Discord Delays Global Age Verification

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff
<v Speaker 1>Grab your host from giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you for tuning in.
<v Speaker 1>In this episode, we're going to be talking about the
<v Speaker 1>first reviews for a major new release in one of
<v Speaker 1>the biggest games of the year gets its release date.
<v Speaker 1>It's going to be a good one because we have m. H.
<v Speaker 1>Williams on the show. Mike, how are you doing good?
<v Speaker 3>Hello, and good morning to all of the Giant Bomb
<v Speaker 3>folks out there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah. I appreciate you you hanging out with us and
<v Speaker 2>doing this. That's awesome. It's been a minute. You know.
<v Speaker 1>There used to be a time where it's like I
<v Speaker 1>could just count on running into you pretty regularly, and
<v Speaker 1>now it's like I'm not. We're not in the same
<v Speaker 1>circles anymore. I don't know, man, how you been?
<v Speaker 3>Uh? Good? Good? I moved over to the other side.
<v Speaker 3>I am not here representing my employer in any way,
<v Speaker 3>shape or form, would never suggest such a thing. Unfortunately,
<v Speaker 3>not here to talk keep up with the magic. But
<v Speaker 3>as you said, I don't get to come to many
<v Speaker 3>of the events, so we don't get to see each
<v Speaker 3>other anymore. Even if I'm always here in spirit, and
<v Speaker 3>I'm always there in the streams.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, yes, yeah, yeah, I'm always thinking about you, Mike,
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, absolutely, let's make this happen.
<v Speaker 2>I'm very excited about it.
<v Speaker 1>You've been playing anything recently that you're excited about? You
<v Speaker 1>excited about these Resident Evil reviews that we'll talk about
<v Speaker 1>here in a second.
<v Speaker 3>Very excited about Resident Evil. I mean, it was one
<v Speaker 3>of the least hidden rumors that Leon Kennedy was coming.
<v Speaker 3>So when they finally confirmed it, that's my boy, that's
<v Speaker 3>my goat. I need to keep him going, and it's
<v Speaker 3>good that they can, I guess in this trilogy, this
<v Speaker 3>rough trilogy with Leon and the new character, so I'm
<v Speaker 3>looking forward to it. I also have a big momo player,
<v Speaker 3>so World Warcraft Midnight, the next expansion, starts early access
<v Speaker 3>this weekend as well, and then also Next Fest. I
<v Speaker 3>got a bunch of Next Fest games that I just
<v Speaker 3>picked up.
<v Speaker 1>Anything that you can get me earlier warning on that
<v Speaker 1>I might be able to pick up in Fantasy Critic
<v Speaker 1>or something like that, or check out the play to
<v Speaker 1>enjoy myself as well.
<v Speaker 3>Let me see off the top of my head looking
<v Speaker 3>at the list right now, we got Dentsha Attech which
<v Speaker 3>is sort of an on the rails real anime style
<v Speaker 3>train games multi Train Drifting Alabaster Dawn. The demo is
<v Speaker 3>out for that. That's the new time the cross code folks. Right,
<v Speaker 3>there's a couple of i'll call them throwbacks homages. There's
<v Speaker 3>Bombbon which is like Bomberman but you're a bunny, Roland Rascal,
<v Speaker 3>which is a throwback to the Sonic Adventure games, Parasite
<v Speaker 3>Mute which is a Parasite Eve homage, and Spy Drops,
<v Speaker 3>which is like the old Metal Gear games.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I saw a little bit of that and I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>I should check that out as well. I'm planning to
<v Speaker 1>check out Toxic Commando. I want to see what that
<v Speaker 1>John Carpenter a Toxic Commando game is like. But Eternal
<v Speaker 1>Life of Goldman that's one I'm gonna check out as well,
<v Speaker 1>maybe on our Friday stream and we're going to play
<v Speaker 1>some of these next fast iMOS.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and Replaced is the demo's up for that. That
<v Speaker 3>is fantastic so far.
<v Speaker 2>It's good. Okay, all right, good.
<v Speaker 1>That's a relief you always worried, like after so long
<v Speaker 1>of being in development, which we showed this off a
<v Speaker 1>few days ago, I had Jane showed the trailer to
<v Speaker 1>remind everybody which game this was. After so long, I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>there's a chance it was taken so long so they
<v Speaker 1>just couldn't find the fun.
<v Speaker 2>But it sounds like they got something here, so yeah, excellent.
<v Speaker 1>I always like the next vest, even if I don't
<v Speaker 1>get a chance to play a ton So many people
<v Speaker 1>do that there's like invariably something cool rises to the
<v Speaker 1>top and gets put on my list of things to
<v Speaker 1>eventually check it out.
<v Speaker 2>All right, we should explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb.
<v Speaker 1>We're independent games media out here on our own, no corporations,
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<v Speaker 1>I Jeff Greb will help piece your gaming life back together.
<v Speaker 1>That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our
<v Speaker 1>own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the
<v Speaker 1>input of a bona fide expert who will make me
<v Speaker 1>look smart. If you are watching live on twitch welcome,
<v Speaker 1>You can always listen to the show later on podcast
<v Speaker 1>feeds by searching for game Mes Mornings, or find the
<v Speaker 1>RSS feed on giant bomb dot com. You can also
<v Speaker 1>catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.
<v Speaker 2>Hello YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have a lot to get into, so
<v Speaker 1>let's start the morning mess with Resident Evil Requiem reviews.
<v Speaker 1>They have just gone live. A bunch of reviews came in.
<v Speaker 1>I played this game. I finished it on the switch
<v Speaker 1>to and I loved it quite a bit. I would
<v Speaker 1>give it five stars, like it was, Oh yeah, this
<v Speaker 1>is one of those games where I can immediately place
<v Speaker 1>it into my pantheon of favorite games. It is like,
<v Speaker 1>maybe not the best Resident Evil, but it's very close.
<v Speaker 1>It's among the best Resident Evils. Is how I would
<v Speaker 1>probably frame it. Its biggest sin Mike, it left me
<v Speaker 1>wanting a lot more in on both sides of it
<v Speaker 1>of its coin. You know, there's the Grace side, there's
<v Speaker 1>the Leon's side. It is very well paced, so you're
<v Speaker 1>never you never feel like you're left doing anything for
<v Speaker 1>too long. There are two elongated sections where in the
<v Speaker 1>beginning you play as Grace.
<v Speaker 2>Later, for a longer period of time, you play as Leon.
<v Speaker 1>Both of those are very good, and maybe the one,
<v Speaker 1>like the bigest complaint is you've seen the one with
<v Speaker 1>Leon before and you've seen what it looks like when
<v Speaker 1>it's extrapolated into a full game, and then it can stand.
<v Speaker 2>A full game.
<v Speaker 1>But like, so we get a condensed version of that,
<v Speaker 1>and that's very noticeable. I know why they do that though,
<v Speaker 1>because I think the number one complaint I hear most.
<v Speaker 2>Frequently for a Resident Evil game.
<v Speaker 1>I think if you were to ask people, like, what
<v Speaker 1>is most often your issue with Resident Evil? Oh, that
<v Speaker 1>last act isn't great. This is a game of like
<v Speaker 1>three first acts basically, and they just they just did
<v Speaker 1>that and then you know it has its finale and
<v Speaker 1>that is also the weakest part of this game. But
<v Speaker 1>it's it's not like it's a problem it's also fun.
<v Speaker 1>I will just say it feels like a game fully
<v Speaker 1>informed by a company that has done this a lot
<v Speaker 1>and knows what it takes to make a good one,
<v Speaker 1>and they kind of it's all just the good stuff,
<v Speaker 1>so very very into it. It is doing very well
<v Speaker 1>on Open Critic, where I mean, I'm gonna refresh just
<v Speaker 1>to see if this is still true.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah ninety.
<v Speaker 1>On Open Critic, Eurogamers, Matt Wales gave it a five
<v Speaker 1>star review and says Capcom mix Resident Evil's thirtieth anniversary
<v Speaker 1>marks Resident Evils thirtieth anniversary with a stellar return that's
<v Speaker 1>both a masterful bit of suffocating hohrror and a nostalgic
<v Speaker 1>fan thrilling victory lap for the legendary series. Jade King
<v Speaker 1>shouts out to them over at the Gamers said, while
<v Speaker 1>I can't speak in specifics, Capcom has once again assembled
<v Speaker 1>multiple new pieces on the series is board that I
<v Speaker 1>cannot wait to see, wait to see it start moving around.
<v Speaker 1>I want to see where these beloved characters go and
<v Speaker 1>how stakes continue to be taken to places once thought
<v Speaker 1>in unimaginable. And then Dan Reiker from Giant Bomb some
<v Speaker 1>newbie I don't know here gave it four point five
<v Speaker 1>stars and says Resident Evil Requiem is an excellent culmination
<v Speaker 1>of everything Capcom has learned during thirty years of making
<v Speaker 1>this franchise, and it serves as a tantalizing glimpse of what.
<v Speaker 2>Its future may hold.
<v Speaker 1>You could read that review on the website right now, everybody,
<v Speaker 1>Giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Mike, what do you think.
<v Speaker 3>I'm excited? So the switch to version it was Gucci.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, see this is the I'm like glad I played
<v Speaker 1>this for say, like I would have had the same question.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, it had.
<v Speaker 1>So the majority of the time it's running at sixty
<v Speaker 1>frames per second. I did some frame rate testing. I
<v Speaker 1>got the tear drop tool out and like looked at
<v Speaker 1>it just to be sure, and for the most most
<v Speaker 1>of the time it's running at a solid sixty. And
<v Speaker 1>then you get a frame rate drop because there's a
<v Speaker 1>bit much happening. And that's like when there are multiple
<v Speaker 1>of these zombies walking around the Chronic Care Center or
<v Speaker 1>something like that, and the game's accounting for all that.
<v Speaker 2>You could tell it's probably a CPU side thing.
<v Speaker 1>The drops are noticeable, like when they are big, like
<v Speaker 1>a lot of times it'll go from sixty to fifty
<v Speaker 1>frames per second and kind of a dip in that area.
<v Speaker 1>And on the handheld with that screen, I think it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of I think they kind of use a gcink technology.
<v Speaker 1>You don't notice that all that much. It's a little
<v Speaker 1>bit more noticeable when you're playing docked on a screen
<v Speaker 1>that maybe can't account for that quite as well. But
<v Speaker 1>there's occasional situations where it really drops, and that was
<v Speaker 1>a little bit annoying.
<v Speaker 2>I'll say.
<v Speaker 1>Overall, whenever I was playing, I wasn't thinking about that
<v Speaker 1>all that much, almost never, And when I was done,
<v Speaker 1>it was like, yeah, no, that was the real full
<v Speaker 1>Resident Evil Requiem experience. I did not have some lesser
<v Speaker 1>experience because I played on the switch to it just
<v Speaker 1>felt like another version of that game that is slightly
<v Speaker 1>downgraded a little bit.
<v Speaker 2>That said, it's seventy dollars.
<v Speaker 1>So if you have your choice and you want to
<v Speaker 1>play it in perfect, pristine quality, yeah, there are options
<v Speaker 1>to do that, and you should, especially if you're going
<v Speaker 1>to primarily play on.
<v Speaker 3>A television Yep, yep, I'm probably going to play on PC.
<v Speaker 3>I been looking forward to it. I'm glad that they
<v Speaker 3>didn't make the same miss step with Resident Evil six.
<v Speaker 3>Sorry ARI six fans out there and trying to do
<v Speaker 3>the split because you know, they've sort of established a
<v Speaker 3>you know that nice split between ARI seven's more Ethan
<v Speaker 3>Winters weak man and the Village's village and ARI four
<v Speaker 3>remakes you know, more action packed. So I'm glad they
<v Speaker 3>found a nice spot there. Does this feel like it
<v Speaker 3>it's capping off what feels like a trilogy and they're
<v Speaker 3>moving towards something new or.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's like like what links it has to uh
<v Speaker 1>like in terms of storytelling to uh, A seven and
<v Speaker 1>Village are not like super apparent. This does like set
<v Speaker 1>up a lot of new villains and it is about
<v Speaker 1>uh Grace and how she fits into the story. And
<v Speaker 1>then there's some like new new villains that pop up
<v Speaker 1>and like suggestions of other things that are happening.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And there's definitely some other characters name dropped and stuff
<v Speaker 1>like that. Of course there are, it's Resident Evil. It
<v Speaker 1>doesn't feel like a cap or of a trilogy story
<v Speaker 1>wise in terms of I think them like messing around
<v Speaker 1>with the are engine, getting that up to speed, doing
<v Speaker 1>three games kind of in that vein, and then bringing
<v Speaker 1>the ideas like you said, of of seven in Village
<v Speaker 1>together into one game and going back and forth between them,
<v Speaker 1>all of that does feel like a gameplay trilogy, and
<v Speaker 1>it does feel like it's capping some ideas off. I
<v Speaker 1>will say, like I am a casual Resident Evil lore connoisseur,
<v Speaker 1>Like I'm someone who enjoys it on vibe based level,
<v Speaker 1>Like when I'm watching what's the incomprehensible Chris Nolan movie
<v Speaker 1>about the.
<v Speaker 2>Pincer movement? Jan what am I looking for? Yet?
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I watched Tenant and I'm not trying to pay
<v Speaker 1>attention to the story because I know it's gonna be
<v Speaker 1>nonsense and I'm not going just give me the vibes.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I'm doing here as well.
<v Speaker 1>And the vibes are really good, like they deliver on
<v Speaker 1>something that's like, Yeah, I could tell that guy is
<v Speaker 1>evil and campy and I love that And oh my god,
<v Speaker 1>I can't believe this action sequence they just threw in
<v Speaker 1>here with this guy. That's a really good time and
<v Speaker 1>people are gonna think it's stupid or a lot of fun,
<v Speaker 1>depending on what they want from their Resident Evil. But
<v Speaker 1>that's always been Resident Evil. So yeah, just extremely happy
<v Speaker 1>with this game. Capcom is on their stuff with this one.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm I'm really excited for it. And you know
<v Speaker 3>rumored also are Zero Code Veronic remakes. I'm excited to
<v Speaker 3>see what they also do with those games, because those
<v Speaker 3>games are are to be honest, full tear down games,
<v Speaker 3>just tear it down to the studs and rebuild and
<v Speaker 3>build it on top of it. Look looking forward to
<v Speaker 3>seeing what new Capcom does with that.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>I'm like it's like I said, with this game, it
<v Speaker 1>feels like they've learned every lesson and they know what
<v Speaker 1>to do with those lessons learned and how they could
<v Speaker 1>apply that to like a zero to improve that game.
<v Speaker 1>That's like really exciting. And also it's like it's good
<v Speaker 1>I think that this game is running so well on
<v Speaker 1>the Switch too, because Capcom says they're serious about supporting that,
<v Speaker 1>and I think we can expect all those games going
<v Speaker 1>forward to probably launch on this device day and date
<v Speaker 1>because a lot of people are going to be like
<v Speaker 1>that was a really good experience. We're going to want
<v Speaker 1>to keep showing up for Capcom's games, and yeah, you
<v Speaker 1>can do that here. Now, all right, let's get back
<v Speaker 1>over to my rundown. Let's get into the latest from
<v Speaker 1>this Xbox leadership shake up. Xbox CEO says new hardware
<v Speaker 1>announcements are coming quote soon. This is from Darren BoNT
<v Speaker 1>Use at Game Spot. The Xbox series X Slash S
<v Speaker 1>generation has been an expensive console cycle lately, as the
<v Speaker 1>price of hardware and game pass subscriptions has increased in
<v Speaker 1>recent years. New Xbox CEO Asha Sharma has teased that
<v Speaker 1>news on the next generation of Xbox is coming up
<v Speaker 1>and that Microsoft also wants to protect the investment that
<v Speaker 1>it's a player base has in the Xbox ecosystem. It
<v Speaker 1>seems to be like one of the points she's making.
<v Speaker 1>I bet that's one of the things, like when she
<v Speaker 1>gets handed a doc of like what things are most
<v Speaker 1>important to our most loyal customers. It's like the people
<v Speaker 1>who spent thousands of dollars buying games being able to
<v Speaker 1>continue to have access to those games. They care a
<v Speaker 1>lot about that. And it sounds like she's got the
<v Speaker 1>memo on that. At the very least. She says, Xbox
<v Speaker 1>players have thousands of dollars invested in money and time too.
<v Speaker 1>It's incredibly important for me to understand that and protect that,
<v Speaker 1>Sharma said to Windows Central. I am committed to returning
<v Speaker 1>to Xbox like I'm committed to quote returning to Xbox
<v Speaker 1>as like the new strategy, and that starts with console,
<v Speaker 1>that starts with hardware.
<v Speaker 2>You will hear more.
<v Speaker 1>About that soon, will have some announcements coming up. You'll
<v Speaker 1>see us collectively investing here. What's your read on this, Mike.
<v Speaker 3>I mean we're going to get into it later, because
<v Speaker 3>I can see the notes. I do think they are
<v Speaker 3>going to lost the new hardware, and I do think
<v Speaker 3>they're going to give it another generation to just see
<v Speaker 3>where everything goes. Prominent hardware leaguer Moore's Law It's Dead
<v Speaker 3>says that the AMD Magnus, which is going to be
<v Speaker 3>the core of the next Xbox, has been pretty much
<v Speaker 3>fully taped out and is ready to go to manufacturer testing.
<v Speaker 3>He says, it's pretty much like the board itself is
<v Speaker 3>as done as it's going to be as AMD prepares
<v Speaker 3>for their launch of rDNA five, which is going to
<v Speaker 3>be their next consumer cards, and also what's going to
<v Speaker 3>be in the next Xbox. So I think it is
<v Speaker 3>going to happen, but I think it is more of
<v Speaker 3>a oh, we already have the train moving.
<v Speaker 2>Rather steer the ship now away from wherever it was headed. Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, at the best they can do an acknowledgement of
<v Speaker 3>all the issues with storage and RAM thanks to all
<v Speaker 3>of the AI stuff is maybe delay it. And there
<v Speaker 3>were rumors out there that that's what Sony is thinking
<v Speaker 3>about doing. Yeah, but I think Microsoft might just cut
<v Speaker 3>its losses, uh and and launch it and see what
<v Speaker 3>they can do.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>But we we we operate in an industry that spirals
<v Speaker 3>in either direction. When when you have a success, people
<v Speaker 3>want to jump on the success. You see that with
<v Speaker 3>things like you know, elden ring, like people who aren't
<v Speaker 3>even really engaging in the thing, just jumping on the
<v Speaker 3>thing to be a part of the conversation.
<v Speaker 2>Right.
<v Speaker 3>But the opposite of that is once something starts spiraling down,
<v Speaker 3>like an MMO concord a high guard, it keeps spiraling down,
<v Speaker 3>and it's it's gonna be real hard for Microsoft to
<v Speaker 3>convince people, I think, to buy another console.
<v Speaker 1>Right, I mean the communicator, Like, it's gonna be kind
<v Speaker 1>of hard for Sony to convince people to buy a
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation six, let alone Microsoft commits someone to buy the
<v Speaker 1>next Xbox because the PlayStation six is gonna look a
<v Speaker 1>lot like a PlayStation five. It'll look better, but it's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be super expensive. And what's like the marquee feature,
<v Speaker 1>no one knows, including Sony. So then you apply all
<v Speaker 1>of that same truth to Xbox, and then on top
<v Speaker 1>of that, the vibes are off. So I mean, let's
<v Speaker 1>let's take her at her absolute literal word here where
<v Speaker 1>it's like that starts with hardware. You will hear more
<v Speaker 1>about that soon. Well, announcement's like you'll see us collectively
<v Speaker 1>investing here. If that starts with hardware, do you think
<v Speaker 1>do you think there's a chance that that they could
<v Speaker 1>redefine Xbox with the launch of this next hardware enough
<v Speaker 1>to leave a lot of this baggage behind or is
<v Speaker 1>this like permanently attached to them, this sense that things
<v Speaker 1>are spiraling down.
<v Speaker 3>It's you can't You're not going to be able to
<v Speaker 3>reverse that with the next hardware. It's gonna basically be
<v Speaker 3>a generation of rebuilding trust. So maybe they launched the
<v Speaker 3>next hardware, It maybe doesn't sell, but they're committed and
<v Speaker 3>they stick to it, and maybe they reverse some decisions
<v Speaker 3>that bring players back. And the exclusives is probably the
<v Speaker 3>biggest one we're going to talk about that later, but
<v Speaker 3>I also think that ship has sailed, So I don't
<v Speaker 3>know what they could do to bring people back into
<v Speaker 3>the fold in a meaningful way. And even if they do,
<v Speaker 3>even if they do everything right, that's going to take
<v Speaker 3>an entire generation, and I think the winds of that
<v Speaker 3>aren't going to happen until whatever would be the Xbox
<v Speaker 3>after that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, And it's like, at this point, it's hard to
<v Speaker 1>imagine what that world looks like in general, littlone specifically
<v Speaker 1>for Xbox. Okay, if they are going to launch, like well,
<v Speaker 1>if it sounds like they're gonna watch new hardware when
<v Speaker 1>they do. If the rebuilding of the Xbox brand does
<v Speaker 1>start with hardware, I think the next step obviously would
<v Speaker 1>be obviously could be exclusives. And we've heard this conversation
<v Speaker 1>begin as people were asking Asha Sharma, or at least
<v Speaker 1>her account on social media, Hey, what about exclusives? Are
<v Speaker 1>those going to come back to Xbox? In this interview
<v Speaker 1>that she did with Windows Central, she once again does
<v Speaker 1>not rule it out. At least that's how Darren Bontius
<v Speaker 1>over a Game Spot framed it. Video Game exclusives have
<v Speaker 1>been a big draw for years now, but it's a
<v Speaker 1>strategy that Microsoft appears to have abandoned. Over recent years,
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft has released more titles from its first party studios
<v Speaker 1>across multiple platforms like the PlayStation five and Nintendo Switch consoles,
<v Speaker 1>and several upcoming games are also set to launch for
<v Speaker 1>these systems in the future.
<v Speaker 2>But could Microsoft ever return to.
<v Speaker 1>Having exclusive games new Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is it
<v Speaker 1>ruling out a return to the old console ways depending
<v Speaker 1>on the situation at hand. In a quote, right now,
<v Speaker 1>I need to learn candidly about the why of these decisions,
<v Speaker 1>what we were optimizing for, and what the data says
<v Speaker 1>about the Xbox strategy today, Sharmas said to Windows Central,
<v Speaker 1>that's the honest answer. I'm looking at lifetime value, not
<v Speaker 1>just what happened in a previous moment or in short
<v Speaker 1>short term efficiencies and things like that.
<v Speaker 2>The plans the plan until it's not the plan.
<v Speaker 1>Well, Mike, the plan has been to get these games
<v Speaker 1>on other platforms as quickly as possible. For the Horizon
<v Speaker 1>six coming to PlayStation six after beyond Xbox exclusively four a.
<v Speaker 2>Handful of months.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like the same thing should be true for Fable,
<v Speaker 1>So if they are going to shift back to having exclusives.
<v Speaker 2>What does that even look like.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think it looks like anything, because games are
<v Speaker 3>too expensive now, even Sony. The best that they're going
<v Speaker 3>to do is switch back to what Sony has, which is, hey,
<v Speaker 3>you get a year and then maybe we'll bring it
<v Speaker 3>to PS five. But I I don't think they're going back.
<v Speaker 3>I think the games costs too much to develop and
<v Speaker 3>there's too much in there unless they like drastically change
<v Speaker 3>how they make, you know, games in terms of cost.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe you get again, like a Halo that is like
<v Speaker 3>a year before it jumps to PlayStation five. But if
<v Speaker 3>everyone knows in the back of their head that's going
<v Speaker 3>to jump to PlayStation.
<v Speaker 2>You're not going to change player behaviors based on that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, right, so then you're kind of you're still kind
<v Speaker 3>of locked in, whereas like Sony, even Sony is opening
<v Speaker 3>a little bit bringing stuff to PC like a year later,
<v Speaker 3>but that's still not bringing stuff to Xbox. And Microsoft
<v Speaker 3>would like have to cut off that vector, and I
<v Speaker 3>don't think they can. Like Call of Duty needs to
<v Speaker 3>come to pretty much everything.
<v Speaker 1>Oh that's not a question. Minecraft continuing to be everywhere.
<v Speaker 3>Yep, like they just own so much and so much
<v Speaker 3>of that needs to be everywhere.
<v Speaker 1>And also like when they're looking at when she goes
<v Speaker 1>and looks at this stuff and gets this data, like
<v Speaker 1>she says she's going to and she's like, okay, so
<v Speaker 1>we have the Xbox console and we want to build
<v Speaker 1>that up using exclusives. I understand that concept, but like,
<v Speaker 1>let's just look over here. We have Call of Duty
<v Speaker 1>and Minecraft and King and all these things that make
<v Speaker 1>a lot of money, and a lot of Blizzard games
<v Speaker 1>that make a lot of money, and they all of
<v Speaker 1>those are available everywhere, including mobile in many cases, Why
<v Speaker 1>would we want our future endeavors with Xbox to be
<v Speaker 1>less like that? We want them everything to kind of
<v Speaker 1>be more like these things that are everywhere and make
<v Speaker 1>a ton of money.
<v Speaker 2>That's the success story.
<v Speaker 1>I just see it, like anyone coming in from the
<v Speaker 1>outside is going to look at that and assess it
<v Speaker 1>immediately as we want stuff to be more like the
<v Speaker 1>big live service games, which is what executives have been
<v Speaker 1>deciding for a long time now. So it's like I'm
<v Speaker 1>just I don't have a lot of faith that things
<v Speaker 1>are going to change here. Once she sits down and
<v Speaker 1>like gets learned up on this. On the other side,
<v Speaker 1>I really someone should have briefed her that the plans
<v Speaker 1>the plan until it's not the plan. It is just
<v Speaker 1>the last thing someone out of Xbox needs to be saying,
<v Speaker 1>because that's been the plan.
<v Speaker 2>The plan is the plan until it's not.
<v Speaker 1>The plan has been the plan for Xbox for fifteen
<v Speaker 1>goddamn you now where it's just just.
<v Speaker 2>Wait and see. We'll see if this works. If it doesn't,
<v Speaker 2>don't worry, We're going to try something else.
<v Speaker 1>Just wait and see, and if it didn't work out
<v Speaker 1>this year, just wait till next year. And that's what
<v Speaker 1>Xbox fans have been lamenting consistently for, like since the
<v Speaker 1>Xbox three sixty days, and it just sounds like that's
<v Speaker 1>going to continue as well. But Okay, she's gonna go
<v Speaker 1>get learned up on this, Mike. Do we expect her
<v Speaker 1>to come back with any different answers than what we've seen.
<v Speaker 3>Now that there's no way again, Like I said that,
<v Speaker 3>maybe Halo or Gears and you try to keep that
<v Speaker 3>exclusive for like a year at best or something like that,
<v Speaker 3>but one that assumes that the game that you release
<v Speaker 3>is amazing, so there you get a payoff or holding
<v Speaker 3>it for a year and then two again. If players know, like, oh,
<v Speaker 3>I mean it'll it'll be coming for like another year,
<v Speaker 3>then we'll probably just wait again. There are some PC
<v Speaker 3>players that weigh out they station exclusives just because now
<v Speaker 3>they're like, it's going to come to.
<v Speaker 1>PC, yeah, and like it's we talked about changing player behavior.
<v Speaker 1>That is something that is so difficult to do in
<v Speaker 1>best case scenarios. People want to do the thing that's
<v Speaker 1>the path of least resistance, and a lot of people
<v Speaker 1>have already paved a path in their lives to buying
<v Speaker 1>games on PC or PlayStation, and also they've glimpsed a
<v Speaker 1>world where it felt like Xbox was going to blink
<v Speaker 1>out of existence, Like these past couple of years, as
<v Speaker 1>Xbox has struggled, it's been very easy for every consumer
<v Speaker 1>to imagine a scenario where Xbox goes away and then
<v Speaker 1>what happens to all those games that you purchased, especially digitally,
<v Speaker 1>is a very easy follow up question to ask, and
<v Speaker 1>everyone's considered. They're like, oh, man, that would be bad.
<v Speaker 1>I would not like the way that would feel. Why
<v Speaker 1>would I begin making purchases over there? Understanding like the
<v Speaker 1>consequences of those of those decisions if this all goes
<v Speaker 1>belly up. Now it doesn't feel like it's going to
<v Speaker 1>go belly up, but it's just why even begin to
<v Speaker 1>shift your behavior if you can do something that feels
<v Speaker 1>a little bit more guaranteed to be safe long term.
<v Speaker 2>That's certainly PlayStation and definitely Steam.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, I just think Microsoft has such an impossible
<v Speaker 1>hill to climb there to get on the other side
<v Speaker 1>of that, that it would take years of sustained positive results,
<v Speaker 1>like you mentioned, to make any dent in that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And there was an interview with games Beat and
<v Speaker 3>Xbox guy Shamous.
<v Speaker 2>Sham Seamus Blackly.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Dean talk to Seamus, and Dean talked to him.
<v Speaker 3>And what's the quote I have right here from Microsoft?
<v Speaker 3>Set in Adella has made an incredible number of bets
<v Speaker 3>and invests an incredible amount of money and credibility and
<v Speaker 3>transform model AI future Xbox, like a lot of businesses
<v Speaker 3>that aren't the core air business, is being sunset. They
<v Speaker 3>don't say that, but that's what's happening. I expect that
<v Speaker 3>the new CEO, Asha Shwama, her job is going to
<v Speaker 3>be as a plenty of care doctor who slides Xbox
<v Speaker 3>gently into the night. And the part of that like opening,
<v Speaker 3>like that's where he starts this interview that sounds right
<v Speaker 3>is the fact that Microsoft is betting pretty heavily in
<v Speaker 3>AI and torpedo torpedoing a lot of the bigger parts
<v Speaker 3>of the company, and Xbox is really not one of
<v Speaker 3>the bigger parts of the company. So the fact that
<v Speaker 3>they are hurting the consistent strong moneymakers, and then to
<v Speaker 3>expect that they're not going to make some of the
<v Speaker 3>same moves for Xbox, especially giving the fact that Asha
<v Speaker 3>comes from the AI side, it just doesn't read true.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, like this stuffes feel like all these answers she's given, Like,
<v Speaker 1>I'm glad you kind of let us hear because all
<v Speaker 1>these answers we've given that we have so far discussed
<v Speaker 1>as reading to be literally true her literal meaning, this
<v Speaker 1>is what is going to happen. I instead, in actuality
<v Speaker 1>read it all as bedside manner like I it all
<v Speaker 1>comes across as this is what you say in this moment,
<v Speaker 1>and you try.
<v Speaker 2>To make it as true as possible, but you.
<v Speaker 1>Know the actual truth, which is this is a patient
<v Speaker 1>that you cannot saved.
<v Speaker 2>So yeah, what is that mean?
<v Speaker 1>It transforms into they want to keep as much of
<v Speaker 1>the positivity towards Xbox and the nostalgia for it as possible.
<v Speaker 1>That is why they're talking this way. They're not going
<v Speaker 1>to just cut it off, but they're gonna. It's gonna
<v Speaker 1>become pretty apparent here really soon, I bet of what
<v Speaker 1>is really happening to just about everyone, if it hasn't
<v Speaker 1>been already, which it probably has.
<v Speaker 2>And in those moments, all this talk.
<v Speaker 1>Won't matter anymore. It'll just have been talk. He brought
<v Speaker 1>it up the AI side of it. Xbox boss on AI,
<v Speaker 1>this continues. We're committed to art made by people. This
<v Speaker 1>is from Blair Marnell at GameSpot.
<v Speaker 2>Last than a week ago, leadership.
<v Speaker 1>A leadership shakeup at Xbox saw Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil
<v Speaker 1>Spencer retire and Xbox President Sarah Bond stepped down In
<v Speaker 1>Spencer's place, Asha Sharma, the former boss of Microsoft's Core
<v Speaker 1>AI division, will now lead Microsoft Gaming. However, Sharma and
<v Speaker 1>the newly promoted Xbox CCO Chief Content Officer Matt Boody
<v Speaker 1>want to assure fans that the former's background doesn't mean
<v Speaker 1>that Microsoft is pushing for more AI and games. They
<v Speaker 1>say in a quote, We've got no pressure from Microsoft,
<v Speaker 1>there are no direcative directives on AI coming down. Booty
<v Speaker 1>told Windows Windows Central, our teams are free to use
<v Speaker 1>any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it's helping write
<v Speaker 1>code or check for bugs things more in the production pipeline.
<v Speaker 1>At the end of the day, as Asha said, we're
<v Speaker 1>committed to art made by people. Technology is only in
<v Speaker 1>support of that. And yeah, again, another thing you just
<v Speaker 1>kind of say, right, this feels like the milk the
<v Speaker 1>I drink your milkshake strategy, where we'll just surround the
<v Speaker 1>people making our games with AI and then when they
<v Speaker 1>go in any direction for any tool, we will be
<v Speaker 1>waiting for them with our AI stuff so that more
<v Speaker 1>of them are on copilot. So our numbers feel it
<v Speaker 1>even better and we can feel even better recommending it
<v Speaker 1>to people, and when our people use it, we can
<v Speaker 1>improve it based on their telemetry data and all this stuff. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and I think that's a very easy thing to say
<v Speaker 1>as a company that has repeatedly seen that you can't
<v Speaker 1>force a horse to drink water, and you can only
<v Speaker 1>lead them there, and you kind of lead them thereby
<v Speaker 1>sort of making it very enticing. That's what they did
<v Speaker 1>with the Xbox strategy where they learned they couldn't just
<v Speaker 1>make an Xbox One that was all the things they
<v Speaker 1>wanted to be in terms of lockdown and not playing
<v Speaker 1>use games and all that stuff. They sort of had
<v Speaker 1>to lead us there the back way by making digital
<v Speaker 1>more appealing and game pass and things like that.
<v Speaker 2>So, yeah, no pressure to use AI. But Mike, what
<v Speaker 2>do you think.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's pretty much like there's no pressure to
<v Speaker 3>use AI. But as you said, if you are a
<v Speaker 3>current Windows user, you know that it is everywhere. In fact,
<v Speaker 3>if you're a current Gmail user, like it's like, oh man,
<v Speaker 3>I have I have accidentally hit the AI mode on
<v Speaker 3>my Android phone so many times because they put it
<v Speaker 3>put the buttons there, there's no way to get around it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the power button does that instead of turning the
<v Speaker 2>thing off. That's so stupid.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, so I think Microsoft, I don't think they're going
<v Speaker 3>to force it. And honestly, you look at anytime AI
<v Speaker 3>does pop up and stuff, it's it's bad. So like
<v Speaker 3>they're they're I don't think they want to outwardly say
<v Speaker 3>anything about it, but internally, I don't think they're going
<v Speaker 3>to push it. I don't think they're going to say
<v Speaker 3>from the top down, you have to use AI. I
<v Speaker 3>know there are a lot of tech companies that are
<v Speaker 3>like that now, but they will be like, hey, yep,
<v Speaker 3>we have a repository of Microsoft owned concept art. Maybe
<v Speaker 3>just maybe just generate a couple images, just a you
<v Speaker 3>don't have to but if you want to.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, and it's gonna things are like this is a
<v Speaker 1>little bit of an aside, but the reports that IBM's
<v Speaker 1>stock price plummeted because Claude Claude code Fromanthropic was like, hey,
<v Speaker 1>we can do Cobol. Now we count do Cobyl in
<v Speaker 1>like like optimize the code and all this stuff. And
<v Speaker 1>it's like, oh, that's worrisome because there was already a
<v Speaker 1>dearth of people who actually understood Cobyl and and now
<v Speaker 1>there's we're gonna get to a point where it's like
<v Speaker 1>there's not a reason to learn it. So there will
<v Speaker 1>be a world where no one understands it except for
<v Speaker 1>the AI. And that's gonna be that's gonna be bad
<v Speaker 1>because a lot of the world's financial systems runs on
<v Speaker 1>that code. It's it's scary and like, yeah, surrounding us
<v Speaker 1>in windows with the AI stuff, Mike, I just I
<v Speaker 1>noticed when I hit the search button in Windows the
<v Speaker 1>other day, there's like a little box where they have like,
<v Speaker 1>you know, your tools and stuff, and you see the
<v Speaker 1>snipping tool or whatever. There's another one of those boxes
<v Speaker 1>now where it's like AI tools and all of the
<v Speaker 1>logos look like old Windows clip art. I'm like, Oh,
<v Speaker 1>this is how they're trying to signal to the old
<v Speaker 1>people that use Windows that they should also be using AI.
<v Speaker 1>They're making these really friendly looking icons and stuff. It's
<v Speaker 1>like they want to get everybody on this stuff because
<v Speaker 1>they've built their entire financial future on it.
<v Speaker 2>So I yeah, they're not going to push these people
<v Speaker 2>on it.
<v Speaker 1>They will find ways to subtly do dark patterns to
<v Speaker 1>get people on AI, especially at their game studios.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and at the end of the day, a lot
<v Speaker 3>of these people in these studios, I mean, the industry
<v Speaker 3>has been followed out. A lot of these folks are
<v Speaker 3>just trying to keep their job. So I don't think
<v Speaker 3>many will want too, but I think maybe they all
<v Speaker 3>slightly lean into Although to be honest, Xbox's biggest problem
<v Speaker 3>feels like the fact that Microsoft doesn't really rain in
<v Speaker 3>or direct any of its studios, Like you got a.
<v Speaker 1>Strong voice a central voice. Yeah, I think that was
<v Speaker 1>Matt Booty's job. So will that change? Who knows.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, And that's been for probably like the last decade.
<v Speaker 3>Like Microsoft will buy up a studio and just let
<v Speaker 3>them sort of do whatever, and that's probably their problem.
<v Speaker 3>And then you know, you got the flip side, you
<v Speaker 3>got PlayStation and they're the opposite there. They will pick
<v Speaker 3>up a studio and then they'll be like, you are
<v Speaker 3>this and this is what you are doing for still
<v Speaker 3>are for good.
<v Speaker 1>It's been in a mercenary team from Bungeie to say
<v Speaker 1>why your game needs to be canceled?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, exactly, it's right.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I like, again, I don't think they're going
<v Speaker 3>to say to studios, okay, you have to use AI
<v Speaker 3>because again they're not really it doesn't feel like pushing
<v Speaker 3>studios to do anything in particular. But if you set
<v Speaker 3>up enough for your organization, your internal processes to sort
<v Speaker 3>of just nudge you in that direction.
<v Speaker 2>I mean, we know what happens.
<v Speaker 1>It's this kind of the thing that was happening with
<v Speaker 1>Blue Point, where it's like if the studio knows that
<v Speaker 1>their project is more likely to get green lighted going
<v Speaker 1>in the future because like you said, who knows how
<v Speaker 1>it worked before this, but sounds like going in the future,
<v Speaker 1>things might change. And if you have a chance of
<v Speaker 1>getting your project green lighted, if you say something about
<v Speaker 1>it involving AI and you know that increases the likelihood
<v Speaker 1>that you're going to get budget. You need to get
<v Speaker 1>the team size that you need to actually get your
<v Speaker 1>project made for five years so you could secure your job. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>you bet a lot of these studios will find ways
<v Speaker 1>to inc uprate that stuff in there, because yeah, they're
<v Speaker 1>just trying to keep their jobs. All right, let's take
<v Speaker 1>a break, does it for the Xbox talk thankfully? We'll
<v Speaker 1>talk about something else when we get back. If you
<v Speaker 1>want to skip out on these ad messages that we're
<v Speaker 1>about to go to, we do have ad free versions
<v Speaker 1>of this show on gimet bomb. If you go to
<v Speaker 1>gimebomb dot com slash join, you can find the audio
<v Speaker 1>and video file there. In the meantime, we will be
<v Speaker 1>right back.
<v Speaker 2>We're back.
<v Speaker 1>It's Game mess Mornings, MH. Williams, Jeff grub getting back
<v Speaker 1>into it. Let's do this next story here. PlayStation five
<v Speaker 1>and PC players can try PlayStation's two big upcoming live
<v Speaker 1>service games.
<v Speaker 2>This weekend. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC.
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation is confirmed that a closed playtest for its newly
<v Speaker 1>announced multiplayers spinoff, Horizon Hunters Gathering, will take place this weekend.
<v Speaker 1>The test will run between Friday, February twenty seventh and Sunday,
<v Speaker 1>March first on PC and PS five, and to join,
<v Speaker 1>you'll need to sign up for the PlayStation beta program.
<v Speaker 1>There's like a website link to kind of throw your
<v Speaker 1>name in and hope that you get selected. But yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that's gonna be happening this weekend. I'm like kind of
<v Speaker 1>interested in checking this game out. I want to just
<v Speaker 1>play it because I think just looking at it, I'm like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, it looks neat, it looks very different,
<v Speaker 1>but I'm not sure if it will be my kind
<v Speaker 1>of game. Kind of interesting to get my hands on it.
<v Speaker 1>The other game happening here simultaneously is the other big
<v Speaker 1>release from Sony Bungee's Marathon. It is running its open
<v Speaker 1>preview weekend from February twenty sixth through March second, and
<v Speaker 1>then the game will close back down and come back
<v Speaker 1>as a paid game a few days later, so everyone
<v Speaker 1>get a taste. I guess how are you feeling about
<v Speaker 1>either of these projects, Mike.
<v Speaker 3>Oddly enough, I'm more interested in others gathering. But even
<v Speaker 3>then I'm kind of like, I mean, I I can
<v Speaker 3>see why you're doing this, but a lot of my
<v Speaker 3>live service and the big problem with all of the
<v Speaker 3>live service and the Sony's Live service push is most
<v Speaker 3>of our live service time is already accounted for. Yep,
<v Speaker 3>like I play Wow, I play f F fourteen, I
<v Speaker 3>play Fortnite, so like my time is in. The buy
<v Speaker 3>in on those platforms in terms of time and money
<v Speaker 3>is already significant. So pulling me over to something new
<v Speaker 3>is you know, as a new live service, is pretty difficult.
<v Speaker 3>And of the the Sony things, the only thing that
<v Speaker 3>I probably would have played live service I like, I
<v Speaker 3>play I'll play Ghost of Yota Legends because I like
<v Speaker 3>Sushima Legends a lot, but that was sort of like
<v Speaker 3>a side add on. I would have liked that Spider
<v Speaker 3>Man Online game. I think I really would have.
<v Speaker 1>There's a Spider Man remastered mod that makes a multiplayer
<v Speaker 1>that I'm like, I keep planning to play on this website,
<v Speaker 1>and eventually I just got to make that happen, because
<v Speaker 1>when I do real bad.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and that was from the leak, and they apparently
<v Speaker 3>just decided to walk away from it. I'm not going
<v Speaker 3>to do it, yeah, which is fine the logic for
<v Speaker 3>walking away, But that was probably the live service game
<v Speaker 3>I probably would have played. From Sony Hunter's gathering. It
<v Speaker 3>looks cool. I just I don't have the time and marathon.
<v Speaker 3>That art direction is so good, and I so wish
<v Speaker 3>they had just done a single player.
<v Speaker 2>Game for it.
<v Speaker 3>I'm sorry. I'm sorry developers, I know, and I hope
<v Speaker 3>it goes well for you. But like Arc Raiders, I
<v Speaker 3>think probably took a lot of that thunder. I was
<v Speaker 3>into Arc Raiders in the beginning for a little while there,
<v Speaker 3>and then you know, just tapered off and that was great.
<v Speaker 3>So you're like, games always launch into a very specific context,
<v Speaker 3>and they are launching into a world where there's these
<v Speaker 3>existing large live service games, and there are games like
<v Speaker 3>Arc Raiders that are doing the same thing, or like
<v Speaker 3>Hunt or the original you know, Escape from Tarkov, And
<v Speaker 3>what they really have is that fantastic art direction and
<v Speaker 3>the fact that it's Bungee, so it's gonna play fantastically,
<v Speaker 3>But like, is that enough?
<v Speaker 2>I don't ask a question. I don't know either.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I think this test will be not make
<v Speaker 1>or break, but it could make it. Actually if people
<v Speaker 1>come out of this test talking very highly about it
<v Speaker 1>and everyone's like, oh, I cannot wait to get this
<v Speaker 1>real thing. If it's you know, the Call of Duty
<v Speaker 1>four beta, the play tests coming out of E three
<v Speaker 1>that one year where it's like, oh, everyone got the
<v Speaker 1>free test and they couldn't wait to get the full game.
<v Speaker 2>If that happens here, that's that's possible. Like we could
<v Speaker 2>see that.
<v Speaker 1>And it could set this game up for huge success.
<v Speaker 1>And you know, it sounds like the most recent play
<v Speaker 1>tests from people playing in other regions, we're all like
<v Speaker 1>much more positive than the early test. So yeah, I
<v Speaker 1>think we could have a little bit of a redemption
<v Speaker 1>story here for Marathon. But we'll have to love to
<v Speaker 1>see if that's how it actually plays out. We'll get
<v Speaker 1>a good glimpse of that this weekend, you know, for
<v Speaker 1>Hunters Gathering. Yeah, I'll be curious to kind of just
<v Speaker 1>hear the early word.
<v Speaker 2>I want to.
<v Speaker 1>I want, like, especially for people who like those kinds
<v Speaker 1>of games. You know, I think this is a monster hunter,
<v Speaker 1>Like maybe light is a better term. I kind of
<v Speaker 1>want to just see what people think in terms of
<v Speaker 1>how this game is going about that? All right, Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy seven just got a new version and fans are
<v Speaker 1>not loving it. This is from Devin McClure at Polygon.
<v Speaker 1>Though players are still waiting for the third installment of
<v Speaker 1>the Final Fantasy seven remake trilogy, there's now a new
<v Speaker 1>version of the original game they can sink their teeth into.
<v Speaker 1>This definitive edition of Final Fantasy seven has replaced the
<v Speaker 1>twenty thirteen release of the re release of the game
<v Speaker 1>on the Steam Store, and so far fans are not
<v Speaker 1>very pleased with its quality, citing performance issues and strange visuals.
<v Speaker 1>The origin original version of Final Fantasy seven was released
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen ninety seven, claiming a place in history blah
<v Speaker 1>blah blah. As far as this one goes, fans are
<v Speaker 1>currently not enjoying the updated version of the game. At
<v Speaker 1>the time of writing, the new Final Fantasy seven has
<v Speaker 1>two hundred and eighty one reviews on Steam and since
<v Speaker 1>at a consensus of mostly negative. Reviews point out a
<v Speaker 1>myriad of issues that like the increase of frames per second,
<v Speaker 1>messing with the speed of fights, blurry graphics, and the
<v Speaker 1>game not even launching to begin with. Multiple patches have
<v Speaker 1>already been released for the game, and a few reviews
<v Speaker 1>have been updated to reflect some of the speed issues
<v Speaker 1>being addressed, but so far, the new version of Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy seven is off to an incredibly rocky start. A man,
<v Speaker 1>this feels like this is happening more and more frequently,
<v Speaker 1>where these specifically like old ports or old remasters come
<v Speaker 1>out and have weird issues, Skyrim on Switch being a
<v Speaker 1>recent example of this, although apparently Fallout four ran really
<v Speaker 1>well when it launched on Switch to just recently, what
<v Speaker 1>do you think.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, it's it's while that they are so many
<v Speaker 3>companies are making this mistake like PC players are, and
<v Speaker 3>I say this as a primarily PC we are insane.
<v Speaker 3>And that's just like on the bare minimum level. So
<v Speaker 3>what you needed to do was launch this and have
<v Speaker 3>it come out like exactly the same as the other one.
<v Speaker 3>And notably the PC port of Final Fantasy seven was
<v Speaker 3>when it launched terrible, like plagued with bugs, they had
<v Speaker 3>to patch it to hell and high water just to
<v Speaker 3>get it to a decent state. So this is like
<v Speaker 3>a repetition of that when it was just really supposed
<v Speaker 3>to be like the same thing, like for a while
<v Speaker 3>the executable was missing, Then you have the game speed issue.
<v Speaker 3>Then people were noticing that the resolution, like it stuck
<v Speaker 3>at four by three, even though the previous version you
<v Speaker 3>could change the resolution. So it's just like like at
<v Speaker 3>the very least you needed to reach back to what
<v Speaker 3>you had in the store before. But you're launching it
<v Speaker 3>on PC and again we are insane, so you needed
<v Speaker 3>to do something just to even make it like like
<v Speaker 3>amazing like normal PC. The PC players are expecting a
<v Speaker 3>lot of resolutions. They want to be able to put
<v Speaker 3>it on widescreen monitors, they.
<v Speaker 2>Want like slider, even if it doesn't make sense for
<v Speaker 2>the game. Yeah, you're right.
<v Speaker 3>They wanted HDR probably like options and stuff like that,
<v Speaker 3>which to be honest, Square wasn't going to do. But
<v Speaker 3>that's the expectation. Like, that's that's how PC players are.
<v Speaker 3>Maybe you could have done this on console, but it's
<v Speaker 3>and then of course it similar to the Yakaza issues.
<v Speaker 3>It replaced. This is the original executable, which is not
<v Speaker 3>a problem for people who already owned the game.
<v Speaker 1>But exactly, yes, that's worth pointing out that if you
<v Speaker 1>already owned that version, you get this update for free.
<v Speaker 2>And it's a separate game.
<v Speaker 1>You can then go back and install the old version
<v Speaker 1>if you want, which I bet has a ton of
<v Speaker 1>like mod support at this point, and you probably have
<v Speaker 1>the reasons to want to go back to it. But
<v Speaker 1>if you wanted to go buy that version, now you
<v Speaker 1>can no longer do that. You can only access this
<v Speaker 1>new version.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and so it's they released a version that is
<v Speaker 3>not even just the bare minimum. And then they also
<v Speaker 3>took something away. And I don't know why they do this,
<v Speaker 3>just like release a second a second executable, second thing on.
<v Speaker 1>This thing not compatible, Like the save file from one
<v Speaker 1>game doesn't go to the other one. So if you
<v Speaker 1>had a game that if you were playing it on
<v Speaker 1>that previous version, now you're trying to switch over here,
<v Speaker 1>you have to start over. It's fully different, executable, like
<v Speaker 1>completely different. It's a bizarre thing that they're doing.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, just stop taking games away, especially like it. It's
<v Speaker 3>only gonna look bad. And also you're probably going to
<v Speaker 3>make a mistake somewhere in the PC port unless you
<v Speaker 3>got like Durante or somebody you know working on it,
<v Speaker 3>like the Falcon Games or something like that.
<v Speaker 2>I just.
<v Speaker 3>It's it's it's a it's a rough, rough place out there,
<v Speaker 3>even though, like when they dropped, I like said on
<v Speaker 3>the social so it's like, oh, that's cool. And then
<v Speaker 3>just you could see the ground swell like coming on
<v Speaker 3>rended and the reviews, I was like, oh, God.
<v Speaker 2>Got hit by it like a train. Absolutely, that's how
<v Speaker 2>it goes.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, you know, Blake Chronicle X being another example of
<v Speaker 1>this from the chat, but that one's five dollars. So
<v Speaker 1>people are like, I'm gonna go get a refund from
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo because this thing is garbage, right. I mean, all
<v Speaker 1>these things get updated and fixed eventually for the most part,
<v Speaker 1>and I expect that in all these cases, But.
<v Speaker 2>Why is it?
<v Speaker 1>Why is it happening repeatedly, back to back to back,
<v Speaker 1>So it feels like they are letting it. Like they
<v Speaker 1>want to do these remasters, they want to do these
<v Speaker 1>re releases, they want to do these ports, but they
<v Speaker 1>just don't want to put in the effort to get
<v Speaker 1>those things right because they are not a high priority.
<v Speaker 2>It sing you should probably either not do it or
<v Speaker 2>get it right the first time. All right, last couple
<v Speaker 2>of stories here.
<v Speaker 1>Discord delays global age verification following enormous backlash. This is
<v Speaker 1>from Alex Hopley, a game reactor. Discord, like many other
<v Speaker 1>websites and services where you might come into contact with
<v Speaker 1>adult content, already requires age verification over in the UK.
<v Speaker 1>Outside of this rainy hell hole, however, you're free to
<v Speaker 1>log on as.
<v Speaker 2>You please and see what you like.
<v Speaker 1>That was about to change with Discord rolling out age
<v Speaker 1>verification across the globe, But it seems that now that
<v Speaker 1>these policies are going to be delayed. We knew this
<v Speaker 1>rollout was going to be controversial, reads a message on
<v Speaker 1>discord site. Anytime you introduce something that touches identity and verification,
<v Speaker 1>people are going to have strong feelings, rightfully, so in hindsight,
<v Speaker 1>we should have provid in more detail about our intentions
<v Speaker 1>and how the process works. Many of you walked away
<v Speaker 1>thinking we're requiring face scans and ID uploads from everyone
<v Speaker 1>just to use Discord. That's not what's happening, but the
<v Speaker 1>fact that so many people believe it tells us we've
<v Speaker 1>failed at our most basic job, clearly explaining what we're
<v Speaker 1>doing and.
<v Speaker 2>Why that's on us.
<v Speaker 1>The message continues that the age verification will be delayed
<v Speaker 1>until the second half of the year, but it is
<v Speaker 1>still happening. If that's a deal breaker for you as
<v Speaker 1>it was before, this might not change your thoughts. However,
<v Speaker 1>Discord is doing it's m upmost to convince us this
<v Speaker 1>isn't such a bad idea. Ninety percent of users won't
<v Speaker 1>see any changes, as their age will be to be
<v Speaker 1>determined by some behind the scenes technology. Basically, if you've
<v Speaker 1>ever used a gift from like the first two seasons
<v Speaker 1>of The Simpsons, like you're good, they're not gonna check
<v Speaker 1>I Yeah. It sounds like they are kind of saying
<v Speaker 1>the same thing they've been saying Mike, where it's like,
<v Speaker 1>we are doing this. You guys don't understand exactly what
<v Speaker 1>we're doing. It's not as bad as you're making it sound.
<v Speaker 1>But we are gonna be keeping track of your identity
<v Speaker 1>back whether you like it or not, and whether you
<v Speaker 1>give us your idea or not, we'll have some idea
<v Speaker 1>of who you are and what age you are. And
<v Speaker 1>that was always the issue that people had. It was
<v Speaker 1>never like even just just scanning the idea. It was
<v Speaker 1>all of this technology in the first place, and they're
<v Speaker 1>just delaying it to the second half of this year.
<v Speaker 2>It's still coming.
<v Speaker 1>So what do you think does this buy them some
<v Speaker 1>time to better explain it, because I don't think that's
<v Speaker 1>going to help them.
<v Speaker 3>There's no better way to explain it. Like this is
<v Speaker 3>going to happen regardless, just because they're trying to comply
<v Speaker 3>with the growing number of regional age restriction laws.
<v Speaker 2>Ten states have various laws of the stripe, yes.
<v Speaker 3>Right, and Australia already started, you know, on social media,
<v Speaker 3>you know age restriction. The UK is talking about it,
<v Speaker 3>like a bunch of regions are doing this.
<v Speaker 1>There's a state senate somewhere that like has some people
<v Speaker 1>proposing age verification to use Linux and Windows.
<v Speaker 2>So that's fine.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like they are they are sort of stuck
<v Speaker 3>with it, but also it's some bullshit at least in
<v Speaker 3>like in this case. So Discord already had a hack
<v Speaker 3>that lost some of this. This previous one was in October,
<v Speaker 3>and it was actually related to one of their third
<v Speaker 3>party service providers for the support stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, it was.
<v Speaker 3>It was their customer support side. And if you had
<v Speaker 3>happened to send information to them, like government IDs stuff
<v Speaker 3>like that while you were trying to get support on Discord,
<v Speaker 3>some of that information got out. But I mean that's
<v Speaker 3>like that's the thing, right, Like in this situation, part
<v Speaker 3>of the backlash was that it's happening at all. Part
<v Speaker 3>of the backlash was the company that the third party
<v Speaker 3>company is aligned with Peter Teel, which means we'll probably
<v Speaker 3>be aligned with the government. And people just don't want
<v Speaker 3>to give their information away, Like it's just a it's
<v Speaker 3>a complete non starter, and they're delaying it and hoping
<v Speaker 3>that maybe something will happen.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, but there's like.
<v Speaker 1>Some other controversy happens somewhere else and we just ignore
<v Speaker 1>it and we forget about this while they quietly pass
<v Speaker 1>it later in the year or something like that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like they turned down the temperature for a little bit
<v Speaker 1>and hoping to find their right moments to strike later.
<v Speaker 1>Like we know, Like this is always worse than these
<v Speaker 1>companies make it out to be. It is the worst
<v Speaker 1>case scenarios that the people the chicken little is yelling
<v Speaker 1>the sky's falling have been proven correct over and over
<v Speaker 1>and over with this stuff. I don't have the exact details,
<v Speaker 1>but I believe Google just recently settled a lawsuit with
<v Speaker 1>the regulators where it's like, hey, you know that time
<v Speaker 1>when everyone was like, boy, I was just talking to
<v Speaker 1>my wife about this thing. And then later in the
<v Speaker 1>day I heard an ad or a saw an ad
<v Speaker 1>on a website about that product that I mentioned. It
<v Speaker 1>feels like Google's listening to me, and everyone's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>they can't do that. They were, they were, they did that,
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, oh, so the Chicken Littles were right.
<v Speaker 1>And with this Peter Thiel stuff and Pallenteer, of course,
<v Speaker 1>it's going to be the worst case scenario. That guy
<v Speaker 1>is literally from hell, like he's going to create He's
<v Speaker 1>going to try to create Hell on Earth as best
<v Speaker 1>he can, and he's going to use the data in
<v Speaker 1>the most nefarious way possible, Cambridge Analytica style, to build profiles,
<v Speaker 1>to target people, to make them angry so that when
<v Speaker 1>it's time to vote, they're likely to make a decision
<v Speaker 1>against their best interest.
<v Speaker 2>And helping them by letting us talk to.
<v Speaker 1>Our friends for free on the internet and ransom and
<v Speaker 1>ransoming that against us, so that we are once again
<v Speaker 1>doing things against their best interest. Escord, your part of
<v Speaker 1>the problem, and people are going to notice that and
<v Speaker 1>are definitely wised up on it at this point and
<v Speaker 1>going to get sick.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and look, let's be honest, my data's out there.
<v Speaker 3>Our data's out there. Oh Yady has it, but I
<v Speaker 3>don't want to give it to somebody else in order
<v Speaker 3>to have another vector. I'd just rather not. And yes,
<v Speaker 3>they'll probably be like, uh, you know, they'll they'll show
<v Speaker 3>like the CW or you know, open show, like who
<v Speaker 3>is this character and what show is it from? And
<v Speaker 3>if you answer it, they're like, ah, you're you're.
<v Speaker 1>Fifty that Pokemon and it's a gin Pokemon. Yeah all right.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it's it's it's just it's it's a non starter.
<v Speaker 3>And I mean, hell in my main discord. I mean
<v Speaker 3>you're you're on Gion Bombs on discord and a bunch
<v Speaker 3>of stuff my main discord, we're like talking like damn,
<v Speaker 3>what are we gonna do, like if if this comes down,
<v Speaker 3>because like half of us are like nah, I don't
<v Speaker 3>think so.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, Like I definitely want to like wait and see
<v Speaker 1>because it's like I'm sick of having the like constant
<v Speaker 1>migraine on the internet. But it's like every time we
<v Speaker 1>at this point, every time it is time to migrate,
<v Speaker 1>we're migrating over stuff to giant bomb dot com, and
<v Speaker 1>it's like, let's just build our home and keep our
<v Speaker 1>home in order, and that way we'll always have ground
<v Speaker 1>to retreat to that they're trying to give us no
<v Speaker 1>ground to go to. It's like, well, we'll build our
<v Speaker 1>own and it's never going to be attached to these
<v Speaker 1>centralized networks that get huge, but we can at least
<v Speaker 1>keep a piece of the old Internet alive and be
<v Speaker 1>happy to do that.
<v Speaker 2>Last Join, that's right, Slash join and get in there, everybody.
<v Speaker 1>Marvel's Wolverine for PS five got gets its September release
<v Speaker 1>date September fifteenth. We talked about this on the BombCast
<v Speaker 1>a little bit yesterday, but wanted to bring it up
<v Speaker 1>on Game this Morning's as well. Okay, yeah, that dates
<v Speaker 1>a little bit earlier than I was expecting, but I
<v Speaker 1>guess with GTA lingering, they might as well get it
<v Speaker 1>out as early as possible, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean September is like mid September feels a
<v Speaker 3>bit early, but you want to avoid the GTA apocalypse,
<v Speaker 3>So this gives them like a good, you know, a
<v Speaker 3>couple months of sales before they have to really worry about.
<v Speaker 3>But they're also in line and placed and ready for
<v Speaker 3>the holiday season. So as soon as Black Friday hits,
<v Speaker 3>they can you know, drop it like ten bucks and
<v Speaker 3>get those sales if they can, so's it's a smart
<v Speaker 3>day to drop them. I again, yes, it does feel
<v Speaker 3>a little bit earlier, but also Sony, it's just sort
<v Speaker 3>of dropping stuff whenever they they feel.
<v Speaker 1>Like It certainly does not affect them all in any
<v Speaker 1>real way anymore, and they are the company outside of
<v Speaker 1>rock Star and Take two that stands to benefit the
<v Speaker 1>most win Grand Theft Auto six launches, So that's one
<v Speaker 1>of the reasons why they could easily and without much
<v Speaker 1>of a fuss internally delayed the PS six is launch
<v Speaker 1>because it's like, we'll just elongate this this generation through
<v Speaker 1>the power of GTA six and that will likely have
<v Speaker 1>that effect on this.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, the benefit of a game like Wolverine really
<v Speaker 3>most of PlayStation's first party efforts that aren't the live
<v Speaker 3>service side, is that the month that they have the
<v Speaker 3>month and change before GTA drops is about how long
<v Speaker 3>it will take people to finish Wolverine, Like most of
<v Speaker 3>their games are like twenty hours main campaign, thirty thirty
<v Speaker 3>five hours all in and then you're done. So that's
<v Speaker 3>not a problem for them at all. I'm looking forward
<v Speaker 3>to it.
<v Speaker 2>I'm a little.
<v Speaker 3>Wondering. You know, they never did the DLC for Spider
<v Speaker 3>Man two. There was no Miles Morales style game. So
<v Speaker 3>I'm looking forward this. I'm real, real hungry for some
<v Speaker 3>Insomniac stuff and I hope there's DLC or something for this.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, or I wonder like what characters they'll sort of
<v Speaker 1>have it in there that they could potentially have an
<v Speaker 1>expand alone for or something like that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and then yeah, yeah, and the Unsolniac League sort
<v Speaker 3>of looms large as like people have some idea of
<v Speaker 3>where they are going, but has that stuff changed.
<v Speaker 2>What it probably has? Yeah, like where's Venom?
<v Speaker 1>Venom probably still shows up, but where's Venom?
<v Speaker 2>All right?
<v Speaker 1>That does it for the headlines. We did have a
<v Speaker 1>poll question from Monday.
<v Speaker 2>We get the results over here.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to refresh get the most recent results if
<v Speaker 1>that will load there, It goes all right, and then
<v Speaker 1>we have a new poll question. We'll get to here
<v Speaker 1>in a second. In the meantime, though, let's see.
<v Speaker 2>Here if you haven't purchased a switch to yet, what
<v Speaker 2>will get you to do? So?
<v Speaker 1>We had price drop more first party games, O lead
<v Speaker 1>version and nothing I will buy.
<v Speaker 2>Another one if it's an o LAD versioncause I'm sucker.
<v Speaker 1>Sixteen percent of people said they're waiting for an o
<v Speaker 1>LED version, twenty three percent said they're waiting for a
<v Speaker 1>price drop, thirty three percent said just more first party games,
<v Speaker 1>and twenty seven percent said nothing. So, you know, price
<v Speaker 1>sensitivity has been the thing brought up most frequently. I
<v Speaker 1>think a lot of people answering this question are trying
<v Speaker 1>to be sensible and recognizing it's very unlikely that Nintendo's
<v Speaker 1>going to drop the price. So instead, I need to
<v Speaker 1>feel like I'm getting a lot of value out of
<v Speaker 1>the system, and that value comes from it having a
<v Speaker 1>lot of excellent first party exclusives, right.
<v Speaker 3>Correct, Because one, Nintendo is probably not dropping that price
<v Speaker 3>ever in the best of times, and they are definitely
<v Speaker 3>not going to be able to.
<v Speaker 2>Drop it now in the worst of times.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, yes, in the worst of times. So people are
<v Speaker 3>hoping for the more value, and they're looking for those
<v Speaker 3>key pillars, which are of course Mario Zelda and probably
<v Speaker 3>at this point Smash Smash definitely. So I mean, we
<v Speaker 3>have Pokemon coming, Mario Kart is out there. I don't
<v Speaker 3>know if world has the juice that eight Deluxe did,
<v Speaker 3>but Mario and Zelda and Smash are probably like that's
<v Speaker 3>the that's what people need to see, especially some sort
<v Speaker 3>of new Mario game.
<v Speaker 2>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>I think you're right, and all of those are absent
<v Speaker 1>so far, so once we start getting any of those,
<v Speaker 1>this weird period will probably help solve itself a little bit. Okay,
<v Speaker 1>new pole question, do you think Xbox will bring back
<v Speaker 1>its console exclusive games?
<v Speaker 2>Yes?
<v Speaker 1>No, just kind of want to see how much we
<v Speaker 1>are buying into this or even if you think it's possible,
<v Speaker 1>you feel free answer yes, we'll get the results to
<v Speaker 1>talk about that on tomorrow's show. We'll talk about what's
<v Speaker 1>coming up on John Bond here in a second. Before
<v Speaker 1>we do that, mister m H. Williams, why don't you
<v Speaker 1>tell people where they can find you on the internet
<v Speaker 1>if that's something you even want them to do.
<v Speaker 3>You can find me on the internet on blue Sky
<v Speaker 3>at Mhwilliams dot bsky dot social. I have a number
<v Speaker 3>of URLs that I really should change that too, but
<v Speaker 3>I have not gotten around to it because I am lazy.
<v Speaker 3>That is where you will find me talking about, you know,
<v Speaker 3>all the next fast games, movies, comics, games, all that
<v Speaker 3>jazz and if I do anything else at some point,
<v Speaker 3>I'm going to do a blog. It'll be there. So excellent,
<v Speaker 3>that's what you can find me.
<v Speaker 2>Well, I appreciate that.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of what's coming up on Giant Bomb, as I
<v Speaker 1>was a moment ago. It's Wednesday. It's time to send
<v Speaker 1>Mike back into the Blake Club experiment. He's got to
<v Speaker 1>play Virtuoso Blink and you'll miss it. It's his blatanting
<v Speaker 1>round game. It's episode fifty, it feels like, and he's
<v Speaker 1>barely halfway through the game. He thinks he's not even
<v Speaker 1>halfway through the game. So are you aware of the
<v Speaker 1>game Virtuo?
<v Speaker 3>I am not out Yeah, but Google, I mean, the
<v Speaker 3>repusation of Black Club precedes it. For a second. I
<v Speaker 3>was a little worried because you said you have to
<v Speaker 3>send Mike into it, and I was like, oh gosh,
<v Speaker 3>I didn't. I did not agree to any of this.
<v Speaker 1>You would look excellent in the VIRTUEO so Wig, that's
<v Speaker 1>for sure. All right, Well, that's happening later today. Later
<v Speaker 1>this week, we're going to have you know, a lot
<v Speaker 1>of our normal shows, but we'll do a talkover for
<v Speaker 1>that Pokemon Day stream. So join us. Friday morning. I
<v Speaker 1>believe that is nine am Eastern six am Pacific. Come
<v Speaker 1>hang out with us for that.
<v Speaker 2>Otherwise, yeah, we'll see you for the normally scheduled events.
<v Speaker 1>And uh oh oh marry me Tomodacci happening on Thursday
<v Speaker 1>in the early evening time watch that as well. All right,
<v Speaker 1>mister Image Williams, thank you so much for hanging out
<v Speaker 1>with me today and talk about video games.
<v Speaker 2>Man, I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>Thank you for having me. I absolutely enjoy doing this
<v Speaker 3>stuff even though I'm on the other side now, and
<v Speaker 3>next time I will make sure to have the requisite
<v Speaker 3>you know, nerd background.
<v Speaker 2>Oh thank you. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I didn't want to say anything, but yeah, you definitely
<v Speaker 1>failed us on that side of things.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you have all room.
<v Speaker 3>All of that's downstairs. I'll at least get like a
<v Speaker 3>green Scream up and put that downstairs for you guys.
<v Speaker 1>Want a live stream of it in case anything falls
<v Speaker 1>off a shelf or something that sounds good. I appreciate that, man.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you once again. Thank you everybody for watching and
<v Speaker 1>listening at home. You are the best audience in gaming.
<v Speaker 1>Until next time, have a good one, take care of
<v Speaker 1>yourself and goodbye.