EA Goes Private and Playstation State of Play Review | Roundtable News | 369

[Music] What's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of GameDev Unchained, the number one game development podcast about game development and the lifestyle thereof. I am your host Brandon Fam and with me a returning best of guest Ray Graham. How you doing Ray?
Hey man, how you doing? Same old, same old.
Awesome. If you haven't read the title yet, this is our round table news episode where we gather and talk about the latest game news game developers. Don't get us fired, bro. Uh, it should be good. We've been doing this for a while and uh surviving over here. Uh, let's go ahead and just jump right into it. [Music]

All right. Uh, first up, before we go into the meat of it, got to talk about this EA thing. One of us, not me, have a history with this corporation.
Who's that?
So, I I I mean, I read I I kind of browsed through it real quick.
Yeah.
What's this deal? Did they buy themselves or Saudi Arabia bought it or like what's the deal here? It was like a what was it? It was a conglomeration of of investors, right? So, but the but I think the lead investors were the Saudi Arabia PIFF the investment fund. Um I can't I can't remember what the P stands for. Is it what is it project investment fund or perform? Yeah. Anyway, um and then uh and then also Silverlake um the VC firm and then and then a private equity firm uh run by Jared Kushner. What is it called? Affinity. Infinity.

Yeah, Affinity Partner. Silver Lake.
Public investment fund. PIF. That's a Saudi Arabia.
Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's the P public of course. Public investment fund.
I think it was trading at 180. They bought it for 210 per share or something like that. Something like that. Yeah. 50 55 billion dollar with a B. Um that's a big number. Um
yeah,
like Yeah, I have a bunch I know a bunch of people that work at EA and still and and yeah, that's I don't know what's going to end up happening long term. Um, but but I would definitely assume there's going to be some slimming slimming of the fat. You know what I mean? Like cuz this whole thing is about how can you flip it? Like these dudes are not in the business of making video games long term, right? They're in the business of making money.
Yeah.
So, they're going to like, how can we get the money back out of the 50?

Why did something happen last time in the last merger with Activision? I mean, but yeah, I mean, but that's that's the whole private equity thing, right? It's like, hey, you invest in a thing and then like, how can you turn it into even more profitable company that you could sell down the line, right? Or sell your stake in it or whatever, right? So, that's that's obviously going to be the play. Um and and so that might mean more of a focus on the on the money makers and less on the focus on the non-m money makers, right? So yeah, so I would imagine there would be layoffs for sure.
The timing of it uh is probably the most striking, right? Um we're we're going through the most turmoil time of the industry. EA is basically
cashing out, bouncing. I mean, I mean, EA already Yeah. I mean, EA already did a bunch of layouts earlier this year, right? But like, yeah, if somebody came

up to you
and you're a public company,
they and they give you a what is it? 25%
um premium on on the price. Like the board just has like the board can't be like, "Nah, we're not doing it, right?" Like you have to say yes.
You kind of have to say yes at that point, right? because your whole purpose is to satisfy the the investor's best interests, right? Um
do you think this is um has any outlook on what EA sees in the data where they're like this is our best time to leave?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I it's it's $55 billion. I don't even know if timing matters, right? Uh but that's the problem with like when you're a company like EA or these big publishers, right? Like you're not your selling price is not like some small number
and so like the most interesting thing is is like Saudi Arabia

um being involved because like that's how you get the money. The other interesting part of it is 20 billion of it is debt financing. So the the top investors are providing 36 billion which is still like I can't even fathom
that number right but then there's 20 billion in debt financing on top of that. So, which is like that's a huge amount of debt, right? Um, but but again, and when I was reading it, it was like what is it? A billion dollars a year in payments towards that debt.
Um, and EA makes like $5 billion a year or something crazy. So, like, sure, that's fine.
But, um, but of course, they're in the business of not making the billion dollars a year in revenue go down. It's supposed to go up. And so that's why I think yeah, you're going to see some some big
shiftive cuts
down the line. Yeah.

Well, it's uh it's scary because we we just I feel finally closing the loop on the Microsoft layoffs based on their merger that took about two years to die down,
right? And they were the leaders in terms of cutting and now we're
having a a round with EA kind of pick up
the pace basically.
Yeah, I think with I think with E with Microsoft it wasn't necessarily solely because of the merger.
Yeah.
A lot of it was like, oh yeah, we are not in the business of just making a whole bunch of games, right? And so they which is crazy, but they like they want to focus on on the on the big titles that are going to that they feel are going to make a return. And so they got rid of a lot of the smaller titles and got rid of like a lot of things they were publishing and and did a big shakeup, right? Which is

Yeah. Which is kind of crazy, but but um but it's really more about them just slimming down how many games they make period and how many games they personally uh publish, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's um Damn, it's getting scary, dude. Well, I mean,
yeah,
recently I was looking at data. There's a lot of um analysts kind of looking ahead and saying 2028 is probably when the industry will start bouncing back again, right? I mean, that's
sure. Sure.
Three years. That's that feels about right. You know, we got to
People are saying 2025. So, but I guess I guess we're going to move it
move it to 2028. It makes more sense because now that we have projects with the smaller team, uh, budget conscious,
right, size conscious, a cycle of that at least, right, three years from now feels about right. Uh, with EA kind of

adding on top of the layoffs, which they're big, they're one of the biggest organizations. [Music]
It's going to be tough. like uh the the the one that are already buried. The one that already buried underneath the the resume pile is is I think they're gone, dude. This is it. That's the final that's the final kill right there.
Kill shot.
Yeah. Well, I I don't think people were also I don't think a lot of people were like running to go work at EA anyway,
but but of course like in the current situation, a lot of people are going to be like whatever you could get at this point, right? It's so many people, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.
It probably uh hurts that they haven't had any big hits lately. I mean, it's just the regulars, right? I mean, $5 billion. I get it. Five billion. I know what you're going to say.
They've been making money. They're fine.
I No, dude. That's the thing that that's

what this move is going to do. It's going to slim it down
to like
not the hits to not the hits. And And not the hits are like
five billions a year. FIFA.
Yeah,
right. EA, EAC, Madden, college football,
Sims. Like these things are more these things are just a lifestyle for a lot of people, right?
Like I was just playing the latest version of EAFC and like the amount of money, man, the amount of money they pour into it
and then on top of it, the amount of money that they make is just going to be bananas. like FIFA. FIFA Ultimate Team Ultimate Team is still it's it's a it's it's a legal casino.
Yeah.
But it makes a ton of money, right? So,
yeah, they have a business an actual game business that that is predictable
and and I think it's going to be more and that's that's the thing that makes sense, right? More sports mixing with

like esports and just more ways of like leveraging those really big
brands. Yeah. Like that's why EA that's why EA is still here is those those brands are huge right? Um
and if you don't play sports games cool but like that don't mean it don't doesn't still make a lot of money.
Yeah and can't can't dismiss the fact that BF6
um
did really well in open beta.
Yeah
like the most exciting it's been for for many years. You know the uh I keep I get the Respawn founders uh mixed up. Yeah, but like the the one founder that's still there is the
Yeah, I can't remember his name. Yeah,
but he he he was put in charge since 2020 of all the Battlefield
franchise going forward. And it it it's not a miracle that Battlefield was the most talked about thing over the summer.
It looks great. I played it. It played great. It felt great. It felt old school.
Uh there there wasn't any um any beus

and buttthead. It is a big selling point to me being fans of both franchises.
Call of Duty got kind of silly recent years
and it it's great that they took advantage of that.
People say that but Call of Duty always had like super unrealistic movement and like
Yeah. But now you have like Homer Simpson the stuff like
Yeah. Now they have now they have characters because like it's not it's it's again it's
arcadey. Yeah. Well, not just that, but there it's a whole platform, right? Like War Zone. War Zone is a platform, right, that they want to
milk all the money out of, right?
Yeah. Cross media metaverse type stuff, right?
Yeah.
Fortnite's doing it. Fortnite's going crazy with that stuff, right? So, yeah,
Fortnite's uh
Yeah, owning that. And that's the Yeah, BF6 is coming out. That's probably the only

experimentation they're willing to do. And it's it seems like it's
is BF6 is BF6 experimentation.
There's a six in the title. Like what are you talking about?
Let's be real. The last two entries were like non or sleepers, right? They were so bad.
There's people that didn't like the the last couple of games, right?
46 was terrible.
Yeah. This might be like the big resurgence. Like don't get but don't get it twisted. There's no there's no experimentation going on. It's
Arc Raider is not EA, right? Art Raider is published by someone else.
Oh, no. Yeah, that's that's the X Dice people, right? Over at uh over at uh what's that place called now? Oh my god, they slipped my And they also made um the finals the finals.
The finals. The finals. Uh what's their name?
But they're not being published by EA. It's not a EA thing.
No, no, no, it's not.
Okay. It's their own. Okay. They're Embark Studios.
Embark. Yeah. Embark.

Veterans from EA DICE.
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. Those were the two games over the summer that I really loved. Yeah.
Yeah. People kind of downplay like the veterans from EA Dice. No, those are the guys that created Frostbite.
Yeah. Those are the guys that created Frostbite. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm giving them credit.
All right. Well, yeah. I I just want to touch base on that before we go into talking about state of play, right? To me, PlayStation
have always been kind of holding it together. Uh Nintendo have has their own thing and then there's Sony and then Microsoft is nothing. They're they're hanging on, right? So, I wanted to kind of talk about uh uh what they have over there and kind of there was a few good announcements. I was surprised like not surprised but like I was impressed and expecting that yeah more highlights

of European Eastern games but there were a few north like Insomniac like the Wolverine
despite what they went through uh created a lot of buzz a lot of excitement. Let's go through it real quick and when we get to it we'll talk more about it.
Uh let's see. I know you can't hear the volume but I'll keep it low. I could barely see that image that low and the volume.
This one is Let's see what the looks like. Crimson Desert.
Oh, yeah. It is Crimson Desert.
What were Were Were there games that you were looking at that you were like,
"No."
Stood out.
No.
You didn't even look at this. How dare you?
No. Like I totally missed I totally missed it what it was happening because I was like I was doing something else. Super busy.
Yeah.
But um but then I but then I didn't really hear I just heard Wolverine stuff and like and that was pretty much it.

Yeah.
Um it seemed kind of light. Um although you know Crimson Desert is huge
in um in China on on mobile.
Yeah.
Right. And so like uh on on PlayStation is kind of crazy.
Yeah. If that's what that is. Is that what that is? Yeah.
So, is it um
is it a European company that made it?
Who made it?
I thought Chinese.
Is it Chinese?
I thought I might be wrong.
I thought it was a question. Is that Is that what I'm looking at though? Is that it?
Oh, I missed the Saros. This is Saros.
Oh, Saros. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right.
I have a buddy that's working on this actually.
Yeah. Cuz of Desert is like an RPG, right? So, yeah. Um,
a dude running around shooting like
Cris Desert developed by South Korean

studios.
Okay. Yeah.
Pearl Abyss.
Yes. Yes.
Yeah. I saw this game. This game kind of So, this is SOS. It's like a third person shooter. It reminds me of uh uh what was that game? Raiders on the retro game with the planes.
Remember the top?
No. Oh,
top the top down.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know what you're talking about.
Like to me the game play is kind of like that. You're kind of dodging and and shooting. Dodging and shooting.
Yeah. Well, this is giving Housemark House Mark vibes like with like Returnal and games like that.
Um, yeah, like Bullet Hell.
Yeah,
but you don't move around like a Gears of War stuff that you expect from a third person. You kind of move around more freely
as you're kind of shooting targets.
Yeah, it's interesting.

I mean, it's different. It's different, you know. They could have went Gears of War with this, but they're kind of doing more of their kind of airplane shooter feel to it.
Mhm. Mhm. Okay. Oh, wait. You know what it um
It's missing a sword. That's what he's missing.
Dude, I said I said it gives me Housemark vibes and it's 100 It's 100% from Housemark. Yeah.
Oh, it's the same.
Yeah. Yeah. I was like it's like it's it's like it's like Housemark game.
Yeah. It's totally Housemark. Um, yeah. I actually I really like their stuff before they went like with 3D shooters. Like I like their their 2D their 2D um bullet hell type like old school bullet hell type games, right? I didn't really play I didn't really play like Returnal
and this kind of looks like more more like Returnal. Totally. Yeah.

So they're known for 2D games.
Yeah. Yeah. Housemark is like the kings of 2D games.
So, yeah. Okay. So, there we go. No wonder it feels more like a
bullet hell. Yeah, it looks like a bullet hell. Yeah. Um the the game I played a lot that was from them was was Reszo Gun. Yeah, Reso Gun. Yeah, I played play that a lot from 20 2013 12 years ago, which is crazy. But yeah.
Oh, okay. Yeah, I remember. How
smart.
It's funny. It's funny. The game that I really know them for, they have it under other games on our story and our amazing ensemble cast of NPCs in the coming months.
Yeah, they got they got some really good like shooter shooter games like Super Stardust. And
thanks for watching. We can't wait to share more from all of the team working

on SOS. think they ever use that office that he's talking in front of?
Oh yeah, super Yeah, super cool.
Yeah, super good. Yeah,
I I feel like the only thing is like something about the camera is kind of disengaging a bit. It's like too far back. I don't know. There's like a disconnect for me for this.
Like I get the gameplay, but it's like the camera is just too far back. But I think like with these type of games where you're supposed to be dodging those bullet patterns, you have to see the bullet pattern to dodge it.
Ah, I mean I almost want them to do like isometric with that game.
Yeah,
I feel like that game will look and feel better if it's like top down isometric.
Yeah. Well, that's why I say that the
like three quarter at least
their 2D games are way more my my vibe. Like Reszle Gun was really good.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean these like I feel

like it's always a mistake where they force the 3D uh third person
like you know they they've been they I think I think uh what was it the the first one Returnal was kind of like you know they they're trying to break away from the from the known for Yeah.
Like this kind of camera would have been great for SOS I think.
Yeah. Because also one could argue like 2D games like that are not very
marketable if you want to grow your your player base on how many copies you sell, right? So
I don't know.
Then Silk Song like break records.
Well, exactly. Right. But
yeah,
but I mean like I more like mean 2D bullet hell games.
I I bet you if they did the top down like mod of that It will look a lot better. More action packed.
Yeah. What's this discoium looking thing?
Uh, this is Zero Paradise.

Okay.
Wait. Zero paradise. Is that
Oh, parades. Zero paradise.
Paradise
for Dead Spice.
Okay. For Dead Spice style.
Yeah. Yeah. This This is the X X uh Discolesium people. Oh, okay.
Like uh splintered like you know there's a whole story about the Discolesium team.
Yeah.
And a lot of a lot of allegations and stuff
all sorts of I I don't even get into it. Like you should just look up there's a big long video about it like twohour long video about the whole saga.
But but Z is the uh is part of the Discolesian people. So
so much success.
Yeah. Yeah. This is obviously Flight Simulator. Um,
legit
fight. It's It is.
This is a Microsoft game, right?
Yeah, it's a great game. Yeah. Yeah. It was Microsoft published by I think uh

the guys um who makes it I keep for I forget their name and which is completely disrespectful, but um cuz they're they're a known developer. Yeah. So a Sobo Studio uh makes um Fight Simulator. But yeah, it's it's it's great. It's great. Guys calling you, dude.
Yeah, I don't even have the setup, but I've I've play I've played it. That game is I think it's great.
You play with the chair that moves. Yeah,
I do want one of those chairs for racing cars.
Racing.
Oh, the gyro.
The big wide screen.
What is this?

Yeah, I see this stuff and I'm immediately not interested. Um, I'm like, okay, military guns. Okay.
Battlefield.
Oh, this is the single player.
So, the allegations I don't
I didn't know about this. There was there was theft,
financial misconduct. It was basically the creators against the producer and investors some money.
Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, that hostile.
No. Yeah.
IP attempt.
Yeah. It's it's crazy. The whole story is crazy. And it's literally like a twohour video talking about it. It's It's insane. Yeah.
With interviews from everybody. Everybody's in there interviewing and it's banana. It's bananas.
That's crazy, man.
Yeah. You It goes to show like when you have money.

Well, yeah. Yeah, when you get a really successful game that just blows the doors off, um like sometimes people egos and money and all that get involved and it just kind of goes south and you have to be really careful like who you
who you partner with, you know,
you never know, man.
Until power
is given.
Sure.
How do you stress test that? You just fake it. Guys, we won a lottery. Oh, [ __ ] you. Oh, is that how you feel?
EAS.
Yeah, Battlefield 6.
October 10th, huh? That's very soon.
October 10th.
This Arc Raiders.
Yeah,
you can see how tuned I am. I'm surprised by October 10th. I like how big it's coming out.
Arc Raiders is this month, too. October 31st. Like two great games this month.
Oh, really? Oh, really?
I enjoyed both of them, man. I don't know if you played the beta on both of them, but Arc Raider had like a cool

felt like I was camping.
Yeah, I was camping with my friends.
I never played it.
Yeah,
but it looks great. Arc Raiders looks great and and
I was a big I played Battlefield a lot back in the day, right? So,
they did a good job.
This is the remaster DSX remix.
Sure. There's a big
I just want
audience for this now.
I just want No, I just want them to make an updated version of it that is as good and not just like
like a remake.
Yeah, just just remake it. Yeah,
I'm pretty sure it's happening.
They're just testing the waters with this,
right?
Everyone's doing a remake.
Oh, Halloween the game. I know you've been waiting for this
carameriian

survivor
or Michael Myers asymmetric asymmetric
asymmetric games are huge everybody. Yeah. He possesses unique abilities like allowing him to move around the map unseen and pop out where you least expect to lead town's folk to safety. Find a phone and call the police foreath.
Interesting.
Looks good.
Yeah.
But yeah, all last epic or epoch,
however you want to say it. Um,

played this on PC for a while.
It's very much um Path of Exile
or Diablo.
So, some multiplayer, too.
Type game. Yeah, you can play multiplayer.
Cool art style.
It's clean coming to console. That's good for them,
you know, because it's been on PC for a while, right? So, Are are you using the um
the hyperlinks in this video?
Uh yeah, he's going through it.
I'm going through it real quick.
I don't know, man. All of this is just like uh Whoa. What are you groaning about here?
I'm tired, man. I'm just tired.

There's nothing I've seen that's like
this anime inspired game.
Seven deadly sins.
Yeah.
Play with four friends. You don't want to play with friends.
I don't got no friends.
Cellshad looks great. That battle part looked like um Hidden Ones to me. You know that fighting game Hidden Ones.
Yeah, it's coming out soon. Like very anime looking.
That That looks dope. Um but this Yeah. No, I'm
Mega Man Racing. Of course you've been asking for that. I'll skip that.
Sonic Sonic Sonic Racing.
Oh, here you go. Anamusha.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm wait I you know I just I don't even want to see anything about Anusha. I just wanted I just want the game to come out and then I'll play it. You know what I mean?
This is not a remake, right? It's a
I don't think so. I think it's a new one. Yeah.
It's a whole installment.

Yeah. Wait, that's not that. That's Dynasty Warriors, is it?
Oh, Dynasty Warriors. Oh, that's racist, dude.
It look like Anushia.
Dynasty Warriors.
Dynasty Warriors.
I don't care.
Dynasty Warriors on the horse with a ton of dudes. When Dynasty Warriors is out, it was dope because you can kill like a thousand people on stream.
Yeah, at the time,
but now it's not so impressive anymore.
All right, next.
Cold Vein.
Sure.
I believe it. Is this based on an anime? I never heard of.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure it must be um Oh, I don't care. Oh, wait. No,

this uh Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm fast forwarding on some Yeah, I like tactics games, so I'm I'm down for putting a good skin on a tactics game. I think it actually came out today, by the way. So, I think it's out. Yeah, you know, like yeah, Sony's playing to like their
their base, you know, the their core audience, you know, big um Japan presence and Asian presence in general. Let it die. Yeah. Ah,
these games, man. I mean, Japan, China, they're doing something, right? Korea, they've been prospering. I I think this I think it speaks to, you know, the state of the industry like

and um the cost the high cost of dev versus making a game somewhere else. And before, you know, I saw an article about this recently, you know, before US was seen as having a lot of the knowledge and experience.
Yeah.
And uh and the Asian market, the Asian developers have caught up a lot.
Yeah.
Over the years. Um you know, like Wukong is a prime example, right?
And um and so like now, you know, it might just make more sense to have like some Asian dev team do some cool stuff for you.
Yeah. be cheaper and it would and it would still be like high quality, right?
Yeah. I mean, we're seeing that just in North America. You sent an article a while back and I I've shared it with the listeners out there. California taking much of that layoffs lately like

Yeah.
almost well clearly a move away from California developers.
But it's Yeah. But it's been no surprise, right? Cuz like when I was at certain companies Yeah. and we were doing hiring. Uh they were tripping over themselves to hire anywhere but in not just California, but anywhere in the United States, you know, like they were like, "Oh, let's go to Canada cuz there's like a lot of good subsidies for hiring devs in Canada
and let's go to Europe and like Lithuania and and because there's a lot of really good developers um that just where the market is a lot cheaper um than say California. Do you see a big exit in California for game developers then?
I don't know. I don't know about exit because like I'm here still. Uh don't you don't you live in California?
Yeah, but not everyone's making high salaries anymore. If all our high salaries are gone,
but I'm seeing exit. I'm seeing roles diminish, right? There's still some and

there's still remote roles and things like that, but it's not as plentiful as it was five years ago. Yeah, pretty sure.
There is a dwindle at least.
Yeah. Yeah,
definitely. I I think somebody also posted about the numbers and the numbers are like jobs are actually up. Uh but they're just down in California. Like the number of
no one's hiring for
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
I I definitely seen there's definitely a bi there's um it's not just that. It's like uh in terms of employing Californians, it's just so much more trouble. Uh if I'm hiring a contractor,
right, there there are like uh one-year rules for contractors. There's like
Yeah. Yeah.
On top of that,
it's more than it's more than just one year. There's like a whole list of things that qualify them as a full-time

employee versus just a contractor. It's like a whole list of things
in the tax. Um, even hiring a full-time,
the benefits, the tax, the requirements,
it just it just literally costs more
even if you're hiring for the same salary.
So, that alone is very
I don't know. I don't know what is there to do for California. Like, you can't
stay here. I mean,
well, seriously, if you're if you're get a job in Texas and even if you stay here remotely.
Yeah.
At a certain point, like, do I want to keep paying
all these things?
Yeah.
There was a huge, you know, there was a huge exodus around the COVID time, right, where everybody's like, I need
to get out of
uh I need a more space and and then all the Californians ruined Vegas and and Austin pretty much, right? Yeah.
Um but um but but even before then I always heard of people like, "Yeah, it's

too expensive to stay here. I have to move. I have to find a different thing to do." Um and and you know, I've been lucky enough to be able to hang hang in there. Um but I do say a lot of times it's like, yeah, I don't know about like if it's the place long term, but there's a lot there's like it's hard to beat sometimes. At the same time,
the weather is unbeatable. Like you can't
beat
but it's brutal like in these cycles where
Yeah.
other people some people or
and the earthquake the other day had me had me questioning
kind of spooked
my choices. Yeah.
I didn't feel it. You guys had a bad earthquake up there.
Yeah, it was there was an earthquake in Berkeley. It was like 4.5 and it was like like 2 o'clock in the morning. That Yeah. No, I don't I don't recommend don't recommend it. Yeah.
Is this Hell Divers? Yep.
Hell Divers is cool. Hell Divers is dope game.

Hell Divers hung on, huh? We had controversy with Sony trying to
get everyone to log onto your system and they've been pushing out updates and
they changed the that stance, you know. So,
that was a big misstep from Sony.
I get it though.
They were doing well. You want people in your ecosystem.
You can't force it like that.
Miss your opportunity. Just look for the next game.
Mean but you can't force it like that. Meanwhile, look at Blizzard and and Riot with their own launchers that you need your own password to
like what's what's what's your
Riot. Riot still has their launcher, right?
I hate it. It's like running in the background. It's like I'm not even playing your games right now. It's like
what are you doing back there? They're stealing all your data.
It feels like it, right?
Yeah.
Like Windows is doing something like that where they're trying to have like a

Windows Central or something.
Right. I saw it was like pushing it.
You mean the Xbox? The Xbox app?
No, no, no. Your PC Windows has some kind of Windows Central and then it it pulls from Epic Games. It pulls from Steam and it gives you a place for accessing all your games. That's the Xbox app. Xbox app does that.
Oh, is it?
Yeah, the new the new Xbox app.
I hate it. It's like why I didn't ask for this.
You can turn it on like But I think by default it does like all your Steam auto stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
Like unless you show me the Xbox app on the TV and I can like seamlessly stream.
Yeah.
I don't know if it does that yet.
I mean, you can do that. Like if you if you have a controller plugged in, Xbox controller, you hit the the guide button. a whole like
Xbox over overlay comes up on Windows and
I do see that. Yeah.
Yeah.
But don't don't force on it.
Don't tell don't just do it and then tell me later

all from the PS2.
Yeah. So, you can see by my reaction uh to this state of play. Um
they're saving the best for last. Like Gran Turismo.
I I do not care. Uh, gradual. Yeah, great gradual is dope. You know, but yeah, I haven't played it in a minute, you know.
Look at that. Look at that experience around those guys dead eyes.
He lives and dies with every update. No, Grat's great, you know. Can't can't deny the amount of work. Yeah. 100 million units sold. Yikes. That is crazy.
GTA 5.
Sure. But
GTA 5 is like what? 200 million at this point.
At like 70 what? $70 a copy.
Yeah.
Oh my god, that's crazy. Yeah, that's why that

but also Grand Touris took a long time to make and cost a ton of money, but still um
some racing games
surpassed it in some people's eyes,
but like even the Forza team is no more. They outlived everybody, huh? Slow and steady.
Winning winning the race. Every seven years they release a game.
Oh yeah, man. And then and you know and of course they have microtransactions and DLC and all that stuff but man
GTA 5 sold 215 million units. That's
Yeah. Insane. Yeah.
And that's coming out next year too. GTA 6.
Can't even fathom. I'm like if my if my game sells 10 copies I'll be super happy. I'll buy five.
Oh, sweet. Love it.
You don't want that.

They're making the God of Wars
uh TV show. Did you hear about that?
No, but that's that's crazy.
But based on the Ragnarok
longer than I can remember.
Yeah. Sure.
The Norse mythology.
Is this the best for last that I'm looking at here? Where is it?
Oh, yeah. Wolverine.
Yeah, Wolverine.
Wolverine looked tight, dude. I mean, I saw the leak stuff and I was like, ah, I don't know. And then, of course, they polished it and the camera looks cool.
I like
I love how they went Mortal Kombat with it. That was the unsure part. They went fullon fatality gore.
Super super gory. Yeah.
It's like that's exactly what it needs. Yeah,
he's chopping. They tried to make the guys robots, but it's like
I mean, he's still bleeding red.

It's like
they're probably androids, right? Mix mix human human robots,
whatever. Whatever that's called. What is that? Cyborg. Yeah,
cyborgs. But I mean that choice is to make it less
mutilating, but I I don't think it helps that much.
Mini sentinels maybe. I guess.
Yeah. I mean, it looks
So So this is the best thing I've seen.
Um
Yeah.
Right. Yeah. It looks It looks good for
Somiac's killing it.
Yeah. So, are they going to be in charge of all the Marvel stuff? Like, they're the only ones that making good Marvel besides the China.
Yeah.
Right.
Well, the China series do fighting game, right?
Marvel Rivals. Well, Marvel Rivals, I mean.
Oh, Marvel Rivals. Okay.
Which which fighting game are you talking about? There's a fighting Marvel's game.
Yeah. Dude, you haven't seen it. The uh

what's it called?
What is it called? Oh, it's on the tip of my tongue. Marvel fighting game. Tokcon. Yeah, Marvel Tokon. Fighting Souls.
Yeah. Yeah. You've you've seen it. You You've had to have seen it. Um because it was at it was at like um the Game Awards, I think, or one of them big game events. They showed a video of it. Looked insane.
I think I missed it. Let me
Yeah, you can just look it up.
Let me pull it up here. this thing.
Yeah,
I think I totally missed this.
Yeah.
Japanese fighting game.
Yeah, I think it's from Arc System. Yeah, our system works. Yeah.
So, they know what they're doing when it comes to fighting game. It's like a tag team. Tag team fighter.

Oh,
kind of like Capcom v Yeah. the uh Marvel.
Um,
but it looks sick. It looks sick.
It does look sick. It's like a 3D 2D textures.
Yeah.
Marvel licenses when done right, dude. It's unbeatable.
It's like, how can you not like any of the characters? It's all cool characters, dude. iconic characters.
It's a guaranteed number. It's a guaranteed number of sales just saying, "Hey, I have a Marvel thing." And then Yeah. and then doing it,
right? Um
and these Asians are like taking our [ __ ] and making
There was some video Yeah, there's some video the other day too of like um Spider-Man in particular, like his moves in this.
It It's It's bananas. It's bananas. That's why I I didn't get why Crystal

Dynamics couldn't make that Avengers game.
What do you mean
work? Remember exactly right.
I mean, what do you mean?
But like that's a clear example why the Eastern games are beating us. It's like we we this is Marvel's like an American license and then Americans didn't capture the essence of it. uh as well as the the Japanese and the Chinese now. Like everyone's having a great turn at it over there in East Eastern countries. Cambodia is going to come out with a game that's going to kill.
It's like it's ridiculous.
It's great.
Yeah, it's good. It's a good game.
Um it's when it's coming out. Oh, it's supposed to come out. Yeah. Sometime next year. next year.
I think it's been in beta and stuff, but yeah,
I think fighting right now, fighting games are kind of enjoying a big um

comeback. Um, you know, Street Fighter Tech and all those, right? Um, Virtual Fighter is getting a big update and Virtual Virtual Fighter 6, they were just showing stuff at the Tokyo game show, right?
Even Riot Games making a fighting game right now. There's this there's this Marvel fighting game and there's there's Riots's uh 2x KO which is coming out like next week. Yeah. Right. So, um yeah,
it's kind it's kind of crazy right now.
I think people are just looking at
quality uh guarantees here. So many people.
I don't know if fighting games are quality guarantee, but
there's just so few that come out
and the ones that come out are pretty strong, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. And they come out with some a pretty big gap in between them. Like they have they work on them for years, you know. Um
like 2 2KXO has been rumored for how

many years now, right?
It's been a while. Yeah.
And then they just did the the closed beta the other day.
Yeah. Um, yeah, I actually did I played the closed beta a little bit. Um,
you like it?
It's good. It's good. It's good.
Cool. Well, uh, I mean, that's pretty much it. I I I'm glad you saved this moment for for me and the the audience out there.
All right. Wolverine did kind of stuck out as the best thing.
Yeah. But that's the thing. It's like Wolverine looks really good, but it's like that was the best thing that like that's a kind of um a very
tame very tame game showcase, you know? And it's it's saying it's saying something saying something that there's not
it's saying that if you're out of job, go go sign up to Insomniac immediately.
There's not a lot of no one else is working on anything apparently. BF6.
Everybody's Everybody's doing stuff, but like
not ready.
There's There's not a whole lot.

Not a whole lot right now. And I think that's the you're feeling the
the after effects of all of this
slide. Yeah, it does feel like the big uh decline in
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And the choices out here. I didn't see the summer festival,
but nothing really stuck out from that either. The summer game festival stuff,
the Jeff, Kylie, Keely usually does.
I know Kajjima that's where I saw I think that's where I saw the Marvel that Marvel game the Marvel fighting game. Yeah.
But um but yeah, you know Yeah. Kajjima's doing some crazy stuff as always, right?
OD,
but it's more like a concept uh video, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
OD looked good. I'm I'm still glad that guy I read that interview where he was like, "Oh, you know, after whatever happened at Konami, still unknown, right?" I have theories on that. He probably slept with the boss's daughter or something crazy,

but uh he basically came back because he he's a job creator. He knew that he can employ 100 200 people. And
he's he's a he's an art tour. He's a creative guy. He's always gonna have ideas, right? There's people there's people that work in this industry that don't have don't have no ideas.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And and and if they and they have to like work with somebody else who actually has the ideas to to to make the thing, right?
Um Kajjim's other way around where he's like the idea guy. He's always going to have ideas. Do you do you feel we have a because the the Japanese people on that side they have those guys the old school guys still making games making great games
but the western side over here do we have
I mean we used to have Sid Meer
I mean John but he's not he's not in the US but like western but John Romero is still doing

his thing you know um
and and uh
I just haven't heard any headlines lately from those guys. Yeah. Yeah. Also, I think the days I think the days of the like the
the singular arurer
is I think those days are kind of gone and it's more emphasis on on team and and and the people working together to build something, right?
Um but
I don't like that.
Well, Kojima is definitely but there's a lot of bad that comes with that too, right? Like because I'm I'm pretty sure you know when you have a very singular vision right for how things should be you know you know you end up with like Death Stranding right which is like a weird experimental game that takes a lot of guts to make but is it a good game like
I heard Death Stranding too finessed.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right.
So you know um it always you know it's going to look great.

Yeah. you know, it's going to have some crazy cinematics that are fantastic. Um, and you know, you're not gonna be able to understand what the hell's going on.
Yeah, that's
I love it. That's
I actually a big proponent for singular vision because I feel like this
this the industry have gotten so lost
and without a voice lately
that and I think uh uh developers don't get highlighted enough
right as a group right
and I think for our industry to kind of rise above that you kind of need someone to point at and be like he he is an innovator from that.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's that's that's the thing I respect him. I respect him for a lot is is um
innovation. I think I think Dead Space was not Dead Space, sorry. I think um I think uh Death Stranding was a huge risk.
Yeah.
You know,
took three years to make while making a

studio, building a team. It was like, dude, unheard of.
Yeah. Yeah. Um,
so he did it
because they know what he knows what like he also knows how to make a game, right? And so and he hires people that also know how to make games and
they put that together and then and they made something, right? So
yeah, I feel like we don't have that right now.
Huge kudos. Huge kudos.
As you can see from our state of play, I don't I don't feel like the western studios have that right now.
I mean, yeah. I mean, there's there's some out there, you know, right?
I mean, Ken Lavine's making Judas. It's It's coming out before the next Bioshock. I guess he won. They hired uh hydra. Wait, no, that's that's Rob Ferguson from the new.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But it it looks like it's coming out. Judas looks pretty I mean, you see more Judas than the other one.
I've not even heard of it or seen it. So,
let's check it out. Well, I know you have a hard stop. I want to thank you guys.
All right, man.
See y'all. Bye.

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