Unofficial Controller Podcast
Your number one weekly gaming podcast for all the latest Sony Playstation , Microsoft Xbox , Nintendo Switch and PC News. Retrospectives , Readers Mail and Industry Chat.
Unofficial Controller Podcast
The Future of Gaming: From Multiplayer Cancellations to Industry Moves
This week, we dive into elaborate gaming tales, focusing on the absurdities of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and the ridiculous escapades in Sociable Soccer. We reflect on the changing landscape of gaming studios, discuss Netflix's recent layoffs, and highlight the importance of preserving classic games as we journey together through gaming's quirks.
• Exploration of Sociable Soccer and its community
• Humorous take on the romantic dynamics in Assassin's Creed Valhalla
• Discussion on Netflix's layoffs at Night School Studio and implications for gaming
• Insights on Microsoft's AI initiative for game preservation
• Reflection on the overall state of the gaming industry and trends
Hello and welcome to the Unofficial Controller Podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number 258 by my reckoning, and, as a Lincolnshire boy, I've got my socks out. No, we'll leave it in, because then people are not human. I've got my toes out, I've got my fingers all 12 of them out, and we're about 258. With me, george, and this week joined by RGT Supernovanova to my beleaguered voxel nova. How's it going?
Speaker 2:voxel nova I can't well I did. The audience will know that not many.
Speaker 1:I did have viking to my biking and then in a hot minute changed it to supernova versus beleaguered voxel nova. I think we'll let the fans decide with their feet. Obviously, if there's anyone here next week, we imagine that probably just about worked. But if there's no one here to hear this episode next week, then it was a supernova joke. Rgt, yes, are you having a good week?
Speaker 2:A very busy week, but a very productive week. So, yes, I would say that is a good week. How about you, young John?
Speaker 1:When you say productive, are we talking the kind of productivity that involves you filling your lounge room floor with white sheets of paper, committing paint to your body and then rolling across the paper in a semi-artistic fashion to produce the next piece of UCP artwork? I?
Speaker 2:swear, you've got cameras in my house.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't call them cameras. Oh, I would call them web cameras, and I've got you live streamed across.
Speaker 2:Probably half of the planet. That's where all the new money's coming into the UCP then.
Speaker 1:Yeah, only paints. Oh God, this is literally the highest height this episode will reach that rather pained joke I inserted about you being on only paints Before we lose any more listeners. Rgt, why don't you regale me with what you've been playing this gaming week? Um and and a message from the fan community you can rest sociable soccer for this week we better hear what you've been planning, because I have literally only been playing sociable soccer.
Speaker 2:And do you know what I know? I mean when I repeat this, I feel what has gone wrong in my life, but I've put 55 hours in this game. I am, oh well, over 55 hours I'm. I'm now in division two, competing to go up to the top, the premier, the diamond league, where only the best players are. So I'm competing to get into. But on the Club Clash League rankings I was ranked 17th this week, which I thought was quite good.
Speaker 1:So 17th ranked team somewhere, somewhere, someone somewhere is literally grinding right up against you on sociable soccer, hating you because you were stopping them progressing. Now, if they knew that you were the face behind the team, how do you think they'd react?
Speaker 2:not sure. I mean, it's quite a friendly community, I think, because of the way it's done online. But I don't think they'd come and stalk me, but I hope not.
Speaker 1:But then you know, snooze you lose, see ya there's something about you, this latent sexual magnetism, that I find I've never been described as having that, I'm afraid what did I just say? It was sexual magnetism latent sexual magnetism. It's not fully deployed. It just sort of hangs around like an aura around you my god, this is gonna be a long show it is. Is there anything else? You've been playing anything retro or anything.
Speaker 2:No, I I have picked up a new cartridge for my evercade, which I was hoping to get play.
Speaker 1:You know, get some played before this show was recorded, but I haven't um letters just come down from legal sociable soccer is prohibited from the discussion topics and yeah, that is as well.
Speaker 2:That's what I've got.
Speaker 1:Sun, the sun soft collection one yeah, it's a hand, an aid to memory yeah, and I'm only, I've only got that I've only I've only just uh got that, because I fancy playing that blaster master. So steady, control yourself if you and I were to do fancy dress anywhere, I think we should go as master blaster from oh, that's a classic.
Speaker 2:That's a classic. Can you imagine us dressing up which?
Speaker 1:who is?
Speaker 2:who?
Speaker 1:oh, I don't even want to get into that I'm shorter than you so I profess to be the, the diminutive fellow that gets to like a carry, a permanent back piggyback carry from you. So I'm like the guy going. Master blaster, rules by the town, master blaster oh my god I don't know what you need to do oh, this show has gone off piste already you wanted me back.
Speaker 1:I'm back. Now you get what you get. Carlos likes Jaded George. We put it out there last episode that this Jaded George was a new persona I was working on and he's gone over gangbusters. I don't know if I can keep it up, because I'm a little bit too at times. I can be a little bit too happy.
Speaker 2:Well, it's also. Look, we started off talking about that. I've bought the Sunsoft Collection 1 for the Evercade and, before you know it, me and you are at a fancy dress party as Master Blaster.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest. I'm not here to talk about video games. I'm just looking to explore opportunities where we can go off the beaten path, and if you're 258 episodes in, you know that's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know he's on form today, so I've had a net no.
Speaker 1:I'm not. I fell at the first hurdle. You picked me up wearing an Only Paints badly landed joke and you carried me to Master Blaster, which, to be honest, is playing on nostalgia, if nothing else yeah, which, to be honest, is playing on nostalgia, if nothing else yeah, for a probably rapidly approaching 40-year-old film. It'd be like my dad talking about films in the 90s and referring to Wonderful Life all the time. It's not right, that's true. Yeah, so you've bought an Evercade cart.
Speaker 1:So if we're talking white-hot, edgy gaming, you're at the very, very tip of that spear as it charges deep into the wound that is the gaming genre. I'm going to regale you with what I've been playing and you can see why now the white-hot spear of gaming has not only plunged in but deep through because I've been playing some more, can see why now the white hot sphere of gaming is not only plunged in but deep through because I've been playing some more Assassin's Creed, valhalla, and only no, tell a lie, it's been a. I did a quick liner to a farming simulator last night. Yeah, I did Um to the audio listeners. You don't know, but I've seen to the video users our GT sip from a transparent cup Only transparent lid.
Speaker 2:What's on that cup? Because if it's gaming related, I think we need. I've thought of this, I've covered this. It is plain because, after our conversation the other day, I've made sure that it is gaming-related.
Speaker 1:tap-free. I yes, it makes it sound like I've got a problem, but I was also confessing my sins. I was hoping for that For gaming-related socks, pants, t-shirts, hats, cups, cushions, blankets.
Speaker 2:Although I have just seen a flaw in my plan. I'm sitting in a Space Invaders t-shirt and a Sega Saturn hoodie, so I'm not quite completely tap free.
Speaker 1:At least half of the listeners have just gone off to Google Sega Saturn, thinking it's probably a moon of Jupiter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's sure my age yeah.
Speaker 1:So let me get stuck into Assassin's Creed Valhalla to everyone that's still with us, and thank you.
Speaker 2:How many hours are you in now, first of all? Second, have you gone past your first play of this?
Speaker 1:The thing is I'm getting a bit confused because I thought I was past it and then I was playing it sunday night and saw a cut scene and thought I've seen this before and you got the previous save.
Speaker 1:You can check the time on or I think I deleted it because I have started it again in between. When it launched and now in classic me, I wanted all of that gone, so there was no confusion and I was experiencing it clean again for the first time. Okay, so yes, that's on me. I I don't know exactly, but I know our account. I'm. I'm past that now and I'll be honest, with some time to rest on the franchise as a whole.
Speaker 1:I'm enjoying assassin's creed valhalla. If you want to refer to all my earlier complaints time memorial about the assassin's creed franchise, everything I've said about it there stands here. But my annoyance with those little foibles has diminished to the point where I'm not that bothered. Is it very much? Rinse, repeat, same as before? Yes, is it the same, but with a vikings uh, paint by numbers kit on top of it? Yeah, excuse me, yes, it is, but currently I'm enjoying all things viking. So therefore, a go, I'm enjoying this.
Speaker 1:Would I want to play another one straight off the back of it? No, I don't think so, although I'm starting to look favorably in the direction of Odyssey and Origins a bit more, because it's like I'm kind of liking, but the same frustration applies. Go here. Go 70% of the way across the map, talk to matey, pick up blah blah, bring it back. The inventory system is completely flawed. I'm carrying around probably about 10 metric tons of garbage with me at any moment. Makes no difference to me whatsoever, I can. I can change my clothes, sam's wardrobe, at any moment. I can just slip into a something a little bit more comfortable and the relationship dynamics in the game are so basic it's unbelievable and actually end up being immersion breaking like I was seduced, as I was the first time around I played it and not too many spoilers by my brother's wife. Both times I've turned her down and this time I thought I would try and find some sort of romantic fulfillment outside of the family dynamic, you know, should be encouraged.
Speaker 2:Unusual for someone from Lincolnshire.
Speaker 1:I don't play games to simulate real life. I play games to escape into fantasy. Okay, let's just clear that up right now.
Speaker 2:Although I'm from Suffolk, so I can't speak.
Speaker 1:In this fantasy game where I'm dating outside the family circle, I ended up finding the only dateable person in the village that fit what I felt I'd take the direction I'd taken my version of abor in uh was this female? But basically so. She works with her brother and her but butcher's pretty much directly opposite my house. Now, there's nothing wrong with meat eating in general. I know it's not for everybody, but, to be honest, to practice your current dating in front of her brother while he hacks off a boar's head is, I'll be honest, a little strong. It is.
Speaker 1:It is not the most romantic environment. You know, fighting through a load of ducks hanging from the ceiling while I'm trying to find out if my girlfriend wants to play well, you know, let's go do an activity together, okay, those activities are the really garbage drinking game or dice, which we know. George, you have no idea how you're playing it, based on the fact that you've made really bad choices every time you've played dice and never won a game. So they're my only two social options. With my good lady, I had got in the habit and it's all part of the role play of giving her a little kiss before I went off on an adventure. I thought this feels right. You know you can go a bit further and I have tried that, but basically it's a cut scene where you see nothing. Not that I'm here because, let's face it, when Pornhub and a million other sites exist, I don't think you need to get your kicks out of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's dating minigame I really don't. But if you are that cat, this is not the place for that.
Speaker 2:You had more than that in GTA 4.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, the sexual shenanigans are equivalent to those in GTA 4. You know it's tastefully done. He cuts to outside and you see the passage of time and that's it. But if you want to give your girlfriend a quick peck on the cheek before you go away on a raiding mission, it then spawns you back in your bedroom with her because for some reason you can't kiss your girlfriend in public in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I mean, they've probably got more taste than me, because I probably actually planned to kiss her in the house she shares with her brother that has no beds in it and a load of dead animals everywhere. Um, but yeah, it takes you. So you leave your house to kiss your girlfriend, but you need to go back to your house. So it then re-renders you in your bedroom giving her the kiss and it's literally a peck on the cheek and then you both walk out of there together. Um, I would say it's so underdeveloped that really ubisoft. You should have left it out the game. I have no idea whatsoever why it's there. And I tell you what the men are absolute sorts, because I've been propositioned by two women, but I've been propositioned by every single waking man in the game.
Speaker 1:What's going on in Valhalla. It's a bit of a raucous time. I went to a family wedding in the game not so long ago. Thought everything was cool. I was being polite to the guy, you know. The next thing he says to me is do you want to plow now? Me being a farming simulator kind of guru, I'm like well, I didn't know, this had an agricultural minigame in it. I'm excited about this. The next sections that followed after that meant I think we'd got our terminologies a bit back to front. Me and old matey boy, I, I yeah. Well, you know, that's the. That's Assassin's Creed Valhalla. The gameplay is as you'd expect. The romancing is as flawed as you'd want it to be. It's very much a simulation of my real-life dating experience, just to be honest with you A load of misunderstandings and kisses near dead meat. I'll be honest with you. That's what I say.
Speaker 2:Link in chat.
Speaker 1:Oh, why don't you come round and try and seduce me while my brother, just basically, with his four frames of animation, hacks at this same pig carcass for time immemorial? I mean, in terms of butcher qualifications that guy is lacking, I have to admit. I've never seen him hack up any other animal and I've never seen this animal leave his workbench. I've also never seen him leave his workbench. He's perpetually chopping at this said pig. What's left of it? Let's face it, it's been sliced. And that son of a pig has been diced Way more than is necessary. I mean, if that was going to be pulled pork, it would literally just evaporate in your mouth. It's been that, it's tenderised. That meat has been so abused it barely even knows if it exists anymore. Oh, I tell you, of all the things I've said, you've took, abuse my Meat and you've run with it. If you're just tuning, if you skip past the Only Paints joke and arrived here, sorry, it's probably time to unsubscribe.
Speaker 1:Moving on to what can only be described as the news and we scoured the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you the latest stories first up, because when you've been doing a podcast this long, you rub shoulders with the big dogs push square a broken story. It's our and the show's friend, shuhei yoshida. If you want to find out what shuhei yoshida thinks about, uh, the unofficial controller podcast, you need to go back in your podcast stream and find the episode wasd live, where I forced myself upon yoshida like a Viking man looking to play some farming simulator. It was not probably the proudest interaction with the grown man I've ever had, but let's face it, based on my hit count, it's probably not the worst, uh. So anyway, the headline on Push Square reads Yoshida says I played the Last of Us Online. It was great. Let's get into the meat of what he's talking about.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest bummers of this entire generation was the cancellation of the Last of Us Online, or Factions as it's perhaps better known. Naughty Dog announced it was working on a standalone version of its popular the Last of Us multiplayer prior to the release of the Last of Us Part II. It was later teased the project multiple times, describing it as incredibly ambitious and even showing off concept art, but the online outing was eventually cancelled in 2023, when the developer made the focus to its single-player output instead, speaking as part of the Sacred Symbols Plus. It's a paywalled episode of our good friend Colin Moriarty show. Uh, he had the xps boss studio on and he revealed it was a great game. Uh, it was great and he'd played it.
Speaker 1:The idea of the last of us online came from naughty dog and they really wanted to make it. He explained that bungie explained to them what it takes to make a live service game and Naughty Dog realised oops, we can't do that. If we do that, we can't make Intergalactic to give it its full title. The heretic prophet, you don't want to say that. You don't want to call that one in for its dinner, do you? And so there was a lack of foresight.
Speaker 1:Yoshida continued that to his knowledge, no first party studio has been forced to make live service games. He noted that sometimes teams see the direction the company's headed in and push their titles accordingly. From my experience, says yoshida, when studios see the company has a big initiative, they realize riding on that gives them a better chance of getting a project approved and supported. He explained it's not like and to insert the name here, herman holst is telling teams they need to make live service games. It's likely mutual Sony recently cancelled two live service projects from Bluepoint and Ben's studio, which has left fans feeling frustrated. Many feel both teams have now wasted potentially an entire generation on projects which will never see the light of day.
Speaker 1:Yoshida, who's been poking his time and energy on indies over the past four years which is how we got the opportunity to meet him at WSD Live Didn't have much to add on the state of those projects, but he simply concluded ever the professional I think this is me rubbing off on him. He replied yes, it sucks. Rgt. A couple of bits in there I want to focus on. I think the first one is and we'll do it in the chronological order which we arrived at is the. The first one that stuck in my throat was Bungie. Now, they have had success with multiplayer offerings in the past with Halo and all the subsidiary titles that came from that, and, you could argue, have had some fair to middling success or even great success with the Destiny franchise destiny franchise.
Speaker 1:I would say that, although they profess to have knowledge and understanding of live service games, that naughty dog listening to them is a bit of a stretch, I'll be honest. Um, they already had the last of us online running on ps3 and everyone was happy with it and just wanted a replication of that. But bungie came along and said oh well, you don't actually know what it takes to make a live service game. You've got no idea. So you better just scan this idea, which was about the only live service game which the playstation community was probably even looking forward to. I find that a little odd, so I'd like your thoughts on that in a moment.
Speaker 1:My other one of is these studios are probably a little savvier than a lot of us. Given credit for like they sense the movement in the waters at sony, think we could do with a slice of that cash pie. So let's pitch our latest idea around the idea of x. They do that. They get some money from sony. They get some extra resource in headcount to make something like this. So you know, in a way it probably didn't work out too badly for them. But from a player point of view which I'm being the audience substitute for right now where's my goddamn online last of us?
Speaker 2:fine, Bustamante game. It's strange because if he's played it, I would imagine it was fairly, fairly well into production. It was fairly well. We knew it was quite nearly there, we knew it was quite, they were quite in. You know, the development had gone a long way. I find it stranger with, especially with Bungie coming in saying, no, you know, this is not really for you, you aren't going to be doing this. But then I thought, well, it's going to be more of a survival third person online game, which isn't a Bungie thing, you know. You would have thought that if Bungie really knew the live service Naughty Dog know how to make that third person action game game, why didn't they team up and get this game out?
Speaker 1:I've no idea, because everything I've read about bungie's critique of some of these titles has been oh you know, that's not great. But then they're coming from a place I perceive now to be quite weak. Their opinion has been almost eroded to zero. Now, that's not by me or my perception of them. That's by sony themselves, who bought them and then realized what an absolute steaming dump safari was and then almost started to shudder them immediately after realizing what they paid all the big bucks for was a drivel. They then use that captive knowledge of a certain marketplace that may not they might not be experts in nor am I, by the way. I'd always caveat with that and then send them off to Naughty Dog and all expenses paid trip to tell them their game's not very good.
Speaker 1:Well, we've played factions on the original Last of Us and although it was a bit bare bones, it was still pretty good, and I think all we ever wanted was an updated version of that. I didn't even really profess to want any extra bells and whistles on top of it. That, with the modern graphics, would have been good enough. Bungee saw something in there that they didn't think would be supportable in the long run, and I find that quite odd. Did it have to be a live service game, or could it not just been the multiplayer element of blast of us, like it was always meant to be?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean, you know we'll probably never know what the what the product was going to be, but I mean, if it was going to be, um, not an online you know a lot of factions and online, almost, you get a team together and you build an area and you can raid other camps and bits and pieces, I can see longevity in that. I think it's good and I mean that's not something I mean. Yes, live service buns you know about, but that style of gameplay in that world isn't really them. I mean whether they thought that. You know, there isn't, there isn't a market for that sort of game.
Speaker 2:But I'd probably argue, you know, I'd beg to differ that most of these fps, first person shooters, live service games there's they're 10 a penny. You know, if you're going to do a live service game and you want to make it, give it longevity, do something different, well, if you're, you know, if you're doing an almost like fallout builder community, I can see there would be longevity in that. So I found it a strange decision and I found it stranger that sony asked them to go and critique it.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it's almost like we don't know yeah, we don't know whether this was still in the early days, the honeymoon period, the bungee relationship. It could have been then, when they were probably literally writing checks for whatever they wanted. Um, I mean, I think this is one of the greater shames and one of the bigger casualties of this whole life service push, initial push, and then the 180 spin and cancellation of 98% of the projects that got on the go, or at least of the ones that we knew about. I mean, there's still some that are still to be confirmed. There's still some that need to be still confirmed, that they're literally dead Until we get to that point, we just don't know.
Speaker 1:There's still the rumoured Horizon live service game banded around. Quite what that would look like. I've heard talks of the same graphic engine. I've heard talks of a more Chilby style. I've heard talks of it being completely different. Who knows what that could be, or even if it still is in existence. But I would say herman hulse is gonna try and keep that one alive as long as possible because it comes from his portfolio yeah it's, he's a strange one.
Speaker 2:I mean I'm well, you're similar to me. We're not great live service game players, but we're big fans of Last of Us and there is a big Last of Us fan base and if I was going to play a live service online game that really appealed to me, I was getting quite excited for that. Now, whether I mean obviously there's rumours of the Last of Us Part 3, whether this will be bolted onto that so it isn't completely wasted as a you know who knows, but yeah, we'll see. And it's the same shame. When he's played it and said, yeah, he really liked it, you think, well, that must have been at a decent stage to have impressed him or at the bare minimum, had enough of a gameplay loop yeah, and enough there to say, oh, I like this idea, this is good.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, it's. Yeah, it is a shame, I think, but there we go, never, never say, never, like I say, whether they, whether they bolt this on to last was part three or I'll be honest.
Speaker 1:I did hear that shoe hay was still suffering from ptsd from a confrontation he had in l a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2:Oh is that when that strange guy with the baseball cap come up and just sort of forced a UCP card into his hand and shook his hand and then quickly left before getting tasered by security.
Speaker 1:Some say it was a card he pressed into his hand. Others say something far different from that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's never been the same, is he? No, no, yeah, I wonder, I wonder what's next?
Speaker 1:you big hunk of burning man flesh wow, I'm getting some compliments today.
Speaker 2:Um, this is uh, this is a story, um, which is over on pure xbox. Xbox is exploring ai to make its older games playable on modern hardware. Microsoft has today announced muse ai, a new artificial intelligence program that it thinks could radically change how we preserve and experience classic games in the future. Muse is a work in progress over xbox, um, the xbox owner, and it sounds like it could have big implications for the future of gaming. What we're interested in most, though, is how this could help game preservation, a point xbox makes it makes in its new blog post about the AI toolset.
Speaker 2:Today, countless classic games tied to ageing hardware are no longer playable by most people. Thanks to this breakthrough, we're exploring the potential for Muse to take older back catalogue games from our studios and optimise them for any device. We believe this could radically change how we preserve and experience classic games in the future and make them accessible to more players. To imagine that beloved games lost to time and hardware advancements could one day be played on any screen with Xbox is an exciting possibility for us. The announcement goes on to say that Muse could have much wider implications than just game preservation, too. Microsoft adds that these AI tools could be used in game development process itself, allowing studios to inject new experiences while they are building new projects or supporting existing games. Another opportunity we're exploring is how Muse can help game teams prototype new gameplay experiences during the creative process and introduce new content, taking games players already love and enabling our developers to inject new experiences for them to enjoy, or even enable you to participate in the creation process.
Speaker 2:So far, xbox developer Ninja Theory has been collaborating with AI on this AI work, testing out its 2020 shooter, bleeding Edge, to see what Muse can do with it. The announcement isn't totally clear on how and why Bleeding Edge is being looked at here, but the team does provide a more detailed look, including some short gameplay gifs, with the full blog post. This is a pretty interesting announcement here from Xbox and, even if the use of ai in-game development still feels like uncharted territory at this stage, things sound like they're in pretty they're. Things sound like they're pretty early on in development right now, but the the full post is worth a look if you'd like to see what else you can pass from microsoft's muse ai announcement. Wow, interesting interesting article.
Speaker 1:Um, and often we hear how ai is the death of all creativity. I actually believe, if used in the right ways, it can be the spark that creativity needs. Uh, at least show you the direction in which to travel, which you might not have come up with on your own, which we use it here as a time save. At times we use it here because we lack artistic ability and podcasting ability, but we haven't quite got to the point where it's doing a podcast for us yet, but we're close. We're spending the support money on getting an AI George worked out, but we just can't get it to come up with the random interstitions. I don't know, I guess it just needs more learning time. But all in all, ai normally labeled up as the devil in drag, but this is a story about AI working for us in a positive way.
Speaker 1:Now there's lots of games out there on systems that you and I might not call them dead, but let's say, a young whippersnapper has suddenly stumbled across no second prize for the Atari ST Stroke Amiga, the actually really quite deep and engaging motorbike simulator from the early 90s, and wants to play it and wants to play it Now.
Speaker 1:Historically, he'd have to have found an emulator and messed around and be part of the PC Master Race in the first place and play this mouse-based motorbike racing game. But we're not too far away from a reality where he can just tell his Xbox to run this game and it will. Now, that's impressive, and it means that some of those games that have got lost to time, like bat or bat 2 is two of my sort of 16-bit icons may eventually become in some way playable. Um, now, I'm taking it right off piste and walking it right into the territory of dream sci-fi talk, but the reality is they're using this, or trying to use this right now, to get some of their older games or certainly games that they have access to in their studios releasable in what I presume is a low manpower environment and also a short time frame. What do you make of all that?
Speaker 2:I think it's very exciting, on two forms really, I think, with um. You know, people are retro gamers or who are using modern systems to play old games. Their main phrase is emulation. Or do you use fpa, fpga, simulation. You know it's all. How does it play? Does it look realistic? Does there lag? You know, if you can get ai to completely perfect that, so these really older games are playing just as they would have done on the original hardware. It's going to be fantastic. I mean, if that, if the ai was, was good enough and quick enough to do this, could they do a retro games pass where you sign up and you have a bunch of retro games added. I mean that would be brilliant, you know, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it? It'd be a great little one.
Speaker 2:Um, but also preservation, like you say, um, there isn't enough done for video game preservation. I know in the states there is a preservation society who have almost like this, huge library of physical media and they download roms of digital only games to, within reason of what they're allowed to do. Yeah, um, but I don't think. I don't think the game companies themselves do enough to preserve their back catalogs. Um, some of these games will be gone. Um, there won't be no evidence of them.
Speaker 2:I mean, you look at the great work people do, like I know it's the older systems, but you get over at atari age and places like that. You know there was a guy who found this really rare prototype game. Straight away, rather than selling it, dump the rom straight on there. We've got it preserved, we've got the game, you know, and now it's there for people to use to play and you know if it needs finishing the stun. So I think on a preservation point of view, it could be good, especially if they're saving these files rather than, you know, using it to perfect an old game, putting it on the system and then, once it's done, gone. If they're preserving all these or pass them off to the preservation people, then yeah, I think it's a win-win and, like you say, I think with ai, um, I think I used in the right way, could be really good because I think, um, what game in?
Speaker 1:your dream world. Let's say muse ai goes full skynet tomorrow. It suddenly just becomes this user-controlled masterpiece of technology. You fire up the xbox. You say muse, I want to play. What's that game you're asking it to play?
Speaker 2:um, I think for me, I think it would be awesome to have I know you have backwards compatibility limited now, I know, but if you could have a section especially like a digital library of the real big, especially back in the original xbox days where you had brilliant games, you know, like crimson skies and all them one-off games that were exclusive, that original xbox. You had perfect versions of them in this, almost, like I say, a lot of retro games past what about outside the xbox ecosystem, though?
Speaker 1:what would be? This is dream territory. Now, rgt, you can allow your imagination to run wild. You can allow your fantasies to become solidified. Is there a game that you just can't find anywhere, or a game you played that you would love to play again?
Speaker 2:well, I think I'll tell you one. What springs to mind and one which I don't own. The one that you don't know, which you'd like to own is games like castlevania. Simply, in a night, now, if you had these perfectly emulated uh, or even running, you know, rather than an emulation actually running the digital file and they, they played brilliantly, I mean, you can be playing these big hip games which are so expensive and hard to find nowadays. Um, I just think that would be a real, real credit to to to any retro gamer as well, because, as we know, you know, we're collectors.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of collectors in our discord and listen to this show. It's getting very, very expensive. We started a lot of years ago. We found it a bit easier and we benefited from that. Nowadays, if you're starting depending on where you're starting from it's going to be hard. If you had a perfect system like this muse ai, which converted these into a, an actual lot of, say, retro games pass, you could just hop on and play. I mean that would be. I know you're not owning the physical media, but it would be a great way of playing all these classics.
Speaker 1:To your point. As a startup collector, the only place you could really start right now without blowing your brains out is Xbox 360. Ps3 era. Ps2 is already accelerating up at a rate of knots. Ps1's like yeah, you get some one quid titles, but the majority of now are 10 pound plus but you say that I mean as soon as they shut the xbox 360 store.
Speaker 2:You go in cx now and you've got games in there for 50 pound which were literally a year ago, were like three pound. They're gone. Yeah, they're gone mad. You know, um, that, uh was it. I can't remember that space game now, but I remember digital monkey sent me a picture of it and I paid. I think I got the collector's edition for about three pounds, 54 pounds a couple of years ago, let's say, 50 pounds in CX, cause I shut the, and that was all because of the digital store where you think, well, that's a physical copy. So why is it? I don't know. But, like you say, it is a hard thing to get into because if you want the big hitters, some of them are going to cost a few pounds nowadays.
Speaker 1:Do you know what game I'd ask it to generate for me?
Speaker 2:What's that Midwinter On the Amiga and the Atari ST? Either or I'm happy with both. Yeah, that was a big game for the day. Oh, mate, I tell you what?
Speaker 1:yeah, it was reaching for stars that they don't even contemplate reaching for now. You know, it really put itself out there. It was a big, open 3d world. The story was quite compelling. The method of transport and movement around of it was all ski based, because this was set in like a. It's like an, an Arctic sort of place, wasn't it?
Speaker 1:It was like an ice age or post-nuclear explosion that had sent the world into this sort of freezing wasteland. I mean, let's look at it this way Is snow quite easy to generate on the Atari ST because it's white?
Speaker 2:Yes, but still a 3D open world like that. I mean, and like you say, this Muse AI could perfect the game.
Speaker 1:It could maybe get it running something like that back. Yeah, I always run it at 30 fps.
Speaker 2:Get it running a bit smoother, bring the textures up a bit. You know you could. You could benefit and actually play the game almost in a remastered way without having to do the remaster work absolutely, and that in itself would be incredible.
Speaker 1:Um, it's probably got a long way to go in terms of button mapping and all that sort of stuff, but the idea in principle I'm very much behind and it saves a nerd like you or me, or a super nerd, someone in his basement who knows how to code, so like an evolved version of you and I who can actually back it up with actual C plus programming skills, sitting in his bedroom ignoring members of the opposite sex. Whatever he's into, you know he'll play with anyone. This dude in my mind and he's in his basement, not able to explore the social aspects because he's got to get these games working on the latest emulator. But now he can. He can go out to the bowling alley, he can loiter around the 7-eleven. He can do whatever he wants to do. He can loiter around the 7-Eleven.
Speaker 2:He can do whatever he wants to do because Muse AI is doing the heavy lifting for him now. Yeah, and like you say, I think, with the emulation argument, if this could really perfect it. So it's running almost as original without all that that expensive fpga gear that people have to buy a lot, the analogs and, uh well, without swapping the three and a half inch floppy about 16 million times yeah, so it could be as close to original as you could get without having the spending the millions on trying to get it running on on modern hardware and modern tv.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'm all for it. Yeah, I think. I think it's a brilliant idea, okay.
Speaker 1:Well, we don't have to go far for the next bit of news because Nintendo Life furnished us with this bad boy. Not great, but needs reporting nonetheless. Netflix lays off staff at Oxenfree. Developer. The developer of hit coming-of-age indie darlings, oxenfree and Oxenfree 2, night school studio has been hit by layoffs. Game developer has reported an undisclosed number of employees have been laid off at the netflix own studio. This follows on from the streaming giant closing its internal triple, a studio team blue, which was headed up by halo creative lead, joseph statten, in october 2024. Former and current staff at Night School Studio have asked to stay anonymous, but have told game developer that they're shocked at the news that the last reportedly took place in January.
Speaker 1:Netflix bought the studio back in 2021 when it initially announced plans to jump into the gaming sphere, and you can currently play over 80 games through the streaming service on Android and iOS. However, netflix has never shared how the service is performing. The first oxen free dropped back in 2016 with a switch port followed quickly in 2017, self-published at the time. Uh, nintendo life say they loved the paranormal focused adventure back in the day it was allowed. It was followed by less well-known after party, a game where you attempt to out-drink Satan in Hell. Amazing. I do believe we've talked about that on the show Oxenfree 2, launched in 2023, and a TV adaption of Oxenfree is reportedly in the works. Netflix has declined to comment on the layoffs, but reportedly they won't affect the developer's project. It's another blow to the video games industry, which has been bombarded by studio closures and layoffs over the past two years, with 1010 Games and Ubisoft, just a few of the most recent studios affected. Our thoughts, as always, go out to all those impacted. So I want to kick off by saying we're reporting this news because I think it's part of a wider piece that I want to talk to RGT about and also, obviously, to the wider podcasting audience as well.
Speaker 1:Now there's been a few pretenders to the crowd. Google stepped up, netflix stepped up, and it seems to me like they're both failing. Obviously, google failed quite spectacularly. They had quite a good service up and running, but just couldn't get the purchase or penetration that they needed to make it work for them. For all intents and purposes, stadia was exactly how we're playing games really now. Me on the portal, you through premium, a lot of Xbox users streaming games rather than downloading them. A lot of these people tend to see the future but then fail to get their vision of the future realised. Now Netflix obviously it saw itself as a streaming darling. It's certainly the runaway success and has become almost a Hoover-like name associated with streaming, having garnered such catchphrases as Netflix and chill, something which you invited me to RGT that I will never, ever forget.
Speaker 1:A defining experience with you Not one I'm looking to replicate anytime soon, but at least I can say I'd sipped from the devil's cup. Now Netflix, you would imagine that's what we're calling it now is netflix, as you can imagine, with the users that they've already got installed, subscribed users. I'm not counting your grandmother freeloading off the back of your netflix account and shouting at you because she's trying to watch all creatures, great and small, followed by howard's way, but can't because you're watching american primeval. Um, but you know, they thought they dipped their hand into the gaming. Now I've tried a few of these Netflix games. It basically just the ones that I tried.
Speaker 1:It defaulted me to my phone's inbuilt gaming store where you got the game. You got to download the game for free. It's not as though it's coming through the Netflix app when you're using it on your phone. It's just taking you to the place where you download the already established version of it for your phone. Now, that's great. It means you get free games for your phone through Netflix, which most people have got anyway. But Netflix has struggled for penetration here. They obviously haven't got the name that they've got associated with film and tv or streaming video in general. Why haven't the games hit for Netflix to the point where again and it's sad news that they're telling Night School Studio to slim the head count down a little bit what. What's going on here?
Speaker 2:um, I find it really sad, really. Um, I haven't played oxen free. 2 oxen free, the first one I played and I loved that game. It was brilliant. Have you played that? Have you played oxen free?
Speaker 2:I can't say I have. You'd like oxen free. It's such a unique story, unique artwork, and it's almost like paranormal sounds coming through the radios and you're sort of investigating this mine and this island where you've gone over on a boat and it's sort of investigating this mine and this island where you've gone over on a boat and it is such a nice little story and, uh, you know, it's one of them, proper indie gems. And you just think it's such a thing of this at the moment, buying up studios. You buy a studio that's either been successful or an indie studio like these guys, and then after a little while you're stripping staff and you just think, well, why have you bought them? I mean, they're only a small studio.
Speaker 2:And you're now straight, you're now stripping the staff and it seems such a shame because they're very creative, they're. You know, it's such a unique game and they got these ideas and the game was really popular as well. But you know, is it gonna conform with what netflix wants? Well, obviously not. It just seems such a shame. I've never tried netflix gaming myself. I don't really understand why they're stepping into the space. What they see they're gonna add.
Speaker 1:Anyone else isn't I guess you kind of. If you're in that sphere, you have to keep trying to grow your audience.
Speaker 2:You have to well buy new genres to dip into this is probably what I said to seb when we were talking about the breaking news at the time of um xbox and stuff and I said I think they're netflix are probably trying to hit that casual gamer. They're trying to hit that person that's heads with the game. Xbox is having games pass on your tv. The reason is, if you like playing a game every now and then, but you don't have to buy a console, oh, I can just stick this on a streaming service on my telly and I can play some games. That's probably the market where the biggest number of games is and the calibre of game that they have on there.
Speaker 1:It's like Farming Simulator Mobile, football Manager Mobile. They've got some from their own franchises, like they had a 16-bit version of Stranger Things, et cetera. And you know standalone they're pretty good fun, but that's not what I'm going to Netflix for. I want to get there and remember that they do do games. By the time I browse through a couple of them I go no, it's just a no disrespect, but it's just a crappy mobile version. Yeah and that's why it's not aimed at us, is it?
Speaker 1:It's not aimed at us. You know, Farming Simulator Mobile is 10% the game that it is for fountain consoles.
Speaker 2:But then that's why it's such a shame that they've bought a studio like Oxenfree Studio. Like Oxenfree Studio they've been such a creative game. That's probably more for the hardcore or indie gamers going to get into, and I think that's probably more as well.
Speaker 1:You know, in agreeance with you, that having the mobile games and whatnot on Netflix is no bad thing and they'll work on your telly and that's great. But you didn't need to buy Oxenfree to do that, you know. You bought Oxenfree. You set up your own AAA studio, internal AAA studio, team blue. You didn't go out and head on anybody. You won't have found the creative lead of Halo, joseph Staten, and you'd think that shows quite a strong initial direction of travel. But it seems to me like they didn't have the patience or they weren't completely convinced by joseph's next offering, and they certainly weren't convinced by the profit versus wages argument that oxen free and night school studios were putting up.
Speaker 1:Now, in a world where nothing survives the bottom of a balance sheet, it's once again sad to see artistry dumped in favour of money. Now, you and I both know that our beloved hobby can't survive as a charity, that's for sure, and these companies can't support non-profit-making revenue. The only thing I would say about some of these studios is you're only as good as your last game. You played Oxenfree, but you didn't play Oxenfree 2. No, just put my Netflix out on for a while. So we bought you for the Oxenfree franchise. We're not going to deny it. That's basically what we bought you for. That's not took off as well as we thought.
Speaker 2:The problem is interrupt. But the problem with that is oxen free is a game you're only going to play if you're a gamer. It's something that's on your radar. You're into indies, you're going to play it. So if you see it on netflix, what are you going to play on? You're going to play on your console.
Speaker 1:You're not going to well they had to, I suppose, have a couple of halo titles that maybe it broke the meniscus of the casual or broke into the meniscus of the mainstream. I've never played oxen free, but the name and status isn't lost on me. So if you're making noise about getting into gaming, telling people that you bought night school studio and you're setting up your own team blue, it's certainly a good news story and it shows I suppose he shows intent. It would have shown historical intent to people like you and I that they were taking this seriously if they'd just lobbed the polo to mobile ports. Me and you would have gone. Yeah, it's kind of what we expected. Now, it is kind of what we're expecting. It is what we got. So it's a shame to see people like night school just get swallowed up in all that gets swallowed up.
Speaker 1:And don't forget, when things like this were happening, microsoft were making acquisitions left right and chelsea. Tencent were making acquisitions left, right and chelsea yeah they're probably forced to make a move it became a little bit of a gold rush, didn't it on? Oh, we gotta get. We've got to get some skin in the game. That's we're done. I don't think sony would have bought bungee if that whole gold rush hadn't been taking place not at all. Not at all so I don't blame netflix, it's what was the other group, um embracer, weren't it?
Speaker 2:but they've really struggled since they've been trying to ship studios off now because they they were. They bought so many studios. They're actually competing against themselves, so the games are actually when you own everything.
Speaker 1:All you ever are is competing against yourself. I do see a lot of this heading in that direction. I mean, this is at the same time that, uh, microsoft announced in 2025, they'll be the biggest publisher on ps5. It's not a great stat. If you're sony, no, it's a bloody good news story for your xbox. But, uh, again, I don't the the way they're in at the moment. That's just nothing. But my dad's bigger than your dad, comment, really, and I find it a bit ridiculous. But, yeah, we're going to be the biggest publisher on another console. That's actually more successful than our own. Yeah, yeah, well done guys. Yeah, you probably don't want to shout that too loudly in the chat or else you'll get laughed at, but that's how they operate. Phil Spencer lives for headlines. Fair play to him. It's done him good. To this point, you can't argue, or maybe you could, yeah, but anyway, all this aside, I think it does show that the land grab that took place, you know, 2021 onwards yeah large studios and small studios being swept up into larger, larger organizations.
Speaker 1:I think what it's what it screams is if you don't know what you're doing, don't buy studios. If you do know what you're doing, stick to your creative vision. Keep your staff at Oxen free. Keep your own team studio, your internal studio, going. Keep people like Joseph Staten in your ecosystem. Try and recruit more people to your ecosystem. Give them a way to show their artistic talents through you in a way that maybe traditional game developers aren't able to do. Maybe Netflix allows you the freedom a little bit more. But all we see is this, time and time again, where people have a stab at it. They try and become the Games Pass, they try and become the PS Premium, they try and become Steam. Uh, it's not working and it's a shame because sadly, people end up without a job off the back of it yeah, it was.
Speaker 2:It almost reminds me of when you I know this is a strange one to compare, but when you play monopoly and you're on the second loop around the board and then everyone wants to buy up just quick as possible because you're worried the next person's gonna buy it exactly it was that tidal wave of this people going right? I've landed down, buying that and buying that and buying that, and then suddenly, after about 18 months, it started thinking, oh, we've got all these, we've spent billions now, literally, what do we do with them?
Speaker 1:you know because I'll tell you what happened. At the same time as well, everyone's price started getting jacked up like there's no way that bungee was worth what sony paid, but in the world at the time it felt like the right number almost felt like a bargain sorry, compared to other deals compared to the deals it felt like a bargain, but it was still an astronomical amount.
Speaker 1:It was, it was and. But you know, when your back's to the wall and it's like pull the trigger or die, he's saying he's like right, boom, let's do it. Let's do five billion on this, why not?
Speaker 2:I'm almost like they bought them just to stop the rot a bit.
Speaker 1:You know, it was almost just just try and block the purchases and, to be fair, of all the bedfellows for bungie, I would have put microsoft as a as a better bedfellow because of this. The history yeah, the lent back into the halo catalog. Yeah, got some groundswell of support with the halo hardcore by saying, oh you know, we brought back the og developer. Not that I think it's 343 have done anything wrong, but let's go back to the roots, let's do a reboot, let's get into the idea of it, let's get the bungee boys involved now. I know staff are always transiently moving between different publishers, developers, but the noise around it would have been bungee back and they're part of the xbox family again. Isn't that great news? And, by the way, here's a teaser cgit is a trailer for halo 7000 and everyone would have gone oh, wow. But instead they let that developer go to sony. Um, and actually sony's got the egg on their face and microsoft are laughing because you, you picked up the guys that made halo. Yeah, we dropped them years ago because they're dumb.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a weird one, and especially the way Destiny was on the fall as well. You know, you just think what have you bought them for?
Speaker 1:I mean initially you could say you know Destiny 1, the launch of that, the reception that it got probably painted the wall of bungie in a way that made them look like absolute heroes. But that game got worn down over time. Obviously we got the sequel, destiny 2, and that's had subsequent updates and dlcs and season expansions and all that good stuff go on. But really now I would love to see a concurrent player count for that, because it must be at its lowest, lowest ebb right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I think you're right. Definitely no one's talking about it now, are they you and me? Well, apart from you and me, no one's talking about it, which means it's totally done.
Speaker 1:Yeah, with that all said and done, though. All joking aside, thank you to everyone. The show keeps growing in stature and strength. The community continues to grow, so we welcome people from all around the world there and, obviously, into our support program that we've got, which we're very happy with the amount of people that are supporting us on a monthly basis. I always say you don't need to.
Speaker 1:I'll always say this the show will be free, because, more than anything, it's a first aid for you. Yeah, that's it. You stumbled across us last week. You give it as a second turn round in the MP3 player. Sorry to disappoint, but maybe give us a third. Three strikes and you're out, kind of scenario. We're very grateful for you and we hope you found something here or in the back catalog, either way, and you're all being very kind to us. So tell all your friends and get them on the UCP train as well. It's not a private party, it's. It's for everybody. With that being said, though our GT, we have a plucky list of people that support us at any level, and one of their perks and we're not going to do the tiers this week, we'll save them for next week one of the perks is being read out on every show. Now we're contractually obliged to reach for our devices and start to read these names out, one after the other, like true heroes. Now, who started first last time? You did, so I feel you should go first this time.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, first on the list is Seanox, our good friend from Sweden. Thank you very much indeed.
Speaker 1:Thank you, seanox, I appreciate you. Carlos up next, this is only right and proper because he is the. I don't need an army, I don't need a club, I need one man and after 258 episodes, in fact, I've got one person that will even acknowledge me in public is heralded as a great success. So, carlos, the one-man George fan club, thank you.
Speaker 2:Next we have Firm Returns. Thank you very much indeed.
Speaker 1:Up next we have the beautiful Trestles, new York.
Speaker 2:Then we have Badabing Star.
Speaker 1:Everybody stand up tally flags, little emoji everybody sit down now that means I get the incredible.
Speaker 1:Now what I would suggest you do right now, tingle tuna, is you go get mrs tuna and you sit her down. Now, at this moment, you pause. No, so you pause. You go get mrs tuna. I don't care what she's doing, she's making bread, she's doing all the good things. Wonderful woman, I know. Sit her down and now you can press play. I don't you'll have to work this out because my planning has failed, but you catch in the drift, okay, so rewind to this point.
Speaker 1:Tingle tuna has got to be the most amazing human man I have ever seen. Mrs tingle tuna must be the luckiest bitch in the midlands as far as I'm concerned. Not an easy handsome, but he's incredibly intelligent as well, and not often do you combine those two, roll the dice and get three times lucky, because do you know what? He's funny as well, and I'll be honest with you reading between the lines, I think he's a bit of a sexual dynamo as well, if I may be so bold. So are you? Are you channeling Deanna, mrs Tuner now? Because I feel like this is, if this is still playing, it's now. She's now looking at him a bit gone out like oh crikey, mate, you brought me in here for this. What have you?
Speaker 2:been telling him what have you?
Speaker 1:how much have you?
Speaker 2:what have you said?
Speaker 1:how much have you? I don't know what's the portal level, mr schooner, but now you're here getting all serious. I think it's about. It's about as much as he spends on video games a month, which I believe is zero dollars and zero pence. We're just reading his name out because we love it much like you. Who's next?
Speaker 2:the wonderful digital mongery. Our uh um challenge accepted. Owner.
Speaker 1:Curator if I could live anywhere and be anything, I'd want to live amongst the hair follicles on digital digital monger his beard, wow. I get to be with him every day, which I think would make both he and I happy, um, but then I also get to see everything he sees yeah, he's a. He's a rather big collector, so you'd be seeing a lot of games I think I'd be very, very happy with that, just chilling in his garage, just a little hair follicles on his chin.
Speaker 2:And a little beard hammock.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll weave a few of them together to make myself a little sort of bed chair, and then I can sit there and watch him play Pinocchio on Mega Drive.
Speaker 2:That sounds like heaven.
Speaker 1:You know and you wondered where this was going, and basically I just described, Get Weave in a second chair fella. Oh, hang on a minute. No, it's just gone from heaven to hell. Me and you locked forever, perpetually on Digital Munker's face, mere centimetres from each other, which, across his face, if we're scaling up, is literal miles. But I just don't want to be that close.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:On someone else's face. Oh, I mean, come on, it's a bit mean that. It was my private area, and then all of a sudden you invite yourself to the Hammock Club as well. Jada George is back. I mean, I would allow you not that he would have these, because he's a very finely co-operated man I would allow you to kind of sort of descend down on one of his nose hairs.
Speaker 2:Like Tarzan More, more, more, more no, not like Tarzan.
Speaker 1:Oh, here we go, more like the residents of Pandy Plop Fire Station. I see you kind of sliding down a bit. Fireman Sam-like. Cue the listener correction. I think you'll find it's not Pandy Plop George.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure that it's Pandy Plop.
Speaker 1:Who has to you? Anyway, you're just hanging down on one of digital munker is very rare occurring stray nose hairs should we?
Speaker 2:should we get on with this list?
Speaker 1:now, I like what this has become yeah, you're up next the gaming gram. Yes, okay. What would you like to do to him?
Speaker 2:I cannot say on air Next up we have Bald Border.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:What an absolute cop-out. I wonder what you were going to say then A bleep was going to be needed.
Speaker 1:I you might need it for this, because I'm going brown Boba.
Speaker 2:Boba. Then we've got Marathon Gaming, our very own Scotty. Thank you, Scott.
Speaker 1:I would love to be a speck of dust on his Game Gear collection.
Speaker 2:Here we go again. Another one of your little war game gear collection. Here we go again. Another one of your little warblin' fantasies. You're next, by the way.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, then I get the mighty strong, sensual sexual Sealmaster Elliot Mmm. Strong, sensual sexual Sealmaster Elliot Mmm.
Speaker 2:Then I get the biggest guns in Nottingham, that is Ginge, your red-headed stepson.
Speaker 1:You're right. I'm also trying to accept an app request for my daughter, who's out at dinner and needs this Wetherspoon app now. So the show's just going to have to wait two seconds while I find out how to do that. I don't know how to do that.
Speaker 2:Do you want me to carry on with the list while you're working out this app?
Speaker 1:I'm going to send the parent message to every child fierce to see. Send again. Yes, now I shall carry on. Where did we get to? Just remind me, and I shall leap into the course.
Speaker 2:I just done a ginge, not literally just read his name out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I want to come to rest on Gingy's bicep okay, that's it. That's a mountainous place it is again if I was the.
Speaker 2:I mean, I reckon he could crush full beer cans in them bad boys. Do you want me to read the next one while you're preoccupied? And he could crush full beer cans in them bad boys. Do you want me to read the next one while you're preoccupied? Yeah, I do.
Speaker 1:Okay. So next up we have the wonderful Harvey, retro Harvey, your videos. I'm on with your videos, I'm on with it, I am on with it. It's brilliant. Bear with me, because actually, what's going to work in your benefit is you're probably going to end up with a hell of a lot more VHS than you thought.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had an off-air chat about this, so get ready for a stingray parcel heading your way, harvey.
Speaker 1:Well, bear with me though, because I've still got some finer refining to do. I'd call it filtering. Hang on a minute, mate, because I just don't want to blurt out out loud my online password, do you?
Speaker 2:want me to carry on. I'll carry on again if you like carry on, do one more yep, and then next up we have the lovely emma sharp, and thanks again for your support, emma.
Speaker 1:It is very much appreciated I have a question actually um what do you think the question is?
Speaker 2:it's going to be one of two questions, so I think the first question is probably going to be is she still on the apps? No, it's not going to be one of two questions, so I think the first question is probably going to be is she still on the apps? No, it wasn't going to be that the second question is it's probably about do we know where Greg is? Which is the next one on the list for you to read?
Speaker 1:I know where Greg is and I shall get to that in a moment. But my question for Emma Sharp is we need more pictures of you in the UCP t-shirt? For Emma Sharp is we need more pictures of you in the UCP t-shirt? I want a picture of you gliding on a mountain. I want a picture of you windsurfing in it. I want a picture of you scaling Gainsborough Hall and abseiling down it in the UCP t-shirt. I want to see a picture of you opening Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the UCP t-shirt. I want to see a picture of you looking at Marzipan, confused, in Tesco's, in the UCP t-shirt. Don't know where that came from. No pressure then. Something like that, emma, I would love to see, because we follow you on the Instagram. I would like to see the adventures of Emma Sharp in the UCP t-shirt.
Speaker 1:We could, we could. You know we could make a. We could make an annual out of that. Give her a t-shirt out of it. How that I do believe. The kids call meta RG. I think that's way beyond what we're capable of. Now. Someone who is very capable yeah, someone who's very, very capable is our friend Greg. Now I got a postcard from him the other day. Rgt, you're never going to believe this right. Guess where it was from.
Speaker 2:Berlin.
Speaker 1:You'd think so, but no.
Speaker 2:No, but don't tell me, it was nowhere near there.
Speaker 1:Nowhere near Berlin. No, it was on the remote Samoan island of Fiji, was it really?
Speaker 2:Was he having a nice time?
Speaker 1:I think he's conversing with headhunters Now. I think he got an application on LinkedIn and went over there thinking that it was for another game studio. Actually transpired, it was real Fijian headhunters that were going to boil his brain and then eat it at some sort of celebration Probably the sort of celebration where they celebrate harvest or, you know, the arrival of the pig herd, something like that.
Speaker 2:So, like I say, is he enjoying himself or Well, at the minute they're probably fattening him up.
Speaker 1:So he's probably thinking, wow, these people, you know, they're being really kind, they're bringing me food.
Speaker 2:Nine meals a day, lovely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, nine meals a day, I feel like a foie gras, right, I can't get enough of the Foie gras.
Speaker 2:Got a hosepipe in his mouth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he's like, wow, this is great. And he's like that's all they bring me, but it's all part of a larger end game, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:Hmm, well, I hope you're right, greg. Enjoy it while you can.
Speaker 1:Series 8 of the UCP, filmed live from a Fijian island as we try and bust out Greg Greg.
Speaker 2:I know where to end this.
Speaker 1:Greg, there's some head on this yeah, anyway, where were we?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, we're on the list. Yes, mumsy, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:I can't believe you just did it like that. I thought I was gonna do it fine, okay, so I'll take this, and I love the way this has worked out, because you got mine and I get yours right back in revenge no, I didn't you, you said yours look, I don't ask you to come along, I had to cover for you why you just wanted to do some social stuff while I was just holding the show up for you.
Speaker 1:The ferocity as a parent. Now, I know there are other parents out there. Surely a parent must listen, please. But when your kid says I'm desperate, I need this app to function at something and you're a million miles away and I don't know what I'm doing, I almost feel compelled to drop everything and accept that immediately. So I'm sorry. Hopefully the parents out there understand. So I get the RGT fan club numerous members. They all contribute together and submit this monthly submission, which is very grateful and very well organised as well, for a Zed list. What comes after Zed?
Speaker 2:I could go back round to A.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm thinking probably more colon semicolon.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a list, isn't it? So at least I'm on A list, You're right. Next up we have Pete Brocklehurst. Thank you very much, Pete.
Speaker 1:Which means I get to lick the wrong side of the spoon and tell you that Billy Marmite also contributes on a monthly basis.
Speaker 2:And then I get my good friend Simon Pryke. Thank you very much, simon. And the penultimate one here has to say contractually.
Speaker 1:And I'll take the last one as well. So I'll do this one on the last one. That's me shuddering to a climax. That's the sort of I think most of my vocabulary comes from the reader's wife section of 90s razzle. I can tell a great story but it normally heads to the gutter because they're the only words I know, which means last chance to thank the last subscriber up to date subs list.
Speaker 1:Fellas, what a great guy oh my god, you're on one today considering some of the names on there, it's not hard to imagine that would be the list.
Speaker 2:That would be quite normal. Yeah, that one's username, In fact.
Speaker 1:Please if you're listening now, go, set yourself up on Buzzsprout. Go to the podcast provider, scroll to the bottom of the audio show. There's a link there that says support the show. No guts, by the time we do this episode next friday, I want to see a real user with that name. Okay, don't let me down. Literally one book or whatever is the minimum pain threshold on buzz sprout you get in there. Get in there. We've had a joke. We've had some fun and it wasn't at your expense, hopefully. We laughed together. We're very grateful for every single one of you that rocks up Week in, week out, supports the show. We are looking to use those funds to launch a new project for the UCP this year, if we can get our ducks in a row. We're struggling with the basics these days, but what we're aiming for is to grow the show yeah, and not be a show, or be a grower. No, be a growing show. What are you hoping to play?
Speaker 2:oh, um, maybe a little bit more sociable soccer bring me og tom's overwatch contract. Rip it clean and off yeah, this is starting to sound a bit like the harvestel issues, but uh, yeah, yeah, um I've only been on twice in about six months and all I've ever heard is sociable soccer.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's just I fell at the right time where I haven't got a lot of time, so the games I need to play need to be quick and fast, and it is quick and fast. The only other thing I haven't played the last few weeks is my Evercade, so I need to get on and play some games on that.
Speaker 1:I thought we were ripping the contract up. He's mentioned Evercade.
Speaker 2:I bet you've got an Evercade full collection collection a lot, just admit it. So you'll be here. It's unlocked. Yeah, exactly, you've got a little hidden cupboard there somewhere in farmton with a evocade in full collection. Sit there in your evocade t-shirt, evocade hat, back to front. But yeah, that I mean. I've been wanting to get back on the witcher but I need to sit down. I've got an afternoon three, four hours so I can have a good run at it. I can't sit there for half an hour on a witcher. You you probably only just about get on your horse and then you'd be off and that'd be it. So I need more time to to. You know, a big gaming session, what's it?
Speaker 1:take for a man like you to get that time? What do you have have to do? What sacrifice would you have to make to be allowed an undisturbed Witcher 3 weekend when you probably go get some reverse just for men? Grey your hair up.
Speaker 2:Reverse just for men.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they've only got one colour, aren't they Black? And it fights grey. So I'm thinking, if we got the reverse version, oh, I've only got one colour, aren't they Black? And it fights grey. So I'm thinking, if we got the reverse version, I've got enough grey in here.
Speaker 2:I shouldn't worry. You're barely. You're not girl though, are you? No, I'm not quite that bad, but I mean, I could maybe just get a little wig.
Speaker 1:Dude, why does it look like I like? Got lines in my beard like a 90s boy band member.
Speaker 2:You haven't yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I cut them in. Last night I also cut the middle out of my eyebrow. I tend to get that little gap pierced as well. Ooh, yeah, very 90s.
Speaker 2:But yeah, that's pretty much what I think that'll be this week. What about you? Oh, hang on. Assassin's Creed, Valhalla.
Speaker 1:I'm contractually not allowed to say that now because I've put you in a legal corner. Yeah, and no one puts RGT in the corner but me. But there's going to be some AC Valhalla Off the back of the medieval, early medieval. Don't get on to me in the community corrections about when the medieval period started, for god's sake.
Speaker 2:all right oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It's gonna happen though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, getting community corrections and telling when the medieval period started but from all the dark age era activity of assassin's creed, valhalla, and with og tom bringing me on a daily basis to update me about his actions in Kingdom Come, deliverance 2,. Having not played the original, I thought well, I've got the original, maybe now's the time. Maybe now's the time to play through the first one, buy the second one, feel so overwhelmed by the enormity of the challenge in front of me and never play it.
Speaker 1:But it's there for a rainy day if I need it right. So I have also still yet to slap True Crime Streets of New York in the console. I was going to do it, basically looking at it through a sort of historical lens, if nothing else, to see how it does bear up and how it does compare.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to be interested on that, yeah.
Speaker 1:And whether it got the shot it deserved, considering it was much improved. Yeah, you know, poor old true crime screams of over-promising, under-delivering, then the second one actually turning up and delivering on the promises and then everyone just being a bit done with it. Yeah, shame. But while I will report back on what I find done with it, shame, but I will report back on what I find.
Speaker 1:I don't think I'm really that much giddy about anything else. I don't know if it's endemic of the wider gaming situation where I'm actually getting more giddy about my backlog than I am about new games coming out. It's certainly not a great situation to find yourself in, but obviously it's the year of GTA 6, so you have to be really brave to launch in that year, because it's a bit of a write-off. But Death Stranding 2, I'm definitely hyped for that, and there's a myriad of other things that I'm sure will get announced and I'll get giddy for, or be reminded by you or the listeners that you were hyped for this. No, I still am, I just forgot. But at the minute I'm feeling like I'm enjoying gaming as much as I always have, but I'm feeling a little bit uninspired by the current portfolio of games available to us outside of our backlogs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm with you on that. My preference has definitely shifted to these last 12 months as to what you know I purchase, what system I purchase. On this, it's been a very, very strange sort of 12 months for, especially after how good 2023 was. So, yeah, it's been different.
Speaker 1:It sure has, and the seeds of change are in the air, I think. For gaming in general, I think the litmus test is going to be GTA 6. That's going to be pushing a lot of boundaries. I think price is going to be one of the boundaries. It's pushing 100 bucks apparently.
Speaker 1:I had this conversation with someone earlier today. Now, I think 100 bucks for almost once in a decade like experience at gts come, and if it comes with all the refinement that we expect, if they survive, the exit at a high level of a couple of the inspirational one of the hauser brothers, and then Matey Boy I forget his name, dan, no, we've done him. It's the guy who writes it and he's also on the talk show on the radio itself. He was very involved in the script. I forget his name. Now. Community Corrections.
Speaker 1:I do deserve that one if it survived that and they still pull it off and it's a gangbang of the way it is. 100 bucks is totally cool. Would I also be happy with a base version where it's only the single player component for 70? Yes, I would. Um. Would I then buy the online section if it was as hyped as they say it was? Yes, I would work. Would I pay another 30 bucks for that? Yes, okay.
Speaker 1:So there are people like you and I that probably don't want any of that online stuff and want to play gta. I think that that is something they could look into. If it's 100 books, whatever, and you get the full fat, I'm down for it. What I don't want this to be, and I think a clear delineation needs to be made. Like people like you and I have a mouthpiece, one. A better word is to let the gaming community, developing and publishing community know that we'll tolerate it for GTA 6, because look at the work ethic, look at the attention to detail, look at the story, look at everything it's achieving, look at the audience that they can charge a hundred bucks.
Speaker 2:Because they can charge a hundred bucks because it will sell in millions.
Speaker 1:Well, they've literally, over time, elevated their product to that level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the most highest grossing piece of entertainment in history GTA V, Right. So that's why they can charge $100 for GTA VI.
Speaker 1:But if EA rock up and expect me to pay $ bucks for the vanilla version of EA FC 26,000, they're on a high.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, if Ubisoft want me to spew up 100 bucks because this has become the new upper threshold of what they think a game is worth. Have a look and think if you think your game is worth that. Yeah, because we'll vote with our feet. I mean, rockstar's a once-in-a-generation experience For Ubisoft and EA. It's a yearly experience and it's not changed much from the last time, so it's a big ask. In fact, it starts to make their offering look even less generous, doesn't it? Yeah, for that date Right. Well, with that all said and done, I think we should rest it here and I'll say that's so. We have time for this week. Listeners, thank you for your time. We look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming and remember there's nothing wrong with being given the unofficial controller. It's what you do with it that counts. See you, rgt laters you.