Nintendo Switch 2 Preorders Go Live at one European Retailer

<v Speaker 1>Bit, it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for
<v Speaker 1>January twenty seventh, twenty twenty five. For the next hour
<v Speaker 1>or so, let me help you sort through the world
<v Speaker 1>of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb.
<v Speaker 1>Today did switch to pre orders really go live. Xbox
<v Speaker 1>will continue to port games to other platforms and another
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five exclusive heads to PC. But first, please join
<v Speaker 1>me in welcoming today's co host to Game Mess Mornings.
<v Speaker 1>It's Emma Fife. Everybody, Emma, how are you doing?
<v Speaker 2>Hello? Uh man, how am I doing? It's I got
<v Speaker 2>a lot. I got a lot of stuff going on
<v Speaker 2>right now.
<v Speaker 1>What are you go going on? How busy? Can you
<v Speaker 1>really be? Oh? Boy?
<v Speaker 3>I so hilarious. This is this is some inside track stuff.
<v Speaker 3>I keep getting harassed by finance because they're like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>you have a lot of expenses on your card, and
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, I know, I.
<v Speaker 1>Don't have time.
<v Speaker 3>I can't do any administrative work. I have too many
<v Speaker 3>other things happening. But it's all great. It's all great.
<v Speaker 1>You know.
<v Speaker 3>I'm flying up to San Francisco later today and then
<v Speaker 3>I come back tomorrow night and then film something on
<v Speaker 3>Wednesday and so it's just there's there's a lot going on.
<v Speaker 3>But I did go to Distant Worlds. I think we're
<v Speaker 3>on Distant World seven hour something like that at Peacock
<v Speaker 3>Theater last Friday, Yeah, Friday, over the weekend.
<v Speaker 2>It was It was nice, it was really fun. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you Squary Next for inviting me.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. They were in Cleveland not too long ago. I
<v Speaker 1>was supposed to go, but then it was during the
<v Speaker 1>Lions game, and it turns out I should have Fantasy
<v Speaker 1>concert instead.
<v Speaker 3>But no, I like the every they always invite me,
<v Speaker 3>every single time I've been invited, be it for a
<v Speaker 3>Distant Worlds or the final Fantasy seven concert they were doing. Right,
<v Speaker 3>I'm I'm never in town, like, I don't know why
<v Speaker 3>it always lines up with when I'm away, But this
<v Speaker 3>time it worked out and it was great.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I'm glad to hear that. That sounds good. Yeah. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>busy couple of days, a lot of traveling. That makes
<v Speaker 1>a ton of sense to me, all the traveling that
<v Speaker 1>you're doing. Yeah, but I am glad that you were
<v Speaker 1>able to make an appen this morning. Glad to see
<v Speaker 1>we had last Monday off, so we'll get back into
<v Speaker 1>the swing of things. Here and have some fun talking
<v Speaker 1>about video games. You've been playing anything recently though, I
<v Speaker 1>know you're busy, but.
<v Speaker 3>Can I tell you that last night, I literally so
<v Speaker 3>Gabe was in my Steam account because he downloaded UFO
<v Speaker 3>fifty to my Steam account and so he was playing
<v Speaker 3>that on the rogue ally, so I couldn't play my
<v Speaker 3>favorite anxiety relief game, which is Haities two.
<v Speaker 1>Sure you just do that family sharing thing. It works
<v Speaker 1>really right, I know we do.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but because like he has an account anyway, we'll
<v Speaker 3>get that all sorted out later.
<v Speaker 2>So I literally load it up.
<v Speaker 3>My same file of Final Fantasy Seve and Rebirth just
<v Speaker 3>to play Queen's Blood.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's the I gotta figure something out there. They
<v Speaker 1>got to just play out Queen's Blood as its own.
<v Speaker 3>Thing eventually, and you know what, I had a great
<v Speaker 3>time and I was just like building new decks and.
<v Speaker 2>It was great.
<v Speaker 1>If Queen's Blood was separate, where would it have been
<v Speaker 1>on your Game of the Year lists? Last year?
<v Speaker 2>It was on my Game of the Year put it
<v Speaker 2>on there.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, I think that's what I'm like remembering. I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, that sounds familiar, okay.
<v Speaker 2>Fantas Yeah, Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>That's a good way to do it. All right, let's
<v Speaker 1>explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes
<v Speaker 1>breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
<v Speaker 1>For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
<v Speaker 1>bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If
<v Speaker 1>you are watching live on twitch welcome, you can always
<v Speaker 1>listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching
<v Speaker 1>for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant
<v Speaker 1>bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later
<v Speaker 1>with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right,
<v Speaker 1>we have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 1>the Morning Mess with Nintendo switch To preorders go live
<v Speaker 1>at one European retailer with a cheaper than expected price.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Adam but Jessica at the Shortcut. Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>Switched Too preorders are live at one European retailer. The
<v Speaker 1>console is on sale at this retailer for what equates
<v Speaker 1>to about three hundred and eighty dollars. Nintendo has announced
<v Speaker 1>the console's price or released a yet or pre order
<v Speaker 1>information for that matter. All that is expected to come
<v Speaker 1>on or very near April second, when they do the
<v Speaker 1>dedicated switch to Direct that they have promised to do
<v Speaker 1>when they did the tiny little reveal last week week before.
<v Speaker 1>I can't keep track anymore. Yeah, this is this is
<v Speaker 1>something that I'm leading off with here, just because boy
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people were talking about this got a
<v Speaker 1>lot of attention, especially that price. People are always is
<v Speaker 1>this what it's going to be? And I think we
<v Speaker 1>can safely assume, Emma, this retailer is just trying to
<v Speaker 1>get attention and is guessing.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Yeah, that sounds low to me for a price.
<v Speaker 3>But again, I do remember when the switch was announced
<v Speaker 3>and it was only three hundred dollars.
<v Speaker 2>And I was like, wow, that's a.
<v Speaker 3>That's a get it in the household price. It still
<v Speaker 3>seems to me that that's going to be a little
<v Speaker 3>too low. And as you say, here's a retailer just
<v Speaker 3>making a wild guess and seeking attention.
<v Speaker 2>But that I don't know. This doesn't this doesn't seem right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think that it's very unlikely this comes in
<v Speaker 1>under four hundred dollars. It's probably gonna be four hundre
<v Speaker 1>I think it's going to be four hundred on the dot.
<v Speaker 1>I think that's the like the safe zone for Nintendo,
<v Speaker 1>where it's like they can they're probably gonna be manufacturing
<v Speaker 1>these things for quite a bit less than that, so
<v Speaker 1>they'll have some wiggle room with tariffs, whether or not
<v Speaker 1>they come, they still have to have wiggle room just
<v Speaker 1>because they don't really know. And then it's not so
<v Speaker 1>expensive that it gets into that PS five pro territory
<v Speaker 1>where it's like, actually this does this is a painful price,
<v Speaker 1>and a lot of people don't like the way this
<v Speaker 1>feels to have to pay this much for this particular device.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I think four fifties five hundred you are
<v Speaker 1>are pricing the switch to in a way that is
<v Speaker 1>very uncompetitive when you compare it to a PS five
<v Speaker 1>standard or an Xbox Series X. So four hundred feels right.
<v Speaker 1>And you know for this retailer, you know, it's three
<v Speaker 1>hundred and sixty five euro that they're actually marking the
<v Speaker 1>price for. If they like honor that price, I don't
<v Speaker 1>think that's going to hurt him so much because the
<v Speaker 1>whole idea is get a lot of early pre orders
<v Speaker 1>and and then you know people will buy some games
<v Speaker 1>through you as well. When when they when they do
<v Speaker 1>that or whatever, get a little bit of extra attention
<v Speaker 1>and raise your profile, so it'll probably be worth it
<v Speaker 1>to them. Or and then on the other side, I
<v Speaker 1>think they are take like that's the price, but I
<v Speaker 1>think they're taking deposits. It's like fifteen euro or something
<v Speaker 1>like that. I say, Oh, if Nintendo comes back, it's like,
<v Speaker 1>how dare you? We are not gonna send any to
<v Speaker 1>you because you did this, which they may and may.
<v Speaker 2>Not which they may or may not do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, they easily could. They also could
<v Speaker 1>easily just not care about this either way, though, fifty
<v Speaker 1>refunding that fifteen year old is not going to be
<v Speaker 1>too painful for this retailer either. So they're taking a gamble.
<v Speaker 1>But in terms of what this means for Nintendo or
<v Speaker 1>information from Nintendo, doesn't mean anything, right.
<v Speaker 2>No, yeah, I do think that.
<v Speaker 3>Putting up pre orders simply guessing and again not having
<v Speaker 3>any inventory in place in terms of an agreement with
<v Speaker 3>Nintendo is.
<v Speaker 2>A risky move. Oh yeah, because.
<v Speaker 3>Nintendo going to Nintendo, you know, they're they're very, very
<v Speaker 3>proprietary of all of their stuff, you know, to the
<v Speaker 3>point that you know, famously in the eighties when there
<v Speaker 3>were companies that were had figured out how to sort
<v Speaker 3>of like bypass the Nintendo chip that was in all
<v Speaker 3>of the game cartridges. Any retailer who was going to
<v Speaker 3>carry one of those cartridges that was not an official
<v Speaker 3>that was like a third party not officially made by
<v Speaker 3>Nintendo game Nintendo basically would say, okay, great toys, r Us,
<v Speaker 3>We're not going to send you Mario then.
<v Speaker 2>So this is I don't know, this is a big gamble.
<v Speaker 3>I assume they have some sort of license agreement in
<v Speaker 3>place with Nintendo as a retailer who has sold Nintendo
<v Speaker 3>products in the past, but.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I'm like only vaguely aware of how that
<v Speaker 1>stuff works. I assume it's like, you know, they have
<v Speaker 1>an agreement with a distributor, and that distributor has to
<v Speaker 1>maintain relationships on both sides on Nintendo and with the retailers,
<v Speaker 1>mostly with Nintendo, who would probably be a little bit
<v Speaker 1>more touchy than the retailers. So so yeah, again taking
<v Speaker 1>a risk, but I mean whatever, the retailer could do
<v Speaker 1>whatever they want as as far as I I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I was never going to be a pre ordering from
<v Speaker 1>an Italian retailer. That was never going to be So
<v Speaker 1>it's like, hey, if you screw this up for yourselves
<v Speaker 1>and the people pre ordering for you, bummer, But I was.
<v Speaker 1>My hope is is that Nintendo on April second is
<v Speaker 1>just like, hey, actually the ideal scenario is on April second,
<v Speaker 1>they Hey, if you are a Nintendo Switch Online member,
<v Speaker 1>just like with Alarmo, you could pre order through us
<v Speaker 1>exclusively for a window and say, you know, get around
<v Speaker 1>the really bad side of the scalpers. I would love
<v Speaker 1>that to be the case. That's the move I would make.
<v Speaker 1>And then if that's not an option, if it's like,
<v Speaker 1>oh okay, just you know it's gonna be a free
<v Speaker 1>for all online, I might actually go to a physical
<v Speaker 1>retailer and pre order through them, just like Sharpen the store,
<v Speaker 1>get that kind of guaranteed, and see if I can
<v Speaker 1>just get my ticket that way. And you know, we're
<v Speaker 1>still gonna have to wait to find out that information,
<v Speaker 1>probably until April second, and so yeah, okay, I'll continue
<v Speaker 1>to wait. Switch to Still very fascinating, Still very gets
<v Speaker 1>drawing a lot of attention despite it being sort of
<v Speaker 1>a fizzle of an announcement because everything was already known,
<v Speaker 1>people still deeply, deeply care about it. They do, all right,
<v Speaker 1>switch over here kind of stand on switch news, but
<v Speaker 1>from Phil Spencer this time. Phil Spencer confirms Xbox will
<v Speaker 1>support switch to and confirming he congratulated Nintendo's president on
<v Speaker 1>the announcement. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Microsoft's
<v Speaker 1>gaming CEO has praised Nintendo switch To and said it
<v Speaker 1>plans to support the upcoming platform with ports of Xbox games.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo has finally announced the new switch earlier this month,
<v Speaker 1>and although no games have been officially announced for the platform,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox's teams are said to be pre prepping multiple releases,
<v Speaker 1>including Diablo for Halo, the Master Chief Collection, and Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>Flight Simulator. Those are all, according to rumor, Microsoft's newly
<v Speaker 1>acquired Activision has also committed to releasing Call of Duty
<v Speaker 1>games on switch To via the agreement with the FTC.
<v Speaker 1>That's confirmed because that is something they said publicly to
<v Speaker 1>the FTC. Speaking in a new interview with gamer Tag
<v Speaker 1>Radio Shout Out to the Boys over There, published on Friday,
<v Speaker 1>Spencer confirmed Xbox would be supporting the platform and said
<v Speaker 1>he'd exchanged messages. He exchanged messages with Nintendo's president following
<v Speaker 1>the switch to his reveal, I was exchanging emails with
<v Speaker 1>Furrokawa San, the CEO of Nintendo. I gave him a
<v Speaker 1>big congrats and said, my old eyes appreciate the larger screen.
<v Speaker 1>He said, Nintendo their innovation and what they mean in
<v Speaker 1>this industry. I just always applaud the moves that they make.
<v Speaker 1>They did a little flash video and I know we'll
<v Speaker 1>get more details over time. I'm really looking forward to it.
<v Speaker 1>Blah blah blah. They are just masterful in what they do.
<v Speaker 1>Switches a massive success, and I think switch to will
<v Speaker 1>be as well. Spencer's comments come as little surprise given
<v Speaker 1>Xbox's modern commitment to bringing its games to as many
<v Speaker 1>devices as possible. Xbox first announced in February twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>four plans to bring a wave of games games to
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, and what appeared to be a
<v Speaker 1>significant change of strategy starting with Pittiment, Hi Fi Rush,
<v Speaker 1>Sea of Thieves, and Grounded. Multiple those games came to
<v Speaker 1>the Switch one some did not. But it seems like
<v Speaker 1>CF Thieves easily could show up on Switch to something
<v Speaker 1>that was formered to come to Switch. So yeah, this
<v Speaker 1>is right in line, and it's this is something that
<v Speaker 1>basically Spencer has confirmed over and over again. But in
<v Speaker 1>this latest round of interviews like this one you do
<v Speaker 1>with the gamer Tag Radio. He also showed up on
<v Speaker 1>a couple other podcasts Xbox Era. I think he sat
<v Speaker 1>down with Destin McGarry, and it seems like this is
<v Speaker 1>the chance to like could really communicate once and for
<v Speaker 1>all two Xbox fans that this is it going forward
<v Speaker 1>and there are no more red lines about games that
<v Speaker 1>couldn't ever come to other systems. It's all on the table.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, supporting switch to at that point makes a
<v Speaker 1>ton of sense, right, I.
<v Speaker 3>Mean absolutely, And the smartest thing that Xbox could possibly
<v Speaker 3>do is to have a version of Game Pass that
<v Speaker 3>runs on Switch, particularly because Switch is already in the
<v Speaker 3>market of carrying a lot of those smaller indie games.
<v Speaker 3>It's one of the things that I actually do really
<v Speaker 3>appreciate about the Switches. You do get incredibly good indie
<v Speaker 3>game distribution on it, and a lot of those games
<v Speaker 3>come to game Pass as well. Be it for a
<v Speaker 3>limited period of time, but you know that kind of
<v Speaker 3>the thinking behind there is it's like, Okay, well you
<v Speaker 3>have the game and you played it on game Pass
<v Speaker 3>and now you like it, and so then you end
<v Speaker 3>up buying it at that, you know, typically twenty ish
<v Speaker 3>dollar price point. So I mean, especially in a market
<v Speaker 3>wherein you have things like the Ally, which you.
<v Speaker 2>Can't quite see in my frame, but I have it
<v Speaker 2>all like rigged up.
<v Speaker 3>But like this, this effectively is a switch, you know what.
<v Speaker 1>I like.
<v Speaker 2>It looks like a switch, it acts like a switch.
<v Speaker 3>It runs Windows eleven badly, but that's my only complaint
<v Speaker 3>about it.
<v Speaker 2>But I can play my game pass games on, you know.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like I feel like, in order to be
<v Speaker 3>in the like switch is not the only name in
<v Speaker 3>the game of the handheld to play on another screen.
<v Speaker 2>Console world at this point.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I mean, I think that it would be
<v Speaker 3>tremendously beneficial for them to have that partnership with Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>And again, it's like the thing about Xbox that I've
<v Speaker 3>said is that Xbox is in the market of selling
<v Speaker 3>game pass That is what they're in the market of selling.
<v Speaker 2>They are not in the market of selling Xboxes.
<v Speaker 3>The idea is, you know, that's why when the last
<v Speaker 3>generation of consoles launched, they had that lower price point Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>I have an Xbox Series S. It is a game
<v Speaker 3>pass machine. So I think, yeah, I mean, look, if
<v Speaker 3>you could even if even if it was an additional
<v Speaker 3>like subscription fee or people who don't have an Xbox
<v Speaker 3>or aren't PC players and they now can get game
<v Speaker 3>Pass for the Switch, like that would be a gigantic
<v Speaker 3>win for Microsoft.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's like at this point, I think even
<v Speaker 1>if it takes a long time for that wall to
<v Speaker 1>come down so that they can put out a version
<v Speaker 1>of game Pass on these other devices, is they are
<v Speaker 1>happy to be like, well, we'll continue with game Pass
<v Speaker 1>where we can put it out, and then we could
<v Speaker 1>supplement all the money we're spending on all making all
<v Speaker 1>these games by just selling these games on other platforms.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, we expect that to slowly erode, like we're
<v Speaker 1>going to talk about the physical game sales thing here
<v Speaker 1>in a little bit. But there was like there's a
<v Speaker 1>there's a way to like force the industry to do stuff,
<v Speaker 1>and there's a sort of lead a horse to water
<v Speaker 1>way of getting the industry to do things. And I
<v Speaker 1>think Microsoft investing a ton of money in games over
<v Speaker 1>the last several years is looking at the very very
<v Speaker 1>very long term on all of these problems that it faces,
<v Speaker 1>and very like very very long term in terms of
<v Speaker 1>all the disruption that it was aiming to do very
<v Speaker 1>quickly with game Pass, and that sort of has hit
<v Speaker 1>a wall, and they're like, okay, well we will continue
<v Speaker 1>having all these things as options, and when when we say, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to have our games on switch to, we
<v Speaker 1>don't expect for Okawa, even though we're totally exchanging emails.
<v Speaker 1>As Nicky points out, maybe he just sent an email
<v Speaker 1>for a COW. I didn't send him send him one back.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, plut into his dms.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, totally exchanging emails. Maybe for a COW is not
<v Speaker 1>necessarily like hey, bring game Pass over here, probably thinking yeah,
<v Speaker 1>bring Halo over your cell games. Sure. Yeah, But over time,
<v Speaker 1>as that stuff sort of softens and they do become
<v Speaker 1>closer partners, a version of game Pass on all these
<v Speaker 1>other devices and Nintendo device of PlayStation device long term
<v Speaker 1>becomes more likely over time. Yep.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And I mean, look, it's kind of building off
<v Speaker 3>of what Nintendo already has in place with their like
<v Speaker 3>Super Nintendo and sixty four OG Nintendo collections that you
<v Speaker 3>can get through those various subscriptions through Nintendo Switch Online.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I mean I think that if you could.
<v Speaker 3>Add a version of that that also includes Xbox games.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, exactly, Yeah, and I of course, like thee we're
<v Speaker 1>gonna be like, hey, game pass, it's like two weird
<v Speaker 1>for it to beyond these other platforms. Like we're saying
<v Speaker 1>a version a game Pass where it's a version of
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's just first party Xbox games or something like that,
<v Speaker 1>that things that totally they have complete control of and
<v Speaker 1>can like sign agreements with Nintendo about to make sure
<v Speaker 1>make it less painful for Nintendo if that's what they
<v Speaker 1>care about. Mike. Uh, Phil Spencer had had more to say, Uh,
<v Speaker 1>so we're talking about, Hey, other games coming to other
<v Speaker 1>things that aren't Xboxes, What about the Xbox? What about
<v Speaker 1>the box itself? Well, Phil Spencer explains why you should
<v Speaker 1>keep buying an Xbox in the multi platform era and
<v Speaker 1>basically saying we want to win on its capabilities. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Phil Spencer has discussed
<v Speaker 1>where Xbox console hardware fits within its new, more more
<v Speaker 1>open approach to multi platform game developed game development. Since
<v Speaker 1>the start of last year, Microsoft has brought an increased
<v Speaker 1>number of games to RIFLE platforms, and it's gaming CEO
<v Speaker 1>Phil Spencer has said there are now no red lines
<v Speaker 1>for which games it could part next. It's new marketing
<v Speaker 1>campaign even proclaims that virtually any device is now an Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>This has left many Xbox console owners wondering where their
<v Speaker 1>devices fit in Microsoft's plans for an ever open, ever
<v Speaker 1>more open ecosystem. Xbox is Phil Spencer was asked about
<v Speaker 1>this in a new interview with gamer Tag Radio. I
<v Speaker 1>want people to pick hardware based on the capabilities of
<v Speaker 1>that hardware and how that fits into the choices that
<v Speaker 1>they want to make about where they want to play.
<v Speaker 1>And we want our hardware to win based on the
<v Speaker 1>hardware capabilities that we have. I think the difference that
<v Speaker 1>we've seen in the last twenty years, and I think
<v Speaker 1>this is good because I come from building games. Is
<v Speaker 1>it's really games first, not platform first. Most of the
<v Speaker 1>games that you or I will talk about run across
<v Speaker 1>so many different platforms, and those are the games that
<v Speaker 1>are having success, Those are the games at the top
<v Speaker 1>of the charts. I want to build a platform that
<v Speaker 1>services those creators, the creators that are trying to meet
<v Speaker 1>people on every screen. And again, I think this is
<v Speaker 1>reiterating stuff we've heard for some time now. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>reassuring people that if you do want to keep buying
<v Speaker 1>Xbox consoles, they will keep making that they will focus
<v Speaker 1>on presenting a, you know, a nice hardware picture in
<v Speaker 1>terms of, hey, it's got a lot of capabilities. What
<v Speaker 1>this really says to me, though, Emma, is that they
<v Speaker 1>they need to open up the Xbox hardware even more.
<v Speaker 1>And that goes backs in line with some of the
<v Speaker 1>rumors we've heard about, Hey, the next Xbox could be
<v Speaker 1>open to Steam or Epic Game Store or any number
<v Speaker 1>of other platforms, including if PlayStation wants to bring a
<v Speaker 1>store to Xbox. They'd be willing to do that. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation very unlikely to do that anything, however, But long
<v Speaker 1>term again, yeah, and I think that is probably lining
<v Speaker 1>up with what he's saying here, right, because hardware capability
<v Speaker 1>matters only up to the point of like, can I
<v Speaker 1>get all those games on here and correct? And yes,
<v Speaker 1>and then once you can, it's like, okay, now I
<v Speaker 1>do care about the capabilities absolutely.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And again it's like it is in line with
<v Speaker 3>the conversation almost that we were having about bringing Xbox
<v Speaker 3>titles to the Switch. It's like, well, then we also
<v Speaker 3>need to expand what's available on an Xbox, because we're
<v Speaker 3>in a world wherein you know, you can get lots
<v Speaker 3>of things that run various I mean, like, for example, again,
<v Speaker 3>I very recently got my Rogue Gale and I'm extremely
<v Speaker 3>in love with it. But now I'm like, well, i
<v Speaker 3>can play all my PC games on this, So now
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to get everything on PC because then I
<v Speaker 3>can play everything handheld, which I love.
<v Speaker 2>I love having that capability.
<v Speaker 3>And so certainly, you know with Xbox, which is very
<v Speaker 3>much a tethered system so to speak. But that being said,
<v Speaker 3>x like game Pass works for both PC and Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>I don't have separate subscriptions for PC and Xbox. That's
<v Speaker 3>all one subscription. So if you know you're able to
<v Speaker 3>get something like say a Steam or an Epic Game
<v Speaker 3>Store on an Xbox like that, that's huge. That's super
<v Speaker 3>important and in line with Microsoft in general and being
<v Speaker 3>in the PC market. So yeah, I mean, if Xbox
<v Speaker 3>would like to get back in the business of selling xboxes,
<v Speaker 3>they do need to make some expansions to their hardware,
<v Speaker 3>particularly because you know, again at the launch of the
<v Speaker 3>most recent generation of consoles, the PS five, Xbox Series X,
<v Speaker 3>when I was at the time, I was working at
<v Speaker 3>then I was hosting the download there like daily News show,
<v Speaker 3>and we actually did a console Olympics of the PS
<v Speaker 3>five versus the Xbox Series X in terms of just
<v Speaker 3>like load speeds and run capacity, et cetera, et cetera,
<v Speaker 3>and the PS five smoked the Xbox Series X in
<v Speaker 3>basically every category.
<v Speaker 2>So you know, but that being said.
<v Speaker 3>If Xbox is opening up this entire ecosystem of games,
<v Speaker 3>which is in line with what Phil Spencer is saying,
<v Speaker 3>being in the business of games over console hardware, then
<v Speaker 3>that all makes perfect sense.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. It is the kind of thing where they are
<v Speaker 1>not so worried about selling Xbox anymore, as you said,
<v Speaker 1>and they are not so worried about when you do
<v Speaker 1>buy an Xbox protecting their ecosystem because their ecosystem is
<v Speaker 1>in Call of Duty now and their ecosystems inside of
<v Speaker 1>Minecraft and all these other massive platforms that are games
<v Speaker 1>themselves that they want to ensure continue to be on
<v Speaker 1>every device, and they will be on every device. But
<v Speaker 1>it's like that's the business model now for them, and
<v Speaker 1>it's trying to protect a tiny little garden next to
<v Speaker 1>the massive crop fields of Call of Duty, just like
<v Speaker 1>harvesting cash at every turn. It doesn't make sense anymore.
<v Speaker 1>So they are like, Okay, let's try to apply this
<v Speaker 1>way of thinking to everything, and what is the logical
<v Speaker 1>conclusion there? And they're trying to just hop to that point,
<v Speaker 1>I think, and I think it's also a good idea
<v Speaker 1>for when they have a handheld, because they keep talking
<v Speaker 1>about they're going to have a handheld. What's that handheld
<v Speaker 1>going to be? Like, do you think people are going
<v Speaker 1>to buy a handheld just if it's just an Xbox
<v Speaker 1>closed down ecosystem. They might some people will, but it'll
<v Speaker 1>be a lot more enticing if it's just and get
<v Speaker 1>any game you won on here and it and this
<v Speaker 1>is the one that will the handheld that will definitely
<v Speaker 1>run Call of Duty as supposed to the Steam deck,
<v Speaker 1>which can't because anti sheet and stuff like that. And
<v Speaker 1>so I think it just kind of and you know,
<v Speaker 1>not only that, then it like also kind of starts
<v Speaker 1>to reshape the industry again, like leading the horse to
<v Speaker 1>water slowly and like kind of enticing it saying let's
<v Speaker 1>try to like make gamers want devices that can play anything.
<v Speaker 1>And then at a certain point, the PlayStation five begins
<v Speaker 1>to look antiquated compared to what we're offering or the
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation six at that point, because it's like, why are
<v Speaker 1>these lockdown ecosystems? That's sort of the old way of
<v Speaker 1>doing things again, long way before we're there, but it
<v Speaker 1>definitely feels like that's what the landscape that they're trying
<v Speaker 1>to create. I ask you, then, okay, let's say all
<v Speaker 1>that does come to pass. What does a highly capable
<v Speaker 1>and enticing Xbox look like? Because a very expensive box
<v Speaker 1>called the Xbox next to a PC, it's like, why
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't I just get a PC on?
<v Speaker 3>I know, yeah, well here's why you wouldn't just get
<v Speaker 3>a piece. And I think that as people who are
<v Speaker 3>very much entrenched in.
<v Speaker 2>The gaming.
<v Speaker 3>World, market games media, we are inclined to get PCs.
<v Speaker 3>The thing about consoles, and you know this is me
<v Speaker 3>growing up as primarily a console gamer. You know, the
<v Speaker 3>only PC games I really have any memory of playing
<v Speaker 3>as a kid are Baldersgate to Diablo Too and the Sims.
<v Speaker 3>So the way that PCs are, they are more finicky
<v Speaker 3>than a console. A console is ready to go. You
<v Speaker 3>don't need to upgrade your graphics card, you don't need
<v Speaker 3>to have various drivers, like that is all in place,
<v Speaker 3>and so you just take it, you plug it into
<v Speaker 3>your TV and it works.
<v Speaker 2>So that that's very much what the appeal of the
<v Speaker 2>console is.
<v Speaker 3>So again, if you have an Xbox that is capable
<v Speaker 3>of accessing all of those things that you would have
<v Speaker 3>on your PC, I think that. Yeah, there's plenty of
<v Speaker 3>people who would be totally into that, but yeah, that's
<v Speaker 3>that's my opinion about it is it's like you need
<v Speaker 3>to give it the level of access that you have
<v Speaker 3>on a PC.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I think that, and if as long as
<v Speaker 1>they can maintain that, well, then offering that openness that'll
<v Speaker 1>be the change.
<v Speaker 3>Well, and also offering it at a price point where
<v Speaker 3>it's going to run similarly to a high end PC,
<v Speaker 3>but it's not going to be the same price.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, little bit as getting your latest you know, video
<v Speaker 2>graphics card or whatever.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, absolutely, all right, last little thing on this, Actually
<v Speaker 1>a couple more things from Xbox. Someone's pointed out that
<v Speaker 1>they've confirmed that People can Fly is going to be
<v Speaker 1>helping you out with the Gears of War E Day.
<v Speaker 1>They're going to be like partnering up to help finish
<v Speaker 1>that game. So that's pretty interesting. And then Also as
<v Speaker 1>part of the interviews, Phil Spencer said, Starfield on PS
<v Speaker 1>five isn't ruled out. That is like a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of the hanging question here. This does come from Eddie
<v Speaker 1>mccoit Game Spot, but basically the story is the headline.
<v Speaker 1>You know, sure, all these future games are coming. There
<v Speaker 1>are a lot of like relatively recent games. Are those
<v Speaker 1>gonna like suddenly start popping up on PlayStation five? And
<v Speaker 1>I would guess yeah, probably, they probably just get around
<v Speaker 1>to these things eventually. There's gonna be long gaps when
<v Speaker 1>like some of these studios have a like a long
<v Speaker 1>time before, like Elder Scroll six, who knows when that comes.
<v Speaker 1>And in the meantime, there's part there's probably people that
<v Speaker 1>studio that could get that thing working on PS five,
<v Speaker 1>no problem. That is definitely worth pointing out. Hey, that's
<v Speaker 1>interesting because when I heard early on before Starfield came out,
<v Speaker 1>that was back when it's like, Nope, that is definitely exclusive.
<v Speaker 1>It's not coming to PS five, it's not timed exclusive,
<v Speaker 1>it's never coming to PS five. Things have changed.
<v Speaker 2>Though, Things have definitely changed. Yeah, it's.
<v Speaker 3>I don't I think we're beyond console Wars at this
<v Speaker 3>point or the kind of landscape of what entails a
<v Speaker 3>console war has very much changed.
<v Speaker 1>I just think the financial incentive that caused these companies
<v Speaker 1>to bet but heads against one another has just shippen
<v Speaker 1>to the point where it's like, that's a losing proposition,
<v Speaker 1>that's a loser behavior. And if we are going to
<v Speaker 1>be like, the thing we're actually always butting up against
<v Speaker 1>is growth, and we don't get that by taking it
<v Speaker 1>away from you. We got to find some new bodies
<v Speaker 1>to come into this space, or really we got to
<v Speaker 1>go find them where they are and see if we
<v Speaker 1>can entice them to spend money where they are on
<v Speaker 1>our stuff. And that just necessarily leads to them not
<v Speaker 1>caring about trying to keep games off of PlayStation anymore
<v Speaker 1>or keeping Xbox. It is like, that is a backward
<v Speaker 1>way of thinking. Yep, all right, it's surprising. That's like, man,
<v Speaker 1>you know that that was still conventional wisdom at the
<v Speaker 1>start of this generation and we're a few or a
<v Speaker 1>few years later, and it's like, that does feel like
<v Speaker 1>such old headway of thinking. So yeah, thanks changed fast.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's take a quick break when we come back.
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy seven Rebirth is on PC and it's doing
<v Speaker 1>just fine, and we do have one more PlayStation five
<v Speaker 1>exclusive coming to PC here pretty soon. Talk about all
<v Speaker 1>that right after this, All right, let's get back into
<v Speaker 1>it with Final Fantasy seven. Rebirth hit the most concurrent
<v Speaker 1>Steam players of any single player Final Fantasy. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Chris scullyan at VGC. The Steam version of Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy seven Rebirth has hit more concurrent players than any
<v Speaker 1>other single player Final Fantasy game on the platform. Rebirth
<v Speaker 1>was released on PC on January twenty third, and, according
<v Speaker 1>to data on steam dB, as spotted by Eurogamer, hit
<v Speaker 1>a peak of for sixty four concurrent players over the weekend.
<v Speaker 1>This is higher than any other single player Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 1>game has achieved on Steam. They do have a list here.
<v Speaker 1>For example, Final Fantasy fifteen hit twenty nine thousand concurrence
<v Speaker 1>almost thirty thousand. Final Fantasy sixteen had a little bit
<v Speaker 1>less than that at twenty seven point five thousand, and
<v Speaker 1>then of course the number one would be like one
<v Speaker 1>of these expansion launches for Final Fantasy fourteen online, which
<v Speaker 1>hit ninety five thousand. Game that is, you know, some
<v Speaker 1>would consider even to be PC first. Yeah, I think
<v Speaker 1>Rebirth just popping off after like a long delay like
<v Speaker 1>being on PS five exclusively for quite some time, and
<v Speaker 1>then on top of that being like the kind of
<v Speaker 1>game that people go out and get a PS five
<v Speaker 1>two play. Yes, I think having forty thousand concurrence that's
<v Speaker 1>people playing at the same time, yeah, is pretty impressive
<v Speaker 1>for this game and a good sign. And also like
<v Speaker 1>the lesson that Squarenix has said it's learned.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, exactly. That's my big takeaway from.
<v Speaker 3>This is that, you know, Square has very much said
<v Speaker 3>that I think we need to rethink our approach to
<v Speaker 3>releasing these games because we need to get them to
<v Speaker 3>more people rather than having this extended exclusivity with PlayStation
<v Speaker 3>and look like, I am a PlayStation girl. I am
<v Speaker 3>a Ride or Die, been on the train since PS one. However, boy,
<v Speaker 3>now I'm very much considering possibly by and rebirth again.
<v Speaker 2>Simply so I kept playing myself.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean, look, and this is so this was
<v Speaker 3>less than a year of exclusivity on the PS five
<v Speaker 3>because it came out in end of February last year.
<v Speaker 3>So now we're end of January this year, so just
<v Speaker 3>under a year, which is a decent turnaround time, particularly
<v Speaker 3>because exactly, yeah, yeah, I feel like usually the final
<v Speaker 3>Fantasy games have a longer exclusivity period, and Square was
<v Speaker 3>very smartly offering a like two with Final Fantasy seven
<v Speaker 3>Remake and Final Fantasy seven Rebirth if people wanted to
<v Speaker 3>get both. So yeah, I mean, look, I I'm this
<v Speaker 3>doesn't surprise me at all. I know so many people
<v Speaker 3>who are. Again, this goes back to the conversation we
<v Speaker 3>were having before of well, why am I going to
<v Speaker 3>buy an Xbox when I have a PC that can
<v Speaker 3>already do all of these things? And the answer is, well,
<v Speaker 3>it's not that somebody, the person who doesn't have the
<v Speaker 3>PC is going to buy the Xbox. But again it's
<v Speaker 3>the there's so many people who are fans of the
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy series, but they know that it is going
<v Speaker 3>to come to PC and they've invested in their PC.
<v Speaker 3>And again, the capabilities beyond simply playing on your PC
<v Speaker 3>are superior. So yeah, they waited to play it till
<v Speaker 3>it was on you know, the their preferred vessel for gaming.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. And it's for as much as some of these
<v Speaker 1>games are system sellers, it's most people just like continuing
<v Speaker 1>doing things with they always do them as you're describing there,
<v Speaker 1>I think the really good sign here for Squaring Inx
<v Speaker 1>is the trajectory is going up into the right again.
<v Speaker 1>You know, forget Final Fantasy fifteen and sixteen. You know,
<v Speaker 1>those have their own the baggage attached to them. Fifteen yep,
<v Speaker 1>sold very very well. Sixteen was a disappointment, according to
<v Speaker 1>Square Innix. But Final Fantasy seven remake Integrate on PC
<v Speaker 1>had thirteen thousand concurrents at launch yep. And now this
<v Speaker 1>is you know, almost quadrupling that at least crippling that.
<v Speaker 1>And so it's like, okay, so people played Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 1>seven Integrade Final Fantasy seven on PC, and then they
<v Speaker 1>are now ready for this game. And now there's even
<v Speaker 1>more of them because you know, the games in sales
<v Speaker 1>over time and more and more people have played it,
<v Speaker 1>and now they are ready to get this new one.
<v Speaker 1>I think that is the growth that scoring X was
<v Speaker 1>like always like, look, hey is this out here? Well,
<v Speaker 1>yes it is. And now your decision, which apparently you
<v Speaker 1>said you made to kind of support all these platforms
<v Speaker 1>out of the gate going forward is clearly the right one,
<v Speaker 1>clearly going to pay and now all these people that
<v Speaker 1>are going to be playing these first two games will
<v Speaker 1>be ready for Final Fantasy seven. Uh, they announced the
<v Speaker 1>name for the third one. No, what's your guest.
<v Speaker 3>For Okay, Final Fantasy. Okay, So we had Remake Rebirth
<v Speaker 3>and then.
<v Speaker 1>There was what was Krono Orsi Reunion I think it was,
<v Speaker 1>I don't remember.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah it was Yeah, maybe, Okay, it's going.
<v Speaker 2>To be another r e.
<v Speaker 1>Uh refunds top top, Yes, probably a good one.
<v Speaker 2>Seven refund. I think maybe Revolution.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, I mean i'd be like Matrix did that,
<v Speaker 1>but Jeff developers love doing that stuff like that, that
<v Speaker 1>American movie do that too, so I would. Yeah, that's
<v Speaker 1>definitely a possibility.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, finally, Final Fantasy seven, the return, the last uh
<v Speaker 3>installment is just super trippy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Reciprocity of Requiem Resurrection, lots of fun.
<v Speaker 2>I'm into Requiem.
<v Speaker 1>I'm feeling I just like saying reciprocity. So that's that's
<v Speaker 1>a fun. Yeah. All right, let's keep moving here. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there it is uh okay us physical game spend has
<v Speaker 1>had since twenty twenty one. This is from Andy Robinson,
<v Speaker 1>a vgc US. Spending on physical video games has more
<v Speaker 1>than halved since twenty twenty one, according to new data
<v Speaker 1>from market research from Sircana. Player spinning habits have steadily
<v Speaker 1>migrated to digital for more than a decade, driven by
<v Speaker 1>faster Internet speeds, the emergence of online marketplaces on consoles,
<v Speaker 1>and live service games funded by micro transactions. Circana data
<v Speaker 1>supplied is supplied by executive director Map Scatella. This week
<v Speaker 1>suggest that the migration towards digital has accelerated since the pandemic.
<v Speaker 1>According to a graph showing the past twenty five years
<v Speaker 1>of US video game software spend, physical games have been
<v Speaker 1>cut more have been cut more than in half since
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty one, and are now more than eighty five
<v Speaker 1>percent down below its peak from two thousand and eight.
<v Speaker 1>Really that this charge just shows that there's been a
<v Speaker 1>steady decline and not even like since the pandemic, but
<v Speaker 1>like in like the last year or two, the decline
<v Speaker 1>is is rapidly increasing. And part of that is just
<v Speaker 1>you know, I think a seventy dollars price tag. Actually,
<v Speaker 1>like it seems like it might be hurting physical more
<v Speaker 1>than digital, maybe because it's easier to deal to search
<v Speaker 1>for deals for digital possibiligital. Yeah, so like retailers are
<v Speaker 1>just because of that tepidness from consumers, might be stocking
<v Speaker 1>fewer like it's all it's you know what, it's a
<v Speaker 1>million variables, that's what it really is. And then and
<v Speaker 1>I you know, this is the manifestation of the environ
<v Speaker 1>where it's like these the publishers and the people that
<v Speaker 1>make games had like set out this environment of here,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to make it very easy to get digital.
<v Speaker 1>We are going to sell you a lot of systems
<v Speaker 1>that cost less money. They don't have disk drives, and
<v Speaker 1>so you know, there's going to be a significant portion
<v Speaker 1>of the audience that doesn't consider digital in the first part,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't consider physical in the first place, and then therefore
<v Speaker 1>there will be less the stock inside of retailers because
<v Speaker 1>they know there's fewer customers to buy, and it just
<v Speaker 1>begins to spiral. So yeah, of course we are ending
<v Speaker 1>up here. And it's such a start contrast to win
<v Speaker 1>We were going to get like all kinds of digital
<v Speaker 1>only options with Xbox One, and everyone freaked out and said,
<v Speaker 1>how dare you And it's like, well, they just found
<v Speaker 1>another way to get to that same end goal in
<v Speaker 1>the long run, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's just the industry standard now, and a lot
<v Speaker 3>of that, of course, is related to things outside of
<v Speaker 3>the gaming industry.
<v Speaker 2>That we see a parallel with like all of your
<v Speaker 2>streaming subscription services.
<v Speaker 3>You know, once we went down the road of Netflix,
<v Speaker 3>Amazon Prime, Apple TV, et cetera, et cetera, physical you know,
<v Speaker 3>Blu Ray sales went way way down there, practically non existent.
<v Speaker 3>I have just one friend basically who's obsessed with three
<v Speaker 3>D everything.
<v Speaker 2>And so he's.
<v Speaker 3>A three D Blu Ray. Uh connoisseur collector. For these
<v Speaker 3>people to come over, no, you have to get him
<v Speaker 3>from Europe.
<v Speaker 1>Oh really? Oh wow? Okay, yeah yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, to import them.
<v Speaker 3>But uh yeah, so I I already it's tough because,
<v Speaker 3>like I see the value of physical media because you
<v Speaker 3>own it, nobody can take it away from you. It
<v Speaker 3>can't just suddenly disappear from your hard drive because like
<v Speaker 3>the publisher doesn't want you to have it or whatever.
<v Speaker 2>But also I love not having stuff.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I really, I see stuff and I'm like, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know where to put that stuff again. I want
<v Speaker 1>to just be I'm going to like make it disappear. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think you know, it's not going to get like
<v Speaker 1>much better. In fact, it's going to This trend's going
<v Speaker 1>to continue, and it could be significantly exacerbated if these
<v Speaker 1>tariffs do go through. Again, the uncertainty alone is enough
<v Speaker 1>to like cause issues with that where it's like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>people are planning right now, how many copies are we
<v Speaker 1>going to print of this game on disc for next year,
<v Speaker 1>and they're got to be going maybe fewer because of
<v Speaker 1>the tariffs go through. We're gonna have to raise the
<v Speaker 1>prices on these things because there's going to be huge
<v Speaker 1>tax twenty five percent tax to shift these into the
<v Speaker 1>United States from Mexico. And so let's just like air
<v Speaker 1>on the side of digital because that we have more
<v Speaker 1>control there and we have more last minute control. So
<v Speaker 1>it's going to affect affect things right now. So there
<v Speaker 1>will be less physical just immediately because of the uncertainty,
<v Speaker 1>and if the tariffs really do go through, the place
<v Speaker 1>will go up and the price will go up on
<v Speaker 1>digital as well. But again they have more control there,
<v Speaker 1>so they can you know, do more sales and drop
<v Speaker 1>it back down to seventy dollars. The new budget a
<v Speaker 1>new budget price. It's yeah, so I guess you know, Emma,
<v Speaker 1>are we going to be able to have a future
<v Speaker 1>where it is kind of all limited run games, all
<v Speaker 1>these bespoke Oh yes, two nice runs of nice prints
<v Speaker 1>of certain physical games.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I feel like that is the direction that
<v Speaker 3>this is going to address the criticism behind me saying
<v Speaker 3>I love not having stuff, yet I have a desk
<v Speaker 3>of toys behind me.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we're all hypocritical.
<v Speaker 2>And collectibles, you know what I mean exactly.
<v Speaker 3>That's the thing is that like it is that it
<v Speaker 3>is going to become a collectibles market.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, that's that's what it.
<v Speaker 3>That's what it is is, as you say, the had
<v Speaker 3>Run games model of Okay, we have this really nice,
<v Speaker 3>very specialized, uh limited physical release of this game that
<v Speaker 3>comes with who knows what else, beautiful packaging, et cetera.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, I mean that's that's really like what it is.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, I mean it's true.
<v Speaker 3>I see in chat grantamis saying, you know, Steam killed
<v Speaker 3>the CD ROM and uh and that was kind of
<v Speaker 3>the beginning of it.
<v Speaker 2>And all of these uh consoles.
<v Speaker 3>Have online digital stores, and yeah, it's it's the instant gratification.
<v Speaker 3>It's the I don't have to go to the store
<v Speaker 3>and buy something I can just buy I can just
<v Speaker 3>buy this download it, I have it.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I think the really the reality here is
<v Speaker 1>is that when you get a collectible. It is the
<v Speaker 1>thing is the thing, and with games it's the thing
<v Speaker 1>is not the thing. When will you will you show
<v Speaker 1>me a game disc that's not a video game, that's
<v Speaker 1>any game. The video game is what happens from the TV.
<v Speaker 1>That is the experience over there. And so exactly like
<v Speaker 1>and chat, let's see here, dizzy HIPOs points like people
<v Speaker 1>saying the digital markets can destroy book sales, and now
<v Speaker 1>the physical books sales are back on the rise. The
<v Speaker 1>book is the thing, like you hold the book and
<v Speaker 1>is the thing, yes, and yeah, the story is the
<v Speaker 1>thing itself in the book, but no, you're the act
<v Speaker 1>of reading. Is you're holding the thing and you're actually
<v Speaker 1>doing the thing with the thing.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm not holding a disc.
<v Speaker 1>Don't You don't. And so it's like, uh, you either
<v Speaker 1>have to think of discs as collectibles or or or
<v Speaker 1>then what And it's like, it's because it's not the experience.
<v Speaker 1>So I just think if fundamentally it is disconnected in
<v Speaker 1>one it's one degree more disconnected. That's all it takes.
<v Speaker 1>And now people are like, well, I can get that
<v Speaker 1>experience digitally and feel the exact same way about it.
<v Speaker 3>For those I mean, give me the old you know,
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation Jewel case with the game manual. Like I was
<v Speaker 3>a big reader of game manuals back in the day,
<v Speaker 3>and that's just not even how gay are packaged anymore.
<v Speaker 1>No, they already cut huge costs on that. They're like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it was probably not that much, but save everything they could.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, God, my favorite game manual of all time
<v Speaker 1>I think was The Warrior where Mega micro games. It
<v Speaker 1>was like this little colorful book with all kinds of
<v Speaker 1>fun stuff inside of it, little games, and it was
<v Speaker 1>a good time. You don't get stuff like that at
<v Speaker 1>all anymore, or when we do, it's from limited run games.
<v Speaker 3>And so yeah, correct, exactly, Yeah, So who is making
<v Speaker 3>it with the collector's market in minds?
<v Speaker 1>Right? And you know this is how it's going to
<v Speaker 1>really work going forward. Is it's going to look a
<v Speaker 1>lot like what Boulder Skate three did. Boulder Skate three
<v Speaker 1>comes out as an early access game and then it
<v Speaker 1>gets one point zero release and it's digital only, and
<v Speaker 1>then when it does very well, they are like, okay, hey,
<v Speaker 1>you freaks and been asking us for the physical version.
<v Speaker 1>There's going to be a one hundred dollars collectible version
<v Speaker 1>that has a physical disc with it. It's going to
<v Speaker 1>have the entire game on there. We've had time to
<v Speaker 1>like really solidify things, so it's going to be a
<v Speaker 1>good version that's going to run forever, and that'll be
<v Speaker 1>what we sell to you almost a year or more
<v Speaker 1>than a year later. Yeah, and okay, I mean I
<v Speaker 1>don't think that's a great happy medium, but at least
<v Speaker 1>it's something, all right. Sega has renewed its trademark for
<v Speaker 1>Skies of Arcadia. This is from Chris Scollian at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>Sega has renewed its trademark for Sky's Arcadia. Originally released
<v Speaker 1>on the Dreamcast in two thousand, Sky's of Arkidi was
<v Speaker 1>an RPG developed by Sega's Overworks division previously known as
<v Speaker 1>AM seven, starring Weiss and Ka. I don't know if
<v Speaker 1>I'm saying that right, members of a group of pirates
<v Speaker 1>called the Blue Rogues. Skys of Arcadie was praised for
<v Speaker 1>its impressive visuals, its engaging story, and its strong localization,
<v Speaker 1>which ensured its jokes were relevant for Western audiences. I've
<v Speaker 1>played quite a bit of Sky's Arcadia, had never finished it,
<v Speaker 1>but really, yeah, me too.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I remember playing it on the OG Dreamcast. I
<v Speaker 3>think it was one of the games that we rented,
<v Speaker 3>and then I really liked it, and so I bought it.
<v Speaker 1>I think my friend had the Dreamcast. We'd go over
<v Speaker 1>his house and like we basically after school every day
<v Speaker 1>in high school Tony Hawk Soul Caliber and then I
<v Speaker 1>think we rented this back when rental stores still had
<v Speaker 1>like Dreamcast games and any games at all. And and yes,
<v Speaker 1>I think I was like, I'm just gonna hang out
<v Speaker 1>here all weekend, dude, let's just play this. And we
<v Speaker 1>kind of kind of sapped the controller back and forth,
<v Speaker 1>but at a certain point I was definitely piloting that
<v Speaker 1>thing for quite a time. Really enjoyed it. I really
<v Speaker 1>like this game, really like it's like it's setting and
<v Speaker 1>it's fine. YEA kind of always been surprised they haven't
<v Speaker 1>done more with Sky's Arcadia. Finally, A trademark is the
<v Speaker 1>kind of thing where, God, can we read into this?
<v Speaker 1>I want to, I want to believe, but it's always
<v Speaker 1>worth pointing out that this is the kind of work
<v Speaker 1>that can just be done by a lawyer who has
<v Speaker 1>time on their hands and just wants to make sure
<v Speaker 1>that this, like all the t's are crossed and the
<v Speaker 1>eyes are dotted and maybe nothing more is happening there.
<v Speaker 3>The thing is, though, is that Sega is in the
<v Speaker 3>RPG market, yes, because of their partnership with Atlas.
<v Speaker 1>Yep so, and I think they see the growth in
<v Speaker 1>that market like that is a growth market. They see
<v Speaker 1>the line going up into the right with Persona for
<v Speaker 1>a decade, almost two decades now with that that thing
<v Speaker 1>so And on top of that, they are also recently
<v Speaker 1>in the market of bringing back all of their old
<v Speaker 1>IP I mean it's like so many old ip are
<v Speaker 1>are getting remixed. They're making a Shanoby game, They're making
<v Speaker 1>all like I I find it hard to imagine that
<v Speaker 1>they're like Schnoby. Yes, Sky's of Arcadia. No, if we're
<v Speaker 1>getting another show, they're easily going to green light. I
<v Speaker 1>mean sure that maybe the budgets are are different there,
<v Speaker 1>but Sky's Arcadia feels like the kind of thing where
<v Speaker 1>it's like that is also bringing a certain amount of
<v Speaker 1>excitement that you yeah to well.
<v Speaker 3>It feels like a good bet from the point of
<v Speaker 3>view that you know, this was a Dreamcast game. Ye,
<v Speaker 3>not that many people had Dreamcats. No, I do think
<v Speaker 3>that it got a GameCube release.
<v Speaker 1>Also, Yeah, it was in GameCube got a sort of
<v Speaker 1>definitive edition on GameCube.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah yeah, yeah, so there was obviously a uh more
<v Speaker 3>people were able to experience it that way. But again,
<v Speaker 3>it's like I look at this as being similar to
<v Speaker 3>like a Golden Sun, where people look back on it
<v Speaker 3>and there's a lot of nostalgia and enthusiasm, and it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>this is like a great RPG that isn't Final Fantasy, and.
<v Speaker 2>Let's dive into that market and see how it does.
<v Speaker 3>You know, Like, again, we've seen Persona grow exponentially in
<v Speaker 3>popularity since what was it twenty fifteen that Persona five
<v Speaker 3>came out, So yeah, it's like.
<v Speaker 1>I think this, I think it feels like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>go ahead, finish.
<v Speaker 3>I was gonna say, this feels like maybe we can
<v Speaker 3>read into it a little bit.
<v Speaker 1>I hope so. And I think that if a Sky's
<v Speaker 1>Arcadia remaster Slash remake gets announced, you get a big pop.
<v Speaker 1>And then I think they announced and then a Sky's
<v Speaker 1>Arcadia like sequel is fully in the works and it's
<v Speaker 1>going to be a bit new RPG and we're going
<v Speaker 1>to be working on at Sega with and we're going
<v Speaker 1>to be working at hand in hand with our partners
<v Speaker 1>over at Atlas to make sure we get over right.
<v Speaker 1>I think that is a very huge announcement actually, Like
<v Speaker 1>I always say the same thing, like, if a new
<v Speaker 1>Earthbound is announced today, that would be a massive, like
<v Speaker 1>successful announcement for Nintendo. That would just blow people's hair back. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>And if a similarly a game that they announced was
<v Speaker 3>switched to is a new earth Bound.
<v Speaker 1>That would be nuts. Actually, I would love that, buddy, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that would be incredible to see. Speaking of the trademark
<v Speaker 1>a game here, bandy Namco also filed a trademark for
<v Speaker 1>Tales of the Abyss. This is from Johnny Flores, Junior
<v Speaker 1>at the Gamer. Bandy Namco may have just released Tales
<v Speaker 1>of Grace's f Remastered, but appears that the company may
<v Speaker 1>be preparing for another remaster of a game in the
<v Speaker 1>Tales franchise. That said, it isn't the Tails game you're
<v Speaker 1>thinking of. As first spotted on reddits Gaming Leaks and
<v Speaker 1>Rumors subreddit, a new trademark has been filed for Tales
<v Speaker 1>of the Abyss, per the trademark website. The application was
<v Speaker 1>filed on January sixteenth and finalized on January twenty fourth.
<v Speaker 1>Originally Tales of the abyss launched for the Place They
<v Speaker 1>two back in two thousand and five. It has it
<v Speaker 1>was made in celebration of the franchise. It's tenth anniversary
<v Speaker 1>at that time. They're going to get to all these
<v Speaker 1>Tales of games eventually.
<v Speaker 3>They're just gonna yeah, I mean, especially because the newer
<v Speaker 3>entries in the Tales series have garnered a fair amount
<v Speaker 3>of success and attention. I feel like, yeah, they're just
<v Speaker 3>going to go back and remaster every single one of them.
<v Speaker 3>I think the only one I played was I don't know,
<v Speaker 3>I want to say maybe.
<v Speaker 2>Tales of Attornia. It was it was a PlayStation one
<v Speaker 2>sure joint.
<v Speaker 3>Because I played Final Fantasy seven, you know, in ninety seven,
<v Speaker 3>ninety eight, and then I just was like, I must
<v Speaker 3>play every single RPG that's ever been made.
<v Speaker 2>So Tales of Destiny that was the one.
<v Speaker 3>Colin Aris and chat, Yeah, that's exactly what it was,
<v Speaker 3>was Tales of Destiny.
<v Speaker 1>I know people really like Tales of Sinfonia Tales Oh yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>well that people really like, and those have recently been remastered,
<v Speaker 1>so they are going to have to start looking at
<v Speaker 1>some of these other ones and this one makes sense.
<v Speaker 2>And yeah, and look like this.
<v Speaker 3>This is all positive in terms of games preservation, because
<v Speaker 3>that is something that was really nonexistent, just didn't exist.
<v Speaker 3>So now that you have these games, you know, refiling
<v Speaker 3>their copyright claims and and licenses and then being able
<v Speaker 3>to you know, be in a position to remaster and
<v Speaker 3>put these games out again, that just is a.
<v Speaker 2>Games preservation move as far as I'm concerned.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, and it's uh I think, you know, also keeps
<v Speaker 1>these franchises relevant so when they are ready to do
<v Speaker 1>a new one, have constantly been sort of tending to
<v Speaker 1>the bonds eye tree of this franchise, and there's people
<v Speaker 1>ready to sort of grow into that space. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>real quick. This came from Gaming Gaming Leaks and Rumors,
<v Speaker 1>and that subreddit reached its zenith this week when someone
<v Speaker 1>posted that they live in the town where Fables being developed.
<v Speaker 1>I think, I think it's Fable. I can't remember. That's
<v Speaker 1>not the important part of the story. The important part
<v Speaker 1>is they live in a town where a big developer,
<v Speaker 1>one of big Xbox developers, works, And they said, many
<v Speaker 1>people from the studio come into this bar and drink
<v Speaker 1>this pub and drink very frequently, but recently, in the
<v Speaker 1>last couple of weeks they've been drinking, like they've been
<v Speaker 1>celebrating something, and so they're like, we think, I think
<v Speaker 1>maybe the game might be close to being finished.
<v Speaker 2>Oh this is fun because.
<v Speaker 1>They're in the bar drinking a lot more frequently and
<v Speaker 1>like ordering shots for everybody. And I'm just like, let's go.
<v Speaker 1>This is the kind of stuff we need to make
<v Speaker 1>the internet go around gaming leagues of rumors. You did it.
<v Speaker 1>That's great, all right, let's see here. Last story I've
<v Speaker 1>written down is Rise of the Rown and coming to
<v Speaker 1>PC on March eleventh. That is previously a PlayStation five
<v Speaker 1>exclusive launch there last year on March twenty second. This
<v Speaker 1>is a che techmo joint that they made with Team Ninja,
<v Speaker 1>one of Team Ninja's games, you know, sort of a
<v Speaker 1>Japanese open world action adventure RPG game. And you know,
<v Speaker 1>we found something of an audience, but it was more
<v Speaker 1>it was, you know, less than a ghost of not
<v Speaker 1>I want to say yokay, but with the ghost of
<v Speaker 1>what was the first Sushima, Yes, thank you Sushima. And
<v Speaker 1>it was uh so, it's like I think people are like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>I already have that at home. We don't necessarily need
<v Speaker 1>to get this one. But I think you could find
<v Speaker 1>an audience on PC and it's like not a bad
<v Speaker 1>game by far. It's a very solid open world action
<v Speaker 1>adventure RPG, so very cool.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, people, there's a lot of people that are into Samurai,
<v Speaker 3>and good for them.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. I didn't put it in here, but ubisoftist closed
<v Speaker 1>a studio that's been a support studio for quite some time,
<v Speaker 1>laying off almost two hundred people, uh, downsizing several other
<v Speaker 1>studios throughout Europe. I think it's kind of the general
<v Speaker 1>area where they're doing that. It's I don't think this
<v Speaker 1>sort of announcement stops anytime soon from Ubi Soft. They
<v Speaker 1>are just gonna They're gonna keep looking around and having
<v Speaker 1>to cut costs because that is a big organization that
<v Speaker 1>just doesn't make enough money. And it is not it's
<v Speaker 1>it's stinks, continues to stink, and a people doing this work.
<v Speaker 1>They were on several games that did just fine.
<v Speaker 3>Mismanagement though, I do not think Samurai are mid uh.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just saying that's not my that's not my preferred
<v Speaker 3>UH game. I don't see Samurai and go ooh, I
<v Speaker 3>want to play that. So I will say that speaking
<v Speaker 3>of uh, the of Samurai and Ninja's the new Assassin's
<v Speaker 3>Creed game actually seems like it's fun and has some
<v Speaker 3>new mechanics, So maybe maybe Ubisoft is gonna finally get
<v Speaker 3>a win, especially since they pushed the release date back
<v Speaker 3>to not be the same as Monster Hunter.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. Like I said on a Friday show, I think
<v Speaker 1>a lot of previews came out most like, as far
<v Speaker 1>as I saw, all were very positive. And then I
<v Speaker 1>talked to Tam and Lucy and they were they were
<v Speaker 1>less but says it could also just not be for us.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, well we'll see. I think that this is
<v Speaker 1>probably gonna be the Assassin's Creed game a lot of
<v Speaker 1>Assassin's Creed fans were hoping for. Yeah, and yet I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if it's gonna be able to break through
<v Speaker 1>that seal of I know, like, oh, is this gonna
<v Speaker 1>it's It's probably not gonna be the game USA needs
<v Speaker 1>it to be, no time, So we'll see. Maam, All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's see here poll question from last week. I got
<v Speaker 1>that right here. I'm gonna get it all set up
<v Speaker 1>so everybody can see it. Uh. There it is, okay,
<v Speaker 1>Actually this is the one from there. We go back
<v Speaker 1>here and refresh h do you still buy physical games
<v Speaker 1>with anyone today? Are you more excited for Assassin's Creed
<v Speaker 1>Shadows after the positive previews? There you go. I forgot
<v Speaker 1>that we even asked this. Uh, I'm gonna say yes.
<v Speaker 1>I actually am. Forty one percent say yes, fifty nine
<v Speaker 1>percent say no. Maybe because they were already as excited
<v Speaker 1>as they possibly could be. Emma, you never know why
<v Speaker 1>they're saying that.
<v Speaker 2>Their high level couldn't couldn't be surpassed exactly.
<v Speaker 1>H I yeah, it sounds like a pretty solid game
<v Speaker 1>to me actually, And I just I found my find
<v Speaker 1>myself to be in the mood for an Assassin's Creed
<v Speaker 1>game in this moment. Was even like, don't want to
<v Speaker 1>go play Valhalla, And I'm definitely not gonna go to
<v Speaker 1>I don't have time to. You know, there's no chance
<v Speaker 1>I was ever thinking about beating it or something like that. Sure,
<v Speaker 1>so you have time to like go like get my
<v Speaker 1>Sea Legs Net game, but ready for Sados that's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be out before we know it. So I'll just wait
<v Speaker 1>for that, all right.
<v Speaker 3>I hope they have a great minigame like oorlog in uh. Valhalla,
<v Speaker 3>which was the Bone Dice game which I loved.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, mini games. I hope they have good side quests
<v Speaker 1>like the Detective game that was in Unity and stuff
<v Speaker 1>like that. Yeah, give me all that fun stuff on
<v Speaker 1>the side. All right, I got a new poole question.
<v Speaker 1>We'll get to that here in a second. Before we
<v Speaker 1>do that, Emma Fife, tell people where they can find
<v Speaker 1>you on the internet. What you have going on all
<v Speaker 1>that good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I deleted Instagram from my phone.
<v Speaker 3>And I am just mostly not participating in social media
<v Speaker 3>right now.
<v Speaker 2>So find me on Blue Sky That's.
<v Speaker 3>Where I am. Look, you'll you can find me all
<v Speaker 3>over the United States of America over the course of
<v Speaker 3>the next two weeks as I will be doing some
<v Speaker 3>traveling for work and that's me. Thank you to everybody
<v Speaker 3>who showed up to my little charity stream last Monday.
<v Speaker 2>It was great. Thank you to uh Pugtato for the
<v Speaker 2>donation matching.
<v Speaker 3>I know how much you donated during the Giant Bomb
<v Speaker 3>stream and it was amazing.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, thinks that was really really fun.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, all right, newpool question. Do you still buy Fiscal Games?
<v Speaker 1>Yes or no? That is upright now. If you go
<v Speaker 1>to YouTube dot com slash at Giant Bomb hit the
<v Speaker 1>community tab there you can vote yourself. We'll get the
<v Speaker 1>results of that here on Games Mornings here on giant
<v Speaker 1>Bomb on Wednesday. Speaking of giant Bomb. On Tuesday, we
<v Speaker 1>will have giant BombCast returning, looking forward to talking about
<v Speaker 1>some games, talking about some news, talking about whether or
<v Speaker 1>not people look up the names of actors on their
<v Speaker 1>phone while watching a movie at home? And may you
<v Speaker 1>ever do that? Have you ever done that in your life?
<v Speaker 1>Looked up the next the.
<v Speaker 2>Name of an actor in a movie while I'm watching it? Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>at home? Not in the movie, yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, not in the movie theater, but if home,
<v Speaker 1>home bothering exactly so.
<v Speaker 3>Actually, I was told this is a little tangent that
<v Speaker 3>one of the ways to try to like fight dementia
<v Speaker 3>as you're aging.
<v Speaker 2>Is don't look it up. Is like trust yourself.
<v Speaker 1>That's also a fun game as well. That is like, OK,
<v Speaker 1>way to do things for sure, absolutely, but like looking
<v Speaker 1>up any sort of thing was an argument, and it was, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>people do that, It's pretty normal. What's your best clicklick
<v Speaker 1>bomb time? I think I got it down to one
<v Speaker 1>minute in fifty one seconds clicklickbomb dot com. Everybody have
<v Speaker 1>you seen this? Emma? Oh? Is the community made a
<v Speaker 1>clicker game based on some Giant Bomb lore, and so
<v Speaker 1>if you go to clicklick dot com, actually you shouldn't
<v Speaker 1>because you're busy. So maybe when you get back or something,
<v Speaker 1>or maybe on the plane, you know, get your laptop
<v Speaker 1>out and play it on there something like that. That'd
<v Speaker 1>be a good way to do it. It is actually
<v Speaker 1>really good, Like I like, you know, there's a bunch
<v Speaker 1>of cards with my face on it, so I'm biased,
<v Speaker 1>but it's really good. They did a fantastic job. Chaktowski
<v Speaker 1>did a lot of the work.
<v Speaker 3>Nice.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I'll take a draft, provided a lot of the
<v Speaker 1>art and stuff like that. So just shout outs to
<v Speaker 1>all the boys over there working on that. That was
<v Speaker 1>a lot of fun to play, all right, I don't
<v Speaker 1>see anything else I did the cool question. We'll figure
<v Speaker 1>out what's going on the rest of the Giant Bomb
<v Speaker 1>for the rest of the week. Blake Club should be back,
<v Speaker 1>boy Smail, dumb trick, all the good stuff that you're
<v Speaker 1>used to see. If we can get some other fun
<v Speaker 1>stuff happening this week outside of that, though, Emma Fife,
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much for hanging out with me today
<v Speaker 1>and talking about video games. I really are.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you're very welcome.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching and listening. You are the
<v Speaker 1>best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good,
<v Speaker 1>good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.