Game Mess Mornings 07/24/23

That's the wrong button. You know what, I can just do this. There we go. It's the internet. You're busy. Let's do this for July twenty four, twenty twenty three. For the next hour or so, let me help you store through the world of gaming on Game Mess Mornings Live with Me Jeff Grub Today, I guess we'll talk about a PS five pro because we have to. I don't know, but first please join me. Welcome me today's co host a Game Mess Mornings. It's Jordan Midler. Everybody, Jordan, how are you doing. I'm doing very well, Jeff. There's no one I'd rather spend my day off West than you. I'd like to do this. I'd love to hear it. Let's see here I am. I completely did in my office. Everyone might see this. There's a camera now. You can actually can't see it on this on this shot. But I didn't get my other cameras, so my camera I'd be a little shaky the today, The entirety of this show might be a little shaky today. But I had to do it. It was you look like you're in the Sauce Legal basement like it looks like a proper throwback you've broken in there and the bad green screen stell up at the back. Exactly. Yes, I put the green that is now a privacy screen because occasionally a child might walk around without pants on, or my wife might coming down in her pajamas, and I don't want them to like automatically be on the feed. So that's up so they can come down and yell at me if they need to. That's the That was the solution. But now I got like everything up against this one wall, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. A lot more space in here, but yeah, the base, the basement's good to go. But I don't know how you've been. It's been a minute since I had you on husband. You've been running through these absolute normarks, trying to get them a break into the industry, forgetting who made you on this broadcast. But yeah, man, it's been good. It's been busy. I don't know if you've noticed, but Andy Robinson and Chris Scullion have been in Japan, not that they've mentioned it. What is it wrong with them? They were Japan, they were traveling so much, what was what are they doing? Spending a lot of money? So they went to bits Summit, which is an indie expo in Japan that VGC is a proud partner of. So they were, they were out there, and then they just decided, you know what, it's very expensive to get to Japan, let's just go all out, which left me and Tom Ivan to steady the ship before two weeks, mostly tom Ivan, but you know I'm here too, So it's they were traveled. They weren't really like they were. Did they treat it like a real vacation. There was no word, no, no. They went to a different studio, like every single slack was just like I've just had a meeting with X and I've just been in here. I'm removing names because I truly can't remember what I'm saying what I'm not. But they were very, very busy. An now they're back on the only the only thing that matters did Andy Robinson gets scanned by Hideo Kojima in his magic soul capturing device. I'm not a liberty to answer that, but if he did and I doesn't, then I will be posting notsopp and screenshot on Twitter and then singing my departure from VGC. That's I mean, it's the only it's the only recourse you have here. It's the only thing you can do. All right, let's get into this mess, But first let's explain what we do here most weekdays, I, Jeff grab will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes break you dows and maybe even some of our own original reporting for all these topics that get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you were watching live on twitch, welcome, You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings, or find the RSS on GiantBomb dot com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and time stamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. Okay, we have a lot to get into, so let's start the morning Mess with PlayStation five Pro Project Trinity details and release date. Uh this is I actually didn't write down who this was from. Oh, this is from Tom Henderson over that Key to Gaming. They work together on this. Xbox chiefs Phil Spencer stated that Microsoft has no plans for him Gin refresh for the Xbox Series X and S due to due to lacking feedback. Digital founder revealed the Xbox Series X is considered the current gym Pro offering buy Microsoft, but despite an xboxes stance, anonymous sources claimed the PlayStation five Pro codenamed Trinity, is in development. Trinity has been in development since early twenty twenty two, with demo events and the development kits provided to the studios. PlayStation five Pro aims to improve and consistent improved and consistent effort frames per second at four K resolution, and a new performance mode for eight K resolution, as well as accelerated ray tracing. The PSFI Pro is targeting a November twenty twenty four release date. Trinity is likely PlayStation's finer final major hardware release for this generation because it's going to kick off the next generation around twenty twenty eight with the PlayStation six. Those are the details. Jordan, what do you think about this? I think that makes sense when you look at the context of when they released the Row consoles against the PlayStation four generation. People have this mind blank because the first two years of the generation were in the pandemic. But time wise, it makes all the sense in the world to get to the pro stage. I think it's so funny that the PlayStation five was advertised as, oh, we can do a bit of eight k as well, And now the entire thing is this will be the PlayStation five pros selling point. I think Microsoft would respond just because it looks bad to not have one, even if power wise, there's some amount of parity for them not to come out and go, here's the Xbox. See these x Pro that's a bit of a bump. Would look strange, But yeah, do these do these dates sound right to you? Twenty four and then and then a little bit later to get to the PlayStation sex, Yeah, they mostly sound right. Like let's see where where we at this this November would have been what like four or getting into the fourth year, because this came this generation started in twenty twenty, so yeah, we'd be starting the fourth year. Yeah, and that's that is when we did get right, because the PlayStation four came out in twenty thirteen, and then at twenty seventeen we got the Pro. That sounds right. So yeah, okay, so on that timeline that makes sense. I mean, as gamers, PlayStation four pool in twenty sixteen, so it was only three years. Yeah right, that's that's okay. That's what I was like, because it was three years and then the Xbox one X came out in Yeah, twenty seventeen, that's what it was. Okay, so yeah, I mean still though, they're not in some super rush to get out the Pro because things have, things are different than last generation. These systems are much better off in terms of power. Uh, No one's really complaining all that much about about frame rate. For the most part, most games do come out and our sixty frames per second. There are obvious exceptions. At this point, no one is out there getting no one. No one's talking about their eight KTV. No one's like, oh, we gotta go go out and upgrade to my eight gate a KTV. I just said eight gay Jordan, Jordan, I just said an I love an eight gay TV. It's it's so it's like that's what was happening last generation with the PS four is that people were everyone was buying a new TV and people, I want to take advantage of this thing. It's got four K one twenty like where is that? And then that those were the features the buzzwords that Sony and then Microsoft latched onto to sell the Pro systems. And even with all those buzzwords like helping out because that's like a huge thing that you sell these things on with it that that four stops the lessons of a you should feel bad about not having the latest stuff. Even with all that in mind, those pro systems didn't do that great. They sold but like the things that sold the best were the base models, like they continue to sell better like throughout the generation. Uh so, yeah, they shouldn't be rushing, and so next year makes some sense if they are committed to this. The thing that continues not to make sense to me is I don't see a world in which the PS five base model, the slim whatever gets a price cut. I suppose that's what the slim model that might replace both model current models might be. It won't have a disk drive, so they're going to cut the price on it a little bit, and then that will leave a gap at five hundred dollars, and that's where the pro comes in. But I just so Sony does not have to lower the price if they don't want to. The thing is still selling as fast as ever, it's going to continue to sell faster. So why put yourself in this situation where you're gonna move stuff down and then slop this back in in five hundred Unless the PS five Pro is six hundred dollars or five fifty. I don't know, what do you think? Yeah, I do wonder if you get to the point where something Sony back then too, because there was no way this is intentional. Was they made the PlayStation five like a hype object. It was almost like a paid of sneakers, and it really was how excited people weren't to get it. It dominated tech talk, It don't dominated social media in a way that they expoke. CDs X never did. It was never I got an Xbox Series X surprise for Christmas or mister bast bought me five hundred Xbox Series xes, et cetera. So a PlayStation five pro instantly refreshes that and like the consumer's minds of like, okay, this is the hot new item alongside their twenty twenty four games, which are what like Wolverine, something big like that, maybe the new Corey Barlogue thing by that point, Ghost of Tsushima two, by that point, I can imagine an update for Spider Man will like move the needle for people like this is even better ray tracing all that stuff. So yeah, well that's the thing that maybe that that last of us to remake the Gustavo Santalala was talking about is getting lined up for the Pro. But yeah, I think you want a console that people who just play FIFA, just play sorry, just play FC, just play Call of Duty get every year, and then you want the kind of the gamer machine, the hottest, newest, the thing that enthusiasts are going to buy and kind of preach about. So I think twenty twenty four makes sense. But yeah, the PS five, I don't know what it's like in the US, but PS five's pretty easy to get in the UK now, you just walk into the shop and get it. I walked into shops and I've seen it and that was the first time that really happened, was about a month ago where it was like, oh, there's like five on the shelf. Actually yeah, so, But in the in the UK specifically, if you look at the sales data outside of the month where Zelda came out and blew everything up, the PS five still dominating and still selling really really well. So I don't know. I think the idea that the lower price console wouldn't have a disk drive also tracks when you look at how rapid the change to digital has been this generation, especially in the black key markets, I mean the UK especially like that the market shift shifted the digital so fast, So yeah, I agree. I wonder if there would would there ever be a situation where there's like a regional variant where the cheaper model has a disk drive in some regions and then some doesn't that maybe be a nightmare that actually together but doesn't sound like about Yeah. The thing about these console revisions is we probably won't hear anything official until they're ready to go, because as soon as you talk about them, you cannibalize all those PS five's on the shelf. I don't know if you remember, but the it was either the PS five Pro or the Slim someone can correct me. And chat was found in a shop before it was announced, and it was like opened on YouTube and stuff like that, and then the next week remember that, here you go, it's out. So yeah, I think everything is pointing in this direction. I think they will announce it in a typically Sony way that makes everyone go, what are we doing here? Why? Why? It might just be a gym Ryan talking head at the end of the next PlayStation showcase, which we're announcing today, and it'll go we have a new powerful con Sorry, I'll do the voice. We have a new powerful console for you coming works to you, and then that's it and we hear nothing about it. Yeah, I mean all that sounds right to me. I think the point about the gamer cancel the gamer machine. I mean, that's let's how these things work, right. I mean Attendo has done that from the beginning of refreshing what they have available, whether that is with slim down versions of their consoles, more powerful version of their consoles, different variations on the aesthetics of their consoles, whatever it is. Those systems are always aimed not only start some exceptions, but for a long time now they've been aimed at their most hardcore fans, the people that are most likely to buy hardware at the start of a generation. Those are the same people who are most likely to buy a pro model or a new three DS or whatever. And then all those people either sell their old systems or they put them in storage or whatever. But either way, you're making new hardware sales to the people most likely to make hardware sales. And then you get other systems out there in the channel by secondhand sales and stuff like that. So that model like works and I think that Sony wants to exploit that as much as possible, and so it makes sense, and it makes sense from that side. It's just the PS five Pro doesn't make a ton of sense to me, just based on looking at the games and where we're at and feeling and feel like we haven't even gotten close to taking advantage of the system yet, of this generation yet. But but you know, by late twenty twenty four, that could change. We'll get Spider Man, we'll get a few other things that are PS five only, and then by then it's like, okay, and they're adding something else on top of this, and here's a game that's going to take a lot of advantage of this. I just I do wonder what those buzzwords they're going to fall back on, because if they fall into eight K and even ray tracing, which is what the story says, both of those are pretty poor buzzwords in terms of convincing people to get excited eight K, especially people I think are coming, you know, having to come to Jesus moment about the diminishing returns there where it's like, I guess I saw, I saw a pretty big difference between ten eighty and four K, and I think some people do and some people don't. But either way, but between four K and eight K, it is a very difficult to tell the difference. And people are like, I'm happy with my four KTV. I just bought this thing in the last couple of years. I don't buy a TV every year. I buy one every ten years, and I'm not I'm nowhere near to thinking about buying a new one. And so it just I Sony kind of going this route of like we are going to do this same playbook. I just don't know that playbook is as strong this generation as it was last time. Yeah, you don't have that wave that you had when everyone was buying the LG. Yeah, one of them is setting on my desk right now, like you don't have that that thing where we have the default eight K TV, and I don't think we will for a long time if we were an unless line of work. Are you the type of person that buys a proconsole when it comes out? Uh? Yeah, it depends. I think the Nintendo systems. I always end up talking myself into do it because I'm a fucking sucker. But the other ones last generation, probably yes, this generation I would probably not. It would they have to really convince me, because I'm already not playing my consoles that much anyhow. I'm playing mostly on PC, Steam, Deck, and Switch. That's primarily where I'm gaming, and then I show up for the exclusives on the consoles. So yeah, they would have to really convince me. I don't know how about you. Yes, because I'm an idiot. But so the last time they did this refresh, I wasn't in this game quite yet, so I went out and got it straight away because I was convinced by the newest, greatest, all that stuff, and yet a certain I could maybe be talked into a PlayStation five refresh if they were like, okay, return all the best game of the generation. It looks even better. I could play that but for the Xbox. And this is going to do me no favors on x but I feel like there hasn't been enough time with my Xbox to upgrad it. Of course felt that way. I felt that way about the Xbox One when I got the series. What was that? The one one worst naming convention of all times? But I thought the one X was an amazing system, not just because it was the way of like a paving brick that you could kill someone with, and I played a lot of that, so I don't know. I would obviously in our situation, if they do these consoles, they will appear at our house. And it's a weird situation where we can't be like, oh, we recommend you go out and get six hundred pound thing because I paid the key half on it. But yeah, it's gonna show a Jeff Backlar's house. Fuck that, that's what's gonna happen. Is that? What is that? What all the good stuff goes? I just assume yeah, and probably the good stuff goes to Andy Robins and unless he decides to can't be atta. I can't deal with that right now. Oh cool, Thank you for your scraps, sir, Thank you so much. Sir. Yes, I almost certainly think this is true. And then we're going to get the project q prol And yeah, we'll talk about the queue here in a second, because there's some more details about that. Then I think, you know, relatively not exciting. The exciting is never the word for the queue, but we'll get to it. It looks like Insomniac is working on a third game alongside Spider Man in Wolverine. This comes from Andy Robertson at BGC finally getting back to work PlayStations. Insomniac Games is working on a third unannounced title in addition to Spider Man two in Wolverine. That's according to a live stream held by the Full Sale University last September, which is just now being circulated on social media, and the stream, project director Aaron Eberhart claimed they were helming an unannounced project at the studio. Eberhart previously worked on PlayStation Now and Sony Interactive Entertainment, as well as as well as Blizzards Esports initiative. This is actually my first Triple A game project now. I'm the project director here on the unannounced project. Eberhardts set on the stream. I'm very excited to actually be making making the games now. Eberhardt joined Insomniac just before the studio began advertising for a multiplayer project. And Salmniac is officially working on a pair of Marvel titles, but it's best known for Ratchet and Clinks for the Ratchet and Clink series, the last entry of which released in twenty twenty one. Outside of those franchises and Salmniac Will also worked on twenty fourteens exclusive Xbox exclusive Sunset Overdrive. In twenty twenty one, Sunset Overdrive was successfully registered by Sony at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Although the trademark registry isn't indicative of any plans to revive the game, it coincided closely with Sunset Overdrives director rejoining Insomniac the same year. What do you think this is? Do you think it's a it's a return to a previous IP, or do you think it's something new? Ratchet and Clank, Baby, Yeah, I think it's almost certainly Ratchet and Clank. You don't You don't generate enough interest in an IP that Sony green lights the film and then only do one game after that, and especially after how good riff the part was. Yeah, Yeah, it's the next Ratchet. I'm almost certain of this. I think the Sunset Overdrive believers, I feel for you. There's there's a lot of there's a lot of games that I'd love to come back that no people played either. But the if that was ever going to happen, Sony would negotiate getting the first game out. The gauge interest they wouldn't. They're not in the business of just dropping a Sunset Overdrive two anymore. Is bankable ips for Sony and that's it. It's Wolverine, it's Spider Man, it's Ratchet and Clank. So yeah, well, I mean I think it's Ratchet. That's my question. Is Ratchet Click a bankable IP? I mean, how well did that last game really do? I mean, I don't know. It seemed like it seemed like it did okay, but it was as five X elusive and maybe that held back sales. So you think now that there's more PS fives out there and another ratch and click game could really like meet those expectations a little bit better. Yeah, And I also think it's it's a game that Sony loves putting on the adverts because it's their family game. It's their thing that's like soft and cuddly, and it fits into the portfolio really well in terms of you do a PlayStation five advert and it's the Last of Us, even though those are those games came out on the PlayStation four as God of War. It's all this kind of hardcore stuff. It's Spider Man, but there's there's cuddly Ratchet and click doing a bit of fun chit and so yeah, the I think that also INSI I clearly just love working on Ratchet because those games are like so incredibly polished and so well made. Like I think it would be another Ratchet. Maybe they do Spider Man Wolverine Ratchet and then Spider Man three, and that's how they end off for the generation, because I bet, I bet they do Spider Man games until Marvel like rips it out of their hands. I mean the way that these games sell. Yeah, I mean the idea of them no longer workings. They would have to be a pretty big drop off from two to three because I expect Too to be the biggest game of this generation the instant it launches in terms of exclusive freether the PS five or the Xbox Series X and S. It's going to be massive. Oh yeah, that's that's going to be the game on like buses and billboards and stuff like that. That would be the real kind of the half time of the Champions League game because it's so easily sailable. I wonder if that translates to Wolverine because obviously people know who Wolverine haz is from, like the Hugh Jackman's films and stuff like that. It's probably and the top ten most recognizable superheroes. You'd maybe say top ten, top Pefteine, but he's not like spider Man, so I wonder if that will how do you over up that game. Wolverine's definitely X Men spider Man right in terms, but it's like, yeah, is he on that? I don't know. I feel like if you were to do a top five most recognizable superheroes, Wolverine would be up there. I think he would be Superman, Batman, spider Man, wonder Woman, then maybe Wolverine. Right, yeah, I mean he's Anger Chang. Yeah, that's true. They've interest kind of changed that He's hovering in that zone though. I think he has the potential to easily be in that top five with a little bit of shine from a Deadpool three, A Deadpool three and then and then this game. But coun't wait, that's gonna be Yeah, I'm looking forward to it too. Uh Deadpool three, Yeah, listen, listen, we don't AI can do a Deadpool jokes. I mean it basically already has been for years. So I'll say that the thing with Ratchen Clink your point about oh, Insomniac loves making those games. I think Sony's just like, this is our family game, because this is the studio week can have go make a family game and it doesn't like disrupt everything else. Like the idea of having Naughty Dog go and work on a Jack and Daxter, uh like and be like, oh and that's gonna take resources away from the other stuff that they're doing. Hell, no way, then not a chance in hell, ratchen clink. That'ssomniac. They know what they're doing. They can juggle these things. It'll be fine. They're still gonna get us Spider Man and we'll ring back to back. So it's like, okay, that's that's a studio we can trust with this and be like okay, and we know the game's gonna come out and it's gonna be great because it's Insomniac and it's ratching clanks. So yeah, I think you're probably right. Uh the idea that it is multiplayer, that is not something that's new to that franchise. They've they've done stuff without before, right, Yeah, there's all for one. I can't even remember the name, so their of their games. But like, yeah, there was a couple of them that they did with that that seemed to have an emphasis on on multiplayers. So I came to Ratching Clank pretty late. But yes, that's so I could see them thinking that that's something that they want to do something with. Am I'm making up the multiplayer thing? Is that something that's not in there? Because I could have swore that's something that they said, but maybe not. Maybe maybe I'm making that up. Uh, Okay, fair enough, let's move on here. Tense It is the majority shareholder of the creators of Dying Light. This comes from Amote check Grouse, check at Ppe dot p L. Are you no? You don't hear me? All right? You know what? I'm gonna start reading this and then when he comes back, hopefully we can take it from there. Ten Cent is the majority shareholder of the creators of Dying Light. Again, this is from Rode check group check at Ppe dot PL. Dying Light and Dying Light two were successful games attracting the attention of ten Cent. Ten Cent has become the majority shareholder of tech Land, a renowned Polish gaming studio known for producing high quality games like Dying Light. Can you hear me? Jordan? There? It is there it is. I was like, how do I communicate that. I think this is your fault. I don't know. I was absolutely nothing to do with me. The second that one Mike Manotti appears has head randelled in the chat and then oh breaks apart. Come on though, the fold of the money very good. Point of course, you're you're absolutely right about this. Let's continue your tech Land aims to transform Dying Light into an exceptual zombie adventure with new solo and online modes. Ten Cents partnership will provide resources and expertise to realize tech lands ambitious dreams for the games. Techland will retain full ownership and create a freedom of their titles. Meanwhile, the collaboration will accelerate the development of new gaming projects, including a secret action RPG. Tech Land has a strong reputation for taking in player feedback at delip be successful games. Uh Tincent has previously invested in the Ubisoft Bluebird team and a whole bunch of others. This is that Just let you guys know. That was translated from Polish just so because it sounded a little bit awkward there. That was on the translation. Yeah, Tencent acquire or not acquiring investing into another studio that is this is what they do. This is not too surprising. They are looking for opportunities, and tech Land was one that was an opportunity for somebody whoever was going to come along, because you know, as much as Dying Like two didn't really do it for me, that is clearly a studio that could still make big games and you know, independently for the most part, and that is relatively rare these days. And so if you are one of these bigger companies looking to put your money somewhere, tech Land is a relatively safe back. What do you think, Yeah, as as a good as a good investment, I would say I think that Dying Light is a game that second one specifically didn't do amazing critically, but I feel like the player can sense, Yeah, it has a bit of the what the hell is that Day's Gone? A truly hateful game that is somehow got this second life of people just hate it because the biker looked at his wife's ass, because they're married and love each other. They you just can't handle that look. As the internet's biggest Sony fan boy, the fact that I hate Day's Gone really goes down poorly, with a section of matth Twater following. It's one of these games that when you when you when it comes up on like social media or TikTok or something, all the comments are like, this game is sick, let's get into one of this When you go and read the reviews and people are like, this is it's kind of tired. It's kind of derivative. And I thought Dying Light two was fun to a point, yes, but as you say, it's a big game. They got like Rosario Dawson and Ship in there like it is that is a big game that you don't see from a studio of pech Clans. Pech Clans not like a small studio by any sense, but you don't think of them as a massive studio as like one of these of like a Ubi Soft Tea or something like that. So if if Tensent can pump money in for what I presume will be a Dying Like three or I don't know how that second one is sold, to be honest, but what is possibly a Dying Like three that could be interesting? And I don't in the acquisition either. I always thought the tech Land was kind of a good nominee for someone to pick up. But maybe it just doesn't fit in the portfolios because Sony has Open World Games, Microsoft has a quarter of a million studios. Like maybe we're kind of falling off. Yeah, yeah, maybe that's kind of fallen off a bit. But yeah, the more the more of these independent ESH studios get kind of a big chunk of investment without being taken over as it can only be a good thing. Really, yeah, I think it's it's the kind of thing where like that these companies should get their money when they can and and you know, selling enough majority steak while also continue to operate the way you want to, which is typically how ten Cent does this. Typically ten Cent says, we just want to have our finger in the pie. We don't want to be calling the shots. We're gonna sit back and let you, for the most part, continue to operate the way you want and we will provide some some resources. It's not going to be ongoing investment, but it's the big investment up front. And then if you want access to the Chinese market, we can help with that. And that's like, that's a relatively good deal for these companies. Looking at the Chinese markets, trains market's very hard to get into. Ten Cent is your one key basically to that, to that territory. And in the meantime, like they this is money that could serve them as they try to expand them. And they're gonna they're almost certainly going to work on a Dying Light three in the next several years. Dying Light two will get a lot of updates before then. But and they're also working on a whole new other game that's a new IP or you know, a secret RPG. They say, I'm assuming it's a new IP. Uh that, Yeah, that's gonna take new money, probably spending up a new studio or something like that. So yeah, this investment will help them make even more games, and that that's the whole idea here without and again without having to get acquired or sell off your the rights to your studio entirely. So yeah, you know, ten Cent one of these companies that they you know, it's a Chinese company, there's issues there, but also take their money. Whatever. It's hard for me to judge anyone who's just like getting paid and whatever, like get that money and move on make more games. Fair enough. PlayStation's Project Q handheld runs Android. According to leaked images. This comes from Jordan Midler at VGCN. Don't trust it. Several images of PlayStation's upcoming Project q handheld have appeared online. The images, which were initially posted to imager and then later circulated on social media, show the handheld as well as the internal components of the machine. The images also appeared to confirm that the machine will be Android based. This could mean that Project que could theoretically be moded to run other game streaming clients such as g Force now or Amazon Luna. You know all the kids always talk about that Amazon Luna ance. Yep, I find my Luna controller the other day. I'm like, how do I even use this goddamn thing. Announced during the PlayStation Showcase event earlier this year, Project quees described as a dedicated device that enables you to stream any game from your PS five console using remote play over Wi Fi. According to Sie, the device has an eight inch ten ADPHD screen and all the buttons and features of the Dual Sense wireless controller. While Sony's yet to announce an official release date for Project QUE, court filings from Microsoft during the recent Activision Blizzard case suggest that it's expected to launch later this year. Whoa, Yeah, okay, Android on the project que makes sense. I'm not too surprised by that. It's a little bit. It's kind of nice because it's like, Okay, this thing is not just a dummy device that's going to sit there and connect to my PlayStation and that's it. So it's going to go into a drawer like pretty fast. It's like, oh, I could put emulators and ROMs on here. Yeah, And I'm like, okay, that's that's kind of neat. That's nice to have another one of those. I don't have enough of those, only like ten or eleven, so why not get another one? It helps justify the purchase, I think a little bit. But also I think that might signify that this isn't going to be some special connection to the PlayStation five. So if you, like you were hoping for a new wireless protocol where it's like, oh, this is gonna work even better than the app on your phone, I doubt it. This is basically just another phone with a goddamn dual sense attached to the side. I don't know, what do you think? Yeah, very much? And I think it's a hildious looking machine, and I think it will go down as one of the strangest decisions of this generation from Sony, and I wonder if it's Sony hardware shaking the tail of Sony games Almost certainly, yes, stuff like stories like this come up. I always try to tell people like that is Sony these days where it's like PlayStation is massive and then everyone else Sony kind of wants a piece of the PlayStation pie. I keep using Pie today, but they want they want a piece of that, and that is So that's what happened to the PSVR too, I think, is that the Sony hardware wag wag the dog. Absolutely yeah, But I'm it's it's it will all be. It'll all come down to the price. I don't think there's any way they price this in a way that people are like, oh yeah, maybe I'll get one. But as you mentioned, even if you can put emulators and crap like that on it. I got the rong ally for a review recently, and I was sat there putting all these emulators on it for like the tenth time, and I was like, I cannot be bothered doing this anymore. Like I have so many devices that just do this thing, including my fucking PC. So yeah, I wonder where it goes. Is it a completely is it a really limited run on PlayStation Direct? They just make the absolute minimum of the because I'm definiting gonna buy one, and I wanted to be a rare collector's item. I don't want this to be popular. I want this to be I've got a PlayStation, be a TV sitting behind me like I've got the any PlayStation. I bought that for about ten pounds and the people because people then realize you could do like fun Ship with Yeah, they're actually worth a decent a decent amount, So yeah, I will definitely pick one of these up and just look at it. It looks like one of the most snap over the kneeble pieces of electronics I've ever seen, because it's best big plate. It's begging. But it's not just like bend over the new It's begging for it. It wants you to destroy it. It's like, please fuck me up. It's what it looks like. I I hate and love looking at it at the same time. It is an absurd piece of hardware and I love it for that just I mean, that's that's the design philosophy this generation. Just make things as absolutely cumbersome and like the excessities, you know, these excessities companies that as soon as the hardware for the new iPhones and stuff are announced, they have cases up on Amazon for it. They must have seen this thing and bean like, we're just not bothering in because you need all you need all the plastic on the earth to try and get a case for this thing. We don't even we're to even begin with this. This is like an impossible the design. Uh, it's a what's that MCS your nightmare? Yes, that's what that's what it looks like. I love it. I can't wait for it. I want it real bad. But you okay, so you looked at this the these images, was Google play Store popping up anywhere? Because that's not necessarily a part of Android. You don't have to include the play Store if you are using a very bespoke version of Android, like that's what happens in China and with some like specialized phones and stuff and specialized devices. Did you see a Google play Store on there? So I didn't see that specifically, but it's like the opened submanu and tons and tons of icons came up, including what looked like the PlayStation Store and then a bunch of Anceladay stuff. And I don't know if that's just like a debug manu or like the dead facing stuff, because it would be verty verty airily, So I don't know, I should. It'll be very easy to do weird stuff like you, I mean at the very like you could sideload in. I mean, that's why I prefer Android. Is I got like once a year I need to sideload something on here, and I don't want to jail break my phone. So it's like, you know, Android, it's pretty open to that stuff. So yeah, you'd be able to do that, and you could like install the third party stores and things like that. But Google Play would get very easy. I bet Google Play will just be on there these days. That just usually happens even with devices like this and sonyell. Those PlayStation mobile games they used to sell like ten years ago in the PlayStation three data bringing back over all that weird. For some reason, it was easier to get PlayStation one games on a mobile four ten years ago than it was that has night to get them on the PlayStation five. Oh, I love it all right. Let's see here. According to photos taken in Japan's Japan's storefronts Armored Course six will support up to six player multiplayer plus three spectators. These details come from the back of a box that was going around online. I saw this on Reddit. We're still waiting to get all the details about Armor Cords six, but a look at its box is revealing some extra information. For example, the game apparently has a has multiplayer that supports up to six people at the same time. That's according to an icon in the back of the box in Japan, which knows that notes that online multiplayer feature, and then has a two to six number on there, implying two to six players. You know, it's a from game from from Games always at this point have some form of multiplayer. Armored Corps six seems ideal for some sort of direct, almost team deathmatch style thing. I don't like. I've said before, I haven't played much Armored Corps. I've never played it online. If it's had it before, I don't know what kind of features to expect, but I think that this is, you know, you get another thing. It's like, okay, yeah, I'll check. I'm gonna check this game out. That sounds pretty cool. Has Armored Corps six had online multiplayer in the past that you're aware of, Jordan, I'm not entirely sure. The Armored course Seas is kind of passed me by. About the Freeman, Chat says that it's had multiplayer since PS one. That sounds right, Okay, so that's that's kind of expected. But I'm just cutious in terms of, like so from games are obviously full of bullshit, like full all this stuff that when it's a single player game, you're like, okay, fight, yeah, fighting against the game, but not in a multiplayer in situation. Come on, no, Uh, this is the spectator mode up to three people so that you can watch, I guess watch these battles. Uh, Lexie and Chat says, people are very excited about that. Okay, I'll I'll sit there and watch some big robots fight the watch. I like to watch it. Give me my PSRs wos. I can get in there and watch, you know, you know, and talk about Jordan. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what I what I want to see happen. That's the kind of thing. I like shout casting. That's fun, and I like the idea of shout casting giant robot fights, and I really do hope it's like the Spectator mode does support PSVR two. It seems like who knows, probably won't, but that would be cool to like sit in there in a little chair and look up and just watch these giant robots beat each other up. That that sounds pretty hot to me. Uh okay. Blizzard has promised better Diablo four patches going forward. This comes from being the own at game Reactor. Just ahead of Season of the Malignant, the first seasonal update for Diablo four, Blizzard had released a massive update that addressed pretty much every aspect of the action RPG. When the mega patch notes dropped, it didn't take long for players to start sharing their opinions on the changes, something which led to a protest of sorts on rating platforms, where the games the user review scores dropped significantly. Blizzard has since commented on these actions by fans. It said that the patch was both bad and that it was never will never do something similar in the future again. We're bad, it will never do it. We will never do it again. We're so sorry. We're gonna flog ourselves here. As part of the recent fireside chat, developer stream community manager Adam Fletcher said we want to acknowledge everyone's feedback in regard to producing player power. We know it is bad, we know it is not fun. We also want to talk about what we were trying to achieve, specifically with this patch and with the changes that players ended up seeing. And then separately, we do not want to also talk about how we don't plan to do We do want to also talk about how we don't plan on doing a patch like this ever. Again, the idea for the patch was to make the game more fun, but this clearly did not end up being the case. To this end, Blizzard promises to correct a few different parts of the game that changed with the patch, including legendary aspects for sorcery and barbarian, more stashed space, bigger stack sizes, and more thrilling nightmare dungeons. The catch will be that this next patch will need a little more time to roll out. That's all that sounds like, okay, that's the correct reaction to the reaction to the first patch. I know. With Diablo three, apparently the sort of philosophy that the Blizzard had was only buffs. Everything just gets buffs. That's how we're going to solve problems, so that we don't make people feel bad about debuffing their their stuff and nerf nerfing their their the characters they work so hard on. They came out of the gate trying to reverse that and set a new tone, and it backfired on them big time. They are almost certainly probably gonna go back to that buffs only going forward, at least for the most unless in extreme cases, something that's completely overpowered. I imagine most things are just gonna get buffs to try to level things out and make things better. So I don't know, how do you feel about Diablo for these days? Well, I've completed well, I've completed that ones and going very close on my second character because during the review period we had the game for a long long time and then they completely wiped the character. So my my Sorcerer not Sorcerer who was it? But they can't I can't remember the specific necromancer is the one that has the cause. My character is called Taylor Swift, and my little skeleton people are the swiftiest of course. Yes, just like real life, Just like real life. Still annoyed. I couldn't get eat us to our tickets anyway. Yeah, I think that it's really interesting for them to be so like instantly fall on their sword, not try and defend it, not try and style it out, just be like, Okay, it's fine. We know they were probably like, people really like this game, and we've been taking fat els for about forty years at this point. Yeah, let's nourish this as much as nurture this as much as possible. So in that sense, the applo community kind of has a lot of power because they're being very reactive to them. But as you mentioned, the issue is those couple of weeks where it's like this, the atrophy of goodwill and the drop off of players just after you've started like a seasonal event, like that's that's pretty brutal. So I imagine it's much it's much lighter changes going forward, kind of head gloves approach and taking ideas to the player players and be like please, can we please do this, which it's kind of a dangerous preston, but it's nice to see developers be like, Okay, let's not mess us up entirely. Yes, I think I mean, I think you nail it. Though they had they had a w after a series of l's, they want to just get back to that. They want to feel that dub you again. They want that feeling so bad, And I don't blame them like you. I mean that really that's the business that a studio like Blizzard is in, is creating good feelings around the company and their games generally. That that was something they couldn't help but do. And back in the day, it was like, oh, everything they're putting out, everything they do, Blizzard is God. We we love Blizzard and everything that they do. And these days it's the exact opposite. So if they can recapture that magic keeping a little bit, they are going to do everything it takes to kind of get back there as best they can. I think a game like Diablo, Yeah, you want it to be an ongoing success, and you want it to be you want to keep people attached, and you want to be designing the game in a way that it makes money in the long run, a long term. But it's actually better off if you just get those upfront sales and people feel good about it. So the next time you do something and they show up there and they're ready to be happy again, and so try not to mess that up. And that this you know, they started going down the route of messing that up a little bit now. I think people over react at a tiny bit, but that's what the people do with their games. So you gotta just deal with that, and Blizzard is definitely dealing with it. All right, Let's hit a couple more stories here. Leaker claims Siga is bringing back Altered Beast and the Gunstar Hero franchise. This comes from mind Nintendo News, who says video game leaguers Special Nick has said on the latest edition of the Xbox Era podcast that Siga is planning to bring back a couple of older beloved franchises. Speaking on the podcasts, he claimed that Sega is planning to bring back both Altered Beast and Gunstar Heroes, both of which were popular on the Sega Genesis and despite the same negat drave here Sega's previous they said they are looking at delve into their back catalog and today Forever Entertainment teas that they have a new remake project in the works. If anything transpires, will let you know, Uh, okay, Gunstar Heroes, Yes, Altered Beast. Really, we're gonna do Altered Beast? What was what's the take on Altered Beast Over in the UK Honestly, these are like really old mind games. Okay, that's what I'm expecting. Yeah, like Altered Beast is you maybe see a copy of Altered Beast dot car but sale, but it's not. There's not something that's not eleven long in the mammony over here. And apart from my rule to never trust Australians, I feel like there's a that's happens just because Sega's got a bit of confidence than I. It's just like we keep seeing everything we seem to do is just know seems to be okay, and that ebbs and flows. There will be a crash where we get back like Sonico sex Sega. But until then bring stuff back quite not like even even if it means you just have to speed run getting because a nine or whatever to get people happy again. Like right, yeah, that might be they've went to a couple of ends and said do you fancy doing anything we either of these and then they come back and slap the Sega name on them. I don't think there's a terrible team at Sega right working on that stuff. This is not like the time when we got like Bionic Commando from from Capcom and the Xbox three six ways from the Armies, end the arm get it these wipe's in the arm guys. This is an art Yeah, I mean, listen, I would love that if we were getting like that kind of altered beast. We don't live in that world anymore, so I think you're right, they're just probably working with relatively smaller teams. Gunstar Heroes truly is a classic game. It is truly something special. It's a treasure shooter action game. The best game on the Genesis, like the best one period, like by far, and so yeah, bring that back and honestly just kind of make it that same game again, just updated with new levels, new characters, new abilities, that stuff, and I will be happy. So I hope, I hope this is true. That would be very cool. I would love to see that. I think you're right, though, Sega is in that, Hey we can pull these things off, and we've had success with these things before, so let's let's keep doing it. And I'm like, oh yeah, fine, mind those catalogs. Ubisoft under fire for robbing people of their games. This comes from Alex Hopley, a game reactor. It was recently confirmed by Ubisoft that if you don't use your account for a certain period of time, it will be closed and you'll lose all your games along with it. Whether you've spent one dollar or one thousand, you'll be stuck in the same boat without any games to play. It's safe to say this approach has been lamb basted online, with gamers likening the process to a car you buy blowing up if you don't use it in thirty days. If you've not been using you you'd be soft account for a while. Then you'll get an email asking you to log in within thirty days or risk losing your account. Failure to log in means you're you're done. Basically, anything you bought through you through your Ubisoft account will be removed, alongside all your hours logged, achievements on the company's platform, et cetera. It seems that even if you buy a game nowadays, that doesn't necessarily mean you get to own it forever. Yeah, this is just a dumb This is like you're you'd be soft. It is in your best interest to get people to feel confident about buying games digitally, because you make more money if you sell them digitally. Why like, why feed into this idea that which is you know, there's definitely a lot of truth to it, But why feed into it that the owning games digitally is nebulous and a little bit a little bit more scary than owning them physically. Why why would you do that even if it costs you money, Like that's the price of doing business. You're being fucking stupid. I don't get it, Jordan, what do you think? So? Just an interest of the entitative this story. The stated reason for this is because of GDPR restrictions, like Ubisoft claim that because of this they have to at some point get rid of accounts even if you've not signed in, and they claim that the grace period is four years, So it's I mean, four years goes by like like nothing, obviously, especially if you're not really playing anything big on Ubisoft's PC platform. It's so stupid. It will affect the vanishingly small amount of people, but the fact that it affects anyone is ridiculous. I bet they sort this out because there are some provisions in the GDPR which means you can have accounts active and definitely at least in like a deactivated state. So that's what happens on Steam or I look there was another one I looked up. It was it was maybe EA or something like that. They will or it was Epic Game Store. If your account is deemed inactive, they will like change the name and hide it, but you can always revive it. So I think that is that was something they would. They would They probably have to have a think about doing right. But obviously when you see on Twitter people being like, uh, Ubisoft closing my account in the day because I've not played any of my games, and people like fucking freak out about the Yeah, it's it's a it's a selly situation. Yeah, I am positive that the GDPR would provide hey, uh an exception for you keeping your game purchases that you've made. Now, some people are chattered claiming that this is a bug. Uh I if we'll update tomorrow. If that's the case, we'll do a show tomorrow and I'll you know, I'll reach out to ubuse off and see what they say. But I haven't seen that anywhere so far. And then other people are saying it only affects accounts that don't have game purchases, which okay, well, if that's the case, we'll see Ubisoft can just come out and clarify one percent. If that's the case, we'll update the story tomorrow. If that's the case, all right, let's do Let's hit this last one here. Mortal Kombat one adds Lee May, Lee, Mine, We May, Tanya, and Baraka as part of the DLC Combat Combat Pack roster announcement. This comes from Sal Romano at Kamatsu. Publisher Warner Brothers Games and developer nether Realm Studios have released the Umgatti trailer for Mortal Kombat one, confirming Lemai, U, Tanya, and Barraca as playable characters and Goro and Darius as cameo fighters. The company's also announced that Omniman, Quanci, Peacemaker, Irmac, Homelander, and Takeda will be included as part of the downloadable content Combat Pack main raster and cameo fighters include. For the main roster, you get Lee, Mai, Tanya, Baraka. As we said, cameo fighters are Darius. The combat pack main main roster includes Quanci, MC, Takada, Peacemaker, Omniman, at, Homelander, and then the cameo fighters are Fera, Johnny Cage, Chameleon, Mavado and Tremor and then you get a skin Jean Claude Van Damn skin for Johnny Cage. So I'm definitely buying this one percent. I'm going for it. I am getting pretty excited about Mortal Kombat one, Jordan, how about you. I'm friends with someone that's working on it, and I text them every couple of days when I think about mort Kombat one just go, oh yeah, what you do? I'm ready. I'm ready to love again. I think those Mortal Kombat games are great. I'm not someone that gets My competitive fighting game of choice is always Street Fighter because that is as Yeah, that's gaming perfection, that's gaming chess. Sure, but the story modes and Mortal Kombat. Can't wait really looking forward to going through that, And I think that's one just the cinematics and stuff like that. They've they've got this down so well, like there's such a science that's so far ahead of every other like fighting games story equivalent. I just we've had a bumper year. We're getting street Fighter, Teching and Mortal Kombat this year. I mean, come on, come on, yeah, eating pretty good, eating eating well over here. I think I'm going to on this site on giant Bam dot com I'm going to play through nine, ten or eleven the stories because I've only started each one a lit a bit, and so I'm gonna do them back to back to back and hopefully get them all done by the time one is out. That's the plan. We'll start that in early August. That's a good question. Slaye mcc also asks him the child seen no voicing Peacemaker. I think so, yes. I think that's I'm pretty sure that they got John Cena for that. And I think they got because they got JK. Simmons for Omni Man, So it's like if they're getting I mean they'll get JK. Simmons, you should be able to get John Cena. Like just just tell Mos to do a game, We Sina, like, We're like, Sena is fantastic. I think a game would maybe the Lord to record not much voiceover wouldn't work with his schedule right now, but a new, a new Matt Hazard game starring John Cina, that's what we need. I mean, the rumor was always he was going to be Dug Nukam in the film. So like if if if I'm going to bring back there you go, come on. I would like that people check trying to come up. I was trying to come up with the name as well for my Moral Kombat features. Well Grub told Jeff batt Good's that why not game over? I guess we figured it out. Uh, you know what. One last one, Pokemon Sleep players found out that the game is recording their farts. This comes from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor. Pokemon Sleep is the latest app from from the franchise, targeting everyday activities and combining them with the Pocket Monsters. However, users have been reporting the app is not only not only records how you sleep, but the noises you make at night, that includes a sleeping and farting. As Pokemon sleeps record everything over a certain volume, their flatulent outburst have been kept a monitor when the user wakes up. Luckily, these clips don't last from more than a day, but some have found it incredibly embarrassing. Listen, this is part of this is natural. Your body needs to, you know, expel gases. There's nothing wrong with that, no shame other than you're a dirty center. And now we have a recording, recorded evidence. We know what you do at night, and we're going to show it to your family. So yes, you should be embarrassed. Uh, Jordan, you've been using Pokemon Sleep. I have. I'm disappointed in the app. As a pole maniac myself, I'm literally fucking surrounded by Pokemon. I see these stories on VGC about pop up shop in London. There's a poper show on Londery. Now I gotta go buy something. There was there was a pop up shop in London and I got this. I got this deck box right here, which is which was very nice and I guess from the Pokemon company. And then but Pokemon Sleep. This issue is and it's obviously it's a sleep tracking app. I think it's mental that asks you to plug your phone in and put it on a mattress, as if that's not going to burn your house down one in these days. I think, first of all, it wasn't on the mattress because I like it's it's not okay with like just being on a table next to the bed. No, it needs it needs to feel the rumbling and want it doesn't want to hear this, fine, I wants to feel those farts. Is a dirty little app and the problem is the person that I was sleeping next to. We put our apps down and then Ryan, Yeah, me, Jim Ryan, We're sitting chilling next to each other. And but then we sat and talked ship for like an hour after that, and it was recording all of this. So the next day when we're all listening to our recordings, it's just as like cackling away or so cheap plug Already. If you listen to this week's episode of VGC, a Video Game Podcast, right at the end, you will hear Annoy chew bones away. I'm just gonna hold him here. And right at the end of VGC a Video Game Podcast, you will hear a recording of me singing in my sleep like an opera singer. And I would very much recommend going and listen to that. That's the kind of thing that Pokemon sleep records for me. Nothing else, it's just me going like and also, you don't really get that many Pokemon every day, like I'm getting like three and look as sleep. Like shit, come on, people on this blood, people on this website know how much of an energy drink fan I am. I'm keeping the tradition alive. Energy drinks are better than sleep. You don't need to sleep if you drink enough. Yeah, so I'm getting like six hours and Pokemon sleeps being like that's not not quite enough. So yeah, it's a very judgmental app. I'm more Pokemon go man. Yeah, what do you think is like next for them? I think they should do a Pokemon auto chess game. Just just fucking rip rip the band aid off. Go, I'll go hole hog. That's what we need. Do you know what they should right, we've got to welcome to the Pokemon Broadcast. What they really need to do is do a two D game, a pixel art two D RPG like it was a like it was a Game Boy Advanced game or a DS game or something like. It can never work. That would be stunning poking too maybe, But see an actual pixel art RPG, don't the main game fake team can go and make Pokemon like Indigo and violet or whatever. They can make the violets already one Indigo and what's some other color Jeff Brown, and the going brown then everybody, but something like that where it's like there's only one hundred and fifty Pokemon in the game. There's not a world the size of Assassin's Creed Odyssey in it. It's just this contained story. That's what they need. To do, and they need to make, they need to make. We'll come on amild playable, Unintendo Switch didn't need to make a heart gold souce over playable and Nintendo Switch ishahada. I'm talking to your brother. This is a rags sheet, brother. Yes, I'm backing up everything, Jordan said. There we go to poke about any extra together. I indigo and brown sounds like that thing where it's like, what's uh, this is what a bisexual girlfriend and her Golden retriever boyfriend looked like. The indigo and brown just like, that's what it sounds like to me. Okay, all right. The poll question from sometime in the past, let's check this out. We had. I asked, are you upset that the Boardlands movie won't have a Randy Pitchford cameo in it? Thirty four percent said yes, I'm devastated by this lack of real magic. Sixty six percent said no, I should not have to suffer a magician. Uh, that'side. Listen. I voted no on that one as well. Everybody, I'm right, I'm right there with you. Do you want to hit a fun run depict? Absolutely? While you also tell us where we can find you do both. Okay, every so often on VGC, we will get a massive spike in traffic just the Randy Petchford page and we have no idea. Oh my god, games Beat had the Randy Pitchford story would always pop up one thousand percent. He's paying for that. He is paying to get more traffic to Randy Pitchford stuff. One. This is my conspiracy theory. You'll never convince me otherwise. That's what's happening. Wait, you can find me and all my Randy Pitchford xes on X. Mike's popping off in check because he knows, yes, he knows X dot com slash Jordan Medler to follow me over there. I got one of those beast guy things and immediately forgot my passports. Don't don't fucking ball followed me over there. I'm not feel like going to at you. I'm booski. Yeah, that's what I'm doing, and I'm onstag probably the threads, Jordan Medler whatever, Just lawyers lead meail. You get enough of me here. Okay, I don't want to like do this, but like I did, just load up Twitter and the fucking logos, the goddamn X. Yeah. Yeah, fucking dumb piece. Honestly the most that's that's that's like Andy Kaufman style, and that's what's happening. Bravo, Bravo. He's the greatest of all time. And also come to VGC because we've got We've got thirteen. Next week on the VGC podcast, I'm doing Cash Return. I'm gonna be talking to them all about the Putvail, the docs and Japan over the past two weeks. Have a good fun. Uh, they're they're perverted tourism. I'm sure all right, new Poul question. We'll get to this on Wednesday. We have the bomb Cast tomorrow. So on Wednesday we will discuss do you have an eight KTV? Yes, no, and no, but I would get one for a PS five pro those are your options. I'm curious to discuss that, which we will do here on Giant bomb dot com speak at a Giant Bomb. We have some stuff happening this week. BombCast. On Wednesday after GMM, we will do a blake club because I'm off on Thursday and Friday, We're probably gonna and gamest morning. We'll probably take that time off. I'll be off on Thursday, Friday and Monday. I'll come back the following Wednesday and on the bomb cast and stuff like that, so look out for all that in the meantime, Jordan, thank you so much for spending today talking to me about video games. Man. I super appreciate it, of course. Bothered on Thursday and Fight Day, I'm just gonna take over thus feeds and run into the camera, just just a one shot, just me. You. Yeah, you just tell jan that you want to go ham on Pokemon and he'll just turn it on for you and walk away. What was the name of that ridiculous It was as a rush Lemba. Was that they got the Medican guy, the conservative guy that would just sat there and go like, yes, that's one of them for sure. Yes, Yeah, I'm giant bold Rush Lumba. We've always said this about you, and thank you everybody for watching. You're the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.