Layoffs at EA Across All Battlefield Studios

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Mike Minatti,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo versus the US government and should we still expect
<v Speaker 1>steams new hardware this year. It's gonna be a good
<v Speaker 1>one because we have Jana Chow on the show.
<v Speaker 2>Jan how are you doing.
<v Speaker 3>I'm all topsy turvy, Mike. I'm on this side of
<v Speaker 3>the screen. You're hosting the show today, Daylight savings time, things,
<v Speaker 3>things are all over the place. Feels like real substitute
<v Speaker 3>teacher energy. But I'm all with it because you're the
<v Speaker 3>cool substitute.
<v Speaker 2>People mostly like seeing the substitute teacher.
<v Speaker 1>Every once in a while, you got like the hard
<v Speaker 1>assub who's going to, like, you know, show everybody that
<v Speaker 1>he needs to be taken seriously too. But most of
<v Speaker 1>the time it meant you were gonna watch a movie
<v Speaker 1>or just kind of you know, not do a stupid
<v Speaker 1>or false test or something it was right that didn't
<v Speaker 1>really count for your grade.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's busy work. Yeah, except today we got nothing
<v Speaker 3>but hot stories for everyone.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, we do, we do.
<v Speaker 1>There's a few things popping off on this Monday. So
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be excited to get into all of that,
<v Speaker 1>just like I'm sure you're excited. You're gonna be seeing
<v Speaker 1>Jeff later, right, Yeah, So Jeff's not here because he's
<v Speaker 1>in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference. He's got
<v Speaker 1>a panel he's doing there about independent games media.
<v Speaker 3>What did he know?
<v Speaker 2>What does he know? Right right right? That fool, that
<v Speaker 2>parading buffood. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I checked out Day of the Devs yesterday, Mikey, and
<v Speaker 3>that was really cool. Shouts out to all the lovely
<v Speaker 3>people that said Hi. A couple of people Mike said
<v Speaker 3>that they're so happy for you that you're done with Virtuoso.
<v Speaker 1>Oh my god, that's a big talk at the Game
<v Speaker 1>Developers Conference.
<v Speaker 2>It's the three d Oh game I've beaten.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, you were the talk of the town.
<v Speaker 2>Oh okay, I'm glad. I'm glad.
<v Speaker 3>You know.
<v Speaker 1>Since then, I did do my research looking looking at
<v Speaker 1>Dance potential games. I looked at the one I did
<v Speaker 1>send him in, the one I was potentially gonna send
<v Speaker 1>him as the Ripcord.
<v Speaker 2>And I have I have pooled the ripcord.
<v Speaker 1>Jan that has happened his new game is on the way.
<v Speaker 1>It's a super Nintendo game. He's got a new costume coming.
<v Speaker 1>I recorded my process of looking these that we'll put
<v Speaker 1>those up on premium at some point here. Yeah, but
<v Speaker 1>I'm both excited and afraid.
<v Speaker 3>I think I understand both feelings because we also still
<v Speaker 3>have to sit through Dan playing the.
<v Speaker 1>Game we do, and I don't want him to, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Sully us and be the first person to not finish
<v Speaker 1>his Blay Club game.
<v Speaker 3>Right. Do you think that's a legitimate concern this time?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I am concerned.
<v Speaker 3>Okay, all right, we'll see.
<v Speaker 2>He's made you know, Dan surprises all of us doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>Need constantly every single day.
<v Speaker 1>All right, all right, before we get into things, let's
<v Speaker 1>explain ourselves. This is Giant Bomb, a small team. It's
<v Speaker 1>been post showering. Now I'm talking a lot. My glasses
<v Speaker 1>are fogging up. I always love when that happen.
<v Speaker 2>It's a hot, steamy man.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>This is Giant bomba small team of video game dupences
<v Speaker 1>who are lying your support so we can make cool stuff.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to help, go to giant bomb dot
<v Speaker 1>com slats. Join this gets you every shows and some extras. Hey,
<v Speaker 1>to be clear, the extras at this moment are better
<v Speaker 1>than perhaps ever who wants to be a millionaire? This
<v Speaker 1>is the run where we're playing the PS one version
<v Speaker 1>supposed to be a millionaire has been a ton of fun.
<v Speaker 1>We're seeing who can win a million dollars first. And
<v Speaker 1>don't forget about Marry Me Tomadacci, where Abby is just
<v Speaker 1>running our romantic lives on a strange island with a
<v Speaker 1>talking apple head and two versions of Marissa till May.
<v Speaker 1>So many things are happening there. It's been a great time,
<v Speaker 1>and we got some other fun stuff popping off over
<v Speaker 1>on premium. So again, that's giant bomb dot com. Slash
<v Speaker 1>join now here on this show. Most weekdays, Jeff Grob
<v Speaker 1>will help peace your gamingly back together.
<v Speaker 2>But this is not most weekdays. This is a mighty Monday.
<v Speaker 2>I'm bitch and it's about me.
<v Speaker 1>That includes breaking news and maybe even more of our
<v Speaker 1>own original reporting for all these topics, I'll get input
<v Speaker 1>from a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
<v Speaker 1>For watching live on Twitch Welcome, you can always listen
<v Speaker 1>to the show later podcast feeds by searching for Game
<v Speaker 1>This Mornings, or find the RSS feed on giant bomb
<v Speaker 1>dot com. You can also catch the show later with
<v Speaker 1>chapters and timestams on YouTube. Hello, I will said, hello
<v Speaker 1>Lotube blow the pig line.
<v Speaker 2>Hello yeah Zube.
<v Speaker 3>I thought we're going to say hello lou buo, Hello
<v Speaker 3>Loo boo.
<v Speaker 1>We have a lot to get into, so let's start
<v Speaker 1>the morning mess with Nintendo suing US government over tariffs.
<v Speaker 1>It's from Nicole Competot Aftermath. The Time of America is
<v Speaker 1>issuing the US government over the sweeping tariffs President Donald
<v Speaker 1>Trump been in place last year, according to a complaint
<v Speaker 1>filed Friday in the US Court of International Trade and
<v Speaker 1>obtained by Aftermath. Though the Supreme Court has stimmied the
<v Speaker 1>terriffs for the time being, situation remains in flux or
<v Speaker 1>companies manufacturing goods outside the US and San State side.
<v Speaker 1>The Supreme Court struck down the tariffs on February twentieth,
<v Speaker 1>but Trump vowed tom post new fifteen percent tariffs on
<v Speaker 1>many global imports under Section one two two of the
<v Speaker 1>Trade Act of nineteen seventy four. Two dozen states are
<v Speaker 1>suing over the new tarriffs. As of Thursday, more than
<v Speaker 1>one thousand companies have also sued the US government for
<v Speaker 1>what they say is the illegal implementation of these terraffs.
<v Speaker 1>Those companies include Costco and FedEx. This action concerns defendants
<v Speaker 1>initiation and administration of unlawful trade measures that have to
<v Speaker 1>date result into collection of more than two hundred billion
<v Speaker 1>in tariffs on imports from merely all countries.
<v Speaker 2>Lawyers right in the complaint.
<v Speaker 1>The time the terraffs was particularly bad for Nintendo, which
<v Speaker 1>was gearing up to release it's the Tendo switch to
<v Speaker 1>console when they were announced. The company ended up delaying
<v Speaker 1>pre orders from the anticipated console after the tariffs were
<v Speaker 1>announced and jenwow, they didn't increase the price of the
<v Speaker 1>console itself, prices for accessories.
<v Speaker 2>So forth to go up.
<v Speaker 1>So there were ratifications for the tariffs for a lot
<v Speaker 1>of companies, and that does include Nintendo. You know, often
<v Speaker 1>we see Nintendo maybe not want to get involved politically
<v Speaker 1>in things. Last week, everybody was patting them on the
<v Speaker 1>back or the Pokemon company because.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, the like the White House.
<v Speaker 1>Twitter account was doing that whole pocopia font meme thing
<v Speaker 1>to reiterate one of their racist slogans or something, and
<v Speaker 1>you know, Natinda was like, we did not say they
<v Speaker 1>could do that, which wasn't a particularly strong stance, but still,
<v Speaker 1>you know, it got some attention. Here's going more out
<v Speaker 1>the US government. Is it surprising to you or you know,
<v Speaker 1>in this case, a lot of companies are going after
<v Speaker 1>the US government. They're kind of just one of a
<v Speaker 1>bunch here, and they're just trying to get their money back.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I think it's interesting, Mike, because normally, at least on
<v Speaker 3>this show, when we've talked about Nintendo's legal team here
<v Speaker 3>in the US, they're going after rom distribution places and
<v Speaker 3>emulate people making emulators or Powell World and other things
<v Speaker 3>like that. I think they are especially motivated because this
<v Speaker 3>does affect their purse strings. But I'm all for companies
<v Speaker 3>going to bat and coming after the US government for bullshit,
<v Speaker 3>the bullshit practices that are ultimately affecting their bottom line.
<v Speaker 3>I wonder if if some of the Pokemon stuff from
<v Speaker 3>last week is also part of the motivations for like,
<v Speaker 3>all right, let's take the kid gloves off, let's actually
<v Speaker 3>organize and get together to show them that we mean
<v Speaker 3>business as well. And I bet with other companies stepping
<v Speaker 3>up and big companies like Costco and FedEx, like you mentioned,
<v Speaker 3>that Nintendo feels a little bit more emboldened as well
<v Speaker 3>to like throw their hat into this as well.
<v Speaker 1>Right, you know, so sometimes it kind of is, you know,
<v Speaker 1>this administration's playbook and kind of the you know, right
<v Speaker 1>side playbook in general, is to really laser focus at
<v Speaker 1>their company if they perceive them as being in the
<v Speaker 1>wrong or coming after them. You know, we saw what
<v Speaker 1>happened with bud Light targeting weird.
<v Speaker 2>Things like that.
<v Speaker 1>In this instance, again, there's already a thousand companies suing
<v Speaker 1>the US government. It seems unlikely that you know, Trump
<v Speaker 1>or the White House or what have you, specifically gonna
<v Speaker 1>laser focus on Nintendo and start you know, just talking
<v Speaker 1>a lot about that. A lot of times it is
<v Speaker 1>just talk, and that's kind of the whole point. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this seems like they feel relatively safe doing this. Obviously
<v Speaker 1>they have a great case the Supreme Court, which is,
<v Speaker 1>you know, you know, a pretty Trump friendly Supreme Court
<v Speaker 1>filled with his appointees. Even they were like, hey, that
<v Speaker 1>was illegal, you can't do that. So yeah, by the laws,
<v Speaker 1>it was illegal. These people are presumably, dude their money back.
<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine what the logistics of this is again,
<v Speaker 1>because it's you know, one thousand companies and all these
<v Speaker 1>other people who are owe this money, and like, do
<v Speaker 1>you have.
<v Speaker 2>To sue to get that money back? Anyway? Didn't we
<v Speaker 2>just say that it was illegal from the take it?
<v Speaker 1>Well, the whole process here is interesting, and I wonder
<v Speaker 1>how long does this take to play out?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think that's the other thing I'm worried about, Mike,
<v Speaker 3>is how long this is actually going to take to
<v Speaker 3>play out? And if anyone gets any sort of refund
<v Speaker 3>and you know, from the consumer perspective as well, where
<v Speaker 3>a lot of the tariff costs was coming out of
<v Speaker 3>our pockets, do we get compensated back? Do we have
<v Speaker 3>to upload receipts anywhere? Are we going to get any
<v Speaker 3>type of financial kickback? The answer, unfortunately for us, is
<v Speaker 3>probably no. But then I'm curious if, like you know,
<v Speaker 3>the big big companies out there that are pursuing litigation,
<v Speaker 3>if they're gonna get anything back, because yeah, like this
<v Speaker 3>has affected like so many different industries, not just like
<v Speaker 3>video games and everything like miscellaneous, other consumer electronics, furniture,
<v Speaker 3>even tariff prices like affected that stuff. So is anyone
<v Speaker 3>gonna get their money back? Or are are we just
<v Speaker 3>gonna eventually wind up on the other side of this
<v Speaker 3>and the artificial inflation of prices that the terroiffs were causing.
<v Speaker 3>Are we just going to look the other way or
<v Speaker 3>be told to look the other way? Right?
<v Speaker 1>And of course that inflation of prices probably not going
<v Speaker 1>anywhere because along with the tariffs, and again Trump's trying
<v Speaker 1>to find ways to go around the court or at
<v Speaker 1>least make the court have to spend another year or
<v Speaker 1>so coming to a new decision explaining why the new
<v Speaker 1>thing he did was illegal. But in the meantime, he's
<v Speaker 1>going to try to find other ways to impose tariffs.
<v Speaker 1>And even outside of that, we now have you know,
<v Speaker 1>all these component prices skyrocketing like ram because of the
<v Speaker 1>hoarding of these parts by a I so yeah, video
<v Speaker 1>game consoles are incredibly impacted by this. Nintendo was kind
<v Speaker 1>of the first to have to weigh into those waters
<v Speaker 1>with the switch to, and they relatively held their guns.
<v Speaker 2>With the price of the switch to, which you.
<v Speaker 1>Know, they announced and was, yeah, maybe a bit high
<v Speaker 1>than people were used to, and then they kind of
<v Speaker 1>had that weird period We're like, hold, we might increase
<v Speaker 1>the price. It ultimately didn't, but made us all sweat
<v Speaker 1>a good bit. But I think we're all kind of
<v Speaker 1>anxious to see. Boy, what is a PlayStation six going
<v Speaker 1>to cost? What is this project Helix that Microsoft is
<v Speaker 1>talking about? Or a Steam machine from Valve? What are
<v Speaker 1>we talking about? One thousand dollars consoles in our imminent future.
<v Speaker 3>And not just like the big consoles that are coming
<v Speaker 3>out like you mentioned, Mikey, but like you know, other
<v Speaker 3>smaller things like the next whatever. The next thing is
<v Speaker 3>from a place like Ayn making another little portable handheld
<v Speaker 3>or retroid, other stuff that they're going to make moving forwards,
<v Speaker 3>and like the other miscllaneous, other different gadgets and gizmos
<v Speaker 3>that will come out that can play all the games
<v Speaker 3>we already have and play on other devices.
<v Speaker 1>How's the tender gonna make their watch for you?
<v Speaker 3>Mike? No one has asked me about this.
<v Speaker 2>I'm I know what's important to you. Don't worry. I've
<v Speaker 2>got you.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you, all right.
<v Speaker 1>So it'll be interesting to see how this all plays
<v Speaker 1>out in the coming months and may be here. It's
<v Speaker 1>courts now, so that's exciting.
<v Speaker 3>And they move very fast.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, we all know about that. I saw Alarmo mentioned
<v Speaker 1>in chat. I want to say I still love my
<v Speaker 1>Alarmo That's why I was able to get up and
<v Speaker 1>do a morning show. Everybody, thank you, Nintendo, Alarmo, all right,
<v Speaker 1>should you Becomi's new studio, Unbound, as building a Triple
<v Speaker 1>A original IP for consoles and PC. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Andy Robinson at VGC, but Kami, who's best known for
<v Speaker 1>creating the Resident Evil series at Capcom, left Teago Game Works,
<v Speaker 1>the studio behind the Evil within Ghostwart, took in Hi
<v Speaker 1>Fi Rush in twenty twenty three. Now more details have
<v Speaker 1>emerged on the designer's next venture via website for Unbound Games.
<v Speaker 1>According to the site, which has been live for at
<v Speaker 1>least a year, but was only recently widely circulated, huh.
<v Speaker 1>The company has been in business it's May twenty twenty three,
<v Speaker 1>with Bikamia as the representative director. I'm Bound Games is
<v Speaker 1>said to have around fifty employees with an aim to
<v Speaker 1>expand to around one hundred and fifty, and is described
<v Speaker 1>as a fully independent company developing high end consumer games
<v Speaker 1>creating original Triple A titles accoated job listings. Unbound is
<v Speaker 1>currently developing a high end original IP project powered by
<v Speaker 1>Unreal Engine five for PS five, Xbox and PC, and
<v Speaker 1>has aspirations to work on smaller scale titles concurrently in
<v Speaker 1>the future. Well, so you know, should you mccamie is
<v Speaker 1>of course a legend created Resident Evil, which is more
<v Speaker 1>relevant than ever actually in this moment, and those games
<v Speaker 1>just keep doing well. And aside from that, Survival Horror
<v Speaker 1>in general having quite a bit of a renaissance at
<v Speaker 1>the moment. Of course, Resident Evil at the height of
<v Speaker 1>its powers, Silent Hell back from the dead. It is
<v Speaker 1>maybe in a better position than it has ever been.
<v Speaker 1>We've had other great games recently, like Alan Lake two.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, it makes a ton of sense for should
<v Speaker 1>You be called Me to continue to And you know,
<v Speaker 1>we don't know that the next game is necessarily Survival Horror.
<v Speaker 1>But when McCamy last created a studio with Tango Game Works,
<v Speaker 1>we got The Evil Within as kind of the flagship
<v Speaker 1>franchise over there.
<v Speaker 2>Did you ever play the Evil Within games? Jam?
<v Speaker 3>No, those always missed me because I was a little
<v Speaker 3>scaredy cat. I did play Ghost War Tokyo and it
<v Speaker 3>wasn't as thrilled with that unfortunately, But I have heard
<v Speaker 3>good sentiment around the Evil Within games. I take a
<v Speaker 3>little bit of issue with him saying that there the
<v Speaker 3>studios aim is to build triple A original ip mostly
<v Speaker 3>because maybe let's let's not let's knock it down in a,
<v Speaker 3>let's just do double A. We don't get all the
<v Speaker 3>bells and whistles, maybe a couple of bells and a
<v Speaker 3>slide whistle, just because I don't, you know, game development
<v Speaker 3>takes super long. I don't want them to throw years
<v Speaker 3>into a game just for the sake of trying to
<v Speaker 3>match whatever benchmark artificial benchmark that people have put in
<v Speaker 3>front of them, as I fully trust them to make
<v Speaker 3>a game that looks good, plays good, and it is
<v Speaker 3>maybe a little spooky.
<v Speaker 1>You know, And of course a game works also gave
<v Speaker 1>us hi Fi rush. I want to be careful about
<v Speaker 1>using the term double A games because I know Jeff
<v Speaker 1>hates it so much and this is his show.
<v Speaker 2>I want to be respectful.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, like, yeah, games that probably didn't take
<v Speaker 1>five years to make and didn't have you know, a
<v Speaker 1>giant budget, per se, and even at least talking about
<v Speaker 1>the size of the studio here, one hundred and fifty employees, Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>That's that's that's a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, but it's also not a ton of ton anymore
<v Speaker 1>these days in some ways. Yeah, so I'd be curious
<v Speaker 1>what can happen. I'm a little concerned about where the
<v Speaker 1>funding is coming from, sure, right, because you know, we
<v Speaker 1>saw a negotio studio from these a creator just like Lost.
<v Speaker 1>It's net eas funding. I think over the weekend was
<v Speaker 1>a Friday, and now that studio might be closing, right,
<v Speaker 1>So you know, there's a lot there's a lot of
<v Speaker 1>the same names that often fund these studios from these
<v Speaker 1>big name developers and then they maybe get bored or
<v Speaker 1>you have one shot to make one head and if
<v Speaker 1>that doesn't.
<v Speaker 3>Work, you're out right.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, so I hope Unbound is a pretty good
<v Speaker 1>chance here.
<v Speaker 3>The other part I'm interested in, Mike is the fact
<v Speaker 3>that this is like another studio for to attract talent
<v Speaker 3>in Japan, potentially global talent as well, just because I
<v Speaker 3>believe it was on gay Miss Mornings last week where
<v Speaker 3>Greb had the story of just general development practices in
<v Speaker 3>Japan and like that being a little bit more stringent
<v Speaker 3>in terms of like, hey, we go through so many
<v Speaker 3>hoops to find the right person for the job because
<v Speaker 3>they're gonna they tend to stick with a company for
<v Speaker 3>an extended period of time, if not their whole career. Sometimes.
<v Speaker 3>So if this opens up the door for a lot
<v Speaker 3>of like talent that didn't get in the door in
<v Speaker 3>any other Japanese studios or helps cultivate development in Japan,
<v Speaker 3>I am all for it.
<v Speaker 1>Right And unlike over here, they may not fire people
<v Speaker 1>as often in Japan they have laws that make that
<v Speaker 1>more difficult to do, but they could also just not
<v Speaker 1>hire as many people, right and then as people kind
<v Speaker 1>of actually you know, leave and they don't refill those positions,
<v Speaker 1>it's the same kind of downsizing that can happen over there.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, more opportunities to give you know, what I
<v Speaker 1>imagine is a great stable of Japanese game developers movie
<v Speaker 1>don't have work at the moment a home.
<v Speaker 2>I would like that.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm hoping we see something cool from Unbound someday.
<v Speaker 1>And normally I'd be pretty skeptical about, like, oh, story
<v Speaker 1>game developers new studio, but he has done this once
<v Speaker 1>before with Tangled Game Works, which kind of has had
<v Speaker 1>its own weird history.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, all right.
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy seven remake Part three director reveals gameplay mechanics
<v Speaker 1>and locations fans can't expect from Vicky Blake at ign
<v Speaker 1>Pelpa said remake Part three director Naoki Hamagucci has opened
<v Speaker 1>up about what to expect when the third installment of
<v Speaker 1>the highly anticipated multi chapter game releases not too far
<v Speaker 1>in the future, including new gameplay mechanics in locations, some
<v Speaker 1>of which we have yet to visit in the remake series.
<v Speaker 1>Talking to Bloomberg, I'm a Gucci teas that allowing fans
<v Speaker 1>to visit Rocket Town in space is one of the
<v Speaker 1>elements the team had to switch around with Rebirth as
<v Speaker 1>well as Wutai, not because Ufi's made a very prominent
<v Speaker 1>appearance stating her case about her homeland. So if UTA's
<v Speaker 1>not featured, I think the fans are gonna yell at
<v Speaker 1>me quote I'm good.
<v Speaker 2>She also revealed he has.
<v Speaker 1>Expanded on the high Wind gameplay experience and flying is
<v Speaker 1>a very large part of the third installment. Sadly, he
<v Speaker 1>wouldn't be drawn on chocobo breeding. I can't say they're
<v Speaker 1>in a on the actual breeding, but there is an
<v Speaker 1>element of third installment involving chocobo's It is a little
<v Speaker 1>different than Rebirth or whether or not we'll go under water.
<v Speaker 1>H Toriyama handled the summary portion of the game Matomu Toriyama,
<v Speaker 1>so perhaps he has injected himself into there, and I
<v Speaker 1>will leave it at that, but he just suggests that
<v Speaker 1>given now and where Rebirth ends, that should hint at
<v Speaker 1>how the third installment will begin in the Great Glacier area. Jen,
<v Speaker 1>I've enjoyed these Busy seven remake games quite a bit.
<v Speaker 1>It's interesting to kind of hear some of these details
<v Speaker 1>leak out ahead of this game actually being reviewed or announced.
<v Speaker 1>Yet where are you with the remake series? Are you
<v Speaker 1>looking forward to Part three?
<v Speaker 3>Uh? Part two? Kind of? I don't want to say
<v Speaker 3>it burnt me out, but it lost a little bit
<v Speaker 3>of steam for me in like the latter half, just
<v Speaker 3>because of slightly switching up to like that open world.
<v Speaker 3>And I know that the game at that point also
<v Speaker 3>kind of takes up that format, but there were it
<v Speaker 3>felt like there was a little bit too much busy
<v Speaker 3>work for me in terms of like all of the
<v Speaker 3>different mini games to juggle and everything. But I did
<v Speaker 3>love God Queen's Blood. Queen's Blood, Queens Blood.
<v Speaker 2>It's so good.
<v Speaker 3>It was a fantastic fucking minigame, and I wish I
<v Speaker 3>could have just solved all of my problems in that.
<v Speaker 3>But I'm of course excited to see how they're going
<v Speaker 3>to conclude this. Uh it's we're only getting three parts, right, Mike.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, this will be the third and final part.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, okay, okay. Because I was as you were reading
<v Speaker 3>through the story, it dawned on me like this is
<v Speaker 3>gonna be the last, last one, right, They're not gonna
<v Speaker 3>try and spin this up to get to a part
<v Speaker 3>four at all.
<v Speaker 1>I mean yeah, no, I mean fall Phantasy seven will
<v Speaker 1>never die. There will be other ways for them to
<v Speaker 1>release Final Fantasy seven adjacent media, but as far as
<v Speaker 1>this remake get trilogy, this will be part three. And
<v Speaker 1>I've heard some other people kind of drop off the game.
<v Speaker 1>It was a rebirth was a very big game. I
<v Speaker 1>liked how big it was. I loved how just kind
<v Speaker 1>of filled with ridiculous continent was. I loved all of
<v Speaker 1>the mini games, especially the bad Ones. It just kind
<v Speaker 1>of reminded me of those actual big PS one RPGs
<v Speaker 1>in a lot of ways. But I understand that it
<v Speaker 1>kind of does become a lot and the open world stuff,
<v Speaker 1>even though it's obviously very different from like the kind
<v Speaker 1>of map slop Ubisoft games we can sometimes get. It
<v Speaker 1>sometimes felt like that a bit, when it's like you know,
<v Speaker 1>open up your map and go to the icons and
<v Speaker 1>do the things that the icons, even though law of
<v Speaker 1>that stuff was optional, but still could kind of feel overwhelming.
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm just curious how they're going to differentiate parts
<v Speaker 1>three from part two because part two is big this
<v Speaker 1>one city, so part two open world now this part
<v Speaker 1>three has some other big hook or is it just
<v Speaker 1>open world again, except this time like very open from
<v Speaker 1>the very beginning.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry, Mike, I did not hear you for the past
<v Speaker 3>two minutes, but I just heard you just then. That
<v Speaker 3>was an audio issue on my part. Sorry folks at home,
<v Speaker 3>But picking up from what you were saying, I think
<v Speaker 3>I'd like something a little bit more straightforward and linear
<v Speaker 3>instead of like an open world with like a bunch
<v Speaker 3>of like busy work at something. I'd like something a
<v Speaker 3>little bit more focused, especially if we're going to try
<v Speaker 3>and aim to finish everything off in this last part. Mikey,
<v Speaker 3>what do you think the subtitle is going to be
<v Speaker 3>for this one?
<v Speaker 1>Well, first off, I bet you will not be getting
<v Speaker 1>your wish. I bet this one will just also be
<v Speaker 1>open world from the very beginning. Yeah, because they were
<v Speaker 1>I think they already used reunion for uh, to score remake, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>which honestly Part two should have been called Reunion because
<v Speaker 1>can people say the word every five seconds?
<v Speaker 2>I think it'd be fun Yeah, what are you funny?
<v Speaker 1>They just use requiem again at this point, Reunite, Relive, Ripcord,
<v Speaker 1>rip record Record, Repcord. Uh yeah, yeah, I guess I'm
<v Speaker 1>curious because there's a big question of.
<v Speaker 2>Where are we going with the story.
<v Speaker 1>I still don't want to spoil Rebirth too much, as
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people are probably waiting to play that
<v Speaker 1>game on switch to you know, I'm still curious what's
<v Speaker 1>going on with the slight changes to the original Found
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy seven narrative. There are some things that are mentioned,
<v Speaker 1>you know, from this interview that I think are interesting,
<v Speaker 1>like the high wind flying experience that being expanded upon.
<v Speaker 1>I know initially fans were disappointed that we didn't go
<v Speaker 1>to rocket Town, which in the original game is kind
<v Speaker 1>of where you meet Sid the pilot, and that was
<v Speaker 1>missing in part two. That makes sense to move that
<v Speaker 1>to part three because even though Sid shows up in
<v Speaker 1>part two, he's not a playable character. Obviously, they were
<v Speaker 1>holding off on that until part three, and I'll be
<v Speaker 1>curious to see how he plays.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that would be fun. The fact that we're getting
<v Speaker 3>some type of update in some type of news from
<v Speaker 3>it makes me curious if we're actually going to finally
<v Speaker 3>at least maybe see a release window or at least
<v Speaker 3>a trailer, any sort of tangible news on part three.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's got to happen at some point this year.
<v Speaker 1>You would think maybe as late as the Game Awards, maybe.
<v Speaker 2>Earlier than that.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe it can happen at Summer Game Fest or just
<v Speaker 1>at some other showcase. At some point, it feels like
<v Speaker 1>we got to hear about something Final Fantasy because we don't.
<v Speaker 1>We don't really have a Final Fantasy project to look
<v Speaker 1>forward to. There's not even a Final Fantasy fourteen expansion
<v Speaker 1>announced right now. We don't have any other remakes happening.
<v Speaker 1>There's rumors of a Found Facy nine remake, it seems
<v Speaker 1>like that might not be happening anymore if it ever
<v Speaker 1>was a project. So yeah, as a Final Fantasy fan,
<v Speaker 1>I would like something to get excited about.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm also curious about like how Square is treating
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy, whether it's a remake or a potential newer
<v Speaker 3>title or Mikey even Kingdom Hearts four in where any
<v Speaker 3>of these other projects are along in their development cycle.
<v Speaker 3>There is other talks of maybe like another Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 3>Tactics game, but I don't know if that would be
<v Speaker 3>a remaster or remake of the Advance series or a
<v Speaker 3>completely original new Tactics game. I am curious because, like
<v Speaker 3>like you said, we haven't had any big news on
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy as a whole in a while.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the Tactics remake seems like that did really well,
<v Speaker 1>is my understanding, So I don't know why you wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>do something else with Tactics. And then, yeah, you know
<v Speaker 1>what is Final Fantasy seventeen, which is that that's a number.
<v Speaker 1>For some reason, Fantasy seventeen just has a bad mouthfield
<v Speaker 1>sixteen still felt good to say, fake blank seventeen. Boy,
<v Speaker 1>that is a big number. And I wonder what that
<v Speaker 1>game is going to look like. I doubt it's going
<v Speaker 1>to be a character action game like sixteen was. I
<v Speaker 1>don't know if they're going to like go completely back
<v Speaker 1>to roots straight up it turned based RPGI again, but
<v Speaker 1>I would like to see that. I think it's interesting
<v Speaker 1>that he's being cagy about chocobo breeding because that's a
<v Speaker 1>big fan Fantasy seven component that we haven't really.
<v Speaker 2>Seen in the remake trilogy yet.
<v Speaker 1>We had the racing in part two, but I'm kind
<v Speaker 1>of like, well, why wouldn't you do more with the
<v Speaker 1>chocobo breeding aspects of things?
<v Speaker 2>So I kind of still expect to see it. I
<v Speaker 2>think it's already mentioned.
<v Speaker 1>Queen's Blood's going to be back though, so hey, that's
<v Speaker 1>because that blood is amazing.
<v Speaker 3>All right, Jen, Mikey, can we go to break real
<v Speaker 3>quick because I might have to restart my computer.
<v Speaker 1>I was just gonna say, okay, Jan, let's take a
<v Speaker 1>quick break and we'll be right back with some more
<v Speaker 1>video game news. All right, Jan, enough time has passed.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to try to put my glasses on again.
<v Speaker 3>Your breath? Are you less steamy? Now?
<v Speaker 1>I think I'm less steamy? Okay at the moment, we'll
<v Speaker 1>see if they hold. I wanted this train as much
<v Speaker 1>to read the news on my screen, which includes this
<v Speaker 1>story by Chris going In at VGC warri Were series
<v Speaker 1>director Gore Abbe has left Nintendo. Ger Abbe posted a
<v Speaker 1>message on x confirming that he resigned from the company
<v Speaker 1>last month and will be leaving the Games Indus Show together.
<v Speaker 1>Abbi will be joining the Osaka electro Communication University, a
<v Speaker 1>private university where we'll be working as a professor at
<v Speaker 1>its Department of Digital Games.
<v Speaker 2>Here's a quote. I resigned from the town at the
<v Speaker 2>end of February. Albe roade Storry.
<v Speaker 1>In April, I will be working as a professor at
<v Speaker 1>Osaka electro Communication University. I like saying that Osaka electro
<v Speaker 1>Communication University sounds like something for metal Gear.
<v Speaker 3>Solid Good month.
<v Speaker 1>I will be part Yeah right. I'll be part of
<v Speaker 1>the new Yeah good mouthfield, just like Launch Look. I
<v Speaker 1>will be part of the newly established game and Social
<v Speaker 1>design program. I plan to engage in research related to
<v Speaker 1>games and game development, so I hope to interact with
<v Speaker 1>a wider range of people in various ways than ever before.
<v Speaker 1>Abb briefly worked at ASSE in nineteen ninety six before
<v Speaker 1>Assi Asci ASCII ASSI. He works in as Asci before
<v Speaker 1>joining Nintendo I'm Still Steaming Up in nineteen ninety nine,
<v Speaker 1>where he was one of the programmers on the game
<v Speaker 1>Boy adv Inside of wire Land four. He then played
<v Speaker 1>a major role in the first Warri War game, where
<v Speaker 1>he works on game design, graphic design, and micro game programming.
<v Speaker 1>To say Abba, since then, Abba has mainly worked on
<v Speaker 1>the rest of the Wiwer series, serving as director in
<v Speaker 1>Warrioware Inc Mega party games on GameCube. Wyriwere twisted on GBA,
<v Speaker 1>warriorwere touched on DS. Warriorwere smooth moves on WI Warrior
<v Speaker 1>where DIY on DS game and Warrio on we U.
<v Speaker 1>Warriowere going on three DS. Wyrior get it Together on switch,
<v Speaker 1>and wyriwere Move it on Switch. This was kind of
<v Speaker 1>the serious steward for a long time there. Do you
<v Speaker 1>think this means anything for the future of the Warriorwear series, Jan.
<v Speaker 3>I think if Goro Abbe felt comfortable enough to like
<v Speaker 3>outright completely leave that he has maybe planted the seeds
<v Speaker 3>for future sikos at Nintendo to continue the legacy of
<v Speaker 3>Warrior Ware and other similar games.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I think that's right.
<v Speaker 1>And we're also kind of a We're also sort of
<v Speaker 1>in a place where I don't know if anybody super
<v Speaker 1>wants another Warrior game where a game at any time
<v Speaker 1>super soon. Here, I think I was surprised we got
<v Speaker 1>too on the switch, where after a while it seemed
<v Speaker 1>like we weren't getting any than we got get it
<v Speaker 1>together and move it almost back to back did either
<v Speaker 1>of those titles move you very much?
<v Speaker 2>Jan?
<v Speaker 3>It was just it was more so one of those
<v Speaker 3>games that I just appreciated us streaming on the website
<v Speaker 3>and playing, and that the fact that another one of
<v Speaker 3>those got made, and I realized that that that sentiment
<v Speaker 3>isn't great because cool, glad that it got made. I'm
<v Speaker 3>not buying it though, but you know, it was fun
<v Speaker 3>to see as many Warriorwere games get shipped as however
<v Speaker 3>many did.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah and yeah, I was happy to see those games
<v Speaker 1>come out. I bet we'll get another Warrior war games sometime.
<v Speaker 1>I kind of hope what we get next from Warrio
<v Speaker 1>is something that's more Warrior Land at jacent or dare
<v Speaker 1>I say, even another three D Warrio game. I think
<v Speaker 1>Warrior World is horrendously overlooked. It's a super fun three
<v Speaker 1>D platformer on the GameCube. A kind of bigger game
<v Speaker 1>in that style could be awesome. But even if they
<v Speaker 1>wanted to make another two D game that was, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Warrior Land five, I'd be into that lot. You know,
<v Speaker 1>getting to play some of these games on NSO and
<v Speaker 1>the Warriorland series and even the Virtual Boy Won, which
<v Speaker 1>is you know, easily the virtual Boy's Best Game, there
<v Speaker 1>might be something of a hankering for two D Warrio again.
<v Speaker 3>Sure, I'm curious if Nintendo would feel okay, you know,
<v Speaker 3>they did this with cadence of high rule of letting
<v Speaker 3>another indie studio take on the ip of Zelda. I'm
<v Speaker 3>curious if, like, would Nintendo be okay giving them maybe
<v Speaker 3>one of their uh not a their their starting team players.
<v Speaker 3>Like if they give someone a weird studio Warrio, like, hey,
<v Speaker 3>make something with us, what can you do? I'd be
<v Speaker 3>interested to see that.
<v Speaker 1>And there were a lot of games recently that were
<v Speaker 1>very Warrio adjacent in the indie space, like.
<v Speaker 3>Pizza Anton Blast right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so you know, part me is like, why not
<v Speaker 1>just tell one of these teams that they can make
<v Speaker 1>a Warrio game? I mean, come on, you know, they're
<v Speaker 1>giving away the Bubbzy license to an indie studio and
<v Speaker 1>that's gonna work great.
<v Speaker 2>If it's good enough for Bubbs, it's good enough for Warrio.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, Warrio on the phone.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely all right.
<v Speaker 1>Falcon announced this Dragon Slayer project for console is by
<v Speaker 1>Saramano Jamatsu. Fucon was announced Dragon Slayer project. It's tentatively
<v Speaker 1>titled forty fifth anniversary project for consoles. A genre, specific
<v Speaker 1>platforms and release state were non announced. The first Dragonslaer
<v Speaker 1>game launched for the PC eight eighth one in nineteen
<v Speaker 1>eighty four as a new type real type role playing game.
<v Speaker 1>The game garnered attention for its unique systems such as
<v Speaker 1>simple and easy in their stink controls like ramming into
<v Speaker 1>adjacent Nity characters to attack, distinctive growth elements where players
<v Speaker 1>bring experienced points in. It is back to hone to
<v Speaker 1>Strangler characters, puzzles and so on and so forth. Basically,
<v Speaker 1>jen it was one of the early action RPGs. It
<v Speaker 1>sort of spawned off other games like Zana Do in
<v Speaker 1>that series, and also the Legend of Heroes, which was
<v Speaker 1>initially part of the dragons Layer series, and then Legend
<v Speaker 1>hero spun off into its own thing, which became the
<v Speaker 1>Trail series like Trails in the Sky.
<v Speaker 2>So dragons Layer has a bit of a heritage.
<v Speaker 3>Now.
<v Speaker 1>The weird thing to me is that it's lineage kind
<v Speaker 1>of does extend to both you know, Trails, which is
<v Speaker 1>already you know Falcome Big Temple, and then Falcom's other temple, Yeas,
<v Speaker 1>which initially inherited the bump combat but has become Falcom's
<v Speaker 1>action RPG franchise, whereas Trails is there more turn based franchise.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm curious where they can slot in a.
<v Speaker 1>Dragon Slayer bringing that back and what exactly that could
<v Speaker 1>look like all these years later.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm curious. I know with the remakes, they kind
<v Speaker 3>of like switched up the combat where you could do
<v Speaker 3>a little bit more action RPG stuff, but also switch
<v Speaker 3>back to the turn based combat. I wanted to like
<v Speaker 3>the game more. I think maybe I'll eventually give it
<v Speaker 3>another shot. It's just very die huge heavy from the jump,
<v Speaker 3>but I could see there being perhaps like a third
<v Speaker 3>pillar that kind of combines both or tries to combine both.
<v Speaker 3>I'm actually surprised we haven't seen more games mikey uh
<v Speaker 3>trying eight Final Fantasy seven remakes combat system of it
<v Speaker 3>being semi action, semi turn based at times kind of
<v Speaker 3>feeling like a rhythm game.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and like there's gotta be some that are sort
<v Speaker 1>of there. But what I'm seeing more of is games
<v Speaker 1>like that Trails in the Sky remake and even Metaphor
<v Speaker 1>where it's like okay and you and when you're in
<v Speaker 1>you're running around it's like an action RPG, and then
<v Speaker 1>you initiate the turn based combat that seems to be
<v Speaker 1>the flavor of the moment, and that's a pretty good
<v Speaker 1>system as well. But yes, I'm curious if maybe we'll
<v Speaker 1>see a few more fount fifty seven likes because I
<v Speaker 1>like that combat system a whole lot.
<v Speaker 3>Just noise up, it's far or fair.
<v Speaker 1>Next year, Amazon hikes Pocopia price as the new Pokemon
<v Speaker 1>game seemingly sells out everywhere. This is by Andy Robs
<v Speaker 1>and vgc uh Na Time Switch Shoes Big new Pokemon game,
<v Speaker 1>Pocopia appears to be experiencing widespread shortages of its physical version,
<v Speaker 1>with major retails retailers worldwide claiming to be sold out. Pacopia,
<v Speaker 1>the first Switch Too exclusive of Pokemon entry, released last
<v Speaker 1>week and as available as a game key card via
<v Speaker 1>its physical addition. However, dozens of retailers appear to have
<v Speaker 1>run out of supply entirely already. In the US, retailers
<v Speaker 1>include Walmart, game Stop, Target, and even Nintendo's official store
<v Speaker 1>are sold out, while Amazon has unofficially raised the price
<v Speaker 1>of Pacopia's physical version to eighty dollars, seeming to capitalize
<v Speaker 1>on demand. Similar situation in other regions including the UK,
<v Speaker 1>ASTRAI and others where major retailers are already sold out.
<v Speaker 1>According to the game Business editor Christopher Dring, UK sales
<v Speaker 1>Day suggest that physical supply PA Copia was seriously under
<v Speaker 1>supplied at retailers. It's likely a similar situation worldwide, he said,
<v Speaker 1>suggesting that the shortes could be down to an underestimation
<v Speaker 1>of demand rather than a significant up swell and sales.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe I bet that sales for this game are very strong.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, we talk.
<v Speaker 1>About physical digital all the time. People still like to
<v Speaker 1>buy physical Pokemon games, even when it's that key card,
<v Speaker 1>which you know, I think a lot of us hate.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm always curious, like the general audience, do they
<v Speaker 1>really understand what that is and do they care? It's
<v Speaker 1>it's hard to tell, but so yeah, I think undersupply
<v Speaker 1>is a situation there. But boy, I imagine this game
<v Speaker 1>is probably also just selling well in that there is
<v Speaker 1>a lot of demand.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think, jan, I think this game is
<v Speaker 3>going to do gangbusters. And for as much as our
<v Speaker 3>audience and audiences that are very online have distaste for
<v Speaker 3>virtual game key cards, the general audience out there that
<v Speaker 3>is just looking to pick up the new thing, or
<v Speaker 3>maybe doesn't follow games media as much. I don't think
<v Speaker 3>they care as much about virtual game key cards that
<v Speaker 3>they're fine just picking it up, and sometimes they just
<v Speaker 3>want the case on the shelf, or they just don't
<v Speaker 3>know any better, right, right, And this this game is
<v Speaker 3>grub is right, It's going to sell well. It's been
<v Speaker 3>reviewing well. I see it all across my timeline and
<v Speaker 3>various other timelines too. So I've been seeing normy friends
<v Speaker 3>posting about it and saying it's so dan cute. Ditto
<v Speaker 3>Ditto stock way way up now, Mike you.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I feel like Dido is about to become like
<v Speaker 1>one of the sort of main Pokemon. It'll always prominent.
<v Speaker 1>He's probably of the original one to fifty one. But
<v Speaker 1>we're going to be seeing Ditto at almost maybe not
<v Speaker 1>quite Pikachu levels, but maybe ev levels are going forward now, right, Yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like just a I'm already I'm already wondering if I'm
<v Speaker 1>going to see Diddo in the next Smash Brothers things
<v Speaker 1>things like that. Right, Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be curious
<v Speaker 1>Shantasy's switch to sales info for this month because I
<v Speaker 1>feel like, if if anything, has been a system, soar
<v Speaker 1>for the switch To it is go to be this.
<v Speaker 1>Pokemon insanely popular, these kind of cozy games. We've seen
<v Speaker 1>them pop off like crazy before with Animal Crossing on Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>This game's only on the switch to, which, like, at
<v Speaker 1>first that surprised me. I'm like, Oh, they're gonna miss
<v Speaker 1>out on a lot of sales. Well, you know what's
<v Speaker 1>better than selling some software is to sell a lot
<v Speaker 1>more switch tos right now so that you can continue
<v Speaker 1>to sell a lot of software on that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and you know, the Pokemon factor cannot be overlooked, Mikey,
<v Speaker 3>because I've seen some sentiment online of people asking like, Hey,
<v Speaker 3>do you think it's worth it to get a switch
<v Speaker 3>to not just for Pocopia, but for Pokemon Champions coming
<v Speaker 3>out in around the April timeframe. So Pokemon definitely is
<v Speaker 3>selling some switch tos out there. It's gonna be interesting
<v Speaker 3>to see if there's a substantial spike or not.
<v Speaker 1>Dah, it's been the game I've been playing this weekend,
<v Speaker 1>having a really good time with it. I'm definitely to
<v Speaker 1>spend some more. There's a Jeff Grubb in the YouTube
<v Speaker 1>chat demanding that I do the reviews for Monster Hunter
<v Speaker 1>Stories three Okay. Reviews for Monster Hunter Stories three Twisted
<v Speaker 1>Reflection have come out. This is a game for Places five,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Series, XSPC, Nintendo Switch two. It releases on March
<v Speaker 1>thirteenth and with fifty reviews, this game has an eighty
<v Speaker 1>five average critic score, and that seems pretty darn impressive
<v Speaker 1>to me. Great ign says Monster Hunter Story three Twist
<v Speaker 1>Reflections is an incredible evolution of an already great series,
<v Speaker 1>featuring a finely tuned loop of hunting, hatching, restoring, and
<v Speaker 1>upgrading that's perfectly joyfully feeds into every single step of
<v Speaker 1>the way. GameSpot given out of ten. I thought of
<v Speaker 1>the Story sub series as a commendable yet modest spinoff series,
<v Speaker 1>but Stories three is anything but modest.
<v Speaker 2>The tend to like give it an eight out of ten.
<v Speaker 1>Mastar Story three is another strong entry series and deserving
<v Speaker 1>of a place at the top table alongside a number
<v Speaker 1>of other excellent RPGs on Switch two.
<v Speaker 2>Was this one on your radar at all?
<v Speaker 3>Jam No? I, mostly because I haven't really clicked much
<v Speaker 3>with the other entries into the Monster Hunter Stories universe.
<v Speaker 3>I've always heard that I might potentially like these. These
<v Speaker 3>are for folks at home. These are kind of more
<v Speaker 3>of a traditional RPG versus like Monster Hunter chasing a
<v Speaker 3>monster around a map. To the best of my knowledge, mm.
<v Speaker 1>And like, to me, it always was kind of a
<v Speaker 1>bummer that Catcom doesn't do anything with like Breath of
<v Speaker 1>Fire anymore. But now now it's like, eh, Monster Hunter
<v Speaker 1>Stories that's their JRPG series now, right, their traditional RPG series,
<v Speaker 1>and this series has kind of just been on the upswing.
<v Speaker 1>The first game, it's you know, it's average score was
<v Speaker 1>like a seventy eight when it got a re released
<v Speaker 1>on Switch. It was originally three DS game, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's ten Stories two in eighty one, so that's better.
<v Speaker 1>But now Stories three and in eighty five's that's pretty impressive.
<v Speaker 1>And it's one of those things where you're like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm not necessarily like Ujan where I need voice
<v Speaker 1>acting in my Pokemon games, but the presentation in this
<v Speaker 1>those single player RPG Pokemon games obviously not great. And
<v Speaker 1>it is funny when you look at the trailer for
<v Speaker 1>Monster Hunter Stories three and the production values are just
<v Speaker 1>infinitely better than what you see and say Pokemon Legend
<v Speaker 1>z A or you know, freaking Scarlet and Violet.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, they're you know.
<v Speaker 1>There's good there's great capcom production value to these games.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I just pulled it up after you mentioned it,
<v Speaker 3>and Mike, I want a Pokemon game to look like.
<v Speaker 1>This, right, It's kind of wild that we just, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we we don't expect to get that, like it's not
<v Speaker 1>going to happen. But yeah, these game look at it.
<v Speaker 1>I guess I always discounted them because I don't know why.
<v Speaker 1>I always get a bit of a Saturday Morning cartoon vibe,
<v Speaker 1>which you know, I don't know why that bothers me.
<v Speaker 1>I clearly consume a lot of media made for kids,
<v Speaker 1>but they're so I something about Monster Hunter Stories three
<v Speaker 1>where I'm like, that's not for me, and uh, I
<v Speaker 1>don't know why I think that, considering I like j
<v Speaker 1>RPG's and you know, dragons are cool, I suppose, and
<v Speaker 1>maybe like to see some monsters.
<v Speaker 2>So maybe I should check this one out.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I am. I'm almost curious maybe if the Monster
<v Speaker 3>Hunter name is a little bit of a disservice to it,
<v Speaker 3>because you know, I think a lot of us bounced
<v Speaker 3>off of Monster Hunter Wilds just because of miscellaneous other
<v Speaker 3>issues with the game that I wonder if that influences
<v Speaker 3>other folks as well. When picking up the Monster Hunter
<v Speaker 3>Stories game, this looks good. I might check this out.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and gosh, there's that's eighty five is a great score.
<v Speaker 1>None of us picked this up in fancy critics. I'll
<v Speaker 1>just kind of missed out on fifteen points for no
<v Speaker 1>reason there. So yeah, it's like it just seems under
<v Speaker 1>our radar in a way that's probably not deserved.
<v Speaker 3>So also I need to look at it also like
<v Speaker 3>another hit from Capcom.
<v Speaker 1>Capcom is just uh boy, They're in a great position
<v Speaker 1>and they still have Pragmata coming out soon. One Musha
<v Speaker 1>is supposed to be this year as well. They have
<v Speaker 1>the Okami game in this the Future. They got Mega
<v Speaker 1>Man next year, Worstreet Fighters stuff, give me, give me
<v Speaker 1>some more ace, Attorney Police. So yeah, Capcom is just
<v Speaker 1>they're doing great. And I'll tell you what aside. You know,
<v Speaker 1>aside from Nintendo, they have easily, maybe even clud Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>easily have been the most important publisher for the switch
<v Speaker 1>to right. Yeah, but you know that they've been putting
<v Speaker 1>out strong ports on there and this game, yeah this
<v Speaker 1>is on Placeship five Xbox series excess.
<v Speaker 2>I bet this sells the most.
<v Speaker 1>On switch to definitely see that happening all right, Slay
<v Speaker 1>the Spire two hits nearly five hundred and seventy five
<v Speaker 1>thousand concurrent players, almost beating Silksong's record is by lows
<v Speaker 1>Packwood Games Industry, up Biz, Megacrits deck Building sequel Slave
<v Speaker 1>Spied two hit a peak of five hundred and seventy
<v Speaker 1>four thousand, six hundred and thirty eight concurrent players on Sunday,
<v Speaker 1>according to steam Dab, almost sekling the high of five
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty seven thousand, one hundred and fifty concurrent
<v Speaker 1>players set by Hollow Night. Silksong Toy twenty five say
<v Speaker 1>Aspired two released in Steam Early Access on Thursday, March fifth,
<v Speaker 1>and Video Game Insights estimates that it has sold two
<v Speaker 1>point eight million units so far, generating an estimated fifty
<v Speaker 1>five point one million in revenue. God Figi also noticed
<v Speaker 1>that the game story remains on two point four million
<v Speaker 1>Steam wish lists. For comparison, the original Slave Spier sold
<v Speaker 1>over one point five billion units on Steam between its
<v Speaker 1>early access launch in twenty seventeen and March twenty nineteen,
<v Speaker 1>with the official one point out launch coming on January
<v Speaker 1>twenty third, twenty nineteen.
<v Speaker 2>So early access, this game.
<v Speaker 1>Is already an hits, it's already huge, it's already making
<v Speaker 1>a ton of money. And again it just came out
<v Speaker 1>on early access. It's going to be a full release later.
<v Speaker 1>Over half a million concurrent players for a single player
<v Speaker 1>Oh there's co op now, but you know, for a
<v Speaker 1>deck building kind of you know, roguelike game.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely wild.
<v Speaker 1>And it's interesting how we see these these sequels come
<v Speaker 1>out to kind of the big standard bearer, super popular,
<v Speaker 1>evergreen indie games like your eighties Ones, your Hollow Nights,
<v Speaker 1>and now the Slate at Spire and it's in boy.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, those games do well.
<v Speaker 1>But when that sequel comes out and you are building
<v Speaker 1>off of five plus years of anticipation for that, people
<v Speaker 1>show up.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I this this, It's so interesting to see this. Mikey. Also,
<v Speaker 3>I am pasting a news story in the dock here
<v Speaker 3>that apparently is just breaking, but I'll write off this
<v Speaker 3>thought here. It's interesting to see the indie space having
<v Speaker 3>so much success with single player games versus how the
<v Speaker 3>big boys are kind of trying to go after live
<v Speaker 3>service games and getting mixed success. You know, it's great
<v Speaker 3>to see Marathon have a very good weekend and have
<v Speaker 3>a fantastic public sentiment on critically as well as how
<v Speaker 3>the general audience is glimbing onto it. I hope they're
<v Speaker 3>able to maintain that momentum. I really enjoyed what I
<v Speaker 3>saw of it when y'all played it on Friday, just
<v Speaker 3>because of it just looks so stylistically good. I'm interested
<v Speaker 3>to see what it's going to be like to approach
<v Speaker 3>it as a single player game amidst all the other
<v Speaker 3>shenanigans happening there. But it's really really freaking neat to
<v Speaker 3>see the indie space having success and having runaway success
<v Speaker 3>with not only sequels to those evergreen games like you
<v Speaker 3>were mentioning, but also being able to continue having a
<v Speaker 3>single play space space four single player games in the
<v Speaker 3>indie sphere because sometimes, mikey I don't want to play
<v Speaker 3>with other people.
<v Speaker 2>M hmm.
<v Speaker 3>It's very hard to line up, like even a group
<v Speaker 3>of three sometimes to get a game going.
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely.
<v Speaker 1>I think, you know, we can't do MYSS today because
<v Speaker 1>Jeff's out. I think we might use that time slot
<v Speaker 1>to look look at Slate Aspire too. I haven't tried
<v Speaker 1>it yet, like to see what it's up to, so
<v Speaker 1>we have to We haven't made our schedule for the weekend.
<v Speaker 1>We'll do that after this show, but likely going to
<v Speaker 1>be playing some slight aspire to today. All right, So
<v Speaker 1>this is some breaking news here. This is from Rebecca
<v Speaker 1>Valentina IG and EA lays off staff across all Battlefield
<v Speaker 1>studios Following the record pre key Battlefield six launch, YA
<v Speaker 1>has laid off an unknown number of individuals from across
<v Speaker 1>its baffled teams, including workers at Criterion, Dice, Ripple Effect,
<v Speaker 1>and Motive studios. IGN understands individuals are being informed at
<v Speaker 1>the layout are taking place as part of a realignment
<v Speaker 1>across the Battlefield studios as the team continues its ongoing
<v Speaker 1>live service support for Battlefold six. Following launch, all four
<v Speaker 1>studios will remain operational, though the layoffs seem to be
<v Speaker 1>impacting a variety of teams across multiple studios and offices.
<v Speaker 1>AGEN has reached out to EA for comment on a
<v Speaker 1>total number and types of rules impacted, as well for
<v Speaker 1>the specific reasons for the layoffs.
<v Speaker 2>Battle six was the.
<v Speaker 1>Best selling game with twenty twenty five in the United States.
<v Speaker 1>It sold a record shattering seven million copies in three
<v Speaker 1>days and was the best launch ever for the game
<v Speaker 1>in the franchise. Okay, so it's hard to understand where
<v Speaker 1>this is except I guess they launched the game and
<v Speaker 1>they're like, well, now we don't need this big all
<v Speaker 1>these support studios.
<v Speaker 2>We don't need all these people at these support studios.
<v Speaker 2>Have you gotten us since that?
<v Speaker 1>Baffle six has been hanging in there because I heard
<v Speaker 1>a lot about it at the launch, and then maybe
<v Speaker 1>as the months have gone by, I feel like I've
<v Speaker 1>been hearing a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>Less about it. There was some was there an extraction
<v Speaker 2>shooters Battlefield spin off or something.
<v Speaker 1>That also released, and seem like that didn't take off
<v Speaker 1>at all, So I'm not sure, but even still, Battlefield
<v Speaker 1>is a tent.
<v Speaker 2>Pole for EA.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it just seems incredibly shitty to be laying
<v Speaker 1>all these people off when you're, you know, the thing
<v Speaker 1>they worked on. Battlefield just had its biggest launch ever
<v Speaker 1>not to go. Okay, so, yeah, there was another battle
<v Speaker 1>Royale spinoff. God, Battlefield constantly tries to do a Batley
<v Speaker 1>out it nevers.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Mike, I mean the previous Battlefield game was received
<v Speaker 3>very poorly from everyone across the board, So this kind
<v Speaker 3>of felt like a hail Mary for them to pull off,
<v Speaker 3>and they pulled it off with Battlefield six, especially in
<v Speaker 3>a particularly bad or poor year for call of duty.
<v Speaker 3>Battlefield six was there to kind of take that audience.
<v Speaker 3>Do you think any of this is at all motivated
<v Speaker 3>not by what he is actually saying, but because of
<v Speaker 3>a potential sale in the future.
<v Speaker 1>Right, So they're preparing to be acquired by an investor
<v Speaker 1>group that's you know, composed of the soft Saudi Arabia's
<v Speaker 1>public investment fund, silver Lake and Affinity Partners. That's supposed
<v Speaker 1>to be for fifty five billion dollars. That acquisition has
<v Speaker 1>not yet been closed. I mean, I can't imagine how
<v Speaker 1>this moves the needle much there on a you know,
<v Speaker 1>that thing's either happening or it isn't. I can't imagine firing,
<v Speaker 1>you know, these people from across these different studios is
<v Speaker 1>much of a drop in the bucket for that. Although
<v Speaker 1>once that deal goes through, like hold on to your
<v Speaker 1>butts for the last we're probably gonna see in the
<v Speaker 1>consolid dating and you know, the we're making things more
<v Speaker 1>swift and agile, all that bullshit. It's gonna be flying
<v Speaker 1>around like crazy. So uh again, that just dropped during
<v Speaker 1>this show, So we'll see if more news comes out
<v Speaker 1>about why exactly this is happening. But boy gosh, these
<v Speaker 1>these these these mega games jan that do have like
<v Speaker 1>five or six support studios. Even that is just it's
<v Speaker 1>wild that we have gotten there in this industry.
<v Speaker 3>It is so untenable at this point, Mike, because like
<v Speaker 3>you know, we saw high Guards shut down because they
<v Speaker 3>didn't reach specific metrics, and you know, again there there's
<v Speaker 3>other money at play there. But Battlefield six, for all
<v Speaker 3>intents and purposes, was a success. It was like one
<v Speaker 3>of the best selling games of last year. So I
<v Speaker 3>don't understand, like the math really doesn't add up for
<v Speaker 3>me on as a consumer because then it's like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>so you're still gonna like lay off these people close
<v Speaker 3>studios even if I do buy the game, even if
<v Speaker 3>I do like it. What I don't know what these
<v Speaker 3>publishers or the people in power actually want other than
<v Speaker 3>to reduce numbers on a spreadsheets so other numbers look better.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, this isn't a news story per se,
<v Speaker 1>but it's it's I think everybody's trying to get a
<v Speaker 1>sense of how how is marathon doing right, yeah, because
<v Speaker 1>you know, it seems like every day it peaks at
<v Speaker 1>least according to you know, Steam dB, which is of
<v Speaker 1>some perfect metric, and this cames out on you know,
<v Speaker 1>like PlayStation and suppose you would hope a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people play PlayStation, but on Steam it kind of tops
<v Speaker 1>up around like the seventy five thousand range each day,
<v Speaker 1>which seems like a lot of people. Is that a
<v Speaker 1>ton of people? Is that a mega hit amount of people?
<v Speaker 1>I don't think so. In my mind it should be
<v Speaker 1>good enough. But you know, PlayStation Sony might have very
<v Speaker 1>specific ideas about how expensive this game is and what
<v Speaker 1>sort of player base and how many sales it needs
<v Speaker 1>to do to make that money back. So, like, you know,
<v Speaker 1>even something that seems like it's doing well to me
<v Speaker 1>by certain metrics like marathon, I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if it's doing well enough.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, It's it's hard to say, because again, numbers will
<v Speaker 3>look impressive to me, but apparently we'll be very disappointing
<v Speaker 3>to the people that actually matter and that are calling
<v Speaker 3>the shots.
<v Speaker 2>All right, last story here.
<v Speaker 1>Valve insists it will release Steam Machine in Steam Framemant
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six, after blog said it quote hoped to
<v Speaker 1>this by Chris Golan VGC. Valves reiterated that it will
<v Speaker 1>release the Steam Machine in Steam Frameman twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 1>after posting a blog that applied it could be delayed.
<v Speaker 1>So you know they did this blog post basically jen
<v Speaker 1>and it's like, here's the lineup of harb we'll announced
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five. We hope the ship in twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 1>but as we shared recently, memory and short shortages shortage
<v Speaker 1>shortages we have created challenges for us. We'll share updates
<v Speaker 1>publicly when we finalize our plans. So after the posting
<v Speaker 1>of this blog article, the use of the phrase we
<v Speaker 1>hope the ship led some to believe that the delay
<v Speaker 1>could be more severe and that there was a chance
<v Speaker 1>the devices could be held back until twenty twenty seven.
<v Speaker 1>Now an attempt to reassure players that this isn't the case,
<v Speaker 1>Valves confirmed that the devices will indeed ship this year,
<v Speaker 1>telling the Verge that nothing has actually changed in our end.
<v Speaker 1>The article is then I was then edited to remove
<v Speaker 1>the we hope to shipboarding, replacing it with a more
<v Speaker 1>certain commitment to release in twenty twenty six. So I
<v Speaker 1>don't know there's a part of me jan that's like,
<v Speaker 1>I certainly believe them, but I still want to be
<v Speaker 1>surprised if something happens here, Yeah, you know it's Valve,
<v Speaker 1>or maybe Valves is going to say, well, I guess
<v Speaker 1>these things are going to be expensive and you know
<v Speaker 1>you're going to have to deal with it, or you know,
<v Speaker 1>they aren't necessarily reaching for that giant, super mainstream audience.
<v Speaker 1>They are making a bit more of an enthusiast product
<v Speaker 1>so they can get away with They will not sweat
<v Speaker 1>the high price as much as say PlayStation will. But
<v Speaker 1>even still, they want to sell these things. They want
<v Speaker 1>to return on investment, They want to grow this business.
<v Speaker 1>They probably don't want to have to release a Steam
<v Speaker 1>Machine that is well north of one thousand dollars.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I mean from the sentiment that I got when
<v Speaker 3>Dan and I visited Valve Gosh. I forget when that was,
<v Speaker 3>and when we checked out the Steam Machine and the
<v Speaker 3>Steam frame. The common sentiment and I fully acknowledged that
<v Speaker 3>this could just be dev talk and pr speak of
<v Speaker 3>but I fully bought in that they want to just
<v Speaker 3>make these games easier for people to play PC games,
<v Speaker 3>easier to play across the board, whether it is now
<v Speaker 3>at your living room, a different TV at your house,
<v Speaker 3>and then making VR a little bit more approachable. And
<v Speaker 3>understandably that's all going to be expensive as is, but
<v Speaker 3>I would like to give them the benefit of the doubt.
<v Speaker 3>Is like that they're still kind of at least trying
<v Speaker 3>to keep the consumer in mind and try and make
<v Speaker 3>sure that this isn't going to be obscenely expensive and
<v Speaker 3>at least somewhat approachable. Like I was always surprised at,
<v Speaker 3>like how much the steam Deck cost when it originally launched.
<v Speaker 3>I'm like, oh, okay, that's not as bad as I thought.
<v Speaker 3>And maybe they're also hoping to get people having that
<v Speaker 3>thought as well initially when they announced the steam Frame
<v Speaker 3>and the steam Machine of like, oh that's not that bad.
<v Speaker 1>I'll be curious to see what happens here, and when
<v Speaker 1>we hear more about these things, I'm certainly not expecting them,
<v Speaker 1>Like I don't know, I'm not expecting them sooner rather
<v Speaker 1>than later, right, yeah, you know, and you know it's
<v Speaker 1>multiple things here, so maybe steam Frame happens before Steam Machine.
<v Speaker 1>I would I think a lot of people just want
<v Speaker 1>the controller, honestly, So it's like it was the controller
<v Speaker 1>as soon as you can.
<v Speaker 2>I want to mess around with that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I am curious, Like you know, I don't know
<v Speaker 3>a lot about product development, but I wonder is that
<v Speaker 3>factoring into component parts with a controller?
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, all right, Jane, that's it for the
<v Speaker 1>news stories here. I now know and understand that Friday
<v Speaker 1>is when the bomb twelve Bob ten twelve, right twelve,
<v Speaker 1>bomb twelve happened, So there wasn't a pull on Friday.
<v Speaker 1>I did make a new poll here. Have you bought Pocopia?
<v Speaker 1>Your options are yes, no, and I don't have a
<v Speaker 1>switch to so just curious to see maybe you'll get
<v Speaker 1>some kind of sense of how big Pikopia fever is
<v Speaker 1>going through our community at the moment.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, what.
<v Speaker 1>About you, jentle, I mean you didn't buy Pocopia, you
<v Speaker 1>actually gotten an early code for it. But you imagine
<v Speaker 1>if that wasn't the case, that the Pacopia fever would
<v Speaker 1>have swept you up and you would have been in there.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think so. I think seeing such a positive
<v Speaker 3>sentiment from that little preview round was enough to convince me.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't know, we could all use a little
<v Speaker 3>bit more whimsy in our lives given the hell fire
<v Speaker 3>surrounding us, and uh, Pacopia is nothing but lovely whimsy.
<v Speaker 1>It's good and unlike say, like sometimes the animal across
<v Speaker 1>the games are like, there's nothing else for you to
<v Speaker 1>do today.
<v Speaker 2>You did your stuff for the day.
<v Speaker 1>This game never kind of stops you, right, There's always
<v Speaker 1>something to do. I just kind of got to my
<v Speaker 1>first next region.
<v Speaker 3>Oh okay, so fun.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so yeah, that's big and I actually my first
<v Speaker 1>Pokemon center should be done being built today, so I'm
<v Speaker 1>excited to see what's going on.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, for the most part, like that's the There are
<v Speaker 3>big builds in the game that will take in game
<v Speaker 3>a day or real lifetime a day. But then that's
<v Speaker 3>kind of it, Mike. You can just do whatever you want.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's just it's addicting.
<v Speaker 3>It is.
<v Speaker 1>It's a It's a game that you want to play
<v Speaker 1>and are thinking about when you're not playing it. All right, everybody,
<v Speaker 1>thank you so much for hanging out with me, jan
<v Speaker 1>thank you for joining me and helping me along here
<v Speaker 1>as I cover for Jeff.
<v Speaker 3>What a day for Mikey's, What a day for Mikey's.
<v Speaker 1>So what's happening on giant bomb dot com like I said,
<v Speaker 1>no miss today, but we're probably checking out Slate the
<v Speaker 1>Spire two, so please look forward to that.
<v Speaker 3>I'm probably gonna try and make my way down to
<v Speaker 3>GDC later today, if not the rest of the week.
<v Speaker 3>So if you are attending GDC and you see me,
<v Speaker 3>don't be shy, go say hi. I love talking to
<v Speaker 3>the community. And hey, if you have a game that
<v Speaker 3>you're showing off at GDC, I'm very poor at responding
<v Speaker 3>to emails, but just grab me and shove me in
<v Speaker 3>front of your demo station. That happened yesterday and I
<v Speaker 3>checked out a lovely game that I'll talk about tomorrow
<v Speaker 3>on the BombCast.
<v Speaker 2>So you heard it. You heard them.
<v Speaker 1>Everybody shove Jeff and Jan shove them grab Grub shove Jan.
<v Speaker 2>There you go. Okay, I like it.
<v Speaker 3>That makes sense.
<v Speaker 1>BombCast tomorrow as well, and we'll figure out what else
<v Speaker 1>we're doing this week. So thank you again, everybody. I
<v Speaker 1>don't uh what he had, Man, he has this written too.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, what do I say at the end?
<v Speaker 3>There?
<v Speaker 1>With that, we are out. Thank you to our guests.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you for being the best audience. Agains right, he
<v Speaker 1>says that, And until next morning, mess have a good one,
<v Speaker 1>take care of yourself and goodbye.