Nintendo Releases a Pikmin Animated Short

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Gay Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're going to be talking
<v Speaker 1>about video game sales results in the United States and
<v Speaker 1>one hundred dollars skin packs and two x ko It's
<v Speaker 1>going to be a good one because we have Matt
<v Speaker 1>Piscatella on the show. Matt, how are you doing well?
<v Speaker 2>Hello, Jeff Grub, Hello everyone, and chat. It's great to
<v Speaker 2>hang out again. This is really fun. Thanks for the invite.
<v Speaker 1>Oh absolutely, anytime. I love to get you on the show.
<v Speaker 1>Love to get you on the show, especially on a
<v Speaker 1>day like this when you drop a bunch of info
<v Speaker 1>for us to discuss. A lot to dig into there.
<v Speaker 1>We will definitely get to it. But how are you
<v Speaker 1>doing otherwise? And last time we had you on, I
<v Speaker 1>was talking about like, how are you keeping up with games?
<v Speaker 1>I'm certainly struggling. We decided to have Golf Week in
<v Speaker 1>the middle of the busiest release year of the release
<v Speaker 1>season of the year, so it's like, yeah, why not
<v Speaker 1>fall even further behind. Although I'm sneaking in some final
<v Speaker 1>fantasy tactics here and there, I'm still playing some hades too,
<v Speaker 1>But how about you, what are you plan?
<v Speaker 3>Well?
<v Speaker 2>I wrapped up Mafia the Old Country, and as a
<v Speaker 2>person of Sicilian descent, boy o boy that I love
<v Speaker 2>that game. Actually some of the best story in the
<v Speaker 2>game I've seen in years, and you know, it did
<v Speaker 2>pretty well on the sales charts, but I think that's
<v Speaker 2>sleeping on that game. Like that's a really interesting kind
<v Speaker 2>of old school story, single player narrative game that people
<v Speaker 2>say they want go go check it out. And after
<v Speaker 2>I wrapped that up, I started Soapa Yesterday, which is
<v Speaker 2>a really cute pixarish adventure game that just came out
<v Speaker 2>set and I think Central America. The story about this
<v Speaker 2>kid helping his grandmother make soup, and man, I'm kind
<v Speaker 2>of enjoying that really cool kind of just you know,
<v Speaker 2>good good vibes kind of game, because man, good vibes.
<v Speaker 2>I'll take all that guard to come by.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, that was what was the name of game, Soapi
<v Speaker 1>Sopa like Sopa, Oh okay.
<v Speaker 3>It's really uh, it's really cute.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, it's just you know, a lot of
<v Speaker 2>fun music and the characters kind of dance to the
<v Speaker 2>music as they're going.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, man, it just sounds wholesome and nutritious.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, no, check it out.
<v Speaker 3>I'll take it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I uh, I get out. I played the
<v Speaker 1>first couple hours of that Mafia game and was really
<v Speaker 1>into it, to the surprise I think of a lot
<v Speaker 1>of the audience because they know my dangere like, oh story,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I just want to have the fun gameplay.
<v Speaker 1>But that's usually not the problem. The problem is when
<v Speaker 1>a game gives me a bunch of options and then
<v Speaker 1>gets in the way of me doing what I want.
<v Speaker 1>This game is like, no, we're telling a story. This
<v Speaker 1>is not an open world game. You should know that.
<v Speaker 1>Like it's like it's right in your face about all
<v Speaker 1>that stuff. So it's delivering these vignettes and these scenes,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, you know, for that. It reminded gu
<v Speaker 1>I've said it before. It reminded me a lot of
<v Speaker 1>the order eighteen eighty six a game I think is
<v Speaker 1>pretty good, and this one is like maybe an even
<v Speaker 1>better expression of that idea of like here, let's just
<v Speaker 1>do some pretty visuals, some cool characters. Really and yeah,
<v Speaker 1>just put a lot of detail into each scene. So
<v Speaker 1>I should go back and finish that game. It wasn't
<v Speaker 1>it wasn't too long, right, It's like an eight hour
<v Speaker 1>gameish a little bit longer.
<v Speaker 2>I think I took about twelve, but I took my time.
<v Speaker 2>I looked at everything because it's beautiful and yeah, man,
<v Speaker 2>like it's an old school like here's a Mafia movie
<v Speaker 2>that you're playing through, and it was fantastic. I loved
<v Speaker 2>the story beats, I love the end how that you know,
<v Speaker 2>no spoilers, but you know, things happen. I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>I just really enjoyed it.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 2>It helps that I'm you know, Sicilian and all, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, oh, the Home Country, I gotta go
<v Speaker 2>check it out. But you know, yeah, well just well
<v Speaker 2>worth the time in my opinion, but well, you know
<v Speaker 2>it else.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I might have said this before as well, but that
<v Speaker 1>game just feels like the right move for a studio
<v Speaker 1>that had been working on something else that got canceled.
<v Speaker 1>They had to shift gears relatively quickly. They kind of
<v Speaker 1>went to ground to make a go make another sequel
<v Speaker 1>in the franchise that they had done before. And it's like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, but it doesn't seem like you're gonna have
<v Speaker 1>as much money or as much time so how do
<v Speaker 1>you cut back? I think they may all the right
<v Speaker 1>choices personally for a game like that great.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I just really like the writing and the characters,
<v Speaker 2>and you could tell they were like they had to
<v Speaker 2>cut some not necessarily cut corners, but they had to
<v Speaker 2>streamline some things. And yeah, of course you can't go
<v Speaker 2>everywhere you want to go, and you know there's some limitations,
<v Speaker 2>but just in terms of the story and where it
<v Speaker 2>takes you. Man, I really enjoyed that game.
<v Speaker 1>Let's explain what we do here. We're Giant Bomb Video
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<v Speaker 1>timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a
<v Speaker 1>lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess
<v Speaker 1>with the aforementioned Sircana report here from Matt for August
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five US video game market highlights let's kind
<v Speaker 1>of just start here at the top with some of
<v Speaker 1>these details. NBA two K, twenty six Mobile and Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switch to drove eleven percent spending growth in August when
<v Speaker 1>compared to a year ago, helping lift total projected spending
<v Speaker 1>across video game hardware, content and accessories to four point
<v Speaker 1>seven billion MATT. Like, on its face, that's like the
<v Speaker 1>numbers are up. That that that's good. You kind of
<v Speaker 1>you write this this intro the same way each time,
<v Speaker 1>so I think people can be like, Okay, yeah, compared
<v Speaker 1>from this month to that month, that's easy. But of
<v Speaker 1>course there's so much underlying currents and other forces that
<v Speaker 1>we should take into consideration. What would you add there
<v Speaker 1>in terms of color.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think the most important part when it comes
<v Speaker 2>to the August month is that NBA two K is
<v Speaker 2>traditionally a September release. It's one of the biggest releases
<v Speaker 2>of the year every single year. This year it happened
<v Speaker 2>to fall in the August. Tracking months, we do have
<v Speaker 2>a situation where we're pulling forward a lot of dollars
<v Speaker 2>that would traditionally meant it's September into the August month,
<v Speaker 2>so that that helps a lot Without eleven percent growth.
<v Speaker 2>Now we do have some very positive science. The Nintendo
<v Speaker 2>Switch tows launch. We'll get into it more. Yeah, continues
<v Speaker 2>to be very strong, continues to be trending as the
<v Speaker 2>best selling video game console hardware of all time in
<v Speaker 2>the US or the fastest selling I'll put it that way.
<v Speaker 2>And mobile, which you know had been lagging for a
<v Speaker 2>couple of years there is now back to a single
<v Speaker 2>digit percentage growth rate from our friends over at Censor Tower,
<v Speaker 2>who we partner with on the mobile side. Now, like
<v Speaker 2>you said, there's all kinds of stuff under the surface there,
<v Speaker 2>but you know, on the top beats for this month
<v Speaker 2>in particular, that's that NBA Move and Nintendo Switch to
<v Speaker 2>really helping offset the you know, double digit declinents we're
<v Speaker 2>seeing on things like PlayStation five, Xbox series and the
<v Speaker 2>OG Switch, you know.
<v Speaker 1>And it's NBA two K obviously carrying the load here.
<v Speaker 1>But there were quite a few new games in the
<v Speaker 1>month of Madden as well as Madden a late month,
<v Speaker 1>late late launch in the month, is that right? I
<v Speaker 1>can't remember, was that middle one?
<v Speaker 4>You know?
<v Speaker 2>With the various bundles that were involved too, It's kind
<v Speaker 2>of hard like that's good point. They were selling a
<v Speaker 2>lot of the MVP bundle last month with.
<v Speaker 1>That's number eight. Yeah, it was number two last month. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I see that. Okay, yeah, Ea, Sports Kickoff Bundle. What
<v Speaker 1>is that?
<v Speaker 2>That's the not MVP, that's the okay, that's the combination
<v Speaker 2>of the of the normal base skews of.
<v Speaker 1>College not advanced access. But but you still get both games.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, Yeah, you get both games, but at a lower
<v Speaker 2>price than the MVP bundle, which has all the extra
<v Speaker 2>add on content.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, okay, it's messy.
<v Speaker 2>These days with the creative ways companies are finding to
<v Speaker 2>sell games.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, you.
<v Speaker 1>Have been raised that average sales price. I'm sure that's
<v Speaker 1>kind of the goal there a little bit. Man. In
<v Speaker 1>NFL twenty six it was number two, so number three,
<v Speaker 1>Mafia the old country. You said it before we even
<v Speaker 1>got started here. But that, to me, that's pretty respectable.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, we don't like put numbers to these things necessarily,
<v Speaker 1>but anything kind of getting up above you know, ea,
<v Speaker 1>Sports College Football twenty six and its second month. If
<v Speaker 1>you're above that, if you're Mafia, that's really respectable, right.
<v Speaker 3>And you know, it was better than I expected.
<v Speaker 2>I'm very happy to see that as the fan of
<v Speaker 2>the game, you know, bias implied. But you know, with
<v Speaker 2>this kind of game, as you know, you know, maybe
<v Speaker 2>it sticks around for a month or maybe, but then
<v Speaker 2>you know it'll it'll fall off theser games that tend
<v Speaker 2>to do really well at launch, and then they'll do
<v Speaker 2>well again once they get that price down and they
<v Speaker 2>get that long tail. But you know, great start, really
<v Speaker 2>happy to see it, would like to see more.
<v Speaker 3>But that's just again because of my an eron bias.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah again with this game, it's just to me, it's like,
<v Speaker 1>I think two K and this development team went into
<v Speaker 1>it with their eyes open knowing it was going to
<v Speaker 1>be one of those games that could pop off when
<v Speaker 1>it launches and then it falls off the chart. So
<v Speaker 1>hopefully internally they're able to like budget for that and
<v Speaker 1>predict for that. Obviously, they always want every game to
<v Speaker 1>be to have long legs and stick around for forever
<v Speaker 1>and ever. But I'm hoping these companies can still green
<v Speaker 1>light projects knowing it's going to be like this number
<v Speaker 1>three on the chart for the first month, maybe fall
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, and they may we don't ever see
<v Speaker 1>it on here again, which is entirely possible. Number four,
<v Speaker 1>middle Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater that's also new on
<v Speaker 1>the chart, and then that we get the EES Sports
<v Speaker 1>College Football twenty six at number five, Gears of War
<v Speaker 1>reloaded at number six. That's probably a lot of PlayStation
<v Speaker 1>sales for that one, right it is.
<v Speaker 2>But actually these games continue to sell okay across the platforms,
<v Speaker 2>even if they're on the subscription service. But yeah, for
<v Speaker 2>the Xbox games coming into PlayStation for the first time,
<v Speaker 2>you're going to see a pretty strong PlayStation split there.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and that one's I think if you had the
<v Speaker 1>last update of Gears of War on Xbox, you automatically
<v Speaker 1>got this update, so it's like, of course that's going
<v Speaker 1>to be a factor as well. Donkey Kong Bonanza dropped
<v Speaker 1>from three last month to number seven, then that EA
<v Speaker 1>Sports MVP Bundle at number eight, and EA Sports Kickoff
<v Speaker 1>Bundle at number nine, and then number ten is Demon Slayer.
<v Speaker 1>That's a lot of other words, but it was that
<v Speaker 1>was a big jump there, would you do you know
<v Speaker 1>what happened there?
<v Speaker 2>I believe it was discounting, but I'm not sure. In
<v Speaker 2>particular on this one, I did have to change the
<v Speaker 2>font size on the chart because that was so long.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I haven't really dug into that particular bumps yet.
<v Speaker 3>You know, I get like.
<v Speaker 2>Twenty four to thirty six hours to take the streams
<v Speaker 2>are out, so that'll be next steps. That's one of
<v Speaker 2>those next step follow up things I start looking into.
<v Speaker 1>As far as hardware goes, Monthly hardware spending increased by
<v Speaker 1>thirty two percent when compared to a year ago. To
<v Speaker 1>three hundred and twelve million Nintendo switch To sales. We're
<v Speaker 1>able to offset double digit percentage declines across each of
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five, Xbox series and the original Switch. You have
<v Speaker 1>numbers here two point four million units sold life to
<v Speaker 1>date over its first three months on the market. Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>switch To is now five percent ahead of the previous
<v Speaker 1>record setting pace of PlayStation four, which sold two point
<v Speaker 1>two million units during the three months ending January twenty fourteen.
<v Speaker 1>And then it's you said, seventy seven percent ahead of
<v Speaker 1>the time aligned sales of the original Nintendo Switch. I
<v Speaker 1>think you know, the good news here is that this
<v Speaker 1>thing is still selling despite their being like quite a
<v Speaker 1>bit of supply. It's not like people feel like they
<v Speaker 1>got to rush out that rush on and get it.
<v Speaker 1>I've started to see Switch twos on store shelves. Part
<v Speaker 1>of me thinks that that's a double sided thing. Of One,
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo wanted to produce a lot of these things just
<v Speaker 1>because they wanted. They were maybe a little bit sick
<v Speaker 1>of dealing with supply constraints, and they had extra time
<v Speaker 1>so they could do that. And then two, they want
<v Speaker 1>to get a lot of these systems into the country
<v Speaker 1>while they still understand what tariffs are in this moment,
<v Speaker 1>so they get a bunch in there, have them on
<v Speaker 1>store shelves ready to go for the holidays. That can't hurt, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's that's part of it.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, you don't set a launch sales record without
<v Speaker 2>having the units to sell, right because just about every
<v Speaker 2>new hardware platform outside of we you is subject to
<v Speaker 2>supply constraints at launch. So you know, setting that record,
<v Speaker 2>it was because they produced a lot maintaining a five percentage.
<v Speaker 2>The question three months in, you know, you can't you
<v Speaker 2>can't hit that without the units. But those units you
<v Speaker 2>make have to sell, and so far they're selling, So
<v Speaker 2>I think that's a really good sign. Okay, we do
<v Speaker 2>need to get through the first holiday. That's really going
<v Speaker 2>to tell a lot about the story. But the initial
<v Speaker 2>response to this is everything I think anyone could have
<v Speaker 2>hoped for, whether in Nintendo or a market.
<v Speaker 3>Analysts like me.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's doing a good job of offsetting the
<v Speaker 2>declients we're seeing on the older systems, so we are
<v Speaker 2>still seeing hardware sales growth. You're on You're driven by
<v Speaker 2>the switch too. It's also being driven by higher pricing overall,
<v Speaker 2>but we get into that a little bit. But really
<v Speaker 2>great start. Need to see the holiday, but hey, you know,
<v Speaker 2>great position to be in. I'd rather be in this
<v Speaker 2>position than not.
<v Speaker 3>So yep.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and like the holiday, like this would be a
<v Speaker 1>big question, but it's you know, I think Nintendo's going
<v Speaker 1>to maintain their price and while everything else has gone
<v Speaker 1>up around them, I think They're going to be able
<v Speaker 1>to take advantage of people like I'll get a switch
<v Speaker 1>to now while it's still five hundred. Maybe that'll light
<v Speaker 1>a fire under some people. I don't know how sensitive
<v Speaker 1>are is the common consumer to that? Not exactly? Sure
<v Speaker 1>worth pointing out because one or two or fifty people
<v Speaker 1>in CHET mentioned it. Demon Slayer. That movie came out
<v Speaker 1>and it was the number one movie at the box
<v Speaker 1>office for a couple of weekends. In a row, maybe
<v Speaker 1>a few weekends in a row actually, So that probably
<v Speaker 1>helped that.
<v Speaker 3>Game and the team effort.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks chat, Yeah, they always tag in a little bit
<v Speaker 1>there and we appreciate it. Yeah, okay, so you're to date.
<v Speaker 1>Video game hard We're spending has grown twenty percent versus
<v Speaker 1>a year ago, reaching two point nine billion. Unit sales
<v Speaker 1>are up six point five percent year on year, with
<v Speaker 1>the average selling price increasing by twelve point three percent
<v Speaker 1>to four hundred and fifty three per four and fifty
<v Speaker 1>three dollars per unit sold. So, like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>like a couple of years ago, what would that number
<v Speaker 1>have been around? Like where do you have an idea?
<v Speaker 1>Could you pull that off the top of your head?
<v Speaker 2>Stop my head, No, but I have a chart I
<v Speaker 2>was gonna post later today that that has that specific number.
<v Speaker 2>The it goes it goes up. I'll throw that up
<v Speaker 2>later today though. But we're seeing the highest prices we've
<v Speaker 2>ever seen. Now, usually get these cyclical pricing changes over time. Right,
<v Speaker 2>a new box comes in, the prices go up. A
<v Speaker 2>new box becomes an older box, they drop the price,
<v Speaker 2>the average price goes down. Well, the older boxes aren't
<v Speaker 2>dropping in price anymore. So we're no longer seeing that
<v Speaker 2>dip we would normally see because these old boxes are
<v Speaker 2>getting more expensive, which is weird, but yeah, i'll throw
<v Speaker 2>that up later today. It's it's a significant price increase
<v Speaker 2>than say it was five years ago.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's it definitely feels like, you know, we saw
<v Speaker 1>this story happen with GPUs for ten years straight, and
<v Speaker 1>the hardware manufacturers for consoles are kind of replicating that now,
<v Speaker 1>and they'll keep these price increases. They'll pocket them as
<v Speaker 1>we go forward, kind of no matter what happens, you know,
<v Speaker 1>I guess barring some detrimental collapse of the economy, which hey,
<v Speaker 1>who knows, well.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and they might because you know, the console audience
<v Speaker 2>is becoming more enthusiasts focused, right the folks that don't
<v Speaker 2>have the dollars to spend when they're looking at a
<v Speaker 2>four hundred and fifty three dollars box, and there's a
<v Speaker 2>lot a lot of people that just can't afford that.
<v Speaker 2>They'll default to Fortnite or Rollblocks, they'll default to their
<v Speaker 2>whatever piec they already have, or their mobile device. I mean,
<v Speaker 2>we're seeing that happen in real time right now. As
<v Speaker 2>the prices in everyday spending categories like shelter and insurance
<v Speaker 2>and grocery continue to grow. And you know, if we
<v Speaker 2>get some of these shocks in areas like insurance that
<v Speaker 2>we may be expecting, that could also have a further
<v Speaker 2>impact on the dollars available for a category like console gaming,
<v Speaker 2>which you know is becoming more exclusionary because these prices
<v Speaker 2>are getting so high.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, we do. There was like a lot of
<v Speaker 1>like big scary things right on the horizon in terms
<v Speaker 1>of prices going up on a bunch of different things.
<v Speaker 1>And we talked about insurance. I keep hearing, oh, you're
<v Speaker 1>electricity bill, which is already high, I'm going to get
<v Speaker 1>even higher here very soon, and like kind of there's
<v Speaker 1>no way around it apparently for the next two or
<v Speaker 1>three years. So it's going to be playing a lot
<v Speaker 1>more for that. And it's like that stuff will add
<v Speaker 1>up for sure. Yeah, And I will be interested to
<v Speaker 1>see how these companies try to navigate that if it's
<v Speaker 1>like doubling down on the most priced sensitive consumer effect.
<v Speaker 1>Let's just let's bring that next story in here right now.
<v Speaker 1>Is as we kind of like talk about all this
<v Speaker 1>majority of US gamers buy a max of two games annually.
<v Speaker 1>Analyst says, that's you do you want to break this
<v Speaker 1>down for us?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, So it's important to note this includes all video
<v Speaker 2>game players, whether they're console players or multiple players or
<v Speaker 2>sub The majority of players play across two or more devices,
<v Speaker 2>so directionally at least, you know, you can quibble with
<v Speaker 2>the percentages if it would be just console players or
<v Speaker 2>just PC players, of course, but just from a general
<v Speaker 2>trend perspective, what we're seeing, and you know, we've been
<v Speaker 2>seeing this for a while, is that the majority of
<v Speaker 2>the market plays their one or two games or enjoys
<v Speaker 2>the franchises they enjoy, and they don't pay attention to
<v Speaker 2>everything else. Now, people in chat, these are the most
<v Speaker 2>hyper enthusiasts, like they know everything going on. But if
<v Speaker 2>you look at a game, even a game as popular
<v Speaker 2>as how Hollow Night Silts Silk Song, the majority of
<v Speaker 2>video game players have never heard of it, but the
<v Speaker 2>folks that are very invested know everything about it. Right,
<v Speaker 2>So we have this dichotomy. And those players who are
<v Speaker 2>very invested in one or two franchises, or they have
<v Speaker 2>their group of friends that they play only a specific
<v Speaker 2>game with, they're going to buy a game of Year
<v Speaker 2>two games a year, the Madden or EAFC and Call
<v Speaker 2>of Duty folks that we've been talking about for years.
<v Speaker 3>That's a real thing.
<v Speaker 2>But what we're seeing is that that smaller group that
<v Speaker 2>most dedicated audience, the folks watching this, they're the ones
<v Speaker 2>that are really carrying the enthusiast market or that dedicated market.
<v Speaker 2>They're the ones that are spending on subscription. They're the
<v Speaker 2>ones that are buying games. And in this case, you know,
<v Speaker 2>what we're seeing in terms of the trend data is that,
<v Speaker 2>you know, that small hyper enthusiast audience is more important
<v Speaker 2>than ever when it comes to basically sustaining a lot
<v Speaker 2>of these games that don't reach that mass market. And
<v Speaker 2>hopefully that audience grows because we kind of need it to,
<v Speaker 2>especially with the exponential increase to the number of games
<v Speaker 2>being released on platforms like Steam, Like we're yeah, far
<v Speaker 2>more games than we have audience to maintain the purchase
<v Speaker 2>battle on average basis across fit. Yeah, so I mean
<v Speaker 2>that's kind of the challenge. But yeah, we're seeing that
<v Speaker 2>concentration of the hyper enthusiasts really driving a lot of
<v Speaker 2>what we're seeing in the in like the premium market,
<v Speaker 2>and by that I mean games that force you to
<v Speaker 2>pay upfront rather than are free to play game.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And when I think about when we talk about
<v Speaker 1>this and we talk about, you know, the hyper enthusiasts
<v Speaker 1>supporting the market, is I just worry about this a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of a death spiral of we are so
<v Speaker 1>tapped in that so that we pay attention when they
<v Speaker 1>do things like raise prices or kind of manipulate things
<v Speaker 1>in a way that we think is unfair, and we're
<v Speaker 1>paying attention, and we're very we're very sensitive, and I've
<v Speaker 1>said before, we're very whiny. And I don't think I
<v Speaker 1>don't think many people listening this would disagree with that.
<v Speaker 1>We are loud and obnoxious to these companies. And a
<v Speaker 1>lot of times these companies earn it and deserve to,
<v Speaker 1>like be criticized. But there are a lot of companies
<v Speaker 1>markets that make a lot of money that don't have
<v Speaker 1>an audience that's very tapped in, and yet they still
<v Speaker 1>make a ton of money from that. And the company
<v Speaker 1>like Microsoft or Sony or Nintendo, they know that, they
<v Speaker 1>recognize that, and I think they become a little resentful
<v Speaker 1>of us, and they're like, hey, if you want, if
<v Speaker 1>you want us to keep making games like this, you
<v Speaker 1>are going to have to pay more, show up and
<v Speaker 1>pay more. And then we get madder and they get
<v Speaker 1>more resentful, and it kind of just like and they
<v Speaker 1>start looking for other opportunities to spend their money, and
<v Speaker 1>in a market segment that does not involve a lot
<v Speaker 1>of loud, whiny people who are super tapped in now
<v Speaker 1>they've maybe not been able to find a lot of
<v Speaker 1>that that maybe hasn't worked as well. And some companies
<v Speaker 1>that have they still want to keep growing this side
<v Speaker 1>of things to a certain degree. But it just feels
<v Speaker 1>like eventually something breaks here and maybe we're in the
<v Speaker 1>middle of that a little bit, or maybe not breaks
<v Speaker 1>but corrects, and we end up in a situation where
<v Speaker 1>these companies have to reassess how interested they are in
<v Speaker 1>serving us the kinds of content that we're interested in.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, if we're not growing, if this space isn't growing,
<v Speaker 1>it's like and that does feel like it has to
<v Speaker 1>be driven mostly by them, those companies marketing and getting
<v Speaker 1>people interested. If they lose interest in that, it does
<v Speaker 1>feel like a slow kind of death march of this
<v Speaker 1>thing shrinking. And again, it doesn't die, it doesn't go away,
<v Speaker 1>but it but it just becomes less vibrant and less
<v Speaker 1>and over reliant on indie games, and then those indie
<v Speaker 1>games have to survey a shrinking audience as well. Like
<v Speaker 1>you were saying, I don't know, I'm often pessimistic about
<v Speaker 1>these things, and I know that we can get on
<v Speaker 1>the other side, but it's worth pointing out the potential pitfalls.
<v Speaker 1>I think as we talk about this.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we like to I like to call it like
<v Speaker 2>amplified voices rather than whiny. Yeah, And they amplify their
<v Speaker 2>voices to friends and family, right, And they're very you know,
<v Speaker 2>the hyper the very like you if someone has if
<v Speaker 2>someone's just a just a casual video game fan, like
<v Speaker 2>I like video games, but I don't really know what's
<v Speaker 2>going on, but you have that one friend or family
<v Speaker 2>member that's really into it, their opinion becomes super.
<v Speaker 3>Important comes to our opinion. Yeah, right, So like that.
<v Speaker 2>So it's not just the hyper enthusiast audis themselves that
<v Speaker 2>you have to worry about.
<v Speaker 3>It's what they're.
<v Speaker 2>Saying to their friends and family. Like the network effect
<v Speaker 2>there can be pretty devastating for a game, Like how
<v Speaker 2>many times have we seen this?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 2>The game comes out day one, someone takes a screenshot
<v Speaker 2>and somebody's face is half missing all of a sudden,
<v Speaker 2>and everyone who's that's the story, that's it because they
<v Speaker 2>everyone who's who sees that tells all their friends, Oh what, no,
<v Speaker 2>don't play that. The things garbage, right, So anyways, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's it's tough. We are becoming more and more reliant
<v Speaker 2>on a small audience of price and sensitive players. A
<v Speaker 2>lot of them are particularly subject to changes in the
<v Speaker 2>macro economy when it comes to things like higher prices,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, I worry about getting to a point
<v Speaker 2>where we just squeeze people so much that they have
<v Speaker 2>to just choose free to play because they have no
<v Speaker 2>other option. And you know, we're seeing fewer and fewer
<v Speaker 2>those big traditional games that we used to see like
<v Speaker 2>now we're seeing you know, fewer of those games over
<v Speaker 2>like those big however many as you want to apply,
<v Speaker 2>those games being released, and it's tough because those are
<v Speaker 2>just really risky bets for a what can be fickle audience,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, now, yeah, there's still plenty of opportunity,
<v Speaker 2>of course, still a huge market. Folks like Nintendo are
<v Speaker 2>figuring it out, but it's everybody else that has to
<v Speaker 2>try to figure out their own path. Not everyone can
<v Speaker 2>be a Nintendo, but that's a whole another topic.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's it's maybe not even as extreme as
<v Speaker 1>like I was talking to you before about like Synology
<v Speaker 1>like pissed off all of their core users with their
<v Speaker 1>nasts their network attached storage things, and it's like they
<v Speaker 1>like try to prevent people from putting in non Synology
<v Speaker 1>hard drives into those things, and they blocked that and
<v Speaker 1>they basically there, NASS sales dropped off a cliff. As
<v Speaker 1>far as I'm where, I'm only vaguely like aware of
<v Speaker 1>the goings on that are there. I'm not that much
<v Speaker 1>of a nerd. Everybody, come on, but that it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>in that space that is your entire audience, you cannot
<v Speaker 1>piss those people off. So you have to cater them.
<v Speaker 1>You have to sort of treat them as as kind
<v Speaker 1>of like soft things that are delicate, and you have
<v Speaker 1>to keep them happy and feeling good about your thing.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe video games aren't quite the traditional video games that
<v Speaker 1>we talk about on this show aren't quite there, but
<v Speaker 1>it definitely feels close. And and the thing for the
<v Speaker 1>video game company is they do have some other options
<v Speaker 1>when they look at mobile and free to play, and
<v Speaker 1>again they maybe tapped out some of that and the
<v Speaker 1>company like EA tried mobile a bunch of times and
<v Speaker 1>hasn't quite got it to work. But yeah, the future
<v Speaker 1>used to be a little bit cloudy.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, if you look at the response of the
<v Speaker 2>game pass price likes, right, Like, I don't know if
<v Speaker 2>they expected such strong pushback from that core community. We'll
<v Speaker 2>have to see, you know, because people say what people
<v Speaker 2>say they do and what they actually do can be different, right,
<v Speaker 2>And everyone's all, I'm going to cancel. Well maybe you did,
<v Speaker 2>maybe you didn't. Maybe you're just mad and said that.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>We'll have to wait to see what the data says.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, if that conversation extends to friends and family,
<v Speaker 2>then all of a sudden, like friends and family are like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not gonna know. Like the person I know that
<v Speaker 2>that loves games is telling me this is a bad deal.
<v Speaker 2>I'm out, man like, So we'll have to see what
<v Speaker 2>develops over time, but yeah, we're right now. The industry
<v Speaker 2>move is to maximize revenue per user, whether that's through
<v Speaker 2>premium game pads or premium consoles or deluxe editions of
<v Speaker 2>video games at a higher price point, like the various
<v Speaker 2>bundles we were just talking about. I mean, that's that's
<v Speaker 2>the plan right now, and you can only do that
<v Speaker 2>for so long.
<v Speaker 3>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>I anecdotally so far, it's like, yeah, I have. I've
<v Speaker 1>had people tell me that friends in their lives, the
<v Speaker 1>casual players have started bringing up, Hey, what's going on
<v Speaker 1>with Xbox and they're just done right, So it's you know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's getting out there. That's anecdotal. We don't know.
<v Speaker 1>You're right, well, it just kind of wait to see
<v Speaker 1>the reflection in the actual numbers. Anything else worth pointing out,
<v Speaker 1>Matt from your report this morning, what's happening with accessories?
<v Speaker 1>Anything else worth putting out for mobile that you want
<v Speaker 1>to highlight?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean on the mobile side, I think what's
<v Speaker 2>interesting what's going on with the mobile is we're seeing
<v Speaker 2>a lot of the same types of trends we're seeing
<v Speaker 2>in like the console space, where we have these big
<v Speaker 2>evergreen games kind of dominating this. In recent months, we've
<v Speaker 2>seen some churn there. Our friends over at Censor Tower,
<v Speaker 2>particularly Sammy UNI's he talks about that and the release
<v Speaker 2>I posted. But it's kind of interesting how the parallels
<v Speaker 2>are starting to form between something like the mobile and
<v Speaker 2>the console market. The other thing that's, you know, really
<v Speaker 2>going to be interesting to watch is the developing PC
<v Speaker 2>handheld space. You know, that's been a developing market for
<v Speaker 2>a little while. It's still very enthusiast niche but you know,
<v Speaker 2>with the various systems coming up, there's an opportunity for
<v Speaker 2>that to become a little more widely accepted. But those
<v Speaker 2>price points, those can you know, those are those could
<v Speaker 2>be an issue for a lot of potential buyers. So
<v Speaker 2>we'll have to see how that develops over the rest
<v Speaker 2>of this year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and those it's like, you know, Valve stubs does
<v Speaker 1>the cost of the Steam deck and that kind of
<v Speaker 1>set expectations and all these other players came in there
<v Speaker 1>like well we ain't doing that, and it's like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's right. These things used to cost thirteen hundred dollars
<v Speaker 1>and here we are again. That'll slow down that growth
<v Speaker 1>and people are curious about it. I do think the
<v Speaker 1>steam side of it does still scare off quite a
<v Speaker 1>few casual players and people who are just like, I know,
<v Speaker 1>I want something very familiar, something I've used before, and
<v Speaker 1>the Xbox has a chance to do that, but not
<v Speaker 1>with that price. The rog ally X with that price, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>thousand dollars for the X version. It was a six
<v Speaker 1>hundred and fourth the non X version. Even that's like,
<v Speaker 1>oh okay, that's rough. All right, We're gonna take a
<v Speaker 1>break when we get back. Plenty more headlines to get into.
<v Speaker 1>There's some reviews dropping for stuff like you could replayly
<v Speaker 1>Little Nightmares three. We'll talk about all of that after this.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to skip out on that, there is
<v Speaker 1>a premium version of the audio show and the video
<v Speaker 1>show without the ads. You can get that by going
<v Speaker 1>to giant bomb dot com slash join become a premium member.
<v Speaker 1>We'll be right back.
<v Speaker 4>Grub. I love podcasts and I would like to listen
<v Speaker 4>to more of them.
<v Speaker 1>Oh boy, I've got the podcast for you, then, Bud
<v Speaker 1>Stage Select a grub.
<v Speaker 4>I have trust issues, especially with podcasters.
<v Speaker 1>Look, it's always important to be careful and safe about podcasters.
<v Speaker 1>But don't worry. Host Julian Titus and Justin Hamm have
<v Speaker 1>over sixteen years a combined podcasting experience, and The Stage
<v Speaker 1>Select is finishing up its second season at the end
<v Speaker 1>of the year.
<v Speaker 4>Holy smokes, what a pedigree. Tell me more, Grub.
<v Speaker 1>Oh what about a video game variety show where the
<v Speaker 1>hosts act as if they're performing for a live studio audience.
<v Speaker 4>Kind of like The Muppet Show. Do they have reoccurring
<v Speaker 4>characters Shenanigans, Bits and skits, a whole.
<v Speaker 1>Baby, we got bits, we got skits.
<v Speaker 4>I love bits and Skits.
<v Speaker 1>Is there more? The show is designed to be unexpected
<v Speaker 1>jan they'll go to space sometimes a surprise game show.
<v Speaker 1>Expect the unexpect space, Grub.
<v Speaker 4>Grub, I'm hearing that episodes forty one and fifty nine
<v Speaker 4>are fantastic points to get a vibe of the show.
<v Speaker 4>Julian and Justin are fiercely independent and do this for
<v Speaker 4>the love of video games and podcasts.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, they draw from the best, like the Giant BombCast,
<v Speaker 1>Next Lander, Rebel FM, and no one can know.
<v Speaker 4>About this well Grub, I'm glad I know about this podcast.
<v Speaker 1>At Stage select.
<v Speaker 4>Give it a listen, Bits and Skits.
<v Speaker 1>It's Game Mass Mornings. We're back. I'm Jeff Grebb, that's
<v Speaker 1>Matt Piscatella. Let's continue on here with the headlines including
<v Speaker 1>Youka replayly reviews, our n It's got an eighty one
<v Speaker 1>on Open Critic six out of ten here from Jordan
<v Speaker 1>Bioradi at CG Magazine, who says, you could Replayly does
<v Speaker 1>make some much needed improvements to the twenty seventeen original,
<v Speaker 1>but fails to fix the fundamental flaws it's that made
<v Speaker 1>its predecessor so divisive. Got a seven point five out
<v Speaker 1>of ten from John Raardan at Nintendo World Report, who says,
<v Speaker 1>but it is disappointing that I can't say that that
<v Speaker 1>more definitively sure what that was. I think I might
<v Speaker 1>have cut that off when I was copy and pasting here.
<v Speaker 1>There are a lot of great quality of life updates,
<v Speaker 1>but between stability issues and some questionable feature removals, it
<v Speaker 1>is hard to recommend this version without reservation. As I
<v Speaker 1>said at the outset, I like the original Ukulele, and
<v Speaker 1>I like Yuka Replayly. I think I could say that
<v Speaker 1>it probably fixes more than it breaks, but I'd rather
<v Speaker 1>it avoided breaking anything in the first place. Got an
<v Speaker 1>eight out of ten from Mitch Vogel at Nintendo Life,
<v Speaker 1>who said Yuka Replayly in most ways feels like the
<v Speaker 1>game that Ukulele was meant to be. The core experience
<v Speaker 1>has remained the same, but much has been added or
<v Speaker 1>tweaked to make it for a significantly more confident and
<v Speaker 1>streamlined experience. Though the technical issues hold it back a
<v Speaker 1>bit at least on switch to at launch, this is
<v Speaker 1>still a clear improvement over the original and a game
<v Speaker 1>that no fan of three D platforming genres should miss
<v Speaker 1>out on. Even if you played the original to completion,
<v Speaker 1>I'd say Yuka Replayly is still very much worth your
<v Speaker 1>time and money, madam. Someone who played some y Ukuleley
<v Speaker 1>and was like, you know, this feels like one of
<v Speaker 1>those ones where it'say, hey, I love this genre. I
<v Speaker 1>love the game that it is a spiritual successor too,
<v Speaker 1>and this one just feels like it slightly misses the
<v Speaker 1>mark for me, which I get that happens a lot
<v Speaker 1>with these spiritual successors. And I was hoping you could
<v Speaker 1>Replayly would be like, Okay, we've made just some slight
<v Speaker 1>edits to get it over the finish line. And I
<v Speaker 1>think there's still a chance that for me it might
<v Speaker 1>it might do that, you know, but overall it does
<v Speaker 1>sound like it's not exactly the total reimagining that some
<v Speaker 1>people were hoping for. You have ever played a ukulele
<v Speaker 1>I did kind of.
<v Speaker 2>In the same boat. The fundamental flaws that made Us
<v Speaker 2>Predecessor so divisive kind of knocked me out of it
<v Speaker 2>after like an hour. Like, I love the fact that
<v Speaker 2>the game was made and that they were going for
<v Speaker 2>what they were going for, but yeah, it never really
<v Speaker 2>hit with me.
<v Speaker 3>But man, remakes and remasters strike again.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah everywhere.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, it's fine. If people love it, that's awesome,
<v Speaker 2>but yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Not for me.
<v Speaker 1>And then we have Little Nightmares three with a seventy
<v Speaker 1>four on Open Critic seven out of ten year from
<v Speaker 1>Mark Delaney at GameSpot, who says new developers super Massive
<v Speaker 1>Games takes and that's new developers and new to the
<v Speaker 1>Little Nightmare series. Super Massive Games takes Little Nightmares in
<v Speaker 1>a familiar direction, though co op does mix things up
<v Speaker 1>in a welcome way for the series. It as a
<v Speaker 1>six out of ten from Tristan o'gilvy at ign Little
<v Speaker 1>Nightmares three features a little innovation, few scares, and limited
<v Speaker 1>appeal if you've already played the previous two games, unless
<v Speaker 1>you're dead keen to experience the series is Nightmare or
<v Speaker 1>so excuse me. Signature brand of Stop Start Stealth with
<v Speaker 1>a friend in Toe and then seven out of ten
<v Speaker 1>from Dominica Layton at the six access. Little Nightmare three
<v Speaker 1>is a gorgeously crafted collection of grim visuals, memorable creatures,
<v Speaker 1>and fear inducing horror. The co op play is a
<v Speaker 1>natural and understandable evolution for the series, but it does
<v Speaker 1>alter the overarching atmosphere, albeit subtly. There's always seems like
<v Speaker 1>there is like like a space sort of the spooky
<v Speaker 1>game the game with a lot of like dark atmosphere.
<v Speaker 1>This one, though with a new developer on. It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>seem like it's quite hitting for some people, but that
<v Speaker 1>audience usually just seems so starred for these kinds of things.
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if they'll show up anyhow.
<v Speaker 3>I wonder if they will tea.
<v Speaker 2>I'm also curious about how they show up at that
<v Speaker 2>forty dollars price point, which I was a little taken aback.
<v Speaker 3>Now.
<v Speaker 2>I know want we want to make sure that developers
<v Speaker 2>get compensated for the work they're doing, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>the game is should could surely be worth that much.
<v Speaker 2>But I was a little surprised looking at the other
<v Speaker 2>game similar games like it, that the forty dollars price
<v Speaker 2>point was the one they went with it seems a
<v Speaker 2>little aggressive. I love the first one. I played the
<v Speaker 2>first one to completion. The second one I thought was
<v Speaker 2>a little too much like trial and error, Like you
<v Speaker 2>go through here, you have no clue about what you're
<v Speaker 2>supposed to do. You're gonna get whaped a couple of times,
<v Speaker 2>then you figure it out. So I kind of fell
<v Speaker 2>off the second one, and the third one kind of
<v Speaker 2>changes the whole thing, right, goes to a co op experience,
<v Speaker 2>kind of loses that a little bit of that single
<v Speaker 2>player ominous I'm in this by myself kind of deal.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm interested in checking it out, but not a
<v Speaker 2>forty bucks, but you know, we'll see how that goes.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's so the pricing on any sort of game
<v Speaker 1>right now is always such a weird story to tell.
<v Speaker 1>Like Lego Party came out recently, and it's like finding
<v Speaker 1>out that was forty dollars, it's like that was amazing
<v Speaker 1>because it's compared to Mario Party at sixty or seventy
<v Speaker 1>now I can't remember, but like, so, yeah, that's such
<v Speaker 1>a good deal for this game that in many ways
<v Speaker 1>is very very much better than Mario Party. And so,
<v Speaker 1>of course though that's not the comparison Little Nightmares. It's
<v Speaker 1>the little nightmares. I'm like, I just paid much less
<v Speaker 1>than that for a Silk Song, which was twenty dollars
<v Speaker 1>and Eighty's two, which I think I got for thirty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, man, yeah, that's a tough pill to
<v Speaker 1>swallow in this specific case. And like it's not likely
<v Speaker 1>there haven't been forty dollars India games before the Witness
<v Speaker 1>was but yeah, you always wonder, like how they make
<v Speaker 1>these choices.
<v Speaker 2>It's all about that price anchoring, right, You get some
<v Speaker 2>kind of relative tier in your head about how much
<v Speaker 2>things should be, and then all of a sudden it's
<v Speaker 2>like something that's a great deal in one viewpoints, like
<v Speaker 2>what the heck are they doing in another one? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>for a lot of these kinds of games, these like
<v Speaker 2>indie hits, you know they could come out of twenty
<v Speaker 2>or thirty dollars originally, but you know a lot of
<v Speaker 2>people are jumping in when they get them on a
<v Speaker 2>Steam sale or a deep discount PlayStation sale for three
<v Speaker 2>or four or five bucks, right, And so there's even
<v Speaker 2>a little bit of that anchoring going on, like well,
<v Speaker 2>what about the first one for five bucks? And what
<v Speaker 2>forty like, I don't know, but maybe that's just my
<v Speaker 2>brain talking, But yeah, I don't know. I'll check it
<v Speaker 2>out in a deep discount. I'm not a co op
<v Speaker 2>player and but yeah, I love these kinds of games generally,
<v Speaker 2>But yeah's a that's a steep one. You look at
<v Speaker 2>the other games like it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, it does feel like, you know, you get
<v Speaker 1>this out for that audience that's like, you know, that
<v Speaker 1>has all of their clothes, it's just a spooky shirt
<v Speaker 1>from Hot Topic or whatever. Maybe they like maybe you
<v Speaker 1>try to charge them as much as you can right
<v Speaker 1>away because they'll show up for that game right away.
<v Speaker 1>But I think even that audience is like, you know what,
<v Speaker 1>I can wait for a sale, And I think you're
<v Speaker 1>probably right about that. All right, let's talk about other
<v Speaker 1>games and how they're selling. Club Secure Expedition thirty three
<v Speaker 1>sales top five million. A free major update is also
<v Speaker 1>in development. This is from sal Ramano at Kamatsu. Total
<v Speaker 1>sales for turn based RPG Clearubsecure Expedition thirty three have
<v Speaker 1>surpassed five million units. Publisher Kepler Interactive and developer Standful
<v Speaker 1>Interactive announced a free major update is currently in development
<v Speaker 1>that will include several additions and updates. As a thank
<v Speaker 1>you to fans who supported the game the free major update,
<v Speaker 1>we'll add the following content. A new playable environment taking
<v Speaker 1>the characters of Expedition thirty three to a brand new
<v Speaker 1>location with new enemy encounters and surprises to discover, challenging
<v Speaker 1>new boss battles for late game players to overcome. New
<v Speaker 1>costumes for each members of the Expedition, giving even more
<v Speaker 1>or giving even more customization options for players throughout their adventure.
<v Speaker 1>New text and user interface game localizations and to check
<v Speaker 1>let's see Ukrainian, Latin, American, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese, Tie and Indonesian,
<v Speaker 1>bringing the total number of supported languages to nineteen plus
<v Speaker 1>even more surprises fans can look forward to.
<v Speaker 3>Man.
<v Speaker 1>I think this is a case of we talked about
<v Speaker 1>Mafia being a game that, you know, maybe that's a
<v Speaker 1>game that comes out, does okay at launch, maybe does
<v Speaker 1>better than okay, falls off the chart. Maybe we don't
<v Speaker 1>know yet, but it could. Maybe it's one of those games.
<v Speaker 1>I think Clear Obscure Expedition thirty three is also a
<v Speaker 1>game made thinking that's probably its life cycle. It pops
<v Speaker 1>off at launch and maybe in the best case scenario
<v Speaker 1>does really well, and then you know it trails off
<v Speaker 1>and then pops off again because of sales or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>It sold an additional one point seven million units since
<v Speaker 1>the last time they gave us an update, So like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it did three point three million after its
<v Speaker 1>first thirty three days and then after that an additional
<v Speaker 1>one point seven million. That's significantly more than a lot
<v Speaker 1>of other games in its space do in their lifetime.
<v Speaker 1>So I think here they're like, you know what, let's
<v Speaker 1>ride the goat goodwill. Let's you know, we're not going
<v Speaker 1>to get charge for some of these updates, not it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't sound like it's a ton, but still promising free updates.
<v Speaker 1>It's the kind of thing you do when it's like,
<v Speaker 1>I've heard good things about this game, it sounds like
<v Speaker 1>it's still active. I will pick this game up for
<v Speaker 1>the Steam deck I get for Christmas or whatever, because
<v Speaker 1>I'm just waiting for a good excuse. So this just
<v Speaker 1>feels like the right strategy for a game that did
<v Speaker 1>kind of win the lottery in some ways.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, complete outlier and performance with just phenomenal word
<v Speaker 2>of mouth around this game. Right, But let me ask you,
<v Speaker 2>Jeff A. B. A big topic lately has been the
<v Speaker 2>impact of subscription services on sales. Now, I look at
<v Speaker 2>a game like Claibskew or you know, some of the
<v Speaker 2>other games that have come out historically that you know,
<v Speaker 2>it could have been not ignored, but maybe not a
<v Speaker 2>scene as prevalent as they were. But you put Claire
<v Speaker 2>Obscurity in game Pass. You have the marketing around launching
<v Speaker 2>game Pass at launch. Yeah, you have the marketing around it.
<v Speaker 2>You have the the people trying it and telling their
<v Speaker 2>friends and family. This is one of those games, and
<v Speaker 2>I think there are a few that you can look
<v Speaker 2>at it and go, you know what, But that being
<v Speaker 2>on a subscription service that launch may have actually amplified
<v Speaker 2>its message and resulted in more sales than it perhaps
<v Speaker 2>would have had, particularly on other platforms, that it would
<v Speaker 2>have had had it not been I don't know what's
<v Speaker 2>your read on that, or like c IF Thieves or
<v Speaker 2>some of these other games that have popped off at
<v Speaker 2>launch because of their participation in a subservice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think. I think for a multiplayer game like
<v Speaker 1>CEA Thieves, it's like, no matter what, that just seems
<v Speaker 1>to be a good like you, whether it's game Pass
<v Speaker 1>or being free as part of place like going back
<v Speaker 1>to Rocket League and stuff like that where it's free
<v Speaker 1>for the first month on PS plus that sort of stuff.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, in every situation like that, I think that's
<v Speaker 1>the right move for this. It's like, at the very least,
<v Speaker 1>you got to say game pass didn't hurt it, Like
<v Speaker 1>at the very least, it's like, so we're starting there
<v Speaker 1>of like it's a neutral effect. I think I agree
<v Speaker 1>with you that for a game like this that was
<v Speaker 1>already kind of getting some buzz from people seeing trailers,
<v Speaker 1>and they did see those trailers most often in the
<v Speaker 1>like Xbox showcase where it first like really popped off,
<v Speaker 1>and that was part of being in game past, so
<v Speaker 1>you know that, and people do get excited with say, oh,
<v Speaker 1>this is the game get coming into the game pass.
<v Speaker 1>Because I'm already subscribed to that, I can feel good
<v Speaker 1>about paying attention to this thing because I don't have
<v Speaker 1>to convince myself to spend money on it. So I
<v Speaker 1>think that like sort of like does I think the
<v Speaker 1>amplification is the exact right word. It's going to do
<v Speaker 1>what this game is going to do, and then a
<v Speaker 1>game pass can come in there and maybe amplify what
<v Speaker 1>it was already going to do. So yeah, I think
<v Speaker 1>that that is definitely. I just know I never fully
<v Speaker 1>bought the idea that game Pass would completely destroy the
<v Speaker 1>sales for every game. I think maybe would eat away
<v Speaker 1>some sales for some certain types of games. But it
<v Speaker 1>always felt like the network affecting gaming is so important
<v Speaker 1>we talk about over and over again in these conversations Matt,
<v Speaker 1>the highly engaged hyper enthusiast. These are people who talk
<v Speaker 1>to each other, They gobble up all the information on
<v Speaker 1>the internet. If everyone's talking about a game that is
<v Speaker 1>going to affect them, and more people talk about it
<v Speaker 1>because it was in game past. Does that sound right
<v Speaker 1>to you?
<v Speaker 2>Well, my hypothesis is, and it's been for a while,
<v Speaker 2>although I can't really in the data, or at least
<v Speaker 2>I haven't been able to prove it yet, is that
<v Speaker 2>the games that have a really strong positive response at
<v Speaker 2>launch can be helped by inclusion a subscription service, but
<v Speaker 2>a game that is moderately received or poorly received, it
<v Speaker 2>could be absolutely devastating to the potential staff.
<v Speaker 1>That's it.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, Okay, so I think it's I think it's a
<v Speaker 2>high low thing where if a game comes out and
<v Speaker 2>it's like eh, then I think the sales will get
<v Speaker 2>crushed by being in a subservice because again the amplification
<v Speaker 2>people are trying, they're going, ah, this game's not great
<v Speaker 2>and then boom done. But if it can comes out
<v Speaker 2>like oh man, I was playing, it's great, and someone
<v Speaker 2>doesn't have an Xbox where they're not a PlayStation Plus member,
<v Speaker 2>if a game comes onto PS plus like okay, well
<v Speaker 2>I got to check it out, and you know I'll
<v Speaker 2>pay the money for it. So I think there's something there,
<v Speaker 2>although you know, I can't prove it, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>everyone's going to have their own deeply held belief based
<v Speaker 2>on vibes and you can't. You can not be able
<v Speaker 2>to fight that most of the time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And it's like you know, and I you know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure the sales on Xbox were lower than other platforms,
<v Speaker 1>but I think we're talking about this effect breaking out
<v Speaker 1>of those walls and that that it like affects Steam
<v Speaker 1>sales for sure. I think we've seen that over and
<v Speaker 1>over again now.
<v Speaker 2>So like Black Ops six has been the big the
<v Speaker 2>big conversation point where someone just said a number like okay, cool,
<v Speaker 2>like you just have a number. That's fine. Everyone can
<v Speaker 2>have a number anyways. Besides the point, but if you
<v Speaker 2>look at that Black Op six as a total property,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know how you look at that and go
<v Speaker 2>it got hurt by being on game Pass now on
<v Speaker 2>Xbox absolutely like you're gonna be trade there's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>trade offs there, You're gonna trade purchase.
<v Speaker 1>You just raise the price of game Pass though, and
<v Speaker 1>then that solves that problem.
<v Speaker 3>Well we'll see how that goes.
<v Speaker 2>But I mean the sales on PC or PlayStation, Like,
<v Speaker 2>I didn't see any negative impact based on the game Pass.
<v Speaker 2>And of course this could be a whole four day
<v Speaker 2>topic on yeah, impact of sircub services, but it's just
<v Speaker 2>I think for this one in particular, I look at
<v Speaker 2>this as one of those cases where it's like.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, you know what, all all the positive.
<v Speaker 2>Conversation it could generate a launch was good for this game,
<v Speaker 2>and it's helped it not only establish a strong baseline,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, but a strong extended tail, which is
<v Speaker 2>more and more rare these days. So I mean, kudos
<v Speaker 2>to them. They really killed it.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. Speaking of call of duty, call of duty hits
<v Speaker 1>the emergency red button to prevent a battlefield comeback. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Ethan gotch at Kutaku shots out to Ethan.
<v Speaker 1>We're just days away from the launch of Battlefield six.
<v Speaker 1>A lot is rioting on the return of EA's long
<v Speaker 1>struggling multiplayer shooter, so naturally, Activision is making Call of
<v Speaker 1>Duty Black Ops six free for a whole week, starting
<v Speaker 1>the day before Battlefield six drops. It's the latest shot
<v Speaker 1>across the bow as the rivalry between the two Blockbusters
<v Speaker 1>franchises gets heated. Earlier this week, Called Duty Black Op
<v Speaker 1>Black Ops seven's free beta trial was extended in extra
<v Speaker 1>day to October ninth. Activision is now making last year's entry,
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty Black Ops six completely free for an
<v Speaker 1>entire entire week. Starting that same day. Anyone could download
<v Speaker 1>it and play Zombies multiplayer or the full campaign until
<v Speaker 1>October sixteenth. That's right smack in the middle of Battlefield
<v Speaker 1>six's launch week, which begins October ten. It's October tenth.
<v Speaker 1>It's not a cheap move for Activision to pol Despite
<v Speaker 1>being nearly a year old, Black Op six was still
<v Speaker 1>the fifth best selling game in the US in July
<v Speaker 1>and remains the fourth best selling game year to date.
<v Speaker 1>Is this an overreaction or a sign of just how
<v Speaker 1>desperate the publisher is to protect its annualized and rarely
<v Speaker 1>contested golden goose. According to new data from Sircana, a
<v Speaker 1>majority of people who played planned to buy Battlefield six
<v Speaker 1>also planned to buy Black Ops seven, but only one
<v Speaker 1>in four people planning to buy Black Ops seven are
<v Speaker 1>also planning to buy Battlefield six. Like I would say, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's fair, Matt, But like Activision must be getting some
<v Speaker 1>signal here that is telling them and it is worth
<v Speaker 1>pressing this red button.
<v Speaker 2>Right, I love this so much. This is why competition's good. Right,
<v Speaker 2>if this is why we want competition in the space,
<v Speaker 2>because it forces developers and publishers and companies to do
<v Speaker 2>things like this to try to improve the value to
<v Speaker 2>the consumer.
<v Speaker 1>Twenty dollars NFL two K. Right, yeah, right, Like that's.
<v Speaker 2>Why we want well, that's why I want. The industry
<v Speaker 2>doesn't talk about that, but I want competition. I think
<v Speaker 2>this is really fun and really cool, and you know
<v Speaker 2>what good Like I'm glad Battlefield's pushing them a little
<v Speaker 2>bit and forcing them to try to do a little
<v Speaker 2>bit more for the player. Now, Like ultimately these are
<v Speaker 2>two similar but also different audiences. The call of Duty
<v Speaker 2>players is more mass market. The Battlefield player is more enthusiast.
<v Speaker 2>There's a lot of crossover there. People that like.
<v Speaker 3>First person shooters, like first person shooters. Who the hell
<v Speaker 3>would have thought?
<v Speaker 2>But Call of Duty has been like, okay, if you look,
<v Speaker 2>all right, you look at the past thirty years, and
<v Speaker 2>you look at the individual franchise performance in a particular year,
<v Speaker 2>and you go, Okay, of all those years, all those franchises,
<v Speaker 2>the top twenty performances of a single franchise at a
<v Speaker 2>single year, fourteen of the top twenty spots were taken
<v Speaker 2>by Call of Duty games. Like, the scale of Call
<v Speaker 2>of Duty in the US market is really uh, even
<v Speaker 2>though everyone knows it, it's underappreciated just how big this
<v Speaker 2>franchise is now, Battlefield big franchise, nowhere near the same
<v Speaker 2>scope and scale as Call of Duty has been historically.
<v Speaker 2>But if Activision or Microsoft's looking at this and go,
<v Speaker 2>oh geez, all right, we got to react to this,
<v Speaker 2>that's fantastic.
<v Speaker 3>Good for them.
<v Speaker 2>I hope Battlefield kills it and they do really well.
<v Speaker 2>But this is the kind of thing that's really fun
<v Speaker 2>is when we see competition deliver or competition result and
<v Speaker 2>consumer benefits I think that's really good for the industry
<v Speaker 2>as a whole.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, it's definitely an interesting move. I will see if
<v Speaker 1>he has a response. I mean, I think they might
<v Speaker 1>be pretty confident about Battlefield six. We should be getting
<v Speaker 1>reviews here pretty soon, at least for people who spend
<v Speaker 1>some time with the campaign. I think the servers are
<v Speaker 1>alive even so, people are playing online if you're able
<v Speaker 1>to get a copy early or whatever from retail, and
<v Speaker 1>early words been pretty good. But I think a lot
<v Speaker 1>of it will just rely on that first weekend, especially
<v Speaker 1>after a very successful betas, And it would be interesting
<v Speaker 1>to see if they kind of like go back and
<v Speaker 1>forth a little bit, like how far can this go?
<v Speaker 1>Or for this it's just like a one time thing
<v Speaker 1>from Call of Duty.
<v Speaker 3>I can't wait to the engagement chart.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, I'm going to be really interesting sing how
<v Speaker 2>many people are playing and the crossover between the two games.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be really fascinating. I'll be posting stuff some
<v Speaker 2>stuff around that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm best case scenario here is both games do
<v Speaker 1>better than you know ever, or you know at least
<v Speaker 1>like kind of hit some near highs or something like that,
<v Speaker 1>and there's just more people playing this, and that would
<v Speaker 1>be probably be good for gaming overall. Nintendo's mysterious animated
<v Speaker 1>short was a pickment tee is after all. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Kenneth Shepherd at Kotaku. Yesterday, Nintendo released an animated
<v Speaker 1>short called close to You on its YouTube and social
<v Speaker 1>media channels. The video is posted with no context, no description,
<v Speaker 1>and even its comments were turned off so no one
<v Speaker 1>could speculate about its meaning in the comments. It's got
<v Speaker 1>like ten million views, by the way Today and nintend
<v Speaker 1>and that's just on YouTube. It's on other things. It's
<v Speaker 1>probably close to like twenty million. Today. Nintendo uploaded and
<v Speaker 1>uploaded an updated version of the short on the Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Today app that shed some light on the mystery by
<v Speaker 1>revealing that there were a bunch of invisible Pickmen doing
<v Speaker 1>things like moving around the baby's binkie and all this
<v Speaker 1>stuff and mischief and mayhem. Now we still don't know
<v Speaker 1>what this is actually teasing. Is it just the idea
<v Speaker 1>of Pickman, because I don't know what's happening here. Could
<v Speaker 1>be like just new Pickman shorts, a new Pickman game,
<v Speaker 1>could be an update to Pickman Bloom. I know that
<v Speaker 1>would be disappointing. It could be a piment movie happening
<v Speaker 1>from illumination, although this doesn't necessarily look like illumination animation,
<v Speaker 1>at least not exactly. But yeah, at the very least,
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo has successfully peaked people's interest here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the story I've made in my head, which is
<v Speaker 2>complete nonsense, so no one listened to it. The story
<v Speaker 2>I made it in my head is someone and Nintendo's like, look,
<v Speaker 2>we could be Pixar. Look at what we could do.
<v Speaker 2>We can make our own movies. We don't need anybody else.
<v Speaker 2>We could be the biggest movie studio in the world.
<v Speaker 2>That's the fiction I've created in my head about why
<v Speaker 2>this happened.
<v Speaker 3>I'd really love that for them to do that.
<v Speaker 2>But anyways, Yeah, I mean the buzz though you can't
<v Speaker 2>really argue with that. People are really talking about this thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm kind of a little bit with you, Matt,
<v Speaker 1>because it's it feels like this is something that happens
<v Speaker 1>because Miomoto wants it. Pickman is one of his babies.
<v Speaker 1>It's one of the things that he's kind of helped
<v Speaker 1>continue to hold a torch for even as he's been
<v Speaker 1>working on theme parks and movies. But he was. He's
<v Speaker 1>deeply involved in the Mario movie, deeply involved in the
<v Speaker 1>Zelda movie. With Sony Pictures, he probably feels like, I've
<v Speaker 1>learned a lot. We bought that. Was it called Dynamo
<v Speaker 1>Pictures or something like that now called Nintendo Pictures. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>they bought that. Maybe he's like, Hey, I'm going to
<v Speaker 1>bring what I've learned, let's make some new Pickman shorts
<v Speaker 1>and see if we can kind of up our quality
<v Speaker 1>to match something like illumination and do it in house. Man,
<v Speaker 1>I could see.
<v Speaker 2>It, you roll like ten million, baby, like, look what
<v Speaker 2>we could do this?
<v Speaker 3>You know, I don't know, but that would be really
<v Speaker 3>fun if that happened.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I would like to see it. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>I would love a new Pickman game. Pickman four US phenomenal.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>If they aren't doing that, though, I would gladly take
<v Speaker 1>a Pickman movie or Pictman show, even if it was
<v Speaker 1>just made by Nintendo. That'd be very interesting to see.
<v Speaker 1>Powerwash Simulator two is launching on October twenty third. That's
<v Speaker 1>the release date. This is from Jonas Mackie at Game Reactor,
<v Speaker 1>and that's you know, the story is the headline here.
<v Speaker 1>Although it's worth pointing out this is the this is
<v Speaker 1>the meta right now for games of this scale, right like,
<v Speaker 1>hey announced it about two to three weeks out, probably
<v Speaker 1>once you've submitted it to these platforms, and you know
<v Speaker 1>for sure you're locked in to get it out by
<v Speaker 1>a certain date, because why waste anyone's time doing anything else,
<v Speaker 1>because it's not going to hurt you doing if you
<v Speaker 1>don't announce it's six months ahead of time or release date.
<v Speaker 1>That is so I expect this to continue to happen.
<v Speaker 1>We saw Men of the Hollower get delayed and they're like,
<v Speaker 1>we'll tell you the date once we've submitted it, so
<v Speaker 1>we're probably gonna hear about that game's release date two
<v Speaker 1>weeks out as well. Something that happened with both Silk
<v Speaker 1>Song and Haiti's two right those were like, hey, this
<v Speaker 1>is coming out two weeks from now. This is this
<v Speaker 1>is the move, correct.
<v Speaker 2>It seems to me, Yeah, you don't really need the
<v Speaker 2>big build up like we used to have when retail
<v Speaker 2>or when physical retail was important. I needed to presell,
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, it makes sense. But let me ask you,
<v Speaker 2>does this qualify as being part of like the Dad
<v Speaker 2>game Tsunami. We've been having like, like, does this qualify
<v Speaker 2>as a dad game? Like quote unquote dad game, although
<v Speaker 2>moms of course can play, but it sure seems like
<v Speaker 2>it sure seems like one of those those big dad
<v Speaker 2>games that tend to do way better than you think
<v Speaker 2>they will.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, definitely think any sort of game where you're kind
<v Speaker 1>of doing a job and the whole the whole idea
<v Speaker 1>is like doing a job well, and that I think
<v Speaker 1>to me, that's sort of one of the key definitions
<v Speaker 1>of a dad game or even like a dad movie.
<v Speaker 1>And this definitely qualifies. And people just like to feel
<v Speaker 1>like they've accomplished something and making something go from dirty
<v Speaker 1>to clean. There's actually not much more that can give
<v Speaker 1>that feeling of accomplishment than that, Like you could just
<v Speaker 1>see the difference and then it's spick and span and
<v Speaker 1>shiny and you can feel real good about that.
<v Speaker 2>Man, I gotta get into power Watch Simulator because I
<v Speaker 2>don't think I've achieved anything in about two years.
<v Speaker 1>It's much easier in video games, it turns out for real. Hey,
<v Speaker 1>power Our Simular is a real winner. Though. Yeah, you'll
<v Speaker 1>have a good time with that. Recommend that first game.
<v Speaker 1>It's a good one multiplayer, but It's also great just
<v Speaker 1>to chill out and listen to a podcast. Maybe good.
<v Speaker 1>Those are some good games. Well, we will definitely be
<v Speaker 1>playing this on the website. I know Dan's a big
<v Speaker 1>fan of Powerwash Simulator, so we'll play something.
<v Speaker 3>To me off of MLB the show. This sounds like
<v Speaker 3>a great deal.
<v Speaker 1>There you go, save you figure for yourself.
<v Speaker 3>I'm in.
<v Speaker 2>I'm so glad I came on today and I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>go find some Powerwash simulator too.
<v Speaker 1>All right, then let's wrap up today's stories with how
<v Speaker 1>you are able to fund a free to play fighting game.
<v Speaker 1>The only way to get two x KOs arcane skins
<v Speaker 1>for Viv Jinks and Echo is to pay for a
<v Speaker 1>one hundred dollars bundle. This is from Wesley yannpul at
<v Speaker 1>ign Riots. Free to download League of Legends fighting game
<v Speaker 1>two XKO is out now in early access, and launch
<v Speaker 1>has brought with it various bundles, including one based on
<v Speaker 1>much loved animation Arcane that cost a whopping one hundred dollars.
<v Speaker 1>Fans who want the arcane skins must buy the one
<v Speaker 1>hundred dollars Ultrastarter Edition, which in no way, which is
<v Speaker 1>no there is no way to buy the skins for
<v Speaker 1>each character separately from this. Individually, you have to get
<v Speaker 1>the bundle one hundred dollars. This is Hey, this is
<v Speaker 1>where skin packs are at, especially for free to play games.
<v Speaker 1>And it's not like there haven't been free to play
<v Speaker 1>fighting games with skin packs before. Killer Instinct was that,
<v Speaker 1>but that was quite some time ago. And I suppose
<v Speaker 1>that we could say the meta on how you charge
<v Speaker 1>your skins and games has changed since then, as evidenced
<v Speaker 1>by this, right, this is like, oh, hey, fighting games surprise,
<v Speaker 1>this is how it's this is what it's like.
<v Speaker 2>And hey, man, if if you want to spend one
<v Speaker 2>hundred bucks on this, live your dream, like uh, people
<v Speaker 2>will and you know it, it's probably easier to sell
<v Speaker 2>one one hundred dollars bundle then I don't know, ten
<v Speaker 2>ten dollars bundles. I don't know if that's sure or not.
<v Speaker 2>But maybe that's the math they've been doing. Yeah, maybe
<v Speaker 2>we just thatt Fomo the Fomo premium on there.
<v Speaker 1>But especially launching, it's just going into one point zero
<v Speaker 1>I think. So it's like this was when excitement will
<v Speaker 1>probably be at the highest.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, and you have your very like you're super
<v Speaker 2>hyper enthusiast price insensitive player, and you're trying to achieve
<v Speaker 2>maximum value for them. This is like the perfect encapsulation
<v Speaker 2>of what this market's all about.
<v Speaker 3>Right now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I will say I'm surprised because we would do
<v Speaker 1>these stories and I would be like, yeah, man, this
<v Speaker 1>is so easy just not to do this. But now
<v Speaker 1>I have kids who play stuff like Minecraft and Fortnite,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm shocked at how easy it is to just
<v Speaker 1>buy a forty dollars pack of like v Bucks or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, oh my god, there it just went forth. Now,
<v Speaker 1>if I had to spend like directly forty dollars on
<v Speaker 1>an item, it might probably be a little bit more difficult.
<v Speaker 1>I probably would still do it very often for them,
<v Speaker 1>But man, just get in in that money. It's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>here's some extra view Bucks on top or whatever you
<v Speaker 1>can use to get whatever you want later. It's that
<v Speaker 1>money just goes down the train so fast. They really
<v Speaker 1>know what they're doing over there.
<v Speaker 2>So easy, and it just requires no thinking, firm like
<v Speaker 2>you can just keep on playing those games and just
<v Speaker 2>a little bit here, a little bit there, and all
<v Speaker 2>of a sudden they are the biggest things in the
<v Speaker 2>world and one out of every three people that turn
<v Speaker 2>on their box every week is playing Fortnite.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, man, like video games twenty twenty five. That's where
<v Speaker 3>we're at.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, all right, so that does it for the headlines.
<v Speaker 1>Let's go ahead and get to the poll question from Monday,
<v Speaker 1>which I have right over here. Let me just refresh
<v Speaker 1>the results. We have the most fresh input here from
<v Speaker 1>the audience. Okay, when was the last time you used
<v Speaker 1>a plastic instrument controller like for rock band. Let's see,
<v Speaker 1>the options were this month, this year, within the last
<v Speaker 1>two years, or three years or more, and six percent
<v Speaker 1>said they've done it in the this month, ten percent
<v Speaker 1>or nine percent then said they've done it within the
<v Speaker 1>last two years. Ten percent though, so they've done it
<v Speaker 1>in the last year, and then seventy six percent said
<v Speaker 1>three years or more. I'm sure to include some people
<v Speaker 1>have never done that sort of thing before. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we just got word that rock band for is kind
<v Speaker 1>of being sunset because they aren't going to redo the
<v Speaker 1>licensing after the ten year sort of a path that
<v Speaker 1>they had, and it's like, yeah, this might be the
<v Speaker 1>real low point for this genre of this industry. You're
<v Speaker 1>not really trying to bring it back this time I
<v Speaker 1>could see that. I don't know, do you have any
<v Speaker 1>insight here, Matt.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's just gonna be living in Fortnite for now. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>everything else. I mean, I don't think people really appreciate now.
<v Speaker 2>It's just how culturally significant the dance music genre was
<v Speaker 2>in the late two thousands, and just what it meant
<v Speaker 2>to the video game market, just how big it was,
<v Speaker 2>how it was everywhere, and how even the Beatles got
<v Speaker 2>involved at one point saying that this was the future
<v Speaker 2>of music. It's just it's wild to think that. Just
<v Speaker 2>you know, however, many years later, it's it's done, it's gone. Basically,
<v Speaker 2>it's amazing.
<v Speaker 3>It just you know, I.
<v Speaker 1>Feel like there a book could be written about all
<v Speaker 1>of like why was it driven into the ground? Why
<v Speaker 1>was it not done in a sustainable way? And I
<v Speaker 1>bet you could lay a lot of that at activissions feet.
<v Speaker 1>But hey, all right, let's see here, we've got a
<v Speaker 1>new pool question. We'll get to here in a second.
<v Speaker 1>Before we do that, thought, Matt Piscatilla, why don't you
<v Speaker 1>tell people where they can find you on the internet,
<v Speaker 1>what you have going on? All that good stuff?
<v Speaker 4>Uh?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm on Blue Sky and unfortunately on LinkedIn, where
<v Speaker 2>I'm just posting stuff about the video game industry. Like
<v Speaker 2>my goal for my public facing stuff is just to
<v Speaker 2>you know, let people It's the stuff I would have
<v Speaker 2>wanted to know growing up when no one was talking
<v Speaker 2>about this stuff. So if you want to chat the
<v Speaker 2>business side of games, I'm always around and always happy
<v Speaker 2>to try and help where I can.
<v Speaker 1>Excellent And let's see here new poll question. It's up
<v Speaker 1>now on our YouTube. If you go to YouTube dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash at Giant Bomb slash posts or just click
<v Speaker 1>on the post button there you can find have you
<v Speaker 1>ever paid twenty dollars or more for a skin in
<v Speaker 1>a video game? Yes? Or no? Your options? Kind of
<v Speaker 1>want to see where people land on this one. I have.
<v Speaker 1>I have, not many times, but a couple of times.
<v Speaker 1>So let's see what the results are for that. We'll
<v Speaker 1>get it tomorrow on games Morning's here on Giant Bombs
<v Speaker 1>speaking to Giant Bomb. Stick with us. It is still
<v Speaker 1>Golf Week, everybody, and if you want to like celebrate,
<v Speaker 1>you go to store dot giant bomb dot com. You
<v Speaker 1>can get your Golf Week's sure at your Golf Week hat,
<v Speaker 1>but you can also just watch along as me and
<v Speaker 1>Dan take on Game Informer and everybody's golf hot shots
<v Speaker 1>here very soon. We'll probably get started in about ten
<v Speaker 1>to fifteen minutes, so we'll be set up for that soon.
<v Speaker 1>We'll continue our winning streak, of course, even though I
<v Speaker 1>think me and Dan both have not really played this
<v Speaker 1>game at all. And then let's see later Today's Blight
<v Speaker 1>Club that's not golf related, but Dan will be going
<v Speaker 1>back into darkest of Dan's Darkest of Days, which he
<v Speaker 1>started last week. That's pretty good, Dan. I did order
<v Speaker 1>your hat, although I don't think it'll be here until
<v Speaker 1>next week, so hopefully you don't finish the game today
<v Speaker 1>and then tomorrow voicemail, dump truck, some other golf stuff.
<v Speaker 1>We upf on Friday where we're gonna do some more
<v Speaker 1>golf stuff as well. It's gonna be a good time.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for hanging out with us everybody this week. Matt,
<v Speaker 1>Thank you so much for hanging out with me today
<v Speaker 1>to talk about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>Video games.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you so much. Great great seeing you high chat,
<v Speaker 2>Bye chat. It was a good time.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching and listening. You're the best
<v Speaker 1>audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
<v Speaker 1>Take care of yourself. Goodbye,