PlayStation Stars is Closing Down

<v Speaker 1>He'll be don't be bad.
<v Speaker 2>M Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Grub, your host from giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna.
<v Speaker 2>Be talking about how loyalty is dead and how we
<v Speaker 2>are cheating ourselves and the game. It's gonna be a
<v Speaker 2>good one because we have Jesse Vittelli on the show. Jesse,
<v Speaker 2>how are you doing.
<v Speaker 3>I'm doing great, feeling good. Thursday morning. I feel like
<v Speaker 3>I'm usually on here Friday and sounds like usday is
<v Speaker 3>like a little weird. Now it feels like a Friday.
<v Speaker 1>It does feel like a Friday.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we usually I would have you stand in for
<v Speaker 2>Tam when Tam would be traveling or whatever. But no,
<v Speaker 2>Thursday is you I got I think I have Kleef
<v Speaker 2>Adams on the show tomorrow, so he'll.
<v Speaker 1>Be he'll be. He'll be our Friday treat.
<v Speaker 2>In the meantime, though, yeah, we've uh, we're gett We're
<v Speaker 2>talking about getting ready for summer game Fest, talking about
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of stuff. But how have you been doing otherwise?
<v Speaker 3>I've been doing great, you know, playing a lot of
<v Speaker 3>good games. Hey out and enjoying the sunshine. Finally, it
<v Speaker 3>did rain yesterday, but you know, New York weather's been
<v Speaker 3>pretty nice, so I can't complain.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's a guy nice here for a little bit,
<v Speaker 2>and then it started. It's been raining NonStop. That's what
<v Speaker 2>Ohio does. I don't mind it so much, though I
<v Speaker 2>like I like the rain. It's kind of a cool
<v Speaker 2>rain too, so it's not like getting super humid and hot,
<v Speaker 2>which I appreciate. I have to go to my I
<v Speaker 2>went to a daughter's musical recital earlier this week.
<v Speaker 1>I have another one tonight.
<v Speaker 2>What songs do you think I should I'm gonna be
<v Speaker 2>hearing when I go there tonight. She's in let's see
<v Speaker 2>second grade?
<v Speaker 3>Okay, so obviously toxicity from system of a down is
<v Speaker 3>like a guaranteed lock. I think you might hear some
<v Speaker 3>some chain smokers. I hear they're pretty big. I think
<v Speaker 3>kids love it. Yeah yeah, maybe some Metallica.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, what's the what's the other?
<v Speaker 2>I think twenty one pilots are from Cologial I think,
<v Speaker 2>oh yeah, yeah, so that that they'll represent Ohio a
<v Speaker 2>little bit there. I also think we're gonna get a
<v Speaker 2>rendition of of Steve's Lava Chicken from the Minecraft movie.
<v Speaker 3>Oh that's a good one.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we'll get it. We'll get a handful of Jack Black.
<v Speaker 1>Jack Black is uh Jack Black?
<v Speaker 2>I think is he the Pokemon of actors where he
<v Speaker 2>just like reintroduces himself to a new generation every couple
<v Speaker 2>of years and now he's like gonna be forever.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, because you know, obviously the Mario movie was was
<v Speaker 3>a big one for Jack Black, and for us we
<v Speaker 3>had the classic. I think he was in Pixels. I
<v Speaker 3>believe that was a pretty big one. Right, was Jack
<v Speaker 3>Black in that movie?
<v Speaker 2>I can've never seen Pixels, but I can't remember. You
<v Speaker 2>know what, let's just assume he was.
<v Speaker 3>It feels Jack Black code.
<v Speaker 1>It feels like he's there.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and yeah, now we have do we have Chicken Jockey?
<v Speaker 3>So of course I think the kids will scream that
<v Speaker 3>at some point during the recital did chicken?
<v Speaker 2>Like you're not even joking now, They are definitely one
<v Speaker 2>will do that. They can't even help themselves. It's crazy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I saw, I'll have that. And it's been a
<v Speaker 1>crazy week.
<v Speaker 2>Steph is out of town and every night there's something
<v Speaker 2>happening at their schools. So it's like, of course, that's
<v Speaker 2>how the timing worked out, so looking forward to getting
<v Speaker 2>on the other side of that. In the meantime, though, meantime,
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, there are a bunch of games I want
<v Speaker 2>to be playing.
<v Speaker 1>What is taking up your time right now?
<v Speaker 3>So honestly, I've been playing two games. I think one
<v Speaker 3>of them you'll be excited about. I've been playing Roadcraft.
<v Speaker 3>Not my Island excited, let's go. But I've been playing
<v Speaker 3>It's good, right, It's surprisingly good. It shouldn't say surprising.
<v Speaker 3>This team has made like pretty good games prior, but.
<v Speaker 2>I think it's it's surprising and its ability to like
<v Speaker 2>win over a general audience.
<v Speaker 3>I think, yeah, there's something really nice about just like
<v Speaker 3>driving a truck and then just being like, all, we're
<v Speaker 3>gonna load this up with some wood and some steel beams,
<v Speaker 3>and we're gonna go deliver it over there, and I'm
<v Speaker 3>gonna like plot a route for my trucks to go
<v Speaker 3>deliver other things, and then I'm gonna like haul some
<v Speaker 3>shit through the mud. Like it just feels good, feels
<v Speaker 3>in a way. I saw a trailer for it that
<v Speaker 3>I posted on Blue Sky that was it was edited
<v Speaker 3>like a Life is Strange trailer. It's a very weird trailer.
<v Speaker 3>I love the trailer. But after that, I was like,
<v Speaker 3>all right, I got to check this game out. So
<v Speaker 3>I've been playing that. I've been enjoying it. And then
<v Speaker 3>I've also been playing Monster Trained.
<v Speaker 1>Two, right, that just popped off yesterday, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And so I had had an early code for it,
<v Speaker 3>so I'd been kind of playing it for a little bit.
<v Speaker 3>And Monster Trained one was like one of my favorite
<v Speaker 3>games of twenty twenty. I think it was like my
<v Speaker 3>fourth or fifth game of that year. Right, So when
<v Speaker 3>that game came through, I was like, oh, cool more
<v Speaker 3>Monster Trained.
<v Speaker 1>Great.
<v Speaker 3>And that's exactly what that game is. It's like more
<v Speaker 3>of everything. You want to customize the train, you want
<v Speaker 3>to have different factions, you want to like go do
<v Speaker 3>some other stuff, you want to have some weird crossover
<v Speaker 3>stuff in there. Like it's it's a good time, and
<v Speaker 3>it's been It's been an easy pick up and play.
<v Speaker 3>You know, when I have twenty thirty minutes to do something.
<v Speaker 1>Let me ask you.
<v Speaker 2>That is similar to Slay the Spire, Right, they're in
<v Speaker 2>the same time. I haven't play I played any of
<v Speaker 2>these games. Okay, it is a yeah, it's a deck
<v Speaker 2>building roll late my question to you is should I
<v Speaker 2>just start with Monster hun or two or should I
<v Speaker 2>go back to Slave the Spire Monster Hunter one?
<v Speaker 1>What should I do here?
<v Speaker 3>You should? I mean Slay the Spire is like if
<v Speaker 3>Slave the Spires like S tier top tier Monster Train,
<v Speaker 3>I feel like it's like like an eight tier, it's
<v Speaker 3>like right below it. So I don't think you. I
<v Speaker 3>think you could start with Monster Train two, have a
<v Speaker 3>great time. You don't got to worry about playing the
<v Speaker 3>other ones. It's different enough, it's got its own systems,
<v Speaker 3>but it is in that same genre. So I would
<v Speaker 3>say if you're just looking for like a fun deck
<v Speaker 3>building roguelike game to play, like Monster Train twos right there,
<v Speaker 3>it's it's a good time all that stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's new and shiny, A lot of a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people will be playing it. That usually does help, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>kind of that gravitational pole helps me. All right, let's
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<v Speaker 2>As far as this show is concerned, most weekdays, I
<v Speaker 2>Jeff Greb will help piece your gaming life together. That
<v Speaker 2>includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own
<v Speaker 2>original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input
<v Speaker 2>of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
<v Speaker 2>If you were watching live on twitch welcome. You can
<v Speaker 2>always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by
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<v Speaker 2>on GiantBomb dot com. You can also catch the show
<v Speaker 2>later on YouTube as well as live Hello YouTube. All right,
<v Speaker 2>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 2>the show with PlayStation showcase slash State of play event
<v Speaker 2>for May appears increasingly unlikely. This is from Liamcroft at
<v Speaker 2>Push Square for pretty much all of the PS five
<v Speaker 2>generation PlayStation fans have come to expect that Sony will
<v Speaker 2>host some kind of digital event in the month of May.
<v Speaker 2>The firm has put on either a PlayStation showcase or
<v Speaker 2>a state of play around this time every year since
<v Speaker 2>twenty nineteen, but it's looking increasingly unlikely that Sony will
<v Speaker 2>be doing that again.
<v Speaker 1>There was a report Jesse on know to Report Whatever.
<v Speaker 2>Someone commented on reset Era and Nate Drake, who's reliable
<v Speaker 2>and says he hasn't heard anything about a May event
<v Speaker 2>from Sony this year.
<v Speaker 1>I haven't either, and that's because something's happening in June.
<v Speaker 2>It's a June thing. They're doing something in June. Now,
<v Speaker 2>is that gonna be a big showcase? I don't think so.
<v Speaker 2>I said up a couple months ago Jesse that I
<v Speaker 2>had heard that they were discussing going back and forth
<v Speaker 2>about doing a showcase or a state of play.
<v Speaker 1>Sounds like they've probably settled on a state of play.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not like.
<v Speaker 2>About that aspect of it. It's probably a state of
<v Speaker 2>play though, but I have heard June. So what are
<v Speaker 2>your expectations for that? I mean beyond like, okay, they
<v Speaker 2>they missed May. Part of that probably was them having
<v Speaker 2>that discussion of like, if it's a showcase, maybe we
<v Speaker 2>could do it in June, make it even bigger, And
<v Speaker 2>then the fact that they kind of dragged their feet
<v Speaker 2>on that a little bit, maybe that's what pushed it
<v Speaker 2>into June. But do you think there is reason to
<v Speaker 2>get like big excited for a state of play.
<v Speaker 1>From Sony in June if that's the way it goes.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, because I think about what they have
<v Speaker 3>versus what they've offered this generation so far. It's like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>so we have Ghost of Yote and Death Stranding, to
<v Speaker 3>and Marathon are kind of the three things they've got
<v Speaker 3>to hang their hat on right now, yep. And it's
<v Speaker 3>if we get more of those games great, But also
<v Speaker 3>they're Sony's in a weird spot. They've been doing weird things.
<v Speaker 3>They just like tweeted out the Ghosts of Yote release
<v Speaker 3>date and trailer like a couple of weeks ago. Like,
<v Speaker 3>they don't seem like they're building momentum for any specific
<v Speaker 3>thing right now, so a state of play would be cool.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe they got some third party stuff that they want
<v Speaker 3>to show off, some other stuff which would then make
<v Speaker 3>it not a showcase, because the showcase is generally like
<v Speaker 3>primarily first party stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Or like the biggest third party partner stuff, right ye
<v Speaker 2>a GTA six shows up in a showcase.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I think about that Kotor remake that they showed
<v Speaker 3>at one of their previous showcases, right like when they've
<v Speaker 3>got something big to roll out, which you know, I
<v Speaker 3>don't know what's going on with that, but that's a
<v Speaker 3>different story.
<v Speaker 1>So he's done with it. He's done with it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, So I don't know. I'm not I'm keeping my
<v Speaker 3>expectations in check because they haven't really given me a
<v Speaker 3>reason to think anything higher than what we already know.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, what about just like the passage of time,
<v Speaker 2>because that's why I'm with you. Just it's like they
<v Speaker 2>haven't given us anything. But it has been like a
<v Speaker 2>minute since they've done like since they've come out and
<v Speaker 2>just been like, here's what several of our big studios
<v Speaker 2>are working on, and this stuff will be coming over
<v Speaker 2>the course of the next two to three years. That's
<v Speaker 2>typically for a showcase, right That is because it's probably
<v Speaker 2>a state of play, like there's no reason to really
<v Speaker 2>get our hopes up for that.
<v Speaker 3>I feel like, we know what a good chunk of
<v Speaker 3>their studios are working on at this point, right Like,
<v Speaker 3>we know what Housemark's working on exactly, Socker Punk is,
<v Speaker 3>Sucker Punch is working on, we know what Insomniac is
<v Speaker 3>working on, we know what Bunge's working on, and then
<v Speaker 3>a bunch of you know, titles that just shipped and
<v Speaker 3>didn't do great and this live service push that they have,
<v Speaker 3>and so for me, it's like, I don't even know
<v Speaker 3>if they know what two to three years down the
<v Speaker 3>line looks like for them right now. I think a
<v Speaker 3>lot of their studios are still kind of trying to
<v Speaker 3>figure that out. And so we're in this weird spot
<v Speaker 3>where I think a state of play could have like
<v Speaker 3>one cool announcement at the end, which kind of feels
<v Speaker 3>like normally what it is, it's here's our third parties,
<v Speaker 3>here's Borderlands, here's you know, some indie games, here's some
<v Speaker 3>other thing, and then it's, oh, here's house marks new
<v Speaker 3>project here, like we'll show you a trailer and then
<v Speaker 3>we'll talk about it next year. So they could have
<v Speaker 3>something like that down the line, but I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just not I'm not feeling it. Yeah, something about it.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I don't know how to feel about
<v Speaker 3>Sony right now. They're in a weird spot.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's a weird spot.
<v Speaker 2>Obviously, a lot of that is as their own making
<v Speaker 2>with the live service initiative, just going completely sideways in
<v Speaker 2>a lot of ways, and then you know, the state
<v Speaker 2>of play, that factor is not worth like overlooking that
<v Speaker 2>is something that usually happens because it's like an obligatory
<v Speaker 2>partnership deal that they've made where it's like, hey, we
<v Speaker 2>get we have these third party companies and we've promised
<v Speaker 2>them a slot in the state of play because it's
<v Speaker 2>worth a certain amount of money that's part of our
<v Speaker 2>co marketing deal or whatever, so we have to do
<v Speaker 2>one of those plays often feel like something that Sony
<v Speaker 2>kind of just had to do, So I think that's
<v Speaker 2>why we say that it's like, let's let's all just
<v Speaker 2>like tamper it down. That's not to say there have
<v Speaker 2>not been bangor state of plays, and you know, I
<v Speaker 2>guess everyone's definition of what that would look like is different.
<v Speaker 2>There's a handful of them that everyone kind of there's
<v Speaker 2>a consensus about, like, oh no, that was a good
<v Speaker 2>showcase in terms of or good state of play, I
<v Speaker 2>should say, of showing off what they have coming up
<v Speaker 2>and getting us excited and like hitting their biggest franchises.
<v Speaker 2>But those are more rare, so I'm wondering. It's like
<v Speaker 2>I'm hoping, I guess that maybe we're in that moment
<v Speaker 2>where one of those rare state of plays could pop off.
<v Speaker 2>And if they were debating between a state of play
<v Speaker 2>and a showcase, it's because it's like, well, we do
<v Speaker 2>have the games that we want to talk about, but
<v Speaker 2>will they have assets ready to go?
<v Speaker 1>Because that is.
<v Speaker 2>Troublesome to make these days. It takes a lot of time.
<v Speaker 2>It's very distracting for these studios to put that stuff together.
<v Speaker 2>Whether that's a gameplay trailer or even something CGI made
<v Speaker 2>in an external studio, still that's still very distracting.
<v Speaker 1>There's lots of meetings, two months of work, stuff like
<v Speaker 1>that is kind of what I've heard.
<v Speaker 2>Typically, So a lot of these studios are hard at
<v Speaker 2>work on the actual video game. Maybe they didn't have
<v Speaker 2>the time to take to work on something like that,
<v Speaker 2>or if they did, they're still working on it and
<v Speaker 2>they're like looking around, but like, we don't have to
<v Speaker 2>force it into SGF there's games Colm coming up that's
<v Speaker 2>also a Jeff Keey thing. We could just do it there,
<v Speaker 2>So maybe something like that is kind of what's happening there.
<v Speaker 2>I said, that's a Jeff Keilly thing, Like this is
<v Speaker 2>going to be part of Summer Game Fest, not necessarily,
<v Speaker 2>but the fact that it's happening in June makes me
<v Speaker 2>feel like they are trying to like like be friendly
<v Speaker 2>with what Jeff Heally is doing as far as like
<v Speaker 2>what Sony could have. You're right that they probably are
<v Speaker 2>going to still focus on those big three games are
<v Speaker 2>coming out this year. Then you know, Fair Games is
<v Speaker 2>coming out next year, I guess, and Wolverine is at
<v Speaker 2>some point in the next year, like not this year,
<v Speaker 2>but within twenty twenty six possibly.
<v Speaker 1>So there are like a.
<v Speaker 2>Handful of things that we already know about that they
<v Speaker 2>could update us on to the point where it's like
<v Speaker 2>that would like if they just do those like five things,
<v Speaker 2>that's a lot.
<v Speaker 1>For a state of play already. You're right at that.
<v Speaker 2>Point, it's like maybe one new thing we don't know about.
<v Speaker 2>Like it's so Sony Santa Monica is the God of
<v Speaker 2>War Team, right, maybe what's his name's sci fi game
<v Speaker 2>that he's been working on since the first God of War,
<v Speaker 2>the God of War twenty eighteen.
<v Speaker 1>Like maybe we get a teaser for that, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And then that's what these state of plays normally are, right,
<v Speaker 3>It's like it's like a bunch of third party stuff,
<v Speaker 3>like you know, Suicide Squad Killed, the Justice League had
<v Speaker 3>a big, big state of play without one dah, Borderland's
<v Speaker 3>just got its own state of play, and then you have, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>here's like a big first party announcement that we're gonna
<v Speaker 3>kind of toss in as are like one more thing
<v Speaker 3>just to remind you that we are Sony and we
<v Speaker 3>do have some big stuff, you know down the pipeline.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, they are.
<v Speaker 2>They are being very like guarded, so like just getting
<v Speaker 2>the details that there's something happening in June was kind
<v Speaker 2>of difficult to come by.
<v Speaker 1>So it does make me feel like.
<v Speaker 2>They are hiding some stuff, although that is sure speculation
<v Speaker 2>that is not based on anything other than it was
<v Speaker 2>abnormally difficult to kind of squeeze this information out. In
<v Speaker 2>the fact that no one else is really hearing about
<v Speaker 2>it yet makes me think it's like they are really
<v Speaker 2>locking things down. So maybe they do have something cooking,
<v Speaker 2>or maybe this is just a new initiative from PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>that has nothing to do with the content. We can
<v Speaker 2>be guilty of reading too far into things like that,
<v Speaker 2>for sure.
<v Speaker 3>That often does happen.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, all right, stick with the PlayStation news and this
<v Speaker 2>I I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Jesse.
<v Speaker 2>This is I know this is going to devastate you.
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars is coming to a close. Sie evaluates new
<v Speaker 2>ways to involve future loyalty program efforts. This is from
<v Speaker 2>the PlayStation blog. Are you going to be okay?
<v Speaker 3>No?
<v Speaker 2>At Sony Interactive, we're always experimenting with new and exciting
<v Speaker 2>ways to bring our community of players together to share
<v Speaker 2>the choice of gaming and create lasting memories. That's why
<v Speaker 2>three years ago, man, it was it really three years ago,
<v Speaker 2>we created PlayStation Stars, a loyalty program to celebrate our players.
<v Speaker 2>The unique program includes playing games to earn reward words,
<v Speaker 2>including our unique digital collectibles that pay homage to incredible
<v Speaker 2>games and our PlayStation legacy. I know, Jesse, immediately, I
<v Speaker 2>know what you're worried about. Your Jim Ryan bobblehead or
<v Speaker 2>digital collectible Jim Ryan bobblehead. Don't worry that's not going anywhere.
<v Speaker 2>They are going to enable you to keep looking at it,
<v Speaker 2>just people aren't going to be able to get new
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Star loyalty reward programs. Here are some of the
<v Speaker 2>key things to know as they write it here. Starting today,
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars will no longer accept new members for this
<v Speaker 2>version of the program. If members choose to cancel their
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars membership starting today, it will not be possible
<v Speaker 2>to rejoin this version of the program, and members will
<v Speaker 2>lose all earned points. Current PlayStation Stars members can still
<v Speaker 2>earn digital collectibles points and level up their status until
<v Speaker 2>July twenty third, twenty twenty five, so about a month
<v Speaker 2>from now. After the state there will be no new
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars campaigns available or any additional rewards or status
<v Speaker 2>benefits to earn. This version of the place Station Stars
<v Speaker 2>program will fully end on November two, twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 2>and current PlayStation Stars members can continue to redeem points
<v Speaker 2>as long as their points didn't expire before then. I
<v Speaker 2>bet most people are wondering, wait, what the hell is
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars. This is their loyalty program right where It's like,
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna have the some special goodies you can get
<v Speaker 2>like digital goodies. And it was like this was happening
<v Speaker 2>right when NFTs were a big thing. So everyone's like,
<v Speaker 2>are these NFTs? They weren't NFTs. But you know, so
<v Speaker 2>when I say they aren't NFTs, I'm supposed to follow
<v Speaker 2>that up with like what they are? And Jesse, I
<v Speaker 2>don't fucking know. I don't know what these things are.
<v Speaker 3>You know, you were, you were reading that whole thing,
<v Speaker 3>and the only thing I can think of was that
<v Speaker 3>every day we stray further from God's light because I
<v Speaker 3>I don't know what any of those words mean.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean so, okay.
<v Speaker 2>The idea of a loyalty program, I guess I get
<v Speaker 2>it to a certain extent. It's just one of those
<v Speaker 2>things that corporations do. But this one never felt real.
<v Speaker 2>It never felt like Sony actually cared about it, let
<v Speaker 2>alone anyone else caring about it.
<v Speaker 1>Right, I feel like the.
<v Speaker 3>Better version of PlayStation Stars was collecting all the things
<v Speaker 3>at astrobot right, Like that was right, that was the
<v Speaker 3>digital collectible that everyone cared about. That was the thing
<v Speaker 3>that everybody was like, Oh cool, I can get this
<v Speaker 3>cool little loop to loop for vibribbon. That's sick, right,
<v Speaker 3>Not like oh I got a PlayStation one memory card,
<v Speaker 3>maybe as like a digital collectible. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>It's like completely avoid of context, right, but that's why
<v Speaker 2>it works so well in astro, where it's like I'm
<v Speaker 2>doing these fun things. I'm completing these actual gameplay challenges.
<v Speaker 2>Like I bought a video game console to play video games,
<v Speaker 2>so when I get to something inside of a video
<v Speaker 2>game thumbs up, that makes sense. I love that PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>Stars is like I don't know, it's happening on some
<v Speaker 2>meta level, like you are, you are playing games to
<v Speaker 2>earn it, but it's sort of disconnected from the game
<v Speaker 2>you're playing, and it's happening on the system level, and
<v Speaker 2>like no one really cares about like like living in
<v Speaker 2>the experience of or the user experience on these consoles,
<v Speaker 2>I think especially the PlayStation five. So it's like anything
<v Speaker 2>that's happening on that level is just so easy to
<v Speaker 2>miss or ignore or just flat out not care about.
<v Speaker 2>I get well, how they get there, like keeping people
<v Speaker 2>happy and connected to the ecosystem is important, but this.
<v Speaker 1>Is this is just this feels like it's putting.
<v Speaker 2>The cart before before the horse. There are like other
<v Speaker 2>things you could probably do to make people feel cool
<v Speaker 2>about that. Before you introduce like digital bobbles that people
<v Speaker 2>can have our ballbles, I should say. I'm like, we're
<v Speaker 2>gonna have a story about Roadblocks later.
<v Speaker 1>Actually we'll see if we get to that one. But
<v Speaker 1>it's it's basically it's like Roadblocks is.
<v Speaker 2>This entirely contained experience where all the games exist inside
<v Speaker 2>of it, and it's almost like a YouTube for video
<v Speaker 2>games where it's just like like it serves up one
<v Speaker 2>after the other and it's extremely popular and it's popular
<v Speaker 2>with an audience that like feels like this is what
<v Speaker 2>video games are.
<v Speaker 1>It's just they're all happy.
<v Speaker 2>In Roadblocks because they're young kids and it's free and
<v Speaker 2>it's everywhere, and it's like that that is where something
<v Speaker 2>like this might make sense a quote unquote metaverse.
<v Speaker 3>But a PlayStation home, if you will.
<v Speaker 2>A PlayStation home right exactly that they had something like this,
<v Speaker 2>and they did, and it's like I think when we
<v Speaker 2>we're hearing about PlayStation Stars, it always felt like, is
<v Speaker 2>this leading up to a new PlayStation Home?
<v Speaker 1>And no, no it wasn't. It was leading up to
<v Speaker 1>them closing it three years later.
<v Speaker 3>Like if I could put my Jim Ryan bobblehead on
<v Speaker 3>my desk in my PlayStation home. Now we're talking. Now
<v Speaker 3>we've got something here.
<v Speaker 2>I would legit be excited about that. I would like
<v Speaker 2>that quite a bit. Well, this is not too surprising.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Do you think like loyalty programs make sense for these
<v Speaker 2>console manufacturers, I legitimately do not know.
<v Speaker 3>I think they're cool if they actually give something of
<v Speaker 3>value and like what players want. But I don't know
<v Speaker 3>if this is what players wanted. It doesn't sound like
<v Speaker 3>it was because it's shutting down, So I think it's
<v Speaker 3>a tricky thing. I think this feels like it was
<v Speaker 3>a brainstorm and then focus tested today and then we
<v Speaker 3>got whatever the version of this was that maybe wasn't
<v Speaker 3>originally what it was. Like, this feels so manufactured in
<v Speaker 3>like a oh, people love PlayStation collectible, so we're going
<v Speaker 3>to make digital versions of them that they can look
<v Speaker 3>at on their PlayStation, like it's an already like a
<v Speaker 3>resident Evil item that you can spin around and write at.
<v Speaker 3>And it just feels like somebody had that idea and
<v Speaker 3>no one really questioned, like, well, then, what what's the
<v Speaker 3>next part of this? And no one asked that question.
<v Speaker 2>And I think they maybe maybe they goofed up by
<v Speaker 2>putting those digital goodies up front and foremost, because there
<v Speaker 2>were people in the shadows standing like, oh, I got
<v Speaker 2>like cash money to spend on video games from from
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation Stars. Not many people are saying that that's a
<v Speaker 2>couple of people, right, I know, but it's like, I don't.
<v Speaker 1>Think that's how most people viewed it.
<v Speaker 2>And that is how most people view something like Microsoft
<v Speaker 2>rewards MS rewards. So it's like, if you use the
<v Speaker 2>Edge browser, you're just naturally accumulating these things, and a
<v Speaker 2>lot of people do that specifically, or they use being
<v Speaker 2>because it gets them the points they need to get
<v Speaker 2>Xbox Xbox Game Pass for free each month each month
<v Speaker 2>because they're getting a bunch of rewards and the exchange
<v Speaker 2>her for that stuff, and they turn it into like
<v Speaker 2>a little metagame of I'm gonna use these things to
<v Speaker 2>see how much I can earn so I can have
<v Speaker 2>that stuff without with not at any cost. It's like
<v Speaker 2>that is the use of MS rewards as opposed to
<v Speaker 2>getting digital goodies, and maybe that's the route.
<v Speaker 1>That Sony probably should have gone here instead.
<v Speaker 3>I think of Nintendo and just like you get the
<v Speaker 3>gold points for buying buying games, and then you just
<v Speaker 3>turn around and give those gold points. You just give
<v Speaker 3>them back to Nintendo for You're like, okay, three dollars
<v Speaker 3>off please, and you're like.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, yep, that was there. They are sun setting gold
<v Speaker 1>points right.
<v Speaker 3>Something like that. I remember a friend going through every
<v Speaker 3>Switch game he had like physical that he never redeemed
<v Speaker 3>the gold points for was outright one night it was like,
<v Speaker 3>all right, I gotta redeem all my points and buy
<v Speaker 3>something before I'd never believe them.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was always it was always fun to be like,
<v Speaker 2>oh my god, I got like enough gold points here
<v Speaker 2>for to buy something that's like forty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>When did I do that?
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, oh yeah, a lot of luckily It's
<v Speaker 2>like even like getting a digital code from Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>Sometimes game came with cool points, so that was a.
<v Speaker 3>Little bit of a sheet there the system, just a
<v Speaker 3>little bit there, just a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't mind it, though. I hope they reintroduced something
<v Speaker 2>like that for the Switch too. I think that is
<v Speaker 2>a good loyalty program, like hey, keep you in the
<v Speaker 2>in the e shop checking stuff out because you have
<v Speaker 2>gold points to spend. It feels like a good feels
<v Speaker 2>like a decent replacement for not being able to resell
<v Speaker 2>your digital games. Right, It's like, at least I'm getting
<v Speaker 2>some a little bit of a discount here when I
<v Speaker 2>buy games going.
<v Speaker 3>Forwards, still getting better deal than one game stop would
<v Speaker 3>give you.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, all right, let's do this. Next one, Lies
<v Speaker 2>of P is getting difficulty options to make the souls
<v Speaker 2>like more accessible. This is from Jordan Midler at VGC.
<v Speaker 2>Lies of p Overture will introduce difficulty options to try
<v Speaker 2>to increase the number of players who can enjoy the game.
<v Speaker 2>Difficulty options and souls likes are rare, with from software's
<v Speaker 2>games featuring no such options. While much of the community
<v Speaker 2>celebrates this and the difficulty of those games is part
<v Speaker 2>of why they have enjoyed such popularity, some players have
<v Speaker 2>argued that a lack of difficulty options prohibits potential players
<v Speaker 2>from enjoying the genre. Now, Liza p Overture developer Neo
<v Speaker 2>Whiz has announced that it will introduce difficulty options in
<v Speaker 2>its upcoming expansion.
<v Speaker 1>Quote.
<v Speaker 2>We wanted to make sure a wider audience of players
<v Speaker 2>could play the game, said game director Jiwan Chao when
<v Speaker 2>asked if this decision was made based on player feedback,
<v Speaker 2>he'd responded, absolutely, we have a lot of feedback from
<v Speaker 2>customers and from our developers, So by making development adjustments
<v Speaker 2>and introducing these difficulty options, we can offer the experience
<v Speaker 2>to different types of players. This broadens the base as usual.
<v Speaker 2>This sparked conversation about difficulty in souls like games. I
<v Speaker 2>think this is like a decent way of doing things,
<v Speaker 2>introducing it long after the original release came out. If
<v Speaker 2>you wanted to play it the way you want, the
<v Speaker 2>way the developer wanted to If you're so horny for that,
<v Speaker 2>well the game's been there for a while.
<v Speaker 1>You could have done that.
<v Speaker 2>You're still going to have that after this, even if
<v Speaker 2>you are going to claim that you that you might
<v Speaker 2>be tempted to turn down the difficulty in certain situations.
<v Speaker 1>I guess I sympathize with that.
<v Speaker 2>Although I'm like, I don't know, grow a spine, just
<v Speaker 2>play the game the way you think you should be
<v Speaker 2>playing it.
<v Speaker 1>Whatever. How do you feel about this overall?
<v Speaker 2>And like and do you have, like any other creative
<v Speaker 2>solution for dealing with making a game more accessible without
<v Speaker 2>necessarily resorting to difficulty options.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think another crab stressure just does it great.
<v Speaker 3>Just give the character a gun. Just give them a
<v Speaker 3>gun and let.
<v Speaker 1>Them shoot it. Put it like it. Put it in
<v Speaker 1>the accessibility options, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, put the gun in the accessibility options. You
<v Speaker 3>hit the button and you just shoot the boss and
<v Speaker 3>they die. And it's as simple as that. It's also
<v Speaker 3>like a good frustration reliever. If you're like really banging
<v Speaker 3>your head against the boss, you just walk up to
<v Speaker 3>them with a gun, shoot them.
<v Speaker 1>You're good to go.
<v Speaker 3>But like, realistically, like I'm not someone who like ascribes
<v Speaker 3>to like you have to play a game a certain way.
<v Speaker 3>Like if the developers put difficulty options in the game,
<v Speaker 3>that's their intended way. They intended for you to decide
<v Speaker 3>yourself how you want to play that game. So if
<v Speaker 3>they're offering options and they're like, hey, you know you
<v Speaker 3>want to you want to experience the story, you want
<v Speaker 3>to live in this world, like you wanna you want
<v Speaker 3>to hang out and maybe you know, become so in
<v Speaker 3>love with our world that you make fan art or
<v Speaker 3>you coseplay or you just find a community to be
<v Speaker 3>long end, like, at the end of the day, what
<v Speaker 3>does it matter, Like, let the people play the game
<v Speaker 3>they want to play. When people are like Okay, you
<v Speaker 3>gotta play it the way it's intended. It's if the
<v Speaker 3>developers say it's intended to choose yourself, then let them
<v Speaker 3>let the people choose themselves.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I have a pretty like i'll call it disrespectful position
<v Speaker 2>on this where I'm like, I actually have I don't
<v Speaker 2>give a shit with the developer intended. I bought the game.
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna play it the way I want. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 2>play on PC. I'll use cheat Engine if I want.
<v Speaker 2>I don't, for front for Souls likes games a lot,
<v Speaker 2>but I reserve the right to use that option. It's
<v Speaker 2>on my computer, it's software. I'm gonna do whatever the
<v Speaker 2>fuck I want to it. And I don't care, Like,
<v Speaker 2>get out of here with what the intended, the intended
<v Speaker 2>the developer, What does that have to do with me?
<v Speaker 1>I didn't. I don't care about that. Uh So that's
<v Speaker 1>my position.
<v Speaker 2>So when they're like, people are like, I think it
<v Speaker 2>should be easier, well, then play on PC and make
<v Speaker 2>it easier. There's ways to do that. You should do
<v Speaker 2>that for sure. And then I get to the point
<v Speaker 2>where it's like, I think developers probably should include accessibility
<v Speaker 2>options similar to another Crab's Treasure, similar to what Doom
<v Speaker 2>just had, where it's like, just turned down the game speed.
<v Speaker 1>Celest where it's like the Celest is a brutal.
<v Speaker 2>Game, and I played it without touching the accessibility options.
<v Speaker 2>But I love that the accessibility options were there, and
<v Speaker 2>I love that they were under accessibility options.
<v Speaker 1>You don't even have to call it difficulty. It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>have to be that.
<v Speaker 2>It could be this other thing where you're just tuning
<v Speaker 2>the game for your own needs as you want. And
<v Speaker 2>I think by putting it in an accessibility it just
<v Speaker 2>tells the player this isn't like an option you're supposed
<v Speaker 2>to engage with. It's there if you need it. Otherwise,
<v Speaker 2>here is the intended experience if that's.
<v Speaker 1>What you really care about.
<v Speaker 2>So I think there's just ways to solve this thing
<v Speaker 2>without having to even enter into that conversation about the
<v Speaker 2>intent of the developer. It can be like this is like,
<v Speaker 2>here's the intended experience, and now play it at fifty
<v Speaker 2>percent speed so that you can have more time time
<v Speaker 2>to hit the buttons if that's something that your body requires.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but let's talk about the other side of this.
<v Speaker 2>Do you think that this does open up something like
<v Speaker 2>lies of phway wider audience of players, Like do you
<v Speaker 2>think this helps with sales?
<v Speaker 3>I don't know. I don't know how it translates directly
<v Speaker 3>to sales, but it absolutely opens it up to a
<v Speaker 3>wider audience because you're giving people more options. I can't
<v Speaker 3>really think of a time where you've given players more
<v Speaker 3>options and it's it's actually narrowed the audience. Like, are
<v Speaker 3>you're going to upset the people that don't want difficulty
<v Speaker 3>options in the game that they probably already played when
<v Speaker 3>it came out two years ago or last year whenever
<v Speaker 3>this game came out, Like they're not gonna They're not
<v Speaker 3>gonna they can't give that copy back, you know, like
<v Speaker 3>they ever off that copy. So basically anything they sell
<v Speaker 3>on top of this now is you know, and if
<v Speaker 3>you played the game and you love the game and
<v Speaker 3>you have very strong feeling about difficulty options, I guarantee
<v Speaker 3>they're still buying the DLC to play the DLC because
<v Speaker 3>they still want to play it, because.
<v Speaker 1>They like the game.
<v Speaker 3>Exact, they can get on their soapbox and yell about, oh,
<v Speaker 3>difficulty options are bad for game zoo play developer intention,
<v Speaker 3>they're gonna turn around to buy the DLC because they
<v Speaker 3>want to play the game.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, yeah, absolutely, And I think, uh, maybe part of
<v Speaker 2>it is I think a lot of these players don't
<v Speaker 2>want to see a higher difficulty, Like what if there's
<v Speaker 2>normal and that's the intended way, Like that's the way
<v Speaker 2>they released it, and now there's gonna be one that's like,
<v Speaker 2>well now it's even.
<v Speaker 1>Harder, and why aren't you planning on that, you coward?
<v Speaker 2>And it's like I, I like, I take being good
<v Speaker 2>at games pretty seriously sometimes as well, I understand it,
<v Speaker 2>Like I get a lot of these like uh.
<v Speaker 1>Like feeling like, oh man, I don't want.
<v Speaker 2>To cheat myself in the game, Like I kind of
<v Speaker 2>sympathize with that a little bit, but I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>get over it.
<v Speaker 1>It's not that big a deal. That's what I do.
<v Speaker 1>I just get over it.
<v Speaker 3>I play the game on whatever the normal difficulty is,
<v Speaker 3>whatever they say baseline is, unless it's like a doom
<v Speaker 3>or something that I'll crack it out normally. And if
<v Speaker 3>I'm really hitting my head against a wall and it's
<v Speaker 3>like I just I want to like see what's past this,
<v Speaker 3>I'll crack it down. I'll beat whatever I'll be and
<v Speaker 3>then I'll just move on. If you know, life's too
<v Speaker 3>short for me to spend eight hours on on boss,
<v Speaker 3>you know I gotta I gotta move on exactly.
<v Speaker 2>All right, Let's take a quick break to hear from
<v Speaker 2>our sponsors, which I'm gonna look check this. Why I
<v Speaker 2>check it my watch to check the sponsors. Oh, it's
<v Speaker 2>giant bomb dot com. Let's check it out right now.
<v Speaker 2>This episode of Giant Bomb is brought to you by
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<v Speaker 1>Welcome back, everybody.
<v Speaker 2>I went to five below yesterday with my kids and
<v Speaker 2>I saw these and I'm like, why need that for work?
<v Speaker 1>And I don't know what I'm gonna do with them? Now,
<v Speaker 1>but uh hi, I'm gonna wave to you. I'm gonna
<v Speaker 1>do a yeah.
<v Speaker 2>We for audio listeners. I have tiny hands. Now, that's
<v Speaker 2>what's happening. All right, let me it's awslowse away. All right,
<v Speaker 2>let's get back to the show. This is Game Mess Mornings.
<v Speaker 2>That's Jesse Vittelli. I'm Jeff Grubb from gianbomb dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Let's continue with the headlines here. Let's hopefully wrap up
<v Speaker 2>this story because we've been talking about it a lot
<v Speaker 2>this week. Borderlands four Boss reacts to price point controversy.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Eddie mcoot game spot. This is another
<v Speaker 2>update from our boy, Randy Pitchford.
<v Speaker 1>Gearbox Boss.
<v Speaker 2>Randy has reacted to the backlash to his comments about
<v Speaker 2>how real fans would find a way to put together
<v Speaker 2>eighty dollars to buy Borderlands for kind of no matter what.
<v Speaker 2>In a post on social media, Pittford said, nobody likes
<v Speaker 2>being taken for granted, and it was not my intent.
<v Speaker 2>He added that he feels humbled by the love and
<v Speaker 2>support that people have shown to the developers as the
<v Speaker 2>team works to get the game finished and in the
<v Speaker 2>player's hands, regardless of where the price lands. He continued,
<v Speaker 2>it's going to be worth it and then some. So
<v Speaker 2>I mean, this just sounds like there was enough of
<v Speaker 2>a backlash here that he did have to actually come
<v Speaker 2>out and address it. He's still kind of sticking to
<v Speaker 2>the story, though a little bit of like we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>make it worth it.
<v Speaker 1>This sounds a lot, a lot better.
<v Speaker 2>Than what he said originally though, where it's like I
<v Speaker 2>bought eighty dollars games when I was a kid, you
<v Speaker 2>should be able to figure it out. I don't care
<v Speaker 2>about the cost of living now. That's irrelevant to me
<v Speaker 2>getting eighty dollars from you. This being like we're doing
<v Speaker 2>everything we can to make it worth whatever price it's
<v Speaker 2>going to be sounds a little bit better.
<v Speaker 1>Boy. Borderlands for it sure does sound.
<v Speaker 2>Like it could be eighty dollars and I don't know
<v Speaker 2>that kind of I don't know that does stink.
<v Speaker 1>How are you feeling about it, Jesse?
<v Speaker 3>It's one of those things where I think every publisher
<v Speaker 3>developer is looking at how they can do the eighty
<v Speaker 3>dollars thing and get as minimal backlash. And I'm sure
<v Speaker 3>that that PR person sat Randy down and was like, hey.
<v Speaker 1>It ain't and bro shutting the flow up A free man.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, I don't know what you're doing, but
<v Speaker 1>just just be quiet.
<v Speaker 3>We're trying to figure this out.
<v Speaker 2>The other person in the video game industry never ever talks.
<v Speaker 2>Why are you talking? Everyone else just shuts the fuck
<v Speaker 2>up constantly? Why are you saying anything? You don't have
<v Speaker 2>to respond to people on social media? But yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 2>I guess do you believe him when he says he
<v Speaker 2>doesn't know what the price is gonna be. I kind
<v Speaker 2>of do, only because I think they might be debating
<v Speaker 2>still whether they can get away with eighty dollars.
<v Speaker 3>I think everything in the economy is so influx right
<v Speaker 3>now that I do. I do believe it because I,
<v Speaker 3>like you said, I think everyone is trying to figure out.
<v Speaker 3>They are trying to figure out like what they can
<v Speaker 3>one what they can get away with, and two like
<v Speaker 3>how much all of this is going to cost, just
<v Speaker 3>in general. And so I think everyone's looking at this
<v Speaker 3>and being like, well, Mario Mario Kart's eighty dollars now,
<v Speaker 3>like they they did it, like they broke the damn
<v Speaker 3>can we can now follow follow suit? And so I
<v Speaker 3>think everyone's just kind of scrambling right now. So it's
<v Speaker 3>a weird moment and Borderlands being Borderlands, like, if they're
<v Speaker 3>going to try it with a franchise, like this is
<v Speaker 3>one of the franchises to try it with because it's
<v Speaker 3>it's I'm skeptical to say too big to fail because
<v Speaker 3>I don't think that's true, but it is. It is
<v Speaker 3>big enough that people are still gonna buy it regardless.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's the got that audience of people that
<v Speaker 2>just show up for Borderlands games no matter what.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And I think that's the game that they try
<v Speaker 3>it with.
<v Speaker 2>I also think it's like it feels like it could
<v Speaker 2>be a part of this step up strategy of well,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, look at Mafia. They announced it's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>fifty dollars. I think part of that is apparently it's
<v Speaker 2>linear as supposed to open world. I didn't realize that,
<v Speaker 2>and it' say okay, So that's them kind of just saying,
<v Speaker 2>don't don't get all hung up on that. We're gonna
<v Speaker 2>charge a little bit less and try to make it
<v Speaker 2>feel fair. I'm like, okay, well then, but I think
<v Speaker 2>that at the same time they're like, okay, but we're
<v Speaker 2>gonna be dynamic. Borderlands four is even bigger, so that's
<v Speaker 2>gonna be eighty dollars. And then if Borderlands four is
<v Speaker 2>eighty dollars, what do you all think we should charge
<v Speaker 2>for Grand.
<v Speaker 1>Theft Auto six?
<v Speaker 2>And it's like it feels like this is part of
<v Speaker 2>that where if Borderlands four is eighty, then they definitely
<v Speaker 2>can get away with charging even more for Grand Theft
<v Speaker 2>Auto six because mathematics, you just do the go to
<v Speaker 2>the wall Grand Theft autos greater than Borderlands for like,
<v Speaker 2>they're just gonna be It's gonna be that simple for.
<v Speaker 1>Them, right, variable.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's where that seems to be the thing. The
<v Speaker 2>way the industry is headed. I think this variable dynamic
<v Speaker 2>pricing is challenging, uh for the industry because well, it's
<v Speaker 2>a very savvy audience and uh, it's also an audience
<v Speaker 2>that really likes chasing after deals.
<v Speaker 1>I think that's most audiences.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, definitely, gaming's definitely that way, and there's something
<v Speaker 2>that like clicks where it's like, wait, are are you
<v Speaker 2>gaming me the way I feel like I was previously
<v Speaker 2>gaming you to like get those games for as cheap
<v Speaker 2>as possible. And if people start to feel that way,
<v Speaker 2>I think it could turn off some of those like
<v Speaker 2>very serious deal hunters of like, are you pricing these
<v Speaker 2>games against like all this data that you have about us,
<v Speaker 2>And that could feel pretty bad. Now, the reality is
<v Speaker 2>there's probably still gonna be a lot of opportunities to
<v Speaker 2>get these games at discount of rates, maybe more in
<v Speaker 2>a variable pricing situation, So uh, maybe that won't be
<v Speaker 2>a problem, but that you know, it's going to be
<v Speaker 2>difficult to pull this off without hurting some butts because
<v Speaker 2>of the savviness of this audience.
<v Speaker 3>I think we're we're once again in this this weird
<v Speaker 3>spot where it's like, okay, games are jumping to seventy
<v Speaker 3>dollars and everyone kind of like was like, eh, it's
<v Speaker 3>a new console generation, maybe we can maybe Now it's
<v Speaker 3>like we're jumping to eighty dollars and then now we're
<v Speaker 3>bringing back all the ten dollars upgrade paths for the
<v Speaker 3>switch to and like it's just a really weird time
<v Speaker 3>where prices are kind of fluctuating NonStop and everyone's trying
<v Speaker 3>to see how much they can squeeze out of the
<v Speaker 3>consumer before the damn like before the you know, the
<v Speaker 3>it breaks. And so I don't know, I think we're
<v Speaker 3>gonna see a lot of this experimentation over the next
<v Speaker 3>like year or so of just like what can we
<v Speaker 3>get away with? What are where? Where's the limit? Where
<v Speaker 3>does that those two lines cross on the graph? Where
<v Speaker 3>it's the audience is like no longer with us?
<v Speaker 2>Us speaking of the audience, no longer being with us.
<v Speaker 2>Bungee Bosses pitched Destiny to subscription before it was veheminently
<v Speaker 2>shot down by devs. It's claimed this is from Jordan
<v Speaker 2>Miller at VGC. Bungie Bosses reportedly pitched a subscription model
<v Speaker 2>for Destiny too before it was vehemently shot down. That's
<v Speaker 2>according to a new video detailing the troubles faced by
<v Speaker 2>the Marathon and Destiny Studio. Bungie, which is owned by
<v Speaker 2>Sony and is currently developing the Extraction shooter Marathon, has
<v Speaker 2>been in the firing line recently after a prominent controversy
<v Speaker 2>earlier this month, Scottish artist fern Anti real Hook accused
<v Speaker 2>Bungie of taking assets from her previous work and using
<v Speaker 2>it in the alpha for Marathon. Bungee acknowledged it did
<v Speaker 2>do that and said it's going to try to appropriately
<v Speaker 2>deal with it and then do a full sort of
<v Speaker 2>analysis of its art and see if you could fix
<v Speaker 2>that either way. The vibes have been bad around Marathon
<v Speaker 2>no matter what Bungie leadership trying to say, Hey, let's
<v Speaker 2>go with a subscription model for Destiny too, after years
<v Speaker 2>of charging people for the games and then the expansions,
<v Speaker 2>so you've already likely spent hundreds of dollars on the
<v Speaker 2>game to feel like you own it, then to shift
<v Speaker 2>it to a subscription model, which apparently was going to
<v Speaker 2>be like a subscription to access the video game, not
<v Speaker 2>on top of the game, not like something like Fortnite.
<v Speaker 2>What it was like whatever Fortnite's monthly think, Yeah, Fortnite.
<v Speaker 3>Skins and the battle pass and like cause cosmetics and
<v Speaker 3>other nonsense, like you so play Fortnite.
<v Speaker 2>Without it exactly, It wasn't necessarily gonna be like that.
<v Speaker 1>That. Yeah, that does seem like a really bad idea.
<v Speaker 1>What do you think?
<v Speaker 3>Destiny has had some of the worst pricing structures I
<v Speaker 3>think I've ever seen in a video game, where it
<v Speaker 3>just it fluctuates. It went from sixty dollars box game
<v Speaker 3>to two expansions a year, which is what we were
<v Speaker 3>pretty used to at the time. Then it moved over
<v Speaker 3>to yearly expansions, then it moved over to you got
<v Speaker 3>to basically pay one hundred dollars a year to get
<v Speaker 3>like the big expansion and the four seasons, like battle
<v Speaker 3>passes and the dungeon keys to access like the additional
<v Speaker 3>dungeons in the game. And like they just started to
<v Speaker 3>like Nickel and Dime when they went free to play
<v Speaker 3>in a way that's like not too far away for
<v Speaker 3>most free to play style games, where it's like you
<v Speaker 3>gotta pay for the content, but like you know, whatever,
<v Speaker 3>the characters or whatever. And now it's like, oh, we've
<v Speaker 3>kind of shifted away from that with all this new
<v Speaker 3>stuff that they announced and they're figuring out different ways
<v Speaker 3>to do it. And now they're like, oh, but we
<v Speaker 3>were thinking about like a maybe a ten to fifteen
<v Speaker 3>dollars a month of subscription. I don't know if they
<v Speaker 3>mentioned what the price was, but like that's generally what
<v Speaker 3>a subscription costs these days, somewhere between ten to twenty dollars.
<v Speaker 1>John bomb dot coms, let's join you.
<v Speaker 3>There we go.
<v Speaker 1>That's a good subscription.
<v Speaker 3>You got a lot of bang for your buck, that's right,
<v Speaker 3>and you can still play Destiny.
<v Speaker 1>That's right. Yeah, we are not going to stop you
<v Speaker 1>from playing Destiny But yeah.
<v Speaker 3>It's just a weird thing. Like they've always had some
<v Speaker 3>weird pricing structure stuff, and now it doesn't surprise me
<v Speaker 3>to hear that they had considered this at one point.
<v Speaker 3>It's just weird.
<v Speaker 2>It's weird, and uh, I don't know, you know, I
<v Speaker 2>guess I don't know the exact timeline on this, but
<v Speaker 2>whatever Bungee in this moment clearly in a weird is
<v Speaker 2>not even the word. They're in a precarious spot. It's
<v Speaker 2>like feels more, it feels very dangerous. So it's like
<v Speaker 2>worse than precarious. It's future hinges on Destiny To making
<v Speaker 2>enough money in whatever model it takes, uh and then
<v Speaker 2>uh marathon like being one of the best selling games
<v Speaker 2>of the year.
<v Speaker 1>I got that report has come out recently.
<v Speaker 2>What I've heard is basically the game just has to
<v Speaker 2>be a blockbuster hit and Destiny To needs to continue
<v Speaker 2>making a ton of money for Bunchie to kind of
<v Speaker 2>continue operating the way it has been, which is this
<v Speaker 2>sort of siloed independent entity owned by Sony and separate
<v Speaker 2>from PlayStation studios in Sony Interactive Entertainment.
<v Speaker 1>That seems like it's.
<v Speaker 2>Not gonna not gonna be long for this world that
<v Speaker 2>way of doing things. They're gonna fold this thing into PlayStation, right.
<v Speaker 2>It seems like that's the only other recourse here.
<v Speaker 3>I think that is the unfortunate part of this is
<v Speaker 3>is like we might just see it get completely geting
<v Speaker 3>up by PlayStation, which like based on like all the
<v Speaker 3>leadership stuff that I've I've heard, right, like maybe maybe
<v Speaker 3>for the best, I don't I don't know, I don't
<v Speaker 3>want to lie.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm with you.
<v Speaker 2>Now it's like, then that's like the thing where it's
<v Speaker 2>like when we were first talking about Sony acquiring them,
<v Speaker 2>it's like, Okay, hopefully they could still just be Bungie,
<v Speaker 2>And now all the stories we've heard, it's like, I
<v Speaker 2>don't think Bunchies should still be Bungie.
<v Speaker 1>Someone should do something about this. So yeah, I'm with you.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I never want more consolidation, but I do want
<v Speaker 3>better leadership at that studio to treat the people correctly
<v Speaker 3>and let the games be what they need to be.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, and hopefully you know, when consolidation happens. One of
<v Speaker 2>my hopes is that all of the very talented people
<v Speaker 2>who actually make studios like that go around had some
<v Speaker 2>stock and they could invest that stock, get paid, have
<v Speaker 2>a cushion, and they go out there and start their
<v Speaker 2>own studios, like you know, fifty different people over at
<v Speaker 2>respawn have done, and then that's like that's and that's
<v Speaker 2>for like ten different studios. So that's that's the hope here. That. Yeah, sure,
<v Speaker 2>maybe Bungie is sort of at the end of its
<v Speaker 2>relevancy in regards to to you know, making games that
<v Speaker 2>feel like they're at the top of the industry. But
<v Speaker 2>maybe the people who actually empowered that and enabled that
<v Speaker 2>in the first place will continue that it's something new.
<v Speaker 1>We'll see.
<v Speaker 2>This is one of the most popular games on the
<v Speaker 2>planet right now. Is a headline from Zach Swizen over
<v Speaker 2>at Kutaku, and of course he's talking about Grow a
<v Speaker 2>Garden inside of Roadblocks. Okay, I want you to guess,
<v Speaker 2>if you haven't looked at the story yet, I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if you have, Jesse, how many concurrent active players
<v Speaker 2>did it hit at its peak for Grow a Garden
<v Speaker 2>inside of Rodblocks.
<v Speaker 3>Since this is a news story, I'm gonna say at
<v Speaker 3>least a million, right right, Okay, don't I don't know
<v Speaker 3>any I don't know anything past that, but I would
<v Speaker 3>say at least a mill.
<v Speaker 2>It's more than that. It's more than a million. It's
<v Speaker 2>more than two million, it's more than four million. It's
<v Speaker 2>five million active players at one point it had, which
<v Speaker 2>is more than like counter Strike two in Marvel Rivals
<v Speaker 2>on Steam. I think combined like it's it is nuts.
<v Speaker 2>And I mean I think that just like speaks to
<v Speaker 2>are are disconnected, like how Roadblocks operates, it is like
<v Speaker 2>YouTube for kids, where it's like it's just everywhere, and
<v Speaker 2>you just go to Roadblocks the way that kids go
<v Speaker 2>to YouTube and you pick a game and like they're
<v Speaker 2>they are. They're even presented like YouTube videos, and you
<v Speaker 2>load them up and they load up super fast, and
<v Speaker 2>there's a ton of them, and it says how many
<v Speaker 2>people are playing, So the most popular ones rise to
<v Speaker 2>the top, and then the kids go check that out
<v Speaker 2>and it's and then they go from playing it on
<v Speaker 2>their on their Xbox to playing it on their phone
<v Speaker 2>and it's the exact same thing, and so it just
<v Speaker 2>feels ubiquitous and so and and it's free and it's everywhere.
<v Speaker 2>So I just think that those factors are the biggest
<v Speaker 2>things here.
<v Speaker 1>Still though, five million aut like a lot.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Surveoy's like okay compared to YouTube, but a video
<v Speaker 2>getting five million views is massive, uh, when especially because
<v Speaker 2>a lot of these things are created by the community.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like, yeah, some random YouTube are getting five
<v Speaker 2>million views, that's a lot.
<v Speaker 1>That's pretty rare. Uh.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, you know, not five million views, five
<v Speaker 2>million people playing the game at the exact same time.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, that's that's wild.
<v Speaker 2>Do you think this says anything about the wider video
<v Speaker 2>game industry or certain trends or anything like that.
<v Speaker 3>I think this should. I feel like we hear stories
<v Speaker 3>about roadblocks every now and then, you know, like they
<v Speaker 3>break into like ursphere, like the slightly older crowd. I
<v Speaker 3>think people like truly underestimate how powerful of a tool
<v Speaker 3>roadblocks is for children, like in terms of what is
<v Speaker 3>consuming their time. Yep, Like roadblocks like I used to
<v Speaker 3>do as a series when I was at Prima, where
<v Speaker 3>I would go and visit the like brand activations inside Walmarts.
<v Speaker 3>So I went to like the Walmart Land, and I
<v Speaker 3>went to like Dave and Buster's roadblocks, and like these
<v Speaker 3>these bigger brands are making things in roadblocks because in
<v Speaker 3>hopes of like getting children or a younger audience to
<v Speaker 3>go and like be like, oh, Walmart, like in Roadblocks,
<v Speaker 3>and then they want to go to Walmart. Like it's
<v Speaker 3>it's so powerful. It's so what's the word I'm looking for?
<v Speaker 3>Just like influential in children? And so when you have
<v Speaker 3>a and all the games look bad.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Like they like the way they look bad, but
<v Speaker 2>they look they look terrible.
<v Speaker 3>Right, And that's the thing is like they look bad
<v Speaker 3>in like a kind of charming way sometimes, And so
<v Speaker 3>like grow grow a Garden is like the it's like
<v Speaker 3>a farming game.
<v Speaker 1>It's like that simple starting value you can imagine.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, But then I think about like when I was
<v Speaker 3>in high school, I was playing Farmville on Facebook, and
<v Speaker 3>like that was the biggest thing and obviously number wise
<v Speaker 3>probably nowhere near this, but like we all have games
<v Speaker 3>huge for its time, and I think, like we just
<v Speaker 3>have a bigger audience now, Like kids have access to
<v Speaker 3>iPads and phones and switch and computer and whatever, and
<v Speaker 3>so it's like more people just have access to this thing,
<v Speaker 3>and by the by nature of just being able to
<v Speaker 3>be played on a bunch of different things and very
<v Speaker 3>low demand on most consoles or PCs or whatever, like
<v Speaker 3>Roadblocks can just do what it wants and kids are
<v Speaker 3>going to be like, oh, Roadblocks, and then you have
<v Speaker 3>to be like, please don't charge a million dollars to
<v Speaker 3>my credit card, right exactly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Influential was right, and its ability to sort of
<v Speaker 2>make stars out of certain games has been of the
<v Speaker 2>games that exist on the Roadblocks platform probably shouldn't be understated.
<v Speaker 2>There have been several several Roadblocks crossovers with McDonald's Happy Meals,
<v Speaker 2>but they never say the word Roadblocks. It's always one
<v Speaker 2>of the games inside of Roadblocks, like the Raise me
<v Speaker 2>or whatever it is, the game where you get an
<v Speaker 2>egg and you raising.
<v Speaker 1>An animal or something like that. I don't really know
<v Speaker 1>how it works.
<v Speaker 3>You can tell them whatever you could make up.
<v Speaker 1>I'd be like, yeah, sure, and it's honestly, it's probably real.
<v Speaker 1>There are so many of them.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, you know, Roadblock says, you know, it's kind
<v Speaker 2>of a shady business where, you know, I think the
<v Speaker 2>comparison point is like, compare this to Steam. Right, There's
<v Speaker 2>been a lot of criticism for Steam over the years
<v Speaker 2>of it charging thirty percent.
<v Speaker 1>Of sales for what it does.
<v Speaker 2>If you talk to some old head developers though, like
<v Speaker 2>there's a GDC talk I think by Jeff ll Goal
<v Speaker 2>I think is his name. He's been making games for
<v Speaker 2>a long time. He kind of just makes takes his
<v Speaker 2>assets and remakes some games or not doesn't remake it,
<v Speaker 2>but he reuses his assets a lot and tells new
<v Speaker 2>stories with his games.
<v Speaker 1>He kind of just been doing that that way for forever.
<v Speaker 2>He used to be one of these guys that sold
<v Speaker 2>games by putting in a disc in a baggie and
<v Speaker 2>shipping it to people. And he's like, I've done all
<v Speaker 2>of the like the support myself. I've done the business
<v Speaker 2>model where I shipped everything myself and had to get
<v Speaker 2>like just did everything. Steam's thirty percent cut is low,
<v Speaker 2>like compared to like the cost that I had previously.
<v Speaker 2>So when you talk to old heads they see it
<v Speaker 2>that way, but younger developers and this is the right
<v Speaker 2>and rightfully so in many ways, or like this just
<v Speaker 2>feels like a huge fee on all the work I'm doing,
<v Speaker 2>because at the end of the day, it is rent.
<v Speaker 2>It is them charging rent for you to access the
<v Speaker 2>audience that Steam has.
<v Speaker 1>That's what it is. But when you.
<v Speaker 2>Compare that to roadblocks where it's like they are taking
<v Speaker 2>like sixty percent or more of the of the labor
<v Speaker 2>of children that it's like, oh, this is the dark
<v Speaker 2>side of what we could have had, like or what
<v Speaker 2>we do have. Clearly, this is something that is happening,
<v Speaker 2>and it just looks so grim compared to that. And
<v Speaker 2>I do think that there's a chance that that sort
<v Speaker 2>of platform is what wins out over the next thirty
<v Speaker 2>or forty years because that, like we hear the way
<v Speaker 2>some of these companies talk, and they were talking this
<v Speaker 2>way much more a few years ago about their metaverses,
<v Speaker 2>and I think Epic Games continues to try to push this.
<v Speaker 2>We're like, here's Epic Games in fortnite. Ye, maybe that
<v Speaker 2>didn't really work, but now we're going to bring a
<v Speaker 2>bunch of Disney stuff into Fortnite. We're going to try
<v Speaker 2>to expand it that way, and we're still going to
<v Speaker 2>try to get the community to make stuff. And Grand
<v Speaker 2>Theft Auto six right, they purchased the stuff to a
<v Speaker 2>bunch of user generated content tools, They purchased all of
<v Speaker 2>the role playing stuff. They want that stuff to just
<v Speaker 2>live inside of their platform so that people can make
<v Speaker 2>stuff and they can be the roadblocks.
<v Speaker 1>For adults or something like that.
<v Speaker 2>It feels like we're headed in that direction, and if
<v Speaker 2>that's the case, I think we're going to be longing
<v Speaker 2>for the days that Steam was this uh sort of
<v Speaker 2>bastion of Sure, they're taking a lot of your money,
<v Speaker 2>but it's nowhere near what Rockstar or Roadblocks are taking.
<v Speaker 2>Do you think, I'm am I like the you know,
<v Speaker 2>the sky is falling here.
<v Speaker 1>No.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's it's fair because I think we're in
<v Speaker 3>such a sumultuous time in this space that like you
<v Speaker 3>look at a platform like Roadblocks and like how it's
<v Speaker 3>increasingly just doing wild numbers all the time and the
<v Speaker 3>dark side of it, and like what their percentage take is,
<v Speaker 3>and like how they are just profiting off children's labor,
<v Speaker 3>Like like there's some really dark things there, but it's
<v Speaker 3>people don't seem to to care. They're large audience, their
<v Speaker 3>children are like, no, I'm just making a game in
<v Speaker 3>robots or I'm just doing like and and so there's
<v Speaker 3>no one to really push back on that, and so
<v Speaker 3>if it keeps putting up the numbers, it puts up
<v Speaker 3>like eventually the industry can't like ignore that and has
<v Speaker 3>to like be like, oh, like maybe maybe I should
<v Speaker 3>make my game in Roadblocks. Maybe I should do this maybe,
<v Speaker 3>and then next thing, you know, is like, that's just
<v Speaker 3>the platform, that's just where everybody is. That's where the
<v Speaker 3>brands are, that's where the people are, that's where the
<v Speaker 3>developers are, and you know, it's I could see a
<v Speaker 3>future where that happens. I hope that's not true, but.
<v Speaker 1>I can see it. Yep. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I just I don't want to be in a world
<v Speaker 2>where a kid gets out of full sale university or
<v Speaker 2>whatever the kids are going through these days and it's like, well,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I got to go to work making games
<v Speaker 2>for roadblocks. I want people to just be able to
<v Speaker 2>make their own shit and have a chance to succeed.
<v Speaker 2>And that works right now to a certain degree, not certainly,
<v Speaker 2>not for most people. But it feels less and less
<v Speaker 2>likely each day that that's going to be viable, and
<v Speaker 2>it feels more and more likely that one of these
<v Speaker 2>platforms is going to capture most of that energy and
<v Speaker 2>put themselves between you and the customer and take a
<v Speaker 2>lot of your money via rents.
<v Speaker 1>And that's just maybe regulation. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I'm just going to wave vaguely in the over towards
<v Speaker 2>Europe and be like, please Europe, you figure it out
<v Speaker 2>and fix this. All right, a couple more stories here,
<v Speaker 2>Let's get these pretty quick. Game chat requires a phone
<v Speaker 2>number link to your Nintendo account. This is pretty standard,
<v Speaker 2>right for first like online platforms that might have a
<v Speaker 2>lot of children on there, right, But you don't have
<v Speaker 2>to do this for Xbox Live or PlayStation. I'm trying
<v Speaker 2>to remember.
<v Speaker 3>This reminds me of when Overwatch do try to do
<v Speaker 3>this with their their like security system, and then a
<v Speaker 3>lot of players from around the world being able to
<v Speaker 3>access the game because they don't have like a typical
<v Speaker 3>SMS number. They either have like a prepaid phone or
<v Speaker 3>like something, so it.
<v Speaker 1>Like block voice number. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it blocked like a bunch of people in other
<v Speaker 3>countries from being able to play the game. So I'm
<v Speaker 3>curious to see if they have a solution to that.
<v Speaker 1>Huh.
<v Speaker 3>I just remember that being a big deal with Overwatch
<v Speaker 3>two a couple of years ago.
<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna guess Nintendo doesn't have a solution to that.
<v Speaker 2>It's Nintendo, right, We'll see. I think that's strange, but
<v Speaker 2>let's find out how that goes. You know, for me,
<v Speaker 2>it's like I have a phone number, all right, But
<v Speaker 2>you're right as soon as that the like day one,
<v Speaker 2>when people are encountering this and they do start having issues,
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna be like, oh, here's a million things I
<v Speaker 2>didn't think about, and this is gonna be a problem.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's hit this last story here. Nintendo considered
<v Speaker 2>lowing resolution and frame rate for Mario Kart World before
<v Speaker 2>changing development to Switch Too. So it was originally gonna
<v Speaker 2>be a Switch one game. This is from west Lee. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm glad it's not as well. Apparently what happened was
<v Speaker 2>they just kept develop developing it, and they're like they
<v Speaker 2>were kind of being stubborn because they're like, wait, we'll
<v Speaker 2>make this a Switch one game. And they're like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 2>but if we're gonna make a Switch one game, we
<v Speaker 2>either have to lower the resolution or lower the frame
<v Speaker 2>rate and make it like thirty frames per second, which
<v Speaker 2>would have sucked for a Mario Kart game. And they
<v Speaker 2>kind of kept refusing to do either one of those
<v Speaker 2>or like, I guess we'll just see what we have
<v Speaker 2>to do at the end, and it got to a
<v Speaker 2>point where they're like, well, now the Switch Too is viable,
<v Speaker 2>like maybe we should just save this for the Switch Too.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, oh, thank goodness, Mario Kart World as
<v Speaker 2>a switch to launch game.
<v Speaker 1>I am.
<v Speaker 2>I'm surprised at how excited I excited I am about
<v Speaker 2>that Specifically, I didn't. I like Mario Kart a ton,
<v Speaker 2>but I never think about it as like this big
<v Speaker 2>thing I need to have right away, and in this case,
<v Speaker 2>that is how I feel.
<v Speaker 1>How are you kind of feeling about that?
<v Speaker 3>Entirely? I'm so excited for a few reasons at all
<v Speaker 3>this quickly. One, I definitely did see a UFO in
<v Speaker 3>my preview. I know people don't believe me, but I
<v Speaker 3>absolutely stuff, and they've refuse to show it at any
<v Speaker 3>of the footage.
<v Speaker 1>They just sound so insane at rules.
<v Speaker 3>I did do that too. I'm incredibly excited for Mario Kart.
<v Speaker 3>I think like adding like wall riding and like all
<v Speaker 3>of that stuff working together, like it feels good. I've
<v Speaker 3>played it like, I think that that is a great
<v Speaker 3>idea for that game. The rosters is crazy. And also
<v Speaker 3>I cannot wait then when we're all in LA and
<v Speaker 3>we just got like forty people deep plans Mario Kart
<v Speaker 3>two mark Out World on the switch to just doing
<v Speaker 3>like a twenty four person knockout tour, like.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I need that GB at night.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, while I'm trying to I'm running a show and
<v Speaker 2>I hear all you guys screaming over there. I want
<v Speaker 2>to hear that, all right. I want to hear that
<v Speaker 2>on the show. I'm looking forward to it, all right.
<v Speaker 2>Poll question, let's get over to that.
<v Speaker 1>Let's see here I have that on this window.
<v Speaker 2>I will catch you all up on what we talked
<v Speaker 2>about yesterday. One day ago, I asked, will will you
<v Speaker 2>get Borderlands four at launch? If it's eighty dollars? Eighty
<v Speaker 2>dollars be in a theme this week? And I did
<v Speaker 2>refresh four thousand votes. Ninety four percent of people said no,
<v Speaker 2>six percent said yes. Obviously, I think that's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people going and trying to make a stance or
<v Speaker 2>you know, take a stand and be like, we don't
<v Speaker 2>want to say yes because we don't want to encourage
<v Speaker 2>them just say. I don't know if you've heard this
<v Speaker 2>the day before or on Monday, I asked, do you
<v Speaker 2>think a game can be worth eighty dollars? And sixty
<v Speaker 2>nine percent of people said yes and thirty one percent
<v Speaker 2>thirty one percent of people said no, So they will
<v Speaker 2>spend eighty dollars on a game just out if it's Borderlands.
<v Speaker 2>For part of that's going to be this audience being
<v Speaker 2>like kind of I've played a lot of border Lands games.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not super excited the audience that just shows up
<v Speaker 2>for Borderlands games probably not answering this poll, right, that's.
<v Speaker 3>What That's what I was about to ask. How many
<v Speaker 3>of those people were going to buy Borderlands for regardless
<v Speaker 3>of the price.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and we don't. We don't have that.
<v Speaker 2>That's a good point. I do can kind of feel
<v Speaker 2>like I'm in the mood for Borderlands. I've not played
<v Speaker 2>one since the first one, so we'll see. This is
<v Speaker 2>not confirmed to be eighty dollars yet. Maybe we've scared
<v Speaker 2>them off with all this reaction, although I'm skeptical same.
<v Speaker 3>But I like to believe.
<v Speaker 1>I liked exactly.
<v Speaker 2>It's fun to think about us not having to pay
<v Speaker 2>as much money as we're probably gonna.
<v Speaker 1>Have to pay. New Pole question. We'll get to here
<v Speaker 1>in a second.
<v Speaker 2>Before we do that, though, Jesse Ftelli, why don't you
<v Speaker 2>tell people where they can find you on the internet,
<v Speaker 2>what you have going on and all of that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I'm gonna do it quick cause I got a
<v Speaker 3>lot of stuff going on. Okay, you can follow me
<v Speaker 3>on lue Sky and TikTok. Those are the two places
<v Speaker 3>you can primarily find me these days. It's at Mama
<v Speaker 3>Vitelli and at Jesse Vitelli. If you type my name
<v Speaker 3>into either, you'll find me. Don't worry about it. I
<v Speaker 3>have a newsletter. It's called send News. It comes up
<v Speaker 3>about once a week. It's about games, but it's also
<v Speaker 3>not about games. It's about my life. It's about I
<v Speaker 3>get music recommendations, I do video I talk about games
<v Speaker 3>that I'm playing. I just talk about life stuff, you know,
<v Speaker 3>a different topic every week. This week's newsletter, I'll give
<v Speaker 3>you a little hint. I'm doing the Nintendo Switch through
<v Speaker 3>the Years. I'm talking about each year of my life
<v Speaker 3>over the course of the last eight years, from twenty
<v Speaker 3>seventeen to twenty twenty five, so you can find that.
<v Speaker 3>I run the thesocial media for restart dot Rum, which
<v Speaker 3>is another game and website. If you want to go
<v Speaker 3>there check them out, that's cool, or you just go
<v Speaker 3>follow the accounts on the internet because that helps me
<v Speaker 3>keep my job. So yeah, that's what that's that's my spiel.
<v Speaker 2>Hell yeah, Mama Fatelli everywhere. Be sure you follow that
<v Speaker 2>the mama, what's the character at Gooney's name that you're
<v Speaker 2>that you're playing on there, Mama Fertelly.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Which is funny because when I made it, I
<v Speaker 3>wasn't thinking that, and then like retroactively, it fit because
<v Speaker 3>it was like a nickname that somebody else had given me,
<v Speaker 3>and I think that was their intention, and then I
<v Speaker 3>took it, and then I didn't even like put two
<v Speaker 3>and two together until like years later.
<v Speaker 2>I did that as a kid where someone said the
<v Speaker 2>word job a bunch and I'm like, I like the
<v Speaker 2>way that sounds, and I had not seen lawnmower man yet,
<v Speaker 2>which is what they were referencing, and so I had
<v Speaker 2>already made it my name on AOL. I guess I'm
<v Speaker 2>the lawnmower man guy. Now, all right, all right, new
<v Speaker 2>poll question. Did you ever use PlayStation Stars?
<v Speaker 1>Yes?
<v Speaker 3>No?
<v Speaker 2>And what the hell is that? I am looking forward
<v Speaker 2>to the results of that one. We'll talk about it
<v Speaker 2>on Game Mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking
<v Speaker 2>of Bomb, later today, we'll have the voicemail dump Truck.
<v Speaker 2>There should be a couple of more quick looks getting
<v Speaker 2>recorded this week if we have time, although SGF planning
<v Speaker 2>is kind of encroaching on everything, so sorry about that
<v Speaker 2>if you missed it.
<v Speaker 1>Though. Blake Club yesterday was a delight.
<v Speaker 2>Mike made a save mistake and it's very hard to
<v Speaker 2>It's very hard to notice. So there's a short on
<v Speaker 2>the giant bomb on the YouTube. It kind of goes
<v Speaker 2>over what happened there that Chuck Towski made, but he
<v Speaker 2>made it. Go ahead and watch that Blake Club and
<v Speaker 2>see if you could spot and if you don't, watch
<v Speaker 2>that video afterward.
<v Speaker 1>Uh.
<v Speaker 2>And then we also had what else, jan what else
<v Speaker 2>did we have yesterday? Going up on my blanket?
<v Speaker 1>Themo Derby demo Derby.
<v Speaker 2>That's right, watch the demo Derby everybody but everybody. It
<v Speaker 2>was a really good time. Looking forward to doing a
<v Speaker 2>lot more of those going forward. All right, Uh, of
<v Speaker 2>course regular stuff on Friday UPF We're gonna do that
<v Speaker 2>Mister Mosquito multiplayer game that Dan's very excited about.
<v Speaker 1>I'm looking forward to it myself. All right, let's let's
<v Speaker 1>get out of here.
<v Speaker 2>Jesse Vitelli, thank you so much for hanging out with
<v Speaker 2>me today and talking about video games.
<v Speaker 1>Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, thanks for having me. It's always a blast. I
<v Speaker 3>love hanging out with you.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you all for watching and listening. You are the
<v Speaker 2>best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one,
<v Speaker 2>take care of yourself and goodbye you.
<v Speaker 1>Don't be don't be bad.