Anthem Shuts Down Today

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grubb,
<v Speaker 1>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 Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>giving an insight into some of its future plans and
<v Speaker 1>why a recent big game won't come to switch to
<v Speaker 1>It's gonna be a big one because we have John
<v Speaker 1>Martin on the show.
<v Speaker 2>John, how are you doing.
<v Speaker 3>I'm doing well, Jeff. Happy, Happy New Year.
<v Speaker 1>How's it going too, Yeah, it's going all right so far.
<v Speaker 2>Busy.
<v Speaker 1>I've been trying to like get all the Christmas stuff
<v Speaker 1>put away. That was my entire weekend. You can see
<v Speaker 1>if people probably can't see on the thing, but I
<v Speaker 1>got you could see John, there's like, oh like ten
<v Speaker 1>bends over there Christmas stuff, well in various other things.
<v Speaker 1>I got to get those put away in a closet.
<v Speaker 1>It's a whole thing. I didn't finish the projects. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>been busy, like every minute of the weekend. But when
<v Speaker 1>I wasn't, I would still sneak in some more secretory time.
<v Speaker 1>Like we've cracked the code on that one a little
<v Speaker 1>bit in terms of learning how the scoring system works,
<v Speaker 1>and now it's made the game even more difficult and
<v Speaker 1>less capable of like enabling me to think about anything else.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, that's going to continue to probably be my
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six so far.
<v Speaker 2>How about you, You've been doing anything, playing anything?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean I've been bouncing through a couple of things.
<v Speaker 3>I've kind of decided that for a number of other reasons,
<v Speaker 3>a number of reasons just in general, this is going
<v Speaker 3>to be a big backlog year for me. Currently on
<v Speaker 3>the horizon, there's some stuff I'm looking forward to, but
<v Speaker 3>I really just got to dig into my backlog this year.
<v Speaker 3>So this year has been all about finishing in the
<v Speaker 3>games that I should have beaten years ago, going into
<v Speaker 3>this new year and like you know, just getting ready
<v Speaker 3>for the future. Have a couple of games already under
<v Speaker 3>my belts. I beat Final Fantasy Tactics. That was like
<v Speaker 3>the big game of the holiday break for me. That
<v Speaker 3>game is fantastic, phenomenal. It was a game where I
<v Speaker 3>wanted to focus and just beat the story and then
<v Speaker 3>just grinding for job points, job stuff, making the teen
<v Speaker 3>pump work. Well, it's it was such a it was
<v Speaker 3>such a treat. But yeah, that's behind me now, looking
<v Speaker 3>for a couple of things. Control and BioShock one are
<v Speaker 3>very big ten polls. I got a hit earlier this year. Yeah,
<v Speaker 3>and then I'm also trying the Trails in the Sky remake.
<v Speaker 3>My friend has been telling me to get into these
<v Speaker 3>games for decades, that we're finally doing that.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, here's your chance, now's the time, your backlog era.
<v Speaker 2>I love it.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, all right, Well, twenty twenty six is not going
<v Speaker 1>to stop, so we should get on with things and
<v Speaker 1>explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb, small team of video game dofasis.
<v Speaker 1>We're independent games media out here on our own, but
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<v Speaker 1>record podcast in person, or go to big shows, or
<v Speaker 1>do travelogs and all this stuff. Because you became premium
<v Speaker 1>members and you support us. We don't have big corporate
<v Speaker 1>corporations behind us. That's all done, No more of that.
<v Speaker 1>It's just you and I and us together figuring this
<v Speaker 1>stuff out and we really appreciate everyone who's come through
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<v Speaker 1>to join that, we would love it. In twenty twenty six,
<v Speaker 1>let's try to keep growing and keep making more stuff.
<v Speaker 1>All right, as far as this show goes, most weekdays, I,
<v Speaker 1>Jeff Grebb, will help you 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.
<v Speaker 2>If you were watching live on Twitch welcome.
<v Speaker 1>You can always listen to the show later on podcast
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<v Speaker 1>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 Nintendo's president shares an
<v Speaker 1>update on the company's plans. This is from my Nintendo News,
<v Speaker 1>which writes an intro here before They kind of like
<v Speaker 1>have a small bulleted list of the ideas that they
<v Speaker 1>touched on. Nintendo's president Shuntaro for Akawa, has shared more
<v Speaker 1>information about the state of the company and its plans
<v Speaker 1>for a twenty twenty six and its plans for twenty
<v Speaker 1>twenty six in an interview with Japanese news site Kyoto Shimbun.
<v Speaker 1>There were a lot of points discussed, but one important
<v Speaker 1>thing is that the stock of the Nintendo switch To
<v Speaker 1>has now stabilized on a global scale, meaning that it
<v Speaker 1>should now be easy to go to a store and
<v Speaker 1>get a unit. Those hoping for more news about the
<v Speaker 1>upcoming Legends all the movie should being made aware that
<v Speaker 1>they're going to drip feed it. Let's get into these
<v Speaker 1>points bit by bit. Yes, the switch to supply has stabilized. Basically,
<v Speaker 1>it's good to go everywhere except for Japan, really, but
<v Speaker 1>if you want to walk into a store just about
<v Speaker 1>anywhere else and get one, you can do so.
<v Speaker 2>Which John, that's like, that's pretty quick.
<v Speaker 1>I think they kind of that was like a big
<v Speaker 1>priority for them, it seems like, and I think that's
<v Speaker 1>it's probably pretty smart that that is that was their focus.
<v Speaker 2>They succeeded there and it kind of made.
<v Speaker 1>This whole, this whole situation of launching the switch to
<v Speaker 1>a little bit less stressful than some of these other
<v Speaker 1>recent consoles, right, And I kind of appreciate that that's
<v Speaker 1>what they did, not that it's like some great favor
<v Speaker 1>They're giving me this opportunity to spend hundreds of dollars
<v Speaker 1>on their stuff. But all these companies have been doing that,
<v Speaker 1>and then a lot of times it was also and
<v Speaker 1>it's impossible to get so good, good fucking luck. So yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that was probably benefited them quite a bit, though, now
<v Speaker 1>that this thing just feels like, oh right, it's going
<v Speaker 1>to be there when people want to make impulse purchases, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, absolutely. I mean that was the biggest thing about
<v Speaker 3>the PS five and the Xbox Series X back in
<v Speaker 3>like twenty twenty, Like it was kind of a lottery
<v Speaker 3>to get it if you were not like paying attention
<v Speaker 3>to like stock alerts or like why are you sixty
<v Speaker 3>four on Twitter? Now Blue Sky, It was kind of
<v Speaker 3>just impossible. Switch to is considerably easier, in fact, like
<v Speaker 3>I feel like I'm more shocked that I don't see
<v Speaker 3>a switch to in stock at a. I guess best
<v Speaker 3>Buy is the place I've been going to for a
<v Speaker 3>couple of weeks now for a couple of projects. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>like it is big. I don't know what it says
<v Speaker 3>to about the consistency of buying it, Like, are people
<v Speaker 3>forcing it to get into a position where they needed
<v Speaker 3>to be super well stocked in the future. It's it
<v Speaker 3>seems like we're in a really good place for Switch to.
<v Speaker 3>It seems like they're happy about it. But it's going
<v Speaker 3>to be interesting to see next moves, like what games
<v Speaker 3>are going to like entice people to get in the
<v Speaker 3>near future.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, so they kind of do talk a little bit
<v Speaker 1>about that a couple of times.
<v Speaker 2>Here.
<v Speaker 1>Let's talk about this first one here, Nintendo aims to
<v Speaker 1>make switch to an accommodating, generous, and forgiving piece of hardware.
<v Speaker 1>A gentle lover is what I think they're describing here.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo says taking this approach will help to realize first
<v Speaker 1>and third party dev ideas.
<v Speaker 2>I think, you know, I've never.
<v Speaker 1>Made a game, but you always hear, you always, you
<v Speaker 1>would always hear stories from developers over time about oh,
<v Speaker 1>this console was a nightmare to work with, or this
<v Speaker 1>one had its intricacies and things that required us to
<v Speaker 1>kind of get in there and figure things out. And
<v Speaker 1>then this other one over here was just so easy
<v Speaker 1>to work with. And so you notice a lot of games,
<v Speaker 1>a lot more games get made for that hardware. Sounds
<v Speaker 1>like Nintendo was mindful of that this time, and is
<v Speaker 1>you know, they made the hard they made the hardware,
<v Speaker 1>they made the development kit already, it sounds like they're
<v Speaker 1>not done. Sounds like they're like, we want to keep
<v Speaker 1>improving that, which I find also pretty encouraging.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Yeah, absolutely, Like even for granted, we haven't had
<v Speaker 3>the most amount of switch to ports yet, a lot
<v Speaker 3>of games are doing just custom switch one patches, but
<v Speaker 3>for the most part, like with a couple exceptions in
<v Speaker 3>like some heavier moments, most of the switch to games
<v Speaker 3>run really well. And I think it is that It's
<v Speaker 3>interesting because I feel like it is in the benefit
<v Speaker 3>of the switch to to be a more powerful switch
<v Speaker 3>because it just kind of did kind of put it
<v Speaker 3>on the right path. You kind of know how the
<v Speaker 3>ecosystem and how that way that the layouts and the
<v Speaker 3>UI works with that, it's kind of just a known
<v Speaker 3>quantity which is very different than typical Nintendo. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>I mean, and as we're seeing more and more people
<v Speaker 3>get their hands on dev kits, like I know that
<v Speaker 3>was a big story that people didn't have dev kits.
<v Speaker 3>Now they might have devkates. It's going to be interesting
<v Speaker 3>to see, and I just am assuming that we're just
<v Speaker 3>going to get a wave of the switch to editions.
<v Speaker 3>I honestly think that's going to be a large chunk
<v Speaker 3>of the games that are pushed for this year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, they'll talk about that here in a in a second.
<v Speaker 1>There's you know, kind of multiple things where they're talking
<v Speaker 1>about their plans for what sort of stuff they're going
<v Speaker 1>to have here.
<v Speaker 2>But first Nintendo says.
<v Speaker 1>There are people who pick up their first console when
<v Speaker 1>reaching a certain age, and Nintendo wants to make sure
<v Speaker 1>the switch to is accessible for them. You know, this
<v Speaker 1>is this, this has been the strategy, right to be
<v Speaker 1>the console. When a kid gets to a certain age
<v Speaker 1>and wants that sort of thing, what do they ask for?
<v Speaker 1>They ask for the Nintendo device. You know, it kind
<v Speaker 1>of seems like that's still the case. I imagine that
<v Speaker 1>their competition there is not Microsoft or even Sony. It
<v Speaker 1>is tablets and phones, right, and maybe some other devices,
<v Speaker 1>but maybe maybe the PC even a little bit, because
<v Speaker 1>kids will watch YouTubers and they be like, oh, they're
<v Speaker 1>planning on a PC.
<v Speaker 2>I want to do that as well.
<v Speaker 1>But you know, it's probably just mostly phones and tablets
<v Speaker 1>and that space hasn't changed too much and Nintendo still
<v Speaker 1>feels like a really safe place for adults who want
<v Speaker 1>it gets to for their children, parents who want to
<v Speaker 1>get stuff for their kids, where it's like, oh, I
<v Speaker 1>can feel comfortable that this is a safe place to
<v Speaker 1>send my children to go, you know, spend their time.
<v Speaker 1>Uh that you know, what can they even do there
<v Speaker 1>to grow that? I guess it goes back to having
<v Speaker 1>the right games, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean that's a big thing right now, is
<v Speaker 3>that I feel like on the whole when people are
<v Speaker 3>asking me because I'm at the age where people are
<v Speaker 3>starting to have kids. I'm at the age where my
<v Speaker 3>kid cousins are starting to get like old enough to
<v Speaker 3>be playing games that are a little bit more mature
<v Speaker 3>than something you would just find on an iPad. So
<v Speaker 3>a lot of cousins do ask me what's the best
<v Speaker 3>place for him? He likes this, this and this, and
<v Speaker 3>then just like what is where's the Mario? Where's this?
<v Speaker 3>All the Wars of the Pokemon It's always been that
<v Speaker 3>kind of recommendation, like switch to year one is kind
<v Speaker 3>of interesting because we didn't really have a traditional one
<v Speaker 3>of any of those Big three, like Legendsza with standing,
<v Speaker 3>but that's not like the uh, We're introducing a whole
<v Speaker 3>lot of new creatures and stuff. So it's funny because
<v Speaker 3>like I feel like in a weird away and Nintendo
<v Speaker 3>is now kind of like competing with themselves, like, how
<v Speaker 3>are you going to entice people to switch? Oh that
<v Speaker 3>that was non intended. How are you going to move
<v Speaker 3>people from Switch one to switch too? I think that's
<v Speaker 3>going to be the biggest message or what they need
<v Speaker 3>their twenty twenty six messaging to be. We have some
<v Speaker 3>good games that are only on switch to. We got
<v Speaker 3>to see more of those in some of those big
<v Speaker 3>heavy hitters.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I think that it's the kind of thing where
<v Speaker 1>it's like, yeah, they'll they do seem to be thinking
<v Speaker 1>about a pipeline of bringing young people into their stuff.
<v Speaker 1>That's what like My Mario stuff is definitely about how
<v Speaker 1>effective that's actually going to be.
<v Speaker 2>And again My.
<v Speaker 1>Mario is a series of products for very young kids,
<v Speaker 1>toddlers and stuff. There's like blocks that are ambo supported
<v Speaker 1>all this weird stuff. Again, I don't I don't know
<v Speaker 1>how effective that that is actually going to be, but
<v Speaker 1>it does show Nintendo's thinking about that so that they
<v Speaker 1>can introduce Mario to them while they're young, and then
<v Speaker 1>they'll be ready to go for Mario. And then there's
<v Speaker 1>you know, there's that Mario movie coming later this year, right,
<v Speaker 1>that's later this year.
<v Speaker 2>That's yeah, I keep forgetting that.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like okay, and then yeah, and it's it's
<v Speaker 1>likely they'll probably have some Mario stuff to go alongside that,
<v Speaker 1>or make a big deal about all the Mario games.
<v Speaker 2>That are already here.
<v Speaker 1>But it really will come down to that next big
<v Speaker 1>Mario game and that will get the kids excited again.
<v Speaker 1>So how close is that, we don't know. But they
<v Speaker 1>do talk about some of these other things.
<v Speaker 2>Let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>The h they well, first they talk about the memory stuff,
<v Speaker 1>but we're gonna have a full story about that here
<v Speaker 1>in a moment.
<v Speaker 2>So let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo will further enhance their software offerings from twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>six onwards. I got to take that to mean that's
<v Speaker 1>the Nintendo switch to editions. That's that's got to be
<v Speaker 1>what that is talking about. There's a lot of like
<v Speaker 1>obvious candidates for that. Still, the Zeno Blade games come
<v Speaker 1>up every single time.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, that's the wildest one to me that's been That
<v Speaker 3>was like, one of the best things to have happened
<v Speaker 3>with the switch To is that Xeno Blade as a series,
<v Speaker 3>like got to a level where it is now not
<v Speaker 3>just like the guy from Smash like it is its
<v Speaker 3>own franchise, has its own consistent fan base. It's just
<v Speaker 3>those games run so poorly, especially in handheld mode, and
<v Speaker 3>there was even like I remember people talking about x
<v Speaker 3>having a sixty fps toggle. It's just they never unlocked
<v Speaker 3>that for switch To. So that's I assume that's going
<v Speaker 3>to tie in with maybe they announced a new big game.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, that and Pickment are probably the two that
<v Speaker 3>I want the most personally. But yeah, we have no
<v Speaker 3>shortage of games that they can re release for ten
<v Speaker 3>to twenty dollars and people will pay for it.
<v Speaker 2>Chat.
<v Speaker 1>Did they officially announced that Pickment three Deluxe Nintendo switch
<v Speaker 1>To Edition?
<v Speaker 3>I think that's just like a rating spoort right now?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Yeah, yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I've been mating to do the co op campaign with
<v Speaker 3>one of my friends who's never played a Pickman game,
<v Speaker 3>and that's always the one I go to just because
<v Speaker 3>it's gorgeous and fully co op. But I don't think
<v Speaker 3>it's officially yet.
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, So, like as you say, that's oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>like they they've not done like a switch to edition
<v Speaker 1>of Luigi's Mansion three, right, that feels like that could happen. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>there's even like arms feels like that it might be
<v Speaker 1>a candidate for this sort of thing. So there's plenty
<v Speaker 1>of stuff they can go back to, and then they
<v Speaker 1>you know, could even work with some third party partners
<v Speaker 1>or whatever. The Hades won Nintendo switch to edition that
<v Speaker 1>sort of stuff, all right, and then yes, they do
<v Speaker 1>get to like the big stuff here. Frokawas said, Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>is developing popular series titles that many fans are waiting for,
<v Speaker 1>but also completely new software.
<v Speaker 2>The company that has made.
<v Speaker 1>Zelda and Mario for years will make Zelda and Mario again,
<v Speaker 1>but you know, also promising completely new software. Who knows
<v Speaker 1>what that means. That could they could be talking about
<v Speaker 1>some weird small thing or whatever. But yeah, they this
<v Speaker 1>is this is the big thing for them. They have
<v Speaker 1>to deliver on Mario and Zelda, and the big I mean,
<v Speaker 1>Smash Brothers is one that I'm sure they're thinking about.
<v Speaker 1>So this is them saying, hey, we know this and
<v Speaker 1>we're gonna get to it.
<v Speaker 2>But it has been a lot.
<v Speaker 1>Of switch to editions so far supporting their lineup that
<v Speaker 1>switch where it's like it feels like the balance is
<v Speaker 1>on updating older games versus switch to games. Twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>six should be the year where we feel that balance shift, right.
<v Speaker 1>We can't go through all twenty twenty six where it's like, no,
<v Speaker 1>that's gonna happen next year.
<v Speaker 2>At least that's how I feel. What do you think?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think. I mean a big chunk of my
<v Speaker 3>thought process is just how many ports there were in
<v Speaker 3>like the first real big year or like year twenty
<v Speaker 3>eighteen basically was like the year of we U ports
<v Speaker 3>and stuff. I'm expecting to see something similar to that.
<v Speaker 3>But it also is like compound with like there's so
<v Speaker 3>many game anniversaries that they might want to like make
<v Speaker 3>a big deal about it and finally re release ports
<v Speaker 3>we've been waiting for forever. But yeah, I think this
<v Speaker 3>is the year where they really need to show new
<v Speaker 3>things coming up. Like I was trying to prepare for
<v Speaker 3>for like a Fantasy critic, and I was really thinking
<v Speaker 3>that Splatoon Raiders is really the only big game that
<v Speaker 3>I can think of besides like a fire Rumbum, which
<v Speaker 3>already has like a date. Those are like the two
<v Speaker 3>big ones, and I feel like that can't be the
<v Speaker 3>only like big games for this year. We're gonna need
<v Speaker 3>to like actually separate the Switch one for the switch too,
<v Speaker 3>especially as there's going to be reasons why people might
<v Speaker 3>just straight up go for a Switch one due to
<v Speaker 3>price and availability versus the switch too. Yeah, I'm not
<v Speaker 3>really sure what to expect from Nintendo. Like I'm assuming
<v Speaker 3>we're going to get like that one huge game at
<v Speaker 3>the end of the year, and I don't think it's
<v Speaker 3>gonna be a fire embum And I don't think Splatoon
<v Speaker 3>Raiders effectively fits that billing, whether we hear it now
<v Speaker 3>or and halfway through the year. That's my biggest question.
<v Speaker 3>Is it going to be a very slow first half
<v Speaker 3>of the year and then it's just gonna go balls
<v Speaker 3>of the walls?
<v Speaker 2>Then?
<v Speaker 3>What do you think?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I mean, Mike always plaints that, like second year
<v Speaker 1>is often when we get the Smash game. I don't
<v Speaker 1>know if that happens the time around, but they're certainly
<v Speaker 1>noticing that. They're certainly talking about that Nintendo of like
<v Speaker 1>this is when we would normally have a Smash and
<v Speaker 1>that like reaches that specific audience, and we would like
<v Speaker 1>to do that again.
<v Speaker 2>So they probably are.
<v Speaker 1>They're formulating that plan whether or not that that I mean,
<v Speaker 1>it probably doesn't because it's going to require a lot
<v Speaker 1>of effort, and even if it's a deluxe version of
<v Speaker 1>the last game, they probably going to want to give
<v Speaker 1>it some time and really develop that stuff.
<v Speaker 2>So it's probably always off.
<v Speaker 1>And then beyond that, it's like, you know, what I
<v Speaker 1>imagine is, yeah, there's maybe something really big, and then
<v Speaker 1>the other games, the new software might be, oh, the
<v Speaker 1>follow up to a Ring Fit Adventure, Right, maybe it's
<v Speaker 1>a Ring Fit Adventure too, or maybe it's a new
<v Speaker 1>exercise fitness game. But they'll probably want to have something
<v Speaker 1>like that just because they have had such success with
<v Speaker 1>that multiple times now with We Fit and Ring Fit Adventure.
<v Speaker 2>And it's like, you know.
<v Speaker 1>Especially if you are in a situation where you're trying
<v Speaker 1>to continue to make these higher prices feel like they
<v Speaker 1>make sense, underling a big peripheral like the ring thing
<v Speaker 1>or something like that always helps with that helps them
<v Speaker 1>charge more.
<v Speaker 2>So they would love that.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Let's see here they talked about the RAM,
<v Speaker 1>but we'll talk about that in a bit. They also
<v Speaker 1>talked about like their movie strategy, their film strategy for
<v Speaker 1>a Kya wants to build excitement leading up to the
<v Speaker 1>Super Mario Galaxy movie.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, yeah, who wouldn't.
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo will share info regarding the legend of Zelda film,
<v Speaker 1>but we'll do so gradually. Nintendo's focus for movies, he
<v Speaker 1>keeps reiterating this. I'm starting to believe it to a
<v Speaker 1>certain extent, is not short term profits.
<v Speaker 2>But character exposure.
<v Speaker 1>I bet that's not like it's probably not that simple,
<v Speaker 1>but I do think they are treating as like the
<v Speaker 1>guiding light here is we just want to make sure
<v Speaker 1>that this continues to grow the profile of our characters
<v Speaker 1>and so that when we have our traditional products, people
<v Speaker 1>care more.
<v Speaker 2>That clearly worked.
<v Speaker 1>For the Mario movie, and I think that they feel like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>this is something we can replicate over and over again,
<v Speaker 1>and as long as we continue to like build our
<v Speaker 1>strategy around that, we will probably be in some safe
<v Speaker 1>place where we are not like driving these characters into
<v Speaker 1>the ground with movies and TV shows so that they
<v Speaker 1>feel cheap and disposable.
<v Speaker 2>Is that something that you think they are achieving so far?
<v Speaker 3>I mean, yeah, Mario is the biggest example of that
<v Speaker 3>before the Mario movie, Like obviously everyone knew Mario Mario
<v Speaker 3>was always very big, but is not consistently making like
<v Speaker 3>the Macy six stick Thanksgiving Day Parade or something along
<v Speaker 3>those lines, Like when I go to like like I
<v Speaker 3>don't shop at Target that much anymore, but like when
<v Speaker 3>I go to Target and there's just a wall of
<v Speaker 3>like like Mario merch, Minecraft merch, like it being more
<v Speaker 3>of a presence than like some like Disney characters and stuff.
<v Speaker 3>They're definitely like reaching that market saturation. Like I feel
<v Speaker 3>like Mario has been on top of mind more than
<v Speaker 3>ever before. I think Zelda can very easily get to
<v Speaker 3>that point. It's in its biggest like growth period I
<v Speaker 3>think they've had since like the N sixty four. There
<v Speaker 3>hasn't been something that I feel like has gotten that bigger.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, like when we get to the point where
<v Speaker 3>people know about Isabelle from Animal Crossing more than just
<v Speaker 3>like being a character from Animal Crossing, but being this
<v Speaker 3>mascot character, like being this analogous to some other big
<v Speaker 3>franchise character, Like like when people know about Isabelle in
<v Speaker 3>the way that people know Chewbacca, I think that's that's
<v Speaker 3>when they're gonna be happy, like Isabelle is there, Chewbacca,
<v Speaker 3>I think is what we're trying to get to the point.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, yes, you've always said that, and I thought
<v Speaker 1>you were crazy, but I'm starting to believe finally. Uh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo would like to establish a system to release more
<v Speaker 1>films beyond these Mario and Zeldagame movies, Like yeah, that
<v Speaker 1>that feels pretty obvious as well. Of course, I mean
<v Speaker 1>we've already the rumors long time for a Donkey Kong film. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it feels like that will probably happen. But I think
<v Speaker 1>they expand even beyond that. And it's like, yeah, i
<v Speaker 1>mean something probably happens with animal crossing, but maybe animal
<v Speaker 1>Crossing is this next thing. On the topic of creating
<v Speaker 1>anime for a Cowa said, if we can create works
<v Speaker 1>uniquely Nintendo, it'd be good in the future.
<v Speaker 2>So they're open to that as well.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, yeah, I think they are continuing to
<v Speaker 1>move at Nintendo's pace into these things, but that that
<v Speaker 1>probably I don't know. There's the way of doing things
<v Speaker 1>of like Activision or a Marvel where it's like something worked.
<v Speaker 1>Let's I mean, there should be one of these every year,
<v Speaker 1>maybe sometimes there should be two or three of these
<v Speaker 1>things a year. And yeah, sometimes when I'm in the
<v Speaker 1>mood for that, that's great, But long term, like I
<v Speaker 1>burn out on these things. I think a lot of
<v Speaker 1>people burn out on these on these things kind of
<v Speaker 1>making them feel precious still does like feedback into that
<v Speaker 1>idea of making these characters make me care more about
<v Speaker 1>the characters and then make me care more about the games. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>so I think the idea of an anime would be cool,
<v Speaker 1>but them not rushing into it doesn't surprise me, how
<v Speaker 1>about you?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I think that takes time. I mean, when you're
<v Speaker 3>creating like a whole series, you're gonna want to like
<v Speaker 3>kind of intricately place characters who keep people invested for
<v Speaker 3>long periods of time. Like if they can achieve anything
<v Speaker 3>close to like what that Fallout show is doing for
<v Speaker 3>the fall Out series right now, like being able to
<v Speaker 3>create news stories in their world and just expand it
<v Speaker 3>a lot more, I think that'll be great.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah.
<v Speaker 3>I mean anime is interesting because I mean Zelda is
<v Speaker 3>being made by Sony. Sony pretty much owns the anime
<v Speaker 3>community or like the industry at this point, which is
<v Speaker 3>kind of nuts. But yeah, I mean, Animal Crossing is
<v Speaker 3>such a perfect lay up for like a Slice of
<v Speaker 3>Life and you can make like a splatoon like Kids
<v Speaker 3>Boy cartoon. Uh, definitely seems like things that could go
<v Speaker 3>in the right direction. But yeah, who are you gonna
<v Speaker 3>partner with? I feel like for the most part, Nintendo
<v Speaker 3>has always been very very picky and choosy on who
<v Speaker 3>they're gonna align themselves with. Who are who's not going
<v Speaker 3>to create a Bob Hoskins Mario movie? Like how are you?
<v Speaker 3>How are we going to avoid this like catasgraphic scenario?
<v Speaker 3>And I mean they've made an animal Crossing anime in
<v Speaker 3>the past, like and that's pretty good. So yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>think that's coming. It's just like what franchise are we
<v Speaker 3>ready to do the push of? And obviously they have
<v Speaker 3>to line up their dominoes, what games are coming, what
<v Speaker 3>outside content are they are they making? But yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>think we will see this.
<v Speaker 2>I think you're right.
<v Speaker 1>They're like they're like feeling it out coming up, like
<v Speaker 1>what is the strategy, Like how do we maximize every
<v Speaker 1>decision that we make? And it's like it's it's a
<v Speaker 1>learning process probably where they and they want where they
<v Speaker 1>don't want to make any mistake, So it's like, let's
<v Speaker 1>just really think about this, do it one step at
<v Speaker 1>a time. Uh, let's uh, let's get this next story.
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty on Nintendo switch to question mark. It
<v Speaker 1>could happen sooner than we thought, according to the latest
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty HQ data mind. This is from frand
<v Speaker 1>Ruiz at Eurogamer. Call of Duty is coming to switch
<v Speaker 1>to that we know for sure, Key Xbox and Activision
<v Speaker 1>figures excuse me have underlined how important Nintendo's hardware is
<v Speaker 1>for the brand moving forward with their latest with their
<v Speaker 1>last comments on the matter happening last year following Black
<v Speaker 1>Ops seven's reveal. The more important question now is when
<v Speaker 1>that's actually happening. We've heard all sorts of rumblings over
<v Speaker 1>the past few months, with insiders and other industry figures
<v Speaker 1>pointing to a big release coming at some point in
<v Speaker 1>twenty twenty six. Now a data mine that was happening
<v Speaker 1>over on Twitter could point to it happening sooner rather
<v Speaker 1>than later. The account has a history of looking through
<v Speaker 1>Call of Duty files in the latest updates and share
<v Speaker 1>and shared this new finding on the eleventh of January.
<v Speaker 1>Several lines added with a recent Call of Duty HQ
<v Speaker 1>reference the Nintendo platform family and account type, along consoles
<v Speaker 1>and PC platforms, along with the platforms.
<v Speaker 2>That have already been in the game.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, okay, does sound like they are laying
<v Speaker 1>the groundwork to make sure that all these systems can
<v Speaker 1>play together.
<v Speaker 2>They're just adding it in there.
<v Speaker 1>I mean to this, to you, does this sort of
<v Speaker 1>thing say, oh, we should be expecting this really soon?
<v Speaker 2>I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I mean it's kind of what are we talking
<v Speaker 3>about when we're talking about Call of Duty? Like I
<v Speaker 3>can't imagine that they'll put the full launcher on there,
<v Speaker 3>because then you would have to backboard all of the
<v Speaker 3>games that are on there.
<v Speaker 2>But right, we're probably just talking about war Zone at first.
<v Speaker 3>Right, Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking, because it's
<v Speaker 3>like that they already have a mobile version of that.
<v Speaker 3>You can easily upscale that, and I think it still
<v Speaker 3>has cross play with like all the other versions or
<v Speaker 3>is mobile its own thing? Might be its own thing,
<v Speaker 3>but yeah, gotcha, Okay, Like.
<v Speaker 1>But I mean it's on PS the game's on PS four, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>and the end, like the switch to is already better
<v Speaker 1>than the PS four by by a pretty long shot,
<v Speaker 1>especially when you consider the fact that it's not coming
<v Speaker 1>off of a hard drive.
<v Speaker 2>You're not playing any games off hard drive, So yeah.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, But I mean it's kind of interesting this happening
<v Speaker 3>right after Black Oup seven kind of like dropping the
<v Speaker 3>ball a little bit, not getting the amount of sales
<v Speaker 3>that they wanted. And it's kind of similar because this
<v Speaker 3>happened with Capcom, Like Capcom was all up on the
<v Speaker 3>switch to like hype Train when Monster Renter Wilds didn't
<v Speaker 3>really perform at past it's like initial launch. Yeah, to
<v Speaker 3>go back to Call of Duty. I think war Zone
<v Speaker 3>probably is the thing that's the most imminent, but like
<v Speaker 3>when are we doing that? Like have they figured out
<v Speaker 3>how to scale games to a switch to yet? Like
<v Speaker 3>it feels like it is still kind of early when
<v Speaker 3>we're still waiting on a million ports to this console.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>Yep. You know.
<v Speaker 1>Check continues to talk about the install sized problem and
<v Speaker 1>how that will be a real pass on the switch too,
<v Speaker 1>and like if we're talking about you know, just war Zone,
<v Speaker 1>maybe it's not as much of a problem. I bet
<v Speaker 1>it's still a pretty big problem. But if we're talking
<v Speaker 1>about war Zone and like a Black Ops seven port
<v Speaker 1>or something like that, then it's going to be enormous
<v Speaker 1>even with just those those two things, and it's like, oh, okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>two hundred gigabytes, one hundred gigabytes, even that takes up
<v Speaker 1>a huge section of well, the internal storage would be
<v Speaker 1>saturated for sure.
<v Speaker 2>But even if we're talking about like an.
<v Speaker 1>SD card, not everyone has one of those micro SD
<v Speaker 1>express cards because they have been expensive so far. It's
<v Speaker 1>the new generation of those, or the newer relative to
<v Speaker 1>what we had on the switch, and it's like, oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>even then, I've only gotten recently, I purchased i should say,
<v Speaker 1>a five hundred gigabyte card that would be mostly just
<v Speaker 1>a call of duty machine. If I were to install
<v Speaker 1>that on the switch too, that's going to be a
<v Speaker 1>roadblock a little bit. I wonder if there's any effort
<v Speaker 1>to like really shrink the install size for the switch version,
<v Speaker 1>you would hope.
<v Speaker 3>So yeah, I mean that's just kind of a constant
<v Speaker 3>concern just in general right now. I feel like both
<v Speaker 3>on PC and on the console side of things, that
<v Speaker 3>has been a big talking point since I mean probably
<v Speaker 3>since the PS four, but like the PS five, I
<v Speaker 3>remember being very vocal just because like when you're inside
<v Speaker 3>all the all the time and you're playing games with friends.
<v Speaker 3>That was a big deal that it was taking up
<v Speaker 3>like the entire hard drive. And I think they have
<v Speaker 3>talked about that activision. I should say in the background
<v Speaker 3>that that is that is a priority, maybe finding a
<v Speaker 3>way to actually separate the installs. But with them wanting
<v Speaker 3>to push that launcher, it's like, I don't know how
<v Speaker 3>what the data is to create that, Like, I don't
<v Speaker 3>know that infrastructure there. It's hard to know. Good thing.
<v Speaker 3>Memory is easily too easy to come by these days,
<v Speaker 3>and you know, affordable when everyone has enough money to
<v Speaker 3>expand things at.
<v Speaker 1>The Yeah, ennemy mess there will be cleaned up instantly.
<v Speaker 1>I'm sure we will talk about all that here in
<v Speaker 1>a second. We're going to take a break real quick.
<v Speaker 1>When we come back, yeah, we're going to be talking
<v Speaker 1>about how long is that memory shortage really going to be?
<v Speaker 1>Where is there any end in sight? Any relief on
<v Speaker 1>the way? Well, probably not. We'll talk about that after this.
<v Speaker 1>If you want to skip out on these ad messages,
<v Speaker 1>you could do so by going to giant bomb dot
<v Speaker 1>com joint become a premium member. There's an ad free
<v Speaker 1>version of the video and audio shows. Get them there.
<v Speaker 1>We will be right back. It's Game Mess Mornings. We're
<v Speaker 1>back at it. Jeff Grub, John Martin. Let's continue here
<v Speaker 1>with the next headline, why memory shortages will continue for years.
<v Speaker 1>This is from WCCF Tech who's got like a whole
<v Speaker 1>conversation with Micron's VP of Marketing, Mobile and Client Business
<v Speaker 1>Unit blah blah blah, Christopher Moore. They asked him a
<v Speaker 1>ton of stuff and he kind of lays out like, look,
<v Speaker 1>we think we're still doing right by consumers, but we
<v Speaker 1>just can't ignore.
<v Speaker 2>The AI demand.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, okay, well you did recently close crucial,
<v Speaker 1>but they're like their their argument continues to be like, well,
<v Speaker 1>we're talking to every PC vendor to make sure we
<v Speaker 1>can provide them with stuff directly and whatever, like they
<v Speaker 1>always have. Yeah, okay, that's that's we know what's happening there.
<v Speaker 1>We talked about a million times. The question is like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>when can we expect relief in terms of of more
<v Speaker 1>supply of DDR d RAM storage here anytime soon and
<v Speaker 1>the like. Basically he goes here to say, you're right
<v Speaker 1>that we are. We're trying to come out with more supply,
<v Speaker 1>uh and that. But you're also right to point out
<v Speaker 1>that it's going to take a long time for that
<v Speaker 1>stuff to come on come online. He says, that takes
<v Speaker 1>a lot of time. We broke ground in Idaho in
<v Speaker 1>our ID one facility three years ago, and that's going
<v Speaker 1>to finally come online in mid twenty twenty seven.
<v Speaker 2>We pulled that it was the it was they said,
<v Speaker 2>they pushed that.
<v Speaker 1>Actually, so now it's to the end of twenty twenty
<v Speaker 1>seven or no, I'm sorry, that's flipped. They were gonna
<v Speaker 1>have it at the end of twenty twenty seven. They
<v Speaker 1>moved it up to mid twenty twenty seven to try
<v Speaker 1>to get things going faster. But you're not going to
<v Speaker 1>really see real output, meaningful output by the time we
<v Speaker 1>get all the qualification done and customers are accepting it
<v Speaker 1>and you get the tools and everything up and running
<v Speaker 1>until twenty twenty eight. So this is just like one
<v Speaker 1>of the hopeful things here of like maybe this can
<v Speaker 1>address things, you know. The other is AI demand falls
<v Speaker 1>through and then the supply is there. But it's like
<v Speaker 1>we've got to keep in mind the memory they're using
<v Speaker 1>for AI is different than the memory that has been
<v Speaker 1>used in GPUs, and of course then we ask like, well,
<v Speaker 1>why can't we get that other memory then for our stuff? Well,
<v Speaker 1>they just aren't investing in making enough of that stuff.
<v Speaker 1>And they're still pretty high demand on DRAM and stuff
<v Speaker 1>like that that we've been using up to this point,
<v Speaker 1>and so they're gonna have to fix the supply.
<v Speaker 2>But even that is.
<v Speaker 1>Not going to come until twenty twenty eight and so,
<v Speaker 1>and if things fall through with AI, things could get
<v Speaker 1>really worse for these companies. And they're not going to
<v Speaker 1>suddenly just be like, let's go fix all these things,
<v Speaker 1>because they're saying it takes years to addressed to address
<v Speaker 1>fixing or to building one of these fabrication facilities, we
<v Speaker 1>should probably expect we're going through another one of these periods.
<v Speaker 1>We've had a bunch of them over the last several
<v Speaker 1>like ten to fifteen years, of one reason or another
<v Speaker 1>that prices are high for computer components.
<v Speaker 2>And whether that is crypto Bros.
<v Speaker 1>Mining for bitcoin using GPUs, or whether it is the
<v Speaker 1>COVID pandemic causing a huge surge in demand for all
<v Speaker 1>these devices here it is. This is going to be
<v Speaker 1>another year's long point where we are looking around going, man,
<v Speaker 1>I wish I could buy this device, But it's just
<v Speaker 1>so expensive and we're just gonna have to live through it.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know what the alternative is here.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, for a long time, semiconductor was just a term
<v Speaker 3>that would just give me stress for hours on end,
<v Speaker 3>And now it seems like we're replacing that with memory.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah it is. It's not looking great, and I wish
<v Speaker 3>I could spin that with some hopeful optimism. But when
<v Speaker 3>even like internal companies, different departments can't get access to
<v Speaker 3>your own internally made memory storage, like that's not great.
<v Speaker 3>And even if like something happens to the AA bubble,
<v Speaker 3>I mean, like Web three took so so many years
<v Speaker 3>to just become like effectively a overall joke as opposed
<v Speaker 3>to us clowning on it for years, like the AI bubble,
<v Speaker 3>we have no idea where that's gonna go. I mean
<v Speaker 3>people are still fighting over that. I saw like there
<v Speaker 3>was a new Donald Mustard thing that was happening earlier.
<v Speaker 3>Today it's it's not great. And I mean, even if
<v Speaker 3>different types of memory are not used for different the
<v Speaker 3>same products, it's still going to affect everything because then
<v Speaker 3>like where is that output gonna be focusing on? You know,
<v Speaker 3>like where are we gonna have to focus the where
<v Speaker 3>are we gonna have to like first work on and
<v Speaker 3>develop memory for a particular audience. Are we gonna focus
<v Speaker 3>on phones? Are we gonna focus on TVs?
<v Speaker 2>Like?
<v Speaker 3>Where are we going with this thing? Like to the
<v Speaker 3>point of, like in the video bringing back the thirty
<v Speaker 3>seventy X T it's just or the thirty sixty GPU.
<v Speaker 3>We're kind of in the phase of like people are
<v Speaker 3>running on fumes right now as is, and when it's
<v Speaker 3>totally just like not an option to get that stuff anymore,
<v Speaker 3>it's going to be very scary. And I'm only now
<v Speaker 3>starting to see more and more people start to get
<v Speaker 3>that in the real world. I've been personally telling people, Hey,
<v Speaker 3>if you need to get an electronic advice jet it
<v Speaker 3>soon because yeah, I don't know yep, colass forever.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, the panic buying is already set in, but that
<v Speaker 1>doesn't mean it's going to settle down, because that is
<v Speaker 1>going to eat up all the supply and there won't
<v Speaker 1>be any to replace it. Really, so when people continue
<v Speaker 1>to need stuff, it's just going to get worse and worse.
<v Speaker 2>So it's like, yeah, well people.
<v Speaker 1>Panic buying now, it probably still is time to move
<v Speaker 1>on anything that you absolutely are going to need for
<v Speaker 1>the next year or two.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>You know, we just we don't know what's what's gonna
<v Speaker 1>happen to AI. It's it probably will have a correction
<v Speaker 1>at some point. It could have a crash, it could
<v Speaker 1>have a bubble burst. It also could just chug along.
<v Speaker 2>It really could.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, because it's this it's this black hole where they
<v Speaker 1>can keep making it deeper and deeper and deeper in
<v Speaker 1>terms of the amount of.
<v Speaker 2>Compute that it can use. I don't know.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's really it's a huge, terrible bummer and uh
<v Speaker 1>uh we're gonna and like, like I said, if it
<v Speaker 1>does burst this bubble. Uh, these companies are a couple
<v Speaker 1>of them could like just collapse and they don't make
<v Speaker 1>memory at all anymore.
<v Speaker 2>I don't know. It's it's going to be a rough situation.
<v Speaker 1>Uh all right, Nintendo is monitoring, monitoring high ram prices
<v Speaker 1>and tariff impacts very closely.
<v Speaker 2>President Hinturo for A.
<v Speaker 1>Kawa says this is a from that story earlier, but
<v Speaker 1>kind of bring in his comments here.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>He says hardware profitability depends on factors like a component
<v Speaker 1>procure condition, cost reductions through mass production and the impact
<v Speaker 1>of exchange rates in tariffs, it's difficult to generalize. Fundamentally,
<v Speaker 1>we aim to address this by advancing component procurement over
<v Speaker 1>the medium to long term. He does say that like
<v Speaker 1>current cost increase like right now are not causing or
<v Speaker 1>not like having a big impact on their profitability.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And then he also says like any talk of a
<v Speaker 1>price increase is some hypothetical that they they don't have
<v Speaker 1>any plans in this moment that could change fast, right.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah. I think just the fact that the Mario Ka
<v Speaker 3>Bundle is kind of like done for right now. I
<v Speaker 3>think it is something that they need to weather the
<v Speaker 3>storm of this too, because they're trying to push this
<v Speaker 3>console to be their new flagship title, but it is
<v Speaker 3>more powerful and that requires more memory. So yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>can see the price increase coming for a long time.
<v Speaker 3>Like even I forget who said it after the tariff
<v Speaker 3>situation was going on, like the day of the switch presentation,
<v Speaker 3>but they said that the pre increase to or four
<v Speaker 3>hundred and fifty and five hundred is not taking the
<v Speaker 3>tariffs into account. Nintendo is not known to be a
<v Speaker 3>company that is going to take the brunt of that cost.
<v Speaker 3>It usually is on us consumers, whether it is either
<v Speaker 3>in terms of the hardware itself or if we do
<v Speaker 3>see accessories and other things raised, they're going to try
<v Speaker 3>to find a you know, raise the price, raise their
<v Speaker 3>profit margin in some way. Online account seems like another
<v Speaker 3>way you could easily do that. Like I've had the
<v Speaker 3>family plan with expansion past because I have eight people
<v Speaker 3>who all love to play on Nintendo. We love playing
<v Speaker 3>with each other. But it's currently eight dollars for a
<v Speaker 3>year or ten dollars for a year. I don't know
<v Speaker 3>how long that that is going to last, if like
<v Speaker 3>Microsoft and Sony are any metric, but yeah, it's it
<v Speaker 3>has been the worst possible time to release a new console,
<v Speaker 3>especially one that is going to follow up their biggest
<v Speaker 3>success story. A lot of it. I feel like a
<v Speaker 3>lot of their business plan has been just like taking
<v Speaker 3>into account, Hey, the switch is really doing wonders for us,
<v Speaker 3>We can actually afford to do these things and like
<v Speaker 3>move our move our characters into just the wide popular
<v Speaker 3>culture beyond gaming. And maybe that is why they are
<v Speaker 3>focusing on external media to kind of make ends meet.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, this is this is one of the things
<v Speaker 3>I think we will probably see this year, I've been
<v Speaker 3>telling all my friends, Hey, if you want to switch
<v Speaker 3>to get it now, it's not going to stay at
<v Speaker 3>four to fifty five hundred for long.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah it's and it's like, yeah, you made a couple
<v Speaker 1>good point, like everything is going to get more expensive
<v Speaker 1>in this space and people the devices that you need,
<v Speaker 1>like a phone or laptop, those are gonna get more expensive.
<v Speaker 1>Like it going back to that last story, micround, the
<v Speaker 1>guy was saying, one of the things that's like frustrating
<v Speaker 1>for us is we have to build all these different
<v Speaker 1>units sizes.
<v Speaker 2>We have to have eight gigabytes.
<v Speaker 1>And twelve gigabytes and sixteen gigabyte modules and for.
<v Speaker 2>AI we don't have to do that.
<v Speaker 1>We could just have the big chunks and they link
<v Speaker 1>them all together and so then that's great for us.
<v Speaker 1>And so having to serve all this stuff that Apple
<v Speaker 1>once is kind of annoying. So okay, and it's like
<v Speaker 1>Apple's like one of your biggest customers, Like what about
<v Speaker 1>any of these other places. It's like if an Apple's
<v Speaker 1>annoying you with that, it's got to be across the board.
<v Speaker 1>So it's like, yeah, like these companies are probably that
<v Speaker 1>are making devices are probably going to have to like
<v Speaker 1>just put in larger RAM modules because those would be
<v Speaker 1>what are available, and that's going to necessarily push up
<v Speaker 1>the price.
<v Speaker 2>It's like the.
<v Speaker 1>More expensive phones and stuff like that will be the
<v Speaker 1>ones that they can afford to make, and that's.
<v Speaker 2>Going to be very frustrating, you know.
<v Speaker 1>And then you saw that story maybe over the weekend
<v Speaker 1>about the leaked Steam machine prices are that they probably
<v Speaker 1>weren't real, but I won't be surprised.
<v Speaker 2>If that is pretty close to what happens.
<v Speaker 1>The prices are like nine hundred and one thousand dollars
<v Speaker 1>something like that for the various models.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, I'm hoping not that. That's something I was actually
<v Speaker 3>looking forward to this year. I only I built my
<v Speaker 3>PC last year, but having a like TV Central PC
<v Speaker 3>would be super cool for me. I would love that.
<v Speaker 3>I think the docking experience on the Steam deck is
<v Speaker 3>kind of rough, even though I did play a lot
<v Speaker 3>of like most of the residente Evil series like that
<v Speaker 3>on my TV. But this was going to be a
<v Speaker 3>really cool thing. And I have all this money on Steam,
<v Speaker 3>and yeah, nine hundred dollars is a big pill to swallow.
<v Speaker 3>I was really hoping around like seven point fifty would
<v Speaker 3>be the place for the bottom model. And yeah, I
<v Speaker 3>mean like there's also like the memory in there is
<v Speaker 3>like double the price for only like one hundred bucks more.
<v Speaker 3>I'm excited to see when that what happens with that.
<v Speaker 3>I'm very exciting to see any outdate from Valve. But yeah,
<v Speaker 3>it is. It's not looking great right now for any
<v Speaker 3>of the big hardware developers in this base or just
<v Speaker 3>tech in general.
<v Speaker 1>Why yep, yeah, yeah, And like I said, that price
<v Speaker 1>is probably not real. We don't know, but we but
<v Speaker 1>we'll see, we'll see. I bet it could be close,
<v Speaker 1>even though we don't think it was real. Nintendo is monitoring.
<v Speaker 1>That's the wrong story, let's see here. Next one is
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy seven remake director says younger employees state that
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy thirteen is their favorite.
<v Speaker 2>This is from my Nintendo News.
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy seven remake director in Aoki Hamaguchi has stated
<v Speaker 1>in a new interview that newcomers to Square Innix tell
<v Speaker 1>him that Final Fantasy thirteen is their favorite Final Fantasy game,
<v Speaker 1>and this is causing them to feel slightly old. Final
<v Speaker 1>Fantasy thirteen launched back in two thousand and nine for
<v Speaker 1>Xbox three.
<v Speaker 2>Sixty and PlayStation three.
<v Speaker 1>And was a big deal at the time, not just
<v Speaker 1>because this was the first Final Fantasy game launching on
<v Speaker 1>an Xbox console so recently because the company, this is
<v Speaker 1>a quote, has been growing and changing as new employees
<v Speaker 1>come in and the company just keeps going on. The
<v Speaker 1>younger folk who come in don't say Final Fantasy six anymore.
<v Speaker 1>They say, oh, yeah, Final Fantasy thirteen was my favorite.
<v Speaker 1>So I really do feel the passing of the ages. Look,
<v Speaker 1>I'm not a Final Fantasy guy, but my understanding, based
<v Speaker 1>on the reaction to chat here, is.
<v Speaker 2>This is one of those things.
<v Speaker 1>It's like, oh my god, this does feel like a
<v Speaker 1>weird thing that people could be saying, because it's like
<v Speaker 1>that was at the time a completely insane thing to say.
<v Speaker 1>But Final Fantasy thirteen constantly being reappraised does feel like
<v Speaker 1>we are coming up to a moment where, oh, they
<v Speaker 1>could bring back Final Fantasy thirteen in some way, and
<v Speaker 1>that would be welcome. I think it'd actually be very
<v Speaker 1>welcome from a lot of people.
<v Speaker 3>What do you think, Yeah, that's a game I actually
<v Speaker 3>do want to play. This year, when I got my
<v Speaker 3>PS three, my dad got me PS three, I got
<v Speaker 3>three D Dot Game Hero some other game, and then
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy thirteen because he knew I liked Final Fantasy
<v Speaker 3>and game maarts and stuff. So yeah, that was one
<v Speaker 3>of the first ones that I really sunk time into
<v Speaker 3>and then I never finished it. It's also funny now, well,
<v Speaker 3>because I remember Rebirth had one of those. One of
<v Speaker 3>the big things about Rebirth Final Fantasy seven Rebirth was that,
<v Speaker 3>like there was the yellow paint all over the place.
<v Speaker 3>And now it kind of makes sense because if the
<v Speaker 3>dev base is their favorite game is the one that's
<v Speaker 3>literally just a hallway for the first like fifteen hours
<v Speaker 3>of the game, it makes sense why, like, oh, I
<v Speaker 3>can't figure out like how to actually traverse this kind
<v Speaker 3>of funny there. I think thirteen is getting to the
<v Speaker 3>point where, yeah, people do have nostalgia, people are constantly reevaluating,
<v Speaker 3>and I think a lot of people forget that there
<v Speaker 3>were three games in the thirteen like series, so that
<v Speaker 3>that was the final Fantasy for an entire generation. Like
<v Speaker 3>we didn't get fifteen until like PS four, and like
<v Speaker 3>we were supposed to have so many games coming out
<v Speaker 3>of the Nebula Christalis bullshit. I don't I don't remember
<v Speaker 3>what it's called anymore. But like, yeah, for a lot
<v Speaker 3>of people growing up in the three sixty, in the
<v Speaker 3>PS three, this was really the only place to or
<v Speaker 3>Final Fantasy game that was accessible, like you had like
<v Speaker 3>Type zero and stuff, but like unless you were on
<v Speaker 3>PlayStation three as well, like you couldn't play the classic
<v Speaker 3>ones either. So it kind of does make sense why
<v Speaker 3>this is, but it's just really crazy coming back from
<v Speaker 3>the age where this was like the big hated Final Fantasy,
<v Speaker 3>where I feel like now things are constantly shifting. It's
<v Speaker 3>kind of like how Zelda, like your favorite Zelda is
<v Speaker 3>the first one you play, and then you just hate
<v Speaker 3>two Zelda's after that and then just constantly refresh.
<v Speaker 2>It does seem very good.
<v Speaker 1>I think one thing I would like to see here
<v Speaker 1>is it's it won't happen, but like Final Fantasy seven
<v Speaker 1>ever Crisis, the mobile one that kind of like retells
<v Speaker 1>the story with simpler visuals or whatever, so it could
<v Speaker 1>be on phone.
<v Speaker 2>I would like to see something like that.
<v Speaker 1>It just takes the whole thirteen trilogy and whatever other
<v Speaker 1>games and just puts it into one little package that
<v Speaker 1>I could play through.
<v Speaker 2>But they probably aren't going to do that. I don't know.
<v Speaker 2>At the very least they got it. They're not going
<v Speaker 2>to like give.
<v Speaker 1>This game the Final Thing Fantasy seven remake treatment, obviously,
<v Speaker 1>But even if they were to like remake those games,
<v Speaker 1>it's like, that's three games. That's a lot of stuff.
<v Speaker 1>They probably aren't even gonna do that. So it's like,
<v Speaker 1>I don't know, find some cost effective way to spruce
<v Speaker 1>up all three games. Put him out in one package.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe that could be cool. Who knows, modernize something in there,
<v Speaker 1>make it just feel slightly like edit the beginning of
<v Speaker 1>Final Fantasy thirteen so I never have to hear the
<v Speaker 1>phrase it gets good after thirty hours ever again, that
<v Speaker 1>would be that.
<v Speaker 2>Would be cool.
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's hit these last handful of stories pretty
<v Speaker 1>quick here. Boulders Game three won't be coming to switch
<v Speaker 1>to blare Maarno. Game spot basically explains that spinnvink in
<v Speaker 1>that Ama was asked about it, and he's just like,
<v Speaker 1>our relationship with Wizards of the Coast Slash Hasbro is
<v Speaker 1>such that this isn't gonna happen, and it's like, Okay,
<v Speaker 1>I guess, I guess we should have realized that that's
<v Speaker 1>where things are. But also, you know, they say they
<v Speaker 1>would like to do it at a certain point. Money
<v Speaker 1>talks right, because that game would do just fine on
<v Speaker 1>a switch to right.
<v Speaker 3>Absolutely. I feel like the big telling point, if there
<v Speaker 3>is a chance, is whether that new Wizards of the
<v Speaker 3>Coast game comes to switch to like it definitely seems
<v Speaker 3>like it's not gonna be a Larian thing at this point.
<v Speaker 3>It is going to be like a Wizards of the Coast,
<v Speaker 3>like not in Houseport, but getting someone support that there,
<v Speaker 3>and that comes with all of all these sets of problems,
<v Speaker 3>and it'll be interesting to see if that does happen.
<v Speaker 3>I mean, I know Divinity Original Sin two just got
<v Speaker 3>updated to switch to along with I think like PS
<v Speaker 3>five and Xbox, but that's been very big on the
<v Speaker 3>E shop the last couple of weeks, so I think
<v Speaker 3>a ton of people would even just rebuy Balder's Gate
<v Speaker 3>three to play it handheld. But yeah, it seems like
<v Speaker 3>it was a timing thing for Balder'sgate or for Larian rather.
<v Speaker 3>I don't know the timeline of like when that relationship soured,
<v Speaker 3>but seems pretty clear we're not going to see that
<v Speaker 3>partnership anytime.
<v Speaker 1>In h And the last couple of things here, Dragon
<v Speaker 1>Quest nine has sold over nine million copies. So oh yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that that series just finds a way, and that especially
<v Speaker 1>that game, people really really have liked to go back,
<v Speaker 1>have enjoyed going back to that game over the years,
<v Speaker 1>and it's one of those ones that's been on sale
<v Speaker 1>a million times and has had a bunch of improvements reports.
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, not surprising to see that they talked about
<v Speaker 1>that as they're talking about Dragon Quest seven demo being
<v Speaker 1>out everywhere, the updated version of that, and that that
<v Speaker 1>carries forward your progress.
<v Speaker 2>That you make in the demo, so people should go
<v Speaker 2>check that out. A lot of people seem to.
<v Speaker 1>Be enjoying it, and then Anthem is shutting down today.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, this is it. That's all it for for Anthem.
<v Speaker 1>My I can't get into my old Eaga account because
<v Speaker 1>it was tied to my old work email address, and
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to deal with support, so I'm just
<v Speaker 1>like I can't get it, so I'm not gonna be able.
<v Speaker 2>To play this.
<v Speaker 1>We were going to play this on the site, but
<v Speaker 1>no one, no one had a copy really anymore, and
<v Speaker 1>it's like, uh, you can't buy it right now.
<v Speaker 2>They won't won't let you buy it.
<v Speaker 1>I honestly, I think people are even saying, even if
<v Speaker 1>you did own it, people were struggling to download it through.
<v Speaker 2>The EA app on PC. So yeah, fun, but that'll
<v Speaker 2>be done for good today.
<v Speaker 1>I bet fan servers pop up, but you know that's
<v Speaker 1>for the real secos out there. All right, let's see here,
<v Speaker 1>we don't have a poll question because we had the
<v Speaker 1>Bomb twelve on Friday.
<v Speaker 2>Update.
<v Speaker 1>I updated the link on the Bomb twelve before the show.
<v Speaker 1>The games will be updated on the bomb excuse me,
<v Speaker 1>the Bomb twelve here pretty soon. But if you want
<v Speaker 1>to vote for this week's the Bomb twelve, you should
<v Speaker 1>be able to do that right now by going to
<v Speaker 1>giant bomb dot com. Just scroll down a little bit,
<v Speaker 1>a little bit, you'll see the Bomb twelve. You see
<v Speaker 1>a link there on the left. Find it there. Go
<v Speaker 1>ahead and let us know what your game is this week.
<v Speaker 1>Can't wait to find out? Can't wait to do the
<v Speaker 1>next Bomb twelve here in twenty twenty six.
<v Speaker 2>We do have a new poll question. We'll get to
<v Speaker 2>here in a second.
<v Speaker 1>Before we do that, though, John Martin, why don't you
<v Speaker 1>tell people where they can find you on the internet,
<v Speaker 1>what you have going on and all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, Well, as mentioned earlier. Yeah, you can follow me
<v Speaker 3>on at John Martin dot Bluesky dot social on there
<v Speaker 3>all the time posting stuff. This week, I'm not going
<v Speaker 3>to be streaming. I will be coming back and like
<v Speaker 3>working on my backlog if there's a whole series there,
<v Speaker 3>But gonna be away till next Wednesday, starting this week,
<v Speaker 3>and I'm going to Florida just with some friends and
<v Speaker 3>that should be a good time. But yeah, when I
<v Speaker 3>come back, a big streaming initiative to get backlog busters,
<v Speaker 3>which is a thing me and some friends are going
<v Speaker 3>to be doing. We're going to be podcasting about all
<v Speaker 3>the games in our backlog this year, so that's going
<v Speaker 3>to be pretty big. So make sure you follow for that.
<v Speaker 3>And yeah, I will say one one other shout out
<v Speaker 3>is seems for me, my game of the week will
<v Speaker 3>be big hops. Chuck's great reviews already on the site.
<v Speaker 3>I loved that reading that a lot, but.
<v Speaker 2>A four out of five. Everybody go read it right now. Though.
<v Speaker 2>It's He's got a lot of cool stuff to say
<v Speaker 2>about the game.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's a customization and platformers. That's that's one of
<v Speaker 3>my newte Like that is just so good for me.
<v Speaker 3>I love the characterization in platform and games. We need
<v Speaker 3>more of that.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, let's see here.
<v Speaker 1>I'm going to see if the Open Critic has the
<v Speaker 1>details on that. Yeah, it's had a seventy two on there,
<v Speaker 1>let's see six. Access gave it a seven out of ten.
<v Speaker 1>Big Ops is a good new three D platformer that
<v Speaker 1>will draw plenty of fans with its fundabilities and locations
<v Speaker 1>to explore.
<v Speaker 2>My playthrough was affected by.
<v Speaker 1>Bugs, which is something I've been hearing with patches coming
<v Speaker 1>to address some of these issues and the run up
<v Speaker 1>to launch, but there seems to be some teething issues
<v Speaker 1>that remain people yet a lot of these reviews talk
<v Speaker 1>about stability issues and things like that. Big Ops is
<v Speaker 1>a charming and scrappy and charming and scrappy and equal
<v Speaker 1>measure for all the issues I faced during my playthrough,
<v Speaker 1>some squash by patchwork and others more fundamental, It's ultimately
<v Speaker 1>one of the most charming, playful, exhilarating, and deeply fun
<v Speaker 1>adventures I've embarked on at some time. Yeah, it just
<v Speaker 1>sounds like it has some rough edges, but that movement
<v Speaker 1>system is so good and it just makes you feel
<v Speaker 1>so capable that I just can't help.
<v Speaker 2>But continue to love it.
<v Speaker 1>All right, We'll talk about that more on the BombCast tomorrow. Everybody,
<v Speaker 1>can you poll question, what is your childhood final Fantasy game?
<v Speaker 1>Is it Final Fantasy six? Is it Final Fantasy seven?
<v Speaker 1>Is it Final Fantasy thirteen? Is it other? I guess
<v Speaker 1>that can also be none. Just don't vote in it
<v Speaker 1>if it's none. But if you have to vote other,
<v Speaker 1>we'll get the results of that. Talk about it on
<v Speaker 1>Giant Bomb here tomorrow, well, Wednesday, excuse me, tomorrow's the BombCast.
<v Speaker 1>That's what's happening here on Giant Bomb for the rest
<v Speaker 1>of the week. We got the BombCast, we'll have Blake Club.
<v Speaker 1>I don't know if we're gonna be able to do
<v Speaker 1>Monday Mornings Miss with Mitch today because I have an
<v Speaker 1>appointment I have to run too, so Mike's not gonna
<v Speaker 1>be without me. We'll see if he wants to do
<v Speaker 1>something else, we'll let you all know. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be a good week here. In the meantime, though,
<v Speaker 1>I think we might be all done. John Martin, thank
<v Speaker 1>you so much for hanging out with me today and
<v Speaker 1>talk about video games.
<v Speaker 2>Man. I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 3>It's always a pleasure, Jeff, I'm excited to ring in
<v Speaker 3>the new year.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, this was great. Glad to get you back on
<v Speaker 1>the show. We'll do it again soon. Thank you all
<v Speaker 1>for watching and listening. Look, if you're upset about Monday
<v Speaker 1>Morning Smiths with mitche maybe I can move it to
<v Speaker 1>a later time today. It just depends on their schedule.
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to move these guys around. Look, we'll
<v Speaker 1>try to make it happen for you. Until next time,
<v Speaker 1>have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.