Microsoft is Pausing Development on Xbox Handheld

<v Speaker 1>Don't be bad.
<v Speaker 2>Hey everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grubb,
<v Speaker 2>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 2>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 2>the questionable future of the Xbox Handheld and people aren't
<v Speaker 2>loving one of the biggest releases of the year. It's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be a good one because we have Jason Finelli
<v Speaker 2>on the show. Jason, how are you doing? I feel great.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's Summer Games Fast Week and we're all running
<v Speaker 3>around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to
<v Speaker 3>figure out all of the video game things.
<v Speaker 1>Now quite a few things.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, Yes, shout out to video game things. One's up
<v Speaker 3>in the chat for video game things. I love being
<v Speaker 3>this busy. I love this time of year. I live
<v Speaker 3>for it. I love the adrenaline of, you know, finding
<v Speaker 3>out new games and and going and hanging out in
<v Speaker 3>Los Angeles. I fly out Thursday night very excited for that.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's gonna be a good one. I just feel
<v Speaker 3>it in my bones. I know people have been like
<v Speaker 3>not really expecting much from some rest, so I don't
<v Speaker 3>know what to think. I just feel we're gonna we're
<v Speaker 3>gonna have a good time. It's gonna click.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I'm starting to get there now.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it definitely feels like, you know, starting to
<v Speaker 2>make appointments and it's like, okay that some people are
<v Speaker 2>showing up, maybe things will be a little bit better
<v Speaker 2>than I was thinking.
<v Speaker 1>Are you as your flying out Thursday? Yes? Do you
<v Speaker 1>think this? You think do you have a switch to preorder?
<v Speaker 3>I am midnighting switch to the name you got all
<v Speaker 3>figured out. Oh yeah, I'm going to midnight it on
<v Speaker 3>Wednesday night into Thursday. I'll have it all set up.
<v Speaker 3>My flight's about five six o'clock at night, six o'clock
<v Speaker 3>in the afternoon. I'll I'll land in l A about
<v Speaker 3>ten ten p m. L A time. I will not
<v Speaker 3>go to bed because who does that? And uh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>well we'll make it happen. Figure it out.
<v Speaker 1>Fantastic.
<v Speaker 2>I I've been like looking, I booked my flight right
<v Speaker 2>as soon as I separated from my previous company, and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, I'm just gonna go on my own whatever,
<v Speaker 2>and then everything else happened, and so like I booked
<v Speaker 2>my flight without really even looking at it might have
<v Speaker 2>been a little emotional, and I'm flying out Tuesday, like wait, yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, oh, I'll figure it out.
<v Speaker 3>I remember you saying on one of your other you're
<v Speaker 3>independent now, so I can mention this. Oh. By the way,
<v Speaker 3>by the way, this is the first time. This is
<v Speaker 3>the first time I have been here since your declaration
<v Speaker 3>of independence, your fourth of July moment at Pax East. Hollay.
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<v Speaker 1>We're excited.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but uh but anyway, I completely lost my train
<v Speaker 3>of thought in that exuberance.
<v Speaker 1>So what was you were gonna say something?
<v Speaker 2>I can You're independent now, so I could say this
<v Speaker 2>if that doesn't write well.
<v Speaker 3>On one of your other on one of your other podcasts,
<v Speaker 3>I think it was then ten Dogs, you had mentioned
<v Speaker 3>that you might be in flux a little bit. So
<v Speaker 3>if you need a place to throw you shit start
<v Speaker 3>Thursday night. You say the word I got you Thursday night.
<v Speaker 3>We'll have our place, but I appreciate that.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, and I actually got the where I'm staying
<v Speaker 2>figured out, got some family situation going on, so it's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be good. It's gonna be all good. Looking forward
<v Speaker 2>to it. Actually, it'll be nice to you know. I'll
<v Speaker 2>get some work done as well. We'll maybe try to
<v Speaker 2>meet up with some people who are in the area,
<v Speaker 2>maybe meet up with some devs that are in la
<v Speaker 2>oh shit ye, so yeah, get some stuff done. All right,
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<v Speaker 3>Are we talking like a are we talking like gifts
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<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>But pretty much. Yeah, it's the equivalent of that. It's
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<v Speaker 2>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 2>the morning mess with. Microsoft reportedly pauses development on Xbox handheld.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot. Last year, a
<v Speaker 2>story broke that Microsoft was working on prototypes for an
<v Speaker 2>Xbox handheld console that could potentially compete with Valve's Steam Deck. However,
<v Speaker 2>a new report suggests that Microsoft is putting aside its
<v Speaker 2>ambitions for a dedicated dedicated Xbox handheld, at least for now.
<v Speaker 2>According to Windows Central, Microsoft is shifting its priority away
<v Speaker 2>from its Xbox handheld to focus on improving the gaming
<v Speaker 2>performance of Windows eleven on third party handheld devices, including
<v Speaker 2>Asus's Project Kennon I think It's Kenon. The report notes
<v Speaker 2>that Microsoft still has ambitions of releasing its own handheld,
<v Speaker 2>and it's developing additional technologies towards that goal for the
<v Speaker 2>immediate future, that's not the priority. Excuse me, Jason, We've
<v Speaker 2>heard these rumors for a long time. I think that
<v Speaker 2>as I hear this to me, it actually makes a
<v Speaker 2>lot of sense because Microsoft is the Windows company, and
<v Speaker 2>in the last couple of weeks I've been paying attention
<v Speaker 2>to this. This is probably not something that's like getting out
<v Speaker 2>there to most people. It's just I'm a steam Deck freak.
<v Speaker 2>Steam Os has been updated so that you could kind
<v Speaker 2>of put it on other devices, and the first third
<v Speaker 2>party handheld, the Lenovo Legion go s, launched with steam
<v Speaker 2>Os instead of Windows and by all, and this is
<v Speaker 2>the same device that did launch with Windows, you know,
<v Speaker 2>a couple of years back. It's got all the same
<v Speaker 2>components for the most part, it just has steam Os now,
<v Speaker 2>and the side by side comparisons are really rough.
<v Speaker 1>For Windows. It looks pretty bad.
<v Speaker 2>Like obviously, there's the stuff I complained about, which is
<v Speaker 2>I think Windows on a touchscreen controller device is miserable.
<v Speaker 2>Trying to update the correct drivers in three different apps
<v Speaker 2>when it's time to update things because it's not all
<v Speaker 2>centralized because it's Windows, is a pain. And then you know,
<v Speaker 2>when you want to type in a password field and
<v Speaker 2>you click on it and it just doesn't work right
<v Speaker 2>because Windows, it's like, wait, where's the keyboard? What's going
<v Speaker 2>on here? That's happened to be plenty of times that
<v Speaker 2>stuff's annoying.
<v Speaker 1>They need to fix that. They're working on that.
<v Speaker 2>The bigger problem might be, like the performance of these
<v Speaker 2>games are it's just better on Steam Os, which is
<v Speaker 2>wild considering that it's like there's a proton layer translating a.
<v Speaker 1>Lot of games. Battery life way better.
<v Speaker 2>And so you know what Microsoft needs to do is
<v Speaker 2>figure out Windows first, because if that's going to be
<v Speaker 2>their strategy of let's make everything a Windows PC, including
<v Speaker 2>our Xbox, the Xbox Handheld, that operating system needs to
<v Speaker 2>be more scalable for devices like this, and it's pretty
<v Speaker 2>far away from that right now. So this makes sense
<v Speaker 2>because this is a big problem they need to solve
<v Speaker 2>because if this space takes off like as much as
<v Speaker 2>it has been, if it continues to growing the way
<v Speaker 2>it has been, a few million consoles per year or
<v Speaker 2>a few million of these handel PCs per year, and
<v Speaker 2>then it like against the grow, Microsoft could miss out
<v Speaker 2>on a big new opportunity and it doesn't want to
<v Speaker 2>do that.
<v Speaker 1>So does this all sound right to you.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, they could miss out on miss miss out on
<v Speaker 3>a huge opportunity again, seems to be their mo Hello,
<v Speaker 3>Windows Phone, Hello Zoom. It makes perfect sense to me
<v Speaker 3>that they would need to get Windows, some sort of
<v Speaker 3>Windows proprietary Windows systems, specifically for these handheld PCs, because
<v Speaker 3>translating Windows eleven to the original Lenovo Legion Go which
<v Speaker 3>I have, is a mess. The keyboard is a mess.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't come up when you need it to. The
<v Speaker 3>touchscreen works when it wants to work, doesn't work when
<v Speaker 3>it doesn't. It forgets that you have the handheld on
<v Speaker 3>sometimes and then you have to attach it again, and
<v Speaker 3>then Windows doesn't read it doesn't recognize it as a controller.
<v Speaker 3>It's they cannot. They cannot if they want everything to
<v Speaker 3>be an Xbox, they cannot fall behind again. Yeah, they
<v Speaker 3>have to figure this out. If Kennon had come out
<v Speaker 3>or Keenan, keen it in kel whatever it's called, if
<v Speaker 3>it had come out and was you know, inferior to
<v Speaker 3>the Legion Goes, the rog Allies and the Steam Deck particular,
<v Speaker 3>it will be left from the dust. It would be
<v Speaker 3>the Windows Phone in the Zoom all over again. And
<v Speaker 3>I don't think with this particular technology they can afford
<v Speaker 3>that because they're supposed to be the PC gaming company
<v Speaker 3>for reputation's sake, they can't afford it, let alone the
<v Speaker 3>actual technology. So yes, this tracks. This makes sense. It
<v Speaker 3>is beneficial to them that we have not actually seen
<v Speaker 3>this thing yet, and it's been all rumors. They didn't.
<v Speaker 3>They didn't pull on multiverses and put it out and
<v Speaker 3>then take it away again. That works for in their favor,
<v Speaker 3>so we don't have anything to we won't have anything
<v Speaker 3>to compare it to when it actually does launch, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I mean it. It seems like a sound strategy for them,
<v Speaker 3>whether or not it pays off, if the delay in
<v Speaker 3>when they wanted it to come out versus when it
<v Speaker 3>actually does come out is beneficial. Once they figure this
<v Speaker 3>stuff out, who knows, they could have already missed the
<v Speaker 3>boat and just don't know it yet. But you know,
<v Speaker 3>for their sake, I hope they figure it out, because
<v Speaker 3>this a first party even though they're partnering with Asis,
<v Speaker 3>a first party Windows PC gaming handheld makes sense. It
<v Speaker 3>makes sense in the space, and the fact that it
<v Speaker 3>doesn't exist yet is a little weird.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they do seem motivated so I think they recognize
<v Speaker 2>that this is an opportunity that they did that they
<v Speaker 2>don't want to miss out on, and so I think
<v Speaker 2>they're taking it seriously, which gives me the hope that
<v Speaker 2>when this project kenen ASU's Handheld comes out, which is
<v Speaker 2>you know, mostly still going to be a third party
<v Speaker 2>hardware with a lot of micros off love on it,
<v Speaker 2>I think there's a chance that they do solve most
<v Speaker 2>of these issues.
<v Speaker 1>The battery.
<v Speaker 2>The actual performance, maybe that's more questionable because Windows has
<v Speaker 2>been this kind of thing where they've tried to make
<v Speaker 2>it more scalable in the past, and sometimes that looks
<v Speaker 2>like a Windows for arm you know, the mobile chips
<v Speaker 2>or whatever they've tried that that that's not what this is,
<v Speaker 2>or at least wouldn't be yet. And then sometimes it
<v Speaker 2>looks like Windows you know eight, which had all the
<v Speaker 2>you know, the idea of.
<v Speaker 1>Like, hey, this can also run on your tablets.
<v Speaker 2>For as much as they've made that like okay, here
<v Speaker 2>is a good UI or an acceptable UI for a
<v Speaker 2>touchscreen interface, that even when they were trying that, they
<v Speaker 2>didn't necessarily figure out all the the you know, lower
<v Speaker 2>performance or you could put this into a laptop that
<v Speaker 2>doesn't need a fan or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>No way, that's that's not how it was working.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm still pretty skeptical that they're going to figure
<v Speaker 2>that out until we see it. But I think the
<v Speaker 2>very least this story mixes sound like they know that
<v Speaker 2>is something they must be concerned with, and hopefully they
<v Speaker 2>have people working on it.
<v Speaker 1>We'll see.
<v Speaker 2>I want I think I want a handheld space that,
<v Speaker 2>especially on the PC side, that does have both steam
<v Speaker 2>Os and Windows kind of competing with one another. I
<v Speaker 2>think that would be good for the improvement of features.
<v Speaker 2>I think Steam I think the reason Valve has been
<v Speaker 2>moving so fast, other than it's had success is it
<v Speaker 2>does see a chance to kind of dominate, and I
<v Speaker 2>think kind of Windows keeping it honest there would really help.
<v Speaker 2>YEP all right up next, morale at Star Wars, Jedi
<v Speaker 2>and Titanful developer Respawn is at an all time low.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Alex Hopley, a game reactor. EA has
<v Speaker 2>made headlines a few times this year with job cutting.
<v Speaker 2>Most recently, it canceled its Black Panther game and shut
<v Speaker 2>down the developer making it making it over at Cliffhanger Studios.
<v Speaker 2>Also earlier in the year, around one hundred people were
<v Speaker 2>let go from Apex, Legends, Titanfull and Star Wars Jedi
<v Speaker 2>developers to Respawn. According to senior encounter designer at Respawn,
<v Speaker 2>Patrick Wrenn, this has understandably led to an adverse effect
<v Speaker 2>on people still at the company. Morale has been at
<v Speaker 2>an all time low, he said in a post on
<v Speaker 2>Blue Sky. I can say that much as the twenty
<v Speaker 2>twenty three and twenty twenty four trend of jobs being
<v Speaker 2>lost in the industry continues in twenty twenty five, it's
<v Speaker 2>difficult to imagine that morale is very good at any
<v Speaker 2>major publisher right now, or that it will even approve
<v Speaker 2>at EA. This yeah, I mean boy, everyone at EA
<v Speaker 2>has got to be feeling like pretty shell shocked right now,
<v Speaker 2>after massive cut after massive cut, and a big game
<v Speaker 2>like Black Panther getting canned, several games you know, over
<v Speaker 2>the years getting canceled at Respawn, but then a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of layoffs happening at Respawn recently, and that.
<v Speaker 1>Was on top of Mammoth layoffs last year.
<v Speaker 2>It's just been kind of cut after cut to the
<v Speaker 2>point where it's like, Okay, well, what does the future
<v Speaker 2>look like? And then when EA says what the future
<v Speaker 2>looks like. It's like it is focusing on a handful
<v Speaker 2>of games that have already had proven success and then
<v Speaker 2>skate and so it's it's what they said, Evince.
<v Speaker 1>So we'll see how that goes for them.
<v Speaker 2>But if you are working at EA and you're looking
<v Speaker 2>around and be like, Okay, well we're still working on
<v Speaker 2>Star Wars Jedi three dare you gonna mention that? And
<v Speaker 2>it's like, well, in this latest round of laoffs, when
<v Speaker 2>they talked about the games that they're focused on for
<v Speaker 2>the future, they didn't mention that. The only thing they
<v Speaker 2>mentioned was Apex Legends, a game that feels like it
<v Speaker 2>has been rung dry. So if you're working at Respawning, like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, we've done everything we can think of. And
<v Speaker 2>many of the people who made respawn respawn early on
<v Speaker 2>have left because their stocks have vested and they are
<v Speaker 2>starting their own studios.
<v Speaker 1>So I think that this is a.
<v Speaker 2>Situation where it's got to feel gloom gloomy, and the
<v Speaker 2>chances of you feel like you're you're able to turn
<v Speaker 2>it around in such a big and such a big company,
<v Speaker 2>it has to feel impossible at a certain point, right.
<v Speaker 3>It can't be good walking in your office every day
<v Speaker 3>and feeling this sort of damicle is hanging over your head,
<v Speaker 3>not knowing when that's actually going to drop, and you're
<v Speaker 3>not going to have a job anymore. I feel for
<v Speaker 3>these people, I really do. I cannot imagine, especially in
<v Speaker 3>a business or in an industry we're supposed to be
<v Speaker 3>making things that are fun and people enjoy, right to
<v Speaker 3>have to go in every day with that, with that
<v Speaker 3>lack of assurance, with that fear that the next email
<v Speaker 3>you get could be the one that sends you packing,
<v Speaker 3>is harrowing. It's not something I envy, It's something I
<v Speaker 3>very much empathize with. Like I was laid off in
<v Speaker 3>twenty fourteen from a unrelated to the gaming industry, that
<v Speaker 3>the job that I had at the time, and if
<v Speaker 3>I still remember waking up and being directionless, for christ,
<v Speaker 3>it was months before I finally got back into a
<v Speaker 3>steady job. So to know that that might be in
<v Speaker 3>your immediate future, and then not knowing what that immediate
<v Speaker 3>future looks like. Is it three months, is it one month,
<v Speaker 3>is it tomorrow? It's it's rough, and it's it's even
<v Speaker 3>weirder to say this about Respawn, who you mentioned those
<v Speaker 3>franchises that they want to focus on Respawns, like half
<v Speaker 3>of them they are APEX and they are Star Wars,
<v Speaker 3>just Star Wars. It's so so to have them morale
<v Speaker 3>being an all time low there, what's it like at
<v Speaker 3>I was going to say, uh, Code Masters, but that
<v Speaker 3>I think we're talking about that next or whatever. The
<v Speaker 3>racing studio is like I I, oh, yeah, so I
<v Speaker 3>just it sucks. I mean, there's no other way to
<v Speaker 3>put it. I try. I'm trying to, you know, find
<v Speaker 3>a way to get a smile out of people with
<v Speaker 3>the chat at How how do you do that in
<v Speaker 3>a story like this. It's it's it's it's harrowing, it's
<v Speaker 3>it's it's not it's not a situation they deserve for
<v Speaker 3>the quot allity of stuff they've been putting out and
<v Speaker 3>like you, like you said, it's got to feel helpless.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, yeah, I think you know at Respawn, which is
<v Speaker 2>you know where this where Patrick Wrinn works and is
<v Speaker 2>saying the morales especially bad. It's it's got to be
<v Speaker 2>a certain point. They have tried so many new ideas
<v Speaker 2>and had so many projects that were really promising, things
<v Speaker 2>that you know I heard about like titan Fall Legends
<v Speaker 2>that looked that sounded really awesome.
<v Speaker 1>It was going.
<v Speaker 2>To take inspiration from Hades and but still be titan Fall.
<v Speaker 2>And they're like, hey, the one problem we had with
<v Speaker 2>titan Fall two is we would watch people play and
<v Speaker 2>some would still play it like Call of Duty and
<v Speaker 2>they wouldn't even like do the wall run or the
<v Speaker 2>double jump and stuff like that. We want to really
<v Speaker 2>kind of encourage them to do that. And they had
<v Speaker 2>all these great ideas to do that, and it's then
<v Speaker 2>changed its mind. At first, it's like, this is a
<v Speaker 2>good way to get people back into Apex Legends. We're
<v Speaker 2>going to kind of bring it into that umbrella. And
<v Speaker 2>they're like, well, now Apex Legends is actually dead and
<v Speaker 2>we're going to let it have a graceful sort of
<v Speaker 2>dropping off period. We're not going to reinvest in it
<v Speaker 2>too much. And then they changed their mind again. It's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>you're not going to do anything else because we're going
<v Speaker 2>to go back and reinvest in Apex Legends. And they've
<v Speaker 2>gotta be like, what the hell we were making stuff
<v Speaker 2>that was that would have made sense if this is
<v Speaker 2>what you wanted, if you want us to keep growing,
<v Speaker 2>And so the whiplash, the back and forth has got
<v Speaker 2>to be very frustrating. And then and then, as you said,
<v Speaker 2>as you listed all of the uncertainties.
<v Speaker 1>Really have to just kill morale.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm hopeful that that, you know, the people that
<v Speaker 2>are still respond can do good work. I don't have
<v Speaker 2>much faith in EA overall in this moment.
<v Speaker 3>Which sucks because they handle some of the biggest properties
<v Speaker 3>in the world. Like and if you're the NFL right now,
<v Speaker 3>you have to have at least I mean you're and
<v Speaker 3>you're one of the most sure things every single year
<v Speaker 3>in the industry. You have to have like just one
<v Speaker 3>eye on what the hell is going on outside of
<v Speaker 3>EA sports. It's got to be scary. So yeah, and
<v Speaker 3>people like to I've heard people say why is the
<v Speaker 3>industry so secretive? Why why do they only why is
<v Speaker 3>it so controlled? I think it's because I think at
<v Speaker 3>least there's an element to it that if we heard
<v Speaker 3>about the games that were in development and all the
<v Speaker 3>awesome ideas that were in them and then they get canceled,
<v Speaker 3>people would lose their minds. I imagine this probably happens
<v Speaker 3>more often than we are privy too. But like when
<v Speaker 3>you say you're making a Black Panther game and then
<v Speaker 3>just say, oh no, never mind, sorry we lied, And
<v Speaker 3>now like does iron Man come out? Like do you
<v Speaker 3>get iron Man now? Or is that?
<v Speaker 1>Who knows?
<v Speaker 2>Like it's and there's apparently like there was like a
<v Speaker 2>third Marvel game that I remember hearing.
<v Speaker 1>About, but I never found much else out about it,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like.
<v Speaker 3>It's probably like Feing Fang Foom and the Savage Lands
<v Speaker 3>or something that we've never heard of, but like it's so,
<v Speaker 3>you know, it's it's I I'm thinking about them. I'm
<v Speaker 3>I'm hoping that they find a way to turn it
<v Speaker 3>around despite the myriad forces working against them.
<v Speaker 2>Definitely sticking with EA. EA is planning to close its
<v Speaker 2>main racing studio as part of future layoffs. According to
<v Speaker 2>some reports, this is from Alex Co at Dual Shockers.
<v Speaker 2>Following yesterday's cancelation of the Black Panther game by Electronic
<v Speaker 2>Arts and closing the studio working on it, Cliffhanger Games,
<v Speaker 2>it seems more layoffs might be planned for the video
<v Speaker 2>game company this time. The latest rumor suggests that one
<v Speaker 2>of EA's newest studio acquisitions is not only facing layoffs,
<v Speaker 2>but also reportedly closing its doors completely. The latest rumor
<v Speaker 2>comes from extasists, who has been corrected multiple times when
<v Speaker 2>it comes to insider info. He had that Xbox story
<v Speaker 2>a few weeks back about all of Xbox's plans or whatever,
<v Speaker 2>and I kind of double checked in many of those things.
<v Speaker 2>He had a lot of that right, So I'm like
<v Speaker 2>ready to give exstacists some credit, although who knows what's
<v Speaker 2>actually going to happen here. The cancelation of Black Panther
<v Speaker 2>will not be the only thing. I've been able to
<v Speaker 2>learn that there are about four hundred more layoffs coming
<v Speaker 2>to EA, a total closure of the main headquarters of
<v Speaker 2>code Masters, and that these developers will be integrated into
<v Speaker 2>E a SP which does F one, and a new
<v Speaker 2>need for speed that is already in development. This is
<v Speaker 2>the thing that people hate about EA, maybe the most
<v Speaker 2>buy in the studio and closing it years later. Like Bear, Honestly,
<v Speaker 2>it feels like they just acquired code Masters, They maybe
<v Speaker 2>did a couple of the code Masters annual racing games,
<v Speaker 2>and now here we are.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, God, there's a lot of people.
<v Speaker 2>That work there, so I don't hope that it collapses,
<v Speaker 2>But honestly, EA, do we even need you like, why
<v Speaker 2>do like, I'm pretty sick of this.
<v Speaker 3>This.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, wh who knows what Code Master's future would have
<v Speaker 2>been like had they not been acquired. There's always that
<v Speaker 2>that that you should consider. But still this looks terrible, right,
<v Speaker 2>it looks awful. And it's it's e A doing e
<v Speaker 2>A things again.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's it's it's what people you know, when they
<v Speaker 3>bought BioWare they thought by the joke was, oh, sorry, BioWare,
<v Speaker 3>you're out. It's it's it's it's over for you because
<v Speaker 3>e A owns you now, and who knows, maybe they're
<v Speaker 3>on the clock too, which is unfortunate. They talk about
<v Speaker 3>all those four properties, mass effects not in there either,
<v Speaker 3>and we know you're making that. So but back to
<v Speaker 3>Code Masters, this is wild to me. They were they
<v Speaker 3>were making a successful racing franchise. They get swallowed up
<v Speaker 3>by EA, and now they're rumored to be getting Lets
<v Speaker 3>of Pasture. It's it's it makes covering the industry tougher.
<v Speaker 3>That should be. I think I would love to spend
<v Speaker 3>my time, you know, talking about new game releases and
<v Speaker 3>and you know, all the fun stupid stuff that people
<v Speaker 3>are doing in Elden Ring Night rain right now or whatever.
<v Speaker 3>And and you know that's a minor grape. My my
<v Speaker 3>complaint of oh no, it makes me sad to write
<v Speaker 3>these articles does not compare to the of course, I'm
<v Speaker 3>to make that very very clear. But what the fuck happened? Man? Like,
<v Speaker 3>what what happened that we are now getting into this situation.
<v Speaker 3>It's at this point, I'm just expecting EA and Ubisoft
<v Speaker 3>to merge, make Uba and they'll make one game a
<v Speaker 3>year and they'll just be this big Ivory Tower game
<v Speaker 3>studio in Montreal or whatever, and they'll just be there
<v Speaker 3>own the It's it just none of this makes any
<v Speaker 3>sense to me. And maybe it's just because I don't
<v Speaker 3>have a business background the business know well of why
<v Speaker 3>this made financial sense to just buy a studio and
<v Speaker 3>then close it. I it's it's fucking terrible.
<v Speaker 1>Sorry, I know you're right. Uh it's so.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, sad thing about Code Masters would be
<v Speaker 2>if it did close, And we don't know ben round
<v Speaker 2>since nineteen eighty six or been thousand since nineteen eighty six.
<v Speaker 2>Uh So there's a huge legacy there and it's not
<v Speaker 2>like it's, you know, a couple of games and then
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of years off. It's like they were consistently
<v Speaker 2>putting out several games a year for decades. And you know,
<v Speaker 2>there's a chance that this is miscommunication that some jobs
<v Speaker 2>are getting you know, cut as part of other layoffs
<v Speaker 2>or whatever. But it's clear that they are diminishing the
<v Speaker 2>role of Code Masters because they've already given up the
<v Speaker 2>World Rally cross ip like that is that went back
<v Speaker 2>up and someone else already grabbed that and Naton I believe, yes,
<v Speaker 2>that's right. Code Masters was, you know, putting out an
<v Speaker 2>annual WRC game every year, and the last one they
<v Speaker 2>did was in twenty twenty three, and then they didn't
<v Speaker 2>do one in twenty twenty four, and it's okay, well,
<v Speaker 2>now here's twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>Is that when it's going to pop back up? It's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>EA's done with that.
<v Speaker 2>So they are already taking away some of the projects
<v Speaker 2>that that studio was working on.
<v Speaker 1>It's not like they are.
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't seem like they were going back to dirt instead,
<v Speaker 2>it does sound like they're taking the people from Code
<v Speaker 2>Masters and putting many of them on Need for Speed,
<v Speaker 2>as the story claims, and it's like, okay, I get
<v Speaker 2>the Need for speed is the one of your racing
<v Speaker 2>games that always does just sell. There's a massive audience
<v Speaker 2>for it, even though I think that's kind of weird personally,
<v Speaker 2>but there is a massive audience for it. But man,
<v Speaker 2>what was the point of acquiring code masters just to
<v Speaker 2>make more need for speed games? I thought the idea
<v Speaker 2>was they ton't diversify, and now that's not what they're thinking.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's see here, let's take a quick break.
<v Speaker 2>We'll come back plenty of more headlines. If you want
<v Speaker 2>to miss out on these breaks, you can always go
<v Speaker 2>to giant bomb dot com slash join and you can
<v Speaker 2>get the ad free podcasts.
<v Speaker 1>There.
<v Speaker 2>Go do that in the meantime everyone else. Here are
<v Speaker 2>the ads. This episode of giant Bomb is brought to
<v Speaker 2>you by GiantBomb dot com slash Join. Join us there,
<v Speaker 2>become a member. It helps us make fun stuff. It
<v Speaker 2>gets you add free content. It also helps us make
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<v Speaker 2>making all the cool stuff that we make over here
<v Speaker 2>at Giant Bomb once again. That's giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Slash Join, become a member now, welcome back to mornings.
<v Speaker 2>I'm Jeff Grubb from Giant Bomb. That's Jason Finelli. Let's
<v Speaker 2>get back into the news. Elden Ring Night Rain explodes
<v Speaker 2>on Steam, but is already getting cooked in the reviews.
<v Speaker 2>Here's one of the reviews in the headline, Very bold
<v Speaker 2>of Miyazaki to think I have two friends to play with.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Ethan Gotch at Kotaku. Elden Ring Night
<v Speaker 2>Rain had a huge first night on PC. It's already
<v Speaker 2>from software's second biggest launch ever on Steam. The multiplayer
<v Speaker 2>spin off of the twenty twenty two hit Open World
<v Speaker 2>RPG is already getting hammered by use reviews, as fans
<v Speaker 2>complain about the lack of onboarding, poor communication tools, and
<v Speaker 2>the need to play with friends to have any real
<v Speaker 2>shot at surviving the challenging boss fights. Officially out today
<v Speaker 2>on PlayStation five and Xbox Series X and S, elder
<v Speaker 2>Ring night Rain went live on PC last night around
<v Speaker 2>six pm, and it's already sprang up the Steam charts
<v Speaker 2>with to reach over three hundred thousand concurrent players that
<v Speaker 2>made it the fourth biggest game on Valves storefront and
<v Speaker 2>the second biggest launch from from Software, behind only elden
<v Speaker 2>Ring itself, its namesake and its forty dollars price point.
<v Speaker 2>Clearly did the experimental multiplayer spin off some favors, but
<v Speaker 2>it didn't take long for players to realize that Night
<v Speaker 2>Ring is very much not elden Ring, Unlike its slow
<v Speaker 2>plotting predecessor, spinoff is a battle Reale influenced loot race
<v Speaker 2>in which a session see an entire a Soul's Word
<v Speaker 2>experience condensed into just forty five minutes. It takes them
<v Speaker 2>getting used to, and players are already coming to grips
<v Speaker 2>with Night Rain's notable hostility to explaining itself, even for
<v Speaker 2>a from Software game. And while it does allow for
<v Speaker 2>online solo play or offline solo players, should say, it's
<v Speaker 2>steep difficulty curve more of a right angle, really heavily
<v Speaker 2>rewards group play and coordination. And then there's a bunch
<v Speaker 2>of user reviews here, but they are many people are
<v Speaker 2>just kind of getting at this idea of there is
<v Speaker 2>a game here that probably is good and maybe in
<v Speaker 2>some ways great. It is difficult to find that as
<v Speaker 2>a player just entering this game for the first time,
<v Speaker 2>especially because you need to be with two other people
<v Speaker 2>who have already gone through that process and discovered what
<v Speaker 2>made it good as well, and that is not happening yet.
<v Speaker 2>And I believe that there are going to be people
<v Speaker 2>who eventually end up falling in love in love with
<v Speaker 2>this game, Jason, but I think in this moment, the
<v Speaker 2>idea of asking a lot of people like, okay, by
<v Speaker 2>this game, get two other people that you're going to
<v Speaker 2>play with to buy it, because you're going to need
<v Speaker 2>that because while there is match making, there are no
<v Speaker 2>communication tools.
<v Speaker 1>Really.
<v Speaker 2>There's no in game chat oh where you could type
<v Speaker 2>out your messages, and there's no voice chat inside the game,
<v Speaker 2>so it's like people are match making and everyone's kind
<v Speaker 2>of running in a different direction. Maybe that sorts itself
<v Speaker 2>out over time as people do learn how to play
<v Speaker 2>the game. But I think even regardless, if you're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have random matchmaking without voice chat, you're kind of setting
<v Speaker 2>yourself up for a lot of headaches with how all
<v Speaker 2>your players interact with this game.
<v Speaker 1>How are you feeling about it?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know that I'm surprised, right I hear experimental
<v Speaker 3>multiplayer from a studio that is more known for its
<v Speaker 3>single player stuff. I mean, there's multiplayer aspects to all
<v Speaker 3>the Soul's games short, but but this is like a
<v Speaker 3>as it said in the in the in the article here,
<v Speaker 3>a Battle Royale inspired loot race with three players that
<v Speaker 3>does not fit the elder Ring formula. They people trusted
<v Speaker 3>from Soft to make it fit, but it sounds like
<v Speaker 3>it they may have stumbled a little bit in that
<v Speaker 3>regard the fact that they went with the two thousand
<v Speaker 3>and seven two thousand and eight sweet and that's even
<v Speaker 3>being generous of online multiplayer offerings. No voice chat is
<v Speaker 3>very weird, that's very The fact that the fact that
<v Speaker 3>Call of Duty Modern Warfare two has something that this
<v Speaker 3>brand new twenty twenty five game does not have is
<v Speaker 3>not sitting right with me. Yeah, and someone did put
<v Speaker 3>in chat. I missed who it was, and forgive me.
<v Speaker 3>They may be patching the solo experience to make it
<v Speaker 3>slightly more bearable.
<v Speaker 1>I think I would love that personally.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean, if there are enough, if they have
<v Speaker 3>enough data that suggests that a lot of people are
<v Speaker 3>trying the solo and they want to patch it down
<v Speaker 3>so that those Solo folks can give a shot the
<v Speaker 3>elden Winge. Players who don't have two friends to play
<v Speaker 3>with are still able to enjoy the game. Great, that's
<v Speaker 3>how it should work. And then if you have a
<v Speaker 3>patch in the middle where if it's a two player game,
<v Speaker 3>maybe the difficulty goes up a little bit, but not
<v Speaker 3>too much. That's fine too. I'm not surprised that that
<v Speaker 3>people who UH were looking for a certain type of
<v Speaker 3>experience with an because of the name elden Ring aren't
<v Speaker 3>getting it. I wonder if they, maybe I would have
<v Speaker 3>had more success without the name on it, like if
<v Speaker 3>it was just inspired by elden Ring or or or
<v Speaker 3>Tales of Elder or something to differentiate it and not
<v Speaker 3>make it sound like a direct sequel or an expansion
<v Speaker 3>or something like that. You know I'm saying, But I
<v Speaker 3>don't know that. It doesn't shock me. I haven't tried yet,
<v Speaker 3>I haven't a chance to UH, and from Soft isn't
<v Speaker 3>usually my bag anyway. But I don't think that I'm
<v Speaker 3>surprised that's something that's so far off from the core
<v Speaker 3>experience of the namesake is turning people off. Maybe with
<v Speaker 3>the patch it'll get fixed, Maybe with easier ways to
<v Speaker 3>connect with random matchmaking, especially in the voice no voice chat.
<v Speaker 3>That's really throwing me that there's no voice chat. That
<v Speaker 3>seems like that's like Nintendo decision right there.
<v Speaker 1>Right now.
<v Speaker 2>I'm sure you like, if you're on console, like you
<v Speaker 2>can just you know, see the person's screen name, makeup
<v Speaker 2>party and connect with the hit away Steam. It's a
<v Speaker 2>little that's like, you know, even if that might be possible,
<v Speaker 2>it's it's a little bit against the way people play
<v Speaker 2>PC games. It's like you're not supposed to like reach
<v Speaker 2>out and start calling the person you're playing with randomly.
<v Speaker 2>So maybe there's a little faux pau situation there. But
<v Speaker 2>you know, also I think people are like, well, I
<v Speaker 2>just if I'm supposed to communicate, just put it in the game,
<v Speaker 2>Like that's how it works in every other game on Steam.
<v Speaker 2>So I wouldn't be here in this game from one
<v Speaker 2>of the biggest developers in the world, and so well,
<v Speaker 2>because they're weird.
<v Speaker 1>They're weird. They're just weird. There's no cross play.
<v Speaker 2>This is a game that definitely feels like you should
<v Speaker 2>have progression that happens where where your characters tied to
<v Speaker 2>a server.
<v Speaker 1>Or something, so you when you're going on these online sessions.
<v Speaker 1>It goes.
<v Speaker 2>But it's like, apparently xbox eron chat was saying, that's
<v Speaker 2>only tied. That only happens for the main person who's playing,
<v Speaker 2>and everyone else who's joining their game doesn't have the
<v Speaker 2>metal World progression.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, yeah, I.
<v Speaker 3>Don't like so if I join your game, only you
<v Speaker 3>get the.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe maybe you get like some certain progressions for your character.
<v Speaker 2>I've only played a little bit, but apparently you don't
<v Speaker 2>get the metal World progression, is what they say, And
<v Speaker 2>I don't know exactly what that means.
<v Speaker 3>Yes either.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I'm not surprised to hear that, because again,
<v Speaker 2>Weird from Software is weird with this stuff. They make decisions,
<v Speaker 2>they make big choices, and a lot of times that's like, wait,
<v Speaker 2>everyone else does it this way, and a lot of
<v Speaker 2>times it makes it doesn't make sense, but it makes
<v Speaker 2>for fun or creates opportunities for their very fun messaging
<v Speaker 2>system where people are just leaving all kinds of notes
<v Speaker 2>for each other. And it's like, no, that this is
<v Speaker 2>actually a great thing. You put me Verse in all
<v Speaker 2>your games. I know it predates me Verse even but
<v Speaker 2>you put me Verse in all your games and now
<v Speaker 2>we can just enjoy these messages here. It just feels
<v Speaker 2>like it's antithetical to the way you're to the game
<v Speaker 2>that you've built and that you want, and antithetical to
<v Speaker 2>the way you want people to be playing your game,
<v Speaker 2>So that could be a little annoying. Platonic confirms layoffs.
<v Speaker 2>The landscape is shifting, and with it, so must we.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. Yuka Leiley, developer
<v Speaker 2>and publisher Platonic Games has confirmed that a number of
<v Speaker 2>its staff has been laid off. Numerous Platonic staffs have
<v Speaker 2>been posting on social media over the past week that
<v Speaker 2>they had lost their jobs, making it increasingly likely that
<v Speaker 2>these weren't individual cases and that Platonic had conducted a
<v Speaker 2>round of layoffs. The company has now officially confirmed this
<v Speaker 2>in a statement on Twitter and Blue Sky, though it
<v Speaker 2>hasn't clarified how many staff are affected. This is one
<v Speaker 2>of those messages we never wanted to have to write.
<v Speaker 2>The statement reads. We've all seen in recent years how
<v Speaker 2>the games industry has been changing, resulting in studio after
<v Speaker 2>studio finding themselves in situations where to continue to exist,
<v Speaker 2>they must make painful decisions decisions that impact the lives
<v Speaker 2>of so many individual developers. Like others, we've felt the
<v Speaker 2>knock gone effects, and after exploring every possible avenue, we've
<v Speaker 2>had to make the incredibly heartbreaking decision to say goodbye
<v Speaker 2>to some truly brilliant members of the Platonic team, Jason.
<v Speaker 2>They kind of go on to say that this is
<v Speaker 2>something that a lot of developers and publishers are dealing with.
<v Speaker 1>They hate this.
<v Speaker 2>They're trying to shift with the times because they feel
<v Speaker 2>like the way games are being financed, the way that
<v Speaker 2>they're being built, has completely changed up on them, and
<v Speaker 2>so they're going to have to start from scratch in
<v Speaker 2>some ways, and that means greatly pairing back. This size
<v Speaker 2>of studio is one that I really wish could find
<v Speaker 2>stable footing.
<v Speaker 1>I hope that does happen.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think the chances of that are of
<v Speaker 2>that of that happening are for in the next couple
<v Speaker 2>of years.
<v Speaker 3>Or Platonic specifically Platonic.
<v Speaker 2>Or a studio of this size, like it feels like
<v Speaker 2>the like all the studios of the size are standing
<v Speaker 2>on Quicksand.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, I would agree with that, just because if you
<v Speaker 3>don't come out with a major hit, and then a
<v Speaker 3>follow up to that major hit that's another major hit.
<v Speaker 3>Like a lot of these these size studios feel like
<v Speaker 3>one and done. Platonic is A is A is a
<v Speaker 3>bit of a exception to that role, even though all
<v Speaker 3>three of their games are in the same universe, right,
<v Speaker 3>Ukulele The Impossible Layer I think was the second one,
<v Speaker 3>and now Replay, which who stop it?
<v Speaker 1>Love it?
<v Speaker 3>That's a hard one to say, so yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 3>they have been able to keep going based on this
<v Speaker 3>little franchise they've built for themselves and the indie clout
<v Speaker 3>that it gained for bringing back the three D platforming genre.
<v Speaker 3>And that's part of it too, right, A lot of
<v Speaker 3>these indie studios like to focus their efforts on a
<v Speaker 3>genre or on a style of game that hasn't been
<v Speaker 3>around in a while. The three D platformer in Ukulele,
<v Speaker 3>the banjo kazui style three D platformer in Ukulele's case
<v Speaker 3>is the example. But then, Okay, you've gotten your nostalgia hit.
<v Speaker 3>Now what you're gonna You're gonna go back to that? Well?
<v Speaker 3>Does that work? How are you going to iterate on
<v Speaker 3>what you've already iterated on without then falling into the
<v Speaker 3>same trap that the genre fell into in the first place,
<v Speaker 3>and that's why people don't make them anymore. So you
<v Speaker 3>need to have you need to have a studio who
<v Speaker 3>or or maybe like maybe in a group of studios
<v Speaker 3>under one umbrella, who can kind of branch out and
<v Speaker 3>do different things even within the same genre. I think
<v Speaker 3>of dot EMU. Yeah when I when I come up
<v Speaker 3>with this, because they have they have a bunch of
<v Speaker 3>beat them ups, but everyone, every one of them feels
<v Speaker 3>different enough, and they're all developed by different studios.
<v Speaker 2>And yes, exactly, they're like a smaller studio that partners
<v Speaker 2>with a lot of other.
<v Speaker 3>Studios, right, and then they partner with IP and license
<v Speaker 3>the IP from I don't know the Sega still owns
<v Speaker 3>Treets of Rage at the time, I'm not sure about that,
<v Speaker 3>But then Marvel Cosmic Invasion and Turtles Freder's Revenge, which
<v Speaker 3>was excellent, so they come to mind. It's sort of
<v Speaker 3>how the strategy seems to work now. Two D beat
<v Speaker 3>them ups maybe easier to develop sort of than a
<v Speaker 3>three D platform, or granted it's all hand drawn pixels,
<v Speaker 3>that's probably takes a little more effort, or maybe just
<v Speaker 3>as much effort than modeling three D, but I don't
<v Speaker 3>know that the I don't know where the development costs
<v Speaker 3>would be in those type of projects. I want to say,
<v Speaker 3>I hope that Platonic comes out of this without, you know,
<v Speaker 3>put a sign on the door it says no longer business.
<v Speaker 3>But I think in order to do that they need
<v Speaker 3>to have another hit that isn't ukulele. They need more IP,
<v Speaker 3>license an IP and adapt the three D genre to it.
<v Speaker 3>Revive gex that seems to be a thing that people
<v Speaker 3>are trying to do now, bring gets back. I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>it's whatever, you know what playton Maybe I'm sorry, Jeff,
<v Speaker 3>you break the glass and you press the button. The
<v Speaker 3>white with the big inflamation paint on it.
<v Speaker 1>Now it tastes.
<v Speaker 3>Of emergency break for pubs, break back pubs.
<v Speaker 2>Actually, I think a Playtonic bubbsy game. I would like
<v Speaker 2>to see that. That would be pretty cool. I think
<v Speaker 2>it's it's a matter of scale, right, dott Emu. And
<v Speaker 2>then like all this slew of indie developers where it's like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>you've been making Silk Song for years.
<v Speaker 1>I was like trying to remember the name. What was
<v Speaker 1>gonna call It's do in.
<v Speaker 2>Heaven you've been h making Silk Song for years, and
<v Speaker 2>it's like, yeah, they can afford to do that because
<v Speaker 2>they're it's a smaller studio that can thrive on the
<v Speaker 2>profits of the game, the first game selling in Steam
<v Speaker 2>sales for years, right that they could just like like
<v Speaker 2>kind of predict that a little bit, like we can
<v Speaker 2>just rely on that to sort of fund everything. I'm
<v Speaker 2>sure there's other funding because they probably are trying bigger things,
<v Speaker 2>especially a successful studio like that, But in a lot
<v Speaker 2>of cases, these smaller studios are just kind of surviving
<v Speaker 2>on the profits of their first game. Platonic was too
<v Speaker 2>big to do that, right They also had a publishing
<v Speaker 2>arm and things they were trying to grow and grow
<v Speaker 2>and grow, And I just don't know if the current
<v Speaker 2>gaming industry can sustain a studio trying to do that
<v Speaker 2>right now. Maybe one, maybe two. There's a couple here
<v Speaker 2>and there that can pull that off, you know, if
<v Speaker 2>you're a little bit bigger, if you're io interactive, like
<v Speaker 2>they're like, hey, let's try that. We're going to publish
<v Speaker 2>some stuff. Although you know that could be treacherous as
<v Speaker 2>well for them. We'll find out, But Platonic is of
<v Speaker 2>that scale where it's like, actually, maybe it is better
<v Speaker 2>to pair back down and try to be more like
<v Speaker 2>a dot emu, where it's like, hey, we could do
<v Speaker 2>this thing very well. Let's partner up with some other studios,
<v Speaker 2>or just have to make smaller games.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Death Stranding two is getting a live game premiere presentation
<v Speaker 2>during Summer Game Fest. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC.
<v Speaker 2>A live game premiere event for Death Stranding two has
<v Speaker 2>been confirmed for Summer Game Fest. The presentation will take
<v Speaker 2>place at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, will be
<v Speaker 2>hosted by Jeff Keeley, and we'll be streamed online. Adeo
<v Speaker 2>Kojima will be in attendance at the event, which is
<v Speaker 2>designed to celebrate the game's upcoming launch with a panel
<v Speaker 2>discussion with special guests, an exclusive live demonstration of the
<v Speaker 2>game in action. A limited number of tickets for the
<v Speaker 2>event are available with those listed interests. We have with
<v Speaker 2>those interested able to register now for a chance to attend. Yeah, hey,
<v Speaker 2>they're really kicking this off.
<v Speaker 1>Obviously.
<v Speaker 2>This is part of his like, I think his world
<v Speaker 2>tour where he's going to take the game to Oh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>right here. It's a Sydney, Tokyo, Paris, London, Soul, Taipei,
<v Speaker 2>Hong Kong, Shanghai, Riad and South Paolo before ending in
<v Speaker 2>Luca in Italy in November.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so they're kicking it off here.
<v Speaker 2>Do you think that this is the kind of marketing
<v Speaker 2>campaign that can get des straining to a lot of eyeballs.
<v Speaker 1>I think this is like Summer game Fest. Makes a
<v Speaker 1>lot of sense.
<v Speaker 3>Well, yeah, we were getting it at Summer game Fest
<v Speaker 3>no matter what because of the bromance right with of course,
<v Speaker 3>whether whether we wanted to Kojima there or not, He's
<v Speaker 3>going to be there to support his boy Jeff. You
<v Speaker 3>know it. No, this makes perfect sense. I think it's
<v Speaker 3>a good setting. I think with Keeley as the host,
<v Speaker 3>they obviously have a lot of chemistry. They can they
<v Speaker 3>can put on a good a good like back and
<v Speaker 3>forth fireside chat sort of thing. That's the vibe I'm
<v Speaker 3>getting from this Special guests probably mean some of the
<v Speaker 3>other people, the other celebrities who are in the Kiss,
<v Speaker 3>they're in LA, they're probably in their backyard. Just bring
<v Speaker 3>them in. Yeah, I think this is a neat idea.
<v Speaker 3>I think they're were smart to not compete with Giant
<v Speaker 3>bomb at night and to go on on Sunday. That
<v Speaker 3>was very smart of them not to do that. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's cool. It's a good idea. This is how you
<v Speaker 3>get some some extra gameplay out there. Makes me wonder
<v Speaker 3>if it'll show up at SGF Live as well, But
<v Speaker 3>when I really think about it, yeah, of course it will.
<v Speaker 3>It'll be all over this weekend. So yeah, this is cool.
<v Speaker 3>This is this is a cool little idea. As much
<v Speaker 3>as we talk about speaking of weird, as much as
<v Speaker 3>we talk about how much of an altar and an
<v Speaker 3>artist and you know, weird, Kojuma is nobody talks about
<v Speaker 3>his games better than him, So to give him the
<v Speaker 3>opportunity to do that in this sort of setting makes
<v Speaker 3>perfect sense. Now, is this the PlayStation showcase that you
<v Speaker 3>were that we were talking about, because it is live
<v Speaker 3>streaming on the PlayStation channel.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I was gonna ask that. It's like, so
<v Speaker 2>this does kind of say that we shouldn't expect a
<v Speaker 2>a state of play that would have featured death stranding
<v Speaker 2>right around this time. Maybe that is something that's happening
<v Speaker 2>later in June. Uh, this makes sense that this would
<v Speaker 2>be separate from what I was hearing about just and
<v Speaker 2>that's all I could say. Really, but yes, but this
<v Speaker 2>is going to be on the PlayStation YouTube channel, so yeah,
<v Speaker 2>they're definitely promoting this as a PlayStation thing.
<v Speaker 3>Which of course they are. At first, I was like,
<v Speaker 3>how'd they get the orphium? The orphum is really Larry
<v Speaker 3>usually full around this time. And then I think it's
<v Speaker 3>Ubisoft that takes the orphium. Let's see they have What
<v Speaker 3>are they doing? Do we know what they're doing?
<v Speaker 1>Like? Are they I don't think I've heard anything from
<v Speaker 1>ub Soft. I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>They have a game that's so weird. It's so weird.
<v Speaker 1>Be I'm good and evil to be there the big
<v Speaker 1>game this year?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, there you go. There it is.
<v Speaker 2>Multi Versus officially closes down and is delisted today. This
<v Speaker 2>is some Chris scullying at VGC. The online service for
<v Speaker 2>Multiverses officially closed down today. This is, of course, the
<v Speaker 2>Warner Brothers Games crossover Smash Brothers rival. The publisher announced
<v Speaker 2>back in January that the game's fifth season would be
<v Speaker 2>to be its last, running from February fifth to May thirtieth,
<v Speaker 2>and then it went offline today.
<v Speaker 1>You were following multiverses there for a while.
<v Speaker 2>It kind of a rough end for a game that
<v Speaker 2>never really found its footing, and I think because Warner
<v Speaker 2>Brothers was directing it in the wrong direction.
<v Speaker 1>But that's my take.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think, farewell, sweet Prince, we hardly knew ye. Well,
<v Speaker 3>we did know yee and then you went away, and
<v Speaker 3>then we had.
<v Speaker 1>Knew you again. Yeah we re knew yee before.
<v Speaker 3>Damn it U? Yeah? What? Like? What the fun? Man? This?
<v Speaker 3>This should have been a slam dunk. There was a
<v Speaker 3>void created by a lack of a new Smash Brothers
<v Speaker 3>Ultimate had gotten all of its characters out. This should
<v Speaker 3>have been a slam dunk with all of the ip
<v Speaker 3>even in the game. You had Game of Thrones, you
<v Speaker 3>had Scooby Doo, you had DC Superheroes, you had Rick
<v Speaker 3>and Morty, all of those premier names in one game
<v Speaker 3>in a silly slapstick platform fighter. It should have been
<v Speaker 3>a slam dunk. And the fact that it's not continuing,
<v Speaker 3>but not for any fault of player. First, because of
<v Speaker 3>all of the bullshit shenanigans surrounding it is it makes
<v Speaker 3>my skin crawl right this it should have been a
<v Speaker 3>no brainer. And the game was fun. It was fun
<v Speaker 3>before it went away, and it was fun. After it
<v Speaker 3>came back. I enjoyed playing this game, and I just
<v Speaker 3>cannot wrap my head around the fact that they fumbled
<v Speaker 3>this bag so much. It is astounding to me that
<v Speaker 3>this game is not continuing that I've been trying to
<v Speaker 3>think of the exact moment where it all fell apart.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know that I disagree at the time with
<v Speaker 3>them taking it out of beta, but if you're gonna
<v Speaker 3>do that, you better relaunch with guns fucking blazing. And
<v Speaker 3>they didn't like a big.
<v Speaker 1>Change, like a big shift has happened.
<v Speaker 3>They didn't do that. It felt like the exact same
<v Speaker 3>game with extra characters. It was one point oh, but
<v Speaker 3>without the smooth transition from beta to one point oh.
<v Speaker 3>And if you go back and watch the live streams
<v Speaker 3>of when they're coming back and they're talking about why
<v Speaker 3>they were doing this and how like the strategy, you
<v Speaker 3>can just see in their faces that they have no
<v Speaker 3>control over this and this is not what they want
<v Speaker 3>to do, but they're being told they have by people
<v Speaker 3>who don't know what the goddamn fuck they're doing.
<v Speaker 2>So and the people who like have this idea of
<v Speaker 2>like this game can be so much more than it
<v Speaker 2>ever really could have been. It could have just been
<v Speaker 2>a successful video game. We're saying on Decides last night.
<v Speaker 2>They could have just made it a product. It could
<v Speaker 2>have just put a price on this game and sold
<v Speaker 2>it like the Nickelodeon games, and it would have done
<v Speaker 2>way better than Nickeladien games because it was a better game.
<v Speaker 2>And they just didn't want to do that because they
<v Speaker 2>had stars in their eyes or dollars signs in their
<v Speaker 2>eyes for a live service game that would just be
<v Speaker 2>the equivalent of Smash Brothers, but free to play, and
<v Speaker 2>every time a new character got announced, people would freak
<v Speaker 2>out the like the way they do for Smash Brothers characters,
<v Speaker 2>and it's like, no, you gotta you're gonna have to
<v Speaker 2>earn that. Don't don't start with that as the goal.
<v Speaker 2>That's like a that's like step five. You got so
<v Speaker 2>much stuff to figure out if you ever get there,
<v Speaker 2>which you probably.
<v Speaker 1>Won't, So just sell us a video game. Just do that.
<v Speaker 2>And then the business model was the exact opposite and
<v Speaker 2>was kind of toxic for the game and just turned
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people off.
<v Speaker 3>I think not only that, if you're going to introduce
<v Speaker 3>a brand new character and try to do it in
<v Speaker 3>the same way that Super Smash Brothers does. You're not
<v Speaker 3>going to do that because no one makes trailers like
<v Speaker 3>as a Hero Sakarai.
<v Speaker 1>They just don't.
<v Speaker 3>I go back to the Switch direct that we watch
<v Speaker 3>together and all of us going, this is a Sacarai trailer.
<v Speaker 3>You could just see it's a Sacarai trailer. When Kirbeer
<v Speaker 3>Rider showed up, he just has a style to him
<v Speaker 3>and a flair for the dramatic to him that they
<v Speaker 3>never replicated with their trailers. Like go back and watch
<v Speaker 3>in particular, I think it's Rick Sanchez specifically. The Rick
<v Speaker 3>Sanchez reveal trailer is just thirty seconds of gameplay where
<v Speaker 3>it's two characters fighting and the portal shows up and
<v Speaker 3>he walks through it and he looks like it's an
<v Speaker 3>alpha model or even like a pre alpha model that
<v Speaker 3>they didn't want to use. You can just tell that
<v Speaker 3>they were told to make a trailer and they were
<v Speaker 3>just like shit, all right, I guess we have to
<v Speaker 3>do this now. Everything about this game was mismanaged. I
<v Speaker 3>feel so terrible for this studio and if they could
<v Speaker 3>all get the gang back together and make a player
<v Speaker 3>form Fighter, either with different ip or even original and
<v Speaker 3>just say hey, we made multiverses, now we're trying something different.
<v Speaker 3>I would be there day one because the game was fun.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, it's frustrating as a lot of these new stories
<v Speaker 2>today have been. I hope that the people who were
<v Speaker 2>at player first can kind of get out of the
<v Speaker 2>situation and try something new and like come back and
<v Speaker 2>be like, look, see see what we could do untethered
<v Speaker 2>from a big dumb publisher like w B, which is
<v Speaker 2>the biggest and dumbest of publishers. Oh my god, wait,
<v Speaker 2>oh my god, the President is dead in hell Divers too, everybody,
<v Speaker 2>The President of Super Earth has been killed in action
<v Speaker 2>by the Illumina Tea during the fall of Prosperity City.
<v Speaker 2>That was the message that greeted Hell Divers two players
<v Speaker 2>when they logged on last night in one last bid
<v Speaker 2>to repel their invading squid like foes. Some truthers think
<v Speaker 2>that this was an inside job. When the dust settled
<v Speaker 2>Friday morning, the battle to save Super Earth was over
<v Speaker 2>and players had succeeded in winning the Extraction Shooters biggest
<v Speaker 2>showdown since it launched. So yeah, okay, I just wanted
<v Speaker 2>to do the joke. That's really what this I just
<v Speaker 2>saw the headline. I was like, Ethan, gotcha, well done.
<v Speaker 2>You give me a fun thing to do. I hell
<v Speaker 2>divers Dude two does just seem like it's one of
<v Speaker 2>those games that's in like a bunch of different states
<v Speaker 2>at the same time. It's a schroding RS video game
<v Speaker 2>where it seems like it's completely fine, and then it
<v Speaker 2>seems like, man, maybe it's winding down, and then it's like, no,
<v Speaker 2>actually it is popping off again.
<v Speaker 1>There's new content.
<v Speaker 2>People were waiting for this, and it's like, oh man,
<v Speaker 2>more people are playing than a long time. And then
<v Speaker 2>as soon as they kind of finished that content, apparently
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of Chinese players went and review bombed the game,
<v Speaker 2>so it's like they played it and then they're like
<v Speaker 2>review I'm like, Okay, what the fuck is going on
<v Speaker 2>over there?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I think that makes it actually pretty standard for a
<v Speaker 2>live service game, right. These things always seem like, think
<v Speaker 2>about the way Destiny was forever but for several years
<v Speaker 2>there for Destiny one and then Destiny two, where it's
<v Speaker 2>like you could ask any person who had been playing
<v Speaker 2>that game, like go Loo with their Steam profile one
<v Speaker 2>thousand plus hours, you can ask them how they feel
<v Speaker 2>about Destiny, and you would get a million different answers,
<v Speaker 2>and so I think that the fact that Hell Divers
<v Speaker 2>two is in that zone is maybe even kind of
<v Speaker 2>a good sign. It's like that is the natural state
<v Speaker 2>of a live service game, right.
<v Speaker 3>That's how it should be. I mean, that's how the
<v Speaker 3>most successful live service games they build on these moments.
<v Speaker 3>The one, the one that really started at all really
<v Speaker 3>was the Rocket and Fortnite. I still think about that
<v Speaker 3>and how that the rocket blew up and shatout the sky,
<v Speaker 3>and so to keep having these little moments in your
<v Speaker 3>game and to keep driving the story in that way,
<v Speaker 3>it's how it should be. It's how Destiny two is.
<v Speaker 3>It's how at the other one that you mentioned there
<v Speaker 3>is I can't remember the name of all a sudden,
<v Speaker 3>I'm blinking, but yeah, the fact that so many different
<v Speaker 3>people are playing this game in so many different ways
<v Speaker 3>and developing their own relationship with the game is the
<v Speaker 3>sweet spot, and I think they're getting there. My nephew,
<v Speaker 3>he's a fourteen fifteen something like that. He got a
<v Speaker 3>play Station five this past Christmas and Hell Divers two
<v Speaker 3>was first first on his list, still talking about it,
<v Speaker 3>and I like he texted me about this. They got
<v Speaker 3>the president in hell Divers. I'm like, I'm glad you
<v Speaker 3>prefaced that, and lad you're smart enough to preference that,
<v Speaker 3>which you sir Chat is mad at you.
<v Speaker 1>We all have to just I just was trying to
<v Speaker 1>wake everybody up.
<v Speaker 3>Seems like you did that. But yeah, I think the uh,
<v Speaker 3>I think this is a good This is a good headline.
<v Speaker 3>It's good news for hell Divers too. It's something that
<v Speaker 3>grabs the attention and lets people remember that you're there, especially,
<v Speaker 3>you know, amongst all of the news that we've dealt
<v Speaker 3>with today. It's yeah, good for them. Keep up the
<v Speaker 3>weird storylines that keep people coming back and wake up
<v Speaker 3>the chat.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, exactly. Last story. We'll just do this one
<v Speaker 1>real quick.
<v Speaker 2>A Concord developer's commemorative release plaque is being auctioned at
<v Speaker 2>a good will store. It's just like, you know, like
<v Speaker 2>when an album goes like gold or platinum and they
<v Speaker 2>put like an artist puts that stuff on the wall.
<v Speaker 2>It looks a lot like that, but for when they
<v Speaker 2>print the version of the game, so it's the disc
<v Speaker 2>and the cover and then the developer's name or whatever,
<v Speaker 2>and the developer's name has been confirmed by I think.
<v Speaker 1>VGC or some people.
<v Speaker 2>Uh this the bidding for this thing on the goodwill
<v Speaker 2>website is up to three thousand dollars.
<v Speaker 1>It's three thousand two dollars.
<v Speaker 2>So that's the most excitement anyone's ever had for Concord
<v Speaker 2>is happening right now for this thing.
<v Speaker 3>Somebody, somebody was commenting on Blue Sky about this. At
<v Speaker 3>some point, this particular plaque is going to make more
<v Speaker 3>than the game did, and I was like, oh no.
<v Speaker 1>Just inherently, yeah, that game lost so much money, right, Yeah, I.
<v Speaker 3>Don't Yeah, I don't want to kick you know, I
<v Speaker 3>don't want to beat a dead horse or kick anybody
<v Speaker 3>while they're sure down. But oh god, is it.
<v Speaker 2>Like it's an artifact of like gaming's recent mistakes, right,
<v Speaker 2>That's what this is. It just represents the whole wrongheaded
<v Speaker 2>thinking about the way to approach people who play video
<v Speaker 2>games so that will spend money on your stuff. And yeah,
<v Speaker 2>this is just like emblematic of that moment is which
<v Speaker 2>is ongoing in a lot of ways.
<v Speaker 1>But this is this is like it's going to be
<v Speaker 1>the poster child for that.
<v Speaker 3>It really is a tangible piece of gaming history. For
<v Speaker 3>all of the wrong reasons exactly.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's get to the poll question. This one
<v Speaker 2>is from yesterday. I'm going to vote right now. Do
<v Speaker 2>you think PERSONA four will get announced at Summer Game Fest.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna get my hopes up and say yes. I know,
<v Speaker 2>like there's still a good chance it won't happen, but
<v Speaker 2>I am in the majority. Sixty seven percent of people
<v Speaker 2>think it will get announced at Summer Game Fest.
<v Speaker 1>Thirty three percent say no. So there you go. What
<v Speaker 1>do you think, Jason, you think there's a chance.
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to be I'm going to be a pedantic
<v Speaker 3>asshole and say no, it'll be at Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, that's because at let's enn, Xbox seem to be cozy.
<v Speaker 1>Yes.
<v Speaker 3>So if it's going to be anywhere this next weekend,
<v Speaker 3>I think it's going to be at the Xbox Showcase.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you Skalker for your first super chat on the stream.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciate that. If anyone else wants to like try
<v Speaker 2>to burst into the show drop a super chat, I'll
<v Speaker 2>keep my eyes on those. Feel free to do that
<v Speaker 2>on the episodes going forward. And that's on YouTube for
<v Speaker 2>audio listeners that are wondering later. So maybe we'll get
<v Speaker 2>some messages from the audience going forward. Ye, all right,
<v Speaker 2>we have a new poll question. We'll get to that
<v Speaker 2>here in a moment before we do that, Jason Finelli,
<v Speaker 2>why don't you tell people where they can find you
<v Speaker 2>on the internet, what you have going on and all
<v Speaker 2>that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, you can find me at big Man Finelle on
<v Speaker 3>basically all social media that there is, Instagram. I am
<v Speaker 3>most active on Blue Sky and Instagram because Instagram takes
<v Speaker 3>my pictures to Facebook nice and conveniently for me, so
<v Speaker 3>I don't have to go on there, and blue Sky
<v Speaker 3>is just better than X. I don't make the rules,
<v Speaker 3>it just is. So that's where I'm mostly hanging out
<v Speaker 3>a lot of stuff on GameSpot recently GameSpot. Oh wow, here,
<v Speaker 3>what is he is? That? Is that the voice of Mitch?
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that's Mitch.
<v Speaker 4>I gotta give you important information about this persona situation
<v Speaker 4>before you make your decisions.
<v Speaker 1>Oh no, breaking news.
<v Speaker 3>Where's the music?
<v Speaker 1>Where's the music?
<v Speaker 4>It's been pointed out to me that these voice actors
<v Speaker 4>have been coming out and talking about how they aren't
<v Speaker 4>going to be in the new game in the same
<v Speaker 4>exact order that their respective characters join.
<v Speaker 1>Your party in persona four.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, it's a marketing make of that?
<v Speaker 4>What you will just say it that if we if
<v Speaker 4>we're supposed to make of that, like you think what
<v Speaker 4>you will up to you?
<v Speaker 1>I'm just goodbye?
<v Speaker 3>Where did this turn into Italian Grandma mess mornings with that?
<v Speaker 1>What am I supposed to do with this?
<v Speaker 3>What is this mafia? The old country settler? But but
<v Speaker 3>uh yeah, game spot m m r p G. I've
<v Speaker 3>written a excuse my language. They know I'm cursing this
<v Speaker 3>whole time. Fuck ton of coverage about Magic the Gathering,
<v Speaker 3>final Fantasy card reveals and galleries and shit like that.
<v Speaker 3>The full set will finally be on the website today,
<v Speaker 3>Wizard's website, so we can finally see all the cards.
<v Speaker 3>They have all been previewed, so I could I could
<v Speaker 3>finally be done with that and just get and just
<v Speaker 3>be ready to play the damn game when it comes
<v Speaker 3>out in two weeks. I also, I mean, if I
<v Speaker 3>could brag for a second, please, I lost fifty.
<v Speaker 1>Pounds hell yeah you're looking ground brother.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well fifty two since November. I just feel like
<v Speaker 3>I feel like a million dollars. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it's it's Uh, it's it's wild. It took going to
<v Speaker 3>the gym four times a week at five in the morning,
<v Speaker 3>but uh, here at MCGOV but here we are.
<v Speaker 1>It helps.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it's uh that was nice to get on
<v Speaker 3>the scale this morning and see fifty two down. That's
<v Speaker 3>pretty awesome. But yeah, that's what I'm doing, that's what
<v Speaker 3>I have. We say, it's hell yeah, brother, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 3>thank you, thank you, thank you. So yeah, that's that's me.
<v Speaker 3>That's uh, that's uh, that's where you can find me.
<v Speaker 3>That's where I'm doing this stuff. And uh, Jeff, I
<v Speaker 3>am ready to give you a high five next week.
<v Speaker 1>I'm ready. Yeah, I can't wait to see you. That's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be great, looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 2>Uh, we're gonna be back in l A for SGF
<v Speaker 2>doing fun stuff, uh in GB at night and all
<v Speaker 2>that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe you'll see Jason on the show. It'll be a
<v Speaker 1>good time, all right.
<v Speaker 2>So let's see here new poll question. Are you enjoying
<v Speaker 2>Elden Ring night rain, Yes, kind of no or I'm
<v Speaker 2>not playing. We'll get the results talk about that on Monday.
<v Speaker 2>Next week's gonna be a little bit hairy for our
<v Speaker 2>shows because we will be traveling bombcasts will happen, although
<v Speaker 2>I'm not probably not gonna be honest, I'm gonna be traveling,
<v Speaker 2>uh and then no game mess morning is likely Wednesday
<v Speaker 2>through Friday. We're just gonna be too busy getting ready
<v Speaker 2>for GB at night. But we'll be back at it,
<v Speaker 2>you know, as soon as we can, uh likely on
<v Speaker 2>the other side of SGF and in the meantime, well
<v Speaker 2>other ways of conveying information for you to to. You
<v Speaker 2>check out the you know these channels. Check out GiantBomb
<v Speaker 2>dot com. There'll be plenty of stuff happening there. Speaking
<v Speaker 2>of Giant Bomb, we still have more coming today in back.
<v Speaker 2>Right after this, we'll take some time to get set up.
<v Speaker 2>We are gonna play some elder Ring Night Rain. We're
<v Speaker 2>gonna kind of do a quick look live, and then
<v Speaker 2>later we're gonna do roadcraft for UPF, and then at
<v Speaker 2>one thirty Pacific time three thirty Eastern, we're gonna try
<v Speaker 2>to match up against kind of funny in Eldering Night Rain.
<v Speaker 2>I know it's not competitive game, but we're gonna turn
<v Speaker 2>it into one where we're each gonna play in parallel
<v Speaker 2>and see who can kill the most many bosses bosses,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the giant bosses, they're all worth different different points.
<v Speaker 2>Andy's got a scoring system. We'll give that a shot.
<v Speaker 2>We're expected to get We're expecting to get cooked.
<v Speaker 3>Here where Indy has a scoring system.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, he's got like its many bosses worth one point
<v Speaker 2>and like the big Night boss is worth twenty five
<v Speaker 2>points or whatever. So we'll get into it, all of it.
<v Speaker 2>So we'll shift from Roadcraft to that about three or
<v Speaker 2>of the way through upf exactly. Yeah, well in a
<v Speaker 2>very similar games when you think about it. All right, Jason,
<v Speaker 2>and now, I thank you so much for hanging out
<v Speaker 2>with me today and talking about video games. Man, I
<v Speaker 2>really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>It was an honor. Again, it was my first time
<v Speaker 3>since you've gone in dependent. I am so happy for
<v Speaker 3>you guys. I cannot wait to see what you do
<v Speaker 3>and if you ever need anything, right here.
<v Speaker 1>Real quick chat.
<v Speaker 2>So if this isn't, if they're doing it in order
<v Speaker 2>and it continues, who would be next?
<v Speaker 1>Is it?
<v Speaker 2>Is it Matthew Mercer that we should expect to see next?
<v Speaker 2>Because if that happens at this point then I.
<v Speaker 1>Will fully believe.
<v Speaker 2>Uh so we'll see all right. Thank you everybody for watching.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you all for listening. You are the best audience
<v Speaker 2>in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take
<v Speaker 2>care of yourself and goodbye BA.