Game Mess Mornings 07/26/23

It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this for July twenty six, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so, let me help you sort through the world of gaming on gamess Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb. Today we have a ton of details about Armored Course six and it is once again the time of Shrek. But first please join me and welcome me today's co host the Games Mornings. It's Jane Choa on a Wednesday. Everybody, you're in luck, Jan, how are you doing? It's Wednesday? In it. I'm gonna go check on my cut peanut, and today the part of Lucy will be played by Jane Choa in the role of a lifetime Uh. Kirby, Frog here, Miss and Lucy there. They've been very busy. They went to Comic Con and then recovering from that, we got Jan in here. Uh. There is no Game Mess Mornings tomorrow or Friday or Monday, so last one for the week. So I'm glad we could make this happen. Jan. I appreciate you coming in and doing it, but yeah, how are you doing? Grub. I'm gonna take this opportunity to say that uh, well deserved time off. Thank you appreciate that. Also, I think I want to say that I love and support everyone and their hobbies, maybe accept some car people. Uh Like, are you talking about like the guys that like have like a beat a beater on their like lawn for like seven years or what are we talking about. That's loud muffler people. That's fine. I uh, I'm talking about car people that feel like they just want to start stuff, just to start stuff. I had an encounter last night. I thought I might have to get a little physical. Sure the person had backed up all the way and his bumper was on my bumper. I'm like, all right, dude, like I don't know, and he was in his car. I turn on my car and I was about to get out and be like, yo, can you move forward? But he preemptively got out of his car said why'd you bump my car? Man? Holy shit? Like, dude, I literally just started my car on. That's crazy exactly. He was hanging out his car. Anyway, we got into like a verbal spat. If I had to get physical, I was ready to throw down. And then and then he was like all right, man, whatever, he just gets in his car and then he speeds away, and he fished tails away, and I feel like he wanted to start this interaction just so he could speed off away in a huff and try to look cool. Yeah there, I definitely get that feeling in a lot of like a car what is it called road rage incidents? It's like people, It's like it's gotta be people looking for an outlet right there. They to be in a fight like that, because it is very easy to avoid getting angry on the road. Someone does something to you, You're flip them off, you yo at him, and then you move on with your life. It's like a real quick thing, exactly. Turn it like like amplifying it, and I take it to the next level. I'm almost like, I don't I don't get this. What are we doing here? Aren't you stuck? You're in your car. The only reason to be in your car, in my mind, is to get somewhere. Don't you still have someplace to be? Like, just go to that place and forget about this. I don't get it. I have no idea of grub. So some car people, a small portion of that hobby audience, I can't stand you. Yeah, yeah, I jan listen. I think I know you by this point, and I know that you would be ready to square off. It's America. Everyone has guns. Please be careful, Jan. That's what that's my thing thinking now is usually like God, I really would like to just beat this person up. I would like to get in a fight. That's what I want to do, but they probably have a gun, and so I don't. I don't get in up fight with them because I don't want to get shot. So yeah, don't get shot, Jan. That's my big thing here. That's all right, I'll I'll try. Thank you. Thank you for doing that for me. I appreciate it. Let's let's get into this mess. But before we do, let's explain what we do here most week days, I, Jeff Greb, will help peace your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you were watching live on twitch Welcome, you can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay, we have a lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess with Armored Core six preview round up. This comes from a whole bunch of stories from game Spot and destruct Doid. A couple others might have slipped in there, but it's mostly game Spot and Destructoid. Uh yeah, just shout out to all the coverage of those teams. Did uh. Let's start here. Armored Corps six Fires of Rubekan will feature multiple endings determined by players actions throughout the campaign. Players will act, I'm just gonna kind of go to the bullet points of these big things from these from these previous We're not going to dive into each of these ideas individually. Players will act as independent mercenaries and won't belong to any specific faction, but their decisions during the campaign will influence the mission and branching pass, leading to various endings. There's a lot of different endings, apparently. The game's director, Masaru Yamaimura, confirmed that they initially considered an open world approach, but decided against it to focus on the freedom of MECA assembly and customization. Speaking about the game will have a strong emphasis on mecha customization, with players being able to fine tune and swap out parts to suit their play style and adapt to different challenges. The game's combat will have elements inspired by Secro Shadows Die Twice, with a focus on highly dynamic and aggressive combats. While the game will have a pv P option, the main focus is still on the single player campaign, and the multiplayer mode is there to complement the single player experience. According to the developer, the game's developer put a lot of efforts effort into balancing mech assembly to make it impactful and affect the gameplay feel, not just for number crunching and men maxing. The customization options go beyond just mechanical parts, with the ability to customize the appearance of the mex, allowing players to bring their mech fantasies into the game. And boyd Jen, I have some mech fantasies. Let me tell you about me too, buddy. The game's story revolves around a corporate war for control of the planet Rubicon, and the designs of mech parts were influenced by the backgrounds and priorities of each corporation. Armor Course six will be fully supported on the Steam Deck and will be the first game in the series to have an official PC launch. As far as how long the game takes to complete, about twenty hours fifty hours for completionists. This game is out jan this month, August twenty five, which is Banana's bonkers to me because I just saw this thing in June. You know, they did a behind closed doors preview event, not an event, but they did a preview SGF and I saw it and it looked like a game. But I was just like, yeah, okay, cool, I'm sure I'm gonna hear about this a million more times before it actually comes out. It's like, no, no, no, it's out in a couple of months, and you're gonna hear about one one big more preview event and then it's gonna go. How are you feeling about Armacre six after all these previews, after all these previews and that stream they did yesterday, I'm very excited about it. I'm still a little bit hesitant, mostly because just the sheer volume of games, and then if folks listened to the BombCast yesterday, my status as a professional gamer has been attacked by one Bailey Myers. Just buriable nuts put into the ground but I'm in the same boat as you, Greb. I remember seeing that trailer. Was it the Game Awards or yeah that sounds right. Yes, I think I deleted the sentence I had to hear about where it was announced. I'm like, we won't need that information. Yeah, I didn't get the Game Awards. Yeah We're the weird weird kid popped up and it just seems like I thought this game was way further out. And then I remember you saying you had an appointment for it SGF, And now I have an Armored Cores six far as Rubicon little beach towel in my house. Yeah there is. Yeah, it's a so I mean, listen, I think that the bullet points we read off here about you know, the big things coming out of these previews mostly sound about right. The one that really gets it for me, jan is the secroro bit of this is I mean it is armored course like gameplay, like we keep saying that. Yeah, yeah, from software it's changed a lot. They definitely, and they have put in stuff. I'll say this every time. They put in stuff that reminds me of other from software games, mostly the repair kits being replenishable, like estus flasks and stuff. Things are they're not major things are going to affect the way it feels, but it's gonna like, oh yeah, we're just taking some of these elements from our games that we've done recently, and then you're gonna go play it and it's gonna be Armored Cores. But then then again, like, well, you know, we have learned a lot about combat. Where should we draw from secros the right one and aggressive on your toes instead of on your heels combat style for for mes, that's you know, there's there's definitely a place for our big, bulky, hawking mes that do sit back on their heels, have a ton of shielding and fire off missiles. That's cool. Armored Cores always seems like one where it's like we got fucking jet packs on these big boys. We're gonna rush in and we're gonna attack. And that's what it was like when I you know, I saw it in person, That's what it looked like, and that's what they're going for. So, I mean, you know, Secara cho over here, what do you think about that? I'm I'm all for it. I thought of this when I was watching The Remnant too, quick look of I find it highly entertaining when you have an arsenal of guns and firearms at your disposal, yet you still go for the big hunk and sword. Yeah, that was the case. Also in the Armored Cores six preview stream that they did. Of course, you got all your missiles, you got your guns and everything, but whoever was playing, whoever was doing the demo, just kept attacking and slashing with a giant laser sword. And I'm all about that, grub. Give me a giant laser sword. Let me be an aggressive mech. And then combined with the mobility that you would get with a mech, like like you said, we can all be jetpack boys, girls and nbs just blasting around. I can't wait. I can't wait. I'm in the same place now where it's like I come, I can't wait for this game. A big part of it is, you know, I was mowing the long yesterday listening to the podcast Blessing Talk to He played four hours of it. Apparently they were this preview event. Sound seemed like it was pretty cool. We got invited, but you know, we're the kind of short staff so it was hard to get out there. So we didn't make it out there, but they had like a real meck you could have piloted, but like Blessing was like no, I just kept playing the game. I couldn't stop playing the game. I didn't get to go being the real mech that they had there. Like Okay, that's that sounds pretty good, and everyone who played it seems very hot on it. So looking at the schedule being okay, I am I'm getting I'm actually getting or the end of Tears of the Kingdom. Now I've gotten into the you know, the final place where I'm supposed to be and all this stuff, and I find all the memories and holy sh jan have you gotten all the memories and Tears of the Kingdom? Can I recommend that? Because that stop blew my mind it's so good. So yeah, I'm like I'm finishing that up and not playing Pittman four and I kind of can't stop playing that. So imagine I'm gonna get through that one pretty quickly. I'll get these you know, big Nintendo Switch games out of the way, and then I'm clearly also looking forward to Starfield Armored Courses. Between now and then, that's the game I'm gonna try to make time for just based on the hype, based on what I'm seeing, based on the pedigree of from I think that's pretty fair. Yeah, I also think like this can really carve out a very very dedicated niche audience. With the multiplayer and Grub. We've seen how freaky people get with their builds in in all these Souls Born games. I cannot wait to see the little freaky Mex that ever when builds of like, hey, I only have like one left arm on my mech because it affects my mobility and I can just slash things faster or like god, just like I'm pretty sure if you can customize your mech in terms of parts, you can probably do color schemes as well. Yes, I just want a bunch of like bright Neon Mex descending on onto a big helicopter. The funny thing Grub in this In this trailer that they put out, your little mech was just fighting a giant hell carrier. It was great. Yes, I love that stuff and the way the Mex move in this game, getting me the way just that they really are rocket powered devices that are just flying through like they shouldn't be able to go that fast, but they have so much power that they can. I love that. I love that feeling. I love the way it looks, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the controller and actually play it. Armored cores six out August twenty five. I said this month, I meant within a month. Oh so yeah, a month from now. Basically it is when we're looking at this game and it will be PC PlayStation's four and five. Xbox A series is X and S as well as Xbox one, which is bananas. But they're actually putting on Xbox. Well but cool, all right, I guess that's what we're doing here. Microsoft reports second best Q four and full year for Xbox revenue. This comes from Tom the Machine Ivan at VGC. Microsoft has reported relatively strong fourth quarter and full year fiscal year twenty three sales for its Xbox division. For the fourth quarter, which ended June thirtieth, twenty twenty three, the company said gaming revenue increased thirty six million dollars, or one percent, compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. Quarterly Xbox content and services revenue was up five percent a year over year, driven by growth and third party content in Xbox game pass sales, but that was offset by a thirteen percent decline in hardware revenue due to a lower volume of consoles sold. During a Microsoft earnings call on Tuesday that followed up this earnings report, CEO Santianadella claimed Xbox set fourth quarter records for monthly active users and game pass engagement, and here's a quote from him. We set new fourth quarter highs for monthly active users, driven by the strength of console as well as monthly as well as monthly active devices. And we saw record fourth quarter engagement across game pass with hours played up twenty two percent year over year. The quarterly gaming results fell short of the company's previous guidance. In April, Microsoft forecast at Xbox revenue growth in the mid to high single digits and Xbox Content and services revenue growth in the low to mid teens. Nevertheless, according to independent industry analyst Dom's Playing, Microsoft's fourth quarter gaming sales total approximately three point four nine billion dollars, the second highest ever for the Xbox division, behind a Q four of fiscal year twenty twenty one. This is I think the big thing from me here, Jan is Xbox sales dipping should not be happening, but also it's in line with like we talked to Phil on the couch and he was like, you know, we are basically looking beyond that. The thing we are looking is growing services and just getting people playing our games elsewhere, and that is happening and they are making more money. So I just if in my mind when I asked him about that stuff, it was like, well, the Xbox is going to be the easiest way to grow and he's like, oh, no, PCs where we're growing and elsewhere. Do you take this as the plan is working for Xbox or they're still like cracks in the armor. It's I guess like for some reason, my head is just so in the weeds of software, software software, But I guess like Microsoft is like you know, diversifying everything, and I guess Phil is correct where PCs where they're looking to grow, So I think things are going as expected for them. This baffles me, grub because in my head I'm just trying to think, like what even released last year that would move people over to Microsoft at least than Q four. I mean, I suppose, yeah, So I suppose during like these like because their Q four is what it's going to be May again, it's gonna be April, May and June, and last year that would have still been you know, supply constraints and people just rushing out the Xbox that they saw one, and now they're readily available. All the systems are pretty much readily available at this point, and so it's like, okay, then what is the thing now that has to be games? And there has still hasn't been much. Red Fall would have been the thing, and red Fall didn't obviously wasn't wasn't the thing. So yeah, I think the fact that they still saw excuse me, game pass growth even again, without a big game to draw people in, like a big first party exclusive game to draw people in, they have had relatively good releases into game Pass. Game Pass has continued to look like a pretty decent deal. Uh, And you know they I think they wouldn't they raised the price during that quarter, right because we're yea, yeah, I was thinking that too, of like, especially with them raising the price, them still ringing in like their second best Q four man Penziman was really a banger. I guess, I guess so, I guess so h so yeah, yeah, they also gave a full year sales. Full year sales for the division of approximately were approximately fifteen point four seven billion, and that was only bettered during Microsoft's previous fiscal years, so they could see they're like on like a growth trajectory with you know, a small backstep a little bit there. Using quarterly sales growth of one percent for Xbox. Microsoft's gaming division saw fifteen point four six five billion revenue during the year, and in June twenty three that's from Don's Playing as well. It was sixteen point two three billion in fiscal year twenty twenty two. Still, fiscal year twenty three is the second best fiscal year ever for Xbox. Microsoft CEO Satyanadella and CFO Amy Hood are expected to provide more information on Xbox divisions performance during an earnings call later. Yes, that that that happened. So yeah, I think overall the x Box business it is growing. It's just I think for me, it's like you can't like really extract it from the Xbox console. And yet I think they might have to figure out a way to do that. But if they get people excited to buy Xboxes, that to me is a sign that everything else is working. And if they have success without getting people like buying more Xboxes or you know, more Xboxes than last year, and still in this early part of the generation, this first half of the generation, it's like, okay, yeah, they are figuring out how to make money, but not always write in paradise. It's kind of how it ends up feeling, and that's you know, maybe Starfield is the answer to that. I hope Starfield is the answer to that. I can only imagine folks that are like still heavily entrenched in this non existent console war. I hope that Starfield makes them happy. Yes, what in terms of Xbox exclusives, entimate Hi Fi Rush yep? Okay, yeah yeah, there within there like one other of game of like that size, but Pittiman and Hi Fi Rush are definitely the standouts for me. Uh yeah, I mean and now you know, they did Red Fall and clearly that was a misstep. Yes, uh and now it's I mean, I'll tell you what, though Starfield continues to look fantastic. They put out these shorts that like show off the world, and I'm like, man, that looks really good too, like just establishing the tone for these space cities. Uh So, man, my hopes are getting way up there for Starfield. I'm actively upset now. Gruh. Yeah, And in six months, the conversation on Xbox could be very very different. And I think considering like where the conversation has come from, where they were at a real low point earlier this year and to the where they're at now, especially after that really good showing at E three it's at SGF. Uh, I think that they're in a decent position to act on really good games coming out. If Starfield comes out and is good, They're in a position to exploit that to the greatest degree, and that's where they kind of need to be, you know. And then they had a really good showing during Summer Game Fest. Yes, like a lot of positivity like stemming out of that that showcase. I think exactly. That's like it reset the conversation and now here we are, you know, looking at the like the let that was like a very small portion of what would have came out of these numbers, but I bet that the growth and game pass a significant portion of that probably did come from people watching that SGF press conference, being like there are a lot of games coming. I'm excited about Xbox ecosystem. I'm gonna get back into game Pass or I'm gonna go get game Pass for PC and like move the needle on that stuff. So yeah, I again, I think they're in a good position, just it's not the best position. Yeah. I think if they're perhaps if the ass roger Ally took off, because you know it's you're just running Windows there, you could get PC game Pass running pretty easily, as if it was easy to get Xbox game Pass on a Steam deck. Oh man, I feel like that'd be a killer combo. Yeah. I think Microsoft knows that that handheld PC gaming space is worth keeping a strong eye on and that's what led to like their partnership with the roger Ally. But it's you that's it's like just one another piece of the pie. They've got to be growing in all. Like, if if console is not going to be like their main driver or not going to be a huge point of growth, which is what he implied again on the couch, She's like, this is not going to be a place where we're going to see the most growth, then you've got everything else needs to be working. And I mean, honestly, if I was in that position and I needed one thing to to get like to put all the pieces in place and make that growth happening everywhere. It would be a game like Star like a game that's like going to be some people's forever game, and they're gonna have a ton of mods support it, gonna be very excited on PC and console. So again, they're in a decent position to keep turning the conversation around. It's it's just so wild because earlier this week with Jordan, you were talking about the prospects of a PS five Pro and that like a half step console not even perhaps being on Microsoft's radar is wild. Yes, I don't yeah, I mean, I don't know when that would happen when that makes sense? Do they do it two years from now, because I mean the PS four or PS five Pro apparently coming next year late next year Xbox. I'm sure they're working on hardware. I'm sure they have a constant researcher development going on. I'm sure they have ideas about what to do if they feel that they need to do it. But I don't think they're going to be in any rush. And it's like, I don't know we're gonna be at that point. I don't know. It just it doesn't make a lot of sense, and maybe they're like, yeah, that's fine. The Xbox Series X is our pro model already, We're already fine with that. It's like, okay, I get that, but if you know, you already feel like an afterthought in the console space. If a PS five pro comes out, I don't necessarily think that it's going to be like the best selling console from this generation, the best console skew, but it will reset the conversation and make the like even the oh, the Xbox Series X, it's got more terror flops, Well, that won't even be true anymore. And that hasn't manifested into necessarily better performance across a lot of games because a lot of developers are prioritized in the PS five, So a lot of games come out looking and running better on the PS five already. So yeah, I don't know, but I don't know how important that is to Microsoft, and I actually and I think I don't know how important it is, both in terms of how important they feel it is and then how important it like actually is in terms of making a difference to their end goals. That stuff is difficult to kneel down. And we're going to see this we get further in this generation. All right, let's move on here. New Need for Speed could already be in development. This comes from Mike Straw at Insider Gaming. Need for Speed Unbound may have just been released last year, but Criterion already seems to be working on the next installment of the series. According to a recent job posting, a new Need for Speed may already be in development. With a proud history working on beloved franchises including Battlefield, Star Wars, battle Front, and Burnout, We're now challenging the conventions of the racing genre to take the Need for Speed franchise to the next level. The posting says the specific the specific job listing is for a world artist that will help us on our new and exciting endeavor to create an open world offering the player a fast, visceral, and authentic experience. Man, those three words that you would put on a racing game, fast and authentic. Should Criterion be working on the next Need for Speed, it would be the fifth game in the series the studio has developed. Man, really, already five games from Criterion on Need for Speed. That's bizarre. It's first was Need for Speed Hot Pursuit back in twenty ten. Prior to working on the franchise, the studio is responsible for the popular Burnout series. Yeah, this almost certainly is true. I believe this. I I've asked around. I haven't heard back yet, but I mean, they are always making need for speed games. They haven't stopped making need for speed games pretty much ever. So the idea that they are going back to that, yeah that makes sense. Criterion working on it, Yeah, that makes sense. I don't know what they need to do to get me excited about Need for Speed I thought Unbound at least I had a cool style to it, but you know, it passed me by pretty quick. I'm like, okay, yeah, it looks interesting. I'm gonna move on. I suppose maybe going back to Hot Pursuit or you know, Need for Speed Underground, which Unbound is pretty close to that already. So I don't know, Jan, what do you think? I don't know. I also enjoyed the look of Unbound. I remember when we did the quick look of that. Were we both drove away fairly positive? Yes, but again, like you said, it just kind of came and went. I feel like the need for Speed audience, there's a we talk about niche game audiences all the time, especially with sports games, and I feel like those sports weirdos, no offense to anyone that pick up Madden, that pick up FIFA or EA Football Club, are the same folks that will always pick up a need for speed because of the name recognition. I think so, and like, there are car freaks out there, and the car freaks, like the ones I may have gone into an altercation way, are starred for their car freak games, yes, and I feel like, yeah, just I feel like they will. They are a reliable enough audience for EA to just continually churn out these need for speed games regardless of quality. That's exactly what's happening. You're right. Need for Speed is the one where I remember getting rumors about that in the early days and putting out there be like oh, well, no one's gonna care about this, and then having a bunch of need for Speed freaks just constantly reach out and like I cover need for Speed on my YouTube channels. Oh I talk about I'm like what really? Okay? Sure? I mean yeah, like I don't any more details than what I put out there, but yeah, we can talk about this and it's like, no, there's a Need for Speed community, and I always found that surprising because it's just like I don't identify with games like especially games like like a lot of EA games like this is not part of my personality, but for some people it is. And so yeah, Need for Speed has a surprising, a surprisingly large audience that considers that their game, and so eas just gonna keep pumping them out and hopefully Criterion Kid get to a point where it's like, you know, one out of every few rises up to be interesting for that wider gaming audience that remembers carrying about Need for Speed in the past and might it might have a chance to care again. Yeah. One thing they could do to make you care, jan and make me care, make all of us care is put Shrek in the game, which is what Dream Works all Star cart Racing will do. It will see Shark, po Hiccup and more speed Onto Switch Soon. Is Poe the Papanda Bear. The po is the Kung the titular Kung Fu Panda. Okay fantas from this is from Jim Norman at Nintendo Life. The residents of Far Far Away, the Isle of Burke, Troll Village and wherever Kung Fu Panda takes place. Are heading for the race drag Yeah just China, right yeah, all ready for the price track as publisher game Mill Entertainment as today's DreamWorks All Star cart Racing a new franchise driven racer that will be heading to Switch later this year. I think it's coming to other systems as well. The starting lineup sees twenty characters from Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar, Kung Crew, Panda, and more take to the track, racing around circuits that take inspiration from several of these worlds. Each character has their own unique car and can use items along the way to give them an edge over opponents. There are some changes from the usual IP racer formula to be found here, like magical switches which which can be hit to unlock shortcuts, and there looks to be like a variety of game modes to cater for those who want to race competitively. Yeah, I am, I'm down with cart racers, Jan, I like a lot cart racers. This is from the people that did Nickelodeon cart racing game three Slime Racer. I think it's that's not the name, but it's pretty close. Yeah, and that game was you know, it felt like a decent game, but it also feels cheap because it's a it's a licensed cart racer, and that's kind of what happens. Game Mill is also known for doing that. All that said, I'm glad the games like this still come out. Jan I feel like we went through a huge, huge drought in IP racers IP games. I'm glad. I know folks will will think like, oh, it's like, get those garbage IP games out of my consoles. But I think it's fun. Yeah, it's good fun. I think about like the thing is like, compared to a couple of years ago, a good chunk of these IP license games would be Garbo, but now the quality has gone up at least, so children will have better license game or or or all my Shrek freaks will be able to finally play a good game on a modern console. And it's like these games usually come out and they're they you know, if they're not lower priced at start, they go down in price pretty fast. And it's like it's nice to have cheap games to buy for kids with characters that they care about. And one of my favorite things about like going back to old games is like, you know, I get on my I get on my rom sites, Jan you know me. I get on my rom sites. And one of my favorite things to do is to find the games that aren't gonna show up on Nintendo Switch Online and and those are usually licensed games, and playing those it's like, these are this is fun, even if they're bad games. It's like, so what I'm like, love kind of going back to the stuff. So I'm glad that we're like every generation is still going to have that, you know, go back to your last Action Hero game for the Supernintendo or whatever, Go back to your Austin Powers game for the Game Boys, exactly. We're always say. From from rock Star, Yes, from publisher Rockstar Games, comes their most amazing game yet, Austin Powers for the Game Boy Color. You bury the lead here, Yes, please, folks, don't be alarmed. The boss Baby is also going to be in this game. Yes, I don't. I wonder if it's gonna have any voice acting. If it does, they probably are not gonna get Alec Baldwin. I don't think is Backlar a little boss baby? Oh one thousand percent? Oh yes, absolutely, that's a boss Baby right there. Glad he's still away so he couldn't use it around to hear that. No, one, don't don't ever tell him this, everybody, don't we start We're gonna start calling Backlar b b all right, and it'll just think like, oh, it's for baby. I'm like, hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely, yes, that's right. You got it. In one, I need everyone pull up a picture of Jeff Baclar then pull up a picture of the boss baby telling me that couldn't just be a little little jib Yep, I'm gonna let's see Jeff Bacla. I'm gonna do it right now. Let's see here. Yeah, I'm just gonna have him though. Let's see here. Here we go. There you go that, look at that? Look at that. Look at boss baby right there, look at him with a c Net microphone doing boss baby things. Broke the show. There we go. Oh, it's fine that we're back. We're fine. Okay, yep, love I love our boss baby and respect his wishes of course. Okay, I need to put a hat and glasses on boss Baby. Oh, let's go. Okay. CD Project Red plans to lay off around one hundred staff, which is roughly nine percent of its team. This comes from Chris Scully and at vgc CD Project Red has announced that it will be laying off nearly ten percent of its staff in the coming months. In an organizational update, which is a euphemism message, and that's a message posted on the studio's official website, CD Projects CEO Adam Kazinski states that the company wants to have teams that are more agile and more effective, also euphemisms, and that after analyzing the teams in the company, decision has been made that some are no longer needed. We carefully assessed all teams in the company in terms of their expected contribution to the delivery of our strategy. Kauzinski wrote, there's no easy way to say this, but today we are overstaffed. We have talented people on board who are finishing their tasks, and based on current and expected project leads, we already know we don't have other opportunities for them in the next year. The outcome is the studio partying ways with around one hundred people, which is roughly nine percent of the entire team. This is not the first studio that has done this this year or ever. Overall, though, I think we got to a point where developers found some equilibrium Jim, like it used to be and not that long ago. These companies would staff way up to get their games ready, and they would fucking get the game out, and then the game would go out and they would immediately start laying people off. And I think the answer a lot to a lot of that was outside support studios contractors that had that sort of expiration date built in. So it's like, Okay, let's base that's effect the same thing. But you know, there were fewer stories, slightly fewer stories about these kinds of layoffs. Yeah, but this was always going to be humming in the background of these students being like, we have high tides. If we have low tides, we put out games and that's high tide, a lot of money coming in. And then we have years where we're working on games that aren't going to come out for another four years and that's low tide, and looking at trying to like make that makes sense. The answer for a lot of times, it's going to be we have to lay people off, and that's the volatility of making games. And so far, it's like, what has been the answer to that, and these companies don't have one. The answer for employees has maybe often been unionized to a certain extent. But even then that's like that's not an answer, like in Hollywood, right, like you stole it's a gig job. For union jobs in Hollywood, you just go from one gig to the other. And so that's also has like that built in layoff date essentially. But you know, the other the other answer was live servi games, where it's like, we are going to make live service games that are going to generate predictable amounts of income that could support studios through these years where we aren't putting out big new releases. And that strategy has also sort of gone up and spoke, as you know, they've pulled the plug on GWENTT and and every other company is like, our live service games aren't working. So it's like, okay, well that's not the answer either, so we gotta go back to laying people off. And it just like the volatility is one of the things in this that that makes this industry pretty tough to cover and feel like feel good about, because it's like these people are making are spending years making something and you know, in the end the thank you might be thank you, but we don't need your services. Anymore, and that stinks. Yeah, the one of the worst parts about this. You know, a good chunk of those folks we're probably contractors, putting in like obscene amounts of hours and receiving no little to no benefits, and it especially sucks for them, especially in you know, this industry being so having such a big, big unemployment pool because of so many layoffs and so many tech layoffs in general. Uh, it's it's very disheartening. Uh yeah, even if it's just ten percent of their staff, that's like one hundred around one hundred ish folks that are now out of a job have to go searching around that may wind up getting brought back to CD project read as a contractor for a future game. But games of the Service I don't think is working in terms of keeping folks employed. No, in games that are that seem like they're doing well or doing okay or good games like the Good Into the Evolution game, completely fine game, but now it's shut down. Yep, And like it was clearly like I get the thought and that it definitely works on like that's what has worked on mobile, but mobile like making a live service project and like they don't have the desire to then also fund big two hundred million dollar games. They're just like, no, we're gonna make a game prototype from mobile and we're going to test it, and that's going to be one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars on the high end, and and you know, we can make that make sense. And so we have this predictable income, we have our budget for testing stuff out, and that's that works a little bit on mobile, it's not necessarily actually going to keep working because the same games keep succeeding. Trying to apply that to console and PC gaming. It was a good idea, but it's just it's not working for everybody, and everyone thought it would work for them, and so here we are once again talking about pretty much constant layoffs in the video game industry and big surprise. All right, Uh, let's hit this next story, which is just gonna drive me bonkers. Jan ESRB asks FTC to approve facial estimation age checker. This is from Jeffrey Rosseau at Games Industry Dot. This The ESRB has proposed that the FTC green light facial age estimation technology as a method of verification. In collaboration with the Digital identity firm Yo, Epic Games subsid and Epic Games Acidiary, and software company Super Awesome. The proposal claims that the privacy protection facial s age estimation is said to be accurately determined, can accurately determine a person's age. Basically, you take a picture of yourself, send it to the system, and they know how old you are, and now you could play that video game. This is coming straight from the SRB, and fuck you, No, what are these smoking over their grub? Go to hell with this, like ESRB, No, your goddamn place like you are only here to make sure the government doesn't interfere with games like that is the whole reason you exist. The idea that we're gonna let you take pictures of children and say this is what we think your age is. No, thanks, go fund yourself. I do not like. This is dumb as hell. You Why would you even think that this is like your job? It's not. You just need to be like like, oh no, we're doing age radiings on games. Don't worry, everything's fine. You like the whole decision about what games. She doesn't know what the ESRB is. I decide every game she plays like, that's what happens. Like the idea that you have actually any effect on any of that is insane. The only effect you have is you prevent the government from putting more regulation in because you look like self regulation. And then the idea be like, well, we need to self regulated by taking pictures and people's people's faces in their homes. No, the panopticon is already here. We don't need the video game industry getting in on that action. Go to hell, Jan, this drives me crazy. I'm hot, I'm hot, Tod. That's why you got the tank. Con That's right. Hot got the tank because I knew I was gonna get so hot today. Jim Ryan already has pictures of my ears ESRB. I don't need anyone else that pictures of my face exactly. It's just it's it's stupid proposal. Also said, to the extent that there's any risk, it is easily outweighed by the benefits to consumers and businesses of using the facial age estimation method it, which is something that someone says when they're lying. It's so the I the sheer idea of Besides, if we're throwing privacy out the window, because nothing is private anymore? Right? The sheer idea of trying to use a picture to guestimate someone's age is thumb as shit. Yep, just what wild stuff? What if someone's a baby face? You know, my father has a very young looking face. She's like two three months older than me, but she always gets mistaken for someone that just turned like nineteen or twenty or whatever. There are other people we know people with baby faces. I'll also be offended if they think I'm Hella old exactly. Shanny boy, what is Patrick Kleppick gonna do? Oh man, she's mad about Pickman. Sorry, I got my I need to go take a picture of her face because she's angry right now. And yes, yeah, that's another yeah, the baby face thing. Like you know, there's always people on TikTok doing like the age checker on there and it's like you look like a child. It's like, okay, that that would be very frustrating, you know how Like picture verification is the dumbest shit in the world, because you I will go to like a liquor store buy a forty, and then someone will hold up the idea. I'm like, I don't know if this looks like you. Well, I don't know how it is to tell convince you that this person on the idea is me? Yeah, or going to a costco. I'm like, well, I haven't updated that picture in like fifteen years, but it is me. What is so fucking stupid? Yep, it's it's dumb, and again it's just so outside the purview of the eos Harb's real reason for existing. Get the hell out here with that, absolutely, go touch some grass and mowa lawn. Yeah, absolutely, all right. Exoprimal seems to be finding an audience with Xbox game Pass. This is from Georgianga GameSpot. Capcom has announced that Exoprimal has reached over one million players, and it seems Xbox Game Pass could have played a role in the game finding a large audience right away. To celebrate, players will receive a Neat reward next month. To commemorate this milestone, a free Skywave skin will be included in the August sixteenth title update. That's from the official exo Primal Twitter account. We're hard at work on improvements to the game based on player feedback. Thank you for your ongoing support. Exo Primal launch on July fourteenth for a whole bunch of systems. It was also included on Xbox Game Pass on release day, which likely led to the game finding an audience. I think when we were playing this game jam, it was like, this is a very good game Pass game, not in that traditional way of like it's actually a bad game, but you didn't pay for it. It's like, no, there's something here. We enjoyed it. It's fun and it's more fun with friends. Of course it is, and game Pass empowers that exact line of thinking better than a lot of other things. So yeah, I think this was a really good fit on both sides of the coin there. Yeah. I think this is also a good use case for Capcom right and validation for Capcom continue putting stuff out on game Pass day one, because I think this would be a hard not that it'd be a hard sell, but for folks on console of like, I don't know if I want to play like another like a group shooter PVPV. I mean, dinosaurs are sick as hell. But knowing that it's on game Pass, it's like, okay, yeah, let's just check it out. Man. This could have been red full. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, Uh you know, looking at uh like the relationship that Microshoft's building with Capcom on game Pass and them doing the Path of the Goddess and that that's a single player game. It's like, I think Microsoft is like finding the companies that have like a softer position on game Pass, because we heard in a trial that Straps Zelnik and uh and even Bobby Cottick they're like, oh, we're not putting our ship in game Pass. No way we get with seventy dollars for games. And it's like, yeah, you know what I get it. If I was in your position and my games sold as well as yours do right away, I wouldn't either, or at least I would be very skeptical of putting in my stuff in game Pass. But not every publisher is that way. Capcom is a very good example and that they are like Exoprimal is clearly benefiting from this because it's a game that that has mixed word of mouth. We are having a good time, I've heard a lot of people who do not like the game, and that's going to make it a very challenging thing in this very busy year to sell at the price that they're selling it at on all these other platforms, and so giving it a chance to just succeed on its own merits by letting people play it through game Pass, that is benefiting the game, Capcom all these other things kind of making it much more worth their while. And then Capcom's gonna fold that up, follow that up with a single player game that you know, you would think Capcom doesn't need game Pass for that, but I don't think it's about need. I think they just found a way like to make it make sense for them, and they think that that word of mouth is beneficial. And Microsoft also probably make it at worth their while in terms of dollars, but they would have made work worth a lot of these companies whiles and said no. So it's like clearly they're just like, let's work on Capcom. We have them believing a little bit in game Pass, Let's show them the benefits of it. And Axel Primos is them executing on that, and it's working. So and you know, maybe this can motivate Capcom to dig out some older franchises that they have. Perhaps we see uh, more Beautiful Joe finally, I know, uh, boss baby, you'd love that Beautiful Joe absolutely bb uh lost Planet. I feel like it's something that they could revisit, especially with this success of Exo Primal. Instead of dinosaurs, just big glowy bugs. Everyone loves big glowy bugs. Yeah, big glowy bugs and breath of fire, says ebbs b Yeah, store power Stone Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, who knows like how much game pass can convince Capcom to invest all these things, But it's like it's definitely not hurting and like it is one more check in the we can make these things make sense column, And so that's that's encouraging. Yeah. And you know, if Microsoft can spin off and have a small studio make a small, uh curated game like Pentiment, maybe Capcom can feel motivated to do something similar if for like a smaller project because they know that there is a guaranteed install base with game pass yep. I think it's possible. Yeah, And I hope that this is what the future of game pass enables is just having a little bit more confidence in in your games being able to find an audience. And then it's up to you, in your game and your studios and your marketing team and your publisher to take that momentum and turn it into something real and there's no guarantee that's going to keep keep happy for extra priable. But you are in a much better position than you would have been otherwise, and so we'll see how they are able to harness that that that excitement. Final Fantasy six team producer is tired of toxic fans. There's this compete. Heck of all, I can't remember where what's site? I'm sorry about that. There's nothing new about the Internet being flooded with overly passionate, often toxic fans who make it there their lives, work to hate everything and everyone beyond all reason. The producer of Final Fantasy sixteen is one of those who has grown tired of the toxic discussions about games, and in a recent interview that is part of a Japanese documentary film about Final Fantasy, he made the following statement, there's a lot of people who just yell at you, people I've never seen or met or talked to before. It's weird. What did we do to them? Perhaps they just write it from a place of negativity and malice. It's tiresome. I'll tell you that is understating what is going on with Final Fantasy sixteen. Every time I go to check in on Final Fantasy sixteen on like Twitter or whatever, and I'm not like actively checking in. It just kind of comes across my feed. It is still people fighting about the reviews and people fighting about the game in general. And I get that that is Final Fantasy. That's always been a big part of Final Fantasy. But boy, it's just like, oh, yeah, that's you guys. That reviews was it's weeks old. Haven't you moved on? No? No, they haven't. It is they're still mad at skill Up for saying in its review, Hey, a lot of people like this game, and it's okay if you like this game. I didn't, and they're very mad at him for saying that, like, you're not that Apparently Gene is poor. Jean is still catching strays from like being quoted on the trailer or something. Yep. And it's it's both directions. It is people who love Final Fantasy and don't like this game being mad at people who do like the game, and it's people who like the game and are mad at people who don't like the game. It's and and just to back and forth NonStop. And I wrote this on Twitter that I'm like, like, I like my pickment for where no one's talking about it in general. Jan I like things that, but where where people are like, I don't know, Like that's what one of the things about hockey where it's like no one kind of cares about that. I don't have to listen to anyone else's opinion on that for the most part, other than other than boss Baby. And that's that's so I could just enjoy it my little vacuum, and that helps me and Pickmo fours in that vacuum because the toxicity does drag it down for me. There's just no like the folks that are super toxic, and you know they are super toxic for whatever reasons, they're just not even attempting to have a productive conversation about the game. And I don't know why, but I feel like brains may be broken where they just can't get over it. It's like, well, if this isn't for you, then just fucking leave dog. Yeah, absolutely, I'm gonna let's do this last story. Capcom acquires Street Fighters six and Final Fantasy sixteen supports studio sword Canes from Jordan Miller at VGC. Capcom has acquired sword Canes supports due to this previously worked on Street Fighters six, Final Fantasy sixteen, and High Fly Rush. Sword Canes primarily works on CG assets and animation. The company has also previously worked on on the Monster Hunter series and assisted Bandai, Napco and the character modeling for New Pokemon Snap. They do a lot of like the hard asset creation work that a lot of these companies rely on, and I mostly included the story jams to point out this is going to keep happening. I think every time we've talked about a support studio getting acquired, I said this, but I'll say it again. This is a huge part of making make games make sense right now for these companies. It is finding the people who can do the work at a relatively affordable rate, and instead of like continuing to continually trying to contract them and getting in line with all the other people competing for their contracts, you just gotta buy them. So these supports studios are going to keep getting swooped up and like that's gonna be the next big wave. It's not gonna necessarily be big publishers are big recognizable studios. It's going to be studios like sword Canes and these studios that are get that are coming up out of Brazil and Mexico and Australia. These support studios that are gonna be just you're gonna read a headline like this every couple of months. Another big publisher bought the support studio because they need more bodies on these games. So yeah, that's uh, that's happy with sword Canes gonna keep happening. I'm all for it, especially because you're doing amazing work. Yeah, and it's like, yeah, get paid, you started a company, you succeeded, and now you get to have that exit. That's the way it's supposed to work. Uh, you know, I don't. I'm not a big fan of capitalism, people know, but if we're gonna have it, it needs to work this way where people can take risks and get rewards for those risks. And and here it is gear getting rewarded. Uh. Finally, just real quick, E says, stay tuned for a skate console playtest thing, so hey, maybe we'll be able to actually play that game on console here in a much wider way. People have tested it for a while, but I think it's mostly been like these invite only things. So the way that they're phrasing it now. It makes it sound like, hey, maybe we'll get a chance to play it. This game got announced in twenty twenty so and I know that was pretty early on like that. When they announced it, it was like, hey, we're just kind of spinning things up. So we're probably are still more than a year away, probably, but I would like to see it. I would like to see more of it. That's where I'm at. Okay, Jan, I have the poll from yesterday. Let's bring it up by going here and actually that's boss Baby. I mean, get off there real quick, hello, boss Baby. Uh all right. We asked on the show, do you have an eight K TV? And Jan one percent said yes? Is the one percent, the real one percent is here in our in our community. A ninety six percent said no, and then three percent said no, but I would get one for a PS five pro. This is exactly what I'm saying, Jen, Hey, K, it's not gonna do anything in terms of that marketing buzz where the way four K did. No, I don't. Yeah, they need to come up with a different name, like maybe four K two. Yeah, that's it. That's what it is. Four K by four K squared. Yeah, you do you is there any like if you are you in the market for new TV at all? Jan no, no grub, I'm not at all. The other day I was looking at a projector because I'm a freak. Yeah again, I got a projector from ben Q several years ago, to ten eighty p one. I feel good about that. I'm like, four K one it's great. Ten looks great. Project even at even at like one hundred inches, it still looks great. Uh So, yeah, that's what we got set up right right on the other side of its green screen. And we watch movies over every once in a while. Mostly we watch wreck itt Ralph and the Super Mario Brothers movie over and over. That's fine. I'm fine with that. Okay. I have a new full question that we're gonna ask on giant bomb dot com and we'll get to it when I get back from a little vacation. Just a little breaky break well deserved. Thank you so much, Chan, I'm looking forward to it. Gonna go see I'm gonna see the Blue Man Group. That's what I'm doing with my time off. That's what you're shoot doing. I'm shoot gonna see the Blue Man Group. Also, I'm gonna gonna like to know, the shed aquarium and stuff like that. Look at just spending some time in Chicago, just kind of getting out of town, gonna see some fun stuff. Maybe swim at the pool at the hotel. That's gonna see the bean. Yeah, I'm gonna see the bean. I'm gonna do a little source code. People know I'm a source code freak. Love that source code. But yeah, the new pool question is going to be what is the best children's food hot dog, cheese, pizza or chicken nug nugs. We'll put that up on YouTube dot com slash gibomb and you go to the community tab and find it there and vote. I know, I know what I'm going to vote for. Actually I don't. This is tough. This is a tough question. That is grub. There is a new Jerem animation original that I would like for you to see for the first time with a fine folks watching live. This is gonna be terrible for audio listeners, but no, listen, this is our show. We do what we want here. If someone could put it in chat, that would be the easiest way. Is there like a link, a public link for it? Some slack there? Fantastic? All right? Link. Thank you saying you think you ever. Let's see this in the gamer browser. Okay, I'm gonna scroll this down. Let's frame it up for everybody, all right, uh and you know what is their audio? Seems like there might be audios. Let me do this all right, here we go? Oh no, oh yes, oh my god, all right it's this is the back the BackRub intro with BackRub Robo Mitch and and Danik, Danis dand Sonic Uh for me, yeah, forming the Blake Club. Oh my god, this is incredible. Oh. I didn't think it would keep going. It keeps going. Oh that profiled Mike. Uh, Jerem has completely outdone himself. This is I just beyond I'm I I know that he did made this out of the love of his heart, but I'm gonna try and find a way. Yeah, let's use it that. Let's use it as the intro to to Blake Club, and we'll pay him work, right exactly, that's all might say. Oh man, that is really good work, Jerem. I am blown away the wh I watch. I love when I watch something and I'm just like, you have so much talent, Yeah, just so just brimming with talent, just boiling over the top. Thank you, Jerem, thank you for sharing that with me. Jan We will well, we'll put this on the front of Blake Club, which we're doing today. I don't know if it'll be on today's Black Club. We'll try to make it happen, but we'll see. We're doing Blake Club today on Wednesday because again taking some time off here on Jiant Bomb. Speaking of Giant Bomb, what else will we have happening this week? Jan uh, not immediately after this, but Blake Club will be happening today tomorrow, no no game mess on Thursday, Friday, Monday that we'll have the Voicemail Dump Truck an earlier episode of UPF. I believe we still got to do some planning about that. Ham and Lucy did go to Comic Con, so there may be a little bit of travelogue. They shot some stuff there, their impressions, a little a little show floor tour, so we'll see what I can pop off. I'm I'm excited. I uh, I'll probably put an UPF or put a voicemailt dump truck on for the drive. Let the kids listen to that, see what they think. I'm sure that'll make sure it's not blue. I will say that grub for something. In September, we got confirmation and some exciting news. Yeah, I'll just keep it vague. I'm I'm looking forward to it. Uh yeah, Okay, Yeah, it's gonna be a good time. So we're gonna have a lot of fun stuff happening on John bum through the rest of the year. So m Lucy and I are listen, those two already drift compatible. Yea, we learned in Pacific rim uh that a three man team and be also drift compatible with the Chinese basketball team. Sure. Uh, let's just say the three of us are going to spend a lot of time together. Uh huh, it's gonna be h I cannot find space in a tube of sorts. I cannot wait to see what comes out of that because that's a very fun thing. So yeah, we're just gonna be doing more stuff together everybody. Basically, that's the idea that we're gonna find it every excuse we can. It's gonna be a good time. So keep tuning into giant bomb dot com. In the meantime, Jan, thank you so much for hanging out with me today talking about video games. I appreciate it man. Yes, uh my, I had to move my mental clock to Thursday, and now Thursday feels great. But now to come to the reality of Wednesday. It's Wednesday. Still, thank you all for watching. You're the best audience of gaming until next time, probably be next Wednesday. Have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye. Backgroub. I no, no, I don't know. No.