DMG Gaming Podcast
Welcome to "Disgruntled Middle-Aged Gamers" Gaming Podcast where lifelong best friends Grant Roland and Ed Phillips dive deep into the world of video games. Join us as we explore everything from the latest releases to nostalgic retro games, offering insightful reviews, and engaging discussions. With 20 years of friendship fueling our banter, DMG isn't just about games—it's about sharing a passion with a touch of humor and plenty of opinions. Whether you're a hardcore gamer or just dipping your toes into the gaming world, there's something here for everyone. Tune in and game on with DMG!
DMG Gaming Podcast
GTA 6's "Physical Edition" Is a LIE — Top 10 Signs Physical Gaming is DEAD
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Physical media is dying — and GTA 6's "physical edition" (a box with just a download code) might be the final nail. In this episode, the Disgruntled Army breaks down the Top 10 games and moments proving ownership in gaming is disappearing: Sony's confirmed end of PS5 disc production in January 2028, Ubisoft's infamous "get comfortable not owning your games" era, The Crew getting completely deleted from players' libraries after they paid for it, FF7 Revelation's still-unconfirmed physical release, and why the next-gen Xbox might not even have a disc drive at all.
We're diving into the receipts: the lawsuits, the petitions, the corporate quotes that aged like milk, and what this means for collectors, preservationists, and anyone who thought "buying" a game meant actually owning it.
🎮 Topics covered:
- GTA 6's physical edition controversy
- Sony's disc production shutdown (Jan 2028)
- The Crew lawsuit & Stop Killing Games movement
- FF7 Revelation's physical release uncertainty
- Ubisoft's digital-only push
- Next-gen Xbox & PS5 Pro disc drive decisions
👉 Subscribe for more unfiltered gaming news, retro takes, and JRPG debates from the Disgruntled Army.
💬 Are you still buying physical, or have you gone all-digital? Let us know below.
#GTA6 #PhysicalMedia #PS5 #FinalFantasy7 #GamingNews
What's going on, everybody? It's your boy, Grant Rowling here with the DMG Gaming Podcast. And as always, I'm joined by the biggest buddy dude just south of the Mississippi. My boy.
SPEAKER_02Buddy dude. Nobody knows what that boy means.
SPEAKER_01Very lame individual.
SPEAKER_02All right. Grant.
SPEAKER_01How you been, buddy?
SPEAKER_02Good. So first start of the podcast. It's what we're going to talk about.
SPEAKER_01What are we going to talk about, Ed?
SPEAKER_02Boy, we're going to talk about that Odyssey. You went to go see it. So good. The floor is yours. Tell us, tell me about it.
SPEAKER_01All right. Well, I'm not going to spend a lot on it. I'm not going to go to like this in-depth thing. It was a great movie. It was fantastic. I don't care what nobody says. I don't care. Here's the thing is. If you're a fan of the books and stuff like that, the fan, like you can overlook all that stuff. Here's the thing is. I'm not going to be no spoilers. Well, I mean, if you read the book. Yes, I read the Iliad Grant. Yes, I read the Iliad. Remember we had to? Remember we had to? You reading something?
SPEAKER_02Don't believe it.
SPEAKER_01Ed, we had to. Don't you remember for uh AP European history?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01Like, I copied off you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you always copied off me.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, no. Um, it's a fantastic book. But anyway, here's the thing is like here's okay. First of all, let's let's get with this whole Elliot Page, Elon Page, whatever the fuck, Elliot.
SPEAKER_02So spoilers, heads up. I got some questions.
SPEAKER_01No, no, no, it's not a spoiler. It's not really a spoiler.
SPEAKER_02No, I want to say spoilers because I got some questions. You might have to give me some stuff.
SPEAKER_01Okay, okay. Um, here's the thing is like not really a main character to like make a damn. You get what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02Like, it's not really worthless.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, I mean, it's not like Odysseus. I mean, it'd be different, you know what I mean? Or Achilles. Um, or yeah, or somebody that's which everyone thought she was going to be, right? Yeah, well, Achilles is not even in the in the in there. Like, let's be honest. They there's not.
SPEAKER_02No. He's mentioned, but it's not doesn't show like a Hector versus Achilles fighting?
SPEAKER_01No, not at all.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. No, they could they could see how radpits.
SPEAKER_01Because how how it how it goes around, how how it's done is it's done in pieces. You see what I'm saying? Saying, like it'll show it starts with him old, and then it's finding out, and he starts retelling the story, and then he forgets, and it shows um like um like his son, and then it talks about that story. So it kind of moves around and stuff, but I mean it all ties together. Um but Elliot Page or whatever the whatever her name was at the beginning, whatever. Um, not really a big deal.
SPEAKER_02So people made a big stink out overnight. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like a forgettable character.
SPEAKER_01Helen of Troy, Helen of Troy, not really a big deal. It's not really a main, you know what I mean? Like barely you know, 15 minutes. I mean, that's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_02I mean, here's the thing is so it's mostly Matt Damon.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, because here's the thing. I mean, here's the thing is I mean, all right, let's just be honest. It's Matt Damon. Yeah, no, it's no. Matt Damon was very good in this, it was very good. We're gonna have to talk about your boy. Burnthal? We've got to talk about your boy Burnthal. John Burnthal. No, no, no, here's the thing. Don't get me wrong, John Burnthal's a great actor. He's a good actor. He's a good actor. But he kind of plays the same character, like you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Like no, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so so he so he plays he plays Menelaus, right? That's that's who he is. Um for those who don't know, that's Agamemnon, uh, Agamemnon's brother. So anyway, uh, but he plays like like you would think it's it's it's the punisher, like you know what I mean, like the way he talks and his mannerisms, like it's it's it's him.
SPEAKER_02Like I feel like I feel like that's how he plays every role.
SPEAKER_01I mean, but I'm saying, like, it doesn't matter what it is, like like he could never play Shakespeare because it, you know what I mean? Like he can't do Shakespeare.
SPEAKER_02He's literally off the streets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, I get it. I mean, but I mean, it's you kind of know what you're getting. But other than that, I mean it wasn't like terrible. I mean, I'm just saying, like, he didn't put up an Oscar, let's put it this way, he didn't put an Oscar performing performance, but he played a good role.
SPEAKER_02Alright, so you said they kind of do they kind of still go in the order of the Odyssey?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Um Or is he like retelling so yeah, well, basically, basically that's what it is. It's it he it catches up with him with Cersei. Um not Cersei, Cersei is the witch. Um who's the who's the chick on the island?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah, that he gets yeah, ends up staying there too long.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. There. Um, so it's kind of starts there where he's like telling the story because she's like she understands that like he has family, yeah. Calypso.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, she understands that he's not he's starting to remember and stuff like that. Because what happens is he eats the lotus flower, and the lotus flower makes him feel good and he forgets his family and stuff. That's why he's there so long, you know. And um, she makes him stop eating the lotus flower to like tell his story, and he starts remembering Troy, and he starts remembering um you know the Trojan War, and he starts remembering, and that's what I'm saying. When he starts remembering, it's when he's telling the story of where he's going, you know what I mean? Yeah, all that stuff. Um, and then when he stops, it then you know, it picks up where his son is basically trying to, it believes he's alive, goes, you know, is looking for him and stuff. Uh Penelope, his wife, is you know, fighting up basically fighting off the suitors and stuff like that. Um, and here's the thing is I'm the type of person, and I'm and I know you are too, um, that can take people's political beliefs out of their their art. You know what I mean? Like John Legwitzamo's in it, he plays the blind, blind, I can't think of his name, his blind servant, whatever. Okay. Um, he did a good job. Like, it didn't bother me, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. I guess I guess it depends. Like, if you have to be really a fan of the the story to not really. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Um, I can kind of I I can always I'm always been good at that, taking people's personal belief, the person from the character, you know what I mean? Yeah, kind of just taking it as it is. I will say the only thing I didn't like is I wish they would have shown. Um what are they called? The the Lastragonians, the giants. Yeah, you know what I mean. So they're supposed to be, for those who don't know, they're supposed to be like just giant men who are cannibals, you know what I mean? Um, they had them, he had them portrayed as warriors, like in iron suits. I mean, they look cool, but he had them in like full plate armor. So when they showed up, they had like they're like they're like had like the big huge swords and stuff, and they're like chopping trees down with like one swing. And I mean, they were like killing people, don't get me wrong, but I think it would have been more dynamic had they like grabbed them and like ate them, you know what I mean? Because that's you know, that's what they would did, you know, like ripping. More barbarian-like, yeah, like rip them in half and stuff like that. Um, that was good. The whole um I didn't mind, you know, everybody made a big deal of uh poly polyphemius. The um what's it the the cyclops? Um who's the who's the king of the Neptune, not Neptune? What's this what's the king Poseidon? Poseidon's son. Um they made a big deal of it. I mean, did he look weird? Yeah, but I mean they did a good I mean it wasn't bad. Um stuff like that. I mean it wouldn't, it wasn't terrible. Um the end's cool. I like um all that. Um I thought it was they they I wish they would have kind of spent more time on Hades. You know what I mean? They kind of they kind of breeze through that a little bit, a little bit fast. Huh? It didn't show Hades. Um yeah, it doesn't show Hades.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're talking about just the area, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so they go to hell, they go to hell. Um and he ends up talking to one of the prophecy prophecies, and he does like they do like a sacrifice, and he ends up talking to the dead. Um, because his thing was um like at the Trojans, you're supposed to honor them when they die, you're supposed to bury them with their armor and all this other stuff. But his point was like when you can't, you can't, you know what I mean? Like you so like whenever like they died or whatever, like for example, when the Cyclops killed them and they had to leave them behind and stuff like that, they didn't get the proper burial, so they're angry at Odysseus when he goes to Hades and talks to them, you know. So stuff like that. But I wish they would have had a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02Well, it didn't lead up to climax to the end, because the end is always the m one of my favorite parts in all the portrayals.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Did it do it justice?
SPEAKER_01It did, it really did. I will say this, man. Um, Robert Pattinson played a good job, did a good job, real good job, actually. He was he was a very hateable character, Swarmy. Oh, he was one of the suitors, yeah. Yeah, very yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, he can do that dude can act.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, he's got a good range. Um did good, man. Really did. Um, it's a really good, I don't care what people say. Look, you can say what you want to say. I mean, did they did they do did they choose characters that were unorthodox for different roles? Yes, I mean, but is it enough? Here's the thing is is it enough to take away from the story? You know what I'm saying? Yeah, like you know what I mean. It'd been one thing if like Odysseus was played by fucking the Jonah Hill, you know what I mean? Like, okay, you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_02This is the only I mean I I haven't seen it. This is the only thing I would push back on. This is a Greek historical thing, right? Yes. Now, if you want to take, I don't know, some Indian mythology and put a bunch of white people in it, would it be the same thing? Correct, correct. I get yes, you get what I'm kind of saying there. I get I get what you're saying. Again, it's very little thing, but everyone knows that no one would everyone would make a big deal about it if they race swapped something, someone else's history.
SPEAKER_01So if they're going to do that, this is what I would say. If they were going to be like a completely they needed to have done it like Passion of the Christ, you know what I mean, where it's an ancient Aramaic, the whole movie. So it should have been nothing but Greek actors, you know what I mean, speaking ancient Greece, Greek, you know what I mean, or whatever their language, I can't, I guess, I don't know, whatever the language was for that time.
SPEAKER_02That would have been pimp, honestly. You know what I'm saying? About it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that's what they should. If they were going to go that route, that's what they should have done.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, but the route that they took, it wasn't it wasn't terrible, man. I mean, if you if you're a fan of this the book and the fan of the story or whatever, you can overlook because it's not like it's they made a big, I will say usually me and you are like, yeah, this is kind of garbage. You know what I'm saying? This time people made a bigger deal over what they shouldn't have. So I'm remember how they said, you remember we said, is the Odyssey woke? It's not woke. It's not, it's really not. Cool. Uh, but uh, I give it a dude, I give it a nine and a half out of ten.
SPEAKER_02Great movie.
SPEAKER_01It's long as fuck, but it's a great movie.
SPEAKER_02Tight. All right, Grant. Let's go to our next subject. All right, so we gotta talk about this, dude. All right. We're getting the feeling, I I'm getting the feeling, and some other people are getting the feeling. There is a possibility, because just because of rock stars being all quiet, they're being all quiet about everything, Grant. Little hush-hush, don't talk about much stuff. You know, they gave us the pre-order, you know, released last month, on the month before. But I have this feeling. I had this feeling when they delayed it the third time. I had this feeling that they're going to delay this damn game again. I just got it in my bones, Grant. You feel it down in your plums. Down in my plums. Alright. But yeah, so anyway, the the original release officially uh is officially locked, quote unquote locked, right? Uh for November 19th. All right, on all consoles, all that stuff. Uh Take Two CEO Stralus Zelnik has publicly stated the date is locked in. Alright. He publicly stated, but Rockstar is the one I'm you know, they're the publisher. They're the ones that they're giving me that that that little that weird feeling about this game, about this release date. But they've gone completely silent, dude. And uh despite like them promising to like ramp up marketing and advertisement and stuff like that, uh, they really haven't. Like it's kind of like you know what I'm talking about? Like just it's like no one's really really talking about it. Like it's there, people are looking forward to it, the hype is there, but there's nothing like in the gaming stratosphere that is just like, oh man, it's getting closer. Boom, boom, here's another commercial, here's another trailer. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01You know, I wonder if if this game is so popular and going to be so it doesn't need it. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02I get it, man. Like that that's a possibility, but they always hype these games up. Yeah, they always get it going, they always make these cool commercials or do something, and they just haven't done it yet with this one. You know, they they had the trailer and then they had the official uh pre-order date that they announced. But besides that, it's it's gone dead silent. Uh, besides, of course, the streamers that bring it up every now and then. But from Rockstar, they've just gone silent, like completely just like what? What's going on? Hello, knock knock.
SPEAKER_01I figured I figured with a game this big, they would have like a panel at like one of these cons. Something. Whatever they just, you know, like the comic-cons or whatever the whatever they are, or something for this. Because this is that big. This, I mean, this, I mean, this game is like Marvel hype. You know what I mean? Like Avengers hype.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You get what I'm saying? I know. So I figure you're right. I mean, I figure for something like this, you're gonna have like a big out of the ordinary that video games don't do type reveal.
SPEAKER_02It's expected to be just like GTA 5.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02With the longevity of it. All right. It's just going to be like that. It's gonna be a moneymaker, it's going to have different things. People will be able to sell their stuff. I mean, they kind of kind of had that before, but you know, this is going to be a huge revenue drink generating, not just for the company, but for players. People, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's gonna be new millionaires made from this game.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Me included.
SPEAKER_02So the the digital, huh?
SPEAKER_01What? What? What?
SPEAKER_02I ain't streaming this game. What if I paid you? No, you can't stream on your computer.
SPEAKER_01What if they paid you a lot of money?
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, it would. Yeah. All right. Digital preload and box code distribution are scheduled for November 12th. Uh, that's a full week before the launch. Um But the the delay rumor mill really started around 4-chan posts, claiming Rockstar Take 2 will announce a slip to February 2027. That's a 4-chan post, so you gotta take that with a grain of salt.
SPEAKER_01If that happened, Ed, that's Well, here's here's the thing is I think if it happened, people would bitch about it, but they they wouldn't they'd still wait. It's kind of like one of those things that it's like eating a shit sandwich and asking for seconds.
SPEAKER_02But the big deal about it is they published the release date, they published the release date, and they put it on pre-order.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So people are paying money for a product that they expect on the release date.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but I again I think this is one of those games where they can just kind of do what the fuck they want with it.
SPEAKER_02But I think it's more be more of a stink this time around for this delay because of the pre-orders. Yes, because of the people putting money into the pre-orders because they didn't have it before the other delays they had. This is the first pre-order release on June 25th.
SPEAKER_01You know how many people in that probably have taken off from work? I would like to see that. I would like to see the numbers of people who I wish there was like a way you could see like people would like report numbers of like people not working that day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I can I can guarantee you like a lot of the workforce is going to be.
SPEAKER_02I'm not taking off.
SPEAKER_01You don't do shit anyway.
SPEAKER_02What? I'm gonna tell you right now, I guarantee you my job is a hundred times stressful than yours.
SPEAKER_01This is it's all secretive.
SPEAKER_02Oh shit. Real world, Grant. You know nothing about that. Oh, dark web, dark underground. No, not none of that crap. It's real world. Do y'all do dark web stuff at your where you're at? We have counter counterintel and we have regular intel that does stuff.
SPEAKER_01See if I was if I was doing Intel, that's what I'd want to do is dark web stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, I can't talk about it. Anyway, so I'd be on there.
SPEAKER_01How do you do, fellow kids? Yeah.
unknownAll right.
SPEAKER_01Like narc.
SPEAKER_02So for this, I don't know, man. I think it's gonna be a big deal if they delayed again. I think people are gonna be like pissed the fuck off.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think it's one of those things. Here's the thing is I mean, you're probably yes, you're right. People would be very upset, but it's one of those things, man. Like, it's like screaming into the wind. I mean, uh Twitter would melt down, the world would melt down, but I mean, they'd get the fuck over it and play it when it comes out.
SPEAKER_02No one's gonna refund it. No, you know what I mean? No, no one, no one that's bought it already is gonna refund it.
SPEAKER_01Like, here's the thing is if if if even if let's just say Rockstar made a mistake and said, you know what, we actually have to charge a little bit more, we have to actually charge $20 more. People would still pay that. Like, I think this is the game that people would pay over a hundred bucks for.
SPEAKER_02This is the game. Well, I mean, it's already not physical, so we'll talk about that later. But uh, this is a game people would pay $100 and they wouldn't even care if they owned it or not. Exactly. They would pay $100 to stream it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownNo.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I mean, when it comes out, I'm gonna pay $100 for it. I mean, shit. You are too.
SPEAKER_02I mean, I'm just saying, like, it's like that one video of that guy talking about, hey, you know, we need to rise up against these companies not putting out physical digital. And his friend was like, What about GTA 6, man? Hey, put your put your money where your mouth is, dog. He was like, No, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. That's the perfect example.
SPEAKER_02All right, exactly. All right, so enough of that. Enough of that, grant. Let's get to the next subject. All right, this is a nice one, too. Let me close this. All right. This is not really, I mean, yeah, I guess it is a disgruntled gamer rant for our disgruntled gamers. All right, the state of industry. And boy, Xbox is on the top of this list. All right, so Xbox has have some major, major issues right now. And one of those major issues is not just their layoffs and stuff like that, but their identity crisis, dude. Yeah, they have a major identity crisis. You know, Phil Spencer, no clear direction. All right, he stepped back in February and uh pretty much after like 10 years of running Xbox and a new CEO, Asha Sharma. Why does her name be Sharma? That's some fucking food. It is I thought that. Is that not Swarma? Well, Swarma. Right? Swarma, but it's still India's close enough. Sharma. Anyway, um she she pledged to return the return of Xbox pretty much. Oh God. In her opening m memo. But all we're getting, the feeling of Xbox right now is it's going to be, you know, they had their handheld, Xbox Rogue Ally. That I'm not sure how that did, but I don't think it did too well. But everything is pointing to them to being a streaming game pass, you know, product, not a console product, even though supposedly they have a new console, but we don't even know that's really 100% or not. All right. That's kind of like word on the street. But yeah, so they're they're mainly just going they're the down the down the road, when we're this is also going to be cover our sub subject later on, our top ten actually. Um the the I would say Moving back away from physical media, but like majorly. Like I'm talking about like they're going pure streaming. And recently, recently, they've had some layoff issues and some strike issues. Bethesda, and that's not the company that you want striking. You know, especially when they have you know big releases coming up like Elder Scrolls 6. So that's an issue. But they also had to cut 4,800 jobs, Grant. 4,800. 4,800. 1,600 specifically from Xbox as part of Sharma's reset.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, nothing says reset like firing.
SPEAKER_02Firing 500 employees. Almost 5,000 people. Bethesda, Zenimax, they got hit really hard. 440 union positions across Bethesda Game Studios, Xeny Max Game Studios, which is like Elder Scrolls Online, right? Mm-hmm. And ID Software lost about half of its staff.
SPEAKER_01ID software, yeah. You know who may you know, remember ID Software? Yep.
SPEAKER_02Wolfenstein. The devs all called it a bloodbath, which it was. But you're talking about a 27-year-old studio, Bethesda. Like you're one of your flagships when it comes to well, now it is since they bought it, right? But before Microsoft acquired Bethesda, it was already a flat, it was like from software, right? You knew the next Elder Scrolls was going to be a banger. Alright. But they started to fall off themselves. But Microsoft acquired them. They announced uh they had some mid-games since being under Microsoft, very mid. Uh, but they have this, you know, they announced Elder Scrolls 6 and they want to focus on Elder Scrolls 6 now after all this uh you know firing and reset by the new CEO. Elder Scrolls 6 had. Yeah, you know, that's probably gonna be a game that's gonna be delayed for a long time too. That game's not, we will be dead by the time that game comes out. Yeah, if it comes out. Uh because you know, with these removal of all these employees, I get it. You know, it's AIs and being incorporated, whatever you're doing. I know you have to fire people. And listen, I'm kinda mixed on this. I don't like when people lose their jobs, but these these studios did get way bigger than they should be. Let's agree on that.
SPEAKER_01Well, the thing about it got way too big, Grant. So this just shows that you know, people were like, oh god, you know, Xbox, excuse me, Xbox bought Bethesda, they're about to take over. Well, no, that doesn't show it just it proves that just because you get bought by a bigger subsidiary, it's it's not good because I I guarantee you Bethesda would have not been bought by they would be making bangers because they have more financial, I mean they have more creative control, more creative freedom.
SPEAKER_02Maybe, but there's a caveat to that too. Um, there's been a reason they wanted to get balled out because they were going under.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, that's true. But you know, also though, I mean, you don't have to start developing uh companies within companies within companies, which is stupid.
SPEAKER_02But we're consistently learning that these smaller studios that are producing these really good games, dude. I mean, that are like literally leading the pack in gaming right now, are these smaller studios, and we have some games coming out here soon, like Blood of the Dawn Walker. Dude, I mean like smaller studios making these really well done games, and it's kind of showing the fact that you don't need a bloated staff, you don't need a bunch of people really not doing anything when it comes to true. I mean, but you got to balance it, right? Because you don't want to have such a small staff that you're overworking people. But if you are overworking people, you want to make sure they're fairly compensated, they get a percentage of the money or something, kind of like how uh um well what's the Sandfall Interactive, right? Yeah, obscure. You know, a lot of those guys they they shared a lot of the profits with their staff. Yeah, like a lot of those people are millionaires now. Yeah. Me included. There's a small studio enough to be able to do that and have a net profit even after that. So I think uh I think this is like you can say what you want, but at the end of the day, I think these studios are realizing that they bloated their staff too much, you know, even with the DEI crap hirings, but uh stuff they didn't need. And AI can be a contributor to that, but they even before AI, these companies are way too big. And I see why they're reducing their staff. Sorry you lost your job, but if you're not making yourself, this is my thing when it comes to any type of trade, skill, or job you do, make yourself indispensable. Correct. Don't be a lazy fuck. Correct. Make yourself unfirable. All right. If you're a lazy fuck and you don't you have no value, true value added in the company, don't cry about losing your fucking job. You're done. Yeah, that is your own fault. Now I'm not saying that's the same case for everyone. You probably had a lot of really good talented guys probably got removed in this too. Maybe people that got overlooked. That's a possibility. But I'm gonna go and tell you right now they got they removed a bunch of trash.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Just worthless trash they didn't need. Alright. Got anything else?
SPEAKER_01Nah, it's just uh you know the thing about it is is they they they went. There's a lot of things that I feel like they could have done at the beginning to avoid all this. Like they I don't know, man. I kind of blame I blame Blizzard as well. Um I feel like, you know, the up and down with Diablo 4. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's had good seasons, it's had bad seasons, but they haven't had consistent seasons. You know what I mean? Like it's there's no consistency within that company.
SPEAKER_02They just had one of the most they're one of the, I would say, basically keeping a player base and a high player base for their latest expansion release with the season that came with the expansion. They had a lot of players, dude. And they had a lot of players for a long time. Correct. But the next season comes out.
SPEAKER_01Exactly what I'm saying. Like this this exactly, this is what they'll do. They'll they'll they'll put out a you know, one of the best seasons ever and they'll follow it with a shit show. Uh there's no there's no consistency.
SPEAKER_02I like it.
SPEAKER_01Let's look at Warcraft. They've made, I mean, hell, I don't even know. They're making expansions of the classic, which is now it's no longer classic because now they're making new you get what I'm saying? Like they're making new expansions from the classic WoW. So what does it make what makes it different from regular WoW?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You get what I'm saying? Like, what makes it different if you're making new expansions? Like, I understand if they made expansions of like the ones that are already out, you know what I mean? Like classic WoW the Lich King or whatever, but like now they got new expansions for classic WoW. So what makes it different from it's just a big shit show. They should have put this on console, like Final Fantasy.
SPEAKER_02They need to allow their servers to be people to pay for servers or something. Correct. They need to allow other players, like players to actually purchase a server, kind of like how you have these Power Worlds and stuff like this. Either they create their own third party or whatever, or they move and they sell it through a third party, and people are allowed to buy their own servers of classic WoW. Correct. And this is where you're going to get like the and let allow them to mod it. Yeah. They pay for the server. Let's say a local team of like small devs want to take WoW Classic and mod it into a game because they did this before with that other game. Remember, we talked about them before? Yeah. That Blizzard shut them down. Allow them to take it. They're paying a nice little price, you know, whatever for the server to allow them to mod the classic WoW, and then they release it as their own thing to the community.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, not only that, or Blizzard can get a percentage of the whatever. Like, I mean, I mean, how would you? I mean, here's the thing is like if Blizzard, if if let's just say that you paid um, I don't know, you're paying $20 a month to run a server, or just say, or $80, $40, $49.99 to run a server, right? So you're running the server, right?
SPEAKER_02So um you're paying Blizzard that money based on what player count you want the server to reach. You know what I mean? Like you have different prices.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. So that's good idea. That's a tier system. I like that. Yeah, this is what Power World does. Exactly. So also, let's say, as the player, let's just say, like, you have the server, right? You're paying, you're paying that money to the server to Blizzard, right? Now I'm paying to play your your server, it's not free, but I'm paying, let's just say I'm paying uh nine dollars a month, right? Uh Blizzard gets you know a percentage, like a dollar per me, and then you get the rest. So they're still making money off the players plus the server fee. You get what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02I know that. And you know what else they ought to do? All right, so check this out.
SPEAKER_01God damn it, and we should work for fucking Blizzard and do this.
SPEAKER_02I mean, no, like check this out. All right, so you you pay for server. Let's say you have a group of 20 buddies or 10 buddies, whatever. You're paying for a 10 player server of classic WoW. Let's say it's $49.99 a month. Okay. Guarantee you 10 people will get together and split that damn server call. Of course, and they get to play together. But grant, here's a catch. Allow Blizzard needs to create a community of modders that they're able to sell their mod to be inputted into these servers, and Blizzard takes a cut.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. There's so many ways they can make money. Look, dude, you know how many do you know how many ultimate online free servers are?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01You know what I'm saying? Like this game is is is old. But they're EverQuest just released a new ever like just came back out. Like they just redid everything.
SPEAKER_02They're making money at the same time, but they could bring so many people back to WoW. Yeah. Yeah. They could bring so many people back. But you know what it is?
SPEAKER_01But you know what? They should have put this, they should have followed Final Fantasy XIV and they should have put this thing on console speaking of that a while back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right. Speaking of Final Fantasy 14, let's get into this before we end this segment. Okay. I want to bring in Final Fantasy 14. Like, let's talk about them. All right. So Square Enix or Creative Business Unit 3, who does uh Final Fantasy XIV, they are pretending like we talk about people that made mistakes, right? They're pretending Don Walker was like a vacation break. Like, but that and they're pretending like it was just oh no. Yeah. We were just on break, we decided to throw something out there. You know, they're pretending like they didn't really make it put any work into it or anything like that. Because they tried to do something uh different, and they probably listened to one of their dumb fucking idiots, you know, one of those new little new bibs, little young 19. I got a good idea. Let's bring in a trans-looking character, and you don't know what she is. Make her the focus of the story, which is the first time in Final Fantasy XIV expansion history. You're making a bringing a new character, and they are the focus of the story, Vice, the warrior of light, you and the science. But it's always been the warrior of light, your character, as the focus of the entire expansions. And they decided not to do that.
SPEAKER_01You know what else they needed to do, Ed? I'll say it again. What do you think it is?
SPEAKER_02Go ahead, spit it out.
SPEAKER_01You have to be able to get past the beginning that slags on, like you got slapped and you got slapped at $10. So nothing's worse. Nothing's worse than you're already on a server that's 100% for leveling.
SPEAKER_02So you're level 45 doing level 10 quests because you're they they I don't know if they have done it yet or not, but please they gotta have a expedient mode through the realm reborn.
SPEAKER_01I cannot get past dude, it slags on because nothing's worse than being level 45 doing level 15 quests.
SPEAKER_02Taking Cicobo over here, yeah. You gotta fucking fly, you know, it takes you 30 minutes to get across the town to Chocobo to another town.
SPEAKER_01Sword you're missing so much good shit. I know. I cannot, because it slags on because of that.
SPEAKER_02And that's funny, it's the only expansion that really does that. Besides, I would say, uh, you know, Don Walker or whatever.
SPEAKER_01Even Warcraft, even Warcraft will let you just get to 70, like you know what I mean, and just like pick up.
SPEAKER_02Well, they changed their stuff to make like you know, instant dungeons, level fast. You don't have to do quests, you know, you don't have to do main quests until you get you can actually log on to Warcraft, pick an expansion as you're leveling. Like you could go to uh let's see, um, battle of battle for Azeroth. Yeah, you could literally just pick that expansion, you start at level one, but you're playing through it. Yeah. At a low level. And you can do that. You and you can change anytime you want to. That's pretty good. That's a good idea. All right. All right, next subject. Next subject on Dak. God damn that. Alright, let's bring this up. Oh, buddy. Oh my god. All right. We got some drama. Got some drama to talk about. You know, we brought up this before, we brought up a few of these points before. Yeah. You know, a couple of our podcasts before this one. But we're going to kind of recap a few things. Recap a few things on the new Final Fantasy remake game Revelations, the third one. Right? Yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_01So let's get it. Yeah, real quick. I know this, I know this this photo is a uh, but let's take a look at Barrett real quick. Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_02Other than that, it looks really good. Yeah, it's pretty funny. I just said make a funny image. Yeah, no, that's good. Make a funny image. Yeah, you sure did.
SPEAKER_01And he's got a pistol.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, he's got a pistol, that's funny.
SPEAKER_01He looks like he looks like he's about to go rob a convenience store.
SPEAKER_02And then you have like, I guess this is supposed to be Kate Smith.
SPEAKER_01I have no idea. Who is the what's the what's the thing? What's the what's the purple thing? Oh no, what is that? Everything else is correct, though. Everything else looks good.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh my gosh. Not today, edgy. Oh my gosh. All right. I have so Revelation, there was three, I'd say, separate stories to hit. You know, that collided, I guess, this week and last week. And so let's talk about at least one of them. Sephiroth has been recast. Oh, God. All right. Sephiroth has been recast. Tyler Hoachlin, who voiced Sephiroth in the remake and rebirth, and got awards, acclaim for it, right? Mm-hmm. Is being replaced by Travis Willington or Willingham for the finale. What is he known for, Ed? I have no idea. But he the reason given was scheduling conflicts, uh, no further detail. And what makes this, I would say, funnier is fans noticed this from the trailer audio before Square Enix even said anything on this. Like everyone could tell the voice was completely different. And I guess Square Enix didn't want to make an announcement on that at all. They were like, oh yeah, well, here's a you know, we're gonna pretend like it's the same voice. It's not, it's like a completely different fucking voice. Everyone could tell.
SPEAKER_01Do you remember Ed? I don't know if you remember this, and I can't remember. It happened twice. Do you remember the old Dragon Ball Z? Like, not Kai, but the original Dragon Ball Z. Do you remember when they changed Krillin's voice and Vegeta's voice? Yeah, that's what this is like. Like it, but here's the thing, it's not even close. Usually, sometimes whenever they change people's voices, like it's similar. Like it's it's very similar, very similar.
SPEAKER_02But sing so fans noticed this, and then Square Units didn't say anything about it until the fans started to talk about it. But Hamagucchi, like, he was surprised that they players caught it so fast. Like there should be no surprise about it. You put the audio next to each other, it is a completely different voice. Um, and actually, guess who act the reveal actually came from one of Maximilian dude's uh um interviews. Oh, okay. But it was like a reveal. Everyone else was like, Yeah, we know it's a different voice. Yeah. But oh, it's a big reveal by Square Enix that they replaced Seth Ross' voice, and it's just so obvious.
SPEAKER_01Which is dumb to even like have a reveal for anyway. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So uh I don't know. Oh, Willingham. He's uh Superman. Oh fuck. Yeah, that's right, right? Is that the new one? Tyler uh yeah, Willingham is the new Superman. Am I right?
SPEAKER_01I don't know.
SPEAKER_02There's this thing called Google. How about you Google?
SPEAKER_01Sexy over here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, hurry up. Other things that came from this is kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_01Sorry, Ed, but David Corn Sweat is called can't Superman.
SPEAKER_02Uh who's Willingham then?
SPEAKER_01Stupid.
SPEAKER_02Alright, let me look. He was in Superman. I know that. I know that name. Come on. But anyway, let me go to the next point while you're. Apparently he's not that popular. Another another uh little drama that happened is the is they're doing four jobs per character this time around. And they're calling it the FITS job system, which means function integrated tactical suitwear. Only get like uh before you had, you know, I would say multiple, but you only got four classes per character because the development has gotten so much harder in recent years, Hamaguchi said. Um I I don't know how that is possible, how it's gotten harder, but uh um that it's basically tailor-made for your is the industry using difficulty as an excuse for less content? You know, I would say they're going with that angle. Um but at the same time it pairs well with the triple A bloke dev cost commentary. I mean, like it's it's typical just triple A rabble for this. And then the third thing, Grant. It looks like we're not getting a physical disc for this anyway. There will probably be no physical disc because right now there's no plan for a physical disc. It's not guaranteed, but he won't Hamaguchi won't confirm it. Um he's not confirming the physical media for revelation. Um but there he I said, quote unquote, he's working on the arrangements. So hopefully, I'm assuming, hopefully, that it's a collector's edition, you get a physical disc or something. You know, come on, man. Don't be that cheap. We get you, you know, or like you know, even if you got a PS5, you it should come with a physical disc cartridge with a game disc or excuse me, game disc in box and then also a download code for the PS5 Pro people. You know what I mean? Yeah, it should be something for the collector's edition. I think a game like this, you're ending, it's the finale. Have the collector's disc have a physical copy, man. Just do it. Alright. I don't know why you can't, just do it.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so do you want to hear what um yeah, here's here here's his major roles. Um Roy Mustang and Full Meta Alchemist, Thor in various Marvel animated series, Knuckles the Echidna, and Sonic the Hedgehog franchise.
SPEAKER_02Oh, so that dude that's what I'm talking about. Like he he's constantly working.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and he also played. He also played Grog and uh Vox Machina.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. Oh, is he from Critical Roll?
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02There you go. Good job, Grant. Ten minutes later, you finally got it. Well, you're just fucking rambling on that nobody even cared about, so they're waiting for me. Everyone cares what I was saying. Anyway, so those are the I would say the drama around Final Fantasy VII, but I mean there's other stuff. Um I don't know, man. I just feel like I mean we can add on the drama of the story change. Uh it's 95% the same thing. It's 95% the same thing. No, it's not. It's not the same story. Maximum dude, all you dweebs that keep saying it's 95% the same thing. It is not 95% the same thing because I'm talking about the build up, the momentum, everything about the damn story that leads you through it. Oh, but This happened in the original game too. But what about the other ninety-eight percent between that and that when it comes to the storytelling within the game is completely different. So quit telling me it's 95% of the base original game is basically the same thing. It's not. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Alright, Grant. Let's talk about next one. Oh buddy. Grant. Like that.
SPEAKER_01No, God. You like you're not Mr. Miyagi.
SPEAKER_02All right. Grant, our top ten for this week. It's kind of, I mean, this is we've talked about this, but we gotta talk about it, especially GTA 6. Probably no physical copies. Final Fan Seven Revelation, guess what? Probably no physical copies. So let's bring this up. Top 10 reasons why physical media is dying. Okay. Your personal reasons. I know everyone's gonna have a hundred. All right. I know you're gonna have a hundred. But this is on personal top ten list. Yeah. And I'm sure we're gonna have some of the same. Yeah. Because you copied me before we started a podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownAll right.
SPEAKER_01You may start it off.
SPEAKER_02Oh, Blockbuster, man. I know, man. The good old days. Remember when remember when it had like the last copy of Final Fantasy VII? Or like Chrono Trigger. Before I bought it. I wonder why Blockbuster never sold porn. They kind of wanted to run with the family vibe, Grant. They didn't want a bunch of hooligans. They didn't want a bunch of you's crowding around the room waiting for waiting for somebody to come out so I can get a glimpse of the inside. All those people waiting to go in the little curtain area. Golly. No one would be caught dead.
SPEAKER_01You know what's funny? That has to be embarrassing.
SPEAKER_02Like you can't do that in a small town like Starville either, though. No, nobody'd be talking about you.
SPEAKER_01It's not even that, man. It's like. Alright, here's the thing is like we know why you're in there. It's like one of those things, like, we know why you go in there. We know what you're doing in there. And now you have to come out and everybody has to see you.
SPEAKER_02It's like a walk of shame, dude.
SPEAKER_01It is. It's a perjury. But it's like you're purposely going in there to buy a movie to jack off to what do you think about?
SPEAKER_02It's a crazy guy.
SPEAKER_01That's what I'm saying. Like, we know that you've got whatever you're about to hold in your hand, you're about to go home and beat it.
SPEAKER_02Now the pervs can hide behind their phone screen.
SPEAKER_01Exactly.
SPEAKER_02Don't like you have to be seen.
SPEAKER_01But think about this. Think about this. Think about this. All right. You go in there, it's like a two-step thing. It's like so embarrassing, right? Because it's always going to be in the back. It's not going to be in the front of the store. So you have to grab your porn in your hand and you have to walk all the way through the store at everybody. And they see the porn in your hand as you walk out the curtain. And then you have to check it out. And it's usually going to be someone depending on your age. Like if you're like, especially if you're like in your younger 20s, it's going to probably be somebody you probably went to school with.
SPEAKER_02Oh and they're going to have the kinky stuff in the back. And that everyone has to watch you go in the back. Oh, he's going in the back. Yeah. There he is. Yeah. He's looking at some wild shit.
SPEAKER_01And then what happens if it's like what happens if they have to like do it over the intercom and say, hey, we need to we need to know if we have another copy of Big Booty Latinas in the back or something?
SPEAKER_02Price check on chicks with dicks. Shit. Oh my god, dude.
SPEAKER_01Damn, dude.
SPEAKER_02All right. So go ahead, Grant. Give me your number 10.
SPEAKER_01Alright, Ed. So you know, whenever you used to buy a game, you remember when you used to just buy a game and you pop that bitch in and just play it? Remember that? Now you buy the game and then you get hit with a hundred gigabyte download. So instead of like the game actually feeling like a game, the game, the the disc feels like it's like a license key for the download.
SPEAKER_02That's what it feels like. Alright, my number 10 grant. We already talked about this, but it's it is literally the I would call this the next gen Xbox. Uh-huh. All signs point to Microsoft's next console being built around a discless cloud. All right. All signs point to it. There's no ifs, ands, or buts. Or like a PC hybrid model or something like that. Yeah. So Sony only has a PS5 Pro, which is we're sitting right next to me to my left. That's discless. And now we're probably going to go ahead and expect Microsoft is going the same route. So physical console gaming as a I would say mainstream format is ending this decade. Like I'm I think it's going to end earlier, but 2030, it's done. Yeah. There's no more physical media and gaming. That's a bare minimum. It's done. Completely done.
SPEAKER_01All right, Ed number nine. So usually whenever you again, you remember when games you just like when you had the game, you just you just accepted it as it was. You know what I mean? Yeah. Now what happens, Ed? There's a day one patch. As soon as you soon, and then it's then it's another hundred gigabytes that you have to download. Day one patch is Ed. Because they have to fix because they didn't win, they didn't do their job and do any any type of um uh making sure that it was good.
SPEAKER_02What was the last game? Can you remember last game released recently? Like a triple A title that wasn't like it was basically ready, let's say. No, what's the last the only triple A title I not it's not even triple A though? Claire's current Claire Obscure, but that's not even triple A, right? Yeah, but I'm thinking of triple A title like Ubisoft, what what release and was like boom, ready to go.
SPEAKER_01I can't fucking remember. I mean, I mean they had a they had a patch uh cyberpunk to make it a whole different game just to be playable.
SPEAKER_02It took them almost a year just to get it going. Like that's what I'm saying. Like uh, I mean, now it's a like a masterpiece.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but it's crazy that it takes you know what I mean. Like, so like they're never really finished with the game.
SPEAKER_02I would honestly, I'm gonna say Witcher 3 was the last game I played that was actually it was good to go, is ready to ship. I would say the Witcher 3 was the last game I played. Triple H top title, that is. All right, Grant, my number nine is any PS plus game pass included title. Yeah. Think about this. Subscription games can vanish from your library the moment, the moment a licensing deal collapses. No warning required. Uh a good example of this, there's many of them, is the Evil Dig game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Buy it digitally, guess what? Now it's pulled. Can't play it. I think the crew, Ubisoft the crew is the same example. That one that started the fiasco. Um, what was that called? You remember that? What was that game? It wasn't Gamergate, it was uh Stop Killing Games camera. Oh, yeah. The Stop Killing Games. That was called that, but that's actually higher up in my list. Anyway, that was my number nine.
SPEAKER_01Ed collector's editions don't even have the physical game anymore. Not many of them. You get the book, you get the art, you get the little collectible, and what do you get with it, Ed? A download code.
SPEAKER_02Do you remember like how you were excited to read that game manual? Yes. Reading that game manual, all like the cool artwork they put in on those games.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02On the game manual. Man, I missed that. That used to be fun. I used to like my we buy the video game, and on the ride back home, you get to read this game manual. Make sure you're ready to go. Yeah. All right. This is actually my first my number eight grant. This is my first game, actually, for this top ten. Kingdom Hearts and older Screen's HD collections.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They're all frequently, I mean, they're all pretty much digital only re-releases, right? Yeah. On newer platforms. Even when the originals had full retail runs, quietly, I would say, generation of fans following them, you know? And that collection now means, guess what? License, not copy.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02So all those new games, those HD collections, those remasters, whatever, it's digital, majority of them. So yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Ed, let me ask you a question. When is the last time you've seen a PC game? Physical PC game.
SPEAKER_02Dude, the last physical PC game I ever had was Wrath of the Lich King.
SPEAKER_01Do you remember when you would go that was like 2008? When's the last like you do you remember like they used to have their own? Like everywhere you went that sold video games had like a huge PC collection.
SPEAKER_02Oh, dude, yeah. Oh my god. Like all those uh StarCraft. I mean, I had StarCraft and physical. I had all the a bunch of the ancient empires. I had the uh type game. Yeah, what else do I have? I had all the uh King's Quest, or a lot of the King's Quest.
SPEAKER_00I don't know about that King's Quest.
SPEAKER_02Oh I know about that game.
SPEAKER_00Graham, watch out. Poison Snake.
SPEAKER_02Anyway. Alright. Grant, this is another game. The reason physical media is dying, dude. They keep doing this shit. So Fryza or excuse me, Forza Horizon games. They're not fully playable, dude. I would say they're not, well, they're not like the crew, right? It's full, I would say they're not fully unplayable, like the crew is, but each entry gets delisted a few years after the release. And then you know you got the new Forza Horizon, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The old one gets loses its online features, multiplayer auction house, all that crap once the support ends. And then you get a slower version of the same crap in those older Forza Horizon games. So that's like you don't have a physical disc copy of the old Forza Horizon game, it doesn't matter because guess what? In order to play the game, you have to download all the crap. And but guess what? You can't do that because they don't they don't support the game anymore. So you every time a Forza Horizon comes out, you gotta buy the new one. Yeah, rather quickly. All right, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Um, my number six, we you've already touched on it. It's digital-only consoles are becoming like the normal, you know what I mean? Like, I mean there's nothing you've already touched on it, it's not much to say, but yeah.
SPEAKER_02My number six, Grant, PS5 Pro. Yeah, it didn't even ship with a disk drive standard. No, no, you had to buy the add-on separately, and it was it's it was kind of like Sony's quiet little dry dry run of saying, guess what you need you need to expect from now on? It's gonna be all digital future. Yep, it's pretty much what it was.
SPEAKER_01Uh number five, and retail stores keep shrinking their physical game sections. Yeah. Um, I remember you used to go into like Walmart and Toys Are Us and hell, even GameStop. I mean, they still got the giant walls of old games, but like when it comes to like new games, it's been it's constantly like the the stores uh are are replaced by like gift cards and accessories and collect like other merchandise other than the actual games.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and we talked about this. Like it's going to get to the point that they're just download codes at the retail stores. But I'm just saying, like, even though no one's going to do that unless you're offering the game at a reduced price by going into the retail store.
SPEAKER_01But even even more, even like when you go into GameStop, like it's it's it's they're selling like more baseball cards and Pokemon cards and plushies and all this other stuff, more so than actual actual games.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. All right, Grant, my number five. Any Ubisoft release post-2023. Ubisoft pretty much told their player base, get comfortable, retards. Yeah. You're not owning your games from two years ago. Or two years ago on, right? This is a company that now treats, I would say, is now treated as the industry's causenary tell for digital rights.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Go ahead. Number four, Ed, you touched on it about Forza. Some physical releases don't even contain the full game, Ed.
SPEAKER_02But the there's so many other titles we played, yeah, yeah, yeah. If we thought about it, correct. That just can you know they consistently come out. I mean, probably your sports games, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I mean, they just come out every year, and then that one stops getting supported, the old one, and then you have to you have to buy the new one because there's no more support on one. You don't have a physical copy of the old one, so it's kind of like you're screwed. Yeah. Either way. All right. Grant, my number four is every Sony PS5 game. Right. After January 2028. Yeah. Sony confirmed physical disc production for the new PlayStation game ends outright. Starting January 2028. Their own numbers. Again, we talked about this before. Digital sales make up almost 90% of all their full game sales. Yeah. I mean, it's probably higher than that now. This that was last fiscal year. This fiscal year, it's probably above 90%, honestly. Yeah. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_01Number three, Ed. We we kind of kind of touched on it a little bit. Subscription libraries have changed the way people think about ownership. You think about Game Pass. Um, you know, Game Pass, I think what they want to do is they want to do, they want to be to what games are as what Netflix is to movies. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what that's I think that's I think that's what they want to go toward. I'm thinking, starting to think that. They want to be the Netflix of gaming. I think that's what they're wanting. I think that's what they're moving towards. If I was to be, if I was to put my my finger on it. You know, because you get on Netflix, you can stream it, but you don't own it.
SPEAKER_02My number three, Grant. Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the new one coming out. Well, we already talked about this. Amaguchi, director, still can't confirm the physical release. Only some kind of physical condition. I'm guessing collector's edition, but we don't know that. And I mean, if it doesn't happen, they're going to rip me to pieces if he doesn't do that. Well, he still can just say, no, we're not going to do it, and people will still buy the digital copy of this game. The people that are the remake fans, right? Because honestly, the remake fans that complain about the physical discs, I'm just going to tell you the truth. They're not going to go on strike. They're not going to go, or excuse me, I would say, what's the word? What's the word I'm thinking of? They're going to not um anyway. I can't think of it. Mutiny. No, you know, when people don't want to buy the game. And they try to form what? Revolt. No. It's alright. That's not the game. Boycott. Boycott. Oh, yeah. That's it. They're not going to boycott this. They'll talk about it on their streams. They'll talk about it on X. But if they're a fan of the remakes, guarantee you they buy the damn digital copy. If Hamaguchi comes out saying no, there'll be no physical disc release.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02People gonna buy it. Just tell yourself the truth. You're not gonna boycott this if you're a fan of these remake games. I mean, don't get me wrong. I think it's a travesty that they don't have that he won't, let's say he doesn't release a physical disc of this in the collector's edition. Travesty. Stupid. But if you're a fan, you're still gonna buy it. Go ahead, Grant.
SPEAKER_01Number two, and major publishers are increasingly pushing digital sales first. Anytime, yeah. Anytime, I mean, I mean, think about it. Anytime that you see any type of game, like I can't tell, here's the thing is I can't tell you the last time that I saw it. Even think about advertisement. Like, what's the last time you went to like any store? You remember when, okay, first of all, you remember when you would go even early 2000s, you'd go by games, get you'd go by GameStop, and they'd have like big cutouts of the new game or big huge posters or something like that, you know, kind of like the movies, how the movies used to do, you know what I mean? Remember the old movies, like when the um, like for example, I don't know, I'm just giving an example. Uh, like if let's say Terminator 2, right? It'd have like a big full-size Terminator 2 cutout and like a big huge display of it for the movie. They don't say you've seen any of that for any video game.
SPEAKER_02They do it every now and then, very rarely. But think, but but the point is those are good, it's it's going to happen. Like those, I mean, it's going to I say, oh, GameStock can survive, but they have to do a complete change of their business model. Oh, yeah, of course. In order to ch survive this for everything going physical, you know, either you know, you you get reduced price going to retail and buying a digital download code or something. I'm I don't know what it is. But you know, you go you go you don't I just go on GameStop and they have all the like little figurines, toys, and my kids would like all that stuff. You know, you buy that stuff for your kids and stuff like that. You know, that that's a possibility of going away. Kind of like how Blockbuster was for us. Yeah.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Pretty it's a travesty, really. All right, Grant. This is a game I talked about. All right, this one started a hoopla, dude. A damn hoopla. God damn hoopla. Anyway, are you are you 80? Yeah. The crew, Ubisoft. Sons of bitches. It's the blueprint case, Grant. It is the blueprint case of all this we've been talking about. It was delisted in December 2023. Servers killed March 2024 because it required always to be online the entire game. Single-player campaign included, became permanently unplayable. Ubisoft then revoked it from players' libraries who already paid for it. You know, we talked, we talked about having these fucking companies being able to just yank a game from you. It's dangerous. Some communist shit. And this is what sparked the Stop Killing Games campaign. With it's now sitting over four like around 400,000 signatures. I mean, it's it's pretty bad. And you brought, we brought this little discussion up before, you know, about allowing games, you know, think about it. Like if you're like a guy like Asmongold that gets political sometimes, right? And you buy an let's say you buy an Ubisoft game that you only can pay on streaming, but they technically still own it and they can take it away from you. If he says something they don't like, or some fat blue-haired bitch that works at their company doesn't like, they can probably take the rights away from him playing that game after he paid for it. That's a problem. And that's actually a major problem with this going all digital. Yeah, there has to be something. Some, I don't know, regulation, federal regulation. There has to be something in place that keeps game. If a player buys a game, they own that damn game. Digital-wise.
SPEAKER_01Grant, go ahead. You're number one, big boy. And I never thought in my life I would ever see this. But it's the actual disk drive becoming the optional accessory.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Crazy, ain't it? Like that's the thing that's optional now. It used to be the digital part was the optional, you know what I mean? But now it's the other way around. The disk drive is now the optional package. You can get it if you want it. It's not necessarily needed. Can you imagine if it's like a could you imagine if this was like a Super Nintendo and you had like could you? I mean, I don't know. Like you couldn't put the cartridge in the thing, you had to like stick it in something else and then download it and on your dial up internet and upload it to your tube TV and fucking try to play Chrono Trigger that way.
SPEAKER_02Dude. I played on this little small Gray TV that had barely any color. But I loved it.
SPEAKER_01Is that the T is that the TV your dad were like get the duck gun and fucking act like you were like John Wayne?
SPEAKER_02Alright. My number one grant. We talked about the game. Game coming out in November. GTA 6. We gotta talk about GTA 6. Alright. Alright. Guess what? It's a physical edition, it's a box, Grant. Pretty cool, huh? Yeah. But guess what? There's a download code inside. Exactly. There's nothing inside the box. No ask, no, no disc for the most anticipated game of all time.
SPEAKER_01I would be more offended than if you sent me a box with just the send me the fucking code. Just email it. Just email it to me. Just email it to me.
SPEAKER_02So this is GTA 6 is the single loudest signal in the industry right now for all digital. The most anticipated game of all time, delayed multiple times, possibly a fourth. We don't know. Is a download code in the physical edition box.
SPEAKER_01You know what they're gonna do? You know what they're gonna do with that thing? That physical edition with that download code probably weighs one ounce. They're gonna charge you $15 for shipping for that son of a bitch. Just email me the code. Just send it. Just email it to me. I don't want it. I don't want the box. You're not gonna get $15 more doll out of me just for the code. No, sir. Just email it to me.
SPEAKER_02Damn right. Damn skippy.
SPEAKER_01It's probably gonna be more than that. It's probably like all and then they're gonna get people with first overnight first class $49.99.
SPEAKER_02Fiscal edition collectors, and that's over $100.
SPEAKER_01No, what I'm saying, and then what they're gonna do is they're going to charge people for that code um $50 for overnight shipping to get it faster because people are impatient. So it's gonna be like $300. There's like $300 for this game just to get it.
SPEAKER_02Like I said, if they're doing that, they gotta cut prices off the top of these games, man.
SPEAKER_01They're not though, because they don't have to. That's the thing, is they don't have to. They don't have to. Look at let me tell you something, Ed. Never underestimate lazy people. The world is lazy. I've seen a person, listen to me, Ed. Look at me. I want you to look at me in my eyes. I have seen a person uh pay $30 for DoorDash when they could have walked 40 yards to go get it to say $15. I've seen it. I've seen it.
SPEAKER_02Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_01Sometimes I just don't think money's real. Like I'm just starting to think that this the currency just doesn't exist for these people anymore.
SPEAKER_02All right. Well, that's the top 10 reasons or games that why physical media is dying. All right, Grant, you wanted to talk about something at the end of this podcast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's we'll touch on it real quick, and then we're gonna we're gonna we're not gonna spend all day on it. But it was something that um I saw last week that was trending on Twitter. Yeah, your boy, your boy, Yamaguchi. Is that his name?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, Yamaguchi. Yamaguchi son. I'll call him Gucci.
SPEAKER_01Do you? Um he made a comment because I'm I'm so tired. Let me tell you something, man. I'm so tired of these people that want a remake of every fucking thing. Like, they want a remake. And he was like, we can't do Final Fantasy VI, and everybody's like, Yes, you can. Yes, you can make it 14 games or whatever. He said it would it literally take five games. Um why?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, why are you trying to do another Final Fantasy VII like remake? I don't I do not want that. We don't need that for Final Fantasy VI.
SPEAKER_01I do not want that.
SPEAKER_02I don't want you to take five to ten years and all the resources putting together to make a full remake of Final Fantasy VI when you should be making up new shit.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. If you if you're going to do that, 2D HD, call it a day.
SPEAKER_02HD 2D. Well, what do you call it? 2D H D. Whatever. 3D, 4D, C3PO. Dumb motherfucker. H D 2D. Remake. That's all you need. That's all we need, Ed.
SPEAKER_01Oh, and let me add this. Let me add this. One more thing. I got I got one more thing to add. For all the people who are claiming for Final Fantasy XIII in any way, shape, or form, that game fucking sucks. That is the worst Final Fantasy series around. Besides Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy XIII are the biggest conglomerates of garbage I've ever played in my entire life. But their battle system was revolutionary.
SPEAKER_02I don't care, but their game is cacao ed. It's fucking shit. No, the battle system was not revolutionary. It was garbage. That game, I don't care.
SPEAKER_01But what about lightning, Ed? Because she's a female. I don't give a shit if I don't care what she is. She sucks.
SPEAKER_02That was a bad game, man.
SPEAKER_01It is a terrible game.
SPEAKER_02Final Fantasy history, dull main character, stupid gameplay, horrible setting.
SPEAKER_01It's a good game. I would rather them make Silver Surfer for the enemy. It would be worse Final Fantasy than them ever playing picking up this game again.
SPEAKER_02Final Fantasy 15 is right there, though, too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Final Fantasy 5. Like you're driving around in a fucking hoopty.
SPEAKER_02Stand by me pushing a car. It's fucking stupid. It's stupid. Like they should they made all the characters metrosexual. I hate that. You should have made it like a real like bromance friendship. Like dudes talking shit to each other and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_01Like here I'm in. Like here I am trying to go. Like here, I can't go kill, I can't go kill any big enemies. I gotta go fucking pick chili chili peppers over here by this tree that I fucking need. Like what is going on in this game, Ed?
SPEAKER_02You get a monster truck that turns it an airship, though, Grant. Let me tell y'all something. That endings suck too. I ain't gonna lie.
SPEAKER_01Final Fantasy 15 ending sucked. Now, Final Fantasy 16 was an outlier. It's a good game. It's not a great game.
SPEAKER_02Not a great game, but I liked it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I want I want everybody to look at me. I want y'all to look me in my eyes when I say this. And I'm gonna spit some cold hard truths to these people. Square Enix died in 2000. Yeah. Once they merged with Enix, they have been shit ever since.
SPEAKER_02Final Fantasy 10 was their last decent Final Fantasy game.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_02Final Fantasy IX was their last great Final Fantasy game.
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, that was a fantastic game.
SPEAKER_02I mean, you can make your case about 14 with a story.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's an online game, it's a different thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But I'm talking about actual, so Final Fantasy XI, it was okay.
SPEAKER_02Standalone games.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was okay. Final Fantasy X, you know, here's the thing is Final Fantasy X had a good story. Yeah, Final Fantasy XI, go fuck yourself.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, 10-2, stupid. Charlie's Angels, like the movie literally came out around the same time, and then Charlie's Angels from 10-2.
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_02We know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Um Final Fantasy X was decent. It was, it was, it was good. It wasn't great. But um, like I didn't want to play fucking play blitz ball. Like, the fuck.
SPEAKER_02I ain't gonna lie, I'd play the hell out of some blitz ball.
SPEAKER_01You would. Some damn blitz ball, boy. You would like that blitz ball. Here's the thing is I used to play like you remember um tech and tag? Yeah. Yeah, you can fucking there's like a bowling game in there. I'd fucking play the bowl. Jin Kazama fucking playing bowling at two in the morning.
SPEAKER_02Oh man. I bet I played the hell out of some blitz ball, dude. I wanted to get like everything in the blitz ball. Can you get prizes and stuff? You probably thought you were like the payload. I was I was running strategies and stuff like that. Writing on my little notebook. I'm gonna get these motherfuckers.
SPEAKER_01Man, I thought he was Ronaldo of Blitzball.
SPEAKER_02Hell yeah. All right. Grant, that's the podcast.
SPEAKER_01That's the podcast. All right, guys. Appreciate y'all tuning in. Go to the DMG GamingPodcast.com. Wait.
SPEAKER_02You haven't bought the domain yet? I haven't bought it yet.
SPEAKER_01So go to go to the pod pages slash fuck.
SPEAKER_02Just Google DMG Game. Yeah, just Google us. Google me ed. DMG Game. Make sure you guys like, subscribe, follow, all that stuff.
SPEAKER_01We'll get that. I'm actually gonna make a note. I'm actually gonna buy it tomorrow. I said that like for like two months.
SPEAKER_02You've said that for the last two months. God. Anyway, go ahead and end it.
SPEAKER_01Hey, real quick. Real quick. Did you see that thing? Um it's that new baseball movie where it's like everybody from the sandlight. It's like baseball dads or whatever. Fat guy who played ham. He's in it. It's like all of them. All of them, right? And uh his wife is so here's the thing here's the thing that's like that would never happen in real life. You know, when you watch movies, you you kind of think of things that would like, for example, like and some things kind of make sense. Like, for example, in King of Queens, you could see the fat guy. What was his name? You know the fat guy plays King of Queens? Kevin James. Kevin James. You think he could pull a hot life like that in real life? Like it, like if it was if a key was real, let's just say it was real.
SPEAKER_02Real? Uh probably not, but I mean the dude has a good personality. Okay. So I mean, he's a really funny guy.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02So even in the show pain's character, he's a funny guy.
SPEAKER_01I believe it's possible. You know who plays his wife and who plays the fat guy's wife in this movie? Who? Tapanga from Boy Meets World. That would never happen.
SPEAKER_02That would never happen. How dare they desecrate desecrate to Panga? Right? How did why did they do that? You can't do that to the Panga dog.
SPEAKER_01Nah. That's wrong. Somebody got to send some heated letters. All right, guys. That's the podcast. Otherwise, we'll just keep rambling. Um, like, subscribe, go Google everything. Go like the pod. Go uh like our YouTube page, everything. Got all our socials as DMG Gaming Podcast. Ed, you got anything else you need to add?
SPEAKER_02Nope.
SPEAKER_01All right, we'll see y'all next week. Peace.
SPEAKER_02Peace.