Xbox Pulls Game Pass Call of Duty Discount

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Games Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>Xbox trying to explain it's game Pass price increases, and
<v Speaker 1>the developer responsible for one of the most famous cameos
<v Speaker 1>ever is stepping away. It's gonna be good, a good
<v Speaker 1>one because with Jana Choe on the show.
<v Speaker 2>Jan how are you doing fantastic? Mister Grub. It's Friday. Uh,
<v Speaker 2>it's the end of the week. It's my goddamn month
<v Speaker 2>for multiple reasons, so I'm going to choose to have
<v Speaker 2>a good day. Grub.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's that's a big part of it, right, You
<v Speaker 1>just got to like select the select. Hey today, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna go.
<v Speaker 2>For it and U exactly positive or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, it's it's been. It was a good day
<v Speaker 1>for Grubby's yesterday. Let me see here. I am expecting
<v Speaker 1>a weird delivery. Souch. We're gonna keep an eye on
<v Speaker 1>my phone. Nope, that's good. Yeah, I am feeling pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>You know, the Tigers won the uh, you know, the
<v Speaker 1>Lions are gonna play this weekend. They're doing real well.
<v Speaker 1>So sports are good for the most part. That's fun.
<v Speaker 1>I conquered the man Breaker. I got up and over
<v Speaker 1>the man Breaker. Yes, it was very, very very relieved
<v Speaker 1>to do that. And you know what, and I came
<v Speaker 1>out the other side being like, man, that was a
<v Speaker 1>lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to
<v Speaker 1>do that. So and the game's not even over yet,
<v Speaker 1>and a big lady gave me up. He's jan I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if you saw it, but there was a
<v Speaker 1>big lady just picked me up and and she cradled
<v Speaker 1>me in her arms. It was it was a moving
<v Speaker 1>moment for me. Uh. And now I got to go
<v Speaker 1>up a train that's crashed, and then I think maybe
<v Speaker 1>the game will be over. It hard to tell.
<v Speaker 2>You're gonna have charted two moment.
<v Speaker 1>And his name's Nate. So yeah, I just throw throw
<v Speaker 1>Nate and a train and you got yourself a video
<v Speaker 1>game apparently. But yeah, that game's moved up my Game
<v Speaker 1>of the Year list for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Grub I will say I had a slightly worrying encounter
<v Speaker 2>last night and this dude to living in the Bay
<v Speaker 2>Area and it being Thursday night football and the Niners
<v Speaker 2>were playing. Yeah, I was taking the pup out for
<v Speaker 2>her nighttime walk, and because I live in an apartment,
<v Speaker 2>I hear in the courtyard someone just yelling.
<v Speaker 1>Are you fucking cuting me? Are you going to do
<v Speaker 1>this to me?
<v Speaker 2>Right now?
<v Speaker 3>And then I thought, oh no, there's like a domestic
<v Speaker 3>uh thing happening right now? Do I do I have
<v Speaker 3>to report something? Should I call the police? Is this
<v Speaker 3>gonna get bad?
<v Speaker 2>And then I hear a different apartment cheering, and then
<v Speaker 2>the guy that was originally yelling starts cheering. So I
<v Speaker 2>put one in one together, two and two together, and
<v Speaker 2>then ah, niners got it?
<v Speaker 1>Yep, niners. Yeah, yeah, they should not have played as
<v Speaker 1>well as they did in that game. They had so
<v Speaker 1>many people hurt. But uh hey that's uh, that's how
<v Speaker 1>it goes when they're playing against la Uh. They always
<v Speaker 1>kind of show up for those games. All right, we
<v Speaker 1>should explain ourselves and what we do here. We're Giant
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<v Speaker 1>appreciate anytime anyone gets the word of mouth out on
<v Speaker 1>the streets. As far as this show goes, most weekdays,
<v Speaker 1>I Jeff Grub will help piece your gaming life back together.
<v Speaker 1>That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
<v Speaker 1>own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
<v Speaker 1>input of a bona fide expert who will make me
<v Speaker 1>look smart. If you are watching live on Twitch, welcome.
<v Speaker 1>You can always listen to the show later on podcast
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<v Speaker 1>catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>Hello YouTube, all right, we have a lot to get into,
<v Speaker 1>so let's start the morning mess with a couple of reviews.
<v Speaker 1>We'll do this Nicktoons and the Dice of Destiny to
<v Speaker 1>reviews first. I started playing this game a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>mostly because, you know, the kids like SpongeBob. Addie loves SpongeBob.
<v Speaker 1>Andy pretends she doesn't, but she always watches it with
<v Speaker 1>Addie and she calls Patrick Starr stupid head the whole time.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, So we have a couple of reviews here.
<v Speaker 1>Nicktoons and the Dice. Dice of Destiny reviews are in.
<v Speaker 1>I've been playing this game, it's been It's a Diabolo clone.
<v Speaker 1>I am pretty into it so far. It's delivering kind
<v Speaker 1>of what it promises to do. I think this is
<v Speaker 1>this will be one the kids will be able to
<v Speaker 1>get into as well. It's simple, but it also has
<v Speaker 1>a nice sort of progression where you are getting gear
<v Speaker 1>and upgrades really fast, and that feels good. It has
<v Speaker 1>a seventy three on Open Critic three point five stars
<v Speaker 1>from Ski Throoshe at Hardcore Gamer, who says Nicktoons and
<v Speaker 1>the Dice of Destiny brings forward a spiritual successor to
<v Speaker 1>the classic Nicktoons Unite franchise, but does it live up
<v Speaker 1>to the legacy, and it's kind of a shaky on
<v Speaker 1>that now. Six point five out of ten from Mattie
<v Speaker 1>Fisher at Dual Shockers, who says Nicktoons and the Dice
<v Speaker 1>of Destiny is loaded with nostalgia callbacks to famous scenes
<v Speaker 1>and lines, but ultimately isn't as good as it could be.
<v Speaker 1>The limited fantasy setting, monotonous combat, and underwhelming world map
<v Speaker 1>are helped slightly by its wonderfully authentic voices and fun story.
<v Speaker 1>If you grew up watching these cartoons, chances are you'll
<v Speaker 1>be charmed by the respect paid to them, like I was,
<v Speaker 1>but find that the quest itself is not quite as
<v Speaker 1>good as just watching your favorite episodes. Again. It got
<v Speaker 1>an eight point five out of ten from Kelly Gray
<v Speaker 1>at Gaming Next, who said Nicktoons and the Dice of
<v Speaker 1>Destiny is exactly what you're expecting it to be and
<v Speaker 1>probably more. With standard AARPG elements mixed with classic characters
<v Speaker 1>from Nick Nickelodeon unit from the Nickelodeon universe, this game
<v Speaker 1>straddles the line between compelling gameplay and frivolous fun. A
<v Speaker 1>great blend of nostalgia and gaming. I think for our audience,
<v Speaker 1>I think that we could just kind of quickly give
<v Speaker 1>an idea of like what to expect here by saying
<v Speaker 1>it's a game mail game. It's a game from game mail, okay,
<v Speaker 1>And you know they did get the voices, and you
<v Speaker 1>could tell, Okay, this is where we're going to spend
<v Speaker 1>our money. Then we're going to just try to get
<v Speaker 1>like some solid action, you know, RPG elements in here,
<v Speaker 1>and then the rest of the game is gonna feel
<v Speaker 1>a little cheap. And you know, I kind of get
<v Speaker 1>it with licensed games. I've always got it with license games,
<v Speaker 1>so that there's always a bargain there. You always have
<v Speaker 1>to make some sacrifices, at least if in most cases.
<v Speaker 1>And I and this one, I'm like mostly am on
<v Speaker 1>board with the sacrifices they're making to deliver the writing
<v Speaker 1>great voices and then and a gameplay experience that's pretty
<v Speaker 1>straightforward but isn't offensive in any way. So yeah, pretty
<v Speaker 1>interested in this one.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Greb, I've been mildly curious in this as well. Also,
<v Speaker 2>hearing that a lot of the actual voice talent is
<v Speaker 2>coming in for this game is a big appeal. I
<v Speaker 2>don't want to make the excuse of, oh, this is
<v Speaker 2>a license game and it's targeted towards kids, and kids
<v Speaker 2>just don't deserve good games. They just get slop. But
<v Speaker 2>in comparison to the level of license games, specifically SpongeBob
<v Speaker 2>games I was getting as a youth, you know, barring
<v Speaker 2>the three D platform Battle.
<v Speaker 1>For Bikini Bottom was the exception. Yes, not the rule.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that was the exception. There were a ton of
<v Speaker 2>two D games that were absolute trash for the longest time.
<v Speaker 2>And if i'm this features more than just SpongeBob and Patrick, right,
<v Speaker 2>this features like a whole slew of Nicktoons, right, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's a Leonardo's in there, so there you go.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, it's I don't know which voice they're using,
<v Speaker 1>probably a more modern one. There is fairly odd parents
<v Speaker 1>which tell you which which are the ones? Are those
<v Speaker 1>the ones with the there's the fairy god parents? Is
<v Speaker 1>that what that is? Okay? Yes, that's that. Yes, okay,
<v Speaker 1>he's like the storyline character. Okay, like that kind of
<v Speaker 1>like kicks things off. And then once you're playing, you
<v Speaker 1>can immediately choose who you want to play as there's
<v Speaker 1>a few others in there. But yeah, you know it's
<v Speaker 1>it is squarely from that era of like the SpongeBob
<v Speaker 1>afterward of Nicktoons. Again, I think this is going to
<v Speaker 1>be just fine for me playing with the kids. We
<v Speaker 1>will likely not like go through the whole game, but
<v Speaker 1>maybe a couple of sessions playing it. I could see
<v Speaker 1>that working.
<v Speaker 2>I also think the Diablo formula can work very well
<v Speaker 2>for a game targeted towards younger audiences, just because like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>this color is rare than this one, and like that
<v Speaker 2>means the gear is better, all right, cool sponge Bob yep.
<v Speaker 1>It just gets you on that progression treadmill real fast
<v Speaker 1>and you can feel real good about that. You can
<v Speaker 1>just see the numbers going up and kids can understand
<v Speaker 1>that as well. You know what, everyone can understand number's going.
<v Speaker 2>Out and grub. I think the biggest thing to think
<v Speaker 2>about with this is the and we talked about this
<v Speaker 2>recently with older millennials being targeted because they may have
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more money to spend. But this could
<v Speaker 2>be a fun way for parents like around our ages,
<v Speaker 2>to share something that was beloved by them with their
<v Speaker 2>kids or I don't know, nieces, nephews, other young people
<v Speaker 2>in their lives maybe the DIBs in their lives.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, yeah, exactly. This is a good way. And as
<v Speaker 1>you know, I think there's a handful of these cartoons,
<v Speaker 1>of these shows that people do hold very dear and
<v Speaker 1>close and would want to share with the next generation.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, you're right, this is cross generational in that way,
<v Speaker 1>while also still appealing to the people that may may
<v Speaker 1>or may not, but may have money right now to spend.
<v Speaker 1>It's probably easy to convince a parent to spend money
<v Speaker 1>on something that the parent recognizes then say, I guess
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. If I don't recognize it, how would
<v Speaker 1>I even know what to say here? I's gonna say
<v Speaker 1>K Pop Demon Hunters, but that one's so ubiquitous that
<v Speaker 1>doesn't really work.
<v Speaker 2>If I could ask someone to run a poll in
<v Speaker 2>the twitch chat real quick, and the question is is
<v Speaker 2>mayonnaise an instrument? That's it? Yes or no?
<v Speaker 1>Next reviews are in for a Lego party. This is
<v Speaker 1>one of these were a little bit relate to these reviews,
<v Speaker 1>but I figure we check this out because we're going
<v Speaker 1>to be playing the game today. It's got an eighty
<v Speaker 1>two on Open Critic eight out of ten from Dalton
<v Speaker 1>Cooper at Game Ramp, who says Lego Party is a
<v Speaker 1>fun party game that does a great job of combining
<v Speaker 1>Mario Party style gameplay with the Lego brand. And eight
<v Speaker 1>out of ten from Tristan o'gilvy at IGN, who says creative, colorful,
<v Speaker 1>and consistently crack or an inconsistent crack up. Lego Party
<v Speaker 1>is purpose built to turn any boring old knight into
<v Speaker 1>a block party filled with belly laughs and Tristan going
<v Speaker 1>off there. Eight point five out of ten from Ethan
<v Speaker 1>Krieger at Duel Shockers, who says leg Go Party stands
<v Speaker 1>tall as one of the best games ever in the
<v Speaker 1>competitive board game style genre. Sure, it's derivative of Mario Party,
<v Speaker 1>but it also improves on many games in that series
<v Speaker 1>in a multitude of ways. And I think that last
<v Speaker 1>review is the review for this game. I think that's
<v Speaker 1>kind of like the definitive statement for this game. It
<v Speaker 1>is derivative of Mario Party and improves on Mario Party
<v Speaker 1>in a multitude of ways. We'll be spending some more
<v Speaker 1>time with it today so we can really show this off.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, you played it at Summer game Fest
<v Speaker 1>and immediately you kind of came away singing that exact
<v Speaker 1>sort of sort of tune.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's your true boy, this trophy, there's my prize
<v Speaker 2>possession here.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's that's good stuff. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>No, Lego Party. From the little bit that we played
<v Speaker 2>of it during Summer Game Fest, it was really entertaining,
<v Speaker 2>really snappy. Also different styles of many games than you
<v Speaker 2>would normally see from a Mario Party. And sure some
<v Speaker 2>of these reviewers are saying it's derivative of Mario Party,
<v Speaker 2>but I think because the Lego license that also gives
<v Speaker 2>them more creativity and more freedom to point explore different
<v Speaker 2>types of games even and also I love getting bricked
<v Speaker 2>up at a party.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, that's what I live my life to do.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, I think you're right, Like just being a
<v Speaker 1>Lego game, it's almost like Lego video games are supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be derivative. They like pick other things and like
<v Speaker 1>then you redo them in Lego form, Like that's almost
<v Speaker 1>the whole idea of Lego for a lot of people.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it really just works. That kind of gives
<v Speaker 1>them a lot of leeway and they're stretching their legs here,
<v Speaker 1>and then they're also doing things like making the gameplay snappier,
<v Speaker 1>which Mario Party still refuses to do. So, Yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>think that this continues to be like a game that
<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty excited about. I will play it with the kids,
<v Speaker 1>but I'm excited to play it on the site and
<v Speaker 1>see how Also, if this is cross platform grub, this
<v Speaker 1>is going to be huge because there aren't a lot
<v Speaker 1>of like big party games that are easy to play
<v Speaker 1>with other people.
<v Speaker 2>And not everyone has a Nintendo Switch to or wants
<v Speaker 2>to shell out for a copy of Mario Party, whichever
<v Speaker 2>one we're on right now because they don't want to
<v Speaker 2>be tortured by their friends. But I for the most part,
<v Speaker 2>I from my understanding, Lego has not hurt anybody except
<v Speaker 2>for when you step on a loose piece on the ground.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and you know you kind of made me think like,
<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, like shell out for Mario Party. Wait, how
<v Speaker 1>much is Mario Party? I think those are all still
<v Speaker 1>sixty dollars. This game is is forty dollars and you
<v Speaker 1>can get it on Steam right now for thirty six
<v Speaker 1>dollars because it's ten percent off. So it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>not only is it an alternative, it's a more affordable
<v Speaker 1>alternative and it's not like some generic bullshit. It's a Lego.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody loves Lego this is. It feels like such a
<v Speaker 1>steal and also that feels like the right price for
<v Speaker 1>the kind of game this is. You know, I think
<v Speaker 1>Mario Party should probably be that price. It's not going
<v Speaker 1>to be because it sells at that higher price and
<v Speaker 1>it sells very very, very very well. I could put
<v Speaker 1>like fifteen more varies in there, like the last couple
<v Speaker 1>have been north of fifti fifteen million copies each. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's not going to lower the price, but coming into
<v Speaker 1>that space competing and offering up something that does improve
<v Speaker 1>on it and is also more affordable kind of a
<v Speaker 1>slam dunk in my opinion, I hope Lego Party does
<v Speaker 1>very well, but we'll see. Mario Party does have just
<v Speaker 1>a lot of momentum and kind of takes up a
<v Speaker 1>lot of the mind space there where I think a
<v Speaker 1>family is just like, oh, Mario Party. I recognized that
<v Speaker 1>that was there when I was a kid. Here's the
<v Speaker 1>new one. It's so easy just to pick that up
<v Speaker 1>when you get a system. But yeah, again, I hope
<v Speaker 1>Lego Party has a chance of breaking through a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's keep going here, Xbox kind of is
<v Speaker 1>commenting or responding to the backlash about raising game pass prices.
<v Speaker 1>This is a quote from someone at Xbox. Price increases
<v Speaker 1>are never fun for anybody, that's the headline. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Eddie McCoo at GameSpot. Microsoft is raising the price
<v Speaker 1>of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass, and
<v Speaker 1>the company has now attempted to defend the hikes. Speaking
<v Speaker 1>to The Verge, Microsoft director of Gaming and Platform Communications,
<v Speaker 1>Dustin Blackwell said, we unders stand price increases are never
<v Speaker 1>fun for anybody, but we're trying to reinforce by adding
<v Speaker 1>more value to these plans as well. He added, something
<v Speaker 1>we don't take lightly, and we're listening to the feedback
<v Speaker 1>of players in the community to try to try to
<v Speaker 1>provide them with more of what they're asking for for
<v Speaker 1>Game Pass Ultimate. This is no longer a quote. Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>added more benefits to the membership like Fortnite Crue and
<v Speaker 1>You'd Soft plus Classics, along with the improved streaming for
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Cloud Gaming. The membership rate is going up to
<v Speaker 1>thirty dollars a month from twenty dollars a month, representing
<v Speaker 1>a fifty dollars fifty percent price hike. Jane I guess
<v Speaker 1>in some regions it was a one hundred percent price hike.
<v Speaker 1>Apparently that's the case in Brazil and handful of other
<v Speaker 1>places in Brazil. Was that one space where it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>cloud gaming's really working there, so here's your improved cloud
<v Speaker 1>gaming Brazil. Fuck you pay me.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>It's this is kind of that's the extent of kind
<v Speaker 1>of what they're saying, but they I think it's almost
<v Speaker 1>weird that they are out there trying to defend or
<v Speaker 1>explain it. It's like, yeah, we all get that, Like
<v Speaker 1>you waited until you had a bundle of things to
<v Speaker 1>stuff into game Pass, the Xbox cloud gaming improvements, which
<v Speaker 1>had probably been ready for a while, but they held
<v Speaker 1>those backs so they could pare it up with ub
<v Speaker 1>Soft Plus Classics and the Fortnite Crew. And it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>now can they like, now that we're doing that, can
<v Speaker 1>we get away with thirty dollars a month? Them saying,
<v Speaker 1>give give players more of what they're asking for. I've
<v Speaker 1>not been hearing a lot of people asking for those things.
<v Speaker 1>Jan Now, people that do ask for Fortnite Crew probably
<v Speaker 1>just pay for Fortnite Crewe, And I'm sure those people
<v Speaker 1>who are like oh, I was paying for Xbox Game
<v Speaker 1>Pass and I was separately paid for Fortnite Crew. They
<v Speaker 1>might actually feel like they're getting a deal here because
<v Speaker 1>they will actually end up saving money because it was
<v Speaker 1>like twenty dollars for game Pass ultimate twelve dollars for
<v Speaker 1>Fortnite Crue, so you saved two dollars and now you
<v Speaker 1>get Ubi Soft plus Classics on top of that. You
<v Speaker 1>could talk yourself through that if you are in that
<v Speaker 1>very narrow band of people who was already subscribing to
<v Speaker 1>all all of these things or was considering it. I
<v Speaker 1>think the vast majority of people are like, I want
<v Speaker 1>to be able to play games online, and then I
<v Speaker 1>like the idea of day one games, and that is
<v Speaker 1>harder to accept at thirty dollars, and I just I
<v Speaker 1>don't think my Xbox can come out and talk their
<v Speaker 1>way out of that or make that feel any better.
<v Speaker 1>So I kind of wonder why they're even trying.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, greb slightly related. On social media like TikTok, for instance,
<v Speaker 2>whenever you see an ad in your feed from a
<v Speaker 2>big company like Panera or PlayStation even generally the comments
<v Speaker 2>will be turned off because I know you want to
<v Speaker 2>avoid any type of negative scuttle but that may arise.
<v Speaker 1>However, always bring their specific beefs into any common section
<v Speaker 1>related to that company.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly this morning, I woke up scrolling through the feeds.
<v Speaker 2>I came across an Xbox ad talking about Xbox game Pass,
<v Speaker 2>and they did not have the comments turned off. All
<v Speaker 2>of the comments are just bashing Xbox, saying hey, I'm
<v Speaker 2>canceling game Pass. I'm like talking about the BDS movement,
<v Speaker 2>talking about how this is such a waste of money,
<v Speaker 2>calling Xbox or people at the very tippy top of
<v Speaker 2>Xbox running the business a bunch of poopoo heads, greb.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like this person may have gone to the
<v Speaker 2>Randy Pittsford School of pr, which, yeah, maybe you should not.
<v Speaker 2>Maybe you should have rethought your education, because this isn't,
<v Speaker 2>this is not It's so easy to shut the fuck up, Grub.
<v Speaker 2>It's so easy. I cannot say anything.
<v Speaker 1>Especially when you're like, defense is just reiterating the thing
<v Speaker 1>that everyone already understood you were doing, which is stuffy
<v Speaker 1>more stuff in there so that you could justify raising
<v Speaker 1>the price. Yeah, we all get that. We all saw that,
<v Speaker 1>we all like understood that you were trying to position
<v Speaker 1>this thing to be to seem more valuable, and everyone
<v Speaker 1>was or had already decided that's not for me, or
<v Speaker 1>I don't care about those things, and that's why they're mad,
<v Speaker 1>because they're like, the way I see it is ten
<v Speaker 1>more dollars on top of the twenty I was already spending,
<v Speaker 1>and that's all I care about, and that's all most
<v Speaker 1>people probably should care about. So you're not going to
<v Speaker 1>change the minds. You're not. I don't know. It seems,
<v Speaker 1>you know, futile. For a big part of this. We
<v Speaker 1>did get a few more like tidbits. Things are kind
<v Speaker 1>of like trickling now, things that they didn't say upfront
<v Speaker 1>or were maybe hidden, things like that PC game Pass
<v Speaker 1>was not in Microsoft's image that they were sharing their
<v Speaker 1>infographic about exactly what was happening. That went from twelve
<v Speaker 1>dollars to sixteen dollars and fifty cents. I believe it is, yes,
<v Speaker 1>sixteen dollars and fifty cents per month. Let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>And one of the new perks is access to a
<v Speaker 1>round fifty more Ubisoft games, so they're including that in
<v Speaker 1>the SEC game Pass as well.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's just Assassin's Creed games.
<v Speaker 1>Then it's gonna be a lot of older Assassin's Creed games,
<v Speaker 1>Far Cry games. You know there are people who will
<v Speaker 1>be into that, but again, it's like people have likely
<v Speaker 1>already bought and played those games on deep discount because
<v Speaker 1>it's Ubi Soft. It's like that the value of Ubisoft
<v Speaker 1>Ubi Soft Plus Classics is greatly diminished because everyone understands
<v Speaker 1>if you wait a month, you can get that game
<v Speaker 1>for twelve dollars in fifty cents or whatever the cost
<v Speaker 1>was of the additional cost of a Ubi Soft Plus
<v Speaker 1>Classic subscription would be. So it's just like, I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>That does bring us though to the next story, which
<v Speaker 1>is another little tidbit here out of Xbox, Xbox quietly
<v Speaker 1>nuked the Game Pass Call of Duty discount. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Ethan Gotch at Kotaku. Players are still discovering new
<v Speaker 1>ways in which their Xbox Game Pass subscriptions are getting worse.
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty is the latest target, with a ten
<v Speaker 1>percent discount on Call of Duty points and add on
<v Speaker 1>content like the Black Cell Premi Battle Pass bundles. While small,
<v Speaker 1>while small, the savings can quickly add up for dedicated
<v Speaker 1>fans over the annual life cycle of a new entry
<v Speaker 1>in the series like Call of Duty Black Ops seven.
<v Speaker 1>So basically you are a game Pass subscriber. Because of
<v Speaker 1>that subscription, you've got a discount. Like you know, you
<v Speaker 1>actually get a discount if you buy a lot of
<v Speaker 1>games straight up. You know you like, Okay, I got
<v Speaker 1>this game on game Pass, but I want to just
<v Speaker 1>own it long term. Well, game Pass would give you
<v Speaker 1>a discount. The same thing was happening for coll of
<v Speaker 1>Duty's in game micro transactions, and now that ten percent
<v Speaker 1>discount has gone away. So it's like just nickeling and diamond.
<v Speaker 1>They're not just nickeling diamond. They're also like what is
<v Speaker 1>it would be a twenty five centing. They're raising the
<v Speaker 1>price in a big way over here, and still nickel
<v Speaker 1>and diming over on this other side of like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>ten percent discount is going away. We need those margins
<v Speaker 1>as much as we possibly can. So it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's just one more thing that sort of adds up.
<v Speaker 1>And I you know, had they done this apropos of nothing,
<v Speaker 1>had they done this I think six months from now
<v Speaker 1>or six months ago, and it's like, oh man, that stinks.
<v Speaker 1>It probably would not have hurt as much. But adding
<v Speaker 1>it on top of the pile. Field is just like
<v Speaker 1>another straw on the camel's back. And you know, it
<v Speaker 1>continues to tell the story. They have these big brands
<v Speaker 1>and they want to make as much money from them
<v Speaker 1>as possible, and anything else just isn't asmportant to them
<v Speaker 1>making new games. You know, even Phil Spencer going out
<v Speaker 1>there in the past week in Tokyo Game Show wherever,
<v Speaker 1>he was saying, Hey, people ask us about Crimson Skies,
<v Speaker 1>bro shut up, man, we don't want to hear it anymore.
<v Speaker 1>We know what you are. You're the call of Duty
<v Speaker 1>Minecraft Company, and that's what you're gonna be. Yeah, And
<v Speaker 1>the moves like these really reinforced that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. And I I don't know why Phil is purposely
<v Speaker 2>stepping on these rakes. And Phil has always been very
<v Speaker 2>kind with his time with us, and I understand he
<v Speaker 2>has a job to do. But there are again, of course,
<v Speaker 2>there are there are things where maybe you don't have
<v Speaker 2>to talk about that and for a lot of people,
<v Speaker 2>grub not in a lot of people. But this also
<v Speaker 2>fits into that ven diagram of hey, uh, you're like Fortnite,
<v Speaker 2>You're like you'd be soft, You're are you already have
<v Speaker 2>game pass maybe you can fit into this very tense,
<v Speaker 2>tiny part of the vent diagram. And now with the
<v Speaker 2>call of duty, folks, this could have been an extra
<v Speaker 2>bonus to like get the game sooner or whatever, or
<v Speaker 2>just get it cheaper. And now that's gone. I don't see.
<v Speaker 2>I don't see the value in any of this grub Like,
<v Speaker 2>none of this from none of this makes sense to me.
<v Speaker 2>You're raising the prices of the consoles, and the consoles
<v Speaker 2>are already like a dwindling market for Xbox specifically, and
<v Speaker 2>like the saving grace was Xbox Game Pass on the
<v Speaker 2>console itself on the PC, and now that's going up.
<v Speaker 2>I would maybe feel bad if Xbox was a small
<v Speaker 2>company and saying like, hey, we got to do this
<v Speaker 2>to survive, We got to do this to make it
<v Speaker 2>through this like hard time for us, Like if this
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, if they were us maybe and we
<v Speaker 2>had to be like, sorry, guys, we got to raise
<v Speaker 2>the price of premium just a little bit to keep
<v Speaker 2>food on our families. But this is a company that
<v Speaker 2>is actively investing billions of dollars into AI and that
<v Speaker 2>is just shit that I don't think anyone wants. And
<v Speaker 2>we talk a lot about your regular decular Xbox console people.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think they want any AI involvement in their consoles.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think they care for that. I'm gonna speak
<v Speaker 2>for them. I don't think it matters to them when
<v Speaker 2>it comes to playing console games. And it must really
<v Speaker 2>really suck to be an Xbox specific person and seeing
<v Speaker 2>the walls closing in around you and them just like
<v Speaker 2>pouring slop onto you and not even the fun, cool slop.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, there's definitely a lot of like, it's not even frustration,
<v Speaker 1>it's resignation from a lot of people in that community.
<v Speaker 1>The ones that are like not that haven't already lost
<v Speaker 1>their minds or whatever. There's plenty in that that are
<v Speaker 1>just you know, they just they just like their Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>It's just like people like their forwards or whatever. And
<v Speaker 1>they're like, man, watching this company sort of just tear
<v Speaker 1>itself down in the name of, you know, short term
<v Speaker 1>profit with this idea of maybe a long term strategy
<v Speaker 1>that doesn't involve catering to me, who's been propping up
<v Speaker 1>this company for twenty five years now. It feels bad.
<v Speaker 1>I bet yeah, And uh, you know, and uh, Phil
<v Speaker 1>Spencer and that team they're paid a lot of money
<v Speaker 1>to go out there and and and you know, say
<v Speaker 1>this bullshit, and they're paid a lot of money to like,
<v Speaker 1>that's what the money is for us to be able
<v Speaker 1>to withstand us saying, man, you guys kind of suck.
<v Speaker 4>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And the way this is going down kind of sucks.
<v Speaker 1>And it shouldn't it shouldn't be this way.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>There is clearly a pathway toward Xbox making real video
<v Speaker 1>games and believing in video games with the answer and
<v Speaker 1>that's that's over with now. And you know, kind of
<v Speaker 1>we have to lay the lay the blame. It someone's feeding.
<v Speaker 1>It's the people at the top there.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's astound and grub. I feel like when Xbox
<v Speaker 2>first launched, it had such a distinct identity of not
<v Speaker 2>quite being punk, but kind of being like, oh, we're
<v Speaker 2>the cool alternative kids. We sit in the middle of
<v Speaker 2>the classroom, we don't sit in the back, and we
<v Speaker 2>got more power. And now if they've kind of become
<v Speaker 2>like the uppity polo wearing kids in class that you
<v Speaker 2>want to ignore and you don't listen to them while
<v Speaker 2>they talk and they kind of just do nothing during group.
<v Speaker 1>Work, yep, absolutely, all right, we should take a break.
<v Speaker 1>There's a plenty of more to get into, including Hey,
<v Speaker 1>the future of Halo stows in question. Let's see what
<v Speaker 1>they're going to do with that. We'll talk about it
<v Speaker 1>after this break. If you want to skip out on this,
<v Speaker 1>there's an AD free version of the audio show. It's
<v Speaker 1>for premium listeners. There's an adre version of the video
<v Speaker 1>show for premium subscribers. Go ahead and grab that. In
<v Speaker 1>the meantime, though, we'll be right back. All right, let's
<v Speaker 1>get into it with the new headline here. Janachhoa Jeff
<v Speaker 1>grub game this morning, and Virtuos is currently working on
<v Speaker 1>a remake of Halo Combat Evolved. According to rumor. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Jonas mackia Gain Reactor. For years, there have
<v Speaker 1>been rumors that a remake of Halo Combat Evolved is
<v Speaker 1>in the works. A remaster of the original original was
<v Speaker 1>released in time for its tenth anniversary in twenty eleven,
<v Speaker 1>and the next series. The series will next celebrate its
<v Speaker 1>twenty fifth anniversary here in a couple of years, right
<v Speaker 1>next year, right yeah, which is sure to be recognized.
<v Speaker 1>Now another rumor has surfaced, and we are also learning
<v Speaker 1>more about the possible developer of the as yet unconfirmed project.
<v Speaker 1>Halo insider mister ReBs claims to have heard that Virtuos,
<v Speaker 1>which recently did a good job with the Elder Skulls
<v Speaker 1>for Oblivion Remastered, is involved in development under the leadership
<v Speaker 1>of Halo Studios. The graphics engines used is said to
<v Speaker 1>be some kind of hybrid solution, just like the aforementioned Oblivion,
<v Speaker 1>so it would involve Unreal Engine five visuals on top
<v Speaker 1>of whatever the original Halo engine would have been. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I could see this, although I do, like we were
<v Speaker 1>just talking about this with Lexi, and it's definitely something
<v Speaker 1>I heard Microsoft in the latest round of layoffs when
<v Speaker 1>they fired an army of people, they also canceled a
<v Speaker 1>lot of third party contracts for projects similar to this one,
<v Speaker 1>and then we heard Virtuous like had to lay people
<v Speaker 1>off because those contracts were not either not going to
<v Speaker 1>get followed up on or they were not going to
<v Speaker 1>get a renewed contract to do a similar thing. So
<v Speaker 1>it's like, I wonder if this is something that was
<v Speaker 1>happening and then got canceled. But Halo is something that
<v Speaker 1>of course Microsoft probably still does want to figure out.
<v Speaker 1>So if they you know, had to put you know,
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of stuff in the canceled bucket, and one
<v Speaker 1>in like, well, let's keep trying this one. Maybe this
<v Speaker 1>one found its way over that way. I just I
<v Speaker 1>guess I was gonna say, I don't I don't see
<v Speaker 1>like what they're going to do here, but I guess
<v Speaker 1>I kind of do you want to do the thing
<v Speaker 1>where it's actually similar to what happened with Oblivion, where
<v Speaker 1>it's like, Okay, we got to figure out the future
<v Speaker 1>of Elder Scrolls. Maybe that involves a different visual style
<v Speaker 1>and we should get used to maybe using something like
<v Speaker 1>Unreal Engine. So let's do a remake that gives us
<v Speaker 1>a chance to get caught up and test those ideas.
<v Speaker 1>And now that could set us up for the future.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe who knows if that's actually gonna work, but maybe
<v Speaker 1>they're gonna try something similar here where it's like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>let's start making at least a part of Halo in
<v Speaker 1>Unreal Engine five. And the good way to get learned
<v Speaker 1>on that is to do a remake something that we've
<v Speaker 1>done before. And also that's kind of a slam dunk.
<v Speaker 1>People love Combat Evolved, and we could put that on
<v Speaker 1>in PlayStation five. We could put it out on switch
<v Speaker 1>to and make a lot of money. So I see
<v Speaker 1>why if they didn't cancel, I see why they wouldn't.
<v Speaker 1>They probably do have to figure out Halo, and this
<v Speaker 1>feels like a fair enough strategy. It's just like, God,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not in the mood jan personally.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Grub, I forget who had said this on the
<v Speaker 2>site this week. It may have been you could have
<v Speaker 2>been Lexi actually where Xbox forgot that they make games.
<v Speaker 2>And it seems like if you are in the console
<v Speaker 2>market and you are a pub sure that is a
<v Speaker 2>very big important thing to have. And I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>We talk all we talk a lot about game preservation
<v Speaker 2>on the website through different various means. But I also
<v Speaker 2>think of an IP being so mishandled by their parent company.
<v Speaker 2>That's just upsetic. Poor John Halo. He showed yeeks on
<v Speaker 2>that one Paramount plus show and then ever since then
<v Speaker 2>it's been a fall a very.
<v Speaker 1>Apparently apparently I had show hit Netflix and it's doing
<v Speaker 1>very well on thereat.
<v Speaker 2>Good for them, but it just sucks Grub because Halo
<v Speaker 2>just seems such like such a layup. There's still that
<v Speaker 2>name recognition, the brand recognition of Halo. There are tons
<v Speaker 2>of people in our demographic younger democratic, slightly younger demographics,
<v Speaker 2>slightly older demographics that like would care if there was
<v Speaker 2>a good combat evolved remaster or even perhaps another Halo
<v Speaker 2>game that was kind of lack of better terms back
<v Speaker 2>to Bay and was it like Halo Infinite if there
<v Speaker 2>was just something more linear, a bunch of said pieces.
<v Speaker 2>You get John Halo in the game by riding away
<v Speaker 2>on a wart hog. I think people would eat that up.
<v Speaker 2>And it seems like Microsoft does not want to serve
<v Speaker 2>that dish anymore.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah right, I mean, I do think that this speaks
<v Speaker 1>to them not really knowing where to take Halo, and
<v Speaker 1>so it's like, you know, retreat back to the very
<v Speaker 1>basics of remaking the first game again. But maybe, I
<v Speaker 1>mean maybe maybe you do have to like rebuild Halo
<v Speaker 1>from the ground up, because it's not like you can
<v Speaker 1>put out like you can't. If you announced a brand
<v Speaker 1>new Halo today, I think you would get crickets from
<v Speaker 1>a younger audience. They just would be like, is you're
<v Speaker 1>gonna put them in Fortnite? Maybe we'll care then, but
<v Speaker 1>until then, like we just do not care. It's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>you're really gonna spend all that money and spend all
<v Speaker 1>that time to do something that a younger audience doesn't
<v Speaker 1>care at all about and maybe have to fight that
<v Speaker 1>bad to force them to care. And then you have
<v Speaker 1>to kind of turn Halo into something else that maybe
<v Speaker 1>the current audience doesn't really want. That's challenging. So maybe
<v Speaker 1>you do something that is slightly more affordable, which is
<v Speaker 1>remake the first one, and if it's just so good
<v Speaker 1>that people can't ignore it, maybe it just has word
<v Speaker 1>of mouth and pops off in that way and you
<v Speaker 1>can kind of slowly figure out what the future of
<v Speaker 1>Halo can be in that direction. But that's also still
<v Speaker 1>going to be very challenging to sort of navigate those waters.
<v Speaker 1>And so it's not like I have a lot of
<v Speaker 1>faith in this leading to a grand new future for Halo,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm I'm not even necessarily out there clamoring for that.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I like Halo Infinite quite a bit, but
<v Speaker 1>if that game didn't work, I don't, you know, it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of the one I wanted. I thought that was
<v Speaker 1>a lot of fun, and just about every regard single
<v Speaker 1>player and multiplayer that's not working, what else you got?
<v Speaker 1>I don't really believe you're gonna have anything else.
<v Speaker 2>Here's my insane take of the week grub. I think
<v Speaker 2>Metroid Prime four will be the best Halo game we've
<v Speaker 2>gone in a very long time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean a little at least have the look
<v Speaker 1>of a really excellent sci fi game with a main
<v Speaker 1>character in a mechsuit kind of thing, or I guess
<v Speaker 1>so exoskeleton sort of thing. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 1>A toasty guy from the Mortal Kombat series leaves and
<v Speaker 1>nether Realm Studios after over three decades. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Jonas Mackiet Game Reactor. It's not unusual for people to
<v Speaker 1>change jobs in the gaming industry, and having developers with
<v Speaker 1>at least five or six studios on their resume is commonplace.
<v Speaker 1>That's why we rarely report on it, except when someone
<v Speaker 1>is particularly well known, and audio directors are among the
<v Speaker 1>roles we write very little about. But then again, not
<v Speaker 1>all audio directors have worked at the same place for
<v Speaker 1>over thirty years and helped shape one of the world's
<v Speaker 1>most famous game series. Dan Forden has having been involved
<v Speaker 1>in the development of Mortal Kombat since the first game
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety two. He has also appeared in the
<v Speaker 1>game himself, popping up on screen in part two and
<v Speaker 1>later to shout Toasty during matches. However, pc gamer Now
<v Speaker 1>reports that Fordan has announced his departure from Nether Realm
<v Speaker 1>Studios via Instagram, where he writes, Wednesday was my last
<v Speaker 1>day at nether Realm. We made a lot of fun
<v Speaker 1>stuff over the years. I'm really proud of what we accomplished,
<v Speaker 1>as well as how much fun we had making that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>There are so many smart, talented people there. Look for
<v Speaker 1>look for more great things to emerge over the next
<v Speaker 1>several years. We don't know what he'll be doing next,
<v Speaker 1>but according to Wikipedia, Forden is sixty two years old,
<v Speaker 1>so it may simply be that he now feels it's
<v Speaker 1>time to retire. Either way, we wish him the best
<v Speaker 1>of luck. Yeah. Likewise, that's a hell of a run
<v Speaker 1>man nineteen ninety two to twenty twenty five. In nineteen
<v Speaker 1>ninety two, you couldn't even imagine the year twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>The guy worked the same place for that long and
<v Speaker 1>iconic as the Toasty Guy. Yeah, this is, you know,
<v Speaker 1>real nice to see that. You know, he kind of
<v Speaker 1>he did his job. He stuck around. They kept him
<v Speaker 1>the entire time. It's I guess maybe it's a bit
<v Speaker 1>unfortunate that that is so remarkable that someone worked at
<v Speaker 1>one video game studio for north of thirty years but
<v Speaker 1>still shout outs to him and to Nether Realm.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Greb, it kind of sucks that there aren't as
<v Speaker 2>many stories like this, but congrats to Dan for being
<v Speaker 2>able to ride through the ups and downs of Nether
<v Speaker 2>Ealm and the different iterations of Mormal Combat throughout the
<v Speaker 2>years this. I can't think of too many other examples
<v Speaker 2>of this for one person that like be that work
<v Speaker 2>that long at a studio and I don't know, it's
<v Speaker 2>seemingly be happy at the studio as well. But congrats,
<v Speaker 2>that's a huge, huge thing that guy worked at Nether
<v Speaker 2>Realm for as long as I've been alive.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that Toasty moment was like, I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>it clicked something in my brain of like, oh, man,
<v Speaker 1>people make video games and they look like they're just
<v Speaker 1>having fun and they're like, let's throw And I guess
<v Speaker 1>I knew instantly it's like, oh, that's a guy that
<v Speaker 1>worked on the game. I didn't, you know, I saw
<v Speaker 1>it in the arcade. I didn't have any context but
<v Speaker 1>you could just tell. It's like, oh, now, that's just
<v Speaker 1>some dude who does something on the game. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know what he does. Apparently was sound design, but he
<v Speaker 1>just like, let's go throw this fun little thing in
<v Speaker 1>there and kind of remind people, hey, we're making this
<v Speaker 1>game for you and we're all here having a good
<v Speaker 1>time as well, and that's what makes this game so fun.
<v Speaker 1>And just since then, it's it's been like, Yeah, that's
<v Speaker 1>the energy I want. I want from a video game
<v Speaker 1>is cool people who are goofing off and and and
<v Speaker 1>their time when they're like, let's get serious, they're going
<v Speaker 1>to just make something that reflects that goofiness.
<v Speaker 2>An our dan in chat is chiming in. Those guys
<v Speaker 2>were always great at that unlocking devs an NBA gym
<v Speaker 2>and stuff like that. They were the first devs I recognized.
<v Speaker 2>I think game devs should treat themselves like the stars
<v Speaker 2>that they are. You all should give yourself.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, exactly.
<v Speaker 2>You guys are sick as hell. No one everyone underestimates
<v Speaker 2>the amount of work y'all do. Put yourself in the
<v Speaker 2>fucking game. I don't care, do it. I want to
<v Speaker 2>see y'all in the game, whether it's a poster or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>Y'all deserve the shine, y'all deserve the flowers for the
<v Speaker 2>insane amount of work and other bull crap you gotta
<v Speaker 2>deal with.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you can still hire ben Star to do like
<v Speaker 1>the main voice, but maybe some of those NPCs should
<v Speaker 1>go back to being game developers like that. I love
<v Speaker 1>that stuff, so yeah, let's make it happen. A couple
<v Speaker 1>of super chats came in. Phantom twenty three says distraction
<v Speaker 1>Powerwash Simulator two has gone gold. Okay, that whole DA
<v Speaker 1>game is coming in fast. I know something about that
<v Speaker 1>felt like it would still be ways away, but it's not.
<v Speaker 1>And then Brito says them behind on the stream. But
<v Speaker 1>that's suspense suspenseful. Hello from Jan is what we need
<v Speaker 1>to kick off October? Sure, all right, yeah, let's do
<v Speaker 1>it all right, let's see here. A couple more headlines.
<v Speaker 1>Street Fighter six director says he was shocked at Capcom's
<v Speaker 1>decision to charge fans forty dollars to watch the tournament's
<v Speaker 1>final streams. This is from Chris Scullion at VGC. The
<v Speaker 1>director of Street Rider six says he was shocked to
<v Speaker 1>discover that Capcom would be charging forty dollars for the
<v Speaker 1>tournament finals. It was announced during last week's Tokyo Game
<v Speaker 1>Show that the finals for Capcom Cup twelve and the
<v Speaker 1>Street Fighter League World Championship would be streaming live via
<v Speaker 1>pay per view. Fans who wanted to watch the tournament
<v Speaker 1>finals online will have to pay four thousand yen or
<v Speaker 1>about twenty seven dollars to watch the Capcom Cup twelve
<v Speaker 1>finals on March fourteenth, and another four thousand yen or
<v Speaker 1>about twenty seven dollars to watch the SFL World Championship
<v Speaker 1>on March fifteenth. Alternatively, a bundle is available for forty
<v Speaker 1>dollars that allows them to watch both finals. The announcement
<v Speaker 1>was met with backlash from Street Fighter fans, angry that
<v Speaker 1>they that they were being charged up to forty dollars
<v Speaker 1>to stream an event that should be bringing the community together,
<v Speaker 1>especially when merchandise for such an event is often sold
<v Speaker 1>at the revenue and online. Street Fighter six director Takeiyuki
<v Speaker 1>Nakayama has now revealed on Twitter that he had no
<v Speaker 1>idea about the decision to charge players to watch the streams,
<v Speaker 1>and that he and producer Shuhei Matsumoto both found out
<v Speaker 1>about it. While they were at Tokyo Game Show itself.
<v Speaker 1>Replying to a follower who asked whether he thought it
<v Speaker 1>was strange that Capcom's esports division and development teams were
<v Speaker 1>seemingly so disconnected on such matters, Nakayama replied, it may
<v Speaker 1>sound strange, but it's true. He added, revenue targets and
<v Speaker 1>assigned tasks differ fundamentally by department. Even though even the
<v Speaker 1>development team was surprised by this announcement, at least Matsumoto
<v Speaker 1>and I were shocked at the venue that said, since
<v Speaker 1>the matter occurred within the same company, we are currently
<v Speaker 1>discussing it. We apologize for any concern this may have caused. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, this definitely feels like one of those things
<v Speaker 1>that's like someone who's in charge of esports at the
<v Speaker 1>company is like, hey, we got to we got to
<v Speaker 1>justify our jobs. We've got to make some revenue. What
<v Speaker 1>can we do? And the people who make the game,
<v Speaker 1>who obviously would want as many people watching as possible, right, Like,
<v Speaker 1>they make money. Their job is stot to make a
<v Speaker 1>game that makes money, not an esports event that makes money,
<v Speaker 1>and they're doing just fine on that front. When it
<v Speaker 1>comes to Street Fight six, which has been very solid
<v Speaker 1>and much more well received overall and consistently than Street
<v Speaker 1>Fighter five, So it's like they are clearly doing their job.
<v Speaker 1>They would want everyone possible to watch this because that
<v Speaker 1>just drums up more excitement for the video game. I
<v Speaker 1>think this does go back to like the fundamental disconnect
<v Speaker 1>between like a company that makes a video game product
<v Speaker 1>to be sold and then that company trying to make
<v Speaker 1>an esports branch that makes its own money. It's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>let's be real, esports is marketing for the game. You
<v Speaker 1>probably shouldn't forget that, and it does seem like they
<v Speaker 1>forgot it here. This is a weird one, right, jan.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, very weird one, Grub, especially when I feel like
<v Speaker 2>from my experience operating on the periphery of the FGC,
<v Speaker 2>it's always been a very welcoming and like tight community
<v Speaker 2>with each other, and to suddenly gate the finals of
<v Speaker 2>one of their own specific big events seems really, really dumb.
<v Speaker 2>I haven't watched any of the Street Fighter League, but
<v Speaker 2>I'm going to assume if it's similar to EVO, there
<v Speaker 2>are a bunch of ads plastered everywhere, so they are
<v Speaker 2>already making some money back some return back on even
<v Speaker 2>putting the event on and streaming it to begin with.
<v Speaker 2>I think this also kind of ties into my own
<v Speaker 2>feelings about pay per views in premium live events, where
<v Speaker 2>I think it's an archaic model that doesn't make sense anymore.
<v Speaker 1>It's weird.
<v Speaker 2>It's so weird, Like I don't think it's cool for
<v Speaker 2>me to open up HBO Max the one to watch
<v Speaker 2>for Max, the one to watch for HBO Max and
<v Speaker 2>see in aw pay per view, and then now I
<v Speaker 2>have the option to pay an additional thirty dollars on
<v Speaker 2>top of what I'm already paying to watch a pay
<v Speaker 2>per view, and then same thing with WW events on
<v Speaker 2>wherever the hell they're streaming. Now it is an extra
<v Speaker 2>hoop to go through that I am less willing to
<v Speaker 2>go through these days.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's you know, Sean points out that there's a
<v Speaker 1>million dollar prize school for this game, and someone probably
<v Speaker 1>a Capcom's like, oh god, we got to find a
<v Speaker 1>way to pay for that. Oh my god. You know
<v Speaker 1>there was a model for this, and Sean fielder free
<v Speaker 1>to jump in or say it in shat or whatever
<v Speaker 1>if this would make sense for Street Fighter, But like
<v Speaker 1>the way Doda did it right was like you could
<v Speaker 1>watch the Doda Esports World Championships for free, but if
<v Speaker 1>you watch them inside of the game, you could also
<v Speaker 1>buy like a battle pass equivalent that would unlock more
<v Speaker 1>cosmetics and stuff for you as you were watching it,
<v Speaker 1>and then maybe you had to play the game as well.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, like Capcom could do that. All these people
<v Speaker 1>that have esports that are that act as marketing for
<v Speaker 1>their game could do that where it's like, let's sell
<v Speaker 1>a battle pass for people to view it inside of
<v Speaker 1>the game, and that way we know that they're engaged,
<v Speaker 1>and then that will get them excited to come back
<v Speaker 1>and play the games more. And also it's not charging
<v Speaker 1>them to watch it, but it's rewarding them for watching
<v Speaker 1>it by asking them for some money and then we'll
<v Speaker 1>use that money to pay for the prize pool and
<v Speaker 1>we'll take our cut. And the prize pool actually, for
<v Speaker 1>the Dota thing, I think grew commiserate with how much
<v Speaker 1>people were spinning on the battle pass. So the more
<v Speaker 1>battle passes that were sold, the higher the prize pool.
<v Speaker 1>And so that's why every year the prize pool was
<v Speaker 1>bigger one year after another. I'm sure it's not that
<v Speaker 1>way anymore, but for many years it was, what's wrong
<v Speaker 1>with that? Just do that? Why wouldn't that work? I
<v Speaker 1>don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I think esports may not work grub the way that
<v Speaker 2>they're framing it, And I guess.
<v Speaker 1>It doesn't work when the companies own it. Yes, certainly
<v Speaker 1>doesn't work when the companies own it because it's just
<v Speaker 1>so at odds with their core business sewn. Sean, give
<v Speaker 1>us some more insight here, please.
<v Speaker 4>Yeah, this is weird because it seems like Capcom kind
<v Speaker 4>just doesn't know how to monetize the esports events that
<v Speaker 4>they want to put on.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 4>I think Japan in general doesn't quite understand monetizing this
<v Speaker 4>kind of thing. Remember, there's still a little beehigh when
<v Speaker 4>comes to streaming and stuff like that, still framings that
<v Speaker 4>stuff out. There are things that Capcom could do that
<v Speaker 4>make lots of sense that they aren't capitalizing on. Remember
<v Speaker 4>there's the battle Hub in Street Fire six. Everyone assumed
<v Speaker 4>that would be the way to watch big street Fighter events.
<v Speaker 4>You get together with your friends, maybe a hop on
<v Speaker 4>a discord call too. They get together in the battle
<v Speaker 4>hub and you watch it live, and that's a way
<v Speaker 4>to get the community more engaged. Right, it feels like
<v Speaker 4>they're trying to figure out how to squeeze the most
<v Speaker 4>money possible out of it, especially with Street Fighter being
<v Speaker 4>really big in Japan right now and pay per view
<v Speaker 4>events being a little more common over there. Feels like
<v Speaker 4>them going to that old business model of hey, we
<v Speaker 4>can charge x amount for a live stream because this
<v Speaker 4>is established, rather than going forward the more western model
<v Speaker 4>like you would see evlved with something like Doda and stuff.
<v Speaker 4>Right even though they have dabbled with that in the past,
<v Speaker 4>like Street Fire five had some costumes that did go
<v Speaker 4>towards like the Capcom Cup, prize pool and stuff. So
<v Speaker 4>there's some weird what's going on over there right now.
<v Speaker 4>I feel like there's maybe people made. They brought in
<v Speaker 4>some new people on the business side who don't quite
<v Speaker 4>understand stuff in relation to how this is all working.
<v Speaker 4>They own know how it's been done in the pass
<v Speaker 4>and stuff, but there are a good ways to do it.
<v Speaker 4>I always think of a Killer Instinct did this great
<v Speaker 4>thing where they made a shadow Jego who was just
<v Speaker 4>like a boss character. They made him a real character
<v Speaker 4>and they were like, hey, we're gonna charge like six
<v Speaker 4>bucks for this, and like you know, the prize money
<v Speaker 4>goes towards the Killer Instinct Cup and everything like that,
<v Speaker 4>and they just like sold like one hundred thousand copies
<v Speaker 4>instantly because people showed up for that kind of thing,
<v Speaker 4>So they Capcom should really be leaning into that kind
<v Speaker 4>of thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think this is one where it's like, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>they just didn't even know that they were stepping on
<v Speaker 1>a rake because someone You're like, I think you're right.
<v Speaker 1>They were just disconnected from the reality on the ground
<v Speaker 1>of how people were going to feel about this. So,
<v Speaker 1>you know, street Fighters, it's not like this is going
<v Speaker 1>to like hurt like Street Fighters six in that community
<v Speaker 1>all that much. They they'll have another opportunity to like
<v Speaker 1>come up with a different idea, but they probably don't
<v Speaker 1>do anything like this ever again, right, especially the director
<v Speaker 1>of the games or the games the directors out there
<v Speaker 1>basically bashing this idea. It's not something they're going to
<v Speaker 1>be able to return to, you think.
<v Speaker 4>Right, Yeah, And the director, the director and the producer
<v Speaker 4>of this game, they are very in tune with community,
<v Speaker 4>seems Yeah. Na Kiyama Matsumoto, who I've I've had a
<v Speaker 4>chance to interview Matsumoto and just like talking with these guys,
<v Speaker 4>I know that like they get it. They are in
<v Speaker 4>tune with the community, so something else is happening somewhere
<v Speaker 4>in the chain that's sort of pointing to stop to this.
<v Speaker 4>I know Capcom has done a variety of slightly weird
<v Speaker 4>things lately, you know, like Master Hunter. Wild's not being
<v Speaker 4>great as well in a variety of ways. It feels
<v Speaker 4>like something's going on over there. And I really hope
<v Speaker 4>they write the ship because yeah, this is kind of
<v Speaker 4>just if nothing else, it's a bit of a bad
<v Speaker 4>look overall.
<v Speaker 1>Thanks Sean. We're going to move on to Famitsu sales
<v Speaker 1>highlights from the last week. Just we used to do
<v Speaker 1>this a little bit more often. I haven't done it recently,
<v Speaker 1>but there's a big game that we're kind of like seeing, like,
<v Speaker 1>oh is it how's it doing? We have that this
<v Speaker 1>week with Silent Hill F. We're going to check out
<v Speaker 1>how games are selling in Japan and Silent Hill F.
<v Speaker 1>According to famits to which tracks retail sales, so these
<v Speaker 1>are physical sales, it did fifty seven, four hundred and
<v Speaker 1>seventy five units, so it debuted at number one. I
<v Speaker 1>went back and checked, and that's about double what Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill two did in Japan. The remake last year. So Jen,
<v Speaker 1>that's just that's just straight up growth. That's and you know,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure Silent Hill two probably gets a lot of
<v Speaker 1>the credit there where. It's like people were maybe a
<v Speaker 1>little bit hesitant about that Silent to Sound Hill two
<v Speaker 1>remake and then it got good word of mouth, had
<v Speaker 1>good legs. But that now that that positive experience is
<v Speaker 1>paid off here where, and now people are also really
<v Speaker 1>liking this game as well. That I'm sure it helped
<v Speaker 1>it got good reviews. But yes, Silent Hill F sort
<v Speaker 1>of just showing that Konami on the right path, right.
<v Speaker 2>Take that online chuds, you have fucking dumbasses.
<v Speaker 1>Just weird weirdos. Yeah, they really didn't get any traction
<v Speaker 1>with that one.
<v Speaker 2>But Silent Hill F. Yeah, again, I spoke about this
<v Speaker 2>on the podcast earlier this week. Backler spoke about it
<v Speaker 2>last week. Very very good game, appropriately time for spooky season.
<v Speaker 2>And I am super jazz grub for the solid hill
<v Speaker 2>heads out there to get a good game for once.
<v Speaker 1>And that is you know, the PS five games five
<v Speaker 1>version of that game on top of the chart. You
<v Speaker 1>know the rest of the chart, a lot of switch
<v Speaker 1>games switched to still very dominant in Japan's switch To
<v Speaker 1>is already at two million units sold in that country
<v Speaker 1>year to date. You know, obviously it's only been out
<v Speaker 1>this year, so lifetime sales it's at two point one million.
<v Speaker 1>To put it in context, the PS five, I think,
<v Speaker 1>I think that's all versions of the PS five is
<v Speaker 1>at just over seven million. So already the switch to
<v Speaker 1>at two million. PS five after five years, almost going
<v Speaker 1>up on six years now as at seven million, so
<v Speaker 1>that's about a little bit over one million per year.
<v Speaker 1>Switch in a handful of months is at two million
<v Speaker 1>in its first year, likely to sell even more here.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, the Switch one is at thirty six million
<v Speaker 1>units sold in Japan, so that's yeah, it's on that pathway.
<v Speaker 1>Other games, Mario Kart World is is at one point
<v Speaker 1>eight million total and it's sold another thirty five thousand
<v Speaker 1>units last week, so yeah, that's yeah, continues to just
<v Speaker 1>dominate Mario Kart World, picking up where Mario Kart eight
<v Speaker 1>left off. And let's see if there's anything else worth
<v Speaker 1>bringing up on here? Is that it? Yeah, the new
<v Speaker 1>game Itelier Man, what do they name games this way?
<v Speaker 1>Aelier Wrestleriana Riana, I think that's how you say it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know the Red Alchemist and the White Guardian.
<v Speaker 2>That's sorry, that's right, grub, I'm sorry. I'm just done
<v Speaker 2>with the White Savior trope. Okay, I don't need a
<v Speaker 2>White Guardian.
<v Speaker 1>Now you got it to white save. You got a
<v Speaker 1>White Guardian. But we also have a Red Alchemist. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>that's just some variety, some diversity. I know Michael Haye
<v Speaker 1>that he wants to overcome it, but here we got it.
<v Speaker 1>Ten thousand units sold and that is is that's for switch.
<v Speaker 1>So there you go. All right, uh yeah, kind of
<v Speaker 1>just want to check out on Silent Hill f there.
<v Speaker 1>I think we'll probably hear from Matt next week, Matt
<v Speaker 1>Piscatela about sarskina Us report, and we'll get some word
<v Speaker 1>on that. I bet that game does like surprisingly well
<v Speaker 1>in the United States. I think so, but we'll have
<v Speaker 1>to wait and see, and I think that'll be like
<v Speaker 1>actually one of the standout games for these last few weeks.
<v Speaker 1>And then I'm really continue to be very curious about
<v Speaker 1>where Borderlands four is going to end up, and even
<v Speaker 1>even Ghost to Yota, Like I think Ghost is going
<v Speaker 1>to do fine in a lot of places, but I'm
<v Speaker 1>just I'm wondering. You know, it probably has to do fine, right,
<v Speaker 1>because it's the game for the console that people spent
<v Speaker 1>the five hundred dollars or more on. It's at a
<v Speaker 1>certain play it feels like you're hostage to like you
<v Speaker 1>have to get this game, Like why else get this
<v Speaker 1>console if you're not going to play a Ghost of Yota,
<v Speaker 1>right right?
<v Speaker 2>I mean if you were buying a switch to, you
<v Speaker 2>were probably going to get Mario Kart World or Donkey
<v Speaker 2>Kong Bonanza.
<v Speaker 1>And people did.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, and if you've had a PS five for X
<v Speaker 2>amount of years, now this is the one thing that's
<v Speaker 2>going to come out on it and just it. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>probably grub also, I mean it's gorgeous as well. It's
<v Speaker 2>a six game boy. Yeah news And I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>it's kind of sick as hell to see Erica Eeshi
<v Speaker 2>voice the main character. And then I guess I didn't
<v Speaker 2>realize how much they just based the design off of
<v Speaker 2>her because it's just her.
<v Speaker 1>It's just just her, Yeah, and that rules Actually it's
<v Speaker 1>oh yeah, I mean she's a beautiful person. And then
<v Speaker 1>also just an incredible actor and good choice on their
<v Speaker 1>part because it's like, oh that really worked for this
<v Speaker 1>character for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Erica, ish, let's get you on the dump truck please.
<v Speaker 1>That would be fantastic. I would love that. You know what,
<v Speaker 1>last little tidbit from these Famitsu numbers. PS five Pro
<v Speaker 1>is that two hundred and fifty two hundred fifty thousand
<v Speaker 1>units sold in Japan compared to the PS five which
<v Speaker 1>that five point seven point five point eight million, and
<v Speaker 1>the PS five Digital Edition, which is another one million.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, that's like, that's less than five percent
<v Speaker 1>of the PlayStation five's total, Like sales are the pro.
<v Speaker 1>I think the PRO for the PS four ended up
<v Speaker 1>or somewhere around like ten percent, maybe twelve percent, like
<v Speaker 1>in that range, and that's at the end of the
<v Speaker 1>of the generation. Maybe the PS fro PS five Pro
<v Speaker 1>will continue to sell better, but I think the thing
<v Speaker 1>that happened with the PS four was no the PS
<v Speaker 1>four base version kept selling better than the PS four Pro,
<v Speaker 1>and I would expect the same to be true here
<v Speaker 1>because money, like it's a huge difference in cost. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that just does not seem like the Pro has found
<v Speaker 1>its footing really, and maybe that's a Again, I think
<v Speaker 1>it's a long term play. I think it's something where
<v Speaker 1>it's like they will have the PS five Pro around
<v Speaker 1>for a long time into the PS six generation.
<v Speaker 2>I when the PS four Pro came out, Grub, I
<v Speaker 2>felt like there was definitely a need for it because
<v Speaker 2>my PS four, my base PS four just sounded like
<v Speaker 2>it was a jet engine failing to take off. I don't,
<v Speaker 2>at least for me, it just never found like, you
<v Speaker 2>I needed a PS five Pro, and it just felt
<v Speaker 2>like it was more marketing rather than an actual necessity
<v Speaker 2>because sure, like I went to a PS five Pro
<v Speaker 2>event in person, and like, you know, the games look better,
<v Speaker 2>but they don't look that much better that I feel
<v Speaker 2>like I need this right now, and especially with the
<v Speaker 2>ice is going up, Grub, I can't. I definitely cannot
<v Speaker 2>justify that.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I agree, And it's, uh, you know, I think
<v Speaker 1>that is that maybe that's changed just a little bit
<v Speaker 1>with Yota, where it's like, apparently Yota looks phenomenal on
<v Speaker 1>the PS five Pro noticeably better, Like I guess, you know,
<v Speaker 1>PS five pro versions have always been noticeable, so maybe
<v Speaker 1>it's a bit more than that. And it's like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you get a couple more like that, and I will,
<v Speaker 1>like I'm always considering the PS five Pro. I'm stupid.
<v Speaker 1>I like, I know I should. I don't need it,
<v Speaker 1>but I like to buy shiny new things. So it's
<v Speaker 1>like they kind of already have me on the hook
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, they just haven't reeled me in. Yota
<v Speaker 1>is beginning that process maybe, but I'm also not like
<v Speaker 1>you know, I'm not. I'm not making time for Yota,
<v Speaker 1>I said on the Quick Look. I will find time
<v Speaker 1>for Yota eventually, but I'm not making time for it now.
<v Speaker 1>There's too many other things I want to play first.
<v Speaker 1>If I get a break, Yota would be like the
<v Speaker 1>perfect game to just lose myself in for two weeks.
<v Speaker 1>I look forward to that, But because it's not in
<v Speaker 1>that like have to play now, it's also probably not
<v Speaker 1>the game that's going to get me to buy a
<v Speaker 1>PS five Pro.
<v Speaker 2>I I think Minati said this earlier this week, but
<v Speaker 2>it feels like the perfect holiday game grub.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Yes, I'm so with that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, And I don't want anyone to take that as
<v Speaker 2>a slight, but it just it feels like a game
<v Speaker 2>that you need to hunker down and spend time with
<v Speaker 2>rather than trying to cram it in amongst everything else
<v Speaker 2>that we're playing. And also like I don't know the
<v Speaker 2>original Ghost of Sushima. It didn't feel like a pickup
<v Speaker 2>and play type of game. It felt like, Okay, let's
<v Speaker 2>hunker down with Jin, let's figure out what we're gonna do.
<v Speaker 2>It's back me get lost. Then exactly, let's bask in
<v Speaker 2>like this beautiful world he created. Oh god, yeah, after
<v Speaker 2>watching the quick Look and You'll play it, I had
<v Speaker 2>the hunger for it. But then I remembered Haites two
<v Speaker 2>exists in all these other JRPGs that are like banging
<v Speaker 2>on my door. And then the Digimon came here.
<v Speaker 1>And Digimon game which, speaking of which Herman with the
<v Speaker 1>super Chat and Endurance run Colon Digimond story Time Stranger.
<v Speaker 2>No, no, no, guys, come on, you want you want
<v Speaker 2>it Endurance to actually be fun?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, no matter, they've got decent reviews.
<v Speaker 2>Right, yeah, no, it's great.
<v Speaker 1>I would come in, I would sit with you, and
<v Speaker 1>I would ask so many questions about Digimon.
<v Speaker 2>Digitmon gets so fucked up, grub sean dude, like they
<v Speaker 2>do the surface. They may not do it, I think,
<v Speaker 2>but like the further aid, Digimon goes up in its
<v Speaker 2>digivolution chain. The more human and it looks in like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't want something that looked like a cute, little
<v Speaker 2>chubby rabbit with bat ear wings to look like a
<v Speaker 2>sexy lady.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry, you know, well no, well, okay, all right,
<v Speaker 1>that does it for the headlines. We should catch up
<v Speaker 1>on the poll question from yesterday. How would you grade
<v Speaker 1>the switch to is a launch? Here? So far your
<v Speaker 1>options were ABC, D or lower. Eight percent gave it
<v Speaker 1>an A. That's the lowest results by far. See twelve
<v Speaker 1>percent gave it a D or lower, thirty five percent
<v Speaker 1>gave it a C, and forty five percent gave it
<v Speaker 1>a B. And I gave it a B. I felt
<v Speaker 1>like maybe that was a little generous, but it's like
<v Speaker 1>I can't help that. I just really like playing my
<v Speaker 1>switch To, So that's a big part of it. They
<v Speaker 1>delivered hardware that I like, and that's like in the
<v Speaker 1>first year, that does go a long way towards like
<v Speaker 1>putting you well above a passing grade. And then I
<v Speaker 1>think Mario Kart World is fine, yeah, and then Donkey
<v Speaker 1>Kong Banan is excellent. I love that game. And then
<v Speaker 1>it's been a really good way to play some of
<v Speaker 1>the indie games. Haitis two and Silk Sung specifically, and
<v Speaker 1>then I'm and then I think the last piece of
<v Speaker 1>the pie for me is and it's delivering better results
<v Speaker 1>for third party big games like Star Wars, Outlaws and
<v Speaker 1>Cyberpuck than I was expecting, and that's given me hope
<v Speaker 1>for the future. So it's like, okay, I can I
<v Speaker 1>would probably put it like a B minus. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>forty five percent putting a BE on here, I'm maybe
<v Speaker 1>not too surprised. It's clearly not though, like Switch one
<v Speaker 1>first year with Breath of the Wild and Super Mario
<v Speaker 1>Odyssey and Mario Kart eight Deluxe. But what is relative
<v Speaker 1>to a lot of other first like launch years, this
<v Speaker 1>one is, Yeah, it's up there. It is above average
<v Speaker 1>for sure.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I think it is a solid BE for me
<v Speaker 2>as well. Grubb less so because of the first party stuff,
<v Speaker 2>but now, and folks, I have a Steam Deck. That
<v Speaker 2>thing is just so dang heavy all the time and
<v Speaker 2>I've dropped that thing on my face multiple times, so
<v Speaker 2>got a little bit of PTSD. But the switch to
<v Speaker 2>is just like a little lighter, and like you said, Grub,
<v Speaker 2>it's a good place to play Silk Song, fantastic place
<v Speaker 2>to play Hades too. But also apologies folks for not
<v Speaker 2>being able to get the Tactics Quick look out this week.
<v Speaker 2>Uh capture cards be damned, but I have put in
<v Speaker 2>more hours into Final Fantasy Tactics on the switch to version.
<v Speaker 2>It runs fantastic.
<v Speaker 1>It's great on there. It is.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's not the most demanding game by any means,
<v Speaker 2>but it is a fantastic place to play Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 2>Tactics the Evilise chronicles. If you're on the fensive where
<v Speaker 2>to get it and you have a switch to I
<v Speaker 2>would definitely get it on the switch to gang.
<v Speaker 1>I agree, Yeah, no, I think that's probably It's the
<v Speaker 1>way to play that game for sure. You kind it's
<v Speaker 1>one of those games you definitely just want to have
<v Speaker 1>with you for sure. And then you know we're talking
<v Speaker 1>about you know, so far for the switch you switch
<v Speaker 1>tows launch here, Switch you switch Tows Launch here. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I still have Metroid, it does still have Pokemon coming,
<v Speaker 1>and you know, I'm pretty hopeful for that Pokemon A
<v Speaker 1>Legends game. Like I think that maybe I know, Jan,
<v Speaker 1>I know you roll your eyes, but I think there's
<v Speaker 1>a chance that they get me with this one. There's
<v Speaker 1>there's with his headphones. There's some other shit as well.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, yeah, I think there's still plenty to come
<v Speaker 1>for the switch to to like keep people feeling pretty
<v Speaker 1>good about that console. All right, we will have a
<v Speaker 1>new poll question on next week's show. Not one this
<v Speaker 1>week is gonna do the bomb twelve here in a second.
<v Speaker 1>Before we do that, we should probably go over what
<v Speaker 1>we're doing for the rest of today. Take a little
<v Speaker 1>bit of a break, although I might try to finish
<v Speaker 1>up Baby Steps. I did completely demand breaker.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody, we got a record ads.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry. Oh that's right, No, that's right, Okay, that's right. Okay.
<v Speaker 1>So we're gonna take a little bit of a break
<v Speaker 1>and we'll come back at Do we say we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>start at two pm or three pm? Wellpm?
<v Speaker 2>Right, yeah, Well we'll announce it, okay.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. So we're gonna start around later this afternoon with
<v Speaker 1>UPF and we are going to play King of Meat,
<v Speaker 1>which is a multiplayer party platforming game, and then Lego Party,
<v Speaker 1>and we're doing that. We're doing in that order Sobaclark
<v Speaker 1>can show up for Lego Party and hang out with us.
<v Speaker 1>It's tom we get some backlard, some content. This week,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm looking forward to it. Other than that, we'll
<v Speaker 1>be back with normal stuff next week for the most part,
<v Speaker 1>other than Golf Week, everybody, that's right, it's golf week.
<v Speaker 1>You could expect stuff like Pebble Beach on Monday Mornings,
<v Speaker 1>Missed with Mitch, which is the game that is the
<v Speaker 1>same engine as Virtual Hideline. You can expect Mario Golf.
<v Speaker 1>You can expect Golf with Friends with a Nintendo switch
<v Speaker 1>to Sports Golf Thursday, new VR golfing game for the
<v Speaker 1>Quest that is like an ar golfing game that puts
<v Speaker 1>golf courses in your house. I might stream some of that.
<v Speaker 1>Kirby's a Dream Dream Course Yet, Kirby's Dream Course. I'll
<v Speaker 1>play that before a game. This morning's one day. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>try to go do a little tournament style thing. It's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be awesome. There's gonna be merch that is phenomenal, phenomenal,
<v Speaker 1>it's gorgeous. Mike did a great job getting that all
<v Speaker 1>ready for us. He's gonna model it for us as well. Everybody,
<v Speaker 1>so look out for that. It's golf week time. Everybody,
<v Speaker 1>get excited.
<v Speaker 2>It's for you and hey, who knows, Grebs. Maybe maybe
<v Speaker 2>we'll go for like, well, you you could go to
<v Speaker 2>a driving range. I could go to a driving range.
<v Speaker 2>We'll just pop onto a call and just stream that
<v Speaker 2>out and I'll just I'm.
<v Speaker 1>Gonna go to x golf the simulator and uh and
<v Speaker 1>do that. Yeah, the ex golf. That's right. Who knows?
<v Speaker 2>Dream Maybe we should do a film in forties for
<v Speaker 2>Happy Gilmore two.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, okay, I've not seen it yet. That okay. I
<v Speaker 1>like these ideas. We're celebrating everybody. All right, it's golf week.
<v Speaker 1>You should celebrate as well. Get your clubs out. Let's
<v Speaker 1>have a good time, all right. I think that does it.
<v Speaker 1>So that means it's time to wrap up the week
<v Speaker 1>with the bomb twelve. These are the twelve games that
<v Speaker 1>really matter to people who are really playing games. As always,
<v Speaker 1>tons of responses. I really appreciate everyone letting us know
<v Speaker 1>and wanting to have us saying the bomb twelve. We
<v Speaker 1>have the games right here, right now, starting with actually
<v Speaker 1>two games off the bat that Jen, I think I
<v Speaker 1>sent you some trailers there in the dock. Let's do
<v Speaker 1>number twelve. Unfair flips, Jan, have you seen this one?
<v Speaker 2>Yes? Yes, I have grub everyone thinking, Oh I hope,
<v Speaker 2>Jen doesn't see this. Oh no, I.
<v Speaker 1>Hope you don't see it.
<v Speaker 2>I hope he hasn't heard of this. It's always too late. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>it's like the Timbaland song from twenty nine. It's too
<v Speaker 2>late to apologize and it's too late to keep this
<v Speaker 2>from my eyeballs. I've seen it.
<v Speaker 1>I've seen it, grub it looks like, Oh, it looks
<v Speaker 1>like a Jane game, and you're just gonna get lost
<v Speaker 1>to it. I want to play it real bat too.
<v Speaker 1>So this is a game where you flip a coin
<v Speaker 1>and you're trying to get ten heads in a row.
<v Speaker 1>But you start off and the coin is unfair and
<v Speaker 1>it only has a twenty percent chance to get heads.
<v Speaker 1>But then you can upgrade the coin by, for example,
<v Speaker 1>spending one penny, like and you get a penny if
<v Speaker 1>it lands on heads, by spending one penny to increase
<v Speaker 1>your chances of getting heads by five percent. And there's
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of different things like that. Or you can
<v Speaker 1>spend a penny to increase the rate at which you
<v Speaker 1>can flip the coins. You can flip a lot faster.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's an idle game essentially in a lot of ways,
<v Speaker 1>but boy, it looks real good. I just love I
<v Speaker 1>love math. I don't like doing math. I love math
<v Speaker 1>being done for me in a video game. Let me
<v Speaker 1>get better math in a game. That's good stuff. Number
<v Speaker 1>eleven is the annual ghost Town Pumpkin Festival. I think
<v Speaker 1>I got that name right. This is on Itch, and
<v Speaker 1>I got a I got a pumpkin carving game on
<v Speaker 1>Itch a few years ago, and I think this might
<v Speaker 1>be like the successor to that, where it's about like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's a seasonal game from the people that hit Short
<v Speaker 1>a Short hike. Now you carve pumpkins and and then
<v Speaker 1>you just go explore an autumn festival, like yeah, you
<v Speaker 1>can see right here, everybody play with up to two
<v Speaker 1>hundred players at once. We should do this. We absolutely
<v Speaker 1>need to do this.
<v Speaker 2>Anyone out there that wants to celebrate autumnal delights with me, holler, please,
<v Speaker 2>let's go. I've bring some cider, carve some pumpkin guess
<v Speaker 2>dress up as ghosts.
<v Speaker 1>Come on. I just I you know, I love these
<v Speaker 1>things in shoot life. I love going to a pumpkin
<v Speaker 1>festival and an autumn themed thing. Falling leaves, apple cider, cinnamon, doughnuts,
<v Speaker 1>all that stuff, I'll do it in a video game
<v Speaker 1>as well, with two hundred of my closest friends Abby.
<v Speaker 1>I'm headed down now now, yeah you go, yeah, go
<v Speaker 1>to a cider bill. Let's do it. Number tens, Borderlands
<v Speaker 1>for number nine, Trails in the Sky First Chapter, number eight,
<v Speaker 1>Donkey Kong Bonanza number seven, Baby Steps number six, Megabonk
<v Speaker 1>number five, Final Fantasy Tactics, The Evil East Chronicles number four,
<v Speaker 1>Ghost of You O Tay just missing down on the
<v Speaker 1>top three behind number three Silent Hell F. And that
<v Speaker 1>means number two Hollow Night Silk Song and number one
<v Speaker 1>still and by a very wide margin Hades two. People
<v Speaker 1>are showing up for Hades two. But the reality is
<v Speaker 1>all these games sort of in the top five did
<v Speaker 1>very well, a lot of people playing everything from Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy Tactics onward, and then it's kind of like a
<v Speaker 1>jumble of games where it's like, Okay, there's quite a
<v Speaker 1>big handful of people playing Baby Steps in Megabonks still,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, Silent Hill F cracking its way into the
<v Speaker 1>top three above Ghost of Yota. I think you know,
<v Speaker 1>part of that's always going to be released timing. Silent
<v Speaker 1>Hill F was available for a little bit longer than
<v Speaker 1>Ghost of Jota, And that's just how it goes sometimes
<v Speaker 1>with these charts. So we'll see how things shake up
<v Speaker 1>next week. But yeah, regardless, that's where you want to be.
<v Speaker 1>Very few things are going to be able to come
<v Speaker 1>out and outdo the excitement for Hades and Silk Song
<v Speaker 1>right now, Greb.
<v Speaker 2>I know that the people were primarily asking our community
<v Speaker 2>for the Bomb twelve, and shouts out to them for
<v Speaker 2>coming out and showing up in droves each week to
<v Speaker 2>vote on the Bomb twelve. But I do want people
<v Speaker 2>to look at all of the games here and notice
<v Speaker 2>not a lot from big publishers here, right, Ghost of Yota,
<v Speaker 2>Orderlands four, maybe the o I had Docy cong Binians
<v Speaker 2>as well, but like in terms of coming from the
<v Speaker 2>big three, not a lot of representation. This makes me
<v Speaker 2>happy that games are still well and alive. And hey,
<v Speaker 2>instead of paying thirty bucks for a Game Pass Ultimate subscription,
<v Speaker 2>you can generally buy maybe two indie games for that price.
<v Speaker 2>So go support indie devs because, like we were saying earlier,
<v Speaker 2>indie dev's fucking rock stars. Cool people.
<v Speaker 1>They are cool.
<v Speaker 2>People, Lexi was saying earlier this week. They game development
<v Speaker 2>supports weird art cikos and I am all for supporting
<v Speaker 2>weird art Cikos.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, absolutely, And I think that is uh. People want
<v Speaker 1>to show off they're like cool little thing that they found.
<v Speaker 1>That's where you get the unfair flips, where you get
<v Speaker 1>the annual Ghost Pumpkin Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival stuff that
<v Speaker 1>I love that freaky shit showing up on here, I
<v Speaker 1>really do. And then you know Baby Steps and Mega
<v Speaker 1>Bonk out doing Borderlands four. I think that's right. I'm
<v Speaker 1>happy to see that. Let's let's get some more of
<v Speaker 1>that for sure. Yep. This was this was a list
<v Speaker 1>when we started the Bomb twelve Donkey Kong b Nance
<v Speaker 1>dominated every week for week after week after week after week.
<v Speaker 1>It's still hanging in there. Yeah, but now it's like
<v Speaker 1>it does feel like, Okay, it's gonna be Haightes two
<v Speaker 1>and Silk Song. Maybe for the rest of the year,
<v Speaker 1>we'll see Metroy Prime fours. You have to come a handful,
<v Speaker 1>Like I was gonna say, Call of Duty, but that
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't happen with our audience. I don't know. I guess
<v Speaker 1>we'll see Battlefield. Battlefield six will probably actually pop off
<v Speaker 1>really hard on this list when it's out for real,
<v Speaker 1>which is really soon, right.
<v Speaker 2>I wonder, though, Grub, if the news will affect Battlefield
<v Speaker 2>six at all, at least with our our circle of
<v Speaker 2>the Bomb twelve here, I'm curious if folks will take
<v Speaker 2>that into account.
<v Speaker 1>I think it probably will. You're probably right. Yes, I
<v Speaker 1>did say Expedition thirty three would be on the list
<v Speaker 1>for the rest of the year. I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>I meant like without a break, like it just missed
<v Speaker 1>the list this week, everybody, it was like right there, honestly,
<v Speaker 1>Like the math could get a little bit shaky because
<v Speaker 1>people will submit different title names for the games and
<v Speaker 1>things like that. I'll be like, oh, Exhibition thirty three
<v Speaker 1>or the full proper name, and when I'm doing the
<v Speaker 1>math sometimes some of those other ones can get lost
<v Speaker 1>in the shuffle at a little bit there. There's a
<v Speaker 1>chance it could be on the list again, but it
<v Speaker 1>will continue to pop off, especially as we get closer
<v Speaker 1>to the end of the year and it picks up
<v Speaker 1>Game of the Year buzz and things like that. People
<v Speaker 1>will go back and check out for the third or
<v Speaker 1>fourth or fifth time or the fifth wave I guess
<v Speaker 1>at this point. But yeah, we'll see, Hey, grub lots
<v Speaker 1>of games right now, Grub. This top two here looks
<v Speaker 1>like a good top two for the year. Yeah, it's uh.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's going to be pretty tough for anything
<v Speaker 1>else to sort of stand out compared to those two
<v Speaker 1>when we're having conversations about such things in December or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Bomb twelve, we'll do another one next Friday
<v Speaker 1>to end next week. When we do, we're going to
<v Speaker 1>want to have your say, so I will put up
<v Speaker 1>a blog post on giant bomb dot com about the
<v Speaker 1>results of this week's Bomb twelve. Go to the bottom
<v Speaker 1>of that blog post. There will be a new link.
<v Speaker 1>There's a new form link every week. Don't use the
<v Speaker 1>old form links. You gotta find the new form link
<v Speaker 1>and then you submit your game. We'll get the results.
<v Speaker 1>We'll talk about it on the Bomb twelve then. Until then, though,
<v Speaker 1>Jana Choa, thank you for hanging out with me and
<v Speaker 1>talking about video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>It's normally the best way to start a Thursday, but
<v Speaker 2>it's an even better way to start a Friday.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. That's goddamn right. Thank you all for watching and listening.
<v Speaker 1>You're the best audience in gaming Until next time, have
<v Speaker 1>a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.