Unicorn Overlord Review Round Up

Go'll be bad. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this from
March eighth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let
me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Morning's Live with
me Jeff Greb. Today, Unicorn Overlord reviews are in and they're very good.
And why shouldn't Halo go to PlayStation? But first please join me in
Welcome you today's co host of Game Mess Mornings. It's Lucy James. Everybody,
Lucy, how are you doing? Oh? I'm swell. I was
sick last week, but it was the lingering sickness where nothing was coming out,
and unfortunately for you all at home today, everything is coming out of
my nose. Yeah, and I guess I sound like this now. Yeah,
I'm going to meet every time I blow my nose. Everyone's getting sick.
Everyone's getting sick. Yeah. I'm like, Okay, I thought I
would just keep putting off going to the doctor. I think I think it
is in your infection and I think it's just gonna stay there until I go
get some antibodys. So I'm really gonna have to go to urgent care this
weekend and actually do something about it, so I'll do it tomorrow. I'd
like. I started feeling better, and then of course, uh, Mike
came back from Universal and he wasn't he was sick, and I made fun
of him, and then I immediately by like an hour later, started feeling
bad again. So karma is real and it's com for me. May that
is yep. Well you couldn't even write that, and Lucy will I learned
my lesson? Of course not, of course I won't. No, you
should. You should go take care of yourself. I'm I'm just gonna spend
this weekend. I finally finished Final five seven. It's on my life and
I'm gonna spend this weekend do a little bit of cleaning. Tonight's rat night,
though. You know about rat night? Listen, I know, I
thought it was International Women's Day. What is rat night? Why are you
mixing these things up? Don't confuse me. I'm just a simple man.
Rat Night is every Friday for me, okay, So rat night okay.
So raight night is different to goblin mode. Goblin mode is like an extended
period of being, you know, like a little goblin. Rat Night is
one night a week. I don't talk to anyone I put on my most
disgusting sweatpants. Makeup is off, but I don't shower. I got a
bottle of wine, a frozen pizza and like eish some trash TV or a
video game and I get to play that like and watch that. No guilt,
no guilt, And that is right night. Right night is about being
your best rat self. And for me it's Fridays. I want right now.
Unfortunately do it. And then unfortunately the rat night has to be followed
by chor Saturday, sure of course, and then and and you get calming
Sunday. Okay, all right, that sounds that sounds like a game plan.
I have talked a lot this week, Like you know, we do
a lot of shows. We do a lot of stuff, but doing your
meetings a little a few extra meetings, a few extra shows, slightly longer
streams, things like that, I did an extra you did a friends podcast,
just fit a bunch more in this week, and I was like last
them, like, man, I cannot wait to not talk to anybody anymore
for like six hours. That looks good. So Friday night rat night,
once I get the kids done by m that sounds pretty Friday Night rat night,
and yet Goblin Mode, and there is no judgment on Goblin mode.
With Goblin mode is an extended period of being a rat. Like Goble mode
is like a weekend. Goblin mode is a lifestyle. Rat Night is a
little treat. Yeah, yeah, finally we need to do something for me
on International Women's Day. That's right, Lexi, How are you doing otherwise?
Like you're finishing up a big game, You're getting over cold, you're
planning rat night, You got like everything else under control of your life.
Because I'm like, oh, I got packs coming up. I've got to
get some stuff. I did. I did make a plan to exchange gifts
with Jane. I get him one packs. I said I would get in
one of those Chinese handhelds he always keeps like eyeing and never buying. If
he would get me a pair of crocs that I keep eyeing and never buying.
So I love that. Oh man, should we get in on that?
That's this is this is what I'm asking. It's like, should we
get everyone in on some of this action that maybe we can have some conversations
about this that that would be fun. But yeah, I'm like, go
ahead, dedicate Monday's meeting to it. Okay, awesome, the thing the
thing that you keep putting off purchasing because you're like, I don't really need
that. Well, now is the time. Maybe Dan does. Maybe maybe
Dan does need it? Does No, I'm good. I mean the reason
I had to swept days with Tam. I hosted the Bathtub Numbs yesterday,
which is very cool done, but also I am I was like British time,
that's fine, it'll be at like eight in the morning, and it
was at six yesterday. It was a long day, but it was very
fun. The for some reason, when the Oscars announced nominations, they also
do it at like six am. That's what I don't get that, Like
you guys are in America. You don't have to do that, like the
bath that you have to get up for that at six am. That seems
fair to a certain extent. Although sorry about that, but yeah, I
know that was that was very cool thing. How does that work out that
they just like ring you up. They're like, you're British, I'm a
paid up member of bafter okay, which is probably the one thing that my
parents are like, oh shit, okay, all right, all right,
okay. That with the sash. It comes with the card. Oh okay,
yeah, and no, I mean I have that's what they call that's
what they call gods wallet sashes. No, I've been involved in bafter for
years. Like it's obviously British being in the London video game scene. They
do a lot of really cool mix is. They do a lot of obviously
there's the awards, but they do they get really cool devs to come in
and host sessions and do Q and A stuff and you get like a little
glimpse behind the scenes of things. And so I've been involved with them for
years and then a couple years ago i joined and last year Tam and I
presented a couple of awards which was insane and you looked dapper. You looked
very nice in those pictures. Absolutely, the Baptists are not like only about
awarding British people, right, Like, no, there is one award which
is like best British Game, but there is. Yeah, all the awards
are like family game, new IP, multiplayer, you know, best performances.
It's like it is, yeah, it's different American wins. Everyone's like,
right, come on, honestly, like, uh, I mean at
last year, I think the big upset, not upset. But you know,
everyone thought elden Ring was going to walk away with best Game, and
then Vivis did. That's that's cool. This is fun. But that's but
that's the thing. It's like the way that the voting process goes and the
juries. It is like such an intense process. I've been on the juris
side of things too, and it's like cool, it's so many people voting
on them and like whittling all down. It's cool involved in that. I
think it's very impressive. And I'm glad your parents are proud of you,
because they should be. That is pretty Join. I can't join. Yeah,
you don't have to be brash to join. I'll get a wallet sash.
All right, let's let's make it happen. All right, cool,
let's go. All right, let's 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, make me
look smart. If you are watching live on twitch welcome, You can always
listen to the show later on podcast feeds by search you for Game Mess Mornings,
or find the RSS on GiantBomb dot com. You could also catch the
show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
we have a lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with
a review round up for Unicorn Overlord. This comes from Darren Bontus at GameSpot.
After several long years of development, Unicorn Overlord has finally arrived. Developed
by Vanilla Ware, the studio behind the critically acclaimed thirteen scentelled Sentinels agus Rim,
Unicorn Overload is a high fantasy adventure full of sword, sorcery and intrigue.
Reviews are now live for the game, and they come in from sources
like IGN, which gave it at nine out of ten, reflecting on the
incredibly diverse and remarkably creative world I explored across my five forty five hour journey,
any issues I had with Unicorn Overlord ended up feeling like nothing more than
nitpicks. The tactical combat system is unique and complex and while also being easy
to understand, and it expertly blends mechanics for many of its peers with smart
new editions of its own. That's from Eric Zuluski at IGN Computer and Gaming
Magazine gave it a nine out of ten, saying, with a wealth of
character permutations, a large cast of characters, and a well realized story,
Unicorn Overlord excels at delivering a tactical role playing game experience that lives up to
the greats while continuing to expand Vanilla Ware's portfolio of concept art come to life
video games in a new light. The Gamer gave it a nine out of
ten. Noisy Pixel gave it eight point five out of ten. Kataker didn't
give it a score of it said Knaka doesn't give scores, but said this
is not a game that is trying to be a narrative masterpiece. It is
trying to be a mechanical marvel, and it accomplishes the ladder in spades.
The endlessly inventive and incredibly well designed tactical systems at play and Unicorn Overlord make
it a thrilling challenge to tackle. It isn't just a game that longtime fans
of Vanilla Ware should pay attention to. It's for anybody wanting to play the
next great tactics RPG. Unicorn over Al is the game you've been waiting for
and that comes from willow Row Lucy. I don't need this. I don't
need this game to be good as well. There are too many good games,
and now I want to play this as well. It has like,
I think, an eighty seven on Metacritic, which is a very high score.
So and I think I actually climbed to eighty eight. Now that now
I remember from last night any intentions to play this, because I was like,
I'm not going to keep it to the side, and now I'm like,
I'm going to at least try it. I heard Jan talk about it.
He's enjoying it, so I'm going to give it a shot and see
where it takes me. Yeah, of course Jan's talking about it. It's
got tiles. It has tiles, yes, files, and he loved thirty
thirteen sentinels, to be fair, so him checking in on this isn't too
surprising. Yeah, I mean for me right now? Oh wait, there
are no tiles. What okay, it's the Aroma of tiles, I'm sure.
Actually no, yeah, it has the air of tiles. Yes,
you know what. Honestly, this one was not on my not list,
but like it wasn't really in my Purview. I I'm coming off the back
of Like a Dragon. I'm coming off the back of what was the other
big game I played in the middle of it. You know, I've just
played finished Final FANTASYE, right, and then I'm going into Dragon's Dogma hopefully
when that comes out. When you say it like that, holy crap,
that's a lot of the three big games. There's a game in the middle
there that I've completely forgotten about. What was like a big release from this
year. I mean, yeah, I mean I know what you mean,
but like there was like for me, it's like I was playing a ton
of Billatro and I was playing yeah right, yeah, like and that took
up way too many hours on one weekend. It's like that was like half
of what I did one weekend. And then I'm playing in a ton of
Expeditions now and that's taking up a ton of my time. So I like,
there are so many games in so many different directions that you can goo
that can fill this space. It's like, man, I, yeah,
I didn't need another one of these, but I I'm going to put it
on my list for because obviously release is are gonna slow down April May and
then and then we're going to get super excited and like everything's going to be
around something game first in Comic Con and whatever. So I've got I feel
like I've got like a little bit of a break. And just because I
didn't even I didn't play Persona three yet, and so I'm gonna people are
starting to go back to that now, a lot of people putting to decide
for Fun Fantasy and everyone's like, oh, I'm back to Persona and enjoying
that. It's Final Fantasy is out of my life, baby, I'm for
your final hour account on Fun Fantasy. Uh forty eight to fifty Okay,
that seems somewhat reasonable that I'm like trying to the games in my life.
Yeah, did you spend a lot of time on Ahead the final fifteen hours?
Did it felt like longer? So you're in that camp of the ending
is you know, long nonsense. It's so it's not the fact that the
ending is nonsense that really got to me. There is a point in chapter
eleven, and if you've played chapter eleven you know exactly what I'm talking about,
where the game just feels like it's wasting your time, okay, And
that is the final Feu chapters, no spoilers, no spoilers at all,
but like they it's it's everything has just dragged out so much, and it
just and and I genuine got to the point where I was actively not enjoying
playing it, and I was only playing to finish it so I could do
spoiler caspitals to be part of like the conversation because everyone and everyone's talking about
the ending, and I was like, Oh, I have to see this
ending. I have to see this ending. It's like, yeah, I
got to lock down these documents because I have no idea who just put this
in here? But another review got added here to the roundup. This is
from Giant Bomb four point five Mio mio beans. The quote here is slightly
misleading. Tiles go all thieves and hammers and you're in for a grand time.
Don't worry. There's no naked teens and space mechs in this one,
which is what thirteen Sentinels is guilty of last time. I'm gonna bet that's
our boy Jam, but it could also be Shot or anybody who knows well.
According according to Google Docs, it's anonymous Erit very very intentional with the
final fantasy shot there, yeah, a little bit there. Uh uh yeah,
I'm gonna try it. Like I said, I'm gonna give this a
shot, but it's gonna be like, if it doesn't immediately get me,
it's gonna be very easy to put it to side. Put it to the
side and go back to hell Divers or Expeditions or spend more time with Final
Fantasy. That Rise of Ronins coming out pretty soon. There's so much to
do. And and of course once Dragon Dragons Dogmas Dragons Dogma two, Yeah,
I'm just gonna struggle with that name forever. Once Dragon's Dogma two is
here. Uh, It's like I think that's gonna be everyone's playing that and
I'm not gonna winn to miss the boat on that one. So yeah,
I got some I got some stuff like like little smaller games that I wanted
to play. I'm just gonna like I'm traveling next week, so I've got
like, you know, Pennies Big Breakaway. I've got Garden Life a cozy
simulates it. Like there's a bunch of stuff in the Farming sen with Mechs
that just came out. It was in the Stephen Nexfest and I think it
just came out and I want to play that one. I was playing a
difficult game about climbing yesterday on the site, which is like kind of like
getting over it, and I'm like, I would like to spend some more
time with that. I want to beat Star Wars Dark Forces, Like yeah,
it's like not just the big games, it's all these little ones that
are also at least intriguing to me. And when the case of like Penning's
Big Breakaway, I'm like, no, I legit like this game. I
want to spend more time with it. But it's hard. Now. I
got like, I probably have like an hour left of our z I should
just finish that. It's it's getting I am. I've been looking at so
we've got GDC and then we've got PATS and I have been looking at my
GDC schedule and I am so excited about it, like, ok, more
than anything like Day of the Devs in particular fucking sick this year. Man,
I'm glad that that's exciting stuff to look forward to, because it's getting
developers all together and haven't been able to go meet with them and kind of
maybe getting some good feelings back in the space. That's a welcome thing.
So glad you're excited about it. Let's see here. Sticking with Unicorn Overlord,
Vanilla Ware won't let Atlas release Unicorn Overlord for PC. This is from
Jonas Macky at Game Reactor Today. It seems that virtually all developers and publishers
have begun to realize that you could sell more games if you include more formats,
where PC in particular is usually considered a no brainer because it is an
open format, but not everyone agrees. Nintendo is perhaps the best example,
and if you want to play their titles, you have to get their hardware.
However, there are also developers who don't even have their own format to
support that are thinking along the same lines. These include Vanilla Ware, who
this week released the unanimously acclaimed Unicorn Overlord. In an interview with the games
publisher Atlas over at destructor Way, they revealed that Vanilla Ware specifically stopped a
PC release. As a publisher, we would like to deliver it for PC
users as well, but per our agreement with vanilla Ware, we are only
releasing on console. In other words, there are no plans to port it
to PC currently. What the fuck has Greg Miller done to these people.
You know, he know he's responsible. Somehow he's got too much power.
He really does. I don't know why. I don't know who's done this.
I don't know who's listening to him. I don't get this now.
Vanilla Ware games straight up aren't on Steam. I don't think there's a single
one on Steam. They be a good fit, Like they have several games
that were like people loved playing I'm PSP and all these places, and there's
some we games going way back. All of them would be great on Steam.
But not a single one is. And I don't know if they've ever
explained their position. If they have, I've missed it. But I don't.
I don't really fully get this, other than maybe they're like, we
just make console games and they think along those lines, and it's from some
like old school way of thinking. I don't know, what do you think,
wonder? I mean, maybe they just don't feel like the PC mark
is big enough or worth it. You know. I did see someone in
chat say maybe they refrained piracy. I don't know. Maybe maybe they just
don't have the resources to port it. Yeah, it's weird, but it's
weird, like you'd think, like not letting Atlas, like Atlas or could
Baby take that burden? You know, right, yeah, Alice want to
do it like and these these are situations often where there are teams, you
know, external studios dedicated to doing PC ports for for other studios, and
Atlas could contract that out and it would be very little work for Vanilla Ware.
So yeah, I don't know, it's a little confusing to me.
I hope, I hope they get over that eventually. What's happened is most
publishers developers that once felt this way have like seen the light and like we
just put them on Steam and it's kind of easy. And then we saw
a bunch of more copies to markets we never could reach before. Hopefully Vanilla
Ware gets to that point as well. This next story is just it's more
of a question and I was just like a quick conversation. Someone on the
install based forum posted the first week's sales to the last several Final Fantasy releases,
starting with Final Fantasy thirteen, and we'll take into account all the physical
digital installed base factors here in a second, but let's just go through the
numbers first. On the PS three, Final Fantasy thirteen sold one point five
million copies in its first week. Later, the Final Fantasy fourteen obviously a
different genre, but just stick with me from the PS four sold seven hundred
and sixteen thousand copies in this first week, and this is all in Japan,
everybody. Then Final Fantasy seven remake did seven hundred thousand copies, and
then Final Fantasy sixteen did three hundred and thirty six thousand copies, a PS
five exclusive, and then Final Fantasy seven rebirth did two hundred and sixty two
thousand copies. There is a clear trend of it going down. Now,
let's talk about those factors. Obviously, there are fewer PS fives in the
world than the were PS fours or even PS three's when Final Fantasy thirteen came
out, and digital is a bigger factor. That said, it's like,
okay, well, let's say digital is it's fifty fifth just seems to be
a fair thing. It's probably not like sixty forty in favor of digital.
It's probably is like fifty to fifty. So you double this the first week
sales of let's go Final Fantasy sixteen, and that does get you back up
to about almost a seven hundred thousand, not quite the seven hundred thousand,
and it's like at the SOT the in best case scenario, Final Fantasy from
game to games seems like it has come down from Final Fantasy thirteen and now
it's stagnating at around like first week sales of around seven hundred thousand. And
then when you look at Final Fantasy sixteen, Final Fantasy seven rebirth, it
does go down kind of no matter how you cut you slice it. Do
you think this is a Final Fantasy seven? Like the Bespoke problem where it's
like, because it's a remake, because it's a three part series, because
of all these other factors, it's going to have a harder time like welcoming
and new people, then hey, this is the new Final Fantasy sixteen or
what? What do you think is happening here? I mean if you look
outside of Final five, see, I think certainly it's expensive right now,
and branchises going down since like PS three era in Japan as well, right
yeah, and like prices of gaming has gone up. Yep, you know
you're paying a little bit more for it. And also you know not that
we are exactly in the same state as movies where streaming has devalued going to
the cinema where it's like, you know, there are so many movies that
come out and I'm just like I would like to go see that, but
I'll wait for it to come to streaming. It won't be too long.
And I do wonder if with Final Fantasy, like you know, if you
don't have a PlayStation, oh, I'll just wait till it comes out on
Xbox. I won't, but I won't get a new console for this,
so I'll wait till it comes out on PC or you know, eventually it
will come to something like PlayStation Plus. And maybe that's you know, and
like if people are not in a rush to play things, And I think
that's just like a gradual change, Like we didn't necessarily have that back when
you know, thirteen or fifteen were coming out, Like if you wanted something
to come on Netflix, it would take forever. And like I'm still surprised
at how quickly stuff comes to Amazon to rent, you know, And so
I wonder, I wonder if that is a shifting mentality where we are devaluing,
you know, like release dates don't matter so much, but also money,
Yeah, I think and I think you're right there, like that is
happening simultaneous, where like some for something like Final Fantasy seven remake and rebirth,
I think people are talking themselves into that a little bit more, right,
because it's very easy to go, oh so this is only part two
of part of three, but don't forget it's a completely standalone adventure suitable play.
Huh, right, And then you hear that, and then you see
all the replies that are like, fuck, no, it's not. No,
it isn't and everyone everyone understands that. They're like, I think there's
going to be a percentage of people that go, I might just wait till
they're all out and play them all together, and then you know, you
know that you will go back and forth on that. Everyone has conversations with
themselves about like maybe I'll wait, maybe I won't. Oh, everyone's excited
about it. Everyone thinks it's good. But you start to wait, and
then you start to say, well, you know I've waited this song.
Maybe I will just wait till it comes to one of these subscription services,
just like Final Fantasy seven remake did, and that's how I played it,
So I'll do that with this one as well. It's no rush, especially
since the ending's not here. I could see how those factors are exacerbated for
something like Final Fantasy seven remake and rebirth. I do think overall, though
Final Fantasies trending downward doesn't seem too surprising. I think we think about the
heyday of you know, the nes Superintendent games, and then it's when it
was on top of the world in the PlayStation and PlayStation two era, and
then since then it has been like, you know, thirteen and fifteen are
kind of like people like them. They don't necessarily like lose their mind for
them. Some people really love them. A lot of people just sort of
like played them and forgot them, and at very least there's there's like arguments
to be had about their position and the canon of Final Fantasy, where that
does not happen with like ten and before. Yeah. Also, like a
big mainline Final Fantasy came out just last summer. Yeah, you're right,
so maybe some satiation has happened here a little bit as well. That's a
good point, that doesn't I think that does not mean that like Final Fantasy
is doomed or something like that, but it's like maybe due for a bigger
shakeout than it's even received. I think Final Squerrey Nix seems like, hey,
Final Fantasy's got to be these certain things, and we're going to the
way we're gonna change it up is now Final Fantasy sixteen is going to be
basically an action game, and that was a big change. But I think
when people are like I want to get excited about something new, that's not
that new. There's a lot of action games out there, so I think
maybe like looking for Final Fantasy to take some more risks and be even different,
or to like fully go back home and remind them more of what it
was like to play six and seven and eight and nine and ten. But
yeah, and again, this is just Japan. And at that same time,
though, squer X is not come out with a pr blast to say
the game sold three million copies in the first week. Holy holy crap,
it's so good over here. They've been pretty quiet about it, so I
bet the game's doing okay. But Final Fantasy seven remake did about five million
copies and it's like first year or something like that, which is pretty okay
but not the best. And it seems like Final Fantasy seven rebirth might struggle
to get to there quite as fast, But we'll see the very least the
word amounth round rebirth mostly very positive. I think this game is can have
quite long legs when people go to buy a PS five. This is going
to be in that like list of games that people I think everyone considers.
For the most part, I don't know. Yeah, And I mean it
is a stunning game. Up until chapter eleven, I was having a really
good time playing it. I really enjoyed the open world stuff and how that
all had this really fun gameplay loop that really connected story to gameplay, and
like I felt compelled to actually do the side stuff, you know, aside
from some piss taking at the end. You know, I think it'll be
I think it'll have legs for sure. All Right, we're gonna take a
quick break. Will we get back? A lot more headlines, including a
former Microsoft executive talking about maybe putting Halo on PlayStation right after this. All
right, we are back, and that headline is Halo on PlayStation is something
Xbox has considered for a long time. This comes from Eddie Mcoo at GameSpot.
As a business, Microsoft regularly considers what it can do to make the
most possible money and improve the size profile and reputation of its brand, and
one idea of the company contemplated was bringing Halo to PlayStation form. Xbox executive
Peter Moore told IgM that Microsoft years ago had conversations about Halo on PlayStation,
adding that Microsoft was constantly considering its options. Microsoft even hired the consultancy company
Mackenzie to create a war game scenario where Microsoft executives spend a couple of days
on a retreat trying to better understand the competition. Basically, like Peter Moore
would be like Tyler would role play as a ken Kuduraki and say what would
I do if I was in church of PlayStation? And they said that like
open their eyes to just how aggressive a competitor could be, and that led
them think, well, how can we be more aggressive or how can we
be more creative? That eventually led them to be considering what was possible with
Halo. For Halo specifically, More said Microsoft might be running the numbers now
and wondering if it makes sense financially to bring a final franchise like Halo to
PlayStation. Beyond the potential money to be made, there are reputation and brand
considerations at play More said if Microsoft says, wait, we're doing two hundred
and fifty million on our own platform, but if we took Halo as let's
call it a third party, we could do a billion. You got to
think long and hard about that, right, I mean you just got to
go, yeah, should it be kept? It's a piece of intellectual property.
It's bigger than just a game. And how do you leverage that?
Those are the conversations that always happen with these things. How do you leverage
it in everything that we would do? And I think really what this is,
Lucy, is it's illustrative of how these companies think, and like why
when people hear, hey, this, you know so and so game is
being considered for a multi platform, Like in the lead up to the announcement
of the four games, I mean sure that they were having conversations about Gears
of War. And really that shouldn't be too surprising because as Peter Moore points
out here, and what we really should all know is these conversations happen all
the time because it's almost their duty to have these conversations, right, they
have to consider every possibility. What do you think, I think about what
PlayStation getting? Then what if you have in the conversation. Yeah, like
like this is like not that surprising, right that they are that they would
consider any possibility, including Halo on PlayStation. Like I think that's such a
shocking thing to people, but it really shouldn't be, right, no,
Like I mean, in terms of business, you were constantly analyzing your competitors
and seeing what you can do to get a leg up, like and obviously
like they're going to be looking at multiplatform strategy, like even just considering it,
maybe getting you know, a weird little company retreat to bore on the
floor putting ideas together. But like, it doesn't surprise me that they've been
thinking about it. Like if you look at the xboxes and sell as many
games, you know, especially in third party, you know, the cut
is always pretty much in favor of PlayStation. Let's you know, if they're
going to put that games on PlayStation, they'll get more money, yep,
and more points at Like. One of the big determining factors here for all
these companies, not just Microsoft, and that is that the hardcore gaming community
is diminishing in size. So Microsoft might want to consider the next generation of
gamers and what they might want those hardcore are getting smaller in size and older
in age. You've got to cater to the generations that are coming through because
they're going to drive the business over the next ten to twenty years, he
said. But for now, at least, Halo is remaining a game series
you could only play on Xbox consoles and PC. That's the thing, Like,
it's the generation where you know, my nieces know, like if they
want to watch something or play something, it is there for them. Like,
you know, they don't have to buy a new thing. If they
want to watch something they like, the app is on the TV. Like
all the app needed will be on the TV. Right, they don't have
to spend three hundred quid to buy another box just to you know, do
something, Like they don't have to go they don't have to go down to
Blockbuster or to Tesco to buy physical shit. Everything is digital now and it's
a matter of convenience. So and all the things are friends. Like when
it comes to video games, all the things their friends are playing are right
there on the tablet and the phone. It's you know, Robots, Minecraft,
Call of Duty Mobile. These things are right there, very easily accessible.
If they're not free, they are like four dollars, and it's going
to be, as Peter Moore points out, and as we all know,
again these are things we know, this next generation is going to come up,
and it's going to be much more difficult to convince them to buy that
three hundred to five hundred, probably six hundred next generation box like that is
such an uphill battle that you're almost destined to lose at this point, especially
as the world changes and everyone just has a phone, and of course not
everyone just has an Xbox. That's not reasonable. Is Peter Moore still at
Liverpool? Was he? I think? I do think he left Liverpool.
He was there for quite a few years, but I think he did retire
relatively recently. I could be misremembering that though, but yeah, yeah,
he worked at for people who are like, hey, Peter Moore in the
name what is that name? He worked at Sega like the Dreamcast on and
he was Xbox. He was the guy that would have the tattoos like,
oh, Halo's coming guy, right, And then he left the game game
in industry a few years back to go be the chairman of Liverpool, and
then I think he I'm pretty sure he left Liverpool, but he oh hello,
okay, so he left Liverpool in games twenty twenty, he is an
honorary president of Gresford Greshford Athletic Football Club. No idea, but that's that's
the club that he played for when he was a kid. Only twenty he
was involved with Wrexham AFC as an advisor to the new owners, and in
January twenty twenty one he was named SVP and GM of Sports and Live Entertainment
for Unity. Oh shit, that's right, Unity is still there. Uh.
Wikipedia doesn't seem to I don't know it says citation needed. He's also
moved to the boards of nifty Games and Motorsport Games. I don't know that
is uncited on Wikipedia. Let me oh wait, hang on, no,
no, yeah no, I'm looking at his is to abiyo. Yep,
he's still at Unity all right. Let me let me get those kids freaking
out because she wants to play Sackboy roll back, betroll band. Let me
get that set up for I'll be right back. Everybody play Sackboy real back.
Don't worry everyone else vamp don't worry. I got it. I'll vamp
Hi everyone. How's everyone doing? Oh that was weird. That was really
quick. That was way quicker than I said I thought he was going to
be. The problem is. The problem is I told her that the Astrobot
costume is going to be in a sack Boy today, and so she's home,
She's like, oh, get it for me now, immediately a monster.
She's a huge Astrobot fan. Uh. And then and she likes sack
Boy, and so putting those two things together, she's, yeah, that's
that's like kids crack, Yes exactly, And and I love Astrobot too,
So I'm excited about this, but she is. She is mad at me
because I'm not downloading it right away. As soon as the show's done,
I'll get it, kiddo, don't worry, all right. Uh Ea.
Speaking of Peter Morey, who also worked at the eight one point, it
is bringing a bunch of classic games to Steam. Uh This is from Alex
Hopley at Game Reactor. Recently, we've seen a fair few big developers bringing
their PC games from their own stores to Steam. E A has given us
the most recent lot of games to be brought to Valves platform in the form
of a collection of classic titles. Uh. These games range in genre,
ASI and more age and more, and you can get anything from the Command
of Conquer Collection to Dungeon Keeper. The games it is like sid Meyer's Alpha
Centauri, Command of Conquer Collection a Dungeon Keeper two. I think there's a
handful of others, but this is this is pretty cool. I'm I'm,
I'm like, I was actually excited about this. I was a little sad
that, like, I want to play that new Syndicate game. It's new,
it's from like twenty twelve, but the newer new, the newer Syndicate
game. Uh, because it it is on e a Play, I think
still, but I don't want to boot up EA play, so I'm not
going to do that. I wish it was just on Steam and I played
on my Steam deck, but that's still not on Steam, and that's a
little frustrating, you know what I'm frustrated about. That's not on Steam Moore,
and I don't even I don't even believe it is on e a Play
or whatever. Sim's one and Sim too, I don't even Yeah, dude,
yeah, if you want to buy those, if you want to play
those now, you either have to go Discord. Yeah, you gotta find
a you gotta find a guy who knows a guy. Yeah. Yeah.
Tim is also correct by saying peg Peggle should be on back on iPhone because
I was. I think you can still buy pegl, but pegel on iPhone
was elite. We got a snoopy emoji. Thank you, Jan, He's
got your back there. Yeah. The Sims. Honestly, I would want
them to like just do a huge Sims and SIMS related drop. I want
to play the herbs uh, I want to play my Sims a Secret Agent,
SIMS Medieval. Yeah, I would have played all this insane shit at
least check it out. I mean, that's the thing. SIMS two was
the best one, Like SIMS two was easily the best one in terms of
animation, in terms of gameplay, and it's just you know, it doesn't
exist ship anymore, Like you don't buy it anymore unless you buy I think
I think it's on GISC. Yeah, she's playing Sackpoint. The last level
before this one is just straight up David Bowie' let's dance and level set to
that. But you go to this next one and it's an instrumental version of
material Girl by Madonna. Sackboy rules. Sackboy is such a good game,
great people need to go just shut up and go play that game. If
you're complained about games, shut up and go play Sackboy. I'm sick of
it. Everybody in plunch of eighty it's not playing sack Boy. Give that
game more sales, all right. Hell Divers two was the UK's best selling
game in February. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC. Hell Divers two
was the UK's best selling game in February, following an impressive launch. That's
accordingated to data from GSD, which covers digital sales from most major publishers.
In all physical sales published on Games Industry up is bucking the trend. The
Sony publish shooter saw its sales grow each week after its released on February eighth.
Sales during the game's first three weeks were just twenty eight percent lower than
those of Sony's record selling Spider Man two during its first three weeks of availability
last year. That's incredible, Actually, that's really wild that it did that
well. The PS five version of Hell Divers two accounted for fifty seven percent
of its sales last month, with a remainder coming to PC. A suicide
squad killed the Justice League, which has failed to meet publisher Warner's expectations,
debuted at number four on the monthly chart. That I mean, Hell Divers
being able to be anywhere in the conversation with a Spider Man game. I
think that shows just how powerful that game has become. And it's not too
surprising when you, like you see how many people are playing, how people
are talking about it. But still that's really impressive. I guess the question
is, like you, if you are in charge of this company, Lucy,
do you think that's replicable? Do you think you can look at this
and like recreate the situation or is it sort of capturing lightning? Yeah,
is one hundred percent lightning in a bowl for sure. Like I don't think,
I mean, Hell Divers was on people's radar, but I don't think
anyone expected it to take off as much as it did. I was playing
at the weekend like with the old Overwatch crew, and man, it was
real fun. It was. It's a good time. But also like good
timing accounts for so much a good product obviously, and listening like people just
kept saying, it's fun, it's fun, it's fun. It's great.
But even the launch issues they had hasn't slowed it down any of the momentums.
So it's awesome, But I also feel like a lot of people are
in a lot of exacts are going to be like, well, what's our
hell divers? What's I hell divers? What's our hell divers? What's what's
what's our hot ones? What's our hot ones? And what's our hell divers?
Stupid? That is such a lucy where's our hot ones? That phrase?
I can tell I saw you literally shiver when I said that. I
said, I was at dinner with a friend last night and we he said
that as well. He joked that, and I was like, oh god,
my wife does these like deals. My lad does these deals where she
gets like some stuff for free. And I opened up my pantry and there
was a pile of hot ones branded like spicy peanuts or something. So I
think a bunch of hot ones right in my face. I'm like, there
it is, And I thought of where where's our hot ones? It's you
know, every every single media corporation, every single media company has asked what's
the hot ones? Yeah? And that's so I think you're right when they
say where's our hell divers? And I think, like Okay, we I
think most people know when you talk about that it is mostly lightening in the
bottle. What is the lesson that can be learned here? Cause for me,
I think it comes down to, like what they have on their website,
where a game for everybody is a game for nobody, and make it
something specific and its own thing and something that's not that could take ideas from
other games, absolutely, but when you're playing it, like you like,
it has such a strong voice that you can't deny it. I think that's
the thing that other developers can learn from. There's no guarantee that leads to
a ton of sales, but I think that's the best case scenario that you
could take away from us. I don't know what, what do you think?
Yeah, I mean Hell Divers obviously this is this is a sequel,
but it's sequel to a lesson on property, And I just think it is
the confidence in the execution. Like when you play Helldivers, it knows exactly
what it is. It's funny, it's like intriguing the way I mean the
way that they've got the human GM you know, like it sounds so stupid
to be like, oh, we'll just make a good game, but like,
make a good game that's not full of bullshit and you know, no,
it's just it's a fun game. I say, it's rare and GM
is. Actually that's a good point as well, like not having things like
just done by some algorithm in the background or something like that, making it
feel like you know, you are there's someone working against you and and you're
trying to overcome them. Yeah. That's also the way they're dropping new content
in, right, It's like they're just you know, we're just gonna try
and putting a tank in or something, or a mech or whatever. So
it's it's it's cool they're kind of bucking the curve a little bit. And
I really kind of like them a lot from that me too, And I
think it's it's worth It's clearly going to be something that people will want to
learn from and I hope some good lessons are learned as well. Oh out
the in world planet making them was liberated last night. Oh yeah, I
love that. It's like, how cool is that lines? Yeah? Yeah,
and you're part in your part of it, like it's like you are
making changes to the game and then it has real consequences to how you play.
That's fantastic, all right, Well again to hell Divers tonight, then
for rat night. Warner sets expectations for Hogwarts Legacies free summer update. This
is from Tom Ivan, a VGC. Hogwarts Legacy developer. Avalanche Software has
moved to set some expectations for the game's free summer update head of the game's
one year anniversary. Last month, publisher Warner Brothers confirm that PlayStation exclusive content
would be released on other platforms this summer, along with additional updates and features
for the game. With plenty of speculation about what's in store for the game,
Avalanche community man manager Chandler would provided an update on the studio's plans in
a message published on Twitter on Thursday. We are thrilled that you are all
excited for the free update to Hogwarts Legacy this summer. We love seeing all
the guesses and hopes for what will be part of this update, and while
we are not ready to talk about it yet, I do want to set
some expectations for what we are working on. Our original wording of additional updates
and features of the game was very intentional. This update is a small way
of us showing appreciation to our players for the amazing reception to the game.
Hogwarts Legacy was twenty twenty three's best selling game, ahead of the Legend of
All the Tears of the Kingdom When Are Set. In January that it had
sold twenty four million copies. Despite the success, to the success of Harry
Potter, they're going to stop making games like that because they're in sane over
or whatever, had that conversation earlier this week. Yeah, I mean they
are, like, does sound like doing an expansion pass. They're not doing
like some and this is a free update, so like, clearly they're not
doing an expansion pass. But it's like going to be a probably a couple
of small things, maybe some surprising thing. It's like, maybe some extra
features that people would never assumed. But this team's got to be already looking
to Hogwarts Legacy too. Despite what Warner saying about, you know, moving
away from Triple A Games whatever, they're gonna be working on a follow up
to this in some way, shape and form, and they probably already have
most of the team working on that, right, I mean, I would
assume so Waner Brother's green light a new Harry Potter TV show that's going into
effect, like you know, the franchise is going anyway. They have a
whole game game label, which I didn't realize, right games. Yeah,
they're making that that quidditch game, which like is anyone going to want to
play that? I don't know. This quidditch is not a good sport.
It's not that it's do you remember the Promember This was a UK thing,
but like in when the movies were coming out, they made a a broom
toy and it was a broomstick and it had a little screen on it and
you could, you know, like fly around and on the screen, like
the golden snitch would appear and you could catch the snitch on this little screen.
However, the broom would vibrate when you got close to the snitch,
and so they basically sold as a child. Oh and the broom is shaped
like that. Huh. Well, hey, I mean listen, that's not
the broom and and vibrators inside the broom's fault. Uh, That's that's just
us perverted adults. It's amazing. So like you're as as the stitch like
got physically closer, I think, So I can't remember like what set off
the Vibration didn't have one. Maybe they also got recoled pretty quickly. Let
me Google, I didn't have one either. I will have one. I
just ordered it. It'll be here two days. So yeah, Harry bought
you in the vibrating broom. When Guardian Levy, oh this is a bad
show, we do hear Lucy last vibrated some of the now deleted comments on
Amazon. They had to be written with a wink e oh no, I'm
not really not aloud, so okay, yeah, fair enough. Hey to
teach there whenever you got to do, and it requires Harry Potter's help and
then more power to you. All right, impossible transition, So we'll just
bring it down. RESTful trails to Akira Toriyama, who passed away last night.
In a bunch of the people in the industry of like paid tribute to
to him and his memory. Obviously responsible for Dragon Ball, much of the
art in Drag Dragon A or Dragon Warrior excuse me, and Dragon Quest had
a new game based on one of his other properties, Sandland, that's coming
out still. Just you know, a titan whose legacy is could be more
secure. Just absolute rest and peace to one of the most powerful artists of
all time. This was a real bomber. Lucy, Oh yeah, dude.
I was so. I was at dinner last night and we were chatting,
and I was showing my friend something else, and then in a group
chat, one of my friends had just written, oh my god, that's
devastating, and I was like, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna click on
that, and I basically just went, oh my god, it cured tori
Ama died. And then I feel like I'm unintentionally created like a flashbolt memory
of just despair for my friend that I was with, because he was like,
oh my god, I want to You know, if you're on Twitter,
of course you'll see people like Harata who's responsible for techings and rest in
Peace, and Yoshin already oo talking about how much he meant to him,
and it just goes on and on. Sakarai said something as well, it's
just an outpouring of love for an artist that, of course, of course,
like just has shaped so many people's sensibilities. For me, Lucy was
like seeing Goku on envelope art in Game Pro and in EGM and Game Informer
and all these video game magazines and just being like that looks pretty cool.
I don't know what that is, and then learning over time like, oh,
it's this thing called dragon ball Z. It's it's you know, Japanese
animation, Japan and ma as they would call it back in game magazines back
then, and being like, well, I would really like to check this
out, not being able to find it anywhere, not understanding how to like
import tapes or anything like that. So like when I would be on Sci
Fi Channel and something like eight Man After would come on and be like,
oh, this is one of this is an anime. I'm gonna check this
out, and being kind of blown away by that, and then much later
when Dragon Ball Z came to Cartoon Network finally and being like this is on
here, and it was probably like a little bit into the early run of
Dragon ball Z. Kind of getting on board at that point and just watching
it every day for getting home from what it probably would have been early high
school at that point, maybe late middle school, late junior high and just
yeah, absolutely falling in love with it, and yeah, no one's done
it better. So once again, that's the peace RP two A legend,
RIP two a legend. Indeed, all right, that's gonna do it for
the news. We're gonna get to the poll here in a second. Well,
I get that set up, Lucy. What do we have going on?
What do you have going on other than rat Night, which is maybe
the most important thing. What's going on other than rat Night? Baby?
What am I doing? So Man, Spider Man d Night? Next week?
I'm actually out for half of the week, so I've got a little
trip plan that I'm excited about. And then it is GDC, then it
is Packs Christ It really is just going to be NonStop it till packs Huh.
Well, the thing is as well as that. GDC technically starts on
Sunday with Day of the Devs. I'm so excited about day that this,
like, our schedule is looking really cool. I've left a bunch of spaces
for stuff that we just kind of find on the show floor. We are
going to be recording a new episode of Jeff starre adventure for Diamond is Unbreakable
on Monday, so that'll be going up on Wednesday. I believe our last
episode I think went up this Monday. Series is really good, y'all.
It's really good. It's nice to be back with the Joe stars. And
other than that, I'm working on a new show kind of in the planning
stages of that, and yeah, I'm just I'm just gonna write night dude.
I'm like, look at me. Yeah, I'm clearly the picture of
health right now. I just need. I was. I was going to
see some friends tonight and then it got canceled. And I tell you,
there is no greater joy than plans getting canceled. And it's not on you
when you get when you get that text and you're like, oh, what
do we do Friday night? Okay, we'll watch Love is Blind? Please
don't spoil. And I was like, yeah, just like, we'll go
work Love is Blind, we'll get some wine in. And then yesterday my
friend Jen just said, actually, guys, I've got plans on Friday night.
I can't do it. Can we do Saturday instead? And I just
went like, I'm not joking. You truly are an inspiration, Like this
is my feelings on this entirely. You just nailed it. It's so good,
Just like there was no greater high than a canceled plant. Like I
was Friends for a second is going up this weekend as well. And two
weeks ago when we were recording. We were going to do something on it,
like Tuesday nights when we typically record, and I think Ralph was busy
or something, and Ralph just was like, guys, I'm so sorry.
Can we do? Can we do tomorrow night? Yep? We can.
We being Mike record a podcast on Tuesdays and Thursday nights and then h occasionally
we like once a month. We also do an extra podcast for Patreons subscribers
called Columbros. And I love doing it, but it's like we do it
right after another podcast, so whenever, and most of the time it's me
being like I feel bad or I didn't get a chance to watch it.
So the other night when he was sick and he's like, I just can't
do it tonight, I was like, pepping my stuff here, Well,
fucking go, that's good stuff. You know. Are you watching Showgun?
I am going to I intell that is if I'm gonna watch a TV show,
it's going to be Showgun. That is my that's my right night.
You know what. I I time block everything. People just like always say
like, how do you do so much? What does that mean? People
ask me like how I do so much? Shit? Right? You know?
And for me, it's because I have to schedule everything. And so
my night after work, I put in an hour where it's like, hey,
here's ship that I do outside of work, Like I prep for friends
for a second, or I do something else or i'm you know, answering
emails, like figuring that out. Then I schedule, Hey, I'm going
to play a video game for an hour and a half. That's a time
block of that, and then it's okay, I'm gonna spend forty five minutes
cooking dinner, cleaning up, eating, right, and then I will schedule
in like I will watch a show for an hour and then I will do
another thing, because otherwise, if you if I've left my own devices,
I will have unstructured and unscheduled internet time and I will just scroll. I
want to do that. Yeah, and that's that always feels bad. Yeah,
I know what you mean. Yeah, I can't schedule. That would
cost me too much stress, but I try to in my own way.
I need to use external pressures. That's why I like having a job.
So I like having responsibilities because it forces me to like take the shape of
a responsible human being, Like this is all It's all a show none of
it's actually real. But if I like have the pressures like pushing me up,
it's like like a jello mold, like standing upright in that into a
responsible adult. Yeah, and then I kind of like could carry some of
that momentum forward into leisure activities and be like, Okay, I'm gonna use
that that that's stress to actually behave in a way that it's going to get
something done tonight. So I'll work out, or I'll or I'll watch something,
or I'll play a game or something like that. So yeah, my
Google calendar, Yeah, my Google calendar. Maybe meal plan in Google calendar.
Really Okay, So is that like involved like one night you're like making
a bunch of stuff for the rest of the night or is it just like
you know what you're going to be making each night. So I look at
my calendar and I'm like, okay, I'm going to be out here.
I need meals here here here, So I have slots where I know that
I need to have meals, and then I bulg like I will make something
and it's enough for like two three nights and then but I also don't like
cooking and it's annoying. Yeah, I hate figuring out what I'm going to
eat. That is, like, that's the real stressful thing for me.
I just never like talking about it, thinking about it. I would just
I would just do the paste, like just the food substance paste if I
could. But I have kids, then that be bad, all right?
You know what I said. There was a poll question from yesterday. Let's
get to that. Have you played Apex Legends? Fifty two percent said yes,
twenty seven percent said they have no interest, twenty percent said no.
That's still a lot of people they can get to play that game over the
next couple of years. So hey, we'll see. We'll see. They
could always change some of those I have no interests and so maybe have an
interest if they changed the game up a little bit, which they're saying they're
gonna do new Pole question, are you going to play Unicorn Overlord? I'm
curious, Like this seems like, you know, one of those games where
like maybe you were ignoring it. Now after the reviews, it's a little
bit harder to ignore. It's definitely how I feel. You know, I
was aware of it. I had some interest, but it was like,
you know, there's so much other stuff to play maybe not now eighty seven
metacritic, Jan talking about it, everyone seeming to enjoy it. I'm gonna
try it, so we'll see yes or no. That'll go up on the
YouTube dot com slash at Giant Bomb slash community. Just go to the community
to tap there on YouTube. You can find it there. Vote on that,
and we'll talk about the results on Game This Morning is on Giant Bomb
on Monday. Speaking of Giant Bomb. Later today UPF is going to be
Mario Kart Grand Prix Grand Prix where we play all the Grand Prix and Mario
Kart eight Deluxe, which is ninety six courses and Lucy I looked on for
other people who have done this and there's not a single stream of this kind
that is shorter than five hours. Yeah, we're in the in the Monday
meeting. You guys are talking about this and you're like, oh, yeah,
we'll move BCR and well, yes, we'll keep moving us. How
that's gonna work. But tune in live to see for yourself. You're not
gonna want to miss it. I think it's gonna be a good time.
It's gonna be myself. Dan Reichert, Sean Turbo, Sean mcdoubt and Bailey
Meyers all competing in that, and then Mike's gonna throw in some some wrinkles
here and there is my understanding, but we'll see. Also, my money
is on Sean because he's got Turbo in his name. Shawn's very good at
Mario Kart, so that's not a bad bet. All right, that's gonna
do it. Lucy, thank you so much for hanging out with me today
and talking about video games. It helped me get through this Friday. You're
all welcome. I'm gonna blow my nose really loud. Thank you for watching.
You the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good
one, take care of yourself and goodbye. Fade the black until next time.
Until next I gotta pop off of god bye. All Right, we
did it, everybody, we did it. Frankly, I'm proud of you.