Ecco the Dolphin is BACK?

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Games Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>a big update launching early for Nintendo and communicating with
<v Speaker 1>sea creatures in the return of a classic. It's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be a good one because we have jan at Choa
<v Speaker 1>on the show. Jan how are you doing.
<v Speaker 2>I'm ready to flip and do tricks for fish small fish,
<v Speaker 2>jump through hula hoops and do the cool thing where
<v Speaker 2>you're like you're clapping and you're going back and skating.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, or or or or seals. Right, okay, but
<v Speaker 1>you're not I know what you mean. I know what
<v Speaker 1>you mean. E e yes, yeah, absolutely. We'll explain all
<v Speaker 1>that here in a second. But if you're a Star
<v Speaker 1>Trek four fan, you already know what to expect, everybody.
<v Speaker 3>So just hang in.
<v Speaker 1>Wow, that was how I humpback whales, But don't worry
<v Speaker 1>about it. How you doing?
<v Speaker 2>I think still at a good seven? A good seven?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? Oh okay, listen, if we dial in this year
<v Speaker 1>at a seven, I wouldn't trade that.
<v Speaker 3>I would take that in an instant.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, no, not at all. I was the thing that
<v Speaker 2>no one ever tells you grub about having a short
<v Speaker 2>dog is their tummies will just constantly get wet and ms.
<v Speaker 2>It's a little dryer now here in the Bay Area.
<v Speaker 2>Somehow this little dog's tummy just gets wet whenever we
<v Speaker 2>go out on a walk. I'm just curious. It's to like,
<v Speaker 2>how how is this happening? Why why do you constantly
<v Speaker 2>need a towel on your tummy?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah? So yeah, like one of them like truffle pigs,
<v Speaker 1>like or those like wires you use that to find
<v Speaker 1>water or whatever. It's like one of them dogs. They
<v Speaker 1>just have the magic power to find wetness wherever it is.
<v Speaker 1>My my cat is bad. It has a drinking problem.
<v Speaker 1>H He goes in to get to the fountain with
<v Speaker 1>a little fountain for the catch. It's like running water
<v Speaker 1>and he just puts his whole head or sheet as it's.
<v Speaker 3>The girl puts her whole.
<v Speaker 1>Head under the water and every day, basically the whole
<v Speaker 1>day or head is just wet, just constantly. Hand say, okay,
<v Speaker 1>I mean she knows she didn't goes and like licks
<v Speaker 1>the water like she's supposed to, but she just likes
<v Speaker 1>having a wet head, it's it's a weird cat. I
<v Speaker 1>like it.
<v Speaker 2>I seen people drink things weird, so I'm not gonna
<v Speaker 2>blame it on the pets. Yeah, I think it's just
<v Speaker 2>drinking things.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely.
<v Speaker 1>I try to drink things weird every once in a while,
<v Speaker 1>just you know, put the straw in, put your finger
<v Speaker 1>on the end of the straw, take the straw out.
<v Speaker 3>Drink the water out of the straw.
<v Speaker 1>Still do that, Yeah, exactly, all right. We should explain ourselves.
<v Speaker 1>We're a giant Bomb. We're independent games media. We're out
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<v Speaker 1>By going to giant bomb dot com slash join, we
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<v Speaker 1>grub Snacks Premium new version of grub Snacks, hanging out
<v Speaker 1>answering questions from people. There's a premium forum on in
<v Speaker 1>the message boards as well where you can ask a
<v Speaker 1>question and I will try to address most of those.
<v Speaker 1>There's also a discord channel that I'll take questions from
<v Speaker 1>as well. But yeah, that episode went up yesterday. There
<v Speaker 1>should be one a week going forward from now on. Everybody,
<v Speaker 1>so looking forward to all of that. As far as
<v Speaker 1>this show goes, most weekdays, I, Jeff Greb will help
<v Speaker 1>piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news
<v Speaker 1>and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For
<v Speaker 1>all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona
<v Speaker 1>fide expert who will make me look smart. If you
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<v Speaker 1>Games Mornings, or find the RSS feed on giant bomb
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<v Speaker 1>with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot to get into. So let's start
<v Speaker 1>the morning mess with multiple Echo the Dolphin games officially
<v Speaker 1>in development. Somebody wake up, Mike Manati. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Salamano Akamatsu, starting off with a quote. Here, several new
<v Speaker 1>Echo the Dolphin products and games are officially in development.
<v Speaker 1>Developer A and R Itelier announced an Rlier is a
<v Speaker 1>studio founded in half Moon Bay, California by veteran game developers,
<v Speaker 1>including the original of the creators of Echo the Dolphin
<v Speaker 1>that includes Ed ann Ziada Annunziata. I think it's how
<v Speaker 1>you say it.
<v Speaker 3>Who was the Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>The chief creative officer at A and R previously announced
<v Speaker 1>plans to release remastered versions of the Genesis games Echo
<v Speaker 1>the Dolphin and Echo the Tides of Time, as well
<v Speaker 1>as develop a third Echo the Dolphin game. So that
<v Speaker 1>seems to be the plan here is, let's remaster these
<v Speaker 1>old Genesis games and then also make a whole new
<v Speaker 1>two D game. I'm assuing because they're same, third, because
<v Speaker 1>there was some other Echo the Dolphin games later, I don't.
<v Speaker 1>I guess we'll have to see exactly what this all ends.
<v Speaker 3>Up looking like.
<v Speaker 1>But okay, cool, I mean, first of all, why not
<v Speaker 1>the way Sega's been operating where they're like, hey, we
<v Speaker 1>will We're gonna remake a bunch of our stuff. We're
<v Speaker 1>gonna make new entries in Crazy Taxi and all these
<v Speaker 1>other like Shanobi, all this other stuff, and then the
<v Speaker 1>stuff that they don't do well, they've worked with partners
<v Speaker 1>to get like Streets of Rage four made and that
<v Speaker 1>went really well. So Sega just seems to have those
<v Speaker 1>stuff kind of like in a position where they can
<v Speaker 1>easily just hand stuff off to someone who does want
<v Speaker 1>to do something with it. So why not do that
<v Speaker 1>with Echo the Dolphin. My question, do you jen is
<v Speaker 1>does Echo the Dolphin play in twenty twenty six and beyond.
<v Speaker 2>Uh, well grub everything old is new again, And I
<v Speaker 2>can't say that there's a lot of competition in terms
<v Speaker 2>of dolphin, let alone aquatic games. So for sheer novelty's
<v Speaker 2>sake and nostalgia, I feel like this could do well.
<v Speaker 2>And you mentioned it at the beginning of this story,
<v Speaker 2>but the Shanobi game really popped off. A lot of
<v Speaker 2>us really liked it. It wound up on our top
<v Speaker 2>ten of the year. So I definitely see a world
<v Speaker 2>where an Echo the Dolphin game, Whether it's a remaker,
<v Speaker 2>A brand new game could be absolutely banging. It's interesting
<v Speaker 2>that it's in half Moon Bay because that's like twenty
<v Speaker 2>minutes away from me. Let me in, Let me, let
<v Speaker 2>let me let me. I want to see the dolphins.
<v Speaker 2>I want to see the Yeah, the dolphins.
<v Speaker 3>Show us the dolphins.
<v Speaker 1>I was trying to like remember, like what other dolphin
<v Speaker 1>games have I played Dolphin Olympics too, the flash game
<v Speaker 1>is that? Is that still mine? Anybody? I want to know.
<v Speaker 1>I was able to get like that my dolphin to
<v Speaker 1>like Pluto or whatever, get it way onto outer space.
<v Speaker 3>That was good stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Hey, if this is like a bigger game, I
<v Speaker 1>guess you know it's a two D versus three D.
<v Speaker 1>If it's a big three D game, people in chat say,
<v Speaker 1>man Eater, but with Echo the Dolphin, Like clearly not
<v Speaker 1>exactly that, but they made that like a fun swimming
<v Speaker 1>around upgrading your your Shark game. You could probably do
<v Speaker 1>something similar with Echo here. I would like it to
<v Speaker 1>be a three D Metroidvania with the dolphin underwater.
<v Speaker 3>That's what I want.
<v Speaker 1>I think that would be really fun to get upgrades
<v Speaker 1>through your Dolphin and that unlocks ocean doors or something
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, temples under under the water. I think
<v Speaker 1>that'd be fun. You just do an.
<v Speaker 2>At a certain tone that it resonates that it moves rocks.
<v Speaker 1>Now, yeah you war foos row dolphin there, Yeah, there
<v Speaker 1>you go. Yeah ah ah, there is. Of course, there
<v Speaker 1>was a time when I thought this was happening before
<v Speaker 1>yuh yeah, me and I heard some chittering noises from
<v Speaker 1>Sega that they were teasing something with and we put
<v Speaker 1>that under well, we put it. We pretended to put
<v Speaker 1>it underwater by slowing it down in premiere and playing
<v Speaker 1>it on our podcast. We're like, well that clearly those
<v Speaker 1>are dolphins sounds. And that turned out to be Hyenas,
<v Speaker 1>which is that game that never came out and Sega canceled.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah yeah, I distinctly remember when you brought up that
<v Speaker 2>recording on an episode of Game As Mornings from a
<v Speaker 2>while back now. And this just proves how patient and
<v Speaker 2>polite Lucy James is, because she politely was like, uh
<v Speaker 2>huh okay, yeah, sure, okay, yeah, I go to the dolphin.
<v Speaker 1>Uh It's like, okay, well, thank you for humoring me, Lucy.
<v Speaker 1>I think that we made this happen, though. I think
<v Speaker 1>they saw that clip and the lad look clearly the
<v Speaker 1>children crave Echo, and well here we are.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, no word yet on win for any of this stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Grub My pitch for an Echo the Dolphin game in
<v Speaker 2>addition to a remake is just make a space game
<v Speaker 2>but underwater. I want to do barrel rolls, surf and
<v Speaker 2>shoot echo sonar beams.
<v Speaker 1>Oh, that's a star Fox sixty four. But Echo the
<v Speaker 1>Dolphin is not a bad idea that could go. There,
<v Speaker 1>you go, cut the check sega, we're over here. Well
<v Speaker 1>we'll see at some point. I don't know. I wonder
<v Speaker 1>if they plan to show up anywhere like a GDC
<v Speaker 1>or Summer game fest with anything.
<v Speaker 3>We'll have to wait and see. But it's like, I
<v Speaker 3>don't I don't know. They could also.
<v Speaker 2>I know that this is tied to an r aelier,
<v Speaker 2>but just give some assets over to the RGG guys,
<v Speaker 2>make them. Let them make a Yakuza Echo the Dolphin game.
<v Speaker 3>At least have them put Echo in a Yaku's game.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely right, there should be a whole dolphin subplot in
<v Speaker 1>one of those games.
<v Speaker 2>Why was there not an Echo the Dolphin summon in
<v Speaker 2>Yakuza Like a dragon in Hawaii?
<v Speaker 1>There should be there should be a new one that
<v Speaker 1>what they should do is basically a one to one
<v Speaker 1>retelling of Acevantera Pet Detective. Make that a like a thing,
<v Speaker 1>and then they just fix all the problematic stuff. So
<v Speaker 1>we get our generation, our generations as if it's not
<v Speaker 1>my generation, our generation's acepinter a Pet Detective without the bullshit.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah all right.
<v Speaker 1>The Disney Afternoon Collection seems to be coming to Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switch to and Switch. This is from Nintendo Everything. The
<v Speaker 1>Disney Afternoon Collection appears to be coming to Nintendo Switch
<v Speaker 1>to and Switch one loose. New listings for the game
<v Speaker 1>have just appeared on the ESRB website. Interestingly, Atari appears
<v Speaker 1>to be publishing. Captom originally released the Disney Afternoon Collection
<v Speaker 1>in partnership with Digital Eclipse in twenty seventeen. Fans were
<v Speaker 1>disappointed with the package, or that that the package never
<v Speaker 1>came to Nintendo Switch, but it looks like that's finally
<v Speaker 1>being rectified yeah again with Atari handling the publishing on this.
<v Speaker 1>For the Switch version, the collection always included Chipindale Rescue Rangers.
<v Speaker 1>Chippindale Rescue Rangers Too, which is a really Latens game
<v Speaker 1>that's surprisingly very good Ducktails, Ducktails Too, Darkwing Duck and Tailspin.
<v Speaker 3>All those are.
<v Speaker 1>Actually pretty goods. They're all Capcom games. They're like really solid.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here, they have like stuff like some of
<v Speaker 1>the new features got added, like a boss rush mode
<v Speaker 1>and stuff like that. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Cool that this is finally happening.
<v Speaker 1>Interesting that, like Atari are the ones making it happen
<v Speaker 1>kind of a wonder. It's like, oh, I wonder how
<v Speaker 1>that went down, Like they just noticed this and we're like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>do you want us to come handle that for you?
<v Speaker 1>Or Disney sought them out? It's or I guess Capcom
<v Speaker 1>was probably the one that published it originally Capcom and
<v Speaker 1>or Disney. Yeah, did they seek out help and Atari's
<v Speaker 1>handling that? I mean, Atari probably does have a lot
<v Speaker 1>of specific experience and stuff like this now after like
<v Speaker 1>making like releasing retro games their whole thing by like
<v Speaker 1>with like purchasing night Dive and all that stuff. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I wonder if this is a new side of that
<v Speaker 1>business for them. And at the very least, it's nice
<v Speaker 1>to see this game that we were kind of always
<v Speaker 1>hoping would come to the Switch finally come to the Switch.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I can't say that I ever checked out these
<v Speaker 2>games grub because I think playing Lion King on the
<v Speaker 2>Genesis really traumatized me because of how difficult it was
<v Speaker 2>for a child to play that. I wound up not
<v Speaker 2>checking any other additional Disney games out around that generation.
<v Speaker 2>So you know, I'm always down for some Chip and Dale. Yes, Ducktails,
<v Speaker 2>I'd love to hear a midi or very garbled up
<v Speaker 2>version of that theme theme song. It should be a banger.
<v Speaker 2>And also I think the world needs more or dark
<v Speaker 2>Wing Duck.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'm surprised we haven't gotten more dark Wing Duck.
<v Speaker 1>Did we? And I didn't notice? I suppose I know that.
<v Speaker 2>We had a new Duck Tails seat cartoon. I swear
<v Speaker 2>we did because like David Tennant was Scrooge right, and
<v Speaker 2>we had the Chippendale's movie right that came out recently.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, nothing nothing with dark Wing Duck.
<v Speaker 1>Hmm. Yeah, we should get more dark Wing Duck that
<v Speaker 1>and again I'm surprised that hasn't happened that and like
<v Speaker 1>Gargoyles should also return. People pointed out like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Digital Eclipse, which handled this is now also Atari.
<v Speaker 3>So that's how that went down. That makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>I was like getting my hopes of like man Atari
<v Speaker 1>is just out there, like making these deals happen.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe they can finally get.
<v Speaker 1>Me Castlevania Symphony of the Night on the Switch, which
<v Speaker 1>somehow still hasn't happened. It probably still won't happen, though,
<v Speaker 1>all right, this is its great to see. I think,
<v Speaker 1>you know, between this and there was that like really
<v Speaker 1>lightweight metrode Vania, Mickey Mouse Game, Mickey Illusion, Illusion Island.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, neat, that took.
<v Speaker 1>A while to get from Switch to the other consoles,
<v Speaker 1>but that happened, and it was like, I wonder if
<v Speaker 1>they're going to go the other way with this that
<v Speaker 1>finally did happen. I don't know, just these like Mickey
<v Speaker 1>Mouse games and like their cartoon adaptation games. I kind
<v Speaker 1>of was wondering if they would do even more after
<v Speaker 1>Illusion Island. Doesn't seem like that's necessarily going, like it's
<v Speaker 1>not a gold rush at the very least, but they
<v Speaker 1>should probably just keep plugging away at that stuff, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, definitely, one hundred percent. I think Illusion Island was
<v Speaker 2>it's high it had an exclusive deal to be on
<v Speaker 2>the Switch for a while, and I think that might
<v Speaker 2>have hampered its performance initially yes, you know, if that
<v Speaker 2>was able to come out on all platforms. I know
<v Speaker 2>that the switch is often targeted as like, oh, this
<v Speaker 2>is a family console, this is a kid console.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe it would have just been easier for some people
<v Speaker 2>to just play on a PlayStation or an Xbox in
<v Speaker 2>the living room. Yep, we we should have a Batman
<v Speaker 2>style dark Wing Duck game, crub, I can't get over it.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there should be a There should be an Arkham
<v Speaker 1>dark Wing duck or just a dark Wing duck that
<v Speaker 1>place exactly like the Batman for nes. But like so,
<v Speaker 1>just like a modern retro game or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>I would love that as well.
<v Speaker 2>Give me bonkers. Does anyone remember Bonkers out there?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if I remember bonkers? Is that with
<v Speaker 3>a Z?
<v Speaker 2>I don't bonkers? I don't remember if it was a Z.
<v Speaker 2>But I think that's where I first learned about the
<v Speaker 2>word marsupial.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, there was a video game called Marsupialami or
<v Speaker 1>something like that that I was like, and I took
<v Speaker 1>me forever to decode that it was trying to say
<v Speaker 1>marsupial and the character was a marsupial. But I was
<v Speaker 1>very stupid and couldn't understand it all right, let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>Going on to the next story, Nintendo's the share price
<v Speaker 1>drops are dropped to thirty three percent in the last
<v Speaker 1>five months in Japan. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>As noted by game Spark, Nintendo's share price dropped to
<v Speaker 1>nine hundred and fifty en, which is about sixty two
<v Speaker 1>dollars and seventy cents on Tuesday, the first time the
<v Speaker 1>price has dropped below ten thousand end since April twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty five. Back in August twenty twenty five, the share
<v Speaker 1>price reached a high point of fourteen thousand, seven hundred
<v Speaker 1>and ninety five yen, and that's about ninety three dollars,
<v Speaker 1>the highest share price ever recorded for the company, but
<v Speaker 1>has dropped notably since then. It's worth pointing out August
<v Speaker 1>kind of right there, that first batch of switch twos launching,
<v Speaker 1>and the kind of the first report from Nintendo about
<v Speaker 1>how well the system was doing in that moment. While
<v Speaker 1>the reasons for the company's rise and fall in share
<v Speaker 1>price can only ever be speculated, it appears likely that
<v Speaker 1>the record high in August twenty twenty five was due
<v Speaker 1>to the switch to. The subsequent dropped then can likely
<v Speaker 1>be attributed to such factors as a slowing of switch
<v Speaker 1>to sales over Christmas, albeit still comfortably outselling its predecessor
<v Speaker 1>at this stage, and a lack of Killer app six
<v Speaker 1>months into the consul's life. I know that Circin Toto,
<v Speaker 1>friend of the site, he had a blog post about this,
<v Speaker 1>or that he speculated those two points that there is
<v Speaker 1>there was a bit of a slow down during the
<v Speaker 1>holiday season, or at the very least, there was some
<v Speaker 1>sales on the switch to at retailers in the United
<v Speaker 1>States and Europe, and investors are like, what's going on
<v Speaker 1>there that shouldn't happen. And then also there is, you know,
<v Speaker 1>there's the lack of big marquee first party titles, specifically
<v Speaker 1>Mario and Zelda. I think I would throw in like
<v Speaker 1>Smash Brothers and Animal Crossing and a few others into that,
<v Speaker 1>but Mario and Zelda seemed to be the ones that
<v Speaker 1>the investors are asking about. And then finally, the third
<v Speaker 1>thing that Cercin Toto mentioned that was not mentioned in
<v Speaker 1>the story yet is component prices. The everyone's worried to
<v Speaker 1>price increases. So those three factors seem to be dragging
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo's share price back down. If you look at it,
<v Speaker 1>there's a chart out there. This is a sharp decline
<v Speaker 1>after a really sharp increase in price. So it kind
<v Speaker 1>of feels like a little bit of a correction and
<v Speaker 1>that Nintendo will have to like sort of chip away
<v Speaker 1>at if it wants to stock price to go back
<v Speaker 1>up by making big games and making big game announcements.
<v Speaker 3>And that's kind of.
<v Speaker 1>That feels like where we're at right where the next
<v Speaker 1>time we hear from Nintendo, like that next Nintendo Direct
<v Speaker 1>is probably going to have a big twenty twenty six
<v Speaker 1>game in it.
<v Speaker 3>That's how I feel. Do you share that?
<v Speaker 2>I feel like it has to grub. I don't think
<v Speaker 2>they can get away with not teasing something at least
<v Speaker 2>for twenty twenty six, whatever that winds up being. But
<v Speaker 2>then again, I feel like it's impossible to really predict
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo's moves when it comes to anything predictable or pattern wise,
<v Speaker 2>just because they just operate at their own frequency. It
<v Speaker 2>seems like a no brainer that we should expect a
<v Speaker 2>new three D Mario game, especially with the release of
<v Speaker 2>the Mario Galaxy movie this year, But who knows. They
<v Speaker 2>could perhaps be going back to the well and teasing
<v Speaker 2>kid Iicris.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean the right.
<v Speaker 1>They could have any number of like lower profile games
<v Speaker 1>in an Nintendo Direct and they're just not ready for Mario.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we talk about Donkey Kung Binanza just came
<v Speaker 1>and it'd be hard for them to have a new game. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's that's still true. Regardless of their need to have
<v Speaker 1>a title release like that to address these issues, they
<v Speaker 1>just might not be ready for it. That's the biggest
<v Speaker 1>reason I think those things have not happened up to
<v Speaker 1>this point. Of course, a news Zelda, it's not ready.
<v Speaker 1>They just had Tears of the Kingdom a couple of
<v Speaker 1>years ago. So yeah, we just might be stuck in
<v Speaker 1>linear time here. And in the meantime, the Switch two
<v Speaker 1>is gonna probably continue to sell just fun. The other
<v Speaker 1>side of this is that price issue components really are
<v Speaker 1>at in a rough spot. I know that Daniel Ahmad
<v Speaker 1>kind of had an analysis of this, pointing out that
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo was already riding the line of profitability on hardware,
<v Speaker 1>kind of maxing out their margins a little bit because
<v Speaker 1>of the tariffs, because of component prices, and now we're
<v Speaker 1>past that and component prices are going up even more
<v Speaker 1>specifically as always, as we said on every episode of
<v Speaker 1>this show for the last month, RAM prices memory store
<v Speaker 1>or memory and at this point storage as well are
<v Speaker 1>both seeing huge increases in prices, and Nintendo's like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we have looked into this. We're always looking to procure
<v Speaker 1>stuff at you know, in the most affordable way. But
<v Speaker 1>people believe they might be running out of road, and
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo doesn't like to take a loss on hardware. I
<v Speaker 1>think that if they're like worried about all this stuff, though,
<v Speaker 1>they probably might have to because raising I think raising
<v Speaker 1>the price might be worse in public perception and in
<v Speaker 1>the perception of their investors then eating the costs and
<v Speaker 1>maybe losing a little money per console and not having
<v Speaker 1>as big of a number in your financial report. I
<v Speaker 1>just think that that raising the price is a more
<v Speaker 1>noticeable flag to everybody. But I don't know, Maybe that's
<v Speaker 1>me doing some copium and hoping that this price won't
<v Speaker 1>go up. What do you think now?
<v Speaker 2>I think I'm with you, Grub because I feel like, ultimately, overall,
<v Speaker 2>when PlayStation has had to announce a price increase as
<v Speaker 2>well as Xbox, public perception has like kind of plummeted.
<v Speaker 2>But then again, we did see the PlayStation have like
<v Speaker 2>a boost in sales when there was a sale on
<v Speaker 2>the PlayStation over right kind of back.
<v Speaker 1>Down to the original price even Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't know if Nintendo wants to do that
<v Speaker 2>level of calculus to kind of like, Okay, we'll raise
<v Speaker 2>the price now in expectations to low back to its
<v Speaker 2>launch price during the summer or during like a big sale.
<v Speaker 2>My question in terms of like big tent pole release
<v Speaker 2>grub is, I know that Splatoon has a gigantic audience,
<v Speaker 2>but is it big enough to be considered one of
<v Speaker 2>like Nintendo's pillars if they were to make a new
<v Speaker 2>Splatoon game.
<v Speaker 1>I yeah, I mean they're like, it's there's tiers of
<v Speaker 1>pillars for Nintendo, and it's it's you know, really Smash
<v Speaker 1>Brothers and Zelda and Pokemon at the top and a
<v Speaker 1>few others Mario and it's I would say that Splatoon
<v Speaker 1>is just one step down. Now. The thing that Splatoon
<v Speaker 1>would have going for it is it has always delivered
<v Speaker 1>in Japan. The other thing there is Nintendo's not having
<v Speaker 1>any problems in Japan. The switch to has not missed
<v Speaker 1>a beat there, everywhere else, it's like, oh maybe it
<v Speaker 1>had it's stumbled through the holidays a little bit, and
<v Speaker 1>you're a and the United States.
<v Speaker 3>It did not have that problem in Japan. It is
<v Speaker 3>like just chugging along.
<v Speaker 1>At an equivalent or faster rate than the Switch one. Now,
<v Speaker 1>that does not mean that they'll make a decision on
<v Speaker 1>Splatoon based on that. Splatoon Raiders is coming, I just don't.
<v Speaker 1>We just don't know what that is, at least does
<v Speaker 1>anyone know what that is? And they haven't talked about it.
<v Speaker 1>I think that'll be maybe be a big part of
<v Speaker 1>the next Nintendo Direct. And either way, having a new
<v Speaker 1>Splatoon thing will help them, especially in their home territory.
<v Speaker 1>But that game is done really well globally, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's in that next tier. It's not the Mario or
<v Speaker 1>Zelda though that the investors would pop up for. That's
<v Speaker 1>the stuff like and at this point with that Mario
<v Speaker 1>movie coming, especially if a new three D Mario gets announced,
<v Speaker 1>which is you know, one of the many rumors about
<v Speaker 1>the next Nintendo Direct is a three D Mario. Whitt
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Direct doesn't have that rumor at this point, but
<v Speaker 1>if that happened, I think that would directly address, like
<v Speaker 1>things would change instantly, like we would see this doc
<v Speaker 1>price probably rebound a good a fair amount, although that's
<v Speaker 1>always me going in a logical, asane, rational world, and
<v Speaker 1>investors are never those things. So what I know, right, surprise,
<v Speaker 1>And it's always frustrating to be like, oh, that thing happened,
<v Speaker 1>or though that company just announced their earnings and look
<v Speaker 1>at that they beat expectations. Let's go check. Oh it's
<v Speaker 1>it's down four percent. Well, oh, you guys were expecting
<v Speaker 1>some It's crazy. It's always so weird to try to
<v Speaker 1>understand how investors are thinking, because they're usually not.
<v Speaker 3>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here, we're going to continue with Nintendo news.
<v Speaker 1>After a break, we're going to talk about oh, surprise
<v Speaker 1>or an update launched early. We'll get to that after
<v Speaker 1>these messages. If you want to skip out on this,
<v Speaker 1>you go to gimebomb dot com slash join become a
<v Speaker 1>premium member. There you can find ad free versions of
<v Speaker 1>the audio show and ad free versions of the video show.
<v Speaker 3>We will be right back.
<v Speaker 1>It's Game mess Mornings, Janichoa, Jeff gru We are continuing
<v Speaker 1>right along here with the Animal Crossing New Horizons three
<v Speaker 1>point zero update is out early. This is from Devin
<v Speaker 1>McClure at Polygon. The three point update for Animal Crossing
<v Speaker 1>New Horizons has released earlier than expected for most users
<v Speaker 1>and is available for download now. However, the Nintendo Switch
<v Speaker 1>to upgrade, which is separate costs money, and its associated
<v Speaker 1>update are still locked behind the release date of January fifteenth.
<v Speaker 1>So this is the free update that's happening before both
<v Speaker 1>the Switch one and the Switch to switch. Do I
<v Speaker 1>have extra content that is likely still going to launch
<v Speaker 1>probably tonight. I'm guessing this is only a little bit early.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I earlier this week I forgot that this
<v Speaker 1>was even happening, and then in the last couple of days,
<v Speaker 1>like yesterday, really it's like, oh yeah, later this week
<v Speaker 1>that new animal crossing stuff is going to pop off.
<v Speaker 1>That's why I've seen so many like Animal Crossing creators online,
<v Speaker 1>like getting their towns ready, cleaning them up, making sure
<v Speaker 1>that they're ready for this stuff. I don't know jan
<v Speaker 1>how I'm feeling about this. I want to go back
<v Speaker 1>to Animal Crossing. I do not want to start a
<v Speaker 1>new town, but I also do not want to face
<v Speaker 1>down all of those villagers telling me how sad they
<v Speaker 1>were that I wasn't there for one hundred and seventy
<v Speaker 1>five years.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that part seems very intimidating. Grub this was I
<v Speaker 2>think I just learned about this this week from you,
<v Speaker 2>and I'm curious if, like the casual audience out there
<v Speaker 2>is aware that a big animal crossing update is coming.
<v Speaker 2>Like other friends in the industry, I see them prepping
<v Speaker 2>their islands as well. But for like the I guess
<v Speaker 2>regular person out there that may have picked up animal
<v Speaker 2>Crossing and a switch during the pandemic, is this news
<v Speaker 2>being surfaced to them outside of the Nintendo app, because this,
<v Speaker 2>you know, could be another significant wave for animal crossing
<v Speaker 2>if Nintendo alignes plays their cards right.
<v Speaker 1>I yeah, I don't know. I would guess that the
<v Speaker 1>people that consider themselves animal crossing people, which there are
<v Speaker 1>a lot of, they probably know people right, barely people,
<v Speaker 1>But You're right, there is a huge part of that
<v Speaker 1>of that player base that is just normal people who
<v Speaker 1>played Animal Crossing and have probably put it down and
<v Speaker 1>haven't thought about.
<v Speaker 3>It too much.
<v Speaker 1>Are they aware? I really don't know. I wonder how
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo would even think about communicating that to them. It
<v Speaker 1>is it on Instagram? Do they? They probably do that
<v Speaker 1>on Instagram or whatever. I have no idea, at the
<v Speaker 1>very least, like I do. I do think this could
<v Speaker 1>be a small, little inflection point for this game.
<v Speaker 3>Again, I hope really though.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, Okay, we get this, it's fun, it's great,
<v Speaker 1>let's go back place them at new horizons. And then
<v Speaker 1>in a few months we get like word from Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>and by the way, Animal the next Animal Crossing four
<v Speaker 1>switch to is in the works and it's coming out
<v Speaker 1>in like twenty twenty seven or something like that. I'm
<v Speaker 1>ready for the new one. It's great, this is getting
<v Speaker 1>an update, but it's it is one of the weirdest
<v Speaker 1>franchises for Nintendo to do the thing of hey, it's
<v Speaker 1>been six years, let's go back and again. It's specifically
<v Speaker 1>about that that going back to your town comes with
<v Speaker 1>a lot of emotional baggage. So I like, had they
<v Speaker 1>been updating this thing regularly this whole time, that's one thing, sure,
<v Speaker 1>But to do nothing for six years, which I never
<v Speaker 1>had a problem with. There's always people being like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>why'd you just let this game languish? And so well,
<v Speaker 1>they made a game, and they put a price on it,
<v Speaker 1>and they sold it to you and you played it,
<v Speaker 1>and okay, what's the problem.
<v Speaker 3>I don't see it.
<v Speaker 1>But for them to then shift from that back to
<v Speaker 1>and now here's some new content, It's such a weird
<v Speaker 1>game to.
<v Speaker 3>Do that with.
<v Speaker 2>It's so bizarre because I've seen people in chatter are
<v Speaker 2>echoing the sentiment. But a lot of folks have moved
<v Speaker 2>on from Animal Crossing new horizons. I actually see a
<v Speaker 2>lot of my friends that were super into Animal Crossing
<v Speaker 2>have now actually picked up Hello Kitty's Island. Yeah, okay,
<v Speaker 2>like now that it's off of iOS and now out
<v Speaker 2>on other platforms, right, And you know, san Rio is
<v Speaker 2>an ip that a lot of people are familiar with.
<v Speaker 2>People love Hello Kitty. She's only five apples tall, but
<v Speaker 2>you have all the other hooligans from that universe, and
<v Speaker 2>that has that familiarity. I've seen friends go flock to that,
<v Speaker 2>And I don't know, maybe it's just how my algorithm
<v Speaker 2>on social media is configured or whatever, but I've seen
<v Speaker 2>a lot of like casual cozy gamers talk about Hello Kitty.
<v Speaker 1>I Heiland Adventure. I know Alex on the recent podcast
<v Speaker 1>was saying that his girlfriend put it down and has
<v Speaker 1>now moved on too. Fantasy Life I and does not
<v Speaker 1>need this game anymore. So, oh yeah, there are a
<v Speaker 1>lot of alternatives. I bet this was a gateway to
<v Speaker 1>like start You Valley for a lot of people. In
<v Speaker 1>that game has been getting constant updates for forever. It's like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, what is that that just recently became the
<v Speaker 1>best reviewed game on Steam, finally beating Portal two or whatever,
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, okay, yeah, that thing is a beast
<v Speaker 1>into itself. And even Nintendo doesn't know how to do
<v Speaker 1>that sort of thing of keeping the game relevant like
<v Speaker 1>that for years and years with updates. So yeah, again,
<v Speaker 1>I just think this is a weird one to do
<v Speaker 1>this with. I kind of wish they just went I
<v Speaker 1>really wish they would have just made a new game.
<v Speaker 1>All that said, though, I like Animal Crossing. I could
<v Speaker 1>see myself spending some time the spring playing through this
<v Speaker 1>game and catching some fish and filling out the museum
<v Speaker 1>some more.
<v Speaker 3>But we'll see Bobby Kottick.
<v Speaker 1>Oh it's Bobby Cottic time. Unfortunately, we thought we were
<v Speaker 1>done with him because he was out of this industry.
<v Speaker 3>He has inserted himself.
<v Speaker 1>He's alleging the lawsuit against Microsoft's Activision acquisition was secretly
<v Speaker 1>aimed at helping Embracer Group. This is some Chris Scully
<v Speaker 1>and of Vicci. Former Activision CEO Bobby Kottick has alleged
<v Speaker 1>that an ongoing lawsuit objecting to objecting to Microsoft's acquisition
<v Speaker 1>of Activision Blizzard was secretly designed to help rival publisher
<v Speaker 1>Embracer Group.
<v Speaker 3>As reported by Game.
<v Speaker 1>File, Steven Tatilo's thing worth getting if you guys have
<v Speaker 1>never read that before, he does great work over there.
<v Speaker 1>The lawsuit was filed back in twenty twenty two by
<v Speaker 1>a Swedish pension fund called Sujunde ap Fonden Jude I
<v Speaker 1>don't know. I'm not gonna how to say that, also
<v Speaker 1>known as AP seven, though, and alleged that Kotik rushed
<v Speaker 1>the sale of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft so he could
<v Speaker 1>avoid the consequences of the sexual misconduct claims at the time.
<v Speaker 1>In a recently filed answer to the lawsuit, Kotick and
<v Speaker 1>his lawyers not only denied that claim, but has made
<v Speaker 1>a counterclaim that AP seven had ulterior motives in filing
<v Speaker 1>the suit, including to exert collateral harm on Activision and
<v Speaker 1>to help Embracer. Basically, as his reasoning there is one
<v Speaker 1>of the people on the board of AP seven was
<v Speaker 1>also like an executive of sorts at Embracer. But that
<v Speaker 1>is the only thing that really he has, because I
<v Speaker 1>mean he's saying like, by doing this activision, Blizzard's reputation
<v Speaker 1>would be tarnished. And then people in like California, when
<v Speaker 1>faced with like, hey, where am I gonna go work?
<v Speaker 1>Instead of going to work on call of duty, they'll
<v Speaker 1>go work at Embracer group. Jan tell me that sounds insane, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean it's coming. Any thing coming out of
<v Speaker 2>that man's mouth is insane. But this one.
<v Speaker 1>Why are all the billionaires so dumb?
<v Speaker 3>Insane?
<v Speaker 1>Here's the thing.
<v Speaker 2>If I had an obscene amount of money, I think
<v Speaker 2>I would just shut up.
<v Speaker 1>I think if you don't shut up, it's this clear
<v Speaker 1>sign of something wrong with the big old brain up there.
<v Speaker 1>If you get that much money, you could just shut
<v Speaker 1>up and go away, and if you don't, there's something wrong.
<v Speaker 2>He got the bag and then some he had like
<v Speaker 2>four golden parachutes grub to just peace out, never hear
<v Speaker 2>from him again. And also like he can just skirt
<v Speaker 2>past all these allegations that he's had skirt, but this
<v Speaker 2>man can't shut.
<v Speaker 1>The fuck up. It's uh, I mean, he's responding to
<v Speaker 1>this this thing. I guess said. This is probably his
<v Speaker 1>lawyer's strategy or something. It sounds real dumb. He didn't
<v Speaker 1>stop there, though he did. At least at the very least,
<v Speaker 1>This one's not as bad because he's just kind of
<v Speaker 1>dunking on Microsoft. He's like, basically, yeah, outrate it. Bobby
<v Speaker 1>Kottick alleges a lawsuit against Microsoft. That's the last one.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry.
<v Speaker 1>Bobby Kottik claims Activision call of duty and consoles are
<v Speaker 1>doing so poorly it proves he was right to sell
<v Speaker 1>Activision Blizzard to Microsoft for sixty nine billion dollars, basically
<v Speaker 1>saying I dumped that shit while it was high and
<v Speaker 1>now it ain't worth nothing and it's and Microsoft's caught
<v Speaker 1>holding the bag. It's a crazy thing to say, like,
<v Speaker 1>even if it's all true, which kind of looks like
<v Speaker 1>it is a little bit, it's a crazy thing to say,
<v Speaker 1>to be like, Yeah, I pulled one over on those
<v Speaker 1>fucking suckers over there, and I got my money. Former
<v Speaker 1>Activision boss Bobby Kottak has made a number of claims
<v Speaker 1>about the state of his former company, A Kottak, who
<v Speaker 1>left Activision Blizzard at the end of twenty twenty three,
<v Speaker 1>having sold the company to Xbox Maker for sixty nine
<v Speaker 1>billion dollars, is battling investors who claim you rigged the
<v Speaker 1>sale to keep his job in four hundred million dollars
<v Speaker 1>in change of control benefits and to insulate himself from
<v Speaker 1>claims he knew about widespread sexual harassment at Activision. Kodak
<v Speaker 1>has denied any wrongdoing. I don't believe you, Bobby. I
<v Speaker 1>don't believe you. I think you knew about all that shit.
<v Speaker 1>And that's why. One of the reasons you're so weird.
<v Speaker 1>It's because you're, like, I'm a normal guy, and you
<v Speaker 1>don't seem like it. You were covering this stuff up.
<v Speaker 1>That's my opinion though. But yes, he goes on to
<v Speaker 1>sort of ramble about this stuff and says, yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>dump this onto Microsoft, and Microsoft's got to be going
<v Speaker 1>around like, oh my god, we got to fix this
<v Speaker 1>call of duty thing. So this guy will shut up forever.
<v Speaker 2>Like he's he's not wrong, but also I feel like
<v Speaker 2>call of duty was heading this direction because of him.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, oh yeah, definitely, Like yeah, I think that's yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like he that's basically also what he's saying, Jane, You're right,
<v Speaker 1>like I did, I said I had I sold them
<v Speaker 1>a lemon, I sold them something that was careening off
<v Speaker 1>the road, and I got paid. So clearly I'm the
<v Speaker 1>winner here. So well, you you kind of set this
<v Speaker 1>whole thing up for failure or you could not fix it,
<v Speaker 1>and instead of taking into responsibility for the situation you
<v Speaker 1>created and then profited from, you just profited from it.
<v Speaker 1>And of course he thinks that's him just that winning,
<v Speaker 1>because that's the game, getting as much money as possible
<v Speaker 1>as the game to these people. And if he'd got
<v Speaker 1>the most money, clearly he was right. That's what defines right.
<v Speaker 1>So of course he's bragging about it. That's where we
<v Speaker 1>I mean, of course, that's where we are as a
<v Speaker 1>society right now, at least in the United States.
<v Speaker 2>It sucks. He's absolutely insane that.
<v Speaker 3>Just shut up, Just shut up, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>And grub like, you know, I'm not a legal person
<v Speaker 2>at all, but like I feel like maybe you shouldn't
<v Speaker 2>be saying as much in case something backfires or other
<v Speaker 2>litigation gets brought up. So Bobby, I don't know, shut up.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, well, Microsoft could assume him for not providing like,
<v Speaker 1>for oh, you knew this thing wasn't worth as much
<v Speaker 1>as you said? Is that what you're saying?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, did you misrepresent the value of the thing that
<v Speaker 1>we spent sixty nine billion dollars on? Yeah? Why is
<v Speaker 1>he out there talking? Yeah? Mostly shut up for your
<v Speaker 1>own sake, But shut up so we do not have
<v Speaker 1>to talk about you ever again. If it really wanted
<v Speaker 1>to believe in that world.
<v Speaker 2>If this leads to mutually assured destruct for Microsoft and
<v Speaker 2>Bobby Cottick, I'll warm up the blackcorn exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Let him fight, and yeah, we'll see who wins. It
<v Speaker 1>won't it won't be any of us, but hopefully it'll
<v Speaker 1>be neither of them as well. Yeah. Call of duty.
<v Speaker 1>One of the things that to come out of this
<v Speaker 1>is he claims call of duty for this year is
<v Speaker 1>down sixty percent compared to last year. That's a pretty
<v Speaker 1>big decline. Now, Battlefield six is the biggest reason for that.
<v Speaker 1>It does seem like Battlefield six made like a huge dent.
<v Speaker 1>That is another thing he said where it's like, look,
<v Speaker 1>this proves that competition in the first person space is real.
<v Speaker 1>So we were never in a monopoly position. And it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>my god, please just take your stupid money and go home.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, Mike, Mike, Call of Duty return next year
<v Speaker 1>to form Or is this actually the beginning of consistent
<v Speaker 1>declines going forward. I really don't know at this point.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know either, grub and I feel for the
<v Speaker 2>developers over there that are probably just being grinded into
<v Speaker 2>dust because of stupid, boneheaded decisions from people up top
<v Speaker 2>and or inclusions. We got an email to the BombCast,
<v Speaker 2>I think during the break where someone got disconnected from
<v Speaker 2>the Black Ops seven campaign for being idle even though
<v Speaker 2>it is a single player campaign, but you have to
<v Speaker 2>be online. There are also multiple, so many other multiple factors, Bobby,
<v Speaker 2>that factor into Black Ops seven performing poorly outside of
<v Speaker 2>your direct competition, You fucking jackass.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean I guess if I had to put
<v Speaker 1>money on it, I would guess that Call of Duty
<v Speaker 1>bounces back yet again. It's done it every time so far.
<v Speaker 1>Whether it bounces back to new heights ever, maybe not,
<v Speaker 1>but at the very least kind of equivalent heights, I
<v Speaker 1>would imagine that. And that's a good podcast with us
<v Speaker 1>Kelsey Brothers. All right, Prince of Persia, The Sands of
<v Speaker 1>Time remake rated by ESRB. This is from Alex Hopley
<v Speaker 1>at Game Reactor. While we've known for a while that
<v Speaker 1>Prince of Persia, the Sands of Time remake was aiming
<v Speaker 1>for a release relatively soon, as you be self apparently
<v Speaker 1>still wants it out this financial year, the hope seemed
<v Speaker 1>to dwindled day by day without any proper gameplay shown
<v Speaker 1>or anything akin to it.
<v Speaker 3>Fans were beginning to lose hope.
<v Speaker 1>Fans were a specifically losing hope jam because the word
<v Speaker 1>was excuse me, this game could launch anytime in January
<v Speaker 1>and at this point, unless it's a shadow drop, which
<v Speaker 1>I suppose it could be, but don't think it will be.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like, well, maybe they'll announce it at some
<v Speaker 1>point in the next couple of weeks and then it
<v Speaker 1>launches before the end of the fiscal so before the
<v Speaker 1>end of March. But I got a tea for team
<v Speaker 1>from the SRB website. As always, we say, like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>something get being rated by the ESRB, which is still
<v Speaker 1>done by these companies putting together a reel of all
<v Speaker 1>the most you know, violent and sexualized moments and drug
<v Speaker 1>use all this stuff into a video file and send
<v Speaker 1>it over to the SRB, but that has to be
<v Speaker 1>done when the game is content complete. Usually these things
<v Speaker 1>get rated about six weeks out on average from their
<v Speaker 1>release date. That shifts, that's not always consistent, but about
<v Speaker 1>six weeks and on the other side of it, like, okay, well,
<v Speaker 1>the end of March is justin a you know, a
<v Speaker 1>few weeks after that, maybe another six yeah, another four
<v Speaker 1>or five weeks after that, so I think we could
<v Speaker 1>probably expect to see this thing sometime between six to
<v Speaker 1>ten weeks from now, and I'm ready for I love
<v Speaker 1>the sense of time, and it sounds like they are
<v Speaker 1>going to make some really smart updates to this game,
<v Speaker 1>including making the princess that you're working with more capable
<v Speaker 1>on our own so you could just focus doing the
<v Speaker 1>fun prints stuff. It's like, oh, yeah, that sounds great,
<v Speaker 1>So I'm looking forward to this one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah me too. Grub I can't help but have not
<v Speaker 2>the strongest belief in ub Soft, just because it's ub Soft,
<v Speaker 2>and I don't know, Prince of Persia just seems like
<v Speaker 2>one of those slam dunk ips, especially after Lost Crown
<v Speaker 2>from two years ago was our game of the year.
<v Speaker 2>I would love more Prince of Persia. There you know,
<v Speaker 2>Blinks of Time Sweeper never did it for me, Greb
<v Speaker 2>this was my favorite time rewind game.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, yeah, this was a great time rewind game. Yeah
<v Speaker 1>there's this. There's also yeah, that Assassin Screed four remake
<v Speaker 1>that you'd be so well, remake or remaster or something
<v Speaker 1>that Ubi Selft apparently is going to have very soon
<v Speaker 1>as well. Does that also come before the end of
<v Speaker 1>the fiscal And why haven't they talked about these games?
<v Speaker 1>Really are? Did Assassin Screed four pop up at the
<v Speaker 1>Game Awards? There was a lot of stuff there. I
<v Speaker 1>kind of can't remember now, I don't remember. I feel
<v Speaker 1>like it would have been a big deal if it did. Okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that would exactly I don't remember it. Chet's saying no, okay,
<v Speaker 1>So yeah they got to talk about either of these things. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>you're right, Ubisoft a weird company, kind of a complete mess. Uh.
<v Speaker 1>When we are talking about them on this show, it
<v Speaker 1>is usually what's going on with the one of these games,
<v Speaker 1>or there are more cost cutting, job cutting, studio closures
<v Speaker 1>happening at any of those studios. They have nothing to
<v Speaker 1>do with Far Cry, Ghosts Recon or Assassin's Creed.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, the folks are mentioning that this ESRB rating
<v Speaker 2>is front maybe from a couple of years ago, and
<v Speaker 2>is not may not be for this current Okay, the remaster.
<v Speaker 1>Oh okay, yeah, so updated information. Yeah so this Startain
<v Speaker 1>game reactor doesn't say that. But okay, if people are
<v Speaker 1>just finding this old one and then assuming, then that
<v Speaker 1>would completely reset everything. Now, Ubisoft does still seem like
<v Speaker 1>they want to get out before the end of the
<v Speaker 1>fiscal and the rumors I was hearing late last year
<v Speaker 1>was something would happen in January. Uh, but we're in January.
<v Speaker 1>It's getting kind of late already, or halfway through the month.
<v Speaker 1>We haven't heard anything.
<v Speaker 2>Or grub This could be some viral marketing with time
<v Speaker 2>travel involved.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I like it. Yeah, I don't like if it's
<v Speaker 1>Yeves Gimo have it holding a knife and submitting things
<v Speaker 1>in the past. That's upsetting. Actually, oh god.
<v Speaker 3>Alright, let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>Season two of Battlefield six has been delayed so it
<v Speaker 1>can be further polished and refined. This is from Chris
<v Speaker 1>Scullion at VGC. Battlefield Studios is confirmed that the upcoming
<v Speaker 1>second season of Battlefield six has been delayed by around
<v Speaker 1>a month. Season one was set to end on January twentieth,
<v Speaker 1>but has now been confirmed that it will be extended
<v Speaker 1>by four weeks until February seventeenth, at which point season
<v Speaker 1>two will finally begin, and an update posted on the
<v Speaker 1>game's official website, the team explained that season two wasn't
<v Speaker 1>quite ready to launch at an acceptable standard, so it
<v Speaker 1>was being held back until it was ready. During our
<v Speaker 1>ongoing development, We've continued to review community community feed and
<v Speaker 1>in order to keep our promise, determined that our best
<v Speaker 1>path forward is to extend season one and give our
<v Speaker 1>extra time to further polish and refine Season two. The
<v Speaker 1>team also added that because the game's launch included a
<v Speaker 1>commitment to providing monthly content wrench updates for our players,
<v Speaker 1>it would be adding an extension update to season one
<v Speaker 1>to ensure that it has new content during its extended periods,
<v Speaker 1>So they're not going to miss out on that promise,
<v Speaker 1>at least not yet. Yeah, Battlefield six already feels like
<v Speaker 1>it's lost its way a little bit. The sort of
<v Speaker 1>word from the community is they want more stuff, and
<v Speaker 1>they want especially new maps, and they're not It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>seem like they're ready to deliver that and even if
<v Speaker 1>they do, is that even going to be enough?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 1>It feels like the sentiment on Battlefield six has cooled
<v Speaker 1>dramatically since it released, where it was at a very
<v Speaker 1>high point. I don't know these games that are live
<v Speaker 1>service games at this point, jan they can run hot
<v Speaker 1>and cold. I think we've seen it happen over and
<v Speaker 1>over again where it's like, oh, the community loves that game,
<v Speaker 1>now they hate it, now they love it, now they're
<v Speaker 1>kind of bored with it, and now they've come back.
<v Speaker 1>I'm thinking of Destiny too, but it's happened to a
<v Speaker 1>lot of games. Is that going to be the relationship
<v Speaker 1>between game and players for Battlefield six? Do you think? I? Yes, Greb.
<v Speaker 2>But I also feel like a part of that is
<v Speaker 2>on EA for kind of like fumbling the bag and
<v Speaker 2>kind of not having like a clear roadmap ahead of them, especially,
<v Speaker 2>and I feel like the defined path for updates and
<v Speaker 2>keeping players invested is so crucial when all these other
<v Speaker 2>games that you were competing with, and I'm talking about
<v Speaker 2>like your Warzone, your Fortnite, your PUBG specifically the Fortnite
<v Speaker 2>of it all, but also you will have something be
<v Speaker 2>a runaway success like in Arc Raiders, and that will
<v Speaker 2>definitely fluts around with your player base and pull them
<v Speaker 2>away from you. Or you could have something random pop
<v Speaker 2>up like Held two being a gigantic phenomenon for like
<v Speaker 2>a definite what was it maybe like two three months
<v Speaker 2>and that flets is around with your player base. But
<v Speaker 2>you also have other games like Overwatch two is picking
<v Speaker 2>Steam picking up Steam again. Marvel Rivals has had a
<v Speaker 2>constant player base just going on in the background, along
<v Speaker 2>with Valorant counter Strike. So if you have the success
<v Speaker 2>of Battlefield six and you managed to eat Call of
<v Speaker 2>Duty's lunch, you need to be prepared to keep keep
<v Speaker 2>the slap, keep the food coming to those people eat
<v Speaker 2>eaten at the table.
<v Speaker 1>M hmm, absolutely. Uh let me ask you a question, well,
<v Speaker 1>pop quiz chat hold off on helping him, uh, because
<v Speaker 1>I would. I had to look it up. Do you
<v Speaker 1>remember the name of the free to play battlefield battle
<v Speaker 1>Royal that launched on October twenty eighth, twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 2>What that's not real?
<v Speaker 3>Uh huh?
<v Speaker 2>A battle Field Ageddon.
<v Speaker 1>Pretty close? Battlefield red sec red sex fuck. This launched
<v Speaker 1>on October twenty eight five. It has fewer than ten
<v Speaker 1>thousand reviews on Steam. Red sec red Sec and it
<v Speaker 1>has mixed reviews. Except for the four hundred recent reviews,
<v Speaker 1>it's mostly negative. This thing, yes dead on arrival, and
<v Speaker 1>it just seems like this has nothing going on. Honestly,
<v Speaker 1>let me look it up real quick. I just want
<v Speaker 1>to see concurrent players for red Seck Battlefield Red Sec
<v Speaker 1>steam dB. Let's see if it has it there, Let's
<v Speaker 1>go there. Okay, I don't have the exact number, but yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it does not seem like a lot of people are
<v Speaker 1>playing this game. It's yeah, that was supposed to be
<v Speaker 1>the thing that would take them to one hundred million
<v Speaker 1>players if you remember that jan Yeah, that was the
<v Speaker 1>talking point and Battlefield six, the premium price game, launched
<v Speaker 1>and gave it this huge head start.
<v Speaker 3>It did outsell Call of Duty.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so it's like it's well on its way now
<v Speaker 1>it's capitalized on it with the free to play thing
<v Speaker 1>and that went nowhere, and now Battlefield six proper is
<v Speaker 1>having problems. Yeah, this is gonna be something they're gonna
<v Speaker 1>have to put a lot of effort into fixing.
<v Speaker 2>I question for the audience, and you, Greb, is arc
<v Speaker 2>graders still popping off? Is that still have a gigantic audience?
<v Speaker 2>I know it's probably waned since the initial release, but
<v Speaker 2>I'm curious.
<v Speaker 1>Uh yees, yes, it is that they just did their
<v Speaker 1>first season reset where the first season ended, so then
<v Speaker 1>everyone could like, do you want to reset your characters
<v Speaker 1>so you can go through and do all these missions
<v Speaker 1>again and do some new missions. And apparently a million
<v Speaker 1>people reset and and are now going back into the game.
<v Speaker 3>So that's that's doing. That seems to be.
<v Speaker 1>Pretty That indicates a pretty healthy player base there.
<v Speaker 2>Cool.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so I think it's doing just fine.
<v Speaker 2>Two hundred and over two hundred thousand players on Steam
<v Speaker 2>right now?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, that ain't bad. That's nothing.
<v Speaker 1>Sees that that's incredibly huge. Anything over like twenty thousand
<v Speaker 1>is huge. That's ten times. Then we should circle back
<v Speaker 1>to arc Graders, specifically with Kayla. Yes, oh for sure, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>let's make that happen. Okay, last story here. Forts the
<v Speaker 1>Horizon six's release date may have been revealed early by
<v Speaker 1>an in game ad. I'm sorry this is the second
<v Speaker 1>last story, but this is from Chris Scullion at VEGC.
<v Speaker 1>The release date for Forts the Horizon six may have been
<v Speaker 1>revealed early by an alleged in game ad. The ad
<v Speaker 1>is saying May nineteenth with early access where you can
<v Speaker 1>play four days early on May fifteenth, and then they're
<v Speaker 1>gonna have a bunch of other other stuff. Yeah, this
<v Speaker 1>date's right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's that's correct.
<v Speaker 1>This is this is right. So yeah, I guess that
<v Speaker 1>begs the question of, like, Okay, if this is coming
<v Speaker 1>May nineteenth, May fifteenth, if you have early early access,
<v Speaker 1>and then who knows when that game free game is coming.
<v Speaker 1>But the other big announced game that's gonna be part
<v Speaker 1>of that Xbox delivered direct is Playground Games, same studio,
<v Speaker 1>their Fable game. When does that come out? I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>say sometime in like late summer, uh maybe maybe even
<v Speaker 1>like yeah, no, late summer because I think Halo is
<v Speaker 1>gonna Halo and Gears are going to be their holiday games,
<v Speaker 1>so I think they'll probably want to get that out
<v Speaker 1>before that.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>We'll see forts Rise at six taking place in Japan.
<v Speaker 1>Any excitement from you a jan about that game, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know.
<v Speaker 3>Ah.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the thing is I just am not I
<v Speaker 2>have not been interested in anything coming out of Microsoft
<v Speaker 2>quite a while. And on top of you know, their
<v Speaker 2>current practices and Satinadella not being able to wipe his
<v Speaker 2>own ass without.
<v Speaker 1>AI YEP agents for ass wiping.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah cool. I hope that people that are excited for
<v Speaker 2>more for it to are excited for this. A driving
<v Speaker 2>game set in Japan could be very sick, could be
<v Speaker 2>very cool. The only thing this makes me want to
<v Speaker 2>do personally is just watch Tokyo Drift again.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I uh man.
<v Speaker 1>The drifting is the thing where it's like, I want
<v Speaker 1>to see how they handle that. But you're right, I'll
<v Speaker 1>just watch Tokyo Drift, which is my religion. All right.
<v Speaker 1>Last story, games Workshop bans Ai from Creative Process.
<v Speaker 3>Let's see here. I have a story over.
<v Speaker 1>Here from the Times dot Com. The maker of waramb
<v Speaker 1>Or tabletop miniatures, which said profit beat expectations in a
<v Speaker 1>record first half, has a very cautious internal policy on
<v Speaker 1>the technology. Basically, they're saying that they're very cautious. They
<v Speaker 1>want to protect human creativity. I bet they also got
<v Speaker 1>a talking too from their lawyers, which seems to be
<v Speaker 1>a thing that is growing, who are saying that the
<v Speaker 1>company is concerned about data compliance, security and governance as
<v Speaker 1>AI tools become embedded in everyday devices. Basically, they're just
<v Speaker 1>they want to own the stuff that they're making, and
<v Speaker 1>they're not sure that they use a if they own
<v Speaker 1>the stuff they're making. I've said before there are conservative
<v Speaker 1>companies in Japan who have felt this way for a
<v Speaker 1>long time, and multiple ones. Many of these companies have
<v Speaker 1>blanket bans on using AI for making games. So I
<v Speaker 1>guess I'm a little surprised till that this is spreading
<v Speaker 1>to someone like the Game's Workshop. But this is also
<v Speaker 1>the kind of thing that that community wants to hear.
<v Speaker 1>They want to hear that, yes, make the stuff the
<v Speaker 1>way you've been making it. There's a reason we've been
<v Speaker 1>showing up. Despite hating you Games Workshop, despite like having
<v Speaker 1>a terrible relationship with you, we're still happy to buy
<v Speaker 1>your stuff because we like the stuff that you make,
<v Speaker 1>So don't mess that up. Does this spread it even further? Jan?
<v Speaker 1>I hope so right.
<v Speaker 2>I hope that this is the slow beginning of the
<v Speaker 2>sentiment of banning AI content, because Jesus Christ grib going
<v Speaker 2>onto any form of social media are just casually trying
<v Speaker 2>to just do whatever. There is just so much AI garbage,
<v Speaker 2>and it is unfortunate the folks that eat it up,
<v Speaker 2>and especially within our space here. Greb in games media
<v Speaker 2>and also video game development. It's just you know, get
<v Speaker 2>it out, please kick it to the curb with Bobby Kottick.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this is the kind of thing where it's like
<v Speaker 1>you just say this and you're gonna get a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of bonus points if it's If it's actually true,
<v Speaker 1>So good.
<v Speaker 3>For games Workshop. I don't know, I'm one of there.
<v Speaker 1>I always wonder like is there more to the story
<v Speaker 1>where we find out what's really going on? But hopefully
<v Speaker 1>this is just the whole thing. All right, let's see
<v Speaker 1>here that does it for the headlines. We have the
<v Speaker 1>poll question from Monday. We'll get that up here and
<v Speaker 1>respond to that. Let me get it, let me go,
<v Speaker 1>We'll take a look at it right here, YouTube dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash at giant bomb. If you go to posts,
<v Speaker 1>you can see the pole question each and every time
<v Speaker 1>we post. One. Most one was what is your childhood
<v Speaker 1>final Fantasy game? I gave you the options of Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy six, Final Fantasy seven, and Final Fantasy thirteen, as.
<v Speaker 3>Well as other.
<v Speaker 1>The most popular one was Final Fantasy seven with forty
<v Speaker 1>three percent, then other and Jane, I'm sure we got
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of like I'm guessing a lot of Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy tens. I wouldn't be surprised. We got a lot
<v Speaker 1>of tens, got some tens, got some eight. Yes, eight
<v Speaker 1>for sure. Okay, I'm surprised the people that said Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy eight had enough time when they're so busy posting
<v Speaker 1>on Tumblr that they're final. Final Fantasy six was sixteen percent,
<v Speaker 1>and then Final Fantasy thirteen was five percent. Worth pointing
<v Speaker 1>out we did this because one of the producers over
<v Speaker 1>at Square Enix is saying, when we hire young people
<v Speaker 1>now and ask them about their favorite Final Fantasy, they
<v Speaker 1>stopped saying six, and now they say Final Fantasy thirteen. Well,
<v Speaker 1>those developers are not in our audience. Apparently, apparently we
<v Speaker 1>don't have enough young people.
<v Speaker 2>Thankfully, there's at least one more comment that commented the
<v Speaker 2>same joke I made. Does Kingdom Hearts count?
<v Speaker 1>Oh boy? Yes?
<v Speaker 3>Why not? Who cares?
<v Speaker 1>Early on, that was the thing. It's like, it's it's
<v Speaker 1>Disney characters and Final Fantasy characters. That was the idea.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have a new poll question. We'll get
<v Speaker 1>to it in a second. In fact, we're gonna.
<v Speaker 3>Get to it right now. Have you ever played an
<v Speaker 3>Echo the Dolphin game?
<v Speaker 1>Yes? Or no, I lead with that echo the dolphin story.
<v Speaker 1>Have you even played these games before? Chat as anyone
<v Speaker 1>actually touched this? We'll find out.
<v Speaker 3>We'll talk about on tomorrow's show.
<v Speaker 1>Here on Giant Bomb speaking a Giant Bomb, Jan, what
<v Speaker 1>do we have going on?
<v Speaker 2>Well, Grub, hopefully today Mike Minatti can end our national
<v Speaker 2>nightmare by finishing leisure Suit Larry, please.
<v Speaker 3>Please please.
<v Speaker 1>I barely slept last night, like I was not. Steph
<v Speaker 1>was sick and I wasn't feeling great, and then I
<v Speaker 1>was up late, and then Emmy wasn't feeling good and
<v Speaker 1>she got in bed with us and I got like
<v Speaker 1>two hours of sleep. And so I need this game
<v Speaker 1>to end because I'm gonna be so miserable today and
<v Speaker 1>I don't even have to play it. But really it'd
<v Speaker 1>be better if I was playing, because I would finish
<v Speaker 1>it faster. I don't know. The Mike just likes to
<v Speaker 1>luxuriate in this game for some reason.
<v Speaker 3>It's the right.
<v Speaker 2>I know that that man just loves to dilly dally
<v Speaker 2>tilly dally favorite things being a fuddy duddy. Uh yeah, Grub,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna be honest. I fell asleep last week.
<v Speaker 1>Dude, I don't blame you. I mean, this is this
<v Speaker 1>is the worst game we've done. It's the worst game
<v Speaker 1>we've played.
<v Speaker 2>It's just like so cosmically bad. I feel like we're
<v Speaker 2>opening like a portal to negativity because of this game.
<v Speaker 2>With how bad the jokes are.
<v Speaker 1>We are, Uh, we're doing black Club today, everybody, so
<v Speaker 1>tune in for that. You get to enjoy our misery
<v Speaker 1>and I do. But I do believe the community, as
<v Speaker 1>they've said, this is the one where they've been the
<v Speaker 1>most miserable because the jokes are just not jokes. They're
<v Speaker 1>so painful. But hey, this could be the last episode too,
<v Speaker 1>might as we'll get a taste of it. Come watch
<v Speaker 1>the grand finale with us today.
<v Speaker 2>Like I feel like to spite everyone, Minati is gonna
<v Speaker 2>just be like no, we're gonna I'm going one hundred
<v Speaker 2>percent of this and get all the trophies.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah I want to. I want to go do some
<v Speaker 1>more of these dating mini games.
<v Speaker 3>I want to be weird to women until they have
<v Speaker 3>sex with me.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just also every time we fire up this game,
<v Speaker 2>I think this is going to be the time we
<v Speaker 2>get banned on Twitch or YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah it's not on the band list, but I. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I have the same concern I did. I did want
<v Speaker 1>to like talk to Minati about these stories this end,
<v Speaker 1>because he cares about Echo in the Disney Afternoon Collection,
<v Speaker 1>and now we have a lot of questions about his
<v Speaker 1>play style. I was gonna call man, but I'm looking
<v Speaker 1>to the clock. We should wrap things up, all right.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here, we did the new poll question, We
<v Speaker 1>talked about the upcoming schedule. People should go to giant
<v Speaker 1>bomb dot com slash join become a part of our
<v Speaker 1>whole thing over there. Other than that, Jan, thank you
<v Speaker 1>so much for hanging out with me today and talking
<v Speaker 1>about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>It's the only way to start a Wednesday, Grub.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 3>We'll be back tomorrow, or at least I will.
<v Speaker 1>Jan.
<v Speaker 3>You're out on assignment, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm out on assignment, Grub. I'm going to see
<v Speaker 2>some things, all.
<v Speaker 1>Right, He's gonna go see some things in the meantime.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching today's episode. Thank you for listening.
<v Speaker 1>You are the best audience in gaming. Until next time,
<v Speaker 1>have a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.