Steam Summer Sale - Busted Buttons Ep. 19

Red and I start with the Steam Summer Sale for PC gaming. What games have we bought so far, and what games are we still keeping an eye on?

We then address a hard hitting topic, sexual harassment and/or assault in the video game industry. 

Afterwards, we talk about the development costs for AAA games. Is it a substantial business model going forward? Does the cost of video games need to rise?

Later, we discuss the Nintendo shareholder meeting and what came out of it.

We end with a conversation of our Mt. Rushmore of video game characters.

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Transcript

Red: 0:17

What's up gamers Welcome to Episode 19 of the Busted Buttons video game podcast. Today we're going to spend a little bit of time talking about topics that we actually missed out on last week, including the big story in in gaming news right now. And that's some of these sexual harassment sexual assault complaints that are getting that are coming out against streamers developers, everybody, they're also going to talk about the budgets that cost to develop triple A games. Also, the president of Nintendo gave a shareholder interview or shareholder meeting a little bit ago, we're going to talk about the topics he discussed there. And speaking of Nintendo, we're going to talk a little bit about who we consider to be some of the most iconic video game characters of all time. Hopefully, we'll have enough time or want to talk a little bit about one of those iconic video game characters masterchief because we got a little bit of news about the live action Halo adaptation that's coming out but before we get to any of those topics, let's start with something fun. The Steam Summer Sale is going on right now my wallet is already crying because it's been tapped out so this is your first time since you got into PC gaming that you've run into one of these big steam sales. What have you bought so far?

Hick: 1:30

Okay, but so far let's see I bought Mass Effect thanks a lot that's all because of you right there and no planning whatsoever buying it and then there's a point we'll talk about later on with price but had no plans. I saw it I was like, Oh, well read like this one. So I'll buy this one. But so Mass Effect Planet Coaster which I'm very excited about them I was looking at nothing goes down there's that also believe RollerCoaster Tycoon out there. But you know what, this one was on sale. So I bought this one. decision right? rare. I've never played Tomb Raider have always wanted to get into those games. You know, they gave me a price. I could just not resist that price that they gave me. And then Witcher, Witcher one and two, play three. My favorite game ever really didn't have too many plans on plane one and two, just it's kind of a time thing. And those games are older. I really don't like to go back and play older games because they just look unless it's a really really good game. Yeah, for like one $2 man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll buy him and then also bought two Wolfenstein games, the new order and I believe maybe the new Colossus Is that correct? Yep. But you know, that's why I bought so far. I believe this stupid thing goes until July 9, which is like seven more days. So, man, there's no telling what else am I screwed? Yeah, but because I'm sitting there like, I don't know what a lot of franchises are. So I can easily easily buy more games. You know, I have too many beers. I can also buy some games. That was it so far. It's me homies. I like 12345678 I bought nine games. I bought nine fucking games so far

Red: 3:02

that backlog grew Really? Yeah. I believe I don't

Hick: 3:05

know the exact price but it was you know, maybe under $75 and you know, I can't let you talk about what you bought. But you know I've heard about this sell from you for a while and other people too. And what it kind of does is like I mean now I had to get into PC gaming yes I have all these games like you know yet it's been a lot of money on but they are there now and so yeah, I have no choice to get into PC gaming. So good job of steam you know saying hey, we're gonna put out a massive sale and we're going to make you all PC gamers so for me very exciting time I've never seen I seen some good deals on Xbox and PlayStation Devin on Nintendo fucking Nintendo you know ever had sales

Red: 3:48

but if a games 45 bucks it's a sale yeah

Hick: 3:50

Jesus but there's been some good ones destiny especially with them having the subscription where the prices are even lower than on sale. But I've never seen sells like this man. Like this is crazy in the amount of games they have which is absolutely crazy. So it is talking about it being a lot of fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun but it doesn't hit the wall too hard. But man that backlog that backlog jumps up but go ahead and talk about the games that you bought so far. Well before jumping into what I

Red: 4:20

bought I will say I think you made some amazing choices. I've played a mass effect if you see me on Twitter I still talk about it's one of my all time favorite video game series a couple of my tattoos are actually are from that series. It's one and two especially are just absolutely amazing. Three the ending you've heard me bitch about that before we won't go into that Planet Coaster I think you'll really like is that is that's the type of stuff that the PC gaming is for like the mouse and keyboard for building whether you know it's a it's a amusement park or you know, you get like the civilization or the SimCity games, things like that where you're building, you're designing something I think that's what PC gaming is really meant for those Tomb Raider reboots, man, they are really good at Played Tomb Raider and Rise of the Tomb Raider both. Absolutely. Yep. And if you like, if you like the Uncharted games, it's a lot you'll obviously you like for me to say I know you love them. It's very similar in style like the environments the adventuring the platforming, but it's like they have a little bit of a darker, more serious tone to him, I think than the Uncharted games, which are, obviously you know, we're both massive, massive fans of Witcher three, which is one and two are definitely a little older. Like you said, the controls for the first one haven't necessarily aged well, but I feel like they overhauled the controls every single game from one to two to three. So I mean, once you get used to them, it should be fine. Yeah, two was an amazing game. I loved Witcher two. And it really just, it really shows how you can design a game where the choices you make drastically alter what happens throughout the game. There's a section there's a point fairly early on, that entirely dictates like which kind of direction you go for the middle third of the game, and you almost have to play it twice to experience both sides of it. It's really cool. And then the Wolfenstein games, the new ones. I think they rebooted it back in 15 or 16, or something like that. And they're both amazing, great first person shooters, fun stories really over the top action. You know, it's kind of similar to Doom in that regard to May with a little bit stronger story to him. So I got to applaud your purchases, especially for the prices when you first show me those I'm like, man, those are some fines because I love Yeah, every one of the ones that you bought that I've played, I absolutely loved so now kind of switching gears to what I bought, I actually pulled the trigger on a couple of sequels I bought Divinity Original Sin two, and Pillars of Eternity two, which are both kind of like the type top down isometric computer RPG style games, you know, going back to like the boulders gate days, you know, Dragon Age, that kind of RPG. And I actually have the first of both those games, but

Hick: 6:52

like Zelda is not linked to something like that or not?

Red: 6:55

No, it's more like party based role playing games. So like, you can like pause the action and you usually have a party of up to like five or six people at the same time that you're controlling all at once. And you can like pause the action to assign various actions to your characters. And then they go in turn based on certain underlying stats. So it's really like it's all based on like the dungeons and dragons tabletop role playing game like the pen and paper dice rolling all that just converted over into computer game form. So I have the first version of both those games I have Divinity Original Sin one and Pillars of Eternity one, and I haven't even played them yet. So why the hell I went ahead and bought the sequels?

Hick: 7:35

I don't know, I've heard about the sequels when I bought the first game, right? So you're sitting here at least like you, I guess you've had it for a while. No, I just bought it. And I wouldn't have bought Mass Effect three if it was on sale also.

Red: 7:50

So I got those, I'm excited to try them out. I've always kind of sucked at those kind of RPGs. Like they're not my strong suit. But I've heard great things about them. I'm trying to get better at them. I think they'll be a lot of fun. Once I get there. I bought a game called pyre, which is like another kind of party based adventure game. It's more of an indie game though. It's from the same guys that did Bastion and Transistor which I loved both those games. So pyre was kind of a no brainer. I think it was like four bucks or something so and then I randomly bought Jurassic World evolution, which you get to build your own Jurassic World theme park. So kind of like with you with Planet Coaster. Yeah, I'm like, yeah, I'll build a dinosaur theme park. That sounds like a lot of fun. That's it. So that's all I bought. so far. I mean, my backlog, I've gone through several of these steam sales, my backlog is stupid enough as it is. And I was like, in a lot of the games like that you got for those amazing prices I've already have already played so so far, this sale hasn't hit me too hard. But I was happy to pick up a couple of those sequels. But you know, you kind of mentioned a little bit earlier about the price. And I gotta say, sometimes those games just hit that impulse buy price point where even if a game may not be rated or reviewed that highly you're still like, oh, for four bucks, five bucks, you know? Yeah, it's almost you got to pull the trigger on it. So, I mean, that's

Hick: 9:07

definitely how I look at it, like five bucks is kind of my impulse buy. Like I said, Now I'm not gonna go around buying every game that's under five bucks, because that will add up quickly. But if there's a saw game, or a game that I've heard of, or know that other people have played the add my like, if it's a five bucks, I'm like, I'm not gonna buy every single one. But I'm probably going to buy 10 is a good range. Not really impulse buy with me, but you know, if I see a good game for 10, like, you know, I'll usually buy in like 15 like 1499 that is my breaking point. Like, I usually will not go up that high. And here's the crazy thing. Like in real life, there's not that big of a difference, at least for me between like 14 $11 like $3 like, you know, I really just don't care. But man when it comes to game sales, I don't really get it's that cheap that I get, but I just get really like picky man, because to me, there's a huge difference for some weird reason. between an$11 game, let's say let's say 12 1199 Yeah, well, dark game and a $15 game, and I'll only go up to $15 like if it's a really, really good game in like really past a newer game.

Red: 10:12

Like if it's a newer game. Yeah, sometimes you know that$15 you know, it's a little more appealing. But anyway, yeah,

Hick: 10:17

but like other than that, I mean, unless it's a game I really, really want to play. I'm not going to go over that $15 Mark, but like games that have bought purchase have been under that $10 Mark, and some of them have been under five. Like I said, The Witcher was like one or $2 which is just for game like that is just absolutely ridiculous. Both of the Tomb Raider games, which I know are very good, we're under 10 bucks. Yeah, so you know, it's just like, I know I've heard people talk about these sales but until Okay, here's it Here comes if you're not into PC gaming, take a chance get into PC gaming now because I just got into it recently. And like, you know, I was kind of back and forth at the beginning. Now I'm pretty much like okay, yeah, do you want to go forward? Um, yep, I will. I might bring up a point later on might not I don't know. Um, but then like when this first sale hit and I saw like, what you could get your the prices I was like, like I said, this now like, I'm going to get into PC game because you just can't beat deals like this.

Red: 11:20

You really can't. And you know what, all these podcast episodes and all the times on discord that you bitched at me for being cheap, and not spending money. Here you are talking about $15 being your damn maker breakpoint and you give me shit all the time for being cheap. I'm telling you, man, steam sales ruin me for buying games at full price. I mean, for me, I would now buy a game at full price either a it's got to be a Nintendo game, because it's always going to be at full price. Because they don't ever fucking do sales. Or be it's got to be something that I want day one, you know, and there's very few games out there that I'm like, must have day one. I think the last one I did was probably Star Wars Jedi fallen order. I'm a huge star wars horror. So that was a day one for me. But, man so now Now do you understand why have always been like, I don't want to pay full price for fish?

Hick: 12:08

Yep, it's not like I said, I don't look at it as being cheap. Because the difference for me is not really like 15 to$12 it's not a big difference. Yeah, me like, well, if I buy this game at $12 instead of 15 You know what, I can buy this other game that might not have bought which I guess like you know, you get more gains for the same price sort of in like a you know, a theory way. Yeah, but I mean, I can't be like yeah, do understand it now. Like there is that point where like when you see a deal that crazy you're just like, I'm not going to spend like more than this on a game unless I really want it because I know there's always other games out here that are going to be lower so like I don't really look as cheap as kindness. Yeah, I don't really know what the theory or fundamentals is. But I can tell you the feeling Israel and it is there and it's just like it gets snappy man you just get really snobby. Oh 15 arguing No, no, I'm not gonna buy $15 game. Oh, but 12 bucks. Oh, well, that's a deal right there. Yeah,

Red: 13:03

I'm looking at like a Red Dead Redemption too. I'm like, only 20% off. What the hell I'm not buying that. I know. Next year. It'll be 80%

Hick: 13:11

Yeah, and that's the other thing man you got to look at those percentages because yeah, also says something right there. Like if you see a game that's like 80 or 85% you're like wow, that's almost a steal right there. So really, that might be one that I buy 15 bucks just because I know hey, it's a 5% off this is quite actually I don't know if that's the math actually works out on that like a car game 85% off might be cheaper than that. I don't know people I don't have a calculator. I work with numbers but I'm on vacation. So I'm not doing fucking numbers this week. So Excel spreadsheet out. Come on. Yeah. So whatever the calculation is, you know, that's the price you know. What I usually buy is usually 75 to 85% off like those are just deals. You good to pass up. Yeah. And like I said, like we'll kind of get off of this because we've been going on for a while but I mean this thing like I don't know the exact end date I want to say just like July 9 or 10th I think it is the ninth Yeah, I'm not gonna lie, man. I'm probably going by more like I just need a little

Red: 14:08

vacation so I know you're getting drunk.

Hick: 14:10

I just need to look into like cuz there's a lot French's like Like I said, I did a lot of French's I just don't know what they are. Yeah, look into what I want to play, then go out there and see the deals, but Oh, man, that steam sale. That's something else. That's what I needed. That's what everybody needed in this shitty year of 2020 so far, but kind of with Dalloway. Let's kind of hit on some topics that we want to talk about last week. Ya know, the main one was all this sexual harassment, assault that we hear about going on in the gaming industry. I'm just really, you know, very sad. I mean, we know about it, because we've seen it with so many businesses. But yeah, it's still very sad. Like every time you hear about his so you kind of just want jump into that and like kind of give your opinions on everything that's going on right now.

Red: 14:55

Yeah. And first and foremost. I mean, we're not the most qualified people in the world to talk about some of this stuff. You know, try not to offend or you know, do anything like that. But at the end of the day, sexism, sexual harassment, sexual assault, I don't care what the industry is, it's bad. Don't fucking do it people and it seems like it shouldn't be a hard concept. But like you said, This, almost every industry here has just been slammed with it. And now gaming has really taken off here recently and it's against a lot of content creators, YouTubers, Twitch streamers, and also, you know, the actual developers people in, in the industry developing these games are unfortunately using their positions of influence in positions of power to, you know, try to, you know, do that, you know, get get that sex, you know, and and it's, it's really just say get that say, Wow, anyway, sorry, I'm not trying to make light of any of this. But Jesus that was bad on my part. But you know, people using their positions to gain favors, it's just, it's a sad situation. I'm happy for the people that are speaking out. I mean, people have have been hurt have been, you know, insulted, have been, you know, assaulted, harassed, and for them to finally be speaking out, I think is a very good thing. Hopefully it will improve the industry moving forward is all we can hope for. I know, twitch has come out and they're investigating accusations against Twitch streamers. They're talking about doing permanent bans, things like that, which I think is a great first step get these people out of the public eye, don't give them a platform. And then in the development territory, you know, you've had a couple of couple of big name ones you had a guy Chris Avalon who's been if I pronounced that right, has been writing video games for a long time and he's been fired. One of the lead creative people on Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Yeah, one of the biggest upcoming games Yeah, a step down because of accusations and I cannot pronounce his name. So I'm not gonna try but but it's just unfortunate because sexism in this kind of behavior, I think I feel like has been bad in gaming for a very long time. Because for the longest time, it was a very male dominated industry. Like I mean, going back to like arcade days and things like that. It's always been a strongly male dominated industry. So unfortunately, you know, when that's the case, this kind of stuff rears its ugly head and I'm glad people are speaking out about it. I think the awareness and the actions that are being taken are great first step, and I'll swear I'll stop and let you talk at some point. I know I've been going on for

Hick: 17:20

a while. I mean, it just says somebody that has three daughters like you know, you just yeah, hate to hear something like this and I do agree with you. It's good that women I mean, I guess it's mostly women, but I guess it could be males too. Okay. Um, but you know, it's I'm glad that people are finally coming forward and saying you know, hey, this is what happened and this is not right and we should do something about it so absolutely just absolutely love that they're coming out you know, they're not taking anymore and just I mean, he said it just really is said and this is all power these people get power they can do whatever the fuck they want and there's no consequences and now they realize that there are consequences I don't feel sorry for him whatsoever if you like that and you got fired will fuck you. That's your fault. You're the ones that dumb as it did, like you know did something that you should not have done like that's just to me that she's inexcusable. Like I said it is somebody has three daughters. I'm probably a little more I get a little more amped up about stuff like this. understandable, but it's just yeah, I mean, it's sad. I mean, these people deserve exactly what they're getting, you know, fire them, ban them. I don't give a fuck if this person's like, you know, well on almost every single case is their income. I just talking more about YouTubers and Twitch streamers. You're abusing like your power and influence, then you deserve to get permanently banned. There's no like one or two years slap on the wrist. No, you did some shit that you ain't supposed to do. You thought you could get away with it. You had done it, and you deserve to get banned forever. So you know, if you're one of those people, like fuck you, I'm glad you're permanently banned and you're not doing like a one or two or three year you know, you took your power, you took your influence, you went way too far with it. And most of you guys and women, you know, I'll put women in this category too Even though the majority of this is not women have yet a sexually assaulting men, but I'm sure there's a case or two here and there. But like, you know, for all you people out there doing it, like, you know, you're just pieces of shit, to be honest with you like you're getting your come up and now but yeah, and like, you see most of these people like, you know, these streamers and YouTubers. I'm not gonna lie. I think a lot of them are douchebags. I mean, understand people, why don't why you like them. That's cool. I don't care. You're allowed to have your opinions. You're allowed to be entertained the way you want to be entertained. When I see him. I just think Man, these people just come off as douchebaggery. And a

Red: 19:31

lot of them do and it seems like the bigger audience they get, the more they act like assets. And part of its you know, you know, once you latch onto a stick that becomes popular, you kind of keep amping it up and amping it up. And so, I know it's a little off topic, but I'm with you. A lot of these people do come off as assholes and I'm sure we do to some people as well listen to our podcasts. You know, I'm not saying we're perfect or anything like that. But man just sometimes when you already take that that ego and then you throw in you know the people go to these conventions go to these events and throw around their fame. I mean, it's the same as any other celebrity, using their fame to get what they want. And it's sucks. It's terrible that it's happening in gaming, but I'm very glad that people are are bringing awareness to it, victims are speaking out about it. Bottom line, it's bad,

Hick: 20:15

like, Don't fucking do this shit. It's lack of respect for women, like, you know, in most circumstances, that's what is a lack of respect for women. And like, you know, it's never been acceptable. It's definitely not acceptable now, but like, at least people are finally coming out. And least we're getting to that point where, you know, back in the days, women were afraid to come forward. Absolutely. Over the past one or two years, we see more and more come out. So good for all them and like, you know, yeah, it's a it's a negative thing. But like, I don't want to say, we're kind of moving in like a positive direction, if you understand I'm saying like, Yes, finally, please come forward and go after these people. So yeah, it's a negative thing that's happening. But like we're moving in a positive direction and reacting from it. And like bringing it to light the way that we should have so there's some positivity coming from the negativity.

Red: 21:04

Absolutely. I'm with you there. And hey, like we've said, if it makes the industry better in the long term, then Good, good on everyone. We'll take this black guy if it makes things better for one of our favorite hobbies in the workforce. Oh, man, glad we got that out there. It's an important

Hick: 21:19

topic that we need to talk about

Red: 21:21

your it really was and it's a big elephant in the room for gaming right now. So I'm glad we got took the time to talk about that. The other topic we kind of wanted to talk about last week and ran out of time had to do with an interview that an ex Sony executive gave his name, which gave his name was Shawn Layden. I think I got that, right. But he was talking about the development costs of triple A games. And we've known for a long time that the cost to make games is rising. I mean, it's spiraling kind of out of control. And he kind of basically came out and said, it's unsustainable. I mean, you have every single generation, it costs more and more to develop these games. And yet the price has stayed mostly static at that. $60 per copy. Yeah, we're really long time. So it's, it was a really interesting interview, or I only read the Cliff's notes. I didn't listen to the whole thing. But just the budget of developing these games is not something that gets talked about a lot. You know, you always hear about the how many units you sold. Did you make money, but you never really hear about the budget to make these games. It seems like with movies, you always hear like, Oh, yeah, it made 100 million dollars, but it only costs 50 million to make. So boom, that's good. You almost never hear those numbers for video games. So right now, the Shawn Layden guy said that triple A games are costing between 80 and 100 and$50 million to develop these games. And that is mind blowing. To me, that is more than a lot of movies cost to develop. And I did some quick back of the napkin math, and it's 60 bucks a pop for an $80 million game, you have to sell over 1,000,001 point 3 million copies of your game just to break even. And that's what that's at the low end that's at the 80 million price. So it blows my mind. Just thinking about is this a sustainable model for the video game industry? Do you think they can keep doing what they're doing right now? And last?

Hick: 23:15

You know, I hate to say this, because we're just sitting here talking about all these game sells and how I look at a$15 game. I'm like, No, I'm not buying that. That's not a good sale. All right. Yeah, I do think prices for games need to go up. And yes, I do hate saying that. I do love seeing games for$60. But come on people. How many things have went up in price the last 10 years for the living price computer? Well, computers went downhill a little bit even though my last one did it. But you know, for the most part, every single thing is going up in price. Yeah. And games should inflation. Caution. Yeah, they're costing more to make obviously, like, you know, there's just more that goes into them. You have to have more people that you know, people want them to gamers want them to look better. And so yeah, I mean, like a lot of gaming industry is losing money. debt. So, to me, it's pretty simple. Yeah, I think the cost needs to rise because like, you know, it needs to be proportional, you know, to how much it really costs to make the game. I mean, if you're taking a loss for so long, then what's the incentive or the motivation to make games, if it continues in this trend, we're gonna you know, we're seeing a lot of developers come in, and especially like indie developers, but if they're not making money, they're going to drop off as a cost of game to make games goes up, you're going to see more and more drop off if we keep it at the same price point. So definitely increase it. You know, my think is around like, you know, let's not go too hard. I think 80 bucks, like you know, $20 jump. Yeah, some people might only want to see a 10 I'm okay with the 20 but definitely think they need to go up because every other single thing like piece of technology, like I like to use IP phones as the best examples. Oh, yeah. I feel like a fucking $1,000 now, like they're not cheap. So you know, just Yes, they need to go up. So what are your kind of your opinions on it?

Red: 25:00

I'm with you. I think the price needs to go up and I don't care if they like do it gradually, like, hey, five bucks a year for the next couple years or something instead of one big jump all at once. Yeah, I mean, to me, it's just that this trend is why we now have to deal with some things that people consider the darker side are the most annoying parts of video games, your microtransactions Yeah, loot boxes, people have been railing against those since they came out. But guess what, if these developers are spending so much money to make games, they can't rely on just those initial sales alone to get their money back. I mean, they have to put in some other kind of revenue streams to recoup and keep making their money off these games if the price stays the same. So for me, you know, I hate microtransactions I hate loot boxes and microtransactions I'm fine with it. It's just cosmetic stuff that doesn't affect like the

Unknown: 25:52

actual gameplay or does loot boxes. Exactly. So loot boxes,

Red: 25:56

they're like you can basically buy it's basically a it's a roll of a damn it's a crapshoot, you basically, I know, I just use like three different gambling and

Hick: 26:05

yeah,

Red: 26:06

but it's really just this concept where you buy a mystery box, and you get various rewards out of it. But you don't know what you don't know what your reward online to be. No, in some countries have fought to have them classified as gambling, which will get you know, then, you know, not be able to sell your game to minors and things like that, yeah, if you have these loot boxes in there. So it really was kind of one of those, it was the same concept as walking into a casino and pulling the slot machine. And you know, you're going to get crap a couple times. But then that one time you win, you're going to throw more money in there and get more loot boxes. So EA was very notorious for this. I think it was Star Wars Battlefront two, got really a lot of horrible publicity when it first came out, and it seems like people are getting away from that because some of these countries are starting to fight to call it gambling and get it out of games. So but it's also given rise to kind of this games as a service and you see this with your your fortnight's your destiny, the division, no, I'm forgetting a couple other big ones, Rainbow Six Siege, where they sell, like season passes and battle passes, that like every, you know, maybe a lot, maybe a season lasts a month, you know, four weeks, five weeks, and you earn rewards that you get to keep if you paid for the season pass. And then once the season's over, you get to keep all those rewards. And if you didn't buy the season pass, you don't get to keep them. So it's just other ways for these companies. I'm not a big fan of those kind of games, by the way. They're just not for me, you know, I kind of call them looter shooters. I feel like they're more based on getting items and not having a good strong story. So for me, I'm not a big fan. But that's what this rise in development costs has led to these developers need to make money somehow. And for me, I would be fine with a game being shorter and still, you know, you know, I like a good eight to 10 hour game sometimes we've talked about this before a nice compact great experience that you know, something like that's gonna cost a little less probably to make then the Witcher three or you know that this is massive, open world that you're going to spend hundreds of hours in So to me, I think you know, I would be fine with companies honestly dialing back their scope of their game sometimes. And I know a lot of gamers out there want more, more and more you

Hick: 28:24

know, if people have they want to fucking pay for it, though. That's exactly it was set that they want to push for more, but are you gonna raise the gay price against five bucks? Oh, no, they are. I mean, like I said, I love gamers. But damn, some of y'all really as we are in this episode. Some of you all like are really really cheap and you just bitch way too much about the prices but go ahead.

Red: 28:44

I'm with you there so like I'm with you. I think little increase in price makes sense. Especially now you know every games got 4k art assets. Now you've got voice acting costs money. I mean, it's just, you know, raise the price. I'm okay that you know, we're we're those guys we're adults. We make good money, we can handle a 510 15 $20 price increase on games, even though we just talked about the difference between 12

Hick: 29:08

but we're not gonna bomb until they're on sale though. Exactly. Because at $8 I'm gonna wait till that goes on sale. No, I will. If it's a good game like I will buy because speaking like these interviews with industry people on Nintendo the Nintendo president, I'm not gonna try to say his name. Y'all can look it up if you want to. Yeah, um, recently spoke a shareholder meeting about kindness what's going on with Nintendo and everything. During the covid 19 pandemic? He kind of just like He really said some interesting things. Right. I'm gonna let you go on into it because you're the one that brought it up. But kind of like, what did you get like, what did you get and take away from that shareholder meeting?

Red: 29:45

Well, most exciting takeaway, first and foremost, as he said that the production of Nintendo switches has basically recovered from the COVID shortage. Obviously, as anyone who's tried to find a switch in the last what five months can tell They've been almost impossible to find without having to pay ridiculous prices from secondhand resellers. So to me, that was my favorite takeaway. I mean, I already have a switch, so I'm good with it. But I know my girlfriend's been looking for one. Yeah, her kid for a while and I was like, Girl, it might be like Christmas time before you're able to find him one. Yeah, I was like, she was hoping for his birthday. That's probably not gonna happen. So anyway, that was my biggest takeaway is that he did reassure that, you know, the production has stepped back up. And, and they should be back on shelves. And one thing that I found was interesting, though, apparently, some of the shareholders kind of pushed back a little bit more like, you know, this was the perfect demand was so high, like, this was the perfect time to like, really take advantage of it and and get more products out there on the shelves. And it's like, hey, when factories are shut down, and the distribution chains are shut down, there's only so much you can do. So I get why they've been hard to get their hand you get your hands on. I mean, it's just it's the combination of them being in such demand and then the manufacturing being shut down for a little while. I mean, it's simple supply and demand. I mean, no econ major, but at least understand that part. Yeah. So but they were also really wanting Nintendo the shareholders. That is we're really wanting Nintendo to try to do something about these second hand sales. I wish it was kind of reassuring for me to hear. Because you think the company be like, Oh, I don't care who bought it the first time we got our money. Yeah, that's Yeah. But it seems like they actually care about the fact that that fans who really want their products are getting price gouge and getting just just destroyed. I feel like

Hick: 31:37

Nintendo's always cared more about the gamers. Yeah, then PlayStation and Xbox. And that's not really bashing PlayStation or Xbox. Oh, no, this is kind of saying like a Nintendo is like the chick fil a of fast food. You know, they just they care a little bit more for you and everything. But kind of I don't know what you were gonna say. But there's kind of something that I want to talk about. So I'm gonna kind of interrupt you, I guess. No, go ahead. I've been talking for a while. I know. I want to talk about because I know you've not had this issue. But so at the shareholder meeting, they also kind of brought this a joy con drift. is President apologize for something like that? He did. I actually have had this happen happened to me where I don't know exactly what issues people are having. But I'm guessing because I'm not read into this. But yes, it's the same issue that I had, were just like, this camera just starts moving for no reason. Is that what it is? Okay. It's like you're not touching

Red: 32:26

the joystick, your game thinks you're touching the joints. Like

Hick: 32:29

I said, I hadn't looked into but I pretty much was able to see a headline and kind of know what they're talking about. It just happened to me. Like, you know, my joystick kind of started moving around a little bit. I was like, No, you know, now, I mean, I just went I bought another controller, like, you know, yeah, yeah, I'm a convenience. As I get older and have kids and have less time, my life. I like convenience guy, like, there's a there's, I'm willing to sacrifice. If I just get things done quicker, right. And like, I just cut out like, you know, what is broke? I'm just going by noon, I'm not gonna go out there and worry about, you know, going through the warranty program. Yeah. And off waiting three weeks for to come back. Like, I'm not I want to play the game. Now. I'm not gonna wait three weeks. So I just went out. I bought a new one. But even though it hasn't happened to you, kind of what are your opinions on it? And like, how would you go about it? If you did have that issue? Well, first and foremost, it sucks that these that it's even an issue to begin with, like quality

Red: 33:24

control should have caught this. It should have been fixed before these things ever hit the market. But I know it's not a perfect world, it probably takes a lot of usage for that for that problem to pop up. At least I assume. So.

Hick: 33:38

Yeah. disagree with that point. Because, like, you can do like a bunch of testing, but you really don't know how things are gonna work? And what if like, yeah, issues are going to happen until it gets out to the mass population. Yeah. And everything like iPhones, you put them out, there's bugs and issues that need to be fixed right away. And people like how could you not catch us in testing? Like, you know, you can't you can't test everything. Like, yeah, you got a bunch of different people, like, you know, until you get out to the mass population, and they're using this device in a bunch of different ways. You're just not going to find all the issues. So yes, joy, con drift. disagree. Like I think you could done a numerous amount of testing is still not found the issue, but go ahead, but

Red: 34:19

it regardless, like I'm glad, like people brought a class action lawsuit against Nintendo. that's ongoing, and that's why the President shuntaro Furukawa is I'm gonna try to say him, so yeah, that's the president. I could have been dead wrong on that. I apologize. But you know, he couldn't speak too much on it because the lawsuit is still going on. And of course, lawyers aren't going to let you talk about it. But I am glad after the lawsuit was brought against Nintendo, they did start replacing controllers for free. If you send yours in, you fill out the form online, they will replace it for free. But whoa,

Hick: 34:52

hold on a second. What was the lawsuit about and like, who filed it?

Red: 34:56

I think it was a bunch of consumers because Nintendo like refused. even acknowledge it for the longest time so a bunch of gamers got together and hired some lawyers and and basically made

Hick: 35:07

more than 80 bucks but oh yeah and

Red: 35:09

I'm not sure what what they're wanting like in you know unless you know everyone who bought a switch gets x you know it's like everyone blockbuster got a bit or not blockbuster Ticketmaster had a huge class action lawsuit because of all the bullshit fees they charged when you buy a ticket through them and like one day I randomly got a check in the mail for like four bucks. Yeah, like that

Hick: 35:31

wasn't worth it.

Red: 35:32

Yeah, I'm like what the hell you know when you have millions of users any reward is gonna get divided up to where your cut of the pie is so tiny that it's almost irrelevant so I kind of had to you know laugh about it but it did at least forced Nintendo to acknowledge that there was a problem and they started replacing controllers for free if you just fill out the form instead of if you know if it's out of warranty sorry, you're fucked. You know? That's you know what I ran into with the old red ring of death on the ZX 36 everybody did. Yeah, so I'm fortunate like you said I've never experienced it. But then again you did yours happened to your pro controller or the actual JoyCons

Hick: 36:07

admin to the joy con I never had an issue at all with my pro controller. I love this. I think it's only been for the joy con. I think I'm not seeing anything on the pro controller but um, yeah, I had the issue but like said like this lawsuit. I mean, I guess Good for you, but like it seems like a lot of time and effort just Yeah, I know Nintendo's not acknowledging it like you know sometimes when you make mistakes you like I didn't make a mistake. This is perfect. You're using it wrong. We all do that. We all talk like that. Well I'm not gonna say all this but a lot of us do a lot who talk like that so I don't know the lawsuit kind of just what to get replaced for free. Whatever Yeah, I got better things to do my time but you know, I guess I'm glad somebody did it. And then what they want to add it but kinda you know, speaking in the tendo like they're responsible for kind of selling the most iconic video game characters of all time in recently read you saw this on Twitter, then you can't talk to me about it. Yeah, there's a question just who would be your Mount Rushmore of video game character. So I want those to you who would be on your Mount Rushmore?

Red: 37:07

So when I think the Mount Rushmore of video game characters, I think who are some of the longest lasting, most influential and the ones that everyone like they've transcended video games and become like pop culture? figures. So for me that starts with Mario. I mean, Mario has been there since the beginning almost getting of home consoles. Mario games have come out like clockwork they've always been super high quality.

Hick: 37:30

I've worked my ass out like what like nine more at least they have to send your way for damn 2d game and they still can't release one.

Red: 37:38

Hey, you got the Wii U port to switch on you gave me a break, man. So anyway, but Mario is you know the mascot of probably the most well known video game company in the world. So I think Mario's got to go you know, on that Mount Rushmore for me, Pikachu, of all characters I think belongs on there. The Pokemon craze that started what 20 it was the original Gameboy, I think, that had Pokemon Red and Blue at the very beginning. And Pikachu was kind of the face of that, you know, and it's launched video games or nots are video games, obviously, but it's launched TV shows movies, so I think you have to have a Pokemon representative and Pikachu was the one that was like their, their face at the very beginning. So Pikachu goes on there for me, Lara Croft, and I think this is a bit of an unusual one. But to me, she put Sony on the map as a video game company. You know, back when Nintendo had Mario Sega had Sonic Sony went with a with an edgier, and of course, kind of in back in hindsight, a little, you know, kind of a sexist depiction but but you know, it was more of an adult oriented, you know, audience and it really helped put Sony on the map. And Tomb Raider games have survived all the way. I mean, like we said, the last one shadow the Tomb Raider just came out a year or two ago. So she's obviously had the longevity. The last one for me is Ryu from Street Fighter and I put him there. I think he's the most iconic Street Fighter character. But he's also like Street Fighter put, you know, eSports on the map, when it back then it was just kids fighting each other in the arcades, you know, and then that turned into fighting game tournaments. And I think that was the natural evolution to the esports scene you see today. I don't think it would be there without Street Fighter and I don't think Street Fighter would be as popular you know, without its main character, right? Because you always hear sure can you know it's like an iconic thing. So those would be my four Mario Lara Croft, Pikachu and Raju. How about you? Who would you put on your Mount Rushmore?

Hick: 39:34

See now you did something like you put who actually deserved it. I put who I wanted. I kind of went different direction with you. Okay, Mario. Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that one. Then my next one was linked from the Legend of Zelda which I was shocked that you didn't have that listed. Now I understand. Why do you have that list? Because like Pikachu, he doesn't even play poker. Yeah, why the hell do you have him on there? And then your row. I had no idea where you're going with that one. I don't really play Street.

Red: 40:00

fighter either.

Hick: 40:00

Yes. Yeah. So I'm okay. Yeah. Um, is that your opinion on that one? Okay, that's fine. Yeah, I respect your opinion. But um, you know, Mario link, you know, put masterchief up there. I was kind of back and forth, but play all the Halo games really liked him. I do think masterchief I think he can be argued, I definitely think he can be in the conversation. So I put him on there. And then my last one was Nathan Drake from the franchise. And to me, like I just, I'm like Nathan Drake is a huge character like in video gaming in the Uncharted games just are coming came coming out on the PlayStation three. So Nathan Drake really hasn't been that picture for that long, but those four games and his character, like I just, I really enjoy it. Like I really enjoyed that character. So when you're asking me What's your Mount Rushmore? I'm kind of thinking okay, what are the characters like, you know, one that kind of been here the longest or Yeah, who, Which ones did you enjoy playing the most at there for the first part, it's Mario link. They've been there forever their iconic Master Chief and Nathan Drake. Those are the just characters that I really like to play. But some of the other ones that thought of that really did make my Mount Rushmore and you can kind of go into this if he had some other that maybe didn't make it honorable man. I guess we're talking about here just fucking honorable mention honorable mentions. Yeah. I don't know why they make it so complicated, but Kratos from God of War II don't want to play one game. There's four of them. And he is very legendary. Yep. Sonic, obviously. Pac Man. Obviously Megaman de and then Donkey Kong you know like you say you're seeing a lot of Nintendo characters come

Red: 41:38

into play here because been around since frickin the 80s

Hick: 41:42

Yeah, so I think those are a lot of characters that people think about but did you have any other maybe that were honorable mention for you that did not make your Mount Rushmore

Red: 41:50

I definitely agreed like Sonic Pac Man Donkey Kong I mean hell Donkey Kong was there at the very beginning with Mario back when he was just jumped man so but for me a couple of the other ones that really popped out were a Doom guy, the the Space Marine from Doom because you know, that's what put first person shooters on the map. The series is enjoyed a great resurgence here in the last five years. So do guys one of the more iconic ones for me. Samus Of course from the Metroid series, just because she was like a. It shocked everyone they found that it was a female protagonist. And that blew everyone's mind at the time. And it was so rare in video games the time Yeah. Snake from the Metal Gear Solid series he's been around for since the original Metal Gear back on NES, and then a sub zero, because I had to get a mortal kombat representative there because Mortal Kombat has been pretty culturally relevant because I mean, over those alien though, that back I went back and forth on those two. I honestly did. Because you got Get over here. Yeah. You know, sub zero freeze and people I mean, so one of those two would also be there. What I loved about this whole conversation that was like, you're right, Mount Rushmore could mean a lot of different things for me out with the influence the history, all that were you, like you said, with a couple years us went Who are your favorite ones? Yeah, play. So I really liked having a bit of a different perspective going into that. So I'd like having that discussion. But yeah, unfortunately, I think we're, we're about out of time this week. Once again, we had a topic, we didn't get to talk about the halo live action show. But how about you go ahead and start wrapping it up for us?

Hick: 43:16

Yeah, you can find all these links in the description. And I don't know if he said or not read. But we probably will talk about the halo thing on the next episode. But all the links are in the description for these things, you can support us on Patreon or PayPal, Patreon is like a monthly thing kind of where you get some benefits PayPal, we just put that there case you want to say hey, here's$1 to kind of a one off, you have that option. If you can't support financially, you can always leave a review and a rating. Those great life stars

Red: 43:44

only five stars only. Yeah.

Hick: 43:47

Yeah, it's very easy to just either click that five star button or lie if you don't like us, and click that five star button button with those two things. Do we really don't talk about this? It helps with SEO. If you get reviews, if you get ratings, it helps with your ranking when people search for a particular term. So that's why we say those always help and then we also have merchandise on both our websites to guys playing Zelda and tgp see gaming and we may earn a commission if you go through our links and read your comment talking about our facebook youtube discord in social media. Yep,

Red: 44:21

absolutely. We have two groups out there on Facebook we have gaming realm where we talk about all different types of video games of course and we have Zelda realm where we specifically focus on Zelda on YouTube. We've got two guys playing Zelda we've got tg PC gaming, so go check them out. We have a Discord server where we talk about everything. We've got channels on there for Nintendo Sony, PlayStation, sorry, Sony, PlayStation, Jesus, Microsoft, booze, sports, everything. Just we love to chat and on there with other gamers. We've met a lot of cool people online through Discord. So come join the conversation. And then we're also on social media. We're out there on Twitter. We're out there on Instagram. We're out there on Facebook like we mentioned. So Go check us out and everyone continue staying safe as we see the spike in COVID. Stay indoors. Keep on gaming and we'll see you next week.