'Advance Access' games - why should you pay more?

Hello and welcome to the Game Discover Co Show, the show where you discover games. It's a little bit more complicated than that. It's a show about game discovery. It's a show about the games business, and you learn so much, an entire week's worth of information in a very short amount of time. I am your co-host Chris Plante, and I am joined, as always, by Simon Carless. How are you doing today, Simon?
I'm doing great. Excited to get into it. We always have stuff to talk about cuz there's always stuff going on in the world of game discovery and platforms. So, that's my favorite thing about the show.
There is so much stuff going on. And then all the games are about to come out. But, we have four big stories this week to get into, and I cannot wait to get into the first one because I feel like if there is one person who has very strong opinions on this and who has a behind-the-scenes look in a certain way, it is you. And that is about GDC has changed things up for uh March 2027. Instead of doing what they did in the

past, which was having the festival hall uh Wednesday to Friday, they have moved it from Tuesday to Thursday. There's also some other news. Uh the summits are going to be, quote, more community-driven. And I'm very curious how you feel about this and just how big of a change this is. Because, and I know I'm talking a lot here, but I got to get my my heart and soul out, which is journalist, get the hell out of San Francisco Thursday night and Friday mornings. So, it always felt like a lost day to have that. And I want to know why why the change now?
Yeah, why is it happening now? And for I think most people listening to this will know this, but I was um pretty involved in GDC from about 2006, probably increasingly, and then especially from maybe like 2000 2010 to 2020. And um and and I sort of quit being involved in 2020 when I when I set up Game Discoverco. So, yeah, so I have a lot of perspective being behind the scenes on

the show. And I think yeah, I think what's happening is um, you know, like the pandemic was not necessarily kind to GDC because I think it made a lot of people reconsider their spend at the show, especially sort of these large you know, the large platform companies. And I think a lot of large platform companies sort of decided they'd rather do alternative things. So that really changed what the show floor used to look like and honestly the show floor as a lot of show as a lot of trade show show floors are powered by it used to be a little bit of powered by FOMO. It was like well, like I'm I'm unreal, I'm Epic, Unity's doing a big booth. I don't want to look like I'm not doing a big booth as well. So I think there was a fair amount of that and sort of you know, there's obviously a lot of other changes in the industry. So I think the show floor at this point is still a pretty vibrant show floor. I you know, I went there in in 2016 and enjoyed it, but it's a bit more sort of smaller company and community led and as a result I think and also you know, there was a big

change made for 2026 where it used to be very clearly subdivided into summits Monday and Tuesday and main conference Wednesday to Friday. So that's one of the reasons why historically the show floor was Wednesday to Friday because that's when in quite the main conference was and the these first two days used to be tutorials ended up becoming way more important over time because they had a lot of good summit things in them. So really I think the change to the it's just Monday you just get a ticket to Monday to Friday and that's it and there's various subject matters in that it meant that it's easier to move around things because it used to be main conference Wednesday to Friday. The show floor had to be Wednesday to Friday. That's that's my view on it anyway.
Yeah, the the the there are a variety of changes here and I want to talk about those too. One being the summits being more community driven. Community driven is a pair of words that has lost all meaning to me. I do not know what that means that it's for any given thing. So, what does it mean here?
Well, actually I'm not completely sure either cuz I I haven't really spoken to the organizers about this, but what I

will say is there used to be a very strongly programmed set of summits that have their own advisory boards, and that sort of got a little bit merged when they put everything together into one main conference. And I think there is an argument there was probably a little too much content in GDC at some point. It really got out to I think there were 20 to 25 simultaneous lectures and tutorials and sponsor sessions going on. So, I think that's great to some extent, but I think as people are adjusting and we and you probably have been seeing recently a lot of people coming for business and expo, and you do see people coming for the full conference, but increasingly I think if you're going to spend to come to San Francisco, you actually need business takeaway from it, and that's one reason something we didn't mention is they are sort of announcing a business hall which is separate to the festival hall, and so I really think you know, the organizers are trying to get a little bit more business done on site cuz that's always the sort of the negative on GDC. It's like, well, I'm doing a bunch of business. I don't have time to come to GDC.
What What is the business hall? Because

what I imagine, again from somebody outside the business side, is what I typically see happening in the lobby of the W Hotel, which is we're not going into the show floor, there's not a good space for it. We just want to meet to be able to show you what we're working on, and maybe somebody wants to be able to pitch their game to a publisher, or maybe they want to be able to pitch it to the press, or people have to meet for a variety of reasons and the hotel bars seem to have become a de facto place for that. Is that similar to what's here, or are these private spaces like what what's going on?
I mean, I think it's just an attempt to get more business going on site as opposed to off site. I think what really happens is if you look at Gamescom, Gamescom has a massive business hall area that where a lot of business is done quotes on site at Gamescom, but that's because with all respect to Cologne, uh the rest of Cologne is not always the best place to have kind of cool convivial small meetings cuz a lot of it is beer halls where they don't take credit cards or

whatever. Um and um you know, and I think unfortunately or fortunately San Francisco has a lot of places where it's nice to have meetings just very close to the venue. So, I think some of this, you know, as a former events guy, some of this is your local geography around your event. And so, I think it is difficult to solve for this because there are a number of nice you know, meeting rooms and even spaces you can rent that that are pretty close to the Moscone Center in San Francisco. So, that's one of the things that's meant it's had been a little trickier to get meetings on site, but I think the organizers nowadays are trying as part of this refocus, you know, they have a festival hall and a business hall and I think they do want more people to do business on site because it is true like the amount of jumping around you have to do at these shows is a bit of a nightmare. Wouldn't it be great if you could have all your meetings in one place? I think that's difficult, but wouldn't it be great?
Yeah. Um yeah, it's a it's a nice thing to imagine. I I hope I hope it is possible as someone who gets very exhausted having to walk the same six-block path over and over and over again multiple

times a day at GDC. I want to move on to the next story. We've been talking a lot about early access uh in recent episodes. I don't know if we've ever said the words advanced or advanced access on this show until now. Uh Mortal Shell 2 it recently hit quote advanced access and uh has done quite well in that. And what advanced access means is basically people paid $10 more and they got a a skin set that doesn't seem worth $10 really at all, but they also got uh the opportunity to play the game before everybody else. And this seems to be a trend actually. It's not just exclusive to Mortal Shell 2. So, can you talk a little bit about this idea of advanced access? And like, is this different than people paying for access to betas? Like, what what is this as a tool?
Yeah, it's interesting. And the reason that I wanted to talk about this was we're also seeing, like when I went and looked at it in the last week, there was

both Watch Dogs and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. Both of those games, interestingly, have a betas that are going on right now where they're kind of like, "Well, you can probably get into the beta, but you'll definitely get in if you pre-order the game right now." So, this is another example, I think, of what people are doing more and more, which is if you have a fanbase who are excited about a game, then it is reasonable to try and get them to spend more. Historically, that's been done with kind of like borderline sketchy deluxe editions. You know, like a lot of traditional publishers like, "Well, there's a $70 version and a $90 version and a $110 version." And some of those, I think, haven't had I mean, I think the highest ones have had maybe DLC in them sometimes, but actually Steam really doesn't like you pre-selling DLC that you haven't made yet for various reasons. So, the consoles are fine with it. So, I think what people are trying to move towards is very much the kind of like, "Well, you're paying some money, but if you pay some more money, then you get something extra." And I think at one point people

were very much like, "Well, it's got to be something." But now people are realizing, you know, playing a game early, it's like getting into you know, it's like a movie's coming out on a Friday, but you get to go on Tuesday. Like, that's ultimately social capital and really cool for people. And they're definitely willing to pay more money for that. So, I don't know if advanced access, which by the way is now a formalized term by Steam. There is a little logo that says advanced access, which Steam is has allowed because of this stuff. Um you know, I don't know if Steam originally envisioned this, but I'm increasingly seeing advanced access as uh pay to get access early rather than pay to get stuff.
I want to split it in two. Uh There's [clears throat] the the company side and there's the audience side. In the company side
[clears throat and cough]
I guess I get what's happening here, which is this is a way to bring in more cash with borderline zero, very low cost adding on to like the development of your product. Is that like basically the gist?

Yeah, and I would say that most people are not taking the mickey as we say. Most people are not being ridiculous about this. It tends to be an extra 10 or 15 dollars, not an extra 30 or 40.
Well, and then then that's the audience side about it, which I don't know where I land because on one hand $10 is not it's not what it it has been in the past in some ways of like oh here's a $110 version of the game and maybe early access or advanced access, sorry, is a part of it. But is it have we just accepted that you are paying for an artificial opportunity? Like if the game is ready, the game is ready. And you are paying to it is an intentional creating of have and have nots and maybe that's just where the market is, but it is strange.
It's a little strange. I think like for me, I feel like the audience has normalized it because ultimately the games you can do this for are games that people are

rabidly excited for generally. It's not games that people are oh I might be It's awful or not. It's kind of like, you know, like what what like one of the recent Space Marine games. People are super excited about that. Space Marine 2, you know, and and and yeah, that that was definitely, you know, 10 bucks to get some stuff early. I do not I did not see anyone anyone complaining about that. And and partly it's because I think there is at the top end of pricing, there are some $70 games and some $60 games right now. So I think the argument is oh well, you know, it was only 60 but then it's 70 if you if you get it early. I I don't think that's tripping anyone. I think if it was 80 or 90, it does start to trip people and I think that's one of the reasons why we're seeing people move away a little from I think historically folks like Square Enix would do this particularly like the Japanese publishers just like a $60 skew a $90 skew a $120 skew like I don't think I don't think people like that.
Yeah. Yeah, I I am like so torn on it. I also I completely understand the realities of it and I'm a little bummed

and then at the same time if you told me right now you can pay $20 and you can play Grand Theft Auto tomorrow. I mean I would a whole lot of people would pay that money I think probably myself included. Um yeah, it's a thing that I am curious to keep my eye on because it does seem like a relatively easy way to earn a little bit extra cash or maybe a lot of extra cash. I want to move to the third story we got. PlayStation uh it is kicking off shovelware quote publishers and this has become a bit controversial because of who it has targeted and who gets lumped in under that term and what games. Mhm. This one's a a bit complicated. So can you explain the studio that got kicked off and and why it got kicked off?
Yeah, I mean so basically I think PlayStation has been doing something I think they should have done for a long time which is they've had a lot of

trouble with that that like unlike Steam which has some minimums like in order to get achievements on Steam you need a minimum amount of players and stuff like PlayStation allows any game to have a platinum achievement. There's people who collect platinum achievements and so there are quite a lot of games that are like easy platinum games historically so it's kind of like just do this thing for 20 minutes and you can get you can get another platinum. That's your 72nd platinum. Now Now, sounds ridiculous but people will definitely a few thousand people will definitely pay five bucks or eight bucks for one of those games. So, I think there's been complaints about this for a long time. I've highlighted it in the newsletter multiple times, and PlayStation to their credit are finally doing something about it, and they are starting to de-list just with no choice some of these publishers, some of which have had a hundred or two hundred games. Uh so, what's tricky, and it's actually since been rescinded interestingly, is there's a publisher called Turnox games. So, I'd say we're borderline. Uh you know, if you really look at their stuff, cuz I went and looked after the outrage, you know, they have some games

that are real basic platformers that you can get platinums in in like 20 minutes if you cheat. So, um you know, so I I think uh I think they were borderline like um shovelware easy platinum folks, but they had a game called Stonks uh 9800 that was that was on Steam, and it actually done reasonably well. It's like a retro Japanese stock market trading game. It's a little bit like Weeboo and kind of you know, weird, but I think it's I I I I think it's like a perfectly I would say I would not say that was an easy platinum game, and so they were going to publish that, and then PlayStation was like, "Nope, not only can you not publish it, we're we're deep up we're de-listing all your games." And so, people got upset about that. But, since then uh I I did notice they have been let back on again, but then my question is, they are publishing some easy platinum stuff. Why should they be let back on?
Yeah, this is the challenge anytime you have a problem that's been built up for a long period of time, and like do you risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Because

I fully recognize there are studios who can make artists of all kind who can make junk to build capital to then make better things. And Stocks 9800 like it over a thousand overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. Like it's a game game. And like the question of how how much you should hold a developer's past, especially when there was no monitoring of that past, like it was just kind of part of the system against their future, I think is where I don't know. It seems like that's where the hiccup has happened here, and I don't know if that's super common. Like it's I'm sure a lot of these developers are not making Sly Cooper 9800, but I think it's tough if you are not enforcing your rules to suddenly enforce them and then also say and it extends into the future.
Yeah, I I I think this is an example of Sony PlayStation has not had the most nuanced public like policy on any of

this, and so they just ignored it for like 5 years. And finally the complaining got big enough and then then they just kind of like, "Well, we'll just de-list everybody."
[laughter]
And so you know, and also I believe when they're de-listing people, I mean probably also for legal reasons, they're probably being careful. They're just kind of like, "Well, we're just you know, we're just saying we have it in our contract that we can de-list people for any reason. We're just doing that." I don't believe they've told Well, from what I've seen, I don't believe they've told anyone why they're de-listing them either. I think they're just like, you know, "We're We're We're using our ability as that we have in the contract to do that."
Yeah, it it I also think it's this weird thing of like what are the incentives of the market and how much should the developer trust what a platform is telling them and how much the actual market is incentivizing something else. So the market is telling you keep making these things that are the you know, cheap platinum filling games and you're not getting punished for it for years, it would

communicate to me, sure Sony may say they don't want something, but like everyone's winning here. I'm making money, they're making money, people are getting their platinum trophies, and then for after a few years to be like, "Actually no, we we we said none of this all along." It's like It feels like we kind of had a wink wink thing going on here.
Yeah, I don't I don't think it was a wink wink thing. I just think that that Sony basically believes that if you were concept approved for one game, you can publish as much as you like, and that's just how it works. And so, I I just think it's a lack of nuance in their policies. And you saw I think Steam historically has been far more nuanced than the consoles. We're still running into issues on Switch. I was mentioning today, um I actually I actually put in the in the game discover code chat. There's There's a new game out on Switch eShop called Lethal Corporation, which is uses the Lethal Company logo in its entirety, same design, but with the word uh company replaced with corporation. And that's another good example of someone um you know, again, Switch has

not been good at dealing with this stuff because they don't really have a nuanced policy. They Like all these console platforms are just not used to this. Like like that that they're very used to not really having any any community uh policy that you need to be aware that people were going to game the system because it was just like, "Oh, we published these games, and if they can afford to publish with us, they're probably going to be fine." So, I think, you know, Switch has had this problem as well. And so, I think there's going to be more of a waking up that that we we need to deal with this a bit more subtly. But I do think, especially at large corporate companies like Valve historically, for all the amount of money they make, they've been pretty relaxed on some of the stuff where your legal department normally be like, "What are you guys doing?" And so,
[laughter]
so I think that's the other thing. I think they feel a little maybe hamstrung by legal agreements and stuff.
Yeah, the the the Nintendo store is truly a mess in ways that I I can't comprehend. Um especially compared to Steam. It is like

just putting your mouth on the fire hose and praying that you find a game that you actually want. So, I I I agree. It does seem like it's a problem that's overwhelming all of these various platforms. I could talk about that forever. Uh but instead I want to talk about something that makes me very happy, which is a game doing very well. Big Walk has over a million sales. And you raise the question, will this usher in a co-op first era?
What does that mean?
Yeah,
[laughter]
well
I mean Yeah, I mean I would say uh like I I I we're already a little bit in a co-op first era. But the the thing I was trying to pitch, I think, in uh the newsletter I wrote about this last week was I don't understand why more people are not making more complicated, interesting co-op only games. I I'm not talking about Friends Loop here. I'm talking

about games that took longer to make. And so that is really uh that is really my kind of area that I'm super interested in right now.
Yeah, I We we've talked about this a little bit um in in previous weeks, too, of that these co-op games exist right now. Uh they're just not nearly as popular as It Takes Two. They're not coming from as big of studios as It Takes Two, or necessarily even Big Walk, though that did come from a relatively small team. It did have the support of a publisher like Panic. Do you think that we will see this trend reaching larger studios? Is this going to be the thing where it's like an indie creates a new genre of sorts, and suddenly, you know, a Ubisoft a year from now is going to be like, "You won't believe the game that we have coming. It's called Large Hike."
Ha. Yeah, I mean I mean I think there's

a number of bigger bigger studios who've messed up by not doing this. An example I can think of, and I could be wrong, uh but you know, like Supermassive Games who do the excellent kind of Dark Pictures games. I I don't know why they've kept going co-optional with their stuff. I always I was mentioning in uh I mean, their games are more expensive and I do think one of the things that I'm going to do some surveys of the audience about this, but one of the things that really works with co-op games right now, not to spoil uh my survey, is a lot of the time you're persuaded into them by people. So, it's pretty much like, "Oh, I kind of heard of this game. It's only whatever, 10 or 15 bucks. My buddy really wants to play it. I'm going to play it." So, that's quite a lot, I believe, and I'm going to be trying to ask players questions about this soon. That that's quite a lot of why this stuff works. It does have to be a slightly lower price point. So, maybe it doesn't work. I was sort of claiming like if there was a the next Dark Pictures game was co-op only, I would that work? And I don't know. I mean, at like $40, maybe it wouldn't work and

that's what that the the amount of money they sort of have to spend to make it work. Maybe their audience is not there, but I'm just sort of noting that I think there's room for I'm actually a little worried that people are over flooding into Friend Slot and not flooding enough into stuff like the I I mentioned and I believe the Big Walk folks were inspired by the We Were Here series. The We Were Here series is great and it's and it's very much kind of co-op only puzzle adventure. It's not um it's not Friend Slot. So, so that that was sort of the argument. I wasn't trying to say make more Friend Slot. I'm I'm very kind of race to the bottom inclined on that. I think I'm like make more other interesting co-op stuff.
Yeah, I I think that feels right and I think that this has revealed how true that is, that it's not what is attracting people to Friend Slot isn't simply authenticity, which is what I've seen kind of like thrown around, or that it's it's just a sandbox in which

your friends can play. I think it is the fact that it is just different incentives than what people have come to expect from most multiplayer games. Which is you have decades of shooters and competitive games. And a lot of times people just want an excuse to hang out and chat and play together without all of those pressures. I think really even though it is a shooter, I think of games like Deep Rock Galactic.
Yep.
Um that are they kind of went the other direction than what Marathon did with a genre that was seen as intensely hardcore of you know, you go and you extract, you have a few fake beers, and you chat with your friends. And I I agree. I I wonder if we will see people take the right lesson here, which is you don't need sloppy games, you don't need rushed games. High-quality games can still be king. Um but the thing to really learn from these games is different experiences, different

incentives, and maybe different levels of pressure rather than everything being so competitive.
Yeah, and I definitely think I mentioned this in the in the newsletter, but low skill ceiling I think is really important. And I think it's something that a lot of game designers um yeah, there was a comment I made that I'm in the new in the newsletter that I'm not sure everyone got where I sort of said maybe some people would think Big Walk was in quite under-designed. And what I really meant by that was um you know, it is quite sandboxy and the steam's in there, but it's not very like I don't know. I find sometimes, I mean, I was a game designer once, hopefully I didn't do this. I thought I find sometimes when game designers get off to design stuff, they will over-design stuff. They'll be like, oh, well, there needs to be a physics puzzle here and we need to do this to do that, you know, and it's all that kind of hit you over the head. Do this to open this and then and then do this kind of stuff. I mean, I'd argue that a lot of the most successful games nowadays are much more like, well, we're going to we're going to wander around. There's this thing over here we have to work it out. It's It's It's actually way more chill. And

so, I I feel like game you know, game developers and designers may have to restrain themselves a little bit to make successful examples of these and just sort of understand what to leave out. And that was actually the Big Walk team when I looked at their inspirations. I did feel like some of the stuff they were talking about being inspired by some minimal kind of quite abstract Roblox games that weren't particularly popular. Um I I looked at I looked at those and I was like, "Yeah, that's really interesting." You know, you're you're looking at stuff that is way more ambient and way more kind of you know, way less get quotes game design first than that than a lot of other games I can think of.
Yeah, I've also just been um impressed by how episodic it feels. And again, that like not every game has to be a thousand systems that are constantly interlinking with one another. In Big [snorts] Wacky, walk from one little episode to another and you play with whatever their idea was at that time and then you move on. Um speaking

of moving on, I want to talk about last week and I want to talk about this week in new games because I think we're here. I think we are very much in the fall video game deluge. Uh it might not be a full thunderstorm yet, but it certainly is rolling. So, can you tell folks about what happened last week in games?
Yeah, so So, last week uh certainly Mortal Shell 2, which we discussed earlier, is now out and that seems to have done pretty nicely at least on on PC. I think it's doing decently on console. I think maybe it has some uh you know, some more name recognition issues on console for casual players who weren't totally paying attention to it, but I think it's going to do well on console, but I think it's doing particularly well on on PC right now and it got to 37,000 CCU and I think in general, you know, these more expensive very solidly designed Souls-likes, I definitely see people who are not completely happy with this game design, but these also appear to be people in the Steam reviews have at least 15 hours into it. So, I don't think anyone is

like checking it and throwing it away. I just think that people have very specific views on on on stuff like that. So, uh yeah, so so so so that's that's one and then the other couple I wanted to mention, um this game How to Fish, which is like a a friend's love fishing game, but you can shoot the fish. It's and it's going kind of like it's very inexpensive. It's five or six bucks. I think it it just hit like 100,000 CC and it's still going up. Or did it hit 300,000? It's going very extremely high right now and it's just a classic kind of like goofy, everyone wants to play it game. And I did look, someone pointed me to the TikTok of those devs. And interestingly, they did try some other ideas on TikTok which got nowhere. Then they started showing uh videos of this game and it was getting crazy TikTok numbers. So, it's a good example of how they were definitely like, "Oh, this is going to work." And it's also interesting, by the way, cuz it's part funded/supported by Evil Landfall. And Evil Landfall, of course, is the publishing company of Landfall, who are the folks who who coded Peak and did, you know, all all

all kinds of other other other excellent titles. Um and it's a funny funny name, but but they're quite white label Evil Landfall. Like, if you if if you go on the website, or so if you go on the Steam page, they do not have they're not listed as a publisher. So, they're just sort of like helping out behind the scenes.
Well, I want to talk about this week. We began again last week of uh can we uh pop the bubble that Chris Plant lives in by comparing my Steam calendar versus what is actually coming out this week. I have a feeling that there will be a lot of overlap because we are entering a time where big-name games are coming out. There is a Star Wars game, a Metal Gear Solid game, a Plague Tale spin-off, Aliens, 1666 and an indie darling, and and plenty more. What do you see as the stuff that's, you know, set to pop off this upcoming week?
The good news here is you just named five of the six games that I had on the list. So, you So, so, so, I think you're correct.

We're starting to get into the kind of historic, I guess, like early kind of autumn, some of these games that have been around for for a long time. And we're still summer, but you know, we're getting towards September here. So, so, yeah, yeah. So, basically, if I go by decreasing order, Star Wars Zero Company, uh which is obviously the XCOM-like, is definitely the top by wish list. Although, I think it is. I was talking to someone about it. It is a little bit of a difficult sell in some ways because, uh you know, I don't know if the Star Wars audience and the XCOM audience is like a perfect crossover, but
And there was trouble with Marvel Midnight Suns, which I understand is a different game, but that I I I hope this game doesn't have the same problem that game had, which was uh didn't seem to click at first, and now it's seen as like one of the great comic book games ever made. Um but Star Wars fans, I think, are a little bit more intense and more likely to give it a try.
Yeah, I mean, I think it's going to do well. The The question is, is it going to do as well as the people would like who made it would like it to do. So, yeah, I think it's going to do well.

1666 Amsterdam, I have no idea about because, you know, this is obviously This is obviously Patrice Désilets who, uh you know, was formerly the Assassin's Creed guy. There's been all kinds of weird stories about it having AI elements in it, or I I don't really know. So, I don't Do you have any other like feedback on how you think
The vibes around this game, I don't know if they could be worse. Um and it's such a bummer because Patrice did such amazing work with those early Assassin's Creeds. And 1666 Amsterdam is kind of like my Duke Nukem Forever. I was wanting this game forever. Um but uh yeah, I don't know if it is a PR or a marketing thing, but but the the conversation around it, especially with the AI and how complete the game is, just seems seems messy.
Yeah, I think they ended up I forgot who their funders were. I think they ended up coming in short on funding. So, I think ultimately that's not, you know, that like at that point sometimes things do get messy. Um so, yeah. And then and then and then

the next Plague Tale game / spin-off has 420,000 wish lists. Uh so, the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection uh volume two also also should do well. But yeah, I think uh an Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 will be interesting to see how that does as well. So, yeah, I think there's a bunch of kind of bigger IP titles uh coming out and and will be coming out over the next few weeks. So, I think it's going to be interesting to see how those do.
Here's where I pop in and I and I do bring the bubble to the podcast. Two indie games. We got Blood Dungeon out, Vampire Survivors meets Spelunky. And Simon, I don't know if you have played Blood Dungeon or if you're aware of Blood Dungeon. It is a new game from Messhof.
I am aware of it. I've seen videos of it and it does look kind of quite demented in a Messhof kind of way. So, yeah. I I look forward to it.
a return to form, even though they all the games are good. And there's a new Dodonpachi, uh which I'm sure is going to sell a tins of copies, including one to me.
Yeah.
Um
That's the that's the niche that that's

the niche of the niche there. But it's but I'm but I'm sure I'm sure I'm sure Cave will get some money off somebody. So, it's all good.
Yes. [laughter] Yes. Yeah, I it it only gets more intense from here, uh folks. So, I am very curious to see what we have ahead and very curious to see which of these games is kind of the big hit by the end of the month. I mean, if you if before we get to my my question of the week for you, do you have a bet that you would place of like of the games coming out this week, which do you think is going to be the big one?
I mean, I think it's probably still going to be Star Wars, but I think it's going to be closer to Star Star Wars is going to be closer than the other guy to the other games than maybe they would like. So, that's all my comment. So, we'll see how I do next week. I think Star Wars is still going to be number one, but maybe some of those other titles, but you know, all all of these titles are a little bit more expensive. And it is difficult nowadays. I'm doing some more research on this now. It is difficult like unless you're knocking it out of the park like for example, Blood of the Dawn Walker

is knocking it out of the park. Like people would absolutely be spending 60 bucks for that game. I think it's just got really difficult. If you're not in a I'm 9 and a half out of 10 excited about this game space, then spending a lot of money, 40 to 60 dollars, is starting to get difficult. And I'm not sure any of the games coming out this week are in the 9 and a half out of 10 space. I think some of them are in the 8 out of 10 space.
I am so glad that you mentioned the Blood of the Dawn Walker because I wouldn't want to be anywhere near this game on the PC space. I know people are worried about GTA, but holy moly, this game just feels like it has a momentum behind it. And then on top of that next week, uh the week after this upcoming week, you also have Capcom with a new Onimusha. Uh and Capcom they they seem to know what they're doing lately. So, yeah, it it it seems like a very difficult time to really launch a big flashy game. I I'm curious to see how Blood Dungeon does, but I the competition amongst the the biggest dogs

in the pack is quite tough.
Uh yeah, and if I'm looking I was going to look actually at the top the top few for the next 3 months. And so, next 3 months just FYI, it's Phantom Blade Zero, then Blood of the Dawn Walker, then actually Over the Hill, that that casual rallying game has a ton of interest, and then Onimusha. So, Onimusha's number four, and then War Dogs, which is getting real hype right now, and then Control Resonance. So, those I think next 3 months, those are the real big guys. So, yeah.
That's wild. So, two of the the top five come out the week after this.
Yeah.
Um and then we're next right after that. Jeez. Uh well, it's a lot. Uh before we wrap up, I want to talk about uh how people react to the realities of getting your game in front of people right now uh with just a very strange thing that happened. And this was flagged by uh Fred Wood on My Blue Sky, that's how I saw it. But Steins;Gate reboot comes out and then it seems like only a few days

after launch, it goes on sale 48% off on Indiegala. Uh uh A strange choice. And I would love to know what why anybody would do this.
Yeah, I mean I definitely have information about this and the the basic information is this gets hold into the third-party Steam third-party keys and how how you are managing your keys. So, to sort of break this down, um you know, not everybody but quite a lot of people will give Steam Steam their Steam keys, like publishers, to third-party key stores and the and and the key stores will manage them. Now, I do think if you're very on top of this, you will be working with your key stores and you'll be quite strict with them and you will be listen, I don't want this game discounted that much. I I I will note that I've been made aware there are some European laws over uh uh retailers being allowed to set the price of games, meaning that it is not completely clear that you're, you know, 100% allowed to do that. Like retailers

might sometimes maybe like, well listen, like we're going to still give you the same amount of money. So, really the argument is like if you see a game that's like, for example, on pre-order and it's not 15% off on Steam but it's 15% off on a third-party key store, the the reason that's happening is that that key store has guaranteed to the publisher they will get the same amount of royalties that they would have got if they were on Steam and they're eating half of their profit. Um and so and so I I'm guessing what's happened with this particular game is Indiegala was like, "Okay, we're willing to actually lose money on this game." Because I'm guessing they're still going to be giving the publisher the same amount of money. Uh so, you know, Indiegala Indiegala, by the way, has been around for like 15 years. They were around um I won't speak too ill of them, but they were around when I was doing the first ever post-Humble Bundle, right? Which was uh there was a there was this um bundle Indie Royale I used to do, and Indiegala were the only other bundles then besides us and Humble. And they were a little unconventional back back

then, let's say. And so, they've managed to keep going and obviously doing a business, but yeah, I think um if you were to see I don't know, a Green Man Gaming or or you know, some of the or Fanatical doing that, I feel like um yeah, I feel like that would be out of the ordinary for them. Although, they do definitely do like the 15 or occasionally 20% off of stuff. But basically, this is all down to how are you dealing with your third-party key stores? And in this case, uh the the publisher Stahns Game, I don't think he's dealing dealing correctly with them. Yeah.
This uh I should have known, because I feel like anytime I see something really uh boneheaded in the world, uh the it's actually a coin flip. It is somebody made a very bad decision, or the business is so complex that there is possibility of bad decisions that you could never even imagine. Um and it feels like it landed on the latter on this one. Well, I'm glad to be enlightened. I'm glad to have my brain expanded. I'm glad to have GDC re- fiddling [laughter] around my schedule.

That was very kind of them where we started. Uh and I'm glad to have you all listening to the show. We really appreciate it. Uh we could not do the show without you, obviously. So, you should listen, subscribe, rate and review, all of those things. And you should also check out the blog, the newsletter. Simon, where should people go and check everything out?
Yeah, gamediscover.co has most of our stuff, although I don't think we've added this the Game Discover Show to the front page of gamediscover.co yet. So, so my apologies, but we will be doing that.
Um but yeah, yeah, gamediscover.co, newsletter.gamediscover.co, and yeah, yeah, we we have a ton of stuff. We have our newsletters twice a week. This comes out once a week, and we're really enjoying uh now that we've reminded that apparently audio and video is the future of the internet. We're really enjoying uh passing you along some of the information in audio and video form. So, thank you very much.
Fantastic. Thank you all so much for listening. I'm Chris. He is Simon. We'll see you next week.
Bye.