Larian Will Not Use Generative AI on Divinity Concept Art

<v Speaker 1>Okay, hey everybody, welcome to Game mess Mornings with Me
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Grubb, your host from giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for tuning in.
<v Speaker 1>In this episode, we're gonna be talking about Nintendo dropping
<v Speaker 1>an amazing strategy RPG on the switch to an Xbox
<v Speaker 1>holding back a secret game for its upcoming showcase.
<v Speaker 2>It's gonna be a good one because we have.
<v Speaker 1>Rachel Kazer on the showing.
<v Speaker 3>I Happy New Year, Jeff. I'm so happy to see
<v Speaker 3>you again. And for the record, everyone, the only reason
<v Speaker 3>I'm here is fire emblem.
<v Speaker 2>That's right. Well, you messaged me last night.
<v Speaker 1>I think we probably talked about it last time you
<v Speaker 1>were on the show, and then yes, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>And then I messaged you at like ten o'clock last
<v Speaker 3>night when I saw the news and it was it
<v Speaker 3>was literally just like a like a string.
<v Speaker 1>Of emojis, yes, exactly, like just an exclamation points.
<v Speaker 2>Mostly. I'm excited too.
<v Speaker 1>I've started Path Radiance a couple times, really enjoyed it,
<v Speaker 1>and then of course it was like, oh, I got
<v Speaker 1>distracted by some new game I got to play for work.
<v Speaker 1>I might use this as the excuse to fully go
<v Speaker 1>back to it. I'm assuming you've played through Path of
<v Speaker 1>Radiance before.
<v Speaker 3>Or actually I actually have not. It's a fire Amarm
<v Speaker 3>game I've never played. It's it's one of the few
<v Speaker 3>firemom games I've never played because I didn't own a
<v Speaker 3>game cube, but I mean I owned a you So
<v Speaker 3>I played Radiant Dawn, which is the.
<v Speaker 2>Secret very similar, yes to follow up.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but I've never actually played Path of Radiance itself,
<v Speaker 3>So I'm excited. It's not it's not the remake I
<v Speaker 3>was hoping for, but I'm hoping all of this interest
<v Speaker 3>in Fire Emblem will mean that the next Fire Emblem
<v Speaker 3>game we get after Fortune's Weave might be a genealogy
<v Speaker 3>of the Holy War remake.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it feels like that's still happening at some point.
<v Speaker 1>But yeah, there's a lot of Fireblom happening happening these days.
<v Speaker 1>That's uh, that's exciting. We will talk about all the
<v Speaker 1>details there here in a second.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Other than that, how was how was your New Year?
<v Speaker 1>How were how are your holidays? How how's things down
<v Speaker 1>in Texas?
<v Speaker 3>It? I mean it's it's very warm even by Texas
<v Speaker 3>standards for winter. Like I think the Old Snap is
<v Speaker 3>finally coming next week, But it was like seven degrees
<v Speaker 3>on Christmas.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, yeah, it was kind of up until Christmas, and
<v Speaker 1>then as Christmas got here, it's like, okay, we're gonna
<v Speaker 1>go melt all the snow, and then it's it came back,
<v Speaker 1>and now we're back to everything's melted, which is kind
<v Speaker 1>of been the standard for the last little bit. But uh, boy,
<v Speaker 1>I liked having the snow. Uh you do anything fun
<v Speaker 1>for New Year's or anything?
<v Speaker 3>Not? Not really, We're just kind of staying home eating
<v Speaker 3>Chinese food because the Chinese, the Chinese food places are
<v Speaker 3>always open. No, never, they never have, never let me down.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, we were just kind of hanging out and
<v Speaker 3>working on our New Year's resolutions. I want to read
<v Speaker 3>more books. My first book is was it The Red
<v Speaker 3>House Mystery? Which is I did not Did you know
<v Speaker 3>that the author of Winnie the Pooh wrote a mystery novel?
<v Speaker 2>No, but that sounds amazing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's exactly what. Yeah, it's exactly what. It sounds like.
<v Speaker 3>It's a uh yeah, I haven't finished it, so no
<v Speaker 3>one in the chat spoil it for me. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I'm reading Aa Milne's only mystery novel.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, well that's that sounds like a good time. I
<v Speaker 1>also am trying to read more and just exercise more regularly.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I get it.
<v Speaker 1>Most people fall off their news resolutions, So that doesn't
<v Speaker 1>mean you shouldn't try.
<v Speaker 2>I like to try, and then we'll see, We'll see
<v Speaker 2>what sticks.
<v Speaker 3>It's like it's a clean slate. It's it's nice to
<v Speaker 3>start again, even if it doesn't necessarily even if not
<v Speaker 3>everything sticks, it's so nice to kind of like check
<v Speaker 3>in with yourself and you know, say, like, what do
<v Speaker 3>I actually want to accomplish in the next few months.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, give yourself the opportunity to succeed in all that.
<v Speaker 1>All right, you know what, it's Friday. Let's get on
<v Speaker 1>with the show. Before we do that, we should explain ourselves.
<v Speaker 1>We're Giant Bomb Video Game Internet deficits independent games media
<v Speaker 1>out here on our own, except we have you in
<v Speaker 1>our corner at our backs. You went to giant bomb
<v Speaker 1>dot com, slash join, became a premium member. Thank you
<v Speaker 1>to everybody who has done so. It is enabling us
<v Speaker 1>to do what we do here. We really deeply appreciate it.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to join those ranks, if you want
<v Speaker 1>to ensure that independent games media can thrive in this environment.
<v Speaker 1>Where corporations have said no, we don't want this anymore.
<v Speaker 2>Well we don't want them anymore. We have you.
<v Speaker 1>We'd much rather have you. So go to giant bomb
<v Speaker 1>dot com, slash join and become a premium member. Get
<v Speaker 1>some bonus goodies.
<v Speaker 2>There will be a.
<v Speaker 1>New grub Snacks next week just for premium subscribers. Looking
<v Speaker 1>forward to doing that Right now, there is a forum
<v Speaker 1>thread for premium users only where you could submit questions.
<v Speaker 1>I'll take a look at those. Yeah, let's let's do
<v Speaker 1>some fun stuff in twenty twenty six. As far as
<v Speaker 1>this show goes.
<v Speaker 3>Mostly member does that, but bring anyone you know. Obviously
<v Speaker 3>you should follow my follow my lead, because I am
<v Speaker 3>the I am the beacon by which all smart decisions
<v Speaker 3>are made.
<v Speaker 1>That's right, stand shoulder to shoulder with Rachel Kaser. That's
<v Speaker 1>never gonna fail you. As far as this show goes,
<v Speaker 1>most weekdays, I Jeff Grub will help piece your gaming
<v Speaker 1>life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even
<v Speaker 1>some of our own original reporting. For all these topics,
<v Speaker 1>I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who
<v Speaker 1>will make me look smart. If you were watching live
<v Speaker 1>on twitch welcome, you can always listen to the show
<v Speaker 1>later on podcast feeds by searching for game Mes Mornings,
<v Speaker 1>or find the RSS feed on giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 1>You can also catch the show later with chapters and
<v Speaker 1>timestamps on YouTube.
<v Speaker 2>Hello YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have lots to get into, so let's
<v Speaker 1>start the morning mess with fire Emblem Path of Radiance
<v Speaker 1>joined Switch Onlines GameCube Classics Library. This is from Darren
<v Speaker 1>BoNT Us at GameSpot. Ahead of the release of Firemblum
<v Speaker 1>Fortunes Weave later this year, the new Firemblum game for
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has added fire Emblem Path of Radiance
<v Speaker 1>to the Switch tos library of GameCube Classics. Regarded as
<v Speaker 1>one of the best entries in the entire franchise, Path
<v Speaker 1>of Radiance will be available for all Nintendo Switch Online
<v Speaker 1>plus Expansion Pack subscribers. First released in two thousand and five,
<v Speaker 1>so twenty one years ago, Oh my God, Path of
<v Speaker 1>Radiance earned critical for its dark storyline, mature themes, and
<v Speaker 1>for being the first three.
<v Speaker 2>D FIREARMBLM game.
<v Speaker 1>Uh Set on the fictional continent of Tellius, the game
<v Speaker 1>follows the mercenary Ike and his companions as they set
<v Speaker 1>out to rescue a Princess and save King the Kingdom
<v Speaker 1>of Crimea from the invading nation of d n Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>So god.
<v Speaker 1>I remember when this happened originally Rachel where it was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>the game with the guys from Smash Brothers. Hey yeah, Ike,
<v Speaker 1>Ike Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we know Ike, right, Ike sort of.
<v Speaker 1>I've always wanted to play these games, and then you know,
<v Speaker 1>I didn't at the time, but it was like an
<v Speaker 1>exciting moment, Oh, we're finally getting that fire EARMBLM series.
<v Speaker 1>I eventually would fall in love with the series after
<v Speaker 1>Awakening happened on the three DS. I think that was
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people in the West like introduction to
<v Speaker 1>the series, the real introduction. But I always was just like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>this game looked cool. It felt very different than a
<v Speaker 1>lot of other stuff that was happening on the game cube,
<v Speaker 1>especially from Nintendo, and yes beloved it is a game
<v Speaker 1>that people really liked right away.
<v Speaker 2>I'm excited about this.
<v Speaker 1>This is the eighth game added to the GameCube library
<v Speaker 1>on the Nintendo Switch too. That's growing a little bit
<v Speaker 1>faster than I even thought that would, and this is
<v Speaker 1>an excellent entry. At this point, it's like, oh, man,
<v Speaker 1>that's now a really well rounded lineup of games that
<v Speaker 1>people can get if they become an Expansory Pack subscriber.
<v Speaker 2>Uh you, so the plan is to play it on
<v Speaker 2>the switch to.
<v Speaker 3>Oh, yeah, it's already. It's I'm already downloading it on
<v Speaker 3>the switch to. I mean I don't know. Yeah, my
<v Speaker 3>switch to is at my in my other room, so
<v Speaker 3>I can't I can't physically show you. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 3>it's at a secret location where the game is currently
<v Speaker 3>being downloaded where I'm you know, getting it directly from Nintendo.
<v Speaker 3>But yes, so it's downloaded up. That's probably gonna be
<v Speaker 3>my whole weekend is playing Path of Radiance on my
<v Speaker 3>switch to.
<v Speaker 1>I think what we should do now is get you
<v Speaker 1>back on here in like a like the next like
<v Speaker 1>two weeks from now, after you've played some more of it,
<v Speaker 1>and kind of get your thoughts. So i'd love to
<v Speaker 1>like have a yes, get the caser review of Path
<v Speaker 1>of Radiance.
<v Speaker 2>I would love to have that you said you did play.
<v Speaker 2>What was the name of the we follow up? I
<v Speaker 2>can't remember. Radiant Down, Radian Down, Radiant Dawn, which I
<v Speaker 2>did like.
<v Speaker 3>But you know, it's that's always been like a just
<v Speaker 3>a blank's just a you know, a big empty spot
<v Speaker 3>on my shelf, as it were my Fire Emblem shelves.
<v Speaker 3>I've never played Path of Radiance, and you know, which
<v Speaker 3>is weird because now that I think about it, I've
<v Speaker 3>played so many other Fire Emblem games that aren't necessarily
<v Speaker 3>ported properly, but I've found other.
<v Speaker 2>Ways of interesting.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, of course of playing them, you know, like totally
<v Speaker 3>totally legal and above.
<v Speaker 2>Gut work, do what you gotta do, of course.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but I've never but I never got around to
<v Speaker 3>playing Path of Radiance, so part of me was kind
<v Speaker 3>of hoping that I would eventually be able to play
<v Speaker 3>it on the switch or I think I actually thought
<v Speaker 3>I could play it on my WIU at one point
<v Speaker 3>when after I got my Wii. Yes, I do on
<v Speaker 3>a WU.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, the WE you had we backward compatibility, so
<v Speaker 1>you probably played it on there.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, well that's why I played Radiant Dawn, but Path
<v Speaker 3>of Radiance came out of the GameCube.
<v Speaker 2>Oh you're staying Path of Radiance still that Yeah, I wonder, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I don't. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>I can't remember, but it either way, like the question
<v Speaker 1>for Radiant Dawn, since you if you can remember when
<v Speaker 1>you did play it. The quality of life features of
<v Speaker 1>like FIREMM got added over time because like you know,
<v Speaker 1>if you go back to the super Famicom versions, it
<v Speaker 1>doesn't have that thing where it's like if I hit
<v Speaker 1>a button, it's gonna show me every possible space where
<v Speaker 1>like the enemy could attack me.
<v Speaker 2>And as someone who's like, look.
<v Speaker 1>I've learned the rules of chess, I've played chess like
<v Speaker 1>I'm like, I'm decent at it, like for someone that
<v Speaker 1>is completely an amateur. But I always struggle with like
<v Speaker 1>seeing the whole board and seeing like every possible like
<v Speaker 1>threat position. I suppose that's a problem most people have.
<v Speaker 1>That's the whole thing that makes just difficult. But I
<v Speaker 1>do struggle with that, and that was always great in
<v Speaker 1>Fire and just like at least with starting with Awakening,
<v Speaker 1>I think you would hit like one of the shoulder
<v Speaker 1>buttons and it would just be like, here's a big
<v Speaker 1>red blob of the danger area. Do you remember if
<v Speaker 1>like path of or if a Radian dawn, excuse me,
<v Speaker 1>if that had that, and by exten maybe path of
<v Speaker 1>Path of Radiance has that.
<v Speaker 3>I think it has it. I could be wrong because
<v Speaker 3>I have a memory of a map in Radiant Dawn
<v Speaker 3>with like the red like like red squares on the map,
<v Speaker 3>So I have a memory of that, but I could
<v Speaker 3>be it could be just that it's only if you
<v Speaker 3>like highlight one enemy, like you go to their tile
<v Speaker 3>on the map, and it'll show you all the places
<v Speaker 3>they can move to. So maybe not the entire enemy
<v Speaker 3>danger zone, but maybe just like for you have to
<v Speaker 3>like pick out each individual enemy and be like, okay,
<v Speaker 3>they can go here, they can go here, So I
<v Speaker 3>better avoid this, this, and this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, probably individual at least done on an individual enemy levels,
<v Speaker 1>yea YadA, saying that sounds right, I think when I
<v Speaker 1>I do remember when I did spend several hours playing
<v Speaker 1>Path of Radiance again, never beat it, but I remember
<v Speaker 1>being like, oh no, I can work with this and
<v Speaker 1>it still feels relatively modern, even if it doesn't have
<v Speaker 1>every single quality of life.
<v Speaker 2>Feature that the series would add over time.
<v Speaker 1>My understanding overall is this is a relatively friendly game.
<v Speaker 2>To go back to.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's like people do someone else in chat a
<v Speaker 1>little bit, a little bit of it was calling it
<v Speaker 1>out as a great first fire emblem game. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I bet it's gonna hold up just fine.
<v Speaker 2>Looking forward to spending some more time with it.
<v Speaker 3>I'm so excited. I can't wait to I can't. I
<v Speaker 3>will play as much of it as I can in
<v Speaker 3>the next two weeks, just so that I can report
<v Speaker 3>back to you about like YEP turns out Path of Radiance,
<v Speaker 3>it still holds up. It's still fun to play YEP.
<v Speaker 1>I And as someone who's like originally fell in love
<v Speaker 1>with intelligence systems of strategy games, with Advance Wars, I've
<v Speaker 1>come to accept and be sort of like not just accept,
<v Speaker 1>but like, no, this is great.
<v Speaker 2>That Firearm one became like the standout one.
<v Speaker 1>They had their their wife Fus and Awakening, and of
<v Speaker 1>course that put it over the top.
<v Speaker 2>But there is uh, that's a that's a great series.
<v Speaker 1>It's a there's a lot to love there, and it
<v Speaker 1>has a lot of the same qualities as in an
<v Speaker 1>Advanced War, but with like characters you can get related to.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't judge the waifus because like, to me,
<v Speaker 3>that is what saves the fire and Blum series, because
<v Speaker 3>I remember, if Awakening had not done well sales wise,
<v Speaker 3>like they would have just packed the whole franchise in
<v Speaker 3>and just th it on the shelf forever. So I mean,
<v Speaker 3>if that's what save fire emblem, then you know, please
<v Speaker 3>more wifus I need more wi fus wi.
<v Speaker 1>Foos are the key to success in this business. It
<v Speaker 1>turns out, all right, let's keep going here. The Xbox
<v Speaker 1>Developer Direct will feature a secret fourth game.
<v Speaker 2>This is from Jordan Midler at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>The upcoming Xbox Developer Direct will feature a currently unannounced
<v Speaker 1>fourth game. The digital event will stream on Thursday, January
<v Speaker 1>twenty second at ten am Pacific time one pm Eastern
<v Speaker 1>and include new looks at forts, A, Horizon six, Fable,
<v Speaker 1>and the new game from Pokemon developers Game Freak Beasts
<v Speaker 1>of Reincarnation. Now we talked about all of those yesterday
<v Speaker 1>on the show. Excited to see more from all three
<v Speaker 1>of thems, Yeah, I mean, I think that Game Freak
<v Speaker 1>one especially is very interesting. I'm kind of interested to
<v Speaker 1>see it from the side of, oh, let's see what
<v Speaker 1>the studio can do when they may have a real budget,
<v Speaker 1>but also it just looks like a good game, so
<v Speaker 1>I want to see that. And then of course Forts
<v Speaker 1>are Horizon six taking place in Japan, and that Fable
<v Speaker 1>game being sort of almost a mythological beast at this
<v Speaker 1>point where it's been around or been announced for so long,
<v Speaker 1>it's like, is this thing actually going to be real? Well,
<v Speaker 1>in that blog post yesterday, they're like, yeah, we're showing
<v Speaker 1>off new gameplay. Okay, let's see it. Let's see what
<v Speaker 1>you actually have over there, Playground Games. But since then, Shinobi,
<v Speaker 1>who is like kind of a you know, industry guy,
<v Speaker 1>industry insider to some extent, posted on one of the
<v Speaker 1>forums that a secret fourth game will be part of
<v Speaker 1>this thing, which is not surprising something that Microsoft has
<v Speaker 1>done with their developer directs before in the past, where
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, we're going to talk about in depth
<v Speaker 1>with some of these games, and it's four games, and
<v Speaker 1>then there's a secret fifth game that they don't say
<v Speaker 1>they're going to do, and then it pops off and
<v Speaker 1>sometimes it's like a shadow drop or something like that.
<v Speaker 1>Now VGC says they can corroborate this and understands that
<v Speaker 1>the fourth game is a smaller scale original game from
<v Speaker 1>one of the Box Game Studios first party developers. I'll
<v Speaker 1>say that, like you know, when I I just did
<v Speaker 1>a cursory ask about this without getting any definitive answer,
<v Speaker 1>but people are like, oh, to me, it sounds like
<v Speaker 1>that's probably gonna be Gears of War E Day. Now,
<v Speaker 1>clearly that's not a smaller game. Yeah, very very different,
<v Speaker 1>So we'll see. I think I trust VGC here on this.
<v Speaker 1>And it also sounds like the kind of thing that, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that fits with what Microsoft has done before. But also
<v Speaker 1>it's like, didn't they do that with isn't that exactly
<v Speaker 1>what happened with what was the Rhythm Action Adventure Hi
<v Speaker 1>Fi Rush? Isn't that exactly what happened there? And they
<v Speaker 1>sort of they shadow dropped it and it kind of
<v Speaker 1>it kind of seemed like it popped off, but eventually
<v Speaker 1>they got rid of the studio or whatever. So it's
<v Speaker 1>is are they going to repeat history with that or
<v Speaker 1>what you're expect the right?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah?
<v Speaker 3>I know, yeah, I mean I'm trying to think of
<v Speaker 3>who will like a smaller scale title. I mean, I
<v Speaker 3>haven't heard anything that sounds like it fits that description.
<v Speaker 3>So I'm puzzling because I also I did look into it,
<v Speaker 3>and I do remember seeing that it might be like
<v Speaker 3>indie indie scale, like.
<v Speaker 2>The original game small scale.
<v Speaker 1>Those those are the big descriptors here, So it's not
<v Speaker 1>original game.
<v Speaker 3>Imply it's not part of an existing series, or right, is.
<v Speaker 2>That what we should say?
<v Speaker 1>I I think so, Rachel, Okay, but I don't necessarily
<v Speaker 1>know if that's what it means, because you know, it
<v Speaker 1>could be an original sequel, right, but probably not they
<v Speaker 1>would say that. I think they would say that if
<v Speaker 1>that's what was happening here.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think they'd say, like, you know, it's a
<v Speaker 3>sequel to you know, popular indie game from early two thousands,
<v Speaker 3>something like.
<v Speaker 1>That, right, yes, or right, like a Pentiment follow up,
<v Speaker 1>which I doubt this is.
<v Speaker 3>I love a Pentiment follow up.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know me too.
<v Speaker 3>I didn't have that in my head until you said it.
<v Speaker 3>But now.
<v Speaker 1>Listen, I love love love Pentiment. I'm never gonna believe
<v Speaker 1>we're going to get another one of those. It's this
<v Speaker 1>perfect little thing and I'll be fine with that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, double finelex, they'll xboxify it.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, Double Find just released a game, so it's it's
<v Speaker 1>probably not. It does sound like Obsidian could have something,
<v Speaker 1>but they're very busy all the time with like five
<v Speaker 1>different projects, and they released three games last year, Avowed
<v Speaker 1>the Outer Worlds Too and Grounded To, So it's like, God,
<v Speaker 1>are they really going to have yet another game? Even
<v Speaker 1>ready to talk about it. At this point, that seems unlikely,
<v Speaker 1>but they have a ton of studios that I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>we're forgetting about that. It could be doing the obsidian
<v Speaker 1>thing of like, hey, we had a small team make
<v Speaker 1>something and we're going to finally.
<v Speaker 2>Put that out.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean, I think hoping that something is going
<v Speaker 3>to shadow drop like it did with High Fi Rush,
<v Speaker 3>I think that might be hoping for a little too much,
<v Speaker 3>because I think I don't think they're to be able
<v Speaker 3>to do what they did with High Fi Rush. I
<v Speaker 3>don't think that. I mean same with Pentiment. I don't
<v Speaker 3>think that lightning is going to strike twice, and I
<v Speaker 3>don't think Xbox is Gonn is going to try to
<v Speaker 3>force something out just to try to replicate that success.
<v Speaker 3>I think what they're gonna do is probably release a
<v Speaker 3>trailer for something and then something that has at least
<v Speaker 3>a familiar element. I'm guessing like maybe we'll recognize the
<v Speaker 3>studio and say like, oh, we love their work, can't
<v Speaker 3>wait to see what they do with this. But I
<v Speaker 3>don't think it's going to be a full game.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, I'm happy.
<v Speaker 3>I'm happy to eat my words if it turns out
<v Speaker 3>that we do get a game.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, I uh be curious to see it.
<v Speaker 1>I think, you know, the thing sticking out to me
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, one of the first party developers.
<v Speaker 2>We have seen Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>Do something along these lines before and kind of let
<v Speaker 1>these studios try to make a smaller thing alongside the
<v Speaker 1>big stuff that they make. Obsidian has been the best
<v Speaker 1>at that, or like maybe the poster child for that.
<v Speaker 1>And then I was also like getting the sense it's like,
<v Speaker 1>is that the strategy also going forward, because I remember
<v Speaker 1>at Booty in the last couple of years, especially as
<v Speaker 1>they are having this shift from we're focused on selling
<v Speaker 1>xboxes too, We're focused on selling our games everywhere. One
<v Speaker 1>of the things I remember Matt Booty saying, who is
<v Speaker 1>one of the people in charge of Xbox and he
<v Speaker 1>I don't think he's necessarily in charge of Xbox Game
<v Speaker 1>Studios anymore. I think that's Sarah Bond now, but he's
<v Speaker 1>still he's up there on the executive leadership team. He
<v Speaker 1>was saying that they want to focus more on the
<v Speaker 1>big home run hits, the bigger games and fewer games
<v Speaker 1>and having the like the you know, putting all their
<v Speaker 1>eggs into some of these more.
<v Speaker 2>Some of these bigger baskets that have the biggest return.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's like, okay, I want to see what this
<v Speaker 1>is mostly to get a sense of Okay, are things
<v Speaker 1>like this still possible at Xbox where it's like they
<v Speaker 1>can have these smaller things or is this a remnant
<v Speaker 1>from the previous sort of strategy and this is the
<v Speaker 1>last one out the door before they close the door
<v Speaker 1>on that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm curious to see it from that angle.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it depends on when they're going to release it.
<v Speaker 3>If it's something that's going to release this year, then yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I think it would definitely be Probably it pre dates
<v Speaker 3>it was grandfathered in, and then it could be a
<v Speaker 3>small indie game that was grandfathered in on the original
<v Speaker 3>strategy that they that they want to put out because
<v Speaker 3>they've invested a lot of time and money in it already.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, and Matt Booty is in charge of everything Studio
<v Speaker 1>so Xbox Activision.
<v Speaker 2>But does the okay makes sense? Uh?
<v Speaker 1>All right, Well we'll see that's uh again, that's happening
<v Speaker 1>January twenty second, So we're talking to yep two weeks
<v Speaker 1>from now.
<v Speaker 2>We well, we'll watch it here see what they have.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I don't know, looking forward to see what those
<v Speaker 1>other games are or what they have, and they're in
<v Speaker 1>store for us as well.
<v Speaker 3>Watch it with the rest of you. I can yell
<v Speaker 3>at at Mike a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>There you go.
<v Speaker 3>That would be perfect months.
<v Speaker 2>It's important to get that in regularly. I know I
<v Speaker 2>need it as well.
<v Speaker 1>He was he missed uh Decides last night because he
<v Speaker 1>was at Games Done Quick and it's like he was
<v Speaker 1>kind of in the background of one of the shots,
<v Speaker 1>and then when the Super Metroid Run happened, he was
<v Speaker 1>like right there. Basically he wasn't on like the couch,
<v Speaker 1>but he might as well have been, because he was
<v Speaker 1>just like taking hour And that sounds about right. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I was. I was very excited. Okay, that was not me.
<v Speaker 1>I did not do that me. Xbox exclusive RPG Avowed
<v Speaker 1>is coming to PS five with new features.
<v Speaker 2>This is from James O'Connor at GameSpot.
<v Speaker 1>Avowed. Obsidian's twenty twenty five RPG, originally released on Xbox Series,
<v Speaker 1>x NS and PC, is coming to PlayStation five. The
<v Speaker 1>new version of a Vout, announced during the New Game
<v Speaker 1>Plus showcase which happened yesterday, will be available on Sony's
<v Speaker 1>system on February seventeenth, twenty twenty six, just a day
<v Speaker 1>short of the one year anniversary of the game's original release.
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft remains the game's publisher, having purchased Obsidian in twenty eighteen.
<v Speaker 1>The game is first person action RPG set in the
<v Speaker 1>world of Pillars of Eternity some other Obsidian games, it
<v Speaker 1>tasks players with investigating a mysterious plague, fighting their way
<v Speaker 1>through or a sprawling world with a mix of weapons
<v Speaker 1>and magic. Alongside the PS five version, Obsidian will also
<v Speaker 1>release an anniversary update for the game for all systems.
<v Speaker 2>This update will add a new game Plus mode.
<v Speaker 1>Which lets you carry over all your equippable gear to
<v Speaker 1>a new character we're set to level one and fight
<v Speaker 1>modified enemies. It also adds a photo mode, three new
<v Speaker 1>playable races, the ability to change your appearance from the overworld,
<v Speaker 1>and a new weapon type. The PS five version will
<v Speaker 1>also contain all the post release content and updates that
<v Speaker 1>the game has received thus far. I think the developers
<v Speaker 1>were discussing the update and saying, it's like, it's a
<v Speaker 1>more well rounded game now.
<v Speaker 2>Is how they're positioning it.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, oh, yeah, that's a game that was already
<v Speaker 1>really solid, and of course this is.
<v Speaker 2>One of the benefits. Yeah, I did two.
<v Speaker 1>This is one of the benefits of like this strategy
<v Speaker 1>for a company like Microsoft, where it's like, release it
<v Speaker 1>on Xbox first, focus on that launch, and then sometime
<v Speaker 1>between three months to a year later, get it ready
<v Speaker 1>for PlayStation five, where it will have a bigger audience,
<v Speaker 1>and we'll be you know, kind of necessarily the best
<v Speaker 1>version of the game possible with all these updates, all
<v Speaker 1>these improvements, and you could specifically build a new update
<v Speaker 1>to make the game feel special to people who are
<v Speaker 1>still playing it on other consoles while making it like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>here's why it's worth getting into it now on your
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I think this is going to do really well because
<v Speaker 1>another thing that's happening with Obsidian Games, Rachel, is it
<v Speaker 1>seems like these games are coming out, do they do
<v Speaker 1>feel like they get lost in the mix a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>and then a few months later everyone kind of goes
<v Speaker 1>like that game ruled. I think that's gonna happen with
<v Speaker 1>Outer Worlds too, like a big time. Like people are
<v Speaker 1>going to come around to Outer Worlds two in the
<v Speaker 1>next like six months or so and be like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>actually this game is awesome. I don't know why more
<v Speaker 1>people weren't talking about it. It's sort of already happening
<v Speaker 1>with a vowed and now this will give them an
<v Speaker 1>opportunity to sort of capitalize on that.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think when I remember thinking, especially when you
<v Speaker 3>put it out that city and released three games last year,
<v Speaker 3>I remember thinking, did we really just force did did
<v Speaker 3>City and force all of their projects out the door once?
<v Speaker 3>I hate to keep bringing this up, but do they
<v Speaker 3>force it all out because GTA six is about to happen?
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't. It doesn't seem like that's not a factor. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's definitely just think it's part of it.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, but yeah, and so this seems like, yeah, it's
<v Speaker 3>a good way for the game to get a little
<v Speaker 3>bit more. I think it definitely deserved more attention than
<v Speaker 3>it got, and I think everyone was still kind of
<v Speaker 3>holding It came out at a time when everyone was
<v Speaker 3>kind of holding their breath for Monster Hunter Wilds, or
<v Speaker 3>or was playing Monster Hunter wild I.
<v Speaker 1>Feel they were just were they were just starting to play. Yes,
<v Speaker 1>it was around the same time.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yes, yeah, I remember that. But then but then
<v Speaker 3>Monster Hunter Wilds kind of dropped off. I mean not
<v Speaker 3>that it wasn't a decent game, but it feels like
<v Speaker 3>it's not. It doesn't have the staying power of previous
<v Speaker 3>Monster Hunter games. So I'm kind of thinking it would
<v Speaker 3>be great for a vow to get a little bit
<v Speaker 3>more attention.
<v Speaker 2>Mm hmmm.
<v Speaker 3>And I think it's coming. I think it. The PS
<v Speaker 3>five release is coming out at a time when there
<v Speaker 3>it doesn't have a lot of overlap with other major releases.
<v Speaker 3>The only one I can think of that's coming out
<v Speaker 3>during that time is Resident Evil Requiem, and that's not
<v Speaker 3>really that's not really a crossover with a fantasy RPG, right.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's space for both of those. Absolutely, It's you know,
<v Speaker 1>Reside Eval is going to be massive. There's the kind
<v Speaker 1>of the most hype for this series since Resident before remake,
<v Speaker 1>which I guess was very recent a couple of years ago.
<v Speaker 1>But no, that's that's still saying something regardless, though, You're right,
<v Speaker 1>I think that there's going to be space for this
<v Speaker 1>game as well.
<v Speaker 2>It can do very well in PlayStation.
<v Speaker 1>And yeah, someone a chat with saying time to stop
<v Speaker 1>buying games at launch, and it's like, yeah, I mean
<v Speaker 1>I definitely am okay waiting on a lot of games, right,
<v Speaker 1>Like just Stranding two is one that's like I missed
<v Speaker 1>the boat on and now it's like, it's probably gonna
<v Speaker 1>do that director's cut thing again. What if I just
<v Speaker 1>waited for that version and it's like, and there's a
<v Speaker 1>ton of benefits to doing that, you get the best
<v Speaker 1>version of the game up to that point.
<v Speaker 2>Of course. Course. Yeah, I mean, how are you feel
<v Speaker 2>about that these days?
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I thought that was kind of a given
<v Speaker 3>that everyone had kind of taken away that lesson is
<v Speaker 3>that unless unless something the game really sells itself to you,
<v Speaker 3>you don't have to buy it at launch. Yeah, I mean,
<v Speaker 3>I think I think everyone. Maybe I just was brought
<v Speaker 3>up in the days of the Steam sale that there
<v Speaker 3>was there were so many games, especially we just had
<v Speaker 3>our our end of year's sale. That's where I bought
<v Speaker 3>The Berlin Apartment, which I think I talked about last time.
<v Speaker 3>I think, so, yeah, and there's another game that I bought,
<v Speaker 3>Sayan's a Blake Manner yep. So I was basically buying
<v Speaker 3>all the indie games that I hadn't had a chance
<v Speaker 3>to play during the year, and it was like, I'm
<v Speaker 3>just gonna snatch these up. All these are twenty five
<v Speaker 3>percent off.
<v Speaker 1>So oh yeah, well, the waiting for the sale thing,
<v Speaker 1>that has definitely been something that like is smart money
<v Speaker 1>and people should be doing that.
<v Speaker 2>Of course.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, yeah, it's like, but if you wait for
<v Speaker 1>the sale, you are also getting this much better game
<v Speaker 1>at this point. And it's like, I guess that also
<v Speaker 1>has been something that's pretty common now for years.
<v Speaker 2>But just said, that's all the.
<v Speaker 3>Patches, when all the patches and expansions come out. So yeah,
<v Speaker 3>you're getting, like you said, you're getting the complete version
<v Speaker 3>of the game. I am curious to know what the
<v Speaker 3>new playable races are going to be in avowed though. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I'm trying to remember what the It's been so long
<v Speaker 3>since I played about I don't remember what the playable
<v Speaker 3>races were, and you know what more they could have?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, right, It's like, I bet there's if I were
<v Speaker 1>to go back and look, I bet there's multiple races
<v Speaker 1>in the game that you interact with but you can't
<v Speaker 1>play ass and then they'll.
<v Speaker 3>Just kind I don't think they're gonna go for somebody
<v Speaker 3>that's do you remember Yachtsley, one of the companions Yachtsley.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't think.
<v Speaker 3>They're gonna go for someone her size.
<v Speaker 2>No, probably not.
<v Speaker 1>No, they'll probably do something a little bit more standard.
<v Speaker 1>But that would be fun if they did, that'd be cool, hilarious.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's see here. Let's take a break. We're
<v Speaker 1>gonna take a break. There's plenty more to talk about,
<v Speaker 1>including the latest on Larian and Generative A.
<v Speaker 2>I will talk about that after this break.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to skip out on these, go to
<v Speaker 1>giant bomb dot com slash join become a premium member.
<v Speaker 1>We have premium versions without ads of the video show
<v Speaker 1>and the audio show.
<v Speaker 2>Go grab those. In the meantime, though, we will be
<v Speaker 2>right back.
<v Speaker 4>Hi, dog, it's time to start the show. Are you
<v Speaker 4>ready to go?
<v Speaker 2>Uh? Yeah, dude, I'm ready.
<v Speaker 4>No, grum, you look like you are in a den
<v Speaker 4>of iniquity right now.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know what that means, and I don't know
<v Speaker 2>what you want. It's not like I have a home studio, jan, Yes,
<v Speaker 2>you do.
<v Speaker 4>The computers that main Gear built for us have Nvidia
<v Speaker 4>g Force RTX chippoos in them, and with the Nvidia
<v Speaker 4>Studio drivers and in video broadcast, you can turn even
<v Speaker 4>your man cave into a professional studio using Broadcasts. You
<v Speaker 4>can upgrade your webcams, microphones, and speakers using the power
<v Speaker 4>of machine learning to take our shows, voice chats, and
<v Speaker 4>video conferences to the next level. You can use audio
<v Speaker 4>effects like noise.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, I guess have a fan on h Well,
<v Speaker 2>it's hot. I'm not gonna turn that off. Let me
<v Speaker 2>just hit this right here? Is that any better? Jan?
<v Speaker 4>Much better? We can clean up your shot with auto
<v Speaker 4>frame and video noise removal and grub. You can even
<v Speaker 4>make it look like you were paying attention using the
<v Speaker 4>eye contact tool.
<v Speaker 2>So I could still watch my stories.
<v Speaker 4>Yes, yes you can. Nvidia Broadcasts is a universal plugin
<v Speaker 4>that works with most live streaming, voice chat, and video
<v Speaker 4>conferencing apps. It's supported on any Nvideo, g Force ArtX GPU,
<v Speaker 4>and since I'm using the Nvidia Studio drivers, I'll get stable,
<v Speaker 4>optimized performance in Adobe Photoshop, DA Vinci Resolve in all
<v Speaker 4>the other apps that I need to use to fix
<v Speaker 4>our mistakes in post.
<v Speaker 3>You know what.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you to Bangear and in Vidia for supplying. Are
<v Speaker 1>Invidia Studio PCs in Video broadcast, your AI powered home
<v Speaker 1>studio and video studio.
<v Speaker 2>The software advantage for all creators. Jan, I'm not even
<v Speaker 2>looking at the camera. All right, now, Grub, stop stop
<v Speaker 2>looking at me. I haven't looked at you forever.
<v Speaker 5>All all, all right, it's a game this morning, some
<v Speaker 5>Jeff Grub.
<v Speaker 1>It's Rachel Kayser. I'm able to get this thing open now.
<v Speaker 1>It's from a gotcha machine again, shouts at the ABC
<v Speaker 1>for dropping this off to mic and get it to me.
<v Speaker 1>It's the it's the N sixty four controller button thing,
<v Speaker 1>a little keychain.
<v Speaker 2>I got the.
<v Speaker 1>Analog sticks, so now I have this. Yeah, and I
<v Speaker 1>can press all the buttons. It's a little fidget.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that feels good. I love the sea buttons. They're
<v Speaker 2>weird and kind of off putting, and I like it.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's see here. Thanks again, ABC. I'm I
<v Speaker 2>have a cold. I was trying to pretend I didn't
<v Speaker 2>when we started the show, Rachel, but no, it's okay.
<v Speaker 1>It's catching up to me. And I was like, I
<v Speaker 1>just got over like I had the maybe not the flu,
<v Speaker 1>like the the capital f flu over the holidays.
<v Speaker 2>But I had something similar. And uh, now it's like,
<v Speaker 2>oh cool, it's a nice little cold to.
<v Speaker 1>Cap things off. On the other side of that, it's
<v Speaker 1>not terrible. I took some pseudo fed, which is probably
<v Speaker 1>why I'm talking even faster than normal this morning. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, it's uh, let's get through this and see
<v Speaker 1>how we can do this this day.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 3>I feel so when you said before the call started,
<v Speaker 3>but before the show started, you said you were gonna
<v Speaker 3>go get some tissues, I was like, well, damn, I
<v Speaker 3>didn't think I was gonna make you cry to day.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah well that yeah, you're you were right. That was fine.
<v Speaker 1>It has nothing to do with the cold. That was
<v Speaker 1>just because I knew you were gonna make me weepy.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, absolutely all right. Larry and will not use
<v Speaker 1>generative AI for Divinity concept art specifically. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Alex Forbes Calvin at I didn't write it down. I
<v Speaker 1>think games industry up is probably not. Belgian game developer
<v Speaker 1>Larryan Studios has confirmed that there will be no Generative
<v Speaker 1>AI used for concept art during the creation of the
<v Speaker 1>upcoming RPG Divinity, and a Reddit Ask Me Anything. CEO
<v Speaker 1>and co founder Spinn Vink said that the company would
<v Speaker 1>not use jin ai.
<v Speaker 2>As part of the concept art process.
<v Speaker 1>The studio lead added that no concept art had been
<v Speaker 1>created using generative AI, but said that he could see
<v Speaker 1>how people were confused by his previous remarks. Viink previously
<v Speaker 1>told Bloomberg that it had tried to incorporate AI into
<v Speaker 1>the creation of Divinity, which it resulted in a backlash,
<v Speaker 1>particularly due to the developer seemingly using in the creation
<v Speaker 1>of concept art, or like the early stages of concept
<v Speaker 1>art at the very least.
<v Speaker 2>The studio CEO later.
<v Speaker 1>Clarified that it was not replacing concept artists with AI,
<v Speaker 1>adding that the company had used the technology to quote
<v Speaker 1>explore things in the Reddit. Ama vinc said that it
<v Speaker 1>was removing jin Ai from the entire concept art process
<v Speaker 1>to ensure that players knew all art is original. There
<v Speaker 1>is not going to be any generative AI in Divinity,
<v Speaker 1>he wrote, I know there has been a lot of
<v Speaker 1>discussion about using AI tools as part of the concept
<v Speaker 1>art exploration. We already said that this doesn't mean the
<v Speaker 1>actual concept art is generated by AI, but we understand
<v Speaker 1>it created confusion. So to ensure there is no room
<v Speaker 1>for doubt, we've decided to refrain from using jen Ai
<v Speaker 1>tools during concept art development. That way, there could be
<v Speaker 1>no discussion about the origin of the art. Great a win,
<v Speaker 1>like I think this is a win that people need
<v Speaker 1>to take. This is one of the things people wanted
<v Speaker 1>is you said you were going to do this thing.
<v Speaker 1>We don't like it, We're going to yell at you
<v Speaker 1>about it. And they have changed their feelings about this,
<v Speaker 1>they have changed their process. And I think when we
<v Speaker 1>were talking about this before, Rachel on one of the episodes,
<v Speaker 1>I was saying, like, its iterativism is like a thing
<v Speaker 1>that I know people hate, where it's like take the
<v Speaker 1>small wins and try to change things slowly, but I
<v Speaker 1>don't know what other options we really have. So when
<v Speaker 1>you do want a company to stop doing something and
<v Speaker 1>they stop doing that thing, celebrate that as a win.
<v Speaker 1>But there is a however here, Yes there is a
<v Speaker 1>literally having said that, which is the quote that he
<v Speaker 1>continues here. We continuously try to improve the speed with
<v Speaker 1>which we can try things out. The more iterations we
<v Speaker 1>can do, the better. In general, the gameplay is we
<v Speaker 1>think generative AI can help with this, so we're trying
<v Speaker 1>things out across departments. Our hope is that we it
<v Speaker 1>can aid us to refine ideas faster, leading to a
<v Speaker 1>more focused development cycle, less waste, and ultimately a higher
<v Speaker 1>quality game.
<v Speaker 2>It's like, of course he's still leaving the door open,
<v Speaker 2>so people will still be mad.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, while celebrating a small win, that doesn't
<v Speaker 1>mean you have to shut up now. You can keep
<v Speaker 1>being loud about this. But I will say, being loud
<v Speaker 1>about this is what got any sort of of of
<v Speaker 1>like backtracking from spen here. So well done to everybody
<v Speaker 1>who's like standing up and shouting about what they care about.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm not. I'm not usually a fan of gamers
<v Speaker 3>sort of like maybe taking their anger out where it's
<v Speaker 3>not necessarily warranted.
<v Speaker 1>It's always it's always like often like misguided, misdirected, right,
<v Speaker 1>so frequently it is yes.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but this I think was perfect was a perfectly
<v Speaker 3>acceptable use of gamer outrage, if you will, because I mean,
<v Speaker 3>it's not as if we found out later like with
<v Speaker 3>Claire Obscure, which had its endie Game of the Year
<v Speaker 3>war taken away because it used generative AI in the
<v Speaker 3>in the art process. Am I correct exactly?
<v Speaker 2>I can't remember the exact details.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I got, Look, I was, I knew that was
<v Speaker 1>mostly happening over the holidays, and I was kind of
<v Speaker 1>paying attention. I think it was during the art process,
<v Speaker 1>but I can't remember the exact da.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, but and and everything, and you know, we've that
<v Speaker 3>we found out after the fact that that had happened,
<v Speaker 3>and it was like, hey, why would you Why would
<v Speaker 3>you use something that is inherently not a creative tool
<v Speaker 3>for a creative medium. I think that that's one of
<v Speaker 3>the things everyone was upset about, and I feel I can't.
<v Speaker 3>I don't necessarily blame Spen either, because it feels like
<v Speaker 3>I understand why this seems like a really fun and
<v Speaker 3>shiny new tool, and I understand that everyone doesn't. Nobody
<v Speaker 3>wants crunch either. Nobody really wants to crunch their employees
<v Speaker 3>when there's possibly other solutions. But I don't I really
<v Speaker 3>wish he hadn't used the I appreciate the transparency, but
<v Speaker 3>I really wish he hadn't put in that. Having said that, so, yes,
<v Speaker 3>if anybody hears him say that and says, you know
<v Speaker 3>what's fenn, I'm not satisfied. I really wish you wouldn't
<v Speaker 3>use this. Keep telling him that, Keep telling him that
<v Speaker 3>it's important that he hear that.
<v Speaker 1>I think, yeah, it's a it is a thing where
<v Speaker 1>it's like the explanation from people who are concept artists
<v Speaker 1>around the time that this was all going down of
<v Speaker 1>why they don't like this really was very compelling to
<v Speaker 1>me and really kind of made it very clear, and
<v Speaker 1>they were all like, it's it's the idea of someone
<v Speaker 1>on the team has an idea and they go to
<v Speaker 1>AI and say, here's my idea for something. Can you
<v Speaker 1>sort of make a very early composite image for me
<v Speaker 1>that I can hand off to the concept artists and say, hey,
<v Speaker 1>go explore this idea, and.
<v Speaker 2>The concept artists we're all like that.
<v Speaker 1>That's that cuts out a lot of what makes this
<v Speaker 1>job produce good work, And that's that process that it
<v Speaker 1>would be cut out is explain your idea to me
<v Speaker 1>and then let me go do all of the exploration
<v Speaker 1>and the research, because the research is where I learn
<v Speaker 1>so much about why why these things are the way
<v Speaker 1>they are, what these why this certain architecture was used,
<v Speaker 1>the thinking behind it, and all of that learning process
<v Speaker 1>gets incorporated into us building something and creates a foundation
<v Speaker 1>of quality and a foundation of a world that feels
<v Speaker 1>lived in and real. And it's like, uh, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>when I start thinking about some of the best things
<v Speaker 1>I've ever experienced, you can just sense that there was
<v Speaker 1>people on that team who just spent half of their
<v Speaker 1>development time, researching and learning and understanding and building a
<v Speaker 1>foundation that I think is invaluable to making quality products.
<v Speaker 1>And so it's like, Okay, you want to now what
<v Speaker 1>it sounds like, continue using Jenai to iterate on your
<v Speaker 1>original ideas. That still sounds like it's going to cut
<v Speaker 1>out that magical process of people who are good at
<v Speaker 1>their jobs and love doing their jobs and love doing
<v Speaker 1>every aspect of it that has that serendipitous effect of
<v Speaker 1>them stumbling across something that they wouldn't have otherwise because
<v Speaker 1>they're the ones actually going to these books, actually going
<v Speaker 1>into these research facilities and doing the work. And it's
<v Speaker 1>I don't want I don't want to lose any of that,
<v Speaker 1>not one ounce of it.
<v Speaker 2>So no, do to be loud.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, And I feel like this is a this
<v Speaker 3>is a larger discussion probably than just Game as Mornings,
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, I feel yeah, I feel like Jenai. I
<v Speaker 3>don't think it's going to necessarily produce the the cost
<v Speaker 3>cutting that developers well that the top top heads of
<v Speaker 3>the studios are perhaps hoping for. I think it's only
<v Speaker 3>going to end up generating more work for the people
<v Speaker 3>lower down on the ladder who are going to have
<v Speaker 3>to clean up the inevitable like AI nonsense that is
<v Speaker 3>generated from all of this and trying to use the
<v Speaker 3>word slop.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, that's fine. You can you slop as much
<v Speaker 2>as you want on this show. It's yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And the thing is, it's like, there are plenty of
<v Speaker 1>algorithmic machine learning tools that we've been using it to
<v Speaker 1>create games for a very long time now, and it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that stuff is saving time. You know, there was a
<v Speaker 1>couple of years ago Unreal Engine. Here, press a button
<v Speaker 1>and we'll build a city for you. And it's like, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I mean that should save people a lot of time.
<v Speaker 1>Now what happens next was always like and because everyone
<v Speaker 1>has that as sort of table stakes, you're gonna have
<v Speaker 1>to do even more work on all these other aspects
<v Speaker 1>of your world to make your games stand apart and
<v Speaker 1>stand out. And it's like, yeah, that's okay, I think
<v Speaker 1>that's a great thing. We have to keep hiring a
<v Speaker 1>ton of people to make these games because now, sure
<v Speaker 1>you can press a button to build a city, but
<v Speaker 1>I want to see you now take the work of
<v Speaker 1>all these people and go build these interiors and now
<v Speaker 1>focus on this other side of the world. That we
<v Speaker 1>haven't been able to see before because they had to
<v Speaker 1>spend so many years just building the external the city
<v Speaker 1>that we were in before. It's like, I still want
<v Speaker 1>all that fun, magical stuff that happens because someone understands
<v Speaker 1>how to build these algorithms. But that algorithm building was
<v Speaker 1>an art in itself, and handing out over to a
<v Speaker 1>black box, to me is something that I don't want
<v Speaker 1>to see game developers do that in general. And I'm
<v Speaker 1>proud of gamers standing up and shouting even if we
<v Speaker 1>don't fully understand like how it's being used. All the time,
<v Speaker 1>it's like we could tell this is not going to
<v Speaker 1>end up in with games that we really are going
<v Speaker 1>to be into.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I know we have a bunch of other stories
<v Speaker 3>to talk about before the end of the show, so
<v Speaker 3>I don't want to appolize this talking just about jen Ai,
<v Speaker 3>but I will say, uh, we had a discussion about
<v Speaker 3>this at gamespeet next when we were at our conference
<v Speaker 3>in San Francisco, and I got to pull out an
<v Speaker 3>Isaac Asimov reference, which I'm not gonna do the whole
<v Speaker 3>thing for you, but it basically amounts to computers only
<v Speaker 3>seem to work perfectly in conjunction with other computers. The
<v Speaker 3>minute you introduce humans into it, you're also going to
<v Speaker 3>have to introduce humans too, you know, to help out
<v Speaker 3>the computers the minute, the minute they have to interact
<v Speaker 3>with humans, you're gonna introduce, You're gonna have to bring
<v Speaker 3>in other humans to teach them how to interact with humans.
<v Speaker 3>So I think, I I yeah, I think that's what's
<v Speaker 3>gonna end up happening if developers end up becoming over
<v Speaker 3>reliant on AI tools, is that somebody is going to
<v Speaker 3>have to come in and clean up, clean up the
<v Speaker 3>work that AI has done, and eventually we're going to
<v Speaker 3>see them. I think eventually we're going to see developers realized,
<v Speaker 3>why did I use AI in the first place? I
<v Speaker 3>could have just hired the person that I brought in
<v Speaker 3>to fix the AI in the first place.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, speaking of AI.
<v Speaker 1>One of the games that has been in the target
<v Speaker 1>for that for using AI voice acting Arc Greadors there
<v Speaker 1>having other problems and the dev promises new anti cheating
<v Speaker 1>measures are coming soon. This is from Blair Marnell at
<v Speaker 1>game Spot. The extraction shooter arc Radors has proven to
<v Speaker 1>be one of the top hits of last year, which
<v Speaker 1>has in turn attracted some unscrupulous players who aren't a
<v Speaker 1>blow who aren't above cheating to win. After the rule
<v Speaker 1>abiding arc Greadors players became vocal about their displeasure, in
<v Speaker 1>Mark Studios has announced that new anti cheat measures are
<v Speaker 1>on the way to the game. We've seen the discussion
<v Speaker 1>around the topic of cheaters and ARC gradors. Reads the
<v Speaker 1>message shared on arc Raadors discord server via PC gamer.
<v Speaker 1>Please know that we are taking this issue very seriously
<v Speaker 1>and are listening to and acting on your feedback. Over
<v Speaker 1>the next few weeks, we are implementing significant changes to
<v Speaker 1>our rule sets and to playing new detection mechanisms to
<v Speaker 1>identify and remove cheaters. It's the story as old as
<v Speaker 1>multiplayer gaming, right at least as old as the last
<v Speaker 1>twenty years, every popular online multiplayer shooter specifically, but I
<v Speaker 1>bet every kind of game, if it gets to a
<v Speaker 1>certain level of popularity, it gets to a certain level
<v Speaker 1>of just unplayableness because of cheaters, and our creators is
<v Speaker 1>the latest game in the radicals of those cheaters, and
<v Speaker 1>it's you know, it's a different kind of game, doesn't
<v Speaker 1>have that history of being like a sequel to a
<v Speaker 1>million games before, where It's like we could just roll
<v Speaker 1>over all of the anti cheat stuff we've done before
<v Speaker 1>and built on top of that. They're kind of starting
<v Speaker 1>from scratch here a little bit. Obviously they do have
<v Speaker 1>anti cheats in there, but people are able to get
<v Speaker 1>around it. I you know, if I encounter a cheater
<v Speaker 1>in a game like this, I often be like I'm
<v Speaker 1>off to like, Okay, I'm just gonna put this down
<v Speaker 1>for a while. Call me up when you fix this.
<v Speaker 1>So it is a problem they do have to solve,
<v Speaker 1>right because they this is a game that has to
<v Speaker 1>keep chugging along and continuing to keep people happy and satisfied,
<v Speaker 1>and cheating is a great way to spoil that, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I would hope. I mean, our creators is you know,
<v Speaker 3>is built up some pretty solid momentum. I would hate
<v Speaker 3>to see that ruined because people can't stand losing.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yep, it kind of because.
<v Speaker 3>They've yea, they have built their careers on being good
<v Speaker 3>at a game or something. Not naming names here, but
<v Speaker 3>I think and I both know what that means.
<v Speaker 1>Uh huh, it's uh, that's you know, a lot of
<v Speaker 1>content creators. They can sort of wag the dog here
<v Speaker 1>a little bit where It's like if they are complaining
<v Speaker 1>to their thousands of viewers about cheaters, Uh, that will
<v Speaker 1>cause that that sort of uh, hey, let's go annoy
<v Speaker 1>this developer about it. So why are you ruining your
<v Speaker 1>ruining your game by not dealing with these cheaters? And
<v Speaker 1>it becomes the thing that they have the fire they
<v Speaker 1>most have to put out. So we'll see how they're
<v Speaker 1>able to respond to this. In the meantime, they are
<v Speaker 1>promising some improvements, but we've also heard that story a
<v Speaker 1>million times before.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm hoping they can have they can come up
<v Speaker 3>every the problem is cheaters are you know, there's no
<v Speaker 3>one size fits all solution for any multiplayer, so I'm
<v Speaker 3>hoping they can find something that works specifically for Arc Raiders.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. Absolutely.
<v Speaker 1>Massive Entertainment describes the Division three as a monster. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Ben Lyons at Game Reactor. The Julian Garritty
<v Speaker 1>I believe is his name. Who, Yes, Julian Garrity, who
<v Speaker 1>is in charge of Star Wars Outlaws, has gone back
<v Speaker 1>to He's also in charge of Division one.
<v Speaker 2>He's going back to the Division for three.
<v Speaker 1>He also says that he wants this game to have
<v Speaker 1>as big of an impact as the Division one. There's
<v Speaker 1>a big update coming to the Division two, which is
<v Speaker 1>gonna have like new features and.
<v Speaker 2>Stuff like that.
<v Speaker 1>But the Division three is happening and they're promising it
<v Speaker 1>to be this massive new thing. The Division games are
<v Speaker 1>ones that like fall off my radar, and then occasionally
<v Speaker 1>I will hear people being like, yeah, that's still like
<v Speaker 1>my game. Can the Division three sort of get back
<v Speaker 1>up into that stratosphere of like, oh, this is one
<v Speaker 1>of the this is like an ARC Raiders in terms
<v Speaker 1>of its level of success.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think that's what.
<v Speaker 3>They're going to go for. I can tell you that much.
<v Speaker 3>They're going to go for that, or yeah, more so
<v Speaker 3>than I would have said a hell Divers too before.
<v Speaker 3>But I think our greaders would probably be the sort
<v Speaker 3>of formula that they're trying to emulate. But yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>think I I think it's also going to I think
<v Speaker 3>they're going to make a big push to get the
<v Speaker 3>get the name out there again, because I think it's
<v Speaker 3>been a while since anybody's really talked about the Division
<v Speaker 3>as a franchise. Tom Clancy, Yes, but not the Division.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think people generally do seem very happy with
<v Speaker 1>the Division two. But it's like, those are the people
<v Speaker 1>playing that game still, and it's like, can it win
<v Speaker 1>over a larger audience and make that entire audience?
<v Speaker 2>I think so.
<v Speaker 1>I mean part of the series does feel like it.
<v Speaker 1>It's the one relatively newer one. I think that it's
<v Speaker 1>about to be ten years old. I think it turns
<v Speaker 1>ten years old this year, or maybe it did last year,
<v Speaker 1>but still it's like, this feels one of the newer
<v Speaker 1>Ubisoft ones that really found it footing. And then they
<v Speaker 1>they got distracted like a lot of publishers did in
<v Speaker 1>the last few years, of like, hey, why it's got
<v Speaker 1>to spend all this money to build up our own IP.
<v Speaker 1>Let's just go buy an IP or rent an IP
<v Speaker 1>and make something that way. And they did Avatar, and
<v Speaker 1>they did this team specifically did Star Wars Outlaws, and
<v Speaker 1>then obviously the pensulum swung back from that again, right, like,
<v Speaker 1>doesn't seem like a publisher like Ubisoft is going to
<v Speaker 1>be spending a lot of money to get a Disney
<v Speaker 1>IP anytime soon again, and instead they're like, let's build
<v Speaker 1>up our own IP. So they're kind of back on
<v Speaker 1>that track and that has led them back to the division.
<v Speaker 2>We'll see how it goes.
<v Speaker 1>I always thought the idea of like getting into the
<v Speaker 1>Division would be fun. I always would just play through
<v Speaker 1>a little bit of the campaign and then put it down.
<v Speaker 2>Who knows, Yeah, same? The Division three wins me over.
<v Speaker 3>I mean I think they I think if they do
<v Speaker 3>a little bit more promotion of what the world is
<v Speaker 3>meant to be, because I remember trying to remember what
<v Speaker 3>it was. But I played the Division two for a while,
<v Speaker 3>I remember really liking it, and then I remember not
<v Speaker 3>playing it for a really long time, and then I
<v Speaker 3>remember thinking why didn't I play the play the Division
<v Speaker 3>two anymore? So I think it's that sort of like
<v Speaker 3>it just doesn't. They need something that sticks to the
<v Speaker 3>mind somewhat mm hmm about the Division. They need a
<v Speaker 3>hook that'll bring in, that'll bring people in.
<v Speaker 1>Uh you know, I think the people are going to
<v Speaker 1>be wondering what's going on with the Ubisoft's online multiplayer
<v Speaker 1>games falling this people and chatter playing it out like
<v Speaker 1>there's still that ongoing problem with Rainbow six Siege being deeply,
<v Speaker 1>deeply broken in terms of being hacked and just completely
<v Speaker 1>cracked open. Like I think, just a couple of days ago,
<v Speaker 1>a bunch of people are finding their accounts hacked for
<v Speaker 1>sixty seven days because they're the hackers are just meming
<v Speaker 1>like six seven, you're being banned for sixty seven? Oh
<v Speaker 1>god right, and it's okay.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And I don't know if you'd be soft sort of
<v Speaker 1>gotten there there or has been able to put out
<v Speaker 1>that fire successfully even yet. So I think there'll be
<v Speaker 1>some questions about their ability to protect their games going forward,
<v Speaker 1>although after this, I'm sure they'll take that even more seriously.
<v Speaker 1>All Right, last couple of stories here. Towerborne will be
<v Speaker 1>launching in full in February. This is from Ben Lyons,
<v Speaker 1>a Game Reactor.
<v Speaker 2>Developer.
<v Speaker 1>Stock has revealed that it's full, finally, time for the
<v Speaker 1>RPG brawler Towerborn to exit early access and launch in full.
<v Speaker 1>The game, which started its life cycle as an early
<v Speaker 1>access game on PC before coming to Xbox in April
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty five as part of the Xbox Game Preview Project,
<v Speaker 1>will soon be transforming into its one point zero state
<v Speaker 1>and getting a multi platform debut as well. As confirmed
<v Speaker 1>in an Xbox Wire post, Towerborne will be launching in
<v Speaker 1>full on February twenty sixth on PC, Xbox Series X
<v Speaker 1>and SPS five and game Pest, Premium, and Ultimate. When
<v Speaker 1>this launch does happen, the project will also receive a
<v Speaker 1>big update that will deliver a reimagined launch experience. They're also,
<v Speaker 1>I believe, going to charge for this game, because it
<v Speaker 1>was free up into this point or free to play.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>It was just like, oh, try like beta test this
<v Speaker 1>for free, or if they were trying to make it
<v Speaker 1>a free to play game, but it's going to retail
<v Speaker 1>twenty five dollars instead, there will be a deluxe edition
<v Speaker 1>for thirty dollars, and hopefully what that means is if
<v Speaker 1>they were planning I didn't play much of this game,
<v Speaker 1>if they were planning a bunch of micro transactions and
<v Speaker 1>stuff like that, they could sort of scale back that
<v Speaker 1>and let people just play what looks like a pretty
<v Speaker 1>promising beat them up RPG game.
<v Speaker 2>I'm I'm.
<v Speaker 1>I was always interested in this one again, never spent
<v Speaker 1>much time with it. They are promising big improvements for
<v Speaker 1>this one point zero release, so it sounds like it's
<v Speaker 1>time to jump in on this one.
<v Speaker 2>What do you think?
<v Speaker 3>I think? So? Yeah, I haven't played it up until now,
<v Speaker 3>so yeah, I think, Well, I think what the launches on,
<v Speaker 3>it's one point zero version I will I will definitely
<v Speaker 3>give it a try yep.
<v Speaker 1>And then last story here disappointed in the switch two's
<v Speaker 1>JOYCN colors. Deep Brand has you covered so on yesterday's show,
<v Speaker 1>we talked about the new JOYCN colors, which is really
<v Speaker 1>just accent colors in the analog stick well and along
<v Speaker 1>the part that connects to the switch to so mostly hidden,
<v Speaker 1>you'll be able to see it a little bit. There's
<v Speaker 1>like a little gap a little well as well where
<v Speaker 1>you can see it. And people are like, huh, one
<v Speaker 1>hundred dollars for these switch to joy cons. They don't
<v Speaker 1>really look all that different than the original because it's
<v Speaker 1>very subtle.
<v Speaker 2>The colors.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Deep Brand's like, hey, we can put raps on
<v Speaker 1>your stuff that completely change the colors of your joy Con,
<v Speaker 1>and why don't you go with us and say, in fact,
<v Speaker 1>we have these exact colors if you want, and you
<v Speaker 1>can make you make your whole switch to look different.
<v Speaker 1>And a lot of people are pretty seem pretty excited
<v Speaker 1>about this, like, oh yeah, these companies are out there,
<v Speaker 1>and Deep Brand has the name recognition now because they
<v Speaker 1>were kind of doing this with the PS five early
<v Speaker 1>on and now here sort of stepping in and being
<v Speaker 1>a little edgy and confrontational about it. Like I think
<v Speaker 1>they said what we do as always we do with
<v Speaker 1>in attend, don't and say, okay, we're still doing that,
<v Speaker 1>but hey, the right Nintendo is it going to do this? Like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't think Rachel, throughout this entire switch to generation,
<v Speaker 1>we're going to get any other sort of coloring style
<v Speaker 1>other than the inside part of the joy Con and
<v Speaker 1>the analogs.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think Nintendo's just going to do that the
<v Speaker 2>entire time. At least that's my belief right now, what
<v Speaker 2>do you think?
<v Speaker 3>I yeah, I think once they realize that that isn't
<v Speaker 3>really going to sell very much, because I mean I
<v Speaker 3>have not looked at my switch to and thought, you know, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I really love if the analog stick had a had
<v Speaker 3>a purple color.
<v Speaker 1>Well, I did talk to myself into into like being
<v Speaker 1>excited about these yesterday, and then the price reminded me like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>there's no way I'm spending one hundred dollars on these things.
<v Speaker 1>So exactly, I think there's gonna be some people that
<v Speaker 1>still get them. But like, there was so much excitement
<v Speaker 1>for new joy Con colors for the switch one, like
<v Speaker 1>every time a new yes, now yeah, and so it's
<v Speaker 1>I don't think it's going to match that. So I
<v Speaker 1>think you might be onto something where if Nintendo sees
<v Speaker 1>there's a lack of or you know, sort of a
<v Speaker 1>dearth of excitement for these alternative colors, maybe they will
<v Speaker 1>change something up. But I don't know if that seems
<v Speaker 1>that they're going to be setting away like they already
<v Speaker 1>have all the machining and tools to just do it
<v Speaker 1>this way.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, that's all they do most I think what's
<v Speaker 3>gonna I think what I hope is going to happen, okay,
<v Speaker 3>is that if they're going to keep the general sort
<v Speaker 3>of like black color scheme with accent, but they might
<v Speaker 3>offer JOYCN with maybe some sort of design on it,
<v Speaker 3>you know, maybe as sort of a tie in to
<v Speaker 3>a game or something like. That's true, I'll park it
<v Speaker 3>like maybe if there's a new Mario game, for example,
<v Speaker 3>you get JOYCN that has like maybe a red am
<v Speaker 3>on it for example.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, that you know, that's a good idea.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, you know, those colors can kind of be
<v Speaker 1>the focus in the in the analytic stick well on
<v Speaker 1>the side, and if there was just some like etching
<v Speaker 1>and other stuff happening on the rest of the controller.
<v Speaker 1>That would be awesome that I would think that could
<v Speaker 1>look really cool. But they haven't done any of.
<v Speaker 3>That now that that would probably cost even more than
<v Speaker 3>getting new plastic. Yeah, for the whole for the whole
<v Speaker 3>joy Con too, So that's that's tough. But oh, I
<v Speaker 3>made myself sad. Yeah, that would be so cool. Oh,
<v Speaker 3>it's probably not gonna happen.
<v Speaker 2>Probably not gonna happen.
<v Speaker 1>All right, that does it for the headlines. Let's get
<v Speaker 1>over to the pole question from yesterday. I have the
<v Speaker 1>results right here. Let me refresh one more time to
<v Speaker 1>make sure.
<v Speaker 2>We are as up to date as possible.
<v Speaker 1>After five and a half thousand votes the question do
<v Speaker 1>you have a switch to? Fifty five percent said yes,
<v Speaker 1>forty five percent said no. We we asked this because
<v Speaker 1>it's like Nintendo had it. Sounds like they struggled a
<v Speaker 1>little bit through the holiday to sell the very expensive
<v Speaker 1>switch to to general family audiences, and it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>that might be who they have to focus on, cuz
<v Speaker 1>fifty five percent of the people in this audience already
<v Speaker 1>have one, and of course that leaves quite a few
<v Speaker 1>people to still sell to.
<v Speaker 2>But it's not.
<v Speaker 1>It's That's not how they're going to get back to
<v Speaker 1>one hundred million consoles sold. It's going to be selling
<v Speaker 1>to families who likely already have a switch one and
<v Speaker 1>will be a very difficult conversion to convince them that
<v Speaker 1>they need to get a switch to as well, especially
<v Speaker 1>at the high price.
<v Speaker 2>I you know, I have, I have two.
<v Speaker 1>I got one for my kids as well, So it's
<v Speaker 1>like I've already kind of done that thing that Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>does as well, which is sell console to the same
<v Speaker 1>people over.
<v Speaker 2>And over again.
<v Speaker 1>Although I suppose I'm saying that as if I'm not
<v Speaker 1>going to buy another one. If they put out a
<v Speaker 1>switch to o ED or a light or something, I'll
<v Speaker 1>probably get that as well, And that's another way that
<v Speaker 1>they boost these numbers. So could turn into one hundred
<v Speaker 1>and fifty five percent at some point.
<v Speaker 3>I think you and I are kind of the outliers
<v Speaker 3>here because it's literally our job to have access to
<v Speaker 3>as many games as possible and to know about.
<v Speaker 2>The extreme outliers.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, so I think yeah, I think it it
<v Speaker 3>We're not necessarily the target audience in that case, because
<v Speaker 3>Nintendo knows they've got us. They know that we're they
<v Speaker 3>know that we're we're we're fully in, we're committed. But
<v Speaker 3>I think the people who are, you know, have just
<v Speaker 3>don't have the money. You don't have five hundred dollars
<v Speaker 3>lying around spare and aren't going to get one, you know, professionally.
<v Speaker 3>So I think, you know, for professional and personal reasons.
<v Speaker 3>I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here and be
<v Speaker 3>su and pretend I didn't also get it because I
<v Speaker 3>wanted one.
<v Speaker 2>Yep, that's right. I'm an Nintendo I am. I am.
<v Speaker 1>The Nintendo market thing is, I think there's will we
<v Speaker 1>are outliers. Nintendo has done that strategy forever, right. You
<v Speaker 1>do the DS, the DS Light, the ds I and
<v Speaker 1>all these other like the DSIXL and all this stuff,
<v Speaker 1>and they sell the new system to that most hardcore audience,
<v Speaker 1>and then those people sell their old systems either secondhand
<v Speaker 1>or handed to a friend or put it in a drawer.
<v Speaker 1>Uh and, and that's one of the ways Nintendo has
<v Speaker 1>always boosted the numbers. But uh yeah, I still think
<v Speaker 1>that leaves out the audience that was showing up for
<v Speaker 1>the Switch one to get Mario Party and to get
<v Speaker 1>Mario Kart, and that I think that that is going
<v Speaker 1>to be more difficult this generation, and that's not too surprising.
<v Speaker 1>That is kind of something we've seen every time where
<v Speaker 1>they have a very successful console and they followed up
<v Speaker 1>with the sort of the sequel console and it doesn't
<v Speaker 1>do quite as well. I think we're going to That's
<v Speaker 1>just where this is going to end up at the
<v Speaker 1>end of this generation.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, we're not quite at w U numbers, you know,
<v Speaker 3>they they've thankfully surpassed we you numbers with the switch
<v Speaker 3>to but but yeah, I'm I worry about, like, how
<v Speaker 3>many people are going to want to go back to
<v Speaker 3>the well for a switch too unless they you know
<v Speaker 3>they but this At the same time, I'm also thinking,
<v Speaker 3>like I don't know if I necessarily want them to
<v Speaker 3>like release a killer app that is only available on
<v Speaker 3>the switch too, because I feel bad for all the
<v Speaker 3>people who don't have five again, don't have five hundred
<v Speaker 3>dollars lying around spare who won't be able to play it, right.
<v Speaker 2>And that's that's a good point that You're right, I'm
<v Speaker 2>ignoring here where.
<v Speaker 1>It's like Nintendo might be a little okay with this
<v Speaker 1>with they slow sort of build up to winning over
<v Speaker 1>that audience.
<v Speaker 2>Because they can just keep selling a lot of.
<v Speaker 1>Games to those people on the Switch one for some
<v Speaker 1>time and and the games will are seemingly still selling
<v Speaker 1>very well. All right, that is the poll question from yesterday.
<v Speaker 1>No new poll question because it's Friday. It's time to
<v Speaker 1>do the bomb twelve here, but in the in the week.
<v Speaker 1>We'll get to that here in a moment, So let's
<v Speaker 1>get the other stuff out of the way first. Rachel
<v Speaker 1>kay is or where could people find you on the internet?
<v Speaker 1>What do you have going on and all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>You can find me pretty much anywhere under either the
<v Speaker 3>either my name Rachel Kaser or Grace of Athena, which
<v Speaker 3>is my online handle. And I am back on TikTok
<v Speaker 3>after a lengthy hiatus for my health and mental and physical.
<v Speaker 3>I'm back on TikTok doing the daily game of news.
<v Speaker 3>So that's where you can find me at the moment.
<v Speaker 3>Just search for my name Rachel Kaser and you can
<v Speaker 3>probably find me. And if you don't find my main channel,
<v Speaker 3>you'll find my other channel, which is games Beats official channel.
<v Speaker 3>If you don't find that channel, you'll find my other
<v Speaker 3>other channel where I talk about Golden Girls and dungeons
<v Speaker 3>and Dragons sometimes at the same time. You can so
<v Speaker 3>and if you're if you're really hardcore, you can look
<v Speaker 3>for me on Tumblr, where I also talk about D
<v Speaker 3>and D and Golden Girls at the same time.
<v Speaker 2>That seems like the ideal medium for those two things
<v Speaker 2>at the same time. Absolutely, you'll find us tumbler.
<v Speaker 3>I find my I find my whole audience on tumbler.
<v Speaker 2>All right, let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>Uh, we are going to be doing a few things today. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>later on we'll have UPF. We're gonna hang out. There
<v Speaker 1>is this Super Mario sixty four multiplayer mod. We're gonna
<v Speaker 1>try that out. And it has like a Warrior Where
<v Speaker 1>mini game mod.
<v Speaker 2>We're gonna play that. That sounds like a lot of fun.
<v Speaker 2>But also some other games will pop in there.
<v Speaker 1>I think Jan had one that looked like a Armored
<v Speaker 1>Corps meets Vampire Survivors, it meets Fantasy, It looked awesome,
<v Speaker 1>vital something I can't remember what it's called. And then
<v Speaker 1>after that, after UPF, we are going to be doing
<v Speaker 1>this is the run. We're gonna beat a game today.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna beat Absolum So me and Dan are gonna
<v Speaker 1>finally do that. We been testing some stuff there ready
<v Speaker 1>to go. So this is the run, gonna beat Absolum.
<v Speaker 2>Look out for that.
<v Speaker 1>All right, with all that out of the way, I
<v Speaker 1>think it's time for the Bomb twelve.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to the roundup of the twelve games that really
<v Speaker 1>matter to people who actually are playing video games. Let's
<v Speaker 1>start here with number twelve, Shanobi Art of Venge. Number
<v Speaker 1>eleven is Donkey Kong Bonanza, number ten, Ghost of Yota,
<v Speaker 1>number nine, Silent Hill f number eight, Kingdom Come Deliverance to.
<v Speaker 1>Number seven is The Outer World's Too, number six, Battlefield six,
<v Speaker 1>number five, Death Stranding two on the Beach. Next at
<v Speaker 1>number four is Clear Obscure Expedition thirty three, and for
<v Speaker 1>our top three, number three is Metroid Prime. Four beyond
<v Speaker 1>number two ar Greats, and number one is Hades two
<v Speaker 1>and Rachel. When I see this list, it looks very
<v Speaker 1>much like an end of year, like, hey, I've been
<v Speaker 1>hearing about this game all year.
<v Speaker 2>Time to go back to it.
<v Speaker 1>But that's clearly like Kingdom Come Deliverance Too is definitely
<v Speaker 1>that Shanobi Art of Vengeance was popping up in a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people's list on our site, clearly like Sean
<v Speaker 1>had it super high. I think that like got convinced
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people to go check out that game.
<v Speaker 1>The outer World's too even we were talking about that earlier.
<v Speaker 1>Feels like people are like time to check in on
<v Speaker 1>this game that no one talks about, and it's like
<v Speaker 1>the handful people that were seem to really like it.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, and then Haities two is like, yeah, really
<v Speaker 1>the big one there where it's like, yeah, everyone's still
<v Speaker 1>playing that one, still hearing great things and check in
<v Speaker 1>on it.
<v Speaker 2>What are you playing this week? I don't know. I
<v Speaker 2>can't remember if I asked already, I have been.
<v Speaker 3>I'm trying to remember if there is any games from
<v Speaker 3>There's a lot of games from twenty twenty five I
<v Speaker 3>haven't actually checked out, so I think this is probably
<v Speaker 3>gonna be my my catch up month until of the
<v Speaker 3>new releases startup. I did play my very first new
<v Speaker 3>game of twenty twenty six because there is a there's
<v Speaker 3>an indie game series that they always release a new
<v Speaker 3>game every year like Clockwork on January first, and is
<v Speaker 3>the Carrol Reid games from MDNA Games. It is as
<v Speaker 3>underground as it goes. You can't get them on any storefront.
<v Speaker 3>You can only get them directly from the developer.
<v Speaker 2>But that's develop great.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. The developer releases a new Carol Reid game every
<v Speaker 3>year on January first. This year it was called the
<v Speaker 3>Final Chapter. And so I have already played my first
<v Speaker 3>new game for twenty twenty six, so I feel like
<v Speaker 3>I'm off to a good start.
<v Speaker 2>All right.
<v Speaker 1>I will, yes, I'll get up the website updated with
<v Speaker 1>the Bomb twelve and the link there where it says
<v Speaker 1>vote here to submit your game and all that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>That'll be updated today as well. So if you want
<v Speaker 1>to start adding your game for next week's the Bomb twelve,
<v Speaker 1>you could begin doing that later today here on Friday
<v Speaker 1>and all through Thursday evening, and then we'll come back
<v Speaker 1>with you with the new Bomb twelve next Friday's Game
<v Speaker 1>Mess Mornings.
<v Speaker 2>Looking forward to it. All right, that's the first week.
<v Speaker 1>Of Giant Bomb back in twenty twenty six, all wrapped
<v Speaker 1>up in terms of Game Mess Mornings. Rachel Caser, thank
<v Speaker 1>you so much for hanging out with me and talking
<v Speaker 1>about video games. I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>Me thanks for letting me talk about fire Emblum for
<v Speaker 3>twenty odd minutes.
<v Speaker 1>Anytime anytime, We'll make that happen whenever you want. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>I think I did say to Bomb twelve. In the meantime,
<v Speaker 1>thank you everybody for watching. You are the best audience
<v Speaker 1>in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take
<v Speaker 1>care of yourself and goodbye banks
<v Speaker 2>Bett