Nintendo’s “New” Star Fox, $80 GTA6 says BoA & Mixtape is a Masterpiece | Games For Breakfast

[music]
GOOD MORNING, MATT.
GOOD MORNING, WILL.
GOOD MORNING TO ALL OF YOU.
WELCOME TO GAMES FOR BREAKFAST, THE ONLY INTERNET TALK SHOW WE TALK ABOUT this week's game and tech news, but also where we also love cussing to cuss with all you cussing cussers to kiss off a cussing fantastic weekend. Wow. Holy moly. I want to say something very quickly. I had that in my brain. And I was also hitting go on Blue Sky at the same time. So, when I started yelling that, it also played back in my headphones 2 seconds later because the live thing in my Blue Sky window cuz we went live also played it. So, I don't even know if it made sense. I just barreled through it for the bit. And oh my god, I think part of my brain is leaking out of my skull right now.
I feel like if there's anything that can be said about us, we barrel through it

for the bit is like it, right?
I I smell toast. Like I'm I'm
It's right there in the background. See, right there. You smell You smell the digital Yeah, it's fine. Yeah.
Woo. Hi, everybody. That was supposed to be my tribute uh to the Fantastic Mr. Fox. For all of you who don't know, that is a wonderful film where instead of saying any cuss word, they just say the word cuss. Um and uh I felt that was apt due to our main story today. But oh, hey, BY THE WAY, UH my name is Matt. That over there is Will. Welcome to Games for Breakfast. Um that that's that's the intro. Do we have any other bit of an intro?
Uh if we did, it's left my brain because now I also smell the toast, which is either very good or very bad.
It's both. Why not both? We need both.
It could be both. Both is good.
I had I was so Oh, man. That threw
[laughter]
That threw me off so much. We should

just barrel forward. We should talk about We should talk about our main story right away.
on. Are you suggesting, chat, that maybe or Matt Not chat. Matt. That we should barrel roll forward?
I think I was, Will. I think I was. That was good. That was nice. [laughter] EVERYBODY, GET IN HERE. Uh new Starfox now going to come out very soon.
Yeah. Uh this was This was a bit of a weird drop, I think, uh that that Nintendo was like, "Hey, there's a 15-minute direct. And uh you've got new Starfox."
It's was a Starfox direct, in fact. Um what
I feel like some members of chat are incredibly normal about this. Uh that guy, Jimmy, is not one of them.
[laughter]
I didn't even know it could go that big. I didn't know that the chat
No. That's Yeah, no. I mean, but but I

think this is a not uncommon response, right? Because Starfox is Yeah, it's new Starfox. So, we were talking about this a little bit in the pre-show. Uh first off, to clarify, this is a remake of Starfox 64 with a bunch of stuff going on besides the core campaign. What are they structured around the core campaign, and one of the things they made very clear in the direct was when they say it's a remake, they mean they use the same maps and enemy loadouts and and everything else. It's all of the accoutrement around that that's been changed and upgraded and altered and stuff. So, that's cool and interesting. We want to talk about that, but I feel like the franchise, like the the the series, the franchise has been grotesquely underserved

since '64. Like
I And by by since Starfox 64 will of course means 28 years and 4 months ago. Now
You can't do You can't turn me to dust live on the air during breakfast.
I just did. Uh but even this game, like you are right. It has been underserved. I forget What was the What was the the GameCube one? Was it GameCube or Wii U with the dinosaurs?
Uh the GameCube Starfox Adventures.
Perhaps. Perhaps.
And then yeah, and there was Starfox Assault later on.
Yeah, it feels like they kind of don't know exactly what to do with Starfox. So, in my opinion at least thus far, obviously we haven't played the game yet, so we don't know. This being sort of a both remake and It's It's funny.

This is a remake in the sense that the elements of gameplay from the N64 game are present here. It is a remaster because along with updated graphics and things like that, they are also updating uh cutscenes and other sort of things like that and uh adding in different features in all of the different modes. And it's a reboot because they're just naming it Starfox.
Yeah, that's correct.
Um and I know that there's been a lot of talk uh about the how the you know, even this particular game, the N64 game has been remade a bunch. It has and it hasn't. There was Starfox 3D on the 3DS, which was a I think a fairly um
faithful
faithful remake of the N64 Starfox 64. and then there was Starfox Zero uh which I forget what console that was on but it was like more of a mashup of like an updated SNES Starfox and Starfox 2 with elements of 64 in it. Like this

game has been either jumping so far away from its roots with that Starfox Adventure thing or just sort of eating itself and trying to make new things via osmosis of what is happening like with the other games previously.
Right.
Um I uh Wekl, that's exactly right. Nintendo invents the first RRR game. Side note, RRR fantastic film if you have not seen it. Um but I digress. Uh this is rather big news and we'll get into a secondary uh story about Nintendo in a second why this is actually going to be I I hope slightly helpful in that camp. Um The but the reaction overall even beyond our community has been positive with the exception of some people uh that are not quite a fan of the art style. What What do you think about that?
So I think I liked it. I I I I like the art because it feels like a

Okay. It feels to me like they took the N64 models and just squared the number of polygons. They were like, "Hey, what if you had two to the nth number of polygons where n was the number of polygons you had before?" Great. What's that? You look super good now? Awesome. That's all we wanted. Moving along.
Well, it's even beyond that. Like it looks like the old advertisements and the old puppet or whatever they had on the box of the Super Nintendo game.
Uh
Right? Like the it they look like those characters, those kind of uh slightly horrific anthropomorphized animals uh which I kind of am here for.
We should also clarify, this is not a screenshot. This is a mashup of the Fantastic Mr. Fox and Star Fox. Just so everyone's on the same page.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, he doesn't look like this. This is the Fantastic

Mr. Fox. Um but no, but but but the art style, again, uh for the Fantastic Mr. Fox, the film is a stop motion film. This is obviously Star Fox is a computer generated thing. But the I feel like the um maybe not the art style, but the but the driving factors of why an art style exists, I think feel kind of the same to me. Uh instantly when I saw this, thought of the Fantastic Mr. Fox, a film that that I love the art style for. And I do really love the art style for uh this new iteration of Star Fox on the Switch, too. Um
I actually think that um it's showcased best not anywhere during the main body, but at the very end, they show the prologue.
Which I did not watch cuz I don't want it to be spoiled.
Okay, cool. Um unfortunately, uh there is a character in the prologue who I think shows off the modeling the best.

Um and I feel like it's really in the prologue that you're like, "Okay, yeah, I get this. I got this. It makes sense." Um so I I think that there it's kind of weird how some parts of it don't show well. The other big problem that they're facing, by the way, uh is and this is not the same as the problem that Matt's about to bring up cuz I think that's a very good point. Um the other big problem is that Fox and Falco have shown up so many flip floopin times in Smash that everyone's last cultural touchstone for Fox and Falco is Smash.
Yeah.
It's not in a Starfox game with the needs of a Starfox game. It's in Smash with the needs of Smash, which are different, right? So, that's that's another big factor, as well.
And also and also the to new guys point here was the thing I was going to bring up. Uh it's also coming off the depiction of them in the Mario Galaxy movie and people really like that

design. So, this Starfox Direct in my opinion did a huge huge [snorts] misfire. And that is the first 2 minutes of this Starfox Direct plays the beginning of the Starfox scene from the Mario Galaxy movie. So, you're setting up two separate art styles that people already really like. There's the regular in movie universe one, then there's sort of like an anime-inspired kind of more 2D-centric animated uh thing about the origins of of why Starfox was there. And both of those look awesome. And then you cut back to the the game, which again does look awesome, but is a far more I would say, personally, a larger artistic swing than the previous two art styles you've just set us up to be hyped about.
Yeah.
And I think that really set the tone wrong. Like, I get that Nintendo was proud of that,

but I think it that was some that was someone just not paying enough attention to like how the internet works. Like, you needed to show that Direct to people that are not in the the Nintendo ecosystem and our wheelhouse and get some reactions with the way that it was cut together.
I also think that it's really important to note that the Starfox from Galaxy is a very different Like, it's not just a different art style. He's an incredibly different tone of character, right? Because he serves a very different role in that story than he does in He's a sidekick, right? In in Galaxy and he's not a sidekick in his own game.
He's also played by Glenn Powell in in the in the in the Mario movie, which is hilarious.
Yeah. So So they lead in and they introduce it and I Like I knew what it was because I didn't watch it the day of. I watched it last night when I was prepping this.

Yeah.
I feel like they did a really good job of selling a game that's 28, though. Like the core design of the game is 28.
This is why I think this is a good idea is that honestly most people that play this game now probably have never played Starfox before. Like it looks good enough to stand on its own if you're a younger person who wasn't around when any of these others came out. Um and I think I I I think they they gave it Sometimes when companies do this I get upsetty spaghetti where they treat an old-school like remake thing like it's brand new and they're like, "Look at the features." And you're like, "Yeah, I know the features. Like I've played this before." For whatever reason, maybe it's the fresh coat of paint, maybe it's the additional things they did, but like they gave it all the pomp and circumstance of like a brand new game.
Yep.
And uh for whatever reason I was charmed by it here. I don't know, maybe y'all

were or were not, you can let us know right now at Brad or Janet on YouTube or Twitch, let us know, or you you know, message us on Blue Sky and see what you thought about all of this uh fantastic Mr. Starfox nonsense.
Yeah, I think
But
Um along with that, when they were they they they did the whole intro of like, "This is the boost and this is a barrel and this is a bomb and this is a charge shot and all of these things." And then it rolled directly into the new stuff because it didn't need to stop and I felt like that was the point where like returning fans got hype. So, for instance, you can mouse aim in first-person mode. So, if you put the if you do the thing where you put the Joy-Con on the table, and you you can mouse aim. Which is real interesting as a concept.
And you can pair that with a second player who pilots if you want, which I

really really like.
I think that's the biggest feature. I genuinely think that that's the biggest feature because that is 100% um like uh whatever they called it on Xbox, like the kid like the the younger sibling assist mode, right? Where you can give a sibling you can give someone on a second controller any number of buttons off of your controller. It's a feature that's been around, I believe, on Xbox for a while.
Yeah.
Um and this is sort of like parting it out like that, and it's also very reminiscent of Galaxies' uh second player mode where the second player is in charge of star bits, right?
Right. Yeah.
And I think I think yeah, this is I'm I'm very I'm very excited. Um
I liked I liked this. Uh tinfoil hat for that guy Jimmy. Also not sure if I fully believe it, but Nintendo does not like people making it not safe for work art of their characters, and these designs make it a lot harder to do that. And then Ven Loppaug just literally was like, "Yeah, fandom fandom's probably

going to jump on that regardless."
The the fandom is um what's the best way to put this? The fandom is
See, feverish.
deeply divided on whether or not these characters are hot. And I, not being a A of that fandom in that fashion, cannot comment on that, but I have seen discourse TM
Yeah.
on whether or not these characters are hot.
Or or some might even say cussable.
That's That's right. Yeah, whether or not they're cussable. Um but I do think that like the mouse aim and the and the co-op mode are sort of great examples of the kinds of things we do want from these games.
Yeah.
Right? Like they feel more than polish. Right? If they had just done Here's Super Mar Here's Super

Try that again. Here's Starfox 64, but we did it on the Switch 2 with Switch 2 graphics, please enjoy.
Yeah.
Some people would have been like, "Okay, that's cool and good and excellent." But then they were like, "And here's a new way to control the game." Which is pretty big cuz it makes it feel new and fresh. And here's a new way to introduce new players to the game because you might remember it, but your kids don't. That's a big
And it's it's doing the good thing that some Switch games do, which is one copy locally can play multiplayer on four Switches, and that might might Excuse me, that might also play into online mode as well. I That wasn't entirely clear.
Yeah.
Um but you would everyone would need an online Nintendo whatever pass or blah blah blah.
Um
Um And then the um and then the other weird thing, which I thought was very nice, and this actually works both in and out of Starfox once you own Starfox, you can basically turn your camera feed if you're a person who uses your camera the the a camera with the on Switch, which

some people Listen, I've said this many, many times. If I had to start again and had no console anything whatsoever, I would probably go with the Switch 2 at this point because it can do everything I like doing even if it doesn't do it all the best. Um and yeah, I don't know how many people use the camera functionality on the switch, too, but you can essentially turn eight of the Star Fox characters into Vtubers that sort of like follow your face and talk when you talk. And I And so that that can be in your little windows when you're playing with your friends online, which I thought was pretty neat. Again, a thing you don't need, but it's there if you want it.
Yeah. I thought I I mean, it's It did feel I'm a little more cynical on it. It did feel like they were like, "Hey, remember game chat? Someone remember game chat? Someone, please, anyone, someone out there be be be Fox McCloud. Please, please remember game chat. Please remember this exists." And

no one does.
I I don't know if no one does. Like I I think this is a thing that people that aren't in our ecosystem might engage with.
I can't believe we got to fish with the Nintendo furry Vtubing before GTA 6.
And it didn't even cost you $80.
Right. Hello, we'll talk about that in a second.
Yeah. Yeah. But I don't know. I I um Okay, so so this is the in in the last few weeks the second high-profile remaster remake or resync, some might say, because the Black Flag announcement also came out recently for Black Flag Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync. In fact, we are submitting we are not approved yet our design club for PAX West to be on that very thing. Um and the It's funny. Had Had Star Fox been out before we submitted that, I might have switched it to Star Fox. Um but I digress. The

I've been watching cuz Black Flag is my favorite Assassin's Creed. In fact, I stopped playing them after it. Um I they are doing something similar with not only like a fresh coat of paint on on the game, but also adding three new side characters and quests for them and updating certain other characters quests. Like I guess Blackbeard's quest is like now has more stuff in it and there's additional sea shanties and like other different things. So like I feel like we're getting into the space of when the higher profile remakes come out. They're adding more stuff in uh which is I think one of the only most valuable Hell, I mean Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth are completely different games that use that wear the original Final Fantasy VII storyline as a hat. Um I So like
I have feelings and thoughts, but we'll talk more about those some other time.
Right, but yeah and listen, mileage may

vary, but I I
Yeah.
Even in the Final Fantasy case, I would rather they're doing whatever they're doing with a newish feeling game than bolt the entire exact story on from Final Fantasy VII.
Yeah.
That's just a personal thing cuz I mean and again, but that's personal use, right? I've played the original Final Fantasy VII through four times. I don't need it, but there's an argument to say that the original story is so good and there were people that weren't alive when it came out that you might want to do the exact story again. Um sort of for for a new generation of player with updated graphics. So um I know it's all different. I'm just saying I really appreciate in the land of remakes when if we're going to say like this is Star Fox 64, but we're also doing a bunch of other stuff. That to me is a sign of a good remake.
Yeah.
Um It's all going to be different depending on every game.

Especially because all a lot of the other remake features that they had besides the one that we talked about are really well done, right? They've got three battle modes now, which multiplayer battle modes, it's four on four, it's Starfox versus Star Wolf, and you get to do like three different distinct game modes on three different distinct maps to do like head-to-head stuff, which feels a lot like my favorite Nintendo head-to-head four-player uh PvP game, which is Mario Kart 64.
Mhm.
Right? Cuz like Block City, let's go, right? Like this is not the it it feels comparable in many ways to that. Um and then the other one that I really liked was the challenge mode. Um where each level where each level could be played separately and you have a checklist of challenges, right? That you need to complete, and then if you complete all of them, you get an expert level, which is more difficult.

And it fixes for me one of the things that I conceptually think is a um not a problem, but like and I imagine we'll get like mid-run save and quit kind of thing for the campaign in a way that we didn't before, but um the the conceptual problem of like you have to play the campaign to get anywhere, and now you can like boot up a level and practice that level and play that level specifically cuz some of the levels, I don't know. I was not that old when this came out. I do feel like I needed practice on some of the levels to get to like secret places and beat bosses without getting, you know, absolutely destroyed or whatever.
One of the most frust- one of one of the coolest and most frustrating things about both Starfox, Starfox 2, and Starfox 64 was the I loved the idea that you could shoot different things or move

in certain different paths to then go to different planets. You exit the level in a different way. I thought that was really, really fun in a rail shooter.
Yeah.
Um however, if you are doing a full run through the Lylat system and you are on planet five of eight and you're trying to do this one thing and you just happen to miss the gate shot to get you to go to the planet you want to do, that sucks because then you're going to keep doing your same run the way you did before and you're going to have to play another I don't know, 30 45 minutes to get back and have the shot again. I'm hoping that once you beat a level, you can kind of jump back to that level in campaign mode and just start from there as well. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Like along with the challenge mode or because that that was something that did frustrate me in the original Star Foxes.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Uh especially because again, some of those are kind of difficult to do. Especially like the first time

Yeah.
like the Landmaster ones for the alternate paths are like you you do not use the Landmaster enough to be good enough with the Landmaster to do some of the things that it's asking you to do with the Landmaster. Like even even your second or third or fourth time through, it can be more difficult to do. So, I'm I'm I'm happy for the challenge mode and I'm happy for the battle mode and I'm happy for even the VR avatars. Like Star Fox feels like one of the less beloved franchises, right? We got Mario, we got we got Zelda, right? We've got Kirby, we've got Pokémon, and then like somewhere lost in the ether of time it's Star Fox. Except when Smash comes out and then they're like, "Oh, by the way, Fox and Falco are here because if we don't, then everyone will riot." Um
And and also I it's funny because so a lot of the things you listed, let's

see. Those are all things that I I might be getting my my timelines mixed up. So, everyone in chat correct me when I am wrong. All of those things were either on original NES as well or Game Boy. Actually, I'm going to look this up before I make this claim because I think it's kind of interesting. So, Starfox like the SNES Starfox the release date was February 21st, 1993. Okay? When did Pokemon Red come out? Pokemon Red release date. My internet is crawling. I hit the enter button and it's still sitting there. All right, came up much much later. Came up about 5 years later. In in I think in North in Japan it came out in

'96. What I was going to say was and maybe Pokemon kind of is the the other side of this coin. Starfox for me on the Super Nintendo was I think the first time in my life that I um was aware of and wowed by graphic improvement. The fact that Starfox runs on with the FX chip on a Super Nintendo is a miracle and it was in in the childhood my childhood eyes. That's low. Come here. Hold on. I have one other thing. Will continue.
I don't I don't know how to make Matt's point for him. Um but I will say that Starfox has been a has been a graphical graphical improvement. And late '90s did have some bangers, Ryan. Yes, absolutely. Mode Mode 7 was a big deal.
Also, Laszlo looks like Starfox.
Yeah, that's right.

A bit. We need to give him like the glasses.
Laszlo, where are your Oh, is I have some some like the things that Fantastic Mr. Fox the thumbnail is wearing that would fit on his head in the closet. Do you want to pilot an Arwing? No. Are they What they're not Are they called Arwings? I'm trying to remember.
wings. Yes, wings. Yep. Also, they look really good now, too, which is way more important than the way the characters look because you're going to spend you spend cutscenes looking at the characters, but you spend a lot of time looking at the Arwings. They look real good. Yeah.
[laughter]
Dad wants an Arwing.
Yeah, exactly.
Wants an Arwing, Laszlo. Yeah. Well, Laszlo is excited for Starfox. If you can't tell, he just woke up because we were talking about it.
Yeah, I'm I'm also very excited for Starfox. I will probably play it on stream at some point just because I think it'll be fun.
Yeah, we can do some We can do some competitions and stuff in it, too.
Yeah, it'll be great. Yeah, I'm I'm very excited.

All right.
All right. Um
An Arfwing.
Yeah.
Perfect.
We would, however, be remiss in talking
[laughter]
in Yes.
Kids go nuts for nuts for a math co-processor. I did.
Yeah. If you show kids what it'll do, then yeah.
Yeah. Uh sorry.
No, you're good. We would be remiss in talking about Nintendo and a Switch 2 title if we didn't bring up the incoming price hike on Nintendo uh based products.
Let's go.
Yeah. So, in May, May 25th, price hikes will go up in Japan for old switches and the Nintendo Switch 2 Japan-only model.

It's going up uh between looks like 10,000 yen and some of the old ones are like 5,000 yen. The Switch Lite's going up 8,000, weirdly.
Hm.
And then later, September 1st, the price of the Switch 2 is going up globally. In the US, it's going from 450 to 500.
Is this not also in May?
Uh no.
Oh, September. Effective dates. You're right. Sorry.
1st. Uh in Canada, it's going from 630 to 680. And in Europe, it's going from 470 euro to 500 euro.
This is an odd thing for Nintendo because Nintendo normally does not sell their consoles at a loss and I believe the Switch 2 is one of the first ones to do that. Maybe the Switch as well.

Switch 2's got a lot of stuff and that dock is expensive.
No, but the Well, I'm saying like the traditionally that was been their whole thing.
Yeah.
Is other companies will sell their hardware at a loss and make it up via games cuz they have other things they can lean on.
Yeah.
Um Nintendo doesn't. So, they are more careful when it comes to that. And from the what the rumor is and what from what people have been saying, even with this price hike, it still doesn't make it have like cost parity. Like you're it's still less. Um but the state of the world and the amount of hardware that is getting more expensive that you can't get due to the AI slot bubble and um I mean, tariffs and wars and things are all going to play a part in how these things go up. The the problem, I mean, there's a lot of problems, but one of the problems is um often times when all these things go up, they very rarely go back down.
Yeah.
Uh in in a normal timely manner.

So, oh yeah, with the GameCube The GameCube was the first one they sold at a loss. Yeah. So, they've been doing this for a a second, but still it's uh it's an odd thing for Nintendo.
I will also say it's very interesting to me that they are telegraphing this far in advance. This is 4 months in advance. This is a quarter in advance.
Anyone who was on the fence about getting a Switch 2 will now go get one. I mean, that's kind of what it is.
Which is interesting cuz I wonder if they'll see like a midsummer price or a midsummer sales bump instead of like a holiday sales bump if people will like
[snorts]
get it for their kid for Christmas now and then just put it somewhere and forget about it.
Yep.
Uh
I also noticed some people in chat are saying Sony did do this, too. They recently upped the price of all the PlayStation stuff because things are just getting more expensive to make and maintain. Uh which it's why I think the Steam

Machine is sort of sitting in a port somewhere and they don't quite know exactly what to do with it.
There there there there was a uh a flurry of rumors as only uh Valve fans can deliver that costumes forms indicated that Valve had recently accepted a shipment of video game consoles that was several containers and people were like losing their minds that the Switch Steam Machines were here and like I chill. Don't Don't tell you when they're ready.
Yeah.
Um I I do every time we talk about price hikes, I there this happens in a couple of places. Um particularly when we talk about global economic conditions. Uh people always say that global economic conditions is an excuse. And that companies could and should soak the difference in cost rather than attempting to adjust prices. And I feel like

multiple things are true at the same time here. Right? And I feel like that's often a thing that gets lost in this discourse. So I just wanted to bring it up and put it here real quick, which is it is entirely true that companies have in general not earned our trust when it comes to raising prices and the reasons that they are raising prices. That is very true. It is also observably true that the entire world is experiencing increased periods of economic turbulence. That's the nice way of saying it. I'm good at corpo speak. Um aka lots of things are kind of mid to very on fire. Uh and sometimes literally
Figuratively and literally.
Yeah, figuratively and literally. Um and so like should we trust corporations when they're like we're raising prices? I mean, treat it with a fair amount of skepticism.

Now, all of that having been said, do I think Nintendo is doing this in the best way they possibly can? Yeah. Four months of lead time and it's a um it's a $50 price increase in the US. It's even less in Europe, right?
are that leadership is like basically a half scrambling, half promising that like we're going to make this worth it. Like they're they're some of the leadership has been saying like they're they they want to use this uh price increase as sort of a kick in the pants be like we're making amazing games. Like this will be worth it for you. Yeah. Whether or not that's true, that's fine. But also, you don't often see that. It's more like often times you just get the well, the economics of the world these days are this, so we have to do this, but we'll keep giving you the same great value. Like no, that they're saying something extra to it, which is a very Nintendo thing.

Uh listen, Nintendo has I feel like we're we're shining Nintendo a bit a lot, you know, a lot in this episode because this this week uh there seems to be even in the bad things at least good messaging, right? And they're doing a what in my opinion a game I'm excited about. Doesn't take away all the bad stuff they do, but um
Multiple things are in cat and will be true. Yeah. Um uh Travis to bring up a great question, which we can uh take a second on. Why prices only go up? Shouldn't innovation and competition give us better prices? So, in a perfect world, yes. The way it works in terms of market psychology, they tend to only do that when they're releasing a new product because people have been trained and anchored talk a lot about anchoring uh when I'm playing games to a specific price point

for a console. And occasionally, cutting the price can actually make the thing sell worse. Prestige pricing is a thing. Um too deep a sale makes you feel like something is wrong with it. There are a bunch of psychology reasons. So, what they tend to do is increase the value and set the new price during major moments of transition. Right? Um at at at best for consumers. The other big thing Darder brings up uh, and so does Coffee Clone, and I think this is correct, is uh, a two to three company competition is closer to a car- cartel than a competitive market. Yeah. They're all
It's also there's also something a little bit different here, too, right? Like and that is that games are now big enough where it's not just competition in video games. It's not what it is anymore. We're even down to competition in consoles and competition in in PC, which is a different thing. Like yes, they are in

they are kind of in competition with one another for eyeballs and time, but it's not quite the same as the OG console wars of Nintendo, Sega and uh, Microsoft at a certain point. Like it's different now because if I want Nintendo games or games that are Nintendo-like and/or of Nintendo quality, there's one place I can get that. But that's not the same buy-in or want as say everything on a Sony console.
Right.
That's a different flavor, and I feel like we're going to see GTA 6 is actually going to be an interesting move in this because that's going to I mean Xbox is in no place to capitalize, and the PlayStation is probably going to run away with it for the first couple months. But, um the style of game you are getting per console, I would argue overall is so different that the the competition is actually lessened because it's the style of thing people want. Like consoles used

to be the ubiquitous place you'd play all the games, and now based on your choices it's the kind of games you want, and I think PC or the Steam Machine is kind of a sort of outlier in its own thing because obviously there's far more choice there. You know?
Yeah. I agree. Um
It's like movie studios at a a point, like
You're silent.
But like
Right?
Actually, it's closer to streaming services, to be honest. Yeah.
I I agree. Um speaking of Grand Theft Auto shall we talk about
[laughter]
All right. So, I got to I got to run this back. So, uh
Run it back.
[sighs and gasps]
Okay. So, ICON uh was a executive focus video game conference put on by the Entertainment Software

Association in Las Vegas.
Viva Las Vegas.
So, to be clear, this is a bunch of suits talking suit stuff about video games.
Yeah.
Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. All right. I'm trying so hard to get through this without swearing. A Bank of America stock analyst who was attending this is on the record as saying that they quote heard from attendees that the industry, which is perceived to struggling, would have difficulty selling games for $80 if GTA 6 came out at 60. We think it is in Take-Two's self-interest as a publisher to partner to many developers to raise the price point for the entire industry, period. End quote.
They go on to say why.
Yeah. So, part of it is that comparison pricing, right? If Grand Theft Auto is

$80, how can a game that is as good as Grand Theft Auto be $70 or $60 or $40, which I know before anyone in the comments or anything else we, collectively, are way more into digging around in the indie bin than most of the people that they're talking about or the most like consumer market is, right? We are indie raccoons digging around in a dumpster for $4 indie gold, right? That we then like wash in the creek with our little raccoon paws and then run away with and scamper and like look at the light. Right, okay, great. Anyway. Um So, we're not the people that they're talking about with the perceived value, but also at the same time
[snorts]
Bro, why why are we listening to a Bank of America analyst about stock prices

and the price of gaming? Like, why? What why why is this relevant? Why is like the media running with this story?
Well, I agree with you completely. Let me try at the very least to play the devil's advocate
Yeah.
and see and see if I can figure out if I was trying to make an argument for this what the points would be.
Sure.
Um So gaming as a whole, even though it is one of the most lucrative forms of media, is obviously down from COVID time. Of course it is because of course it is.
Because the outside is free.
Yeah. Um and so I think analysts, probably a lot of people at a convention such as this when they can rip themselves away away from the roulette table um look at that COVID time as sort of like the golden goose of like what is possible when it comes to profit in this industry.

And I think perhaps what this analyst was going for but had too much corpo in their mouth to really be able to say it succinctly is they're worried that I'm again I am paraphrasing here. They're worried that GTA 6 is so big and so good and so robust that if it comes out at a price point of a normal of a regular video game that we're comfortable with it's going to essentially make every other game not look like it as a is as valuable because it is not this. And if you can make this at this price, then why isn't everyone either making this or making something for less? Um which would in turn if that were true hurt the industry because of sentiment and because of [snorts] uh

rage bait nonsense on the internet. Now the part that I have a harder time squaring is why unless that analyst was just living in kind of a I guess it's not really fortune anymore but like a an internet conversation box of like hype and anger.
You can say Reddit. It's okay. It's safe. You can say Reddit.
Oh wow. It's funny. My Reddit I don't I'm getting off topic here. My Reddit I think I've cultivated pretty good where it's like I don't have any of that on my Reddit. Like I don't know maybe I'm just turning it off.
I haven't like had a Reddit in a very long time. So I feel like most of the stuff that I get from like media is like citing Reddit.
Yeah.
So that's obviously pretty biased but
But I guess I guess like they must live in a rage cage despite all of it. Um

that makes it seem like the entirety of the internet discourse will riot if if the price parity of what value which again is something that is very very very individual uh the concept of it is not met across the board. At the end of the day though, I think even after all of that sort of chin-wagging I think this guy or this person just wanted to say something about Grand Theft Auto 6. Like it it feels to me like because And let's let's not be let's not beat around the bush. GTA 6 is going to be an economic bellwether. It is going to be something that it's going to be another thing that no matter how good the game is Actually, the better the game is, the worse it will be for gaming in my opinion. And the reason that is is everyone will

run to it from other industries trying to make money on something like that experiment that is not Rockstar and will learn all the wrong lessons and try to take a bunch of shortcuts and try to do it again because they're going to see look at this it's I guarantee you it's going to break all the records of anything I think of media even with the economy in such a downturn.
Yeah.
But every every other industry that has ever thought, "Huh, I wonder if video games are profitable these days?" is going to look at GTA 6, take all the wrong lessons, and try to dive headfirst into the industry. And what's going to happen Like again, all all tin foil hat conjecture, my own opinion, is perhaps that might mean some short-term growth, that might mean maybe some devs get some more jobs back because of all the cuts that have been going on, but it won't be anything sustainable because it won't be people running these businesses like they should be run. Um it's going to be quick people jumping in trying to get something done. And uh that's what happens when you have a successful element of a medium is

everyone else wants to get in on that medium. And so I think this is the first shot fired of opinion. Not that I'm saying Bank of America is going to be making video games, but Bank of America is very, very, very interested in the effect on the economy that this one game will inevitably have.
Yeah. I also think that this is um the other way to think of this is this is the only chance in the foreseeable future they have to get away with setting the price for triple-A games at $80. I don't think any other game could try and do that price set. Right? Can Can Can anyone think of a game that is remotely as close in the public eye, again, not us
And in the United States because we know games are different prices all over the world.
In the US, another game that is as anticipated as GTA 6 is, right? Like maybe Pokémon, maybe Mario, Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 3, $300.
Yeah, right.
Um
Mario Kart is kind of the only one. Yeah. And also, most people didn't spend $80 on Mario Kart. Most
the reason Yeah, I think the reason why Mario Kart was $80 was less that they thought Mario Kart was worth $80 is they were trying to push more people to buy the bundle.
Yeah.
To get more hard I mean, you need the hardware to play it anyway, but like they were trying to they were using that to make the bundle seem like more of a value.
Correct. And I think the important thing about that is that the bundle was functionally the same cost to produce as the regular one, but Nintendo got 50 extra bucks that were essentially pure profit. Because it's first-party game, right?
Oh, and copper, it's not even guilty of the bundle purchase. Same. That it it made the most sense. They They set the terms. I was like, I see what you're doing here. I'll take the one that is more valuable to me.
Yeah.
You know?

Yeah. Scary thought is uh what if GTA 6 comes out and the consensus is yes, it's worth $80? I think that's going to be a really hard sell given that there's a lot of negative sentiment towards GTA at least in our circles. Um
But our I got to push back here a little bit. Our circles in comparison are so small. This game like I'm not saying look, the world is very different from when GTA 5 came out.
Yes.
Even the internet.
Yes.
But the fact that even now GTA online is still one of the top channels on Twitch. Like it is a it is a game and it is a lifestyle game even though it's is and it isn't.
Right. It's it is in the same category as Minecraft in that it is a big old sandbox and people are using it as a place to tell stories.
I still play GTA online. Like my friends and I still go in there. I I to be honest, I think I know the map of San Andreas better than I know like all the

five boroughs of the city that I live in. Like I've spent so much time doing things in that game. Um I I think I Yeah, there's no way there's no way that this is not uh
Yeah.
a sort of zeitgeist defining moment regardless.
I agree. I I I I think there are there will just be a lot of people who there will be an increased number of people who don't compare to GTA 5 for 6 because of crunching because of union busting and because of a bunch of other stuff. So we will hear more of that. It won't be enough to tip the scale, but we will hear more of that.
Yeah, I think that's because a lot of it is being and rightfully so and it's a good thing. A lot of it is being talked about more during the release of this than it was in five.
Yeah.
You know.
Yep. Uh okay.
Yeah.
Now is the time where we do fake ads for things you can't buy so

that you can feel better about not buying GTA 6 with $80 of your real money. Uh well, Twitch chat gets ads for things that they can buy to keep pre-rolls off over on Twitch. So, Matt, would you like to go first with our advertisements today?
Yes, but this is a different one and I need everyone's help. This is half bit and half real. So, I'm going to tell you the real part first and then you're going to help me with the bit. Okay? A little bit of backstory. Um this yesterday uh was my friend Tanya's birthday and I, like a cussing idiot, forgot. Uh so, and and like I can make excuse like obviously I got a lot going on in my personal life. See the end of last week's episode. Thank you all so much for your kind words on that. Uh I'm also planning a wedding. I also uh this is the next last thing is I want to be completely fair and balanced with it. I

also played mixtape all the way through this weekend and just got lost in that. And so, there's a lot of THINGS HAPPENING. OKAY? I LOVE THIS. Cussing idiot. Um so, here's what I want to do with what I'm going to sell you that you can't buy. I'm going to sell you me apologizing to Tanya for missing her birthday. Okay? So, what I would love cuz I'm and essentially I want this clipped a lot and I'll take a clip before the end of the show and text it to her so she can see chat going by, too. So, what I'd like to see in chat, two things. One, saying happy birthday to Tanya. Two, calling me a cussing idiot. Okay? [laughter] Those are the two things that I want to see when I do this. So, here I'm going to start the music momentarily and I'm going to see if I can do a 60-second thing to sell you the concept of me apologizing to Tonya for missing her birthday. Here we go.

[clears throat]
Hey everyone, Matt from Extra Credits here. Also Will's here. Hi Will. Listen, I'm here to sell you a concept. A concept of friendship that I am not good at. I'm here to tell you to buy from me the concept of me saying I'm sorry to Tonya for missing her birthday. I am very sorry for this. Tonya, I wish I called. There's so much going on. I'm a cussing idiot. Chat agrees on two things in this sales pitch. One, I'm a cussing idiot, and two, you should have the happiest of belated birthdays. So please everyone, bust out your wallets with all your fake money and buy from me the very concept of me apologizing to Tonya for missing her birthday.
It's very good.
Yeah, it was very good.
did
Yeah, I like this one.
[laughter]
It's very good. And and chat helped a lot. It's very good.
Thank you everybody.
Yeah.
Uh
[laughter]

Will, do you want to do one or do you just want to leave it at that?
I I we can we can yeah, we got we'll get some clips going. Chat, remember exclamation mark clip or you can go and clip it yourself. Um
I will be picking the one that is the most like tightly complete of the thing without my setup of
[laughter]
what we're doing.
Uh we can definitely do that. Um
Cussing idiot. Uh Jamie remembered this morning I felt like such a piece of cuss. It was it was bad. Uh You got one Will or you want to do
Yeah, I know. I think I got one. I think I got one.
Okay, here we go.
Yeah. Hi everyone. Will from Extra Credits thanks for Matt from Extra Credits who is apparently according to chat a sentient lettuce head. Uh here to sell you the concept of sticking to the bit no matter what. That's right. If we're known for one thing here on Games for Breakfast, it's for committing to the bit. That's right. You could not commit to the bit. You could like half-heartedly do the bit. But why would you do that when you could

commit all of the way? In fact, overcommit to the bit. In fact, you should you should sell yourself the bit first so that then you could sell other [music] people the bit because it's it's very important. So, whatever you do, just remember overcommit to the bit.
[laughter]
I like this [snorts] one. Never half-heart the bit, full-send the bit every time. True. True, full-send.
[laughter]
Okay. All right. That That concludes our ad break. Thank you, chat, for um for for helping uh with
to dig through Twitch or if if someone sends me
can also.
Okay. Uh we can go from there. That way I I'd love to send it to her and then have the reaction live before the show.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Chat, somebody uh somebody go back and clip clip Matt's ad. Do the thing. Um
And specifically at the like at the beginning of the boop boop boop boop

into the very end without the other stuff. That'd be great.
Uh yes, Umbral, that is correct. I I made that joke God, years ago now. You commit to the bit, you If you commit to eight bits, you commit to a bite. Uh all right. Uh enough enough corpo slap nonsense. Good good good game news corpo nonsense.
YAY!
DOUBLE FINE is unionizing. Up the union. Uh that's it. That's that's the news. The workers at Double Fine are um are are looking to unionize. Most of It feels like a lot of the companies that Microsoft has bought over the years are like, "Hey, what if we a union?"
Mhm.
And uh that's good. More more more unions in the game industry, please. More more unions in general, particularly here in the US. In fact, just unions, do them. Collective bargaining good. Get what you deserve from your corporate uh overlords.

And uh something just nice here. Uh Microsoft who are there under the umbrella of are they appreciate they they even quote it saying, "We appreciate that Microsoft has taken a neutral approach and agreed not to interfere in any way with workers rights to organize unions." Which is
That's bars in hell.
That's bars in hell, but like how many of them are in hell? Right? Like this is I'm not like I don't want to give props, but I it's just nice to see that one of the many hurdles to get this done one of the regular hurdles is not there to jump.
Yeah. Uh Nova has your clip.
Amazing. We'll check it out. Doop doop a doop a doop a doop doop doop.
All right. Uh and then Matt, you're going to need to be focused cuz the next
I'm not going to look at this yet. I'm going to look at it after and I'll do this bit now
I'll do it you can do it during the

story afterwards. I'll take.
Perfect.
Cuz now Matt wants to talk about what he did over his weekend that caused him to forget Tonya's birthday. OH, WAIT.
NO. NO, WAIT. NO, THAT'S NOT IT. I DIDN'T I DIDN'T DESTROY DISCORD OVER THE WEEKEND.
WAIT, where is it? Oh, it's here.
know. Do we want to do this story?
We moved it. Hold on. No, I want to do this now.
No. No. Yep. Okay, good. We're This is the greatest hits. We talked about Starfox. It was great. I had a great time doing it. I'd love to do it again. Do we take it from the top?
OBS is being very slow.
it got America the double five and then
That thing right there. I found it.
Friends, denizens of the animated kitchenette, there has been much talk and a do about a indie game that came out from Annapurna and Beethoven and Dinosaur, which they Melbourne-based game studio, called Mixtape.

Uh I got excited about this at one of the showcases or game awards or something when they showed it off. It looked so wonderfully mid-90s. Uh it looked just absolutely wonderful in its in its style and feeling and vibe. And this weekend, I believe it released on Friday, uh or maybe a little bit earlier, and essentially uh it is an absolute delight. But the the it's one of those games that when I booted it up and started playing it, I had to stop it and I was playing it on the portal, the PS portal, cuz Jamie was in the living room and I stopped it to what Jamie was doing. And I was like, "You need to see the beginning of this." Uh it is and it opens as a minor spoiler if you sort of meeting the three main characters and them skateboarding down a hill in a California like in a California town. And it

the level of emotionality and thought in the art direction of that game and the way that it plays is second to none. It has a beautiful sort of mix of stop-motion animation mixed with not stop-motion like animating on the two. So like the characters move in a very spider-verse way, but often times the backgrounds and the movement is still 60 frames per second smooth um of the camera. Um and it's a story of three friends and their last day, after they graduate high school, and what they're going to do. And it felt so poignant and lovely and wonderful. There are elements of issue that I have with it. Um, some of the dialogue feels a little forced in the way that I imagine that a studio based in Australia that is doing a story about kids talking in the in like a California slang in the mid-90s might not hit the entire weight or or maybe I, from being on the East Coast, don't fully understand the California deep slang

that was going on at the time. So, some of it felt a little forced. But, um, this game knocked my socks off in a way that I was not ready for, to the point where I completed it in an afternoon. I've clocked 4 hours with it. And I went online and I was trying to see what people were talking about it and whatnot. And Will brought this up, too, when I when I talked about the story. And people, uh, the main thing that people have been talking about was they were very upset with how short it was. I am not. The game, I think, was $17. Um, on par with the price tag, roughly, actually a little cheaper than another medium that I'm passionate about, being going to the movies, especially in New York City. Um, I essentially got what was an interactive film that was more emotionally resonant than half of the films I've seen this year. And I got to, in my very limited time, be able to complete have a complete

experience with something that will absolutely stay with me and I'll it it this this game feels like it is now going to be in a rotation of something that I replay every year, every other year. Like a movie that movie that I own on physical that like I will just keep watching. It's not because I'm going to like find a secret or like do something else. It's because it's that good. And uh I was really upset to find that people were were angry at the length of it. When I actually saw it, to be perfectly honest, mixed with the price point, as a feature, not a bug. Like this is something that I wish we did, honestly, have more of. I I know I am in the minority in this community, I think. I I Maybe I'm not, actually, depending on the direction of the world, but we are I'll even I'll go this far. I think in the future, in the next coming years, we're all going to have a little less time, regard based on multitude of different things, growing up, economic drivers, etc. We're going to have a

little less time to play games. I think that's a sad truth. I'm very thankful for something that I feel like I'm not missing out on any of the experience of. I can get done in a sitting, and it is a personal thing that is a single-player game. I love games that don't do that, too, of course. But this felt like something that I really needed like right now. And so, if any of that sounds like something that is up your alley, and something that you would like, I would urge you to check out Mixtape. Oh, and the soundtrack slaps. We won't stream it because the soundtrack track slaps too hard, and you can't stream it because there's so many rights and and things like that. Like it just couldn't be done. Um and I don't think I would want like the music is so integral to one of the main characters and the story. Doing a streamer mode of something or something like it's so tied to the narrative, it would not make sense, and it would feel bad.
And I think that the other thing, my understanding, um and see if this

squares math, is that it's not that it's music that sounds like this era. It needs to be It needs to be this music from this era to evoke this feeling in its target audience, right? It can't be It can't sound like it. It needs to be that song that you remember dancing to at your prom.
The main character is essentially curating a playlist for their last day of the three friends hanging out. And every element that you do is combined with like a mini game and some movement and some other stuff, but she literally breaks the the fourth wall and looks at camera and is like, "All right, track six is this because of X, Y, and Z and da da da da. This came out in 1994." Like it like goes into like but how a mid-90s California teenager who's super deep into music would talk like.
Yeah.
And so you can't replace it. Like it just doesn't work. Um I don't know. I And maybe it's it's a conveying thing. I have not listened to to Damon works

point. We need to have a way to convey this like because as the as the medium of games continues to evolve, these are experiences that I want more of and I don't want it to be seen as a detriment, but I also want people to understand what they're buying.
Right.
Um
And like and and I think some of that is the publisher, right? Like Annapurna or Finji or right? Like they all have a feeling that they are known for publishing, right? Like I can think of there's a um a small publisher called Goblins that mostly publishes rogue lights. There's uh you know, Humble that has a very certain je ne sais quoi. There are different publishers that publish different things, but that's not enough. We need like a way to do to to to convey that, right? Cuz I like you the way you started talking about this, I was thinking about um Unpacking and Superliminal, right? Both of which were one-shot games on stream for me and then were about 4 hours and I feel like that sweet spot of like this is a bold interactive experience that has a deep resonant

theme is a place where games like really shine, actually. Think about Flower, Journey, Gris, Neva, right?
But even in this price point like Violence brought up like something like Silk Song or Blueprints. So like Silk Song, Blueprints, and Mixtape. Three very different games. Two of those games with a very long play time.
Yeah.
Again, value is intrinsically subjective. So I'm not going to tell you what is more valuable to you. I have all three games and I love all three games. But I think I find value in what the games deliver to me for that price point in different places in my sort of like emotional journey playing them.
Yeah. Like you can have like the there are different ways that we as individuals feel that specific games are

worth their price point. One of them is length, one of them is complexity, and one of them is this like condensed emotional resonance, right? And all of those
And challenge. Like like like so Silk Song I would argue is is emotional resonance in a in a story that is told in a minimalist way mixed with some very intense challenges. Like and and you are rewarded for not only your perseverance in getting past whatever boss or problem you're get to in that game, but also with your your your attention is rewarded when you start making connections in the minimalist storytelling of how the world of Silk Song works, right? Blueprints, very different. I don't know about you all. I don't particularly care about the emotional resonance of the story of the guy who died who's passing his grandnephew the thing, but what I like is a mystery. I like the the the clues and picking up like I'm not doing it because I care deeply about like the emotional thing of all these characters I'm reading about. I like making the who done it who did what sort of like Charlie and Always Sunny cork board and

figuring out the entire thing alongside of all the puzzles. Right?
And and you say that, I I had the absolute privilege of watching someone get to the absolute true secret final ending of Blueprints live. Uh and she broke down crying. Like it was it was beautiful.
different, right? Like I I love that that that person got to have that with that. And they found it there where they wanted it. Just like with Mixtape for me personally, it is a condensed resident experience that might be one of my favorite looking games of all time.
Yeah.
So, again, we've talked too long about it. I just wanted to give my sort of I so rarely hear get a chance to give a complete review
Yeah.
of something. And so I was like, "Ooh! I got my game specifically. I was like, I can do that this week." So, that was that's my that's my Mixtape corner.

Thank you for uh
Excellent.
Yeah.
Um uh Matt, I have sent you two clip candidates for you to take a look at while I tell everyone about Discord going down. So, uh Discord had a little oh oh whoopsie-poopsie.
Whoopsie-poops.
Uh whoopsie-poopsie on Friday. Um and it was down for like uh a little more than an hour. I was in the middle of my stream, so I didn't notice it. But uh this this serves as your regularly scheduled reminder that though Discord has become the backbone of many people's uh gaming social lives, you should have plenty of ways to contact everyone you only talk to through Discord just in case. Twitch can be one of those ways, right? I don't YouTube doesn't have whispers, so it can't be it can't be YouTube. But like Twitch can be one of those ways. Um but you you should have ways to contact people because the

number of people that I saw while Discord was down who just like didn't have any way to talk to people was really high. Um and uh you should you should you should have other ways to do that, right? Because we often rely on single point of failures uh for for needs like that. And Discord is notorious for just all of a sudden don't. You're you're you're you're you're chugging along and then all of a sudden no. What if it didn't? What if it wasn't? What if it just no, right? So, please make sure that you have other ways uh to find people, to contact people uh do particularly because if Discord like absolutely implodes one day and never comes back up, which is possible. Not likely, but possible. You should have other ways to talk to people. So, figure it out. Uh that's all.
There we go. I've just looked at this thing. I'm going to send it off.
Yep, cool. Excellent. Excellent. Uh

while Matt sends that off, we get to talk about the number 766 million dollars. That is 3/4 of a billion.
It's a lot.
In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for 3.6 billion dollars. And uh the uh the the financial results that Sony released uh last week show that they have a total of uh 766 million dollars impair of impairment loss because of Bungie. So, essentially, they've lost 3/4 of a billion dollars on Bungie this year.
[laughter]
Which is And And I'm converting, by the

way, just I'm converting to dollars because that's the language we speak. That It's not actually in dollars, but I'm converting to dollars. Um So, it looks like this the time period that this um covers includes the release of Marathon. Doesn't look great. Uh it it it really looks like Bungie is not the prize that Sony thought it was when they bought them. And And like yikes.
Like I think I mean, okay, I have not played Marathon, and I'm uh sorry, I just I'm tuning back in. So, if I start repeating something that Will has said, just cut me Give me the Give me the signal. Um but the idea of um essentially I know Marathon is not exactly is not the same game as Destiny, but they Do they both feel like they should sort of be in the lifestyle genre

of game?
I I I guess, maybe. I will fully admit I have not paid any attention to Marathon. Like at all.
Uh chat, what what do we think? Does Does that a fair assessment? Cuz again, I played a uh cuss ton of Destiny, but I haven't played uh a lick of Marathon. I've heard good things about Marathon, but I also
[snorts]
It's funny. Marathon has an art style that I think is really cool that does not grab me.
Yeah. This is
challenging art.
Yeah. Uh I I think this Amp has a really good point. I don't know anything about Marathon, but I sure as heck had nothing to do with Bungie's original Marathon, which is what I wanted.
Oh, interesting.
Very true, right? And so, yeah. Uh And and I think I think New Guy has um a a great point. Bungie is notorious for

not making money?
Is this true? I think the I think Well, Destiny made a bunch of money and then Destiny 2 made some money and then it slowly started going down, right? Like like
they backed out on their promise that they had with Destiny 1, which is that it was going to be a perpetual ongoing evolving game. And they were like, "Hey, what if our perpetual ongoing evolving game instead of perpetually ongoing and evolving had a sequel?"
But like, could you imagine if Marathon, let's just pretend for a moment. What if Marathon was a single-player game with a multiplayer deathmatch mode ala Halo? What if they turned What if they kept Destiny being their sort of live service or kind of multiplayer thing and they specifically moved Marathon, a property that they own, to be the next Halo? Right? Like that seems like a winning combination.

Yeah.
But I I think the reason why I wasn't interested in Marathon, I was like, "Oh, cuz it's cuz it isn't an extra I don't even know. Is it an extraction
The multi-based extraction shooter?
It's a PvPvE online extraction shooter.
Maybe it's just where I again uh where I am in my life. I I I It's a game I instantly feel like when you describe it that way, I'm like, "Well, I don't have time to stay even remotely up with the Joneses in this. Like I can't keep up and therefore I'll be dragging my friends down and not having a good time, so I'm not going to start."
Yeah.
Like nothing's nothing's worse than when your friends invite you into an online game like this and you don't have time to do the amount of time that they're doing. And then they want you to play with them, but then you're having a bad time and they're kind of having a bad time and it just it doesn't work.
when Matt asked me to play Night Rain on stream.
Sure. Yeah.
It's like that, right? I have other

things that I'm doing and I don't play Night Rain for funsies, but I'll play Night Rain when Matt asks, but I'm not going to Night Rain and that's okay.
Yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know. I I um I listen, Bungie still as a studio I have so much love for and I don't want this to be like the legacy of them kind of like I I really think that perhaps they should just take some smaller swings.
Yeah.
Like w- the two massive multiplayer games you're running aren't paying the bills. Maybe make something single player with a very minor multiplayer component.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um I don't know. Again, there's a million things that I probably don't know about the entirety of the situation, but I it it's hard to
Would you say there's 766 million things

you don't know about the entirety of this situation?
No, I'm much more well versed than that.
Oh. Okay. Well, speaking of things that you're absolutely well versed in,
this was the story I forgot earlier, but I put in at the last minute.
Literally the last minute.
And how could I forget about wanting to talk about the Mortal Kombat 2 film? How could I, you ask, when in the same day I saw it twice? Red and I, Extra Credits and amongst other better like larger media empires Red and I went at 11:00 a.m. on Friday last week we got IMAX tickets and then I was out to dinner with some friends and in the evening and they're like, "Oh, we wanted to see it." And I was like, "I mean, I I would see it again." And so at 10:00 p.m. I went to the same movie theater, a different actual theater in that movie theater, and saw it twice.

Does it beat the 1995 one? No. Is it by far one of my favorite moviegoing experiences and delivered exactly what I would like from a Mortal Kombat movie? Yes. It is, as I've put here, my three-word review is an almost flawless victory. There are flaws. Please do not think that there are are not, but this is If you are a fan of Mortal Kombat, almost of any version of the game, you will like this movie. If you are a fan of like actually just cool fights in movies, there's a different flavor of fight in this movie for everyone. How cheesy is it, Damon? Super cheesy. Super super cheesy, but there's emotional resonance in there. I'll give a uh uh uh a minor spoiler. It's not a uh I There's no plot, but structure.

I'll even say this, the main character is not who you think. And it's good that it's not because they understand the value proposition of using different characters in different ways in different things. It is a movie that understands the assignment, goes above and beyond in some cases, and then also makes one or two kind of egregious mistakes that when you sort of reflect on it, you're like, "Huh, that's weird." Uh but you don't really care because of how much fun it is. There's a Kung Lao Liu Kang fight in this movie that is it's funny. It's It's a perfect encap encapsulation of this movie because in my opinion, it's the worst lighting compositing of the entire movie, but it's the best fight. And so, you get that like So, my my friend Will said this, a different Will actually. Uh yes, sorry Will, I have two friends named Will.
That's okay.
Um said, "This movie looks and feels

like they spent the exact same amount of money as the 2021 Mortal Kombat movie, but they understood where they should be spending that money."
[snorts]
If you like Mortal Kombat, I cannot recommend it enough. And it'll be a really interesting conversation when Street Fighter comes out because Street Fighter I think is going a completely different direction. The new trailer for that looks sick, and I'm hoping that it is very, very fun. Uh alas, Darter, Reptile is not present. Uh Reptile you know, MIA after the last one.
Uh
Uh oh, and Valance asks, "Uh this one going to be a 90-90 minute uh Pradathon?" I don't know. Uh oh, longer than this week's 90-minute Pradathon. Sorry, they're referencing this week's movie, which the is already out on the podcast on The Devil Wears Prada 2. I'm this close. I feel like I'm I'm I have an itch away from trying to do a panel at some convention about doing Mortal Kombat 2 versus The Devil Wears

Prada 2, which is the best video game movie. Because there is There's stuff. I feel like I'm like I'm beautiful minding like one math equation away from making that sentence make sense.
For Matt's wedding, I'm just going to get him the world's biggest ball of red string.
Yes. Yes.
It's just It's just like a giant ball of red string.
How hard R is it rated? Very. If you are going for violence, Mortal Kombat 2 has you covered.
Yeah. Uh
And then there was one last one which is would you recommend watching in standard or IMAX?
So I you know what? I can answer this because I saw it in both. Um I got to say so okay, this movie from what I understand was not shot in IMAX. If you look at the marketing, it says shot for IMAX because there are many cameras that can to the untrained eye

fill an IMAX screen and still have it give you the same sense of wonder if not the exact clarity and scope of a shot in IMAX film. There is I would say IMAX is definitely worth it. There is one moment I will describe it because when it hits you will your jaw will be agape. Uh when Liu Kang is doing some some moves in the front and you've seen it I think in the trailer where uh spoiler alert for what Liu Kang can do. He like basically makes two fire dragons behind him and he raises his arms up. I think the moment's in the trailer. When that happens in IMAX the entire frame just gets bigger as he does this move to summon these dragons and both Red and I were just like like it was it was something special in my opinion. So if that is the kind of thing that scratches any itch um I would I would say it it would be worth

it on an actual IMAX screen not a LieMAX screen even though it is shot in LieMAX not IMAX. Does that make sense?
Yes.
Yeah.
All right.
Uh yeah, that's my that's my I feel like I've done two pitches for pieces of media that I really like which is great. Normally that's not the case.
Yeah.
Uh and there will be a full ToP episode about uh Mortal Kombat 2. I'll remind everyone it'll be up next at this time next week.
Okay. Last week we talked a bit about the Steam Controller and I have come with a report. It went about as well as we think Valve launches for hardware ever go, which is to say that a bunch of people scooped up most of them and started scalping them for $30 on eBay. I was not able to get one in the initial order. I I I will say however as an update that Valve has created a reservation system where each Steam account is only allowed to purchase I

believe one and you go on a wait list and then you have three days from the time you get the email that says it's your turn to get a controller to get it, but they're currently sold out which due to the scalping it's kind of hard to tell whether or not that's a good thing, right? What like if there's enough demand that scalpers are buying all of it, that's cool, but it's also a new piece of hardware which means that scalpers might buy it just to speculate on it and that's not helpful for determining actual interest. Um though I will say that the it didn't quite crash the store as hard as either um uh Silk Song or um Satisfactory 2 did. Uh it there was some noticeable chugging on the Steam store. Not that that's like a quantifiable measure of how much interest there was, but there was enough interest that it was a noticeable degradation of service. So, we'll see. I am trying to get one. I do

want to do a review of it as someone who is not maybe the biggest controller gamer, but does play a lot of PC games and would like more ways to control my PC games. So, uh I am trying to get one as soon as I can, but it's difficult.
This is one of those things where I'm sure I'll get one eventually. Um but because I do so much console stuff, uh it just I'm I now even on PC I just use my my my PS5 controller that can't hold a charge anymore, my like original one from however many years ago. I just hardwire it into the PC and that's my like main controller.
I use a I use a Switch Pro Controller cuz it's what I've got and it's what I like.
Yeah.
Um
No, but I I like that they're implementing the system. I'm hope I like actually, here's some some silver lining frown upside down kind of thing. I'd rather they learn this lessons on the controller as opposed to the console computer or headset.
Yes. Agreed.
Um I'm curious. Do we know the specs of

the headset yet? Like the actual interior specs?
so. I don't.
holding I'm holding off to finish um Half-Life Alyx cuz I have the PSVR 2 headset thing. Uh which is wonderful, but it's a huge pain to like move everything and cuz the thing that I don't love about that setup that they don't tell you on the tin is every time you connect it to your PC and you link your control your PSVR 2 controllers, it loses that connection with your PlayStation. It can only they can only connect to one thing like on its little memory at a time. So, I have you have to do a whole reset. So, I just don't do it. And so, I'm curious if how good um both on my computer and in the glass in the headset and individually it the Steam the Steam headset will play uh Alex and other games.
Apparently, there's a part listing website for the headset.
Oh, hell yeah. I'm also looking forward to having a PC-based [clears throat] headset again

because I would love to get some and Will, I haven't pitched this to you, but I want to figure out how exactly to do it. I want to pitch some creator tournaments in Walkabout Mini Golf. And I think there's a way to have a player be essentially a camera that walks around looking at all of the stuff. Um because I think it would be very fun to do like these fun little tournaments with some Nebula folks and and other things. Uh but that all depends on how many headsets are around and who has what. Okay.
I have
I think Walk About Mini Golf, in my opinion, is still the absolute pinnacle of VR gaming.
I'm looking at something real quick. I might be able to give you a definitive yes or no right now, actually.
Oh, Dark Wolf finally got Nice. Finally got RE7 for PS4 so I can do VR with it now. It is a trip. Buckle up. Uh

Yeah, it's a yeah. Godspeed.
Yeah, so um there's a there's an app that lets you Do you remember when I did a VR stream?
Yeah. You were playing um was it uh Pistol Whip?
Play Pistol Whip and until you fall.
Yeah.
Um and there's a that app is still supported. So essentially, it's how you do the You have a camera that track that puts you in the VR world. So you can do an overlay and have a stabilized camera that isn't in your headset.
Right. What we would do is we would put someone as like the commentator to be that person because the way that you move around and Walk About is a little bit different than other We can figure it out.
I I have thoughts and feelings, but yes, it is doable. Uh Okay. Speaking
[laughter]
We we we mentioned in the pre-show that we get here and talk about this. So we're going to get here and we're going to talk about the Neverest Everness

AI drama. So, Neverest Everness is a gacha game that came out recently. Uh I know very little more about it other than there have been extensive accusations that they've used quite a lot of AI art in their in-game assets, um which they denied. In fact, they denied it so much that they denied it when uh Ironmouse's team asked them directly as part of a sponsorship negotiation if they used generative AI as part of the game, and they said no. And Ironmouse found out that they lied. And Ironmouse put them on blast, which is not a great way for a gacha game to start. Going to be real honest. Arguably the biggest VTuber in the entire world putting you on blast for lying during sponsorship negotiations is like not maybe the best call.
Not a good look.
It's not a good look. No, uh yeah, no,

there's like one thing is true universally in our line of work, and it's don't mess with the mouse. And there are two mice that we refer to. One of them is Mickey, and one of them is Iron.
Yeah.
Yeah, so this this is kind of interesting. They've said that now the the anecdotal unconfirmed report is that they have since rectified this by removing a large amount of the AI material, some of which was replaced with more AI-generated material.
Oh, thank goodness.
That they did a better cleanup job on, but not good enough that people couldn't tell that it wasn't still AI-generated material. Um so I don't think this one's going to last terribly long given that they've just lost 100% of their credibility. Uh
Though, I mean, to be fair, a lot of these games credibility isn't really the currency they're going for.
Yeah, no, that's that's fair.

But I agree there's so many other options people could go with.
Yeah.
You know.
Um And uh as as sort of an aside to this, um someone brought up that uh in in the pre-show and in the comments, um that uh Hoyo, the company that makes Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, ZZZ, and a couple others, um has expanded its stance on using AI and is now uh demanding that all voice actors consent to have their um voice used to train an AI model for the characters that they voice. And anyone who isn't okay with that is getting let go. Um and that's about as much as I wanted to talk about that cuz I quite frankly like didn't find an interesting hook for that. Like Hoyo does Hoyo things and mistreats voice actors. Sky is blue, water is wet.

We move on. Uh
Yeah, that's uh that's real that's that's real cussy of them.
It's not It's not great. Um but in good AI news,
What?
good AI news. I know, it's it's wild. Xbox has announced that they are walking back the Co-pilot for Xbox program. Asha Sharma uh is is taking big swings at the at the head of Xbox right now. Um and uh she um said the
the the media assignment at the very least.
Yeah, Xbox needs to move faster, deepen our connections with the community, and address friction for both players and uh developers, she's uh wrote on May 5th. Today we've brought in leaders who helped build Xbox, while also bringing in new voices to help push us forward. This balance is important as we get the

business back on track. As part of this shift, you will see us begin to retire features that don't align with where we're headed. We will begin winding down co-pilot on mobile and will stop development of co-pilot on console, period, end quote.
Yay!
That's it. We did the thing.
I'd like to think that we had a very, very small part in that.
Yeah.
Uh Yeah. I I Let's get Let's keep this going.
PC. Correct.
Right.
Yeah. Uh
Just shutter it.
Yeah.
Shutter the whole thing.
Yeah. I I agree. Like it's not but it is a good sign that like this was one of the big concerns that people had about Asha Sharma when she started, which was she was coming from the AI division and lots of people were concerned that she was going to double down and make it like a lot worse. And this even if it's designed to be a peace offering uh feels

like a pretty good peace offering. Got to say. Nice offering. Like it. It's good horse. It might have a bunch of, you know, Greeks inside waiting to siege down the walls of Troy, but it's a good horse.
Uh also, yes, oops, we we did we did get that. Thank you for passing it along. Essentially, we were going to wait and see how it sort of like plays out. Uh we know that it is available basically in on uh Windows 11, you could put it into Xbox mode, which sort of now turns it more into console-esque interface. Uh we were going to wait and see because we didn't have time to test it how that sort of like went. But that's also an example of a good feature, I would argue, that essentially um it is what you want to see as opposed to something like co-pilot being shoved down everyone's throat. Um Yeah.
Yeah. Uh and yeah, yes, Grass, that's a very good um that's a very good comparison, like big picture mode but for the whole PC. Yes. Much like Steam's big picture mode but PC-wide. Um I it will be difficult for me to test because

of streaming. I have all of the Xbox integration stuff turned all of the way off as far off as I can get it um because it drains resources and interferes with stuff like game capture. Um so uh I will need to do some work to see if I can actually try it.
Yeah. But no, I think Ashish Sharma is doing a Sharma, pardon, is doing uh good so far.
Yep.
I'm I'm hoping that it continues.
Yep. Absolutely. And that, dear friends, is our episode for today. Uh
We've done it.
We We have. We have indeed done it. The brief
Tanya hasn't gotten back to me yet.
The
Uh she might be I don't know working. Uh
Uh the brief coming up this week is as follows. Uh today and Wednesday and potentially Friday, depending on how we're feeling, Pragmatta continues. I'm enjoying the heck out of this little game. Um we had a couple of tech issues last Monday uh with crashes. I have since resolved those. It turns out that Pragmatta doesn't know what to do with itself if you turn frame generation off.

You have a card that can do frame generation and you turn it off, it kind of just doesn't know what to do with itself.
Yeah.
Um so I've re-enabled it and things are working great and I absolutely love this game and if anything happens to Diana, I will blow up the entire moon.
Wow.
I know. She They did such a good job with writing for Diana as a character uh and letting her both be a kid and also terrifying.
A robot?
A yeah, a robot. Um so that's great. Uh tomorrow we're checking out a get this, a Balatro-inspired memory game using tarot. Called Moria Arcana. I'm very excited to look at that in the Rogue Review tomorrow and then Thursday, Jeff and I will have a special guest on. We're going to be talking about the discovery problem, which is with all of these games coming out, how the heck do any games get noticed at all? Um so we have an expert in game marketing who'll be coming on to join us this Thursday for

Design Club. So please look forward to that. I know I am.
Hell yeah. I guess the only thing that's left to do is our traditional Games for Breakfast outro that we all know and love. Uh if you're new here on either Twitch or YouTube, if you're a Brad or a Janet, or if you're watching over on Nebula and you're a Rocky, uh please uh let us know what you thought of this week's stories either in your respective comments or message us on Blue Sky like Whoopi did. Uh because the the Whoopsie did because the that's the way that we can sort of figure out what you're thinking about all of these stories.
Yep.
Um but until next time, uh what I was trying to get at was if you're new here, we always do the same outro every single end of Games for Breakfast to send us all as a community out into the world and you know, start our work uh to I just want to on a good foot cuz we want to get that energy continually moving in a positive direction for us for the rest of the week. So without further ado, please all join me and do the exact same thing I do. I don't even know why I'm

telling you this. But you know this already. So So thank you for watching Games for Breakfast and now we're just going to wait for Tanya to text us back. Uh no, we're not done.