Nighttime Gameplay and Screen Glare

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Bonus issued at non withdrawable bonus bets, which expires seven days after receivt. restrictions applies, see f terms at fanoolot com slash sportsbook Gambling problem, call one eight hundred gambler or one eight hundred My reset Greetings and sciations. welcome back to Sacred Smbols a Playtation podc. This is episode number four hundred and eleven, only one hundred episodes after episode three hundred and eleven. and only eighty nine episodes until episode five hundred were almost there My name is C Moriar. I'm joined always by myon Chris R Reagan, Chris. That's some sht I'll tell Yeah, I like thank you damn, I don't know where I got it I just found it in my closet. I was like, it like. What is that? Like's just it's literally just texture. Yeah. It's like I don't know Gs. I like it I like it too But uh, how are you I'm doing okay having a Ha Nor, I got up a little bit later today which I'm not ent thrilled about. My alarm went off and everything, but I usually try to get up at seven And uh Today I was just like, now I just I just didn't want to do it A not a good Good week I got what is it? I picked up blood sweat and pixels Oh yeah I see it behind I would reading through that And I think I'm in that I think that's the one I'm in But I don't know for sure I haven't like up to you yet but I'm at the shovel night I just got the sho It's going to be the Shovel Night chapter. Yeah. ye. But it's it's a it's really good It's a really good like read. like it's really easy to like page turn. likeike and get to get through really quickly. I'm already like I mean Shuffle Kight is, I mean Yeah, I'm like seventy percent the way through I think Well, I wont spoil it for free. I think what they discuss is that like is that Yacht Club basically like targeted me because they knew they could take advantage of me Not bad one you know, not in a bad like that they were like, this is the guy. They told me that on an interview, I did at IGen, they're like, this is the guy Yeah you have to that is going to reveal the game for us because he's such a huge fucking' nerd. That's so funny yeah I'll allow it. sometometimes I want to be used. I like the abusees the offspring might say goodood to see you Chris and Dustin Fan an execut producer G good to see you as well my friend. How are you today I'm doing just fine today It's been a busy week. Yesterday, we did like a special walkth through at the hospital, basically like I guess it's officially was like an exposure training where they're like This is what's going to be like. This is when you're going to come in. When you go into the operating room, Ollie's gonna be here. you're gonna be here. and Colin's gonna be here. Coolin's gonna be there, yeah Um You had a guy you had a guy blocking for me on set Yeah, yeah yeah So yeah, it was good. I wasn't very stressed about it, but I feel like now that I did that, I'm like this is going to remove a lot of stress the day of. Oh good. justust because I don't I mean, I I've never been present for a C section. It's a little I was telling the doctor, I'm like, I don't consider myself a squeamish person, but I would really rather not see anything that goes on past the curtain She's like, that's o You don't have to. And I was like You don't want to see the baby pop right of right out of the womb No, I I would rather not see my wife cut open on the table. I think that would give me anxiety attack. Yeah, that's rough. Even if it is tot m Do men watch a C section? Is that a thing that they can do? because that's a lot, man. I think you could U I they put you in the cool little, you know, the theater where they teach the doctors Yeah where they just you' menting the people? Yeah right. Yeah. like it's like a circular room Yeah. And there's like the, yeah down at the. it' be very dr traumatic because it's just you and me And we're sitting, we're sitting You know, we're standing there, silhouetted Col, maybe you have aspirations to be a douulla A do Is that is that like a midwife It's a basically like a designated third party from the person having the baby to kind of be the the helper in the situation. So like we have a doua that is our like one of Holly's best friends And basically she has already been in training to do this. So basically like she can kind of on your behalf in the moment uh and kind of It's like a third party situation.ight. I mean, I don't know if that'll allow two duelas Cin, but maybe I could just say you're my duela. Do I'm the duelo're We're going to beave with the masculine Let so it too low. Yeah ye, it was good. Very exciting. We're getting close now. We're getting getting close. I think that baby's just about ready Just about ready. I think I told you may be calling on stream when he we did the ultrasound. he was in the ninety seventh percentile of size. Yeah. Big boy. B. He's getting that he's getting he's just about finishing up now he's getting that golden brown crisp, but hopefully not too golden browner or might not be yours. No, no, no, no, yeah. But a golden brown crisp nonetheless as we pr As he prepares to enter this world, very exciting. Well, I don't know if I told you. The first ultr sound the very first thing we saw was his Dong. Yeah. It was' got night He hopefully has a ninety seven percent child child dg, you know? I mean, I mean, becauseuse what would be a shame is if he's a ninety seven percent child the doctor's like, but Five percent for five percentile for the penis unfortunately. Right. And they have to explain to him later in life. It's like it's not that it's small, it's that you're so big. Right, right. It didn't grow equivalent size or something. No know Based on that first ultrasound, I think that he's I think he's well equipped as far as I could tell. Yeah good. But I mean, two turn Well. That's going to do well for him later in life Yeah, certainly, certainly. So I'm excited about that. Dented Yeah Um, good Very excited the rest of the week. I mean, Just keeping it loc. Next week is a big week also for appointments. It just the appointments keep like compounding upon each other because it's like, okay, well, this appointment used to be monthly. now it's every two weeks. Right. Then then it becomes every week. What What is the date of the u the Cesarean section I I was trying to decide if I wanted to say it I already told you. Yeah. I don't go. I was just woing wondering, we have a little bit of time still. Oh we got we got a time. Yeah There's going to be training for you ahead Colin. Yeah, know I gotta. already I've already I've been prepping awful. Getting the OBS ready Cin certified. Well, no, it's not certified. This isn't convenient for me. Oh, certainly not But it's really not convenient for anyone. Yeah. But it's desired. but my convenience kind of takes precedence over everyone elses conveniencefortunate So sure There were people in my chat last night because they were asking like, how long is Colin giving you off? And I was like, well, he really told me as long as I want. but I'm planning to do like about a month, month and a half U peopleeople are like, you should take advantage of that. go as long as you As you possibly can, wait till he's eighteen. Six years. sixix years. Yeah, you really test me on that. You're like, I'm like whatever you want. You're like I think about six when the child goes to first grade. First grade I'll be coming back and'm like I don't know about that. I mean, that's a little crazy, but I guess I said what I said You know, it's a forormal contract We're gonna owe do hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpaid or unworked, you know funds here. That's all right I I meant I meant it. likeike it's it's do you I trust you. When you feel like you want to come back, you can come back. when you if you feel like you need to kind of come and go, you can come and kind of come and go. I don't want to I was saying this the other day. I mean, some people take it the wrong way because they think it comes off as lazy or flippant and maybe it does come off that way, but I just don't want power over people I know that's a weird thing, but I just don't I don't want to be like, you need to do this now I need you back on this date or else. It's like, I don't know, man. I just just doing you J just doing a bad feeling be There there are factors outside of you. I mean, obviously, It's a is it is' going to be a large expense for the company. Maybe not. I'm not insane but it's like you're pay me or ping the people to replace me Those people also like Loc and Jimmy are doing extra work on top of their work. So I feel I don't feel pressure, but I want to be respectful to everybody in this situation and I'm hoping You know, I I'm feel good that everything's going to be just fine And so taking that little bit of time and then I can be Veryciting. Very exciting. And yeah, the plan, I guess is for you to kind of yeah, like ease in Yeah, you're probably like dissred first and then We'll do all the rest. Yeah, but I got to start actually wrapping my mind around what I need to. I really notothing's going to change for me except for the streaming thing. And I've streamed by myself. I don't even know why I make it such a big deal, but I just get nervous. I don't like I don't want to overplay it like I'm playing a character. I really don't like technology No I'm not kidding You know, like I don't find I'm not like a luddite really where I'm like, getet the dishwasher out of here and I don't want it's like, no, I don't I'm not like that. It's just like I don't like fucking with shit. And I don't like it being on me don't like You, like I don't like it. I've lik it I didn't like it IG. I didn't like it kind. pecially didn't like it kind of funny I didn't anything any of that shit there forced me basically to start doing C col was right because they're like, you need to learn how to do thisuff. I'm like I really don't want I should have just stated I Jen It would be It would be easier if u Like with streaming, the programs we use are OBS, which is very good and social stream eng and stuff, but these are like open source projects. They're not necessily they're very reliable, but they are not you know completely one hundred percent And I say that, but I was thinking about like between windows and Adobe They're just as reliable as those programs well nowadays. I'm an old fan of those two brands. so Be an Adobe go way back Me too unfortunately. Yeah mee too, unfortunately as well am J absolute trash. They got me in high school That's what was I was taught on my high school computer I was like, Adbes if Adobe is smart They will provide Adobe licenses for every school that wants it for absolutely free That's how they get you They locked it in? I mean, that was done That was the I mean, it's funny because they got Ale Apple owned Adobe at some point, right Like it was I believe that's ' Man, are you right That sounds correct. They might I don't me BeCause I know Adobe Flash used to be macromedia Flash. Right? I remember that But I don't remember if MacrMedia was like a distinct company or if it was that like or if it was like a likeike a MC kind of You know what I mean? Like I'm not sure. I say that just because their strategy, like Apple strategy of The reason Apple T's and MacIintoshes were all over schools was because that was incredibly intentional You know, like that was they were like, Yeahah, absolutely. likeike we're going to saturate the fucking world with these apple tes and it worked So I wonder if they just had a similar strategy with Adobe, just like give these cut rate licenses to schools Right? Like, why not? Yeah It doesn't seem like Apple ever owned Adobe based on a quick Google search, but that makes some sense.aybebe yes, maybe well, they were certainly like intertwined in the beginning. I wonder if they have a similar strategy. because I would do the same thing if you could have like this captive audience. It's like Windows. likeike just give windows away to the schools Yeah, Right. Don't even don't even charge him. Dooy is primarily owned by institutional investors such as Vanguard and Black Rock. Oh good. Oh that is. You know, you know what you know what I've been fascinated by? Do you know the store cooldstone creamery they The ice cream shop. Yes Yeah, all I haven't had it in probably twenty years. That's fine Have you seen prices going around recently for that place Now I assume it's I it's a not dude, it's nots It's twenty two dollars or something for like a large ice cream. I'm like and people are saying like, oh yeah, it's like because like Vanguard, Botham or whatever I' like yeah c Yeah everything's really great right now. I don't know if you notice It's so funny because I' getting actually it's almost done. I'll send you guys pictures of my backyard But they were working a little bit on on my irrigation and something had broken and And I'm like, yeah, man, like We've been in the house six years now, so like all the builder grade stuff is just starting to break and he's like, dude, it's everything Hes like it's just buildersu. it's literally everything Like everything's bad And I'm like yeah we just talk about it every week on my show. My wife and I talk about how bad food is now, how we don't get anything shrinkflation quality of things, they just random change the ingredients and like famous food after. It's like, yeah, we've made the Rh' peanut butter cup for a hundred years like this. Now we're going to put sawdust in know, or whate, like whatever decision they may, I'm not reallyit reallyly saw of,. Mbe it is't Maybe M might is'tking well. The Yeah, its it's just trresash. I go outside. whenever I go out to eat or do literally anything I just assume it's just going to be absurdly expensive. You know, like I just, that's my assumption. because everybody's always there's always somebody like, I can't believe it's so expensive. It's like, you came out here. We're in America in twenty twenty six. likeike where you were you were expecting like what like Obama prices. like, I don't know you what are you expecting That's bad Ling is bad Like, welcome to the club. it's all new information It sucks like I don't I don't know we go We used to go out to eat a lot more than we do now. It's not even the pricing. It's just like, it's like, eh, we just like eat at home. And even then you're spending an arm and a leg sometimes on some of these goods Delivery has gotten insane That's that's one thing for me. I was just like I I think I used to Get I used to or I mean, now I just walk there because it's just like why the fuck would I pay that much money. You you go to this place called Gus's famous fried Chicken It's a really good fucking place But used I used to get it delivered and used to cost me like maybe like thirty five dollars, which is like Kind of crazy But like I was like, all right, now it's sixty five the for the same exact meal. I'm like, are you kidding me Burrito burrito,axi I like the t Speaking of bad things, I was looking at the coldstone creamery online ordering and I was reminded I think there's a comedian that has a bit about this. their' sizing names Oh to like it, love it, gototta have it. Yeah. Yeah I will not I will not play ball. in any this includes Starbucks too where it's like tall, Vent I never E time I never do that. I'm not We have words for that. You I want to invent something You know what's it? I'm not I don't know. what do you? Howuse to do it? It was such a genuine confusion The u, whenever I'm in Starbucks, I'm like, what size are know? I was like I usually say whatever the medium is I'm not gonna to say you're fucking. I don't remember what it is. Yeah, stop being weird. and stop charging ten dollars for coffes I think it's something that they've that they did and they they associate it with their success. so they're afraid to stop doing it. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's like, well, we've always done this and and we're a successful business and I'm like I'm not I'm not arguing necessarily, but I don't think people are coming to Starbucks because they are excited to say, Gimme a Venti Yeah, invent is, what is that medium? I don't know I don't know either. because there's no etymology to suggest A least at least Like at least like it loveove it gota have it is like there's like a crescendo. right L you can you can at least it's too much work to put on the customer to say any of that shit, but at least like there's like, oh I understand intrinsically like the order of these things Yeah, Venti, I have I guess Grande, I understand But I think gnd iss medium Yeah, is that right? So like I man. Yeah. The thing about the coldstone is that okay so it's like it kind of implies like is there a psychological aspect of like you're a food addiction? Like if you just like it, then you're okay with getting a small You love it. You will get the medium But if you truly have obese of mind, it's no it's you gotta have it. like it's an essential. I gotta have it. I gota have the largest size. Oh my God, this made me be so upset just reading it. So like the sizes for Starbucks, Listen to this, listen, it's tall Grande and Venti in that order. So Venti's large Venti' large and tall is the smallest That is so inf That is deeply infuriating Get fucked I hate that so Friday the medium. insane. yeah, I don't like that at all. That' that's obnoxious asll. That's like, that's That's too much for me they're trying to they're trying to confuse us The It's the ritual network. is part of the ritual network. Yeah, exactly. Oh man. Um What's going on in my life? You know what I went to the nursery yesterday, the flower nursery and I got flowers and planted flowers or, you know, you got to get the annuals going. You know you got the perenials going. They come back over here year. You got to get the annuals going. nice Really flashy and And I bought these huge, I love marigolds, just basic marigolds. I think they're so pretty. I love orange flowers. You can get yellow ones too, but I always go to the orange ones And I got these ones that are just huge. I'm like, damn These are some fucking mutated crazy mutated maracles. So I got those going. I some I bought some just regular Gerber daisies, which are technically perenial of planted those around. I got some firecrackers, like these little blow lying red flowers. They're beautiful. Oh my goodness. we got so much. I ran out of soil though. So I got to go get more soil for our little baskets and whatn Gotta buy that miracle gro Mm And then you got to use Miracle G as well I just bought a six pound bag of mmero I' alsoant steroids. I'm also so it's not coming out because I have the windteracles. I am so tan already. It's so funny. I think I said this on the show week, it just turns on Suddenly I look Italian And then like September October is like nope, you're Iichig You're done And then and then it vaccillates back and forth. I got a great base going on right now You're like a what is it? U like a holographic. Oh like the card, yeah, like ye, yeah Ver very good. That's very good. That's nice Yeah like that. What else is going on? Anything else interesting going on? U No, not really. Everything's falling apart Um about it. Ohh, I've been reducing. I u I'm I'm now only on ten milligrams of Lxopro. That's a new announcement Down from a high of sixty Senty fifty forty, thirty twenty fifteen, ten Never that And how does that make you feel Uh I am u I can feel it. Like I am more anxious And like, Yeah, hide up and I'm like, this is Cin It's you like this was actually my life until twenty eighteen U then I stopped feeling things for a few years Now I'm back. Now when I when I sent you those grinning megaan figures that I found at this flea markarket I went that. Yeah, I stared at them that that did you realize in that moment that like I'm feeling way more anxiy than than I felted? Yeah, I was like, maybe I got I got to call Dror Rosenbatt G this going again.ped up. Coming back to Santa Monica. Did I saw those and I was like, what the fuck is this? I thought you I thought you immediately because I was like like you. Why I need to show this to all. Their licensing is, u Interesting trying to see if all you herear is Yeah, like these are icial Yeah, and that's like what's so funny about it. It's like, what So if anybody's curious about what we're talking about, like there's these like megaman Grinning fake likeike I don't even know how to describe it. Yeah. I think they were literally called grinners or grinnings or like, I don't know. Zero Yeah, zero grin for zero and meega Man grin Yeah, and it's just Megaan smiling with like a dumb Sile And I just don't I've never even heard of this brand or I don't think I've ever even seen anything else licensed under L I've never seen like a home or Simpson with thatight You know what I mean? That's it was an entirely all of it was new And I was like, whyy is this person selling me? That guy had no other video game stuff. Wait a minute, I think I have a clue here is pop what is is pop life the the What is that P safe, I don't know. Is it is it Laboou related Oh maybe Pop light Pop Life is a marketing agency in Miami, Florida. Okay. I search Poplife Of course the Floridians did this. What are those little shitty figures call that everyone loves Funkle pops, Funkle pops. I wonder if that's like spin off, maybe or something Maybe I don't know. that's It's really disturbing. Also the art is kind of weird. if you look at it, like not obviously the face art is weird, but like Zero's Megabuster looks weird. It's just it's a strange. I hated it. And yeah, it unsettled me a lot. Capcom just will license anything to anyone at this point, I think. Yeah G get your go get your meegaan license and make some fucking go get like a pet rock And you can find you can find it pretty easy you look up a meegaan grin figure. it's there. It's like one of the first things that pops up. It's goingone on eBay for one hundred and fifty bucks Yeah, it's probably like some limited bullhit. I'm There's too much I can't believe I'm saying this, but there's actually too much Megaan merge now. There was a time when there was like nothing Mega Man related. and now like every five seconds, there's like new Megaan stuff I'm like guys Choose a lane and really build it out Yeah know. But I know this is licensing and they don't give a shit. they're just making money on whatever So Thank you for that. That was great. Yeah, you're welcome. Sacred symbol is brought to you by Shopify Everyone knows that starting a business is really tough, and it can be easy to doubt yourself You may wonder, is this right for me What if I mess up or nobody even cares? 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That's Shopify dot com slash sacred elcome to Sacred Smbol of Payation pod. We go live each and every week and get us Th three days early and E free. Over on patreon. com slash laststay Media. we really appreciate your support over there. We couldn' do without. five dollars a month is the sweet spot and that gets you early at free access to all of our shows here on the network, including sacred symbols The finding du the Xox podcast, punching up the Nintendo podcast Sumon sign. Gameplay podcasts and of course sacred symbs, plus O weekly supplement on Patreon to this show We did recent episodes on PlayStation six and what we think is going to happen with that, which is really exciting We're ready to kind of go, I think with Saros and Pragmata. I don't know what's going on with the what? We have to figure that out I guess the three of us will do Syros, mayaybe we can get a fourth And maybe we can record that like a like next Friday or something like that. Yeah, we can. Yeah, I have to do the secret ending, but apparently it's way easier in Sarus than it is in Eeturnnal to do that And reteternal it's like insane So ye I you have to find all and returnally you have to find all six sunstones, which just randomly appear in all the and you have to collect them all then you have to beat the game again and then do and then you have to like In this one, you just beat the game again You just like go to the last boss again, as I understand. So it's like, all right Sarus literally is a response to the returnal. It is so funny Everything about it. Um So we'll get Saros going, We'll get Pragmata going I was talking a little bit about mouse PI. dont I think we're just gonna to move on from that Um, What else? Yeah, I had a hog gone recently. We're going to record it I don't know we're gonna pish but next week we're also gonna going to record me and So it's going be me and all the Lily Mo people that were that were responsible for Saint Slayer. So Barry Josh One, Josh two, Lolin, who does all of our like trailers and then Ben who did the PR. I'm actually most eager to talk to him on the show, I think, because I have he's the most mysterious less end of the The run, the last lap is a where which is kind of the most important lap. is what we always say about Like making a one thing that was instilled in me that I really agree with at IGN was, u And we've said this before is Don't bother making a video unless you have the thumbnail and like the headline And like it's good. otherwise, like why you're wasting your Similar thing with the last mile of the race for the game. You know, like if no one knows it exists. That's so funny then how do you do it What is that is that a similar thing Do you feel that No because it's it's I had the exact well, I mean, I was making like different types of content, I guess, but like I had the opposite thing where I was like, I have no idea what the title or thumbnail this is going to be. I'll figure it out in editing like what makes the most sense. That's the way I've been since then, for sure Yeah But I understand that. I always think about at IG and I must have brought this up because in the past because it still bothers me as that like I made this really great Castlevania. I wrote this for Halloween, it was like Halloween twentyelve or something I played all I played like Castleania one, two and three in a bay and I captured them all and like did this thing about this great like horror the original horror and like the gothic elements and all the rest and like, no one gave sh. And I was like, yeah, that was that was a really great video, but it sucks that you can't get anyone to watch it. And so I under I understood that whole mentality of like, don't even bother Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, especially at a place like IGN where there's a lot of there were a lot of high caliber people putting things out all the time. And so you're competing with each other as well. And so I wouldom I would dominate IGM if I was there. let's be honest May we'll go back. Maybe they'll buy sacred tmbs. We we can go back all move toanrancis I was worried you're going to say that. I'mam own. commute Yeah, you be ar. People do do like People do that You know, if you don't to be Sancco every day, you can go like once or twice a week and just take the like LA in the morning, San Francisco at night kind of planain thing Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. I forgot because our at the site our our entertainment people were in LA So like the music, people the TV, people, the movie, people, all of them were LA, and we wouldd have to go back and forth and it was That makes sense. It was great All right. So that's sacred plus. Oh, so Then so we'll get those episodes the next epode of Sacred plus I'm going to interview Alysa Marcante finally U She's giving me only an hour, which I respect. I told her in an email. I'm like, that's nothing for us Like, we don't shut the fuck up So I have to be very deliberate about that Um But that'll be interesting Uh, I think some of the audience is going to be upset about that It's almost important for me to do interviews like this though, for any other reason than to remind people that I'm not beholden to anyone And then I'll talk to you And I want to talk to anybody but don't only be captured by my audi So I think it'll be and ironically I was saying this Maybe on the stream or something not like the The worst response we ever had to an audience to a A sacred syymbols plus was was a right wing person, which was and Ive said it was stuttering Craig who I consider a personal friend. I like him I think he's a nice person, I think he's interesting he's a businessman. O obviously does his own thing and it's very different than what we do Interestingly, that was like the most overwhelmingly negative response we had from the audience. and I didn't see it coming. That was that was so interesting about it. I'm like, why would anyone Do remember that duson? It was about their doog game awards And I' like, isn't it interesting just to talk about a topic? and everyone's like, No, we don't want to talk about a topic Yeah. Well yeah, I think the audience can watch it and Yeah own conclusions about it And they could even, you know, there's no problem expressing that you thought that what he said was dumb in a comment, but it's the, you know, being being respectful thing where it's like you can say that you don't agree and you don't like what he said Uh without calling him a moron or something. Yeah. Yeahah. hopefully everyone brings, you know, let's keep it respectful and try to be productive if we can To the audience's credit when you had u Stacy from the gamer. Oh, Stacy Henley. Yeah. veryer respectful. So I think the audience, you know, it's I have confidence in this. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it go All right What else sacrered streaming Um Guys did So you guys did marathon again recently I don't want to talk about it Really pork Pancho says Today com on may twelfth I witnessed Dustin singleh handedly killed three runners with this level of skill and precision that even John Wick would be jealous of. he ran headf in a danger to protect the lives of his fellow teammates without even considering his own safety. in my exxceedingly humble opinion He is the most courageous man I have ever met Can we please award this man the first ever LSM Medal of Bravery? A at the very least, can you let him know you're proud of him? sincerely pork Poncho. That's very nice.m. to say I did I did for the first time ever w V three a team and succeed. It was you clutched I clutched To be clear with the audience, I'm an exceptionally average marathon player. This is not a common occurrence. U, but I did it But On may twelfth, this was not was that it was it Friday? It' Friday,ate twelfth? No, Friday that was mayate twelfth with Tuesday. Our stream on Friday Me, Chris and Pork was a fun time Entertertaining for the audience Yeah, but full blown hell for the three of us. Our goal was to fight the compiler. I called the stream Chris dust and pork versus the compiler I renamed that stream afterwards to and Chris Dustin and Pork fail miserably We never even saw the compiler that day. Yeah close. Did we even successfully exfil from Cryo? We left a couple times. The issue was like there was one where like the puzzle. Like we couldn't find the letter. And so we're just like, arere you kidding me? And we thought like, is this bugged or something? And we just like left with it So we succeeded, but it was a failure. It was like the worst kind of success. It was like this is awful What a miserable time. I had fun Be miserable. if that makes sense. I don't know. It it's fun to ham it up. But like it's just like god damn it I was discussing with pork after on Friday and I think that our Choosing to go with the normal stream time of one PM. I think it was a problem for a low player count game like Marathon. onene PM on a Friday all the sweat.' got the unemploy the unemployed People like hate losers. Yeah. so Yeah. So I think that was part of the problem The southern drinker wrote to us and says Hello fells, can we get an update on my anatymous Chris I heard he died during the Marathon stream and I wanted to make sure he's okay oroughly Thoroughly executed. Yeah Thoroughly, like it's not even a question. Yeah. Everyone's daganimity is withering on the ves Yeah There's completely like he's in an acid bath basically. He's in a drum barrel somewhere in the South Pacific. It I there was a moment on the stream. I'm glad it was from my point of view because I was slightly behind you guys where you open a door Um, and it was like D day or something. Just grenades. the rain down goes down. Explosions immediately wiped out both of you So it was crazy. It was mess. I remember it very vividly. like I think about it I lost that I lost such a good weapon too like and I was like, it was the best feeling gun I've ever used in a video game and I lost it the the second I started using it. I was like, okay gonna I'm gonna take a break for a day or two. Yeah, there's something, I don't know. there needs to be a term for like map memory. It's not quite right where it's like, you'll be on that map A few days later and you'll be like, I remember what happened in this spot I remember how brutally I was killed Yeah. For example, Pork wrote in about my one B three. and it was on top of flight control. in on Outpost And I'll always anyt timee I walk past that spot, I'll be like the one time I clutched Yeah these these games are interesting because like the losses are so defeating that like you have these intrins like these really detailed memories of spaces that you kind of like You like grow a relationship with a space. in a way that like you don't in a lot of other PP multipleay agains. that's what was so fascinating to me about This genre in general, when I first started playing the alpha and even in Ac Riders too it was like god damn de This hallway is hell. Like I've had so many I've had so many terrible memories in this hallway. I don't want to be here for too long. Let's get it in and get out. it's just funny. Now that's your tranquility room Yeah It's a place in the Cryo archive that Chris' I'm deeply haunted by I'm never going back I love that it's called the tranquility Room too Yeah' that is funny. We'll get back to Marathon later. We have a question at the end that someone wanted to ask about, which I think willll Yeah we'll get into it get into it a little more deeply Black Detective B black detective indexor Rodin Its a little bit of confusion about something. so wanted to talk about this in regard to sacremely Hey CDC Cen, many people want an audo version of sacred streaming, particularly the episodes with Jaffe, which are essentially a podcast with very little visual components. I read your response to this inquiry in the recent comment section of Sacred streaming and I must say, I still don't get it Something about wanting to grow the YouTube channel and screred streaming isn't part of our Patreon membership. Okay, fair enough But how does providing an audio link to your already subscribed Patreon members who are already likely subscribe to YouTube as well limit your YouTube growth It seems like you're overthinking this, and then in turn creating a worse product for your customers Crect me if I'm wrong,accream was a replacement for constolation. you're. which was a part of our Patreon membership. Also Mi already crossed Jaffeon sacred symbols plus which we did get an audio version of has essially been replaced by Mori al C cross Jaff on sacred streaming I' sorry, dude, I just don't get it. You guys are doing a podcast. sureure, it's live, but its a podcast which is an audio medium Honestly, dude How many times did he call me dude multiple times or I only saying, yeah, it's too much. It seems just like you're pushing back on the audience for no reason. So please explain to me like I'm a retarded five year old I would also appreciate Dusin's thoughts on this. Thanks fellas. takeake care. Clearly you are, retorted five year old because you you wrote your own in your own paragraph here because I wrote a, you know, someone was complaining about this and I wrote back to them. And I explained it to them thoroughly, like what the idea was and what we want to really do And it's like He says something about wanting to grow the YouTube channel and sacred streaming isn't part of our Patreon membership. Okay, fair enough But how does providing an audio link to your already subscribed Patreon members limit your YouTube growth somethingomething about wanting to grow the YouTube channel and sacred streaming isn't Heart of our Patreon membership. okay, fair enough That's what he says You just, that's what it is Well I don't understand what's so difficult to comprehend about that So I think moving forward too avoid this level of confusion. I'm sorry for people that this might be inconvenient too, because you look for the links on Patreon, but just blame people like this Uh I'm just not going to post stakeer or streaming on Patreon anymore at So Sakre streaming will just be on YouTube. You can find it there. We'll be live on Mondays But I think we'll just avoid even posting it on Patreon anymore at all. And then there willll be no more confusion about it anymore. And then you'll realize that in fact ote Something about wanting to grow the YouTube channel and sacred streaming isn't part of our Patreon membership, and quote, will actually shine through. so you wont just write it. instead you'll ibe andibe it and comprehend it Is my Yeah, Do that make any sense to you I suppose like I guess it does, like I get the general idea of oh, it's The association of like, oh, if it's on the Patreon, it's also available in audio, you know? Like generally it's the one thing that's like not there. I could see that, I guess maybe being a source of confusion, but and I understand that, which is why I said in my little thing. I was like I get why this would be confusing. I post it here just for your awareness likeike I posted Lillilyo stuff You don't get anything from Lilio on Patreon So I don't I kind of feel like this isn't really confusing. I think people are just kind of being annoying about it, but it's okay, that'sair fair enough. It is what it is. I hear you Nothing's going to change This isn't part of your Patreon subscription. and Things move around. So like we used to do two episodes of Scaker symbols plus week We only do one of those now. We used to do constellation. We had to stop because host couldn't do the show anymore Um And it just didn't seem like it was really working anymore You know, like those kinds of things Something things come in as replacements and then things change. So as you were saying, it's like I had this different idea for sacred streaming. This is where I appreciate most about Um Pe's confusion is because last year, when I wrote I wrote a letter I ha't read it but I know what I said it and it is like We want to have like some sort of component to support the streaming on Patreon. So like we're going to do VOD here. And we're going to do other things. And the reality isn't Dusk and I realizeed this quickly and we talked about it like no one cares Like the audience for sacred streaming and like what might benefit sacredreaming like, that's what people are on Patreon for. They're on Patreon for the podcast and the audio podcast And the reason that we don't do the audio stuff is not only to fill people's feeds with things that they don't want But I'm totally right. like I know how to do this well enough where I know exactly what will happen And I tryed to explain this to her. It's like o, So here's where we already crossed Jaffe in audio. And then next week we do sacred Lague, right? and And everyone's like, well, where's the podcast for this Im like, it's vual,' supped be like jeopy game whatever, like yeah, I want the audo for that Then the next week, we do a stream and people don't like the game And they're like, well, we don't want to watch this game We're, why are you doing this? And I'm, all right, enough already. So like I'm just like we're just gonna we do like like a trade show kind of thing where like we watch like like an entire showcase And it's like, where's the audio for this? Rightactly That's exactly right. It's like I have done this a long time. I'm not stupid. I know exactly where it's going And so I'm just nipping that in the butud. It was not the idea. Do that Like we wanted to have a stream We want people to watch it on YouTube. We don't care about YouTubeike I care about youube I want people subscribe to YouTube, but like you're like, what does it matter if these people are already subscribe to YouTube?ike it's not that. It's to drop people to the channel Most people that watch everything on YouTube aren't subscried to your channel anyw So I just just trust me on this. This is what I want to do. And like can I just do anything that I want to do? Can I just be my be Colin You know, I always have to be I'm always something for every. I have to be everything for everyone Mo always giving That' what'm alwaysiv Yeah, yeah. So. Also I'm sorry, one other thing, we've never raised prices only just added more and more to it So give me a break, man Yeah He so Black detective and Dexer asked for my thoughts on it. I I agree completely with Colin. that it's like we' we're trying to do a YouTube thing. We want to drive the traffic to the YouTube channel U I would say that if this is something you desperately desire, there are options for you to just listen to it, whether it is a And this one does involve a cost, but if you have YouTube premium, you can listen to it like a podcast Or there are like tons if you search like YouTube to MP three You can just immediately rip that file off there and then listen to it on your phone So ah, there's options if you want to listen to it just the audio, you just have to Do it yourself because it's just not something that we're choosing to offer at this time. Just like don't know, man It gets a little I get I I get We got a lot of feedback And I read it and I understand it. and some of it's true and sometimes we make changes or whatever, but like Just give me a break You know, like I don't know you Well you what I'm trying to do different things. The one thing I tried to explain in that letter too is like the only like true growth opportunity we have now is to try to like make YouTube better as well. Like we've been between twelve and thirteen thousand patreon subscribers for two years or so. it's awesome. I love that And that's great. That's the core of our business, but I don't know that that's going to grow very much. So to like we have to find other ways to do things And I don't like the idea of saying like you took something out and didn't replace it's like Five dollars a month in twenty seventeen got you one fireside chat a week And then it got you in twenty eighteen fires side chats and knockback then it got you fireside chats, knock backack and sacred symbols Then it got you fire side chats, knock backack, sacred symbols and sacred symbols plus Then we removed fireside chats and it gave you defining Duke Then it gave you someumm ins signign then it gave you punching up And we had things like constellation and suuper knockback and all those things in there. and the price remains exactly the same I feel like I've been kind of cool about that. And by the way, that's intentional. I was just explaining this to someone recently is like, we don't want to charge too much. We want it to be fair and we want you to feel like you get mega amounts of value. And then when you see it on a credit card statement and you're like, this highigh value as opposed to seeing like a twenty dollars st thing on your statement like I did with Netflix one, you know last year and I'm like, why am paying I don't even watch that much or I don't need it, I don't get the v outue of.ike can't contend with the value. So I just feel like that's an important part of it too. and I think looking at it like we're taking things away from you is a little disenuous 's my opinion I realized what I said, it had shades of dawn matrics to it. If you need an audio only podcast, we have a product. it's called Sacred symbols Plus. Yeah, it's called Sacred Sybol. We have a product it's called Xboxy sixty Good old magric, man C is yeah. yeah. Is that SCP shirt? Is that is that the same clown posse? What is the same clown p posse? It is, it is. It's a Sterling Cooper and Price. This is from Medm. this is from Medman. Okay Gar it What does the same clown pososse get up to They just st j Yeah, they go they go to church, they do their taxes on time. they don't file extensions Um Yeah, I don't know. They have a nanny You know Really like nineteen fifty standard American living I read about the stock market in the paper. Right, exactly. they have newspapers. reallyally. newewspapers still Dude, by the way, I just I'm so glad that came up. I saw like a picture. I've seen this a few times and never really like thought to say anything about it, but you see the Sunday newspapers, You know how the Sunday newspapers are always like the big, like the big New York Times or like Yeah.ike when I worked at Delli, I used to put the New York Times together on Sunday. It was so annoying. You get like all these different bundles They used be like two bucks ike you used to get a paper for like a dollar and then like the Sunday paper was like two bucks or a dollar fifty or whatever I think I saw like the Boston Herald or whatever, something like that for the Sunday edition. It was like seven bucks. I'm like, who the fuck is paying seven dollars for a newspaper. seven dollars for a new nature. That's the nature of things, man. It's u Ging up. That's insane, that's insane No wonder no one reads the newspaper anymore.'re like, you' not even trying You got to have the guy out there being like, o like with his weird like old timey voice Extra extra I feel like it's got to be like at this point Almost like vinyl, you know? where it's like like there's like an aostalgy to the newspaper. It it's more like a Like it's less of it's less of what it's supposed to be and more about like what it represents If that makes sense like, it'smost more like a toy about like like a nostalgic toy. or like a trinket than it is a meaningful way to like digest news. Right? Like I can't imagine that anybody's like, Oh, this is the best this is the most efficient way for me to read the news right here. Yeah. it's on the newspaper Yeah, it's weird. It's very weird like, it's funny because it was a long time ago now, but like zero nine in twenty ten My girlfriend at the time got me like for my birthday in New York's Times subscription, which I appreciated because like the Saturday and Sunday Tes were kind of interesting, the Saturday Times had some stuff in it and then the Sunday Times with all like the crossword puzzles and ye it was cool And all the news and op eds it was interesting. And the New York Times was kind of a little different back then too. So it was much more palatable And so I would only get it on Saturday and Sunday and at first, I started really looking forward to it. I wouldd like make like a breakfast burrit or something, like read the paper. And then slowly I would fall behind. And then like I would get the next week's news weekend's newspapers and I wouldn't have read the weeks before. And then I would I'd be like, I can't get to these day. I got to read last week's to like, see if any interesting stuff because a lot of it's not very timely. And then before you knew it, I had like stacks of these fucking things. and I'm like, I can't even I can't consume the news like this. It's crazy that people did this every day for, you know, time immorial, like every day,e instead of just weekends, like going through these broadsheets and then being like, all right next. And I'm like, what? you read that? Like you're done with that. It's just like this. And that's what's funny about the seven dollar paper is like at a dollar or two dollars or twenty five cents, it was disposable. So it didn't really even matter But like it doesn't feel So disposable now So I was just I just I tried. I actually tried to be like a newspaper person at some point. I'm like, I can't You can't it's it's for a different time, man. It's like it's I like I like the aesthetic of a newspaper, but like I just I can't give a fuck. I I can't pretend like I care. Also, it doesn't help that like fifty percent of my association with the newspaper The first fifty percent is obviously like, you know, reading the paper. And then the second half of it is just like, we're going to put this down so the dog could pee on it. Right You know, like it was like it was always viewed as like this disposable. And just Let's throw some newspaper on it. Or like, you know, just like fill the lizard cage with newspaper, like some random shit like that. It was always viewed as like garbage after you were done reading it. It's like, Okay, well, what' Paying seven dollars for this. Yeah, it's it's it's I delivered newspapers one summer as well. When I lived in New Hampshire, it was really I wasn't even there for the sumers. It was really the spring. My friend Chad at the time, he was like H parents got divorced, I think he went to stay his dad for a while. so I like took over his root. And that was also interesting. You know, like having to put the newspapers together and then putting them in the little bags. And all there and throw it, you just toss ' them And some people have like different little It was such a different culture. It's I grew up this Reading Newsday, which was a Long Islands newspaper and I loved it. And it was one of those newsapers, wasn't like Nework Times where it was like a broadet, was like a book kind of newspaper. Yeah I'm talking about kind of like the post Yeah And u I love that, man. and I loved I would get the new my dad would get the newsday and I would just flip it over to the sports section because the section was always in the back and then you read it backwards basically Yeah God, I love. And the other thing I remember too at newspapers is when I went to college in Boston and I would take the T, which was the subway there It was always fun They always had the guys handing out the metro of the free newspaper. or the Phoenix, But then like you'd get on the train and every once in a while a person would leave behind like a real paper like the Boston Herald or the Boston Globe or something And then like you'd go like go read it or whatever for free. it's just it' so different. Now you'd have your little, you know, your fucking smartphone, you just read whatever want the a minute. I'm not even that old. like I can't imagine how really old people feel Yeah, how do my parents feel? They were born in nineteen fifty Can you imagine they're completely whiplashed? Yeah. C It's like I'm fucking whiplashed. You know what I mean? Like I's like, what do you mean Everybody's playing rooblox. Like what the fuck is this? You know, like I'm thirty two You know, I can't even imagine. It'd like had like thirty more years and like sixty four And everybody's everything's fucked I don't the other thing I realized, Chris, too, and you guys are probably getting into this because I think it was around your age when I started realizing this is like I also don't know who anyone is anymore Like I look at like You look at the red carpet at an event or u Coachella is, you know, the Coachella thing goes around. It's like day one, and it's all the band. And I'm like dude, I shit you not, I don't know what one of these fucking asses. I've never heard of one of these people. I don't know. I'm not even being ironic. How can I have how can this person be headlining Coachella? I u how to hurt that That started happening to me around like twenty three, twenty four to be honest with you. Like like things move things are just moving way quicker Um I think I actually know more about who's current today than I did when I was twenty twenty three or twenty four or twenty five Just weird But u I don't know That really is just a matter of like whether or not you care to keep up Like every now and again, I get into I go through like waves of like really like hyperfixation on specific special interests And I have many of them. so sometimes like I'll be in like two week long bout of just like really thinking a lot about music and then just like, okay, I'm fucking around with like music software or whatever And I'm like listen, I'm just kind of listening to like whatever's new. And so I become familiar with thatit and then like And then I get interested in like fucking around with like un real engine for like four months and then I and then I'm and then like some new person is like headlining Cachell or whatever and I'm like, I don't I don't know who that is. Yeah, don I don't know who squid word it is. Squid. you know, Rin no vowels. The one that I saw recently that everyone was circulating because they're like it was at the Grammys, there was that I don't know who he was, but it's a German DJ named Gestafelstein or something like that. He wears like a mask. It looks like a metal gear charac Umh, he wears like a black, like ceramic mask. He looks kind of cool actually. But people were like, who the fuck is this? Like like people were like infuriated by it They're like, no Like no That's a dope That's a that's actually really cool. Yeah it reminds me of, you know, I'm not a huge fan of electronic music, but I think it's fine. But like Death Punk I always really liked their look. Like I like how they we. I think that's so fucking cool But they always wear those helmets. I love that. I love that. That's neat. I miss that element of theatrics 'causeuse it's just like it's It's just more effort and you can just tell like it just like they care about like putting on they care about like maintaining an illusion. and I think that that's really cool. That's what I loveved about I mean,' it's different because it wouldn't be looked at as artistic because it's new metal and I understand that. But like that's what I love about slipnot back in the day or like Mud Vane or Mushroom head and like not not every band needs to be dressing up on stage and having like a thing going, but I like the like like I love Divo They have a like that Still, how deep to this day, you know, where they like all like they all dance in unison and like and wear like the same outfits or like the same like whatever whatever motif they're going to. I like that kind of thing. I also like, know lipisuits is one of my favorite bands. I also like how like when only one of them does it So like inlympus get, the guitarist West always has like some weird shit going on. But everyone else is just normal I dig that as well I think that's really cool. So like all their pictures together Yeah What you can say I think Gar should do that. I think guar should be like everybody everybody's dormable and then there's just one Gar. Yeah, one guar. Richmond, Virginia is own Gar Are they arere they Rich? Yeah, they're like, they're like, honestly one of the most famous things that like acid have come from here That's so funny my brother in law invited me to see them last year and I'm like, I don't I don't think I can do that I'm sorry t I can't go seek wire today tonight I am going to go try to see. so like, remember a couple of sumers ago I went and saw like I live in we talk about Richond, but I live like forty five minutes south of Richmond. in like a more rural suburban kind of area So like we get actse here every once in a while. Remember I saw the gym bloss and like Sugar Ray A couple summers ago. Yeahah. this summer It's going to be spin doctors Oh my go. Yeah, it was like one other One other band, I'm like, oh I'm going to this no, no Tonic was the last one. It might have been like filter or something like that And I was like Like this is the kind of shit we're getting here. I love it sit middle of field, basically just in the middle of a f And it's like in, u I think twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, something like that. I went to see. M might have even been a little bit earlier, but rem that was I saw Tears for fears and hao and Oates. at the u God, That's awesome. at the Oh my go. it was u I don't know if you actually I don't know if you know Queens that well. It was like a big it's like a big venue in Queens Forest Hills? Forest hill I know Forest Hills, quQueen. I know the stop. Maybe but There's like a I think they do the US open there or something like that. Yeah. My tad used to work at the US open. so I know that I do know that area. Yeah. Yeah. It was at that stadium. It was an outdoor stadium. It was like It was like raining. That's a little bit. and it was like it was really fucking. dude That was a great show. Oh, hell, I imagine, dude. P nototes kind of rips. Like it's it's kind of crazy. They're like he' shreadding. And I was like, what do you mean RNP They h each other. Yeah they Oh yeah. Oh ye, yeah. one of them kind of seems like went it crazy, right or something like that or like had real beef with the other one Oh yeah, they got mega beef Yeah because I watch that I watch one of them. I guess it's tall He has like his Youube channel I've seen that, whichich is awesome. It's like like bit random bands and actually just come play with them. me at his house and it's so fucking dope Its a hidd secret that Youube channel. Like sometimes I look at videos and I'm like This has like five thousand views, Are you serious This is do. That's so I'm so jealous. I've always tears for fears is a Realistically a top twenty band for me. I'd probably say top fifteen band for me. like U the herding iss obviously awesome, but songs from the big chair is like S in the big chair is pretty like fucking love game You know, like I just love them. I love them. My sister saw them a couple years ago. I remember In California, they would play everyce in a while They they live, but they would always play like wineries and like weird shit like that. It was like mega high end you can tell things that they were trying to do up there for a while. So it' Um God Guy they're They're so good. That was great pairing too I'm glad I saw I didn't think they would I was surprised that they were still playing, but I didn't think they would hate each other. So like I'm kind of glad I got in Got to see them before u before everything com. Yeah, you you definitely tears still tours, I think, but yeah, you definitely still Hollow nototes in the window in which you should have seen Hallnose which is all amazing Ramon and I are our Mannyater always was our karaoke song in college Um, All right Let's see what else here. Oh merch. L Amedia. store. Now guys we're going a little long here with like the intros. Should we do the normal topics of discussion or should we just go right in the news because I didn't mean for us to go that long. I don't know what we kind of got off off. I mean, am I going long? Okay eep them at a nice clip. Sure. Okay O'rion Virchil wrote us. Remember, one of the perks can get on Patreon if you supportores over there we really appreciate it Patreonot com slash lastAmet, get early at free ac, Sac Smals plus disiscord, RS feeds, all the rest, but you can submit your inquiries to the show as well via the threads on the news feeed on Patreon that go live each week for all the different shows So K keep an eye out for those. ourur thread goes live on Wednesday and is resolved. and by resolve, I mean deleted Thursday. So you have about twenty four hours. Orionan Virchu says Hello Sacrred Jents, in response to Jeff Buss's letter from the last episode. So we heard from Jeff Buss last week Can you tell him to stand down We happen to be friends, past coworkers, long distance friends that I wrote to you about a couple years ago. This man texted me how he was relieved that you finally used one of his letters on the show Please remind him that including this one, I now have three of my submissions read to his one I know this sounds really fucking petty, especially between friends, but I need at least one win against them. I'm desperate. Keep up the great content I'll shut up now. I love that That's good. can who can catch my eye? as I go through the thread Oriion,onggratulations on your three to one victory, but it's not over y Perhaps Jeff will have something powerful to. saying in a future eisode I'll be keeping a close eye Luke wrote in and said, Hey, CDC hoball as well, this one is mainly for Colin. If you're reading this on the show, I'll be halfway through my five hour drive to pick up my new Boston Terrier puppy named Daxter Any advice for a new Boston owner He is the rununt of the litter, seven weeks old and currently five pounds. Thanks for all you guys do. Appreciate it every week. Oh, how exciting. How very exciting indeed, nothing is cuter than a Boston puppy And Mike and I always say this we're oessed with Boston Triers. We have the Boston Terrier calendar in the kitch pictures of other people's Boston Terriers. I was going through my phone recently. I had to do like, you know, I'm getting like, warning from my iPhone being like, you have way too much shit on your phone. You're going have to increase your storage on an iCloud oratever. I'm like, I'm not doing that. So I started like, going and deleting thingsound like it's all dog pictures Not only Russian Trouble, but Lola. I still have a fucking million pictures of Lola I don't know what I'm supposed to do with these. I feel bad deleting them, especially becauseuse she's dead know where I'm like I feel like I got aa so I got to like getem on a folder or something D And we were saying, I'm like We can never breed Bostonons because I literally And I'm not kidding. I would never be able to get rid of them If the litter was five dogs, we would have five more dogs Like they're just I couldn't even I feel this way with a lot of puppies. I mean obiously everyone of those pupp I see Boston puppies and I'm like you I bought bothoth Russian trouble from a breeder in North Carola, great people. And I'm like, you can have one of these and then just sell it For for the nominal fee of like tw thousand two hundred dollars or whatever I'm Michael look. lookook at it. Look at it. So when you get Daxter, It's gonna be very exciting for you Bossons her like any other dog that he's gonna sleep a lot You got to bring them out every hour. You got to potty train them Thankfully Russian treble were potty trained fairly easily. You remember this, of course, doesn't wr right? This is my first time ever having to do this. is like You got to just bring them out constantly. likeike not wait for you got and you got to give him a treat. when they pee and poop and like reinfce it and then suddenly they just get it But that's going to be a challenge. I will say, Rush was better about this, but not really. Rush ate an entire window sill He used to like sit in this bedroom over here. what? And and he used to sit this is like, this is a guest room over here. This is like Mikea's office now next to me. It's the bathroom next to me then next to her another room and, um So Rusushia would like sit on the guest bed and you know, look out the window But there was like a wooden window sill And then he just ate it Like it was just all got like all like wood pieces, whatever. and then But he was generally okay, Treble Destroyed the corners downstairs of every molding on the ground. So like we had to get it all fixed. Caning There I'm not an expert in dos all I'm not an expert in Bossons. had the reo They're crazy. And I think you have to kind of know that about Boston Terriers, like they're wild dogs. But once they settle in, like after their're two or three, they they settle in, they have their moments or whatever. but inccredibly exciting time. They're so Here's a piece advice because I get a lot of letters about this a surprising amount of people inquire about this. I would say dozens of people have inquired about this over time. is a Dog insurance Health insurance Get it now Like when you're listening to it's like now right now You'll lock inm you'll lock in a low price, a lower price And I highly recommend this, I don't know other people's experiences, but we've had amazing experiences, like almost to the point of like I don't understand how this can be so good with Trueanion The company where it's like really, like you'll just, it's amazing. Like like they really aren't ballbusters at all. A least not y. Um, G dog insurance, it's worth it It'll cost you like thirty dollars a month or something And it's It works the way that I wish human insurance worked which is it's about ailment over time. instead of element by year, which is what it is for us So Rush has like a really bad right leg. He had to get he had a lauxating patella and he had to get knee surgery that We pay for everything up to two thousand dollars and then pay ten percent of everything above that and It doesn't reset. So like if he ever has a problem with that knee or that leg again We've already hit the cap and now it's just ten percent forever. It's like literally better than humanurance highly recommended Have fun citing times. Dustin do you want to get another dog No M Holl and I have always said we There's only like so much love we can give and we love Frisk so much that We couldn't share that love with another dog I understand that. I felt I didn't know didn't think that I would that I could having a true affinity for another dog the way I do for rush or like one dog at a time, I get it with aolle. so when we got trouble loved her., obviously I' spend time with her but I'm like, I willll, But but then like, over time, you're like, oh, yeah, this is just like I assume it's like having a second kid, although not as serious. I know I understand. I'm not saying I'm right. D don't have a dog dad saying that I then you, but I do say like Russia's mind and trouble is is, um Mikeah' And yes Um, They're kind of trend towards us. You know, at night snuggling. that kind of thing Yeah So it probably happen with you two like that Frisk is a very demanding dog in terms of attention. I feel like It would have a negative effect on her that she wouldn't get all the attention at all at all times Yeah, R Russia's jealous for sure still to this day of Mica Because we always say like you know, we have our fake stories and conversations with the dogs and it's always like Russia is always like, I've been here longer They're like, I've known them longer kind of thing. And so like when we're especially when we're bed, not doing anything inappropriate just like talking each other, like facing each other or whatever. and like or the te' on he'll just like come in right in the middle and like and right lay down like wr right in front of my face Its there ares such a tension hugs. It's so funny. It's interesting T trail L on Rade and said Hello Sacred crew S speaking of Brad caring about LSM the most Chris, how far you have you gotten in Sain Slayer Dustin Jaffe and Brad talk about it but not you. You must be on the nose to the grindstone getting the plat right. You are a founding sacred member and whatnot. Cheers I've not started sacred I'm not sacred I've not started Saint Slayer yet. Too many SSs by the way. Yeah, I've done that too. I didn't name Sain Slayer, so I'm not gonna to pretend like I did that on purposely I do I am planning to get to it. It's just like we have So we had Pragmata that we needed to finish Uh, then Soros is there We had the marathon stream that we had to grind for. so I haven'ted a lot of time to plan anything that isn't ediate But once' done with Sareros, I might want to jumpto it. And I've been isshing to have something to play on myeam deck, and it seems kind of perfect for that. I don't anticipate I'll be very good at it though to be honest with you Like those are like I'm I'm okay these types of ye like I can play through like Megaan and like some of these older D games but like Castlevanias always given me trouble. Like early Castlevania, like the stiltedf K ofs like what we go for. yes so good luck It's always given me trouble. Like I remember I played the demo of Saintslay and I like that carriage level fucked me completely and And I was like, all right. Well we'll see how this we'll see how this goes. Well God spepeed you. Yeahah, I just thought it was funny that people are trying to put you on the spot trail I'm than you for W writing in Billy, but not so talented wrote in said And now we're getting a little bit into corrections and some show related things we'll get in the news here now as well Billy, but not so talented says, this isn't actually a show submission, justust a quick thought for Collins since I know you checked these You mentioned a PS six poll on last week's Sacred symbols pllus and it got me thinking Have you considered running your own polls for sacred You could drop a poll when posting and running until the next episode's recording. I bet you'd get a good response between Patreon and free feeds Maybe not a lot of question ideas would be, but it would be interesting, especially for similar things to the PS six question or release question. Thanks for the great content I guess that could be a fun idea The one thing I'm afraid of is when I was thinking about this was The way people report the things that we say So now we're gonna put this like wildly unscientific data You know, that's like irreplicable into the wild and expect people not to take that seriously. likeike six thousand Playsttation fans say or whatever, like howateever maybe. And I'm like, I don't know. Like But then I was thinking like it is fun, and it is interesting. It's anedotal, and it's not really our problem how people cover it. So I don't hate the idea. it's something fun to consider. He's basically referring to on push square. when we we talked about a story they had about PS six, they had a little poll and we mentioned that. So that's what he's referenc Um It's an interesting idea and we and it could be good anecdotal stuff, but yeah I wonder what people would do with that. like We say almost anything in people misrepresent it. So floted it or whatever I saw I guess we'll get a little well, I guess we'll talk about it a little bit later, but like, u quote that was going around. Christian Fenson from Sonyad said something about Nishino noting that PlayStation sixix is a plastic box without content Did you guys see that I did see that and And everyone's like, oh he's talking about it's a play it's a It's a plastic box without content. I'm like that's not what he said. likeike that's what he meant. What he meant it was that it's nothing without the games on it But like you just say anything. You know, like you say anything and people misrepresent it, it's like crazy. So that's one concern I have but again, I don't know that's really our problem. Yeah And finally, a correction here Johnnyuesticles wrote and said Were you guys Johnny uest fans? I'm not even really sure what Johnny uest. Like It was a cartoon that I saw commercials for when I was a kid But I don't really even know what it is It was just a thing I don't know I didn't really like it. It was like when you have nothing else to watch, I guess I'll watch Johnny uest Yeah since it's on AQuick note on last week's news about the PSN settlement, he writes You mentioned not wanting to take the time to pursue participating in lawsit to get store credit but unless I'm misreading the website It looks as if everyone is automatically a beneficiary and will have credits deposited into their wallet without having to do anything The only course of action available on the website is to opt out of the settlement. Obviously, no one would do that. E except maybe corporal apologist Collin. Guys, let's opt out of the let's save Sony a few bucks and opt out of this. Yeah. They need it. They deserve it. Well, that's an important caveat So it looks like everyone's just going to get the money. I guess you'll just find out how much you're getting back based on the things you purchased and all the rest. but God speed to you out there. I apologize for misrepresenting that Really, if that's true, then there was no purpose of talking about it at all, actually Yeah, man But I digress. Let's get into the news this week. We did that pretty quick Nhing you're right. your instinct was right there I wanted to have an FYI. A few people wrote into this and a lot of people tweeted it at me U And so I want to make sure everyone knows it exists. I have not finished it yet though I go with my friends letter Oakley Waldron, who wrote in and said, Hey guys What do you make of the uncharted for blow up from the Kempi I feel like this was genuinely a great video that he obviously put a ton of work into. As for the content itself, there's certainly some interesting stuff here. and I love the fact that that we have gotten more slly in Elena, but I do think we'd ended up with a fundamentally better end in eightate story A appppreciate it's hard to compare one to one, given it wasn'twhere near finish, but there's enough here to see why PlayStation wanted it going in a different direction Co specifically did any of this line up with what you remember seeing during the creation of the history of Naughty Dog. Thanks guys. So he's referencing a video that many people have been bringing to our attention, as I said. It comes from a YouTube channel, the Kemi TH E K EMPY aboutbout twenty five thousand subscribers And the video is called Uncovering Amy Henigs Uncharted F. And somehow this video only has ninety three thousand views. Now that's a lot of vs for us But I'm surprised at a video of this Caliber that's talking about a topic that's pretty interesting to people hasn't gotten more play I've only gotten a little bit into it. The video is an hour and a half long I will say a few minutes into the video, I simply paused it and emailed them And I was like, you want to come on Sacred plus to talk about this? I have not heard back from him yet, but I hope that we can sit down and talk about this because It didn't seem like he realized. Well he did a lot of research. I haven't like I didn't like search for my name in the transcript or anything, but like I did talk a bit about uncharted four and What he's saying is a much more deeper and much more fastidious confirmation of some of the things that I understood. But Ive told people before that uncharted It's all mixed the Uncharted for we got is a mixed up version of the original charted for an all fuckked up version of it Whether you like it or not is up to you. I think it's awesome. It was not what it was meant to be. and you see relics of it maps and so on and so forth. So and characters and models, they Yeah becausecause they reset it in twenty fourteen and the game count came out in twenty sixteen. Now a game of that quality You have to understand like there's not only so much you can do. you're kind of moving shit around you're going and getting new voice acting, maybe motion capture and some of the other things. but anyway I wanted to recommend this video. There's nothing else to say about it. Did you guys see it though Dustin, did did you see this video going around I am in the same spot as you that I watched twenty or thirty minutes of it Uh, but I've not seen all of it, but you're right. The level of detail and research. seemingly It' very good and it's very interesting. I'm curious about like some of the there's like gameplay parts of showing the game in a very l fi state that is cool. And it's interesting the part that I was on is he's going through and breaking down what the original uncharted for would have been. And it's like there's the scene of them going into the auction. and how different it's like it's the same it's same setting as you were saying, like they had this level but they reworked Who's in it, the dynamics of the situation. it's Quite interesting Yeah Chris did you see this going around? Yeah, I watched the whole thing. I was fixated on it because it is really I love these deep dives. I love seeing Shit that never happened in in a in a and in such a complete way. So like I I inhaled this video the side. Like the second I saw it came out and it was as long as it was and people were talking about it I was like I made like a night of it. I'm going to make food cool. I'm going to sit down and I'm going to watch it. And it is really fascinating stuff. likeike they they showed Like there were some early builds that showed like a like a like an on screen health bar that was like kind of stld out in three segments, kind of implying that like if you lost like you could almost like you could only recover. Right to the amount like that you lost or something. And there was like there's a big focus on like no guns, which is like, that's not new information. That's in that's in blood sweat and pixels, even Um, but like there's some like yeah, there's There was like shootable handholds. There was like a whole section, I guess, apparently where it would flash back And you you would be playing as like the pirates that you're hunting for? or something and like it was there was like a flashback on the ship likeike however many hundreds of years ago that you would play through from the perspective of the pirate, you'd play as like Sully as well in the auction. It was like a a dancing minig game in the auction that I remember that was, I guess cut because it just was wasn't fun probably. I could see that. Um, Some characters that were cut uh replaced. I know that u, what is it There was It was showcased that Nate's brother had like a very, very, very, very, very different role in the story too, is' like more antagonistic Rafe as Alan Tudic would have been kind of fun. I'm kind of sad that it's not Alan Tudic to be honest you. like I like Alan Tudic a Yeah, it's a really I highly recommend watching that video. It's really fat. If you're like a game design nerd, It's really like dense with like a lot of interesting stuff. There's a lot of cut dialogue to that's like in the files that like he kind of like U puts together in like What is the most logical order for them to be Um Really great video Like great work. It it's crazy that We still that was That would have been still Amy Henig's most recent game. Like that's how much this has been stretching on with her Yeah. and I know Jaffy has like some concern about her new game. Not that he knows anything, but rather that like it's just kind of weird. Like what is going on here with like all this shit she's doing And I don't know that it's really her Um You know what really bothers me about this is that like I have such a clear visual of spending that day with her, especially when I was writing the history of Nightedg again um, being in her office and Sweet wateraterers calling me right now answer Come on man,t you wan to ask about your new symbol? No, I don''re nice I don't call call, How's how's symbol doing man? I don't even know why they're calling ' Iven't bought anything from them in a while, but like yeah,. Can't we talk about this where I was like, I wish I appreciate Sweetwater's attention to customer service at stpe And they've been really useful to me, like where I just message them or whatever, text the guy and I'm like, I think one of the things was like I really want like a I want like a more piccolo snare sound But I don't have a picolo sare. Like what kind of, you know, skin would you recommend or head and and any s, you know, it's like It's cool but I wish there was an option and there isn't as far as I can tell on their website to be able to like select. It's like, don't call me You know, like I don't I'll call you. Yeah, like I don't need to hear. I appreciate it. I don't need to hear from you though. That should be like it should be the default option But you should be able to opt out of that. If people don't know Seetwater,'s like an online, very famous online music store for music, like for instruments and it's awesome. highighly recommend it And their customer service is crazy good But like they call you and text you and email you like you. Like not like some form thing, like they get in touch with you to like talk about the things you bought and u, it's neat. It kind of loses its lust for me a little bit though after a while. I'm Yeah. what the fuck was Iking about Uncharted. I have this very clear picture of being with her and being in her office and Again, I've said it a million times over the years is like I saw the whole game on This whiteboard that had index cards. tape to it with a bunch of index cards under it. and it was this whole sequence of things. It was at a ninety degree parallel, actually. I remember saying it to her It was a second floor, third floor window. they're in the water garden, which is a u a office park in Santa Monica and It has like it was like a ninety degree goldal window and like people can see in and like read this stuff And that's not That's not totally out of left field because you remember people were looking at Super bot entertainment through their windows to steal shit about PlayStation All stars. Do You guys remember that? And they had to start putting stuff over their windows and stuff like that So that was after that So I think that's probably why I brought it up. and I so I can see it, but I'm like, I wish I could just see what are on those cards because you know it's, you know it's in your memory somewhere. Rightight, exactly. It's like I notice what some of them said Like one of them was like Scotland One of them was like, you know, I think like, u I guess what would I think it was like colony or something like that which ended up being like like library or whatever Loratoral And uh Yeah, but like it is in there and I'm like, that's it I Chris she had no I don't think the funny thing is I didn't even sign any any NDAs. People always think like in the games industry, you're signing shit all the time. L I very rarely ever sign anything. Rockstar was really the only company that made you truly sci shit to see things. Often IGen would sign on behalf of us and they would be like an overarching thing, but like They just let me in and showed me things and talked to me and I saw, I mean, saw a bunch ofuff and I' like, yeah, it's exactly what you say 'cause I'm like it's in there,. Yeah. And I was trying to be kind of polite too. I didn't want to be like, you know, an inch away from it like reading it. I didn't really, I don't really care about spoilers to that degree. I was curious, so It's I wanted to give a shout out to this gu. I hope he responds to email, but whether or not he does is up to him, but I'd love to talk to more deeply about it. It's very impressive video. So go check it out.' The YouTube channel is the Kempi. And the video is called Uncovering Amy Hennigs Uncharted four And it was published a few days ago, so you'll be able to find it quite easily, I think All right, and thank you for everyone that wrote in about it and brought it to my attention as well because I don't think I would have seen it otherwise Although I guess it it's been since reported by some places, so I probably would have probably would have picked it up at some point All right. it is a financial reports season. I picked out three that I thought were interesting to kind of clue in on Two of them are Capcom and Sega. We'll get to those in a minute and won't get so deep into them. I just think there's some interesting stuff in there because they're both quite transparent, especially Capcom with their numbers. So we have like series numbers and game numbers and all sorts of things What did he say here Hi Colin D could sweet waterater here It's been a while since we connected checking in to see how everything is going for you these days. Anything new going on with music? What projects can I be helping you out with this year? Hm And I feel bad because I have like three other texts from them that I' never answered Yeah. They they're probably sending to be an SSMS on their computer, you would assume so it's probably not that bad What did you say us y How he's thinking about that when he goes to bed at night he's like got it We already a son of a bitch. I thought we had something. Yeah. Yeah, we had a we had a conversation. I don't know what happened What if you flipped the script and became really annoying to them Yeah, ask him like What's girl? Like do you have any advice? You know, you can even just that's funny. You could even just like I get on the phone with him and be like just hit my d and be like, So what is this? Am I tuning this right you think? Like what do I do? You know U like that kind of like just be really super annoying. You gott to call him at two AM on on on Monday You know Wake him up Like Hey, hows it? just want to know how things are going for you. Yeah what's going on How does it feel? you get it? And then like a year or later, you're like have you had enough You do it for a year straight everyvery Monday at three AM. He and it's ridicous All right, so Sony but all right, so what I was saying was I want to talk about Capcom. I want to talk about Seg. There are others too. like and there's interesting stuff Nehon Falcom, I don't know if you saw, which is the trarails in East Studio had a twve hundred twelve hundred percent increase in operating income, which is hysterical I'm like, Okaykay. that's insane I guess that was based on trails the first and some other something they did. There are a few other things. Konami announced sales numbers for Silon Hill that are pretty good. There's a lot out there for you get to check, but I thought those were the two interesting ones to get into, but Sony obviously will get into more deeply. It's also worth noting that these are fiscal year reports. So quarter four is over in the fiscal year, fiscal year is typically go april first to march thirty first. So these will cover april first, twenty twenty five through march thirty first, twenty twenty six. Um, So that's true for everything. but the Sony ones, I guess will be more interesting to us and There are a few things worth getting into so. Um, Here I took I sat down and just took a bunch of notes last night. that I thought were interesting. So Sony overall is what I would consider fairly flat as a company, overall, sales are up four percent year over year, which is modest Operating income, however, profit is thirteen percent you' over you're up. So positive for them But not incredible. Cash flow is flat as well from an operating perspective Um The Playsttation contribution seems nond descript. They So Sony has this thing they do and if you read their financials where they have pluses and minuses under each of their sections, so like film, music, imaging, whatever And it'll say like this pososit plus contribution, negative contribution. But for the overall picture, PlayStation is neither positive nor negative. You willll get into that in a little while. I think it just is what it is right now The big winners for Sony over the fiscal year were music, interestingly and imaging because their camera sensors are in everyone. I think they're iPhes, but they're in a bunch of other shit too. so they're doing really well. with that. And remember this coming year, what's that Chinese company doesnin TCL T TCL. yeah, that sounds right. They are soon they're going to start making Sony's Ts So they'll start getting good licensing fees from that as well Um, they so those are the winners. The losers were kind of interesting. One of them has to do with Sony, though, they don't outright say it because there are others that likeix Pixel Moto or whatever that company and other things that they've shut down But subsidiary closure acted as a drag on them financially this year, which makes some sense U the Honda collaboration is another one. They were making a car if you guys remember with Honda, they canceled that. That's another thing that they had to write off And Sony, I didn't know this owns three percent of Spotify and Sotifyies notot doing great apparently So that was a drag on them as well Um Well we get the Playstation Sales year over year were essentially flat for the overall unit. and operating income was up slightly. So I guess a small win, but with global forces as they are, you can look at that as a winner or loss. So Flat with inflation means you probably lost a little bit flat with the global economic, especially when you're making electronics situation is probably positive for you They took a substantial impairment on Bungie. This isn't the first impairment that they took on it I imagine it will not be the last one. This one is seven hundred sixty million dollars So Um three times what they paid for insomniac They just wrote down on their books for the cost of to incur some of the costs of Bungie, I imagine they'll be writing it down more Unfortunately So that was a major impairment for them that hurt the brand. If that didn't happened, they would have been closer to like a billion dollars in profit Um So worth noting that Um Fiscal year twenty six forecast is flat They expect operating income to go up ten percent again But they have a decrease in game segment forecasting. based on Late era Playstation five. pllus your natural latent kind. I wonder There's a slowdown that occurs at the end of every generation with every console. We see that in the numbers. And I'll get into that in a minute I wonder if I mean, they're not stupid. They must be accounting for the boost in Grande Thoro sales. I mean, N only the thirty percent rips on every copy of Grand thatft Auto sold, although they probably have a deal with Rockstar probably lower than that. But the console sold as well. I'm sure they're accounting for that Um So the forecast is flat higher operating income and The games segment seems to kind of be in stasis. I guess Let me think here. Yeah, so like they'll have announced PS six before this fiscal year ends the new fiscal year And then that next fiscal year will be the interesting one, right because we'll be able to see like what their fiduciary obligated forecasts are for the launch of the console. So this time next year will have a pretty good idea of what's going on if they haven't already said themselves. T talk about games only for fiscal year twenty twenty five. so this is the calendar year we just or the fiscal year we just went through They benefited greatly from foreign exchange rates. That makes sense? U Network services. are doing well for them. So that's things like PlayStation pllus and third party games And we'll talk about that in a while as well. Down hardware sales year over year, notot a huge surprise there. And like I said, the bunchy impairment of seven hundred sixty million dollars This was a little concerning. Monthly active users year over year are only up one percent I guess peopleeople are moving from PS four to PS five. give you another monthly active user that would just be the same monthly active user. Maybe you can look at it like that Quarter four Technically was the highest ever for their quarter, but it's one hundred twenty five million versus like one hundred twenty three point eight So not a lot of growth for Pation from that perspective. twenty six forecast, like I said hardware continues to go down This is good news, first party sales up. That's not a huge surprise. Saros is not going to be a relevant factor, though they say in the thing that's coming up I don't think anyone's going to care. they're going to lose money on Sarros I think actually Um 'causeuse I think Caros Allenia had said Saros's budget was presumed to be something like sev million dollars and they've made not even a third of that So I don't that's not looking good. I'm a little worried about howousemore Um But we'll have Tkon which we'll probably do respectively. and then Wolverine, of course And then there might be a game and Carter one But we don't know about it yet So we'll see what happens there. This is I thought this was funny. I don't know if you guys So again, the pod they always put positive as negatives and I always I loveved it this. This is very Japanese. They put as a positive for Playsttation absence of impairment losses So that's what they're try they're like try to scrape some sort So what that's saying to them what's saying to us anyway is that they have no intention of closing anyone Now those things can change. But they're literally saying like they don't intend on taking impairment losses this year. And the cost of doing business is getting more expensive and therefore arrow down So this is interesting Sony is becoming mega, mega reliant on entertainment. I mean, we've been talking about this with PlayStation. We know this with pictures and music as well But sixty seven percent of Sony's gross sales now came from Playsttation movies TV or music. U so That's pretty interesting as well And I saw this, this has nothing to do with us, but Cunch rolls at twenty one million subscribers Pretty impressive It sounds about rare It's affordable. I want to say Ten dollars a month compared to like something like Netflix now The diversity of content is not necessarily going to be there, but Uh yeah, crrunchy rooll is ten dollars a month So If you like anime, it's a no brainer. Like there's that's the type of service that you know, for me, I just keep all the time ten bus In this economy ten dollars for ten dollars in service. tenen dollars is the new three dollars. Yeah, you know. You know, so it's like it's It's kind of nothing, especially if you' unemployed know Jitsuaisen is I think there's also a free version of Crunry Roll that has ads know that you can Is that true? That would make sense actually. I'm looking at their tiers and it's there's a check markark for the lowest tier that says no ads So I believe you can watch maybe limited access with ads Sony doesn't make a lot of great decisions, I don't think, but it was a great decision to go in on anime Oh, yeah. clearly That's a that was a very, very smart thing to do, I think for them Um So there's that now. I'm going to put Well, there's a few other things I want to talk about, but I'm putting this link in here as well because I'm going to have you guys use it in a second Be I know there's a lot of stuff here. so I want to make sure you know I'm getting this stuff from in a minute The other things I wanted to say, so PlayStation five overall, ninety three million plus units sold Things slowed down pretty drastically though for the console. So eighteen point five million units sold in fiscal twenty twenty four sixteen million sold in fiscal twenty twenty five, That number is is expected to go down again Um, they are reaching a certain saturation point They're getting pretty close to PS four's numbers now They'll easily be into the hundred million plus range this time next year. So That's a massive success, regardless of what happens, I think from that point And then games finally A I thought of you seenty percent digit two percent year over year Not a huge surprise, I guess. Game sales are up The u Let me see here Yeah, three hundred thirty point three million first party games sold versus twenty eight point nine million the year before And PS five only software went from three hundred seentyeen million to three hundred twenty one million, I guess. So decent sales U let's see what else. I guess that's it. Now the final thing people were writing in about or not right. no one actually did write in about this. peopleeople were talking about it circulating, I must be honest think that someone Um is AI The link I sent you here. is a corporate strategy presentation, one of the six or seven pieces of documentation they release. Page twenty three is what I'm lookingooking at on this just so you guys know I'm talking to the guys on the show You guys can go look at it. You can go to Sony dot com slash EN slash Sony Info, I think and get all the stuff. Actually, I was reading CapCOom's financials from nineteen ninety nine for no particular reason yesterday It was really it was really interesting. I'm like, wow, this is so cool. S light reading on a on a Wednesday. It's so funny, dude. I was gonna to share it with people but it's like, I'm sure a lot of the companies were like this, but I was in high school I was read the shit I didn't know shit existed Like reading it where it's like we got to like have an emphasis online gaming. Every game needs to have like an online component. We need to worry about e commerce and like things like they don't use the terminology micransactions, but like And I'm like, wow, they were thinking about this in literally nineteen ninety nine interesting So AI is the big thing that people drew out of the Sony's financials. Did you guys see any of this kind of stuff going around that Sony's kind of talking more about AI and even collaborating with Band Dynamo on a new project? So Here's what it says And this comes from the perspective of I think Nishino would be the one saying this because these are transcripts of speeches They say, quote, Now I would like to turn to the topic of AI When we think about further growth at Sony Group, AI is one of the most important themes for us to consider Specifically, the potential it holds for us across the Sony Group businesses to unlock new value creation and capture new opportunities for growth across our entertainment businesses Let me start by stating a core principle that guides our thinking about AI. Han creativity must remain at the center. AI is a powerful tool, but it is not a replacement for artists and creators It is an amplifier of human imagination and a catalyst for new possibilities They go on. great content comes from deep personal experiences, unique perspectives and a strong inner motivation to express something meaningful Fans are drawn as such stories as characters and worlds that offer deep emotional connection We believe the most memorable experiences will always be created by humans and enjoyed by people. AI can assist in that process, but it will not replace human imagination, creativity, and emotion. I think they are putting a stake in the ground here But I think they're doing it for a reason because they have more to say about this because they continue. AI brings new opportunities to the world of entertainment, not only in terms of efficiency but empowering creators to expand their creativity Additionally, we believe AI will make it easier to take on more innovative and ambitious projects, projects that were previously difficult to pursue due to constraints of cost and time So This is where I think the rubber hits the road for all of these people is like, yeah, all right All of the ease comes, not all of it, but a lot of the ease comes at the sake of employing people Now That's your Thats you were prerogative Rockstar could employ AI to make a bunch of grand theft auto and save a ton of money if they did it, but it's like at what cost to the human capital? Um, So they get more into how things are going to be going with PlaySation pictures, Paystation music, or I'm sorry, Sony pictures, Sony music and Playtation They write, for example, this shift represents a significant opportunity for PlayStation as a platform As more diverse and innovative content is created and the overall game industry continues to evolve Playsttation can connect more with fans g more fans more with games further strengthening its value. Now This is something interesting to me because They're talking about more diverse and innovative content and you finding it. So this is ineoffensive. I think what they're basically saying here is ability of game search tools. Like when I turn on PSN, It should just know what I want And that's not a bad use of AI. In fact, that's a fairly effective use of AI for everybody For them, they'll sell more games. I'll realize more games for me exist that will they only know that by our behavior I don't really mind That's not what bothers me Perhaps what bothers me a little more is Qote, alongside our own efforts, we are currently engaged in a collaborative pilot initiative with Band Dynamo holdings o explore how generative AI and the latest technologies can most effectively contribute to realizing a creator's vision in the realm of video production Through these explorations, we have identified massive gains in speed and productivity per person, as well as how to concretely address the shortcomings of generative AI based on the understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the models One example of the weaknesses is the lack of consistency and controllability, which is demanded by creators and those involved in production We have accumulated know how to resolve such issues by utilizing various AI models, as well as fine tuning models with technology and proprietary data to consistently generate output. of intended style with the accuracy and cost that would be necessary for deployment What he's basically saying here and this is the Achilles heal of AI is that like You have to keep prompting the AI to do things again and again and again as opposed to having control over aspects of it. That's why At least for a while, people were making a lot of money by being Daggan talked about this about knowing how to prompt AI became a skill because you have to get it to do everything again except for like change this little piece. and until a few years ago, that was really difficult to do He says, quote, onn the other hand, we have also identified opportunities where AI can produce highly sophisticated and realistic outputs, which were not feasible before due to production time constraints We hope to contribute to the overall growth of the industry through such collaborations, and by combining Sony's expertise in audio video processing, spatial and CG technology generenative AI create a creater first production environment that is safe and secure to use while maximizing their artistic sensibility and output. Um Well, there's more to say, but we'll stop here. like somebody's telling you they're going use generative AI Now I don't know how we feel about that. I'm not crazy about this. but at least they're saying it too their credit, so now you can make an informed decision on if it really matters to you. when the reality is I keep saying this over and over again, like I don't I don't know that it's going to matter I don't think people are going to stop So It's about the tolerance of like what you let these companies do and they're going to continue to push. And none of them want to be the loser They don't want to be the one that didn't take this seriously It would probably be better for them to take it seriously and for them to blow up in their faces than it would be. for them to not take it seriously Chris, how do you feel like the use of generative AI here in PlayStation? do you feel like it's something that's necessary? No. But it's, but it's it's going to happen. I think what you I think what you said I think they want to pursue it and they want to be Like you said, they don't want to be the loser. And so like I get why a company That doesn't care about anything but money becausecause that's the whole goal would do this It makes perfect sense to me But it reminds me, it feels a little bit like I don't know if you saw that publishers were doing this thing where they're going back and like updating Like and they're just going back and like Yeah yeah, I've seen that I can't remember what I can't remember what book it was, but like somebody like some book that came out in two thousand four has like a paragraph where it's like a character saying like, hey, come over and watch this TikTok I found And it's just like all right, well it's just we'd everything's just bastardized and it' it's over. Yeah, it sucks. Like it's fine It sucks. whatever. I think there's the thing that's sad about this is like there's a I can I can see a realistic future where Judas is the last game I truly give a shit about CCause asse that's coming out after G twenty six? That's what I assume They need ask to come out really soon or after GTA. Right. it needs to be either be imminent or like after GTA And it's just like that's that's a that's a real That's a genuine bummer ike I don't know if I care. I don't know if I have interest in games that are like fooled up by generenative AI models Like it really completely drops everything from it for me. So like, I don't know. We'll see how it shapes up. and maybe there's like, maybe they found some impossible way to ethically use this, but I know the goal behind this is to A be the first people to really crack that code be the kind of reliable in some ways, maybe even like position themselves to be like the unreal engine of that space where it's just like, all, well, we've cracked this come to us figure out everything because we've done it. Yeah just or the other goal is to just ultimately Uh trivialize tasks to the point where you can then justifiably fire thousands of people. that you no longer need because those jobs are now supplemented by or not supplemented but replaced by, you know, some model That's a lot cheaper theoretically It probablyably more expensive overall for everybody with those data centers being put put everywhere, and then you're going to have to pay the electric bill for subsidize. It's crazy. All of this is insane. U But more power to you. You can figure it out if you want, but uh I don't know what this bodes for my interest this in this medium, to be honest with you I'm concerned about An he wenthead of of this I have many thoughtoughts buckle up for my fifteen minute rant here really, Give me a solid few mines I think there's good and bad here. over about the all of the AI stuff U sure. specifically when they're talking about tools, and there's even good and bad amongst the good stuff I would argue. U They specifically talk about a tool they created that they're calling mocking Bird. And it says that quickly animates three D facial models based on performance captures Uh, you know, work that pad taken hours can now be completed in a fraction of a second which is Interesting, and they go on to say that Naughty Dog, San Diego, Studio and other studios have adopted this tool in titles already released like Heart Horizon Zero Dawn remastered little small lowercase Dustin was right moment where when we've talked about AI, I've told and said many times Studios are already using AI toolsets. No yeah consistently. Like I'm I'm confident of this. I guess I can't be positive because I didn't know firsthand. I'm like, this is happening Guarantee it. lock it in. So so they use it for facial capture for facial animation in Horizon Zero rem Master. No. Yes and no. It says that They they're emphasizing that they' still using human actors, but process and turning that motion capture into what you see on screen That's what has changed. Saras could have use some of that to be honest with you. Yeah, probably. Something I find really funny about this, this tickled something in my brain that that's somewhat related that I guess Pixar back in two thousand six, they lost the Oscar for cars to the The movie Happy Feat And so U in in their next movie, they put in the credits so fucking petty of them that said our quality assurance guarantee one hundred percent genuine animation, no motion capture or any of other performance shortcuts shortcuts were used in the production of this film That's where we were in two thousand six where animators believed that if you use motion or I guess the purist believe that if you use motion capture that you were using a shortcut. Yeah. Now we're talking about film and not games, but I You know, there's a lot of. But they did that in the next Cars movie Well, look, I'm looking, this is a Reddit thread, but it has a screen capture So I'm trying to figure out, oh, it was in Ratatui Okay, allright, All right. I was gonna to say if that was cars, it was like, yeah, no shit you did performance capture a car you go man. No yah. gotott a h the car We were piss Be I guess the movie happappy Feet, which is penguins, but you can use you know, motion capture to some degree. Sure. Happy Fet used motion capture and that was viewed as a shortcut. So fast forward to where we are now twenty years later. U where and again, this is games and not movies, but ill very similar. you're both animating three D models where it's like We're using motion capture and the process that we use to turn that into something into a game, We're now using AI to accelerate that What you could argue on a good side that This is helping speed up development and using these tools for efficiency. That can be viewed as a good thing. It can be viewed as a bad thing If there if you look at there was like, okay This job, this was someone's job or this was a team's job Uh And I guess if you want to look at it Class halful, you could say it's like, well, now they can be deployed to do more creative things. Sure, yeah. It's like But is that actually What's happening or what's going to happen. Do you just need smaller teams at this point and I'm I'm kind of in the middle on that because throughout Human history We have had jobs for people doing things that then we found a much more efficient way that eliminated that job. Right. You know, we don't, we don't have very many scribes around anymore. We don't need someone to write out a book anymore So It's a tough one Um Yeah, the way they're using AI in that way. I' I'm not like immediately vehemently against Another thing that I found really interesting in this, they talk about the Grand Trismo AI powered racing agent which is interesting, but I want to read this part here because this is something that we touched on Taking this further, our world class creatives have shown the ability to create amazing prototypes where NPCs with their own personalities can create a living, dynamic world for the player to explore Do you remember when I suggested this that this would happen a long time ago. It's happening. It's actually happening. It's stated in the Sony Financial ' getting dynamic characters through AI And I'm really curious about what this could mean. When I suggested it a while back which I'm not acting like that's some kind of like crazy novel idea. I'm sure many people thought of this. Obviously, that's why they're doing it But What what does that look like? Does Does a writer wrrite a character, an extensive character. that includes like guardrails. like this character will never do this. This character could do this. This character will always act this way you feed that into an AI and then that character is still a written character from a human in a story that is hopefully written by people then able to be interactive in a way that just simply is not possible without something like that. It's very interesting. I'm very veryery curious about that. And I'm not saying it's good or bad But at least At least in his novel Right? att least it is a way that we're using the technology in a way that is bringing something that we simply could not do before. So juryies out on that. And then the last thing, which I don't have too much to say is the Bandai Ago stuff. And I think you guys hit the point right on the head that it's like, yeah, well that sucks And it goes back to the point that I've always tried to say is that like, We need to differentiate We can't just say AI bad or all AI is this because there's so many different ways that it's being used And there's going to be positive and negatives of all of them. And I think there are some that are clearly have more negative than good and figuring out generative AI or whether it's video or it sounds like it's more video based in this bandai NAMco thing. that is trarained on the hard work of Tens of thousands of artists. Yeah and has zero creative soul to it is not in my opinion, a good use of AI So There you go. That's my ten minutes. That's great. It's also a stolen. It's also a stolen consent as well. So Yeah, exactly. That's the thing. It's like a lot of these models are trained on people without their permission. like so it's like, I don't know, man You could ar and that's where it gets so messy is that you could argue Like if you're using an AI to program, Tay I needed to learn how to program somewhere Sure. So in a way, you could also argue that the other stuff, the anime like It's learning that From a place, from a human probablyrobably didn't consent to that. unless I mean, it's possible at Sony's like we have all this information data from decades of doing animation work. We're training the AI off our own work Yeah. And that's the thing where it's like, if an animator is working for a company, they don't own their work So to me, and that's always been the case across the board. So it's like, okay, well I guess that could be ethical. That'ses with the Sony video thing. likeike did they train it based on only their own copyrighted work? That's like No AI has shown that level of U raint or effocacy to their product yet. So why would I expect them to do any differentnce Yeah Yeah, I don't know It's u I don't know, just look at it. this is all unfortunate. I don't think it will ultimately matter. I think this is just like where things are going I know personally it's kind of, u For me, I think a lot about like the chess robot. You know what I mean? Like we' in like was it like nineteen ninety six, we made that machine Oh deep blue. that could like, yeah, like deep blue, like we we made a machine that could beat any they could beat anybody at chess But And that was like nineteen ninety six. But I think I was looking up kind of recently like what are the pop like what's the popularity of like Um chess championships between people and they actually like peaked a couple years ago You know what I mean? like in like twenty twenty in the twenty twenties or something. And I just like I think there was something with with Stockfish is like the new chess engine, where I think it got so powerful that people just accepted that it was over and then they got back to got back to just playing, you know, not worrying about it anymhore ' like Yeah, yeah, because well, that's true, but it's also just like, I mean, it's interesting that a machine kind of, it will be interesting when an AI movie comes out You know, in the same way that it's interesting that like a robot could beat somebody in chess in nineteen ninety six Like it's it's interesting for a moment It's like, oh, cool, that that can be done now, I guess. But Ultimately like chess is like the only reason chess is interesting is that it's people playing with each other. Right? Like and so to me, it's just like without Without that Without that poor humanity to it. Like I could give a fuck about a video game If nobody made it. Like who who the fuck cares Yeah, I wouldving me. like that's how I think about it. It's just like, I don't. I would easily much rather watch people play Chess ina Park than like watch the robot do it again This who who cares I think This is just a tough one. Because I think in my mind, I can see very clearly the differentiation between what I think is acceptable use and my personal just personal subjective opinion of of what is good use of AI and what is know unacceptable use of AI. And I think it just comes down to a generation of original things I don't want that I don't need that But using it in ways like PSSR. is A I driven, isn' it Um And that's fine Like I really don't have a problem with that. and Pe would say like, well what is the difference? And I'm, well, it's just making what's already there better than someone would say like, well, that's what AI can do too. And I'm like, Yeahah, but you understand that it's different. like it's a resolution issue. It's a frame rate issue. It's technical It's not And we and when it gets stylistic, we make fun of it. Look at the new shit with that just what was that Nvidia or whatever what that like it's like this is awful. likeike they yassified Ashley and Yeah. it's like, No, that's that's horrible. I mean, that's and yeah, there should be a line drawn between those two things and hopefully they get more sophisticated. because I see things in this presentation where I'm like, this is great where they're like because they talk a little bit about difference between how it's good for players and how it's good for publishers and developers. and The way it's good for developers is actually similar to the way it's good for players in that They talk about this. It's like discovery of games, like your games finding the people that they're meant for. I think that that's a notot only a great use of AI, but could really be a boon I really believe Yeah. I'm I'm a professional in quotes in the games industry, right, right? We're all heavily immersed in this space I encounter games all the time where I'm like, what the fuck is this And why didn't I know this existed I think of, um L last year, the game thataffie recommend to me that I end up loving and platinum Iron Me I'm like, why didn't I ever see that? Like I don't And it would be cool if PlayStation just knew that likeike my Playsttation or my PSN or whatever was like, Collin really does like two D games instead of basing it on tags, which is what they're doing now, I think They really get into like the nitty gritty of your search history, your How does he interact with these games? and how often does he buy them and If you watches a video or looks at assets and what is is like they can just crunch all of these numbers and then give you exactly what you're looking for And I did that That would kind of be fucked for you though, because you platin them everything. Yeah right. So they wouldnt really I don't think they would get that meaningful of a data set for you, particularly. My says that to me about YouTube about why my YouTube is so confused all the time because she's like it has no idea what you want. Yeah, it literally doesn't. Like are you a middle aged woman watching crime drop like like true crime shit O do you want to watch red Letter media orr do you want to watch this guy mowing alwn? It's like makeake up your mind. Anyway I'm sorry to Chis I interrupted you No, I I think I know what you're saying, but even that Even that use of AI kind of like I'm all right with it. It's fine. Like it's way less intrusive, I think than like some of the generative AI stuff, but like it's still it still feeds into this It's still feeding into this thing that I think is even a problem that's outside of AI, which is just like the lack of anybody to knowledgeably find things on their own and relying on algorithms to show them the things that they like. Like I lament that this even happened in the first place because like even in the earlier days of YouTube and by earlier days, I mean, even as short as like twenty seventeen, you know, twenty fifteen Um, If you wanted to find YouTube videos, you would look for them. Or like if you wanted to look for something that you would be interested in, you would search for them or you would subscribe the channels and like, you know, you would find things that interest you and then you would get fed a list of those things. And now it feels like nobody really looks for anything. They just kind of scroll and trust the algorithm to find something that they're interested in. And largely it works. but I get it gets like trained people to just not be able to do even basic seearching I mean, that's a me in a way, Chris, I agree with you I let YouTube tell me whatever I don't I barely search for shit So I still search for I'm so out of date, I'm a dinosaur. I search for everything Like I guess like there's like apps where like you can't or like it's not even really the point. Like, if you're scrolling on Instram or whatever, it's like fine But I do like I think that that's not a bad use of AI, like curating a list of like, oh, this is, well, this is what this person's more interested in. so we'll show them this more often But I do think it just kind of it's just another it's just a reinforcing thing of just like, yeah, everybody's going to be really reliant on these algorithms. And then also it kind of absolves them a little bit. it's like, well, now we can just shove everything on the storm. We don't actually have to care because It's going to be like maybe some people like fucking sushi flip and then we'll just recommend You know what I mean? Like kind of, it's kind of like a have your cake and eated two for them in a way that I don't love, but At the same time, that's like a really it's a dinosaur like take because it's just everything's going in that direction. The algorithms of Um owned everything for the better part of a decade at this point. So it's like it's pointless to fight against, but I do kind of It's it's depressing to see It's just like it's never going to go back people just being smart enough to like look for their own shit. Yeah, you're right. You know what I mean? You No I know exactly what you mean. I think we are a victim of asssuming a computer can know us better than we know ourselves, as opposed to using it as a discovery tool. we lean on it too much. The thing I get concerned about Playsttation is they say this in one of their graphics. this is on page thirty one of that presentation. It says AI will increase the volume and diversity of content Trusted franchises promising high quality experiences will stand out. So what they're basically saying is like, and they better get this right if this is what they're really doing because what they're basically saying is like AI tools will make games easier to make. will there will be more games and Things that are quality and that matter will come to the forefront based on these various AI tools. I'm like, cool. Ws Because otherwise you have just more I don't know how you can have more games on PSN than it exist right now, but what you're saying is they' going gonna be more but than they'll find the right people. That sounds kind of utopian In my opinion Like really Yeah.'s like I say this about that game Bat Boy, where I'm like, how the fuck Did no one tell me about this game And I'm sure there's a million games out there. You guys are telling me like, Yo, you play boulder' sk game sh. And I'm like, but you're telling me about Iron meat So I have to rely on the computer to tell that to me, I guess But then it's as you say, and it's what I was saying about YouTube earlier Um and Twitter's the same thing where it's like, I just kind of use it I'm like, Oh, and it kind of knows me.'s like, here's a football video from Richzen. hereere's a red R Letter media video. Here's a whatever, but then like you do get stuck in these ruts And then it gets to, didn't I say this about? Megan Triner that, uh they That singer where I looked her up once on Twitter because I was like, who is this because and then it just show like for a week. I didn't click on any of them so it went away eventually. likeike it justrolled through past them on Twitter. But like I'm like, this is too weak. You need to know me better than that. I need to be able to have one off searches and things I'm curious about without you thinking that's like my life ight So these tools need to be Really fine tuned, I think, but I uh I agree with you, Christian. I'm generally fairly defeatist about this where I just think it is what it is But I want to encourage people to have standards and really like whatever that might be for you. And really like my standard for this is I expect transparency If your game is using it, it's got to, you got to say it Um I was watching a David Atttenborough documentary last night about ants. It was awesome And he's like so old You know, he's a hundred years old. is Yeahah, and he's still doing this shit dude And it was off to a She do a nature documentary about him est narrated by him. Yeah theyestarr oldest narrator This is the oldest narrator in the world. this is natural habitat This is on I'll get into why I brought that up in a minute, The reason I brought that up was because it was really it's a beautiful documentary, beautifully shot nature documentary. And in the very beginning, I'd never seen this before It basically had like a whole splashcreen about how there was like no AI anywhere in this And I'm like, this is good. communicate that. and I think it will become A selling point for people like us to care more about the humanities. Now goingoing off that beaten path for a minute I was saying this to Mikeael we were watching it and I'm like becausecause everyones who Didmber. was like This guy is a fucking G, man. Like the way he presents the way he S Like he'll like, walk, he's a hundred Right Yeah. And he like walks on like he they're in the middle of a field and there's like these ant hills and he just walks up and he like kneels next to one and starts talking for thirty seconds beautifully perfect Like with his with his with that with that delivery he has and I'm like, Damn, this guy is so good. He's just so he's such a good good entertainer, good performer. interesteresting It's like that video that goes around every once in a while of that British guy I don't who he is where he's doing like some sort of thing on he's like, I think he's in Florida cameamp Canaveral and the rocket is going off behind them Do you know what'm talking about and he's walking and he's talking and then the rocket goes off at the perfect time And it's like, how did you time that So amazingly. How are some of these guys so good at presenting I'm so jealous Yeah. but Um I saw that. and I'm like, yeah, so my big thing moving forward and the only thing I ask and I don't think it's too much to ask is just total transparency. this is let me know. Yeah, like just you got if your game uses AI, Maybe it's okay whatever generative AI, let's say, then you Maybe the I mean, maybe it's up to the first parties to say like you got to, I mean, Steam does this, I think, to a degree already too say like you got to have a splash screen the front that says like this game was made in part with generenerative AI or on the store frront, before people didn't buy it, which is what Steam does to make it more obvious. As long as I think everything's communicated, then everything can exist and we'll see what happens. But I think that under even those circumstances, unfortunately, we lose. Well, I think most people w I think ultimately, most people don't care, you know, like I think most people just, you know They doesn't it's not going to matter. They won't care. and I don' blame them I got to be honest, like, I don't I don't have this idea that everyone should hold the same sanctity over the written word or like or whatever I think you should because I don't know what else makes us human That's kind of up to you. And I understand that the argument is true. like we didn't care about a lot of things that affected other people Yeah, no, I mean, I get like I don't care people. like I mean, I care from a fundamental perspective, but like you can do whatever you want. I do say Personally for me, like if it turns out that this entire industry just becomes like nothing but just generative, I just like I'll find something else to do. because I just I really just don't care at that point. Like I'll have, I guess enough of a backlog that I haven't gone through or haven't finished that like, I'll fine for video games for like the rest of my life, probably. But Hub That would be like a death nail We just like, I, o Well, this is just clearly not the space for me Um which is a b hard to even think about but I mean It's possible. I do want that transparency. That should be like on the ESRB or something, you know what I mean? or like or maybe not that specifically because that's more that's going into like other things, like violence and stuff, but like It should be like on the box Yeah should be a sticker on There should be a sticker around the box. It should be on the cover art It should be as obvious as possible Um becausecause otherwise, like I don't know. At least give me the choice. I agree, wanted to acknowledge to make the choice one hundred percent And with penalties, real penalties, just like theR the SRP penalties for rellying to the SRB are serious Yeah, um Yeah, one hundred percent That's why ye Yeah, and it's I figured It could fuck your holding up. like your' whole, like you wouldn't you can theoretically never be allowed to publish again You could put a game on your pe on your ph you could put a game on Poopypants. com and have people download in the EXC or looking for it but you couldn't put it on any of the source You can publish it, you can print Um sushi flip three Independent game. That what I to see, I want to see David Edinburgh do the game documentary That'd be awesome. The team at Naughty Dog He's great man It was so funny because there were times where I'm like, dude he has just ants all over him Like he like he's next to the an down they're just crow it all over As you can see, I'm covered in ants. It hurts What a what a God, I hope I'm I hope I'm literally ten percent What Daviddenburgh is was a hundred years old if I lived that. Yeah, if I can't If I can't be that, take me out early, you know Like I don't need don't There's eighty year olds that I've seen that are just like crumbling. and I'm just like, we talk about this all time, Dick Van Dyke too. I'm just like, how Like what are you doing It's funny you say that because I was there's like a Twitter account I see sometimes where they talk about like, oh, on this date, this finale aired on TV or this show premiered or whatever And one of them was for diagnosis murder, which was like his big show in like the late eighties and into the nineties And I'm like at that Dick Van Dyke was in his seventies. Like like like that was considered like his golden era show. Like he's like, this is Dick Van Dyke's big thing Yeah, and then he's going to go off into the sunset and it's like that was so long ago It's it's truly bewildering, man. I also forgot Scapeeo was in the show. I tot forot about I only know Scott Bayo from that reality TV show he has had and on VH oneers Yeah, yeah, yeah what it was it was a play on Joney loves Chach, right? I can't remember what the fuck it. The only thing I remember about it was that there was a teer a teaser that would come on for a new episode of it that had a crazy on you by heart as the intro. I always get happy I always get happy when that es would come I like, I love crazy on you Yeah, he was a he's a he's a child of Brooklyn. What is that Scottay was forty five and single. I remember that. Right, That's the show. Yeah. Yeahah, that's the one, okay It's Scott I love it's Scott Bay was forty five Ellipsis and say, ye All right, just a couple of just a couple Just a couple other things we talked I talked earlier about Capcom and Sega. I just thought there were a few interesting things Capcom is just absolutely murdering If you look at their financials, They've had their best their best year ever sold more games than ever twwelve per consecutive years of operating income increase. free pretty wild There's a statistic that I'm really fixated on. I'm going to send you another link. This one's on the fourth slide which would be on page twenty three And it says market overview, this really means nothing to us. It's about market growth, the market, like the appreciable market of video games Do you guys see this thing here though that catches my eye? It says Gobal game player population three point five billion sixix hundred forty five million console players U so I went and looked at this and I'm like, I wanted to find where this neighbor number comes from. A apparently comes from like N Zoo and like these studies and I'm like, thinkink so I don't think there'swhere near that many I just thought that was weird.'s like I literally stared at it for like ten minutes. I'm like six hundred and forty five million. How do you get to that And I guess their argument is that multiple people playing on each console, but then I'm like, but there are consoles that are abandoned There are people that own both a PS five and an Xbox They like there's no way that that number comes out to like more there are I can't imagine there are more people playing on the consoles than there are consoles. Does that make sense? Like yeah, I don't think so. I think the number is probably pretty close to one. And I'm not saying that there aren't lots of consoles that are like that. I'm just saying that there are a lot of people that own all of them Therefore, if you own an Xbox, a switch and a PS five, you're a third. of a person Bed on this number, right? But that's not the way they counted it So I just saw that number and I'm like, that seems outrageous. I think the number's more like two hundred fifty You add PS four, PS five, Xbox one, Xbox series, X and S, switch one and switch two. You don't get anyhere close to six hundred forty five I just thought that was interesting They also shared a bunch of numbers. I don't know if you guys saw this Resident Evil is up to two hundred one million cumulative sales is a series Monster hunters up to one hundred twenty seven million, and then and then the fallown from there a street fighter. att fifty nineillion, do you guys know what number four would be? series So resident evil, monster hunter, street fighter Im looking at Oh, you're looking at them. orry. That's all 's megaan Interesting. forty four million And then Devil May cries at thirty eight million, deadising at nineteen million, Ace attorney at fourteen million, which is pretty soft. I thought, Face A attorney I don't think it would be that high, but for four million seems little low considering there's a million of them Dragon'sogg was at fourteen million, Marvel versus Capcom thirteen million Animusha nine point one million. That that also seems soft. That's between four games and Xbox ports What were they called Genma Animusha or whatever on o I can't remember. I don't know. And then O' come me down at four point eight million. So we got a good view of their top eleven series by volume, which is cool. And they did share some interesting sales data about which slide is this on here it is U this is on page eight of the the thing it's u Residental requiem six point nine one million units Dang U and you can see cumulative lifetime sales for various games here, it still shows that Resident Evil S is the third best selling Resident Evil game ever Um only behind Resident Evil I remake which is still the king And Resid eal five Interesting stuff here. Fascinating. So Capcom is killing wantanted to talk about that. And then the Sega stuff is interesting just because they are in a little bit of a different position Let me see here There's a bunch of links here The big thing here that people wanted to discuss is that they canceled their super game Do you guys remember this Yeah. I was kind of interested to see what it was. What do you think it was, Dustin Well, it sounds like, was it supposed to be like multiple games? It sounded like it was supposed to be something universe of ye And they were spending a shit ton of money on it too don't know what it was supped to be Yeah, because I saw some either a headline or someone tweet about like, The new crazy taxi and some other stuff have survived despite the cancellation of the suuper game So I don't know They're in just such an interesting and different position. like there they have some interesting numbers here too. So like Persona five is up to thirteen million units sold For Sona three reload, two million So like, there's I'm surprised by the lack of back catalog interest I thought the persona fans were way more hardcore than that. It seems to me that the number suggests that most everyone that played Persa F never played any of the other personas whichich is like the average persona five player never played another persona game I think's kind weir, don't I mean, personersa five was so explosive and Well, I guess once they remade three, like three and four are From a gameplay and graphical standpoint nowhere near as good quote unquote as persona five. And I could see that being off putting, but Uh I I'm surprised more people weren't drawn to personersa three remake because it was Awesome and arguably better than personersa five in certain ways in my opinion So it's sad to me that so many percent of my fans did not play that because it was good. I don't think they've ever shared how be wrong about this actually, I should probably look this up about metaphor. how it's sold because it seems like it didn't Do good Um Yeah, two million worldwide, they said during in twenty twenty five One million units the same day it launched and the fastest selling game ever developed by Alice That's interesting because it seems like you kind of Pople don't seem to give a shit about it. I really liked it I think I think People like as things settled, it was like phantom menace Like as things settled. peopleople like, nah But I thought it was awesome I really liked it a lot touch on the persona thing again. just because this may be an important factor. It lists personersona five series. Oh, so you think it counts like the Mos and stuff like that Yeah, that probably includes like strikers and the dancing game and the, you know Persa five, persona five, Royal. personersa five, Royal on PlaySation five because it's separate and they made people buy it again and personcent of the reload is just one game It's interesting. I When I played personersona four Golden, which is the only one I've played and I loved it. I thought it was interesting. It made me I'm much more interested in going backwards that I actually am going forward because I want to see where it all began and that's Now that we have fairly reliable leaks that it seems like personersa one and personersona two are in some way going to be revisited, it's like, I wonder, or do people actually care that? I'm most intrigued by that than than I am moving forward. I also think And we've talked about this is that I think Atlas generally in the personersa series and their whole brand has really suffered from rereleasing their games over and over again. and I realize that that's kind of wearing out. And that might be one of the reasons why metetaphor didn't sell as strongly long term. as You know, like, u Let's assume personersona five sold eight million or whatever. So metetaphor sold a quarter of that And that's not a good decision then to have them do that If that's what you're doing But I wonder if they' they're scaring people off because they're dedicating all of this time towards this core game. and then the next the next year, they're like, oh, Here's the fucking better version with like a new character and more content and you'll have to pay for it again I'm going to play persona five on PS three Oh just to piss everyone off Speaking of sales, I didn't want to get into this. This comes from our friends at A Lineia Analytics, specifically our buddy Rese Elliott over there they hypothesize that SRros, according to their metrics, has sold about three hundred thousand units in its first two weeks. Um I've seen it described as lukewarm. I think that's putting it nicely if that's true Um I'm wondering what you guys make of that. I don't know I'm surpised I not I don't think it was going to sell a million copies or anything. I just I'm like I thought I let Florida m say I't want to say to let Forida into Hello gents, as I sit here recovering from food poisoning, I have to ask Why do people complain that there are no first party games, which yes, there haven't been a huge amount. But when one comes along like Sar's, the game doesn't does soft sales Yes, it may not be for everyone, but you have to wonder why people complain and then don't bu. I mean, I'm sorry, but I've said this for years. It's like People long for these days of games like Saros, you know, it's like, o, remember when Star Hawk came out And it's like, but yeah but no one bought these games puppeteer, no one bought puppeter Puppeteer bombed I Do doesnn't mean they're not great. games Pupier is awesome I don't think anything's different with Saros. It's like, yeah, you can't, I really I'm kind I was on a creator called Reforge Gaming Show yesterday from when we're recording and we were talking little bit about this. and I'm like, I'm kind of playing around in my mind of this idea of PlayStation shrinking its first party. and focusing a lot more on major marquis games, and that's it As much as I love the idea of a game like this existing and I bought it, I bought it early I paid ten dollars more than it for to play it fucking two days early. It's going to lose money There's almost if if the budget is really seventy million dollars, which they say in this piece that that's and it might even be something like seventy six million do Um I think that the chances of them making that money back if the game really sold three hundred thousand units after two weeks is zero. like there's no way Hm You're going to have to drop the priceant know to get more people to buy it. andbe it maybe it'll reach one point five million all told or something like that. I just And it's not a reflection on Sarrows. It's certainly not a reflection on Housemark, a studio I've loved for a long time It's a reflection on the player behavior and the buying behavior of the player base. And it's true. Like everyone asks for these games. This game, by the way, is a highly rec like highly recommended highly eight M metedicritic whatever and no one bought I have a theory Yeah which may require a little bit of research, Colin if you could help help you Is it possible Returnal was an early launch Eera PS five game. What are the completion numbers in terms of trophies on that game? because I wonder is there a possibility that People were starving for PS five games, particularly maybe first party. Returnal comes out And it's very we'll say it's non traditional for Sony. first party of this time frame. And I wonder if a lot of players did not connect with reteturnnal because of its more hardcore rogue like nature And bought it and then maybe felt Maybe not burned isn' the right word, but like, oh, this isn't for me and games like Returnnal An't for me. And then so now you have Seros, which is as we've been saying, a direct response to maybe the things that they didn't like in Rurnal But people have already Those people that bought Rurnal have made up their mind And they're like, yeah If this is soft returnal two then I'm out because Paternal onene did not speak to me Yeah, I think that's probably fair. So there are three acts, but I think A two is technically beating the game. A three is the secret ending So that's eleven point two percent And I don't think the game was ever on Playsttation pllus as far as I remember. It might have been a PS plus extra, but I don't think the numbers spooped for that regard the I think the platinum rate on Saros I'll double check is already substantially higher than it is for. Yeah. So four point four percent platinum rate on Saros compared to one point five percent on returnal as well. So The game is also shorter I think the price might have been wrong This is something I'm kind of fixated on. like It's unclear what the tolerance of people of like the mean gamer is in terms of like ten dollar differences or twenty dollars differences, but I think a game like Expedition thirty three did really well because of its price. It's also a really great game But I think it was very attractive to people because it was fifty bucks I wonder if Saros was just overpriced There's also a thing where three hundred thousand might not be very weak comparable to how it did how Returnnal did originally. What's bad about it is that there are it as you said, there are so many more consoles now So right I look this up. This is actually in PlayStations' financials. They always have a supplement with game sales numbers, but the problem is they never update them. So if you It'll have all the games. I don't know if you've ever seen this Dustin specifically, but like it'll have all the games and then it'll have like a list of numbers, but then it'll have dates next to the numbers And the dates are like when they last reported it. So it'll be like twenty ten elate, the numbers are useless. But like what was interesting is returnal is on that list And the last time they reported numbers was july eighteenth, twenty twenty one And it was so Let's remember the and this is what makes it useful for wr this minute, but won't be useful for much longer The game Saros came out five years to the date after Eetternal. So july eighteenth, well I guess we would say is like will it be to five hundred and sixty by then The answer is probably There were I mean, what? I don't even know ten million PS five s or something at the time returnal came out, fifteen million something like that at the moment. I don't know that might even be high Um And there are almost a hundred million now Yeah. So the numbers so yeah, you're probably right. I think some people theorize that the competition was bad That could be true too and people will get to it later I think what it really means and I like that Sony invest in these kinds of games. I don't mind it. I think it's cool. I just think it's kind of a dead end It's whyio Japans studio doesn't need to exist. It's like, yeah, no one I like Yeahah, rain was cool That's not going to move the needle. You need Wolverine You need uncharted. you need Goda war intergalactic That's the kind of shit that I think moves the needle And yeah, and that's why I've been thinking in my mind like why not reconstitute things with heavy AA A maj, like otherwise just go and get the other games You don't need to, you can do second party games But like why bother I'm worried about House markark. I really am Another thing I was thinking And well, I mean, everything we do is armchair analysts stuff here, but armchair marketing. As much as I dislike this Would it have been better to call it? returnal sububtitle something like reteturnal Sarus Burning eclipsees. Eurnnal eclipse something and kept it so it has that like maybe well, I guess I'm I'm playing deevil's advocate with myself because maybe they wanted that separation from returnnal because they felt like they burned it was like, this is We don't want people to associate necessarily with returnnal I know there's two ways of looking at it. It stills so crazy to me though, because they just they did build returnnal Like it is so clearly like, it's almost impossible to not associate it with retaternal Yeah. becauseause one other game plays like this? Rll. That's exactly right. That's why I think I wonder if the solution was just make something else. Now I know like that you want to you don't want to waste time, right? Like they It took them five years to make Saros and it is the bones of Eeturnnal. I mean, it's And it's still took all that time So I understand you don't just throw shit away and you want to iterate and you want to try new things, but I think if you if you want to look at Housemark as a studio that has some sort of advantage, it's that like they've kind of made a lot of unique things. It's not to say they didn't return to St us. They did, of course. they returned to the nation games with, you know, dead nation and alien nation and Yeah, it's fine, but like maybe something else And yeah, I don't want to be dramatic about listen If the blue pointoint shit didn't just happen I would look at this and I'd say like, Sony understands how House markark's a valuable entity and that they can eat a little bit of money to keep them going and try something new. They're very talented. They've worked with them for a long time. They know each other But now like Blue pointoint being gone, I'm like, I don't know. I would I hate to say it, but like I would argue Blue pointoint was way more important than Playstation modern Plstation, thanousemart their gamees certainly sold a lot better. So it's like ye, or at least they're equivalent. they were both bought in the same burst of Jim late Jim Ryan purchas. I just look at it and I'm like I don't I don't know, man. Like if these it all depends on if Iline is, right? If that budget numberers right. We can easily get the pricing out of it because they get all of the money. You don't even have to have like, oh maybe they have a bespoke split. It's like it'sony. They get a hundred percent of it. That comes out to like twenty one million dollars. R? Like if you sell through hundred thousand copies. I know I know you mean and I think you're probably right, but like the difference between House markark and Blue pointoint is that Twis at least delivered something and they were working out like the thing with Blue pointoint was that they were just completely unfocused and they just weren't it felt to me that the reason and maybe this is just like the way that I'm interpreting that entire situation. But it seem to be that Bluepoint closed because they were no longer Blue pointoint Essentially. Yeah,. you know, like, I mean, they were they wanted to do all this other shit like, this isn't what we bought you for. Um You wanted to do X, Y and Z, and you had all these like weird pitches that turn that were so insane that we didn't think they were true because it seemed insane A Shad of the Colossus two or like some Sad the Classes update or some weird thing and Gotta're multiplayer like, so, I think there is a difference because at least You know, you greenlit reteturnal Returnal came out and then you greenlit another one. And they delivered it. It just didn't lightight the world on fire, which I think is within their scope of potential expectations You know, like it's not quite Blue pointoint where it's just like you spe spent six years doing nothing. Basically you're just like getting project after project cancellled, canceled, canceled. Um I don't know O maybe that's me just trying to rationalize it, but like I'm not that worried about Houseparkin relative to or at least in comparison to the Bluepoint situation because it's just such a different set of circumstances at that studio Yeah Danielalker wrote about this said what What's up my sacred bitches with Carrosos being considered a bit of a disaointment saleswise, do we anycerns for Housemark's future Th days it feels like the possibility of Sony prematurely pulling the trigger on a fantastic team wouldn't be so far fetched Thanks for providing endless enjoyment as I drive my delivery truck all over Virginia debating daily whether to drive a bridge or not It's a good debate Louise, be safe out there, Daniel., Thanks for writing. Yeah, I think I think it's reasonable to wonder But we'll see. I I hope they know better than that. Again I just I feel like the smaller stuff can just kind of more easily and cheaply come from second party and then you really just dump your resources, your money. Your internal production, your pipeline, all everything should be kind of direct towards major AA games,'s Sony's bread but. you want to the game ses move, then that's what you have to do. Like go see Oot sold very respectively because it's much more of a Plstation game at the same exact price. But I think also yeah, returnal probably did turn people off. And I don't want to I want to just reate. I don't need to reiterate about howousemark E everyone knows I love them. but I think Sarrus is great I't think it' as retnal I don' Um It's not the game. It's maybe just people stace. But again, it goes back to what Florida manan was saying and I agree. It's like everyone complains and they don't buy shit Yeah okay. I mean That's all that matters at the end of the day to them. They don't your goodwill is like, well, at least they tried. it's like someone's got to go buy this thing. you know There's there's a couple of aspects to this and I think Well, first of all, things are things are bad economically. Like peopleople aren't necessarily going to drop How much is Sarahing even I think it went sixty. I think I paid seventy for the early edition of it. I verify Um Yeah people's while people's money isn't as flexible as it was when returnal came out, which is funny. it seventy It is seventy. so I paidy, I Okay, so it's seventy dollars That's a lot of money to drop on anything right now that isn't like guaranteed. I think I think the economic realities right now are like a bigger factor than people might assume you know, like are you gonna spend Like Gas is eight dollars in some places. You know, like it's it's not it's not great So I think I think that has something to do with it. The other thing that I think is like like slightly controversial and I don't know how you guys feel about this, but I think it's I think there's a part of it that's kind of true is that Returnnal and Saros are very, very gameplay oriented games. And I I really do believe on some level. the Sony like the PlayStation audience. I don't know, man. Like I think there I think they like their HBO I think so I think Sony trained them to like it Right, But that's what I mean. It's like I think they've trained over the course of the PS four generation to be a little bit more like, well h Can I see the peach fuzz on this character's face I do think there's an element of that. It's like, this is too of a game for me And like That kind of that bums me out Because I do think like from a gameplay perspective, Saurus and Rurnal are like The best feeling games from PlayStation firstirst partarty like earnestly Yeah, that may be true But it doesn't seem to translate because it does it doesn't, you know, it's not a I don't know, it just it's too gameplay focused. I don't know how true that is. I don't have any data for that necessarily. Its just that's the sense that I get from the audience because you see like, Every other audience seems to not give a shit about Traffics or like, you know, like, you got the switch out there running at like,el frames a second selling Like you look at Tomadacci life Yeah You know, like it's an inse like I have it You know? And it's like A Tomadacha L' probably made more money than any Playstation game've ever made Right And but like they they've been trained to be more they've other audiences have been trained even even, you know, honestly, even Xbox to, you know, even though they've been trained to not buy games and all that stuff, like You have something like CF Thieves, which is' entirely gameplay oriented and it's incredibly successful. Fortza. It's getting massive reviews and sells insane and it's literally just driving It's all about the gameplay there. And it's just like I do I do wonder if This audience is just They may be a little pretentious Maybe they the maybe they want moreore story and you know,be I think you're right, Chris, I think that they think they're not Like right. I'll admit, I don't know that would call it pretension, but that's what I want As much as I love, even Journey was pretentious Sure. you know, like it that was Sony did I mean, I believe this one hundred percent. I say that as a descriptor, by the way. likeike I like that pretentious I like journey as well. Right, right. But I understand exactly what you mean. Like I think I honestly think that was kind of Sony's vibe It's like, yeah, you and it's not disrespect the halo gears or Fortzo like or these games that are obviously like very important for box but they're like yeah, you go play halo and whatever gears. we have haveven untcharted orr we have like the last of us or something that's like more like just people just take it more seriously And you. I don't know that you can have it both ways and the audience did that You know, like so I don't think you can have ckingat too. you got to buy these things or not. I mean, do you want But then the bar gets so raised too, because then you have a elast ofus Part two, right And even like maybe like something from Rockstar which is like impossibly expensive. And then they raise the bar to the point where like anything that isn't those things looks comparatively weak. Yeah Like Cyrus, I think is a pretty good looking game but like there's undoubtedly, you get those cutcenes or whver Yeah they're not And it's like I remember there's this there's this one cutscene I got to I don't know how deep into the game. I think I just beat a character called the architect or something And there was like a scene either just before that or just after that where this character is like giving this like really like intense performance And it's like this like crying and wailing. And you can tell the voice actress is doing great But like the face is like fucking dead. Andm I'm looking I'm laughing And I feel so bad because like this is a really good performance and it's just not captured at all And it's funny because I don't think I would feel that way if I wasn't playing a Playsttation game Like I don't think I I don't think I even would have cared R or noticed. R. But because it is first party, like I am even I'm conditioned kind of look at like something that's like not quite up to that insane level. and market for it in an area where like I don't know, Sa thieves look ridiculous. Like the characters of decade look ridiculous.t I don't think twice about it Um It's because they've set a different cadence and a different standard for their audiences. I don't know how true that is I don't know I don't have any data. againain, it's just like, it's the sense that I get that that's probably a factor Again, with everything else and the economics and you know I'm sure there's a competition angle to it too It's a lot of I mean, I would argue earnestly that we're in P prettyretty long streak of Great years Like it's kind of crazy Um The like years like twenty twenty two through now used to be fairly sparse in my memory. Um And so there's just a lot out there It's a lot out there people's money isn't as far as it is and Also they just didn't really market the game to be hest. Yeah. Sar I I never really saw it. I don't even know if you could like that's the other thing is if the development budget was seventy something million dollars, hopefully that incorporates the marketing, because then that's even gonna to make it worse They must have done something somewhere. and so they they probably spent some X million dollars on that and Yeah, you're right though. And to the economic situation, Golfer Pro ten wrote in about this. said Hive sacred babes. I know Caros isn't sell well, at least that's what I'm he I am part of the problem, I guess I'm a hard working father of just one daughter. My wife and I make a household income of one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. We don't buy a bunch of stuff We don' need But with everything going up in price, we are not able to spend on most things if we want to save money. I feel like a lot of us gamer dads are in similar situations With low amounts of money and with so many games asking for our time, I think games like Saros are going to suffer Im really concerned not just the ging industry, but the econom in general. Apparently I'mpper middle class where I live in Tenessee and I definitely don't feel it J just wanted your thoughts on my excessive thoughts No I think you're right. I, Chris I think' just ariculated that pretty well hundred what's so fucked up about the economic situation is one hundred twenty five thousand dollars is I think close to twice the median household income in the United States. I understand exactly what you mean, like, that's just I always think about this, like in the seventies or eighties you'd watch a TV show or a movie or something from that era and it's like, he's a mionaire and And like what that really meant Like Oh back then. Yeah, like what like like that was serious shit You know, like when you can go to McDonald's and get, you know a meal for two or three dollars U You having five million dollars to your name is like insane, like generational level wealth. I'm watching I'm not watching Aisison anymore, but it will come back soon, but the Gilded Age. There's an arc where a guy makes hes like becomes rich off of three hundred thousand dollars. L and people are like whoa What Like what are you even going to do with three hundred thousand dollars? And it's So we have this we have this almost old timey expectation of what money really is And so when you look at one hundred twenty five thousand dollars, like when I was at college, I would have shited pants to make a hundred twenty thousand doars And now I understand Oh my God, you know that that's not what it once was to even the people that make it. And you kind of gota feel bad for people across the spectrum. notot necessarily because of their expectations of what they can spend you know, like, oh, you live a ritsy life, so you have ritsy expectations. It's more like no, it's kind of the cost of doing business now of like, making sure your child has good education and food and it does suck. And so yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I also think Golfer Pro that catalog There's got to be a better way like an academic way we can talk about this one day, but the back catalog stuff is to become a serious problem And yeah what I mean by that is like You're just like every millisecond that goes by becomes less necessary for you to spend money on games. likeike there's something There's something kind of devastating about it, but it's true. youre if you're truly strapped for money like you're out there, you're unemployed, you have no money or whatever, like you it's like I would just wait for the best sale. I would I would be laughing about how cheap I was getting shit. It wasn't even possible during the disc and cartridgeeror to get games to this cheep. So Like impossible, even if you went to like the shitty game stop thing we were talking about like it could have been like those games were still ten or fifteen or twenty bucks It's like I think I do think a lot of forces are working against just new releases Full stop W with a rare exception. Rra the thought it might be one of those exceptions, but like You could bet, you know, dollars to donoughuts Sarus is going to be half price or so by the end of the year So if like you're not that eager and you're strapped for money, you should just wait And I think that's also a big problem. so I understand completely. The economy iss not good there yet The reality is like right now, I think I can't remember I was reading this, but I was like doing some research on it because I was so curious. I was like, I can't be. But it is. It's like, this is like worse But then Gild an arrow Like it's it's it's getting real bad. So like I mean, Sarah's not doing well it's not surprising Yeah Ihing anything doing well would be aming. I'm actually to the point where it's like I think even grab the thought it might be say softerter than otherwise So like it's still going to break fucking records and it's got to be like, but you have to wonder like how how big could that How big would that game have been I'm obviously talking in in the past sense as if we're in the future, but like Whatever Granda Thoto ends up being You know that there's like an alternate timeline where things are where that could have done way crazy. Yeah, I generally agree with you U It's it's tough because You just don't u Yeah, you just won't know until like there will be It could be. I remember during the financial crisis that like it was different then though zero seven ero eight, like the gaming industry was different, but like gaming really benefited from it Aant I remember specifically a game like Fallout three came out at like the perfect time It was this fifty dollar or sixty dollars, I guess at the time Yeah Infinitely large game on of consoles that had a huge install base and people were brokeen and had no they' like, yeah But now the propositions are even more different because now it's like Back then, the only free to play games you had were like Maple story and and shit like that, like, you know, shitty browser games and utopia and shit like that. And now it's like everything. Now the biggest games in the world are that. So you even have these bigger ecomic Draw like draw is downward Its it' an a differentention race to the bottom And attention syncs on your phone that you're competing with as well for attention and time and You know, you can laugh at You can laugh at Instagram reels for like an hour just feel like you've not wasted your time somehow And so I don't know So wild time. Well, we'll see what happens. Again, Th these are Ilinineous numbers. Th are not Sony's numbers and we'll find out. if they if they follow the same path, I guess in because I said what was the date? It was july It was july eighteenth, twenty twenty one. So that would have been quarter one financials of that that new fiscal year and maybe they'll do the same thing and release numbers and they'll be similar or better Um, It's the exact opposite problem that Yote was experiencing where Yote was launching stronger on a smaller install base. So It's not that all things are bad with Sony first partarty. It's just to say I think they need to be more selective and We'll see what happens with Housemark. but again, I hope I think I think Housemark will be okay, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were like consumed in terms of like working on someone else's games That to me wouldn't be surprising if they were like, if Housemart or if gorillas like there are just working with us now. notot unlike what happened with Kixes and Saros I don't know you guys went through the credits, but they worked on it in a major way. Um, and we knew that, but Second party news, we were talking about Stellarblade recently about all of this and how we didn't have clarity. on what was going on with the game in terms of publishing becausecause there were some rumors that So Stellarblade, they they acknowledged they were bring it to switch, right? but they still haven't released it. Bea then they give everyone and shift up a switch too I'm pretty sure that. I remember Xbox I don't know what they're going to do that. They might have an agreement to never do that with Sony because Sony did act as the publisher of that game, but There were rumors that and I think even mkings that Sony was publishing the second game I think we now know based on shifts up shift ups financials released in South Korea on the eleventh of this month We know that that's not happening. So first of all, if you go into the financials and you go into the Q and A for anyone out there, that's interested They bring up Godddess of Victory in theay first. whichich I just think is interesting, meaning that game is so much more important than the Stellarladade. So obviously we're deal with a company that is not really wholly interested in us as console gamers, but they do have Stellarlade going and it' A big thing along with Project Spirits, which is also going to be a console game They're asked here What is the expected performance of Stellarblade in twenty twenty six They write, quote, Stellarblade has maintained steady sle since launch solidifying its position as an evergreen IP in the PC and console market This quarter, seasonal promotions and discount events continue to drive new player acquisition with stable long term sales trends confirmed across all platforms. leading up to the release of the next Stellar Blade title We will continue to efforts to broaden the franchise's brand awareness through collaborations with global IPs and other initiatives. Looking ahead, we plan to sustain momentum through seasonal and holiday promotions as well as strategic discounting while also actively exploring further platform expansion We remain committed to maximizing the long term value of the IP to repay the support of our global player community. So here's where things get interesting They're asked in this next question, what is the development and publishing strategy for the next Stellar By title They write quote Development of the next Stellar Blay title is progressing smoothly onn track to meet our targeted quality standards. By the way, did you see that they brought in the model and put that Eve is based on into the office recently? So which is always interesting. So notably, starting with this next title, Shift upp will transition to a first party service model This will allow us to lead marketing strategies that fully reflect the distinctive identity of the Stellarblade IP, and we expect to communicate the unique appeal of its universe to players more directly and effectively Building on the strong fandom and evergreen IP status established by the first Stellarblade. We are formulating an optimal go to market strategy designed to maximize sales and reach a broad audience from day one with threeail key tailwinds, high quality self publishing capabilities, a sales maximization strategy and proven IP fan base. We're confident that the next title will deliver meaningully improved results compared to its predecessors So It sounds like These games will be or at least this game because they're also talking about there's other games too like again, There's this unbound project and project spirits. It seems like they're going full multip platform What I assume happened here is and you can't really blame either side for this is I would imagine Sony was smart enough to say like we want the sequel under similar circstances, and I think shift up was smart enough to say like we don't really need you You know, and Yeah. I would have made the same decision. Why wouldn't unless they're I think Stellarladees, I think they wanted to wait and see. Stellar Blade's success on PC, as I understand it, is substantial. Um comparable to the one. I'm sorry Wonder why? Yeah, exactly. So I think they probably wanted to wait and see. and they're like, we don't really need you to like take the marketing spend off of our plates or whatever we're hurt and limited by not being able to release the game and publish it. Now, Sony has very friendly second party publishing pipelines these days Hell Divers is probably going to be the last substantial second party game Sony publishes that they own I imagine that's not going to be a big thing anymore. We talked about how FizzN is not is owned by Kojima No remains owned by Koayechmo And Stellar Blade is shift up, shift up. So I think they just did what is logical But it is my hope that Sony at least tried because that's the perfect second party game And I don't mean the game's perfect. I mean it's of a great game to be associated with Sony. Like PlayStation wasn't hurt at all by Stellar Blade being associated with it. It's a weird. It's a Sony kind of style game. It's almost got the PS two quality. Weird shit going on That was like the whole mo of a lot of games. So any thoughts on this on Starblade moving on from Playsttation exclusivity? orr seemingly so. Yeah, I think you're totally right, Colin, that they don't need it anymore And I think If they did work with PlayStation it was a PlayStation exclusive at launch. It would severely hold them back at this point based on the PC sales and U even, I mean, I know they're Korean studio, but in Japan, like they probably want Stellarblade. Well, I looked up too. They are their intent is to bring Stellarblade to Switch two. The first one And I assume that they want to have Stellar Blade two at launch on PlayStation swwitch to PC. Xbox maybe. U Yeah that it's not appeared on Xbox yet, I think is a sign that they can't. orr maybe just not yet And that might be why they went out of this deal Um becausecause that's probably frustrating I assume Stellar Blade would sell in the hundreds of thousands on Xbox. It's decent money and it would be easy it's not easy, but it would be it's much more straightforward to port between the platforms now than it used to be. So A Yeah, so I guess we'll still all be enjoying Stellarblade two and Eve's jiggly bits. although I assume you guys will play it when it comes out on PC if that's your opportunity, right? No That's a couch game to me. So it'll be on Paysttation. It's a bed game for Chris, am I right No. Oh G to mod that shit to hell hell and back Helen back. I love that term. I it's Um All right, Well, shout out to. I mean, shhift upp is great It's cool to have a presence in South Korea with console games more prominently. I think Stellar Blade was awesome. And I'll just reiterate, I think Eve is obviously overtly sexy and overtly sexual I kind of think it's overstated in terms of the quality of the game comparable to that. Like I don't think it really matters That's what I thought was so interesting about it I'm sure drew lot of people into it. have no dout But like it's not really what the game's about It's arguably l sexualized than Bayonetta, even though You're tech it's technically, I don't know, it's weird. it's tenically more and technically way, way less s that's odd duck That game. we just got I just got emailed. I just heard the buzz of my phone and I pulled it up here V video cannot be monetized Colin and Dustin watched PlayStations E three nineteen ninety five. Dude, why now? I love when this happens. I Yeah. It looks so so late. It's insane A and E get idea. I don't know what that is. I get emails like that from videos from like that from like two thousand nine. And I'm like, okay Those are private, so like who gives a shit? Yeah like insane. You can have the pennies that we were gonna to make on the stream. Um Yeah, you can have the hay pennies It would have cost it even post this thing inssane insane. Well, that happened with our Nvidia U when we reacted to the DLSS five and some news company Copyright claimed everyone who posted about the LSS five That got reverted, but So dumb. It's a We don't need to open the YouTube is broken. Yeah I can't can't just br, it's just brust using so much. All right, we're back We took our cut at an interesting time there. Chris was going to pee his pant Yeah And got it, We gott go, you know No, I understand, we're kind of going along here a little bit Um at least this point, I don't think it's to be unusually long episode but I think we're going long at this point where we are Right, ye The next piece I want to talk about comes from the substack the game business It is entitled PlayStation. We have a responsibility to the whole industry is an interview with Christian Spenson, who is the head of third party relations at PlayStation And there's a lot of interesting shit in here. I wanted to just go through a a little bit of it, but so there's a video version of it. You can listen to it or you can read the story that they spun out from it. I'm just going through the story Um So Christian Spenson's official title is V is technically VP of second and third party content ventures. So Um I think the second party stuff more falls in line with the more Indian A space games that they get than the like Hellivers, for instance, but nonetheless, this guy's been there for a long time too. He confirms at first that there are ten thousand developers and publishers working with Play Aure right now which is hrify And they talk a little bit about how they get into all of that. But there are a few things that I really thought would be interesting just kind of talk about. we don't have to get into any of this too deeply. but again, I wanted to call a few of these things out One thing he says is that this generation PlayStation has funded partially or wholly, one hundred and twenty games Um that are outside of like PlayStation stududios. So not first party and not like Helldivers and other stuff like that. I would love to know what gameses are. Some of them are obvious, Pacific drive Seems like one of them, right? as an example. Colisto Protocol Calisto Potocol, yeah, we know that's a good point. Yeah. Playsttationudios is in the credits of that, which is interesting U he said that They've also given money to small amounts of games and I wonder specifically what games you guys think these are He says they've also, over the last few years, given small funds for a handful of games that otherwise wouldn't port Paystation I wonder what what those games are Yeah, it's hard to know. Um So I thought that was pretty interesting Then he talks a little bit about Hero projects. So of course, we have the China Hero proroject the Indie Hero proroject and the Ma proroject The first India Hero proroject game, I think just came out actually last month. We've already got a bunch of China herero prorojects. I don't think they've even announced Mena Hero proroject games at all But that game fish bowl or whatever that came out as like an adventure game. That's the first India hero project game. Um, and that kind of just came and went a lot of those games kind of do at least they're getting going on that So I thought this was pretty interesting here They basically and I think this is what we already know, but he says, quote, this is a long term play. There's not a commercial near term angle growing the deev community first get local content that hopefully resonates with local audiences, which helps grow the player community And then it's about how do we bring regionally relevant voices to our globally massively engaged audience? How do we expose that global audience that deems in content that they may not have had access to before. These are five or ten plus year visions for ecosystem growth both from a player supply side and a player side I really like to hear that. I think it's great. He talks about how they're like further behind in like China hass already born a lot of fruit. And he said actually, and I don't think we knew this yet that they're going to announce so in their fourth round of games in China Um So that'll be exciting. But he said that the India, we already know about the first wave of Indian games, and we already got the first one, but he says they're kind of further behind China. And then he says that the mena stuff is even further behind that. So like we're not to get anything out of them for a while that they're But they're basically trying to find the right people I think it's good to be in these territories for for your brand, for your even The ironic thing is that in some of these places, like your shit is unaffordable most ye but like you still need to Not so much in India, but certainly in places in Africa. And you need but you still need to have a presence there because there's going to be like The best game developer in the world could be in like Kenya right now or something. and you just You don't know You know, world not a great way to get get their games going on our platforms They talk a little bit about China and South Korea being growth places. have We know all about that I thought this was interesting Christopher Drink writes one thing I was interested to find out is whether Sony helps studios with their release windows. We always talk about this For example, Playstation is releasing Marvel' Wolverine on september fifteenth, heites So before that date was announced, if a developer had come to PlayStation with a similar release timing, would they have said anything This I was surprised by this answ. He says, quote, air traffic control, we have to be very careful with Games move all the time. You could tell a partner, hey, you might not want to be in the first half of September So so they set their game in October, but then the big first party game moves to October You have to be very careful with that kind of telegraphing and it can come back to bite you And quote, I wonder If there's an example of that behind the scenes where they're like, we can't do this anymore orr if it's just a trust issue as well And then he basically says this, I thought it was a cool way to end they feel like games or and I agree with him. He says, quote, I'm in an incredibly privileged position to have amazing visibility into what games will be for the next three to four or five years. I literally cannot explain you Last year was an amazing year for games this year will be even better. Next year will be better still The trajectory of content is unbelievably positive, and we as an industry should be super optimistic about where we're going in spite of the headwinds. Now, obviously, Sony iss going to come out and kind of say that, but I feel like that's Bold definitive statements And she would know I mean, the second and third parties are obviously communicating with him pllus he has insight in the first party. He might be like one of the most fully aware people It all yeah So Sounds good. but you think you think'salesmanship Well, I mean ine imagine it was the opposite And he was like, Yeah, I've seen where things are going and it's it's a fucking train wreck. Yeah It's bad. Like it's real bad. So we, you know what he's not going to say that. So like I think it It's always awkward with these kinds of things because like he could be right, like fuck fuck if I know? Like he would know, but he's also not in a position to tell us if the truth was so negative and so bleak I do think I think they I do think from their perspective from their perspective It's great You know what I mean? Because it's like o, my Godd, we're gonna have all these tool that can make games for us. We're gonna have lower headcounts. you know what I mean? Like everything from their perspective would be great Uh it's just a matter of like how that materializes for the players and obviously the community of people building these things and A myriad of other places and a myriad of other and demographics, but I have no doubt for them it's looking great I feel Chris incredibly optimistic for some reason about the end of PlayStation five in terms of the way things are going to go out Whether or not people will let it end wr another story entirely. And whether people are interested moving on to the next thing is another story entirely but I think that next year is going be strong I think it's always been aiming towards that. It's probably always been true. Sm We'll see. Anything you want to add to us, before we move on Just a few more pieces of news to get to Um Let's see here. I just thought I to note this, zer zer seven first light Is gold? The game comes out may twenty seventh Now They don't even say this on the tweet for the game from Io Interactive, but it's worth noting and I noticed this. I don't know how many people noted this. Maybe maybe it's more known than I thought All you have to do to get early access to this game is preordder So there's there's no and it's only one day early access. But I thought that was pretty cool. It's not the first time I've seen that, but it's unusual not to charge for it But the so the game comes out may twenty seventh. If you buy it and just preorder it before may by may twenty sixth, you can just play it at beginning may twenty sixth. And it's not an extra cost. you're just paying the same amount of money So I noticed that and I thought I would pass that on. So haven't pre ordered it yet I'll preder it when it's ready to preload whichich is now that it's gold, it'll be soon But Um If you want to get a game a day early for basically nothing then It's worthing that you can do Are you guys looking? What your noticing skills, Colin? I'm a noticer. You're a noticer. And you used your noticing, I think for good. Yeah. for once. Well, not that the times were it was for positivity. For positivity. Yeah, I mean, I don't I just thought it was nice instead of like, you know, paying the the get gotot premium You just you just get it Yeah ye By the way, I u Jason Polansky from our friend from Atari, senior producer over there reached out to me and he had the idea, which I love of he was like, would you mind if I hosted the zo z seven First Light Spoil cast because he's a big Bond fan Oh yeah. And I was like, Ohh yeah, dude, becauseuse I'm totally unequipped to talk about it from that perspective Yeahone of us none of us are. I'm pretty sure. I always wanted to go down the bond rabbit hole I just haven't. I just And there are people out there I've said that to in the past over the years and they're like, Colin, you would love it Like because it's campy and weird, especially at the older stuff. Um, like with the villains and like, I think there's one that takes place on like a space station and shit like it's It's strange. So I've always wanted to do that But but I don't know double. I want to play this game though. I think it looks great Are you guys going to pick it up for may twenty seventh? and will you preord order to get the day early Yeah. I might as well. I mean, for for no extra money, like why not? I am looking forward to this. This is one of the few games this year that like I think I'm like kind ofm not chomping at the bit necessarily to play it, but like I'm going be it's going to be one of those things where it's like, oh, it's the twenty sixth. Oh yeay, you know, like how nice defitely But like yeah, I think this looks great. I'm a big fan of IO. I think u Hitman is just a strangely like deceptively immaculate. series, especially these last Th modernized hitman games, like the last hitman game had like a level in it that I think is like one of the best pol bases I've played in in recent memory. And so that the prospect of that design being merged with like uncharted style set pieces and in the realm of James in the realm of zo z seven and stuff like I don't know, I think's really good recipe And I'm excited for they got. I hope it's good I go I'm really looking forward to it I'm absolutely playing. I'm excited I was thinking I'd probably have seen five or six Bond movies I've seen all but one of the Daniel Craigs The last one And I've seen a few of the older ones as well And I like them, I don't love them To me, it's the IO Hit manan connection here that it's like, yeah, I will play anything that IO puts out. For now, I mean, based on the hitman world of assassination, as it's now called, is just Yeah, so incredibly good U I think I've seen, I think there were three Brosnna movies And I seen those I't think I've seen of the Da Craig movies. and I've seen of the older ones, but just sporadically like on TV or whatever. So I don't know. Is it Golden Eye The world is not enough ar ever dies or something like that? Maybe that's like, I't't know I't cares 't remember He I do have I have a lot of catching up to with all that Maybe this will put me in a I wonder so this is the thing that's interesting about this, right? Because like that Indiana Jones game came out And I remember being like I liked it, but I remember before I played it, I watched The entire Indiana Jones trilogy to kind of get in the heads space I think you could do that with James Bond realistically. There's just so many different takes and so many different you know, tones in that series. L I know the Daniel Craig is a lot more like bleak. and a little bit more serious than something like Brosnan. I wonder I wonder what I can do to get into that headsace. Or maybe the game will just put me in that headspace and I want to watch the movies after that. Yeah, I'm sure there are people out there that can reach out to you on social media if they want and guide you All right, just couple more quick ones. These both come from the Playsttation blog. The first one is there is a new third party officially licensed PlayStation dual sense revealing the Suff Omega, they write, A performance controller officially licensed replacation five consoles. I was looking up what this Suff gaming is. I never heard of it Do you guys know the brand Yeah, It's owned by Corsaire I guess. So it's in the same family as Elgato and origin and all the rest, but I don't know anything about this stuff. so I had to look it up This controller is like a specialized high end controller that's going to cost two hundred and nineteen ninety nine cents. It is available right now for you to purchase around the world for your local equivalent I guess the thing about this is that it's just super well made and there's even like an app where you can calibrate it to your liking Um with like using the special app, I guess with dead zones and button configurations and all the rest. So kind of like an edge that I guess is A little more advanced. I don't know. I I'm I like the standard stock controller I don't want for this. but I do know that Dustin, especially you like your you have the edge, right? You you like you like the edge And like edging, yes So Are you interested in this? I don't know why Sony would even allow anyone to do this just because I feel like it draws attention away from their own proprietary stuff like doing OEM style stuff is interesting, I guess Yeah. I am not particularly interested in competitive Gaming controllers for Can' she I know I do have an edge U but my main reason for that was the back buttons. And I wish that Sony released away for the standard dual sense to have back buttons, even if it was like this stupid thing, this u right away we would have to plug it into the thing This thing was actually pretty brilliant. forot about that. This was a cool little cheap way to add it and I thought it was good So the literally the only reason I bought the edge was for the back button support. So I'm not As far as like a competitive controller need it. I can't I can't play like actual highly competitive games on controller. I don't think Specifically I guess I'm thinking of FPS games. Like I mentioned buying marathon on PlayStation to try to do some casual play on my couch And it is it's horrifying. How how much I've lost that ability to play first person shooters in a competitive way on a control I just can't. Do it anym You gott a man up I think we've got a man up to mouse keyoard. No I don't know how. That's I saw you know I saw mouse PI has mouse and keyboard controls on Plsttation Oh, I didn't know that st. So it's becoming more more common I guess M All right, finally PlayStation pllus games for the game catalog. So the game catalog, of course, is only available to you on PlayStation pllus if you have the extra premium tier so that's the middle and high tier not for PlayStation plus essential, which is most of us including me. P pretty good month this month for new games and a fair we knew that this classic game was coming as well But it did indeed come. So Here are the new games that are coming the PlayStation plus game catalog. This all begins may nineteenth, by the way. so in the coming days Star Wars oututlaws twenty twenty four game from Massive and Ubisoft. Red Dead Remption two is going back. This is its return to the game catalog And that's obviously twenty eighteen from Rockstar Bramble the Mountain King. Kind of a third person action adventure platform style game from DimFrost Studio and publisher Merge Games that's twenty twenty three Thomaturge I think I'm saying that right? I hate it Yeah, don't like the name. Terrible, terrible talking Yeah. Studio Fools Theory publisher eleven bit Studios that came out in twenty twenty four. That's an isometric RPG Flintlock, the Siege of Dawn from Studio A forty four and Kepler Interactive, the publisher account in twenty twenty four, that's an action RPG Broken Sword, Shadows of the Templar Reforg. That's from Revolution software. This is a remake of the original Broken Sword game from nineteen ninety six There is a director's cut of the original Broken Sword game that is different. That was from two thousand nine. And then finally, Eotria, the last song, which is an action RPG from Giama Games that came out in twenty twenty four. So those are the new editions And then finally, This will only be available either Aa cart or at the premium tier specifically because it's a retro game. time crisis, the PS one port of the ninety five classic, ninety five light gun game from NamCo ported famously to PS one in ninety seven with the gun con. Do you guys remember that Yeah Yeah that was that was for people that don't know that That was kind of like the Paysttation bllaster And I think I might pick time crisis up at some point. I like time cris Yeah, it adds gyro aiming You got to have that. Yeah. You got to have some kind of pointer That's why we was so good for like really weird shit like that. We was great for first person shooters randomly and some third person shooters as well. and then Like the point click adventures like Zach and Wickki And then yeah, like like likeun games Like Link's crossbow training was another example I love that I don't know why, but I loved it Anything here for you guys on the game catalog Um, well Chris, you like this Bramble game, right I feel like I remember playing Bramble and actually really liking it But it's been a while, likeike when did this game come out? Like I' This was let me see here. twenty twenty three Really Yeah? Why do I feel like I I feel like I played this like seven years ago, but I remember quite liking the presentation of this game. Like this is kind of like a little nightmaare's esque kind of Um, it's got that It's like It's like little nightmares and like brothers Tale of two sons kind of like it's notactly that, but it's like it's got that vibe going on I remember liking Bamble the Mountain Kings, definitely worth picking up and playing. Uh A Iither aside from that broken sword I appreciate I don't know if I could like it though. Like I'm just so like past this type of genre, likeike I don't know if I can really like get myself into even the headspace of enjoying this type of thing again But I know that this was like this is an old. Game, right? like broken swword Yeah, Broken Sword came out on PS one in ' ninety six. Yeah. Beuse I remember I had something, like I think I might have had a version of it. Broken Sword was a fairly I don't want to say prominent, but it was like a console like a kind of a uniquely console adventure game. I mean, it was on PC as well, I think, I remember it having fairly high like on on early PSMs in like ' ninety seven, ninety eight. likeike their broken sword was a fair I wasn't I was like just flipping through to find like role playay games and shit like that. I just remember that character, the male character, like with the handsome guy with like the blondish hair, the dirty blonde hair. Yeah All And then time crisis. We're crisis dude.. I'm so I'm amppted about this. I love time crisis I have so many memories of this series. It's so ridiculous. It's worth saying. because I said no when asking if there was stuff for us Red Dead Redemption two on here. If you are somehow engaged with the PlayStation ecosystem enough that you have PlayStation pllus premium and you somehow have not played Red Dead Redemption too First of all What's wrong with you?'s I would say Yeah. What's wrong with you s time to do it. very good. I guess, I don't know, but some people are waiting for a PS five port of Red Deb Redemption too But I don't know if that's even happening at this point. Yeah here. Yeah. I Um and no tree I've seen that game bounce around. Yeah, there's not Red dead and yes, SarZlls, I'm sure a lot people will be interested in now that it would be part of your subscription. So anyway ese will be available, may nineteent If you're interested. All right, let's get to what we're playing. I don't know how quick we want to go here. We're all playing Saros. I guess we'll just leave it now for the Spoilercasts. Is there anything else that anyone we've said so much about it already Yeah Yeah I like I want to like I want to like say what I need to say about it now, but we need to do it on Cigaret Timl P pllus so can spoil it I think that it's a consensus for people that maybe are interested they're still maybe interested or on the fence about Seros is that by the And I was less impressed with it say Like I think that its shortcomings became more hard to ignore by the end of the game And as we've said on every episode since Sarah's came out It plays very, very well To me, there are just really annoying or just things I don't like about it that makes it significantly less enjoyable than Eurnnal oververall I still think it's good And as I think it's great that you pointed out Colin that The people they were giving IGN shit for the seven out of ten That's I think it's it's a little maybe lower like then I well, I don't know. I wouldn't give it a seven but I wouldn't seeven point five I don't I don't know, maybe maybe maybe an eight at the most I would say. Yeah, which is great. I mean it's great. It's literally great on I GGM scale but it it's not, it's not as good as returnal in my opinion. It's more than an eight and no less than a seven, I would say You know, like I think that's kind of the sweet spot of where it is. if we were if we're entertaining the, you know, the score conversation. but like I'm kind of in the same space where like I love the way it plays, but like I feel like it gets in its way a lot. Like I don't This skill tree is so boring Like, I don't know I don't give a shit aboutb like what the skill tree is. It's just like it's I almost kind of like you could have just did this automatically in the background to my character like without my input and I probably would have noticed it just as much Um So like that's kind of it's a lot of the stuff that surrounds it that's just not that engaging or interesting Um But it's it plays very well. Like I like fight like I like the boss battles. I think they're engaging. I think they're clever. I think it's fun Um I'm up to the I just beat the architect, whatever that means. If you if you haven't played it, that means nothing to you. If you have played it, you, you know, it's not a spoiler or anything. But like I just got to that point I don't know how far away from it finishing it Finishing it I am It's good. That's good Those cuts sccenes are like, Yeahah, I mean'm definitely I'm definitely not drawn to it anywhere close to the way I was drawn to reteturnal. And I must say that I'm kind of Again, I think it's great I really like it. I think the gameplay is awesome. There's a lot of cool ideas in it beautiful Um I based on my own expectations and this is why expectations are the thief of joy. is that like I just had I had higher expectations where it I definitely did. Like I just, I don't know what I was expecting from it, but not this. And I know that sounds right. Yeah. That sounds weird and bad, but I'm like, no, this just doesn't I don't know's but I want to I gott to keep playing it. I got to get the real ending, which I'll just do in the next couple of days. and I'll get all my notes we'll our notes together and' We'll really get into it. And I'll see if can find a fourth. I don't know Who else played it Brad Pate I think he's playing he's playing it. M maybe Lockmore does Lockmore to know That doesn't really seem like a game would play Some people are requesting radic R It's a qucast. maybe. if we don't have enough of our own, of course. No, I like radic. we can make one of our own by bringing him in more and when it's necessary I was oion That wouldd be a nice idea. Yeahah, he did great on the God of War. I mean, he was really good on the God of War conversation. about a sons Sparta. Okay, and then we we're each playing something different. So I'm playing vampire crawlers. I'm still trying to get the trophy, all the trophies. It's a little bit of a grind literally. I mean,'s it's I think vampire survivors was actually harder toryine tropies in, and I never got the platinum that you did does. And so you can speak more to that. But I have ninety three percent of the platinums including So are ninety three percent of the trophies in the game. It's hundred I have one hundred and fifty bronze trophies the game. And that brings me to ninety three percent. I think I'm missing like six or something like that. So I have to still do that Saros I will clean up in pllatinum. I want to clean up Mouse PI for hire. I said this a week or two ago that there's something funky going on with the trophies and I just don't want to I don't think it's fixed yet. It hasn't been patched on PlayStation since April So I u I'm just going gonna wait But it's no, I hate lingering platforms like that. I hate it. My idea would be to like just I want to get one or two of these games out of the way so I can get the Pragmata, but't I don't know if I'm even going to be able to do that before Dou zero seven and Mina. So It's tough out there right now for your man calling him But u Chris, you're playing mix tape Yeah. What's what's going on with that I played it.'s a game It's not a game that you can be playing, really. Got it. But but I finished it. It took me about Three and a half hours maybe towards four. but no more than four It's kind of a narrative based Adventure game it's like life is strange sort of, but not really either. It's like I really don't know what to compare it to. It's interesting, but it is in the vein of these types of like a mouthwashing or like a like a very short kind of narrative experience And for the For the first bit of it, I would say for the first like maybe forty percent of it, I was like, yeah, this is kind of exactly what I was expecting. It's like, ye, okay It's a it's life a strange. It's definitely better In my opinion, it's not nearly as annoying. and to degree to the degree that it is annoying, it feels like it's like purpose. Like there's something about life is strange that feels like it's trying to portray He feels like old people writing kits You know what I mean? And this feels that way, but it feels like it's the point. Like it kind of feels like people looking back and reminiscing Uh and, uh Thinking about childhood as they remember it and not as how it was Like there's like some weird fantastical elements to it that I think makes that obvious But there's a point in the game that like you're kind of skipping rocks on a lake with these characters and they're just kind of talking And you can spend as long as you want in that space just kind of soaking it in and there's like little like mini game stuff that pops up. like'suff in the in the water to hit with the rock. there's like a technique for for the rock, like you can't do it too high or thewise it'll pop it you't do it low, otherwise it'll shoot the bottom. got get like a sweet spot. You can guide it kind of towards different things to hit. And as you hit more stuff, things keep popping up And as you're doing that, they're like the characters are talking And I remember like I got to that point, I was like, I kind of don't want to stop doing this And I kind of And he kind of clicked with me where I was like, oh, this is kind of, this is interesting Like I kind of I kind of like this It did make me cringe. And the characters are annoying But I liked it. It's weird. I don't really quite know how to experience How to explain it. It is kind of a game that you do just kind of have to either watch or play for yourself to really Get it It's also definitely not going to be for everybody. It's a very minimal It's not so drastic that like, oh, you don't have to touch the controller at all. Like you definitely need to input to finish the game But it's very light And I want to say that if this was like four years ago I don't think I would have cared or even tried this, but I think there's been a lot of games that have come out that have opened my eyes to these types of like less competitive, less Um, I don't know, refx, reflex driven types of games. Mouthwashing is one of those Um, There are other games too, like I'm blanking on the names of But I know I know gone home back in the day. like I just did not vibe with personally But like I take those games a little bit more seriously now than I used to. Bea there is something there, evenven if it's not for everybody. I liked it I don't think it's a ten. I think that's kind of crazy. But it is interesting and it is kind of Strange. And I recommend like it's for twenty bucks, it's just, it's hard to be mad at it F hours for twenty bucks, considering I just recently came out of Project Tell Mary which is like two and a halfour movie that I spend Moron And I liked as well, but like It's kind of in that space of like, yeah, I could I can entertain this and you either like it or you don't, and your investment is very minimal Uh, But I dug it It's interesting Cool. Yeah, I want I'll check it out at some point Um We're going to talk a little bit about the discourse around it in a minute, but The one thing I will say that bothered me a little bit about this was Now, I think the character is like they're in like their last days of high school. So they were older than I was, right I ye. Right. I entered the nineties in first grade and I exited the nineties and tenth grade. So I was a kid throughout the nineties, and I remember it very well. But I wasn't their age, right. I graduated high school in two thousand two, so I must admit that I'm a little further behind them I heard people in my life complaining like the music's kind of bullshit in the game as far as what people were listening to at the time And I went and looked at it. Now this is obviously going to be all anecdotal based on everything. But I looked at this list of songs, I'm like These were the songs that defineed the nineties to you. Like I feel like Well,, that's well, that's kind of the thing. It's like that's not what it is. Tell me more. L like the so the sort like just the long and short of it is like, The story is about this this girl's last day Or the last day after school in high school, it's like she's leaving to New York, because she wants to be a music supervisor for like, for films and TV and all this stuff. and she wants to be like the head of she has all these grandiose The idea is of like, she's going to be the top of everything. It's like really arrog And it's really unbecoming But like I think it's honest. It's like how a lot of people. So it's supposed to be like a pretentious. Yeah, she's supposed to be pretent like she's not, she's a hipster on. Okay Let' put it in a little even more context becausecause I look thisist of songs I'm like, come on No, yeah, she's listening to stuff from like the sixties and seventies because she thinks it's way cooler. Like she even talks about like There's a scene like if you spend enough time in the room, you get to hear like extra conversations and she's talking about like how like, o Oh, yeah, I was seeing that guy or was like, what does he listen to? Oh Green dayay and like some other thing. it's like, always a meat hit Ohh, you know, like so she's he's not she doesn't like And it's so funny because like I think I finished this game and I was like,h, I was kind of neat and interesting. I liked it. It was cute. And then I saw the discse online and it's so funny because it's the exact like likeike you are this person like like a lot of the discourse about like this is just This is fucking ' Rpe You know what I mean? Like what is this This is even a real game? And it's like and in game's like that's not even real music. And it's so funny because like you would identify with this person probably actually Youre you're all that insufferable Yeah, they well they sound they sound like my f, I heard my friend was telling me it's like, you know Well of one of them was like, well what do you associate with like the nineties? And I'm like, I don't know like Green Day was one of them, I'm like, Wezer Sound Garden Pl Jam offstar temble pilots, the offspring Yeah, no doubt Uh, like Now But it makes a lot more sense this list because some of them, I understand what they werere saying too, because some of these are deceidedly eighties bands Joy divisions in here. Yeah Divo is in here. the Divo song is that's good, which is one my favoriteivo songs. So that's super dope. I love the fucking song. It's the opener and it's it's a great sound the soundtrack I will say and this is something I do want to say about it. I talked a lot about on Simonsein, but it's also such a short game. I might as well Like As somebody who edits material and edits and makes content or used to A There is I'm very well aware of the power of licensed music and how manipulative or not manipulative necessarily, but like how much of a cheat code it is Neuronated Neurons activated. Like I used all sorts of license music in my videos and and even though they would get copyright stuck, I was like, want I want to make this. L I need this, otherwise it't work and I'm fine with that. it's fine But The game does that. Like I would argue that without the soundtrack here there's not T much there, like it's fine the soundtrack does elevate and it is just a great soundtrack. and it's kind of hard to be like,h well, without this wouldn't have been this and it's like yeah, without the without the level design, what is Halo. You know what I mean? Like, it's kind of like this is what it is ultimately. The license music is a part of it And it does elevate it a lot Like there's a lot of great music in there that like takes a scene that's like kind of like f and makes it feel like kind of like, oh, I'm kind of digging this Like whatever this combination of u neurons firing is like is making something kind of new and interesting and I do I do kind of I do appreciate it I came away from mixtape not regreting my time with it and kind of feeling like that was a neat little kind of detour on my way to something else. I don't know if I'll ever play it again, I can't imagine. Yeah. It doesn't seem like a game me replay Yeah, Maybe there's like I do like that rock skipping section and I could probably maybe platin in it but it's like, I don't want to pl them next day. Like's not really. have some self respect. Yeah. like I have that like my platinums are like Like they mean something and I was like nah's like' it's fine But I don't know. I think the discourse is largely surrounded with people just aren't playing it. I also think well I was looking at some because it's like, all right, like they have the curure on here for instance, that's like Some of these songs are not going to be cheap to license as well, but I was also thinking like this is a much cheaper licenseed song than having like fucking basket case from Green Day Buddy Holly from Wezer x type thing from S Tevil pilots. like that, you know ye Glycerin from Bush, like that kind of shit. That's going to be like way more expensive. And even some of the bands where I'm like, yeah, these bands make a lot of sense here. So like Portis had deeply nineties bands Silver Chair, another deeply nineties band and smmashing pumpkin, another deeply nineties band. They're all in there, but they selected weird songs So I think it might have been like with an eye towards like how can we get more of a volume of songs than the songs where I have toay a substantial amount of money for. Yeah, there might be a look to that as well. This' certainly not cheap to get these songs though. No And I also feel like the songs that they chose work well for for the sequences that they do because they are choreographed to to the music in some cases. So like it's Yeah, I don't know. it's a weird I don't know, I really do recommend it just for like, it's just so cheap. relative to anything else and it's so short, like your time investment is so low. If you're into these games, youre if you are a life estranged person, like this is kind of a no brainer, if you're not, maybe maybe don't But I but I'm not either And I kind of I kind of dug it. I think it's it really is the time thing man. Like I do think I think about TikTok and vine a lot, right? We're like The vivine was like six seconds, right? that was the whole premise was it was like a six second videos and that was it. So if somebody sent you like a shitty vine Like you were you were just like, a, whatever. Okay. It's over in six seconds. If someone sends you a shitty TikTok, that's like it could be three minutes It's a lot more insulting. Um, And so like Mixtape is weird because I think it's good. It's not great It's like a greatest game of all time or nothing But for the time investment that you sink into it four hours It's a nice way to spend some time relative to a lot of the games in that genre that I think are just like too unbearable. Like I just I can't I can't do Life Eesty, I can't do Hella I can't do it. I can't. People were not saying Helen in twenty thirteen. What you do Like what do you do? I whatever whatever. we didn't grow in the right place for all that shit too Um J like Mikeaah says Wi You know, Right, exactly. Yeahah, which is like an Athema to Long Island, which Hello would be That's I didn't even know I didn't even really thought that was a real thing until I u to California And I'm like, can really do say that Yeah wicked That's Boston. Yeah, ye Yeah, exactly it's wick awesome Dustin, do you anything want to say says you you have the steam controller here? Yeah. well, I wanted to talk since the Dsense was my go to PC controller and I'm sure is for a lot of our audience and maybe they're curious about the steam controller. h I did get it You just you like the way that looks? It looks like shit. but yeah.'m gonna like I don't know what else I don't know what else they're gonna do It's like, did you see the leaked Xbox? streaming control Yeah yeah. It's like Jesus. does anyone have an industrial designer anymore Christ's sake But I think they have I don't know what they're going to do, because they have putr those pads on there or whatever. Yeah U, but yeah, I've been using it since Tuesday and The main reason I wanted it is that the I don't know what's up with Sony. I don't know if it's the controller or whatever. To use this thing on Bluetooth on a PC absolutely sucks If you use Bluetooth, you do not get the haptic or trigger features in it the connection is unreliable. Like I would have my PC, which is beside my TV and I'd have my controller in my lab and it would lose connection. I'd have to like hold my controller up at certain points to have it connect The steam controller has like its own dedicated wireless puck that connects to it that has been excellent And uh I gott to say in terms of hand, how it feels in my hand. vashly preferred it to the Dullsense But I've always been a critic that I like the dual stroock four in terms of how it feels over the Dualsense. Dulsense has a lot of cool features. donon't get me wrong But in terms of how it feels in my hand, the steam controller has been Really, really great And I have been testing a bunch of different games on it. Something I was really curious about was like, the experience of playing games that aren't intended for controller support on the steam controller And Steam, one thing that PlayStation can learn from them is that You can customize this controller to do so many things It's not necessarily always intuitive, but I've always thought it was lame that if you want to customize your controller on PlayStation, I believe you need to have a dual sense edge. in terms of like customizing the six, you might be able to remap some buttons. You can remap ontons, I think. I think you can remap some things through yeah, the system settings. but Yeah, the full breadth of customization, I think only comes with the edge Playing the game I don't know if you guys have heard of this. it is called sccratchchy scratchy I know that? Why do I know that? It is a I mean, everything's a belatro like now. I don't really know how to describe it other than that, but it is a game about scratch off. Oh my go. Oh, I did see this. I did see this. Yeah This game rules. This game is actually really fun where you're U you use your money to buy scratch off cards, then you get modifiers like increase your luck or increase your coin size. That's funny. Eventually you get a little robot because you're buying so many scratch off cards that will scratch off the cards for you. And you get like a fan that will blow the cards into the robot instead of having to manually drag them each time. It' So ridiculous. It seems like it's a Parity almost Yeah, it's I more commentary I thought it would be fun for a few minutes, and then I think I spent two hours playing And it is not a controller compatible game So you're able to map everything to either the touchpad or you can map the mouse to the stick and the your triggers are your clicks and stuff like that And it worked flawlessly I don't know if I'd wan to play like a heavy RTS on this, though, to be fair, I have not tried. I've heard of examples of people mapping games like War of Warcraft to a controller. and it's been great. So There's definitely a bit of a learning curve to it In terms of it being a lot of people were hung up on the price point I think in this economy, And the fact that it has magnetic, I think it's TMR joysticks. So this is better than Hll effect. So these are not going to get the dreaded Drift and the feature set that it comes with, the fact it has its own wireless, the trackpads, the customizization and just overall how it feels. the back buttons on there. I think it's a fantastic controll And I really hope I don't necessarily want Sony to put like I don't need a dual trackpad system. It's not required on a console controller because you're not playing PC games on a console I really do hope at some point that Sony either, I mean it's as un eloquent as it is Give people an option to have back buttons that isn't a two hundred dollars controller whether they're In my personal opinion on the steam controller, they're built in. I think that would maybe bother some people, but it feels so good on this one that it's like, if you never want to use these That's fine Wait a minute, wait a minute Ifin's calling me. He said, I'm sorry, I can't We can't do that. You should have bought Sarrows S I bought it. I tried So Yeah, Steam contontroller. Pre cool. goodoodbye, Dual sense for PC should have done a little better. He said that either the R and D money for that goes to Housemark or they get closed down, you can have your controller, but you should have bought Sarooss and then we would have had to make this tri. Ch choice unfortunately Bomber' the way go sometimes.mer Cool man. I you enjoy it. And you you did it, yeah, you did you streamed with it, right? And thats that's when I came in and talked to you a little bit, but yeah, yeah, it seems like people were really into it. So. Yeah, I think that So there was a lot of difficulty with the initial allotment where people were not able to order one. Some may remember the sacred streaming. I was like, Yep, I'm pressing the continue button over and over There's another preorder round where I think they're trying to combat scalpers by just like anyone, you can put in a preorder. at any point, and you will eventually get one So I look forward if you're interested You can can get one from Valve. Who knows when their steam machine or VR headset is coming out. Sounds like they're ramping up to do it They got like a shipment. that like on declarations or Ive said game consoles. Oh really. Two tons of peopleople are so nerdy. they're looking at their fucking There chipping declorations now Yeah interesting us R. right Well that's what're playing.' get the six questions, comments, concernsid is and end this episode Phaps on high note I mean, it' be up where we go with all of these, Of course you can subit your inquiries on Patreon Patreon. com slash Last day media Use the thread in the news feeed each week for the different shows, please enjoy sububmitting your inquiry and seeing if I select it or not Give to Andrew Walsh, she says, Hello Sacred Boys I think I'm getting to my breaking point with social media. I've never seen a so called fan base hate something they supposedly love more than gamers From Resident evvil to Pragmata and marathons, Saros and now Mixtape is next on the chopping block. What is it with these people What games do they actually get enjoyment out of It truly is at the point where staying off social media and just enjoying the games you enjoy is the way to go I just can't handle the constant negativity on a hobby I love What say you guys is the gaming space in its worst state that it's ever been Why are people not allather than enjoy stuff anymore I think part of the audience is tired of talking about these kinds of things, which I get. However, we had a lot of inquiries about this this week and this was the top ranking er one of them So I thought we would go with it Chris what's going on out there with the people I don't know, man. I really do think it's just a matter of we've incentivized Bad the wrong things. I think u being able to buy Ververification on Twitter is a nightmareish decision that so dumb. That was obviously dumb in the beginning. I don't know why anybody thought that there was even a modicum of a good idea there. I don't think it really worked because they just gave me mine back Like I think a lot of people didn't even I think a lot of people didn't even buy and they're like all right Yeah, because I was like, all right, I freet I don't care. I'm not going buy I'm I'm not paying for So Twitter is and Twitter is like, you know, it's kind of the new public square. I don't think it really is because there's a different like That's always been a kind of a problem with me where it's just like It's not really public square if you can just run out and anonymously scream random shit then just and then disappear. It's not really analogous. But like it is kind of the front page of the internet now and it's where a lot of discourse is. There's a profit incentive to be negative because it's inherently more interesting, It's more juicy. It's the same thing, It's the same reason why tabloids and shit were more enticing than like, you know, real news. It's just like, well, what I want to see what Britty's what I want to see how Brittneany Spears and that alien hooked up, you know, in two thousand seven or whatever, like National Enquire type nonsense. I don't know. I think I think it's that. I think it's The incentivization of that for profit or attention. That's what' sad about it too is that like it's It's not even profitable really for a lot of these people, it's just like they're getting attention and that sustains them somehow. think I think it's just a lot of posers to be honest with you Um, I think a lot of people don't play games. Yeah. I think that's obvious.nd and spend a lot of time I mean, that was more obvious with mixtave than anything for me where it's just like because I only saw the discourse after I had finished it, really. Like I saw some people complaining about it, but like that was expected Uh It was more people complaining about the ten and ten reiews and then went online and saw like criticism of it was just like, well, you didn' actually play this You don'd even do the due diligence of like watching a playthrough of it to know that like Yeah, it's not like the like the song of like the criticism that you were bringing up earlier about, like, um All, these aren't the songs of the nineties and it's like yeah Like it's very strange. And I see that a lot notot just from Mixstpe, but like other games too. It's just like where it's like you clearly didn't engage with this thing that you that you care about so deeply somehow. And of course it's not real care. It's like it's just What's going to get clicks and what's going to get money. it is a bummer But Yeah, I would argue that now is kind of the worst time to talk about games probably ever just because it's conversations are rewarded. by inauthenticity orr being inauthentic is actually like the best way to like get ahead really? because it's just like, o, it's most inflamatory or it's the most like Wrong but sensational and then it gets the most replies, it gets the most engagement. People comment on it And even the people who comment on it earnestly who are like, hey You know, this is not exactly how this is That's feeding into it because it's rewarding it with a response. and it's just like you can't really win. Like the best way to do any anything now really is in person And it sucks because in person is like the least accessible type of way to do things now compared to how it used to be because it's no longer the default. and I really don't know how you fix that really, but it it's bad And uh I don't really enjoy This A way out of it, really? do you think that's? Yeah, it is bad. In some ways, I don't know if it's any worse or just more in our face, probably because of what Chris is saying is like algorithmically It is feeding these things to you all the time And I totally get Andrew like some For some people and I don't think this is like a greater than or less than situation, it's like sometimes you got to get out. like To me, I think of the whole marathon situation where I've seen this for me, I've seen it for Chris. I've seen it for our beloved pork poncho You tweet about Marathon You are going to have people come after you And it doesn't matter what you say Itesn't matter. it can simply be a statement of enjoyment U And I guess the question is whether or not you're going to let that bother your enjoyment or not and I choose to, I don't know if it's a choice or just like personal deposition or something where it's just like, that's fine. Like I don't I don't care that people when I tweet about Marathon that people are mad about it. It just doesn't I guess it's bothersome because it's annoying And I wish it wasn't that way But it's not going to stop me from trying to elevate the conversation around games. And I think that's important. and I'm I don't know if everyone should do this or everyone again has the fortitude to do it, but it's like the conversation's bad because the the normal people that can talk are retreating And yeah. ye. So I I I don't want to tell anyone what to do, but I encourage people that if you're disheartened by this, that Number one, you don't engage in in that as much as possible. and I get this. likeike I got to take a swipe or two at people Every once a while and Oh yeah likeike everyone has to. Yeah. Every once in a while, like a marathon tweet I swiiped back at a few people because it was just so stupid. and it's fun. But like When I see people that are Even in my own like marathon tweet that I made, there's people that are going back and forth seventeen, twenty replies back and forth. I'm like, what are you doing Give it up. On either side, defenders or haters, whatever. My encouragement is that like be we got to change the conversation around and how it operates And we have to try to push that as normality Yeah. I mean, I think the thing that The thing that annoys me the most about it is that like I think I think the type of discourse is indicative of a population that is cognitively incapable of doing that. That's that's what that's what makes that's what's depressing about it. It's not even that like you hate this game. Like, whatever like there's plenty of games I can't stand or they're just like that don't do it for me But like the inability to articulate why because you actually don't You actually don't know that you feel that way about it because you actually don't engage with it is crazy to me. Like and it's just like from that perspective, it' disappointing. I'm like, Ohh my God, like people can't speak anymore, People can't like articulate themselves anymore And they're not even there's not even An incentive to be educated about what it is you're talking about because it yields no benefit because you'll get less interaction probably if you're speaking from a place of like actual authoritative, like've I've done this or I've played this or I've experienced this or I've watched this movie or I've listened to this album. I think it's right. it doesn't change the outcome Really In fact, it makes it worse because you're going to have a more nuanced take that is less sexy that is less, you know shareable Uh, sureure. And so like I don't I don't really know I don't know It doesn't affect my enjoyment of video games, likeike video games I still Like I could give a fuck. I could give a fuck how many people were bothered by me playing marathon. if anything, it like enhances the experience In some way for me because I'm just like, I know somebody's seeing me on Marathon right now and they're upset. And that's funny Yeah, But but it does make the social media experience worse. I really do think I really do think the social media experience is worse than it's ever been Yeah. One other thing I do want to say is that I think Andrew is mostly targeting and on the hater mentality culture I just want to point out and I'm not saying Andrew is ignoring this, but I think it does go both ways too where like Criticism of a game, you can be constructive about it or you can state your opinion and it's perceived as what the same as an inflammatory person at the same time. also is like something that I would love to see ease up. I don't know if it's going to, but like When I did my review video on Resident evil I was pretty critical about it. I was pretty critical on our spoilercast and on Sacred as well Um, and some of the Not not from sacred listeners on my own channel, which it got a lot like a wider audience the people that were like, you didn't really understand the game. You didn't play it eight times. Uh you you weren't there when Resident Eil came out on PlayStation one. How could you even have this type of criticism for it. I'm like No simimply no. like it's this is not how this works Um So yeah, it is a little bit of both ways, but My I guess to summarize and reiterate my point is that I think It is important that Tide to pushback in a way that does not, as Chris was saying, like, don't engage with certain people Um, And I think like, I don't know, like Twitter really shouldn't be it's a source of entertainment for us, I think in a lot of ways. And it is a way that we receive news Yeah. So use a tool, unfortunately It's certainly not where I want to read informed gaming takes Yeah I would hope that people like I hope that with this show that we're able to give informed, nuanced opinions and or YouTubers or whatever conversations out there. U The thing that the thing that really confuses me is like it's like, oh, you're paid to be positive about this game. It's like, you know how much money I could make if I was just negative about literally all of this sane. Like I've seen I've seen seeing what makes you cheer. Like I could milk you people for like a lot Like very easily, like insane, like it it's trivial Yeah, I feel the same way. I feel I feel like it actually goes both ways too like I talk about how we always know our graders, for instance, wanted to sponsor us last year and stuff like that and we get all these other opportunities pretty often to the point where we still have to Most of them are turned down for us now, but still every once in a while. R remember when I Something bubled up with Nintendo last year and like our people I told you guys our ad repkinos I'm like, arere you sure You know, like I could very easily stream a game for you tell you how good it is not criticize it and make ten thousand dollars I could do that all the time, by the way. Um five thousand dollars here, ten thousand dollars there. Like that's what You're right that it goes both ways. People are deeply inauthentic based on various strings being pulled that get them towards the end that they want, which is usually money I respect that I want money too I think and we've reflected on this recently is I like the I like them experimenting with Twitter and doing all sorts of X whatever and doing all sorts of different things with it. I think some of it has worked. I think some of it hasn't. And I think one of the things, it's like Game Past, what we say about that all the time where it's like you dont know until you try and I like the idea of them saying like, well, what if we paid people to use it? Like what if people made content here I just don't think it works And I think you ultimately have to have the for mentality of you're in it for the love of the game Right. orr you're not in it at all And let it be a tool to get people let it be a promotional tool for and Twitter makes this difficult by throttling this sort of thing, but it's like show off your YouTube. Uload your videos or your essays or whatever makeake money on being a personality or an influencer of some sort the form doesn't have to pay you And I think if you just got rid of that one thing I think a lot of this would change It's You used to have to gravitate towards the place to go to bitch like this about video games. You're right, Dustin that like people have been bitching about video games like this since the eighties. I mean, if you were, I wasn't on the use Net, but you can hear plenty of stories about people on there and they were nuts And then of course, the nineties hour web one point zero and the forums. Where the era I come from Everyone was crazy But you had to go to those places. A lot of it was just as bad It just wasn't as voluminous. and common. It seems to find you If I wanted that kind of shit I had to go on Gamefs then go to like the message board of the game and then I had to click on the thread. and then it's like Now I go on Twitter and because I like video games, it assumes I want to see all of this bullshit And u It does feel sometimes like I've been using social media less just virue I' just busy like it' springim, I'm outside, I'm doing things in the art. I'm just busy with other things. I'm just not on it as much anymore, I kind of resent In order to avoid the drama and the nonsense, you have to just not use it and I think what they need to do is to fix that And I just think that some of the fixes are easy Geo blocking, I think is a huge thing in social media. I said it on stnaker streaming, then it doesn't like, I would block ninety percent of the world like that No offense But like, I don't need to hear what you think about our politics or like this or that. I don't care about what's going on in your part of the world or things I don't understand in another language, all this kind of shit. justust reduce it to its bare essence of like why you're actually there Understand your user base better. Stop mixing everyone up. And they want global bul You know, they don't want that because it's like, it's T to fix that would mean there's less sensationalism and less engagement and less traic And we said that exact thing and you're absolutely right. And what I was saying was like, couldn't you have a story pitch. for your pad people being like, we're going to reduce our traffic, and it's going to be much more meaningful Now our CPMs go up because the people here are real or they matter or your ad for an American restaurant is not in playing for someone in Pakistan or something, you know what I mean Like is there a way to sell it? and could you make the product better Some of the things they did made sense. They fired most of the Twitter and it was fine. L They weren't doing anything. It's it's the system the underwiting system and it And Twitter's been so successful that Like X is bigger than ever and I think it's seeping Like the mentality of the small liibertarian. Yeah. because I love what you said, Chris. you can't really have and I think this is a great point You can't have the town square without knowing who you are That's why I'm not terribly offended by people being forced to kind of ID themselves. I thinkink like That's a slippery slope Yeah, it's too as long as it's opt in You know what I mean then it's like, just don't use it. Go use some other anonymous thing But at least we know everyone here is real Whateverer might be, I don't know what here is ye, I agree. I think, um No one should be No one should be forced by the barrel of a gun to say like, who are you n the internet But if you're using a service Maybe you should want to know who that person is and maybe it's important for everyone to know that person's real And maybe your name should back up the shit you talk Yeah know U It's easy to say things anonymously. Pe say to us every day You know exactly who I am When I say what I say That's that's the thing that kind of like it makes me like I just I don't know, man. I say everything I say regardless of like how controversial it is with my face and name attached to it. Like So like whenever somebody's like, I'm too scared Like I get that there's some places where it's just like some countries or whatever where you can be like executed for for like saying whatever it is that you want to say. It's like, I get that But in America it's just like I don't, man What do you are you really that afraid now? Like just Kay's like C cutting penises off of raccoons. you know, like you're fine. He's catching starles in airports. Like I just don't know everybody's so like worried is going to come out about them Like it alm makes me Mega suspious of a person who's like, you're that anonymous now with all the shit that flies You know what I mean? Like hell are you doing. Also people are unmasked all the time too. It's like almost easier to just be yourself and not have to worry about it. right? Like and It's true. likeike I've always said what I've said. I've never had an anonymous account. My old my game factax name is C Moriarti Right. You know, like I've never been anonymous. likeike my my IG name was Moriarty dash Gen. I never had An anonymous name really. And then social media obviously erased all that my public facing thing in the media I've the I mean, I obviously I've got paid it and all the rest and it's been successful, but like I I've had the balls to say everything with my chest. Regardless how you feel about it. Yeah, the cowardly anonymity thing only works if you're like fucking if you're like an insider in the government or something or you're like like a whistleblower. O otherwise like whistblower. mayaybe just don't say off out of pocket crazy shit and you won't have to worry about your anonymity Again, I think that you shouldn't be forced to say or do anything. But I just think it's maybe having a gate of'm saying like, okay, but If you want access to this, then I don't know. Technology we we have a responsibility to steward technology, I think. we haven't done it. We haven't done it well I agree. So yeah, Andrew, I hear you wanted to present a lot of you wrote in about this. a lot of you want to talk about it I think we're kind of beholden on the show to the the reality of the ecosystem. So like that is kind of what it is right now I think hiding from it and pretending it's not happening is stupid. It's it's similar to what I think has happened on social media. We're talking about Twitter and we always bring up B bllue sky as well as is like I've said before I think the people on Blue Sky have made a massive strateg err alienating and isolating themselves from the conversation You've got to be where the conversation is. Unfortunately, we have no choice as sacred symbols but to be wherever people are, wherever the Playtation conversations happening, wherever games are being released, wherever conversation might lead us So we're kind of beholden to this and like doing it without that insight into the greater ecosystem, I think is disingenuous from And I don't want to cover games like Because then it makes it then you're really making games in the products and not social phenomena and That's fine to a degree, but not really what I want to do. Cn Mcury wrote and said, Heyaker gents I saw Gaman Fmer getting some heat this week for obsessed GTA six fans. He says four, but he meanans six over a stream they were building hype for when they would reveal the next cover game. It obviously wasn't GTA and now people are going after them for sabotaging the debs My question for you boys is this Is it fair to place any blame on Game and Fformer for doing the stream on a day where a GTA trailer was rum to drop or should fans do airm stand down I personally think they shouldn't be responsible for unsubstantiated rumors created by the internet, but that's just me. Thankk you, boys for all you do. This is interconnected with the first question in my opinion The game that they were revealing, I guess was Blood of Daon Walker Right. Um which is one of my most anticipated games. This to me is a common sense issue Although Maybe that's asking too much as you said earlier like you' What is the average IQ of a person out there these days? I don't know I don't know anymore It worries me. When I saw this rumor going around, which was happening like a day before the stream, I think in the day of stream and everyone's like I'm I want you to understand that you're suggesting that The Rockstar is going to reveal in a meaningful way Grand D Auto six in game inform her. twenty twenty six. I want to make sure I understand this argument. Like that's what you think iss to happen You think that Rockstar is going to go to game the revived post closure game informer Wout their connection to Game stop anymore, which is the onlyason Game of Fform was relevant for the last fifteen years of its existence and It's like I just it's just one of those things where I'm like, I just see things every once in a while. I'm like, that's not obviously not happening And I don't understand why people don't know that that can't have that couldn't have possibly been Grand Theft Auto That that that game d I'm pretty sure GTA four and GTA five were both them. Game in former covers And probably before that, I wasn't even really a game. I was I. yeah. But that's a different era Like I've said it to, I've said it to people before, but just to reiterate. Even in the days of IGN, we would go around and try to get exclusives and reveals, and everyone would always say like the thing that that's most valuable to us, even though we know you're bigger we know you have bigger reach Two things. Number one, game stop Game for was right there we go to our game, Bah,ah blah. Number, I walk into my boss's office with a magazine in my hand And am I And I drop it on his desk. and there's our game on a magazine and it's just so easy to sell to the executives That's antiquated way of looking at things these days That would have been the boon of the century, if by the way If if somehow this new game informer got them to reveal Granda Thro six in the new gaming, come on guys Yeah no, it's not game in Fformer' fault. It's everyone else' Yeah and don'll retard as a ye metal metal retard There's there's the thing too about like, wasn't it like, u so this So there was a stream that they were building hype for cover Yeahah, a cover reveal U, Not only is what you guys said perfect because it's just like what what is why would Rockstar go to game informer Um But like also what is Gam informer going to do if they've already had these things in you know what I mean? It's a magazine Like it's kind of established what it's going to be. like all these These are moving parts that take aw while. It's not like they're going to be like, ah GTA iss rumored, let's push it know I mean, let's let's let's push our magines. L, that's not how that works either. None of this I didn't even catch wind of this happening because I just didn't even assume that any of that would a relevant factor Like none of this I'm bewildered that this was even a story. It seems like something's going on concurrent to where we're recording this with Grand Theft Auto. like there are I guess there was a leak about a preorder thing going live on the eighteenth, right? So it seems like the new trailer might be coming I think people are conflating all of these things and leaks I think are starting to happen more materially if you like know where to look. And I'm not saying I do. I'm just saying like, you know, there are like deep GTA forums and like Fortan and like all sorts of shit where like people actually say things that are true all the time. You just have to know where to look and like what to believe. We're going to talk about one of those things at the moment actually But um Yeah, I mean I guess they could do a grand of Auto six game informer cover in the future. I just feel like that sounds insane compared to It'd be post reveal Right, exactly. And justust knowing the way the magazines worked Back in the day, the magazines would always get games before us, which always annoyed us. But it was by they would even get free gold builds of games that were basically done but I'm certified. because They needed all of this lead time So a lot of they used to always talk about like how much of a risk it was because you really had to trust these dudes Like they were getting access sometimes six weeks before everyone else or something like that. likeike they had all of it They were capturing footage. they had all the layout, they had all the assets, they had the interviews ready to go I just don't know why you would put yourself in that position for Game Informer in twenty twenty six I understand putting yourself in that position a game of Fmer in twenty ten completely under one hundred percent Um aybe I'm wrong, maybe I look like anidot for thinking Randy's hore ex wife wrote in and said greetings and sitationsays that's of course, a reference to sacred trereatment Care a comment.' I'm cur' what you think about. Sare comment on the fromrom soft Laks detailing a pirate setting for the new game. God bless all Ceruleans. I'll hang up and listen. That's a reference to what the game's title might be I don't know if you guys have been following this. I have a I'll put here in the chat a game ran article. Apparently on Fortune, there are some interesting leaks going on about what the next game might be and it seems to be pirate related, and I don't know, I do you believe any of this stuff As soon as I hear it leak from four Chan, I kind of tune out. Really? Be I was just saying like shit leaks there that's real pretty regularly. People say shit that's true all the time there. Like I feel like saying, I'm not saying everything's real or most of it or even a preponder of it I'm saying it. I'm just saying People clearly go there to say shit because they're going to get away with Certainly, I feel like it's a broken clock is right twice a day situation with with Fortune where yes, there has been absolutely things that have leaked there Uh There' also many, many fakes that have come from F Chan. think P part of this said that they were going to announce it from at a summer Game Fest and then release in August I was like, that doesn't make any s ike Well they might be they're bigger than we think, I think at this point, but that would be like, what about the dustbloods Yeah So I don't know if there's like multiple leaks going on or something I guess if I want to entertain the idea this idea of a from software pirate dark pirate fantasy where you're going to different Islands that are each of their own you know, Dark Souls type level. Sounds very cool And I'm sure that the art directors and the artists at FrM Software would make the sickest pirate designs ever And it sounds really, really cool But I just on a personal level, I like speculating on things. I guess there's only so much effort that I could put into speculating This slim of a Rumor T me So we'll see. it could very well end up being being true. I just with in this in this current leite culture It's harder for me to see that and be like, o man What could it be? Yeah I just' prepared to be disappointed. I' not. I think you're right in that It needs to come from a certain person that we really know is trustworthy. tyypically. I think everyone gets something wrong sometimes, but And the other thing is that I think I'm especially acutely aware of this. I mean, this has been talked about for a few years now, but especially whether that happened with Starfox where I think I think the companies are starting to fuck with people try to out. Wh is leaking things? And This might be one of those things for all I know. Beause if I were working like we love the leaks, we eat them up. If I were at one of these companies, I'd be fuckking I would literally go to the ends of the earth to know who's leaking the shit If we were like working on a game or something like that and people were leaking information about it, I'd be fucking furious Like if I were Corey Barlag and he's clearly upset based on what we can observe on the Fay leak for the got new got War game or whatever, what it is If I were him, I'd be like going up it, I'd be talking to everyone Liter I'd people in one in ones here Did you leak the g?ike, are you talking to people At least try to like figure out, you know, you got to it's a high trust thing. to make a game for four or five years and rely on everyone to not say shit even your own family A lot of times. So We'll see Sounds neat Timingu I mean, they could do anything because obviously Dustk Bloods is a switch only game They could obviously do things on other platforms at the same time. I just don't know why you would want to do that even for your own internal finances. You want to spread things out So I'm trying to find because that I was looking I'm actually unfortunately I clicked the link to see the fourhand post. So I'm on a watch list now Yeah, that's. It's not on there. So I'm trying to remember where I saw that mayaybe they were talking about Blood Where was it on wasas it on a I saw a thing on gaming leaks and rumors on Reddit as well I always go there every week to see what what people are saying. That's like the that's a place where We've said this before. I love all these websites. We use them a lot video games Chronle Push Square My old stomping grounds, IGN, all the rest. I respect them and I think they're all doing great work in their own ways, but they are all very careful not to fuck with the companies too much And so things will happen that they won't talk about on their sites that are clear leaks. Like I'm pretty sure the insomnac stuff was that right? Like some of the sites like wouldn' even acknowledge the insomnac leaks I don't like you specifically that I think they said specifically that they wouldn't, right? Right, exactly. It's like, I don't know about that. I'm not saying you should be the one leaking it although maybe you should be. I mean, If you if someone like leaked it to you, do you have some sort of obig, journalistic oblig to leak it I don't know We had a lot of those conversations back in my media days like we famously leak destiny, one That was literally we've talked about this before, literally someone found a book in a bar That's literally what happenens As I recall, is like someone left like a folder, like a binder. And then I'm pretty sure that person shopped the binder around. u like knew what it was Be I think most people would just put it in a loss and foundou or thrown it away or maybe even in contact with people or somehow, but this person knew what he was looking at Yeah Like the bartender or the waiter or whatever And it's fucking crazy. Yeah. And what I recall about that was that like Kataku had it first and I think that they wouldn't do anything with it. And that's why I think why we did it But I don't I don't think any I'm saying anyone paid for it. but it's not Like TMZ pays for shit all the time like information. I think I don't think should be the one cracking in the companies. I don't think you should be like greay hat hacking I don't think you should be like But like if things exist in the ecosystem, I think you have some sort of responsibility to report on it sometimes unfortunately. Be again, we're the recipients of reality as it is Um Right So anyway. Just to follow up because I want to clear the what I was saying in this game Ran article, it says, quote, there's no information as to when the game could release, which again clashes with the initial leak. as it had claimed from Software's Pirate Game would debut just months after its reveal in August. So there is multiple leaks with clashing information and that's where things get fucky. But I wonder if those I mean, again, it's impossible to know, but I wonder if the multiple leaks indicate that the core of it is real Right? Two people are leaking independently about this pirate game or whatever it is. Now, it sounds like it takes place in a huge ship, right? That's what they're saying. It's actually which was kindappointing. I'm like, well, what is that? It would be cool to take place in like the open ocean that sounds kind of dope I think you take the ship two different places. Right. But I was like it would be cool if you like boarded people's ships and like had like the like it was crazy Dark Souls or Elden Ring but like on the open ocean with like archipelagos and armadas and flotillasool Yeah You can have that fromself. I know you guys are in desperate need of ideas B get a free bloated belly of milk rod in and said Hey Krispy Kamed in trio This goes out to Chris and Dustin I'm sure people are getting tired of the marathon discussions, but I don't care them all for it What are your thoughts about the upcoming season two update coming next month I'm excited to see Nightmarsh finally in the changes, but I'm also interested to see player attention And so this will be the real growing pain for a lot of players with the factory set for everyone coming with season two Anway, I'll hang up and listen as I find more Krispy Krem donoughuts for no reason at all' with you in Krisp Km Yeah. and the His name the bloated belly of milk I'm uneasy. Yeah, I'm uneasy about the whole thing Krispy Krem's too rich for my tast. Um So I talked about this a little bit on the Reorge Gaming show that I was on. I was talking about Whereas I amm also fascinated specifically by retention Also by the idea of new sales Be from an outsider's perspective I look at it in the way I described it, I was like, I think the game is getting increasingly sweaty. And I think the only way you can unleash that valve is to reset the game and then maybe that will feel more welcoming to other people. But the reality is that the people that are getting reset are still going to play and they're just going to be better. So there might be a problem here I don't I don't know. I'm curious to know what you guys think as players Yeah. Uh so I guess to make this not so in depth about marathon for the people that are in, but for the people that are on the outside looking in Um Season two is not going to fix Marathon In fact, I would maybe even kind of expect season two to get a little bit worse. because The player number thing is twofold. Number one is that people don't want to get into the game this late into the season And I think that makes total sense. Second thing is that The crazy hardcore players are either still playing and just like fucking around because they've done everything in the game basically They fought compiler And so now they're just hanging out in cryo and trying to find and kill teams and get better loot But like for example, someone like me, If I beat compiler this weekend I'm putting Marathon down until season two I've done everything that I want to do. And I'm sure there's lots of people that did that. They were like, ye, I'm good for now In season two, there isn't been enough time for them to make anything radically new new players. so I expect to put less time into season two than season one. As we've been playing Oh we're playing as we've been talking, Chris, I'm maybe you saw this. they just put out a long thing about in season like more things they're doing in season two adding an experimental PB E mode Um, mhm. which is very they said that they want to do Experimental PV PVE. experimental PVP modes because right now the game is technically PVPVE. So like exclusive PVP modes, exclusive PVE modes and I do think that will help Certainly Um I think there is an element there probably want to capture some of the destiny audience, the destiny dads that don't want to sweat. Every night. Yeah and So I guess getting back to my original point is like season two isn't going to fix marathon and I expect the player counts will continue to be low. But And it's tough because we're based, you know, this some of this information just came out like within the last hour But it's clear that they want to continue to work on the game They mentioned specifically in this post that they want to work on player onboarding, which is Maybe one of the most important factors to bringing this game back is Having people try to understand the game at an earlier point instead of floundering around for five hours like I did. and many other people as well. So I think they are smart enough to understand that there is something here and the people that play this game and get it Absolutely love it Uh, and they In order to make an extraction shooter This budget and have it be commercially viable, they need to figure out ways to make it more appealing to casual players which is kind it's like It's two opposites So the PVE mode. is going to be a step in the right direction, but it's going it's going to take a while. Any Chr No, I mean, I was my eyes were darting around because I was like this this is a really long write up. Yeah it's so exc. It's actually like, I'm excited to like H a cup of coffee and read it because it's extensive Yeah. L there's a section. what we've learned. Number one, marathon is overwhelming to learn I can't wait to read this too, so sorry ye. So I wish I mean I agree with a lot of what D't said. I don't know, man. I think Marathon' such a weird game because it it is it really is like I understand that people think we're paid or whatever but it's like it's insane to think that. but like I mean it really is just so good. As a first person case, you guys to pay us That's they're like you're confused. Yeah like I uh, So like I just I think they understand that they have something good. I think they have. and I think there's a lot of conversations about like, u player retention. like from their metric it's good from steam player counts, like concurrent. it's It's bad. I don't know what to make of that reallyally I think what's more interesting to me is like less how many people are playing it once and more like what are the daily active users? Like that's the thing that I wantan to know Like because that's more indicative. because I know personally anecdotally, like I've spent less time playing Marathon than I did the first week because obviously You know, there's other things to do. there's other things to play. There's just like life that you've then put aside to play this fucking game that you got to get back to. I know pork is the same way. So like, I think like what I would be so what I would be curious about is like, what are the daily active users looking like Um What does that say to you? And it clearly says enough for them to be like, no, we're going keep sticking with this because like we have enough retention. People are playing maybe less because it is a demanding game. you know, like they're I still play more or less every day, like maybe it's but it's like maybe one or two runs and like the second I d with the second I lose, I'm like, that's enough for today That's enough for today. I can't handle it So it's intense. But I do think they they're going about it in the right ways. I think they've got a great IP. I think they've got a great foundation. I think they've got great lore to pull from. I think they've got great places to go. The second they start adding the aliens from the original marathon into this, which like I imagine that will happen at some point is like it's going to be I would imagine this game is going to be very, very different in the coming years than it is today. And I'm excited to see like where that goes. I think Bungie is really, really good at growing a great foundation into something that people really giveiish shit about I I've always been good at that. So You know, hopefully they have the time to figure that out And hopefully they're hopefully they're given someome level of leeway in the sense that like they have a strong community here that's invested. they're happy with it that they wish it was better, but that they understand that if you're going to get involved in live service The game is evolving And the game is capturing people and like enticing people to come in over time. And u yeah, I don't think season two is going to be like a magnificent like grand overhaul. But I do think they've made a lot of progress in season one. and I think season two is going to do a lot of that as well. I think the PVE mode is smart. I think I even pitched on Twitter a long time ago, like u They should do like a firefy type thing that just takes place at the individual POIs. where it's just like it's just waves and waves and like there's some boss or something. There's already bosses in the game. you can do it Um, But'm I'm curious to see where it goes because I think I think it's really, really fucking good And uh We'll see. I think well we might do a For season two, are we planning anything for like sacred or like a sacred plus or something? We could. I know Absolutely. I know Brad wants to have on Summonstein For season two Episode. Yeah we can get something going for that. if that we don't we want to do it there instead, I'm fine that. I want to keep talking about Marri. I I keep saying that I think it's exciting that we have a game internally that people are really excited about. I don't really give a shit about how it's doing personally. I'm happy that the people I like and know are enjoying it I think my I love I love my weird analogies, obviously, I use them all the time, but I do think my analogy of like, this is a beachhead, you like You lost a lot of soldiers on this thing. likeike you die like you bled. I get this little piece of land, you gott to keep it I don't think you I don't think you abandon it lookook around you. It ass a fucking world war out there, man Like you got a little piece of land here. just see what you can do with it Um and seeing to expanding get off the beach You Harl like But don't give it up. I think that would be a mistake. People like it. It would be different if it was shedding players and people were like, this game sucks, but really People that play like it. It has a real group of It's so funny man, Steam DB and like and the c it's fucked so much shit up Edits I don't mind more data I like data so it's like it's more it's less obfuscated than ever. like people know how have a material view into how games at least on PC are doing It's valuable and it's interesting. but I don't think people know how to read it quite right. Like because I saw the same thing with mix tape where it's like it's only got this has only got a couple of thousand concurrent players. it's like it's a four hour a single player game. Like I'm not going to sit here and say that it's like Mixtape is like going to sell like six million Gbbies or some bullshit like that. There's no shot that that happens. although twenty dollars maybe it sells pretty well But like playayer counts for a game like that is inse like I don't even know what you're trying to glean from that. Like it's almost useless. Yes someone someone said that to us. Oh yeah, we are all time someone was making fun of me on on Twitter for having we have forty four players all time peak on on Sain Slayer and I'm like, dude, that's like You have any idea how big that is for us on PC? I'm not trying to I'm trying to like be like that's like the biggest hit in the world that I'm like dude our game is already sold more on PC L Sain Slayer outsold most of our games on PC in like a few days PC was where it did really, really well for us actually, along with PSN. And so Um It it gives people this like distorted vision that everything needs to be doing this certain amount. And I'm like, it's really kind of dependent on the product. Marathon seeason two coming in June reseset. We'll see what happens Yeah, I'm excited to read through this. this article Holden, Tudix wrote in and said, Hey guys, this one is mainly for Colin and Dustin So on a recent Japanese podcast, Yuji what what Aold dud it. Hold in T dicks. Hold in, it's a bad one. hold in tudicks Let's holding two dicks. Holding two dicks Oh, holding two dicks. Oh, I didn't get that one Holding didn't until Chris laughed and I was like, Oh, what is it? That's ye. Hold in two dicks. right says, Hey guys, this one is main for Cll and Dusts. So on a recentapese podcast Yuji Hori DragonQuest series creator was quoted saying the next DragonQuest game will be shown on Dragon Quest Day may twenty seventh So my question is, are you guys as hyped as I am We would be doing a stream for LSM to watch all that could be revealed for the forteth anniversary Thanks for all the content, guys. I'll go fuck off now and listen. I was thinking may twenty seventh, three, four, five, sixven It's Wednesday. We could stream that But if it's in Japan, it might be a weird time Um I don't like I'm totally open. I am very interested I'm trying to read between the lines, like I'm trying to I'm trying to assure myself they're talking about Drag Quest twelve and I'm giving them all these outs that that's not actually what they're talking about you know, that they're going be like, Ohh, here's like a DragQest fault four or whatever. And All we want to see is DragQest twelve at this point. It's been a dude, it's been a long fucking time. It's been eight years since Drag Quest eleven came out. It's en that's enough already, dude. Like I there should Always be a mainline dragon questest game in development and it shouldn't take this long. And it's annoying. So I definitely want to see this new game and it's supposed to be We don't know anything almost anything about it It seems to me like it's taken so long and they're so cagey about it that it's maybe not going great I don't I don't, I don't know how it to interpret it. It's like why is this taking sol Um, so yeah, what do you think Dustin Drag Quest fortieth anniversary On may twenty seventh is that what it is Yeah, so, u Yep there it is so We'll definitely watch that as long as it's an appropriate time. It's not super inconvenient. We'll stream that And then we'll talk about it the next day on Sacred. but what are your thoughts Yeah, I am excited. I'm still a pretty fresh fan of Dragon Quest N. I tried play I played a decent amount of eleven, but it fell away from me. So it wasn't until seeven reimagined that I'm like fully was in. That came wouldn't end playay it It's much shorter than the new version. Yeah. I'm very curious because I believe they said they want this to be a more mature DragonQuest title So what does that mean Uh, Who knows This is a big one too because didn't one of the main guys behind DragonQuest die and I'm not talking about Toryama, who obviously now has passed RD Um, who was it? Oh, Koichi Sugiyama, the composer Yeah. that was a few like years ago though. Toyyama. Yeah, I mean, that's Let me see what does Jemin I say? Yeah, I mean, it only shows Toyyama, which we all know, and then Sugiyama. who who is the composer of the games. And and he already apparently his work on twelve is done. Yeah. So it is a little sad that this is the final K Kurat Toryama DragonQuest Dan. So Yeahah, I'm very excited. I want to know more. I would expect also on this day, it sounds like I wonderful get PS five ports of DraonQuest eleven. There sounds like they're releasing a switch two port. on that day, it was already like rated somewhere. So Maybe we'll get some PlayStation for that, which it's probably not even really necessary during Qest eleven S already runs at sixty on PS four, but any kind of update that might draw me in. What the fuck is this EX game? I'm looking at I'm looking at The soundtracks for Koichi Sugyama like his career. And He obviously worked at EneX if for a long time because he worked on DragQuest. That was one of his first things of course and he did all the Drag Qest But he worked on a game called Jesus which I've never heard of in my life put in the chat It's an EnX game that came to Famicom in nineteen eighty nine graphic adventure There's a sequ called Jesus two. I'd like play Jesus too All right Drag Qest twelve, will hopeully more about that by the end of the month. I am I really hope that that's what's going to happen But I just these motherfuckers. Squareredx seems to be in a little bit of u little middle space right now. between, you know, some cool games coming out God Promising titles, some good performance, but S's missing with them I don't think they're being well run. I mean, that's what that activist and investor that released that he. rememember that huge report we went over And he was basically saying like the shit is these guys just don't know what they're doing Basically. And I kind of am led to believe that that might be true consonsidering how long Drag Quest all is day Anway, Tommy Bacon wrote in with a final inquiry. Is that a funny one to Tommy, Bacon? I have to read every read word now I don't think so Holden Holding ts If I just said it like that, would you have holden tuts Now I wouldn't have But it's like TD Tutor would be TDOR likeike the name tutor Today It would be two dicks Tommy Bacon wrote said Hge CC. I' been playing Assassinsreed Origins lately and the feature that lets you fast forward time between day and night is very handy for me I usually play in a bright sunlit living room, which makes seeing dark scenes on my TV almost impossible. Because of the glare, I much prefer daytime maps and missions just so I can actually see what I'm doing Does anyone else struggle with nighttime gameplay like this In case you ask why I don't close the curtains, I have a wife and we all know women are obsessed with letting light in the house. Take care. Yeah, to me, that's just's just too bad Um I literally got new curtains. I got them put in here too We have like these pull down Norman curtains And they some of them are like some not opaque, but like it if it's light out, you'll know, and other ones are darked out. So I got them put here, But I got them put in my living room too because the glare was insane. on my TV. It's like that's intolerable Tell your wife Cool it. With the sunlight, it's horrible I've been watching the Handmid' tale I'most done with the now with Mikeah and that show is so dark. And if you even have like a lamp on in the living room, you can't see anything in that fucking show. Gotta be you gotta be like like in space, like deep space to be able to see it. So I just thought that was a funny one. Why are you letting your wife ruin A you the of the house are' Blackout curtains Yeah, you gotta get the blackouttain. You can open them. She can have them open when you're not playing when you're playing That's all Yeah, shut them down. That's all it is this Tommy. Tommy B L look. G luck to you, my friend Be well, goodood luck brother dudes, let's the hell out here,'s time to go. was a episode of To be with you Let's go around the horn, say goodye everyone Chris Bye you be Any plans for the rest of your day. Now I'm going to stick myeth in this marathon article. I think got some cooking to do I gota Gotta use this chicken Oh yeah, I don't like to buy frozen. So like but like sometimes I' bu it and I'm like, I'll leave the next day but like now it's like,, we're getting I don't have much time left. Yeah, you got to go I gota I got to cook this I got to prep it U T Lokey D, I think going forward. but u I trying to think of like I do want to finish sorow. I wonder close am. I really have no idea. I haven't looked up. I can look at your tropies and see. because I don't know I don't know the names Yeah. I know the architects one of the busosses but. It was the it was the bus where like the the the the the stage kind of falls down parts of it get arts of we getting knocked down.ight, right the whver whatever that one is. Oh, someone has looked at your trophies in the last fifteen minutes because I can't can't W wait what? someone is Oh, your troies are private or you're Chris Ran, right Oh, not on on PSN, notot on on PSN, it's like, Nemesis CRN. Oh, that's right. That's right Yeah I couldn't I couldn't get Nesis couldn' get Chris Reagan, I don't think See and see on see on see Saros A Yeah, so the defeat the overad of the bestcreatated fortress is last when you did. that's thirty seven point three percent. So you have Three more. Okay kind of bosses. So you're probably like, twow thirds of the way through I could do that Ill do you by next wee Ey Cool, man. Yeahah, we'll be ready to go. I mean that will probably be one of the next episodes. I don't know exactly what order they're going to go in but we'll have a nice little back catalog of stuff to get through yeah Justing goodbye, you be well. anything you'd like to say before we go. Well, Holly is out having dinner with somebody, so I'm home alone. So I got to figure out Fend for myself Food But I'll be fine. And then this weekend Probably keeping it low key. There's like a food truck event the tomorrow night. which is a good excuse to drink in public. Oh yeah. That's the one thing I miss about city living is the food trucks likeike the there was a place San Francisco in the Marina, we used to go every Friday that like had like a whole gathering of food trucks and Just awesome I think food trucks might be like my fit like I've had some of the best food ever at a fucking food truck. Oh definitely. Doode kind of crazy. Food truck is a little bit of a roll of dice. Maybe it's the area I'm in. I'm either gonna to have the best food I've ever had in my life or I'm gonna pay twenty five dollars for like. Absolute shit. you're going to wait twenty minutes in line for it. That's true. Here it's usually pretty like I don't think I've really had a bad thing out of a food truck here There's one that I rememberered that I'm so sad that Id never found again, was like a chicken and waffles. And it was so incredible. I was like, yo, what is this? There used to park outside my building And then they left and I was like, is the saddest thing when they left? I love chicken and waffles. What a great combination Unholy and how good it is. It's like, Tam. whyy does this work Absolute cinema. Absolute. Oh, definite Definitely. My boys, it was good to spend the day with you today recording Sacred Smb' epis hundred ele. than Thank you all there for your love kindness and support of listening to, supportupping us on Patreon, watching us on YouTube and all the rest We'll see you next time on Sacred symbs and of course on Sacredmbol plus we'll see on Sacred stream And yeah, thank you for everything. yourour love and support Patreon dot com slash Last Media for all that LastMedia. store for merch next time. Take care guys. Sacred Symbols, a PlayStation podcast is a product and trademark of Last Stand Media and Collins Last Stand LLC and is proudly recorded in the USA. The show was conceived by, is written by and is directed by me, Colin Moriarti. My co hosts are Chris Ragon Maldonado and Dustin Furman The show is produced by executive producer, Dustin Furman All of Last Stan's Thee music is by my best friend, Ramon Narvaz. As you know, all of Lastan's shows, including sacred symbs, are fan funded on Patreon at patreon. com slash lastastan media. The following names are at the producer level on Patreon, our highest tier, and we're grateful for your thoughtful and kind contributions to our independent endeavor Thank you. 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