Cats, Cars, And Consoles: When Breeding Kittens Preps You For Gran Turismo

A cat-breeding tactics roguelike that plays like Fire Emblem meets house management, a physics-forward indie platformer channeling N64 energy, and a survival-strategy Star Trek game that’s equal parts engrossing and maddening—this week’s journey is a snapshot of where gaming stands in 2026. We start with the indie crown: why Big Hops feels like a smart, compact alternative to the wait between tentpoles, and how Mewgenics turns genetics, classes, and brutal runs into a dangerously compelling loop with real staying power.

From there, we tackle the heavy stuff. Skate’s layoffs bring the live-service crunch into focus: when players already “live” inside Fortnite, Warzone, or Destiny, new games must explain their fun in five minutes and make updates feel like gifts, not chores. We lay out which recent services actually worked and why most don’t. Then we hit hardware and strategy. The rumor of Gran Turismo 7 running on Switch 2 sparks a real question about fit—without analog triggers, sim racing loses finesse. That’s our entry point to the bigger debate: are exclusives still the engine of platform identity, or should they travel? We make the case for when to keep them, when to share them, and why Forza Horizon might be Xbox’s best lever to win hearts back without losing reach.

We also compare notes on Star Trek Voyager’s resource grind, the joys and annoyances of opaque crafting trees, and how a retro-styled God of War Metroidvania leans into smaller scope to deliver clearer fun. Along the way: Nintendo eShop curation gripes, sensible ports, and what a tightened Sony focus could mean for PlayStation’s next wave.

If you want practical takeaways: look for games that respect your time, understand their hardware, and tell you exactly why they’re special—fast. Hit play for sharp analysis, a few laughs, and real talk about where the fun is in 2026. If you enjoyed this one, subscribe, share it with a friend, and drop a review telling us which side you’re on: keep exclusives exclusive, or set them free?

Transcript

Opening Banter And Episode Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Hello and welcome to the unofficial controller podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number three hundred and seven, with me, George, and this week joined by the beautiful Triple S. Yeah, Mr. Furke himself. It said he's GT7 running on a Switch 2 to my Gran Turismo 1 barely running on an end gauge. How's it going? You absolutely handsome devil. Uh, it's going pretty well. What about yourself, George? Yeah, I'm good, mate. I mean, we've got a great episode lined up. Like I say, I think we're going to talk about Gran Turismo 7 running on the Switch 2, which baffles my mind. I think we've got some. Oh, absolute wrong person. You don't need to be the Switch king to know that that's just Frankenstein in the hell out of the world. Um, we've got some talk about some, sadly, some more layoffs in the industry, and a little bit of uh talk about Xbox's strategy. And we're going to frame that up with a talk about a general uh health check for the industry, Seb, which I think you uh Dr. Seb over there wants to perform, no doubt the committee and new sort of shadow masters uh probably told him to do this, a little whisper in his ears. Go back, check the Ponzies if you want to know a little bit more about the wing eating brigade that uh controls us nefariously from the shadows. Um it's part of the lore now. It's committee. I don't want to let it go. It was just arrived a little bit kind of pastor longhorn-esque, and I was like, I'm keeping the committee, I want that. Um yeah, so like a magpie grabbing all the gold out of the uh stream and taking it back to my nest, said I've got to ask you because it's only right and proper, and it's it's it's part of the show's history.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

What have you been playing?

What We’re Playing: Indie Crown Challenge

SPEAKER_05 2:17

Woo! Okay, so the King of the Indies have been do has been doing it in all things indie this year.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Whoa, woo, woo, woo, woo. Let's just park that there because a little bit like King of the Ring, 2026 is all about the indie crown being up for grabs because Oh, I like this.

SPEAKER_04 2:35

Who's going to challenge? A new challenger has entered.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

It's me. I'm the Indie King now. I'll wear the hat right now that'll leave you your knees shaking to the point where people think that you've broken a set of maracas backstage. That's the sort of situation we'll be in. But pray tell, Prince of the Indies. Pray tell.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Prince of the Indies.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Blasphemy. Absolute blasphemy. Tell me, tell me. I'm gonna regret this, by the way, when we get to the section where I get to tell you about the games I've been playing. But uh, yeah, Cat Amongst the Pigeons said, tell me about these games.

SPEAKER_05 3:13

All right, so everybody, I we don't have time to talk about all the games I've been playing because you know we'll be here forever. Um, but I'm just going to do a two-pronged attack here. So if you check the if you check out the illustrious indie rankings on the on the singleplayer experience.com, you will see that I have already reviewed and ranked 10. I'm talking about 10 indie games that'll come out this year. This year. And you know, and you can also tell one of them. Oh, I probably have, but um, you have there's so many, there's so many good ones. But then I'm nervous. Give me this top ten.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Oh, just give me the names, just rabit, boom, and then I'll tell you if I'm nervous or not.

SPEAKER_05 4:00

Relooted, um, Jackal, um, arrow shots, um, Mio, Big Hops, Mugenics. Oh, mugenics is oh, mugenics is one of the crown prints of this year so far. And then you Okay. Then you have Colored Pencil Bakery, you have um Don't Go Up There, you have Book of Fae, and you have Vampire Hunter. So, not a bad list so far. I would probably say the It's a great list.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

You've been very busy, but I think you slept on on the biggest game, biggest indie game. This is where I find that stuff. Oh yeah, massive.

SPEAKER_05 4:42

Okay, okay. Can you get can you tell me what it is?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

No, you'll have to wait.

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Tell me about these games you've been playing. I'll I'll only I'll only focus on the one that I think like people really need to uh people really need to check out, and that's mugenics. Um no, indulge yourself because of a guilty confession.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

I am gonna talk about Switch One game.

Big Hops Overview And Retro Platforming Vibes

SPEAKER_05 5:01

Oh god. Oh god. Oh, okay. So so I'll add two then. Um Big Hops, if you've played um a game called Little Gator Game, which was kind of like a um 3D platformer that introduced Breath of the Wild mechanics into a like a smaller, um, more linear kind of like style. Um this, if for the people who don't know, um Big Hops has um and Little Gator Game both have like almost like this Nintendo 64 PS2 mascot platformer energy to where like um the respective plat the respective like protagonists, in this case Big Hops, is about a little guy who's a frog who's basically has like these Breath of the Wild mechanics, the climbing, the jumping, the platforming, and such like that, and the puzzle and the puzzle solving because like they've taken Big Hops is a game where they've taken like some of the the shrines from Breath of the Wild and just made a whole game out of that kind of concept. You you and your physics or yeah, I would probably say the physics and the uh hey, we're presenting you with a problem, go at it your own different you go at it your own way. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's it's one of those to where I'm like it if you see the game, you can kind of like get a are we doing a video version of this game? Um video version? Yeah, if you want to share screen, we can do that. Okay, I'll like I'll I'll send you a request in so while that's going on. Um so yeah, it is one of those to where like big hops, and action uh I would say adventure platformer, puzzle solver, you're hopping around trying to kind of like solve these little puzzles all the while when you're trying to get home with your sister. Your sister is um your sister is kind of like doing her own thing. She's trying to figure out a way to kind of get off of the isolated in isolated areas that you're in as well. But meanwhile, like this kind of like malevolent, like devious creature has told you, like, oh, I can help you get home, but you have to find basically their equivalent of the Dragon Balls for me. And so you go around and you try to solve all these little puzzles in like four different biomes, and each biome has its own, like probably like set of 10 to 12 like puzzles, and you're using like the area around you to try to get to other areas and also figure out like get the little like I would say the little keys that this this male malevolent creature is asking for, and all the while you're trying to you know basically figure out different environments to kind of use to your advantage there. So this is like yeah, it's one of those to where I would probably say it's for those people who want something smaller, something smaller, but something more like meaty gameplay-wise to play. Like if you were look if you were a person who likes Mario Odyssey and Zelda, um, I would probably say this is a game that you can probably pick up and play and get like maybe like 12 hours of enjoyment out of it, and this will kind of hold you over as a good indie game replacement for when you're waiting in between those big Nintendo releases, you know. It has it has a lot of like really cool Nintendo 64-ness energy to it, but with like I'd probably say with modern day gameplay mechanics.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

So if that's one of those things that can be like PS2 energy, to be honest.

SPEAKER_05 8:37

Yeah, for sure, for sure. So I'm like, it's one of those to where you have so many different ways you can handle it, and I'm not the best like 3D platformer guy in the world either. So I'm like, it's one of those to where I if I if I'm playing a 3D platformer, it has to be good enough to hold my attention because that's not my natural um genre of choice. So I'm like, you go around, you can pick up um different bugs, different um different plants, and all those different things help you either by helping you gain health or gain permanent like stats boost, or absolutely changing like the aesthetics around you as well to you to get to your advantage. So I'm like, it is very much one of those games to where I'm like, you can kind of tell like this is a game that could have been like in the early 64 to PlayStation 2 kind of like era, but it's there's this big retro style of like retro style games right now that are going on where indie game or indie dev like devs are like making games like this now, like like crazy. And it's one of those to where I'm like as time goes on, I feel like Nintendo is gonna really need to step up their quality and what they're putting out because like we're getting games on this level that are also like being inspired by old school Nintendo games. There's like a couple of indie games that are coming out in the next couple weeks that are very much like oh, I can see this is very much inspired by Mario tennis and Mario like golf, and but it's an indie layered version of those things. But Seb, you said it in the words, they're inspired by. Yeah, but we're I mean, here's the thing though, it's like I I say that they're inspired by, but the inspirations haven't been killing it lately, if you haven't noticed. Like, Mar none of the Mario sports games have been taking the world by storm. I mean, a lot of them are five to seven out of tens right now.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Much like Dwayne The Rock Johnson said during his early WWF career. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter what you say because this one's got Nintendo on the box. What's Mummy gonna buy? That is sure. Which has got the most brand recognition? Flippy the Frog, he'll be dead in within 18 months, as good as this game may or may not be, or is it Mario Odyssey that you're buying?

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Yeah, that's sure. Uh a mid a mid-tier Mario game could absolutely eat the lunch out of a really good indie game any day of the book.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah, I'm just lighting the fuse and stepping back, but no, I I've I've got to check it out there. I mean, they've done the hard yards, as you say, inspired by um what I want to see

Mewgenics Deep Dive: Systems And Brutal Charm

SPEAKER_01 11:28

from the indie scene, and I do believe we see it, is something fresh, something new, something different, something borrowed, something they are even say it said blue, you know. Something blue? So let me give you something new then. Like, yeah, what's this other game? You got one more you got one more hit, and it's this Nexus title that you talk of. Is that right? Nexus? Yeah, it's mugenics, and then I'm gonna teach you about and you better get your YouTube fingers ready because I want share screen for this bad boy. You better get your internet fingers ready for for what I think is is a sleeper hit.

SPEAKER_05 12:04

A sleeper hit. I'm excited to see this. All right, so mugenics. Um, mugenics is a game from the creators of Super Meat Boy and also like um and uh Binding of Isaacs. Uh Binding of Isaac. Um if you've played either of those games, you kind of already know what you're getting yourself into here. It is one of the weirdest games where basically you are a cat breeder and the whole premise.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Oh yeah, you're a cat breeder who's formats. Give me the formats, what's this on? And show don't grow, show you don't grow a video show now. We don't mess well, we mess around. If you listen on audio and you you're heading down the B1127 somewhere, I love you still. Um, but if you want to bizarrely, and I don't know why, even though you know I wish YouTube would recognize the fact that we're successful audio show coming over to video. Oh yeah, pumpers. Pumpers. Uh so come and subscribe in your millions. But uh, yeah, got the video, so come and have a look at us. Release day and date on the Sunday now, because you demanded it. God damn you. You demanded it. Oh, they demanded.

SPEAKER_05 13:17

I like that. I like that lot. Um, so while I'm pulling up video image here, let me just give you the general rundown of what mugenics is. Mugenics is a a game that is can you see it?

SPEAKER_01 13:35

No, I can't see it, but I've now twigged on the name because I heard you say it properly, and it was mugenics as a meow, and you're bringing cats, which which show me everything and tell me the format. So I've got something I can get this on, have I? Is it on switch to? Say yes. I don't know if it's on switch to I don't play. Mm-hmm. Takes up hostage again until mugenics is on switch to. Look, I'll tell him I'll take PS5. Look, I'll take Xbox.

SPEAKER_05 14:05

Okay. I don't think you'll touch your Xbox, by the way. Someone will if Mugenics is on it. Yeah, somebody's got to. Somebody's got to. Alright, so right now it is officially a PC game. It looks like it is being ported over to all the things. Well, you know, binding of Isaac and the lineage there. So I'm like, it'll be on everything before before you know it. But it will. Yeah. So this is a so for those of you don't know, this is like a tactical role-playing roguelike life simulator. And it's made by M.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

All the what is going on with you, Jordan? Sting, we've got another roguelike fella. It's just every game's a roguelike these days. Every single bloody game.

SPEAKER_05 14:54

You don't complain when you got like all these simulators and such like that that you're playing.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

Yeah, but even they're roguelikes these days.

SPEAKER_05 15:05

Hey man, it's the genre right now. It's the genre.

SPEAKER_01 15:08

It's been the genre for some time. Hey, this is this is mugenics. This is mugenics. So I feel like I'm watching Bluey.

SPEAKER_05 15:17

It kind of looks like that in a way. So you take it like this. You have all these cats, you have this one house, and the job of the house is to house these cats, and then you Pokemon style, take all the cats that you have in a or take four-man squad out, and you try to basically go as long as you can keep these cats alive all the while while you're trying to take down all the big bads of each biome. And here's the gameplay. Get me gameplay. Okay, I gotcha, I gotcha. I'm gonna get you some gameplay in a minute. Uh right now, let's see. Uh, because I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 15:56

Oh wow, it gets better.

SPEAKER_05 15:58

Yeah. So I don't know. Have you ever played Fire Emblem? Like, you know, the grid style um yeah, the grid style version of Fire Emblem and meets like Colt of the Lamb. And it's one of those things to where, like, so you have a four um four cat squad, and you can choose each one of your cats. So in each one of your cats, um, you choose a different you choose a different trait. You choose a different trait for in a class for each cat. So and you have like a mage that you can choose, a cleric, a um a archer, ranger type of class, or you can have a brute style type of class for each different cat. And and you go out and you experience the hard knot lives of the streets that are trying to kill each and every one of your kittens. And if every one of your kittens are uh generated by what goes on to the house and what goes on in your house. So you build up your house. Yeah. So you build up your house to also build when this show was cleaned. Now you brought out cat prown. So you build up your house in order to build up your resources that you take out into your turn-based um catfighting, catfighting, like street brawler, uh, you know, roguelike experience. So, in other words, it has like a really cool, it has like so many really cool mechanics, but like the general premise is that cats will always come to your house to join up with your squad. Now, you could take Cat George and Cat Megan and breed them together to make a new super cat. You made me in this game? Yeah, you have yeah, I have I have the whole uh I have the whole UCP squad in this game. Now don't get me wrong, Gorge. Yes, and don't get me wrong, you're the only survivor right now because this game is absolutely brutal. Like, absolutely brutal. Like, this has some of the humor and charm of Pokemon, but it's made by the Super Meat Boy creator, it's made by the binding of Isaac's creator, so none of your people last very long. You it's hard for me because I get attached to like little Gorge or RGT or Pikachu, and I go out and I'm like, oh, I have a really good squad. I braid my cats well. I have uh Gorge, who's basically like a ranger who can do like damage from afar. Um, I have RGT who's gonna be my big bruiser who can take on who can take like some of the the brunt of all the damages. And that's true, that's true, yeah. Yeah, and then I had Seb who was supposed to be the healer and such like that, who basically would like after every turn automatically. Did you make him suave and good looking as well? No, Seb was a a white pasty tom cat who basically lasted one run before he got curb stomped into the ground. And rename him OG Top. I will. I will. I'll have to I'll have to find the suavest cat I can find for OG Top. But no, so like the general priest actually we got his name wrong, dude. You you OG. Yeah, I'm gonna do OG and now I'm gonna do OG, and then I'm gonna do like um what was the cat? Or what was the like the the um OG Pepe is what I'm gonna call him. Like a combination of Pepe Le Pew and OG Tom. Why Catchup? Uh oh OG Pepe. Like Pepe Le Pew, the the skunk from the city. It'd be a suave cat. But so the general premise is, George, is that you are in this house, like like you see right here, and in this house, your cats all um are trying to live their best lives. Some of them, um, some of them get older as the days go on. So like if you're playing three days into a run, your cat's gonna age. And if he ages out of the fighting, of like the fighting circuit, you can like give him up to another like different clinic or different place in the town. And in exchange for those live cats, whatever they do with those cats is none of your business. But instead of those cats, instead of when you re-home those cats, you basically get a different thing that you can upgrade your house with. And when you upgrade your house, you can upgrade your breeding system and your cats. And when you upgrade all that, you could send your cats out and try to make them last longer in each and every run that you go on. The game is extremely challenging. It is one of those games to where like you are playing this and you always have to have concepts in your mind because like the game has 10,000 sets of rules, almost like Boulder's Gate, but and you can play within those rules, or you can try to like use your cat's genetics, physics, and class to try to like wiggle yourself around rules to kind of like win each and every fight, like Fire Emblem. And it's like a genius thing of like taking the turn-based style of Fire Emblem, but making like a almost like the Pokemon breeding system that that was big in like the Pokemon early Pokemon games, and like it's they're combining those concepts, and then they're taking that, and then they're giving you a huge story, a huge campaign, and then they're also giving you a masterclass in presentation and in music. The one of the things that I think is like absolutely phenomenal about this game, nonstop, is The fact that like the game is too I've talked to so many people who are playing this right now. The game is almost 120 hours long right now. 120 hours long. How much is it? Um, I looks like right here you can get it for a cool 30. But yeah, at a discounted price, um, usually around like that 20 to 21 marker is where where I've seen it, you know, like um.

SPEAKER_01 22:30

So scratch all that down. Is this a Seb must-buy or a Seb snooze? And I think I know the answer. I think this is a must-buy for people who like turn-based games. Is this an early shot? Uh not only indie game of the year, in your opinion, but game of the year and should be featured in the equation, or is this just a throwaway little fun game? Because not forgetting that the previous titles that the developers made have kind of been within that pantheon of being recognized for their greatness by celebration of a gong all three.

SPEAKER_05 23:03

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Like, um, in that sense, like the creators of the creators of the game have been recognized for making like some all-time indie games, like absolutely all-time beggars. But here's the thing, is like this year is so stacked. I'm talking about like immensely stacked with not just indie games that are coming out, but I was so but when you reach game of the year, I think that's a different topic. I also think like you when you ask me that, I have to take an equation of like who is who's with us, you know, and uh and who's gonna play what because I don't think RGT is going to play a certain litany of the game.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Oh, I'm not mate. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. I'm thinking, you know, not the Ponsies.

SPEAKER_05 23:55

I'm thinking industry-wide game of the year.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

No, no, I I don't I think this is because the Ponsies probably, you know, are they the dundees of the gaming industry or what? I get the reference, the Office.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

But um, but not yeah, I I don't know where I'd classify those. It might be like the MTV awards of the gaming industry. The gaming industry. But no, um, yeah, it's a weird thing because like I think you out of all the games that come out that are coming out right now, this until yesterday was the highest rated game across the industry on Metacritic and Cakes Sense. Yeah, it was makes sense. But as of today, if the world ended now, it'd be in the running, wouldn't it? It'd be in the top two, because I think Res Resident Evil um not uh Resident Evil came out with its reviews, and I think like they're tit for tat right now, as far as like the 90s go. As far as Metacritic game on. Yeah, because IGN GameSpot and all this gave mugenics nine to nine point fives. And they probably didn't increase Resident Evil 8. Resident Evil 8, I think, is right up there. I think IGN gave it a pretty high score as well.

Star Trek Voyager: Resource Grind And Design Quirks

SPEAKER_05 25:20

So it's one of those things to where I'm like, it this is going, I think this the ports or this is coming out later this year, and I think like that's a terrible time. It's a it's a terrible time, let's be honest.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

You know, like I think if this garners enough kind of fan fever now, I think by the time it hits console, as long as it's a good price point, and if it can maintain that steam price point or be a bit less by the time it gets to console.

SPEAKER_05 25:46

Um I played this on Steam Deck, and so I can't imagine this running badly on the um Switch. Oh as if it would, no, it'd smash this. Um Well let me um You can you can kind of see the gameplay though, you know, like and get the kind of feel for what we're talking about here. Clear the screen. Alright, gotcha, gotcha. Go ahead. Tell me what I've missed out on. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

So now this is either gonna fly or it's gonna sink. Uh and you can and you can critique as I say, and you can Google as I say. I don't think you'll need to Google, I think you'll heard of this. I've been spending a little bit of time on a game called Star Trek Voyager. Laugh it up, Fuzzball.

SPEAKER_05 26:36

I love Star Trek Voyager. I like that. Yeah, across the unknown.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

That's correct. Now, this is as far as I can see a roguelike resource management game. And uh sting I think I I think I classify that as a like survival strategy. Yeah, I th I I think it's within that ballpark. What I'm gonna say is gonna be very confusing to you. Uh and I spoke to a friend earlier this week, and uh I I use this description. It's absolutely diabolical, but I love it. What do you make of that? Let me give you the premise.

SPEAKER_05 27:13

Okay, I've actually played this by the way. Oh, but you didn't rate it, you didn't put it up there. Why? I only played the demo of it when when they did it on Steam Next Fest. So I haven't actually like jumped into it or anything like that, but I'm like jumped into it and got the full experience. But I did actually play the demo, and I didn't think the demo was bad. I actually think like it's I think like the mechanics are really cool, the actual like choices that they give you with the dialogue, um, as far as like to be able to trade different aspects to like the let me give you the shakedown as to why I would say it's diabolical in a way, and I think you'll see where this is coming from.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

So I like Star Trek Confession. I'm out there. I know I made a Star Wars reference on the way in, but don't get your knickers in a twist. Um Revenge is a dish, best surf cold, as they say. Um I like Star Trek, I like Star Trek Voyager actually quite a lot, and this game follows the opening scenes and allows you to play through the caretaker mission uh or episode and take alternative choices, as Seb said, and that that's very interesting, it lets you play with the Voyager lore. Um underneath that is a resource management and collection game, which for all intents and purposes I quite enjoy. You're thrown to the other side of the Delta Quadrant, whatever it is, out in the middle of nowhere, somewhere, by some not necessarily malevolent, but certainly uh acting for a higher purpose than we could ever imagine, sort of like celestial being. Um things go pear-shaped, and uh you kind of burn your route home by doing the morally right thing. Left there, you know it's basically 75 years to get home, even at high speeds, or hope to find a bit of a shortcut. Having been thrown to the side of the universe, the game mechanic is that the inside of the Voyager is absolutely smashed up, and that presents itself with a series of ruined rooms, a little bit like the Fallout Shelter game. That's what reminds me a lot of. And then within those rooms, you build different functionality that you would require on a starship, not necessarily Voyager um lore correct, nor in the right placing on the ship, but if you know anything about Star Trek, that menu's like an El Cars menu, and you kind of build things within there. Also far, so great. Um, where it starts to bog down a little bit for me, the resource collection feels like at any moment in time that an ad for Kingdom Clash of Kingdoms is going to come up where you can buy these resources by watching this video. I am not digging that necessarily so much. Now everyone will say, well, yeah, but that's not what they're doing, George. But it might not be what they're doing, that's what it feels like, and that kind of bugs me. It's like I was trying to build something for the uh for a specific part of the storyline to advance it, and it was like you can't build it. I kept looking around at the menu. Now I was playing it on switch handheld, so it was a little bit small, but I needed these never mentioned or talked about before. Gel packs. It was like, right, or how do I make these? And then I had to build something else to make those, and I didn't have the resource for that. So it's all a little bit uh obtuse, I think, at first. And that's why I kind of call it diabolical because there are moments where I'm absolutely loving it. You kind of fly from planet to planet, and it's a bit choose your own adventure. I think Seb's got the bits up on screen. You've got to collect enough sort of dilithium, for want of a better word, to keep the engines powered. Having these different rooms around on requires power, so that's something you're constantly having to hunt down. Got to make sure you've got adequate crew quarters. I'm only running on emergency quarters at the minute, which is having an effect on crew morale. I'll tell you one thing it reminds me of, Seb. In the side on, when you kind of click on a room, you can click on it again and go into the room, and it does give me very U-boat vibes. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, this is an indie game that's managed to attract a Star Trek license from what I can work out. I don't think they're a big studio. Uh, this is why I'm hailing this to be indie game. Uh I'm saying, and I hey, hey, hey, hey, well, way, hey, hey, wait, now I want to show the collective that I'm playing Will Inc. I'm okay. You want me out playing new games, I'll come out and play you new games, but I'll come out and play a U-boat simulator. It's indie. It's indie. Come at me. I'll come out and play a Star Trek game. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 31:44

I'm doing it. I was gonna say, I think this is I think this is very indie adjacent.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

I uh you know, like one a month, there's my 10 games, boom, I'm in your face, I'm the king of the Indies, baby.

SPEAKER_05 31:56

We'll see how this goes. We'll see how this does.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

I'm gonna grab Karen.

SPEAKER_05 31:59

Is Karen indie? Karen is indie, yeah. I'm actually playing, I've actually been playing Karen. I don't like Karen though. I I it is way too hard for my liking.

SPEAKER_01 32:09

But I'm gonna grab it and then be ace at it so you hate me and finish it and tell you I want a great experience. 10 out of 10.

SPEAKER_05 32:15

I hope you do have a 10 out of 10 experience with it. I keep falling, I keep falling and stuff like that, and I'm like, ah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Yeah, but it's a roguelike, so surely every time you fall you learn a bit more and you can climb a bit higher, or is it even more punishing than that?

SPEAKER_05 32:30

I haven't felt I okay, I'll be honest. I don't feel the rogue components as strongly are present, like as present as a lot of like rogue games that I play. It feels more it feels more survival. There, that's the bloody biolab, sorry. No, keep going. Um, but no, I going back to Star Trek real quick, um, I think this is really cool. It reminds me a lot of like the game I recommended um months ago called The Altars, to where you're always you're building your ship and you're kind of like having to do resource management and mixed in a little bit with like you said, Fallout Shelter. And because like this does feel like it could be a mobile game in a lot of ways, to where like it feels like the top of the screen.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

If if you're on the audio, there's some resources at the screen that are numbered that you have to collect up in small amounts. Uh you know, if you're seeing it on the video, you'll see it. It just feels very mobile, but mobile-y, and some of the assets are quite hard to get hold of. And like I say, it wouldn't be a surprise to me if this popped up and and and tried to charge me or make me watch a video uh some clickbaity game that I'm shooting at soldiers coming down at me in their thousands, and then my soldier upgrades, and then this two sold- you know the advert does my bloody heading.

SPEAKER_05 33:52

Um I'm I wonder, um, just out of curiosity, what like I know you're you said you were a Star Trek fan. What made you dive into this one and how does it play on console? Because I played it on PC, where it kind of feels at home with the mouse a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Um, I mean, yeah, pop it off now because I think people are probably bored about Star Trek. Uh I think it plays reasonably well. I've never really had any issues with it. It's the usual sort of L or R to get across that top menu. Um, I'm playing it on Switch as a sound handheld mode, so it I don't know if there's any mouse functionality baked into that. Um, but if there was, I very much doubt I'd use it because I'm very anti that sort of drivel. Mouse is you have your switch too though.

SPEAKER_05 34:37

What have you not tried the mouse component on that? I I'm not into that.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

No, I'd much rather make it yeah, I'm not into it. I'm not mean to making it easy, said what the hell's wrong with you. Uh I also don't want to be part of the I'm not a big enough boy to be part of the PC Master Race, and I certainly don't want to rock up to a PC Master Race party with a Switch 2 on its side. Uh I just think there's something a little bit off about rocking a Switch mouse, Switch 2 Joy-Con inverted.

SPEAKER_05 35:01

It's that's like 50% of what the Switch 2 was boasting as it's like prime features this this like generation though.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Yeah, it was like 50% and the mouse. Mate, the other 50% was that it made the Switch 1 games look better. Do you know what? That's why I bought that's why I bought it. It made some of my Switch 1 games playable, and for that I'll always be grateful for it. Um where was I at? Yeah, so I find that okay. Um I'm a Star Trek fan, so some of the interactivity of the menus is an odd to like the classic L cars menu, as they call it in the show, full nerd depth reveal from me there. So I church only the oh, Star Trek fan.

SPEAKER_05 35:46

Does this kind of like scratch the itch of what you've actually been wanting out of the game?

SPEAKER_01 35:50

That's what you were saying. How does it compare to other more recent Star Trek games? I grabbed that last one, the more sort of telltale type experience. I can't remember what it was called. I enjoyed that to start with, then bounced off of it. I'll be honest with you. Um I didn't hear great things. No, it was okay, um, but it wasn't what I wanted. While I was playing this, I did think about going back to it just to have like that Star Trek experience. I don't know what's wrong with me, but yeah, uh I don't think I will. I think this is a way better game than that, by the way. And I know a lot of people probably wouldn't agree with it, but I think if you're into Star Trek, I got the premium edition with the DLC, which adds some more uh proper story. Oh yeah, stand back pal. If I'm going in, I'm going in both fields.

SPEAKER_05 36:35

How much was that? Um because I think the standard game is like, correct me if I'm wrong, like $30 to $35?

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, it was like $35, I think, for the full pack. So yeah, I thought why not? And I and the reason why is because it uh I think from what I can work out and from what I'm working out, it adds in some more

Consoles, Controls, And Strategy Game Tangents

SPEAKER_01 36:56

direct related direct story-related missions from further into um Voyager storyline or some more maybe cast poignant moments. Either which way it pads out a game that I thought, well, that might need padding out because if it gets a bit sort of procedural in its sort of mid to two-thirds, having that sort of actual properly generated mission to swing for is probably going to be its saving grace as you make the final grasp in the closing hours. So, yeah, without that, the game would without any of the Star Trek story elements on top of it, and you're just sort of flying from ultimately the main aim of the game is to get home, so you're just flying from star system to star system collecting up these resources so you can fill out Voyager. Uh yeah, good luck to you. Um that could be well boring. Uh, and the last thing to say on that one is the combat. What the hell? Um that felt like an afterthought. Yeah, you didn't auto-resolve because you know it's gonna end up get you're gonna get burnt. Even if you go in with a thousand torpedoes and fully beamed up and rack the ghost didn't agree. Did you see the lights? It did. Uh that's like the pickers and my favorite game of all time. All these little video Easter eggs talk about cannibalizing your audio feed just to get people onto YouTube. If only half of those people showed up, we'd uh I'd be retired.

SPEAKER_05 38:29

So uh Have you ever played Stolaris? It's like a 4X um civilization style game in space. It's very it it's a lot of like Yeah. I'm like, did that not click with you? Because it seems like if you're big into the side of the. Stolaris is way it's deeper.

SPEAKER_01 38:49

Oh mate. Like if we're measuring those two games by scale, Voyager is an evaporating puddle on a Texas red hot pavement. It's pretty hot here. Stellaris is the fully stocked Olympic size swimming pool right next to it. I was wondering, uh seems like something you do. Because it was like I wanted to like it, I really did. And as soon as I started peeling back on the layers of that onion, I just thought, wow, that's a swan, that's one big mother f and onion.

SPEAKER_05 39:28

I think it's if you actually dive into it and commit to it, it's like it's really good. And it's it I I'm a civilization person, so I'm like, it's just it feels like everything I wanted to have a space type of game like that. But I'm like, I couldn't play stuff. I I I know, mate.

SPEAKER_01 39:46

I've bought the game, I own it, I've actually spent real money on it, uh, and I've tried. Uh, it's just it's not little big workshop, is it? Well, I bounced off when I kind of drained my little big workshop addiction. I went on the hunt for other strategy games, and that's when I found Stellaris. Maybe if I go back to it now and try and play it without the fact that I'm thinking that it should be these little guys walking around making mopeds, I might get into it a bit more because I did find that I wanted a game that was just exactly like Little Big Workshop, and then couldn't find anything like it.

SPEAKER_05 40:28

Um I like to congratulate you, George. You are playing a 2026 game. Like, that's a bit that's a big thing. Welcome to the party, pal! Every time I want I hear about a PS2, PS3, or V.

SPEAKER_01 40:43

Let me put it right, because I need to give you an update. Because also on that same Switch 2, I've been playing my 2017 Switch 2 farming simulator edition, because I'll tell you why, because everyone is on tender hooks. Because I mentioned that I played this last in a hotel and I didn't pay attention to it when it was on 120 times speed set, okay, and I nearly blew the harvest. Oh no, oh yeah. Now if Voyager's diabolical, this is Katsick wrapped up in a tortilla bread and fed to you one little nibble at a time. It is it's a great game though, and I love it. Because it's farming simulated full fat on the go. It's not got mods, admittedly, but it's still the full fat. It's got the bits in I need. Alright, it has. Okay. But I turned it on, I'd saved it. Last thing I did before I turned it off was put it in real-time speed. Dude, I came back to that combine. Me and the AI, we cleaned up the baby, we got the three fields in in time. While I got one field half um harvested, hooked up my moy on my brand new plough, wheeled him in, and boom, he started plowing the side that we'd already harvested. And and and said, let me tell you, it was it was probably on switch to one of the most beautiful sites. It cleared the map down, it cleared off the in-game helper, just positioned this right. I tell you what, I'd have been prouder. It was this like the AI just powering these vehicles up and down. Me sat there like farm manager, you know, watching the combine go to O Mate on the plow. I was like, Yeah, I've made it. I'm someone I'm sat there. My wife, right? She's watching hoarders, the American show hoarders, where they go and Yeah, oh yeah. Oh yeah, baby. So I'm looking up every now and then from my little slob pile on the sofa. Feeling so you're playing this in handheld. Oh yeah. Feeling gotcha. Not so bad about myself uh sat playing this game because I look up and see people in abject filth. I saw this one woman, sorry, poor sorry woman. She was living or in a uh caravan that can only, or you might call it a mobile home over there. I don't know what you might call it, or you might even call it a house, you know. Uh this thing it was piled high with garbage inside, and I mean garbage, and this woman's only source of incomes income was the eggs that she was selling from the chickens that she had. Now she was breeding these chickens so she could get more chickens, so she could get more eggs. Well, she didn't really have a door on her house, so the chickens were using her house also as their house. Oh no. And she was eating and living in here. I also saw a woman who uh had decided that she couldn't toilet anywhere other than these bottles, so she toileted one and two. I don't know if the number one and number two crossed. As the Atlantic server, you'll have to tell me. But she took a number one

God Of War Metroidvania: Nostalgia And Mechanics

SPEAKER_01 44:03

and number two in these bottles and stored them in her garden. Not for a not for a couple of weeks. I'm talking maybe 20 years. And this garden was like four of those maybe 10 litre bottles. I don't know how a video game show gets talking about this, but what it gave me was this separation. It's a wild episode. I was in this on American map attending to my beautiful looking cornfields, and then the contrast was a lady who had forgotten how long some of the kitchen, the eggs in her what can only be called a kitchen, had been there because the chickens just lay them on the counter, she's not sure. Uh were actually so off that someone immediately spewed up. I'm looking forward to getting the show finished so I can watch more of it. Because nothing elevates your personal status and watching someone in I know I feel sorry for him, I do, but and as well this one guy. Oh, that's a hundred thousand pound painting. And he the guy was like, It it's it's not, it's not. It's just not everything in here's worth money. Uh we haven't got time to go through all of it. Well, you have to. Right, okay. And this one woman, like they the first day she'd put a chair in the back of these three skip lorries, massive skip lorries turned up. Okay. After one day, she'd like managed to come to the conclusion she needed to get this chair gone, a broken chair. It went in the back of this truck, that was it. One full day's work, nothing else chosen. That was it. And this woman's house was insane.

SPEAKER_05 45:51

What so what is on the docket for you to play? Like, I know we normally do that at the end of the show. Do you have like a like a spreadsheet or a list? Or what how what in what in the world?

SPEAKER_01 46:02

Oh, I've got I'm using I'm trying to have a little bit of a game plan to stay relevant. So I'm throwing it, I'm dragging in because it was late edition to the family. I'm dragging in U-boat into 2026 because I grabbed it back end of the year, and uh, you know, I've I'll it's new to you. It's new to me, and I think it was a relatively new game out back in 2025. Uh so I'm br I'm bringing that forward. I've got can. Uh well, I'm getting can.

SPEAKER_05 46:26

Probably this weekend I'll get can. You're gonna have to tell me if you like it better than me, because right now I feel strong six-ish, but I get I'm that I'm on the outside looking in.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Hey, look, you know, a strong six makes that an equidistant game by my ranking to Star Wars Star Wars. You know, that is true, that is true. And look at all the bang and polish there, one would argue that is a pretty big game. Um, so yeah. Look, I was thinking this today, right? And you would be defeated by your own logic. Okay, if you could get this game on sale for 20 bucks, it's worth it for the sabak alone. Convince me otherwise.

SPEAKER_05 47:17

I would probably say if they made a standalone Sabak game, they can get away with selling it for $20. The price of admission that I would have to play Star Wars Outlaws in order to get to Sab uh like Sabak feels like it is a negative more than a positive as far as like. Did you finish that game? Yeah, finished. I actually I don't mind a lot of the game. I think the stealth was absolutely god-awful when uh when I played it at launch. I do think like some of the characters, especially in the later part of the game, are absolutely stale. I like KvS, but that wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

I'm gonna let me throw you a controversial George take on this now. I feel like the game that they now have fixed to appeal to people that were never gonna play it in the first place presents a fundamentally flawed and broken experience compared to the cohesive offering they put up that people just didn't gel with. So you didn't do the left and the light one? The new run and gun mechanics, as much as I didn't like the stealth, make no flipping sense. But then that feels Star Wars in a way not in a way that makes any sense. She's not one of the core characters, she's just someone living in the Star Wars universe as a smuggler. She's pretty good, but sneaking into an Imperial Fortress and killing over 300 guys and not leaving a mark. Wow, how come we've never heard of K Vest before? I get that. So to keep her small and keep it sensible, it's better that she sneaks in and sneaks out, be more of a ghost. I hated those sections. I absolutely detested them. But narratively, cohesive-wise, it weighed may more sense than walking in there on a Schwarzenegger with a minigun.

SPEAKER_05 49:22

I do get that. I I don't think this game's perfect in any means or or any facet. I actually, and I think like the the what is it, the glider or like the the bike that you use is one of the most abysmal forms of travel that I played in like the last five years. But what's which bike in in can or um if I remember correctly, there was one and there's the bike you ride in Tatooine, right? Oh, that yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Why didn't you lay in that? I mean, didn't you ever just drive into the desert and channel your inner not just the men, but the women and the children too. I just get moody blues into the distance Tatooine sunset with you know, and just sit happy with your Tatooine some people killing actions.

SPEAKER_05 50:21

I like the concept more than I like the execution. I like the um put it like this. I don't like the way it controls, and I for sure don't like the way the combat works whenever people are chasing after you.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

Like let me that let's end that there because I think I think we need to bring ourselves sharply back in focus because not only I've I'm about to lose relevance again, uh, and I want to be Mr. 2026, okay? I want to be all over it like a storge. I I threw uh comfort and nostalgia um and a busy life relaxed into a comfortable nostalgic blanket.

SPEAKER_05 51:05

But it's time like this to you are you gonna play God of War though? Like the God of War Metrovania? Does that feel like George?

SPEAKER_01 51:14

Got that by the way. Catch up, sit down, have a little uh five minutes to yourself. I'm all over that like a rash. I ought to talk about that really, but I don't know. Maybe you don't know what this George is like. This is fresh. Everyone's like, who's this recipe?

SPEAKER_04 51:33

Break the world down, I like this, George.

SPEAKER_05 51:41

I like this. This is chaos. I like this. He feels modern, he feels fresh.

SPEAKER_01 51:45

Yeah, got all the hot takes. Uh God of War, uh hey, it's alright. It's got a little bit of lack of direction. I think it's uh, as I said on the last episode, one of the best implementations of a CRT filter I have ever seen on a game. It's got this glow, it's got this kind of staggered repeat fashion to it. Underneath that, the game, yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_05 52:09

Um this isn't what you wanted out of uh when you heard God of War Metrovania, is it? You didn't really want the blades.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

You kind of wanted the blades there, right? I've seen I've I I see it's had a bit of a kick in by many people, including Jaffy, and that's cool, but it's not a bad game. Nah, for sure not. I think that um it's a bit frustrating its implementation of the controls a little bit, would be my one sort of concern. I still I think actually underneath, in the way it displays, I think it looks better with a CRT filter. I'm actually gonna stand by. I think without it, it looks a bit Streets of Rage 4, a little bit clip arty floating on the screen. It's got some pretty nostalgic colour palettes, uh, and and some of the creatures and design in there is nostalgic for like 16-bit, maybe 32-bit. But yeah, I don't think this is a bad game. I think like it's not a bad game, but it does feel very nostalgic. I think that's been lost on people. You know, it does feel very much like a game from the 80s, early 90s. It really does in the way it plays, in the way it jumps, the animations. I do think some people have kind of maybe not judged it. It's quite obviously turned up as a very retro game. It's even got a filter on it, even displayed in the trailers with filters as a thing that was this.

SPEAKER_05 53:38

Um I think a lot of people's problem is also like I think they narratively this isn't quite what they wanted, like this era of Kratos, which is I I think like people are unfairly judging this for what it isn't and instead of what it actually is. You get what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Like, yeah, but what I would say to them is if they're that heavy about the idea about what this should or shouldn't be in Kratos' lifetime, are those same people not aware of the litany of other games that we have had, either on PSP, PS2, or PS3, or PS4, and technically five as well, where we've seen how he became God of War, we've seen how he betrayed before that, we've seen on the PSP games before we got to the PS3 and got ascension as well. What part of this timeline are you wanting us to cover exactly? Because I think we've pretty much right, we've stomped a mud hole in that ass and walked it dry, so we can only go pre-Kratos, and at this point, we can go to the point where he's a kid, we've got nowhere else left to go. Uh and to that end, telling that through the lens of the media of the time it would have had to have come out to be coherent to the time era of the gaming sphere that it would have had to launch in, i.e., like a 16-bit time era, to do the game in that era is actually quite brave, and I think it's quite an interesting way of framing a prequel game up like that to give it the age that it would have been if it would technically have come out before God of War on PS2 when well possibly it would have looked like this. Interesting.

SPEAKER_05 55:23

I just I'm just glad it's a smaller experience because I feel like we've been a lot of people have been harking on hey, we need smaller experiences in games, games are getting a little too big and bulky as far as budget goes. This doesn't feel like this is actually gonna like tank anyone's studio

News Setup: Layoffs, Live Service, Industry Health

SPEAKER_05 55:43

if this game doesn't make 200 million dollars, you know. I agree. Yeah. So, George, you wanted to talk about the news.

SPEAKER_01 55:53

I do. I'm reffed up and ready to hit the news. Alright. I want to take you by the hand. Uh I want to say this is the we've been patrolled the very darkest regions of the internet. I've even spent a little bit of time on the dark web. You naughty boy. Yeah. Ordered myself an anarchist cookbook.

SPEAKER_04 56:14

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 56:17

And we bagged those things aside and we found these uh very hottest, latest bits of news served up on a silver platter for your delictation. I say we surf the darkest areas of the internet. We've gone to the Holy Trinity, as always, because no one serves up news better than gaming's Catholic's own. It's Push Square, Nintendo Life, and Pure Xbox said I almost need like a chiral hymn noise from you there, like a like the Gran Turismo noise. Uh more like sort of uh a hymn to his heavenly father.

SPEAKER_00 56:54

Uh nailed it.

SPEAKER_05 57:03

Well, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

No it we'll clip it, we'll make it work. Um mumse, have we got any money for? Oh, we'll leave it in. Uh okay.

SPEAKER_05 57:23

So where's

Skate Layoffs And Live-Service Reality Check

SPEAKER_05 57:24

push square talking about?

SPEAKER_01 57:25

Uh Push Square, Stephen Tolby. Stephen Telby, who is uh I mean he's he he got it all at school, all the grief about having a tail. He ain't got a tale, but I tell you what, he tells a tale. That's why he's a journalist. Um and this time he tells a quite a sad tale, as the headline reads, Skate Dev suffers layoffs to better support the game's long-term future. Full circle reshaping. Stephen tells us, Full circle, the studio behind PS5 and PS4 skate has announced a round of layoffs. The number of people affected has not been disclosed. News comes via an update on the official website addressing the skate community about the game's future. The statement says the studio is being restructured to better support skate's long-term future and focus the team on the things that matter most to you and making those things great. It notes some laws will be some roles will be impacted, stopping short of explaining how many people are being let go, is the official statement. The teammates affected are talented colleagues and friends who have helped build the foundation of Skate. Their creativity and dedication are deeply ingrained in what players experience today. The decision is not a reflection of their impact, and we're committed to supporting them through this transition. Work on the game is set to continue with Full Circle aiming to move fastly, listen more closely, and deliver consistently following this change. Many years after its initial release, skates finally launched in early access state in September last year. It's free to play reboot, the fan favourite skateboarding series with large online open world city full of skate spots and challenges for you and other players to tackle together. While the gameplay is excellent and in line with what fans will expect from a skate game, many surrounding factors have come under scrutiny, including the visuals, the core structure, and the way unlocks and monetization have been handled. Full Circle has been steadily updating the game with new features, cosmetics, challenges, visual improvements, and seasonal events. But progress has been fairly slow. It's come under a lot of criticism from players. This perhaps reached breaking point very recently when Skate Season 3 announcements were made. The tutorial island is being brought back and expanded, but access to the map is strangely restrictive, going against an early promise to never block off map updates. Whether the game can bounce back following these layoffs remains to be seen. Said Sad news um down at Skate Developer Full Circle, uh, with some people being let go. Uh I kind of want to talk to you about it through the sort of mindset of two things laying off staff to help improve the game. Um I don't ever know when that ever worked. And then secondly obviously through recent weeks and months we've been talking about layoffs in the industry. Uh that's a wider question. Uh, but I'd like your thoughts on it and where this is going because it doesn't feel like the sink is quite emptied on the layoffs, as far as I'm concerned, just yet.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

Alright, I'm gonna give you I'm gonna give you a list of games and tie this all together. Give me a stone call, Steve Austin, what after I say a game, please, if you don't mind. Consider it done. Alright. Transformers uh retro reactive. What? Alright, there you go. Um Ben uh uh uh undisclosed Ben Studios game. What? Blue point games, undisclosed game, yeah. Earthblade. What football manager 25 respawn man and multiplayer FPS game.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:17

What?

SPEAKER_05 1:01:18

Um evidently battle aces. What? And let's go with Xenomax online new MMO style game.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

What?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

Give me a hell yeah!

SPEAKER_05 1:01:34

Yep. Skate what you know um you wanna know what uh why I listed all those games? Yes. They're all live service games that shut that are not only having trouble, but are basically going to shut down if they aren't already shut down. Let me add a bit of amplified information.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

The mood is in the room. Obviously, we had a quite successful state of play from Sony, but th four days before they just randomly shit out one sad Thursday afternoon the full video drop of Gorilla's uh Horizon MMO online hunter game. Now D-O-A. DOA as I said, the the plot thickens. Uh as I said at the time, it felt like that had been cut out of a state of play to save it. And I feel like one of those videos, probably that foreplay game or whatever it was called, is foreplay can't be right, they can't call a game that anyway. Felt like that was inserted. The plot thickens because

Gran Turismo On Switch 2 Rumor And Hardware Limits

SPEAKER_01 1:02:48

I um was asked for feedback about what I thought about that that online game, and I get sent an invite to a beta. They are pushing that game, they are desperate for that to work. But I think, as you say, the mood in the room is that these online games, they're just not wanted. The ecosystem is full with players that are already trapped in ecosystems they are married to. They're not coming to play these third, this third-rate tat.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:20

No, um, it's so hard to be a live new live service game. Um, and I I will say my heart goes out to all the people who are affected by job loss. I do hope every one of you lands on your feet if you're listening. Um, I don't mean to be crass in that. I do think that this live service bubble has been absolutely bursting in this last couple these last couple of months, and uh it's getting worse to where I feel like the wave was landing on the beach of realization as Concorde was about to come out.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:54

When Concorde landed, that was the wave hitting, and from there it's been game over, it's dead on arrival. I don't do you think marathon can survive?

SPEAKER_05 1:04:03

I don't, and I also, you know, I don't think marathon survives, but I also don't like I don't think Bungie is going to let Marathon die a quick death. You know, like Concord, you know, Concord, you know, didn't have fell on its sword, it was like, yeah, I'm done. Yeah, and the studio wasn't quite bungee as well, you know, like and for all the things that people talk about with Bungie, Destiny 2 has been one of those games that have hit so many ups and downs over the last like 10 years, it's not even funny. It's like every time you every time you hear someone talk about Destiny 2, there's always like an asterisk around, oh, it's good, but oh ah, oh okay, now they made this type of mistake, now they made this type of mistake, and that's like the player count is like it's gotten to a rough spot. It's and bringing this all back to the the conversation at hand with skate, skate was in a tough position from the onset because how many live service games would you say have been successful since the pandemic started? I can only think of one new one, and I think that was Helldivers 2.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:22

Yeah, it depends if you go back to there, like maybe around the circle of that time, but probably came out before time's a bit of a mystery to you. Helldivers, I think I would throw my bat in there and say that's been a success. The sad thing for that is it completely took Sony by surprise. They kind of fluttered that under the door, really, if you think about it within the within the effort they put into Concord and other titles that launched concurrently. They swept Helldivers under the floor. And then it hit, and then they went, Oh, uh, yeah, we're into this. Embarrassing.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:58

Oh, okay. There's two. There's two. I would say Arc Raiders and Hill Divers. Only two that I can think of. When did Warzone come out?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:07

Call of Duty Warzone? Oh.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:15

Let's see. That was right at right when the pandemic started. So that was March 10th of 2020.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

That's what caused my hesitance, you see. Depends when you pull the line down. I would throw that into the mix because I think it breaks the Fortnite, you know, headlock. Um, yeah, and I feel Arc Raiders has got definitely the momentum right now. I mean, a lot of people talking to me about that game, people you wouldn't expect as well, talking about it, being very into it, being very engaged with the uh online universe and the um like the incremental levels and support and bits and bobs they add to it. I was gonna say seasons, but I don't know if that's like play it out. I've not played it myself.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:59

There's so there's three real ones that I would probably say have come out since the pandemic that have been un undisputed successes. Everything else you could probably see either dead, dying, or you know, in a sad, sad, pathetic state. Um, Highguard, a game that came out not even like seven weeks ago at this point, is just utterly curb-stomped. Absolutely curb-stomped. You know, it's to the point to where Highguard, I could see uh that was a game by Wildlife Entertainment. It was the last game that was announced during um the Game Awards this past year. It was like the grand finale, it was the live service PvP um raid shooter um game that was kind of fantasy-based. It was made by a lot of the same people who made um um what was the um what was the game that is kind of like the hero shooter type of game, not the the same people who made um Titanfall and then they made the spin-off of Titanfall. What was I don't know what the spin-off game is called. Um you'd know it if you heard it. No, um you'd know it if you heard it. Let's see, it is Apex, Apex Legends. Of course it is.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:22

Uh when did that come out?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:24

19. Okay. So that was the so my point being is if you why come out with a live service game of skate knowing you're seeing all these bodies, knockout City, um like all these bodies of live service games that don't make it. So you're like, why do that in the first place when you can take smaller dividends and just make it? I'll tell you why. Because money talks. Money talks if you're still around to make it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:56

Yeah, yeah, but but I mean, I'm not here to defend this at all, any of the actions, but you know, oh, we're gonna we're thinking about relaunching Skype. Yeah, but although we hear a lot of fans talk about it, we're not too sure if it's gonna sell. Well, what else are you thinking? Well, we could make it online. Well what are you thinking? Why are you thinking online? Well, we can sell people skateboards

Do Exclusives Still Matter? Xbox Strategy

SPEAKER_01 1:09:21

and stuff. Yeah, alright, go for it. Because then if it if it wins, we win big time, and if it fails You've just shut down a whole studio and basically Yeah, but I don't think you really you you're not we're thinking with heart and passion, and with humanity, no, no, I'm thinking individuals logistic as well.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:42

Like you shut down a whole not only shut down a whole studio, but you killed an IP. Like an IP an IP is only like can only be tarnished so much before no one takes it seriously for a future installment. Mate. And so I'm like mate skates fine. Saints Row. I would argue Saints Row once upon a time would have been fine with shit installments, and now Saints Row is a dead IP.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:11

Saints Row was a dead IP the minute it woke up from the grave with its first iteration.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:17

Saints Row was a successful IP for like the first four installments.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:21

I've never played such a jelly mold looking ridiculous game. The minute it's ridiculous, but it's the double N purple dildo. That game lost any credibility it once ever had. And it's it had barely any. It's sold. Sold. How many games did it sell as a percentage versus GTA 4?

SPEAKER_05 1:10:41

That's that's comparing the yeah, that's like comparing soccer, mainline soccer versus what do y'all call it? Like the delegated zone or derelegated zone? Relegated zone.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:57

I don't think so. No, it's made by studio, turned up, rocked up, acclaimed to be eating from the same bowl. Heck, said I'll use one of your words and you're gonna regret using it now. Inspired by, you know.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:10

You could be inspired by something, but could be completely in a different league than it than it. GTA not only had almost like a 10 to 15 year head start on a new IP, but it also had the cachet of some of the best games ever created. I'm like, you're you're not you're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:30

So Saints Rose should have made sure they were absolutely awesome, but they were happy to release a 6 out of 10 game and and make out that it was all part of their plan from the start. A bit like my idea with this show.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:44

Yakuza is living off of 6 of the 7 games.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:49

Like that is if that was your argument.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:56

He signed the contract? He did, didn't he? Get HR. I'm having his guts out. You never come in here talking smack about. Only I can talk smack about Yakuza. Don't ever get a now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:08

Yakuza, what do you call that then?

SPEAKER_01 1:12:09

If it's get Helen from HR, get her now.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:13

But you better simmer down. I'm I'm also talking bad about Yakuza, but talking good about it as well. Yakuza is a game series that I think like Okay, Helen is you're not needed. No, I don't think Helen's needed yet. But it is one of those things to where like Yakuza does things in a such a smart way because like they're they make something, they make it smaller scale, and then they push it out like 12 to 20 different times. Like they also know where their bread is buttered, and they don't go after the live service push. They're like, hey, we instead we can come out with something that is I would probably say like par for our quality of games, and then we can also like keep pushing that out and not tarnish our name and not tarnish our RP, and we're fine with making two million to three million dollars per unit, you know, it's a success story for them. And what I'm saying is I think they're close, they're very close.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:17

They're so so they're within a hair's whisker of walking that IP into the bin.

SPEAKER_05 1:13:24

They're their strategy's working though, right now. But if you see a game like skate, a skate isn't I I think you're over inflating skate's value as an IP, first of all. And then second of all, I don't know. Oh I don't think you we in the same bathrooms as I do. Everyone loves a bit of skate. I think Tony Hawk was a much bigger IP than skate. I don't that skate had the chops. It had the chops, but we're comparing Tony Hawk was GTA versus Skate was Saints Row. Hey, do you want to hear a secret?

SPEAKER_01 1:14:03

What's up, dude? Over on Nintendo Life, there's a rumour. Liam Doolin, he's he's he's got a glass out, right? Oh yeah. He used an empty glass and he put it to the wall of his bed sit. Little did he know. Next door was some big wigs from Sony. So he's got this story. Sony apparently has Gran Turismo running on the Switch 2. Just don't expect to ever see it. We don't do leaks and we don't do rumours here on the UCP, but we are today. PlayStation's Gran Turismo 7 has apparently been leaked to the Switch 2 in a wild new rumour, but it doesn't necessarily mean what you might be thinking. This information comes from journalist Jeff Grubb, who recently responded to a fan on his show asking a question about the real driving simulator and the possibility possibility of it racing to another platform. While there was a fair amount of speculation on Grubb's end about other Sony franchises during this segment, in terms of Gran Turismo, he claims he's actually heard about a Switch 2 version is his actual words. This is Jeff Grubb's quote. I heard recently that Gran Turismo was running on the Switch 2. I don't think it's going to come to the Switch 2. I just heard they've got it running on it. So why would Sony bother to get the game running like this and running on the Switch 2, but not even consider a release? One popular theory seems to be it's testing the waters as rumors circulate about the company potentially releasing a new PlayStation handheld. In other words, this could be research and development and nothing more. Gaming the enthusiasts online have pointed out how companies over the years got titles up and running on certain platforms but never went any further. If this is more than a rumour, it necessarily be the first time, it wouldn't necessarily be the first time we've heard something like this. Um switch to uh push square added a little note to this uh holy trinity article, may I add? And they know, and I was talking about this with RGT only a week ago, so you say I'm not on the white hot edge of gaming, Seb. You just don't know how close to it I am. When you're that close to the sun, you just don't know what anything else looks like anymore. What do you think about all this, George? Hang on, let me finish. Okay, guys. Because the Switch 2, as I've much argued, is hamstrung by the fact it has no analog triggers. Meaning it's barely usable for driving games. They are just buttons, Seb. There is no featherable ability at all. So you have to go bit, bit, bit, bit, bit, bit, bit to drive down the road without going crazy.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:54

So they don't curve like remind me, they don't like curve in the back or anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

Oh, they curve in the back, but that that plastic facade just presses onto a button rather than giving you a variable trigger. On a PlayStation or Xbox, you just press it, you can have 10% power, you can have 20 cent power, you can have 30, 40 all the way through to 100. On the Switch, it's either on or it's off, making driving games an absolute nightmare. So, yeah, if they brought it there, that would be uh hell in a handbasket.

SPEAKER_05 1:17:29

So suppose you don't have like a speed barometer and Mario Kart or Kirby Air riders either. It's just go, right? It is literally just go and drift.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:41

Yeah, that's true. So question for you we live in an era where every manufacturer has been sent by the other manufacturer of video game consoles one of their development kits. And with their Switch 2 development kit, the boys at Polyphony were sat around and they went, hmm. We're never gonna use that. No, we're not. What we're gonna do with it? See if you can I want to play Switch, I want to play Gran Turismo in the bath, and I don't want to do it on the pool, I want to do it on the Switch 2. Yeah, we got you, boss, we'll sort it.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:22

To be fair, they were probably given the the the whole like development kit for the Horizon Lego game and other and oh a myriad of games, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:34

MLB, yeah, yeah, and mine the the Minecraft boys have obviously got a Switch 2 development kit, a Switch 1 development kit, PS4 development kit, must have a PS3 development kit, must have a PS5 development kit, must have a pro development kit. Um Sony and Nintendo have both got Series S and X's, no doubt, as well. So they're just not using them. But I digress. Are we being unfair? They've got a new boss over there, and well, we'll get to that.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:08

Well, we

Nintendo Pricing, Ports, And eShop Frustrations

SPEAKER_05 1:19:09

will, but uh okay, so uh opinion on this. I think this is a nothing burger. Um absolutely I think yeah. Um do you know why it's here?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:18

Why is that it's here? It's a vehicle to allow me to talk to you about the state of the industry and the state of the industry exclusives. Do they matter or don't they matter? And if they do matter, is it more important to get them out on other systems, or is it more important to keep them where they are and use them to make them the reason to buy a system? Option two, Your Honor.

SPEAKER_05 1:19:43

Option two It's better to keep your exclusives. Keep them where they're at. Okay, so it's the only thing keeping Nintendo alive at this point. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

But with Microsoft adopting the strategy of anything everywhere all at once, something that you're a big advocate of. Obviously, your phone's an Xbox now, your I don't know, your fridge is an Xbox now, your shoe cleaning kit from your aunt and uncle uh Smith is an Xbox now.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:17

Um I'm a big advocate of every of like play anywhere. I'm not a big advocate of putting your exclusives on other consoles.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:27

Right. Okay. But Xbox are doing that, and they're making money doing it. Surely the others are now thinking we could do that. Now I don't think they are. Okay, because the thing I see it as this now. Sony and Nintendo weathered the storm to some regard, you know, factor in the news that Sony have sold off their TV panel division right now, so they're kind of all in on entertainment and nothing else. Their strategy is solely refocused down on PlayStation and their entertainments division, anime, etc. etc. movies. Alright, they're nowhere else right now. So they're sat there, they weathered the storm. Now they get the benefit of all Xbox's big games on their platform. But Xbox has lost that ability. Now I'm sure games will frame it up as though Xbox are more fan dedicated, they're more willing, they're more you know, willing to share their games, aren't they a good company? But good companies don't survive, do they?

SPEAKER_05 1:21:31

No, um also I'm like, it's not because they're a good company, they also have shareholders, and shareholders said make more money immediately. Like, we want more money now, more so than we want a long-term vision of riding a ship around. They're like, hey, go out and put that, go out and put that that game that's five to six years old on the other consoles if you can make it. If they can get Game Pass on the other two devices, they absolutely would. But yeah, I don't think this is I I actually thought we'd have seen it on Switch by now. I don't. Nintendo wants and lives primarily through that that eShop. And with what 30% of the 30 to 40% of that the games are that are already on the eShop.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:22

If that's where don't get me revved up about the Switch eShop, fella. Just don't do it. It's a garbage place, but bite you to death. That is the stinkiest. You go in the curated sections, actually, very nice, some interesting things going on. A curated section of games chosen just for you based on your uh games you've played and desires you seem to express. That bit's cool. The rest of it, absolutely awful. The content curation, the Nintendo seal of quality used to stand for something. Now it stands for mobile game, force fed to you like foie gras 249. Absolute shit. Off door.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:05

I wholeheartedly agree with you, but like um, I uh you get to arguments for me, but like there are certain games that Nintendo does not, will not, and cannot want on a screen like streaming service that's available on their platform when they can are and can and will and are notorious for double dipping on old ass video games, and because because their fans are like pigs in a slop and they'll be like, Oh, I get to play a nine-year-old video game and get charged full price for it again. I'm gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:47

Ah, that pissed me off. And I've been waiting for maybe blue just to drop on the Game Boy Online section so I can feel like I'm getting something for my Nintendo Online money. Nah. You're paying for that dribble. We're gonna give you the DS ones on purpose just so we know that we haven't got an emulator than that one so we can hide behind the facade of it not being workable. Like absolute snakes. And then they're gonna charge you 2000. I got my and green. They're robbing me, but at least they had the decency to put a mask on, said. Does that make you feel good about it? I'm like, you're still getting robbed. Yeah, it makes you feel better that you know it's not someone that you you know and like. You know, I know and like Nintendo, I wouldn't like to think they're robbing me, so at least they turn up and hide under the guise of not being able to put it online for you, so you've got to buy it. Like, all right, Nintendo, fair enough. If they told me the truth, I'll be furious. That is craziness, dude. And the truth is, I just need more cash. So give it to me. And while you're here, while you're here, why don't you pick up a Switch dock for you two that so you can play Virtual Boy games that you also need the online subscription for? Another piece of useless tap that you might want for your gamer collection. How's your relationship with your wife going? Well, it's on edge because I keep picking up all this garbage you sell to me, Nintendo. Oh, really? Sorry about that. Would you like the virtual boy? Well, I'm struggling to say no at this point.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:14

I I'm baffled because you're getting a virtual boy. I wouldn't. Uh no, I there's nothing nothing about me that wants to get a virtual boy.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:24

I don't I wouldn't you wouldn't wear it in downtown sort of Dallas, like a pair of shades. You wouldn't want to look like one of the Apple sort of AI crew.

SPEAKER_05 1:25:34

I think I think like the modern AI people would laugh at me, first of all. Like with the the my the modern people who are wearing like MetaQuests and stuff like that, they're like, he's gonna blind himself wearing that ugly. That'd be like respect. If you robbed up with that, they'd be like, wow, look at this dude, he's in 2050, we're in 2026. No, it is it's absolutely crazy. No, um, I don't I I don't have any I don't have any like nostalgia for the those type of things, so I also don't have any pool for it. So it a Pokemon I do have nostalgia for. Like I loved Fire Riding and Leaf Green. I'm not paying $28 for it, and I'm also like there's so many allegedly other ways of playing that game that I know that they just put I know that they just gave an emulator out to basically like port this game over to the Switch, and I'm like, it's disgusting, it's absolutely disgusting. Because I'm like, you have a you have a subscription plan and that people pay for that then you could have put this on for your your loyal fans who basically eat your slop.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:44

That's the tang I don't like when they could have given and and hey, don't look at it through and this is what pisses me off with modern companies, not just video game companies. Think how if they'd have used it as a method to sell Nintendo online uh subscriptions, they would have made way more bank than they would have selling these individually.

SPEAKER_05 1:27:09

I think it's also worse. They they that they basically maybe $20 a pop for each language. Something that used to just come with the game. I'm like, come with a game like this. They'll teach you English quicker than Nintendo's greed said. Let's look at it that way. God, I I'm not a Nintendo person, but at all. But it's things like this that make me interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:32

I want to see me dressed up in a in like a Mario or Luigi fancy dress costume. I would Which Nintendo character do you see yourself most resonating with?

SPEAKER_05 1:27:43

Um Ness, because he never gets any love by Nintendo either. He gets dog walked by Nintendo as well.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:52

What the hell is Ness? Um, Earthbound. Oh my god. He never gets any love from being walked. You don't get any love from me. How dare you?

SPEAKER_05 1:28:04

No, no. Nintendo is

Population In Open Worlds And Performance Rants

SPEAKER_05 1:28:09

Ness is so bad right now that the only way he actually gets put on modern consoles is if he shows up in a Smash Brothers game.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:17

Before you're buried six foot under the ground, that kid will get hoarded out. You think so? Oh, it'll be a massively online multiplayer game. Oh, that's so sad.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:28

Tell me I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:30

I don't I don't think you're wrong. Um he's gonna be wake up from the slab for one reason and one reason only. Daddy wants more cash.

SPEAKER_05 1:28:38

It shocked me though, because like it feels like him and War Lee War War Legie are are destined to be like supporting characters for like all their games. By the way, you know um the Pokemon um ZA game that just came out. Do you remember we talked about Yakuza? You um Yakuza was it Kwame 2? Yeah. Okay. I I was looking at a comparison side by side of a guy um nearby playing both games, right? We he had him on two screens, and he was showing me, he was just like, This is why Pokemon ZA pisses me off. And I laughed because I was just like, I didn't know where he was going. I couldn't find the correlation between those. There are more NPCs walking around in that Yakuza game from 20 years ago than there are in a modern-day Pokemon game on a modern day console, and I was baffled by this.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:38

City NPCs have always been a gripe, let's face it, going all the way back to like Oblivion or Morrowind or something like that, it's always been an issue. You go in these massive cities of no one, and you can either have faceless no ones, or you can have no ones that have got a little bit of flesh, but it looks like the Pokemon game just didn't bother.

SPEAKER_05 1:29:56

No, they didn't bother, but no, I I do think we're getting better at that as far as like open world games like populating their areas a lot. Even like I you know I give Ubisoft like hail sometimes. I think they're getting better at populating their open world games.

SPEAKER_01 1:30:12

Yeah, I I I it they're still the West world of like games, so you know, the whole MPC thing is like there's nothing solid in there, it's all just generated walk around the corner, dribble.

SPEAKER_05 1:30:29

There's nothing of substance, I get what you mean. But at least, like, at least you can look at those games and be like, oh, my console is being powered on for apparent reason. Like, there should be no reason why any Pokemon game shouldn't run at 90 FPS at this point because there's nothing there, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 1:30:47

Yeah, they could look basically have the Game Boy game emulated and running in the background and then just generate 3D graphics on the screen to represent something else. Hey, listen, I'm not a developer, I don't pretend to know. But guess what? Someone was able to sit down, the boss of Xbox, and ask them some questions. Ah, Miss Fraser, yeah. Fraser Gilbert got the lowdown and he slapped it on the internet over on Pure Xbox. That's right. That is the final trifecta of the Holy Trinity. Uh anyway, he writes ever since Ashishama was announced on the new X as a new Xbox boss last Friday, there's been speculation about whether exclusive games would uh could become part of Xbox strategy in the future once again. And she's at least partially addressed this in an interview with Windows Central. Let's cut to a quote. When asked what Aya Sharma thought about the idea of returning to exclusive games, she said, right now I need to learn candidly about the why of these decisions. What were we optimising for and what the data says about the Xbox strategy today? That's the honest answer. I'm looking at lifetime value, not just what happened in the previous moment. Or in short-term efficiency and things like that. That's the plan until it's not the plan. Ultimately, it sounds like there's a slight chance of exclusives becoming more prominent in Xbox future, but the new Xbox boss doesn't really care or have any no, she I I made that bit up. She doesn't really have any answers right now, it's simply too early to make judgments. What's refreshing is that she's keen to look at the bigger picture, hopefully, and analyse every single element of the current strategy to see what's working and isn't. And although there's every chance that exclusives won't be part of the strategy going forward, they're at least factored into initial analysis as ahead of Xbox. Wow. Um there's a lot going on there. It's obviously probably way too early days uh for her to comment on the outgoing uh contingence strategy. But they've certainly applied what looks like from the outside SEB as a little bit of scorched earth policy. She's rocked up at Xbox inheriting a we've sold all the exclusives to everybody. Um we've pretty much told everyone, although we're making a new Xbox that we're not really doing that anymore because you can play us on a fridge. Uh the community's fractured and people just are buying switches and PlayStations because they can play our games there. It's not a great first day for her, is it?

SPEAKER_05 1:33:28

It's that it's an unfair first day for her. Because I'm like, to be fair, she's in the if she's inheriting a shit show from a regime like the last two regimes that haven't been righted yet. But to be fair, I also think like we won't unless she cuts studios within the next like eight to nine months, we won't see anything that she's impacting for for the next year at some point.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:58

I agree. At the earliest, if you think about the times and incubation times and strategy switches, we've got to at least get to the next financial year. So she's kind of picked this one up at the back end of one, and it's gonna have to implement their strategy for the full year before she can make a change.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:14

Yeah, uh to her to her like luck and fortunate uh and fortunate circumstances, she's inheriting a great year to start off with if we're looking at like potential Xbox quality here with um Fable, Gears of War, Halo, and um and I guess she does have the inverse chance to come in and look like an absolute hero.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:36

She saved Xbox.

SPEAKER_05 1:34:38

Oh yeah, Gears of War, Fable, Horizon, and um and Gears of War, Halo, Fable, Horizon, and what's the other one? There's the other the uh Starfield. God, no. I'm talking about like the big four right now. Um Gears of War, Halo, Forza, and Fable. Yeah. Blink time sweeper. Yeah, no, all four of those games are allegedly coming out this year, so I'm like, she gets to look like a she is basically killing it, absolutely killing it, for you, if I may.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:18

Xbox have gone multi-format, much like your dealer giving you a hit for free. Okay, okay. Everyone on the other formats have had a little go on all these games. Which one would you as well specifically though tomorrow turn back to an exclusive to get those PlayStation and PC players running back to you with their legs on to get a brand new Xbox

Housekeeping, Schedule, And Community Support

SPEAKER_01 1:35:43

console and this game? Which one is it?

SPEAKER_05 1:35:46

Fable and Horizon, easily. Fable and Horizon. I'm like, Fable and Horizon are the two games to where I'm like, okay, Fable specifically, you need a game that isn't there's nothing like it else on the market on any other platform, especially on PlayStation, you would have some sort of like insinuation of like, if I want this specific like this specific experience, I have to go here. And then Horizon, on the other hand, you gave them, you gave all the people that smack for free. Like that smack for hey, I got you in the door. Now, if you want the the upgraded version, you gotta come here.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:31

That's the only part of the strategy that's got any sense. Now, if she was able to execute a turn while sticking to some form of multi-platform strategy that she's kind of already locked into, but turn one of the like Forza Horizon has sold absolutely gangbusters everywhere, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:36:50

That's the one you if you really want your. But I think that's the biggest, safest. This is going to be as long as it delivers the same thing as the last two eight out of ten game you could possibly get. You know, like it's the safest one. I'm like, because you don't have to do anything, you just have to make the cars go and copy and paste everything that was in the last game into this one except make it Tokyo, and you you win. It's just the odd it's the easiest win. It's like it's almost like Mario Odyssey, uh Mario Odyssey, Mario 2, uh Mario, and any Mario game. You just have to smack that man's face on the game and it's gonna sell, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:08

Is Foolza Horizon that established now that it it's big enough to weather storms like that?

SPEAKER_05 1:38:16

It's the biggest racing game in the world right now. So, and it's like the only arcadey racing game of its time now that need for speed, uh, burnout, and all those have died. Yeah, it's still a racing game. Yeah, yeah, it's still a racing game, so there's still a plateau. There is still a ceiling, but if there's no other racing game on the face of the planet right now that has a higher ceiling than it.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:45

Agreed. And that's that's the one I would flip. I don't think Halo's got the reach anymore. There's a joke for you. I don't think Gears has necessarily got the reach anymore. I think the experiments to bring it over could be argued mildly successful, but I mean you could argue you flip them back to being exclusive because what are you losing? But at the same token, what are you winning? Um their IP isn't enough to stab.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:13

I don't think if we really was at one point, but it's yeah, but that was 15 years ago. I wouldn't even say during the Xbox One generation it was enough.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:23

No, agreed. Well, I think that brings us to the end of the news, Seb. Um, yeah, it's it's been an eventful journey. Want to do a bit of housekeeping before we launch into thanking our wonderful supporters. As we said at the top of the show, you're probably watching this now on a Sunday. You like sat there in your gym of jams, you got your cereals out, you're enjoying a little bit of your grown men talking about children's toys. I still don't know to this day why you need a video of us doing that. It's embarrassing enough doing it on audio. You make me gotta see the pretty faces, George. Gotta see the pretty faces. I just realised I've been darkness the whole episode. There you go. You've got to put the effort into the production value, Seb. Um, I think that what make that's what makes us a hallmark of quality, um, if nothing else. Uh so thank you for sitting and watching me in darkness for uh two hours probably. Anyway, I get I get I get bifurcated, Seb, because I must say, I'm actually saying that you're now watching this video on a Sunday. We were trying to give you a little bit of content every day, so we were having the show launching on a Sunday ready for Monday, give you flashback on a Tuesday, give you the video on a Wednesday. No, you didn't want that. George, stop messing about. Give us the audio, give us a video on a Sunday ready for Monday, and then we'll have Flashy B on a Tuesday. We wanna get fat. Fine, have all your sweets before your main course. I don't mind. All right, we've listened, we're changing, we're giving you what you want. That does mean we are not putting out an audio show on YouTube because what's the point? But you will find the audio show everywhere else, and I think YouTube music would probably let you listen to the show because it's a podcast anyway, so no danger. Um other bit of news, make sure you're checking out the website. Loads of things changing there. You'll find it by just typing it into Google now. We've paid the monies, we've taken our chances, we've made it work. Thank you to Captain Scarlet. The show is free, Seb. It'll always be free. The extra show that we now produce is also free. That's flashback, that's available everywhere in audio only, but it's a look back on a date and a date in gaming history through the medium of historic gaming magazines. If you miss the Ray, that's where he lives. Alright, we've got to keep him away from Seb because there've been rumours of those two having a little bit of a love-in. And because Seb is only mortal and Sting is a god, Seb's three months pregnant with Sting's kid. Fact. There's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:06

There's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_05 1:42:09

There's a lot going on. Attorneys have been called, child support has been uh it's a fight for it. So we've got a lot of bills coming into the UCP.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:19

Uh we all know where to send the the invoice. We don't we just don't even know where to send any checks or invoices, but we're trying. Um, and the bizarre thing is, with all that going on, the show's still free, it'll always be free. But if you want to, you can get on board. A link in the show description will take you there. And from as little as three dollars a month, you can get your name read out on the show. I've got a deal going on at the minute. I've said to RGT, sit down, mate. If they're joined now from as little as $3, as soon as they join, we're gonna send them a t-shirt. He says, That's crazy. I said, shut up. I'm doing it. That's what we're doing. You can go all the way up to $10, and there's various incremental things along the way. Uh, yearly artwork that we'll send you, t-shirts, etc. So get stuck in, get fat, dumb, and happy. But said, the list which exists now simultaneously on our host Discord chat is ready. Now, we've conquered our fear of the Zangief. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_05 1:43:20

No, no, what happened?

SPEAKER_01 1:43:23

Well, if we do it now, we don't need to be scared of it.

SPEAKER_03 1:43:29

Who's ever scared to breathe the Zangief?

SPEAKER_01 1:43:34

Well a few episodes while you weren't around, things got I think you were involved in a couple of them, things got a bit dark. Oh now. And the Zangief took on a little bit of a malevolent edge, I would say. So a couple of weeks ago I just decided to front up in the street and take it head on. I just fat zangief all over the place. I just did it, boom. RGT was using fat zangief as a weapon. He'd weaponised it and he was bullying me. Like a club to the head. Yeah. Exactly. Be like if he turned round too quick in the showers without his towel on. Just did.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:17

Just did.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:22

The literal whiplash G4. So that little thing slapping you around the face would probably knock a couple of your teeth out. Well, I'll tell you what then. Let me get stuck straight in because we've got to thank these people because they do support us and we are very grateful. So I'm going to

What We’re Playing Next And Release Windows

SPEAKER_01 1:44:35

start. And you're here, so it'll be a little bit of a cleaner run-through, much to everyone's disappointment, probably. I'm going to say thank you to the wonderful Captain Scarlet, the man behind our ever emerging and improving and beautiful looking website. Thank you to you, sir. Thank you, retroad.

SPEAKER_06 1:44:57

Did I get the right list?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:58

I think it's retroed.

SPEAKER_05 1:45:01

Yes, retro ed. That you don't space it out between the retro and the edge. So I was like retro ed.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:08

I like it. Retroed. He better get on board. Maybe that was his original intention, and we've been reading it wrong a little bit like Boba Boba Boba Boba. Uh that means I get to thank the one man George Fan Club. It's the Carlos, the one man army. Who needs friends when you've got big boys like that on your arm? Fermatians. Which means I get to thank uh Trestles New York and Silver Hook Electrical Contact Cleaner. Thank you. Roast Space Monk. Amazing. That means I get to say uh Bonjohn, no bad bingster. Come stay. Tingle ding. I get to thank one of the sheriffs of the Discord. He's tore in on what looks like a pit pony, but it doesn't matter because as he steps off, he's more man than any of us. It's one of the Winchester boys, it's digital monkery. Mul awesome. Well, parachuting in from 50,000 feet. Uh he didn't pull his pan uh canopy until he at least hit 125 feet above the ground. He's not messing. It's Boba going brown in your town. He's doing a tour. I think it's available on the unofficial controller podcast website. Book today for Skegness Embassy Theatre in July. Such a strong man, that was That was actually quite he doesn't need a big noise. Uh a man who doesn't also need a big noise, he is possibly the most beautiful man to ever exist. He's more John Lennon than John Lennon. In fact, he beat John Lennon in the John Lennon, John Lennon look-alike competition. It's the one and only Harvey Retro.

SPEAKER_05 1:47:12

Mrs. Emma Sharp.

SPEAKER_01 1:47:15

Beautiful, which means I get to thank the immortal. Now so woven into the show lore, it's nowhere nearly Mumzy Which means I get to uh thank the RGT fan club for their loyal dedication to supporting the show. I lick one side of Billy's face, I like him. I flip his head one eighty, I lick the other side, I don't like him. It's Billy Marlite. I'll be honest with you, now I know, now I know what it felt like to get a frontline ticket to your honeymoon evening, and I tell you what, it was not uh a thing I want to forget anytime soon. It was beautiful four times in one night. This guy's a showstopper, non-stopper, party popper. Um, let's talk about thank you to everyone that's uh uh supports us. Thank you for that.

SPEAKER_05 1:48:44

Um I think yes we've talked a lot of things, but the only question, and there is only one single question left on the show, what you hoping to play George's is a lot, but um it's Steam Next Next Fest right now, so I've been going around playing some really cool demos um during this time, and that's just really kind of what I've been doing right now. So it's really not just one, you know, one concise vision, it's kind of like a whole bunch of many years ago.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:31

There was an advert in the UK that was like, why take two bottles into the shower so you can take one wash and go, shampoo and conditioner, the very cutting edge of hair treatment and cleaning uh products. If you could take one game into the what you're hoping to play shower, you've got to grab one and go. Which one is it? Put your indie balls on the line. Me, your indie fortitude.

SPEAKER_05 1:50:05

Um, I'm gonna be talking about that game. No, I'll be talking about that game when it comes out. Um, George, I'm gonna ask you what you've hoping to play and then I'm gonna come back to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:17

Okay, well, let me tell you what I'm talking about. I'm hoping to play for some reason. I have got into the idea of playing some sort of strange tie-up between hoarders and farming simulator, a game that's rapidly approaching 10 years old, made for a system that Moses taught Cain and Abel how to read with. Don't let that bother you. There'll be a lot more Star Trek Voyager. Um getting quite keen on the idea of picking up Ken, and I hope to do that this weekend, and I'll report back and I'll let Seb know that I got a bit higher than him, but probably not much. Um and the other game I'm toying with, mainly just to trigger Seb after being such a good boy, is uh I need to add in a firecracker to the top 10 game of the year list, Seb. And I think that firecracker needs to be Fallout 4 anniversary edition for the Switch 2.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:14

God no. No, the worst way to play it.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:19

The very best way, because I can play that on the pooper with no Wi-Fi.

SPEAKER_05 1:51:24

Oh god, do you have to? A shooter on the pooper? It's gotta be Fallout 4. Is that a game you really want to play again? Did you like it that much the first time around that you're like, I've uh I'm nostalgic for Fallout 4? Let me hit you with one of my favorite lines. I'm ready to be hurt again. Who's uh who's doing the hurting? Like dogmeat or Bethesda. I was just like, it wasn't great, it wasn't like it was like, oh, that's an all-time banger Bethesda game.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:58

Yeah, but it sets us up because we're gonna get remakes of three and remakes of uh New Vegas, and they'll also get ported to the Switch. We're also gonna get Oblivion, the remake ported to Switch. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 1:52:11

You can play Oblivion now.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:15

On PlayStation.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:17

Yeah, and you have a portal?

SPEAKER_01 1:52:19

Yeah, but you know, someone sneezes near the router and you know your falls on. Why'd you get this thing if you know your internet wasn't gonna hang on for

007 vs Lego Batman, Hype And Expectations

SPEAKER_01 1:52:30

it? The weird thing is it was working when I was away but in my own house, it's not working. Now, if I want to stream a game from just PlayStation's premium suite of games, it'll play that flawlessly, no issues. But if you want to stream from the PlayStation effectively in the same room as me, it feels like I'm playing through Vaseline.

SPEAKER_05 1:52:57

Oh you'll have Vaseline over there, that's curious. Oh, well, what do you use it for? No, I mean we have Vaseline here. I was just I was just amazed. Because sometimes you t you tell me a product and I'm like, I've never heard of that in my life. But like Marmite.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:14

There's a different what what is Vaseline's main use in the US?

SPEAKER_05 1:53:18

Oh, it has a whole bunch, but like ashiness, like skin, skin irritation, like um slicking something, slicking something up like as in like an elbow or maybe lips. Anything else? Um, let me see. What else can Vasseline be used for? Um that's usually what I hear, though. It's like lip balm, elbow shining, lotions, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 1:53:51

But nothing like too out of the ordinary, I don't think. Oh I I guess people can like lube some pipes or something, but you know, I think there's a specific pipe lube. I'm not sure though. I'm not a I'm not a flubber. But um are you? What sort of pipes are you thinking about, Seb? Is that a euphemism for something, or are you saying that you would actually Oh, it could have been, but no, I was actually being like genuine. It was like saying, like, maybe like you know, like bathroom pipes or something like that, you know. But I we what is that a euphemism for something? Absolutely not. Are you a resident evil person? Because like a resident evil comes out basically today at this point.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:31

I've struggled with what uh uh this last trilogy of games I've struggled with. I can appreciate seven, eight, and now nine, I really can, and I I like what I've played, but I've never stuck with any of them. I God knows what reason. The previous games, I love them. Um but I say I love them. Four, I like a lot, Pierce to original, if you please. Um five, hey, yeah, it's okay. Six, it's not for me. Seven, amazing, great return to form. I guess I fell off that because I was playing it mostly in PS VR one, and even on there, it's a bit too scary. I'm a chicken, so I'm not playing any horror circuit. You play that flat screen, totally different game. I just walked through loads of it, it got way past the bit I was doing in VR, and then just dropped off of it. You play it in VR, dude, you're terrified of a fly. If that guy comes through the wall, you take the headset off, so that's too much. That's just way too much.

SPEAKER_05 1:55:38

The reason why I asked because like it's now the quintessential, like, best game of the Switch 2, like based on review scores and such like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:48

So I'm trying to figure out like because Switch 2 hasn't really had a lot of great games in its library that I would like while the Switch 2 is in this era where it can get ports that are of merchantable quality, you know, we're not talking we're not talking Switcher 3 here, dude. We're talking like games that for the most part hold up and are playable. We're not talking the level of graphical fidelity compromise that we were 10 years ago. We're just not now. While they've got that window of operational capability, I suggest they stomp it dry. So get all those ports over because it's not going to be very long before there's a digital foundry video where two versions look incredible and then your version looks like Lego. So while those three November at this point, it may well be, but while you can make hay while the sun shines and steal the same advertising thunder that's normally used by everybody else, you might as well have your little Switch 2 logo at the bottom of the Capcom advert for Resident Evil, right? Yeah, might as well. I hear it runs great on it. Hey, there's been in these early crossover games, the amount of compromise that's been on the table for the Switch 2 is far, far, far reduced compared to the compromise levels we were seeing even out the gates with the Switch 1. So happy days.

SPEAKER_05 1:57:10

It really depends on the game. Elden Ring does not run great on that thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:16

Whoever expected it to. Hey, today what in six months' time, let's check back because I'm sure there'll be some sort of an update. So, answer my question, Seb, you get to take one one singular bottle into the shower. What are you shampooing your fine barnet with this evening?

SPEAKER_05 1:57:34

Uh oddly enough, maybe maybe Romeo is a dead man, I guess. It's not a game I'm like.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:40

I want to talk to you about that because the reason why I want to talk to you about it is I heard you boys talking about this on an episode I wasn't on.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:49

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:50

And you were waxing lyrical. You appeared out of thin air like an indie genie mid-episode and started to wax lyrical about this game, Romeo Musta. And I thought, hmm, okay, it's piqued my interest. I was driving, I thought, you know what? Alright, alright, alright then, boy. I'll look into this. So when I got where I was getting, I Googled it. Let me let me ask you this question. Have Naughty Dog dropped a clanger by not getting intergalactic heretic prophecy out sooner than it is? Because to me, Romeo Mustay's combat with that big sword looks exactly like what they were going for in that game, and I do believe they've beaten been beaten to the quick by this indie game in terms of what their combat offering was going to be.

SPEAKER_05 1:58:36

Yeah, it's well we're talking about major leagues versus minor leagues as well, though. You know, I've talked about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:40

We are, but it looks like they both had the same idea simultaneously and swung. Romeo Mustay has obviously come out earlier, it's got a really interesting style, as has Naughty Dog, but a lot more conventional down the route of what they'd go through with their mocap storytelling. But the very small gameplay sections we've seen of Intergalactic Heretic Prophecy look to me very similar to what this game is doing.

SPEAKER_05 1:59:06

Uh a little bit, but I would probably say Romeo's a dead man is more akin to um um was the game where you're playing against all the zombies um and you're in a mall. Um Dead Rising. Dead Rising-ish to me. So I'm like, it feels like like um what is that? Um it feels like Dead Rising sort of meets um which Dead Rising? One or two. I would probably say like more like two and three. Yeah. Because I it sort of like feels like that, but meets that sort of like that pseudo 51 art style that they're known for with um with their games. So I'm like, it doesn't quite feel quite the same. It's like I would probably say uh Intergalactic's gonna be safe because unfortunately, I do think by the time Intergalactic comes around, a lot of people are gonna forget about this game to begin with.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:09

Oh I reckon it's gonna be a PS5 Swan song by the time it gets here.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:13

I mean, I don't I would argue it might be the this the like the first hybrid between the two um mainline consoles. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:00:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 2:00:24

But yeah, I don't um Romeo's a Dead Man's okay game. I don't think it's like a 10 out of 10. I think this is the Star Wars Outlaws of this first quarter, you know, to where I you know, like I I'm not disrespecting Star Wars Outlaws when I say this. I think Star Wars Outlaws is a good, perfectly serviceable game for the fans that it's going for. Anybody else, I think the game is it's obviously gonna show its like its downfalls and pitfalls.

SPEAKER_01 2:00:53

I don't My only question to you then is who else is buying that game other than the people it was designed for? It's a bit like your Indiana Jones argument. And I totally agree with it when that was announced. I was like getting a bit frothy, and you you quite rightly said, who's buying that? Like the Gen X audience that would even consider buying that game is getting smaller and smaller. Like the this might be the time, the best time for Star Wars and indie games going forward. They may not even have the clout to put a game out. I'm excited by that Star Wars Galactic Racer, by the way, Seb.

SPEAKER_05 2:01:34

I think that's going to be a perfectly good success game, and I think I'm excited to experience that.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:40

I am looking. Do you know what gets me excited about that? The fact that in that last gameplay trailer, the air, those sort of Star Wars Outlaws-esque story components that kind of pin what looks like the season mode together. As soon as I saw that, I was like, Yeah. I'm all in, boys. Remortgage of the house, get me the director's cut edition. I want the full, I want a speed on the plastic plinth. Oh no, I want a replica helmet of the guy on a plinth. I want uh a steel book with LEDs in it.

SPEAKER_05 2:02:12

I want the lot. I hope I'm wrong, but it feels like a Stalwar's version of like the racing from Jack 3. And I hope I'm wrong. But that's what I'm kind of getting the vibes from. I'm getting more of that than I am anything else. But I um I just I hope that this game lives up to the hype, but I also feel like unfortunately, I hope I hope this isn't a case to where we're really gonna see how big the Star Wars name is as opposed to the quality of the game. Because what I mean by that is like I think like there was a ceiling, like I was telling you, for Indiana Jones in 2025, 2024. Yeah. I think there's a ceiling now, especially with how much damage has been done to the IP for Star Wars.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:03

This if this came out and could be afforded a price point of like $49.99 or less, I think it will go gangbusters. I think there's enough people interested in future racing series like Wipeout, F-Zero, etc., etc. Fast Fusion, I think, is another one of those ones that's done recently quite well on Switch. Um RMX, I think, is another one. I think there's enough people that are interested in those per se that the interest could be peaked where they would give it a go. I think there's enough sort of fan favour for what this era of Star Wars looks like to me, sort of like post-empire, maybe kind of. When do you think this game could come out and not get curb stomped this year?

SPEAKER_05 2:03:51

Now. Better late better now than any other time this year, I think.

SPEAKER_01 2:03:58

But when is it's a release date, by the way?

SPEAKER_05 2:04:02

I don't think it has one yet. Yeah, it does. It's soon. Does it really? What should have been on the news is the the Wolverine finally got a release date. Yeah, I guess, but it's one line. That's a bigger story than all that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04:17

I know, but I can't. You need to remember the UCP news isn't necessarily the heist news, but sometimes it's there for allow us allow us to play toys. Talk about wider. Allow us to talk about wider topics. Yeah, because I'm Wolverine's g is interesting, and I'm looking forward to it, and it's a brave time to stick in and go firm right now. So I don't know whether there's industry rumbles or what, who knows? But yeah, uh, let's see how that comes out. Looking forward to it. I don't forget, I think Red Dead managed to shoulder Spider-Man 1 PS4 game coming out within its Halo.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:00

So yeah, I think Red Gad is also I I would argue a Rockstar game is a bigger franchise than a Star Wars game in 2026. Uh absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 2:05:14

I was like, I I'm looking forward to the Mandalorian.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:18

Let me no, let me rephrase this. Let me let me re let me refocus you. Okay, go ahead. I think the Red Dead Redemption Universe is an actual right now way hotter property on its own than Star Wars in its entirety. Wow. I reckon the next Red Dead game could do a hundred times the bank than the next three Star Wars projects.

SPEAKER_05 2:05:48

I mean, yeah, I don't think the next three Star Wars projects are like super promising, anyways, but yeah, I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:54

The movie industry in terms of like turnover and revenue is dead. The gaming industry slaps that base.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:05

I think it it sort of depends on the movie too, as well.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:09

You know, like it Star Wars 10 poles will rock up and do gangbusters, yeah. Yeah, but if if GTA 6 comes out, it's literally decimating it in one day.

SPEAKER_05 2:06:18

Yeah, that's decimating everything this year. But I was just like, if you I think Star Wars is a real IP that has unfortunately done so much damage to itself that it's so much damage to itself that its highs aren't quite enough to where I think it's willing, just by name alone, be able to carry millions and millions of sales anymore. Just like I know RGT's not gonna want to hear this. I'm worried about 007 the first light.

SPEAKER_01 2:06:50

No, I think that'll be okay. I've actually changed my mind on that. I was going down one direction, and then the latest gameplay trailer made me think, uh okay, because historic 007 games have always been marred by the success. And people are gonna be George, you say that's ridiculous. It's true, guys. They've all been marred by nostalgia and the success of a 007 game that came out on the N64. As my great fellow here would say, let the past die. James Bond is not gonna work like that now. It's gonna work like this. And uh you do you think this is gonna work?

SPEAKER_05 2:07:32

And by work, what do you mean? You think this is going to sell more than a Yakuza game? Well, this will sell more than a Yakuza game. Do you think this is gonna review higher than a seven? Based on what I've seen. I'm trying to see what you mean by like this'll work. Like what parameters does work mean?

SPEAKER_01 2:07:56

You know? Well, what is a parameter of success? If this sells as much as Jedi Fallen Order, is that a success to you?

SPEAKER_05 2:08:04

I don't know, because I that's a that's a franchise right now in a trilogy that we might not see a third installment for. So I'm like, I don't necessarily know about that. So I I actually think that's better than Outlaws, but that's a different conversation. But all right, it it is Outlaws, would that is that a success? I I know for what they consider, no, no, that's not a good for what Ubisoft and what Disney wanted, no, Outlaws was not a success. Avatar wasn't a success for what they wanted.

SPEAKER_01 2:08:36

I think this James Bond, it's not tied to a movie franchise, it's not tied to a a likeness per se. Yeah, for sure, Nat. But I think it's got the room to be do something a bit different. To me, it looks like Uncharted dressed up as James Bond, and for that reason, I think the market's kind of waiting for something along those lines. A roaring kind of AAA level uh summer blockbuster popcorn yarn, a game you can slap on and blast through and have fun but not take too seriously, but also see some pretty cool set pieces.

SPEAKER_05 2:09:11

I want that, I want that, but you know, um but my point in my scared nature of this game is like I think for one, it does have a licensing agreement attached to it. The James Bond IP does have a licensing agreement, so it does have to make more than the average no-name IP.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:32

Well, what about what about is Hogwarts a failure?

SPEAKER_05 2:09:36

Hogwarts was the biggest success of the year and beat Call of Duty. I don't think G I don't think 007 First Light is going to touch Hogwarts Legacy.

SPEAKER_01 2:09:45

I tell you where I'll be I'll tell you where it's gonna get to. If you throw in these games at a wall, okay, it's gonna land it's gonna land below Hogwarts Legacy, it's gonna land above like Star Wars Outlaws, it's gonna land above like most of the other kind of movie franchise tie-ins. It's gonna land there, it's gonna be a million miles away from Hogwarts, but I think it's gonna I I think I think it's gonna be a good game. I think it's gonna be like eight out of tens, if I'm honest with you. It's never gonna be. It's never gonna be seven to eight out of the game.

SPEAKER_05 2:10:23

Yeah. Uh I'm guessing six to seven range as far as review score, and I'm guessing we're going to get, unfortunately, a story within the next within 12 months about how the game underperformed sales-wise.

SPEAKER_01 2:10:43

I'm not saying it did bad, but what I'm saying is we're always gonna get that story because and I know where you're going, like James Bond is is deader, really, especially at the moment. But we've got that. We've got we've got a new bond being announced, so there's a buzz around the James Bond ecosystem right now, and I'd imagine that's gonna grow through 2026. We don't know what the behind-the-scenes timeline is for the Bond universe, it might be that this gets big push.

SPEAKER_05 2:11:17

I think there's a world that we can live in, and I think there's a realistic possibility that even though James Bond is a bigger IP, this game doesn't sell 75% of what Forrest is going to be.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:33

Let me let me do it through. Let me ask you this question. Are you gonna get it and do you think you'll enjoy it?

SPEAKER_05 2:11:40

Yes, I think I'll enjoy it, and I'm debating on if it's a day one purchase.

SPEAKER_01 2:11:46

Okay. Right. So you're skeptical and not sure, but you're still gonna be able to do it. I'm very skeptical. Yeah, right. I'll get it day one. RGT's getting it day one. I'll put Scotty on notice until he gets it day one. Switch.

SPEAKER_06 2:12:02

Is it gonna come out for Switch?

SPEAKER_01 2:12:04

Of course it will. Oh, I don't know about that. We're playing Indiana Jones right now, dude. So of course they're

Closing Thanks And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_01 2:12:11

gonna play it. Yeah, it is coming out for Switch. Switch too on May 27th. And we'll find out very soon. So yeah, I'm excited about that.

SPEAKER_05 2:12:21

Said I think we should call it there. Let me let me ask you this. There's two different games that are coming out within the same weekend. Which one's gonna do better financially? And then it's time for our cocoa. Yeah, for sure. Financially and review score-wise. Um the 27th of May, um, 007 first light or Lego Batman. Because I think Lego Batman might curb stomp or 007 in both. I don't think it's curb stomping it. Because what game are you buying? I think majority of people I think the ceiling is higher for Lego Batman than 007, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 2:13:10

I think the sales ceiling for that game is higher because it's a kid's game on a kid's toy, right? Of course, yeah, for sure. For sure, that's it. Based on a kid's property, based on a successful kids' franchise and a subfranchise of a great franchise. So, yeah, it's gonna sell really well. Um, how it compares to Indiana Jones, yeah, it's probably gonna smash it. But if Indiana Jones can hang on its coattails, double R74 can hang on its coattails, I think they'd deem that a success. I think they know out the gates that they're gonna struggle to fight that. Like, how can you how how can you? Most of the audience uh Lego Batman's probably a universal for all rated game, so mumsies can have no problems buying that for little Timmy, but she's gonna look at Indiana Jones with its 15 plus, and she's gonna be like, absolutely not little Timmy. That's got women's boobies in it.

SPEAKER_05 2:13:59

007, by the way. But I keep getting that. And I'm like, I don't think 007 in its marketing campaign has done a good job of advertising its game. I think it has a bad release date, and I think like ah, the IP things. I think there's a lot of question marks that are surrounding 007. I quite selfishly only care about how I like it or not. And I'm hoping. I think that's I think from a video game gamer standpoint, I think that's how you should live life. Uh I think like, but when you're entrenched on podcasts and video games and and like looking at news all the time, unfortunately that's not the way we like we we suck in all the information.

SPEAKER_01 2:14:46

You know what I mean? I don't want to say too many bad things because if it's good, I want a second game. You know, he's only just started training. I want to see him hit his third game where he's all suave and grown up.

SPEAKER_05 2:14:55

I want that too. Don't get me wrong, I'm talking shit right now, but I want this game to succeed.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:00

I just don't think it will succeed in the way it up because the revolution starts here.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:06

I wanted Watch Dogs to be a good game, but I can't talk that into being a good series.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:12

Listen, I can talk that up. If you want me to talk that game up to the point where you go back and reinstall it, I can do that for you.

SPEAKER_05 2:15:20

I don't think there's a world where I'm gonna go back and reinstall Watchdogs to uh especially like the third and the first game, but I digress. Let's sign off.

SPEAKER_01 2:15:28

Let's do it. Uh, if you've enjoyed what you're listening to, or you've enjoyed what you've been looking at, because you gluttons of punishment if you've got this far. I I personally think I'm falling in love with you. Uh so either audio or video, you've got me, I've got you, and you've got me. I see you, as the avatars would say. The Navi would say. Let's get it right. Stop making mistakes here. James Bond is James Bond, right? He's not Indiana flipping Jones, he's Britain's finest. Um, Seb, they can find you triple S on the Single Player Experience. But where?

SPEAKER_05 2:16:07

Just search single player experience. Um, on the podcast, you can find the podcast in anywhere you like your favorite podcast platforms, and you know, if you want to know about what games you should be playing, check out the single player experience power rankings, and you'll be able to see what games you should be playing, what games are superior to others, and also what's the hottest games of each and every month in the indie space. So, yeah, that's where you can find me. George, where can they listen to this wonderful podcast?

SPEAKER_01 2:16:37

They need to rush to your site right now to see if you've feverishly backpedaled and put Star Trek Voyager on there to save your own skin and the crown of King of the Indies, which you quite rightly have. That I shall wrestle from you like the black prince that I am. Um they can find us absolutely everywhere. You type it in the Google, it'll come up. We've got a website. Yeah, we went full 1995. We've got Trails After You Curse of the Lot. You wanted it, we built it. You go there, you find RGT's hidden gems, the announcements from the Ponzies that we did. Yes, that's our celebrated industry award where we award Game of the Year, amongst other various trophies along the way. Oh, so much stuff that we do. It's crazy, isn't it? Really? It's crazy. They can go check out the Discord if you want, find a load of like-minded gamers. If you don't want to do that, you can address us on uh Instagram or Twitter uh or X as they call it now. You can email us at questions at unofficialcontrollerpodcast.com. Hey, if you've got an opinion that is is feisty enough, you message it in and we'll read it out. We will. If I've made a mistake or Sebaz, message in, put us right. If there's an opinion or take in the news that we didn't quite get, and you were like, guys, it was staring you in the face, message in. Let's talk about it, let's get involved, let's bring it to the show. That's what we want. We love you. There's nothing much more to say than uh thank you very much. If you're watching this on YouTube, good day to you. If you listen to this in your car, uh careful of that speed bump. Look out for that pothole. Seb, I think that's all we have time for this week. Uh, as always, thank you for your time. 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, Seb. Bye guys. Thanks, everyone.