The State Of Gaming Subscriptions In 2026

Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Game and Former Show, a weekly podcast covering the video game industry. Join us each and every week for a discussion with the latest gaming news, reviews, and exclusive reveals with Game and Former staff and special guests from around the industry. I am your host, Marcus Stewart. I am joined by Eric Van Allen.

Hello.

Hi, Completely normal intro time. One hundred percent normal intro time. And when I think of normal intro times, you would not believe the number of times I've had to on the spot come up with weird intros for Charles Hart's based on previous statements, and this is the latest one, because Charles Art is the Gang of completely normal intros.

Wow, okay, yes, Hello, my name is Charles Hart.

Nice to meet you.

Here's my business card.

Yeah, and you can tell this is definitely the first time that we've recorded this intro. This is our first take. Yeah. Yeah, they start calling to stephen A. Smith because we're the King of first Takes. It is the show, right first.

I like how you couldn't even say the phrase king of first takes in one smooth sentence as opposed to me, who is normal and professional all the time.

Yes, got the real Brian Gumble voice performance going on there and I like it. Hey, everybody, this week we're gonna be talking about a few games. We got a brand new game that came out this week called Big Hops. If you followed the game the former YouTube channel, you want have seen our new game play today video with Charles Hart and Eric Van Allen playing through it. But we're gonna have Charles give us the rundown.

Changeable.

Yeah, I'm sorry, Alex van Aiken, I got I did the thing, I got the vans.

It was gonna happen sooner early. Everyone on staff has done it at least once. It's fine.

You were saying you were rejecting the idea of Big Hops from like a conceptual level.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Hops should not be that big there. The Hops are too big in that game. I can't play him.

Yeah, you're like, you're like Judy Hops size nice and small? No, no, taller than her, that's what you've always said.

Yeah, yeah, I definitely said.

Eric will stop talking about Judy Hops. He always brings her up when we're talking to the platforms, and it's.

Like how she's the appropriate height and upsetting she was taller.

I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna veto this whole, this whole side, this whole side train of thought.

We just gotta go.

Started the intro of this podcast saying it was too much and we needed to do a different.

We immediately came back to Judy hop.

Uh, you can subscribe to game former dot com before we start comps.

I subscribe. We have magazines.

Marcus is crying, so I'm trying to help.

We have to jump in now. Yeah, yeah, we do have magazines. World of Warcraft Midnight. Our latest cover is out there.

Look at that.

It's gorgeous. Charles is holding it up. Mine is in the other room. I was putting it in a magazine protector because I got a very nice gift of magazine protectors for Christmas. Look at that twenty one years of World of Warcraft. Can you believe it?

Yeah, it's exactly Givenformer dot com slash subscribe. If you want to support Game Informer, the best way to do it get yourself a magazine subscription. Tannish is a year physical and digital sent to you. You can also go to bookstands and news stores to get yourself a copy of Game Informer. Not only here in the US in places like Barnes and Noble and Books a Million, but

Yeah, I've been playing a good bit. I'm like five hours in the game from my I think from what I've seen from the in game dialogue and then alsobscription, there's like three big main areas, and I just beat one of those big main areas.

Okay.

You play as Hop and he's a little frog guy and he basically gets like teleported into another dimension and he's trying to go home. In order to go home, he needs these airship parts so he can, I guess,

Oh? I mean, have you seen our tiktoks with that? Surprising?

If I told you it was GTA six is gonna have poles sticking out of walls anyways? But yeah, I know I had one where though, so one of those wouldn't let me grab onto it, and it was like just like little things like that. It hasn't been anything absolutely game breaking. There's some like visual stuttering here and there,

I think I'm with you where it's like I think Astronaut was the last big three D platform and I really really dive into and even looking at the Steam page, they actually display in sort of the video preview like some of the stats where it are kind of boasting this is like a fifteen hour main game, but it could take you over thirty hours one hundred percent, which that's a lot bigger than I thought this game was.

That's that's the exact spot in the game.

I was stuck on.

Oh did I just.

Literally the last time I played the game, it was like, help help lift the ship out of the water, and I was like, I don't freaking know how to do that. On an unrelated note, I found these fun new balloon veggies and I haven't really used them for anything.

I didn't. I didn't.

It's not like I was I was like stuck, stuck, like you know, I could have I probably could have solved whatever I wanted to yet now. Yeah, but yeah, that's cool, that's.

Yeah.

There's also like, uh, there's little uh purple collectibles. I think they're called dark Bits. But as you get them over time, you unlock little trinkets, which are like patches you put on your character's backpack, and those will give you different like abilities or augment your hop in some way, so it'll be like. One of them is you can eat anything you can pick up, so you can eat like rocks and pots and stuff, and anytime you eat something,

I would love to have that badge in real life. That'd be sick. That'd be awesome. All my problems solved. Just eat everything?

Yeah does it?

No?

No, No, let's talk about the game. I was gonna get us on a different tangent over again, Mark, as.

You say what you were gonna say, I was just saying, I like how all the NPCs just look like like they look like animal crossing villagers if they were, if they were all Yeah, somewhat sus like, yeah, they all have, Like some of them have just like wide eyed, just

I are you worried that something is afoot in big hops or like you're walking into a situation where you don't really know what's going on. But they all do like like kind of a midsomar situation going.

On, like oh wow, I'll tell you, you take two steps into dusty bluffs and you'll know that something's wrong, something's wrong in that.

Okay, okay, yeah yeah, but uh but yeah, uh it seems cool. I want to play it, And you know, this is a good month for for something like this. I said, it's available now as of this week. It's on like you're playing on PS five, It's on Steam, and I believe it's also on Switch. Yes, yes, yes, kind of leaning towards my platform. I think I'm like playing on Switch.

I would like switch. I don't know how it runs on Switch, Like I was saying, there's some like slight technical issues on PS five, so I'm curious to see

Yeah, is it like a proper bleep or did they have like a cute bleep or cute sensor.

It's it's a proper bleep, okay. And even though like textbox, it's like a bunch of like in a comic book where they swear, it's just a bunch of like ampersand exclamation point parentheses, et cetera. That kind of thing. Yeah, that's good.

Awesome, Yeah, big hops check it out now. And also check out our new Gameplay Today video on our YouTube channel if you want to see Charles play himself. I

Can you imagine if they remade your favorite game and they put an undred hundred vibe but then they added a mandatory score score for the final box fight.

I said, you know what, this game was missing the first time that I think fans would really go crazy for.

Yeah, let's let's add a turret sequence while we're at it. That game definitely doesn't have a turret sequence, right. It's it's funny you think about mel gear Solid like three Delta whatever. It does have a lot of those moments that have been reviled in games. It just does them really really well. IMO.

That's and it's weird because I so I played with the modern setup so kind of like the like the Phantom Pain style. Basically it plays like a proper third person shooter.

And yeah, yeah, you're saying, like the camera controls.

Yeah, like the camera controls and all that stuff. So I didn't play an the original forms because like, oh I already did that. I kind of want to see

This is a weird philosophical question for you and maybe for the room. Do you find that as you've gotten older, do you focus on objectives and completion more often? Because I was legitimately thinking about this the other day that I think maybe not all the time when I was younger, but certainly for a decent degree of it, I saw games more as like play, as experience, as like creating things.

Yeah. I think it's a mix of both. I mean that mindset has definitely like that has become a thing, especially with this job or where it is a lot of like I need to get through this so I can move on to the next thing that I have to play for coverage, you know, But I also try to make a point to like savor it and not just make it a like I just need to get through this, I need to like fast forward through all the dialogues. I need to get to the thing, Like

It was like, uh uh, I do think that was a thing that is so it always impresses me about the Middle Gear games, which I've mentioned a few times on the show specifically, but it's it's been a while that I've played them. Very recently. I played one and two in the like HD collection and then this was the first time I played three last August September whenever. That was y But I am consistently impressed by the amount of like tools.

They give you.

But they feel like toys, just in a way that it's like, uh, like there's mouse traps in the game, and you can put it on the ground and someone will step on a mouse trap. It's not optimal there.

Yeah, I did make a point to do things like do things I didn't do the first time around, of like not just relying on a trank gun, which is like my to me, that is just the main weapon for Snake.

Yeah it is.

Yeah what the PP seven is the James Bond is the trank gun to Snake in my eyes. So like but even in the original, like I I would kill people if it came down to it, but this one, I actually did a non lethal run with the exceptions. But when I got when I got to the Sorrow Fight, no one was there except for the bosses, so it was like incredibly easy to get through, whereas I remember the first time, it was a lot more of like,

Then, actually, hey, it's it's cool, you can do you can do this now.

But I played that in the whole chase with just the train gun, which was very dumb but very funny because then guys are falling asleep on the motorcycle and then crashing and exploding and dying anyway. Yeah, so it's like but in my mind, I was like, does that count as a tally against me? When I get the final thing? Are they gonna say I killed them? Even though I mean I technically didn't kill them. I don't.

Batman logic over here, Like yeah, I just punched them really hard in the head over and over again.

Yeah. Yeah.

They died three days later in the hospital.

But I didn't kill it then.

Yeah, I don't have to What was the line in Batman begins like I'm not going to kill you, but I don't have to say you either.

Yeah yeah, yeah, Like I don't think I think that's the murder. I think it's I think it's manslaughter. I don't we don't need to get into it. Yeah, I was gonna say the Sorrow Fight is a good example of that game where like my issue with it now and it's like it's like a fun thing on paper, but when you're actually playing it's always annoying, where it's like a lot of times sometimes there is a very specific way you're supposed to do stuff, and just the

What to do.

Whereas, like, you know, if Mario has a hard time jumping up a thing. It's like, I don't know that's Mario. He doesn't have much of personality.

I have that same reaction when I played Double Make Cry games badly, where it's like, yeah, yeah, I'm making him not cool if I don't get that, like if I get like.

A d yeah, master Chief would never die and I'm you're letting him down inhalal legendary difficulty. Yeah, that's what it feels like. But I uh, I was gonna say also to Eric's thing earlier of like, uh, games within games, I think of that as like games as toys, where it's like there's no there's no like objective. This is just like my things, and this is what they do

He like freaks out. He's like, I need to go back again. I'm not ready for this.

It's like the game equivalent of that Tiny Toon Summer Vacation episode where they take this big road trip to this amusement park and all Hampton's family wants to ride the monorail, and then they leave and you're like, what about this other stuff? Now? This this is all we need.

This is the ride.

I will say my biggest takeaway after playing this is that it made me miss having a new metal gear to look forward to, because I remember listening to The Deepest Dive and I think it was the first episode where you and I think Haley were sort of like kind of jokingly but like semi seriously asking like did you guys think this was like actually good writing. Back then, guys were kind of making fun of it a little bit.

It is a little bit of that. I will say, like Snake Eater is made be one of the better written Metal Gear solids. Like two and three I think are kind of the peak for me of that series, and then four falls off a little bit. I never played four. I watched I like sat on a couch as my roommate played through four, and then five was absolutely bonkers in every possible conceivable way. I love five as a game. Five as a story is a completely

Yeah, I was wondering how it reacted. I remember at the time I was genuinely emotional watching that final ending for the first time. And then like even still feeling it now, even though I know it wasn't nearly you know, I didn't have nearly as a visceral reaction to it as I did the first time I played it, it was still like, yeah, this still, this is still effective, Like this is still like a cool revelation. I guess even though it's it's in hindsight, it's sort of telegraphed

It's also like gameplay wise, maybe the weirdest of the bunch, just with I remember very specific segments of just doing things that felt very not Metal gear solid. There's that whole spy sequence and all that. Also, there's a podcast in it that's hosted by Jeff Keey, Right, There's there's like all this really weird stuff embedded in the game.

There's the Universe podcast, the weird commercials when you're first installing. Yes, yeah, action there's.

That's kind of awesome though, I think and it was it was him like smoking during the loading thing, right, that was like infamous. Yeah, it's a forever.

To install that game. They're like, you can watch snake smoke. I guess on this bar slowly.

I can forgive a lot of shortcomings of a game just exudes itself. It's personality, it's aura that much like if it's so obsessed with what it itself is doing, I can I can get on board with that.

Yeah. Also, I'm I'm annoyed that some stuff was A four was spoiled for you, Charles. I was like screaming when I was watching and Dan kind of say something some pretty wild some pretty wild things that happening for just kind of say. I was like, no, don't tell them, don't tell them that.

That's also a thing that like so much happens in metal Gear and like they like the people that really like metal Gear really like uh marinate in it and like talk about it a lot, and I think get more of an understanding of it. I played Metal Gear Solid one, two, and three all within the last two or three years, and I I would have a hard time even giving you a basic plot rundown of all of them. So it's a thing that like I I think I remembered the thing that they spoiled. I couldn't.

Yeah. I mean, so tanks with legs, yes, Solid snake okay. Yeah, And I don't know what's the third pillar of Metal Gear series.

I don't even want to. I was gonna say something else, but that would spoil more.

Yeah. Yeah, everyone's just wild. Yeah, movies who's that.

Guy that farts all the time.

Yeah, Johnny poo his pants a lot.

Yeah.

Oh that's right.

I do I know him. He's in MeTL Gear Solid three, He's he's in every Metal Gear Solid is he?

Oh? I thought he was introduced in this one. See that's the kind of.

This one.

This game is like yeah, yeah.

It's it's really good and maybe really bad. Like it's it's so specific. I have I love trying to wrap my mind around mel Gear Solid three, where I'm like, I have no idea how I feel about it. I think I just like playing it. Maybe that just means good. I don't know. But just the fact that I like, we we had all this conversation. They're like, Charles, did you do the thing and then go to sleep and then play this secret second game or whatever?

I was like what?

And just like the Nightmare sequence and Melo Gear Slid three, it's like a great example of like, I don't know, Eric, you haven't listening the deepest die. But one of our one of our bits is that we're like this game was designed to be talked about at recess in junior high, Like that's all everything in there is, like whoa did you do you know you can do this and mail your saw three? What if you spend sneak around in the menu?

Throws up no way, Yeah, and then I can't see that I think of when I think of that, I think of Pokemon, but that that I also also.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it was a water like I had that in high school, Like it was a water cooler game of like, did you know that you could do this? You're like, what what are you talking about? But yes, that That is a long winded way to say I finished Medical your Solid Delta. It's still a really good game. It's a great remake. It's pretty much gonna be I think the fact of way to play

Which I'm for the second time. This is my second run through the game. Yeah, So for those who don't know, I co host a podcast called norm DFM with Kenna Sheppard. We play through games in kind of a game club style format, if you can tell from the name of the show it is mostly It started as a BioWare thing.

It has more or less this.

I kind of like it less, and I already was not really warm on it to begin with for a variety of reasons, I was already kind of in you know, I didn't review it at the time because of other mess that happens, but I did play it, you know, play an early copy when it came out, and and I I think I came out of it feeling very middling on it, Like that wasn't the worst thing I've ever played, But it certainly wasn't you know, what I

Well, now that you say that, replaying the Veil Guard with the sort of like I don't know, new perspective, has it changed your anticipation or worry level for Mass Effect five?

I mean, mass Effect five for me is not a real game yet. Like that is, that's a trailer right now. We've heard so little about it. There's always an n seven day thing that comes out and they say we're working on it. It's going to be the mass Effect experience you want. And like, I want the best for that team, I truly do. I want them to make the best Mass Effect game they can. I want them

Yeah.

And then and then meanwhile headlines trickled out of like development strife, people leaving layoffs and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah, a lot a lot of these names moving in and out. And so I really do I I want the best for for the MASSIFFCT team. I also just Mass Effect

Yeah, that was picking apart.

Yeah, yeah, there's been some pieces of concept art, and I think the box art with the character yeah, oh, the transmission was weird. That became the Krogan Civil War where it's a bunch of it says Krogan Civil War under it in that kind of like motivational poster fonts, and then it's the Krogans, but they're all shooting like towards the camera, towards something off screen, and it only made me think of the Nathan Fielder image of like,

Yeah, and out of one and it's probably wildly changing with the EA sort of buyout. Yes, you think that I will before we move on in Seven Day twenty twenty six, Is this the year that you think we get a substantial update on that game.

I don't know. I don't I don't play that game. I don't like I have a running joke with Ken and with some other folks where we're just like, when do you think Mass Effect five is realistically going to show up? And I think we're still years away.

And not really so, I mean, like like a real trailer, just something to really latch on.

I could I could see like a thirty second teaser, Sure, yeah, roll out one of those, but I think anything close to think about Dragon Age the Vailguard, we didn't see game play until maybe like less than a year out from the release of that game. That was a very quick turnaround that was very again like emblematic of the situation behind the scenes of how that game was being made, of how it was coming together. And even that's the

Yeah, Well, moving on from a game that feels like it took twenty years to come out to a game that has already been out for the better part of

Yeah, I've always wanted to play this game, mainly because people say it's good and it's like so inaccessible. I've seen it at stores once or twice, and it's like always the most expensive game on the shelf. Yeah, I just pulled up eBay and just the price for the game. We got two hundred twenty dollars, two hundred eight dollars, one hundred thirty four dollars.

Yeah, I sold mine for I think like three fifty four.

Yeah something, yeah, oh yeah yeah. And this is the first thing that's popped up on eBay. I yeah, it's it's really expensive. So I've always wanted to check it out, but I never have. I'm a late later comer to fire Emblum just in that. My first game was Awakening on the three DS, which is a game I really really like, and it's just interesting to go.

Back and play.

It's really it's really interesting. Something I've always appreciated is playing a game in a series and then playing a game much older in a series and kind of understanding, like what the through line of that series is versus what I assume the through lines.

Of a series are.

If I'm Awakening, for example, really built around the like support conversations of like your units fight near each other and then they like have bonds and they grow together. Not a thing in Path of Radiance. I don't think it's I don't I don't know how many games, if.

Any it was in pre Awakening there are support systems, they're just not as front facing as they've become in later games. But as far back as I think Fire Emblem Blazing Blade, which was fire Emblem like just fire Emblem on the Game Boy Advance here, but that's the seventh overall game, there was definitely like I forget what the system was that you use, but there were like quote unquoteest here supports and.

Things like that in there.

So there should be support conversations in Path of Radiance if I remember correctly, gotcha.

Well, I haven't reached them yet, but it's it's certainly not as a prominent as the other ones.

But in Awakening you can pare units up, right, Like that's that's when they started to share an where Yeah, and it gets a lot they That's what I mean by like, they make it a lot easier for you to start to do that thing where you're putting units together and having them bond in the battlefield, whereas Path of Radiance it was there's a lot of weird mechanics about adjacency and characters getting different stat upgrades or changing

Yeah. Anyway, so I'm finally checking it out, and I met like chapter seven, so I'm not very far in. I'm like a few hours in, but I like it and I like the story. That's one of the things people really like about this game particularly, is they like the story a lot. Also, Ike is the main character of this game. I know him as many people do from Smash Pros, and it's really funny to just see a character's Smash Bros move set and try to intuit their personality off of that. I think I thought Ike

Yeah, yeah, he's he's this.

I love eating meat.

That's kind of like what I assumed I was like knowing only yes, And he's a lot he's very young in the game and he's uh just starting out. You're you're playing as he's the son of the head of a mercenary company. Uh. And this is right when these countries break out in war and they're trying to like decide where to ally themselves at this part in the game. And yeah, I really like it. It's really nice on

Uh yeah, yeah, I think for me too, like those games just and not just the series, but just turn based strategy. It's just it's made for handles for me.

Yeah, yeah, i'd agree with that. I play them a lot on PC two, But that depends on the game, you know, like x Com I think of as a PC series versus Fire Emblem definitely for me. Game Boy Advance, uh,

H we can't stop talking about who.

Doesn't love Hector? Is Hector and Lynn are the real stars of seven? Let me tell you. But I I think Path of Radiance was for a lot of people the game that got them to play. It was also on the GameCube, and the GameCube was I think we have a lot of rosy nostalgia for the GameCube now, but the GameCube at the time was like not the most popular system. This this big tactical RPG.

It had a handle on it.

Yeah, it was at the McDonald's. It was enclosed in the McDonald's. It's like the most protected you've ever seen something it's in like a metal case with plastic all around it and the controller is like locked onto the case.

Yeah, I think Donald's once.

Yeah, I played Pickmen and Mine. They had pigment on theirs. But yeah, like like the GameCube was, you know, kind of in need of something like this, like a big, meaty RPG that you could dig into, and Fire Emblem tried to ride that wave while also doing some different

Also still handheld at the same time.

Yeah, the beauty of the Switch. Yeah, it's also really good timing because we have a new Firemblum coming out this year, and I would hope that it takes some some lessons from classic fire Emblum. As much as I love three Houses, I think a lot of people are maybe exhausted by the idea of playing another three houses size.

So I was really interested.

Sorry, you go ahead, Marcus.

Well, I was gonna say, didn't engage kind of steer away from at least the like kind of like the social stuff of three Houses. And it's a little bit more of a traditional.

It's a lot engages, a lot more combat focus.

Yeah, it's more battle.

Houses at the very least it is, but it has a lot of like base support stuff, like I think there was. You get a lot of characters and engage, and then you also have the ring characters who are kind of your fire emblem, all stars that are coming in from all the different eras, and you have all the support stuff with all of them, as well as all the training missions and stuff back at the base.

I found it interesting because I really like like the startupath Radiance.

I've also.

For me, like a FIREMM game, it's usually just like it's not whether or not I'll like it, it's just how long it'll hold me for. I think the only games I've beaten are Awakening and Three Houses, but I've played like four or five others of them for like ten to teen hours or whatever before getting bored. But I was like, where does where does Path the Radians stack up in people's rankings? And I always always look up whenever I start getting into a series how people

Is there, Oh, there's a correct answer to what the best fast movie is?

Is it faster?

Answer?

Is it Fast five?

It's Fast five, Kay, that's the best one.

I ain't seen any of those movies. And I've looked this up enough times that I'm like, I think everyone really likes Fast five.

Fast five is really good. Like it's just if I had to show someone one Fast and Furious movie, it's that one.

Yeah. I think there's also a consensus on the worst.

Fast movie, is it like I don't know nine or something like that, Like after they kind of I was gonna guess too, I think I think that.

Is the worst one. Well.

Two, I haven't seen it since it came out, but I could see having some like nostalgic fun with two. Whereas I think once they got into kind of seven and eight and it just kept going, it was like, Okay, now we're we're really like trying to draw water from the rock here. Literally in some cases, we're trying to get water from the rock here.

Also just makes me want to fire and bloom fast crossover, Like I want the fast characters in a fire style game. You want to raise their bond.

Give Dominic Toretto a battle axe.

Yeah, yeah, agreed, what I.

Was gonna say. I was curious about how people rate a path radiance, and it's very variable.

They change a lot.

Also, I don't know the numbers of the games, Like it's not in the titles all the time, so a lot of people put the numbers of the game, like I don't know which Firemblum fourteen is. But that's fine. But I was surprised that, like to my knowledge, three Houses at the very least was very popular and sold very well, and I like it a lot. A lot of people liked it a lot. And it's always interesting me when you go into like when you don't look at Fireman from the outside and it's like, what is

That's the mainstream normy fire.

Yeah, that's a whole thing.

Welcome to the party pal, this is well, this is also my I was looking up the tomb Raider games because I've only played the like reboot trilogy.

I haven't played any of the older ones, but there's a lot of older ones and I was looking it up and for whatever reason, expecting I'm like, well, the new ones are really good. So everyone have those up really high, and a lot of people have them like at the bottom They're like, I hate these reboots, I hate whatever, and I'm just like, as.

I think they're insane because those old games don't hold up as much as I have fondness for.

Them, so as somebody that does a lot of podcasting and writing and covering beats that stretch back a fair number of years, like fighting games and RPGs. Uh, there are always the diehards who have a very firm like this is when the genre peaked and we have lost our way. I think they can sometimes have a point but also get a little too much lost in their own sauce for that.

And it's also incomprehensible water puzzles and those games.

There there are people here. Here's a fun fact. There are people like like when Fall Fantasy sixteen came out and people were like, is this Final Fantasy. There were people when Final Fantasy seven came out that were like, this isn't Final Fantasy. People still yeah, yeah, there are still people who believe that every thing posts nests is not like Final Fantasy proper and all that. Uh it's it's oh boy, it's a deep rabbit hole. When it

I was hoping you would say, because I've only beaten one fire emblem and no one ever talks about it. And there was which one Fates? On which one?

I do? I yea which version of fates?

There's the three Red, the Red Birthright, birth Right.

Yeah. I don't remember the subtitles, but this is.

This is part of the weirdness with fire emblem, especially fates Is and why I personally kind of bounce off face even though I did enjoy it when I played it. It's so much to get through, and the three pronged in nature that they tried just didn't really make sense for what they did. Because there's like birthright, which is they did the Pokemon thing where it's like, to you side with this side or this side, but then they also.

Made it's more distinct than Pokemon at the very least.

Well so, so it's birthright is one side, conquest is the other. And I think one of them is your birth family, one of them is your adoptive family. I always mix up which one is which because it then gets really weird because you do then have social links with that, and it gets very game of thronesy, and and then you have revelations is like the Golden Mouth the True Route, and it's like, that's okay, why why do that? I know, it's like a it's a visual

In the rankings, a lot of people had Conquest relatively high, and Birthright wasn't as high, and no one talked about.

One. I guess, yeah, I think it's the easier one.

I think it's interesting combat wise, Yes, Conquest.

Is the one that is the most interesting combat wise for sure.

Yeah. I don't even know what man in my decision to choose one or the other.

Honestly, I also at the time I also picked that one. For what it's worth. It's like, it's like you were raised by an evil family, but you were born to a good family. I'm simplified it was, But Conquest is you're like I'm gonna stick with the evil family, and Birthright is like I'm gonna go with the my good.

Well, one family wears all like black and purple and gold basically, and the other one is kind of wearing this like red and white, very like samurai inspired armor and stuff like that, and then the other one is the route where you just ignore all of that and do something else and golden path. It I didn't to.

Like to round it out. I did want to say that part of my moral of a story here with like bringing up all these like different comparisons of like within the Firemlum community, people don't like this popular one or that just being a regular thing, a thing that as like a games writer, I try to remember is like trying really hard to not be as influenced by outside perspectives or like what is the legacy of this thing and not necessarily think of like is this a

Because it's very.

Easy to get bought like of again, another example of Classical and his people in the Zella community don't like Breath of the Wild, and it's like that's like one of the best games of all time, and it doesn't do a lot of things old Zelda games did, but it's still a very good game. And we could evaluate it based on like how similar is it in the way a lot of people value plow games, is like, well,

When will When will a game finally make me young again so I can experience wonder and whimsy? That's that's why it didn't.

Come out in nineteen ninety eight, So I'm not really a fan of it.

This game came out when I was a smaller person who understood less of the world and had troubles on their mind. And really, if a game can't do that, then what are we doing? Exactly?

All this is to say, I do like Path Radians. I'm gonna keep playing it. I will see if it becomes the third fire Emblem game I reached the end of. But even if it's not, I like, I always like those fifteen hours I get to play of a.

Firearm game I have no time. Yeah, well awesome, Well we're gonna spin off of that discussion because we're gonna take a quick break and then come back and we're going to discuss the state of subscription service is, including a Nintendo Switch Online. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to the Game Informer Show. We are now going to talk about a little bit of pivot. I wanted to bring this topic up because it's something I've been thinking about kind of in like it's the new year, I'm kind of wanting to, you know, trim trim my finances a little bit. And it's like, do I really need to be paying for all these things that I'm paying for? Because I'm paying for a lot of things, and as always, i'd like to be paying for the last.

I am, However, at least with my current subscription disclaimer, it was provided by Microsoft for media press reason, so that we can so that we have access to and in case we want to, you know, day one releases whatever play for like work stuff. But before that I had been paying for it pretty much NonStop since pretty much since this exception. Actually I'm trying to think. I don't think I've ever let it lapse ever since they started doing it.

I I did have it lapsed for a hot minute, and then I also this is this is like right when game and Former started back up, So Eric wasn't here, but we all got game Pass like one year of game Pass code. So sorry Eric for being excluded for now.

I'm good. I'm going to say something bold here. I did have game Pass for I think up until about this year, maybe around January February. I cut it, and that was a cost saving thing, but also it made me realize how little I actually used it. Yeah, because I mean number one, like, I already owned most of the games that were on the service that I cared about in the first place. Like I bought the Halo

Yeah, I I I have definitely had it laps at times, and then I've gotten it back. I've tried to specifically when I'm paying for game Pass because it does cost so much money. Now it's just a thing to me of like I'll just be default unsubscribed. And then if there's a pattern of like two or three games on game Pass coming out at once, or it's like one is coming out and I'm like, oh, I wanted to

Maybe Microsoft naming things in a confusion.

Fact you're excited to boot up cob pilot office.

Yeah, im possible.

So the Essential tier is ten bucks a month and it gets you fifty plus games, it says, I don't know how many games that is on Xbox PC and support. It's more than it's probably probably fifty one. You can also stream games, including some games that you own, so you can't stream all the games you own. You can stream I think the game Pass games you can play online. There's some rewards thing and then you get benefits for it, says, games like League of Legends and Call Duty War Zone.

That's the weird part for me was it was kind of a big deal when Riot made the deal with Xbox to say, so, if you have game Pass, you have access to every League of Legends champion, you have access to I think all the Valorant Agents and things like that. But the power users who were going to take advantage of that in the first place probably already had access to the majority of characters that they wanted

In a RAM.

Yeah, and introduced a new dynamic there. But yeah, it's it's access to a lot of things. But then I always ended up questioning like I was paying a lot of money and that was even before the price increase for access to games that I wasn't always playing. And they also adjusted the way that new games were going onto it too, so you kind of lost that benefit.

Yeah, So to that note, then there's the Premium tier, which is fifteen bucks a month, so five more bucks a month. This is two hundred games on these devices. And then this one gets you new Xbox games within twelve months of launch. So they had like a day one on game Pass thing, and then they split it into tiers another kind of like breaking down when you get it. The main one that they want you to get it used to just be what game Pass was

I should make it clear too that when they increased the price, we had already gotten our like press game Pass subscriptions, and I remember thinking the sun God for that, because that would have been, Yeah, that would have been when I canceled my game pass. Yeah yeah, yeah, I can't. No, I'm not doing that.

I think that's more money than I've paid for any other subscription monthly service that was not like a phone bill or something.

Yeah.

Yeah, there's no there's no like t like, none of the TV streaming services cost anywhere near that.

Well, I mean them together, Well, okay, if you if you get the big bundle, if you get really was a Disney Plus ESPN stuff like that.

That's the exact bundle that I currently pay for each month. Because WU moved the ESPN. I was like, oh, I have to have that now to watch the pay per views. Damn it. They decided to move from the super cheap peacock to this.

Remember remember when it was like everything was on cable packages and everybody complained about cable packages. And then we got streaming and everyone was like, oh, we love streaming, this is great, this is the future. And then streaming killed the cable package and then became it and and now we're all standing there on Moustafar yelling down at Netflix. You were the chosen one.

I don't even thinks this is a tangent, but it's just the problem is that everyone started making a streaming service.

Mm hmm.

You know, it made more sense when they were like a handful of them, but now everyone has one, so then inevitably they're gonna get balled out by someone else and then get bundled, or they're gonna start talking to each other and say, hey, let's help each other out. Let's let's bundle each other. We could do that.

I also don't think it's not Netflix's fault, like I think I think they should.

I think they have some game in there, but.

I mean by existing, it's their fault. Yeah.

Yeah, it's one of the larger scapegoats in the herd. Let's put it that way. Yeah, if there's a herd of goats, of scape goats that we can point at, it's one of the larger goats.

And then I guess we can blame them for for game Pass too, because game Pass was built. It's like, this is the Netflix a game, the Netflix of video games.

Yeah yeah, uh anyway, so that's that's like I think when people talk about a game subscription, this is the one that's in the news the most, like that we would cover the most. It was kind of the quintessential, Like just the concept of this was so I think ridiculous when it was announced that people like.

Remember the three when it was announced and everyone was like buying up game Pass descriptions when they have that weird loopholear were like you can get like you can stack multiple years for like a dollar or five dollars. Yeah, but I remember being at Eddie three and all my media friends being like I'm buying so much game yes, yes, right now because this is like an incredible value.

Yeah, I remember this is and I think, I think to our point, so we're talking about like playing it or not playing it with game Pass, I think the ideal situation for game Pass, if you want to actually get the most value out of it, is for someone that is new to video games getting an Xbox Series S and like the premium game Pass subscription, which is like the middle tier UH and Xbox Series S is a way to be like, I've not played video games before.

This is gonna be more games than I.

Could possibly want on a relatively cheap console, and I don't have to commit to anything right away, and it's a good way to like test out what you're interested in and is a relatively and now it's all obviously getting more and more expensive, relatively low barrier to entry

It used to be, or like it's weird. It's it's game Pass is almost kind of benefiting from the rising prices of games now because now games are starting to become like new releases are hitting eighty dollars, so it's making by default, game Pass look even more like a value.

But I'm gonna I'm going to push lightly back on this because there has been a surge and and it's it's worth looking this up a lot of like like the youngest generation right now, Like I know what we're on now is alpha Yeah.

Uh.

Yeah, what we're talking about, Like.

Even even in zoomer culture and things like that, there has been a rising sentiment of owning media where physical MP three players have come back. Physics cameras that are separate from your phone camera are big right now. Film cameras are big again. They're they're genuinely because of the connectedness.

I wonder because we're we're in a unique position of, you know, working in games media, which necessitates having to spend most of our time focusing on like the latest and greatest releases, Like we don't really have the luxury to dive into our backlogs as often as maybe we would, like, do you guys think if you weren't doing this job and you weren't beholden too having to keep up with

So I don't remember what year it was because when game Pass was like announced, I fully didn't understand. I think I saw enough headlines because I was I was like what in high school. I don't know a year it came out, but I was not like I was certainly not working in games media, and it was a thing I wasn't really paying attention to. And remember one day being like, Okay, what ily is this? Oh this is crazy. I can just have a bunch of games

I asked, because I have a friend who is not in the industry, but it's like a hardcore gamer. Like we play games together a lot, and he is like the opposite. We're like he is the game pass person or like he is always downloading stuff, and he keeps track of what's coming and going, and he'll if he sees like the list of what's leaving this month, he'll like go out of his way to play it. Yeah, yeah, because like, oh I haven't played this one. I don't know when it's coming back. I better get to it.

I think to my point earlier about like fandoms of specific games kind of wharping what someone might think that like the opinions of a game are. I think I think every games media person needs to have at least a few people in their lives that play games regularly that like do not pay attention to like the discourse

Is really the jordy of like the world the gaming world kind of behaves of, Like if you get out of our ultimately small media enthusiast bubble and get more to like here's like the average gamer more.

Or less, you know, like there's there's different levels of involvement, and I think, yeah, the important thing I would note there is people who definitely are not like they're enthusiasts, but they're also so one of my friends that I won't name you by name, but he's he's got kids and and he's he's got a wife and all that, he's got a got a home life, and so he's definitely a gaming enthusiast, but a lot of the stuff he plays is stuff that he can either kind of

Now.

I love that. I love that for him.

The people usually have like their one game and it's like a live service game or like a shooter or something, and he's like, nah.

If you're gonna pick one game, Final Fancy Tactics is a hell of a game.

Have you ever read that? Like Will Wright, I remember in an interview like forever Ago, talked about his daily routine and how he started every day by playing Advanced Wars. He said that was so funny. Ritual. He wakes up and he plays Advanced Wars because he said it helps him get his brain going.

Yeah, that's me in the sixth grade. That's literally me in the sixth grade morning. Yeah, yeah, yeah, wake up, clock in. It's time to move tanks.

All right, Well, I'm gonna move on to the next next service and we'll I'll pick up the pace a little bit. I want to spend a little more time in game Pass because it kind of a big one. Next up, we have PlayStation Plus. This is the one that most recently I have spent the most time subscribed to because I specifically only play on my PS five. I don't boot up my Xbox very often. I don't know why. At PS five is just the one that I've I've locked on to. Place in Plus is sent

That fan bye, That's that's I've never thought of it like that, but.

I honest to god, I learned that. Also, if you're familiar, war working is a thing in Game of Thrones where you you basically project your consciousness into an animal. And this in this case, where you're projecting your console's consciousness into another concert.

Your eyes roll behind your head as you're like, hey, no, God War real quick.

But it's like it's like a remote play where like you're both playing on the same console, and I think you can use it to do like local co op stuff from online.

Yeah, and that was.

Yeah, I think that might have been how I played a way out.

That's yeah, that's a perfect example.

Of one of those anyways.

Uh.

And then they also have monthly free games, so if you're just subscribed to Places of Plus Essential tier, you just got like three or four games every month, and they're usually a mix of PS four and PS five games, though recently they might have phased out the PS four I don't really pay attention because I only play in PS five. But that's also a fun thing of me, just one of the reasons I don't use game Pass as much anymore, because I'm like, huh, that game, I wonder if I just own it?

Oh I do.

It was a PlayStation Plus a free game they gave out in like November of twenty twenty two, and I've been subscribed since then, and I guess I own that game, and that's that's something I like about it. I recently have unsubscribed just because I forgot to re up it. But yeah, are either of you PS plus users? Eric made a face that I feel like he definitely is not.

I know I am, and you reminded me I need to turn it off because I I literally only sub to it when I need it for a multiplayer and that's really frustrating for me because I used to use the cloud save option sometimes but it really wasn't a thing that I ever got around to all that often, and it's the multiplayer requirement that can be coming back. I mean, it was nice to get gendre Arc for free when they re released that for PS four. That

I'm sold.

But honestly, like again, the PS plus titles kind of dried up for me over the years.

And.

I really wholly especially like once I started playing on PC again, which was I think I built my gaming PC around twenty fourteen twenty fifteen, and then kind of gradually moved everything over as the console generations went on, to the point that, like, by twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, I was playing most stuff on either my PC or my switch. I still am to this day mostly play

There's so there's some that are like exempt from it. Like I'm pretty sure I think it's a fairly so. Yeah, the box like Fortnite, you don't have to pay any money for.

Yeah, there are games that get exceptions. Yeah, interesting to note which ones get exceptions and which ones don't, is what I will say. But it's definitely like, I think that's just a bummer. And also it's just I don't use it for anything else, and it doesn't give me

Yeah, I guess for me, I've had PS plus sins this inception because for most of my pretty much I've owned every PlayStation console, and from the PS one onwards it became my primary console of choice. So when PSN started, I was like, well, yeah, I'm going to get this because at the time I I've not gotten a three sixty yet, so I was like, this is my online game machines, this PlayStation. I also was not a PC gamer for the majority of my life, so I'm just

Did, there was, there was Games with Gold.

Did they start doing the free games of Gold before PSN started doing it or after?

I feel like it was before, But I also I had an Xbox before I had a PlayStation, so I don't really know all.

I don't remember the timing, but I do remember that the big difference was Games with Gold gave you the game, like you got ownership of the game, versus it being tied to you maintaining your subscription status.

Well, you access it on PlayStation. Plus you I still have the games despite my subscription being lapsed.

Why are your life? I don't think you can fire it up.

I'll double check, but I'm pretty sure you can. I'm pretty sure it gives.

Them to you.

I'm gonna do some some research real quick. Well, continue discussing.

Journalism is happening right now? Yeah, live on the air, but yeah so. But it was at least for me, it was my first time being like, well, you're kid just giving me games being subscribed it's crazy, and again not having as many responsibilities, I was like, oh, I'm I'm gonna make copious use of this. And as time has gone on and especially again once I started, you know, doing this for a line of work, like I can't,

A quick note, the Virtual streets are saying that you do need to maintain your subscription to maintain access to any PS plus premium or free games that you have acquired. Uh so you it will it will lock if you if your subscription lapses.

Yeah, I was going to say that was always That's fascinating.

There there were individual reports of people who like left the game open after their subscription ended, and they were able to keep playing the game so long as their console didn't turn off, or they're like the close the game and switch to a different game or something. It's like, but the second they did it then locked out.

It's the equivalent of being in a store when it's closed and they like they won't let anyone else in, but you can still finish your.

Purchase, exactly exactly. You can stay in toys r Us as long as they don't catch you. That's that's accurate. Okay.

I guess I just always say do that.

Yeah, no, don't don't get toys r us. Okay, I yeah, I guess it just always stays subscribed. So I guess it's not the same. Interesting, Well, that's worse then, But I still I still use it, and I still like having the games. I guess the quote unquote having the games, this is a this is a continual thing.

I think.

I think the two biggest things that we'll talk about are one, Uh, is this this ownership thing. This is particularly an issue for me with the Nintendo stuff, where it's like subscriptions have replaced owning stuff and you don't

Too bad?

We closed or we did whatever and we shut it down.

Does that make you feel better when you've technically never owned them, because now you know, like the moment you let the subscription laps, they took away from you.

Anyway, Uh, to be honest of how I feel, I feel like you each personally took like three hundred games out of my library that I amassed over the last five years that I had, And now that I have the knowledge that I don't have them, it's your fault. That's a deal like emotion.

Yeah, because I know I've all I guess because knowing how this this arrangement works from the beginning, I never felt any ownership for those games. I knew like the moment I stopped giving you money, they're gone. So I have no personal attachment to that library. The ones that I actually paid money for, you know, it's a bit of a different story. Yeah, all the like hundreds of PS plus games that I probably have, I'm like them.

Well and crucially so we were talking about the essential tier right now, it's just ten bucks a month. Also, a lot of these have different prices. If you decide to pay for like every three months or yearly. I find the monthly price is a better basis. It always frustrates me when something's like for as little as three

How long it takes. I've never got a sense of the time frame between launch and Okay, we'll put our big first party thing on.

Yeah, I feel like it's at least a year or so.

Is it like the CADS is, like this is coming to PC. It takes as long for it to come to Extra.

Maybe a little shorter, but yeah, I don't know. I think it's also PlayStation really in my mind, at least, I don't know what they'll like numbers say, really relies on its first party games, like that's how that's where a lot of the the value of PlayStation is is. It's like, well, that's the only place you can play Got of War, Spider Man, got et cetera.

Right. I should also clarify that I've only ever been subscribed to the lowest tier, which used to be the only tier before that added the two extra tiers and then and then I got knocked down to the bottom. But I have never been compelled to pay for the other two tiers.

I was on the extra tier for a while when I was subscribed, because I think that is the one that does give you access to older games, so being able to access correct the catalog.

Right now, just wait, what So.

There's Essential, then there's Extra, and then there's Premium and Premium.

Okay, yeah, okay, Premium is the one that has older stuff. I was on that for a little bit because it did give me access to but I think they also changed that at some point or because there were games that were coming to Extra and Premium, but then there were ones that were only going to premium.

It's I mean, the biggest criticism with their tiers is that it's unnecessarily complicated.

Yes, yeah, they also have Yeah, so the Extra has like games. It also has Ubisoft Plus Classics, which is interesting. It's not Ubisoft plus Tubasoft plus Classics, so it's some of the Ubisoft games. I was on the Extra tier like two years ago, three years ago maybe now, where I replayed all the Assassin's Creed games, or at least a lot of the Assassin's Creed games, and it was easier for me to pay for PlayStation Plus Extra rather

I just saw Arc the lad in there, as well as ape Escape one, and I see Dark Cloud the first Dark Cloud as well as Dark Cloud two on here as well.

Yeah, as we got the whole spread.

The whole spread. So yeah, and that's that's one I've honestly been considering, not seriously considering, thinking about trying out PlayStation Plus Premium because I have a PlayStation Portal, and if you pay for Premium, you can do cloud streaming, and now the portal can do supports streaming from the cloud as opposed to just remote play from a console, which is the thing that you think would always be able to do and I wish I could do without a subscription, but I don't know that is that is

Yeah, anyways, I mean honestly, that speaks to like one of the reasons I don't feel the need to upgrade is like cloud streaming is kind of a big it's not one of the characters. And I've I've I just don't like cloud streaming at all. Like I don't care what genre game it is. I just never want to have to worry about latency. Like my internet's good, but even then, I just never I the moment I see any dipper stutter, I'm gonna be like this sucks. I'm just going to go back to my ansole. It's why

My my understanding is that, and I could be wrong, because I've posted about this a few times. I understanding is that the cloud streaming and the remote play are different levels of good, and that cloud streaming has gotten better over time. Remote play for me, has a lot more latency. But that's why the thing I haven't tried the cloud streaming on PlayStation Portal. I guess maybe I'm still being delusional and I'm like, there's still it'll still be worth it this purchase that I made.

I've only I've only tried cloud streaming on two different services. I tried the Xbox One and it was okay. I don't remember it being remarkably.

Good, you know, when you did that out of curiosity, that.

Would have been like at least three years ago or so I did. It was it was a while bag Yeah launched.

And fine, But I tried. Yeah.

The other one I tried, which we'll talk about the moment, is the Switch Cloud stuff, specifically the ones that were coming out only for Triple A games. I tried to control Cloud on the switch. Oh my god, crazy four hardware would.

Even sell that.

Instead, the switch that's being lit on fire is thousands of miles away from you and trying to stream you the game quietly. It's doing the R two D two yell yes.

Uh, anyways, that's that's a PlayStation. It sounds like this is one that we all are. This is the first one, and all three of us are currently subscribed to by choice. But maybe when this podcast ends, Eric will not be anymore until there's another online.

We've witnessed the death of a subscription service live on the air.

Uh yeah.

Next up, we'll talk about Nintendo. Nintendo Switch Online, the weirdest one of these. It does a lot of things at the same time. Uh, and I I have it. I have the expansion pack plan.

Yeah. I think we all do, right, I think we all do.

That's another one to play to play Path of Radiance, I think you need it, right Yeah?

Yeah, well yeah, I think this is another one. Disclosure that Nintendo provided Game Informer with which well maybe I don't know, maybe you got it. I know mine.

Well, I had it and I got it before Nintendo sent us the code, and it was like, it actually doesn't work because I paid for a year and you can't like buy another year and then extend what you had, like it has to be a lapse account or whatever.

So yeah, it.

Just didn't work.

Yeah, okay, I pay for this. I will continue to pay for this this if I if I only had to pick, well, if I only had to pick one gaming subscription that I have, it would be to continue my final Fantasy fourteen subscription, and then it would be to keep Switch.

Sorry to suggest that you you take handouts there, idn't.

Mean yeah no, if anything, I'm not being offered a handouts.

Handouts talking about.

Straps, yeah yeah, gotta pull yourself up by your expansion pack.

Yeah, get that premium.

Sid So, uh, Switch online is interesting. It does a lot of things. It does have online play, so there are instances where you might want to do that. I don't know who's like really intense about it. My brother was like really into playing Smash online for a hot minute, so he would have it for that. If you're trying to play that definite online cart world for sure. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah, I just said Animal Crossing, like that's the reason to have switch online versus anything else. You got to have it for that. I would have said, like, yeah, like four years ago, two great, look, I play a lot of I think Nintendo's multiplayer offering is is very good on its doorst party front. Like Mario Kart's Great Smash doesn't always work, if it ever does, but I still play it anyways because I'm a broken man. I would have said Mario Party if not for Lego Party

I guess I didn't consider it for any of those because those are mostly things I do locally that you like can't do locally with other consoles so like, if I'm playing Animal Crossing, I'm trading with like the people in my household, or like my friends when I see them in person. I'm doing a lot more local switch stuff. But that's just me and I hadn't occurred to me that to me. To me, it's like like a call

There was a thing that happened called the COVID nineteen pandemic, in which we crucially could not visit each other's house and we're thus not able to trade items in person, and.

I think that change.

Yeah, Legitimately, there was a huge boom in online gaming and discord communities and things like that around the COVID nineteen pandemic, and largely, like I, I myself have seen entire communities and friend groups formed around things like playing Animal Crossing online. So yeah, I think for that reason alone, it's it's already like a pretty notable thing. I still don't like it. I'm still not happy about having to pay to get multiplayer access. I think that's silly.

This is a percentage of Nintendo Switch Online subscribe. Are people that signed up during the pandemic and just kept forgetting to cancel it and every year to get that like twenty dollars hit in or bank counter like, oh that thing, God forgot it was paying for that, so oh I got another year. I gotta keep it.

Someone listening to the pod right now just had that moment, got the email, still sub to that.

Yeah, So on that note, Switch Online the price is it's a lot more affordable than these other ones. It is a thing where like PlayStation Plus, for example, is something where at least two of the three of us were like, I want the online multiplayer, and they're adding other stuff to it that I have to buy in order to get the online multiplayer, where maybe you would love to have like an option where you're paying less just for multiplayer. Sometimes Switch Online it's twenty dollars for

Yeah, especially atally one of my main reasons for I mean, outside of just academic reasons, but I do like having cloud stores is a big deal.

Yes, Yeah, I like that one a lot because I think I didn't run into it as often with PlayStation having to like delete a game and then reload a game and things like that, But with the Switch, I was doing it more often than obviously. Moving from my original switch to my O lead and then from my O lead to my switch to uh, being able to pull down all that stuff and just carry everything over

Yeah, and that's also I'm talking the individual prices, right. A lot of people are on a Switch family plan where you don't need to be family members. You can link a bunch of accounts. Eight people can share a family plan account and it's thirty five dollars a year for eight people, which is I'm sorry, why I wish you when you clarify that you don't have to be part of the same family, I wish Nintendo trying to verify that is that your brother, your mes don't look similar enough to each other.

Family supports.

Nintendo supports found families right even in their plans.

Yeah, and then there's the Expansion Pack, which is all the stuff is before, and then add stuff. Notably, we're talking about Path of Radiance, which is a GameCube game on the Switch to it adds access to their GameCube game library on both Switch one and Swich too, adds this Nintendo sixty four games, game Boy Advance Games, and then there's a bunch of specific big first party Nintendo games.

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

I I was paying for a bunch of people. I was paying for a family plan for Switch one, and it was a bunch of people that I like, didn't really talk to, and it was like the third year and I.

Was like, a family.

Wow, Nintendo's yeah, they're checking to see if you've texted them?

Really, yeah, have.

You checked in on your family?

Checked the family plan members.

I canceled it and I just started paying for an individual one. I think because I was just like I'm not gonna keep doing this for people don't care. Also, I was upgrading to the Expansion Past and I was like, I don't feel like yeah anyways, yeah, so, uh we all have the Expansion Pass.

Uh, I have it.

I bought for it. I paid for it. Eric, you paid for it, Marcus, would you be paying for it if it wasn't provided by Nintendo?

I have paid for it. Actually, so the first time I got it was through Nintendo, and then we got laid off, and then during that year it like autovernude.

Yeah.

I think if you strip out the quality of life features and you even just look at the retro catalog, I really think it's a good retro catalog that Nintendo has curated. The Sega stuff, especially like you can play Fantasy Star four on your Switch right now. You can just boot it up on the Expansion Pass and that that owns like that's a it's a really hard game to get like proper access to otherwise, and a lot

Are you kidding me?

Like, yeah, that sounds great, Like nobody, Okay, let's be honest with ourselves. How many people are actually booting up Smash sixty four versus Smash Bro's Ultimate, Like like that's not happening very often, but you.

Do the show your kids like we got far we came from this.

Yeah yeah, so yeah, this is what it used to be and they're like, okay, can we go back to Ultimate? Now go pick Joker. Yeah. Yeah, it's it is an impressive offering that they continue to do. I always hit a point where I'm like, oh, I wish they were doing more. And then they announced that they're doing GameCube and not just the GameCube games that you would expect, but here's Path of Radiance, here's I don't think we

Yeah, Like that's a switch to on or to GameCube library only like solidifies like I'm not getting rid of us because I never had a GameCube and I have gone back over the years and played some of the big stuff from GameCube like Sunshine and Win Waker, but there's stuff that I'm like, man, I'm counting down todays until they can somehow make Eternal Darkness happen. I've always wanted to play that.

It'd be so sick, that'd so awesome.

You're like, now you're saying it's possible we can get this on like modern platforms because of this library. Well, I got to keep it for that day.

To come get custom Robo on there. I mean doing the Krados mean like put custom Robo on my Switch to Nintendo. Yeah, it's I I genuinely am surprised for a company that I do think usually struggles with how it packages it's retro nostalgia and things like that. Nintendo Switch Online is like totally worth it to me. And I think if I could only pick one service out of these to keep, and granted I am a switch to user, like I use my switch to a lot

Yeah, I do think it's an interesting like there's an extent of like if I own a PlayStation and you could, I can understand not having placers and plus if you're not playing online all that much, there is there is an extent to which I feel like if you have a Switch or Switch to especially you don't have the Switch online, it kind of feels like you're not getting the most out of the console. Like I feel like the retro offerings are like a big draw for a lot of like a wide audience of people.

Yeah, I wonder how much that is, how much true it is for younger.

Definitely not.

I'm always curious about that.

I think it's nostalgia driven for sure.

I was I was gonna bring that up of like, like Eric mentioned, and I know you weren't saying everyone in the world's playing this game. You mentioned Fantasy Star.

What for, Hey, everybody in the world should be playing Fantasy Star for it, like we are, just we'd be a better world for it. Just the thing that like I do see that, like if like I'm always someone that's liked going back and being like, oh, these are games that came out before my time, before I was born, in the older era whatever. I think there is a type of person that's interested in that.

I also think there's a lot of like kids or younger people that would play a switch and would not see the appeal necessarily of some of these older games. But also like kids aren't really subscribing to stuff a lot of the time it's it's I feel like a lot more specific instances where maybe if it was a family plan, I guess a kid might have access to it, but they would want it more for other stuff.

I would guess if they're busy playing roadblocks. Let's be honest with ourselves, they're.

Busy playing roadblocks. Okay, at game at this point, that's that's that's a take that's too hot for us to do a single second half wild, You're kind of something the I'm gonna do a bit of a rundown of like some other platform other subscription services I know of that I don't necessarily know if we're paying for, but I do want to just at the end go around and just say, like other other gaming like regular expenses that you pay for, whether you think they're worth it

I think if you subscribe to Ubisoft Plus, the only people on your friends lift are just members of the gumb family.

Yeah this is you. Please comment below, Please please say yeah of experience, every leave out, no detail. We we need to understand you better, we need to study you scientifically.

I think if I had to guess, you're either on the EASA like a hardcore like I play Apex Legends or something like that, or or like Madden or for Ubisoft, like man, I'm really into Rabo six Siege or like that. You know, but do you even need those services? The playoff games, so you know, that's a lot.

That's what's funny is it's not like they haven't built their model so like UBI. So Ubisoft has classics and premium Classics is an evolving selection. This is of games on PC. I wonder if it is PC specific and then standard editions and you get twenty percent discount on

These feel like services that somebody forgot to turn off because they were like, well, yeah, yeah, you know, every once in a while, some money trickles in from that faucet, So why turn you know off, we.

Don't need to. It's like just leading open is in a break room and employee walks in and he's like, oh, hey, what do you do here? And he's like, oh, I'm in charge of Ubisoft Plus. And he's just like like makes a mental note to shut that down and fire that person. Like you're gonna say.

They're like, dude, we just closed a different studio.

I totally forgot. We could have destroyed the surface.

Yeah.

No, whoever you are that works on that, you deserve to keep your job, yes, order to be transferred to else. I don't I don't want to make jokes about laying people off because I literally wrote up a layof story about you was.

Off today, we have been laid off. We know what it's like. We're talking.

Yeah, anyways, the premium is eighteen dollars a month and includes day one releases of hot new Ubisoft games, which again is a thing like you know, you know you you know, you know, how you take. I was gonna say, uh, I was gonna say just Dance, but I do think Just Dance has transitioned into a live service model.

Live service model, yeah, take access to the Assassin's Creed Shadows came out last year.

It did come out.

I mean, there's Star Wars, Outlaws, Avatar, Frontiers of Pandora, Like there are games.

There's a lot of people playing that Avatar game right now. Yeah, but it's also the new movie and they're like, we got to play some some Avatar a person now.

But but it's like, did you need to pay eighteen dollars a month to maybe?

Probably not?

No, now, just talking about other subscriptions we pay for. Personally, I'm curious of the things people mentioned, the comments of if you pay for EA play pluss, just in general, things that you pay for what you think is worth it, or used to be worth it. It isn't anymore or vice versa. It's not a video game per se.

But I did want to.

Say I do subscribe to the d D Beyond Master Tier Dungeons and Dragons Online tool set. It is just easier and a lot of aspect, especially when I'm teaching newer people how to play, to just be like, here is a service. You click the buttons instead of having to read and understand what to write in what box. I appreciate that it streamlines it a lot. And the Master Tier I can like share the content that I bought or own digitally. I can share that with everyone

Yeah. I mentioned before, I still pay for Final Fantasy fourteen. I started playing it in COVID. Actually it was around the time that n Walker dropped, if I remember, because I was trying to sneak onto the servers to play a Realm Raborn while the fifth X wait Heavens words is yeah, I guess technically fourth, but fifth like expansion was out for a video game and everybody was logging on to play it, and I was like, I'm playing Realm Reborn and fighting the cues for that, but I

So yeah, I like that a lot. I think I think there is a an element where they're they're trying to use fomo of like, well, if you had the battle pass, you'd have unlocked all these things. But I really like the way you are using like that that mindset of it, of like I'll buy it when I get to the thing that I actually want, which I think is totally valid.

And then if I didn't get there, I didn't really want it that bad. Like that happened with the Simpsons Fortnite season where I was like, Oh, this battle pass

Yeah, I have. I have in the past paid for Fortnite Crew when I was playing that game really regularly, and I have paid for I bought a few Marvel Rivals Battle passes, but I have I haven't been playing that game as intensely as I was like a year ago. But yeah, but what about you, Marcus, Yeah.

I'm pretty straightforward. I really only pay for like the three console maker subscriptions so like game pass ps plus Nintendo Online, regardless of whether or not they are provided to me by the console maker. I was paying for them before that, and a lot of it. Again, do job. Like I mentioned before, it is a great excuse to be like, well, I mean, you know, I might have

Oh okay, yeah.

Because my my girlfriend who also is like obsessed with K Pop Demon Hunters but has never played Fortnite, I told her, like, they're in the game, wouldn't it be fun if we, like, like, as an excuse to play Fortnite, just play at the K Pop Demon Hunters. And then it was right when the Simpsons event started, so we got the double whammye of like, oh Simpsons, and we're both like, I'm roomy and you're the other one, the other one.

Do you play.

I or at least I did in that one in our matches, I don't care about I'll be any of them. Think she picked Zoe the Rapper, Yes, yeah, Zoe yea. So I was like I'll be Wait, what's the other one's name again?

Mira, Yeah, Mira. Okay, Look I've seen this movie twice of my own volition and three more times not of my own volition, so I know more.

About this movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, see, I've only seen it once. I'm a fake gamer boy.

You're not cut up on the lore for Fortnite?

Yeah, sorry, I'm on the springfield. I was like, oh, yeah, I know that I'm Simpsons fan, but yeah, that is to say, like, yeah, I don't really do battle passes.

Halo Infinite had the best battle pass system. It is legitimately like the best system I've ever seen where you just pick your pass. I think hell Divers actually does this too, where you do have to buy into the pass, but then you just gain progress on whatever pass you have opted into. It's not they have seasonal ones they add, but then you can go back and choose other passes and build up through those, And I think that model

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's it. That's that's solid throw money yet Yeah.

I think my main takeaways from this is, uh, there's there's not a lot. We're super enthusiastic about paying for Maybe I'm projecting on this who here.

Is excited to spend money exactly exactly I mean, I would say, you're you're enthusiastic about like Nintendo Switch online, for example, where it's a thing where it's like the it feels like it's worth the cost of the thing.

But I think, in a lot of instances a thing that's interesting. And I know that this is all on purpose, But like in a lot of instances, if I could pick the things I want and get rid of the stuff I don't want and just pay for like the specific stuff I'm actually there for, I would I would feel more respected. Not that they're trying to respect me, they're just trying to get my money, and I know that, but I uh, for example, like Ninten Switch thing, I would have loved to just buy fire and lom Path

Gamer, yes please, I think it's always important to take a hard look at yourself. Check your budget every month. I have aver for it. Monthly, I will review my subs and go, like, what do I actually need? Am I using Netflix right now? I'm I using that. I'm gonna cut it all right, be honest with yourself when it comes to this stuff, because gaming is already an

I'm rock song about gaming subscriptions.

That is, I will say, like, that's the reason one of the reasons why I've kept my fourteen sub is I feel like that's at least very upfront and honest of saying you pay us for the expansions because we spend a lot of dev time making the expansions, and then you pay us a monthly fee because there's a ton of work and keeping an MMO up and running an updated throughout the year. That is the money you have to spend to play our game. That is the

Yes? Or no?

And I feel much more comfortable making that value exchange than playing the whole like, well, am I getting my money's worth out of this that I have to do with other things?

Yeah? Well awesome. Thank you Charles for that, for that discussion and topic, it was awesome, And thank you for listening to the Game and Former show. We will be back next week with a new episode once again. GameInformer dot com slash subscribe get yourself a Game of Former magazine subscription. It's the number one way to support Game Informer.

I didn't realize how short it was. I think I think there's a and I'm might be making this up. I think there's a semblance of a new game plus or there's ways to go back and really, you know, unlock all this stuff. So maybe if I'm like, if we finish it, and I'm like, this wouldn't be that hard one hundred percent, maybe we do like a third episode or something.

I don't know, but yeah, just keep.

Saying it over and over again, get new stuff.

That's what it's called super replay. Just keep playing the same.

Honestly, the game is as good as I remembered, which is to say I've I remember thinking it was janky and weirdly hard, but thinking it was so cool, And honestly, I'm still like, this game has sauce. Man, I keep all the aesthetic decisions. I'm such a big fan of It's so weird and I love it.

Yeah, as a passenger that this is their first real exposure to this, I'm like, man, this is this looks awful, but I love it.

I'm so glad I'm not playing this video game myself.

It's fun. He has a sword. You guys are allergic talk joy and fantasy. You didn't want me talking so like a snburn.

Has eyes and a British accent, of course.

Of course, whether or not he's a knave. Yeah, yeah, that's what you want, right.

Eric, Yeah, yeah, you got Grimore vice from near but it's a sword now and it's talking the Hedgehog.

Yeah okay, kind of is actually yeah crazy, so yeah, tune in. It's Friday for what could very well be the conclusion of Oursanic and a Black Knight Secret Replay, our secret replay, Super Replay. We should start that series secret we started.

We don't tell people when we start streaming.

Yeah, we get no viewers.

It's the valves deadlock of super Replay.

Yeah yeah, unlisted YouTube links.

I guess the characters.

This is a bit that could evolve. We could do something with this.

You can follow us on social media. I'm at Marcus Stewart seven, Charles is at Chuck Duck three sixty five. Eric is at c Muci and yeah, visit gameforma dot com, subscribe to our YouTube channel, share, spread to all the podcasts on all your podcasts websites. All that stuff helps us out a lot, and we appreciate it. Yes, we will see you next week with another episode of the Game and Former Show. Until then, hope you have a wonderful weekend. Bye.