Black Myth: Wukong Sales Top 10 Million

<v Speaker 1>He'll be backer, Gon'll be bait. It's the Internet. You're busy.
<v Speaker 1>Let's do this for August twenty third, twenty twenty four.
<v Speaker 1>For the next hour or so, let me help you
<v Speaker 1>sort through the world of gaming on Games Mornings Live
<v Speaker 1>with Me Jeff grub Today, Blackmith Wukong sprints to a
<v Speaker 1>massive sales milestone. About is the latest game to annoy
<v Speaker 1>the sixty frames per second crowd. And you could watch
<v Speaker 1>people playing Star Wars Outlaws right now, even though Ubisoft
<v Speaker 1>doesn't want you to. But first, please join me and
<v Speaker 1>welcoming today's co host, the Game mess Mornings. It's Jesse Vitelli. Everybody. Jesse,
<v Speaker 1>how's it going.
<v Speaker 2>It's going great. Thanks for having me.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely glad you're here. You're glad we could do this,
<v Speaker 1>make it happen on this Friday. Some stuff to talk about.
<v Speaker 1>Not a full dregs day, but we got an honorary
<v Speaker 1>dregs day. I think we'll get through it. It's gonna
<v Speaker 1>be a good time. The crew, I think, is sporadically
<v Speaker 1>coming back from Germany in waves now, so next week
<v Speaker 1>we'll be somewhat back to normal, but then it's off
<v Speaker 1>the packs at the end of next week. So still
<v Speaker 1>a lot of traveling coming up, a lot of the
<v Speaker 1>crew spread out, but we got plenty of fun stuff
<v Speaker 1>happening on the website today. But you know, first, I'm
<v Speaker 1>just glad I could talk to you, Jesse. How's it
<v Speaker 1>been going? Is just family celebrating Mafia the Old World
<v Speaker 1>getting announced? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>We you know, we had a big, big celebration after
<v Speaker 2>that game got announced. We had a big feast, if
<v Speaker 2>you will. We all we all went home and had
<v Speaker 2>had Gabba ghoul and of course picked lemons from our
<v Speaker 2>lemon tree. And you know, I just looked at the
<v Speaker 2>vista of New York as you said, Ah, just.
<v Speaker 1>Like this is like home. Yes, if only it were
<v Speaker 1>more like sicily like this video game? Yeah, how'd you
<v Speaker 1>find games Calm, Opening Night Live and and sort of
<v Speaker 1>everything that's coming out of there? Is it? I think
<v Speaker 1>it's been a pretty exciting week, all things considered. I
<v Speaker 1>think I set my expectations pretty low, but I've been
<v Speaker 1>pretty impressed so far. How about you?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I feel like games Com falls into this interesting
<v Speaker 2>category where it's it's a lot of updates on existing things.
<v Speaker 2>It's a lot of like, here's a lot of games
<v Speaker 2>like Last Chance, to get in front of everybody before
<v Speaker 2>the fall season. But I feel like this game's come
<v Speaker 2>of had a lot of like new stuff, which I
<v Speaker 2>feel like in previous years it's been a lot of
<v Speaker 2>just updates on existing stuff, a lot of long presentations
<v Speaker 2>talking to developers sort of you know, it's been a
<v Speaker 2>slower pace. But this one, like I had a lot,
<v Speaker 2>a lot of stuff in it, and I was I
<v Speaker 2>was pleasantly surprised with it.
<v Speaker 1>Honestly, Yeah, me too. I think that's where I'm at.
<v Speaker 1>Where the thing I'm expecting is we're going to find out,
<v Speaker 1>you know, more details. They're going to try to get
<v Speaker 1>us more excited about the games that we're going to
<v Speaker 1>probably buying the next couple of weeks, and then a
<v Speaker 1>handful of things that have already been announced for early
<v Speaker 1>next year. And there was a lot of that for sure. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>but just kind of getting a handful of new announcements
<v Speaker 1>kind of helps sprinkle on that salt on top of
<v Speaker 1>that makes everything tastes a little bit better. And I
<v Speaker 1>thought the like not that not just the big games,
<v Speaker 1>but there were several like smaller things both in Opening
<v Speaker 1>Night Live and even Future Games Show, and handful of
<v Speaker 1>other things that I was pretty impressed by. If we
<v Speaker 1>had time today, I wanted to do like a trailer
<v Speaker 1>round up reaction thing to some of the stuff that
<v Speaker 1>we missed, but it's like it's hard to fit that in.
<v Speaker 1>But there's a handful that I was like this, this
<v Speaker 1>looks pretty good. H There's that a game based on
<v Speaker 1>Mars attacks they're making and stuff like that. It's there's
<v Speaker 1>a lot of weird stuff happening that I'm pretty excited by.
<v Speaker 1>But I don't know. Overall, it seems like that's where
<v Speaker 1>games at, where like there's just a million things coming
<v Speaker 1>out at all times from all directions that you wouldn't expect,
<v Speaker 1>and I think Opening Night Live and Games Common general
<v Speaker 1>is benefiting from that. Have you ever been to games Com?
<v Speaker 2>No?
<v Speaker 1>Every year.
<v Speaker 2>It's one of those things every year where I'm like, ah,
<v Speaker 2>this next year is the year.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to go.
<v Speaker 2>Next year is the year I'm gonna go, and then
<v Speaker 2>like life happens, you know, and it's like, I just
<v Speaker 2>can't make time for it this year because it's a commitment.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, oh yeah, exactly. It's it's the you have to
<v Speaker 1>sort of argue a bunch of factors where it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'll go to Germany, will I get other stuff out
<v Speaker 1>of it? And I like everyone's always like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>clone school. But but it's not like you know, going
<v Speaker 1>to Tokyo for Tokyo Game Show where you can while
<v Speaker 1>be in Japan. So I'll go to Tokyo Game Show
<v Speaker 1>and then I'll do all these other things. Not that
<v Speaker 1>there's not a million things you could do in Germany,
<v Speaker 1>or if you traveled close by it, you'll be able
<v Speaker 1>to find there are, but I think people just find
<v Speaker 1>it easier to argue that and often do. But I
<v Speaker 1>haven't been to either, so I was it's like close
<v Speaker 1>to going this year, but I just missed it. I'm
<v Speaker 1>glad the rest of the crew was able to go, though.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah right on the calendar eat this time next year
<v Speaker 2>we're going.
<v Speaker 1>We're going to games Go exactly games Colm, Although if
<v Speaker 1>I had to choose between two next to them, maybe
<v Speaker 1>maybe make a Tokyo Game show work, that would be
<v Speaker 1>that'd be really fun. Lexi says, turn a church into content,
<v Speaker 1>of course, absolutely. They apparently blasphemed with Troy Baker in
<v Speaker 1>a church, which they referred to as the Catholic Church.
<v Speaker 1>Is what they called it, so it's like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that that one in Germany and Cologne. All right, but
<v Speaker 1>Troy Baker, you know, just a real bastard out there,
<v Speaker 1>just stepping it right.
<v Speaker 2>This is around again.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh. All right, let's explain what we do here
<v Speaker 1>most weekdays, I, Jeff Grub, will help your people, will
<v Speaker 1>help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking
<v Speaker 1>news and maybe even some of our own original reporting.
<v Speaker 1>For all these topics, I'll get the input of a
<v Speaker 1>bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If
<v Speaker 1>you were watching live on twitch welcome. You can always
<v Speaker 1>listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching
<v Speaker 1>for game Mes Mornings, or find therss on giant bomb
<v Speaker 1>dot com. You can also catch the show later with
<v Speaker 1>chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we
<v Speaker 1>have a lot to get into, so let's start the
<v Speaker 1>morning mess with Black Myth Wukong sales top ten million copies.
<v Speaker 1>This is from sal Ramano at Gamatsu. Total sales for
<v Speaker 1>Chinese action RPG Blackmth Wukong have surpassed ten million units.
<v Speaker 1>Developer Game Science has announced Black Myth Wukong launched or
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five and PC via Steam and Epic Game Store,
<v Speaker 1>as well as via the Wei game platform in China.
<v Speaker 1>On August twentieth. Worldwide, the sales milestone was achieved in
<v Speaker 1>three days. The game also achieved a total of three
<v Speaker 1>million concurrent players across all platforms. On Steam alone, it
<v Speaker 1>achieved an all time high and twenty four peaks of
<v Speaker 1>twenty four hour peaks of two point four million players,
<v Speaker 1>making it the highest ever concurrently played game within twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hours of launch on Steam and the second highest
<v Speaker 1>concurrently played game ever on Steam, following PUBG Battlegrounds. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this continues to be one where it's like, man, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the gaming world has changed a game's coming out. And
<v Speaker 1>while this definitely had hype and buzz and has succeeded worldwide,
<v Speaker 1>it's got something like ninety percent of its players in
<v Speaker 1>China and they swooped in to buy it. And that's
<v Speaker 1>not like that's not a change either, because for a
<v Speaker 1>long time, the conventional wisdom was a game that looks
<v Speaker 1>like it would traditionally be on console is not the
<v Speaker 1>thing you make for China. You make free to play
<v Speaker 1>mobile games, and you make PC games that are also
<v Speaker 1>free to play, and that's what does well in that
<v Speaker 1>market and then someone's like, well, well, let's just try
<v Speaker 1>this multiple times. Now we've had successes and this is
<v Speaker 1>the biggest one yet. So are you surprised, because I'm
<v Speaker 1>definitely a little surprised, But it also makes sense when
<v Speaker 1>I sit down and look at the facts. How about you.
<v Speaker 2>It's weird because I feel like when we saw the
<v Speaker 2>first traveler for this game, like its circulated Twitter, It's
<v Speaker 2>circulated everywhere. People were talking. They were like, oh my god,
<v Speaker 2>look at this game. It looks incredible. And then like,
<v Speaker 2>slowly but surely, you know, every trailer that came out,
<v Speaker 2>people got more and more excited for it. But it
<v Speaker 2>was one of those things where I felt like this
<v Speaker 2>game wasn't real for the longest time. I was like,
<v Speaker 2>it's just been trailers, Like I haven't you know, this
<v Speaker 2>game could be twenty years away.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>And then like as we got closer to release, I
<v Speaker 2>kept going, oh, huh, this this game's coming out. I
<v Speaker 2>keep forgetting about it same and then it came out
<v Speaker 2>the other day and it's all I see anymore. It's
<v Speaker 2>all I see anymore. TikTok, twitch, to YouTube, Instagram, My
<v Speaker 2>friends are talking about it. That don't normally play games
<v Speaker 2>like It's. It's just everywhere, and so I'm a little
<v Speaker 2>surprised that it blew up as much as it did.
<v Speaker 2>But at the same time, like, China is an incredibly
<v Speaker 2>large market. If like it's, it's, it's hard to argue,
<v Speaker 2>like if a game starts to do well and picks
<v Speaker 2>ubtraction in the way that this one did, like, it's
<v Speaker 2>just going to keep snowballing and keep going and keep going.
<v Speaker 2>And so I'm I'm ultimately, I guess I'm not shocked
<v Speaker 2>that we we hit this market already. But when the
<v Speaker 2>floodgates opened, whatever it was Thursday night or Friday morning,
<v Speaker 2>like or no, this game came out Tuesday.
<v Speaker 1>I don't even remember it earlier this week. I think
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember though, Yeah, like.
<v Speaker 2>Whatever this whatever the flood gates open for this game,
<v Speaker 2>it's like it's it's all I see anymore. I cannot
<v Speaker 2>escape this game, to the point where I've been thinking
<v Speaker 2>about should I be playing this?
<v Speaker 1>Should I think this up?
<v Speaker 2>I like, do I want to play it because it's new,
<v Speaker 2>or do I want to play it because it's interesting.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I can't figure it out.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think I am in the boat of Hey,
<v Speaker 1>I always am in the mood for an action a
<v Speaker 1>character action game. This one seems to be straddling the
<v Speaker 1>line between traditional character action and a Soul's like a
<v Speaker 1>Soul's Born game. Maybe more of the character action than
<v Speaker 1>I was than I was anticipating. I think they tried
<v Speaker 1>to put on airs. It's like, Hey, this is going
<v Speaker 1>to be China's Dark Souls. It's not exactly that, but
<v Speaker 1>it's that's not a problem one way or the other.
<v Speaker 1>It's just like, hey, my expectations versus the reality. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know. I the sense I get is it's a
<v Speaker 1>pretty good game that is definitely flying high because it's
<v Speaker 1>subject matter is something that China always engages with. Journey
<v Speaker 1>to the West is a lot of the most successful
<v Speaker 1>games ever released in China are based on Journey to
<v Speaker 1>the West, and this one is seems like it's taking
<v Speaker 1>that and doing it in a new way. And it's
<v Speaker 1>that thing of give people what they want in a
<v Speaker 1>way they're not expecting. It's it's almost like the top
<v Speaker 1>gun Maverick of Journey to the West, and it just
<v Speaker 1>feels like it's crushing because of that. And then I'm
<v Speaker 1>part of me. I have like of two minds Jesse,
<v Speaker 1>where it's like, do I want to play it? I'm like, well,
<v Speaker 1>I want to, and I wanted I always wanted to,
<v Speaker 1>And the other part is like everyone else is playing it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm fine, maybe I don't need to have to give
<v Speaker 1>my opinion on this one. And then I start talking
<v Speaker 1>myself out of it a little bit, and it's well,
<v Speaker 1>just I'll move on to the next game. I'll leapfrog
<v Speaker 1>this one. I'll move on to the next games that
<v Speaker 1>are come out and be ready to talk about those instead.
<v Speaker 1>But I know if this thing ran on the steam
<v Speaker 1>deck a little bit better than I think it does,
<v Speaker 1>I would probably just put it on there and try
<v Speaker 1>it out. But as far as I understand, it's not
<v Speaker 1>running great on anything, let alone steam Deck. That said,
<v Speaker 1>it's you know, while it's you know, clearly a huge
<v Speaker 1>hit in China, it is hit everywhere. As you said,
<v Speaker 1>everyone's playing it, I also am seeing it across different
<v Speaker 1>social media platforms, and that doesn't just happen by accidents,
<v Speaker 1>because the game is truly that's successful. What else speaks
<v Speaker 1>to that is the next story. PS five reportedly selling
<v Speaker 1>out in China following Black Myth Wukong launch. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Jordan Miller at VGC. The PlayStation five is reportedly
<v Speaker 1>selling out in China following the launch of Black Myth Wukong.
<v Speaker 1>According to Sultant Daniel Camillo. Camillo, the console is selling
<v Speaker 1>out across China was stock at the country's largest electronics store.
<v Speaker 1>I'm not going to say that struggling to accommodate demand.
<v Speaker 1>According to the report, the demand is resulting in scalping
<v Speaker 1>and reselling of the console, which hasn't been common since
<v Speaker 1>the PS five's first two years. This successful launch comes
<v Speaker 1>amid controversy involving reported demands sent to influencers interested in
<v Speaker 1>covering Wukong that they keep politics COVID nineteen references in
<v Speaker 1>feminist propaganda out of the coverage. Yeah, so this this
<v Speaker 1>game did have a weird launch backlash, a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of weirdness in terms of when the company was talking
<v Speaker 1>to influencers saying, hey, we don't want you talking about
<v Speaker 1>the Chinese government, We don't want you talk about feminist
<v Speaker 1>propaganda or like fetish fetishization of anything. They just said fetishizationation.
<v Speaker 1>It's hard worded for me to say. But yeah. In
<v Speaker 1>the meantime, though, the thing just is barreling forward and
<v Speaker 1>has sort of changed the narrative about what can succeed
<v Speaker 1>in China and the PS five selling out based and
<v Speaker 1>who knows how many PS fives were in the market there.
<v Speaker 1>It's I don't. I know they do send a lot there,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't know if they send as much as
<v Speaker 1>they do some other places, just because traditionally consoles haven't
<v Speaker 1>sold in China as well as other places. But these
<v Speaker 1>companies have been trying to make this happen for a while. Now.
<v Speaker 1>Does this feel to you like, oh, people should be
<v Speaker 1>making console games for China going forward, or is this
<v Speaker 1>a special case?
<v Speaker 2>It's interesting. I feel like this is one of those
<v Speaker 2>cases where like sometimes just the right game is enough
<v Speaker 2>to get somebody to buy the console, but that doesn't
<v Speaker 2>necessarily mean that they're going to keep buying other games.
<v Speaker 2>They're just like, right, this is the thing I'm going
<v Speaker 2>all in on, and like maybe they'll check things out.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't think it's like a guaranteed, like we
<v Speaker 2>gotta make we gotta make console games for China because
<v Speaker 2>they the install base is getting bigger, they're buying PS five's,
<v Speaker 2>like we gotta we gotta be there. It's it's such
<v Speaker 2>a hit or miss scenario, I think. And I think
<v Speaker 2>Blackmith is just like a strong enough game that was
<v Speaker 2>able to get people to buy consoles and get people
<v Speaker 2>to want to play that game, but there's no guarantee
<v Speaker 2>for anything else past that, Like it's just such a
<v Speaker 2>gamble at that point.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I would be interested to see if that
<v Speaker 1>enslaved game, which was also based on Journey to the West,
<v Speaker 1>if they did like a remastered version of that now
<v Speaker 1>and focused on releasing that in China. I would be
<v Speaker 1>very interested to see how that would perform. That could
<v Speaker 1>almost be like a bell Weather to be like, could
<v Speaker 1>one of these games made by a studio that is,
<v Speaker 1>you know, essentially a Western studio take that to China
<v Speaker 1>and say, hey, this is based on that thing. You'd
<v Speaker 1>like it. It's different than even the other game that
<v Speaker 1>you just played, Like, this is something that could perform here.
<v Speaker 1>And I think if that does, that would be signal
<v Speaker 1>to everyone. It's like it is possible, but there are
<v Speaker 1>so many barriers between like saying that and actually doing that.
<v Speaker 1>Of course, getting a game approved or release in China
<v Speaker 1>very difficult. Usually you have to to do that, you
<v Speaker 1>have to partner with one of the local publishers that
<v Speaker 1>then also partners with one of the local distribution platforms,
<v Speaker 1>and so that thirty percent cut that you are you
<v Speaker 1>accustomed to games having sliced off when you put a
<v Speaker 1>game out on Steam or whatever in the West, that
<v Speaker 1>turns into like a sixty or seventy percent cut in
<v Speaker 1>China for a foreign game releasing in that market. So
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, it does not make it worth it.
<v Speaker 1>But there are so many players. I wonder if investors
<v Speaker 1>are going to be looking at this and saying, hey,
<v Speaker 1>PS fives are selling, this game is selling. These are
<v Speaker 1>these are people with money that we can't ignore. We're
<v Speaker 1>going to turn to EA and you be Soft and
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft and say hey, why aren't more of your games
<v Speaker 1>coming out in this market? And the investors might not
<v Speaker 1>understand all those complications, but do you think those these
<v Speaker 1>companies will have to listen to these investors.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it it reminds me a lot of it was
<v Speaker 2>like it was a while ago, but like Rainbow six
<v Speaker 2>Siege was looking to come over to China and they
<v Speaker 2>had to change a bunch of the existing maps in
<v Speaker 2>their game because they had like slot machines and Gamble
<v Speaker 2>in like all these stuff that they couldn't get past
<v Speaker 2>the regulations and so they had to change the maps
<v Speaker 2>for that game and like redo a lot of the stuff.
<v Speaker 2>And I remember their their plot. Their idea was like, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>well we'll just change the map for both like both
<v Speaker 2>sides of the world. And then like players were like, no,
<v Speaker 2>that changes so much. But it became this like whole mess,
<v Speaker 2>and they ended up having to like redo all this stuff.
<v Speaker 2>And so I think when you have especially as a
<v Speaker 2>lot of games are like live service and other things,
<v Speaker 2>and like there's got to be this like parody between
<v Speaker 2>versions and all this stuff, it gets really really messy.
<v Speaker 2>And so I think, like your single player stuff, your
<v Speaker 2>your stuff that's not constantly getting new content all the time,
<v Speaker 2>that needs to follow this sort of like baseline idea
<v Speaker 2>is they they could do it because like you've gonna
<v Speaker 2>you're gonna have your investors going, we can't ignore this market.
<v Speaker 2>We can't ignore this market. Like we it's I think
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna be an uphill battle. Still I don't think
<v Speaker 2>it did. We've like we've we've cracked the code, you
<v Speaker 2>know what I mean, Like I think it's it's still
<v Speaker 2>gonna you know, be hit or miss. It's still gonna
<v Speaker 2>be like, is the the market gonna care about this game? Like,
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. It's a tricky thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And it's as a a galstaff. I think in
<v Speaker 1>chatpoints set, it's like when movies shoehorn Chinese actors' locations
<v Speaker 1>for their market. That kind of fell off after a while,
<v Speaker 1>and really what was happening there is Chinese corporations were
<v Speaker 1>coming to Western studios and helping to fund those movies
<v Speaker 1>and saying, hey, and then that will they will release
<v Speaker 1>them in a market, will help you make that happen,
<v Speaker 1>but we'll pay you upfront for some help making this movie.
<v Speaker 1>And that led to a lot of those situations and
<v Speaker 1>it was like, oh, you know, get your money where
<v Speaker 1>you need to get your money. And I remember like
<v Speaker 1>seeing that Independence Day resurrection or whatever it was and
<v Speaker 1>being like and seeing a lot of that stuff been like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is fine to me, Like they got to make
<v Speaker 1>this movie because they've gotten a lot of extra money.
<v Speaker 1>And it was mostly a positive thing in my opinion.
<v Speaker 1>Now in games, it doesn't seem like Chinese corporations are
<v Speaker 1>coming to Western publishers and saying here's some money to
<v Speaker 1>do this. So I think that might be like a
<v Speaker 1>gap that a lot of these companies won't try to
<v Speaker 1>cross them because it's like, Okay, that is a risk
<v Speaker 1>we're taking. And while yes, we acknowledge that Blackmith Wukong succeeded,
<v Speaker 1>we know that that is a different scenario than what
<v Speaker 1>we would be facing. I think, you know, a lot
<v Speaker 1>of these companies have long history of like, look glancing
<v Speaker 1>over at China seeing a billion a billion and a
<v Speaker 1>half people, knowing that there's more gamers there than any
<v Speaker 1>other country in the world, and going, yeah, it would
<v Speaker 1>be nice, But we've been told the list of reasons
<v Speaker 1>why our games don't succeed there over and over again,
<v Speaker 1>and nothing's really changed for any of that. So while
<v Speaker 1>I think investors are going to be asking more questions
<v Speaker 1>about China when they get the you know, the analyst
<v Speaker 1>or the chance to do the investor call with the
<v Speaker 1>CEO at the quarterly earning support, I think most of
<v Speaker 1>these CEOs are going to be like, yeah, listen, that's great,
<v Speaker 1>and we're definitely open to that, and we're looking for
<v Speaker 1>ways to make this easier for us to get into
<v Speaker 1>that market. The reality is we're we've tried before and
<v Speaker 1>it hasn't worked, and webably we're not expecting that to
<v Speaker 1>be any different. So yeah, hey, but every little bit changes,
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, a couple percentage points right PS five
<v Speaker 1>selling out there, that makes it a little bit easier
<v Speaker 1>to be like, okay, well we already have PS five games. Well,
<v Speaker 1>you know it's pretty you know, it's relatively you know,
<v Speaker 1>relatively easy to localize for China a lot of ways.
<v Speaker 1>If we just maybe make again that doesn't have skeletons
<v Speaker 1>in it in the first place, maybe we'll be Okay.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. I think it does change things, but
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it like vastly changes the landscape of
<v Speaker 1>the entire industry.
<v Speaker 2>No game like game companies are still as risk adverse
<v Speaker 2>as ever. Like if if there's that graph wherever they
<v Speaker 2>their adalyst has or does not hit that perfect mark
<v Speaker 2>of like right, all right, now is our time? This
<v Speaker 2>We have enough money that we could put into this
<v Speaker 2>to push through a lot of you know, the cuts
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna take by having a partner with somebody or
<v Speaker 2>you know, pushing through to get all of our stuff
<v Speaker 2>cleaned up for regulation. Like it they're looking at that
<v Speaker 2>chart and they're like, well, it's a big risk. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if we're willing to take it.
<v Speaker 1>Like yep, I h we'll see. Every time we talked
<v Speaker 1>about I'm like, I should play blackmth Wu Kung. We'll see.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I'll get a chance to play it this weekend
<v Speaker 1>or something. I'm not gonna be playing bringing an astro
<v Speaker 1>so uh at is targeting thirty frames per second, says
<v Speaker 1>Obsidian art director. This is from Jordan Midler at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>Upcoming Obsidian RPG Avowed is targeting thirty frames per second,
<v Speaker 1>according to the game's art director. Speaking on The Iron
<v Speaker 1>Lord's podcast Shout Out to the Boys over There, art
<v Speaker 1>director Matt Hanson called thirty frames per second the bare
<v Speaker 1>minimum the team is aiming for. It's a first person,
<v Speaker 1>single player game, you don't necessarily need that sixty frames,
<v Speaker 1>and that allows us to get a lot juicier with
<v Speaker 1>VFX and lighting and all this other stuff. Hans It said,
<v Speaker 1>it's a trade off we opted to make relatively early,
<v Speaker 1>and we're really happy with that. The game's running pretty
<v Speaker 1>smooth for how visually dense it is, and that was
<v Speaker 1>always our goal. Originally scheduled for later this year, Avowed
<v Speaker 1>will now be released in twenty twenty five. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>talking to the art director, this is what the art
<v Speaker 1>director is definitely gonna want, because there what is an
<v Speaker 1>art director gonna be looking at. They're gonna be looking at, like,
<v Speaker 1>how how many resources per frame do I get to
<v Speaker 1>work with? I want more? And I can just see
<v Speaker 1>the bar goes up. That resource bar goes up if
<v Speaker 1>we have twice as long of a frame time frame time,
<v Speaker 1>which we do will have with thirty frames per second
<v Speaker 1>compared to sixty frames per second. So in his view,
<v Speaker 1>it is one hundred percent in an artistic decision, and
<v Speaker 1>I think for most studios overall, that is the way
<v Speaker 1>they view it. And yet, like part of me is
<v Speaker 1>always going to be a little annoyed because I just
<v Speaker 1>like sixty frames per second better. But I'm not an
<v Speaker 1>art director and I'm not trying to sell these games.
<v Speaker 1>And I think they've seen over and over again, if
<v Speaker 1>they make the game look better that helps with sales
<v Speaker 1>up front. And as far as everyone says that has
<v Speaker 1>played Avowed so far, they're like, at least visually, they're
<v Speaker 1>very impressed with it. There's a lot of great art
<v Speaker 1>design in the game, and it comes across in a
<v Speaker 1>really excellent way, in part because of the lighting and
<v Speaker 1>the visual effects. So where are you at with this?
<v Speaker 1>Is this? Are you surprised at this point in the
<v Speaker 1>generation that we're still having this conversation or that games
<v Speaker 1>are coming out and aren't they are not sixty frames
<v Speaker 1>sixty frames per second? What do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's It's funny because I think one of the
<v Speaker 2>previous episodes I was on, we were having this exact
<v Speaker 2>discussion that we have atation all the time. Yeah, like
<v Speaker 2>and not just you and I, but like the everybody
<v Speaker 2>as a goal, right, And I think the thing I
<v Speaker 2>said last time is kind of where I stand here
<v Speaker 2>is like I like the option for thirty or sixty.
<v Speaker 2>I personally prefer sixty because half the time I'm playing
<v Speaker 2>my games, I'm not playing them on an HDR big
<v Speaker 2>four K TV. I'm playing them on like my computer
<v Speaker 2>monitor where it's like easy for me to like play
<v Speaker 2>and do work and do other things. And so it's
<v Speaker 2>like I like having that option because I don't have
<v Speaker 2>all the bells and whistles on like a big fancy
<v Speaker 2>TV most of the time. So having you know, it
<v Speaker 2>all be into the into the lighting and the HDR
<v Speaker 2>and like all these you know, these like tech buzzwords
<v Speaker 2>doesn't do anything for me personally, Like if I decide
<v Speaker 2>to play it on my big fancy TV, then great,
<v Speaker 2>Like im, I'll be happy with it. But I'm not surprised.
<v Speaker 2>I feel like this is a common trend, right. It's like,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I'd rather them target thirty then be like
<v Speaker 2>we're gonna do sixty and it run it like thirty seven. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's like it's so variable that it's it's like frustrating.
<v Speaker 2>So if their goal is like if they can get
<v Speaker 2>a locked thirty and the game can look clean, like
<v Speaker 2>that's fine by me at the end of the day,
<v Speaker 2>Like I'm gonna play the game and if it's stable
<v Speaker 2>and doesn't make me sick, like I'm fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yep. I think it's if it's a stable thirty frames
<v Speaker 1>per second, most people will be fine at the end
<v Speaker 1>of the day once they're playing it. If it's a
<v Speaker 1>fun game. But you know, on paper, it's like where
<v Speaker 1>it's where I come back to. It's like I just yeah,
<v Speaker 1>sixty is bigger than thirty, and that's what I want.
<v Speaker 1>And I do see a difference, and it makes a
<v Speaker 1>huge difference when I'm playing personally. But if they were
<v Speaker 1>going for thirty the entire time and now they've ended
<v Speaker 1>up at thirty, that is better than what as what
<v Speaker 1>you said, where they're like, maybe we can get sixty,
<v Speaker 1>and it's just ranging between thirty seven and you know,
<v Speaker 1>fifty two, and it's rarely even getting up to that. Now,
<v Speaker 1>Like I wish we were like at a point like
<v Speaker 1>because we're at the point of the generation where yeah,
<v Speaker 1>a lot of games are going to be targeting thirty
<v Speaker 1>frames per second. They're very familiar with this hardware at
<v Speaker 1>this point, we're well into the generation. Yeah, not a
<v Speaker 1>surprise there, But we also do have the technology for
<v Speaker 1>these companies to be like, maybe we could just have
<v Speaker 1>a forty five frame per second mode with variable refresh
<v Speaker 1>rate and just let you guys kind of hone in
<v Speaker 1>on that. A lot of games, not a lot of games,
<v Speaker 1>some games have done that. It's how I run a
<v Speaker 1>lot of games on the Steam Deck because it has
<v Speaker 1>a variable refresh rate screen and it's great. And at
<v Speaker 1>that point, I'm at a point where it's like above that,
<v Speaker 1>we do get diminishing returns and it's harder for me
<v Speaker 1>to see the difference between forty five and sixty. I
<v Speaker 1>see it between thirty and forty five, but forty five
<v Speaker 1>to sixty, I'm not noticing as much of a difference.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, man, if we could just compromise get
<v Speaker 1>to that point, I think we get a best of
<v Speaker 1>both worlds, or are pretty good of both worlds. But whatever,
<v Speaker 1>that's not happening yet, and the reality there is not
<v Speaker 1>enough people do have VRR either the capability on their
<v Speaker 1>TV or have it turned on in the first place.
<v Speaker 1>So developers obviously have to play to the he's common denominator,
<v Speaker 1>that's going to be thirty frames per second. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is just how gaming goes. Big TRIPAA, expensive three
<v Speaker 1>D games. These companies have to wow develop or have
<v Speaker 1>to wow the audience with screenshots and the hopes that
<v Speaker 1>people get excited about the game, because you've got to
<v Speaker 1>stand out from all the other games right next to
<v Speaker 1>you that aren't going to have that, and maybe a
<v Speaker 1>lot of them are going to be targeting thirty and
<v Speaker 1>look better than you. You kind of can't have that.
<v Speaker 1>So I appreciate the scenario that they're in, but at
<v Speaker 1>the same time, well, hey, I'm going to be playing
<v Speaker 1>this on PC. So I'm going to be fine, right, Like,
<v Speaker 1>why am I really worried about it? I'm not, And
<v Speaker 1>I think that's where we're at. Hey, as always, if
<v Speaker 1>you care about this, there is a solution for you.
<v Speaker 1>It's time to get a PC. And I know some
<v Speaker 1>people don't want to hear that. All right, let's take
<v Speaker 1>a quick break. When we come back, we have more
<v Speaker 1>news about Star Wars Outlaws, how Amazon Games feeling about
<v Speaker 1>tomb Raider, and a lot more. All right, we are back.
<v Speaker 1>Let's hit this next story right away. A week before
<v Speaker 1>its full release, Star Wars Outlaws is being live streamed
<v Speaker 1>on Kick. This is from Jordan Midler at BGC. Over
<v Speaker 1>a week before the full release of the game. A
<v Speaker 1>user streaming Star Wars Outlaws on the platform Kick. The
<v Speaker 1>player who has seemingly acquired a physical copy of the
<v Speaker 1>game early, has hosted several live streams playing through the
<v Speaker 1>game's opening hours. The streams are being hosted on the
<v Speaker 1>live streaming platform Kick, which is known for its looser
<v Speaker 1>approach to copyright and fringing issues and is far slower
<v Speaker 1>to respond to takedown requests than legacy platforms like YouTube
<v Speaker 1>or Twitch. The account that has been streaming. The game
<v Speaker 1>hasn't been banned. Footage of the streams is now flooding
<v Speaker 1>social media, with a large amount of content being posted
<v Speaker 1>to TikTok. The review embargo for the game lifts Monday
<v Speaker 1>at one PMBST five AMPT. This is also when the
<v Speaker 1>Gold edition of the game will be made available in
<v Speaker 1>New Zealand. At that timeg See will post its review.
<v Speaker 1>We'll have something to talk about around that time as well. Everybody. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this is just kind of like whack them all right
<v Speaker 1>where these platforms pop up. I mean, Kick's been around
<v Speaker 1>for a little bit whatever, but people like know they
<v Speaker 1>can find some places online that are a little bit
<v Speaker 1>laxed about these things. Kicks whole thing is, we're very
<v Speaker 1>lax will let complete trash on the site and they
<v Speaker 1>will not have repercussions. And so now these companies kind
<v Speaker 1>of have no recourse cause you know, the DMCA is
<v Speaker 1>you go to these companies and you say, hey, take
<v Speaker 1>down this copyright thing that when we're asking you to
<v Speaker 1>take it down, and as long as they comply I
<v Speaker 1>think relatively quickly, they are not liable. And it's like
<v Speaker 1>it seems like Kick is maybe stretching that out as
<v Speaker 1>much as possible, but they also feel feels like it's
<v Speaker 1>playing with fire, right if if you don't like these
<v Speaker 1>video game companies are very serious about these sorts of things,
<v Speaker 1>and if they piss off the wrong one of these companies,
<v Speaker 1>Kick could get sued pretty easily here. But as far
<v Speaker 1>as like most people are concerned, people worried about spoilers, Jesse,
<v Speaker 1>it's like, just try to avoid it. Hopefully you don't
<v Speaker 1>see it in your like social media feed. That would
<v Speaker 1>be annoying if you were just going scrolling through TikTok
<v Speaker 1>and it popped up, right.
<v Speaker 2>I have already seen so much of this game on
<v Speaker 2>you have?
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, I have not so And it's.
<v Speaker 2>It's one of those things where it's the unfortunate case
<v Speaker 2>of like you are scrolling on any social media right
<v Speaker 2>and you like engage with one of the videos, and
<v Speaker 2>then it's like, oh, this person wants all of this,
<v Speaker 2>and then you so like I saw a clip from
<v Speaker 2>the game. Obviously I won't say anything, and I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>what is the And then I realized what I was
<v Speaker 2>watching and I was like, oh no, no, and then I
<v Speaker 2>scrolled past it, but it was too late. The algorithm
<v Speaker 2>was like, oh, you engaged with that, here's just a
<v Speaker 2>ton of it. And then it's like yeah, sure, you know,
<v Speaker 2>you get the DMCA for the takedown for the stream,
<v Speaker 2>but by that point people have already clipped it, they've
<v Speaker 2>already recorded.
<v Speaker 1>The whole thing.
<v Speaker 2>That's sort of get on rented. They were mirroring the video,
<v Speaker 2>so it like gets past some of the other things,
<v Speaker 2>like they're posting it to TikTok, you know, all these
<v Speaker 2>clip farmers are putting them all on every social media
<v Speaker 2>you've ever seen. So it's the unfortunate case of like
<v Speaker 2>I don't want to say luckily because I don't think
<v Speaker 2>that's like a fair word, but like this happened kind
<v Speaker 2>of close to the game coming out and not like
<v Speaker 2>weeks before it. So if you can just avoid the internet,
<v Speaker 2>you know, mute your keywords, you know, be very proactive
<v Speaker 2>about like not engaging with that stuff online for another
<v Speaker 2>couple of days until this game comes out, like you'll
<v Speaker 2>be Okay. It sucks because you know, no game wants
<v Speaker 2>to have all of this come out before it's out.
<v Speaker 2>But that's also like this happens to us so many
<v Speaker 2>games now. It's so hard to just avoid anything like this.
<v Speaker 1>Now I'm gonna put on my my conspiracy hat and say,
<v Speaker 1>maybe you saw you'd be soft as not trying that
<v Speaker 1>hard to get it taken down, because maybe this gets
<v Speaker 1>people think, oh God, if I want to play this
<v Speaker 1>game without getting spoiled, I should pay extra for the
<v Speaker 1>early access version of this game. You know, I don't
<v Speaker 1>think that's actually happening, but maybe I don't know, Like
<v Speaker 1>they want people to spend that extra money and every
<v Speaker 1>little bit helps, but I don't do Do you think
<v Speaker 1>that is something that could be possible? Do you think
<v Speaker 1>that that actually and regardless of why they're not ubi
<v Speaker 1>Soft is doing that, do you think that they think
<v Speaker 1>that's something that motivates people to play games early trying
<v Speaker 1>to avoid spoilers.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that's like a really big brain play on ubi
<v Speaker 2>Soft bar if that is the case, which is like
<v Speaker 2>I probably love I love a good conspiracy theory, so
<v Speaker 2>I'll follow you down that rabbit hole. I'm down for that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it's why they do it, right. It's like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>I can play this game early early in quotes because
<v Speaker 2>it's like, no, it's not early. You just played the game.
<v Speaker 2>The game is out if you if you could pay
<v Speaker 2>money to play the game. The game is out right,
<v Speaker 2>and so I think you capture a lot of people
<v Speaker 2>on that. But then yeah, for like spoilers and stuff,
<v Speaker 2>it's like, oh, people then have to weigh like is
<v Speaker 2>the extra whatever it is thirty dollars worth need to
<v Speaker 2>not be spoiled on this experience, especially something like Star
<v Speaker 2>Wars that is like near and dear to a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people, and narrative in story is kind of why
<v Speaker 2>they're invested in that universe in the first place. I
<v Speaker 2>think it, I think it works. I think fomo and
<v Speaker 2>spoilers are like a huge reason why early early access
<v Speaker 2>versions of that stuff work in the first place.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and I think I can tell you why you'd
<v Speaker 1>be almost certainly not doing the conspiracy theory. I said,
<v Speaker 1>because what happens here is you put like someone streams
<v Speaker 1>it on a site like kick And what's going to
<v Speaker 1>happen is is the worst actors are going to take
<v Speaker 1>the smallest little segments that make the game look as
<v Speaker 1>terrible as possible and hone in on those because that'll
<v Speaker 1>get the most engagement on social media. So the only
<v Speaker 1>people really like what engaging with this stuff to make
<v Speaker 1>content will be people that are out there to farm
<v Speaker 1>outrage and engagement and instead of you know, good faith
<v Speaker 1>reviewers or you know YouTubers or people working in traditional
<v Speaker 1>media outlets or anything like that, all those people still
<v Speaker 1>under embargo. It's like, okay, yeah, you don't want to
<v Speaker 1>rely on hoping people get excited about this game based
<v Speaker 1>on a bunch of a holes, you know, trying to
<v Speaker 1>get hits on TikTok so. And that seems to be
<v Speaker 1>the kind of where this game is a little bit
<v Speaker 1>still where people want to dislike it. It seems like widely
<v Speaker 1>and that the you know, the stuff I've been seeing
<v Speaker 1>is why does this character model not get me horny
<v Speaker 1>and just just losing the big ones? Yeah, just lose.
<v Speaker 1>In my mind, I just want these gooners to go
<v Speaker 1>back in their goddamn hole and leave us alone. It's
<v Speaker 1>so so frustrating. But how are you, like, do you
<v Speaker 1>think this game will be able to overcome that and
<v Speaker 1>ignore uh that audience for the most part and find
<v Speaker 1>people that actually want to play it engage with it
<v Speaker 1>in good faith.
<v Speaker 2>I think so, because I think you kind of hit
<v Speaker 2>the nail on the head, like the only people currently
<v Speaker 2>engaging with this game are the people that are like
<v Speaker 2>mad about it for one bullshit reason or another. And
<v Speaker 2>so I think, like once, they like not only are
<v Speaker 2>like video games bigger than they've ever been, but like
<v Speaker 2>Star Wars as a whole, you know, ass like people
<v Speaker 2>love Star Wars. And so I think a lot of
<v Speaker 2>the people like once, a lot of the normal people
<v Speaker 2>that are not like chronically online, are playing this video
<v Speaker 2>game and having a good time with it and engaging
<v Speaker 2>with it and enjoying it. Like all that other bullshit
<v Speaker 2>sentiment that's been going on is going to go away.
<v Speaker 2>Like when previews for that game launched, they came out
<v Speaker 2>like a couple weeks ago, a lot of videos I
<v Speaker 2>saw were like all the comments were like discharacter model
<v Speaker 2>is bad, and like these people they don't know what
<v Speaker 2>they're doing with Star Wars, and it's like you're watching
<v Speaker 2>a thirty second clip on TikTok. You have no idea,
<v Speaker 2>you haven't played the game, you don't know. And so
<v Speaker 2>once the game is out and people are engaging with it,
<v Speaker 2>because the thing is all the people that like hate
<v Speaker 2>farm these games don't ever actually engage with the video
<v Speaker 2>game themselves. They don't play it. They just get mad
<v Speaker 2>about it. And so once everybody who's actually playing it
<v Speaker 2>is talking about it, I think the vibes will shift,
<v Speaker 2>like pretty dramatically. And I haven't played the game myself.
<v Speaker 2>I played it at SGF. I had a demo for that,
<v Speaker 2>and like, personally, I don't think it's for me, just
<v Speaker 2>the style of game, but I do like Star Wars,
<v Speaker 2>so I might pick it up, but I think once,
<v Speaker 2>you know, once it's out out, it'll be a different story.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. It's especially annoying because you know, we went through
<v Speaker 1>all those years where had the Star Wars license, and
<v Speaker 1>the frustration was, yeah, he's making one of these games
<v Speaker 1>and then cancels it. And then they do that over
<v Speaker 1>and over again. They cancel the more Star Wars games
<v Speaker 1>than they released by like a factor of two or three.
<v Speaker 1>And everyone hated that. And it's like, well, Ubisoft gets
<v Speaker 1>a chance and they make a game relatively quickly, and
<v Speaker 1>it's coming out and it looks like a you know,
<v Speaker 1>it looks like a today's modern Triple A game, and
<v Speaker 1>people shifted from like, god, we wish one of these
<v Speaker 1>companies would just released one of these games too. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>here's all the here's a list of all the things
<v Speaker 1>I hate about this and why no one else should
<v Speaker 1>play it, and if someone says something good about it,
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to actually freak out, which has happened where
<v Speaker 1>multiple of those previews were relatively positive and the comments
<v Speaker 1>were all like, oh, you're a show, and they just
<v Speaker 1>could not handle the idea that soone honestly was enjoying themselves.
<v Speaker 1>So uh yeah, just I don't know. I don't I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what we do about the way people are
<v Speaker 1>are behaving right now when it comes to a lot
<v Speaker 1>of these big games, I think, you know, not to
<v Speaker 1>do the there's economic adversity thing, and they try to
<v Speaker 1>explain away people's behaviors, but I think there's an under
<v Speaker 1>buying issue if like, people don't feel like they have
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money to go around, so the defense
<v Speaker 1>mechanisms are kicking in and any game that does not
<v Speaker 1>like tick every single one of their boxes, they're like,
<v Speaker 1>here are the reasons I don't want to think about
<v Speaker 1>buying it because I'm afraid of spending that money. And
<v Speaker 1>I'm in that boat as well. I get it, everybody,
<v Speaker 1>but man, it wouldn't be better if we just had
<v Speaker 1>something nice come out we could enjoy it. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>But also if if you have to put those defense
<v Speaker 2>mechanisms up and you're like, I don't, I can't. I
<v Speaker 2>have to put this out of my brain.
<v Speaker 1>I could.
<v Speaker 2>You don't have to make that everyone else's problem. You
<v Speaker 2>don't have to go yelling at people.
<v Speaker 1>Let an adults.
<v Speaker 2>You don't want to buy the thing, don't buy the thing.
<v Speaker 2>It's totally fine. You don't like the thing, totally fine,
<v Speaker 2>keep it to yourself.
<v Speaker 1>Just inside thoughts, right, they just keep them in your
<v Speaker 1>damn head. Yep, uh, all right up next, it's a huge,
<v Speaker 1>huge task, it says Amazon Games boss, claiming the next
<v Speaker 1>tom Rader is going well. This is from Andy Robinson
<v Speaker 1>at VGC. Amazon Games boss Christophe Hartman has reassured fans
<v Speaker 1>that the next tomb Rator is progressing well, just recent
<v Speaker 1>turbulence at Crystal Dynamics parent Embracer. It was announced back
<v Speaker 1>in December twenty twenty two that Amazon would be publishing
<v Speaker 1>the next Turmberator game, which is being developed by its
<v Speaker 1>modern creator, Crystal Dynamics. Crystal Dynamics was one of the
<v Speaker 1>numerous studios hit with layoffs last year following a restructuring
<v Speaker 1>program which its owner, Embracer Groups, said would lead to
<v Speaker 1>some studios being closed and some projects being canceled. Speaking
<v Speaker 1>to IGN in a new interview, Amazon Games boss Hartmann
<v Speaker 1>claimed that Crystal Dynamics had been fairly sheltered from the
<v Speaker 1>turbulence and Embracer instead, the development of the next Tourmerator
<v Speaker 1>was progressing. The studio, from what I can tell, is
<v Speaker 1>is fairly sheltered from everything going on with Embracer, he said.
<v Speaker 1>I mean it has to be because Embracer what never
<v Speaker 1>was one company. It was just an accumulation of an
<v Speaker 1>incredibly large amount of independent businesses. And it's not just
<v Speaker 1>games development. They're like books and games and this and that,
<v Speaker 1>and they always were very sheltered. People obviously look at
<v Speaker 1>what the parent company is doing, but it never impacted
<v Speaker 1>our resources, never led to any changes on management for them,
<v Speaker 1>so they're fine. On tomb Raider, Hartman acknowledged that the
<v Speaker 1>expectation for the next game game, which has now been
<v Speaker 1>in development for many years, I mean, doing a new
<v Speaker 1>tomb Raider, the bar is so high. The longer you go,
<v Speaker 1>the expectation goes higher. So it's a huge, huge task.
<v Speaker 1>But things are progressing, he said. I mean there's some
<v Speaker 1>really great ideas here. Obviously, we're not going to share
<v Speaker 1>any with you, even if we would love to. But
<v Speaker 1>things are going well, things are moving forward. I think
<v Speaker 1>this is kind of what I expected for Crystal Dynamics
<v Speaker 1>in particular, is like they are working both on a
<v Speaker 1>tomb Raider game with Amazon that cut a big check,
<v Speaker 1>and they're working on Perfect Dark with Microsoft, which cut
<v Speaker 1>a big check. So it's like, oh, well, the one
<v Speaker 1>studio you can't really mess with too much is Crystal Dynamics.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like the reason they were cutting everywhere else.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm sure the war cuts at Crystal Dynamics, but
<v Speaker 1>I don't think they were as deep as some other
<v Speaker 1>places inside of Embracer. And that's because the other studios
<v Speaker 1>didn't have gills like the one that Crystal Dynamics does.
<v Speaker 1>And it seems like Embracer was like, that's what we want.
<v Speaker 1>We're going for that sort of of business model where
<v Speaker 1>we work with external partners who have a lot of
<v Speaker 1>money and will pay us to use our studios. Now,
<v Speaker 1>that's probably gonna be hard to replicate, replicate, and I
<v Speaker 1>don't know personally, it's like man making a game for
<v Speaker 1>higher based on IP you own with a by licensing
<v Speaker 1>it out to Amazon because they're working on a show.
<v Speaker 1>It just seems like such a messy integration that yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I don't have a lot of faith in this personally,
<v Speaker 1>but I don't know, what do you think.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's such a complicated web of things because I
<v Speaker 2>feel like, more than ever, you probably have so many
<v Speaker 2>different hands in this in this pie right like you're
<v Speaker 2>you know, you've got Amazon wanting what they want, and
<v Speaker 2>the Crystal Dama is trying to do that, and then
<v Speaker 2>you have Embracer doing whatever the hell Embraser is doing
<v Speaker 2>at any point in time, nobody ever knows. And then
<v Speaker 2>also like they haven't the last tim Nator game came
<v Speaker 2>out in like twenty eighteen, I think was when Shadow
<v Speaker 2>of the Tumbnerator came out. So it's it's it's been
<v Speaker 2>a while. And like obviously you said, they're balancing different project,
<v Speaker 2>they're code developing Perfect Dark, They're doing all these things.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's a it's a monumental task for Crystal Dynamics
<v Speaker 2>to it's a monumental task to develop any video game.
<v Speaker 1>Ever.
<v Speaker 2>It's a yes, it's magical that these games come out
<v Speaker 2>at all, But I can't even imagine when you've got
<v Speaker 2>like a big money company like Amazon involved and a
<v Speaker 2>big money company like Embracer involved, and you're trying to
<v Speaker 2>do two different things at the same time, and you're
<v Speaker 2>to make a game like tomb Raider, which has such
<v Speaker 2>a lasting legacy.
<v Speaker 1>Essentially just recently gone through a bit major trilogy where
<v Speaker 1>it's like it's sort of ran out of schemes, so
<v Speaker 1>you got to like reset things as well. All these
<v Speaker 1>things are such complicating factors right.
<v Speaker 2>On top of correct me if I'm wrong, But Crystal
<v Speaker 2>Dynamics was was owned by Square at one point and
<v Speaker 2>then sold off to Embracer.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, that's right, Like they also went through all.
<v Speaker 2>Of that in between in between this, so like they have,
<v Speaker 2>they have had a very rocky last couple of years.
<v Speaker 2>And I don't mean that in a bad way for
<v Speaker 2>Crystal Dynamics. They've been doing what they've been doing.
<v Speaker 1>Right, but they've been crushing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's look in a world where it's difficult to
<v Speaker 2>make a video game, they are they got a lot
<v Speaker 2>going up for themselves. I hope nothing but the best,
<v Speaker 2>but it is it is a huge, huge task. That
<v Speaker 2>is that is for certain.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I you know, I'll give it a chance. Of course,
<v Speaker 1>I hope it comes together. But you know, Two Raiders
<v Speaker 1>is gonna the next Two Murders is gonna come out
<v Speaker 1>in the world where it's I feel it feels like
<v Speaker 1>the world we're in with like a lot of license games,
<v Speaker 1>you know, not the Tum Murders necessary license game. It
<v Speaker 1>doesn't really, but it's gonna feel that way, just the
<v Speaker 1>way it's working with the Amazon, but the way a
<v Speaker 1>lot of big games feel that are with familiar ip
<v Speaker 1>where people go, I've seen it before, and they aren't
<v Speaker 1>super interested unless it feels like it's blown away. I
<v Speaker 1>think that's what's happening with Star Wars Outlaws is a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people are like, hey, is this just another
<v Speaker 1>Ubisoft game, And even in the ways where it's different,
<v Speaker 1>it's like, Okay, that just feels like maybe a variation
<v Speaker 1>on the theme and not totally totally surprising. And it's
<v Speaker 1>such a weird place for gaming to be where it's
<v Speaker 1>like we want more big games because it feels like
<v Speaker 1>we're getting were and fewer of those, but when we
<v Speaker 1>get them, it's also like, this is not meeting my
<v Speaker 1>very high standards. So I think I just don't envy
<v Speaker 1>anyone working in this space trying to win over a
<v Speaker 1>very fickle and fickle gaming crowd where we're just like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we want these things, but we want them to be
<v Speaker 1>our way, and we want them to also surprise us
<v Speaker 1>and do things we haven't expected and and feel like
<v Speaker 1>the biggest games ever. And I want we want you
<v Speaker 1>to spend two hundred million dollars to make it look
<v Speaker 1>better than anything I've seen before. It's such a high
<v Speaker 1>degree of difficulty, and I don't I don't know that
<v Speaker 1>Like when this game gets to you know, year four
<v Speaker 1>or five of development and it's like pretty close but
<v Speaker 1>not quite there, is Amazon going to step up and
<v Speaker 1>sign another check to make it that much better? Or
<v Speaker 1>are they going to pull the ripcord and say get
<v Speaker 1>this thing out there. To me, it's like in that
<v Speaker 1>kind of deal where Amazon, who knows how they're gonna
<v Speaker 1>feel about gaming at that point, because you know, it's
<v Speaker 1>a big corporation, They change their change their mind all
<v Speaker 1>the time. Or the people who championed this project in
<v Speaker 1>the first place could have left or done something else
<v Speaker 1>or got a different job inside the company, And then
<v Speaker 1>you know who the person takes us over doesn't even
<v Speaker 1>know what it is or doesn't care like. There's so
<v Speaker 1>many things that could change. Again, I do not envy
<v Speaker 1>trying to be in this situation, trying to make a
<v Speaker 1>game like this not at all. Sony's Tokyo Game Show
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty four presents includes an Astrobot gotcha machine. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Jorida Miller FGC. Of course, Sony Interactive Entertainment
<v Speaker 1>has announced it's TGS twenty twenty four plans, which include
<v Speaker 1>a real Astrobot gotcha machine. Both Astrobot and Monster Hunter
<v Speaker 1>Wilds will be playable at the show, while well Astrobot
<v Speaker 1>will already be available to the public by the time
<v Speaker 1>the show on September twenty eighth and twenty ninth happens.
<v Speaker 1>Those in attendance who take part in the demo will
<v Speaker 1>be able to take home one of four T shirts.
<v Speaker 1>Which design they receive will be determined by a gotcha
<v Speaker 1>machine featuring Astrobot. This event will mark the first time
<v Speaker 1>that Monster Hunter Wilds will be playable to the public
<v Speaker 1>in Japan. There's other games that are going to be there,
<v Speaker 1>but I've seen pictures of this gotcha machine. It's a
<v Speaker 1>giant thing with giant like it's huge with the giant
<v Speaker 1>like gotcha balls that are like inside it looks incredible.
<v Speaker 1>I did get one of those T shirts at Summer
<v Speaker 1>game Fest. It's that design and I think another design,
<v Speaker 1>but so it's very cute. So I'm not I don't
<v Speaker 1>have huge fomo, but I want to. I love a
<v Speaker 1>huge I love gotcha machines. I want to play a
<v Speaker 1>big giant gotcha machine that's after a T shirts.
<v Speaker 2>Inside of the gotcha machine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>I don't want the T shirt. I want the machine.
<v Speaker 1>I know, right, do we just ask politely or we
<v Speaker 1>just take it?
<v Speaker 2>I feel like Dan can get it.
<v Speaker 1>Dan could get it.
<v Speaker 2>Feel like he could like finagle a situation in which
<v Speaker 2>y'all end up with the Gotcha machine at the end
<v Speaker 2>of game show.
<v Speaker 1>That sounds right, I will. I'll get him on the case. Absolutely.
<v Speaker 2>You imagine you had a giant Gotcha machine full of
<v Speaker 2>like the Astrobot T shirt that was just like behind you,
<v Speaker 2>that you could just get one And.
<v Speaker 1>What am I wearing today? Let's find out everybody? Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that would rule. I would love that. I wonder if
<v Speaker 1>it's like, did they have this custom made or is
<v Speaker 1>there a company? There was probably a company that just
<v Speaker 1>like Hey, do you need giant novelty gotcha machines for
<v Speaker 1>your for your activations and this feels like one of those.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, uh tell me, do you It feels to
<v Speaker 1>me like Astrobot is gonna pop off.
<v Speaker 2>You feel that, Yeah, I feel that people are. I
<v Speaker 2>feel like we're in this perfect bubble right now where
<v Speaker 2>people are so hungry for like a platformer, like we
<v Speaker 2>just we do we need one to switch to is
<v Speaker 2>whatever that's coming out. We know there's a three D
<v Speaker 2>Mario somewhere involved with that down the line, but right now,
<v Speaker 2>right now, is Astrobot's time to shine at come out. Everyone.
<v Speaker 2>I've been seeing u you know, on like subreddits and stuff.
<v Speaker 2>People are like, oh, I heard this. This character is
<v Speaker 2>also gonna be an Astrobot, you know, Tideway, all the
<v Speaker 2>different PlayStation characters. Like, people are ready. People are excited
<v Speaker 2>for Astrobot. It's it's his moment.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, as and as our gen and Chat says, it
<v Speaker 1>helps that Sony doesn't have a lot of other things
<v Speaker 1>happening for the second half of the year, so they
<v Speaker 1>have to focus on this and make this a big
<v Speaker 1>deal because it's their one big game. But I think
<v Speaker 1>I think what's gonna happen is Astrobot's gonna step up
<v Speaker 1>to the challenge. And I think when people say, hey, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>this game needs to be big and kind of fill
<v Speaker 1>that gap that like Spider Man Field last year, I
<v Speaker 1>think this game's gonna mostly do that. Now, what does
<v Speaker 1>that mean in terms of raw sales numbers? It doesn't
<v Speaker 1>mean it sells like Spider Man. No game sells like
<v Speaker 1>Spider Man PlayStation except for that franchise. That's it. But
<v Speaker 1>I think, you know, this game could approach I think
<v Speaker 1>being pretty similar to something like a Luigi's Mansion three,
<v Speaker 1>which eventually is like getting to thirteen, fourteen to fifteen
<v Speaker 1>million copies sold after several years. I think this game
<v Speaker 1>could get to ten million copies sold. And if that's
<v Speaker 1>if that happens like that, that's over several years, and
<v Speaker 1>I think that's a big number. I get that, but
<v Speaker 1>I think it could happen. Now. The more likely scenario
<v Speaker 1>is it definitely easily hits five million and then sort
<v Speaker 1>of settle somewhere in the six to seven range. But
<v Speaker 1>that is also a pretty big success for this game,
<v Speaker 1>which imagine it's not as expensive to make as a
<v Speaker 1>n Dog game. Or even an Insomniac game or a
<v Speaker 1>lot of these other ones. But I I have very
<v Speaker 1>high hopes and I think this game is going to
<v Speaker 1>capture a lot of the excitement that it seems like
<v Speaker 1>I've always had for it, and I think a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people. I think it's just gonna spread and people
<v Speaker 1>are gonna be yeah, this game is incredible. A huge
<v Speaker 1>part of that is going to be based on what
<v Speaker 1>I've played. It seems very very good and people won't
<v Speaker 1>be able to ignore it because it's going to be that good.
<v Speaker 1>It will be in like Game of the Year conversations.
<v Speaker 1>I think it will be close to, you know, a
<v Speaker 1>really high Metacritics score and things like that where people
<v Speaker 1>care about that stuff and then they're like, hey, I
<v Speaker 1>will open my wallet for this, but we'll see. Part
<v Speaker 1>of me is also that's you know, hopium where I
<v Speaker 1>want to I want a big three D platform to
<v Speaker 1>do well because I want to get more of those,
<v Speaker 1>and I want this team that's made awesome games to
<v Speaker 1>be like, hey, they decided they're going to spend a
<v Speaker 1>lot of time and money making a game called just Astrobot.
<v Speaker 1>This is the coming out party for this franchise in
<v Speaker 1>a lot of ways I wanted to succeed, so we'll see,
<v Speaker 1>all right, last couple of stories here NHL twenty five
<v Speaker 1>shown for the first time. This is from Jonas Macky
<v Speaker 1>at Game Reactor. I would get Backler on the phone everybody,
<v Speaker 1>but he's out today, so I don't know what he's doing.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to interrupt any if it's anything important.
<v Speaker 1>Follows almost here, and the NHL season kicks off in October,
<v Speaker 1>delivering yet another exciting season of one of the most
<v Speaker 1>physically toughest sports team sports in the world, and EA
<v Speaker 1>is ready for it. They have just released the first
<v Speaker 1>trailer for NHL twenty five, which will be released on
<v Speaker 1>October fourth for PlayStation and Xbox Man. I wish they
<v Speaker 1>would release this on PC so I can play it
<v Speaker 1>on Steam Deck. This time, they are adding a future
<v Speaker 1>called ice Q, which is a dumb name but which
<v Speaker 1>they claim will let you create time and space to
<v Speaker 1>control every inch of the ice and says that they
<v Speaker 1>and they said they have a further fleshed out next
<v Speaker 1>gen vision control. Check out the trailer on their YouTube
<v Speaker 1>channel or whatever. Yeah, Hey, I like hockey a lot.
<v Speaker 1>This is always sort of the forgotten sports franchise from
<v Speaker 1>EA sort of lags behind the other ones in terms
<v Speaker 1>of getting features. I think they've slowly been improving it
<v Speaker 1>over the last couple of years, but it's not been
<v Speaker 1>at the heights it once was for quite some time.
<v Speaker 1>I I don't know if, like you know, having a
<v Speaker 1>like smart ice Q features exactly what they need, but
<v Speaker 1>anything that can make Yeah, what are you what's your
<v Speaker 1>hopes for this game?
<v Speaker 2>So it's been a while since I played an NHL game.
<v Speaker 2>I reviewed nineteen I think eighteen and nineteen. Those were
<v Speaker 2>like some of my first video game reviews, and I
<v Speaker 2>thought it was the one that they added the pond
<v Speaker 2>hockey with the three v three pond hockey, which is
<v Speaker 2>really cool.
<v Speaker 1>That was a good one.
<v Speaker 2>And they also added like Duffel bag loot boxes, which
<v Speaker 2>I was like, this is an insane way to get
<v Speaker 2>loot boxes in the game. So I haven't played any
<v Speaker 2>of them. More like the last like three or four
<v Speaker 2>that have come out, like they always have some new
<v Speaker 2>feature they always love to tout, like NHLA gets like
<v Speaker 2>one new thing and it's so hit or miss. It's
<v Speaker 2>always like this either is a game changer or this
<v Speaker 2>did not move the needle at all, and I kind
<v Speaker 2>of wish you didn't waste time on this, to be honest. So, well,
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna be another NHL game, and it's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>you know, like the core of it is there, and
<v Speaker 2>that's what's important, Like playing with your buds on the couch.
<v Speaker 2>It's like the easiest game to just play with a
<v Speaker 2>friend and just have a good time and drink some
<v Speaker 2>beers or something.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know. Yeah, and that four stops the lessons
<v Speaker 1>that you're talking about, where it's like one new feature
<v Speaker 1>to kind of make the marketing feel like, hey, you
<v Speaker 1>can't stick the last year's game. It doesn't have ice
<v Speaker 1>que It's okay. We've been through this so many times
<v Speaker 1>that especially people have been longtime fans of EA sports
<v Speaker 1>video games. We've seen this dance. We know to ignore
<v Speaker 1>it for the most part, and yet it's like, well
<v Speaker 1>it's still kind of works. It still like I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to be on the old version of
<v Speaker 1>the game, and this thing maybe it will be a
<v Speaker 1>little bit better or you at least still have the
<v Speaker 1>most up to date rosters and stuff like that, and
<v Speaker 1>that's what actually matters.
<v Speaker 2>You're talking to somebody who plays NHL fourteen still like
<v Speaker 2>that is that is the version of NHL I play
<v Speaker 2>the most.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that three v three pound hockey was pretty good.
<v Speaker 1>One of them had the NHL ninety four rewind. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that had like a more updated roster for NHL ninety four.
<v Speaker 1>That was neat. I like when they do stuff like that.
<v Speaker 1>I just wish like we could get back to a
<v Speaker 1>time where we were getting a lot of different sports
<v Speaker 1>games based on each professional sport, and a lot of
<v Speaker 1>different arcade sports games. But we're just that's just not
<v Speaker 1>gonna happen, not in any big way from a company
<v Speaker 1>like EA. We got to kind of wait for the
<v Speaker 1>indy scene to bubble into that space, and it's taking
<v Speaker 1>them time to sort of match the energy of like
<v Speaker 1>an EA. Big I met, I bet that's like you
<v Speaker 1>you could start making one of those like hey, let's
<v Speaker 1>make Wing Gretzky three D hockey or whatever NHL hits
<v Speaker 1>and you start making that, and it's like, okay, that
<v Speaker 1>last mile of getting the game to feel as good
<v Speaker 1>as those games felt, and I feel like as feature
<v Speaker 1>rich as a modern game should actually probably does cost
<v Speaker 1>as much money as like an EA would spend on
<v Speaker 1>one of these and not an indie studio, So you know,
<v Speaker 1>that's one of those situations where I think they'll figure
<v Speaker 1>that over time. But uh, yeah, it's good. It's not
<v Speaker 1>that space is still kind of a vacuum and it's
<v Speaker 1>missing a lot of those games. Hit Kimmer, Let's show
<v Speaker 1>it off. Squid word came everybody, We did it, Usa, USA.
<v Speaker 1>How happy is? She's very happy. She's been asking me
<v Speaker 1>for the last several days about squid words, so uh,
<v Speaker 1>I had to like get the tracking out and show
<v Speaker 1>her it's like, hey, it's in Chicago right now, let's
<v Speaker 1>just give it some time. And then that was yesterday,
<v Speaker 1>and now it's it came first thing this morning, so
<v Speaker 1>she was very happy. I got her the squared word.
<v Speaker 1>Everyone could stop yelling at me now, all right, I
<v Speaker 1>got her it work squid work. I was like laying
<v Speaker 1>down the law, like you don't need another stuffed animal,
<v Speaker 1>but she asked so frequently over such a long period
<v Speaker 1>of time, like she must actually really want this one.
<v Speaker 1>So wow, Oh squidward is now asking why a SpongeBob
<v Speaker 1>in this house? So you got to go do something
<v Speaker 1>about that squid word. Uh, it's a sago over here.
<v Speaker 1>It's surprised how long they've stuck with us. SpongeBob I
<v Speaker 1>was like, I thought that'd be a phase because there's
<v Speaker 1>so many of the things they're into our phase. But
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, man, this is a pretty good show. I
<v Speaker 1>get it. Lonely Mountains snow Riders announced for Xbox. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Jonas Mackie, a game reactor. Lonely Mountains Downhill
<v Speaker 1>was an unexpected mega success when it was launched five
<v Speaker 1>years ago. It's also one of my games of the
<v Speaker 1>year that year, was on my top ten list for sure,
<v Speaker 1>and suddenly roughly half the gaming world was pushing downhill
<v Speaker 1>records with a mountain bike. A week ago, a sequel
<v Speaker 1>of sorts was announced called Lonely Lonely Mountains snow Riders,
<v Speaker 1>and this time, as the name suggests, it's all about skiing,
<v Speaker 1>but only for PC gamers, as that was the only
<v Speaker 1>confirmed format until now. That is because developer Megagon has
<v Speaker 1>just announced that the game is coming to Xbox as well,
<v Speaker 1>and released two new trailers of what's to come, one
<v Speaker 1>pack of gameplay and one where one where we are
<v Speaker 1>guided through the game, which among other things, offers multiplayers.
<v Speaker 1>So several people can ski together, which sounds like a
<v Speaker 1>good time to me. The Mountain Downhill was a like
<v Speaker 1>isometric kind of a game where you're just on a
<v Speaker 1>bicycle and you have to like navigate these paths, and
<v Speaker 1>there was multiple paths you could take and some shortcuts
<v Speaker 1>and you could sort of if you were good at
<v Speaker 1>hitting these shortcuts, you get to cut off a lot
<v Speaker 1>of time. And it was a leaderboard games some sort,
<v Speaker 1>but was also a chill vibe out game if you
<v Speaker 1>wanted it to be, because you're like, let's just sort
<v Speaker 1>of go down this hill slowly so you can meditate
<v Speaker 1>to that. I was super into it, and I've kind
<v Speaker 1>of been like, well, I'm glad that game exists. I'll
<v Speaker 1>just go back to it whenever I don't need another one.
<v Speaker 1>Never really thinking a sequel was a possibility, I don't
<v Speaker 1>know why, and hearing that there's a sequel and not
<v Speaker 1>only that is it's it's skiing that sounds fantastic to me.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm very into this. Were you someone that ever
<v Speaker 1>tried Lonely Mountain Downhill?
<v Speaker 2>No, I'm going to be real. While you were talking,
<v Speaker 2>I had to look at pictures of what this game wants.
<v Speaker 1>You're not going to be alone.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, And then I was hearing you talk about it
<v Speaker 2>and I'm like, oh, this is interesting. I didn't think
<v Speaker 2>Grubb would be really interested. Then you said leaderboards and
<v Speaker 2>I was like, okay, yeah, no, I get it now.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah for sure. Yeah, that's definitely how it went. For sure.
<v Speaker 1>I I did get into the meditative side of it,
<v Speaker 1>but no, let's be real, it was leaderboards. Yeah. I
<v Speaker 1>like games where it's like just physical interactions with the world,
<v Speaker 1>and this game definitely does a really good job of
<v Speaker 1>that and people are playing out. Descenders also announced the
<v Speaker 1>sequel recently. I also like Descenders for the same exact reasons.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, that's the letting gravity take hold of you
<v Speaker 1>and trying to master it. Genre is is kind of
<v Speaker 1>getting filled up once again, and I'm into it all right,
<v Speaker 1>let's see here. Last story rumor is that we and
<v Speaker 1>DS favorite My Sims could be coming to Switch soons
<v Speaker 1>from Alana Eggs at Nintendo Life. Who Remembers My Sims.
<v Speaker 1>The spinoff to Maxis is hugely popular. The Sims series.
<v Speaker 1>My Sims saw you play as a cute little avatar
<v Speaker 1>attempting to restore and redevelop a run down town. It
<v Speaker 1>launched on WE and DS in two thousand and seven,
<v Speaker 1>before making the jump to PC and FS phones the
<v Speaker 1>following year. Well, it sounds like My Sims could be
<v Speaker 1>making a comeback. Spotted by reset era user dah Dash,
<v Speaker 1>are listings for a swim which version of the game
<v Speaker 1>have appeared on European retailers Vertex and World of Games,
<v Speaker 1>along with a nineteenth November twenty twenty four release date.
<v Speaker 1>Both listings priced the potential switch version of the game
<v Speaker 1>at just under fifty Euro, while Vertex is using a
<v Speaker 1>mock cover for the title. EA hasn't announced anything yet,
<v Speaker 1>so take these listings with a pinch of salt. But
<v Speaker 1>that hasn't stopped people, including us, getting nostalgic for the
<v Speaker 1>QT take on the Sims. Both listings are alive at
<v Speaker 1>the same time of this writing, but they could be
<v Speaker 1>pulled at any moment. Yeah, this is something. I never
<v Speaker 1>really played any of my SIMS games, but I definitely
<v Speaker 1>saw it happening. I kind of put them in the
<v Speaker 1>bucket of you know, Ubisoft's Imagine babies and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 1>and I know, I maybe that's unfair, or maybe imagining
<v Speaker 1>babies is also good. I don't know, whatever, I just
<v Speaker 1>put in a bucket where it's like I can ignore
<v Speaker 1>these for the most part. The one I ever cared
<v Speaker 1>about the most was when Jeff Green from Games for
<v Speaker 1>Windows Live podcast left and went to go work at EA,
<v Speaker 1>and the first game he worked on was My My
<v Speaker 1>SIMS Agent or something like that. I remember hearing his
<v Speaker 1>stories about that, but I never played that either, so
<v Speaker 1>I don't is there is there a lot of nostalgia
<v Speaker 1>for the My SIMS games. I really don't know. What
<v Speaker 1>do you think?
<v Speaker 2>I have no idea. Yeah, I'm looking at again. This
<v Speaker 2>is a game I had to look up because this
<v Speaker 2>totally passed me by, and I'm like, maybe there's an
<v Speaker 2>audience for this. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, Sim's audience is definitely something I don't traveling normally.
<v Speaker 1>I like the SIMS games. I played a handful of
<v Speaker 1>them and really enjoyed my time that I spent with them,
<v Speaker 1>but it was like, you know, I would be like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>I played this game for thirty hours, and then the
<v Speaker 1>SIMS fans are looking at me like pathetic. I've put
<v Speaker 1>three hundred thousand hours in these games or whatever, So
<v Speaker 1>they are just living a whole different life than I am.
<v Speaker 1>I don't. I don't know if that transfers to to
<v Speaker 1>my SIMS in any real way. Yeah, but I guess, hey,
<v Speaker 1>why not like if they if it's give it a shot,
<v Speaker 1>give it a shot. I mean it's if especially it's
<v Speaker 1>like if this sign of life for being like, let's
<v Speaker 1>get ready to support the switch and switch to a
<v Speaker 1>little bit more and have some old games come back
<v Speaker 1>and get ready for you know, new games to launch
<v Speaker 1>on the switch to. I guess that's nice, but uh,
<v Speaker 1>we'll see. Nicky says they met their their wife in
<v Speaker 1>my SIMS. Well, yeah, it was a beautiful ceremony everybody. So, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it was in my SIMS agents.
<v Speaker 2>And then they got married in my sim's wedding.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they had to get the expansion. Looking forward to
<v Speaker 1>that en Zoe game that was at Opening Night Live
<v Speaker 1>where it's got the very realistic character models. Now that's
<v Speaker 1>what they need really to keep the juices flowing in
<v Speaker 1>that relationship. All right, that does it for the headlines.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to get to the poll question from yesterday
<v Speaker 1>that is right here, where are you going to play
<v Speaker 1>India and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle? Is this
<v Speaker 1>this is the latest one. Let me refresh this real quick.
<v Speaker 1>Make sure that's right. Is that the one from now? Yes?
<v Speaker 1>Or there we go? Yes? Okay, where are you going
<v Speaker 1>to play Indiana Jones? In the Great Circle? Thirty percent
<v Speaker 1>say PS five next year, thirty two percent said PC,
<v Speaker 1>and thirty eight percent of Xbox Is this yesterday's Did
<v Speaker 1>we ever put up the one from yesterday? Oh? Yes,
<v Speaker 1>it's right here and I didn't vote on it. There
<v Speaker 1>it is. Okay. When is the last time you played
<v Speaker 1>a Nintendo game on a phone or tablet?
<v Speaker 2>Uh?
<v Speaker 1>I think I played Mario Kart with my kid this year,
<v Speaker 1>so I'll vote this year. There we go, all right,
<v Speaker 1>So eleven percent also played in a Nintendo mobile game
<v Speaker 1>this year, four percent have did so last year, twenty
<v Speaker 1>eight percent it's been two years or more since they
<v Speaker 1>played a Nintendo game on mobile, seventeen percent say they
<v Speaker 1>don't remember, and thirty nine percent have never played a
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo game on mobile. How about you you play any
<v Speaker 1>like Animal Crossing, Pocket Camp, Mario Kart World two or
<v Speaker 1>anything like that on your phone.
<v Speaker 2>I got a new one for you, Pokemon Unite.
<v Speaker 1>Pokemon Unite. Yeah, I liked Pokemon Unite. Actually that was fun.
<v Speaker 1>How's that how's that doing these days? You still do
<v Speaker 1>you still should check in on that.
<v Speaker 2>Uh So it was funny. A bunch of us actually
<v Speaker 2>just redownloaded it this week because fun Pokemon World the
<v Speaker 2>World Championships has happened last weekend. So a lot of
<v Speaker 2>a lot of us have been like, oh, we should
<v Speaker 2>like play Pokemon Unit again because used to play it
<v Speaker 2>a lot. That game has got so many Pokemon in
<v Speaker 2>it now it's got all sorts of stuff, new maps,
<v Speaker 2>they're they're adding like three more Pokemon. It gets like,
<v Speaker 2>you know, it gets pretty regular updates. I'm not any
<v Speaker 2>good at it, but like, you know, just it's it's funny.
<v Speaker 2>Sorry not to make this a long story, but let's
<v Speaker 2>go for it. You play Pokemon Unite with random players
<v Speaker 2>when you're not playing with your friends, and you get
<v Speaker 2>mad because they're not doing what they're supposed to be doing,
<v Speaker 2>and then you have to remember that more than any mobia,
<v Speaker 2>you're playing with a child, right, Like, you're playing with
<v Speaker 2>like a person who just wants to play as Pikachu
<v Speaker 2>and run around and just hit things.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, so it's like really young kids. It's not like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>these are the kids that are Yeah, they're young, but
<v Speaker 1>they're actually silently killers because they's this is all they do.
<v Speaker 2>Both exist. But like when you see someone who clearly
<v Speaker 2>doesn't know what they're doing, Like in my brain, I'm like,
<v Speaker 2>there is a very high chance that this is an
<v Speaker 2>actual child.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like just an actual five year old that just
<v Speaker 1>loves Pikachu. And that's all they're thinking about right now
<v Speaker 1>is Hey, that's Pikachu. Hey, hey you Pikachu. They yell
<v Speaker 1>at their screen and he doesn't yell back because they
<v Speaker 1>don't have the microphone from the N sixty four. All right,
<v Speaker 1>so we got a new pole question. We'll get to
<v Speaker 1>that in a second. Before we do that, though, Jesse Fittelli,
<v Speaker 1>why don't you tell people what you have going on
<v Speaker 1>where they can find you on the internet, all that
<v Speaker 1>good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>You can find me on the internet on x dot com,
<v Speaker 2>slash Twitter, the everything app. I hate that at Jesse Vitelli. Basically,
<v Speaker 2>all socials are my hat, which is which is on
<v Speaker 2>the screen, You'll find me anywhere. Basically with that, I
<v Speaker 2>like to keep thinking simple. My name is everywhere. I
<v Speaker 2>can't talk about exactly what I have coming up, but
<v Speaker 2>be on the lookout for next week. There might be
<v Speaker 2>there might be some some stuff from me, so you know,
<v Speaker 2>stay tuned to my socials for maybe a fun, fun
<v Speaker 2>information about upcoming video game.
<v Speaker 1>Hey, hell yeah, that's awesome. Also, if you're an audio listener,
<v Speaker 1>you should turn it in. Tune in the video to
<v Speaker 1>see Jesse's excellent taco bell hat.
<v Speaker 2>Just thank you taco bell hat my roommate on me.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's it looks great. Absolutely, No, we need a
<v Speaker 1>Squidward emote sins Kane high wind and get we'll get
<v Speaker 1>what to work on it. We probably should have that.
<v Speaker 1>All right, excellent, let's see here new poll question and
<v Speaker 1>that we will get to on Monday because the Labor
<v Speaker 1>Day is the following weekend week so yeah, so we'll
<v Speaker 1>get this on Monday. How do you feel about Obsidian
<v Speaker 1>targeting thirty frames per second for a vowed It's fine,
<v Speaker 1>it's frustrating, or I'm playing on PC. Those are your options. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm always interested to see the response this. I
<v Speaker 1>think last time we did this, Jesse as well, I
<v Speaker 1>think I asked a question like this. I think your
<v Speaker 1>response came back mostly like it's whatever, it's fine. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>some people are like, yeah, this really bothers me. But
<v Speaker 1>the vast majority of people I think were like, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna make do I don't really care, and that's why
<v Speaker 1>these companies do it, because I am as usually, my
<v Speaker 1>peculiar taste are not those of most people spending money
<v Speaker 1>on this hobby. All right, we will get the results
<v Speaker 1>of that on Games Mornings on Giant Bomb on Monday.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking to Giant Bomb later today, about an hour from now,
<v Speaker 1>if you're watching live, we will have unprofessional Fridays where
<v Speaker 1>we will play Killer Clowns from outer Space. I think
<v Speaker 1>you can have up to ten players in that, so
<v Speaker 1>we have I think it's gonna be me Nicky, Sean, Emma.
<v Speaker 1>We have a couple of friends pop pop in. But
<v Speaker 1>if anyone's like, got the house wants to help us out,
<v Speaker 1>feel free to hop in. We'll probably figure that out,
<v Speaker 1>so it should be a good time. Otherwise, Oh, we'll
<v Speaker 1>do a BCR where we will pick a We're gonna
<v Speaker 1>do a draft of the best the best team of
<v Speaker 1>horror game villains and monsters, so we're gonna kind of
<v Speaker 1>pity each other against that. That'll be happening after upf
<v Speaker 1>and then we'll get back to it next week with
<v Speaker 1>plenty of content Jan's promising a relatively short turnaround on
<v Speaker 1>the travelog. We'll see. It's a busy man, so maybe
<v Speaker 1>that pops off next week. I don't know, but everyone
<v Speaker 1>should be back and then hey, next week, next Friday,
<v Speaker 1>we are gonna be in Seattle for Packs, So come
<v Speaker 1>find us and say hi. We have panels on a
<v Speaker 1>Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Look out for those Blake Club.
<v Speaker 1>I think we're doing a BombCast for Vengeance live at
<v Speaker 1>Packs on Sunday. Maybe it's flipped one or the other.
<v Speaker 1>Either way, those are happening there. Definitely show up for
<v Speaker 1>all that. And of course, of course it's Bee week.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody buzz buzz for Bee Week. I think we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>the chance that we're having a spelling Bee, but we'll
<v Speaker 1>play buck Bumble. It's gonna be a lot of buck
<v Speaker 1>Bumble next week, everybody, and a bunch of other B game.
<v Speaker 1>We'll play the B movie game. Jerry Seinfeld will be
<v Speaker 1>a guest on bad what's that be simulator? Simulator? Yes,
<v Speaker 1>I've got that ready to go. So yeah, it's gonna
<v Speaker 1>Sean's been writing down every time we just spout out ideas.
<v Speaker 1>I think Sean's been writing them down, so we got
<v Speaker 1>a list of stuff ready to go. Everybody look out
<v Speaker 1>for that, all right, Jesse Vitelli, thank you so much
<v Speaker 1>for hanging out with me today and talking about video games. Man,
<v Speaker 1>I really appreciate it. Thank you, Jeff Grubb, and to
<v Speaker 1>all of you the best audience in gaming, have a
<v Speaker 1>good one, take care of yourself, and goodbye.