Michael Bay Making Skibidi Toilet Film and TV Franchise

He'll be blacker, go'll be beer. It's the Internet. You're busy.
Let's do this for July twenty fourth, twenty twenty four. For the next
hour or so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on
Games Morning's Live with me Jeff Grubb. Today, EA biggest dead but that's
not stopping the universe from giving us a new NBA Street successor. But first,
please join me and welcoming today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's
Lex Ludi. Everybody, Lexi, how are you doing? I never have
to play Yakuza Dead Souls again. I'm done. We'll find we'll find some
reason to make it happen. We'll get in there. Yeah, I've gotten
into streaming. How's that. It's been going good. It's been fun.
And I got like a setup that lets me play shoot ps three games we'll
college and which turns out Yakuza Dead Souls is really bad. Like people I've
seen like some of the community trying to rehabilitate that game as like no,
it's underrated, Like no, it just controls, like shit, it's just
missing. Is that the zombie one? Yes, it is. That's what
I remember. It was like trying to figure out what's going on that series.
And that might have been still when I was reading a magazine or something
or on a website and they're like, and the next Yakuza is going to
be about zombies. I'm like, what is that series? Seems like it
fell off. I was thinking it was like the next mainline one. I'm
like, Oh, they're desperate over there. I didn't realize they were just
doing something stupid. I think that was before though, that that that team
figured out their area of expertise when it came to making stupid games. I
think they didn't have their foot in yet. There was a lot of that
on stream that we found where you could tell that they hadn't figured this out
for the West, especially because even things like the localization one of those things
where you know in the modern games, when they say, you know,
kure U san or kure U chan, they just leave it like that because
they know you know what that means. In this they have like mister cure
you every time someone says king san, and it's like, guys, come
on, okay. But yeah, also you make kills whenever you get kills,
which is really good. It's really good. Yeah, it's a really
good localization, and that game just controls really poorly. It They keep some
of the face buttons for the fighting things, but then put all the shooting
on the shoulder buttons. But also it has tank controls like Resident Evil four,
but not on the right stick, on the left stick. Oh boy,
Yeah, it's aiming in that game fucking feels atrocious And I'm glad I
played it. I'm glad I experienced. Oh yeah, was it worth the
fifty oh I paid for that copy of the game? Probably not? Is
it it play? You know, controls atrociously? You know, my for
my needs, for my purposes? Is it bad enough for Blake Club?
Could I hurt Dan Record or Mike Manatty with this game? Is it?
Is it on that level? I think Dan would hate it because one,
it's all in Japanese, and the story is way worse than the previous stories,
so it's just less easy to be engaged in, and the boss fights
are pretty miserable. People should say, too long and that ship has sailed
all right, it's eleven hours. It's not that long. It is how
long I've been in the problem. Is It's not that difficult, It's just
very dull. It's just very boring, unengaging, and then there's some really
bad boss fights. Apart from that, it's fine. It's I'd only died
like five times, Okay, So all right, well that's doesn't sound painful
enough. I'm looking for that really juicy, terrible game that can make these
guys question their entire existence, because that's where I'm That's where I'm at with
Daikatana right now, and I got to play that game today. So not
feeling great. Well, I tell you what, I'll be plumbing the depths
with more PS three games while I have this help going and so Stranglehold is
up today. I'm going to be playing that in about two hours. So
that is a good game. I do know that as a fact. But
I will I have like a list of PS three games that I want to
explore because that is a console that was like very important to me. Yeah,
that was a console that was very important to me when I was younger.
But I also wasn't tuned in to the games industry enough to know what
the good or bad games were, so I just kind of played what I
got. So I'm very excited to like play some real B games. Hell,
yeah, yeah, I should create a we should list, which is
because you know, I'm like, way, we should do this, and
I have a time I say that I should just turn around and put it
onto notion or something and in a keep track of a list, because that
stuff doesn't stick in my head. That's the reason I'm always saying these things.
I do that with every game that like I put time into during the
year, like for win game of the Year comes around, I'm like,
I won't remember, try to do Yeah, I always fall off on that.
That's ye bad bad at keeping habits the good ones. Anyhow, Yeah,
I over here I am, And if you can't tell, there's not
a lot of news happening, so we're just hanging out for a little bit.
I'm still just all in on Nintendo World Championships, really enjoying that.
I got it from the outside as someone who certainly didn't grow up with the
NS generation. What is it? What is it? What does it look
like to you? What we're doing over here? Just super boomer shit or
do you kind of get it or what's up? I would get it more
if it wasn't like so facially flawed in the ways that it's facially flowed,
like, yeah, I'm looking at that, and I get it because I
love speedrunning. I love watching speed ons games done quick as like the highlight
of my year every time it comes around twice a year, and so like,
I totally get it. I get that Drive couldn't be me, could
not be me chasing leader boards bush I understand ish, And I think that
they picked like a good batch of games for the most part. There's some
of them where I'm like, I don't. I don't think anyone under the
age of thirty has ever thought about balloon Feisch you know, definitely not.
Yeah, there's some of those where you're like, oh, this is just
for the crowd that grew up and barely so when it comes to something like
Balloon Fight. Balloon Fight is one where I don't. I never had much
love for it. Then I play here and I get kind of good at
it for the speed run any challenges, and I'm like, Okay, there's
something for me. Balloon Fight was always you ought to taking mechanics from Balloon
Fight to fix the swimming and Super Mario Brothers and I'm like, oh,
I love that idea of him just being like hey, yeah, I'm I
have a solution for you. You need to figure out swimming. Now we
have this mechanical, let's just adjust it, make it better. It's way
better in Super Mario Brothers when you're swimming, and I'm like, Okay,
that's cool. That's what bloom Flight was to me, like this prototype for
other games. Then I play it and get kind of kind of understand the
really bespoke movement system, and that is fun. I'm glad that this game
is facilitating that. And then I'll play Ice Climber. Kidd of Chris is
like, it's not great, but it's more I don't know. I think
it's more dull than anything. Ice Climber is straight up bad though. That
one's I find very frustrating because you just you can't some jumps you think you're
gonna make and you just fall basically right through the platform because you're on the
edge or whatever, and it's like you should cheat in the opposite direction.
As a game designer, every time of make me feel like if I feel
like I'm gonna make the jump, I should definitely make the jump, and
they're like no, no, no, You've got to get both feet and
the third invisible foot up on the platform. Okay, whatever, all right,
we should explain what we do here most weekday. I Jeff Greb will
help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even
some of our own original reporting for all these topics. Look at the input
of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you are
watching live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to the show later on
podcast feeds by searching for Games Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb
dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on
YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into,
so let's start the morning mess with Mario plus Rabbits director David sol Soliani
leaves Ubisoft after twenty five years. This is from Oli Reynolds at Nintendo Life.
David, David was probably maybe how you say it, Soliani? David,
Yeah, maybe, David Yeah, that's probably even better. David Soliani,
the creative director of Mario plus Rabbits, Kingdom Battle and its sequel Sparks
of Hope, has announced that he has left Ubisoft after twenty five years.
Posted on social media, the announcement states, after twenty five years, eleven
of which beautifully spent working with an ten on Mario plus Rabbits. Man,
that's crazy. It's like it feels like, oh yeah, he just did
those and that is almost half of his career along along the company of incredible
community players. I've decided to leave Ubisoft to embark on a new adventure.
So Leani does not confirm what this new adventure might be, but we're excited
to see what the creator will get into and we'll get up to in the
coming months. He has perhaps best known around these parts for his emotional reaction
to the reveal of Mario plus Rabbits King of Battle at E three twenty seventeen,
during which Shaguru Miyamoto took to the stage alongside Ubisoft CEO Yeves Gimel.
When Miamoto referenced Soleani directly, the camera captured there the director's emotional response in
the audience that was one of the better like E three moments for sure,
Uh yeah, people move on. I'm not too surprised, and like likely
something in this somebody in this situation is like I got to do these two
games with this company I really love, and we weren't going to get to
make a third and I could go in there and try to pitch something new.
But I've been doing this for so long, is that really what I'm
interested in? A twenty five year career with one company, it seems natural
at a certain point to be like, no, I'm moving on. I'm
trying something different, but a good run, right, And in many ways
he does seem like one of the few people who's carved oush who's gone bigger
than you be Soft in a lot of ways, or it's bigger. He
doesn't have to be a part of these mammoth development groups that you be Soft
has. Like you see, Clint Hawking has kind of disappeared into the background
of this. I think he's probably realized like, hey, I'm friends with
all these different composers, I have a good relationship with Nintendo. I could
go out and do my own thing, and people, even though that second
game didn't sell well, people like it lash, which if you're starting a
new company or you're joining up somewhere new, that's what they're looking for is
did you make a good game previously, because then we feel like we could
maybe sell the next thing that you work on. So yeah, I think
he will definitely like keep making gain. He seems to love it, and
he seems to love making games of that sort of style like that like Blue
Sky optimistic thing. And I think he was a really good, like creative
lead. I think he was a really good face for Ubis after IF,
which is a company that doesn't have many faces other than game which yeah,
yeah, has really become like less manic pixie CEO. And everyone used to
like put up with him for so and then and and really like we don't
need them. But I'm not allowed to do an impression anymore because it's insensitive
or whatever. Come on, everybody, let me have my fun joking.
Fine, he's a billionaire exactly. I think he'll be able to handle it.
And I think it's mostly a deference to the French. I get it.
I think that I will keep following the VI's solely anywhere he goes because
of like, oh, someone that cares that passionately that they are tearing up
because Shagerimamoto is talking about this game they've been working on so long. It
just gets me and I want to like back up people like that and be
like, hey, yeah, I'll show up for your stuff. If you're
going to continue to have that kind of passion. So yeah, good good
luck to him. But we we do have breaking news. And I don't
know if you saw this in chat LEXI I think I'm seeing the lead percussions
of it in shot. I am, I am really over here? Okay,
let's just read the headline from Variety. Sure, Skimbity Toilet film and
TV franchise is in the works from Michael Bay and Adam Goodman. H They
have apparently an interview with these human beings about this. As if it wasn't
ubiquitous enough as digital video, video shorts or games, Skimmity Toilet may be
headed for a future as a long form as long form content as well.
The controversial animated internet sensation is being its controversial, It's controversial? Is it
really controversial? Animated Internet censation is being developed for TV and film treatment by
director Michael Bay and former Paramount Pictures president Adam Goodman, who set a satless
sat last week for an exclusive interview about their plans for Skibbety on the latest
episode of Variety Strictly Business podcast, It's just Skibbitty, It's the grim boo,
Skibbity universe. Oh my god. We are absolutely in talks right now,
both on the television side and the earliest conversations right now on the film
side. But it's not a be all end all for us. Goodman said,
uh what what is okay? Whatever? The Goodman or that Goodman is
even presenting migrating skibbity IP to TV or film as an option as a testament
to the audience. Size of the property has a mass on YouTube and roadblocks
right, the monetization opportunity is ample as a new variety intell this is that
this is title Blocks and Gary's match. It's just weird. It's not owned
by anyone. It's fucking like own skibbity. Is that okay? Okay?
Yeah right? The Skibbity toilet himself. The asset is a combination of the
toilet from Half Life, and uh, I have what's this fucking what's just
well? I don't know, yeah, it might be God, I honestly
can I'm looking at this fucker. I can't tell which character is anymore,
but a character that Valve substantively owns. And then the Skibbity song I thought
was a real song that exists and someone made and then they just combined these
two things into a meme video. Now since then, since that first video
of and if people don't know what we're talking about, which I gotta remember
of course, Well, the only reason I know about skippedy toilet is because
I think it's funny as a forty one year old to be paying attention to
what like Jen Alpha is fucking talking about. Because I think it would be
annoying to them. That's the reason I know about Skibbity Toilet. Skibbity Toilet
is a video on YouTube original originally on YouTube, a YouTube short where the
a head from like Gary's Mud and from Valve from the source engine pops out
of a toilet and sings skibbety a song like skibbitydd skibbity that sort of thing.
I think it's funny and also like, okay whatever. Since then,
though, since this first video, which has like billions of views, I
think it's it's massively popular. There is a long, long series of sequel
shorts that expands on this universe into like epic and galactic battles of the skibbitty
toilet, many skibbity toilets fighting like the enemies that have like security cameras for
heads. And then there's giant skibbity toilets that are on the backs of tanks.
There's like flying harrier jet skibbety toilet cousins that fire rocket missiles and they
turn into giant mech battles. It is already very Michael Bay coded. So
I get how this happens. I just don't get how any of the rights
issues make sense, Like is Valve involved? I suppose we could, like
hope, like I guess I could listen to this. This just came out,
but I mean, I'll read a little bit more. On February seven,
you not men, Yes, right, exactly yes. On February seventh,
twenty twenty three, Alexi gerz Gerazamov uploaded an eleven second video to his
YouTube channel defunck Boom, which has way more views than like properties like Detective
Comics, Jurassic World, Marvel, Star Wars and all this other stuff called
Skimmity Toilet, which featured a head emerging from a toilet and singing little did
he know that? Did he know it? But then a twenty three year
old from the former Soviet Republic of Georgia had launched a genuine cultural phenomenon.
Yeah, like they are not talking about how any of this makes sense from
a rights standpoint, But I do believe that Hollywood could figure that stuff out,
and I don't think even Valve would stand in the way too much.
They would probably just want their piece if that's required, or maybe you know,
uh this the whole thing gets treated as parody and they find ways around
that, and they have a different looking skivty toilet that is like live action,
Like what, what do you think any of this? Really? Is?
What I was going to say to you was as I was scrolling through
this vas article all the odds that were likelyhard a roundish and all the related
articles, because he's like the Ish person at the moment, which is Glenn
Powell. So it was like an auto video of Glenn Powell being interviewed.
I was like, Oh, Glenn Powell gonna be skimmy toilet. Put that
fucker's head in a toilet right now, put it on a poster, and
let's go to Hawaii because that's a billion dollar franchise right there. Yeah.
I don't know what happened to us as a people, Like where did we
go wrong this it feels like a level beyond even like what's in idiocrity,
Like how my balls I get to a certain extent, what's happening here?
Uh? I think it's I guess it's like a new form of like Tom
and Jerry cartoons of just like violent funny cartoons. Like that's what this feels
like. At the end of the day. It just is so depraved in
some ways. I think the thing that like is actually depressing about this isn't
what's mentioned in the article Leason is like, oh, people are like concerned
about the moral decay of society and like brainwash up for kids and all of
this. It's like, no, skimpy toilet is fine, Like it's a
fucking dumb meme. What's terrible is a billion dollar company like Platinum Done going
you want to know what we're going to turn into a franchise And it's like,
fucking no, dude, no, no one it does. It does
feel like a joke out of a movie, though, like a kind of
a low rent movie that's not trying very hard of Michael Bay attached to direct
Skibbty Toilet, Like come on, that is in itself just kind of hilarious,
like Trey Parker on Matt Stone would look at that and go bit on
the nose. Yeah, exactly right. So I don't know. I hope
it happens. I would. I want to see this. I have to
see what this looks like. Yeah, it is always worth remembering with these
things. How many times have we seen articles on variety of like fucking Space
Invaders movie in development at wherever. I'm like, that's in two thousand and
six or something, and those things just never materialize. So you know,
we can hope that it doesn't actually come to pass, but it might.
I'm gonna get John if you want to put the stream elements link into Slack
again, I'll get yours cause I think Jan's out today. He's traveling.
He's got to go to fucking San Diego. All right, we'll get that
update so we can get headlines in the show for everybody. Not that it
matters, because the headlines are gonna be like this sort of bullshit today.
That's just where we're at. Okay Le's Creed Shadows Debs address blowback over games
historical accuracy because we're still doing this. This is for Michael McWhorter at Polygon.
Developers behind Assassin's Creed Shadows, the upcoming Assassin's Creed set in feudal Japan,
released a statement on Tuesday that addressed blowback to the game, which seems
to be largely driven by the inclusion of Yaske, a black Samurai as one
of two playable characters, and its statement. Ubisoft developers specifically addressed are Japanese
players who have criticized the game, proclaimed historical inaccuracies, and a flood that
included Chinese subtitles and a video for Assassin's Creed Shadows. We acknowledge that some
elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community. Developers set
in a statement for this, we sincerely apologize. But developers at Ubisoft also
stressed that while they have put significant effort into ensuring an immersive and respectful representation
of feudal Japan, the developers also said their intention has never been to present
any of our Assassin's Creed games, including Assassin's Creed Shadows, as factual representations
of history or or historical characters. Yeah, there's more to this. We'll
probably read a little bit more from the story but it is buck wilde to
me that we are still having to explain the historical accuracy is always a bullshit
of criticism, like ninety nine percent of the time, it's bullshit, especially
for something like Assassin's Creed, where clearly you just pick and choose when to
care about that when you're mad for some other reason. And so fundamentally,
what many people are upset about is there's a black guy in a game about
Japan, and I associate Japan as being black free, and so you're upsetting
that, and I'm mad about it, and so then you Ubi softis essentially
apologizing for including a black character in their video game, and that fucking sucks.
That's where we're at. I'm just kind of over this. This is
a real terrible precedent to set because it one shows no faith in your developers
yep, and to actually be able to tell their own story, and two
lens of legitimacy to just the worst people because they say, here, you
know, we were talking to a Japanese players. It's not the fucking you'd
go and you look at those fucking petitions. It's not Japanese people that are
signing those petitions. You go and you look at the accounts that are staking
the most amount of fuel over this, and it's like, it's fucking a
guy called Greg from Cincinnati who has the online handle o Taku Protector some shit,
and it's like, okay, great, Like you're basically I The thing
with this whole thing that's like wild is that Yaske and I did a bunch
of this research because I was writing about Assassin's Creed Shadows for Play magazine and
that should come out like next month or something. But he's been in loads
of games. He was in Neio both of the Neo games, He's been
in countless of the Samurai Warriors games. He's been in countless of the what
they called again, And now it's all I can think about. Yeah,
the No Nabou Ambition games, I can't remember. Yeah, but like he
has been in lots of these games, and like, you didn't have people
coming out when fucking Neo was coming out, being like this isn't historically accurate.
Why are the demons here as well? It's the fact that he's playable,
it's the fact that he's black. It's the fact that they don't want
that in a major Triple A game, and it's the fact that they're racist,
yep, and that's that's kind of ish and sexist, right because it's
like there is a Japanese person in the video game, but she doesn't count
because she's a woman. Like that's that's simple as well. And like,
honestly, the biggest thing about this whole story for me is that this just
sucks from the point of view of, Okay, now you're like kau taou
to the worst people. So you don't support your devs in this thing.
You don't fully support them. You say you do, but you're not fully
supporting them by being by like both sides in this whole thing. And you're
also lending legitimacy to people who haven't been legitimate actors in this industry for decades,
and that just seems like a really fucking stupid thing to do. So,
yeah, I think that this is a real terrible move. Like when
it comes to them putting Chinese subtitles on one of the videos, yeah,
apologize, so that that's a fucking dumb move, don't be Like, well,
there's debate as to how real this guy was, Like this debate about
how real fucking any historic aut how really William Shakespeare is like, right,
get the fuck out of here. Yeah, yeah, No historical document is
one like crazy go. I mean there's just not a lot of evidence.
There's a lot of document. It's like yeah, no shit. They were
like they were busy with other stuff. They weren't writing everything down like there
was a little bit different time, right exactly. They didn't just like go
to Meyer and get a notebook and keep a journal, like go fuck yourself,
like most people didn't have a journal that was something reserved for like the
very top of society across the entire fucking world at that time. Like of
course this is how it is, like yeah, but fundamentally so it's an
Assassin's Creek game, like it's it's a fantasy, like they fucking fought gods
in the last three. In the last three, you fight gods at the
end and then you kill the gods and so you know, and so to
like be in the situation where I look, I think including uh Chinese subtitles
in a in a video mit for the Japanese audience very bad luck and you
should apologize for that. That one's that one's rough. That feels like a
lack of uh of attention to detail? That is that seems like you don't
and so you want to know do you want to know what could have solved
that if they had a consultant look at it? Well, now, because
those are all corrupt companies that will destroy the industry, of course you can't
have that. Yeah, So I think that them being on their heels in
a situation like this, where it's like, hey, you have a game
that does look pretty promising, you should kind of go be be acting with
confidence, get on your toes, and come come out and say here's why
Yeske rules here, here's why the entire game rules, Here's why the other
characters great. That should be the focus and not back on your heels trying
to explain yourself to an audience that doesn't really want to. Yeah, they're
never going to accept an apology. They don't want to. That's not apologize
because they're not angry that this isn't historically accurate. They're angry because they're racist,
and you're not going to defeat racists with well, actually no, you
know, we're we're trying this and we're trying to do that. Like no,
they're just going to keep on being racist. Yes, and that's like
the explanation of Hey, we are making a game that's meant to be entertaining
first, and historically accuracy is something that we play around in in that space.
This is an argument that is going to fall on not deaf ears,
on troll ears. These are people who are literally just making any argument to
troll the opposition, the people that they hate so that they can kind of
stir shit. They are just shit stirs, and so to try to actually
engage with them is a mistake one hundred percent of the time. And Ubisoft
falling into it is you know, it's not two surprising correlations do this all
the time, but it's still a mistake. And they yeah, they should
not have done this. This is a dumb move. I'm feeling hopeful about
Assassin's Great Shadows. I have since that first trailer. I thought it looked
pretty good. I watched a bunch of it being played. It looks super
promising compared to some of the other recent Assassin's Creed games. It looks like
a good balance of like what people like from the old ones and the new
ones. Like that's the pop has me interested in it. Yep. Also
ask a fuck, it's a great character. What a what a great inclusion
in the game. I'm more excited because of it, and uh yeah,
you reception embrace that. There is a million games where you play as the
standards like Japanese protagonist in those ears, right, and it solves a problem
of like, hey, you're like in this environment and you might have questions
about how it works, like what like the strata of society and all these
things, and playing as a character that is a bit fish out of water
is like a situation where things can be explained, questions can be asked,
and it feels natural and makes sense. And then it's like, well,
if we're gonna do that, like, let's least maybe do an interesting take
on that. And that's Yeske of course, it is so very very excited
about this game. Still, I'm gonna make Dan play it. He loves
Assassin's Creer. Uh all right, Nintendo Vacating Team. Here's another fun one,
vacating Team Jackpot's win for Splatoon three World Championships. This is from Nintendo
Everything. After a recent controversy, Nintendo will no longer be recognizing the win
Team Jackpot had in the twenty twenty four Splatoon three World Championship, the company
put out a statement on social media which mentions that some members of Team Jackpot
quote acted in a manner that is not in line with our community guidelines.
And that means, you know, the code word is there as you know,
or the what they're actual trying to say is they're super super racist.
They were doing some stuff and they had like conversations in a team chat that
was just shockingly bad. And Nintendo does it want to give a trophy to
people like that, weirdly yeah, and so yeah, due to this,
their win will be avoided and they won't be getting trophies either. Nintendo will
adjust. We'll also adjust the Splatoon three splash tag banner that was released with
a future patch, basically to remove any any references to this team or whatever.
Yeah, think that the esports scene, Uh, it needs to remember
that Nintendo doesn't fucking need you. And if you want a support or not
even sport, if you want permission to run esports tournaments, like, if
you actually care about this thing that you're spending all this time on, you
got to get right with God, like you gotta you gotta figure shit out
and and uh and be a better person, because these corporations are not going
to tolerate anything that tarnishes them in even like a little way, let alone
a major way, like giving a trophy to a bunch of racist little kids,
Like come on, yeah, I'm like, ultimately, this happens with
real sport too. And we talk a lot about how some sports professionals don't
get punished enough for their shitty actions. But if someone does act out enough,
people will resend trophies, they'll send metals, they'll not be able to
sign up. They took the Los Angeles Clippers away from its billion her owner
because of his racism, Like they were just like, no, you're not
allowed to own this team anymore. Fucking gets Steve Balmer in here. He's
down, He's a cool dude. Everyone loves Shy. I mean, he's
not racist at all. Let's have him here in here. It's probably a
little racist, Steve Bamber, I have no idea. I think the actual
lesson here is that, like, hey, wouldn't it be nice if other
companies utilize the influence that they have over the esports that people play, because
you know what, the Esports World Cup really fucking sucks and there's a lot
of companies that are just like, well, it's kind of out of our
hands and we're just licensing the game and people can do whatever they want with
it. And you know what, that's not fucking good enough. You own
that IP. You do not have to let them play fucking Overwatch in Saudi
Arabia to like try to whitewash the fucking blood stained reputation of that country.
You don't, so yes, and it's in Nintendo is just has a history
of looking around the esports scenes and be like, I don't want anything to
do with this. That's why they don't let let Smash Brothers be used for
the fighting game community anymore, because there was so many problematic issues with sexual
harassment, sexual assault, and they were like, this is this is the
can only hurt us At this point, we don't want like as positive as
a marketing marketing beata would be for Smash Brothers for it to be an EVO,
and it would be it's not worth it because we don't trust that community.
And now it's like even the ones that they have tight control over,
like Splatoon, they are having similar issues. Now Nintendo's clearly having a string
of bad luck. This is not happening across the board in every sport event,
but it's happening frequently enough that Nintendo might just be like, we're out,
We're done, none of our games can use for this stuff ever again.
And uh and the esports community it really has no one to blame but
themselves at a certain point for not self regulating for not like you mentioned,
professional sports, every professional sports team has you know, media handlers and media
training involved so that everyone and recognizes that anything that they say or vaguely think
could be a problem for the team that is paying them a lot of money.
Now esports doesn't have that kind of money, so I get that,
but it's also not going to get to that kind of money unless they sort
of recognize the chicken and egg scenario here of unless we are good ambassadors for
this product that we are, that we exist within its ecosystem, we're screwed.
And that's just how it's going to be if you're going to be playing
a game that is a product as your esport and not something that is a
game like basketball, where it's like, well, no one owns the ip
of a round ball that you bounce and then a hoop that you put it
in like that is very different than going and playing Splatoon from Nintendo that where
they make their money from people buying Splatoon, not from people buying tickets to
watch people play platoons. So yeah, the esports community sort of has to
have a reckoning here. Yeah, and it's been like that for almost decades
now of people saying like, hey, like, you have to get your
shit together, and it continues not to. And instead what you have is
these big organizations that have been built up on the idea that at some point
there'll be a gold rush. At some point esports will make a profit,
and they're desperate to make that profit, so they make a fucking deal with
anyone. They'll make deals with literally anyone, and they'll promote anything, and
they'll bend over backwards to make the people who are offering them money happy because
it's still just not profitable. And so yeah, I think like companies would
be wise to keep a much keener eye on what's going on in their competitive
scenes because it will reflex on them. Yep. And yeah, let's see
someone in Chad just said, is it in the Olympics. Yeah, Abraham
linked in It's incredible names, aren't e sports in the Olympics now, yeah,
kind of Saudi Arabia is like, has some deal with the Olympic,
the International Olympic Committee to license out, yeah, basically license out the Olympic
logos and name to say this competition is the Olympics. And also like that's
not going to even work because they're going to run it every single year and
people who know that's not the Olympics. The Olympics runs every four years and
it runs in the city that the Olympics is held in, not in Saudi
Arabia. Right. It's the same way that like the fucking World Cup Esports
World Cup. The first rounds of that were going on in Saudi Arabia for
I think it was either Valiant or Csgo, and at its peak it had
the same amount of viewers as Games one Quick did on like an average niche
in like forty thousand viewers. I was like, no, Like, people
don't just come to your thing because you say you're the World Cup. You
have to prove it and people don't want to be a part of that thing.
You see it with I think like Overwatch announced their casters for the upcoming
event and there's not a single woman going to the overwatched World Cup, and
that esports scene has a lot of women involved in it who are clasters and
so like it's instantly recognizable as like, oh, yeah, weird. Why
wouldn't they want to be at that event? I wonder why? Yeah,
And it's uh And I think overall that's where esports is kind of in a
grim place where it's like, I guess, I guess they're gonna go take
this money from Saudi Arabia. I guess that's where we're at. No one
else is given us money. They have a lot of money. They're just
gonna give it to us, but we can't have women. I guess we
need the money. Like it's like, oh, so that's where esports is
at, not like these companies stopped investing in it that make the game,
and so you're like turning around looking around, and this the shadowy, shadowy
government that has some cash is what you turn to to me that says it's
over in most ways. And I think most people paying attention feel the same
way, and they're like, oh, this is this doesn't feel organic,
this does not feel driven by the community, and then it does not feel
driven by the IP holder. It is something else, and it is something
else when it comes to Saudi Arabia, they have diversification desires for their economy
and this is like one of the many things that they're trying and so feeling
like an also ran as part of some government strategy and then having to make
the sacrifices you have to make to get that cash and have not a lot
of other great things going on in that scene. Overall, it's a rough
place to be in and I think it's well covered territory. We're with esports
now, but yeah, in the meantime, EVA is great. There are
clearly great examples, but that you know, that's what that's the difference is
the fighting game community has been there doing it themselves for a very long time,
and that's what all the ways to play games competitively, like game zone
quick a great article went up today. I think I know Ash Parish retweet.
I don't know who rowdish, but basically being like, hey, these
events are safe for the whole community. That's supportive of the whole community because
the people who run them are invested in making them save spaces for everyone to
attend, and you know, they moved one of them out of Florida because
they were like, yeah, some people might not feel super comfortable coming down
to Florida, and we get that. So yeah, yep, all right,
let's take a quick break when we get back. Got a handful more
headlines to get into. We'll do that right after this boom. We are
back, Let's get into it. Stylish looking basketball game with hand drawn art
revealed. Looks incredible. We talked a little bit about this on the BombCast
yesterday, but hey, let's get into a little bit deeper since we need
headlines this week today from Eddie mccowit game spot. Independent game developer Play by
Play Studios has announced its formation and revealed its first project, which is a
character driven three v three basketball game that celebrates the sport and its culture.
The Run Got Next is the name of the game, and it aims to
be easy pick to pick up and play, but also deep enough for people
looking for a challenge. The full court three v three game bends the rules
of real basketball in the name of fun, but is not a full on
arcade style basketball game. Take a look for yourself. There's a trailer that
they're referencing here. Players a symble, a roster of players, each with
their unique move sets with the aim of building a winning streak and holding court.
The game has different courts to play on and each favors eight different type
of play style. So with the referencing there, like the building the team
thing that is something from NBA Street, which this game is a successor to,
where you can play a team. At the end of the game,
if you won, you get to pick a player from that other team to
join your team and they would be you know, each time there would be
like probably someone a little bit better than your current roster, and that was
fun and you could see how, okay, that's something that you perished really
well with maybe a gameplay style of a rogue light, which this game is
of, so like you can imagine like actually, instead of having slight improvements
from one of these characters, maybe they could have really crazy passive abilities or
really crazy active specials that you can do change up a lot of things about
how you play. And I know they're talking about, oh, it's not
gonna be super Arcadie, so maybe it's a little bit more low key than
that. But I just think that this is a really fundamentally good idea for
a successor to NBA Street that said, whenever these spiritual successors come up,
I do remember that. I don't know if there's been any single one that
I've truly loved in the way I love the original, and I always get
my hopes up and I'm doing it again, And I don't think there's anything
wrong with that, because being disappointed it doesn't really hurt you. It's fine
to be disappointed. Just move on. But I don't know, do you
think I'm gonna get hurt again? Here? LEXI. I'm looking at that
trailer now. It looks nice. I think it's competent for sure. It
definitely looks like it has more budget and experience than something like what's it called
Hoops three on three or whatever it is, that game that's like free to
play and you see it everywhere on Steam. Yeah, it doesn't look bad.
I'd be curious to see what a roadlike sports game look like. I
know Tape to Tape did a bit of lash. Yeah that's right. But
yeah, I think that that's an interesting combo. And basketball works well for
that because those are pretty quick games, or they can be quick games,
especially if it's like Street battle or something, so it works well with the
roguelish you know format. So yeah, I'm interested in it, yes,
and I'm a huge NBA Street Volume two fan. The whole series was good,
but Volume two was a it was an all time great game. Play
by Play Studios does have people who worked on NBA Street. They also have
worked on Battlefield and Madden God of War, APEX Legends, Dead Space,
and League of Legends. And the game is set to launch in twenty twenty
five on Steam, PS five and Xbox Series X and S. So if
you went out, that seems quick. Apparently it's already been in development for
two years. Yeah, I'm hopeful. I really think there's a chance that
this is a really good combination of ideas and it will come down to feel
execution. And we say it all the time, like it's it would be
nice to have more arcade sports games, right, and this is like we
say that with a lot of different stuff, and as always these days,
that is coming from a different side of game and then like, oh,
oh yeah, bring back Ea Big and make NBA Street and they're like,
oh, we're tired, No we're not going to do that, And it's
like okay, well, God, I wish that would still happen. And
then someone from essentially the indie side of things, which you know, however
you define that, but clearly this is from the bottom up and not from
the top down. And that's gonna happen repeatedly with all of these genres.
It's happened with you know, three D platformers, and it's going to happen
with immersive sims and all this stuff. It's going to be the solution going
forward that we can hopefully get these kinds of games from smaller teams that remember
them fondly and try to recapture that stuff. And clearly the tools are getting
to a point where that is more and more possible. I hope the tools
get to a point where it's like we can really just focus on the design
so we can get the game to feel as good those original games, which
again I've I've had some bad luck with so far. Did you or anyone
on staff, I know Gersman checked it out back years ago when it was
in early access Street Unix Street Unix. It's a Tony Hawk style game,
but you're on a unicycle. Oh that sounds finny. Yeah, yeah,
it looks like a PS one game. It looks killer, It's very cool.
It's it's worth checking out. Okay, I played a bit of it
a while ago, adding it to my ship right now here we go.
Okay, from Daffodil and Friends. That's a good publisher name, all right,
let's keep going here. S and K versus Capcom SVC Chaos is getting
a Switch physical release. This was from Nintendo Everything. The S and K
versus Capcom SVC Chaos just came out on Switch yesterday as well as other platforms,
and it didn't take long to receive confirmation of a physical release. Well,
the game won't be sold at general retail. There will be a boxed
version from pix and Love. The company has announced a Collector's edition and Deluxe
edition, which will be sold along a standard version. Details about the special
edition have not been provided at this time. Picks and Love is based in
Europe, but the company does ship elsewhere. That means fans in North America
should be able to get a pre order in as well. And then there's
an overview of the game and stuff like that. I do in a lot
of ways, Lexi, we are already in this sort of boutique vendor era
of Hey, these game can get a physical version from one of these small
teams, one of these small companies and get released that way. There's something
about this one specifically that feels like, you know this, this is not
a beloved game, but it's an interesting artifact. I think it is how
Sean put it yesterday on the BombCast, and even something like this is getting
a physical release. I think this is a good sign that the industry has
sort of figured out this transition from digital or from physical to digital, where
it's like they know they don't want physical to go away entirely, and they
know there's an audience they need to continue to serve, and it feels like
that is going to happen one way or another. And here we are with
a pretty good example of that. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah,
there was I think it was it came out of the UK. There was
a report that came out of like oh yeah, and physical sales for vinyl
and blue rays like shot up last year. So there's definitely people who like
I think people are realizing that, like, yeah, if you there are
people who just want physical things, they do just want it, and they'll
buy a game twice. So we may as well make it so that they
can buy it twice. And it's interesting how many of these places are popping
up. The fact that there's like what I can think of four discrete websites
that do physical limited editions of games. Now, like that seems like a
pretty crowded market. But sure, yeah, it's I mean a god of
And apparently for this game specifically, there's two games, two teams doing it
because Limited Run is apparently doing a North American release. So let's see you
here. Yes, when world's collide, you get chaos. Yeah, this
is from women that run games on Twitter. They announced this yesterday. So
yeah, so this is happening with two teams now for different territories and and
there are a lot of other teams kind of doing this, and so that
that will be a crowdit space, as you say, but I think it
just it shows that the demand. And I think a lot of these bigger
companies that will be like, listen, we could save a lot of money
by going digital only, will happily take advantage of these opportunities to have the
physical version for those who care about it, and it will often be the
deluxe version like Balder's Gate three, where it's say, hey, it's a
year later. Two years later, here is Balder's Gate three now physical addition,
but you got to pay the premium because we know that only people who
are actually going to buy this are the true freaks, and we're going to
give you stuff that makes it worth it. But but yeah, the next
systems, next consoles, do they have a built in heart or built in
disc drive? Do you think? Because I'm that, I'm like, probably
not, which might make this boutique stuff a little bit more challenging going forward.
But I also feel like, man, I don't know what some pennies
to put that thing in there, maybe a fifty cents a dollar fifty.
I think there'd be big pushback from publishers who are doing this now, who
are finding a market here. And I also think that with especially with Xbox's
case and with PlayStation to a lesser extent, they have guaranteed enough backwards compatibility
that there are still people who bought a lot of digital or physical games for
the PS four, like that was how they mainly bought games for the PS
four, and then they transition to digital for the PS five. But like
those people would still want to play those PS four games, and they'd be
pissed if they couldn't put it in somewhere. If they can put the disc
in somewhere, So I think that even if those aren't internal disc drives,
there will definitely be ones like you saw with this ony external disk drive of
there will be ways to play disc games. Yep, all right, last
few things here, bandicoot and saying Trology probably could hit game Pass on August
eighth. This is from Tom Ivan at VGC exputer writer exstasists who has you
know, have been on a strong recent track record of revealing upcoming game Pass
titles ahead of their official confirmation. Confirmed this alongside Modern Warfare three, which
did come true. That is on game Pass. Now, how are you
feeling about Activision games coming to game Pass? Kind of a slower trickle than
I was expecting. Feels like bigger, splashy packages of games would go a
lot further than what they're doing. Yeah, it does, and I think
I had this conversation a bit at some of the games. So that's where
people it really feels like the honeymoon period for game passes over and now it's
down to like brass tacks of Okay, how do we optimize revenue on this?
That's clel Like if they wanted this to be a feel good moment,
they'd bring a bunch of shit over at once, like they were doing when
they were doing backwards compaable stuff. But they're not trying to make people feel
good about this, that trying to make it feel valuable. So they're doing
small drip feeds, so that always feels like there's something new on your pleasure.
You know, A Modern Warfare three came today onto game Pass. Yeah,
and now this, and I think that they are probably realizing that some
of the third parties that they were relying pretty heavily on to keep game Pass
Day one stuff feel important, and it feels like the honeymoon period for them
is over as well. And you notice that with the recent Xbox showcase,
they didn't have a single Japanese developer at DASH and they only had one third
party game that was coming to game Pass and that was that turn based RPG
in France and Block Sorry and flint Lock, and they looked great though that
third part Expedition thirty three. Yeah, And so I think that like the
companies like Capcom and Sago who was seeing great returns on game Pass, putting
all the Yakuza games on there, putting Persona three on there, and putting
Kinis on there. I think they are kind of realizing, like, hey,
people will just buy these games if we just sell them, and yeah,
I'll be interest to seef Capcom returns after Knittsugami. I mean Capcom's returned
a couple of times. Sega's definitely returned a lot. You know, my
Microsoft seems to be paying them the right amount of money for these things.
Does that change? Does that maybe? And I think it could at any
moment, it could change for sure. And then where's where does that lead
game Pass? It's like, well, that's once again kind of a de
graded experience, and that's maybe no adue to know a reason that, like
no obvious reason for Microsoft other than like not offering even more money going forward.
But that's just the business. They business they've built for themselves. That's
what they're going to have to do to maintain things. And if maintaining things
gets more and more expensive for them, it makes the service feel like it
makes less and less sense for them. What does that mean for the long
term? A sort of I think I mentioned this in chatoff when the first
game Pass changes were announced. But I was at CX a while ago with
a friend of mine. CX is like a secondhand game store in the UK
and Ireland, and we were looking at games for all the platforms because we
own everything, so we were just like looking at everything in the store,
and we looked at PlayStation stuff, and there were games that God of War
the first God of War reboot was there for thirty euro and then we go
over to the Xbox section and Gears of War five is ten euro. Yeah,
And in a very real sense, game Pass has devalued its own products
because why would you pay sixty dollars for any of those games? Why would
you pay thirty dollars for any of those games two years later or three years
later or whatever, and when you could just get game Pass. And so
the fact that game Pass has stopped growing and all so people aren't paying full
price for Xbox games at launch is super wearing for them. Like it has
to be super wearing for them, right. I think like all the like
hypotheticals that we put forth only sort of come to mind because of the real
problem that is confirmed, and that is game Pass isn't growing the way they
needed to, and it's like, so, so means any sort of problem
is exacerbating an ongoing issue of them not being able to get the growth they
need that they or that they even expected when they started Game Pass. All
right, let's just quick mention here, Stellar Blade PC ports seems guaranteed based
on a job listing that someone found, but that's you know, it's a
rumor. Who knows if that's really confirmed, but I gotta imagine that game
would be coming to PC. Another part of this is DLC was also hinted
at. So yeah, yeah, both those those things seem inevitable. Yeah,
it didn't seem like they weren't interested in bringing that to PC. It
seemed like they were a small team and they chose that platform, right,
they chose their partner, Yes, exactly, and it makes sense. All
right, that does it for the news. I got a pull a question
that I will bring up here as soon as I close slack because it's in
the way there we go, all right, do you feel a need upgrade
to a PS five pro? Sort of just taking the temperature of people right
now in this moment. Eighty eight percent say no. Twelve percent say yes,
and look, that's that is a pretty small number. But I also
feel like that is the audience that you go for with a PS pro sort
of device, where it's like, hey, no, there is a ten
to fifteen percent chunk of our audience that does one feel a need to have
the most, the newest and shiniest thing. And I find myself in that
audience very frequently, So I get that. And then two is are such
die hard fans that they're basically that they're going to fund the whole thing.
They spend a lot of money on PlayStation and so they're not going to really
bad an eye at either getting Ano another place or selling their old PlayStation five
and getting the PS five pro subsidizing that purchase by sort of going to the
US very simply, very simply, that's twelve percent more people buying another PlayStation
otherwise, right, it's you know, it's it is getting it's extracting more
money from your most diehard fans. So that twelve percent still easily justifies this
strategy in a lot of ways. Now I think we got it, Like
it's not like, oh, and that eighty eight percent sort of just skates
on and doesn't notice what's going on. Do the eighty eight percent feel a
little bit more alienated because they're like, you're leaving me behind when I already
spent five hundred dollars on your console, like just last year. That's kind
of annoying. So there are ramifications to this. But I think Sony clearly
thinks, well, what are you gonna do? Go get an Xbox,
And I think they imagine most of that eighty eight percent aren't feeling that way
in the moment. So yeah, we'll see. Now, maybe I think
many of them will be like, what is going on over on PC?
But that is sort of happening in one way. That's happening no matter what
PlayStations accounting for that by putting their games out on PC. Okay, let's
see here. That does it for that pole question. I have a new
pole question that we will have to figure out here on the fly. But
before we do that, just the pole question can be, would you play
another Mario Rabbits game? Okay, sure, yeah, yeah, that's that's
fair. But before you put that up there, Lexi, why do you
tell people where the can find you on the internet what you have going on
and all that good stuff. Yes, So you can find me on Twitter
at basically Lexi both spelled with eyes at the end. I am currently just
after wrapping up all of my summer games, fast Ride Ups plus a bit
more. I think the next issue or the current issue of Play magazine that
just hits store shelves. I have written a not insubstantial amount of that issue.
I had something like twelve or thirteen previews in that issue, so pick
that up and check it out. And the cover is one of the games
that I previewed. It's Astrobot and it's a great cover, So go look
for that. And you can also find me on Twitch at basically Lexi as
well. I'm going to keep on streaming and trying out different stuff and messing
around with some PS three games. I'm gonna apply for affiliate probably this weekend,
and once I've given twitch my my tax details, then I'll be able
to start making making some money off of it. And of course late breaking
news there's a new Borderlands trailer. Oh yeah, God, I don't know
if I'm allowed to say anything about that movie, so I'll just say,
hey, watch the trailer. Why not, Yeah, let's see here.
Actually, you know, what let's let's do this pole question as well.
We're gonna do a double pole question. Michael R. O'Leary helping us.
Will you watch Michael Bays s gibbety toilet? I want that one as well,
So will you watch Michael Bays skibbety the toilet? I hope it is
just titled that way as well. Uh, Nicky wasn't here for that part
of the show. Confused, Nicky, I was here for that show.
I read the news story. I'm also confused. How did we get here?
But you were right. I've been watching rugby. Hell yeah, Nikki,
I wish I could be you right now. Call it. Well,
we'll get you back over there here in a second. Uh all right,
let's see. Uh so, yeah, those are the pole questions. Would
you play another Mario plus Rabbits and will you watch Michael Bays skibbity toilet?
Your options for that one are yes? Knowing what are you talking about?
So looking forward to the results on that and speaking of the results, we'll
get that on Games Mornings on Giant Bomb on Thursday. Speaking a Giant Bomb
later today. Thank you. Grubble returns right. Promise to make red old
Frocky's we have we have a strategy. We're going to get through this together
everybody, and then I really hope that M five for members to bring the
chainsaw to Comic Con to give it to John, who can then give it
up to you at some machine. Isn't gonna remember that, but I'm gonna.
I'm gonna talk to her and just get a ship to me get that
fixed up, so we'll get that back in my hands. It's like,
let's be real, the weapons in that game aren't very effective, and you
could do it that. I should use a chainsaw. Absolutely. I would
love to have a chainsaw. Also, right after this, we're gonna get
set up. Were gonna play a little attended World Championships. I think if
they're around, the plan is get Dan and Mike to hang out with me
while we all kind of play together, you know, or what is it
called body doubling when like you do work next to someone else. We're gonna
be bodily body doubling this game where we're just gonna all compete in times in
our own game and try to get through that. I thought you and Mike
body doubling each other was one of your Patreon toos. Listen. Hey,
there's a lot of spicy content on there, everybody, so check that out
and then you know, the rest of the week, voicemail, dump,
truck game mornings, we'll return all that stuff. I think there's a new
Jeff jeffs happening this week. Friday, we'll have upf I think we're planning
a BCR so we're gonna have that normal busy week. Looking forward to doing
a lot of that stuff. I'm looking for places to do stuff like,
hey, would it be cool to create a giant bomb university for college football?
Yes, looking for some time to make that happen. Maybe do a
small little series of that. There's other things that I want to play,
Kanetsugami, all these things. There's lots of stuff we're trying to get up
on the website, but boy, it's hard to do that with limited resources.
So we'll see what can make happen going forward, especially when everyone's busy.
Jan is that comic con or on his way along with Lucy and Tam.
Everyone's heading that way. You should try to find them, say hello,
go to there. They have a panel. Think you should go to
that panel and stuff the details. I believe are on Twitter or maybe game
spots Twitter, I'm not sure. And what if we did a GB community
game of pubs? Does that mean PUBG yes? PUBG yes, yes,
I would love that. That would be fantastic. We'll try to do a
T and T again soon. All right, everybody, Lexi thank you so
much for hanging out with me today and talking about video games. I really
appreciate it anytime. And now that I have a nice new mic, it
sounds yes to make use of it, So I'm putting the call out invite
me on your podcast, you cowards. There you go, everybody, there
you go, get Lexi on your stuff. All right, thank you everybody
for watching and listening. You are the best audience in gaming. Until next
time, have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.