We Hit Resume: Fortnite, Game Pass, And The Future Of Xbox

The mics are live again after six years, and the first thing we admit is simple: our gaming lives changed. Kids, night shifts, early mornings, and stolen half‑hours reshaped what feels possible—so we leaned into the games and platforms that fit. Fortnite went from punchline to lifeline, a daily ritual that kept friends talking through lockdown. Game Pass quietly rewired our habits, turning curiosity into a superpower and making cloud sessions on phones, iPads, and laptops feel natural instead of novel.

We compare the realities of modern play: the ROG Ally’s punchy freedom versus the clarity of a big screen, the PS Portal’s beautiful limitations, and why the Switch 2 still makes sense for busy players. Then we dive into March’s Game Pass highlights—F1 25, Planet of Lana 2, Hollow Knight Silk Song—and how Netflix‑style discovery works when your free time arrives in unreliable bursts. Along the way, Animal Crossing gets its due as the oddly perfect co‑op memory maker, while Borderlands 4 holds its looter comfort spot on the backlog.

The industry conversation gets frank. Xbox leadership changes spark talk of AI’s role in development and what a 2026 roadmap might deliver with Fable, Forza Horizon 6, a Gears prequel, and potential AMD‑powered hardware. We push back on the idea that AI can replace human creativity, even if it speeds up the tools. On the other side, Sony’s reported shift away from widespread PC ports hints at a firmer “come to our console” stance—right as rumours of Starfield on PS5 and GTA 6 in the PlayStation backend heat up. Expect marketing deals, PS5 Pro positioning, and a lot of debate about where exclusivity still matters.

More than anything, this feels like a reset with purpose. We’re here to map gaming around real life: smart sessions, generous services, hardware that travels, and communities that keep us laughing. If that sounds like your world too, hit play, share it with a friend, and tell us what you’re downloading tonight. Subscribe, leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and drop a comment on YouTube—what game got you through the last few years?

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Transcript

Reuniting After Six Years

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hi, and welcome to episode a hundred and seventy-seven of the Gamers of the Lost Spark podcast. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and with me today is the other Spark on the Pod, Mr. Stephen Carter.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Hello, mate, how are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I'm good. The the boys are back.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

This feels really strange. Like it's been a long, long time, but ever since you sort of mumbled, shall we, you know, muttered, shall we, shall we bring it back? I was like, yes. I think you know it's time. It's been a long time, but it it feels great to actually be back.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Well, I think we all play games. I mean, we so so so for anybody who's watching this for the first time, uh, we used to do this six years ago. Uh it originally started out with Darren and Anthony and James got involved, and then Darren stepped aside, and Anthony carried it on with you, me, and James and Manny, I think it was as well on occasions. And then basically, what was it, 2020, wasn't it? It was just before the world went apart.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just before it all went crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah, I think I think we we basically were talking about the new uh Series Xbox Series X console coming out, and uh Anthony went on holiday, and then the world went to part, and we we never really carried on. So six years later, we're back and uh we're gonna talk about uh gaming again.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, I mean it's better later than never, you know what I mean? But it's it's like when we're again when we're just talking about it and just before we record, it's like what's happened in that six years? It's like we could just do an entire show on what's happened in six years, you know, not even gaming related, just what has happened because, like you say, the world went to port, you know, everything for ourselves individually has happened and things, you know, as all personal professional lives and what have you. But yeah, six years is a long, a long time, but I kind of dipped out of a little bit with gaming, but recently got back in, and then when you mentioned it, it was like I felt like because we had our group to like talk about gaming and the podcast and things outside of that. I didn't really have an outlet to discuss gaming, and I did a separate podcast about beer and kind of tried to intermingle it in there a little bit to kind of have that escapism, but it never really kind of scratched the itch. So it's nice to actually have an outlet again to talk about these things.

SPEAKER_01 2:35

It's nice talking to each other, but you're sort of messaging, or you know, I I'm driving a lot, or you know, you you have weird work hours, and um uh and you've got two kids in the background now.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

If anybody can hear this. I apologise if you can hear Oscar Wailing in the background.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Hey, I've got a 15-year-old downstairs now who's dancing, so I've just told her don't turn the amp on, you can have the TV on, but yeah, keep it down. I'm not sure when they're more noisy, when they're 15 or when they're your age.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

Yeah, at least at that age they might be able to at least put their headphones on or their earphones in, and they'll just keep themselves to themselves, I guess, don't they? But yeah, again, that's some in six years, you know, I've had seven Oscar in that time, Seb's coming up to four. Um so he's he's four in May. Uh Oscar's seven months. Um so yeah, so it you know that took up a lot of time, which was kind of why I ended up having to snowball the last podcast that I did. Um, you know, working things, and yeah, it's just been a bit of a crazy, crazy ride these last few years. But yeah, it's it's good to be back, mate. It's good to be back. And you know, and like we say, Anthony kind of he he sailed into the sunset, didn't he? It feels like he went to his his his happy place and he is uh is he's yet to return.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Well I think he the we the last podcast that we did was I think like can't was it sounded like the 5th of February 2020 or something like that? And uh ironically, uh Anthony um has just gone to uh Star Wars land. Um but I wrote a little bit to say, you know, so the other Sparks are gonna they might come in, you know. They've both said both both Anthony and James have said, you know, they might come in in every now and again, but but I just sort of thought, you know, to to jovial it up a bit to say, you know, Anthony went off to Star Wars Land in 2020 and never come back again, and James has gone into hiding because he's still not made viva pinata too.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, he'll he'll never forgive him until it's made, he'll never forgive him. But yeah, I feel like Anthony, like it says he's gone on all day. I think he's just moonlighting there. I think he's actually got a job there. I think he's dressing up as Stormtroopers and Darth Vader and Kylo Ren, and I think he's just having living his best life over there. I think he's he's finally found his calling of of living in in Star Wars Land.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Well, I'm not sure if it's still up, but his profile picture for a few years on on Instagram and Facebook and those platforms was him holding the lightsaber that he built. Is it Edge of Tomorrow the Star Wars Land? I can't remember now. But there is literally like he's holding this like lightsaber and he looks like a ten-year-old boy looking at it.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

So it's it's great, it's you know, it's just to see how much joy he gets from going there. I'm super jealous. It looks fantastic, like it looks absolutely amazing. Like, I'm not one for theme parks, but that and the Marvel section and things look absolutely phenomenal. But seeing his little face when he's going over, like you say, it just it just gives me a little warm fuzzy feeling inside that he's living his best life when he goes, it's great. It's it's lovely to see.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Well, I think I think the one reason, you know, um I think the one reason is like Nicola always said that they they never had children because she she didn't need a child because she already had Anthony.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

She's got a big enough one already.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

You can't get more of a child than when you see that image.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

No, no. Like I say, and that's you know, it's great to see, like you say, when you see his little little face and how we and that's you know, I'd love to go there myself and hopefully one day take the kids, you know, have a little trip out. But as uh as things are getting more crazy expensive, it's uh it might take a little while before we can actually uh manage to make that happen, sadly.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

So you still doing the Points of Brew podcast?

SPEAKER_00 6:02

No, that that became a casualty of everything really. Um I still involved with with craft beer and I and I've changed my Instagram page away from uh Call Point to where it's now Steak Art 91, which is pretty much my gaming thing, and just it went to more of a general page, but just with life, um you know, having said um just didn't mean my free time anymore. Um Aaron had a little little boy, um he had George, so that took up his spare time. Um then we set up another business, um another separate bar as well. Um so yeah, so it just it it one of the things that had to go, uh unfortunately. It might come back another day. Um but yeah, it just kind of felt like the craft beer bubble was kind of shrinking a little bit, maybe. Um the engagement and the listens wasn't what it used to be. So yeah, it just kind of just made sense to park it and just set off a bit like this podcast, really. Just come back to it maybe another day in the future, maybe who knows?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

Well, I think life just takes over, does it? At the end of the day, we we're all we all we've all got families, we've all got jobs or businesses. You know, I've I still I I'm sort of moved from I still build cinemas for people, so I still uh I still run immersive cinema rooms, I still build cinemas, but um I now have 50 what 50, no, it's still 50, 50-year-old knees, so they're starting to hurt a bit more. And uh so I do a lot more sort of like uh uh promoting and marketing for our industry now. Um we do another one reason what also sort of made me think about this was last year, I think it was sort of April, May last year, we started um the uh HCA Tech Talk podcast, which is a bit what I do. So, you know, cinemas, audiovisual, that type of thing, um, talking to integrators and talking to manufacturers and distributors. So I sort of got my uh itch back for podcasting. Um, we do that generally away somewhere, uh, so at a uh a manufacturer or distributor or an integrator, so then we do that with cameras. Obviously, you're in Yorkshire, and I'm not driving to Yorkshire every two weeks to a podcast review.

SPEAKER_00 8:09

No, it's

Life Changes And Why The Pod Paused

SPEAKER_00 8:10

uh it's a bit uh constrictive when you do it in person. It's better to do it in person. And me and Aaron did do a few uh in person. We did some at breweries, we did some at pubs, um, we recorded a couple at YCB as well, which was great. But again, it was just the time, you know, the time to get us both together to travel, and especially when it's a beer podcast, you know, you can't really drink and try the thing because one of you had to drive and blah blah blah. So it like you say, if there are restrictions to do it in person, you know. We had we had you know a proper little setup to record it and tried to do a bit of video as well, but it just like you say life takes over, sadly, and as nice as these things are to do these things on the side, then fundamentally they're not important, are they? You know, it's you know they have to they have to be part if needs be, but it's just nice to even just talk nonsense to somebody, isn't it? You know, even even virtually, you know, we we always did this virtually because I think I was the I think I'm still the outlier. I think the northern, I think you you guys are predominantly all down south. I think Manny was I think he's Gloucester Cheltenham way, so he's kind of a bit further north, but still no one quite as far as uh as me up in Leeds. So yeah, so it just it was always virtual, which you know it's still serves a purpose, but yeah, it's just nice to to get together, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 9:20

I think James is up your way, isn't he? I mean I say up your way, literally. If I if I go that way about 20 minutes, I'm in the English Channel, but uh James is wherever Rare is. I can't remember where Rare is, but I don't think he's this way.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Any anywhere north anywhere north of the M25 is like north to me.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 9:43

I went up to Edinburgh last year for a trade.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

That's a lot further than me, so yeah, that's that's proper north. That's really really north.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

And I said I said to one of the guys there, I said to one of the guys there, Stuart, um, from a company called Limit Limit is Limitless Automation, I said to him, So is this it? And he's like, What? I said, Is Edinburgh as far north as it goes? He said, Oh no, he said, There's a shirtload more beyond this.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Go up to like Inverness and Tongue and all that, yeah. Oh, that's the real wild, wild, wild west up there, you know, that's proper out in the sticks sort of thing. And we've been up to Isle of Sky before, and it's lovely because you're it literally in the middle of nowhere. Yeah, but you are in the middle of nowhere, and I think from here to the Isle of Sky at about 11 hours drive or something, yeah, it's it it's a tough, a tough slog, but it's worth it. But yeah, it's um yeah, it's great up here. It's cheaper, it's a lot cheaper up here, so yeah, it's um it's a lot better. It's a lot better.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Good good tea as well.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Yeah, well, I don't drink it, but everyone says your oxy tea is the best one. So I just I I just I just because I'm from here, I just say, yeah, of course it is. We know tea. Yeah, we know tea.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

This is a gaming podcast, so let's go get on to some gaming.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Let's get on to some gaming. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

What have you been playing recently? Or what have you I mean, so obviously we've had six years of gaming. Um I can't remember a lot of stuff I played six years, apart from one game that was fundamental. But what have you sort of like been dipping into lately?

SPEAKER_00 11:03

Um well, I mean, I haven't ironically I haven't played it a lot, but should we I mean the the one big topic I guess we can get out of the way sort of the the elephant in the room almost is is Fortnite. Um, you know, because Love It or Hate It, you know, I think probably way back when, if you delved into the archives of the old shows, um I I probably mocked Fortnite. You know, I was probably a big hater of it, and I was like, don't get it, never play it, I don't get the hype about it, I'll never touch it. Blah blah blah. And then during lockdown, honestly, that was fundamental for us in terms of because Anna works from home and she did all the way through COVID, she did it before it was cool. Um, you know, she already had a homeworking job. Um so she was in the house, I went to the shop and came back, and then after that, we just this was pre-kids, we just had nothing else to do like everybody else. So um my nephew he played, um I got into it, um one of our friends, mutual friends Marky got into it, then Anna got into it, uh my brother got into it, uh, one of our friends Oliver got into it. So, you know, so we had a whole group of people that just you it just became a thing when you're getting on. When you get on it, it wasn't even an are you, it was when are you getting on because everyone just finished work and logged straight into Fortnite, and that was the way that we socialised. You know, you could play I can't remember if you could play squads at that point. It was either trios or squads, um but so then sometimes I'd be on, but Anna would be in the background, and then at one point I was upstairs, Anna was downstairs. Um even we'd play duos together. Um, you know, it was just our way of talking to other people. It was an unforced way of socialising beyond having a a forced video call or a zoom chat or what have you. So and it became a massive, massive part of our life through Covid, and then it kind of just stuck. Um like I say, I I've probably stopped playing it recently maybe about December time, around Christmas. Um and I haven't I haven't played it recently. Um I really need to get back into it because I'd I've just been playing other things, I think, and just kind of just when you lose that social element of it when you play it solo, it doesn't quite have the same hulk I don't think. You know, and I think it's because we did it as such a social thing when I just played on my own, it was just like it doesn't really have the same the same hook. Um but I know that you've been playing it a lot recently because we've had chats about it. Um and I and we haven't actually really jumped on and played it together, but I know you've been doing it a lot recently. But for a game that I, like I say, heavily criticised, I think at one point, uh like a complete reversal, and it yeah, it it got us through. You know, it really did get us through.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

I think for me, like I I only jumped on it because game pass. Um you know, I I've I've never really jumped on it, and then I think the game pass happen, the changes happened, or the changes uh that are coming out with the revised pricing and things like that. Um and one of obviously the part of it was Fortnite crew. And because I I can honestly admit, because you know, I have been so busy over the last six years with family life, with work, you know, um running the businesses and things like that, I just found myself not unless it was unless it was uh maybe an assassin's creed or even though the last creed I wasn't a big fan of, but I wasn't really doing the sort of like two, three, four-hour gaming sessions that I was doing. Um I stopped drinking two and a half years ago, so you know I'm now in bed at half past nine at night and actually do most of my gaming at like half past four in the morning. Um but I think because when it came out and it says now included in Game Pass when you turned on the Xbox, I thought, well, let's have a play. And of course, I went into it straight away, go to the furthest point on the map where no one else is around, and then I just sort of found that I was just chipping away in it, and I think it was the Simpsons, um, the Simpsons map, because I've always been a massive Simpsons fan. So I'm like, oh, I've got to play that either just to unlock, you know, Homer or buy Homer, but you had to unlock him. So, and for me, yeah, I mean, I used to play Halo Infinite, I've played Battlefield, I've played COD, and I think that I don't have the time to really get into those enough to be good at it. Um, I mean, I I went into the um I went into the latest battlefield and literally like spawned died, sport, died, and and I just um I just found myself with Fortnite, especially with the Simpsons pack, I just found myself just sort of going grinding, really. Um, but doing it like, you know, playing 20-minute game before I left to go to work, or play a 20-minute game when I came home from work, and that's what I sort of found really good. Um I did pretty much unlock everything in the Simpsons one, and then um the current one I well, I've just got my latest battle royale, just a minute ago, um, whilst I was just sort of waiting for the dinner to warm up before we had dinner before coming on with you. Um, but I just yeah, I mean, I think I'm uh at a hundred level 161 now. Um, and that's just playing it, but it's playing it along the lines of just like 20 minutes here, a game here, a game then, maybe two or three games. I did jump into I've run out of everything really doing the battle pass, so I jumped into um reload, which is nuts. Have you played reload?

SPEAKER_00 16:41

No, is that the one where you respawn?

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

No, I I haven't to be honest with you. No, but the but this this part that I want to say about for it is it's become such a big thing though, hasn't it? There's so many different modes now, and there's so many collaborations. Like you it like on my feed on Facebook and Instagram, you say all rumours about there's gonna be this collaboration, there's gotta be that collaboration, da-da-da, and then there's the crossovers, and then there's the uh reload mode, like you say, and the uh the OG mode that goes back to old map modes and things, and obviously there's a Lego bit, there's the Rocket League bit, there's the music bit, you know, it's its own ecosystem now. It's almost like that COD universe, isn't it? That the COD's got its own universe and things. Fortnite's got its own universe now, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:23

Which means do you mean the COD universe where I can't find the start button? Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do I do? What do I do? I put on the group on Saturday. How do you start you know Modern Warfare or 7 or whatever the latest one is? It's like I went in to play it because I had not played it because it you know I just hadn't got round to it. And it's like it's like every time I was playing it,

North Vs South And Warming Up

SPEAKER_01 17:43

I think I'm going into a multi-match game, multiplayer game. And I think it was Anthony said, No, you do think you're going into a multiplayer game, but you're not. Uh by that point, I downloaded it and reloaded it so many times. I'm like, I saw this, I can't be bothered. No one's raving about it, so I'm not playing it.

SPEAKER_00 17:59

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it it is, and it it's like it is its own little world now, and you know, these like you say, The Simpsons world, it was a short season for that. But there's so many great collaborations that you see that come out and you're oh, I've got to go back in now. You know, I've I've got to do that, and and that's the way that they get you. And it's a really clever business plan that they've done, and it must be, you know, with the the battle pass thing is great with the um Game Pass because obviously the price was going up. Is it 24 25 quid now a month here in the UK? UK's $22.99. $22.99, yeah. But obviously, Fortnite crew were a tenner, you know. So if you if you're a a regular Fortnite player or become one, well, Game Pass suddenly, when you justify it, becomes $12.99. You know, so it's like, well, actually, if I get the money out of the battle pass and my V-Books and things, well, Game Pass is really good value, and it is, you know, that's one of the things that we're gonna come on shortly, is that how good Game Pass has got. Um, you know, and like you say, we we time and things and not being able to get into longer games, I'm the same. You know, there's loads of games out there that I want to get into. I haven't got the time, you know what my my shifts, I work two hour eleven every day. I have Wednesdays and Saturdays off, but that time during the day before I work is spent with Anna and Oscar while she's on Mat Leave. When when she's back at work and the kids are in nursery and school, then yeah, I'd be able to sink two, three, four hours into a game before I start. But a lot of my gaming now is on the cloud, you know, which I can do because I'm a Game Pass Ultimate member. You know, I can play it on my phone, I can play it on the iPad, I can just cloud stream on the Xbox, you know. And Fortnite plays into that, that you can play it on the cloud, and like you said, it's it's jump in, jump out. You know, I've got half an hour, I'll jump in, I'll do my daily quests, I'll play a couple of rounds, what have you, that's it, you've done, you know, and you've scratched, you've ticked that box. Do you know what I mean? And some people do play it for hours and hours and hours, but if you just want to get your little fix on a morning or afternoon or evening, whatever it is, you can do that and it's perfect. And again, because of the cloud, again, it allows that to be pretty much wherever you want it to happen. You know, it doesn't have to be on the console. And I think Microsoft has nailed the cloud gaming after so many years of obviously it's gonna be a thing, it's gonna be a thing. It really is now, you know, because it pretty much for me is seamless. You know, I can jump on and it is you know, 99% of the time it's bulletproof, and you wouldn't know that you're not playing it on a console.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Yeah, I mean I I bought a um ROG Xbox, R O G Ally X or whatever it's called.

SPEAKER_00 20:26

Very, very jealous of.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Yeah, um, I mean it was a complete like I did it was almost an Anthony, you know, where Anthony just sort of found one and bought it. And I've been like I've had a Steam Deck and had the original ROG ally, and and I'm just like, I don't need it and I don't use a handheld. And then I saw it came up much Nemesis calories, and I'm like, mmm, I really don't want to bum it from calleries, but it's like okay, if I bum in it, I'm gonna pick it up because during um six-year break and about three years ago, I ordered a um a MetaQuest, um the uh the latest one, not the S the company, but yeah, it is the S. Um and it never turned up. Um I ordered it for Christmas, last minute, it's a bit of a family present for Christmas, never turned up. So I had to go to Alogos and buy one, like click and collect to get it for Christmas, and then it took them four months, I think it was, to acknowledge that I hadn't received it. Then I went to say to them, look, I don't want it because like I've already bought bought one four months ago. And then like I'm gonna let's outside 30 days you can't return it now.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

So I was always of never receiving it.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

It's like my ring doorbell shows a guy bringing my my DPD driver who we know really well, Claude. Um, you know, he had the pill box in his hand, and I'm like, there's no way there's a that is what was it, the pill box, the band, and the meta. And I'm like, oh no, and he's like, Oh, it might come in a different Wagon because it normally does, but he didn't, so I really didn't want to buy it from there. And I have tried Fortnite on it. Um, and as you can see, probably now I wear glasses only for reading and whatnot. But I like I trade I played Fortnite on uh the uh ROG like the day I got it, and you know I got pretty far in it, but going between a 77-inch OLED on my wall and a this this it's like even with my glasses on, I'm like, you can see people in the distance on a big screen TV.

SPEAKER_00 22:33

That's the only drawback. It is like say, but even on an i it's not an iPhone, even if you're on an iPad Pro and you had a bigger one, you know, it doesn't compare. I think our TV is 55 in the living room, you know. So again, you know, being able to see further in the distance and things, yeah, you are you are struggling, but yeah, it I I'm very, very jealous of that. I mean I've been pining over a Switch 2 forevermore, and I'm like, I don't need it because I'll play it. It's just the fact that it's new and it's shiny, and there's so many games from the previous switch that I could play on it, and I'm like, oh, it's great for me from working from home that I can play it, you know, it's handheld while I'm at work, it's great, and which is why I play a lot on the the iPad and things, is that I can do it at my desk, um, you know, between calls. Um I should hasten to add in case someone from work ends up ends up listening to this podcast somewhere along the line. Um but yeah, it's um yeah, I mean that looks like a great piece of kit, you know, ever since they touted it, because I've still got my PS portal, um, I've still got it, and it's just sat there and and I don't use it because my experience with it has been very, very mixed. It's a great piece of kit, I love it. I think it there's a piece of tech, I think it's fantastic, it feels great, it looks great. In theory it's great, but at least with the the ROG is that you get it's a standalone bah piece of kit in it, you know. It's like the Steam Deck, you know, you

Back To Games At Last

SPEAKER_00 23:43

can locally play it, you can download things to it, you don't have to cloud stream. Whereas the problem with the portal is that the portal has to connect to the PS5 and obviously da-da-da and multiple different connections, but the cloud game in the Xbox the console's not involved, you know. Microsoft would cut the middleman out, it literally goes from the iPad to the cloud and back. There's no middleman in between, and I think that's the thing that the portal is missing. You know, you can't just go direct well you can now, sorry. I mean, if you got only if you've got the you know the biggest PlayStation Plus membership, but again, the catalogue on that is just nowhere near the the Game Pass catalogue. You know, Microsoft has got such a compedium of games on there that it's like, well unless you're the die most die harder Sony fans, I think why would you jump onto PS Plus? And my PS5's not been switched on for ages, and it's almost I look at it and like I think Q had been the same. It's like, do I get rid of it? Yeah, you know, do I sell that? Do I sell the portal? You know, do I put that towards you know the Switch 2, the Rogue? You know, do I just bank it as cash or credit for computer exchange or something, maybe? I don't know. Um I'll just keep it in the vain hope that you know there'll be a Sony exclusive that comes that I must play and have. I just don't really see it happening, and I think I'm just not getting rid of it because Anna bought me it as a 30th birthday present when they were in short demand. It came up on Amazon, she bought me it. Um, when it just popped up in stock randomly, and I've I feel a bit attached to it. And she said, Look, I I don't mind if you sell it, and I've just and I'm just like I just feel a bit harsh maybe, but yeah, the portal definitely, I'd get rid of the portal because it just it's not it's not going anywhere, it's not been used.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

If you've not got something you're playing, I mean I'm really sort of like delving into I think Anthony said about a 20 years of Forza on Forza Motorsport is a 20 years of Forza Motorsport sort of thing. So actually, I think we were all the whole family were in the lounge like the other weekend, the girls were watching something, I was sitting over on the other sofa, and I actually just pulled out the ally and just started playing Forza Motorsport. And because of the the other podcast, I've been invited to places. So recently I was in Barcelona last year. I went out to Belgium and out to Amsterdam. Um, so I'm finding that I'm uh I mean in a few weeks I think I've got I think I'm coming up to Manchester. So it's like, well, look, I take it with me because then I can, you know, sit in a hotel room, I can have a a game on this, and I can do my fortnight dailies, you know, make sure I don't m m miss me my XP. And and there are certain things like I can't remember the name of the game now. I've not put it on here because I've not started playing it, but there's like a little Metroidvania game on there that I'm like, oh actually, that would work really well on it. A little bit like the Switch. I mean, I had a Switch too, and I I got rid of it because it's almost like I'm not using it, it was just coming up to Christmas, and I thought I could sell it, I'm not gonna use it, I'm only gonna keep this to play Mario on, probably. Um, and it's a bit like the PS PS for me as well. I played a few games on it, but that is my exclusive machine, you know. The Xbox My Daily, that's my exclusive machine.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

Yeah, and and it and and that's great, but again, I might get shot down, but again, there are PlayStation exclusives, but there never seem to be that many that come out or enough to almost justify it at the minute. Do you know what I mean? And you could probably say the same for Xbox, you know, and if the and if the PlayStation catalogue was better of of the PlayStation Plus, you know, you could quite easily say you just jump ship and and have the uh the subscription there. But like say with with a ROG, the ally at least, you can it's almost perfect for those Game Pass games like those what used to be Xbox Arcade and indie games, download them, stick them on there, play it while you're on the train, you know, while you're in a hotel room, on a flight, whatever it might be, you can do that. You know, you you've got the it's got the inbuilt

Fortnite As A Social Lifeline

SPEAKER_00 27:33

um hard drive to do that and and it's it's perfect, you know. And and I think for me is that the the one thing that's holding me back from buying it is obviously got the the lesser one, the more expensive one. And I think if you're gonna do it, you're gonna get the more expensive one out. If you're gonna do it, go the whole hog, then what is it, seven seven hundred and fifty, eight hundred quid?

SPEAKER_01 27:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Plus the case, case case is fifty quid, so you look at the best part of eight hundred and fifty, which I know our American friends are gonna be listening to this, going, it's a thousand dollars in America just for the console. Uh so we are fortunate, but yeah, it's still way over what an Xbox and a PlayStation cost you.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah, that's it, and and you can understand why. You mean you look at the cost of an iPhone, you know, every time an iPhone comes out, it's a thousand pounds plus if you buy it brand spanking you. You know, the smaller technology is generally speaking more expensive, isn't it? You know, so it's understandable, but I just can't afford 800 quid. You know, like I said, I just got a newborn or what have you, it's just that it's a lot of money, you know, it it's a big commitment for something that might or might not get used, which is why the Switch 2 granted it's still 370 quid, but it's half the price, you know, so it's a bit less of a gamble, and and Nintendo products notoriously hold the value. So if you just wanted to get shot of it, you'd probably get most of your money back anyway. Um it's I'd love one. I really, really, really would love one. But for now like the iPad, I was playing it last night, you know, or playing um High and Life 2 last night on the iPad. You know, the the the the whole compedium and and things like I had we said about games and we put like different ones and I've just put vaguely Game Pass games, you know, because I've just been flicking through Game Pass, you know. I went I went through the Halo back catalogue, you know, I did the Master Chief collection, you know, I did Halo 5, I did Halo Infinite, I did all that. Um recently I've dabbled in the Ubisoft catalogue, you know, the Ghost Recons, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 29:21

Well, because that's that's another benefit with um is the fact that you get Ubisoft Plus Lite or whatever it is as part of Game Pass. So, you know, you could jump into those as well. But um I I'm the same, you know. I will I will play quite I I suppose I will play quite a lot of Game Pass games because I actually like playing stuff that I'm like. There's a great little feature on Game Pass where it goes, this is what you might like. It's a bit like Netflix or Disney when you've watched something, and I think what's good for me is it it's thrown up some really cool little games, you know. Um just like there was one I can't figure what it's called now, but it was one where I was a robot that made sushi. It's probably called sushi robot or something like that. But it just literally for something that I could just jump into for sort of like half an hour, it was really cool, and yeah, and and then there's been a few cases where like you know, I bought the I mean for anybody who's listened to this before, they know that I I'm a big Far Cry fan, I'm a big Assassin's Creed fan, and I'm a you know an Amstroke was a big Ubisoft fan. Um, but like I bought the last um Assassin's Creed, and and I think you said the same when you played it. It just didn't get me. You know, it was like it was in Japan, it was everything that everybody had been shouting for, but the story just didn't get me. I, you know, I loved Valhalla, that was brilliant. Um, I love the one that was set in the Middle East, I can't think it was called now. Um, but that was good, and I went even went back at Christmas time and played the free DLC for it like two, three years later when it when it came out. Um, but for me, Game Pass is just I mean, I'm lucky I get it as part of my mobile phone contract. Um, eE, it's one of my perks. Um, so I was getting T sport, and I'm like, do you know what? I really don't sit down and watch football, I'd rather watch match of the day. So I get it as part of that at the moment because they still say it's $15.99. But that's what I do because it's like that way I find something that I like, I find something I enjoy, and I find some new stuff to play.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Yeah, that's it, innit? And then like you say, it there's just all these little things. Oh, it goes by you can you can obviously do the whole search category, what's new, even the stuff that what's leaving, you know, there's a category saying what like again saying with Netflix, what's what's going in the next few days because oh I'll play that before it goes. You know, it's just that whole thing, it is a very good little ecosystem that they've got going on, you know. It is great. Um so yeah, so I I mean it sounds like we're just loving Xbox and and bashing PlayStation, but it's it's not like that. They've just got they've just got one up over Sony in that way, you know, and I think it's just because obviously Microsoft is such a tech giant and obviously got Windows and all the you know the the whole powerhouse behind it that that can power it. I think that's that's part of the reason why. And obviously we've got things to talk about later in the pod about Microsoft and the future of Xbox, but for now it does seem like they've got albeit not necessarily they've not won you know the console more, shall we say, you know, Sony's all more PlayStations and Xbox hold Xboxes, but the thing that feeds it, you know, the the whole you know, the games, the ecosystem, the game pass. I think Xbox has got that, whereas Sony sort of won with the console with the PS5. So it's if you blended the two, if you mash the two together, you'd almost have the perfect box, you know. It would be like everyone says, they should just unite and join forces, and you would have the perfect console.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Well, you know, you you may see that because I mean you can't argue the fact of like my my daughter's got a series S on the wall, literally in the room behind me. She plays it to play uh Fall Guys and Stumble Guys or whatever it is. Uh and I said to her, Do you want me to put my game pass description on it for you? She's like, No, yeah, I like just playing this and I like playing that. And then I've got um um Molly's cousin Riley, he's a PT gamer. Um, and I think I think Phil uh ex-phil, ex-CEO Phil, um said um, you know, I think he said it right, which was like they lost the most important generation Xbox, you know, and this, you know, if you go back and listen to this podcast, you know, from six years ago. I mean, I looked at some of the episodes ago about 10 years, you know, we've always been a podcast which is like we talk about Nintendo, we talk about a Sony, we talk about Xbox, but you know, I think all of us were mainly players of Xbox. Um, and Game Pass is just something that, like you say, if you're not always at your desk or in your lounge, you can just take it with you and play it on your iPad or play it on your ROG, or you know, I've had it playing on my MacBook sometimes when I've been in a hotel.

SPEAKER_00 34:00

Yeah, yeah. I mean, my my laptop that we're recording on that I use for work, it's an ASUS, so also it's the same Brad as obviously the ROG. It's got Game Pass in mind, so I've built functionality built into it via the cloud. So, you know, I've got a dedicated Xbox button on the bottom of the screen. And I've played it there. You know, I've done the same, I've hooked to you know, I've got a third-party controller that hook up to it. But apart from that, again, you know, it's it's it's great. You know, I could just take that on holiday, wherever, blah blah blah. You know, and it albeit it's a laptop, it's not handheld, but it's still convenient, you know, it's still a convenient way of playing if you want to do so while you're travelling or whatever. So yeah, it it really is um it really is great what the what they've done.

SPEAKER_01 34:38

Um I think and it is touching on the switch briefly, uh, when we're looking at games, um I looked at sort of like what was my biggest game, like with Fortnite for you. What was my biggest game of like COVID? You know, what was what would I say? I mean, I've played a lot of games since we stopped podding six years ago, and I sort of looked at it and thought, well, okay, what game out of all the games that I have played would I say was something that I remember and look back fondly? And for me, it was Animal Crossing. Now, I can remember being on a podcast with Chesson um and maybe even James, and I remember saying, It doesn't interest me, I've got no interest in it whatsoever. I'm not gonna play it, blah, blah, blah. And I stuck it.

SPEAKER_00 35:23

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? It sounds familiar.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

And then, and then I think what was it? Molly would have been 10. So she had uh she had a um a switch light, and I bought her a copy of it because obviously I was still working uh through COVID. I was just working in cinema rooms on my own, it was bliss, loved it. Um, didn't see anybody all day, and it was working like four o'clock in the evening until 10 o'clock at night because I was trying to avoid the other trades. But it was like I was building this cinema in East Essex, and it was this massive. If you go on uh YouTube or go on emergency cinema rooms, you'll see it's a snooker room, and it was something like 14 metres long by about seven metres wide, this room. And I had a I had a coffee machine down there, I had my radio down there, we had internet down there, and I was building this guy's cinema. Um, but because me and Molly were playing Animal Crossing at home and we were like visiting each other's islands, we had a as the Sparks, we had a group, and you had James on there, you had Anthony on there, you had some friends of the show on there, and for anybody who doesn't know Animal Crossing, you would sell your turnips every day or every night. And and it was literally like I would get a I would get a message on the WhatsApp group from like Anthony going like my turnips are just turn it price, wasn't it? Yeah, my turn, my turnip price was whatever. And like I would text Molly, because um I would text Molly or text Kate to say to Molly, like, tell Molly to come to this island and sell her turnips, and you know, like and it was funny because like I paid her mortgage off for her on a on an house and I'm like, don't expect that to happen in real life. Um hopefully you'll get famous and pay my mortgage off. But for me, for a game that I was never going to play, it just and I think it's the same for a lot of people and why Animal Crossing the Switch was so popular during COVID. For me, it was just like it gave me some really cool times with my daughter, and it was just fun because, like Fortnite, as you like you were saying, you were just socialising, you were chatting to people, you're all focused around this one thing whilst the world was going to pot.

SPEAKER_00 37:38

Yeah, that's it, and it it becomes a thing, doesn't it? You know, like you say, you have these little groups that you set on WhatsApp or what have you, and you you drop in messages to each other, and it becomes its own little thing, doesn't it? And it it's and I think it's obviously it is a

Game Pass Habits And Cloud Play

SPEAKER_00 37:50

lot more relaxed, is uh Animal Crossing than uh than Fortnite. But again, it just becomes that little routine, doesn't it? That you just log on, you do your thing, you go harvest your turnips, you turn your turnips in, you go, you know, tend to whatever crops or whatever you need to do. And I don't I d I mean I can't remember how long ago it will have been now. I did dip into an Animal Crossing at one point, whether that was the Switch version or maybe a like a 3DS version or something. You know, it it's not my cup of tea. I I appreciate the premise, you know. I fully appreciate the premise of what you do, and it is just maybe a little bit older and wiser me now would like that experience to just be a bit more chilled, a bit more relaxed of let me just go do my jobs, you know, let me just jump in, go do what I need to do, log in, log out, and that's it. Stress-free, no nonsense about apart from stressing about your turnip prices, but um yeah, because is it is it the last one where like you they basically mortgage due? Like it was almost like real life, you got the house and you had to pay your mortgage off and blah blah blah. Yeah, you went you you went to the microphone. This is a second life. Yeah, you're gonna have to pay my mortgage off now.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

You went to your island, you went to your island, they gave you a tent, or uh um they gave you a tent and you start off another tent and then you grew and grew and grew. For me, it got to the point where I think I think they introduced terraforming where you could physically change your island. So when I sort of got to the pinnacle, I suppose it's a little bit like with Fortnite now for me. I've almost got to unlocking everything that I've got time to unlock. So I'm quite looking forward for the next season to land. I think it's the 18th of March. I think it's this month at some point, in the so I'm quite looking forward to that because Animal Crossing, I just got to that limit where I was like, do you know what? I I'd really not bothered in playing anymore. Um, but yeah, no, really, really enjoyed it. Uh, and for me that was my sort of game of like you know, the last six years, along with lots of others, but that's the one that sort of has a play in place in my heart. Um, what else you've been playing? Have you been playing anything else?

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Yeah, so obviously there's the menagerie of different things on Game Pass, but the other thing that I've I I haven't played it enough criminally, really, and it's ironic because I was really looking forward to it, is Borderlands 4, um, which it it sat in the disc is sat in the console, and because I again because I get very little time to play actually on the console on the TV, um, it has sat in there. Um, you know, I rent I rent most of my physical games from Boomerang, so I've not actually bought it, but I have a subscription where I rent them every month. Um and I think it should be cloud compatible. I did see somewhere, you know, where you can play your own game, basically, if you buy it or download it, you can play it in the cloud. And I'm I'm sure I've seen that somewhere that Borderlands 4 is compatible, but every time I've tried it, it's not worked. So I've I've not I'm admittedly I ain't gone back to it, but yeah, I I love the Borderlands universe. I've I've jumped in the first one when it first ever came out. And it's just grown and grown and grown from there, and I do love it. Again, it's almost that mindless game that you kind of know the story, you know the main characters change every game, but fundamentally you're a vault hunter, you're on a planet, you go and try and get all this loop, it's just basically a run and gun shooter, you know, and it has got a a theme and a and a story about it, and it's got the memorable characters like it's got cap trap in it and things, which uh captrap is still one of my sort of favourite characters out of uh any game universe that's come out in recent years. But yeah, it's almost that one that you don't need to listen and pay attention to. You know, you could listen to a podcast, you could have it on mute or quiet if you have the kids around, what have you, but yeah, that's that's one that I've sunk some hours into. But I I do need to go back. But again, I think it's because of the you know, the nature of Borderlands, it could take 80, 90, 100 hours to play it, you know, complete it, you know, even just running through the story on its own could be a 20, 30 hour slog, which it'd be a fun 20, 30, 40 hours, but it's just having that time to dedicate to it. So it m again it might be one that just sort of goes on the back burner, so I've got that bit more time when the kids are at nursery and school and so on and so forth. But I love it, it's just it looks great, you know, that sort of sell shady sort of artwork style that they've got, you know, it's a bit sort of cartoon-esque, which is what this book become uh you know almost famous for. It's it's stayed that way since it first came out. Um yeah, it's got RPG elements of upgrading, levelling up, you know, different skills, different perks, but the millions or billions or gazillions of weapons that you can have different varieties of. Um yeah, I just love it. You know, it's just it's just a series that I've got on with from the start. It's grown, it's got better over time. You could maybe say it's a bit more of the same, you know, than of Borderlands 3. Um, you know, it's a bit you know, a bit repetitive, maybe, but I don't think that's necessarily a criticism. You know, they've got a formula, they've got a style that works, um, and it just carries on to Borderlands 4, you know, and and and I think there's nothing there's nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 42:33

No, I mean I I keep on mean you mentioned it earlier, I want mean to jump back into um uh is it hard on life, isn't it? Har on Life 2.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

Yes, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Yeah, that that's I got that ready to download, and then we're gonna touch on it in the news. But you've got uh Planet of Lana 2 comes out. That was a big game for me in the last six years. I may actually play that on the um on the rock, but um I think that um uh I just think that things like Harmon Life, I look at it, I want to play it, but I'm at the moment I just haven't got time because uh you know with juggling work at the moment, I'm pretty much doing things seven days a week, and now I've added another podcast for me to edit into that mix.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

Something else to do, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

But even my wife turned around to me and went, seriously, another. I mean, I've literally this afternoon been sitting editing a podcast with the guys uh um Stang and uh Stang Away Lindorf, and uh which is a very funny podcast, and um and then it's like so I'm thinking, so you're editing a podcast this afternoon, and then you're gonna go on the on uh Riverside tonight and do a podcast with Steve. I went, you know, I know, I'm just looking at him for punishment, and then I'm back on site tomorrow building the cinema. So uh but uh so yeah, I mean, I think there's lots of stuff we've been playing. Um I think we're wrapping up there for the playing side of it. Um, I'm gonna try and jump into a few more bits and pieces, um, but I know when the new situation. And a Fortnite comes out, I'm gonna be uh I'm gonna be jumping into that and you know playing that as well. And hopefully we'll I mean I've literally where I'm sitting now is I started doing obviously do a lot of editing now, video editing. So in the front of me, I've got one screen, above me I've got the other screen, and underneath there I've got a Mac Studio and an Xbox. So I have an Xbox downstairs and an Xbox upstairs. So um and then I mean up here on the side, I've got my Xbox headphones. So we'll have to do some duos at some point.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Yeah, definitely. We'll we'll find some time, mate. We'll we'll make it happen. We'll make it happen.

SPEAKER_01 44:31

So before we get on to the news section, uh, if you like this podcast, I know we're a new podcast that's done 177 episodes. Um, but some of you may not have seen this podcast before. Uh please go back and watch gaming news from six years ago back. Um, we had some great conversations, the four or five of us. Um, but if you're watching this, uh listening to this, um please uh rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. It really helps the channel. And also we are going to be on YouTube now on the same YouTube channel. Um, so uh leave a comment on this video. If you're watching this on YouTube or you used to listen to us on audio and you're now watching it as video and you can see our ugly mugs, um, leave a comment, you know, tell us what you've been up to, what you've been playing. Um we may well open up the bench to a few people. So if it's anybody watching this who is

Handhelds, ROG Ally, And Portals

SPEAKER_01 45:25

new or old who wants to come on and guest with us, then you know, reach out. Um we have an email of um it's hello at gamers of the lost spark.com. I'll put it in the show notes. But reach out if you want to come on and be a guest host with the two of us or fill in for one of us when we're not here or something. So um getting on to the news, we've got some uh big news, a little bit of PlayStation, uh, but mainly Xbox, um, with the Xbox DEO saying, the news CEO saying we will be delivering great games. Um Starfield looks like it's eventually eventually come into uh PS5, and there are reports around that GTA 6 has been added to the PlayStation database. So, first news story is uh with yourself, a very jolly one which says goodbye Xbox.

SPEAKER_00 46:16

Yeah, yeah, for everything that we just said about how great and rosy things are in the world of Xbox. Um obviously recently um it was kind of a bit of a uh a shock announcement, really, wasn't it? That I think I think I screenshotted it and put it out, yeah. Uh our little chat is that um Phil Spencer um was retiring, which kind of just like blindsided everybody. And it the more that came out it kind of seemed like this might have been something that was maybe in the pipeline sometime. Um but albeit when the news came out it was quite uh it's quite shocking, um, you know, because everything seemed to be building quite nicely and everything the advanced was the game pass and the ROG and so on and so forth. There seemed to be um you know building something nice, but ever since that's happened, um you know, and they've brought new CEOs and and new personnel in, there's a lot of speculation, obviously, as there is with these sort of things. Um but that almost that Xbox might be being what they call sunseted, as in you know, it's almost sort of coming to an end, you know, which is quite concerning in some respects. You know, it's it's quite a weird thing to think that Xbox could be being shown out of the door, which as we know notoriously Xbox doesn't earn Microsoft money, you know, it it costs them a lot of money, um, you know, it it's not their money spinner, as it were. Um but there's a lot of suggestions that uh these people have been put in place to sort of uh help uh bring in the world of AI, um, you know, which I think kind of comes into your um your story onto next, you know, these two kind of go hand in hand, really, is that obviously AI is becoming this big all-encompassing thing, you know, that companies are accepting it and adopting it. It's it's everywhere, you know. AI is pretty much not intruding, maybe the wrong word, but you know, it's becoming part of an integral part of a lot of tech software, um, you know, graphic design, you know, video editing, coding, you know, it's it's everywhere is AI now, and people, you know, we don't have a choice in some respects about it, I guess. But um Yeah, you know, and and it's it's quite sad that if this is the case, that Xbox is almost been shown out of the door, you know, that if uh you know AI is gonna replace a lot of people's jobs, a lot of departments, you know, it'd be quite sad if you know AI becomes uh you know a thing that can create games, you know, because it might it might be able to create some great things, you know. I've dabbled with AI that can create graphic design, you know, it it can come up with some good things. The one thing I'd say about it is it is quite soulless, you know, it's quite clean, you know, there's no human touch, there's no human element to it, and that's part of the creativity of video games. Any any industry really, you know, you could ask AI to write you a novel, you know, it it would write you a novel, you know, it wouldn't necessarily have the nuances and the creativity that a human does, but it probably would write you write itself a you know a perfectly serviceable and fine um you know book. But yeah, I I think that's the concern with this is that if AI becomes more and more a thing in the video game field, and I think there's a certain element of it that AI takes some of the background processing, you know, it it does some of the grunt work in the background, you know, that that could help, you know, and that could be a good thing, um albeit that they all all online always online sort of you know functionality, like you said we're caught earlier, you know, that the to do the campaign you have to be online, you can't do it offline because part of the grunt work is done in the background.

SPEAKER_01 49:41

Um but yeah, I think for me, I think for me with AI, it's I use AI quite a bit, but I use it to I will write a blog and if I need to compress it, I'll ask AI to compress it for me, then I'll go in and reword it. And I and I heard something um recently, you know, with the term that everybody loves at the moment, AI slot. And I think a lot of people are sort of thinking, especially it's when it comes to gaming, when it comes to life in general, I think the AI is that buzzy thing at the moment. I think it's something that everybody wants to use to save time. I mean, I'm on a content creator group for my videography, and loads of people on there talk about AI and creating the AI videos and shorts, and there is a real divide on whether people like it or not. For me, I think it's a very useful tool. You know, I've just done a lot of SEO on the HDA Tech Talk website, and and I've written the SEO, but I've told AI or asked AI to make it 140 to 150 characters because that's what Google likes. I think for me with I think for me with Xbox and that news that Phil was stepping to side, I don't think Phil was the shock for me. I think I was expecting him to go. I mean, he's obviously made a pretty penny. Um it was the fact of that Sarah Bond then left or resigned. And I think listening to some of the other podcasts, like you know, IGN, like kind of funny. Um, I think that some of the news that I've heard is that that uh potentially she was overlooked for the position to replace Phil, where I think everybody would have thought that she was going to replace Phil. Um so, but then again, you can. I mean, I am an Xbox fan and and I I'm not quite sure how I feel about Xbox exclusives going on PlayStation. I'm not bothered about it personally. Um at the end of the day, they are called Microsoft. They are a software company. Um but I just think it will be a shame if they need to understand the Xbox like they done, you know, like the, you know, the Sneakers to understand the, you know, whatever their last console was after the Mega Drive Dreamcast Dreamcast, yeah, you know, and and you know, then it was just Nintendo and then obviously PlayStation. So I I think it will be because I do like my Xbox console. I mean, hell, I got two of them. Usually three when I put the office as well. But um, yeah, I I think AI is gonna be around, and I think AI will influence in some ways, but you know, you still AI is not gonna take away some of the humanity and the genius that you know developers out there, you know, like James's colleagues at Rare, you know, some of the stuff that they've created with seer thieves. It's like, yeah, you could argue they could create the game, but you know, they don't AI doesn't yet think like a human.

SPEAKER_00 52:34

No, no, it can't have these just mad out-of-the-box ideas, can it? You know, this'll be funny, or that you know, it doesn't get humour, it you know, it doesn't get sarcasm, you know, and uh and wit and that sort of thing. So and like you say, it it's good, you know, in certain instances like we use it for work, yeah. I can get it to translate an email into or from French, German, Spanish, whatever I need. You know, that's great. You know, that's fantastic because I can send an email and it'll be perfect legible by the person, I can read their response, brilliant, fantastic. Um but yeah, it's just like you say, the the fact that Sarah Bond wasn't Phil's replacement, and you know, Ashasharma, who is from their core AI division, is the person that's replaced him, that says a lot, you know, that says a lot of the future of where they want this to go. You know, they've not brought so many.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

I think a lot of people have looked at it. Yeah, I think a lot of people have looked at the fact that she's come from AI and Meta and yeah, gone, oh well, that's it, Xbox is going to AI. But you know, I segue into my story, um, you know, she has gone on record to say, you know, that um that they are going to deliver games. You know, we're in the 2026 is the 25th anniversary of Xbox and Microsoft has a lot of games in the pipeline, you know, Ford Horizon 6, which you can see around me, the favour game which I cannot wait to play. Um, uh the Halo Reboot and the Gears E Day. And I think that there are, from what she's saying, you know, um, you know, that she wants to, you know, a new broom sweeps clean and no disrespect to Phil, no disrespect to Sarah. But I don't know, for sometimes, I mean, a friend of mine brought someone into his business that wasn't, you know, A V related and was business related, and actually who's really good for the business. So I I can't help but think that, you know, from what she's she's been very vocal on socials, and I think she's not been shying away from being involved with people. We know that there is potentially, well, we're almost certain that there's a new console coming out with a partnership with AMD, and you know, and hopefully Microsoft are not like Google and just can it at the last minute. But you know, if they do, I they're still Microsoft, you know, they will still make games, they still have really good studios. So I I think you'll just blue pain your PS, you know, your PS6 um or your s your um your Steam Machine if they can release it without it costing 2,000. Of course, that's the other thing at the moment, is this the the uh the RAM prices, the memory prices, you know, you just you just couldn't release a console at the moment, it's gonna be stupidly expensive.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Yeah, that's it. That's all you can do, is you know, just give her, like I say, give her a fair crack of the whip, you know, see see what happens in the next one to two to three years. It's just like football, isn't it? You can't judge a new person on the short-term immediate future, you know, it's not a results-driven business like football is here. But what you can't say, well, they've not done it in six months. It's like, well, of course they haven't. You know, the bit they've probably learnt the the in that when she's not come from that sector, you know, she's got to learn it for a certain period of time, you know. So you've got to give the bedding in, learning it, da da da. And then you know, it's the long-term one, two, three, four, five-year plan, whatever it might be. Well, judge her after that period of time, not the initial ninety to one hundred and eighty days when she's first joined. So you know, we we you know, it'd just be what'll happen, what'll happen. Um, you know, like you say, uh, a new console could be with us as soon as next year, you know. So I guess that'll be a big judgment of well, how does her first console launch go? You know, does it bring the Xbox of all back? Does it bring people back, or do they almost give Sony the win again, you know, or Steam Deck or whatever might come out at that point, you know, judging by the results of what actually happens, not the potential of what might or might not happen at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Judge judging by the games that they they release. And it's the same with Sony. I mean, Sony have not particularly been very prevalent in first party recently, and I think that a lot of people have uh, you know, like say they they are PlayStation because they jumped onto PlayStation, you know, in the mid-team to 20 2013, 2014. So hopefully, you know, we'll release the games with all these studios they got, and uh we'll go from there. Uh talking about games, your next story

Switch Memories And Animal Crossing

SPEAKER_01 56:50

is on uh Game Pass Games for March, and there's uh there's quite a few corpus in there, which I'm looking forward to.

SPEAKER_00 56:57

Yeah, so we've got um we've got quite a bit of a selection of games that is um is coming out to Game Pass uh this month. So we've got seven uh seven games in total. So we've got a little bit of something for everyone, really. Uh so we'll start from so these are different ones that are coming to different ones. I'll read them out as we've got. So coming to premium, we've got to a T, which looks like a little um little indie game. Uh coming to Ultimate, we've got F125, which obviously the Formula One season's just about to start as we record, so that could draw in a lot of fans in. Um yeah, as you alluded to, um we've got Planet of Liner 2, which is coming out day one uh to Ultimate. So that's uh release uh launch on cloud uh and game pass.

SPEAKER_01 57:38

Um tomorrow as we record this. So uh the fifth. Yeah, so cannot that that may well be pre-downloaded onto the ROG, and then I might turn out to work would be tomorrow. Don't tell the client.

SPEAKER_00 57:49

Yeah, yeah. So it'll be good if we um if we I mean we both can play that and give it a whirl before we uh reconvene for the next uh the next show, so that'd be good. Um in what seems to be uh uh an endless stream of varying different simulator games, there's construction simulator, but I've seen all that which again, this is the benefit of Game Pass. You know, there's the power wash simulator, there's obviously the there's Eurotruck simulator, there's construction simulator. I've seen there's a rock simulator that's been out on Steam, maybe where you are just literally a rock or a pebble and you just sit in all weathers. Yeah, you literally can't do anything. You are literally a rock and it rains and it's sunny and it's you know you just sit there. But yeah, there seems to be a lot of simulation games out there at the moment, they seem to be making a big comeback. So yeah, there's construction simulator. Um the big I say I'd say the big one, you know, probably the biggest title that's in that lot is Cyberpunk is coming um in Ultimate Premium. Um so that's that's quite a big, you know, big hefty chunky game that's coming out uh from um CD Project Red. Um you've got Hollow Knight Silk Song, um, which are coming out to premium, yeah, that's on there as well. Um finally, I have I'm sorry, I've literally no idea what this one is. Cabby's doll house ready to party, something for the little ones, you know. And and again, this is there's something that's great about Game Pass. There's been a couple of Paw Patrol games that has been on Game Pass which said loves Paw Patrol, so we we've dabbled in those. So again, going back to all there's something for everybody. There is literally something for everybody there. You know, most genres and and flavours are ticked really there, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 59:15

Well, I I mean I'm looking forward to Planet of Lana. I have got Cyberpunk. I mean, obviously, Cyberpunk was uh I think had it come out because I remember we saw it uh at XO 19 when um when I was there with uh with James and uh with Anthony. Um actually no, it wasn't XO 19, it was the uh the one earlier. We had an early preview of it, but I downloaded it and then obviously they had the controversy with it. Um and I did jump into it maybe about three years ago. Um but that's something I've got to jump back into. Um Hollow Night Still song. Um I think I played one of the earlier games of that. Um so uh yeah, I mean I might jump into that. At the end of the day, that's what's great about Game Pass is that you can jump into all of these, you know, you can play a bit of F1, um, you can play a bit of whatever you want, you know, because it is part of your subscription. So whether they are for you or not for you, I don't think you can uh be negative about them. Um just you know, just uh uh jump in and play what you want, sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:22

Yeah, that's it, and you know it's gonna be there until obviously it's going. So there is a list of games that are leaving um on the 15th of March as well. Which again, the good thing is that the you can buy them and they give you a discount. Because I'm leaving. So that's a good thing, is that obviously that's quite a clever bit of business, I think, is that oh have a discount if you want to keep playing it. So I don't think there's really anything really that's notable that's leaving this month. I mean there's F123, but you're getting F125, so you've got a bit of an upgrade there. Enter the Gungeon, here's come in, Lightyear Frontier, Mithract, Ambrosia Island, and Bratz Rhythm and Style. So there's nothing really that's you know, unless you're a serious fan of every of that, that's leaving. But yeah, I think that's quite a nice little um mixture of games there, like you're saying, and again, it's something that you know is going to be there until it's gone. A nice little mixture of different things to try, especially on like you say, on the on the ROG if you want to download it. But yeah, I think if we both um make an agreement to play Planet Alana 2 before the next show, that'll be quite a nice little thing to come back to and yeah, get into the nitty-gritty of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:18

I mean, I I was playing, I can't think I think it was Dead Space was was part of it uh at one point, and I was playing the remake of Dead Space or the repolish of Dead Space, and and I really, really enjoyed that. But I think that was one of those ones which I caught it right as it was going. Um and I did exactly that. It left, I didn't have time to finish it. I did a bit of a Google and it says, Oh, based on where you are, you've probably got about four or five hours left or something like that. So I bought it uh and I played it and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I actually bought it physically, and then I ended up selling the disc for the same price that I bought it for. So uh so that was really, really good. Um, so uh yeah, I mean, I think you can't really go wrong with Game Pass. Um there's many ways to get Game Pass. If you're listening to this and you have it um or you don't have it, you know, do check some of your service providers because you know I have a contract with EE where I get to choose something for free. Um so for part of my mobile phone deal, which I think is something like £45 a month, I get £23 worth of Game Pass. I mean that's a bit of a win-win for me. Yeah, so it's a contracts, isn't it? It's like exactly. So um so um, yeah, and on to my next news story is um about um Starfield uh potentially or almost certainly come into uh PlayStation. Um a post uh on Dev Labs by Bill Biddle Kuhn said Starfield will release on PS5 on the 7th of April and will indeed have a physical edition. Um the cost price for a standard edition is going to be uh estimated around about £45 or $50 for the standard edition, with the premium edition being

Borderlands 4 And Time Budgets

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

around £60 or £70, with pre-orders expected on the 18th of March. Um the price is interesting though, as it's cheaper than Starfield on PC, Xbox, uh, Series X and S, with a launch price of the standard edition currently £60. Did you play Starfield at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:25

I I did, and I got a little bit into it, but I never really saw it through. And and I don't know if that's because obviously Bethesda are known for obviously Skyrim and Fallout, and obviously I I love both of those series respectively. Starfield kind of did a little bit of an in-betweeney of that. Obviously, it had the same sort of elements, it had more of the shoot inside of Fallout, had a bit more of the RPG elements of um Oblivion, Elder Scrolls, that sort of thing. And maybe I put about 10-15 hours into it, and it was alright. You know, I I you know, and it that's probably doing it a disservice, but I didn't click with it like I did with like Fallout and and the Elder Scrolls series. So maybe it's because I've just so invested in that, I don't know, maybe because I didn't get the chance to put so much time into it to obviously see more of it through. I don't know. I I don't know. So I did play it. I it's one of the things that I'd like to go back to, you know, and do it a service. Maybe you know that it's been updated and things have been fixed and added to it, maybe. Um because you know, Bethesda, you know, they make good games, they make good universes, they they do a good job. Um so yeah, so I did, but not to the point where I'd like with Fallout, I'd go do Fallout 3 again, I'd go do Fallout 4 again. I've recently done the Oblivion Remaster again, you know, it's not pulled me like those games did.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:38

Yeah, I mean I I played it when it came out and I played it to completion, or the if you've listened to sort of like kind of funny, there is no real completion because you can go back and do it again and again and again. I didn't do that. I I got to the to the point where the game is technically over. Um and it and I enjoyed it. You know, I went in and did it, I went in and enjoyed it. Um it didn't set my world on fire, but it was a good experience. Uh, I did go back, I know Anthony got to a certain point in it, and then got sort of save stopped, so it got to the point where he got stuck or something like that, I think he said, and he couldn't go back and in there. And I know exactly what he means because I went in to play the DLC and I got to a point, started the DLC, went into it for about half an hour, and I got to a point where I was in a room and I had hardly any ammo and loads of people coming at me, and I tried about three or four times to basically stop it and go back, but I couldn't get back. I had to go back so far because of the LTA. I was like, you know what, I just don't want to go there again. So that was the only thing I did find frustrating with that game on occasions was that it was you know. Like going back to Fortnite, sorry Anthony, I know we're talking about a lot about Fortnite, but going back to Fortnite, you know, you run out of ammo in Fortnite, you'll find some somewhere, it's everywhere. But I did find I did find it frustrating sometimes in Starfield that the ammo was very limited. I enjoyed it, but yeah, I don't think I'll go back. And anybody watching this who's not played it, I'd I'd definitely give it a go. I'd definitely pick it up and play it on uh PS5 because it it was a really, really good game, very befester-y, very graphically befesda, you know, press the button to carry on talking. But it I enjoyed it, it was an enjoyable game.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:37

I think if I remember right, I think it lost me at the travel point with the spaceship bit. I think it lost me at that point. I'm like, I don't want to mess about with this. I just want to go from planet to planet or place to place. I don't want to mess about with the spaceship. I don't even want to fly it. I'm not even I'm not that I don't want to fly it, I'm not that bothered. It's it doesn't interest me. I just want to go and do my bit, shoot, shoot whatever, find whatever, do whatever. And I think it was at that point when I knew there was all this crafting, maybe this tinkering the spaceship, and I was like, no, no, um, I'm not I'm not a fan of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

You know, I'm not I'm not a fan of that, so definitely a more role-playing type of game. You know, you're gonna have romantic relationships, so it was definitely more of a role-playing game, but it you know, it was good. I enjoyed it, so definitely give it a go if you get the opportunity. Um, so uh next story is uh with you, it's a bit of PlayStation.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:29

Yeah, yeah. So we're actually gonna talk about a PlayStation and I say not necessarily not necessarily positively either, but again, uh a rumour about the next story's PlayStation as well, which is left until the end. Yeah, that's it. We we we got there in the end, we got there in the end. So yeah, so it was a bit a bit like the Xbox as we're saying, you know, they're spreading their first party titles around, you know, Xbox games coming to PlayStation and such. Uh obviously they come to PC via Microsoft. Uh PlayStation, obviously, or Tony have dabbled in their games coming to PC via Steam and other services. Um but um what uh news article we found today uh from uh Eurogamer is that there's a rumour or the report potentially that Tony is reportedly abandoning its strategy to bring first party titles to PC, or at least uh reduce the amount or the number of that will come into PC, which I I I I I kinda get, I guess. You know, because obviously there's a lot that goes into developing games for different consoles, for different, you know, different channels, different services, that sort of thing. So obviously it does add, I guess, another layer of complication beyond it's just our game. You know, it works in our infrastructure and our ecosystem, that's that's it. Um you know, so it does make sense in some respects. Um so yeah, so there are games that are still coming um uh to to PC, um like Ghost of Your Time. Um that that's coming, you know, that's still coming to PC. So I think the ones that are in the pipeline are still going to happen, but maybe it's just not worth the the cost and the time, you know, to bring it to PC. So obviously a lot of them like Xbox, it can come out on both at the same time. With Tony, that's very likely probably impossible to happen, and why would they necessarily want to bring people into their ecosystem first? I guess the payoffs just not being there potentially, um, you know, to to what they might have expected it to be, and you know, they've tried it and it's not maybe quite worked to what they they expected it to be.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:20

I think it's a bold move if they do, because I think we are very we are very much heading towards a you know the ROG ally. You know, I I've got Xbox, I've got um, I've got um Steam on there, I've got launches on there that I can do. You know, the new Xbox potentially is gonna be not just Xbox, it's gonna have other launches on there. You've got the Steam Machine as well, which, you know, is gonna be a Steam Machine console, you know, and there potentially will be a way to put other launches on there. I I can't help but be I can't help but think that Xbox's stance on putting games on PC is a good stance, you know, from a business point of view. Yes, it's at the detriment of the exclusive, you know, it's not on the console, etc. etc. And Sony, I think, are very much still about console first, console first, because they

Game Pass Discovery And Odd Gems

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

don't have the PC background. I mean, I know Sony very well, and we've had conversations on this podcast before, where like when the original PSVR came out, and I think Anthony was spitting bricks because it wouldn't pass 4K or something like that. And I'm like, you've never worked with Sony, obviously, because you know I know I know lots of people at Sony Waybridge, which is the Sony head office in the UK, and I know all the guys in the audiovisual side, the commercial displays, and I remember going to buy some cameras to do the other podcast with, and I remember speaking to Yadip from Sony Professional saying, Could you introduce me to the camera department so I can get some cheap cameras? And this building's huge in Weybridge, and he went, I know where they are, but I don't know anybody in there, and and that sums Sony up, unfortunately, is that every entity of Sony is different. Films are separate from TV, is separate from PlayStation, is separate from PSVR for a long time as well. So I can't I can't help but think it's the wrong choice if they do, because I I will I can't help but see people going more PC-based, having a daughter and friends that are in their teams, you know, they're not console-based. You know, even the kids are not boys are not console-based, they are very more PC. So I think that if they're not gonna put Spider-Man, they're not gonna put Wolverine, um, you know, and you're not gonna put Next God of War on PC, yeah, they're gonna sell more consoles, but we know that consoles don't make money. So, yeah, I'm not sure if it's a good business sense, really.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:53

Yeah, and that's the thing, it's like you say it depends on the future of the company, and like you said, consoles notoriously don't make money. So, is it important that it's not bringing them into the infrastructure, you know, the ecosystem? You know, not necessarily. It just depends again. Where's the future for PlayStation and Sony? You know, like again, with a little bit of the question mark of Microsoft, is that they've got that ecosystem, so as long as they're playing the game, it doesn't matter where they're playing it, you know, they can play it wherever they want, as long as they're in, they're in. You know, so it depends on a Sony just doubling down on well, no, it's our console. If you want our game, you play our console. You know, that's uh PS 6, 7, 8, whatever the future roadmap might be. Is it just uh right, no? You want it, you come get it, you know. Sticking to that, and people have been doing it, you know. Like we said earlier, that uh people have been buying PlayStations over Xboxes. Uh are they predicting that's gonna be the same? You know, like are they gonna book the trend of people going to PP? Are they just going to keep going to buy a PlayStation because they've always bought a PlayStation and then make it to the point where you will buy it because you are invested in it and we will make it worth your while in some way, shape or form, whatever that might be. You know, who knows? But maybe that's what they're gonna do. You know, it's like say just this is us. If you want it, come get it. If you don't, well go get your game elsewhere. You know, you there's plenty of other options, but if you want us, you'll find us here and that's where we'll be.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:11

And I think, you know, leading on to my next story about GTA 6, you know, there I think you will see Sony push and throw money at, you know, that side of it, you know. So, you know, it's a bit up in the air where what's gonna happen with GTA 6 is in respect of are Sony gonna, you know, drop a bag of cash and get not exclusive, but get maybe the advertising rights to it. So I I've got a story here which is um GTA 6 reportedly added to PlayStation database here, igniting pre-order speculation. Um, X Account PlayStation game size, which often reports on back-end information for games on PlayStation, posted that two IDs for GTA 6 have been added to the PlayStation database. Uh, title IDs are unique code assigned to each game on PlayStation, and their appearance in the system uh will often be a precursor to pre-order sales. So, I mean, we we're almost sure it's coming this year. I mean, of course it's November, I think it is.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:15

Yeah, it's been pushed way back though, hasn't it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:17

Yeah. Uh so I mean it may well be that you know this this is how PlayStation will try and keep people on the PS uh 5 and onto the PS6. What's your take on GTA 6? Are you gonna play it?

SPEAKER_00 1:14:31

Oh, 100%. You know, it's without a shadow of a doubt, Grand Theft Auto is that is that duel in the crown for the calendar, isn't it? It's the one one of the few titles that you probably say, without question, I will be getting it day one, wherever it is, I will be buying it, I will be playing it, and and that is one of the few, probably few games out there now, apart from you know, for me, maybe like a new Fallout, a new Elder Scrolls, you know, that sort of thing. Um, yeah, I mean obviously you know Sony and PlayStation had GTA, you know, they they'd had it for a while until it first started going onto the Xbox. Um probably San Andreas or Vice City was Vice City on uh or three? Three, it was three or Vice City when it transitioned, it started coming out on Xbox, wasn't it? So for a while it was it was them, you know, they had Rockstar. And like we've seen with Microsoft now, with obviously Game Pass and things they've bought with the you know they've got studios in-house now. Is that like you say, is that what Tony started doing? Did they start buying these? But and I don't think they would buy Rockstar exclusively. You know, I don't think it you know, I think from a Rockstar perspective, I think that would be a bad business decision. You know, I think because obviously so many people probably do still play it on Xbox and online.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:35

I don't think they've got the money to buy it, it's a bit of a big thing. No, that's what I mean.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:39

Yeah, it's a big it's you know, like I say, it's a big beat now, you know what I mean. And obviously that if they bought Rockstar, they'd obviously have Red Dead Redemption and all the other bits and pieces that come along with it. So you know, if they did secure the rights to say, well, we've got advertising rights, or even they can't even have some element of exclusivity that we've got it for the first however long, can they? Because they'd miss out on so much money,

Community Callouts And Guest Invites

SPEAKER_00 1:15:59

you know, they would miss out on so many sales for Xbox and PC or what have you, if if they had even a month or what have you of exclusivity. You know, they might do a get it a week early, you know. If you get it on PlayStation, you get it, you know, DT Online maybe not, but you can play the story early.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:16

Um I think they're gonna push, I think they're gonna push the PS PS5 Pro. I think that's gonna be their angle. If if they do have the uh advertising rights for it, they are gonna play the looks better on PS4 Pro type of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh without without a shadow of a doubt. PSP say PS4 Pro, not PS4 Pro, PS5 Pro. That's going back. Um, so yeah, I mean, to be honest, do you know what? I don't even I can't even remember if I played GTA 5. Pretty sure I did.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:45

I've played it on pretty much every generation because it spanned three consoles, didn't it? It came out on PS3 and 360, it came out on Xbox One and PS4, and then it got another upgrade and revamp. So I I've played it on every single version of Games.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

I think I must have played it because I can remember playing GTA when we lived not a million miles away from here, and I and we've been living where we are now since 2011, and I'm pretty sure I've not played it here. So, yeah, I mean, again, depending on what it comes out costing, um I will you know, I will pick it up. I might even spend my Xbox reward points. You never know. Finally, finally. Yeah, if anybody who's not what I mean, I'm actually getting a bit panicky now with all this stuff at Xbox and that. But anybody who's not yeah, if anybody who's not ever watched this, um years ago I was doing a podcast with one of the fellow Sparks, and I said, and it was just as they launched the Microsoft rewards, um, you know, Bing Rewards as you get now. And I said, you know what I'm gonna do? The next time um Xbox release a console, I'm gonna buy it with reward points. So whereby a lot of people will, you know, save their 5,000 points or save their 25,000 points and get a 5, 10, 25 pound gift voucher. Uh at this present day, and I can tell you actually, hold a second, let me bring my phone up.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:09

Drum roll, please.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:11

Because I'm going, I'm going for a momentus. As at this point right now, I don't have 5,000 points. I don't have even 25,000 points. Don't even have 75,000 points. I've got 698,645. So that actually equates, I looked the other day, that actually equates to about 400 pounds in Apple gift cards or uh Amazon gift cards, or it's a little bit more if you stick it still with Microsoft. I am a little bit worried that one, this console is going to cost a dirt load more than the 500 quid that it's probably worth. And I'm also worried that they're gonna announce at any minute that they're gonna stop the rewards. The only thing what's giving me saving grace is the fact that they're Bing rewards as well. And I know a lot of people who are not Xbox people who do the Bing rewards. So, yeah, so so maybe I will cash in well, probably half of that to buy just a bit of a.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:06

Yeah, it's probably yeah, but yeah, I mean I mean it's some good going because I'm just I'm just checking. You can only earn £100,000 in a year, you know. So that's just because we show

Xbox Leadership Shake‑Up And AI

SPEAKER_00 1:19:15

you how long you've been saving these points for.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:18

Well, I mean, initially they used to do like buy Ford Horizon and gave you six or seven thousand. So you used to do that, and they still do that a little bit. Um, but yeah, I mean you're you're really like Bitcoin mining for them these days. Halo, that's a very 2026 reference, isn't it? Um you're very you're very bitcoin mining them now. I will I will go downstairs in the morning, I will let the dog out, I would make my coffee, and I will sit there and do my bing, and I will log into Xbox and I will sit it on again for 15 minutes so I get my bits and pieces if I'm not playing. But as James would say, they've become my little friends now, they're almost like children that I don't want to sell. Along with my Xbox controllers. Anybody else that never watched this? I have had an obsession for a while with Xbox controllers, and even after COVID and during the podcast, you know, I still like bought the Witcher one and I bought the uh the Doom Eternal one. But downstairs in the lounge, I have all my Xbox controllers in boxes, and I am toying with the idea of selling some of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:23

Um I mean, there's there's got to be six or seven thousand pounds.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:31

I mean, obviously, there's the the one I would never sell, which would probably get me the most money, is the one that James very kindly had signed by the guys at Rare, the CFE's controller. So I have the CFE's Xbox controller with the um the SSD, which you know, James got some of the developers at Rare to sign for me. And then I've got a few other special ones, but there are some in there like the Fortnite one, which is just the purple controller. Um you know, like the Microsoft pig and the Microsoft, um, sorry, the Minecraft pig, which you know I know I could sell because it is brand new. So I could sell it for probably two two two two fifty. But I'm just at the moment, I'm like I don't want to do it. Well, what when one of my babies go, that's it, the whole collection might as well go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I am I am building the studio, which one day you will hopefully see behind me for the other podcast, which uh I am planning on putting a couple on the wall behind me and swap it in and out, depending on what podcast we're doing. So uh yes. So um, right. Well, I think that's about it. I think we're at the end of the news. Um, anything else you wanted to touch on before we do the outro?

SPEAKER_00 1:21:39

I don't think so, mate. No, I think that that brings us quite nicely, uh, nicer to the end, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:21:44

Yeah, right in the 60 minutes we precursored for this. So uh let's edit this and see what happens. If uh we we had a couple of hitches and splats during it, so there might be a few crude cuts you saw, but uh but yeah, so look, if you're listening to this or you're watching this, thanks for uh participating. Uh don't forget you can keep up to date with us at our website, gamers of the lost spark.com. Uh you can find us on most socials. I am gonna go and find some of the other socials that we're not on uh at LostSpark Pod. When Darren came up with this name, he could have picked something that was a little bit easier to say. Uh so on socials it's at LostSpark Pod and on YouTube it's Lost Spark Podcast. As I said, you can go back 10 years and watch some of our uh well actually not watch, listen to some of our young selves talking about games. I mean, entering this document the other day was quite funny because it's like we're mentioning games that were like in 2016, 2017, so that was really funny. Um, Steve, where can people find you these days on Xbox, the social medias?

SPEAKER_00 1:22:52

Yeah, so I I I have pretty much streamlined now. Um, like I mentioned before, I read a separate book. I'm on at steakarter91. Um that's me on Xbox, that's me on PlayStation, that's me on Instagram, that's me on YouTube. Um I think that's it. Uh anywhere that's relevant, anyway. So yeah, so at SteCarter91, you'll find me.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:12

I'll put the links to bits and pieces that we discussed in the show notes on on both audio and video. Uh for myself, uh gamertag, I'm general letdown on Xbox, and I think PlayStation. I can't remember, I'm pretty sure it is. And then on social media, you'll find me on most platforms at Mr. Stuart Burgess. Um, as I said, I've also got the other YouTube channel, which is at Home Cinema Alliance and at HGA Tech Talk, uh, where you can just see what I get up to every day and some of the cool jobs that some of the members do with one of the businesses I've got. And as I say, if you've got any feedback or you've got any suggestions, or you'd like to potentially be a co-host at some point, give us an email at Hallow at gamersofhelostspark.com. And uh yeah, and we'll see you probably in a couple of weeks. I think we're gonna do the next one. We'll try and do the next one, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:02

Yeah, we'll we'll get some it in the calendar, we'll book some it in and we'll uh we'll we'll try and be a bit more uh streamlined next time, maybe. Yeah, yeah. Fewer hitches, but this was this was the pilot, as it were, wasn't it? This was the pilot episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:15

This this was the you know, let's do it our six. I mean, I've tried to do a video, you know, podcast from home with uh Simon, who I think he's gonna come on in a couple of weeks with us, um, who's a fellow fellow gamer who does the other podcast with me. But uh um, and it it has been a bit hit and miss on Riverside on uh StreamYard uh StreamYard, I think's the other one, and bits and pieces like that. So uh uh yeah, so hopefully you enjoyed listening to this and uh yeah, leave us some feedback and uh we'll see you again in a couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:46

Yeah, yeah. Thank you for Steve. But yes, we'll see you soon. But thank you, yeah, thank you, Stu, for bringing it back. Really appreciate it. But yeah, it's great to be back and uh yeah, look forward to the next one. Next conversation, here we come. Exactly. Thank you, mate.