Microsoft Cuts 1,900 Jobs from Its Games Division

Bit, it's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for January twenty
fifth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let me
help you sort through the world of gaming on Gameless Mornings Live with me Jeff
Grubb. Today, the industry's executives keep laying off the people who do all
the work. But first, please join me and welcome you. Today's co
host a Gameless Mornings, It's Jana Choa. Everybody, Jan how are you
doing you ever? I wonder how to spell the sound of wet fart makes
Yeah, I feel grub because you can't just go because that's already a sound
like pift is like when you're saying to something you need more, you need
more, we need more vowels, I think is what we need to actually
like a hot hyphen somewhere yeah, and then like one of the letters is
bolded yeah un yeah, the unyeah button from the me verse than into no
me verse. That was the wet fart button. That's right, Lenny Cool
d oh shout out to Lenny Cool. Duh Yeah, Hey, Jan,
it sucks out there. I am I'm I'm sad. Yeah, I'm always
mad, Like I'm always mad. Yeah, And I'm always like, I
feel cynical and I feel beaten down by this stuff, by the system.
We talk about it every episode, we talk about how capitalism is killing us
when it just like expresses itself in the most un yeah way possible. I'm
just I'm I feel defeated and I'm sad. Yeah, it's you know,
folks that follow a site. No, I try and keep like a positive
outlook and shit, and it's just incredibly difficult to continue to see any type
of silver lining when everything around us is just constantly crashing down. And that's
that's onlike the actual game development and game publishing side. You know, it
is an unfortunate reality within this industry, both sides of the fence, to
constantly live in fear of impending layoffs out of nowhere. You know, we'll
get to the news after we get to the intro here, but it's incredibly
disheartening to see Activision Blizzard King employees reaching out to someone like Jason Schreer to
figure out whether or not they have been laid off. Yep. And when
you know you don't have that type of transparency from your own employer like that,
and you have to reach out to third parties who may know more about
your livelihood is especially especially fucked up. Yeah yeah, and then you know,
yeah, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. Let's do
the intro. Let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff
Grub will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and
maybe even some of our own original reporting. All these topics. I'll get
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 game mes warnings, or find the RSS
on GiantBomb dot com. You can also catch the show catch the show later
with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube, All right, yeah,
let's get into it. Microsoft is cutting nineteen hundred jobs from its video game
division. This is from Darren BoNT Use at GameSpot. In the latest round
of layoffs to hit the game and industry, nineteen hundred people from Microsoft's video
game division will be cut from the company, and a new memo sent to
staff via ign I but Xbox head Phil Spencer spoke about the painful decision to
reduce the number of people in the Microsoft video game workforce, while also pledging
to fully support those people affected with severance benefits. GameSpot has reached out to
Microsoft and the company has confirmed that the memo is accurate. As we move
forward in twenty twenty four, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activisty Bizard is
committed to aligning on a strategy and an execution plan with sustainable cost structure that
will support the whole of our growing business. Spencer wrote, together, we've
set priorities, identified areas of overlap, and ensured that we're all aligned on
the best opportunities for growth. As part of this process, we have made
the painful decision to reduce the size of our gaming workforce by approximately nineteen hundred
roles out of the twenty two thousand people of that are on our team.
It's about eight point five percent. Okay, the groundwork here. They spent
sixty nine billion dollars acquiring Activision Blizzard King layoffs were probably inevitable as part of
that. This is also in line with eight percent. It's about how much
everyone's laying off across the board everywhere through a bunch of industries, especially in
gaming. And gaming media or related entertainment media, online media eight to twelve
percent. Everyone's just cutting their workforce by that amount. So these layoffs could
have happened, even though this acquisition didn't have didn't happen, doesn't matter.
Own this. They did it. This is them. This This memo here
from Phil Spencer does go on to talk about how tough it is to make
these decisions, and I'm just over it now. I don't need to hear
this anymore about how tough this is to perform. You're a three trillion dollar
company, You're the second three trillion dollar company in the history of the world.
You are now the richest company in the history of the world in terms
of market capitalization. This is not actually necessary. There are ways out of
this that don't involve laying people off, and and really it is. It's
a cold strategic decision and that's what it is. Like, Oh, I
don't own it. I'm sick of it. Quit telling us that this is
some tough thing that yeah, painful. It's not painful for you. It's
not. It's very frustrating, Jen It's it's incredibly frustrating because then you know,
there's there's so many ways to suspend this for the unfortunate, the people
that unfortunately got affected by the because you see the writing on the wall across
the industry grub of like companies, big big companies, companies of every size
really laying off their staff in various degrees, and you start thinking of should
I just leave, preemptively leave now for something that feels more secure, And
then you know you could be someone in that got brought over from the merger
with from ABK, thinking of, Okay, if I just hang tough,
hangout, I can survive this possibly toxic company work structure. Get brought in
by Microsoft and Xbox, which has proven to be a better work culture,
only to get laid off in this greb. The numbers in total layoffs across
the industry are already what half, if not sixty percent of all of twenty
twenty three. Yeah, I think it's between fifty and sixty percent of what
we had in twenty twenty three, over five thousand in January so far this
year we had ten about ten thousand by the end of twenty twenty three.
It's just January, yep. And I mean, obviously this is like,
you know, the end of the year's arbitrary. That's all part of the
continuous thing here. But also no, I mean there's these companies abide by
a calendar. They're making their moves to get ahead of things, and I
mean this is where it really hurts some where, it gets really cynical,
Like you look at the reaction to this, and we're bummed out. The
developers are panicking, and these stock prices up. The stock price is up
because this is a win for the people who invest in these companies, And
that's what really makes trying to survive in the system feel like a war,
like where like it's traumatizing. It's not like traumatizing like actually being a real
battle, but like in the same way that like when you're working in a
factory and the low hum of the machinery and the background causes like hearing damage,
Like that's like far more common and far more problematic that people like hearing
a really loud bang going off next time, that causing me hearing damage.
Capitalism is that lo hum in the background that is constantly bringing us down and
hurting us, and we're just trying to eat. Like if you don't fight
to survive, you don't eat. You die and I just then we turn
around and we look at it's like, this is a victory for the people
on the other side of this battle, the investor class that has all this
money. It's completely it's all consuming, and it feels like what do we
do. I don't see an out to any of this. It's just gonna
keep happening, and like we get the high tide and we get a little
bit of we get some crumbs for a few years, and then we're going
to be right back here again. Yeah yeah, all for what all for
manufactured projections and for like financial forecasts that are complete bullshit only to benefit the
people at the very top, and then it winds up turning everyone that gets
laid off all that existing talent pool. It becomes a dog eat dog world,
where in instead of being a very collaborative atmosphere, it is now like
fuck you pay me type of deal where you just have people turning on each
other and like, instead of you know, trying to reevaluate the whole structure
of the situation and even thinking about that, even turning around and saying the
thing we always say have like you know, unionize labor movements, it's just
incredibly difficult to even see that as an immediate solution because it's not an immediate
solution at this point. It's not even going to be close to fixing what
is going on because unions haven't proved, like these bigger companies will find a
way. They will always find a way to let go of people, to
let go of everyone on the bottom line, to alleviate the people at the
top of these shareholders. Yeah, it's it is. We get to a
point where like, we are recovering games here, and it's like, okay,
some of these companies are are they believe in games and they want to
put put a bunch out And it's like as soon as that strategy of like
we're gonna make a lot of games and we're going to employ a lot of
people to make these games, as soon as it looks a little rocky,
uh, they panic and they cut all the people and and and here we
are. I don't necessarily see what they I mean, it's not like they
have some other solutions. If these companies had other ideas about what to do
in terms of solidifying their future, they would have done it. So what
they do is they're like, Okay, instead we got to make sure the
bottom line looks as healthy as possible. And what people are gonna want to
see that are invested in our company is uh, labor costs going down.
That's always the biggest cost, and so if we can cut into that,
that's going to look great. And yeah, I think what you said about
like everyone now feeling like they're they're on their own, Like, yeah,
with severance packages are gonna help with that a little bit. The real thing
that people are going to be looking for are new jobs, and a lot
of people have a lot of skills that apply mostly to gaming and primarily to
gaming, and it's not like all these other industries out there are actually craving
any as much talent as possible right now. So it's not like you,
they're gonna be able to leave and go find jobs elsewhere. People know we're
going to reach a point here where now that the people aren't going to be
able to find work. It's going especially people who are coming into the industry
for the first time. It is here. We're kind of now very quickly
entering a sort of reverse situation from where we were like coming out of the
pandemic, where it's like couldn't find enough talent, and these companies just don't
believe in games anymore. They putting games out is not the solution. So
hiring peoples in the solution. And it's just it sucks that it has to
work that way in the first place. That it has to be we have
to convince these people that we can make them money and so that we can
get some of this three trillion dollars that they control. It shouldn't out work
this way in the first place, but here we are. Blizzard's situation is
a little bit different. The president and chief design officer are leaving, and
they also canceled the survival game that Blizzard already announced. This is from Tom
Ivan at VGC. Blizzard's president, mikey Bara and its chief design officer Alan
Adam are leaving the studio, which has also seen a previously announced survival game
canceled. The senior leadership departures from the World of Warcraft developer were confirmed on
Monday, alongside the news that Microsoft is cutting nineteen hundred staff across Xbox,
Bethesta, and Activision Blizzard. As many of you know, Mike previously spent
more than twenty years at Microsoft now that he has seen the acquisitions through as
Blizzard's president, he has decided to leave the company. Microsoft's Game Content and
Studios President, Matt Booty said in an internal memo obtained by The Verge.
A new Blizzard president will reportedly be confirmed by Microsoft next week. As one
of Blizzard's co founders, Allen has had a broad impact on Blizzard on all
of Blizzard's games, Booty said his influence will be felt for years to come,
both directly and indirectly, as Allen plans to continue mentoring young designers across
the industry. Then they confirmed they canceled the survival game that was announced in
twenty twenty two. They're shifting the people that we're working on that to other
excuse me, other new projects. I suppose the people who weren't laid off
as part of this. This this does like make it feel like a little
bit like, oh, yeah, this is a acquisition layoff. Still,
yeah, everyone else is laying people off. But really, Microsoft's got some
redundancies after acquiring another big video game publisher, and they're cutting those jobs and
they kind of don't need Mikey Barr to be in charge of Blizzard, uh
not necessarily it's possible, you know, Mikey Barrow and Alan Adam are leaving
because they disagree with these laoffs or something like that. I don't know.
But in terms of, you know, the the state of these companies,
it does. It just continues to feel like they don't know what to do
next, and there will be a lot there's gonna be a lot fewer games
coming out of these companies, and that seems to be the strategy right now.
Jan I don't and I don't know what to make of it. I
I it is just so baffling. Grab Like, even looking someone with my
level of understanding of math and economics, which is very low. Everyone h
three trillion dollar company, nineteen hundred people, three trillion dollar company, nineteen
hundred people and probably growing. Yeah, you have the fucking cash despair.
You fucking have that. This is not a painful decision at all for you.
This is you just moving the fucking numbers around. That's right, Scout.
Be angry me too. It's just fucking baffling, especially when this video
game industry is more profitable than other forms of entertainment that aren't. And hey,
I'm not saying that movies and the music industry is not incredibly predatory and
scummy, but the video game industry, especially within the last couple of years,
fucking dog shit. Like, I don't think in good conscious I could
recommend any person to try and pursue video games right now. If you are
studying college, you're graduating from high school, you're learning to code, you're
learning to do art, I can't, within good conscious recommend you do that
because because I fear for the future of your career, the you're the quality
of your life. It's fucking terrible grub. Yeah, And it's and for
these big companies, you get why they are, like was panicked a little
bit, Like gaming doesn't make a lot of sense right now. We are
like you think about the games that cost the most money to make, and
yeah, like a lot of them make a lot of money back. And
then you look at so many projects in like the last just a couple of
years that have had development student development teams of like one to five people that
take over the entire industry, and it's like, man, at a certain
point, it like having these teams of eleven hundred people working on one game
for seven years. You know, some point we've been saying for years it's
unsustainable. I think what we've hit here now is the wall of realization of
wait, if we start up another one of these and we have these massive
teams working on these massive games for seven years and we have no idea what
the industry is going to look like in seven years. That's like a kind
of a crazy thought to think about it at this moment in time when the
industry is changing so drastically and we don't necessarily know what consoles are going to
look like. We know there's going to be a thirst for games like that's
that's continue to grow even throughout all those times where we're like, what will
consoles look like? Are you know it's the iPad going to replace all of
gaming? All this stuff? Is PC gaming dead? Throughout all that all
those years, people more and more people came and spent more and more money
on games. But the the the bets that these companies are making are looking
more and more unsustainable. And I think that they are now like, wait,
we have to like stop and think about this in a way that they
have it before, and it's and it's you put yourself, you put yourself
here. You keep saying that you have these opportunity costs of having to make
these massive bets, and if you don't do that, then it's not even
worth your time or effort. It's like you could have got to a point
where you were making several smaller things, letting your teams be more creative,
not forcing them to spend years and years refining the visuals to the point where
they are to a shiny sheen that makes it look like the most expensive thing
ever, because it is the most expensive thing ever. And now you have
to go out there and compete with Power World, and you have to compete
with all these other things made by a handful of people in a marketplace.
Yeah, yeah, in a marketplace that doesn't seem to really care where these
games come from. They don't really care if it's like, oh, if
it came from Activision or it came from a dude named Alex in the middle
of nowhere, But no difference for the people actually consuming these things. For
the most part. At a certain point, these corporations look archaic and yet
and yet they control so much of the money going into the industry that we
have to continue dealing with their their decisions and dealing with their failures. Uh,
and it hurts nineteen hundred people at a time. Yeah, it's it's
it's all butthole. It's all butthole. We're not like we say say this
every time. Could you say we're not done with this? You know?
I like I was hearing rumors like, oh yeah, there would be some
big layoffs, and I thought that was bungeee. I did not know that
this was coming. This is like, I'm sorry, not bungee was or
was it? Who's the last big layoffs? Now? I can't even keep
them all straight. Riot, thank you, thank you? Yes, Riot
like it was okay, yeah, man, that is really scaring people.
And I think once you see riot like that should have been the warning bell,
like, okay, we are gonna see basically the entire industry just cut
off about eight percent of the people and just say so long, get out
of here, and we're not. I don't think we're anywhere near the end
of this. So yeah, I don't know what, like, what actionable
advice can we give to anybody listening to this or working in the industry.
I think the one thing I was say, like, this system is built
to turn us against one another, like jam was saying it's it's built to
make us feel like we're all in it on our own. You know,
if you don't take the piece of bread and you don't eat, and so
you have to take it, even it means someone else doesn't get it.
We got to find a way. I mean, unions are one thing we
talk about it. We got to find other ways to come together. We
got to find other ways to empower ourselves and take care of the person next
to you. The you know, we've had the math done right, like
we okay, Yeah, Alan's whatever fuck his name was that came up with
capitalism. He was like, yeah, everyone, if they do what's best
for themselves, we're gonna actually everyone prosperous. And it's like, no,
someone did some math later. It's like, if everyone does what's best for
themselves and the person next to them, that's actually the best system that gets
the best results. We know this is true. We just got to start
living it a little bit. I don't know how we do that, but
we're going to start somewhere. Yeah don't. I don't know how either,
And like, you know, being on our side of the fence, grub,
I'm always trying to figure out like, what can we like what specifically
Cangiant Bomb, do you like help our peers, our friends on the other
side of the fence, and the dev side, the publishing side, is
like, how can we help them even And I just don't know how.
I just don't other than spreading awareness and then like you know, trying to
spread the news. And you know, I hope people don't think we're talking
about this news just to cover the news. This is infuriating stuff, and
I feel like bringing light to this and shining light on this incredibly ugly side
is important because I think we said this on the BombCast or is some sometime
on Gay Mess. But like, the whole side of game development is so
cloudy and it's so murky, and it's that way by design to kind of,
yeh, make it pop, to dehumanize the whole process, right,
And that's why the consumer doesn't quite care sometimes whether or not this game is
coming from a Triple A studio or alex in the middle of nowhere, I
don't know. And it feels especially scummy and it feels gross and disgusting.
After last week's Xbox Developer Direct, where you know they're they're talking about like
Oh, yeah, we're re uniting. We're all in this together. And
then like, how many of those people? I know a lot of those
some of those studios weren't like internally internal to Microsoft, but like, you
know, you got to think of, like how many of those people sitting
in the background of random b roll for promo? Shit? Is that guy
gone? Is that person gone? Like it's baffling. I don't understand it.
Yeah, the one someone that's good at math helped me understand this.
Please, I don't think there's any explanation for it. The Phil Spencer mimo
like and with him saying, and I know that we still can make great
games. It's just like I don't want to hear that right now. You
know, I know it's important to reassure the people are still there that are
gonna have survivors guilt. You do that, do that elsewhere, you hold
a different meeting for that. In this memo about laying off nineteen hundred people,
Let's make it about people. Microsoft has never made a game. People
make games. It is It has nothing to do with these corporations have never
done anything. They are able to collect to gather money, and then that
money gets used to make games, but you cannot, Like you could throw
as much money as you want at a pilot code, it's not gonna get
written. People make games. Let's just focus on the people for a little
bit, please, Uh yeah, God, And like, I don't know,
you just know that some fucking boardroom after this news, this is just
like a blip in their fucking like day, right, and like they're gonna
go on to talk about some UMass shit like well, all right, how
are we going to integrate AI into the look? And I'm not saying that
Kermit the Frog is an evil corporate businessman. We don't know. It was
just the first voice that came into my head. I was just like,
oh my god, y'all are so stupid, Like you just want to put
you just want to shake people sometimes grub yeah, because like they don't know
they we know they don't know any better. That's the thing that doing,
you know, covering this news for so long, we know none of these
people actually know any better. Like they don't know better than us how to
make this industry work, how to make games good. They don't know,
they don't necessarily know how to run these businesses. They're just guessing and their
guesses invariably end up with us having to be like, oh, like,
oh, you're you can't afford to pay these people anymore. What do you
mean You're three trillion dollar company and it's a well, it's a strategic decision.
It's like, Okay, you're just saying shit because you again, you
don't really know even what you're doing. Now. The ship that doesn't make
sense to me, Grub is if you if you put people on a spreadsheet
and you look at a track record, right, I am sure that there
are people part of this layoffs, these layoffs that contributed positively. As we
said, people make games. People make games. So these active developers on
games are doing their job, and they're doing their job correctly and well to
the best of their ability, with as much oversight as they're given. The
people above them that aren't getting laid off, that are probably getting bonuses,
that will have a golden parachute much more gener severance packages if that time comes.
Those are the people that are making the bad decisions and not doing their
job correctly. Whoever the fuck was like all right, let's go make this
type of game. This is going to be the hot stuff I've done my
research. Have you fucking done your research? Ted? That's just a miscellaneous
Ted. I don't know any specific Ted, But in this instance, Ted,
Jesus fucking Christ did damnited I. And you know, the exclamation point
at the end of the really shitty sentence for me is like, I know,
I'm gonna We're gonna leave this episode where I talked to my good friend
and understanding person Jan here, and I'm gonna go enter up a world of
like, hey, there's social media where people are gonna be actually really nasty
about the still and find a way to still make it about their their stupid
ass Console wars. Fucking grow up. I am done with it, Like
this is inane. This is an entire industry that treats it's the people that
make the industry possible. Like shit, it's been you know, when it
has gotten good, it was at the fighting tooth and nail for some recognition
that these people are humans and deserve a little bit of like work life balance
and that's like the minimum. We're talking like bare minimum here. And it's
like that took years and years of exposing the way that these people were treated
and having these companies get slept on the wrist over and over again in just
like the court of public opinion A little bit fucking EA getting voted the worst
company in the world, and mostly that most that's about like ten dollars online
passes. Consumers don't usually care about the way the employees are treated, but
it's like it did not help the perception. H So we're like, even
when it gets good, it's actually not all that good. Even when the
company of the industries begin paying the people who make games more, it's nothing
compared to the amount of money that they're making. By definition, that's how
capitalism works. It's literally you were capitalizing on something else, and that with
a lot of times that you're capitalizing on someone else to take more of the
money than they get so you can be a profitable business. So yeah,
I just we stand in front of these systems, and I don't blame anyone
who's cynical. I don't blame anyone feels defeated. I feel that way most
of the time. But I just maybe if we don't give in a little
bit and we try to help each other a little bit, maybe we can
figure something out here in the end. I don't know what it looks like,
though I don't know what it looks like either. I think unfortunately part
part is the solution I see as someone with money being okay to modern good
person. Yes, that would be I would take that. Yeah, all
right, we're gonna we're gonna go to a break. When we get back,
we'll get in some of the other news that's happening out there in the
world. Stick with us. We'll be back after this. All right,
Yeah, let's do this transition. The Pokemon Company is going to investigate Power
World, or so it says. This is from Ali Welsh at Polygon.
The storm Lax has awoken. The Pokemon Company broke its silence on Powerworld the
Semiboo how Dare You Ali the smash hit Pokemon inspired survival game, on Thursday,
saying it intended to investigate the game and quote take appropriate measures if it
judges that its intellectual property rights have been infringed. Accusations of plagiarism have been
leveled at Power Worlds since its early access launch on Friday, January nineteenth,
particularly in relation to the design of its pals credits that players can collect,
capture, and battle well. The game features men, any elements foreign to
the Pokemon series, like guns, crafting, based crafting, base building,
and other hallmarks of popular survival games like Valheim and Arc. Many players are
commenting on what they see USA as striking similarities between Pals and Pokemon. The
Pokemon Company apparently says that they've gotten a lot of questions about this, and
so they responded, which is weird in and of itself. We have received
many inquiries regarding another company's game release, and that was like, I think
the title of the memo is like another company's game release something like that.
It's strange regarding another company's game released. In January twenty twenty four, the
Pokemon Company said in its statement, we have not granted any permission for the
use of Pokemon intellectual property or assets in that game. We intend to investigate
and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related
to Pokemon, the company said ominously, then, in an abrupt change of
tone to something more reminiscent of the inspirational lyrics of a Pokemon theme song,
we will continue to cherish and nurture each in every Pokemon and its world,
and work to bring the world together the through Pokemon. In the future,
Okay, Jan, I don't know if they had to say something, but
maybe they're saying something because they keep getting asked about this, and I think
they mostly want to be They're like, leave us alone, we'll figure it
out on our own. We see it, like we're aware of it.
You could stop adding us about this game. It's basically what this feels like.
But there's a chance still that they might do something in court. What
do you think? I think there is a chance, but I think you're
one hundred percent right, Grub. This is them getting in front of everyone
trying to die on this hill and being like, all right, all right,
all right, guys, just just calm the fuck down. We know
that they look exactly that say. We'll see if we need to bring down
the hammer. Also, it is near impossible for the Pokemon Company and game
Freak to not have had this game on their radar for sure, because what
this was announced two three years three years ago? I think yes, at
least at least two years ago though, yeah, at least where And that
seems like plenty of time to get the lawyers up and running and rolling out
of like, huh that the sheep does look like our sheep. Maybe,
uh, maybe we should do something. Also, I can one hundred percent
see it from the Pokemon Company's perspective of seeing a million of these other types
of games, these clones coming out, and knowing even if it does become
as big as Power World, the sustainability may not be there, you know,
Like I don't I don't know the names of any of the pals that
we caught, except Creamy because that sounds disgusting, right cream it was Creamis
right, Creamis See there we go. I did I got it wrong?
I do know, And actually this could also be wrong. Cattiviause I just
think of Jamie Lee Curtis and Activia of course, but actually I don't think
that's the cat's name. Yeah, I mean, you're right, I think
poke the Pokemon company. Honestly. That's why I'm a little surprised they said
anything. Now. I think they said something for what we've said here to
like get the nerds to shut up stop capping for us. Yeah, everyone
in chat is saying the same thing, but it is a certain point,
like you know, like the beef between uh, like New York Pizza and
Chicago Pizza. Like New York never actually pays attention to that, and like
Chicago makes a big deal about that, and they're like, oh yeah,
our pizza is going to New York's Like what, Oh okay, We're just
gonna go back to eat our pizza. Pokemon should kind of be like next.
I think there's there's still that chance. Jan As you said that we
get six months from now, a year from now, and yeah, Power
World's still there doing just fine. But most people have forgotten their their pals
and and they see a picture of the pal and they're like, oh yeah,
I remember, Okay, that was that was fun. They ain't no
Pikachu. And I think I think it's the world we're gonna continue to live
in where Power World ain't no Pikachu. Yeah. I there's so many people
that rode into the bomb cast mentioning specific other Pokemon clones Pokemon ripoffs. Yeah,
that I one hundred percent forgot about, and that the Pokemon Company never
pursued legal action on. And I think it's because when you're at the top,
like the Pokemon Company is, your biggest enemy is just yourself at that
point, yeah, and your own ability to remain relevant and it's less so
like the competition, because like Digimon is a long running franchise that has run
perpendicular to Pokemon, and unfortunately, as cool as Digimon is, I don't
see it ever try ever reaching the zenith that Pokemon has at this point,
right, the cultural capital is not there anymore. People outside of my age
group, outside of our elder millennial age group, grub are going to forget
what the hell Digimon is. Yeah, Yo kaiwatch, that's a good one.
Dark Galaron Yokai Watch was taken over the world one point now, primarily
Japan, but it started getting popular elsewhere, and those like Yo guys,
you know ghosts. Essentially they didn't look exactly like Pokemon, but they were
close enough. They were closer than like Digimon even. Uh and yeah that
came and it went. I think the same thing happen here, folks.
I'm not saying that we will forget what Digimon is. We'll we'll we'll cherish
Aguman in our heart and still be confused how Gatomn transforms into an angel lady,
because I'm still confused for many lisons. Yes, I'm talking about uh,
kids like the gimmicks do the gimmicks at all? Can they point out
what Aguman is No, right exactly not definitely not aercent not and I don't
know, I feel like it's even these similar gotta collect them all, got
to catch them all type of other ips out there, like a yu gi
oh or whatever, like they will just find their niche and stick in that
niche. Like you don't see the Pokemon Company getting all up in arms about
like you gi oh also having cards and also having little adorable monsters. Yeah,
it just happens, and they will just be there unless like I don't
know, power World suddenly made like a yellow electric mouse and was like made
it a detective and made like other ip and other property with it. I
mean even though I mean, like the law says even that, well though
you can have a yellow listen, yellow might be close, but you can
have an electric mouse for sure in your video game. You just can't have
Pikachu. Like like that is where the where the line is, and it's
pretty firm, which is why like and you know, and I think we
talked yesterday with Lucy. I talked about how the Pokemon Company is maybe hesitant
to take this to court because if they lose the case, that creates an
even wider opening for more clones to come in and gives them the legal cover.
But there's the other there's the other side of it where it's like if
if Pokemon Company wins, well they have designs that look like a lot of
other games, that opens them up to getting sued. And they have over
a thousand Pokemon pocket monsters now, so it's like they're gonna be uh and
I just really I'm probably saying Pokemon in a way of making Sean very upset,
and I'm so I gonna keep saying it that way. There they have
over a thousand monsters now, I guarantee you could find examples of many of
those, but probably most of those that have corollaries from other mediums, other
other games, other you know, franchises, movies, books, comics,
all this stuff. And they don't want to get sued either. So it's
like the industry overall is that this not even uneasy truth. It's a well
understood or uneasy truth. I should say it's well understood truths. And they're
like, let's just maybe let these things slide so in other games making a
lot of money. So what I actually don't think that is going to like
rise to a level that the Pokemon Company is really stually all that worried about
it, It would have to begin doing noticeable harm to their sales. And
that doesn't just that doesn't seem likely at all right now, not at all.
And you're one hundred percent right, Grab. If they pursue legal action
and they win, this brings more attention and more awareness on the issue completely,
And this just puts a target on the Pokemon companies. Back. Does
William Sonoma start doing and pursuing legal action against the Pokemon Company for their chandelier?
Pokemon of like we sell chandeliers That one looks like one of ours from
our two thousand and seven catalog, You motherfuckers? Yep? Does the inventor
of the sand castle get involved? Grub? You know? Do our local
sanitation workers pursue legal action against the Pokemon company because of trubbish? Oh?
I thought you were to say because scarlet and Violet? Ah? Yeah,
uh yeah, John sand what if? John said? Guess all? And
that's what you're getting at, though, is really the thing where I think
most people should want the industry to land, and that is, let's wield
the copyright laws very infrequently. Let's try to let's like create a space for
creativity and a lot of time, creativity looks like remixing, because it is
and uh and all these companies should want that because that means that they can
also remix on other people's ideas. Uh. And people shouldn't be scared away
from that. Uh. And I honestly, the way the law is set
up right now, it is to discourage a company like the Pokemon company from
coming in and just suing a competitor out of business because something looks pretty similar.
They would they could. The law doesn't want that because they want to
have this wide open space for people to remix. So and that's what I
want. Copyright laws, you know, kind of a little stick in the
mud when it comes to creativity. Uh. It's understandable to a point,
but it's clearly the thing that could stand in the way of people being like,
well, I want to take that and do something else with it.
And we you know, we see that now when once copyright expires on things
like Sherlock Holmes, Like you know, a couple of years ago, we
were like in a golden era of Sherlock Holmes storytelling, and it's like,
okay, we want to have a space open for that, for an electric
rat, you know, for that idea, and we have that as long
as we don't mess this up by trying to give more power to the Pokemon
company. That seems unecessary. Someone give me my Sherlock Holmes spinoff starring Grub
and Minatti, A Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Watson with Dan Reichert as Moriarty.
Oh Jesus, Dan would be Mariarty. I'll be a Nola Holmes. I
know that Lucy James is like the easy like, oh yeah no, that
was a good That was a good swerve. I was proud of you,
Vanola Holmes. I like the I like those movies. A whole bunch MBB
connect turnsn's out, turns out all right, move it along here removed a
video of a g Allen Numa at Universal Studios Orlando Sparks Zelda Park speculation.
This is from Evan Campbell at GameSpot Wake up link. You might be becoming
a main feature on the upcoming excuse me at the upcoming Super Nintendo World attraction
plan for Universal Studios Orlando. At least that's the speculation, as Eurogamer reports
that the Legend of Zelda. Producer ag Alanuma was spotted at the Florida resort
in a hard hat next to Shagaru Miamoto, and that's in a now removed
Instagram post. So far, Super Nintendo World attractions in Hollywood in Japan have
focused on Mario, with Miyamoto helping to build the theme park. Spaces Link
Gannon and Zelda haven't been a focal point yet. Supernintendo World was confirmed for
superintendent for Universal Studios Orlando early last year and called the worst kept secret in
history by Universal Destination CEO Mark Woodberry. It's planned to open next year.
God, oh man, I was gonna say, I thought it was twenty
twenty five. Hey, next year's twenty twenty five. I hate that.
Yeah, this is definitely happening, like right, yes, one hundred percent.
You see the success of the I forget what it's called in Universal Studios,
but you see the success of that park. You see the success of
the movie, and then Nintendo's finally feeling brave enough to like peek their head
out, like, all right, maybe we'll do more stuff. Maybe we'll
do more stuff in games. I just don't know what a Zelda park would
look like grub because do you have it be more of the traditional like link
to the past. Do you get funky with it? And maybe do wind
Waker because I feel like a wind Waker aesthetic would lend itself really well to
that theme park. Or do you go for like the kind of like the
balance between that with Breath of the Wild. Do you just have like rolling
fields? Yeah, it's glue. It's hey, listen, I would love
rolling fields in glue. That sounds like a good time in a park.
Breath of the Wild's probably the answer. It's it's so popular. It is
an aesthetic that is slightly more malleable, I think than having something more life
like and it's it's not as timeless as wind Waker, but I think it's
because the popularity. I think it's something that people will latch on easier than
they latch onto the wind Waker style. If I had my say, I
think I would go with wind Waker. I think that would be something that
you know, if you go to those park fifty years from now and they
still have this. And I don't know what the lifeline life cycle is for
park attractions these days, probably not fifty years, but if you go there.
Fifty years, I think wind Waker would still be like, oh man,
this is this is cute, this is timeless. But I think Breatha
the Law can certainly get close to that in those terms. Grub, think
about all of the way is that Nintendo can exploit these people with merch and
Nintendo. My phone is on on ring so I can hear if you want
to talk, so we can cut the check because YO, think about it,
Grub. Think about the little little gimmicks out there rolling around with Majora's
masks. I want to think about I want a little plushy one of those
little guys that you had to help in Tiers, the Kingdom, the little
Cox, the Coox. Yes, God give me a cor Ox. Absolutely
every day in the park we unleash a thousand carrocks and you have to find
them all. Yeah, yeah, the cor like it's part of the like
the fireworks show where they just get shot up on rockets and then they parachute
down. Uh yeah, I would I would love that. The easiest attraction
to get as a people mover, Grub. You get from one part of
the ride to another part of the ride that's up there. You ascend,
Yes, send ride. Hell yeah, uh did you? Nintendo's Japanese store
released a ton of awesome Pickman March and I am so saw this. A
lot of it sold out immediate. People are like, hey, you can
use this like a proxy bye by proxy site and they'll ship it to you.
And I'm like, okay, you know this is it'll probably get pretty
expensive pretty fast, but I'm I'm gonna look into this, and a lot
of the things I wanted were sold out already, so it's like damn.
So like Nintendo can do cool merch. But when I was at you know,
when we were at Super Nintendo World, I went to the merch store
and it was like pretty pretty limited. I was like, it's most obviously
what they had there was Mario stuff, but they had like it's like,
okay, this is just based on the literal attractions that are here at there's
standard Mario stuff, and there is Mario kart a paraphernalia, and then it's
like not even Warrio or Wallauigi, like they weren't even going that far afield,
let alone Kirby, which is like maybe there'll be some Kirby stuff from
my kids. It's like, no Kirby wasn't even there, so it's like,
Okay, they'll probably they'll have Zelda merch I wonder if they'll still be
very vanilla with it, or maybe as they, you know, have more
time and they get more confidence with these things, they will begin to expand
it more. I don't know, I guess I don't know what kind of
audience is getting attracted to the Super Nintendo World in America. It seemed like
the one in Japan had even more a larger variety of merchandise than we had
here. But either way, I'm like, I would be excited for that
if had if they went as ham as they went with that Pickman stuff that
they have in the store right now in Japan. I I'm trying to to
think about the other stories that we saw when we visited Universal Studios, and
I can't imagine having any interest in wanting to buy like a Fast and Furious
branded hat with a reference from like the first movie right of my TV tvd
combos Man my life in the first movie, it's it's the best, it's
the it's it's iconic, and uh, it just feels like money on the
table grub like else, you could sell so much shit, just just drive
an hour away. Look at Disney, look at all the random garbo they're
selling over there and all, and some of that random garbo exists in my
apartment right now. Grub Uh, Zelda will probably happen quite a bit,
probably a few years from now. The next thing that is going to open
up, seems like at at or and after the Mario stuff, is the
Donkey Kong stuff. That is uh. I believe that's been photographed. Again.
I don't keep track of this stuff. I have a Mike Manatti for
that. I'm pretty sure everyone's got a Mike Manatti for this. So we'll
just go talk to that person in your life. All rights. PS five
and PC maybe getting a new version of Until Dawn. This is from George
Yang over at GameSpot. A new version of supermassives in interactive horror game Until
Dawn could be releasing soon. According to a new report from deal Labs,
Until Dawn will be Until Done. We'll be coming to PlayStation five at PC.
Interestingly, deal Labs claim that there won't be any changes to the game's
title, and it's unclear whether this new version is a remake or a remaster.
Basically just saying until dawn. The game just called until don until Dawn
remake, remaster or anything like that will just get basically ported. It sounds
like the PS five and PC. Maybe there's more to it than that,
but that's the way this kind of makes it sound. Yeah, I would,
I'd be down for an until dawn. Is this is this something you
think could show up in like a state of play, but maybe by like
the middle of next month, where hey, yeah, until done now on
PS five or does that not rise to the level for a state of play?
This this can pad out time. This is one of those like throwaways
where it's like, all right, here's god. I hate to use wrestling
terms, but like you know, this is uh don't don't ever hate that.
This is the match you put on after the big announcement to like calm
the crowd down. Yes, okay, yes, the cooler it's a cooler
announcement. Yeah, uh yeah. I think that it could show up in
a state of play if it is like shadow dropped, If it's like and
it's available now on PS five and then we and then the YouTube video laters
like and it's also on PC. I think that could easily happen, uh,
and I kind of hope it does. I never played until Dawn.
I did play until don VR at a E three in a PSVR, like
in the first years of those VR releases, and I was so scared that
the the person running the demo just kept taking photos of me and like showed
him to me later because I looked so absurd. I'm like, cool,
thanks, I feel very manly. I feel like I've played this game and
seen this game so many times that I don't I personally don't have any interest
in it, but I'm sure there's going to be a whole new audience for
the games though. Yeah. I mean, I think at this point the
horror genre continues to grow each time each year where it's like and more people
are like, I just want more of those, And I think a lot
of people will show up all until Dawn that weren't paying attention the first time
it came out, especially if you people are like, hey, it's like
a good one of those, like the Cory was one that I think people
really ended up liking and like, hey, oh here's one of those.
And now it's if it works on your PC, you don't have to go
track down a PS four version or something like that. I think a lot
of people would be happy with that. China is removing proposed bands on monetization
tactics from government website. This is from James Bachelor Games Industry app is China
may have recognized it's divisive proposed regulations for bands against modetization and engagement tactics.
The BBC reported that the drafts for the proposal, which were published on the
National Press and Publication Administration the MPPA website in December, have now been removed.
As we reported when they were first published, the suggested regulations included bands
on several several widely used mechanisms in games, such as daily login rewards and
incentives for repeat or first time spenders. Sharing Share prices for leading Chinese game
based companies, including Tencent and net Ease dropped sharply, sharply after the draft
was first released, and basically the reporting says that those sharp declines in share
value were basically directly behind this getting removed as a proposition. Sounds like these
aren't going to go through, sounds like they're not even really being talked about
anymore. They just are going to evaporate. This is notable for a couple
of reasons. Mostly it's like you point out, like you talk about company
to a country like China, excuse me, and and people will say,
oh, you know this this communist country that like controls everything with an iron
fist. It's like, no, even they're afraid of investors. Even they
got to keep the investors happy when the investors saw that their stock prices going
down intense And it's because a lot of the leadership in the Communist Party has
stock intensent. They don't want to see this happening. It's like, nope,
back off, what's what? What the hell are we thinking? Theurious
like this cultural clash in China right now between people who like want to return
to tradition and and be like, you know, video video games are eroding
the traditional values of the Communist Party and people want to make money. And
that's that continues to butt heads and seems like in a lot of these skirmishes,
in the end, the side that is making money wins. So I
think some people were pretty excited about these these propositions when they were announced because
it was stuff like, uh, stop encouraging kids who who sign into a
game to log into your game every day just because you promising them free stuff.
That seems pretty It seems kind of scummy, like you're playing on their
their the fact that they don't have control of a lot of money, and
so you're playing on the playing mind tricks on them essentially to get them to
come back to your game instead of just making a fun game. It's like,
yeah, that's that sounds pretty fair, But boy, that did not
look good for ten cents, And so here we are. Sounds sounds like
a lot of dark patterns have been emerging grub Yes, the dark patterns are
being enshrined into law and being protected. We must protect the dark patterns.
I think they're that dark anymore than I think they're just patterns. They're just
they're just the normal patterns that get used against us every day. They're not
even patterns, they're just practices. Yep, is a dark pattern when you
use like the grub hub app and the sandwich costs several more dollars than it
does if you were to like just go to the store and order or is
that something else? It's probably just like that's something else, like dark shitty
is what that is? Yes, Yes, that's a rip off Coachy K
here's some good news. Cogi Condo to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive
Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame from Nintendo Everything. Today, the Academy of
Interactive Arts and Sciences the ai AS announced that Cogi Condo will be honored at
the twenty seventh annual DICE Awards ceremony at the Aria Resort in Las Vegas.
Condo has been selected as a Hall of Fame inductee. Nice to hear.
I saw your tweet about this, and then I got really concerned where It's
like the tweet I read about it was like a great, all time great
composer, a Cogi Condo, And it's like, what are they setting it
up? Like why are they saying it? Like they're encompassing his entire life
in this tweet? Are they about to tell me that this dude is dead?
I will be devastated. And I clutched my chest and I read has
been inducted into the Academy of Interactive Art and Sciences Hall of Fame, Like,
oh, thank god, oh shrew. It's just you gotta find a
different way to start tweets. Sometimes in headlines when you make when you tweet
out someone's like photo, I don't know, can you just had like a
trophy or something or like confetti? Yes, exactly, so I know that
they're there, they haven't passed. It does remind me of that a joke
from Headline News on on a Saturday Live where it's like yippie, what's it's
like, yippie John Thomas died today. It's like, oh, I read
that wrong, or like yippie John Thomas died today, and it's like,
oh, that's actually just what he was. He was a yippie. That's
a proper nown. Oh well, uh. Finally, Xbox announces Indie Selects
program. This is from Sophie McAvoy at Games Industry up is id at.
Xbox has launched a curated program to highlight the top indie games on its platform.
The Indie Selects program will consystem games selected by the Idea Xbox team,
showcased in a permanent, permanent section on the Xbox Store. I had a
solt water problems Jan. Yeah, yeah, let's let's go highlight these indies
and then buy them. Yeah for real. I was talking with Dan the
other day about how much I missed Xbox Live Arcade, some of Arcade for
Xbox Live Arcade. Yeah, this doesn't seem like it's that, This is
just like a blog. Oh well, all right, you know what,
let's get to the poll question. While I'm getting that set up, jan
Money, tell people what we have going on on the website for the rest
of this week approximately perhaps what's the math here? In an hour and a
half from now, we will be doing a GB plays of Like a Dragon,
Infinite Wealth, grub and I will be hanging out with each Uban Kasuga
and his motley crew of friends and lovers and more friends, family for Lovers
for Lovers, rare sequel that never got made of a flubber. And later
today we will be boarding the Voicemail dump Truck for Voicemail dumb Truck one hundred
everybody we will have well we broke them out of jail. Ben Pack is
hopping on the dump truck once again. Tomorrow, folks, we will have
another episode game as Mornings upf will be the Scrub League with two b's of
tech and eight I believe, and we'll be having ourselves a little another review
cast for Yakuza Like a Dragon, Like a Dragon, Infinite Wealth with LEXI
will be hopping on the show tomorrow. Yep, look forward to it.
It should be a good time. I want to talk about that game a
bunch more. I've been playing it last night and this morning a little bit.
Been enjoying it. It's real stupid, stupid in the best way possible.
I love a game that makes me go, this is dumb. These
people are dumb, all right, but like it makes me think that about
the developers, and again in the most positive way possible. Yes, yes,
yes, just love it all right. Whole question from yesterday, which
game are you most excited to play? Tech and eight Like a Dragon Infinite
Wealth, Last of Us Part two Remastered or Suicide Suicide Squad col to Justice
leagu Let me double ship me sure this, I have all this updated?
There we go? Uh. The winner there is like a Dragon infinitt Wealth
with fifty six percent, twenty two percent said ten and eight eleven percent said
Last of Us, Last of Us Part two Remastered, and ten percent said
Suicide Squad killed the Justice League one out of ten? Are you there are
just ready to get down with Captain Boomerang whatever the hell his name is and
more power to you all right. I hope for the best. I hope
that game is good for your sake. Absolutely, Okay, boomer rings,
oh jeezy crazy? Uh, No new poll question today. I'm not in
the mood. Here we go. I'm just not in the mood everybody.
Uh well, we'll come up with a new one on Friday for Monday,
unless I'm not in the mood again, in which case, fuck it.
You know. Let me let me tell you I watched that trailer suicide Squad
Kill the Just League, the Joker deal c or whatever they're calling it.
Yeah, that guy looks like a creep. Oh, he looks like a
real creep. He looks like a perverb and someone I wouldn't trust to babysit
my children. The way he moves in that game. Actually, it's unsettling.
Yeah, I think in a kind of a fun way. But I
don't know, I don't think we need the Joker anymore. Yeah, I
kind of feel that way about Darth Vader, where it's like, I don't
like, I think we could be like, let's put Darth Vader into the
Hall of Fame and then we could just not use him in the fiction anymore.
We don't need more stories about Darth Vader, like he's good. Joker
probably is in a pretty similar space. It's not gonna happen, Jan,
No, No, we're gonna get a lot more of these guys. Yeah
uh yeah yeah, too much. Too much. Football saved me. Football
said, got a man the Lions. If the Lions win, I'm gonna
be It's good like this is. This is the other thing about like capitalism
and just trying to survive the small victories. That's the little joys that you
have no part in and doesn't actually improve your life in any way. I
don't give a shit. Give it to me. I'm so ready for it.
Please all right, Jan, thank you so much for hanging out with
me today and talking about video games and getting me through this. Man,
I really appreciate it. It's my favorite way to start a Thursday, except
for a majority of the news we had to cover today exactly. Thank you
all for listening. You know, we cover the news every day. I
know it could be a down or sometime and you might say, hey,
why don't I tune into this? I actually just care about the fun,
fun part of video games. If you're still listening. Even though that thought
occurred, to you. I appreciate it, I understand, I get it.
You also are just trying to survive. But we are in this together.
Let's try to see this through. Thanks for listening. Until next time,
have a good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.