Disney Invests $1.5 Billion in Epic Games

Don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
February eighth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let
me help you sort through the world of gaming on Games Mornings Live with me
Jeff Grub. Today, Disney is investing one point five billion dollars in Epic
to make a next gen Club Penguin, just without the Penguins. But first,
please join me in welcoming today's co host of Games Mornings. It's Jana
Choa. Everybody, Jan how are you doing? I am feeling great,
Jeff Grub, I'm feeling good. I had one of those moments where you
are maybe under the influence of substances. I'm gonna say happiness, and then
you just see the grand calculus of the universe. Sure, and then where
you fit inside the universe Grub. And then it just like just like the
switch sound effect, you're clicking the place. Was this happening in Da Vinci
Resolve or was it like, were you working out or what? No,
this was just happening in my mind palace as I was as I was fighting
my demons and then embracing my demons as well. Uh, the phone comes
out of their bodies, Jan Greb, I think you know what I'm gonna
do. I'm gonna I'm gonna write a self help book. We become like
a life coach for gamers specifically. Okay, yeah, gamer coach, but
not but not not in gaming, just how to be better people or what.
I Well, you know it's gonnas gonna be tough climb, right there.
Uh but yes, yes, reach out to me, folks, and
I will reach back to you around with consent though, of course. Uh.
Jane, how's this week going for you? It's been a uh kind
of we had a lot going on. We're busy, and then you're also
like editing that thing for Dan that's going to debut today. We're able to
get everything done. You feel like you're staying on top of things. Everything's
done, I realized, And maybe we'll talk about this on the dump truck
later, but I do miss editing video for as much as I enjoy all
of our live to tape stuff, our podcast, and I do enjoy slicing
and dicing of course, right, Yeah, that's just a secret at this
point. Yeah, it's just for you. My sigh up is that it's
been posted this whole time. I just didn't tell anyone and they have to
go find it. It's like frog fractions three. It's out there somewhere on
Steam. Yes, I've been. Maybe if you ride the Amtrak in San
Francisco, it is actually on a USB and I'm waiting for someone to find
it. Yeah, don't pick up the wrong USB though, you'll find some
really messed up stuff. Yes, yes, yes, don't do that one.
Just the jan USB. Uh. All right, let's see we should
probably explain what we do here most weekdays. I, Jeff Grabble, help
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some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
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giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and
timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to
get into, so let's start the morning mess with Disney invests one point five
billion dollars in epic games and announces major Fortnite partnership. This comes from Christopher
During at Games Industry Dot biz. The Walt Disney Company has invested one point
five billion dollars to acquire an equity stake in Epic Games and has announced plans
for a major collaboration with Fortnite. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney and the is
the controlling shareholder of Epic and we'll continue to maintain control of the board following
the close of this transaction, Epic told Games Industry up dot Biz. Disney
and Epic described the project as an as an open, persistent social universe it
will be. It will be a games experience, but also offer the ability
for fans to watch, shop and engage with content, characters, and stores
stories from across Disney's portfolio, which includes Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel,
and the Avatar brands. Our exciting new relationship with Epic Games will bring together
Disney's beloved brands and franchises with the hugely popular Fortnite in a transformational new games
and entertainment universe, said Disney CEO Bob Iger. There's more to this.
There's more quotes, including Bob Iger being like a who knew people were playing
video games. You know, here's the Bob Iger said, and I wrote
down Bob Iger said, insanely when I saw gen Z and jen Alpha and
millennials, the amount of time they were spending in terms of total media screen
time on video games, it was stunning equal to what they spend on TV
and movies. The conclusion I reached, we have to be there, fucking
Robert, what's going on over there? Buddy? Why Grub? Why do
they let these people have a lot of money, much money as he has.
That's that. I'm glad you added insane to that, because that is
absolutely insane of Bob Iger to just realize this. Yeah, to kind of
be telling on yourself a little bit, Grub, do you think there are
CEOs out there? And the answer is yes, that assume that, And
haven't ever looked at the numbers to how big the video game audience is.
They just still think it's a bunch of nerds. Uh, yeah, probably.
I bet Bob Chapik was just like eating video games, not even understanding
what you're supposed to do with them. So at least they do that yet
that they have the better Bob in there now he's like at least like looking
at numbers being like, oh, people are playing these. They they realize
the product they already made is catered more mostly toward towards children. So you
would assume, let's attack the other things that kids are into video games.
Yeah, I think, like I think they think about it along those lines,
and they don't go very down, very far down that line of thought.
They're like, well, we have the things they care about, the
characters, So just put out a fucking mobile game and call at the end
of the day, is Bob Igery gonna suddenly realize, oh my god,
gen and z Jen Alpha millennials and Gen X they all read books. We
should make books. It feels like it, Yeah, for sure. So
in terms of what this looks like, jan we don't fully know, but
there is a couple of like little tidbits here. This is going to be
a Fortnite expansion experience, something that stands alongside Fortnite, like those other recent
games that Epic released. At least that seems like how it's going to take
form. Then they also had that tagline of and that they mentioned it there
in a quote of like of game, Create, Watch, and Shop.
It was like like those four words creates. Probably not the right word,
but it was like basically like four thanks, including shop. So it's like
sound, it's like PlayStation Home. It sounds like like the metaverse that they've
been talking about forever that they said it'll have interoperability with Fortnite. Of course
it will if probably if you buy a character in one of these games,
it's likely going to work in Fortnite. Are they going to give Mickey Mouse
a gun? Who knows? But I see how a lot of this stuff
makes sense part of me. And maybe this is cynical, and maybe it's
because they haven't shown me anything to care about yet. I'm like, you're
not seeing this thing, And the only thing I'm imagining is the day it
gets shut down, like I can like in five years, when no one
cares about this thing anymore and it just like quietly closes. Are people go
like, oh damn, they're closing that that. I feel like I can
like grand opening, grand closing is what I'm like seeing here. But maybe
I'm being a bit too cynical. I don't know, what do you think?
I think we've kind of had that approach and expectations even when we were
into it, Scout, I swear to God with something like Fortnite, assuming
and just looking at the doomsday clock waiting for it to write exactly. And
it's the point. Yet Fortnite, in spite of itself even and in spite
of greater gabor culture, hold one second problem, Yeah, Scout, see
something. Yeah. This also reminds people in chat Nikki's saying like Disney Infinity.
This is reminded me of that as well. And I mean, until
we see something that people really care about, I have a hard time seeing
this as anything beyond one of those failed efforts. What separates this from any
of those, I'm not one hundred percent sure just yet, because I feel
like I think we had this conversation earlier this week on the BombCast, where
companies kind of adjusting to the trends and making something like a games as a
service or any of these type of social hubs, VR hubs whatever, that
the audience is not explicitly asking for. That's when it tends to fail or
just not hit the mark. And I think that is where I may join
you Grub initially. Of all right, I do feel a little bit cynical,
and I don't know who this is for what this is for? Just
yet I think maybe because of the monetary investment, I hope and I want
it to work out, but yeah, I just also start to think about
how precious Disney is about all of their IP and does Mickey Mouse hold a
gun? Like how can you edit Mickey Mouse and like the Mickey Mouse Club
to fit to a social hub? Right? Can anyone just be Mickey Mouse?
I mean presumably by Disney investing one point five billion dollars into Epic,
that's got to lubricate that process a little bit. Like what Jane's talking about.
Everybody is games, like you know, Star Wars, Jedi a Survivor
is a real headache for a studio like respond to make over a EA that
has to like get everything run by the Creative Visions group over at Lucasfilm,
and that stuff is very laborious and it's very challenging. And Disney's a real
stickler about all those things when it comes to their characters, probably because they
believe it's for good reason. They think that's what keeps the the long term
value of those characters. But you know, if you are putting one point
five billion dollars in Epic. Presumably you can have like offices right people right
in the Epic office to talk to that are working on these things every day.
Like this is like one point five billion dollars is in an exclusion to
them being like, Okay, we're gonna go put one point five billion dollars
into making our own games or into partnering with a bunch of other studios across
all all these things, or doing something with roadblocks or whatever. It's like,
no, we are all in on Epic. So if we're all in,
let's actually make sure that those pain points are solved and ready to go.
I hope they're thinking about that. I know they like, you know,
you know, John Trank's over there. It seems like he's very much,
you know, behind a big part of this deal, and he's very
very proud of but it. He's the kind of guy that understands those issues.
So I'm like, they're probably going to be able to solve those those
aspects. It's just when it comes to Disney, there's a lot of reason
to think that they will abandon this because they've done that with gaming every time
up to up till now. Maybe the one point five billion dollars changes that
though. Yeah, and you know this isn't just because I, uh were
you know, John Drake is a friend of the website. I also trust
John Drake to see see this through and everything. The other aspect reb that
I'm thinking is I feel like this may not be Disney readjusting their strategies.
What is going on? Is there a ghost just sh by you're just waiting
outside your house right now. But we've seen how and I was just talking
about how Disney's been precious about their IP, but at the same time,
we've seen how much they're willing to squeeze their IP dry with all these Star
Wars spinoffs, the MCU spinoffs, that I think maybe they're expanding the strategy
to not necessarily squeeze the juice out of everything, but to see what else
is potentially there with all of their IP put together, Like, Hey,
maybe we should see what we can do in some type of Disney social hub.
We already get Disney adults coming to the parks all of the parks way
too often. Let's see how we can capture them virtually. I wonder about
the quality of these games, though, jam because you know we're coming out
of a period there where we had Lethal Company on Steam, and then we
had Power World pop off and those things, you know, the very very
in quality or whatever, but they are very popular and caught on. And
then meanwhile over at Fortnite, still very popular in the core game, but
they had a couple of other games that were part of their new initiative,
like that Lego basically what is Lego Minecraft? Essentially fun, They finally did
it. They made a Lego Minecraft game should be huge. Maybe it is,
but that one, like I thought that was the one that would really
take off, and I don't hear anyone ever talking about that anymore. That
does not mean it's not popular. That happens all the time. Maybe some
huge audiences playing it that I hear from. But what I have heard is
many people who are kind of had high opes on these games, and the
rocket Racing and the other one that I can't remember. No one really likes
these things, at least, no one's too fond of them. Not really.
Everyone's just ready to go back and play real Fortnite if they're going to
Fortnite at all. So right now, the track record isn't great that they're
able to take these ideas and expound on them and be like, well,
obviously, Lego Minecraft, that should work. I know that a lot of
people are like, well, no, I jumped into Powell World and immediately
had more fun with that than I ever did with Lego Lego Minecraft. I'm
just gonna keep going at that. Yeah, I'm not. It seems more
impossible than ever to predict where gamers are at, Yes, for sure,
Hence why I'm going to help them grub Oh okay, help them out here
exactly. Well, you know myself help book. We're going to target them,
and then I sell that target to the big companies. This is where
you get cut a check from both sides. Yeah, you got to play
both sides. Jan, this is B to B to B me B to
B to j uh. Yeah, hey, this is not going to be
a quick flash in the pan. At the very least, they will spend
years trying to make this make sense. And really, I think it'll come
down to the quality of the experience, and like I think like one tier
can can succeed. Like, okay, people are actually playing these games,
and that is a success on its own. They're spending money in these games.
Even if it's like you know that Lego thing. I'm sure a lot
of people are playing. It probably does make financial sense so far, and
they could probably get something similar here. Whether or not they are like able
to have this persistent world that they're talking about that where people shop in and
consume content, and that's like still to be seen. They could probably Fortnite
has had some success with that stuff, with concerts and things like that,
But I just like, is it gonna be a whole new tier, like
a whole new way of doing that as opposed to Disney plus or going to
the movies or watching cable television. Probably not, but hey, they're trying.
Then they have an idea here, and again a lot of money is
invested. What do you think, like, what do we what do you
think we get out of this? First? Do you just think we get
like a pretty standard like social Hub or do they have like a video game
ready to go? If anything, I think we get more Disney oriented skins.
Maybe you remake the parks and like you have some type of interactive experience
like that. Yeah, that would probably be very popular. Maybe the Fortnite
map be shifts again and gets crafted around some more popular Disney worlds like maybe
you have part of it be like buzz Lightyear themed, and then a different
part of it is like Mulwana themed. You can easily see this being used
and spun off to start promoting future movies future shows as well, like hey,
you need an ice World where well there's Elsa and the whole crew,
and then like part of your Fortnite quest is to reassemble Olaf or something,
And you're like, I could, I mean, you can't just see it,
like when it comes to like what happens outside of like the Fortnite bubble,
like the sort of the orbit around Fortnite, a battle royale that's aimed
at kids that does have like one hundred kids dropping down in the Magic Kingdom,
and maybe they're not using like guns, but they're using some other like
projectile device to be more family friendly and that gets them in the ecosystem that
gets into Disney stuff and it's a win win for everybody involved. You could
be again piecing these things together pretty quickly to be like, oh, this
is them synergizing on all these different aspects of what they have going on here.
It's interesting you say bubble grub because sometimes I think of both of these
Disney and Fortnite as to gigantic specific bubbles and I rather of their own.
Yeah, So I wonder do these brands conflict with each other at all,
Like does the super heavy Fortnite player absolutely abhor Disney and vice versa? Right?
And I wonder where and how they intend to get those people, those
groups to mix. Yeah. I think that for when it comes to Fortnite,
the audience has been trained enough to be like, this is just like
Bunko pops. It is, You're going to get skins for popular things here,
so expect more of that stuff. And they've just they've kept doing more
and more of that stuff, and the crossovers into other forms of media have
been massive and seemingly in no way rejected and maybe at worst ignored by people
who don't care about that stuff. And it'say, well, clearly that is
almost a good sign that people feel that they can ignore it, because I
mean, it's this, this world of Fortnite and this world of like what
Epic is doing over there is big enough to house all these things simultaneously.
I think they're different. I think they're right about that to a point.
I maybe just I think maybe if this if my own here is coming across
with like a negative connotation, I think it's that I am seeing that one
point five five billion dollars, meaning that Disney is going to make fewer what
I consider like traditional video games, things that I would be more excited about
than this necessarily. But that doesn't it doesn't mean that necessarily either. That's
just a knee jerk reaction and we'll have to wait and see, all right.
Nintendo says it will overcome challenges of generational transition with unique propositions. This
is from Tom Ivan at VGC. Nintendo has said it's more important than ever
to offer consumers unique propositions in order to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
During a Q and A session following Nintendo's find nancial results briefing on Wednesday,
the company was asked what risks it's especially mindful of as it looks to
build on the success of its dedicated gaming platforms and it's expanding IP business.
Since launching in March twenty seventeen, the Switch has sold over one hundred and
thirty nine million units. Only two other dedicated system has sold better. Blah
blah blah. Then they go on to say, we approach our business every
day with a profound sense of urgency. Nintendo President Shuntaro for Ukawa told investors
the generational transition of platforms and the dedicated gaming console business is never easy.
We have experienced significant challenges following successful platforms multiple times, so we never consider
our current situations to be totally secure. Nintendo says it will overcome challenges of
generational transition by trying to offer up those aforementioned unique propositions. What those are,
obviously they're not saying, But I think this kind of goes back to
something that we all know about what the switch tow is going to look like.
Right at the very least, they're going to have some little feature in
there that they're going to market as being very important, whether or not it
actually is all that important, right They're they've always done that, and they're
probably gonna come back to that again, right m I I think what what
like we can mostly take away from here is maybe lessons for like what the
future is going to have to look like for all these companies, maybe except
for Sony. I think people are very happy with the PlayStation just being the
PlayStation, and honestly they're probably happy with the switch being the switch. So
maybe it's just a lesson for Microsoft where you know they are they didn't stand
out and the Xbox Series X and S h kind of have like, oh,
okay, it's a it's a it's a console, and it's a console
that's a little bit more affordable, and there's no other really differentiating factor,
so it's got to it's all gonna come down to the exclusives and the games.
And it's like, I think Microsoft learned that lesson pretty quickly in this
generation, and that's like behind a lot of what is happening with them,
where like they're looking ahead to maybe shifting things up next next time around and
trying to do something that is a little bit more different so that they can
have something to add actually market. And that usually has worked for Nintendo,
even when it's like not worked as well as the Wei. Like the Wei
is obviously the prime example. Hey you got the waggle controls. This is
where anybody come play it? And I suppose the switch is the other prime
example, but I always point like to the new three DS of like,
hey we got the nub and the eye tracking here, so like you don't
have to worry about the like trying to get the three DS in the perfect
spot so the three D actually works. It's like small features like that go
a long way towards making people want to upgrade, and so Nintendo continues to
focus on that. Do you think there's any risk JAN of us getting to
a point where it's like or Nintendo getting to a point where they're like,
oh, we are so worried about our unique propositions that they're going to upend
what worked about the switch. I think that's a legitimate fear to have.
The part that I don't want to SA rubs to me the wrong way about
this news story is the quote about Nintendo products not being daily necessities, and
I kind of for them to not be a daily necessity and something that I
willingly seek out versus something I feel like I have to check, uh,
you know. So I hope they don't fumble the bag here this way,
because even seeing this headline makes me feel some type of way where I kind
of want Nintendo to just trust Nintendo rather than try and adhere to whatever market
conditions, because it seems like they they make their own conditions this whole time.
That's interesting you're right, like he like for Cole was right that they
have absolutely fumbled the bag before previously. But I've never got the sense that
Nintendo really thought about that all to much, Like it was just like,
well, no, we're doing this because we're Nintendo and we're just gonna go
out there. And yet sometimes it really has been has messed up, but
I think it's always in the end they were able to wrap back around and
make it something that that was their strength again becoming mindful of that process and
being like, we want to avoid the attempt where we drop the bag and
instead just jump right to the good idea. It's like, well, maybe
some magic might be lost in there, kind of just maybe keep doing things
in the Nintendo way and maybe and maybe that means there will be some stumbles,
but I think also it could mean some magic. Now, all that
said, I do want them to play it safe. I want them to
play it very safe with this next hardware. I just want my switch to
to be a switch, and I want to keep playing games the way I've
been playing on that thing, because I've been very happy with it for going
on seven years, and you know, and all things considered, I would
keep playing my switch, you know if a certain handful of games didn't start
feeling very old on it, So let's keep it that way. Yeah,
I don't need RGB lights beaming off of it. I don't need I mean
I would like an O led screen though, Oh yeah yeah, please please
please that, Like, I don't need anything fancy or funky with it.
We're good unless unless for a kowa you want to add a watch it?
Okay, the watch? Would the watch be like living inside the switch to
and you could like pull it out and strap it on like a slap racist
sort of thing. Or is it like no, you have a separate doc
for that and it goes on your nightstand at night? What do you what?
Are you envisioning a different, different doc entirely? Like? I think
the only communication you have is like when you like put put them over together
like a power rangers more for a common writers, I should have a more
for type of thing. Yeah, I just think Okay, and I know
he said I don't want a daily necessity except for a watch for a cowam
I want to watch that like has like needles that like go into the back
of my wrist and can like tell what I'm eating and like take my blood
pretty frequently. I want to see doctor Mario. Doctor Mario fix me.
Our healthcare system is now run by Nintendo. It's a true nightmare situation there.
Just take bills. Yeah, you're just I'm gonna chuck some pills at
you, Like, okay, why are you playing that music? All right?
Well, last headline before the break. This month's Nintendo Direct could be
a partner showcase, it's claimed. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC.
Nintendo's regular February Nintendo Direct live stream will be a partner Direct this year,
it is claimed. That's according to the Nate the Hate podcast Shout out to
Nate the Hate, a show which regularly breaks stories in the games industry,
which is suggest Nintendo could use its next Direct to highlight remaining third party switch
content before the expected imminent announcement of a successor console. He says, I'm
going this is Nate. I'm going into the first Nintendo Director this year with
the expectation that it's going to be a partner Direct. I don't think Nintendo
will host a general Direct this February. I think they're going to do with
the third parties instead, and elsewhere he sounded even more confident about that.
So and Nate usually knows what he's talking about, especially if he's saying it
publicly. He's very hesitant to say stuff upicly unless he knows, and in
which case it's like, Okay, what was the that I made with Mike
about Metroid Prime four? Pretty sure I'm gonna have to owe him on that.
Pretty sure? Pretty sure I just lost that one. This I mean,
listen, If this is what it is, it makes a lot of
sense. We are at the end of the Switch switches life. They are
looking ahead to what they're gonna be doing with the Switch successor, and a
Switch Partner showcase could have all those games, and then Nintendo can still talk
about the Princess Peach game and Mario Versus Donkey Kong and a handful of other
things they have going on the Thousand of Your Door remaster, and they'll be
just as just happy like having those in trailers and in tweets, and then
they will do a real director when they're ready to talk about the Switch to
When you lay it out like that, Jan, it all just sounds kind
of right, right. Yeah, I'm trying to think if there's like any
indie darlings that have made their way onto like PC or other consoles that could
weasel their way onto the Switch or that would warrant like being part of a
big announcement like this, Hades two, give me Hades two, Nintendo help
help across the line. Haiti's two Early Accesses is supposed to still come this
year, and it was supposed to be relatively earlier in the year. That'd
be cool if they if that game came out in early access on the switch
to or on the Switch, I would be very happy. I would like
that quite a bit. Yeah, me too. Yeah, And then god,
I do just want to call it Spoon Heaven's Slam mc awesome. What's
the Hollow Night Silk song? There we go, that's the real name of
that game. Uh, maybe it's maybe something with that. Last time we
saw that was at an Xbox show though, so so who knows, and
I'm speaking of Xbox. Hey, maybe high five Rushes there? Right?
Oh yeah, that would be that would classify under the partner showcase. I
mean, you do that and then feature Sea of Thieves as well possible,
I mean circumstances, circumstantial evidence they lined up Baby in Microsoft their business update
meeting for next week. That's where they're sticking to that. It's like,
even though they have this fire storm happening, Like, why are they holding
off on that business meeting update unless they have an agreement like we're waiting until
this all happens in the direct and then we'll talk about it after the direct.
Maybe. I mean, it also could just be that they still are
taking time to craft their messaging, you know, tinfoil hats and all when
it comes to that. But that is a possibility here that Microsoft does show
up in some significant way in the Direct, and then they have their business
meeting update right after that. That that direct could happen next Wednesday, next
Thursday, and then late next week we get Microsoft talking about those things.
I'm going to be so upset if they have this Nintendo direct, this partner
direct, and they let Phil Spencer do this like the Snap, if they
let him do that, I'm going to be livid. He's not earned that.
He's definitely not on that. Definitely, No, let's see here,
okay, I mean we have a lot of Nintendo questions still, you know,
will we get out of this, it will be full steam ahead on
like Okay, the next time Nintendo really sits down to talk with this iner
direct, they have to talk about hardware, and that probably will be true.
But man, at this point, I'm like, God, well that's
Roy Prime for Is it really gonna miss the switch? I guess I guess
it is. I mean, the MIC's usually right about those things, so
I should have just believed then. But I wanted to believe. I wanted
to believe it could come out this year. Why you do this? Listen?
I bet my hair this time. Did not bet my hair this time?
Okay, Okay, you bet my hair. I bet your head.
That's right. Sorry to tell you that, Jan by the way, but
that's how it goes. All right, let's take a quick break. When
we get back, we have a lot more to talk about all after this.
All right, it's getting back into it. The FTC isn't too happy
with Microsoft's Activision Blizzard layoffs. This is from Nicole Carpenter at Polygon. Microsoft
renigged on and promises it made in court court during its Federal Trade Commission ANTIE
trust trial in twenty twenty three by laying off nineteen hundred employees in late January,
FTC lawyer m Ahmad Abayad filed a letter with the US Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday, effectively telling on Microsoft, and he said
in that documentation, this newly revealed information contradicts Microsoft's representations in this proceeding,
The FTC lawyer wrote, Microsoft announced on January fifteenth that it was laying off
nineteen hundred workers from its gaming division, around eight percent of that part of
the company. A large portion of those layoffs were at the newly acquired Activision
Blizzard. The percentage of Activision Blizzard layoffs had not been made public at least
at least but at least eight hundred and ninety nine of that oney nine hundred
worked out of Activision Blizzards California offices, according to public records. As we
move forward in twenty twenty four, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activision Blizard
is committed to aligning to a strategy of making more money. Basically is what
Phil said, and that means paying fewer people money. And that's the short
version that going with there. But the FTC lawyer cited a letter that said
Microsoft's intention was to maintain the pre merger status po with its vertical acquisition of
Activision, specifically contrasted with a horizonal horizontal merger, where companies often eliminate redundancies.
Abyad's point is that microsoft stated plan was to vertically merge these two companies
so that Activision would be its own thing, and Microsoft would not really have
any reason to be like, oh, well, we have redundancy here,
we don't need all these people that did change. Microsoft did and its h
when it was talking about this said there was an overlap and some of the
people that they laid off here were let go because of that overlap. The
same time, Microsoft has responded and they are basically saying that these layoffs were
already supposed to happen, and a letter forwarded to FGC, Microsoft's lawyers claim
that Activision Blizzard was planning to make large scale layoffs even if the acquisition hadn't
gone ahead, noting that job cuts have been occurring across the industry as well
whole consistent with broader trends in the gaming industry, Activision was already planning on
eliminating a significant number of jobs while still operating as an independent company. The
recent announcement thus cannot be attributed fully to the merger in a separate statement of
Microsoft spokesorers, and told VGC in continuing its opposition to the deal, the
FTC ignores the reality the deal itself has substantially changed since the FDC lost in
court last July. Microsoft that was required by the UK Competition Authority to restructure
the acquisition globally and therefore did not acquire the cloud streaming rights to Activision Blizzer
Games in the United States. Additionally, Sony and Microsoft signed a binding agreement
to keep Call Duty on PlayStation on even better terms than Sony had before.
All right, let's just recap here real quick. Microsoft laid off nineteen hundred
people, and some of those were seemingly due to redundancies. When Microsoft was
in court with the FTC, they said that would be very unlikely because we're
going to keep Activision Blizzard as its own, like vertically standing thing. They're
separate from Microsoft Gaming even though we own it. That seemed they did seemingly
go back on that, and Microsoft is now saying, well, we were
going back on that because things changed because we had to make this agreement with
the UK, and that is their argument. And two things I believe them,
and who gives a fuck? Like you were in court, the whole
world was like, why, Like, you're gonna look like the bad guys
if you lay people off. And this is the problems with with acquisitions,
when when you bring people together into one big thing, if the company experiences
any trouble, even more people are going to lose their job than normal.
Listen to eight percent is in line with the entire industries laying off about eight
percent of their workers, So it isn't out of the ordinary. And I
do believe my Microsoft that these were probably gonna happen, whether whether the the
deal went through or not. But who cares. You have a ton of
money, you could afford it. You could have avoided looking like you're just
any other company. You said you weren't going to be like any other company
in court repeatedly, and here we are. You're behaving just like any other
company. So who can I don't like all this talk is so cheap?
Who cares? Right, jan Yeah, looking around and pointing everyone else is
doing it does not fill me with any type of confidence moving forward, and
it is not an excuse at all. But at the same time, hey,
FTC who knew that merging two giant companies would create a lot of redundancies.
No matter what Microsoft was proposing or saying during those that initial lead up
process with the FTC, these layoffs were going to happen. Who knows as
to what scale, but allowing right, like, yeah, what's I like,
I can push it off a little bit. Seems like they're doing it
now though, because they everyone else is doing it, so we'll just get
it out over with. Yeah, yeah, And and I don't see this
being like the the only round of layoffs, unfortunately at a big company like
Microsoft, especially after acquiring ABK and just maybe like a month, two months,
three months down the line, just seeing how many more redundancies or where
they can continue to cut costs just to appease shareholders and whatever financial projections they
need to do. It sucks, it's garbo. It's terrible for everyone involved.
Yes, so continuing the recap. FTC is going is hearing a or
the FDC is taking this to an appeals court in California. I believe San
Francisco. The court has not Yes, the San Francisco Court Appeals has not
announced their decision yet. It's very unlikely that they will based on this get
the deal unraveled. But that is what the FDC is going for and has
been going for. They seem as always throughout this process unfazed by people telling
them, Oh, this probably isn't gonna work. They're like, no,
we're gonna just try every every single thing. And they've tried every single thing,
and frankly, yeah, go for it. Microsoft said one thing at
court, now they're doing something else. So at the very least give them
a hard time and drag them in public a little bit. Now. Activision
is especially weird because in like twenty twenty two they had about ten thousand employees
a little bit under that, and then by twenty twenty three they had thirteen
thousand employees or something like that, maybe even more. They just hired a
ton of people in a year, all after it seemed like this deal was
announced. So they just went on a crazy pandemic hiring spree, and so
it's like they had a ton a ton a ton of people that just came
into that company, and it's like, man, it kind of all goes
back to just wild, unkempt leadership at Activision, torpedoing this deal in a
sort of way. And then but I go back to so what Microsoft can
afford it? You said it. You should have stuck to it. If
you're going to actually try to talk to that talk, walk the walk a
little bit and not just oh, we got two months into this deal closing.
Now we're gonna actually going to just pull the ripcord on on layoffs right
away. It just doesn't look good. Does this also make Microsoft at xbox
sad? Is this also a hard decision? Uh, to have to go
back to the FTC and say like, sorry, you kind of misunderstood what
we said. Yeah, they should, they should feel sad. I mean
the very least, like this is a parade of bad news in a company
for its gaming division that is pretty accustomed to having parades of bad news.
Like occasionally they break out of that and they have, oh, here's a
reason to feel good. But when the deal closed, like people at Microsoft
were feeling good. Uh, the fandom was feeling pretty good over there,
and then it kind of like immediately starts evaporating and they're back into like here's
one bad news store, here's another one, here's another one. And now
the company's making some changes and they aren't explaining it and everyone's feeling anxious.
I don't know, it continues to feel like if you are looking at where
to put your time as a gamer, Microsoft feels like more of a mess
than ever, and stuff like this does not help that. It's just baffling
Grub because I feel like for quite a while it seemed like Xbox Microsoft had
it, at least it seemed like they had it all together minus stuff like
Redfall or Starfield, but they were willing to admit that those were stumbling blocks
over whatever grander future that they were planning. And then, like you said,
it's sol cyclical because Microsoft winds up fumbling the bag and just like shooting
themselves in the foot, at least in the eye of public perception. Again,
this also just seems like terrible management across the board, especially hearing that
from Activision to let's hire even more people that we may not be able to
pay, but it's okay, we're not going to be in charge of the
books soon. Grossly irresponsible, and I don't think the people that got laid
off are the ones that should be laid off. Grub. It seems like
the people that put the numbers together, do they do the big maths or
the pretend maths, I think they should be the ones that go grab yep.
Absolutely. I think that they will likely not see any sort of consequences
for this because they will accurately be able to point to the rest of the
industry laying off about the same number of people across the board. So this
doesn't seem like something that's all that out of the ordinary. It turns out
the entire video game industry is in a wild and broken state, and when
when forced to explain that, if it comes to a situation where they have
to explain that in court, Microsoft lawyers will be able to probably illustrate that
picture for the judge or jury. But as is I mean, I guess
this goes back to the point I was making about I'm glad the FTC is
poking them here, just poke the bear a little bit, just at the
very least you can make them look bad, make them feel bad, and
make headlines paint at Microsoft in in a way that's like, now, these
are cold hearted business people making decisions that really and really don't stand by what
they say, so don't fall under that spell going forward. And so that's
there's value in that as well. I don't know if you've seen this quote
circulating around grub and it's not specifically towards video games, but on Dakota Johnson's
press tour from Madam Madame Webb of course Web Madam Web, Madam Modja.
It's it's a she lays out a very interesting quote where she says, it's
really fucking bleak in this industry. It is majorly disheartening. The people who
run streaming platforms don't trust creative people or artists to know what they've what's going
to work, and that is just going to make us implode. It's really
heartbreaking. It's just fucking so hard. It's so hard to get anything made.
And you can apply that shit to video games. Oh yeah, we
are deep deep down that well, maybe even further down than the streaming industry
is Yeah. The guy that one of the people that was in I think
Starfield, one of the voice actors, mentioned recently that they had three of
their games canceled very recently. So it's like that that's what we're dealing with.
We're dealing with people's work just like disappearing right before their very eyes.
And that's across every publisher. I'm sure. Yeah, damn. I like
I thought it was like a big deal that Batgirl or Batwoman whatever movie that
got shelld by WB Like, we'll never see the light of day. I
didn't even I haven't even thought about all the games that have gone canceled grub
that have probably had voice work done and mocap done and that stuff that those
voice actors or some devs won't be able to put on their resume because it's
right, it didn't come out. That's right. It'll be just lost to
like so many other things. And that's a you know, losing job opportunities
that you thought you were going to have and then having the entire industry sort
of close off to the possibility of anyone getting any extra work right now is
going to be really rough for a lot of people. And yeah, again,
kind of knocking at these companies and Sam that's us said you were going
to do the opposite is useful to an extent, all right, Virtual currencies
are fictions. Take two argues in micro transaction theft of lawsuit. This is
from Tom Ivan at VGC, and we'll explain why they want you to believe
that. And maybe it's true to an extent. But so are all currencies.
Lawyers representing Take to have called virtual currencies fictions created by game publishers in
response to a class action suit concerned with the company's handling of micro transactions.
The suit accuses the NBA two K, PGA two or two K and WWE
two K publisher of stealing from players because it doesn't allow them to transfer virtual
currencies from pasties entries to new ones when they're released. Game File reports it
calls Take twos approach unfair, illegal, and greedy, as virtual currency purchased
with real money is lost when the game's servers are switched off, which plaintiffs
argue is relatively quickly following the release of new game entries. By removing plaintiff
and the class members of VC, defendants took install their personal property or fraudulently
appropriated property that had been entrusted to the defendant, according to the then that's
according to the suit, which was filed in Feral court last November, VC
is not plaintiff's property. Take twos lawyers responded last week in a request to
dismiss the case that was spotted by Game File. Instead, in game VC
are fictions created by game publishers subject to the publisher's terms of service and user
agreements. According to Take two's end user license agreement, which players must agree
to before using the software, virtual currency and virtual goods are strictly non transferable.
All purchases of VC MVG are final, and under no circumstances will such
purchases be refundable, transferable, or exchangeable. It reads accept us prohibited by
applicable law. Licensure has the absolute right to manage, regulate, control,
modifies, to spend, and or eliminate such VC and or VG as it
sees fit in its sole discretion. So the argument basically here is we created
our own company script. We can do what we do with it, whatever
we want. And in fact, we made you agree to the fact that
you're gonna let us do with it whatever we want before we even let you
play the game. So you've agreed to this and you have to we have
to abide by it. Now. That, of course, has worked for
a lot of companies for a very long time, and yet very often it's
like, well, listen, you can't just be like in the terms of
service we said we can legally murder you like there are limits to what you
could put into a terms of service license agreement, and they are it seems
like they are trying to go to a bit of an extreme of being like,
hey, we got your money. We gave you the thing and the
thing that we said we'd give it to you. Just because you didn't use
it doesn't mean you don't have it or whatever. And even when the server
shut off, well we told you that that could happen one day. No
transfers. Sorry, you should have spent it when you had the chance.
Uh my question, jan is it? How is it worth it to them
to go to the lengths of fighting this and looking like such bastards instead of
just letting people transfer it. Are they really going to lose out on that
much money if people could transfer the transfer the four bucks they have left over
in the last game. I don't get it again, I don't understand who
are making these decisions grub Who's responsible? Because it doesn't it alienates your existing
customer base because now you know, it puts a bad taste in their mouth,
so they don't want to even participate in your specific ecosystem anymore. I
know, if I was like dumping a bunch of money into FIFA, and
then new game comes out, I can't move that balance over for whatever reason,
I would not play the new game, or I would be very hesitant
before I ever check out another two K game or anything coming out of Take
two. People spend a lot of money in these games, yes, that
you would think you just want to pacify and placate these people that are already
in your ecosystem, right, you would think like the power of the market
would solve this problem and be like it is valuable to keep those consumers happy
because they spend a lot of money on our thing, and so that will
just solve it. It's like, well, clearly that's not happening, and
they're going to great lengths to ensure that they keep those people's money without giving
them more virtual goods, things that you've already made that just happened to be
in the game. You just want them to buy more virtual currency again so
that they But it's like even that, like, okay, I get like
the math on paper, Well, they already bought that virtual currency. Let's
not don't let them use that and force them to make a new purchase so
that we get even more money to buy this thing in this new game.
It's like, of course, I see how that makes you more money,
But I just don't think you're going to lose money in that transfer of the
currency to the new game, because those people are probably like, well now
I got money, I should I'll be losing money if I don't spend more
to buy this other new thing. It just feels like it makes so much
sense to keep that momentum going. Now. Obviously there's tech head overhead of
ensuring that people can transfer their currency, and that probably is some work.
But this is a software company. They could figure it out. I don't
know, Jim, I can't imagine that it would be super challenging to get
that to work though, right of like having to think so, but I
don't know, Yeah, I don't know. It just seems so stupid.
Oh stupid. It's so and like the are arguing that they're they're fictions.
Like everything. I mean, they'll the Law against Murder also a fiction.
We made that up, everybody. That's that's what we decide collectively. It's
not cool. Yeah, and we just decided collectively, the United States of
America made up that's that's not a real thing. We just know that that's
a thing that we all agree upon. It's a fantasy. So that just
a really weird argument to lead off with from Take two's lawyers. But there
you go. I I'm not an ad I'm not advocating for piracy or nefarious
activities. But hey, you know, I'm going to assume it's it may
be easier to rob a virtual bank rather than like a shoot bank. You
know, so like shake shake, shake that shit loose from the tree.
There, Ye just go get off sell Nicks to take two uh shares and
then just be like, those are fictions that's made made up. There's no
rules. There might be some rules, strauss all right. Game stop ad
promoting Microsoft Game Pass leads to more Xbox chaos is from Zack Swizen at Kotake
with a good headline. There a game stop tweet promoting a demo day where
when folks can come in and play some games on Xbox consoles using quote Microsoft
game Pass has injected more chaos and controversy into the ongoing apocalyptic Xbox drama set
up by reports of exclusive games like Starfield coming to PS five, currently affecting
the console warriors and devoted fans. Then that's the drama. There, and
while the tweet and it's promo images likely mean nothing, the reaction shows how
jumpy some Xbox fans currently are, and kind of like, again, we'll
recap that. Game Stop put out a tweet that had some art that referred
to Microsoft Game Pass instead of Xbox Game Pass. I think Warrior sixty four
like just kind of retweeted that and just quote Microsoft Game Pass. And everyone
was like, oh my god, they're chanting they're getting rid of Xbox in
Xbox game Pass. That must be because they're getting rid of Xbox. We
all got to freak out. And I just want to be like, hey,
game Stop doesn't know what the hell they're doing. Everybody. This is
just a little booboo by game Stop. And I think a lot of people
did realize that. And you can try to tell that to the people who
are, as Zach points out, feeling jumpy, and they just aren't going
to hear it. Then that maybe is the real story here. It's just
how jumpy that fandom is. Grub who hurt these people? Yeah, hurt
these people that they're so tied to this. I don't want to use this
term this, This may trigger some people grow but when did they become a
bunch of snowflakes. It is, I mean, very sensitive. It's That's
how I would describe the scenario. Here is a lot of people hearing,
being very much in their feelings. And this is the kind of like to
think about being an adult. Right, you got to put a little lot
of this loyalty to the side and recognize that when a company sweet talks you,
it is they never mean what they say, and it's okay to believe
in them. I have a lot of my enjoyment invested into Nintendo, but
I do look at that company and I know what it is. It is
a merciless money making machine that would do anything to extract more value out of
me, and and it's successfully doing that constantly, mostly by keeping me pretty
placated and give me the things I want. But when the company like fails
to figure out how to do that and then they have to shift gears because
they aren't extracting a value from you, don't be surprised when it's like you
start feeling taken advantage of. That's literally the entire system they are capitalizing on
you in capitalism. And so yeah, I'm not here to preach like even
though I just did. If people are like, hey, I did spend
a lot of money on this thing, and I do feel like I am
am, I had the rug pulled out from underneath me. You're go ahead
complain you should be criticizing this company. Yeah, go to town. That's
completely fair game. But I do urge you, and I made me recognize
that this shouldn't be too surprising in a lot of circumstances. Take a critical
glance and look at a mirror. Look at a mirror, folks. Not
I'm not saying our our giant bomb audience. They are a bunch of lovely
smart people. These folks defened heavily defending Xbox Microsoft and getting all up in
arms and causing more chaos with every single headline that pops out. Y'all need
to fucking chill, yep, just do more than touch grass. Yeah,
the grass is not gonna be enough in a lot of cases. I do
wonder if the Xbox brass has any regrets about sort of fomenting that audience a
little bit. They are very they've been very engaged with the heavily online Xbox
community, and now it's sort of coming back to bite them a little bit.
So yeah, yeah, I hate to bring it to wrestling, but
it just makes me. It now makes me think like, oh, they
thought they were Cody this whole time. Huh, Yeah, I thought they
were Cody, but it turns out they're just Doane. Uh. Marvel spider
Man two is getting new game Plus and new suits in March. To Americ
hittleback Thuru at Game Reactor, it's been close to two months since Insomniac said
they were delaying the Mark spider Man two update that would bring new game Plus
to the game. They didn't want to give us a date back then.
Excuse me, but it's only said to expect it in early twenty twenty four.
Now we know exactly when that is, and Somnek revealed that the next
big update for Marbles spider Man two will arrive on the seventh of March.
We're not told anything new about what's included in it, so we'll have to
settle on the aforementioned and previously announced new game Plus and as well as replayable
missions, new suits and the option that change the time of day and tendril
colors, which means that's cool. Yeah, listen, I want some different
Tendril colors please, and hey new suits. That's like almost the reason for
me to want to get back in there a little bit. Jan this is
going to be the pull question for tomorrow. We'll get we'll definitely post it,
but you're going to jump back in for New Game Plus and Spider Man
two. I can't say that I will grub And I'm thinking about this now.
Most of the time, I often don't jump into a New Game Plus.
Yep. Now that I'm thinking about it, loved Allan Wake two from
last year. I've yet to check out what New Game Plus is. And
for me a lot of the time, it's not just because of time constraints
of we have to play this new title, play that new title. It's
more so where I have a limited amount of time. I know that there's
probably new things that we're all exploring with New Game Plus, but I just
don't have the time to go through. The similar story beats over again yep.
And then prominent leaguer says that announced Sega ip revivals are coming to the
Switch successor. This is from my Nintendo News. By now, you're very
likely aware of the news from Sega that jets at Radio Shanobi, Golden Acts,
Streets of Rage, and Crazy Taxi are all getting a new game.
When the games were announced at the Game Awards in December of twenty twenty three,
Sega didn't really say much about the games themselves. They didn't even mention
what platforms they would be on. Well, a new rumor by prominent leaker
mbkk ss tb HC five no, no, read it how you want to
read it, grab thank you may offer us a bit of insight into where
the games are going to release. According to them, to us, five,
the games will be coming to the next Nintendo hardware. Obviously, nothing
about the matter has been officially announced yet, and there are just as many
rumors about the next Nintendo consoles as there are with the games releasing on it.
Nevertheless, if anything gets announced later on, we'll let you know.
There's also as part like kind of tangential to this added to the list of
games that might be coming from Sega in terms of revivals, now includes Virtual
Fighter. That's that to be very good news. Love to hear that.
I want us to be fully back into the fighting game renaissance. That would
be that would be really great. This makes sense, right, Yeah,
I was gonna ask, would this include the rumored Persona two and Persona four
remains. That's I wonder if those are like, I mean, those are
different initiatives, but I assume that they are just making those for the switch
to. In fact, I want to say that I think when we talked
about that, that was part of the news story that those were getting planned
for the Switch successor. But maybe I'm just making that up, but like
even that wasn't part of that story. Yeah, Jane, I assume that
right now, if you're Sega, you're looking at these games and anything that
is like it's gonna be pretty tough to get run out on the switch.
Well, good news. By the time those games are ready, just put
them out on the Switch successor. Sega's had a lot of almost immediately when
they got out after the Dreamcast. They had a pretty good relationship of getting
games on Nintendo platforms and seeing some success. That's been up and down a
little bit over time, depending on how successful the Nintendo hardware was. But
I think they are very ready to be there on day one for the Switch
too, even though it's going to be very difficult for the Switch too to
match the Switch's success, like just flat out because you know, Switch was
such a surprise and everyone's just had to have it. It's still going to
be very successful and solved very well and probably make a lot of money for
people have games on there that strike that Oh it's especially in the early days.
I think a lot of these games that have that IP recognition with a
lot of longtime Nintendo fans, Sega fans, they really stand to benefit from
being there early on in the first year or two of the Switch to definitely
definitely hardcore degree. I mostly asked that because of the overwhelming success that p
three Reload has had, selling like a million copies already insane for Persona.
Yeah, I wanna know something though, I was looking at this today.
I was on the Steam Store because I was like tracking down some of these
games that are that are come out, like oh, hell Divers, make
sure I have that, and I got a code to check out Penny's Big
Breakaway, And then I was in the store and I was just you know,
this is like a number. You can look at the number of reviews
for Persona five Reload. It was like five thousand or something whatever. It
was, Grand Blue Fantasy, the new RPG that came out like two days
before was already at like twice that number of reviews, if not more.
It's like, oh man, I got I just got it. It's always
important to remember these games that come out of like mobile and other and other
spaces and then like find their way into console and PC gaming are just as
big, if not significantly bigger than the things I'm playing. I was catching
up with one of my good friends and I was asking like, hey,
like, do you do you pick up Tech and eight because he's a big
fighting game head. Uh. And he told me I like, yo,
bro, I don't even have a PS five, Like, I'm just playing
mobile games on my phone. And then Homie shows me like all the Gotcha's.
I'm like, all right, like send me, send me some links,
dog. But I think it is quickly become an audience that the main
gaming audience has not thought about. Oh no, grub. You know what,
John Drake, if you're listening, Disney Disney Gotcha's, Disney Gotcha's,
have they not done Disney gotchas? They must have by now right? Give
me that five star? What's his name? Give me that five star?
Rebecca from Tailspin okay, Well, I didn't know we were going and straight
that direction, but fair enough. I don't know why by mind went to
Rebecca. I was trying to say quack shot, but I said, Rebecca,
okay, okay, that doesn't for the news. We have a pull
question. We'll get to here in a second. Well I get that set
up. Excuse me, jan why don't you tell people what we have going
on? Where they can find you all that good stuff. You can find
me here. I live here. Basically, I've thought about, you know,
maybe doing some extra additional side content in terms of like this isn't quite
a video game. I think it warrants a GB plays of sorts. Perhaps
sure, but look forward to later today folks, Voicemail dump truck popping off.
But before that, it making sure all the best whistles and bells fire
off. I don't know what metaphor is going for there. We will have
catch me if you dan right before the voicemail dump truck today Tomorrow. Another
episode of Gay Mess Mornings BCR popping up off tomorrow, where we will be
talking in depth about Suicide Squad UH and hell Divers too, is tentatively planned
for upf who knows. Maybe we could foam it up. Yeah, maybe
the same thing. Maybe we could skull and bone. Maybe we could scull
and bone. Yeah, we got a lot with an embarrassment of weird riches
to choose from. Yes, And I also like, grab there's too many
games because I want to check out Grand Blue Fantasy. I was like,
I'm might it's an action RPG. I probably won't like it. It's way
too anime for me. Uh and yet I'm like, God, that looks
fun. It looks like a good time. You know, we were talking.
We were just talking about, uh, how the mobile market has seeped
into console culture. And I feel like that's why it's not not that Stellar
Blade is an existing ip somewhere else, but I feel like it taps into
that same brain space that Stellar Blade might be a runaway success. Well,
I think Stellar Blade it's going to be very successful. I do. I
do think that. I mean, as long as it's a decent game,
like it's as good as Bayonetta three. I bet it does way better than
Bayoneta three. Yeah, I think you're right. Yep, Uh Jim,
we were going to play some Steam next fust demos. You still want to
try to make that happen today, or because I saw you played some of
the that poker game Bilatro on stream before we did a show you today.
I just don't know if we've got time gro I know this, Yeah,
we have a lot going on. Everybody listen. I would love to make
something like that happen. But we'll see, We'll see everybody. Uh,
okay. Poll question, which Capcom franchise would you want them to bring back
the most? Fourteen percent said Darkstalkers, fifteen percent said One Musha, nineteen
percent said Dead Rising, twenty percent said Okami, and thirty three percent said
Dino Crisis. And I bet I bet those Dino Crisis fans are going to
be in luck. I bet that's actually something that is really going to happen,
probably pretty soon. Dinosaurs are real hot. I'm sure, sure yeah,
And I mean just from like an attraction standpoint, they just look so
pretty, skinca off the charts. Put sunglasses on a dinosaur. They're even
cooler. Shake those tail feathers. They've got tail feathers now so they can
do that. I'm having a crisis right now over these dinosh do you think
Mike ever gets another Mega man game a real one. I feel like you
have f right, like you have to a certain point, just throw the
man a bone. The Blue Bomber is too popular of a character like the
he is associated with Capcom as far as I'm concerned, and like a serve
bot right like, I love those little freaks. I want to see more
grub grub. Here's here's what we do, Capcom. Get your check book
out, get your check book out. All right, all right, we
just make Mario versus rabbits, but Mega Man versus rabbids, and then we
have the serve bots fight with the rabbits. Here's what that's what we do.
Or or let's just go let's just put the serve in overalls and give
them goggles. They're basically minions. Well okay, well, if we're gonna
go that route, why not just do Mega Man versus minions so that the
rabbits can stay over with Mario and then Mega Man goes with the minions as
he deserves. I don't want to think about what power Mega Man would inherit
from the rabbits, chicks and loving bananas minions. I've never seen a groom
and or a minion. I've never seen any of those movies yet, I
think the gimmicks would legitimately like Despicable Meat. Also Despicable Meat fantastic soundtracks for
all of the movies that they've had. All Right, I'll make it happen.
Uh. In the meantime, I'm just gonna continue enjoying the fact that
Mike is freaking out in chat that you said that the Rabbits should go with
Mega Man. He's deeply upset with you, and I love that. That's
very good. And then also a new poll question, are you going to
go back to Spider Man two for New Game Plus? I will put that
on the screen as I click the no button, just like many of you
already have. But we'll discuss the results of that poll tomorrow on Game mess
Morning's here on giant Bomb. For Dregs Day I should be doing with Tam.
Looking forward to that. Be sure to tune in. That'll be eleven
am Eastern eight am Pacific here on giant Bomb. Jan thank you so much
for spending today talking with me about video games. Man, I really appreciate
it. It's my favorite way to start a Thursday. A couple hours later,
and you are the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.