Ghost of Tsushima's PC Port Getting Delisted in Many Countries

Here we go'day, it's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for May thirteenth, twenty twenty four. For the next hour or so, let me help you sort your way through the world of gaming on Game Mes Mornings Live with me Jeff Grubb Today final Fantasy publisher Square is making a big change and what will switch remasters look like? On Switch to But first please join me and welcoming today's co host, the Game Mess Mornings. It's Emma Fife. Everybody, Emma, how are you doing? I only have one thing to say, and it's Deaths of Kronos. Yes, get kill crowdouse death. Indeed, you all you've played? When did you started? You started like just like on at the start of the weekend? Sign it on? No, I started on Monday, Okay, I was basically let me be okay, So, just for everybody's reference here, I have played Hades two for seventeen hours now, and but I will say that was largely broken up because I because the thing about it is early on in the game, since you're not necessarily getting terribly far, it's very easy to go, okay, well I'll just do one run. And also with the point that it's like I haven't run out of story to discover, So every single time I go back to the like encampment, there's like new dialogue and story developments and blah blah blah. I don't appreciate the update where Kronos sneers at me every single time I lose. Now literally every time I failed, Kronos just comes in and is like I knew you would fail, Damn my Kronos. But yeah, it's uh, it's been it's been a really great time. I'm i Hades for me was a revelation of a game. I've never necessarily been a roguelike person, but I figured a lot out with that game. You figured a lot out with that game. I have probably around four hundred hours in og Hayes and and also I am lightly into speed running, so I have nine minutes and thirty time, which is like nowhere near any of the people who are world record holders. But I have like a nine minutes and thirty with the Fists, and like a just maybe like a nine to fifty six with the Adamant rail. And so it's been interesting about Hades two is like unlearning the instinct to go fast because I don't know the enemy patterns. Yeah, like I need to learn the game first before I can attempt to go fast and a lot that's changed. Yeah, yeah, a lot of it has changed. So yeah, it's it's a lot of fun though, I'm having a really good time. Yeah. I put down Had's two for a bit to get through Animal Well, and I did enjoy that game. I got the credits, which I can very much tell is not really the end of the game. But I'm also not like itching to go solve the rest of the puzzles. I thought it was an okay game. I just it was not blown away by it like some people were. I really I get it, but it's like, yeah, no, this is very well done. These puzzles are good. I'm just not feeling that yearning to go through and like find the rest of the hidden Easter eggs and then they'll like there's another layer of puzzle in there where it's like, oh, okay, I could work together with people, but it's kind of more fun to just like let them do that and go have them make a YouTube video about it and tell me about it at a certain points. So yeah, I'm glad I played it, and I think that it was really well done. But I'm happy to get back to Haites two as well. Yeap, I mean it's great. All right, let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff Greb, will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look ea smart. If you are watching live on twitch welcome, You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings or find therss on giant bomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right, we have a lot to get into, so let's start the Morning Mess with square Enix announces plans to bring more of its games to Xbox MPC and revive old franchises. This is from Alexander Cobe at the Windows Central. On May thirteen, twenty twenty four, Square Enix released to the public a document containing the company's financial reports for the end of the fiscal year. The report includes an important announcement from square Enix that it plans to focus on releasing future games on multiple gaming platforms as part of a new business strategy. The full statement can be found as part of the report. Includes references including for HD titles, the group will aggressively pursue a multi platform strategy that includes Nintendo platforms, PlayStation, Xbox MPCs, especially in regards to major franchises in Triple A titles, includ in catalog titles. It will build an environment where customers can enjoy our titles anywhere. Stop there, and we'll kind of discuss that. That's not too surprising at this point, right, It definitely felt like this is the way the wind was blowing for Square Innix, and then fully embracing that and announcing them publicly. It's like, yeah, that sounds about right for this moment in time for Square Inix, right, absolutely, I mean what other choice do they have at this point? In some ways, because you know, first of all, if you take the example of Sega Atlas and the success that they have had with bringing the Persona titles over to the Xbox, many of them on game Pass, some of them day one game Pass releases, like that was such a smart move on their part in terms of like engaging the JRPG community, and obviously that is what Square is super famous for. So I mean this is not surprising to me at all, you know, given the fact that a lot of their sales have been lackluster with their big flash of titles, as we've discussed on this show previously. So I mean, what else, what else can you do at this point? You know, like this seems like right, this is it? Yeah, and it's really this means I think what the big change here would be is timed exclusives on PlayStation probably don't make a lot of sense anymore. I think that getting money up front from Sony definitely made some sense there in a moment, but it feels like the detrimental effect on the ability to sell these games in an ongoing way is maybe bigger than they were anticipating. And now they're like, look around, like what can we do about this? So maybe that's a strategy we will not duplicate in the future. And they elaborate on that, they say in the HD, which is I guess the high definition sub segment. Consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March thirty first, twenty twenty four increase compared with the previous fiscal year due to the release of titles including Final Fantasy sixteen, Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster, Dragon Quest, Monsters the Dark Prints, and Final Fantasies Haven Rebirth. However, operating losses grew to higher development costs, amortization, and advertising expenses, as well as higher content valuation losses versus the previous fiscal year. And I think what they're getting it's like, yeah, we we did release a lot of games and they performed well enough for us to see increased revenues, but we need more than that because these things are getting more expensive, and so really it doesn't make sense. We need to be spreading spreading the love everywhere, and that's the plan. That's not the only thing changing Over at Square Unix. They're also mentioning, hey, we want to make fewer games, better games, but also release them more frequently. It's a little bit muddy exactly what they're getting at. I think what they're trying to say is we're doubling down on our core franchise is and we're going to release those more frequently, and then fewer of these dalliances that are from you know that kind of come out of nowhere. Yeah, that makes sense, right, well, And what's interesting here is that you know when you're dealing with a series like a Final Fantas or a Dragon Quest, and I mean you see the same thing in I brought up for the Persona titles that there are common elements, but they're not a single story thread. So this is a This is a situation wherein I think that franchises are good because you have that recognition of there's a certain level of quality and familiarity that is expected without it being an MCU situation where you are just there's too much, there's too much, don't care anymore. But with Final Fantasy again, you are basically starting from zero every single time effectively. So I think that this makes a lot of sense. That being said, you know, there are some conversations there about bringing in reviving older franchises and if you can bring back Parasite e of Anytime Square anytime, Yeah, sometime, I'm ready, please think, Yeah, I wonder what the chances are for something like that. So like that, they definitely say that that let's see here on top of committee to more multiplatform releases, Screams plans to revive some of its older IP with new games, as noted on this quote from page eight of the report. In addition, the group will strive to increase its success rate in games by launching a carefully curated selection of titles. It will additionally explore ways to leverage its rich library of IP. Yeah. I think that taking the energy that they were putting into games like Various Day Life and The Quiet Man and baland wunder World, and a handful of games that are really bad, and games that were like Doofield Chronicle, which is like it has there's something there, but it's a challenging upheld battle to get people to pay attention to that, the energy that was going into quite a few games that they were releasing, and taking that and applying more of that energy to something like a Parasite Eve that at least has name recognition, and people occasionally going, hey, it'd be cool if they made another one of those. Now, oh yeah, the chances of Parasite ev. I don't know. I haven't really looked. I always remember people saying that there's like IP issues, sure, yeah, that multiple people own the rights, right, it's like a book series or something like that. So maybe that one doesn't come back, or maybe they do some sort of spiritual success or or they work something out whatever. Either way, though, the idea of like looking back and doing more with their with their games. At a certain point they should just like be like, hey, let's do another Chrono Trigger, right, Like, why doesn't that feel like that would be such a better use of their I mean, I get it's hard to like make a good one of those that lives up to that legacy totally, but it's also makes it's difficult to make a game that no one knows the name of and then they forget about in a week because it was various day life. Yeah, I mean maybe, yeah, one hundred percent make another Chrono game. That would be uh incredible, you know. I think that as far as say, you know, the existing kind of SEQL to Chrono Trigger Crono Cross. I don't think it's a great Chrono Trigger sequel, but I think it's a great game. And I think that again, it's like if they kind of embrace that idea of this like loose connectivity where you don't have to necessarily have played all the other titles to get it, but if you have, there are some rewards involved. Yeah, I mean, it's like take those things that people recognize and lean into those. You know, you can't fully overlook the sort of near of it all as well, you know, because Yo Kotaro's definitely got a very dedicated fan base, so I think that there is you know, there's potential money to be made there as well. And again, just increasing accessibility to your games is only going to benefit you in the long run. Yep, let's see what else here as part of this, you know what, Let's get to the next story that also relates to that. To this excuse me, Square Enix confirms it's canceled games which don't They cancel the games that don't fit with this new development strategy. This comes from Chriscullian at BGC. Square Enix has confirmed that it has canceled a number of unnounced game projects because they don't fit with its new strategy. The publisher had previous suggested that it would be canceling projects, but wasn't specific about the details. During a meeting held in late March, the companies said it expected to report content abandonment losses as part of its plan to overhaul its development process to improve game quality. Now as part of its latest financial financial results, report. It has now officially confirmed the cancelations and explained why they were made. The new report says profits were down nearly seventy percent from the previous year, partly due to the recognition of one hundred and forty one million dollars in losses on disposable content and extraordinary losses. According to the report, these losses were based on the termination of development efforts for some key pieces of content in the digital entertainment segment, essentially meaning game cancelations. The company says the projects were canceled because they don't fit with the new medium term business plan, specifically its new approach to how HD games are developed. In the new strategy, which is titled Square Enix Reboots and Awakens the publisher and even their business names, the publisher highlights a number of ways it's it plans to deliver high quality games and make more players happy. It's still kind of vague and very vague. Yeah no, but it's like the kind of yeah, go ahead, I get what. I get the gist of what they're saying here, which is again focusing on those legacy titles, which, as I already said, they are in an advantageous position because really, all you're bringing to it is the is the title, name recognition and some elements. People can expect you're starting from zero with a story essentially every time, and that is a good thing because basically you are It's this is gonna be a weird now jam in Amagram. It's like, why there is if you're a writer trying to develop your skills, why there is real benefit in writing fan fiction? And that is because you are working within an established thing that people have an interest in, and so they are going to read it, and you're going to be able to get like real time read or feedback. You know, is that is valuable as getting editor publisher feedback. Not necessarily, but there is value in that. And again, so it's like, when you are bringing in that name recognition, there are people who are gonna show up and buy that game simply because it's called Final Fantasy or it's called Dragon Quest. So I get. And it's extremely unusual that Square sees any modicum of success with titles that are totally brand new, So why not take advantage of the fact that you are in a position to have some fun in these worlds? I think you know, whatever you feel about Final Fantasy sixteen. It was a big swing. They decided, you know what, we're gonna really go with a serious storyline in this, which we'd already seen in Final Fantasy Tactics, but I digress, and we're going to make this a single player action RPG. It wasn't for every but it was. It was a risk that they took, and I think that that's awesome, and there is lower risk involved in taking these risks when you are playing within an existing franchise. Yeah, and I think that's that they're looking for some safe ground to return to while also not necessarily slowing down completely on investing in their games, because that's not really not really an option. So where do they go. It's, yeah, let's go someplace recognizable and safe and feels like it can pay off. I think that's a little bit disappointing. But this is a company that, as you know, people always point out, Oh, they have such high expectations. What are they talking about? Yeah, but when we look at these numbers, when they are talking about operating income like being down massively year over year with something like sixty percent, I believe I don't have the numbers right in front of me, but they're all of their numbers were down year over year, but they're like, how much money they're actually making compared to how much they're spending is down significantly, and that trajectory is something that they been concerned about for some time, and now here it is in black and white, and they're like, Okay, we have to do make some changes. And I think like establishing a new foundation of hey, let's get some hits, let's get some successes out there, let's figure out what we're doing, let's reinvest in our in our technology. And you know, I think this comes up on every episode of the show now, but you know, look at what Capcom's doing. Do more stuff like that. Then once we have that basis of Final Fantasy, games are coming out and they're anticipated and they're hitting and they're doing very well, and it's growing. Each game is selling better than the last one, as opposed to way what it's happened recently, where it's trending downward and it's gonna turn back up where because now we're putting it more places and has a better chance to succeed. Once that basis, Once that basis is there, I think it's like, Okay, now, we can take some other risks, and in the meantime, the safer risks are games that do have some recognition and and you know, looking back to our games and bringing those forward and at least having the pop of when that shows up at a summer game fest or whatever or the Game Awards and we show a logo, people go, oh my god, I remember playing that as a kid. That puts you so far ahead of the curve. I think that far ahead. Yeah. All you need and I'm gonna give a feast of Violet the credit for this. All you need to do is put the bouncer to on the screen and people will be so jan Wood, Yeah, Jane definitely would. We'll see about that one. That one might be too far everybody, but we'll see how they end up playing this out. Not to do real, but I have a one of my magazines that I got in my like, you know, supporting the Video Game History Foundation gaming magazines. One of mine, the clever story is the bouncer. Yeah, mine is Mario Party. There you go, everybody, Oh my god, I love it. All right, let's move on here. Prominent leaker claims Nintendo project code named you Kingo is in the works, and there might be some more details here we'll get into that this is from Nintendo. Soup. A prominent leak is shared the code name of another project in the works at Nintendo, which has sparked speculation about the recently confirmed Switch successor. The leaker in question is Madori, who is a well known for leaking Siga related news. Their latest claim is that a project code named you King Oh You Dash King DASHO is being worked on at Nintendo, similar to their previous code name claim. However, they did not share any details about what this project could be, and a series of replies another user speculated that the code name is a port of the legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild for the Switch successor. This is because Breath of the Wild's code name is you Dash King, You King, and Nintendo tends to code name ports by adding an additional letter at the end. They've done this in the past, where like so when a game would get ported to the Switch, they would keep the code name and then do dash s at the end. When it would get ported to the three DS, they would add a h C to the end. Because the code name for the three DS was like CTR or something like that. Either way, Yeah, that sounds about right, But boy does that bring up a lot of questions about how they're going to handle this. So, for one thing, we've heard the Wild out now that they have done some work on Breath of the Wild for the switch To now that has mostly been for demonstration purposes to show to developers. They were apparently a GDC showing the thing off, and what they were showing was Breath of the Wild running on the switch To without loading times, so that the hey, look, this whole thing can now run without loading times. Isn't that impressive? That work sounds like it's going to likely turn into a commercial project product. We don't know yet. This is all still you know, it could be a code name for just the demonstration. This might never happen, but Breath of the Wild getting a remaster of sorts on switch To makes a lot of sense. Emma, how do you think they treat that though? Is it an update a free update? Is it a paid update? Is it a whole new game you have to purchase and the old game just works? Yeah? I have no idea what the rest been. I mean, my heart says it's a separate purchase, okay, but is the separate purchase like now here's Breath of the Wild colon switched to edition and you could buy that again you want, or is it a ten dollar update to the Breath of the World you already own or is it both? Oh? I mean that's mmmmmm. It's so difficult to stay because I mean, obviously, we see a lot of games that were released on the PS four, for example, and have an optimization for the PS five, like with three or and many of them some are free somewhere ten dollar updates and things like that, exactly exactly. I think it ultimately depends on how different is the hardware we're working with, and if they are, you know, and again it's like you're talking about they're basically showing Breath of the Wild running with no load times. I think in that case, probably it is like a ten dollars upgrade. But I truly truly believe that this is going to be something that's really been rebuilt, you know, obviously not from the ground up, because they have a lot of framework to work with, but it's going to be like Last of Us Part one. Sure you know what I mean by that? Totally? Yeah, So I think that that's probably what we would be getting. And and yeah, Chad is a chat popping off saying it's a new seventy dollars day. I don't disagree, just a little previous. This will be the pole question for tomorrow for Wednesday, everybody, so you will have you vote then. I think Weisman fifty four might have a Breath of the Wild Deluxe, like I think about Links Awakening versus Links Awakening d X on the Game Boy Color. Basically the same game, but it had to have color now, so they added that it wasn't great in my opinion, as soon as a Lynks Awakening family I got a id DX, I totally know. Yeah, but it was a whole separate thing that you bought now. Of course there weren't updates back then, there wasn't DLC. But that's not the point. I think the point is Nintendo it will look for the way to to sell the thing, and this is something they've done before, and I think they could easily pull that off again. But boy, it would be nice if they established this as no, yeah, this is on the switch and if you own it, you already own it, and this is a free update. I think that we're all The reason that everyone is skeptical of that is that's not Nintendo's m O. Right right, Yeah, Look, I've bought the number the number of times I've purchased Star Osh in the second story, I don't I fully believe that this will be a separate purchase game. Yep, and Sean points out Mario cart eight Deluxe exists. It's very easily and now okay, but okay, true, All right, let's assume that this is exactly what Zelda Birth of the While Deluxe is going to be on the Switch. It is going to be the Deluxe version, a whole new, separate purchase. Does that mean that we don't get updates for other games that improve the performance or whatever on Switch to unless they get a version like this? Oh? If we establish right off the bat that this is yeah, let's say that you're right that there's enough work being done to this to justify it being a Deluxe and anything else would be like, well, yeah, we'll patch it and we'll get maybe this game that was running thirty can now run at sixty frames per second, But that's all we're going to do. I mean, do we get those still or does this sort of thing only happen if Nintendo can charge seventy dollars for it. I think that other games would likely get a scenario wherein they get optimized for the switch to as you say, like, okay, now this can run in sixty instead of thirty because the switch you can run sixty. But I don't think that we're going to get any sort of like big time upgrades without paying for the game again, yep. Thing that's Nintendo, yep. And the thing is we've heard backward compatibility is fully in the system. So Breath the Breath of the Wild you own, and that old Breath of the Wild you're gonna be able to get for that that gets super cheap, but you probably maybe you can get a secondhand for forty dollars that'll be out there and run on this device. So we'll maybe look at make it look a little bit stranger because we U games didn't run on the switch. Right, So Mario cart eight versus MA Mario cart eight Deluxe, if you want Mario cart eight, you've got to pay up. That's not going to be the same case for Breath of the Why, at least as far as we know. Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of questions, and it is an interesting conversation because it's like, well, we have our desires and our expectations, and Nintendo, of course wants to make as much money from this as possible, but they're also writing a lot of positive momentum. Do they care about that? They might not. I don't know. I can't wait for all these things to get answered, because I think it'll be the very least interesting and we're talking about on shows like this, and they also might be a major headache if it's Nintendo falling, Nintendo ing, I mean, Nintendo going to Nintendo. That's what I think. I think that's a safe assumption at this point, absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And when my digital games will be playable on the switch to, yeah, I mean, as far as we know, and this is based on early reporting, but all the reporting has reiterated, reiterated this time and time again. Now digital and physical games will all be fully backward compatibility compatible compatible on the switch to. Uh, And you know, I think that we you know, we'll take that as for granted and at a certain point, but there were questions about that because the switch to is using slightly different chip sets than the switch. So yeah, there's no there was no guarantee here. Nintendo also doesn't have a great history of backwards compatibility. When they do, it's like because they put the small they put the system in there in a smaller version, like it would be exactly there's actually just the game Boy advance in this, you know, exactly right, But that would have been maybe that would have been something we wouldn't expect to happen here. But it sounds like either that has happened or they worked with Nvidia to figure out the compatibility layer, which is probably the right move because I think we're talking about like long term support for these games. If they just put a tiny little switch on the chip on the bigger chip in here, well, that does not solve it in the future when like we get to like Switch three, do you have to do that again forever? So I think the likely thing here is they just figured out compatibility layer and they can just take carry that forward and now those games will just work on Switch systems and Nintendo systems at infinitum. Okay, let's take a quick break. When we get back, there is rumors about doom happening. We'll talk about that ghost of Sushima and the PlayStation on PC continues to be a mess. All that and more right after this, all right, we are back and let's get right back into it with It looks like a Doom announcement could happen at the Xbox Games Showcase. This comes from Ben Lyons at Game Reactor. There are so many rumors and reports doing the rounds right now in regards to the future strategy of Xbox and what the Xbox Game Showcase and June might deliver, that it could be an app food nightmare to tell what is and is inaccurate. We just have to trust and the sources themselves, which is what makes the latest rumor, if you can call it, all the more compelling. The vergis Tom Warren has published a recent report that suggests something Doom related will be announced during the showcase in June. The exact specifics of this Doom project remain unclear, and as Warren's simply say, the states and this is at the like the end of a longer part about what the hell is going on over at Xbox. This isn't like the last paragraph here, and I didn't notice this until I was reading the story. Microsoft will be banking on some new game announcements lifting the Doom, and he put it in italics around Xbox. While this is hard the confirmation, the wording is peculiar and highly peculiar and highly suggestive, to say the least, I'll see. Yeah, I've heard Doom's going to be there from multiple people. Now, Like this is a rumor that seems to be pretty well corroborated at this point. Yeah, I think we could expect that. I is that what you want from ID right now? Because I remember mentioning this to a couple of people when I first heard the rumor, and uh, like, people, I would have been nice to get a quake now instead, like just take a break from a doom, from a lit instead of a Doom. Yeah, I totally feel that sentiment because again it well, I mean, it's like it's like going back to what we were talking about with Square Enix, where it's like you have these established, long running franchises and sometimes you want another of the other thing before we get another. Yeah, I don't fit. You know, you want to just ride Master's a doom And like this was a conversation that they were having after Doom two. It's like should we do Doom three, And it's like, I want to do Doom three, and then they get big fights like no, I want to do something different. I want to do a sci fi or like a fantasy RPG, and they start working on that and then like that was what a quake originally was. It was called Quake right, based on one of their D and D characters, and it's like, hey, we're gonna do this fantasy RPG, and then they abandoned that and just turned out to be more like a Doom but you know, obviously different but not Doom. Yes, So that was the conversation they've been had for a long time. Now they're under micros Off still kind of probably having that conversation. And yet I think going back to Doom Is at this point is not the same thing as like back then. Like then it was like these games come out so frequently, another Doom would be like, oh, Doom three already. Now it's like, yeah, it has been a while since Doom Eternal, right for sure. Yeah, And I mean the you know, the twist is Doom Is at a summer games fest, but you're playing it on a Tesla super truck. Yeah, Okay, Hell yeah, let's go. Of course, why would you want another Doom on an Xbox or a PC when you can play it on a t I eighty three. Yeah, let's go. I uh, Doom can run on anything. Didn someone get Doom running on like a blood cell before? That's my mom? Really, I know about definitely a digital pregnancy test a micro way, but I think a t I eight three calculator. Yeah, oh yeah, okay, so Doom. I think that there's still a chance that some other games could show up. How are you feeling about, like what the rumors around a Doom showcase or excuse me, an Xbox showcase right now? And do they need something else to sort of come out and surprise you to be fully happy with it? Or is it like, yeah, I think Doom is a title that carries a ton of weight and that you know, obviously, I always have to think of things in terms of the bigger picture and not the people who are necessarily you know, And and like chat is in the same boat, Like we're in there and we are like dissecting what is going on in the gaming world. But it's the same ways when like a new Star Wars movie comes out and I'm like, oh, I'm so tired of Star Wars because I'm paying attention to everything Star Wars. But your average person is just like, cool new Star Wars movie. I'll go see that. I like Star Wars. That sounds great, and that's like kind of how I feel like Doom is a is within the cultural zeitgeist outside of the really like locked in gaming community, and so I think that as far as as far as things go, yeah, the people who are going to actually be watching the Xbox showcase might be like, oh, we really needed something else, And quite frankly, I think there probably will be some other big announcement, but yeah, your average like I played Doom on the PC. Oh cool, Yeah, maybe I'll check it out because it's a Doom. Yeah, and I think it's like recently, okay, I think Dan's setting off the game sent again. Oh yep, he definitely is. Okay. Recently, the Xbox has been doing a good job of being like, hey, we have a ton of Western RPGs, but their bread and butter for a long time has been first person shooters. I think coming out of this showcase, you know, not necessarily just first person, but shooters across the board. It will be It'll be this Doom. It's very likely, although, like like I said on over the weekend, things could shift, but Gears, Gears of Something New, Gears of War could be there, and then Perfect Dark, i've now heard, could be there as well. So it's like, what, all right, a lot of shooters and the Xbox tends to do this where it's like, hey, we have a lot of games in this genre all at the showcase. But that for the shooter genre, that's like not such a bad thing because that's such a big space that kind of can support all these different games if they feel different enough. And do you think like Doom, Gears, Perfect Dark could all take up different segments in that space. I don't know, As you say, they're all shooters, they're different certainly from each other. I was a big Perfect Dark fan back on the N sixty four, even though I didn't have an n SEC four, but I would play my Neighbors N sixty four and I liked that the main character was a girl. That was very fun for me, and a dark game very very important. Yeah, I mean I think that you know, something like a Perfect Dark carries a lot of excitement and anticipation that is very separate from say a Doom. But I do think that Xbox has been very strategic in terms of showcasing the fact that there is a broader appeal to Xbox and it isn't just first person shooter. So I do think that we will probably get to potentially see both of those, but that there will be something else accounting for the fact that not everybody is into FBS. Yeah, I think that's where I'm at. I think we need if we get if we get into the show and we're watching and it's like, you know, here, here's avowed. You know, we've had Starfield, here's the update to here's the Starfield update, and then here's like, here's a handful of shooters. I'd be like, yeah, that's that feels like a very Xbox show. Uh, you know, is there an update on Fable? Is there an update on do you have or like even good right, even the Outer Wilds or the Outer Worlds excuse me, outer Worlds too? Do you have more information on that? Yeah? Another Western RPG, but still that feels different enough to be like, Okay, that rounds out the show and yeah, yeah, I think they want to have a really strong showcase here because they need to change the narrative, and I think that's possible, but it really will require them to have a large variety of games that all look like they could be complete bank complete bankers, and even then people are still going to be skeptical. Recu. It's like, we need to play these games. We've lost a little faith in you. So yeah, well, I guess while we're on this topic, what's your expectations for like PlayStation and Nintendo PlayStation probably still does have a showcase this month, what are your hopes there? I mean, I think I'm trying to sort of do the math. I feel like it wasn't until early twenty twenty one that we got the update from Final Fantasies having Remake where they had the uv DLC. Obviously, I'm sure they're going to have some interim DLC story for Final Fantasies having rebirth. It's probably a little too soon to reveal that, as I say, you know, because I'm like trying to think of, like, what are are the big PlayStation exclusives. Maybe something for Ghosts, which we're gonna talk about pretty soon here, because that obviously was another big PlayStation driver Astro Boy confirmed or an Astrobot. It does sound like it will be there, So a new Astro game that I'm a huge fan. You love astros playrooms, so like I would love another Astro sounds like that. They'll do that. They'll probably have like an update on PS five Pro, right, they'll probably talk about that for the first time. But in terms of games, I think it's it's probably like Astro and like Concord and a handful of those other live live uh live service games that they've talked about previously and haven't really shown much of beyond that, you know, Yeah, maybe we get an early look at Ghost of Sushima too, that would be cool. They already said that's not coming out this year, so it could be too early for that. At the same time that that wouldn't necessarily stop them from talking about it, but I'm not counting on it. But hey, they're calling it a showcase, so they better have some big announcements. Although I do think they're anchoring a lot of this around PS five Pro. Yeah, that's probably the vast majority of what it is. Yeah, and then and then for Nintendo who knows who knows? I mean, I I do think like a god. When we try to like look back at some of the rumors that have like haven't been completely debunked yet it seemed to be confirmed, Like that Fire Emblem remastered that we've heard about a bunch of times. Yes, at the Genealogy the Holy War, Mario baseball makes some sense, Mario Sonic at the Summer Olympic Games. These are things I hope we see. Oh, Mario and Sonic are definitely going to the Olympics. I feel I feel very confident that we'll see something around that. But yeah, I mean, give me that Genealogy of the Holy War remake. I'm elate to Fire Emblem like I'm a I'm a classic American Fire emblemmer in that I started with Awakening, Sure me too, Really I played it before, but never really like playing the Fire Emblem characters and smash for sure, of course who didn't, but I didn't. I've never played a Fire Emblem until until Awakening. And obviously, like Awakening has a lot of inspiration from Genealogy of the Holy War in terms of that like multiple generation kind of stuff. So I really really would love a nice remake of that. Yep, all right, let's move along. Here and speaking of Ghost of Sushima, Ghost of Sushima's PC port has been delisted in nearly two hundred countries and territories without PSN access, even though most of the game won't require a sign in. This is from Ted Litchfield at PC Gamer, marrying Helldiver two's continued regional dlisting woes the upcoming PC port of Sucker Punches twenty twenty historical Samurai Slice Them Up. Ghost of Sushima has been removed from sale on Steam and other PC storefronts and nearly two hundred countries and territories that are not served by Sony's PlayStation Network. Previous Sony PC ports like God of War and Horizon Zero Dong were player only and did not require signing into Sony's proprietary online service to play. After a delayed rollout due to Helldiver two's initial server woes, an attempt by the publisher to institute a mandatory sign in requirement was met with a massive backlash, leading to the company standing down. One aspect of the situation to Sony did not seem to anticipate was that Steam and thus hell Divers two on PC were available in more countries than PSN, with players in non PSN supported regions potentially getting locked out of the game they had paid for and been playing. Even after Sony reversed reversed its decision, Hell Divers two remained unavailable for purchase in those areas. Arrowhead CEO John Pilstadt has said that he's pushing for this to be reversed. Well more on that here in a second. In the meantime, though, I was under the impression that this was all solved. I thought like, Okay, they made they reversed their decision, and they'll figure some stuff out. Yeah, talked about this last week on this show, right, and I thought the solution to the Hell Divers thing was, well, we were reversing that decision, and therefore you could purchase that game in those two hundred countries. Again, that has apparently not been the case. It's not gone back up for sale, and now it's spreading to Ghost of Sushima. Well, and also, were we talking literally last week about Ghost of Sushima And the only reason that you would have to sign into your PSN is if you wanted to do the online multiplayer stuff, which is yeah, and that's the case. That's exactly the case, so the single player game is completely you know, offline, basically you don't need to sign the PS in. But because the requirement is there for legends and in there, yeah exactly, like this is a mess. Yeah, and it feels like at this point you can't help but say, oh, Sony just doesn't really have this PC thing figured it out yet. They are stumbling around in there and they're trying to you know, get a strong foothold on PC, but all and that keeps turning into them sort of sticking their foot into an alligator's mouth or something like that, where they just keep making these bone and moves that are causing them way more headaches, and it seems they need to be putting up with. If they just completely drop the requirement, yeah, then the game should just be on sale in all these countries. Well just do that. And again, frankly, the requirement for Goost of Sushima as established is so minimal. Yeah, it's a single player, offline game. So you are now limiting people being able to do that by simply having a requirement that they sign into their PS and if they want to play offline, So it can't even be listed in this Steam store. I don't know if Sony understands the Internet. I don't know if they've heard it yet. Yeah, it's it seems really like they're just beefing it here and it's, uh, it's like, are they they're not even really using the PlayStation Network Protocol to like play these games online? I mean maybe I guess maybe that's how Legends is going to work. I don't know when with its multiplayer, maybe that's how that'll work. But sure, fine, but hell, divers too has worked just fine without PSN, so obviously it's using something else other than the PSN to operate. So by even like suggesting that this requirement, it's it's just getting in the way and causing a problem where you know, we can go back to the thing we've said a bunch of times about this. Now, hey make it in an incentive, give people a reason to want to sign up. I give the them currency. But Okay, the reason you need to do it that way now is because so many of these countries don't have PSN, but they could still. It turns out they could still sign up for PSN. They just sign up that they've been doing it for years apparently, right, they just sign up for US PSN accounts and Steam. I don't think, and I think that there's some back and forth here about is Sony delisting it, is Steam valved delisting it? And it sounds like it's it's coming down to it's a little bit of both. But either way, these companies feel like they can't release this or like officially sell this game in this country while that sort of damicles of the PSN recoris is hanging over the game. I don't know, do they have to make some clean break here or come up with some other solution. I don't know, right because again, it's like the main issue that we're running into here is that it's the disconnect between PSN and theme and the fact that PSN doesn't exist in a bunch of regions. As you say, you can sign up for a US PSN account, but why again, no incentive, But how do you divorce these things so that it can exist in the Steam Store and you can access everything that you are able to access without logging into a PSN account, Like basically, how do you keep it listed in the Steam Store? That there's clearly some sort of problem happening here, yep, yep, And I know someone in twitchchat says Valve literally said PlayStation dlisted them. I know, but whenever we look I read further stories, it's like Sony said, the Valves doing it. So I think it probably is Sony responsible. I think Valve probably is just saying exactly what's going down here. But regardless, that's beside the point. At a certain point, at a certain point, Sony just needs to figure this out. This is getting kind of silly at this point, and the PSN sign of requirement can't be so important that you're shutting out two hundred countries around the world. Yeah, why did ninety percent of the countries in the world not have psc Yeah, speaking of that, Arrowhead CEO says Hell Divers two Steam situation isn't looking positive that that characterization the headline. We'll get into that. This is from Jake Coleman at Dual Shockers. Arrowhead Games Studio CEO John or Johann Pilstadt has provided an update on the ongoing Hell Divers two publishing controversy. Currently, Hell Divers two has been delisted from Steam in almost two hundred countries. This is in the wake of Sony's attempt to force players to link their PlayStation Network and Steam accounts. PSN isn't available in many countries and territories, which barred many players from accessing the game. This decision was later reversed by Sony after player backlash, but Helldivers two remains delisted in affected territories. Recently, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia were added to the list. Arahead remains the negotiats in negotiations with Sony, but Pilstat isn't optimistic and not just to clarify, there was that list of like one hundred and seventy seven and growing games, and recently Sony has added even more games to the list, so it's like they're expanding where this game is not available. So to give an upstate, and this is from Piltstadt on the three further country restrictions, they should have been part of the original restriction and it was noticed when the restriction was put in place for Sushima. This was noticed and executed independently by Valve, so again back and forth. This is where the confucion came from. When I read that, I'm like, Okay, who is doing this? Is it Sony or Steam? I think it's a combination of both. I think Sony's going to them and saying, hey, we're doing this, so that does need to be listed in the countries where PSN isn't available, and I think Valve is actually doing the process of actually de listing it. So that's where like this confusion comes in. Pillstat goes on to say, while it doesn't look positive, it is not an indication of further restrictions. I think when he says it doesn't look positive, I think he's saying the optics of us doing this doesn't look good, but it's not indicative of further restrictions. The conversation on region restriction is still ongoing and is independent of this. I have no further information. We still want the game to be available everywhere. Hope you all have a great Saturday. And I'm sorry I don't have a better update. So yeah, Airhead says they're still like advocating to get the game available everywhere. That's what they're going after. But I read this, I'm like, again, I thought this was solved. How can this be that complicated? And if you're going to reverse your decision about the PSN sign requirement for Sony, you have to fully solve this. It can't stop here, right, No, you can't just say okay, you don't have to sign into your PSN account. But because there is a PSN account login aspect still can't list it in countries that don't have PSA. It's wild. I mean, this is this is the story all over again with got of Sushi Bell, where it's like you're I don't know, Sony, this is not a this is not a good time for you. Yeah. Yeah, And it's a people pointing out there's there's not two hundred countries, it's it's over two hundred countries and regions apparently regions, Yes, so that that's where that goes at. Yeah, uh, I don't In the Johann Field stat over at Arrowhead having to figure this out, it feels like he is butting his head up against a Sony that, as you said earlier, does seem to fully understand the ramifications of the decisions they're making. And you know, Sony's been more savvy than this in the past. But this does kind of go back to like there's some stubbornness from these kinds of companies, and I think we're seeing it once again. Yeah, where do you think this this shakes out? Do you think it shakes out like, uh, you know that game is just going to actually be unlisted in all these countries for good well and then like slowly sp ps N gets in some of these other countries. Sure it comes back at that point, or did like, does Sony find a way to like fully unravel this mess they made? Oh? I think that Sony fully finds a way to unravel this mess that they made. And it's truly because you know, you have the team behind hell Diverse to actively working on this, and because it's already made such a big splash internationally in regions that don't have PSN. You know, these people have already been playing this game and there's a strong community around it. And I think that because of you know, basically the people rallying together and having this game that really was a surprise hit, that we will end up with Sony figuring out a way to do this and ultimately that is going to benefit games in the future that Sony has publishing rights to. Either that or this is gonna force Sony to figure out how to make us in a world wide option. Yep. And in case everyone was wondering what this news story smells like, I think it smells like gunfire and explosions. According to Dan REIKERD who keeps setting off my game. Sent again, you know about SIMA got the game sit in my house and Dan Reiker can remotely control it. Oh no, yeah, that's the correct response. That's on, Dan says, correct. Cool, correct, Oh boy, all right, let's move along here. EA apparently is exploring the idea of endgame ads in traditional Triple A titles. This is from Liam Doolan at Nintendo Life. Third party video game Giant Electronic Arts had its earning call this week and CEO Andrew Wilson was asked about the possibility of dynamic AD insertion across more traditional Triple A games. The idea is supposedly all read already being explored, but it's still early on that front, and the company will be very thoughtful about the implementation, assuming it goes ahead with something like this. We've had teams internally in the company right now looking at how we do every thoughtful and implementations inside of our game experience. While EA already tally has ads and select titles and live services like EA Sports FC twenty four, these latest comments from the company's CEO are once again focused on personalized, dynamic ad insertion paired with some traditional game experiences. Hey, don't do this, Oh done? Can you imagine you're in the middle of like a Star Wars, a Jedi game, and there's this big, deep story, and then all of a sudden you have to watch a commercial for sharpon toilet paper, Like what right? Right? I mean? And I think that's exactly the scenario that they would try to pull off here. I mean, this is going to be very thoughtful, but let's be clear. The ad inventory will be most valuable when people are most enthralled with their game and having a fake loading screen and being like, well, you know, while it's loading, what if you watched this commercial? Is one million percent something they would try to pull off? Oh, one hundred percent is something that they would try to pull off. I have no doubt about that. I YEA go ahead, am somebody who works primarily on branded content, Okay, So I basically make commercials for video games or for Coca Cola that include people playing video games or reporting on video game news, et cetera, et cetera. What video games need to do if they want to go this route is we got to go the way of Hollywood, you know what I mean. So a lot of brands they pay for product placement within their games or within TV shows, within movies. Okay, so Apple, everybody in your video game they've all got Macintosh computers, or everybody uses an iPhone and you clearly see that Apple logo. That's the only way that this works and it doesn't completely disrupt the ecosystem. Yes, the only other option is, as Bludgeon points out in chat Cervesa Christall like actually like fully going the way where it's like, Okay, this is not just someone using a Mac. It's clearly an advertisement, but it's so like instilled in the world that it's kind of funny. And there's a couple of game brands that could pull that off. Due I would. I would play a fully branded Warrior Wear game where it's just Warrior doing batshit and insane stuff with Budweiser. I don't look it's something like a GTA so easy to go crazy on your product placement to the point that it's comical and it should be you know, like Dan, since that sounds like my dream game, maybe me too. That sounds so yeah, and Chance has split tune plus dude wipes there you go? Sure, gat Yeah? Why not? Oh boy? All right, let's see here. Last story, Sony reportedly formed studio with former Deviation Game debs. This is from Jordan Miller at VGC. Sony has reportedly founded a new studio within PlayStation made up of former Deviation Games employees. That's according to Michael Anthony, a former Deviation Games employee, on LinkedIn. Hey, I hear that a lot of previous Deviation Games employees have set up their own studio at Sony, working on an undisclosed new IP, he wrote on the platform. All the people I see working there have signed up our top class developers, and I hope that you can create a top class new IP with your studio that hopefully gives you all the time you need to create a quality product and not have to deal with the red tape from previous projects. Deviation Games, which was founded in twenty twenty, was by two experienced Call of Duty developers, didn't get a chance to release its debut project and original original IP that was set to be exclusive to the PlayStation platforms in September twenty twenty two. One of Deviation Games co founder's chief executive officer Jason Blundell left the studio. It would appear that Jason Blendell is now involved in the new studio. Following Anthony's post, users on social media highlighted a post from former Deviation Games employee JC Farmer from December which read, I've been wanting to say this for a while, but now I finally can. I'm a junior game designer at PlayStation Studios and I work for Jason Blundell. So yeah, it sounds like that Deviation Studios which kind of started up and was independent but had a contract with PlayStation Yes, and then that fell apart. PlayStation I think kind of pulled out of that the funding for that project, and then the studio fell apart after Jason Blendell left. Sounds like a lot of people are just say, hey, let's just go start something within Sony and that's going to work out just fine. Hopefully that turns into a good game. But hey, some good news there for people who may have lost their jobs at the previous studio finding a place. Absolutely no, that is absolutely a very positive thing in an industry where layoffs are running rampant, or games are getting canceled and contracts being terminated. You know, I think that, as you say, that is the positive aspect of this. But oil Boy can't wait for Deviation to make a great online game that immediately gets delisted on Steam because PlayStation figure out how internet works. Man, it was someone with early on set, old man brand. I really do think that that's the only explanation for what's going on over at Sony is some old men are in charge and they don't get it. You just don't get it. Yeah, I mean I can speak from firsthand experience with having worked at Universal and the old men being in charge and being like well, socks and sandals. I don't get it. But people like fast as the Furious, so we just keep making them because they keep making money. All right. Let's see here, last story tes t on Twitter found a reference to Red Dead Redemption one on the rock Star PC launcher. There's just kind of a little like thread here inside of the launcher and says like, journey across the sprawling expanses of the American Western Mexico and Red Dead Redemption and it's zombie horror companion Undead Nightmare now playable on PC. And that's end. Quotes for the product promotion intro body for red Dead Redemption within the launcher. That'd be cool. Yeah, a good game. Yeah, And it's something where I think that that that rumor has gone around before, they have never actually got around to doing it, but hey, now they may well better late than never, I guess I suppose. So yes, all right, that does it for the news. I got a pull question here. Let me see if I can get that up and ready for everybody. Oh, there it is, okay. Will you use an Xbox Mobile game store? I asked this on Friday. Fifteen percent said yes they would, eighty five percent said no. And is there a world in which you could see yourself being like, oh yeah, I'll just get that on the Xbox Mobile Game Store that they're apparently launching in July, meaning like you can buy games for your Xbox using a mobile games So the way it sounds like it's going to work is you can download let's say Call of Duty Mobile from the app store, and then you're in the game. You would launch the Xbox Mobile Game Store through that would open up in the browser and like the you know, they have the ability to like present browser apps as apps, but it would be like this is now the Xbox Mobile game store. What if you purchase stuff for called doing mobile through us for slightly less money, and well you could just we'll take that money instead. It sounds like that's gonna be how it works. I think if that's the case, some people like you that if it's an easy enough process, uh right, because everybody likes to save money. Yeah, everybody likes to save money. But this is something like epics like we looked at before and try now they've been prevented for from doing that by Apple and Google and stuff like that. But uh yeah, yeah, we'll see beyond that. Beyond Like, I just don't think that this things won't be able to get much momentum. But hey, if this enables them to get some more of that money, by bad. But the problem with this, though, is this doesn't allow that. Like, if they start doing this and that's becomes the law of the land, it's gonna look weirder and weirder that Xbox can have other stores, right, So I think that's that's why they might be looking at letting other stores onto Xbox in the long run. Yeah, I don't know what use it. Yeah, yep, yep, we'll see. All right. I got a new pool question. We'll get to that here in a second before I do. Emma, why don't you tell people whe they can find you what we have going on all the day. Yes, yeah, so I'm at Emma Fife all over the internet. Don't participate much in social media except to sometimes post on Instagram, so you can find me there. You can find me at the Giant Bomb Live show on June ninth at the Bellweather Theater in Lovely downtown, Los Angeles, California. Okay, your tickets now. And also you can find me in videos that pop up on phantom wikis all over the internet. This week's video is me unraveling exactly what the heck blocks fruits is and why that wiki so popular. Yeah, okay, I gotta find out what's going on there. All right? Hey, once again, get those tickets June ninth, Los Angeles, the Bellweather Giant Bomb at Night Live Night three. We'll have some announcements about like the folks that are going to be there, some friends of the show, some big names here pretty soon. All right, new full question, how do you think Nintendo would handle a breadth of the wild update on switch to Here are your options, no enhancements, Free update with enhancements the game sin is getting into my mouth again. Paid update around ten dollars with enhancements and enhancements exclusive to a switch to re release that seems to be the one that most of you in chat were popping off for. That'll be up on YouTube dot com slash at giant Bomb under the community tab. Vote on that, we'll get the results. We'll discuss it on Games Mornings on giant Bomb on Wednesday. Speaking to giant Bomb, will have some fun stuff popping off in the early part of this week. Probably something will record put up. The timing on that we'll just have to to be determined, and then we'll have most of the regular stuff this week. Obviously BombCast will have Blake Club. I'll be getting back to Diakatana, a voicemail, dumb Truck, a whole bunch of fun stuff upf forgot some plans for that already. Look out for all that and more on giant bomb dot com. Emma, thank you so much for spending today talking with me about video games. I really appreciate it. Always a pleasure, and thank you all for watching. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself and see you at the Bellweather Get your tickets.