Xbox Still Planning to Cut More Jobs

He'll be bit it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this from May
ninth, twenty twenty four, for the next hour or so, let me
help you sort through the world of gaming on Games Mornings Live with me Jeff
Grubb. Today, could major first party Xbox games start skipping game passed?
But first, please join me and welcome to today's co host to Gameless Mornings.
It's Janet Choea. Everybody, jan how are you doing? Absolutely terrible
if I'm being frank, but hey, I'm gonna drink this coffee that I
found on my desk. I think this is three days old, but it's
okay, Grub mean, listen, just gets pat of the energy we're bringing
today exactly. Yeah, three day old coffody fire right, Not in my
heart, No way, my heart on this dojo. Baby, We're gonna
over caffeinate to get over the negative feelings. Yeah, I'm sure today's slate
of news Grub will be nothing but positivity. Oh, it's a parade of
good news, Jane, Are you kidding me? Yeah? Listen, I
think if you leave the coffee out for a couple of days, you get
the best of both worlds. Hight you get the caffeine and then it ferments
in alcohol. So you should be feeling pretty good, is what I'm hoping
for you grub. You just said the magic word, and I think that
has inspired me to have a new goal. No, that's the third magic
word. Sorry. I think probably not this Game of the Year, because
you know, maybe they're plans in motion. I don't completely know. I
really know what's happening right now. Somehow you me Dan like Manati and begrudgingly
Jeff Backlar need to wind up in some type of parade float. Oh I
love that. I love that we can make that happen. Oh my god,
what if we just have a fun parade for Game of the Year one
year? Yeah, I mean, listen, what do you really need to
make a parade happen? Probably not even a permit, I'm betting. Oh
no, I mean, just like a couple well people with balloons in the
street and like fun cars. Right, Yeah, we do it like really
early, so there's no one out there and we'll be really loud. In
Giant Bomb's hometown Fargo. I forget the state Fargo, North Dakota, the
Giant Bomb HQ. We should like just have a virtual office in Fargo and
have all our stuff sent there and we go there once a year to pick
it up. Yeah, let's have a fun satellite office. Someone was emailing
the bombcasting like, Hey, I'd like to mail yell something or just like
fun stuff. Where should I send it to? And I didn't know how
to respond. Well, I do have a virtual office in Cleveland. You
can have them send it to me and then I'll forward it to everybody,
bring it with me to go there we go. Oh boy, all right,
let's explain what we do here and just get it. Let's get through
this one. Jane's that sound good? Should we just like, let's just
get through it. That's the plan. We're gonna get through it. We're
gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna thrive grub. Okay, all right,
I trust you. Let's explain what we do here. Most weeked it?
I'm sorry, I forgot. Is it not Thursday? No? It sits
Thursday? All right? Oh yeah, the game sets going. It's in
my mouth dad. For people that don't know what's going on on, Oh,
there's a lot of them happening. Huh, you're just doing it all
over again. You didn't have to give him the permission. Crubh boy.
The thing is like, he didn't deactivate his account, so the only way
for me to log in was with his account. Whatever it is. My
fault. I didn't know it was IoT enabled. I didn't know I was
dealing with an Internet of Things device. Jan. For people that don't know,
watch yesterday's Blake Club. I plugged in the game set, logged in
with Dan's acount, and he can control it via the Internet of Things connectivity
protocol in my home and it's going off right now. It's frankly, I
don't even know what those smells are anymore. Jan. It all just smells
like the axe body spray aisle. That's all it smells like to me.
Ooh oh that's a that's a fun that's a fun one. Greb. All
right, this is we're gonna this is just juice me up. There we
go. Most weekdays, I Jeff Grub, 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
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You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello
YouTube. I'm like, I'm trying to like take breaths, but every time
I do, I'm choking to death over here. All right, we have
a lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess with. Microsoft
says it needs games like High Fi Rush the day after killing its studios.
This is from Ash Parish at The Verge today. One day after Microsoft announced
that it would shut down four of its game studios, Matt Booty, head
of Xbox Game Studios, held a town hall to discuss the division's future goals.
We need smaller games that give us prestige and awards, Booty told employees,
according to internal remarks shared with The Verge. For some listeners on the
call, it was a surprising goal. Microsoft had just shut down the Japanese
developer Tango Game Works, which was coming off the percentage of the small and
prestigious hit title High Fi Rush. High Fi Rush, which was a surprise
release last year, was praised for its innovation and Charm. The rhythm action
game featured music by The Black Keys and Nine Inch Nails, with an art
style that evoked the hyper stylized games of the PS two era. Just four
months after its release, High Fi Rush hit three million players during the twenty
twenty three to twenty twenty four award season. The game went on to win
a Game Award, a Game Developer's Choice Award, and a BAFTA. While
Microsoft hasn't shared sales data, it was apparently happy with the game. When
rumors swrolled that it wasn't doing well commercially, Aaron Greenberg, vice President of
Xbox Games Marketing, wrote on Twitter that High Fi Rush was a breakout hit
for US and our players in all key measurements and expectations. By all accounts,
including Microsoft's own. Tango game Works made a hit and something wholly unlike
anything it made before before Higher Fire Rush. Tango game Works was known exclusively
for its survival horror games, including the Evil Within series and Ghost Wire Tokyo,
and an interview with Kind of Funny Games, xbox head Phil Spencer spoke
about how important it was for the studios like this to be able to find
make games outside their comfort zone. There's you know, more of this,
and there's actually a lot more from this this conversation that mont Booty had and
and we'll get to all those stories here in a second. This one,
like really struck a lot of people, though for obvious reasons. Right,
you say you want smaller games that can win awards, and I think in
a lot of people's estimation, that's exactly what High Fi Rush is. Now,
there is some back and forth online about whether or not High Fight Rush
is really a small game. It's like, you know, it took you
know, four or five years to make, it had a pretty significant team
size, and I get all that, but they charged thirty dollars for the
game. Jan Microsoft told us it was a small game. Who is anyone
else that disagree with that thirty dollars saying that, Hey, this game that
we're putting out from First Party Xbox thirty dollars. To me, that's like
the smallest kind of game that a company like that puts out. They don't
put out smaller games than that, so they want even smaller games that can
also win awards. To me, that that can't be what he means,
because that's crazy. The chances of you being a company that can make like
Bilatro, to be like, hey, we're going to be the company that
goes make it, goes and makes the next Bollatro. You don't just do
that. That's not something you say because it's not something you can do.
It's impossible to be like We're going to make the next breakout hit that comes
out of nowhere. No one can do that. If you could, everyone
would be doing it. So that's just crazy talk. So to me,
hi Fi Rush is exactly the kind of game he should be referring to here,
And if he's not, what is going on? I have no idea
what he's talking about. And it feels like that mad Booty has decided to
walk into the rake aisle at Home Depot because he's just stepping on all of
them. And to your point, Grub, we see the polar opposite happening
at Sony, where they invest so much into games as service, like live
service games, because they want to try and recapture the popularity of something like
Destiny to the original Destiny even and they're not able to do that when they're
purposely funneling money to do that. I don't trust Microsoft Xbox at this point
the even fund smaller projects, no at all, Like that does not seem
like that is in their interests at all, especially how they've been taking projects
and just putting all of those resources behind call of duty. And lord knows
what other candy crush other activision strong property properties that they have. And you're
right this whole time, no matter how what the arguments are online, Microsoft
themselves have constantly from the jump framed Hi Fi Rush as a smaller title.
It is one hundred percent that I think you should leave sketch with the hot
dog suit of like we're trying to find the guy who did this, and
like you had the studio, you had the foothold in Japan, yet for
whatever metrics, for whatever reason, you deemed that Tango Game Works, High
Fi Rush was not up to your standards that you yourself are defining. Because
you are constantly moving this goalpost to try and seem like you y'all are not
in the wrong. Yeah, and I think that there's more details in this
next story kind of played to that. Xbox will reportedly cut more jobs.
Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a number of their studios were being shuttered,
including the aforementioned Arkane Austin and Tango Game Works and Alpha Dog Games, while
Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed into ZeniMax Online Studios to work on the Elder Scrolls
Online as followse that nineteen hundred layoffs earlier this year. According to Bloomberg's reliable
Jason Schreyer, folks across the Xbox organization have been told more cuts are on
the way. It's unclear at the moment which divisions will be affected, or
if any more studio closures could be in the cards, while it was already
fairly clear according to Shrine reporting, the closing of Arkane Austin and Tango Game
Works came as a shock to the employees as both studios were in the process
of pitching new games and staffing up for future developments. Tango was said to
be pitching a sequel to High Fi Rush Well, Arkane was pitching a new
single player immersive sim in the vein of the dishonored games. Uh put Per
Schreier at an internal town Halls Zinny Max Media had Joe Braf Sinney Max Is,
the umbrella company for Bethesta, said the goal is to focus on on
Bethesta with fewer, bigger projects. So it's okay, already we're like mixed
messaging fewer, bigger projects, Matt Booty says, I honestly, I don't
really think Matt Booty meant what he said. That's that's let's like say that
first. He said, Hey, we want smaller things that are gonna win
awards and be prestigious. I don't really think I believe that anymore. I
think he's just kind of saying that because it's something to say. Does that
sound right? At when and where did he say this again? Greb he
said this an internal I think he said this is as part of the same
town hall. I believe so in tuning turn and turnally to other employees.
I think you have to know Matt Booty at that point went after announcing,
like these studio closures that whatever you say is is going to get spun off
and you have to take much more careful attention to what you're saying in this
very precious and tumultuous moment within your own company. And whether or not he
intended to say that, like we want smaller games like that win awards,
like, isn't that just the general goal across the board. Matt yep,
and like whether or not he meant what he said, like, I still
feel like there's a grain of truth there that they want to reap the rewards,
but not with anything that they have planted over the last couple of years.
Grub. They just want to They just want in Like their their patterns
so far has just been like massive acquisitions and just taking what is working there
and like completely forgetting whatever they have planned for the last couple of years.
Yeah, and I think, you know, a lot of this stuff is
like timing. And I also, I mean, I think it's for vision.
I think what really happened here was the cart done as got before the
horse again. And I think this is the same problem that happened with Skyrim.
I think, like I'm sorry, Starfield, excuse me. Starfield was
like hey, over Bethesta, they would say things like, hey, we're
looking at how people play Skyrim, and they play a game for ten years,
and so we're we're going to make this game one of those games,
and we're going to focus on the stuff that's going to keep people playing for
ten years. And they didn't get all the basic shit right in the first
place. I think when Microsoft was approaching like their future with Xbox. I
think they're like, hey, we have game Pass and subscriptions, and they
would say things like there's two billion people playing video games in the world,
and we want to get them in the Xbox ecosystem. And they were looking
so far into the future that they didn't realize like they needed to get the
fundamentals right now or else they would spoil this entire generation. And now there's
this a terrible sentiment around Xbox and people aren't buying the hardware, and so
the game Pass isn't growing, and game Pass with the you know, I
talked to Phil about this on the couch last year. Hey, it seems
like you need to sell more Xboxes to get people on game Pass, and
you'd say, well, you know, it's growing faster on PC, and
yeah, I'm sure that's true. But the most likely scenario to get game
Pass to grow like long term is to get them into the hardware right now,
because that guarantees most of those people are going to get on to game
Pass, and that's not happening. So they have like several hurdles and roadblocks
and troublesome spots in front of them right now that prevents them from succeeding in
the immediate future. And it's all because I think they were blinded by this
long term vision that they first saw, and now they have no bridge to
get over that gap. There's nothing between them to help sustain them until they
get to that point. So they're left with the only option of cutting costs.
And that's you know what the story says, that's they're probably going to
cut more jobs because they're looking to cut more costs. And at a certain
point, it's okay, yeah, why is that happening? Well, I
think we can all trace it back to you spent sixty nine billion dollars on
Activision, and so now Satia and Adela is paying more attention to you,
and that seems to be exactly what happened. The I have sore on,
as everyone keeps saying, has turned onto Xbox, and it's like, hey,
you before you were fine. It's like you were kind of a rounding
air. You were kind of this thing where we could let you do your
thing over on the side. Even when you're buying Bethesda, Eh, a
few billion dollars, what's that to Microsoft? When you can start like getting
close up like to one hundred billion dollars spent on these acquisitions. Now it's
like, hey, where is that money going? How is it working for
us? You said it would work really well for us, is it?
And I think the only way to make that like profit margin look correct at
this moment is cutting costs because they're not making more money, no, and
like they're not I you know, I hate to just use a basic word,
but they're not winning crub right, They're not winning any of these races
or any of these investments. And it just feels like it feels like a
lot of mismanagement, like straight up of like buying and acquiring all of these
studios and not looking at the road directly in front of them was never going
to pan out well. Like they're making a lot of extreme bets on completely
unproven things in this moment. It's fine that game Pass is growing on PC,
but you're right, like those people on PC have multiple options to play
other games. They're If you were playing Xbox game Pass on PC, that
is not your only means. That is not your only game front. If
you're playing on a PC Xbox, that is your only means to go play
them, unless you're buying the physical games or downloading them from the store.
It just seems like they have been making every wrong decision and uh not not
taking the responsibility of said decisions grab and trying to mask it by having these
bigger stories and bigger moments of like, well, we just acquired these guys
and like this is going to fix everything. And none of these acquisitions ever
have been an instant fix for either side of the company. No, yeah,
and it's exactly and I think that's what happened with we will fill out
game Pass by acquiring things and that will be the future. And it's like,
No, the future was and always has been and seems like it's going
to continue to be. Maybe it'll change some day. Making great games that
people can't ignore. I mean, it's so basic that it feels silly to
even say that at this point. But you know, Starfield didn't hit,
Halo didn't hit. If these things had that, I think that does move
the needle for game Pass and getting people onto that ecosystem and being like,
hey, an Xbox is worth it. So this is a game I can't
ignore. And these games are definitely games that people felt like they can ignore
for whatever reason. However, however, anyone feels about them personally, whatever,
the masses did not glomb onto those games in the way that they have
with an Elder Ring or like even a Dragon's Dogma two or something like that,
where it's say, hey, we were going in to see what this
game is all about. That wasn't happening with those games, and that's that's
the key issue, is that that would have been the solve, the solution
to the immediate problem, and instead they seem to be focused on these long
term things, assuming that everything would go swimmingly and it hasn't. Now that
leads into the next story. After buying up studios, Xbox says it doesn't
have the resources to run them. This is from zax Swiz and Ekotaku.
After shutting down multiple pathes the studios, Xbox and Bethesa leadership held a town
hall meeting with staff to discuss the closures, explaining that the company's studios had
been spread too thin and that it wanted to focus on fewer projects moving forward.
On May seventh, Xbox announced that it was closing three studios and over
that, as reported by Bloomberg. During the meeting, Booty praised Hi Fi
Rush, but wouldn't go into specific details on why the studio behind the colorful
action game had been shut down. Speaking more broadly about the closes, Boody
reportedly explained that Xbox ANDMPATHESSA the studios had become spread too thin like peanut butter
on bread, sounded like Bilbo Baggin's over there, and that team leaders felt
understaffed, the idea being that by closing studios Xbox with free up resources elsewhere
within the company. Booty also told staff at the meeting that our King Austin
studio had had nothing to do. The closing had nothing to do with Redfall
flopping with fans and critics. Reportedly, both Tango and R Kane Austin had
pitched games to work on next, including a High Fi Rush sequel and possibly
a new Dishonored or similar single player immersive simlit game. Those likely won't happen.
They definitely won't happen. Greb. Yeah, none of this makes any
sense with any of the stories that we've been reading on this website, on
game mess and BombCast, where Microsoft wants all of these little different brands to
operate independently. What do you mean leadership is feels spread thin when it doesn't
feel like there was leadership to begin with. And like Phil even said,
I think during that kind of funny interview that they should have stepped in sooner
during the process for Redfall, and then they could have avoided Redfall being how
it was. I don't get it, grub, and it feels like Microsoft
doesn't have strong brand identity, and everything that I associated with Xbox has kind
of gone out the window or is kind of like slowly like stepped back into
the shadows. Like I don't care about Halo anymore. I don't think about
it. Even if a Gear six is coming this schef, I don't quite
care about it. Even if they were to announce a new Xbox, it
doesn't feel like they themselves are behind a new physical console. And that sentiment,
I think is also slowly eging its way out into like the general gaming
populace. And we've seen the proof with the sales that it's like, what
are y'all trying to sell? What are y'all trying to do? It can't
just be game pass, it can't just be acquiring things. Because Call of
Duty, candy Crush, we joke around about that being like the main cash
cows now, but those cash cows are eventually going to dry up and can't
support your whole gaming business. Yeah, it just seems insane. And I
think it feels like they realized at some point that the hands off the way
of doing things, the hands off style of management, was causing them a
lot of problems that they would have to fix later. And one, they
didn't have the capacity or of skills to fix those problems at that point.
And then two, when they are like, Okay, we need to step
in earlier and start guiding some of these studios and giving them the resources and
the support they need earlier, they're like, oh, because we set it
up to be a hands off structure and everyone was sort of in charge of
themselves, we now no longer have the ability to get to each one of
these studios in any real way because there's so many of them them. Uh
something that these are criticisms people have lobbed at Microsoft for years now, and
so it's like, Okay, well you could have just you didn't think about
this before. And it's like maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Whatever,
They're at this point where now, okay, they feel like they have
to change something and in order to rain this whole thing in, And let's
be clear, they're raining it in not just like make it easier to manage
and all that stuff. It's to save money. They want to be spending
less money. That's what this is really all about. They're cutting costs,
and they're and they're so they're cutting jobs, and they're going to keep these
ips and maybe do something again with them one day. But while the while,
like the pickings are slim in terms of, hey, the economy has
had this downturn and people are spending less on games and capital is hard to
come by, it's more expensive. And in the meantime they're like, okay,
let's pull back spending, cut jobs. And and I think the other
point that you made about like this lack of vision, there isn't there's no
sort of like fallback, fallback position, like let's get back to the basics,
let's get back to what Microsoft does with games, because they've sort of
sullied all of that. The lack of vision has made it so there is
no ground to return to. And that's why I think they're scrambling so hard
and why this feels like such a huge mess and kind of why we've been
in this situation over and over again with Xbox in various ways. Again,
this just all feels very similar last year, just like when Redfall was going
really bad, but now at a much bigger scale and in a world where
the economy is much worse off. So yeah, I don't listen. I
think Microsoft's going to get through this whatever. I just don't know why,
Like, tell me why I care if you get through it or not,
because it just seems like if I'm here to be playing games, I don't
feel like I can rely on you to provide that. And then when I
think about the other side of it, Hey, are you a good place
to provide a home for developers to be creative? Doesn't seem like that's happening
either, So what are you? What is the vision? Yeah, and
especially with what is in the horizon for twenty twenty five, twenty twenty six,
you have GTA six coming out. Are folks like gonna flock to an
Xbox to play GTA six or are they just going to assume that, like
the Xbox is kind of washed at this point, Harry Potter, that thing's
going to get associated with g with PS five so hard and especially if like
the PS five proje drops this holiday season, people are gonna think like that's
a new hotness. I couldn't get my hands on a PS five, I
can get my hands on a PS five pro or the inverse, right,
they can't get their hands on a PS five pro PS fives are now more
readily available. I'm gonna get that in preparation for GTA six. I'm gonna
go play Harry Potter because I think that's the only thing I can play it
on. Because like, despite the sentiment of Xbox saying We're going to meet
the gamers where they are, I don't think they know where the gamers are
anymore. Yeah, And I think that trying to meet the gamers where they
are, they'll I think they're gonna be like, Okay, we don't care.
Yeah, I'm we are already playing the games we want to be playing.
We've decided, We've already decided, like like jin jin x and millennials
have all sort of like solidified in how they're gonna be doing things. Uh,
and they think, okay, so now that means you've got to try
to win over gen Z. Feels like gen Z's already kind of decided as
well, Like they're playing their games on their phone and they're playing a handsful
game actually, and like that's the insane thing. Grub is like Microsoft is
was slowly and now quickly losing who could have been their next core audience to
phones. Yeah, like, I'm sure there's Call of Duty Mobile, but
there's a hundred other shooters out there, Fortnite and everything. Uh niek that
game that Sean was bringing up by the Stellar Blade people, the Shaky Lady
game. Yeah, yeah, what does the Shaky Lady game smell like?
Grub smells like tire fire. I don't know, man, what the situation
is? Good commentary, Dan, Thanks your input, Dan reichert uh all
right, more from this, let's see here. The next story is Call
of Duty on game Pass is not guaranteed. Microsoft is having internal debates about
that. This is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot. When Microsoft closed its acquisition
of Activision Blizzerd last year, some players assumed this meant the next installment in
the Call of Duty franchise would hit game Pass on day one of its release,
but according to a new report, that may not be the case.
Per the report, Microsoft has had internal debates about whether to put Call of
Duty's latest release on game Pass. Call of Duty is one of the top
selling video game series in the world, and there's apparently concern that placing the
next title on game Pass will only hurt its revenue stream. Per the report
from The Verge, Microsoft is considered another increase of the price of game Pass
ultimate. Since a final decision hasn't been made, it could mean we will
see still see a future where Call of Duty release appears on most versions of
game Pass. Okay, I mean I think this is the same story.
We've also kind of assumed at this point that these these games that come out
on game Pass don't make as much money from day one sales. I mean,
that was definitely the story with ty Fi Rush, and that stills the
story I'm sticking by because that's what happened. But it's like a lot of
games experience that. And the point was, well, game Pass is going
to keep growing and that will justify it. Now, game passes stopped growing
because the xboxes stopped selling. That's the reason that's happened. That is just
straight up what has happened, regardless of what they say, And so now
they're at this crossroad where there's this wall in front of them and they have
this like catch twenty two of well the only way to get game Pass to
keep growing and some more xboxes that get people excited about game Pass. But
now if we do that, then we're not making enough money. And at
Microsoft, Satia and Adella expects us to be making money, and so we
can't put Call of Duty on game Pass because then we'll lose the money out
from that. That's a shitty position to be in. I understand that.
But at a certain point, so we're abandoning in it? Is that what
the discussion is, because it's not just like Call of Duty nine game Pass.
That is, if you make that this that is full up admitting defeat.
And I think it's a full on reson recession from that position, like,
hey, we are we are conceding that space that is no longer the
goal and maybe it shouldn't be. But that's the conversation, right jan Yeah,
like the previous couple of years, they've been pushing game Pass so hard
as like their bread and butter, more so than the consoles at this point
that if you are not putting this or Call of Duty excuse me. On
game Pass, it feels like they're not even treating the thing that they've been
pushing as like an important piece of their puzzle. Yeah. It invalidates like
everything that they've been saying in terms of like game Pass and like how integral
it is to their business. When they're not putting what could potentially draw more
people to their business. I don't like, have they thought tried like writing
these thoughts out on a whiteboard? Yeah? Right, Like people are like
hey, in the chatter, say hey, they should have this kind station
before, and it's like, stars are I understand That's not how Microsoft does
it. They like they buy it and then they have conversations and they do
research and they figure things out later. And again I think that goes back
to the lack of vision. But it's like for these years, as we
would have these conversations Jan, we'd be like, Okay, the future of
and I smell it, Dan, don't worry. I promise you I smell
it the future of game Pass. Sure, it's going to be hard and
s eah it's it's peaking at thirty thirty five million whatever. But as they
sell more xboxes, things will go find in the way you sell more Xboxes
is to make games that people make people want to get an Xbox. And
I just assumed this entire time they fully understood that and that's what they were
doing, so all these other problems would sort of be like, Okay,
yeah, that's a problem now, but they'll be able to solve it later.
And now it's like that, you know, making these games is hard.
Obviously, I think they are like, hey, we had that with
Starfield, and that's going to be the answer to our solution. But when
it wasn't, I think they immediately were like, nothing else is going to
do that. We really have to rethink everything. So I'm mean the way
I'm reading this is they have conceded they are more interested in like, hey,
let's put more games on PlayStation. That's actually where we're gonna make more
money than putting more games on game Pass. And okay, fine, that's
again. I get it. You've got bills to pay, you made a
lot of acquisitions, you have bosses to satisfy. I get that. But
the second that people get like as soon as the win comes out of that
company, like oh the rushes out and everyone's say, oh wait, things
have changed the last almost ten years of you talking about game Pass and that
being the future and best deal in gaming, and you know, get this
one service and you'll be able to play all these games. So once that
cracks, I think the underlying fundamental trust in Xbox and this leadership team is
broken for good. Obviously a lot of people have already felt like it's been
broken, but at that point, it's like, you, no, we
trusted this whole process. We thought we were moving in the same direction.
We bought into it. Once you back off from that, I just don't
know if I can go along with this ride anymore. And then I think
it's like Xbox feels done at that point. I don't know, not to
be so dramatic, but it feels that way. Yeah, Like I I
don't want to think that, because you know, more competition is healthy to
the industry as a whole. But it feels like they're just grabage. Just
feels like they didn't check the weather. Yeah, it feels like they're they're
stepping out into a rainstorm of flip flops and uh and and and uh tank
top. You know, like, buddy, you could have you could have
avoided all of this. You're spending too much money. Well, maybe don't
spend the money yep, yeah, like grew up. Like it's also hard
to feel bad overall though, because it's like what are y'all do it?
Right? Look at a Google sheet, y'all like learn basic fargula as an
excel and and like it. It is just if it is destroying our confidence
or like removing their credibility, like amongst like folks that tune into to this
program right visit Kataku, Verge, et cetera, then I have to imagine
that that same sentiment is also spreading out across gaming as a whole, where
like folks are less and less interested in xboxes. You know, it doesn't
matter how many special addition SpongeBob skinned xboxes you come out with, it is
not going to be enough to sell this. And also it's like cool,
I can get stuff on game Pass, But like when you have other means
of playing games that are becoming more accessible, like an Asis Roger, a
Steam deck where you can play PC games, and like those are reaching more
audiences than ever, it's like why why would I go here? Yeah?
And like the and for some people that like were caught is not their main
jam. They have already gone to PlayStation, They've already gone to the Nintendo
Switch. Yeah, you don't have the casual audience. And they don't have
like the Triple A Blockbuster audience at all either, and like that multiplayer experience.
People have already gone to PlayStation for that PC, they've gotten out of
games PC, or they've gone to mobile. Yeah. Yeah, And I
like to wrap this up, like, go back before we get to the
next story. If I had Hi Fi Rush in front of me and I
was in charge of that company, I'm like, this is not thirty dollars.
This is let's make a big deal out of this. Let's make a
take a stand, let's believe in this game. Let's say this is the
future of Xbox. Make a big deal out of it. And you know,
I don't think that necessarily changes a lot of the calculus of how the
game like makes money, but I think having like make it a statement that
that is what you're going for, that is an identity you can build around.
And it just seems like they had no sense of that. Even once
the game was out there and was doing well, and yeah they were,
they would defend it and say, yeah, we really are happy with Tingo
GameWorks in this game. That's the most they ever really said. And it
just felt like if you can't make if you can't take a w like that
and make it work for you, that speaks volumes about what you're capable of
doing when you have other good games, and it's like in the meantime,
while you have games that are either floundering or missing the mark, it's like,
well, no wonder you can't figure things out because even when you have
one in front of you that is great, you don't know what to do
with it. So yeah, and even if we're looking at supposedly smaller games
something like intimate, like for a while I associated Xbox when like some of
Arcade was a massive thing of like, oh cool these indie games I can't
check out on a PC. They're coming out on Xbox. I can check
these out here. Like smaller neat titles, you could they could have gone
behind Pentiment in a major way where like yo, if if like Halo's not
your bag, we also have like a wide variety of projects neat titles like
this like if if you are not that type of gamer, we have everything
else in our catalog to like pacify you to keep you here? Yeah,
I do. What Like at a certain point, like Phil has been there
a long time, well he might, he must still believe in this to
be sticking around. It's like, you know, he's probably made enough money
he could just leave, right, Like, at a certain point, he
must believe in something here still. I mean, because why keep going through
this? Why keep like putting up with over and over again, having to
come out and speak on behalf of what you're doing, and then have people
like getting mad for justifiable reasons and having to do the apology tours and then
having people get sick of your apology tours at a certain point, like why
not just why not just leave? Not that I'm I'm not the masket,
That's not what I'm saying. I'm just wondering, like why do you think
they keep sticking? He's hiding a child grub? Okay, well now shit,
I'm not up on the beef scene, So I didn't know that.
Okay, dbl Philly, Okay, that makes a lot more sense this track.
So that's where you should get all the game news, all right,
help Lay two is getting marketed ahead of launch Xbox. That's according to an
Xbox exec who insisted that amid criticism, this is from Eddi McCoo at GameSpot.
Sinua's saga Helblay two releases on May twenty first, and some people online
have criticized Xbox for not doing enough, in their eyes to promote promote the
game ahead of launch. Aaron Greenberg, a longtime marketing executive for Xbox,
has responded to this, saying a global paid media campaign for the game just
began on May eighth. The promotional campaign is live on YouTube, HBO,
Max, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Samsung and more. Additionally, Xbox
is hosting a creator event help promote the game right now in Iceland. Greenberg
said Microsoft has more promotional activities in the works for help Lay two, including
ads for the game and movie theaters with particular brands and via a zonce Fire
TV platform, among other places. I think this is an example jan of
increased scrutiny because of other things not hitting. A lot of games have like
have had shorter marketing campaign pains that's are like, that's an in vogue thing,
that's a trendy thing right now and has been for a long time.
So this game coming out later this month, the campaign's starting right now,
a couple weeks before it comes out. That's not too strange, But that
doesn't mean it's probably still worthy of talk about and criticizing. Like, do
you think they should have started talking about this game earlier? I think so,
especially when folks may be confused as to what this game is and like
if they if they need this game Grub to be a big hit. I
think you've got to start marketing it's sooner. I don't know if you run
into the problem of like it puts a bad taste in people's mouth and they
feel like it's oversaturated. But we'll start talking about the game at the end
of Oh you're back, You're fully back. I think we're okay, just
lost you for a second. And oh it's my internet though, Okay,
I'm dropping frames here. You see here, let me see if that's going
to bounce back. Yeah, I think Phil's coming for us. I think
we should be back, keep going jan Yeah, I I I don't think
that you run into the problem of oversaturation if you try and market this game
as early as March. Perhaps, but I think you're you could at least
better position it where it doesn't uh like annoy gamers to the point where it's
like Monopoly go on your TikTok feed or it is like the same slide that
you see over and over again. Also just like building like some type of
brand recognition with it, because to be honest, I constantly forget what this
game is. Yep. I mean, I'm not someone who's too into hell
Blade, and so hell Blade Too is going to be one of those wait
and see for me always, and the marketing campaign's probably not going to change
that. I don't know. A couple of times I've seen this game in
like the showcases and been like, just technically, it looks so cool and
these scenes look dynamic. Maybe they're not, but I think there's a chance
that it could be my kind of thing in some of these combat scenarios.
But overall, like I'm like, I didn't jive with Helblaid one and so
I'm not expecting much from Helblay two. But that's me. I think.
You know, people are noticing this lack of talking about the game, and
since then, like like Greenberg says, people have started saying, oh,
I am seeing it on Reddit, I am seeing it pop up on YouTube,
and things like that. When I turn on my TV and go to
the YouTube app. But I think a lot of people are also like,
hey, what's up with this? Like Xbox ad I'm sorry, Xbox tweet
that just is like sin you with Saga Helblay two May twenty first and then
a picture of Sinua. It's weird. It's well, it's a weird thing.
Like I mean, okay, I'm no social media person, but the
social media people I know Sean was in and Cha. I think Nicky's gonna
say the same thing. It's it's not a good tweet like this doesn't like
create that sense of urgency right that you're supposed to be creating. Grub,
I don't think they even used like anything in their press kit for this.
Yeah, I think they took a screenshot from the trailer. Yeah. It
also do you see Opera gx's reply to this tweet? Oh now, let
me see here. I can't believe they also close their marketing department, Opera
GX going after them. Hey, you know on Opera g X there's a
key shortcut. I've always meant to talk about this, and I always forget.
This is the gamer browser, everybody, there's a shortcut that you coul
hit when you're on YouTube, and it will bring up little reaction gifts so
you can like do like screen captures or whatever, or if you're streaming,
it'll be like, hey, here's a little reaction gift. And they've taken
many of the clips from this show and put me in there because they wanted
me to talk about it. So say, hey, I'm in the gamer
browser. Now everybody shout outs to Opera GX. I'm not getting any money
for that, so yeah, there you go, cut the gift. I
guess all right, you know what we should do. Let's take a quick
break. When we get back, a few more headlines to talk about the
news should start turning positive, princesses positive here anything, I don't smoke cigarettes.
Oh no, they're on my internet again. All right, fade to
black. Right, we'll be right back, everybody. All right, we're
back, and I have to use the local recording for this one. We
put this up on you on the podcast feeds. We'll see all right,
soon your Nintendo switch won't connect to Twitter anymore. That's the next headline from
John Welker at Kotaku. Elon Musk continues to run Twitter in a variety of
questionable ways, and surely one of the autists is the decision to charge vast
amounts of money for access to the site's API. As such, major firms
are dropping integration with the Hell site, the latest being Nintendo. From June
tenth, you will no longer be able to share screenshots and video from your
switch to the app. Time was Twitter offered access to its API. The
mechanism protocols WAIT, by which two different pieces of software can communicate with one
another, to encourage other apps to interact with the social media companies systems in
a way that you would think would be a good thing. If you remember
the days of downloading those Chrome extensions that would let your Twitter pop out of
the taskbar, or found a fun site that analyzes the content of your feed,
it would be using that API. But in Musk's infinite wisdom, back
in February twenty twenty three, the so called Twitter announced it would be charging
for access. And it's like forty thousand dollars a month for some companies or
something like that. It's crazy. Microsoft and Sonya both already done this.
Nintendo has done this now as always, Twitter came out and was like we
love gamers, and you know we're gonna keep things cool. You should just
download stuff to your phone and then tweet it. So what the fuck are
you talking about? What are you talking? That's so stupid? Okay.
If I had a platform that was about like getting people to come on there
and see what other people are saying, and there were these giant corporations that
were making sure that like all the cool game and stuff that was happening gets
posted to Twitter first and for free. Like as a company, I don't
have to pay for them to do that. They want to do that,
and instead idea is what if we charge them? He is so fucking stupid,
jan I cannot stand it. I just I just just just it needs
to go away. It needs to go away, and then we'll all be
free. Grub, Yes, yeah, I want to be free. Doesn't
make any sense. It doesn't make any sense, Grub, because like it's
exactly like what you said, you want people to use the platform, babe,
let's make it easy for companies to use the platform. A little tidbit.
I use this app called time Hop, and time Hop you just lost
like your your social accounts and everything, like Instagram shows you what you did
this day last previous years. One of the fun things was like seeing my
tweets over the last couple of years of like, oh this is where I
was at this moment. Oh that's cool. Oh I'm a dumbass. And
they when Musk took over, they saw that API cost and they're like,
fuck y'all, we're not paying for however much a month. And then if
you have all these other companies dropping out CB, not just gaming but like
other social social platforms, it's like, did you not like making money?
Elon Musk? Do you do? Are you that much of like a prick?
And it's like he's the grand idea all along was let's get some more
money from the people using the platform. Like that's a good idea. And
it's like you have Lebron James creating content for your site and he's not asking
for money from you. He's doing it for free. Can you imagine what
any other website would pay Lebron James to write stuff for them and you're getting
it for free. And your idea was let's charge him eight dollars per month.
Now eventually they changed that and like, we'll just give a to people
who are important, like they did originally, but he's like, no,
let's let's let's like, you know, we're we're going to charge them.
That's a great idea. It is just such a dumb person's idea of how
to run a company, clearly, and uh man, this is another example
of it. They I don't even get, like, who's the person on
X gaming you know the Twitter gaming profile writing. The gaming community is one
of the largest and most vibrant communities on our platform, and we are dedicated
to enhancing and supporting gaming related features. As part of Nintendo's plan discontinuation of
sharing content to X from the Nintendo Switch from June eleventh, users will need
to download switch gameplay media directly to their smartphones and share it natively on our
platform. Our partnership with Nintendo remains strong and we are working together to ensure
a smooth transition for all users. We will continue collaborating with partners to bring
new and exciting experiences to our global gaming community. The smooth transition thing,
that's just bullshit, right, that's they're just saying that there's nothing happening there,
right, No, there's nothing happening Already, Lost PlayStation and Microsoft on
their platforms. They're not gonna do jack shit to pacify Nintendo. Yep,
and that should be honored that Nintendo even figured OUTPI right doesn't know what an
API is? Yeah, they just bought it either at Cord last week.
Oh boy, got we're talking. We're make up on a Nintendo's Internet while
mine is breaking right actively, we keep popping back immediately. I think someone
else is outside just shaking my internet cable. All right, let's let's wrap
up this show. Then. Warner Brothers CEO says disappointing Suicide Squad released was
overshadowed and that overshadowed its overall financial situation for the entire studio. This is
from Chris Going at PGC, The CEO and president of Warner Brothers Discovery,
has singled out Suicide Squad Killed the Justice League as the reasoning for the underwhelming
Q one results for its entire studios division. During a financial presentation, David
Saslov, a big fan of the show, said the studio's division, which
includes Warner Brothers Pictures DC, Warner Brothers Television Group, Warner Brothers Games,
and New Line Cinema, saw a decrease in revenues compared to the previous year.
Zaslov said that was mainly down to the difference between the successful release of
Hogwarts Legacy last year and the disappointing release of the Suicide Squad game this year.
Warner Brothers Discovery is great storytelling IP including Harry Potter, Lord of the
Rings, Superman, and many other parts of the DC universe are largely underused.
Zaslov said, we are hard at work fixing that. It's a core
value and a key advantage for us. We have the characters and the stories
people love and yearned for everywhere in the world, in every language, and
then went on to blame a Suicide Squad, which I'm sure did underperform.
Absolutely, that seems like it was a bad idea. But yeah, what
do you think the future is for rock Steady? What do you think the
future is for DC video games? I don't know. It's at this point.
It's another mess, right. Unfortunately, it does feel like a mess
grub and it doesn't. I don't see a bright future or an immediate fix
because I mean, the next upcoming DC game is a meta exclusive, and
I don't think that is necessarily going to ascify or excite that existing Batman audience.
DC has been in a tricky spot constantly, haven't they, like,
not only with games, but like their movies. And it felt like for
a while they were the leader in terms of like superhero games, right,
Like definitely Arkham games. Arkham games were massive and huge successes critically and commercially.
Yeah, I think they they forgot that they made those games, yep,
and yeah that like Black Mamba says, what about the Wonder Woman game
that's still coming? And it's like, well, oh, that's interesting because
we we just heard recently on the movie side of things. I can't remember
the name of the director of apologies, but she was saying that the WB
is not interested in making any more Wonder Woman movie. It's like, so
they've lost their appetite for Wonder Woman movies. I wonder how they're feeling about
this game at this point. I bet they're looking at that like you're gonna
be the next suicide Squad, aren't you. Regardless of what's gonna happen with
that game, it might not be. I bet it's gonna be pretty decent
and could have a chance to pop off. But I bet I bet Warner
Brothers and David Saslav don't believe in that game. I I frankly forgot about
it, and I think they may have also forgotten about it. And then
once they remember it's it's gonna get suicide suicide squatted. Yeah, I guess
of like, uh, just put out the pasture. I really did hate
Wonder Woman eighty four. I didn't finish that movie. I got pulsive.
I just I do not know what it was. I just couldn't stand watching
that movie. We we could talk about Galgadot's other Oh yeah, yes,
but like her ability to act has always left a lot to be desired.
Yes, definitely, I was part of it, but there's just something about
that movie across the board. I was like, it gives me the and
I'm okay with Kristin Wig, but like, I don't know if i'd cast
Kristen Wig as like a main villain. Yeah, and then the choice maybe
uh kind of Ah, we don't need to talk about more. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I was just thinking about that weird bit in that movie
the other day. I'm like, how would you pull that off? You
just wouldn't try, You just wouldn't do it. Yeah, yeah, you
just don't do that. The whole storyline. All right, let's see here
last two stories. Capcom announced this seventh consecutive year of record results. This
is from Jordan Miller at VGC. Here's the good news, everybody. Capcom
has recorded a seventh consecutive year of record high profits, profits fueled by sales
of the Resident Evils, Street Fighter and Dragon's Dogmas franchises. In its financial
results released on Thursday, which covers the year ending on March thirty first,
the Japanese publisher announced another year of record growth. These results also mark the
company's eleventh consecutive year of operating income growth. Net sales were around nine hundred
and seventy seven million dollars, which is up twenty one percent year over year.
Operating income was at three hundre and sixty six million dollars, which is
up twelve point three percent year over year. Ordinary income was three hundred and
eighty one million dollars, which is up fifteen percent year over year. There's
basically up across the board and up double digit percentage points, and not like
weak, like oh the ten point five percent, like fifteen percent in some
of these areas. It is this is the growth everyone is looking for.
And I think everyone. I think this is also like does inform some of
the stuff that happens with Xbox right, where like we are going to focus
on fewer games and we're gonna make them better and bigger. We're gonna do
that, like that image of all the other games getting crossed off and what's
left at Bethesda is you know, a Starfield and Skyrim and Fallout and that's
it. It's like, yeah, I get that. You're you're in a
different business than Capcom though, and you're kind of behind the eight ball.
And Capcom has like done this from the ground up, where they built their
technology, and they did it one game at a time, and they got
Resid Evil remake going, they got Resident Evil seven going and like rescue that
franchise. And then they took that technology and applied it to the Street Fighter,
and then they took that technology and applied it to Dragon's Dogma and they
added open world stuff. They had this like deliberate plan that you can look
back on and be like smart people making smart decisions that best served their games
first. And those games are serving an audience that is clearly there and demanding
these things, and you're not doing that at most of these other companies,
but I would say especially Xbox, you know, not to make it a
point of comparison. Really this is this is a win for Capcom and and
they have earned it, right, I think so, especially with how much
they trust their IP because I knew that Monster Hunter was always popular, but
then Monster Hunter World like kind of took over as like a major tent poll
for Capcom moving forward, where people are like genuinely excited about Monster Hunter,
which we used to feel like a niche ip, and even with like Resident
Evil, like folks were high high on Resident Evil, but like they they
definitely bet on that horse. And it feels like Capcom is actually doing the
thing grub where they're planting seeds and then waiting for said seeds to grow and
remembering to water them. Absolutely and I don't know, it feels like they
know what type of company they are. They know they have a strong brand
identity and not saying that everything hits the mark, but like no, they
are like definitely producing very very strong titles like Hey, street Fighter five or
ass launch that soured a lot at people, but the bounce back from five
to six has been insane. It feels like a lot of lessons learned,
right, It feels like they learned from those experiences and applied them to make
everything better the next time around. And really they were learning lessons from a
bunch of other games to an applying that the street Fighter. Yeah, and
like they've taken like these niche titles like Monster Hunter, like Dragon's Dogma and
translated them in a way to hit the bigger mainstream audience. And hey,
people just pay attention to Capcom. Also Capcom like, let's make a new
beautiful Joe. What about that? Yeah, people in chat with the really
good idea of let the high five rush people go over to Capcom and make
a new beautiful Joe maybe in three d Oh, it doesn't that sound real
choice? That sounds like I would hit real nice. I'm fully on board
for that. Bricked up over here. This is the kind of thing where
I continue to be like Capcom is the model, It's what everyone wants.
All these companies are looking around. No matter what people say about Konami making
you know they're a bigger company in Capcom, they are not growing that.
They're actually shrinking. Konami's losing money here and there where Capcom seven years in
a row of profit growth and eleven years of revenue growth. It is undeniable
what they've done, and it is a model that I do think is replicable.
That's why people keep looking over at Capcom. It's like, Hey,
if we focus on the games that work, and we have a strong grasp
on the technology that we're using. I don't think everyone has to make their
own engine anymore. You can still use on real but if you're going to
do that, commit to it and know that's what you're doing, and it's
easier said than done. I get that, and this choice made three or
four years ago can still be affecting you well into the future. But at
a certain point you got to just grab parts of this company by the horns
and direct it, push it in a direction. And it doesn't feel like
that's happening at a lot of other video game companies, and at Capcom they
know how to wrangle their entire staff. I think it speaks volumes grub that
whenever we do bring up Capcom, we get excited about the ip that they
have laying in their back pocket. Yeah, versus when we talk about even
Sony to an extent of like, well, I don't know. Are they
going to bring back Ratchet and clientk? Are they going to bring back sky
Cooper? Yet when we bring up Capcom, we're excited about like, oh,
they could bring back beautiful Joe God Hand Mega Man. I don't know
why I was about, say, my chemical Romance. They don't own my
Chemical Romance, but like there are other they have, like a treasure trove
of other ip that they could like bring out of the vault and and like
put a fresh new coat of paint on. Is Capcom the Ghost and Goblins
folks too? Yes? That is right? Hey, yo, give that
to Tango Game Works bringing Tango Game Works. Holy, that's a good idea.
That's like awesome, Actually, that'd be great. I kind of enjoyed
the Maximo games as like three D like action adventure game, make like a
fun cartoonish but still scary survival horror game that is also maybe a little from
softy with the Maximo Ghost and goblins. Why not like there was that on
this website? Ah, we should there was that crow Isometric pro Country.
No not Crow Country, Death's Door or something store? Okay, yes,
yes totally, And hey, take an idea like that and apply that to
something like Maximwell or anything else that I mean that Capcom has stuff people really
like that. Yeah, oh my god, Like I don't know. I
think about Okami and how you could take Okami and like do a breath of
the wild. Yeah, yeah, think about that Wolf ascending Grub. I
mean, I think that with the technology improvements that they're always making to the
reach for the Moon Engine, they will continue to get new ideas. And
I think when they give themselves the opportunity for growth, not like the growth
of oh, we're selling more games, but the growth of hey we're adding
a studio or something like that, we're establishing a new team. I think
that all those things are on the table, and I think that's like they're
going to do that deliberately, but I think they are going to do it.
It won't be like, hey, we are building up five new teams
all at once. That would be crazy. I think though, that they
have a good idea of like how can we take this momentum and add one
more layer on top, and then add one more layer on top, and
then take a break and read like reload, improve the technology, make sure
that we're keeping up on top of all that stuff. It just seems like
the model company that you want making video games, which couldn't be happier about.
I love Capcom and you know, like one of the games that didn't
quite necessarily hit I still think was the fun game was like Exo Primal,
right, Like, what a weird ass game? Yep, this raptor is
falling from the sky and it was like, hey, it's kind of cool.
Still, it's a novel idea. I'd be like, an evolution of
that idea could be Yep. I'm glad they tried to. You know,
there's another game called Exoborn coming out. I think that an exo Primal and
Nope, it's different from Exoprimal. It's a whole other game, all right,
last store here. Localizer eight four offers to help translate Retro Game Challenge
one plus two replay. This is from Ali Reynolds and Nintendo Life and this
is a story for me, Tokyo based Localizer eight four Limited, who we
have some affiliation with the site. The podcast lives on giant bomb dot com,
so heads up on that has offered to assist in translating Retro Game Challenge
one plus two replay. After Bandy Namco had confirmed that the game was not
being planned for a Western release, likely due to soft sales of the original
Retro Game Challenge on DS, which is a shame because that game rules and
everyone should go play it and start talking about it right now. Which publisher,
which publisher sure x Seed had previously stated would need to reach one hundred
thousand sales to justify a translation of the direct sequel. Band Dy Namco's Madori
sugu Yama, Yes suyama and in these zeros masunobo suzi suzio, I mean,
I'm sorry about that had spoken to Famitsu and to a state that an
official Western translation would not be happening. However, eight fours coo genre Richiardi
has taken to Twitter to state that the company would be happy to assist to
the translation duties so long as a publisher were to step forward. So basically
for us, like, hey, we see this. We worked on the
first one. We made Retro Game Challenge based on Game Center CX, which
is what the game is known as in Japan. They did a huge like
localization. They kind of changed almost everything about the way the game is presented
for the DS version, and they want they always wanted to do the second
one, never got a chance to, and now they're saying, hey,
we would do it, we just need a publisher to step forward. Now.
I think these games would do a lot better now than they did then.
Probably not like a million seller, but I think they can get over
to one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand probably. I mean they would be
cult hits, I think, And I love retro game Challenge, So I'm
really hopeful. Yeah, Greb you you seemed very excited about this on Twitter
last night. I'm like, all right, yeah, give the Homies at
eight for the bag so they can do this. And you know, I
again, their podcast lives on this website. I can't think of another group
of group of folks, another studio that could pull this off and knock it
out of the park. Yep, they would crush it, I would think.
So I hope they get a chance to do exactly that. All right,
whole question is coming up here in a second. There we go.
Man, I'm having like lots of technical problems. Yeah what did you hear
that? Yeah it's digital farts. Yeah yeah, that happened on my show.
Like someone was like pulling at a cable or something. Yeah, I'm
gonna have to I'm gonna have to look at everything. I don't know.
Everything's falling apart over here, everybody. But we have the poll question,
how many games have you purchased for the Nintendo Switch. Eleven percent said they
have purchased zero games. For one through five, fourteen percent have replied for
that one, and then fourteen percent said they have purchased six to ten games.
I'd like noticing like it just keeps going up in terms of number of
respondents. For eleven to twenty games, nineteen percent responded, and then forty
two percent said that they've purchased twenty one or more games. I wonder if
it's like if I would have kept adding like more tiers to that, if
more and more people would have been like, yeah, nope, I bought
thirty and forty games. I've you know, I'm easily at like forty or
fifty games on this thing, probably more than that. Uh. And I
think that's like legit, like purchase purchase games, not just codes that I
got. I got a lot of codes too, So yeah, are you
are you in the two twenty one or more? I think yeah, I
vote. I remember voting yesterday. I think I'm in the twenty one or
more. Yeah, I'm definitely in the twenty one or more. Oh man,
wait, is is astral Chain capcom? Uh? No? I think
I was Nintendo published. Oh, okay, okay, and then it was
Platinum made it. I think I think that's how that broke down. Okay,
I think I don't know why, but I've been thinking about astral Chain
a lot me too. Yeah. I saw a video of it and it's
like, what is this game? And then someone's like that that's astral Chain.
I'm like, this looks awesome. I wish it was sixty frames per
second, but it looks awesome. No, I might might give that a
try. But yeah, I think I regularly, despite having a massive SD
card installed into my switch, have to delete stuff because I'm like, oh,
I have too many games on this Yep, yeah, yeah, I
have. I have one terabyte in my my sweach and I started reaching the
limit of that recently. So yep, all right, new pole question coming
up here in a second. In the meantime, Jan what do we have
happening on the website this week? I believe we're going to attempt to play
Hell Divers two, probably an hour after this program. Also Voicemail Dump Truck
today with friends of the site, Evil Uno and Adam Cole Baybay. That's
been a special time, right, special time. An hour later than you
would normally expect a voicemail dump truck. So that's two pm UH Pacific and
five pm Eastern. And then tomorrow more game mess Uh. We were intention
we're originally going to plan and do a Stardu multiplayer for upfrub. There's like
a couple a bunch of games that have popped out, so maybe we should
just do a good old grab bag. Let's do a grab bag. That
sounds great. That stard Valley multiplayer idea, that's something we should come back
to though. But yeah, let's do a grab bag. There's plenty to
check in. Let's look at animal well, uh, animal, well,
little Kitty, Big City. Yeah, it's a big week for animals.
Animals are out there doing their thing everybody, and we're going to find out
about it on upf that's on Took a Plant and then BCR tomorrow as well
to cap off the week. No hot topic just yet, but hey,
rub Grub, I've been playing Indica. You have been Okay, I checked
it out because Lucy James seems to high on anics I know are checking this
out, so it's hey, Catholics. I'm not gonna say rise up because
that has caused a lot of non we don't need to say. I think
the Catholic Gina is much more subtle than that exactly. But hey, uh,
pay attention to the content warnings of the game for sure, but like,
yo, I don't want to spoil anything, but yo, well all
right, I'm gonna have to look into this for my For myself, I've
been playing Animal well that's what I've been doing. I'm trying to, like
I just started it. But h Russ fresh Deck reached out and said,
hey, you you should play this. You're gonna like it. I'm like,
okay, Russ, And then other people have said the same, like
why is everyone telling me to play this game? It's now I'm playing it
like waiting for it to be like when does it become a Jeff Grubb game.
It's good, but I'm like, I just like, is there supposed
to be this aha moment? I'm very early on so we'll see. Is
this this is the first game that Donkey has published Big modes first game.
As far as I can remember, it's Big Moades first game. It's simply
their biggest game. God, do you remember the outrage the internet? And
yeah, so many people were shitting on Donkey for thinking he can publish games.
Yeah, that was weird. It was especially where because it's like a
lot of people have done that by that point, and now especially at this
point, now everyone's done doing it. What's his name? The ball media
guy, the guy that sits on the medicine ball He's got his own game
company and ever everyone does. So yeah, yeah, weird, like Yog's
cast right, they published plenty of games for years and years and years.
Yeah, absolutely, so, hey what he turns to your dreams? My
children? Turns out what Indy devs need from a publisher is someone with money
in a platform. So there you go. All right, let's see here
new poll question. Do you did I come up with the pole question?
Let's see you know what? Yeah? I don't think I did. Here.
Let's see here, let's see and we got something right we could do?
Yeah? Okay, have you seen an ad for help blay two?
Yeah, there we go. Okay, so have you seen an ad for
hell Blay two an and for hel Blade two and then just yes or no,
there we go. We'll talk about that on Gamees Mornings on Giant Bomb
tomorrow where we'll get the results. Speak at a Giant Bomb. We just
hey, a little bit from now, Hell Divers two very likely. We'll
let you let you all know, but you know, don't go too far.
We'll probably send you off here in a second, but don't go too
far. We'll be back later today with lots of new stuff in the meantime,
Jan, thank you so much for hanging out with me today and talking
about video games. Man, I really appreciate it. That's my favorite way
to start a Thursday. And you're all the best audience in gaming. Uh.
I'm just glad I survived with all these smells happening. I'm glad I'm
off right now. Until next time, have a good one, take care
of yourself, and goodbye. Two