Another Switch 2 Game Gets Stellar Reviews

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Gays Mornings with Me Jeff Grub
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com, which is this
<v Speaker 1>episode's brought to you by ms I. Thank you for tuning.
<v Speaker 1>In this episode, we're going to be talking about the
<v Speaker 1>best selling games of July and what is possibly Nintendo's
<v Speaker 1>best switch to upgrade yet. It's gonna be a good
<v Speaker 1>one because we have Matt Piscatella on the show. Matt,
<v Speaker 1>how are you doing? Okay? Hey, Jeff, do you know
<v Speaker 1>what time it is?
<v Speaker 2>Uh?
<v Speaker 1>What time is?
<v Speaker 2>It's it's business time. Yeah, business is video games.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, unfortunately the business is still video games. So it's
<v Speaker 1>let's see what that means for all of us. Love
<v Speaker 1>to have you back on the show. It's always like
<v Speaker 1>a real great chance to be like, oh, you know,
<v Speaker 1>we be and the community in the chat, we'll like
<v Speaker 1>throw out ideas about what we think is happening. There's
<v Speaker 1>a chance occasionally you might know what's happening, and it's
<v Speaker 1>always good to get that insight. So looking forward to
<v Speaker 1>talking to you about everything that's happened. You did put
<v Speaker 1>out the Circana Report earlier this morning. Of course, what
<v Speaker 1>we'll lead off with that, but I want to ask you, like,
<v Speaker 1>how's like gaming been for you recently? I know, I
<v Speaker 1>know you got a couple of favorite franchise you always
<v Speaker 1>love to check in you playing anything new? How's it going?
<v Speaker 2>It's going well, MLB. This show is still like my
<v Speaker 2>second job in a lot of ways. But other than that, like,
<v Speaker 2>we've had so many great smaller games come out this
<v Speaker 2>year in particular, it's been a great year for that,
<v Speaker 2>so I've been diving into a lot of those and
<v Speaker 2>having a good time. But really, like MLB, the show Man,
<v Speaker 2>like the engagementclaw has me.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, yeah, that's Do you do any of the equivalent
<v Speaker 1>of like ultimate team in that game or what do
<v Speaker 1>you do? You kind of just go through the seasons?
<v Speaker 2>No, I do. I'm in their Ultimate Team, own their
<v Speaker 2>Diamond Dynasty, playing people twenty years younger than me that
<v Speaker 2>are obviously far better at everything gaming than I am
<v Speaker 2>in anymore. But I try to hold my own.
<v Speaker 1>When you're on there, do you ever do the voice
<v Speaker 1>chat thing of like ah, yeah, got me and then
<v Speaker 1>make a young person feel bad? Which is that meme?
<v Speaker 2>I've turned off every means of communicating with me via
<v Speaker 2>a console device. I don't, I know, No, it's the.
<v Speaker 1>Only way to live. Yeah, it's absolutely the only way
<v Speaker 1>to do any of this is just shut all that
<v Speaker 1>stuff down. Honestly, unplug your phone all that stuff for sure.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's explain ourselves and what we do over here.
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<v Speaker 1>Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into,
<v Speaker 1>so let's start the Morning Mess with July twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>five US video game market highlights from Matt Piscatelo over
<v Speaker 1>at Sircana. Matt, let's jump right into it here. You know,
<v Speaker 1>I think we'll just kind of like ask you some questions,
<v Speaker 1>Like right off the top here, you know, we're looking
<v Speaker 1>at total video games sales up five percent. That's you know,
<v Speaker 1>that's for the month, and then down kind of even
<v Speaker 1>for the year to date. When you're looking at this
<v Speaker 1>stuff and you're making a year over your comparisons, and
<v Speaker 1>we're looking at you know, the top selling games of
<v Speaker 1>the month, which will fully get into but the top
<v Speaker 1>selling game was EA Sports College Football twenty six when
<v Speaker 1>when we look at the numbers, is like the quick
<v Speaker 1>way to understand this, like EA Sports College Football on
<v Speaker 1>the console side of things was massive last year and
<v Speaker 1>we're just down slightly from that huge at reintroduction. And
<v Speaker 1>then what other color would you add to like what's
<v Speaker 1>going on in gaming right now?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's very interesting month for reasons that I
<v Speaker 2>even I wasn't expecting. You know, we did have spending
<v Speaker 2>up like five percent, like you said, year to date
<v Speaker 2>down slightly. It's about where we expected the market to
<v Speaker 2>be at this point, right and you know, you could
<v Speaker 2>get We can get into the weeds about why we're
<v Speaker 2>seeing all the churn around developers and studios, considering that
<v Speaker 2>spending has been relatively flat, we can dig into all that.
<v Speaker 2>I think at the top level though, consumer spending is okay.
<v Speaker 2>The winners are winning bigger and we continue to have
<v Speaker 2>more and more games being introduced, meaning the average game
<v Speaker 2>is selling a little bit less. But from a top
<v Speaker 2>line perspective, consumer demand has been holding relatively well. There
<v Speaker 2>are a couple of areas that are performing better than others,
<v Speaker 2>particularly the non mobile subscription space. Think like Game Pass,
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo Switch Online, PS plus World of Warcraft, Star Wars.
<v Speaker 2>The Old Republic even has had a little bit of
<v Speaker 2>a surge. But in July, you know, the big surprise
<v Speaker 2>to me at least was free Fire on the mobile side. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>we partner with our friends over at Censor Tower who
<v Speaker 2>provide the mobile outlook for us, and what they saw
<v Speaker 2>in July was a seven percent increase in mobile spending,
<v Speaker 2>which is incredible because mobile is the biggest segment in content.
<v Speaker 2>What mobile does drives the overall content number, and free
<v Speaker 2>Fire in particular had a great July. They did some
<v Speaker 2>partnerships that helped them. Yeah, and then we have the
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo Switch to continuing to do very well. But that's
<v Speaker 2>there's some issues there with the older devices falling off
<v Speaker 2>a little bit more than perhaps would have been expected.
<v Speaker 3>That.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's the gaming market is a big, convoluted, chaotic
<v Speaker 2>mess and the best of times and right now it's
<v Speaker 2>not the best of times. But yeah, let's let's dig
<v Speaker 2>into all that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, let's dig in. Let's start with with free Fire
<v Speaker 1>a little bit at least the mobile space and what
<v Speaker 1>I always think of when I look at the you know,
<v Speaker 1>mobile charts or whatever, when I glanced at them every
<v Speaker 1>couple of months or so, I guess it's usually, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's still the same games.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Free Fire is like a little bit of surprise and
<v Speaker 1>that it's kind of been consistently climbing here in the
<v Speaker 1>United States. It is, it has I'm assuming it's one
<v Speaker 1>of these games it's been around for a long time globally,
<v Speaker 1>and it's just kind of warming its way into into
<v Speaker 1>US devices in a really impressive way. Is that the
<v Speaker 1>story there?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's been picking up a lot of momentum in
<v Speaker 2>recent months. I mean, yeah, like you mentioned, you look
<v Speaker 2>at the mobile charts, and it's a lot like the
<v Speaker 2>console charts these days. The biggest games continuing to be
<v Speaker 2>the biggest games month after month, year after year. It's
<v Speaker 2>a problem in the market. It's a very big challenge
<v Speaker 2>for anyone trying to bring a new mobile game, or
<v Speaker 2>a new console game, or a new PC game to
<v Speaker 2>the market. This incredibly crowded marketplace that's dominated by some
<v Speaker 2>of the biggest franchises that continue to be there forever.
<v Speaker 2>And so when a game breaks through, like a free fire,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, it can make a big difference to what
<v Speaker 2>we're seeing in the spending.
<v Speaker 1>When it comes to these top selling games of the
<v Speaker 1>month E Sports College Football twenty six and EA Sports
<v Speaker 1>MVP MVP Bundle which bundles it up with Matt and
<v Speaker 1>I believe those are one in two and that includes
<v Speaker 1>both physical and digital. I'm assuming there's digital version of
<v Speaker 1>that Sports MVP bundle as well. And the number three
<v Speaker 1>was Donkey Kong Bonanza and that's physical only, so pretty impressive.
<v Speaker 1>It's able to get up there with like being limited
<v Speaker 1>to one system and physical only, and then right behind
<v Speaker 1>that Tony Hawk's Pro Skater three plus four rounding out
<v Speaker 1>the top ten. A lot of familiar faces as usual.
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty Black Ops six, Minecraft Forts Horizon five
<v Speaker 1>Grounded two is the other new game in the chart.
<v Speaker 1>It's at number eight. That's an early access release, I'm
<v Speaker 1>gonna have a little bit of a lower price, and
<v Speaker 1>also it's on Game Pass, so I think that's also
<v Speaker 1>pretty impressive for that game. And number nine is Red
<v Speaker 1>Dead Redemption two and number ten is Grand Theft Auto five.
<v Speaker 1>When's the last time Red Dead Redemption two outsold Grand
<v Speaker 1>Theft Auto five? What did it get? An update somewhere?
<v Speaker 1>What happened there?
<v Speaker 2>It's been a minute. So in July we had all
<v Speaker 2>of the various summer sales happening across like the PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>platform Steam, and it was discounted as much as up
<v Speaker 2>to seventy five percent, So that discounting really helped give
<v Speaker 2>it a boost and get it back, you know, a
<v Speaker 2>little bit higher than Grand Theft Auto five, which, you
<v Speaker 2>know twelve years now running that.
<v Speaker 1>Game is just forever.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, what are you gonna do but to
<v Speaker 2>go to EA Sports College football. You mentioned it earlier
<v Speaker 2>about how last year it was such a massive jugger. Now,
<v Speaker 2>of course it had been over a decade since we
<v Speaker 2>had the last game, and yeah, this year's game did
<v Speaker 2>not live up to last year course initial sales, but
<v Speaker 2>how could it. I mean, last year's game was so massive.
<v Speaker 2>So when you look at the results and you see,
<v Speaker 2>you know, we did have growth and content spending, but
<v Speaker 2>that was really driven by mobile, right, and the subscription
<v Speaker 2>segment console was actually down about nine percent, And the
<v Speaker 2>big reason for that was the comparison between this year's
<v Speaker 2>and last year's college football games. So, you know, it's
<v Speaker 2>still doing great, but last year's game was just it
<v Speaker 2>was ridiculous how well it did. I mean, it was
<v Speaker 2>the game everyone was talking about whether they're a sports
<v Speaker 2>gamer or like an enthusiast gamer, Like, you know, folks
<v Speaker 2>watching this are probably more in that camp. But this year,
<v Speaker 2>like it's performing as a really well performing sports game,
<v Speaker 2>which is great, but I mean it's hard to compete
<v Speaker 2>with the phenomenon that was the game last.
<v Speaker 1>Year, right, And I mean obviously EA's probably was kind
<v Speaker 1>of always expecting this, of course, so this is this
<v Speaker 1>is probably like falling in line with what they expected
<v Speaker 1>the long term for EA Sports college football to be,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm sure they're extremely happy with that, which is
<v Speaker 1>why in a little bit, we'll be talking about, you know,
<v Speaker 1>the return of EA college basketball. Maybe you know they've
<v Speaker 1>at least teased that. We'll get into that here in
<v Speaker 1>a little bit. So console games spending down, it really
<v Speaker 1>EA sports is going to be the huge part. There
<v Speaker 1>not much else to read in there, at least with
<v Speaker 1>too much noise in that signal. But the hardware side
<v Speaker 1>of things, so, yeah, switch to is now the best
<v Speaker 1>selling console in terms of units and dollars for the year.
<v Speaker 1>So took it a couple months to do that, but
<v Speaker 1>that's also expected, especially when we see just how hard
<v Speaker 1>the PS five and especially the Xbox series are falling.
<v Speaker 1>But both are massive double digits. PS five hardware down
<v Speaker 1>forty seven percent, Xbox Series spending down sixty nine percent.
<v Speaker 1>Both of these should be before the most recent price
<v Speaker 1>hikes for both these consoles, or is that right when
<v Speaker 1>the Xbox price hike happened.
<v Speaker 2>It should include the Xbox hike, not so much the
<v Speaker 2>PlayStation hike yet, so we'll see the impact of that
<v Speaker 2>on the longer term. Yeah, switch tow is done amazing.
<v Speaker 2>It's still the fastest selling console after two months all time.
<v Speaker 2>It's slightly ahead of the PlayStation four now of course
<v Speaker 2>different times of the year that these two devices launched,
<v Speaker 2>So on a comp basis, switch To is still ahead.
<v Speaker 2>It's seventy five percent ahead of the pace of the
<v Speaker 2>original Nintendo Switch, so it's doing phenomenally well. Exceeded two
<v Speaker 2>million units sold, so it's still very much in its infancy.
<v Speaker 2>And so a game like Donkey Kong Bonanza, like you mentioned,
<v Speaker 2>physical only being third overall phenomenal result, that result likely
<v Speaker 2>very likely does not change even if you did include
<v Speaker 2>the digital just because the scale of EA Sports College
<v Speaker 2>Football is so much bigger with a far bigger installed
<v Speaker 2>base to sell to, but doesn't take anything away from
<v Speaker 2>the success of Donkey Kong Bonanza or Mariurt World or
<v Speaker 2>any of the other games really we're seeing perform on
<v Speaker 2>Switch To phenomenal start. But again the question is going
<v Speaker 2>to be you know, of course that day one enthusiast
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo fan in particular is going to be there early.
<v Speaker 2>Are the family is going to come in and buy
<v Speaker 2>during the holiday in an environment where costs and things
<v Speaker 2>like grocery, insurance and housing are climbing rather rapidly and
<v Speaker 2>people are really kind of feeling the pinch in these prices.
<v Speaker 2>Another everyday spending categories, and of course all of the
<v Speaker 2>other chaos we have in the market overall. Right now,
<v Speaker 2>that's that's going to be the real test.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. And it's like, you know, when it comes to
<v Speaker 1>consumer spending, we continue to be surprised overall at how
<v Speaker 1>resilient it's been. It's been weirdly resilient. In some cases.
<v Speaker 1>That does feel like it's got to break at some point.
<v Speaker 1>And it's you know, I guess, why would we assume
<v Speaker 1>it would be this holiday with a switch to but
<v Speaker 1>why would we assume it's going to escape by unscathed
<v Speaker 1>by all these reasons people might want to start saving money, right?
<v Speaker 1>Is that a fair feeling?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? And if you look at some of the other
<v Speaker 2>metrics about what's happening with the consumer, increase credit card debt,
<v Speaker 2>people leaning more on their things like four to oh
<v Speaker 2>one k is just to pay for every day things
<v Speaker 2>like groceries, the younger consumer really leaning into buy now,
<v Speaker 2>pay later programs, like they're really leaning into those. There's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of signs of strain and stress on the consumer.
<v Speaker 2>And hey, maybe maybe it's fine. Maybe people will go,
<v Speaker 2>you know what, I need to have something to bring
<v Speaker 2>me joy so I'm going to sacrifice other areas to
<v Speaker 2>buy video game stuff. But when you look at things
<v Speaker 2>like what's happening with subscription spending and the growth we're
<v Speaker 2>seeing there, there could be something about video game consumers
<v Speaker 2>looking for value, trying to find ways to extend their dollar,
<v Speaker 2>leaning more into things like free to play and the
<v Speaker 2>subscription services, maybe pulling back a little bit on premium spending.
<v Speaker 2>We'll have to see. Right now, though, the switch to
<v Speaker 2>his launch is kind of booing the entire console market,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, if we didn't have that, it would
<v Speaker 2>be a much less rosy picture right now, particularly on
<v Speaker 2>the console side. It's yeah, like things are going well,
<v Speaker 2>but there are signs that, you know, of some concern
<v Speaker 2>and we'll have to see how it goes over time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah. I think last time we had you on, we
<v Speaker 1>were talking about the sort of the arch, the arch
<v Speaker 1>that the UH or the arc that PlayStation five and
<v Speaker 1>Xbox series were following. They are on the other side
<v Speaker 1>of the tippy top dizenith of their bell curve. That's normal.
<v Speaker 1>But then I think we also talked about maybe the
<v Speaker 1>rate of decline was a little bit more than we
<v Speaker 1>were expecting. It did seem to like kind of bounce
<v Speaker 1>around a little bit between now and then, but this
<v Speaker 1>number does kind of go back to oh geez, and
<v Speaker 1>now we're also getting price increases right alongside these things,
<v Speaker 1>whether it was this month or the following month, so
<v Speaker 1>it's like no reason to assume it's gonna get better.
<v Speaker 1>And then of course the next phrase is well until
<v Speaker 1>Grand Theft Auto six is is that like does that
<v Speaker 1>feel like the kind of thing that is that explains
<v Speaker 1>a lot of these things where it's like, sure, it's
<v Speaker 1>down now because people are winning for Grand Theft Auto
<v Speaker 1>six and prices are going up because the companies know
<v Speaker 1>once Grand Theft Auto six is here, if they'll get
<v Speaker 1>a lot of those people who are waiting on the sidelines.
<v Speaker 2>It could I mean, you need something to really drive
<v Speaker 2>the folks that haven't bought into the current generation to
<v Speaker 2>buy in, you know, if they haven't already invested there
<v Speaker 2>waiting for that thing to come along that will get
<v Speaker 2>them to make that investment in Grand Theft Auto six.
<v Speaker 2>Could certainly be that thing, but it is a question
<v Speaker 2>of momentum. Like we have a cyclical market in the
<v Speaker 2>console space. It's been that way forever. This cycle has
<v Speaker 2>been particularly wild because of course it's started in the
<v Speaker 2>middle of the pandemic, with all the supply shortages early on.
<v Speaker 2>Trying to benchmark this generation off of prior generations is
<v Speaker 2>a is a disaster just because of the way the
<v Speaker 2>curves have worked in terms of the demand. And now
<v Speaker 2>we have these price increases happening very late in the
<v Speaker 2>cycle that we've never seen before, and so we're gonna
<v Speaker 2>have to see what the impact of that is. But yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the the hope is that you know, Grand
<v Speaker 2>Theft Auto six does revitalize and get people back into
<v Speaker 2>buying these systems. I mean they're not doing I mean,
<v Speaker 2>the PlayStation five in particular, still ahead of the PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>four on a momentum basis life to date, still doing
<v Speaker 2>phenomenally well, still doing great worldwide, but the tail, uh,
<v Speaker 2>maybe a little shorter than one would expect, especially considering uh,
<v Speaker 2>these potential price increases. But you know, forecasting the gaming
<v Speaker 2>market's always the most difficult category that we track, and
<v Speaker 2>right now it's even more difficult. It's not quite dartboard territory, right,
<v Speaker 2>but the dart boards on the wall kind of thing, right,
<v Speaker 2>We'll see, Well, sometimes it's more accurate than than the
<v Speaker 2>human beings can be just occasionally just okay, yeah, sure,
<v Speaker 2>down whatever, great, let's do let's roll with that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's it's tough.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, I know, I think that you know,
<v Speaker 1>and we'll talk about that here in a couple of stories.
<v Speaker 1>Is wh when we get to a need for speeds
<v Speaker 1>future in regards to criterion getting renamed or getting rebranded
<v Speaker 1>a little bit where it's where I think, you know
<v Speaker 1>that inability to predict or or like what game is
<v Speaker 1>going to work and what won't it explains a lot
<v Speaker 1>of this the decisions that these companies are making. Like
<v Speaker 1>I said, we'll get into that here in a moment.
<v Speaker 1>Let's continue to go through what we have here in
<v Speaker 1>front of us though. So, yeah, the PS five xbox
<v Speaker 1>hardware down a lot, We'll see. You know, you're right cyclical,
<v Speaker 1>we are, I guess getting clos ish to like when
<v Speaker 1>we could start talking about next gen systems. Maybe that
<v Speaker 1>makes these companies more comfortable. Maybe they're already looking so
<v Speaker 1>far ahead that to that that they're like, hey, we
<v Speaker 1>want to establish a good price space now for when
<v Speaker 1>we have to introduce those things that even higher prices.
<v Speaker 1>And that's a big part of what they're probably thinking
<v Speaker 1>a little bit as well as just hey, things are expensive.
<v Speaker 1>We want to make sure we can get every dollar
<v Speaker 1>that we can. But I how interested are these companies
<v Speaker 1>in selling consoles, because all of the sort of circumstantial
<v Speaker 1>evidence surrounding it makes it sound like, you know, that's
<v Speaker 1>not their primary concern. I think we know that's the
<v Speaker 1>case with Xbox at this point, but what does it
<v Speaker 1>seem like it's kind of I'm getting that sense off
<v Speaker 1>a PlayStation.
<v Speaker 2>As well, so I think there's a lot of things there.
<v Speaker 2>Of course, people want to sell the boxes. I think
<v Speaker 2>what we're seeing in terms of consumer behavior, particularly among
<v Speaker 2>younger audiences, is a desire to have their content they
<v Speaker 2>want to play available on whatever device they want to
<v Speaker 2>play it on. And for younger audiences more and more
<v Speaker 2>that's going to be mobile PC type devices that they
<v Speaker 2>already have access to. So with that play behavior change,
<v Speaker 2>we're seeing people really trying to expand the reach of
<v Speaker 2>their content. Now. Xbox, of course invested heavily early in
<v Speaker 2>cloud that hasn't really developed in the US market, although
<v Speaker 2>it has developed more in areas like South Korea and
<v Speaker 2>Brazil and other territories that could continue to evolve, they're
<v Speaker 2>going to be leaning on that quite a bit more
<v Speaker 2>as they diversify their hardware reach around, you know, their
<v Speaker 2>OEM strategy with things like the Asis rog, Xbox ally
<v Speaker 2>or whatever it's called. I think I got that right,
<v Speaker 2>of course, but yeah, PlayStations, yeah, PlayStations also diversifying where
<v Speaker 2>it's putting its content because you know, the name of
<v Speaker 2>the game is reaching as many people as possible, and
<v Speaker 2>right now that's not necessarily through the box, although the
<v Speaker 2>box remains the best way to play and the way
<v Speaker 2>that the enthusiast audience most likes to play. So it's
<v Speaker 2>not going to go anywhere. But in terms of trying
<v Speaker 2>to grow an audience that let's be honest, hit a
<v Speaker 2>peek in twenty twenty one, because of course it did,
<v Speaker 2>and we no longer have that organic audience growth that
<v Speaker 2>we had for decades because everyone who wanted to play
<v Speaker 2>games for as long as they wanted to play them
<v Speaker 2>and did so in twenty twenty one. So now it's
<v Speaker 2>an audience share game. It's grabbing audience grabbing hours would
<v Speaker 2>before it was let's just grow the audience. So it's
<v Speaker 2>it's been a pretty massive mind shift away from a
<v Speaker 2>growth mindset to a share mindset, and I think that's
<v Speaker 2>one of the reasons why we're seeing so much diversification
<v Speaker 2>around portfolio strategies. It's a fascinating time.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And I think maybe the other thing there is
<v Speaker 1>when they look around to like what the next growth
<v Speaker 1>opportunity could be, it's not and they're not seeing the
<v Speaker 1>obvious answer for what that would mean for the console business, right.
<v Speaker 2>Right, And I mean you look at what's going on
<v Speaker 2>with things like roadblocks in Fortnite and Minecraft and to
<v Speaker 2>reach those massive not even games anymore, they're their own ecosystems.
<v Speaker 2>The reach they have, I mean, the competition to grab
<v Speaker 2>audience from those monstrosities, it's it's a it's a significant challenge.
<v Speaker 2>And so you have to be where the players are,
<v Speaker 2>and right now, the players are on all types of
<v Speaker 2>devices at all types of times.
<v Speaker 1>Some other things here when to ask you about let's
<v Speaker 1>see here we talked about these games a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>but Donkey Kong Bonanza's physical sales were high enough to
<v Speaker 1>place it. Third, do you have a sense of how
<v Speaker 1>that compares to other like launch window games or you know,
<v Speaker 1>first six month games on let's say PlayStation five or
<v Speaker 1>anything else or the switch one like, how does this
<v Speaker 1>compare to ratchet and clank? If you have that off
<v Speaker 1>the top of your head.
<v Speaker 2>So, yeah, Nintendo First Party game is published on Nintendo hardware,
<v Speaker 2>are always going to have a higher attach right, I
<v Speaker 2>mean a higher percentage of people who buy the hardware
<v Speaker 2>are going to buy the Nintendo First Party game then
<v Speaker 2>on Sony or Microsoft devices for example, because on those
<v Speaker 2>on those devices it's the big sports games, it's the
<v Speaker 2>big shooters that tend to have more audience pull, whereas
<v Speaker 2>on Nintendo, I mean, people still buy Nintendo consoles to
<v Speaker 2>play Nintendo games. You've mentioned that, I don't know how
<v Speaker 2>many times. So those those attached they're always going to
<v Speaker 2>be higher. And so you know, when you look at
<v Speaker 2>something like World, which of course is closer to one
<v Speaker 2>hundred percent than not, Banans is not there, but it's
<v Speaker 2>it's pretty darn good in terms of the percentage of
<v Speaker 2>folks that are buying it. So they they just do
<v Speaker 2>a phenomenal job of connecting with their audience with their content,
<v Speaker 2>and you know, people get people have gotten mad at
<v Speaker 2>me before for saying that Nintendo's their own thing. Yep,
<v Speaker 2>but Nintendo's their own thing. Like they do things differently
<v Speaker 2>and it's worked out really well for them, and other
<v Speaker 2>folks have tried to copy that strategy in it. It
<v Speaker 2>just hasn't worked so well because the audiences are different.
<v Speaker 1>And that's fine, yep, exactly. Yeah, And it like that
<v Speaker 1>doesn't mean I think these company should even stop trying
<v Speaker 1>to like figure out what their Nintendo like strategy would be.
<v Speaker 1>But it doing it exactly like Nintendo's just not going
<v Speaker 1>to work. Tony Ook's pro Skater three plus four was
<v Speaker 1>number four. Any idea how that compares to one plus two?
<v Speaker 1>Is it kind of like maintaining that momentum at all?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it has been tained the momentum, and in fact,
<v Speaker 2>it was a top four bestseller across PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo,
<v Speaker 2>and PC. So this was a game that had pretty
<v Speaker 2>wide appeal. We'll have to see how long the legs are.
<v Speaker 2>These games tend to be like these more nostalgia driven games,
<v Speaker 2>not that it's you know, I'm not saying it's not
<v Speaker 2>a modern game. I'm not saying that modern people can't
<v Speaker 2>love it.
<v Speaker 1>It's old shit, it is, I get it.
<v Speaker 2>So like these games tend to do really well launch
<v Speaker 2>and we'll have to see how the legs are over time.
<v Speaker 2>But what a great start, and you'd have to believe
<v Speaker 2>that they look at these results and go, okay, like
<v Speaker 2>what else can we do here? There is an audience
<v Speaker 2>that very much wants this type of content. Of course,
<v Speaker 2>skates on the way later this year, so you know,
<v Speaker 2>we're having a little bit of a skateboard revival, which
<v Speaker 2>is cool. But yeah, really great start, Really great to
<v Speaker 2>see it have wide ranging appeal on all the platforms,
<v Speaker 2>so you can't ask for much more than that.
<v Speaker 1>And then the last thing, it's popping on the top
<v Speaker 1>of my head here. The accessory spending fell eight percent.
<v Speaker 1>I would assume a big part of that is a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people bought second controllers to play college football
<v Speaker 1>with their buddies last year. Does that sound right or
<v Speaker 1>what do you think is happening here?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, there's there's a bit of that. But the game
<v Speaker 2>pad spending is still down. We had a pretty significant
<v Speaker 2>dip in remote play devices like the PlayStation portal. Oh sure,
<v Speaker 2>off year on year because it was a much you know,
<v Speaker 2>it was a much newer, hotter product a year ago,
<v Speaker 2>and because of the hardware declines we're seeing on PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>and Xbox. You know that that tends to correlate to
<v Speaker 2>change it there, and you know, the Nintendo switch to
<v Speaker 2>Pro controller is has done a phenomenal job. Over thirty
<v Speaker 2>percent of people who have a switch to have a
<v Speaker 2>pro controller, which is pretty remarkable when you think about
<v Speaker 2>the audience, right, this isn't an audience that you would
<v Speaker 2>assume would would be there with a more expensive controller
<v Speaker 2>day one, but they sure have been. And that's been
<v Speaker 2>the best selling accessory in both units and dollars this year,
<v Speaker 2>So that's doing a lot of heavy lifting kind of
<v Speaker 2>holding up that market. Yeah, we're looking at a down
<v Speaker 2>accessories market right now, especially from particularly from the performance
<v Speaker 2>of game pads and headsets.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it really seems like Nintendo's strategy theyre raising the
<v Speaker 1>prices on all the accessories, keeping the prices the same
<v Speaker 1>on the switch to is worked out for them.
<v Speaker 2>It has worked out. We haven't seen a significant negative
<v Speaker 2>impact of those changes yet. We'll see what happens with
<v Speaker 2>going forward.
<v Speaker 1>Right people. I mean, I'll speak for myself. When I'm
<v Speaker 1>looking at buying something, I look at the price of
<v Speaker 1>the thing. I don't really often look at the knock
<v Speaker 1>on purchases, and then once I have the thing, It's like, well,
<v Speaker 1>I do need that and that, and the price is
<v Speaker 1>sort of like, what's not as big as the big,
<v Speaker 1>big purchase I just made. So I'm just gonna go
<v Speaker 1>get this thing. That's how I do it. So I
<v Speaker 1>bet that's kind of what Nintendo was hoping for here.
<v Speaker 2>Well, and you have a price insensitive early adopter audience,
<v Speaker 2>needing that the people who buy early don't really care
<v Speaker 2>how much cost, they just need to have it.
<v Speaker 1>Yep.
<v Speaker 2>But just like with the switch to hardware, the real
<v Speaker 2>test will come in holiday. How many families, how many
<v Speaker 2>gifts of switch to consoles or accessories or even software,
<v Speaker 2>how much of that will come into the holiday because
<v Speaker 2>that's where you know the whole thing is made or broken.
<v Speaker 1>So we'll see, And you know, I get the sense
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo well aware of this, definitely knows this, and that's
<v Speaker 1>what you know. If we get this rumored direct in September,
<v Speaker 1>it'll be all about explaining the story of why now
<v Speaker 1>is an urgent time to get a switch to So.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, day one showed up big time. The question is like,
<v Speaker 2>how do you move from the enthusiast audience to the
<v Speaker 2>mass market. That's like that's always the biggest challenge with
<v Speaker 2>the console, and this time it's it's it has additional
<v Speaker 2>challenges that prior generations and devices didn't excellent.
<v Speaker 1>All right, well, we have plenty of more to get into,
<v Speaker 1>but we should take a quick break here from our
<v Speaker 1>MSI sponsor. If you want to skip out on these,
<v Speaker 1>you go to giant bomb dot com Last Joint become
<v Speaker 1>a premium member. You can get the ad free version
<v Speaker 1>of the show. Will be right back after this jam.
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<v Speaker 1>we are back. It's Game Mess Mornings. That's miss map Piscatella.
<v Speaker 1>I'm Jeff Grub. Let's get back into the headlines here
<v Speaker 1>with Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo switch to Edition
<v Speaker 1>plus Starcross World. That's the full name. Reviews are in
<v Speaker 1>for it, and it's apparently that name is not hurting it.
<v Speaker 1>It's doing a ninety on Open Critic with seven reviews.
<v Speaker 1>That's no you know, early in the review process, who
<v Speaker 1>knows how many reviews something like this actually ends up getting.
<v Speaker 1>But it's switched to so things like this are pretty exciting,
<v Speaker 1>But ninety on seven reviews still very impressive. Nine out
<v Speaker 1>of ten from PJ O'Reilly at Nintendo Life, who says
<v Speaker 1>Kirby and the Forgotten Land Nintendo switch To Edition plus
<v Speaker 1>Starcross world gives you the base Forgotten Land experience at
<v Speaker 1>a delicious sixty frames per second, with a whole big
<v Speaker 1>bunch of new content thrown in for good measure. The
<v Speaker 1>twelve remixed areas that make up the DLC are uniformly delightful,
<v Speaker 1>The new transformations are excellent, and there's even new challenges
<v Speaker 1>for hardcore Kirby fans to get stuck into or to
<v Speaker 1>get sucked into. One of the best games on Switch
<v Speaker 1>and one of my favorite three D platformers in years,
<v Speaker 1>Polished to a sparkly sheen and packing some meaningful new content,
<v Speaker 1>that's a very easy recommendation and a truly excellent addition
<v Speaker 1>to the Switch two's early lineup. I got a ten
<v Speaker 1>out of ten from Christa Hogue at CG Magazine, who
<v Speaker 1>said it is the best paid upgrade yet for the
<v Speaker 1>Switch to and a worthy addition to one of the
<v Speaker 1>Switch's finest platforms. And then it got an eight out
<v Speaker 1>of ten from Bobby Passion. Dealis Yeah, Pachial Dyllis at
<v Speaker 1>Console Creatures. Kirby and the Forgotten Land Antenna Switch To
<v Speaker 1>Edition plus Starcross Worlds should not be missed. Not only
<v Speaker 1>does it upgrade the base game for the Switch to
<v Speaker 1>which is one of the best Kirby games already, but
<v Speaker 1>it also adds a fun and out of this world
<v Speaker 1>expansion filled with fun powers and tons of Kirby charm.
<v Speaker 1>I'm I'm excited about this one. I was a huge
<v Speaker 1>Kirby in the Forgotten Land fan. Matt, Uh, how about you?
<v Speaker 1>Is this something you're interested in? And then how have
<v Speaker 1>these you know, up these paid up grades been doing
<v Speaker 1>for the Switch. As far as you can tell, Kirby
<v Speaker 1>is a menace. Yeah, that's true.
<v Speaker 2>The most powerful character and video games.
<v Speaker 1>I mean it's also true.
<v Speaker 2>He uh he scares me in a lot of ways.
<v Speaker 2>But I kind of like it now. I've been a
<v Speaker 2>big Kirby guy for for a very long time. I
<v Speaker 2>played this game. I was off put by the frame right,
<v Speaker 2>so I'm excited to get the sixty frames. I am
<v Speaker 2>a sixty frames a gooner. Anything six thirty I can't play. Uh,
<v Speaker 2>so I'm really looking forward to it. And these reviews
<v Speaker 2>are great, So that's cool. Yeah, the the the paid
<v Speaker 2>up grades have done pretty well. Actually, of course, it's
<v Speaker 2>very early and it's been on a couple of games
<v Speaker 2>and there's so many different ways to access them.
<v Speaker 1>In fact, I was having.
<v Speaker 2>A conversation yesterday with some folks who, you know, business
<v Speaker 2>e folks who who aren't really into gaming at all,
<v Speaker 2>haven't played anything really since the NES trying to explain
<v Speaker 2>how people upgrade.
<v Speaker 1>Oh oh, that that sounds very fun.
<v Speaker 2>I was like, so you could do it this way,
<v Speaker 2>or you could do it this way, or you could
<v Speaker 2>and they were just looking at me like, what the
<v Speaker 2>hell is what is this business? And I'm like, you
<v Speaker 2>know what, You're right this business as well. Yeah, but yeah,
<v Speaker 2>it's pretty well so far. Of course, you know, there's
<v Speaker 2>a lot of consternation from some folks about the different
<v Speaker 2>practices around things like forsy cards and all that. But
<v Speaker 2>so far, so good. I'm looking forward to this one,
<v Speaker 2>looking forward to see how it does, being a little
<v Speaker 2>bit later than the initial early releases.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know, at least with Nintendo games, they do
<v Speaker 1>put all theirs on the cards. So far. I don't
<v Speaker 1>think they've had not for Ney their big games anyhow,
<v Speaker 1>the game card situations, so they've been able to avoid
<v Speaker 1>that for their stuff. You know, I guess real quick
<v Speaker 1>on that, like when you look at your data, did
<v Speaker 1>you notice something there, like, is is this something that
<v Speaker 1>we talk about on shows like this and on forums
<v Speaker 1>and on social media, And it's not really filtering filtering
<v Speaker 1>into the data, or do game card game key cards
<v Speaker 1>like hold any game sales back in any noticeable way.
<v Speaker 2>I think the sample is probably too small to have
<v Speaker 2>any really wild takeaways. And we're seeing, you know, some
<v Speaker 2>games underperforms, some do pretty well, But it's so early
<v Speaker 2>that I think the jury is still out on it.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, the it's not good when your most enthusiastic
<v Speaker 2>customers are are or a segment of them or this
<v Speaker 2>unhappy about something like that's generally not a good thing.
<v Speaker 2>But you know, we'll have to see people like to
<v Speaker 2>play what they want to play, and they'll do what
<v Speaker 2>they have to do to play it for the most part,
<v Speaker 2>but you generally want your customers happier and satisfied. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>early days, we're gonna keep watching it. I think for
<v Speaker 2>some games it may have had an impact, but it's
<v Speaker 2>kind of hard to strip out the impact of one
<v Speaker 2>particular thing when it comes to a game's performance, whether
<v Speaker 2>that's review scores or social conversation or things like the
<v Speaker 2>medium it's delivered on. It's really hard to parse out
<v Speaker 2>the individual drivers. So yeah, it's a jury still out.
<v Speaker 1>We're gonna keep moving here. Need for Speed future is
<v Speaker 1>in doubt. Its future, that's not the name of a game.
<v Speaker 1>Need for Speed's future is in doubt as Criterion has
<v Speaker 1>been rebranded to a Battlefield studio. This is from Hayley
<v Speaker 1>Williams at GameSpot in case you needed any more confirmation
<v Speaker 1>that Criterion is now all in on Battlefield. The Burnout
<v Speaker 1>creator and longtime Need for Speed Custodian is now officially
<v Speaker 1>branded as a Battlefield studio, as in it like the
<v Speaker 1>team is now called Criterion Colon a Battlefield studio, leaving
<v Speaker 1>the future of the Need for Speed franchise in question,
<v Speaker 1>and as spotted by The Gamer, a user for the
<v Speaker 1>Need for Speed for subreddit excuse Me spotted criterions new
<v Speaker 1>official subtitle on EA's website, where a Battlefield studio now
<v Speaker 1>appears under the usual studio logo. So, Matt, when I
<v Speaker 1>was mentioning this earlier, it's like, this just feels like
<v Speaker 1>part and parcel with what like a trend that's been
<v Speaker 1>going on for a while now, and you kind of
<v Speaker 1>opened up with it earlier on where it's like, hey, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>the the overall spending number looking pretty hot the or
<v Speaker 1>at least at least fine. And when we like look
<v Speaker 1>at how that, you know segments out the big games
<v Speaker 1>are still huge, and some of them are bigger than
<v Speaker 1>ever and selling better than ever. It is the games
<v Speaker 1>in the in the in between that continue, like the
<v Speaker 1>money is coming from them. That's why why these games
<v Speaker 1>are bigger than ever. It's because fewer people are spending
<v Speaker 1>or they're spending less money on these games somewhere in
<v Speaker 1>between the tiny things over here, the indie games and
<v Speaker 1>the biggest games, and that's why, like Burnout was never
<v Speaker 1>we're way past. Is Burnout gonna come back? Like Criterion
<v Speaker 1>is not going to go back to Burnout, but maybe
<v Speaker 1>Need for Speed they can keep doing that because those
<v Speaker 1>games tend to sell. And now they're like, actually, your
<v Speaker 1>time and your efforts are better spent working on a
<v Speaker 1>big shooter than even Need for Speed. And this feels like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>that's just you. Okay, we went from Burnout to Need
<v Speaker 1>for Speed and now Need for Speed to a battlefield.
<v Speaker 1>To me, it's like I could just see that direct
<v Speaker 1>line of what is happening here of these companies just
<v Speaker 1>think every second spent working on this bigger game is
<v Speaker 1>going to get them a bigger return. Is that what's happening?
<v Speaker 2>And this is what keeps me up at night as
<v Speaker 2>a video game fan. Yeah, when a franchise like Need
<v Speaker 2>for Speed, you know, is in question, that's that's kind
<v Speaker 2>of shocking. Right. If you would have told someone this
<v Speaker 2>fifteen years ago, they would have said no way.
<v Speaker 1>I mean even like five years ago, it seems like
<v Speaker 1>such a resilient series where it just keep like they
<v Speaker 1>kept making them and they kept doing all right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's just when you look at the play stats,
<v Speaker 2>it's it's kind of shocking. Like I've shared these a
<v Speaker 2>few times out there. Our player Engagement Tracker, we you know,
<v Speaker 2>track what people people are doing on their consoles. What
<v Speaker 2>we find in our data is just shy of eight
<v Speaker 2>out of every ten people that turn on their PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>or Xbox every month will play at least one of
<v Speaker 2>the top ten live service games, whether that's Holy Minecraft
<v Speaker 2>or Rowblocks or whatever. And the top ten live service
<v Speaker 2>games alone, just taking out all of the other ones,
<v Speaker 2>just the top ten account for just shy of half
<v Speaker 2>of all hours spent on the consoles. So these games
<v Speaker 2>these these biggest live service games are taking all of
<v Speaker 2>the hours and dollars from the market. And because we
<v Speaker 2>still have growth in the number of games coming out,
<v Speaker 2>you know, the rest of the games have a smaller
<v Speaker 2>and smaller share of the pie they're chasing, which is
<v Speaker 2>why we're seeing the crunch around developers and studios that
<v Speaker 2>we are the pie is getting smaller, although the top
<v Speaker 2>line numbers dang really relatively same. So when you're when
<v Speaker 2>you're a big publisher, you have to try to get
<v Speaker 2>into that even though the risk level is so high.
<v Speaker 2>The risk is so high, and we see it over
<v Speaker 2>and over again with the games that are failing, like
<v Speaker 2>your concre Is is the most primary example. But this
<v Speaker 2>is this is the market, this is where people are,
<v Speaker 2>and it's exceptionally you have to go over that space
<v Speaker 2>even though the risk factors is ridiculous.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean you said it. I mean it's obvious.
<v Speaker 1>Like these companies like look around and they look at
<v Speaker 1>that data of where people are spending their time, and
<v Speaker 1>they look at the data of where people are spending
<v Speaker 1>their money. You know, Like the way people are thinking
<v Speaker 1>about games is changing. They're not thinking about the next
<v Speaker 1>new release, They're going to get they're thinking about the
<v Speaker 1>next new event or user generated content that they're going
<v Speaker 1>to play in the game they're already playing, and so
<v Speaker 1>we need to have one of these platforms, and like
<v Speaker 1>otherwise we're gonna have to start making our stuff inside
<v Speaker 1>of those platforms. We're gonna have to make our stuff
<v Speaker 1>for Fortnite or make our stuff for Minecraft, and that
<v Speaker 1>is like those companies that control those platforms will be
<v Speaker 1>able to dictate terms in a huge way. That is
<v Speaker 1>very scary. So we have to get out ahead of this.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, if you look at all of the big third
<v Speaker 2>party IP holders, the Disneys of the world, for example,
<v Speaker 2>where are they putting their content. They're putting it in Fortnite,
<v Speaker 2>They're putting it in Roadblocks. Roadblocks wants to take ten
<v Speaker 2>percent of all gaming spend, like that's their goal, and
<v Speaker 2>they have IP partnership programs in place to try to
<v Speaker 2>attract more IP into those those ecosystems. So yeah, like
<v Speaker 2>it's absolutely changing now this audience, Like the folks here
<v Speaker 2>watching this, they're like, what are you talking about double?
<v Speaker 2>Like I played Expedition thirty three. That game was a
<v Speaker 2>huge hit. Yes, it's a hit for a game of
<v Speaker 2>its scale, and it's done phenomenally well, no question about
<v Speaker 2>I'm not saying that it hasn't, but the number of
<v Speaker 2>games that can break out is quite small, and the
<v Speaker 2>number of games that are in that competitive pool continue
<v Speaker 2>to increase, So it's that's even becoming harder and harder.
<v Speaker 2>So it's not really easy to say, hey, like the
<v Speaker 2>service market is a disaster zone, and you know ninety
<v Speaker 2>nine percent of games are going to fail, so you
<v Speaker 2>should make more double a size games. It's not quite
<v Speaker 2>that simple, although it sure would be cool if it were, because,
<v Speaker 2>like you said, a lot of the audience isn't thinking
<v Speaker 2>about what's next. They're thinking about just, hey, I have
<v Speaker 2>some time to game. There's Fortnite. I'm just going to
<v Speaker 2>click on that. And it's unfortunate that discovery has been
<v Speaker 2>very difficult that trying to find new games, that people
<v Speaker 2>can't hear about new games online like they used to
<v Speaker 2>because of what's happened in the media landscape. Like it's
<v Speaker 2>very difficult and tough to try to make a new
<v Speaker 2>game these days. So yeah, I get why this is happening,
<v Speaker 2>even though there are all kinds of red flags around
<v Speaker 2>this approach.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's I think that just speaks to these companies
<v Speaker 1>really are like lost for any other way to go,
<v Speaker 1>the fact that they keep hitting this brick wall, but
<v Speaker 1>they feel like, I got to get on the other
<v Speaker 1>side of this brick wall. I gotta because ground and
<v Speaker 1>everything else is avoid Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>You look, it's like like you're in Vegas, man, and
<v Speaker 2>you're at the craps table, and you know, you had
<v Speaker 2>a bunch of money and now you're down of it.
<v Speaker 2>You're like, well, like I gotta keep going, I guess,
<v Speaker 2>because what else are we gonna do? And it's that's that's
<v Speaker 2>scary that that's what keeps me up at night when
<v Speaker 2>it comes to the gaming market.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's it's just the timing on of it.
<v Speaker 1>Timing on is like such a it's evilly poetic that
<v Speaker 1>it's like games are getting easier than ever to make,
<v Speaker 1>and that's been a trend for a long time. But
<v Speaker 1>it's easier today than it was yesterday, and it will
<v Speaker 1>be easier tomorrow than it is today, and so we
<v Speaker 1>are getting more games than ever and it just is
<v Speaker 1>that's eating away. At the other side of that, the
<v Speaker 1>the spending is not growing commiserate with that.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, and you look at like some of the
<v Speaker 2>conversation around there like well, AI is gonna help because
<v Speaker 2>it's gonna be able to make let people make games faster,
<v Speaker 2>And I'm like, making games faster isn't the problem. The
<v Speaker 2>problem is the number of games we have coming out
<v Speaker 2>and an audience that isn't growing, Like it's only going
<v Speaker 2>to cause more problems having games come out even more
<v Speaker 2>frequently than they are now. It's it's completely backwards the
<v Speaker 2>conversation around getting games out faster and cheaper. That's the
<v Speaker 2>quantity of games in the market is not the problem.
<v Speaker 1>Right, We're talking about is AI is going to be
<v Speaker 1>able to help create more content and things to put
<v Speaker 1>in the game. And it's like when we just we
<v Speaker 1>look at it as one big blob, there is more
<v Speaker 1>content than any human being could possibly play in fifty
<v Speaker 1>thousand years, Like, so what are we talking about? Really?
<v Speaker 1>What we're if you're looking for the problem to like
<v Speaker 1>to spark a new fire, it's new ideas and you're
<v Speaker 1>not going to get that from AI.
<v Speaker 2>It's yeah, it's new ideas. Discovery is so hard now
<v Speaker 2>trying to get your game notice, even if you get
<v Speaker 2>ninety review scores, Like trying to get your smaller game,
<v Speaker 2>notice is nearly impossible unless you get absolutely lucky some
<v Speaker 2>something happens or some magic in terms of what happens
<v Speaker 2>on on social or somewhere, it gets picked up somewhere.
<v Speaker 2>But like trying to break through, like Hurdling just came out, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>phenomenally rated game, who knows, like who's talked about it
<v Speaker 2>very Like you see a couple of people posting about it.
<v Speaker 2>You look at oh, sort of the Stars just came out, right,
<v Speaker 2>and they just did layoffs because that game didn't really
<v Speaker 2>break through even though that's been highly rated, right, So
<v Speaker 2>to discovery is the problem the number of games, sure
<v Speaker 2>as hell, and the problem.
<v Speaker 1>And that and that's like there's a perfect comparison to
<v Speaker 1>the alternative there of the Sky, the game from the
<v Speaker 1>other people that made Journey Genova Chen His game is
<v Speaker 1>a free to play mobile thing and apparently has tons
<v Speaker 1>and tons and tons of players, But it's not my thing.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm more excited about sort of the Sea. And
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, yeah, but that's just not where the
<v Speaker 1>business is at right now. It's it's a cautionary tiling,
<v Speaker 1>and yeah, it keeps me up as well.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's it's it's just it's anyways. It's a shame.
<v Speaker 2>But yeah, the number of games coming out is not
<v Speaker 2>the problem. But you know they're gonna do it anyway.
<v Speaker 1>So I'll see. I get all these companies like thinking that, like, well,
<v Speaker 1>we need to get our games out faster because when
<v Speaker 1>the longer it takes, the more expensive it gets. That's
<v Speaker 1>all they're that's as far as they're thinking about it.
<v Speaker 1>If they were to look at it on it just
<v Speaker 1>a slightly more macro level, it's like, Okay, that's not
<v Speaker 1>an answer. It's a way to save some money right now.
<v Speaker 1>But if you're gonna do the thing that you think
<v Speaker 1>everyone else is gonna do, you're gonna have to continue
<v Speaker 1>to spend more time and money to make your game
<v Speaker 1>stand apart from everyone else's. So you're still gonna need
<v Speaker 1>all those people you just fired back to actually set
<v Speaker 1>your game apart. And I'm looking forward to you realizing
<v Speaker 1>that in two years and in the meantime, you're gonna
<v Speaker 1>have a game that, look that is just not going
<v Speaker 1>to stand out compared to everyone else's.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. Look, man, if you have Coke, PEPSI, Doctor Pepper,
<v Speaker 2>and seven up on the soda shelf, the way to
<v Speaker 2>compete in that market isn't to come out with two
<v Speaker 2>thousand others, so it try to throw months, you know
<v Speaker 2>what I mean. Like it's a bad analogy, but it
<v Speaker 2>kind of works. Like it's how do you break through?
<v Speaker 2>How do you provide a really quality product and communicate
<v Speaker 2>it to the audience? And right now the conversations like
<v Speaker 2>I don't know, let's just throw more products out there?
<v Speaker 2>What the hell? Well that's that's just gonna make everything worse, man,
<v Speaker 2>But you know, what the hell do I know?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's also like at a certain point, does this
<v Speaker 1>industry just turn into one of those that has it's
<v Speaker 1>four or five. I mean it's happening, obviously, the four
<v Speaker 1>or five it's happening. But it's like, my in my heart,
<v Speaker 1>it was like always thinking this industry, the one thing
<v Speaker 1>that's consistent is it always changes. Something new comes along
<v Speaker 1>and disrupts everything. But that's not a true that's not
<v Speaker 1>true because it's true. It was true because it had
<v Speaker 1>happened up until this point. There's no reason it has
<v Speaker 1>to keep happening that way. Right, these things could really
<v Speaker 1>solidify in a permanent way.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you bring a game out ten years ago, your
<v Speaker 2>biggest competition at the other new games launching in your
<v Speaker 2>window now. No matter when you bring out a game,
<v Speaker 2>your biggest competitions for an I, Minecraft roadblocks like it's
<v Speaker 2>a different world. It's not the way it was ten
<v Speaker 2>years ago, fifteen years ago. It's an absolutely different world.
<v Speaker 1>All right. Let's so let's get to these next couple
<v Speaker 1>of stories. Atari is re releasing some of Ubisaft's best
<v Speaker 1>and forgotten games. This is from Darren bonf Use at GameSpot.
<v Speaker 1>When you think Ubisoft, you usually think about its ten
<v Speaker 1>pole franchises like Assassin's Creed in Rainbow six Siege, but
<v Speaker 1>the company has also released several great small scale games
<v Speaker 1>across PC, console, and mobile. Some of these ips have
<v Speaker 1>been dormant for years, but Atari has inked a new
<v Speaker 1>deal to acquire five Ubisoft classics and bring them to
<v Speaker 1>modern platforms. As part of the deal, Atari has purchased
<v Speaker 1>the IP for Cold Fear, I Am Alive, Grow Home,
<v Speaker 1>Grow Up, and Child of Eden. These were all one
<v Speaker 1>off games, save for Grow Home and Grow Up, which
<v Speaker 1>are related to one another, published by Ubisoft and developed
<v Speaker 1>by numerous teams, but in terms of console releases, most
<v Speaker 1>of them remain locked to Xbox three sixty and PS
<v Speaker 1>three maybe with the occasional PS four port or something
<v Speaker 1>like that. Millions of players have experienced these worlds over
<v Speaker 1>the years, and this will open the door for longtime
<v Speaker 1>players to revisit those memories while inviting new audiences to
<v Speaker 1>discover them for the first time. Ubisoft VP of Business
<v Speaker 1>of New Business Deborah Papernik said in a press Atari
<v Speaker 1>has a rich gaming legacy and deep appreciate appreciation for
<v Speaker 1>these classic titles, and we're excited to see how they'll
<v Speaker 1>evolve and connect with players in fresh and meaningful ways.
<v Speaker 1>What is the business like for kind of plucking some
<v Speaker 1>games out from like the Xbox three sixty era and
<v Speaker 1>reintroducing them today. I mean, we talk about young people
<v Speaker 1>aren't necessarily buying a ton of games or even consoles,
<v Speaker 1>so it's not necessarily about like really introducing this to
<v Speaker 1>whole new audiences. It's probably people who maybe missed out
<v Speaker 1>on these things and giving them an opportunity to act
<v Speaker 1>on these Now. Is this a trend do you expect
<v Speaker 1>to see more of? Do you think it makes sense
<v Speaker 1>for Atari? What do you think this is a weird one? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>My thoughts immediately go to how it's highly unusual for
<v Speaker 2>companies to sell off IP. Like usually, no matter the
<v Speaker 2>size of the IP, you sit on it because IP
<v Speaker 2>is the most valuable asset, even though you don't think
<v Speaker 2>it's worth much now, it could be in the future,
<v Speaker 2>and there's no reason to sell it if you.
<v Speaker 1>Don't have to. So conversations like that, yes, recently, I'm yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's for sure, Yeah.
<v Speaker 2>It's it's why why now? Why these IP Why are
<v Speaker 2>you selling them? What's the driver of that?
<v Speaker 1>It's got to come? Do you think it's got to
<v Speaker 1>relate back and circle back to you know? Ubi Soft
<v Speaker 1>has this new spinoff you be Soft, funded by ten
<v Speaker 1>Cent with that is focused on three games, uh A
<v Speaker 1>far Cry, Rainbow six, and Assassin's Creed And so anything
<v Speaker 1>not in that Holy Trinity is is getting reassessed and
<v Speaker 1>they're looking for any way to like make some money
<v Speaker 1>from it, and this led them here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but even then, like you don't see IP like
<v Speaker 2>that's just not something you do now Atari they they
<v Speaker 2>buy I P that's kind of their their jam, right,
<v Speaker 2>So this is right up their alley and what they do.
<v Speaker 2>But I look at this and go, huh, that's interesting.
<v Speaker 2>So I don't know, like the individual games I think
<v Speaker 2>aren't as interesting a story as the strategic shift of
<v Speaker 2>now we're now we're selling I p okay interesting.
<v Speaker 1>I mean this is this is a UBI soft that
<v Speaker 1>just a couple of years ago made that Werewolf within movie,
<v Speaker 1>a movie based on a VR game that they made
<v Speaker 1>years and years ago. It's a very good movie apparently.
<v Speaker 1>I've not seen it, but people love it apparently. But
<v Speaker 1>this is like they were trading on their IP even
<v Speaker 1>to that degree. So yes, selling it off is very strange.
<v Speaker 1>It could just be like a weird anomaly. If we
<v Speaker 1>see this again, I will be like, Okay, what is
<v Speaker 1>happening here? What is going on?
<v Speaker 2>Exactly? Like you know, they're doing all their restructuring, they're
<v Speaker 2>splitting teams out and everything else. Okay, you know they're
<v Speaker 2>making a lot of decisions about their future. Is this
<v Speaker 2>is this a one off? Or are we like in
<v Speaker 2>clearance mode?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>The implications of either of those things happening are different
<v Speaker 2>and meaningful, So we'll see, all right.
<v Speaker 1>The new EA college basketball game is nowhere near released.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Eddie McCoo at game Spot when eatased
<v Speaker 1>in June that it was bringing back its popular college
<v Speaker 1>basketball franchise. Some wondered where they might actually get something
<v Speaker 1>to play or win. I should say, as it turns out,
<v Speaker 1>it's not going to be anytime soon, which is not
<v Speaker 1>much of a surprise. EA Sports executive Sean O'Brien told
<v Speaker 1>USA Today that EA is up for the challenge of
<v Speaker 1>building a new college basketball game. Currently, the company is
<v Speaker 1>quote in the process of trying to figure out how
<v Speaker 1>that could come together, and Sean O'Brien explains why that
<v Speaker 1>is challenging by saying he hopes for the new game
<v Speaker 1>to include every D one men's and women's basketball team,
<v Speaker 1>and he admitted getting this done is a quote daunting task.
<v Speaker 1>O'Brien said the success of relaunching the college football series
<v Speaker 1>helped pave the way for bringing back college basketball. Obviously,
<v Speaker 1>we felt that we really captured lightning in a bottle
<v Speaker 1>with college football. I think we would love to try
<v Speaker 1>to do the same thing for college basketball. O'Brien said,
<v Speaker 1>there was a time where we got like multiple college
<v Speaker 1>basketball games in a year. We're far removed from that
<v Speaker 1>much to This is the thing that has turned me
<v Speaker 1>into a boomer Matt of things used to be better,
<v Speaker 1>Things used to be better when we got multiple sports
<v Speaker 1>games from different companies every year. That's just better than
<v Speaker 1>what we have now. You're never gonna change my mind
<v Speaker 1>on that, but whatever, this is the world we live in.
<v Speaker 1>Clearly that they just drew a line from. Can we
<v Speaker 1>try to replicate what happened with college football in any
<v Speaker 1>other way? This does feel like one that should work
<v Speaker 1>as long as EA can actually make a basketball game,
<v Speaker 1>something they've not been able to do in a very
<v Speaker 1>long time.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, let me tell you about a little game called
<v Speaker 2>MLB Power Pros two thousand and eight on the Nintendo
<v Speaker 2>week damn it, or the Bigs bring back the baseball. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>but yeah, I mean you'd assume this would be a
<v Speaker 2>great opportunity. I would love to see them be able
<v Speaker 2>to do it. Some competition in the sports space right now,
<v Speaker 2>in particular, would not be the worst thing for consumers
<v Speaker 2>in my opinion. Right now, we are very siloed and
<v Speaker 2>do just a handful of franchises, and so it would
<v Speaker 2>be great. I think two K probably wouldn't agree with
<v Speaker 2>me on that one when it comes to the basketball market,
<v Speaker 2>but whatever, But yeah, I wish them the best. I
<v Speaker 2>hope this comes out great. I hope it provides an
<v Speaker 2>their opportunity to deliver some numbers like college football does.
<v Speaker 2>That would be that would be amazing for fans and
<v Speaker 2>for the market.
<v Speaker 1>And you know that they did figure out the football
<v Speaker 1>situation and being able to get teams and players. So
<v Speaker 1>they've built this infrastructure and at a certain point, I
<v Speaker 1>bet running that is its own cost, and you can
<v Speaker 1>probably offset that a little bit by replica repeating that
<v Speaker 1>process now with other sports.
<v Speaker 2>Oh man, the people working in licensing on these on
<v Speaker 2>these games in particular, like hats.
<v Speaker 1>Off, Like, yes, that's a job. Yeah, so hard.
<v Speaker 2>Wow, Like we did Lego dimensions when I was at
<v Speaker 2>Warner Brothers back in the day, our licensing group that
<v Speaker 2>got things like Back to the Future and all these
<v Speaker 2>other things into it. Like I just remember how their
<v Speaker 2>hair was falling out. I can only imagine what it
<v Speaker 2>would be for something like this.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, this has got very challenging, all right. It is
<v Speaker 1>now easier than ever to refund PS five games. The
<v Speaker 1>story has been going around like it's a different it's
<v Speaker 1>different in method, not necessarily in you know, the how
<v Speaker 1>you know forgiving they are that's pretty much the same.
<v Speaker 1>But let's go through it. The refund process is now
<v Speaker 1>much more automated. If you go to the PlayStation store,
<v Speaker 1>click on the three dots in the top right corner,
<v Speaker 1>select the option that reads transaction history. You could select
<v Speaker 1>one of your purchase purchases and choose the request refund option.
<v Speaker 1>This will automatically consider your refund if you do what
<v Speaker 1>has always been the case on PlayStation, if you have
<v Speaker 1>purchased the game within the last fourteen days and you
<v Speaker 1>have not booted it up. Actually, if you haven't even
<v Speaker 1>you have to have not downloaded it, so it's if
<v Speaker 1>it's just sitting in your transaction history. So that hasn't changed.
<v Speaker 1>But so how it worked before is apparently it had
<v Speaker 1>like a chatbot you had to like convince to let
<v Speaker 1>you get a refund. So that's better to not have
<v Speaker 1>to deal with that, But it's still not like where
<v Speaker 1>it needs to be where you know, on on Steam,
<v Speaker 1>it's like you could have played the game for two hours.
<v Speaker 1>I think that's been pretty fair. Not a lot of
<v Speaker 1>complaints about the way the refund works on Steam. I
<v Speaker 1>think Conan will have to eventually get there, probably due
<v Speaker 1>to regulation, maybe one day. I don't know, how do
<v Speaker 1>you feel about this?
<v Speaker 2>They absolutely should I mean the Steam process has been
<v Speaker 2>beneficial to players and developers. It gives players a chance
<v Speaker 2>to try a game out, and it gives developers a
<v Speaker 2>chance to sell some games to people that want to try.
<v Speaker 1>Some games out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, why that isn't the case across all platforms is bad.
<v Speaker 2>I think it should be implemented across because it would
<v Speaker 2>give up. It would give more opportunity to sell. But
<v Speaker 2>the worry is always like, oh, no, we're gonna lose
<v Speaker 2>money on this.
<v Speaker 1>Now you're not.
<v Speaker 2>You're gonna be able to grow your potential audience. But
<v Speaker 2>people are stubborn. But yeah, the consumers should have far
<v Speaker 2>more options to refund games.
<v Speaker 1>In my opinion, let's get to these last couple of stories. Here,
<v Speaker 1>were we set up to fail? Was a question that
<v Speaker 1>they're being asked or they're asking themselves right now at
<v Speaker 1>the Candy Crush studio King as they reportedly fear more
<v Speaker 1>layoffs to come. This is from Chris Going at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>Last month, King cut around two hundred staff as part
<v Speaker 1>of Microsoft's sweeping layoffs, which saw games canceled and studios
<v Speaker 1>slashed across its game business. It was claimed at the
<v Speaker 1>time that some level designers and copywriters were told that
<v Speaker 1>their jobs were at risk because they were set to
<v Speaker 1>be replaced by the AI tools that they themselves helped
<v Speaker 1>to build. Now, a new report by Mobile gamer dot
<v Speaker 1>is suggests that morale continues to be low at the company,
<v Speaker 1>with some staff taking legal action over their severance packages
<v Speaker 1>and allegations that cuts were made with no consideration of
<v Speaker 1>staff performance. So, according to the people that have been
<v Speaker 1>talked to here are like everyone who got a severance
<v Speaker 1>package went to their lawyer, and every lawyer was like,
<v Speaker 1>this is illegal, and you probably shouldn't fight it because
<v Speaker 1>it's Microsoft. And that is incredibly frustrating to hear that
<v Speaker 1>a company is using its weight to get away with
<v Speaker 1>something that shouldn't be able to get away with and
<v Speaker 1>is violating laws and doing so allegedly. And then as
<v Speaker 1>far as the cuts being made with no staff consideration
<v Speaker 1>or of performance not taken into consideration, people are alleging
<v Speaker 1>once again that they just sorted by who is getting
<v Speaker 1>paid the most and then just fired people in order
<v Speaker 1>until they got to a name that they recognized and
<v Speaker 1>trust and kept that person. That's what's being alleged by
<v Speaker 1>these people. Microsoft, I don't think has commented on this
<v Speaker 1>as a reminder, Microsoft, the Xbox brand is under the
<v Speaker 1>bds A boycott call for their help and for making
<v Speaker 1>money off of the ethnic cleansing and gaza and now
<v Speaker 1>they're doing this as well. Candy Crush is a weird one,
<v Speaker 1>mat because it is a game that just does is
<v Speaker 1>going to run on getting more content, just more levels
<v Speaker 1>that are like the levels before it. So you could
<v Speaker 1>see why they would be wanting to go, let's save
<v Speaker 1>money by just doing this in AI. And yet I
<v Speaker 1>just feel like they are setting themselves themselves. Microsoft is
<v Speaker 1>setting themselves up to fail by not being prepared for
<v Speaker 1>a change that might be necessary to keep this game
<v Speaker 1>feeling fresh at some point. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe
<v Speaker 1>this game never has to feel fresh. It can just
<v Speaker 1>be the same thing forever and continue to print money
<v Speaker 1>for them the way it has been. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>what do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Uh, yeah, so that's one of those games and Soda
<v Speaker 2>as well. Yeah, that just throw always on those mobile
<v Speaker 2>charts looking at you know, having worked at Activision before
<v Speaker 2>looking at the AOP plan, being aggressive doesn't surprise me
<v Speaker 2>at all with dealing with that my entire time. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>the you know when you're when you're not hitting your budget.
<v Speaker 2>When you're not hitting your sales target, you in order
<v Speaker 2>to make the bottom line number, you gotta cut costs.
<v Speaker 2>Perhaps allegedly, this is one of the ways they're trying
<v Speaker 2>to do it. Yeah, Like AI man such a good
<v Speaker 2>tool that you have to force people to use.
<v Speaker 1>It, right, that's story as well as they are monitoring
<v Speaker 1>people's usage of AI and they are demanding one usage
<v Speaker 1>from everyone. Everyone has to use AI in some way.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, I don't know, I can still write an email.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know about you, but I guess we have
<v Speaker 2>the computer's here it for us anyways. Side note, Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>you know, when you have targets that are aggressively set,
<v Speaker 2>then decisions start getting made that sometimes are questionable at best.
<v Speaker 2>I guess I'll leave my comments there.
<v Speaker 1>That's there last thing here, not gaming news, but I
<v Speaker 1>did want to get your opinion on it. K Pop
<v Speaker 1>Demon Hunter SEQL officially going ahead at Netflix. Of course
<v Speaker 1>they're going to make another one of these things. It's
<v Speaker 1>probably it probably is Netflix's most successful thing ever at
<v Speaker 1>this point, or at least close to. So this is
<v Speaker 1>this is a movie that to the traffics in a
<v Speaker 1>lot of familiar tropes of K dramas and Korean animation
<v Speaker 1>and brings that over here and it's doing really well.
<v Speaker 1>It's caught on in a massive way. What do you think,
<v Speaker 1>what are the lessons that maybe gaming could learn from
<v Speaker 1>something like k Pop Demon Hunters if anything comes to mind.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I mean we're seeing not just Netflix, but like
<v Speaker 2>studios like Amazon really trying to lean into the video
<v Speaker 2>game IP. I mean, we had that whole like trans
<v Speaker 2>media movement for a while there, but you know, this
<v Speaker 2>is kind of going continue down that road of trying
<v Speaker 2>to maximize the value of the IP across all types
<v Speaker 2>of avenues. Nintendo is doing it its own way through
<v Speaker 2>its films and through theme parks. Everyone else is trying
<v Speaker 2>to go through whoever can produce content to try to
<v Speaker 2>grow the brand strength. So I think this is just
<v Speaker 2>another in a series of this type of expansion of
<v Speaker 2>the IP reach to try to maximize the value and return.
<v Speaker 1>So I don't know if there's.
<v Speaker 2>Anything particularly new shocking here. I'm not super in tune
<v Speaker 2>with what's going on on this one, but it's not
<v Speaker 2>surprising to see video game companies really trying to continue
<v Speaker 2>to maximize that value.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Yeah, this is a one that it's just kind
<v Speaker 1>of popped up out of nowhere. I heard people talk
<v Speaker 1>about it. My kids have now watched it like ten times, Matt,
<v Speaker 1>So it's it's God, it's great, and you know what,
<v Speaker 1>it's fantastic what I've seen of it. I've kind of
<v Speaker 1>watched over their shoulders a bunch of times now and
<v Speaker 1>it's it's been pretty entertaining. All Right, we check it out. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's it's it's fantastic. I think you'll enjoy it. All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's get to the poll question. This is from Monday. Actually,
<v Speaker 1>may frame it up here for you all. There we go,
<v Speaker 1>This is from Monday. Which nin ninja game are you
<v Speaker 1>going to play? Your options were Shanoby Art a Vengeance,
<v Speaker 1>Ninja Guiden, Rage Bound, Ninja Guide in four or all
<v Speaker 1>of them, and all of them won with forty one
<v Speaker 1>percent of the vote. Ninja Guide in four was number
<v Speaker 1>two at twenty four percent, but right behind it was
<v Speaker 1>Shanoby's Art a Vengeance at twenty three percent, and then
<v Speaker 1>n Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound at thirteen percent. I have
<v Speaker 1>loved Ninja Gaiden Rage Bound. I beat that game, really
<v Speaker 1>enjoyed it. Kind of want to go back to it
<v Speaker 1>because there's some other more difficult stuff in there that
<v Speaker 1>they put in there to keep the game feeling fresh
<v Speaker 1>for a long time. I'm playing Shanoby right now, though,
<v Speaker 1>and I've been really enjoying that. That's also excellent game.
<v Speaker 1>And I will definitely check out Ninja guid In four
<v Speaker 1>when it gets here later this year. Is this is
<v Speaker 1>this the year of the Ninja?
<v Speaker 2>Mat?
<v Speaker 1>Is that what happened?
<v Speaker 2>I mean we had the Year of the bow?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, man, raise the forecast, pump it up. Those are
<v Speaker 2>rookie numbers.
<v Speaker 1>We need more more ninjas. God good, Hey, you know
<v Speaker 1>what I think? Ninja five oh got rereleased earlier this
<v Speaker 1>year as well.
<v Speaker 2>Everybody, So there's that, oh man, Lego Ninjago remake.
<v Speaker 1>Let's do it there. It is that that will actually,
<v Speaker 1>that'll get the kids buying games again.
<v Speaker 2>There we go.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we got a new pole question. We'll get
<v Speaker 1>to that here in a second. Before we do that, though, Matt,
<v Speaker 1>why don't you tell people where they can find you
<v Speaker 1>on the internet and if that's something you even want,
<v Speaker 1>and tell them what else you got going on and
<v Speaker 1>all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm on, I'm on the blue sky at Matt
<v Speaker 2>Piscatella with one tea because my mother was drugged up
<v Speaker 2>when she popped me out and forgot to put the
<v Speaker 2>other tea in need it, that's fine, And then LinkedIn.
<v Speaker 2>Don't don't be on LinkedIn, just stop it. But if
<v Speaker 2>you are, I'm there because I have to be and
<v Speaker 2>so you if you have to be there too, we
<v Speaker 2>can be there together. So yeah, and you know I'm
<v Speaker 2>on the Giant Bomb community, but I'm incognito. You'll never
<v Speaker 2>know who I am. Shot out to the love the
<v Speaker 2>Giant Bomb community. Been a member date since day one.
<v Speaker 2>Love you guys, love this community in particular, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>love you, Jeff, and thank you for everything you guys
<v Speaker 2>are doing to build that community here. It's and all
<v Speaker 2>the past people too like like this this place means
<v Speaker 2>a lot to me and really happy to see you
<v Speaker 2>guys thrive.
<v Speaker 1>That's it's very nice. Matt. Yeah, we love you too.
<v Speaker 1>And like we were telling you during the break, the
<v Speaker 1>community always asking back on. So we'll definitely continue to
<v Speaker 1>make a regular thing of it, get you back on
<v Speaker 1>here frequently. Love talking to you. In the meantime. Here
<v Speaker 1>is the new pole question. We'll get the results of
<v Speaker 1>this tomorrow. Are you going to get Kirby in the
<v Speaker 1>Forgotten Land switch to edition. I'm not putting the full
<v Speaker 1>name in there. I'm not sure if there's enough characters
<v Speaker 1>on the YouTube poll question thing to fit the whole name.
<v Speaker 1>Your options are or no, we'll get the results. Four
<v Speaker 1>Game mess Mornings here on Giant Bomb tomorrow. Speaking of
<v Speaker 1>Giant Bomb, I should go click on this calendar here.
<v Speaker 1>All right, I have a meeting. You guys don't need
<v Speaker 1>to know about that. I have Blight Club at two
<v Speaker 1>pm Eastern today. That's when we're gonna be on next
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to be finishing up Jurassic Park Trustpasser. That's right,
<v Speaker 1>Antonio Morales? Are you the one that sent me this?
<v Speaker 1>I've been I'm playing a packaged up version of this
<v Speaker 1>game that actually is meant to run on Windows eleven.
<v Speaker 1>So I didn't get a physical version, so I just
<v Speaker 1>threw it out my computer computer. The community set this
<v Speaker 1>to me instead, and it's fun to have. I actually
<v Speaker 1>have the full instruction manual. Now, Matt, this is a
<v Speaker 1>hell of a game. Have you seen any of any
<v Speaker 1>of this Trust Passer? Were you around the first time
<v Speaker 1>when it came out? Were you playing it? Then?
<v Speaker 2>I have some research to do. And I remember the
<v Speaker 2>Sega Genesis version out of JP, but that's about it.
<v Speaker 1>This is this is one made by what's what chat?
<v Speaker 1>What's his name? The guy that made the Xbox Seamus Blackley,
<v Speaker 1>his his team, his team before that made this game,
<v Speaker 1>which is a physics simulator first person shooter from nineteen
<v Speaker 1>ninety eight. Is it Chat And it is bizarre because
<v Speaker 1>there's no animation system. They like have these like tree
<v Speaker 1>tree system that like each animal gets to decide how
<v Speaker 1>it moves on its own on its own, and the
<v Speaker 1>animals also have like hunger and anger systems, and you
<v Speaker 1>can pick up everything in the world. There was a
<v Speaker 1>section where I'm like looking for a key card and
<v Speaker 1>I went up to a trailer that they had set
<v Speaker 1>up in the park, and when I tried to open
<v Speaker 1>the door, the trailer tipped over because of the physics system,
<v Speaker 1>and that looked like I broke it, but that was
<v Speaker 1>actually part of a jumping puzzle that they had created.
<v Speaker 1>It is a weird game, and I'm kind of into it.
<v Speaker 1>I'm tuning in, Yes, make it happen, all right, that's Trespasser.
<v Speaker 1>Later today, everybody on Blake Club, all right, I think
<v Speaker 1>what we're gonna do now is say thank you to
<v Speaker 1>Matt Piscatella for hanging out with us and talking about
<v Speaker 1>video games. Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciate and thank you so much for having me
<v Speaker 2>on again.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, we'll make it happen again. Thank you everybody for
<v Speaker 1>watching and listening. You are the best audience in gaming.
<v Speaker 1>Until next time, have a good one, take care of
<v Speaker 1>yourself and goodbye.