Game Mess Mornings 01/08/24
Grubb and Lex Luddy start the week by chatting about Hi-Fi Rush possibly heading over to the Nintendo Switch, high expectations for Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, an upcoming Xbox Direct, and even more!
2024-01-08
61 min
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You'll go be beer. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for January eighth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb. Today, everyone is freaking out about the latest Xbox rumors, and a beloved gaming mascot is teasing his return. But first, please join me and welcoming today's co host of Game Mess Mornings. It's Lex Luody. Everybody, Lexi, how are you doing? Bob? I got three hours of sleep. I've been I going my college all day. This is gonna go fucking great. It's let's do it new you knew me. I'm so fucking tired. I also sympathize what you doing the lists all winter because I was doing stuff for my side. I was quite similar and we still have stuff going up going through the the rest of this month, and boy, my arms tied. Yeah. You get to a point where it's like, oh my god, this is a just it's it's non stop. Now. What you got to do is get yourself a Marino. That's what That's what is all the problems right there. For me, I'm just like, oh my god. We had one where you know, Kenney Omega and Austin Kreed sent in their their list and Dance send it to me as an email because you got it from from one of them, and the email, like my email app broke and ANDed in a way that I'm like, this is this is this the end? I can't tell. I guess it could be the end, and so I just like sent to Marino because I was busy. I think I was like traveling. Uh. And then I'm like, of course they read it and like, oh, it's missing the end. So I'd like track it down and Dan got the rest for me, and uh, we made we made it work. But it's like, okay, yeah, just one of those things where I'm doing five things and it's easy to overlook one thing that's like stupid like that. But yeah, one, I adore everyone that I get on the SiGe. But like comes a point when it's like the twentieth of December and you've told people they can write whenever they want for the winter pieces, and then they're like, I decided to write a summary of everything that happened this year, and it's like twenty pages in Google docs and you're like, yeah, well, why did I give you that lunch? But yeah, it's been going good. You can. Everyone should check that out. I did loads of stuff over at satmanu dot co dot UK. Jeff was on there, Jan was on there, Sean was on there, and that trouble maker Mitch talk Koda was on there too. I think everyone did a really good job. I was really happy with a lot of the stuff I read over there, so yeah, definitely well done. Yeah, and thanks to the giant bomb community for the lovely comments on the bits that they saw too that that was really nice to see. Awesome, fantastic. How's it going on otherwise? You said you're arguing arguing with your college. What the hell does that mean? It apparently two of my lectures take or two of my modules take place at the same time now, and now I have to change modules and they're saying like, oh, you might not have enough credits, and I'm like, oh boy, thanks. You couldn't have told me this when I signed up for the modules. That would have been really helpful. Anyway, A couple more months, yep, a couple of gone. A couple more months. Good grandparent asked me if I was going to like do like a masses or something, and I actually laughed at them. It's like, I'm sorry, no, no, Once I'm done, I'm fucking gone. Yeah. I my twenty twenty four has started with I went to Alliance game yesterday. I went to watch my team in Detroit. It was a quick drive actually to go from Cleveland up there. And yeah, that was awesome because they they won. They're they're the two seed in the well. They were the two seed for a couple hours there in the NFC, but yeah, they dropped down to the third seed. They're going to be playing the Los Angeles Rams, which has their old court back that like the Lions had a quarterback. It was really great for like twelve seasons and then he left to go basically go win a Super Bowl with another team. And now he's coming back and we have to like have a show down with him. So cool storyline, but very excited as a Lion stand over here. So I had a good time, good weekend. It was cool to be back up in Michigan for a little bit as well. I'm curious. I know that like baseball, there's a lot of downtime, but like American football, as a European it always seems like there's a lot of downtime too. When you watch those games, when you're in the crowd, does it feel like you have a lot of downtime? And no, no, cause you're like, you know, it's very similar. Well, it's the one that has a ton of downtime is baseball. But that's kind of built into understanding, like yeah, the play is you know, ten seconds, not even because it's you know the sometimes the ball just goes right out and it's like a one second play, So you kind of sit around, you're shooting the shit and you're drinking. In football, you are a little bit more engaged with like what is happening for preparation on the field. You're looking down to like see like who's like getting subbed in, and how they're preparing the formations, and you're trying to like keep tracking okay, like what's the yardage? They have two yards to go, and you're kind of looking down seeing like all right, you know, it's like a build each time it like you know, it crescendos with the play and then it drops back down and then it builds back up. So you're a little bit more engaged during that downtime. But yeah, I get what people mean when they're like, oh, it's it's, you know, like a sport that's just always going. That's fine if that's your preference, you're totally like. Another reason Yakuza five is not a forty out of forty from Mitsu is because it made me try to learn the rules of baseball and fuck thatsh Yeah, now, I don't blame you for that one. Yeah, don't. Yeah, listen unless unless you learn baseball as a kid, you might. I don't think you'll ever learn baseball. Just ignore it. I think it's probably the same for cricket. I believe, all right, you know what, we should get into this and explain what we do here most weekdays, I Jeff Greb will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you were watching live on twitch welcome, you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mass Mornings, or find the RSS on 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 I said the thing. So let's start the morning mess with Rumors suggest Xbox is bringing more games to Nintendo Switch and PS five, But what's the truth. This comes from Jess Cord at Windows Central. Over the past few days, rumors began to swirl that Microsoft is once again exploring bringing first party Xbox games to competing platforms for anyone keeping score, it wouldn't be without precedent. With the Activision Blizzard deal in the bag, Microsoft is effectively becoming one of the biggest quote unquote third party publishers on PlayStation and Steam already, with games like Call of Duty, Minecraft, Yablo, et cetera distributed wholly under the Microsoft umbrella. This latest rumor mill doesn't pertain to that. Though historically console sales have revolved around the arbitrary gatekeeping exclusive content. There's no reason why God War or Super Mario Brothers Wonder couldn't run on Xbox PC or or whatever else, but publishers don't bring it to other systems because they want you in their ecosystem. Even Apple has started doing this. Times are changing, though, so let's dig into the latest rumors exam and examine the likelihood of them being true. A few days ago, and Nate the Hates suggested on his podcast that an acclaimed Game of the Year worthy Xbox exclusive will be becoming will becoming eminently available on a competing console platform. Nate has a good track record of accuracy in the past, with which which created a groundswell of speculation over what the game could possibly be. Later, someone on reset Era, who has a good track record, said they believe it's In so many words, they said, they believe it's Hi Fi Rush on the Switch, which I think makes a lot of sense. It lines up with what Nate is saying in terms of a game that was in the Game of the Year conversation at the very least, certainly wasn't She definitely not, yes, And I mean it's hard to think about. I mean, maybe pentiment could make sense. I think it's a similar level in a game that I would definitely put in my Game of the Year conversation. So it but Hi Fi Rush like makes even more sense on a lot of levels. Also, it's the kind of game where I think it fits with the strategy of yeah, well, we'll let it go somewhere else. It started off as a multi platform game probably, and we want to continue investing in the studio. We want to continue investing in this franchise, So yeah, let's put out somewhere else and then we'll have the sequel come out and that will be Xbox exclusive again. Does all that sound plausible to you? I mean it sounds plausible in the sense that you know, games of a similar size ghost Wire and Death were and Befesa as well, came to PlayStation, but that's because they were already out of PlayStation deals. So I mean, this feels like kind of a bell weather moment for Xbox's strategy going forward, because when you think about it from like a traditional console point of view or traditional like gaming console point of view, there was no reason why High Fi Losh would go to anything other than Xbox and PC as they've been doing everything. But if Hi Fi goes to PC or goes to PS four and Switch, then that's basically you know, we could make exceptions all day long for why Minecraft came to other things, of why you know, Minecraft dungeons came to other things, and why things that like were fustered into the Xbox family after the fact, why Call of Duty is still coming to PlayStation. But Hi Fi is something that's been developed internally, has been like incubated internally, and like is a game that, for all intents and purposes, is a Microsoft initiative, and nothing about it has ever said PlayStation and there was never really any expectation of it coming to PlayStation. So yeah, I think if we saw it come, I think would start to see stuff like Ori, would start to see all those other mid sized Xbox games pentiment, like you said, start to slowly make their way over and like, personally, as someone that mainly uses my PS five and enjoys playing things on the PS five, I'd be fine with that. I know that weirdos will be fucking very angry about it. But also, now that Xbox have made their big activision deal, do you think there's any bit of them that's like, Okay, do we now have to show that there's like proof in the pudding and like show to regulations. Hey, no, we are going to keep on sharing our games. I bet there's always some of that in the background, but I don't think that's the main motivator here. I think it's and I don't know if this is necessarily like a sign of a change in global strategy for how they approach Xbox going forward. It seems like it might just be a case by case thing, and they're like, what's the best thing for Hi Fi Rush? It would be nice to make a little bit more money, and it would be nice to raise that that franchise's profile a little bit, because we I mean, listen, I know that they really like Tango Game Works at Microsoft and they are growing that studio. These things are things that are true have been told to me, and they they that came out like in the wake of High Fi Rush, and then at the same time, High Fi Rush could have made more money like it also it would have been they would have loved if that game just straight up made more money than it did, and it you know, of course it was on game Pass and they're they're happy with it. They're definitely happy, happy with that studio. I think they're like, what can we do to sort of juice Tango game Works, What can we do to raise the profile of High Fi Rush? And I think this is a card that they're willing to play sometimes now it is that means, does that mean that we could expect it across the board. Well, I mean, I think like the original Or already came to PlayStation, right, it's it's definitely on switch, but it's it's been in a lot of places. It's definitely on switch. And I think Or and the of the Whisps the second one that could happen eventually as well, but that was always made by like a third party studio that had a first party deal with Microsoft, and then Microsoft eventually might be like, hey, you know what, you did a great job. If you want to go make more money by putting that in more places, or you want our help with that, we're fine with that. I think that's Microsoft trying to be like the good guy to the partners it partners with. In this case, I think it's probably just a card they're playing in a case by case situation. Now, the thing that would surprise me is like, well, then how come for games that make a lot of sense to be on multi platform the live service games? I get it, Halo Infinite Halo going to other platforms would be really weird and they would have a hard time selling that to their fans. But see if thieves that's the one that Hi Mike, you got something to say about ari, I'm assuming yeah, both of those are on Switch already, none of them are on PlayStation. That's all. Thank you, thank you appreciate it. That's right, Okay, there we go. So the see of Thieves, right, I'll see. I've heard that that was one that might be coming to other platforms. So when I first started hearing these rumors, I was like, oh, this is probably about Sea Thieves, because I've heard that could come to Switch and PlayStation, and maybe maybe that might be the kind of thing where it's actually all of this stuff is happening, and Microsoft is trying to like rejigger its strategy, and that kind of comes back to the point that you were making that we should expect more of this. Does that sound right? Oh you're muted or the MIC's broken. That's okay, take your time and while while I go ahead and read the rest of this. Yeah. Forum user Lo Lo Lo lo lo, I don't actually know how to say this name also backed up the claims recently, and a reply to a commenter saying, Hi Fi Rush available on Nintendo Switch. I'll bet they said, ann you'll win. So that's kind of the thing, and I think we got Lexi back. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's interesting what they're choosing to bring because if it was you know, let's say it's c A Thieves down the line, and let's say it's High five Rush now or whatever, those seem like things that are very much so console sellers. Like they're the types of exclusives that they can push in their ads that are very evocashive and stand out as, oh, this is something you can only play on Xbox, you can only play on you know, Xbox services. So I think it's interesting that those are the games that they're bringing. Those not single player in the case of the see A Thieves, but like a single player game like High five Rush being the choice of something to bring somewhere else. Yes, yeah, because we you know, we look at PlayStation Strategy and they're kind of being open, like, hey, for live service stuff, We're gonna bring that in a lot of places. Now that doesn't mean Xbox, but for them, going PC day one with a live service game is a big deal. They haven't been doing PC day and date games ever really, so it's like, okay, yeah, they're growing their strategy, but it's in a way that like is comfortable for their fans. The thing here is the fans are freaking out a little bit, and it is cause I don't think that they fully grasp that these executives have been saying the truth for a while now, that they are not necessarily trying to win the console war. I mean, we said I said this on the show last week. I think that everyone's mostly accepted that when it comes to the PlayStation versus Xbox, PlayStation has won the console war. And for PlayStation that doesn't mean like, okay, well we can like wrap it up and now everything's gonna be smooth sailing. There's a lot of question marks about okay, what now, like we won and to what end? But over on the Xbox side, it's like, okay, well, how are we going to grow sort of by moving around and flanking the console war? And that means a lot of decisions like this. I think that they are just going to come up with ways that's like traditionally, you would not do this if you were trying to win the console war, and they're just not trying to do that anymore. They're trying to make more money in other ways. It's just at the same time, it's like, you know, how much of a dent is a High five Rush on the switch going to make on that? I don't know. That's why for me it comes back to this is about the game itself, about that series, and about that studio and giving it the best chance going forward. And I think that there's that could be effective. But I don't know if you are a Microsoft executive, though, Lexi, how do you message all of this, because it's obviously like a tricky line to walk trying to keep that sentiment of hey and keep investing in an Xbox and at the same time Microsoft's like, well, we are investing in a bunch of different piles. Yeah. I mean, like, I fucking love High five Rush. It was in my top ten games of last year. It's really really good. And so I do especially what you're saying, anxiety, if like Xbox management does like that studio and does like that outpush, I can definitely see, like, hey, the male boost of more people playing your game is a good thing to have going around the studio. But I also know that if this happens, Phil spent so there's going to be in a million interviews come summertime, and there will be a lot of people being like Xbox games coming to other platforms, I borrow an Xbox and like, you know, he's very good at those interviews, as I'm sure you know, Phil Spencer is a very good person to give those answers and make it sound like everyone comes out winning and leaving you feeling pretty good about things. But it's still an awkward position to put yourself in and come interview time of people asking you that question of why your game's coming out on competitions, even if you are saying, you know, they're not our competition anymore. That's how a lot of people view it. That's how even people who aren't that into the gaming industry but know that there is an Xbox and there is a PlayStation and there is a Nintendo view the gaming industry. They view it as there's three competing brands. So, yeah, I think that will be a hard needle to thread. Yeah, it's you know, it's very important for these companies to keep that fandom that does care about these things, if not happy, at least content to a certain degree or invested. And because I mean, as we always do on the show, going back to that Phil Spencer letter about Hey, these other third party publishers have done a really poor job of making people understand their value beyond Once upon a time they're like, hey, we are the games that you can get when you go to a store. That was their value for a long time, and then that changed, and now it's very difficult to understand what is the value that Ubisoft brings in THEA brings other than they're capable of spending a lot of money on games, and for a lot of people it's like, well, I'm just going to go on Steam and find something that's even more fun to play. And Microsoft is like trying to make sure that hey, the people that do care about the investment in the Xbox hardware platform, we do want to keep them happy. But how do we do that while we are changing the things that they kind of built their identity around. And at certain point it's like, I don't know if there's much you can do there. You kind of have to just like charge ahead and let them know that you are investing in other ways, and that means into game pass. But at a certain points, well, High Fi Rush just go into the switch that has nothing to do with game Pass and it's like, yeah, you're right, but we just really care about Tango game Works and we care about High Fi Rush. I don't know how they explain that. I think they will have a lot more of these headaches in the years ahead, especially if they continue waiting for like the big games that are supposed to be the answer to their overall problems, Like Starfield wasn't the answer, and now it's like, okay, well hell Blade and we'll talk about this in a second here, that'll be the next story. So we'll get to that actually just a couple of minutes. Oh, like hell Blade, is that going to be the answer? Well, we'll see. But if they have a bunch of bigger hits that, like, especially if they are and they're going to be exclusive Xbox, which they are very likely going to continue to be exclusive to Xbox and PC, that would lower some of the anxiety about some of these other decisions for these players. But in the meantime, like every single one of these little chain is going to hurt that much more to that fandom, and Microsoft doesn't really have an answer to that other than put out really good games, and that's taking time for them. I am curious with the next news This segues into the next news story with like survival horror being kind of in vogue again, at least from a critical point of view, with stuff like dead Space Dead Space and Resident Evil four and Alan Wake two. Do you think that Microsoft management wants Tango to go back to the evil within style thing take a third shot at it? Because I know people love the second one, and maybe they are of the opinion of, hey, maybe we just need to give them a bigger platform this time for it to break through and be something more into a Resident Evil or a modern Silent Hill. Yeah, I think so. I think they would want them to go back to surribal horror because I think survival horror is a pretty safe bet these days now. How much like does Microsoft's desires factor into what they tell their studios. I think they try to continue to give the studios a lot of creative freedom, and I don't think they're like, well, you're the you're the survival horror studio, so go make one of those. I don't think they do that that much. But I bet you know Tango Game Works. You know, if they are pitching a project to work on, that could happen. I think Microsoft would be very encouraging of that and say, hey, we want one of those to be the identity of the of the Xbox platforms, so we will invest heavily in it and give you the help you need. Uh So, Yeah, I bet that's exactly the case. That's a that's a stet's a genre that seems to just keep growing, and it seems to it doesn't just like, oh it sells well. People do like come to games to play the scary games, and you can build a lot of that identity around games like that if it's like, hey, this is this is the thing I play, and I'm gonna play every single one of these. I mean horror movies discovered that ages ago of like, hey, they're just people who love horror genre stuff like I love horror genre stuff. And once you have that in build niche, it's a lot easier to get a guaranteed minimum amount of success out of it. Yes, absolutely, all right. Next story, Microsoft has very high expectation for Sinwa's saga hell Blay two. Is it Sinwa? How you say it? You know, I always wanted to say, Sinua, send you a saga, Sinua sinuus saga Okay sinuus Saga hel Blay two that they have high expectations comes from Jonas Maki at Game Reactor. Hell Blade Sinua's Sacrifice was a brilliant and highly original game that combined a historic adventure with mental illness, all presented with the drop dead gorgeous graphics. The expectations on the sequel have been high from the gaming community, and it seems like Microsoft's Microsoft themselves are expecting something really special as well. The fairly known and reliable insider and leaker nth The Hayten shout out to nath the Hate for powering the News Today says that Microsoft has internal projections showing that Sus Saga hell Blay two might be awarded with a review aggregate over ninety on Metacritic. While it's not clear whether it's based on internal or external mock reviews, it still shows that this might turn out to be the highest review at Xbox Game Studios title for quite some time, even if mock reviews aren't the same thing as real life reviews. More than one publisher has been surprised before by lower than expected scores despite positive internal testing. I mean not publishers liberally, Microsoft yes, with Red Fall. With Red Fall, yes exactly. Yeah, well we'll see you would expect them, hey if after Red Fall, maybe they would change up their strategy of doing mock reviews. Of course, for people don't know, mock reviews just reviews that companies run internally themselves, whether they have people on teams inside them and outside the studios that do that, or if they hire out external consultants, and sometimes it will be shut up journalists as well, who get paid a lot better try to mock review than a real review. Just you can never publish it, yes exactly, and then you can't review that game anywhere else, well, not without violince ethics. It is a h yeah, I'm always hesitant about like okay, yeah, sure. So internally they have high expectations. They're seeing some good scores from these moc reviews, so you should set your expectations high as a fan, we still have no idea. We don't know. I'll say though, the amount of time that they're put into Hell Bay two, the effort and the budget, and the sort of the front facing marketing that it's had, the like position in marketing that's had where it's like this is a big deal. If the way that they treat it publicly like a big deal, they better have treated it as a big deal internally, to the point where it had every opportunity to become the best game possible. And you know that maybe that should be true of every game, but it feels especially true in this case. Does that it's been either the first or the last thing shown at so many showcases that it feels like it has to be important to them, And I, well, I've an interested saying relationship with that first one. I played it when I myself was dealing with a lot of things, and it was recommended like, oh, you play with like headphones on so you can get like the full experience, and the three D audio fucked me up. Having people whisper fucked me up, and it was like a really fucking bad trip that lasted eight hours. But yeah, that first game is pretty incredible at what it's trying to do. Whether that works for you or not is like very much dependent on whether you like those sort of cinematic action games and also whether you're willing to deal with it's not necessarily approach to mental illness. But yeah, but I do think that those games are really evocashive and really interesting. I think that that studio, like they haven't released They released Bleeding Edge, they released hell Blade, and then the next game after that was like DMST Devil May Cry not a Ninja theory, be something else ninja with the other one. I'm sorry, what are you trying to remember the studio that is working on Send You a Sacrifice? No? Yeah, yes, Ninja theory, yes, Ninja theory yes, yeah, but they haven't released anything in ages, so it would be I'm super like I'm losing for them. I hope that something good comes of it. Yes, yeah, they've they've done a lot of games that like I think will build into this in the past, like obviously hell Blade one, but they've done you know, Heavenly Sword, and you could see, uh, okay, you take a lot of what you built with hel Blade one, and if you just add a little bit more flair to the combat, I suppose you could have something that could be really uh. I think it could fit in well with the modern Triple A landscape really easily, especially if the visuals match what they've shown in promotional material so far, and it's like the whole game like looks that good. That could turn into something that people just want to have as a showcase. I'm still skeptical that it's going to be for me. Helblaid one definitely wasn't. Not that I think it's some bad game, it's just not for me. I bet we'll probably end up in a situation hel Bay two also won't be for me. But hey, that doesn't mean it can't be some big game that moves things, moves the needle for Microsoft. I'm just right now, like, hey, I will be very surprised if this gets over a ninety Metacritic high eighties. I think that's possible for sure, but low nineties that's a tough thing to pull off for just about any game. Well, I mean, the first game was such a surprise when people played it, they went in with pretty low expectations because again, like I'm looking at Ninja Theories games that they released leading up to that. It was a View Your Rail Shooter Disney in Finishy three point zero Disney and Finishy two point zero Disney and Finishy Marvel Superheroes, and then it was DMC and so like, people were very hot and cold on Ninja Theory around that time. Yes, exactly, Yeah, it's very hard to predict what you're going to get out of that studio. In terms of predicting what's going to come out of Microsoft studios. Though Xbox Developer Direct may be happening later this month. This is something that I've kind of heard vaguely over the last couple of weeks. This is why when people ask, Hey, what are we going to get first, Mike, probably a Developer Direct. Mike Straw at Insider Gaming is writing about exactly that the next Developer Direct event is coming later this month. A new post on Reddit by user Zantorn, who has been accurate in revealing showcase events in the past, claims that the next Xbox Direct will happen during the week of January fourteenth. First Xbox event of the year is going to be the week of the fourteenth. Can't speak on the shadow drop rumors, but the date has now been set in stone. The post reads, should it happen that week, it will likely be some time between January fifteenth and nineteenth, as those are the weekdays for that week. It's unlikely Microsoft would hold an event at this point during the weekend. This comes just days after it was spotted online that a Developer Direct could have could be happening on January twenty fifth. Well, we can't confirm the exact date and time just yet. Insider Gaming also understands that an event is scheduled to take place within the next couple of weeks, further adding credence to credit credence to the rumors. Yes, yeah, I mean, I think all three companies that have to start talking to us here pretty soon about this year. Nintendo can do their direct in February like always. I think that this Developer direct sounds about right. And you know, dates for hell Blay two wouldn't be too surprising. There's a handful of other things that we could avowed could easily show up here. Microsoft have a bunch of things on the books slation for twenty twenty four, and they don't have any dates on them. They've avowed. Microsoft like similar simulator twenty twenty four hell Blade tower Borne, which looks pretty cool, a new and Agian Empire's mobile game, Clockwork Revolution, looks like it's a fair bit further out. Contraband we haven't heard anything about for a long time ever, Wild is coming in twenty thirty. Fable Is also could either be really close or really far away. I've heard that game. I've heard people talking about working on that game since like twenty eighteen. Yep od the Outer Worlds too, which against seems like it's probably a bit further away, and Perfect Dark feels like it could be fucking anywhere and development who knows exactly South and mid Night We also have no real idea. Yeah, that one could show up here though, I think Yeah, soud and stated to K three, it feels about like first stated to K three, feels about time. But also we've been saying that for a while now, so who knows right, And that studios had people leave, keep people leave, and I know they were trying to have like a sort of comeback after those key people left. I think they've struggled with the with the development of that game a little bit. Yeah, there's a lot going on that they could update us about. So direct a developer direct, which you know, for people don't know, that's like basically just a Nintendo director Microsoft. They make it a little bit more slightly more talky, but not that much more talky. It's a pretty fast paced news presentation event from one of these companies. So yeah, they have a lot of stuff that could be in there. It's so it makes it really difficult to say this definitely will be in this definitely won't be and but you know, as you laid it out there, it's a lot of stuff we already know about that will get updates on Where do you think they come in with stuff that hasn't been announced yet. Do you think they have something that's like, here's something's coming later this year, or maybe another shadow drop like they did last year with Hi Fi Rush. I feel like unannounced games are unlikely because they have so much stuff on the books for their different studios, Like we know what most of the Xbox studios are working on to at least some degree, except for the Gears of War people. They haven't really said anything for Ages. But I think something that will probably see a lot about the show is Partners and because they're obviously very close with Sega at the moment, and Sega have two games coming out in the next month, and so it would make a lot of sense to show like a Dragon and show Pasna three. And they also have that measure for We Fantastic Zo whenever that's coming out, And so I'd say we'll see a lot of like those style of partnerships, more updates than anything else. But yeah, I don't think January is just such a weird time to announce anything big, because it's still kind of silly season in a lot of ways. People are still coming off the back of Game of the Year and are more than happy just to play their backlogs before the real new season starts up again. Yep, And Mike's bringing up a chat that he says he doesn't think they should have shadow dropped High Fire Rush. You know, people do tend to yell at them from that because people like shadow drops, and but I think they never do good salence numbers. Yeah. I mean I've talked to indie game developers about this too, especially with Nintendo directs. The thing that's been told to me is like, hey, if you're thinking about like shadow dropping your thing add a Nintendo direct, just fucking don't. Just don't do it, because it never It's never worth the miss out marketing. It's never worth the missed out wishlesss and the missed out hype that you can build up, because that stuff does make a very real difference, especially on things like CE where wishless is so important, Like it really does build your base. And an algorithm of having months of search engine optimization behind you and months of people looking up at the release stage adding it to a wishless all those things do actually add a tangible effect once the game comes out. Yeah, I mean in the search engines, and Steam at its heart is a search engine for games, and that algorithm is deeply based on the behaviors that that team has already witnessed for the game before it came out. That's how it decides the position game in in your recommendations on the front page. So yeah, and and indie games tend tend to sell very well on Steam. I would love to know what what Microsoft actually thinks of how the the shadow drop for High Fi Rush went. I bet they think they could have done better had they given it like a month a month notice. I bet Metroid Prime Remaster did just fine as a shadow drop, but that's a Nintendo first party game. Uh And I don't know, who knows. Maybe that would have sold even better had it had it had a couple of months, like a month or two. Even even Sports Sorry didn't feel like it particularly benefited from a shadow drop, Like people didn't know when that was coming out, and then they were like, oh, it's out now, and maybe that game would have done better with some marketing beforehand, and would have done better if it was a better game. That's that's what. Yeah, that's game. Game is disappointing. Yeah, it's really disappointing. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break when we get back. We got a hand more headlines to get through. We'll get to all of that right after this, and we're back, and it's time to talk about that little freaky dragon Spiro. He's teasing fans with his tweets out there. This is from Vicky Blake at Eurogamer, a new tweet from the I found some tweets from Spile from twenty thirteen. We can't we can't do this news, damn it, Spy. Okay, we're going we're figment. We're making it. Yes, we're going to figment now, everybody there, we go, ok okay. But apparently he's just a teasing saying, hey, twenty twenty four, it's time to believe or some shit like that. What are they You've gotta believe? That's right, and that's it. That's the Spiral's twenty twenty four motto is does this mean we're getting a new Spiral game? Feels to be like why would you do this unless we're getting a new Spiro? And also a new Spiro seems like a good idea. What do you think? Yeah, I skate for really energy coming off of this of just like people willingness into existence, and I feel like Spiral, Like, especially in and around the UK, people never shut the fuck up about Spiral. I never got to place, but I was more of a slight super kid myself because I was cool and Spiral always seemed like kiddy shith for babies. But no, Spiral always seems like something that has like just a huge fan base. So why wouldn't you bring it back? Especially now if the owners of that IP may be more amenable to, you know, actually making different games that aren't just call of duty and so who knows? Maybe yeah, And I guess like tying this back into the last story, like a developer direct, like this is an activision right at this point, Spiro, that Developer Direct could be activisions sort of coming out party under Microsoft and like hey, hey, we are working on a ton of stuff now under Microsoft. Here's some stuff we had been working on that will now fit into the Xbox family. And here's a bunch of old Activision games that are getting backwards compatibility support on your Xbox, including like you know, we're gonna we're gonna put the Spiro collection into game Pass, and that leads us into this announcement. Something like that could happen. I could see that Spiro that I was never much of a Spiral player at the time. That Spiro Remake trilogy. I played that and it's like, Okay, these games have their charm. They are in my opinion, they're very simple, and I kind of didn't I didn't fall in love with them, but they're still well made games, and I wouldn't like just like with Crash Bandicoot four, but which I like, that's the Crash game I really like. I didn't like the other Crashes like Crash four. I bet a Spiral getting made today by a team that cares about Spiro could make something that would be my favorite Spiro game, and so I love that. Let's let's make it happen. Yeah. I think that it's one of those series that would Benefici a lot from modernization, and it's it's hard to go back to some of those platforms from that era when they were designed to be simpler at that time, where some of the more complicated ones like Jack and Daxte and Slide do feel slightly more engaging. But there is still plenty of room when you modernize them to add more stuff to them and just make them more diverse and interesting experiences like you saw it Crash four and just adding more mechanics yep. Essentially. Yeah, and kids like Spiro. My kids immediately latched on the Spiro. Not in the same way that they turned into Sonic freaks immediately, but they definite no, no, they want Figment to die. That's what they tell me every day. Punish the Figment Dragon, bring him to us so we may kill him all right. Up next, actually, Mike, do you want to hop in and tell me about Final Fantasy fourteen? Uh? Because we're talking about figm I'm not going to talk about it otherwise. So now now's your opportunity. We've got to say his name into the mirror three times. Michael Minati, Michael Manana. Yeah. The thing about Figment is that she's a very good character that was waited for No. Well, yeah, what what you don't. What do you know about what happened with Fronal Fantasy fourteen. Jeff, here's what I know. Yesterday you texted me, Hey, we should talk about You want me on the show tomorrow to talk about Final Fantasy fourteen. Like, oh, there was news about Final Fantasy fourteen. That's what there is news. They've been talking more about the Dantro expansion because they had a fan fest this weekend and they announced one of the new jobs, which is from Fanacy fourteen's classes, and it's Picto mancer. So it's a painter who can kill people. Oh is that what that word was referring to. I saw people saying the word piccto mancer and I just yes, ignored it a very normal word, one of one of the most normal words. Thanks. Do you have a question, miss Manati? Question from the back. I saw someone on Twitter say that this new expansion is basically that John Fabula movie Cowboys and Aliens. Is that true? Huh uh? That's interesting. I actually saw that movie. What gettable movie? Well, so I saw the saying found Fancy fourteen's world map actually corresponds to the real world's map, and this is the first time we've headed to the America's right kind of focused largely more in like South and Latin, I think, which is why you get a lot of those kind of tropical vibes one of the trailers. But we have been seeing things now, locations that look like anywhere. So what's going in stuff? Well, I told you about the Murderous Painters, and that's based off of a character named Realm from Found Fantasy six. So that's a fun callback. Also, we had lion people before, right, tiger people roth cars now, but they were only men. Now we're getting women lion people. Jeff, Okay, okay, I though you're about to go lion tigers and bears and we're going to get bears. I'm like, oh my god, shut the hell up. No, no, no, I'm the bear. But speaking of the tigers, they may or may not be muscle mommies. I'm still working un confirmed this. Okay, please do the research for us. We do what you said something about muscle mommies. What Oh and I you're interested? Yeah, sorry you lost your chance lex the care to alight. But yes, so we got to see some exciting stuff for this expansion. People seem happy. It's fun. For fun. It's coming out this summer, but no specific date yet. I have been your foul Fantasy fourteen reporter in the field, Mitch Tolkoto signing off. Thank you, Mitch. All right, right, right back at it. Let's talk about crimes. Yeah, let's do that. Marvel Spider Man two is getting an unofficial PC port, uh, and it already runs sixty frames per second. Uh. This is from Francesco de Mayo at WCCF Tech. An unofficial Marvel Spider Man two PC port is currently in the works and it's already running great and it's very early version. As reported today by PC Focus on Twitter, motters are reverse engineering the PC dev build of the game leaked last week to develop an unofficial piec This is a super crime, Yes, an unofficial PC port which is already running at sixty frames per second, although without textures and interface elements. While it's obviously full of glitches right now, what these developers have already accomplished with this unofficial port is extremely impressive and I'll add extremely illegal. This is just straight up using stolen source code to then put out copyrighted material on another platform. Uh. I have calico. This is like this is some loading some shit into your Super Nintendo with a mysterious cartridge you got like at this yad sale. This is fun and like you know who's you know who else is going to make a PC port of this game? Fucking Sony, And if you do this, they could be like, hey, you've caused us material damages to the money we would have made it. They should just stop selling this. Why the fuck not? Yeah, if you're gonna do this, you might as well fucking you're gonna need to need that money eventually here when they fucking sue you out of existence. Hey, have your fun, everybody, but at a certain point you gotta just maybe walk away from some things whatever. Who knows, maybe Sony will just be like, let's not bring attention to this and ignore it. I doubt that will happen. I bet their lawyers are ready readying a lawsuit as we speak. A season assist is certainly coming. But but yeah, I would even recommend probably avoid even playing these things because that source code. You never know, I mean, they'll they'll have cracks on it and stuff to stop it from like calling home. Uh, but you just never know how serious Sony's gonna be about something like this. We haven't seen many examples of something like this happened before, and they might want to set a very harsh precedent right away, So I would probably just avoid this altogether if I were you. I'm not sure if you saw the did you Know Gaming video on gaming leaks, but one of the things that Liam Robertson went into that on went into detail in NASH was the Half Life leak and basically how like American police were basically trying to trick the guy who leads the source code to come to America so that they could arrest him. Yeah, game was like, yeah, we'll give you a job, come to America for your last for your last interview. Yeah. Yeah, they pretended to offer him a job, which just incredible acting work from Gabe. But yeah, that whole video is actually really good. It's worth a watch. But yeah, when it gets to this level of sensitive information, and like when you considered the other information that was in with Bash game, and even if, like even if you take away all the stuff about the game and say that they don't actually care that much about people pirating that version of the game, it was still released alongside people's like Passport information and people's personal documentation, and so they are going to be extremely litigious around anything that touches ish because of course they are like ultimately Sony fucked up by allowing this to get weaked and get hacked, and it was their cybersecurity that wasn't up to snuff, and so yeah, they're going to be very litigious around any of this. Yep. I would be uh, I'd be hesitant to just get involved in any way, especially if like INZP, Like, oh, the only way you can get this is on a torrent site. You can't down download a torrent usually without also like sharing it back up, which makes you complicit and distributing it. So just be careful and you've never committed a crime, so you'd never do this anyway. Exactly. That's exactly what's one percent, right, Lexi? You know me so well? Uh. PlayStation four pro has rolled over fourteen point three million units as of you know, twenty twenty. I think it's when the year they actually have this number from this comes from Shamir saphiras at Exputer. Many gamers during the last year. We're curious about how PlayStation four would stay out in the competitive scene. It apparently sold a gargantuan number according to shop here here. A recent report by Mega x zero at install based forums confirms that the PS four pro sold an impressive fourteen point three million units. That number is as of January twenty twenty. So let's just round it at the fifteen million. It's probably not even fifteen million, because in January twenty twenty, we're like looking at the down down the barrel of the gun of the you know what, it probably has fifteen million because I guess the twenty twenty We didn't get to PS five until later that year, and I think PS four pro was selling pretty well throughout that time, and people, especially as the pandemic was coming, people are trying to get a lot more out there. This is pretty good. It's not like huge numbers. But if we look at if the thing came out in what twenty sixteen, right, so that goes to twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, it's about three three and a half years for fifteen million. That's five million units per year. That's pretty good. It's not like it took over the whole that's good. I think the thing that you need to Remember, is that probably a shockingly high percentage of this these sales are people buying their second PlayStation. Yes, And like when a person who's going out to just buy a PlayStation is probably just going to buy a PlayStation. A person going out to buy a PlayStation pro has probably already been playing PlayStation games for a long time. So I would be really curious to see how many of these people had already bh a base PlayStation. And at that point you can just add those on as bonus sales that Sony weren't going to get if they never made this product in the first place. Yeah, I mean, so it's that's fifteen percent of the PlayStation four in stall base around around there essentially, And I mean, listen, I wouldn't be surprised if we found out, Yeah, that's basically means fifteen percent of the PlayStation audience. Are these very hardcore people that buy another PlayStation When Only puts out another PlayStation, There's gonna be obviously wiggle room there, but I wouldn't be surprised if it actually is just that number fifteen percent. And so, like you said, it's bonus money, and it's uh and it's finding ways to continue to monetize and grow your install base using the people most likely to spend money, and that probably explains why we're getting a PS five pro fifteen percent. Yeah right, it's freak real estate. Why not just take it fifteen percent of players coming in spending that money again and growing your install based sending theirs their old PS fours or PS five's out into the wild, probably doing trade ins at game stop or whatever to get a PS five Pro so they could save money themselves. That it just continues to like churn and make that that market more a bit larger in a lot of different ways, and more dynamic. So yeah, it doesn't have to be like the new standard default thing that everyone's buying that did not happen with the PS four. It's almost certainly not gonna happen with the PS five, Like the Call of Duty bundle will be PS five not PS five Pro going forward, things like that, And obviously they probably won't have to Call of Duty deal, but that example, because most new people coming into the market will just want to get the cheaper version that they know runs the games that they want. So yeah, it's like when we try to define what is success for these pro models. It's I think it's hard to do, but I think this is probably exactly what they wanted from this thing. Do you think that there's any disappointment inside of Sony for this thing. I don't know. Like the sentiment always seemed to be that they liked it because it allowed them to show off nicer versions of the game when they were sure like ultimately, whenever someone makes a review of a game or they like whenever a critic like you or me talks about it, almost always it would have been on a PS four Pro when the PS four was the only thing out. Because it's our job to be on top of these things and to own the latest hardware, And so they probably were pretty happy with the idea that like, Okay, well, the people who are reviewing these games are reviewing them on better hard where then maybe the people who are playing the majority of them. But that alleviates a lot of the you know, if games weren't looking great on the base PS four and they were running at six C on a PS four Pro, suddenly that's not a bullet point against you in a review because someone just didn't play it on a BASEPS four. And I think that that paired with looking at how many of these sales are double dips and looking at the fact that they can then also go to developers and say, hey, we have this more powerful machine that will allow you to utilize all your tech learnings as the generation goes on. I think the PS four Pro does a good job at keeping the right people happy, and that's kind of its job. Its job isn't necessarily be the best seller. It's to you know, make everyone feel better about the console generation. Yeah, I think it's definitely a big part of it is. At least this is one of the check marks when they're justifying the project overall. Right, it's say, hey, this is going to improve sentiment. It will answer a lot of the questions, Like you said, when when people are like, oh my god, this game runs better on another platform, Well, it's like, now, now we have a solution for that. If you really care about that, just go get the PS four Pro. If you really care about four K sixty frames per second, just go get the PS five Pro. We'll see if games run at four K and sixty frames per second even on the PS five Pro. But that's what you really care about, go get that now. And if you don't care about that, well, you get we still get the benefit of all those awesome marketing screenshots and videos of the game running great on PlayStation, And yeah, you're right. I think that's a get factors into the considerations. If they do a PS five pro, will they put eight K on that box too? Yes? Yes, I mean because it you know, if it cannot put eight K, that's the bigger number. They're not going to put the smaller number on there. And if they could put a bigger number on there, if they will before the end of this generation, will we see a single game output at eight k? Uh? You know? I think didn't the tourists run at Ak the one of the tourists that spelled with a y in It's like a two D game that they I think they put that out as it can run like AK and sixty frames per second or something like that. Maybe it was thirty frames for second at AK. I can't remember HTI two point one s specs exactly, but I think a couple of games had something like that. So there's your answer, basically, no though really no, yes, all right, you know what, We're gonna just hit these last two headlines really quick. Netflix is reportedly exploring adding in game ads to its gaming service. Just what everyone's been asking, right, Lexi, Oh god, you know, I was playing Into the Breach on my phone, a great way to play such a small screen game, and just everything looks fucking terrible on it, and I just thought this would be so much better if I was also getting an ad for a fake video game. And then some YouTube guys started talking to me saying, you want me to play a fake video game? And then he started playing the fake video game like that. That would be my game of the year if they could somehow do that for me. Yeah. Those it's incredible, like those ads where it's like playing the top five games people say are fake. Oh this one looks real. Shut up, TikToker, I hate you, Please stop all right. Other one. Activision finally admits that there was definitely discrimination at Activisions. Some executives there said, yes, of course, you'll never guess against who the Alexi old white guys. This is from Ben Lyons, a game reactor. There have been some truly horrifying stories coming out of late of Activision. After they finally let Bobby Katak go. There have been a slew of sexism and racism reports from developers past and present. And now to add to this, a new report has revealed that Activision didn't even seem to limit its discrimination the certain minorities because Law three sixty has stated that a former Activision executive is currently looking to sue the publisher, accusing it of age discrimination and violating the state of California's whistleblower protection law. You no good on them for discriminating against the majology. Yeah right, you know it's not It's not a legal if you discriminate against everybody. Oh oh wait, it is actually still okay, never mind, minlogy has been getting too much attention for too long trying to discriminate against the Majology. The suit comes from a fifty seven year old tech executive who was employed at Activision between twenty fourteen and the summer of twenty third twenty twenty three, and the lawsuit claims that Cotic made statement at a leadership conference where he revealed that the problem at the company was that there are too many old white guys. Oh my god, you know, do you? I know the most upsetting thing about this story. I literally cannot imagine Bobby Kotak's saying that sentence. Yeah, I mean, even if he's like saying it in like, you know, he's preaching to the choir someone who's like, hey, what about diversity, He's like, yeah, you know, maybe we have many old white guys. The second sentence there, the unsaid sentence, isn't we're gonna get rid of all the old white guys. It's we might just hire someone else that looks a little different once. That's all he's maybe actually getting at if he ever actually said this. But boy, I don't know, maybe we should discriminate against old white guys if they're this fucking fragile LEXI. I just can't stand it anymore. It's so fucking like, how great would it be if after all these years, this was the thing that got him, that would actually okay, never Brian, that would actually rule. I would love that. That'd be incredible. All right, you know what, We got to get a move on here. I have a pull question coming from last Friday. I don't remember ever posting this. I think maybe Sean did or Jan did. Thank you to whoever did. But we'll get to that here in a second. Before while I get that set up Lexi, why don't you tell people where they can find you what we have going on and all of that good stuff. Yeah, you can find me basically Lexi on Twitter, both of those words with eyes. At the end, I am currently reviewing an embargo game that I can't talk about, but I am very excited to talk about, So look forward to that later in the month. I will have stuff. Yeah, I don't. I'm not working on too much at the moment, actually, which is nice for a change. And suppose for the size you'll have, Kobe, you'll have stuff like that on throughout the week. And yeah, I'm pretty sure Mike is going to be playing some bad video games because Dan's injured. And now they've said that it has to happen, right, That's right, that's how it works. You laid down the law, Lexi, So if you said it, it must be true. All right? Got that poll question, Here we go. If PS five only has middle Gear, Solid Delta, Silent Hill two, Rake to remake, and Final Fantasy seven rebirth in twenty twenty four, is that enough for you? Thirty two percent said yes and sixty eight percent said no. I think that's a pretty good lineup, and I don't think they need much more than that to make most of the rest of that audience happy. I get it because those are you know, Final Fantasy seven rebirth, just calling that a remake, even though I guess that's what SCREENX calls it, a little bit like underselling it. But people are like, Hey, I don't want just remix, give me something new. Sony's definitely gonna have that. They've already said that they'll have some some new games, Fair Games and Concord things like that, and then they'll probably have some stuff that they haven't fully confirmed for twenty twenty four yet. But I don't know, how do you feel about it? Yeah? I think I'm just curious about what they are doing. And I know on the podcasts or on the BombCast of Vengeance, you we're talking about, you know, Sony being quite predictable at the moment, but like, ultimately we have no idea what games they have on the slater part from a couple of those live service games, and I'm really curious to see anything that isn't a live service game unless it is a course just like oh, we're doing we're doing sequels to God of War and the Last of Us and that's all. Like, God, I would kill for something new from Sony just to see what it is, just because like, I like those cinematic action games enough. I think they're fine, but it would just be really interesting to see a new franchise for once. Right, I was gonna I was gonna be like, hey, Rise of Ronan, and then it's like, oh wait, that's a cinematic action game. Yeah, so get paid. At least I think looks cool to me. I can't keep them all straight at this point. There was there's been a handful of those games. I think you're right, but I can't keep them all straight anymore because there's just a lot of different of those sort of eastering looking action games from a bunch of different places. I think you're right, though, now I'm like trying to pull for my brain. All right, let's see here, we have a new poll question here in a moment. Before we get to that, though, let's talk about what's happening on Giant Bomb. You mentioned Blake Club that will be happening this week. I got a new Xbox three sixty, so it should work this time. You should still want you're sotting again and transferring my saves. We'll do that process live so that we can have the drama of whether or not it's going to work. We'll make that like the first part of Black Club this week. How good would it be if the whole next step, the whole last episode was your Xbox breaking. The whole next episode is you're going to be trying to try same. That's all black Club becomes. It's trouble shooting. I've got a USB stick, so we should be good. And Sean says, oh no, he's going to fuck this up. Maybe I will, and then the punishment will be I have to start that game over. And then the real punishment is here he might complain about having started that game over. I think you'll find because I was here when this rule was written, was if you can't complete your game, you have to play space the time. That's if like you give up on the game. I would I would I'm going to see this game through, so I would just start. I would say this counts as a DQ, like this counts as pulling out of the race halfway through. You're not allowed to restart the race. Club. We that's definitely definitely not a rule yet, but who knows it could be. We'll see. Uh, I'll play part Versus the Space Mutant. That's just a stupid game where you have to like look everything up and there's I guess he said you can't look shit up to my own time. He would be able to stop me, So yeah, god, I can't. Actually, it would drive me crazy if I was like put in a hyperbolic chamber and wasn't allowed to look anything up for Versus the Space Mutant. That actually would be the worst way to play. I was watching some of the I was watching some of the Itali fifties stuff with my dad and Gary Kitchen shows up finish and I just like had to like bottle up to myself of like it's the Bombers of the speak. Your dad didn't care about that tidbit. That's weird. Yeah, yeah, passed them by. All Right, new poll question that we will get to on game as Mornings on Wednesday. We got the BombCast tomorrow, so on Wednesday we'll talk about did you buy a PS four Pro? Yes or no? You know, it's not scientific, just curious to see what this audience says. Did you buy a PS four Pro, whether it was your second PlayStation or not it was your first PlayStation four, just tell me yes or note, did you buy a PS four Pro. We'll talk about that on Wednesday. Like I said, speaking of Giant Bomb, anything else that we should mention this week. We'll probably have some fun stuff. A lot of it's gonna depend on what will come out of the community. Community Game of the Year results went up. That's right, check that out. Reno's got the Community Game of the Game of the Year results posted right now, so check all that out in the meantime, LEXI, thank you so much for spinding today talking with me about video games. I really appreciate it anytime. Thank you all for watching. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.
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