Crash Bandicoot Developer Toys For Bob Going Independent

Don't be bad. It's the Internet. You're busy. Let's do this from
March first, twenty twenty four, for the next hour or so, let
me help you sort through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with
me Jeff Grubb. Today, a newly acquired Microsoft studio is already leaving Microsoft
because this industry is a circus. But first please join me and welcoming today's
co host the Game Mess Mornings. It's two more Whussein, everybody, tam,
how are you doing? I am okay. I came so close to
trying to cut you off and doing that intro before you. I was loading
up the page and I was scrolling up as fast as I could because I
cannot commit it to memory. I read it off the piage. So if
you might jumped in and done it, I would have been grateful. Uh,
it's the Internet. I am tired, and there is an ext fort
Hey, let's do this. There it is. He got it and won
everybody dregs day. This this week, this day, this episode, we're
gonna be mostly cleaning up the news from the rest of the week. There's
all a bunch of a bunch of big stories. There's some Fallout. We'll
get to all that here pretty soon, some Fallout stories. Hell yeah,
mostly though, Tam, I'm just glad you're here, Glad back from traveling,
Glad you can make the show. How are you feeling about video games?
You know, I've been playing a lot of Bilotro and Blotro is fantastic.
So you signed out on Steam when I was like, my Steam is
playing something, and then like, Tam, Bilotro, I'm like, oh,
yeah, he's getting Yeah, I've been playing that game on when I've
been playing it on some multiple different devices at the same yea, I am
going wherever I go. Ballacho comes with me. At my desk, I've
got it running on a mon like on the Steam main. When I will
move away from when I move away from in this room, I'll play on
Steam Deck. I'll go to the bedroom. I've got a Roger ally there
just way. So you're a true Siico. That's why I'm a full of
Cico. I am full Cycho. I have been on the toilet playing bat
many times over the last couple of weeks. Yeah, I will like go
to sit on the party and I'll start playing and then it's happened multiple times,
I'll just say twice where it's like the kids or my wife are like
where are you, I'm like, oh, I'm coming. Sorry, Sorry
I did disappear for close to thirty minutes. You should create a custom joker
image of the card and like in the whole row event, it just says
in toilet two times. Multiplayer Blatro is a very good game. This year's
going the way it's going with games NonStop, one game to another. I'm
just loving so much stuff this year that's coming out. Which why all the
news about the layoffs since studio closures is such a bummer Because gaming is so
good right now. It feels like so disconnected from the reality on the ground
there. But you know, let's get into it and start by explaining what
we do here most weekdays. I Jeff Grebill heelp 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
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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 Skylanders and crash Bandicoot. Studio Toys for Bob is leaving Activision and going
independent. This is from Chris Scullian over at VGC. Skylanders and Crash Bandicoot
developer Toys for Bob has announced plans to go independent. The California studio was
acquired by Activision in two thousand and five and has worked on a variety of
Skylanders, Crash Bandicoot, Spiro, and Call of Duty games since then.
However, in a new statement released today by studio heads Paul Yhon and Avery
Lodado, it was announced that the developers will be going going it alone.
Over the years, we've inspired love, joy and laughter for the inner child
in all gamers. The statement reads, We've pioneered new IP and hardware technologies
in Skylanders. We raise the bar for best in class remasters in Spiro Reignited
trilogy. We've taken Crash Bandicoot to new innovative, critically acclaimed to new heights.
With the same enthusiasm and passion. We believe that now is the time
to take the studio and our future games to the next level. This opportunity
allows us to return to our roots of being a small and nimble studio.
The statement goes on to say with Janna Lodato to say that despite the decision
to go into Pennant, they're exploring a possible partnership back with Microsoft. And
while we're in the early days of developing our next new game and a ways
away from making new announcements, our team is excited to develop new stories,
new chapters, and new gameplay experiences. Our friends at Activision and Microsoft have
been extremely supportive of our new direction, and we're confident that we will continue
to work closely together as part of our future. So just like run through
the quick history here, Toys for Bob, like this said, was acquired
twos and five. It's been by Activision. Activision has not been acquired by
Microsoft, so Toys for Bob joined Microsoft under the Activision acquisition. In the
recent round of layoffs, Toys for Bob was hit the studio. The offices
were closed and at the time was like, well, the studio is going
to remain around, They're going to go kind of fully support, not fully
supart, but fully remote, and it was like kind of some confusion there.
A few weeks later, now they have spun off to be an independent
studio no longer part of Microsoft. Have I had a hard time, like
understanding why exactly this needed to happen, Tim, do you have any ideas?
No, I wonder if it's a case of I imagine this doesn't happen
quickly. But in my mind, I think it's like they do the layoffs
and either before or like after, concurrently the discussions were happening, and I
think there was a case where Microsoft was presented with an opportunity to offload a
studio save a lot of money, which is what they want to do,
and from a PR perspective, look good, and they took it like I
instead of cutting the entire crew, like if they if the crew comes in,
it is like let us go and and like we all of us will
leave and Microsoft is like okay, and then they can be like, oh
yeah, we worked with Toys for Bob to help them gain their independence and
Microsoft looks good at it. So I don't know why, but I don't
understand why you would cut people and then let them go though, Yeah,
and then that's definitely confusing. Yeah, at that point it becomes like weird
where it's like did they need to was that part of the process for the
remaining toys football people, like they needed to trim down before they did this
independence thing. Maybe I would think that would be pretty not great for the
people who are caught to be like, oh, we got caught and now
you're going to be in this position, which is far more favorable. That's
rough, but yeah, yeah, I Uh. When, like I said,
when I first heard this, it was like it was hard to like
figure out exactly what was going on. And it's like, well, I
mean if you look at it through the lens of of you know, Microsoft
is a corporation that is looking for growth, Uh, then it starts to
make some more sense because it's like, you know, at first they were
growing by acquiring things, and now that's probably gonna slow down, So now
the growth is going to come from saving money, and so through that lens,
because when I was first looking at it's like, well, how does
this make sense for an Xbox company that is looking to make video games?
Isn't toys for Bob an ideal fit for making you know you you do not
own Skylanders, you do not own Crash Bandicoot, You've owned Banjo, Kuzu
KAZUOI for a long time. Toys ter Bob is a great fit for any
of those and more. Could make something new you have game pass. It
will be a great fit for any number of family games, games that appeal
to children and families as a whole. Big three D platformers that you know
have that Nintendo banks on, like you should get a couple of those in
your lineup. And when I'm like, okay, so now you're just gonna
let this studio go off on their own, and yeah, maybe you'll partner
with them, but just seems like I not keep them around and take advantage
of this team that has a lot of knowledge. And it's like, oh,
it's because it's not really about like when a company like Microsoft making decisions
about what they're doing. It is not like a sports team putting together a
roster like the best We're gonna put together the best roster to get on the
field and win the game. It's like, no, it's just about the
numbers, what goes up and and by getting rid of a team that is
going to look better in terms of growth for the amount of money that you're
bringing in because you're spending less money paying this team. And I don't know,
but that bums me out too. I hope that this is the best
case scenario as opposed to, like you said, like if they were gonna
get closed down the team. This does make Microsoft look better in that they
enable the studio to continue to exist, But a part of me is just
like, well, I still feel like I don't really understand what happened here.
Yeah, it feels like there's a like a catch here that we don't
see or also like it just not knowing the thinking and the kind of rationale
for it is unsettling in an industry and that is constantly, you know,
doing the worst thing possible to develop us. So I think that everyone's built
up a level of skepticism and cynicism around every move. So even when sensibly
for the people that Toys of Bob, this Toys for Bob, this is
a good thing, but well, we'll never be able to take it as
on face value until we really really understand why this happened. And honestly,
like I think it's a good thing overall. I'm that studio being free of
like looming danger at all times. Being at a company that needs to aspire
to infinite growth is like must be freeing at the very least, it seems
like they have. They're in control of their own destiny, so sink or
swim, they will be in charge of the decisions that result in that outcome,
which I think is the most that developers kind of at this point want,
you know, they don't want to get suddenly. I watched TikTok yesterday
of like a group of people who are representing a union at like one of
those American local town meetings where everyone's standing there and the dude who was given
a speech and as he was given a speech or his colleague walked up and
was like, we just got laid off. And that is like that is
that is the kind of situation where it feels like a lot of people are
where it's like you could be just doing the best work you ever have done
and it is all critically acclaimed. You still get laid off. Yeah it
is, and that is must be terrifying. So for Tot's for Bob,
at least they know and hopefully the leaders there is good enough to if that
happens, or like they're more communicative and transparent with the people there as opposed
to a corporation like Microsoft would be Yep. It's especially if they are able
to make this partnership work because that guarantees some investment in income. The frightening
thing of going independent right now is there is no money out there. There
is no one's investing in games right now. Everyone's frightened. So all that
money's evaporated, and if investors are putting money into anything, it's relationships that
they already previously had that have paid off and they hope will pay off again.
And so having the studio kind of come out and be like, hey,
we don't have any relationships with the money people because we've been inside of
corporate structure for the last twenty years. Where do we start on that?
Well, right now is the worst time to possibly start on that. So
if they're able to make this partnership work, I do think that this will
work out great for Toyster Bob. I hope that we don't find out later
that that that dissolved into the studio was unable to get funding OURSELFS thing like
that, because it is a gauntlet out there if you were trying to make
that happen right now. Yeah, and like at the very least to get
some out of like the Call of Duty Minds, which is almost certainly what
they would have been put to work on. Yep. And like that is
They're a very talented studio that unfortunately doesn't get the credit it deserves for basically
bringing back Crash Bandicoot in a fun way, and a bunch of other titles
as well. I'm glad that they're not going to be put to work on
military shooters and they can at least be like, we've got this dumb looking
animal that we want to work with that isn't Crash Bandicoot, but it's similar,
you know or whatever. Yeah, Crash for Crash Bandicoot Forward was them.
That's a great game. That Spiral Reignited trilogy also fantastic for what it
is. I'm not a huge Spiral fan, but they did what they did
on it was great work and it was very noticeable. I hope that this
just personally, like greedily, I hope this results in them actually partnering and
making that Banjo Kazui game. I would like that. I'm a Banjo Kazui
fan, and I hope that studio is able to grow and thrive because I've
liked Toys for Bob for a long time. Speaking of Toys for Bob,
Crash Team Rumble one of the games that they were working on. The support
for that is going to end after nine months as the developer has split from
Activision. This comes from Live Neon at Eurogamer. Crash Team Rumble will have
no further content updates after the fourth of March, less than nine months after
its launch. The strategic platformer mobile launched on the twentieth of June twenty twenty
three on PS four, PS five xboxes and is it a PC? Maybe
it's just the consoles. Since then, it's had three seasons of new content,
the latest being a crossover with Spyro the Dragon. There will be no
further seasons, however, per and in game news updates spotted by players of
Crash Team Rumble. As of yet, there's no there's been no official announcement
from publisher Activision Activision itself. This final up date to Crash Team Rubble will
be a free five hundred tier battle pass that includes all content from each season
and event rewards. That's pretty cool. Like just like have this thing that
basically, if you are someone who is continuing to play this game, you'll
have a battle pass that just goes on forever essentially or up to five level
five hundred. That's neat. I'm glad they're able to make something happen with
this instead of just being like we're pulling the plug and we're getting out of
here. Yeah, that's that's a good show. I mean, like it
does. A lot of the fan base is probably going to be there because
they expect it to be a living game for the foreseeable future. Yeah,
it's going to take a hit once people realize that it's not, but for
at the very least, like the trying to make it seem like I'm trying
to make it be a game that has some legs and future in it with
those that still remain and can like almost come to terms with the fact that
it's ending, but do it on their own terms and like still carry on
playing and kind of wean themselves off of it to a degree. I would
like this. That's a good move. Yeah, and it's you know,
that game always felt like, you know, doomed from the beginning. No
one was asking for it necessarily. People played there like, hey, this
is this is fun, I'm having a good time. Many people did have
a good time with it, but even those people were not like coming back
to it regularly. It was never going to support the amount of players it
needed to have all that infrastructure makes sense. So the fact that it's getting
something of a dignified ending here, that's that's a win in itself in a
world where a lot of times these things could just feel like, hey,
we had sky high expectations. Felt like by the time this game was out,
everyone knew what the expectations should be. Even though you know, we
saw it like Summer Game Fest. It was like they were pushing it.
They were trying to make it happen, and I guess you never know,
you roll the dice. But it felt like once it was out, we
all knew that this was going to be the ending eventually, and probably not
too long after a release. So to hear it's nine months later, no
one's surprised. We all get it. Everyone involved gets it. These games
are just competing with way too much these days, and you have to be
able to take over the world with your live service game. If you want
a chance, you kind of can't be like just some little thing that no
one really understands the appeal of Yeah Borderland Studio Gearbox is reportedly closer than ever
to being sold by Embracer Group. This is from Chris Scullying at VGC.
Gearbox could be closer than ever to being sold off by its parent company,
Embracer Group, according to a new report. Sources have reportedly told Kataku that
Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchard held a town hall meeting with staff this week and told
him that a decision has been made regarding the studio's future, with more information
to be shared in March. According to the report, picture it has been
telling staff for months that Gearbox is three options or to stay with Embracer,
gets sold to another company, or buy itself out and become independent. Kataku
claims that the decision has been made to sell Gearbox to another company and that
a deal is being finalized. Refusing to confirm or tony the report, Pitchford
told Kataku, I'm delighted that what we might be up to is interesting enough
to people that you might want to make a story about us. For your
readers. As always, we will be thrilled to share whenever we have projects
to announce or news to share, as we work hard towards our mission to
entertain the world. Yeah, this is something that's been in the works for
a while. Been hearing rumblings about this after the news that yesterday Saber and
Interactive was able to buy itself out with the help of investors for five hundred
million dollars, it was like pretty clear like at the very least Gearbox was
going to do something like that. But Gearbox is probably valuable enough that someone
would want to buy it. And I bet that is if they could make
it happen. Two K would want to just get Gearbox so they could shore
up Borderlands, a series that continues to do very well for both companies.
Right, Yeah, I am really weird, Like it's well that how big
companies and small companies are currently going through the same thing. Like you would
never expect Gearbox to be in this situation, But like I I am very
pro like them being escaping the embrace of embracer is it isn't it is the
best case scenario for a company like even Gearbox. I feel like the kind
of like decentralization of ips and and and studios that needs to happen is beginning
with with Gearbox. And they're a great studio that makes games that a lot
of people love. And I feel like it's it's gonna work out well if
they do end up at a good place. My concern is who is interested
in Like, like you said, they're a very valuable company, who's got
the cloud to and the money to buy this right, And like the worry
is they'll end up just you know, with another you know, venture capital
was something like that, or getting gobbled up by another major company that will
inevitively do the same thing with them. Yeah, And the very least though,
even in that scenario you mentioned, like the death embrace of Embracer,
the reporting is is that Embracer was like going to Gearbox and be like,
hey, whatever budgets you have, they're too much cut them. So Gearbox
was like, Okay, we had a bunch of new cool games we were
gonna make. I guess we have to scrap those and just go make Borderlands
for now whichever and when they're on now and then tiny Tin is Wonderland,
Like we're gonna make that as well, but we're gonna they had to like
soft reboot it, I think also because of budgetary concerns. So it's like
they were in a situation where even the stuff that was like the sure thing,
the games that they knew were gonna make a money, were kind of
in this weird spot and then they were not able to try the new things
that they seemingly were very excited about. So hopefully they're able to go to
somewhere that will be like, hey, if we invest in Gearbox, we
could get big returns because it's studio that has had success and maybe can have
even bigger hits in the future. And then again, if it's Take two
that gets them, it's like, well, it's gonna be Borderlands all the
time, probably because Take two has a big stake in that. I do
like Embracer is getting rid of Gearbox, Saber these I mean, you know,
Sabers is not quite as big as Gearbox, but Sabers doing some of
their other big games that they're releasing a new game for them expeditions like this
month. They're also they're the ones that are working on the Knights of the
Older Republic remake, and that's like they got a couple of people still working
on that that apparently there is they have another big game. I think,
uh yeah, well yeah Warhammer or they're doing the Space Marine two. So
it's like that is like one of their big studios. This this has got
to be a sign, right Tam that Embracer is just gonna get rid of
everything. If they're getting rid of their biggest stuff, what they're not going
to just like try to keep on small things, right? I don't know,
because I was thinking about this yesterday within the context of like how how
likely are they to get rid of or move Crystal Dynamics and thus this legacy
of Kane i P. Which is something I'm always thinking of course, and
and like the thing like Crystal Dynamics just started a pretty big tomb Rader project
and there's also like another movie coming out or something like the deals with Amazon.
Yeah, like involved in the game as well. I think, yeah,
so is that also like if if we think about it on the same
line of thinking where Embraces getting rid of everything, do they offload turm Rader
as well, Like I don't know about that, or are they just trying
to kind of pull back and narrow down on just the things that they can
see an immediate return on now, because what they did was buy everything and
then had no idea what the fuck to do with them. They were like,
what what do all these studios even do? So I would, but
I guess Crystal Dynamics is the one that they know immediately, oh this is
they have tom Rada coming, so maybe they keep hold of them. Obviously,
in my my preference would be like even Crystal Dynamics breaks out of that
and it's given some level of autonomy or like is and it does this in
a way where you know they have long duty and are safe, which is
asking you a lot in this day and age. But I don't think it's
impossible. But I don't know if it's the fire sale on everything, I
think it might be more a case of, yeah, they're just slimming down
and they have to because they need to focus on the stuff that they know
is going to have some sort of immediate return. Yeah, And I think,
I mean what you described with Crystal Dynamics is that they already have the
immediate return of these big deals with Amazon, So it's like that money's already
there. They need to now kind of see that through. So you're right
they Yeah, maybe they don't get rid of everything. I also feel like
this is a potential partnership that sets them up for a major acquisition later in
terms of if this two major thing does well, they can then go to
Amazon and be like, look, how well this did you buy them?
And then they try and sell them for much more yeah, than they would
have gone now without them being able to without having a game out there and
approven ip that's doing well. So this could be a strategic move where they're
like, we'll keep the studio. They have this property that everyone loves and
has potential to make a lot of money, and then once they start popping
off, we'll then sell them because we'll get way more. Yeah. I
and that you know right now, like you said that, that they're looking
to save a bunch of money. So that's why these studios, so many
students are getting spun off right now, are getting sold. But once they
maybe get some equilibrium with their costs versus their profits, maybe then they will
slow down and try to build up the value some of these other things and
then continue to sell them in the future. Because it doesn't seem like Embracer
does have some like under penning long term strategy that's going to take over once
they're back in the in the black. In the meantime, it's like,
well, let's just try to make some moves here and there until we can
coast, and then from there we'll look around and see what we could sell
at that point, because I think they're probably frightened that they're going to be
right back in this situation and they won't have a way outcause they have made
successful games since they've taken over a lot of these studios, and that's not
made much of a difference for them. So I wonder if they think that,
hey, we just we can't make this work. Yeah, let's see
here. Respawn, Star Wars First Person Shooter is canceled, but work on
the next Jedi game, Black Panther, and Iron Man will all continue.
This is from Rebecca Valentine at IgM. Today EA announced a major company shakeup
and this was yesterday that will result in a roughly six hundred and seventy individuals
or five percent of its workforce losing its jobs losing their jobs excuse me.
As a part of that same reorganization, respond Star Wars First Person shooter and
development at respond is being canceled. I will say that like that that game
was canceled. The team is still intact at Respawn, is what I've heard,
so they will hopefully be able to take a lot of that work and
shift it to something else, because the what happened here is EA doesn't want
to pay the licensing fees, and they don't or in the very you know
there's already like licensing fees involved. They don't want to pay the licensing fee
on the end as well, like sharing some of the profits which they would
have to do with Disney. They'd rather just take the time over the next
several years to have Respawn make a game that is their own ip I guess,
and sell that instead and keep as much of that money as possible.
It stinks, though, Tam, because I said yesterday on this show,
I've heard people that were working on the game love this game. They think
it was very good. I talked to a couple more people last night who
said that who didn't don't necessarily work at Respawn but had a chance to try
it or hear talk to people who have tried it. Everyone says this game
was amazing. I mean it's hard. It's a self titan Fold game basically
like it is if you think about it, and it is like the game
that it seemed to be, like the Mandalorian game without the Mandalorian Pedro Pascal's
Mandalorian. That is like the the the key kind of recognizable gameplay potential of
coming from that character are stuff that they've already done with Titan Full and can
expand on the jet pack for example, is you know, that's how the
kind of like Titan Fall pilots do a lot of their free running stuff.
The smart pistol is something that you can imagine a Mandalorian would have because they
are tech focused, you know, bounty hunters, and then you know,
all the all the kind of like hallmarks of a good bounty hunter game are
already present in Respawns other titles that they have you know, generated acclaim for
even stuff like the level design like Star Wars Uni versus and having like a
potential you know, a level design with like what was it called cause and
effect like that kind of uh, that kind of level. It sounds incredible,
It sounds perfect and also on paper, it's I describe this. We
talked about this on spot On recently, it feels like one of those games
that is set up to succeed from the outset, Like it feels like too
big to fail. It's the first person shooter, which traditionally is thought of
as a genre that always sells, regardless it has a very good chance of
selling. It's a Star Wars IP, currently one of the biggest ips in
the world, you know, and the most recognizable IP, and it's coming
from a studio that has a proven track record of making not only good first
person shooters, but Star Wars games. So it's like, how is this
not going to pop off so hard it's going to be ridiculous, And yet
it's still a candidate for like We've got to kill this, which makes me
think like it's the point that they're at is so desperate where it's like the
time and money will take to make this amazing game is too much of a
kind of sacrifice for them, or too much of an issue for them to
wagh you out. So they just need that money right now. And that
goes back to like the immediacy of needing numbers to go up in the infinite
growth cycle. Yep, Like it sucks, Yes, it's it's it's very
frustrating, and it's it does make you like, what like if RESPOND hasn't
earned the right to like work and what they want to work on, or
if they have something that they that they're really proud of, which is it
does seem like that's one of the reasons that some stuff leaked about this a
few weeks ago is that they knew this was coming and they were actively trying
to save it. So they were like going out of their way trying to
save this game. It's they, you know, it's Respond. They are
the backbone of what EA has has is doing in the in recent years.
How have they not earned that? And it's because that's not how this company's
thinking. They're just like, we don't want to share the money with this
the a few years from now and it's a few years off, so it's
easy too easier to imagine saving money now then it is making money later,
and that's it's very frustrating. It's and it's like it goes back to how
cyclical they industry is, right, like, because there was a time where
this exact thinking was applied to licensed ips, where it was like, the
only way we make money now is by finding recognizable ips and making and working
within those because that's where the money is. And now we've reached a point
where it's gone all the way back around where these companies are like, oh,
the cut is too much. The only way we make money now is
by creating our own ips and owning it entirely. And so what the what
are you doing? Man? What are we doing here? Yep? It's
ridiculous, And it's like that's it's oscillating so fast back and forth between those
like two scores of thought and especially and then the stupid part is, in
order to turn the ship and pivot it to a point where they're creating their
own ips again, they are cutting all the people that would likely be working
on those ips and making them good, and leaving behind people who are living
fear of of of you know, receiving the same treatment, and are probably
not going to be as capable or like as enthused about making new ips knowing
that they're doing it for a corporation, when then they could also just set
up their own studio and make their own IP and have the same kind of
level of risk and maybe not even have to invest in it. It's such
a foolish, like short sighted. I'm not a business guy. I don't
understand this is that is absolutely true. It is. It is ridiculous.
It is literally like like we're gonna it's that Eric Andre where he shot the
guy and is like who would do it? You know whatever the quote is.
It's like you just kill the people that would have made this successful for
you. What are you doing? And now like you you tried to make
some ips happen and you sucked at it, especially EA, Like you're terrible
at it. You are fundamentally bad at this, Like you don't have a
bit clear, you don't believe in them when you put them out. Yeah,
and like I'm not being rude, like they worked on Immtels of Avim.
I think that is like that game, Okay, it's not as bad
as people think it is, Like it was just it didn't work out.
That is that it should be a sign like even like Mirror's Edge like that,
like that was like, you know, going much further back, it's
like where that just feels like it had everything it needed to be a success
and EA just couldn't navigate it. How long how long before we reach the
phase where it's like we tried to make new ips, no one likes them
because we suck at it, or like they're just not interested. Now what
do we do. We have to lay off these people. Yes, they're
gonna be in about the year and a half, eighteen months. Yes,
they will say something among those lines. Yeah, EA has built what it
is now based on sports games. They've lost the license to FIFA. They
don't pay for the FIFA lescense anymore. This is what I've heard is that
they didn't have to pay FIFA and the game is still sold very well,
and they're like, well, let's just do that for everything, as if
that's the same thing. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But like that company is
currently being carried by Respawn and maybe the potential of BioWare. People are still
still have some faith in BioWare, where it's like they're working on dragon Age
and mass effect in the distance. Is the thing that is people stopping keeping
people from absolutely setting fire to that company and being like you're done, we're
not touching you, You're we're not paying attention to you. Goodbye. Yep.
People mention mentioned Vince Sampello, one of the founders of Respawn. He's
an executive at EA. Now I don't know. I get the sense that
he is like busy, He's just supposed to stay the battlefield. So I
don't know. Executives are one thing, and there's good executives as bad executives.
I don't trust any executives. But you have to remember that beyond the
executive, our shareholders who are the most unhinged people on the planet, like
is and they ultimately are what who need to be satiated. So you can
say, like Vince Empeler, clearly he loves respond it's his studio. But
if a shareholder comes along and is like kill that game, that's the way,
or they need to make decisions that please our shareholders, they all have
to do it. They won't do it because it's like, you know,
once you become an executive in any sort of your your compensation is tied to
the stock price. Yea, it's like, oh okay, it's bad at
the stock price goes down, You're right. The way the way you become
an executive is by showing the allegiances to the business and the bottom line.
At the end of the day, if you're not doing that, you likely
will never be put into a position of decision making that it comes with being
an executive. So I have got nothing bad to say. I've been sad.
I've spoken to him a few times. He clearly loves games, he
clearly loves the studio. Well, I also know how capitalism works, right,
he's only gotten even to do that. Yeah, even the best of
people will will be twisted into what needs to happen. So yeah, going
back to that Star Wars game, it was just people talk about thirteen thirteen
and like the Ami Henne game. It's like, yeah, like you know,
we're around those games. It's like, this could be something. The
thing is never pitch a bounty hunt astall, apparently because none of them I'm
making it. Apparently. The thing with this game is no it it is
something. It was something. It is great now. And I just broke
my heart in half to hear that, because I was looking forward to this
game, and I love the people respawd getting a chance to like just stretch
their legs and show their stuff. And it's a damn shame that they're not
going to get a chance to put that. I am hoping and praying that
somehow footage or like, oh, it just appears. So that's yes.
If if anyone wants to leak that to me, please, Yeah, I'm
gonna play. Please seeh I hit us up. Definitely. But hey,
that Iron Man game Black Panther, that's still happening, Star Wars Jedi three
will still happen. Many of the people who apparently were working on this game
that the first person shooter are going to be reassigned to those projects, most
likely Jedi three. Yeah, I would like to know iman Black Panther is
happening. It's coming from a studio that has not done any Marvel games up
until this point, and they must now have seen the cut that Marvel takes
from a studio like Insomniac and Sony, who has been making the best Marvel
games. I like, I don't. I wonder what the thinking behind that
now is, Like, are they locked in and they have to do this?
Yeah? And are they doing it knowing that they're about to get absolutely
finessed by a Marvel What is that cut? Like DoD say, was that
stuff from the Insomniac leagues? Is that well, that's from the Insomniac leagues,
but it was I can't remember the exact name. I can't remembers been
meaning to significant. Since this news, I've been meaning to go back and
check. I do remember it being significant, but yeah, well I'll have
to check it and see that for myself. But you know what I've heard
is, yes, the number is big, and it does cause these games
to be kind of painful, even if they're successful to these companies, which
is wild. Yeah. Well, well, you know, for Respawn,
there's still some questions around like the future a little bit because Apex Legends is
is it kind of you know, I struggle to phrase this because I said
earlier this week or on another show that like, oh, they're maybe winding
it down. People like they're winding it down. I'm like, I I
think they're looking towards winding it down more than they're looking at, hey,
how can we make this big again? I think they are sort of losing
faith in it at EA at the top level, and so they're like,
how can we maximize the profits from this thing that is going to kind of
slowly fade away? And that does that is a thing that is going to
take years. It's not going to go away overnight or something like that.
I just don't expect a major investment from EA into Apex legends. I hope
that changes, though that could change. Maybe they have a couple of new
initiatives, or maybe responds able to pitch something so that makes sense their creative
studio. Hopefully they're able to pull that off. All right, We're gonna
take a quick break. When we get back. We have a lot more
headlines to get into. We'll get to all of that right after this.
All right, we are back more headlines, just as I promised. Gorilla's
Horizon online game reportedly not among canceled Sony projects. This is from Tom Ivan
ATVGC. Gorilla's multiplayer Horizon game is reportedly not among the number of recently canceled
PlayStation titles. Earlier this week, Sony Interactive Entertainment announced plans to lay off
nine hundred employees worldwide, or about eight percent of its workforce. In addition
to the plan closure of PlayStation London studio, it confirmed that jobs would be
lost at studios including Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Fire Sprite, and Gorilla.
Commenting on the restructuring PlayStation studios had in former Gorilla managing director Hermann Holst said
the company was reevaluating how it operates, and that unnamed projects had been canceled.
Following the announcement, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier reported that a Twisted Metal Live service
game previously in development of fire Sprite had been asked. Asked on Twitter if
Gorilla's Horizon Game online game had also been canceled as part of the restructuring,
he said that it hadn't. I think that Twisted Metal game trying to get
that to make sense these days, I could see that being a challenge,
this Gorilla online game. I suppose the Horizon Online game, I should say,
Horizon is like one of their most popular franchises. I guess that they're
going to give it shot. I just I don't know what that looks like,
so it's hard for me to be like, well, that makes a
ton of sense. What do you think, Tam, Yeah, I feel
like the starting point of this kind of conversation is Sony invested heavily in the
future of games as the service titles, and I think when they were in
that phase, that is when all eyps and knew popular and not had the
best chance of getting off the ground again, and that's probably what helped Twisted
Metal get off the ground just enough recognition the TV show and then also like
a a plausibility that it could succeed succeed based on being a unique games as
a service title. There's not much else out there like Twisted met and now
we've gone, like I said, like we've reached the point in capitalism where
even the things that they thought was definitely going to take them to success a
year or two ago are not as viable right now. So they make the
cuts. And I think that a game as a Service title on the Twisted
Metal IP is gonna get caught before games as a Service title on the Horizon
IP. That is just probably how it is. That doesn't mean necessarily that
Horizon the Horizon game is any more likely to succeed or even a better game,
and it definitely doesn't speak to like the quality of the Twisted Metal game.
It's purely a gamble on a IP that is more relevant and current than
one that is floundering and is largely powered by nostalgia. Yeah, I think
that's right, and I think that a Horizon sort of expansion is still something
that makes sense for them kind of across the board. They haven't done the
TV show yet, so maybe things get even bigger when that happens. They
are clearly going to make another single player game. So having reminding people and
giving people a chance to explore that world in other ways, it makes a
lot of sense. And also, you know, Griller is a studio that
has multiplayer in their past, so you know, having them get involved in
this and finding ways to express those that that those competencies in a video game
that it now features their primary brand, yeah, all that stuff sort of
sort of fits. And you know, I'm glad it's not like, oh
a ton like, oh, we're scrapping every project that we were working on.
You started this initiative. I hope they see most of them through,
because there's a chance several of them could be very good. And we got
we got hell Divers already. I'm sure we're not gonna get Twisted Metal.
But I'm like, you don't. I know a lot of people aren't big
on live service games, but let's let's let these ones actually see it through.
I'm very curious to understand what a Sony and Gorilla made Horizon online game
could look like. Is this like some social thing? Is that like a
competitive multiplayer game? I want to see what they think that should look like
on a PS five. What my question to you is, how is is
the their their faith in the horizon IP reflected in the kind of audience and
the interest level in it, because if I remember correctly, a significant was
it the first horizon or the second horizon? Like a lot of the sales
were bolstered by it being a packing game, right like with a PlayStation I
think so yeah, And like I know a lot of people love that franchise,
more power to them, But I do wonder, like, are the
two hands, you know, speaking to each other other people, like who
are in charge of these going? These numbers are high, but also there
were here's the qualifiers, here's what you need to know. And also like
I like that is my worry because like I don't know man games of service
titles. I I'm of the opinion that it is not just hard because game
to create new games of service title because you need a good like hook and
IP, but also because they are lifestyle games. And we've reached the point
now where people are so invested in existing games and service titles that to ask
them to stop that, stop playing those or move to a different or join
an additional games of service title is close to impossible. Like if you're if
you're a Fortnite person, you are committed for life. It's like it's I
think of it in the same way that remember when Wow was popular and everyone
was playing Wow and they all had Wow subscriptions. Remember how hard it was
for other MMOs to kick it like no, and everyone tried, everyone really
tried to make some just get a fraction of the World of Worldcraft's success,
and it was it never worked. People had just enough for it to like
function for a little while, and then they would just burn out and leave.
And I fully think that's where we're at with games and service title.
The ones that exist now and the ones that are good are what people have
invested in, and new ones probably aren't gonna work. Yeah, they take
a lot of room, Yes yeah, yeah. And and I don't I'm
not being cynical to I don't think that it's impossible, but I feel like
it's it's an it's going to be an uphill struggle, and your IP needs
to be absolutely popping off to to like a an unbelievable degree, and then
the game has to be incredible, like it's got to be. It's got
to be familiar so that people understand what it is, but also completely distinct
and unique. There's so many factors that need to fall into play so perfectly
for a games and service title to do well. And I just don't understand
currently the level of investment that Sony has put into this genre. They're smarter
people than me there, but like I fully am like, I don't expect
very many of these succeed at or even if it is called a Horizon,
Yeah, it's And I go back to your point about how do we know
that Horizon is popping off the way that it would be suggested by those sales
numbers that we saw in the Insomniac League, And I don't know. I'm
with you where I'm my gut tells me that's not the case. That a
lot of it does come from. Hey, the only way you could get
a PS five for many months when it was the hardest to get a PS
five was to get one bundled with that game, So a lot of people
just went and got that. But also I'm you know, I'm not a
fan Horizon, so maybe that's that could be coloring the context there, And
I'm just not seeing, you know, the actual big picture, and maybe
a lot more people are into it than I'm realizing. I'm saying that's entirely
possible. But I don't think that discounts anything that you said. I think,
yes, it faces in uphill battle, I mean during Chris String from
Games Industry dop is just posted a tweet about New Zoo's top ten games by
monthly user of January, and it's all the games you would know that it's
going to be. It's Fortnite at the top, and Call of Duty,
GTA five, Roadblocks, Minecraft, Rocket League, a Rainbow six, Siege,
Power World, Apex Legends, Overwatch one and two, power World one
of the biggest launches, and this massive thing out of nowhere able to crack
the top ten got to number seven. I feel like the way I think
about it is the first few slots like Fortnite, war Zone, GTA,
Roadblocks, Minecraft, and maybe Rocket League, those are like cemented locked in.
You are probably not gonna move those, and the rest of the slots
go to the flavor of the month, like and maybe you have like the
names that you know are familiar coming up and down, like Rainbow six,
Seedge probably comes in and out based on like the content and like patching and
that kind of stuff, and whether there's excitement being drummed up around the invitationals
and the tournaments. But everything else there I feel like is flavor of the
month. And I don't mean to be dismissive about Power Old, but like,
I don't think that's going to be there a few months from now.
It's going to drop out because something else will come in. Like we've seen
this happen so many times that it would be foolish to just accept that and
think that you're part of the games and service furniture now yep. Yeah,
And uh, you know, I don't know what this means long term for
gaming if if all these companies are looking at this list and going, I
don't know if we can get our game anywhere on that top ten, let
alone the top five. If that discourages a lot of investment, I hope
not. Yeah. The only strategy I can think of is like repeated short
term gains, Like you just that the is the strategy. We keep making
more of these and basically get that initial like buying an investment and money and
then knowing that it's got a very you know it's got a half life and
it's going to burn out quickly. But then we have another one of those
ready to keep chaining these like early adopter kind of gains. But then like
at a certain point, the kind of cost versus the reward, risk versus
the reward probably takes off and it's like we're losing money or like it's not
worth doing the opportunity cost. Yeah, I think it's it's and I hope
that that most publishers realize that being afraid of opportunity costs and be like,
well, if we don't go for the Grand Slam, why would we even
do it. It's like, now you got to figure something out there.
There's got to be another solution to keep making games. I guess the answer
to your problems. I think Marathon is going to be a big, big
indicator of of what happens here in this genre, because, like I've to
a degree, it feels like Bungees is set up in a in a position
to be the one other company that could maybe pull off some sort of like
Hail Mary this. We made it. We made the one other give the
self title that can thrive, and if it doesn't, I wonder if it's
going to have a situation where Sony is like slowly starts like keep shooting.
It's it's children in the head and being like if Marathon can't do it from
the team that makes the best some of the best shooting games and has a
known ip, you're done. Yeah, I mean that we brought you in
because you're the ones that knew how to do this, and then they'll be
like, well, we'll lose faith in you very quickly. Last few headlines
here, GTA six dev slam Rockstar Games for the return to office mandate.
This from Levi Wilson at Kataku. Basically, there was a report that rock
Star is requiring in the lead up to GTA six is finalization for everyone to
return to the office five days a week. That seems like a silly thing
these days, Tam, I really, I know. I don't get how
we continue to get back here because it's uh. I'm someone who looks at
things like I just look at the results if I don't care what process anyone
goes through to like do to make a thing? What is the thing?
What does the thing look like? What is your work actually like? What's
the production of the time you spent doing this. I don't care where you
did or how you did it. I I won't say anything I say.
I'm not saying this is what Rockstar is doing. I don't know the justification
for why Rockstar is doing it. I think for the it could be for
some companies it's a mixture of like, oh, we're reaching a phase where
we need to get people into the office, and they believe truly that's the
only the way that they can make a thing happen, which is probably what
Rockstar is, like, We're in order to do the get the magic in
there, everyone needs to be face to face. They could be worried about
leaks, like you know, we're reaching, you know, the the critical
point, and they don't want leaks happen, and they want to kind of
really lock up the kind of network and the who comes in and goes out
and where this information is going and have proper overview or oversight over it.
Maybe that's part of it for vast majority of the situation where you see company
is now trying to make people come back in the reason they're doing this is
because the real estate costs they own these buildings, they pay for these flaws
and they're not doing they're not being used, which causes people in the higher
up to just lose their minds because buildings and offices are so expensive. These
leases for years, Yeah, and they're stuck in leases and they can't like
and it drives them mad that this money is just basically being pissed away,
And it makes it even worse when these the employees improve productivity or show no
kind of like change in what they're capable of doing by being at home.
Like, trust me, as someone who has been through a few companies acquisitions,
I can and has spoken to a bunch of people who has been through
a bunch of company acquisitions. The building issue is huge, Like, it
saves so much money if you can, like, if you can't get people
in, you are just hemorrhaging money on something that is just sitting there.
So I feel like a lot of it is also dictated by that. Yeah.
Some people in chat suggested that this is also potentially a way to get
you know, around five to eight percent of people to be like, well,
then I might have to move on. And it's like a way of
maybe getting a little bit of that layoff action without actually having to do layoffs,
which maybe I think it's definitely a possibility, but they are like in
the lead up to GTA six, I feel I feel like they're probably all
hands on deck. I don't know, like Sony did did all those layoffs.
The one studio we didn't see mentioned Sucker Punch, the studio that likely
has a game coming out the quickest of all of them, with a Ghost
of Sushima two. Yeah. So, but also like Sucker Punch, I
thankfully good on them. They as far as I can tell, are quite
lean. Definitely there are small ghost or something like that, and also like
punching way above its weight. Yes, and like they they create games like
I won't say on par with Naughty Dog or like Insomniac, but I will
say Ghost of Sushima popped off in a way that people think of their game
standing shoulder shoulder with a Lost of Us two or a Spider Man game is
beloved. And if they're able to be lean and make games that do as
well as Ghost of Sushima one did, they are in a really good position.
And it's just I think like it speaks to the management of that studio
as much as it does to you know, the quality of the individual developers
and their work. Like, good on them for keeping their ring and their
hands on the wheel and not being like we made one game. We made
a game that popped off. Let's grow massively and like make a games of
service title. Yep. And people are also saying, hey, maybe that
leak thing is there's something to that as well. But it's like, you
know, they have people in offices and there were still leaks all throughout their
history, So I mean that's the reason it probably won't work all right.
Last headline we're going to get to today some tech and eight players express anger
at the game adding micro transactions. This comes from chriscaling to VGC. I'll
just do the quick version, damn. It bothers me a lot when publishers
and developers put out a game, give us review code, have us review
the game as it is, and then a month later at the micro transactions,
so that we does a factor into the most of the review scores.
Kind of feel like we're being manipulated there. I'm getting pretty sick of it.
Yeah, I'm I see it happening a lot, a lot. I
see it happening more, and it's very sneaky. It's like uncool and like
it's not gonna if it continues to happen, like we'll adjust the way we
We're going to have to, like we will, like I've done it before
where it's like I don't think that this game is done. I think there's
something missing and the sort of point out review We've done a review, you
know, in progress, and that was just gonna happen where like and our
reviews in progress generally like they don't go up or down drastically because it kind
of for the most part, like there's nothing egregious that happens. But I
feel like in the future where games of service or where micro transactions are sneak
like added later, you're gonna have way more fluctuations in score. Like a
game that is like a nine ouf ten, like a tecond that poorly does
micro transactions a month later will drop to something lower, I imagine. So
so like I don't think you're gonna get away with it, Scott Free,
because we will pivot and make sure that people know this is happening. Yeah,
I mean the one other caveat there though, is like Metacritic only takes
the first score if you adjusted it later, so it's like and they're like
looking at that, but we can only control what we can control. And
yeah, I'm sure we can think of something if it happens enough, like
I will have a word with people. A very good point, but I
would like, let's know, a little shame on these companies. Don't do
this. Stop doing this. We know you're like we are we're not your
partner in the press, but if you make me feel like you're manipulating me,
I am gonna I'm just gonna get maybe a little bit more aggressive towards
you in the future, because this is it really gets in my craw uh
and I dislike it. Yeah, all right, you know. It's also
it's a really stupid thing to do for a game that has got so much
goodwill now exactly can It's a banger of the game. It's incredible. It's
like one of the best fighting games maybe ever, and and like just to
do this is kind of like souring it. Yep. The other fighting game
story that I don't think is on Hay is like, uh, and I
didn't get super deep into it, but Banda Namco added rollback neck code to
drag Ball Fighter Z and it is Oh they did busted. It is broken,
like it is like the way the incoment has I've seen, like I
think what it is doing, like based on what I can see. It's
like when it's rolling back, it's like taking snapshots of where characters are,
but instead of that that not being visible, like it's visible to the players.
So like let's say you're doing Goku and it like you do a kamehameha
or like a instant transmission, and then it rolls that back. You will
see like almost the frames of that move happening on the screen. It is
so busted and it is like I don't know how look, it's like winning
a game of Solitaire and windows. Yeah, it looks like Mugan on crack
cocaine. Like it is wild, Like I don't know, and it's weird
because I think basically I wasn't super into it, but I think they bit
attested it and it was okay, like it wasn't busted, and then they
released it a few months later and it's just like, what is this?
What is going on? Why are there eight hundred go tanks in my on
my screen? Egg O, whoever it is, this is this is why?
All right? I want to go look at some videos of this because
it looks Yeah, I just wanted to put it in there because I want
that community to have a good game and continue to have that good game.
And I'm called please fix this, FAUP because like that community has been supporting
that game for a very long time. It's a banger of a game.
Like just that is that is too many go kus? That is too many
gokus? Just one? Go fine? Oh me? Do good? Did
I not post the poll question from yesterday? Okay, I never posted the
pole question from yesterday. Everybody, this is what happens when Jan's out and
I forget to do everything. So what we'll do is two pole questions for
Monday's episode. So the first one is still, are you losing interest in
buying video games? I just want to like see, hey, yeah,
I know it doesn't surprise me either, slang we were talking about, Oh,
it's the video game industry crashing. The only way that can really happen
is if people stop buying games. Are you? Are you buying fewer games?
We'll do that one. And also, have you ever bought anything from
DK oldies I mentioned in the pre show got Superman sixty four for Blake Cup
for Dan from DK Oldies, and it's got like a reputation among the retro
gaming scene online. And when I did it, I'm like, this is
my first time doing it. It really is weird. All the emails you
get where they're just like, be my friend, You're You're important to us,
You're the whole new deals are live. Guys, I just bought something
yesterday. You've sent me ten emails. Yeah, oh boy. All right,
So we'll talk about that on Monday. And before we get to that,
Tam, what do we have happen on Giant Bomb all that good stuff?
What do you have happened? And tell people where they can find you?
Help me out here. We're doing UPF right, Final Fancy? Is
that what we're doing? Yes? UPF We are gonna We're gonna play Final
Fantasy. I'm gonna going to begin rebirth from the beginning. We'll play it
for several hours and I'll try to get some decent progress in there. I'm
at least gonna play some Queen's Blood. I gotta see that for myself.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna pop in and hang out for at least a
little bit. Maybe the everything, and yeah, so that's UPF. There
isn't a revengeance today. I think we're doing a big in the UPF.
Yeah, and then yeah, we've recorded Jeff Jeff's which I think should be
up next week quote me on that. And then yeah, I keep an
eye the site if you if you're interested, you can check out this this
episode of spot On that me and Lucy did, which we talk about some
of the stuff that we did here kind of like, hey, what what
is happening in the industry? Why are we like this episode? And then
next week we'll have all the regulation aigans and you can just find me everywhere
tomorrow. You know what I said this last week or last two weeks ago,
I'm getting ready to return to streaming soon. Yeah, so if you
want to follow me on Twitch, please do tomre H I've got I mentioned
this before as well. I've been working with Jerum on a bunch of like
new graphics and stuff and it is so cool. It looks so good.
Every time you're sending me something, I'm like, this is that insane?
How did you do this? But yeah, I'm excited for that. Excellent
Tam. Thank you so much for spending today talking with me about video games.
Man, I really appreciate it. I love doing this always. I
love being here with you and they do. This is the best people on
the internet, the best fine base. Until next time, everybody, have
a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.