Forza Horizon 6 Leaked Before Launch

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff
<v Speaker 1>Grab your host from giant bomb dot com. Hey, we're
<v Speaker 1>a year old. Hi everybody, Thank you, thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>Xbox's biggest gaming leaking, biggest gaming leaking, biggest game leaking early.
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be a good one because we have Lexiletti
<v Speaker 1>on the show. LEXI, how are you doing.
<v Speaker 2>I am here, I'm celebrating. I'm in the festive spirit.
<v Speaker 2>I'm wishing you happy anniversary, like, which is a normal
<v Speaker 2>thing to do. Is Yeah, it's it's been a year.
<v Speaker 2>Do you want to know where I was when I
<v Speaker 2>found out that that Giant Bomb may not have been
<v Speaker 2>a thing. I was about to sit down to watch
<v Speaker 2>Thunderbolts in the cinema because.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, really, yeah, it's been.
<v Speaker 2>A rough week. I'm going to take an early day
<v Speaker 2>off this Friday. I think it was a Friday. I
<v Speaker 2>was like, I'm going to take an early like day off.
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to go to the cinema, go for a
<v Speaker 2>nice long walk out to the cinema. And I get
<v Speaker 2>there and I sit down and I look at my
<v Speaker 2>phone and I see a bunch of ominous messages on
<v Speaker 2>Blue Sky, and I was like, well, I have time
<v Speaker 2>to watch a movie for two hours and see what
<v Speaker 2>is when I come out.
<v Speaker 1>And then by the time you came out, we we
<v Speaker 1>own giabomb. So yeah, we've we've been independent for a year. Everybody,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's been fast, kind of NonStop and a lot
<v Speaker 1>of really good ways.
<v Speaker 3>It's been a good year. We got a cool little
<v Speaker 3>video up.
<v Speaker 1>Showing some of the like a sizzle reel from our
<v Speaker 1>first year. We are going to be celebrating everything with
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<v Speaker 1>Donkey Kong sixty four. He's starting that today and think, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>go ahead.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think he understands no, that game is not
<v Speaker 2>like he's like, oh, yeah, she's a boring platform but like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't think he under sounds that like it's a
<v Speaker 2>grating platformer. It's an aggressively grating platformer. Like I watched
<v Speaker 2>a lot of us. Yeah, yeah, I watched a lot
<v Speaker 2>of that h bomber guy streaming it. But that man
<v Speaker 2>doesn't break easy. It almost killed him.
<v Speaker 1>No, those those beavers, they were bothering him. They were
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<v Speaker 1>one thing. Everybody when when we ski, when we post
<v Speaker 1>on social media that he is in Beaver bother, just show.
<v Speaker 3>Up for that.
<v Speaker 1>At least you're not gonna want to miss it. I
<v Speaker 1>think there is a chance Mike one shots it, and
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<v Speaker 1>We have to we all have to subscribe to Giant Bomb.
<v Speaker 2>If he doesn't one shot at We're gonna get a
<v Speaker 2>lot of good sound bites of like saying things about.
<v Speaker 1>Beavers, suggest non stop weird weird phrases about beavers.
<v Speaker 3>It's gonna be special and amazing.
<v Speaker 2>So Soundboard is going to be like totally overhauled with
<v Speaker 2>just Mike beaver talk.
<v Speaker 1>We will get the beaver bother Claxon's going everybody when
<v Speaker 1>it happens. But yeah, the whole thing is going to
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<v Speaker 1>we're doing this because it's the years up. We want
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<v Speaker 1>Thank you as far as this show goes most weekdays,
<v Speaker 1>I Jeff Grubb will help Eeceier in gaming life back together.
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<v Speaker 1>catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
<v Speaker 3>Hello YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have a lot to get into, so
<v Speaker 1>let's start the morning Mess with Directive eighty twenty. Reviews
<v Speaker 1>are in seventy six On Open Critic, Let's see tech Raptors.
<v Speaker 1>Andrew Stretch wrote seven point five out of ten ten
<v Speaker 1>and said Directive eighty twenty does a lot correctly, but
<v Speaker 1>tends to get in its own way instead of letting
<v Speaker 1>the players sit in the uncomfortableness. The new turning point
<v Speaker 1>system makes exploring new outcomes a breathe. Though Day one
<v Speaker 1>gave it a seven out of ten, I believe this
<v Speaker 1>was Jesse that wrote this. Director of eighty twenty is
<v Speaker 1>a solid sci fi yarn let down by some early
<v Speaker 1>snark filled writing. The plot is serviceable in showing you
<v Speaker 1>some gorgeous locations full of people you may or may
<v Speaker 1>not want to save and a bevy of monsters you'll
<v Speaker 1>get bored hiding from. If you've enjoyed the studio's previous works,
<v Speaker 1>then rest assured that director of eighty twenty may well
<v Speaker 1>be worth checking out.
<v Speaker 3>LEXI, I believe believe you played this right.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I reviewed this. My review is up on Game
<v Speaker 2>of Guides right now. I gave it a seventy nine
<v Speaker 2>out of one hundred. I like it quite a bit.
<v Speaker 2>I think I think it's pretty obvious why they have
<v Speaker 2>not been leaning into the dark Pictures stuff with this game.
<v Speaker 2>This is a ark Pictures game, but is much more
<v Speaker 2>in line with the size and i'd say the polish
<v Speaker 2>of something like The Quarry or what's it again until Dawn,
<v Speaker 2>of course. But yeah, I really really enjoyed this game.
<v Speaker 2>It has one or two genuine surprising plot twists in
<v Speaker 2>it that I thought were pulled off pretty well and
<v Speaker 2>kind of play into the structure and the foremast of
<v Speaker 2>these games in a way that I quite like. I
<v Speaker 2>also quite like that the characters are one that they
<v Speaker 2>just have more time to develop them in a way
<v Speaker 2>that the usual dark pictures games just really don't. And
<v Speaker 2>also all of them are like good at their jobs.
<v Speaker 2>They're not dirt bad teenagers, which like you can have
<v Speaker 2>endearing dirt bag teenagers. I think until Darn Mike, especially
<v Speaker 2>in that game, is like really good the guy who
<v Speaker 2>the jock who gets the shit beat out of them
<v Speaker 2>without that game, but I think that all of these
<v Speaker 2>people being quite competent and good at their jobs and
<v Speaker 2>generally able to keep track of things and logic things
<v Speaker 2>out is really refreshing for the like compared to the
<v Speaker 2>usual more slashery victims in these games. It's much easier
<v Speaker 2>to keep these people alive because they are able to
<v Speaker 2>think through what they are doing. I also think the
<v Speaker 2>turning points system is a much better way. That is
<v Speaker 2>basically it in previous games. You could you'd see at
<v Speaker 2>the end of the game all the decisions that you'd
<v Speaker 2>made and how they kind of butterfly affected out on
<v Speaker 2>what path you went down, And if you wanted to
<v Speaker 2>go and see other decisions, you had to start from
<v Speaker 2>the beginning of the game or load a chapter and
<v Speaker 2>then continue from there. This allows you to rewind to
<v Speaker 2>literally every single previous decision, no matter what is, whether
<v Speaker 2>it's a dialogue choice or whether it is one of
<v Speaker 2>the bigger like ranching points of the narrative. It allows
<v Speaker 2>you to jump back to one of those and pick
<v Speaker 2>something different. And as you look through the kind of
<v Speaker 2>mind map of the game, which you know tells you
<v Speaker 2>where you made your decisions and what they led to,
<v Speaker 2>it also tells you what decision would let you get
<v Speaker 2>the other outcome. So if you see one of the
<v Speaker 2>characters dies in it because you know in a chapter,
<v Speaker 2>and you pause it and then you see that there's
<v Speaker 2>a version of events where they wouldn't have died, it
<v Speaker 2>will tell you like, oh, back in chapter three, if
<v Speaker 2>you had set this up, they would have been fined.
<v Speaker 2>So you can rewind back to chapter three and just
<v Speaker 2>start from there. And it's again, it doesn't totally relieve
<v Speaker 2>the like fact that you do have to replay through
<v Speaker 2>all of the section leading up to mash point then again,
<v Speaker 2>but it allows you to at least know where to
<v Speaker 2>start to make that decision and quickly jump back to it.
<v Speaker 2>And it is like an almost instantaneous you just jump
<v Speaker 2>straight back to that point. The game also introduced is
<v Speaker 2>a collectible towards the end that does ties into the
<v Speaker 2>rest of the Dark Pictures universe. Up until that point,
<v Speaker 2>it's barely it's barely connected, and basically that's a reason
<v Speaker 2>to continue exploring your save file and going looking in
<v Speaker 2>different scenes again for more collectibles. And if you do that,
<v Speaker 2>you'll unlock a thing. And there's a whole thing that
<v Speaker 2>wasn't even in the game when we played it, but
<v Speaker 2>they've said they will patch it in with the Day
<v Speaker 2>one release. So yeah, I think this game stands alone
<v Speaker 2>really well compared to the rest of the Dark Pictures games.
<v Speaker 2>And I think that like even just the character one character, Surning,
<v Speaker 2>is way more interesting than almost any other character their
<v Speaker 2>version if you keep them alive long enough and you
<v Speaker 2>hear some of the like stuff that he has to
<v Speaker 2>deal with, And yeah, I quite like it. It's not perfect.
<v Speaker 2>These games have a habit of feeling quite disconnected in
<v Speaker 2>places because they do have to account for certain characters
<v Speaker 2>not being alive or maybe you not learning so and
<v Speaker 2>pieces of information, so sometimes they do just feel slightly disjointed,
<v Speaker 2>but like, it's not the end of the world. And
<v Speaker 2>also this game is designed to be replayed multiple times
<v Speaker 2>so that you do get that whole soul you or
<v Speaker 2>a bigger insight to what was really happening.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I really like it excellent. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>You know, while you were talking there, I was kind
<v Speaker 1>of glancing at some of the previous Open Critics scores
<v Speaker 1>for the Dark Pictures games and other super massive games basically,
<v Speaker 1>and this is just right in kind of the middle.
<v Speaker 1>It's maybe on the higher end actually in terms of
<v Speaker 1>just where the scores are coming in A seventy nine
<v Speaker 1>for The Quarry, this is seventy six. A lot of
<v Speaker 1>the Dark Dark Dark Pictures games. The other ones are
<v Speaker 1>in that range or lower. And I think, you know,
<v Speaker 1>as much as it's a cliche at this point, and
<v Speaker 1>we do rightfully ridicule it, fans of the genre shall
<v Speaker 1>rejoice here, right. I mean, like, if you know you
<v Speaker 1>like these games, this is another one of those without
<v Speaker 1>sort of anything that's going to necessarily push you away,
<v Speaker 1>and maybe some neat features that might help you explore
<v Speaker 1>the game, like the turning point system.
<v Speaker 3>Right. That's my read on these reviews so far.
<v Speaker 2>The degree to which they lean into, hey, this is
<v Speaker 2>just the thing in space is kind of like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we know that, Like you are literish in the horror genre,
<v Speaker 2>and as the game progresses, it actually subverts some of
<v Speaker 2>that stuff in a way that I thought was really
<v Speaker 2>fun for a game that is so like it is
<v Speaker 2>a way that the people who are playing this have
<v Speaker 2>probably watched the thing and have probably watched Alien and
<v Speaker 2>it does some clever twists on that stuff as the
<v Speaker 2>game goes on, and it plays around with time and
<v Speaker 2>some interesting ways that I really liked this game is like, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>fans of the genre is one way to put it.
<v Speaker 2>But I do think it's just it's engaging in a
<v Speaker 2>way if you do like that stuff in a different
<v Speaker 2>way if you do like that stuff. So that's that's
<v Speaker 2>kind of why I was drawn to it, because I
<v Speaker 2>do really like, you know, horror and horror movies and
<v Speaker 2>shit like that.
<v Speaker 1>Right, Yes, that makes sense as well, did do you?
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember. Is this the one that also has
<v Speaker 1>or maybe they've done this in recent games and carries
<v Speaker 1>over here built in sort of multiplayer function where multiple
<v Speaker 1>people can play at the same time and have input
<v Speaker 1>on the choices.
<v Speaker 2>So this one, as far as I can tell, the
<v Speaker 2>multiplayer is much more in line with until Dawn, which
<v Speaker 2>was kind of a past the controller thing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>In some of these games, it was like, oh, if
<v Speaker 2>you split up, then one player online has control of
<v Speaker 2>these characters and another player online has control of these characters.
<v Speaker 2>And that is not here in this one. And I
<v Speaker 2>think that actually serves the story better because they don't
<v Speaker 2>feel as compelled to constantly separate characters for no good reason,
<v Speaker 2>and it kind of just gives the game a more
<v Speaker 2>naturalistic feel to it. For most of it. I think
<v Speaker 2>that the multiplayer stuff is mostly just past the controller
<v Speaker 2>kind of stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>Once again, that's directive eighty twenty. It is a seventy
<v Speaker 1>six on Open critic LEXI seems to be pretty but pretty.
<v Speaker 3>You seem like you liked it. When is it available to? Like?
<v Speaker 3>What is it up now? Is it available to?
<v Speaker 2>I think it's I think it's a few days. I
<v Speaker 2>can check the release that. If you are unsure on
<v Speaker 2>this game, I would recommend I bet the next Land
<v Speaker 2>of Folks will play through this, watch the stream and
<v Speaker 2>how the look as they like those games. Yeah, it
<v Speaker 2>is out the twelfth, so it's out tomorrow.
<v Speaker 1>I was listening to the Plan Rama over there on
<v Speaker 1>the next Lander, which helps me plan the month as well,
<v Speaker 1>So thanks for doing the work for me, guys. And
<v Speaker 1>they were talking about it on there and they were
<v Speaker 1>interested in the turning points system and stuff like that.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I'll be watching them play as well. All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's get to the next story. Yeah, the biggest Xbox
<v Speaker 1>game kind of period at this point just leaked early.
<v Speaker 1>Sports the Horizons has leaked online and they have cracked it,
<v Speaker 1>so now you can play it early right now on PC.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. The PC version
<v Speaker 1>of Forts of Horizon six appears to have been leaked
<v Speaker 1>online ahead of its full release. The much anticipated sixth
<v Speaker 1>game in the Forts of Horizon series is set for
<v Speaker 1>general release on May nineteenth, with early access available from
<v Speaker 1>May fifteenth, basically this Friday for people who buy the
<v Speaker 1>premium Premium edition. However, as noted by numerous sources online,
<v Speaker 1>including the Gaming Leaks and Rumors reddit page, the PC
<v Speaker 1>version has been acquired, cracked, and made available for download
<v Speaker 1>by pirates. Well, the main reason for the leak has
<v Speaker 1>not been fulleged. Yeah, all right, touche well done. It's
<v Speaker 1>not been fully and officially confirmed. The main reason that
<v Speaker 1>is The leading theory is that the pre loaded version
<v Speaker 1>of the game was uploaded to Steam's back end on
<v Speaker 1>Sunday by a developer, but was done so without any encryption.
<v Speaker 1>This reportedly made it possible for certain individuals to download
<v Speaker 1>the files and apply a crack to make the game playable.
<v Speaker 1>That doesn't make a ton of sense to be like,
<v Speaker 1>people could just go into Steam servers and find the
<v Speaker 1>game if it's been uploaded, even if it's not been released.
<v Speaker 1>It feels like multiple things must have failed here. VGC
<v Speaker 1>has been has seen the game available for download on
<v Speaker 1>certain websites, but it's not downloaded it and therefore cannot
<v Speaker 1>verify its validity. Although people are just playing it now.
<v Speaker 1>People have been sharing stuff online.
<v Speaker 3>So uh yeah, wow, this is god.
<v Speaker 1>Xbox can't can't do any Like if there is a
<v Speaker 1>rake that could be stepped on.
<v Speaker 3>They'll find a fucking way.
<v Speaker 2>You know, the phrase like couldn't catch a break if
<v Speaker 2>like for love nor money, like the idea of like
<v Speaker 2>you no matter how much money, you couldn't catch But
<v Speaker 2>Microsoft have infinite money and they literally can't catch a
<v Speaker 2>break in a way that I find like pretty fucking
<v Speaker 2>poetic these days.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, right, exactly. It's like it's maybe karma. I don't know. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so this is the game.
<v Speaker 3>That just sells for them, does very well.
<v Speaker 1>This one feels like it is going to be a
<v Speaker 1>monstrous hit, and so for this to happen and kind
<v Speaker 1>of just it's going to take some of the wind
<v Speaker 1>out of the sales.
<v Speaker 3>Obviously.
<v Speaker 1>The Xbox version is going to probably still do just fine,
<v Speaker 1>although it's on game Pass. Although that happened last time,
<v Speaker 1>and when they had the early access thing, people still
<v Speaker 1>paid a bunch of money on top of their game
<v Speaker 1>Pass subs.
<v Speaker 3>To play it early.
<v Speaker 1>They'll still sell a lot of copies of this game,
<v Speaker 1>but this is the one that was supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>like their big winner this year.
<v Speaker 3>And now I bet, I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I kind of feel like just checking a pirate site
<v Speaker 1>and seeing the number of seeds for this thing right now,
<v Speaker 1>I bet it's pretty high. I bet there's already one
<v Speaker 1>hundred thousand plus people seeding this thing. Yeah, I wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>be surprised.
<v Speaker 2>It is very funny that people who are pirating this
<v Speaker 2>game can play it through Steam by adding it as
<v Speaker 2>a non Steam game. But I can't play it through
<v Speaker 2>Steam because I was given a Microsoft Store code, and
<v Speaker 2>Microsoft does and allow you to add their games to
<v Speaker 2>Steam if you I just want to use Steam input.
<v Speaker 2>I just want to take a screenshot with my control
<v Speaker 2>of goddam it. Yeah, Sean also left you and Osha story.
<v Speaker 3>That's uh.
<v Speaker 1>The Forts files were uploaded to Steam without DRM. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I did hear that of something that then I heard
<v Speaker 1>they only had Steam DRM, which Sean, you're in chat
<v Speaker 1>you could correct me is basically the same thing as
<v Speaker 1>no DRM at all. Is kind of how that works
<v Speaker 1>these days. But I don't know, like either way this
<v Speaker 1>stuff is. This is a big, big mess up because
<v Speaker 1>this game was going to sell a ton on Friday.
<v Speaker 3>It probably still will.
<v Speaker 1>But Microsoft, coming off their most recent financial earndents, was like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>our hardware is obviously not selling nobody wants that, but
<v Speaker 1>also our games are selling less than they were last year.
<v Speaker 1>And then Forts Horizon six was supposed to come along
<v Speaker 1>and change that fate again it probably still will. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what do you think this has a measurable
<v Speaker 1>like detrimental effect.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, these games sell really well on PC, but
<v Speaker 2>they sell their best on consoles, like we do know that,
<v Speaker 2>and so it's not been cracked on consoles. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I think it's super interesting to see if this does
<v Speaker 2>affect sentiment in any way. The Fort Sir Horizon games
<v Speaker 2>are like so known quantities in some ways that in
<v Speaker 2>some like reviews for this game are kind of just
<v Speaker 2>gonna be like, yeah, it's Forts Horizon. You know, they
<v Speaker 2>didn't wind up making a third person shoot a weird
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, ultimately, people, what if.
<v Speaker 1>The reviews are like, no, wait, this is actually Fable.
<v Speaker 1>They actually just put Fable in here instead.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they fucked it up and they uploaded fable to
<v Speaker 2>see that. But yeah, like, I am curious to see
<v Speaker 2>what the desire for this game for three years, you know,
<v Speaker 2>if it like if that's what the proposition being presented
<v Speaker 2>to people now is, because like, if this got cracked
<v Speaker 2>a couple of days after launch, it wouldn't get as
<v Speaker 2>many news, right ups. It's getting news right ups because
<v Speaker 2>it's happened before launch. So that's the thing spreading the
<v Speaker 2>information now is that this happened before launch. And I'm
<v Speaker 2>curious if that drives people to be like, oh, there's
<v Speaker 2>a way to play this game for three So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm curious.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I don't even know. I don't even know what
<v Speaker 3>pirates sites people go to anymore. I'd have to.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I tried, I tried the Pirate Bay, and
<v Speaker 1>at that that website is always like it's just real.
<v Speaker 3>This is probably just.
<v Speaker 1>The honey pot now yeah, and then, uh, I can't
<v Speaker 1>Jane added it out here.
<v Speaker 3>I can't believe he didn't read. Oopsie, yeah, my bad.
<v Speaker 1>Uh Sean said the forts of files were uploaded to
<v Speaker 1>Steam without DRM parentheses. Oopsie, there you go, my bad.
<v Speaker 1>I apologize. What we're you gonna say?
<v Speaker 2>Like, I feel like you haven't had to care about
<v Speaker 2>getting games on the cheap ever since you got that
<v Speaker 2>press account.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah's place of differences? May yeah at this point, like
<v Speaker 1>I'll just wait, yeah, exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Wonder if you were to calculate how much money you've
<v Speaker 2>saved over the years.
<v Speaker 1>I was, I was still telling somebody like I was
<v Speaker 1>doing my taxes, and I'm like, man, I still spend
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money on games because I you know,
<v Speaker 1>I'll write it off of my taxes.
<v Speaker 3>It's like this is still you know, four figures. But I.
<v Speaker 2>Like, yeah, yeah, well, like all those copies of one
<v Speaker 2>two switch again.
<v Speaker 3>I mean that is exactly what it is. You got me.
<v Speaker 1>Uh yeah, hey man, I'm playing Forts Horizon six everybody,
<v Speaker 1>and yeah, hey, that game is going to be out soon.
<v Speaker 3>We could talk about it.
<v Speaker 1>More than several Xbox users managed to download. Here's a
<v Speaker 1>different story, everybody, Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight
<v Speaker 1>ten days early.
<v Speaker 3>This is from Jordan Miller at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>Lego Batman Legacy of the Dark Knight briefly became playable
<v Speaker 1>over the weekend, with a small group of Xbox players
<v Speaker 1>reporting that they were able to download the game over
<v Speaker 1>ten days before it's planned release. Legacy of the Dark
<v Speaker 1>Knight is due for release on May twenty second. Over
<v Speaker 1>the weekend, a player on the r slash Lego gaming
<v Speaker 1>subreddit man There's a subreddit for everything, reported that after
<v Speaker 1>pre ordering the game on Xbox, their console notified them
<v Speaker 1>that it was ready to play. Typically, when attempting to
<v Speaker 1>start a preloaded digital game, it will inform players that
<v Speaker 1>they can't use the content until the release date. According
<v Speaker 1>to the user, the game started as normal without the
<v Speaker 1>usual block. The user uploaded several images to Reddit of
<v Speaker 1>him playing the game's opening level to.
<v Speaker 3>Verify the situation.
<v Speaker 1>All right, LEXI I think I know what's happening here,
<v Speaker 1>agentic AI? I think we have AI agents doing the
<v Speaker 1>work of people who should be overseeing the uploading and
<v Speaker 1>management of these games to make sure that all of
<v Speaker 1>the eyes are dotted, the teas are crossed, and the
<v Speaker 1>fucking DRM.
<v Speaker 3>Works and it.
<v Speaker 1>Missed something and there was no human to intervene and
<v Speaker 1>see that that was happening.
<v Speaker 3>That's working theory. What do you think? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Like it. It is notable that this happened with an
<v Speaker 2>Xbox published game on a third party platform and a
<v Speaker 2>game being published on an Xbox plam Like there's there's
<v Speaker 2>a common element in those two stories and they happened
<v Speaker 2>hours apart.
<v Speaker 3>Mm hmm.
<v Speaker 2>And I would like to hear the discussions going on
<v Speaker 2>inside of Microsoft right now, especially people who handle stuff
<v Speaker 2>like you know, publishing and getting those store pages up,
<v Speaker 2>and what their current workflow has looked like, and if
<v Speaker 2>there's someone very annoyed in a Slack channel going fucking see,
<v Speaker 2>I told.
<v Speaker 1>You, uh this, this sort of thing has happened before.
<v Speaker 1>It's worth pointing that out. This is not like some
<v Speaker 1>incredibly rare thing. It's pretty rare still though. I think
<v Speaker 1>it's just notable. As you pointed, out these things happened
<v Speaker 1>back to back. It just and involving the same company
<v Speaker 1>one where or the other. Yeah, this one is a
<v Speaker 1>little bit I think easier for them to put the
<v Speaker 1>toothpaste back in the tube a little bit here because
<v Speaker 1>they can sort of just strip the rights of people
<v Speaker 1>who were playing the game. Although if they hop off
<v Speaker 1>line maybe they can keep playing.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>It's certainly not a good look, you know, overall, Like
<v Speaker 2>when you are trying to build a bit of excitement
<v Speaker 2>about a potential next gen Xbox that will be an
<v Speaker 2>open PC platform, which again, playing a game on the
<v Speaker 2>Xbox PC native app recently has really like reminded me
<v Speaker 2>how much Xbox gaming is not an open system on PC.
<v Speaker 2>Like it's fucking bizarre. They still do not have a
<v Speaker 2>Steam input equivalent, which means that like, for the most part,
<v Speaker 2>if you launch a game through the Xbox PC app,
<v Speaker 2>unless that game has native Jewel Sense support, you just
<v Speaker 2>can't use a Jewel Sense controller or anything that isn't
<v Speaker 2>x input, so a Steam controller as well, which is
<v Speaker 2>like that's a problem. That's a big fucking problem on PC,
<v Speaker 2>especially if you were trying to allure a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>people who maybe bought a PS five last generation over
<v Speaker 2>to the next Xbox console, which will supposedly also be
<v Speaker 2>running the same Xbox PC app. Like they said, it's
<v Speaker 2>it's just going to be a Windows machine ultimately, So
<v Speaker 2>like you should probably have support for the controller that
<v Speaker 2>those people own, especially if you're presenting it as an
<v Speaker 2>open platform anyway, Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, yeah, there's just a million things that they
<v Speaker 1>need to improve across the board here. Yeah, and it
<v Speaker 1>does it just like stuff like this just makes it
<v Speaker 1>feel like, you know, it's all kind of a mess.
<v Speaker 1>You know, maybe maybe all these things are unrelated. They
<v Speaker 1>could be right, It's easy to like spot patterns where
<v Speaker 1>none exist. But when I look at this, it makes
<v Speaker 1>me feel like the house is not in order, let
<v Speaker 1>alone them being in a position to make improvements to
<v Speaker 1>the foundation. So that and they are launching a new
<v Speaker 1>console that is supposed to work in a new way
<v Speaker 1>that the previous counsole did not work. Uh, there they
<v Speaker 1>have the wherewithal to address the problems and the unforeseen
<v Speaker 1>issues that will pop up because of that. Like it's
<v Speaker 1>I think the launch of the next Xbox is gonna
<v Speaker 1>be messy because it already feels that way, and then
<v Speaker 1>they're changing up the way things work to the point
<v Speaker 1>where it's like, oh, they're not going to be able
<v Speaker 1>to foresee the headaches that people are gonna have. They're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have to put it out into the wild and
<v Speaker 1>then sort of respond slowly. And that's where I just
<v Speaker 1>don't have a lot of faith in Microsoft's ability to
<v Speaker 1>follow up on that stuff, at least in a timely manner.
<v Speaker 2>Did you see that? Apparently the internal like working project
<v Speaker 2>name for improving Windows like that big like push for
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna make Windows better is K two, as in
<v Speaker 2>the mountain.
<v Speaker 3>That the mountain kills everybody.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that kills everybody that tries to climate cool. Sure,
<v Speaker 2>real fucking dominicandictmond. The way you let yourself get to.
<v Speaker 1>That, it's like you're just looking up at this thing.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, we'll try. It's gonna kill us, but we'll try.
<v Speaker 1>Hell yeah, I love it. All right, Let's let's take
<v Speaker 1>a quick break. When we come back. There's a little
<v Speaker 1>bit more Microsoft news to touch on.
<v Speaker 3>We'll do that.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to skip out on these messages, you
<v Speaker 1>can do so gimebomb dot com slush Join, become a
<v Speaker 1>premium member. We will be right back. All right, we
<v Speaker 1>are back everybody. It's Game Mess Mornings. Jeff Grubb. That's
<v Speaker 1>Lexi Luddy. Gears of War E Day may be circling September.
<v Speaker 1>This is from John Clark at Day one. A new
<v Speaker 1>wrestling event may have given us a clue as to
<v Speaker 1>where we can expect when we can expect to be
<v Speaker 1>playing Gears for E Day. Excuse me as its sponsoring
<v Speaker 1>WWE's Triple Mania this September. Announced on May ninth, Triple
<v Speaker 1>Mania is set to take place between September eleventh through
<v Speaker 1>to September thirteenth. What's more interesting for Gears fans is
<v Speaker 1>who is sponsoring the event.
<v Speaker 3>Which is Gear of War E Day.
<v Speaker 1>While it's not a guarantee that the game will be
<v Speaker 1>out and playable by that point, previous video game sponsors
<v Speaker 1>sponsorships certainly have been timed to coincide with the release
<v Speaker 1>of the product doing the sponsoring. We've only seen like
<v Speaker 1>like Glover, just going back to Glover, Everything goes back
<v Speaker 1>to Glover. We've only seen a very pretty, very pretty
<v Speaker 1>announced trailer for Gears of War E Day. Thus far,
<v Speaker 1>of course, it's gonna be the big sort of follow
<v Speaker 1>up showcase to the Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>Summer Gamefest Showcase.
<v Speaker 1>So we're gonna get all the details at that point,
<v Speaker 1>including I think everyone expects a firm release date every
<v Speaker 1>game still. I mean, we talked about it with every
<v Speaker 1>release state story, especially anything happening happening in the second
<v Speaker 1>half of this year. Everything sort of is orbiting Grand
<v Speaker 1>Theft Auto six. Uh, this game likely coming out before that.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah again, this is happening in September. This Uh,
<v Speaker 1>this pay per view a premium live event. I guess
<v Speaker 1>I should say so, Yeah, I think that sounds right
<v Speaker 1>to me.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, between like being sponsored by a company on the
<v Speaker 2>BDS boycott and also everything going on with WWE the vibes,
<v Speaker 2>should you seem ipeccable for that event. I'm sure that
<v Speaker 2>fucking the gingerbread Man will also show up and get
<v Speaker 2>suplexed by Marcus Phoenix and everyone.
<v Speaker 1>Losh, oh they have do they have Batista show up
<v Speaker 1>and like gear or whatever?
<v Speaker 3>Probably is extremely triple Mania. Just I have no idea
<v Speaker 3>what this is to me.
<v Speaker 1>It's smelt okay to Mexico, Yes, okay, hell yeah, so true.
<v Speaker 1>I was like to me, it raked up being in
<v Speaker 1>Saudi Arabia. But all right, okay, that's good. Yeah, Hey,
<v Speaker 1>I'm mildly I'm not that excited about Gears of War.
<v Speaker 3>That would be a lie. I just I've never been
<v Speaker 3>a Gears guy.
<v Speaker 1>Uh you know, E Day could win me over, but yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I just I've never been two into Gears. I do
<v Speaker 1>recognize it as being one of the bigger franchises for Microsoft,
<v Speaker 1>and it's one of those ones that I'm sure they
<v Speaker 1>want to get I'll say bat on Track, not that
<v Speaker 1>it's like derailed or something, but I think they want
<v Speaker 1>to make sure it's established for a strong future.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like they could pull all of that off.
<v Speaker 1>But it is definitely one of those games that I
<v Speaker 1>associate with Xbox, which is they have a handful of
<v Speaker 1>franchises that have really won over a certain audience that
<v Speaker 1>was on Xbox, and they've done those over and over again,
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, if you're not if you haven't bought
<v Speaker 1>in yet, you probably aren't going to buy into the
<v Speaker 1>next one. And then at the same time, it feels
<v Speaker 1>like it's been shedding fans as people move on to
<v Speaker 1>other franchises that have fresher ideas or whatever. Do you
<v Speaker 1>think Gears of where E Day stands to reinvigorate the franchise,
<v Speaker 1>reinvigorate Microsoft.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>In twenty twenty six, twenty years going on twenty years
<v Speaker 2>after the release of the First Years of War and
<v Speaker 2>was still doing like Emergence Day was still okay.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, of course.
<v Speaker 2>Ultimately, I just hope that Batista doesn't show up at
<v Speaker 2>this event because he's too good for them exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, definitely, he's a good boy, a good sweet boy,
<v Speaker 1>and we want to spare him. Although I'm sure they
<v Speaker 1>will pay him because you have his history with Gears,
<v Speaker 1>so who knows if he wants to get paid. I'm
<v Speaker 1>not gonna blame him, but yes, he's too good for
<v Speaker 1>them for sure. I Yeah, there's definitely just like the
<v Speaker 1>follow up showcase at Summer Game Festival, Like I'm just
<v Speaker 1>personally least excited about because it's like, you know, the
<v Speaker 1>Starfield one.
<v Speaker 3>I had some hope for what was the one last
<v Speaker 3>year that they.
<v Speaker 2>Do You remember what last year was?
<v Speaker 3>They just they just hit me. It was called duty,
<v Speaker 3>wasn't that.
<v Speaker 2>One more thing was call a fucking Jude.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, man, I'm not turned out great. So yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>mean it lived up to that hype. It earned. It
<v Speaker 3>is what I would say, just like saving Private Ryan
<v Speaker 3>earned this.
<v Speaker 1>That's what call of duty did. Yeah, September, here's the
<v Speaker 1>word e day. We'll find out more soon. God, we
<v Speaker 1>are within a month of Summer game Fest really kicking off.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, look forward to that.
<v Speaker 1>Investors still aren't happy even after Nintendo raised the price
<v Speaker 1>of the switch to and God, pour one out for
<v Speaker 1>the investors. This is from Chris Sculling at VGC. Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>is raising the price of the switch to in Japan
<v Speaker 1>on May twenty fifth, and the rest of the world
<v Speaker 1>essentially on September first, with the US price moving to
<v Speaker 1>five hundred dollars. For Akala, the president reportedly told investors
<v Speaker 1>that the hikes do not fully cover Nintendo's cost increases,
<v Speaker 1>and Reuter's reports Nintendo's share shares of fell about seven
<v Speaker 1>percent in Tokyo as investors reacted to the price hike
<v Speaker 1>and softer outlook. As reported by Reuters for Akawa explained
<v Speaker 1>that Nintendo had come to the conclusion that a number
<v Speaker 1>of changes in the market environment, including the rising cost
<v Speaker 1>of memory, the weekend and rising crude oil prices, We're
<v Speaker 1>going to remain for the medium to long term, and
<v Speaker 1>that the price increases were made with this in mind.
<v Speaker 1>For Rakawa also said that while the new console prices
<v Speaker 1>may increase the barrier to purchase, he's hopeful that a
<v Speaker 1>solid and growing lineup of Switch two games will and
<v Speaker 1>will eventually encourage more players to buy a switch to
<v Speaker 1>I mean, okay, we're just kind of like laying out
<v Speaker 1>the stuff that we know to be true at this plant, LEXI.
<v Speaker 1>Raising the price is going to make the outlook softer necessarily,
<v Speaker 1>but they do feel like they have to raise the
<v Speaker 1>price because all of those pressures he talked about, you know,
<v Speaker 1>least of which being the most recent reason, which is
<v Speaker 1>rising oil prices, which you know that you know that
<v Speaker 1>that one's like, yeah, obviously it's gonna make it's gonna
<v Speaker 1>cost more to ship things. Yeah, but those rising oil
<v Speaker 1>prices also like increase the price of petrochemicals, which is plastics,
<v Speaker 1>which is in every fucking thing as Billy, Bob Thornton,
<v Speaker 1>Sen and Landman. So it's going to be like across
<v Speaker 1>the board, they're going to find ways to raise the
<v Speaker 1>price and components that all these companies use. So we
<v Speaker 1>get that, Uh, I think the you know, it's not
<v Speaker 1>that shocking that investors are seeing that and being like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we're spooked, because they're spooked by everything. But do you
<v Speaker 1>think that this kind of encourages even more nickeling and
<v Speaker 1>diming and future price increases, Like are we done? Or
<v Speaker 1>are we going to keep seeing stuff float up in
<v Speaker 1>terms of price from Nintendo and the rest of the
<v Speaker 1>companies in the space.
<v Speaker 2>I think like the infuriating thing about this is like
<v Speaker 2>investors being like, you didn't raise the price enough because
<v Speaker 2>you know the price of RAM and the price of
<v Speaker 2>oil is going up, and looking around and being like,
<v Speaker 2>whose fucking fault is it that all the money has
<v Speaker 2>gone into AI? So now RAM costs a shitload of
<v Speaker 2>like who who could have? Who's to bla? We're all
<v Speaker 2>looking for the guy who did this?
<v Speaker 3>Uh huh?
<v Speaker 2>And so I don't know, like I desperately hope in
<v Speaker 2>the next like ten months, we start hearing stories of
<v Speaker 2>these data centers not being built because they like it
<v Speaker 2>turns out that the reports of them being unrealistic and
<v Speaker 2>the schedules for them being unrealistic were on point. And
<v Speaker 2>as soon as we start getting a couple like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>these data centers aren't coming together in the way that
<v Speaker 2>we thought they would. You know, maybe maybe the world
<v Speaker 2>will get better from there, but until that point, like
<v Speaker 2>things are gonna keep going up. They're just gonna keep
<v Speaker 2>going up because there's nothing to break the pattern. Like
<v Speaker 2>their show's shit not gonna suddenly broke a piece and
<v Speaker 2>the straight off hoo moves will be open for all
<v Speaker 2>to go through again. So that's not gonna bring down
<v Speaker 2>prices anytime soon. And the AI bubble isn't gonna pop
<v Speaker 2>unless it like actively gets popped by something. It will
<v Speaker 2>just keep on going on inertia, and even some would
<v Speaker 2>say it should have popped several times before now based
<v Speaker 2>off of the saying things we've learned and the sheer
<v Speaker 2>inertia of like, well, it's gotta be the next big thing.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's there's so much inertia because there's there are
<v Speaker 1>multiple factors, right, there's it's got to be the next
<v Speaker 1>big thing. So there's this huge fomo among massive investment
<v Speaker 1>firms that do make it like that the analyze risk
<v Speaker 1>and make those big choices about how to spend all
<v Speaker 1>their trillions of dollars. Yes that they have that fomo.
<v Speaker 1>And then there's the fomo of the retail investor who
<v Speaker 1>is actually does move the needle these days because people
<v Speaker 1>they like felt burned by every time the economy was
<v Speaker 1>doing something and they got left behind. And it's like
<v Speaker 1>that that actually continues to prop the stuff up. The
<v Speaker 1>biggest thing is just like index funds, the retirement funds
<v Speaker 1>that just put all their money into these things that
<v Speaker 1>you know, sixty percent of the money in the stock
<v Speaker 1>in the you know, in the wall on Wall Street
<v Speaker 1>right now is just people putting money into retirement accounts
<v Speaker 1>and then that stuff getting put into index funds. So
<v Speaker 1>the money just keeps flowing in sort of no matter what,
<v Speaker 1>and that is continuing to prop all this stuff up.
<v Speaker 1>So everyone could just keep saying, look, it's every one
<v Speaker 1>still believes in this. So everyone kind of looks at
<v Speaker 1>each other. It's like, all right, I'm not going to
<v Speaker 1>miss out on it. And the god damn, you know
<v Speaker 1>it just hit a new high? Did the Japanese stock
<v Speaker 1>market just hit a new high? It continues to just
<v Speaker 1>go and go, and at the same time, pocket is.
<v Speaker 2>Like hitting new highs, but like everything's more expensive for me.
<v Speaker 3>That everything everything's more expensive, and it's.
<v Speaker 2>Like I posted this on Blue Sky the other day.
<v Speaker 2>When was the last time you felt like you got
<v Speaker 2>a good deal at retail? Not like someone did you?
<v Speaker 2>You know, we're friends, and I'll give you this for
<v Speaker 2>like a bit off, or like you know, going to
<v Speaker 2>a mom and pop shop and you know the people there,
<v Speaker 2>but like you went to a big name retailer and
<v Speaker 2>there was a deal on the shelf and you went,
<v Speaker 2>that's a steal. Like you there was a sale online
<v Speaker 2>and you were like, this is this is good value?
<v Speaker 2>I feel good about this. Like when was the last
<v Speaker 2>time you felt satisfied coming away from buying something?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 1>I think like fast food restaurants have begun flirting with
<v Speaker 1>the the value meal again and stuff like that, and
<v Speaker 1>even those feel temporary, like they're like one week they'll
<v Speaker 1>be there and the next week it'll be gone because
<v Speaker 1>I like, I think they are afraid to give that
<v Speaker 1>value back to like make like to reacclimate the consumer
<v Speaker 1>to the feeling of getting away with something they have
<v Speaker 1>you know, mistreated us for so long. Now they're like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>this is the new normal, and no one wants to
<v Speaker 1>be the first one to sort of break that. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean you also mentioned it though we might be
<v Speaker 1>at peak data center at some point here where just
<v Speaker 1>the cost to build one does not justify the value
<v Speaker 1>you're going to get out of it, Like it could
<v Speaker 1>be zero, like it could zero out, zero out. Where
<v Speaker 1>it's like, by the time this thing's actually built, it's
<v Speaker 1>a little bit outdated, and by the time it reaches
<v Speaker 1>its full capacity of like what it's producing, it's one
<v Speaker 1>outdated and now we should already scrap this for the
<v Speaker 1>next data center that is obviously unsustainable. And it feels
<v Speaker 1>like we might already be there at the same time
<v Speaker 1>at the same time, like it's like it's not going anywhere.
<v Speaker 3>AI. Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Like the thing I always try to remind people about
<v Speaker 1>is you know, there's that three prong thing of is
<v Speaker 1>it good or I can do a better, I can
<v Speaker 1>do it faster, I could do it cheaper, and AI
<v Speaker 1>does it faster and cheaper, it's worse. Everybody's right to
<v Speaker 1>say it's worse. But if it's faster and cheaper, most
<v Speaker 1>most of the companies making these decisions will not care.
<v Speaker 1>They will find some way to justify the lower quality.
<v Speaker 1>And that's been true throughout free markets from the beginning
<v Speaker 1>of time. So it's just not going anywhere.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I need to do a little bit more digging around.
<v Speaker 2>Like I actually know people in the engineering space who
<v Speaker 2>get contracted out to design these things, and I just
<v Speaker 2>kind of want to check in with them and be like, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>how are you feeling about fulfilling all these projects? Because
<v Speaker 2>they're big product they're fucking massive projects, and like, of
<v Speaker 2>course they're taking them because they're big money deals, but
<v Speaker 2>like a lot of them, at least the vibe I
<v Speaker 2>got was like, yeah, like actually getting these done the
<v Speaker 2>days that by time that they addue to be done,
<v Speaker 2>that doesn't sound like a doable thing because they're complicated builds.
<v Speaker 2>They're extremely complicated builds. So yeah, I'm curious, and.
<v Speaker 1>They got they have to uh pay the premium prices
<v Speaker 1>for all those things, like for the like for all
<v Speaker 1>the talk of RAM and storage going up in price,
<v Speaker 1>the reason that is happening is because the people building
<v Speaker 1>data centers are outbidding the rest of the market by
<v Speaker 1>extreme amounts, and so if you want to be in
<v Speaker 1>that space, you've got to continue outbidding the people who
<v Speaker 1>are already outbidding everyone else in the space. So they'll
<v Speaker 1>never get like a discount on building that stuff. If anything,
<v Speaker 1>it's just going to keep going up in price, making
<v Speaker 1>it even more unsustainable.
<v Speaker 2>Genuine question, what do you think the founder's addition for
<v Speaker 2>the next n video like sixty ninety will be? Because
<v Speaker 2>I'm betting three and a half grand, and then the
<v Speaker 2>retail versions, the like licensed ones will be six seven plus.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yes, that's that sounds right to me. Yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>three thy five hundred for the reference version. Yeah, that's
<v Speaker 1>probably what we're talking about. And even then it could
<v Speaker 1>be three thousand, eight hundred, three thousand, nine hundred, getting
<v Speaker 1>close to four thousand dollars.
<v Speaker 3>All right, let's keep going here.
<v Speaker 1>Shift Up is taking Stellar Blade two away from Sony
<v Speaker 1>Publishing and away shift off.
<v Speaker 3>Shift Up says the.
<v Speaker 1>Next Stellar Blade game will be self published instead of
<v Speaker 1>published by Sony, with a company saying it wants to
<v Speaker 1>reach a broad global audience from day one. It also
<v Speaker 1>says it is actively exploring further platform expansion for the
<v Speaker 1>original game. They mentioned that Stellar Blades like SQL development
<v Speaker 1>is going along smoothly and it's they said it's on
<v Speaker 1>track to meet their targeted quality standards, hooray. And then
<v Speaker 1>they said this all about, Hey, we're going to publish
<v Speaker 1>it ourselves, and one of the reasons we're doing that
<v Speaker 1>is we just want to make sure that game is everywhere. Now,
<v Speaker 1>they did not say what everywhere entailed which platforms are
<v Speaker 1>really even a timeline, but I think we could safely
<v Speaker 1>assume they just want to have it out on PlayStation,
<v Speaker 1>PC and Xbox and at this point probably switched to
<v Speaker 1>at launch.
<v Speaker 3>This.
<v Speaker 1>You know, this is the sort of thing we have
<v Speaker 1>seen happen before Lexi, where a public developer succeeds and
<v Speaker 1>then they want to take over publishing because it gives
<v Speaker 1>them more control, and then they want to like have
<v Speaker 1>that those skills of publishing a game, because many of
<v Speaker 1>them want to then go publish other people's games. There's
<v Speaker 1>money still in the in then their hills, and they
<v Speaker 1>got to sort of start somewhere, and that would be
<v Speaker 1>starting with your own game.
<v Speaker 3>How do you how do you read all this? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>This is definitely one of the more reviewed Sony published
<v Speaker 2>games on Steam, Like it has more reviews than Horizon
<v Speaker 2>Forbidden West, So as a bid of a demarcation line,
<v Speaker 2>it probably did pretty well on Steam. And if the
<v Speaker 2>ongoing thought is that Sony aren't going to bring first
<v Speaker 2>party stuff to seem anymore, they're probably like, well, we
<v Speaker 2>would so like to put things up on Steam because
<v Speaker 2>without having to make.
<v Speaker 1>Sense deal with you to like to make that like
<v Speaker 1>to have a carve out or whatever, because that's just
<v Speaker 1>a headache.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, because we have like a pretty active community there
<v Speaker 2>and things like that. Man Lego Horizon Adventure has three
<v Speaker 2>hundred and eighty two reviews on Steam.
<v Speaker 3>Oh really, that's rough.
<v Speaker 2>Who thought bringing that to seem and not the Demon
<v Speaker 2>Soul's remake was the move? Yeah, what a fascinating decision
<v Speaker 2>that was.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know who it was, but I think his
<v Speaker 3>name might rhyme with Truman choultste.
<v Speaker 2>You're right, and so yeah, the other part of the
<v Speaker 2>story that I don't think is in there is that
<v Speaker 2>they also said that they will be continuing to publish
<v Speaker 2>Shinji mccami's game, and that's like all going well and
<v Speaker 2>stuff like that. So yeah, like, ultimately, I'm happy that
<v Speaker 2>there's another active publisher in the scene, and they certainly
<v Speaker 2>seem a lot more stable than some of the China
<v Speaker 2>Ease publishers that were coming in around twenty twenty. Of
<v Speaker 2>we've seen what's happened with nets like Ganga Dragon might
<v Speaker 2>never release. I'm almost kind of surprised that Momeo was
<v Speaker 2>a dead man got out the door. Yeah, and you
<v Speaker 2>know if Celeblade for as much as it wasn't for me,
<v Speaker 2>Like the combat just seemed way too slow for how
<v Speaker 2>much it leaned into the stylish vibe and things like that,
<v Speaker 2>and it story just seemed pretty dull. I those people
<v Speaker 2>when they talk about the game, they at least talk about, Hey,
<v Speaker 2>we like making games, and we specifically went from making
<v Speaker 2>a mobile game too. We wanted to make something that
<v Speaker 2>released on a console because that felt important to us. Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we like console games, so like I have more faith
<v Speaker 2>in them as a publisher than I do a lot
<v Speaker 2>of other publishing companies, which I whatever's fucking heart. So
<v Speaker 2>you know, they're at least saying the right thing. And
<v Speaker 2>we'll see how that game actually goes on taking it
<v Speaker 2>away from Sony, Like same thing kind of is you
<v Speaker 2>expect will happen with It's the evenless of what happened
<v Speaker 2>with Death Striddling, where I went in house for the
<v Speaker 2>PC publishing for Sony. And I'm curious if now could
<v Speaker 2>YOUBA Productions is looking at taking that and doing you know,
<v Speaker 2>if they were to do a death striming three would
<v Speaker 2>they still be like we want this on PC.
<v Speaker 3>I'm curious me too.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's get through the rest of these stories
<v Speaker 1>here relatively quickly. PS five is drifting behind PS fourged
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more clean up. From the most recent
<v Speaker 1>Sony earnings report, PS five lifetime sales are at ninety
<v Speaker 1>three point seven million. That's really really good, but it's
<v Speaker 1>notable that only one point five million PS fives were
<v Speaker 1>sold in the last fiscal quarter, which ended March thirty. First,
<v Speaker 1>that puts the PS five slightly behind the PS four
<v Speaker 1>when you align the launches. Still, that was true coming
<v Speaker 1>out of the pandemic because the pandemic the supply strained
<v Speaker 1>almost that entire time, and the expectation was Alexi. I
<v Speaker 1>remember having this conversation, I think maybe on the show
<v Speaker 1>maybe with you, is that the PS five would then
<v Speaker 1>slowly kind of crawl back above the PS four as
<v Speaker 1>the supply began to meet demand. And so well, that's
<v Speaker 1>not quite happening, and I think we can chalk that up.
<v Speaker 2>Is no longer the problem.
<v Speaker 1>You know, increased prices are the problem, right, Yes, one
<v Speaker 1>problem replaced the other. And then you know, it's also
<v Speaker 1>worth pointing that these these sales figures one point five
<v Speaker 1>million PlayStation fives were before the price increase, Right, We're
<v Speaker 1>going to see a bump because of the price increase.
<v Speaker 1>Right when that happened, there was a little gap a
<v Speaker 1>couple of days, and people rushed out to get PS
<v Speaker 1>five's and especially PS five pros in that moment. So
<v Speaker 1>we're going to see a bump. But then as things
<v Speaker 1>normalize for the new price, it's like the expectation should
<v Speaker 1>be that the one point five million that sold last
<v Speaker 1>quarter when the price was lower, like the the you know,
<v Speaker 1>the the chart though, should just kind of like begin
<v Speaker 1>to level off a little bit more actually, and then yeah,
<v Speaker 1>if you take out the bumpet's gonna get, you're probably
<v Speaker 1>gonna see less than one point five million sold in
<v Speaker 1>the next quarter. That is gotta be worrisome until obviously
<v Speaker 1>Grand Theft Auto six comes along and.
<v Speaker 3>At that point they might not have enough PS fives.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think so that this really fucked with
<v Speaker 2>my brain? Don cheetle in shot. So we're in year
<v Speaker 2>six of the PS five. How much is the PS
<v Speaker 2>five again right now off the top of the.
<v Speaker 3>Dome seven dollars, it's just seven hundred dollars.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the PS four was on sale for two hundred dollars.
<v Speaker 2>By year six, the bundles that you could guess.
<v Speaker 3>One of those numbers is much bigger. Yeah, significally bigger.
<v Speaker 2>Man, that's wild.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, it's uh, it is. Yeah, it's a rough comparison.
<v Speaker 1>Every single person who buys games knows that's how it
<v Speaker 1>used to be. Like, everyone knows people pay attention to
<v Speaker 1>this sort of thing, and so when they see the
<v Speaker 1>price at this point and they've been waiting because a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people like to wait on the sideline come
<v Speaker 1>in much later, that's like this time around, they are
<v Speaker 1>just in absolute agony here, trying to sort of be like,
<v Speaker 1>oh man, I can't believe that I got screwed over
<v Speaker 1>the most by waiting. And so those people aren't going
<v Speaker 1>to begin talking themselves out of making these purchases now.
<v Speaker 3>Again.
<v Speaker 1>The hope is, and it's probably correct, the grand Theft
<v Speaker 1>Auto six resets all that and the people who are
<v Speaker 1>waiting can't help themselves anymore, and that is probably gonna
<v Speaker 1>be the way it goes down. But it's like, man,
<v Speaker 1>if they didn't have that, it would be rough going
<v Speaker 1>in console land right now.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, man, anyway gamers to raid.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the gamers are activating everybody. They're gonna raid EA
<v Speaker 1>headquarters raid quote unquote to protest the fifty five billion
<v Speaker 1>dollars sale to Saudi Arabia's Public.
<v Speaker 3>Investment Fund, or PIFF as it's known.
<v Speaker 1>The Players Alliance, which is sort of what it sounds like,
<v Speaker 1>is organizing this event, scheduled for May eleventh at one
<v Speaker 1>pm Eastern, and has provided further details on its purpose.
<v Speaker 1>Gamers are planning to show up to protest at EAS headquarters.
<v Speaker 1>This will basically they're going to go there and just
<v Speaker 1>make their voice heard. I think this is a little
<v Speaker 1>bit better than just some of our other options because
<v Speaker 1>this is the kind of thing that can get headlines,
<v Speaker 1>It can draw political attention. Politicians like to know that
<v Speaker 1>there is a political capital behind something before they throw
<v Speaker 1>their weight into it. And you know, as unfortunate as
<v Speaker 1>it is that we have to sort of rely on
<v Speaker 1>feckless politicians, this is the situation where it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>get them to show up and put pressure on anyone
<v Speaker 1>that might be able to break up this deal. At
<v Speaker 1>least gum up the works a little bit, create some
<v Speaker 1>friction so that it costs these companies more to even
<v Speaker 1>get this deal across the finish line, so that they
<v Speaker 1>are a little bit more hesitant in the future even
<v Speaker 1>if we can't stop this one. Now, it does feel
<v Speaker 1>unlikely this is going to stop because what's that Jared
<v Speaker 1>Kushner still involved in the deal, and as the last
<v Speaker 1>I checked, he's still related to the president. So it
<v Speaker 1>just feels like there's almost no chance this doesn't happen.
<v Speaker 1>But it's worth showing that there is turmoil and angst
<v Speaker 1>about this sort of thing, and that it is manifesting
<v Speaker 1>not in social media posts, not in people saying I'm
<v Speaker 1>just going to vote with my wallet and walk away,
<v Speaker 1>because that's so easy for people to ignore at these
<v Speaker 1>companies because there's always someone with more money, like Saudia
<v Speaker 1>fucking Arabia, and so when people show up and make
<v Speaker 1>their voices heard, that still gets attention. So this might
<v Speaker 1>not do anything, but I think it's the right thing
<v Speaker 1>to do.
<v Speaker 3>How do you read it?
<v Speaker 2>I do really wonder if that fifty five billion dollars
<v Speaker 2>is looking a lot more valuable to the Saudi government
<v Speaker 2>now than it was when this deal was first announced,
<v Speaker 2>and especially with ongoing rumors of like, hey, maybe there's
<v Speaker 2>there's not as much left in the tanks as the
<v Speaker 2>Lennon you know, this this being a piff and this
<v Speaker 2>being like something ostensibly controlled by the Crown Prince, Like
<v Speaker 2>they do have a shipload of money, But I wonder
<v Speaker 2>if they look at EA and they go, maybe this
<v Speaker 2>isn't the moneyball deal that we thought it was at
<v Speaker 2>one point when you look at the corent stage EA
<v Speaker 2>and how current EA games tend to hish like I'm
<v Speaker 2>sure Madam I Fifer still do their ridiculous numbers, but
<v Speaker 2>the other stuff I'm curious.
<v Speaker 3>About same all right.
<v Speaker 1>New European alternative to an Unreal Slash Unity is being
<v Speaker 1>built by Gorilla Slash Epic veteran Arjen Bruce is a
<v Speaker 1>Gorilla co founder and former Unreal Engine product leader at EPIC,
<v Speaker 1>and he's building the Immense Engine, which he is pitching
<v Speaker 1>as a europe host An engine that is compliant with European.
<v Speaker 3>Rules and guidelines.
<v Speaker 1>Sounds like the air Bus of game engines, which I
<v Speaker 1>think is that for me is someone who likes airplanes
<v Speaker 1>and like, that's a fun thing to think about. And
<v Speaker 1>then you keep reading and he's like, and it's just
<v Speaker 1>gotta be full integration of AI like across the board.
<v Speaker 2>Also like no fucking idea what he means by it
<v Speaker 2>being like compliant with EU guidelines with those two other
<v Speaker 2>engines are fully operational and like the offices in fucking
<v Speaker 2>Europe both of those companies, Like what what the fuck
<v Speaker 2>are you talking about?
<v Speaker 3>Man?
<v Speaker 1>It just means that, like when you spend the money
<v Speaker 1>on it, it goes to someone in.
<v Speaker 3>Europe, which you know, people like that kind of thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, right, it's the kind of it is the kind
<v Speaker 1>of thing that like does happen in Boeing versus versus Airbus,
<v Speaker 1>where it's like air Bus as a European alternative. A
<v Speaker 1>lot of European airlines are like, we're much happier to
<v Speaker 1>do that. It doesn't hurt that their planes are just
<v Speaker 1>better as well, but you know, more competition in this
<v Speaker 1>space is welcome. I think that would be nice as well.
<v Speaker 1>At a certain point though, it's like I thought like
<v Speaker 1>cry Tech was the European unreal and it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>but no one really uses cry Tech in that way anymore.
<v Speaker 1>He just says the AI thing is like I people,
<v Speaker 1>like all other engines were made for people to click
<v Speaker 1>in chop Town, boxes with mouse, with mices with mice,
<v Speaker 1>and we want you to like just go and talk
<v Speaker 1>to the thing and tell it.
<v Speaker 3>What you want. So okay, all right, good luck with that.
<v Speaker 1>Star Wars zero Company gets AGE rating from agencies around
<v Speaker 1>the world, including the ESRB. This typically happens when a
<v Speaker 1>game is relatively close to release or especially like to
<v Speaker 1>get a release date. This game has neither. It has
<v Speaker 1>not been released, and it doesn't have a release date
<v Speaker 1>exactly yet other than the broad twenty twenty six release window.
<v Speaker 1>This makes it feel like we're going to see this
<v Speaker 1>at Summer Game Fest and it gets released not too
<v Speaker 1>long after that.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this is a game I'm quietly looking forward to.
<v Speaker 2>It looks that that team I really likes. Yeah, I
<v Speaker 2>really like Marvel Midnight Suns, and this gives me big
<v Speaker 2>Marvel Midnight Suns vibes. And yeah, I hope it comes
<v Speaker 2>together and I hope it is as interesting as it looks.
<v Speaker 2>I will check it out. If it's coming out soon.
<v Speaker 2>It could be a really good year for sa Wars
<v Speaker 2>video games.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yeah, you're right, it really could be. You know.
<v Speaker 1>The early reports on this one have been very positive.
<v Speaker 1>So and as a reminder. It's yeah, it's the single
<v Speaker 1>player turn based tactics game from bit Reactor in collaboration
<v Speaker 1>with Respawn and EA, and it's coming to PC, PlayStation five,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Series X and S. Maybe they'll announce the switch
<v Speaker 1>to version as well, and then finally tell me about you like,
<v Speaker 1>might be selling switch Two systems of players are on
<v Speaker 1>switch To and Nintendo confirmed it's sold three point eight
<v Speaker 1>million copies, So that's that's impressive stuff.
<v Speaker 2>That's interesting because does it even have like a nature
<v Speaker 2>of switch to? Does it do anything if you play
<v Speaker 2>it on a switch to like at all? Does it
<v Speaker 2>still output a ten adp? Uh?
<v Speaker 1>You know, it's I mean, I think it's just a
<v Speaker 1>typical It might put it might not put it ten adp,
<v Speaker 1>It might do that, but it's wild okay might like
<v Speaker 1>it's very very limited in terms of any sort of
<v Speaker 1>advantages because you have the switch to. It is not
<v Speaker 1>a switch to version for sure, and uh, like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>it doesn't even recognize that a mice might be involved
<v Speaker 1>or you know whatever, a mouse might be involved.
<v Speaker 2>That seems like a game that would be the easiest
<v Speaker 2>switch to conversion in the world. It's literally just let
<v Speaker 2>it run at four K when docked. That's all you
<v Speaker 2>gotta change.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it'll happen. Uh.
<v Speaker 1>It's the kind of thing where they will let this
<v Speaker 1>thing sort of run its course as a switch one game,
<v Speaker 1>and as they are getting ready for content updates, which
<v Speaker 1>this game surely has coming, they will also prepare a
<v Speaker 1>switch to version. Yes, I said a mice. My brain
<v Speaker 1>was still trying to get that word to work in sentences,
<v Speaker 1>and then I could kept breaking. All right, that does
<v Speaker 1>it for the headlines, everybody. Let's go ahead and start
<v Speaker 1>wrapping up the show. No poll question from last Friday,
<v Speaker 1>because that we did the Bomb twelve instead. That most
<v Speaker 1>recent Bob twelve is up on giant bomb dot com
<v Speaker 1>right now.
<v Speaker 3>If you scroll down a little.
<v Speaker 1>Bit, you could see the games that people were really
<v Speaker 1>playing last week, and then on the left hand side
<v Speaker 1>there there's the vote here button. Click that it will
<v Speaker 1>take you to the Google form where you could submit
<v Speaker 1>your game for consideration for the Bomb twelve. We will
<v Speaker 1>wrap up this week with another one of those, but
<v Speaker 1>that means we do have a new poll question for
<v Speaker 1>Wednesday's show. We'll get to that here in a second
<v Speaker 1>before we do, LEXI, why don't you tell people where
<v Speaker 1>they can find you on the internet, what you have
<v Speaker 1>going on and all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you can find me on blue Sky at lexload
<v Speaker 2>dot xyz. You can check out my review of Directive
<v Speaker 2>eighty twenty on Game of Guys. You can also check
<v Speaker 2>out my review of Seros. I'll be reviewing another game
<v Speaker 2>that's coming up soon. And yeah, go check out stop Menu.
<v Speaker 2>It's a website for people trying to bug into games
<v Speaker 2>media and the games industry. Do good stuff there. You
<v Speaker 2>can support us on Patreon, patreon dot com, slash stomp
<v Speaker 2>and you.
<v Speaker 1>That is something I wanted to mention real quick everybody,
<v Speaker 1>if you are already supporting us too, as much as
<v Speaker 1>you want to go support someone else as well, and
<v Speaker 1>if you you know, if you have to make a decision,
<v Speaker 1>don't feel like you have to support us. If you
<v Speaker 1>have been supporting us and you only have one that
<v Speaker 1>you could support, I get it. Take turns, spread the
<v Speaker 1>love around. Let's make sure that I was for the
<v Speaker 1>money more than glub. We all know this, That's what
<v Speaker 1>I'm trying to say here. So yeah, let's get out
<v Speaker 1>there and just make sure we're supporting people that we like.
<v Speaker 1>And thank you everyone who does support us. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>let's let's spread the love out there to everyone working
<v Speaker 1>in this space. It's more vibrant and better when there's
<v Speaker 1>more people, and right now it feels like that's only
<v Speaker 1>possible if we're all putting our money where our mouth is.
<v Speaker 1>So my I don't know twenty or so patreons that
<v Speaker 1>I support.
<v Speaker 3>I'll grow that a few more. Let's let's keep it going.
<v Speaker 1>Uh okay, let's see here new poll question? Which of
<v Speaker 1>the nope, that's the old pole question. Let's go, hey, Lexie,
<v Speaker 1>let's come up with a new pole question. Should do
<v Speaker 1>with something about Forts Horizon direct of eighty twenty.
<v Speaker 3>Let's do this.
<v Speaker 1>Are you going to get forts Horizon six at the ultimate.
<v Speaker 3>Price so like to get it early?
<v Speaker 1>Are you going to do the early unlock for Forts
<v Speaker 1>Horizon six at and then we'll come up with we'll
<v Speaker 1>find out whatever.
<v Speaker 3>That price is, yes or no.
<v Speaker 1>I'm curious to see how much of this audience like
<v Speaker 1>does that sort of thing, like spends the extra money
<v Speaker 1>to play early. I bet it's not nobody, but I
<v Speaker 1>bet it's not as many as as we would expect.
<v Speaker 1>Turns out it doesn't need to be a lot to
<v Speaker 1>justify to these companies. All right, we'll get that pull
<v Speaker 1>question and get the results on Wednesday's episode of Game
<v Speaker 1>Mess Mornings here on Giant Bombs. Speaking of Giant Bomb,
<v Speaker 1>there's a bunch of stuff happening most recently though store
<v Speaker 1>dot Giant bomb dot com. Everybody, if you go there,
<v Speaker 1>there are new items up on the store as part
<v Speaker 1>of our anniversary.
<v Speaker 3>It looks really cool. It's like a lot of stuff.
<v Speaker 1>We had some great work done to get a couple
<v Speaker 1>of new logos, some new there's a new racing shirt
<v Speaker 1>that's got like a bunch of different Giant Bomb logo
<v Speaker 1>designs on there, as if we were a racing team.
<v Speaker 1>It's good stuff. Go ahead and make some purchases. That
<v Speaker 1>helps support the website. It also just makes you look
<v Speaker 1>fucking fly. So make that happen. And then, of course,
<v Speaker 1>like I said, Mike's gonna begin playing Donkey Kong sixty
<v Speaker 1>four today.
<v Speaker 3>It is part of a marathon.
<v Speaker 1>He's gonna get to one hundred and one percent as
<v Speaker 1>long as we get the support that we need. Really
<v Speaker 1>looking forward to seeing that all happen. I'll be hanging
<v Speaker 1>out with him for for chunks of it for sure.
<v Speaker 3>Uh yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Tune in for that, and then we'll have regularly scheduled
<v Speaker 1>stuff happening sort of alongside that. I'm pretty sure the
<v Speaker 1>plan is for him to play during the BombCast. We'll
<v Speaker 1>all be having a regular BombCast and he will still
<v Speaker 1>have to play Donkey Kong sixty four.
<v Speaker 3>So see what that's all like.
<v Speaker 2>It's a real root endurance. It is.
<v Speaker 3>All right.
<v Speaker 1>With all that out of the way, Lexi, thank you
<v Speaker 1>so much for hanging out with me today and talking
<v Speaker 1>about video games.
<v Speaker 3>I really appreciate it anytime.
<v Speaker 2>Happy anniversary to you all.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching and listening. You are the
<v Speaker 1>best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
<v Speaker 1>take care of yourself and goodbye.