Massive Layoffs Across the Xbox Division

<v Speaker 1>You'll be bit.
<v Speaker 2>Mike, I don't say the one. It's it's just like
<v Speaker 2>three to two.
<v Speaker 3>I get it. I also was distracted because there's another
<v Speaker 3>breaking story that I'm adding to the thing real quick.
<v Speaker 3>It's okay, Hi, Should I just go?
<v Speaker 2>Yep?
<v Speaker 3>Hi? Everybody? What's to say? Okay, Hey, everybody, welcome to
<v Speaker 3>the Gay Mess Mornings with Me Mike Minaughty, your host
<v Speaker 3>from GiantBomb dot com. Thank you for tuning in. In
<v Speaker 3>this episode, we're gonna be talking about Xbox layoffs happening
<v Speaker 3>right now, the death of pss R in the Outriders
<v Speaker 3>sequel that will never happen. It's gonna be a good
<v Speaker 3>one because we have Jana Choa on the show. There's
<v Speaker 3>old stuff here about a sponsor that we don't currently have.
<v Speaker 3>I've been you know, Jeff's Jeff's format here is strange
<v Speaker 3>and magical I've discovered. But for a show, how are
<v Speaker 3>you doing?
<v Speaker 2>I'm doing great, Mike Manati. I I love the energy
<v Speaker 2>that game Mike Mornings brings to my Wednesday mornings. That's right,
<v Speaker 2>it's great. Uh. Turns out, Mike, when you move, not
<v Speaker 2>only does your computer not want to work sometimes and
<v Speaker 2>recognize all the same outputs that are that were exactly
<v Speaker 2>where they were. But your body doesn't want to wake
<v Speaker 2>up at the normal time it normally does.
<v Speaker 3>I bet, I bet. I mean, look, you already have
<v Speaker 3>my sympathy being on the West Coast and having to
<v Speaker 3>get up in the actual shoot morning for things I
<v Speaker 3>name stuff morning shows and then do them at two PM.
<v Speaker 3>That's how much I actually greatly dislike mornings.
<v Speaker 2>So it's the morning somewhere, Mike, right.
<v Speaker 3>It's always the morning somewhere, hopefully where you are and
<v Speaker 3>not where I am, because yeah, I am the opposite
<v Speaker 3>of a morning person. But you know, you're getting settled
<v Speaker 3>in though the move, you know, there's all the move
<v Speaker 3>usually keeps happening for months and months and months, but
<v Speaker 3>hopefully a lot of the big stuff is taken care of.
<v Speaker 2>Now. Yeah, finally cleared enough space in the kitchen to
<v Speaker 2>actually walk around, and now my partner's graciously going to
<v Speaker 2>start putting more stuff away, a little bit more shelf
<v Speaker 2>space than we originally had at the old place, which
<v Speaker 2>is a pleasant surprise.
<v Speaker 3>I could see your nightmare before Christmas. Zero popcorn bucket
<v Speaker 3>behind you over there.
<v Speaker 2>That's good.
<v Speaker 3>I actually bought my first popcorn buckets this. Oh, they're
<v Speaker 3>actually at Universal. It's twofless from howitoring your Dragon. And
<v Speaker 3>I got them for my nephews both have birthdays coming up,
<v Speaker 3>and I was like, okay, this is fun. But when
<v Speaker 3>I bought it, they were like, you know, you get
<v Speaker 3>like a free fill of popcorn on yeah boy.
<v Speaker 2>So no, okay. So that's the great thing that Universal
<v Speaker 2>does that I don't remember if Disney actually does. Because
<v Speaker 2>at Universal, if you buy the popcorn bucket, you just
<v Speaker 2>show up with a receipt and they'll see whether or
<v Speaker 2>not you ticked it off yet, and they'll give you
<v Speaker 2>the free popcorn refill.
<v Speaker 3>I got the popcorn. I put it in that bad boy.
<v Speaker 3>I put it around my neck and carried that little
<v Speaker 3>two fliss around like like my child. And I'll tell
<v Speaker 3>you what. I get the appeal. I get the appeal.
<v Speaker 3>It was kind of fun.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, yep, don't worry, folks. Soon enough, I'll get the
<v Speaker 2>whole crew on the boo boos, the boo boos, love
<v Speaker 2>boo boos, boo boos. I just love hearing you guys
<v Speaker 2>say it.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, before we get into things, let's explain ourselves. This
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<v Speaker 3>that's short at giant bomb dot com. But on this
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<v Speaker 3>the show later on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay, we got
<v Speaker 3>a lot to get into us, so let's start the
<v Speaker 3>morning mess with Microsoft begins deep job cuts across the
<v Speaker 3>Xbox division. This is from Jason Schreyer at Bloomberg. Microsoft
<v Speaker 3>announced Wednesday morning it's eliminating nine thousand workers company wide
<v Speaker 3>and a second wave of layoffs this year. The cuts
<v Speaker 3>will have an impact across teams, geographies and tenure, and
<v Speaker 3>our main efforts of streamlining processes and reducing layers of management.
<v Speaker 3>A company spokesperson said. The termination follows an earlier round
<v Speaker 3>of layoffs in May that hit six thousand people and
<v Speaker 3>fell hardest on product and engineering positions. These cuts have
<v Speaker 3>started today jan We're kind of learning mostly about the
<v Speaker 3>European offices impacted. For example, the Stockholm based King division,
<v Speaker 3>which makes candy crushes, cutting ten percent.
<v Speaker 2>Of its staff.
<v Speaker 3>Oh my god, about two thousand jobs. Other European offices
<v Speaker 3>such as Xenemax also began forming employees that job coups
<v Speaker 3>are happening as we're going live. Jason Schreier reported that
<v Speaker 3>Zenemax's new MMO project and these are the people who
<v Speaker 3>made oer scrolls online. Their new project, code named Blackbird,
<v Speaker 3>which was in development since twenty eighteen, has been canceled
<v Speaker 3>as part of these layoffs and again US kind of
<v Speaker 3>layoffs here expected to be announced later in the day.
<v Speaker 3>The Microsoft's gaming division had about twenty thousand plays as
<v Speaker 3>of January twenty twenty four. Here's a clip from Phil
<v Speaker 3>Spencer to position gaming for enduring success and allow us
<v Speaker 3>to focus on strategic growth areas. It will end or
<v Speaker 3>decrease work in certain areas of the business and follow
<v Speaker 3>Microsoft's lead and removing layers of management to increase agility
<v Speaker 3>and effectiveness. This is the fourth mass layoff at Xbox
<v Speaker 3>in the last eighteen months. Rumors are also saying that
<v Speaker 3>ever Wild is canceled at Rare.
<v Speaker 2>So this is.
<v Speaker 3>Happening right now. We're going to probably be learning more
<v Speaker 3>about this, especially how it impacts US studios as the
<v Speaker 3>day goes on. I mean, you know, a certain point,
<v Speaker 3>what do we say, jan this sucks again. Microsoft is
<v Speaker 3>insanely rich, filthy rich, disgustingly rich. What does it need
<v Speaker 3>to Why does it need to cause so much misery?
<v Speaker 3>What is the justification possibly throughout these words like agility
<v Speaker 3>and effectiveness? Fuck off?
<v Speaker 2>This is terrible. Yeah, the aspects of this where they
<v Speaker 2>keep saying they're handling management, I think they should look
<v Speaker 2>further up the ladder, Mic because there's several several layers
<v Speaker 2>of mismanagement further at the top, closer to phill that
<v Speaker 2>needs to be addressed. Nine thousand workers laid off is insane.
<v Speaker 2>And I know whenever these stories come out, Mike and
<v Speaker 2>we report on them, people will see like ten percent
<v Speaker 2>of a company laid off, and that ten percent may
<v Speaker 2>not feel like a lot, but when you like put
<v Speaker 2>it on paper and you are now suddenly losing two
<v Speaker 2>hundred of your coworkers, that is mighty significant. Especially like
<v Speaker 2>I I know that I'm under the assumption that at
<v Speaker 2>King Candy Crush may not take the most work to maintain,
<v Speaker 2>but it is like still one of the top mobile
<v Speaker 2>games out there or so like people are still actively
<v Speaker 2>playing it. That getting Candy Crush under the Microsoft umbrella
<v Speaker 2>was definitely part of like the the acquisition motivations from
<v Speaker 2>like a couple of years ago. So like, this just sucks, Mike. This,
<v Speaker 2>this really like takes the wind out of my sales
<v Speaker 2>for any interest in Microsoft related things. Hearing about ZeniMax
<v Speaker 2>getting gutted also stinks. Elder Scrolls. The MMO just feels
<v Speaker 2>like one of those MMOs that was like constantly trucking
<v Speaker 2>along and doing well. And I was always I'm always
<v Speaker 2>jazzed to see an MMO scene like doing pretty okay
<v Speaker 2>despite me not being totally clued into it. Man, killing
<v Speaker 2>a game that they've been working on for seven years
<v Speaker 2>is insane.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you know, Yeah, Elder Scrolls Online has done well,
<v Speaker 3>It's never quite reached that world of warcraft they're going
<v Speaker 3>to file on fantacy fourteen level. I think of just
<v Speaker 3>being an absolute money truck. But it's done well. They've
<v Speaker 3>continued to support, they continue to promote it, But I
<v Speaker 3>don't think that game has a you know, forever expiration date.
<v Speaker 3>At some point, you're gonna need a new game for
<v Speaker 3>ZENMX Online Studios to move on to. So canceling Blackbird
<v Speaker 3>here that worries me because what what is the plan
<v Speaker 3>for that studio now? Is it just ESO now forever?
<v Speaker 3>Are you gonna try to green light a new project
<v Speaker 3>or you know what I really worry about, are you
<v Speaker 3>gonna wind that whole thing down eventually once the money
<v Speaker 3>from ESO dries up. That's a difficult thing about it. Ever,
<v Speaker 3>while it was probably a bit of an easy target
<v Speaker 3>on this one, Jim, that was the kind of fan
<v Speaker 3>see multiplayer game that Rare announced a long time ago,
<v Speaker 3>and then it was kind of clear that there wasn't
<v Speaker 3>much of a game there and that it's maybe been
<v Speaker 3>rebooted a few times. So that's disappointing that we couldn't
<v Speaker 3>figure something out there and that you know, we're not
<v Speaker 3>we're not getting you know, see, if these is great,
<v Speaker 3>sure it does well, it's also been out for a while.
<v Speaker 3>They've done you know, the Pirates of the Caribbean thing,
<v Speaker 3>They've done the Monkey Allen thing. Unless they start doing
<v Speaker 3>a Muppet treasure Islan thing, they're gonna start running out
<v Speaker 3>of I ready ip to bring into that thing.
<v Speaker 2>So what if they do a treasure planet Mike, Oh, don't,
<v Speaker 2>don't tease me, don't tease me.
<v Speaker 3>Can but you know, like you know, we got to
<v Speaker 3>have projects that Rare, So again, hopefully this is okay
<v Speaker 3>to cancel ever while move on to something else and
<v Speaker 3>not just well, here comes layoffs for Rare of all things,
<v Speaker 3>which is, you know, such a legacy studio that's done
<v Speaker 3>so many things and could and should be put on
<v Speaker 3>projects like Viven Pinata, like Banjo Kazooi and things like that.
<v Speaker 3>Just the fact, this is the fourth round of these
<v Speaker 3>mass layoffs in the last eighteen months. It isn't the
<v Speaker 3>last one. I don't know. No, I still don't know
<v Speaker 3>how this is going to impact, say Blizter we can
<v Speaker 3>find out the layoffs a Blizzard later today, and so
<v Speaker 3>many other studios, so many games that are coming out
<v Speaker 3>that are that still seem kind of a while away.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, Fable and Perfect Dark had been talked about
<v Speaker 3>forever and we didn't We didn't see those this summer
<v Speaker 3>at Xbox's showcase. Right now, these games are taking forever.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, not even like a hint of or anything of
<v Speaker 2>what's going on. Like they chose to put Silk Song
<v Speaker 2>in one of the hype trailers reels. This is a reels, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>instead of like a game that is actually theirs. Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. Like this it worries me a lot
<v Speaker 2>for the future of anything related to Microsoft. Really, Like,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not the biggest Call of Duty player at all,
<v Speaker 2>but if that cash cow starts to dry up, are
<v Speaker 2>they just going to send that out to get got
<v Speaker 2>further down the line? I Mean. The other aspect of
<v Speaker 2>this that sucks is that it's not just developers that
<v Speaker 2>are getting looped up in these layoffs. It's also people
<v Speaker 2>from several different departments also that you know, it may
<v Speaker 2>not be the easiest to find a new job. We've
<v Speaker 2>seen people that have been laid off from UH I
<v Speaker 2>don't know cycles ago that are still struggling to look
<v Speaker 2>for a new job. And it's it sucks, Mike, it's
<v Speaker 2>and it's really rough.
<v Speaker 3>It's really depressing. And again, like this news is gonna
<v Speaker 3>be following throughout the day here, so we don't know
<v Speaker 3>what other games we're gonna find out are canceled, if
<v Speaker 3>entire studios. I mean, there are rumors going into this
<v Speaker 3>that the Forts Motorsport developer turned ten might be in
<v Speaker 3>big trouble and they're based in Redmond, Washington, but that
<v Speaker 3>ends up being true. We're gonna hear about that game again.
<v Speaker 3>The last Forts and Motorsport came out of twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 3>It feels like it didn't quite light the world on fire,
<v Speaker 3>but you know a lot of Xbox games have been
<v Speaker 3>having trouble letting the world on fire, right, I mean, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you know South of Midnight I think it kind of
<v Speaker 3>came and it probably did okay, but nothing Crazy held
<v Speaker 3>Bay two and then I don't think any of these
<v Speaker 3>games were some giant flops or anything. But yeah, none
<v Speaker 3>of them are, you know, reaching that super stratosphere that
<v Speaker 3>maybe you're hoping for. But at a certain point, what
<v Speaker 3>do all these games have in common. It's it's the
<v Speaker 3>Xbox leadership. It's the Xbox plan, a plan that not
<v Speaker 3>too long ago was nothing but game pass, game pass,
<v Speaker 3>game pass, game pass. And now suddenly they're not talking
<v Speaker 3>about game pass so much anymore. There is no plan.
<v Speaker 3>They're retreating from hardware. There are. They want to be
<v Speaker 3>a publisher Solster's games everywhere. That's great, but they still
<v Speaker 3>talk about hard where. They still say they're making a
<v Speaker 3>new console and it's gonna be the biggest generational leap
<v Speaker 3>it ever is. You know, Mike Ibara was talking to
<v Speaker 3>say Form president of Blizzard, and I think that he's
<v Speaker 3>maybe a bit of I don't say clown, but he
<v Speaker 3>ruts me the wrong way a little bit. Sometimes. Maybe
<v Speaker 3>it's some truth in. Xbox has to get a better
<v Speaker 3>strategy here than just trying to do everything publish all
<v Speaker 3>these games everywhere and everywhere, still have a console, slapping
<v Speaker 3>the Xbox name on a rog ally in an Oculus quest. Meanwhile,
<v Speaker 3>it's like the games are floundering.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, we're the second we hear that. I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>like a fable or a Perfect Dark gets canceled. I
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what that says about Microsoft. I know
<v Speaker 2>what that says about Microsoft. I don't know what that
<v Speaker 2>says about Uh, like the state of like these gigantic,
<v Speaker 2>big publishers, if they're have so much, it's less so
<v Speaker 2>that they are having trouble, but like it is just
<v Speaker 2>a fire and a mess happening internally.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and I don't know how that house is going
<v Speaker 3>to get in order again.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's such whiplash because it just was.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't seem like that long ago when they were
<v Speaker 3>buying all of these studios and they just couldn't stop biatus.
<v Speaker 3>Thank god that we at least know there's a new
<v Speaker 3>game coming from Double Fine that was finally announced, because
<v Speaker 3>I'd been terrified for them right now, and that would
<v Speaker 3>be such a travesty if anything happened at that studio.
<v Speaker 3>So again, Wow, well we'll see more. News is going
<v Speaker 3>to be happening throughout the day.
<v Speaker 2>Mike, what is the point of trying to become like
<v Speaker 2>this gigantic behemoth in the games industry, if you were
<v Speaker 2>just going to continue to lay people off and cancel
<v Speaker 2>project after project.
<v Speaker 3>It's all about trends, right when you know, these services
<v Speaker 3>became a trend, right, Hbo Max and Disney Plus, So
<v Speaker 3>here comes game paths. That's a trend. And trends can
<v Speaker 3>be anything. For people in suits because they're very stupid
<v Speaker 3>and they have problems thinking for themselves. So when they
<v Speaker 3>look around they see the other people wearing suits with
<v Speaker 3>their nice haircuts doing things they like to just do
<v Speaker 3>what they're doing. And right now the trend is laying
<v Speaker 3>people off, like, oh, this is a fun trend. Ooh.
<v Speaker 3>Look if I lay these people off and take away
<v Speaker 3>their livelihood and their money, my numbers go up. Ooh
<v Speaker 3>investors happy, Ooh, I like this quick fix. Never mind
<v Speaker 3>the consequences of suddenly losing a giant portion of your workforce,
<v Speaker 3>never mind the human suffering. Human suffering doesn't impact the line,
<v Speaker 3>So it's all a bunch of bullshits. The market is
<v Speaker 3>terrible for gaming. It's never about quality. U Nobody is
<v Speaker 3>increasing investor value by increasing quality, at least they don't
<v Speaker 3>think so. So that's why so many of these giant
<v Speaker 3>publishers are beginning to fail us and we're getting our
<v Speaker 3>better games elsewhere. Anyways, go ahead, sorry, Jed.
<v Speaker 2>Before we move on to the next story, Mike, how
<v Speaker 2>much of this do you think is not only motivated
<v Speaker 2>and pushed forward by corporate greed and actual mismanagement that's
<v Speaker 2>never going to be addressed, but by these suits and
<v Speaker 2>exacts thinking oh well, we'll just replace everyone with AI.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sure there's some AI bullshit thinking going on there too,
<v Speaker 3>write and yeah, yeah, we'll see how that goes, because
<v Speaker 3>you know, they have to realize and I sometimes with
<v Speaker 3>this AI stuff like it's like I'm gonna look at it,
<v Speaker 3>and parties like, oh, that's just a little bit. And
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I'm still glad that everybody freaks out and
<v Speaker 3>tells them to stop that and to get ben and
<v Speaker 3>to review bomb them, because it is a little bit
<v Speaker 3>of we can't allow any of that, because as soon
<v Speaker 3>as you give them an inch, they're gonna give us
<v Speaker 3>a mile of this AI slop. So you know, that's
<v Speaker 3>that's there. I think with you know, AI is such
<v Speaker 3>a part of this train that was you know, Blockchain,
<v Speaker 3>then Metaverse and now AI again just another trend that
<v Speaker 3>everybody talks about at these ridiculous conferences where they go
<v Speaker 3>to and they all just you know, pass along whatever
<v Speaker 3>buzzword that they read about. It's annoying and it's stupid,
<v Speaker 3>all right. Next up here, Mark Mark Kearney's uh spar
<v Speaker 3>Surney excuse me says Placation vi pro will get its
<v Speaker 3>major replacement for the current PSSR upscaler next year from
<v Speaker 3>Jordan Miller VGC PS five System architect Mark Serny has
<v Speaker 3>discussed a major update coming to places vi pro in
<v Speaker 3>twenty twenty six, which will replace it's PSSR upscal ar tech.
<v Speaker 3>Ear this year, it was announced that only an AMDA
<v Speaker 3>partner on the project am Withthys Initiative, which is focused
<v Speaker 3>on delivering a version of FSR four, AMD's equivalent of
<v Speaker 3>Nvidia's DLSS tech to the play station vi pro. The
<v Speaker 3>technology will be similar to Sony's own PSSR tech, which
<v Speaker 3>is a machine learning based upscaler but promises improved results.
<v Speaker 3>And interviewed with Tom's Guide, Serny disgust the upcoming tech,
<v Speaker 3>which he called a drop in replacement for the current
<v Speaker 3>PSSR RIP pisser. I guess it's a little weird because
<v Speaker 3>we heard so much about that proprietary tech blah blah blah,
<v Speaker 3>and they're already just kind of gonna replace that and
<v Speaker 3>drop in FSR, which I mean, I guess, I guess
<v Speaker 3>that makes sense. Why devote all this money and technology
<v Speaker 3>into making your own system here when you have AMD,
<v Speaker 3>you have in Vidia already investing a ton into these things.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, is this weird to you at all?
<v Speaker 2>Jam, I'm with you, Mike. I devote all the time
<v Speaker 2>in resources to make and implement your own system that
<v Speaker 2>may not work as well as like the leaders out there.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, we're not trying to make our own video
<v Speaker 2>hosting platform to rival YouTube or Twitch right now, because
<v Speaker 2>that would be silly to do. Just use the tools
<v Speaker 2>that are available and work with those existing relationships. I
<v Speaker 2>also think it's insane that no one at PlayStation brought
<v Speaker 2>up the idea that PSSR looks like pisser.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe that's what this is really about, so people keep
<v Speaker 3>calling it pisser. It's a big problem. Yeah, this makes
<v Speaker 3>a lot of sense that I bet it's even going
<v Speaker 3>to look better. I mean, it's a little silly to
<v Speaker 3>continue developing PSSR, which would take a ton of resources
<v Speaker 3>to keep that tech going. When you can just partner
<v Speaker 3>with an AMD or an in video and yeah FSRSS,
<v Speaker 3>there's a gonna be the two kinds of these tech
<v Speaker 3>we always see going forward continuing here. According to Serny,
<v Speaker 3>he expected the investment and technology to take years to
<v Speaker 3>come to fruition, but due to the collaboration between the
<v Speaker 3>two companies, they have managed to develop a substantially improved
<v Speaker 3>upscaling algorithm in just a few years. It expected to
<v Speaker 3>release publicly in twenty twenty six. Yeah, I mean, here's
<v Speaker 3>what it looks like. You know, I don't have a
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation five Pro, and I feel kind of weird about
<v Speaker 3>it because it's the first time I didn't get one
<v Speaker 3>of these min gen upgrades. Even you know, the stuff
<v Speaker 3>does look kind of nice. My problem is, you know,
<v Speaker 3>I invested in a new PC instead, I'm not gonna
<v Speaker 3>also get one of these. And every year I don't
<v Speaker 3>get a PlayStation five Pro, I'm a year closer to
<v Speaker 3>a PlayStation six anyway, So why jump on now. It's
<v Speaker 3>not like there's gonna be a sale or the price
<v Speaker 3>is gonna go down, of course not.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Mike I'm in the same boat where my PS
<v Speaker 2>five is doing completely fine. Sure, during some moments of
<v Speaker 2>destraining two, it's starting to sound like a jet en,
<v Speaker 2>But I think that is because of my own that's
<v Speaker 2>just due to me being a dusty boy and not
<v Speaker 2>cleaning out my PS five. But yeah, I just have.
<v Speaker 3>Called you the pig pen of Giant Bomb, that's for sure.
<v Speaker 2>That's right. I have a cloud around me at all times.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I have no interest in getting a PS
<v Speaker 2>five pro exactly for the reasons you highlighted. And the
<v Speaker 2>further we keep going, Mike, I don't know if I
<v Speaker 2>want a PS six.
<v Speaker 3>We'll see. PlayStation at least does have some exclusives sometimes,
<v Speaker 3>although those are coming you know, later and later, and
<v Speaker 3>they always get PC ports and the PS the PC
<v Speaker 3>ports are happening sooner and sooner. I sure don't know
<v Speaker 3>if I'm going to need the next Xbox with you know,
<v Speaker 3>absolutely knowing all their games are coming to PC and
<v Speaker 3>with you know, the things that they have been doing
<v Speaker 3>all right. Next up her three former Ubisoft execs receive
<v Speaker 3>suspended prison sentences at harassment trial. This is from Chris
<v Speaker 3>Scolian at VGC three former Ubisoft execs standing trial for
<v Speaker 3>sexual assault and harassment at the company have been found
<v Speaker 3>guilty and sentence. The trial of former CEO Sergey Haskalt,
<v Speaker 3>former vice president of Editory Korea of Services, Thomas Francois,
<v Speaker 3>a former game developer Gillemi Petrue initially started in March,
<v Speaker 3>but was adjourned until early June following her quest from
<v Speaker 3>lawyers who have more time to get familiar with the
<v Speaker 3>cases documents. Francois was accused of systematic psychological and sexual arrassment,
<v Speaker 3>with alleged behavior including the watching of porn in an
<v Speaker 3>open plan office, commenting on the appearance of female staff,
<v Speaker 3>regular public humiliation, in hazing, an attempted sexual assault where
<v Speaker 3>he allegedly tried to forcibly kiss a young employee during
<v Speaker 3>a Christmas party as she was held by other colleagues.
<v Speaker 3>According to Liberation, Francoise has now been found guilty of
<v Speaker 3>moral and sexual arrassment and attempted sexual assault has been
<v Speaker 3>given a three year suspended prison sentence and a fine
<v Speaker 3>of thirty thousand euros about thirty five one hundred dollars.
<v Speaker 3>I'm just going to jump in right here and editorialize
<v Speaker 3>and say that that doesn't seem like enough of a punishment.
<v Speaker 3>Hascott was accused of loop behavior, posting intrusive questions of
<v Speaker 3>a sexual nature, in racist comments and behavior.
<v Speaker 2>He was alleged to have asked.
<v Speaker 3>A Muslim employee if she supported Islamic state, and to
<v Speaker 3>have been responsible for her PC desktop image being replaced
<v Speaker 3>with photos of bacon sandwiches and food being placed on
<v Speaker 3>her desk during her ramadn Fest. Liberation reports that Ascot
<v Speaker 3>has received an eighteen month suspended prison sentence in a
<v Speaker 3>fine of forty five thousand euros or about fifty three
<v Speaker 3>thousand dollars petrol. He was a designer who chelves as
<v Speaker 3>the Crew and grow Home was accused of psychological arrestment,
<v Speaker 3>including violent and intimidating behavior. He has received a twelve
<v Speaker 3>month suspended prison that it's any fine of ten thousand
<v Speaker 3>years about twelve thousand dollars um. Yeah, uh boy. These
<v Speaker 3>people are terrible. I'm glad they're getting some punishment. I
<v Speaker 3>don't doesn't sound like it's quite enough to me. There
<v Speaker 3>was a lot of cleaning up that had to happen
<v Speaker 3>at UBISOFTS and I know they've done some work there.
<v Speaker 3>I doubt they've done enough and it's disgraceful that this
<v Speaker 3>ever happened in the first place.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, these people should be pushed down the stairs and
<v Speaker 2>like I'm talking like a big flight of stairs and
<v Speaker 2>I'll do it. That's not me threatening violence, that's just
<v Speaker 2>me upholding justice. What the fuck, Mike, it is.
<v Speaker 3>It's best up. And I know it's like uncomfortable, but
<v Speaker 3>I think it's important to talk about these people and
<v Speaker 3>the things that they have done. Yes, specifically and explicitly,
<v Speaker 3>it's fucking disgusting and shame on them and shame on
<v Speaker 3>anybody who helped to enable them.
<v Speaker 2>This. This furthers the case mic that I think you
<v Speaker 2>BISOFT should be dismantled at the top, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>while we're at it, let's do that for all the
<v Speaker 2>big corporations, right, But you bes off specifically, like we've
<v Speaker 2>had we've heard the cases of Eves hiding other execs
<v Speaker 2>and like, uh, you know, continuing to shield this boy's
<v Speaker 2>club at the top. This is not a boys club.
<v Speaker 2>A boys club is like hanging out in the woods
<v Speaker 2>in a treehouse and like throwing rocks at each other.
<v Speaker 2>This is not fucking systematic humiliation and harassment at every
<v Speaker 2>single level. I feel so terrible for the workers involved
<v Speaker 2>and the workers that have had to witness this and
<v Speaker 2>not feel and feel the pressure in the past to
<v Speaker 2>not report. This is terrible, Mike, Like I, this is Garbo.
<v Speaker 2>These people should get more than the twelve month eighteen
<v Speaker 2>month prison sentences. They should be thrown into a hole.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I hope that the victims get some sense of
<v Speaker 3>sassaction or justice from this, But I get the hunch
<v Speaker 3>that it's not gonna be enough, and there's nothing you
<v Speaker 3>can ever do to make it right for those people. Huh,
<v Speaker 3>all right, Jen, why don't we take a quick break.
<v Speaker 3>We'll come back. We've got some more news to talk about.
<v Speaker 1>This episode of Giant Bomb is brought to you by
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<v Speaker 3>Now, all right, we're back. I think uh, most of
<v Speaker 3>you just saw on her from Jeff Grubb and that
<v Speaker 3>ad there, So there you go. You got a little
<v Speaker 3>bit of Jeffy. Jeff I probably shouldn't mentioned on the top.
<v Speaker 3>He's a he's on vacation or out on assignment. I
<v Speaker 3>think we'll be saying here, so maybe they get them pancakes.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm filling in for him today and tomorrow. No
<v Speaker 3>show on Friday, fourth of July. We will be off.
<v Speaker 3>All right, let's move along here. Sub Nautica to developers
<v Speaker 3>entire leadership team replaced and Shock moved Craft and said, well,
<v Speaker 3>bring renew to energy mometum by Vicki Blake at ign.
<v Speaker 3>Former Striking Distance CEO Steve Papotis is joining sub Nautica
<v Speaker 3>to developer Unknown Worlds as CEO, and made the Shock
<v Speaker 3>announcement that the previous leadership team Ted Gill, Charlie Cleveland
<v Speaker 3>and Max McGuire been replaced effective immediately. Un World's owner
<v Speaker 3>crafton which is behind pubg Bill to expand on why
<v Speaker 3>the leadership team has been gutted, we said, well, it's
<v Speaker 3>sought to keep the Unknown World's co founders and original
<v Speaker 3>creators of the Sumnautica series and falls in the game's development.
<v Speaker 3>It wishes them well on their next endeavors. Crafton insisted
<v Speaker 3>Papoetis will prioritize development momentum and delivering best possible thing
<v Speaker 3>experience and will bring renewed energy momentum. It's unclear what
<v Speaker 3>the change means for the launch window of the game.
<v Speaker 3>Crafton acquired un Worlds in October twenty twenty one. At
<v Speaker 3>the time, it said the Subnautica Studio will continue to
<v Speaker 3>operate as an independent outfit. So this is strange. We
<v Speaker 3>don't really know what's going on over there, but something's
<v Speaker 3>got to happen if you just, you know, get rid
<v Speaker 3>of an entire leadership team and bring in somebody new.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, this doesn't feel like bad people getting kicked out
<v Speaker 2>of the company. This just feels like a weird, dramatic
<v Speaker 2>restructuring that feels like it's going to lead to unfortunately
<v Speaker 2>poor things. I always thought sub Nautica was doing fine.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, people really like original Subnautica a lot. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and then you know it had a basically it already
<v Speaker 3>had a sequel with Sumnautica Below zero and Subnautica two
<v Speaker 3>is kind of the third game in the series in
<v Speaker 3>a lot of ways.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, it's a well liked series.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not sure why the heck such a overhaul would
<v Speaker 3>be required, you know, I don't want to speculate, because
<v Speaker 3>you know, maybe there was something where that happened behind this, sir. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I don't know, so I guess we got to just
<v Speaker 3>hold on there. So people say, but you know, I'm
<v Speaker 3>not someone who's played Synautica a lot. I've been meaning
<v Speaker 3>to get to it, but if I was a fan
<v Speaker 3>of the series, I would probably be concerned.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. The people that love Semnautica, I feel like, are
<v Speaker 2>of a similar ilk to the folks that really really
<v Speaker 2>like No Man's Sky. Sure that makes a lot of sense.
<v Speaker 2>Oh boy, all right.
<v Speaker 3>Hooded Horse to publish new Heroes of min and Magic
<v Speaker 3>games by Rachel Kaser at Game Speed shout Out. The
<v Speaker 3>game Speed publisher Hooded Horse announced today that is entered
<v Speaker 3>into agreement with Ubisoft and developer Unfrozen. Ho Horse will
<v Speaker 3>publish the latter's upcoming turn based tactics title Heroes of
<v Speaker 3>Might and Magic Olden Era The game launches in early
<v Speaker 3>access on PC layers here. Coinciding with the series thirtieth anniversary.
<v Speaker 3>UBI Soft revealed Heroes of Might and Magic Olden Era
<v Speaker 3>last year to be developed by and Frozen, the fledgling
<v Speaker 3>studio behind strategic game Irides, Lord of the Dead, Hooded Horse,
<v Speaker 3>also as a background in the space, having published Manor,
<v Speaker 3>Lords Against the Storm and Endless Legend two. CEO Tim
<v Speaker 3>Benderson as statement, Heroes of Might and Magic is a
<v Speaker 3>legendary series, one that has a place in the hearts
<v Speaker 3>and childhoods of many gamers. We're honored to be teaming
<v Speaker 3>up with Ubisoft and Unfrozen on this project. I'm and
<v Speaker 3>this thing is kind of weird because Ubisoft is already
<v Speaker 3>a publisher, so why did we have to bring in
<v Speaker 3>another publisher? But you know, Ubi SA's been doing a
<v Speaker 3>lot of weird restructuring. There's now like two halves of Ubisoft,
<v Speaker 3>the one that only focuses on the really big franchises
<v Speaker 3>like Assassin's Creed, and I'm gonna I'm gonna guess that
<v Speaker 3>Ubisoft does not consider Heroes of Might and Magic to
<v Speaker 3>be one of their really big franchises.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I honestly forgot that it was under the Ubi
<v Speaker 2>Soft umbrella.
<v Speaker 3>Oh me too, Me too. It's weird because there is
<v Speaker 3>like a couple of these sort of great PC franchises there. Like,
<v Speaker 3>I'm a big Ano fan. We got that new Ano
<v Speaker 3>game coming out soon, so I'm looking forward to that.
<v Speaker 2>Have you Have you ever been a.
<v Speaker 3>Mite in Magic person? As much as I like RPGs,
<v Speaker 3>this is the side of it I have never seen before.
<v Speaker 2>I think I believe there may have been a Might
<v Speaker 2>and Magic game for the DS that was like a
<v Speaker 2>Match three that I really liked. Hell yeah, Uh. That
<v Speaker 2>being said, I may be misremembering a game completely.
<v Speaker 3>Well there, my brother AJ really liked some kind of
<v Speaker 3>Might and Magic game on the Game Boy Color. If
<v Speaker 3>I remember exactly, well.
<v Speaker 2>Oh okay, yes, I was right. Might and Magic Clash
<v Speaker 2>of Heroes.
<v Speaker 3>Oh that sounds familiar. I mean, it's it's just, you know,
<v Speaker 3>very big series. It's on all sorts of things. So
<v Speaker 3>you know, I hope that the new game does well. Uh.
<v Speaker 3>Dannis Federov, CEO of and Frozen Center statement, the entire
<v Speaker 3>Unfrozen team is very excited that Hooded Horse is joined
<v Speaker 3>the project. We firmly believe that their expertise, combined with
<v Speaker 3>Ubisoft's legacy. Okay, well, allow us to make Heroes of
<v Speaker 3>Might and Magic olden era really successful, introduce the games
<v Speaker 3>even more fans of tactical turn based strategies from all
<v Speaker 3>over the world. Ah, we'll see. Yeah, chat's right, Mike
<v Speaker 3>and Magic. That's good.
<v Speaker 2>That's good.
<v Speaker 3>So it might be a reason to go in there
<v Speaker 3>at some point.
<v Speaker 2>Are there any bad Might and Magic games? Because White
<v Speaker 2>and Magic is right there.
<v Speaker 3>Blatant magic there. Yeah, hmm, I gotta look at there's
<v Speaker 3>so many of them. One of them has to be bad, now,
<v Speaker 3>you know, any of them legendarily bad?
<v Speaker 2>Is the is the question for them?
<v Speaker 3>When it comes to Bike Club all right. Dave the
<v Speaker 3>Diver director says there's nothing indie about it, and he
<v Speaker 3>didn't apply for its controversial Game Awards nod Chris calling
<v Speaker 3>at VGC. Dave the Diver was nominated for Best Indie
<v Speaker 3>Game at the Game Awards in twenty twenty three, a
<v Speaker 3>decision which sparked some controversy by having the conventional low
<v Speaker 3>fi appearance some indie games have. The games developer ment
<v Speaker 3>Rocket is a small team within necks On, a South
<v Speaker 3>Korean company that made one point eight billion in revenue
<v Speaker 3>in twenty twenty one alone. As such, many at the
<v Speaker 3>time claimed that Dave the Diver was far from an
<v Speaker 3>indie game of one of the main criteria that defines
<v Speaker 3>what is a team that has a smaller budget and
<v Speaker 3>isn't part of a into hard company. A new interview
<v Speaker 3>with four gamer dot Net, Dave the Diver director jahwe
<v Speaker 3>Long explained that he never considered the game in indie
<v Speaker 3>title and that it's Game Wars nomination. Uh, nothing to
<v Speaker 3>do with him, meant rockin or nex so on. We
<v Speaker 3>never intended to give David Diver an indie game feel,
<v Speaker 3>he said, to begin with, we're making game at Nexon,
<v Speaker 3>so there's nothing indie about it. However, when a game
<v Speaker 3>is made by a small team, the art style and
<v Speaker 3>game system tend to be unique. So I think that's
<v Speaker 3>why it was thought of as an indie game. In
<v Speaker 3>full disclosure, that translation of that could have just read
<v Speaker 3>there was done via a machine translation from where I
<v Speaker 3>pulled it from, So maybe that's not exactly a perfect
<v Speaker 3>transcription of what they said, but yeah, this was something
<v Speaker 3>that came but at the time, I mean, jan the
<v Speaker 3>big problem here is that when we say indie game,
<v Speaker 3>we're kind of we often mean a certain look and feel,
<v Speaker 3>and sometimes we just mean like small team, uh not
<v Speaker 3>triple A graphics kind of thing. So you know it.
<v Speaker 3>You know, words in terms and definitions are failing. That's
<v Speaker 3>a bit here. I don't know exactly how you get
<v Speaker 3>around it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's unfortunately. I feel like as soon as we
<v Speaker 2>see the like kind of two and a half D
<v Speaker 2>pixel graphics and it's not an RPG, we think, oh,
<v Speaker 2>it's an indie game. This is just feels like an
<v Speaker 2>ODDI issue to kind of like bring back up in
<v Speaker 2>twenty twenty five when this whole I don't even want
<v Speaker 2>to say controversy, but issue was raised in twenty twenty three.
<v Speaker 3>Right, yeah, and we just I don't know if we
<v Speaker 3>made too much ground, you know. I think the Day
<v Speaker 3>of the Diver situation has made people think a bit
<v Speaker 3>more about than to just look at a game and
<v Speaker 3>say that must be an indie game, because I think
<v Speaker 3>it looks and feels like one. So something for everyone
<v Speaker 3>to keep in mind. But yeah, I think it was
<v Speaker 3>never like the Day of the Diver people's fault. That's
<v Speaker 3>not really how the game of War It's works it's
<v Speaker 3>other people nominating games.
<v Speaker 2>People don't put their game forward. Yeah. If anything, I
<v Speaker 2>think the director here it feels like he's just standing
<v Speaker 2>on a hill saying I'm not an indie game. I'm
<v Speaker 2>a big boy game.
<v Speaker 3>Right right. Well, also, you know, I bet it sucks.
<v Speaker 3>You know, people get mad as you want to be clear,
<v Speaker 3>it's not our fault, like we're sorry. You know, we'll
<v Speaker 3>take the statue if they want to give us a statue.
<v Speaker 3>We like statues. But hey, is Claip scaring an indie game?
<v Speaker 2>See? That's what I was thinking after we're talking about
<v Speaker 2>like team size and and like not coming from like
<v Speaker 2>a Triple A publisher, because that is like, that does
<v Speaker 2>not look like an indie game.
<v Speaker 3>Right, that's the opposite problem because like, like I see
<v Speaker 3>a chat right now on the Twitch. I can see
<v Speaker 3>yes is in nose and it's like, you know, what
<v Speaker 3>what do we mean? What do we mean? Like again, yeah,
<v Speaker 3>like a Borders Kate three and technically an indie game,
<v Speaker 3>so right right, what do we really mean by that?
<v Speaker 3>And you know, in some sense, part of me is like, well,
<v Speaker 3>why do we even you know, why do we even
<v Speaker 3>need a separate category? Because the indie games are often
<v Speaker 3>just as good as all of the other kinds of
<v Speaker 3>games in these ways anyway, but sometimes we do because
<v Speaker 3>there's still is a little bit of a bias to
<v Speaker 3>Triple A. I mean, you had, you know, bilatro Get
<v Speaker 3>nominated the Game the Year last year, which was great,
<v Speaker 3>but you still had to deal with people being like
<v Speaker 3>WA's normally for game of the year because it's one
<v Speaker 3>of the best games of the year, you chuckle. Fuck. So, uh,
<v Speaker 3>it's a thing that's we're going to continue to talk about.
<v Speaker 2>I am sure, all right.
<v Speaker 3>New Monster Hunter Wild's update finally addresses poor PC performances
<v Speaker 3>from Blair Marnel game spot Monstergner Wild's players on PC
<v Speaker 3>have been making their displeasure known on Steam by leaving
<v Speaker 3>a string of bad reviews over some performance issues with
<v Speaker 3>the game. The number of concurrent players has dropped so
<v Speaker 3>rapidly that wild It's predecessor, Monstergner World has a higher count. Today,
<v Speaker 3>Catcom is attempting to address PC players issues part of
<v Speaker 3>the massive free title Day two. The publish also shared
<v Speaker 3>a glimpse at the next two free updates beyond this one.
<v Speaker 3>While free TEP Day two doesn't make any changes to
<v Speaker 3>Wild's minimum or recommended system requirements. The Steam version has
<v Speaker 3>been adjusted to mount of VR of the amount of
<v Speaker 3>VRAM used in texture streaming to lower the amount of
<v Speaker 3>VRAM overall.
<v Speaker 2>One of the bug fixes.
<v Speaker 3>WI also make the estimated VRAM usage displayed the correct
<v Speaker 3>amount of display settings in graphical settings. To soon to
<v Speaker 3>say whether these changes alone will turn things around for
<v Speaker 3>Wilds on Steam, but Calcom knows that further performance and
<v Speaker 3>optimization improvements are still in the works. This gives been
<v Speaker 3>out for a good bit now. Jan came out earlier
<v Speaker 3>in the year. It came in very heavy on a
<v Speaker 3>lot of platforms, but on PC especially, it just kind
<v Speaker 3>of seemed like a little bit of a resource hog
<v Speaker 3>and of a performance clunker. It definitely turned me off
<v Speaker 3>the game a little bit. Even when I got my
<v Speaker 3>new PC and the game was definitely running better, it
<v Speaker 3>still felt heavy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know if you were playing a monster Hunter
<v Speaker 3>on PC and if the performance was a bummer for you. Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Surprisingly, I didn't come across too many issues. I don't
<v Speaker 2>know if I was just lucky and maybe I turned
<v Speaker 2>off the right settings. But great for those monster Hunter
<v Speaker 2>monster hunter heads out there. I saw Jesse Vittelli post
<v Speaker 2>a clip of him swimming underwater and fitting a underwater monster,
<v Speaker 2>and that looked insane and I kind of want to
<v Speaker 2>do that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, right, there's I's say, yeah, there's new content here
<v Speaker 3>aside from this stuff. But you know, Monster Hunter has
<v Speaker 3>been a bit of a disappointment for me this year.
<v Speaker 3>I definitely enjoyed the game, and I played through like
<v Speaker 3>the campaign, and then I just never really felt myself
<v Speaker 3>drawn to go back to it very much as a game.
<v Speaker 3>I was really looking forward to yea, honestly like the
<v Speaker 3>performance as part of it, but that you know, I
<v Speaker 3>could have looked past that if I was really enjoying
<v Speaker 3>the experience, which you know, wasn't a bad experience or anything,
<v Speaker 3>but maybe just didn't fully deliver on the promises of
<v Speaker 3>a more open Monster Hunter, and maybe learning that I
<v Speaker 3>don't want a more open Monster Hunter, maybe the previous
<v Speaker 3>format actually was working really well. Do you have Do
<v Speaker 3>you have any concerns about future Ari Engine games like
<v Speaker 3>Resident Evil nine?
<v Speaker 2>I feel like Ari nine hopefully the team has learned
<v Speaker 2>that like an open open world may not be the
<v Speaker 2>best way to go forward, but like open zones like
<v Speaker 2>we've been talking about here, maybe the better way to go.
<v Speaker 2>While I didn't experience too many issues playing Monster Hunter Wilds,
<v Speaker 2>I did have a little bit of difficulty playing through
<v Speaker 2>Dragon's Dogma two, which kind of stifled some of the
<v Speaker 2>fun I had there. Yeah, I I'm slightly worried, but
<v Speaker 2>I hope that team at Capcom has has seen the
<v Speaker 2>issues and realized how not that Munster Hunter isn't important
<v Speaker 2>for them, but how much more important, how much more
<v Speaker 2>magnitude RI nine is going to have for them. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's a good point that you brought up
<v Speaker 3>Dragonssongma two because that was the other open world Ari
<v Speaker 3>Engine game, and that game also just did not run
<v Speaker 3>really well. So it is kind of this pattern that, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>we you know, the Ari Engine had nothing but good
<v Speaker 3>press really for a long time here until we started
<v Speaker 3>getting these open world games with that, and it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 3>this isn't super working out for that. Like these games
<v Speaker 3>obviously aren't terrible, but they just, you know, they do
<v Speaker 3>feel again heavy and sluggish and weird. So yeah, hopefully
<v Speaker 3>Resident Evil nine it's definitely going to be a big game,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm sure there's going to be aspects of wandering
<v Speaker 3>around large areas of the ruined Raccoon City. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I hope it's not you know giant open world game
<v Speaker 3>that is just absolutely destroying our PCs and consoles.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean it's it's moving so sorry, Mike. It's
<v Speaker 2>moving so slowishly because the swords are so big.
<v Speaker 3>Oh of course those big guess, yes, the big giants
<v Speaker 3>swords of Mustard. I am a great sword guy. I
<v Speaker 3>got it in Mets. I'd never I always try using
<v Speaker 3>something else and I'm like, no, give you that big, big,
<v Speaker 3>big sword, right, that feels good. I want my attacks
<v Speaker 3>to be slow. Hammer is slow too. It's fun to
<v Speaker 3>bank people in the head. But I need that sword
<v Speaker 3>for sure. The sword for sure. That's funny. All right,
<v Speaker 3>last thing that I have here for today. Outriders Too
<v Speaker 3>was reportedly one of People Can Fly is canceled projects
<v Speaker 3>by Vicki blacking in at ign. One of the projects
<v Speaker 3>recently canceled by developer People can Fly with Outriders Too.
<v Speaker 3>According to fresh reports, the Polish studio best known for
<v Speaker 3>Outriders and Gears of Ward Judgment confirmed even more jobs
<v Speaker 3>were at risk at the beginning of June, when it
<v Speaker 3>canceled two projects, Project Gemini and Project by Frost Well.
<v Speaker 3>The statement issued by CEO Sebastian will g Chowski at
<v Speaker 3>the time did not specify which publishers were involved with
<v Speaker 3>the canceled projects. PCF's own website confirmed Gemini was partnered
<v Speaker 3>with Square Enix and by Frost was self published. The
<v Speaker 3>cancelations led to the restructuring of Eternal Teams and allowed
<v Speaker 3>the April cancelation of Project Dagger, an action adventure game
<v Speaker 3>originally set to be developed and published with Take two
<v Speaker 3>Interacted before it pulled out its September twenty twenty two.
<v Speaker 3>Now a report from thumb Warves, corroborated by Insider Gaming,
<v Speaker 3>claimed Project Gemini was indeed an Outrider sequel. The game
<v Speaker 3>was reportably in the midst of recording motion capture when
<v Speaker 3>the project was canceled. I think that's definitely a bummer.
<v Speaker 3>Outriders one was a game that seemed to benefit from
<v Speaker 3>that early goodwill and interest in game Pass right.
<v Speaker 2>It seems like everybody who had game Pass was trying.
<v Speaker 3>Out Outriders, a game that had a little bit of
<v Speaker 3>an you know, MMO flavor, might be much. I mean,
<v Speaker 3>it was a kind of a multiplayer online looter shooter thing.
<v Speaker 3>It seemed like it got some interest and it was
<v Speaker 3>doing well, but that interest maybe died off relatively quickly.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Uh. Outriders is one of those surprise games where
<v Speaker 2>oh yeah, that came out. Oh yeah, that wasn't that bad.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah exactly, And you know, I think it's I think
<v Speaker 3>a sequel could have really refined those ideas and given
<v Speaker 3>us a more interesting experience. But it's also it's also
<v Speaker 3>difficult to release a sequel these days to a game
<v Speaker 3>that did pretty good. Right, Everybody is just expecting so
<v Speaker 3>much out of everything. It's a shame that, you know,
<v Speaker 3>you can't build off of a decent start as easily
<v Speaker 3>as as you were used to, because there are so
<v Speaker 3>many games that got significantly better in the sequel, and
<v Speaker 3>I think I could easily see a world where Outriders
<v Speaker 3>Too was one such project. Yeah, all right, Jan that
<v Speaker 3>does it for the news Today. We do have poll results,
<v Speaker 3>and I look here. The last one was a whopping
<v Speaker 3>six days ago, which might be right because yeah, we
<v Speaker 3>didn't have a show on Monday, so.
<v Speaker 2>This pool was.
<v Speaker 3>This whole question was have you ever played a game
<v Speaker 3>on Netflix? Seventy three percent of those polls said no,
<v Speaker 3>and only twenty seven percent said yes. I mean, part
<v Speaker 3>of me is almost surprised. It's it's that high. I've
<v Speaker 3>never even considered playing a game on Netflix. I gotta
<v Speaker 3>be honest, I don't even really understand what that means,
<v Speaker 3>playing a game on Netflix. What are you talking about?
<v Speaker 3>How do you play a game on Netflix? That's just
<v Speaker 3>the thing where I watch. I assume there's just an
<v Speaker 3>app on your phones and you can click a game
<v Speaker 3>button instead of the button to watch House of Cards
<v Speaker 3>or something.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. House of Cards is what you go to.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, I look, I don't watch a bunch TV. That's
<v Speaker 3>like Stranger Things. Kids still love Stranger Things?
<v Speaker 2>Oh my god? Those kids are so old? Is that
<v Speaker 2>so old? This year?
<v Speaker 3>I think they're still doing more Stranger Things over there?
<v Speaker 3>Last one?
<v Speaker 2>Right, it should be.
<v Speaker 3>The last one, you would hope.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I have no idea what it means to play a
<v Speaker 3>game on Netflix, but there it is. Some people have
<v Speaker 3>tried it. I'm thinking for today's poll question, I would
<v Speaker 3>like to ask people would you have played an Outrider sequel?
<v Speaker 3>Just yes or no?
<v Speaker 2>So easy?
<v Speaker 3>Psy right there? All right, We've got a lot of
<v Speaker 3>fun stuff still happening on Giant bomb this week. Later
<v Speaker 3>today at eleven am Pacific two pm e d Light
<v Speaker 3>Club is happening with me, Dan and Kayla. I think
<v Speaker 3>sister Carol's gonna be joining us. They're gonna guide me
<v Speaker 3>through the wonderful world of Guitar Room Man on PlayStation two.
<v Speaker 3>I was a good boy suffering through all of that
<v Speaker 3>Rascal Shenanigan, so now I get to have some good
<v Speaker 3>stuff with Guitar Roo Man. Yes, I'm looking forward to that,
<v Speaker 3>loing forward to hanging out with Dan team Kayla. It's
<v Speaker 3>gonna be a good time. And then tonight, Jan, Me
<v Speaker 3>and you are reconvening for Wega Man Wednesday evening gaming
<v Speaker 3>at mice at night. I had to push it back
<v Speaker 3>because I got an AM and PM mixed up with
<v Speaker 3>my flights on Monday. But that's okay. We're gonna do
<v Speaker 3>a show anyways. We're gonna check out that that Dune
<v Speaker 3>mro that everybody seems to be liking a lot doing Awakening.
<v Speaker 3>I got it installing, ready to go. I'm excited to
<v Speaker 3>try it.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I'm curious what the onboarding process will be like
<v Speaker 2>and how instantaneously we can link up and ride worms together.
<v Speaker 3>Folks.
<v Speaker 2>Things are a little bit busy here at GBHQ. We
<v Speaker 2>do have several quick looks and unfinished we want to
<v Speaker 2>do I do, Mike, I don't know if you've seen this.
<v Speaker 2>This is this was put on my radar yesterday when
<v Speaker 2>I mentioned the Magen game I've been playing. But Uma
<v Speaker 2>Mussume is a game that's kind of uh picking up
<v Speaker 2>some Steve. Okay, what is that? Uh you know what,
<v Speaker 2>let's uh, I'll send you the steam leak later.
<v Speaker 3>Is everyone so concerned in chat? Oh it's the horse
<v Speaker 3>Girls game? Oh no, I wanted to.
<v Speaker 2>It.
<v Speaker 3>It's the horse Girl Look. Look, look, I'll follow you anywhere, Jane.
<v Speaker 3>If you need me to watch you play the horse
<v Speaker 3>Girl game, I'll watch you play the horse Girl game.
<v Speaker 2>Oh captain, my captain.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, Captain, my captain. Okay, Oh that's incredible.
<v Speaker 2>Hey we have one super chat bike. Uh el gro please? Uh?
<v Speaker 2>What game would Mike make? Jan play? Death Janding, Splinter
<v Speaker 2>Cell jandor Tomorrow Jan dow of the Colossus. Now it
<v Speaker 2>doesn't work as much Grim Jan Dango, Crypt of the
<v Speaker 2>necro Jancer.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, Grim j Dango's good. And I don't know why,
<v Speaker 3>but I'm obsessed with coke Toro Choa where he played
<v Speaker 3>Nice of the Old Republic with one of my favorite games. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I love Coode toar a lot. I know that, you
<v Speaker 3>know there's a remake presumably happening, but I think that
<v Speaker 3>original game is still very, very good and I would
<v Speaker 3>like to watch Jan play through that at some point.
<v Speaker 3>And we also tomorrow on the Voicemail Dump Truck, we
<v Speaker 3>are going to have a super Eye Patch Wolf joining us.
<v Speaker 3>That is at its usual time at eleven am Pacific
<v Speaker 3>two pm Eastern, So look forward to that. There's gonna
<v Speaker 3>be another game as more mornings usual time. Tomorrow I'll
<v Speaker 3>be stubbing in again. Nothing on Friday. It's it's fourth
<v Speaker 3>of July. We will be taking that day off. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>that's it. We're out of here. Jedd Shoha, thank you
<v Speaker 3>so much for joining me here, helping guide me through
<v Speaker 3>this scary experience of hosting this super Jeff grub coded show.
<v Speaker 3>You know, it's a it's a difficult thing he does here.
<v Speaker 3>I definitely have a new appreciation for it. But I
<v Speaker 3>had a lot of fun talking to you about video games.
<v Speaker 2>You did absolutely fantastic, Mike. Thank you, Jan.
<v Speaker 3>I appreciate that, and thank you for being the best
<v Speaker 3>audience in gaming. Until the next morning mess have a
<v Speaker 3>good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye bad