Moriarty x Jaffe: Bluepoint and The Hermen Hulst Horrorshow

We're on the air. David Jaffy, what up? What do you mean he's not going to be on at all, though? I'm like, wait a minute.

Dustin is sensitive about which I I totally appreciate. He's sensitive about everyone busting his balls that he just sits there and does his thing. Oh, yeah. He's going to be producing still and reading the chats, right? Exactly. Okay. Okay.

But he's going to be off screen. So apparently I can't even see the stream right now, but apparently he's off stream. How are you right now, Jaffy? How's how's life going for you, my friend?

I am tired, man, because I was up, dude. You know, today NextFest starts if you're into that sort of shenanigans. Um, you guys have a new demo, by the way. I'm sorry. Do you guys have a new demo up of your game?

Yeah, we we updated the demo and put like co-op in it and a bunch of other stuff. We don't want to show too much of the game. Yeah. Okay. Is it online co-op? Uh, no, local co-op. Okay. Yeah.

Uh, but yeah, so I'm excited for that, but I was up really late because all weekend long I've been playing this pirate game that a lot of people were talking about. Uh, it's terribly named game. Uh, I can't believe they went with this, but it's it's a survival pirate uh, Windrose is what it's called. and it is just if you like those kinds of games and as I've gotten older I've started to really like survival games. Um, but what I love about this one is it has the survival sandbox aspect. Uh, you know, crafting and building your own [ __ ] and you have a lot of freedom, but it's well integrated within a pirate kind of narrative. Um, so it's it's and there's a couple games doing that. There's one called Deep Dish Dungeon and NextFest is doing that as well where they really are starting it is and they're they're really starting to take the the best of kind of that open world sandbox freedom and push it into a more narrative structure. And I think this pirate win just has such a great blend of those two that it's just been super addictive. So I'm good. But it it was it's been one of those uh last couple of nights that I love where you realize it's like 1 or 2 in the morning and you're like, I really need to go to bed. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But you're so lost in the game that it's hard not to.

I do all my game I don't want to say all of it, but most of my gaming between 900 p.m. and 5 a.m. That's when I play games. Holy [ __ ] Okay. But you get up later though. Yeah. I just got up like a half an hour ago. Um

Okay. Right. But I noticed on your schedule, Jeffy, that you uh you do a morning show now on Yes. So, yeah, you have a so you have a you're busy. I'm busy. I love it. How did you find your way back to those guys? Local.

Uh so my daughter's boyfriend uh is was on LCAL. He's really into all that stuff and I just, you know, I'm always just like, dude, I don't give a [ __ ] about any of their drama or any, you know, but he'd been doing a show called Local Crypt and said, "Hey, you want to come back and do this?" I'm like, "Well, I thought I was fired." And he's like, "Yeah, you were, but it's fine now." I'm like, "Okay." Uh, and and so, uh, what ended up So, I I had first came back and I'm like, "Yeah, if you want my help." And he thought my name would bring in some more viewers and we've done well over there. But it's nice because it's the place where I get to go to talk about aliens and politics and existential dread and all kinds of stuff that's not uh the game stuff because whenever I put that on my channel, it really [ __ ] the algorithm up, right? People are like, "What the [ __ ] is this thing?" Um, so that's allowed me to focus on my channel uh specifically with game content only. Um, and then in that I get, you know, so yeah, so I'm doing the morning show five days a week and then I'm doing my stuff uh as well. But yeah, I mean it's it's it's a joy, man. It's a delight. I love streaming and making videos and stuff, so it's fun to be busy. I like it.

Cool, man. Yeah. Well, it's good to see you. I'm I'm glad you had a a good weekend. Um, how about you? Oh, I'm I'm I'm good. I'm uh busy just because we're going gold soon, so with Slayer, so just a lot of [ __ ] to do. Uh, but we have Are you sick and tired of your game already? Are you like I never want to [ __ ] I've replayed it so many times like I rewrite and rewrite things. Um and uh and then I really like to see it in context, right? And I could use the dev like I do use the dev tools sometimes to just speed around a game. Um yeah, you mentioned last week you can jump to the top and Yeah. Right. Exactly. I I was like I put infinite jump on and just jump all the way across. But I like to see everything in action and then I'm like nah, I don't like that. Um Right. And so yeah, so I I I think I have like probably 25 or 30 hours on Steam or something in the game, which is crazy when you consider the kind of game it is. It means I've played it a million times.

How many people have you put in front of like before you go gold? Like in terms of play testing and stuff, we'll I'll even give you a copy for sure, but we'll start getting Yeah, we'll start getting we have to get more people to play it because we've had problems in the past. Not with broken like everything's fine. We had a few broken trophies, I think, in Twinbreaker, but um we just we've made games that are I think too hard sometimes and we don't know it. That's exactly right. Yeah. Um I'm a little surprised. I think I said this to you before, like when people say Hoxia and Heroxia 2 are hard, I laugh because I'm like, those games really aren't hard. You can you can really manipulate the [ __ ] out of those games to make them easy by just buying things for your ship. But Twinbreaker and Tribreaker broke people. I think I think Trybreaker was so hard in some places we actually we actually um updated it to make it a little easier. Um we that was that was the best lesson I ever learned from Twisted Metal Black was we thought we were putting out a game that was tuned for the masses and it was like dude you got to play test your [ __ ] because for us it was medium medium was medium but for everybody else was like are you [ __ ] me? This game is impossible.

So you know Slayer's hard. I mean I I think uh again I'm used to it. know how to play it, but it's very unforgiving. Um, is that intentional or do you not want Yeah, we wanted to we want it to be a hard NES style game, but there are four difficulty levels, so you can make it easier for yourself. So, there should be no excuses.

It's interesting because a lot of people would push back like the the FromSoft guys, even though I I mean I love FromSoft games. I adore and I understand their philosophy, which is like they're actually not hard because we give you lots of ways to play it, blah blah blah, especially Elder Ring. But it's interesting with your game that you're saying you want it to be this kind of exacting NES game. Um why do you feel that you don't have that same kind of uh resistance to add difficulty then if it's like no the vision is we want it to play like you know as hard as Bionic Commando or whatever NES game you're using as your litmus test. What's the reason you added the difficulty then? Doesn't that dilute the vision? Yeah, in a way I think I don't want to spoil too much, but I think one of the difficulties is a very classic style game and then everything else is a little more accessible and yeah, it does uh dilute it, but we want people to play, you know. Sure. No, I mean I would have done the same thing. Yeah. Like I I also think that the difference between doing these automatic three or four tunings of difficulty for like these set difficulties for an NES game is just way easier than it is like. So, like we can have a spot where it's like now there are three of these enemies instead of two where this enemy has one two hit points instead of one. I know it's fundamentally the same in a game like Bloodborne or whatever, but the game is totally it's totally different and it's just easier for us to do it, I think.

Well, yeah, there's such a meta in Bloodborne. Not meta like the kids use it today, but there's like a a 30,000 foot filter in Bloodborne of all these stats and what you upgrade when and how many you have to collect to get the upgrade that it's much more difficult than just like, oh yeah, give them five more hit points. Right. Exactly. For us, it's it's it's easier. Yeah. But yeah, we'll we'll definitely I think like the I just played three yesterday. I mean, like the game is we have to start getting it in people's hands because we're we're less than two months out. Um but so stand by and I'll talk. Oh, I I would love I would love to play it. I mean, again, take it as somebody who's not great at games. like I play tons of games, but I'm not, you know, the fact that I could beat Elden Ring, that I could beat Bloodborne, uh, is a testament, I think, to how good those games give you a tool set that once you learn to use them, uh, you have options. But I, you know, I was playing that wonderful demo, that Berserker, the first, whatever, or whatever that came out last year, and I got to the boss, and I was like, "Okay, [ __ ] this game. There's no [ __ ] way." You know, or Neo. Uh, I played Neo3 recently and I really liked it, but I was like, "Yeah, this is going to be too overwhelming for me." So, if I'm your audience, I'll play it. I'd love to play it. I'm going to buy it anyway, but if you want my feedback, I'm happy to give it. That'd be great.

Cool. Oh, yeah. Definitely. I We We want to get it in in people's hands. We're excited about it. Um, Dustin, are you there? Oh, I know you're there. I'm looking at you, but no one else can see it but me. Amber seen his shirt. Make a phone call. Hey, uh, can we watch the trailer? We have a new trailer. Yeah. We put one up today for for NextFest and uh announced the date of April 20th.

You console people do not understand what a join NextFest is. I'm telling you guys, we have gone at the advice of at the advice of Ben Smith um who is doing the PR for our game. Mhm. Um we have gone allin on Steam with this particular release as we understand it. Doing well on Steam first segus to console. Doing well on console first does not segue to Steam. Yeah. Um getting wish lists on Steam are more replicable for sales than the platforms and all the rest. So we This is the first Today is the first time we've even acknowledged that the game is coming to other platforms. Oh, okay. Okay. Same day or No, not today. Same.

But yeah, Steam again, I don't mean you guys. I mean like the audience watching. I'm sure there's a lot of just console guys watching. Um, and I get it. PCs are expensive. Hopefully the next box won't be Is it next? What are they calling it? The Valve Steam Box, whatever the [ __ ] they're calling. Oh, yeah. I don't Yeah, Steam. Hopefully that's not gonna, you know, it probably will be, but prohibitively expensive or whatever. But, man, to me, the best console this generation is Steam. And I'm not being silly. I know it's not a console, but the ecosystem of being in that world and the variety and the options and the community and uh it's it's so [ __ ] great. And three times a month a year is NextFest, which is thousands of demos, man. You could sit there and play demos all week. It's like old. It's I tell people it reminds me of being at E3 back in the day before you knew before the press told you what was going to be there and you had to wait in line for everything. Like the first five, six years of E3, you would just walk around the show floor and it would be surprise after surprise after surprise and your friends would be like, "Oh my god, did you see this game?" It's like, "No, did you see this game?" That's what NextFest is like. It's it's it's super [ __ ] awesome. I love it.

Yeah, we've already gotten a lot of feedback today, which is good. And that's that's the other thing. And by the way, there's no doubt that PC that Steam is the best storefront. Like there's zero doubt. Best platform, I would say no. Uh I think the inmates run the asylum on Steam in a lot of different ways. And I don't think that that's necessarily a good thing. Um I think there needs to be Are the inmates the developers? No. No, they're the players. Oh, okay. Okay. No, like I think that like there's really good [ __ ] about Steam, the libertarian nature of publishing, having these tools available for everyone, um your forums, your all all the rest. But people can also destroy your game on Steam. They can, you know, the the I think the user review system is totally broken. I think that really how so just because I think that though they tell you how many hours a person has played or whatever you saw with high guard um it's like that all mixes into a number that's just an average of all of the but you can filter that right which I know that you the user you say that that's not that's like a like that's not come on that's not the average yeah you have to be is that what you're saying like most you can but most people don't they just see the first number yeah I think that it's like it's just like a it's like the same thing as a a Metacritic user score. It's like the Metacritic score itself is almost useless. It's like a Metacritic user score. Like so that kind of [ __ ] or like just that like the way people how abusive people are on the forums there towards games and developers and all the rest. Like there's a lot of [ __ ] that's wrong with Steam. But but I think from a discoverability publishing standpoint, all the rest, I think it's obviously the optimum place.

I mean, look, it's nothing that Sarah Bond's not going to be able to fix. So I'm still I'm still pretty hyped. Um Dustin, are we ready to go? Oh. Oh, I'm I'm sorry. Oh [ __ ] I had no idea. I didn't get to see it or I have to go over to YouTube. Uh, I didn't even know you played it. Oh, you played it already. So Oh, well, sorry, Jaffy. I'll watch it later. I'm going to I'm going to download the new version anyway. So, yeah, we can't see what you guys see. I have this I have the chat up, but I try not to look at it, and I certainly don't have the screen up. Yeah, I have this I just have it paused so I can see the chat if I need to pull anything from it. But um um yeah, I see Solid Python saying Colin couldn't secure that switch to devkit. We don't have a switch to devkit and as I understand no one has has switched to dev or at least they've only you know only the big partners. Um not uncommon at all unfortunately. We'd love to be on Switch 2.

Is is Switch 2 not as heavy with the indies like Switch One was? I know Switch I don't know. Like I think they were just hesitant to share kits with anyone and then slowly they've been getting them out there and I think they just might have a limited amount of them. It's I'm not that like I want to be there. I'm not that eager. It seems like Switch 2 is I don't want to say plateauing. That's not true at all. But like PS5 outs sold Switch 2 last month. So it's not like this. Yeah. And it's more PS5 is substantially more expensive. So I I don't see like the the waves there yet where I'm like, "Oh my god, we have to be there." But we have to break that door down in the next year or two, I would assume. Uh, that's exciting. I think this, like I've said this before, but I think this could be y'all's most commercial title. I think this is going to be a fun a fun one for you guys to watch because it's if the if the game is if the demo is reflective of the game, it's really cool. Um, and so in that then the question becomes how do you signal, you know, break through the noise?

Yeah, I um I'm hope I'm hopeful for it. You know, it's tough. like uh our last two games I thought were very good but didn't sell well. We could really use a hit just to be able I mean because people even ask about like oh what happened to the role playing game? It's like the role playing game's totally on the shelf until we figure you know if we can we have to generate money you know like and even and if and frankly if Saint does well, we're just going to do more of it. So that just pushes like we already have ideas for more of it. that just pushes um this back. But I'm excited for people to see the story. I'm going to wonder what they think about it. Um what is the overall you think play time for most people? Um running through the game, I mean I you really can't run run through the game because you're So there are four touchstones for the game. Castlevania, Duck Ducktals, uh Faxanadoo, and Zelda 2. Okay. Um, there are so the Castlevania stuff I think is the most overt when you look at it, but it's probably actually the least important in the game. Like functionally in terms of the systems, it's much more like Zelda 2 or Faxanadoo where you're going to find permanent health upgrades, permanent magic upgrades, treasures that give you money, a storefront where you can buy things. Um, so um yeah, so I I think that it you're going to have to play it a little bit more deliberately. So you're not going to be able to just you'll be able to get really good at it and just play through it like you would a Castlevania game and that would take you a half an hour or something like that. But really the game is if you're good I mean a nor so I think an average person might not even be able to beat it, you know, and that unless you play it on normal or like easy. Um is it there a not I don't mean the word in a negative sense. Is there a grind element though? Like when you're saying the storefronts can I go back and kind of chore up my character and build up my character if I'm having a hard time or it's more linear than that? It's more linear than that. like you can't go backwards or go anywhere you want, but I guess you could go and regenerate enemies and and grind them for money, I suppose, in certain areas, but it's not that's not like the main that's not how you're supposed to really No, not really. Like you'll you'll collect you'll you guys will see. It's it's fine. Like there are a lot of there's a lot of replayability in terms of secrets, like things that you'll see on the screen that you like a puzzle that you'll [ __ ] up and not be able to like you'll be able to continue the game, but you won't be able to do anything about the puzzle you [ __ ] up. Next on next play there, you'll have to remember don't destroy that box or right otherwise you can't get to that platform then you can't get to that collectible. Cool. Um yeah. So yeah, so it's it we're we're excited about it. Um and I think Go ahead. I was just going to say I agree with you that I think if we hit right, it will be our it it could be our biggest commercial hit, but again it's just so crowded even, you know, Herroxia 2 has sold what 40,000 copies or something like that. It's like that's like a huge hit for us if we're able to. And that's a lot of that those are, you know, are five or $6 versions of the game, not the $10 version. So, if we could reach that number with just the full $10 version of this game, I think that would be [ __ ] sick for us. Oh, yeah. That would be huge. And so I was going to ask because I've been thinking about um the state of the industry, of course, not just Xbox and Bluepoint, but which I know we'll get into, but um you know, when you talk about the games that you certainly make, but you've been playing a lot lately, they do tend to be kind of retro games. Uh, it almost feels like you play the PlayStation games, you enjoy them, but those are almost like, well, yeah, but I also have Sacred Symbols and that's part of the job. But if you had your brothers, is it correct to say nine times out of 10, you'd be playing either a new game that's designed with retro sensibilities or games from your youth? Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, if I if I had to choose 2D or 3D, I'd choose 2D all day, right? Um, I I I Yeah, go ahead. No, and I was going to say I mean obviously there are old school 3D games and I love old school 3D games too. Like I love boomer shooters. It's like one of my favorite genres. But yeah, I just like old things and I like old games and honestly if I had my brothers completely and I I I think I've said this on the show in the past is like I would probably get into really weird [ __ ] on PC like um just like and I'm talking like the games that are like lifestyle games like the things that I've always wanted to just see like Eve Online or like things where you could just waste time for a few weeks and be like oh this is not my thing at all. But like I I don't have that kind of time. Like just even looking at the way Sons of Sparta destroyed my schedule because it's like I have to play this game, you know? Um so I don't want to make it seem like I don't like new games or look forward to them. Resident Evil comes out in a few days and I'm as hell about that. Me too. But um but yeah, I prefer old games and I and that's why that's why people I've said it, you know this about Lily Mo is like people are like, "Oh, would you make this?" I'm like, "We want to make like eight and 16 bit games period." That we have we have I saw your email to Hasbro. I think that would be amazing if you guys could get Snake Eyes. Yeah, I uh it's one of those things where I'm like I am positive I can make a cool GI Joe game. You just have to and I would even if I even got in the room with them and maybe this would convince them to get in the room is like I'll fund it myself, right? You know, I don't need your money. It I just like when we sell the game, you pay me back everything I invested. Then we split, you know, but I don't want your money. I just want your permission. I know I could do it. I know I could do it. Like when you think about the Konami G.I. Joe game from the arcade or like the two NES G.I. Joe games. Those are the last good G.I. Joe games. I mean, you could do it and then make it so it's like, "Okay, well, if we don't get the brand, we'll just do our own version." Yeah. Like Journey of Silious or whatever on NES. That was the Terminator game. Well, yeah. Or like when you go into like Wraid or something and they sell like the knockoff, you know, versions of like Hero Man or Army Army. Yeah. I used to buy those once in a while. Did you buy those when you were a kid or maybe like I I bought G.I. Joe only. By the time G.I. Joe came out, I was at that age where I couldn't quite vibe with playing with the toys, but I loved the cartoon. But I the the last G.I. Joe I bought was the first series which was rock and roll and I bought his motorcycle. Oh, sick. Um, but then I never and I I probably had a Snake Eyes statue on my desk at one point. But but yeah, no, I saw those whenever I would go into Target though, I would always go to the toy aisle because I just thought it was so cool to see all these, you know, the knockoffs and sometimes they would get the real stuff, but more and they'd be like really expensive, right? They'd be like, you get you get a G.I. Joe from three years ago and it'll be twice as much as it was in Toys R Us. Oh, I loved it. Yeah. I think one of the ones, one of the fake G.I. Joe ones was the core. Oh, okay. Okay. Um and uh and I think they came with like three of them. And they were and and they were all bootleg. Like they were kind of I'm sure some people know what we're talking about. They were they were they looked like GI Joes, but they were not right. And you could just tell if you knew any Yeah, they were kind of metal and there too many joints and it was like what was great about G.I. Joe was it was like just articulate enough. And then some of these companies would like triple down like what if we give the kids tons of joints and then they look like, you know, accident victims with pins in their joints and stuff. It's like, it's too many I can see too much behind the scenes. It's hard to play with that [ __ ] thing.

But all those stories like if you do you ever watch that series on Netflix, The Toys That Made Us? Yeah. Yeah. I I watched the first season of that. I think I saw like the Star Wars season was great. They had GI Joe in there. Yeah, they did GI Joe too, which was cool. Yeah. And He-Man was cool. And it's just it's so interesting to hear why those decisions get made. Like He-Man. I have a book on the the whole history of He-Man. And it's just like they were just like we missed out on Star Wars and we need toys that are this size so we can play with other toys that are this size. and they had failed with a line and uh they said, "Okay, let's just remake that line, but repaint it." It's just it's so weird how things that become entrenched in our childhood culture are just these benign business decisions that these guys were making like, "Oh, we need to do something with all these extra arms we have from the big gym line of GI that never sold. Okay, let's make G.I. Joe's." And it's it's wild. It's wild the stuff that you feel is magic and they're just like, "Dude, I just had to I had to go get a colonoscopy and somebody needed to do something with the arm, so I checked that box and now we have G.I. Joe." It's like, "Okay." Yeah. It's It's weird. Like, um, there's a a really wonderful website called yojo.com that has been around since the 90s and it has details about like every G.I. Joe, like pictures and accessories and all the information. And like one of the things you learn as a kid like you see the molds that they use and you're like why are you reusing molds, right? And then you realize like like as a kid you're like just make another mold. Like why? So it's like this one has the legs of this G.I. Joe from three years ago or whatever, right? And and then you learn like how complicated that [ __ ] was and how like breaking mo like sh they used to share molds with each other at like different companies and it's it's so toy making is so interesting and it's very different now because everything's laser and 3D printed and all the rest. So I u I got a taste of it. This is a prototype of a Mr. Grim from Twistamental Black. Oh cool. And uh you know these things started with like giant mckquckettes and then they got shrunk down to these and you know they don't they barely move and [ __ ] and and you know and Sony ended up pulling the plug on these. There was like four of them and they just killed it. But it was like such a really neat process to walk through and see. Yeah. It's toys. I know it's obvious that toys is a business just like games, but when you really start meeting those people and learning their business, it's just like, you know, it's just weird because toys seems so childlike and magical and, you know, peeking behind that curtain is something that I was I don't know if I I'm glad I did it or not now because it kind of kills some of the magic.

Yeah, it is interesting. Yeah. And that that, you know, what was a great episode of that show you recommended on Netflix was the the episode about Barbie. I thought was really good. Yeah, Barbie was great. like tapping into that that that female market that it's so so huge, you know. And then they did a wrestling one, right? They did one with the wrestling w that might have been season two, but it it was a really good show. Those those figures were iconic, too. And you know what's funny about He-Man is like to me He-Man's a little early for me. Like even my brother wasn't in He-Man. Whatever Dan wasn't into, I wasn't into. So he was like Transformers G.I. Joe. I was like, "Okay, that's what I like." Okay. And he like liked mask and all that [ __ ] later. Mhm. But like um the Star Wars figures from 77 to 85 are like you know pretty shitty looking and you know comparable like we loved them but whatever. And then the He-Man figures were like big and bulky and and beautiful strange looking right and it worked but it like it didn't it it did its own thing but it never killed Star Wars. And then to me the TMNT did the same thing with G.I. Joe where they were like oh yeah but our we're and everyone's like yeah we kind of like G.I. Joe anyway but the TMT TMNT toys are really cool too. And then they continued and they became a dynamo. I think the TMNT toys within two years were the were the third bestselling toy in American history, which is [ __ ] Those end up looking cuz I know I don't know if they came later, but the Ninja T Ninja Turtle toys look like the He-Man toys, right? They have the Right. Exactly. They were a little smaller like a little squatter, but yeah, the same thing like where they were bulky and big and they looked like they were they if you took if that's the whole idea, I think was like put it next to a G.I. Joe and tell me that this isn't cooler than that, you know? And yeah, and for me I'm like, well, it isn't. But for a lot for a lot of people, they were like, "Yeah, this is definitely cool." I never I mean, I was around for the Ninja Turtles. My nephews were into it. They I remember one Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever it was, they got uh the van that shot pizzas that you could put them in the van and then you drive around in the van and they had a button you pressed and pizzas shot out as a weapon. Whatever. Oh, I know. I was an intern at New Line Cinema when the first when Secret of the Oz opened. Oh, cool. And the woman I work for who is really cute lady, nice lady, but she had to go to the opening event dressed as one of the Ninja Turtles. And they're like, "You can't talk. There's no way a girl would be a Ninja Turtle, but you're the right size. You're the only one who fits the costume, you know?" And so she went and she she did the whole thing at the at the opening. But uh that was a terrible movie, but people have fun. Kids like it, you know. Dude, I I That's the second one, right? First one. whatever the first one was called. Oh, though the first one is just TMNT, the movie was the second one. Okay, this is the first one I'm talking about. Okay. Yeah, because I was say the second one is uh I have very vivid memories of seeing it in the theater with Dan. Um, it's like a very nostalgic film and and we were talk because we just did TMNT1 on on knockback and we were talking about how they made the second one in a year. Like they literally came out a year apart. Like can you believe that they like got it all spun up cuz they're like, "Oh my god, holy shit." Cuz like no one wanted to. No, everyone thought it was gonna be a flop and it it was gonna be stupid as [ __ ] Um Well, yeah. It's like K-pop Demon Hunters now, though, with with at least the toys, right? The the sequel is not going to be out for like two and a half years now. And the toys, they're like, "Well, they they finally showed the toys." I think there was International Toy Fair last week, which I still haven't dove it into, but apparently they're like, "Yeah, we finally have uh K-pop Hunter toys coming in like 2027." I mean, that's how long this [ __ ] takes. Yeah, the fact that they were able to spin it up that fast and recognize the demand for it, I think was is pretty cool, right? That's like an all getting it to 27 is like all hands on deck and it still takes that long, which is so interesting.

Um, all right. Well, let's I want to get to some super chats, which we'll do to get some of those out of the way. But I also uh wanted to just acknowledge for everyone. So, I had originally invited Jaffy on for next week. So, this has happened to us twice in a row now, I believe, because industry's burning, baby. Right. Exactly. So, today I was going to stream a game. Um, and I had messaged Jaffy. I'm like, "Are you available March 2nd or whatever it was?" And then I I and I think I sent that and then I think everything started going crazy like right away and I emailed you just a few hours later. I was like, "Wait, never mind. Can you do it today?" So, I want to let everyone know unless there's like some cataclysmic news that I want to talk to Jaffy about next week. I will stream Resident Evil 9 next week. So, dry your eyes for those that that want gameplay. Pat them like this. You don't want to smear your makeup and uh fear not. We'll be back for that next week. But I I I appreciate your flexibility, Jeffy, because that was No, I shine, like I said, somebody on the internet, shine the the uh little LSM signal and I'll be here. Hit the beam. Let's get through these. We'll move as quickly as we can. We appreciate everyone's submissions, of course. And I've gotten a lot of feedback that people don't a lot of streamers either don't read the super chats, don't acknowledge them, or don't acknowledge or read all of them. I think that's [ __ ] weird. So, I'm sorry that it's not a thing that people usually do, but I just can't abide by that. All right. The Y you're What does that say? Y. You like that, Dustin? You gonna go on camera to smile. I'm not even saying [ __ ] to Dustin today because people take it serious. And yeah, they I was on Dustin's show a couple of days ago. He was doing Sons of Sparta and somebody he's like, "The problem with it is is people will start beating me up about it." And lo and behold, somebody sends a super chat to Dustin like, "Why are you so sad, Dustin?" I'm like, "Okay, he's right. Never gonna say anything again." Does he have like Does he have resting [ __ ] face? I guess he kind of got resting depressed face. Resting resting depression face, right? You're absolutely right. See, I'm depressed, but I I'm a happy clown right now. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Uh he says, "My first platinum was Ask Creed 2 on PS3. Should I do it again for 100th or 101st? Which would be more fitting the more fitting choice? Can't decide, please advise. I mean, if you're trying to do something for like the anniversary of it, 100 is obviously the number you're going for. If you're a PSN profiles member, they even memorialize every I think 25 or 50 trophies. So, it's fun to get them slotted so that when you go to your overall list, it's like the marquee games. That's why I did Castlevania Reququum for my um my 200th platinum trophy. So, Assassin's Creed 2, I believe it or not, I also platinum Assassin's Creed 2 on PlayStation 3. It was my first Spite Platinum. Not the last, but certainly the first. And as people that listen to Podcast Beyond back in the day will remember, I hated Assassin's Creed 2. And I was like, it's just I don't like why does everyone love this game so much? And people like, "You didn't play it right. You didn't play it properly." You didn't see it. And I'm like, and then I just came back the next week with the platinum trophy. Yeah. And I'm like, sh. Of course, no one was really impressed by that. It was just something I did and wasted a bunch of time doing that. Thank you for writing in. Are you an Assassin's Creed fan, Jeffy? I don't know. Black Flag. Yes, Black Flag. Oh, that's coming back apparently in the next month. Well, I saw that they just gave the control of the the property to some of the three three the people who were keys to that game. Um, but I I want to like Assassin's Creed, but I never really fell in love with it. And then it it got into this thing where the lore was so with with whatever that machine is and stuff. And I I I you know I'm I just I could I could just never vibe with it. I liked it. I appreciate it, but it just never connected. But Black Flag I [ __ ] loved, which never really felt like an Assassin's Creed game, which is probably why I loved it.

Yeah, you know what I I kind of dug I mean I dug it for obvious reasons was Assassin's Creed 3, which is where I It wasn't great, but like they really did nail the setting was [ __ ] sick, dude. And like it it just begs for those G that setting begs for cool [ __ ] That's why that that TV show Turn is so good. Not only because it takes place on the Long Island during the Revolution, but because it takes place during the Revolution. And I I I feel like we don't explore that that subject matter enough. So, I really and and the ship I liked the ship stuff in that game. Like just the you would like send ships to like go do missions and like uh it was like this whole meta game. It was it was neat. I liked that a lot. The new one I was excited for Shadows because I liked the setting, but then I just heard it was almost as bloated as Valhalla. uh which I was like it's just too bloated. But I am excited if they do come out with this uh uh one about the witch trials. I think that's a [ __ ] untapped. The only thing I can even think of is there was that the Banishers game that came out I thought was great. A little too long but I thought was great. But I think that's a great setting for for an Assassin's Creed game. So the the Witch Trials, you know, I grew up on Long Island and in New England, so it's huge there. There's a weird arceness to that that area. You could do a show or a movie or something, a game from two different perspectives I think would be really interesting. One is like that they really were witches, right? And the other is that they really weren't. And those are both kind of compelling, you know, ideas for games. like one about the psych of of the moment and one about it like the witch the movie is like that that's real and that was [ __ ] cool but I like the idea too of it being like no actually this is all [ __ ] look at like all these innocent women oh I know you know and and they were just [ __ ] crazy they they just lost their [ __ ] um it's very relatable to sister it is very um RP Jordan wrote in and said please give these $5 to Micah take it from the YouTube income and add a new categorical line on Micah's paste of that read that states YouTube tips. I'm not going to do any of that. I'm keeping all of it. Thank you for writing in. Uh Tacky Liv says Jaffy bullied Dustin off the stream. I guess I did. It wasn't but but it was an accidental bully. Yeah, no one knew. You know, it was one of those things where it it, you know, if I could take credit for it, I would, but it it was just meant as good oldfashioned brotherly ribbon and uh it was taken as uh you know, the real deal. I got to watch my power. I guess I'm a real I'm a real good bully. Let me just Okay, so I'm hop on I'm actually on the stream. You're on now. Okay, I'm on now. I was enjoying this so much more just for for people to address it. Jaffy didn't bully me. I'm fine. But this is Colin and Jaffy's show. And it's distracting if I'm just sitting there. Appar Jaffy can't keep his eyes off mem clearly. And honestly, sometimes Colin can't either. No, I love looking at you. That's one of my favorite parts of working. Yeah. I want this show to be as, you know, non-distracting as possible. I want it to be the Mori Arti Cross Jaffy experience. So Daffy's not bullying me. I see Matt MF James says more like Colin bullied him off the screen and said stay hidden. Actually quite the opposite. No, I suggested this last week actually. Right. And and I and I said do whatever you want. That was which is usually my is it fair to say nine out of 10 times. It's kind of

Like, let's say four out of five times. Eight out of 10.

"Well, yeah."

"The answer is do whatever you want."

"That's pretty often." Yeah, "that's pretty often."

"Like I don't care." Yeah, "I don't care."

Hey, can I ask real quick because I the last time I talked to Dustin, he was doing his stream of Sons of Sparta and somebody in the chat said he says, "You're never going back to this game ever, are you, Dustin?" And I was watching you play. I'm like, "He's never picking this [ __ ] thing up again."

"Have you played it since the stream?"

"No, absolutely not. I haven't played it. I'm not opposed to going back to it. Um, I wanted to play it for the stream and because so Colin and I could talk about it on Sacred, but..."

"...uh I was so I finished Dragon Quest, but I didn't want to play I was like I'm two balls deep..."

"...in Dragon Quest and now I'm getting Ninja Gaiden."

"Ragebound."

"Oh, you play that this week before Resident Evil."

"You're going to..."

"Oh, Ragebound's so good, dude."

"One of the great games of last year. Easy."

"Physical copy on Amazon. Slightly cheaper than the digital. I was like, you know what?"

"I'll do that. Comes with a booklet, a sticker, I think. So, that's coming at some point today."

"I want to reiterate that I thought it was really [ __ ] cool that Sega and Koei Tecmo did that bundle of Shinobi and Ninja Gaiden and I think companies should do more of that kind of [ __ ]"

"I did not know there there's a physical bundle."

"No, no, it's a digital thing where they were it was like the ninja pack and you can buy both games at the same time and I thought that was really cool. Koei Tecmo is very obviously willing to work with anyone."

"Uh, that's awesome. Okay."

"Yeah. So, I thought that was really cool. I So, I have Shinobi. Not played it. Well, I played I have played the demo, but I did not play it."

"Beautiful."

"But you'll love Yeah, you'll love Ragebound is is just great. Um and and again, I mean, you know,"

"Look, does it feel good to say I told you so? A little bit."

"Little bit. Uh little bit that 64 65 Metacritic feels a little bit like vindication. I told people..."

"...and uh they just didn't want to believe me. They thought I was a hater. I'm like, dude, I wasn't a hater. I love 2018. I didn't doubt you."

"I'm not saying you guys. I'm saying the internet at large."

"I think I I I think I said this on stream when you were listening, but I think your packaging..."

"...is what enraged people, Jeffy."

"Well, yeah, that's..."

"Medium is the message."

"Theater, you know, what am I supposed to do? Go up there and say, 'Well, in the news today,'..."

"...'the the Sun Sparta game may be a disappointment when it hits.'"

"And you got the little you got the little picture right next to your head."

"Yeah, exactly. Shot is panned over a little bit."

"Yeah. You know..."

"...where the shot starts central and then it and then the shot moves over just a little bit and the thing pops up..."

"...just like..."

"You ever see broadcast news?"

"The mo the the..."

"Movie."

"Is that the one where the guy goes crazy?"

"No, that's Network."

"Oh, Network. Oh, yeah. No, I'm sorry. No, I've seen Network."

"Okay."

"Yeah. Is Broadcast News like a comedy? It's a it's a dramedy about uh kind of network news in its heyday like before cable news came in and right when it was on the precipice of losing its grip on sort of the truth tellers."

"Uh, but it's got Holly Hunter and William Hurt. It's it's a great movie from like the late 80s, but there is a there is a segment where a guy tries to do the news, but he's just a great reporter, but he's not a good on-air personality like kind of like you know like Dustin. And and in that uh what ends up happening, come on Dustin, that was for you, baby. But what ends up h you know, he uh he just starts like flop sweating everywhere and he starts banging into the set and shit's falling down and it's it's great. It's really I I think you would enjoy it as a fan of news and history. It's It's a neat look back for sure."

"Geller Froggy wrote in."

"Oh yeah."

"Said, 'How did you end up being a guest on Code Monkeys? Was it something Sony suggested you should do?'"

"I don't even remember. I don't It It probably came to me directly through my email, but you know, I I'm sure because I was a Sony employee at the time that uh I had to run it by them if I remember. But it wasn't um, you know, before Code Monkeys was a thing that people were like, 'Oh, I loved Code Monkeys.' It wasn't anything. So, it was just like uh hey, do you want to come do a voice on a cartoon? I don't I don't know how that came to me. And I had to get a I had to sign up with SAG. It was so weird because you know there are actors in that town at the time anyway, probably still to some extent that were like, 'Oh, I have to get my SAG card.' And and and it's a big deal when you get a SAG card as an actor. And I just got one. I'm like, 'Well, I don't have a SAG card, so I guess I can't do it.' It's like, 'Oh, we we'll get you a SAG card.'"

"Suddenly, I'm in SAG for a couple of years. I'm like, 'Okay, cool.'"

"Um, yeah. So, yeah. But it was it was uh it was fun. It was fun to do, but I don't remember how it came to be."

"Yeah, you can do like a certain amount of acting gigs before you have to join SAG, right? Like you have to do it at some point..."

"...or unless the show is a SAG signatory where they can only hire SAG actors, I think, and then you have some kind of at least at the time some way they can usher you in even if you haven't met the criteria so you can be on the show legally."

"Because I feel like I could be making this up, but I feel like Greg back in the day ran into that problem when he started doing voice acting. that like I could see that. Yeah. Like where there you can do it a little bit but like you can't..."

"...you have to join the union at some point. I don't know."

"I don't know. I would imagine the WWF or E whatever that I know I don't know if he still has a show with those guys. I don't imagine their SAG."

"Yeah."

"So I don't think it probably hits him there but you know."

"Um the Groove 14 wrote in said what's the deal with Matt Booty? What has he done that warrants a promotion? Even Sony demoted a guy..."

"TikTok pictures of something, I suppose."

"Yeah, we I want to talk about that later, too. We'll get through some of these and then we'll we'll start talking about the subject matter at hand, of course. But, um, which is Herman Hulson, what what's going on with Bluepoint, but..."

"...uh yeah, I don't know, man. I think you're right. Like, obviously, it's so funny to say that about people like, what the [ __ ] does this guy have on these, you know, he knows where the bodies are buried and all that kind of [ __ ] It's like, yeah, maybe like he might just be really charismatic or like he might just have the right allies or the right people leave him or..."

"...Yeah. Or there's just stuff all of these stories we're going to talk about for the most part, you know, it it's there's just stuff there's data we don't have, right? So like there was a story I think from Tom Warren that came out on the Verge."

"Yeah, I haven't read it yet. We'll read it live here on the show."

"Okay. So we'll get to that. But the bigger the high the high level what I was going to say is just like it's so easy and fun. Uh and I recommend it to you know Monday morning quarterback or backseat drive this stuff but sometimes it's just [ __ ] you don't know that we aren't privy to. So like Matt Booty for all we know for the last five years even though I've rad that guy over the coals in my videos. Um but it could be that he's been the guy forever saying this isn't going to work. um we need to do this. And when they got rid of Phil and Sarah, maybe, you know, Satcha or whoever was like, 'Okay, we you were right this whole time. Now's your time to actually do what you've been wanting to do for F.' Like, we don't have that data, right? So, there's a million things it could be, but..."

"...it's a good it's a good point that he could be like the voice of reason. I I I kind of like that theory because it it is kind of like an Occam's Razor explanation. It's like if should he have survived all this long? Like what is what is it? And maybe it is that maybe he he's behind the scenes being like I was right the whole time. I mean I don't know."

"Well and Sarah Bond I was surprised to read and I'll save it but I was surprised to read what was reported about her because she never came off that way. They did a good job with her press cuz but we'll I'll save it till we're ready."

"Yeah. I I um I saw and I I read like the highlights of it but I have not read the piece yet. And then I'm seeing a lot of people saying it's like total scapegoating and stuff. We'll we'll I I would like to get into all that. Death Metal in Your Face says, 'What are your thoughts on the OpenAI CEO saying humans are more energy wasteful than AI? We're just ants to these people.'"

"Yeah, I think AI is what it is. It's going to it is it's an inexorable thing that's happening. But, uh, yeah, I I don't know, man. I don't know. Like I, as I've said before, I think we have to make things as difficult as possible for these companies while we still can."

"Um, but I don't know..."

"...there there have been the last week has been really interesting because there have been two AI we might have talked about one uh when I was on I don't know but there's been another one. There have been two videos that have come out. They're both like two or three minutes. They're not like full-length movies, but and they're not like uh Scorsese films or anything, but it's the first time I've ever seen AI from beginning to end. Someone's made something that I don't feel like, okay, I appreciate it. It's cool where AI is, but I don't want to [ __ ] watch this. Uh there have been two things that have come out this week. I'm like, that's really good. That's kind of cool. One was a uh a a Sailor Moon version of Through the Filter of Tarantino and Pulp Fiction. Um, and I'm like, it was like a three-minute trailer. It was really good. And the other was this kind of super over-the-top like 1980s cheesefest of this sort of Ramboesque character coming to this ice planet and rescuing this woman. And it totally just, you know, I mean, it it is that going to be an Oscar winner? No. But if somebody were to say, you know, here's a here's a n kids kids in five years this they'll be watching AI movies just like it took Pixar to come along and make Toy Story, but before that everybody was like, 'Well, no one's going to want to sit through, you know, 90 minutes of this shit.' Even Snow White in when 29 whenever it was people, that was the first time Disney was the one who proved people were like, 'No one's going to want to watch this [ __ ] animation for for 90 minutes.' And he's like, 'I think they will.' and they did. So that those three minutes have convinced me that I I definitely think there is a full feature animated movie coming sooner than later that's going to be like the younger people will just grow up with it and not think twice about it."

"The thing that makes me most excited about AI is getting all of the creative output from people that are not creative enough to make it without AI. It's going to be very exciting."

"But that's everything. I mean that's that's YouTube, right? How many people How many people have turned on their cameras at the exact same time that maybe don't have the charisma, the experience, um the journalism skills or the positive peppy attitude of a of a of a Dustin and they are here and they're turning on the camera talking about games, right? I mean, everybody can the barrier of entry is zero now."

"Yeah."

"But that just means the good the people have to get better at their craft or they wash out."

"Yeah, I mean that's true. I mean the it's it's like I said it's happening. It's just uh I don't know why anyone would want a film from someone who has none of the natural talent or skill to make a film."

"That's like the questions because it's well okay I mean I I'm not I don't want to defend AI. Let's just take that because that's not really defending AI or not. But if a new set of tools and by the way people I'm not really picking on Dustin at all. It's just that I can still see him. So I have that dynamic and you guys are like why does he keep talking about Dustin? because I'm looking right at it."

"Away probably now."

"Yeah, I got to put a little thing like we're playing Golden Eye with the split screen. I got to put something over that to block it. Um, but uh don't look at me like that, you son of a [ __ ] Um, but uh there you go. But um uh about that about why would you want to watch a movie that way? I mean, think about though the number of people maybe who, you know, to make a movie. Uh, it's like people ask me, Jeffy, why don't you want to make video games? And I always come back with, it's not that I don't necessarily want to make them, but I don't want to have to do the stuff it takes to to fund one right now. It's really hard to raise the money. It's hard to work with the team, this, that, and the other. Well, that doesn't mean I don't have another great video game in me, right? That doesn't mean somebody out there who doesn't have the skills or the networking ability or the charisma to go out and raise 600 million to make a AAA game doesn't have something to offer. So to me, I think it's like, you know, I may not or you may not have the skills to go make a film with the current gatekeepers that own Warner Brothers or whatever, but suddenly now you can."

"Yeah, but you're talking about two different things in my opinion."

"What am I talking about? So you're talking about like Warner Brothers is the gateway of a Warner is like is distribution, prestige, money and all that, but like people have been able to pick up a camera and they and they can prove that they can make great films by themselves. It's this is offloading that,..."

"You know."

"Yeah. But but even that though, what Okay, so that was okay then that you could take a cell phone and make your own film. Wasn't that still like doesn't your logic still apply which is well I don't want to watch a film from somebody with just a camera. Everybody's got a camera."

"No, I I just No, because I think that yeah, everyone has a camera, so now people can prove whether they can make films or not. Then they can use distribution platforms and all the rest. I just think it's..."

"...doesn't matter. It's like I just want to see what happens in the in the next few."

"No, me too. I mean, it's just I think it's I I I like I said, I have not I liked the fact that I saw two things this week that made me go, 'Oh, I'm genuinely interested.' And by the way, one of them was made by a guy who had been in the film industry for 34 years working on various different jobs behind the scenes. Uh, and so that was a guy who clearly had the talent uh, and the experience in the film world. He just hadn't been given his shot. He hadn't been allowed to take his shot and this allowed him to do it without getting an approval of someone. So, you know, um, and if if nothing else we can agree on, think of all the kids that won't be molested now because the kids will be AI."

"I mean, it's it's rampant, man. I'm not one of these QAnon people. I I heard this uh I saw this quote uh there was an interview that got on the internet of Corey Haim and Corey Feldman when they were doing Lost Boys."

"Oh, yeah. They they have crazy stories. And Haim, who's dead now from an overdose, said, 'I realized that I was going to need knee pads..."

"...for the rest of my career in Hollywood.' Implying that, you know, he was sucking dick on Lost Boys because the producers were making him do it."

"Yeah, it's I mean I Well, I mean, that's obvious that there's like crazy..."

"Uh crimes uh networks."

"Yeah."

"Going on out there. Been watching a lot about..."

"Um like the Epstein files. Like I I really haven't been paying attention to it like deeply. It's like, yeah, I know this exists. I don't really, you know, like for years, right? Like these these the purported nature of these files. So, I've been trying to go in and like understand what's in them, understand what they say. Even watch some of the contrary stuff. There's that guy there's that journalist Michael Tracy who's like..."

"...totally against the grain where he's like a lot of this [ __ ] is [ __ ] like with the Epstein files and like it's they're making like they're drawing conclusions that are not in there. I'm just trying to explore the whole..."

"Yeah."

"Gamut of..."

"And there's a lot of fake [ __ ] out there now that you..."

"Yeah. I've been tricked about things too, you know? So, it's like whatever."

"Did Dan ever talk to you? I mean, you may have seen it yourself, but there was that show about uh Dan Schneider at Nickelodeon called Quiet on the Set. It was like a three."

"I know it, but I have not se I have not seen it yet."

"Yeah. You watch that and you're just like, 'Holy [ __ ] man. That that that business is terrifying.'"

"It's terrible. And then Yeah. You wonder what like why all these child stars are [ __ ] up."

"Yeah."

"Um Duke Cloud Hopper says, 'Did Arrowhead do Dodge...'"

"I'm only I have to tell you, I'm so sorry. Arrowhead or Duke. Um I I had a friend I'm just gonna say it. The kid in Poltergeist who's still alive as a friend of mine in college and I would always tease him in college and say the only reason that he wasn't molested as a child star was because he wasn't attractive enough. Pissed him off. He was great though. He was the one who got strangled by the clown under the bed and pulled..."

"Oh, interesting."

"Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, sorry."

"Yeah."

"Um where where was I? You were talking about Arrowhead for..."

"D. Cloud Hopper says, 'Did Arrowhead dodge a bullet? Love you, Jaffy.' I don't Yes, first of all, probably. But I also don't think that Sony would have [ __ ] with Arrowhead of all studios. You're really glad that joke."

"It's such a not only is it a mean thing, but it's also such a poor understanding of the the dynamics of rape and sexual assault. It's not about attractiveness, it's about power. So, it's just it's such a dumb statement, but I but I knew it was dumb even then. And I loved how Maddie would get so happy. But, okay. Arrowhead. Uh, Arrowhead. I mean, what kind of bullet What bullet did are They're not owned by Sony, right?"

"No, he's saying that like they Sony obviously I I am positive I I don't have inside information, but it's just obvious that Sony would have tried to buy them. Um, they and..."

"...and they've said made it clear that they don't want to work with Sony on their next game. So they're like willing to move on and and fund their own game. So I think he's saying like based on perceived decisions did they dodge a bullet considering that they would have to work under Herman Hulson, PlayStation Studios. And the obvious answer is yes. Though I think that Sony would have bought them and left them alone. I mean because they're like a golden goose. So I don't think they would have had anything to worry about."

"Well, Bluepoint seemed that way as in a lot of ways as well. Um, but the the funny thing is about dodging the bullet though. What what I don't understand. I mean, again, if you're Bluepoint and I don't know what's going to happen with that team, but sometimes it feels like people think just because Sony closes a studio that all the people die. Like they don't close the door and turn the gas on, right? People get to go on with their lives. And so if I'm Bluepoint and people, you know, it was poorly timed because I was saying, you know, Phil Spencer should call them, you know, because like then four hours later, Phil Spencer was out. But it was like if if you're a decent sized publisher, assuming we know what assuming that studio was still the same quality of studio that had made Demon's Souls and all the other stuff, they would have probably gotten 50 calls within an hour. And and that may still be happening. Just because Sony doesn't fund them doesn't mean they have to never work together to make games. But um, but anyway,..."

"Yeah, they are they do seem like one of the rare teams because a lot of the teams that are getting pulled the plugs pulled on them are teams that are not even announced yet or their games aren't out yet."

"Yeah."

"Um, you see a story about that almost every day. Um, and I think I I saw numbers saying that there are 4% fewer active jobs in the industry right now than there were last year. So yeah,"

"Which is a pretty big erosion. 4% year-over-year is not good. Um, but uh, yeah, Bluepoint's one of those I think one of those few teams that might be able to if they stayed together, not unlike Tango, attract uh attention from an outside publisher, even if they have to kind of maybe lay off a few people or right right size a little bit, but they're not they're not very big. They're like 80 or 85."

"Yeah."

"Um, well, let's talk about the subject matter at hand. I mean, this is surprising news. I'm very curious to see what you think of this because uh the Bluepoint stuff I just can't believe they're the ones like out of all the teams Sony owns. I understand looking around being like we got to in this environment or whatever it's a little hard to understand because Sony's making an enormous amount of money but nonetheless off of PlayStation profit but nonetheless they look at it and they say we want more profit so we need to cut one of these teams. It's like you cut Bluepoint. Now, I understand the the idea of them having nothing going and so they're the furthest away from realizing a certain amount of consumer, you know, consumer potential because their game is not even approved or has been pitched yet. But I just look around and I'm like, there's some teams in the family that could easily go and I don't know that they no offense, and I truly don't mean it as offense, like no one would miss a couple of these teams in their current constitution, you know?"

"Well, that's the thing. That's what we don't know. you might know better given your contacts, but like is when Bluepoint got the call that they were shut down, were they the same pedigree of a team that did that shipped, you know, Demon's Souls PS5 launch, which was remains one of the best exclusives on PS5, right? or did a lot of people leave after the cancellation of the God of War thing and between the fact that they were going to have to spend two years, you know, building, rebuilding, and rehiring and they didn't have a team, you know, there could be a lot of things that we don't have that data, but did do you other than the CEO or one of the CEOs, maybe there were two, tweeting out that one of the biggest things he learned about the business was business is business or you saw that tweet?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, short of that, we haven't really heard the why. Do you think the team because a lot of people are discussing it like it's still that same great team. And if it is, the conversation goes in one direction as to why. If it's not, then it becomes more understandable."

"Yeah. Like I I think Well, I think there's an important there are a number of important questions here about about it. First of all, I think one of the things we have to understand about Bluepoint is that they're not necessarily a creative studio. And I think they were trying to turn into that. They were founded by Retro's technical people. And the reason why they're so good at, you know, engine work and porting and remakes, like that's their [ __ ] Like that that's kind of where they were. Now, I'm not saying they didn't have creativity and they'd hire a [ __ ] ton of people, but I always felt like that was kind of their lean, which is why I think it's so strange that they were so thoroughly mismanaged into the idea that they should even be making a God of War game."

"That's that's my bigger question is and why I think it comes back to leadership and not so much them is just give the give any of these creatives enough rope and they'll probably hang themselves. You someone's got to be there to watch the shop like you bought them for a reason. By the way, I feel like a lot of the quiet comes from I mean, I'd have to look at the math, but it could be like no one's saying anything and it could be that they're not fully vested yet and that's still and that like that might still be working because they were only purchased in 2021. That's what makes it so [ __ ] weird."

"Well, if they closed them down, they'll never be fully vested. So, why not? You mean the stocks, even if they shut them down, they still have their stock options?"

"Yeah. Yeah. Like whatever like whatever. There might And they don't shut down till March. So, there might be like things in there where Yeah. Like I'm wondering like..."

"...there might be money reasons why because usually people speak a lot more. I agree. Um..."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead."

"No, no. So the if we have the conversation then assuming Bluepoint when they shut down was still the Bluepoint we all know and love and respect. Um, if we take it from that angle, um, you know, there was that and I don't know who Detective Seeds is. I think that's his name who..."

"Oh yeah, I've seen that guy. And he was like talking about, you know, Bluepoint was the one that pitched the uh the the God of War service game and stuff and and that's I think you can lay at the feet of I don't know what the timing is, Jim Ryan or Herman Hulson, but the idea that studios were clearly trying to find something to keep them alive and that particular studio was given the ability to try a game like that I I think that's a hell of a thing to bite off..."

"...for a team that had no experience really with that. Um, I mean, we don't know what they were making. Maybe it was as service as as Demon's Souls with the the kind of semi online, but..."

"Yeah, it could have been like Ascension where it was more, you know, um like a static game that was online."

"Yeah. Um, but I I I look at it and I I kind of just go the if you believe that Seeds guy, he said, you know, they were trying to find a game that Sony would greenlight and they had pitched Sony three different games and they had all been turned down. And as a developer working for Sony, not as an employee, we were there with Bartlett Jones, you know, after Drawn to Death came out and they pulled the plug. They're like, 'Okay, well, we'll do something else with you. Pitch us something, you know, and you're just flop sweating. You're terrified. Like, we got to we got to find something.' But when you look at Bluepoint, if I'm a guy in marketing, I'd be like, 'Okay, well, if that was the real reason, and I don't know if it was, but if we take that narrative and say the real reason was they couldn't come up with anything that Sony greenlit, you can't tell me there's not like a marketing guy or an executive going, 'Okay, well, have them remake this or have them, you know, uh, you know, have them uh reimagine this or that.' I mean, there's a million things."

"Oh my god, there's a [ __ ] billion things. That's it is very frustrating."

"And it's like well why didn't you just do that? So that's why I'm saying it's easy to paint these executives as cartoon morons and sometimes they are but maybe there's more to this because yeah why wouldn't they just say um all right we'll get here's five things you guys could do that we've vetted through marketing that they think they can market and sell. Um, I mean, these aren't correct, but let's say there's Jumping Flash and there's uh Wild Arms. I again, not those, but you know what I'm saying? Like some things that are legacy, some things that are maybe a little bit more premium."

"Why wouldn't they do that?"

"I don't know."

"Yeah, I I I don't know either like to me the Bluepoint acquisition was obvious and fed what I thought PlayStation was building in a dynamic team of role players that knew what they were supposed to be doing. They already had their big, you know, their cleanup hitters and like, you know, their leadoff hitters and all the rest with Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog. Like they needed role players, you know, and there was there were four really four acquisitions at the time where I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, good.' Which which was Nixxes..."

"Uh Bluepoint was one of them, Valkyrie, which is the internal services team, and um at the time Savage, which became Neon Koi for mobile games. And I was like, 'Yes, this is good. Good.' Like, 'Let don't ask any of these guys to make a mobile game. Hire the mobile guys from Apple,' which is what they did."

"And let them do their thing. Or, uh, don't let anyone remake or remaster anything. Hire guys that are masters that we've worked with before many times on remaking and remastering a game. Bluepoint, just always have them remaking something. Always have them remastering something. Uh, Nixxes, no one should be working on PC porting internally. These guys are masters at it. When your game's over, done. We'll figure out we'll identify the games we want to bring to the PC. They'll take care of it. Like and Val and um, yeah, Valkyrie was the one that I think was quietest and most interesting. And you would know all about this as being a director and designer for many years."

"Valkyrie did up as well, right? Weren't they they did they did a game, but they were mostly services. Is that..."

"Yeah, they're like they're they are always contributing members to..."

"...to things. And yeah, they did one it was it Guns Up um or something initiative."

"I think that was theirs. Um, but yeah, like they were identified as being like because and to explain this to services to people that it's you're always getting external me teams to work on your games, right? Like you're always contracting animation, art, you know, whatever. Um..."

"Yeah."

"And sometimes that's actually outside of Sony and sometimes it's groups within Sony."

"Right. Exactly. And this was the idea of being like it's actually probably going to be cheaper for us to have like this roving team..."

"...of of like mercenaries basically that can go and work on things. I was like, that's a great that's a great idea. You know,"

"Um, people that like get systemic like internal institutional knowledge and can bring it from game to game to game and make things better."

"And it's it's a bummer that they just blew it, you know, like the So, in other words, like, and this is what bothers me, Jeffy, and I love I don't know if you have any insight into into like what you think happened here. It's like it's not that Bluepoint pitched a God of War multiplayer game that's weird, right? They're going to be bold and they want to do and try crazy [ __ ] It's the It's the idea that people didn't you know Jim or Herman and whoever at the time sat down was like um no we we hired you like we you're not doing that. You're you like you you're here for a reason. And I think that they were trying to be cute by half because somehow Bluepoint got sucked in as a services team ala Valkyrie into God of War Ragnarok. They were like, 'Oh, we kind of like this or we got some institutional knowledge about God of War.' And and then they let that spin off and it's like they should have never been involved in that game at all. Like that that to me in in and of itself was a mismanagement. Like they should be head down on a [ __ ] remake. What is wrong with like all of you people like what don't you understand? Well..."

"About like why did you even buy them?"

"You need to buy them. You could have contracted them to work on God of War. You know, I thought you bought them because you were afraid others were going to come take them because you saw the talent in what they actually did, right?"

"It's so bonkers to me that they were even allowed to do that. That is such bad management and vision..."

"And and and they're doing it over and over and over again. And by the way, Jaffy, I'll let you in. I'm sorry. I want to say this, too."

"They admit Naughty Dog admits that they canceled a team of like 400, right? Says, 'We were making a Last of Us Online game and we realized that we would have to support it and it would subsume the entire team,..."

"Right?"

"...and then they let a team of 70 make a God of War multiplayer game. What did you think was going to happen with that if that became a hit,..."

"You know?"

"So, these guys are dumb. It's it's a total It's why I always say about the games as a service thing."

"It's like chasing games as a service is [ __ ] obvious. Of course, they should be doing that. They should be doing it aggressively. They are stupid in the way they're approaching it. It's mismanagement. It's misdirection. It's it's ridiculous. And and how they botched the whole thing. And they're very lucky that the inertia of PlayStation is so strong that it doesn't matter. That's the funniest thing of all. Like all this doesn't really matter, you know, like to the brand. Like it's just it's just doing better than ever. So anyway, that's a lot of ranting. I'm sorry."

"No, no, no. I I I I I'm trying to Okay. So to me, my insight is this, and I see it in business. I see it in politics. I see it in humans, which is, you know, for all the people who lose their job because management is bad. Um, you would think management wouldn't be so [ __ ] terrified to lose their [ __ ] job. Um, and and so, not to toot my own horn, but I, you know, I was at Sony for 20 years, and I never got laid off, but people got laid off all the time. you know, every couple years there was a big layoff within PlayStation. Um, maybe not big for the press, like 5,000 people, but you know, in your studio, if 20 people get cut, that's 20 people out of 120, it's still a big deal. You know, whether we were Image Soft or going up to PlayStation and I never worried about it because I knew that I could be unpopular, but I always put the games and the audience first. And when you and this is going somewhere when it comes to Bluepoint, um, the the idea of when we see things from the sidelines and go assuming we have the right data that's so stupid why would you do that? I think it's probably because people are scared to lose their job. So imagine you're Herman Hulson, and you've either created or you've uh uh inherited this service initiative and suddenly for you to look good in the eyes of your boss, which is all that matters, whereas people like me just care about making hits and making good games and we don't always win, but I never gave a [ __ ] what my bosses thought ever. Um, it was never my I figured they'd be happy if the games did well. That's all I could think about when it came to their motivation. But if you're Herman Hulson and you've inherited this initiative of service games and there's a team that says we want to do this, that probably in your mind is a better gamble. Then, well, marketing has told us maybe if we remade Siphon Filter uh for modern audiences, they could probably sell that, but then you're just going to be into another one-off sale for $60 and you know, it's 400 million and you're you're still need that service hit. And the service business is about throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks and I need my bosses to know that I'm in on this initiative. Okay, give them that. Like that's the kind of thinking that that permeates a lot of these people. It's fear-based. Um, it's not it's not based on inspiration because they don't want to get fired. And I'm like, how much money do you need if you're Again, I don't want to I don't know who to lay this at the feet of, but let's assume it is Herman. Herman probably I don't know what his salary is. It's probably 850 to 1.5 million somewhere in that range. And I'm not talking bonuses and stuff. I'm just talking his salary. Just a guess. I could be totally off base, but I'm just guessing. Um..."

"It's probably I imagine it may even be higher than that."

"Okay. Maybe even high. Yeah. Okay. And I'm like, dude, you've you've you've have you have you put stuff in savings? Do you have investments? You're good. You'll be fine. Take some [ __ ] chances. Stop being a goddamn [ __ ] and put your audience first. Try to leave a mark. As Jobs, as much of an [ __ ] as Jobs was, said, you know, try to put a dent in the universe. You know, do something cool. Um, and yeah, in that case, your wisdom would have stepped in and said, 'These aren't the guys for a service game.' And it's not a bad legacy to leave behind, I revamped Siphon Filter with these guys and it became the next big IP and somebody else will get the service thing right. Maybe it'll be Marathon, maybe it'll be Arrowhead or whatever. So, these are all just guesses. We don't really get to know what happened behind the scenes, but I do think that time and again that fear from executives of just not wanting to fail and really needing a pat on the head, it would infuriate me and it seems to have only gotten worse the bigger companies get. Um, I find people like that very difficult to respect. Um, that really just all they want to do is is get an attaboy in a in a bonus and a promote. It's like, dude, you [ __ ] make entertainment. Everything should come from that. All you should care about is that and the chips will fall where the chips fall. You can always get a job somewhere else. That anyway, now I'm ranting, but that's what I..."

"No, it's good. Ranting is good. It's fun. I enjoy a good rant. I mean, I am just I agree with what you're saying and I and I understand I want to say this from a human level is like you're talking about the fear like they operate from a place of fear and I get it. Like on a human level, it's like I get it. You you do have a lot of money, but it's also like a this job. No one gives a [ __ ] about their 20 or $25 an hour job or whatever because like ne necessarily because like you I'll get another one or whatever and I'll go work somewhere else. It's like no, you're not going to stumble into another $1.7 million plus bonus, you know, plus substantial maybe even more than your salary a year bonus. Um..."

"No, but you've been in it for a couple years. Did you save anything?"

"Yeah, right. I understand that. But I'm just saying from that from that point of view, it's you see that a lot in sports with like the decisions that general managers make and coaches make where it's like very protective of their position and I even though they have guaranteed contracts and and by the way, the funny thing is is and this is it this is the the best part about talking about this is that Herman has a contract probably. So even if he made like bad decisions, he he doesn't work at will,..."

"Right?"

"You know, like he probably has a four or five or six-year deal or something. And it's like with that kind so like to your point with that kind of safety I'd be like oh my god we're going balls to the wall baby you know like we're gonna try all sorts of fun and interesting things to go but I also understand the perspective that they're not interested in Bluepoint grinding out $25 million profits every five years or something but then you shouldn't have bought them because that's kind of the space they're in. And I guess I just thought that they were working towards for many years. I always talked about organic growth and how much it meant, you know, and what and look at and look at how bad things have gone for those that didn't grow grow organically. Look at Embracer. It's a [ __ ] disaster, you know? Uh, because it was just a hot it's like yeah, we'll buy whatever or Xbox to a lesser degree. It's like nonsensical, you know, like the the the hodgepodge of studios they have. But I thought Sony had was and Sony and you know this from being internal like they they were very deliberate and they don't feel that way anymore though the Bluepoint acquisition was deliberate. It was the one that went off the rails. To me it it's like you said throwing the spaghetti against the wall for live service games should all be done by no offense, but expendable second party partners."

"Yeah."

"And it should be done cheap and it should be done fast to see if you've got something. I'm I I played over the weekend this game from the guys in Imagine Dragons. Um, they decided to make a video game called Last Flag. It's not bad. Um, it's actually got some it's it's interesting, you know. Uh, you can play the beta right now, open beta on over on Steam, but it is so slickly produced and you know they've spent years and they've spent money on this thing and it's like stop, man. put I could have told you within the first six months of playing this at a basic fringe slop game if you should continue to invest in this and right now it's just a little over complicated and long for its own good right th this idea of B team you know Sony I don't know sometimes I just I Sony needs a visionary."

They really do. They need their Steve Jobs. They need somebody to come in and be like, "Enough of you cowards that just want to keep your jobs, that just want to keep your heads down, that don't want to piss off the PR people." Come in and don't give a [ __ ] if you get fired. Come in and be like, "I am a game creator. I love this [ __ ] and we are gonna try our best to uh blow the world up with our amazement." And then just go uh and see what the [ __ ] happens.

Because these, they're just so cowardly and they're so stuck in their ways. Like, why would you spend like, how much does Fair Games cost at this point? How much have they spent on this game? Probably a hundred million.

Yeah, I mean, easily nine figures, easy. Definitely. Okay. So, why didn't you just put out a game, the prototype on PlayStation or on Steam? Don't even call it a Sony game. Just, you know, do it under a pseudonym or something.

I, that's so interesting of a company doing something like that. Like, just put it out and if it takes off, then you know you've got something. But my god, you guys are so geriatric in your thinking. It's like, get a goddamn computer, play some Steam games, play some mobile phone games. The world has moved on, Sony, and you're being left behind because of this archaic thinking. It drives me batshit, dude.

So, I, you know, it it drives me crazy, too, because I think they have a lot of, in Sony has a lot of latitude because people love the brand. So, you and it it goes to show you, like, first of all, the average person playing on PlayStation has no idea what Concord even was, let alone like what, you know, Firewalk and all this. But they, there's a level of belief that they can deliver the goods. And you, they're squandering that goodwill. And I think that it's a mistake to keep people involved in the company that have obviously been, you would imagine, helming the ship, or at least one of the ships in your armada, in a very meaningful way.

Yeah. It is very hard for me. We were giving, remember we were talking about Matt Booty earlier and how he was the voice of reason. There's this other side of it of being like, if you're so, like, let's say Herman Hulst might be the voice of reason internally. I mean, that's hard to believe. But nonetheless, the people that are the irrational thinkers are the ones therefore underneath you. You're at the very top.

Yeah. So, if it wasn't your own opinions and your own moves that were bad, it's your own delegation of responsibility that's bad. Either way, you lose. And I, it's just hard for me to believe that they're keeping him in place after all of this. Like, I know that it's easy to scapegoat Jim Ryan and how bad I've said it before. I was wrong about Jim Ryan when he left me. I was like, because things looked pretty good at that time where I'm like, and I think Jim, I think Jim Ryan gets a lot of [ __ ] for things that he should actually get credit for. Like, PlayStation 5's launch was pretty crazy good considering the the global situation, and he's responsible for a lot of that. He knows, he knew what he was doing in certain ways, but his creative instincts, his decision-making with catalog building and investment were bad, and obviously he paid the price for that, in my opinion.

Right. I don't understand how the gaming guru at your company, the guy, not the businessman, but the guy who's like, "I am the northstar of PlayStation Studios," after the last four or five years. It's like, you failed. You, and if you didn't fail, then the people you put in place did. You invested in Firewalk. You invested in Concord. You invested in Haven. You invested in Fair Games. You got us involved with Bungie, the biggest boondoggle in Sony history. Not PlayStation history, but Sony history in terms of acquisitions. Absolutely unnecessary amount of money. Imagine the money they could have spent, billions of dollars on other things, other studios, other projects. You were the man here for all of this. You invested in Deviation, and that went pear-shaped. You know, you.

Was Herman the guy? Herman was the guy that pushed Bungie. I thought that was Jim Ryan.

That was Herman.

Well, no. I, again, I want to be really clear. If, think about what Charles says, I always bring it up about how like he, he doesn't know games. It's about, he relies on people that he trusts to let him know about things. He's not playing Grand Theft Auto and saying it's ready to go.

Yeah.

You know, he's, he relies on his lieutenants. And Jim, Herman Hulst was that guy. He must have been. Who the [ __ ] other than him? Who, who could it have possibly been if not the head of all of the teams? And and you, and you don't, you don't expect it's like being married to a woman and being like, "We're adopting a." Like, you buy Bluepoint, you buy Housemarque, and all these things. You're like, "We're adopting children," but I didn't, I didn't ask you about it first. Of course you did. You know? Like, of course. Like, when you're like, "We really want to invest." Listen, this really goes under, it's not under reported. It's because there's nothing to report. It's under noticed. Sony obviously believed in Concord. They bought the team a year before the game came out. The game was basically done at that point. Can you imagine how bonkers that decision is?

Can you believe that? Like, like who? And if I'm Nishino or anyone at the top, and I look at that and I'm like, "You got to go." And I just, I, I just can't believe it. Can it? Is it as simple as like an NFL team holding on to a coach because they don't want to pay him not to coach?

I, well, I think with Concord, look, I mean, I think there is kind of a sense of the, because the problem with Concord is people will look at it now and it's almost shorthand for it was just crap and anyone could have seen it. And whether or not the IP was crap or not, I think it is very hard to look at, especially when you are sailing into the very choppy waters of service-based games, and go, "We're not interested in a team that can actually execute at the level that Concord was executed." Whatever you say about Concord, it was a more than competent piece of actual execution. It played well. It was smooth. It had some neat mechanics to it. Um, it wasn't anything I wanted to play more than, you know, 20 minutes. And that's a big problem. And that's more of a design issue and a creative issue. But I can understand going, "We need that in our arsenal for sure." What I was always surprised by is when Concord failed, they got rid of all of it. That to me was the boneheaded move versus going, "Okay, we're putting a creative in there. We're putting a marketing guy in there. You guys are clearly talented, but the days of you deciding what we're making in terms of the IP, that's done." But that you're just going to get rid, you talk about institutionalized knowledge, you're going to get rid of all of that. That's goofy as [ __ ] to me. So, um, but it's also goofy as [ __ ] to not have been able to read the tea leaves and go, "These are our characters. This is our vibe. This is our theme." Um, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's just a, I'm not even going to say that, but I'll, I mean, I can't, it's just a tangent, but, um, you know, I, I, I don't know if that was actually ballsy and you can appreciate Herman doing that, not because it failed, but because he's like, "I'm going to swing for the fences. We need this, you know, this arrow in our quiver." Um, certainly more so than the Bluepoint thing. The Bluepoint thing might make sense for Herman where you look at it and go, "We got no games coming out. Marketing doesn't want to do any remasters. They're not making us enough money." Or, you know, as much as we as fans love Bluepoint, you're right. Maybe you just look at the acquisition of it and go, "That was the dumb thing because you didn't, you couldn't think 20 feet down the road and go, we're not going to need these guys after this."

But, well, yeah, because they didn't want to be outbid on projects in the future with other publishers that might be interested. And I, but, and again, in a, I think the Bluepoint acquisition, just like Housemarque, which happened at the same time, was really smart because, but it's like, why did they leave Housemarque alone, you know? Like, it's, it's so weird. Like, I actually Returnal, I don't think sold as well as Demon's Souls Remake even did. I love Returnal, but I'm saying like, just so it's like.

I like that it's part of a greater strategy, a complete breakfast, you know? Like it's the toast on the plate. Like, I, I think.

I just think it's like, it's like putting [ __ ] on the toast and then being like, "Oh, well, this isn't very good."

I get that. And some of it's politics. I mean, the fact is, you know, we would always, when I was at Sony, we always hated it when there was like a Euro head because the European studios would always get preferential treatment. And I don't think that was like, I hate America or I, you know, or I hate North America. I think it was more these are the people I know, right? So, when Phil Harrison was running it, it's like, "Oh my god, do we have to listen about Singstar? Another five hours about Singstar. I'm going to blow my brains out." Or, you know, all these teams getting these chances and we're just begging for scraps even though the European studios hadn't done anything. It's like Horizon. It's like, dude, nobody loves Horizon. A few people. I'm not, I'm being hyperbolic. Of course, there are people who love it, but it ain't your top franchise. Why are you all in with Horizon, you know?

But, well, I mean, it's.

Because he knows it and he's biased and he knows the people.

Right.

And.

And Guerrilla's good and Horizon's popular, but I think that they're over there, they're.

A good executive would be able to have some self-awareness and go, "Oh, I'm doing that thing. I have to now be the president for all, not just the right."

Totally.

But so you think he needs, I mean, I think he needs to go as well. I think one of the hard things about this though, and we see it at Microsoft, we see it at Sony, is part of it is like when you saw Matt B, not Matt Booty, uh, Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond leave or get kicked out or whatever your take on it is, everybody's like, "Okay, good. Now we're going to go back to the way it should be." That's the danger, right? And that's why I was asking you earlier about you playing a lot of these, you know, games that are more retro tinged or actual retro games is that the industry moves forward so quickly that this idea that we're going to go back to the golden age of the 360 era and now they're just going to be selling boxes and selling games for $69 and you'll have them on your shelf and there's no more Game Pass and there's no more multipl. It's like that's not happening because there's no money in it anymore. Sony's suffering from that. They're suffering from that. I'm sure you saw that report that came out last week about the game industry shrinking, the AAA industry shrinking.

Yeah, I saw that.

And it's just like, guys, that that's your childhood. And it's great to be a fan and there will always be games that come along and kind of help scratch that itch at various price points, but that's not what the kids today care about. And the companies care about their audiences and it ain't a bunch of 30-somethings that came up with the 360. Those days are over.

Well, I, I agree 100% and I think it's fairly obvious and I think you speak the same way about games is like when I talk about what the games industry is or what I think Sony should do or the strategies they should employ, it has nothing to do with me. Because if they were trying to make games for me, things would be very different than than what they are right now. I am irrelevant. Like, it, I know people hate the games as a service stuff, but like, guys, just open your eyes, man. I mean, like, I'm sorry. Get over it. Like, you like it, it gets to a point where if you don't understand the direction things are going in, it doesn't mean you don't have to like it. Doesn't mean you can try, you can do your own thing to try to stop it if you want. There's nothing that's going to stop it. But it's to say like, acknowledge reality on the ground. Like, like it is, like, I'm sorry, like the way we play games is dying. It's not. And it'll always be around. Like, we'll always be able to buy games and play and there's going to be games that come out and sell 20 million copies and huge hits and role-playing games and action games and shooters and all the rest. That's not going anywhere. It's just to say that you have to be present on the field where the game's actually being played. And at some point, you're going to walk onto the field with a ball and it's going to be empty and there's going to be some roaring stadium next to you and you didn't even get, you didn't even get a ticket. You have to, you have to, you have to.

Be where the people are. And so.

So much better at on-the-fly metaphors. For me, I, I just couldn't get there that fast. It would take me a day. I'd be like, it would be like this pickle and then the pickle comes in and says, "Where's the donut?" The stadium thing is brilliant. That works perfect.

Yeah. Like, you like, you don't, you're not even on the field. You're not even in it. Like, you're like, you have to, you want to be on the field, but you're on the internet complaining like this is what they should do, right?

Like this is what I know and these idiots. I'm like, dude, look at Roblox. And in fact, if you look at what this new CEO or not CEO, but the new head of Xbox said, she, in her statement, which, you know, you best believe it was crafted within an inch of its life by the PR team. Um, you know, she makes it clear about the audience's involvement in shaping and, you know, I think it's clear they're trying to build a more grown-up version of a Fortnite or a Roblox or whatever, because they know that's where the market is and it's massive. I mean, the numbers Roblox puts up, I know that they have profitable quarters and non-profitable quarters, but if you just look at the user acquisition and you look at the daily active user and the concurrent and you look at the time that people spend there, what are you going to do? Ignore that so you can go make another [ __ ] uh, you know, let's let's remake Wild Arms.

Yeah, it's del, it's totally delusional. It's not, it's, it gets to a point in my opinion that like the conversation around games as a service or whatever where like it comes off a little low intellect to keep arguing against the prevailing winds.

It comes off as very smash JT.

Yeah. It's like, if you, if you honest to Christ don't understand why companies, especially in this age of inflation and and really long dev cycles and major bets and risk, not wanting to carve out 10% profits on their five or six year investments and would rather be in a space where the player bases are vibrant, like you just, you simply don't understand business. It's not even about understanding games. Like, it's just, it's the way it is. And you can, and there's always going to be Larian, Bethesda, you know, like, there's always going to be and CD Project like they're always going to come out with these banger Rockstar, even though that's kind of a game as a service now. They're going to come out with these banger kind of games. And there's going to be games like my studio makes that sell tens of thousands of copies. There's going to be studios that sell like, uh, Kronos sold a half a million copies. A [ __ ] crime against humanity. That game should have sold millions of copies. But there's going to be these spaces that exist, but they're not important. It's hard for people to understand that.

Well, especially then you've got the Larian guys or they go up on stage and talk about, "You have to do it this way," and "This is what happens when the publisher gets out of our way," and all the fans are like, "Yes, speaking the truth finally, finally." And it's like, dude, that's that's a hiccup that I'm like, you're saying, that will exist and you can and should support it, but don't pretend that this guy's in the know and all these other guys who are chasing the other things are like, they just don't get it. No, they get it. They're just, they're in, they're hunting bigger game than Baldur's Gate 3. Sorry, but that's their job. And at a platform level, when you're a platform publisher, a first party, you kind of have an obligation to remain present in those major spaces. You're not a niche publisher. You're not Kepler Interactive, you know, like.

Like you're, you're a platform holder. So, you have to. And people always, you and I say this all the time, they long for the PS3 days. And it's like, but none of you bought those games. Like, don't you understand? Like, it's like they didn't make any money. They would have kept Japan Studio open if they were super profitable, but it's not worth spending $5 million on a game over two years and having producers attached to it and all the rest and then it's like, "Oh, we made $200,000." And and and there is a point where I've even stubborn old argumentative me has gotten to the point where I've just learned I'm not going to connect with these people. But these people saying, "We long for the PS3 days." Like, there's a game right now, uh, I don't know if it's on console yet as a demo but on PC which is called like Denshin Attack, which is where you're playing the train.

You've seen this? And it's like, oh my god, dude, the demo is great. It is a joy, but it is Sega Dreamcast in its prime.

Oh yeah. Denshin Attack. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know who made this game but it is the, the demo is loaded. It is great. It is so much fun. It is colorful. It is like Tony Hawk and Jet Set Radio and a racing game. And it's like, dude, they're making those games. You just don't want to play them. Um, and so it's even, it's hard to know at some point how invested these guys are. Are they just pining for nostalgia? Is probably what it is? Because if you really care about the PS3 era and the PS2 and the PS1 era of experimental games, they're out there. They're out there all goddamn day. What about Fib Ribbon? I literally played a game the other day, a platformer where you drop letters using your keyboard, and it's a real life physics system, and based on the shape of the letter, you have to figure out what letters you need to deal with the platform challenges. So, if you drop a V and turn it on its side, it becomes a ramp. If you drop an S, it will capture, you know, water or something in the little curves of the S, right? These games are out there. You're just, you're just not looking or you don't really care. You just want to go back to when life was easier, which I get.

I do believe that we are, you and I, and I think a lot of people, I think everyone at Last Stand frankly, are rare in the coverage space in that we really do play a lot of games. And I think a lot of people, and it's not even, I wouldn't even say that I play a lot of games. I do play a lot of games, but I play games a lot, which are two different things. Like, I game a lot every day, you know, and I'm in the space and I'm reading about it and I'm looking at trailers and I'm trying to find new things and I'm searching for stuff and going back and all the rest and taking notes. I have a compendium of the games that I've been playing this year, trying to take better notes so I can like search for them in the future. Um, I think a lot of people talk about games and don't really play them, which is why I think a lot of people hide their trophies and achievements, why a lot of people, you know, get less specific about certain things. And it's just a lot of [ __ ]. And so with the noise, it's hard to know how the normal person even feels.

It is. It is. Uh, absolutely. And and you play, you, I guess the best way to put it, we may have said this before, you may have said this before, but you play depth and I play breadth. I think like I play a ton of, I play everything, you know, because I just my brain, I need, I need novelty always or I get bored. Um, but between the two of us though, yeah, there's a genuine understanding, uh, and the other guys, there's an understanding of what's out there. And so it does make the argument that a lot of these people who pine for a return fall flat. And it does at least give me some sympathy for the Phil Spencers and the Herman Hulsts or whatever, because their industry is fundamentally shifting under their feet and it has been and it's incredibly expensive to play that game and nobody knows where it's going to end up. Nobody, you know, no one knows. And so, uh, it, it doesn't mean I forgive their stupid decisions. If you make too many of them, you're probably not right for the job and you should be asked to leave. Um, but there is a point where you have to understand that just the past is not the playbook. Um, and they don't seem to get that. And that's kind of frustrating sometimes because then like, you're the [ __ ] for not getting, oh, if they just went back and remade Parasite Eve, everything would be great again.

That would be awesome, but like that's going to sell half a million copies, you know? Like someone will make money on that, but not sufficient for a multinational corporation. And yeah.

Um.

It's why I think you're exactly right. You're, I mean, you make such a good point about executives coming in and kind of like taking the ball. It's like, you have to come in with leadership with things as they are, right? Um, which is why I love what you said about the new CEO of of Xbox where it's like, you know, we're going to do this and like, or suggesting like people, I'm not even saying they're suggesting anything. People reading into the things that they're saying being like, "Oh, maybe this, that, and the other thing." I'm like, they're not going to just go in a different direction now. If anything, this is the move that should have happened a couple of years ago so that there's a whole new group of people to blame as opposed to the people that have been changing their minds and saying every witch thing out of both sides of their mouth for many years because of.

What do you mean they're not going to go in a new direction? You think they're going to do what then? What do you think's going to happen with Xbox specifically?

Um, more of what they're doing. I mean, I think that like they, they're, and I want to see this Verge piece. We should bring this up at some point. Um.

But I mean, if that was the case, why have they gotten rid of these people? I mean, there's a lot of people, including your old buddy Greg, who's saying that Phil was not, this was a surprise. He was asked to leave. This was.

I'm tying this in. What what I'm saying is is that it, the conditions are as they are. Like, it's not to say the decisions that got them to this point are good or that the direction that they're going in is the direction that they really wanted to be going in. It's that it is what it is. So, you need new shepherds. Like, in other words, they're not going to bring new people in and be like, "Now we're going back to exclusivity." "Oh, now we're gonna kill a bunch of Xbox consoles." "Now we're like." Like, that's not happening. Like, you made your choice. The decisions need to be made at this point. You can't go back a year or two years, you know? That's that's why I think that like Sony specifically in PlayStation Studios, and I, I know I float this around and I think it's funny. It's like, bring Shuhei back for three years.

Yeah.

You know, and it's a caretaker. It's, he's an older gentleman. He doesn't really like you. It's like when you hire a coach that's older and you, and he's not the coach of the future. He's the coach of the now. It's like, we, the culture is broken. We need, we need something. We need someone to come in here and crack some skulls and make some decisions and set this course. And I think that that's what's so.

What to, what I mean, I love Shu and I, I think getting rid of Shu and Shawn and Allan and Connie, you know, because they didn't play the game as politically as Herman did, was a disaster. Uh, and they're reaping what they sow and go [ __ ] themselves because they're, they're especially the way they did it to some of those people. But that aside though, um, I think all those people, if you brought back the old guard, and I know you're not saying bring them all back, but if you brought them back, they'd still have to contend with the fact that the industry has changed and they don't, someone's got to have an idea. I mean, we could be getting to a point that the idea of, you know, even a console maker is really kind of an antiquated idea. Um, the way games are delivered, the way games are made, the way the industry in terms of the audience is so splintered. There was this piece, uh, in, it was a Twitter essay or whatever they call them these days where, you know, the guy was talking about the younger generation does not give a [ __ ] about graphics fidelity. They have, they have come up in a different time. It doesn't impress them like it used to. Uh, our generation and a little younger and a little older. So, you could bring the old guard back, but they're still going to have to go, "What are games today? What does it mean to be in the games business today?" Uh, you know, other than just riding this console thing till it burns out. Maybe there's money there and that's what they're going to do. But like, I don't know. I, I don't know if there's going to be, uh, I don't know. I, I mean, maybe maybe I'm wrong, but I've, I, I don't, you know what I'm saying? It just seems it seems antiquated already.

Yeah, it does. And yet I also feel like we're anticipating futures that still haven't come to fruition. And so I wonder like at what.

They're starting to though, right?

They are. But I think you're eventually you'll be right. In other words, you know, so it's hard to.

Yeah.

It's hard. Yeah. Go ahead. No, go ahead.

Well, no. So you bring back the old guard. Do you think if the old guard came back, like you said, Shu comes back and Shu's doing this for the PS6 era and maybe they promote Roie to Herman's position. Um, if they're lucky, they can lure Connie and Allan back. Allan ain't coming back, but you never know. Whatever. You get people like that. Do you think same as it ever was works then if they say, "You know what, we'll try some live service, but 80% of our bread and butter is going to be in these $70 games that we sell and that's who we are, that's who we've always been great at." Is that good enough for PS or Xbox?

I feel like it's placed to the point of of a consoleless or or a console-deemphasized future which I think is inevitable. I think Sony, I think the one thing I think Sony is very aware of is that PlayStation must become more like Sony Pictures and that it needs to become a container of valuable products or IP to pull from in the future. And PlayStation Studios should be a place to incubate those those. I'm not, I don't want play small games out of PlayStation Studios anymore. There's no reason to have those games anymore. And and that it's the whole directive should be like, we make games that sell millions of copies. If if we might not sell millions of copies, but if that's not kind of like what the direction is and the money we invest in them, like what's the purpose?

Well, if you're building IP, right? I mean.

Yeah, I guess.

Building the smaller games with an eye towards building IP. Like, they could have taken Sons of Sparta, which what I loved about it is they were taking a smaller gamble and they were doing something that was a little out of the ordinary and they should have said, you know what, our goal here besides making a great game, which they didn't do, and a visually appealing game, which I don't think they did, is this Damos character, which is the brother of Kratos. We want to make another IP character that's just as popular as Kratos, but in a different way. Go. And that was the goal. And they only spent four million, 8 million, 20 million, whatever, probably they would have failed because that's a real tall order. But eventually they're going to get one and it's going to be their farm league. I think it's a great thing to spend small with the goal of building IP.

Interesting, because I just think that that there's a time and resource component of spending small amounts of money though too and churning. I think that getting attention in this ecosystem is easier with bigger budgets obviously and you want to take bigger swings that can turn into multimedia projects and cross-media projects, but yes, small things can happen there too. But I just think you invest in those things externally. If I were, if I were coming in as like a caretaker or, you know, CEO of PlayStation Studios or whatever, I'd be like, "Well, I think that we need to just, we need to figure out like what the catalog is going to be. We probably have to rightsize ourselves and and some of these games we're making are probably make no sense. There might even be some partners out there that make more sense and and we might see some projects that are earlier, halfway through development that we would want to invest in and and try to stake a claim in for an IP from the IP perspective, whether it's a.

Things that I think Sony are seriously missing, like Western role-playing games.

Yeah. You know, that that could so easily turn into a Netflix series or a movie, book series, like whatever. Like that kind of just speaks for itself. So.

And then I would say like, we're going to invest heavily in second-party games as a service and try to find great partners in that space and throw lots and lots of money at it, maybe even potentially more money at that stuff than we do our own internal first-party games. And then obviously we find great third-party partners. And and people have been asking, I think, reasonably questions. This came up with Neo3 actually specifically where it's like, well, what does Sony even really get anymore from having these third-party timed exclusives when they dominate the space so much? Like, could that money even be redirected into other projects? Um, cuz it is very PS2, PS3 style, but they still do it. Um, and we, and a bunch of those games like that new Konami role-playing game is one of those games. Like, there's a bunch of weird [ __ ] Silent Hill is one of those games.

So that's the way. I mean, that's a very broad thing. But one thing I wanted to ask you before I forget because I've been meaning to ask you this is.

You, you had said and I think it's very fair-minded that like maybe it's not Herman. Like, who, it's got to be someone, right? I mean, like some.

Well, well, how do you define it? Like, what is the problem, right? So, because people in the chat right now like, you can never really criticize PlayStation to people who like it. It's like, but they're selling so many, what are you complaining about? It's like, you have to have a little bit of a vision down the road. You have to kind of get a sense of where they're going. So when you say, if it's not Herman, what do you, can you define what PlayStation's problem is? Because Bluepoint being shut down sucks for us in the know, but the average PlayStation buyer of software isn't going to miss it. They haven't had a game in production, full production, you know, since their last game was canceled that most gamers didn't know about anyway.

Right. I think that Bluepoint is really the straw that broke the camel's back. There are just a lot of bad decisions or plays that have been made in the last few years that I think are culminating and this is horrible PR for Sony. I don't know if you've noticed, Sony like won't even say anything on on social media for days.

Well, yeah, because anything they say is gonna, even if it's like, "Hey, here's a new hat you can download and whatever. Here's a new son." It's going to be 50 hate speeches about Bluepoint.

Right. And they eventually are going to have to start posting about Resident Evil and they're going to have to start getting back to business and all. It's just, it's just disruptive. And I look at it and I'm, and I just want to remind everyone like internally they understand that something's off. I think with Herman Hulst and that they demoted him. Like, I'll remind everyone that he was a co-CEO of the whole brand with, and an unequal standing with Nishino, and they made it so that he now reports to Nishino. That is a demotion to me. That's already a sign that it's like, yeah, this guy isn't what we thought. And that's why I wonder, and I'm not even being facetious in any way. It's like, other people could be making the decisions, and they might be, and they are probably in some way. We paid this guy a ton of money. We just signed him like two years ago. We're going to have to pay him out. Like, just keep him there for a little while and and let him take all the heat. I mean, when I think about PR, like that's the kind of conversation you sometimes.

Yeah.

Candidly have. And I, I just, so I just wonder, you can't look at all the investments they've made and all there's there's um, in a creative business, you know, this like there got to be people that make creative calls. These are these are subjective calls. They're not balance sheet calls. They're not numbers. Someone eventually has to say like, this is good and this is bad.

Well, okay. If you're Herman Hulst right now though, I mean, Bluepoint being shut down.

I don't think outside of us who go, "Oh my god, they were so great at what they did and we love the God of War remasters and we love Demon's Souls." Most people don't give a [ __ ]. Especially given that if Marathon connects, if Wolverine connects, Herman Hulst is going to have all the credit in the bank he needs because those are going to have been done to some extent with Marathon under his leadership. And those though, if both of those are big hits this year, uh, not to mention a nice tidy hit in SOS, I don't know if it's going to be a hit or not. I loved Returnal, but I get why it didn't sell that well. Doesn't all this go away?

Yeah. Yes. I mean, it goes back into Yes. Swings and misses and then getting the big grand slam that makes it all worthwhile.

And even great baseball players, you know, bat 300, 320.

Yeah.

You know, but like.

And is closing down Bluepoint in the grand scheme of things when you might have a Marathon service hit, you might have another big AAA with Wolverine? Is closing Bluepoint to those not in the know, but more at a, you know, business level, is that really a big deal? No, I mean, I think it matters in that I think it, they have to write, they bought it just a few years ago. Like, it's not a thing you just bought and then were like, "Yeah, we're done."

Did he buy it or did Jim Ryan buy it?

Well, yeah, Jim. I mean, Jim Ryan, it was literally a Jim Ryan, you know, he was the at the at the helm. But again, it goes back into making calls with the judgment, the subjective judgment of those creatives around you that you're supposed to trust. And so I appreciate like the defense of him.

I'm not defending him. I don't like him. Honest. I don't know him, but I get the sense I wouldn't like him if I knew him. I'm just saying that it's, you know, it, I think he's got some big at-bats coming up if we're staying with baseball. And he's, you know, it's like the, what do you stack the first four or five with really good hitters? Is that usually the first, your first batter is always the guy that gets on base, you know, your fourth batter is always the guy with power, that kind.

Right. So he's, you know, he's, he's, you know, killing Bluepoint. Bluepoint was like deep into the into the whatever they call into the into the dugout or the bullpen or what? Not the bullpen, the dugout. That's wrong. What's the, what's the lineup of batters called?

That's, oh, that's the lineup.

Yeah. So, they're they're deep, you know, they're deep into the lineup. They're, you know, so I don't, I don't think that's the miss. And especially since he didn't buy it. And I don't think Concord, since now, did he push for Concord? You're saying that was him?

Yeah. I mean, at this point, he was, it, it's for many of these decisions, he either wasn't at the time of decision or even in the moment the CEO or like the head of like this co-CEO of PlayStation or whatever when he got promoted, but he was the head of the studios.

At the time that a lot of these.

He knew about it. He should have said something to one of his people.

I don't know, man. It's just like, it's it's surprising to me because I, we don't know. These things would come out on LinkedIn and stuff even if they were names you didn't know, but you would presume, but it's like, I guess my problem is it seems like no one's paid the price for anything. And some people might say, and I think reasonably so, like, they're making more money than they've ever made. You know, they're making like enormous amounts of money every quarter comparable like PS3 era. They lost money during the PS3 era. Yeah.

And.

Everything's fine. They're selling consoles briskly. Grand Theft Auto is going to propel this thing into this, you know, it's, I think PS, I think it's fairly clear that PS5 is going to pass PS4 sales, which is actually kind of crazy. Um, all things considered. So, they'd look at that and be like, "Yeah, things are good." But my whole thing is like, imagine how good it could be. Like, at some point, you have to like look and say, "Well, yeah, this is all true and you absorbed all these losses. Like, still like it could have been better. You, you made, you, you guys spent all this money on Bungie for no reason. You know, like Marathon's not going to make you your money back. It might, it might be a big game. I think it's going to be bigger than people think. I think people think this game's going to die on the vine or something. I don't think that's true.

I don't think it's true either. Um.

But like, it's not going to make you $3.5 billion.

Well, okay. So, if if Bar and Horizon Hunter Gatherers, that's this year as well, or they have? It's not 2026, is it?

Um, I don't, did they confirm that? I don't think so.

I don't know. It may not be, but I'm, I'm just saying that I, I, I, I, my biggest issue with Herman Hulst is he seems to not have his ear to the ground when it comes to Horizon and perhaps the fact that they're they're taking way too long to see if their service-based games work. They, they, that's a ridiculous way to do that business. Short of that though, I don't really have a bone to pick with the guy. But I think if Wolverine comes out and doesn't deliver and Marathon comes out and doesn't deliver, then I think yeah, those are the straws that would break the camel's back for me. I think closing Bluepoint is unfortunate. And even if we paint Bluepoint in the best of light, which is marketing could have come in if they couldn't pitch something that was, I, I, I think, I think maybe the two biggest mistakes Herman has made to me is looking at the talent in a Bluepoint and looking at the talent in the Concord team and going, "Yeah, just shut them down." Versus going, "Wait, no, no, these people can do amazing things. You've got to plug in the areas that they're weak, but what this is, this knowledge doesn't come cheap. And this cohesiveness of a team is not common and you've got two of them that you've killed. I think that's probably something I would want to dig into and find out what's really there because that seems a stupid decision.

Yeah, the Firewalk thing doesn't bother me so much just because I think it's unrealistic to expect that that team would have been ever been able to launch a game in a fair environment, you know?

Yeah, I think it's point and the.

Well, Concord is is Firewalk, right?

Yeah. Right. Right.

Oh, that one bothers me. I thought there's the Fire Sprite one or the ones doing Twisted Metal which.

Oh, yeah. The Fire Fire Sprite. They're, yeah, they're making a, that the rumor about them was that they're making a horror game or something, right?

Okay. But no, the Concord one's ridiculous cuz that was, I mean, did you play it? I mean, I know you're not really into those kind of games, but.

I didn't, I didn't play Concord.

Oh, you didn't even play the free beta or any of that [ __ ]?

Um, I mean, it was a very, very.

Solid, well-made game, and those are hard games to make. And like I've said before, why don't you just keep that team and reskin it and make a PlayStation All-Stars hero shooter, you know? I mean, there's a lot of things you guys could have done versus like, no, [ __ ] it, they're they're gone.

Yeah, I think I think they were eager to write that whole thing down. Um, could be that. And I guess the point I'm making is is that the going's good, the balance sheet's good. We've they've made good investments, too. And games have first-party games have turned out like yotay. I think Wolverine's gonna be great. Um, I would just, if I were internally or if I were, you know, someone on the shoulder of the the seauite, I'd be like, "But this guy over here, these guys, um, we lost billions of dollars because of them. Still, like, so for all the money we've made, it could be billions higher if we didn't invest all of this money in these stupid boondoggles, uh, and these really shitty acquisitions."

It's not that Concord and Fair Games or we don't know about Fair. I mean, it doesn't look good. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not necessarily that the games are bad. It's that they had the judgment to buy the teams. I I can't impress that enough on people. It's not that they invested in bad games. They thought those games were good. That's the whole point.

The Haven thing, I can't speak to because the game wasn't really in development until, right? I mean, they were new. Haven. They were they were acqu I mean, the game was well into development at that point because they they announced. That's where Sony came on board or Sony funded it to begin. No, no, yeah. Sony, so all those games existed independently and then Sony came in and because Deviation was one of those games, too. Those guys ended up being are now Dark Outlaws or a lot of those guys and they're making whatever with Jason Blundell, but Sony made those seed like investments in all of those games when they were or they're not seed, they're they were round investments into those games and then but what I'm saying is is that they went in and said, "This game looks good, we'll buy you. This game looks good, we'll buy you." They were afraid of losing that. They thought those games were so good. They were under contract to deliver on those games just like Arrowhead was. They thought those games were so good that they were going to lose that talent and they were going to lose access to the team after that game. That's [ __ ] crazy.

Well, with Haven, I agree with uh at least maybe. I haven't seen it, but I I think I think Haven, if if Haven is a good piece of, you know, group of tech developers, I think they suffer from the same thing the Concord guys suffer from is they don't they need a they need a creative and they need a better marketing guy and they need a producer that, you know, because I I think it's a way I think the bigger problem is that they killed that Concord team. Um, I agree with you that you should have looked at Concord and said, "This ain't it." But I can understand why you would go, "This is a talented team." I mean, I I can't impress that enough that, you know, look, I've made a a hero shooter before. And I know that those games when they do well, do really, really well. Um, and I struggle to see how when you see a team that's that talented, yeah, it was a dumb IP. uh probably wasn't interesting enough of a game to invest what they invested, but I I can see the value of going, "That's a team we want." Blue, you know, you you buy talent, that's all that matters in this industry. And then you plug in the holes, right? You go back to baseball. You have your baseball team, but until you bring in that one or two, you know, uh transfers or whatever, then it starts to gel, right? Because finally we've got the guy that can handle this part that was missing.

Yeah. I I but you don't want to throw everybody away just because you had a couple of bad seasons, right? And I think I do think that quietly Sony did that with Deviation with Dark Outlaws or Dark Outlaw games, which is such a shitty name for it. But it's uh like a lot of those guys are the guys that worked on that game that and they I think they just were kind of like, "Oh, we don't want any of you guys anymore. We'll take everyone else." Right. Um, and that may have happened with again, I have I don't do the the the LinkedIn deep dives and [ __ ] anymore like I used to, but like.

Yeah, it's hard to know what c there's all kinds of things that the floorboards could have been rotten and we just don't have that data. Right. Right. And I I think um Haven is interesting because they lost the game lost Fair Games lost its director and its producer. Yeah. It's a really bad sign, but the studio hangs on. And I wonder if it's because of what you're saying where like they have a foothold in Quebec. I've said this many times now. Like that's a good place to be, you know, um for game development. It's just a huge game development hub in the world, like one of the top five.

And so, and they've never had a presence there, as you know, they've never had a Canadian team. So, United Front, I think almost I I don't like that would have been an interesting team to have bought back in the day, but um and that would have been in British Columbia, but.

Yeah. So, I think that might be why the team still exists and maybe they're figuring it out. But again, I just I don't know. The writing's on the wall with that game. I think I saw someone, one of the one a journalist in the industry say on Twitter, which I thought was interesting, just very succinctly like, "Sony cannot release Fair Games."

As. Like it can't. It's got to look radically different or be radically different. And that's that that's not that's hard. That's it. It is. It is. But I I I am with you a thousand percent what they showed and that that was always my thing. It's like, Jesus Christ, guys. There's a game Sega has right now. I think it was called Hyenas or something.

Oh yeah, that's right. The shooter. And that didn't even come out. I played the alpha of that and that was kind of what what Fair Game seems to be in terms of at least what they were pitching. And I'm like, "Why again, why are you guys spending all this [ __ ] money on this [ __ ] game when you could see if it works within six months?" I don't understand these people. I really don't. But you know what? Can you do?

So So what do you mean? Who would you shut down though if it wasn't Bluepoint? I mean, Media Molecule obviously is no longer. Obviously. But what what are the other studios and that you think should be would Bend would you would be next, unfortunately. I mean, and and this is what I'm talking about about like the whole cover band theory of game development where it's like Bend doesn't have anyone that that that like or almost anyone like Christopher Reese is still there and a few guys, but it's like Garvin's gone. Eric Jensen's gone, like, you know, like all these guys that were.

Seinal members of Bend for many, many years are or long gone. So it's like, what and that's the way I feel about Media Molecule. I'm pretty sure everyone is gone except for one of the founders and I think there are six of them. So it's like, do you really believe how many people that worked on Little Big Planet 2, which is the last AAA game they released, and that was uh 15 years ago. Um, how many of them are still there? By the way, it's literally 15 years ago because it was January 2011.

Which one did Epstein like? Uh, Little Big Planet 3, I think, which was which was Sumo Digital technically. So, we don't want to blame them. Right. Yeah. I cannot believe Media Molecule exists still. Like that's. I don't want them to go. Like I I would love to see another game out of them. I'm just saying if you're looking at the numbers and trying to like truncate things a little bit, it's like they're the obvious. I'm going to I'm going to come at this from obviously a very biased uh position and also a very, you know, uh just my experience. That's all I can do anyway. I mean, I guess I can do more. I can put myself in someone else's shoes. But.

My position on this is. Uh, there was a time when there was a lot of value in mavericks, uh, and frankly people like me and people like uh Garvin. Right. That stirred the pot not because we were [ __ ] but because we just were kind of, you know, we we saw things a little bit different and we weren't really interested in playing ball as much as I with with the powers that be. And that was tolerated and that was supported within reason. I mean, it wasn't like we were, you know, abusive or anything like the [ __ ] Ubisoft guys. And I don't mean anything like that, like the sexual stuff. I just mean in terms of having a vision and being very protective and driven and demanding. And I think Sony, I had a marketing guy tell me, oh, it was like 10 years ago, he's like, "Dude, you don't want to go back to Sony. It's so different now. It's not the Sony you left. Everyone's heads down. Nobody wants to rock the boat. Everybody wants to keep their [ __ ] job." Um, and in that you get stagnation, you get fear-based decisions. And I think when you're talking about the cover band thing with Bend, um, I think you I I think Sons of Sparta, I know I got a lot of [ __ ] for it and we talked about it a lot last week, but like I said, you see the reviews now, the user score, the Metacritic score, um, that would not have been allowed. Somebody, and probably me, and if not me, somebody else would have said, "This ain't us. We're not putting this [ __ ] thing out." Um, it's just where is that? Where is the the fire in these people? Maybe you get so big you just can't maintain the fire because it becomes so much about it's supporting so many people's livelihoods that you can't help but be sucked into this fear-based uh philosophy of doing business. Um, but it's really lame. I I look at it and I I just, you know, people like, "Why are you such an [ __ ] about it, Jaffy?" I'm like, "Because, you know, I help build that stuff. you know, and I helped fund uh found Sony Santa Monica. I was one of the four people. It's like because I know what it was. And I look at it now and it's just it's a shell. How, you know? I mean, I know Corey's doing his own thing and uh Eric's doing his own thing, but it's like who who let that [ __ ] game go out as is? Should have [ __ ] put a bullet in that [ __ ] thing's head. Um, it's it's bad for the brand. It's bad. You should have known better.

Yeah, it's uh I'm still working my I I beat it, but I'm plat I'm platinuming it. Yeah. And uh I think that I'm over it now because, you know, I've ruined the game for myself now by playing so much of it. But.

Which is not what's supposed to happen. No, no, but I like I want to see. I played it enough that I hated it. I I want to see if there's like a secret ending or anything, you know, like I I like to, you know, like you were saying earlier, I like to complete games and just see them for what they are. But it's definitely a very long game. It's like I'm only like 35 hours in. Um, but I will say that the game does get better before you go on the platinum hunt. The more you play it, I think the game does get better, but I think the score is about right. Like I would probably I was saying if I was at IGN, I might have ultimately given it a seven at highest.

Which is quote unquote good. My my beating on the game is not the fact that the there's some core fundamental mechanics that are decent. I I agree with you. I don't think it's a, you know, it's not a 3DO Armymen game or something. I mean, it's it's a competently put together product, but for a, you know, for that pedigree, it's it's, you know, it's like you go into a fine dining establishment and they bring you, you know, French fries from Burger King and you're like, "Okay, the fries work. They are officially French fries, but I expect more when you're going to put God of War on it and it's going to come out of Santa Monica and it's this premier thing." So, I think that permeates. Same same with Bend. Get somebody in there that, you know what, rocking the boat's not bad. Tumping over the boat's bad. That's why you need good management. Don't let the guys or girls who come in to rock the boat it over. But you know what? You got to rock the [ __ ] boat sometimes.

Yeah. The wrong side of the power struggle won at Bend. It's too bad because I think things I think things would have gone a lot differently for them if if it was like Jeff Ross, Garvin, um um Eric Jensen, like all the people that were really involved in the success of of Days Gone, especially.

All right. Uh, Xbox. Yeah. What What do you think about what's going on over there? I know people are curious about that, too. So, we should touch on that. Um.

Yeah, again, I I look, I Let's first preface it or I will preface it for me by saying I don't know what I don't know, right? So, there's a million things that could be happening over there that we're just looking in nose pressed up against the glass. Um, and that I think that's important because a lot of times it becomes real easy for people to be like, "They're so [ __ ] stupid." It's like, "Dude, you have no idea the politics at play, blah blah blah." It doesn't mean that the end result should be poor, but we don't know what happened. But if you look at the reporting, uh, I guess you'd call it reporting from Greg and then you look at the reporting from, uh, Warren with The Verge.

Oh, yeah. Tom Warren. Yeah. Yeah. It it it's starting to sound more and more like this was not planned. Um, certainly with Sarah Bond and if it was planned with Phil, it wasn't like Bob Iger leaving Disney and there were, you know, uh, he had a year to prep this new person. Um, uh, it sounds like even Phil was kind of caught a little surprised if if if Greg is right. I don't know. But, you know, I don't I don't for for a lot of things you can say good or bad about Greg, I've never heard he's a guy who goes out with false stuff.

No, I when I saw that he said had said something, I actually totally believe the veracity of it. First of all, Greg is is exceptionally well-connected. He has been for many, many years. When I worked with him, he was eminently well-connected. He talked to a lot of very famous people, a lot of very well-connected people. Um, much more than I did. And he's also not a news guy. So when he says something like something, it's it's not like he he's like out there chasing uh clicks for, you know, his new scoop. He's not like Jason Schreier where that's like his bread and butter. So when he says something, I I totally believe it. And.

Right. And it is a little weird when you kind of look at some of the things like I know Jez Corden had interviewed um Phil Spencer last summer, I think, and Phil said he's not retiring anytime soon. Then Phil says like in in Phil's own timeline in his letter he says, "Well, I'm uh in the fall I started talking to Satcha about it." It's like, so three months after you told Jez Corden you're not going to retire anytime.

Jez Corden isn't owed the truth. I mean, I told people we weren't making Twisted Metal and we were. That's true. You know. But I don't know. I think that that's kind of an interesting connection nonetheless. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, that could also be another indication that it was a surprise, right? So, what I think about it is that I have always been a Game Pass fan. Um, I have always been a fan of Phil's vision. Uh, I struggled a lot with those guys because in the Redfall era, um, or the, you know, when they just couldn't get their [ __ ] together that they would release the Xbox with no first-party games. Like, how do you do that, right? How do you [ __ ] [ __ ] up your management that poorly?

And I never and I always said that because Phil's vision I thought was so good and ultimately I think will be looked at as correct. um that I can forgive that, but I couldn't forgive Matt Booty, right? Because I laid it at his feet as the manager, the head of the Xbox first-party games. Um, so at this point, I think the only thing you can really walk away with it is is is you go, "They just got tired of losing money um with it or not growing." Uh, and and everything's going into AI with these guys right now. And I understand why. And I think they were just like, "Okay, we have to be done now. You you your Hail Mary was Call of Duty. That didn't move the needle that much." uh some I think there was a reporter that said those exact words is where I'm getting it from, but it's true. It was a good observation, which is like, you know, if you can't move the needle with Call of Duty. Um, and then Call of Duty sales this year are down because the quality is down.

Um, and we spent all that money and not just the money on acquiring it, but the legal fees of of of having to defend the acquisition and. And then we have to sustain the studios. Right. Um, somewhere and somewhere along the lines, as much as I love Game Pass, what I got I I got one fundamental thing wrong on Game Pass. I still, you know, I always said if it fails, it fails. But it's been great. But I I that's why I think I think Game Pass as we know it is probably done. Um, I think it'll remain like a PSN thing, like sort of a some exclusives from time to time, but more of a legacy platform uh for people who want to play older games. I think for the time being they're going to go back to just selling their games uh straight up uh on all the systems. I don't think they're going to suddenly start doing exclusives. That seems weird to me that.

They're going to they're going to put out. Yeah. Um, and I I think that was I think that's exactly what happened. And apparently Sarah Bond, according to Tom Henderson.

From Insider Gaming. What whoever did the thing in Verge was incredibly. Tom Warren is the. Yeah. Uh, incredibly unpopular and unliked and difficult to work with. And so uh they just kind of cleaned house. So I I I I liked what Phil was trying to do. I like that. I like them as a publisher now. I like the cadence of their releases. I like that in a year we can get something really big and cool like Indiana Jones or Forza Horizon and then we get something weird and wonderful like Keeper. I don't know if those days are over. I don't know if Double Fine's time at Microsoft is probably coming to an end. Um, but yeah, I I I think it was a good run and and I really enjoyed what they did and I don't think the Xbox fans that are expecting a return to the old days are going to be very happy. Um, I don't think you put a person like this in that role if you just want to go back to the 360 glory days. Why would you do that?

No, it's a goofy choice. I think in a way I don't know anything about that woman, but. And and by the way, I do think it is true because I know there's some controversy around it. I believe that you don't have to be a gamer to run a game company. I agree. I think you need to have. And again, I'll just remind as as we know, like do you think uh Wilson at EA or Zelnik at Take 2 play [ __ ] video games? No. And no. And some of the best executives, it's it's a duo, right? I think back to like uh Amy Pascal and I forget the guy's name that ran Sony Pictures. She handled the creative, he handled the business. In this case, it could be that she's really great. Apparently, she's really good at user acquisition. She knows where the the AI is going. She she comes from that team. And maybe they're like, "Matt Booty will handle that part. Matt Booty's going home and worried about his gamer score." You don't need her to worry about that, right? I think that's totally fine.

Yeah. And I I agree. Like I So, I'm not judging it from that perspective, but it's just obvious that it's a Microsoft stooge in my opinion. and um she's obviously worked at a bunch of different places too, but it's someone that they can rely on to for the for the vision in which they are pursuing now, which is which is saturation. And this is why and you and I have said, I mean, God, how many times we say this Jeffy over the years, it's like the direction has changed so badly and it's going so badly comparable to where we know you thought you were going to be because all that [ __ ] leaked during the FTC trials like with all your numbers and your projections and your emails and.

It's like it's you failed. It's over. And I a few years ago I would have been like, "You guys have to go now. Thanks for your hard work, but like we can't have you now going and doing the PR rounds and talking out of both sides of your mouth." Every time Phil Spencer says something, it's like you just said this. Right. Like it would h it happened for years because they were saying the exact opposite of what by the time the Activision deal happened, they were saying the exact opposite thing they were saying during the Bethesda acquisition. It's why like the Activision, if you're an Xbox fan and you lament the inevitable failure, like the long-term failure of the company to to be a competitor to PlayStation and Nintendo, that Activision deal, I'm telling you, like if if that Activision deal didn't happen.

This wouldn't be going the way like. Well, yeah, because they would have not spent how much was it again? $70 billion. I mean, it was the biggest acquisition, I think, in the history of Microsoft until LinkedIn. Yeah. Um, and I just feel like that that was so obvious where it's like you just need new messengers. So, I'm surprised. It's like when a I keep using sports references and we both do, but it's like when an NFL team is like, "We're firing the coaching staff, but we're keeping the general manager." It's like, "Ah, you probably should just start again with everyone, you know?"

And again, take the ball where it is on the line it's on right now. not wish cast where you think that things are going. You have a direction. It's happened. Like exclusives are done. Your hardware is deemphasized. Like you can't go back. It's over. So like you have you have to. But the real question is is do you think she is just a stooge or do you think because I'm I'm looking I wanted to look up her statement, right? And the the thing that really struck me as worth parsing, I guess, is uh she had three things. She said, "First, our our we're going to build uh our new Xbox on three pillars. Great games is one, the return of Xbox will recommit to our core of whatever the [ __ ] that means." Uh, and then third is future of play. And it's the third that really strikes me as if she's not a stooge, this is why she was brought in. She says, "We are witnessing the reinvention of play to meet the moment. We will invent new business models and new ways to play by leaning into what we already have. Iconic teams, characters, and worlds people love. But we will not treat those worlds as static IP to milk and monetize. We will build a shared platform, and here's the words, a shared platform and tools that empower developers and players to create and share their own stories. As monetization and AI evolve and influence this future, we will not chase short-term uh efficiency or flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop." That last thing is just to to run interference on the AI complainers. But I think this I think they're building Roblox. I think they want Roblox is what they want.

They they want Roblox. I It's important to know and I know you said this earlier about Roblox. Roblox doesn't sometimes lose money. Roblox has never made a profit. They did a couple there were a couple quarters it did. I thought regardless regard the norm is that they lose money. They lose like $100 million a month. Yeah. Like that's what's so crazy when I see these numbers and I'm like, "Look, 40 million people are playing Roblox right now." And I'm like, "That's amazing. How are they not making money?" How could that even be? I don't know. I have no idea. Like, how could you have 40 million people concurrent? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We lost $100 million. Understand what that means. Concurrent. That doesn't mean 40 million over the month, right? That means at the same time people on the planet have decided to log in and play this stupid [ __ ] thing, right? Um, it's like uh it's just so funny to me like that. That's so funny to me. It's like, "Wow. I don't know what the [ __ ] you guys are doing, man." Um.

But you're right. like there's obviously going to be this mass market saturation. But I did see something in the chat. I lost it. I think someone had said, oh, it's Stuart. He says, "What does return of Xbox mean if she isn't going back?" Going back to what? Like I I hate to say this. It's not to be mean, but the Xbox fan base is as it's constituted right now. You're not going to have new acquisitions anymore. Like you're not going to court. Like don't you see that they've tried for many years now to court you with Game Pass and do all these kinds of things and the acquisition of studios and exclusives and none of it worked. There's nothing to go back to. The Xbox fan base is a 30 to 40 million person strong group of people at most and they're going to monetize the [ __ ] out of you and that's awesome. But there's nothing to go back to. They squandered it.

It's gone. Don't worry. You'll get your Blinks the time cat plushy if that's what you're worried about. Um, but no, here's what she says it means. And this is weird cuz she contradicts herself. I think in that statement she says um, "We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox starting with console, which has shaped who we are." Okay. Well, how are you going to do that if in a couple sentences later you say, "As we expand across PC, mobile, and cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of communities we serve. We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise." Okay. So, you're not doing exclusives clearly. You're doubling down though on console or you're starting with console. But how are you going to motivate me to buy your console?

It's nonsense. They're not. Right. So, that that's the reason I didn't spend too much time on her second pillar was I don't know what she's saying. It does. It's contradicts itself. Unless there's unless she's saying, "Look, we're basically going to build the Steam box, but we're going to have Rtech is going to be so much better that yeah, you can play uh the new Halo on the Steam box. You can play it on PlayStation, but you're going to want to play it on the new Xbox console." Maybe maybe it's a a tech thing she's talking about, and that's what she means. I don't know. But it's a fun industry. I'm glad I'm not working in it. I'm just hovering around the people, you know, people always quote the Teddy Roosevelt thing. Get in the arena. [ __ ] you. I've been in the arena, [ __ ].

Yeah, you don't have to stay in it. I I don't want to live there anymore. It's more fun in the cheap seats with the peanuts and the hot ladies selling liquor during the [ __ ] halftime. Leave me alone.

I totally agree. But I think being in the arena at some point is fun, you know, and because it gives you a lot of knowledge and insight that that like it's worth a like someone's opinion on situations that they don't really understand or experience are kind of worth a hill of beans ultimately.

That's true. I mean, the it's worth a lot if they frame it as a like I always valued the audience response when it came from their very unique perspective and I was framing it as such and seeing it as such. It's when they and even us, I'm sure if you're Microsoft on the off chance they listen to this uh or or Sony, I know some of the Sony execs still listen to this. Um, I don't know if you're listening Scott Rohde. Jesus Christ, Scott Rohde. Yeah, it's probably there's there's definitely someone someone from Sony will listen to this. It'll probably be like a low rung PR person.

Let's talk to Scott for a minute. Scotty. My dear Scotty, who I've I've never had a bad thing, never a bad thought has entered my mind. Even when you told us we could not put Jesus on a dinosaur and drawn to death and I thought that was just because you were religious and I was like, "God damn it, but okay, that's fair." You've always been one of my favorite people in the industry. It's time to get yours. I know you're thinking about retiring. No. People live a lot longer now. Your kids are in college. Enough. Reach for the [ __ ] brass ring. Wouldn't Rohde be great in Herman's role?

Yeah, he would. I don't know why he's been so hesitant to be a more publicly faced. I don't know. But get your [ __ ] together. If you're scared, get therapy. If you're worried about it affecting your marriage, it will. But you know what? Buy the woman a yacht. She'll be fine. You're gonna be great. Go on, Scott Rohde. Get yours.

Yeah. It's like you need a good you need a a reliable taste maker. And I also I would, you know, the one thing I would love to know most about PlayStation internally is right now is where their minds are at with their IP. Like who's managing the portfolio and saying and trying to figure out what the right revivals are and who the right partners are and courting the first parties to maybe look at old things again. Like I I thought Sucker Punch was fairly it was it was interesting where they kind of openly talked about maybe remastering Infamous and I was like, "Huh, I don't feel like that came out of nowhere. I feel like those conversations happened." You know.

You give that to Bluepoint. Good god, why didn't you give Bluepoint Infamous, right? I know. Holy [ __ ]. It almost made you [ __ ] choked to death. You were so excited about. Well, because I'm just thinking about it and I'm just like I I had not thought about Infamous. Infamous could be I never liked the fact that he was a superhero that didn't have a costume, but they could fix that. But short of that [ __ ] I mean that's that was money on the table. And I don't just mean nostalgia play. That game is still relevant and holds up enough that you could remaster that and it could be basically like you're reviving this IP. Um, oh well, Sucker Punch wants it. [ __ ] you. Give him something else.

Yeah. I mean, I know that that's a thing like where I think that they felt really slighted by Sly 4 in a way. And it seems like the internal studios that succeed now have a lot more control over their IP. Yeah. Yeah. Um.

I I I sometimes think about the stupidity of that. By the way, uh, like I said, the idea that, well, we gave Bluepoint a chance to come up with something. Well, they didn't, so give them something. Yeah. Also, also that's not what we bought them for, but nonetheless. Yeah. Um.

Like, keep your opinions to yourself. Remake Wild Arms, [ __ ]. Right. That's right. That's right. Um, but I don't know, man. I I I think though seriously, it is, you know, when the thing that that sets the table for all of this is just looking at that report that came out about the industry seismically changing and you look at some of these games uh that are going to be the next big hits that are premiering this week on NextFest and stuff and it's just like it it's just the the people who are going to rule this industry in the next 5, 10, 20 years are going to be the ones that don't have this obsession with holding on to the past and they recognize that things are changing and you get in front of it. But so many of these uh certainly fans online uh they just they and I get it. I mean, that's not, you know, I got to stop worrying about that. It's just sometimes I'm like, "Don't you see?" And they don't see. They don't want to see. And it's like, "Jaffy, you're screaming it in the wind, man. You're spitting in the wind at this point." So anyway.

All right, let's get into some Dustin, are you there? Let's call Shu. Let's call Shu. Okay. Uh, let's get to some uh more super chats here. And try to get through some of these. I We have a lot of them, I think. Which is very kind. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for that.

Okay. Uh, the Assassin AK, I think we're on Dustin, do you see that one? Okay. He writes in and says, 'Colin, so in sports terms, this means Phil is a free agent. Would you be interested in Sony firing Herman Holston and hiring Phil Spencer? Are you crazy?' Thank you for writing in.

No, I think I think Phil has a great vision for things, but I don't think in the Sony world that that vision is needed. They've got their roadmap for now. Yeah, absolutely not. You need new blood and and there's probably a lot of people internally that would be really good for the job. Simple Jack says, "If Sony leadership is not capable of tastemaking, then why aren't industry professionals consulted more often by companies during IP development?" I mean, they do consultations, but I think you in first party, you're buying like the cow. Like, you don't need you're not supposed to need anything else. Like, they're supposed to figure it out. Once the game enters production, you get help from the outside to fix and finish things. But.

I I. Yeah, the team the team there's a million people that want to make their game. They don't need to go out and ask that the the main consultation should be and they do have the green light process. Uh, I you know, sometimes I guess stupid [ __ ] slips through, but uh unless Herman has destroyed the green light process, but uh they have a group of people that are marketing and PR and development and executive and they go through possible games before they get a green light. So they kind of have that buffer in place. Um, so they kind of already they don't really need it. Um.

Let's see. Lena Michelik, is that a Is that a like a Who is that? Someone will know. North Starfish. Sounds sexual. Concern. Is this the name or this is just a. This is the name. Lena Mikolix. North Starfish. Good for you. Let that. Something perverted. Something perverted. Concerns about Guerrilla given Bluepoint. Report said majority of staff working on Hunter's Gathering reception seems timid at best, layoffs possible. Not before the game comes out. I mean, if the if the uh if the game comes out and it's not popular or not good, then that's different. But they're going to they're not going to let I don't.

Mean Yeah. And I mean, they're bread and butter is not that anyway, right? They're still working on a mainline Horizon game, which I assume is is is going to be fine. and the group making the hunter gatherer game may get shuffled around, but I don't think they're going to close Guerrilla. Uh, right. I mean, aren't they making a mainline Horizon? I think what they were saying, I think what one of the I don't have any insight into it, but I think one of the stories said that like very much like what happened with Naughty Dog with The Last of Us and Uncharted is like a lot of people have now been pulled onto the the multiplayer game to finish it, but like there is the other game going.

Yeah. I mean, I I think that game looks like it could be fun. I mean, you know, I'm willing to give it a shot. I know people say to me like, "If it wasn't Horizon, you wouldn't care about it." And I'm like, "Wow, very insightful." Uh, I don't like Horizon. I don't like Horizon. I care about it, but.

Um, Kenny Power 76 wrote in and said, "Did you guys see the total hit piece on Sarah Bond and The Verge today by Tom Warren?" We were talking about this earlier. Tom got the timeline wrong and blamed Sarah for business decisions made by Phil Spencer and others years prior. I do have to read this piece. I won't do it on I I looked at it. It's It's long. I don't want to read it here. Well, what I will say that I was responding to was was not none of that. It was the assessment that he had gotten from interviewing people that she was.

Not well-liked. She was difficult and if you didn't agree with her vision, then you were out of the either the company or the inner circle and people were really glad to see her go. That doesn't mean that she wasn't an effective executive by the way. It just means, you know, she wasn't liked. And that's what I got from the reporting, but I don't know about the timeline stuff.

To me, I mean, it's great to have extra detail, but for me, it was fairly obvious that she was persona non grata when because it was I thought it was fairly well telegraphed for years that she was going to be the next CEO. Right. Like that was I I thought that was like almost I thought that was almost overtly said at some point, but maybe not. Um, so I I when when she and she was posting on LinkedIn, Right. Hours before and I know that they've kind of like shrugged that off and I'm like, "No, I don't think so."

What it also could have been is Spencer may have been planning. And then kind of like what just happened at Disney, right? There were two people in the running to take over for Iger. It was the guy who runs the park who got it. And it was the woman who ran some other division. It could have been Sarah and this woman who got it. And the board meeting that morning was them deciding it's gonna be whatever her name is, Asha or whatever. Yeah. And that was enough for Shar to go, "Okay, [ __ ] it. I'm out. I've been here for five years. I've done whatever she's been there for." Um, that could also be true. That's what I'm saying. We just don't know uh what happened.

Yeah, succession plans are not always clear-cut. Like I'm sure that it's clean sometimes and like you said, it's not clean other times. And there's like dark horse candidates and and mitigating factors. But I um yeah, I I thought that that was fairly obvious that she was she was all and that's why I was surprised that Booty was like when I saw Booty promoted, I'm like, "Oh, you think he would just cut all these guys just be done, you know?"

He's the last really. Well, Aaron Greenberg's there, I guess, too. And but like you think he would just cut the last vestiges of this this. They're going to bring back who was the guy that did the makeover. He used to be all kind of ebox. He was all schlubby and nerdy. Oh. Was it Bobby somebody or. Um. And then he got like he shaved his head. He got in shape. He was wearing cool clothes. Yeah. Yeah. I can't I know exactly what you're talking. Yeah. Bring him back. Yeah. No. Sarah goes and does the big makeover and walks in next week. She's like, "How you like me now?" Sheamus Blackley. No, no, no. It was not Sheamus. No. Jay Allard. Jay Allard. Yeah. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Yeah. Um, very good. Thank you, chat, for that. Um, yeah. Anyway, Aiden Gonzalez wrote in said, "History with Colin. Why was Crossing of the Delaware such a bold maneuver? PS, shout out Turn Washington Spies. Good show overshadowed by The Walking Dead." Uh, yeah, it was a really good show. Um, the laws of war at the time precluded nighttime guerrilla style raids in the winter. Everything about it was totally off. Um, you know, the the Viet Cong were very inspired by the guerrilla warfare of the American Revolution. And if you want to see a little bit more though, a very filmic version of the Patriots, really fun the movie, the Mel Gibson movie, because they show a lot of like the way we fought and how it was ungentlemanly, how we would like. We would do things like target officers and do things that were totally unheard of. Um, it's cra it's crazy for that that existed for a while, that that code of war, you know.

Yeah, it is. It's like it's war. Uh, Cyanide 1980 wrote in said, "Jaffy Cakes, have you tried Crystal Theater of Idols yet?" It's funny. I was just talking about this game yesterday. Micah had brought up Elijah Wood. And I'm like, "Oh, you know that I know Elijah Wood's brother pretty well, Zack Wood." Yeah. Who runs. And who worked at Santa Monica for many years. And And I was like, "Oh, I'm going to talk to Jaffy tomorrow. I have to bring that up. He'll definitely know Zack Wood." Oh, I know. Yeah. Zach was a producer on Twisted Metal 2012. Exactly. That's what I was I went. Butted heads, but I liked him and I've been very disappointed with his output as head of Blumhouse Games. I expected more. Yeah. Right. That's what I was going to say is he was he's now at Blumhouse and I guess uh.

Is this one of their games? This is one of their games. They put out Fear of the Spotlight, which I didn't like. And they put out something else about some sleep, never sleep or whatever it's called. I didn't like I I love the I love the trailer when this was first revealed. What's it called? Theater of Blood. Yeah, Theater of Blood. I love the high concept, but I don't think it plays very well. Um.

I I think someone had or Dustin Dustin, were you the one that.

recommended it to me? I checked it out, but uh I've already refunded it. I I recommended it to you before I had played it because it does look amazing, but it just Jaffy's right. It doesn't play very well. It needs It feels like it needs more time.

Yeah. All right, cool. It does. It did look cool. Um, but yeah, anyway, I was think and yeah, I knew about the Twisted Metal thing. I was reminded about that and then I wanted to talk to you about it because I I was like, "Oh, let me bring up his Moby games." Because she's like, "You never told me this." I'm like, "Yeah, I probably met Zach Wood like 50 times."

Oh, yeah. He was a really nice guy. I remember the last game he did at Sony was I was telling I was like, "No one remembers this game." Was he produced? No, that was he did that, but that was that was that was the PlayStation game. His last game there was Bound. Do you remember that game?

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dancing game. Yeah. That was a really cool game. I don't think anyone played it. Um, yeah, but that was his last game there. But I I remember getting I remember getting to know him pretty well when he did he was producer of Sound Shapes.

Yeah, he's a he's a he was always a good dude. Um, and I didn't even know who he was when I first met him. I I met Elijah Wood playing Twist Metal Black at E3 one year and he was the first celebrity I ever knew that played our [ __ ] and I was like that's so [ __ ] cool that that dude's playing our [ __ ] game. I just thought that was the coolest thing. He he they look like brothers when you know.

Yes. And you can totally and it's like oh you like it would almost be a thing you would think like oh they're joking he looks like a wood right you know but it's like no that really is clear. Yeah.

Yeah. Um it's Towers wrote in and said off topic but the latest sacred got me thinking when did you know you want kids? Mid20s and I want to marry my girlfriend but she wants kids in the future and I worry about wanting and handling the responsibility. Jeffy you're the p perfect person to talk about with this. Um, so I it never occurred to me in my life that I wouldn't have kids. I grew up with nieces and nephews. Uh, I've always had an affinity, you know, I wasn't a babysitter, but I always liked playing with my nieces and nephews and driving them. I remember, you know, they remember really well because they remind me a lot, but I'd put them in the back of my car when I was like 16 and we'd try to hit 88 miles an hour in the parking lot behind the movie theater I worked in. you know, and you know, I'm stunned when none of us died, but you know, I always had fun with them. And so, I always assumed that would be part of my life. And when I got married, my wife didn't want kids. And I'm like, okay, I didn't I didn't feel like I needed them, but I was like, all right, I'm down with that. I'd rather be married to you. I can live with that. And then she eventually grew into the idea. But I'm not the guy like I love having kids. I had a great mom and dad that I mean they they were crazy especially my mom but they were very loving and supportive and uh we did all kinds of things like every Saturday we'd get in my dad's truck and go to cool places and and I I absolutely loved that experience as a kid and I loved giving my kids a similar experience and so I'm not the guy to ask because I've never been ambivalent on it. I was always like, "Oh, kids are [ __ ] awesome." And uh you know, they are the what a joy. What the best part of my life are these [ __ ] Um and I don't mean that like I I'm not romanticizing it like, oh, when I held my kid for the first It was none of that. When I held my kid for the first time, God, she was the Well, first one had a sweet little cry like what? What? The second was like a [ __ ] banshee, you know? it would, you know, you don't you're not you're in love with them because they're your blood, but you don't really connect with them immediately. At least I didn't. But when when I did relatively quickly after they were born, my god, what a h I I I I would give up everything just to have had that experience. What an absolute joy. So, I'm probably not the guy to ask, right? Uh now, I don't mean that to the to the uh the comment. I'm just saying that I can't relate to the idea of being I'm not sure because I know it's a big responsibility and I do think it's great that there are people that decide not to have kids who say this is not for us. I was talking about a couple last night. They're both lawyers. They have a lot of money because they've never had to raise kids and they've never had to pay for this that or the other and now they're in their 60s and they have no regrets and they've just loved being together and sailing through life with the freedom that you get. And some people just aren't meant to have kids and I think that's great too.

Um, thank you for answering. Thank you for writing in Star Wars. Well, Dustin's having a kid. Did you always want kids, Dustin?

I knew I always wanted to have kids. It was always just a matter of figuring out when uh just because I uh throughout basically the entirety of my 20s was so career focused and for a lot of it not that I was like super poor but you know I didn't feel comfortable quite yet uh financially. So I think in hindsight I wish I wouldn't have waited as long. Not that there's anything wrong with having kids in your 30s, but

How old are you? How old will you be when the baby comes? Uh, I will be 32 still.

I was 32 when I had my first one. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, I Yeah, we've known for a while. I think it was tough for me to get into the mindset just because I knew figuring out my career was going to take everything in me and if I didn't focus on it and try to figure out how to get my shot, you know, that I wouldn't be able to make it happen. So,

Gotcha. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. No.

In-game Productions wrote in and said, "Can't believe Jaffy bullied Dustin off the show." [ __ ] you, [ __ ] I didn't. Maybe I did a little wink. I don't know. Hang on. Hey, Tech. Can I be an [ __ ] because I see you're watching the show. Would you please bring me a Diet Coke? I would appreciate it so so much.

Jaffy Chat wrote in and said, "Howdy, boys. I hope you're both doing well." Jaffy, do you have any stories or memories of Downhill Domination? It was one of my brothers and I's favorite games growing up. Have a great day.

That was uh really Scott's baby. Like I was working on God of War when they were making that and I don't think it did very well because it just you know it it it just you know it it it was a passion project. People who played it loved it. I sat my daughter who was newborn in my lap. Uh thank you very much. His girlfriend um and uh he would sit she would sit in my lap and play. I would play downhill domination and she would just watch the whole [ __ ] thing. So, it was a great game. I know a lot of people loved it. Um, but it was never, you know, Scott Campbell, who directed it and produced it, was so into mountain biking that I don't know if there was any push back like, okay, but you need to make this a little more commercial. Uh, maybe he was trying to get the extreme sports thing. I have no idea. But it it didn't sell, but it was a much beloved game.

I'll be 32 when I have my first kid. Okay, you need to find somebody who will let you [ __ ] them. Your daughter. Yeah, good. Good luck with that.

Jesus. Uh, so yeah,

Pesky Proflegate wrote in said, "Why do you think the Armymen franchise hasn't been brought back in some form or at least mined for PlayStation Classics? It was relatively successful in its day and it's currently owned by 2K." Armymen's kind of concurrent to a lot of the games that you were on the market you were making. Were Were you aware of that of that?

Oh my god, it was so gross because it was Trip Hawkins who who had done 3DIO as a as a hardware and then he spun it off and said, "Let's just make software." And the only thing they ever had that kind of got any um traction was Armymen and they wouldn't stop. Armymen this, armymen that. You know, every [ __ ] three months was a new goddamn army.

I never played one, I don't think. They got sub subsequently worse and worse and worse, right? They just they just were churning them out. And I remember there was an email he sent to the staff that leaked because they were on their last legs. And this detail really stuck with me. He was as this is how bad it was. He was asking employees to bring their own silverware in from home to the breakroom because they couldn't afford to keep buying plastic silverware for the whole staff. Um, but I I ne I I I always liked the idea, which they clearly were inspired by Toy Story from, uh, you know, to make a game off a toy. I love that idea and games have tried it since, but I did not think it was a very good game. They made horrible games. In fact, they put a game out that wasn't Armymen, but it had like a Japanese name and it was like a kind of a 3D wander combat game. And I remember getting that and playing that specifically because it was reviewing so poorly and I'm like we were making God of War and I would play a lot of bad games because I wanted to make sure we weren't making the mistakes that these games that were getting [ __ ] on were making. Um that's that 3dio was kind of synonymous for being just a terrible [ __ ] publisher. Just junk. Um I think they had Battle Tanks which was okay. I think that was theirs.

Yeah, they do. They had Battle Tanks and there was an N64 version of that game as well. Global Global Assault. Yeah, there is a [ __ ] titon armymen games. I'm looking at them now. Yeah, very funny. Yeah, I never played. And it reminds me of that movie at the same time, Toy Soldiers as well. Wasn't that was called or it was like it was like it was a movie about G.I. Joe like toys that came out. Oh, no. Small soldiers.

Small soldiers. Yeah. Um, and uh, and Army thing is kind of in hindsight fairly clever because it's recognizable and they probably didn't have to license anything too, right? So it's Yeah. All right.

Price Tag wrote in and said, "Hey, Colin. Any chance you could use some of your poll to maybe get IGN to promote Saint Slayer in some way. I've always been curious how your relationship with them has been post breakup." Um, I'm not doing PR, like I don't do PR for our stuff, so I'm staying out of the way of all that. Like, we have a PR firm that's doing the PR for the game. As I understand, it is on IGN. Um, and uh, my relationship with that, I mean, my relationship with the leadership at IGN is and some of the people in the in the there's not many people there anymore that I worked with, but I'm still very friendly with Pear, you know, um, Ryan McAffrey is a good friend of mine. Uh, Damon, but really I don't there's no one there anymore. Um, a lot of I know a lot of people, in fact, I've said this before that I asked to use their podcast studio or something like when I was going to be in San Francisco. I reached out to the parent. can I just like meet like I don't remember the exact context of it and like it was basically implied to me that like that would be a bad idea because the team doesn't like like the new team doesn't like me.

Um was did Naomi Kyle smell good? She's very nice. She's a very nice girl. I I've worked with her before. She is nice. Yeah, she is a very nice person. Um yeah, so like that was that was uh a little weird. Like I I remember that just because I was like, "These people meant one fraction of 1% as much to IGN as I did. You're not going to let me use the [ __ ] podcast studio?"

Oh, hey, I know the feeling. It's like Sony. It's like Santa Monica. It's like, really? You're going to give me [ __ ] attitude, [ __ ] The lights are on there because of about four of us, and I'm one of them. So, sit down, [ __ ] Like, Ryan and Damon are like the vestigages of the old IGN. everyone like the top 25 editors of I in IGN history would all be long gone from the with the exception of those two.

Mr. K wrote in and said Jaffy as your mo as your mohole. I think it's a Jewish term. He's convinced that I'm Jewish. Oh, I may have taken a little too much off the top. Sorry about that. Oh, he cuts penises. That's a rabbi who Oh, Mo. Mo. I've never seen it written. Yeah. Moy. Oh, of course, of course. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it.

Vesolo wrote in and said, "Removing Japan Studios has nothing to do with revenue. It's about agenda and shareholders and changing behavior." Has everything to do with Also, I hear Game Pass is taking EBT.

That's such a that is such a dumb insult to Game Pass. People like that's you Game Pass because you're poor. It's like what? First off, here's a tip for people who don't have money but think they know how people who have money live. The people who actually have money, you you don't know it because they don't [ __ ] waste it on stupid [ __ ] That's a B. Is that true enough? Why would I go out and spend 60 70 $50 on games that just come to me every couple of weeks? I don't understand these people. But anyway, what was their actual question was what? Um Oh, Japan Studios had nothing to do with revenue. It's about agendas and shareholders and changing behavior. I don't know. Like, listen. After the Insomniac leak showed how much all of the games sell, I want you to look at me straight in the [ __ ] face and tell me that had nothing to do with that, please.

Rob the Butcher says, "Howdy, boys. With the Xbox winding down hardware and the PS potentially delayed, what is Nintendo and Valve's role in the industry the next few years as we near 2030? Thank you for your donation. I think everyone's at the whim of the same economic forces and wins for components.

You know, uh, console gaming is in a really un if you're a if you're a um if you're a console manufacturer or a console platform holder, you're actually getting like a a weird second wind because of component pricing in a way that gaming entry will always be more expensive on PC than it will be on console. And even if all costs go up, you're still the cheapest point to get in.

Well, streaming is the cheapest point, right? That's true. But a lot of people are not doing that. No, but you should um um but that is a good point. You really should. By the way, if you're watching this and it's never occurred to you, uh do a test before you invest anything uh in and see what you would get on a television with a Fire Stick streaming game pass or a television that can get Nvidia uh uh GeForce Now on it. You'll spend 19 bucks a month and you will get the absolute best quality graphics on the market. You will never have to upgrade. You won't own anything. Um but I don't give a [ __ ] about that. Um, but if you are close to a data center and you have good internet, you won't even notice unless you're playing competitive combat esports. But XO or whatever it's called. Yeah. But I mean, I played the what was the uh Journey to the West game? Very combat heavy game. I played all of that streaming. Yeah. Ramming speed. Again, what you have to understand is he says streaming sucks. And this is this is this is the problem. It sucks for you and I respect that. It's not for everybody yet. Not everybody lives close enough to a data center and not everybody has great w uh uh internet, but if you do, you could find yourself saving a lot of money and having a great time. That's all I'll say.

Fair enough. The Remington James with a very nice $100 write in says, "Fellas, with Phil out at Xbox and leadership shifting, I'm unsure about the future. Been with Xbox since 2002. Amassed a 182,000 gamer score, which is huge. And my library is there. Should I stay optimistic or jump platforms? Love the brand but hate the direction. Weekly show, please. Thank you. Thank you for writing in. Um, and for your very kind uh donation. This is tough cuz it seems like the writing's on the wall. You I I would be I I know. Well, listen. I'll just tell you what I've discussed with my own wife who, you know, really is an Xbox gamer. She just doesn't play on Xbox almost anymore at all anymore because it's like it's tough to want to invest in the platform that you really don't know. It seems like it's on a timeline now and buying games there and all the rest, especially because she's a physical collector and all the rest. What do you think about this idea? I've floated this in the past, Jaffy. This would require Sony to be much cooler than they've ever been in the past. And I don't know exactly how there would be technical hurdles and you could probably manipulate it pretty badly. I don't know.

Mhm. It would be cool if they were like, "We will replicate your trophies from your like you you have like a there's a module on playstation.com. You have some sort of permission from your Xbox account. You upload it and it mirrors it and it says like for all games that are on PSN that are also on Xbox." So, obviously we won't be able to do all of it. It's like we'll bring your trophies over or something like that or like do something to

That's great. That's you know, do something to convince someone to come over cuz it's tough to walk away from that [ __ ] You'll never be able to do anything about that with with game your game catalog. That's why the PC game like the Xbox game anywhere thing or whatever the hell it's called, play anywhere, it's like that's a non-starter mostly because it's like, well, why would you ever do that if you were a publisher unless you're being paid to do it. Um, so no one's going to say like, oh, you own your game on Xbox, we'll just give it to you on PlayStation. That's never going to be a pro. That's never going to happen. But you could do something about even saves and I don't know like I just feel like there's something to be done there and it would be very aggressive and interesting but it it's probably technically not possible.

I mean I like that idea. I do think it is possible to do the trophy thing especially if it's a parody you know um with you know the trophies on Xbox and the achievement or trophies be you know achievements on Xbox. Um, again for me though, you know, I forget which executive said we don't believe in generations. That may have been Xbox. Um, but was that an Xbox? That was the we don't believe in generations. Wasn't no I guess Jim Ryan was we believe in generations and then and then Right. Right. So for me, I will say and again I I understand not everybody drinks from the same well and that's fine. Um, but once I really made Steam uh or the PC my main place I play and I'm still playing on console. I was playing it this week with Yotay. Um, and I plan on getting a a Steam box. Um, but once I started making PC my main place, you you don't really see Generations anymore. Everything just works, right? And my my experience was playing uh Dead Space 2, which I had never played when it came out. And it was on Steam for like five bucks and I bought it and you know, it holds up to this day. It was one of the most fun shoot uh fun survival horror shooter games I've ever played. And I played it like four years ago. And it it wasn't like now if you're a physical media collector where you're like, "Oh, okay. This is for this system." It it just is. It's just a game just like a TV show. I don't have to have a different kind of TV to watch, you know, an episode of a series from 1970. It just just works. And uh I know a lot of people aren't used to that. So it feels very foreign. But I'm telling you, once you go into that ecosystem, you never all this all these all these arbitrary false scarcity uh things that have been put in by design for competitive advantage. You realize just how antiquated that is. It's silly. So

yeah, I don't I agree with you. First of all, everything everything trends towards this agnostic future. Yeah. But I don't I think it's just a the way things are now are a product of the way things had to be back in the day, you know, like you're not gonna put hardware out without cording software and then building your own software and all that. And they just they haven't moved and that's that's a that's a problem.

Yeah. KB MG3RU says, "Why do Sony's live service green lights, Concord, Horizon Hunters, Gummy Bears, and Fair Games all lean on bright neon hyper saturated color palettes? Where are the darker, grittier M-rated bets?"

Well, I mean, Hell Divers is one of them. It's the biggest one they've done. But I agree with you like a lot of it is going towards that pastel flashy. I mean there's obvious reasons for that. Um because people love that [ __ ] But they they are doing darker stuff too. I think Marathon is dystopian. Um Gummy Bears we haven't seen though, right? There has art from it. I mean it's obvious that's what it's going to be based on this concept art. But um but a lot of it's I I assume the horizon thing is cost, right? I mean maybe. He know cuz you're right because we talked about this last week because they had the assets assuming they could translate. Yeah, they could. Right. It's it's being built in Decima. I think like it all would have it would have been so easy for them to have done that. Maybe they want to make it run on PS4, PS5, and low-end PCs just to spread the the chances of more people playing.

That's a good point is that like the stylized look is often less intensive and you can make it look really sharp. Um, fewer textures and Yeah.

Commander Sheepard and Seven wrote in said, "Jaffy, who's hotter, Tulsi Gabbard or AOC?" AOC.

Interesting. But they're both attractive, you know. Yeah, I think AOC is losing it a little bit to be honest. I think Tulsi's always kind of look the same. The hair's got that rogue. Yeah, that the tail. It's very Yeah, it's rogue. Exactly. It's very cool. Yeah, she looks like an She looks like an enemy lieutenant in like a RP JRPG or something, you know? She does. Yeah. No, I I I think AOC. What do you think?

Um, I'll go TLC. I think. Yeah. All right. So, we can double date.

Sure. San Juan Grand Prix wrote in and said, "Hey, Jaffy, I told my fiance that I don't watch adult content videos online, but this is obviously a lie since I watch multiple times a week. Should I come clean and tell her the truth?"

I mean, I I don't care. Um, but I mean, here's what I would say. Uh, I'm less concerned about you telling her the truth or not, and more concerned about you. This is his fiance. Uh, let's see. Sorry, I scroll down. Yeah, fiance. being heading into a marriage with someone that you can't trust to let them know what you're into, let alone sharing it with them as something that you both enjoy together. So, if you're serious about this, I would say you have some conversations to have before you get married. Not because you've done a bad bad thing, but because you want to be with someone that you're sexually compatible with. And if you're watching porn of, you know, uh, I don't know, uh, little people porn that's focused on feet fetishes and diaper play, you want to make sure that she's at least going to be okay with that, let alone maybe she's into that, right? You don't doesn't sound like you know her all that well. That would be my concern.

Yeah. Yeah. Got to be honest and open. Yeah.

Caffeinated DC wrote in with 200 Imperial credits and says, "SIE plays it safe much like Ubisoft and Microsoft pursuing big conservative profit-driven bets. Would the creative and output choices differ if SIE were controlled from Japan instead? Love from India. Thank you for writing in. Um, this is a common thing. I wonder what you think of this. You have a lot of insight into this. Like do you think that a lot of Sony's change in first party fortune in some way had gone from when they relocated the kind of power center to the US which I think began during the PS4 like the beginning of the PS4 era the late PS3 era

you know look no I I think I I I think the business flows where the money is and end of the day and I think anybody who listens to me knows I have nothing but affection, respect, admiration for Becker, but he was putting out the quirky, strange Japanese things. And I think what ended up happening is when the market changed to the point that gamers were demanding a visual fidelity at a level that got costlier, it became much harder to uh, you know, make those kinds of bets. And I think America did it better uh at that cost. If you look at the Uncharteds, the Infamouses, the uh uh The Last of Us, the God of War remakes, um I just think they understood the more global market what they wanted to spend their money on. So, uh the quirky [ __ ] you know, at the level that it cost to make just wasn't cutting it. So, I don't I don't think that, you know, I don't think going to Japan, I don't think that lesson was lost on them. No,

I I think Scary Crystal says the Sony HQ is in Japan. just because I've seen obviously a lot of people are confused. PlayStation's run out of Sanonteo, California. Um, PlayStation used to have three power centers with like a capital in Tokyo, but California and Europe were the other, you know, and specifically the UK were the two power centers and and Jeffy knows this, he was there. And he was saying it earlier, Europe was extremely powerful during the PS1 and PS2 era because PlayStation did very very well and still does very very well in Europe. Um, so PlayStation's power center was in Japan in during the PS3 era that started to change because I think a lot, as you were saying, a lot of the games started coming from the west >> and that really began in the PS2 era with Insomniac and more, you know, acutely Naughty Dog, which they purchased, >> but also like the the American audience started to become much more important to them and they realized their audience, they were losing to Nintendo at this time and they reentered everything to Sano. um and deemphasize Japan. So there's a presence of thousands of people that work at Sony in Japan and Sony HQ as a company is in Japan. Yeah. But like Sony PlayStation is run out of California and uh it's I don't know that it really mattered. Like you could see how important the American market was because people forget about this. PS4 came out in in the US first. like they they launched it specifically in this market like be because they only had so many console allocations and that was unheard of. The PS2 was launched in Japan first way early and so you could just tell everything was kind of moving over. I think that's been good for the brand. Internationalizing the brand has been good. They just shouldn't lose their Japanese heritage and I don't think they have in terms of the weird quirky [ __ ] that they do and um if anything they can use a little more of that but the Japan studio days are over.

All right. Soliduff says, "Some of you [ __ ] have a lot of money to burn." Thank you for that.

Bacon Black wrote in and said, "What up, Jens? What's more important for you when you're playing a game? Story, combat, exploration. Thank you for your donation."

Uh, depends. I don't even always play a game to have like fun. I play a game to to satiate a curiosity, to have an experience. I don't think Gone Home was fun. Yeah, it was engaging though. I think the word the the people always accuse me that it's like if it's engaging, I'm in. It can be slow. It can be very little if no action, but if I'm engaged, that's all I care about. But I don't play games for story. I like when it's there. If it doesn't get in the way and if it adds. But I love to read. I love movies. I to me those of not always but more often than not those are better delivery mechanisms for linear storytelling but being in the world if you call that story then I think it depends on the game um like this pirate game I'm playing right now the story is like whatever uh but it's about the the the core loop the systems uh and the exploration so every game has a different reason that it exists and I think you can't really I don't judge games I don't buy games or choose games to play based on that. Like this [ __ ] thing, Denion Attack, which I think is just people are going to adore if you play the demo. Um, there's no exploration in that game. There's no real there is a story, but who gives a [ __ ] Um, that's just a a jolt of adrenaline when you pick up the controller like an old arcade game. So, depends.

pair of shoes wrote in and said, "For the love of God, can we somehow get Last Stand as a whole to funnel many money to the ritual network to get Heroki Too Tokyo to start a campaign against Herman Hol." Um, I love that the ritual network is becoming like a joke.

I don't know what that is. The ritual is it's something to do with um All right, so Bill the Rocket Boy claims that they were being sabotaged during Mind's Eyes development by an outside force. I think in a recent writeup they it was acknowledged that it's some some like social um media thing or some some influencer network called the ritual network and they and the claim was that they gave them like a million dollars or something to like to fame the game >> but the joke end >> but I don't know I have no but the but the joke is and I think it's so interesting by the way because a lot of that was like rumor and innuendo and like you know, leaks and then they acknowledge it in a PR statement they're being like yeah unfortunately we have we feel like we've and basically sabotage from the outside. But basically, Dustin and Chris were doing uh impressions of the Ritual Network as if it was Alex Jones. So, Dustin, you there?

I'm here. Can I put you on the spot for the Ritual Network? Yeah, he's spending a million dollars on the Ritual Network. Putting a million dollars. They're putting fat chicks in games. Million dollars. Girls with pink hair. The ritual network.

Cyanide 1980 wrote in and said, "Dusty, get on." How delusional do you have to be to think that that's the reason your game failed? Have you seen your game, Leslie Benes, whatever the [ __ ] your name is? Are you out of your [ __ ] mind?

Yeah, it's weird, man. Like, that's that's the greatest story about that game is he's no fool. Like, he's not he's the producer of Grand Theft Auto. Yeah. You know, like he he doesn't know what a good game is versus a bad game. Totally. Again, I mean, there are Look, I mean, you're as good as your team and your team is as good as you and ultimately you can be the producer, but if you weren't the guy that was kind of, you know, making the creative calls and now you are, that doesn't mean you can pull that off. or maybe the team couldn't pull off his vision and he didn't you know, when look when I was at Sony the resources I had available to me to fix things when they went wrong was was much different even though I was still being published by Sony than when it's your own company right and so it could have been that just because you have that talent assuming he did I don't know your individual team w wasn't the rockstar guys and you didn't have all that cushion you got from 2K and now you had to make do with what you have and I I was not as successful as it at all uh when I did that.

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting like I I um I don't know Oh, we have the wrong Oh, I I read this one earlier. I'm sorry. That's why I was confused about what we were talking about there. Cyanide. I I didn't go over your thing yet. I'm sorry.

Dusty, get on stream, man. Give the people what they want, bro. He won't do it. It's fine. Yeah, I'm I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Yeah, you are. You are good. Appreciate you.

Vexius wrote in and said, "Hi guys, Colin, since you have been on a Tur Rock binge, it got me wondering, have you by chance played Tur Rock Evolution? In my opinion, it's the best."

I have not played Tur Rock Evolution. I've only ever played two of the N64 Turok games. So, there are four on N64 and then it continued and I never played those. Those The new one doesn't look good. the new one from him from from a saber. I played the demo. It's just it's too it's too servicey co-op. Just let me let me give me a oneplayer game. I don't want to I don't want to play.

It's funny. Turk does have a multiplayer providence. Um like that they made that N64 game Rage Wars which was like totally multiplayer. But as I understand like it's funny, man. It's funny how the way things change like cuz I was I know I was a message board kid and like I remember like the the uh I remember what people were saying about a lot of games at the time and like how that changes over time and I remember Turok being the newer Tur Rocks being looked at as like bootleg because it wasn't Iguana anymore like iguana became a claim Austin or something and then they like went a totally different direction and Turac kind of fell apart. I don't know. Did you ever read the Turac comics? I I you know under duress like if that's all they had it was like that and exom war and it was this company that just published these it was Vantage right I don't remember what they were called but it was just like really that's all you've got you know so

I love that fact dude I guarantee you 99% of people that played Tar had no idea that it was a comic book oh yeah I didn't when I was a kid and I didn't realize it was a comic from the 50s oh I know it was that old. It was originally it ran from the 50s to the early 80s and it was about like a Native American like an actual like bow and arrow, you know, like native and then it was revived by like Vantage, which was kind of like a third like like you know, like an adultish graphic novel thing in the late 80s, early 90s as the Torak we know. Oh, okay. Um, yeah. Which is so so Oh, I'm sorry. I was saying Vanage. Valiant. Valiant comics. Valiant. Yes. Thank you for that. Um, I love that little fact because as a kid like I guarantee none none of us knew that and and when you read about it because I was reading after I beat Rock one recently I was reading about it and I'm like oh like a claim had this whole thing lined up where they're like they bought the comic IP then they started publishing the comic in like the mid90s they had the game in development like they were trying to do this whole cross media thing but it really only became about the game and like when you say Turok no one thinks of anything else but the game.

Yeah. No. No. I mean if you're a hardcore comic guy like me you know what it is but yeah for sure. Hey 14 Oh, I'm sorry. No, no. Yeah, hey 1426 wrote in and said, "Colin is right about Sons of Sparta." That being said, it really is buggy. I lost two hours because it froze. Still like it more than the OG trilogy.

Dude, when I was playing last night, I lost 3% of my play because the game froze and I had saved the game and I went back in. I just like, oh, like, you know, games crash. Like, it's not the end of the world if it happens once in a blue moon. I go back in and and it's like and I'm like, I'm in a different place and I went to the and I'm like, it's I was at 84% and then it went back to 81%. And I was like, I had like the my heart dropped but I was like, I've come so I took the half an hour or whatever because I'm just running around getting collectibles now. It's not the end of the world. I I think I left it at 96% when I put it away at like 5:00 a.m. last night. So I'm going to wrap it up tonight and then I'll pre-order Resident Evil and get that pre-loaded. Um excited for that on Friday. Is it when it comes out? Tuesday. Friday, I think. Resident Evil. It's this Friday. Oh, that's exciting. Okay, cool.

Yeah. Um, so yeah, I'm sure the preload's ready to go on PlayStation. I'll get that going. I do think Sons of Sparta gets better um the more you play it, but I don't I but as I said on the we did a spoiler cast. If people want to go on Patreon and check it out if you're not already over there, you can do it. We did a review discussion on it. It's not in the top 25 Metroid Vania games. Like, you know, it's like it's fine. Like it's fine. It takes a getting used to and it is very long. I will say that if you want like a I do feel like I at first I was like the $30 price point rubs me the wrong way. I don't think it's that egregious, but maybe $24.99 would have been a more appropriate price. But it's a big game by Metroid Vania standards. It's a big game. So check it out if you want, but I really would only recommend it to God of War like dieards or Metroid Vania people. You would probably want to check it out out of curiosity.

Uh, Long Islander 1117 wrote in and said, "Why does Kratos hate pottery so much? He doesn't have any respect for the arts."

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You You think he hates the pottery? I mean, like heart players, he has a particular distaste for I I mean, I think it's obvious why he likes to smash the pots. I mean, it was pure gameplay, right? We just needed stuff to smash and that made sense. And we were sick of seeing crates in games, so it's like, yeah, pots will do. And they sound fun to break. Yeah. We we we did the uh the Castlevania Candle flame thing. Yeah. You need something to [ __ ] up.

Yeah. Epic Geyser wrote in and said, "Collin, did you get up at the ass crack of dawn yesterday morning to watch that historic hockey game?"

I didn't. When I saw that it started at 8 in the morning, 5 your time, Jaffy, I was like, "Absolutely not." Uh that's the Canada America thing. Yeah, it was a I I did when I I woke up to pee around 10 maybe or something or 11 because the game was over by then and I looked and I I did I was like, "Oh, we won." And then I went back to bed. Um what a crushing series of defeats for Canada. Both of their team, our women's team is very good, but our men's team really shouldn't have won. Canada's team is better on paper for sure, but uh we'll take it.

Why am I seeing a bunch of skaters doing more of the fun [ __ ] That's not for competition, right? But they just do it cuz like I saw two of the skaters that were they have they were like Mortal Kombat. They were doing like a Mortal Kombat. Oh, there's like I think it there's like speed there's um ice dancing and like it's not just like traditional figure skating or anything like that anymore. So they're still in competition even though it's goofy like that. Yeah. Because it's like subjectively scored.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh Downside Wave wrote in and said for Dustin's diaper fund and not for the baby, if you know what I mean. Oh, got him. Dustin, thank you. 100 bucks he'll wear a diaper next episode on screen. 500 bucks, he'll take a [ __ ] in it. Come on now. Another thousand. He'll ship it to you, too. Take that, Bel Deline.

Patrick Bakey says, "The way Jaffy brings out the fun and chaos in the whole LSM team is so fun. This is the best content. Pack a bowl and have a laugh with. Thank you. I'm enjoying it, too.

You're goddamn right. Um, and we'll have you back in the coming weeks. No doubt. Um, and again, I appreciate your flexibility because again, we agree to do it next week. Dude, I People ask me, it's like, why did you go back to do the Keemstar stuff, too? I would much rather not have to have my own company. I hate it. I'd rather just travel around and and just be on people's shows.

It's It's a lot It's a totally different job. It's got nothing to do with what we're doing right now, right? It's its own headache. So, it's a lot. I I love it. I'm glad people like it. I'm sympathetic.

Uh Carlos Enrique Sierra wrote in with 150 Imperial credits and says, "Collin, using the picture of the Japanese soldier on lunatics declaring PlayStation's downfall because Xbox has a new president has been the highlight of my week. Hope you are well, gentlemen."

That's I was telling Michael like that's my memes are are take a penny leave a penny trays and we're always taking pennies right and every once in a while I want to leave a penny and me putting the little

vocal box. Below that, that Japanese soldier that was in the Philippines until the 70s. Whenever someone says something like, uh, very ridiculous, it's, uh, that's my contribution. So, I'm glad that you enjoyed that. I've used it twice recently. I'm going to put it away for a little while now. But you're very free to use it on your own, and I encourage you to do it. Very high-level history meme.

>> Colin, is Micah recording on summon sign?

>> Yeah. Am I? Oh, I'm degrading. Yeah, we

>> Yeah, sorry. Why don't you come back on screen and I'll go off screen?

>> Because we're just reading these now.

>> You would go off screen.

>> Yeah. So I don't look like [ __ ] and then I can just be. You know what I mean? By the way, I had Micah was I Micah was originally supposed to go at one and I asked them to delay three hours so that this wouldn't happen.

>> Oh, I mean, you're still serviceable. I don't

>> Okay. Yeah. Well, it's interesting because it was working for. She went on 10 or 15 minutes ago.

>> So, it was working for a minute.

>> It's been a little weird, weird for a little bit, but okay.

>> I just haven't said anything. But

>> You're fine. It's just, uh, you know, you're going to see people in chat be like, "Chan looks bad." I mean, I do look bad. I look bad even if in 4K.

Tffy YJ wrote in and said, "Is there a way to pitch games to studios? I have a few dope game ideas, but I'm 45 and I'm not learning coding and crap to make them, but I know they'd hit." I don't think people. Is it true? Like, I know most creatives wouldn't want to even hear from you by not because they're not going to use your game, but because like, by principle, they don't want any of your ideas. They don't want any crossover, like any

>> Well, there's the legal dangers.

>> Right? Like they don't like they. I've seen creatives encourage people like, do not send us anything. Do not pitch anything. Do not

>> But, but beyond that, when you're talking about the creatives, they don't want them. They have their own ideas. They work for years to get into a position where they can make their games. And if you really do think your game idea, and again, I'm not one of these guys like ideas are cheap. They're not. Great commercial ideas are valuable. You know, you'll you'll find someone who who will listen. But it's not a standard where you can set up a pitch at all the studios and go pitch an idea. Uh, you know, uh, if you have nothing else to show for it, and even then it's hard to get the funding. Uh, if it's a small enough game, you could vibe code it and just see if it's fun, build it as a prototype, but it's not really a thing. It's never been a thing. So

>> Yeah, leave the, uh, I would leave the game making to the game makers. And I don't even consider myself a game maker. Nothing would happen with me. Like, I'm I just put little stories and characters and things. Like, I leave it all up to the people that really know it.

Toy wrote.

>> If you're into it, you should try. You don't have to learn to code anymore. Get a subscription to Google Gemini or Claude and try to make some games just by vibe coding. See if you like it. You may hate it.

>> Well, the AI is making the game then. But yeah, fair enough. Well, you're making it in the way a designer makes it, right? You're typing in documents involved.

Toy department, my friend Kenny Copnick wrote in said, "Howdy, fellas. Love to see these streams happening. I'm here for the Jaffening. Loved the toy talk earlier. What was Jaffy's favorite toy when he was a young lad?"

>> Oh, so many. But I guess it. Well, okay. When I was really young, it was the Super. Well, it was the Mego superheroes. Uh, and it was the superhero line that predated Superpowers, which I think were just called Superheroes. But when I was like 10 and up, it was my 12-inch Boba Fett from Empire Strikes Back when it was like that big. Yeah, I love the [ __ ] out of that [ __ ] thing.

>> Yeah, the 12-inch dolls were cool. They they brought those back in the mid-90s, some of them. And I had

>> I had Vader and I think I had Boba Fett, but I had

>> Boba Fett was the best. That was that was awesome.

>> Yeah, Boba Boba Fett was the dude. Um, oops, I lost where I was here in fan funding. Um, by the way, uh, since you wrote in, Kenny, um, everyone should go support your store in Ohio if they're in the area. Um, he's a great toy dealer and a wonderful man. Is it? Is it Am I? Yeah, right. I think it is.

Parth 44 wrote in and said, "Does Sony give too much power to writers? I love God of War Ragnarok, but how did play testing not find the Ironwood section too long? I know Jaffy has echoed something similar."

>> It's my understanding they do. When I was there, you know, uh, I took play testing very serious. Uh, I'm not saying they didn't. Maybe the play testers [ __ ] loved it. I couldn't tell you. Um, but it was expressed to me by somebody who would know. And Colin, if you ever remember, ask me, I'll tell you who it was off camera.

>> Okay. Um, that there was some turn somewhere where that became everything to them and that ruled a lot of departments in terms of choices being made and that was an that was a section I brought up to this person and said how the [ __ ] did you guys leave that in there? Why didn't you just. And I I came up with a couple of ways they could have fixed it and they said, um, uh, uh, they said, well, the story, they said it meant more to the story and they're ruled by the story. Um, and by the way, in the chat, this guy Law says, "Jaffy took play test seriously. That's when we got the Hades section in God of War I." That was. I'm not even [ __ ] with you. That is the section we did not test. It was towards the end of the game. We tested the [ __ ] out of it and we thought by that point, uh, we had it covered. We knew what worked and what didn't, and we just were out of time. So, we said, "Fuck it. We're good." Uh, but that if trust me, that would not have been in there if I would have seen, uh, what it ended up being.

Fire Rock wrote in said, "Bluepoint could have remade Infamous, Uncharted, The Last of Us. God of War. How could they believe they wouldn't make any profit? Doesn't compute to me." Again, I don't think that they thought that they wouldn't make any profit. I don't think the profit was sufficient and everyone's chasing this this golden idea of having their game as a service. But when you really think about it through the lens, like I said earlier, of Naughty Dog's, you know, cancellation of um of Factions, you think about this and you're like, it doesn't it makes even less sense. Like, what are you doing? What are you doing? Tell me if this was a good idea or a stupid idea.

>> Yeah.

>> So, you go to Bluepoint and you say, and I I don't know what the narrative would be. So, it would either be cheeky and intentionally silly because the idea is fundamentally silly, or it would be done right, like more serious, but it would be some narrative that sees a character going through remakes of lots of PlayStation games, right? So, but it would tie together in an overall art story. So they would remake the first two levels of Jumping Flash and then that would spin into, uh, a section of Wild Arms and that would spin into, you know, a section of Bushido Blade or what whatever, right? Um, so you'd almost get like a sampler, uh, but it would be presented as a singular story. It's that's an interesting idea. Like almost like a WarioWare style thing, but with like a more linear.

>> But not retro, not but it would still be the actual gameplay, you know, obviously updated.

>> Right. Right. Right.

>> You know, uh, from

>> Yeah, that's an interesting idea. I like that idea.

Uh, let's see. Titans one fan 93 wrote in and said, "Trade offer: Halo IP and Matt Booty for Herman Hulst's Horizon IP. Hulst, I don't know why you keep calling him. You called him Brody twice."

>> Hulst Brody can't be fired.

>> I called him Brody. No, no, no, no. He's saying the guy here in the write-up said he's calling him Brody instead of, uh

>> Okay.

>> Um, and I think he means Booty. Hip and Matt Brody. Yeah, I think I think that's what you mean. No, I don't want to get. Why would we want to get Horizon? Don't throw the the baby out with the bathwater. Each of those games still sold exceptionally well.

Caffeinated DC wrote in with 200 Imperial credits and says, "This might be a hot take, but I personally feel many Sony first-party games feel written and played similarly. Is there a variety problem? In my opinion, we need more diverse art styles, narratives, and gameplay." Sony definitely is a captive to the Naughty Dog style game. I think when they realized they had a hit with Uncharted, probably specifically, and maybe even The Last of Us made it worse, worse, they, um, they're all chasing that that filmic, serious, adult thing. And it's cool. I appreciate that, but a little more variety could could work. And I actually don't even think it's the approach of the games as much as it's about the graphics and the the art styles and going into things that are more stylized. And I I would like to see more of that. They're a cap. They're captive to their own their own chase of realism. I mean, I think they would tell you that themselves.

>> Yeah.

Trish Wonderland wrote in and said, "Collin, did you did did you like my Sacred Symbols tattoo I got?" Uh, I don't know what you're what you're talking about. And Jaffy, Twisted Metal means so much to me. You guys have no idea. Thank you.

>> Oh, I know some people have a Twist or I'm sorry, a Sacred Symbols tattoo. So, if you're one of those people, thank you. But yeah, must mean something to you that people connect with your old work still. It does. Yeah. Uh, the older I get, the more I really like hearing that. It makes me happy. And it makes me happy that the stuff we did, you know, is is somehow connected in their brain to good times. And I love that. That's cool.

TRC Media wrote in and said, "Jaffy, is it true that you were the writer on a Three Ninjas tie-in video game? What was all involved in doing a licensed game back in the early 90s? Did the IP owner have any involvement at all? You did work on that game, didn't you?"

>> Yeah, but I was a tester and assistant producer on Three Ninjas Kickback and I barely did anything. I took a meeting with the producers. Uh, I had a meeting with SAG actually because the we were originally talking about the backgrounds kind of like how Mortal Kombat digitized the actors. I wanted to digitize the backgrounds, um, and have more of like a a photoreal version of Japan and stuff and places they were fighting and there were going to be actors in it and I'm like, "Oh, do we have to get, you know, because it's a SAG movie, but I I didn't do too much on it. I certainly didn't write it." Um

>> Okay, cool.

>> Yeah.

>> Awesome.

Tatum 1976 wrote in and said, "Congrats to Lily Mo for the release date news of Saint Slayer, Spear of Sacrilege. A million copies easily, Colin. We need a damn physical million copies. [ __ ] myself."

>> Um, we are going to do a physical version of the game, but it's not going to come anytime soon. We we we simply aren't. It's not possible. Like, we would have to go gold and then immediately get the discs printed and that like it's like there's a bunch of channels that you can't take advantage of if you're small and self-published independent game. It's just not possible. So, I would imagine we'll have a physical version out later in the year. And I wouldn't hang around for it because I don't know that for sure. I don't know like what the what the we're going to we'll have East Asia Soft co-publish it with us and they they use all of their contracts and stuff like that and I don't know I don't know what that's going to look like but yeah it's in it's in the cards. It's $10 digitally. I hope you guys don't wait around. I hope you would support it.

Uh, walking talk Stephen Hawkins wrote in and said, "My timeline might be off, but was acquiring Bluepoint another crying Jim move? Uh, definitely was under Jim. Yeah. Um, but again, things don't happen in a vacuum. And I would I would hope Jim Ryan would consult with people that played video games before he, uh, made any moves like that."

Fire 277 wrote in said, "I wanted to say Media Molecule doesn't seem to be closed. The current creative director is from the LBB community and a few others, too. I believe it's possible they could be cooking something special." I don't think anyone's saying that they're going to be closed. I think that they're a legitimate operation to eye as with a with a suspicious view considering other Dreams was a complete failure. I mean, I know people

>> Yeah, I wish

>> Some people like it or whatever. I mean, it was a complete bomb. Absolute bomb.

>> Um, and, uh, Tearaway was cool, but that was made by like 15 people inside. That was like a spin-off project.

>> I'm telling you.

>> And it was also on the Vita, which didn't set the house on fire.

>> Right. Exactly. And they ported it to the PS4 and no one cared about that. It's like LittleBigPlanet 2 was their last game. That was January 2011. It's crazy.

>> How big is the Media Molecule team right now? Do you know?

>> Uh, probably less than 100, I would say. Let me see if I can find out.

>> Uh, Media Molecule, they've always been small.

>> Yeah, somebody in this

>> Oh, 135. They're bigger than they they were. I'm sorry.

>> 135. Yeah, the stuff they see on Dreams is still as impressive. Yeah, the Crash Bandicoot somebody just put on Dreams is amazing. But again, the issue wasn't whoever was minding the store at the time, they really [ __ ] themselves because they could have Roblox at this point. Grown-ups.

>> Yeah. They didn't. No one's disputing Dreams as a toolset.

>> Yeah.

>> It's a useless idea if you don't have any way to to propagate products out of it. Otherwise, who gives a [ __ ]

>> Like, I don't understand like what people don't get about that. Like, you they should have just they should have been eyeballing constantly if Dreams ever became what it was where it's like and they should have been materially saying it in the beginning like before even the beta where it's like the whole idea is for you guys to dump time, energy into cool things that we're going to put on the PSN, you know

>> And PC or whatever. We'll we'll monetize like we want. It's a it's a hunting. It's a ground like it's a it's a fertile ground for you to to poach things from. That's what's [ __ ] up about Dreams. It's not the. I like it was like a half-complete idea.

>> It's like, yeah, a really cool toolset. Oh, you can you like export anything off of it? No. Oh, can you play it on on PC? No. Oh, can you like. It's like, can I build something cool and maybe use it and build into a different engine or have some sort? No.

>> Can I keyboard and control without the stupid Move controllers? No.

>> Yeah. Right. It's it's again this is that I just I don't understand who minds the store on these decisions. It's like what the [ __ ] are you people thinking?

>> Um

>> Stupid idea.

>> Yeah.

>> I can't believe they've survived all this time. Um, but you know, I don't want anyone to lose their jobs. That's fine. I just I look at it, I'm like, it's a little strange.

The Assassin AK says, "We definitely need Sacred Symbols across Duke again. We are working on that and will have news for you too soon. That will be a Sacred Symbols plus episode, probably in the coming weeks."

>> Awesome.

Tatum said

>> For this next one, I I need to go to the bathroom. Putting my camera on so you can see when I come back.

>> Okay.

>> I'll be back.

>> Okay. Uh, awesome.

Tatum wrote in and said, "Jaffy, the old man killing it as usual." Question: "Why can't we get a Scott Roadie? Why can't Scott? Why can't we get Scott Roadie promoted? I'm sorry. Is he just comfortable where he's at? Seems he might have a better head on his shoulders. He seems like he's down with just staying in the trenches. I imagine maybe he is. He good at the political game? I don't really know any of that kind of."

>> Great. I mean, well, I mean, again, maybe he's not so great if he wanted more than he's got, but he's always been very good at it in terms of, uh, everybody loves him, very effective, uh, very in the know. But yeah, it may be at that level, he just doesn't want to be there. I don't I don't know that.

>> There's a lot of people who just don't want the headache, but

>> He does seem. Maybe we're just as PlayStation fans, like especially hardcore PlayStation fans, are overexposed to to him because we know him and he's been this he's been this steady force in first party and and it is weird he kind of just stays as things move around him. And yeah, it's like, yeah, maybe it's your time, dude. You know, um, certainly I trust his instinct.

>> I haven't talked to him in a very long time. You've probably talked to him more recently than I have. So

>> Not in years.

>> Yeah, I I know he used to listen to, uh, a lot of your stuff. So maybe he's listen.

>> Oh, yeah, definitely. He definitely did.

>> We it's funny how we met. Like, I always knew him and like, I've met him in different contexts, but like we didn't really talk deeply until 2013.

>> Okay.

>> Um, and it was because you might remember, um, IGN published. I was there at the time. I was ahead of the PlayStation PlayStation side. So it was a big deal for me. Was like someone wrote an article about how The Last Guardian was canceled. I don't know if you remember this, and which was not true. And he like dragged the story on. Like I promoted it or whatever. Like I didn't write it or whatever. And then he like tweeted back and was like, "This is complete, you know, nonsense or whatever." And everyone kind of connected me with the story, even though I didn't write it. I just trusted that it was true because someone else wrote it. And we ended up having a like a behind-the-scenes conversation that year at E3 where he kind of I had kind of said like, "I kind of think it's [ __ ] up that you dragged me like that. I didn't write the story, you know." Um, and I had like a meeting with PR at that time at like a a rooftop bar at a hotel. It was like really weird [ __ ] right?

>> Because the story was so catastrophically wrong and they were like really mad.

>> Um, and, uh, yeah, I can't believe that's I can't believe he wrote that story, but some people probably remember that. But

>> Sucks.

>> But that's how you met him.

>> But yeah, that's how I like more personally familiar with him. And then we would we would DM. And then when I would go to San Diego, because I would I would go there sometimes, I go to San Diego Studio. Um, you know, I would go into his office and see him and hang out with him. And yeah, we would talk. And that's why I told the story about how he asked me about Resistance and like, should he's like, "What do you think? Should we bring Resistance back?" I'll never forget that.

>> And that was years and years and years ago. Like, it's not

>> That was 2000. I was like, kind of funny when we had that conversation.

>> Right.

>> Pokechaw wrote in and said, "Oh, welcome back, by the way, Dustin."

>> Thank you.

>> Are you all right?

>> Oh, yeah. I just, uh, man, I had to pee so bad.

>> Was it? Was it a good stream?

>> A good stream. Solid, uh, good amount of volume. No pain involved. Just nothing but pleasure, honestly.

By the way, Tommy Versetti says in the chat, "Quick, sorry I'm late, but Colin, what would it take for your new game to be on Xbox Play Anywhere?" Money. Uh, Pokeball says, "Sony should focus on making great games, then identifying a games as a service avenue within those games. Focusing on games as a service to start with is creatively bankrupt." I don't agree with that at all. And in fact, that feels to me like the PS3 era of forced multiplayer. You got to identify what your game is. Make it right. Like, you don't want to you don't want to be broad. I guess you could do cool [ __ ] like Ghost of Tsushima did. God of War.

>> Um

>> But none of those were ever. I mean, you know, Legends was great to play, but it wasn't like it was some kind of mega hit that servers are still full and they're, you know, nothing wrong with doing that, but you're not going to make a game service out of that kind of after. It is interesting that it was Tsushima. I s I I would you would have to assume, right? Did well enough to demand it again, right? Which is interesting. Maybe it's a there's a stickiness to it. Keeps people playing. Um

>> Yeah, I don't know what the numbers are. I never hear people talking about it. I played it for a couple days and I never went back. But that's me with most multiplayer games. But I enjoyed it. It was really fun.

All right, let's see. Uh, Lena Molick's North Starfish, again, I don't know what that means, says, "Is the Imagine Dragons video game game game better than Sons of Sparta?" Is there an Imagine Dragons video game?

>> Yeah, I was telling you about it. The ones the two guys made and they overproduced it. It's called I think it's called Last Flag is what it's called.

>> Right. Right. Right. Oh. Oh, I was thinking of of like

>> No, no, it's not with the the Yeah. No, two guys in the band or I don't know. I don't know if there's leader of the band or

>> That's gonna be Chris Meltdown if he

>> But, uh, I think it's a better game. Um, again, though, if you're talking pure nuts and bolts, I don't think Ghost of Sparta is a bad game. U, I think there's some fundamental game design or testing problems with it, but I don't think it's very interesting. I I think The Last Flag game is at least interesting. Uh, but it goes on too long, but it's good. Give it a try.

Petro wrote in and said, "Wasn't Bluepoint the studio that their acquisition leaked in a 'Welcome to the Family' type post? It's almost like they didn't want to claim them." Yeah, I remember that. That was funny. I forgot about that.

>> That that happened. And they were like, "Oh, never mind."

Risen Archive wrote in and said, "R.A.A.M.'s razor point on Booty. Remember, he was the guy who said we can spend Sony out of business. I think he's only there to stabilize the dev pipeline. It's it's important to remember and this is and he did run the Minecraft business and it was incredibly successful, but he, as I understand, you know, they bought that too, they absorbed that. So, he is a good manager, probably. And he pro he does have some skill set."

>> Um, but

>> Sure.

>> I just, uh, yeah, I just when I read that email of his, I mean, that is one of the most clownish things to say. Um, that was their and it and it showed even then that they realized their only chance was money because they didn't have the creative heft to do it. Um, and I just continue to contend that Microsoft's not a creative company. So that that's going to ultimately injure them. Say what you will about Sony, but they've been in the creative business since the late 70s, um, in terms of music and then movies and TV and all and then games was last. They got into games last. So, they are more of an inherently creative IP driven company and they're better able to shepherd IP and development studios, but obviously both of them are not doing very well right now with them.

The Assassin AK wrote in said, "Take Two and Rockstar should pick up some Bluepoint people to remaster GTA 4 and finally get it off PS3." So, insane how it's still locked on PS3. For us, it is. You can play it on Xbox, uh, right now as far as I understand. This must be a thing they're doing.

>> Right? You making it for

>> Just like port. Yeah. Porting GTA 4. They did the trilogy. It was great. They had to fix it. They ended up buying the team that fixed it. So, that's good. Um, and GTA 4 must be in next. Like, I just

>> Similar with what Red Dead 2 isn't hasn't been remastered, has it?

>> No, but that's that's less weird because it's at least available on the current gen consoles, right? Like

>> Red Dead 1 was the weird one, but they did end up doing that and they also had to fix that afterwards as well. But GTA 4 is excellent. Like I I think that if it's too bad because if you weren't there, you really don't know. It sold a lot of copies, but it's not it's not this ever-present game like, uh, San Andreas is or Three or Vice City, and certainly not Five. So, it's kind of a bummer because it really is great. It's probably. I never beat Five, so I don't want to speak too out of school, but like story driven wise, like not so in other words, not like the mechanics of the world and all the silly things, but just the story and the characters were like the best in the series. I would have loved to see them bring it back. They don't need Bluepoint to do that.

75 CAM wrote in and said, "Bluepoint was closed because all the first party studios wouldn't let them remake their games. Sony cornered Bluepoint and only option was to close them." There might be some truth to the fact that like they pitched games that simply were off the table for them. Like if they went and were like, "We want to redo Jack and Daxter or we want to do Infamous," and the companies were like, "No, we might do that in the future." That's shitty management. And I agree with you. Like, why would you even want to do that?

>> Like you're Sucker Punch. You want to work on an Infamous remaster? What are you [ __ ] out of your mind? Like you have all the power in the world right now. Go make something new. Uh, so that's disappointing if that was true. But Sony still controls so much IP that there should have been something like Sony has hundreds of game IP that are second party games that they just own from others. Like wouldn't it be like and again, you don't want to get too crazy with it, but I think about it's like, what about like a Heavenly Sword remake or something? Trying to revive this old thing or just do something. Pull from some The Getaway or something weird. I was saying even it would be interesting and weird to do like re something really obscure where people wouldn't even necessarily know. I was looking it up.

>> Yeah, like a like Ghost Hunter would have been an interesting like something like that.

>> Yeah.

>> It wouldn't I mean, it wouldn't it might as well have been a new game though. I mean, a remake Ghost.

>> Right? Of course. But my my point is is that like Yeah, they might have been beholden to this the first party behemoth studios to not work on their games, but that's a fraction of the games that were available to them.

>> Yeah. And it is also I guess it's it's it's you win and you lose by it. This idea of, you know, it's the story I always tell when Sony Santa Monica was like, "We don't want you guys to do a Move version of of God of War because the graphics aren't as good on the Move games." And I was just like,

>> "Tough [ __ ] do it. You'll you'll you'll it'll it'll be a cash cow and you'll get the Move into everybody's home."

>> But they give these studios a lot of [ __ ] control over this stuff, which is probably in a lot of ways why they're so good and and so passionate. And at the same time, sometimes you need somebody to put their foot down and say, "Guys, I hear you, but that's a dumb decision. We're going to [ __ ] do that." Um, you know, so I don't know, but I'm I'm looking at the list of first party just to see what we might be missing. But yeah, uh, I if anything pops, I'll I'll shout it out. But

>> Yeah, I mean, there's a lot. I mean, I I always bring up Colony Wars for some reason because I think that would be a really interesting thing to like a space horror kind of or like space politics kind of thing. Like there's But again, you you make the good point like some of the [ __ ] is so obscure that like you should just do it like new IP.

>> Yeah. Yeah. That's

>> But that might be the problem with Killzone as well. I haven't really considered that like Guerrilla would presumably be like, "No, no one can do anything with Killzone."

>> Um, and Insomniac with Resistance and so who knows?

>> Kath Blasto.

>> Blasto. They can use they can do Phil Hartman AI voice.

>> That's right. That's right.

Kubs wrote in and said, "Third-person over-the-shoulder Candy Crush and emotional journey of surviving the crush is what Sony should would make from playing mobile games." Yeah, probably. It would probably be awesome, too.

>> Would you play that, Dustin?

>> Sure.

>> Why not?

Matt Sanders wrote in and said, "Microsoft couldn't let PlayStation have the worst gaming news of last week." I was thinking the same exact thing, but then I But if if The Verge's story is true, it was supposed to be this week and it was leaking. And so they they accelerated everything to be announced Friday because I agreed. I'm like, these [ __ ] can't stop themselves, you know, like it's so crazy. But they they, uh, the timing was just poor because I thought the same thing. In fact, if it was all buttoned up internally where it was really going to be kept secret, I would have gone to them and been like, "We're pushing. Let let them stew in this for a little while and then we'll." But yeah, of course, the announcement came and and The Verge's story, should it be true, and it probably is.

Um, says that they were going to go this week. Let's see.

Caffeinated DC wrote in with 200 Imperial credits and says, "In your guy's eyes, how much does the success of diverse high-quality first-party games matter for Sony in the long run, given PlayStation's mainstream pull? A declining Xbox and Nintendo being in their separate lane. It's important for the future. Just the future of Sony is IP."

>> Well, how do you define diverse? Do you mean diverse genre-wise, or do you mean like, or do you mean like, uh, free-to-play versus single player? Because I think you have to get into service-based. You have to have success there. If that's what you mean by diverse.

>> But if you mean diverse like Ratchet & Clank games and MLB and, you know, I don't again, I I think so much of that business is changing that the idea of the box with the best games. I think games are going to be pretty much everywhere. And it maybe it's the best technical box that's going to win.

>> Or the most affordable box. But the idea of

>> I don't know. Just it seems weird to me that it's it's like we need a platformer and we needed this, we need it's like everybody's making everything at this point.

>> You know?

>> Right?

>> Um, it kind of reminds me of those games where it was like,

>> Uh, when people say, "Oh, Sony needs a shooter, right? A first-person shooter." And I think somebody had said, might have been you. It's like, well, people are already making those better and Sony just puts it on their box, right? It's like, to what end? Uh, you know, only if somebody rises up and comes up with exclusives and it's not going to be Xbox because they pretty much said that in this new CEO statement. It it kind of causes Sony to go, they could just go third party, um, you know, and be fine, I think. Am I wrong on this?

>> No, not necessarily. I I think I that's what I was saying is that I think ultimately the long-term preparation is to just be an IP house and like a creative house because you're not going to control the means of

>> Of consumption anymore. You'll be able to like ultimately there will be no console. Like I just think it's it's got to. Or you'll maybe have local hardware, but it will be more agnostic or something. Like I just it's hard for me to believe that we'll play a PlayStation 7 in the same way we're playing. I would love to be wrong, by the way. Again, you have to think outside yourself. I would love to be wrong. I'd love to have consoles for the rest of my life, but I just don't think that's realistic. And I think Sony realizes this. And Sony realized this many decades ago because that's why they started buying music catalogs. They bought film rights. They bought entire. They bought Columbia Pictures. They bought CBS Music. They own the rights to like, don't they own Michael Jackson's catalog of music? Like they own

>> They own like all sorts of [ __ ] And I think they're going to ultimately get into the same vein with video games.

>> So would you want consoles to stick around? That to me that's like wanting a TV that can only see certain shows.

>> Um

>> Well, I I like console gaming. Like I like the experience of it. So I I guess ultimately what I'm saying is that there could be this idea of an agnostic box, but I have no. I'm sitting here on my PC now and I don't want to play a game right now.

>> Like you're talking. You're not you're talking about the console

>> Physical thing plugged into your television set is what you're talking about.

>> Right. Exactly. Like, and I don't think that that will. I wouldn't mind if it was a PlayStation in the future. I that's fine with me. I mean, like we said, PS5 is going to prove PS6's demand. It's about hitting that demand and the timing of that demand, just because PS5 will outsell PS4.

>> I think ultimately when when everything's counted in the years to come, but they they're going to rely on IP and and production of things that they will control. This is why I keep telling people that in the short to midterm, it's awesome that they're making an enormous enormous amounts of money on games as a service from others, but that's risky business, dude. What they really want is to first of all, there are examples of massive games that will never be on PlayStation, right? Like League of Legends. Their their own, uh, MMO for Horizon is not going to be on PlayStation. There they obviously have a vision for something that's wider than that. They bought a whole mobile studio that never made anything, but they have a vision for off-platform. No.

Loom Doom wrote in and said, "Collin and Jaffy, I am relatively new to LSM or a new LSM fan. So, I am curious, how did you two meet and become acquainted?"

>> Um, when I was at IGN,

>> I I assume the first time our paths crossed was Twisted Metal.

>> 2001, right?

>> And I went and played it. I met you for the first time in person um during the production of that game. Who wouldn't remember, but

>> I remember you came to San Diego.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I came and I played the game with you and the QA team.

>> Yeah, I remember that. I That was the first time we met. Yeah, I totally remember that. Yeah.

>> Yeah. And I remember you asking me if I had any weed.

>> Oh.

>> Yeah.

>> Did you?

>> No.

>> But even at that time, I was a secret smoker. Like I I was I didn't want. There came a time where I was like, whatever. I didn't care anymore. But I wanted to be like responsible and like not get in trouble and not be a bad impression for children or anything like that. And then Right.

>> So, but no, I didn't. I I remember that real well. And then, yeah, you and I, um, you and I became friendly from there. And then, yeah, we I think we became friends like during the this era, the Last Stand.

>> Yeah. Yeah. I remember, uh, when I came to LA once to do one of your fireside chats, I think it was right.

>> Yeah.

>> That was Yeah, that was fun.

>> It's Muddy's house or apartment or something.

>> Yeah, it was, uh, Yeah, my my place in Santa Monica.

>> Oh, that was your place? I know it was your place. That was a friend's. Okay. Um,

Petro it says, "After Bluepoint, what is the next worst Sony studio loss?" I mean, there's a lot of

>> The worst. What does that mean? The worst

>> Like the worst like the worst loss in terms of like the teams that were shut down.

>> Um,

>> Oh.

>> That have already been shut down.

>> Yeah. So, you know, he's talking about like Big, Big and Zipper and

>> I see. Cambridge and all. I think there's only a couple that. Well, there's a few that like Liverpool definitely had like, you know, Syprosis had a massive history and that's probably the biggest deal. Japan Studio kind of exists still.

>> Um,

>> Who did Driveclub?

>> Evolution?

>> Driveclub seems like that was a a big hit.

>> Yeah, Motorstorm was pretty big too from them. But, uh,

>> I mean, again, they're struggling. Arcade racers struggle. There's this new one coming out. Have you seen this one? Is it called Screamer or it's kind of the anime

>> Racer, uh, coming out, uh, uh, in April that

>> People have been going hands-on and saying it's one of the best arcade racers ever.

>> Yeah, March 26. Oh, Milestone's making it. They make a lot of like they make that those Ride games and Moto GP and stuff. So,

>> Okay. Yeah, I I watched the preview of it and, uh, it's mechanically interesting. So,

>> Uh, looks pretty cool. Well, no one named Jaffy Studios because Jaffy Studios were never bought by, uh, Sony. Trust me, I tried. The only reason I did it, otherwise I would have stayed at Santa Monica. Are you kidding me?

>> Yeah. Yeah. You You saw. It's smart to try to make that play. I mean, it I'm It's funny like I remember they bought Big. They bought Big at the same time, I think, that they bought Evol or Evolution and Guerrilla, like all in the same timeframe. Big Big ended up just being kind of a fart in the wind ultimately. It's interesting how they like they made for people that don't know, they made the Pursuit Force games on PSP.

>> Cool. But you know

>> Yeah, they were cool. Um, they were supposed to be like a handheld specialist and they did. It was funny. I was talking about Little Deviants with Shu. Well, Shu was on the show once and he was and he was talking about how like people trick you into like thinking that there's like more to a piece of hardware or like the functionality of it than you thought. And I couldn't help but wonder if he was thinking of Big Big with Little Deviants because that thing just used the Vita and like it was the only thing that used the Vita as if it was made for it.

>> Yeah.

>> And it's like, yeah, these guys probably convinced him this was the way to go with the [ __ ] back touchpad and the gyroscope and all this kind of [ __ ]

>> God, and they wanted you to always use that [ __ ] and it's like, come on, man.

>> Um, dude, the, uh

>> I'm pretty sure God of War, Sons of Sparta makes you blow into the microphone at one point.

>> Oh, I did that first. [ __ ] them.

>> Um, and I was like, that's weird. Uh, I will say this. I I remember I remember asking Shu about this, which was about Zipper, and I'm like, knowing what you know now about what's important in game development, Zipper would be a pretty big studio for you guys to have if you left them alone, because they were the only ones making online games, and they were making online games really early.

>> Yeah. And big ones, too. What was the one they did that was like the 64 versus

>> Oh, MAG.

>> MAG. I mean, you know,

>> Action game.

>> Yeah. I mean, it was a first it was a first shot into that, but I mean, you know, you got to start somewhere, you know. So, yeah. I what did you say to that?

>> Yeah, he he kind of I think agreed because we were we were talking greater, like he admits that like we were talking about Killzone and Resistance and his whole thing was like, we kind of stopped making them because Call of Duty and Battlefield were it's like, why bother? And I'm like, that was kind of a mistake, wasn't it? And it's I think he under it's like, yeah, that was kind of. I don't think he said in all those words, but I think he acknowledged like, yeah, it probably was a mistake for us to abandon

>> The first-person shooter. Yeah, I think that might have been a, uh, or third person. And they still to this day have. I mean, Shadow Fall is the last

>> Killzone. Yeah.

>> Well, that's the last shooter that they've released. That's 13 years ago.

>> Yeah.

>> Um, they haven't released one since.

>> Well, some of that though, like I said before, and speaking of Scott Roadie, it was always understood that Scott liked third person. And since most the games were coming from America, if you wanted an edge to getting a green light,

>> You would make it third person. I mean, it sucks how that worked, but you know, that was that was sort of the news on the wind is, hey, Rodie likes third person. Doesn't like first person.

>> So, make it third person if you can get away with it. So,

Argonaut Rises wrote in and said, "Do you guys think they'll keep the Xbox brand or move it to Microsoft Gaming?" I don't the Xbox I struggle with the Xbox brand just because like does it really matter? Xbox, everyone knows what Xbox is and yet it doesn't sound right if it's not a box. Like what is Xbox if it's a service? It's just weird. Microsoft Gaming does sound more

>> More reasonable.

>> M, you know, Microsoft Gaming vertical.

>> Yeah. Or whatever.

>> Yeah. Um, I mean, the funny thing is is Xbox is, you know, I I know it has fans and it has loyal people. It's just I Xbox came around at a time when I was already fully entrenched in Sony. I was an adult, so I don't have the nostalgia play of Xbox. And it it always strikes me as so funny when I meet people that really are all in on that brand that I'm just left going, why? And I I get Halo, but short of Halo, it's like I'm not joking when I say like, you know, Blinx the Time Cat or Crimson Skies. What is it you thought was so. And I'm not saying they're wrong. I'm just saying it's it is it is interesting. I'm always surprised when I meet people that really have

A nostalgia affin affinity for the Xbox brand, because I don't, I can't name on one hand their their products that I think were really, you know, zeitgeisty. It's like Halo, Forza, uh, help, what else? Gears. I mean, Gears, but that wasn't, uh, Gears. A Gears. I mean, Gears was going to come to PlayStation before they locked it down. So, right. Somebody says Fable. I don't think Fable. Cable. Uh, I don't think. I mean, I like, uh, the second tier of Xbox games. I I think some of those exist too, but, uh, yeah, but they're not. But at the top, I think Gears, like this guy's saying, Bioshock. Frenzy. Yeah, that's right. One versus 100. Bioshock and Mass Effect were Xbox exclusives. Were they? Think of those.

But they're they're not. They were. Well, that's what's so funny, Jeffy. When Phil Spencer started bitching like, "Well, they spend money to keep games off our platform." I'm like, you did that all the time. Mass Effect one didn't come to PS3 for five years. Bioshock. Bioshock did. Mass Effect one came to PS3 after Mass Effect 2 and three. Right? Uh, Bioshock 1 was a year late on PS3, though the PS3 edition had the Bioshock 2 TE's at the end of it, which was cool. So, there was like something special in there. Um.

Yeah. Well, some people, some people are talking about, yeah, those timed exclusives, and I think with history, those no longer feel exclusive to me. So I don't lump them in there. But sure, if you were coming up and the only place you got to play those, uh, like, you know, some of the Skyrim or or KOTOR or whatever. Someone says Brute Force was that the three-player, four-player one's like a dinosaur and one's like a girl. Oh man, terrible.

I can actually see like the key art in my head. I can too, walking down E3 the hallway. They really pushed that one year, and I was like, "This better be good." I'm like, "This is terrible." But anyway.

Let's see. Uh, Titans fan wrote in and said, "Here, how here's how we stop the live service. Stop any kid who plays them. Best bet, my nephew won't play Roblox." MJ said, "Fuck them kids." Um, nothing's going to stop this train, my friend. It's the new social experience. Yeah. And again, as we were saying earlier, if you guys weren't here, it's like, uh, there are more people playing Roblox concurrently than there are on the PSN at any given time. Like, by a significant margin. It's Oh, yeah. That's a. And again, we were making fun of it because I'm like, they still have, they still don't make any money, but they'll figure it out one day. They have a captive audience. Again, I'm offended by, uh, by Roblox for one reason. It it looks like [ __ ] ass. That's like that's my the one thing that I'm offended by. It looks like a bootleg Lego game. And I can't, I cannot, I cannot believe it.

It's getting better. But yeah, it it just it just goes to show you though, and Nintendo's got this right, too. Although Nintendo does it with a lot more charm, is it's the gameplay, man. It's it's it's the interactive experience that you can get all the other stuff from other mediums better. Um, but I can play, you know, if you're a kid, I can play with my friends and we can shoot the [ __ ] and have this really cool digital playground with all these cool pop culture references. That's that's I can't get that anywhere else. I can get that in Roblox or Fortnite, whatever.

It's just so crazy. Like they they're shedding something like three or four million a day. Like what is what is go monetize your [ __ ] better. Like what is going on with this? Or admit that it's not. Listen, Roblox doesn't work if you can't make money on it. You can keep doing this and dumping more and more and more and more and more money and be all impressed with it. But if you can't turn a profit on it, what's the purpose of this?

I assume do they? I don't know if they do ads. I I don't know if like every 30 minutes you get an ad. I don't [ __ ] know. You'd think they'd be trying stuff. I'm sure they are. Um, but that said though, like in the chat, uh, Red Shinobi, uh, Red X Shinobi says, "Roblox is in big trouble right now. Not financially. I mean, yes, they're losing money, but I mean, that's kind of, you know, so was Netflix for the longest time." Um, you know, they'll I agree. They'll figure it out. Now, if you're talking about the kitty porn stuff, yeah, there's a there's a there's a real challenge there for sure.

Yeah, it seems like they're being more aggressive. I mean, they have to be infinitely aggressive if they want to keep, you know, the powers that be. The gaming industry has benefited a great deal in the United States, especially from the industry understanding what they need to do to keep the government out. And they need, and the ESRB is a product of that. A lot of this [ __ ] is a product of that. And so the threat of government interference in the industry should be enough to make sure. And people, and by the way, if Roblox doesn't sort their [ __ ] out and they're the scapegoat for it for the government suddenly getting involved, that's going to be a problem for them.

Um, but is Roblox American? I didn't think they were an American company. No, no, they're not. I'm saying in the United States, like the way you they have to be, you know, they do most of their business here. I would, well, not most, I would say, uh, if you fraction up the biggest piece of the pie is here. No doubt. There's no doubt about that.

Um, Jose a Taco. Oh, wait, wait, wait. I'm way off here. Jesus Christ. After BPT. Oh, Petro says, "This BP stuff happening after one of the best State of Plays in a long time is such a gut punch for PlayStation fans. One step forward, two steps back." I mean, I still think the State of Play was great. And the Bluepoint closure is a bummer, but things are looking good. I think things are looking.

It seems like they're they're hitting some sort of stride, I think, with some. Yeah. Imagine if they hit with all those games, the the first party games. It's going to be a great year. If if you only, I can't even imagine that anymore though. That again, I'm not saying that like, oh, aren't you an elite [ __ ] you, Jaffy. But the idea of only having one place to play. But yeah, if you're really into your PlayStation, yeah, it was a great State of Play. Absolutely.

Yeah, I thought it was awesome. It was maybe the best one this generation or the best presentation this generation. John Lisa 418 wrote in and said, "Bob Iger was brought back to write the ship. Bringing Yoshy back is a no-brainer in a comparable situation. His eye for content is spectacular." It is. It is good.

But I kind of left again. He didn't do so great the second time, but. No, he didn't. And I I think that Shuhei is the first to admit that he didn't want to even be, he knew where this was all going and he didn't want to be a part of it. So, it's hard for me unless they went to him and really capitulated with Amia Copa and were like, "You're right. Like, we need to do more things more the way you did it." But, and he does have a good eye, but he'll admit he missed, you know, on things too. Everybody, everybody misses. I missed Driver. They showed me Driver and I said, "Don't. We're not publishing that. Don't do that."

I mean, I wasn't the final decision, but I was certainly in. You probably had a big influence on him. I probably did, but I'm like, "Why?" I I was like, "I don't I said the guy chasing me, he's in the rearview mirror, and I I want to be the guy chasing the guy. I don't want to be the guy being chased." Oh, good point, Jeffy. Good point, Jeffy. It's like, oopsie. Sorry.

Marcus Henkins wrote in and said, "Do you honestly think that Xbox would ever go back on their multiplatform initiative or is that copium from crazy Xbox fanboys?" That's impossible for me to imagine. Like putting, I think they've done so much. Their brand is so damaged. Like there's no, there is no Xbox to go back to. I don't understand. There's no. Well, I don't want to say there's no future. There's a very unlikely chance that Xbox is like, "We're going to make a piece of hardware and people are really, really going to take to it." Like that is that is just there's no way. I just don't, I don't believe that. So, I don't think they're going back on it.

Ken Pocky or Ken Pachchi wrote in and said, "Why would Xbox pass on Sarah Bond and give Asia the position? And why wouldn't Microsoft give Phil till after anniversary if Greg if what Greg said was true?" I have to read more about this. I really don't know. If Sarah Bond wasn't well-liked, that's a pretty important piece of the information that I'm sure is well known within the company. If that's true and you don't want to promote someone like that, but also if her direction, if she really is the one that was like, "Help shepherd them, direct their their more agnostic play anywhere kind of [ __ ] that was very unpopular with Xbox fans and that was probably both a necessary move and really undercut their ability to, you know, remain relevant." But I mean, yeah, but but you know what's funny is even if they hadn't done that, um, Sony, I get because PlayStation, when it's firing on all cylinders, is is the, if not one of the top money makers for them. But Xbox has always been a a little small thing for these guys. So to me, the idea that, okay, so you're going to get rid of Phil and Sarah, okay, and then you're going to bring somebody in who in best case will bring you back to the glory days of the 360 when the money you guys were making at a Microsoft level still wasn't really doing much for a company as big as Microsoft. So, it's hard to imagine that she's just going to come back and and do the same old [ __ ] because even when they were ruling the roost, it was a barely a drop in the ocean for those guys. Why would they just shut it down at that point? I mean, why, why keep investing in this? Uh, so I don't, I think it's, I think it is copium that they're going to go back to the old ways. There's no way.

They're not. I mean, there just there's just no way. Yeah. There's no way. I don't know like why they would do that, especially now that they know for sure, right? There's no mystery behind how good it's going to be for them when Halo comes out on PlayStation. Uh, Forza. Was revived now. Yeah. Yeah. It's like huge. I mean, it didn't need PlayStation to be big, but it's bigger than it ever now. So, they're not they're not going to go back.

Straight shot says, "Koei Tecmo remaking Ninja Gaiden 2 with a UEIE5 container or Virtuous Games remaking Oblivion alongside Metal Gear Solid 3 with the same method. Was Bluepoint stick made obsolete by UE5?" That's an interesting question. I don't know enough to to know that. It seems like UE5 is definitely, you know, Unreal Engine 5 is definitely this uh this catchall industry consuming engine um with a great deal of tools and middleware and all sorts of things compatible with it and a big company that's investing in it. So, it's going to be very attractive and it could be that yeah, they don't they're not really needed anymore. But Sony's open to letting its company, you know, Bend made um Days Gone on UE4. It's not like they're not open to using an outside engine, which they would, as you know, would have been unheard of years ago. But.

And for people that don't understand, like they don't want to license engines. That's a big piece of the pie. You know, it's money you don't have to spend if you. And that's why Desim is so valuable. But anyway, Jose Ataka, we finally got back to you said, "Huh, should have been in charge of PlayStation in my opinion." Again, I just don't think he wanted to be in charge of what PlayStation was going to become. I think he made fun of it on one of our shows like saying like, you know, we I knew it was going to become about like TV shows and like movies and and it is hard to imagine Shuhei being into that. It is.

I you know, he whenever you see him now and even when he was on my show, um, he was he seems much more happy and relaxed, but and I know he's doing something with games, but I I hope he finds a place like Devolver to run or something where because I think he would be really [ __ ] good at that and I think he probably would enjoy it. You know.

I think it would be, you know. I'm not going to say it, but. Let's just say there are some companies putting out games right now. I'm like, oh, Shu would not release those games that we were talking about earlier. He should be in that chair um that we were talking about with some of the horror stuff. But, and I got nothing against the guy. I'm just kind of like, not Shu, but this [ __ ] it, Zach Wood. I like Zach Wood, but you put Shu in that, he's going to give you some weird [ __ ] horror games, you know, because he's gonna [ __ ] find them and give you some weird [ __ ] like Tecmo's Deception and stuff. That's that's what you need for that for Blumhouse horror, not this milk toast [ __ ] they've been putting out.

Zack Wood catching strays. I like Zach Wood. I just think he's put out three bad games and that's no bueno.

Kleos wrote in and said, "Even with failed pitch projects, why not just port Demon's Souls to PC? That would surely sell a couple million copies and keep them afloat till the next thing. Makes no sense." I don't know why Demon's Souls never migrated over to PC. It It is conspicuous. I I'd um I don't know. Maybe it also has something to do with From. I don't think so. Their games are on PC.

Mr. Gun or Mr. GN1212 says, "What do we think of the status of status of Bloodborne is now?" I don't think the status of Bloodborne has changed. No. I think Bloodborne, there must be something in the contracts that From has to have first writer refusal on the game. Like there just it must be. There's just no [ __ ] way that there's anything else involved. Like they they know. So I don't think anything's changed. And I I think they can get From to do it. They just have to throw a lot of money at them. And uh I don't know. I don't think it's going to get any cheaper. So.

Bryant Michael wrote in and said, "In her statement, she said, 'Cloud, PC, mobile, and console the same as PlayStation. Why couldn't Xbox go back to exclusives?'" Well, we just we just touched on that. There was this whole idea that like there was going to be a flood of PlayStation games coming to Xbox. And I think that people realize now that that's not and was never true, right? I mean, I still expect there marathons coming to Xbox and there could be more in the future, but it's not going both ways.

Death Metal in your face says, "Studios seeking acquisition should negotiate clauses guaranteeing resale instead of closure if the parent company decides to cut them loose." I don't think most would. First of all, if your studios about if you're like if you built a studio like Bluepoint and Sony comes in and says like, "We're going to give you $50 million," right? Like you're not going to negotiate anything like like that is like your dream come true. There are some people in that position that would be great and some teams do get out.

Um, yeah. I was, sorry, go ahead. No, no. I was going to say that I mean the the only real important thing to negotiate maybe is if you do get shut down, it doesn't come with like a a clause that you can't compete for x number of months or years because if Bluepoint wants to stick together or at least the key people, I don't think even though it's a very hard time to raise money in the industry right now, I don't think they would have a problem finding someone to fund something from those guys. Um, they're too talented. So I don't think you need that. I think you need just to make sure they don't give you a non-compete if they close you.

I I think perhaps again, their closure doesn't happen till March, but they might be really being quiet too because there are people sniffing around and and they are one of the teams that that are viable that they could find a home. Um, and I hope that they do. I hope that they do.

Vitterverse wrote in and said, "Blackley," so Sheamus Blackley said, "Xbox will be sunsetted under new CEO, original co-founder expects, quote, 'Her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night.'" End quote. This is according to Games Radar.

Yeah, I I think that that that's what I was saying about you don't change direction. Like the the direction is set. You have to have a new shepherd. And so what are you doing with that? What's her name? Osma or Asha? Yeah. I mean, she seems like a mercenary. Like she's worked. What are you doing with that pillow? Asha, nothing. They're there. Xbox. She's a mercenary. Like, which is cool. That's that's fine in business. She's worked at a bunch of different places. She never sticks around. This seems like to be another place where she'll be for a few years and then she'll go.

Yeah. Ken Pi said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead." No, I I I was just responding in the chat. Somebody says she's terrible for Xbox. I I don't think we know that yet. I I I How would you even know that, you know? I mean, it's it's it's terrible for Xbox if you think they're going to do anything different.

Yeah, I don't think Xbox Publishing or whatever they call it is going anywhere. They are the biggest publisher in the world or one of the biggest publishers in the world. But yeah, I I think you're right about the u you know, the hardware stuff as as as you know it. Sure.

Death Shoot wrote in and said, "Sadly, consoles are forks. Whole genres of games come and go before they even debut on console. Look at friends slop. A kid who wants to play with friends is pressured to get a PC, not a console." I don't disagree with this, but I'll reiterate that PCs are going to become more out of out of um the grasp of normal people. Like if if the did you read that piece where some people say like it won't this won't be corrected for 10 years? Like where the short or the cost? Yeah. The various component shortages and all the rest and the the inability to spool up new factories and all the rest. Like PC gaming is always going to be appetizing to for people with money, but if everything gets more expensive, the PC gets more expensive and the console gets more expensive and the console is still cheaper.

So, the console will never be more expensive than the than the PC. No, no, no. I think that's true. But I do agree with you whether you're But the kids will probably at that point go to mobile. They don't care. They will [ __ ] play their shooters on this [ __ ] thing. Don't ask me how they do it.

Yeah. Oh, your fingers all over the [ __ ] screen and shit's weird. Why? Again, I want my somebody make a phone with a controller like the old Sony Xperia and I'll be happy as [ __ ]. But so far, nothing.

Colin, you missed the uh last super chat, too, by the way. Oh, I did. Uh, Ken Pachchi. Oh, Ken Pachchi says, "Also, thank you for what you said at the top of the show and you guys reading our super chats. I think it sucks that other shows don't just happen just happened to me recently. Yeah, I don't I know people do. I'm not familiar with what you're saying, but you hear it a lot. I I stream. I watch streamers. I would never in my wildest dreams like why are you super chatting then? To what end? Why not just type a comment?

Yeah. I don't I don't get it either. Otherwise, it's like what's the point? And I think it gives us look at all the interesting things that people give us to talk about, too.

Um, one last Spartan wrote in and said, "If the new CEO of Xbox was smart, they would buy Bluepoint and remake Conker's Bad Fur Day. Bringing back I'm Han Solo is the play. Trust me, bro. 67420. Thank you for writing in. Or 67. It's not 67. 67, apparently. I'm glad I don't have a child right now because I probably would have killed the child if I had to hear that over and over and over and over and over again."

Yeah. No, you'd love it. You'd love that they're developing their sense of humor. You'd love that they're plugged into the zeitgeist. You'd love that, you know, it's it's fun to watch them, you know, because you probably did the same [ __ ] right? You had your little memes of your generation. Um, it's kind of joyous to see them finding that stuff.

By the way, I saw Dustin and I have been talking about this um about viewer count and like numbers and how people stream. And one last Spartan in the chat says if you have 30,000 viewers, you can't this speaking about can't read your super chats. I totally agree. It's probably much more difficult in there, but we're stream we streamed for 2500 today. We're down to about 2,000 now that we're reading super chats, which is totally fine. That puts us in like the 0.00001% 00001% of of game of streaming like there are you can figure it out if you're streaming to a few thousand people and if you're streaming to a few thousand people like we are that's not very common. So I think people need to figure out like so yeah I understand if you're streaming like if you're.

Yeah. But if you're streaming to 30 if Yeah. Or if you're burnt peanut and you're streaming to a 100,000 people, I get it. But at that point, why would you spend money on a super chat then? Right. Exactly. Maybe because you want the chat to see it. Okay, that's fair. But that would be the only reason. I wouldn't have an expectation then. I wouldn't just wouldn't spend any money, but sure.

Braden Roswell wrote in and said, "What's your method to trophy hunting and not spoiling the game for yourself or when it comes to choices that don't fit in your head cannon? I feel like I need a little direction. Any tips would be great. Keep up the great work." It depends on the game. The first thing I look for with a game is like, are there missable trophies? And if there aren't, then I don't really look at anything else. You don't need to. And most games don't have missable trophies that I play. Um, if there are missable trophies, then you know, you have to kind of get a little deeper into it. But a lot of these guides are pretty mindful of spoilers. Um, whether using PSM profiles or Power Picks or something like that. So, but I always do the research. Are.

Missables hidden trophies? No, missable trophies are like you can go too far in a game or make a choice or something where you can't get that trophy and you have to play it again. That's like the bane of every. With hidden trophies, I find them incredibly annoying. Like if it's I I don't always look at them. Again, if I see a game has no missable trophies, I don't look at anything, you know, but you can just use the the toggle to to get trophies. Um, like to show all the trophies.

Oh, it'll tell you what they are. Okay. Because you used to have to it used to not be able to look no matter what and you'd have to go on like PSN profiles or something to see the trophy because they would just have it exposed. Um, but, uh, yeah, and then there are some games where you have to manage things a little bit more. One of the things I love like Kronos is a great example where it had a new game plus, so I didn't worry about anything because I was like, "Oh, I'll just worry about everything in the game."

Kronos from Blubber Team. Yeah. Right. Did you finish that game? I platinumed it. Yeah, I beat it twice. Oh, I got I love that game and I. But I got to the part with that I think I'm close to the end where she's like, "Uh, our flock that boss whatever it was and you know." In the church, like in. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not that I didn't know how to do it, but I I I was going back and forth between playing it with keyboard and controller because I just couldn't move my hands fast enough to do what I needed to do in those sections and I've never gotten past the goddamn thing. Is that close to the end though? I think it is. Right.

Yeah. No, it's very close to the end because yeah, that's like the last spot and then you go kind of like to the endgame. Yeah. It sucks. I I need to go back and try again. That game is so good, dude. Like that game is so underrated and underplayed. It's a shame. Like it they they sold half a million copies. That's pretty good. But and they're Polish. It's cheap to make. But.

That game deserves. That was one of my favorite games of last year. I mean, it was self-published, too. So they, you know, they made a nice amount of. Money, you know. Yeah. I hope they do a sequel. It You know what I loved about it was that it because they're obviously like a a walking sim studio at heart. And it was the first time I ever played a game that truly melded walking simulating simulation with like survival horror or action where there really were instead of it being like the mansion in Resident Evil where you're walking around and it's horror and all the rest, there would be like moments where you were just walking into the next space or just exploring and it was like cut out for you. It was really cool. It was a cool idea.

Yeah, I I enjoyed it. Uh, I thought it was u makes me wonder why they're going back now to Layers of Fear 3 versus doing a sequel to that, but. Probably bouncing back and forth, I would assume. Layers of Fear is pretty big. I don't get it personally. I love the first one, hated the second. So. Yeah, I played the first one cuz they sponsored us at kind of funny back in the day. We did like a sponsored video for them for like, okay. It was like a lot. Um, which is why I feel like it's so uh like thinking back, I don't want I don't want money from the industry. All right.

Trent Miller wrote in and said, "How about the name Joash?" Joash. Oh, for Dustin's kid. It's a nice biblical name. And it's also good because he can yell, "Get Joash in here." Dustin. Uh, it's not on the list, but uh, I like the suggestion. Keep the suggestions coming. It's cute that you have a list when I'm I'm going to make the final rendering. This joke, it just keeps getting funnier. I'm going to pull the baby up like this. And I'm going to. Oh, like the Lion King. I love it. I'm going to scream the I'm going to scream the name three times. Name, name, and then everyone's going to say it back three times. It's going to be very exciting. Very exciting.

Hollow Shotgun wrote in and said, "With leadership changes at Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo in recent years, are we past the era of having iconic executives like Reggie, Casey, etc., and are going to just have more ever evolving suits going forward?" I mean, maybe you got to give it time for these things to marinate. Phil Spencer is really the last of that group though. Um, Sony hasn't had anyone like that in a long time since Shuhei left. Really? Yeah. So.

I knew I met people who actually thought Kevin Butler was a real executive. I cannot believe it. That rules. Believe it. Well, I just love the whole story about how he like this. Isn't the scuttlebutt about that that he did a commercial with the Wii. In it? Yeah. And like Sony flipped out. And that was the end of that. I'm like, and it's like, who gives a [ __ ]? Yeah. You know. But people believed it. Maybe maybe they believe maybe they flipped out. It's like, well, you should put it in his [ __ ] contract if they didn't that he couldn't do that. But maybe he just assumed that most people were smart enough to go, "Uh, I'm not really an executive at Sony, guys." But okay.

I loved when they brought him out at E3. I thought that was so awesome. Um, but and what was funny about the Wii thing was it wasn't even a like a Nintendo commercial. It was like a commercial for like tires or something. And. That's right. That's right. And they were but he was playing it or something and they and that was the end of Kevin Butler. I I think you will always have charismatic executives. I just, you know, I I think there there are always going to be them. They just may not be in the same spots. They go to places like I said, studios. You need people with vision. Everybody else is just an empty suit. And I don't know right now if Sony, Sony doesn't really have that in my opinion. I don't think they have anybody. I mean, maybe they've got people internally that we don't know, but I don't see I I couldn't think of anybody at Sony that I'm like, "Oh my god, that person is just driven by his own or her own internal demons and angels and doesn't give a [ __ ] about anything other than making that come true." That's what you need. Everybody else is just an NPC when it comes to this stuff in my opinion. So.

Edward Cormy wrote in and said, "Jaffy, which is the bigger offense? The fact that you can't play as Dark Side in Twisted Metal 3 or that Dark Tooth is unplayable in Twisted Metal 2. Google Gemini says the answer is Dark Tooth. So what? So how dare you, sir?" Okay, so wait, who can you not play in two? You can't play or that Dark Tooth is unplayable in Twisted Metal 2? Dark Side. Dark Tooth is unplayable because where would you put him? He only fits in one level because he's massive. Um, I had nothing to do with Twisted Metal 3, so I'm going to blame that one. Uh, but Dark Tooth is basically Sweet Tooth with a a different colored texture scaled up. I mean, there's no there's no boss design. It's just another car that has like 800 hit points and gets scaled up and we made sure the level could handle him because he's so massive.

Even to the point that he can't chase you into the sewers, so we just have him go to the opening and shoot ricochet bombs into the sewers. There's, you know, we were out of time, man. You know.

Ves Molo wrote in and said, "Have you guys noticed the trend of some people on YouTube calling out the collapse of western of the Western industry and corporations to then push Gacha and Tencent games?" I don't know. I'm not that conspiratorial. The Western industry is in trouble just from a a cost perspective of anything. The AAA console. It's like it's just way. You'd be crazy to start a studio in California right now or Washington State. Um, and Washington's a really, really popular place to go because they have no state income tax. So, it's really easy to attract talent there. But you're competing with South Korean games, Chinese games, Vietnamese games, you know, even games in Easter, Eastern European games. We were talking about Poland, Czech games, Ukrainian games, although not so much anymore. It's like these are just Japanese games. Japanese. I I don't know if we talked about this, but I was I was like, "People don't realize how little they make in Japan." When I think it was Capcom gave like a universal raise to everyone that brought their money up to like the lowest you can get paid now is like $1,100 every two weeks or something. I'm like, "Dude, like you can't compete with this this cost." You can't you can't do it.

So, that's that's the problem. It's not the people here. The Americans make great games. It's that they're so expensive. And as Leaden points out all the time, the audience for them is at best stagnating. Certainly not growing. It's probably shrinking. No, it is. Yeah, it's it it does seem to be shrinking.

Smog 237 wrote in and said, "Sucks they shut down Bluepoint, one of my favorite studios. As a PlayStation gamer, what the [ __ ] Sony, love what you all do, Colin and Jaffy, you guys are the best." Thank you.

Gracias, my dear Smog. Uh, Lubniss wrote in with 70 Imperial credits and says, "Jaffy, what obstacle or challenge did you encounter making games that when you see in a game now you respect the dev for seemingly overcoming?" That's an interesting question. I don't know if you can answer it on the fly, but do you understand it? Well, yeah. I you know, I mean, I I'm sure there's a million things, but what comes to mind is having the ability to consistently solve the various challenges that come up all the time. So, I bring that up because like for example, if you when we made Drawn to Death, Drawn to Death needed somebody on the team that knew how to do shooter design and shooter code. None of us had ever made a a competitive online shooter before, right? Um, God of War needed amazing animators and for a long time we were without them and we had the resources and the tenacity that we just kept banging and banging and banging. uh until we found Corey and Eric and Derek, who were all working at Paradox on Backyard Wrestling. And God knows why we thought they would be great, but coming off those games, but I don't remember the specifics. So, I I I think my answer is it's less about one specific, oh, you always made your platforming great, and more about being tenacious and having the energy to fight brand new battles all the time that stand in the way of the vision of the game being great. And those challenges change constantly and that I think is is just an exhausting proposition. Uh, so when people are able to put something out that's great, let alone something that's great and has a lot of content, you know, that's a game that probably has been through the [ __ ] ringer and people have added years to their life just making it in terms of multiplier than one than than a single year is what I would say. Interesting. Yeah. Oh, you guys can't hear the dog, right? Hopefully not. All right.

Uh, Andrew Betteridge wrote in said, "Can't stop thinking about my beloved Team Canada losing to the States in hockey. Congrats to Team USA. Jeffy, what is your connection to hockey, if any? You a hockey person at all, Jeffy? You have any connection to the sport?" Uh, no. I mean, I know there's that new game under the island where the girl has a hockey stick. Uh, we had the Birmingham Bulls, which was a farm league team in Birmingham. I don't dislike hockey. Like, if somebody said, "Jaffy, do you want to go to a hockey game or a soccer game?" I would go hockey 99% of the time. Oh my god. Of course. Um, I don't dislike it. It's just it was never a sport. Like to me it's always basketball, baseball, and football are the ones that I can watch and we're just sort of baked into the culture. Hockey's big. Um, but it's never for whatever reason it just like I don't even know when the hockey season is. Uh, but yeah, I I do remember this. You probably remember this too. There was an E3 uh that was in LA and it was all happening. It was the last day of E3. The Lakers won the playoffs and the Kings, were they the Kings? Are they? Yeah, the Kings in the finals, right, were like playing the Devils. And it was all the same night and we were all downtown and the whole [ __ ] city was losing their [ __ ]. Uh, it was cool. It was cool. But. Exactly that. Yeah. Yeah. But no. [ __ ] that during a lot of E3s, too. There was like a riot. I remember 2008 or 2009. I was at a Brazilian steakhouse. And uh, it's very it's very memorable. It's like so funny. We were like like sitting along like this tinted window. You can kind of see out of it. We kind of can't. And then like a cop just throws this dude against the window like to arrest him and he's like his face is just smooshed against the window. We're all just kind of eating our steaks. This was in 2009 maybe something like that. Okay. Cool. Um, and it was some Lakers thing, you know. So, all right.

Stuart wrote in and said, "Thank you for the Dalmatian." Thank you for the Dalmatian. So cute. Dalmatians. You know who I'm really really uh I've been watching a lot of the videos of punched the punch the monkey. Oh baby. I know I saw one where somebody AIed a gun, gave him a gun and started shooting people. That was great. Yeah, little baby punch monkey.

K projection says, "Jaffy, I'm excited for AI films. I made a video of people urinating in each other's mouths. My my library screened it. Real film can't match that." Yes, it can. I've seen that in real film. Um, but you know, yeah, I'm excited for them as well.

Andy Cap wrote in and said, "Jaffy, did you play The Messenger?" Great game. It is a great game. I did. I never finished. It got a little too hard for me. There was one something up in the clouds with the boss. I couldn't figure out, but uh I liked it a lot. And then that's the same group that did Shovel Knight and Mina, right? No, no, no, no. That the mess that guy that you're thinking of Cyber Shadow, which was published by them, but The Messenger is other someone else. Different group. Okay.

JRPG Central wrote in and said, "Long time first time here. I was the guy at the 2015 PSX meet and greet PSX meet and greet who had you sign his copy of Chocolate Starfish for the bit. Love everything you all do. Keep the Jaffy streams coming." Very funny. Very funny. I love. He's talking to you because I don't know what the. Yeah, Chocolate Starfish is Olympic record. Okay. Okay. Um, yeah, thank you for that and uh thank you for being here.

Pedro Garcia wrote in and said, "What are some things you enjoy doing on the PS3? I enjoyed editing my music and looking at people's recent trophies on their profile." I enjoyed getting it to stably run so that I can go through menus. I enjoyed syncing my trophies for an hour. That's what I love doing. Dude, you ever go back to the PS3? It's so bad. It's so bad. Shopping experience on the PlayStation. Perfect. It was a joy. It was perfect. It's terrible. Um, I loved that if you had a package file to download a video, a game, you had to have twice as much space as the package file to download it because it would replicate itself and then delete itself afterwards. So, I loved having a second job so I could afford it. And I worked at Sony, but I. Right. Of course. We all sat in that audience. You must have been there, too. I remember me and Shannon were sitting together when uh uh I guess it was Cause and he gave the price and we were all just like, "Are you [ __ ] shit?" I mean, because we worked for Sony, we knew we were [ __ ]. We're like, "We're going out of business. This is the dumbest [ __ ] thing I've ever [ __ ] heard of in my goddamn [ __ ] life." Yeah. As they were as they said since it was like if it wasn't for like TVs and some other [ __ ] they're going on so PlayStation would have tanked Sony at that era, which is interesting.

Um, D JS Dylan Schneider says, "Gerber Meatsticks." Shut up [ __ ]. What is that? Uh, my brother, he he's a very generous supporter and kind fellow over in my stuff. And my brother used to chase me around the house with meat sticks as a kid. The little baby food meat sticks. And they they gross me out to this day. They look like little fat fingers that have been chopped up and put in a little nasty fluid. Gh. Disgusting. Gross. Yeah.

Chat Snooze0ero says, "What percentage of video game development is artistic and what percentage is coding and grunt work? Do bug fixers make a lot of money? I want to patch video games for a living." Jesus Christ. Calm down, sir. A little fast. Um, let's see. Uh, it's all it depends your job, right? I mean, it depends what you're doing. So, if you're a coder, you know, there it's there's creativ there's a lot of creativity in writing code, but you're not sitting there working on level design and uh mechanics that are metaphors for your narrative and stuff like that. But if you're a writer or a designer or a director, then it's a lot of creativity. Um, as for fixing bugs, I mean, everybody fixes bugs. So, it's not like there's a bug fixer job. I'm sure there some studios probably, you know, but towards the end when you're trying to ship it or get to a milestone, every department gets a list of bugs that their department is responsible for fixing. So, uh, you know, it's if I if it's something inherent to the weapon system, that goes to the team that worked on the weapons. If it's, hey, we're getting 50 bugs from the QA team about some of the text uh has grammatical errors, that goes to the designers or writers that go into the text file and change it and upload it again. And so it just really depends uh what the bug is.

Starglade says to Dustin, "Did you see that the new Yokotaro directed Evangelion anime that was announced today? Initial thoughts?" Finally. Something worth talking about on this stream. Geez. Uh yes, I did see that. It's very, very interesting. I'm very I'm skeptical. Uh, just because I don't think we need any more Evangelion, but if you put a gun to my head and asked me who should write the next Evangelion anime, Yokotaro would have been my number one dream pick. So. Oh, interesting. Could be kind of interesting to me. Evangelion is so deeply connected to its creator, Hideaki. So having something that isn't made by him is just a complete unknown. So I I would love for it to be great. There's a high chance it will be, but I just feel a little skeptical.

Lincoln Hawk writes in twice. The first thing he says is, "Have you seen Sheamus Blackley's interview today? Xbox will be sunsetted under the new CEO. Her job is going to slide Xbox gently into the night."

We did see that. We talked about it earlier. You probably hadn't submitted this at that point, so I'm sorry about that.

You also say, "David, apparently Cory's next game, Revealed 2026, will be an Atraus spin-off game in Egypt, according to the latest rumors. What's your opinion on this?"

>> Uh, I like Cory's work. I think he's a better uh writer than I am. I think he's a very good game director. Um, so and I think Santa Monica is fantastic. So, and and as much as I don't like the character of Atreaus, um I do think his move set was kind of interesting in Ragnarok. Um so, um and I love Egypt as a setting. So, I do not like Atraus. I'd like to think Corey is going to make some changes to that character because I don't think many people like Atreaus. Um I I I could be wrong on this, but I don't get the sense that he was received and has been received as like, dude, that motherfucker's badass. you know, most people are like, "Uh, >> yeah." >> So, I think they're gonna have to do some work on him to make him uh a really appealing leading character. But I I I'd love to see Cory get away from God of War. I'm sure maybe he wanted to. It'd be nice to see him try something just from from his just very beginning from his own, like what he could do with a brand new IP because that we haven't seen yet. And I know that he says this will feel like a a new IP and I'm sure it will because it is a new character, but and so I'm excited. I I I love 2018. Thought it was great. Um so yeah, I'm in. But I I'm I would be lying if I said I wasn't bummed that it wasn't something totally brand new. I'd love to see him do something, you know, Sony has no survival horror games as far as I can remember. I'd love to see him go, let's make our Resident Evil or let's make our, you know, whatever. something like Silent Hill. I think he would be great uh uh with that.

>> Talin wrote in said, "Dream should have been multiplatform. Same as Little Bigplet. GT7 not on PC seems odd. >> Are they scared of not selling 16 million PS5s because people would rather play on PC?"

I don't know. Like Little Big Planet I I have no opinion. I mean, that was long before the PC era. Uh Dreams probably should have been multiplatform. just came out too early for that as well. Um, it's all it's like what ifs. I don't know. Dreams. Dreams is just ill-conceived.

Paco Flipper wrote in and said, "Collin, what happened with the Alyssa Mercante Sacred Symbols Plus episode?"

I we haven't heard from her. I don't think so.

>> Oh my god. Have you been watching that trial stuff from the court?

>> No, I haven't I haven't been really been paying attention to it. No.

>> She told me when I tal when I when I was invited her on the show and we went back and forth, she said she couldn't >> speak about that stuff, which is fine with me. I don't really give a [ __ ] Good for her. Well, because apparently uh there's been stuff where he where this Smash guy has said stuff >> uh that the court hasn't liked and they were supposed to uh submit uh documentation for discovery and stuff like this and they keep missing their deadlines apparently and Smash is talking about it on his chat and they're taking or on his streams and they're taking that and putting it into the into the complaint letters and it's like dude shut I mean I hate the guy. I hope he totally loses every I don't want him to lose anything, but I I hope he gets egg on his face for sure.

>> Uh but I'm like, dude, somebody needs to tell you to shut the [ __ ] up.

>> Yeah, it's it's quite easy to just be quiet.

>> Um well, because the court is noticing and they're mentioning it in their when the judge writes notes like,

>> "What the [ __ ] dude? What's what what's happening with you guys? It's crazy. It's crazy."

>> All right. Uh but yeah, what's going on with her? I I invited her. We we went back and forth. I don't know. I'm not going to beg.

Boots 8562 wrote in and said, "What IP gets the next Dual Sense controller limited edition treatment? Saros isn't getting one, right? Um maybe took although people don't really play with controllers, right? So that would be kind of weird. Certainly Wolverine will get one."

>> Oh, Wolverine would be a nice looking one.

>> That would be cool.

Broers wrote in Colin Gatherer Horizon would be all neon and bright yellow and purple and spark.

They probably will do one for that too. I like I like I'm a kid of the 80s. I like all the ne daylow neon [ __ ] But anyway,

>> uh Boot says, "What?"

Oh, no. I'm sorry. Broger says, "Colin, when are you going to finish Alan Wakeake 2?"

I got to finish it at some point. I don't know.

>> Uh Tom H says, "Yo yo yo, love you guys. Love you, too."

Thank you kind for being here. Thank you for your donation. I'm going to

>> date with the loss. No munch.

The the bus boy once said something in Spanish. You can put it on the screen. I'm afraid to say it though because I don't know it. I don't know Spanish. Does it say something horrible?

Probably not, but you got to speak English. I only speak English.

Pedro Garcia says, "I was so mad when GTA 4 had their DLC on Xbox at first. I was so happy when I saw in a magazine that it was going to be released on PS3."

That's another example of so of Microsoft getting the timed exclusives on the all the DLC for that and for Fallout as well. for Fallout 3 back.

>> Uh Chris in the chat popped up. Chris Ray Gun. He said no. Lol

>> To what?

>> To the the Spanish.

>> Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay.

>> It says the door. People are saying the door is open.

>> Oh, my door. Yeah,

>> the door is open.

>> I don't know what it says.

>> My dog walked in and opened the door. Maybe that's what they mean.

A apipai wrote with 179 Imperial credits and says, "Now that Metal Gear Solid 4 is free, I want Dante's Inferno next."

I wonder if EA cares about Dante's Inferno. I don't know if they care.

I've been seeing it all over the timeline lately, but I I was on Xbox uh Game Pass and it left before I finished it. But I [ __ ] loved that [ __ ] game, man. That was great. I'd love to play that again.

Wretch 9478 says, "Blue was never acquired for remasters remakes." They said so in a WPO article in 2021 that they wanted an investment to expand into original content. It's too bad. But if that was the whole deal, I don't know. I just don't know why you would acquire the team to make original content that is the stupidest thing in the world. They they made one original game ever. It was Blast Factor on PS3. Otherwise, they were known for this one thing and they were good at it.

Uh Lube Begga says, "Either of you know of any unannounced Sony first party?"

Um, I have I I know what a couple teams are like doing loosely, but I don't know about the IP or anything like that. Yeah.

>> Um, I I might, but nothing comes to mind. I I probably not, but maybe, but I it would nothing comes to mind.

A >> Addy Pi wrote in again with 179 Imperial credits and says, "Will Fizzant be a weapon a weapon to surpass Metal Gear?"

I think Fizz has the possibility of being very big actually, but I mean, I don't know. They really are gonna start getting into it apparently this year, like really start like actually, you know, doing motion capture and stuff like which which indicates that a lot of it's written. And

I hope it's his apology for Death Stranding one and two. And I don't mean that to be a dick. I'm kind of joking and being inflammatory, but I I thought when he was coming on board with Sony, he was going to make something more commercial. And it sound because this is like about a secret agent or something, right?

>> Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like it's going to be like Metal Gear in some way.

>> Yeah. So that even though I know and again I'm I'm only teasing because I know Death Stranding is is really an interesting really

>> I love Death Stranding personally.

>> Yeah. And what I played I liked but I I do like the idea of Kjima doing something that's more you know with a headsp space towards okay let's make something a bit more accessible and commercial. Uh I think that's exciting. I can't wait.

Oh my god. I have to tell you, by the way.

>> Did you play, Speaking of Konami in Metal Gear, did you play the demo for Darwin's Paradox?

>> Oh, no. I didn't. I think Micah might have played it, but I didn't play it.

>> Did she like it?

I >> know.

>> Oh, it is so so good. It's like Metal Gear with an octopus meets Insider Limbo.

That kind of game. Yeah,

>> it is really fun and the production value is crazy. I don't know who's making it. Uh, it's Konami, but I don't know who's developing it. It's uh, and I don't know if it's on console, but if it is,

>> it it is on it is on console.

>> You should play it. It's really good. If you like those kind of games,

>> Shauny Quest, it doesn't look very cute. I will say that. And I like that Konami is investing. It's like a weird random thing.

It is very weird. And then when you play it and go, they spent money on this. They're This is really well produced and it's

>> good. It came out of that like I don't know if you remember like some years ago Konami was kind of making it known that they were like looking to publish things and this is I think one of the first things that was coming out of that.

>> Uh Shauny Quest says shout out to Phil Spencer. All he needed all he ever needed to do was release a working Halo 3 remaster and this could have all been avoided.

Well that will come eventually. We'll play it on PlayStation. Thank you for writing in.

Lou Beggar wrote in and said so sad on Bluepoint but I wonder if there was a lack of creative vision at Bluepoint. Gavin Moore, Demon Souls and Puppeteer lead wasn't there anymore.

Yeah, I I don't I don't even know the personnel stuff there. Gavin Moore was great.

>> Um,

>> Puppeteer was great then.

>> No, Puppeteer's awesome. Who played that recently that never played? Oh, Brad, I think played it recently. And I was like, "Oh, yeah, dude. Puppeteer is [ __ ] sick."

Glass Door Gamer wrote in and said, "Jaffy, not everyone wants to deal with PC gaming just like some of us take Macs over PCs. You might like Steam, but it's not for everyone."

I don't know what that was in reference to. Well, I mean, I was I was talking about streaming being great, but

you can't really talk I mean, again, I I got to grow up and get over it, but I you can't you can't share opinions with people with some people. It's like I'm not saying I'm going to, you know, run for president and tear up the Constitution and say you everybody has to play games through streaming. Don't do it. I don't give a [ __ ] But when I I'll I'll But but then I inevitably get hit with like, "No, you're going to have latency. it's physically impossible not to have latency. You're just wrong. And I'm like, well, first of all, you're going to have latency even if you're plugged into the machine. Okay? It's a question of do you notice it or not? Um, and the answer is most people don't notice it if you are close to a data center and have good internet. So, if you don't want to [ __ ] stream, don't stream. But the business in general has shown time and time and time again that low barrier of entry and cheap cost is what 99% of the audience wants. And if you can say turn on your TV and hit a button and you're playing a great game, most people don't care about oh, but it's not perfection visual fidelity. Some people do and I respect that, but most people don't give a [ __ ]

Lubega says, "With the new Sony CEO, Herman's tenure almost done."

So, you're talking about um Kenji Tanaka, who's the new CEO of Sony as of last fall. I guess he could be still figuring everything out. I mean, PlayStation is the biggest part of Sony and he might be going hunting soon. I don't know, but I don't I don't get that vibe, and I don't know enough about Sony's corporate structure to really be able to say.

>> Tom Frazz wrote in and said, "Jaffy is my favorite far-left libtard. Can you give me your hottest take that would make my grandparents roll in their graves?" Love you guys. This is great.

I don't know your [ __ ] grandparents. Uh, were they [ __ ] [ __ ] Nazis? What do you What do you need from me, buddy? Uh, okay. That would make them roll in their graves. Uh, probably I would say that uh their generation, a lot of people died for lies and propaganda about the greatness of America. And when the rubber meets the road, uh it's more about the money uh than it is about freedom. And in that, a lot of their contemporaries are probably dead because they went to war under false pretenses. How about that? Does that work enough for you? You smug son of a [ __ ]

Spin user DJ with a bunch of letters and numbers says, "Have you kept up with the marathon marketing? This short film from last year was so compelling. What are the odds we get some kind of single player game from the IP? Unlikely."

That's not what Bungie does. I mean, that would be cool, but I don't think that's going to move the needle or nor is it worth a an investment. You could play Destiny by yourself technically. I guess you could play Marathon by yourself, too. I I would assume. I think it would be probably really difficult.

Joseph Soda wrote in and said, "Exbox anywhere was Sarah Bond's plan. This is an Xbox ad was her idea and offended many internally."

Uh, people internally are relieved that Sarah Bond has gia the verge. Yes, we talked about this already, Joseph. Thank you. appreciate you. Hope you're well.

Future, I lost it. Oh god, where did it go? Future millionaire wrote in and said, "Not to type to glaze anyone, but I have become a big fan of Real Radic. The young man knows his Sony. Glad to see him pop up here and on Spawnwave."

Yeah, he's great.

>> Oh yeah, I know that guy. I don't know him, but I see him online a lot and he comes in streams.

>> He's a He's a good Canadian and he does he knows his he knows his PlayStation. Definitely very impressive.

>> Maybe it's Victor Lucas in Disguise.

>> It could be Victor Lucas in Disguise.

Bench Frog wrote in and said, "Not sure if mentioned, but when will season two of Elden Ring start?"

I don't know. We have to figure out. We have to get everyone together.

>> Did you not fall in love with it?

>> It will happen, Dustin. Stop being like that.

>> I want to talk to you real quickly about that if you don't mind.

>> Yeah, go ahead. Please don't.

>> Okay. So, Elden Ring you played and you didn't like it or you did.

>> I I played it when it came out. I I wasn't good at it and I I was fine. I understood why people like it, but I just was having a hard time with it. So then last year we went back to it on the stream and I started playing it and I got >> got further than I did last time. I want to keep going with it. It's just people have to understand Brad records on Mondays and this would interfere with that. So like I have to record summon sign with him to facilit on Fridays to facilitate him being on the stream. It's not so simple, you know.

>> And what about have you played Bloodborne? Did you play that one?

>> I played Bloodborne. Yeah, I played it. That was the one I played most extensively. So

>> I I love both of those. I think they're great. I think they're [ __ ] great.

>> They're very cool. Very cool. I'm just not very good at them.

>> Yeah.

Jay the Fig says, "Is the PC build still in the works for Colin and will your stream will you stream the build? I had to buy a broken PC just to get affordable RAM and SSD for my build."

Dustin, you and I were talking about this recently that I need you to come here soon and we got to assess what what I'll do for my computer because it still works. I mean, it's it's fine, but I it is six years old, you know,

>> in terms of what you use it for and for streaming. I personally I mean, I haven't used it or evaluated. I personally don't think you need to make any changes to it. Um, it has good RAM. The video card, you're not playing games on it. So, and it has a gaming a nice gaming uh GPU in it. So, I think it's mainly a matter of configuring it for uh streaming purposes while I am away.

Monday Busk wrote in and said, "You don't have to name names, but what is the shadiest dealings you had ever seen at an E3 or similar trade show?"

Jaffy might have better stories than me. Like, I never saw anything shady. I had some often like people would drink way too much >> and do like there are definitely crazy stories that I like that I know like IGN war.

>> Yeah. I mean, but nothing

>> say this is crazy. I'm sorry. Were you finished?

>> Oh, no. I'm I'm good. Thank you. Yeah.

>> Oh, okay. Um but I remembered it and and I can only imagine what women feel like in these cases because you hear it happens to a lot of women. But I was doing press and there was a journalist, I guess you can call him that. I'll tell you his name offline if you want to know Colin. I'm sure you cross >> path.

>> And I never really liked the guy to begin with. I thought he was creepy and [ __ ]

>> Um, and he was doing interviews in his hotel room.

>> Um, which like, okay, I don't really care. Uh, so I went up there and did an interview and I was sitting on the bed and he just came over for the whole interview and just sat right next to me on the bed and I'm like, "Dude, what are you doing?"

>> He didn't do anything after that. I'm just like,

>> "Get the [ __ ] dude. It's a It's a suite."

>> Yeah.

>> Sit in the [ __ ] other I'm right here.

>> Sit in the >> [ __ ] bird. Yeah, exactly.

>> Well said.

>> Yeah. So that but that wasn't so much like crazy so much as it was I'm like okay I can't imagine because you hear about women like Harvey Weinstein or Louis C or whatever come to my hotel room you know I'm a dude I could have taken this guy easy uh if anything went south but I'm just like what the [ __ ] dude it was so weird so weird

>> that's funny yeah the

>> E3 was a was an interesting vibe for sure a lot of hard work

>> yeah I enjoyed It was fun. It was not Adam Cesler. No, you most people don't.

>> Sounds like little Jason Shrier. No, it wasn't anybody you guys would know. You guys

>> doesn't sound like it.

>> I know.

Pig wrote in and said, "Donating just to say thank you for Super Knockback. I'm loving every second of it."

You're very welcome. We We revived Knockback. Uh we published an episode this past weekend for TMNT, the 1990 movie, which is why it's so funny that you brought it up earlier in the episode, Jaffy. Um, and Dan and I u with the help of Lockmore, we've we're doing special video edits now where we're using like footage from the movie and trying to make it like more watchable. So, um, go check it out on Patreon if you'd like.

Hey 1426 says, Colin, most of the best players of fighting games play on controller or hitbox. Joystick is actually becoming less and less popular.

That's interesting. I've never liked playing on the joystick and I was always meant fel felt alienated when I would um, say that. I love playing on a controller. So, that's good to know.

Uh, Lincoln Hawk says, "Kollin and David, Sony opened yet another studio in California with Dark Outlaw. That's eight in total with Visual Arts and SIE HQ. Why not more in Japan?"

More Japanese studios would be good. Dark I don't know that I'd want a Japanese shooter would be cool, but they're looking for a shooter. California is a good place to be. Remember, you need to be where you can recruit talent, especially if you want them to work in person. So, and I don't think any of Sony studios are distributed, so you got to be where the people are, unfortunately.

Daddy T says, "I bet Herman knew Tommy was the sniper."

Glad you got that in there. Thank you.

And finally, I think is this the last one?

This is the last one.

So, it's over. Calling it. Isaac Ransom says, "Longtime listener. Love you all. Jaffy, I know your thoughts on the newer God of War. What are your thoughts on God of War 3?"

I loved it. That was excellent. Uh just one wonderful [ __ ] game. Fantastic.

Cool. All right. All right, we've been gone for a long time, so it's

>> made no [ __ ] sense. But, you know,

>> hope was in the box. Give me a [ __ ] break.

>> Dumb. But short of that, it was great.

>> Hope. Hope.

>> Um, all right. Well, that was fun. I appreciate you today, Jeffy. Thank you for taking the time to be with us.

>> Hell yeah. I love it. You guys know that. Anytime I'm around.

>> Fun. Thank you guys for watching, hanging out with us.

>> Yeah, we'll have you back in the coming weeks. No doubt.

Dustin,

>> um, thank you for being here. Appreciate you. Hope you have a good rest of your day.

>> No problem. I'm in the dark void right now.

>> I just turned my light off because it was so bright and I'm like, "Well, I'm not on camera."

>> Yeah. You don't need it. You don't need it.

>> You ever ask your AI what it does? Like your assistant when you're not talking to it?

>> My AI assistant?

>> Like I'm not going to say the name. A L X A L E X A.

>> Oh, I got rid of those a long time ago.

>> Oh, okay.

>> I have uh the Apple one, but she's really really dumb.

>> Yeah, Sherry's channel. is only good at putting a putting a record on really. And that's about it.

Ne >> next time I'm on, we need to talk about AI assistance, man. I got to show you some cool [ __ ] that's out.

>> Yeah, we'll do we'll do like a we'll do a more non-gaming one maybe next time. That'll be fun.

>> We can have we can have Randy call back.

>> He's in the Discord. Really? I think I really cut that guy.

>> Yeah, we we I don't know. I don't know.

>> I mean, I I'm like, dude, you called into a video game stream asking for advice about your [ __ ] uh marriage. I'm not I don't know you. I'm [ __ ] around. It's entertainment. Don't take it so serious.

>> Yeah, take it easy.

>> And don't call into a [ __ ] video game show ask if you should leave your kids or what do you want from me? Jesus [ __ ] Christ, Rain.

>> I know.

>> Yeah. Take everyone take it easy out there. We appreciate you. We hope you have a great week. Be well. Be safe. Uh enjoy the show if you've missed some of it or you want to watch it later and um here on YouTube and VOD. Come join us on Patreon for early adree access to everything. patreon.com/lastday media. Last media.store for merch. That's it. We'll see you next time. Bye.