Andre from GameXplain Discusses Nintendo Switch 2! - Game Junction Podcast #123

The gaming world stands at the precipice of a new era as Nintendo's Switch 2 launch looms just 20 days away. Industry analysts predict a $400 price point and an unprecedented 6-8 million units ready for day one – potentially solving the scalping nightmares that have plagued recent console launches.

We explore the fascinating world of indie developers keeping beloved genres alive, from Wild Blue's spiritual homage to Star Fox (complete with animal pilots and dogfighting) to Pip Estrello's GBA-style adventure that introduces the world's first "yo-yo-vania." These passion projects demonstrate how indie developers often preserve gaming traditions that major studios have abandoned.

Digital ownership takes center stage as Xbox revokes Alan Wake Remastered from users who received it free in January through a store error. This stark reminder that we never truly "own" our digital games sparks a deeper conversation about preservation and consumer rights in an increasingly digital marketplace. Meanwhile, Star Wars Hunters shutting down after less than a year reveals the brutal economics of free-to-play games competing for player attention and engagement.

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Transcript

Brandon Hurles 0:25

What is up everybody? Welcome back to the Game Junction Podcast. We're here for episode 123 this week and we've got over here to my left we've got Matt Long 6. How's it going?

MattLong6 Gaming 0:37

Doing well With muffins.

Brandon Hurles 0:40

With muffins, with that Cutie. Then we've got Andre from Game Explainers back. How's it going? Going it's going good.

Andre GameXplain 0:46

Hope you're, hope everyone's doing well as well yeah, yeah, it's uh, everybody have a good.

Brandon Hurles 0:52

You guys have a good day it's been a long day.

Andre GameXplain 0:55

It's been a day. I'll go as far as I'll say yeah, unintentional rhymes apparently I was.

Brandon Hurles 1:01

I was telling matt before I was like he's gonna love your background because he's got it's.

Andre GameXplain 1:06

It's filled with uh, nintendo stuff, so he's yeah, well, I mean, I think, I think matt's background can compete well, so I think so too.

Brandon Hurles 1:14

He's got a chain of toads I love it.

Andre GameXplain 1:17

What kind kirby is that? Oh, is that kirby holding something? A heart, oh, adorable that's cool. And then you got the kirby holding a heart. I can't compete with this.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:26

I can't compete either. Not just a cat, but he's got a Yoshi card.

Brandon Hurles 1:30

Oh my gosh, that's so cool that is amazing. Where did you get the Kirby at?

MattLong6 Gaming 1:37

Best Buy, but also Target sells them.

Brandon Hurles 1:40

Oh, that's cool man, I love that. Yeah, I would like to make a trip out to super nintendo world at some point. Um, yeah, I would really like to go there which one?

Andre GameXplain 1:51

hollywood or the new one coming up at epic universe?

Brandon Hurles 1:56

um, I mean I would like to go to both at some point. I mean, it is on the list of things to do, like I think I am going to probably get to go this year, I just don't know where, but I don't know. Also, you know we're going to be talking about it, but the new Nintendo Store, that would be cool too, although it is going to be the further one, just to check it out would be pretty interesting. But yeah, so it looks like we got a bunch of people commenting in here Just. But yeah, so it looks like we got a bunch of people commenting in here Just. Shout out real quick. You got Sonic Joe popped in. Nintendo Lover Girl Michael.

Andre GameXplain 2:30

Some idiot called GameXplain is in the chat.

Brandon Hurles 2:32

I don't know what their deal is. Who's this guy? What's going on, mr Coffee? How's it going, gustin, shout out a few of you guys. We got everybody rolling in now.

MattLong6 Gaming 2:43

Hey.

Brandon Hurles 2:44

Gustin um, yeah, so we'll. We'll go ahead and get started here I guess we're going to be talking about first which came out today was uh analysts. Uh, we're talking about the switch to.

MattLong6 Gaming 2:53

Oh sorry, go ahead, man I just said hi to another of my viewers.

Brandon Hurles 2:57

We're good oh okay, um, but yeah, we got analysts uh talking about the switch to essentially, um, obviously they always talk about all the video game console releases and kind of their thoughts, of everything, and so we are exactly 20, I think we're exactly 20 days away right from the I think that's right.

Andre GameXplain 3:16

Yeah, that's crazy. Just under three weeks now, that's wild yeah, this is why I knew it would go by quick. I, you know, once, once they, you know, had the switch to reveal, like, oh, it's so far away. I'm like, are you freaking, kidding me? It'll be here before you know it. And, sure enough, it's almost here.

Switch 2 Price Predictions

Brandon Hurles 3:30

Yeah, I know it's crazy. I thought it was going to take forever as well, but I mean, we're so close that it's just. You know, I'm so excited. No-transcript, I guess what. What do you guys feel about that? Matt, you, we, we talked about the price before me. And Andre, what, what do you think about, like, the price point as far as the switch to?

MattLong6 Gaming 4:05

as long as the Switch 2? As long as they're cheaper than PlayStation 5, then it's probably a good idea.

Brandon Hurles 4:16

Yeah, I mean, I think it has to be right. Nintendo One thing about Nintendo is they don't. I can't think of a console off the top of my head that they've ever sold at a loss. Do you know, andre, if there's any that they've sold?

MattLong6 Gaming 4:32

at a loss. You didn't do good to those at a loss, though no, I don't think it's sold in a lot.

Andre GameXplain 4:37

Yeah, that's part of the problem. They weren't willing to take a loss on it. They probably should have. Yeah, I, I, you know, I I don know for sure, but I'm inclined to think that the only system that I can think of that they may have taken a loss on was the GameCube. They dropped that down to $99 pretty quick, for Nintendo down from $200, and then I think it eventually dropped to $50. I'm sure the prices got cheaper for them manufacturing-wise at some point, but I think they may have eaten it a little bit there manufacturing wise at some point, but I think they may have taken, they may have eaten it a little bit there.

Brandon Hurles 5:06

So, yeah, yeah, that was that was the first one that popped in my head that I was thinking maybe there was a loss there. But yes, it's interesting because you know the like, the dlss technology and everything is going to be packed into this. Um, it's obviously got to be a little bit more, and the 400 mark to me sounds more Nintendo than the $500 mark, at least right now. I mean, you know, next console generation, we could be talking about the $500 for Nintendo, but to me I think the $400, personally.

Andre GameXplain 5:39

I think that makes the most sense. I mean, I've been, you know, as you mentioned, we've been talking about this for a while now and I've always felt to be between 400 to 500, to 500 being a less, a much less likely option yeah yeah, but I wouldn't rule out entirely, because this is nintendo.

Andre GameXplain 5:53

They have gone cocky before and they're riding like the highest high they've had in forever. Right, so I would. It's not impossible that they actually go to 500, because, especially because they know almost no matter what, as even bloomberg was saying that they're going to sell out, you know the first wave, no problem. And then, if it, then if the price then becomes an issue, they can always, you know, lower it. Um. So, yeah, I hope that's not the case, but uh, I wouldn't entirely rule it out. I am leaning toward 400, for sure. Yeah, I think.

MattLong6 Gaming 6:22

I think that it's going to be about $400. I remember when I bought my very first system of PlayStation 3 when I was a kid and I saved up every nickel and dime I had.

Brandon Hurles 6:31

That was an expensive one.

MattLong6 Gaming 6:33

Yeah, gamestop. I gave him every single. I calculated everything. And then I went there and I'm like crap, I'm like $8 short. I was like no, I saved up my quarters too, and I gave up every single quarter I had, including tax and everything.

Brandon Hurles 6:49

It was insane did you get this around launch? Because it was. It was a six hundred dollar console launch and that wasn't like what I had to save a long time yeah that that was a wild launch that got a lot of backlash. Uh, you, you remember that one, andre right, how much backlash there was on the ps3 price. Oh, my gosh, oh yeah, like god.

Andre GameXplain 7:10

They encourage people to get a second job, as I recall, to pay for this thing, that is the height of like arrogance and I hope, right, nintendo doesn't fall into that trap.

Andre GameXplain 7:19

But it's not impossible, you know. Yeah, because again they have something, they have a hot product right now and they know now's the time. They could, you know, correct, encourage people to pay more for it. But we'll see they have. I mean, I think they have said that they want to keep it affordable, but you know that that's also like empty talk. You know, like 500 would be affordable to nintendo, so yeah, right, right, yeah, definitely, I.

Brandon Hurles 7:39

I this. This makes sense. I mean, this is pretty much what I've kind of heard about. You know, with the circle all around me is kind of thought this $400 to $500 range, with most thinking like probably the $400. But yeah, I guess. The other thing is we got Hiroshi Yamashita said he sees a huge launch ahead for Switch 2, with a prediction of 20 million units sold in its first year on the markets.

Andre GameXplain 8:07

Uh, so that's. That's crazy. I I don't have the direct comparison for all the year one figures, but even going off the day, one figure that that article also mentioned being like having six to eight million consoles ready to go, that's absurd, that's like so much more than any other system.

Andre GameXplain 8:23

so I don't know that's 100 accurate, but even that so much more than any other system. So I don't know if that's 100% accurate, but even that feels extreme. But on the other hand, we have heard reports of Nintendo already having ship systems to, say, north America for instance, and a good amount of them apparently, and they're ready to go, and that was back in January. So they probably have even more on the way and it could be. I mean it could just be an absurdly huge launch, which would be nice. I mean it could just be an absurdly huge launch, which would be nice, because how hard, you know, I think we all remember how hard it's been to get a system of launch in years past for at least anything that isn't a.

Brandon Hurles 8:51

Wii U, right, yeah, I was just looking here at like the sale markers, like total sale markers for the consoles and handhelds and it's kind of crazy to see that, you know, the Wii U in total only sold 104 million units, which is absolutely nothing, yeah.

Andre GameXplain 9:11

Poor Wii U.

Brandon Hurles 9:13

Yeah, I love the Wii U man, I was there through the whole era. I was writing news about the Wii U during that time and reviewing games and I look fondly on that era. But there was, you had the dry spells. I mean it was there was dry spells and no games. And that's where, like, the indies came in right, like it's checking out the indie, different indie games and stuff in between that. But yeah, what an interesting time with Nintendo there. But yeah, I mean I guess that's pretty much what they're saying they think that there's a stockpile of 6 to 8 million Switch 2 units ready to go worldwide on day one, which, if that's the case, this is the way that everybody should be doing it, so we don't have the scalper problem which I think they're trying to avoid.

Andre GameXplain 10:05

It's a good way of looking at it yeah, yeah's the case.

Brandon Hurles 10:08

That's kind of crazy. You know it's a good thing, um, but kind of kind of crazy. That's a lot of units to have ready to go, um, I do hope that's the case personally. But uh, matt, do you plan on picking one up at launch?

Star Fox-inspired Wild Blue

MattLong6 Gaming 10:23

yeah, yep. Um, I think I'm gonna pre-order it. Um, I really hope they do some type of like pre-order bonus, but they don't seem to do that on consoles, yeah I just want a little mario keychain or something, I don't know that's what always incentivizes me to pre-order, like donkey kong.

Brandon Hurles 10:45

I pre-ordered gamestop to get the barrel and it just sits there. It's cool though, you know like. Oh, it's always like these little knickknacks, but uh yeah, I'm all about the knickknacks, yeah exactly, exactly, to be fair, how much can a barrel really do?

Andre GameXplain 10:59

they really just sit there by design, right. So I think you're kind of using it the best way possible yeah, I still throw my pens in it.

Brandon Hurles 11:04

So hey, there you go. Yeah, I was like all right are you part?

Andre GameXplain 11:08

that's that actually functions as a dice.

MattLong6 Gaming 11:10

That's awesome a keychain though, but yeah, that's cool.

Brandon Hurles 11:14

Is that from?

MattLong6 Gaming 11:15

is that from, uh, jamboree yes, that's from jamboree gamestop um the acrylic one is from best buy yeah, best buy.

Brandon Hurles 11:24

I remember that.

Andre GameXplain 11:25

Yeah, I had to pick which one I wanted for the the zelda one um yeah, that mario party dice, I think, shows the impossibility of the dice because in the game it's, you know, up to 10 10 which. But that's a six-sided dice, right. So what did they do there? Did they just ignore some numbers, or I guess on that dice it's one, two, six got it okay, so it can't work as an actual dice, which I appreciate yes, I'm gonna double check now, I don't want to ruin it, yeah it's one, two, six, all right sweet that's wild, uh, okay.

Brandon Hurles 11:57

So next we got a uh pretty interesting one I just wanted to bring up kind of quickly because I thought it sounded pretty cool and kind of fit in with the Nintendo theme. But we have this game called Wild Blue, which is supposed to be like a spiritual successor to Star Fox. It says, offering a nostalgic and action-packed experience. The game captures a classic Star Fox essence, with animal pilots, x-shaped ships and thrilling aerial dog fights. Uh, it's being developed by the studio founded by a programmer who worked on the original star fox. So I definitely wanted to bring this up because, I mean, star fox isn't getting any love, of course, and uh, at least I love star fox, you know. Um, but upcoming steam game, and the developer, chuhai labs, openly acknowledges the game as a new take on starfox, promising a nostalgic journey for fans the classic title. So have you guys gotten to, uh, check this one out at all? I have not yeah, I watched.

Andre GameXplain 13:02

I skipped through the trailer and I didn't see any gameplay, and so I'm looking at the screenshots now in the article you linked us to and these are the first times I've seen these, I don't know if they were shown in the video, I just skipped past that part, but anyways, it looks cool from the screenshots, but also kind of generic at the same time, and on the one hand, I am excited because, you know, as you mentioned, star Fox has been ignored for way too long. I think Star Fox 64 is, if not most people's favorite, like a starting point for a lot of people, especially, you know, older people. Sadly, but, with that being said, not sadly, it's a good game, but more the older part. But the thing is, though, like I have a media flashback to Yooka-Laylee right, it's coming from the Banjo-Kazooie guys and it's going to be great.

Andre GameXplain 13:44

It's going to be amazing Relive your childhood. And the game sucked. I'm sorry the game sucked. They're remaking it to a degree now. Maybe that version will be good, but that's. My concerns here is that maybe it's a product of its time. Even if not, do is going to have to be a different set. Yeah, kirby should be in Star Fox, even no no Ice Climber?

MattLong6 Gaming 14:12

Kirby asked, so I'm just showing him. Oh, that's perfect, sorry, keep going.

Andre GameXplain 14:16

Holding a friend hard and I don't know. I think there's a lot of barriers here. We've already seen several other Star Fox clones on the original Super NES game, so I don't know. I hope the best for them. I will check it out for sure. It could be amazing, but I am hesitant right now. So I'm very hesitant and excited for this, but ultimately it's more Star Fox-like gameplay and that can't be such a bad thing.

Brandon Hurles 14:38

Yeah, my one concern about this was that not to say that Humble Bundle is bad or anything. But concern about this was that not to say that humble bundle is bad or anything. But it was presented from the humble bundle showcase, I believe is where at least the trailer that I pulled up from two days ago was from. On all the youtubes they were all linked to that.

Andre GameXplain 14:58

So did it have actual gameplay in the one you saw or no okay, yeah, I just I just remember seeing like a picture of the sky, basically, yeah yeah, yeah.

Brandon Hurles 15:06

So I mean to me it also. I the screen's kind of generic and we have had a lot of starfox clones come out. I mean, shoot, we had the. Uh, what was the? The game with the? Why is it slipping my mind with the toys? They had the Star.

MattLong6 Gaming 15:24

Fox.

Andre GameXplain 15:27

Nintendo Land.

MattLong6 Gaming 15:28

No, he's talking about.

Brandon Hurles 15:32

I mean, it was Star Fox themed for. Nintendo For.

Andre GameXplain 15:37

Wii U. No, no, no for Switch oh.

Brandon Hurles 15:43

The Ubisoft game.

Andre GameXplain 15:45

Yeah's slipping my mind I got star, star like star like yeah, there we go, all right.

MattLong6 Gaming 15:51

I figured it out and I finally, I finally found it. Then you're over there thinking about it I'll just try to.

Andre GameXplain 15:58

You got the. You got the actual art for it, though, so yeah yeah no no, I don't even own an xbox one. It was just on the clearance aisle, honestly the starbucks stuff was actually pretty fun in that game it was I actually preferred it to the main quest.

Andre GameXplain 16:13

Even though it was very short, it was nice hearing the cast again. You know the voice actors and that's why I mean I feel like maybe that's why I'm a little bit hesitant on this. I guess it applies to banjo kazooie to an extent too, but especially Star Fox. It's so much of the appeal, I think at least, is like you know the characters, you already know the banter between them and that's a you know, that's a big legacy to live up to, because you can't reuse those characters.

Brandon Hurles 16:33

I mean, you could, you know, make similar characters but is it the same to rep, replicate known characters and that sort of banter that they have? But yeah, I mean I guess we'll see. You know, uh, it's interesting, it's there, uh, it's going to be coming out. So, for anybody that might be interested in that, there's that and then, um, kind of like that.

MattLong6 Gaming 16:55

Okay you got. No, this is franny. You just saw muffins. He doesn't have a yoshi collar. Sorry, but we just had to do a cat switch out, sorry, cat swap, that's what they call it.

Brandon Hurles 17:10

No, we got a new GBA style game coming out and it's called I hope I'm saying this right Pip Estrello and the Cursed Yo-Yo, and this one does have gameplay out there for it as well as screenshots and stuff, play out there for it as well as screenshots and stuff. But it definitely lives up to the idea of looking just like a GBA game, because it definitely does. It's pretty interesting 2D top-down adventure game laying claim to the title of the first Yo-Yo vania game, traversing a city with four distinctive neighborhoods and associated crime lords to take down, the player wields a yo-yo, both as a weapon and useful navigation tool. So, um, yeah, it looks, uh, it looks interesting. You know, we we get a lot of these retro style games, not as many trying to replicate necessarily the gba. Yeah, um, so it looks kind of cool. I figured I'd at least mention it.

Andre GameXplain 18:06

It's getting, yeah I I actually gotta do a preview for it. I played the game for about five hours or so.

Andre GameXplain 18:11

The first quarter or so of the game, yeah, and it's. It's really neat. It's doing some really interesting things there. I think it's, you know, it kind of feels like a bit zelda like in its overall ethos, but still very unique, like having a, you know, like having the yo-yo itself which is your main weapon. But then one thing I really like is just how you upgrade your abilities. I mean, it's not entirely new, because you have like a kind of upgrade like tree thing.

GBA-style Game: Pip Estrello

Andre GameXplain 18:34

Sure, what's interesting about this is you can you can choose what power you want immediately for it, without cashing in anything. But then you're put under contract where the only way to pay it off is to go out and battle enemies, and it starts paying it off immediately using the coins that you collect. So if you, if you already have the coins, you you need to pay it off. You can't use those. You have to go out and actively collect them and during that time, though, you get the benefit of that, of that skill, tree perk or whatever, but at the same time you're you're punished with another penalty until you pay it off. Like, for instance, you may have a part of your heart meter or something. Um, in addition, it's got paper mario like badges, which I'm always on board, for. I love badges. Give me badges in every game except mario wonder. That's one game where I don't like it, but yeah yeah, yeah, it's.

Brandon Hurles 19:20

Uh, it looks, it looks cool, that's cool. You got to preview it and stuff Definitely interesting, definitely Zelda vibes. That's the first thing I thought, and I like to see these different indie-style games. That's what I find myself playing a lot in between the, you know, aaa and Nintendo releases and other stuff that comes out. So, yeah, it looks cool. I think I'll check this one out myself.

Brandon Hurles 19:46

And it looks to be coming out on switch and ps5, from what I can see, yeah, in late may, late may. Yeah, did I say that? Right, is it?

Andre GameXplain 19:50

pip, pip you said it as right as I did, so I'm hoping I got it right okay, all right, cool, cool apparently it's an italian word, so you know, I guess it can make it sound more italian like. But you basically have it okay all right, cool, uh.

Xbox Revoking Alan Wake Access

Brandon Hurles 20:03

So next, this one. This one's really interesting because I got a random pop-up while I was working through the week on the computer. But this is what is uh kind of scary about digital, uh, digital games and what I don't like. But xbox took away a game that was free, which was alan wake remastered and this is my brother's, one of my his favorite games really alan wake well, I got this notification that popped up on my pc that xbox took this game away and I'm like what?

Brandon Hurles 20:33

so I had to like look it up on google, like what was going on. Like you know, anybody else gets notification, but it was free in january and I, I guess I didn't know. I I just got the tweet, I think, from Warrior64 or something, that it was free on there but apparently it was set with some kind of loophole and the users were able to retain access to it until now. But it says Xbox Gamers platform is revoking access to the version of Alan Wake Remaster that was accidentally given away for free. Every once in a while, xbox and other digital gaming storefronts accidentally give away games free.

Brandon Hurles 21:11

This happens very rarely, but it is an issue, has popped up on more than one, more than one occasion. Uh, typically when this happens, access to the accidental freebie is revoked pretty quickly, but this wasn't the case for Alan Wake remastered. So this, this happened in January and they're just now taking it away. I mean, to me it's like that's kind of you know, they can just take your game away like that. You know what I mean. You claim it and put it on your console and it's gone.

Andre GameXplain 21:41

As you said. That's why it's kind of scary part about, you know, digital ownership and they don't really ever own it yourself. Yeah, um, I will say, though, you know, while I'm generally anti, you know, pulling things about, you know, uh, especially after it's been purchased, if it was genuinely a mistake, which it sounds like, I don't think they advertised it or anything. Yeah, I didn't read about I it doesn't bother me that much. Like everyone got lucky who got the game, or, and hopefully they played it by now um, but especially because we don't know what their contract is with, you know, the developer of the game. Yeah, microsoft doesn't own this game, right, so this could cost the developer sales and I don't know they have to pay them back for it. I don't know what's going to happen from that, but this is a case where it doesn't really bother me because people were lucky enough and they were there early to get the game and hopefully play it. But, you know, revoking access to it, I think is understandable in this case yeah, and I mean that.

Brandon Hurles 22:29

That is the. The one thing is that it was it was an accident. I've got the actual uh pop-up message that came up, but it says you recently acquired a version of alan wake remastered that was not intended to be available. Therefore, we are canceling your order, refund, refunding any payment made and removing it from your my Games and apps list. We apologize for the inconvenience. And it says you can visit them to view your billing history.

Andre GameXplain 22:52

What would be really cool, I think, is it gave people a small token of gratitude for the mishap, even though they already got the benefit of playing the game without paying for it. But I don't know, throw some like xbox points wherever the hell xbox uses, you know, like something they can like cash in for you know some part of a game or something yeah, I, I even got the pop-up for when it was said to be free on there because, like, I was not aware of it being like a loophole thing.

Brandon Hurles 23:19

Like I get these tweets all the time right about these games that are on sale or they end up being free, whether it be like epic game store, you know, steam or any of these different platforms, playstation, whatever it is but it just says you know, alan wake remaster is free on xbox live. You also claim free trial of alan wake 2 and uh, yeah, that's it. That's all that the tweet that went out said. So this wasn't like a, you know, like a weird loophole of people doing something on purpose type of thing. The verify make sure that. You know I wasn't like going through some kind of loophole because I wasn't aware of doing that, but yeah, I don't know. So apparently, if you saw that tweet and you claimed it, then it's no longer available.

Brandon Hurles 24:04

But yeah hopefully you played it by now, if not, I guess by the game you know.

MattLong6 Gaming 24:08

Uh, alanway's pretty cool, so yeah, I never, never played it, but yeah, my brother loves it. I I don't not sure what it is about, but my brother loves it. Um, in my community we try to uh post all the free games that we can find. We try to post that in. Uh my discord oh yeah, yeah, for everyone else nice.

Brandon Hurles 24:33

Yeah, I know amazon does a bunch of free games every month and I have not even tried.

MattLong6 Gaming 24:39

I've downloaded a few. I've never tried it. Never tried amazon games, yet I have it, like their thing, downloaded on my desktop, but I've never played any of them yeah, it's uh, it's pretty cool.

GameCube Controller for Switch 2

Brandon Hurles 24:54

You get games on some of the other different platforms and stuff. Uh, so like gog is a big one for you know them and and stuff like that. So, all right, next one I'm actually going to pull up just so I can show image here. So it's from go nintendo and uh, they put out that rumor of an fcc. Well, the fcc filing may point to a GameCube controller for Switch 2. That's the rumor Born to play on Switch 2.

MattLong6 Gaming 25:33

The best controller.

Brandon Hurles 25:34

A lot of people think that, yes, a lot of people think that I love it so much that I got the. I forget the company, but they made GameCube Joy-Cons. I've got those, oh yeah.

Andre GameXplain 25:49

That's what I use on my Switch. My previous roommate had those too, yeah.

Brandon Hurles 25:53

They're good, they're really good. I mean, I love it, but yeah, oh go ahead.

MattLong6 Gaming 25:58

Did Alan Awake 1 or 2 get revoked? It just said remastered right to get revoked.

Brandon Hurles 26:06

It just said remastered right, it's probably the first one, is the first one. Okay, yeah, uh, but yeah, no, I mean this is interesting, but to me I don't know what you guys think what. What do you think, andre, on this?

Andre GameXplain 26:15

before I talk on it, as to whether it's like a real thing that's happening or I, so I didn't look in the story too much, unfortunately, um, but from what I saw that it you know it's possible it could be used for reference perhaps. So I didn't look in the story too much, unfortunately, um, but from what I saw that it you know it's possible it could be used for reference perhaps. So I don't know if it's actually happening or not. I hope it does, though, because for one, as uh mad was saying, it's it's an amazing controller. It's still my favorite wave bird.

Andre GameXplain 26:36

Yeah, this one's a wave bird, right? Exactly, um, I was trying to actually look for my normal one today. I was using it for something, but couldn't't find it. In any case, they're both amazing controllers, and this one's about to be wireless too, I think, is what it mentioned, right? So even more fitting. Anyways, I would use a gaming controller in any game I can, so if they support it, I will use it, especially, of course, for the next Smash Bros game which they've been supporting since the Wii or since the GameCube I mean since the GameCube version of it so you can't give up now, right.

Andre GameXplain 27:08

So this does make sense.

Brandon Hurles 27:10

My one thought was Smash Bros Community. That was my thought because you know they did it for Wii U and obviously Switch and stuff. So I'm like, well, they're probably just, you know, bringing that over. Hey, we're going to give you a wireless version of this, and, um, yeah, I mean, I think that's probably what it would be for I would imagine, because I think the smash community probably be a little outraged or something, because they just expect it at this point. Right, exactly, there is one.

Andre GameXplain 27:40

Now, you know exactly, yeah, there's. There's one other thing, though I think it could be used for uh, and that would be gamecube nso if they, have to bring a virtual console or and slash or remaster more gamecube games. Yes, it would make a lot of sense to have a way of using that controller on the system really would.

Brandon Hurles 27:56

Yeah, people were really holding out for gamecube on switch one. I never thought that. I actually never thought that was going to happen, just because of the kind of drip of games, like there was a slow drip there for a while of games. You know what I mean. It was like very random at some points, and you know we just get the most random games all the time there's three japanese games I've never heard of before yeah, exactly like.

Brandon Hurles 28:23

Yeah, here's this japanese puzzle game. It's like, oh cool, like one of them was really cool, though that came out recently. Don't remember the title, but it was a satel of you game. That was one thing that people didn't really know oh, yeah, that uh with the witches, or yeah.

Andre GameXplain 28:38

Yeah, that was cool actually, yeah I played it too.

Brandon Hurles 28:41

It was pretty neat. I can't remember the title of it, but it was cool. I mean, see a satel of you game on there was neat. So but yeah, that's what what I think as well, and so, and it's mash, so Not that they did make it like the doc could play discs.

MattLong6 Gaming 28:56

That would be awesome.

Andre GameXplain 28:59

All these dragons worth the game cube yeah.

MattLong6 Gaming 29:02

Yeah or I. I always wish that this Nintendo always does something, always wish that the nintendo always does something different. Like the, we got motion controls. Will you? You introduce the game pad 3ds, touch the 3d? Um, so what's the gimmick for switch 2? I wish that they would add the ability to backwards compatible uh, ds and 3ds games on. It could be so easy in my opinion, but I'm not sure I do. I don't think they'll do it because no money in it for them except for maybe adding another nso tier.

Andre GameXplain 29:36

Right, like you want a 3ds tier now or ds tier if you want to get those games.

Andre GameXplain 29:41

I do think it's possible, though only because the mouse that the joy-con yeah it does yeah seems like that could finally make ds games work on a tv um, where you can display both screens at once and you can just use a mouse for the touchscreen, or if you're playing in handout form. That would work too, without the mouse, to just use a touchscreen. So I hope it happens, because it would be nice, because if the Switch 2 lasts as long as the Switch 1 has, you're going to see more than just SNES and 64-bit games and NES on there.

Andre GameXplain 30:10

Right, they're going to have to add a few more consoles, especially because they've already burned through a good chunk of their really good popular games in those previous systems.

Brandon Hurles 30:19

They have yeah. They republished Mario 64 and that trilogy Look here's the thing about that, right's the thing about that right. That wasn't a real remaster no, no galaxy 2 on that so no galaxy 2.

MattLong6 Gaming 30:35

I thought it'd be a dlc and they never released it.

Brandon Hurles 30:37

Yeah, that was the rumor, like it's gonna be a free game that they give you digitally. You know if you bought this, whatever yeah, that didn't happen.

Andre GameXplain 30:46

I guess like giving three free stuff away no, they don't, no, they, they don't.

Brandon Hurles 30:50

I might be the one weirdo I don't know if I actually don't know genuinely if anybody else feels this way but I always like galaxy 2 better than I did one, actually I agree with that you know I love both, but I actually love both as well when I go back to playing them like I two just sucks me and I can't stop.

Andre GameXplain 31:06

Like this game, that game's, it's just pure joy.

Brandon Hurles 31:09

That would have been great to have on the Switch to replay again, because it's so much fun. I loved it. Okay, so we also got some more Nintendo news here.

Nintendo SF Store Opening

MattLong6 Gaming 31:18

I have some Nintendo news whenever, okay.

Andre GameXplain 31:22

Is it breaking?

MattLong6 Gaming 31:24

No, it's not breaking.

Brandon Hurles 31:27

We do the breaking news, so if something comes up, let me know. All right, we'll bring that up after this, because it's just a quick thing. Nintendo San Francisco is opening May 15th of this year. It'll be located at 331 Powell Street, on the corner of Powell and Jiri in Union Square. It'll be the second retail location in the US for all things nintendo opening exact almost exactly 20 years after nintendo new york. So that's crazy interesting, um cool story on this. I always wanted to go to new york as a kid because I wanted to go to the pokemon center that they had. Do you remember that when they had the Pokemon Center, I wanted to go to that? So bad as a kid.

Andre GameXplain 32:14

I'm sorry, because you never made it.

Brandon Hurles 32:18

I never made it. No, it was something. They always had exclusive stuff they do at their store. They always have exclusive stuff. But as a kid there's always things I couldn't get these different Pokemon cards I couldn't get, you know, these giveaway events for the games that I couldn't get and I just always wanted to visit. But no, I mean, I, this is pretty cool, it is. I think it is a little strange, man, that they've only got like, you know, there's something gonna be the second one, um, it's interesting. But then, but new york and and uh, california make makes sense the most sense to put right, like it makes to me, makes the most.

Andre GameXplain 32:59

It's not in ohio, you know it would have made sense, yeah, 15 years ago, like what took so long yeah second store.

Andre GameXplain 33:05

The switch has been the number one platform for eight years. How did it take this right for them to actually make a successor? It's I mean, I think they should do this a lot sooner, plus, you know a few other stories at least. Yeah, um, but I think it's good. I mean, this is fun. I actually used to live not too far from the store or where it's going to be, but I live in san francisco, or the area at least, for 15 years and in san francisco proper like five years, I think, or a couple years at least and uh, it's a, it's a neat area that's going in. Um, it's like right below or right around, like a cheesecake factory, so it's already got it near an apple store too. There's a lot going on around there. Um, it's probably the best place for them for them to be in in san francisco. So, um, yeah, I mean, if I ever return to that city, I'll definitely drop by by.

Brandon Hurles 33:49

So yeah, for sure. Yeah, I would love to visit at some point. That'd be cool. So, yeah, I'll never know, maybe if I'm out at the convention that way or something like that, it'd be a cool place to drop by. Yeah, that'd be awesome. So that's a small one there. Do you want to bring up what you had?

MattLong6 Gaming 34:10

Yeah, I sent you the link if you want to put on screen, but it's nothing great, just uh, the club nintendo program is discontinuing, so, if you remember, they would give you, like gold coins when you buy something on switch and then you could redeem it. Um, that's going to go away. Uh, it looks like in april is the last day to select a 2015 elite status gift, whatever that is, and the last day to redeem coins for rewards or download games is june 30th and then july 31st the last day to redeem club nintendo download codes from the nintendoShop. Just wanted to let people know in case anyone cared.

Brandon Hurles 34:52

Yeah, no worries, we didn't have the podcast last week, so I think this came out last week, right, andre? Yeah?

Andre GameXplain 35:00

I don't remember. I remember them talking about getting rid of the coins. It came out.

MattLong6 Gaming 35:06

February 22nd, so I'm a little behind.

Brandon Hurles 35:09

More than a week. Okay, alright, february 22nd, so'm a little behind. More than a week, february 22nd, so that was a couple weeks ago raise awareness though yeah, raise awareness.

Brandon Hurles 35:16

Let you know, because it's about to end. I'm not really surprised by this. Honestly. I was like it's kind of a bummer because I like collecting the coins to get the physical goodies, even though you gotta pay shipping on them still, of course. You still gotta pay shipping on them still, of course. You still got to pay the shipping, so you're paying whatever that product is actually worth. So it's, you know, they know what they're doing there. But, yeah, not super surprised but a little unfortunate about that because it was kind of a cool program. I miss the old school Club Nintendo, though that was where it was kind of a cool program. I miss the old school from Nintendo, though that was where it was at.

Andre GameXplain 35:54

I miss the good old days of the Nintendo Power catalog, where every issue, like every Nintendo Power issue, would come with a secondary catalog and inside each of those was like two power stamps that gave you a dollar off for each one, and so I would just save those up and you could cash it in for whatever you wanted. I would just get CD holders or statues. Some of the things in the back there are from Nintendo Power. It's just really cool. I miss those days.

Brandon Hurles 36:21

I've got a bunch of older issues that have some of those and stuff. I've seen that it's really cool to see what they offered. Then it was pretty neat. Yeah, definitely, definitely missed, because you know there were other, like I, thinking about the magazines. Like I miss, like you know, the demo discs and and all the different things you could get with, like those different magazines. Of course, nintendo didn't do that, but the Dreamcast magazine and the xbox magazine, playstation they all gave out demo discs with the different magazines.

Andre GameXplain 36:54

So it was super exciting back then. I swear to god like yeah I was.

Brandon Hurles 36:59

I was subscribed to nintendo power. Uh, from the year I'm I'm a little younger, but from the year 2000, all the way until the last issue, I never missed an issue, which I believe it ended in 2012. Was the last issue?

Andre GameXplain 37:17

Yeah, I think that sounds right, yeah, I think it was 2012 was the last issue. Well, that sadly means you missed seeing my amazing Banjo-Kazooie time in uh power board thing they had the competitions for oh well, no, I've got a bunch of, a whole bunch of.

Brandon Hurles 37:33

I got the first issue right yeah, I got the first issue. Um, I've got like the third issue, fourth issue. I know I don't have issue two, but there's a bunch of other random ones I have too as well.

Andre GameXplain 37:44

I've got a whole collection of them.

MattLong6 Gaming 37:45

So unfortunately my time is in the one with tonic trouble on the cover, which I don't think anyone cares about so that's funny, I don't know why, because demo disc it would be real fun, because every once in a while they make a mistake and actually put the full game on the oh, wow, yeah I was watching a video by larry bundy jr, who was was talking about that.

Brandon Hurles 38:08

Oh, yeah, he makes good content. I didn't know that Interesting. Well, we got some dang exciting news, Just kidding. So, Star Wars Hunters I make a joke because I kind of thought this game I was like we don't really need this. That's how I felt when they announced this game to begin with. But Star Wars Hunters is shutting down on October 1st, Final content update coming April 15th. I personally don't know a single person that's even played this game.

Andre GameXplain 38:45

I didn't know this was a game.

MattLong6 Gaming 38:47

So that's why it's closing down.

Brandon Hurles 38:50

Well, it's a free-to-play game. So think in the aspect of Marvel Rivals, which did very well and we talked about it openly on here multiple times that we crapped on that game so hard, we thought Marvel Rivals for sure was going to fail as well. Same with this game, because it was like why we need an overwatch clone when you got overwatch and nobody's playing overwatch 2 anymore? So what do we need this for? Uh, and then you know, lo and behold, I play marvel rivals and I like it, you know, but I can put a lot of hours into it actually.

Brandon Hurles 39:24

Um, I think it's very fun, but this one I haven't played. I don't know anybody that's played it. I asked around a little bit ago to check to see if I did know anybody that played it and their thoughts, because I don't really care to check it out. Yeah, I guess the user base just wasn't there for it and they really didn't do heavy promotion, if you didn't even know about it, andre. Yeah, I mean, they obviously just didn't do a good job with it. So a little interesting. I'm taking it, matt, that you haven't played it either.

MattLong6 Gaming 40:00

No, I'd never heard of it.

Brandon Hurles 40:02

Okay, yes.

Andre GameXplain 40:04

I'm assuming it was an online multiplayer game, right yeah online only. I feel like it's such a hard space to get into. You would think being free would appeal itself to a lot of people, but it's just like it's just more noise.

Brandon Hurles 40:15

It's so much free, yeah, exactly.

Andre GameXplain 40:19

I only pay attention to that stuff. If anything, it's a warning sign. It's like stay away, I don't want to play a free game. They're usually not great, you're just like me yeah, yeah, we checked out.

Brandon Hurles 40:28

The only reason we checked out marvel rivals because we do our weekly uh, saturday streams, so we needed a multiplayer game to play community is like, hey, check out marvel rivals, that is actually good. Like normally, a game like that I wouldn't touch. I've never played overwatch 2. I played overwatch, like I think, one time. You know I just like I don't by nature I don't care about this type of games usually. You know like there's exceptions like F-099. Like I love that. It's really good. Yeah, that's great.

Andre GameXplain 41:04

Fortnite's fun, of course, but I feel like it's hard to get into that space, especially if you need, like, a lot of players because you need to reach, like a critical max and uh, that's just difficult to do right, there's competition out there yeah, there's, there's a lot out there, but uh, I mean, it's definitely.

Brandon Hurles 41:21

Um, I mean it's always a bummer when games get shut down so quickly because this is, this is a this year game.

Star Wars Hunters Shutdown

Brandon Hurles 41:29

Oh, this, oh oh sorry, sorry late last year, so within the year, within the year of it coming out, um, so it didn't last long whatsoever, which you know it's happened. We've seen it happen before. The few other things, obviously, concord, being like the big one I got, got shut down pretty much right away. This space, like you said, andre, too much noise, there's too much going on with it. I hope this is a warning sign to these companies that it's not good to invest in just this online-only concept or this free-to-play, because it was, it's become a trend, you know? Um, so it was. It was worrying me there for a bit, but you know, I don't know were you there for payday 3?

MattLong6 Gaming 42:21

launch it yeah it was terrible, absolutely terrible, and I I played it the day before on like a beta thing or whatever it was, or pre-ordered it no content and it. It worked just fine. It was a good game. But then, um, launch day and it sucked. You couldn't even load a game in half the time because it was even if you had a disc, you still had to be connected to the internet I swear, I just heard a mario coin.

Brandon Hurles 42:46

Yeah, my.

MattLong6 Gaming 42:47

My text message is mario I'll put it on. Uh, do not oh goodness gracious at least there's an appropriate sound. Yeah, yeah, seriously, that's when um someone calls me is the ringtone of del uh island del fino, from uh mario sunshine nice I love

Andre GameXplain 43:08

it that's a good one that's a good one.

Brandon Hurles 43:11

Uh, in more not shocking news, I guess you know, based on some track records recently, especially the nintendo games, uh, xenoblade chronicles x definitive edition has leaked online already, um, which I don't like, you know I I'm fully against this with brand new games, current generation games, um, but I mean it's happened with a bunch. I think donkey kong country returns hd leaked, I think.

Brandon Hurles 43:44

Well, didn't um tears of of the Kingdom Zelda yeah both Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes Echoes leaked as well. Yeah, it sucks, but I mean, how do you, do you guys know of a way to prevent this from happening? Like, how do you think this is even happening?

MattLong6 Gaming 44:09

Do whateverney does and keep it under lock and key yeah, bring back the disney vault right.

Brandon Hurles 44:14

Nintendo vault um, we talked about this before but like I genuinely like I'm not sure if it's somebody would. I don't think it's somebody within the companies, but that's possibility there, I think we we see images of people holding these physical games like early right, like so it's got to be that they're dumping the game.

Andre GameXplain 44:35

Yeah I, yeah, I think it's just. I mean they have to ship these games to stores in advance, of course, so everyone can synchronize the release right, and there's just no way to, you know, prevent people from getting early access that way. I mean, I know people who've gone them on the pop stores themselves and just bought the game early from there because you know they're they're friendly with the the other yeah, they just hand it over.

Andre GameXplain 44:56

Um, I mean, they pay for it, of course, but yeah, that's legit. But then from that point, they can do whatever with the game. Um, I don't, yeah, I don't fully understand how the security system works on switch, but I think the fact that the original system got hacked the first of the system, which there's a ton of, got hacked- I think made it easy for people to.

Andre GameXplain 45:13

I could be talking on my butt right now, but I think that made it easier for people to grab the keys needed to emulate the games, and so I assume, if that is a problem, switch 2 would probably address that by. Oh, I mean they've already addressed it on Switch, but because there are older versions that work, I mean they've already addressed it on Switch, but because there are older versions that work, it's still a problem. But I imagine Switch 2, they've done their best to prevent this from happening again, although, who knows, people get creative.

MattLong6 Gaming 45:36

They'll find a way eventually. It'll take some time, hopefully.

Brandon Hurles 45:40

Yeah, I mean that's the whole reason they did the V2 Switch, I believe right.

Brandon Hurles 45:53

Yeah, that was the whole reason to prevent what was going on, but there were already so many out there. I know people I've seen listings on Facebook Marketplace that people are listing this as a higher price because this is a V1 Switch. So you know what you're buying this for. You know what I mean. So it's actually kind of hard to find a V1 Switch, because anytime I see Switches come by, they're usually a V2 Switch. There I see switches come by like they're usually a V2 switch. There's just more of them out there, I feel like, but yeah, they seem to like sell for a higher price and stuff.

Brandon Hurles 46:18

Because people are doing that and I think it is the shipping to the store. I just like, how soon do they need to get to the stores? Like I wonder, I would like to know somehow, like how soon these are being shipped the stores. Like I wonder, I wonder, I would like to know somehow, like how soon these are being shipped to stores? Like are we talking two weeks before? Are we talking this? This is already there a month before? Are we talking? You know, it's got it's got to be like at least a week, right? Like we gotta make sure that you're shipping all over the world, right, so it's gotta be. I would think several weeks, I don't know, like how soon do you need to ship these games to the store? I think that might be one of the problems, and you would think that they try to figure out a way to address it from happening.

Brandon Hurles 47:04

But I wonder, because they're focused on Switch 2, do they even care now, at this point? And I don't know.

Andre GameXplain 47:15

Yeah, I'm actually surprised they didn't release Switch 2 sooner, just to try and head off all the emulation earlier. But I guess if you had the OLED and Switch Lite would be enough in the revision they made, but it wasn't obviously.

Brandon Hurles 47:28

Yeah, I mean the launch of it's, the, this game's in like a week, so that gives us sort of a time frame that yeah, hey, there's at least a week there. Uh, but I've seen I'm trying to remember which game it was but somebody took a picture of the, the physical game in their hand. It was like a month early. I want to say it was. It might have been echoes, I think it was echoes. Somebody on x, you know, like you've seen those, I'm sure, andre right, where people have taken photos with these games early physically in their hand, right, yeah, and they're like in, you know, not a like warehouse location, very obviously by the, the picture and stuff. So yeah, it's interesting.

Brandon Hurles 48:10

Um, you know, kind of sucks, because also, what that leads to is, you know, spoilers and stuff before the game even comes out and like, yes, this is a, a remaster, but it does have additional content. So this one is not such a big deal with that. But games like echoes or tears of the Kingdom or things like that, it does matter To me, it definitely, and it's happening across all consoles. So this isn't just a Nintendo thing, but I've noticed it's happening with a lot of the AAA releases from Nintendo.

Andre GameXplain 48:42

Mr Coffee in the chat mentions that back in the day when the game industry was smaller, that games often arrived at stores day of release or uh, or they pick it up from local distributors directly before sunrise. So that's interesting. That's definitely changed because, yeah, we know they get the games at least a few days early, if not more yeah, yeah.

Brandon Hurles 49:02

No, that's definitely interesting that and that makes sense to me. Uh, I kind of brought up that point about like doing a one day shipping thing, but a very, very quick shipping, because I feel like they can afford to ship those out, maybe with a quick shipping, but maybe not. I don't know the logistics of all of it, but that is interesting for sure. Thanks for letting us know that, mr Coffee. I know that, mr coffee. Uh, there, was.

MattLong6 Gaming 49:30

Um. I know that the lego magazine also has leaked games before, because they made toys for the game and then they released pictures of their toys before the the game was announced yeah, I used to get the lego magazine.

Brandon Hurles 49:47

I loved le back in the day. I still think it's cool. If it was affordable I'd still be into it. I really wanted to get the NES and the Mario question block and Atari 2600 and all those video game ones that came out. But, my Lord, our Lego is expensive. You think gaming is expensive? Get the Lego man.

Andre GameXplain 50:09

I see the Lego right here, theygo man. I see the game systems oh my god they are.

Brandon Hurles 50:12

They're well. That's the thing. It's like buying the nes.

MattLong6 Gaming 50:15

It's like I can get a real nes for way cheaper than that yeah, this is a lego set, you know, but collectors are going to collect um should we take a moment and look at some of the comments we have? Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we can go there cosmic says um have, do any of us play, uh, atomic hearts, because apparently there's a new dlc for that coming out? I, I haven't played atomic heart, um, but I don't know. I didn't know what you guys did, or not, by chance, I haven't played it.

Brandon Hurles 50:52

No, I'm aware of it. I don't know what type of game it is, though, or anything. I don't know if it's like a dark souls type game.

Andre GameXplain 50:58

I can't remember I feel like every game is considered yeah yeah, for sure I can't

MattLong6 Gaming 51:05

remember siege uh tournament happened and the FaZe clan won and they apparently went up against BDS and wiped the floor with them. Okay, Nice?

Brandon Hurles 51:17

I don't know anything about that.

Mario's Universal Appeal

MattLong6 Gaming 51:20

Nor I either. Cosmic's my editor and he's really, really into siege, so I don't know. Are there any other comments and anything else, guys in the you guys want? I'm talking to the audience, sorry. Any of you guys want to leave any comments? We're reading comments right now, but we're going to head back over to our normal stuff here in a second.

Brandon Hurles 51:44

I know fawn wanted to talk yeah, I've just been uh pulling some comments up and stuff here, here and there as I see them, but uh, sorry I I stole away from the podcast.

MattLong6 Gaming 51:54

Let's go back to the podcast all right.

Brandon Hurles 51:58

Uh, we've got silent hill f? Uh has revealed some new information about the story and setting and different things going on with it. There is a? Uh trailer reveal out there for it as well that you can look up. Um actually might be able to see if I can do this without potentially um maybe. Maybe that's not gonna work, so but uh anyway. So what they've said on it is combining the classic psychological horrors of the silent hill franchise with an unexpected japanese setting.

Brandon Hurles 52:42

Uh looks to bring the core elements of silent hill to players in a new way. The familiar other world replaces its traditional chain link fencing and barbed wire with overgrown flowers and animalistic tendrils. Uh, just deformed monsters that bring the tears of japanese horror to life. So it definitely looks like a? Um. Looking at the images looks like a like visually a very good looking game. Um, and definitely it gives me like kind of I don't know something like the grudge or the ring, where, like those, those came out of japan first type type of vibes that the might might be going for. Just based on a couple of the screenshots that I see, but it does look interesting. I still haven't played the Silent Hill 2 remake though, so I don't know if either of you guys have played.

MattLong6 Gaming 53:37

I haven't played Silent Hill.

Andre GameXplain 53:38

I've heard it's good, but I haven't played it yeah, I played about an hour of the remake and then I did actually finish the Wii version forever ago. Shattered Memories, oh yeah yeah, I remember that.

Brandon Hurles 53:49

Yeah, yeah, that was I. I liked that then. I don't know if it would still hold up. Now I have it still. I haven't played it again since I beat it when it when it was new.

Andre GameXplain 54:01

I remember being chased by those horrible monsters. I hate being chased in games and I'm like oh god, this whole game is built around it for sure, uh, but yeah, yeah, definitely interesting.

Brandon Hurles 54:12

There's a big cult following and stuff for Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 Remake, I think, did very, very well. I think it brought a lot of attention to the series and kind of made it not so much just a cult classic series anymore. So I think it's good. I mean, this is what they need to do to keep a series you know running is keep these games alive, because there for a long time we weren't getting any games and it's good to see a series you know doing well, so that's cool it is absolutely all right, and this one's kind of a quick one.

Brandon Hurles 54:47

I thought it was very interesting, but this just came out today that Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 3 was officially announced. I know the game did very well. Me and Mark played through the whole thing on stream, so we had a pretty good time with it. Have either of you guys played one or two?

MattLong6 Gaming 55:07

I have not played it. I have played the tabletop version a little bit, but not a lot yeah, I don't.

Brandon Hurles 55:15

Yeah, the one thing that we kept saying about it during stream is like we don't know what's going on at all. All the way to the end of the game, we didn't understand what was going on in the story. We didn't get it. Um, we also didn't play one and we don't play the tabletop games, so we just didn't understand what the heck was going on in the game. But the gameplay was fun.

Brandon Hurles 55:36

It's like Gears of War, like classic Gears of War, so it was pretty interesting. But, yeah, we had a pretty good time with it. So that's cool to see. I know it did very well. It had a very active user base and stuff on Steam when it first came out. Well, I had a very active user base and stuff on steam when it first came out. And, um, obviously, if they, you know, kicked off development for a new game already there, it definitely did well for them. So that's cool to see, for sure. And then, last for news is this is this one's kind of a weird one, because we don't know anything on it, necessarily, but people are wondering why Pokemon Legends ZA is rated E10+ rather than just E. So I thought it was kind of interesting.

Brandon Hurles 56:24

I wonder what exactly it'll say there and what's causing that. But it's kind of funny that, um, I saw a whole bunch of stuff about this like all over, like people talking about. I'm also kind of like in the pokemon sphere of things and social media, so I'm getting fed that stuff all the time. I saw a lot of people talking about it more than I would think, because of violence, violence, keep going. Yeah, it's, I'm, that's I, I don't know, and pokemon always had that, though what changed exactly?

Andre GameXplain 56:59

yeah, I I personally don't think like anything changed. It just comes down to the people that rated the game general well. I I guess I think sometimes it's handled, I forget how it's handled.

Brandon Hurles 57:08

now Is it like?

Andre GameXplain 57:09

individuals that rated it. Well, I know the MSRP, msr, no, not the MSRB, the ESRB.

Brandon Hurles 57:15

ESRB, esrb, no. What's the movie?

Andre GameXplain 57:17

version MSRP.

Brandon Hurles 57:18

MSRP? I don't know. No, MSRP is prices.

Andre GameXplain 57:24

Okay, that organization themselves looks at it. I think it's a little different than gaming, where it's based on specific moments that they gained a lot of percent over. In any case, I don't think it means anything, but I remember when Smash Bros Brawl came out, it gota T rating somehow even though it was functionally no different from Smash Bros Melee. Yeah, exactly.

MattLong6 Gaming 57:44

Oh, it was Melee actually. Oh my gosh, I never looked at this Look. Oh, it was Melee actually. Oh my gosh, I never looked at this.

Andre GameXplain 57:52

Look at this Look at this, Look at this so ready T Yep, t E 10 and up. What Like what? What is that? Okay, I didn't even actually. If anything, I would say, smash Brothers Wii U had more.

MattLong6 Gaming 58:04

E 10 and up again. What the heck.

Andre GameXplain 58:05

Wii. What the heck when you had bayonetta right like I think that's more yeah it's more like risque. I guess exactly mature yeah so I don't think it means anything. I think you know if it does mean something, it's such a minor thing it's such a minor thing.

Brandon Hurles 58:19

Yeah, it really doesn't matter at the end of the day, but I thought it was pretty like six minutes. What the heck I guess I don't pay attention to nintendo games like ever with that, because once you can buy anyone, does it matter? Yeah yeah, yeah, it doesn't obviously as an adult doesn't doesn't necessarily matter to me, but, um, yeah, I know that's. That's interesting. What wasn't there like one nintendo game was it? Was it on the ds maybe, or something that got an m rating? Wasn't there a nintendo game that got an m rating?

Andre GameXplain 58:50

well, they recently that, uh, whatever it's called famicom club or whatever detective club yeah I got an m rating from the tent oh yeah, yeah, they did get an m rating, didn't it?

Brandon Hurles 59:02

there's some, maybe it was a third party developer, but it was like kind of shocking or something to see an m rating on a nintendo system or something at the time as we like everybody's talking about, I remember that the only other thing I can think of was, uh, conqueror's bad for a day, though that was technically published by rare and yeah, right, yeah, that very much felt like a nintendo published thing even but yeah, yeah, it did, it did.

Brandon Hurles 59:24

Yeah, that's uh, I forgot about the famicom detective Club, that's right Interesting they don't normally steer far away from that.

MattLong6 Gaming 59:35

I'm looking up. Pikmin 1 and 2 on the GameCube are each rated E, but then it's E10 and up together.

Andre GameXplain 59:43

I guess two E's make E10+. I guess so.

Brandon Hurles 59:47

The politics of ESRB have changed as well. Something there? Yeah, there's something going on there, but no, I just thought it was interesting to bring that up because, um, a lot of people talking about it, it's just all over.

Andre GameXplain 1:00:01

Nothing too as well every couple years, I think is on it here. Yeah, yeah, the internal ruling, and yeah he is always on it.

Brandon Hurles 1:00:08

He's always on top of things seems like yeah, yeah, he needs a.

Brandon Hurles 1:00:11

He needs to come on the podcast one of these days, all right, uh, yeah, so I just came up with some questions and I guess we can roll through a couple of these if you guys are okay with that. Uh, let's see the first one I had. I just said what do you think makes the Super Mario series so universally beloved across different generations? And I was kind of thinking obviously a little more Nintendo with this one, especially with having Andre on and Matt you as well, you're a big Nintendo fan. But I was kind of thinking about kind of what made Mario kind of attach itself to so many people and why it's so big. Now they say bigger than mickey mouse. Mickey mouse isn't really relevant now. Yeah, it hasn't made itself relevant since, like the mickey mouse clubhouse or whatever.

Andre GameXplain 1:01:00

The last does mickey have a movie of his own?

Brandon Hurles 1:01:02

I think not right, the movie is a big point there, but I do remember people saying that before the movie, that I remember hearing that that he was the most well-known character or something like universally.

Andre GameXplain 1:01:17

Yeah, he definitely was for a huge chunk of time. Yeah.

Brandon Hurles 1:01:20

Yeah. So what do you guys think? Kind of attached itself to everybody, because everybody knows Mario, and is it? You know, it was just something I was sort of thinking about. I mean, we all love mario, but what makes it stand out more than, say, even like sonic, you know, in the back in the the heyday, of course they had their rivalry, but I think sonic would be, you know, probably like somewhere in like 10th place to to mario or something like that as far as being recognizable to everybody at this point. So I just kind of wonder about that what made Mario attach itself to Maddox?

MattLong6 Gaming 1:02:03

sorry my wife's on the phone so she's talking. That's why I muted, but anyways, to me it's just nostalgic. Everyone loves Mario, pretty much Just like Lego. No one hates Lego. I hate Lego. No no, no, don't be that guy.

Brandon Hurles 1:02:23

Stepping on Lego.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:02:24

That's the worst, but it's just nostalgic for me. I mean Mario 64, one of the most nostalgic ones for 3D space, and then they also have 2D platformers, which are really really good as well.

Andre GameXplain 1:02:42

Yeah, I think that's a huge part of it. I think it's largely that the games are just good. They bring a level of joy that I feel like few other games can match. Like I mentioned earlier, playing through Galaxy 2 is just so delightful delightful and that's the case for a lot of mario games like they're just a lot of fun. Right, and two is that mario himself is just like adorable, you know, just like this cute little plump, human, right like kind of everyday man. He, you know, he wasn't, he wasn't born as a superhero or something, he just ended up being one.

Andre GameXplain 1:03:11

Yeah, I think that on some level, that is appealing too. You know, I don't know that's the main thing, but I think it's a factor. And I think you take the fact that games are really good, they have this really personal fun character and you just have like a winning recipe there. And I think that's where sonic goes wrong is that their games, his games, aren't always home runs and that's why it hasn't resonated quite as much as mario has. Um, though, I do know like among kids like my, my sister or my nieces, uh, they, they freaking love sonic.

Brandon Hurles 1:03:38

They don't care about mario song, though they're, they're there there's something weird about that, though, that I because I have a nine-year-old daughter. She knows sonic through roblox, so I don't know if they play roblox at all, uh, but it's very popular in roblox for some reason, as a character. Uh, yeah, no, I to me just kind of the points that I thought were mario established, established itself in a big way with 2d platformers being like the definitive 2d platformer. Um, mario obviously established itself with Super Mario 64. When you saw him jumping out of that pipe, that was a huge moment for so many kids that had the Nintendo 64. That was huge. To see that in 3D, it was a really big moment. Their games are almost always polished. You know what to expect when you're picking up a Mario game. That's kind of what I thought of.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:04:36

I think you're nailing it on the head.

Andre GameXplain 1:04:38

To Matt's point too the fact that it's been this consistent so far. It means that people as old as I am have nostalgia going back for decades. Now A lot of people have their kids of their own who are also growing up with these great games. That's partly why it's, you know, spanning generations, especially now with the whole you know movie thing being in theme parks, like I think it's only going to grow from here, um, which is wild, because Mario is already so well known yeah, yeah, definitely, mr Coffee said.

Brandon Hurles 1:05:06

uh, personally, disney shifted how it shared Mickey Mouse growing up you would see Mickey cartoons regularly on TV, in merch and parks and was more affordable. Yeah.

Andre GameXplain 1:05:17

Oh, one more thing. Oh sorry, go ahead. Oh no, go ahead, you're good. There's one more thing, real quick, that I don't. For some reason I don't know if it's supposed to the chats on my Twitch aren't coming through here. I think Butters Alliance said Mickey did have some movies, but they're direct to video ones, not theatrical. Yeah See, I'm surprised Disney hasn't done this yet. I would be surprised if, after looking at the Mario movie, they're not reconsidering things right now and would consider making a Mickey movie, because I think they're going to. I think it would help Mickey, because I feel like you know Mickey's just kind of there, he is a cute character as well, but you never really think of them much, whereas you know Mario's just everywhere and yeah, yeah, I like I've never really played any games.

Brandon Hurles 1:05:57

You guys are talking about what? Right?

MattLong6 Gaming 1:06:04

He must not have a Nintendo.

Brandon Hurles 1:06:07

Yeah, that's, that's interesting. Yeah, I think I think Disney's problem is focusing. They put way too way too much stock into Marvel and Star Wars, so that's been a big focus in a lot of. I mean, like you know, a lot of my bombs, you know, aren't doing good, and Star Wars movies, like if they're very mixed on, if people like them at all, you know, and a lot, a lot of marvel movies aren't doing very well. I know deadpool, wolverine did very good, that was fun.

Andre GameXplain 1:06:37

I'm not a huge marvel guy. I had fun about one, yeah that was good.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:06:39

I used to be a huge marvel guy, but ever since the arc when after thanos snapped and stuff, pretty much a lot of movies after that have been hit or miss.

Andre GameXplain 1:06:49

Yep, that's that's a big part of it and by relying so much on those two brands and being inconsistent with the quality, especially for star Wars, it's just damaging both. You know we saw the new captain America. Uh, did did relatively poorly. And then every star Wars movie is just like a a mess of a reaction to it.

Andre GameXplain 1:07:07

Some people like it, some people don't, or a lot of people you know, are on both sides but it's increasingly becoming, you know, divisive, uh, for every star wars entry, and you know they just got to figure it out, whereas mario or mario nintendo's been very deliberate, perhaps to an extreme degree, waiting 30 years for another theatrical, theatrical attempt. But it worked out, you know.

Brandon Hurles 1:07:26

And uh, yeah, hopefully disney moves on from just marvel and star wars yeah, super 8 and brought up a really good point that there is a looney tunes movie, that that's a theatrical movie out now. So that's that, if looney tunes can do it, you know, um, I definitely think mickey mouse has the opportunity there to do something.

Andre GameXplain 1:07:46

There's got to be something right, yeah, and shout out to uh antonio in our community, who actually worked on the new looney Tunes movie.

Brandon Hurles 1:07:52

No.

Andre GameXplain 1:07:54

Wow, I'm excited now.

Brandon Hurles 1:07:55

That's cool.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:07:58

When does the Looney Tunes movie come out this weekend, right?

Andre GameXplain 1:08:03

Yeah, it's out now. It's out today.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:08:05

Oh, okay, today.

Andre GameXplain 1:08:06

They have almost no marketing for it. So if it bombs, that's probably why, because no one knows it's out.

Metroid's Future with Prime 4

Brandon Hurles 1:08:22

Today's Pi Day it. So if it bombs, that's probably why, because no one knows it's out. So today's pi day, so there's a lot of mathematical things in it or something. Yeah, uh, okay. So this is next question here. We'll just do, we'll do. But basically I'm just kind of asking do you think that Metroid will have a bigger revival with Metroid Prime 4 at all? Do you think it's going to make a big impact for the series? Metroid Dread sold the most, but it still didn't sell significant numbers. It didn't sell crazy numbers. It sold the most in the entire series, but it still didn't sell, you know, significant numbers. Right, it didn't sell crazy numbers. It sold the most in the entire series, but it still wasn't yeah, barely more.

Andre GameXplain 1:08:58

Yeah, yeah, that's being compared to other metroid games on systems that sold like one-tenth of what the switch has it's really not that impressive, taking that into consideration yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, uh, so do you?

Brandon Hurles 1:09:11

I mean, what do you guys think metroid prime 4 will have a sort of impact for, for the series? Do you think it'll make you know, make it more popular again? Or because?

MattLong6 Gaming 1:09:22

it's a 3D shooter. I'm not entirely sure. I know my nephew, for some reason, has fallen in love with Metroid and collected every single game, even games that came out before it was born and stuff. I know he'll play it and he'll let me know everything about it. I don't know if it's going to bring anything. I don't know if it's going to bring back hype for Metroid or not.

Andre GameXplain 1:09:50

Yeah, I think if it's truly only a Switch 1 title, I can't see it doing much better than the series already has. Like maybe it'll become the best selling game by a small margin, like dread was before it, potentially I I think it's. I might be biased if I made a whole video. You know, talking about my expectations of the switch to launch, um, but I think its best chance is to launch alongside the switch to still on switch one. Think its best chance is to launch alongside the switch to still on switch one but also have a you know a variant or upgrade, you know, for switch two to capture that early hype, you know, uh, energy from the from the launch, and then that's his best chance of expanding the audience.

Andre GameXplain 1:10:26

Otherwise I think it's gonna get, you know, washed over or ignored by a lot of people because it's just another metroid game and uh, yeah, but you know I could be wrong. It might depend on what the game actually is. A little bit we've seen so far looks very metroid prime like, but you know, which is great. I'm a huge fan metroid prime. But at the same time, is that enough to cater to a larger market? So hopefully there's more there too.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:10:45

That would appeal people beyond what we've seen so similar to what they did with mario kart 8, where it was on Wii U, then they put it on Switch, right, yeah.

Andre GameXplain 1:10:55

And.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:10:55

Breath of the Wild. They did that similar.

Andre GameXplain 1:10:58

Yeah, breath of the Wild is a great example, because Zelda games had sold well before Breath of the Wild. But Breath of the Wild sold, I think, four times what the series had been selling previously. So if Metroid does something similar, it won't be as big as Breath of the Wild. That'd still be possibly 12 million units, which is 4 times what it currently sells, and that would be huge. And even though it's half of that, that's still double what a series typically pulls in. I hope that Nintendo's looking at it, because this game's been in development for what?

Andre GameXplain 1:11:27

7-8 years now and it kind of needs to be big.

Brandon Hurles 1:11:32

Andre, do you remember when they metroid dread was the same way, it was in like development hell as well? Um, they announced it. I remember the nintendo power issue they were talking about. It was supposed to come out on the ds and it never came out.

Andre GameXplain 1:11:47

There were screenshots and everything there was a tease of metroid prime 3, even where they mentioned a dread yeah, yes, the metroid series being, it does not have good luck.

Brandon Hurles 1:11:58

I don't know what it is that you know because it's been there since nes as well and it was. You know it's considered like an nes staple and like super metroid for the super nintendo, for like all the retro gamers, like a big deal. But for some reason it just never caught on in the same way and I don't, I don't quite know why. I mean like they've never. You don't see the same marketing push for metroid. I know that's not there. Um, there's been stuff for it. Of course they've done advertisement stuff for the games in the past and in the magazines and stuff like that, but there's never been a big, big push for the series that I can ever remember and in my lifetime I don't. I just don't remember seeing a big push like I did for mario or zelda, no, which is unfortunate because it's a great series.

Andre GameXplain 1:12:48

I love it yeah, no, it is good, and it's been a long time since we've had a 3d entry. So yeah, yeah, sure has. Speaking of threes, cosmic radiation in the chat says you know what else is in development?

Brandon Hurles 1:12:59

hell, half-life 3 oh yeah, oh yeah, that's really that. That one, I don't know if it's ever coming out. Oh man, that's one, that's uh. Yeah, you remember duke nukem forever.

Andre GameXplain 1:13:10

It was like 12 years I was at a mock review event for that game where we give the developer feedback on it, and I think we all agreed that the game was trash then and it came out and everyone thought it was trash too. It's like, yeah, that game sucked.

Brandon Hurles 1:13:23

So I had it pre-ordered for like three years and I got the collector's edition that came with the statue. We were so excited to get the game. We we love Duke Nukem for some reason. Somehow we got kind of attached to the series and it was just like it was kind of a letdown man. It was like what happened? It had like four iterations of the game that got developed and stuff. So that was a. That was a crazy one, all right. So I guess for our last question, for the podcast here, we'll ask do you think the future of Nintendo console lies in the hybrid model only, or will they try something entirely different after Switch 2? You think that this model's going to stick?

Andre GameXplain 1:14:07

If Switch 2 is a success, there's no way they switch. I don't even know where they go from here. Hybrid is it has to be hybrid. Nintendo's basically locked themselves into this now. It has to be hybrid because even let's say even theoretically they release a handheld only in the future. There's no way we're gonna have some kind of video output at the same time they're making a hybrid right.

Nintendo's Hybrid Console Strategy

Andre GameXplain 1:14:27

So I think they're they're basically stuck with us and which works for their favor. I said before that nintendo I firmly believe, believe Nintendo is the only one that got pulled off the system at the time that they did back in 2017. Because for everyone else Xbox, playstation it would have been a huge visual downgrade. Nintendo, though coming off the fairly modest Wii U, they were able to make a portable as strong as that, if not a little bit more powerful, in the form of the Switch, and make it a hybrid and call it a true successor, and that worked out for them, whereas again, for the others, their games would have looked worse on the handheld system. Yeah, and it also fits Nintendo's general ethos in making the best of limited hardware.

Andre GameXplain 1:15:07

Even though the Switch 2 will be a massive upgrade, it still won't be Xbox or PS5 strong. Right, be a massive upgrade, it still won't be xbox or ps5 strong, you know, right, yeah and uh. And that works in their favor. That results in cheaper games for them to make um on cheaper hardware. And yeah, I just can't. I cannot imagine a world in them stepping away like the only alternative, really. I mean, I guess you know they could go back to the console route and go full power, but again I don't think I don't see that happening. Yeah, or vr, but vr seems to be kind of a dead market again, you know, and uh, I think this is it.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:15:36

I don't know. I just bought the quest 3s oh, hey, nice.

Andre GameXplain 1:15:40

I mean, I have a quest 2 and I enjoy it, but or I enjoyed it, but I almost never pulled out, um, sadly, I would like to, but it's just a huge barrier it's a big niche.

Brandon Hurles 1:15:49

I mean, you saw what happened with the psvr too, which is unfortunate um yeah, I bought that and still regretted it yeah, yeah, I mean, when it first came out I I got the uh horizon um bundle and I was, like you know, kind of cool.

Brandon Hurles 1:16:04

It was my first vr experience too oh, as a first, that'd be really cool yeah yeah, I played some really cool stuff on it, for sure, but it is like it's one of those things that's niche and it's for that one. I know it's not. You know, meta quest three, uh, or meta quest period, is kind of solve the problem of having to be plugged in, but that's really annoying, like a cable is so annoying. That's that's one one big thing about that. But, um, yeah, no, it's still, that's still a niche market and I think it'll continue to grow. You know, I think I do think there's there's a following for that.

Brandon Hurles 1:16:39

But I think, as far as Nintendo, with this I pretty much agree with you, andre. I think they've kind of locked themselves into it and that could be a good or bad thing for some people. You know, I do see the people out there that say they miss the dedicated home console. That's just a console. They want something beefier from Nintendo. But it's not them anymore. They kind of left that in the GameCube era. They left that behind there. That's kind of how I feel it. It's okay. They've always done something weird and innovative, even with the gamecube. The gamecube, right, it's a cube, like you know. It's got a handle. It's got a handle to travel with, you know.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:17:24

So I, I don't, I don't know I mean they might bring back the virtual boy and remaster it. But I think um something they could do is um different docs, so you switch out docs, um, so one's more powerful and you can actually play some type of disc game or something that's more powerful, but then you still always are going to have that option to take it with you on the go, that they are the best selling one for anything to take with you inside the phone truthfully, I I feel like switch 2 is the last um is the last of physical media for a game console.

Brandon Hurles 1:18:09

That's how I feel feel like playstation xbox leaving it behind. I don't even know what Xbox is going to do after the handheld. We might not even actually get another console from Xbox. I don't know. You know it's Series X has not done well.

Andre GameXplain 1:18:24

Although there was just recently a report, like literally a few days ago, I forget, oh, windows Central. They were reporting that they have a handheld coming out this year that apparently will have. Xbox branding but be more PC focused, in that the next successor to the Series X would be in 2027, I think, so we'll see that happen.

Brandon Hurles 1:18:44

Yeah, yeah, I saw that as well. You know, I forgot to put the Xbox handheld in there. I meant to do that in the notes. That is my bad, but yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Um, yeah, they're doing that. We kind of knew about that before, but we got official word of it and we've talked about it a few times, actually the xbox handheld stuff. So, um, I think everybody wants to get in the handheld space right now. It's a, you know, it's a good space to be in for people, it seems I think xbox's next console won't be a console.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:19:17

we're going to do a thing like what sega did, where they kind of just sell some of their stuff and then they're just going to focus like they'll sell some of their ips or whatever, but they're going to focus on they're providing um xbox game pass to the other consoles, or something like that is what I think, though I can see like a dedicated streaming device for game pass or something.

Brandon Hurles 1:19:39

Yeah, maybe too. Yeah, I, I don't. I know they say these companies look, all of them, including Nintendo, say a lot of stuff. So I don't believe it.

Andre GameXplain 1:19:50

Until we get closer to to that date, necessarily, we just the xbox hardware is not doing well, uh, hasn't done well since the 360 that was the only only era that did well yeah, and I mean, you're right, that wasn't one that where they really came out swinging, though I did appreciate the original xbox too, for, like I, oh I mean too I love it, yeah, for what it did for gaming in general and it sold about as much as the gamecube, which not isn't bad for their first outing.

Andre GameXplain 1:20:17

But you're right, like it's, it's kind of like it feels like a dying platform. And you know, mr coffee in the chat says, I think xbox fan or sorry, uh, but is anyone asking for an xbox handheld? And I don't think they are, because it feels like going locking yourself into xbox now feels like a mistake because with them playing their games on other platforms, why not just buy a competing system where you then get those exclusives as well? So honestly, I think Xbox's only chance here is they just make a kick-ass handheld that can play games across a variety of platforms. The rumor or not rumor, the report was that it was a part of multiple storefronts like the Epic Store, even Steam. That would allow it access to the Steam Deck library, basically, and then they have Game Pass on there. It would be a great addition, you know.

Andre GameXplain 1:21:03

Yeah, Game Pass is a big deal, especially if they roll in like a free three, six, nine months or whatever for buying a handheld. That's a pretty compelling offer that instantly gets you access to a big library of games plus anything on Steam, and if it's more powerful than Steam Deck and Switch 2, I could see it. I think it's a stretch. I don't think it'll beat Switch 1 big, but it could maybe beat competition for the Steam Deck.

Brandon Hurles 1:21:27

Here's my only thing about that is I was thinking too. I was like, oh well, it is microsoft, so they've got the most access to getting some beefy hardware. Right, because this is going to be uh, this is, I think, from what I understood. I could be wrong. This is going to be xbox branded, but it's made by somebody else right, that's correct by like a third party manufacturer. Yeah, okay, so they could do that. But think about like what? The series x was also the most beefiest console when it came out, and that did not matter at all yeah it just didn't matter.

Brandon Hurles 1:22:01

And, um, I don't know if that's enough with handouts, because I'm like how much we know that we're getting, um, new asus rogue ally. We know we're getting a new Steam Deck. I mean, how much beefier could the handheld be right now with this technology, be affordable? Because Asus Rogue Ally X is like $800. It's like getting a PC. It is a PC, but it's like getting a desktop at this point. So I don't know If it's that much beefier, is it going to be affordable? This is a thousand dollars.

Andre GameXplain 1:22:38

That's a good point. That would be unfortunate. Maybe they would be willing to uh, sell it at a slight loss, to take it back on, possibly, game pass, um. But you're right. I mean, we've seen time and time again, especially with like nintendo, as we just mentioned, how, like hardware power seems to be mattering less and less to a degree, because it's just increasingly diminishing returns.

Brandon Hurles 1:22:58

Yes, exactly.

Andre GameXplain 1:23:00

Look how undifferent the newest generation of games look compared to PS4. There's still some games on PS4 that look like they could be PS5 games, but I will say that I would think that that difference is probably more impactful in the handheld space right now, because there's still some games that Steam Deck can't play, for instance, right, yeah, or if they can, they may look just terrible, and maybe that could be the difference Xbox leans into, where, like hey, you can play even more games on our version.

Andre GameXplain 1:23:30

Because I think it could still matter there a little bit At least, more than the console space.

Brandon Hurles 1:23:35

I would love to. I like the Xbox brand. I have all the consoles. I like the Xbox brand a lot. I really do.

Andre GameXplain 1:23:42

I like the controller more than the PS5 controller.

Brandon Hurles 1:23:44

I got two sitting right here. I use it for my PC. It's great.

Andre GameXplain 1:23:48

Good controller, see look at that, we all have it.

Brandon Hurles 1:23:51

It's a great controller. It's excellent.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:23:53

I use it for Rocket League.

Brandon Hurles 1:23:55

There you go. Nice, I mean, it's perfected, but yeah, I'm interested to see what happens. I don't know, I really don't know, as far as that goes, whether Xbox is going to stick around. I think it all depends on how that handheld does, because they picked up all these companies and stuff too, all these different development studios. It's like, oh, this is going to be huge. Xbox Series X is going to be so big. Wow, people were massively let down.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:24:29

There's going to be a new Steam Deck. I just got my wife one for Christmas. Now I got an upgrade.

Andre GameXplain 1:24:38

Yeah, there's going to be a new steam deck I just got my wife one for christmas.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:24:40

Now I gotta upgrade. Yeah, there's gonna be a. Yeah, yeah, I mean, we've known that for a while, though already to find out this way, how is the playstation portable doing currently?

Brandon Hurles 1:24:44

do we know playstation portal is a horrible device. I have no, I'm sure it's not doing well, maybe I got one right here.

Andre GameXplain 1:24:51

It's terrible this might surprise you then, brandon. If I remember correctly, it's apparently doing exceeding sony's expectations for it which is what does that mean, though? True, they may have expected nothing, because I don't quite see the appeal myself. It's like isn't that just what the wii u did? But you know even worse right right I don't understand it, but apparently it's working, for some people at least, and I legitimately only got it for the channel.

Brandon Hurles 1:25:15

That was it. And uh, no, I just had a horrible. I got fiber internet. Like I test my speeds, you know all the time they're always in the 900s, always yeah and uh work yeah. Ps5s, right here, I've even got a ps5 pro and supposedly supposed to work a little better with that. Still, the update and everything they've done. I've not had a good experience with it. I'm not sure. I'm sure that it's done okay. They got a new colorway out for it, that Galaxy Black or whatever it is. They just did all the black colors for all the hardware and stuff. Maybe it's done okay. I just see them sitting all the time at my local stores. But you know, I don't know. Maybe it's doing all right. But yeah, I think that's all we got for this week. Appreciate having you on, matt and Andre. It's been fun. Thanks for having us.

Brandon Hurles 1:26:07

Always, and guys, be sure to subscribe. I dropped a link in the chat. Appreciate everybody watching hanging out with us in the course for our audio listeners. We're always live every friday, 8 pm, eastern standard time mark. Will be back next week and uh, we'll have to hear about his trip from uh japan and all that stuff.

MattLong6 Gaming 1:26:27

Jealous, yeah, he better have gone to the nintendo store.

Brandon Hurles 1:26:30

Yeah, I'm gonna ask him I'm gonna ask him or the world, yeah to ask him, or the Nintendo World.

Brandon Hurles 1:26:34

Yeah, I don't know what he's doing. I've heard very little from him, so he must be having a good time. He's going to a convention. He went to a convention and stuff there too. So, yeah, we'll have to hear about that next week. But yeah, andre, I hope to have you on again sometime soon. Matt, you as well, and appreciate everybody watching. Thanks, mr Coffee, everybody in the chat, dds Dave and the People's Gamer 1979, shout out to you Thanks for coming by and we'll see you all.