Tom Holland Picks His Favorite Game And Xbox Bets On Four C’s

Tom Holland just dropped a gaming take that genuinely made us stop and go, wait, what. He says The Last of Us Part 2 is his favorite video game of all time, and he’s avoided the HBO series because he loves the game that much. We unpack why that actually makes sense for a performance-driven, narrative-heavy game, and we ask the bigger question: when a story hits you perfectly in game form, do you even want an adaptation messing with your headcanon?

From there we get into Xbox’s post-reset strategy, breaking down the “four C’s” priorities and what they could mean for console, Game Pass, and the push to stretch big IP across film, television, mobile, and live experiences. We translate the corporate language into gamer reality, including the parts that sound exciting and the parts that sound like the road to more monetization and more spin-offs.

Then we go straight into the messy stuff everyone’s feeling: physical vs digital games, the fear of losing access, and why storefront clarity matters if the industry expects us to go all-in on downloads. We also talk about rising console prices and the pressure AI chip demand puts on hardware supply, before ending on a more comforting note with Nintendo and the Ocarina of Time Switch 2 rating rumor. If you’ve got thoughts on ownership, subscriptions, or where console gaming goes next, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find us.

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Coming Up

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Hello and welcome to the unofficial controller podcast, your weekly gaming podcast, episode number three hundred and thirty with me, George, and this week joined by RGT. He's Tom Holland to my Tim Norway. Now, before you respond to that, let's just simmer down. You've sat through the intro music, you're what are these guys all about? Well, coming up, we've got some Tom Holland news, which is probably the reason why you clicked because you saw his angelic little face, and you're like, oh, oh, what's this? What's he been doing with PlayStation? It's not what you think. Up next, after that, we're going to discuss Xbox's four priorities that are going to swing the business around. And then a little bit of uh news for you, old school lovers, as Ocarina of Time gets rated for a release. I can smell I can smell it. RGT, now that's all done. Everyone's gone, okay, it's worth waiting round for. I won't click on subscribe. Oh! Click freaking subscribe, do it now. It's here somewhere. We'll put some magic in. Someone will put some magic in, and they'll make that happen. I've absolutely garbaged my setup to make sure that you did that. Let's not let that happen again. Um, RGT, now that's all said and done. The algorithm has been satiated, for want of a better word. Um, I've made my piece with the Deku tree. RGT, how are you keeping, friend?

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Wow, that was one hell of an introduction there. I didn't even know if you're gonna need me for a minute. I just thought, well, he's off, he's gone. There's been there's been a few espresso here, a couple of probably gummy bears. He's got a bit of a sugar rush, a bit of a caffeine rush, bang, he's off. Microphone's trashed. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

What's left for me to destroy other than your ego? Uh you've you've done that weeks ago, don't worry. No, I leave it unchecked, sir. I do. Um, more importantly, while I've been away sunning myself across various different places, you came in and stood up like a legend and did a solo for the main show, which I have to admit looks fabulous. And then you also uh we've done an episode of flashback since you and I. You dragged me back from my leave early with some story of terminal this or terminal that. To be honest, it transpired to be drivel. Um, but prior to that, I must say thank you to the mighty digital monkery for stepping in and exceeding every bastion that I had ever set within the flashback show. If you're new to this, I know you're like, oh god, listen to all this drivel, I can't take it all in. Just hold on, slow down, set the YouTube to 0.5 speed, and it'll all make a lot of sense to you. Uh we also do a separate show, flashback, um, which you can enjoy that's more retro focused. We pick a year and a date and a month, and we go back to that time and report the news if it's true. If that's up to you, get involved. If not, stick around for this. Um, so all the plaudits done, RGT. The fanfare has been done. You have stuck your derriere on my face, and I've licked and blown whatever needs to be done there to make you feel good about yourself. Um, have you enjoyed my absence?

SPEAKER_04 3:38

Oh god, yes. No, because I haven't, but missed you. Really missed you. You know, like I say, DM stepped up, bless him, done a solo, and I know people said, Oh, well done on your solo, really good now. And I that probably wasn't one of the best solos I've done, but I are quite hard solos because you you you have to fill a time up. Hence, I put a couple of extra stories in, a couple of little retro ones for people, but I hope that was okay. I hope people like that. Um, but yes, so I'm glad to have you back, uh Kayla.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Oh wow, okay. Well, let me push up my woggle because I'll descend down to your level, my good friend. Um I forgot what they were called. Yeah, they were, weren't they? Stick around for some deep cuts like woggle. Um, because you won't find them anywhere else.

SPEAKER_04 4:23

Your memory, your memory, your memory, my god. If it isn't talking about the toothpaste cake on Johnny Briggs as the woggle, unbelievable.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

Comment if you remember the toothpaste cake from Johnny Briggs, uh, that he kind of rearranged in his cellar with toothpaste, which is actually George did reminisce well, I say reminisce actually came straight away out with this straight to me at his own wedding.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

So it was uh yeah, he is like this in real life, I can assure you.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

If you've got the patience for that, maybe I'll meet you in real life. I very much doubt it. It's best kept at distance on YouTube where you can click subscribe, not click exit. Come on, do us a favour because we see we keep putting all this free content out 330 episodes to transition from audio to video while still embracing audio. But we see a lot of you watch this video but don't subscribe. Now, I understand that you don't want to put your fingers in a dirty pie. I get it, but I can promise you that we're vetted and clean, and we're probably the only we're your number one podcast, uh, that's free. So get involved in a piece of that. RGT uh um I think I've picked up from the tremors emanating from your area that you are okay. So let's push straight into the only question anybody ever really cares about in a gaming podcasting.

Heavenly Sword QTE Wall

SPEAKER_03 5:48

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

What are you what have you been what have you been playing? Some more heavily sword? Um if you're new to the show, this is uh uh Gen 7 playthrough on RGT Back the Past that uh the list at me and uh Fatzang Geef uh done on our Discord and then people vote to see what we're playing. We're playing Heavily Sword, and apart from Gazcon, who was admittedly himself nearly smashed his retro defighters, uh retro defighters, retro fighters defender controller to bits. Um sponsorship check in the post in the bin. Exactly. I do apologize. Um it's with both, or I say both, all of us are stuck on the second chapter boss with the quick time events at the end. And there isn't so much I've got the the fighting actually I really enjoy the L1 for the sort of the almost God of War sort of chain mace sort of thing, and then your R1 for your heavy hits, and then I've really got that down. I think the combat is really good. I'm really enjoying that. And then you get this you get this boss at the end of the second chapter, second area, as I think they call it, and he sends in three waves of enemies, which are quite tough at first, but I got them down to T. I don't even need no health. Bang, bang, bang, I get all them done. Then he joins in, he jumps down, you have a fight with him, he is a lot trickier, you have to get out of the way, his unblockable sort of special attacks. Um but you get him to a certain level, uh sort of bat of with about a quarter of his health left, I believe. Then you have to do this quick time event and you have to get every single one in order. Otherwise, you're back in the pit and his health goes back up, and you're then gotta try and beat him again. There's only two health files in this pit. The problem is Um these quick time events are not actually timed evenly. You'll have one which will be like circle to jump up, but you've got a second to press that. Press right to run up the post, you run up the post, and suddenly up down, that's bang, and you unless you memorize it and quickly do it in the correct order, it is so brutal and it's so tough. Gascon has done it, and then he got to the end of chapter three and went, Yeah, there's another boss with QuickTime events, which you can't do again. So it just seems very and it's a shame because I did say I wonder if this is like a five, six hour game, I believe, and I wonder if this was just added in to pad it out a bit. It's it's almost like an exercise for PS3 showing what can be done. It's all a bit I think there's a combination of that.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

I think QTs were quite on vogue, and this was going for quite a cinematic experience in what it did. Now, I played this a long time ago, um maybe 10 years ago, maybe at this point. Um, so I was late to it. I kind of was aware of it because I mate at it back in the early days. Uh, but what you've got to remember, this game was going up against things like Gears of War, surely, like Halo 3.

SPEAKER_04 8:56

Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

I'll be honest with you. At the time, retrospectively, I think it's found an audience, but at the time, I think it went down like a steaming cup of hot shit. Um now I have liked the game, but I do find that some of the spikes in it, like you say, are a little bit unnecessary. Um, you're wailing through thousands of enemies for the most part of the game, then you get to these boss areas. Boss areas are meant to be hard, yeah, but they're meant to kind of like feed in on the skills you've learnt, not be locked behind uh Simon says press X, Simon says press zero, press triangle. Simon didn't say press triangle.

SPEAKER_04 9:34

Yeah, and not only that, it wouldn't be so bad if they didn't put his health back up.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

It's just like, oh my god. I as you talked about that, it did take me on a bit of a sweaty flashback to my own moments with the game. Now, here's the admission: I took it all the way up to the final boss and then had that drivel and was like, I'm done. I think if memory serves you, you got the final boss, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 9:56

Well played, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

But then I walked away from it because it was like this is ridiculous. Even after all this time, and I did keep trying, I was like, nah, this isn't worth my time. I think I was trying to play some of the lost Sony PS3 exclusives. It was one of them, obviously. It was the Uncharted before Uncharted turned up. Heavenly Sword got one hell of a you know mainstream push from Sony, but um yeah, interesting game. It predates trophies as well. So yeah, if you're thinking of going, oh, I'm gonna get the trophies for all the exclusives. Wake up and smell the coffee, pal, just don't waste your time. No one know whether you played it or not, just tell everyone you finished it.

SPEAKER_04 10:38

But I just can't help thinking of that in QTEs that this game probably would have been about three to five hours long.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Probably it I think it's a little bit longer than that. If if you even if you're on a good run, I think that it would still take a little bit longer the first time he played it. Second or third time through, like, yeah, but fool on you if you want that's a shame because the rest of it is a pretty decent game.

SPEAKER_04 11:02

I quite enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

I think the the game graphically impressive, like you say, a bit of a tech demo for the piercery. It was starred of exclusives from its in its early life, and this was obviously lapped up um by rabid early adopters who um yeah, um, probably went back to sleep until Uncharted One came out. But um, anything else in the docket there, RGT?

Xenoblade DLC And Next RPG

SPEAKER_04 11:26

Um, I've played about another, not much, but about another half hour of Futures Connected, the DLC for Xenoblade Chronicles. Um, played a bit more of that. Um, I need to get back on, have a bit of a stint. I was recording this. Once I finish work tomorrow, I'm gonna have a little stint over the weekend, have a bit of a relax, bit of gaming, so not had much time this week. But yeah, still enjoying that. It looks really good. Um, you can tell it was a bit of more of an add-on. That looks to me, it looks better than the main game. So whether that was graphically improved a bit. Um, but again, I think it's only a 10 to 12 hour experience. I'm about two hours in, I believe. So shouldn't be too hard to finish that. Um, but yeah, really enjoying it. I want to get Cena Play Chronicles 2, but the the digital version is out now, but the physical version isn't out till October, which I would imagine is they're jumping on the bandwagon of the Nintendo Hardcore, who will play it now, but we'll have to have a physical, so I'll end up buying it twice. Um, which is a shame.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

That's exactly what we're gonna do.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

It's actually quite good there. Um yeah, um, so yeah, I'm gonna hang on. I think, and also we always say a palette cleanser, you don't really want to jump straight back into another 60-hour RPG. So um no, God knows. That'll be my game for later on. But I've got a game lined up. I want to play, I bought the collector's edition of um Rune Factor 5 while I was away on holiday a few weeks ago. Um, that was going quite cheap, and I had it in my sort of wish list on um on my CX, and that was in the local one where I was on holiday, so I popped in and grabbed that. I think it was about 40 bucks for the uh collector's edition. Um, and I've always fancied the rune factories. I know Scott from Marathon Gaming, um, one of our co-hosts.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

But absolute sexual pariah. I would look in anyway. I would eat his ejection from no matter what area. Okay. Would you?

SPEAKER_04 13:15

No, funny enough, no. Um now you know who loves you more, Scott. Exactly. And will do anything. Um yes, I know he's played Rune Factory 3 or 4, I think, on his Switch, and he really enjoyed it and said, Oh, you loved Harvestella RGT, you need to play this. So I don't think the games are links, you can play them separately, a bit like Final Fantasy. So I'm looking forward to jumping into that. It looks quite good. I think it's the first three uh 3D one they done. I think the rest was sort of top-down 2D, sort of uh the original like secret of mana, something like that, that sort of viewpoint, I think. So it's the first one, the 3D ones, but it looks quite good, so I'm gonna give

Luigi’s Mansion Reverse Order Journey

SPEAKER_04 13:51

that a go. Um, but the only other game I've been playing is Luigi's Mansion on the Switch Online thing and before. Ah, yes. Because I've played him, I know I've played him in reverse. Um when I got my Switch Lite, Mrs. RGT bought me Luigi's Mansion 3 with it a few years ago. So I played that one first, absolutely loved it. So I thought, right, I need to play two, kept an eye out for my three uh for me 3DS when I saw two in a store, saw it cheap, got that, played two, loved it. I'm now playing one, so I'm playing it in a reverse way. But I'll tell you what, that Nintendo Online, yes, it's a GameCube game, it looks very good, plays very well. You've got to remember, swap your controllers, go to your don't go to the GameCube menu, go to your switch menu, and you can change the invert round to you know up and down, so it just makes it a lot of easier.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

It makes it more in line with the third iteration, exactly. Yeah, and therefore your skill sets that you might have if you've come to it in reverse, the skill sets that you learnt there or the way of playing will transfer to two and it'll transfer to one.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Um, like RGT's done it in reverse. Gotta admire that, at least he's seeing it through. Bit of news for you. I do believe um hot off the press that Mario Sunshine is uh inevitably making its way to the GameCube Switch Online game selection.

SPEAKER_04 15:11

I want to play that again because I've got it I've played it on my GameCube and I just couldn't get into it, so I'll play it again. I thought that would be a Mario I'd really enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Yeah, well it's gonna it's gonna come to there, I think, next within the next sort of calendar week. Um to keep keep your eyes peeled for that. Yeah, um it's also on the 3D Mario All-Stars from memory, but um that's particularly difficult to get hold of these days. So nice that it drops on the switch online. That's what I like about that.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

No, that's pretty much it. I was just gonna say a great version, plays really well, really enjoying it. Um, and I still just think I know we spoke about this hundred times before, but I just think that's the right way to do a subscription. I think all those retro games in HD plays really well there when you want to play them, you know. And they do drop a lot of these expensive ones on there, the ones you'd probably like to get, but you can't afford, but they're on there. I I think that's a great little catalogue to have. So, yeah, really enjoying that. So, Luigi's Mansion's the last one I was playing. So, what about you, young Fantastic?

Movie Night Sparks Odyssey Obsession

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Well, listen, if you've ever planned to go on holiday with a gaming device and play a crap ton of games, hit subscribe. I planned to do that, set myself up, took the Switch 2, had all the dreams, had all the desires, but it just never happened. It wasn't really anyone's fault, it's just the way the holiday in my time evolved. Played a little bit of Final Fantasy VIII, moved that forward a little bit more. Um, but I did make some pickups while I was on holiday. I managed to pick up Luigi's Mansion 2, I think, from memory, or that might have been a little bit before. What are the chances, hey? I know, what are the chances? Um picked up Yakuza Zero, or as I've written down here, Yak Zero, which is probably the story of a uh, I don't know, a Yak. The OG Yak, I suppose. But if not, it's probably about Yakuza Kiryu, uh Kiryu's origin story. I also picked up uh Kronos, uh, but tried to play it handheld for Switch 2, and the little red might be my age. It might be. Um, but the text on the Switch 2 was so small it was making it difficult to play, so I thought, hang on, rest this, come back to this on the big screen, of which yeah, I haven't played. I love the actions. Italiano.

SPEAKER_04 17:27

Uh a beanster.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Uh I've also played mainly now uh on the second leg of my uh much Alan Wicker-like holiday experience. So if you don't know who he is, cool kids, Google him or ask your mum and dad, or actually at this point, um probably ask your grandparents. Um but Alan Wicker was a holiday guy. Anyway, on the second leg of this, my good lady wife, Rachel, um, booked us a trip to the cinema to see uh Nolan's Odyssey, um, a small local cinema, so exactly the way Nolan intended, not IMAX, uh, not 4D IMAX either. But do you know what? Um a great experience. Now, back in the day, I would obviously um we've had many toms on this show, but the OG Tom, as he's now known, OG, sometimes pops up for the odds special episode. He's watching now, like, yes, give me my glory, do it to me. Tell them how good I am. Everyone knows how good you are. Um, but we always used to say, write the theme tune, sing the theme tune. You know, Tom got Red Dead Redemption, then bought every Western available, and even got a little pon show uh and a hat to wear while playing it because he wanted the full experience. Now, genetically, we're linked. So obviously, me and my good beautiful wife went to see uh Nolan's Odyssey at the cinema. What do you think we did? What do you reckon we did? Immediately on return home, I dug deep in the dirty PlayStation library that I own. DigiLibrary, as it's known, uh where I traded my soul uh for my copy of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which I must have bought years ago in a sale. I'd only really flirted with the before, but with this new now, long-term listeners, viewers, viewers, may remember that I probably did something similar with Assassin's Creed Valhalla when me and my good lady wife decided to watch the Vikings series. George! You're as predictable as Saturday following Friday, friend, but we love you for it. Well, that's fair enough. So Assassin's Creed Odyssey, let's get into the meat and veg of it. Now, obviously, pumped up by all this Nolan factor. Um, I chewed on this like a freshly prepared steak at your finding steakhouse. I couldn't get enough of it, and still can't. I'm finding the exploration quite good. I'm actually finding the creation of the seas uh very realistic, especially compared to OG Black Flag. I'm not talking about Resync tier, guys. Come on, give me a break. I'm not that up to the button. Uh so while everyone's playing that, I'm playing the Greek version, but it seems like I've caught onto a bit of a trend. Everyone's going and watching Nolan coming back and playing Odyssey, and everyone's having this critical reassessment. I never made a judgment on it originally, but my judgment now is it's just about the right sort of thing for me at this moment. Um, I've got a load of games sat on the Ockey ready to go. Indiana Jones is sat in the tomb in Egypt going, he said to me he'd be back. He said to me taking you on holiday. Yeah, all right, Harrison. Grab yourself a drink and whatever it is you have in your chroot, I'm on to you. And we uh we'll come back to you. Okay, you got time, don't worry. Um you won't get any older and you won't ever die. If you sing cocoon, there's a reference for that. Um so Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Get into the gameplay, George. What's it like? Well, it's your usual Assassin's Creed fair, isn't it? Of course it is, but with a Greek little spray on it. But as you know, I like all the uh I like all the history. So going up to the Temple of Athena and seeing all that and seeing her kind of give you a prophecy whilst sat above the um volcanic fumes which kind of inebriated them. I think they've done some research and it had like um like an alcohol in it, ether uh, ether ether ether, something in there that literally would have like made them act like they were you know convulsing and speaking with the gods. So there's a lot of fact in there. Um they've been quite sort of steady with the history, obviously you're from Sparta, because of course you are. Um, but other than that, I'm I'm I'm enjoying it. I'm blown away by the scale. Is it a bit too big for me? Like, yeah. I get to an island and think, okay, I'll just be on here five minutes. Five hours later, I'm like, ugh. Just one more synchronization and and uh question mark to look at, I suppose. Um but you know the game doesn't hold you back too much. I thought there'd be a lot of grinding on other Assassin's Creed open worlders. It's like, oh okay, just finished that level 10. Just do this next mission, level 15. Are you all right? He said do it, I'll do it. Get absolutely owned by the floor sweeper at the front door. Um, just a civvy with a pen, just stabs you in the eye and kills you. It's like come back when you've got the right level, pal. Uh so then you've got to walk around clearing up all the little jobs. I haven't had to do that as much in this, so maybe I will, maybe I won't. But normally they spit you out just at the right level or just below the next one. So I'm finding that less egregious. We'll still be playing it in a week. Come back to find out, subscribe, hit the notification bell, and next week you'll find out what this bloody idiot's been playing. Other than that, RGT, I don't think I have a lot to share. Like I say, fresh from holiday. So if you want to get deep, and I mean at least two digits in on the news, I'm up for it if you are. Yeah, let's go.

Tom Holland Loves The Last Of Us

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Alright, well, uh first out, uh no, George, this show has a script, so you better stick to it. Up next to the news, uh, we scour the very darkest regions of the internet to bring you the latest stories. First up, the one you click for. So don't say we put this as a third bit in the news, keep you hanging around. Um so after this, feel feel free to click away or click subscribe and stick around to find out what happens next. But over on Push Square, uh the bastion, the highly, highly specialized trifector of gaming news. That we we might as well just get him on the blower at this point. Get Sammy on the blower and tell him we're the official push square podcasts. Would you RGT? No worries, yep, doing it now. Yeah. Anyway, the infamous Stephen Telby, a man with a glorious and glittered past here at the UCP because of his extracurricular activities. Go back and listen to our reports on Stephen Telby. You might think he's just a mere journalist at Push Square, but uh he has a fetid history. Um, but let me and I don't mean the cheese. Tell everyone. Anyway, um it seems Tom Holland is he's out there pushing himself around. Obviously, he is because he's the face that launched a thousand ships for the Odyssey. He's not, but I like what you've done there, George. And he's also in a very big Spider-Man film right now, and he got a little bit of time. Let's find out what was discussed because Tom Holland loves The Last of Us 2 so much, he won't watch the HBO series. And the subheading is it's his favourite game of all time. Now, sat in a loose-knit jumper, he decided to kick back and engage in this. We've been hearing a lot about Tom Holland lately, but I suppose that makes sense considering he's in two of the summer's biggest movies. While doing press for Spider-Man brand new day, he's probably been thrown every possible question, but it was Happy Sad Confused that asked him the most important one of all time. What's your favourite video game of all time? And it turns out Spider-Man's favourite game, you think it's Spider-Man, it's not. It's The Last of Us Part 2, the divisive but brilliant sequel, Naughty Dog's Highly Acclaim series. The Last of Us Actor says, before clarifying, the second one, Holland says it's so good, and in response to a follow-up question, says he's not watched the HBO series because I love the game so much. Fair play to you, Tom. I wish he was able to say a little bit more about it, but it makes sense for an actor to enjoy a game that focuses so heavily on characters, narrative, and performance capture. The Last of Us Two is still one of the best there is in those terms, although I'd argue its first person action is also remarkably good, and let's be honest, it still looks fantastic. Second season of the HBO series isn't as highly regarded as the first, so uh Holland's I was gonna call him Tom, but you know. Until we maybe get to first base, I'll call him Holland. Resistance to watch is probably well judged. Is The Last of Us Two one of your faves of all time? Let us know in the comments section below. RGT, a little bit of interesting news from the uh freshly hawed out Tom Holland doing the media circuit, but he stumbled across a nugget I've not heard before. I heard he went and bought a PS5 so he could get all over Spider-Man and become he plays that with his wife, Zendeya, or wife to be. I can't quite work out the marital status of those two, but it matters not. They play a bit of video game together. Um never heard him mention this before. So for him to settle down behind the controversial, yet here at the UCP much loved Last of Us Part 2. What do you make of all this news, my friend?

SPEAKER_04 27:02

Um, yes, good. I knew he was a gamer. I didn't realise he was, you know, I always think that you've playing The Last of Us. I think you know, game has got to be a hobby. You know, it's a deep narrative, it's a strong game, it's you know, you've got to be into your game to play it. So I didn't realise he played it, but I think also he must absolutely love that game because coming from the film world and the big screen to not actually watch the Last of Us series, he must be so worried that's gonna destroy his love of the of the game, especially Last of Us Part 2. So it'd be interesting to see when when that finally concludes the TV series, whether he'll he'll go back and then watch it then. But I totally agree.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

So yeah, fair play to the old boy.

SPEAKER_04 27:51

No, but yeah, I don't I don't surprise me because he's a you know, like you say, much loved here at UCP Towers, absolutely wonderful game. So fair play to him. What do you make of Holland as well? Do you like him? I do actually, yeah. I do. I think he um he got a bit too much grief for when he was in Uncharted, and I quite liked him in Uncharted.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

So he wasn't responsible for the story in the manipulation of the law. Um, but within that universe of Uncharted, I was, yeah, I might actually see if Rachel wants to watch it tonight. It's banging, innit? Yeah, it's brilliant.

SPEAKER_04 28:24

It's got Nolan North of his little cameo, and I just think, well, Nolan thought he was brilliant, so it's good enough for me.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

So if it's good enough for Nolan, friend of the show, um big friend of yours, it's I would say it's good enough for me. RGT, what's this next bit of news? Now we've kind of had that little nap of teeth, a little bit of Tom

Xbox Four C Plan Breakdown

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Holland news. Take me deep on Xbox's strategy, friend.

SPEAKER_04 28:49

I'll try. Um this is from Pure Xbox by Craig Reed. So I don't know where Fraser's gone, and I'm not gonna speculate. I do not know, but nice to have you on board, Craig. Good good journalistic qualities he's got. So and he says Fantastic. Yeah, Xbox's four priorities detailed by Ashasharma after major reset. You've most likely heard all about the Xbox reset that laid off thousands of employees and deinvestment in studios that saw four of them part ways with the company. Xbox CEO Ashasharma has outlined her plans to get the brand back on track in a memo obtained by The Verge. She detailed four key priorities she believes will return the business to revenue growth by the end of 2027 fiscal year. These four priorities are the following. Core, strengthen our platform led by console. Content, grow great games into global franchises. Creation, make Minecraft the world's creator platform. Connection, extend the worlds that fans love. In a post on X, Sharma said, in FY26, over 200 million new players came to Xbox and our games, but our business did not grow with our audience. While she admits it's likely to take some time, the Xbox believes the four C's help close that gap. This follows Xbox's 1.7 billion revenue drop through FY26, its first decline since Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard. According to Sharma's memo, Xbox will measure its progress towards its goals in three stages. The first being return to growth by the end of 2027, followed by transforming the projects invested into growth themselves. Um in FY28 and 29, our four C's and roadmap must improve must move into business producing meaningful player value and revenue acceleration. The third stage is to scale what works and be halfway to our long-term goal by the fiscal year 2030. Our ambition is is to be halfway to a long-term daily player goal and sustained double-digit growth in players and engagement and industry leading margins. It looks like Xbox are doubling down on core experiences that make Xbox well. Xbox IPs like Halo, Gears, Fable, as well as Fallout and Minecraft. Sharma also said Xbox will push its biggest franchises across film, television, consumer products, sponsorship, live experiences, and form new partnerships globally, including China. Sharma sees Minecraft becoming the world's creator platform, which could mean adopting a model similar to Roadblocks or Fortnite, where players can create, share endless varieties of experiences. That vision extends to mobile with Mo Yang and Candy Crush developer King already collaborating on new Minecraft spin-off. Oh god. To me, I saw a few when this went live. I saw quite a few YouTube videos on this and people discussing it. Um there's a few insiders saying, um, I know you can't believe all what you see online, but saying Microsoft is really starting to have enough now and have give a deadline, you need to make these profits by then, or we're just pulling we're pulling the plug, we've had enough. Whether it's that strong, I don't know. To me, this is very corporate speak, this is very jargon speak. Um, it basically says that they desperately need to grow the business just from how much has been failing, and they're probably willing to do that by even spreading themselves thinner, like you say, mobile ports. I think this will be I mean, making Minecraft the world's creator platform. I know Minecraft is still really popular, but it's been about a lot of years. You know, do we need something fresh? I mean, to keep doubling down on Minecraft, I think it might be time to move on. But problem is at the moment, all we're getting is refreshes of games. I uploaded a uh a link to a video from Mr. Who's a boss on YouTube today on our Discord channel. He's he's gone through, done a 20-minute video on the state of gaming at the moment, very, very interesting. And he says about games that we're either getting refreshes of old games or we're getting another game in that series. We're not getting a lot of new IPs coming out now, and it's that safety era. Um, and I just think I'm not sure it like I say, this is very jargon speak for maybe we're gonna try probably anything from advertising in games to mobile games to um free-to-play, maybe live service games. I don't know. Um, I don't think it's going to be in the way that we see or we would like to see gaming personally.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Ash has got one job, bring the cash in. Exactly. However, however, that happens, she's got the rather gory task of being the butcher stroke surgeon at the front end, cutting up the living carcass it is Xbox. Um, Microsoft and Minecraft. Uh, we covered this many moons ago. I don't know what episode number it is, but there was a history of Minecraft episode that we did where we did some heavy research on Microsoft's acquisition and the future of Mojang. And on the acquisition, they announced they had a hundred-year plan for Minecraft, uh, a revenue stream and a future for Minecraft that would last 100 years. Um that's bold as hell. Um, I don't imagine people are gonna be playing pixelated block games in 2105, but you never know, they might. Um, I wouldn't be around to see it, so on my deathbed, I might look up and see what Minecraft is going.

SPEAKER_00 34:57

Yeah, go on, boy, you've got another 50 years to do. Uh wish I could play it next year.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

You know, that'll be the brutality of it, I suppose. Wow. Um, it's real.

Digital Ownership Fears And Rising Costs

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Um, but other than that, you've got to look at Xbox and say, uh trying. I mean, they've they've been through a myriad. I do believe that Microsoft have brought down the hammer and said, listen, get this working or just switch all the money to AI where we see the money being right now. So there's a lot of threats out there to the gaming division of Xbox. And let's face it, the future, as we embrace an all-digital future, yes, I've accepted it. What can I do to change the mind? Absolutely nothing. I suggest you do the same. I mean, bang the drum while you're on the way down. Um, it's a bit like rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, I think I've come to the conclusion of now that no matter what we say, the big boys want the new condo and they want that new payout for the shareholders. And regardless of whether you like it or not, if there only is one player left in that ecosystem, you'd be paying a lot for Games Pass and PlayStation now or whatever it's called. I tell you that should be aged there, PlayStation Premium. Um yeah, price of that's gonna skyrocket, and console's gonna be a million quid. Um, so yeah, either get on board with it or get left behind. In terms of like their four pillars, the four C's. Um, probably one C missing from there, Asher, but we'll go with four for now. Uh, core can't strengthen our platform led by console. Strong. I like that. That's getting behind the idea of not everything's an Xbox, but seemingly you can't undo what you've done, so everything's an Xbox, but we're still gonna bring out Helix. Nice. Content grow great games into global franchises. That to me seems like new IPs or IPs that have been on a bit of a lowdown until recently. They're probably gonna get behind a push-up. Not forgetting in their studio acquisition, they picked up a few games and older game titles that are linked to that. The rights of that are linked to those companies they acquired. I'm looking at you, Crash Bandicoot, etc. etc. There's lots there for them to get stuck into creation, make Minecraft the world's creator platform. I kind of get it. Is it not already? Um, yeah, great way to make the people feel good who've been working Minecraft like dogs since it came out. But you know, whatever you need to do, guys, uh make it the world's creator platform. I don't quite know as that's where I see my Fortnite experience going. Um, yes, this show has a bit of history of Fortnite. We did do a 50 plus episode stream of taking you from a newbie to beating the Ender Dragon and everything else in between. So if you're a little bit curious and have got a high paying threshold, go check that out. And connection extend the worlds that fans love. Now, what does that mean? Does that mean spin-off games? Does that mean kind of mobile app experiences based on the games that you've been playing on the Microsoft platform? I would argue that's exactly what that means. And this Microsoft Candy Crush tie-up that's rumoured or talked about in this article, that's going to be the first scalp of many. Get ready to play Master Chief Candy Crush within the next 10 years and uh yeah, over take overload of Ring Worlds through a bejeweled uh duel matching game. Doesn't make a lot of sense, but when you see the Spartan helmet drop, clear the whole screen, boom. Um, that's the sort of drivel I'm expecting to see RGT. I mean, PlayStation have dabbled with it. They had the uncharted infinite runner game, which is based on the Temple Clash game that's you know was one of the early iOS games that took off.

SPEAKER_04 38:41

Um they had the um card game as well, didn't they?

SPEAKER_02 38:44

They did, they had a myriad of other attempts, but then kind of retreated. It seems obviously with Microsoft buying um I think it's King, is it that makes Candy Crush? That they have a studio there that's probably more financially set up for creating these spin-offs that's more kind of indebted in that ecosystem. They're probably struggling to find Candy Crush 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 selling, probably as well as the OG. So does it work to team up with Microsoft and this bigger, broader audience and selection of genres and franchises? Of course it makes sense. It makes sense financially, it makes sense on paper, but does it make sense to us as gamers? I I would argue not RGT, and I I don't particularly see myself sort of moving towards mobile game experiences to extend my time if it's meaningful, and I'm I'm you know, let's shout out GTA 5's dog walking app, a bit left behind in the dust now, but that's the sort of thing that I can see doing well, but does it create revenue? No, um, so that means they won't be exploring that subgenre of game, it's gonna be more the monetized bejeweled game. Microsoft's already big on mobile. Uh my kids were playing it on iPod Touches way back in the day and having like you know, fun in the Lego free build mode, sandbox mode. But uh I'm interested by this. I mean, prior to all the bad news, we were kind of behind Asher and what she was doing, and we saw her as a significant change. I think she was always going to end up with a lot of Phil's blood on her hands, trying to undo the direction that they'd gone before. Um, but let's hope, let's have a little bit renewed hope and vigour that now Asher's committed the charnel house of decimation of studios that they needed to buy literally two years ago, as if it was the secret to their ever-living life. Um, have now been kicked to the curb and decimated. That's all done from here on in, Asher. It's all you, Gail. So um good luck with that. Any sort of ending comments on that?

SPEAKER_04 41:04

Um GT? I think as well, when you mentioned not the AI and the memory shortage, uh Mr. Hooser, Mr. Hooser Boss goes into that on his video. Definitely watch that. He um and he put he breaks it down to where the issues are, and this is why I think game companies, especially with Asher and Xbox, you know, some of this stuff we might look at this and think we don't really want a game company to go down this route, but I think they might have to go down this route to make revenue. And he breaks it down to that we have this one memory chip in our PS5, these AI units take 70 of those. So he said that's 70 PlayStations not on the market, but then he said when you when you bulk buy these, you have to buy a certain amount, and when you buy a certain amount for these AI farms, that's 83,000 PS5s. But because all these companies that are buying them, at the moment they're ordering them in these bulks, actually turns out it was eight and a half million PlayStations at a time, hence why the the price has gone up. And he says they're now in a vicious circle because people like these sort of five main companies who are making these AI farms are in well, you know, the three main companies maybe Samsung and there's a couple of others, they're investing into these farms, right? Building these massive uh units, but everyone says, well, why don't they just build extra ones to make chips for gaming? But the problem is it would take four or five years to build them, they invest billions of pounds. Yet if the AI cr if AI crashes, that's been a complete waste of money, building these, so it's a vicious circle. The shortage isn't gonna go away, it's just gonna get shorter. So the consoles are gonna get more expensive. So these companies do need to do something different, they do need to do something different. I suppose this is what she's trying. Um, again, it is jargon speaking a bit trying to say things that sound good to gamers, but if you sort of break it down, yes, I think there's gonna be a lot of mobile stuff linked in. I think when they say grow great games into global franchises, I would imagine that means what could mean anything from like you say, mobile ports of a merchandise, you know, it could be just spread across anything. It's film tie-ins.

SPEAKER_02 43:24

I mean, the Minecraft movie did you know fabulously well and was you know reviewed well and went down well with fans. When I said at the start of my mini rant, call it a rant, call it the discussion, call it what you like, I mentioned rearranging the chairs on the decks of the Titanic. I do believe that's what we're doing. Like, I'm all for you know telling the corporations that we're not happy, but with a myriad of new users arriving on a monthly basis that have no experience of physical, don't really care. When you look at the stats that the companies are putting out and they explain their maybe slightly precarious finance. Financial positions, despite the profits they're rocking away at the moment, record profits, one would add, for PlayStation. Um it's an interesting place, but I think we need now to officially mourn the death of our hobby as it was. What took us from the early 70s through to now, where we bought physical goods and we plugged them in a physical console, and we played these physical games and we enjoyed them, we kept them, we created them, we we libraried them, we traded them, we we lent them to friends. That era of the hobby is dead, and no amount of and it pains me to say this is not a lie, not is it's not I'm not turning up here like a company shill saying get over it, but what I am here to say is the hobby can't continue without those names. Those names have now got to the point in their public ownership and their sort of responsibility to their shareholders and generally terms of responsibility towards themselves as a company, where unfortunately, in their viewpoint of the world, we're second fiddle, and that's okay, I guess, because if we want to play games in the future, unless we all move to PC, and I tell you now, I know people tell me it's easy, but I am not a C on backslash guy, so help me the hell out. I guess it's console from here on in, and I'm locked in that. Now we all have a choice, we can carry on playing the console we've got, we can go into retro. There's a myriad of experiences out there for us without the need to go down and throw hard money at these. But the white hot edge of gaming is exactly where it is exactly where we kind of want to be with our hobby. Um, I think you know, we talk about gameplay now, but for the longest time we always chase graphics because it was, I think I've talked maybe on a flashback, like why don't the arcades have these great big massive machines that may make your eyes water and say, I wish I could have that at home, and then when you finally do get your PS5 Xbox Series X port, it looks like an 8-bit version of Paperboy compared to the version you were playing in the arcade. Um, that doesn't happen, I don't think it'll ever happen. Will we always chase graphics? Like, yeah. Um, I think we're a lot more mature audience now. But the the end result, RGT, is that the only place serving cake is in town are these places. If you don't like that flavour of cake, um it's PC or retro for you. Um, and obviously this show will always cover the latest stuff, so I guess we'll be at the bright hot edge of PS6. I don't know as we'll be happy about it, but uh that may change. They're gonna flower us with games, throw discounts at us. I suppose my only concern about the all digital future RGT is if we're to go into the future with the digital storefronts that we've got, not a chance in hell. Um, I think need to clear up ownership once and for all, like make it clear to us whether we own it or rent it, and if we only rent it priority, number one priority. Number one priority, make it clear in the store that these are rentals. Change the name if you have to. Um, because you're playing on the idea that we own it, but as we've started to discover, you've pulled movies back, your evoke licenses on games, people don't log into their account for a few months, and you decide to wipe it, yeah. Great work. How does that look in the future when you've blown 150 quid on a collector's edition of I don't know, Horizon 3 Forbidden Clit or something? I don't know. But um if you paid 150 bucks for that and the soundtrack and the theme, uh come 2050 when you want to play that bad boy if you ain't got the remastered, it ain't happening. So, yeah. I don't quite see what that looks like, RGT, it's a mess.

SPEAKER_04 47:48

I've the pro they've got a massive problem as well because uh PS just envision envision PS6 launches, two to four million selling the first year, right? You've got 95, 98 million PS5 users. Developers are gonna think, well, we're gonna optimise it for the PS5 because that's where your your your core audience is, yeah. So that's where most of the games are gonna be sold, so you're not gonna get so many or different looking games, excuse me, on the PS6, which means you've got a smaller audience, but then if that's if people just sit on their PS5s after a while, PS5s will start to break, people will start giving up the hobby, and that'll lose down. So then the devs are thinking, well, where do we go from here? Where where do we make one for a small audience on a PS6, or do we make one for a diminishing audience on the PS5? It's and I don't think Sony don't know, Microsoft don't know. It's they've now got themselves in this vicious cycle with all this AI and and the the prices going through the roof. I mean, $799 for a Series X. I mean, come on, what did that launch at? $400 like four four nine nine or something, was it? I think it's less than that, four four nine, something out or four nine nine. I mean $799. I mean, PlayStation much better. What's that now? That must be $550, $600.

SPEAKER_02 49:14

Don't even look at the pro without a mortgage. I mean, it's the time I've ever bought a console and watch it appreciate in value. What the hell?

SPEAKER_04 49:20

It's the first time in history, you know, it's just and it's and I don't know, and I think you are right. This is a show we'll probably look back on and say, look, it's probably when we're finally admitted it. The the the landscape of what we love has changed. Now you either you jump on board and you pony up or you jump off now.

SPEAKER_02 49:37

It's as simple as that, because you know, it it sounds brutal, but if if you love your part part of the question that I've been mulling round, RGT, and I I'm agreeing with everything you're saying, but I think the thing that I'm mulling around, and and this is where me and you probably differ as gamers, to maybe some people in our audience and wider gamers is and Sony are probably thinking this because they've got the stats, how many people once you know we're all like I said before, we all chase the graphics, we all want that latest hit of the new game so we can experience for the first time for the first experience. We want it solo to ourselves. Once that's done, five years from now, unless you're a weirdo like me who's picked up Assassin's Creed Odyssey, who's playing a game from that long ago? Not many people, like, yeah, you own it in your library, but how much care do you extend to it after you've extracted your revenue from it? You've platinumed it, there's nothing more to do with it, you've put it on the shelf. One would ask why. I ask myself this all the time. But you collect things and that's cool. But outside of like our very particular world where we'll go and pull down a PS2 game from the shelf every once in a Blue Moon RGT and play that through on the hardware it was designed for with the controller, blah blah blah, memory card, the whole experience. I do believe we are uh a very small minority. And if we're not playing the game that we finished five years ago, why does it matter if we've got digital ownership or not?

SPEAKER_04 51:12

I think for me, I think um I think you're right. I I think the figures are slightly askew to what PlayStation put out because they would like it to favour in their their ways quite a bit. I agree when when they say digital downloads, they're including games which are digital only. I think you need to tack that out.

SPEAKER_02 51:31

They're also including the PS Plus three PS Plus games they gave you a month.

SPEAKER_04 51:35

Exactly. So it's not as skewed as it is, but it is still in the favour of digital. Yes, I think we're a dime breed, and also that you said many shows ago, especially with younger gamers over the last 10 years, they've weaned them onto digital, so it's not such a problem when they do go digital with this PS Plus and the free games you get and setting your library up, they get they wean you into the ecosystem, and then that's just like, oh, well, I've got so many digital games anyway, and they make no difference to me, mate.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Right until this news was announced, this was me in the trough. Blah blah blah blah blah blah, digital, give it to me, I don't care. Boom, it's taking away physical. Oh, I better buy some physical games quick. What the hell, mate? I mean, get you can this isn't Phil the producer, this is my shorted knee. Um good boy. Audio listeners, don't worry. That that looks like the crack.

SPEAKER_04 52:27

Anyway, what were you saying? Hmm, I forget now. You were saying you you were you were loving digital, now you're now it's all kicked off.

SPEAKER_02 52:35

That's it. Yeah, I was like, yeah, what shall I do? Again came out. I'd click on buy it now on the store. I didn't care. Um told myself that I'd buy physical and see X of four pounds in a couple of years' time. Told myself that. Let's click buy it, dude.

SPEAKER_04 52:50

Yeah, I don't I won't quite so hardcore as that. I'd always try and buy physical. Um and but Amazon deliver it tomorrow or could download it now. Yeah, I know there is that, but I've I've always sort of been more down that physical route, but that's because I am a dinosaur, apparently.

SPEAKER_02 53:05

Um as am I. I mean, I've noticed a trend like Switch 2. Like I'm in that store all the time buying games for a quid just because it feels like they don't really cost you anything. I know they just cost me a quid, but in the grand scheme of things, is it's you've bought a hundred of them, never played them. Never a true word spoken in jest RGT. It's a bit like that, and I think my digital purchases do feel a bit like that. They're a bit kind of sit on your hard drive, easy to forget. But when you've got that box, this is something I have noticed when you've got that box on the shelf, it borrows into you more. It's like, oh, 70 quid. Oh god, yeah, oh god, that's awkward. Yeah, I ought to play that. Whereas if it's digital, your shame is hidden in a folder and a subfolder that no one ever really sees.

SPEAKER_04 53:48

I think as well, I think people have to remember, especially younger gamers, that the whole life and the whole physicality of gaming is involved in buying a game, having something to trade if you don't like it. It's been like that from the very start. So now this cutoff point, which we knew was sort of coming but not so brutal, is taking away a big part of gaming for me. Really has, you know. I'm a physical collector, I know I have. I've got I've got digital games and I buy digital games, but having that choice taken is a big missing thing. So just having a box for your games in is taking quite a lot of fun away for me. I know I'm I'm the minority, I know that. I know most people think, what are you on about? No one cares, we all buy digital, good, but for me, that's where I Liona.

SPEAKER_02 54:38

That's I would like to see those stats that you mentioned there. You you you you've nestled on something that I think is actually quite important. We have been very vocal, we've done several shows, we've an interview show with the boys, um, H3s and um all the team. Um it makes me wonder us physical collectors or gamers that have been around a while with built-up collections and whatnot, we were the most vocal. And we got on our socials and made videos and talked about how sort of wronged we feel. But I am really starting to get the impression that we are the vocal minority. I think we are that 12% annoyance at the top of PlayStation stats that are still kind of buying physical. But then when you break the numbers down of the developers, when they say, Oh, oh yeah, Pragmar came out, did really well, um, the sales of the physical game only represent sort of 5% of the business that we did. I'm like, oh Capcom, I see you trying. I see you bringing new IPs, and I see you sticking to the traditional delivery methods. Are you physical? But in doing that, you've a compromised on the size of the game you can put on the switch card. Let's use that as an example with Pragmato came to Switch 2 quite successfully. So you're going down the game key card route. Oh, Criker, this is just plastic. So for plastic's sake, at this point, we've had our big sort of shout about game key cards, and now we've accepted they're the lesser of the two weevils, but it's switch three if such a thing exists. If it's not if it's probably going to be the switch DS or some drivel by then, or switch will get dropped and we'll get Henry Mario's face on it. Yeah, the Switch U or some drive, which will completely dive. Yeah, and it won't be backwards compatible with previous two systems either, or something nonsense. Um yeah, I forgot where I was going because I dropped my pen, but I think the ultimate end of the scale is why are we expecting them to keep doing this when maybe if the option's there and they want to do five percent, which means the physical game sales will be very limited, very hard to find, although Amazon will probably still end up with a pallet full of them when it's all said and done. And I think that's the reality that we don't see the carnage left behind when there's still a pallet of Pragmatas on Switch 2 left, yet the online digital storefront has done nothing but gangbangers all day and it's literally on fire.

SPEAKER_04 57:16

Capcona like Yeah, but I think also though, it's probably that if you actually take their numbers for just a switch or switch two, then that's probably closer to 50-50 physical digital because there's obviously a lot of physical, so it it all breaks up.

SPEAKER_02 57:33

I think and that's a game key card though, don't forget. Yes, oh yeah, it is, but it's a resellable quantity, so it's it is either to Kronos and Yakuza Zero that I picked up while I was on my holiday. Um they're game key cards.

SPEAKER_04 57:49

And I think I think what where with the reason Sonya dropped this now, they've been watching these figures for five, ten years, right? The core gamers, like I said, who buy games, put them on shelves, a lot of selves, a lot of people listening to this show. We love the physical game. That's part of the whole experience. It is that number, because of the training of the uh the newer gamers coming through, is now tilted over to the guys that buy a discless system and play Fortnite and play Call of Duty and uh digital only. And I think they've now over they've overtook the numbers of actual gamers on that side rather than the whole experience, is a lot more. So they've now decided to go with the majority rather than the minority. And I think if if I think if Sony could speak honesty, they'd probably say, look, you lot stop living in the past. Yes, you used to be able to get a disc for Metal Gear Solid. Things times have changed.

SPEAKER_02 58:43

Movement the only the only slight sort of knock on for that is the no, it's gone. Let's move on. I think we've killed this. Uh yes. There's no we've we've gone around in circles and I've got to.

SPEAKER_04 58:58

Let us know though, down below. Let us know what you think of this. You know, if you're whether you're a new game, say a new game, about a new generation of gamer, maybe you're all digital. Tell us about being digital, what you like about being digital. If you're like us and you you love that whole experience of buying a game from a shop or from Amazon and and playing it on your system and you know having that disc on the shelf or cartridge, whatever you use, let us know because that'd be interesting to see where people lie with this and and you know where where the future lies as well.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

Well, here's my last say on it, then, because I've remembered what I was gonna say. It took a while because there's a lot of grey matter. Oh broken my uh microphone holder. Absolutely brilliant. There we go. Never a spenny penny spenny. A spenny. Never a spenny pad on this show, I'll tell you that now. T-shirt. Um I'm still waiting for my let's get physical, and I see all the people who jumped on the bandwagon, so um, yeah. Um, anyway, what I was gonna say is it wasn't that long ago that uh several outlets decided and reported on it was the Gen X gamers and their physical buying of all the accessories and all the special editions and whatnot that was kind of keeping gaming alive in the first part of this year. So only trumpeted that. How do we go from Gen X? Is the there's many, many age demographics playing video games, but there's only one demographic, the OG demographic, the one that came from 2600 all the way through to now, with oodles of disposable income, that's literally throwing down. Everybody else outside of that is playing free to play. There's no revenue in there. So why are they not focusing on the main revenue generation? And that's idiots like you and me who buy physical games. End of end of chat. If we are the main demographic that do the main heavy lifting of the fiscal carry of these businesses, why are we dropped for the digital future?

SPEAKER_04 1:01:01

And also, if that is the case, then you're gonna have a very hard time game companies going forward if that is what you're focusing on rather than the ones with the income. So yeah, I'd be interested to see a digital gamer who's into their free-to-play games, what they have in their library digitally, and what uh more old school game would have in their library. See what the price variance would be and what they gain out of that person to what they gain out of that person.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:29

Agreed.

Ocarina Of Time Switch 2 Rating

SPEAKER_02 1:01:31

Um last bit of news, bit of Nintendo news. Safe haven in a stormy sea. Over on Nintendo Life, Liam Doolan has got his pen and pad out, and he's he's crayoned this. Uh, the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Switch 2 ratings surface online. It's only a small bit of news, but I wanted everyone to know that this seems to be heading in the right direction. Nintendo is releasing a remake of the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time for Switch 2 this year, and the first rating for the game has been spotted online. It surfaced on official Nintendo store page in the US with the ESRB rating listed as Everyone 10 Plus. According to a attached description, it will include animated blood and fantasy violence. The rating for the upcoming Switch 2 release is not live on the ESRB website yet, but it's worth noting the Legend of Zelda Arcarine of Time for the 3DS received the same rating and also referenced suggestive themes. The original N64 release was rated E. E10 Plus did not exist until 2005. Uh, and as Push Square highlighted in a previous um, sorry, Nintendo Life highlighted in a previous story, the same game has revealed, the same game page has revealed the Ocarina on Switch 2, will include stunning visuals, updated designs, timeless gameplay, and Nintendo's announcement trailer also featured a first look at link. If you're mildly interested in that, if you played the original, please comment below. Say I'm a survivor uh of the N64's ragged history, and I'm here with you boys right now, arm in arm, shouting, Yes, what am I gonna do with my Aloy statue now, you idiots? Um RGT switching it back to Nintendo, and no doubt the mega amount of Master Sword accessories that are gonna get sold, switch to Doc, Master Sword 2, la bla bla bla shield, shield, all of it. Are you excited for this? Did you play the original?

SPEAKER_04 1:03:31

I've dabbled with original, but not in the day. Um, I was not there for the hype. I I've always said your Ocarina of Time is my Breath of the Wild. So that whenever you describe Ocarina of Time and your passion and how you played it, it's very similar to how I felt with Breath of the Wild. And but I'm very excited for this. Um, I have Ocarina of Time, I'll keep putting off playing it, but now you get that modern version of it. I'm very interested. I'm definitely gonna purchase it. Um, I originally, when they first announced it, I thought this was all maybe they'll use sort of Tears of the Kingdom Breath of the Wild engine. But from seeing the sort of trailer and the little bit of graphics we got, I thought, mm, this looks a bit different. Is this something completely new? How they're gonna do this. Um, so it's gonna be interesting. I think it's gonna be I think it'll be bigger and better. I think from sort of Nintendo's history of their remasters. I think they do some great remasters and extend them and making the worlds a bit deeper. So I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, and I'll definitely be picking this up. The definitely day.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:32

Fantastic. I will be physical as well. Um, I've recently been playing the Ocarina of Time. I've got a playthrough concurrent on the Switch too that I'm playing on the Nintendo Online. Oh, totally playable. It's been improved, obviously, by my recent acquisition of the fresh Nintendo 64 online controller.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:51

What a way to play. Oh, you've really got me tempted now. It was payday today as well.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:56

So we made a promise to each other to go back on the Nintendo store and buy all the retro online controllers.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:02

Yeah, I've got bills, but yeah, give me a chance. I got bills, I gotta pay. I've got games, I want to play. No, it should be. I got bills, they're multiplying my subscriptions, horizon. That's a t-shirt idea.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:20

Wow, grease too. Um, yes, so I'm hyped for this basically because I can see the seeds of exactly what they did with Star Fox, the N64 version reskin. Now I've had my doubts how they're gonna pull that off with this because some areas we'll see, but I have faith, especially after playing that port, which is absolutely fantastic, by the way. Um I'm not gonna be pushed for games to talk about in our Ponsies at the end of the year, am I? I've been no I'm dripping them, dripping them, dripping in them. That'll be clipped, Captain. That'll be clipped. I don't know what he could do with that, but feel free to have as much fun as you'd like.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:11

He's made about three weeks worth of clips of my funny noise I'd done about a month ago, so that's definitely gonna be reoccurring.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:22

But yes, if you're wondering what we talk about, we've got a TikTok channel where Captain Scarlet, uh a really great bloke, clips up the shows, takes them out of order, and makes very funny videos about uh and on tentacle drivels. If you've gone this far, you've probably already pieced a few together yourself. If you want to have a go knock yourself out, um I'm as I say, I'm super pumped for this. I'm excited. It's a it's a game that is fundamental to my growth as a gamer, it's fundamental to my gaming experience, it's fundamental to my gaming story and lore. So I'm very excited about this. It is a treasured Georgie kind of safe place, and even when I'm playing the N64 Switch Online version, it's tickling me in those like nostalgic places, and I'm having thoughts I haven't had since I first played it. So it you know it's eclectic enough, and the gameplay's good enough, it's it's very simplistic, um, but it it doesn't hold your hand too much and just lets you kind of get on with it, which I really enjoy. I really enjoyed it the first time round, although I do I do remember Boxing Day. I had a copy of um official Nintendo magazine sprawled out with like the water temple. I was like, Right, okay. I've got a bit stuck in there, but I think I think a few people did. But after that, I was all in and I was working it all out for myself, and and that's what made it great. Hopefully that all stays. As RGT says, it'd be nice for them to broaden it out. I mean, there are bits in Star Fox where there's new cutscenes that weren't there before that add colour and lore to the characters that inhabit you on the Great Fo and inhabit the ship the Great Fox with you before you go out on the missions. There's like new dialogue pieces, there's like new twists and turns within the level, so you can go through and have a very original experience. But if you know the game and exploit it and push outwards, there's other things to find and new areas. So if they applied that same logic to return in Ocarina of Time, I'd be very happy. Um, if it was just a reskin 3DS version, that's where I'll start to feel a little bit mugged off. But we don't have long to wait to find out. So, and everything seems to be progressing as you'd expect it to, with the ratings coming, and that's why that news was there to let you know that you're safe. Um shall we wrap up the news there, RGT? I think we covered everything, yeah. Yeah, so we covered the emerging ocarina of time. We've talked about Asha's four tenants, four pillars that she's decided to get behind Xbox. Wait and see how that works out. We've also discussed Tom Holland's favourite game. So we give you everything we said we'd give you at the top, and even more, hopefully, so a nice bit of discussion. If you've been inspired or maybe sort of fired up about some of the things that we said, that's where you get in the comments. If you're already subscribed to the show and deeply in tuned within it, there is a Discord and all the other social medias and the website to get stuck into, but you'll find that on your journey of discovery once you've clicked subscribe. It's not hard. There's so many of you watching out there that well, I've never seen your face before. Yes, you little devil. I'm looking at you. You've enjoyed it or you've tolerated it at this point. Hit subscribe. RGT.

Community Shoutouts And Supporters

SPEAKER_02 1:09:49

Yes. Without further ado, obviously, all those people that are subscribing in their thousands right now, they've made one step towards being involved in the show. But this collection of gentlemen and ladies have made another step, and they're supporting the show financially, for which we will be forever grateful. There's there's many tiers, which again, if you go on a journey discovery, you'll find out about. But these guys, supporters from as little as three dollars a month, one of their perks one of their perks, RGT, is to be read out on the show in a humorous way. As they requested. We try. We well, we just say their names, it's you that determines whether it was humorous or not. RGT, would you like to go first, second, or third this week? I'm gonna go third. Okay, that means you start. Because there's only two of us.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:44

I thought you were gonna read out the first two, anyway. Um fair play. Touche. Um, Gazcon first, the legend that is Gazcon. Um, great guy in the Discord. He's always putting lovely long posts on with his information, with his knowledge of games, right from Atari 800 right up to modern games that he's playing. Um, a great addition to our Discord, a lovely guy. Um, and I love seeing all his facts and bits of games.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:15

We met him in person at a game show, did we not?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:18

Yes, we have. Um, yeah, so he's a regular poster on there and a really great guy. So, as always, as we say every week, I know, but thank you, Gazcon.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

A calming and an inspirational experience and interaction would never is is exactly what you're gonna get with Gascom. Any news from the Outback, mate? Any news on Shane Khan's parcels arriving? Did he get dead or not?

SPEAKER_04 1:11:41

I'm not sure yet. Um, we haven't seen any photographic evidence of yet, but once we get his Mullock quad and flashback t-shirt, he's gonna cut the arms off the t-shirt, you know that, don't you? Oh, yes, he'll cut them off. That'll be the special sleeveless edition. I want to see it right out there in the middle of Cuba Ped in the middle of the outback on a quad. Probably a cow behind him, something like that. Waiting for it, Shane. Shane Con.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:04

Better behind than in front.

SPEAKER_04 1:12:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:09

Um up next, I get to thank the wonderful Captain Skynet. I mentioned him earlier under his other name, aka Captain Scarlet, but now he's so wired in to the show's TikTok and socials that he controls us like Puppet from Above. Oh god, yeah. He's accepted that his name is Captain Skynet. Has he changed it on the Discord yet?

SPEAKER_04 1:12:29

Um I don't think so. He's made his name quite fancy and a few little, you know, new logo on there. Looks a little avatar, looks quite cool, but I don't know if he's done it to Skynet just quite yet. But he does. We are his puppets. He controls us, he's wide in, he's literally in us.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:47

He controls you with strings, but I see myself more as a glove puppet. He's got his hand firmly up my derriere, and he's sort of he's popped his thumb in the lower half of my jaw, and he's popped his other fingers a bit like a boglin. He's put like two fingers in my mouth, and yet he's got one of them in my eye. Um I got absolutely no idea what Captain's doing to me, but uh is that why you keep talking about him?

SPEAKER_04 1:13:09

He's making you talk about himself.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:11

Um well, to be honest, I think he left his watch in here somewhere as well after a pretty deep dive that he did on me. So yeah, every now and then I'll probably just blurt out the time.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:20

Oh wow, the talking clock, literally.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:22

Literally. I'm like the I'm like the rather sad and abused crocodile from Peter Pan. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:30

Sort of a rougher version of the talk and cock. A clock either applied.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:37

I think the first one probably fits the bill. Yeah, yeah, let's get behind it.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:41

Sort of the little version, the talk and cock.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:45

I don't know as Liv will get away with selling that, mate. To be fair, I think you'd probably have to do a subscription website, dark web.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:52

Yeah. Anyway, we go off paced. Next up, we have anyway, thank you, Captain Skynet slash Scarlet. Um, next up we have the wonderful retro ed. Thank you, Ed, as always, youtuber, um, fundraiser. He and he always puts he's I must go to him, but if you follow him on Instagram, he's always putting on his stories, his different toy fairs and fundraising events. Absolutely brilliant. We must have to make a bit of a pilgrimage to one of them one day, get the old UCP Discord behind us, and we'll we'll go down and support one of those.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:22

But yes, thank you as a RetroEd is a hero amongst men that you never thought possible. Yes. He's risen to every challenge life has thrown him and then took that and moved it to another level. I've got to say to my I've got to say to him, I'd offer my cap to your retrohead, who an absolute legend.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:37

He is. I've had the pleasure of meeting him, and I could sit down and chat to him all night because he's one of them guys that even though I waffle on probably crap 90% of the time, he'll always be interested and in in always chat away to you about whatever you're talking about. Brilliant, absolutely great guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:53

He's you know I to be fair, when he said he was meeting you, I did send him some sticky googly eyes so he could fall asleep and then. I wonder why he didn't blink. Yeah. So I did him a solid, but at the same time, everything you thought he was talking about you with he didn't care. He didn't care.

SPEAKER_04 1:15:09

I did thought I heard a little snore noise halfway through, but I thought he's probably got nasal problems. I don't know. Oh, okay. Anyway, thanks for it. Googly, Googly Eyes and All.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:24

Um, which means I get to thank the one man George fan club. I engage with him, I've engaged with him in a personal way. I think it might be iMessage, I don't know, but I can't work the Discord, but I can't leave my one man George fan club out there. So me and him have a sinuous connection between us. Um and he said to me, Oh, you know, have you had a good job playing holiday? I've been playing like game and watches on my Switch and other bits and bobs, and it's like, hang on a minute. There's a man that's so cool. As soon as I read that, I was like, I've played nothing all holiday, and he's gone back and explored retro nostalgic games that really I just can't doff my cap to him enough. He's an absolute he's an absolute legend. If you've met him in person, you'd know that he's an absolute stud.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:17

And also, he's a great fan of our other show, Flashback. And whenever he listens to Flashback, I would say within an hour of that show coming out, he's dropped a list of notes onto our Discord saying, Oh, yeah, back when uh Crazy Taxi was out, it was actually out in 2000 on the Dreamcast. But I remember going to the arcade, yeah, and he stacks all the lists and that. I mean, we were talking about the arcade version, but he's he's there with all the facts straight away and and the games, and he sometimes goes into the the devs and bits and pieces. Absolutely fascinating with all his imports and shooter games and knowledge, it's brilliant. You know, just seeing a passionate guy. Oh god, yes, should he? Yes, Carlos, you need a YouTube channel. I would sub immediately.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:01

I would um okay, who's next?

SPEAKER_04 1:17:05

Next up, we have from Trump to Trump in a week, the awesome firm returns. Now, this is a guy who loves a switch. This is a guy who loves a switch too. And has he had a baby with it? And whenever you see his pickups, I always just think it's just something about him as a gamer where I just think you're a pretty cool guy, you're a you're a proper gamer. You know, we were talking about games on offer on Amazon the other week, and he's like, Oh no, no, I don't buy games off Amazon. And I just thought, oh last class, he's probably buying them off special limited run switch sites, or he's getting them for play Asia. And I just thought, and the amount of games I've seen him pick up and think, I'm gonna get that. I'm gonna get that. He knows his stuff and uh really inspires me on the switch. So uh thank you for Maturns as always.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:58

Yeah, we've met him in real life as well, as well as Carlos. Uh shared a couple of points with him.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:03

Yeah, great guys, absolutely great.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:05

I can't drink, so you had to do the heavy lifting there. I went home and sicked in a bookie because I looked at a shandy.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:09

You had a yeah, you had a sniff of a shandy bass, I was put out of work for a week. I was took out a spine board. But that's that's another thing with this. I know we joke about all this, and we do appreciate these guys, but when you go to events and it's not only us talking to the guys, these guys are all made friends now. These guys talk to each other and they've all met up, and because of the show, it it's a good feeling that people have made game and friends through the community. And I remember Carlos saying to me, you know, on the big building sites in London where he works, you're not really going to talk about Ocarina a time on there because it's not really the place, but now he's found a home to talk about them and chat to people and be friends and makes us very proud. So, yes, thanks for everyone, and also thanks for matern.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:49

So, yeah, no, that does the ever-emerging and and sort of mixing community is is is absolutely fantastic. It makes me happy. Um, that this show is the nexus of something much bigger. Uh, up next, uh, a legacy of our time when we recorded in New York for season two with Bobby. Um, we have the corner house, legally now obliged to pay us until the earth stops turning. So thank you for your loyal and never-ending subscription. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:22

Um, next up we have the dreamcast guy himself, Roe Space Monk. I hope you're very well. Haven't heard from you recently, but I hope you're good. Hope things are all right, mate. Um, and uh yes, just give us a little update on that dreamcast collection because I still think you're probably getting quite close. You must be close now.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:41

A thousand and a million percent. We need that, like I said to you. It's getting to the point in time where it's that little hit. We need that hit of a picture. Yeah, and look, let us know what you're struggling to pick up because maybe we just want to help you.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:53

I've got some down behind me down here. If there's one you need, it's yours, fella.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:58

Doesn't get any better than that. Show me another show that's gonna do that. Uh hit subscribe if you don't. If you do, go watch their content. Uh up next, uh a man who needs no introduction because he is Italian's finest, he's Italy's finest export. It's Badabinster. Thank you, Badabinster.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:18

Um comments like it's always this awkward moment where I'm thinking I feel like I should answer, but I can't because you think he's answering. I know, so I just sort of sit out while you just have a chat. I'm just sort of like the awkward little brother sitting in the corner waiting.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:42

I honestly don't know what I'm saying, but it always seems to elicit a smile from an Italian person, so hopefully Badabinkster gets an equity instance. I mean, you could have just really insulted him, but who knows? Hmm, I don't think I did. He's got a Bern Espronzo, so he's a great guy.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:00

Keep dropping these little bits of lingo, didn't you? Um, thank you, Badabinkster. Next up, we have the uh that last one you're gonna love. Oh that's on the clip. Um we have the uh I still don't know what nice. Um we have the wonderful RBG good cock we have the JRBG man himself, tingle tuner. Again, he's another guy that is now going for a full 3DS set, and he keeps every every I sorry every payday, there's another four key appearing. He's got a few of the heavy hitters out of the way now, so his collection is growing quite well. And he actually again, because of these guys who uh have their niches and what they like and they upload the pictures. I suddenly find games so like the other, I think last week he got Lego City Undercover on the 3DS. And then um Captain Scarlet said for his own reasons us, you know, he loves that game, they need to make another one, blah blah blah blah blah. And I said, Yeah, I've played that, that's brilliant. Then looked into it, realised that Lego City Undercover on the 3DS is a prequel to the first one, and I was like, Oh, so I'm gonna pick that up, went on CX three quid. Wow, three three quid. So as things like that, and these guys and their passions, where we all sort of benefit because it all leads us down other paths of games we've got to play.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:21

One extra thing I want to say about Tingle Tuner is we know he's a man ahead of his time, we know he's a man of very high class and uh sophistication. While I was on holiday perusing things, I came to the rather strong conclusion that the most quiet, cool drip you could ever drop on someone right now, in this moment, is a 3DS collector. I feel like that's a hot topic. Finding a good 3DS console, boxed, any of the variants, expensive, super expensive. It's high brow, high-end luxury collecting chisel. Uh, if Mrs. Tuner's listening, he's investing in your future right now. Not only if you've got one of the best looking husbands, the best looking husband on planet. He's a very good looking chap. Mate, if I even looked 10% as good as Tingle Tuner, I'd be in the movies. But he just plays it humble and cool.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:19

Oh, he's very cool, isn't he?

SPEAKER_02 1:23:20

He's very and he's out there collecting 3DS, games that are rare, quite hard to find, and the console's super expensive. It puts him in the higher echelons. He's a prestigious collector, is Tingle Tuner.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:31

Definitely a cravat in a library, definitely. 100% sort of Mario cravat, but a cravat, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:39

I would it not be something a little bit more obscure. Oh, like fire emblem. Yeah, it's gotta be fire emblem, and uh yes, yes, yes. Some coat of arms, some fire emblems tucked in. Only those that know know.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:53

Yeah, and in his evening brandy, the ice in it is in the shape of the Zelda sword, uh shield. But if you just sort of looked at the glass that well, you'd know. If you knew, you knew things like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:05

I think we both went mmm at the same time. I think if we'd applied that vibration to Tingle Tuner's Nether regions, I think he probably would have climaxed that moment because it made my lips like tingle with the vibration, I have to admit. Um if you've done Tingle Tuner, it sounds like you've done him solid. Uh, I'm gonna take on board Digimonkey. So, Digi Digimonkey. That's what I've written down, that's what I call it now. I've just written Digi because we know who he is. Just give me a little pet name. Nothing means love more than a pet name. Once you've got that, you know you're in. Um DigiMonkey, thank you for your everlifting on flashback. To be honest, I don't want you on again because you maybe look bad. Um, but thank you for stepping in. And I noticed the trifecta of Tom seemed to have gathered around itself, and now people are clamouring from a for a Tom only show. So OG, you and Digi to do an episode. Stick around, I'm sure it'll happen. I don't know how you're gonna rope through and brand OG, though. He's quite hard to pin down, even as his flesh and blood.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:14

He's very high brow, he's uh yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Depends what his local theatre works like as well, because he's probably you've got to remember that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:22

Yeah, Sleaford Playhouse, it it pays well. Um so DigiMonkey. I hope that you're doing well. The fact that you've been on the episode means that you're on the up and up front, and that makes me feel good about myself. But don't forget, your own worst enemy is yourself. Because everyone else is your biggest supporter. I think you're a legend. Who's next?

SPEAKER_04 1:25:42

Next up, we have Floss 360. I think everyone who listens to this show regularly knows who pulls off of Floss 360. There's only one guy. Tony Hawke was the first one to do a 900. He he didn't floss it out at the top of a ramp, I can assure you that. And Chay3. He's Chay 3.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:00

So listen. There's many trenches that are famous on this earth: the Mariana Trench, the World War I series of the Eastern Front, and then you have we have Bull Borders Flesh Trench. And I'll be honest with you, I think it carries more historical weight and context than the other previous trenches I mentioned. Obviously, one is the deepest trench on planet Earth, deep in the Pacific Ocean. Um, the other one is the the battered uh um rather kind of emotional eastern front of the World War I campaign. But I say they play second fiddle to Bull Border's Flesh Trench.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:39

Yeah, but you also got to remember his flesh trench has had a hell of a battery as well to put this trick off.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:45

To be honest, I've seen you stood behind his battered flesh trench, grimacing with glee at the destruction of it. I think we ought to now make this a UNESCO holy site, his flesh trench. I think we should get behind it and save it, not only for ourselves and himself and his and his skating career, but for future generations to enjoy. I'm suggesting now, as a UNESCO, that once he shovels off the mortal coil, we immediately shuffle him in some sort of back back office somewhere, cut his flesh trench out. It's already pre-leatherised. We know this, we've talked about this for hours. So there's not solar buds feet. It's a combination of things I never thought possible, but yeah, let's throw um bald border's leatherised flesh trench at her feet.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:40

Yeah, and I think you've got to remember us in 50 years' time when everyone's pulling off the VLOS 360. That's gonna be like, you know, we used to do a high jump at school until someone done a Frosby flop. It's gonna be remembered in the same niche as that. Because someone done it first. Someone invented it and done it first.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:02

Mate, when when the next generation of Bam Maguras are sat around absolutely rinsing their crotch out with a towel in a bid to make this leatherized pouch where they can collect their towel while so I don't know what you know about extreme sports, but oh it's extreme. If you want to do the floss 360 inverted, the dedication of sacrifice of your body is on another level beyond human comprehension. I think we've I think we've done the flesh trench a solid. Who's next?

SPEAKER_04 1:28:33

I think it's you next. Oh it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:37

We talked about the thing. I'll be honest, I saw that crevice of skin and I went at it ammo and tongues. I couldn't help myself.

SPEAKER_04 1:28:42

I've actually got in my notes here, don't over-trench, and we did over-trench a bit, so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:50

Okay. I felt like we paid respects, but we did, we did, but which means I get the pleasure of um thanking our next listener. Um like viewer viewer viewer, I'm sure he's watching it now. Um, much like Digital Munkery, he is backstage on the Discord, keeping it together, policing it like a true sheriff should do. Boba Loba. Um, we outed uh as uh a tent box user and uh starting to experiment with a swinging scene like RGT. Um he took it to another level though, this swinging.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:26

Oh, is he?

SPEAKER_02 1:29:28

Oh, he saw you, he raised you 10. He went to a local seaside theme park. I don't really want to mention what place because we're trying to keep his privacy private. Um, but um he went on a pirate ship. The ultimate swing experience. Now, as you can imagine, a pirate ship is a little bit of a dangerous place. There's sort of one-eyed guys all over the place, kind of spitting and doing all sorts of lawless activity. Um actually, what am I talking about? This was Skegness Pirate Ship. He's just had a little swing on it. He took the tent box down, slept on Skegness Beach. I think he's had a very wholesome experience. I'm very grateful to him. I wish him the best.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:18

Hey Boba. I hope you enjoyed Skegnes Pirate Ship. I'm quite envious because of all the swings I've had, I've never had a swing as big as that.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:28

Have you ever seen a one-eyed spitter like that either?

SPEAKER_04 1:30:31

No, I haven't.

SPEAKER_02 1:30:32

I'd love to experience one though. I think you've had a few in your time. Um but probably nothing as premium as that. No, no, not not in that big a swing environment as well. No, I mean in terms of nautical references, you've had more sailors through you than the Art Royal. Oh god, yeah. Including myself.

SPEAKER_04 1:30:55

Wow, anyway, moving on. Moving on to a guy that could probably flex his biceps, hang two ropes off each, put a swing on, and hold a fully grown adult off each one. Because he's absolutely ripped that he's your red-headed stepson Ging.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:10

My red-headed stepson Ging, his real genetic brother is in the navy, and I think what you need to say to him, Ginge, is you are the Commodore of HMS Massive. End of story. Love it. T-shirt. Thank you, Ginge.

SPEAKER_04 1:31:25

Who we got next?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:27

Up next, a man who comes from a dark place, only because he is the keeper of the keys of hell. His name is Harvey Retro, a man that has an amazing presence on the internet. Go check him out on Instagram. He's also part of Enigmatic Productions. Their content is premium. We had them on guests on the show in the early days, not the early days, but during our New York era, where we shipped them across uh the Atlantic Ocean for an interview episode about movies, game movies, games, and videos. No, I've what did we call it that? I think you might have done. Go find it anyway. You'll find it in Magic Productions when you search your back catalogue, it'll come up. It is one of the very best ones we've ever done. Sound effects included the lot, so go check it out. And if you want a high brow movie game crossover discussion, there isn't a better one on the internet. I'm fed up with playing humble. I'll just give it a bigger I will. I'll give it the flesh 360 980.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:32

You mean the floss, not the flesh, unless you're making a new one up.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:35

I look, this the flesh is just another level of abuse of the flesh trench. So we're not calling it the floss anymore. It's moved on past that. The floss is where you just kind of gently move it between. The flesh is where you take another sort of skin gridle off.

SPEAKER_04 1:32:54

You're taking it to another level, you you you know, he's gonna do it, you know he's gonna do it. So now he's heard this, he's gonna take it to another level.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:02

He I'll be honest, Bull Border was kind of moving round on the floor, collecting up the desiccated skin and stitching it into like a Mac that you could wear at Alton Towers.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:11

Oh. Oh good. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:17

The high pitch in your voice suggests that you were kind of almost a little bit intimidated by his uh Mac arrangement, but I don't think you need to worry too much.

SPEAKER_04 1:33:23

Yeah, yeah, very intimidated. Um, thank you, Harvey Rector. Anyway, went a bit off piece there. Next up, we've got the wonderful Emma Sharp. Um, I've got a little something for you, Emma. I keep forgetting. Um, I was going through my collection the other day and I found a little piece of uh Assassin's Creed memorabilia, so I will drop it down to you. So um I meant to do it this week, didn't have time of work. So, yes, got a little present for you. And as always, thank you, Emma, for all you do. So brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:48

Thank you, Emma. Um up next, we're trying to track this man down. We said nowhere near Berlin. I decided that I'd have enough of this, and we decided to focus on an Aztec temple and work our way out. Last week, RGT. Remind me, where did you get to? The south steps?

SPEAKER_04 1:34:03

Bottom of the south steps, I believe.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:06

So he's not there. No, no. So shall I call out the east steps this week? I think we're gonna have to. So, Greg, are you anywhere near the east steps of this Aztec temple? Because we plan on getting the Amazonian rainforest covered in the next hundred years, and if you're not there, then we know you're nowhere near Berlin and you're nowhere near South America. It's a big continent. We might as well get that completely done. Narrow it down completely. Thank you, Greg, aka Nowhere Near Berlin.

SPEAKER_04 1:34:38

Yes, thank you. Who's next? The one we should all thank. It's Mumsy, as always, the longest-term supporter of this show. Yes, always has been and always will be. So thank you, Mumsy.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:49

She's always got behind giving us a big push. Her sons. So without that, we'd still be probably lodged in there somewhere. So very grateful to Mumsy. Um, if you've thanked Mumsy, means I have to thank the RGT fan club. I've written down on my note RGT FC. So maybe they're a football club.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:10

They are thinking of starting a two-aside team at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:14

So oh wow. So who would they play?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:17

Um, any other two-aside team down at the community centre. So well, it's slow going.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:23

Neil Buchanan's got a couple of fans at the community centre, so maybe Neil Buchanan FC could play RGT FC.

SPEAKER_04 1:35:29

Oh, cool, yeah. If he'd like the community shield of walking football. Well, sort of walk sit for a bit football, but yeah, walk and football.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:40

Fair play, old boy. Um up next, the man whose strength is paramount, well known in the industry. Um, he's a sort of guy that um he could pull the skin off an elephant, to be fair. So you you you you've got to be a little bit gentle with him. You don't want him as a lover. He's a generous lover but vigorous. Um, it's the legend that is Pete Brocklehurst.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:02

And do you know what I thought about Pete as well? He's a silent but violent, isn't he, right, Pete? He is we keep saying we haven't met him, and then I suddenly thought, but have we met him? All them people we spoke to at OLL, was he one of them? Was he watching us the whole time? I think did he have a photo with us? I don't know. Oh god. Did he touch you? I mean in the photo, you know, was he holding you and you didn't even know it was Pete Brocklehurst? Oh well, I thought this was some sort of allegation.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:34

He's I'd be happy if he wanted to.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:37

Yeah, no, no, no, not like that. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:40

I mean I mean, I'd normally pay for that, so you know, knock yourself out, Pete. Uh who's who's next? Is it me next or you? I'm confused.

SPEAKER_04 1:36:47

It's me next, and we always say love my hate him. Another one, the silent but violent. Was he there at OLL? That's Billy Marmite. Don't know, were you there, Billy? I don't know. There was I reckon he turned up and he just played Amiga all day. I think so, because at one point there was a few guys mingling around a stall, and I got an overwhelming smell of yeast extract. So just saying, just saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:12

I would say that's probably an overriding smell of most gamer collections. I think if you gather gamers in an area, there's gonna be an overwhelming smell of like yeast. I'm a gamer myself, and I know you know, leave me hot and heavy in a show hall somewhere amongst the myriad of games and other gamers. I am gonna reek of yeast. Uh I can't get it off my breath. It's coming out of my armpits, literally collecting like a yellow kind of paste under my armpit, which I'll have a lick of. Gotta taste like marmite. You like marmite? Oh yeah. So I don't know. Uh if Billy was there, brilliant. But I think RGT, it's a bold claim to sort of suggest that he was OLL because there was a yeast smell. I think that's a very strong yeasty extract smell coming from me. Uh and I'll be honest with you, I've got a little bit of whiff of the bovril from your breath. Um, but bovril and marmite, they're very similar smells, or they're very different tastes. Obviously, one's beef extract and the other's marmite, but yeah. I never hear anyone anyone moan about bovril. Uh, but lots of people don't like marmite. RGT, with all that said and done, have you wiped up your yeast extract yet, mate? Or are you still collecting it there for future reference? What's up with you?

SPEAKER_04 1:38:26

No, I'm fine. Yeah, I'm good. Oh, I'm good.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:28

Yeah, no problem. We're gamers, we stink, right? So that's a stereotype. I'm washed in.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:38

Well, it's the end of the month, so it should be today, I think.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:40

No, I tell you, I wash, I haven't. It's probably been 12 12 years.

SPEAKER_04 1:38:46

I didn't think that. 83 years.

Next Week’s Games And Finger Rating

SPEAKER_04 1:38:51

So I think it's your turn to ghee for me to guess. Geefer in the guesser.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:55

Yeah, okay. So this week I've actually done a little bit of research into geefs. Um, I didn't realise when a female geefs, her breasts grow by at least 10%. So I'll do I'll be honest with you, the geef is a very powerful and probably on this show abused um physical representation of your happiness sexually on planet Earth. But I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna give this a go, RGT. So, like I said, I've been researching the geef and I'm gonna execute this Geef, and I'd like you to tell me what elicited the Geef. Okay, so uh let me just get my notes.

SPEAKER_04 1:39:43

I'm expecting certain big time here, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 1:39:45

Yeah, mention here of the first Geef ever recorded literally, uh literarily, not literally the first geef, but the first one written down. Yeah, Shakespeare floss work was a geef.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:00

So okay if people have just joined on the show too late. Subscribe! Subscribe Wow I think that might be you standing up against digital gaming and then opening up your digital library and realizing that you have 1432 digital games and that you are the problem. Let me check my notes.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:41

Um Geef inspiration, digital library opening, too many digital games. You're part of the problem.

SPEAKER_04 1:40:54

Yeah, 100% correct on the GIF. Oh yes, you you brought that across really well. I've never seen such a poetic and powerful performance of a Geef. Um I'll be honest with you, nearly lost two teeth off the back of it.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:07

So Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:41:08

I mean, there was one point you inhaled so much air I thought there's a couple of molars going there.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:14

I think I ate one of them, but you know, you want your calcium, you gotta get what the body gives for free, haven't you?

SPEAKER_04 1:41:19

I mean, there's plenty of other bodily fluids you could abuse, but you know you're like board border, you need to abuse your body for the power of the performance.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:26

So and that's the sort of performance you get from ears at the UCP. Um, with all that said and done, I think that draws a line under the show. Those that have been with us for 330 episodes know that I'm going to ask you something in a moment. Those that haven't been around for a while, stick around, hit subscribe. Yes, we won't stop this until you're all subscribed. So, you know, we're never put that never so create a new account if you already listen and subscribe. Uh that will help us relieve the this this dribble. But it's what YouTubers do, isn't it? Because that's what we are now. Listen, some guys just going down the road listening in these cars like, no, damn it, your audio. We'll always be audio and we'll always be free. Well, we ask is you press sub. Alright, it's not come on. Anyway, looking through the annals of the show. Oh, you wrote this note, looking through the anals of the show, hmm. I have to ask you now what your thing to play.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:33

But you're geefing again, then I thought, God, you'd only get enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:36

I'm just that excited to find out what your next gaming week's got in store that I kind of cross-pollinated with a geef. A good geef, I enjoyed that. It was an air geef, to be honest with you. I'm a little bit dry post-main geef, so all I got was a little yeah, just a little, just a little puff rather than a little dribble.

SPEAKER_04 1:42:57

Yeah, very much. Um, bit more futures connected. Um, definitely gonna play that. More Luigi's Mansion. Um, I want to get more into that. I'm now coming up to the third area, I believe. Some property.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:10

If we were to use like the fingers on shaft rating, like what would you be giving that off your first experience of it? Obviously, arriving at it kind of relatively new and raw. What Luigi's Mansion? Yeah, my friend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:22

Um I would give that because we always and a shaft rating is that of eight, because we don't do tens.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:28

So I would give a uh Well, you don't get your thumb around it.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:32

No, well, our rating systems on our on our website is a uh eight out of ten. We don't we don't put thumbs on.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:40

Do we put them in?

SPEAKER_04 1:43:42

I think if you have a really exceptional game, you drop in a fun.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:47

Wow. So all of a sudden seven out of ten for a game is uh not far off a perfect score by our means.

SPEAKER_04 1:43:55

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. So um Luigi's Mansion, I'd say, is a definitely a good a good six out of eight fingers on a shaft, I think. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:07

So it stood up well. Anything else that you're planning on doing?

SPEAKER_04 1:44:09

It stood up well, but it's it's simplicity sometimes, it's just nice to play because you ain't got too many um things to think about. You could you just go from room to room, clear those rooms, and that's really well done, really nice. Graphically, still good as well. Luigi's character models great. Um, other than that, um, if I can finish Futures Connected or Luigi's mansion of resisted rune factory five that I was speaking about earlier in the show, but I'll hopefully drop that into my uh circulation of games once one of those is finished because I don't want to overload myself. I will go back to Heavenly Sword and try and beat that Area 2 boss, but I am getting a little bit annoyed with the QTEs in that game, and that might be I hate to say out low it is our Gen 7 pick this month. Um, I might be at my end tether with that, but we'll see. Wow. But yes, that's pretty much. What about you, George?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:57

Me, I'll be continuing with Odyssey. I probably now I'm home and settled in a bit more, I'll probably slowly migrate back to the Switch 2 and pick up all those fantastic games I was playing on there. I hope next week to feed back a little bit on Kronos, but I've wasted my whole day and I'm back to work um tomorrow. Um basically slaving for you in the show. So yeah, I wonder if within that I might find some gameplay in time. Doubtful. Um I do want to get back on Final Fantasy VIII because as much as I kind of like gave it a hard stick on um flashback, it is still very appealing to me, and I'm very intrigued to see where that further develops to. Um, with all that said and done, it leaves us really nowhere else to go but to finish the show.

Final Thanks And Sign Off

SPEAKER_02 1:45:44

So we say that's all we have time for this week, listeners. As always, thank you for your time. We look forward to the pleasure of speaking to you again next week. Until then, happy gaming. Remember, there's nothing wrong with being given the official control, it's what you do with it that counts. Subscribe. See you soon, RGT. Love you. See you everyone.