Game Awards 2023 Predictions, Could Xbox Really Go Third-Party? # 375

And you are listening to Video Games to the Max. Hello, and welcome to another edition of Video Games to the Max. I'm your host, Seonagom right here with me as always, mister Mark Morrison. And yes, well we don't have a bunch of games to talk about this week, but there's a lot of news to talk about this week. The Game Awards. We will get to do basically like a morning after review next week because the Game

Awards is on Thursday night, probably gonna go a while. So because this is the last show that we're going to be able to do before the Game Awards, We're gonna do our predictions of who we think will win and who we think is like we want to see win the Awards, and then I'll talk about some put my phone on silence so we don't have phone sounds during this, but we'll talk about the PC Most Wanted Gaming showcase that just happened

a little bit there. They did announce some cool games on that. Microsoft's CFO Tim Stewart had a lot to say about the direction of Xbox now that the Activision Blizzard King thing is over, and Bill Spencer even announced that they are a mobile gaming storm might be coming from Microsoft closer than you think. And there's a lot more to talk about as well as Dragon's dogma too,

how to showcase and some of the things as well. So we'll get all into many of those things all right, well, as we do each week. Let's just go ahead and get the housekeeping stuff out of the way here so we can get to talking about stuff. The course this is your first

time listening or hunter time listening, we do appreciate you. Thank you so much, whether you'll watch live on the YouTube channel, W two network, or on twitch sto network or on Facebook, same thing you were usually doing the show around the twelve thirty is time on Fridays, and like I said, next week we'll be doing our review of the Game of Awards twenty twenty three, what they announced and everything else. But we'll get into all that

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They don't just do like a review of the film. They break down everything, you know, what it could make, money wise, all that stuff, so it's a very in depth thing. They also did a review of the Upload season three and some other things on there, taught the Kiki's doing their usual talking about all the anime that's happening, the new anime that's that's been coming out for the fall season. As we're getting towards the end of the year. It's amazing. This is December first, we're already in

the last month of twenty twenty three. Crazy mark that we're there. So yes, that's it. Let's get into this housekeeping. Don't forget. You can also listen with your ears on podcasts or just search video games to the next wherever it is aslong with the other two shows, and you can subscribe there and get one of what we do a show. So moving on, let's talk about I guess we don't really have, you know, I think you only have like Hogwarts Legacy, and I do have it's technically a new

game, but I'm talking about the demo of it. So it's not necessarily the technically the same thing. So we'll leave the gaming stuff to the end, or go ahead, No, that's fine, yeah, Or I'll we'll do news and then I'll intersperse it before we get to the predictions. But yeah, let's, I guess, talk about this Xbox thing, which I feel like it is a little bit overblown because it's kind of the same thing

that they've been saying for a while. It's just you have the money man saying it, so it's making people get all up in arms about it. But if you, you know, haven't been paying attention. Tim Stewart, Microsoft's CFO, went on a webcast and talked about a variety of different things concerning Microsoft, especially now that the whole Activision Blizzard King thing is done and dusted and they now can move forward of what the company is going to be

now after that. You know, he talks about things like why they don't announce numbers, why they are signing to go towards mobile, things like that. But kind of though, the one that sparked everybody's ire is the he talks about basically, they want Activision, Blizzard game and virtually Xbox first party games to be anywhere that there are screens. Uh, this includes TV, this includes mobile devices, even things that we would have thought as our competitors

in the past, like PlayStation Nintendo. We're going to Nvidia g Force now, which Call of Duty just showed up on Nvidia g Force now, so they are making there. They are living up to that promise. A lot of talk now because they mentioned that that our Xbox is going third party, the consoles are going away. Let's all go crazy and doom and gloom. I mean, yeah, that's dumb. Like, yeah, it's I hate

to say it. Look at like the trajectory of Sega. You know, they had one extremely profitable console, two or three that weren't, and then the Dreamcast died a very quick death even though it was, you know, a decent console. But they're probably better today than they were, you know, when they were making shit, making you know, the three to two ways to the second Saturn. Yeah, like I I fully expect to see

I don't expect to see. I think I would like to see Microsoft do that do the same thing, because they've made four consoles arguably one only one of them has been successful, and even not that successful. I mean in the grand scheme is successful, but like it didn't. It wasn't like the leader of the generation ry, So it was for a large portion of it, You're right. I mean, yeah, it was for like the first like five years and then yeah, they eventually caught up. But you know,

like the Xbox One kind of a failure. You know, the various series x's and says o X Xbox one was a failure. I don't think there's any way to put that in any other contexts other than it failed. You failed it even worse by bundling it with Connect you know, So the series X is a positive? Uh, Scott, Uh, you know sins. Scott's also watched Lives, so I appreciate him watching, and he's he's commenting, he's saying that. Imagine it's not having like a Dragon games because

Sega decided to double down on hardware instead of software. It's true, Yeah, Sega could have ran itself out of business if it kept trying to push concept ye a Dreamcast too or you know, here's you know, yeah, dumb shit like that. But they realized like, hey, we can't compete with Sony and you know, well Sony and Nintendo, I mean Microsoft, funny equation back then. Yeah, they just they wisely got out and it's

like, yeah, good on you. Yeah, And that's what's funny, is like, if you think about it, aside from the three sixty generation, my Xbox has always been kind of like a disruptor more than anything. Right, They've been the one that's kind of like, oh, we're around. They've made trends happen, especially in the three sixty era with with the way that they had you know, Halo and Gears and well that thing.

But yeah, go ahead, the through sixty just had I mean, the Xbox just has its good point, like it's good gaming genres like racing games or first persecutors even before call Dude and Ship, and I would say more

online focused than PlayStation right. Uh, they're big champion of indies. Yeah, but you know it's they're still not winning the console wars or you know, like yeah, and that's the thing that, like Phil Spencer said in that last interview, they are thinking beyond the console wars, and people that are most of the people that are getting upset about this are the ones that are still in the console wars and they're you're they're our age and they past

the console wars. Well, the ones that are probably upset probably the Xbox fanboys, because they're like, right, like we you know, we invested all our energy and time into this and now they're staying like, hey, they give this up, right, you know. That's the thing though, it's like, can we expect Xbox to keep our well, Microsoft to keep bank rolling consoles if they're not selling what they need to sell. You know

that that's insane. Even even if Microsoft makes all this money, like, you can't expect them to just, oh, we're gonna keep making consoles because it's something that we can do when the audience for that keeps getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And then not only that, but you're not pushing your console because you're trying to get everything everywhere else. You have game Pass,

that's everywhere you're trying to get you have. He says that in the end of the interview, even though two of the two of the things of game Pass are paying for multiplayer, but he says paying for multiplayer is antiquated. I don't know if we're gonna eventually get to the point where we just we're not paying for multiplayer. We're just paying for game Pass, and game Pass includes multiplayer as well. Like yeah, so like that's the thing is now.

I don't think it's gonna be real until they actually have the thing you can connect to your TV. Then when once they were introduced that, I think that's when we need to start worrying quote unquote about whether you're going to have the console. Now. I do worry about the console because what happens to all of my stuff that gets saved? Like are you going to open up an infinite amount of cloud space for me to have all the stuff that I have on my console saved? I mean, where is all of that

gonna be? Am I going to have to? Is everything going to be loaded to the cloud? And you know, let's say I want to pull out rock Band and play my songs, Like where are those songs going to be? Right? That's that's part of my thing is the console is such a nice thing to have. As somebody that's always had a console since the Super Nintendo, it is some kind of a weird thing to think that, oh, yes, it's convenient. I'm just sticking this little thing that I

can take anywhere with me like a Chrome cast or whatever. Every lugget it. Yeah, it or for Stadia. Yeah. I just you know, I don't think I think, for one, we need to think about this until we have the infrastructure where most of the world, which may be never or at least not in our lifetimes, most of the world could be without some kind of console because the cloud is so good or some kind of connection that the little dongle is so good. Until that happens, I think we're

still getting consoles. We're definitely getting consoles in the next generation. In twenty twenty eight, there's a big rumor going around that Gear six and the mid gen console are going to be announced at the Game Awards for Xbox that's already in existence now. Not granted, it's an all digital console that's basically the series X but all digital, and it's going to be the same price with the same innards and everything else, so it's not really going to be anything

totally special. It's like the PS five Slim basically. So yeah, I just think that we're like going crazy about something that it is inevitable we're eventually going to get to the point where they may not be consoles on either side. Even Jim Ryan has said something about the effect that the PS five. I don't think so, but the PS five could be the last console. I think we kind of need to get off this train of like, oh my god, that's it. Xbox is over and PlayStation Nintendo have won,

and like they're already winning. Xbox is not winning, and that and that conceit, right, this is why they're doubling down on game publishers and getting so that they can have games and game ips that sustain them beyond just the console war that they're never going to win because look at look at I think Epic Games is a great example. Theme is so powerful. It doesn't matter

how many times Epic gets a a exclusive. They're not winning. They're not going to beat Steam at their own game, especially when Steam is releasing Steam Decks now, Like it's just it's not going to happen. And unless Sony falls, unless PlayStation falls off a cliff, which is not going to happen, they're not gonna win either. So why keep fighting a losing battle? You know, do you think it's like a huge deal outside of the you know that people that just want an Xbox console. But like I saw someone

say that if xbos did go third party. It would be really bad for the industry because then Sony Andenda could do whatever they wanted. Is there a worry from you on that end of now? Because they can already do whatever.

I mean, they already can't do whatever they want. Like they could release if they said, hey, the PlayStation six is going to be one thousand dollars and if you don't eat it like it eat shit, They're like, all right, well, they're the only gaming I mean, there's always a PC, you know, if people are actually like worried about that, and most shit comes to the PC nowadays anyway, Yeah, I mean, do you think that like having all these like portable consoles helps in that regard

of making I wouldn't say nintento because they're kind of like in their own little world about what they do. But like even if s bus wasn't around, doesn't that kind of keep PlayStation honest in a way because you don't have to have this super amazing PC to be able to play these games. You can technically play them on a Steam deck or a rog alleyra Lenovo whatever you know.

Right, The micro the portal console thing is kind of interesting to me, but only I mean if I was gonna get when, I probably want to get the Steam Deck because the other two or five or whatever seen a little hit or mess. Yeah, especially the the sc card thing with the

RAJ. But yeah, the Lenovo one looks pretty interesting to me. I've thought about it, but it's like, uh yeah, especially the the you know that's Scott mentions the Steam Deck OLED, which is a way better version of the Steam Deck in every way, basically, not to mention the OLED screen, which I still can't believe Nintendo is going to go back to the LCD with the switch to or whatever that's going to be after the success of the the Nintendo Switch old it and how much everybody says, wow, this

is so much better, you know, yeah, because it's cheaper, like the same. Well, but I mean you're paying for quality, right, Like now you're paying because you want you want to play the New Mario game, right, But I mean, like, what did you say that your games are worth that fifty dollars extra unless unless unless the unless they're already going to be like the margin on the console is like very slim, right, I mean that's the thing. Like they don't want to Nintendo doesn't be losing

money on this time. So I imagine even if the Switch two does have an LED, like give it three or four years, so releas an old model and then you can go back that when I'm sad, exactly. Yeah, it's basically so they can have something to upgrade to because and once I switch to and calls or guts or whatever, it's cheaper, because of course it will. So yeah, yeah, it's just it's one of these things

where I think we're overblowing this. It's interesting that they talk about, you know, all the things he talks about in that Thing's basically like this is a strategy they've employed for a while now, Like they don't announce console sales because they don't care about not that they don't care, but they don't focus on console sales. Right. They're trying to improve game pass by having Activision Blizzard games in here, give you more reason to pay that seventeen dollars a

month or whatever it is you're paying for that. It's interesting how they talked about he said how they went to Satya Nadella and taught when they wanted to get Minecraft, and the whole story that he gave about that and That's kind of what got Saughtia to talk to think about like where they want to go with with gaming. Is it all kind of started when they went with Minecraft.

Yeah, he does mention the World of Warcraft in the Xbox console hardware, but he does mention that that subscription is also a high margin business. So I don't think that subscription for World of Warcraft's going anywhere. I know people want it to go away because I get it, right, Like, that's kind of the thing that keeps me aside from not having the time.

It's also the thing that keeps me away from fom Fantasy fourteen. It's like, do I really want to play a subscription for one game when I already play subscriptions to have access to multiple games between PlayStation and Xbox, Like it doesn't well, I mean yeah, the counter to that, I guess would be like, well, you know you can if you play for a month, you can play you can see Dan there a lot of stuff in that game, right, Plus you could play three up to I think it's Shadow

Burners now, So yeah, I think wild might still have a free trial or you know, for some three months or something like. But and also neither of those games has like and they have stories, but it's not integral to the actual game necessarily. I mean by five Fantasy fourteen is a little better about that, but no one cares about Wow story. Yeah, I

mean they're trying to make you care with that three part expansions. Yeah, but good luck once you like, once you face death and one of the expansions, it's like, okay, everything else kind of seems a little a little less important. Scott does bring up a good point that they could add a game Pass subscription that also adds Yeah, like a subscription ten bucks or yeah, like you know by the games Pass Ultimate or I mean more Ultimate,

and then you can get Wow or whatever. Yeah, because you still have because the scrolls online, you also have to play a sub as well. Yeah, so that that would kind of let them put that in there too. And I mean they own that par so didn't Sony have that with like their MMOs a long time ago, like not game pass, but it's

like Station Pass or something like that. I think I know we should talking about it was a City Hero. I don't know, maybe it wasn't so any I think it might have been Arena Net or something, but as like City of heroes and a whole bunch of other mmls that you don't care about,

and they're like, here you go. Yeah, I mean it is an interesting prospect, like that could be a way to get people that aren't in game Pass right now, right that are coming over from the Activis and Bushard thing from Battle Neet and all that, and hey, here get five dollars off your subscription. You pay every month and you get game Pass and you get all the stuff that's in game Pass too, and it's a way

to get game Pass subscribers. So again they're thinking about ways for them to pump that up, which is what they want, right Yeah, So yeah, it's this will continue to be a revolving door. Interesting to see when this mobile gaming store from Microsoft happens. Of course, they're gonna have to deal with Apple again, which they had the problem when they try to put game Pass on the iOS store, So we'll see what happens with all that.

But yeah, this will continue to be a thing that's talked about until it actually happens. But I I do fully expect that one of the things we're gonna see at the Game Awards is uh, they they did say they're going to have exciting announcements this time, which is good, especially when last year they had nothing. Uh. One of them is going to be the console that I don't know how many people are really gonna care about having that

midchen console that has nothing new on it. And also the fact that it kind of looks like a I think we talked about it kind of looks like a trash spin, the one that you pop the pop the thing with your foot and it opens kind of thing. But we'll see what happens there. But yeah, moving moving on from that, another thing that's sort of Microsoft adjacent, which I also don't think it's that big a deal. But again, we're making this a big deal because you know, uh. But the

though is what's seen responding to Starfield negative reviews on Steam. If you yeah,

not a good not that's not good. But if if you see any kind of like if you played PC games at all for a while now, the developers will respond, maybe not the developers, but the community manager somebody, right, it's responding to your review, especially if it's negative, to explain maybe why you know this is like that or this or or this version of the this, this thing that's in the game is made that way or whatever, and they're doing the same thing with Starfield, like why we made

so many planets and uh, it's supposed to make you feel a certain way, and you know they the quote that's been used the most is well, when the guys land on the moon, they didn't think it was boring, Right, it's probably not the great greatest, Uh when the guys, yes, but it's like the one previous games or you know, there weren't previous moons that had more interesting shits. That was the only moon that we could get to at that time. So what right, I mean, the problem

was like what bess it's doing? Like I think it's dumb on its face, but the deeper problem is, like I don't think Starfield has enough content or interesting content rather to keep people like engaged, right, and look at look at games that have had rocky launches before and they organically fixed it or they upgraded, you know, patches came out or DLC came out that made made the game's positive game like Cyberplunk or especially No Man's Sky, Like No

Man's Sky had a terrible launch, but you know, now on Steen is an overwhelming positive. Recent reviews and mostly positive, you know, overall reviews. So they got to stick with Starfield if they want, if they want to come back. But I'll so, did you see the thing about like, oh, player base, the Starfield has dropped off after a month because you know two months now yeah, three months almost were right now. But it's like, well, yeah, because people people played it or people beat

it, like it's a single player game. At the end of the day, they they don't go to stick around. I mean, wait until mod tools come out, like real mod stuff or uh you know, expansions or DLC. I mean it's the same thing that happened with Fallout and with like Skyrim. I think Skyrim did it better, but they still had a drop off. I mean, but those games are not like oh it's you know, the player bases down. We gotta we gotta press the big button to

fix it. It's like, no, like those games are enduring. Will Skyrim has this like longevity where they have put it on all these consoles for a reason, right because people will will go back and play it. Well, they could do that, I mean they can't do that with Starfield now, right, yeah, But I think it's like we got to remember No Man's Sky has all this time where they've been able to improve the game, add things to it. It's a continuous, like ongoing game as well.

You know, No Man's Sky has been on for almost ten years. It's crazy to think, Yeah, but you'd also look look at that and go, you might you might have taken a few cues from it, you know, or maybe not stolen stuff, but go like, hey, people like shift combat, Uh, maybe we can make that focal point in our game.

And I was like, Nah, let's just have a big dialogue trade instead, right, But I mean they could also add expansions that focus on these things and put that all of the times, and how much ex you want to support it. I would imagine since we're not getting other scrolls anytime soon, you would be supporting that if you're But does it because that's the only thing you have right now? That that is really something that's could continue

to be a progressively getting better game. I mean, you've already had this problem of Red Fall. You've actually tried to make it a better game, you know it. Scott brings up that they're retaining half of the staff to work on the game, So I think that says a lot about It does have its fans, it has people that are champions of it, and I think they ign had a story of Nico who's on Twitter. He like did New Game Plus like thirty three times and he finally found something crazy thing that

happened that he got to experience. That's cool when you get those moments in games like that. That's kind of what they want you to do with that game. But they have things they can add to that game that hopefully they take all of this negative stuff and say, Okay, let's prove that.

Let's use CYBERPUNKA as an example. They're about to do their two point one up that they just announced all the stuff for today, and they're adding stuff that even I think there's a there's a tweet from one of the devs that said they were never going to add metro a metro system, and then guess

what's in the two point one update a metro system. So doing things like that that adds more life to the game, Like you can apparently you're going to have be able to spend time with your partner like as if they were, you know, your partner in real life. Like that's small things. At the end of the day. But all of those things together make it look like a really cool game, and anybody that goes on Game Pass later

in place for the first time, they can experience the whole thing. Oh yeah, I think Also, I think a lot of them marketing didn't help Starfield, Like the very long, you know, twenty minute video footage of like this is how you can build your ship. It's like, don't don't show that like that. That might be better, like leave it, leave it as a surprise to people, or you know, but then you know, experience it organically or you know. I mean. Also, the overhype

didn't help it either. Oh, it's the game of the generation, people, we all need to like it, right, Let's not put you know, we're gonna talk about Grand Theft Auto six a little bit later. That we don't need to put Grand Theft Auto six expectations on every game that comes out, because ninety nine point nine percent of the time they're not going to live up to that. That's an extreme expectation that you're giving for that game.

And and it's like and it's most of the time it's the Xbox people that like, we have to have a game that everybody and their mother talks about like we have to have the Last of Us game. We have to have uh you know insert whatever Sony big thing here. Yeah, it's like, oh, we need to have our our Halo moment for twenty twenty two or three or whatever. It's like not really, not really. What you need to just have is a great catalog of games. They don't all need

to be the highest tier on planet Earth. We don't. So Tony gets that because there are these like wonderful narrative experiences and a hit Last of Us hit at a time where you didn't have stuff like that. I don't know what else you can really do today that hasn't been done already. You'll have shocks from like indies like Vampire Survivor or you know, like even David Diver this year, which is not Indy, but I'm just bringing up a point,

and some other experiences we've had from like Triple As. But a lot of the creative stuff comes from indies and then it's translated into Triple A. It's very hard for Triple A to like be the one that pushes everything. You know, Hi Fi Rush probably is, as Scott brings up, it might be the best game that released this year, because they actually have creative

stuff in it. In a way, you could probably say it's more creative than whatever Starfield did, because I think you can make the big argument that Starfield is basically just Skyrim or Fallout in Space. Yeah, exactly, exactly. That's the whole thing is. I mean, if you care about creativity, then yeah, Starfield is basically you know, it has a cool shipbuilder, but that's about it, you know. Yeah. Randy brings up a good point too. Starfield's given game of the generation and when all we had

was a logo for all those years. Uh too. Yeah, we don't need we don't need to keep doing that. But hopefully Starfield is able to improve upon itself. I want to bring up a point about the whole reviewing thing. You said it looks bad, but I don't think it looks bad in the I would like developers to tell me why they put made decisions in games. Okay, it does? It looks yeah, desperate? Okay, it is it? Only is it desperate because it's Bethessa doing it. Is

that why we're saying that. I would say it's unless it's like a two man team or like some dude making a game on Steam, like you know, uh, the guy who made a gun Point It was like one dude who make that game like Entnight. It's also the same thing. Yeah, guy, If it's like him responding to people and going like oh, if you're not playing the game correctly or you know, something like that, that's

fine. But if it's an actual, like big studio, you know, like taking the time to respond to people's dumb ass reviews like that that that whiss of like desperation and like this like the building's on fire or something like that, like oh my god, we gotta we can't let the Steam recent reviews get to get to mostly negative or you know, mixed, because okay, okay, I can kind of see your point, right, they're they're

too big. They should be above that. But I also think that that's that's wrong for us to say that a big publisher can't come out and try to explain itself of why, because like if it was a big if it was like a big post or just a big you know, something like that,

that would be fine, I guess. But I think the problem is the way that Steam has made They're not going to read that, but they are going to read when they go through and read review like somebody that's interested in buying the game right, that doesn't that that isn't interested in having game

passed. They just want to buy this one game, right, And they go back and let's say it's six months from now, if all of the reviews that are there are negative, and nobody's explaining to me why maybe they thought this or thought that if I see those counter courseman developers, I might go do more research about the game and it might turn me into going, you know what, I'm gonna get a shot. I like their other games or whatever. I do think there's a point to that. I don't know.

It's just to me, I don't I don't see it. Why is it okay for an indie Dead to do it and not them? Because the indie Dead has more crew were credit for what? Okay, more credit of what? Though? More credibility okay, But they're they're offto a dev like they're just trying to make sure that you understand there. Yeah. Yeah, the difference between the developer like you know, the guy in the basement responding to someone and like, but that's just pr firm or possess a marketing team

responding to reviews as well, it's the guys. The guy responding on the Steam review is like, hey, I'm the guy. I'm the guy in Starfield who built the ships or built part of the you know, ship building system. That would be kind of okay or kind of more interesting because you could pick that guy or girl's brain about well, why can't I do this or why can't like this or whatever. But if it's just some PR flack or some PR flunky going like, hey, Starfield's great, more people should

be playing it all these that's not really that. It's not really what they're saying, but I mean they're actually going into his point and explaining why the whole example we gave is not the greatest. It's like Scott said, landing on the moon is not the same as landing on the planet. But you know, Randy, thank you for for disagreeable work on this on this thing.

But I you know it is to me. I don't care. As long as they don't get rude with the person, as long as they make good points, I have no problem with it, because at the end of the day, you're protecting your IP. You want people to buy this game later on, and that's that's it. At the end of the day, it's to make it look better. Right now, it doesn't look great. The guy that did hold no man, Scott, he had to come out

and do a whole pr thing as well. Like I, you know, I don't think that it's bad to this, Yeah, Sean, I forget the guys like last name right right. But the thing is that he just he would just come out and give interviews. I wasn't responding people directly on their Steam reviews, you know. I would argue that Steam reviews are more important now than they used to be, what twenty sixteen seventeen when that game came out, so I could I can see the basis of why they're doing

it. But yeah, moving on to another topic here, because we had Dragon's Dogma have the direct I thought the game looked. I thought what they introduced with the game looks fun. A lot of it is more Dragon's Dogma. But I don't know if you saw any of this. No, I'm kind of well, I don't know if I'll get the game at launch, but I kind of just want to be surprised or just you know, okay

for myself. Fair like I saw like the earlier trailer and I know this one has like a lot more Dan Drey Hill voice acting, so it's like, yeah, they they showed, like I had the different things you can do to attack these big enemies that come in and uh they have like break points that you need to hit for them to go down and stuff like that looked really fun. So I likeed the Dragons Dama one, So yeah, I'm sure I will enjoy Dragons Dama two. Uh. The kind of quote

unquote, I guess. Big thing that comes out of it, aside from it's releasing on March twenty second, is the fact that this is Capcom's first seventy dollars game. Sega, uh no their Capcom like a Dragon No, I'm not tik gonna like a Dragons Dragons Dogma. Oh I'm sorry yeah yeah, uh yeah for a second. Yeah yeah, uh you know makes sense, well kind of makes sense. It depends on Dragon's Dogma is like a really weird cult hit. Yeah, I mean ainight Monster Hunter or eight you

know, Resident Evil. We'll see if it does well too. I do think that I like the Nintendo version of this of maybe when it's going to be your first one. Explain to me a little bit about why you think

it's seventy dollars. Scott, you know mentions, I hope it's worth seventy dollars, And I do think when you're making that jump ten dollars, maybe to you doesn't seem like a big deal, but to the to the situation that we're in right now with the economy and everything else, and them talking about how you know, they were the ones, they were one of the few developers that did not lay off people. They actually raised the rates the pay rates of their debts to keep them. So I kind of understand that.

And he did the one that came out and said that he thinks games are not expensive enough. He did kind of explain it in that article. But I do think that for the people that maybe looking at Dragon's Dogma and going, oh, I like first game, like it's a game, and are into the news all the time, I do think that it it bears explaining a little bit, like we think this is a premium title, that it's gonna offer this, this, and this and it this is why it's

seventy dollars. You know. My two points would be if if someone said I like the first game. Believe me, they're into the game news because yeah no, no, no, random person. It's like, I'm gonna think of this dragons uh Dragon's Dogma game on the on the on the I'm on a whim. Yeah, well, remember, how isn't it like almost ten years old at this point, the first Dragons Dom. I mean you could have you could have been out of gaming, but you were never playing

Dragmon's Dogma. I mean, I mean it's older. It's a let because those are the three sixty games. Yeah, so I'm saying, like, the second thing I'll point out is, you know, games used to be more expensive when we were kids, right, so people bitching about the price of games now it's like your dog look at like a Best Bicircular nineteen ninety three where NBA, you know, Madden ninety four is one hundred dollars like not not, and it's not the Collector's edition or not, like you know,

the limited edition. The regular ass game was like one hundred dollars. It's like that that's more nuts to me than yeah, seventy. The one that I always remember is because it's it's I remember it just it stuck with me is I think it was like Fox College Hoops was like eighty bucks on the sixty four or something like that. It's like it's like that that NCAA licens supposed to be expensive. There's you know, yeah, like game prices

today. I mean they're more expensive than like I guess PlayStation or n sixty four era, but right, they're a lot more uniform as well. Every Yeah, everybody is charging the same, right, that's the thing. It's like we're not having a bunch of games that come out and they're all different prices or whatever. Everybody understands, Yo, this is the price that you're

going to charge for this game, and that's it. You know. Like now, if you're like an you can kind of play around with it, whether it's going to be twenty or thirty or whatever, you know, but for the most part, when you come out with a triple A game, you know, it's sixty or seventy. That's it. There's no yeah, there's no going about. Well, but then of course you can have your

digital edition that then makes it eighty or whatever the hell. Yeah, and they have like you know, collectors editions or even like you know the yeah, limited edition or whatever. But you know that's that's just extra stuff that's not that's not the game itself. So you want to hear a funny PlayStation

store quirk. Sure, this is one something you makes you want to do is you can preorder fanal Fantasy seven Rebirth, the Digital Deluxe version for eighty bucks, and that comes with the you know, the pre order bonuses and all that crap. Or you can pre order the other version, the bundle version, which it comes all the same crap but also comes with Final Fantasy Remake Integrade, for eighty bucks. Nice, huh. I could buy the

game, buy one game for eighty or buy two games for eighty. Yeah, but if you already have the original seven remake and the DLC, it doesn't really do anything. Sure yeah, but it's just like the weirdest bundle because it's like, well, okay, I guess I'd buy the second one just to the hell of it, or you know, yeah, I get I guess for people that want to just they saw the seven Rebirth reactions or something, and they haven't they didn't even know seven Remake. I mean I

don't. I don't really know who wouldn't know the seven Remake exists at this point. But if you don't, or you've recently gotten into somebody told me about Pomp Nasty seven or something and you wanted to get both and you're upgrading to the PS five, then I guess why not. It's a good strategy in a way to get to get people on board. Yeah, but you just assuming the seven remake one would be like twenty bucks more or you Now,

yeah, that's that's weird thing. You know, having bundling in the other's fine, but bundling to get the same price, that's the weird thing. The one that bothers me is when they do sales and the deluxe edition or whatever the heck is the one that goes on sale, but then the regular one doesn't go on sale, which would be the one that's cheaper,

because it's like they still want to earn more money. So I know, but I hate it, Like it's just like, dude, you could put the regular edition at like forty or thirty five or something, and all you're doing is they can be paid the same price for the digital deluxe edition and it's not. It's not helping me. So yes, sticking with Capcom for a little bit here, and I feel like, I know we've talked about this one a bunch, but they did officially confirm now that Resident Evil remakes

are coming. There's more coming, so they're not stopping it for Yeah, I mean, yeah, like we it's not. But I guess it's good for them confirm it, right Like it's to know that they are making another one at least and that they they're not going to tell you right now. They want to be able to announce it on their own time. Scott is wishfully thinking that we're going to get a Code Veronica remake. I mean that's when everyone wants. I would say, go, I should go Code Veronica

five and then zero. I don't think we're going to I think it's going to be five. I think there's isn't there That is the safer choice, but is also the more boring choice. Well, I mean, they probably want to do the one that they know is going to make the most money, which would probably be five. Do you think we could live in a world where maybe they do because they feel like Veronica is a smaller game. Do they do two in one maybe? Like no, Veronica is a large

game. But okay, I'm talking about fan base wise, right, like maybe they feel like it's well, because why wouldn't you have done Veronica at this point if you feel if especially because it doesn't it finish the story of

to remake or whatever, like why wouldn't you have at this point? So if you feel like it's not going to do as well as doing five, well do you think we could live in a world we could see like, oh, we're gonna do Zero remake and Coke Veronica and put them both together and sell you both of them now because they still want to set they still want to make separate products. I mean, that's why two and three weren't

bundled together. Yeah, I mean they I think they thought about it at one point and then they said, oh you know what, yeah, yeah, we can make more money on two remakes sold probably way more than they thought it was going to the like oh wait a minute, let's go unbundle this thing like it's you know, I think I would sell I actually think co Ronic would tell more simply because there's more buzz about it and it's more of a h not indeed or not like hidden Game, but there's more kind

of mystique about it or uh more positive feelings than five. I mean, five was good, but five was just kind of seen as like this iterative thing from four. And yeah, you know, yeah, I don't. I mean I was kind of joking, but I don't think Resident Evil zero it's all at all, because don't give it fit about that game in the first place. Yeah, I do think it'd be nice if you're going to give us the ability to play the entire remake, in the entire Resident Evil

story from start to finish without the tank controls. But yeah, like at some point you're gonna run out of the remakes, so no, man,

you know, making this remake in the remakes. Resident Evil one remake remade okay, well fair enough to be fair one is like far enough away where technically you could it is at that age where you could say, oh, you know, we're gonna touch this up and do a one remake remake or whatever, because that was two generations go now, So right, yeah, yeah, like you know, we've we've they've there's been hinted at this a bunch of times, so we've talked about this a few times already. But

yeah, it five definitely feels like the next one. I feel like before you get to six, you gotta do something else, not just the next numbered one. Now they I mean I don't have anyone nine. Yeah, it'll probably go five, nine and then six and then whatever. But I

mean I can alway steak for myself. But I think, you know, we want coded Veronica give it fuckers, Like yeah, do you see like the pattern of where they're steemingly kind of making these a bit more interconnected, so it makes sense why they're remaking them, Like no, no, they're adding kind of some some nonsense, but no, I mean there's kind of you know, I put a guy in the pipeline, let's us go. Yeah, Scott says that, uh, the order should be five to nine,

six, one and then zero and then after that. Well it seems logical why not do that? But yeah, Capcom's going to be doing these remakes. They love them, They were making them money, so why not keep doing it? It works for you. Yeah, speaking of things that work for PlayStation, their PlayStation plus stuff has worked for them for a while. They announced the December ones, and they also announced the big collaboration with

NCSoft to make various types of games as well. Lego two K Drive, Powerwall Simulator and Sable are going to be your December twenty twenty three, twenty three titles. Yeah, Simulator a shot Powerwall Simulator is great, it's fun. It's just like one of those games you put on a podcast. Yeah, yeah, here, I still want to play The Fall Fantasy seven. No, that was that's that's free. That's free. It's free. I thought I had to pay for that. Damn it. I would have done

that already. I think it was like free if you like the day or a few days if for it went up. So I grabbed that, and there was some I think too as well. Yeah there's too Hey, get to I get to Powerwatch Law Across. Sign me up. Nice Lego two K drive. I've heard good things about Yeah. I don't think it was this. I think it got hyped about more than it wound up being great.

But it's good. It's a good title to add. And Sable was one of the indie darlings the year it came out, like, uh, you know, what if you had Zelda but in the the Desert or something like that. I played a little bit on game Pass. I enjoyed what I played well, worth a good a really good month. I know a lot of people are like, where are the big titles? You're making us pay more years for this? You know you don't have to pay that.

I'd rather have three, I would say, mid tier games rather than one big game and two games no one gives a shit about, because I will at least give Powerwall Simulator a shot rather than think about like what Xbox goal is doing the last two years of you know, when they were still hanging

out free games. Yes, I totally agree with you on that. I'd rather get three really good games that I know I'm gonna really stick my teeth into instead of like two bad ones for the sake of getting an awesome, you know, huge triple A game, you know, unless it's something that like when they've done was it the first Star Wars Jedi game? Something like that that like you know, is not a miss right where where you're getting

you're really getting that bang for your butt. Okay, I'm paying whatever it is a month yearly and I'm getting I'm getting a huge game that I've wanted. Sure, you know, uh what what do you make of this? Them also confirming that they are working on that Horizon MMO by the way, with NCSoft, but also in c Soft is apparently around to help them with making different entertainment experiences and and things like that, you know, games that

we don't normally get from Sony basically what do you? And and mobile games as well. Yeah, please please don't. Also credit to Jim Ryan for just coming out in like a T shirt and jeans to go sign his the deal or whatever. Like that's when you know you're in the retired. Yeah, and I'm like, I don't just don't give a ship anyone anymore. Yeah, I don't know. I think we talked about the Horizon MMO when they first kind of of like said that it might be in development. Yeah,

it's a bad idea. Then it's a bad idea. Now. So I get that they want to have these live service games, but I am in a vacuum. Live service might be okay, But when you're tying it to like a single player story based game or like you know, a franchise that the story is kind of the integral part, that's when it like really falls apart. Like if they made like a so Calm live service game,

who gives a ship or you know, something like that. But no, yeah, I don't know how you would tie in the story if at all, right too, No, you wouldn't. You'd have well, unfortunately he's passed away, but you would have had like Lance Reddick's character go like, I'm recruiting you for a new initiative, and you know, you're you're gonna be I forget that, I think silence or something like that. You're gonna be like my my group and doing all these missions and you know, fucking

up robots and stuff like that. But to me, it reminds me of when Assassin's created multiplayer for I think like Brotherhood, I think two other games, maybe at least one other one Revelations, but there's like multiplayer component and it's like, okay, that's kind of neat, like a neat separate thing or a side thing. But it wasn't the focus of the thing of the

games. And also they stopped doing that, like because it probably wasn't it probably wasn't profitable enough for them to care, and no one else cared about it anyway. So I mean, this is a big commitment to get and I mean I get Ancisoft or a great company that know their thing, you know they do gill Wars. I mean they know it what to do when it comes to MMOs. But it's like, man to really, we're already getting to the point I think where Horizon maybe needs a break, Right,

you have the new the new game, then you had the DLC. Then you're gonna have the remaster, the remake or remaster of one to put it on PS five. Yeah, Like, I don't know that you need this constant going on Horizon thing, right, especially since like I don't think that franchise or like that property is like capable of supporting all this crap. Like it's fine, but it's you know, it's it's kind of limiting because you're

focused on like the one character and there's nowhere to really go from. Like you're just gonna play something no name tribal guy, but oh I'm also important to this story. It's like you're not. Yeah, I mean I get it, like you're trying to make Horizon the next big franchise that you have. You have the next books, TV show or whatever to and you know, Scott says, and we'll look at all the weather, looking at is

all the money from last service cinmmos. But I think this is kind of gonna be one of the ones that's not gonna it might do well at first, right because everybody's gonna be excited, Oh, we'll get to play with my friends in Horizon and do all the stuff that you do in the Horizon

games. But man, I can't see them constantly keeping people around for this, like we see it with a lot of these MMO or well MMO likes with the live service and then MMOs, and it's really hard to keep people around when it's something new and you're you're fighting with all the other ones that are around. It's much easier to drop the one that's new and go back to the one that you're used to than it is vice versa a lot of times. So I don't know that they're really pushing into this, and I

could see this getting a lot of blowback instead of being a success. But

I mean, look at Ghost of Sugimas like multiplayer stuff. People love that though some people, but then you know, no one, no one talks about it now or no one can, you know, like the first month and I played like for it for like a few days, like maybe a match or two, and then say all right, uh, we're done, you know, I mean it like from what I I didn't play too, but from what I played of one, it does have a world that you kind of want to I could see people you want to be in it,

right, It does try to have a story about itself. Yeah, so you could grow on that, right. But uh, but like the story in those games is basically like you are the chosen one because you really are a check yeah sort of cann go oh your character. You know, you're also part of this group back in the day. Then you're also re cloned

as well, so that's why you're important as you know. Yeah, I mean if if you're gonna tell me that, okay, we made a we're gonna make a Horizon multiplayer game or something like that, and it's not necessarily live service or not an MMO, Okay, I can kind of go with that, like with they're with factions, but I could I could see it more and like the Last of Us kind of right, because it's like, well, Joel and Ellie are the focal point of that story, but there's

still a much more interesting world that you could do stuff with, like you know, you're a new survivor or you know, you're just whatever, Like you don't have to tie it into Joel and Ellie at all really, but with Horizon you kind of do you have to tie it in with that chick Alloy because she is the focal point. So yeah, and then I forgot the Horizon VR games. Well yeah, I remember I had Ben in there,

so like, yeah, a lot of Horizon stuff. No, this was like a ways off, So we'll see what keeps happening with that. But LOOKA and Sony wants to kind of do the multimedia thing and it's so far has worked out for them. Or where's the Spider Man mmo where it's just fifty Spider Man against one raid boss dot coc. I'm surprised nobody is try to bring that up. Let's do a Spider Man MMO thing. I'm a thirteen Madam Web. But just to I guess, continue with the mobile

stuff for a little bit here. Uh. Sega also kind of unveiled a little bit of their plans that they're doing now that they own Robio. They so that there could be a Sonic and Angry Birds crossover game and uh kind of joke that they're their their ips are dating right now where they figure out what they're going to do with them, and then also that like a Dragon and Persona could have mobile games as well. I mean, Persona already is already has had a mobile game. I sing, well, they keep putting

Persona in a bunch of different mobile games. Yeah. Also, so there's that Scott brings up the Marble Spider Worse at leasing in twenty thirty yeight, I mean, the way things are going with Spider Man, who knows it? Could it could happen? But yeah, yeah, Look as somebody that plays Eepra Crisis all the time can tell you that, uh, you know, I got got by the gotcha. I get that the gotcha works.

You know, Scott is a big fan of the Hanky Star reel. You know, so if that's what they're gonna do, try to make lack a Dragon and Persona gotcha games. I guess that's definitely could happen. I just don't know, like you get so many Persona spinoffs at this point that a brand. I mean, that's why I'll get Tactical or Tactica eventually, but I don't see it as important, especially since you know last year or the past few years he got one of five Royal and then uh, the breakers

sort of end up being called yeah the Strikers. Yeah, okay, yeah no, And that's the point, right, Like Persona every time they have a game, what are they releast like different DLC with all these different outfits, right, and like a Dragon does similar things they did it with lack of Dragon seven because you have all the different jobs you get and all that

thing. I mean, at least of that one. Like, I don't know if that's actually better or worse because it's I mean, it's better because they're more unique, but it's worse because the textual gameplay, right, So at least with like PA five is just like, hey, if you want

your character to look like a power Ainger, you can do it. But yeah, it's just if this is like their way of kind of just having a concurrent Persona thing around, and I'm sure that they will meld the very much like they did with the why kind of think of them right now the Dungeon games that are on the three DS, where they meld it in the

Persona three and four characters as well. I don't see this for seing Persona Q. Yes, Persona Q. Those are both great games, by the way, would be cool if they got put on switch at some point. But yeah, like they that's something they could do on mobile as well. They could do their own version of a Persona qu on mobile. They could do whatever it is, like the Persona Gotcha game, but then kind of involve all the Persona things in them, kind of like what we're seeing with

Ever Crisis where they do seven and nine crossover. They are doing that Persona Gotcha game. Now what there's a mobile Persona game that it's a goll gotcha ship. Yeah. Well and they, like I said, like you know, Scot brings uff. They added them to like another Eden, They've added them to other mobile games as well, you know, so yeah that's a thing. Yeah, Persona five is a Phantom X five X. That was

it. Yeah, lack of Dragon having that doesn't surprise me either. I mean it is kind of belt where they could technically make it a mobile game as well, especially now as you have to turn and based version of lack of Dragon, So I why not everybody else is doing it? So if if they're wanting to do this, then go for it. Sonic is interesting as well because you know, Sonic has had its mobile ventures, so hey, yeah, didn't take them long to have this bear fruit for Sega.

So we'll see when they actually come out. Wait until the Microsoft King announcement of Halo Candy Crush. Yeah. Just unfortunately we have to talk about some more negative stuff with gaming here, as Embracer keeps just gutting companies. They've officially sort of announced the Free Radical, which Randy and I talked about when the news came out the first time that Free Radical was possibly going to get closed. Embracer's basically said that at some point in this month they are probably

going to close pre Radical. We talked about it also, I think because I was making fun of people who like Time Flitters. Yes, it sucks to see it sucks that, like we were close to possibly getting any times Twitter's game and you know, yes, it's it's it just it sucks to see this. And then also they're they're going to uh they already laid off people at fish Labs, which the people that made the Corpus game. Uh you know the no, no, it's not Corvus, it's just chorus chorus

Okay, yeah, just spelled dumbly. Yeah. I like that game, but it had problems, you know, h it did, but it still sucks to see that again. Another developer that they own, yeah, is losing people around. They said that on Tuesday, around fifty people were told that they'd be laid off. The studio itself only has one hundred and twenty

people, which you know, yeah, almost half. I mean they did also work on Ports of Saints Fro the third and four for Switch and then the Xbox Sport of Vauheim, so they were doing other things besides scores. Yeah. So yeah, man, this like I keep saying, and great on Ben Starr also playing it during the Golden Joystick Awards that this is a great year for games, but a terrible year for everything else around games,

and it continues to bear that fruit. And then one that really bothers me because I like Marvel Snap, I play with a friend of mine every so often, and by Dance, who you know, of course people probably know from they're the ones that do TikTok. They also own a gaming company. Yeah, and that gaming company is apparently a new Verse. I'm sorry it's

going to disappear. Basically, they're they're trying to get out of games, and they're trying to basically sell off either they can sell off the studio or just sell off the various games that they have already existing. But they told the developers that are working on games that haven't come out yet that they're going to stop working on those games. And they've already started laying off people again,

which which sucks. And although the folks that do Marvel Snap did come out and say that this doesn't really this should not affect the game because it's it's a Marvel game. You would think that the IP and the game itself would sell if somebody else can go buy it. I don't know how the the whole transfer of the rights would work, but yeah, maybe maybe Disney can go buy it too. Of course, uh I forgot that the the developers named Second Dinner that coke like kindind of makes this game, but uh

yeah, I hate seeing this man. Marble Snap has been one of those mobile games that has like came up and surprised everyone. Obviously has a lot of Heartstone fielding in it because one of the folks that made Hearthstone also makes this game. But I don't know, did you ever play it or no? Because it was probably pretty I mean I think it's on Steam now,

but yeah, it's like mobile focused. I also don't care about card games anymore, so that's a problem, but it's not uh scummy, so that's a positive to their Yeah, I never felt like I was being pushed towards I haven't had anything, and then the Tann's kind of seemed interesting. We had like the three zones. So yeah, I assume it's just kind of in maintenance mode at the moment, or you know, the I'll keep cruckling along until they either get completely shut down or someone else picks them up.

Yeah. Scott brings up that this is why for every time we talk about these big murders happening, why a lot of them? Well, okay, you can have some good ones. Perhaps the when you have a big company like Embracer that we kept talking about, they were buying, buying, buying, buying. Uh, this is what happens when you have one wrong, bad decision happened, and now all of these companies are being affected and it's not going to end. I'm sure next year we're going to be the same

problem. Yeah, Embracing I had other problems as well, where yeah, the Saudi deal fell through obviously, but also they were putting out a bunch of crap, you know, so they were like remaking games that didn't need to be remade and remaster It's like, no one asks for half of these

games that you guys are just putting out. But okay, yeah, well, you know they released Saints Row and that was a disaster or you know, yeah, I like the remakes, Like, you know, I guess it's kind of fine that Destroyal Human's got a remake, but that didn't sell the world Set the World on Fire or you know, how could it? You know, right, if they do it cheaply, that's that's one thing. But I doubt they were. No, they were, And unfortunately now

they're bearing fruit of all these raw decisions. And I wonder if at some point they get desperate enough where they start shopping around the Lord of the Rings epe thing again, uh, to have somebody else buy, because they already gave the the multi media rights to Amazon for it. They already they did that with tomb Raider as well. Like I wonder if they just go, oh, you know what, we're not recouping enough, let's just sell this

whole ip to somebody. Yeah, I mean, how they're trying to get rid of Gearbox and it's like, that's like they're one one of their few positive studios. Yeah for sure, well at least one positive. When it comes to all this mobile gaming stuff, off A seven Ever Crisis is going to be hitting has already hit Steam or to hit Steam very quickly, like next week. I'm sorry. I've already been playing it on on PC with

the Blue Stacks app. It's awesome because I can literally just have it running while I'm working and I'm grinding without having to sit there and waste all the

battery on my phone. And it's great. I can still because damn man, they make they make you really have to grind to get to the They just added the Nibelheim section flashback section to the seventh story, and you have to grind a lot to get Cloud to the point where because instead of having you fight with Separov because Steparoth is not a character in that the oh okay, I should mention young Separas is a character, but he has his own

storyline with the First Soldier stuff, which is different than seven. The adult Separoth is not a character in the game, so you cannot fight with Separoth like you would in the regular File Fantasy. You have to fight as Cloud by himself during this section, and it means you have to grind Cloud to

a certain point where he's like way above the rest of your party. And yeah, it kind of sucks because most of the game you're grinding with two other characters, so your parlevel doesn't have to be as strong, but when

it's just one character, it's pain in the butt. Yes, and I agree Young Sepparth also, he was way behind the other characters that you use, the first soldier and you have to grind him a lot too, And it's like, you know what, I'm done trying to even though I have it on the Auto battle thing, it's still using up a ton of the

battery on my phone. I'm just like, thank God. Hopefully the Square Enix account thing that they already have where I can just basically have cross progression between Blue Stacks and my phone will also work on the Steam version, and then it will work a lot better because I can is use Steam and not an app that I didn't have before this. So yeah, yes, I agree with you, Scott. Thanks for Boo Stacks. I wasn't young Ros first album, but the second album is pretty good all right, So I

don't have we don't have a lot of time here. I got to pick up my daughter in like twenty five minutes, So no, I was ranking about Hogwarts later on. That's cool. Let's get into uh the Game Awards prediction. So what we're going to do here is go through a lot of the I guess major, I'm not gonna look. We never want to care about then esports moment of the year. No, especially not when they don't even check they like apparently they had a coach that like didn't even coach this

year. Uh in the awards somehow, I don't know how that's all surprised at all. Again, Uh, I guess before we start, let me let's do this. Uh this one story. So Jeff Kelley had a Q and A that he did live and he talked about apparently I guess after this year because he still called them world premieres. I don't know if it's going to include this year's version or next year. They're not going to use the

world premiere thing anymore. They're going to have more security so you don't have people showing up on the stage random And I guess the most controversial thing he talked about was the whole Dave the Diver controversy with best Independent Game. He said that basically, Indy is kind of like a style. Indy can be anything to anyone, regardless of whether you're triple A or not. Essentially is what he said, Like no, right, like wait wait for the Indy

darling call of duty to come out, Like he means something. You just don't want to put a meaning to that, so you don't have to say, oh man, we screwed up. Now. It's like that's just so weird that you wouldn't just say, hey, we messed up. So here's the quote, just so I don't say the wrong thing. So yeah, David Diver the game and stay back group may mint Rocket. It's a smaller game from a smaller group, but it's part of Next On their employees next

On, whi's a very large publisher. So I think it's a fair debate and discussion. Is that game truly independent or is it not? You can argue it either way. It's independent in spirit and that it's a small game with I don't know what the budget is, well it till we small budget, but it's from a larger entity, Whereas there are other games on that list of much smaller studios. Thank you, Jeff for telling us what we

already knew. But why don't you just say, hey, we screwed up, We're gonna do better next year, or something to that effect, Like, I don't you know, I still don't know why we can't have a panel that this is their job and you can just have people do it like throughout the year. I know that means you probably have to pay people something, but you like yo, the PC Gaming Show Most Wanted Thing, they had like a council of people which included dev's journalists and influencers, YouTubers,

whatever. They put them all together and they they're the ones that pick the best twenty five games or whatever that were on that thing. Why is that hard to do, Jeff? Where you do the same thing and you go, you guys decide in each genre, these are the games that should be in that category, and then when you give out the list of the people

that vote, these are the games that probably belong in these categories. If you want to write something in, there's a write in box, so you don't essentially have write ins for every single category and you have less of Oh yeah, David Diver, that came out the year. Oh, it's indeed right, Like, no, it means that somebody everady did the research for you, so you don't have have to go and do research that you're not

going to do. You pick something you know, and it's like, I don't understand why that's difficult instead of just doing this this this thing that they do now you know, but whatever. I don't know if you have a thought or really I mean, I wouldn't say that game is indie, but it's also not gonna it's also not going to be on like a top five or six a Game of the Year list as well, so it somewhere right, But I mean also you can just exclude things that they don't fit and

they'll try to shoehorn them in. But whatever. Yeah, Like for me, also, I don't understand why we do this player's choice thing. If we're trying to point out he points out that the play well, the player's choice thing is there. You can pick what you want, uh to be

able to represent the players side of things. Why are we putting old games in there that are not did not come out this year If we're making that point, like there's indie games that are not in that are actually indi that were not in there because you had to put in Genchen Impact and Fortnite and other things that have been out a while that don't need to be recognized. They don't need this recognization. They don't need this recognition. They already have

huge amounts of fans. But let's say whatever game that wins, which I know it's going to be some big Triple A game, but let's say that we did have an indie game or some other games that that could have gone further in the competition in the voting because you didn't have all these things in there. Like right now, Genchen Impact is one of the top ten. That makes no sense, but that's just me. Let's let's go. Yeah, Fortnite needs more recognition. Yeah, definitely, we needed to have that

in there. So I guess let's see what the one that doesn't have to do anything with gaming per Se Best Adaptation, Last of Us, Castflvania, Nocturn, Grand Turismo, Super Mario Brothers Movie, and Twisted Middle Save a Twisted Metal Man obviously, Yeah, no, it'll be after us. Of course. Uh, They're they're going to try to make it a point that you know, we need to honor the the best version. I imagine they'll have the guy and the girl come out, except as well, Oh you

think uh will show up? Maybe not both, at least maybe one of them. Yeah, I assume maybe Pedro, But yeah, we'll see. I think my movie has a slight chance because that might be more like Fondly Remembered and it has the the big movie selling cachet. But I think the Last of Us for sure better. Yeah. Lost of Us is you can, yeah say it's better. Cool that they had a scattery. So let's go to to the stuff that we actually I'll do Game of the Year last.

I feel like we already know what's gonna win that category. But best game direction, Alan Wake two, bolsh Gate three, Marbles, five Man two, supermar Rose Wonder, and Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, would you say? I would also say Alan Wake two because it's the most directed game. Like you can literally feel Sam Lake's fingers all over that game

as you walk through as Saga and Alan in that game. Right, Like I think, if if you're taking it from that perspective of just saying, okay, this is the one that had the most direction, I think because there's an art direction, super mar Rose Wonder is probably gonna win that instead of yeah, Alana is more like yeah, like a singular vision of Sam

Lake or you know, right, the company itself. I mean, I guess you could go the other way and say that Balder's Gate and Zelda are like direction in a different way where you, as the player get to make the direction, and that's creative in its own right. So I guess those could possibly yeah, but no, okay, fair enough. Yeah, I think Alan is gonna win, but I wouldn't be surprised at balder Skate wins that Alan to balder Skate three, Cyberpunk twenty seventy seven, liberty Fulfan is

sixteen, and Marble spider Man TA for Best Narrative. Uh. I think Alan Wake two is probably going to win this, or maybe Cyberpunk. But yeah, that seems to be like the big the big push of that, you know, the big focus of that game expansion. I don't want to get into an argument with you, but I did enjoy narrative. I know you didn't. It is fine. I don't think we need this is not the we could talk about that when we do the game of the year stuff.

Yeah, I'll bring up my grass and point out how you're objectively wrong. No problem. Best art direction, Alan Wake two, High five Rust Slices the Piece of My Rose, Wonder and Zelda Tears. I think mar you know e cool if High five Rush one, because it is awesome. Yeah, I also did enjoy to be Alive as well. I mean the problem is, like Mario wonder, is it's such an established art style already.

Yeah, okay, it's cool that the pipes move or that you can know an elephant, but right, okay, you know, like I wouldn't be surprised if Mario wins just because it is like, oh, let's give Mario credit for doing something a little bit different. But yeah, it would be awesome if High Fi Rush wins, because man, the r in that game is great, and the way they make that all move with the music and everything is is awesome. Uh. Best score in music allen Wick two,

Balder's Gate three f sixteen, High five Rush and Zelda. I think this is the one category the Confident sixteen wins. If there's one thing about fill Fans sixteen that I will not argue, I don't think can really necessarily be arguing too much is that it has a great soundtrack. I don't think they would have taken the time to make sure that they added sixteen tracks to diter rhythm if the game if the soundtrack wasn't as beloved as it is.

Also, High Frive Rush has a great soundtrack too. I mean, i'd actually say to Alan Wake two out of this one. Yeah, I mean, if we're going to include like Allen Wake makes you feel with its score and everything else, and then also having the sound the tracks at the end of each chapter are great as well. Plus I'm seeing that like one big Allen Wake two sequins and that's integral to that cool plot. Yes that yeah, that is awesome. The fact when that hits in the game, it's

it's awesome. That's design. Allen Wack two, Dead Space, High Frive Rush, Marvel spoter Man team wasn't before. This is the one that I feel like I should win because of all the stuff that it does with this sound design, which again the fact that it makes all of that stuff go to the music is amazing since the legend is that so. But shout out to Allen Wick two also as well for that and residing before also does a

great job with its with its audio design and of course Space. Uh. If we're thought about scary game out of the three dead Space, it's probably the scariest out of the three. Best performance which is the you know, voiceover Voice Actor Award for the Game Awards. Ben Star as Clive Cameron Monahan. It's the I don't know what he's caw Yeah, Ela Cyber, Melanie

le Bird Fround should play Saga Neil Nubahn for Balder's Kate three. I think he plays the the guy that's on the cover at Canader's name now, the one with the white hair, and then you're a Lowenthal man. Uh, I could see it was so but winning, especially if he shows up just as a prestige actor, right, you know, man, fuck all these people should just be Sam Lake again. Like again, I wouldn't be surprised off of Ben Star wins because you know he has made Clive like his whole

thing, and him tweeting about in the five voice every time there. He just did one for g t A six where he today where he's like, oh, I'm I'm putting myself out there as one of the birds, the three birds. He's doing in the Clive voice and it's it's great, and it's and he is a he is a blessing to the world this year for sure, at least as a person. Uh So, Yeah, that's gonna

be an interesting one to see what happens there. Innovation and accessibility. The album four for's the motorsport High five Russ, Spider Man two, Motor Kombat one, Steve Fighter six. I've heard a lot of people say Stree Fighter six for putting in the new controls. Yeah, the modern controls where they yeah make it really simple High five Rush of course, or what it does with the where it makes it easier for you to understand how the beats work

in that game. Uh, whe's the most sport always has a good job with its accessibility stuff. The album four as well. I could see High Fire Russ winning this. I don't know where. I have no opinion. It's sick and all these things are fine gains for impact, which is always a weird category. Uh it's gone from the category that like it's supposed to really mean something to the category of like more of it's the category that hits you in the fields. I guess a space for the unbound, which is

a fantastic game. Everybody should go play Chances of Scenar, Goodbye Volcano, Hi, Chia, Tara Nil, and Venba. Man. I'd love to see Venba win this. I really so yeah. I gotta see Chances Sinnar winning too, because it's getting a lot of buzz as a game you need to play before we get to the end of the year. Thing. I feel like every podcast I've listened to this week is saying that they're playing chance. Somebody's playing Chances Scenar on there. So yeah, yeah, I'm gonna

go with the I think Chance Chance Scenario is gonna maybe win. But man, would be cool if Venbo one best ongoing game Apex, Cyberpunk Fall, Fantasy fourteen Fortnite against an Impact. I love star Punk to win just for the fact that it's tynically not an ongoing game, but they put it in here because of all the patches and then having the expansion just to like, you know, get the throw it in the other one's faces, I guess. But yeah, yeah, cool or whatever. Probably let me get out

of this because it keeps going. Okay, that's adpendent game, go ahead. I'm sorry what no I said? It da called Duty. Yeah, definitely not. Uh, Cocoon, Dave the Diver, which is not an indie game, Dredge, see if Stars and Viewfinder. I think at Cocoon is probably gonna win. I don't know when if he's done the vote, like how they do the voting, if it's somebody been decided and we're just

going through the motions, or when they actually do the deciding. Well, I mean people can vote now, yeah, but that vote vote is like ten to the it's like nine, I think it is. Yeah. So even even Jeff went on that Q and A and said that the players votes don't really matter that much when it comes to these. Uh ever thinks about pushing that up a little bit more, But I think you would be cool. That's just my take. Yeah, view Finders have been one of those

that I've wanted to play for a while but haven't. I wouldn't whichever one of these win. I mean, Dave Diver is a really good game, by the way, It's just shouldn't be in this category, but wouldn't be surprised today the Diver winds up winning just to throw it all in everybody's face. So they made the mistake. But it's also like the most known out of the ones on here, I think, aside from ABC of Stars. So yeah, best debut indie game Cocoon, Drudge, Pizza Tower, Vemba,

and VI Finder. Pizza Tower is like on my list of I need to go play that before we get to the end of the we make the decisions. I've heard a lot of great things about it. All of these indie games are great, would be cool if venbo one, but I could

definitely see Cocoon winning this. Yeah, I don't. I don't know if you have a Nope, I don't planning and it's not like j RPG thing or you know, some RPG thing like Right Path Founder is cool for sure on that fill Fantasy seven Ever Crisis, Hello, Kitty Allen Adventure, Honky Star Row, Monster Hunter Now, and Tura nil for best Mobile game. How Guy Star is gonna win this pretty much? I think we don't need to definitely, yeah, definitely, for sure. Let me see which one

maybe we have not. I think that's okay. Now we're getting to the actual genre stuff. Best Action Armor Core six, Dead Island two, which still don't know why it's on here, Ghost Runner two still know what's on her high brush, High five Rush and Remnant two. I mean that's the action. That's the action game that can see, like go Thunder two's on there. I mean I would that is an action game for sure. But see, like I think that Found Fighters sixteen should have been in this category

instead of RPG. But that's just me. I agree the best action game. So uh, I think High five Rush is going to win this. I I actually might have said Armed Core six you think, so, okay, I know you you got to for Remnant two winning there. Yeah, but that's also like that, I mean, that is an action game, that's like, but I would say that that's like more of an RPD than Found Thanks to sixteen. You know, really me deal with elementary resistances and

like that. You know, lots of p should also be in this category and not in the RPG category. But that's also uh, that's like the weird thing is like how do you call it? How do you how do you classify Dart Souls as an RPG or I don't see that's the thing. I don't think Dark Souls games should be like RPGs. But I think also just because this is more action, because this is more like Bloodborne. It's

not like Dark Souls so much the same thing. So you have you have levels, you know, I know, but I'm just best Action Adventure. Allen Wake T, Marble spoder Man T wasn't before Star Wars Jedi and Zelda. I think Marbles Spider Man two could have win this one. I think it would be Zelda. I think that'll be like gonna win the Game of the Year. I don't think so that'll be No, definitely not. Scott says that Hello Kitty is going to slay the competition the mobile. Uh,

that'd be interesting. Would be interesting if allen Wick doesn't win this because they're gonna be up for so many other awards and then probably not gonna win Game of the Year. So yeah, but this was an interesting category forgot a bunch of the big heavy best RPG. I think we pretty much know who's gonna win here, but ballers Gate three sixteen see if Stars in Starfield. Uh. Octipath two not being in here instead of Las of p is annoying,

But Bather's Gate three is gonna win us. I mean no doubt aside from your love of Octopass too. I don't think most people even remember that game came out this year. It's also because it's a very long game, and I don't be I don't you know, begrudge anyone not playing that right when we had other games coming out around that time that people probably would have

spent less time playing. But definitely a deserve to at least be best RPG in its field or whatever, especially because Prominent sixteen should not be in this category whatever. Best fighting game got a Rock to Combat one, Nickelodeon All Star Braw two, Pocket Bravery, and street Fighter six, So which one of the two big ones are gonna maybe Nickelodeon also braw to Man come on, yeah, uh six? You know, yeah more time. That's basically do you know, more of the same. But they have that cool kind

of cameo thing, right you did try to like really refine stuff. Even aside from like the actual package, it has like that cool like world Tour mode and stuff like that. It just seems like a deeper fighting game. Yeah, it seems like street Fighter six has been way more talked about them. Will Combat yeah for sure, best family game, which sometimes feels like

the we're just gonna throw a bunch of stuff in here. Game category Disney Illusion Island, which is actually surprisingly good, Party Animals, Pickman four, Sonic Superstars, and supermar Brothers Wonder. Uh, Mario is probably gonna win, but it'd be cool to picking four one. I would say either, I'd say Mario's gonna win, but I might say Sonic would be kind of

cool. Yeah, but again it's like it's like the uh, the the alder thing for me about the best acting venture like Mario, I Wonder is not gonna win the game of the year, So definitely not no consolation for that best SIM strategy, which is like the one that they seems like they do the least research on sometimes because like City Skylines two was all kinds of of a debacle release and that shouldn't be on here. A Company of Heroes

three probably shouldn't be on here either. When there's other strategy games that came out, Advanced Wars one and two reboot Camp, which is technically I guess a remaster. I don't know if that needs to be on here, doesn't matter, but it's on here. It's Cided City Skylines two, Company Heroes three, fire Engage, and pick Win four. Uh. Fireland Engage is probably I would say, I guess is that a mobile game? Yeah? Okay, well you know what Fireland Engauge is. It's the fun again that

came out at the beginning of this year. I thought you played it and everything, Oh that's the yeah, yeah, sorry, yeah, I slipped my mind completely. I didn't like it. That's why I like, yeah, I remember you're not liking Its interesting because I think it was like it was like very divisive. There's a lot of people that liked it, and then there's a lot of people that felt like you, they're kind of like, Okay, it didn't mean much for me. Yeah, I think I

think three heroes are three houses. Three houses. Sorry. They did a much better job of limiting what you can do and like having having more focus, Like this is just like we got twenty different character classes. It's the same problem as like as uh, oh what is it? What are those printy games? Oh does guy? Yeah, it's the same problem as like Deskaia, where you have just eight hundred different character classes and it's like, oh my god, I can't keep all this straight. All right, So

here we go Game of the Year because I gotta get going. Alan Wake two, Spider Man two legends, all the tiers, uh, super mar I wonder balls Gate three and resume before remake Ball's Gate three is gonna win. Yeah, the only other I don't think it'll win. The only other game that should that, like, if it was a different year, should win would be Allen Wake two. But yeah, every other game that list,

you know, is fine, but I would have it. You know, Balder's Gate three is the one of the few times where you have the critical and gaming darling all in one. And yeah, there's no way that a game that made that much and talk this year and all that it is not going to all right, I'd be super the price of anything besides that. Yeah, uh yes, well I'm uh just to let y'all know. Next week we will have our review of and and talk everything about the Game

of Wars was announced and and everything else really quick. Anything you want to see announced or anything exactly, Okay, I do like if Gear six is going to get announced, I definitely want to see that. So uh, I hope we get some kind of fun Fantasy seven rebirth like surprise thing. Even though they've been in Twitter posts everywhere, they've basically been giving you details about the game constantly, so I don't know what else they could really show,

but it'd be cool if we got something. They did give hints about fom Fantasy sixteens like DLC today, so I don't know if maybe they perhaps have something to give on that. I'm not sure that would be cool.

Yuh yeah, I just kind of want to be surprised. I want to have I hope that there are some surprises that we don't really know that much about, or like a game that we've heard a ton about but there's been nothing like, you know, let's I don't know if there's gonna be a surprise like that, but it'd be cool if, you know, we got the surprise for like a Metromo prime Ford trailers to make something of that. Yeah. Maybe I don't know if the Eldon Ring d'lc is going to have

a trailer here. I know they said it's it's farther off, but it doesn't mean that they don't have a trailer to show or something like that. So all right, well, enjoy the weekend, get ready for the next time we see you, the game awards will have finished and we'll know who won all the stuff. We'll give your thoughts on the show and all that, and all of that, make sure you like, subscribe, follow all of those things, and we'll see you next week. Everybody. Bye,