Xbox's "AAAA" Perfect Dark Reboot Canceled

<v Speaker 1>Bad Buddy. Welcome to Gay Mess Mornings with Me Mike Minatti,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>Perfect Dark being canceled, Hell Divers Too is coming to Xbox,
<v Speaker 1>and they did our boy Romero Dirty. It's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>going because we have Aj Minatti on this show. Aj,
<v Speaker 1>how is it going? Thank you for joining me here.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it's uh, it's it's a day, you know, not
<v Speaker 2>too much to talk about, so we'll fill the air somehow,
<v Speaker 2>I guess.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, we'll figure it out. Uh, it's okay. You know,
<v Speaker 1>we had we had Kayla on yesterday. So I think
<v Speaker 1>it's just nepotism week.
<v Speaker 3>You're a giant Bomb unstrong, you're at a giant bump.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Having depotism the same week as Fourth of July seems
<v Speaker 1>fitting somehow. Actually, So let me get.
<v Speaker 2>In front of this right now. I did not make
<v Speaker 2>the Dead Dog Pog. That was the other brother.
<v Speaker 1>Oh the other probably did the Dead Dog Pog, which
<v Speaker 1>I hate to say, it has a ring to it.
<v Speaker 1>Terrible thing to say. Yeah, you saw a movie yesterday.
<v Speaker 1>Multiple times, You're like, all right, you're coming to the movie,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, no, I gotta work. I gotta admit,
<v Speaker 1>I have no idea what movie you were talking about.
<v Speaker 3>What did you see a Goofy movie?
<v Speaker 1>Oh? It was still that. Yeah, they're playing uh.
<v Speaker 2>Our second theater in town is doing a new classic
<v Speaker 2>every week. So I took the kids to see a
<v Speaker 2>Goofy movie and we had a grand old time.
<v Speaker 1>It still hit.
<v Speaker 3>Oh it hit very hard, very very hard.
<v Speaker 1>Did your whole family see eye to ee on it?
<v Speaker 2>Yes, we did, and we listened to each other's hearts.
<v Speaker 1>All right, that's good. Make a bunch of old movies there.
<v Speaker 1>I have to look at that schedule and figure it out.
<v Speaker 2>It's Independence Day this weekend. Shocking enough, but what people get?
<v Speaker 1>Madmy, I have never seen that movie.
<v Speaker 3>That's right, you haven't. I should.
<v Speaker 1>It was a scary movie because all they kept showing
<v Speaker 1>in the previews was them blowing up the White House,
<v Speaker 1>which now I find actually pretty uplifting, but at the time,
<v Speaker 1>let's terrified. Yeah, it seems like a really scary thing.
<v Speaker 1>So I don't know. I just assumed it was horror.
<v Speaker 1>Independence so I don't Yeah, maybe'll say you know, you
<v Speaker 1>know me, my preferred Fourth of July movie is usually
<v Speaker 1>either National Treasure or seventeen seventy six, the nineteen seventies
<v Speaker 1>musical about the signing of the Declaration of Independence with
<v Speaker 1>that guy from Boy Meet's World as John Adams. Yes, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's the stuff that hits. That's the stuff that really hits.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's get into things Before we do that,
<v Speaker 1>let's explain our So this is Giant Bomb, a small
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<v Speaker 1>Grub not me will help you piece your gaming life
<v Speaker 1>back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some
<v Speaker 1>of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll
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<v Speaker 1>You can also catch the show later on YouTube. Hello YouTube,
<v Speaker 1>We have a lot to get into it, so let's
<v Speaker 1>start the morning mess with xboxes Quadruple A Perfect Dark
<v Speaker 1>reboot canceled developer shutting down by Cameron Kosh at Games Spots,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox is Perfect Dark reboot, first announced in twenty twenty two,
<v Speaker 1>has been canceled this developer. The initiative is also shutting
<v Speaker 1>down Microsoft. That's confirmed, first reported by Windows Central and
<v Speaker 1>corroborated by Bloomberg Report Jacent Schreier. The cancelation of Perfect
<v Speaker 1>Dark and closing in the initiative come as part of
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft's latest round of layoffs, which are affecting an estimated
<v Speaker 1>four percent of the company's workforce. That translates to around
<v Speaker 1>nine thousand people losing their jobs, many of them across
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft's various gaming studios. The initiative was formed at twenty
<v Speaker 1>eighteen and based in Santa Monica. Built as a quadruple
<v Speaker 1>A studio, it was led by Formal Crystal Dynamic Studio
<v Speaker 1>had Daryl Gallagher and made up of developers Respawn, Bio,
<v Speaker 1>Our Naughty, Dugan Moore. Twenty twenty one, the initiative announced
<v Speaker 1>a partner with Crystal Dynamics, developer in the most recent
<v Speaker 1>tomb Rator games, to assist on the Perfect Dark reboot.
<v Speaker 1>Players got their first look at Perfect Dark game play
<v Speaker 1>in twenty twenty four as part of that year's Xbox
<v Speaker 1>Games Showcase, a trailer that I was really excited. I
<v Speaker 1>thought it looked great aj at least for me. This
<v Speaker 1>has maybe been the most shocking developments of all these
<v Speaker 1>terrible Xbox layoffs that have been happening since yesterday. Did
<v Speaker 1>this news catch you by surprise?
<v Speaker 3>Oh?
<v Speaker 2>Absolutely, I mean they've been hyping this game out. I'm surprised. Actually,
<v Speaker 2>it's only been since twenty twenty two is announced. It
<v Speaker 2>feels like it's been in the consciousness for a very
<v Speaker 2>long time. Yeah, it was a big part of last
<v Speaker 2>year's showcase. You know, they've been hyping out the initiative
<v Speaker 2>as this again this Quadruple A developer, which, boy, the
<v Speaker 2>Quadruple A games are just really hitting, Mike, aren't they not?
<v Speaker 1>Ves, don't ever call your project quadruple A. It is right?
<v Speaker 3>Is that just poison now? Finally?
<v Speaker 2>Can we stop doing that? But yeah, I mean the
<v Speaker 2>gameplay demo it was strong. There's been a lot of
<v Speaker 2>people wondering how genuine that was And there was a
<v Speaker 2>former level designer from the initiative who's now it's to
<v Speaker 2>do MDHR. I'm sorry I didn't write his name down,
<v Speaker 2>but he was one of the people who worked in
<v Speaker 2>that demo. They said it was genuine an engine gameplay.
<v Speaker 2>It's just like if you didn't kind of follow the
<v Speaker 2>script it wanted you to, it mostly work. But like
<v Speaker 2>obviously there was like an ideal way to play that
<v Speaker 2>demo for it to look at its best.
<v Speaker 3>Uh So, who knows how.
<v Speaker 2>You know, maybe these reports in the game not coming
<v Speaker 2>together are accurate, but boy, that feels like rampant mismanagement
<v Speaker 2>from every direction, right.
<v Speaker 1>So it's an embarrassment. It's such an embarrassment that I'm
<v Speaker 1>almost surprised they are willing to go through with it.
<v Speaker 1>And uh take that l as it were, because you know,
<v Speaker 1>you you talk this studio up like crazy. You promoted
<v Speaker 1>this game a good amount until it was suddenly you know,
<v Speaker 1>it was odd that it was absent from their showcase
<v Speaker 1>just a month ago, but you know they're bringing back
<v Speaker 1>a big ip. You have all these people on you
<v Speaker 1>even have Crystal Dynamics. They're helping and probably not great
<v Speaker 1>news for Crystal Dynamics, which can use the work at
<v Speaker 1>the moment. So yeah, it's it's it's embarrassing. Uh, it's
<v Speaker 1>evil because of you know, the people who are losing
<v Speaker 1>their jobs. It is awful all around. It's a game
<v Speaker 1>that I was looking forward to. Least importantly is that
<v Speaker 1>I wanted to play this video game. Now that's not
<v Speaker 1>going to happen, because it was you know, it looked
<v Speaker 1>like it had some mirrors edge, DNA n it. I
<v Speaker 1>was getting excited about that just a Really it's it's
<v Speaker 1>if the decision happened because they thought they couldn't salvage
<v Speaker 1>the game. The shape on them for letting it get there.
<v Speaker 2>For sure, you know you again, the game already had
<v Speaker 2>all this baggage with the whole quadruple. I think like, like,
<v Speaker 2>there's this expectation it's got to be this big, bombastic
<v Speaker 2>thing that's going to carry the platform, and even that,
<v Speaker 2>like you know, since this game was announced, the idea
<v Speaker 2>of the Xbox platform is radically shifted, so like it's
<v Speaker 2>just like what are we what are we doing here?
<v Speaker 2>Like like everyone says like, oh, Xbox doesn't have an
<v Speaker 2>identity anymore. And then they they released a string of
<v Speaker 2>really good games in the beginning this year, we're like, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>they're finding a groove, and like it feels like every
<v Speaker 2>time that happens with x every time things seem like
<v Speaker 2>they're fixing themselves, the rug gets pulled out from under
<v Speaker 2>the whole thing with something like this, Whereas it's like,
<v Speaker 2>it doesn't feel good to be an Xbox fan right now.
<v Speaker 1>Right No, I kind of almost can't imagine it, you're
<v Speaker 1>cause I think people were just getting used to Okay,
<v Speaker 1>no more exclusives, that's all right, and going board with that.
<v Speaker 1>They actually had a pretty good showcase last month, despite
<v Speaker 1>some honest with the absence of Perfect Dark and other
<v Speaker 1>projects like Fable. We didn't hear anything really much about
<v Speaker 1>that game or its studios, so presumably they're fine. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox is just in a stuper strange place. Nobody feels
<v Speaker 1>good about them right now now. You know, I almost
<v Speaker 1>hate saying it, Like they can recover from that they
<v Speaker 1>kind of have before. Maybe this is going to be
<v Speaker 1>the straw that breaks the camel's back for a lot
<v Speaker 1>of people. I'm almost like cynically skeptical of that, like
<v Speaker 1>they can bounce back. I don't know if they deserve
<v Speaker 1>to bounce back, but they can. One more thing here
<v Speaker 1>to report from shortly before the debut of Perfect Or
<v Speaker 1>Escape Bay Trailer, saying that the reboot of the spy
<v Speaker 1>Ps was in bad shape, that the project hadn't really
<v Speaker 1>come together despite Crystal Dynamics being brought in to help development.
<v Speaker 1>The report that Game Spots referring to here was from
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Grubb. I remember at the time many people were
<v Speaker 1>very mad at him or said he was he was
<v Speaker 1>wrong about that. Jeff is usually not the person going
<v Speaker 1>to do this thing, But uh, I will you all
<v Speaker 1>need to stop doubting my boy Grub. He is just
<v Speaker 1>about always right all the things it's about, always right.
<v Speaker 1>So uh, you know, nobody's going to ecrow on that,
<v Speaker 1>and you know obviously not. I don't want me to
<v Speaker 1>do what I told you so thinking about something so terrible,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, stop uh stop yelling at Jeff for being right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah all right.
<v Speaker 1>Below next up here is Banjo KAZOOI see of the
<v Speaker 1>director leaves Rare after thirty five years following the Everwild cancelation.
<v Speaker 1>This is by Andy Robinson at VGC. Greg Males, Rare's
<v Speaker 1>most experienced and influential game designer will leave the company
<v Speaker 1>after more than thirty five years, sources have told VGC.
<v Speaker 1>According to multiple people at the studio who spoke to
<v Speaker 1>VGC anonymously, Males will leave Rare following news of Everwild's
<v Speaker 1>cancelation on Wednesday. The designer had been directing the project
<v Speaker 1>since the team was restructured in twenty twenty one. Coin
<v Speaker 1>to the sources, executive producer Louis O'Connor, another Rare veteran
<v Speaker 1>whose first project was Congress bat Furday for An ten
<v Speaker 1>sixty four, also leave the company following Everwild's cancelation. Males
<v Speaker 1>was one of Rare's earliest design hires, with this first
<v Speaker 1>credited game, Solar Jetman, releasing in nineteen ninety. Everwild was
<v Speaker 1>a perhaps a predictable casualty.
<v Speaker 3>From all I'd surprised, but it's.
<v Speaker 1>Still like, what are we doing here? How are we
<v Speaker 1>not you know, helping get these things together or at
<v Speaker 1>least finding something else to do for a respected important
<v Speaker 1>veteran like reg Males, to keep them happy or keep
<v Speaker 1>them with the company again. Thirty five years, you know,
<v Speaker 1>you know, worked on all these important games, including you know,
<v Speaker 1>Banjo KAZUOI, an ip that everybody. You know, maybe they
<v Speaker 1>have market research we don't have. That's like, actually nobody
<v Speaker 1>would does care about Benja Kazuoi. It's for me, it
<v Speaker 1>seems like people would care about that. If people popped
<v Speaker 1>off for remakes of crash Bit, it couldn't in Spiral.
<v Speaker 1>I think they would pop off for Banjo Kazuoi, so
<v Speaker 1>we could at least do something over there. Are you
<v Speaker 1>worried about Rare?
<v Speaker 3>I'm not worried about Rare itself.
<v Speaker 2>I think C A Thieves is still kind of sustainable,
<v Speaker 2>and I don't know what else they have cooking there.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think like Rare is gonna go away, but
<v Speaker 2>it's not great for their future prospect of making like
<v Speaker 2>a big new game. I guess, you know, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>maybe they live in that double Find space, so they're
<v Speaker 2>making like these smaller double A kind of games. I
<v Speaker 2>think that's fine. It's just again, it seems like every
<v Speaker 2>time this has with Microsoft, the the excuse they kind
<v Speaker 2>of give sometimes is, you know, we were two hands
<v Speaker 2>off and we need to be more involved with these studios,
<v Speaker 2>but like they never seem to actually do that. Like again,
<v Speaker 2>it's like ever while didn't come together because the studio
<v Speaker 2>was two hands off and Perfect Dark wasn't coming together
<v Speaker 2>because we were leaving the initiative alone. Like I don't know,
<v Speaker 2>get in there, like support these studios they're not getting
<v Speaker 2>support clearly like that that is I think abundantly clear
<v Speaker 2>from all this. You know, I don't think it's your rundown.
<v Speaker 2>But like a Max Online also had staff reductions and
<v Speaker 2>a in development NML get canceled, which apparently, from the
<v Speaker 2>reporting I saw in the leaks, was actually coming together
<v Speaker 2>very well. So why is that gone? It's just I
<v Speaker 2>don't get it. It's just it's frustrating because it is
<v Speaker 2>such blatant mismanagement issues. It doesn't sound like any of
<v Speaker 2>these games were where the faults of the people making them,
<v Speaker 2>but they're the ones suffering the consequence.
<v Speaker 1>That's about Zen Max. We talked about a little bit yesterday,
<v Speaker 1>I think. But yeah, they had an MMO apparently it's
<v Speaker 1>going to be something more sci fi E and that
<v Speaker 1>got canceled.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>You know, some people were saying that the game was
<v Speaker 1>uh looking like it's gonna be something special. We will
<v Speaker 1>never know. And again, I just don't know how much
<v Speaker 1>more O juice there is there. I think I may
<v Speaker 1>be a little bit more worry than you are, maybe
<v Speaker 1>just pessimistic with everything. But yeah, I see if he's
<v Speaker 1>probably has some juice for a while. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>if it has forever juice, like a world of nothing.
<v Speaker 2>I think I think they'll have something come out. It's
<v Speaker 2>not going to be as big as you know, even
<v Speaker 2>even a band of Kazooi might be too big at
<v Speaker 2>this point, but I think they'll have another Sea of
<v Speaker 2>Thieves esque thing to happen.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, yeah, I hope so, because you know, closing
<v Speaker 1>down the initiative is one thing. Uh, if Xbox really
<v Speaker 1>wants to lose any goodwill that they could possibly have left,
<v Speaker 1>I dare you shut down Rare? Because holy crap, would
<v Speaker 1>that be a terrible thing and a terrible look. Right,
<v Speaker 1>And we talked about EA just closing down Beloved Studios.
<v Speaker 1>If you somehow bungle Rare and have to just close
<v Speaker 1>that thing down, you are going to be rightfully and
<v Speaker 1>heavily disliked. Yeah, yeah, no, good, all right. John Romero's
<v Speaker 1>next FPS has lost funding in the wake of Microsoft cuts.
<v Speaker 1>This is from Jordan Miller VGC. Romero Games has announced
<v Speaker 1>that its next unannounced project has lost funding, with a
<v Speaker 1>now extra Marrow Games of Play, claiming it was due
<v Speaker 1>to this week's Microsoft cuts. A statement from Brenda Romero
<v Speaker 1>Studio announced that last night we learned that our publisher
<v Speaker 1>has canceled Funny from our game, along with several other
<v Speaker 1>unannounced projects at other studios. This was a strategic decision
<v Speaker 1>made at a high level within the publisher, well above
<v Speaker 1>our our visibility or control. We deeply wish there had
<v Speaker 1>been something, anything, we could have done to prevent this
<v Speaker 1>outcome of Romero Games. Employee has claimed the whole studios
<v Speaker 1>being what goes result of Microsoft cuts, with many advertising
<v Speaker 1>on link in LinkedIn that they've lost their jobs. Romeo
<v Speaker 1>Games is based in Galway, Ireland. The team, which included
<v Speaker 1>over seventy five developers in twenty twenty four, hadn't fully
<v Speaker 1>revealed his next project beyond the fact that it was
<v Speaker 1>a first person shooter made an Unreal Engine five. I know,
<v Speaker 1>we have our fun with Romero around here, with Dakatanadka Grebba,
<v Speaker 1>whatever the heck we were calling that, But I you know,
<v Speaker 1>this is just another pretty massive hits. This is a
<v Speaker 1>lot of people suddenly out of work, and you know,
<v Speaker 1>I find it unsettling in a lot of ways, like yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Daikatana hahaha. But John Romero made Doom right, just like
<v Speaker 1>one of the most important game designers ever. Here's somebody
<v Speaker 1>who just can't get this next game made or can't
<v Speaker 1>get a studio to work. I would have liked to
<v Speaker 1>see what a quote unquote modern John Romero FPS looked
<v Speaker 1>like it was going to be something more.
<v Speaker 3>So it's so marketable the olds.
<v Speaker 1>Like us, but you know you could do something with that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, absolutely, you can't. Like again, it's it's it's just
<v Speaker 2>what do they want us to feel right now?
<v Speaker 3>And here's the issue. I'll get into this real quick.
<v Speaker 2>Microsoft is a company, Microsoft the capital and above Xbox
<v Speaker 2>decided that rather than sell video games to people like
<v Speaker 2>us to make millions, they're funneling this money into AI developments.
<v Speaker 2>They could sell it to other companies and make billions.
<v Speaker 2>Like That's really what this is about.
<v Speaker 1>That's the strategic shift happening here.
<v Speaker 2>Great, yes, and so as much as like we're upset,
<v Speaker 2>they don't care like we're like again Phil's statement that
<v Speaker 2>he put out about oh, we're actually in great shape
<v Speaker 2>and making all these games, and this is that's not
<v Speaker 2>for us, that's for investors.
<v Speaker 3>It doesn't matter.
<v Speaker 2>You know, if they sell a few fewer video games,
<v Speaker 2>but they sell a SHINE contract to health insurer to
<v Speaker 2>use AI to process claims, they're gonna make millions of dollars.
<v Speaker 3>That's what this is about.
<v Speaker 1>To imagine that whatever Romero Games was working on with
<v Speaker 1>seventy five developers, I bet it was going to be
<v Speaker 1>a mid sized kind of you know, classic shooter experience thing.
<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine it was going to be the most
<v Speaker 1>expensive thing in the world. This is a company that
<v Speaker 1>is literally worth brillions, brillions of dollars. It is disgusting
<v Speaker 1>and im moral how much money this one company has.
<v Speaker 1>You know, they went around, they went acquiring all these
<v Speaker 1>people and making all these deals. That's the other thing, too, right,
<v Speaker 1>because when we were there doing that, the big concern,
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure there are other people saying, oh, they might
<v Speaker 1>just shut everything down if they pivot. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>everyone's like, oh, no, they're gonna have a monopoly, right,
<v Speaker 1>Like we thought that because they're going to bring in
<v Speaker 1>all this money from Call of Duty and king and.
<v Speaker 3>Now insteady for everything.
<v Speaker 1>Well, yeah, it's like they got all that money and
<v Speaker 1>when they're cutting jobs at King and they're cutting jobs
<v Speaker 1>at Raven who works on call of.
<v Speaker 3>Duty, right, like what we're doing? So what was the
<v Speaker 3>point of all that?
<v Speaker 1>What was the point of all that? Yeah, it's deeply frustrating.
<v Speaker 1>And again, John Romero, we joke is a legend is
<v Speaker 1>incredibly iportant to the game industry, and it's sort of
<v Speaker 1>distressing that they just, you know, their game could just
<v Speaker 1>get canceled like that and almost kind of like in
<v Speaker 1>the background amongst a lot of the bigger moves happening
<v Speaker 1>as far as but it's just a good reminder like
<v Speaker 1>this is these cutbacks are going to affect so many
<v Speaker 1>people because it's not like, you know, Xbox own this
<v Speaker 1>studio but your yeah, exactly. But if you're a smaller
<v Speaker 1>studio and your one game is being funded by Xbox
<v Speaker 1>and they cut the funding funding, then you're done. That's it,
<v Speaker 1>You're over all right. Neil Truckman pulls back from the
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us show to focus on Naughty Dog Games.
<v Speaker 1>This is by Dean Takahashia Games Beat. Neil Truckman, the
<v Speaker 1>co creator of the Last of Us show on HBO,
<v Speaker 1>is pointing back from the show's production to focus on
<v Speaker 1>naty Dog Games. In a note to the job Naughty
<v Speaker 1>Dog community, Druckman said, I made the difficult decision to
<v Speaker 1>step away from my creative involvement in the Last of
<v Speaker 1>Us on HBO with work completed on season two before
<v Speaker 1>any meaningful work starts on season three. Now is the
<v Speaker 1>time for me to transition my complete focus to Naughty
<v Speaker 1>Dog and its future projects. Those tests include writing and
<v Speaker 1>directing for the next game Intergalactic, the Heretic Profit, along
<v Speaker 1>with his responsibilities in studio head and head of Creative Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I mean that's a pretty big job right there. It's
<v Speaker 1>kind of wild to be super heavily involved with a
<v Speaker 1>TV show as long as he was. But I imagine that
<v Speaker 1>there's not too much more and but he can really
<v Speaker 1>give at this point. Have you watched the Last of
<v Speaker 1>Us shows? You're not like me? You don't think all
<v Speaker 1>TV is completely mid.
<v Speaker 2>No, I actually am like I've watched very little TV. Okay,
<v Speaker 2>I'm not a huge Last of Us person either, But
<v Speaker 2>I didn't you think the format of this was weird?
<v Speaker 2>Like it was posted like these apology screenshot text things
<v Speaker 2>that always come up with like a game's canceled or something.
<v Speaker 2>It was like a weird humble bragging away like, I'm
<v Speaker 2>just so busy making these award winning games. I just
<v Speaker 2>can't work on Pristige's television anymore.
<v Speaker 3>I'm too busy.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, now that you mentioned it, now you
<v Speaker 1>mentioned it, Yeah, it's a little obnoxious to the bust.
<v Speaker 1>It is like to me, it does not seem that
<v Speaker 1>important that you're not consulting on season three of the
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us TV show anymore.
<v Speaker 3>You know, like this in an who cares?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, go oh, I have to go back and do
<v Speaker 2>my job now, Okay, cool, I do that every day.
<v Speaker 1>Right, I mean, frankly, I mean, I don't know. I
<v Speaker 1>can't speak for other people. Made for him working on
<v Speaker 1>the TV shows, we're exciting. I'd imagine getting to work
<v Speaker 1>on Intergalactic to herit to profit and running all of
<v Speaker 1>Naughty Dog would be a pretty good gig. I think
<v Speaker 1>that would be a pretty good give. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's all pretty rote for him now. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>The impression I was getting was kind of, you know,
<v Speaker 1>Colm's kind of the games itself. Last of Less season
<v Speaker 1>two was a bit more divisive than that first season.
<v Speaker 1>I think the format off all of it was also like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, we did the l focus stuff here and
<v Speaker 1>then next season is going to be the the abby stuff, which, uh,
<v Speaker 1>you know, I imagine the divisiveness will continue. I'm not
<v Speaker 1>saying he's getting out while the getting's good or anything
<v Speaker 1>like that, but let's be honest. You say we're adapting
<v Speaker 1>all of the Last of Us to a TV show, Like,
<v Speaker 1>what do you think is the part of that everyone's
<v Speaker 1>gonna care about? It's gonna be the first season with
<v Speaker 1>Joel and Ellie.
<v Speaker 3>Didn't Pedro Pascal like diss him or something.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, there's also the embarrassing thing there, something about like
<v Speaker 1>do you care about art? He said that's something which
<v Speaker 1>seemed embarrassing. I don't know, but yeah, other projects too,
<v Speaker 1>like that probably has to include some version of The
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us Part three in one shape or form.
<v Speaker 2>And didn't they say they have another game cooking besides Intergalactic.
<v Speaker 2>They just aren't ready to announce that, right, They are
<v Speaker 2>working on something.
<v Speaker 1>And I know I used to be like, oh, maybe
<v Speaker 1>they won't make one, considering how many times they have
<v Speaker 1>re released things called The Last of Us and how
<v Speaker 1>much money that's making, and how proud they still are
<v Speaker 1>of their Prestige TV show. I think we are all
<v Speaker 1>going to get a Last of Us Part three. I
<v Speaker 1>bet it'll be even more depressing in pain inducing than
<v Speaker 1>ANYO series. I'm sorry, I guess I'm throwing. I used
<v Speaker 1>to like the Last of Us. What's Happened? I liked
<v Speaker 1>Last of Us Part one. Boy, halfway through two was
<v Speaker 1>I just completely ran it? Be ten hours into that game,
<v Speaker 1>and I'll say by line again, I get tired of
<v Speaker 1>those miserable people and their miserable problems. All right here, Actually,
<v Speaker 1>when don't we take a break right now? About halfway
<v Speaker 1>through the news you can all if you're watching live
<v Speaker 1>or certain places you're going to see an ad you'll
<v Speaker 1>get your dose of Jeff Grub there. So yeah, say
<v Speaker 1>hi to Jeff. We'll be right back everybody.
<v Speaker 4>This episode of Giant Bomb is brought to you by
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<v Speaker 4>Slash join become a member. Now all right, we're back
<v Speaker 4>to you chat. I saw all of you saying hi
<v Speaker 4>to Jeff Grub over there. Very nice of you, and
<v Speaker 4>I hope, I hope he's doing well on his trip.
<v Speaker 4>I believe he will be back on Monday.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just guessing. I suppose, like, who's not back on
<v Speaker 1>the Monday after a vacation?
<v Speaker 3>Right?
<v Speaker 1>Actually that was me, but that was mostly because that
<v Speaker 1>was because I got Look alike, were you shocked when
<v Speaker 1>you got that text from me saying I gotten mixed up? There?
<v Speaker 2>No, The funny thing is you you will originally asked
<v Speaker 2>me to pick you up from the airport, and so
<v Speaker 2>you went at the drive and I couldn't because I
<v Speaker 2>couldn't pick you up in the morning.
<v Speaker 3>I could have picked you up in the evening, Mike.
<v Speaker 1>That would have been cool. I wonder I've had to
<v Speaker 1>drim and tune from the airport. That would have been nice. Actually, shoot,
<v Speaker 1>that's all right, I got to go write et so yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's that's the frustration.
<v Speaker 2>You screw that up and you're ward is a half
<v Speaker 2>day Universal Studios.
<v Speaker 1>I'll never learn.
<v Speaker 3>I'll never learn.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of maybe never learning, Mind's I dev's UK workforce,
<v Speaker 1>around three hundred received at risk emails, as former GTA
<v Speaker 1>lead Lensley Benzi's finally addresses staff. This is from Leslie
<v Speaker 1>Ianpool at IGN. Build a Rocket Boy, the Edinburgh, Scotland
<v Speaker 1>based developer of Mind's Eye, has issued at risk emails
<v Speaker 1>to its around three hundred strong UK workforce following the
<v Speaker 1>disastrous launch of the game. Sources familiar with the goings
<v Speaker 1>on inside the Embattle studio told IGN at risk emails
<v Speaker 1>were also sent out to staff at PlayFusion, which Build
<v Speaker 1>a Rockaboy acquired in late twenty twenty four. PlayFusion, who
<v Speaker 1>CEO Mark Gerhard became co CEO of Build a Rocket
<v Speaker 1>Boy as part of the buyout, is working on a
<v Speaker 1>different game, a fast paced FBS called a Send It,
<v Speaker 1>which was meant to come out this year. Last month,
<v Speaker 1>IgM reported that Build a Roca Boy begun a redundancy
<v Speaker 1>process following the release of Mind's I. Standard forty five
<v Speaker 1>day consult consultation process kicked off on June twenty third, which,
<v Speaker 1>according to the UK law, is triggered when an employer
<v Speaker 1>proposes one hundred or more redundancies within a ninety day period.
<v Speaker 1>IGN understands Built a Rocketboy currently has around three hundred
<v Speaker 1>ukme boys, with two hundred a broad on Steam, which
<v Speaker 1>does not paint the whole picture of mindzi current popularity.
<v Speaker 1>The game hit a peak concurrent player count of three
<v Speaker 1>three hundred and two on launch, but had a twenty
<v Speaker 1>four hour peak of just forty six players the time
<v Speaker 1>this article's publication. Twenty six people were playing on Steam
<v Speaker 1>or Mindsei has a mostly negative user rating. Meanwhile, Build
<v Speaker 1>a Rocket Boy sources toward IGN that Benzi's finally addressed
<v Speaker 1>staff following the release of Mind's Eye in a brief
<v Speaker 1>video call yesterday July second. According to two people presidents
<v Speaker 1>who I thought to be named in order to protect
<v Speaker 1>their careers, Benzi's insisted Build a Rocket Boy would bounce
<v Speaker 1>back and relaunch my blaming the studio and game struggles
<v Speaker 1>on internal and external saboteurs, among other things, Oh my god, cool,
<v Speaker 1>what the absolute hell loser behavior? Oh my god, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's just it's just so delusional. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>I guess, I guess going to him that I'm among
<v Speaker 1>the saboteurs here.
<v Speaker 3>But no one likes the game.
<v Speaker 1>No one likes you just don't see it, like.
<v Speaker 2>Like like I think you, I think you and talked
<v Speaker 2>about this before, Like what what what is there to fix?
<v Speaker 3>There's nothing there. There's no substance to this game.
<v Speaker 1>No, it's not it's not what you do.
<v Speaker 3>To it, relaunch it.
<v Speaker 1>It's not like Cyberpunk, where like it's mostly bugs and
<v Speaker 1>like performance is the issue. There's nothing here. The best
<v Speaker 1>part about the game is a bug when you hit
<v Speaker 1>that guy and he turns into spaghetti. So fixing that
<v Speaker 1>your game's actually gonna be even worse worse. Yeah, Benze
<v Speaker 1>just sounds like an absolute loser. If one just for
<v Speaker 1>saying that the reason only twenty six people are playing
<v Speaker 1>your game on Steam right now is because of like
<v Speaker 1>the deep or something like. Either you believe that or
<v Speaker 1>you're just saying it in either way, absolutely pathetic, unhinge, right,
<v Speaker 1>But you know, and it sucks because there are you know,
<v Speaker 1>over three hundred people who depend on this person's leadership.
<v Speaker 2>I am firing up my resume if I'm one of
<v Speaker 2>those people.
<v Speaker 1>What the heck right, it just does not sound good.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I mean you're completely you completely discount the
<v Speaker 1>possibility of a mind's eye bounce back.
<v Speaker 3>No, that's ridiculous.
<v Speaker 2>Relaunch it with again with what what are you gonna
<v Speaker 2>do to that game? The fact that he is so
<v Speaker 2>unwilling to take any accountability for this game they put out,
<v Speaker 2>and instead of saying, okay, like let's learn from this
<v Speaker 2>move on, you're like digging in your heels like no,
<v Speaker 2>this is the game, Like these these these people can't
<v Speaker 2>see how good it is because we're being internal saboteurs.
<v Speaker 3>What internal saboteurs are you talking about? That?
<v Speaker 1>That's a classic that's a classic move right. So it's
<v Speaker 1>not just the press, but there's people within the studio
<v Speaker 1>and they're leaking to the press and they're somehow they're
<v Speaker 1>a big part of the problem.
<v Speaker 2>Like the game's out, like there's no hiding anything now
<v Speaker 2>it's out. People played it, they said it's bad, Like
<v Speaker 2>what do you want?
<v Speaker 1>No, don't know. It's just one of the most obvious. Again,
<v Speaker 1>like this game's like average scores in the thirties. I
<v Speaker 1>think like that's something like like like what are we
<v Speaker 1>talking about here? Like the saboteurs have gotten the score
<v Speaker 1>down amongst all these publications that that low or you know,
<v Speaker 1>he's blaming freaking Take two before, right, because they're so
<v Speaker 1>afraid they're going after it. Yeah, it is just absolutely wild.
<v Speaker 1>I just can't imagine there's any future for Mind's Eye.
<v Speaker 1>I can't imagine there's a future for Build a Rocket Boy,
<v Speaker 1>And there shouldn't be a future in the gaming industry
<v Speaker 1>for Leslie Benzi's after this embarrassing.
<v Speaker 2>He'll he'll find another studio in five years and at
<v Speaker 2>least another mediocre game and blame everybody when it doesn't work.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know, right, like what.
<v Speaker 2>Jeff just said. What if he's right though? What there
<v Speaker 2>actually our internal and external septoy.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah we don't believe well we have egg on our face, right, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you're right, though, he's going to become a consultant or
<v Speaker 1>an investors or something embarrassing like that. I don't know,
<v Speaker 1>and it's somehow he'll probably be fine. I don't know
<v Speaker 1>about the three hundred employees who got Tiken flour ride
<v Speaker 1>on this whole Minds Eye experiment. Thank you, Massive Placeation
<v Speaker 1>five hit Hell Divers two is coming to Xbox this
<v Speaker 1>August as console exclusivity wall comes down. This is from
<v Speaker 1>Ethan gotchak Otaku. Hell Divers two is breaking it's places
<v Speaker 1>five console exclusivity and coming to Xbox Series x luss
<v Speaker 1>in August. Gotta hate that name, cauld I. You know what,
<v Speaker 1>it's a kind of a bad day. You know, we're
<v Speaker 1>all talking about how we feel with Xbox God, I
<v Speaker 1>hate that Xbox Series x es day about other people
<v Speaker 1>have said it. It's always been a terrible name. Xbox
<v Speaker 1>One was not a great name either, What the hell? Anyways,
<v Speaker 1>fans have long called get them. Fans have long called
<v Speaker 1>for the hit Extraction shooter to be available on every platform,
<v Speaker 1>and in a shocking twist, the Sony published blockbuster is obliging.
<v Speaker 1>It's another major crack in the vestiges of console exclusivity
<v Speaker 1>and falls in this footsteps of MLB the show. You
<v Speaker 1>asked for more dudes, We're sending more dudes. Arrowhead Game
<v Speaker 1>Studios Chief creative officer, Jordan.
<v Speaker 3>Boy Johan, excuse me, oh god.
<v Speaker 1>I missed that part. You're right, Johann, I was worried
<v Speaker 1>about the last name I said, Jordan Saily says, Johan, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>will you do the last name. Then you got this,
<v Speaker 1>uh pistead, I think that's actually right, said during a
<v Speaker 1>surprise live stream announcement on Thursday. For one and a
<v Speaker 1>half years, you've been fighting the enemies of democracy, and
<v Speaker 1>one of the requests that you've always had is for
<v Speaker 1>us to send more dudes. And the best way for
<v Speaker 1>us to be able to do that is to bring
<v Speaker 1>another platform into the fight. The game arise on Series
<v Speaker 1>X ands on August twenty six at forty dollars and
<v Speaker 1>is the first return exclusive from Sony since Microsoft started
<v Speaker 1>porting major first party games like cfths to its PlayStation rival.
<v Speaker 1>That also happens to be the same day that Gears
<v Speaker 1>of War reloaded brings the long running Xbox shooter franchise
<v Speaker 1>a PS five, suggesting the arms race between the two
<v Speaker 1>consolemakers is cooling as Microsoft pivots to primarily being a
<v Speaker 1>third party publisher. Kind of ye but yeah, yeah, so
<v Speaker 1>this is some good news today. Finally here, this game's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be available for more people. And yet, if you're
<v Speaker 1>making a live service game that depends on a high
<v Speaker 1>player count, yeah, hell divers too. I'm sure are still
<v Speaker 1>doing good. It's been doing well, but yeah, uh, you know,
<v Speaker 1>maybe the Xbox audience isn't big as of one was.
<v Speaker 1>But bring the game there, get more people in, make
<v Speaker 1>more money. Why not.
<v Speaker 2>Well, it has a reciprocal effect too, right, Like it
<v Speaker 2>comes down an Xbox and make it a big splashy thing.
<v Speaker 2>And then you know, maybe this I haven't on Steam,
<v Speaker 2>I haven't played in a while. Maybe this gets me
<v Speaker 2>to be like, oh, let me fire this back up again.
<v Speaker 2>You know, at any time you're in the news cycle
<v Speaker 2>like that, it's good. Uh. We haven't played much of
<v Speaker 2>this really since it's initial. At least I wonder what
<v Speaker 2>state it's in. I know, like there's there's a scenario
<v Speaker 2>back on Earth where it was being invaded.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, be willing to kind of ump jump back jump
<v Speaker 3>back in uh uh and check it out.
<v Speaker 1>My understanding is that it's been pretty good. I think
<v Speaker 1>people are joint schame bit so yeah. I mean I
<v Speaker 1>always liked playing it a lot. It's just you know,
<v Speaker 1>I haven't been in a position where I have like that,
<v Speaker 1>like I'm going to play this game with people three
<v Speaker 1>times a week sort of thing, which is kind of
<v Speaker 1>the mindset you maybe need to be in for a
<v Speaker 1>hell diverse too. But no, I liked it a lot,
<v Speaker 1>and it's kind of been you know, the ones Shining
<v Speaker 1>Beacon and a mostly failed effort from PlayStation to make
<v Speaker 1>live service games. It was an early success, so I
<v Speaker 1>mean this came out before Concord, right, that's how long ago.
<v Speaker 1>Now since then, they've been just kind of you know,
<v Speaker 1>canceling games or things have been struggling, like marathon things
<v Speaker 1>like that. So if you have a hit, you kind
<v Speaker 1>of need to squeeze as much water out of that
<v Speaker 1>thing as possible. It is still interesting because you know,
<v Speaker 1>we had MLB the show and yeah, that came to
<v Speaker 1>the platforms. That was mostly because the MLB was a joint.
<v Speaker 2>Public right, so Sony was not the publisher on that
<v Speaker 2>Xbox version was the MLB published it. So this is
<v Speaker 2>the first PlayStation published title on Xbox.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so that is interesting. And you know, like frankly,
<v Speaker 1>something like a marathon, like I don't think they say
<v Speaker 1>anything about that. That should just be everywhere it can be. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>hell Divers two on switch to that'd be cool.
<v Speaker 3>I mean it plays great on seam Deck.
<v Speaker 2>It runs at thirty fps on there, but it works
<v Speaker 2>very well if they could optimize it for sixty fs
<v Speaker 2>playback on a switch to.
<v Speaker 3>That'd be great.
<v Speaker 1>I would absolutely love to see it on the switch too.
<v Speaker 1>Are there any other PlayStation games that you think could
<v Speaker 1>show up on Xbox anytime soon? Or is this kind
<v Speaker 1>of just the one that made sense?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>I don't see them bringing like God of War to
<v Speaker 2>the Xbox, right, or even you know, Ghosts of Yota
<v Speaker 2>or anything like that. But I'm trying to think, like,
<v Speaker 2>what are the multiplayer things? I feel like these ones
<v Speaker 2>have been announced and haven't happened. But yeah, I mean, Marathon,
<v Speaker 2>I think absolutely should. If Concord were still a thing.
<v Speaker 3>It should.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe that would have I mean, that wouldn't have helped.
<v Speaker 1>Nothing would have helped Concord absolutely all right. Dying like
<v Speaker 1>developer Techlan, has reportedly canceled two games, is from Jordy
<v Speaker 1>Miller VGC. Dying like developer Techlan, has reportedly canceled multiple games.
<v Speaker 1>The Polish developer has reported losses of one hundred and
<v Speaker 1>thirty Polish currencies approximately thirty seven point thirty million. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>what did I say? One hundred and thirty million? I
<v Speaker 1>do that some time. I forgot the million number. I
<v Speaker 1>just say the number and not the million part.
<v Speaker 3>It's not important.
<v Speaker 1>It's about thirty seven point three million US dollars, according
<v Speaker 1>to Polish business outlet poles Binznu beni zoo uh. These
<v Speaker 1>losses have been attributed to our decision to discontinue further
<v Speaker 1>work on two projects. It's unclear which projects have been affected.
<v Speaker 1>BGC has asked Techlan for comment. In twenty twenty two,
<v Speaker 1>tech Lan announced that I was working on a new
<v Speaker 1>open world fantasy RPG. A few details were While a
<v Speaker 1>few details were known about the game, Techlan has announced
<v Speaker 1>that it had begun building a new team to helm
<v Speaker 1>the game, which included RPG veterans. The team responsible for
<v Speaker 1>the new IP included several former CD Project Red staff,
<v Speaker 1>including Open World director Bartas Auctionmen from Cyberpac twenty seventy
<v Speaker 1>seven and What's Your Three? Narrative director Carolina Stashaw from
<v Speaker 1>Whatcher two with Your Three? And narrative lead Arcadellas Barwick
<v Speaker 1>from WI Your two and WI You Three. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know why I included so many of these names here.
<v Speaker 1>I'm just setting myself up for so.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, this seems like a bummer, but I just
<v Speaker 1>can't imagine that Techlan can ride this dying light train forever.
<v Speaker 1>I know there's another new one coming out relatively soon here,
<v Speaker 1>Dying Like the Best supposed to come out this summer,
<v Speaker 1>but that was originally supposed to just be DLC for
<v Speaker 1>Dying Like Too, So they kind of you know, making
<v Speaker 1>its own thing. Sure, why not?
<v Speaker 2>I mean this feels tough, right because it feels like
<v Speaker 2>they were trying to branch from Dying Light.
<v Speaker 3>But maybe they like they went about the.
<v Speaker 2>Wrong way trying to spin up a whole new team
<v Speaker 2>instead of just taking the Dying Light team and having
<v Speaker 2>them make the next thing, Like they were afraid to
<v Speaker 2>leave Dying Light behind, so they tried to have their
<v Speaker 2>cake and eat it too. Maybe they needed to just
<v Speaker 2>make a clean break or put that series on pause
<v Speaker 2>while they did the next thing.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that's right. I mean I'm trying to like,
<v Speaker 1>they've been making games since nineteen ninety nine there, and
<v Speaker 1>it's finally when I look at it, the only other
<v Speaker 1>franchise I really recognize is I ever Dying Light. I mean,
<v Speaker 1>there's the original Dead Island, but they were the Call
<v Speaker 1>of War as people.
<v Speaker 3>Oh wow, I forgot about that. I like that game.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so they were involved mat but yeah, I definitely
<v Speaker 1>feel like some branching out here is going to be
<v Speaker 1>required if you're playing much of the dying like games.
<v Speaker 2>I think I played a little bit of the first one.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know if there's a demo or I rented
<v Speaker 2>it on console or something. I know i've touched it again.
<v Speaker 2>I have severe zombie burnout since The Walking Dead that
<v Speaker 2>I have not recovered from. So I just don't get
<v Speaker 2>into these games at all.
<v Speaker 1>You know, you know, I was never much of a
<v Speaker 1>zombie guy, so I never really played these, even though
<v Speaker 1>people always kind of compare them to Mirror's Edge and
<v Speaker 1>you know the time. Yeah, I like Parkour in my video.
<v Speaker 1>I like first person platforming. I'm a sick of at that.
<v Speaker 1>I even I liked Doomed the Dark Agents, but I
<v Speaker 1>kind of missed the first person platform I thought that
<v Speaker 1>was actually a positive aspect of that game, all right.
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft insists that Xbox Boss Phil Spencer isn't retiring anytime soon.
<v Speaker 1>In response to rumors following mass layoffs from Wesley Ian
<v Speaker 1>Pool at IGN, Microsoft has assisted the Xbox offtil Spencer
<v Speaker 1>isn't retiring anytime soon. Amid rumors around four percent or
<v Speaker 1>just over nine thousand staff were cut across Microsoft, and
<v Speaker 1>while the majority of those layoffs were outside the gaming business,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox studios were hit hard. Whereas Ever, while for examples
<v Speaker 1>canceled as was the Perfect Doug reboot, the initiative was
<v Speaker 1>closed amid the blood bath Call of Duty leaker at
<v Speaker 1>the Ghost of Hope, claimed Spencer, who has come under
<v Speaker 1>fire for the layoffs that have plagued Microsoft's gaming business
<v Speaker 1>ever since it's sixty nine billion dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard,
<v Speaker 1>was set to retire from his role as CEO after
<v Speaker 1>the launch of the next generation Xbox, with current Xbox
<v Speaker 1>President Sarah Bond said to take its place. However, Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>issue statements to press that suggests Bets will remain in
<v Speaker 1>his role for some time to come. Speaking to the Verge,
<v Speaker 1>Krrie Perez, head of Xbox Communications, said Phil is not
<v Speaker 1>retiring any time soon, should he.
<v Speaker 3>Aj feels like we're getting there, doesn't it. You know
<v Speaker 3>what what did Harvey Din't say? Mike?
<v Speaker 2>You either live the hero or die the hero, or
<v Speaker 2>live long enough to see yourself become the villain. And
<v Speaker 2>right does feel like we're shifting into that phase now, right.
<v Speaker 1>Although to be clear, I'm not saying it may not
<v Speaker 1>just be a matter of perception. I mean, look, Phil
<v Speaker 1>is a A A like O person, and he's nice
<v Speaker 1>individually to people, including to me. Right, He's given us
<v Speaker 1>access things like that, he talks to the press a
<v Speaker 1>lot more than most of his peers do. And yet
<v Speaker 1>you know, he's the boss h and all these things
<v Speaker 1>keep happening, and it seems like the whatever the plans are,
<v Speaker 1>which I assume are you know, his plans are, at
<v Speaker 1>least plans made above the side that he is executing,
<v Speaker 1>they don't quite work. We had this, uh you know,
<v Speaker 1>we had the Giant game Pass thing that was gonna
<v Speaker 1>pay for everything, and now we're barely even talking about
<v Speaker 1>game Pass anymore. It feels like we had all these
<v Speaker 1>acquisitions so that we can, you know, finally build enough
<v Speaker 1>studios so that they can compete against PlayStation and all
<v Speaker 1>their great exclusives, and that just never really happened. The
<v Speaker 1>Xbox series X and S, it just didn't really work.
<v Speaker 1>So like, at some point, when does when does leadership
<v Speaker 1>have to pay for this a little bit? When do
<v Speaker 1>they have to take responsibility for it? And also, you know,
<v Speaker 1>when when the bosses are saying, hey, you need to
<v Speaker 1>go cut around four percent of staff or whatever. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I'm ignorant of how much power he has there. BIKE
<v Speaker 1>assumed he could at least say no or say I'm
<v Speaker 1>going I'd rather resign than do that. I know that's
<v Speaker 1>a difficult decision, but at a certain point, maybe maybe
<v Speaker 1>pushback as hard as possible on nonsense.
<v Speaker 2>But that's the issue, right, Like what we see as
<v Speaker 2>a bad job and a failure, he's doing exactly what
<v Speaker 2>they want, right. Ass has said said you have to
<v Speaker 2>do this, and you're going to be the decision maker
<v Speaker 2>and take the heat, and he's willing to say okay,
<v Speaker 2>and he doesn't. So that's job security, that's him his role.
<v Speaker 1>No, I think you're absolutely right there. As far as
<v Speaker 1>the larger Microsoft leadership is concerned, they're probably very happy
<v Speaker 1>that he will mostly do but of course he has
<v Speaker 1>to do what they tell him to. But you know,
<v Speaker 1>it's just that's such a problem. In Sony world, being
<v Speaker 1>the head of PlayStation means more than being the head
<v Speaker 1>of Xbox does. In Microsoft world, PlayStation is just so
<v Speaker 1>much more important to a Sony than an Xbox is
<v Speaker 1>revenues wise to a Microsoft. But again, this is a
<v Speaker 1>company with literally trillions of dollars and they are just
<v Speaker 1>going out there and inflicting all this human suffering just
<v Speaker 1>to get that bottom line slightly higher. It's all about money,
<v Speaker 1>and it's freaking pathetic and disgusting. And look, I mean,
<v Speaker 1>Phil's been there a long time, right, It's been a
<v Speaker 1>long tenure, and if things aren't working out, I just
<v Speaker 1>don't really under a certain point, I don't understand why
<v Speaker 1>he needs to be in charge anymore. And frankly, I
<v Speaker 1>don't really I don't know if promoting somebody else from
<v Speaker 1>just that leadership team is going to make much of
<v Speaker 1>a difference there either. I don't think things are gonna
<v Speaker 1>suddenly change if Sarah Bond is in charge of Xbox.
<v Speaker 3>Needs be a shift.
<v Speaker 2>There needs to be a shift at the corporate level
<v Speaker 2>that that prioritizes Xbox. That's not there right now. I
<v Speaker 2>think Xbox makes enough money that they're happy with it.
<v Speaker 2>They're not going to get rid of it. But I
<v Speaker 2>don't think they see a reason to grow it any further,
<v Speaker 2>or they don't see an opportunity to grow it. So
<v Speaker 2>let's keep it, you know, profitable but manageable. Let's not
<v Speaker 2>invest into it because we'd rather again invest into AI and.
<v Speaker 3>Stuff like that, because that's where.
<v Speaker 2>The money is right now, and maybe two, three, five
<v Speaker 2>years from now, hopefully AI the bubble bursts on that
<v Speaker 2>they move to the next thing. Unless gaming somehow has
<v Speaker 2>some huge glow up where all of a sudden that's
<v Speaker 2>as marketable as something like an AI is right now,
<v Speaker 2>we're never going to get that, And that's why you
<v Speaker 2>know a company you sit sewing. But even Nintendo, like
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo is a game company, there is nothing above that,
<v Speaker 2>And in a weird way, that's why as a consumer,
<v Speaker 2>I guess I feel a little more confident in pouring
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo right now because they're not going anywhere like there's
<v Speaker 2>they're they're not feeding some some grotesque beasts behind the
<v Speaker 2>curtain in the name of making some video games, like
<v Speaker 2>that's what they do, So they're a little more comfortable
<v Speaker 2>right now. Just struggle Microsoft and Xbox has always had.
<v Speaker 2>It felt like maybe they're gonna start coming out of
<v Speaker 2>that with things like game Pass and these investments, all
<v Speaker 2>these studios, and the proof in the pudding has not
<v Speaker 2>been the case.
<v Speaker 1>It really does just make you wonder what the heck
<v Speaker 1>an Xbox is gonna look like in ten years Again,
<v Speaker 1>you assume that call of duty makes enough money that
<v Speaker 1>even the people at the top of Microsoft are happy
<v Speaker 1>to have that revenue stream things like candy Crush, Gay
<v Speaker 1>Pass still has to be some kind of passive income.
<v Speaker 1>I guess passive maybe isn't the world, but that has
<v Speaker 1>to be income. I know that it can't grow, but
<v Speaker 1>they also don't want to lose that revenue stream. You know,
<v Speaker 1>they're doing things to try to bring in an influx,
<v Speaker 1>and that means taking games to PlayStation other platforms. It
<v Speaker 1>means doing a bunch of layoffs. But what else, What next?
<v Speaker 1>If it's always got to you know, just be these
<v Speaker 1>big hits, these these big sudden drivers to increase the
<v Speaker 1>bottom line, you just keep going and going down that road.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, eventually you're gonna run out of tricks here.
<v Speaker 1>And I'm a little worried about what that's going to
<v Speaker 1>look like.
<v Speaker 2>You know, it's gonna be very telling. It's gonna be
<v Speaker 2>whatever happens with the next Halo, both what it looks like,
<v Speaker 2>what it looks like they put into it, and how
<v Speaker 2>it performs. If that doesn't work, like if it's not
<v Speaker 2>a rampant success, that's when I think things will start
<v Speaker 2>to radically shift downwards. If it does well, that's the
<v Speaker 2>crummy thing, right, If it does well, I think it
<v Speaker 2>just maintains the status quo. Like I don't think there's
<v Speaker 2>a growth to come from a new Halo, but I
<v Speaker 2>feel like if that doesn't work, then I think Microsoft
<v Speaker 2>loses to appetite even more than they already have.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, it's fine you say. It almost feels like
<v Speaker 1>in some sense we are here because people did not
<v Speaker 1>care about the last Halo. Really, yeah, true, true, Right,
<v Speaker 1>Like if Halo and it was maybe some big success
<v Speaker 1>and it drove a bunch of people to get an
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Series X and the by game Pass, maybe we
<v Speaker 1>aren't having all these weird conversations. So yep, I have here.
<v Speaker 3>It's your fault.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that's what it is.
<v Speaker 3>You who didn't play Halo, an actual good video game.
<v Speaker 1>It's not even three four three industries. It's Halo Studios
<v Speaker 1>now or something. I always forget that I see about that.
<v Speaker 1>What the heck is that?
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry?
<v Speaker 2>I did donche Edy and the adel and the chat
<v Speaker 2>metch that I found funny day, did you see this
<v Speaker 2>report that apparently e A thinks the next Battlefield will
<v Speaker 2>have one hundred million players.
<v Speaker 1>One hundred million players.
<v Speaker 2>Which is like three times more than the most successful
<v Speaker 2>Battlefield game has ever had.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah that serious has really been on the up and
<v Speaker 1>up lately Battlefield. Yeah, yeah, that's gonna work out really
<v Speaker 1>well for them.
<v Speaker 3>I bets.
<v Speaker 1>I bet that's gonna go great and there's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>no consequences of them not meeting expectations at EA, look
<v Speaker 1>at you, just because you are the villain this week. Look,
<v Speaker 1>we'll get to you.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, yeah, we haven't forgot.
<v Speaker 1>To calm the hell down. All right, Let's let's look
<v Speaker 1>at our poll from yesterday here while we figure out
<v Speaker 1>a new poll, because yesterday j I asked everybody would
<v Speaker 1>you have played an Outrider's sequel, apparently also recently canceled.
<v Speaker 1>Only thirty percent of people said yes. Seventy percent said no.
<v Speaker 1>I think you liked Outriders, right, aj I.
<v Speaker 2>Did like Outriders. You know, it's funny it came out
<v Speaker 2>at a time when it felt like there was a
<v Speaker 2>very strong sentiment against the churn of a lot of
<v Speaker 2>games of service and a live service game. So like
<v Speaker 2>the pitch was this that luter shooter you like, but
<v Speaker 2>like there's no season passes there's no constant grind for
<v Speaker 2>loot and gotcha's and all this stuff. And it was like, oh, okay,
<v Speaker 2>like this is what we want, right And it still
<v Speaker 2>didn't quite hit.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like, well, I.
<v Speaker 2>Don't know what these people want any more. Like you
<v Speaker 2>say you want one thing, we give you that you
<v Speaker 2>don't want it, we give up.
<v Speaker 3>So it's a bummer.
<v Speaker 1>I enjoyed that game, okay, I have to say I
<v Speaker 1>found its world and storytelling incredibly boring. I didn't really
<v Speaker 1>care about anything.
<v Speaker 3>It was a little bland in that card. The gameplay
<v Speaker 3>was good, though.
<v Speaker 1>I like the game play was relatively good. I mean, look,
<v Speaker 1>you like a good leader shooter.
<v Speaker 3>You were.
<v Speaker 1>You were an anthem defender. I'm sorry to say it.
<v Speaker 1>You were a huge anthem defender.
<v Speaker 3>Don't be sorry. I love anthem.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sorry for you, even if you have no shame.
<v Speaker 3>I do.
<v Speaker 1>It's embarrassing, all right. A new question is going to
<v Speaker 1>be should Phil Spencer still be in charge of Xbox?
<v Speaker 1>We'll let Jeff handle the results of that one.
<v Speaker 3>I should do.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I should almost do like a Jeff poll here,
<v Speaker 1>like did we did we really miss Jeff this week?
<v Speaker 3>Yes?
<v Speaker 2>Or no?
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, but no, no, no, we absolutely missed
<v Speaker 1>our boy Jeff, and I am going to be happy
<v Speaker 1>to see him back. This this warning shows are a
<v Speaker 1>lot of work. It turns out, agent.
<v Speaker 2>Well, this is early for you, Mike. It's still am.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I know right right, because I don't have a
<v Speaker 1>flight to catch or anything.
<v Speaker 3>Unless you were playing Miss, then it's.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, right right, So gosh speaking, I wish I am
<v Speaker 1>sad I didn't get to play miss this week because
<v Speaker 1>I missed my flight.
<v Speaker 3>Uh oh Like so some of the point is that
<v Speaker 3>you can play miss without Jeff with you, Jeff Jane
<v Speaker 3>gotta be gott to be playing with you.
<v Speaker 1>That it was gotually part like at first it was like,
<v Speaker 1>we can't do without Jeff. Jeffs like, of course you can,
<v Speaker 1>and I'm like, I don't want to do without Jeff.
<v Speaker 1>It's fun at me Jeff and Jan there, I think it's.
<v Speaker 3>See the universe righted that wrong for you?
<v Speaker 1>I know you're you. You were the miss guy. I
<v Speaker 1>always told people you, Oh, I.
<v Speaker 3>Love Missed, adorn Missed.
<v Speaker 2>So I'm very happy that you're playing, and I hope
<v Speaker 2>you get through Missed and Riven, I want you to
<v Speaker 2>play through all of them then we can play. We'll
<v Speaker 2>get a giant bomb community in Uru and the fan
<v Speaker 2>servers will be great.
<v Speaker 1>Just be on Missed. Your miss three is your big
<v Speaker 1>one from whatevery.
<v Speaker 2>That's my favorite. That's that's that can't hit so hard.
<v Speaker 2>I was in high school.
<v Speaker 1>Did you ever beat Missed five?
<v Speaker 3>No?
<v Speaker 2>You know, I fell off it. It is my my
<v Speaker 2>weird little streak of shame. And the reason I fell
<v Speaker 2>off it is because spoiler Atrus is dead in that one,
<v Speaker 2>and he's like, I like Atrus, Like I found that.
<v Speaker 3>I was like, oh, well.
<v Speaker 2>That kind of kills the vibe a little bit, like
<v Speaker 2>I don't like that. And yeah, weird mechanic with like
<v Speaker 2>drawing on these tablets.
<v Speaker 1>So I'm definitely gonna order it over you though. If
<v Speaker 1>I beat miss five before you do and I'm the reaing.
<v Speaker 3>I think I could.
<v Speaker 2>I could catch up if you if you're if you
<v Speaker 2>get to three, maybe playing five.
<v Speaker 1>I'll get back.
<v Speaker 3>All right.
<v Speaker 1>Uh, hey, we we've had some fun on the site.
<v Speaker 1>Yesterday I played through Guitar u Man on the Light
<v Speaker 1>Club with Dan and Kayla uh both cheering me on.
<v Speaker 1>Uh we didn't have that game, AJ, I think we
<v Speaker 1>might have it was a great game. I like that
<v Speaker 1>a lot. And then last night on Wednesday Evening Gaming
<v Speaker 1>got MIC's at night wegga man, I played Dune Awakening, which, uh,
<v Speaker 1>that was good stuff. I think you'd like that game
<v Speaker 1>quite a bit.
<v Speaker 2>Ye say, do I need do I need to finally
<v Speaker 2>check this out?
<v Speaker 1>Maybe we have a Giant Bomb serve on there. If
<v Speaker 1>you watch the stream you can find out where we're
<v Speaker 1>all playing that on. But yeah, you know, I haven't
<v Speaker 1>really played a lot of these survival MMO kind of things.
<v Speaker 1>I was having a very good time with that. The
<v Speaker 1>vibes were good. It feels good. There's a grappling hook
<v Speaker 1>and you have Breath of the Wild style climbing in it.
<v Speaker 1>So that stuff that's fun. Yeah, that stuff was all
<v Speaker 1>super fantastic. And we're not quite done with this week though.
<v Speaker 1>We still have a voicemail dump truck popping off later
<v Speaker 1>today at about eleven am Pacific, super Eye Patch Wolf
<v Speaker 1>joining us. Yes, yes, so I haven't actually met him yet.
<v Speaker 1>I think he's met everyone else on the team. He
<v Speaker 1>said some nice things about me on a video he
<v Speaker 1>did not too long ago when everything was going down
<v Speaker 1>with Giant Bomb, So I appreciate that makes excellent videos.
<v Speaker 1>I like his Simpson stuff quite a bit, so yeah,
<v Speaker 1>excited to see Super Eye Patch Wolf later to day.
<v Speaker 1>But that's about it. Ag Anything you would that you
<v Speaker 1>would like to promote.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, some of you may know that Mike and along
<v Speaker 2>with our brother Chris, do a Disney podcast called nineties
<v Speaker 2>Disney at nineties Disney dot com. We just had an
<v Speaker 2>episode come out about Muppet Treasure Island, which is a
<v Speaker 2>great movie that I hadn't seen in a while, but
<v Speaker 2>I really enjoyed kind of going back and visiting that.
<v Speaker 2>So you can go listen to that if you want
<v Speaker 2>to get your Disney and Muppet fixed.
<v Speaker 3>From the Minati brothers.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, yep, I always enjoy doing that show. We had
<v Speaker 1>a lot of fun with the Muppets there. I think
<v Speaker 1>we might do a Muppet movie rinking soon our August
<v Speaker 1>first episode. Every summer we do this thing where we
<v Speaker 1>recreate cocktails from the theme parks and we kind of
<v Speaker 1>have just a backyard cocktail party and we record that.
<v Speaker 1>That's always a very good time, So I'm looking forward
<v Speaker 1>to that for sure. All right, and with that we
<v Speaker 1>are out. Thank you to our guest. Thank you again.
<v Speaker 1>AJ really do appreciate. Do you want to shout out
<v Speaker 1>socials or anything.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm on Blue Sky mostly I'm at age guy
<v Speaker 2>on there and come say hi.
<v Speaker 1>All right, thank you for being the best orients in gaming.
<v Speaker 1>And until the next morning mess which render not tomorrow
<v Speaker 1>where we are off for the fourth so on Monday,
<v Speaker 1>have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.
<v Speaker 3>You'll be gon't be bad.