Phil Spencer Leaves Xbox

<v Speaker 1>Hey, everybody, Welcome to Game Mess Mornings with Me Jeff Grub,
<v Speaker 1>your host from giant bomb dot com. Thank you for
<v Speaker 1>tuning in. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about
<v Speaker 1>the future of Xbox as the industry continues to shift
<v Speaker 1>and change and more from that blue point situation. It's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be a good one because we have lex Luddi
<v Speaker 1>on the show. Lexi, how are you doing?
<v Speaker 2>Oh? Pretty terribly glob but let's not talk about that.
<v Speaker 2>How you doing? Ah?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, same, I'm doing all right.
<v Speaker 1>It's it's fun. It's like, you know, I really enjoy
<v Speaker 1>the Olympics. I enjoy it more when I can sort
<v Speaker 1>of just I grew up like rooting for Team USA
<v Speaker 1>at these things. It's a lot easier when you could
<v Speaker 1>like comfortably just sit back and be like, I hope
<v Speaker 1>they do all right, and not have to worry about
<v Speaker 1>them partying with fucking Cash Patel in the locker room
<v Speaker 1>after they win, and just being like, what was it
<v Speaker 1>all for?
<v Speaker 3>If this is what you were gonna do? You?
<v Speaker 2>So?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah, it's it's a good time here.
<v Speaker 1>Even the escapism, uh just crashes right into that goddamn
<v Speaker 1>wall all over again. Uh, but yeah, who am I
<v Speaker 1>to complain. I'm doing all right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, we're hanging in. The good video games exist still, Yes,
<v Speaker 2>that's pretty notice notable at the moment, like despite everything
<v Speaker 2>else going on, being able to play good video games
<v Speaker 2>is still like, huh, Karen's pretty good. Huh yeah, is
<v Speaker 2>it mon pretty fun.
<v Speaker 1>There's been a lot of like, oh, that's really solid
<v Speaker 1>games so far this year, which I appreciate. It's like, okay,
<v Speaker 1>like even as like no one was expecting a lot
<v Speaker 1>from the early part of this year until we get
<v Speaker 1>to like Resident Evil here in a couple of days.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, it's like, oh no, there's been several
<v Speaker 1>like paranormou site is one I keep wanting to check out.
<v Speaker 1>I know it's not for me, but I'm it just
<v Speaker 1>looks interesting enough that I want to give it a shot.
<v Speaker 1>And people are like, no, yeah, it's it's really really good.
<v Speaker 1>So and then and then every day someone like messages
<v Speaker 1>me about a new indie game, and there's going to
<v Speaker 1>be the next fest happening starting right now, right, it's
<v Speaker 1>starting today, if now it's this week, and it's like okay, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>And there's always four or five games that come out
<v Speaker 1>of there that are not just like worth checking out.
<v Speaker 1>Many of them end up being the Game of the
<v Speaker 1>Year contenders and stuff like that. So yeah, we'll play
<v Speaker 1>some video games. It's gonna be a good week on
<v Speaker 1>the website everybody for that. So just stick around. We'll
<v Speaker 1>have plenty to go on, especially as like Resident Evil
<v Speaker 1>does come out. I'm sure we'll be talking about that.
<v Speaker 1>Let's explain ourselves though, we're Giant Bomb. We're in independent
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<v Speaker 1>commented on and she's like, that's just Jeff Backlar. That
<v Speaker 1>is just Jeff Backlar's soul captured into a video game.
<v Speaker 1>Did you get a chance of checking out out.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah it's messed up. How good she is at it?
<v Speaker 3>Like it's messed up.
<v Speaker 2>It made sense when it was the sims on the
<v Speaker 2>so many sliders and you know, configurable things that you
<v Speaker 2>can do. You can really take it to hone in
<v Speaker 2>on specific traits and stuff that. Yeah, the me is
<v Speaker 2>like it's such a limited canvas. And still I'm like, man,
<v Speaker 2>Dan does have crazy eyes.
<v Speaker 1>He does, indeed, But yeah, you go to gianbomb dot
<v Speaker 1>com slash join and become a premium member and yeah
<v Speaker 1>you get all that good stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Please and thank you.
<v Speaker 1>As far as this show goes most weekdays, I Jeff
<v Speaker 1>Grub will help pace your gaming life back together. That
<v Speaker 1>includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own
<v Speaker 1>original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input
<v Speaker 1>of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.
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<v Speaker 3>Hello YouTube.
<v Speaker 1>All right, we have a lot to get into, so
<v Speaker 1>let's start the morning mess with that story.
<v Speaker 2>It was a slow news. It was a slow news weekend, right, nothing, nothing.
<v Speaker 3>Happened since that last game mess Mornings.
<v Speaker 2>It's I actually did mean to bring this up. It's
<v Speaker 2>kind of fucked up that you keep on getting me
<v Speaker 2>on for dragstays like this, like yes, right, yeah, it's
<v Speaker 2>an hour of my time, and then there's nothing to
<v Speaker 2>talk about.
<v Speaker 1>I need someone to come out there and dance for
<v Speaker 1>these people and entertain them, do something because we have
<v Speaker 1>nothing else going on, for example, nothing like Phil Spencer
<v Speaker 1>leaves Xbox new Microsoft Gaming CEO steps in.
<v Speaker 3>Let's kind of cover the basics here.
<v Speaker 1>Phil Spencer retiring after thirty eight years at Microsoft. He
<v Speaker 1>stated he had been planning to step down since fall
<v Speaker 1>of twenty twenty five, and will remain as special advisor
<v Speaker 1>through summer twenty twenty six to a with the transition.
<v Speaker 1>Sarah Bond, who was publicly considered his air apparent, she
<v Speaker 1>is also resigning. That is more unexpected, as many viewed
<v Speaker 1>her as Spencer's air apparent. Bond noted it was the
<v Speaker 1>quote right time to take her professional step, her next
<v Speaker 1>professional step, excuse me, and will also serve as a
<v Speaker 1>temporary advisor to Sharma who is Asha Sharma. Formerly the
<v Speaker 1>president of Microsoft's Core AI product division, Sharma has been
<v Speaker 1>named the new executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
<v Speaker 1>She has a background in scaling platforms at Meta and
<v Speaker 1>Instacart rather than traditional game development. That will become a
<v Speaker 1>point of contention. We'll talk about that, as I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>we talk about.
<v Speaker 3>All sides of this. Meanwhile, Matt Booty continues to go up.
<v Speaker 1>Matt Booty, previously the head of Xbox Game Studio, Booty
<v Speaker 1>has been promoted.
<v Speaker 3>To Can't Stop the.
<v Speaker 1>Booty Executive vice President and Chief Content Officer. He will
<v Speaker 1>report directly to Sharma and oversee all internal development teams
<v Speaker 1>across Xbox. But that's THEA and Activision Blizzard. So look,
<v Speaker 1>there's a lot more to get into. Tom Warren had
<v Speaker 1>a report this morning. We'll get into that.
<v Speaker 3>I kind of have. I tried to grab it real quick.
<v Speaker 3>It was behind a pay well.
<v Speaker 1>I paid it, so I have the story here, But
<v Speaker 1>I think I might just hit the highlights regardless before
<v Speaker 1>we do that, though, Hey, what the hell?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, the five PM on Friday. Five PM on a Friday,
<v Speaker 2>when all good news stories get released.
<v Speaker 3>At the Golden hours. They call it yeah, absolutely, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>This it comes up in Tom Walland's reporting, But the
<v Speaker 2>scale and magnitude of how unorganized this is is maybe
<v Speaker 2>one of the more notable things about ish Well.
<v Speaker 1>It just looks that way because the agentic AI is
<v Speaker 1>handling most of it and it's very organized.
<v Speaker 2>I'm not sure if if you saw my Blue Sky
<v Speaker 2>post about it, but did you read Syonadella's statement?
<v Speaker 3>No, I don't think. I don't know. If I did,
<v Speaker 3>I might have seen it.
<v Speaker 2>Let me pull up the first line of it, because
<v Speaker 2>it is maybe the most obviously I didn't like this
<v Speaker 2>thing imaginable. This is the opening sentence Asaki and Nodella's
<v Speaker 2>statement that went up alongside this.
<v Speaker 3>Games have changed a lot since pac Man. Alright, sorry,
<v Speaker 3>go ahead, don't tell me, all right, read it? Really,
<v Speaker 3>I gotta hear it.
<v Speaker 2>Gaming has been a part of Microsoft from the start
<v Speaker 2>flight simulator shipped before Windows, and you can practically retrace
<v Speaker 2>the line from direct dex in the nineties to the
<v Speaker 2>accelerated computer era we're in today. The most notable thing
<v Speaker 2>about this is that nineties is done Parma ninety Parma
<v Speaker 2>s like a totally human person would write fash.
<v Speaker 1>M, yeah boy, hey, that's that's some great work there,
<v Speaker 1>co pilot. Very that's very meaningful to me what you wrote.
<v Speaker 1>Uh okay, I mean that's the that's the under that's
<v Speaker 1>the subtext to this entire story, right, is that it
<v Speaker 1>seems like Microsoft, the AI company, is.
<v Speaker 3>Saying we need even more AI.
<v Speaker 1>In our games, to the point where that's you know,
<v Speaker 1>we need someone who is all in and gung ho
<v Speaker 1>and basically operates her entire life on that. We need
<v Speaker 1>her in charge. Let's let's hit some of this Tom
<v Speaker 1>Warre and stuff just so we can like get because
<v Speaker 1>I think he did a good job of getting some
<v Speaker 1>of the answers we've been looking for here. So let
<v Speaker 1>me just hit this on Phil Spencer, longtime head of Xbox. Internally,
<v Speaker 1>employees say Bond's departure had felt increasingly likely in recent months.
<v Speaker 1>They also said that Asha Sharma's ascendency seemed inevitable. The
<v Speaker 1>Activision Blizzard acquisition dragged on far longer than expected, which
<v Speaker 1>strained leadership. Basically, you know, it put Microsoft in the
<v Speaker 1>crosshairs of the government of governments around the world for
<v Speaker 1>a very long time, and I bet that was pretty frustrating.
<v Speaker 3>This is you know what let's go back to that
<v Speaker 3>real quick.
<v Speaker 1>A lot at the time, Like I think I said
<v Speaker 1>this on a lot of Game mess mornings and whatever
<v Speaker 1>wherever else I might have been talking about this, it
<v Speaker 1>never seemed like it was Lisa Khan. It's Lisa Khan, right, Lisa.
<v Speaker 1>It never seemed like Lisa kan stood a strong chance
<v Speaker 1>of winning that case. But I was always like, it's
<v Speaker 1>still worth it for her to air it out, because
<v Speaker 1>any sort of friction, any sort of frustration she puts
<v Speaker 1>in front of these companies will be something that they
<v Speaker 1>remember and factor into their costs going forward. And this
<v Speaker 1>feels like in the end, she definitely like hurt this
<v Speaker 1>company much more than they're willing to admit in terms
<v Speaker 1>of like how they felt about that whole thing. And
<v Speaker 1>so like Lena Khan, sorry, Linik, thank you Linik. I
<v Speaker 1>knew it just didn't sound right. Thank you, Lena Kon
<v Speaker 1>And just so like the fact that she kind of
<v Speaker 1>was willing to go in there and throw herself in
<v Speaker 1>their head first into fighting that without a strong case
<v Speaker 1>of or hoping to win under the way the rules
<v Speaker 1>currently operate, I think it was still shows that she's
<v Speaker 1>right that politically, you should be doing anything you can
<v Speaker 1>to stand in the way to force these companies to
<v Speaker 1>really consider every choice that they're making.
<v Speaker 3>But that's that's an aside.
<v Speaker 1>Microsoft shift away from Xbox exclusives towards a multi platform
<v Speaker 1>strategy can created internal tension. I think this is something
<v Speaker 1>that's like a public secret, right we've known this that
<v Speaker 1>there was constantly conversations back and forth with the like
<v Speaker 1>who fell on what side was maybe a little unclear,
<v Speaker 1>but it certainly seemed.
<v Speaker 2>Like the off like Bethesda were like, yeah, actually not
<v Speaker 2>us though, you know, for a while there, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>they were like even you know, as companies were being acquired,
<v Speaker 2>some of them were staying multiplatform and some of them weren't.
<v Speaker 2>And then that quickly shifted to now everything's multiplatform, and.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, yeah, it's you know, I bet that was another thing,
<v Speaker 1>like you pile that on top of what was happening
<v Speaker 1>happening with Activision, those conversations probably got pretty heated. Efforts
<v Speaker 1>to redefine Xbox beyond the console produced mixed results, like
<v Speaker 1>they were, you know, everything is an Xbox these you
<v Speaker 1>sort of say that, And I think the biggest you know,
<v Speaker 1>sort of thing you can point to from that campaign
<v Speaker 1>is the meme.
<v Speaker 3>It kind of became a meme. This isn't everything as an.
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Uh, you know that that's Hey, look, it's hard
<v Speaker 1>to like for a corporation to manufacture even a meme. Uh,
<v Speaker 1>but I bet they were looking for more of a
<v Speaker 1>return on investment than that. Spencer's resignation triggered months of
<v Speaker 1>succession planning. They also Tom Warren reports it sounds like
<v Speaker 1>this was a mess. The leadership change was supposed to
<v Speaker 1>be announced later, but leaks forced Microsoft to reveal it early.
<v Speaker 1>Some Xbox teams learned the news from reports and news
<v Speaker 1>outlets before receiving internal communication.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>The article is part of like they basically, he's been
<v Speaker 1>covering this for a while.
<v Speaker 2>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>And I kind of wrote down here that Bond had
<v Speaker 1>an internal memo about leaving and this does not signify layoffs,
<v Speaker 1>is the last thing I wrote down here. Okay, let's
<v Speaker 1>kind of reassess now that we got a little bit
<v Speaker 1>of that out of the way, how do you view
<v Speaker 1>what is happening here.
<v Speaker 2>I think the Phil Spencer's stuff has kind of been
<v Speaker 2>expected for a while, and I think that you know,
<v Speaker 2>it's become pretty clear that he's like, well a lot
<v Speaker 2>of people blame me for a lot of stuff, And
<v Speaker 2>you know, the more I keep doing this, the more
<v Speaker 2>I'm just ahead of the kind of final years of
<v Speaker 2>this thing, and people don't associate me with any of
<v Speaker 2>the successes that I had anymore. And so I can
<v Speaker 2>totally see him wanting to step away. And as for
<v Speaker 2>the Sarah Bond stuff, like she was his pick as
<v Speaker 2>far as I know, she was the person that like
<v Speaker 2>he wanted to replace her. I think that something that
<v Speaker 2>comes up in here is, you know, even her team's
<v Speaker 2>not being aware that this was happening that day and
<v Speaker 2>putting up that LinkedIn post asking for like feedback on
<v Speaker 2>player accessibility and stuff kind of punts to how out
<v Speaker 2>of the loop she was kept on this towards the end.
<v Speaker 2>And I think there's a lot more layers to it
<v Speaker 2>than simply she's spear hair headed one failed initiative. Yeah,
<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of executives that spearhead a lot of
<v Speaker 2>fucking dumb shit and keep their jobs. And this is
<v Speaker 2>probably an accumulation of stuff. And you know, there's everything
<v Speaker 2>that you could take into account from, Like there's stuff
<v Speaker 2>that we don't know about to you know, maybe Xbox
<v Speaker 2>or Microsoft being like, do we want a black woman
<v Speaker 2>running one of our divisions? All of these different like
<v Speaker 2>sociopolitical things and just like basic things add up to
<v Speaker 2>how Sahia makes this call. I also think it's pretty
<v Speaker 2>believable that Sahia probably asked cole Pilot at one point
<v Speaker 2>who he should replace it with. That's your speculation.
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I g's a safe assumption at this point
<v Speaker 1>he talks about how he uses that stuff. But you're right,
<v Speaker 1>we're just speculating on that.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Look, I think there's a lot of the argument among
<v Speaker 1>the fanboy sort of atmosphere out there is, hey, wouldn't
<v Speaker 1>Sarah Bond have been better? Didn't we want Sarah Bond?
<v Speaker 1>And it's like, no, I don't really think she makes
<v Speaker 1>much of a difference in the future of Xbox versus this.
<v Speaker 1>This a new person.
<v Speaker 2>I think she was maybe more up to speed, you.
<v Speaker 1>Know, yeah, maybe probably right, But like you know, the
<v Speaker 1>conversation around the idea that's as Sharma Asha Sharma does
<v Speaker 1>not play video games.
<v Speaker 3>I don't think Sarah Bond played video games all that much.
<v Speaker 1>Like like that, if that's the concern, you're not getting
<v Speaker 1>that much of a different person.
<v Speaker 3>But I think you're right. Sarah Bond up.
<v Speaker 1>To speed, and she at least was in the spirit
<v Speaker 1>of For all of Xbox's failings, even under and especially
<v Speaker 1>under Phil Spencer.
<v Speaker 3>He at least made it feel like they were.
<v Speaker 1>In the game by paying attention, being engaged and sort
<v Speaker 1>of talking to the audience. And so it made it
<v Speaker 1>worthwhile to sort of pay attention to this company because
<v Speaker 1>it felt like there was someone that was listening. So
<v Speaker 1>if we had these conversations, they would get back to
<v Speaker 1>him and he would maybe act on him, maybe not,
<v Speaker 1>and maybe make the right decision, probably.
<v Speaker 3>Not whatever, but it just felt like, Okay, he.
<v Speaker 1>Was engaged, and that's something Sarah Bond was trained under
<v Speaker 1>that and likely would have been aware of that. I
<v Speaker 1>think Microsoft was mostly done doing that in a very
<v Speaker 1>open and bold way because it's burned them so many
<v Speaker 1>times now. But the very least she would have known
<v Speaker 1>how to do that, I don't think, you know, based
<v Speaker 1>on Asha Sharma's weekend where she is clearly having Ai
<v Speaker 1>respond to these people about their their concerns about the Xbox.
<v Speaker 2>She's definitely writing all of those responses herself on Twitter.
<v Speaker 2>You know, take off the landing, she says to Microsoft
<v Speaker 2>Flight simulative people or whatever, and like, let's it go,
<v Speaker 2>she says to Nintendo, fucking yeah.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's yeah right. So so that's what she's been
<v Speaker 1>doing this weekend. I don't think, uh that Sarah Bund
<v Speaker 1>would have been like that necessarily, but I don't think
<v Speaker 1>things were going to be looking much more brighter under
<v Speaker 1>any sort of leader after Phil. So okay, so Asha
<v Speaker 1>Sharma is on Twitter and she's responding to people with
<v Speaker 1>hear you when they ask questions like hey, we want
<v Speaker 1>exclusives to come back to the Xbox platform.
<v Speaker 2>She has stopped now since she was called out on this.
<v Speaker 2>By the way, there was a very clear cut off
<v Speaker 2>of hey, she stopped the plying.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I bet she has like what what does hear
<v Speaker 1>you mean when it comes to exclusives on the Xbox
<v Speaker 1>coming back?
<v Speaker 3>No, they're not.
<v Speaker 1>We know they're not coming back. That's that's not even
<v Speaker 1>on the table. Why would she say that?
<v Speaker 2>Because she didn't say that, he's probably the answer because
<v Speaker 2>you know, ais are trained to yes and and here
<v Speaker 2>you is a very like customer support response.
<v Speaker 1>Uh okay, let's just ask that question then. So how
<v Speaker 1>important is it for someone in her position to actually
<v Speaker 1>to actually play games. This has become one of the
<v Speaker 1>debates that's happened in the wake of this.
<v Speaker 2>So like Reggie feesa Ma famously worked for Guinness, and
<v Speaker 2>he worked for Rebach, I think for Nintendo, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>he was a character. He was a charismatic guy, and
<v Speaker 2>he kind of got over the hump of clearly not
<v Speaker 2>being a gamer by being very charismatic. And I think
<v Speaker 2>that you could see that he at least really put
<v Speaker 2>his whole self into what he was selling. It's also
<v Speaker 2>worth noting that, you know, he was the head of
<v Speaker 2>Nintendo of America. He wasn't the head of Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>But this is twenty five years ago as well, right,
<v Speaker 1>So yeah, he comes to a different generation where it
<v Speaker 1>was very easy to grow up not playing games, especially
<v Speaker 1>for someone trying to be a black man in America
<v Speaker 1>trying to make his way in business.
<v Speaker 3>Right, he was probably had probably had different priorities.
<v Speaker 2>And I think that in this case, you look at
<v Speaker 2>it and you go more when you're talking about the
<v Speaker 2>head of a massive division, you usually want someone who
<v Speaker 2>understands the division and didn't start their Xbox account a
<v Speaker 2>month ago and is clearly having someone else un lock
<v Speaker 2>random achievements to make it look like they played. I
<v Speaker 2>think that that like if they're if they're aware enough
<v Speaker 2>that it looks bad that she's not a gamer. That
<v Speaker 2>kind of tells you how much of not a gamer
<v Speaker 2>she is. Of them being like, oh, we have to
<v Speaker 2>un lock some Minecraft trophies or achievements, I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>oh boy. But you know, I think that it is
<v Speaker 2>really important for the people in charge of these decisions
<v Speaker 2>to understand how these games actually get made, because especially
<v Speaker 2>when you put it in the perspective of you have
<v Speaker 2>the person in charge of core AI coming in who
<v Speaker 2>maybe understands a negative amount of how these get like
<v Speaker 2>inverse understanding two other people, which is like, well, I
<v Speaker 2>just be told I can do right, Yeah, h I
<v Speaker 2>just plus the bottom and the thing is in front
<v Speaker 2>of me, right Like I think, yeah, I saw that
<v Speaker 2>Gemini stuff. Why aren't we just doing that? And so,
<v Speaker 2>you know, I don't think that this is a great
<v Speaker 2>setup for good beginnings. And you know, we might eat
<v Speaker 2>cro here, we might totally eat cro I don't think
<v Speaker 2>we will. I would at most of my life savings
<v Speaker 2>that we wouldn't.
<v Speaker 3>Well get on the poly market. Make it happen.
<v Speaker 1>Then LEXI put your money on. Look, you're right. I
<v Speaker 1>think it's weird because in any other medium, I think
<v Speaker 1>we would not be having this conversation. It would be
<v Speaker 1>unacceptable for a book publisher cd CEO to say I
<v Speaker 1>don't read books. It would be unacceptable for a film company,
<v Speaker 1>while we know it actually might be true in the
<v Speaker 1>case of like a Zaslov, right, for a Zaslov to
<v Speaker 1>come out and say I don't watch movies, or for
<v Speaker 1>him to clearly have not ever watched a movie and
<v Speaker 1>then being that that role, it would just be impossible.
<v Speaker 3>We're not there yet with gaming.
<v Speaker 1>And I think you can point to successful people in
<v Speaker 1>the space who like outright shout they don't play games.
<v Speaker 1>Strausseelnik at least has made a lot of money, and
<v Speaker 1>so like they'd be like, okay, he's runn out of
<v Speaker 1>the company. He says, I don't play games. I'm not
<v Speaker 1>the consumer in chief, is his line whenever.
<v Speaker 2>He's they've never lost money on AI.
<v Speaker 3>Light right, exactly right.
<v Speaker 1>And it's like you're coming from this space that is
<v Speaker 1>of questionable providence and success, and that is your sort
<v Speaker 1>of business card that you're dropping, and you don't have
<v Speaker 1>the bone of fides from the space that you're going into.
<v Speaker 1>It's in twenty years, this will not be acceptable, Like,
<v Speaker 1>this will clearly not be acceptable. I think you're right,
<v Speaker 1>she could still find success and we could be eating crow.
<v Speaker 1>But why at this point for a business that includes
<v Speaker 1>you know, yeah, you're trying to shift its business model
<v Speaker 1>away from the console, but it's clearly still a gaming
<v Speaker 1>business and you're going to be making Minecraft and Call
<v Speaker 1>of Duty and all this other stuff into the future.
<v Speaker 2>I do.
<v Speaker 1>There's two sides of it, Like there is the Boeing thing.
<v Speaker 1>Boeing is the example that involves people's lives, so I'm
<v Speaker 1>not going to take it easy, like take it lightly
<v Speaker 1>or whatever. But there is this concept where Boeing had
<v Speaker 1>an engineer and charged them for a very long time,
<v Speaker 1>and they became this very successful company, and then it
<v Speaker 1>sort of reached its plateau, and then they put a
<v Speaker 1>money person in charge, and that money person did find
<v Speaker 1>a way to preached the value of everything, and then
<v Speaker 1>the planes weren't very good anymore. And it's like, I think,
<v Speaker 1>right now, Microsoft's planes aren't very good, So what kind of.
<v Speaker 3>Person are you put in charge? Again?
<v Speaker 1>And this does not match up with the need of
<v Speaker 1>this company from my point of view.
<v Speaker 2>And you know, I think something that came up a
<v Speaker 2>lot on social media is like, well, let's give them
<v Speaker 2>a fair shake. You know, they haven't done anything yet.
<v Speaker 2>They've they've made one public statement and you know, they
<v Speaker 2>haven't made any decisions. We don't know the direction. Like,
<v Speaker 2>and my question for those people is like, what case
<v Speaker 2>has giving the benefit of the doubt to a CEO
<v Speaker 2>wound up being positive? Like at what time? How many
<v Speaker 2>times have we been like, well, they really proved us wrong.
<v Speaker 2>They really were men of the people, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>they they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and they
<v Speaker 2>were right. And so it's really and like people being
<v Speaker 2>out there being like she's saying the right things and
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, yeah, they all do.
<v Speaker 3>They are changed, not even table stakes, yep.
<v Speaker 2>Like if they weren't saying the right things, they wouldn't
<v Speaker 2>have the job, they wouldn't be in the place where
<v Speaker 2>they are now. So yeah, I don't know this whole thing.
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't feel good, does it. None of it feels good.
<v Speaker 1>And I think you know, for all the conversation about
<v Speaker 1>whether or not she's played games, I think you know
<v Speaker 1>they are screaming at us, what is really happening here?
<v Speaker 1>She is Satia Nadella, yes man coming from AI, and
<v Speaker 1>that like that is you know, they don't have to
<v Speaker 1>dangle the keys in front of us of her not
<v Speaker 1>being a gamer or whatever, like we know what's really
<v Speaker 1>happening here. Like I said from the beginning, the subtext
<v Speaker 1>of every single part of the story is Microsoft the
<v Speaker 1>AI companies putting someone from AI in charge of Xbox,
<v Speaker 1>something that like they gestured at under Phil in a
<v Speaker 1>strong way they gestured toward AI. But now it's like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>the gloves will come off on this, and they think
<v Speaker 1>that is the future and will they be transforming everything
<v Speaker 1>in the shape of that. What does that look like?
<v Speaker 1>Itably looks like dog shit? And now we got to
<v Speaker 1>see here and watch it happen in slow motion or
<v Speaker 1>I guess slightly faster motion than it was already happening,
<v Speaker 1>all right, And then I guess the last thing here
<v Speaker 1>is if you're someone at Xbox right now, my understanding
<v Speaker 1>is there's a lot of people looking around at each
<v Speaker 1>other being like, let's just go for broke, like let's
<v Speaker 1>see what we can get away with under this new leadership,
<v Speaker 1>sort of ask for forgiveness instead of permission. And I
<v Speaker 1>think that's like, that's your best hope for maybe getting
<v Speaker 1>a few more good games out of this company before
<v Speaker 1>it is fine like cook to the point that Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>abandons it.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean your options realistically are ask for forgiveness
<v Speaker 2>rather than permission or ask for independence, similarly to Toys
<v Speaker 2>for Bob. Yeah, and that's kind of your two routes,
<v Speaker 2>cause either which way, you're probably not going to exist
<v Speaker 2>underneath the Microsoft umbrella within five or ten years, genuously
<v Speaker 2>because they don't want developed They don't want a lot
<v Speaker 2>of employees. They Microsoft like is very blatantly out there
<v Speaker 2>saying like, we want less employees, We want all of
<v Speaker 2>this stuff being done by like a gentiic fucking assistance
<v Speaker 2>and whatever. We can also are homage, so clearly they like, yes,
<v Speaker 2>they don't want you there, So get away with what
<v Speaker 2>you can get away with while you can, or get
<v Speaker 2>the fuck out while the getting's good, and you know,
<v Speaker 2>build something healthier and more sustainable outside of that ecosystem.
<v Speaker 3>Yep. I yeah, I don't you know.
<v Speaker 1>I feel bad for anyone who's stuck in this and
<v Speaker 1>hopefully you can navigate it, especially can and find a
<v Speaker 1>soft exit if that's what you need to do. All right,
<v Speaker 1>So we covered most of the aspects of this. Let's
<v Speaker 1>take a break. We'll come back and start talking about
<v Speaker 1>Blue Point because there's a little bit more from there.
<v Speaker 1>Maybe some reporting people got talked to. We'll see what
<v Speaker 1>we have to say about then. After these messages, if
<v Speaker 1>you want to skip out on these ads, you go
<v Speaker 1>to GiantBomb dot com slash join become a premium member.
<v Speaker 1>Once you do that on the website you can find
<v Speaker 1>the ad free versions of the video and audio show.
<v Speaker 3>Grab those.
<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, we will be right back. All right,
<v Speaker 1>it's Game mess Mornings. Jeff Grubb, lex Luddy LEXI, let's
<v Speaker 1>get back into it. Before closing, Blue Point Games pitched
<v Speaker 1>two remakes to Sony. I think you can figure out
<v Speaker 1>what happened with that. From Instant Gaming News, one of
<v Speaker 1>the biggest news stories of the week was undoubtedly the
<v Speaker 1>closure of Blue Point Games. The studio behind the remix
<v Speaker 1>of Demon Souls and Shadow of the Colossus, will close
<v Speaker 1>its doors in March. On Twitter, insider Detective Seeds said
<v Speaker 1>he managed to contact two former employees of the company
<v Speaker 1>to understand what happened. So here look, we're taking on
<v Speaker 1>his word that he actually talked to real people and
<v Speaker 1>those employees knew what they were talking about. But this
<v Speaker 1>is out there and Jason Schreyers deepunked some stuff.
<v Speaker 3>Not this.
<v Speaker 1>This doesn't fly in the face of anything I've heard.
<v Speaker 1>But let's just kind of put that little salt to
<v Speaker 1>a grain of salt. On top of all this, the.
<v Speaker 3>Two developers worked in two separate divisions.
<v Speaker 1>They obviously wish to remain anonymous, which they did in
<v Speaker 1>the story. First, the subject of the God of War
<v Speaker 1>live service game was raised. The project began during the
<v Speaker 1>production of Ragnarok, in which Bluepoint participated. Sony quickly approved
<v Speaker 1>this connected title proposed by the studio, but it missed
<v Speaker 1>several deadlines. Bluepoint realized that the game was far too
<v Speaker 1>ambitious for a team of seventy or so people. Ultimately,
<v Speaker 1>the Japanese manufacturer canceled the game in early twenty twenty five.
<v Speaker 1>You know, I think we can probably suss out the
<v Speaker 1>suggestion here, being that Bluepoint Games wanted to work on this.
<v Speaker 1>It sounds like the kind of thing where it's like
<v Speaker 1>they liked working in the God of War space and
<v Speaker 1>the live service stuff was what they were able.
<v Speaker 3>To do or I guess this is my reading on
<v Speaker 3>the situation.
<v Speaker 1>The live service stuff provided them the framework to get
<v Speaker 1>the approval for a massive budget to make this game.
<v Speaker 3>Does that sound right to you? Yeah?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, you know, like even when you say this is
<v Speaker 2>the game we want to make, you have to remember
<v Speaker 2>that this is the game we think will be allowed
<v Speaker 2>to make, and this is a game that we think
<v Speaker 2>will get approved by the people with perse strings. So yeah,
<v Speaker 2>that totally makes sense to me.
<v Speaker 1>After that, blueboyt Games did not work on any approved
<v Speaker 1>projects until it closed. The company proposed four game ideas,
<v Speaker 1>but all were rejected by PlayStation. Among these titles were
<v Speaker 1>two remakes of single player games, one of which is
<v Speaker 1>currently in development at a different studio. Maybe we can
<v Speaker 1>assume that was the God of War one, two, and
<v Speaker 1>three remake. I mean, they obviously they know God of War.
<v Speaker 1>I bet they might have suggested that would have been
<v Speaker 1>good for them. In any case, the atmosphere has deteriorated
<v Speaker 1>significantly after the cancelation of the God of War Live
<v Speaker 1>service game, and employees had already decided to leave. As
<v Speaker 1>a result, only about fifty to sixty people remain when
<v Speaker 1>the closure was announced since no projects had been approved
<v Speaker 1>by PlayStation, the studio's demise was expected by a large
<v Speaker 1>part of the team, which is definitely what I heard
<v Speaker 1>that it wasn't surprising, even if it was very infuriating.
<v Speaker 1>The writing was on the wall. The writing was really
<v Speaker 1>stupid on the wall. Okay, so just a little bit more.
<v Speaker 1>There kind of lines up with a lot of stuff
<v Speaker 1>I think we could have pieced together in terms of
<v Speaker 1>they were pitching stuff. They were probably pitching remix, Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>they were, at least according to this reporting this story.
<v Speaker 1>After having some time to digest it, how are you
<v Speaker 1>feeling about Sony and Bluepoint and all of this?
<v Speaker 2>Infuriative was the right word? Like everything about this seems
<v Speaker 2>like you really couldn't figure out something to do with
<v Speaker 2>one of the most like technically talented and like the
<v Speaker 2>most institutional knowledge of any of the studios that you have.
<v Speaker 2>You can find anything for them to do on any
<v Speaker 2>other projects that you're working on, And your only solution
<v Speaker 2>was to get them entirely off your books was to
<v Speaker 2>basically be like, no, you actually can't make any of
<v Speaker 2>these projects, Like we are so adverse to risk that
<v Speaker 2>we're not even going to let you work on a
<v Speaker 2>new ip that could hit or we're not gonna let
<v Speaker 2>you work on a remaker something that will probably make
<v Speaker 2>a relatively fair amount of money, or like it, especially
<v Speaker 2>if one of those remakes was Got a War. If
<v Speaker 2>that God of War actual remake is now being handled
<v Speaker 2>internally by Sony Santa Monica, that's a massive project. That's
<v Speaker 2>not a small project. That is three games, and it
<v Speaker 2>is going to require one a lot of outsourcing and
<v Speaker 2>two a lot of like Sony Santa Monica's time and attention.
<v Speaker 2>And you already have a situation where things like the
<v Speaker 2>Heretic Profit and Corey Barlag's new game are taking like
<v Speaker 2>five eight years to make, and you're putting more strain
<v Speaker 2>on those handful of studios that get blank checks. You know,
<v Speaker 2>like these things don't operate at scale. We see that
<v Speaker 2>with Ubisoft. You can't just throw more employees at one
<v Speaker 2>studio or one company and make it so that they
<v Speaker 2>can make the exact same equivalent amount of more products,
<v Speaker 2>because these people have to work as a team, they
<v Speaker 2>have to integrate, they have to find workflows, they have
<v Speaker 2>to do this and that, and you want separate distinct
<v Speaker 2>teams with separate distinct voices working on separate distinct projects
<v Speaker 2>because if one of them goes wrong, it doesn't affect
<v Speaker 2>the other. And the idea of like, actually, let's take
<v Speaker 2>some of these eggs out of this baskish and because
<v Speaker 2>you're so hoping that the one egg that you have
<v Speaker 2>in the basket is gonna wind up being like a
<v Speaker 2>golden goose is like insane. It's insane to me, Like,
<v Speaker 2>I understand why it happens, but it's fucking stupid.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's it's This is one of the like of
<v Speaker 1>all these negative this parade of negative stories we've had
<v Speaker 1>for the last couple of years, but especially in the
<v Speaker 1>last few months and maybe even so especially in.
<v Speaker 3>The last couple of weeks.
<v Speaker 1>Uh, this is the one that's like, oh, it really
<v Speaker 1>does feel fully cooked, because what this story says up
<v Speaker 1>to us at this point is these traditional places where
<v Speaker 1>it's not just like ah man, gaming is like only
<v Speaker 1>a certain kind of game can be made in the
<v Speaker 1>United States, Like a place like Austin, Texas is one
<v Speaker 1>of the bedrocks of where video games were like turned
<v Speaker 1>into a full fledged medium, and they can't make games
<v Speaker 1>there anymore, not in any like not unless you are
<v Speaker 1>id and I mean we'll see, like, how does Microsoft
<v Speaker 1>feel about ID after you know, it seems like Doom
<v Speaker 1>didn't quite live up to expectations. We'll see it's it's
<v Speaker 1>very frustrated, like to know that, like it felt like okay,
<v Speaker 1>but Bluepoint is carved out a niche like it can
<v Speaker 1>work right, and it's like, no, we've built up an
<v Speaker 1>infrastrut around the world.
<v Speaker 2>Turn on investment on that niche isn't as big as
<v Speaker 2>a potential return on investment on something that is less
<v Speaker 2>likely to hish.
<v Speaker 1>And you know what like happens here is the people
<v Speaker 1>who were at Blue Point, many of them could leave
<v Speaker 1>start their own like outsourcing project studio, and Sony immediately
<v Speaker 1>immediately hires them back to help with that God of
<v Speaker 1>War remake, but at a fraction of the cost of
<v Speaker 1>what they would have had to pay them if they
<v Speaker 1>were employed there. This is I think, you know what
<v Speaker 1>we can like unions would not probably not have saved
<v Speaker 1>these people, but an industry wide union certainly would have
<v Speaker 1>helped somewhat.
<v Speaker 3>We have a lot of studio specific unions.
<v Speaker 1>I think what when people were calling for unions in
<v Speaker 1>this industry a long time ago, what we meant was
<v Speaker 1>an industry wide union, similar to how it operates in Hollywood.
<v Speaker 1>That's what these people really need. And short of that,
<v Speaker 1>this stuff is not just going to keep happening. It's
<v Speaker 1>going to be the default for this industry. And here
<v Speaker 1>we are again, Uh, how we feeling about Sony overall?
<v Speaker 1>Like it like they have defaulted into this space where
<v Speaker 1>they are the place that's where people are gonna play
<v Speaker 1>GTA six.
<v Speaker 3>So it's like it sort of has.
<v Speaker 1>This bubble of vulnerability around it right now where it's
<v Speaker 1>like any sort of bad feelings don't matter until GTA
<v Speaker 1>six happens, and then that's going to kind of take
<v Speaker 1>off like its own rocket. But Sony doesn't need to
<v Speaker 1>operate that way the right They don't need to like
<v Speaker 1>run their business in a way where it's like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>we don't have to make the right decision or we
<v Speaker 1>don't have to invest in our future because we have
<v Speaker 1>this big, uh, sort of the elephant in the room
<v Speaker 1>happening here later this year.
<v Speaker 3>How are you feeling about Sony overall?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, Like, I'm not a CEO pretty evidently, but in
<v Speaker 2>a lot of ways it doesn't I've never been able
<v Speaker 2>to figure out the mentality of like let's just hitch
<v Speaker 2>your wagon to another company being successful, Like if they
<v Speaker 2>do Grayish, then we'll do better than them somehow at
<v Speaker 2>some point. And when they do put things in such
<v Speaker 2>hyper competitive and like when they view the world in
<v Speaker 2>such a hyper competitive way, the fact that they are
<v Speaker 2>relying on another company's product to be their boon for
<v Speaker 2>this year, to be their real like big seller and
<v Speaker 2>the thing that makes them a lot of money that
<v Speaker 2>doesn't seem healthy and that doesn't seem like a thing
<v Speaker 2>that they should be relying on. And yeah, like I
<v Speaker 2>don't know that. Say, the play was good, and then
<v Speaker 2>everything since then, I've been like, man, this doesn't feel
<v Speaker 2>good either. Why is it that every time I interact
<v Speaker 2>with this hobby's I will come away thinking this doesn't
<v Speaker 2>feel good? Oh no, yep.
<v Speaker 1>People are at other Sony studios are kind of waiting
<v Speaker 1>for the other shoe to drop. But that's just people
<v Speaker 1>being like seeing this and being like, Okay, if we
<v Speaker 1>have not gotten like over like three of our last
<v Speaker 1>pitches confirmed, are we next?
<v Speaker 3>Or something like that?
<v Speaker 1>You got to imagine like Ben's studios looking around if
<v Speaker 1>they're not working on something like are we next?
<v Speaker 3>And I bet they're not the only studio feeling that way.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I've these big corporations that have made their business
<v Speaker 1>consoles for a very long time. It feels like they
<v Speaker 1>are at some sort of natural end and they are
<v Speaker 1>flailing around in a way that is hurting everybody else.
<v Speaker 3>Kind they could just figure.
<v Speaker 1>It out and we can get back to some sort
<v Speaker 1>of stable status quo, even if it's worse now, because
<v Speaker 1>I think we've accepted that gaming is in a weird
<v Speaker 1>lule right now, so maybe it's just going to be worse,
<v Speaker 1>But just you don't have to like add on top
<v Speaker 1>of that with your flailing at these companies. All right,
<v Speaker 1>let's continue on. Nintendo Treehouse returns this week with a
<v Speaker 1>pair of gameplay showcases. This is from Jim Norman and
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Life. Another week, another Nintendo surprise. Perhaps this one
<v Speaker 1>isn't quite as big as those in recent memory, but
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo has announced that it's bringing back its Treehouse showcase
<v Speaker 1>this week with gameplay presentations for the catcherly titled Super
<v Speaker 1>Mario Brothers Wonder, Nintendo Switch To Edition plus Meet Up
<v Speaker 1>in Bella Bell Park, which is cool, and Pokemon pokag.
<v Speaker 2>Right, Yeah, I think you mean Malo the Super Mario
<v Speaker 2>Wonder Nintendo Switch to Edition plus meet up in Bella
<v Speaker 2>Bell Park game.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, exactly, tam and rights reserved. Yeah, this is happening.
<v Speaker 1>Is it tomorrow?
<v Speaker 3>Yes?
<v Speaker 1>I think it's tomorrow at two pm Pacific time, five
<v Speaker 1>pm Eastern. Okay, yeah, I think this is not the
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo direct that people were hoping for.
<v Speaker 3>But Nintendo.
<v Speaker 1>What people keep saying Nintendo needs to start talking about
<v Speaker 1>some of the other games they have this is they're
<v Speaker 1>still focused on reminding people Pacopias coming, and they have
<v Speaker 1>a lot more Nintendo Switch two editions. I think people
<v Speaker 1>are running out of patients with the Nintendo Switch two
<v Speaker 1>Edition stuff though, LEXI, what do you think?
<v Speaker 2>Yeah? Did you see any of the stuff around that
<v Speaker 2>Zeno Blade Nintendo Switch two Edition?
<v Speaker 3>Yeah? Did I?
<v Speaker 1>I think I I meant to include it, but I
<v Speaker 1>don't think I actually did.
<v Speaker 3>No.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, I got it's two stories down, Nintendo. Let's just
<v Speaker 1>hit it now. Yeah Nintendo, No, No, it's okay. Nintendo
<v Speaker 1>seemingly offering refunds for poor Zeno Blade Chronicles X Switch
<v Speaker 1>two upgrade. This is for my Nintendo news. Nintendo has
<v Speaker 1>apparently started refunding those who have asked for their money
<v Speaker 1>back for the disappointing Zeno Blake Chronos X Definite Zeno
<v Speaker 1>Blake Chronicles X Definitive Edition Nintendo Switch two upgrade. There
<v Speaker 1>have been humorous videos on the subject on YouTube, with
<v Speaker 1>many reporting the game looks worse than it did without
<v Speaker 1>the upgrade, with poor texture issues and upscaling techniques. It's
<v Speaker 1>not clear who did the upgrade according to this story,
<v Speaker 1>but yeah, people have been like five bucks for this
<v Speaker 1>and this is bad, give me my money back in
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo is starting to do that. Yeah, this is this
<v Speaker 1>is starting to feel like another straw on the camel's
<v Speaker 1>back in regard to how people are feeling about their
<v Speaker 1>Nintendo Switch to if this is happening in you know,
<v Speaker 1>concert with a launch of first party games like that
<v Speaker 1>would feel little bit different because we it feels like
<v Speaker 1>a dearth on that side of things, or we get
<v Speaker 1>maybe the disappointing tennis game to a lot of people,
<v Speaker 1>people are like, hey, why did I spend so much
<v Speaker 1>money on the system.
<v Speaker 2>I'm like, without being mean or weird about it, like
<v Speaker 2>they didn't have to go about upgrading it this way.
<v Speaker 2>They had that cap in the sessions to just raise
<v Speaker 2>the frame rate cap. People did that manually on overclocked
<v Speaker 2>switches yep. And also like an emulator right now for
<v Speaker 2>we you can run that game at four K with
<v Speaker 2>four K assets, like you don't need to upscale those
<v Speaker 2>textures with AI, which is how I'm presuming you get
<v Speaker 2>lower quality texture detail when you're upscaling textures like that,
<v Speaker 2>Like you don't need to. You can just bump up
<v Speaker 2>the internal resolution and it will probably look much more
<v Speaker 2>pleasing to the eye. And I've been thinking about this
<v Speaker 2>a lot. How fucking weird is the mood going to
<v Speaker 2>be at the Game Awards this year?
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it's gonna be. It's gonna I mean it's it's
<v Speaker 1>gonna be weird. It's Summer game Fest. It's actually gonna be.
<v Speaker 1>It could be rancid at Summer game Fest, right well, yeah.
<v Speaker 2>Because also no one will be at some isn't American.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, it's gonna be like it's gonna stink, and then
<v Speaker 1>you know we're gonna carry that energy into the Game Awards. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's gonna feel kind of kind of bad across the board.
<v Speaker 2>I tell you what, though, the pubs that games calm
<v Speaker 2>are gonna be fucking wild.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, maybe maybe I'll try to get out there for
<v Speaker 1>that again this year.
<v Speaker 3>That would be good. Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>I look, Nintendo's in a weird spot with this stuff,
<v Speaker 1>where I think this was, this stuff would be easy
<v Speaker 1>for them to gloss over if they had their three
<v Speaker 1>D Mario game ready to go, if they had Zelda,
<v Speaker 1>if you know, Pokemon Gen ten was a little bit closer.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>But in the meantime, people are looking around and asking themselves,
<v Speaker 1>why why did I spend so much money on this system?
<v Speaker 1>That you know leads into the January twenty twenty six
<v Speaker 1>US Video Game Market Highlights report from Sircana. Matt Piscatel
<v Speaker 1>has shared this on Blue Sky, as he normally does.
<v Speaker 1>He does point out the industry saw an increase of
<v Speaker 1>three percent sort of across the board, and this is
<v Speaker 1>for United stating it saved, We're back, you know, it's
<v Speaker 1>kind of keeping up with inflation a little bit. That
<v Speaker 1>is a three percent increase for video game content as well,
<v Speaker 1>which is like just everything that is a video game
<v Speaker 1>or video game DLC or micro transactions.
<v Speaker 3>Uh.
<v Speaker 1>Video game hardware though, was up sixteen percent, while accessories
<v Speaker 1>were down five percent. And we'll talk about that accessories
<v Speaker 1>spinning to cap this off. So yeah, let's see, the
<v Speaker 1>top selling game was called Duty Black Ops seven still,
<v Speaker 1>which maybe like that game was a disappointment, so maybe
<v Speaker 1>that is like a real bad sign and that's where
<v Speaker 1>we're at, but I don't know.
<v Speaker 3>Again, it's up year over year.
<v Speaker 1>The only new game on the chart was I think
<v Speaker 1>Code Veane two at number eleven, so it's a lot
<v Speaker 1>of games that had already released, and then like the
<v Speaker 1>the switch to and Xbox versions of Final Fantasy seven
<v Speaker 1>remake had that jump from two hundred and twenty five
<v Speaker 1>to number nine on the chart, So it did all right.
<v Speaker 2>To be fair Codeveane two being the only new release
<v Speaker 2>game there. Like we talk a lot about like, hey,
<v Speaker 2>January had some good releases. Ganuary had like Cairn. You
<v Speaker 2>know that's not going to be on the Sarkana reports.
<v Speaker 2>You know that's for you and me. That's not for
<v Speaker 2>people who are buying physical games exactly.
<v Speaker 1>Yes, yeah, and this this does include digital but not
<v Speaker 1>from like smaller publishers like Can Yeah, so that just
<v Speaker 1>would not show up on here no matter what. But
<v Speaker 1>as far as hardware went, a hardware spending increased that
<v Speaker 1>aforementioned sixteen percent compared to a year ago, reaching two
<v Speaker 1>hundred and forty eight million dollars. Switch To spending was
<v Speaker 1>able to offset year on year declines across PlayStation five,
<v Speaker 1>Xbox Series, and Switch. Those were down seventeen percent, twenty
<v Speaker 1>seven percent, and seventy nine percent.
<v Speaker 3>Percent, respectively.
<v Speaker 1>But despite sales falling compared to a year ago, PlayStation
<v Speaker 1>five led the hardware market in both unit and dollar
<v Speaker 1>sales for January. Nintendo switch To ranked second across both measures. Now,
<v Speaker 1>there's a couple things there. I think people are like
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five s thoughts selling the switch to. That's probably
<v Speaker 1>bad for the Switch too, and I think probably uh,
<v Speaker 1>but there is a Bell curve to hardware sales, and
<v Speaker 1>PlayStation five is still in the middle ish part of that. Yeah,
<v Speaker 1>it's declining, but it's still in the middle ish part
<v Speaker 1>where it's higher than it is at launch. Now, usually
<v Speaker 1>I would chalk that up to supply constraints earlier in
<v Speaker 1>the generation, but it's obviously not always just supply constraints.
<v Speaker 1>Sowitch which two should like sell more next January than
<v Speaker 1>it did this January, and that'll.
<v Speaker 3>Be closer to the middle of the Bell curve for
<v Speaker 3>its console sales.
<v Speaker 1>But regardless, I mean, how do you read this is
<v Speaker 1>switch to like slipping on, and obviously that price is
<v Speaker 1>hurting it, right.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I mean anecdotally, I did see sales for PlayStation
<v Speaker 2>stuff in ways that I haven't seen sales for any
<v Speaker 2>switch to things carry over past December, even if that
<v Speaker 2>is just like hey, get an extra controller with your
<v Speaker 2>PS five or whatever. There are minor bump ways that
<v Speaker 2>they are getting bumps, And when you consider basically neither
<v Speaker 2>of them had like big first party releases, I can
<v Speaker 2>see how this does happen. It's not a great sign.
<v Speaker 2>But I also do think like Nintendo, out of all
<v Speaker 2>of the companies around, have the most cards to play.
<v Speaker 2>You know, they have the most cards in their hand.
<v Speaker 2>They're gonna be like the episode of The Simpsons where
<v Speaker 2>they're playing poker and they're like, Joe on you five ass,
<v Speaker 2>and so you know they they do definitely have things
<v Speaker 2>that they just haven't talked about, and I think that
<v Speaker 2>the impatience is coming from, hey, why haven't you talked
<v Speaker 2>about these things, and not hey, you don't have the
<v Speaker 2>You clearly don't have these things, which is where the
<v Speaker 2>frustration with someone like Sony is coming from, is, hey,
<v Speaker 2>you clearly don't have things ready right now, and you
<v Speaker 2>are relying on your third parties in a way that
<v Speaker 2>isn't healthy, whereas Nintendo can be like, no, we have Steff,
<v Speaker 2>we're just not showing it yet.
<v Speaker 3>Yeah.
<v Speaker 1>And I think if someone asked this recently on one
<v Speaker 1>of the episodes, like like, will we get past this
<v Speaker 1>point and sort of look back at it as like, oh, yeah,
<v Speaker 1>that was that happened at the beginning of the generation
<v Speaker 1>when they when they didn't have a lot of games.
<v Speaker 1>But no one really thinks about that anymore because we
<v Speaker 1>did get Mario and Zelda and Smash Brothers and Pokemon
<v Speaker 1>and all this stuff, and then people were happy. We
<v Speaker 1>will get to that point very likely, as long as
<v Speaker 1>the games are new and interesting. I think of it
<v Speaker 1>like we end up getting a lot of stuff that
<v Speaker 1>feels like your Tennis Fever, which I think is an
<v Speaker 1>alright game, a game I liked, but very familiar. That
<v Speaker 1>that begins to add up and stack against Nintindo, where
<v Speaker 1>it's like this is very samy, and you are trying
<v Speaker 1>to justify this consol to people who already have a switch.
<v Speaker 1>You are not making a strong argument to those people.
<v Speaker 2>To put in perspective my godson is about seven now,
<v Speaker 2>and his uncle is a bit older than me. He's
<v Speaker 2>he's the youngest of the children on my mom's side,
<v Speaker 2>and he was like, Oh, I'm going to get him
<v Speaker 2>a switch for Christmas. I was like, oh, you should
<v Speaker 2>probably get him a switch too, because like it's all
<v Speaker 2>things considered, not a whole lot more expensive, and like
<v Speaker 2>it will keep them happy for a lot longer because
<v Speaker 2>as he kind of figures out, you know, what things
<v Speaker 2>are and what these things actually are, and is he
<v Speaker 2>gets more online, you know, in that kind of in
<v Speaker 2>eleven twelve age and starts to figure out, you know,
<v Speaker 2>what new video games are and stuff like that. Himself,
<v Speaker 2>he will kind of be like, oh, I want the
<v Speaker 2>newer one, And his dad was like, yeah, but like
<v Speaker 2>there's there's enough on the switch one that I can
<v Speaker 2>just get him the switch one and he will be
<v Speaker 2>happy for so long and so quiet about it, like
<v Speaker 2>he won't care, and because he's probably not as tuned into,
<v Speaker 2>you know, things like I was when I was eleven twelve,
<v Speaker 2>that age when it comes to stuff like performance or
<v Speaker 2>you know, I remember when I was thirteen getting online
<v Speaker 2>and starting to visit game Spot every day, and yeah, yeah,
<v Speaker 2>I'm really becoming aware of who the Daniel Dwyer guy
<v Speaker 2>was and stuff like that. But like, I wonder if
<v Speaker 2>he's gonna have that same thing where he goes online
<v Speaker 2>and he like seeks out that information, or if he's
<v Speaker 2>just gonna have the thing that's in front of him
<v Speaker 2>and be like, actually, this is fine, This is totally fine.
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, say, get a builds characters for for a kid
<v Speaker 1>to have an older console and stuff like that, and
<v Speaker 1>I the process that the parent goes through of you know,
<v Speaker 1>that's two hundred to two hundred fifty dollars in the
<v Speaker 1>bank right now, and the kid is going to be
<v Speaker 1>happy enough for at least a couple of years.
<v Speaker 3>That's an easy calculation to make in a lot of cases.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, totally fa totally fine.
<v Speaker 1>All right, Last thing on this, Uh, the accessory spending
<v Speaker 1>dipped five percent compared to a year ago to one
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty five million dollars. This is the lowest
<v Speaker 1>January accessory spending since January twenty twenty. So January right
<v Speaker 1>as the pandemic was like just very like getting started,
<v Speaker 1>like the very very beginning tip of that where there
<v Speaker 1>was a lot of uncertainty. I think this is one
<v Speaker 1>of those numbers you look at like, oh, yes, things
<v Speaker 1>are sort of returning back to pre pandemic levels, not just.
<v Speaker 2>Like just in time, everything's going back to normal, right, yes,
<v Speaker 2>like and kind of let's just call on the last
<v Speaker 2>five years guys.
<v Speaker 1>Okay, uh huh, and it's dipping below those numbers, and
<v Speaker 1>that's say, oh okay, So I think people have like
<v Speaker 1>really actually turned away. There was always that like, oh,
<v Speaker 1>maybe they'll be able to keep some gains of the pandemic,
<v Speaker 1>and for a minute there they did. But as these
<v Speaker 1>new generations have dragged on and the switch to has
<v Speaker 1>sort of presented itself, people are going, I can wait,
<v Speaker 1>because you know, it's just all too expensive.
<v Speaker 3>And I don't blame anyone for thinking that.
<v Speaker 1>Last story here, resident evil requiem leakers deserve quote a
<v Speaker 1>thousand deaths, says Hideki Kamia.
<v Speaker 3>This is from Ali Reynolds.
<v Speaker 2>It's actually the usual punishment that you get for breaking
<v Speaker 2>a konamiumbago. So it's strange that someone would call for
<v Speaker 2>it for a Copcom one.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, it's right there, right there.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, these company's talking. Maybe Copcom's reading up on
<v Speaker 2>what Konami's been doing.
<v Speaker 1>Yep, I'll just I'll read his message here. I'm sure
<v Speaker 1>the final developments of Residentval two were also exposed in
<v Speaker 1>the Weekly Photo magazine. For your own selfish satisfaction, you
<v Speaker 1>tramp it on the feelings of the users who were
<v Speaker 1>looking forward to the game, as well as the feelings
<v Speaker 1>of the creators who put all their effort into making
<v Speaker 1>It's a despicable act that destroys the happiness of everyone
<v Speaker 1>and deserves a thousand deaths.
<v Speaker 3>May you be cursed to never be able to play
<v Speaker 3>games again.
<v Speaker 1>Man, that's a bad That's some bad juju to put
<v Speaker 1>on somebody, for sure.
<v Speaker 3>But yeah, I look, people.
<v Speaker 1>Have been spoiling this, and they've been doing it in
<v Speaker 1>some like really bold ways where they've just been going
<v Speaker 1>to social media and throwing late game stuff out there
<v Speaker 1>in video clips that are very easy to accidentally start
<v Speaker 1>accidentally start watching. So I hope that people were able
<v Speaker 1>to avoid that. That game is out soon, and I'm
<v Speaker 1>looking forward to hearing what people think.
<v Speaker 2>Indressing Bogo on that one. I'm curious how people go
<v Speaker 2>about dealing with that Embogo.
<v Speaker 3>Yep.
<v Speaker 1>Absolutely, Okay, that's gonna wrap up the headlines and the
<v Speaker 1>stories for today. Let's get to the other stuff we
<v Speaker 1>got to do. There's no poll question because it was
<v Speaker 1>Friday and we did the Bomb twelve. But hey, if
<v Speaker 1>you want to submit your game for the Bomb twelve
<v Speaker 1>this week, the game that you've been playing, just go
<v Speaker 1>to giant bomb dot com, scroll down, go ahead and
<v Speaker 1>observe what was the Bomb twelve from last week. But
<v Speaker 1>there on the left hand side you'll find a button
<v Speaker 1>that is a link to a form where you could
<v Speaker 1>drop whatever game you're playing up and until through Friday.
<v Speaker 1>We'll get the results, talk about it on Friday Show
<v Speaker 1>and wrap up the week that way. In the meantime, though, Lexi,
<v Speaker 1>why don't you tell people where that can find you
<v Speaker 1>on the internet what you have going on and all
<v Speaker 1>of that good stuff.
<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I'm not going to be around too much this week.
<v Speaker 2>I'm traveling to an event in London for two days,
<v Speaker 2>but I have to go up to Dublin first, so
<v Speaker 2>I'm actually going to be traveling for like four days,
<v Speaker 2>which is but yeah, you can find me on Blue
<v Speaker 2>Sky at Lexlodi xyz, and we have a bunch of
<v Speaker 2>really cool stuff coming up on start Menu, which is
<v Speaker 2>the website that I wun for people trying to break
<v Speaker 2>in two games media and the games industry. We have
<v Speaker 2>some very cool reviews coming up. I'm sure you might
<v Speaker 2>be able to guess what those are, and you can
<v Speaker 2>catch me around the place talking about things.
<v Speaker 3>Yes, all right, good deal.
<v Speaker 1>We have a new poll question, if you haven't purchased
<v Speaker 1>a switch to yet, what will get you to do so? Price,
<v Speaker 1>drop more first party games, O led version or nothing.
<v Speaker 1>We will get the results of that and talk about
<v Speaker 1>it on Games Mornings here on Giant Bomb on Wednesday.
<v Speaker 1>Speaking of Giant Bomb, we're kind of sussing things out
<v Speaker 1>on this Monday. We're going to be going going into
<v Speaker 1>our meeting right now and figuring everything out, but probably
<v Speaker 1>not doing this today. There's some things in motion, but
<v Speaker 1>we might have something else in its place, and then
<v Speaker 1>you could expect the BombCast tomorrow. Expect coverage of a
<v Speaker 1>bunch of new games. Just look out for that all
<v Speaker 1>throughout the week, and we look forward.
<v Speaker 3>To hanging out with you. You guys should go to
<v Speaker 3>giant bomb dot com.
<v Speaker 1>Right now and just bookmarkt people still do that, right,
<v Speaker 1>All right, let's see here.
<v Speaker 3>I think we got everything all wrapped up. LEXI, thank
<v Speaker 3>you so much for hanging out with me today and
<v Speaker 3>talking about video games. I really appreciate it.
<v Speaker 2>Anytime Globe always a pleasure.
<v Speaker 1>Thank you all for watching and listen. I mean you
<v Speaker 1>are the best audience in gaming. Until next time, have
<v Speaker 1>a good one, take care of yourself and goodbye.