Thoughts On The Gaming Industry

0:03 Hello everybody. Welcome back to Plugin for

0:05 Player 4. I'm your host, Mark here with

0:09 Brandon and. Ethan now with 100% more

0:13 deodorized dogs. Yeah, that was so much cleaning.

0:20 It still stinks a little bit. Oh, we're talking about that.

0:23 Yeah, for a minute. I'm like, what?

0:25 We're going to start the episode that way.

0:27 That's how we ended last episode.

0:28 We got to give him an update. Yeah, true.

0:31 Yeah, update everything good. That smells a little bit, but

0:39 we've been able to mostly clean it.

0:41 He's still got two brain cells, so I think we're right about

0:44 where we were. Less time.

0:46 Yeah. Yeah.

0:48 Poor guy. Right in the mouth, too.

0:51 Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, right in the mouth.

0:53 That's the worst. Like imagine like just

0:55 constantly tasting it. Yeah.

0:58 I would die. I would just pass.

1:00 I would get some vinegar and just like.

1:02 Should have mouthwash with the vinegar.

1:05 No, just straight vinegar. Oh God, I thought that would

1:08 make it worse. I don't know.

1:10 Hey. Man, you must like use baking.

1:11 Soda. Well, it's a deodorizer.

1:13 I I have actually had a vinegar. So I'm talking like baking soda

1:17 and a vinegar. You could.

1:19 I mean, your mouth might explode, but Jay, I mean, hey,

1:22 dude. Anything's better than skunk

1:24 spray, OK? I mean, you're, that's you

1:26 goddamn right. Yeah.

1:27 No, I I agree 100%. Well, luckily the weather's

1:36 cooled back down now, so we can actually have windows.

1:39 Open. Oh my God.

1:40 Yeah, it's so it's fucking nice. It's not like we have AC

1:44 anyways, so we were. I'll rephrase that.

1:48 We're gonna have windows open and still not be sweltering

1:50 inside. To quote Phineas and Ferb, it's

1:52 gonna be hot, hot, hot. That's the entire month.

1:58 Yeah, yeah, being August now. Happy August.

2:00 Happy August, boy, it's got to get even hotter for the next

2:04 month. Yeah, just going to Are you

2:11 quoting that thing from Fallout? Yeah.

2:14 Yeah, fucking sheets. I saw Tron drone.

2:20 God, that thing was weird. But to get us back on track,

2:25 what are we talking about? So today we're going to do

2:28 something a little bit different.

2:30 We're going to talk about our thoughts on the gaming industry

2:35 as a whole. This is going to be a little bit

2:39 more of an introspection. Introspection on how we all

2:46 think the industry's going, certain trends and how we feel

2:51 those trends are affecting the industry as a whole.

2:55 It's not gonna be the same sort of structure as our previous

3:00 episodes. This is gonna be much more of a

3:03 a discussion that spam that can go away.

3:08 Spam calls man look. Yeah, but this is gonna be much

3:13 more opinionated. None of this is like none, none.

3:19 None of this is like expert opinions.

3:21 We're just three guys with a podcast here, so don't take any

3:27 of our word as gospel. This is just as general, general

3:32 consumers in the industry. What, how?

3:37 What is our sort of perspective on things and how do we think

3:40 things are going? Especially me, I don't pay

3:43 attention to anything so there could just be pure bullshit

3:46 coming out of my mouth. Yeah, take a heap of salt from

3:48 me. I I pay attention somewhat, but

3:53 I don't, like, dig deep into it. Yeah.

3:56 Because it can get rather depressing if you do that.

3:59 Now. It's good to know what's going

4:00 on, but don't dig deep to the point of like, you're causing

4:03 yourself stress and anxiety from something you can't change.

4:06 Yeah. So just, yeah, just three of us

4:10 talking about what our thoughts are on the state of the gaming

4:14 industry as a whole. Yes.

4:18 So who wants to start this big boa?

4:23 Hi. Why?

4:25 Why everyone looking at me? I guess they'll open the floor.

4:28 What are you guys's general thoughts with?

4:32 I guess the health of the industry will start there.

4:37 The health, I feel like personally, we're on a downward

4:43 slope because there is just an accelerating amount of games

4:49 releasing every year, well, even every month at this point.

4:55 And not only that, but like from the big games down to the small

4:58 games like Let's, let's take. What is that Masamune, the

5:10 pretty Derby game, for example, Like that's, that's one of the

5:13 many live service games that are out there.

5:16 Yes. And there's just so many out

5:20 there that a lot of them fail. And the reason that there's so

5:25 many of them out there is because everyone's like

5:28 basically chasing a golden goose of of money.

5:34 And because there's so many people chasing him, there's only

5:40 so many people that can play these games.

5:42 And only the most like well put together and thought out or even

5:48 kind of in a in a way pretty Derby funny ones can survive.

5:53 I've never played it. I just, you know, I, I know gold

5:56 ship is notorious. If you guys don't know about

5:59 Gold Ship, she's she's funny. It's Umassa Munnet is like a

6:08 little side tangent. Umassa Munnet is about actual

6:12 horses that have done actual Derby races and one of the one

6:18 of the horses is Gold Ship notorious for just not listening

6:24 at all. Like during training during

6:26 actual races. And Gold Ship would would finish

6:32 a lot of races in first. However I think so.

6:37 I think again heap of salt. But after after retirement, Gold

6:44 Ship was running faster lap times than she ever would in

6:52 actual Derby racing, as well as I at one point intentionally

6:57 stopping at the end of the race before the finish line and

7:03 letting other finish first. Dick.

7:07 Oh, wow. OK.

7:09 So, so Golden Ship is based off the actual horse, like her

7:12 personality, like just she doesn't listen to to the

7:15 training in the game either a lot of the times, yeah.

7:19 That's funny. But I mean outside of that, like

7:24 you have wooldering waves, you have Zenila Zone 0, you have

7:29 pretty much any Honka impact game just about.

7:36 Yeah. I think it's Honka or is that

7:39 the that's the creator or is it or is Honka Impact the game

7:43 series 'cause I know there's like Honka Impact the third,

7:46 which is like the most popular that that I know of.

7:49 But there's there's just so many live service games out there

7:51 that you can only dedicate. Yeah, that you can only dedicate

7:57 so much time, right. When you when you introduced us

8:01 to this thought point before the episode started, I actually

8:06 wanted to point out, yeah, this seems more like it's.

8:10 I'm not really sure that it's the life service part that's the

8:14 problem. It's the fact that you have all

8:17 the larger companies going after trends instead of taking.

8:25 That's the word trends, yeah, Yeah.

8:27 Yeah, all all of these larger producers are just trend chasing

8:30 now instead of trying to be innovative.

8:34 Cause like before, before this, before live service, there was

8:41 battle Royale like around like around 10 years ago, which was

8:45 you know, like 2016 or whatever, everyone was doing battle

8:49 royales. Well, even now it's.

8:51 Not even my ServiceNow. A lot of a lot of companies are

8:55 pushing more towards trying to make their own extraction

8:59 shooters or extraction. Yeah, it's moving over to that.

9:02 But even then, it's still, it's, it's all about those like daily

9:05 logins and everything. Like they want to see the player

9:07 count daily and monthly and whatever.

9:11 But also off my own point of going back 10 years, let's go

9:15 back 20 years. What was the most popular thing

9:17 then? First person shooters, yeah.

9:19 First person shooters with Halo and Call of Duty.

9:22 Halo, Call of Duty, I mean kind kind of Gears of War that's

9:25 third person, but still like just yeah, these shooters in

9:29 general, yes. I mean there was also like the

9:32 hero shooter point but. Yeah, with 2016.

9:36 Yeah, that was like a kind of a sidestep.

9:38 Yeah, yes. But again, a a lot of what we're

9:44 seeing in the gaming industry over the past couple of decades

9:47 has been nothing short of just trend.

9:50 Trend chasing. Just trend chasing and it's

9:53 starting to get to a point where you know there's not a lot to

9:58 really look forward to with upcoming titles.

10:02 Unfortunately. Personally, This is why I like

10:06 to focus on my indie games. Same here.

10:10 That's literally all. Slash indie studios.

10:13 Now I know indie studios can turn AAA just depending on how,

10:17 but you know, besides the point, just you know, This is why I

10:20 focus on indie games because like a lot of a lot of that AAA

10:26 and or popular games, whatever, however you want to phrase it or

10:30 just kind of copy and paste, it's what makes the money.

10:33 Yeah, Yep, indie games, yes, they can make money.

10:37 They can also flop. Yeah.

10:39 But it's the innovation that there used to be in AAA games.

10:47 Yeah, there used to be. That sucks that that's not

10:50 really a thing. Now it's all just same shit.

10:54 Yeah, every year. It's.

10:57 Especially, especially after the pandemic, it's been on a much

11:03 more wretched slope of just bigger and bigger companies

11:07 taking less and less risk. Yes, yeah.

11:10 We're getting to a point where it it feels like a lot of the

11:14 trouble, like games are now just set up to be only meant for

11:19 extracting wealth. Yes.

11:21 Yeah, instead of giving you any sort of value.

11:24 Well, this was funny the. Other than a graphics update?

11:28 Oh, graphics, Yeah. Or fuck, we can look at all the

11:32 sports games. It's just a roster.

11:34 UPDATE Oh my God. Yeah, it's literally all.

11:36 Yeah, like FIFA or its counterpart WWEI mean you got I

11:41 think hockey at this point is going kind of NFL or Madden,

11:46 whichever it is. Well, what's what's funny is I

11:52 don't know if this is kind of going off a little bit, but I

11:56 think it was during the Xbox showcase back in June, I think

12:02 we there was like this game I there's.

12:09 A lot of games. There's a lot of games.

12:12 It was like this guy was walking into this room and he has like

12:15 these like robot like. My God in my throat.

12:17 Butlers and, like, all kinds of shit, you know?

12:21 Yeah. And we, like, me and my brother

12:25 were watching this and we're like, man, this actually looks

12:27 pretty good. Yeah, you know, right.

12:30 And then the title comes up, Black Ops 7.

12:35 Aw. I got really bad.

12:39 It looked great. Yeah, I can't.

12:43 And then they or just Call of Duty.

12:45 They hit you with that and it's like, are you fucking kidding

12:48 me? Really.

12:50 Yeah, like just just to say this, you like your Call of Duty

12:54 cool, go play it. Don't let us say anything about

12:57 it. You know, what you like to play

12:58 is what you like to play. Yeah, that's fine.

13:00 We're not here to rain on your parade.

13:02 No, just giving our own opinions.

13:03 But it's like, that's another thing.

13:05 Call of Duty, it's gone from what I used to remember it back

13:09 in like MW2 time, 2009. Oh yeah, you know where it was

13:15 just literally a military shooter?

13:17 Yeah, to now you could play as Nicki Minaj with a huge butt.

13:23 Or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Or some or or.

13:25 Something with Snoop Dogg narrating the match for you?

13:29 Which was kind of cool. OK, if you want to talk about

13:31 this, let's just go to Fortnite. Fortnite.

13:34 If you want to talk about skins and whatever, let's just go to

13:37 Fortnite where you can be whatever multiverse time travel

13:40 bullshit you ever you want to be.

13:41 From any, any major IP, yeah. IP.

13:45 That's the word that's. The IP, yeah, Fortnite is a

13:48 different story. They can do it well.

13:52 Call of Duty I like, Fortnite is good.

13:55 To be well, it's just they're popular.

13:58 Yes. Yeah.

14:00 Popular for a good reason or a bad reason?

14:02 Let's. Get that?

14:04 Let's clear that air. But.

14:05 That game is it's colorful, it's cartoony.

14:09 That's the whole thing. Yeah, Call of Duty was right.

14:11 Yeah, Call of Duty, it doesn't fit the atmosphere.

14:14 No. And it's.

14:15 Yeah, you're right though. Like what are we doing?

14:18 And it's like every single fucking game that comes out

14:21 every year is the same. It's literally the same.

14:25 And like I and you're paying like $70.00 for this.

14:30 Who knows if it's going to go to 80?

14:32 I mean, Nintendo's already sitting in the bar with 80.

14:35 Fucking. The 90 physical, is that what it

14:38 is? $90.00 physical, $80 digital.

14:42 I don't actually think the $90.00 physical is.

14:45 Really. Oh, OK, why did I say that?

14:47 I just remember that from launch.

14:49 Yeah, why I see why I say that is Mario Kart World.

14:54 We got a physically it was $80. OK, that's so.

14:58 And now I don't know for third parties, who knows?

15:00 Yeah, but like, I used to really enjoy Call of Duty, but I just

15:08 don't like the way it is now, and also with some of the shady

15:11 practices of Activision has completely turned me off from

15:15 it. Yeah.

15:16 Yeah, I mean just the the integration of all this AI

15:19 bullshit. It's not even just that, it's

15:22 the fucking thing of my privacy. Yeah, like, literally like, now

15:27 I'm taking this with a grain of salt, but there was something I

15:31 was watching that was talking about that if you're playing

15:35 Call of Duty Black Ops 6 on PC. Now, I don't know if this is

15:39 Steam and Xbox, I don't know. But apparently there's a what's

15:45 called a DLADLL file, which is a Windows file that is in Call of

15:52 Duty's code that apparently can take over your camera if you

15:57 have one connected to your computer and it can watch you.

16:01 I don't like that. What are you doing?

16:03 Yeah, Injecting this bullshit in my fucking game.

16:07 Yeah, no. Again, why would you even need

16:11 that? It's what's what's the purpose

16:14 of it? If you're just playing a game,

16:16 why do you need to collect video footage?

16:18 So that's the thing that from this video, there's God got it.

16:23 From this video I was watching, they speculate that probably

16:26 what they were doing is watching your facial expressions and to

16:31 see where. What would be the good time to

16:34 try to sell you something? Yeah.

16:36 That's their theory. I really wish I could.

16:40 Somebody trying something something.

16:42 I wish I could remember the person that made this video

16:45 because he went over a lot of stuff.

16:47 Yeah. But it's I, I don't like that

16:51 that that's not right. And that's what actually finally

16:54 cut me off from Call of Duty because it's like, I don't want

16:56 you watching me. That's freaking weird.

16:58 Isn't that illegal like. I mean, you really should.

17:00 You're. Basically a peep and Tom.

17:02 I mean like This is why and but even before this, like This is

17:08 why I don't keep my camera plugged in if I can help it.

17:15 Yeah, 'cause I mean, I'll forget occasionally, but like, yeah, I,

17:20 I get on a Zoom call or I, you know, we fuck around a Discord

17:23 sometimes and we all, at least US three, maybe not Jack, have

17:27 our webcams on. But as soon as I, you know, get

17:31 off for bed, unplug or get off a Zoom call, unplug, yeah, or

17:35 whatever I use it for, which is not much outside of that.

17:39 Yeah, no. I just don't want like not even

17:43 Call of Duty or Activision or whoever.

17:45 I just don't. I just don't want people looking

17:47 at me through my camera. Yeah, no, I, I completely

17:50 understand that. I, like I said after learning

17:53 that, quickly uninstalled the game.

17:56 They've been using people well. I even told you it was a bad

17:59 idea before this happened. I even told you I don't get and

18:01 you're like, I got it. It's fun.

18:03 I'm like, Oh my God. And the thing that sucks is it

18:05 was fun. It was honestly a pretty solid

18:09 game. Yeah, but all these shitty

18:11 practices like I like really. And I think they also allegedly

18:17 are using player data to train the AIS in the games.

18:20 Yeah. Or some shit like I I don't know

18:22 if that's true or not. Like any of this, take with a

18:24 grain of salt. I see that being true.

18:27 I mean, if if you're going to train code for your AI models,

18:33 for how the AI responds and acts to you as a player in the game,

18:38 yeah. I just don't see it as

18:41 disruptive as, oh, we're going to take your own video and audio

18:46 recording without your consent. Yeah, man, I mean.

18:49 That's that's that's where I draw the line.

18:51 I'm going to make a joke on this because it's not just not

18:54 thought of something funny. Yeah.

18:55 It's like these people are like, you know, looking through me in

18:57 my camera, man, Who knows? I could be doing something in my

18:59 room that you probably don't want to see.

19:00 Like, you know, I could be doing a helicopter.

19:03 I don't know. Like if you know, you know.

19:09 Oh my God, my Roth. My ruffle copter goes wash,

19:13 wash, wash, wash, wash, wash. The helicopter.

19:22 OK, All right. Anyway, yeah, moving on from AI,

19:26 here's here's 1. So basically the way that the

19:29 big console companies are going is like Sony, Nintendo, Xbox,

19:35 especially Xbox, how they're buying up all these studios.

19:40 Same thing with Sony, they have all these IPS.

19:42 Same thing with Nintendo, they have all these IPS and they

19:44 don't do anything with it. Or like just close them down.

19:47 Well, they. Close them down.

19:49 And then they just put all the workers into the existing IPS

19:52 that they already are using. Yeah.

19:55 And then at that point it was like, why did you even bother

19:59 buying the companies to let the staff go or merge them into?

20:04 In into your existing properties and then you're just sitting on

20:09 IP that you're paying money for that you're not even fucking

20:12 using. Yeah, it's like a waste of

20:14 money. Yeah, you know, like Xbox, some

20:18 Activision going back kind of back to that.

20:20 They have Spyro. How When was the last main Spyro

20:24 game besides Skylanders? Yeah, Skylanders doesn't.

20:28 Count, Yeah. Shoot, you can, you can even

20:29 throw the the the remasters in there and it's still been a

20:33 while. Right.

20:34 I got yeah, they're because I mean those, yeah, those are.

20:37 They're just remasters. Right.

20:39 It's not even a new game, it's just an updated game.

20:41 Even even considering those, it's been quite a quite some

20:45 time. I mean, to be fair, you can

20:46 actually see that they didn't just update the graphics, they

20:48 actually kind of changed some models.

20:50 But still though, like just besides that trilogy, when was

20:54 the last time that you Aspiro going to Sony?

20:56 Jack and Daxter? I think that's Sony.

20:58 When was the last Jack and Daxter game going to Nintendo?

21:02 Mega Man of the the F0. I'm not counting F-099.

21:10 Crap with CMS Metroid. I mean, well, they they did

21:14 Metroid Red true which not too long ago.

21:17 Now there's a Metroid Prime 4 that's.

21:19 OK, right. Then let me shift it up to

21:21 being. Starfox.

21:23 Star Fox Yeah, that's been dead for a.

21:24 While Star Fox. Bayonetta.

21:26 The only IP I can think of that actually did come back was

21:29 crash. Crash Bandicoot, but that's Toys

21:32 for Bob. That's different.

21:33 That's like, I don't think anybody really, I could be wrong

21:37 on this, but because they give a kind of their own thing, does it

21:41 because I think they bought Crash or something.

21:44 I think, yeah, maybe it is. Could be wrong again.

21:47 Heap of salt. I say a lot of shit from my

21:49 mouth but I believe I give give Spyro to Toys for Bob.

21:57 Really. Please, if they can do that with

22:00 Crash. And it was pretty good.

22:02 Do it with Spyro. Yeah, Spyro was fun like I have

22:08 I excuse me, I have those those games on on Steam.

22:12 I. Only have two figures on my desk

22:14 right there. And you really like Spyro?

22:16 I do and it's all I mean I have. I love it.

22:18 I have a skateboard. Holy shit, I know, it's great

22:21 he's not. Fucking notice.

22:22 Yeah, dude, it's the skateboard from I know at least the third

22:25 game. I'm not sure if the skateboard's

22:26 in two or three. I'm sorry, one or two.

22:30 I know she knows. I still need to play Ripto's

22:33 Rage and the first one I played the the main Spyro games I

22:36 played was You're the Dragon, which is the third one, and then

22:41 the Enter the Dragonfly, which I guess that was notoriously

22:45 broken. You can just go through the gate

22:47 and get to the final block. It's wow.

22:49 I think that's what Jack said. It's frame rate, because I had

22:52 to test that, yeah, for somebody.

22:55 And yeah, the frame rate's fucking bad.

22:59 I was thinking on GameCube. Oh well, I have the PS2 so I.

23:03 Think PS2 is really bad. I think like, either way, it was

23:07 not good, it was bad. But like, fundamentally the game

23:12 is fine, right? You know?

23:14 But it's just performance. Yeah, that was the biggest

23:17 problem with it. I mean, to be fair, as a kid I

23:19 don't think I really noticed anything but one.

23:21 I was a kid in two. Modern games today are

23:26 completely different. Yes, Sir, as of this recording,

23:29 today are completely different from 20 years ago.

23:33 Yeah, yeah, I never noticed frame rate or any of that shit

23:37 until I think PS3 is when I started noticing like man, this

23:42 runs like crap. Like I'm, I'm sure when you

23:44 first played Resident Evil 4, you're like, Oh my God, this is

23:47 like insurmountable graphics. Nothing will ever beat this.

23:52 Yeah. And then now it's really weird

23:55 that with the original release of Resident Evil 4 on the game

24:01 Cube was locked at 30 frames. That's the way it really should

24:06 be. But the newer versions they're

24:09 like at 60. Yeah.

24:11 And it's the first time playing A60FPS of Resident Evil 4 was

24:18 fucking weird. Like Oh my God I didn't know he

24:22 could be so smooth. Holy.

24:25 Shit, that's some smooth jazz. How that's so smooth?

24:27 It is. That was nuts.

24:30 But yeah, like, just, I just, I want these gaming companies to

24:34 bring back at least like attempt and give some of these IPS a

24:40 chance, yeah. Yeah, because they're people

24:42 that do want. So, ADHD moment, but you can

24:44 even see like there's a spiral figurine way in the back of that

24:47 second guppy. Mark can see it at least.

24:49 Yeah, yeah, I can see it. He's.

24:50 Behind the he's. Looking.

24:51 Away it's a switch holder, slash controller holder.

24:54 One of those things, yeah, My, my sister says like a banjo.

24:57 One holds a controller, yeah. I want the Sonic.

25:00 One, is there a Sonic? One.

25:01 Yeah, he holds it, Yeah. I like me Spyro.

25:09 I'm sure people would love like Jack and Dexter or I think

25:12 Ratchet and Clank. Not that's not really dead, but

25:15 like I think they've slowed down on games.

25:17 Or even if not old IPS that still trying out new IPS and

25:23 giving them time to live. Yeah.

25:25 Like like there was that that IP that did really well for Expo,

25:30 for Microsoft, they got shut. Down.

25:31 Oh, are you talking hi-fi rush? Yeah, Hi-fi Rush.

25:34 Yeah, we did. We did great.

25:35 Shut down. Yeah.

25:37 You put it on Game Pass. Of course there's not going to

25:39 be same. Or even for looking at Bungie

25:43 with the with how successful a Final shape was this?

25:45 God. Yeah, and even even like a third

25:49 of the workforce still getting cut even though it was so

25:51 successful. They had to cut those people's

25:54 salary so the bigwigs can get their yachts.

25:59 I mean it. It just even it's so hard to

26:04 feel optimistic when even success is a failure.

26:10 Yeah, 'cause. 'Cause we have seen the largest

26:15 amount of consecutive layoffs in the past couple years alone.

26:19 Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these

26:22 bigger companies start to shut down or even like even some of

26:26 the bigger. I mean, I'm not talking the big

26:30 three, I'm talking like this. I'm talking like the subsets

26:34 like Activision and. Microsoft makes much more of its

26:38 money outside of the Xbox division.

26:40 I mean the Xbox. Division is just a drop in the

26:43 bucket for the company. It's like 25% down, Yeah, with

26:49 their revenue, they had their like revenue sheets all put out.

26:52 Yeah, Yeah, it was. But I think that was more

26:55 console sales. Yeah, that's the console.

26:57 Sales, that's the thing, Console sales they don't care about.

27:00 Yeah, they're deliberate. Of course they're selling them,

27:03 but they've also kind of put Game Pass at this point on other

27:08 stuff as well. I mean, at least at least Sony

27:11 Computer. Now you can get Game Pass on the

27:13 fucking TV. Yeah, but they also put they

27:16 also put Xbox games on PlayStation.

27:19 Yeah. Yeah.

27:19 So it's. So at some point, I don't know,

27:22 who knows, maybe next generation they're not even going to do

27:24 consoles. But I wonder if they're just

27:27 going to kill the console outright.

27:29 I mean. And like, that's kind of shitty.

27:32 I I won't lie. But they're not looking for

27:34 consoles because they lose money on it.

27:36 Jokes aside, for all the PC mastery stuff for the console

27:41 wars, losing consoles is going to be a really major impact in

27:46 the industry. Because you know, if you, if you

27:49 want to talk about just getting somebody in a console is a very

27:54 cheap, very effective way of getting somebody set up to

27:59 actually just play a video game. Yep.

28:01 And just try it. Try it out.

28:05 Now what you're going to be forcing people to do is they

28:08 have to figure out how to get their computer working into a

28:13 state where they can actually experience video games.

28:16 Yep. And it's also just not feasible

28:20 for most household computers, especially with games getting

28:25 larger, much more complicated, and much more intensive to

28:30 actually run. Yep, yeah.

28:33 Like the hardware requirements for a lot of modern games is

28:37 astronomical. I mean GTA 6 is going to be.

28:43 God. So heavy on your system because

28:48 of the damn realism that we've been GC for so long.

28:51 And you know how many people are going, at least some PC are

28:55 gonna be upgrading their computer, Yeah, So they can play

28:58 that shit, Yeah. So like NVIDIA or Acer or yeah,

29:02 whatever graphics card is gonna be making bank.

29:06 Well, what's the month leading up to that?

29:08 What's funny about that? It's not releasing on PC on

29:11 release date, Yeah. It's not.

29:13 No, it's gonna be on consoles first.

29:15 It's gonna probably be like GTA5 where it took what, a couple

29:18 years or something? I.

29:18 Don't even know that. Yeah, it's gonna take them a

29:21 couple years to actually get up. Jesus.

29:24 It's got help. For PC because you have to

29:26 optimize it so. True.

29:29 I swear to God, if I look at this, the system requirements

29:32 and they're recommended and it says it's a 5090, I'm going to

29:35 fucking lose my shit. Yeah, no, this is not because I

29:38 want to play it. I really don't care.

29:40 I've never played a GGA game. I couldn't.

29:43 Care less, I don't really care. I could not care less.

29:46 But I know I'm probably going to get it at some point.

29:49 Emma and her brother love it. Like I'm probably going to get

29:52 it. Like I'll probably get it at

29:53 some point, but it's going to be like it's completely discounted.

29:56 Again, This is why I like indie games.

29:59 There's so much more there's. So many small games out there

30:02 that even my computer can run. Yeah, sure it can't handle Wilds

30:06 the best. You are still able to play it

30:09 I'm. Still able to play it but it

30:10 doesn't handle it the best. No, it's also not the worst, but

30:14 a lot of Rogue Lakes I play, it'll handle it or just mainly

30:19 Rogue Lakes. But yeah, a lot of games I play

30:21 are, yeah. They're light and like, and some

30:25 of these indie games have so much more content than a $70

30:29 game. Well, I wouldn't say content, I

30:32 would say replayability. Replayability if not content.

30:34 If not, OK I. Mean just look at all the

30:37 content, you get a rotator and then look at all the

30:40 replayability you get from it. There's no content, but it's

30:46 highly, well, highly replayable, no.

30:47 I would say there is a lot of content.

30:49 Look at all the characters. Oh.

30:50 You Fair. Fair.

30:51 But that that's also more so replayability.

30:53 But like, there, I don't think I've ever seen a rogue lake with

30:56 that many different playable characters.

30:58 Yeah, true. Yeah.

30:59 I mean, I guess besides Axolotl because Axolotl has a.

31:04 Lot. Well Axolotl has a good amount,

31:08 but when you beat the game with specific with most of the

31:12 characters, there's specific ones where it doesn't with most

31:15 of the characters. It'll unlock a secondary

31:17 character with the same stat line and the same effects, just

31:20 different. It's a palace swap.

31:24 Yeah, OK. OK.

31:26 So now you and your buddy can play the same character, yeah.

31:32 But it's just, it's the fact of that indie games just are a lot

31:39 better in a lot of regard. Oh yeah, an update.

31:42 Yeah, we played a you, you played, you tried X level again.

31:46 Yep, and it was fun. And I broke it.

31:48 And he fucking broke it. Literally.

31:50 Mark, I used to tell you this and I was here for this.

31:53 And Player 4, I'll tell you this too.

31:56 Apparently he was so fucking powerful.

32:00 OK, Mister Man over there. Yeah, he the OK, So what the

32:05 explosions he was creating, there were so many all.

32:08 Right, let me explain so around I think this was after the so I

32:14 was playing as the imp and the imp specifically.

32:18 If you deal enough damage, you charge up your meter and then

32:20 you can summon a random item. But this takes a lot of damage

32:23 to do. A lot of characters have a meter

32:28 where you can fill for health and then you can heal 11 heart.

32:34 For reference you can have up to 10 hearts.

32:35 Most start with two to three. So because I can summon items

32:47 depending on the damage. Ideal around I would say like

32:53 six, 6/10 or 7/10 out of the first area.

32:57 You can finally get your first item for free.

32:59 You don't have to go through a room or like get any rewards.

33:02 You just get an item and after the second boss, I got the

33:06 explosive bullets, but I also had the helmet, which gives me

33:10 immunity to explosions yes. So because I'm shooting these

33:13 bullets that not really deal damage, but I'm also making

33:15 explosions that deal damage, I'm filling up this bar really fast.

33:21 And at this point I, there's a, there's a weapon called the pea

33:25 banger. It shoots bullets in burst of

33:29 four. Yep.

33:31 And pretty much in that burst of four, I basically got my meter

33:35 back. So I was summoning items

33:38 constantly. We got to the final boss.

33:41 I should have been killing this boss way faster than I was

33:45 because I've killed this boss pretty fast, No?

33:47 And it wasn't happening. No, at this time.

33:49 For some reason I had at the final boss 65 items.

33:54 Yep, unique items. The highest count I had before

34:00 this was 33. It was with the imp, but I

34:03 didn't have the explosive rounds.

34:04 I didn't have that damage bonus, but I just like I did a burst,

34:10 spun, an item burst spun, an item burst spun an item, burst

34:12 spun and it crashed. No, it actually didn't crash

34:16 specifically, it said. Connected.

34:20 Disconnected or a player disconnected or multiplayer

34:24 session disconnect something along that line and it booted me

34:27 to the main menu. And I was still on my, my screen

34:30 still had like the boss and whatnot.

34:32 But you were dead, so you can do anything.

34:34 Yeah, I couldn't do anything. And so from my perspective, with

34:38 all the shit he was doing, his fucking explosions, bombs and

34:42 all this shit just continued to happen.

34:45 They wouldn't stop. And on top of that, fucking

34:49 enemies he would kill. He'd kill them so fast that they

34:52 were still on my screen, hurting me after they died.

34:55 But on my screen the enemies were dead and he wasn't taking

34:58 damage. No, there was even no bullets to

35:01 hit him. And the thing was, even though

35:05 they were like hitting me and they were already dead, I wasn't

35:07 actually losing health. But there was one in particular,

35:10 the one guy bigger enemy that spins like this with like that

35:15 javelin thing or whatever the fuck that is.

35:17 You're checking the ball. And Jane, yeah, I fucking hate

35:20 that. Elite.

35:20 He was dead, but on my screen he was still there and he kept

35:25 switching me. He kept hitting me, dude, as I'm

35:28 trying to get this item or box or whatever I'm getting, you

35:33 know, like, Oh my God. OK, so yeah, the game was

35:36 already fucked. That's where I'm like, OK, the

35:39 cracks are starting to show. And then they, yeah, I'm dead

35:43 and he's taking out the boss and shit and the game just finally

35:46 had enough of both of us and kicked us both out.

35:49 I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised too.

35:53 God that was fucking hilarious. That was so I I'm not even mad.

35:56 No that was funny as shit. The boss just met a game.

36:00 To me it was it, literally. I don't feel so good, Mr.

36:06 Brandon. I'm watching him and I see the

36:11 fucking thing that says the host disconnected.

36:15 What do I? Do what?

36:17 And this boss's eyes are fine all over the place still I'm

36:20 like man what the fuck's going on?

36:22 I'm like, was this game really meant to have Co-op?

36:25 Like what's funny is I think I had an item that destroyed enemy

36:31 bullets. Yeah.

36:32 I don't remember picking that up, but I would like I could

36:35 shoot at those eyes and the eyes would just disappear.

36:37 I don't know. Yeah, it's.

36:39 Probably 1 of the goddamn items that you got.

36:40 Your 65 fucking items. I I didn't get splitter or D

36:46 pad, a splinter or D pad. I'm really surprised you didn't.

36:50 I just kept getting bags. There's something in it.

36:52 Yeah. OK, Yeah.

36:53 So there's a there's an item called bag and it says, oh,

36:56 there might be something inside. And if you pick it up, you can

36:59 get ammo, a shield, a heart, a money.

37:03 And I guess with the imp, if you have enough items you get

37:08 there's a bigger, bigger chance of getting the bag.

37:14 Oh yeah, just a just a side tangent.

37:15 I'm like, that was funny as shit.

37:18 That was the most. That was the second time I've

37:21 played Axolotl Co-op and the game fucking.

37:25 Broke hardcore. It couldn't handle you, no.

37:29 Yeah, I got that. I got that explosive bullet

37:31 upgrade. I'm like, Oh yeah, that would do

37:33 some shit. I'm kind of surprised the game

37:35 didn't just lock up cuz I mean the explosions.

37:40 The thing is the thing about Axolotl.

37:42 But damn, we're so off topic right now.

37:44 But last thing I. Like how we started off the

37:48 episode saying, Oh yeah, this is going to be like our usual.

37:51 He talked about Axolotl. He knows how much I like this

37:53 game. It just, Oh yeah, we're not

37:55 going to talk so much about specific games and then we're in

37:59 a tangent. About Axel last things, axolotl

38:05 has some blemishes that need to be fixed.

38:10 I mean, to be fair, the Co-op mode's still very new, isn't it?

38:14 It is, but even then, like even in single player, there's some

38:17 things that. Need to be.

38:18 Need to be fixed that just kind of open wider like the cracks

38:23 grow in Co-op. The only other thing I will say

38:26 about this game with your bombs, my audio was cutting out.

38:31 Nothing else was happening. That happens if you have enough

38:33 sound effects. If you have enough sound effects

38:36 then the audio just stops. It was that's all I was hearing

38:41 and I'm like Oh my God, stop the fucking box Jesus fuck.

38:46 But anyway. Yeah, that side.

38:52 Where were we? Somewhere we were talking about

38:56 we were talking about IP is not getting the justice.

39:00 Yeah, at least that's what I remember.

39:02 I remember we were talking about hi-fi rush.

39:05 Oh yeah, even how success is still failure.

39:12 Like I was saying it, it's just so hard to get excited for new

39:16 titles being announced when I even.

39:20 Oh, if you know, if it meets your expectation, the gaming

39:25 gods are just going to shut yeah, shut it all down.

39:28 And that's going to be it, whether whether or not it's

39:31 going to be your games no longer going to be accessible to you

39:37 because the corporates have shut down the servers for it and

39:43 never made a way for you to host your own server on it.

39:48 Or if you're like Sony removing the actual game from your

39:54 library, it's. I didn't know that actually was

39:58 the thing. That was like a year or two ago.

40:00 I think that was like a really big thing.

40:02 Sony's always doing some stupid shit.

40:05 It's so we're all doing some sort of really dumb shit.

40:07 About to say all the the three giants have done some dumb shit,

40:11 yeah. No, that's fair enough.

40:13 Like. So nobody is safe.

40:16 OK, I, I want to point out the fact that at at the time of

40:19 recording the Nintendo Direct event just happened.

40:25 And the one of the things that I saw that they're bringing to the

40:28 switch to was that was the out the Star Wars Outlaws game.

40:33 That didn't do very well. What do you think it's gonna do

40:37 on the switch? I mean it'll probably be fine,

40:40 like I know they have fixed up the game at this point but.

40:45 It's still, it's still wasn't really that popular.

40:49 It was just kind of a bad game. Yeah, it was not great.

40:52 I mean, that's what happens when you just make Assassin's Creed

40:57 into Star Wars. I I hate to say it, but.

41:00 That's a that's a good way of putting it, yeah.

41:03 It's like you're trying to make Assassin's Creed mix with GTA

41:08 and Star Wars universe. I mean, Speaking of Nintendo, I

41:13 really wish that they would go back to their old formula of

41:16 games cuz their thing now is that you have everything

41:21 available that you need to finish the game with you at the

41:24 beginning of the game. Look at Mario Odyssey, look at

41:28 probably Metroid Dread. Yeah, look at the paper Paper

41:32 Mario Origami King. Are you talking about trying to

41:35 have a Nintendo go back to kind of like Metroidvania style?

41:38 Yes, where you need to like go and find the item track, yeah,

41:42 maybe not backtracking, but as you go along you can find things

41:46 you. Open up the world to open up the

41:47 world. Because I maybe not even open

41:50 the door. Just something to help you

41:51 along. Like, you know, kind of how they

41:53 had the badge system and Paper Mario necessarily didn't need to

41:56 backtrack. You could if you wanted to, but.

41:58 Or with the. Find some badges that would help

42:00 you be like oh now you can do a jump or you can if you press.

42:05 If you do a timing thing then you can do an extra damage or

42:09 something. Or like with the Super Mario

42:11 Sunshine for the different nozzles, you can unlock it to

42:15 help you do different things. Or you can unlock Yoshi and open

42:19 up the map a little bit more Yoshi, just you'll have more

42:24 tools at your disposal. I'm like, because, I mean, as

42:30 much as I I hate backtracking, at least I like I used to.

42:34 I'm starting to come back around to being more opened up

42:38 backtracking. It's cool to be able to go

42:42 around and find those secrets and be like, Oh my God, this is

42:45 a really good upgrade. Where was this, you know, like 2

42:48 chapters ago or whatever, however they make the game.

42:55 But yeah, they just now they're just here you go.

42:58 You're like the Paper Mario Origami King.

43:01 Here's the hammer, here's the shoot.

43:03 Go and stop Goombas. Basically giving you everything

43:06 at the start and not rewarding you with actually progressing

43:10 within. The but another thing about

43:13 Origami King specifically is that like you, you will get

43:16 followers for the time being. Like in the desert, I think you

43:19 get either a koopa or you get a toad, I can't remember which.

43:26 But as if you go outside of the desert, like and they'll

43:29 occasionally deal damage, but if you go outside of the desert,

43:32 they're like, I'm going to stay behind.

43:37 What like, you know, super paper Mario, paper Mario thousand your

43:42 door and just paper Mario you had update followers.

43:45 Yep, that you could swap between and.

43:47 Now they're temporary. Follow what?

43:50 They're just changing like too much shit.

43:55 Like I I mean be. Like their games are too easy

43:57 now if I had to say something. Yeah, yeah, I could see where

44:04 where that's at. Yeah.

44:05 Some of their games are like there.

44:08 There has to be some kind of like challenge for you to

44:12 overcome. They actually feel like you did

44:13 something. Yeah.

44:15 Like and if it's going to be just a complete baby ride.

44:21 I mean, just look at the what Kirby and Forgotten Land.

44:25 That one's really easy to go through the levels.

44:27 Yeah, and I mean, I would argue that Kirby itself as a series is

44:32 easy. It's.

44:33 Just no. You're right.

44:35 You're very right. Like Kirby is kind of meant to

44:38 be easy, but I swear there's a Kirby game in particular I

44:42 can't. Remember, this is Squeak Squad

44:44 because I remember at least as a kid, I had trouble with Squeak

44:46 Squad. Like I, I, it might have been

44:48 that where it was actually not easy, it was kind of tough.

44:51 Like not tough to the point of it being aggravating, but just

44:54 like, oh, OK, this is a little harder than it usually is.

44:57 That does sound like squeaks bud.

44:58 See, I like Kirby. Or maybe that could be a Kirby

45:01 64 The Crystal Shards. That game can be hard.

45:04 I still need to play that, I've just heard good recently that

45:09 it's more difficult than most. Yes, yeah, cuz that was Kirby's

45:14 first jump to 3D and the gameplay was different.

45:18 Like it was the same but different mechanics.

45:22 There are different mechanics which I gotcha.

45:23 I like oh right cuz can you combine?

45:27 You can literally combined your weapons and it's like that's

45:32 that's cool. Like you have a fire sword or

45:36 some shit. Like it's there's so many

45:38 combinations. You'll have fun with it.

45:41 But yeah, again, it is a little difficult.

45:43 So just keep that in mind. That's kind of what I'm missing

45:48 from like just more recent Nintendo games.

45:54 Breath of the Wilds last year, Breath of the Wilds last years

45:57 of the Kingdom. Like the reason there's, there's

46:02 only one reason I can think of that they have weapons that

46:05 break in five hits, and that's because we don't want to have a

46:08 weapon that's too strong for too long.

46:12 I don't really understand the hype.

46:17 Zelda, Breath of the Wild and Tears.

46:18 I I mean I like breath of the wild, I liked exploring and just

46:22 going for the shrines, but other than that I didn't really like

46:24 the combat because I I use a hammer for two hits.

46:29 Oh, got to pick up a rusty sword.

46:32 Yeah, I like they're not bad games far.

46:36 From no. God no.

46:37 They're great. Games just not my.

46:40 Yeah, they're not my type of. I'd rather if if the whole game

46:43 was shrine puzzles perfect. Yeah, the shrines were fun to

46:48 actually solve. Some of them were a pain in the

46:51 ass. Combat shrines I wasn't a big

46:53 fan of, and neither were the shrines were like, oh, you did

46:56 this great test of strength. Here you go.

46:59 It's like, yeah, sure, I climbed a really tall Spire to get here,

47:03 but can I at least do a puzzle? That's kind of what I come to a

47:06 shrine to do, is do a puzzle. That's usually what the shrines.

47:08 Were for right? Puzzle, but yeah, I mean the

47:13 combat ones were fine, but I I don't.

47:15 Like the combat? But the puzzles ones were a lot

47:18 more fun. But like, you know, back in

47:24 pretty much any Zelda game, you puzzles were kind of the

47:29 dungeon. Yeah, the dungeons, that's

47:32 that's the one I was. That was what the puzzle was.

47:35 Room to room, sure. And or maybe spanning across a

47:38 room or two, maybe 3, depending on if you have to like go into a

47:44 branch, hit a target, you know, goes to the second room, hit

47:47 another target, goes to the third room, hit another target.

47:50 Now you can continue. Yeah.

47:51 Whereas some along those lines, it's instead of 1 big dungeon,

48:00 it's like 1 tiny shrine. There's like 707 hundred of

48:05 them. Yeah, yeah.

48:09 I just miss the way and Nintendo used to do things.

48:16 Yeah, they definitely did things differently.

48:19 I'm not saying it's bad, it's just different.

48:22 It's. Different.

48:22 It's a different. What's the word generation?

48:27 Yeah, it's different to the point of it's not really for

48:31 you. Right.

48:32 Like I can see. That I can honestly careless

48:35 about switch. At this point like the only game

48:40 I really want to play is new career ride, that's about it.

48:44 And it's kind of sad to just buy a Switch too, just solely for

48:47 that. You know what I mean?

48:48 I get you. So I just don't see the reason

48:55 my brother has the switch too. I could just go get the game and

48:58 just play it on his like I'm not.

49:00 I barely play my switch to begin with and I love it, but I have

49:05 more gravitated towards my steam deck so I to each their own.

49:12 If you ever switch to I hope you're enjoying games.

49:14 Yeah, I mean like for sure, enjoy whatever games you play or

49:17 enjoy and the systems that you play on.

49:22 Yeah, anything we talk about. Every gaming opinion is valid.

49:26 Yeah, like what we think you could have a totally different

49:30 opinion on, and that's perfectly.

49:32 Fine, right? I mean.

49:33 You do what makes you you. You can say that I'm wrong.

49:36 The new generation of Nintendo is the best it's ever been.

49:41 That's fine. I'll say you're wrong.

49:43 Yeah, but it's OK to have differences of opinions.

49:48 All right. I guess to rope us back in one

49:52 more time. I guess let's start to wrap up

49:56 this topic with how do you guys think the future is going to go?

50:00 What would what would you like to see happen?

50:04 What do you think is more likely to happen?

50:06 How do you think the next coming years ago for the for the

50:13 industry? I just hope that there's more

50:18 new stuff. Yeah, new IP is not the same

50:22 stuff that we've been seeing, you know.

50:25 Maybe not even new IPS. Well, this will probably come

50:29 with IPS, but innovation. That's what, yeah.

50:31 I want to see. I want to.

50:34 I want to see companies actually start to take risks.

50:37 Yes. Because from from how we've been

50:42 seeing it, it's just been people in business suits who have not

50:48 known how to actually do art take the helm.

50:55 And here's the thing, it doesn't have to be big games.

50:59 Yeah, maybe with Game Pass you can add a section of test demos.

51:03 Yeah. And people can like, vote on

51:06 them or like them and they can receive the feedback of what

51:08 people are interested in. Or same thing with Sony and

51:11 their what is it called? What is?

51:14 It's like their PlayStation catalog.

51:15 I think it's. Called.

51:17 Oh yeah, well, PlayStation Plus, yeah, that's what it is.

51:20 Maybe they can do the same thing with Sony on the PlayStation

51:23 Plus as they can do a test demo or something like where it's

51:26 pretty much a concept instead of a game.

51:28 Yeah, kind of like let's say split gate.

51:31 Or or or even a better example, Hell Divers.

51:35 Hell Divers is a top down game versus Hell Divers 2 which is a

51:41 mainstream hit. It started off as just a really

51:46 small IP on PlayStation that just blew up out of nowhere.

51:49 Yeah, that's true. I mean, it just give giving IPS

51:54 a chance to survive and actually taking risks.

51:58 Yeah. And and I'm not going to say

52:01 like taking every single risk possible.

52:04 I'm, I'm talking about taking measured risks because look at

52:08 what happened with Sony and Concord.

52:10 That was an abysmal. That was an abysmal.

52:13 Failure. I'm sorry, in this day of age

52:15 you can't make a hero shooter. That's I.

52:17 That's not free. I think hero shooters have kind

52:20 of passed. Yeah.

52:22 Feels like. That, well, I'm not gonna wait,

52:26 was, was Marvel Rivals free or was that?

52:29 Yes, it was free. That was free.

52:31 I mean, they're still doing pretty well.

52:32 Here's the thing though, the problem.

52:34 Is that Overwatch did not innovate anymore.

52:37 They got stagnant because these sat on top of the their ivory

52:42 towers and they got comfortable with their success.

52:45 They did not innovate and they did things that pissed off their

52:50 community and ended up setting the environment so that rivals

52:54 can come in and dethrone them. Well, OK, here's the thing

52:57 though. You had you had Overwatch.

52:58 One fucking success, $60.00 success.

53:02 Money Mounds, piles, mountains, and then you had that shut down

53:09 because Overwatch 2 blah blah blah blah, 5V5 instead of 6V6

53:13 reintroduced 6V6, but still you your reputation is done.

53:16 So yes. And that's where Marvel was

53:18 like, oh hey, what's up? Like I said, what have we

53:21 joined? And they took and.

53:22 They took, like I said, Blizzard set up the conditions for Marvel

53:27 Rivals success and they took it and they ran with it.

53:31 But not only is it a hero shooter, it also has the added

53:35 attachment of Marvel. Yeah.

53:38 Yeah, you there's like look at Marvel snap, for example, that

53:45 like that's a card game and you you make a deck of 12 yeah and

53:49 that's a big success because it's marvel.

53:51 It's such a big IP. It started way back when with

53:54 just comics. I'm random as character.

53:56 Sorry I keep talking over you, but like I just need to make

53:59 this point. I know that like it's, it's a

54:03 game where people want to play as these characters that they

54:07 love that set characters that are already made.

54:11 I mean, I mean, this is another off tangent, but like, look at

54:14 OK, Magic the gathering. They're doing a spider man.

54:17 Set. Yeah, they're doing.

54:18 Yeah, yeah. Now, that's not to say that the

54:22 IP itself is the thing that's carrying it.

54:25 I mean, there's, there's plenty of really bad Marvel games.

54:28 I mean, look at that. Avengers.

54:30 Game. I forgot about that.

54:32 Or, or if you want to go to DC, the what was that?

54:37 It was a oh God Suicide Squad game.

54:42 Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, it does.

54:44 And. That that was made by the same

54:46 people that made the Arkham games and it still flopped.

54:50 Like it's not the IP alone that's going to make or break

54:54 your game. No, but it it's going to be the

54:56 IP. Helper to market it, but you

54:58 still have to have the base fundamentals of your game

55:02 actually being fun for it to actually take off, which is what

55:08 happened in the case with Marvel Rivals or with Marvel Snap.

55:13 Right. Like that's that's why I want to

55:15 see again, even if it's just some way to show off a tech demo

55:21 or a concept of a game like. Give it a chance, giving it out

55:25 to the public. Let the public actually kind of

55:29 approve or disapprove it in the court of approval.

55:33 And then Gabe companies be like, hey, maybe we should start kind

55:36 of leaning into this more again. Look at hell divers too.

55:40 That blew up into an unexpected success success for Sony and

55:46 it's it's started off as just a PlayStation top down shooter.

55:52 Was it the same concept where it was just democracy simulator in

55:57 the first one? Pretty.

55:58 Much. Yeah.

55:59 Pretty much. OK.

55:59 So it's probably. It was.

56:00 It evolved on it, but yes. It was probably the the improved

56:04 graphics and mechanics and all that, plus the timing.

56:08 Well, if I had to guess, the. Original Hall Divers is not a

56:11 third person shooter. No.

56:14 It was a top. Down, but also and.

56:16 If you remember that arcade mode in Zombies from Black Ops 2.

56:20 Oh, yeah, true. Oh, that's a.

56:21 That's a Yeah. Yeah.

56:25 Yeah, I don't know how well hell Divers did.

56:28 It was. It had very niche success in the

56:32 PlayStation Store. But again, it's just the feel of

56:38 the game, the marketing behind it, it blew up.

56:44 Yeah, it's fucking. It just exploded out of nowhere

56:47 for most people. Yeah, that was a, that was a

56:50 pretty fast success, yeah. OK, well you also gonna think

56:54 that I think timing was also great because in this day and

56:58 age, reach can reach really far today.

57:04 Let's see, when did when did Hell Divers One come out?

57:07 I'm just gonna take the time to check this real quick.

57:10 I don't know. I've not played Hell Divers one,

57:13 but I do know kind of at least the layman's understanding of

57:18 kind of the bad Hell Divers 1. Release date was 2015, so I was

57:21 going to say 10 years and that's actually a pretty, pretty good

57:23 guess. Wow is let's just say, 'cause

57:26 you know, 1010 years later reach online Twitch is way different.

57:32 Yeah yes, than what it was I mean.

57:34 Back in 2015, I mean you still had social media, but the actual

57:39 breath in infestation of social media and entertainment sources

57:45 just hadn't reached its its height that we have seen in the

57:48 in the 20 twenties. So.

57:49 Far, I mean, especially if you release a serious game with

57:54 goofy voice lines and yeah, goofy mechanics and ha ha, funny

57:57 simulator it, it's going to hit today.

57:59 It it actually it. It's not just that, but it

58:02 actually has some thought behind it too.

58:05 Or. It's.

58:06 It actually has some things or Oh yeah, it's, it's, it's not

58:09 taking itself seriously, but it could still make some commentary

58:13 on things. Like honestly that's another

58:15 thing about gaming industry is right now as of this current

58:18 episode is like a game that has really good mechanics but also

58:24 has ha ha funny moments. Lethal company peak.

58:29 Don't want to try out people? Yeah.

58:31 Especially since they just edited the cannibalism.

58:34 That's so fucked up. Again, like I said to the group

58:37 chat, you're looking down upon Etherism about to eat his flesh.

58:41 I'm sorry, little one. That is, we weren't.

58:44 Going to make it to the peak anyways.

58:46 I really I do wanna I do wanna try yeah, it, it looks fun,

58:50 Yeah. And I don't think it's actually

58:52 too much either, like money wise, like it's 15 bucks or

58:55 something I have to. But.

58:56 Again, these are also small IPS that just kind of blew up out of

58:59 nowhere too. Again, it's good in my.

59:01 Camp as well. It's just solid.

59:03 Gameplay and like foundation with with ha ha funny moments,

59:08 yeah. Just something that's

59:10 entertaining that can keep your attention, right?

59:13 Like that's kind of the whole point of a video game is to keep

59:16 your intention. Yeah, but it it's just the

59:20 degree that the industry has shifted into video games as a

59:24 business as opposed to view games as an art form or a

59:29 commentary piece. It's, it's drastically changed.

59:32 It's. Drastically changed that's why

59:34 we're seeing companies like Ubisoft or Activision or

59:39 Blizzard struggling, whereas a lot of smaller studios are

59:44 actually kind of thriving right now.

59:46 Yeah, there's it's just this push you have to find the right

59:52 balance between making your game as a product and making your

59:58 game as something of its own as an art.

1:00:00 Form, yes. That a lot of these studios have

1:00:03 kind of forgotten. Yeah, no.

1:00:06 And it has to be like, it can't be the same thing every fucking

1:00:11 year. Yeah.

1:00:12 That's like things get stale. The the only thing that seems to

1:00:17 break that model is the sports games.

1:00:19 But honestly, that that that's kind of it's own genre in

1:00:22 effect. That's that's yeah, it's it's

1:00:24 own thing. Yeah, that's more appealing

1:00:28 towards like sports video game fans and that's they're, they're

1:00:32 a whole different. Breed.

1:00:33 Yes, they are. You can keep the sports.

1:00:37 I don't understand it, but you you guys keep you.

1:00:39 Fucking do it. Yeah, you guys are genuinely

1:00:43 happy with what you've got and I applaud you for.

1:00:45 That honestly, that's a beautiful thing.

1:00:47 Yeah, right. Be happy, damn it.

1:00:50 Knowing just the final thoughts, I find it hard to be optimistic

1:00:56 for the future. I think a lot of these companies

1:01:00 are going to have to learn some really hard lessons before

1:01:03 anything changes, I think, and I can see some of the bigger

1:01:07 developers going under. Yeah, I think we're, I think

1:01:11 we're setting up the stage for not another crash like in the

1:01:16 80s, but something that has to change to shake up the power

1:01:21 dynamic. It's gonna be a reset.

1:01:23 It's it's gonna be a reset. It's gonna be bloody, it's gonna

1:01:27 be, it's gonna be rough. But personally, that's where.

1:01:34 That's where it's heading. That's where I see this

1:01:36 headache, and it's gonna be an interesting couple of years.

1:01:39 I mean, I've been saying, I've been saying this for quite

1:01:41 literally a couple of years now and some of the bigger companies

1:01:46 are gonna start to crumble. And that's you can kind of see

1:01:48 that with just look at Xbox. Look at Ubisoft.

1:01:53 But they're their own breed. But then out of the dust is

1:01:56 gonna rise some indie games, yeah.

1:01:59 There's going to be other studios that will fill in those

1:02:01 power effects. It's like, let's say Fallout,

1:02:05 for example, like all of these big companies, nuclear fallout,

1:02:09 and then like when the dust settles, there's just like a

1:02:11 bunch of different settlements popping up and that's all the

1:02:14 indie games. And honestly?

1:02:15 And they're more clear to see now because there's not these

1:02:17 big giants in the way. Yeah.

1:02:19 I'm going to analogize it as more of a forest fire.

1:02:24 Yes, it's going to be very destructive to start off with.

1:02:28 What in that In that destruction, we're going to see

1:02:30 new life and new ecosystems begin to emerge from this.

1:02:36 It I think this needs to happen. It needs to happen.

1:02:39 It's unfortunate. It's unfortunate because it's

1:02:42 going to cost lots of jobs. Lots of what?

1:02:46 Always sucks when people lose jobs we're.

1:02:48 Probably going to lose fan favorite IPS in the mix of this.

1:02:53 It's, it's not going to be pleasant, folks, I'm going to

1:02:56 tell you that. But it's it feels like this is

1:02:59 where we're heading and we're just gonna have to buckle down

1:03:03 and prepare for it. Yeah, you just.

1:03:06 I think that all of this started with all of these gaming

1:03:10 companies overestimating their growth when the pandemic hit,

1:03:14 and now we're finally living through the the fallout, the

1:03:19 fallout of the the repercussions of the idea of unending growth.

1:03:26 It just it it would suck if it did become a crash.

1:03:32 It would. Because what would like it's, I

1:03:35 mean, Nintendo was kind was one of the ones that helped get in

1:03:39 the 80s yeah, get everybody past the crash.

1:03:42 Yeah. Who the hell is gonna be the one

1:03:44 that does this? Cuz it ain't gonna be them

1:03:45 again. I can tell you that they're

1:03:47 gonna be part of the crash. Gonna have to be somebody new.

1:03:50 And it's it is the natural cycle of how companies come and go.

1:03:57 I mean, look at Sears if if we want to veer off the video games

1:04:02 and look at actual companies. Right.

1:04:04 Sears was one of the first ones that invented the the the box

1:04:09 store model, and then they eventually crumpled out and

1:04:13 died. And they're just a website.

1:04:14 And and what you said, Brandon, I feel like if we were to pick

1:04:17 out of the big three, it would either be Nintendo again because

1:04:20 they're so isolated from the other two, like they found their

1:04:23 own niche again, or Sony just because they're kind of a gaming

1:04:29 pillar in this day and age. They're they have gotten bigger

1:04:33 over the years. Oh yeah.

1:04:35 And I mean well, I mean look at the PS2.

1:04:38 Yeah. Like I think it's now finally

1:04:41 not the most sold console. Yeah, I think it's the Switch

1:04:45 now. I think I know, right.

1:04:49 But yes. In my mind, the PS2 is still the

1:04:51 most I. Love the PS2.

1:04:54 It's so great. Fuck the switch.

1:04:56 PS2 is better. Yeah, I would say.

1:04:57 I it's also nostalgia, so I'd. Rather, again, it's gonna come

1:05:02 to a point where nostalgia's not gonna take it anymore.

1:05:06 No, it can only. Look, so far you can, you can

1:05:08 live off of your your laurels for however long, but we're

1:05:15 starting to see the ecosystem shift and I'm not sure if a lot

1:05:19 of these bigger companies are ready for it to happen.

1:05:22 Nobody's going to be ready. Nobody's going to be ready, but

1:05:25 it's. It is what it is it.

1:05:27 Is what it is. The industry has crashed before.

1:05:31 Industries crash and then they come back.

1:05:34 I have one more thing to add before we end.

1:05:36 Oh, go ahead. Did you know that this year the

1:05:39 Xbox 360 is gonna be 20 years old?

1:05:41 It is now considered a retro console.

1:05:43 Yeah. Do you know how old I felt today

1:05:45 learning that? I thought, I think I saw Gray

1:05:47 hair. Yeah, that's actually another

1:05:49 discussion for another day. But I think retro is 15 years.

1:05:53 That's what I think. Yeah, IA.

1:05:55 Lot of people think, I will say a lot of people.

1:05:58 Think retro is 15. It's it's there's a lot of

1:06:02 different inputs that go into it.

1:06:04 I remember searching this up when you brought it up the first

1:06:07 time and it it had quite a lot of interesting thoughts.

1:06:10 We could talk about this. Oh God, yeah, There's gonna be a

1:06:13 whole different topic. Yeah, that's what that's what

1:06:15 I'm saying. It could be a new topic.

1:06:16 We're gonna go ahead and put that on the docket.

1:06:18 That's gonna be interesting. I'm about to say like that.

1:06:20 Your phone, put it on. I don't, I don't have it on my

1:06:23 phone. I I've been meaning to.

1:06:26 Yes, yes I am. Well, we have it up.

1:06:28 Let's just end that. Let's just end it that I'm a

1:06:30 bitch. Take it away.

1:06:32 All right, Mark, go ahead. All right.

1:06:34 I guess that wraps up today's episode.

1:06:37 I'm Mark with Brandon in the bitch.

1:06:41 Go ahead and disconnect Player 4 and we'll talk to you guys

1:06:44 later. Have a good one, everybody.