XBOX IS DEAD!? - EP 87

[00:00:21] Speaker A: Gaming radio. It is the 12 February, February, 2024. [00:00:28] Speaker B: It's the 87th episode of this bloody. [00:00:31] Speaker A: Little podcast of ours. My name is Captain Perth, here with you once again to talk just general shit about just general gaming news and banter and whatnot. [00:00:42] Speaker B: But yeah, Grizz, one of my favorite human beings. [00:00:46] Speaker A: How you going, mate? [00:00:47] Speaker C: I'm bloody good, Cappa. I mean, I cannot believe it is like, mid Feb already, Cap. [00:00:52] Speaker B: I know. Crazy, isn't it? [00:00:54] Speaker C: Has the year gone? It is just. [00:01:00] Speaker A: Almost a sick through the wave of the year. [00:01:03] Speaker C: Start planning for Christmas? [00:01:05] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty much. Well, I don't know if you've been to Coles recently, and you probably have, but I feel like the time in which they start putting out the decorations for holidays in the last couple of years has been earlier and earlier. So I wouldn't be too surprised if. [00:01:24] Speaker C: We start seeing stuff in there that's not till April. [00:01:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you know what? I legitimately saw hot cross buns coming out just after Boxing Day. And I was like, this is taking the piss. [00:01:39] Speaker C: They've got us. They've fucking got us. [00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. They're ridiculous. [00:01:43] Speaker C: It's Valentine's Day. When is it, Cap? Next weekend. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Is it? Did you know that? [00:01:48] Speaker A: It is indeed. Yeah, it is indeed. Look, have it being the parents of a 17 month old, it's not like you can do an awful lot for that holiday. I got to be honest, Grizz, I'm a bit of a fucking grinch when it comes to Valentine's Day because I think it's just a big letter. Fucking shit. You don't need a day to celebrate that kind of thing. [00:02:09] Speaker C: Also, I think wedding rings are the biggest fucking crop of shit ever. [00:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it's all fucking made up, isn't it? I heard someone say that Valentine's Day was made up by Hallmark card companies. [00:02:25] Speaker B: To sell more cards. [00:02:28] Speaker A: Now, I don't know how true that is, and I've done no research myself, but I'm fucking living on that one, right? So it's all big blood of fucking marketing bullshit. [00:02:35] Speaker C: Reckon all regardless, surely. [00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah. I always do something for Mia, so. Got something sorted for her, do you? I do make. [00:02:43] Speaker C: I might copy you, I reckon. [00:02:45] Speaker B: Might be a good idea. [00:02:48] Speaker A: I'll let you know. I'll text it to you. [00:02:51] Speaker B: Brilliant. [00:02:52] Speaker A: But, yes, that's Wednesday, so, yeah. Get excited, I guess. [00:02:57] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:02:59] Speaker A: But anyways. Yeah, you've obviously not got an awful lot planned for that. [00:03:04] Speaker B: No, well, not that I'm aware of. I don't know. [00:03:08] Speaker C: We've discussed it but, no, nothing on the cards, mate. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:03:14] Speaker C: It's been a pretty hectic week, but I'm sure we'll do something. We're kind of in the stage now. [00:03:18] Speaker B: With our kids that we can just go out for dinner and let them fend for themselves. They can cook their own food. [00:03:25] Speaker C: My eldest can cook food and stuff, so it's kind of not too bad, mate. Got a bit of freedom. So probably go do something. Probably go have dinner somewhere. Maybe just down the road or something like that. [00:03:33] Speaker A: I mean, if you can fucking book something, mate, you better get onto that early. [00:03:36] Speaker B: That's very true. [00:03:37] Speaker C: We might just go to the pub. [00:03:38] Speaker B: Go to the pub. [00:03:40] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. That works every time. Right? They'll be able to squeeze you in there. Well, it might be very well, Grizz, that everyone's big Valentine's Day present is Xbox. Announcing something that some Xbox fanboys probably won't think is much of a Valentine's Day present. But we'll tell you more about that. [00:03:59] Speaker C: Later for Valentine's Day cap. Elden ring DLC date. [00:04:05] Speaker A: Now, that is the kind of fucking present I'm after. I'll tell you what. [00:04:11] Speaker B: All right? If the Elden ring DLC comes out. [00:04:14] Speaker A: On Valentine's Day, I will never complain about Valentine's Day ever again. [00:04:19] Speaker B: Okay, done. Yeah. All right. [00:04:22] Speaker A: You got me. [00:04:23] Speaker C: Sounds good. [00:04:23] Speaker A: Live. [00:04:26] Speaker C: I'm going to clip that to Mia. I'm going to send that to Mia. [00:04:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Clip it for proof. Exactly. Tell you what, if it does come out and we have willed that into existence, I will totally cop not being able to complain about Valentine's Day for the rest of my. But anyways, look, Grizz, how was your weekend? What did you get up to, mate? What's going on? What's new? [00:04:47] Speaker C: I am so fucking tired right now, Cap. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:51] Speaker C: Just like, it was just a couple. [00:04:53] Speaker A: Of tired dads in this podcast, Cap. [00:04:55] Speaker C: And I was like, all right, let's fucking get here and get this done. Not that we don't love you. We don't love this podcast. We don't love catching up. But both of us are shattered when. [00:05:05] Speaker A: We get into it. It's good, right? But it's just like, sometimes you have that little. You got to get over the little lip of, like, oh, man, maybe we just cancel this one. I'm so fucked over that little hump. [00:05:15] Speaker C: I was pretty close to messaging you, but I was like, no, I can. [00:05:19] Speaker B: Just get it done. [00:05:20] Speaker A: Close to messaging you, too. [00:05:23] Speaker C: See, we both understand, though, if that happens. [00:05:25] Speaker A: Yes. [00:05:27] Speaker C: Shouldn't tell the listeners this these are secrets. We have legitimate reasons when we life. [00:05:34] Speaker A: And just general tiredness is a legitimate reason. Anyways, Chris. [00:05:38] Speaker C: All right, so I had two gigs Friday and Saturday night, both pub gigs in the city with the Tonesmiths. [00:05:45] Speaker B: Speaking of which, Jim needs to come. [00:05:47] Speaker C: To one of my shows and he needs to get up. Yeah, Jim needs to come. [00:05:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Calling you out, Jim. [00:05:53] Speaker C: I've heard you sing voice of an angel, man. They were both amazing shows. Both of them were absolute pumpers. Had the room rocking. The second one was, both them were in irish bars, different venues in Perth. And both of them were really great. Just good gigs. And then on Sunday, Cap, I'm prepping for. I'm in an audio slave tribute band and we're doing a self titled, which is the very first audio slave album gig with we're supporting a raging against machine tribute band who's also playing the raging machine self titled album. So last night was the first jam prepping for that. And it sounds wicked, man. Such good. Yeah, I can imagine. Really forward to that. Such fun to play on drums, dude. Just very enjoyable. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Yeah, wicked. [00:06:48] Speaker C: That was pretty much me. [00:06:49] Speaker B: I did do some other things, but. [00:06:52] Speaker C: I want to save it for how's your game and girl, because I did do some gaming things over the weekend. Yeah, okay. You'll never pick it either, mate. You never pick it. It's kind of interesting, cap, because my kids are all at an age where starting to be able to play video games together and that is kind of my, how's your game and going? [00:07:13] Speaker A: Talk more about dude, I'm all about that. I can't wait for those Family gaming sessions. When Ted's of age, I'm sure he's going to try pretty early on. I can already feel it. I can see it. [00:07:24] Speaker C: You're going to walk in and he's going to be sitting on your computer chair, mate. Just like banging on the keyboard. He does try to get in there, doesn't he? Like, he's got something about that room. [00:07:34] Speaker A: That door is open. He is like Pil. He loves it in there. It's like a candy shop for him. He gets all like, worked up. He's like, I can't believe I'm fucking in the room. Like, it's hilarious, man. [00:07:46] Speaker C: What does he do when he's in there, mate? Does he just like touch? [00:07:49] Speaker A: He just wants to sit on the chair and look at the table and what's on top of it and he doesn't even want to play with it sometimes. He just wants to look at all the lights and stuff. It's so funny. So funny. [00:08:00] Speaker B: Yeah, love it. [00:08:02] Speaker C: What about you, mate? [00:08:03] Speaker B: What happened? [00:08:03] Speaker C: Talk me through it. I know a couple of things. [00:08:05] Speaker B: Keen to hear about it. [00:08:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So Friday night, had a mate, comedy gig, who I've been meaning to go and catch one of his gigs for since I knew he did comedy gigs, so finally got a chance to do that and it was really good. We have a fringe festival on here in Perth at the moment, which is kind of just like, I guess, like an arts festival. People can do kind know arts shows, so there's all kinds of shit going on at the moment and a bunch of different venues that are hosting all these different shows. And our good friend Adrian, who's been on the show a few times, he was doing a gig, so I went and catched his set and it was wicked. [00:08:47] Speaker B: Really good. [00:08:48] Speaker A: You never really know what kind of quality you're going to get out of a fringe show. And that's not to say that I didn't think Adrian's stuff would be quality, which I knew it would be, and it was. It's just more. So the other comedians, I wasn't too sure what we're going to get, but they were all hilarious. It was a really good hour of just solid comedy. [00:09:09] Speaker C: How long were the sets? How long was each comedian up there for? [00:09:12] Speaker A: You look probably about ten ish minutes, I'd say. And then they had like an MC come in and do some kind of bits in between. And he was really good as well. [00:09:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:22] Speaker A: So it was really good. Get a few drinks and I caught up with a few other. With one other mate that I haven't seen in a long time has just moved up the road from me. So that was good fun. But, yes, that was Friday night, Saturday, we actually had A-D-D game again with Adrian and a couple of mates of mine and his few mates, and that was also really bloody good. We fought an umber hulk, and I'm playing a monk and he just punches the shit out of everything. And it's a lot of fun. A lot of fun. [00:09:56] Speaker C: Look up what an umber hulk is. What is an umber hulk? [00:09:58] Speaker A: It's like a big insectoid humanoid thing with big pincer like mandibles. Yeah, it's brutal. [00:10:07] Speaker C: It's a challenge. Rating five. [00:10:09] Speaker B: Oh, man. [00:10:10] Speaker C: What level are you guys? What level are you? [00:10:11] Speaker A: We're level four. But it's cool because our DM kind of rates. He basically gives us some cool items that kind of make us a little bit stronger than we should be. So that he can up the difficulty of the encounters and make them a bit more epic. And it feels really good because your ac is a bit higher than it should be, and this and that. And it kind of works out well with the. Because we're playing the planescape rule set, I guess, which is kind of the whole idea of the rule set is literally anything goes. The whole thing centers around this magical city that exists in between all the different planes of existence. So your party can just literally go fucking anywhere within the realms of possibility. And it's really cool. So it's been a really good campaign. So. But, yes, I did that Saturday night. [00:11:07] Speaker B: And then Sunday, went to the pool. [00:11:11] Speaker A: With Ted, and we got a haircut. And I was just very tired because we dnd through to about 1130. So I probably got to bed at just after. Just before 12:00 which is very late. [00:11:25] Speaker C: For me, my Saturday night, 03:00 a.m. At home. [00:11:30] Speaker A: I don't know how anyone at the moment, in my current positional life could be past. Up past 10:00. [00:11:36] Speaker C: I did sleep until like, 09:30 a.m. Which I know would. [00:11:39] Speaker A: Yes, that's the problem. See, I went to bed at just before twelve, and then I have to be up at, like, 530, because that's when Ted gets up and it's like, fucking bang, time to go. [00:11:51] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:11:52] Speaker A: If I went to bed at three, I'd get 3 hours sleep. That's all I get. It's fucking brutal. But, yeah. So that was pretty much my weekend. But, grizz, I've been logging my. Because this year I set myself a goal of losing, like, 30 kilos by Ted's birthday. And I've already lost seven and a half kilos in a month. [00:12:20] Speaker C: No way, dude. [00:12:21] Speaker B: That is a lot of weight, Cap. Holy shit. [00:12:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so I'm well and truly on track for my goal. [00:12:29] Speaker C: You reckon the no beer is making a difference, cap? [00:12:32] Speaker A: Shitloads of difference. But just. I guess it's also just my general overall kind of just my general approach to just calories and stuff like that. Realistically, a lot of it is just me not making shit decisions with my nutrition, you know, it kind of makes a lot of sense, realistically. But it's good, man. I'm definitely the lightest I've been in a while, so it's nice. It's really good. So, happy days. [00:13:14] Speaker B: All right, well, shall we. [00:13:16] Speaker A: Shall we just get into it? What do you reckon, mate? Let's get in there. [00:13:19] Speaker C: I reckon just misspelled airage's name twice in chat. Sorry, airage, but g'day mate. [00:13:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it's close enough. Close enough is good enough with this podcast sometimes. All right, let's jump straight in. Firstly, big thanks to all the wonderful people listening live on Twitch tv, oceanicgamingradio. You can do so too from 07:00 p.m. Every Monday night, Australian West's standard time. Pretty exciting. You can join such legends as Erie J. Also straightjacket, gym, Sukai au. You know, the creme del creme, as you might say. So if you want to get in. [00:13:57] Speaker B: There, get stuck into it, well, go ahead and do. [00:14:00] Speaker A: It's good for you. [00:14:02] Speaker B: All right. [00:14:02] Speaker A: Other than that, I just want to say a big, huge thank you to our wonderful patreons. They are the legends that come out every month and drop some big smackeroonies in our bank. In fact, you guys are the sole reason that we had, well, weren't quite viral, but they did really well. Little social media kind of TikTok things floating around. So thanks guys. They are the following people. Sukai, Moosey, caging, runt, Sergeant Paul Legyd, jlibbs, Strops and Slatos. I realized that we hadn't checked the Patreon thing for a long time, Grizz. And it's not the same anymore. [00:14:50] Speaker C: Just on one of the reels, we. [00:14:53] Speaker B: Did cop a bunch of salty nerds. [00:14:57] Speaker A: Oh yeah. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Big time to do with pal world and the use of AI. Yeah, that was a good one, Kat. Well done. I like that. [00:15:05] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I think the funny thing was, going back to what we discussed before. We kind of had suggested that perhaps, along with other people who had suggested the exact same thing for very fucking reasonable reasons, that there was probably some AI used to maybe design some of the pals. And sure, they probably fleshed them out afterwards, but some of them are pretty fucking obvious. And some people just got really up about the whole there's no proof. [00:15:39] Speaker B: And it's like, well, sure, but there's. [00:15:41] Speaker A: Also no proof that there isn't as well. Budy by that pure. It's so funny. Anyways, you can't keep everyone happy, but you can keep yourself happy anyways. [00:15:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Let's dive in, Grizz. Big old freaking quest log. Huge. Massive. Actually, I'll tell you what, this is some big potential news. Like to start the year off in the first kind of couple of months. Dude, the shit we got to talk about today is actually pretty hectically large. So, I mean, let's just start off with the first massive one that you may or may not be aware of. But basically, there was a few rumors. [00:16:22] Speaker B: Flying out last week. [00:16:25] Speaker A: It kind of all started with Jeff Grubb, who's a. I can't quite remember whether they're IGN or kotaku or some shit. They're one of those kind of news companies. They've got a lot of kind of inside information. And basically, it kind of seemed like the rumblings were suggesting that Xbox was looking at potentially putting gears of war onto the PlayStation. And as the week went on, it kind of seemed like that same kind of source or sources were suggesting other games might be coming out. Like maybe even Starfield might land in other platforms. Now, as always, because people can't just pull their head out of their ass and just get on with just being a gamer. They have to be a specific brand of gamer. They have to build their entire fucking identity around the fact that I own an Xbox and that's who I am. So people started to get very fucking salty about this idea of, well, PlayStation's got their own kind of stuff, and we need to keep our own, and blah, blah, blah. Anyways, post all that. [00:17:39] Speaker C: I can kind of see it a tiny little bit. Maybe we'll get to that. Keep going, Cap. I'll have my look. [00:17:44] Speaker A: Totally, but we'll get to that. But regardless, Phil Spencer took to Twitter. [00:17:50] Speaker B: And basically said, look, we're listening. [00:17:52] Speaker A: We hear you. We're planning a business update. This is verbatim. Okay, we're planning a business update event for next week where we will look forward to sharing more details with you about our vision for the future of Xbox. Stay tuned. Now, we didn't get a date, but that would be this week in the current. So this was posted seven days ago. So theoretically, we should know at some point soon about what that future vision of Xbox is. But since all of that has sort. [00:18:28] Speaker B: Of come out, a bunch of other. [00:18:30] Speaker A: Shit'S happened as well. So we've also had sort of rumblings that maybe the new Indiana Jones exclusive to Xbox made by Bethesda may very. [00:18:44] Speaker B: Well, too fall on other consoles, I. [00:18:47] Speaker A: E. The PlayStation five. We also heard that we may be getting ones like hi fi Rush and some other bits and pieces floating over there. And then what happened after that? Grizzly is on the Xbox website and the Xbox kind of Game Pass website. They have removed the Xbox Series and Xbox Game Pass logos from their new ips coming out soon. So that includes games like the new fable coming out avowed. It also included other games that are currently out, such as Forza five, Halo infinite Age of empires, see a thieves doom, eternal Death loop fallout 76, State of the k two seniors saga, Hellblade two Microsoft flight simulator. Shit is going down at Xbox. We don't quite know exactly what the. [00:19:46] Speaker B: Scale of it is, but a lot. [00:19:49] Speaker A: Of this points to. Okay, and I think we've been seeing the writing on the wall for Xbox for a while now, Grizz. Right. I think a lot of what this is pointing to, and people are suggesting the exact same thing, is that they're going for this game pass first approach. Right. They're giving less of a shit about how you play their games, more of a shit about how many people can. [00:20:12] Speaker B: We get on our service like that. [00:20:16] Speaker A: Netflix like gaming service, right? How many people can we get on that? And how can we get as many people consuming that as possible? And realistically, based on the stats. [00:20:29] Speaker B: All. [00:20:30] Speaker A: But basically conceded defeat in the so called console war. Apparently PlayStation has sold double the amount of consoles than what Xbox has. And I think we're kind of looking at potentially an announcement this week that there's going to be some kind of consolidation or, well, not consolidation, the opposite of, you know, like a release of their ip into different markets and that being different consoles. So probably we'll see shit on Sony. [00:21:00] Speaker C: To me, it makes sense, Cap, the turn of events that you've said. I just want to quickly duck back. [00:21:07] Speaker B: A couple a little bit. [00:21:07] Speaker C: So obviously, we've seen Phil Spencer in a bit of damage control here, Cap. He has reportedly met with a journalist to kind of say, answer the question. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Will xboxes exist, cease to exist, should this happen? [00:21:25] Speaker C: And he was pretty quick to say. [00:21:26] Speaker B: That. [00:21:29] Speaker C: Phil Spencer assured employees that they were not getting out of the console hardware market and would continue to make xboxes moving forward. Xbox strategy continues to employ multiple kinds of devices, he says. Yeah, so moving forward, but you've hit. [00:21:45] Speaker B: The nail on the head, cap, with. [00:21:47] Speaker C: Your kind of working through these things. And where I kind of got to thinking about this is Xbox Game Pass. And as a whole, Xbox games, they've been releasing on multiple platforms for quite a while. The old Fable game is available on pc, and you've seen a lot of stuff slowly making its way into different sources of media. [00:22:08] Speaker B: Xbox Game Pass, having it on your. [00:22:11] Speaker C: Pc for quite a while now, as well as the Xbox. [00:22:14] Speaker B: And to me, going multiplatform and being. [00:22:17] Speaker C: Able to, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they rename it cap to something like Microsoft Pass or something else, but be able to use that on your PlayStation, being able to use it on Steam deck or wherever else, I. [00:22:29] Speaker B: Don'T know, wherever mean realistically at this. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Stage, grizz, clearly they don't give a shit right about where you play these games, because ultimately there's one thing in their mind that is most important, and that's how much money they're making off of this. Regardless of whether you like to think about that or not, they're a business, they're going to want to make money off it. Now, the next big thing is we know statistically that mobile gaming makes way more fucking money than what console and pc gaming does. Xbox are looking to break into those markets. [00:23:03] Speaker B: They're working on it. [00:23:04] Speaker A: I think part of the reason they bought Activision King Blizzard is to get a hold of king to kind of break into that market. On top of that, they're also enabling us to play game pass games through the cloud on our mobile devices. So realistically, why disable the usage of your platform based on what device is playing on it if it means that you can sell more game pass capacities to people, right? It doesn't make any sense. Just to ensure that you maybe sell more consoles, they've already shown that you're not going to. They're losing that war, right? It's lost. So what's the next step? [00:23:44] Speaker B: Let's open her up. [00:23:45] Speaker C: So this change will result in selling even less consoles, right cap? [00:23:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:23:51] Speaker C: There's no possible way that it doesn't. [00:23:53] Speaker B: But they're going to be making way. [00:23:57] Speaker C: More from do you think? Okay, here's the next question that I have for you. Are they going to be relying on this subscription service or will they have standalone Microsoft Xbox games available as a once off purchase on other platforms as well? Are they just going to get all in on their game pass? [00:24:15] Speaker A: Is that what they're, I mean, realistically, we don't have the numbers of what it looks like for games being sold through Game Pass and games being sold through console and what the conversion rate of development time to money made on the other side looks like. Right? But the fact that they're doing this kind of implies, to me at least, that it's probably not as lucrative as it used to be to churn out consoles. Okay? And again, if you're only selling half as your next major kind of competitor, what are you doing it for? Right? So I don't know if they really care. I just think that they're ready to move on, maybe try and harness a bit more of the mobile market, go hard on the streaming stuff, and still providing those aa experiences. [00:25:08] Speaker B: But just being. [00:25:09] Speaker A: I mean, no one's come close in terms of providing a Netflix like gaming service. [00:25:15] Speaker C: That's right. [00:25:16] Speaker A: As what Game Pass is doing. So if they go all in on that, they are winning that war well and truly, like, no one can beat them. [00:25:24] Speaker C: Let's talk about popular media, and particularly on multiple platforms. And the first game that I think about is Fortnite. And I think part of Fortnite's success is you can literally play it on anything. An iPad, fucking Nintendo Switch, PS five, Xbox, PC. Anything that is decent enough, you can play that on. And if they're going to go try to open this stuff up, I think. [00:25:50] Speaker B: It just opens up huge amount of. [00:25:51] Speaker C: Revenue stream for them. And it's going to be more than what a sale of consoles is. [00:25:58] Speaker A: Yeah. The reality of it, right, is that console sales do stagnate from a certain point. And then on top of that, if you're trying to consistently iterate on your console, I imagine that that's probably a significant amount of r and D cost and then also getting that into a workable, shippable product that people can purchase. Again, I just don't see how clearly, as a human race, we're moving to a way more digital, less kind of hardware bound, I guess, lifestyle, you know what I mean? [00:26:36] Speaker B: Consoles cap in the future. [00:26:39] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying right now. You don't need one. You can literally go if you have a reasonable Internet connection. And look, I will preface this with the fact that here in Australia, not everyone has a decent Internet connection. And people like to have their games in the physical media, and I totally understand and support that as well. But more and more, we're adopting services where you don't actually truly own the media that you are playing through that service. All the stuff for Netflix, you don't own any of that. Right. I feel like we've come from this older kind of know of, oh, I own this on dvd, or I own this on that. [00:27:17] Speaker B: I think, as we kind know, move. [00:27:21] Speaker A: Along and these services kind of, I guess I'm going to put in quotation marks, mature and become, I guess, the vessel that they are now. We're having less and less ownership over the media that we're consuming. It's owned by someone else, and it stays that way. And sometimes they can revoke your ability to watch or do that. [00:27:42] Speaker C: They take movies. [00:27:43] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:27:44] Speaker A: I mean, I've had plenty of Netflix shows that have gone off Netflix, and I can't watch them anymore. I think the same thing's probably going to end up happening to some of these services. [00:27:52] Speaker B: Right? [00:27:53] Speaker A: And I think realistically, all of these game know, obviously they want to kind of churn these things out. But I think the companies that are owning these game devs want to kind of maybe be able to curate and have that same approach. So I think it's going to be interesting to see where we are in, say five years. [00:28:12] Speaker B: But I think people and their tie. [00:28:16] Speaker A: To hardware and physical media is going to be slowly shattered over time. And I think what Microsoft is doing now probably won't be that big of a thing. I think eventually you're just going to find that most of these developers do that. [00:28:30] Speaker C: The change is going to be driven by what's financially lucrative for these companies. [00:28:34] Speaker B: Kat and it seems like Xbox, Microsoft. [00:28:38] Speaker C: Have got a different idea to what PlayStation do. [00:28:40] Speaker B: Now. [00:28:40] Speaker C: I just want to touch on the comment you made about people being angry about this move. [00:28:45] Speaker B: And of course, just to explain that. [00:28:47] Speaker C: A little bit more, and my feeling. [00:28:48] Speaker B: On that is ever since I was. [00:28:51] Speaker C: 1314, you had an Xbox or you had a PlayStation, you didn't really have both. And there was always that schoolyard argument, which one's better? Which one have you got at home? [00:28:59] Speaker B: Or. [00:29:00] Speaker C: I prefer the PlayStation because it plays Blu rays and I prefer Xbox because it is like a media share system. And there was all these different things. [00:29:07] Speaker B: Throughout time where this happened. [00:29:09] Speaker C: Now, at the bottom of the tweet. [00:29:11] Speaker B: Which Phil tweeted out, which you've already, I believe you've read it out, but. [00:29:16] Speaker C: Essentially saying that this business update is coming. There's a guy in there, rich. He's commented saying I've owned an Xbox since day one in 2001, but assuming the news is true, I just don't see the point of owning an Xbox anymore. I might as well get a PS five and just wait for the Microsoft games. And there is a couple of articles saying that people are selling their xboxes after hearing this news, even ahead of this announcement. Cap. [00:29:41] Speaker A: Yeah, look, I think that might be a little bit knee jerky, in all honesty, but at the same time, maybe they might be getting ahead of the curve before. If this is true, and if they did actually not continue to make hardware, maybe they're getting ahead of the curve and getting a reasonable amount of money for their device before it loses its value. Because realistically, if one of the reasons that Xbox, well, one of the potential pros of having an Xbox is diminished, I. E. Having some degree of, what do you call it, exclusive titles, which may I just add, I mean, Xbox. [00:30:21] Speaker B: Has basically had fuck all good exclusive. [00:30:25] Speaker A: Titles over the last few years. I mean, I'm sure people be like, oh, what about this game? [00:30:29] Speaker B: Okay, sure, but not to the level. [00:30:32] Speaker A: Of what Nintendo and Sony are putting out as their first party. Titles like Halo Infinite, shit, the know, Starfield, I know everyone's going to go, it wasn't that bad. But I mean, look, it was just not, it's not the same experience over there as it is. It's interesting. The Sony Nintendo PlayStation have really been. [00:30:53] Speaker C: Pushing that narrative around. We cultivate our first party releases and we make sure that they're ready to ship and we give them the time. And that's what you get at PlayStation. And Xbox has gone well. You can get this great Xbox Game. [00:31:06] Speaker B: Pass and play thousands of games for this. [00:31:09] Speaker A: You can play top games like Redfall. It's just not the fucking same versus, oh, I can go to PlayStation and I can play God of War, I can go and play Spiderman. I mean, I'm not a huge fan of that game, but it's a solid freaking game. The last of know, you can go and play those experiences, you can have them, you just can't have that same degree of aaa. And I don't even really like using the word aaa anymore because I don't even think AA is a badge anymore. I think if anything, it's probably like it's a diminishing kind of objective to use for a video game these days. I'd rather be an indie, frankly. [00:31:52] Speaker B: But regardless of that, it's not really. [00:31:55] Speaker A: What it is anymore. And I think maybe Xbox are seeing that, they are taking note of that, and I think they're more than happy to maybe just shed some of that skin and move on. [00:32:05] Speaker B: But I don't know. [00:32:08] Speaker A: I think based on the reports where there was apparently a town hall and Phil Spencer said, don't worry, we're going to continue making xboxes. [00:32:17] Speaker B: Now, look, he said Xbox hardware, he. [00:32:20] Speaker A: Didn'T say what kind of xboxes, Chris. [00:32:22] Speaker C: Okay, do you seriously reckon they might stop? Well, so I think they'll continue to make consoles. [00:32:29] Speaker A: I think they will make devices that play Xbox games. Now when I say play Xbox games, that could be streaming Xbox games, they could be making little dongles that go on the back of your tv or something, and that's all they do. [00:32:45] Speaker B: Who knows? [00:32:46] Speaker A: I just don't see Xbox continuing down this path where it's not really working out for them, ultimately. So why don't you put all your eggs in the baskets that are actually making you money and that's probably going to be the game pass basket, right? People want that. It's a reasonable thing. I've gotten shitloads of games for free over the last couple of years through that service, and I've had my subscription almost permanently on. So I probably made a reasonable amount of money out of man. I'm probably not the only person, right? So I don't know. I think ultimately, Grizz, I think this is probably a pretty good move for Xbox. I think it makes a lot of sense for them. [00:33:25] Speaker C: I guess one positive you can take away as a gamer, if you are. [00:33:27] Speaker B: Worried about this, that I would imagine they'll be. [00:33:30] Speaker C: I know this is a shit way to say this, but they're probably going. [00:33:33] Speaker B: To be slimming down, right? [00:33:34] Speaker C: If this decision is to focus on. [00:33:37] Speaker B: Game pass, focus on spreading media across. [00:33:40] Speaker C: Multiple devices, then you're going to see slim down in people working on console tech and stuff like that. [00:33:46] Speaker B: But it does mean that more money will be pumped into developing games for. [00:33:51] Speaker C: Game pass and other bits and pieces that go with game pass and other ways, other forms of media and things that will happen as part of that. So I think there's probably positives and negatives of this as a gamer, but I would imagine. [00:34:02] Speaker B: Look, yeah, I think you're right, dude. [00:34:05] Speaker A: I think one of the big things for me is, and as a programmer, and that's what I do for my day to day job, I think you can see just the fact that the web and digital communication is unifying in a lot of different areas that traditionally were quite separate. And I think gaming is becoming one of those other industries where the hardware is less important. It's the screen that plays it. It's all fucking abstracted on some server somewhere, in some fucking data center. And it's being played on just a server that has a Nvidia graphics card being streamed to your monitor. The way that you stream and play your games and how you get that visual feed into your brain doesn't matter anymore, right? For dev developers, that's a lot more powerful, because if you can unify as much of that as possible, you can bring your gaming experience to more people, right? So that's a good thing. [00:35:06] Speaker C: Also think that without having. Well, we already know this, but without. [00:35:10] Speaker B: Having a physical component to gaming, makes it more affordable for people, I. E. [00:35:18] Speaker C: Subscription service or a dongle, that's going to cost you. [00:35:21] Speaker A: Now, Grizz, let me ask you this question. Why is mobile gaming more popular and making more money than console and pc gaming? [00:35:31] Speaker C: Well, I'm going to be in the. [00:35:33] Speaker B: Words of Blizzard, mobile phones, everyone's got one. [00:35:36] Speaker A: Everyone's got a mobile phone. And that's the thing, right? Everyone can go and spend $0.50 here, $5 there. I mean everyone can go and buy an Xbox Game Pass subscription for $15 a month and play a variety of video games for that entire time. Or I mean, hey, let's think about the economic situation at the moment. If you want to buy a PS five video game brand new from AAA developer, it's going to cost you 110 australian dollars. [00:36:01] Speaker B: That's a lot of money. [00:36:02] Speaker A: You want to play two of those a month, that's $220 a month. That is fucking out of control. [00:36:08] Speaker B: And how much? [00:36:09] Speaker A: And it's only getting worse. [00:36:10] Speaker C: Console like just under a grand, something like that? [00:36:13] Speaker A: Yeah, depends on the console. But yeah, sure, probably around about that. It's not getting any easier, dude. So realistically, if you can provide gamers. [00:36:21] Speaker B: An opportunity to enjoy reasonable quality video. [00:36:25] Speaker A: Games, I will say that that's probably where this fails a little bit because of the model, I think. Yeah, I think developers aren't promoted to really push the boundaries of their video games through subscription services because they can just get them on there and they get a good income stream. It's kind of just like a participation certificate rather than actually being rewarded for good development. [00:36:55] Speaker C: And I remember that was a big. [00:36:56] Speaker B: Concern cap, when we first started talking. [00:36:59] Speaker C: About Xbox Game Pass and it was. [00:37:00] Speaker B: Coming out is what will it mean for developers in terms of quality on video games? [00:37:08] Speaker C: They're going to be encouraged to actually spend the time and release something that is worthwhile. [00:37:15] Speaker B: Or if you're going on a subscription service, then where does the quality control. [00:37:20] Speaker C: Kind of come in? [00:37:21] Speaker A: Well, this is the thing, Grizz, and I think this is like you kind of have slowly seen it with the whole Netflix thing is I think as more subscription services surfaced, then you started to see the quality improve because they were battling for people paying for their subscription service. The problem we've got now is that Microsoft's the only one that's know monopolizing that at the mean. Yes, look, of course Sony has their own kind of thing, but it's not quite the same, right? You don't get hundreds of games off of mean. You probably get close to, you know, you're not getting this rotating new stuff coming through. So maybe in the future if we see more, maybe some services try to battle it out with Microsoft, which again I think is going to be really tough. But maybe we start to see that quality, maybe pick up a little bit. [00:38:14] Speaker C: I wonder if the Steam will ever go for something like that cap that takes a bunch of their back catalog. [00:38:19] Speaker B: That sits there and go for a. [00:38:21] Speaker C: Subscription service on stuff that's not really being played. [00:38:25] Speaker A: Yeah, potentially. I mean, it's a good question actually, and it would work well with the Steam deck, right? But I just don't know if Valve's heart is in. [00:38:34] Speaker B: We're, I think Valve's pretty happy sticking. [00:38:38] Speaker A: In their own lane for the most. Like they're a big company, but they're not a Microsoft big company, right. They're not looking to push the envelope of how they could potentially make money. I think they're pretty happy with the Steam marketplace and how much money that pulls in. And they have these little projects like the Steam deck that sometimes they take off, sometimes they don't think about the Steam controller or wherever they called it, or the Steam link, those shat the bed and they just went nowhere. I think sometimes Valve gets onto things like the Steam deck and that kind of wins out for them. But who knows? I mean, whether they do try and do a bit of a subscription service thing and whether that actually turns into something good, who knows? I mean, it could. [00:39:22] Speaker C: There's a bit of banter in the twitch chat right now, Kat, that I think is worth us talking about, but it's kind of discussing the evolution of video streaming services. [00:39:31] Speaker B: When we had Netflix as a standalone service and then all of a sudden. [00:39:36] Speaker C: We saw the rise of Stan and binge and everything else. [00:39:39] Speaker B: And I almost feel like Netflix paved the way to show that streaming video service was a viable product. And once that was established, we saw many others come out and kind of. [00:39:52] Speaker C: There was a competition there, no longer monopoly, but I wonder whether that's something similar. Once Microsoft is to go down this. [00:39:59] Speaker B: Route about announcing, moving to other platforms. [00:40:03] Speaker C: And really pushing this Microsoft Game Pass. [00:40:07] Speaker B: Whether that will promote other kind of. [00:40:10] Speaker C: Gaming streaming services to come out of the woodwork as well. [00:40:13] Speaker A: Look, absolutely, potentially, and Erijay kind of noted that. Look, Erijay said verbatim, if subscription services are consolidated into a single service, you can be sure that they'll raise sub prices to be equivalent to buy prices where they can. I would argue that I doubt that they'd raise it that high because at that stage people just aren't going to fucking buy it. In terms of if you did a marketing analysis, people aren't going to spend $110 per month on a subscription service. Someone click this and send it to me in five years time and I'll probably be wrong. But anyways, look, ultimately maybe, I'm sure it'll drive prices up if they continue to monopolize. And Xbox Game Pass remains the only strong one. But the thing is, as they start to monopolize and make that service cost more and more money, guess what happens? Other services come in and they come in at a lower price, and then things kind of reevaluate, right? They're not going to be the only service forever. I think eventually we'll get to a point where it becomes possible for other services to come in, but realistically we're not going to see it for a while. And I think Jim's pointed out another good one. Know how many fucking launches do we have now? And that's always been a big issue, right? [00:41:21] Speaker B: Everyone just wants everything on Steam, which is hard because Steam aren't iterating in that space. [00:41:28] Speaker C: They're happy to look, cap, I guess to wrap this up from my perspective here, I don't have an issue with this. [00:41:35] Speaker B: However, that's heavily contingent on the fact. [00:41:41] Speaker C: That if it doesn't take away from the quality of video games that are being developed, which I'm not 100% sure. [00:41:48] Speaker B: It could go either way, I kind of feel, but as long as that's. [00:41:51] Speaker C: The case and developers are being paid. [00:41:53] Speaker B: Accordingly, if it goes into full subscription video gaming, I think it could kind of go either way. I don't know. What are your thoughts? [00:42:02] Speaker A: Yeah, look, I think ultimately Xbox are just like, they're in an environment that's incredibly tidal at the moment. Everyone's suffering economically. Most people I know are feeling inflation quite heavily and dramatically. And I mean, these big organizations, they feel it too, in their own way. Obviously not the same way we do. [00:42:28] Speaker B: But the only reason that we'd be. [00:42:30] Speaker A: Making decisions like this would be because it's not economical for them to go the other way. Right. [00:42:35] Speaker C: Tech layoffs across the board. Huge. Sure. [00:42:38] Speaker B: Massive. [00:42:38] Speaker C: Everyone's feeling pinched at the moment. [00:42:41] Speaker A: Exactly right. So in the act of self preservation and profit, of course they're going to make these decisions. I think this probably makes a lot of sense. Is it good for me as a gamer? Maybe not. I don't know what that looks like. And it's going to take some time for that really, to kind of bubble to the surface and see exactly what that looks like. But I think in the right now, Xbox need to probably make decisions like these because it's getting tough out there. What does that mean for things like the fact that they've just bought out activision Blizzard King. It probably means that those games are going to be coming to more services for you guys. That's fucking great. What does that mean for Bethesda games? They're probably coming out on other consoles as well. That's also really good. The only people that are going to be really sad about this are Xbox fan people. And look, I feel you. If my entire identity was built around my Xbox playing Xbox games, I'd probably not be stoked about it either. [00:43:40] Speaker C: But ultimately, in the words of 13 year old Grizzly, Xbox sucks. [00:43:45] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, Xbox sucks. [00:43:49] Speaker C: That is the title of this episode, surely. [00:43:53] Speaker A: Potentially. But yeah, there you go. I guess we'll see what happens this week. Grizz will keep an eye on it and obviously bring you the news next week when we go live again. But, yeah, keep an eye on our socials and I guess just the news, because I think whatever Xbox announces next week is going to be fairly monumentous. Maybe not to the same degree as them buying out Activision Blizzard. King. But still in the same realms. Know, we're seeing something in gaming change dramatically. [00:44:24] Speaker B: So, yeah, keep an eye out for it now, Chris. Speaking of seeing things change dramatically in. [00:44:32] Speaker A: Gaming, well, I mean, it doesn't get much bigger than this. Disney has dropped $1.5 billion on a. [00:44:39] Speaker B: Stake in Epic Games. Yeah. [00:44:43] Speaker C: So this joys ten cent, Sony, Tim. [00:44:47] Speaker B: Sweeney and Kirk B are, what do you call them? [00:44:53] Speaker C: Shareholders. And now Disney. Disney alongside Tencent. Cap, how do you feel about that? [00:45:00] Speaker A: Pretty crazy, dude. What I will say is, once all this kind of goes through the wash, it turns out that Disney will have about a 10% stake in Epic Games, which I guess is big enough to obviously have some drive over the direction of the company. But I don't really know what to think of Grizz. I think Epic Games'biggest kind of commodity is Fortnite. Right. And does Disney and Fortnite really mix apart from the Marvel stuff, like look and maybe Star wars thing here? [00:45:34] Speaker B: Cap, Fortnite, for a long time have. [00:45:38] Speaker C: Been discussing how they are not just. [00:45:40] Speaker B: A video game, but they are like. [00:45:43] Speaker C: Almost like a metaverse. That's how they seen themselves or this entertainment. [00:45:48] Speaker A: They are. That's what they're doing. [00:45:50] Speaker C: Well, things that they've done this year. [00:45:51] Speaker B: And I've just got a little list. [00:45:54] Speaker C: Of dot points here, but they've upgraded their engine. [00:45:56] Speaker B: They've done huge things with their custom. [00:45:58] Speaker C: Games, this kind of, like, live concert thing. Cap, they've had Ariana Grande, Travis Scott, Marshmallow, Eminem, and a bunch of others. [00:46:09] Speaker B: That have done physical concerts inside the. [00:46:12] Speaker C: Game, somewhere in Fortnite that you can. [00:46:14] Speaker B: Go and watch and. [00:46:16] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I would almost argue that they have taken gaming to another level. I kind of mentioned it earlier, but you can play Fortnite pretty much on. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Any medium. [00:46:26] Speaker C: Ipads, you know, everything. They've done a pretty console. Yeah, stream it. So what does this look like for Disney integration? [00:46:34] Speaker B: Cap? They've kind of said that collaborating on. [00:46:37] Speaker C: Something entirely new to build a persistent. [00:46:40] Speaker B: Open and interpretable ecosystem that will bring. [00:46:44] Speaker C: Together the Disney and Fortnite communities. [00:46:47] Speaker B: So to you, what does that sound like? [00:46:49] Speaker C: Is it like a live? [00:46:51] Speaker A: Honestly, who fucking knows, man? They've kind of got bits and pieces of this existing in Fortnite now, right? Like they've got the whole Fortnite builder kind of mode where you can go and build experiences. So maybe they give you a shitload of ways to build Star wars shit. Out of all know, they give you the ways to build your own Marvel encounters and you can go, know, chuck the hulk in the mill of frickin'tatooine, I don't fucking know. That's the thing you, when you start thinking about what they actually want to achieve here, I hope that they have a direction because you look at what meta, I. E. Facebook tried to do with the whole metaverse thing. They have this kind of big wishy washy idea and this is how they want to go about it, but they just can't execute on it properly and actually produce something that people want to do with it. Right. For this, it kind of makes me go, okay, well, what is your end game? Where are you trying to take this exactly? And are you trying to just give us some kind of build it yourself bear kind of situation, or is it something good? [00:47:51] Speaker C: Here's my take on this, dude. [00:47:53] Speaker B: I reckon Fortnite have done a pretty good job at staying relevant in gaming. [00:47:59] Speaker C: And I feel like credit to them, they've done so many different collaborations with. [00:48:04] Speaker B: Popular media over the last how many years that they've managed to stay. Really, when I think about, I'm going. [00:48:10] Speaker C: To talk about how's your gaming going? But you think about a game that has influenced the younger audience. You think Minecraft, you think Roblox, but you think, know kids at school doing the floss and everything else. Like it really has managed to keep. [00:48:25] Speaker B: Up with that kind of meta popularity. [00:48:29] Speaker C: So I have no doubt that they've got plans to integrate Disney into this game somehow in a meaningful way, whether that is introducing characters in the battle royale to play as, or whether there's something like, you say, give asset packs for people to make custom games with or something else, or whether it's a whole, maybe they got another project that's kind of in the works. [00:48:50] Speaker A: Well, that's the thing. They've done Star wars stuff already before this was even a venture that was announced. They've done, I think, marvel stuff in Fortnite as well, like the actual battle royale stuff. So that's kind of been done. My thought process is like, okay, so you've done the battle royale thing. What can you do outside of that? What was the sea of Disney saying? To create a new, like, to me, that sounds like something that exists outside of Fortnite itself. [00:49:28] Speaker C: The battle royale open an interpretable ecosystem that will bring together Disney and Fortnite communities. It sounds to me like. [00:49:41] Speaker B: A new. [00:49:41] Speaker C: Kind of game or game mode or something like a live service game. [00:49:45] Speaker A: I mean, it will. It very well could be. I think the issue is in terms of, I guess, the whole idea of games as a service and what works and what doesn't work and what kind of stagnates over time. I think a lot of people will probably point to games like Fortnite, but even games like Destiny and stuff like that. And a lot of the times you find that these games as a service, they lose their appeal over time. I mean, Fortnite's obviously a very different kettle of fish. And you're right, they have done really well. But how do you maintain that momentum? And it's so hard to harness, and I feel like every major developer or company is trying to harness that idea of how do we continue to provide a platform where we're giving people incentive to continue to play our game over and over again? And how do we do that? I don't know. I just don't know what they think. [00:50:44] Speaker B: There's a few things that work in Fortnite's favor. [00:50:49] Speaker C: One of them being the game is. [00:50:50] Speaker B: Free, second one being it's available on everything. [00:50:55] Speaker C: The third thing being that they are constantly changing it up. And I think they've probably got a. [00:51:00] Speaker B: Fair bit of sway to just kind. [00:51:03] Speaker C: Of move with whatever is working at the time. And I'm going to reference here now, have you seen or played the Lego mode in Fortnite, which is an official release? It's not a custom game as in the Lego. It is a Lego Fortnite game that you. [00:51:18] Speaker A: I didn't even know there was one. [00:51:20] Speaker C: It's a Lego Fortnite game you can play, and it is a survival crafting. [00:51:24] Speaker B: Game and it is extremely fleshed out. [00:51:28] Speaker C: You go harvesting materials, and you build bases, and you build workbenches, and it's co op. [00:51:34] Speaker A: That is wild. [00:51:34] Speaker C: Play with your friends, and it is a fortnight official. I played it at the land with. [00:51:38] Speaker B: The family a couple of months ago. [00:51:40] Speaker C: With Mikey and all the kids, and it was great. It's actually really well done. But what I'm getting at here is. [00:51:46] Speaker B: I feel like with the things that. [00:51:49] Speaker C: Fortnite has going for it, it being. [00:51:50] Speaker B: Free and successful in terms of making. [00:51:56] Speaker C: Money through cosmetics and other bits and pieces. So there's no real pressure on the dev team that I'm aware of. I think it gives them a bit of freedom to kind of move with whatever's happening at the time and create stuff that's good. So maybe. [00:52:09] Speaker B: I don't know, maybe we'll see multiple. [00:52:11] Speaker C: Different Disney kind of official Fortnite releases, see how they go. [00:52:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting, grizz, because I actually think that Disney's done pretty well recently with that Dreamlight Valley thing that they had, which was the kind of, I guess, animal crossing kind of esque thing. You build your own character, and then you go fucking cook food with the rat at a ratatouille or something, and you go, know, garden with bloody fucking wally or some shit. I don't know exactly what you do there, but regardless, I feel like that is kind of what I would perceive to be what Disney maybe wants as a game, as a service. But, I mean, it's kind of already been done. It's really hard for me to be able to weigh in on what we might be seeing soon from this, because I just don't know what they could produce now that they haven't already tried or other companies have tried to do, and it's not gone too well. Like, what was that Marvel live service game that came out recently that they just disconnected? I can't remember what it was called. Someone in chat might be out. [00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:15] Speaker C: It was an online marvel game, wasn't it? [00:53:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Avengers. That's the one, Jim. [00:53:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:21] Speaker A: And then that's also a Disney property. Now. Marvel's owned by Disney, and that just shit the bed. [00:53:26] Speaker B: So it's like, I don't know. [00:53:28] Speaker A: I just struggle to wrap my head around the whole universe thing and game as a service. [00:53:34] Speaker C: Have we thought about this going the other way? So Disney owned 10% of Fortnite. Now, does that then allow Disney to. [00:53:41] Speaker B: Create a Fortnite movie or Fortnite media. [00:53:46] Speaker C: Other bits and pieces? [00:53:48] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:53:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, fancy badger in chat sort of mentioning that, hey, maybe this ends up as like a Fortnite world at Disney World or some mean, that could very well be. [00:54:01] Speaker B: I do feel like when you buy. [00:54:04] Speaker A: A stake in a digital company, you're. [00:54:07] Speaker B: Probably doing that for digital purposes. [00:54:12] Speaker A: I think maybe you probably will see some more physical kind of Fortnite stuff. But yeah, it's also, you got to. [00:54:17] Speaker B: Remember as well, the whole sort of. [00:54:19] Speaker A: Thing behind Fortnite is shooting and killing people. [00:54:24] Speaker C: It's eliminating, right? It's not killing. [00:54:26] Speaker A: Okay. [00:54:27] Speaker C: It's eliminating. [00:54:27] Speaker B: Sure. [00:54:29] Speaker A: Okay, let me retract that. Eliminating people. I don't just. It's an interesting purchase because, know, I feel like Nintendo is in a similar kind of position where they've always been very coy about the utilization of violence and especially gun violence. Certain games obviously kind of are a little bit different and there are exceptions to that rule. But even the whole power world thing. What's that? [00:54:54] Speaker B: Sorry. [00:54:54] Speaker C: Star wars is pretty violent, some of them. [00:54:57] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. I guess it depends on what ips it is. But I think the whole Mario, Mickey and the cartoony kind of style things and the more children inspired Mickey Mouse. [00:55:12] Speaker C: Running around with a fucking SMG, just. [00:55:14] Speaker B: Like, yeah, not going to happen. [00:55:15] Speaker A: Imagine fucking going and finalizing Nemo. It's just not going to happen. You know what I mean? But yeah, ultimately, Grizz, it's an incredibly interesting purchase on Disney's side and seeing what they do with this 10% stake and that new relationship between the two companies, I think is going to be incredibly interesting. Epic Games has been making some significant kind of waves in the legal sector as well in terms of kind of cracking open the digital marketplaces of Google and Apple or trying to. So it's going to be interesting to see what, like. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Yeah, it's kind of crazy. So who knows? [00:56:01] Speaker A: Grizz, we'll find out. [00:56:05] Speaker B: One thing we don't need to wait. [00:56:06] Speaker A: To find out about Grizz. The Final Fantasy seven rebirth state of play that PlayStation put out last week. [00:56:15] Speaker B: And boy, was it sexy. [00:56:18] Speaker A: Very nice. [00:56:19] Speaker C: Was it sexy, Cap? [00:56:20] Speaker B: Does it get you excited? Oh, yeah. [00:56:22] Speaker A: Look, I actually refused to watch the entire thing. I kind of flicked through a bit of the video, but. How long is the video? It's almost 20 minutes of a bit of developer perspective talking about the systems that they've introduced and what they're trying to do here. Going through some of the new characters, new and old characters. But yeah, just basically where the game's going, they take a real big deep dive. You see some of the new areas where the game is going to be taking place. And yeah, they took a real big deep dive on it. I mean, this game comes out on the 29th of Feb, which is the freaking leap year, baby. That's my wedding anniversary. Is it? [00:57:10] Speaker B: No. [00:57:10] Speaker C: Final Fantasy seven for you that night, Cap? [00:57:12] Speaker A: No, probably going to be the Friday after. I'd say that's okay. So, yeah, basically they've released this video, this YouTube kind of 20 minutes bad boy state of play a week after their last state of play, may I add. So they obviously decided that this was important enough to get its own, and I definitely agree that it was. Now, Grizz, what I will just quickly say before we dive into exactly what was shown, was the very final thing that they announced once this was all done and over, was that they were releasing a demo of the game before this all comes out. Now, what they've done is they've actually split the demo into two parts. There is a chapter of the game that you can play right now that involves cloud and Sephiroth doing a mission that takes place in the original game, or does it? Little sneaky fun, little hilarious cheeky moment there. But anyways, you basically play that in Final Fantasy seven remake form. [00:58:20] Speaker C: Do you need to pay for this, Cap? Do you need preorder the game? [00:58:23] Speaker A: The demo is completely free. Demo is completely free. [00:58:26] Speaker C: You need to own a PlayStation, though. [00:58:28] Speaker A: Obviously you do need to own a PlayStation. So you don't be able to play this on PlayStation, Game pass or anything like that. It doesn't exist. So you'll have to fork up the money. [00:58:37] Speaker B: But they're going to be doing that. [00:58:39] Speaker A: And then I think a week before the 29th or the release, they're also going to be allowing you to play a small segment of the open world area in Final Fantasy seven rebirth. So look, let's kind of dive in. I guess the first thing, Grizz, is that, and we knew this already, but I think it's worth kind of just re mentioning, is just the fact that this game is going to be completely open world, which is, well, not completely. There's probably going to be linear segments, and I played one of them, but for the most part, there's going to be big open world segments that you. [00:59:18] Speaker B: Can go and kind of persist in. [00:59:21] Speaker A: And when we first heard that remake was coming out a few years ago, whatever, and it subsequently came out, people were kind of theorizing, postulating on what they thought the structure of the next couple of games after, because we knew it was going to be a trilogy. How those games going to look? I thought they might split the game. [00:59:42] Speaker B: Down the eastern and western kind of. [00:59:47] Speaker A: Sides of the continents, but grizzly gaming 86, I am very happy to announce that you'll be playing both continents in this game. [00:59:58] Speaker C: I remember you were really worried, Cap. [00:59:59] Speaker B: About how they were going to deal. [01:00:01] Speaker C: With the opening up of the game. [01:00:03] Speaker B: And you were worried that they were. [01:00:04] Speaker C: Going to take away that exploration feel. [01:00:07] Speaker B: That seven gave you when it did that. But it seems like they've just given. [01:00:14] Speaker C: It all to you. Cap seems pretty good now because it is quite a large open world. [01:00:19] Speaker B: We see a few different traversal mechanics. [01:00:24] Speaker C: Cap, to get around the large map. We see chocobos, mate. We see the chocobos. [01:00:29] Speaker A: Chocobos. [01:00:29] Speaker B: They're back. [01:00:30] Speaker C: Some buggies and some little wheelies as well. And some other rideable pets and things too. [01:00:36] Speaker B: Looks like, yes, some of the classic. [01:00:38] Speaker A: Vehicles that you would have sort of driven or sort of seen in the first game. You're going to get a chance and opportunity to commandeer and drive in this game, but you're going to be going through all kinds of different environments as per the first original. You're going to be sort of entering into the grasslands first. After the sort of main first chapters of the game and the game opens up. You're going to be going to Junon, which classic is where you did the kind of like live to air soldier routine in the first game. We've also got the Corel region, where you will then inevitably go and see the golden Sorcerer and play a shitload of minigames, which they also spoke about. Also going to be going to Cosmo Canyon and the nibble region as well, which is where the game will probably kind of get close to wrapping up, potentially. Well, actually, it might be well after that Meridian Ocean, which I think might be where the sad shit happened in the first game, where, spoiler alert, Erith died. But will she die this time? Who knows? We don't know yet. But yeah, there's a lot of different areas where we're going to be finding ourselves in. And it looks really cool. So they also kind of went through Grizz. There's these things. There's a few new mechanics in the game. Well, firstly, minigames, which aren't a new mechanic. Minigames were in the original game, but you're going to get access to the minigames in this game. And they look wicked. I've only seen kind of a couple, but they look really cool. There's a really cool looking card game. [01:02:16] Speaker B: And it kind of has kind of. [01:02:19] Speaker A: Has maybe Gwent vibes. Gwentish. Anyway, so that looks really cool. So the minigames look really well fleshed out, actually, in the demo. One of the minigames is like a guitar hero like Piano thing, where you use the joysticks on the controller to tilt in different directions to play musical notes. And it was awesome. Really well put together. So looking forward to fucking around with that. But that's just one example of some of the things you're going to be able to do. All the mini games from the golden Saucer will be available in this game. As far as I could tell. [01:02:59] Speaker C: There was quite a lot there, wasn't there? The old. [01:03:01] Speaker A: God, there's shitloads, dude. There is heaps. [01:03:05] Speaker C: Seven have a card game. [01:03:07] Speaker B: Was it seven that had a card game in it? [01:03:09] Speaker A: I don't know if it did. Not that I can remember. Well, I mean, nine definitely had a card game. I don't know if eight did because I didn't play much off of eight, but nine definitely had a card game. So yeah, it won't be the first card game in a Final fantasy game, obviously, but I think it might have. [01:03:30] Speaker B: Been eight that had a really good one fleshed out card game in it. Maybe it was eight. [01:03:37] Speaker A: I know ten did as well. Maybe. I can't quite remember. Anyways, good minigames. There's also these new mechanic called OD Jobs Grizz, which is kind of like just side quests. So that'll flesh out the lore and whatnot of the region and the game at large. And you've also got world intel, which kind of looks to me like your classic open world. Go know, find a vantage point and open up the map. And you basically use that to help a character called Chadley, who in the first game was someone that would give you new material once you met certain requirements. So kind of carrying that on now. They also mentioned the performance and graphics mode of the game, Grizz. So it looks like we're going to be getting both. Obviously now, the graphics mode will run the game at 30 FPS in 4k resolution. [01:04:33] Speaker B: If you want to play it in. [01:04:34] Speaker A: Performance mode, you will be getting a pretty solid 60 FPS, which, I mean, don't know about you guys, but I'm probably going to be going for the 60 FPS personally. [01:04:46] Speaker C: Absolutely. [01:04:49] Speaker A: There's that as well. They also detailed the fact that you've now got these player bond things. Now it's literally just. I guess it's almost like Persona like you get the opportunity to go and have a date with one of your mates or go eat some food and you kind of learn more about them. And as you do, that kind of relationship levels up and that enables you to do more things like maybe their personas get stronger or whatever. Same kind of thing happening here in Final Fantasy where it extends to synergy abilities. Now, synergy abilities are basically like multiple character attacks in combat, and they look fucking cool. [01:05:32] Speaker C: Totally worth to get the synergy abilities right. [01:05:36] Speaker A: Got to get your synergy abilities with your bonds, mate, so it's going to be important. I like that, but that looks really cool. And apart from that, obviously, we've got the demo coming out as well, so I think that kind of covers the majority of stuff. So, yeah, just basically a shitload of minigames scattered throughout the world. There's a shitload of different regions. You can now obviously kind of deepen your relationship with the characters and yeah, you can battle with them. And the new characters look sick. [01:06:07] Speaker C: Are you going to play the demo, mate? You played the demo. [01:06:13] Speaker A: I've played the demo. So maybe before we dive into that, I just want to take a quick moment because maybe we'll just have our. How's your gaming going, Grizz? Shortly. [01:06:25] Speaker C: Why don't we start with you, cap? [01:06:27] Speaker B: Start with you? Yes. [01:06:28] Speaker A: Well, before we do, I just want to quickly touch on the fact that around all this and Final Fantasy seven getting its state of play, Square Enix has, there's been reports that have come out saying that they are looking to dramatically overhaul the way that they develop video games. Now, we kind of got the vibe recently from some interviews that they're looking to basically swing the company between either creating kind of like, and I'm going to put in inverted commas, indie games, so small kind of games with small development teams, or big aa titles like remake, like Final Fantasy 16, et cetera. [01:07:16] Speaker B: They're going to be doing less of. [01:07:17] Speaker A: The kind of like octopath travelers, those kind of mid tier games, I guess, in terms of size and development density. Now, the next thing that sort of has come out recently is that they're also looking to do a bit of overhauling in the way that they outsource their development to the point where they're looking to basically do everything internally where possible. So this is quite a big deviation for a company the size of Square Enix, because from what I understand, they. [01:07:52] Speaker B: Actually have kind of outsourced a fair. [01:07:55] Speaker A: Bit of their development to other studios. So it looks like they're going to be kind of changing up their approach. And grizz again, going back to the whole, I guess, economic situation, I think we're going to see more and more companies making decisions like Xbox, like Square. [01:08:10] Speaker C: Enix in 2023, their sales were essentially flat. And it sounds like from the digital entertainment business, they were actually down nearly 5%. [01:08:21] Speaker B: So feel like they're having to do this to try to pump it up a little bit. [01:08:27] Speaker C: Pump it up a little bit and get it cranking. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:08:30] Speaker A: Spend less money outside of the studio and get more money inside of it and work on things that they know are going to. I think you're going to see more remakes, honestly. I think you're probably going to see, like, in the next, probably five years, you'll probably see one of the Final Fantasy eight, nine, or ten getting a remake. Who knows which one it'll be? But I think that's probably going to be their approach moving forward because Final Fantasy seven remake so far has been received incredibly well. But, yeah, just an interesting one to sort of COVID before we do dive into our. How's the gaming going? Because things are definitely changing across developers and square Enix is no different, my friend. All right, Chris, now I want to know how my. How's your gaming going? I'm about to tell you. [01:09:18] Speaker B: Really good. [01:09:19] Speaker A: Thank you for asking. I had recently lent my PS five to a friend who just had a baby and I wasn't playing it. So I was like, mate, here you go, here's a bunch of games. And hit him up the other day. [01:09:29] Speaker B: I was like, you still using that PlayStation, bro? [01:09:32] Speaker A: And he was like, no, I haven't really been able to play it because I got a baby and shit. And I was like, yeah, tell me about it. I probably shouldn't have really given it to you because you never would have had time. Anyways, got my PlayStation back and downloaded the demo. [01:09:47] Speaker B: So just to preface this, in the. [01:09:50] Speaker A: Original game, there is a kind of moment when the party leaves Midgar after they've kind of been embroiled in another kind of terrorist attack, kind of blowing up part of Midgar and whatnot. And they're leaving Midgar to get out. And then cloud talks about his past with Sephiroth and I guess what his relationship was with him, and talks about this mission that happened a while back, which kind of sets the scene as to why Sephiroth is a bad guy. Basically, Sephiroth figured out that, oh, I actually seem to be some kind of. [01:10:31] Speaker B: Fucking genetic mistake experiment thing. [01:10:35] Speaker A: And now I'm angry at the world, and I want to turn the world into a steaming pile of shit like our ancient ancestors did. And so that's basically what you find out in this particular flashback. Now, this little chapter that you get is that little flashback moment you follow around Sephiroth as cloud, and you're going to nibble lime and you're trying to find out what's going on with this reactor that's nearby that's been seemingly producing all kinds of weird and wonderful monsters and finding out what the deal is. And that essentially is the origin story of Sephiroth and why he's a bad guy. So that's what you get to play in this demo. And it's really fucking good. Yeah, it's really fucking good. Yeah, I feel like graphics nice. [01:11:26] Speaker B: Feels good? [01:11:27] Speaker A: Yeah, dude. It's just a really well put together little package, I guess. And it got me insanely excited for the game. I feel like the combats really come together nicely where it gives you a lot of opportunity to. It kind of uses a stagger bar, and you kind of have ways of kind of moving enemies into stagger quicker if you use certain attacks or bits and pieces. And your characters all have slightly different abilities. Cloud can go into this punisher mode where he puts everything into offense, and you can kind of use that to make your ATB gorge go up quicker, et cetera. Seperoth has this thing where he goes into like a parry stance, and he can instantaneously parry shit if he times things properly. But then you've also got the whole block and parry system, and that can up the stagger. So it just feels really well knitted together with you weaving in, I guess. [01:12:34] Speaker B: Trying to block attacks at certain times. [01:12:39] Speaker A: To nullify damage, but also up stagger amounts and then also mixing in weaknesses of enemies to stagger them quickly. Use particular abilities like your fire arga and shit like that. And plus the whole material system as well with, okay, this material gives me the fire ability, so I can put that here. And this particular little slot is linked to another slot. So if I put a material into. [01:13:07] Speaker B: That slot that ups the level of. [01:13:10] Speaker A: That particular material, it links it, and then I can do a next level up spell of that particular type. There's a lot of customization in there. It just feels really fucking good, man. And I was like, the combat was awesome. Like, really fun. And, yeah, I just think they've learned a lot already. I think the final Fantasy seven remake, it's not deviated too far from it, but I just felt like the combat was more rewarding the way that you do. [01:13:42] Speaker C: How many hours are these? Discrete games, mate. The parts like, how many hours do you think this one will be? [01:13:50] Speaker A: It's a good question. I can't remember how much I played in the first one. [01:13:53] Speaker B: I reckon it would have been. Would have had to have been at. [01:13:57] Speaker A: Least 50 or 60 hours, I'd say not quite elden ring hours, but still a reasonable amount. [01:14:04] Speaker B: Dude, that's pretty good. [01:14:05] Speaker C: I'd imagine this one's going to be more now they've given you open world. [01:14:08] Speaker A: And having a bit of an open world section minigame. I would have thought so, yeah. And it seems like they're covering a fair bit of ground in the narrative and story, so I can see this one being fairly large. So, I mean, time will tell. Grizz. We don't know for sure yet until the game comes out, but I'd say, yeah, we're looking at a significant amount. So, yeah, look, the Final Fantasy rebirth demo was amazing. Definitely worth a crack if you're kind of looking to just kind of get a feel for what you're in for when that game comes out. I think for me, a lot of that standout has been so far. [01:14:47] Speaker B: Just the slight ways that the story is changing to kind of weird things. [01:14:52] Speaker A: Up a little bit, and you're like, that's not quite how that went down. And then it's like, okay, what kind of effect is that going to have on the story and stuff? So, yeah, I think kind of going back to this whole idea of the games kind of moving or diverging from the original storyline, we know that Zach flair, in the original game, he was a soldier similar to Sephiroth, and he died protecting cloud, apparently. And in this game, he survived. So what that means for the story is going to be really interesting. Another interesting thing is there's a lot of romance, kind of just, I guess, like sexual tension with cloud. And, well, this is the thing, right? Because Zach was apparently Eris's ex boyfriend. So now what the fuck is that going to mean? Grizz is going to be like a real fucking high school fucking musical moment. So there's all kinds of shit going on. So I don't know what it's going to mean for the storyline, but I'm all for it. I'm ready for it. And the combat was out of control. Playing as Sephiroth was so sick. [01:16:07] Speaker B: Pretty good. [01:16:07] Speaker A: Ridiculous. Yeah, it was just insanely, you know, when you're getting into combat with bosses and stuff, like, some of your characters get grappled and then you've got to change to a different character to try and kind of ungroupple them and help them out. It just knitted and weaved really well together. But yeah, dude, it was really. I'm very, very excited. [01:16:28] Speaker C: Well, a couple of weeks, cap, and you'll be able to play the full thing. [01:16:33] Speaker A: The next thing for me is to basically do a deep dive on the lore on YouTube, just to wrap my head around what was and wasn't happening and reacquainting myself with the original game. I'll probably watch a couple know. This is what happened in remake. [01:16:47] Speaker C: I don't mean to put you under. [01:16:48] Speaker B: Pressure here, Cap, but you got to. [01:16:49] Speaker C: Finish this game before the olden ring DLC drops, mate. [01:16:53] Speaker A: Yeah. So hopefully it doesn't drop on Valentine's Day, because I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know how life is going to look after that point. So we'll see what happens. But, yeah, the demo is great. Give it a download. And they've got the open world segment coming out on. I think it's like the 22nd. [01:17:16] Speaker C: Or are you going to wait release? [01:17:22] Speaker A: I'll probably just wait. [01:17:24] Speaker C: I think you got a week after that point, mate. After 21st. [01:17:28] Speaker A: Only a week. And it's only a podcast that I. [01:17:30] Speaker B: Co run, so whatever. It'll be fine. [01:17:34] Speaker A: Fuck it. [01:17:35] Speaker B: We'll do it. [01:17:36] Speaker A: We'll play it when it's out. But, mate, tell me about your gabby. I'm really excited. [01:17:40] Speaker C: Well, I'm bringing this podcast back to its roots first, Cap, but I've been playing Elden ring. [01:17:46] Speaker B: Quite a lot of Elden ring. [01:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah, baby. [01:17:49] Speaker C: In prep for the DLC, mate. [01:17:51] Speaker B: Just wanted to, like was a few things right. [01:17:54] Speaker C: Because at the moment, I'm playing on. [01:17:56] Speaker B: My pc and I wanted to get. [01:17:58] Speaker C: A character at least somewhere up near the end, just in case the DLC. [01:18:03] Speaker B: Is a kind of endgame change so. [01:18:08] Speaker C: That I'm ready to go straight into. [01:18:09] Speaker B: The DLC should it drop. [01:18:11] Speaker C: But also, Cap, I kind of want to be Elden ring prepared for when that game drops, so that I'm feeling like I can play the game. I've derusted a bit and everything else. [01:18:20] Speaker B: But ready for the ring. [01:18:21] Speaker C: I am hooked on it right now. I'm really, really enjoying. [01:18:25] Speaker A: Really? [01:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it's actually been really enjoyable. I'm playing a dexterity arcane bleed build. [01:18:33] Speaker A: Okay. [01:18:35] Speaker C: I was using a weapon from one. [01:18:37] Speaker B: Of the horsemen that come out at night. [01:18:41] Speaker C: There was a flail, a dex flail that has a bleed build up on it. So the way the arcane works is. [01:18:49] Speaker B: It increases your bleed build up, but. [01:18:52] Speaker C: It also increases the damage that your bleed deals. So you don't even need a weapon to have arcane scaling on it for it to do that, as long as it has a bleed effect. [01:19:01] Speaker A: Oh, shit. Okay. [01:19:02] Speaker C: Which is pretty cool. But I have just found a dagger, which you may have come across, Cap. [01:19:06] Speaker B: It is called a. [01:19:13] Speaker C: I can't remember. [01:19:14] Speaker B: But it shoots projectiles as well. [01:19:16] Speaker C: You can shoot these bleeding projectiles at people with it. [01:19:20] Speaker A: Right. [01:19:20] Speaker B: Okay. [01:19:21] Speaker C: And it automatically causes the target to bleed if you hit him with a projectile. Anyway, it's super cool. I'm really enjoying playing it again, and I'm looking forward to the DLC. I'm probably going to try to, I don't know, at least kind of get up towards the end game and then I might just leave that character there and just wait for the DLC to come. [01:19:37] Speaker B: But, kat, I have you. All right, so this is interesting, right? [01:19:42] Speaker C: So my kids have been playing Roblox. [01:19:44] Speaker B: For a good two or three years now. And I kind of feel like for. [01:19:49] Speaker C: Our generation, it was Minecraft was that game for young kids to play and pick up young teenage kids. I feel like that's still there, but I feel like Roblox is bigger now. I decided that they've been asking me for fucking ages, can I join them and play Roblox with them? So I downloaded it on my pc. I had Lily, Joyce, and Ada all in my stream room in here in beanbags. And I said, right, I'm picking the game, because the way Roblox works is it's like minigame central. There's all these different games you can play, right? And so I looked up a few different ones. I decided I was going to play this game called adopt me with them. And the whole idea of the game. [01:20:26] Speaker B: Is you start the game with an egg, and you hatch the egg, and it's either a cat or a dog. And then you have to look after your pet. [01:20:35] Speaker C: Whenever you look after it, you might. [01:20:36] Speaker B: Need to feed it, water it, put it to sleep, wash it. You get given money for doing that. And then with the money, you can buy other eggs, and the eggs have a chance to hatch. Commons rares uncommons legendaries, ultra legendaries, all these different percentages. [01:20:56] Speaker C: So I actually found myself. You get quite hooked on it because you want to get the rare pets, but also there's this other mechanic where if you combine four of the same type together, you can turn it into a glow in the dark one, basically. I can't what the word for it is like a super fucking rare one. So the whole idea of the game. [01:21:16] Speaker B: Is that you collect these pets, but. [01:21:18] Speaker C: Then you trade with players in the game to get more of the pets. Anyway, the game that I thought was, like, super fucking easy and it was. [01:21:24] Speaker B: Going to be shit and kind of for babies. [01:21:27] Speaker C: It is kind of for babies, but I was, like, getting right into it. So I managed to trade and get four of the same pets, but then to combine them, they all need to be adults. So I traded them all to the. [01:21:39] Speaker B: Girls and I was like, you guys. [01:21:41] Speaker C: Level up one each and then we'll come back in like an hour and we'll combine them all together to make the combined special one. Yeah, it was cool. And we did it and it was like. Anyway, it was. [01:21:53] Speaker B: Look, that's cool. [01:21:54] Speaker C: I will say, dude, Roblox is pretty amazing for what it is. [01:21:59] Speaker B: You can pretty much play any of. [01:22:00] Speaker C: The games we play. [01:22:01] Speaker B: For example, pick a game, cap a mobile. [01:22:04] Speaker C: I'm sure there's a mobile on there. There's like, games that are like fortnite on there. They pretty much just take what's popular and just bang them into this free to play game. [01:22:16] Speaker A: Far out. Okay. [01:22:17] Speaker C: Wow. [01:22:18] Speaker A: It's kind of impressive, isn't it? Because other people just build that shit, don't they? [01:22:21] Speaker C: It's impressive, dude. Creators kind of like, mod it and build it, and then if someone spends. [01:22:27] Speaker B: Roebucks in there, they get a cut of that percentage spent with you. All right, man. [01:22:35] Speaker A: It's crazy, isn't it? I'm glad that you got stuck into it with the girls, man. That's awesome, dude. [01:22:39] Speaker C: I'm finding that they're at the age. [01:22:41] Speaker B: Where you can do that kind of stuff. [01:22:44] Speaker C: All of us, all three of my kids and myself. And, you know, it wasn't always like that. [01:22:49] Speaker B: There was always. [01:22:49] Speaker C: Ada was always kind of lagging behind a bit. And she still is a little bit. Like, she kind of didn't know what we were doing. She was just like running around, putting on different outfits and showing me her hair that she's got. And check out this cool dress that I'm wearing because that's what Roblox is kind of like that you wear all different outfits and you spend like the in game currency to buy a new set of hair and stuff. [01:23:08] Speaker A: And she. [01:23:11] Speaker C: Is funny, dude. [01:23:14] Speaker A: Right? [01:23:15] Speaker C: Oh, you should get it, mate. She'll get it eventually. But it is nice to be able to game with the younger grizzlies, for sure. Loving that. [01:23:23] Speaker A: The coach, mate. Absolutely super rad, mate. [01:23:26] Speaker B: Love it. Love it big time. Cool, man. Gaming. [01:23:30] Speaker C: Well, I've been gaming. It's been nice. [01:23:32] Speaker A: You've been doing a significant amount of gaming, and I'm all for it, mate. That's freaking wicked. [01:23:36] Speaker B: Yeah, gorgeous. All right, mate, well, let's freaking dive. [01:23:40] Speaker A: Into our final cheeky little part of the rapid fine news. The podcast, my friend. [01:23:47] Speaker B: Let's do it. [01:23:50] Speaker A: It's in the freaking game. Grizzly power world. [01:23:53] Speaker B: Server costs are insane. [01:23:56] Speaker A: The developers are paying currently roughly $378,000 a month to keep them on. [01:24:04] Speaker B: It's a lot of money, Grizz. Why? How. [01:24:07] Speaker C: But also that is how much service cost. [01:24:10] Speaker B: Holy shit, dude. That's a lot. [01:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I suppose when you're that popular. Yeah, it's kind of just like. [01:24:15] Speaker B: I wonder whether they'll ever push that onto the player for, like, you know, how. What was that game? We had to buy your own server, cap. [01:24:24] Speaker C: To play with your mates. Valheim. [01:24:27] Speaker A: Valheim. Needed. Yeah, Valheim. There's been a few. [01:24:35] Speaker B: I'm trying to think off the top. [01:24:36] Speaker A: Of my head, but, yeah, I mean, realistically, servers just cost a shitload of money. [01:24:41] Speaker B: A real shitty house in Mount Barker. [01:24:45] Speaker C: And make a server. [01:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, deal. [01:24:49] Speaker A: Let's go. [01:24:50] Speaker B: Done. [01:24:51] Speaker C: Honestly, reckon that would probably fucking work, cat. Hogwarts Legacy has officially. Hogwarts Legacy has officially tears of the Kingdom as 2020 three's best selling video game has beaten tears of the kingdom. Is that what has actually happened? [01:25:08] Speaker B: Holy shit. [01:25:10] Speaker A: Has indeed, mate. Yeah, it's pumped. [01:25:13] Speaker B: It's gone off. [01:25:16] Speaker C: Which is pretty impressive. [01:25:17] Speaker B: Yeah, big time. [01:25:19] Speaker A: All right, Grizz. Laura Bailey, who voices Abby in the last of us two, has confirmed what we always knew. Grizz. Gamers can be real fucking assholes, basically. Turns out that gamers threatened her son just because people just have to be fucking horrible sometimes. So, yeah, maybe just don't do. [01:25:41] Speaker C: Laura Bailey is also a fantastic voice actor that is in critical role cap that's done all the D d. That's right. Role stuff. Yeah, that's. And she is such a lovely person as well. [01:25:53] Speaker B: She's just like. [01:25:54] Speaker A: They just can't help themselves. They just can't be normal sometimes. [01:26:02] Speaker C: Ubisoft CEO defends Skull and Bone's $70 price, despite its live service leanings, called it a quadruple a. [01:26:11] Speaker B: Even more than aa cap. [01:26:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that sounds like a dying ship. And the captain of said ship trying to reassure all of the crew members that everything's all good. We're not taking on a shipload of water. [01:26:27] Speaker C: Sounds like Diablo four to me, Cap. It's like, let's bang a massive price tag on this. Promise to give you, squeeze it for. [01:26:33] Speaker A: As much as we possibly can, promise. [01:26:36] Speaker C: To give you a live service game for that one off fee, and then. [01:26:38] Speaker B: Just fucking pump it full of like. [01:26:41] Speaker C: Microtransactions and other shitty things. [01:26:45] Speaker A: I think you're probably onto something there, grizzly, but yeah, I guess we'll see what happens now. Grizz. Video game studios are continuing to crumble as embracer Group cancels the latest Deus X game that was in development. It looks like the game is now cancelled. Elias Tufex, I don't know how you pronounce the name, is a, I think, voice actor and producer on video games. They announced that the most recent iteration had been canceled and that basically a third game that they were working on, probably again within that embracer group, has since been kind of reworked from scratch with a whole new team. So, yeah, things are just fucking weird at the moment, dude. [01:27:37] Speaker B: Big time weird. Yeah. [01:27:39] Speaker C: This gets me pretty excited. Cap some subnautica two news. But Subnautica draws a keynote investor, describes subnautica two as a game of a service. Devs quickly take to social media to elaborate. No battle passes, just continued updates and patches well into the future. And it also appears to be four player co op as well. Cap out of the box. [01:28:06] Speaker A: Yeah, which is different because the original subnautica didn't have cooperative play. I don't know if you can play. I think below zero you might be able to do co op from memory. [01:28:17] Speaker C: There was a mod you could cap, but they were always a bit shit, really buggy and stuff. [01:28:22] Speaker A: So I think the issue here was basically subnautica kind of maybe worded it in that way to try and win some more investment. But then the issue is that gamers are incredibly nosy and very good at doing research. And so they found the wording and they were, no, no, don't you dare. So, yeah, they obviously kicked out a stink, and here we are talking about it anyways. Grizz. Jason Shriya, who is a writer for, I think, Kotaku. But often Jason comes out with the goods for leaks and all kinds of bits and pieces. They're writing a book on the rise and fall of Blizzard, which is releasing in October. I'm actually pretty keen to read that because I think it's going to be a real good read and probably fairly eye opening. [01:29:11] Speaker C: You know what, that was the title of one of our episodes, I believe. The rise and Fall of Lizard or something very similar to that. [01:29:19] Speaker A: All right, looks like we are suing Jason Shriya OGr. [01:29:25] Speaker C: We'd add that at the end of the rapid fire, mate. We'll do the paperwork while we wait. Konami is potentially porting the Silent Hill series to current gen consoles. [01:29:35] Speaker B: Cap. Yeah. [01:29:38] Speaker C: Are they going to look shit still or what? [01:29:41] Speaker A: Well, I think they're going to. Well, by the sounds of things, it's just going to be like the original games ported because we got the remake. [01:29:49] Speaker B: Of Silent Hill two covered soon, so I don't know. [01:29:53] Speaker A: We'll see what happens, I guess, see what they're going to do. But I'd imagine it'll be just the original games ported. All right, Grizz, now in a hilarious flex, one of the developers of Yakuza was in an interview or something, and I think it was an interview. I can't quite remember exactly how it all eventuated, but basically they flexed on GTA, saying that they developed ten games in the amount of time that it took them to develop one game, which. [01:30:23] Speaker B: Is kind of hilarious. [01:30:28] Speaker C: Big time flexed on them. [01:30:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:30:32] Speaker C: Capo. It seems the success of Armored Corps may be driving from software's commitment to. [01:30:37] Speaker B: The next elden ring DLC being fucking huge. [01:30:43] Speaker A: Yeah, basically it kind of sounds like Armacore went really well. And as part of their investment meeting, they basically kind of noted that that has also helped them ensure that other projects they're working on are going to also be really fucking good. Pretty exciting. Now, Grizz. Persona three reloaded is Atlas's fastest selling ever video game, selling 1 million copies in their first week, which is kind of wild. And this isn't another thing, Grizz. People always complain like, oh, fucking. Not another fucking remake. Oh my God. But then you have shit like this, you know what I mean? [01:31:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:24] Speaker A: Why wouldn't companies keep doing it? [01:31:26] Speaker C: I don't mind it, man. They just need to be certain games we're yelling out, we're screaming out for Bloodborne. [01:31:32] Speaker B: I actually really like the Diablo two remaster as well. [01:31:37] Speaker C: I guess remake and remaster is different. [01:31:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't mind it. [01:31:42] Speaker A: Look, yeah, I'm all about remakes. I think they're fine now, Cap. [01:31:48] Speaker C: Hell divers two sent it all over. [01:31:50] Speaker B: Twitch TV this week. [01:31:53] Speaker C: Apparently, hell divers two concurrent Steam player is a record for PlayStation Studio's highest player count. [01:32:03] Speaker B: So. Yeah. [01:32:05] Speaker C: More than God of War. [01:32:06] Speaker B: More than God of war. [01:32:07] Speaker C: When that came across to scene. [01:32:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems to be doing really well, which is surprising because I am pretty sure when I saw this game. [01:32:17] Speaker B: Announced, I said almost, quote, this game looks fucking boring. Yeah, look I think people are enjoying. [01:32:28] Speaker C: The co op aspect of it. [01:32:30] Speaker B: Right. [01:32:31] Speaker C: There's friendly fire. [01:32:33] Speaker B: Gives me a lot of. [01:32:33] Speaker C: Actually. [01:32:34] Speaker B: What is that? [01:32:35] Speaker C: Starship. It gives me a lot of starship troopers vibes. Yeah, it is supposed to be pretty buggy, too, cap, I hear. [01:32:40] Speaker B: But, yeah, people are enjoying it. [01:32:41] Speaker C: Seems all right. [01:32:42] Speaker A: Okay. [01:32:43] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:43] Speaker A: Interesting. [01:32:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:32:44] Speaker A: Look, I mean, I haven't actually tuned in to see, I guess, what is. [01:32:48] Speaker B: Going on and how it's kind of. [01:32:51] Speaker A: Going, so I just have no idea how good it is or if it's even any good at all. [01:32:56] Speaker B: But, hey, the numbers. [01:32:59] Speaker A: Kind of speaking for themselves, Grizz, seems like it's a winner from the eyes of, I guess, PlayStation at the very minimum. Right? [01:33:07] Speaker B: So pretty cool. All right, well, there you go, Grizz. [01:33:11] Speaker A: That's actually the show. Would you believe it? That's everything. We can go to bed now. [01:33:15] Speaker C: We did it. [01:33:16] Speaker B: Yes. [01:33:16] Speaker A: Look, just want to say a big thank you to all of our wonderful listeners. If you're listening to this in your own time via podcast, we'd really appreciate a cheeky little review. Five stars only. Thank you. Keep your bloody three sub plus less than to yourself, all right? [01:33:32] Speaker B: I don't want to hear it otherwise. [01:33:35] Speaker A: If you're listening live, appreciate you doing so. Maybe just let a friend know that we exist. That'd be pretty cool. We'd really appreciate it. Other than that, another big thank you to our wonderful Patreons. If you'd like to become one, you can go to patreon.com ogrshow and follow the prompts. If you want to join us on Discord, go to OGR show and you'll find a link to our discord there. [01:33:59] Speaker B: You can join us and chat shit. [01:34:01] Speaker A: In real time with us, which is pretty cool. Other than that, we've got a Twitter. You can find that on the same link OGR show. In fact, you can find most of our links there. Our Twitch link is on there. The whole lot links to our podcasts, everything. Look, regardless, thanks so much for being a big bunch of legends, and we'll catch you guys next Monday on the oceanic gaming radio podcast. [01:34:26] Speaker B: See you later. Close.