Sony Refuses to Ditch Physical Games

Your favourite hobby should not feel like a luxury purchase, yet that is exactly where console gaming in the UK seems to be heading. We start with the fun stuff: what we are playing right now, why going back to Final Fantasy X still lands emotionally, and how the PlayStation Portal can actually shine when your home network is set up well. We also talk about the pull of older games, the reality that some classics have not aged gracefully, and why sometimes you just want comfort gaming rather than the newest shiny release.

Then we jump into Halo Combat Evolved rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5, including the nostalgia hit, the gorgeous presentation, and the part nobody warned us about: the difficulty spikes, especially in the new missions. We chat about sales across platforms, what Halo on PS5 could mean for the future, and why we still crave something genuinely new from the franchise, not just another remaster.

From there, it is full obsession mode with Forza Horizon 6. We break down the wheel spin grind, skill point farming, car mastery loops, and the oddly satisfying logic of turning time into credits, credits into cars, and cars into more wheel spins. If you have ever chased achievements, tried to “complete” a car list, or felt the pull of one more run, you will recognise yourself.

We finish with big industry stories: Xbox Series X and Series S price rises in the UK, the wider tech cost squeeze driven by the AI arms race, Sony refusing to budge on ending PlayStation physical discs, and the worrying push towards adverts in games. We also dig into the rumoured Xbox disc-to-digital feature as a possible compromise for ownership in a digital-only future. If you care about Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, physical media, resale value, and what the PS6 era might cost, this one is for you. Subscribe, share the episode with a mate, and leave us a review so more gamers can find the show.

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Transcript

Late Episode And Life Chaos

SPEAKER_04 0:18

Hello, and welcome to episode 187 of Gamers and Lost Spark Podcast. I'm your host, Stuart Burgess, and joining me as always is the other Spark of the Pod, Mr. Stephen Carter. Steve, how are you? I'm very well, mate. Thank you. How are you? I am very good, my friend. I'm very good. A little bit of a delay. We had some uh circumstances last week, which meant if you're listening to this thinking, I'm sure this should have been last week. Yes, it should have been last week, but uh Steve had some issues, I had some issues, so we decided to push it back this week. So apologies if we're a week late, but life got in the way.

SPEAKER_02 0:51

Yeah, apologies, dear listeners. And um I'm surprised we haven't had a message off Anthony, to be fair, because he's usually hankering for the episode to uh listen to what his travels. So I'm surprised we haven't had a bit of an nuts and is everything alright? Like, where's my episode? But yeah, we uh yeah, I had a nightmare with kids that evening. So yeah, I I just we we sat down with all good intentions. Seb had gone to bed, then he woke up, then he was ill, and it was like, look, this is not gonna work. Like, oh, the kids on a nighttower just not being the one at the minute. But thankfully, fingers crossed, touch wood, we're here tonight, he's had a good bedtime, he's over his bit of illness. So if we can get just get this hour and a half done, we'll be alright. We'll be fine.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

I'm waiting for the screaming in the background now.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

Yeah, that might be Anna.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

That could be let me out of it. I'm just I'm just thinking of the years when um when Molly, my daughter, was in special care baby unit because she was born two months early. And I remember one day walking in because uh, you know, if they if your child's in special care, they generally don't let them out until the day they're due. Um so I remember walking in there one day and went going, Well, I mean, it's quiet in here today, isn't it? And all the nurses just looked at me and went, We don't use the Q word.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

No, yeah, that's that's that's uh that's that's a bad, bad word. It's like at work, you never say it. You you insinuate it, you can use any other word, but never the Q word. Never ever.

SPEAKER_04 2:14

Obviously, you've not been quiet because you've got

Final Fantasy X Returns On Portal

SPEAKER_04 2:16

three games on the list. Plus, you've been doing quite a few streams and quite a few social posts. So uh uh, so what have you been up to in way of gaming? What have you been playing?

SPEAKER_02 2:25

Yeah, so I have been trying to keep up, um, trying to keep up to date. There's the big one which we'll collectively talk about together, I guess. We've both been playing Halo Campaign Evolved, so we'll touch that um touch on that one together. Um, but yeah, I I purchased um the Final Fantasy X and X part two remake from the PlayStation store. Now, everything that we said about um Sony and PlayStation, which again we'll come on to a bit later with this digital future, and games are too expensive on the PlayStation Store and they never get discounted and rahda rada rahda. That were a tenner. And I was looking, I'd put it on my boomerang list, and there's a long wait because it's a PS4 disc, it's not on PS5. Um and I looked at computer exchange, and a second hand copy was about 16 quid, I want to say. I thought, ah, you know what, I'll look on PlayStation Store. Let's have a look, and it's a tenner. I'm like, hang on a minute, there's a game that's cheaper than buying it physically, albeit second hand, but it's still a little cheaper. So I'm like, winner. So yeah, so I picked up for a tenner. Um and I've been playing that a lot on the portal um recently. Right. Which I must admit, for the issues that I faced with the portal early early on when we started recording, it seems to be behaving a lot better recently. And I don't know if it's because I've moved my PlayStation. So my PlayStation is now in the kitchen underneath the desk where I'm recording now in my homeworking setup, and the router is like just across the corridor in a cupboard. So I don't know if that means because there's a shorter distance to the PlayStation to the router, maybe I don't know. Um but yeah, I've been playing. I mean, I absolutely loved Final Fantasy X when I was when I was younger. Like it's one of my absolute core memories of playing on the PlayStation 2. Obviously, I played Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1, 8, 9 on PS1, then 10 was the first sort of full blown Final Fantasy with dialogue as in like speech, not just text. Um expanded the world quite extensively. So yeah, it's like one of my all-time favourite games. But do I prefer it over Final Fantasy VII? I'd say they're both probably up there, sort of joint. Final Fantasy VII was probably one of the first games I played on PlayStation, so that'll always be sort of the core memory, but this is kind of the best. Well, I say the best, but obviously the first time they dabbled into like the tall blown speech rather than text and so on and so forth. So yeah, I've been playing that and I've been I've been really enjoying going back. It's a remaster, it's not a remake, so obviously it's nowhere near the levels of the Final Fantasy VII remake because I've got rebuilt from the ground up. It's just basically the old game with a licker licker paint tattered up a little bit to obviously play better on the PS4 and the PS5. Um still turn-based, which I still prefer the turn-based Final Fantasy. I'll I'll say it for as much as I love the Final Fantasy VII remasters or remakes, I still like the turn-based element. I think it's quite strategic. Um the free flowing combat in them the remakes is great, but I I do prefer the the turn-based element of it. So, yeah, so I've probably sunk where it was about maybe 15 hours into Final Fantasy X. Like I say, I'm playing it on the on the portal, so I am just managing to play it on top for a little bit, so like after we finish tonight. If Anna's watching whatever on TV, I'll probably go and sit and play it for about another hour or two on there. Um, but yeah, it's just really nice to be back. It'd be great to see you know a proper redone version of it, like Final Fantasy VII. Whether we will or not, I don't know, because obviously it's the third part of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy to come. What Square Enix do with Final Fantasy after that, I'm not sure. Because it really I after 10 and 10 part 2, which 10 part 2 was a bit in comparison, I didn't really dabble much with Final Fantasy after that, if I'm being honest. So like 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, I kind of didn't really go into that territory. Like 10 was probably the last one that I probably played and loved um and completed several times. So whether this makes me go back and play the other ones again, I'm not sure, or for the first time, I'm not sure, but I've got a bit of a hankering to go back and play some older games, like playing, like obviously playing the new stuff like Halo and all the other stuff that we've got coming up. Um whether it's just because I'm getting of an age where I'm like, ooh, I remember how great games used to be and da-da-da. I'm not sure, but I just want I I just wanted to say the same way Kingdom Hearts again. I've been playing that again. Um, you know, again the the the trilogy on the PS4. I just recently wanted to mix it up again. I don't know why, but yeah, just as well as playing the new shiny stuff, I've kind of just got a bit of an appreciation of coming back and playing some of the older games again.

SPEAKER_04 7:12

Well, I know you said when we were, you know, when I was I've not done for a little while since Halo when we were doing like the first looks, the sort of hours of the first hour of a new game. I know you said an end about going back potentially through the catalogue and streaming some, you know, Xbox 360 or Xbox One games or just doing some older stuff. I mean, I I I mean I've I've got to admit, I've I don't think I've ever played a Kingdom Hearts game, and I don't think I've ever played a Final Fantasy game. I just I don't know why Kingdom Hearts sort of appeals to me, but I've just never got round to it. Yeah. Um Final Fantasy, I don't know why, but whenever I see Final Fantasy, I mean I can remember seeing Final Fantasy at um was it EGX when they when I was up there with Anthony and James, uh what was that 2019? I think it was. The uh no, yeah, no, it was 2019 because it was the same year as the Copper Box Arena, the Xbox one. I remember seeing it and everybody was raving about it. Oh, this is gonna be amazing. And I'm just like, it just does nothing for me. I don't know why. I don't know. I need to get in and play. I mean, I've dabbled. I think when one of them's come to Game Pass or PS Plus or something like that, I've I've uh jumped in and played. But maybe a little bit like Ghost of Yotai recently, maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset, maybe I'd fatigued on Assassin's Creed, that's why I didn't really like Yotai. I don't know. I probably need to go back and try again, but they've not really just appealed to me for some reason. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Yeah, and the problem is now as well, is like especially Kingdom Hearts, as much as I absolutely love Kingdom Hearts, it hasn't the first one, especially hasn't aged well. Like it's a struggle, like the cameras are a struggle, the combat's a struggle. I haven't finished it. I've got to a point now where I know that I'm at the point where I need to grind to finish the or defeat the final boss, and I'm like, I'm I'm happy to park it there for now. It's done what I needed to do, I've done all the worlds, I've completed all the worlds. I know how this ends because I've completed it X number of times already. I would be happy to skip on to Kingdom Hearts 2 now at this point. Um I haven't played that, so I don't that that obviously improves things on Kingdom Hearts 1, but yeah, Kingdom Arts 1's not aged very well. Um Kingdom Hearts 3 is the obviously the one that came out on like sort of Xbox One PS4, so that obviously is is better in terms of its graphics and things. So it's hard because obviously the story is convoluted as it is, so even if you play it and enjoy it from the first one, it's hard to follow. So even if you play Kingdom Hearts 3 just as a dabble, that'd probably give you an idea of what it's like, really. And I think, really, as well as much as anything, it's like with with any RPG as well, aside from Final Fantasy, is like have you got the time to commit to it? Do you know what I mean? There is a a very big time element attached to this that this probably will run about 30 hours, maybe Final Fantasy 10. And again, I might get to the point of the final boss battle and be like, look, I've done what I need to do without having to grind to get the ultimate weapons and everyone gets a dice level and upgrade all the spells and so on and so forth. So we'll see. Uh I'll see how far it goes. But yeah, I I definitely want to, like you said, go back and play some of the older 360 games that are in the Game Pass catalogue. Um I've got some of the I've got a couple of the old Tom, I've got the um Rainbow Six Vegas. Right. I've got the I've got those two, one and two. Um I've got Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter one and two, I think. Um which again I want to go back to that I played back in the day when they were first launched. So yeah, so I just want to just play some older things that I've either missed or I've played before. Um just to change it up a little bit, I think. You know, it's as great as it's having the new stuff. I just I just kind of want to go back and re-experience the games that we had before, which again tying into the whole Sony piece and maybe the Xbox piece of going discous. Well, a lot of people might do the same. You know, if consoles are getting more expensive and pricing people out, well, you might find an influx of people going back, well, I'm gonna buy a 360, I'm gonna buy a PS3 and scoop up all the cheap games that are at Computer Exchange, because all the games there are like a couple of quid, if that. Um,

Retro Collecting And Old Consoles

SPEAKER_02 11:20

so you can have an absolute catalogue of PS3 games or Xbox 360 games for not a lot of money. Um, so yeah, we'll see. We'll see.

SPEAKER_04 11:28

It was funny because I was I was just literally looking on YouTube now because you're talking about retro stuff. There's a there's a guy on uh YouTube uh called uh Retro Rick. Um so I think he's got two channels by the looks of it, Retro Rick and Retro Rick Game Point. And I've fallen across some of his videos where he's going to some of these expos where they got. I can imagine James walking around these places with a smile on his face where they've got like Game Boy games, they've got like NES, they've got like, you know, Super Favocom, they've got standees of Mario that would have been in Blockbuster. I mean, they even saw him talking to the other gay trying to the other day trying to barter a uh what was it? It was a gumball machine from a blockbusters that you know used to be in a blockbusters that he was trying to do. And that was quite cool because going back and looking at some some of the retro games, um, you know, looking at some of the like the you know, the Space Invader games, the early Maro games, the early Sonic games, and just some of the weird things like they were talking about a lethal weapon game which came out of the N64, and and it's like it's bloody terrible, but I've not got it in my collection, so I need to buy this. So I think sometimes, yeah, just go go back. I mean, even if it's like like 2025 and 2024, I mean, there's games on Game Pass that, you know, even like up until quite recently, um, avowed, you know, I've not played avowed yet. I know it's a recent game, but it's one like people wanting to go back and play. And but you know, go back a few years ago and look at those, especially if you're playing for Game Pass, especially if you're playing for PS Plus, go back and have a look at some of those retro titles. Well, it's not retro, but those retro being a few years ago titles because there is there is some really good stuff out there. I think for me, with like your Kingdom Hearts with your Final Fantasy, I think my mindset is like they're into so deep now in in the sort of like chronological age of them. Like, do you know what? I don't want to go back, and I hate to say it, but I unless it's retro, my mindset is it's an older us game is old type of thing. Yeah. I like it to be shiny graphics like you know what we're gonna get onto in a minute. I like it to make my OLED pop or my you know my small monitor up here. Yeah, so I I think there's a place for them, and one day I may, when I've retired, I don't think I'll ever retire, but when I when I retired, but uh but no, it's good sometimes just go back and look at those fond memories again.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Yeah, of course it is, and I think there's a lot of it, like you say, with these two, especially that if you missed them first time around, you're probably not gonna play them. Like if you don't have the connection, there's probably no point and there's probably no pull to go do it. But yeah, there's a lot of these retro expos around. There's there's two that I know of that are near me. There's um one at Doncaster Dome that comes around every year. Um I think that's just been recently, I think. Um and there's usually one in leads as well, the same. You know, there's just stands and stands of people selling Game Boys, PS2s, 3s, 1s, uh Nez, Snez, absolutely everything, Pokemon cards, the old stuff, you know. I as we know I tried shifting some of my old old gear um recently uh to computer exchange, which they give me an absolute like rock bottom price for. And I was like, absolutely not. Um you know I've got a sealed game by advanced SP and like you can't we're uh not sealed, sorry, boxed game by advance. Like it's got everything with it, leaflets, charger, the works. Oh yeah, we can't sell you at a boxed price. Or give you, but like why? It's just literally boxed. Yeah, it's like well, yeah, but it it's like you yeah, I know you'd sell that at a boxed price. You'll give me rock bottom, and I know you'll sell it at a boxed price. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

Um so yeah, so I have got some stuff, and it's like I ain't got anywhere to put it and display it. I ain't got a games room, I you know, I ain't got a man cave, so it's like, do I hold on to it? Do I not? And then it's obviously it's the pain, so obviously you've got to have either an old school TV, then you've got to have an HDMI converter, and da da da. It's not that easy to play them these days unless you've got a full-blown, dedicated setup. Which if you look on TikTok and Instagram, there are people who've got some absolutely brilliant man caves of this stuff in it, um, and just look at enviously like I I I re I want that, like, please, like a bit like your background too, like it's just an old CRT TV in the middle with the old consoles underneath, and then stacks and stacks of old game. Just like, yeah, that that that would be nice.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

Well, it was uh I mean my brother-in-law, he's still got he's still got his N64 with GoldenEye, and he's still got his Lerva Cathere tube TV, and it's always hooked up to it. And I I sort of said to him, you know, you could get that like on Xbox now, you can get that on the modern consoles. He said, Oh, there's nothing better than sitting with a SNES remote, you know, a controller wired into the the drive connected to a Catheray tube TV, which is only 32 inches, but it's like as wide as it is.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

It weighs about five tons.

SPEAKER_04 16:12

But it was actually one of the videos I watched uh of the Retro Rick thing, he found a uh the title of the video is after 27 years of game collecting. I finally found it. And he was trying to find a uh a Game Boy colour, I think it was. I can't quite see from the picture. It was a game called a Game Boy colour, but it was a Tommy Hill figure limited edition or something like that. Oh wow. Um, and I can't remember now what he paid for it. I'll go back and look, I'll put it on the screen now. But he's like, I think that was something four or five hundred dollars or something like that. And that wasn't that was used, but it was boxed. But yeah, I was thinking to myself, there's no way he's gonna get that in computer exchange if he takes it in.

SPEAKER_02 16:53

No, no, no way. So they'll always try and drive you down on price, but yeah. But yeah, there we go. So yeah, watch out for more retro content coming soon, basically.

Halo Combat Evolved Remake Struggles

SPEAKER_04 17:02

So talking about retro content in a way, uh, we've both been playing the remake of uh Campaign Evolved, and we've both been dying a lot. Yeah, look, mate, honestly, like I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Like, I I've obviously I've I've I mean if anyone's listening that's watched the videos I've been putting up, I've been dying a lot. Normal, and I've been getting my absolute ass kicked on the three new levels that have been introduced to this collect this uh remake. And I've since completed them and I'm playing the normal campaign missions now, and it doesn't seem to be anywhere near as difficult. Like there are spikes, um like I played the the mission where you infiltrate the Covenant Battle cruiser to uh rescue Captain Keys. Yeah, and the bits where you you just got in in the hangar, like they were just an absolute swarm uh of grunts, just like in in one bit, and I was like, I got absolutely overwhelmed with that. But yeah, those three new missions, like they're they're great missions, don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved playing them, but the difficulty even on normal was just so hard. Like, and everyone's like, ah yeah, it's the easiest wonder today. I'm like, really? Like, I mean, I mean, I must have got terrible at this.

SPEAKER_04 18:14

I like the comment that someone put on your I think it was yours Instagram post, which was like, anybody else struggling with this? And someone should put, nah, mate, I've just got it straight into heroic and finding it great. Yeah, like skill issue.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Anger him, yeah, skill issue, zero like situational awareness. But I was like, alright, like, come on now. I was like, it were a bit clickbaity-y, I guess, but like this can't be me. Like, I can't be the only one that's struggling at this point, surely. Um, but yeah, I mean, look, it's one of them, like, this is complete fan service, really. Let's let's be honest. And like, this is the if you want to class it as the benchmark for if you're gonna remake a game, like this, this is how to do it. Do you know what I mean? Because this has been completely rebuilt from the ground up. Obviously, we've had the different remakes and remasters over time and da da da, but like this is like as good as Halo is gonna ever look. Um, and it is really good, and obviously it's had some new bits added to it, it's sort of say the new weapons added from like Halo 2 and things, had sprint mechanicing, you know, added to it, the three new prelude missions, um, with Sergeant Johnson, you know, it it is an absolute fantastic uh representation of Halo, and it's great to see it in you know Shiny Unreal 5. It it's one of them, it's like who does it appeal to, I guess? You know, is the one of the question marks of it. Obviously, die hard fans are gonna play it. Um they're gonna play it through Game Pass. How many people are gonna pick it up on PS5 as good as it is to see it on PS5? I don't know. What was it will we see any more on PS5? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

I was literally just searching that and uh uh on pure Xbox they just they've put up um uh Halo One Remake has made around 900,000 sales on Xbox, 452,000 sales on PS5, and 212,000 sales on Steam to date, and that was that was today, that was seven hours ago. So, you know, it's done well over a million um across all platforms from a game that is what 20 years old.

SPEAKER_02 20:23

Yeah, so it it's done well, I guess. You know, if you consider that. I mean, it'd be interesting to see how many people downloaded it via Game Pass if such figures exist.

SPEAKER_04 20:32

Yeah, well, I think that that also don't forget that I think some of that 900,000 potentially was that early upsell. So, like myself and I think Anthony as well, yeah. We paid the 20 pounds um and I think it was 20 dollars as well to upgrade and get it, what was it, five days early? I think it was. Um, yeah. So I mean, let's face it, I don't obviously I don't know how much it costs for them to to redo it. Um uh yeah, no, no, I don't think it's got it on here. Um I don't know how much it costs to redo it, but hey, look, you know, million million sales uh um I don't even know what it's selling on PS5 for, but let's say fifty dollars a game. Probably around fifty, I'd say. Yeah, you know, that's that's fifty million, fifty million dollars that it's it's potentially made across the platform. So and it also it opens up the world to you know more potentially more Halo games come into PS5, which again, as I said before, I don't have a problem with it. I I would happily welcome PlayStation games onto the Xbox, and I think PlayStation fans should happily allow Xbox games onto the PlayStation, because let's face it, you're gonna just get more games to play.

SPEAKER_02 21:41

Yeah, it it's what I mean. I I I see the aggression from both sides, and I think it depends on what uh what day you catch me on, like how I see it. Like there's part of me that's always like, nope, it's exclusive. If you want it, come play it. But then when you know consoles might be in survival mode. It's like, well is it better not to just try and c cast the net out and try and capture as many people as possible? You know, my again, naive little me, you know, might well it can't cost that much more to put it on PlayStation as it was to Xbox. It probably is a lot a lot more difficult than it sounds. But again, even if you get the four hundred and fifty thousand sales like you have done there, well if you didn't Well, that's four hundred and fifty thousand sales you wouldn't have. But I guess it obviously compares against what it costs to do that. But I think another question is that yeah, this looks great, it's fantastic, I'm gonna absolutely love playing it. When and where's the next Halo? What else are we gonna see from Halo? You know, it's that thing of Yeah, this is great, but it's nothing new. Do you know what I mean? And uh how many people have played Halo Infinite and then jump into this? I don't know. You know, people might have experienced Halo Infinite as the first Halo, maybe. And then they jump into this and be like, well, hang on a minute. Like I had all this, you know, we're open world, I had all these gadgets and gizmos and da-da-da, and then jump into this and be like, oh hang on. Like and you know what I mean? It just seems a bit of an odd, you know, maybe timeline of things to do, but I I I love it, I think it's an absolute great game. Um it's a shame that we're not gonna get a multiplayer element of Halo. If this game or another game, it'd maybe been nice if there was just a a limited version of the multiplayer from this. Even just a few maps, you know, just we're not gonna bring any more to it, but you've got your original maps and your original modes, uh that's that's your lot, and redo it. I think that'd have captured a lot of people's interest, maybe. Um But yeah, the that just singing it like in like as reinvent reimagined in Unreal 5, like I say, it looks absolutely stunning, like it is a beautiful game. Um, so yeah, from whatever Halo games we get going forward, if they can look this good, you know, it it's nice to see that it is in good hands and it will look the business.

SPEAKER_04 24:03

I mean, I I fired it up. Um I think it was the day it came out, it might have been the day after, I can't remember. But I fired it up and uh and for me it was just a massive wave of nostalgia straight out the get-go, you know, firing it up, seeing that, you know, the the scene where they wake up Master Chief from stasis and they bring his systems online, and then the the ship gets boarded, and then the little grunts come in, and they're like with their funny little voices, and and then you go down onto the ring, and it was just like it was enjoyable, it was very familiar, it was giving me very good nostalgic vibes back to the original Xbox. So, you know, I've not I've jumped into it a few times since, but I've not had time to sort of play a lot of it because I've been doing something else. Um a lot of um, and um, but um yeah, no, I th it's really good. I think that I can't really from for anyway. For me, uh there's no I can't think of a negative against it. I'm enjoying it. Okay, yeah, it's cost me 20 pounds, it came on Game Pass. Um, so my buying investment is a lot less. I mean, if you're listening to this podcast and you've played it on Steam or you've played it on PlayStation, let us know. You know, what are you what are you thinking of it? You know, have you enjoyed it? Do you not like it? Do you think it's a waste of money? Um, I'd be interested to hear what people's opinions of it because as an Xbox player, you know, as well as a PlayStation and Nintendo player, but as an Xbox player and as an original OG Xbox player, I've really, really, really enjoyed it. And I think Anthony has as well, talking to him on the the chat. Um, yeah, it's it's been really good fun. And I've just enjoyed going on to onto TikTok and watching you die a lot. So, you know, what more can you get out for your 20 quid?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Exactly, mate. I'm here to entertain, do you know what I mean? So and yeah, I I have got um the PS5 version of my boomerang list, so I will happily go back and play on PS5. Um and I have seen that it does play better on PS5 or PS5 Pro on the Pro Xbox, which is interesting, you know, given it's uh obviously uh uh you know original Xbox exclusive. So again, whether that opens the door for more in future on PlayStation or not, who knows? But yeah, it it's nice to see it on a different console, it'd be nice to play it on a different controller. Um and I'll happily play the camp the campaign again.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

I know sort of segueing on to mine, but I know Forza Horizon 5, when that came out on PlayStation, a lot of people were saying with the haptic feedback on the dual sense that it it sort of brought another life to Forza. I can't remember if Anthony played it. I've got a feeling he did, but uh I know they were saying with the haptic feedbacks and the the dual sense sort of like triggers and that, it was just a bit sort of gave it a bit more of a dimension than what it was on the Xbox.

Forza Wheel Spin Farming Rabbit Hole

SPEAKER_04 26:58

But um, but talking about Forza, so if you rewind back, well, it's three weeks ago, uh I said to you, um, I've noticed that I've not opened a single wheel spin since I started the game. Uh whenever it came out, I can't remember when it came out now. Um and I think I had like I can't think it was now, I think it was getting over 200 or 190 wheel spins or something like that. So I thought, well, I'll tell you what, why don't we just carry on playing the game? So I completed everything. I've really got I really got deep in doing the seasons because I I read the achievement list again and I realized that actually you don't have to complete everything in the game to get unlocked the last achievement. The last two difficult achievements are get to level 100 are by playing online, which is perfectly achievable if you just play a lot of online games. Um, and then the other one was literally uh getting all the points in the seasonal playlist. So every Thursday they bring up a new seasonal playlist, which is you know, do this series of races, go online and do this, do this, do this. You get points, you unlock cars, and so I've sort of been grinding my way towards that, doing online, really, really enjoying it, taking photographs of cars I've not seen, sort of working my way up to the what I thought was gonna be the 200 wheel spin sort of like video. Maybe I was gonna do, I wasn't sure. And then I started searching around on um on YouTube and I found out that like unboxing wheel spin type things, if you think of it a lot of the lives of like Pokemon cards, unwatching wheel spin type things was a bit of a thing, and it was also getting pretty good views. So I'm like, oh, I wonder how they're getting so many wheel spins. And then I found a couple of little workarounds, they're not cheats, you're not like you know, putting in the code or back in, you know, the Capcom games where it's like you know, you know, square, square, square, x, x, x, up, up, up to unlock infinite battle mode or something like that. Um, I started watching these few videos and I was like, okay, well, what about if I do it on Sunday and I can't see how I'm gonna unlock 200 wheel spins by Sunday? So what about if I see if I can find a way to earn more wheel spins? So I did find a way how to earn more wheel spins, and and annoyingly, I didn't do the video that Sunday because the gals weren't out, so I thought, well, okay, I'll do it the next Sunday. So all of sort of last week, I was playing around with it and doing this thing, which I'll say in a minute about what to do. And then towards the end of that week, I was working from home and I suddenly thought, hold on a second, I've got an idea. So how you basically do it is you you go into uh the like the labs in Forza, uh, and then you basically uh you go into the section where you put in a share code. So there's a share code which I'll put up on the screen now, and if you go into the events lab and you go into play a challenge, I think it is, and you put this code in, what you basically do is you spend 27 seconds crashing through a load of like obstacles, which gives you uh times 10 um skill points. You have to buy a certain cart and unlock the mastery from them, um, but it gives you 10. And then every time you then go redo, redo, redo, it gives you 10 points. So all of a sudden, when you look at your skill points in like the back end of Forza, you realize that every time you do a route on it, you're getting 10 points. So all of a sudden you've got 20, 30, 100, 200, 300. And then what you then do is you then take your skill points, and then you basically go into the shop or to the you know, the the car store, and you do what I've been doing is one of two things. So to get wheel spins, you you buy a Mazda, it's a Mad Mike 1974 Mazda, and what you do is you buy that Mazda for I think it's 95,000 credits, you then buy it, go straight into the skill mastery, and then you unlock like a long a bit up and then along, and then you get a free super wheel spin. So you get three wheel spins. But the problem is your wheel spins obviously go down, but so does your credits. So then I started looking around a little bit more, and I'm like, how can you earn more credits in the game to sort of fund this obsession for wheel spins, see where this is going, how obsessed I am with these things. Um but then I found that if you buy a Dodge Viper, it's actually I've got it on the screen, it's a Dodge Viper GTS ACR, and it's 64,000 credits. And then again, if you buy that and you go into Car Mastery, and then in within the Car Mastery, you don't unlock a wheel spin, you actually unlock 150,000 credits. So that you know the car has actually cost you 64,000 credits, but you've got 150,000 credits, so you've made the profit between the two. So what I started doing was just like, okay, so if I unlock five mad Mike Mazdas, that gives me five wheel spins. If I then unlock five uh Dodge Vipers, that gets my money back up. That was fine, and I was doing that, and it was creeping up and it was creeping up, and then it the me being able to do the video got further and further and further away. So I just started grinding, and I I've sort of got to the point now where like I will grind uh a thousand skill points and then go and spend that thousand skill points on a Mad Mike's Mazda, you know. So you I think you get about 30, 35 cars, so 30, 35 wheel spins, then go back into the skill things and then grind another thousand skill points, and then then buy the same amount of Dodge Vipers. So you'll have like two million credits, and then you'll lose those two million credits, and you have buy the new skill grind to back to two million credits again. And actually, this is so sad. But what I've actually started doing now was I've actually got my in the mornings, I'm getting my rock and I put it up on the arm next to me. So it's sort of like if you look at the camera, it's sort of like here. Because actually, if you put the car in auto drive, you don't need to look at the screen apart from when it vibrates and tells you it ends, and then you go repeat, and then it then it vibrates tells you to start, so you just put your foot on the accelerator, and the car just auto-drives. And this is now taking me down a massive rabbit hole of like my Facebook feed is full up of Forza Horizon videos, and people telling about how you can craft your way to XP, you can buy and trade cars and all this lot, and it's taken over my life, Steve.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Yeah, I mean, fair play to you for doing that, Stu, because I mean this this this is almost like next level sort of uh commitment to Forza. Obviously, I'm still not quite there with it yet. I'm still quite not forgiving it to the point where I'm happy to go back. But I mean, the fact that you figured out a way to do it without even having to necessarily drive, apart from set it off and stop and then go again. I mean, that's just that's just like mining of the next level, isn't it? Really? Just like, yeah, just earn me points, make me money.

SPEAKER_04 34:26

Well, the thing is I don't I don't actually have to think about it because I've like it takes me about it takes about an hour and a half to grind a thousand skill points on the rock. And it's just like I don't know why, I don't I'm trying to think of how you can analogise it, but it's almost like my mind has now got my mouth, my mind now listens to those two like buzzes it does. So one buzz to tell me that it's finished, and then one buzz to tell me that it's you've got to press the accelerator again now. And like today I sat and I suppose I suppose the only analogy I can think is like when you drive, you know, sometimes you'll drive for like 20 minutes or half an hour and you go, I don't remember any of that. Yeah, how did I get here? Yeah, and it's like that. I will I'm watching this guy on um on YouTube cycling from Alaska to Argentina. Um, he's been doing it for about two, three years, and I've sort of caught up or catching up with his videos. And like today, I must have watched two of his videos, one of his videos at lunch, and then I just carried on. And literally, my arm was just on the side, and and I'm just like, start again. The only thing you do is you do have to sort of like lift the screen up because sometimes, even though it's an automated drive-in, it does fail. So annoyingly, if you press like uh complete when it's failed, you have to go out and come back in again. It and the thing is it's like a it's like an eight or nine or ten digit code, and I and it's a bit like in the old days when you had to type your phone number in. I can now remember that code without looking at it, and it's a 10-digit code. That's how sad it's got.

SPEAKER_02 36:01

Oh dear. So how many, how many spins, wheel spins are you at now? I think I'm just done.

SPEAKER_04 36:07

Um I think I'm 550 now. Good grief. So I think I'm two, two, I think I'm 300, 301 uh normal wheel spins because when you go up, because obviously what happens is when you do a car mastery, quite often the first one you buy gives you 5,000 XP. So I think I'm at uh I'm at star level two, so that's when it puts like a little exclamation mark on a star next to your level. So I'm star level two, level 50. So um, yeah, because I'm obviously also earning XP by doing that, but it's just it got to a point where it's just like, I mean, it's like my bloody points. It's just got to a point where I'm like, well, I can't do it, so I might as well just carry on driving and carry on doing it. And I'm not just doing that all the time. I've sort of and I've sort of gotten myself a bit of a set routine now where I'll get up in the morning, uh those cars that I've sort of had to buy, I've sold on the auction, so I'll cash my auctions in, or if the car's not sold, I'll gift it to someone in the game, and then I'll then play like half an hour or so or an hour of online driving. Uh, because I've they're the only two achievements I need now. So online driving, and then quite often, then I'll go, right, I'll make myself a cup of coffee and I'll then sit down and just grind a thousand points out whilst I'm watching or type in emails with my left hand. Um, but uh, but yeah, and then like the other day, either up to right now, it got to the point where I had something like I had you get a wheel spin every day for checking in if you're a VIP member, I think it is. Um, and then obviously you get for every third level, you get a wheel spin. So I think my current normal wheel spins is about 301-ish, something like that. And then my um super wheel spins, the three wheel spins in one, I think at the moment they're 233. But I'm sort of looking at it going, oh, it'll be nice if they were 250, and then the other one was 250, but now the other one's 300 and the other one's 233. I'm like, well, maybe if I then try and get the other one to 300 and they're both 300, but I know that the other one won't stay at 300 because I keep on learning wheel spins. So I'm desperate for the wife and daughters to go out on Sunday so I could do this bloody video uh of like unboxing of wheel spins and show people how I've done it because it is benefiting the game. I mean, there's a lot of there's a lot of cars in the game you can only get through wheel spins, and and I have decided, apart from drifting, if anybody can do drifting, please reach out because I can't drift for Toffee. Um, I mean I've got some really cool drift cards with some really cool download codes. Um and I can't sat there unused or shiny and not not even driven once. I mean, I put one up on the chat, I I'll try and put it up on this video. I put put one up on the chat the other day with the group, and it was like I had to get 155,000 or something like that, and I literally just stumbled across the line as it turned over to 155,000 to get to unlock the last um last point I needed in the Oklahoma region or something like that to get that achievement. Um, but no, I mean I'm really enjoying the game. Uh you know, I I'm enjoying what I'm doing. I've decided I want to try and collect all the cars, do all the photographs, unlock all the houses, and I'm actually I'm getting my money's worth from the game, which I've always done with Forza, but I've never gone to this degree with Forza. And there are some really, really cool. There's like a super utility Ford F 150, I think it is, and it's like a monster truck, and it's bloody amazing driving that thing around. You know, it eats up the jumps, you know. You literally luz it off the side of a hill and it just bounces down the hill. Um, and of course, then you turn on your your you can't crash masteries and all that lot, and um, and you just skill points just rack up.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

Driving over everything, just like that, yeah, it doesn't even matter anymore now.

SPEAKER_04 40:09

I'm really enjoying it. I am enjoying online racing. Some of it does frustrate me a little bit where you know the other drivers don't drive, they just crash into you, you know, when you're trying to do a clean race or something like that. But but no, I'm really, really, really enjoying it.

SPEAKER_02 40:22

Yeah, and and like you say, especially when you've upgraded to the sort of ultimate edition as well, you know. Not that it kind of forces you or pushes you to get the most out of it, but obviously that investment's worth it, isn't it? Do you know what I mean? That you're absolutely rinsing it for everything that it can give you. Um and that you're actually doing that is is brilliant. You know, I would I I'm desperately waiting for the day when you can do that stream, because I'm like, well, how long have you got like 500 wheel spins? Like, how long is that gonna take? Like, I know the wheel spins are pretty quick, but that's a long stream of just wheel spins. That that must be at least two hours, maybe?

SPEAKER_04 40:57

No, there's there's a guy called um there's a guy called MJ, I think it is, his YouTube channel. He's the sort of guy that I've been watching quite a few of his videos, which because they've been quite interesting. Um so the first question is do you do the whole classic, you know, hit the space bar or the the butt a butt start and then then force it to stop? Would you let it run? So obviously, yeah, if you let it run, it's gonna go on for a while. He did a I think he did a thousand wheel spin opening, um, and that took him an hour and twenty minutes, I think. Um, but then he sort of did a I don't know whatever it was, like a hundred thousand uh sub um stream where he uh did a thousand uh wheel spins whilst answering questions from people that he you know follow him type of thing. I think that I could probably do it in half hour, maybe 40 minutes, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Been mashing that button to just skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip, skip.

SPEAKER_04 41:54

And I think I think it's just I think it's quite interesting because there's just just because of like Facebook throwing up Facebook accounts on Thorsa, there's a lot of people out there who who are trying to unlock certain cars which you can only get by knowing how to get them. For instance, um you know, if you've got uh God, if you've got like a Porsche Carrera GT and then you unlock uh and then you go into its mastery and unlock it, you get a special version of a Porsche Carrera GT or an older version, I can't remember now, but there's certain ways or certain ways you can only unlock certain cars in the game. So there's obviously a base, I mean, and this kid, you know, this MJ guy, I think he said he nearly quit quit doing YouTube a year ago, and all he's done in a year is like four to streams, and he's got over a hundred thousand followers. So it's almost like actually, I'm quite interested to see for me. Now it's almost become I want to rinse the game, including the the drifting, which I'll leave to the end. I want to complete everything you can within the game, get all the achievements, unlock all the prizes and everything in it. Um, you know, as you said, because the X the upgrade cost, I think it was £50 this year or £60. So for me, it's a full price game, so I want to get my money out of it. And also, all always as well at the moment, is that life's quite busy. So actually, just jumping into Forza every now and again, and whether it's grinding or unlocking has been quite good. And I'm quite intrigued to see. I'm gonna I'm gonna go into it. I'm gonna probably do it on Sunday. I'm gonna record it, I'm not gonna stream it. Um, I'm gonna record it. I'm probably gonna go right, okay. This is how many cars I've got, this is how much money I've got. What do we get after we've opened these, you know, 500 wheel spins or or whatever it'll be. I have what learnt one tip, which is uh if you can afford to go in and buy all of the clothes from the shop before you start using your wheel spins, because if Forza seems to have a uh a thing where it will give You things you haven't got over things that you have got initially. So obviously, if you haven't bought all the clothes of the shop, then it will start to give you random domestic clothes. And I think that it costs about two million credits to buy all the clothes of the shop, which actually is pretty easy to get two million credits if you farm skill points or you know if you've got a bit of money in there, buy a car and resell it. Because there's actually quite a trend in there of people who just sit on the shop on the the auction and will pick up cars. I mean, I stupidly sold a uh oh, what was it? I can't forget what it was, a saline, saline, a saline car the other day. I stupidly sold it for 35,000 credits when it's a nine 900,000 credit car. But somebody couldn't believe that, could they?

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Like buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.

SPEAKER_04 44:49

But I'm not the only person that doesn't put a high I didn't put a high enough reserve on it, basically. Um, but there are people who just shift cars on, like Forza Edition, you know, 911s or whatever for, you know, which are a million credits, and they'll just get rid of them at 20,000 credits because they don't need the points. Um, so for me, actually, it's now almost turned into a hmm, I wonder what I can get out of all these wheel spins and how much credits can I earn, how many cars can I get? And can I complete my you know roller decks? Can I complete my all my cars by doing these, you know, 500 or well, actually it's more like a thousand, isn't it? Or because if three wheel spins that I've got, yeah, so it's gonna be like three, six, nine hundred, yes, it's gonna be more like a thousand wheel spins in one way or another. Um, yeah, I think it's just gonna be quite interesting to see what the hell it does.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Yeah, I mean, I mean, if this doesn't get you inducted into some sort of Forza Hall of Fame or pull us in a massive amount of viewers and and and listeners and subscribers, should I be no pressure? But you know, if if this is what the people want, then like, yeah, more, more, more wheel spins, more XP, more of this, please. Yeah, just keep keep milking it for everything that it's got.

SPEAKER_04 46:02

Well, I think we said before playground are in the UK. So when we do Falls Horizon 7, uh, because I'm in because we're both in the UK. When we do Falls Horizon 7, uh, I'm gonna invest my time into 4's Horizon 6, and we want inviting up to Playground, and we could do a podcast from the studio, and then we could do a live play session or something like that. Do you know just throwing it out there like I do in my other job?

SPEAKER_02 46:24

Yeah, yeah. Let alone for next DLC, whatever it is. Whatever it is, playground, we know you're listening. Like, we want we want we expect that invite in the post. Like, come and have a look around, come and have a chat, come and see what we're working on. Yes, because obviously they're working on fable. Yes, true, you know, so you know, there's always fable to think about shoe. So, yeah, yeah, when you when when you listen to this playground, we we'll be tagging you heavily. Like, we'll we'll spam you with notifications, don't worry about that. So, talking about obsessions and me, basically.

Microsoft Points Console Dream Update

SPEAKER_04 46:56

Uh so so right, I'm gonna give you a points update because uh they've moved on a bit. So um, the last time we did a points update, I had 765,527. And as of just before we podded, ready? I have 791,848 points. So that so that's jumped up what three thousand just under three thousand points. So on a monetary value, they are now worth uh six hundred and thirty-eight pounds and sixty-nine pence, if that's in Xbox vouchers, um, up from £617.46. And if you look at the dock very closely, I've grayed it out and I haven't brought it back up at the moment. I need £867,689 uh credits to unlock the Helix if it's gonna cost £700.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

That's a very big if.

SPEAKER_04 48:05

Yeah, I think if they release that in 2032 or 2033, that might cost 700 quid. But as we get on to one of our stories a little bit later, uh that's a pie in the sky thinking if we think that's gonna be 700 quid.

SPEAKER_02 48:18

Yeah, I think so. And I think like I think I've made a boo-boo with my points. Um because I've been well, I've been chipping mine in and getting the 10 pound vouchers out of that. Oh, I'll stack them, I'll just use it for GTA. And I should have 30, but I realized yesterday, I think, or that I had 20 in my account. You have to you have to spend them in 90 days. Yes. Like, and I was like, oh well that first one's probably dropped off now.

SPEAKER_04 48:41

Yeah, you have you have to spend them. This is why I'm slightly as well. I've not traded them in or cashed them in, uh, because I know you're gonna have to, and I've and I've done look to see where there's a limit on how many you could trade in in a year. But um, I am slightly nervous about that much money sitting in mystical points on my account. And I do and I do think uh GTA is gonna come my way due to my points because uh yeah, I I I can't see I can't see me achieving what we set out, which was the next console we bought with Microsoft points, because the next console ain't gonna cost 700 quid. Never. Not in a minute. If it's if it's gonna come out in 27 or even 28, I think with you know Ramaged and all these prices going up, um, it's I mean, I'll give you an example. I saw an advert for a U-gree NAS, uh four bay NAS, um, which I was gonna buy for my photography, for my videography for doing the day job. Just like a canceled Dropbox and you know, all those sort of online subscriptions. And I remember looking at it about a year ago. I think I remember looking at it about a year ago, and I think that the drive itself was about 500 quid, but that's just a shell. Then to upgrade the stuff to do the storage up to sort of like I think it was up to 24 terabytes in each drive. So, you know, um yeah, so 24 in each drive, and then basically obviously upgrade uh upgrading in the actual speed of the machine. I think it was gonna cost me 1500 quid. So 1500 quid for the memory and the the SSD to make it quicker, so two grand all in with the whole lot. I saw an advert yesterday for the new version of it, and uh the new version of it uh is still 500 pounds for the chassis. Um, but to do the memory now was getting on to six grand. It's just mental, isn't it? See 9.99 a month for Dropbox for two terabytes is a steal at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 50:41

Well, yeah, you could just that basically gives you a lifetime subscription, doesn't it? For the same. Yeah, I'd probably still come away with some change. But yeah, it is the already, isn't it, that we'll come on to it about the like the Xbox and things, but like Microsoft fueling AI is damaging its own brand and product. It's like, well, surely someone's had this thought somewhere of like, well, hang on a minute, like we've only got ourselves to blame here, surely.

SPEAKER_04 51:05

Well, and I think the thing is it's also I saw a friend of mine post on LinkedIn the other day. Sony's profits are record, they've got Sony have got record profits when it comes to you know the AI side of the business at the moment because um they're making so much money, so much revenue from the AI side of the business and and that side of production that you know that's them putting the gaming console prices on, like we get onto in a minute. But uh, but actually, we're an hour into this one, nearly an hour into this recording.

Listener Support And News Begins

SPEAKER_04 51:34

So uh let's get on to the news. But before we get on to the news, uh please uh don't forget to rate, review, or subscribe to this podcast, whichever platform you're listening. There's uh also a fan mail section in both the video and the podcast. Plus, if you're watching this, I'll put it on the QR code on the screen now to send in your fan mail, send in your questions. So if you've got some feedback on the games we've been playing or how obsessed and stupid I am to falls or my Microsoft points, uh please leave your insulting comments by using that link. And um, and we'll get straight on to the news now. And it's a busy news section. We have six news stories with a smattering across all the platforms. Um but the first one uh it's a very sad story in my opinion. But uh the first one's with you, Steve.

EA Buyout Fears Debt And Layoffs

SPEAKER_02 52:20

Yeah, it's uh yeah, it I mean, there's some concurrent news from the original headline that I found out today as well, which kind of makes it even worse, I guess. But um, EA the the sale of EA has finally been um completed. Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. It's fine. Uh which is for a staggering fifty-five billion dollars, which is just mental. Like that's mental money. Like for all the things that we're saying about the gaming industry and everything, like the fact that it's even sort of warranted a price tag of such an amount, which clearly shows how strong score's IPs are, um, and how much cash they're generating, um, to sell fifty-five billion dollars, um is quite staggering, really. It is sad in some in a lot of ways, like you say, Stu, because as we'll come on to it after I've just said this a little bit, we'll kind of see why as well. Um, but it's been um acquired uh by a private investment firm, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners, which are collectively referred to as the Consortium, which just sounds like some sort of dodgy video game evil company, you know that generic oh where you don't need to take down the consortium, you know, just sort of I don't know, it it's just like the most vague name ever. Um, but this is partially funded by um Saudi Arabian Company, I believe. Yeah, and also Donald Trump's son-in-law, I think that is.

SPEAKER_04 53:54

Yeah, yeah, he's the one sort of like spearheaded it, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 53:57

Yeah, which is just like the Trump family can't just stay out of anything, can they? Just like just can't just can't just leave well alone. So it's like, you know, you kind of think, oh well, this is gonna be great, you know, maybe a cash injection, security, you know, financially, blah blah blah. Then you look at it, Trump's involved somehow, and obviously he's gonna have his sticky fingers all over this somehow, isn't he? In indirectly, Trump is gonna have some involvement in this, whether he's gonna be Christ, you can just see here making like a Donald Trump simulator or some sort of Donald Trump game, can't you? Or he's gonna have some cameo in like battlefield or something. Do you know what I mean? You can just see it happening in some way, shape, or form, like he did in Home Alone. He's gonna make an appearance somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 54:39

It'll be in the Sims, it'll be in the Sims for that. They'll recreate Don uh what's that hideous building in New York? Trump Towers. Uh they'll remake Trump Towers, Donald Trump. Uh I mean, for me, it's like it it's completely hypocritical of him, let's say, without trying to get too political. Um, because it's like it's all American, we don't trust anybody, uh, we gotta buy American, every product you buy has got to be American. I think you still can't buy DJI products that got Bluetooth in them in America because it's made by you know the Chinese. But all of a sudden, it's great to take a company which I believe was predominantly American, um, and then leverage a load of money from Saudi to buy this American company and make it multi-global. And then the other thing, which is just after it says where in the article where it refers to the consortium, it goes the 55 billion deal is the biggest leverage buyout ever, which has seen 20, which has seen 20 billion added to EI's overall debt. So by buying this, but EA are actually 20 billion in debt more than they were beforehand. So, how how can that be good for the platform? How can how's that gonna give us good games?

SPEAKER_02 55:59

It's almost like when Glazers bought my new, innit? Like we've bought your couple, we've bought the football club, but we've saddled the club with all our own debt. It's like, well, thanks for that. Yeah, great. Yeah, thanks for just a little plaything now. Um but yeah, but obviously there's a concern of the Saudi ownership of obviously, like we say, with Sims and inclusivity and the themes and you know all that sort of question mark as well. Um but then something that else that came as a further sort of addition to this news story um is that although it might be hunky-dory, but I'm guessing which is part of the debt that it's been saddled with, there's gonna be job losses at a year from this. So while everyone thought, oh, it's gonna be great, and it'll be da da da, ah no, I'm gonna be out of a job now as well. Brilliant. Thanks for that. Great. Okay. Which it's people don't want to lose jobs, and you don't want people to lose jobs. But if it goes south following the ownership, you know, it might not necessarily in hindsight retrospectively further it might not necessarily be a bad thing. But obviously, in this obviously, you don't want people to lose jobs, you know, and you don't want to lose people from the gaming industry. And hopefully there are job losses just like an Xbox to find defeat elsewhere. Um but yeah, it's like we've bought it, Trump's evolved, job losses, you know, yeah, now massively in debt, blah blah blah. Is that gonna mean cut funding? We're gonna stop more, you know, experimental you know, projects and things and just stick with FIFA because you know, FIFA, um Madden, you know, the cash cow games, out of the game, yeah. You know, because if that's where the money's at, well they might just think, well, we're just gonna double and triple down on that then, you know, rinse it for every penny that it's got and lose the you know, the small because they went through a phase at one time, they made some great games. You know, they had all sorts of like little developers and in there. Unraveled was a phenomenal game which came out of that.

SPEAKER_04 57:43

And and I think the the thing is I hate to sell I hate to say you can see like when Microsoft or other studios bought other studios, so when Microsoft bought studio or Sony bought studio, you can understand sometimes people will get laid off. And you know, so maybe like someone in HR or someone uh in uh an administrational role might get laid off because that's now handled by the bigger company. It had it happens in every business, regardless of whatever sector it's in. But when you're buying a when you're buying uh when a consortium is buying a studio that doesn't own any other studios as far as I'm aware, and they've bought the studio, saddled it with more dare. Okay, the people that owned it are now worth a shitload of money, and uh, you know, the the shareholders are probably happy, but they've bought this company, they've saddled it with debt, they're gonna lay people off, which means those say those games that we quite enjoyed like unraveled, like you know, are we gonna get the last instalment of the Star Wars game? Because that was always supposed to be three. So is that gonna get cut? Is that in development? Um I know that doesn't compare anything to people losing their jobs, but how could this have gone through regular regulationally um been passed through regulations? Oh well, hold a second, because Trump's involved in it.

SPEAKER_02 59:06

It all boils down to the old Calpad cash, doesn't it? But I saw some about separately, I think, again, as I put it in there, but didn't the one of the big big wigs in the air, like his his bonus went from eight million to like 30 million or something?

SPEAKER_03 59:19

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

It's like, well, you've oh well great, you've laid a load of people off. All right, well it's it's their money basically. And it's like, what? It's like there was somewhat around here where like the like the CEO of Yorkshire Water or something, they got a bonus of 600,000 pounds for securing more investment, like a like a a partnership or something. It's like, well, for what? They're doing the job. They got 600 grand for doing their job. Like 600,000 pounds as a bonus on top of what the stupid one of the already getting paid. Like he's getting 30 million extra dollars to laying people off. How's that right? Do you know what I mean? It just does it just the whole thing just does not sit right.

SPEAKER_04 59:54

And now it's private, it can only it's only gonna get worse because you're not really looked over as a private company within reason. So, I mean, obviously, if you're a limited company in this country, you have HMRC and that will look over you. Generally, touch wood, only if you do something wrong and you raise their suspicions. Um, but yeah, I mean it's well, we'll see where it goes, but it just puts shivers down my spine. Let's put it that way.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:19

Yeah, it doesn't, it it seems like a great news story, but actually, when you dig a little deeper, it's like, well, actually, this if anything good comes out of it, I'll be shocked.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:26

Well, I'm gonna come on to a happy story now. Oh, well, hold on a second. No, no. No, hang on.

Xbox Console Prices Jump In UK

SPEAKER_04 1:00:33

So uh so this is uh an IGN story. Uh so fail final nail in the coffin, Xbox price rises revealed, leaving fans stunned as the Sirius X and S spike more than a third in Europe. So this goes back to a story that I think we discussed back in June where Microsoft announced the price rises were coming up and that they'd announced, I think, that the American prices were going up, but they hadn't announced what the European prices were. So as the story continues in the US, Microsoft previously stated that the 512 uh gigabyte Sirius S would rise to $100, sorry, rise by $100, whilst the one terabyte Sirius models would rise uh by a further 150 increases that equate to around about £74 or £111, and the two terabyte model will be discontinued completely. But in the UK and mainland Europe, the actual price is in pounds and euros is much steeper. The 512 gigabyte Sirius S has jumped from 299 to 429 pounds and increases of 130 pounds, whilst its one terabyte model has increased from 349 pounds to 512 pounds, and that's a leap of 170 pounds. Worse still, the increase is for the Sirius X models with the one terabyte digital up to up from 449 to 619, which is a 170 pound increase, but the one terabyte disc model goes up from 449 pounds to 669 pounds, a whopping 48% increase and a £220 difference.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Yeah, it's mental, isn't it? It's just crackers, like like they said there, like they're clearly stopping doing the two terabyte one because that will just be even more stupid money. At what point do you just say we're just gonna stop making them for now? Well, you can't get them, you can't find them.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:40

I mean, I had a look yesterday uh across some platforms, and the own the only thing you could do at the moment is buy refurbs, official refurbs off like Amazon. No one's got new can't I don't think anybody's got new consoles at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:54

It's just I obviously like I try and buy both consoles if I can, you know, which I appreciate is a very fortunate situation to be in. I couldn't get a PS5 at launch when it first came out, so I had to wait a little bit afterwards for an Anna pick me up for my my birthday the following year. Um so I'm lucky that I have both. But I I'd struggle to afford one at that price, do you know what I mean? Like that's a big commitment, do you know what I mean? It's like 669 quid just for the model of Xbox that obviously that I have now. It's a lot, and obviously I get that things cost more money and the world we're in and cost of production, blah blah blah. But for an old you know, what is fundamentally uh what now, five, six-year-old console?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:34

Yeah, it was six years, yeah, yeah, because it was uh it was uh holiday wasn't it holiday that holiday 2000 uh sorry 2020. 2020, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:42

So, you know, and I get that it's new, but obviously it's still using older spec parts. But it's an old console, do you know what I mean? It's it's six years old, in and it's outdated, do you know what I mean? So and I know you get that with consoles, but that's why they usually come down in price. You get the slimline version, you get the elite version or pro version, obviously, whatever you get. But at some point, someone surely has got to think, Well we we can't keep making them at this price. No one's buying them. You know, surely no because I was gonna like now, it's like people have been thinking, oh, I'll get a Series S as my second Xbox just to stream from somewhere, you know, in a second bedroom or you know, in the whatever. But that price, you're like, no, like I'm just not gonna bother. Like it's just it's silly money.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:26

There's a really interesting video um which I came across uh whilst flicking through YouTube the other day, and it's uh um it's by a YouTuber, Mr. Who's the Boss, who's a lot of people would know him, and he did uh I think it's his latest video, I think it was this week, but he talks about this and he talks about why it's costing more, but not the only not the only reason why it's costing more, but how this is gonna have a massive knock-on effect, not only in gaming, but all other technology around us, which we have every day. And then obviously he then also talks about the uh the physical discs ending type of thing. And and he's he was spot on. I mean, his videos are pretty well researched, but you know, he was talking about how um you know manufacturers buy the chips for AI and they buy them in certain quantities. I think they were they were racks or something like that. Um, and they were talking about how the the big players in AI, your chat GPTs and your Google and your um Microsoft, they're throwing so much money at AI now because they're scared to not be the one that wins at AI that that is just knocking having a knock on effect of everything. I mean, you know, this year we're supposed to get the Apple foldable iPhone. I got no interest in it whatsoever. I don't really see the point in foldable phones, but but I mean that's gonna be a free $4,000 pound phone, an apple phone. Make their own silicon, but even their own silicon's gone up in prices. So it's just yeah. I mean, look, look after your Xboxes, look after your PlayStations and your Nintendo Switches, look after your PCs, and just if you can upgrade now, if you can find one. And actually, if you're looking for a Christmas present for your son or daughter and you're listening to this or a birthday present, buy a refurbished console. In my opinion, you know, especially when it came to things like Skyboxes, which is a satellite service we have in the UK. The sky boxes that were touched by humans were obviously a hell were always always a lot more reliable than the ones that came from Sky. So just because it's a refurbished console, don't take it that it's a secondhand piece of rubbish. Actually, you can still get those at you know prices which are around, if not cheaper, than the original price. So in the UK, it was £449 for a Sirius X sorry, £499 for a Sirius X one terabyte disc. I know you can buy that or have been able to buy that for £449. That's now £669. Um, because I think the one below here I've got in here was £449 when I bought it. It's now meaning that you know people are just not gonna buy consoles, um, which means that they're not gonna buy the PlayStation 6, they're not gonna buy the Helix, they're not gonna buy the Switch 3 uh because they're just gonna be too expensive. And and is that ultimately gonna end up killing what we do, or we end up all just going to PCs?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:32

Uh but like you say it if it's everything, like you say, with the iPhone, with any any anything that requires these components. Well, people are just gonna stop buying new ones. Do you know what I mean? And and I I have listened to a bit more recently about the whole AI race and things, and it is like it's generally terrifying. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's so unregulated the whole situation that everyone's just trying to basically it's spa it's the modern space race, basically, isn't it? That we want to be first to the moon, we want to have the best AI that controls everyone and everything. It's like, well, how's nobody like controlling how's a how's government like not stopping this or controlling it? Like, well, actually, no. Like this is dangerous. Like it it's just it's scary when you think about the consequences that it could have beyond the economical side of it. Um but yeah, it it's just yeah, I'd I'd genuinely dread to think what what it will cost to to buy the PS6 or the Helix unless something drastically happens and a like the pause button or the stop buttons are pressed imminently. It it like you say, it's uh a thousand to twelve hundred quid easy, is what it's gonna be if you look at projected sort of costs minimum.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:41

And you're only then gonna go back to Phil's comment, which is you're gonna buy the console if you can afford it, you're gonna buy the console where your digital library is. So that is gonna mean that people are gonna, majority of people are gonna buy a PS6, which means that they're not gonna buy an Xbox. Okay, Xbox are pretty good with their backwards compatibility, and you know, and a uh an Xbox One still plays a lot of the games that we have today, but it just does that then mean that people stopped by PlayStation, stopped by an Xbox, at which points the companies will just turn around and go, look, we're not selling enough of them. I think he I think there was a I think in the Mr. Who's the Boss video he did a projected sort of like you know, 30 million consoles out there, and if only 10% buy them, that means they're only gonna buy three million consoles. Are PlayStation gonna make three million? Our PlayStation gonna make the PS6 to sell three million consoles. Our Xbox gonna make the Helix to sell one, two million consoles. No, they're not, they're gonna get rid of it. So uh but uh but anyway, that's enough about those stories. Um let's get on to this next one, which is uh I had a read of it and I still can't make it out. It's a bit of a weird one, but uh but the next story's with

The 200 Dollar Steam Game Scam

SPEAKER_04 1:09:53

you, Steve.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:53

Yeah, well I thought we'd just have something a bit lighthearted to break up you know the serious news sections that we've had recently. Um so yeah, so um this is a Steam game that was called This Game Costs $200, which is a Steam game that's actually cost $200. Now, Steam has a ceiling for cost of games, which is $200, hence the reason why this one um was priced as such. Um now the person who made this uh Michael Major he released a game previously called This Game Cost $10. And then as a joke, he released this other one called This Game Cost $200. I guess just as a proof of concept of well, would people be crazy enough to buy it? Um I generally don't actually know what the game is.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:38

It looks like uh it looks like a Nintendo, it looks like a really bad like crossover between a Nintendo game and an early version of GTA.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:46

Yeah, that's exactly it. Um but yeah, this thing, this this game costs $200 went on to actually generate almost $1.3 million in revenue. Um which needless to say shocked the guy because why wouldn't it for a game that costs $200 and looks absolutely abysmal in the nicest way possible? Um but yeah, he he he like he couldn't actually believe that it had made this amount of money. Um so it sold six thousand seven hundred and seventeen copies, um so yeah, so a lot of copies. But there was a problem because Steam, god love it, um has got a refund or return option, and six thousand seven hundred and seven of those six thousand seven hundred and seventeen copies were returned. Um so yeah, and what's even more strange about this whole thing is that six thousand seven hundred and five of those six thousand seven hundred and seven copies were bought and refunded in China. So I I think there's something strange going in HU because this this seems weird to me that something must have gone on there. Like, there's not six thousand seven hundred and five people in China that went, Oh, have you seen this game? Uh bought it, went, no, let's refund it. Like, there's something going on there. There has to be some underhand going on.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:16

They might have gone, they might have gone see that guy that keeps on trying to flog me Instagram followers on on the direct DMs and my account. You know, we can see you've only got 10,000 Instagram followers. Would you like a million? Uh no, it would only cost you a tenner.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:29

Or they they they did what that other guy did as like, well, if I buy all these copies of GTA to sell it on, this has got some cult following, maybe. Um, but yeah, so ultimately the guy was left with about $2,000 at the end of it. Um, but yeah, it just seemed like such a strange, weird story to crop up in the news that it was like, well, it it's great that he's made something that's made money, but then clearly people have seen through the thin veil of yeah, this game is not worth $200 because what a game is. But it's just the whole bit about China as well. Like there must have been something going on there, sure. You can't tell where there's not been something. It's weird.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:08

Don't you think I mean there's I've seen a couple of YouTube videos, so I'm I almost think he was trying to go down the route of I've seen a couple of YouTube videos which have like this YouTube video has 127, 443,000 views, and then what happens is the person updates the profile, updates the video name every time someone has looked at it. So let's say let's go up in 50s because my maths is better. This video's worked 50 views, so he'll he'll update it to 50. This then it gets to a hundred views, and he'll go, This video's had a hundred views, and and it's almost like you there's something in your brain that goes, Oh, it's had that many views. Even though you could see below how many views it's had, it makes you click on the video to see why. So I don't know whether it's like uh I'm trying to think of the word now, whether it's like a sublimeral type of thing. Well, well, it must be good if it's worth $200. But then obviously that's backfired slightly with the returns policy of Steam. And actually, I think Xbox would be the same if you switch it. I mean, I've switched a few games on and gone, this ain't for me, you know, and I've returned it within you know a 24-hour period, and they've gone, yeah, go for it, have your money back.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:21

Um I think you'd have done that pretty sharpish by looking at the screenshots of that one, Stu, to be honest.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:25

Yeah, I think you would just literally turn it on and and uh whiz it back over. I would suggest.

PlayStation Discs Ending And Backlash

SPEAKER_04 1:14:32

Uh so uh we're back to Sony for our next story. Uh and again, it's uh it's a happy one. Uh Sony not budging on the ending PlayStation physical discs in the face of fan process. We're all going to uh uh we're all going to consciously move forward, says PlayStation. Um, so this was a uh Kaha tu video, um, sorry, uh news article. Um it's been almost a month since Sony announced that the end of the PlayStation discs for the new game started in 2028. An a loud uh congregant of fans has confirmed, uh, sorry, has continued to criticize the company for going all digital. Asked about going uh back on the backlash in the latest earning call, Sony said it understands why people have strong feelings about physical games, but we're still going to move ahead and get rid of them. Um there are various reasons we made the decision, and the biggest being that the digitization of content overall has been progressing, and that's a big factor, says Sony's chief financial officer, Lin Tao, um uh said through an interpreter during the QA in July the 31st. It's not just Sony, but all kinds of content is being digitalized and it's progressing forward. She continues, and so we think it's the future, it's about the future. Uh we we put it in uh we've put in a lot of thoughts and time and consciously considered this, and we came to the conclusion that we're going to move forward with this decision. So basically, it doesn't matter what you say is the customer.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:08

That's that's a big middle finger to everybody, isn't it? Basically, well, it's one of them. I mean they they've they've nailed the colours to the master and they kind of have to stick with it, I think. Do you know what I mean? They can't flip-flop. You know, it's not it's not a decision that they can make easy, oh yeah, I'll do this, because obviously there's a cost implication of everything, and obviously, from just the parts element of it, the design of the console, everything, do you know what I mean? It completely changes everything. So if there's a some sort of firm plan on the design of the next console, they can't just go, oh, you just tack a can you stick a disc drive in that, mate, please? Well, no, like it's you can't just stick bolts on it on. Um, you know, and it's all this like this you know, when they do the do the PS5 disclusk, and then you can buy the separate disk. Why? Just that if you bought digital, just stick with it, you know what I mean. You've made that decision to go digital, but don't buy a plug-in disk drive for it. Um so yeah, so I again we covered this in depth last time. I I didn't think they'd change their mind. You know, I I don't necessarily like it. I can understand why they're doing it. Um but yeah, there's there's a lot of still question marks over it, isn't it? Like, in terms of well, how how much storage is that PS6 gonna have? You know, how much is that storage gonna cost? Can you upgrade that storage? Again, what cost is that? Because obviously the Series X you can obviously stick the T-gate drive in it with a PS6 or something like that, you know. But again, is it something bespoke like the Xbox one, which they'll charge twice for because it's ours, rather than just being able to plug a you know a normal SSD into it or something? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:36

Well, I have heard I did hear a few rumors going around. Again, this is rumors because there's no sort of like firm plans for the PS6 and Helix, but a few people have been saying if the the the RAM and the RAM and the storage prices continue that actually you may well find that the only way they're gonna get those consoles into our hands is by actually releasing them with way smaller memories in them. So where you would have bought a one terabyte PlayStation now, the most you'll be able to buy is a 512, if not less. It's 10 gig. And then if you want if you want more storage, then you have to buy more storage to go on it. I mean, it doesn't matter here. I mean, as we've said this podcast before, I've got two and a half gig down, two and a half gig up. So I could download a full copy of like Call of Duty in like 20 minutes. So it doesn't really matter to me as long as I've got enough room on the machine to play it. But that was that's the other thing. I mean, the other thing I saw again, it was the Mr. Who's the Boss video, which was the real concerning one, which he he had a I can't remember the name of the game now, but he had a PlayStation behind him and he was talking about look, this this is an example of you know why stopping physical media is is bad in the gaming world. Now, in the film world, the difference between prices of movies and movies being able to come on Netflix if you don't want to buy them new. So, like for instance, what was it who came out the other day? Um, the Michael Jackson movie, Michael. And I'm like, it came up on my Kaleidoscape for £20, so that's a digital version of the actual original movie. And I'm like, Do you know what? I'll watch it when it comes to Sky because I have Sky movies. So I had that option to do that. But on this Mr. Who's the Boss video, he showed a PlayStation game, um, which play it's he said it's been out for a year or two, I think he said. Uh, and he said it's a really good game. If I can remember it, I'll find it, I'll put it up on the screen here. Um, but PlayStation are still selling it for $59.99, I think it was. And then he went to your favourite website and he said, I can buy a physical copy of this game from Computer Exchange for 99p. It's bad, innit? So you get rid of that physical disc or get rid of the way of even playing that physical disc, even if it's backwards compatible. You've got your PS6, but it's a PS5 game, but you can't actually physically play it. You've got to spend £50 or £59 more to play that game rather than just and I've had it. Ghost of YoTite, I bought on a disc because I wasn't sure about it. I I sold it on. You rented it. Um, there's other games I've bought. What was it? It was something like uh I can't think of the game, what it's called now, but I was really enjoying it, and annoyingly I came onto it about two, two, three days before it finished off of Dead Space, before it finished off Game Pass. So I bought it on Amazon for like $10.99 or $6.99. I had that option to buy it as a physical version and carry on playing it. That's I think where this whole thing falls down in the eyes of them. They want you to buy it at full price, they don't want you to lend it to a mate, and they don't want you to buy it cheaper.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:56

And and the only way that they could correct it, which I say correct it, but obviously if you're not going physical, is if you could rent them or you you buy the license to it basically. So like you you don't pay whatever, or you just pay sixty quid for it, let's say. You you pay for it full whack, you pay it for two weeks and go, do you know what, I'm done with it. And you get some sort of credit back, you know. They say, Well, you've played it this many hours, we'd probably value that at twenty quid or forty quid, we'll give you twenty or forty quid back as credit for something else in the future in store rather than just as an outright refund, then at least you're getting something back for it tangible, you know, like you would if you bought it and traded it. Like you say, you could buy it and sell it on. They'll never do that, of course. Like you say, they want you to buy it for full whack because they uh they're abundantly aware that computer exchanges are selling it for rock bottom price and people aren't buying it from them. Um so yeah, so I don't think that would ever happen, but that would be a way to correct it. I guess and I wouldn't necessarily be anti that, um, and especially if the games come with smaller hard drives, if you just basically installed a small portion of the game as a license to prove that you owned it, and then the rest was done in the background by cloud or what have you. Again, I wouldn't necessarily be anti it because I've got the facility to do that with the internet, but I appreciate some people wouldn't.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:14

I think they've got to find a way. I think they're gonna have to because one, if we talk about job losses, platforms like you know, Compute Exchange, platforms like some traders on Amazon and eBay who specialise in buying and selling secondhand things, uh, there those businesses are gonna die because it's all going digital. We've already seen it. You know, we used to be able to walk into eB, we used to be able to walk into game, we used to be able to walk into HMV, and it'll be piles and piles of Xbox and PlayStation games, and that's now replaced by Funko Pops uh and all those types of things. So I think you're gonna get a CM, but I do I do think that there, I mean, we come on to an Xbox story which does solve it slightly-ish, um, but I think they've got to come up with something because I think there's gonna be such a backlash, and people aren't gonna it's it's a it's a spiral. People are not gonna buy a game because they'll wait for it to come on to Game Pass or PlayStation Plus, which it will. So they're carry on playing their monthly revenue, which obviously PlayStation will like, but that means they're not gonna buy the new game, they they they're not gonna recoup that money, they're gonna jump in and play Gears of War um for a month and pay £20 for it instead of paying £70, £80, £90 for it. I think they've got to find a way whereby you can sell that copy on once digitally by creating a key or something like that. I mean, Nintendo have got something similar, but then I found out the other day that a lot of Nintendo games now come in with a a physical cartridge in the box, but there's actually nothing on the cartridge. You still got to put the cartridge in your machine, but then you've got to download it with the code that's in the box with the cartridge. It's pointless. Yeah, so so it's an illusion. I think, I think, as I said on this podcast before, I think we're in another cross-platform play-in. You know, years ago, five years ago, whatever it was, might be even been when we were doing the podcast, we were talking about you know being able to play Fortnite, you know, so PlayStation and Xbox and PC played together, and none of us ever believe that will happen. I think we're in another, you know, an AI bubble like the dot-com bubble. I think we're in another, another cross-platform bubble. I think if we're gonna go dissless, I think we're gonna have to find a way to be able to sell it on or part exchange it or something like that, because otherwise I think it's gonna put an even bigger nail in the coffin of what we do, unless, like Steam, you buy the games at a massive discount or you end up buying $6.99 games or $19.99 games. I ain't gonna buy $69.99 games handover fish just to play them. I will wait until they come down in price. If they don't come down in price, I ain't gonna play it. You know, I'm she won't play it.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:05

I'm trying to think of the last time I actually bought something outright when it first came out. Anna bought me Lego Batman, but that will reduce on Amazon, so that was 45.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:13

And that was quite that was quite quick after, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:15

Yeah, that wasn't long after it released. Um, but I'll do GTA because it's GTA, and it's never gonna get discounted, and it'll never reduce in price. Um but I I generally can't remember the last time I paid full RRP for a game. Because why would you? Like in in this current climate, why would you?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:36

And the thing is, it just comes back to bite on the ass. You know, Red Death Redemption for me, I play I bought the premium edition, spent £109 on it. Complete waste of time for me, did not like it. Assassin's Creed Shadows, exactly the same. Bought the the best version of it with the DLC and all that lot, just did not get into it, it did not, you know, it did not draw me in. I will go back and play it, I know I will with that one, but again, that was what £70, 80, £90 down the drain. You just can't afford to do that, not when all your other living expenses are so expensive.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:12

Yeah, no, no way, and your console's three times more expensive.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:15

Uh exactly. So uh so right, we'll put that one to bed, we'll bury that disc, and then we'll get on to a more motivational, uh, more positive story from

Adverts Inside Games Threat Looms

SPEAKER_04 1:26:25

you, Steve.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:25

Yeah, so do you know, Shuao, you find this really cool thing when you're watching like a TV show or a movie, and it gets a really good point and it throws an advert at you. Do you know how you really like that? I love it. Well, how would you like video games?

SPEAKER_04 1:26:40

Oh, I I I can't wait. Um I'm just that's I just love it when I'm at a real kill key point in a in a YouTube video or uh or something on TV and I'm like, oh, it's gonna be oh a second, there's some an advert for sanitary tales comes in front of me.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:54

Yeah, so do you know when you're just about to like finish a race or you're just about to overtake somebody in Forza and then boom, like you say, there's the Domino's advert or like Nando's or something like Yeah, that's gonna be great, isn't it? Well, yeah, well Sony's doing that. Well, I say doing that, but they're expanding their um sort of programme and progress into looking into it. Um so yeah, so Sony trying to look at monetizing through adverts in games. Um so there's not really necessarily much about how that will work, um, but there's been a series of job listings at Sony and they're clearly accelerating the sort of like their advertising strategy or ways to monetize and advertise within video games, which again is a massive concern because I mean we've mentioned it by looking at news articles just for this podcast. People have to make money, I get that, but like websites are just 99% adverts. You know, it absolutely riles me that I pay an Amazon Prime membership and I still get adverts. Like the fact that I have to pay for that and then have to pay again if I want advert free is It like insane. I get it on like ITV player. Um, you know, because I've used the free version. Same with Netflix. Uh you can get a Netflix free, you can get one with no adverts. I get Disney as part of Sky with adverts. Fine because it's included. I'm not gonna pay extras to get rid of the adverts. I'm not bothered about that. But when I'm paying for something, and especially I'm paying for a video game, I don't advert in that. Like, like you said, I've paid 50-60 quid for this. Like, oh yeah, we'll have three minutes of adverts before you start your game. No. Like, absolutely not. Like it's the the fact that it's even a a thing is you know, and and you could say maybe, well, if they included brands in video games, you know, maybe to include you know, that's the advertising, maybe. You know like Fortnite clearly does it by having the licensed stuff in it. But yeah, to actually have adverts in video games to me is just that would be the absolute final thing for me of like, no, absolutely not, not happening.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:00

I think if you're gonna give a free version of it in respects of like, I know Xbox are looking at as well. If you're gonna give a free version of it on an Xbox or a free version of Game Pass on Xbox, a free version of uh PlayStation Plus on a PlayStation, then okay, yeah, put adverts on it, you know. Yes, make them watch a few minutes of adverts, a bit like Netflix, not for Netflix, YouTube does. As soon as they start putting them in the middle of the game, that's when it's like, hold a second. If you're gonna show me an advert between loading levels, well, that's the whole reason that we have these super duper consoles, is that we don't have to have those levels loaded anymore. So I finish my game in Forza, and then I've got to watch a two-minute advert before I go back and can play another one. That's gonna get me to rage throw my console out the window. But like you do with Amazon, it will be well, you don't have to have this, you can pay that X amount of money a month and then trade up. Um, I I saw uh I saw a thing on LinkedIn the other week, which was Samsung advertising about advertising to businesses about putting their business on uh Samsung platforms. So, you know, uh you know, like advertise your business across Samsung's platforms. We have, you know, whatever, 20 million TVs out there globally, or more than that, 20 million TVs out there globally. And when that person turns that TV on, you could see your advert on the home screen when they go and watch their apps. And I just put on there when this is the exact reason that as a custom integrator of this industry for 20 years, I do not support or sell or install Samsung TVs because it's just like I don't want to put that in front of my client, and if I do put that in front of my client, I'm gonna get the money who comes back and goes, hold on a second, you sold me this thing, is give me all these bloody adverts because I can watch TV. And I understand they've got to find a more cost-effective way of doing it, but they've got to just be really, really careful because this is gonna be another thing that is gonna stop people from doing it, or or pirate stuff, so they don't have to watch it, they just get the pirate version of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:06

Yeah, and and this is a thing, obviously, like you say, with the whole you know, the cost of it, and then obviously digital, and then this as well. There's a there's a lot stacked against people having a reason to buy the console. So just adding this to the list is not gonna do themselves any favour, like you say, with game pass that you you do a massively reduced one and there's adverts between whatever sections, I don't know how they'd integrate it or implement it. But say like you say with Disney Plus Beam with Sky, for me, like, well, yeah, I'll watch adverts, so I'm not paying for this. Same with Game Pass, you know, if I say, Well, I'm paying you fiver a month, let's say, you know, for a basic, basic subscription. And before I start this game, I have to watch three minutes worth of adverts. Well, you know, that game costs $40 or 40 quid. Well, do you know what? For three minutes, it's absolutely not that bad. Um so again, I guess it's all down to integration. You know, nothing can be mid-game, you know, nothing can be during the game. It could be before and after, you know, you play session, you've got three minutes before, you've got three minutes afterwards, but that's only in sort of these you know, limited or reduced packages. I probably won't be anti that, but yeah, it it's all down to integration and timing. Do you know what I mean? This is the whole thing of this is all coming out at the same time, practically as everything else, to make sure go. I ain't gonna buy another console. So it's like I think it's all down to implementation and timing to make it. Well, do you know what? Yeah, it's gonna cost me a bit more, but I'm gonna buy this console because I need it. Well, as it stands, well, no, I don't really, so I'm not actually gonna buy it.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:39

Yeah, I was just sorry, I was just searching something. Um I'm just gonna try and see if I can find it. I because the other thing I sort of think about is can we uh there we go. Uh Apple generated at least 40 million dollars from brand sponsorships and brought up placements uh for uh for fictional teams featuring sorry, for the fictional team feet featuring actual real life sponsors in the F1 movie. So for Apple putting Mercedes uh IWC, which is the watch, uh EA, uh, in the film, they generated $40 million. So if we look at the games we play, okay, it's gonna be a little bit hard with Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls and things like that. But let's go back to uh my poch on at the moment, Forza Horizon. If you put advertising around Tokyo, if you look at Grand, if you look at Grand Theft Auto Auto, you put billboards around the city. If you look at ways you can implement product placement into a film, you know, the character goes into a bar in uh GTA and asks for a drink, they're given a monster or Stellar or a you know uh a Budweiser. There's so many ways that they could put product placement into it that that could actually, if they work a little bit harder to try and put it into the game sympathetically, they could still earn a load of money through it in the same way Apple did with the revenue in the F1 movie. So it's possible to do it. I think for me, the I mean I I pay was it $7.99 a month for YouTube Premium Lite. I don't pay for YouTube Premium because I don't use YouTube Music, I don't really need to download it and take it with me. So I pay $7.99 because I I don't want the adverts in the middle of my YouTube video. But if I have to watch a a video uh before I start a game, fine. If I have to watch uh uh a video when I uh end a game, fine before I'm allowed to turn it off. But if it's then between levels, I'll give you an example. I went to London last week and I had to go somewhere I've not been before on the London Underground. So I opened up the tube app that I've got, which allows you to look at the map for about 30 seconds before it shows you an ad, which lasts for about five minutes, it feels like. I tried to do this three or four times. Well, I don't leave me wrong, I I I understand they have to make money. I get it. I got so fed up, I just Googled London uh London Underground map and then just looked at the picture that Google brought me up in the end because I just wanted to make sure that what how many stops on the Nova line it was when I needed to get off. But it got to the point where I just didn't use the app because it was so bloody annoying. And I think even less we're careful with our electronics, people will stop using our TVs and or the inbuilt services on the TV, people will stop buying and using games consoles if all they're done is being bombarded with ads all the time.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:47

Yeah, if you can't use it for its fundamental purpose, then what's the point? Do you know what I mean? And I kind of have a bit of a beef with Spotify with that on a separate tangent, where like if you don't pay for premium, you get adverts, fine, but then you can't play albums in order, it's all shuffled and you have to play playlists. It's like, well, hang on a minute. Sure there's some some sort of like regulation that means I can still fundamentally use it, like YouTube, I can still use it for free. Or do you know what I mean? But I'd if I have five songs in an advert and I can't skip, fine, but then to not play the songs in the order of an album or choose to play an album, well you're forcing me to pay for that service now. Do you know what I mean? So it's like I know adverts are there to design for all the people who get sick of it to pay it. But like you say, you need that convenience of that app to find where I'm going. Well, if I can't do that, I'm not going to use the app. Like you say, that's Google, that's when you use AI for Christ's sake to say, get me to this location, and it will give you a step-by-step breakdown of how to get from this tube station to that tube station. And that app is then defunct. Do you know what I mean? Like you say, they need they need the revenue, I get that. But if you can't just log on and do what you need to do with it, well, buy off in the bin you go. Like, that's it, gone.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:53

And you know what's really funny is the next artist, the next story I'm gonna tell you about uh is on uh uh the worst website in the world, as far as I'm concerned, when it comes to video games, which is VGC, Video Games Chronicle. So I've gone to that website to read one of their stories that one of their journalists has written, but I can't actually see the story because I've got a massive full-screen advert for Wrigley's Extra Plus chili flavoured chewing gum.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:21

I mean you you you've you've been looking at chili flavoured chewing gum shoe, clearly. You've you've been eyeing this product up for days, clearly. So the algorithm has done its job.

SPEAKER_04 1:37:31

It's it's it's it's it's done its job beautifully. And I and I and again, I understand, but do I I'm gonna start on my ragey bait now. I understand, but do I need one, two, three, four adverts for Fiverr on the same screen at the same time? So uh uh yeah, uh if I could be bothered, I'd go and find this article somewhere else. But do you know what? I'm not even gonna tell you who wrote this article. I'm just gonna basically just steal their content for our podcast.

Xbox Disc To Digital Plan Leaks

SPEAKER_04 1:38:01

Uh Xbox. That'll teach them. Xbox, uh Disc to Digital feature could be coming as soon as this month, according to leaked documents. Actually, I'm gonna give this story to Jess Corden because I know he said it before. I just didn't look at the fantastic website, which is Windows Central. Anyway, so Xbox, if you don't know this, Xbox are looking at creating a digital uh format, so a disc to digital uh feature. So where basically you can take your older discs like we've been talking about, and then you can basically rip those into a digital version and then play that on your disclist consoles. I I had heard um from the Xbox Two podcast that um I think Jazz has said that it was potentially looking at coming in July, but I think that's now moved forward to August. But being, you know, quite imminent that actually it will be rolled out soon, according to reports on the verge. Um, and uh apparently there has been a public beta for the program taking place in July before the rollout this month. I mean, this is sort of like going, I think, to where we need to go with this in respect of if we've got a physical version of uh let's say GTA, you know, GTA 5. If we've got a physical version of GTA 5 and we want to rip that and put that into our Helix or our PlayStation 6, this is the way I think we could go with it. Um yeah, I think it's it'll it'll be interesting to see how they do it, whether they sell hardware for it, how exactly it happens. But for me, it's it is a bit of a step in the right direction.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:43

Yeah, I'm just I'm just looking at it because I was just intrigued to see how it actually works and how it's actually tied to the account. But it's just further down, it says that obviously the digital license that you get by doing it is tied to the disc, and that will automatically transfer over if then you give it to somebody else, or if you sell it on. So obviously there has to be something somewhere that means you can't just then, like you say, sell it on eBay and then be like, ha ha, you can't do anything with that now. So yeah, it it is kind of a a half step or a baby step, like you say, in the right direction, isn't it? Because at least you've got the ability to still sell it on, and that the next person doesn't have to say, Well, have you deleted it? Have you you know unauthorized it, but it will just automatically transfer over, which is good and the right way to do it. Um so yeah, so it's a step in the right direction, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:30

Could you go the other way? You know, thinking about going ahead to the future. If you have to buy a physical disc of a game, could you see a future whereby you buy a uh a drive, you know, a generic Blu-ray ripper drive or something like that, which you connect to your console, and then it will allow you to download that download a key to that game, let's say. So not maybe the whole game, but you could download the key that you bought for that game to a disc or to an SD card or something like that, which you then can sell on or give to a friend, which means that that key has moved from your console to whoever puts that in the next console, and then maybe that's limited to one move or multiple moves. So that that could be a way, you know. You you you download the key to an SD drive, and then I give my copy of you know uh Force Horizon 7 to you on the SD card, you put that in, and that automatically deletes it from my side and authorizes your side.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:33

But it is that there are options and ways around it, aren't there? Do you know what I mean? So it's like if these things are done cleverly and conveniently, then it's probably gonna be more accepted or more widely accepted by people than just an outright now taking your discs off you. Oh no, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, da da da. So like I say, I'm not altogether against having just stick a disc in to authorise that this is my copy, or you know, rip eight, you know, 20% of games on disc and 80% digital, because obviously an entire game's not gonna fit fit on a digital disc soon anyway. So yeah, I'm not I'm not anti that. Um but obviously it's just the whole question of the um hard drive storage, I guess. Um you can't just simply whiz it in and whiz it out if he needs to download part of the game, I guess. But yeah, to me that's the the first step of that general direction rather than an outright sort of loss of um discs. But you know, even then we say that, but we still see reports that Helix won't come with a disk drive, so that's only applicable for now, you know, for that the here and now of it, not for the next you know, in the sort of coming two, three, four years, maybe subject to when the next console comes with.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:44

So, in the same in the same way that Sony is saying that they're not budging on ended ended discs, Xbox is saying that they're gonna bring a disc to digital feature that is almost like 99.9% sure that at the moment Helix and PS6 are discless consoles.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:01

Thousand percent. It's almost a bit like a a sort of clandestine way of sort of like no, we're not gonna do that because look what we're doing, but then people might not necessarily think of the future of well, they've not said up about the disk drive for the helix, thinking, oh, it'll be fine, and then boom, it doesn't have a disk drive. So it's almost a bit like a maybe a slightly underhanded way of approaching it, I guess.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:21

But I can see you sitting there watching the reveal for the next console. We'll be sitting there going, Oh, oh, here we go, oh, a helix, oh it looks gorgeous, and you're just waiting for it to move to one side to go, and it comes with the the the portable drive if you want to buy that extra, like Sony did, and you'll be sitting there going, Oh, it's Distless, oh, it's got whatever this, that, how many teraflops, and then all of a sudden it ends, and you're just like, Okay, then yeah, that that's it. There is no physical version of it, and we're all gonna be digital. Now, again, going back to me, doesn't bother me in respect of I buy on my stuff digitally anyway. However, if I was to buy a PlayStation now, if I was to buy an Xbox now, I'd still buy the this version because I like having the flexibility of jumping on um, you know, computer exchange or eBay or Amazon and buying something that I potentially want to try, you know, like Final Fantasy. I want to try Final Fantasy, I'm not gonna buy it digitally because it's gonna cost me X. I'll just pick up a secondhand copy that Joe Bloggs is selling and I'll I'll give it a whirl. Because what's the worst? I just send it back or sell it again.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:29

It's the choice, isn't it? It's the it's the loss of the choice of the option, isn't it? That's the the big power.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:34

So to end this podcast on a very, very cheery note, um, EA is getting worse. Um, Xbox and PlayStation are stopping giving you physical media. There's some guy trying to sell a 200 pound game which is rubbish, and all of our devices are going up by 33 to 45%. What what's what's wrong with this world? It's a brilliant place.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:58

Yeah, I know. With that, it's like we might as well just stop, aren't we, at this point? It's just getting worse, isn't it? It's getting worse every time we record.

Wrap Up And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_04 1:45:06

And I I'm gonna go and fill the van up tomorrow and it's £1.80 a litre again.

SPEAKER_02 1:45:14

Yeah. We're just gonna get to a point where we just cut the news, cut the news out because it is just what's the point? There's no good news, so we'll just leave it be. We'll leave it.

SPEAKER_04 1:45:24

I think so. What we now we're at one hour and 50 minutes of recording. So I think what we need to do is we need to play a load of games between now and the next podcast in two weeks. So we literally just talk about playing games for one hour and 45 minutes. Um, probably about how I've still not done my wheel spins and I'm now up to there's a thousand wheel spins. But anyway, Steve, on that cheery note, thank you very much for joining me on the podcast tonight. Uh, if people want to find you on uh socials on Xbox PlayStation, wherever you are, while you've still got the consoles, how how can they find you?

SPEAKER_02 1:45:59

Um so yeah, so I'm pretty much um Steakhart and 91 everywhere, PlayStation, Xbox, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube. No, not TikTok, Steak and 1991 on TikTok, but I'm pretty much posting pretty much on the Lost Spark um account on TikTok anyway. So I don't really post on my own TikTok page. Um but yeah, if you search Steakhata 91 in any available search engine or Instagram or social channel, my face will probably pop up somewhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:46:26

If you also go to Google and type Halo Combat Evolved, dying a lot social media, then you'll find him that way as well. Top 20 results. Easy top 20. Uh you'll find me on social media as at Mr. Stuart Burgess and uh on Xbox, but um PlayStation, but mainly Xbox, I'm a general letdown, and I'm usually playing Forza Horizon 6. And if anybody could teach me how to drift, please reach out because I'm really bad at it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:54

Like me sucking at Halo, we need you to do like a live stream of you trying to drift so we can make content for that.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:00

That's a really jeffing good idea. I might have to do that. I might have to just I'm I'm I've been sort of toying with the idea of doing some type of stream, which is like when I get to the point of like completing the whole game or certain sort of like getting that last achievement or whatever to sort of hundred percent, you know, doing a bit of a live stream or recording of me doing it. Yeah, I think we're gonna have to do a you know, uh how bad Steve dies in Halo stream. Well, we've done three of those already. Uh, or how bad is Stuart Drifting? Please can someone help him? That's a bloody good idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:47:36

We'll have a competition. Who's worse at what who gets the most views? There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:47:40

Who gets the most views? Excellent. Well, uh, if you uh if you've got any feedback for the show, please reach out to us at Halo at gamers of lost spark.com uh or scan the QR code that's going to be somewhere around about here. I can't remember the video's backwards, uh, or click on the link in the description. But uh Steve, thank you very much for joining me. Enjoy playing Halo, and I'll see you on the next uh podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:03

Yeah, no, thank you, mate. Appreciate it as always. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you hopefully in a couple of weeks' time.

SPEAKER_04 1:48:08

Definitely. Cheers, buddy. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:10

Bye bye.