paying attention to that a little bit. Seemed like
it might have been down a little bit weekend to weekend, like compared to
last weekend to this one. The number of players on Steam on the Steam
database like tracker, might have been down a little bit. But either way,
like clearly a massive backlash and this left them in a pretty tough space.
And you got to imagine, like at the studio, the are going
we told you, we told you, Sony, this was a bad idea,
but this is you know, Sony published this game, they probably got
to make that call. What do you think the conversations were like at that
point? And it's just wild. I mean, it's it's a clear misunderstanding
of online game play. You know. It's like if if your game is
available on Steam in regions wherein PSN is not available, then you are literally
cutting those players off. Uh. And so again it's like, I just
how did we even get there in the first you know what I mean,
like, if how can you add this requirement later? And as you mentioned
the fact that it was initially listed as it's something you were going to have
to do, but then it was functioning without doing that, and then coming
back around on it. It's just it was just a stupid move on Sony's
part. Yeah, and it's I think it's it's very easy to be like,
oh, that's nothing. People signed into a million games that that shouldn't
do much. But like seeing the headline, you know, and let's just
jump to the next one right now. Well that was too removed from Steam
in one hundred seventy seven countries. This is from Jonas Macki, a game
reactor. Everything was running smoothly for Hell Divers two, which set one record
after another for Sony on both PC and PlayStation. But for some reason,
Sony decided to shake things up and announced just before the weekend that a PSN
account would now be required to play on PC. The developer Arrowhead and Sony
said that it was a security issue, something that was widely panned by the
community. After all the security leagues that have hit Sony over the years,
and a use and you as a user road on the Steam forum and they
basically just document it, documented a timeline of all the times Sony has been
hacked over and over again, whether that was PlayStation Network or like the Sony
pictures hacks, whatever, it's like, don't come to us. This was
that was always a terrible thing to say, right because we know that that's
not really the motivation you're doing this, Because this was like, this is
already the seventh highest grossing PlayStation published game of all time, and you want
to have more control over how that's going to work and be able to funnel
more of that money towards you, And we get what's really happening here.
You want the data, and so just coming out and tell it and pping
on people and calling it like rain, it's just a bad move. And
then on top of that, it's a really a bad optics because Sony is
a company that is associated with getting hacked over and over again. Beside all
that one hundred and seventy seven countries. Really before I saw that, before
I realized just the extent of it, and it's like, you know,
you probably there probably is some like data. It's like, okay, well
you add up all those countries and the number of players there's don't even match
how many people are in playing America or something like that. I don't know
if that's the case, but even if that were the case, one hundred
and seventy seven countries, how can it possibly how could you possibly make this
move when it's like when it looks so bad like that? So they were
really getting panned at that point, right, Yeah. I mean it's just
such concrete data showing that you gave all these people access to this game,
and then because of the lack of availability of the PlayStation network, you are
negatively impacting one hundred and seventy seven like that is It's not like, oh,
it was five or six countries, it's almost two hundred, right,
So yeah, it just it looks real bodad and it's not even the kind
of thing where it's people are like the backlash was happening and people and I
think a lot of times you go like and the people go, oh,
well this country can't play anymore. It's like, well, you never have
even thought about that country before in your life. Now you're just kind of
getting mad on their behalf. So you could backlash against this company making a
choice and making you sign into something you don't want to sign into. At
a certain point, at about like a couple dozen countries, it flips over
to being like, now this is just what's right. It's just right that
you don't do this move that you block all these people who have been playing
the game and have purchased the game and have spent money on the game in
all these countries, they should have every right to keep playing. So it's
like I think there was like some talk about, yeah, about like maybe
not require PSN in those countries and things like that. Throughout this entire time,
the studio and the CEO were sort of out there kind of like,
hey, we are continuing to talk to Sony. We hear you, and
we are trying to represent your interest when we have these conversations. So again
it seems like Sony was pushing for all this, and it goes back to
what you were saying, this misunderstanding of an audience to such a detrimental degree.
And really, I like we ever, we haven't really seen a back
question this severe for a move like what would otherwise feel that like this small
in a long time. But it's like this is such a popular game and
people feel such an ownership over it that they really let Sony have it,
right sure, And ultimately it's the ownership thing that is the reasoning behind Sony
wanting people to have to link their PSN accounts. They want that data,
they want to be able to claim those users because you know, PlayStation's entire
thing is their like first party partnerships that they have and those have if you
take for example, like the Final Fantasy of it all, those have not
been doing well financially, and granted, ultimately that is something that's going to
affect Square more than it affects Sony, but they do have that first party
partnership. For example, when I when we because we did a partnership with
Square for Final Fantasy seven Rebirth which was super fun. Please watch it if
you haven't. But the big thing we were pushing was Sony not Square,
because again we were featuring squares game. So this puts Sony in a position
wherein they can basically claim all of those hell Divers users, and they can
do that more effectively by forcing people to have those PSN logins. But obviously
that's a huge oversight because PSN isn't even available in a ton of the places
where people are playing this game. Yeah, and that, like there's like
something to be said for that. Why isn't PSN available in those countries?
I don't give it. I mean signing up for an account for PSN?
Why can't you just have that set up? I might haven't. Why hasn't
it been set up to this point? And how hard can it possibly be
the get set up so that this wasn't a problem in the first place.
Do that before you make this move, and then there's less argument, less
of a position that the community can have. You'd be like, well,
you just sign in. Now we'll get to like that's still a bad idea,
and we'll get to that. And here in a second, let's get
to the big twist Sony revokes widely despised Hell Divers two PSN linking policy.
This is from Nicole Carpenter at Polygon. In the days since Sony Interactive Entertainment
announced an unpopular Hell Divers two and PlayStation linking policy, players have been flooding
the game Steam page with negative reviews. By Sunday, more than two hundred
thousand of hell Divers two's two hundred and sixty six and twenty six reviews on
Steam were negative filed in the aftermath of the disastrous announcement, But the review
bombing worked. Sony heard hell Divers two players and announced Monday that it's no
longer requiring Steam players to link a PlayStation network account. Hell Divers fans,
We've heard your feedback on the hell Divers two account linking situation, Sony wrote
from the PlayStation Twitter account. The May sixth update, which would have required
Steam and PlayStation network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May
thirtieth, will not be moving forward. Helldiver's two game director and Arrowhead Games
Studio CEO Johann Pilstatt added that he's impressed by the willpower of the hell Divers
two community. Over the weekend. Pilstatt, who is known for his transp
transparency on social media, has been updating players via Twitter that Sony was in
active conversation with Arrowhead over the policy, but they did that he didn't have
the final say. It's part of that tweet from Sony by the way,
they said, Hey, we're still figuring out this whole PC thing. We're
like, we're still figuring out this PC community thing. And I think that
is like, once again the lesson. Gamers are so loud, so vocal,
so savvy and so tapped in that you need to be very cautious about
how you approach them with something when you want them to change, when you
want to change their behavior, and we've learned it over and over again,
I think. But forcing them to do something is it can work, but
rarely is it done without consequences. And sometimes it doesn't work and it's this
bad and you have to change it by the end of the weekend, you
know, you said Friday, and by the other the week and you have
to change it. Yeah, and and ultimately the developer comes out of this
looking fine, oh yeah, you know, like it's Sony that looks like
it. It's here Tony hubers once again sort of like rearing its head in
a way where it's like people are like, what people, That's what people
are saying out there. People are saying on the street, what's going on
over its Sony? Well, you know they raising the price of PSN and
and and you know, adding all these tears that are confusing, and like
what was all those moves and all these stories about indie game developers not like
using the indie game portal on PlayStation and uh and then closing down Japan studios
and like there's like a series of things where you know, all these companies
have problems. Sony's at the highest profile, so when they make a mistake,
it's very very noticeable. But I think as people saying like what do
they do? They have their finger on the pulse. I think this was
one where I think their eyes, there's eyes just got as big as saucers.
They looked at the plate, saw the money and saw the data,
and we're like, no, we are getting in on that. Now.
You can force put people, You can force people to change their behavior by
forcing them and requiring them to sign in online. Bad idea. Someone chat
pointing out the obvious answer is you just give people a bonus when they sign
into place they should network, and they will that you lead them, you
don't push them. It's that simple. Yeah, we are all buying that,
we're not all buying. I have a Digital X or a Digital PS
five and an Xbox Series S. And when they release new consoles, if
they don't have a disk drive, I am going to buy them. At
this point because they slowly shifted me to all digital despite the beginning of the
Xbox one generation. Everyone freaking out about them trying to make us go all
digital because they tried to force us at that point and I was among the
people complaining. And now they've like led me to this place where it's more
convenient and I'm happy with it. And now I've made the choice myself and
they won in the end. That's the way you do it. Yeah,
well again you They basically came out on hell divers and said, oh uh,
you need to log into your PSN account. Why, oh, just
because. But as you say, if you give them a nice reason to
do it, your winship says, jingle, nice set of keys above me.
That's all as It's all I need. It's hard, very simple.
Yeah. In the end, I think that this will be studied. This
is a moment in gaming where it's like boy, wow, that got out
of hand fast, and it's a reminder of like why gaming is such a
powerful marketplace because you don't get this kind of reaction from like an unhealthy place
where people are sort of like not spending much time or thinking about it or
not spending their money. The people who are in gaming are paying a lot
of attention, and that means they're probably spending a lot of extra money and
that's why they feel I'm so invested in feel that ownership over it, and
there's power there that is that's the kind of fuel that can power these massive
corporations that want to make these massive games. You could do that and you
could succeed because of the passion of these of this community. But then that
passion can get turned against you if you get a little bit greedy, if
you reach a little bit too far. And I think you know, it
keeps these companies in check and I'm always like appreciative of that, like,
hey, yes, well done. The community spoke up and they were able
to get the community or get the big corporation to back down, and hey,
at the end of the day, this is the best case scenario that
it goes back to be in the way it was because that worked just fine.
And if they want now, if they want to try to do something
again, they will have to incentivize. And then if they give me a
couple bucks in premium currency, I will sign in and with my ps and
account. No problem, yes, yes, no problem, Yes, give
me a good reason other than you just have to. The kappa of this
story is hell Divers two. Devs are considering turning the games review bombing graph
into a cape from Kyle Knight at Dual Shockers. Arrowhead CEO John Pilstett has
said that the studio is considering making Hell Divers twos or hell Divers twos Negatives
or negative review Graph into an end game cape, thus immortalizing the great Steam
in PSN account linking fiasco forever. Earlier today, PlayStation announced they would be
reversing the decision to force PC players to link their Steam in PSN accounts in
order to play Hell Divers two. The announcement came from Arrowhead's hit live service
game win. The hit game was barraged with negative reviews over the weekend,
basically they made that change, but they showed out like a mock up of
this cape, which you know, if you don't know, players and hell
Divers two can wear cosmetics including a helmet and armor and a cape, and
the cape just had the red the gigantic red lines that the show up on
a Steam review page when it's like, okay, here's the green graph going
up, and if you look at the bonopart, here's the negative ones,
and the last several days it was just these massive red lines all going down
until Monday, where it's like, here's just a few gative reviews, and
you could just it was actually a pretty cool design, and apparently they're going
to put it in the game, and I think that's a that's a great
idea. Yeah. I think that the other side of this is you can
sort of ride the bucking bowl of a scenario like this as a CEO of
one of these companies, if you actually are representing the gamers' interests, if
you if your community is your number one concern the way it seemed like it
was for Pilstet throughout this entire scenario, you can kind of tweet through it.
You can be out there like talking it out and then at the end
coming out looking like a kind of like a slick superhero and being like,
wasn't that Like, wasn't that rowdy? Wasn't that fun? Let's go immoralize
that as an item of the game and get back to the game. It's
inspiring a little bit. I don't know, I totally agree with you.
Yeah. Again, look the way that the people got in there to make
their voices heard, and yeah, unfortunately it had to come through review bombing,
but you know what it got people's attention. Uh, it got Sony
to retract their dumb policy, and ultimately, as you say, the devs
come out looking good and they're able to embrace this as something that ultimately it's
kind of funny. Yep. Yeah, you know, like it's the kind
of thing where yeah, did they Uh, it's going to be something they
look back at and laugh at. You're right, that's that's very cool and
yeah, you know, and Sony, what they're going to learn from this
is probably either you have to be Ticketmaster or you have to be I beloved.
Like Ticketmaster exists so that they can charge all these extra fees and everyone
hates everyone hates them instead of the bands. You know, it's like,
yes, they we're going to go to this concert, like, oh fuck
tick Master. How much they're charging the extra and so that turns out a
lot of money. It kind of still finds its way to all these other
entities that they're involved, but you don't think of them. You get mad
at Ticketmaster, and Sony clearly doesn't want to be like Ticketmaster. They want
they need that positive a feeling towards them still, so it's like, well,
then you can't mess around. You need to understand what you're doing before
you do it. Speaking up Ticketmaster, don't forget to get tickets too,
That's right. Giant Bomb Live in Los Angeles Sunday, the ninth of June.
Yeah, definitely pick up those tickets as immediately. Looking forward to it
everybody. I think we'll have some announcements about some big guests this week.
I was able to lock some folks down. Yeah, we're gonna align on
that. I was told me, I need to align on everything, and
then once we do, I'll tell everybody what's going on. All right,
let's take a quick break. When we get back. We got some more
stories, including one more about linking your PSN account at this time, it's
good news. And then what's going on with Vicarious Visions and Donkey Kong?
Right after this? All right, we are back and ask promised one more
PSN account linking story, this time for Ghost of Sushima on PC. It
is not going to require that account linking on Steam. This is from Marcus
Hrsila at game Reactor. Last weekend was wild for hell Divers two. Sony
decided that starting today May six it would have been mandatory for players to link
Steam in PlayStation Network accounts in order to play Arrowhead Game Studios hell Divers two.
For current players, this demand would have started on May thirtieth. People
online went berserk, and in the end, the mandatory link between Steam and
PlayStation Network for hell Divers two was will not move forward. Game Reactor recently
reported about this extensively. So if this was the intention of parrel Divers two
on Steam, how about Ghost of Sushima. Sucker Punches, a Samurai action
game, is coming to PC on May sixteenth, twenty twenty four, but
it does not require linking your Steam account to your PSN account in order to
play, and that's just for the single player to be clear, the single
player will not require that in any way. Now it's the main part of
the game. There is that Legends cooperative online mode, however, and that
is going to require a ps account, So I guess, I mean,
you know, I guess as long as they're doing it from the beginning,
they're probably going to be able to get away with it a little bit easier
there. Yeah, But also there is this massive single player portion that most
people are going to come to the game for, so they probably won't even
think about log and then like signing into their PSN account until they maybe try
Legends eventually. So I think this is not going to be a similar scenario
at all, right, absolutely not. Yeah, it's a This Ghost of
Sushima is a perfect example of what PlayStation does, which is the single player
epic story experience, and that's what this game primarily is. So again,
you are coming to this game to experience the story on your own, not
to participate in some kind of online gameplay. So yeah, okay, cool,
some people will play this online, and if you have to link your
PlayStation account from the beginning, and they don't have all kinds of login issues
forcing people to forcing them to basically resind that at launch then yeah, I
mean this is I this is not going to be another Hell Divers scenario.
Yep. And it's uh. And it's very clear at this point because they
have had it's like so visible. Yeah, for sure. And I think
at the end of the day, signing a PSM is never going to be
an issue for me personally. It wasn't an issue for me when this hel
when the Hell Diver's two story broke, I'm like, yeah, I just
cannot personally care about it because that's something I do for all these different games.
I don't even think about it anymore. It is like a one button
thing because I have signed into so many of these outside accounts previously, and
that stuff is saved through Steam, so I just hit one button. It's
like, yeah, you're logged in. So I just I just couldn't care.
It was like when I saw that was one hundred and seventy seven countries,
that's what it clipped over, Like that seems fucking insane, what are
we doing here? Then you get the Ghost of Sushima and they're like,
yeah, you'll be able to play most of what you want to play there
without any account linking and then this online feature that was always a bonus for
this game plays require it whatever I'm back to kind of like, okay,
fair enough, I mean, what does that mean for those that one hundred
and seventy seven countries for the Legends online multiplayer mode in Ghost of the Sushima,
Well, now they know, don't buy it for that because they're well
aware. But also hopefully Sony just launches PSN in those countries so people could
just lug in and play that if they want. Yeah, all right.
Vicarious Visions was making a three D Donkey Kong platformer game. This is her
mid Nintendo news. The name Donkey Kong Freedom may not ring a bell to
Nintendo fans, but that is because this was the code name for a three
D platformer Donkey Kong game that unfortunately got scrapped years ago. In fact,
the only reason we even know about the game is due to a report by
dk Vine, as well as further findings uncovered by a new did You Know
Gaming video. The game was being developed by Vicarious Visions, which has since
been renamed to Blizzard Albany. Because there's no justice in the world for the
Nintendo Switch, it was going to take a place on a large open island,
and its gameplay would emphasize the kinetic energy of the Donkey Kong country games.
But in three D Donkey Kong would slide down vine and ropes on his
feet. Kong would have would also have had banana appeals as makeshift shoes.
This was in response to feedback from Mia Moto, who was concerned about Donkey
Kong getting rope burns on his feet, because of course he is. Meanwhile,
Donkey Kong himself would have had his own original look with bigger arms and
smaller legs. The game story would have evolved around around a factory opened on
Donkey Kong Island, basically damming the river and causing problems with their bananas.
As you can imagine, that would have upset the conks. Apparently this got
shut down because Activision lost interest or something like that. You know, this
was years and years ago, and see if the Activisions, like you know,
working with Nintendo on one of their games. Sure that might be okay,
but you know what's better, you should be working on more Call of
Duty games. Maybe we'll let you do this Tony Hawk thing, but definitely
get back to work on Call of Duty. You know now Vicario Stations didn't
end up going to work on call of duty. They got subsumed into Blizzard
instead and basically made Diablo for like they were like very key to that process.
Yeah, and I get I get that Diablo is very important to Activision
and Blizzard. I said, man, I really wish we would have got
this. I like Vicarious divisional bummer. Yeah, and I you know,
I think that Donkey Kong works well as a three D platformer. The story
about the Donkey Kong needs to put bananas on his feet so he doesn't get
rope and is adorable. Also, yeah, I love that, and I
like, you know, this is a this is a good uh negative effects
of industrialization on the environment story, which with me. Yeah, So I
don't know, Donkey Kong deserves a good game and it sounds like there was
a lot of potential here. So this is a huge bummer. I'm happy
that this team had a lot of success with Diabolo for because again, that
is a huge, huge, definitely part of the act to Blizz model and
back it was good. So I think this game probably would have been good.
I don't know, yep, I was you know, there has always
been rumors for the last couple of years that there was a Donkey Kong game
in the works that probably wasn't this because this seems like this was scrapped a
long time ago, but the Nintendo definitely seems interested in doing something with Donkey
Kong. I think this would have been a fantastic fit. And really what
it bums me out is at this point, Okay, so Vicarious Visions is
now just Blizzard, and it is probably supporting Diablo and maybe going to work
on some other stuff, but it's going to be Blizzard stuff for sure.
I don't think that team gets extracted back out to like become Vicarious Visions ever
again. But you know the reason that bums me honest, like, man,
now Microsoft owns the Vicarious Visions and Activision, and they could have had
a Vicarious Visions that was making more Tony Hawk gams, which we'll talk about
in a second, and then working on some of these three D platformers for
a lot of the franchises that Microsoft owns, you know, Crash and Spiro
and Bancho Kazuoi and all that stuff would have been exumping. Like now that
team can't even work on that stuff, and Toyster Bob is external that they
were working on something as well. I like three D platformers a ton and
it's like, man, just a couple more of those every generation at this
point, not even every now, every generation. I would really appreciate that.
I'm just thinking about. I feel like one of the best three D
platformers in recent years is Astro's Play, you know what I mean. Like,
there's just like there's so much potential for the three D platformer to have
a big comeback, and Donkey Kong feels like such a good fit for it.
So this is yeah, it's it's sad. It's a bummer, even
more sad. Activision rejected to pro Skaters four story in favor of supplementary call
of duty work. It is claimed this is from Jordan Miller at VGC.
Activision reportedly rejected a pitch for Tony Hawk's three plus four, referring Vicarious Vision
to work as a preferring excuse me, Vicarious Visions to work as a call
of duty support studio. In a new video from Video Gamer Store and Liam
Robertson, it's claimed that, following the huge success of the first remake,
a pitch for a second remake collection was created. Initially, the first remake,
Tonyaks pro Skater one plus two, was planned to include three plus four
as well as the first game. Instead, we settled on adding some handling
features from the later games to reflect the way people remember the old Tonyaks pro
Skater games. The improvements from three seemed to bleed into people's memories of the
first two, claimed one Vicarious Vision source to Robertson. Eventually it became clear
that we didn't have time for more than one plus two, so the idea
that we'd continue on and release a three plus four in some fashion was on
the table. A pitch for Tonyak's three plus four was presented to Activision following
the commercial and critical success of the first remake. It's claimed, however,
this was declined, and let's just put that in perspective. The commercial and
critical critical success, it was critically lauded one of the better reviewed games of
that year. It is also the best sound Tony Hawk game ever made,
a franchise that has always sold very well. This is infuriating. Yeah,
chat is really popping off, So shout out to them saying we've got no
choice now but to put Cranky Kong and Tony Hawk in Call of Duty.
Let's go. That's clearly yeah, that's clearly Lee, that's the that's the
only way we get them. So or at least at least in Call of
Duty. Give us some good uh, like Tony Hawk's skate jams, like
the Tony Hawk's soundtracks. We're working. Yeah, you know, yeah,
and that's all. The music isn't good until it's in the Tony Hawk game.
It's been my opinion for a very long time. Uh yeah it you
know, Okay, I've heard rumors and this is unsubstantiated that the tonyok something
could still happen. Uh, But at this point, it's like, who
would make it? Because I don't I don't think Blizzard. All the knee
slash kery decisions is going to be taken away off the Blizzard stuff to work
on it. So, you know, do they go back to that?
Who did tonyaks pro Skater five and Tony I don't remember the name of the
motor Robo or something like that. It's going to go back to that because
that's not great. You know. Note maybe that studio has improved their ability
to make Call of Duty, but like The point is is like we wanted
three plus four from Vicarious Visions. Yeah, and them just like farting now
to three plus four h as a name, but it doesn't have the same
spirit and energy and high quality behind it. That would be very troublesome.
And concerning Vicarious Visions has always been involved with with Tony Hawk. They you
know, they weren't the original developers, but they were the original port studio
and they made great versions of it on Game Boy Advance. And so when
they came back and took over Tony Oaks Pro Skater one plus two and made
it feel like Tony Hawk again, it was very It wasn't surprising because they
were like, we can make this game feel like Tony Hawk on a game
Boy Advance, but let you know, be able to make this work in
the future. So it's like just having some studio come in and make a
Tony Hawk game. I don't know what that looks like. Again, that's
unsubstantiated and probably a long ways off. So I was trying to think the
last game that I skateboarded in, and it was that game Anna Purna published
called Thirsty Suitors. There was a skateboarding portion of that game. Yeah,
And so I'm like, maybe there was skateboarding and there was like insult battling.
So I don't know, maybe that's maybe that's where we need to go.
Maybe that's where we need to go. Last game I skateboarded in was
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater one plus two. Yesterday. Yesterday, I was playing
that game. I was I finished, What did I finished? I was
playing a game and I finished it, and then I was like, ah,
I should play something else, and I couldn't decide, So I do
what I always do in that situation and play Tony Hawk. Yeah. Research
firm reveals the top grossing PC and console games of Q one four. This
is from Tom Ivan at VGC Research firm. Firm New Zoo has revealed what
it's what it's claimed were the top grossing console and PC games in the first
quarter of twenty twenty four. Its data covers premium and in game spending across
the United States and last year's five biggest European game markets, the UK,
Germany, France, Spain, and Italy. Fortnite led the way across all
tracked markets, accounting for over ten percent of total revenue in the first three
months of the year. According to new Zoo, that's for all games apparently,
which is just nuts. EA Sports FC twenty four was Europe's highest grossing
title. It came in at number two. Yeah Yeah, Europe's highest grossing
title. It came in number two worldwide, generating eight point three percent of
total revenue. Other top ranking games include Helldivers two at number three, Call
of Duty HQ, which is all the Call of Duty games at number four,
and NBA two K twenty four at number five. Madden NFL twenty four
came in at number six, followed by Dragons Dogma two, Pow World Invalorant.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow six Siege, which ranked at number ten, accounted for
one point six percent of the total revenue. Fortnite was the leading console game
by cumulative revenue in the first quarter of the year, while Held Divers two
was the top PC game, ahead of Power World. According to new Zoo,
the global games market generated and estimated one hundred and eighty four billion dollars
in twenty twenty three, representing eight point six percent increase over twenty twenty two,
which itself was down five percent year on year. It expects the game
market to generate revenues at one hundred and eighty nine point three billion in twenty
twenty four, and for the figure to grow to two hundred and five point
seven billion in twenty twenty six, So they're still expecting quite a bit of
growth over the next couple of years, more next year than this year though
this you know, once again, Emma is the recognizable names, mostly at
the top. But it is interesting to see Power World and Hell Divers be
able to like crack their way in there a little bit, right. That's
like spending on the games to purchase those games, which is a big push
for those games, but then also end game you know, purchasing especially for
Hell Divers too, which seems to be doing just well with that stuff.
Do you think that that stagnation is holding back game and do you think that
it's stagnate or do you think, well, you know, you can't do
anything about four Night, but maybe it's still worth getting into that top five,
sixth, seventh slot and that you'll make plenty of money that way.
Yeah. I gosh, it is so funny though when I read these things
and I go, am I a gamer? Like, I don't I don't
play any of these pan that's just not my jam at all. Yeah.
I think more of what it is is that it's like I would I would
prefer people to branch out in what they're playing, you know. Yeah,
I think that's I look at this and I and that's why it makes me
happy to see things like hell Divers in Power World making a dent. Yep.
Yeah, it's and it's uh, it's kind of thing where those games
both have upfront costs. A lot of these other games are are free to
play portions, and it's say, Okay, some people are still buying games
when they come out to play, but that's the reason why they keep going
with these free to play games. No risk, Yeah, just play that.
Yeah yeah yeah, all right, last story here. Madori, who's
a leaker of a lot of Sega and Atlas stuff, says Sonic Rumble will
be officially announced soon. This is where my Nintendo News proven. Sega Atlas
leaker Midori has stated on social media platforms platform Twitter that the Sonic themed Fall
Guys inspired party game Sonic Rumble for iOS and Android will be officially unveiled soon.
Footage of Sonic Rumble, previously called Sonic Toys Party leaked a month ago
and looks as you would expect from Sonic Party title and includes a number of
returning classic characters. Sega has yet to confirm the existence of Sonic Rumble,
but Madori says that that will soon change. I wonder where that would show
up, Like I'm legit wondering where that would show up. It's like it's
a mobile game, so I don't know. I guess that's kind of thing
where maybe it could pop up at like summer game fests though even if it's
a mobile totally yeah. I mean they did definitely show off some mobile titles
at Summer Games Fust last year. I got to play like the final Fantasy
seven mobile ever crisis, right, gotcha? Yeah? Never crisis. Yeah.
Look, I think mobile gaming is very legitimate to me. Maybe other
people are more mobile gamers than I am and can totally disagree with this statement.
But the thing about Fall, guys is it's goofy ass platforming, and
I feel like I need a controller in my hand for that. So I
just, you know, like I just am like why I understand from an
accessibility standpoint why this is a mobile game, but isn't platforming on a mobile
device really frustrating? Not for kids, apparently. I guess you're right.
I guess you're right. Yeah, but I'm with I mean, I wish
they would just have it ready for everything. Sure, it could be on
mobile, but at least Switch. At least I have it ready for Switch
as well. I gotta say, like, like, I really like the
idea of a Sonic Fall Guys party game. That sounds great to me.
I don't care. I've played an I played a ton of Fall Guys.
I'm more excited about this than I would be for like a Sonic Superstars two
platformer. No, yeah, give me, give me the party game,
because you know, if that's silly and weird and has like if like plays
oddly, that could be part of the fun, right, and so but
we'll see. I'm like not really get my hopes up too high, because
I think if they really believed in this game, it wouldn't just be a
mobile game, it would be on console as well. And it's like,
you know they have like, oh, well, there's an endless ceiling how
much money they can make from one of these mobile games. It's like,
I think they've done this dance enough times to know that no Sonic mobile game
is going to be like Pokemon Go. They put tons of those. They
make some money. I'm sure they do fine, but they aren't making a
billion dollars a year like Monopoly Go or whatever it is. You know,
they're probably making somewhere between a couple of million to tens of millions of dollars
a year, and that's that's great. Maybe more than that, I could
be wrong, but not not a billion dollars per year. So it's like,
okay, then, just you can make a version for consoles as well.
Like I really, I am very excited about this Star Wars Hunters.
It's very excited. Maybe overstating it. I'm somewhat excited about the Star Wars
Hunters game from Zinga that's a online shooter because it's coming out on mobile and
Switch on the same day, and I love that all played on Switch.
That's great. Download it for free. Yeah, that sounds fantastic. I
wish that was happening with this as well, but as I probably would want,
like maybe a two attach a controller to a phone, but I'm not
actually gonna do no, no, there's an extra step involved in that that
wouldn't be involved if I could just play it on Switch, which is the
place, I mean, Switches, the home of Mario the you know,
the gold standard for platforming. So why don't we just also put I think,
for me, as a Sega Genesis kid and as somebody who spent many
many hours playing Sonic Adventure Sonic Adventure two on the Dreamcast, I just think
that Sonic deserves better than a mobile game. And again, nothing wrong with
mobile games, I just don't think that's where Sonic is meant to be.
Yep. Yeah, and I like Sonic Dash and all those things. I
see them, I'm like Macmatt Noise. Mostly I'm like, eah, not
for me, but we'll see. There probably could be like a Sonic event
here coming soon. I wouldn't be surprised if they have one of those for
the summer. They tend to have those every once in a while and then
announce a bunch of stuff, including like TV shows and merchandise. I think
there was one year where they had one and they had the Sonic bling like
the like the diamond crusted like Sonic like necklaces. So yeah, maybe we'll
get more of those. I don't know the ice. That's right, Yes,
yes, all right, that does it for the news. I got
a pull question. I'll get that set up right now. Actually, here
it is. Let's do this. I asked for your help selecting which shirt
you would want to get from the seven eleven Tetris event, and you all
went with option three, the one that says Tetris, Tetris, Tetris,
Tetris, Tetris, Tetris Speedway, the gas station chain, which hey,
I did get this, so don't worry. It's on its way. I
think that's right. Did you see these things that's seven eleven's like selling.
And then they have a bunch of shirts that have seven eleven. Get these
at a seven eleven to be able to get some of them. Yes,
they have it on the seven eleven has their online store for apparel. Of
course. Well I'm gonna go on hunt for Tetris t shirts at seven eleven.
Yeah, I have a speedway near me and I haven't seen the speedway
shirt, but I'll try. I'll check out some more seven eleven see if
I can find it. But either way, they're selling a handheld that plays
Tetris. It looks like a Slurpy cup and a bunch of these shirts,
and so I got a bunch of the shirts. Oh the other options was
thirty percent for the one that has the seven eleven logo going down a tetris
well, and then twenty two percent said the one that I think is like
the tech one, which is why I think I like it a lot as
well. No, that's why I want that one. Yes, it's like
exactly what you want from something like that. All the tetris piece is flying
at the screen says seven eleven at the top of tetras underneath that, and
then I'm a slurpy a pizza of slice of hot dog. I got big
Gulf so stupid. Really, I really really love that shirt, and I'm
getting that one too, so it doesn't matter. There we go. All
right. That was the poll question. Thank you everybody for your responses.
One point four thousand people voting my apparel selection. I appreciate that. I
got a new pole question coming up in a second. Before we get to
that, though, Emma, why don't you tell people where they can find
you on the internet what you have going on? All that good stuff?
Oh yes, well I'm at Emma Fife everywhere the m fifes are sold,
and there's three total fs in my last name. That's f y f f
E. It's an unusual smelling of Fife, but it is the way we
smell my name. And also right now, if you are you know,
just half than to be browsing any of the wikis over on fandom, you
might see me in a video talking about wikisats because I like that stuff and
I'm very nerdy about it. Uh yeah, so I'm doing that. I'm
doing this show most mondays. Uh yeah, just freaking out out in the
world doing doing stuff. And I don't really like to use social media very
much. So just, uh, you know, catch me in the Giant
Bomb discord and come see our live show on the ninth of June. Uh,
come see it for nothing else other than the stupendous amount of work that
Emma has done on it, the absolutely astonishing amount of work. So you
can she can have some of the fruits for labor shown off there that way,
we would appreciate that. Uh. Those tickets again are on sale now.
You can find out the details by going to give bomb dot com.
We got them all up there, all right, new pole question. Let's
see, I was gonna say Yeah. Are you interested in Sonic Rumble,
which is the mobile fall Guys clone? Yes or no? I'm just curious.
Talk about it on a game of Mornings on Giant Bomb on Wednesday.
Speaking to Giant Bomb Tomorrow's the BombCast. We'll have a lot to talk about
there. Let's see that later this week, I will be getting back into
Dike Katana Daika greba excuse me? Or did I say did I say the
one that Dan likes? Never mind, I'll go with yeah, Dakah graba
uh uh. And then we'll have you, you know, normal stuff upf
a voicemail dump truck. I think it's a BCR week look out for all
the normal stuff. I'll probably play more fall Out New Vegas. Been really
enjoying that people seem to be enjoying watching me play it, even though I'm
I'm killing all their favorite characters. It's going really bad for all their favorites.
Look, honestly, it's it's the favorite characters problem for doing you wrong
now, Like couldn't take a joke, and really I didn't even care.
He fell down. He felt sometimes people will die and they fall through a
floor and never to be seen again. He fell through some dinosaur teeth.
It's we felt down after I shot him whatever. He fell down though.
It's nice. That's that's what matters, all right. Uh See, I
think that's I think that's gonna do it. Emma, thank you so much
for spinning today talk with me about video games. I really appreciate it.
Thanks for having me, Thank you all for watching. You are the best
audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care
of yourself and goodbye and check out Blessings Playing