Are Gamers Spoiled or Just Passionate

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I'm Coria Moore. W want to train like a Red Bowl athlete. Tell us your fitness goals this summer to enter the Red Bowull Athlete challenge. You'll get to try each of our workouts for a chance to win an ultimate Red Bowull experience. D you have what it takes Traditional home security only alerts you after a break in, and that's too late. SimppllySafe is changing that. This is simply safe. Police are on the way. We don't just alert. We stop crime before it starts. Simplyafe, plans starting around a dollar a day. Sve fifty percent on your new system with professional monitoring at simplyafe dot com slash Spotify or with promo code Spotify. orer requires to safe,ard outo protion, starting for nineth.is safotlash lens for al arm license ination Tennsee two zero one two This episode' brought to you by Video Game Town, an independent website that strives to pay some of your favorite writers to build a new community for smart and fun daily gaming coverage. Check them out at Video Game Town and on every social media platform. Experience hits technology with the new Pro X two Superstrike, the fastest mouse Logitech G has ever Head over to loogitechg d. com to grab yours and start clicking faster than the competition If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon. com slash kind of funny. What's up and welcome to the kind of Funny Games Cast for Thursday, june eighteenth twenty twenty six. Of course, I'm your host Tim Getz. I'm joined today by Blessing Aioe junior. Goodday, Tim. Snowbike, Mike. Tim. how about that crocodile How there Rice there. Come on. And Greg Miller. Crocodile Rock. That's the song we don't talk about I don't know that I know it. Me and Szie had so much fun. You know it for sure. You knows Elton John This isn't like a weird Greg pole. That the crocodile, R you know when your feat just came. Was it in a grandato game hadra of the mike. What do you think? I love it, Tim. veryer, very excited. I'm pumped up about it. I think they nailed the art, right? I think in twenty twenty six that is the GTA art cover that I'm looking for Sexy vabes, G qu motorcycles, like it's everything they want. TA is all about colors. Yeah, vibes. Sx perfect. Can we say sex? I don't know like when you definitely say that is right. What do you talk TA Wow. Myike guy's a point though. when it's GTA, I do think it's a. We all regret on a s. Greg, what do you think of the cover art? Look like GTA H was one of those. my favorite thing to do in the morning is that you know these fucking dogs getting me up at like now six, fifteen. I'll take it. And I open up the Reddit. just go to Reddit. whatever's gonna be our community will surface what I need to see. And I look there and it's the pre orers is in the cover. looked at the cover and All right, cool, it's the cover. You know what? I know we have a whole topic today, but Agree with what you're saying But I want to I think that this is a good GTA cover. I want a b GTA cover because I want this is the bady one. Can you do me a favor? B This is best one this one. I want to get them all This one will go this one will be number two behind San Andreas. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Thank you. That's all I wanted to hear. I Mbe maybe let's get into the show. and then why do we're doing a why are we excited for GTA six next week? Okay. we could just sa it for this. We can include there because I need to a prep Kevin. the cover. You can't just askevra I understand. I understand. So's just a band. Let's save that A He did it . say Yeah,'re here. Thank you have a quick bbo Sanras. canan we I need to I'm gonna have to I'm so we by city I'm so team by city. So let's just do a playoff here to get to which one we like the best here to then compare it to the new one. Okaykay?ew it because I need to actually look at the new one with that eyes Um I think we're underrating by the way. Yeah if I city by a mile Yeah, Vice did number one on these Yeah city's such a fun game. I'm San Andreas by city number two. I'm flipped. I go Vice City, San Andreas three, five. and then the rest look like a mess. Love that, Tim. I'm right there with Tim. Now can we compare it? Yeah, can I say the new one? New one? Yeah S the che? I don't belie like, you know what? I the new ones it that It has like a leadaning to his color scheme that I like Yeah which sod did Three You know? That's not the code We need this invertical. needs the portrait. ye. I need the vertical. If you're watching live you be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube dot com slash kind of funny games. Remember we can do this out our producers on Patreon, Carl Jacobs O make a buster and Dlaney thesalm twwining and Lax Nomad. For now, let's begin with the topic of the show.some. I'm doing a lot of cats, my bad didn't me to do that Taking me off the rails. I apologize. that was all me. The topic of the show is the biggest video game questions after Summer Game Fest All these questions are from patreon d. com slash kind of funny. If you had a free account or paid membership, you could have responded to our quip Patreons, Twitter. With your questions, you can also now super chat in what you think the big questions are after Summer Game Fest. What wasn't there that should have been All of that Before we get into everyone's questions here Are there any off the top of your heads 'a mine is at where the fuck was played. You know what I mean? P six cover does look really good. Yeah. would be over. Yeah. It's over That's right attitude. I love it. I love it. Um I mean, Blade, I don't know about Greg. That's far away Yeah I don't think you get to see that this Oa Sharma is saying here we go. Let's go and I know it's far away. they have to have something What are you been doing ourane What you even doing it Yeah I mean, are you surprised there wasn't here? Beuse I would have been surprised.. Yeah, but I feel like Is anything surprising in this industry? Yes, every Xbox decision we have to talk about every day in games daily. But like again What we are talking about of what are you trying to do with this restart of Xbox even before we we're calling it the restart, right? And it was hyping us. And if you're going to fucking show a Senua game just to sell them, I would think you would also be like att least say and here's what everything else we got coming. Here's a whole bunch of other titles and covers and whatever. And like it's just been a long fucking It's been a long fucking time since we talked about Blade. Yeah. O saw something about Blade Really it wasn't just last summer they came out and announced it? I think that was long ago it wasn't that Game Awards? I dont think it was that long ago. I think it was Game of Awards twenty four. So that's December. so we'll call that twenty g wasn't ann in December twenty three went to full production the following year. twenty twenty twenty twenty twenty three, December twenty three, threeree years ago Not really Mc kindinda.. M kind, I cut that down in one year. T and a half you. My man' By like man twowo and a half, he comes out. He says, Hey, we got the license. We're making Blade. We're far away from that You got two and We're not there yet. next summer. We never heard that. Yeah boxes trigg against we never going c get that team as Yeah. whichich would be actually insane. like Bade Bladeess a different level of like if that game gets Why is that IP cursed? likeike for real? And has anybody asked maybe can't make a good blade game? I mean, that's not nlyquion can't you can make g. How many good vampire games are there? There's tons of fun vampire games. Make a fun vampire blade game. comeome on But of the Dwn walk are going to be great. I think hopefully good blalking Maybe that team can't Well maybe that Dann Arcane Leon I wonder if that team is if Iate that this will be showown next summer. I'm in for Blade, but the opposite question would be if you haven't seen Blade in a long time Maybe they're struggling to figure out what blade looks like and how blade can that happen be going from Greg it just happened to a long time. All right, Mike, makeake up your mind.. I don't think su. snow bike says you'll see B bladee next summer Bang For the conversation piece Wh whyy you haven't seen it, mayaybe they're struggling them to make a se l. So that's my thing is just I'm just giving shit about the time. you're giving shit about the time. I'm gonna go in your ear now like a little worm. I don't think that's crazy quest Games are hard to make, pereriod and full stop. Blade Being an IP we all care so much about Beuse I realize Blade. he's just fucking cool blessed. Re reallyool. I know you don't Blade, but I think he's cool. What if I ever said. But no. I do think it's interesting to go to Arcane, right? Hey, we do these stealth games and granted, deeath loop. Come on now. I love Death Loop Can they make a blade game fun? I would say, of course, they're incredibly talented. Yeahah, but I also don't When I think of Blade, of course I think ofistless snipes the one of. Yeah And Tim me Tim's got an attitude. I want everybody know fucking start with me. Kevin, you can back happen. Yesterday we did a st Spider Man with Greay. Yesterday we did a Spider Man brand new day trailer reaction. Yeah. Tim had such a bad attitude. He went and took the YouTube down everywhere Like he wanted to hide it from people because he had this weird attitude. He wass coming at me with very awkward energy. Yeah. like the taps on the keyboard at his desk I was like what's going on? I look,' like, you' blocked.'s blocked.' video just disappe It's one thing. it Me and Tim are more love than ever, that's what it is. sometimes we catch eyes and make and have fun together. Yeah. Come on, Wesley Snipes. I was like where didd you go? honestly, let's pull back the curtain on everybody's favorite podcaster Greg Miller. I said it and then I looked at Tim because when I said snipes, It didn't sound right. And I was like, it is it Wesley Snipe? Did I just fuck up his name? Yeah Nail anyways. Yeahah, I could see that Okay, cool. we have this blade game. We're giving it to this team that's usually known for their immersive Sim stealthy kind of stuff, right? And sure Death loooop was a little bit different, but Death Loop also was hiding in the shadows. And I really don't feel like Bade is hiding in the shadows. This is my own, ladies and gentlemen I'm double cheeked out. I'm showing my ass. I don't know holy craft. I don't know Blade not even up. The cheeks are out, I'm showing my ass. Yeah. I don't know the source material of Blade. I know the Wesley Snipes movies, right? So it's like maybe he is more stealthy in the comics or even what You know, I think of the fucking him just cutting mother fuckers up in the movies. You, so it's like Maybe that isn't translating well. mayaybe I don't know, whatever, but like I'm like you that I don't know the blade source material that much. But I would view it similarly to how I view Indiana Jones and James Bond where Forcane Arcan Leon, Arcano gone IP Acan Aust. For Arcane Leon, they are an immersstem studio. They are a studio that slows things down, right? It is more so about the choices that you're making as opposed to just getting into combat Can Blade work as a character? That is way more about solving shit about vampires looking reading things really Yeah, you know, breaking into places, can that version of bllade work? or Like Mike say, are they not the right studio for Blade? There's when you look at Marvel Games right now and that's dominated by insomniac, people will go, well, look at Spider Man. Oh look at Wolverine. And then Blade when I think of arcane, I think of their art style, I think of their gameplay, it is very different from that. And I worry that the general audience will go, well Spider Man looks like this. Spider Man plays like that I don't want Blade like this. I wanted I wanted Blade to be like Wolverine over here And so I worry that the initial reaction will be oh, like I thought Marvel's games would be something different, but you know, it is a different team and they got a different skills. Slipkrit says have vampire hunting vampires can't be that hard And to that I say, Arcane has never fucked up the Vamppire game before. So It was no problem. Yeah talkalk about it, man. What if we still had Red Fall? What if it was Aas? That was good man. Why did we let caught that? Thank you I just caught that. Great fucky job,. I love Arcane I would put up there is like I love Acane as a studio. I love the kind of things that they do I wish they were just making more dishonored, right? But that's me being a dishonored fan. If they get dumped by Xbox and get their studio back, I'm sure you might it would be that they figure out a deal to go independent and they just keep making arcane stuff. And then they open up B Aoston again. just while we're here because we're having a great podcast. just to sim a quick aside for you and me. He is Thieves, man Lay off that studio. Come on. everyverybody to go buy fick of Steves four hundredars ninety nine c. what a game. What a price point. You would have thought there would have been a little bit more movement on that. That's too bad. I think a lot of games are fucking up promotion Well is I mean, remember they didn't even blame the layoffs on this. It was some project another Yeah ye, yeah, but it's like think of Theieves is really, really fun and I want to see how they expand that. sorry back to it. But it's if you're old school arcane fan it's in that vibe of like, he, you're sneaking And that's the kind of player that am. That's why when they annouced play, I'm excited because it's like, Oh, snap. o Okaykay they're getting to work on an IB Bade game happening but I don't automatically get excited that they are working on a blade. See Because so Pete Robber writes in and says, what's happening to Arcane, no blade updates, no the news since Arcane Austin closed. Are they on the chopping block? We have gotten news. It just wasn't in a showcase or anything, but the director every once in a while would just be like, we're still let us c. Let us cook. And it's just like that you could take a lot of different things from that. But like knowing him the way I know him just from social media and watching him in previous showcases and stuff. I'm like I don't know. I feel like there's a level of confidence I get from what he's saying. And he's also said that this game's going to be third person, right? L whichich is interesting for an arcade. Which I like though. I feel like the letting them do something a little bit different. like they clearly have chops to make games I know we think like, well they make these type of games. so that means that this has to be super sneaky stealthy, whatever I do think a level of that applies to Blade and to vampires and to the shhadows and Night and all this stuff. But I also think that like Dathly was very action focused Yeah was very fast And it had like a vibe. had like a very strong style to it. and it had a fun story and fun dialogue, right? I think they We I think we forget about loooop sometimes, but a lot of I don't. A lot of what they established there, I think would work for the kind of talent you need to make a playade game. Yeah. The only thing I would throw out there back to Michael's point that maybe the game just is struggling We talk all the time about when you close a studio and destroy these teams, you lose that institutional knowledge and that sucks, right I think it is worth for this conversation talking about cool You have all the institutal knowledge, you know how to make these games, and now we are making it third person whichich suddenly becomes you have to see the character. and that's not how Thief is. That's not how Death Loop was, right? It's like There is a different vibe from being that immersive S first person running around doing all this stuff that they do so well. putting it into third A whole new animation team rigging all sorts I'm not smart enough to do, right? It is an interesting question if bit off of where they could chew on that. They jumped in and maybe not've bit off where to chew. It's just this is harder. We're learning a new skill and having to D on of combat system you Yeah first person versus third I have confidence in the game. Will we see the game? Will the studio get closed? You can't fucking trust anything I mean with all the news this week, it's like their name was brought up. Yeah. And if they're closed, that means this game doesn't happen I I'm telling you right now, I'm a fool I can't see a world in which that happens That sounds crazy to me I mean, after all the other news you've seen. I know I can think I can easily see it. Right now, the only game I expect out of Xbox is just Call of Duty And everything all out and elder Scrolls I was talking to Jen about this last night, right where I was just, I mean, like we are seeing them Very much retract or I'm sorry, ye, recede and become what we always talk about with embracer, right? We are and We are going to exploit the IPs we have. We are no longer going to take shots on licensed things or whatever. We are going to make call of duty. We are going to make World of Warcraft, of course, we're going to make Diablo, we're going to make halo, we're going to make gears, like we are making these things. That's what we make No more experiments, no more shots in the dark. We're getting rid of all the studios that can't make a blockbust blockock. And I don know we keep shouting it out, but the Jason Schreyer video from So good the other day, right him talking about what's going on Xbox. And one of the things he talked about is when they were on their buying spree, buying studios like Double Fine and a lot of these more AA studios That was for GamePass, right? That was to expand the amount of content they' able to include a pipeline of good games. They don't have to be great. Let's win some awards. let's have a constant new stuff on GamePass. When when you're current Xbox and you have a big change of leadership and you have a change of strategy and you're talking about different metrics that different metrics for success, then it becomes a thing of, all right, GamePass might not be the number one focus anymore,ans We we have tble fun Why do we have compulsion? Why do we have these studios that we bought specifically to expand that service? you then start cutting? I was trying to bless about the song games daily, but like It was horrible to be a fan of actctivision titles like I am, Tony Hawk and the Marvel Games and Transformers and all this stuff and to slowly over years see all of their studios turn into Call of Duty support studios, right? And then now it's like, all right, cool, Activision is part of Xbox, Microsoft, all of that. It's like we are now just in a new era where there's just even more owned studios that get to become Call of Duty supportu stududios Fuck my life. I said this like half a year ago or something, but like they callall of duty is a symbie You buy activision, you buy Call of Duty, you think, o, I'm going to be able to use this thing for my own power and then slowly comes back and infects you until you are E. You are the Xbox is the Call of Duty publisher now They speent a lot of money on where we're at, right? It's in it's your activision thing, right? I bring it up often as a joke. But I think here in a real example, right? it reminds me so much of, yeah when Aivision dumped the Ghostbusters game they were working on, right? Remember, they were the publishers on that initially, and you probably don't know you're all very young. But like when I was very excited about that Ghostbusters game, when they bought whoever they bought, they then dumped them because they're like, we don't want we want games we can annualize, right? Like this seems like a new thing of oh, we're going to exploit what we have. but this has been going on in video games for a long time for these gigantic publishers of No, no, no, we don't want one offs. we don't want creative projects. We want to take the creative project and put it into an IP we own and annualize. Yeah.' I mean about the flip side really quick, right? Yep. You talk about callall of duty, but at the flip side of it is, does that mean we get more games in the Halo universe more games in the gears universe? until we more games in Elder Scrolls and inside of fallout, right Is that does that mean like you brought up with Call of Duty? Hey now these support studios are going to come in and make more fallout games at a faster clip instead of ten to twenty years, right? Hey, that means we get to have that halo game complement the other halo game Is that what they want? Is that what we do?s from Ciff.ot com I This is horrifying to say Mike Yes They put out gears, they put out halo exclusively on Xbox They do not do what they need to do And then those studios become callall of Duty support Studios. Oh, you think it just becomes that d Daly. You you think a halo is going save the day. I know, I just I find it interesting that like I guess that would be a ten year down the road thing, right? I think in the next ten yearss to give them another The goal is like, hey our are line and up compleimment the seven big IPs that you and I talked about on C Daily the next boox is now known for and you just double down on those until they're proven successes and that's your hope. I think that is the vision that they're looking at. That's not the vision any of us want. Yeah. But I do think the reset is, hey, here's seven IPs. These are the only things that matter and we're making those and we're making more games inside those universes because that's what players want and will buy because they're the only ones that they gravitate towards. Yeah. I just don't know that that's even true for Gears and Halo at this point Yeah. Wow, really. Halo had motion with Halo infinite Halo had motion Like that for Oh yeah, that first much well. the first laun very, very well. why they fell is because they didn't have the support to keep up with the live service like they planned on doing. Now if you add two studios like a Call of stududio to support that, then you fall ono that. They should have had a bad Royale like we talk about. They didn't have enough people to do that. They were working on a different engine. that wasn't friendly to bringing on more people That should have been done. Hey, when we were talking about multiplayer, there should have been maps every three months like it was two thousand four all over again, right? Map packs need to be released. you need to keep people's attention throughout the year and onward, right? And so like that means more people, more dev time, more studios have to come in support. Halo still has the motion. It just After infinite, you worry does it still have the motion? Five years from now when we finally get to the next t Is that is that something? I know we're getting to an entirely different podcast in the headline now, but I'm actually interested in These are the questions at SGF, all right? I'm really interested in this conversation because Mike, I think there is something there to what you're talking about. My question is as Xbox, when you have Halo when you have callall of Duty You're talking about games I need similar amounts of support and similar types of content. They're both competitive first person shooters. Or So when we're talking about a halo battle Ryale, you have a callall of duty batleyale. right? Eventually you're going gonna have a conversation about a halo extraction shooter. Well we got the callall of duty one, right?ike Do you think that's something that they can support like both at the same time? I think we see in that right that business. There' plenty of shooters that people gravitate towards and want. And I think Hala was one of the big ones there. Now they' kind of a little bit different, but you think Apex is out there. Pub G is still doing just fine. likeike there are so many shooters in that market. I think there's space for a very good halo and call of duty to be just fine and compete with one another, complement one another. You're going to push Battlefield out of the way if those two were to be the big dogs and Battlefield stays on a four year to five year cycle, right? Like Who's going to be in between those to compete with those two games? not many other games I have a questionions since for having this is a question at SGF, but maybe have the Xbox stuff or in the Xbox stuff Do you think? And' look at the chatam, look me lookook at me Do you think Todd Howard makes it to the launch of Elder Sroll six. No I don't think we do our Like an affordable kind of way Elder Scrolls six is gonna to come out in our lifetime. I mean, it'll be our l. I don't know. that was scary. I had such serious eye contact right that. I mean, I'm being a bit hyperbolic because I don't I think that we will see Elder Scroll six, but like I am not A It's like Wh would give me confidence at this point about any of this shit? Like I think is one of the big major titles. I know, but like perfect dark. erfect Dark was I will say just like I said on the Xast, who's buying that? No one knows Perfect Dark anymore. I mean, but that's' me and you're thirty six years old. That was But there's a lot of people in a lot of the Xbox audience was that type of person and the four A's, there's four A's more than triple quple no industry could support that fourth e. And it's just like that game doesn't exist. It's like Eld Scroll six. It's like we' Foalling seventy six is gonna continue to go fucking forever. okay Yeah. Buts O I think is we get older school six, but it like is it A rushed. Hey, we got to get this out We've see to do. That's where it in the Halloween. I mean you know what it's going to be We're going to say, oh, this is dated That's going to be the problem. Yeah. We're going to do just like we did with Starfield. We held up so many other RPGs against this and you're unfortunately still looking dated and feeling dated. We're going to celebrate it because it's elder schools and we have that love for it. But like we will it will be this. I think I right Starfield. But I think I think that'll be a A certain category of people. I think so many more people will have the memberberarriies though of course. I think Elder Scrolls, Skyrimp specifically was such a launch of a video game. People love that game. And to this day, like you will meet people that are like, oh yeah I just finished another, you know, I was fif fifteen years ago. isn't that crazy? fifteen yearso it was crazy, but I still think it's relevant, right? Like I think what I think Besda games still have the sauce. I just think Starfield just didn't have tolyically withith Elder Srolls. Guess what? If we're reducing everybody we orre giving them the hard reset, they're going to these teams and going, what are you going to make? What do we vibe with that or do you want to come over here and make this or are we selling you off, right? Those are probably all the conversations they're having with each and every one of these studios. and it is Hey, here's Alv Sros. you're going to start making this with Todd and the team And say, we want to fall out. you're going to make this now. And to get into my question a little bit off of it, right is I wonder yeah, I do think those conversations are probably happening. You know what I mean? And I do then wonder if you're Todd industry luminary, you've been there forever. You probably have more money than God, I would assume. You're you know exec on the show and yada yada yadda. If you're watching Asha and team come in there and be like, cool. This has been fun. but I need people making fallouts and I need them making elder scrolls. You guys are how far out? Let's speed that up. Can I get you more people? Can I do this? But also we're taking the IP You can still be fallout you can still be fallout five, but we're going to go do fallout Con, New Vegas two over here with Obsidian or whoever. And on top of that, we have these folks over there' in China we're doing they're going to fallout Chicago.ike you know what I mean? Like we're gonna mil this. Yeah Exactly. And I wonder if you're Todd and you look at the timeline and you go, all right, how how far am I actually from rarapping Elder Scroll six in reality, right? And then if they're pushing me to do something different and they're taking my children and doing all these things, do I just want to say, you know what There's a lot of change at Xbox right now and I want to let the next generation of Bethesda people rise up and put their thumb pins on these games. I'm going to still oversee the Pil Spencer thing, right? I'm going to be a consultant. I'm going to be on the show. I'm going to focus on the show. kindind of like the opposite of what Neil did. like fuck the show, I'm going to make games. I don't know Mellafellllow in the chat says, Oell Tim compared pererfect Dark to Elder Sroll sixix. I' only only making the comparison in the sense that like none of us would have believed that after seeing it at Xbox Game showhowcase that later that year that game would have been cancellled. Hey guess what? That's that's the do it right there. I mean, they beat that record this week. No I know. but like I know what you mean I That was unprecedented like No, there's no way that would ever happen this game at very I'm not saying's going to be good, but the game's going to come out. Yeah. And it's like, o no, that game didn't come out and Wonder Woman V veryy different situation. We didn't even see the game Yeah at all. even a slice of, right? It's like I'm giving you a very dated reference, but it's exactly how we felt about Pray two went to an three event event for Bethesda, played Prey two, actually played the saw the game, saw the vertical slice and then eventually like, you know what? No It's gone. We're starting over. There'll be a new game from a new developer called Prey. I think the The possibility of Eltrl six not happening is there, but I also tie that to Xbox is just gone by that point. Like we're not just talking about yeah, Xbox collapses and that's the reason why. I think as long as Xbox exist and is still trying Elder Srolls has to because that has to be the that has to be the centerpiece of their strategy. Thats got to be on everything they talk when they go to Sati and Nadeel and try to get more time or get whatever. they've got to have that on the slide where it is in the timeline or where they want it to be and yet be And I guess thats really comes back to because my talk about ten years. That's a different conversation because yes, if Xbox still exists in ten years there is any level of getting there, sure. But like just being realistic about where we think Elder Scrolls let's take all of the Xbox drama Take it out. take just talk about Elder Scroll six at Bethesda Game Studios When's that game coming out When did what year was Starfield? twenty twenty two No We were firmly in the studio. twenty twenty three. twenty twenty three. I would give it Maybe even four. September twenty twenty three. So nine months in. I'm gonna to say twenty twenty nine. I was going to go at twenty thirty is my window here. is what I'm thinking that I mean, yeah, that's so many years away. you think about the amount of things that could happen before then, it's like, It's wild and Some of those things could be, hey, all the studios you're working on on Elder Sroll six. I just don't think that that helpy that. doesn't actually get the game to come out a higher quality state faster. It just seems messy Would they be having those studios help them then complement with other games in those franchises, right? So it is at twenty thirty that launches now twenty thirty one, you have something twenty thirty two, twenty thirty three. C But isn't that the goal to make smaller projects that comp IP. because I think that waters down the IP. I think if you what does that ever happen before? I think if you get I think what's special about Elder Scrolls is that we wait so long for it. off course. So it is this monumental event Once we start getting Obsidian Elder Scrolls and you play it and it plays like aaled, No, I no offense to aowed, but it's not Eldercrolls. L once you get that version of it, I think you start to water it down to a point where I look around and it's like, I can just play ball game three. don't I think kind of just kill for it. sorry, go for it. That is inevitable That is inevitable. When this buyout happened and they said they were keeping their independence, we all said, okay for now. And then I think what you're talking about is inevitable that all these studios that have been bought up lose their soul at some point and inevitably it will always be the Balders's Gate, the witcher three, the hopefully, you know Dawn Walker like, hey, we're a team doing something we love inspired by everything and that's why Balders' gate three. destroyed Starfield. You know what mean he got out before it and everybody playaysed Starfield like, Oh my God, this feels old because Ballers Game three pushed it forward. You're always going to see that level of finesse, that level of we're doing the new brave thing come from a small hungry studio. Whereas when you get bigger and bigger and bigger, let alone get bought by a company like Xbox, that's not going to happen. And I don't I don't think you can I think resting on the laurels of we have this IP and we have a structure that in twenty eleven. I think that's going to continue to lead to your downfall. P Yeah oldlder schools justs going to do worse and worse and worse. sameame with fallout or any of these Saxin'sreree IPs. Yeah. you brought it up earer piece. you want to exploit And so we're just going to end up in in that same place. I think the only company that somehow has had this figured out for decades is Nintendo where they keep the same IPs, but they keep swinging in wild ways to experimentcoura to experiment. Yeah. That's the only way to keep them vibrant. I'm scared they're not going to have that Obviously a lot's happened in the industry that's changed where the money is and how the money can be made and all of this. So's like some of the points I'm making aren't necessarily one to one. but I do think that a lot of the argument we're starting to create here is harkening back to the success of a different time of just relying on a core set of IP trying to get as close to annualizing it as possible. if not every other you're coming up with some type of cadence of expectation for a fallout or a halo or whatever the game is. But it is interesting to look back to you bring up Assassin's Creed Where that came from. That came from the team from Ubisoft, one of the premier Ubisoft teams, especially at that time, Prince of Persias Stance of Time now we look back on as like such an old different era whatever. When that game came out, that was like in the game of the Year conversations. That was like such a huge thing. It wasn't just like, oh, cute, they're making a prince of Persia game foollowing that up the next year with Warrior withithin the year after that with two thrones like That was looked at as like a huge franchise that was getting a new installment every year making a lot of money for them critically critically well received. And then what happened? They went on to Assassin's Creed. They moved on from Prince of Persia and then they found more success there. and then just we know what happened with the Assassin's Creed. They annualized until they couldn't anymore. and then they kind of figured it out. now we look at Ubisoft as a fucking mess and as a joke Call of Duty annualized it. They're the only ones that have figured it out to the sense of They make more money than God, it doesn't matter, so they keep going. That's on the backs of all these other teams. a team like never soop which what they do, Tony Hawks proskater, making more money than God in the nineties and two thousands with annualized games that they were putting out that everyone was buying that were critically well received When that started to taper off, what happened with them It's our hero They got put on, Hey, there's this big successful franchise in two thousand seven that's making a lot of money. Harmonics is going to move on to rock band Y'all are going now get off a Tony Hawk, you're making guitar hero, Ride that into the ground until that didn't work. And then what happened C of Duty support Studio. It's just like everything we're saying here, we're watering down the IPs and we're just inevitably building support studio for whatever the big thing is. Ubisoft, you're making Assassin's Cade. Microsoft you're making Cn But like are we at that with Elder scrolls though and fallout, right? Like isn't the point of like this is taking too long to make this game. You need to speed this up. This needs to be a four or five year endeavor, not a ten year, not fifteen years right? Like Isn't that the goal of this though is to speed up sky or speed up Elder Srolls and the fallout wait time for f are like let's get here. let's get this out here. you say the goal of this Which one are this are you talking? I think the goal is like the conversation of if I was Microsoft CEO to come up to Todd in the team be like, this cannot be our sustainable model. Yeah. I can't have you making the biggest one of the largest IPs in the world every fifteen years. This has to be five to seven at most. How do I help you It's it when I tell these three teams that, hey, your mid tier game isn't good enough and is not selling what the numbers that we need. And I'm going to bring them on to help you. I need you to say yes to that and let's speed this up I think You're right in that scenario. I just don't think it's that, hey, here's the olive ranch. Let me help you as much as here's the let me take it I'm going to put all these people on here and yes, we're making three other fallout games over here. We're taking your engine for Elder Scrolls and we're giving it to three other studios so that every year and a half we can have a new Elder Srolls game. You know what I mean? That's that that is I feel like them G an itch take a mile kind of thing. And again This is a conversation we had multiple times throughout the years, but especially this week of like That's not Vron from the Xbox scenario, Xbox has Microsoft on top of them saying make fucking money. The experiment is over be sustainable, make money. So I understand why they would do that and they're within their rights is the ownership of it. It's just the sad fact of This is what it seems like inevitably happens when you sell out to the big corporation And something to bring up with the money. it's like, it's, you know, we're not just like moving pieces on a board that then equal okay with plus two to stats here. so the power goes up, whatever. It's like So the support studios not making these other games. you're still paying their salaries. You're still getting to pay for figuring all this stuff out. So it's like now you're just spending more money on fallout, more money on whatever it is Is that actually speeding things up for the cost benefit difference there is it actually going to get the product good enough when it launches so that the audience isn't starfielding it, you know? And it's like the starfielding is an interesting side to it too because it's like the expectations were high because it because of Elder Srolls becausecause of Skyrim. you know. And it's like, well, they didn't do that with their new IP that they knew everyone had their eyes on. so it's like I just I don't know Elder Scroll six just seems like such a uphill bat. It's so different. It's Closest thing to GTA six, but goddamn is it different than GTA six? where GTA six I look at it as a foregone conclusion it is going to every metric and record that it's attaining to I do not confidence in Elder Sroll six. I do think it will sell V freaking well regardless of the quality. It could be bad and I still think that it'll sell more than most games do the year it comes out. That's faira. pick backack off of something of you said earlier,, I also think there's the conversation of what does What does speeding things up look like? Because you're talking about, hey, have these three other studios that are that are making like AA things help you out to get this out quicker. Greg's talking about, hey, let's take this and have these other studios make games. I think either thing is a monumental effort, right? You can't just take other studios and have them work on a game that you've been working on for years and years and years because that requires onboarding That requires them understanding what the engine you're working on is. and I think that takes as much time and effort as stay in the course of what you've been doing already. And then same thing with, hey, we're going to take this and give it to you. like I think that then speeds up things in the long term of when we finally get there and when they get used to these tools and figure out how to make that, right? But that cycle doesn't get going until Six years out, seven years out right? And at that point, what are we talking about as far as what we need right now is I mean it's one. you should look back when they had the acquisition go through, but that's the right And like I'm sure they weren't They weren't probably predicting where they'd be now of like man, we still don't have an Elder Srolls game from this purchase, right? We have sat on this. We got Starfield out of that but that was clearly already in production when we probably purchased it. but like we bought this for the big hits. We haven't got a big hit yet. We've gotten a bunch of smaller titles from Doom and Indiana Jones, But when you're purchasing this, we're going for I want this, this should be happening. Yeah. And we've made that purchase. what? twenty twenty two is when that closed or Yeah twenty twenty. And it's like you're still what, four years later almost and don't have the big dog yet This is such a good conversation. We have a lot of stuff I want to get to. I want to before we get to adds, one last thing I want to bring up here because I do think that like There's a lot of doom and gloom conversation here. but I look at someone like Capcom. and I remember having a lot of doom and gloom conversation about CapCom. for coming from me. L I remember being in the original spare bedroom just being like in twenty fifteen, sixteen being like, what the fuck is Capcom doing to itself? L it's making all the wrong decisions. It has such an incredible library of IP and it just can't fucking figure it out. And now you look with where we're at currently and it's like, holy crap they' absolutely killing it with new IP Classic IP remakes all of that and They have turned Resident Eil from like a franchise that like was beloved but was beloved to one that is one of the most currently beloved franchises. Halo can be saved Fallout can be like saved, whatever that means, like from seventy six of like, they can like come back with a new energy. It might include remake rememake three, remake New Vegas, put out five. This isn't hard to understand how to make but then it'll be you keep going and then are we watering it down. Yeah, But look at restest and Eil, like they've had so many and it doesn't feel watered down in a lot of them, but I think that they've had a good cadence of keeping up quality with releases coming out where it's just the right amount of time for us to want to play a remake versus a new one You know what I mean? And if they can figure that out, I think we'll be in a good a really, really good spot. Yeah. I think it's tough because so tough Resident Evil Resident Evil is the perfect game series to figure that out with because those games are ten hours long. R They are these containable things that people actually don't really get tired of. I can play a resonident evvil once every year or two years in It's still be an exciting thing when theynounce's calledold Veronica, or Resident evvil Vroic over twenty twenty seven Whereas fallouts, those are big RPP. Now we say that, but remember, it was two years between three in New Vegas So it is that idea that like, hey, we could be on a two year Kaden cycle with fallout ride the high That two year thing happened once. I know That two year thing that was every two years for eight years. but we're also asking like not eight to ten years, right? I'm Oh yeah. If we go four happieri right likeike I think the gamers out there are just saying like, I just don't want to wait a decade for the next installed. agree with that one of the biggest franchises ever And there has to be an answer to that. makeake it four, makeake it five. Let's roll this thing. N thing is like I'm not I haven't been I had the thought, and I'm meant meet in the middle and I forgot to meet you in the middle of the thing of like, yeah, you can just put Obsidian on fallout and it be a thing of okay, a fallout every four years. right You put another studio on a sea of Thieves or like, you know, you take a lot of these you have enough successful games that you don't need to put everybody on a fallout. You don't need to put everybody working with this with these things. You just have to speed up the cadence a little bit That's want that might be enough for you. What the players want. Yes. That's what they've been hearing. That's what they know. We all know when we talk about the business side of things, when your two largest IPs are taking ten to fifteen years, it's like that's not That's not sustainable. That's not the answer. Yeah We're gonna keep talking about other things, big questions we have coming out of summer Game Fest, right after a word from our sponsors. This episode' brought to you by Video Game Town. Video Game Town is an independent media site where you can find fascinating articles, podcasts, and videos created by the best and brightest in games journalism. In order to escape the AI hell hole our industry is currently in, Vo Game Town proudly presents the best in gaming coverage joined by plenty of familiar faces Adams, Jenn Stieber, Merick Kay. Ian Walker, and more. Video Game Town is run by two friends, Grant and Jared, who bring their decades of experience covering games, movies, tech, and memes. They deliver the kind of analysis editorials, podcasts, videos, rankings, and nerdy ephemeria that you can't find elsewhere. So check them out at Vide Game Town and be sure to subscribe to their video Game Town Hll series wherever you get your podcasts. 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Grill up a dog, add classic yellow mustard, or load it Chicago style We all know it's not a cookout without Oscar Meyer and Heines Got got a Sam's C cafe pizza order up. M. You know the best part about this spicy Italian sausage I voted for this topic. Yeah, just another perk of being a member. Come join us. Sam's Club Butlus you brought up something that wasn't that summer Game Fest. Yeah. in relation to the conversation you werere just having. Yeah, the conversation that we're just having about, why don't you put the studio with this other studio to help speed up that cadence made me think about a different publisher named PlayStation. I know them. And a franchise named uncharted Yeah. and just a developer named Naughty Dogg who takes forever. because we're talking about how long it iss takaking for elder schoolls, but also Naughty Dog. I'm looking at y'all, y'all are taking way too long for your video games as well. If intergalactic is what, twenty twenty seven, twenty twenty eight uncharted or lless, whatever you're working on after is going to be even further and further out. Do we get an uncharted Like well is that something I can kind of predict and expect at one of these showcases someday soon Soon soon the next two years there's got to be three years team working on this, right a support studio. Yeah Ight to be give somebody el a. I mean, again, I'm never trying to carry water for Naughty doog, even though the internet will tell you otherwise. Remember they did have a game. there should be a naughty doog game we're all playing right now And they re Exactly. And yeah, and don't me wrong button. Jim Ryan said live services, they rose to the challenge. They were on Jeff' stage. They eventually like,, wa, this will fuck everything up forever if we do this. and they stopped So they just fucked up the near term So hopefully you get intergalactic and then their next single player title isn't I mean, it's going to be a long time, but not as long in the grains, butatever Um Yeah, I do think in the same way we talk about Xbox. fucking make games. I think when this live service shit dissolved in their hands as we all told them it would, is a terrible decision. I do think they went and had hard conversations with those studios as well, including Naughtyog like you guys want to make intergalactic? Awesome. Neil, you've got a fucking napkin outline for Last of us Part three. Let's let that cook for a second Y allall aren't doing shit with uncharted. And that's clearly something we can do and we could have it be the daughter. we could have it be somebody else. We could we won't touch Nate. You guys love Nate, Nate's your thing. We w. But we got to get that to somebody. And I have to imagine someomeone somewhere at some studio is in prepro or real development on it. Do I think it's close? No because I have I've Hg Little murmurs Little things. But not enough where I'm like, oh, it's for sure happening. Some studio somewhere it I'm trying to think of the studios now. 'ause like I mean, I would be working on it. becauseause like there was I remember talking about you this years ago, if there was a San Diego studio, that's notony San. Well, the Yeah, what was the ye Yeah, I forget even what the visual arts Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. Visualalt studio. I look at Sony Ben and I'm like what are you doing over there? Sony Ben though There' stud That's not me Rom as it Sony Ben. That's Sony Ben just getting the short end of the stick so many times and I don't know. again If it is Herman walking in and being like, y'all Stop stop making this trying to make your original IP we hear about all the time. But was before that they were supposed to be trying to make an uncharted thing. and then they were all like, we don't want to do that. Yeah. And so I don't know if it finally was like, cool. We don't want the game you're working on and we also don't want to put you out of business, but you gott to pick. Do you want the unemployment line or do you want to be making uncharted? I don't know I know they're very different in terms of the circumstances between Xbox and PlayStation. But yeah I thought about that and was like, man, there's similar issues with both, even though Xbox is just extrapolated to the extreme. That's what we that th was I think we just disagree on this, which is totally fair and fine. But like and 'all can call me whatever you want for this. Naghty Dog's different. I do think the difference is Naughty Dog puts out ten out of ten game of the year games every time they put out a game and like they put out games that then turn into games you can remake a thousand times to make even more money back and then become movies and then become TV shows and then become all of the stuff.'s like the level of prestige, we talk about prestige games, that's naughty dog. Like we say oh, it's Paysttation, it's like, it's naghty dog. And I think that that they are the only team that I'm like, take as long as you need for an Ggalactic because you need to get that right and it will pay off for them Unless it doesn't. Yeah. And the moment that it doesn't, I take back everything. I'm like, cool, you're done. You fucked up. But until they fuck up, The thing I do want to clarify, right? because I know I get on Naughty Dog as a studio. I love the Naughty Dog games and I understand that factions puts you back as far as or pushes you back as far as the games are making. I'm more so thinking about the franchises Uncharted as I know we end did uncharted in twenty sixteen I think it's time and time to come back. right When I'm thinking abouth, when can I play the next last of us game? it feels too far away. That's my only thing is when I'm thinking about playing that with your kid. Yeah, I think that my grandkid maybe, right? When I' thinkinking about the cadence of these franchises and keeping them active, that's more so where my beef is of like, man, Naughty Dog, of course, take your time, do your thing. You failed on one project, takeake your time on the next project, make intergalactic great Somebody else should be working on these on some of the other things that you have. And we' got bring it up a lot for me as for me, it's heightened of we've had so many remakes recently of the Last of us and we're capitalizing on that. But like when you get those remakes and you're like, I just had that, right? ch They have the holy Trinity and it feels like these three should be in juggling in motion a lot better than they are. And it is, hey, these are the prestige titles. We let them work and they go slow, But it does feel like you have the big three. You should be moving these at a faster pace. I just don't think the big three are equal. Like I don't see L last of us as something that needs to be reiterated on that much. I don't think that we need a thousand spin offs of it and like like that charted I do. Charted I think should be like by. With Last of us Part three though, we shouldn't be waiting until twenty forty until I have a child, right? Like I be a little bit faster than that. Maybe for some of it. Butah How many we wait until twenty forty? I think the Last of U us three is being worked on right now. And I think that like we'll get intergalactic first and then lastast of us three. It won't be seven years after that. I think it'll be like quicker quicker than that, maybe two, three years after that. I mean, it's a fun conversation because we're coming to the same thing of like a lot of these studios. the creation of a game is taking too long for the fan side of things of like eight years is way too long, right? It's like you have this great IP, this great franchise. we cannot be waiting that long. how to find a way. Here's a question I want to ask that isn't what we're talking about but it kind of is, but it's definitely this conversation If you're an uncultured listener, viewer right now. you might be at home listening of like saying why do we want all these sequels? Why do we want the IP And my question really becomes, I mean, the answer of course is that this isn't what we want necessarily. This is what Sony wants and what Xbox wants and like trying to make money because it's all about the money So my question would be though If Not a magic wand But would you from all of you for naughty doging the question here Would you want them to go to uncharted four? which or five wouldould you want them to go to lastast of us three or would you want them to we do Ingalactic and then we do the next new thing and the next new thing? I lastass of a three. o I want uncharted From Naughty Dog. Yeah I want un Charted nexte. I'm good on Last of U right now. I'm like I'm Last of U out. I think they make really fun action adventure games, mummy esque, movie type like comedic action games. And like that's what I want. I want more of that I'll take I'll take whatever from Naughty Dog specifically, but I want it uncharted from somebody. Yeah. See, my thing is like I feel like in this conversation we're having about, you know, what the future of Xbox, how bleak it is right now for all the studios that are still left there or maybe on the chopping block Although not the same, it is as we talk about, Play stations dealing with the same problems to a different degree I do worry about like Not worry, I guess, but Personally, I obviously missed the PlayStation that was making new shit and it was cool. It's a new generation. now we're doing uncharted. All right, cool now it's a new generation we're doing last of, which, which isn't exactly the same. but you know what I mean? Hey we made we're suucker Plinch, We made all these infamous games, Now we're making ghost of Sushim. but the fact that people it felt like there was transition a lot and now I feel like With the economic headwinds and the apocalypse that's upon us and everyone just trying to make money, I worry so much about N. No, no, you're in the machine You are in the PlayStation machine right now. we just need proven hits. we just need sequels. And I understand why that would be that way. I'm excited about I think intergalact looks awesome, but it's like Are we going to have a Another ten to fifteen years now where it is. Cool. If you work at PlayStation, you work at Xbox I'm leaving ten do of conversation. You are just making sequels to what you've made before Everybody goes to we are exploiting the IP we have, which I think we are. Yeah, which I it won't just be that because there is the indie space. There is like the smaller like what I'm talking about being these studios inside the big guys. whichich a certain point. I'm just like that's that's okay when it's there when that's the only games that are going to be coming out because we are only going to be getting two of these every ten years or. I agree with everything you're saying. I just think a reason for why it's happening is That generenational gaps between consoles has slimmed so much. And once we got to that PS four generation where we did see the jump from resistance to Ghost of Sushima. that was the a level that we really haven't That was such a level up in terms of four K and like how giant the tech needs are for these games. And that's only widened in the expectations for like how big all these games are. We can't put that genenie back in the bottle. And I feel like that's That is such a big difference between how they were able to just kind of pump the games out, not even year after year. like it's just closer together and then move on to something new. I think that something new came with a new generation of tech that allowed them to think bigger, but now It's not just about thinking bigger. it's about like they're thinking as big as they can. They need to continue to be that big and that's scary U Matt Ban, we've solved a lot of problems. Yeah. Matt Band says where is Jedi three Deni Survivor came out on in april twenty three, Fall in Order came out in november twenty nineteen We're right there. I think you guys nailed it. You talked about the big D twenty three presentation. I think that's a compliment of that Star Wars situation. but like that that seems to be, Hey, we have a really big deal here, a great game with number three on the list. Let's show that off at a large Pentation and party. Yeah This all goes back to the same conversation we had from other folks too, whereere's the a Yeah It's interesting, right. It is that, you know, this weird, hey, we're waiting for to see what goes on with the Saudi Arabia deal. Obviously they're still putting up plenty of stuff the mascot mode I football.'. Well we go through EA right? You don't want to hear about Maden or college football. so we're not showing those off right? No one wants to hear about skate besides Mike and Greg can't show that off. Y last three skate weekend. don't forget. Mas effect team said, Hey, on Un sevenh day, don't even look for us because we're not ready for's like you start going down the EA list There's not many that are ready to do anything, right? So yeah, EA is not the quite the same where we used to have a big show presentation. You guys think like TpleA games like this that are probably slated for second half of twenty twenty seven and beyond. Do you think they're waiting for after GTA is out to then talk about Like we're announ their games if they're not annouced y To some degree, yes. I think this year, the oxygen is eatating up so much, but I think also I think a lot of people are leaning into talking to the right audience at the right time. That's why the D twenty three thing would make so much sense have Cal Kestus himself come out, make the announcement have the double lightsaber, yadda, yada. And then You go quiet until yeah, you're on the other side have something at Jeff's you know, game awards depending on what it's coming in. Yeah. I mean, so yeah, there's lot of interesting things there because D twenty three is every other year with Star Wars celebration and next year is Star War celebration. Oh more likely think that'll be the case and that's May I want to say. Yeah usually's like spring. So then yeah, this being a fall title, that would kind of make sense. Survivor was april twenty three, April, I think is weird, but that was a COVID developed game, right? So I think that that must have affected a lot of the decisions. I imagine they wanted to get this out Holiday season twenty two Um But yeah, we know the Jeni three is being worked on. So I am actually surprised it didn't come out this year. Now this far into the year. I'm not surprised. but like last year you I was pretty confident of it being this year. so Um How are theyre making these games so fast I know it doesn't feel like the fastest thing, but like we're talking about AA games now, probably being what standard standard Five years of development. Yeah I mean, it goes back to pretty quick like the conversation we're having about like teams that stay together and the Jedi team, there was a lot of overlap between Fall in orrder and Survivor guess what there's not a lot overlap between Survivor and now. So maybe we should pump the brakes because like A lot of the core members left, right Dig You left right Yeah, I believe so right? Yeah. ed Um Dragon Slayer Delloos says, when's Kingdom Hearts four coming out Whenever they're goddamn ready whenever they're goamn We're going to stop asking that question because yeah, they've clear show and they're going to show you when they want to is right. And we're at there will. That was crazy. We saw that in the Tack. You guys talked about it today on kind of Funny Games Daily. What a joy to look over at Tim and smile as he goes, Oh my God, they're showing it here all places right now and I Tuesday at six o'clock in the morning. Here we go Yeah, it's it's wild. I I've been saying for years that I think this game is closer than we think. and I was so wrong about that. So I'm now at the point that I'm like, I don't know, man. Like with what we're seeing here, this is a lot more footage than what we saw at when it was originally debuted in a similar setting and setup We now know it's coming to all consoles day and date, but This showing of it doesn't instill me with confidence that likeike, oh, this is imminent because if it was, I feel like even this reintroduction, we would have seen a lot more than just like this one location that we've already seen before Does the release of Final Fantasy the finale over here next year have any way of like, hey, let's give them Final fantasy doing their thing. Let's wait till next year Or would they drop one and two in the same year? I think they' dropped in the same year not really. I mean, they dropped Fonal Fantasy sixteen and rebirth like within six months of other, right? Like And you could look at that as a bad idea because it probably was. but Um I don't know that that's going to change their minds with of like a Kingdom Hearts four and a Final Fantasy stage. I also think that I'm expecting Final fantasy within the first three months and one week of It might be early might be early April. You know what I mean of twenty twenty seven and the United see Kingdom Hearts more if it's next year as a later in the year thing And I don'ted that'd be a problem just want to see more of it. Like you said, it's like I'm just going through like you have to show start showing the Disney worlds, right? It's like, where do you show that that that is the get hype likeike we're nearing this. now is time That didn't feel like that going back to Tokyo again seeing that cityscape like it didn't feel like a We're here building What's the what's the Disney world that they can show they'll have you pop off Oward No. I mean, they showed Star Wars already Oh, they did Mhm. Yeah, we saw the Goofy had a lightsaber.. What st that a forest that look like Eor Would you pop off for an infinity gauntlet I guess like it's like I don't know, we're in such a weird place with with Kingdom Hearts with the Disney integrations and Id pop off more for Final Fantasy integrations than Disney at this point. What about Stehen A. Smith on ESPN? Would that do anything for you? Yeah. Yeah. If they think I'm fking the world, would' be wild. Let's go crazy U'm Let's see I mean, I have a quick one, Tim that I was like, hey, what happened here Dust blloods Really was like, hey, are we going to see gameplay out of this? And we didn't see anything from Dustk Bloods, right? We got the trailer, but we didn't get a date. We didn't really instill confidence that I'm going to be playing this this fall or this year at all. It like this. We had a big feeling last year of like, oh, this will come out this year. We'll be playing that. I came into that going we're going to see gameplay. We're going to get a better message of what this game is when you're playing it. You're going to understand the loop. You're going to be down with this and it's like, I got nothing from that. And now I feel like I'm not going to be playing that this year. You'll be playing the beta. Yeah in the summer the beta mean you That's true popp in true But yeah, no, you' they said twenty twenty six in the debut for it. There's no way. I don't believe it at this point, right? Like it's going to be at least twenty twenty seven. Yeah uness would do a beta what and then write into We start promoting that. it's coming out. Two months from now at the end of the year. I mean, Nintendo does direct in September. Like the next big direct is Probably September. think that's a good way to promote from soft game you you want to build hype Over time At least like show us more of what the game is now I just don't belie I I just't think it's re come out with the beta and then follow it up right there with the big trailer in September, drops in November I' go straight up No. I now expect this game to be in spring twenty twenty seven. Yeah. That's where I'm at. I don't think I don't think there's aason to drop this same month as GTA. She tays on the switch though It's still something Yeah it's is Nintendo publishing this Yeah. I do think that that is like the weird WND fact like all of this. I feel like ye that's very different from GTA, right? Like that we're talking about a die hard Elder Scrolls Dark Souls Miyazaki fan base as opposed to GTA, which I know we always talk about' like the darkoul cloud looming over everyone but I think I' be honest I don't think it matters. I don't think it matters how different you are in GTA. I think the only game that will drop around that time is whatever deevolver digital is cooking up because they're doing it for a bit. I think no matter what kind of game you are, you're not going to drop in time Oa enough time No Nobody noody else is dropping around GTA. Okay. On the switch page switch two page for Dquads, it list publishers from software. Okay. aybe they're doing their developer from soft or incorporated publishher from soft. Yeah. look at Google overview says fromom Soft and Nintendo. But that might be an err Mob Ascw says, Kana scars of Cosmora not at state of play had me shocked Yeah, it's definitely it, you know, it's the reality track of it's not this year, which is really sad. I don't know why they would have said it was You know, they didn't need to do that When they showed it state of playay in February or whatever it was, they said twenty twenty six. It's like They could have just announ. That's the type ofame you can just announce and especially after the Prequel, you know, predecessor Yeah Mike backing got delayed Isriginal Yeah, wasn't it supposed to be launch, and then it got delayed a little out of that For getting a year out of that something like that. Um Bum not to see it. That is a would pop up somewhere else. It' be like, it's coming in August It could happen U DJ K says, whereere we greedy Were we greedient Do context for that, Greg I mean we have with this conversation all the time, our gamers greedy, you know what I mean? And we get all these greatnd presentations and greedy, no, spoiled yes. I don't think we're necessarily spoiled rotten. This is what my mom used to say. I was an only child, right? And she'd always tell friends, Gregory's spoiled, but he's not spoiled rotten. Like I wasn't an asshole if I didn't get what I wanted, right? And think Obviously we're talking about gamers. There's a wide spectrum of are you un N assle or not. But I do think like you brought it up Tim, and it's something a salient point we don't acknowledge a lot but it's We sat through a lot of really fucking bad E three press conferences where you would sit there and be falling asleep. This is awful. You know what I mean? So now we get these Really well paced, packed full of games. they're not really wasting your time, but comparatively grading on the scale to each other. like, I don't care about this game. whyy they present it that way? They didn't show the think Aarina got anouced but they didn't show it leaked there is that part of like, yeah, we're spoiled.'s twenty twenty six we're being assaulted on all fronts by entertainment of all kinds where you can't consume everything you want, let alone the world fucking sucks and we're all going to die soon on it. So it's like there's a million problems and good things and yada. So it's like, yeah,s Gamers are insatiable And we are spoiled rotten or spoiled in the way that like Jeff came out There's been nine thousand games released already this year. Are you fucking? I opened up Steam Nextvest and I can go to any genre you can imagine and see fucking bollloads of amazing creativity that games that won't sell one hundred thousand units but are also somebody's dream that they made and I' like, that's fucking awesome Yes, we're spoiled. I don't think we're all spoiled rotten. well said Can't see much more of that. Yeah. Well, okay then on that no I'm going business goal. More I will say all that though is in addition to We sat through a lot of bad E three press conferences. I also want to bring up another point to that, which is we didn't sit through that many great E three press conferences. If we were to go back and look at like The All timimers, there is a handful of like holy shit. the ones we're thinking about, like, yes, those were the best showcases we've ever seen. There are so few of those and there are so many. I will goes far as to say thirty percent of the conferences would be a large number for me to say were good E. You don't miss those Jess dance numbers. I mean, there's elements to it that I like sugg just dance Heon Berthhal bringing the dog out talking about ghost recon. I think our light has dimmed is the thing, right to what we're talking about. because I remember my first The first E three conference I remember catching, it must have been like twenty twelve and me channel scrolling. and I come across Spike TV and I see the PlayStation presentation and they're talking about Wonderbook I'm like locked in I'm like what the fuck is Wonderbook I want to know more about this. And That was the coolest thing. I was like, oh, there's this game called Wonderbook. and then these other and they're showing off more things and And I'm like All this is the coolest thing ever. They just announced a million video games. and I was surprised and delighted And I think if we look back, that was probably one of the worst press conferences. No, no, no. no, no, which that was not a good one Okay dude like I may not okay, worsts my people who much But that wasn't a good press conference, but I was blown away. Yeah. And like we don't have that anymore. I'm watching Nintendo announce Occara at a timeime and Kingdom Hearts four. And I' like I'm like, I don't know man. I'. Yeah, exactly I love it. Yeah, I mean, we're in a different time. We're also, you know, back in the day, E three wasn't for gamers, right? It wasn't supposed to be selling gamers on the games. It was a whole different business idea. And now we're kind of like in the prime of like now we know companies know this is targeted towards gamers out there because we're selling it directly to them with how sales are now sold just on digital all the time And so yeah, we're kind of in like the prime now of all these incredible presentations and showcases and having fun Will we ever get a Keana Reeves coming out on stage in front of a bunch of people? No. Will we get a Fzaar coming down from the rafters? Unfortunately never again, right? Will we get Christiana Ronaldo to come out and talk about FIA for fifteen minutes In between will never get mobile game. Will willill Brian Erlacer come and talk about the hit stick and men? No, man I mean But we you got to remember those guys. I miss elements for sure. Yeah. You gott to remember miss the pie charts though I do not miss the freaking it is a two and a half hour long conference and the majority of it is fucking business talk because it's not for us to watch. Who did the last one? Was it Ubisoft? that looked like they were in the LakQinta ballroom. That wasis then they brought back the live show. What the fuck are we doing? That was God awful. You had nothing to talk about Nothing skull and Bones was features with a musical performance. twenty nineteen, you were in a beautiful LA ballroom having just dance performances from the rafters. Everybody's having fun. Then we fast forward. We're in the Lakenta ballroom just going, hey, the mic doesn't work here and it's an awful look. Yeah wild times. Yeah. I miss it. Yeah, I' miss it every more boring press cources. We need more press conferences that are just like, this wasn't made for me. No. I was talking about for the shareholders. Yeah. That's bad because you know what back in the day, they were showing pie charts of like, look how many users we have playing games. And what they would do now? Look how we can monetize with more micrransactions. Bess, the boring would be bad. It would be very bad. But I miss it though. I just sitting through it and being like, I don't know what those numbers mean. We're gonna ask people. That's what it would say. Look how many people we let go of. Look how much money we're saving. Be I was talking about this when I re watchatched the Nintendo Direct, I was talking about this on my personal stream I The all of these like direct style presentations outside of Nintendo because actually I don't really include Nintendo in this specific example I'm giving, when I look at state of playay, when I look at Xbx Showcase and all these things, they are so tuned into The fact that they're making this for us, that it's like, oh, you guys have now minmaxed the showcase factor And Nintendo still has it a little bit of like They don't they don't pastase out their like the editing of the showcases in a way that's like super duper entertaining. likeike it's still fun and they still, I think they've dowed in a lot. But like there's something to the Nintendo directs where parts where I'm sitting where I'm like, Why the fuck did you do this this way? Whereas Xbox and PlayStation, I think they're so cognizant that people are reacting to these things and people are hyping these things and they have to pace it like a movie almost or like a piece of content. Nintendo is too. and they have directs that are well paced and that have the funny bits. I'm not saying get rid of the thumb wrestling I'm just saying if you're gonna have the thumb wrestling, you need to think about where you're presenting it and what you're presenting it around. ' I think it really affects because that shit and way you're in that shits don't lose. you have to win the thumb wrestling. You canot lose the thumb wrestling. I lost. I like that was honestly, it does kind of feel insulting, but it has that feeling of like, y'all couldn't do a second take But you made us watch it, you know, but also it's like, hey, that's the guy He's a real guy. He He's just like sometometimes he loses, but' it is Nintendo is very cognitive that people are watching. They are, when you look at the directions and how they've evolved, it really just comes down to How My big brain theory on this Yeah is The more important a single game there is in a direct, the more eyes there are from the top in Nintendo Japan And that's when things get weird Zeldac Arena being in this, I think directly affected the weirdness of this direct and it' pacing. And I think if it didn't have that level of game announcement I think the pacing would have been much better buy that I'm noty It's just because like there's the scrutiny and like the weir decisions made that all that stuff becomes a lot more important from the top down. because I know, I talk to so many people at Nintendo America. I know how much Nintendo values the direct reactions and direct like people seeing talking about the pacing and how much people agree, but just how much dissent there is between The different people and Japan wins. Japan rules everything with Nintendo. everyvery single decision Every single day Yeah there's something to like watching the state of play. I'm like, I'm happy that they're good. you know, I'm happy that the Xbox showcase is good. Yeah. but I'm like too good I want Yeah, let's let's let's go weird. Let's have a dance number. I miss it. I'm bless I miss it. I thought do this looking the ball always smiled a little bit hated the two and a half minutes that Jason Dulo just danced his ass off with everybody, but like, you know, It was it was We used to get weird. We're not weird anymore Yeah. Last thing I want to say to close out all of this What a great episode this was, by the way I We don't need to put a score on it or anything because it's like, who gives a shit? I do think that For forget the showcases. When we look at just the games that were either announced or shown off or given a release date from the last from this summer game for season. This was an all time Like I think that this was such an incredible week of game announcements. And I think you put this week of announcements up against any other week of E three s. and I'm not saying it's the best, but I'm saying it hangs. I'm saying that if you look at this and you can't be excited for video games in this for the wrong reasons. And I think you need to just find the game that you like and stick to it because there are so many incredible games shown here. and we got King of Aarts four out of intendo direct. And we got fininal Fases seven Revelation Full Tit we got Ocara at a time. Come on. And we got a brand go Godd of warar game. brand new God of Wargame, Wolfver Rne. Yeah, Gears, Halo Fable looks great. looks amazing. then they go now thirty plus minutes. L like here's more.'s like, okay, that's we got enough, but I'm so excited. I can't wait. Yeah resident evil as an evil I'm so excited for Yeah. this will when it is year. Every year it gets better and better Yeah fun to celebrate. a new Xenob blade, get hy s's get hide everybody.'s New Zealanday Tronicles. Let them no bless. let them come on. Oh everybody. Thank you so much for hanging out with us. The day is not over right after this Toy story. fiveive in review. What did we think of the latest Pixar movie? You'll have to wait to find out After there's gameplay stream Mike, you know what it is? Yeah, it's a games cast plays of Elliot and his crazy hat. Mike and Greg are gonna to sit down and talk about Elliot. I'm very excited. This could be a game for me or maybe not. We'll find out. We will find out and until next time, I love you all