#201 | The Numbers Are In... - Is Game Pass SAVED? | The Numbers Are IN... - Is Xbox Hardware Dying?

This episode is brought to you by Vitamin Water. So much of what the world is obsessed with starts out in New York City. It's a place full of style and character that has something for everyone. With a range of flavors to meet any kind of taste, it's no wonder Vitamin Water was born there. Colorful, flavorful, anything but boring. Vitamin Water injects a daily dose of vibrancy into a water down life. Grab a Vitamin Water today. Vitamin Water is a registered trademark of glassso.

Two timelines, one impossible mystery. Life is Strange Double Exposure. Follows Max Callfield as she shifts between two timelines to solve a supernatural murder mystery after finding her friend Safi dead in the snow. In this parallel timeline, Safi is still alive and still in danger. With her new power, can Max solve and prevent the same murder? By Life is Strange Double Exposure, available now on Xbox Series X and S, PlayStation 5 and PC, rated M for mature.

This year, Sadduce bringing the power of energizer into his workshop. Whoa, the energizer bunny's got so much power. Wait, he's powered up all the toys. I think that means we're done for the year. I love this bunny. He's the hardest working helper the North Pole has ever seen. And he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number one longest lasting AA battery. So this holiday season stock up on Sadduce and the Elves, favorite battery. Energizer Ultimate Lithium.

Balddoce's Selutations everybody, it is Maddie here today and welcome to episode 201 of Defining Duke AXBOX Podcast today. I am joined by the Shinobi Lord Kahnito. How are you today, good sir? I'm doing good, I'm doing good, tired, but good, just a lot going on. That's going on this week, bro. What are you talking about? You know, it's the most crazy quiet weekend in the whole world, right? There's nothing going on this week. Bro, someone sent me the funniest, Jeff.

I don't know if you see my timeline and it's the metaphor and yeah, I know you played a little bit. I was super like this point. There's the iconic thing that's in metaphor that people know about as far as candidates. And it's just the funny story is I'm playing metaphor during the election. It's why I was seeing it the lately last night. There was lines getting ripped and I'm like, I think I just saw this on like Twitter a couple days ago.

I was like, you know, playing this game while watching the election results in real time. Unfucking believeable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. That was an experience I will always remember. I was like, I can't believe just how like, well, this is marrying real life. It's art. It's like, it's just, it's a wild time to be playing this game at this exact moment. Yeah. But other than that, being tired a little bit running around. Oh, I'm hanging in. I'm hanging in, man. It's just so much going on.

But how you doing, man? How are we feeling? I'm good. I wanted to give some love to our fellow dukes to LSM audience. So let's use the right in here from Jason Tomola bitch because it made me write. It made me laugh. Jason Maddie, I just want to say I'm proud of you, server for surviving your attempted cancellation and character assassination. When we do cancel you, I want it to be for pushing Sonic on the community not lies in Slander. Have a, oh, we'll get him, but not like that.

Yeah. He's like, this is how we go again. I'm like this way, but this way. Yeah. I look, I don't want to make it all about me, but I just want to take a moment to thank everyone. Like, I, you know, after healing a little bit, man, I took some time to just dive online. I did my thank you to our, as I already said last week, but then I, I took a, took a gander at the comments. I just, you know, you got a few out the community sentiment.

I don't believe in the idea of like completely ignoring what everyone has to say online. And so I was like, okay, let me just even about disagree. Like, let's see what people got to say. And LSM fam, just thank you for showing up. I mean, I saw it on Constellation Sacred Plus, Summon Sign, Duke, like, the comments were really just supportive of me. And this was like before anything happened. Like, where it, like, just thank you, you know, thank you for being there.

Thank you for, for making this recovery a lot easier. I'm doing a lot better this week, man. This is the, it's so funny. It's so fun. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's like I blinked and it's been a week, but, you know, it just feels like things are settling down. I'm getting back into my rhythm. I got my appetite back. I'm exercising again.

Like just getting a degree of normalcy back, but a big reason why I was able to get back on my feet beyond all the people in my personal circle really was the audience. Thank you for having my back for cheering me on there. That was immensely helpful and not losing hope. So just, yeah, I appreciate it immensely. Thank you for taking the time to write in and thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't say it enough. It just made a huge difference. Thank you.

Always always know when the real ones come to a good got your back during the adversity. That's what is beautiful. Absolutely. I don't have to rub it at Duke's. Yeah. I'll accept fam too. At the same time, I'm learning certain people who have blocked me for in light of all this and there's some that I saw that one of them in particular, I won't name names, but one in particular, I'll tell you if there's a show, I was like, man, really? I was like, yeah, what the block?

Yeah, I caught a few blocks for sure. And by the way, this is happening in nature of me not searching these people up. I'm like researching for videos and like, I was like, oh, like this name here and it goes to their profile where I'm like going to try to look at the statement. Oh, that's, it says you were blocked. I'm like, well, shocks. That's a shitty way to learn that. And nonetheless, it's going to happen. It's all good. We learn. We do learn.

And so yeah, just again, thank you to the audience. I appreciate everyone writing and giving some kind of words. Hope everyone out there is doing well. And if you want to support us, head to patreon.com slash last day media early. Add free access. Goes live on Thursdays. Otherwise, we hit free feeds on Spotify, Apple Google podcasts. Many more on Sundays. You can see us on the last day and media YouTube channel.

You so desire to see our faces, which, you know what I was thinking about the other day, Kog is that there's people who just like listen to us. And that's it. Like they don't know what we look like. Oh, yeah. That's true. I think we had that. I don't know if it was this past live show, but people who were just like, oh, I'm seeing you guys for the first time. I only listen. I'm like, how'd you find us then? I think so. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to Spotify now, right?

You know what I'm saying as far as, you know, the audio listening community and stuff like that. And it is interesting because I'm like, we do so much with our faces and gestures. There's just stuff like that. So I always try to put myself in the mind of the audio listener when you actually do a better job than me. I always say, hey, for our audio listeners, this is what's going on. And you'll get proper context, you know, say kind of thing. But that's, it is interesting.

The form of consumption. And there are people who tell me like, hey, love you guys or even ILP, but you know, you draped in the battery on my phone with this video. So I have to listen to audio or I'm a truck driver. I work a nice shift. And I get it. So in essence, there's always going to be that level of consumption. For sure. So we thank you for listening wherever you do listen. Again, everything linked down below if you want to go ahead and check it out.

But otherwise, Cog, let's get into some new, into some news here. It is a very busy week in gaming. A lot of little tidbits here. First one though that I wanted to get into is a brand new creative director for perfect dark.

This is also extremely interesting information given what it means for PlayStation is we'll get into here because GameFile has reported that Brian Horton, creative director at Insomniac, who spent significant time on Wolverine, has now taken his talents to the initiative to work on perfect dark. And has said that creative differences led to Horton to leaving his current position for a new one and it becomes even worse for Wolverine as the game is also lost.

It's director and Cameron Christiansen though he will be remaining with the company. Brian Horton's an awesome dude. He actually reached out to me when he saw my Indiana Jones retrospective go live on Retro Rebound and he loved how I was like going through the manual and like he saw he was sharing memories of like how distinctly awesome it was putting that together. If anyone's not seeing that video, you want to know what manual I'm talking about. It's for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's tomb.

It's like built like Andy's journal and it's got so much detail, so many cool ideas, so many little notes. It's one of the perfect game manuals out there and the game is awesome too. So he's a great dude and it's interesting to see him kind of if you will for lack of better terms switching teams. This is obviously an indicator that something's going a little south with Wolverine.

We don't know exactly what except created differences, but we're seeing here that there's a pretty significant higher for perfect dark, which we saw a gameplay of this year and looks really good. So, Cog, what are our thoughts here on what game file has reported? Yeah, this was a surprise to me because like you said, now you got to send me that video. Now you got to be like a tree. I'm like, oh wow, did you get that? Yeah, send that to me. I want to check that out.

But, you know, one is one of those guys, man. He's a legend out here and people forget like he worked on the Tomb Raider reboot. He was part of Infinity War from the old days as well. He's got tremendous chops. So, look, in Samyay, we know like if you want to look at PlayStation Studios, you can make the argument if it was for in Samyay, like where would they be, right? So they hear this about Wolverine is a little concerning to me because look, if somebody, this is why I look at it.

So, when someone gets a bag, they like, yo, you got a bag, Xbox, you know, you're going to go over, no big deal. That happens in the industry. The key that got me is the second creative director who is still with the company. It's just the game's director, bro. Games the right level. Yeah. And now is to the side. That guy who's been pushed out of his role, but he's still winning Samyay. That to me was a little bit of the red flag.

And then in conjunction now, the ratcheting clank directors are now controlling the project for Wolverine. So, yeah, it's a little shaky, in my opinion. And then the other thing is in defensive in Samyay, bro, that whole game got leaked. They were completely disappointed. Yeah. So, bro, that was awful. So you got that whole thing, the direction, the story characters. I saw all types of who to, you know, extra, you know, protagonist. Yeah, you know, we saw it all.

So I feel for that team, but it does lead me to believe that development, there is an issue. And, you know, as far as expossess concerned, now on their side, obviously things ain't all rosy with them in the beginning with the initiative because it was super shaky when they hired all this talent. And remember, and then all them left out the door and then the people with the crystal D shirts came in. You know, crystal D, we're here for Gallagher. Yeah, like, okay, what's this about?

This seems like development held to me too. I'll be the first to get it. Like, that studio, before we saw it recently, we were like, what is going on with the initiative, right? How many days you had, you know, that other stuff. So to me, what's saving, I would say saving, but what we've now seen what we had, we have some type of concept of vertical style. Like, okay, that looks good. So it seems like they're further along. And then hopefully, you know, Horton, that's a huge get.

That's a huge get. So yeah, I'm pulling for both teams, you know, obviously Wolverine and Samnyak, that's a huge get. And obviously, perfect art looked really impressive. So yeah, I hope Horton can help them get across the finish line and give his tremendous experience to initiative. What do you think? Yeah, I think right now I'm going to give and Samnyak the benefit of the doubt they've more than earned that right.

So even if there's creative differences, they haven't delivered something really bad in a while. Like, what's its fuse? I guess. Like, maybe fuse was like kind of a guilty pleasure. It might have been like one of the random, ratcheting clanks been off. They did on the PS3 and even then like so much of that town's really not there anymore. So I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.

You got to wonder if at the heart of these creative differences does lie a level of like our whole game, like do we want to change things? Like, I mean, I don't know if that's exactly the case, but I wonder if that's a conversation that happened there. Like, hey, everyone, not everyone, but a lot of people know our story. You saw how that went for the last of us part too. Like, you know, do we want to put ourselves through that again?

It was probably an unpredictable, uncomfortable spot for them to be in there. So on that level, I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. But for Xbox to get a talent like this is definitely huge. I mean, again, when I look at projects that lose their creative directors, lose their directors, I think of like Halo Infinite, I think of Dragon Age.

Like I think of these games that maybe for many are not an indictment of the end product being bad because I think Halo Infinite turned out solid enough, could have been better in some ways. For many people, not all, definitely not me though, Dragon Age turned out solid despite a long development timeline. So it's not an indicator at the end product. The end result is going to be very bad. But it does mean that there is some sort of trouble happening right now.

If, you know, patterns we've seen in the past are anything to go by. But yeah, man, just boning up that talent over on, huh? Yeah, boning up. Yeah. I was thinking about the other day. I anytime I think of it, I think of our first boning up interaction, right? Where I let that go. And I didn't mean like that. And we had to have the first, you know, we had our first boning. We clipped us over. It's over. It's over.

But when we had that first exchange, I was like, dang, I can't really say that because it does sound kind of foul. And there's been so many opportunities. And that was a limit test for me. I was like, let me see if this can get out. Let me see if I can get this out and get anyone to remember. It's a right away. Right? Push it in. I live at break. I see what you're doing. Yeah. I tried to fail. Obviously got me here.

So. And the last, just showing off the defenses will say on the initiative totally for that. Probably a good sign from the project that in the middle of its development after showing their netting talent like Brian Horton. So don't want to call it for either project yet, but looking forward to seeing more from both teams. Seems like the next game we're going to get from Insomniac since they've now confirmed no Spider-Man 2 DLC is going to be venom.

And yeah, no DLC for Spider-Man 2 super disappointing because all of those side quest lines are basically fucking cliffhangers. And that was like my, the more I think about that game, the more I think it's like super disappointing. I really, I love Spider-Man. Probably more than anybody, but just Christ. You know, that DLC was like mandatory. At that point.

So we'll see if the venom spin off game includes any of those stories, but I think it's very clear that they held all of that for like Spider-Man 3. Yeah, disappointing because you can tell a lot of potential. And then remember the multiplayer game, pushing or whatever they had. I like that look cool. I was like, man. You know, so it's just like they like I agree. I think it looks like they're moving to part three and they just moving on. Yeah. For sure.

Well, actually talk about games later on the show that are not doing DLC either previously confirmed by yours truly, but nonetheless, we'll talk about it. This episode is brought to you by I'm's pet food. When you choose I'm's dry dog or cat food, you can see a difference in your pet with your own eyes, healthy energy in five days, healthy digestion in 10 days, and healthy skin and coat in just 25 days. Satisfaction for you and them. Guaranteed are your money back.

Feed I'm's dry dog or cat food and see a visible difference. Visit I'm's dot com slash difference to learn more. There are toys and then there are freak out worthy toys. Toys that get big reactions like. Oh, I'm genius away or best present ever or it's what I've always wanted. For those toys, you need Walmart. They've got exclusives from major brands like Disney, Barbie, and Adventure Force that you can't find anywhere else. Toys that make his jump for joy. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm a hero for giving them shop hundreds of exclusive toys. Yes. Welcome to your Walmart. For now, we get into Jez Corden who reported that Xbox may be showing off some new hardware relatively soon. Quote a little birdie is told me that you might see some genuinely new hardware next year. Maybe of some form for Xbox. I don't think you're going to see hardware at the Game Awards 2024, but I do think next year is a good year for revealing new hardware, especially hardware.

You can hold in the palm of your hand and quote, what could this be, Cog? What could it be? Maybe. The precipice of Xbox handheld announcement. Jez Corden, what are you implying, Jez Corden? I think you slicked. You know what's going on. So yeah, I mean, you know what, that's what I want. I really want to handle from them so bad. You know, we've talked about it before. The problem, I think I had this conversation with Randall Thorne because he was just like, you know, I'm not a handheld guy.

Cock, tell me, explain to me, you're a, you know, steam deck slash rock alley. Why? Why? I'm like, look, you have to understand as great as the steam deck is. You know what I'm saying, proton and all that interface. UI is amazing. It is a PC-centric platform, right? And there are people who just don't want to do that from a console standpoint. I said, what makes the Nintendo Switch amazing? It is a console like portable experience. There's no back end.

There's no windows you're dealing with, rock alley. There's no mouse, no messiness. You turn around. If they have something that mimics the Xbox dashboard that looks just like that and has the seamless integration of the steam valve OS, it's a W. All you have to do is give back end access to high advanced features. So you can get your rock alley on, but that's not the front facing thing, right? You do that. Remember, Xbox-centric's game pass, not PC. Game pass.

Now, there's nothing wrong with PC game pass, but you want to mimic the console experience. And the next thing is obviously the performance. And if you can make even series S-like performance or just love rock alley, bro, and you get that price point, that's exciting. And you're first. You got to be because you don't Sony's coming out with that. You got to be out there. So yeah, we've talked about it. If they can announce that's a huge deal for them, I would be really excited.

I know you're a hell, guys. So how would you feel if it does happen? Like they announced next year? Yeah. I mean, I'd be over in the moon because dude, like I was having this issue earlier where I am lucky I have it on steam, but metaphor, refund, tazio, we'll talk about a little bit later and what I'm playing. It's been, I have it on PC, so I don't want to play this long JRPG and like this chair here. Like I want to kick up, get cozy. That's what I did for every other Atlas game.

And I've been really struggling with it. And so I put it on my steam deck and it's, I've been like going through it a lot quicker now because it's just I'm playing in more of my comfort zone. I'm getting distracted less because I'm not constantly adjusting my seat or whatever, just moving my microphone out of the way. Just I'm in work mode too much, right? Like it's easy for the other screen right here and just go like, oh, DM, let me just get it. And that's it, bro. It's done.

And like I have a good attention span. So for me, when I'm doing that, I'm like, okay, I got to remove the temptation, right? I'm human at the end of the day. But you know, I do think about if Xbox had like a handle in my dream world that supports things like steam that's, you know, allows me to just have my own one library, right? Like just get from any platform. It's just this handheld that also is like a, I think of it a little bit like the Luchstick G Cloud, right?

Where it is first like I could stream PlayStation games on it, but it was marketed for Xbox and it does have the Xbox app, the cloud gaming app. Like it's all right there for you to experience Xbox first and foremost, but you can get other things there. Like you can do steam link and stream from your PCs here to your Luchstick G Cloud. And I love that about it. So I'm hoping for something that is on that level.

If it's not though, I mean, for me, it's just, I noticed that I get through these games a little bit quicker sometimes. One of them will weigh from my work environment because I get pinged all the time. There's usually something going out in my game or something with a video or I come up with something. I just, my brain doesn't stop until I get out of this room basically. And so for me, handheld has been a huge part of that.

I don't have the money to like get extra systems and like load them up on the projector in the other room and just be like, okay, this is my gaming room where I'm just like this connected from everything. So all very excited about this, dude. I love handhelds. I don't use my raw gal. I really anymore. I am like a steam deck OLED guy strictly, but you know, love the analog pocket, Luchstick G Cloud still gets a ton of reps.

PS portal gets actually a little bit more reps than I expected because I love the screen. And even though it looks awful, you know, just like the system itself for the PS5, whoever's designing these form factors just needs to find a new profession because they're not doing a great job. I'm not going to say they need to get fired, but you know, you know, behind the wall, I want to like, hey, this looks awful. You do, it do kind of look like they stuck two joysticks together. What an end.

Yeah, bro. Like, it's great. At the end of the day, people were like, well, that's what the switch did, but the switch today's like a nice round shape, right? Like it's a beautiful shape when it's all connected together. It works, right? And PlayStation just like, as Kong described, they just stick these two controllers to the side of the screen. You got this white plaque across the back. They just kind of holds it all together. And that's it.

Still, objectively speaking, great screen, comfortable the whole. And that's why it's getting reps for me. You know, I use my PlayStation Adi sent them out and it's got good Wi-Fi capabilities. So when I'm across my house, no streaming interruptions, it's a great device. So I love handhelds. If Xbox can give me something I can natively play my games on, I will be gaming on Xbox a lot more.

I will say that that, you know, the support that I've had for like Steam, PlayStation has kind of led to me just doing a couple more pickups over there as of late. But if Xbox can get a handheld, I will, I will be all over that. So I'm glad you said that because shout out to my mid Florida kid. Like, when I got the Ally X, when I went to do my own Ally, he was like, hey, I heard you had it, whatever, whatever. So I was like, hey, we negotiated a price and everything. Set it out to him.

He's like, bro, I'm going to be virtue. Just that handheld alone. He's like, I really not in the Xbox ecosystem, but because Gated Game Pass native was on it, it's a complete Xbox games more. That's how you get new users. Isn't that the game? Xbox new users. You're all about the users that you want to get people who would normally not be on your ecosystem. The thing I worry a little bit about is it seems like 2025 is going to be the year you get a switch to.

How do we feel about the conflict there? It's like, okay, I got you. Dan and Tota Tau with like the handheld king. I imagine switch two will still be handheld. Yes. So how do you feel about Xbox if they go, I mean, either before or after, maybe it doesn't make a difference, but a lot of people by self included were hoping for a 2024 announcement with the 2025 release to sort of like give themselves the room to game momentum with it, but there is a world, a possibility, a strong possibility.

And then Tendo goes in like the first quarter of the year and Xbox announces their handheld like summer next year. No, valid point. We know who the juggernaut is. We ain't trying to play with the punching up crew. We know when they come outside, what it is, I have got tremendous respect. I love the Nintendo Switches device. I just felt it's time to upgrade because of how did you see they can bring back combat? Yes. Yeah, bro. I was surprised. I was surprised. I was worried.

You know how Nintendo do sometimes with this generation of Switch has had a lot of great exclusives, but a lot of it's also been defined on a business level as they resold you a bunch of Wii U games. The top selling game on Switch is a Wii U port. It's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. And then they also discovered the magic that is, oh, you like GameCube games too. Here's Mario 3D All-Stars. Here's Metroid Prime Remastered. And I mean, by the way, Metroid Prime remastered Brilliant. Don't get it twisted.

Like they put effort into that thing. It looks amazing. For many people, borderline on a visuals remake, but they have clearly benefited from, oh, you can't access this. You have to buy it again. Oh, here's Nintendo Switch Online. You can't have virtual console anymore. So when I saw that, I was like, okay, I guess at the end of the day, it's kind of what Xbox said, right? You built up your digital library.

You want to bring that forward and not, if you're Nintendo, you don't want them spending their money elsewhere. But damn, dude, I was surprised when I saw it. I was like, I thought they would 100% just cut their losses and do something new again. Yeah. No, I was surprised by that, too. I mean, so it was huge dues to hear that they do it backward compared. But to your question, look, Nintendo's gonna drop. I think the player will probably be you announced.

And even though I won it next year, they're gonna have to mark it. So, and to be honest, there's a part of me that also wants to better tech. So I like it a little, you want to give me a little bit more than the raw guy like now, hey, I'm for it. I'm very curious on spec. That's why I want to know that was going to be my next question. Spec, price, yes. I mean, because you can't get too crazy because it's like, you know, we know that performance wise, you want to make a comparable device.

You cannot go less to the series as, right? Because you have to be comparable for developers to be able to pour all the device with seamless. So if you give, let's say you were able to get that in between SNX. So a little bit more at, bro, you know, you, you solve the memory issue that the S does in ham and you have that there. And now parts are cheaper. And you got your little Audi day three, your little resolution tricks, your upscaler for a 720 screen or whatever. It can get interested.

Maybe you can get that sweet spot of a five or four because the price is going to be great. Because to me, if they come out as powerful as it is and they talk at 7,800. Yeah. It's great as it is. It's great to Steve Decker, the raw guy like you're not going to sell to the masses. And I think that's the issue of PS5 Pro maybe having that's an enthusiast machine at that point. Now you're in this 10% of the population buys that you want to get more.

So I think you've got to be in that five, the four range or less to kind of really match the series aspects. You should keep it low like 300. Bro, a lot of people were really excited about, say, MediQuest 3S because they were like 300 bucks for it. And people were like, oh my god, like VR, I mean, we'll talk about meta in a little bit of a lot of, you know, aggringly bad. They're quarterly earnings are, but they're putting out affordable tech, man.

And VR's toughest thing was breaking through that kind of price market. So they're doing a good thing over there. And I feel like if Xbox can kind of create something very competitive, I mean, you kind of remember right long term PlayStation's coming. Maybe they even arrive sooner with an announcement in Xbox. That's the other thing I always say. To me, it's over if they go first. I agree. You know, Xbox wait until 2025, I admit, I was like, I saw I went, hmm. I don't know.

Hopefully it's early 2025 because if your competitors go before you both of them and then you show up, it's going to be Xbox following the, yeah, the market. That's going to be the perception. You're right. No, you're right. It's key for them to announce first. So we see hopefully they know what people are doing. Not that they got partners and they're able to jump out first. We'll see. For sure.

Next up with the news here, Cog, Zendolus Zone 0 is expected to be heading to Xbox as a proven leaker by the name of flying flame. It is claimed that it's set for a December 2024 launch and that this month, I believe, you're going to get Genshin impact on Xbox. So the Hoyoverse is coming over to Xbox. This is a big deal to see it. I think it was just a few months of exclusivity over on PlayStation. Now it's Zendolus Zone 0.

So to get that quick jump over, it's much faster than what we got with something like Genshin. Genshin was like four years. So just a four months, like, I'll take that W. It's not an actual big W. Yeah, Xbox, we want that day and day, but look, just having that moment there where it's like, okay, it's not four years. Exactly. Keep it within the calendar year. We'll take it. There we go, improving the issues. And like, you said it best. I don't really have too much to add.

It says that one year, four years versus four months, that's what people want to see on the platform. The biggest game is not missing them to that extent. So yeah, good job. Hoyoverse is saved. Yeah. Keep it going. Yeah, they make good games. You know, they're not always for me. I Genshin, I went back to and I kind of enjoyed, but it's just such a good time, Sink, that it's like tough to just commit to, but it's good that Xbox will be getting this one soon, hopefully.

This one I'm very excited to talk to you about, Cog. Rod Ferguson shared some interesting thoughts on what his plan for Gears was before his departures now at Activision Blizzard, saying he'd originally wanted Gears away from Sarah and to discover the rest of the universe's solar system. More importantly, there was not a decision made on what happens. We don't spoil what at the end of Gears 5. We have a writing here from Tom, the chosen one, one, Zorno, Dukes. Hope you're all having a great day.

Recently, Rod Ferguson, formerly of the coalition and director behind Gears 5 stated the original plan for Gears 6 was to depart from Sarah and explore the rest of the local solar system. While I'm not well versed in what manner they would explore the rest of the solar system, it seems like a wild idea. He also said they haven't made a decision on who lives at the end of Gears 5. With the wild-ass idea of exploring other planets out there, what do you boys think? Novel idea or jumping the shark?

Personally, the take I have is that between this idea and the fact that they were going to go back to E-Day makes me think that they wrote themselves into a pickle and don't really know how to get any satisfaction out of it. Thanks once more for all the great stuff you boys have for us and I hope you all have a... Maddie said no more bio-aware videos. I was like, I was just trying to get away, bro. You could see in that last video I was like, I'm just trying to end my week, bro.

I was like, I'm just trying to wrap up my week and put a fucking bow on this thing and move on. Get escaped. No, I guess not. I was out. We will see what End 7 Day brings tomorrow as we record this actually. But they said it was going to be a quiet End 7 Day this year. Which I think makes sense. They're doing everything they can to not damn Mass Effect before it's even shown itself fully.

But Cog, we have debated the ending of Mass Effect 5 so often and now we get the guy to put that ending into effect and what he was kind of thinking of doing and he's like, well, I had a plan of what we were going to do, like gameplay wise but choice wise, I don't really know. And I'm very surprised he put this answer out there because then you see the game that is announced after his departure is away from all of this.

And then if you remember, there was the Windows Central Gaming interview with the Coalition that mentioned they did not shut down the idea that this will become a new trilogy, Ede. Right? And so you look at all of this and I think you have to acknowledge like they don't want to answer that question at the end of 5 at all. I mean, 5, I thought 5 was really good for the most part. The tapers off a bit at the end, I think the third act wasn't really good but the first two were fucking amazing.

We're amazing, amazing. And it was really was just that ending that sits with you though. Most where you go, okay, you got to pick one and I don't know, I feel like one choice is more obvious than the other personally but still, I'm very curious if they'll ever make that decision. So, Cog, what do you make of what Rod had to share with us and what Tom the Chosen One wrote in about? That's the time to chose the one in Rambadoux and yeah, Rod Ferguson to finish it, man.

Look, I was shocked at how transparent and open he was talking about. He was going in. So he seemed taken back that the direction was actually the Ede stuff after he's gone and stuff. But all right, first of all, about the going to other places, I want to mind it. I want to mind it. I think there is a part of me that feels that you got to shake up the gear formula on some level, right?

And I think they've obviously done what they felt all they could do initially with the Marcus character and then obviously, you know, now pushing it and they had JD and then why am I a Kate, right? Homegirl stays Kate and then Kate and stuff like that. So now it's like, all right, where do you go next? Then you, I agree with Tom the Chosen One, you did kind of write yourself into a corner. You did kind of say, hey, Cliff Hanger.

So now be become what's canon and these are the issues that Cliffy B had. You were just like, why you didn't just had a ball to go it. You know what I'm saying? We did it when we had certain beloved characters. You know what I'm saying? It had to go. So that's the thing. Now, Rod and his defense, he's like, yo, I did have a kind of a plan and there was going to be, but he did say it was like internal debate as far as that discussion or how that was going to go.

So look, me personally, I get off on a state again. I am selfish. I do not care if anyone live with die who cares that selfish cock talking. E day, I am glad they did that because to me, you got to go back to the SS and get this the glory days. It is a weird moment of like Xbox really avoiding stepping on a rake, right?

Like the stepping on a rake when you think about it, just buy on paper is like, let's go and try to answer this cliffhanger and get further away from what many people think Gears is, right? Because for me, it was all about tone really. Like I thought, especially in act two, Gears, I've had like one of the best lore based reveals of the series. Like, but it was also because it was tonally in the right place. Like I think one thing Gears really got away from was being true co-op.

Like, I think that the original trilogy did some really great things with level design and just when you split up how you rely on each other a little bit, like different levels of the stage. It was cool. Right? It goes such a long way. And I hope that's what E Day gets back to because I think that's what's really missing. Yes. We got that. And bro, where's the dark, the horror, the fear? Like it's too much micro bay sometimes in the late of Gears.

Like we're just pulling stuff up and draw big set pieces. I want that. Oh my God. I can tell you a little time. The berserker moments where it's like, yo, you cannot kill. You got to go outside. You got to have a, you know, or the, the crew moments, those dark moments where it's like you got to go from light source to light source. You can instantly down the fear of this stuff. I, I just like that toe.

So going back to the essence and a pre immersion stay with beloved markets and beloved arm, I think is the way to go. And you kind of milk that situation as much as you can. That's just me. So again, I don't care if they ever decide to go back and out to, you know, I just mean when the pressure with gear six is it has to be the end. It has to be right. Like you have to tie a bow on everything and I don't know if E day is going to somehow loop and just set everything back up into five to six.

I doubt it. I'm just, I'm assuming that they're just going to leave it. Right. That's, I just feel like after all of this time spent, they were doing like tech support for so many teams. They were doing that Matrix Unreal demo. They do all this crap. They finally get to pick their direction and they go way back. I just think by nature of the sequence of events, it's very telling what they think of gears five. You lose the guy who had the vision for it.

So whatever you do is not going to probably be fully in line with it. Even if you bring him in for consulting, you're not in his head with what that was with the start of four. I just, it was a recipe for failure quite possibly. So, is completely blizzard in Diablo now. Like he's in a whole different space. So yeah. I'm fine. I'm a full of, I got to pull a bias, Maddie. Like, I got to put a hyperbolic bias, Maddie. Like how you get with this order?

And they're like, bro, that's where I'm at with my gears. Like I don't want him. None of that new gear stuff. Give me what got me here. That's what I fell in love with this franchise. All this other stuff is cute. You want to do open world. You want to flirt. And then you want to do these soft choices, but you don't really commit now. And we good. Get us back to the old grid. Old gagging old crew. Let's do it. Look. I'm glad you brought that up. It's my turn now.

This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping. Awkward, isn't it? Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment. Know the real cost of vapes brought to you by the FDA. So you want to be a marketer. It's easy. You just have to score a ton of leads and figure out a way to turn them all into customers. Plus manage a dozen channels, write a million blogs, and launch a hundred campaigns all at once.

When that's done, simply make your socials go viral and bring in record profits. No sweat. Okay, fine. It's a lot of sweat. But with HubSpot's AI powered marketing tools, launching benchmark breaking campaigns is easier than ever. Get started at HubSpot.com slash marketers. Next little item here on the news.

In an interview with PC gamer, Arcane Studios founder Rafael Colantonio shared some thoughts on Xbox's closure of its Austin studio quote, I think if you look a little bit, it's obvious that Arcane Austin was a very special group of people that have made some cool things and that could pull it off again. I think it was the decision that just came down to we need to cut something. Was it to please investors, the stock market, they're playing a different game.

The rules that they play, we might not understand them. It's a different thing. It's hard to know why they did what they did. The only thing that I stand by is saying that the specific choice of killing Arcane Austin, that was not a good decision. When you have that magic of Harvey Smith and Ricardo Bear, etc. that all come together, it's a specific moment in time and space that just worked out this way that took forever to reach. These people together can really make magic.

It's not like, it doesn't matter, we'll just rehire. No, try it. That's what big groups do all the time. They try to just hire massively and overpay people to create those magic groups. It doesn't work like this. To me, that was stupid, but what do I know? A little bit of advocating for more organic approach. You hold onto these two talents and hire around them. Getting rid of the studio as a whole, you lose those two.

This is actually something that our good friend Colin has said a lot about that. A lot of retention to Xbox. What do you make? A Raphael, Colin Tonyo's thoughts here. I always love his ability to speak his mind. This dude always speaks his truth. Never hesitate to do so. I'm very pumped for Wolf Ice next game because it's looking like he's like, he said a little dip city and a little dishonor. I was like, bro, saying all the magic words right now. Come on. You can't do that to me.

I'm getting a hot and bothered out here. But man, I'm pumped for his next game. What do you make of his comments on Arcane Austin's studio? There's a lot of truth. There's a lot of truth. Look, in today's climate, when you have a flop of the nature of a red fall or whatever, right? That's what happens to a studio. I get it, right? I'm not stupid with the economics here.

However, I do agree with him in the fact that that level of talent, you know, you have the great Harvey Smith and it's like Ricardo. It's a shame because we know that situation for what we learned. They weren't even really confident in that game to begin with and, you know, they were hoping the studio would shut that particular game down and Microsoft step in. And I think it's a lesson learned from Microsoft with coming too late into the party on an acquisition, right?

And not having their fingers on the pulse of what's going on. And sometimes I have to admit, as a person who was pro acquisition, you know, that's the detriment when you don't have, you're so big. Sometimes you're not able to infiltrate and get down to the court issues until it's too late. In case I felt it was a little too late. So I personally think Harvey Smith and Ricardo are just too talented to be let go.

I understand the economics of it, but I would hope that they arcade also would have been one of the ones that were able to save. You know what I'm saying? But we get it, you know, it's unfortunate, man. I really, I agree. I agree. Like in my opinion, you figure out a way to keep that going. But again, I don't cut the checks. And I don't know how much they lost. We know we have to save Red Falls. Yeah. 100%.

Yeah. I just think letting those two, especially Harvey, I don't know too much about Ricardo, but I've heard great things. But Harvey is like a legend, bro. Like you just, yeah. That's like, oh, we just fired Hideo Kojima or we just fired any name and Todd Howard. Like to me, he's on that level. I know he maybe isn't as reputable to some people, but like he is behind some of the key immersive sims that have defied that genre. And just to be like, yeah, we're willing to lose you.

Like I don't know, man. Like some people are worth building a full team around. That's what guides this industry. Again, those names I just let out that Rod Ferguson, another one. Like this guy, what do we call him? Kyle, the finisher. The finisher. Yeah. Oh, bro, I know it's like, I've got neutral friends of his and me and him are cool, but I don't know him like that. But the neutrals, oh, bro, you want to talk about co-signing someone without them being there. Like Cliffey B. Bent the knee.

He was like, oh, no, he was like, bro, if it wasn't for Rod Ferguson, I don't know where it would be as far as just the, he has this ineptability with it. You know how game development is hard. Sometimes those make a break moments from one year to year when it's not coming together. Now, and does he has that then the deadline portion of getting something across the finish route and shipping a complete polished product? It's hard, man. This guy, multiple people rave about him.

So yeah, the finisher, I got tremendous respect for Rod Ferguson. He's a beast out here. So for me, with Harvey, you know, I did so fortunate to really sit down with him and get a chance to pick his brain, you know, during the Refford situation. And you still, I did learn a lot. Now that I watched that interview back just recently, he was throwing out, he was throwing out some bloopers to me that I didn't catch.

He was just kind of like, you know, making a studio and then the COVID and the climate and like he was, I didn't even catch it. He's like, he's like, he's flares, you know, in the sky. He's doing that. Help. You know, we're so proud of just being able to get this out kind of energy. He didn't directly say it. Yeah. If you watch him, it's one of my highest before videos, you know, say, because one, it's Red Four and he doesn't come outside often.

I'm saying the Red Four, the controversy, people want to know. And then the funny part, the inside joke is with a kill me in the ILP community is they had me interview with the tightest couch between two men you have ever seen. So the jokes in the comments with me, they's like, why is these two men on this type? And you know how big I am. So it looked funny. You know, say, so I go from, but then do you know, he's such a pro.

Like I learned again, he's very, very clever and discerning the way he talks. Everything has meaning. And I'm like, yeah, you, you guys, you know, are happy. It got out, but you know the conditions this was. Yeah, you know, you know, bro. So rip our cane on some man. I wish there was a better turn out. Unfortunately, a lot of this, the talent that made those teams is gone, but that's not the argument Raphael's making.

He's just making it on behalf of two really ridiculously talented people that were a big part of what made those games great. So rumor is, again, allegedly, Harvey maybe do it something. So I'm here in the streets of Rumbler. So hopefully good, we don't lose them. We get some new stuff. Good. That's hope so. We got some updates on BioWare.

First one here, BioWare has confirmed a rolling stone that they are not making Dragon Age of Algar DLC and have centered their focus on Mass Effect 5. I hate to beat that guy to my own horn, but this, this, I saw it making the rounds. I was like, damn, really? This was in my interview when my preview went live. This, I sat down with the games director and asked her directly like, will there be DLC? She's like, no, we're like, just focused on getting this out. And we're just, we're not doing DLC.

Like, we're not doing a trespasser or anything like that. And to my understanding with that interview, it's because BioWare kind of recognized the mistake that trespasser low key was because the true ending of that game was baked into an expansion that was like a year removed from the actual release of the game.

And when you do that again, you're honestly, it's one of the positives I can bring up about Baylgard is that there is a sense of finality, they're done like it, you could end Dragon Age there and walk away from it. And I think part of that is the plan to kind of Mass Effect it a little bit like, I see you in like a decade, maybe. I don't spend a decade since the last one, but boy, because I think they're going to leave it for a while and let people enjoy what's there.

And for others, hopefully, forget about it. But yeah, I was a little disappointed. I won't lie to see the news making the rounds, so it was like, man, I can't even act like that preview bomb. That preview got a got around, man.

So it was disappointed, but nonetheless, no DLC, focusing on Mass Effect 5, they also confirmed in this same interview that the Mass Effect team did work on Dragon Age of Baylgard, which some people see as an indication of concern, but they were there particularly for polishing and finishing creation. Gotcha. Gotcha. You know, there's also that too. But what do you make of this information, Cog?

Surprisingly from the simple fact that like their model generally always had that DLC kind of vibe and part of me thinks, you know, playing is safe in a climate where development was rough. You know, they went through so many changes. Hey, let's just try to put a finished product out, let's, you know, a complete product out as opposed to, you know, trying to milk this thing and compartmentalize it.

You nailed it with the trespass at TDLC and the fact that, you know, for those who never played it, you literally missed out on the real ending to Inquisition. So yeah, I think I don't have any problem. It's just a, I don't have a problem with, I would just surprise that they committed to saying no, but I think it's a budget thing. Like, yeah, that part. Yeah, lucky. They got the game out at all. I think most teams that have been shut down with how their last three developments have gone.

And you look at this one, it's like, look, just get the fucking thing out and just move on. I don't think they have the capital to be doing. I'm sure that was a talk. Like, when we committed this reboot, we're not going to be able to support this thing for a year. So it's going to be this in it. And I think it was a good call. Yeah. And again, as the bias, bass effect guy, let's get focused. Have we talked about this? Are you, I mean, you haven't played Valkardt yet, but are you?

I have, but I haven't played enough to, I feel, have a discussion because of the, where I met with metaphor and apologies for the cops, they were upset. But no, no, I have played it. I just feel like playing two hours is really not fair to have a discussion about it. Yeah. So yeah, I was just wondering if you were, if you're still excited for Mass Effect. Oh, I mean, let me revisit what we get to about Gays playing. I'm going to tell you where I met with metaphor and what's going on there.

And I'm very close. And oh, yeah, bro, we're going to talk. Then we'll get into, you know, Dragon's Age of stuff like that. I have early stuff, but in fairness to the game, me playing in good past, you know, one or two stages, ain't enough for me to say where I met and see the meat of what people have. It's just people have. Gotcha. We'll talk that. We'll talk. Biodware's John Eppler has spoken on remastering the older Dragon Age games and it appears they are softening their stance a little bit.

Quote, I think I'm one of about maybe 20 people left at Biodware who's actually used eclipse. This is the former engine for those games. It's something that's never going to be as easy as Mass Effect, but we do love the original games. Never say never, I guess, is what it comes down to end quote. They have to do this. There's a number of fucking reasons. Number one, money.

And I say that because like, look, people forget, even I sometimes forget in my coverage, that Mass Effect Legendary Edition did come out and sell, I think millions. It did really well. And a lot of people were like, well, Biodware might go under and I think the fact that Dragon Age of Elgard is doing seemingly well, not incredibly well, but like decent at least. And then the game before this, like they've had two potential successes in a row.

So I think if you want to pretty much secure a third success, go back and remaster these games. It's definitely a low lift project. I think Mass Effect Legendary Edition took them two years to do. And a lot of that work was spent on the first Mass Effect and kind of retooling it. The challenge with Dragon Age seems to be that you have Eclipse with Origins and two to my understanding. I have to double check that real quick. But then you have Frostbite with Dragon Age Inquisition.

So you have a Halo Master Chief Collection situation where you have multiple engines running within the same project. Not unheard of, definitely doable. And Biodware has, if anything, they showed with the Veil Guard that their technically sound that game was polished. I'd never really any bugs. The worst I had was sometimes a camera flicker, which just was fixed by locking and unlocking it on a target. Otherwise though, they showed that they've handled that well.

Mass Effect Legendary Edition came out in a great state. Didn't have any issues with that on a technical level. So I feel like they can figure this out and I think they need to because I just feel number one, what benefited the hype for Veil Guard before that damning trailer and then the gameplay they subsequently showed afterwards was being reminded of like, damn, these games, they made some good ones, man, and playing. I was there, man.

I've covered Biodware for as long as I've covered Bethesda. Potentially actually, if I look at the history, my channel longer. And I saw in real time, people get reminded of like, damn, they do, this team is special if they're clicking and Mass Effect was one of those moments and that faith restored and then hearing the good news about Veil Guard, people were like, oh my God, yes, like, this is what we need from them. Like they're making a single player. They're getting away from live service.

Like this is great news. Like it's all a flying game. So yeah, I think if they want to restore a little bit of faith again before their next big release, I think this is an easy win for them. So I think they need to do it on that as well as look, dude. There are quality life enhancements that all of these games could really use Mass Effect kind of like, it was a blessing that they touched up one in the way they did and left two and three. I'm like, perfect.

That's exactly how I would have drawn it up to with Dragon Age. It's a little bit worrying because Origins is the only non-action game in the series. And it also happens to be the most loved and highest rated and it could see the most changes because it's technically the oldest, especially if they change anything graphically. Like that game captures the tone of what drag. I mean, it's the Origins. It is the tone and the atmosphere of a Dragon Age game.

So I worry about changes they would make with that. I don't fully trust them with that. But Dragon Age, Inquisition, I worry that's the one that they kind of leave on the table and go like, all right, just bring it back. And like, let's not rebounce the power table, redo some of these side quests and like, how they just play and how they disperse around the world. That sort of thing like the balancing of the game could be a lot better.

So I just think there's a lot more opportunity to write some wrongs with a Dragon Age legendary edition. And I hope they do it. There's just so many reasons why, as I've laid out here, financially, creatively securing your future more. I think they need to figure it out. I really think they should. I hope they do. Even if there's only 20 people who know what occlusion is on that screen. I was telling you, the building, the building, the most team tab. So it on it, BioWare.

I get any thoughts on this. I've rambled enough on it. I feel you. I just don't know if they have the bandwidth. I mean, that's fair. You know, he's out here saying that. But to your point, I feel the opportunity was missed. I think it was missed. But if you were going to do it, it would have been a nice ramp up before Veilguard. But I think the next opportunity is, okay, if you do another one, right, especially if we assume Veilguard continues to do, okay.

And then you're like, all right, we're going to announce the next, you know, or, you know, addition to the series, it would be nice to get that nice remastered package, reminded of kind of set it off, kind of the similar way that Mass Effect trilogy kind of came out and it's now that intermediate period before Mass Effect 5. So that's what I would like them to do if they have it. Hopefully by then they can have some resources to do. That's awesome. That's a good point though.

Yeah. And then they called it the Mass Effect team and they called it in support from a bunch of other teams across the EA. They may be shorthanded. They did do a lot of firing and restructuring ahead of Veilguard's launch, right? Like they got rid of Star Wars the Old Republic, baits them layoffs, change leadership, et cetera. And so, you know, that probably leaves them a little shorthanded for multiple endeavors, clearly.

Yeah. All right, Kog. Next up here, some updates in the world of Ubisoft. For Star Wars Outlaws, Creative Director Julian Garrity is being replaced by Drew Reckner, who is now making some big promises for content updates headed to the game following the poor sales at your end of its debut. While they continue to update Star Wars Outlaws, Julian will be focusing his attention on the Division III. Here's what Drew had to say in what is coming to Star Wars Outlaws.

Quote, the first key area of improvement to the game is combat where we see a real opportunity to add depth and excitement to the experience further rewarding your tactics and precision. The second key area is stealth, which is not only about improving the readability and consistency of enemy detection, but also providing choice in how you want to approach each encounter.

Finally, our third key area of focus is centered around the character controls, which means improving the reliability of cover, increasing the responsiveness of climbing and crouching, and improving the consistency of controls overall. These changes all kick in with update 1.4, which is arriving on November 21st. The same day as the game will be arriving on steam with its first story pack in Wild Card. The second thing here, we'll talk about this together.

Assassin's Creed shadows will start a brand new modern day story in the hope to find a similar footing as they did with Desmond from the original games ranging from Assassin's Creed 1 to 3. Any thoughts on some of the creative decisions they're making here with Assassin's Creed or Star Wars Outlaws? First, we'll shot at Division 3. I've been waiting to hear about this. I'll see you in a little bit. You know, live confirmation. It was an unexpected turn. I heard about Division 3.

It was just kind of an assumption, I guess. Yeah, because didn't they supposed to do that? Well, I wish I could talk to my best, little boy. He's such a division guy. Who's it? The Heartland, right? The game. The mobile game or something like that. Right? So it's just like, okay, we had that aspect. And I'm like, what's going on? Contrary to part of our belief, you know, as a person who is a deskti guy, I liked when the division initially came out to try to push destiny, right?

And I love the idea of gear sets. So look, shout out to them on that part. At least I know that's common. We'll see what happens. As far as Star Wars is concerned, yes, because I was, I heard your review and Star Wars review. I was like, Star Wars, I'm good. And I heard about that stealth and I heard about just, you can't take the gun with you and your drops and it just immersion breaking to me. And I was just like, I'm good.

That's core game play, because so cool to them to recognizing the backlash, actually course correcting, actually taking the feedback, improving the game. Yeah, I'll see you in November when it's out then, and then 21st and hopefully, you've got a lot of those issues, correct? So I know it's harder to go back to a game that you put in so much resources and thought was going to be the bang of it. You thought you had something and people told you're not a fan of that.

So yeah, I liked the fact that they go, that's all be that. As far as shadows, I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know how I feel, because there's a part of me like, well, maybe on the minority head, just, are you what? What is it? Anonymous guy when they go back and forth? I thought the way the kind of games media was spinning this was really perplexing, because they were like, this is a rare positive for the game.

And I'm like, wait, I was like, then people complain about this all the time. Like, oh, then I was just getting cooking with the story. And I got pulled out of the animus. I was like, that, I know what's anecdotal, but I was like, I feel like that was everyone's consensus. So they gradually slimmed it down. And then I got to assess his career for it. One of the biggest talking points about the game was like, hey, guess what? You barely get taken out of the animus.

But also they've restarted the modern story before. Like they had a new modern story protagonist in entries origins through Valhalla. And they also tried the whole movie thing with Rogue and Assassin's Creed, Black Flag. Like they've tried all of these different approaches to the modern day story, but they're acting like after 12 long years, we're taking a check up and going back to the modern story just like we do with Desmond.

And I'm like, no, you're doing the same thing you've been doing the whole time. I'm just really like everyone who was writing these articles coincidentally just hasn't played Assassin's Creed recently. That was my only read of it. Yeah, again, I was just like, all right, bro. Like, you think this is going to work? God bless. I'm trying to be open-minded, but I am not pumped for the animus. Anything that's pulling me out of feudal Japan is not going to be something I'm going to be excited about.

So I never really liked it. I mean, I never really liked it yet. I agree. The thing is, they're doing what Ubisoft always says. They go back to the past ideas. They really liked and not evolving them. It's like, yeah, this worked for Desmond. What was exciting for the people, there are a ton of people who do like the animus story. What was exciting about is the idea that this temple or assassin war is ongoing to the modern day.

And by researching your history and getting all the memory sequences and getting those secret endings, there was kind of gold beyond the hill. And that was the fun chase for a lot of people. I think that story, but once they made the right decision and ended Desmond's story with Assassin's Creed III, it was time to do something new. And I do think at the time, the right choice was what they did with Black Flag. Like get this out of the way, hit the reset button. It's not important anymore.

And Black Flag was fantastic. So I think they did the right thing, but now they're going back to it. Like it's sort of this, you always like this. Yeah. Bringing it back. Like you've tried this. You tried to seriously bring it back with like origins and odyssey. And it didn't work. So what's the difference? I don't know. I'll keep it open mind. Because look, this game, that stealth gameplay, very Tom Clayton's inspired. I'm like, Hey, man, I've been waiting for that since like AC Unity.

So sure, bring it here. Like I'm down for that. But this did not light my fire. Yeah. I'm in the same boat as you. I'm not alone. Wait and see. Wait and see if I'm down. Yeah. Yeah. Same. As for stories, I was I mean, remember when we had that long talk when I reviewed the game like, this was a game that was so frustrating to me because it was the thinnest margin between I don't do number scores. But I always said it was like the thinnest margin between like a five and an eight I've ever seen.

Like there were so many little choices for me that just amounted to just being a like a downtrodden experience that could have been so great. Now I don't want to put the car before the horse. But what they are saying they are targeting here feels like Taylor made for me based on what I had an issue with. Because when I remember going into and look, I talked my talk. I'm going to take my out going into a lot of stories outlaws.

I was like, this is going to be great because Ubisoft knows how to make a good open world. I want to live in the world of Star Wars. Check off my list and just have fun, simple gameplay and the story will be whatever. But that's okay. It was the reverse. The story actually wasn't that bad. It was kind of good in some ways. But I couldn't get fully into it because the gameplay was so bad and backwards from what Ubisoft has typically delivered. Like, hey, we're going to give you just a pistol.

You can pick up all these weapons, but you have to drop them if you interact with anything. You have no range options available to you. Like long range options. I mean, like a sniper. Hey, you have this stun shot on your blaster pistol that will alert anyone nearby you, but it will take out one opponent. You can use this like once every three minutes. Like these sorts of decisions just added up for me. They added up. There were less avenues on how you wanted to approach environments.

Like I wanted to love this game so much, but they made it so difficult with some really bad decisions. So what does this mean for me? I will be re-downloading and checking out this update because it does seem too target. They said, hey, we want to give you options in combat. Cool. That was problem number one. Problem two, the stealth, right? Just choking everyone out in a Star Wars game. That's what I'm doing. I'm fucking choking everyone out. And I get like one stun shot.

So I hope they have a really good answer here. I'm really pulling from them, man, because like I mentioned, there was a thin margin between that five and that eight, if you will. It was a very eh game, but it could have been great with a few decisions that were made differently. And for them to get on it this quick, I'm hoping that they have a good answer here and timing it out with the steam release and everything. Maybe they get something going.

We'll see, but look, man, it's open my mind to be like, all right, I'll re-download this. The day comes out, give it a second chance to see what's going on there. Because I didn't want to, I had it on PlayStation, I was like, oh, I'd be okay to platinum trophy or something. That'd be kind of fun. But once I was done with that story, I was like, nope, I'm out done. I'm making it any more. What did it for me to is what you discussed about the faction relationships. And I hope I forgot about that.

Yeah. That gets addressed at some point. Awesome. Yeah. No mention of that yet, but this is called Dev Update 1. They did mention like watching YouTube videos and clips and Reddit and Twitter. They said like, we're trying to take it all constructively. Based on my review, I feel like they took something away from what myself and others were saying. So good step in the right direction.

All right, Cog, Monster Hunter, Wiles is going to be one of 2025's biggest games of its open beta numbers or anything to go by. On just Steam alone, the beta amount amassed over 463,000 players becoming before most played game on Steam at the time. Notty, notty, just a beta, man. So did you try this out by chance? No. What do you think about this? What the numbers are impressive? You know, I'm not a boss of the guys. I salute to the boss of the community. You guys show out.

You guys love this guy. I see the clips. Beyond like big monster hunters here. I understand the juggernaut that it is. And I, I, we move your release date when they, when they come marching in February. People are making the right decision. This is massive. Yeah, it is tremendous. I think I was watching, I shot the jazz. I think he was playing it there or the Xbox two added on their screen. And I was just trying to take a look at it and classic monster.

I'm like, yeah, this is going to turn out well. I can totally see it. But yeah, salute to that community. They really seem impressed. I got to talk to E-Bot. It's, he's a huge monster hunter. All right. I know he all brought that's his game. Oh, he was just excited. I even tried it when you said, how did you feel? God, what's going on? He slid it in the air. I was like, get bro. All right, I get it. I understand it. There is a fun. I get the loop.

And he's like, yeah, they were trying to get me a band shot. I was like, calm down. Yeah. I can see. I was like, no, he, I know what you do. It. I just wanted to say it. I gave it a shot. Right. Well, it's looking great. I didn't get a chance to check out the beta. I am looking forward to it at its release, though. So we'll check it out then. All right. One year from the games launch, Remedy is confirmed that they've recouped most of the development and marketing costs for Alain Wake too.

And it's still marked as the company's fastest selling game so far, hitting 1.3 million sales by March of 2024. And per interactive, we'll fund 50% of Control 2's development, which is set to begin in 2025. And for the quarter, Remedy is up 128.6% year over year to or to a cost of $19.4 million. So Remedy is an interesting one, man. Like I can't take my eyes off of them and what's going on with their financial situation because I feel like, and I could be wrong. I'm not trying to fear a monger.

I want the best for them, but I feel like they're hanging out by a thread. In a lot of ways, they're taking a lot of deals. Like they took one with Anna Perna, took one with Epic, took one with 10 cents. Like I don't think you just do that if you're like thriving, man. I think especially if you are a year removed from your quote, fastest selling game, and you're just now about to finish recouping the development and marketing class. Like you haven't even profited on your investment yet.

I mean, great, to coos to them. And Alan Wake too, your how many years removed from the original game, impressive that you got this far with that. But I just feel as much as I want them to remain independent, I'm keeping an eye on the moves they're making because they're I think a key one to watch.

I've talked about it extensively, so I don't need to go too long about it, but with FBC and kind of their investment in mobile a little bit, they're trying to find ways to make more money beyond their AAA games because I think there's a level of acceptance setting in of like, okay, we make damn good games. No one's buying them right now. Like no, like 1.3 million sales for a game of the year contender last year. It's a little soft. And I think they deserve more.

Don't get it twisted, but they're important to watch because they are looking at different ways to make money and they took the blood money that is 10 cents. They also took an a per and a money. They took a money all over the place. So they have a lot of deals in place that are going to help maintain their independence, but for how long they need a major success. That's what they need. They need a really big one that's going to drive them a ton of money. So I'm pulled from them.

I hope that's the case. Oh, they also took the game pass back, right? Yeah, they did. No, the fire break one. So yeah, they're interesting one to watch. Kyle, what do you make of these numbers here and where Remedy sits currently? I mean, kind of saddened in the sense that man, it took so long, right? Look, I'm glad that they recouped, right? That's huge. You don't want to take a loss, right? But it just feels like it just took such a while. It's a shame because everybody rames about this game.

This is one of those games. And I just look at them historically with Sam Lake and like the, I'm going back to the quarter break days as well. They make these quality games, but it's just they're so expensive. And I just feel like in this climate for whatever reason, they're just not selling the millions and millions of dollars that they've put in. And to your point, yeah, they've kind of been on some mercenary like, hey, let's take a bag from whoever is offered to support the studio.

So it's a shame because they do make high quality games. And we'll see. As far as the financial stuff, I do worry about them. I just, there's still a part, not fear-mongering, but there's a part of me that's just like bad. If the next one don't hit, they won't out of here. We got that energy. And I hate to feel that way. But it's something immediate because of the deals they've secured. But yeah, you feel like they're one game away from their whole studio's fate changing.

Yeah. It's not like they have a bunch of money. Maybe they do. I could be talking about it. It's not like they have a bunch of, I would assume cash in the bank. Otherwise, why would you take these deals? That's how I'm feeling. I feel like it's almost, you know, where in X energy? Yeah, survivability check the check. Energy like that's right. But I used to say that with SquarePople. Left that me.

And I'm like, now we see, they screaming for the rule to, yeah, everything's going to be from this point on multi-platform. Yeah, that's what we're going to do. Jumped in this one real quick. SquarePople is just looking for more global simultaneous launches on all platforms, according to YoshiP, when speaking with four gamer and translated by your own gamer, quote, in the future SquarePople's titles will be released simultaneously on each platform more and more.

But since this is close to the first release, we would like Xbox users to play it as well. So yeah, this is like, just continue. But yeah, to your point. No, thanks for the tie-in. Yeah, that's literally what I'm talking about. Again, you know, when you take a lot of these mercenary deals and stuff like that, it's good in the short term, right? But it seems like it today's climate because it's really beneficial to be out multi-platform and jump, you know, you've got to do that earlier now.

And that's why they're not eliminating Xbox. They're not eliminated PC kind of thing. So we'll see what happens with Remedy. I'm a huge sandwich. I've got a chance to finally meet him. Awesome guy and look, the quality of the game is to speak for themselves. They're just expensive to me. And I do worry about them sometimes. Yeah, I feel like there's many routes to secure a bag in this industry. And I think that's what kind of makes it beautiful from a business front.

Like for Indy, sometimes you might just need a good game pass bag. Like if your project's low, like you might just need the game pass bag and that might push you into a state of like, hey, we made all of our development costs back. And if you negotiate a really good deal, you might have just already made money on your game. And so anything afterwards is like raw profit and you kind of go from there. Obviously you want more profit, but that could be short-term thinking.

But it gets you past the finish line in a way where your investment is paid off. So there's ones like that. I think you just can't afford to miss PC nowadays. That's the realization all these developers have come to an understanding of like, you just can't skip PC. Let's just pretend I guess. But you just, you can't skip PC. You can't. And the best case scenario is you're a power world, right? Like you are a viral exclusive game. That by the way, still on PC, but you're a viral exclusive game.

And then you get all these sales. You continue to update your game. And then you come to the next platform in PlayStation and make more money by selling probably millions more afterwards. So that I think that's the key, right? Like you need to be everywhere as quickly as you can. Maybe like timed exclusivity is in the end of the road, but you have to be on PC. That is just seeming to be the maker break. You have to be on PC. You agree? My dad works in B2B marketing.

He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get a hundred dollar credit on your next ad campaign. Go to LinkedIn.com slash campaign to claim your credit. That's LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn, the place to be, to be.

All right, we have some information, a Lego horizon adventures. I'm looking forward to this one. Tom Henderson has first reported that Lego horizon adventures will be a relatively short game at six-ish hours with around the platinum trophy taking 15 hours. Which I know for me, people was like, this is such PlayStation-coded energy on the Xbox show. But I thought that this was just an interesting talking point on game length. And what you make of something like this.

I've been playing a lot of Lego games this past year. So remember, I've been on that kick. I think I'm going to send you this year. Like the Marvel Superheroes this year. Like I just quietly have them rolling on the side. They're fun. They're cute. I love them. This is way on the shorter side, though. And especially completionist side of things. Way, way shorter, I feel. I feel like a Lego game when it comes to 100% completion. Which typically is what a platinum trophy should indicate.

It could be wrong. But usually it's like 30. So half of that kind of crazy to me. But what do you make of this game length here, Cog? I mean, not the front of you because you know, you played these the Lego joints. I mean, you don't do creepy Cog at the park with the Legos. Legos are for everyone, man. Come on. You try to have me sit in the insta with a tank top with the Legos. Oh, I feel like. I'm too big for that. No, no, no, Judd me free zone for the family members.

Family friendly members of LSM. You know, say just not about the, I will say I bet I'm afraid though, because I did when it was soon as it was Marvel. Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm so sorry. Okay, I've been so fraud alert on me. No, not fraud alert, bro. They spoke to your sensibility. They spoke to us. There we go. That's how we go. That's how we do it. Okay, I like that. I spoke to my sense of. ER speech. I like that feel. You cleaned it up. That was good.

So yeah, look, man, six hours, you know, for a historic franchise that generally are longer, you know, I guess the way I look at it is, I'm curious about the gorilla playstation, Nintendo Switch, energy of this. Yeah. That to me, the whole place, this is the conversation I have with Colin, the whole playstation LLC, verbage, it's very interesting to me. Like this is new territory. We are targeting this franchise. It's one of our pillars. We also open up, put it everywhere else except Xbox.

Which is funny. Which is you got it. That's bad for the so far. Oh, it is. Yeah, it's like, it's to me is always places like, that's cool to y'all do it, Kumaya. We still don't like you. That's what it's used to me. I think it's fun, but we don't like you, but we need this back. Hey, Nintendo, we haven't talked to the world. How are you doing? I mean, it's just a good idea. It's burly and bro, you got a younger audience over there on Switch for sure. And you put the next Lego game there.

And I mean, it's smart. Like it's good business. I mean, not that they sell less copies by putting on Xbox, but they're probably like, we can eat that. Optically win. Have our cake and eat it too. Yeah. And how further does that Nintendo relationship extend? Especially in the world with Switch2 is coming. And if you want to flirt with more PlayStation IP, elsewhere. Very interesting to me. Next subcog. Variety has reported that a sequel to Hog leg, AKA Hoggwords Legacy.

Last time I'll be saying that is in production with a storyline coordinated with the upcoming HBO series, which is going to be based on the books. So man, this is the most obvious news ever. I mean, boy, 20 plus million copies sold in a year, outsold Call of Duty. This is probably the reason WB Games is still in business, dude. Like, that's the only reason why. So yeah, no doubt they're going to go all in on this. And I'm sure they're going to do more beyond just Hogg like, I think.

Yeah. Any thoughts, any excitement for this? I want to give Hoggwords Legacy a second chance at some point. Didn't really click with me. But once I heard that DLC drop in next year, I was like, all right, I'll check it out then. Yeah, get a little, little some performance in Hensmiths, whether it be a FOP Pro or whatever. And the fact that again, like, I want to see the new content see what they do. Like, this is a no-brainer.

I am still blown away that that game, single player, destroyed the entire year. Like, completely obliterated. When you beat Call of Duty, when's the game done that? Like, can we nearly, I can't think of one. But is that even a multi-player game? Yeah. That's the crazy, like, this is a mess. I'll with you WB bro, you better go back to the well. You better have your roll out. But it's this whole franchise because there is demand. It's international appeal.

Because one thing I realized, you know, in Europe, oh my god, it is huge, huge man. It was a perfect storm for them. International appeal. There was that pushback on people trying to silence the game. I think that propelled this thing to a whole new level. There is no doubt that some of those copies sold were people buying the game multiple times. I saw a lot of people online going like, thanks, I just bought another copy of it. Like, there was a lot of fuck you purchases with this game too.

And I'm sure that added up. I don't know if it added up in the millions, but the thousands for sure. And every big counts when you're WB right now, right? You have suicides, quad-flopping. Who knows what's going on with Wonder Woman? I hope it's doing well. But like, we don't know what model it's up to. Like, those are some of their big teams. So they need Hogwarts like a seed to do well. So, you know, the Harry Potter is about to take another big step into the market with an HBO series.

I mean, oh, you know it's on. It's going to be. We try and transmitting a tie in. Oh, it's on. Yeah, it's going to be crazy. So, I, the hog like, too, could actually surpass the first one. If they time it right, they'd do the game. The game's good. Now, you got the series. That would be like a game of thrones game coming out at the same time. Like, what? You know, it's a W waiting to happen if they nail it right. Great. Next up here, Cog, Kingdom Come Deliverance.

Warhorse Studios has shared that the title is sold over 8 million units, congrats to them. Really great numbers to see here. Game absolutely deserves it. It was a little buggy at launch, but it shows that, I mean, great, that this is where years were like, when did this come out? 2017, 18? I think it was 17. So, it's been seven years, I mean, it's been sale a lot, but still, it seemed like it was a success out the gate. The kudos to that, man. They deserve this success.

And after everything I've gone through, right? Like, all these RPG developers letting me down, I have averted my gaze a bit, Cog, and I am looking at Warhorse Studios with Kingdom Come Deliverance too. My heart beating a little faster whenever I see that game. I am, I mean, I covered the first one a lot. So, I caught up late on the second one. When I was watching the gameplay, I was like, damn, this is like, get me this game ASAP. This looks really good. So, I'm very excited for it.

What do you make of 8 million copies sold for Kingdom Come Deliverance 1? Oh, baby. It's like, I'm a proud dad. You know what I'm saying? I get IOP's infancy, you know, early ages and seeing that game at a packs and just like, well, what is this? And covering it early and still one of our highest performance videos. And, you know, they just, I remember it was like, I was like, yo, this is like realistic Skyrim. I was like, like super hyper realistic.

You know what I'm saying with the, and just the character development. And man, it was so good and they stuck to their guns. And yeah, I am super proud. I remember the whole, you know, try them trying to get the game off the ground, you know, kind of things. So now we're ready for part two. You know, I believe it's a cry engine again. And yeah, it looks great. It looks great. The car bad, everything. I'm like, shout out to Henry. And what is it? The famous, quite hungry.

It was a shout out to him. It hands, oh, it's gonna be fun. I cannot. I was really excited by the new crime system. Like you can get like branded if you break the law and people won't do business with you or kind of look at you funny. They showed in the gameplay, bro. You had to like fish someone out of a pile of crap and take their bow from them. And when you walk by, they're like, oh, with that, I just like, what's that smell? Bro, you can stink, you can get drunk, you can sleep.

Like this game is wild, bro. Yeah. I just love how the world reacts to you. It just, it's something I love about rock star games. Honestly, like I'm not the biggest rock star fan because I just, I'm the weirdo who loves bully exclusively. But I love fucking with things in rock star games and just like seeing how the world reacts. Like when you bump into people enough times, they're like, all right, that's enough. Like you hit me one too many times.

I'm like, oh, damn, they had a line just for that. And then you cause too much ruckus and the sheriff in the town will come over and it read that to you and he'll be like, you gotta go. If you don't go in 10, I'm open and fire. Like these little stories that kind of break down, it's just the systems in those games are amazing. And I feel like Kingdom come really reflects a lot of that, which makes sense. Daniel Vover is like the creative director. I think the director, I don't remember exactly.

And he was behind like the Mafia games and those are all centered on realism and like reactive mechanics where it's like, don't speed, don't run a red light. You know, the cops will come after you. Like those sorts of things that bring you into the world a little bit more. So it's just got his fingerprints on it. Very excited about the game. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Kog, this one I'm very interested to get your thoughts on Meta's staggering earnings are in from games industry.biz.

I got the article up here. Let's read and then discuss Meta published its third quarter earnings today and has recorded a loss of 4.4 billion in its AR VR reality labs division. This is the third reported loss of the year in this segment with reality labs reporting a loss of $3.8 billion during its first quarter and $4.5 billion in the second.

For its reality labs business, Meta has said the Q3 revenue was up 29% to $270 million, which was driven by hardware sales, which I think is when they announced the 3S. Reality labs expenses were also up 90% year on year to $4.7 billion, which Meta said was driven primarily by higher head count related expenses and infrastructure costs.

Meta noted that its expected reality labs 2024 operating losses to increase meaningfully year over year due to ongoing product development efforts and investments to further scale its technologies. Meta said it has reached several milestones around reality labs in the integration of AI and wearables this quarter, such as Ray Band Meta glasses, what said little about its latest mixed reality headset, Quest 3S, beyond Mark Zuckerberg noting that the new hardware brings the best capabilities

of Quest 3. One question about the ongoing losses for reality labs business, CFO Susan Lee said, I'd say reality labs is clearly one of our strategic long-term priorities and we expect it will be an area of significant investment as we build out towards the very ambitious product roadmap we have there end quote. So staggering losses, but they don't seem to be wavering is what I'm very surprised to see. This would crater multiple times over, the bill, it's not millions, billions of dollars lost.

It's lost so much money, dude. And they're like, yeah, this is a long-term investment. And I think the proof isn't the pudding a little bit, like they are the leaders in VR. But like no question, comfort, battery life, feature set, games, exclusives, they got it all in spades, dude. It's I was a VR doubter and then I got my Quest 3 and I was like, damn, dude, we've come a long way.

I used the Oculus Rift S and do I have like a wire coming out the back of my head, on a computer, this thing waited, like a brick on my face. I'm like, yeah, this is cool at all, but like I can only get down with this for like an hour. But dude, you can grind in that headset. It is a different beast. So you have a history of matter. Obviously you speak as much as you'd like, but what do you make of these losses, dude?

It's like insane that they're kind of seemingly firm on continuing to head in this direction because they see something there that they're like, this is gonna pay off. Yeah, look, man, shout out to you, you know, a former stomping grounds. And obviously, you know, my tenure there during the Quest 2, Quest Pro and stuff like that. Look, one thing I will say, like again, let's be, let's, Elephant of the world, these are really big losses, right? We're not gonna minimize it. This is huge.

And to your point, you know, other organizations would not most likely be able to survive these type of losses. I one thing I could talk a lot during my tenure is Zuckerberg's commitment. Like it is insane. Like he truly believes in this project. Now, here's what I could speak on. When I was there, I felt Quest 2 was the perfect stone because you had this amazing device, like you said, lightweight, wireless, untethered, right? Great quality. And then Facebook, shit. No, exactly.

And then one of my proudest moments, you know, being as part of them is, they leaned on me for a gamification aspect and I'm like, look, you know, no one wants to be their government name. They want to be Lord Cognito, they want to be Mr. Maddie plays. This Facebook requirement that you guys have is actually costing you guys. Cause I remember speaking to guys like you, and I was like, yo, is that Facebook thing going yet? Cause until it's gone, I'm not. So maybe it's not a good deal.

It's not gonna be a good deal. I forgot about that. Almost said it. Bro, it was a huge deal. That's one of the projects I'm very proud as far as the horizon making a horizon accounts, which were decoupled from Facebook that all you had to do was have an email address. You don't have to be anything. Cause no one want to see your grandmom and your mom while you're doing whatever you're doing. That's the first day. You know, that's the first day. But now we get back one point.

You know, this is where I, from the outside now looking in as a person that was once at Meta, I feel some of the pivots were, mistakes were the Quest 2 Pro in the sense that you've now outpriced yourself. You made this like $1,500, quote unquote business style device. And to me, your audience was that sweet spot of the 250, 299, get in and have a good product. Now Quest 3, amazing. I love Quest 3, but we still have to remember, it's still a $500 price point.

As great as the tech is that deserves that price, I look at the 3S as them getting back to where you need to be. You need to be in the price range. That's why you were successful in my opinion. That's how it was an easy sell for me to go up the people say, all right, you never have a TriVR, 299, check this out. People are like, oh my god, I've been having, this is amazing. So that's where I'm hoping the focus is there. One thing I will give them credit is the focus of first party studios.

Oh, it is tremendous. And I challenge anyone. As guards wrap too, as a packet, it's one of the greatest killer apps in VR history. That game is a full on RPG in VR. That I'm talking about, no punches pulled. You could do true VR gameplay as if you were in a Skyrim. It is amazing. So it's a shame because I do want them to rebound. I hope that this is not too little too late with the course correction of the Priests.

And I do worry sometimes long term with all this investment because at some point, if you keep bleeding, they call this going to have to talk with you and be like, fam. You know what I'm saying? But I'm pulling from my colleague. I got tons of friends and colleagues over there. And I will say as a person that initially wasn't the biggest VR supporter at all. I was like, I don't know. I remember playing using the quest for the first time and blown away. You see, I still got my demio.

That was one of the games that really took it to the next level for me. I'm like, oh my god, this game is special. So yeah, that's what I'll say. And then I did like a couple of things that they did, obviously, with the game pass integration and certain other aspects of stuff. But they got a lot of way to go. They got to get that casual, man. To me, it's that casual walk at that $2.99. You got to stay in that pocket. You really can't go over that. Otherwise, you're in this enthusiast territory.

Yeah. I feel like they got to be close. They're clearly, or slimming this down and making it lighter. They have to be close to that, like, throw on a pair of glasses moment that everyone dreams of a VR like the scouter from Dragon Ball. Like that moment of just boom. It's there. It's not this big block on your face. Like, they have to be getting close. That has to be the end goal, right? The investment is like, it's $100.00. Flip open your glasses, throw it on. You've got everything right there.

If anybody can do it, it's them as far as the tech. Yeah. He is can they survive the long game with the financial aspect? That's going to be the key. It's like what, $10 plus billion and combined losses for a year? That's insane. Oh, yes. Mark is a passionate dude, I guess. That was I believe he believed. There's one thing he's more passionate about than the UFC. It seems to be VR. You always see this, dude.

I feel like any time I fire up a fight card, this dude is in the audience, like getting fired up. I always remember, I think it was Marab was fighting, who is he fighting? The guy who he picked up and carried across the octagon and dropped him. It was like pointing at Mark, I forget his name off the top of my head, but I distinctly remember that moment. I was like, and Mark was getting all fired up, right? He's big and he's big and he fights at all. I think he would try to fight Elon.

He would try to fight for real. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, remember they tried to get it in? I think Elon backed out. I heard Elon on what to smoke. It's not just busy. He trains every day. People think he's like, you look at him with it, bro, it will go down on you. Don't leave him alone. Yeah, I remember that. And that, and then I think Lex Freeman also trains. Yeah, there's like Loki, like ninjas in this place. Yeah. Yeah, I remember that.

All right, next up here, Cog, we've got a few more items on the news. Take two. Their earnings report has stated that private division has been sold off to, at least as of this moment of recording an unidentified purchaser. Obviously we could theorize who that it is, but this is better in the team getting shut down, right? This is, I always think of the outer worlds, you know? So this is the win in my book. But any thoughts, any guesses?

I don't really have much to add on this subject personally. It's just surprising, you know, private division, like you said, I think they have an eye for talent, you know, obviously outer worlds came from them, right? You know, before Microsoft came in the first outer worlds, we had our interview with the writing, the narrative directors for outer worlds from private, everybody's dealing with private division. And then no rest for the wicked. That's a big one, right?

And their future's securing that. So yeah, you know, they go on there, hopefully they have a home and they're able to continue because I do feel they have a great eye for talent. So hopefully they, you know, the buyer comes forward and these guys are okay, because I want them to, they said what they definitely sold it. And it's an unknown buyer. I'm curious who the unknown buyer is and hopefully business as usual, because they deserve to continue. I love their talent. Hades came from them, bro.

Yeah. Killer. All right, Kai, next up here, Sega has confirmed that a new virtual fighter is in development, the full quote is, so we have a suite of titles in development right now that fall into that legacy bucket, which we announced last year at the Game Awards, Crazy Taxi, Jetset Radio, Streets of Rage, Shinobi, and we have another virtual fighter being developed. And so that's all very exciting.

And then in certain instances, we're also doing animation series or live action films to augment that and be part of these road maps. This came from Sega's new global head of Transmedia, Justin Scarponi. So what do you think of this, Sir Sega? What do you think of a virtual fighter game being in development? I think it's good to see. I just, you know, there's not as many, I guess, Tekken, but like there used to be that are alive coming around often, virtual fire will come around.

Like there's a little more 3D fighting soul caliber. We already saw a heronid going on that and what happened between Tekken and Soul Calibre. So we kind of more clarity on that and it'll be a while before we see anything Soul Calibre related. But I think it's just great news to see, man. It's cool to see Sega kind of lighten this one back up too. So thoughts on a new virtual fighter, Sir. Hi, pipe. This is a red sauce for me.

So I think, first of all, shout out to character, we have a talk about he's a huge virtual fighter guy. And I remember when I took these, you were a techie, but I'm a virtual fighter. That was the kind of people don't realize, virtual fighter was the king. Tekken was some young upstart that people laughed at Tekken 1. And Tekken 2D started taking up a little serious.

But virtual fighters that AM2 team, they push graphical fidelity to the highest level and literally whether the leaders, it's all Tekken 3K, that's when the tide turned. But I would love to see a unique competition in space, Sega, Shantarame and Robin Kelley, who put me on to this information. It's cool to see the Sega researchers to the classic IPs that got them there. This is amazing. And I'm getting mushroom. No, I'm usually, like, I'm in a good place. I'm in a good place.

And I hope they do well. When now, virtual fighters is a unique system. Obviously, you know, block button and stuff like that. But it's a hardcore fighter. And I would love to see what it looks like in this day and age. I know PlayStation had an exclusive version, maybe in PS4, I've got which one, which is five, five, whatever. But yeah, I would like to see a proper entry, multi-platform, and see what it could do. That would be really cool.

Yeah, I am just excited for more fighters on the market. The more the better, I just feel like the space goes to these waves where there's all of a sudden a ton of games coming out, then there's none. So the more the better, excited to see Sega get involved in that again. All right, Kog, time for some fun stuff. What games we are playing this week, sir? We have some interesting lists and some that we unify in it appears.

Yeah, so I actually want to do this different because we are playing two of the same games again in a different way. But what I want to do, because obviously my two are metaphor and blockers, I am very close to the end. Oh, I think I am at the end. I'm pretty, I actually got confirmation from Attic Eye I'm at the end. Okay, sorry. I mean, I just said to you, by the way, I've just been feeling everyone out because I'm hearing so many different ranges.

My play style is different because, I don't want to say I'm a completeness, but I have, what's that? I'm doing everything in this game. So your, your, your our account will probably be more indicative of mine. Okay, yeah, I have that that, what's that term when you just can't leave stuff alone? And you have to like stay talking to you, like I got to go talk to that one. Yeah, I, I complete everything, bro.

Yeah, and what it is, the same thing with followers and, and building the relationships with, with all my characters. So yeah, and now I'm really getting into the depths of architect system. So I want to, before I talk about what I want to talk about, I need to know where you are. Okay. Cause I'll, in respect of not spoiling anything for you, and I'm going to speak in code for certain things. But yeah, first I start with you.

Sure. And, and where you're at your experience, and I'll tell you where I'm at. Okay. Yeah. So for me with metaphor, I am nearing the 20 hour mark. I, I will speak in code as well for the audience, cause then it was a long game. So why I have respect and make sure that we don't ruin anything for them. I am at a part where I, I have my gauntlet runner, which we all know. I have my gauntlet runner. I'm in a new place, and I'm getting my next mission. And I'm building up to that.

I had the opportunity to explore, set up a couple relationships before, Operation 2 is a go. So that's where I've found myself. And dude, I just, I'm so impressed by the design of the game. Like this had to be so difficult to make where you can go all over this kingdom basically, and like there are certain things in social elements that progress in certain areas, and like certain ones that you can pick up with particular characters and specific towns, and they lead you to these dungeons.

And I love how creative the dungeons are, cause they're getting me to explore the archetype system a lot, dude. Like there was one I went to where I had to take out the merchant class because all of these chests were fakes. But when they saw me when my money out there doing gold attacks, they were like, wait, and they missed a turn. And I didn't realize that at first, because I forgot to read the, our friend, the insider, his info. Yeah. And so I was like, oh, wait, no, I remember this.

I switched over and I realized like the turns were skipping. And it was such a difference in the difficulty of the fight because I was getting whoops otherwise. I think this dude's got a ton of health, ton of turns, just foul, dude. So I love how they're kind of basing the dungeons around the classes that you get to play as. I thought that was really cool. But yeah, I'm not really in the weeds of it. I'm starting on like tier two archetypes.

Like I got a magic knight now, which is kind of like a mixture of gold attacks. Yeah, I can imagine that you keep a Hoganberg with that. Right now, Hoganberg is a knight. And I'm afraid to take her off of that to get the magic up because I'm like, dude, she's so, she's like the one person on the team because dude, I'm a glass cannon, I'm a mage. And I love straw. I love my man. But like, he's doing better now. I put him on the pro-wrestling class. But you got to with the head.

Yeah. He's doing better now. He's still, I always get a little nervous when my man's in combat because it's just, I feel like he's always set up to get knocked out. He's always first manned out. So if I lose the Hoganberg tank, even temporarily, this game is gonna be a severe, severe difficulty spike for me.

So I got a time out where I probably like, when I switch her over to I think the mage that is what you need to level up, I would probably make my character a knight because I have a mage that's almost maxed out. So I'll probably swap those two. So at least I have someone still tanking. But yeah, I'm not in the thick of archetypes yet. Like getting multiple skill inherent in slots. I just want to ask you that.

So I still have like one for some of these, but I have like two for warrior, but I'm not using warrior right now. But I'm just, I'm really impressed by the scale of the game, how well designed it is. And also how balanced it is in combat difficulty. But even things like the economy, like just I have to be very picky with when I buy my items. Like what armor am I buying? Am I, because it's so easy to frivolously spend in this game, because they usually have like two tiers.

Like this is the stuff that's gonna let you hit really hard above your level. And that might make some dungeons easier, but not everyone can have these quite yet. So you have to pick those. And same thing with armor, it's like this will give you a lot of evasion. Like right now I think Stroll has like 20 evasion based on the equipment I have on them. I'm like, yeah, try to hit my man now. Try to knock him out now when a quarter of your attacks are gonna be whiffing on him, almost a quarter.

So yeah, the build craftens get in there. I'm not head over heels with the story yet. I'm not very yet. I gotta be real myself. Like I love the characters, but when it comes to the story and the impact I'm looking for, it's a thoughtful commentary on a lot of ways, elections season, it's a thoughtful commentation, Terry on people in power and the things they'll do to reach that power.

And I'm taking it as such and I think I won't have a complete nuance take on that until the credits roll because I just know there's so many layers I have yet to experience and I'm kind of surface level at the schema things. But the characters are doing it for me. I enjoy hanging out them. Polkenberg's really winning me over. She's just awesome. I love hanging out with her because dude, I'll say, like, I gotta say this one thing. I'd say like a minor spoiler, five percent spoiler.

Rank one of her social bro, you is the character. Their race is to you. I'm like, straight up. I'm like, damn dude, what the fuck is this? Don't be elder. Yeah, they're like, oh, you're with that. I'm like, bro, I'm fucking unbelievable. So I, yeah, man, like I, but I love that they're going for these tough themes because that was a moment where like you just feel like gear in your brain turn. You're like, damn, okay, wait, they're going there. Okay, let me see what you got here.

Like, all right. And they handle it so responsibly and do it so well without, like in that moment, I was like, it's Polkenberg going to come and like, cattle me now. Like, what's the reaction? And it's like, you kind of talk it through with it. It just felt human. It was, it felt like, it just felt real. So yeah, I'm already getting there. I'm just not all the way there. And to be fair, I wasn't all the way there.

20 hours into a percent of five for, I love in the music, but I'm still developing like a year for it, I guess. It's great, but it's not like I'm tapping my, like anytime I'm playing an Atlas game, I'm like, what's going to get me kind of like jam? I think it's when like I'm on the gauntlet rider and I get ambushed that track, that kind of mini boss track. I'm like, yeah, like I get the goose bumps. I'm like, all right, let's go. Let's fight.

But otherwise, like I'm waiting for that track where I just stand and listen. It's kind of happened in academia. I love that track. I think it's like heroes vow. But I haven't gotten that moment otherwise. And I'm not bad. It's just not having that like persona, like that's going to mean the background of every video for like three, four, five years now. It's going to mean the background while working. You know, I have to take some time to find that track. But it is an excellent game thus far.

I'm really enjoying it. So yeah, 20 hour mark. If you could keep me in the dark, that'd be great. I'm going to do my best to really look. But 20 hour mark, I remember where I was at. And yeah, I just started blazing. And then I got I first started like y'all's like, look, I like this. This is cool. Then there was a moment. I'm like, oh, OK, we're heating up now. Now, let me just say this. The part where I was at before I'm at now, all I'm going to say, there is a what I was spoiling.

There is a build up to a mission that the stakes are very high. And it is one of the dopest stakes and plans so to speak. That sequence, remember speaking of addict, I was like, yo, I'm here. He's like, well, you're going to be like, I'm like, yo, I'm here. He's like, oh, you right there. You about. It's about to go down. I was like, shut up. Don't tell me nothing. Let me judge for myself. I got to a moment. And I'm going to tell you right now. I'm going to say his opera.

That's all I'm going to say. All I'm going to say is opera. That's all I'm going to say. And bro, I thought I knew what metaphor was doing. I never left a scene where I was like, what just happened here? What? It was so this scene was so amazing. This is the game of the year for the scene alone. I was like, hey, you know, when you know, I'm like, this is going to happen. This is where you set me up with that character. And I was like, oh, you are really, really caught. You think that's what?

Let me show you how we do story. It was so well written. It was teared, jerkin' moments. OK. Nice. Nice to meet you. What's going to happen? And that ain't even nothing to wear on that now. So I'm like, hey, look. This game did something at the part where I have that now. Why would you just like, OK, you have blown my mind. You have done something I've really never seen done with the protagonist, sort of say. And now I want to see how you land this plane because I am thoroughly invested.

Now, do I have my nitpicks here and there? Yes. There was like one or two things after some amazing moments where I'm like, all right, you're kind of game of fire. This little, little thing right here. But I'm going to let you slip because everything else is amazing. You know what I would say is there are, I advice to you, is keep level. Leveling up all your archetypes do not sit on something that you have mastered. Switch that master. You must.

You're sure of it because you want to continue to get experience for these archetypes because they're going to keep showing you more things and more other prerequisites for more. And the relationship story stuff, the side quest stuff is dope. I'm in a grind mode right now. First of all, I'm super powerful. I will give myself credit because there was a boss that I got to that was so frustrating and I'm like, F this game, this is BS. I was so bad because prior to that, I had challenges.

But there was just one thing when you get to a character and it was like, oh, you think you're the noble hero here? If you can't even get past me, what makes you think you're going to say the world? When I got to this entity slash character, I was so humbled. I was just like, this thing is doing things in turn based and I'm like, this is unfair. This is beer. And I had to sit there and I had to figure this out. And I was like, okay, you hit and that restart the battle. He started.

That was the first time. I'm like, yo, all right, let me go back. Let me change. Props to you. I've used that so much when I like just get mixed right off the bat. I would say an average tough fight, most remixes to two to three. Okay. That was your first time. I was like, Lord, turn based. I'm talking about. I'm talking about. I'm talking about where you get to a point and it's like, yo, this is BS. There's no way I could beat this. I don't understand what I'm supposed to do.

Yeah, I was like, yo, this thing does this and then it goes multiple times and then it's like, what am I supposed to do with this? So I had to sit there and think, okay, calm down. It's the level, again, this is why this is the future of turn based. The levels of interest, the levels of strategy, the level of combination also don't sleep on synthesis strategies, who archetypes that work better with other archetypes and a lot of exclusive synergies that you're like, oh, okay.

I learned the all I'm going to pro tip. I'll just give you one pro tip without a spoiler when you get anything that says, does all mighty damage. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Anything that says all mighty is truly almighty. Yes. Saved me in a situation that I thought was damn near impossible. So I will give one pro tip there. Okay. So like I'm at right now, the game was like, okay, this is the final thing. And you've got about 30 days to build to this. And it is on the climate is crazy.

Man, the twist, the turns, this is a little game of throws, but I will say this. Two tear jerkers. Two legit tear jerkers in this game. So I'm blown away. I spoke to some people that was like, yeah, they did it, but I need to judge it for myself. But up until this point, it is still holding firm from my game of the year and the future of turn base. And there's nothing. And it's telling such an amazing story.

And they did something so unique that I haven't seen done in a video game with the character that I'm like, how do you, they display your almost, your, your, your, your, your, your almost flawless here. So let's see, let's see. So I'm going to grind that. I could have did it about, I need some sleep. It's just because this game is so addictive. I just didn't want to stop.

And I'm like, all right, I know I'm towards it, but I want to grind correctly when it gets certain classes and I got something right now that is so sick, but I don't want to spoil because you got so much to explore it. I'm talking to code, I pause, I want to talk, but you know, I don't want to spoil for an audience. I don't, I definitely can't spoil for you because I want you to tell me when you get to certain moments. I'll keep in touch.

Yeah. And I've been putting the hours in finally and I'm hoping to have it done by the end of this month because yeah, and when you ready and if Brad and someone who ever, I think I think Brad throughout the SOS, you know, you know, maybe for a spoiler, I'm ready where you guys are ready. So that's it. And then I was just going to ask you curious because again, now we're playing both Black Ops 6. I was playing more multiplayer to be honest, this week.

So I didn't really get, I got to get the story done, but man, it was so, so crazy. But I'm curious now. Did you, because I want to flip about to you like, did you get a chance to do any campaign in the campaign yet? No, I, because I, you'll see my third game kind of pulled me away. Okay. Let's go. I did, I did play the other zombies map and I just want to provide update thoughts. Yes, please.

I was, I was having issues with, with Liberty Falls and a lot of the audience was like, yeah, I get what you're coming from, but like zombies is a little bit different nowadays. Like people kind of, I was getting boomered a little bit like, yeah, like they weren't disrespected me. They were just like, yeah, okay, grandpa, like we get it, man. Like that was kind of like, yeah, like very nice about it for sure. I thought I was going to get dog gone for that take, but I went to the other map.

I forget the name of this map, so I apologize, but there are two maps in zombies. One is Liberty Falls, the one that I was kind of like, this was everything was immediately available. It was kind of boring. And this other one is more traditional zombies. Like you start off in a small area. You gradually knock these doors down, you get your juggernaug and at the end of this hall is like a pack of punch and you find the best routes and there's secrets and you can like swim on this map too.

It was exciting. It was much better. My problem is though, whoever, I mean from the multiplayer, the zombies, whoever made these maps, like playing, we had three people on our team. And there's a part where it's where like there's an elevator that can go up and down and can go down to an area where there's like a boat and it's like a big circle with water. And that area, dude, it's just like a death trap because it's where everything is very valuable.

And so you're like, oh, this is where pack of punches, this is where the level three armor is, you have to be down there pretty often. But it's very easy to get caught because there's so many windows and you can't do anything to stop the zombies. So there's windows everywhere. They're pouring out from either end. So there's no like loop that you can run to like put them on a train, mow them down and give yourself some time to breathe.

You'll literally be shooting and back up in to one of the groups of zombies behind you. And so there isn't really at least a my experience. A right way to do it. There's strategy for sure. But I don't know. It's better. It's better than what I played on Liberty Falls. I like that. There was a little more strategy. There was the feeling of like I can go out on a boat. I can swim and there was more freedom in that way. Less complaints than the original.

But yeah, I just didn't like the map layout as much. So that was like my only updated thoughts on black ops. I just want to let people know I went to the other side of the zombie spectrum. I liked it more than Liberty Falls for sure. Liberty Falls unlike this maps just not like by like right away just from when I was playing this other one just opening the first set of doors and just oh, this is zombies. Right. Like cool. The only thing is again, I think pace is everything in zombies. I love.

Maybe I'm wrong on this and I will totally take them out. But I love the slow build up in zombies. And I feel like they hasten that completely. I love the early beginnings. Like you just got a pistol on a knife and you have to work to that mystery box. And like those first sets of rooms are like everything matters. But I feel like this game lets you off the chain so quickly in zombies where you just get amazing weapons.

You pack a punch them quickly, like even on their traditional zombies maps, you pack these weapons quickly. You get max armor and say, okay, time to survive. Like there is no pacing and build up. And I think zombies is a lot about pace. There is that eventuality of a moment of yes, like I have everything. Let's go. Like let's survive now.

But I love it because I love the build up because that's where all of the intensity and like this run matters builds up because it's like, oh my god, I actually got this gun and oh my gosh, like it's actually packed three times. And I, you know, I guess the other element they've added here is that you could increase the rarity, which you're going to want to do of these weapons. Like you're going to want to bring the rarity up to, to, or to orange at least purple.

Otherwise these zombies just don't die. They got health bars and stuff. I don't know. So there's, I'm boomer in a little bit. I'll admit. You say I like it boomer in. But I'm self aware. So I hope people can at least respect that. But yeah, I think that the pacing of this new era of zombies kind of sucks. And I think they had something better previously. It's a little school. Okay. And I haven't played anyone could write in and let me know if there's zombies.

These, and the recent caught entries that has more of that traditional pace. Let me know because I've kind of been out of the game for a while with zombies. I don't, I just didn't really like my fire to go and check out other maps. But if there are more traditional zombie experiences, I might give them a look when they hit game pass or something. That'd be kind of fun for a night. No, no, no. Mother thing you plan. Yeah. So death note killer within a quick back story, right?

No. Death note to me. I'm actually wearing a shirt for the other piece of media that I would never change. And that's Star Wars. And I say, well, this is best. I'll mind just by the way, Cog, the most wonderful character ever. Now there's only two pieces of media that if you sat me down and were like, Maddie, what are you never changing? Right? You're stubborn. Heels are in the ground. So that is media perfection.

It would be Star Wars and I say, well, Republic, by the way, I'm talking from a storytelling angle. Gotcha. I'm not including gameplay here. I think it's a very important distinction to make with co-torn mind. But yeah, I say, well, Republic and death note. I think death note, like I think you would love death note. Like it is, it is mental chess. It is brilliantly told brilliantly acted. It's got classic moments throughout that are hilarious. It's got everything.

But more than anything, is that mental battle between L and Kira is what defines this series, right? Like these two, like one's got the death note and he's writing people's names in it and they're dying. And the other is the lead investigator who's trying to find out who's got the death note. And they both know, like they both know they got each other nailed, but they're trying to expose each other's weaknesses in the show. And it's just a 32 episode show about that pretty much.

And just Ken Tira get away with it. And it is beautiful. It is, it was so good. The ending really isn't cry worthy, but I cried at the end of it because I was like, that was perfect. So I say all of that to say that death note is one of my favorite things ever and that this series has not ever had a game in the West. They have three games. Hang on. Let me grab. He's going to go into the dig into the crate. Y'all he about to let us know what's going on audio listeners. He's going in the back.

He grow. He's got it now. He's got three games here, right? All on Nintendo's. Yes. And all of them. Here, I'll show this other side and you can kind of see all of them in Japanese. So yeah, but I bought them anyway. I respect that. Yeah. That's the case. Yeah, because I just wanted to have them my collection. I don't know. I'll never be able to understand them. They're all visual novel style. It's a failure from the start, but they're $40. So I was like, screw it. Why not?

Then the less though, this is the first Western released death note video game. It's called death note killer within and it's an among a style video game, which when this originally leaked, right, that there was going to be a death note game. Like it was trademarked. It was from Bandai. It's like, okay. Like best case scenario, visual novel, Danganronpa, zero escape inspired. It's been off story in the death note universe. Let's go crazy with this thing. What are they doing here?

By other theory, I literally had a DM with my friend. I brought it back when they announced it. I said, I have this strong feeling. This is going to be an among a style game. And I was right on the fucking money because there's only so few ways that you can do death note. The exciting part though, sorry, I have so much context to build this up. I love it. The exciting part was, okay. Number one, death note was like a 2006 anime.

You must have some idea that's very unique and novel to be like, well, to bring this thing back and do a game on it, right? The other thing is again, there's no other games in the West. So again, you had to have had an idea here. There was just too many bells going off where I was like, and three, by the way, my favorite is that, oh, you can't do a 3D arena fighter at this game. There's no fighting in death note. Right. There's no fighting. I like this can be great, man. So they announce it.

The trailer's a bunch of the finger puppets from the show running around. And it's in among a style game. Five E5 though. So you have the L team, which is the investigators who are trying to find who Kira is, the user of the death note. And then you have Kira and his followers who are the ones who are using the death note and trying to kill everyone. I will say this. First and foremost, great fit, wonderful fit for the series. It's a really good idea. I dig it, but there are some problems here.

And among us, part of the fun is the tasks and the variety of the tasks you do on the map that kind of distract you and how you communicate with people. But the only task you really do on the map is running around and interrogating people. And you just do that by using the right thumbstick. Oh, I should also prefer this. This game is free on PS Plus. That's how I played it. I also bought it though for the $20 special edition because I wanted to show Bandai.

Like, I will pay for a death note game. Please give me something else. And it's $10 otherwise. So very cheap game overall. But yeah, that's like the only task on the map. That's one of the problems is it kind of gets boring because since there's only one task, right? And everyone is doing that same task. If you see anybody not doing that task is like, gee, I wonder who who who who who's who done it? It's so obvious. So the deduction game isn't much of a deduction.

And what sucks is they do have cool systems around it like, you know, as you get as you gather evidence as you or if you're on Kira side and you're writing in the death note as you bring in new world orders and you start sending like out dead bodies and stuff and people have to go and investigate them. You kind of mess up the map a little bit, right? Like you get people to scatter and then gather in certain places.

And the benefit of that is you're like, run in, you'll collect their ID and then you because you have their ID now, you're going to go write their name in the death note and kill them off. And it do. I would just say the MW2 lobbies are back in full force with this game. What a toxicity is lit. Oh my God, dude. I joined a room and I was muted, right? So game one, I'm like, I'm going to troll a little bit, right?

And I decide to just follow this dude around because I'm like, let's see how quickly people pick up on someone just acting out of ordinary, right? Let's start just follow this dude. Am I using his name as Maddie? He's like, Maddie, get away from me. Get the fuck away from me. I hear this dude panicking because he's near me. He thinks I'm Kira trying to run him down and get his eye. You need to kill him. And so right away after the round ends, you know, everyone's done their task.

And you're like, yo, Maddie was chasing me. This dude was acting mad, fucking weird. They start getting into it, bro. And right when there's a disagreement, they're like, well, why'd you say that? Hold on. Why'd you? Everyone's sus in each other out. I cannot use the vernacular that they ended up using afterward. But it gets crazy, bro. And I'm just sitting there with the audio coming out of my controller, just smiling at my TV, listening to everyone destroy themselves.

But this gets to the point of, like I said, the problem is there's such a lack of task variety. It kind of ruins the deduction game. And it just takes someone kind of being an idiot, not in how I was playing, but just someone goofing off in the lobby to kind of throw off the deduction a little bit. What's cool though is that you can like, if you think someone's on to you, like, yo, I think they know I'm Kira, you could pass the death note to someone and be like, here, you take it.

And so when they go to get you, they actually might have had the right person, but you just saw through it. So again, good, good systems, right? But minus the task if someone leaves, which happens frequently, right? Like if you're in the middle of the game, someone gets caught and killed, whatever it may be, they leave the game and pardon me. What happens when someone leaves the game is everyone gets booted back to the lobby and the game ends. Huh? This happened four times in one hour for me.

And so you don't get like, oh, hey, thanks for playing. Here's some XP. It's like, you just wasted your time. Oh, no. And that's bad. Yeah. And they were planning to like apparently penalize people who are not, who are frequently leaving, frequently leaving. But what does this remind us of, Kog? Tekken 8. Yeah. And this is the only mode in the game. So it's like, you can't have people leaving. By the way, who cares if someone leaves a lobby in a, in a manga style game when they're already dead.

They can't talk. They can't do anything. So they want to go and play something else maybe even there. Like you can't handcuff them to the game. Right. That they hopefully get XP at the end of it all. It's ridiculous. And so that is what's hurting the game most in my experience is when you're playing in a room, if it's with your friends, yeah, you can control that environment. But when you're playing online, like I got booted four times, it's like, this sucks, man. Like it's an all right game.

I wish there was more here, I maybe wish it was a different game as well, but that's like personal taste aside. Like objectively speaking, it's a decent game. I love that it's 5B5 and like collecting evidence and stuff is cool or writing people's name to the death note is cool. But it really hurts itself here. And I don't think this game has like super long legs, all things considered. So you, and no one was really asking for it or expecting it. So you really didn't have to rush it out.

And I don't know how this wasn't caught, but yeah, man. That's where I'm at with death note killer within cool idea, cool game, not awful. Don't want to sell it to anyone low, especially if you get free on PS plus like, it's a great free night with friends, get some friends involved. Like I think that's what they want. Even for 10 bucks, like I think you'll get your money's worth if you enjoy these style games. It's well made. It's just got a couple of decisions there.

And I'm like, hold on the back from greatness. Yeah, that sounds like a server side issue almost like they didn't have anything in place that if a person leaves to bump the entire lobby back without, yeah, that's rough. So hopefully they, that gets addressed quickly and sometimes a patch, depending on the support they have. You're sure. Cog, any other games you wanted to talk about before we move on here?

No, I was just saying, man, again, the beauty of metaphor and the dungeons and, I will say, you know, I've been having a lot of fun actually grinding and getting, you know, I will say like, again, another pro tip would be if you cared, if you were to do what you hand limb business, what I've noticed is like, I'll use that opportunity to scour on the map and some of the best equipment. Oh, yeah. Oh, I got it. If you're able to, yeah, I don't know what's known you about.

I found a hidden room with three chests and this was like a dungeon that was built around. Like these chests are all dummies. All three of them were not dummies and all three of them had amazing pieces of equipment. I was like, let's go. Oh, so good at combat. It's just so amazing. Like, again, really get tested on certain things. I'm absolutely loving, but the story has now reached that part where I go, okay, because I was like, you in the beginning, man, I was like, it's okay. It's cool.

Yeah, it's good. Wow. I like the setting, but nothing really hit. I even said, like, yo, when is it going to get problem with your men? Like you said, like, what's up with you know what I'm talking about? Your men who's who's playing a role in the white. I'm like, what's up with your men out there? It's like, it's all tight, huh? I'm like, all right. And I was like, yeah, this is some of the most cunning stuff I've seen in the video. Yeah, it's great. It's great.

So yeah, it's a little bit better for I'm at the end. And hopefully by the next Duke, you will get by full review. I mean, not full review, but you will get by. Yeah. What my top level experience was and front the back. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get to it. We'll get to it. I'm pumped for it. First order of business here, Cog, we have some updates on Call of Duty. This is the fun part, right?

Because these numbers matter a lot, but we're also talking about the most impactful game potentially in Xbox history when you think about the trajectory of things like game pass and work and get end up if called duty black ops six isn't like a massive success for it. So we have some updates on just how development timeline is going to work for call duty and then we're going to get into those numbers.

First is from Activision's Call of Duty, senior VP and general manager, Matt Cox, who said this when it came to the development timeline for call duty. Quote, when you look at Trey Arkin, Raven, they have a history of working together within the black ops franchise going all the way back to 2010.

You have this history with people you work with and that ultimately shows when it comes to the finished product from a publishing and go to market standpoint and quote, he also revealed that the series has sold over 500 million units. I think this is important to note obviously because it suggests that Raven and Trey Arkin are going to be staying together, staying on that schedule and black ops six. Babiesly now had that six year development cycle to got a lot done with.

Now more importantly is what satya had to say about call duty, quote, last order of business last week's launch sorry of black ops six was the biggest call duty release ever sending a record for day one players as well as game pass subscriber ads on launch day and unit

sales on PlayStation five and steam were up 60% year over year and quote, now Daniel Ahmad chimed in on this with some interesting information himself quote based on preliminary data I've seen it looks like pay unit sales were similar to mw3 with PlayStation and steam offsetting

to the client on Xbox but the launch into game pass added a significant number of players into the ecosystem via Xbox and PC in other words, they still generated a healthy amount from paid sales and are also benefiting from subscription revenue slash larger overall

player base and quote, then games industry dot biz stepped in with some interesting data saying that call duty black ops six is down 15% compared to modern warfare three and 46% compared to modern warfare two now compared to mw3 it's up 30% on PS 5 down 18% on PC down

67% on Xbox down 59% on PS 4 kind of whatever there and PS 5 represents 70% of the sales whereas Xbox is 10% PS 4 so we're percent and PC is 16% I keep in mind that this does pertain to the region of the UK so we have a number of writings here let's start off with

Phil Walker Hey dukes we had a glance at black ops six performance on UK charts it's going to be interesting data for Microsoft to parse over we can argue all day of sales versus subscribers and exposure or more relevant to Xbox but we do have to agree at the

end it comes down to one hard figure revenue do you believe that the large hit to full price sales can be recoups in game pass subs and micro transactions there's also obviously the vault addition and if not is it sustainable long term to keep call duty on game pass have

a great day you lovely lads thank you Phil Phil writing in all right what do you make of these numbers dude I mean this is huge and this has to be just for Xbox and obviously it's one region but seeing that Xbox sales are down a little bit because of game pass was

to be anticipated we all knew that was going to be the case it's really if subs and micro transactions can make up what's your read of all really data points are coming in we start to parse the information what is happening it's interesting right um you know

the first thing is like you said the Xbox we look at the overall you know comparison how it did last year and then we looking at as far as the overall the way the money part instruction and before you play station just team your Xbox and now we have the down

in the Xbox right so we're like okay that's interesting you know up in play station steam to offset down in Xbox but the key not being on sales is also how many of those Xbox users that are not they did not by the game how many did they subscribe to game

pass what's that number right that's another key so to me it seems like the early indications or that the offset is actually it is offsetting because everything else is up and even though this is down but then you have the game pass subscribe the active users and then the other

key that we don't know is how much people are spending now that they are in game pass so if you're in game pass and then you got the game do you did you get the vault edition did you are you spending micro transactions now because you feel you theoretically got it

for free again we're getting early signs of the data we still have the complete picture now I did think the game industry that biz articles interesting because they said that in the UK black ops 6 15% down compared to bottom for where for 346% compared to model 4

where to and it break down from a percentage again it's one of those things that I do feel it still I don't say it's early to call we do have an idea but the key to me is I got said I need to know like Phil said we got again that revenue we got to get those game pass

subscribers and we got to get those active users this DA use and them ma use because that's really what they care about and and even to the point where I think you were talking offline how sauté is bonuses and existence is tied to game pass active users so we could talk

sales on consoles all we want if they end up having more active users than they had before this is going to be a different conversation so it's the short term investment versus the long term play here and we just got to see how the data part is out but it we're

starting to formulate right now what's happening I want to see more information more data but what do you think how are we feeling about is it still risky to you as if feel you know is just a bet like what what's your early yeah early take is I can't say fully encouraged

right but I'm not doing the reason I fall in the middle which I know is a little annoying to listen to but I apologize but the reason I fall a little in the middle is the comparable is RMW 3 now MW 3 was a down year for call of duty it still was the number to selling

game for 2023 but by and large all the data we got across multiple regions was it was a down year for call of duty now that was compared to a high year for call of duty beforehand so it's actually really tough data the parse through but if you're looking at it in the

recent window it going 60% year over year from a low performing call of duty isn't too surprising and what this could represent is a return to norm and if that is the case that is great news for Xbox because it means that their move has not changed really anything

at all and how people approach call duty relatively speaking I think maybe and I could be wrong based on the data we're seeing in just particular regions they would have liked to have generated more sales on Xbox but you know if you're there and you're subscribed

it doesn't really make sense but I thought here's how I look at it right is are you going to subscribe for like a month of game pass or you're just going to buy it and move on right and I really thought that if this was the work in Xbox is favor is that they would

see a message surrogensubs which they're claiming has happened here but that most people would just say I'm going to buy this and the fact that the quote shooter box is getting out gone on like even PlayStation what that symbolizes to me is one particular failure

that may not matter at the end of it all but I still think it needs to be talked about is that despite owning the IP having marketing people have not chosen your console and you are the shooter box and I do think there is something to be said about that in that PlayStation

Fallout 2.0 for that marketing lost it obviously because Xbox owns it now and ends up selling more units by a significant margin again game passes a huge factor here so I know for a lot of people I'm just spitting nothing to them but I really do have to take it on as assessment

like steam is up PlayStation is up and this is even comparable this is this is more like year over year they're up when they were all over the place in game pass wasn't a major factor so I don't know for me man taking a look at it I feel like on a marketing level

it feels like the impact may have been missed but again this is where does it matter if Xbox has two million more active users thanks to game pass versus two million more sales on PlayStation I guess they win either way so maybe it doesn't matter again maybe I'm

just like talking my brain off here another this makes sense to anyone but that's kind of the emotional wheel I went through with the wild in the middle it's like I'm not calling it feel you're horrible I'm not calling it a tremendous success yet because I get I learned

my lesson with Xbox on that right I'm not doing that either so I'm just trying to take an honest assessment of what is there and I think game pass could be hitting them in the right way or the wrong way it really depends once we get those types of numbers in yeah

we know I'm sorry please close it you're good no no I get where you're coming from I distinct you know the way my mind is conditioned optically we always say sales right and how much did you sell on your platform so I get where you're coming from but I guess like

the way I look at it is like their ecosystem is they really ideally would like you in game pass yeah so the key is distal you said it earlier it's okay to be a game pass and get to get the long term revenue provided you have the retention what you say like it will

we after month two month three is that retention standard because if you stay past the three two three months you've beyond paid for the game now yeah you beyond now and yeah and if you're living it and you buy that skin and you buy that micro transaction that's

gonna be the I think fellas the revenue we go alert when we see how much more revenue they spent that to them they'll take that long play any day to wait but to your point if a dude just jump in I'll hop for the month I'm good you know I said maybe that's not ideal

for them long term for their strategy and even though yes play stations up so our themes up and stuff like that and they're not getting in the game pass and engaging in the way you thought they were it'll be interested to this is fun but I will say that this is what I will

say a defense of them I always get killed but you would say that said of course I was gonna say it in of course he is I love it I will say is we have to say that game pass so far the game pass so far has not necessarily cannibalized sales because I think that was the fear a lot of people

had like yo it's gonna cannibalize all sales now you can talk about the Xbox platform specifically on some levels but as far as the overall pie it didn't have this negative effect to the point like everything is down so to speak so it's just curious curious data you know we we still getting

more information we're not complete but we got a little sent to UK these some more US data we need some more long term data and we it's gonna come out we're gonna get it but this is the biggest bet they've ever taken it we will learn if this has paid off yeah it's it's a really

interesting time and they know doubt I think what matters at the end of it all which is why I don't know if there's a massive conversation to have on it what matters at the end of it all which Microsoft has made very clear with how they've operated in the past is if that revenue number is

up it doesn't matter how they got there as if it's up they're gonna keep doing their thing right so at that point we are arguing semantics right and if we see that numbers up nothing is gonna change that but I think the best sign is for the question we were really having going this is like will this

destabilize the card ecosystem will this you know will we we see like a devaluing of the product and intern like people go to game pass and what it's showing here is people are willing to pay for call duty which I think is a really good sign especially if your Xbox you still get a cut of that

but it's also just a I don't want to word this I think it's a good sign that we're gonna have our cake and eat it too like where you want to play is where you want to play and that this behemoth will outlast game pass and it hasn't dramatically changed the the economic situation surrounding it

for better or for worse even maybe and I think that that's a win there right because that was my concern is like you have your golden goose you don't have to change it they risk changing it and maybe they get a bunch of game pass subs out of them but otherwise sales are up big time okay

that's a huge win so no major changes to something that already works I mean probably best possible outcome and I think this also just reassures any concerns people had with game pass moving forward so we'll see what's the hard data comes in I don't want to make too many assumptions but what's the finance right now early data looks pretty solid all things considered where I don't see any major decisions going one way or the other we did have this other right in here I'm going to

read it real quick and see if there's anything we can add mr. Scott of your nasty dukes of the guarded veil according to games right are 52% of us series x and series s machines launched call ditty black ops six the Monday after release chairing the previous 34% record the game was also

credited for drawing the single largest game pass editions in a day and sales were up 60% year over year on steam and playstation I played the game in wow it is so damn good I haven't played a call duty in a while but I'm shocked at how much fun I'm having I might even buy some DLC something

I never would have considered a year ago how does this success if you agree change the narrative surrounding game pass viability have a I feel bad for Xbox because now Sony would be making all this money kind of day so call any any changes on the narrative surrounding game pass viability

is the survival locked in now with everything here that we've seen well early early signs are good that's what we're gonna say we're just gonna say early signs I'm not gonna get too crazy but yeah that's that's great I mean as far as like the percentage breakdown as far as all how many

the only shadowing that record the 52% of Xbox is series machine like 52% of the entire ecosystem is playing the game pretty huge yeah huge we can minimize that like that is that is a say like like 10 some million players he's like oh yeah and at the end of the day their bet is what they've

always said is you know when you when you're in that ecosystem you're you're you're playing that much on it you tend to spend more that seems to be the thing that they left a hanging their hat at with um what you go with Xbox so I just want to check right quick up during some real time

podcasting yeah so right there um boom yeah number two number two right now damn fortnight beast four days number one still is a beast I'm looking right now right now fortnight's number one god is number two wow they still obese bro they must have a do season

go I don't know but look I will say oh listen and obviously we I mean it's it's obvious if I go to game pass it was the most played on game passes probably yeah so yeah we'll see hold on we look at top pain interest oh no bro top pay they are number one and top pay game

mmm one two three it's the the vault edition crotch and bundle vault edition and then three is dragon age bail guard the third is the fourth number four and madden's number five so they've got the top three spots on on the page right in conjunction about a cop in terms of and also

game pass so look early science it's good again I want to see retention I want to see as the most go by how long does it stick also when we get this ricaana information I want to see that you know um for month to month we go alarm or we're going to move but so far early science

are very good on the bet we just got to see if it's sustainable yeah time shall tell cog we get into our next bit of news here some updates on undead labs they've been a little chatty this week let's cover it first a little update on the team size of undead labs quote you know we're part of

the first party organization at Microsoft we're born of the largest content producing organizations in the road now and we're well on our way to making state decay three where the games radar has estimated that the team is a size of 120 to 130 developers and again they're calling themselves

one of the largest content producing producing organizations so they have quite the staff at their helm and then undead labs also spoke on their recent rebranding that they've done saying we're well on our way to making state decay three with a much greater level of ambition and support behind

us from a studio standpoint I felt that we needed to look at our branding to say is the brand the way that we're presenting ourselves to the world measuring up to what our ambitions are around what we're trying to achieve with our game and so that was sort of the origin they kind of seem to

hint that what they want to do is beyond the whole undead lab thing and kind of like seems like something not stated decay related that was the vibe I was getting but any thoughts on what undead labs share with us briefly here the rebranding is interesting because I agree with you you know

it it's said it was to me that they want to be more the studio has a lot to prove though like it's getting to the point it went from the cute darling little story of a game sort of was a live arcade game from the indie scene two and state of decay two was more ambitious which had

a lot of potential and I remember interviewing the team at the time but that team has completely changed this is this company I mean this studio is going to so much restructuring and and I was we finally got a look at three right and it looked promising it looked good it looked graphical

looking graphically nice and stuff like that you know they've got a lot to prove they still got a lot to prove I'm pulling for them on the rebrand to me tells me that I do like this I do like that the other Xbox games studios are pitching in helping out with tech and stuff dope I like that

now you've got to execute a quality game and I am curious to see what you do outside of being stuck to the state of decay franchise can you do anything else and that that team I'm very curious telling why it's what's in that building to do that so I'm pulling for them state of the case one

of my favorite games I think it's still untapped potential that has not been realized yet to me it's walking dead the game with your own community and stuff like that and I heard about a lot of the dynamic nature I thought the unreal engine showing a bit look really good it was a strong showing

what's it they've got it they've got a land this plane though hey there's a lot of pressure on this studio I'm not going to sit there if I want to talk about concern they're on the concern list as far as making a quality game they've they've got past a hurdle of now okay they showed us that

what they've been working on because they were dark quiet and it was spooky but now you got to execute a good game so we'll see absolutely all right cog will we'll see but we're cheering for them hoping things turn out well and now we move on to our final bit of news here come

soon to Xbox Game Pass the wave one lineup for November 24 is looking pretty sharp here we have Metal Slug Tactics day one on Game Pass as we discussed last week cloud console and PC Starcraft remastered and Starcraft 2 campaign collection is available on PC Game Pass November 5th

so this will be out by the time you're listening to this go mecca ball is on console game pass right now it's available with Game Pass standard November 6th as is Harold Halibut the rewinder is also available on console game pass and turn up boy Rob's a bank also on Game Pass on console like that me

then November 7th you have goat simulator remastered arriving on cloud PC and Xbox series consoles and last but not least is the next Microsoft flight simulator game and Microsoft flight simulator 2024 which is cloud PC and Xbox series consoles November 19th however we also have some exits

from Game Pass some significant ones at that all on November 15th you are going to be losing dicey dungeons dungeons for goat simulator like a dragon guy than the man who erased his name like a dragon ishing personified tactic and somerville so Sega with three big exits but cog

anything here that's leaving that you're missing I think I know your answer anything that's being added and that excites you here go play some of it all I like some of it all man was it perfect did it have a little issue here and there yes in the beginning but man that game truly

tells well I shouldn't say tell emotes some really cool atmospheric story telling you know man and his family in this wild world please play some of it obviously for sort of five times look man I gotta give me a cure you I did like the man who erased his name I did like it you know

these are good ones go as far as the entering boy I'm not I've never placed all craft but this is a tremendous get this is tremendous and people don't realize huge for all by huge for PC and in I believe correct me from wrong either career one of those Asian regions this game is massive

so expect some some feedback there hopefully they get some traction there but you know those are those are the ones I think are really I don't of course like tactics we talked about that you know it's got that term based we love that little you know fix a large style yeah very cool

yeah oh he had pretty well as well yeah I'm gonna try fly simulator because I like the fact that they're at least trying to game a fight this time so I want to see how those portions work is it enough to keep my interest because graphically the things are looking I just don't want to be flying

to Tokyo and that's it I want to do something now so that's where I'm at with like simulator I I love all the little rescue missions and yeah it has me interested as well because it is a little bit more game of fight and the sim games always do manage to catch me so yeah it's got

my interest I don't know if I'll yeah my my focus is like there's a couple games I want to buckle down on before the year ends and one of them is obviously metaphor another dude his bad man Arkham shadow like I want to see what's going on there I'm very I love the Arkham series and

I'm very curious about a VR like the reviews have been amazing like I haven't really played a VR game since Assassin's Creed Nexus I'm like you know let me I feel I got a good feeling about this one so there's some I want to bang out before another big one like Indiana Jones or

Stalker 2 I'm interested in so I know I'm too busy for the year and I this is a business decision in the making I can feel it so as much as I want to check out Microsoft Flight Sim 24 I might just dip my toe in the pool and nothing else and enough and you've got a lot of your plates already

there's a lot I mean there's a lot of good stuff dude they're doing drag quest 3 HD can't wait for that there's just like you because you got bail guard done and you working on metal I mean better for right now well I don't know man I'm I I've beat less games this year compared to

the last two years because I'm a weirdo and keep a list however everything I I played this year has been ridiculously long everything I play like there's I think I played like two or three games that were like under 10 hours you know like there's just so many games like if I went down the

list dude actually I was the list I could list for a reason why games I beat boy ready trellis in a daybreak file fans he's having rebirth oh god sandland dragging stugma 2 which was reasonably length but still oh oh oh way too I beat that

I'm gonna kill you to get killed you gave I was yeah show the airtree was way bigger and I expected I played Sekiro this year Star Wars Outlaws was reasonably sized as with space marine 2 I did shivering aisle this year as well I got lost in dead rising the luxury master what else we got here

dragging me to bail guard was really long so there's a decent game I'm gonna break up for that how many hours was that I got a break up for the fail guard bill guard took me about 60 okay so shorter than metaphor but still yeah 60 out of 60 hours yes okay I mean there's a difference

when you're enjoying it right yeah there's a huge difference when you're enjoying yeah I'm looking at this list and like it's it's not as stacked as it usually is I actually I didn't give it credit there there are some shorter games here Astrobot sonicic shadow generations techinate is really short

what you didn't do not that I'm blaming because you have so many games you play do if it well no I didn't do it well you have so much you play I got gaff so my my game yeah yeah it's been a tough year because the development of my game picked up a lot where it has eight some more of my time

where I've had to be a little more selective with like reviews and whatnot which typically I am able to not be and I know I like probably 2025 I'll have a better structure to my schedule and that'll be less of a problem with this year was a little tough like it's I've been a normal guy

hours where I'm like well we got two hours tonight like fuck this man sucks but nonetheless good year for gaming I'm happy I had all of my hours logged in last year where I think it was a better year all right well speaking of great games game past pick of the week time we're out of here

cog I had the shout this one out in the spirit of this atlas game we're enjoying and trying to get more people we're trying to recruit right we're trying to bring folks into the Atlas armed forces and how else to do that but through the power of game pass and obviously we're seeing

Sega clean house so that's a good time you know because we're seeing that like one year window playing an effect right now is a good time to check out persona three reload you got that time got that cash of course I think that this is a brilliant remake and I have recommended this one

in the past but I'm revisiting it because if people are on the fence about metaphor mechanically these games are similar at first and they seemingly separate over time but there are a lot of elements that if you're playing a persona three really you're like man I like the social stuff

I love the term base I love the flow I love the style this is shared with metaphor if you're looking to kind of feel it out a little bit as someone who's been enjoying metaphor a lot and obviously cog speaks for everyone here with how great it's been we want you on this journey with

us but maybe you've not dabbled with an atlas game before so join the school life and get ccgon high school right get familiar with what's going on in an atlas game embrace that style even if it's against your your gaming taste right like some of you out there like this isn't for me

I don't want to play as a high school student and I get that and that's why you should try this out because then if you do end up saying I like the elements but not the vibe not the tone you got this serious fantasy game with the same elements sitting right there and I just made your purchase

that much easier so think of this a bit like you know you're testing the draft pools a little bit before you make your selection and that's the angle I want to take persona three reload is fantastic on its own they added a lot of new stuff to the game kept a lot of old stuff that I have a problem

with but they added a lot of new stuff that I think does improve like combat especially combats amazing in that game and they did a really good job with it like visually speaking it was it's done a real engine game which was different from the engine that atlas usually works with on

persona games so the fact that they still have that style that flare that feel was cool to see and and the game sold ridiculously well so come see what the buzz is all about and then get in on some metaphor refantasio persona three reload game pass pick it the week for me

okay that atlas love going and I will say this I just I wish such like so much care in there a lot of the games just from the UI perspective and just just well well designed stuff so yeah man I love it you know turnbase is alive and well and it's high level it's high quality of these

are the they're the guys I just I got I just got to give it up what is this studio what's the name it enjoy oh my god studio zero yeah studio zero man I gotta get like y'all got it y'all got it what it in terms of JRPG y'all the cutting edge you guys everyone you see what I mean by saying

like they're common for that final fantasy crown like they're it's at least on quality yeah no disrespect I found fancy you're great in a real time action but if you want to talk about the future of the genre I look at my mind told you like when I used to talk about Jake Solomon and

when you know the ex-com series and the evolution of the genre studio zero is now the next evolution this is weaknesses like all this stuff is just great and it's just this combination of data cycle like they've started this whole thing or people are now copying now I'm seeing

in the turtles games and I'm saying bro people are starting to understand the blueprint that these guys have laid they they don't they don't do's they are them do's they they are him absolutely them studio zero man gotta give them they flowers 100 percent so that's your game

past picking the week and cog that is defining Duke a Xbox podcast episode 201 what do we feel for a hashtag this week we'll scatter a little all over the place a lot of subjects what what stuck with you the most we we definitely have some good ones obviously the black ops the whole

situation there so many news beats that were good but we had a ton of news yeah we had a ton I don't know why I'm in this like uh like this newspaper vibe I don't know what you know I don't know I've been this weird space of like news and information so I don't

know how to word it like we can do newspaper DD I know we haven't done that yeah like like I'm in a news mode you don't say like we're in like the daily new then do yeah newspaper DD let's do that all right great pick ladies and gentlemen you got this deep into the show you want to let's

know your thoughts you can tag us on Twitter I'm at g27 status cog is at lord cog nito use the hashtag newspaper DD otherwise we'll see in the comment section on the video hashtag newspaper DD let us know your thoughts either way thank you for listening to this episode we're going to get

on out of here and we'll catch you next time around for episode 202 of defining Duke Xbox podcast piece out defining Duke and Xbox podcast is a product and trademark of last stand media and Collins last stand LLC and is recorded from the United States of America the show is conceived by

Matthew Mr. Maddie plays Schroeder and me Colin Moriarty and is written and produced by Matthew Schroeder Maddie's co-host is Barry lord cog nito everzley defining Duke's executive producer is Dustin Furman all of last stands the music is by Ramon Arvias as you know all of last stand media

shows including defining Duke are fan funded on patreon at patreon.com slash last and media the following names are at the producer support level on patreon and we're thankful for your kindness and generosity William Holbert Ross Morenka Morgan Ashley Azan Michael Vecchio SLVFMA Daniel

D. Amore Jeremy Key Patrick Leslie Donald John Vaders Steven Innerfield Joriah X Ronan Zachou Zenred Matt MGS24 Saul and Z Will Gohringer Nishie Finger Blackjack Angry Living Meat Hugo D'Alegia the Schmidt one Eddie Smith WTF Wesley Mullins Logan Little George Vincent Valenzuela Adam King Jalen

Kyle J Brian Williamson Jorge Padua fans Cody Rallo Denny Sniper Teeth Adam Tabiatt Jordan Valet Ross R. Lowe Austin Lipka Harold Ustash Will Williams Shane Brecky Michael Mashed Potato Sweaty Magic Nate Aizad Hargit Chani Albion Josh Solinger my name is Mayo Eddie Medina Jason Arzhan

Grayson Maxwell Electric Soup Bushy Doe Boy Whiskey Sin Cory Beakum Sean Miles Relentless Rex Alan Tiniak Dustin Klingman Chad Rita Jacob Hancock Luke Aldersley Dustin Graph Zach Cohen Peyton Stone Mus Fasibair Michael Buffle Dan Rute Assec Parades The Shady Mailman Christopher Morgan

Randall Halsey Dio Ordie T-bone 007 Josh Godfrey Benian Moriarty H. Trons Antonio C Alan Einer J. Getter Bjorn Campbell Theo Jeff Mercado Gregory Sylvinski Jordan Gale of Fortuna John Zile Boots Tyler Brown Mr. Malf Pooot Gavin Newland Alex Lapier Saul Balgazar

Burdo 64 Matt Flowers Kinams Joseph Baker Kendrick Kias Jimmy Rodriguez Dave Alvarez Will Hernandez Chris Galvin Adam Hall Mason Bashard Ali Fritz Anthony Marola Saki Balam Kyle Hagle Colin Love Darryl E. Naman Toby Ryleann Stewie 108 Patrick Montgomery Richter 86 Christopher Devio

Chris Morton Aaron Becky Johnny Waffles Lawrence Adams Roto 24 Jonathan Coats Logan Sharp Sean Mason Josh Gravelick Organic Produce Carlos Algorithm Mike Menzel Richard Hebert III Miranda Grubba Juge Martin Beck Gavin Jerome Ferreira Nathan R Joe McPartlin Gary Cavallo Christopher

Moore Jacob Bell Dennis Usel Lewin Ray Loper Jonathan Cortez John Schultz Tom Quinn Anton Kay Alan Trembly Ryan T. Mandel Pork and Beans John Francois Forsey Tony Zaniga Shane Miller Alex Cabrera Corey Dustin Colby Frida Nicolage Hanson Turton Peter Reynolds Anthony Vasquez William O'Carol

Bo Jorge Pal Cannonball Jones Tomas Sablin Phil Crone Throw Seven Adam Nicks Josh McKinney Michael Gates Alex Gates Sean Chandler Joey Kondaliger Alex Mones Justin Payne Justin Wagamin Austin Riley Paul Joyce Chad Lewis and Rique Perez Joshua Smallwood Shane Rayum Don Lee John Cordero Greg Brad Cooley Ashley Carlson Kyle Martin Madmock Media Jonathan Rice and Geo Corsi