The Battle for the Video Game Industry: Microsoft's Quest to Acquire Activision (TWIG 14)

[00:00:00]
And welcome back to the Lambency show. I am Lambency, joined here by our ever regal and ever glorious of Vex Electronica. And we bring you a brand new soundboard. So I'm just going to have to do it.

[00:00:19]
Alright, so we got this new sound board. This is going to be quite fun. We could definitely do a whole bunch of different things that I like. For example, my personal favorite is switching this to this and a Vex.

[00:00:38]
The sound doesn't come through crystal clear for me on my end. It just sounds garbled. It's all good. But we are back for this Week in Gaming, episode 14. We got an action packed show.

[00:00:52]
Canoli Sasquatch is up in the chat, which, by the way, hello, and we will be posting soon. We have scheduled creator Spotlight with Cannoli Sasquatch that is going to take place not this Tuesday, but the following Tuesday, I believe the Six. So I'll be starting to promote that pretty soon. So we're going to have Cannolly Sasquatch up on this show.

[00:01:20]
Of course, I failed to tell you. All right, but why don't you tell us what we got going on? Well, I first off, just like to point out if it's on the stream, you can see my cat in the background. He's sleeping on a pillow right there. So one day there will be a cat cam here.

[00:01:42]
One day. But other than that, if we're talking about gaming related news, we got a lot today. We got a lot, like a lot in terms of the Activision Blizzard acquirement. We also have quite a bit from Sony because their official statement in response to the CMA's official release a couple of weeks ago is out now on the internet. We got a couple of game announcements as well, which were pretty exciting, one of which I tweeted earlier this week as well.

[00:02:14]
I'm pulling up the articles right now. So we do have this nice review from Penteman, which I did review, and I will say personally, the review is spot on. I really like it. I'm currently doing my own play through of it and it reminds me a lot of the choose your own stories. You remember.

[00:02:34]
Who was it? Arlestein and Goosebumps. Goosebumps did a lot. Yeah, they had a whole line of choose your own adventure. This is like the adult video game equivalent of it.

[00:02:45]
You do choose your own adventure, but you get all the visuals as well. So I really like that aspect of it. Plus, on top of that, I don't know if I've ever told you, but I love all things medieval.

[00:03:00]
Me too. That's why I think we were both so excited when we first saw the trailer for this back in June, because we are on that same wavelength, like we're medieval. Sign me up. That's all you need to hook me in.

[00:03:15]
Yeah. No, it took me almost 21 hours to play it. Do my first playthrough. I'm a pretty fast reader, though, so I was able to breeze through it in that respect pretty quickly. But in terms of honestly, I'm really disappointed that this was not a consideration for any of the Game of the Year Awards categories.

[00:03:41]
We know it's completely rigged. Like, I recently saw that the Game Awards actually has their own Twitter and everything, and I'm looking at the lineup and I'm looking at their tweets, and I'm just like, bro, your whole show is raised. And we know it's raped exactly right. Because this was definitely eligible before the cutoff date and all that stuff. I will say it definitely is niche in terms of gameplay, just because if you're one of those people who isn't super into reading or doesn't enjoy reading, this is much more text heavy compared to other narrative games I've played that are similar in format.

[00:04:19]
So I guess if you do decide to play just going in, keep that in mind. But in terms of world building, character building, art style, the dialogue, like, everything is just so it's literally perfect. I can't think of a better game I've played this year, and I've played almost 20 games of the year. She has definitely and I will say hats off to Microsoft for finally actually making a game that I think is worthy to be even compared with anything coming from the Sony side. Sony is for many, many years, the whole reason I go Sony is not just because of Final Fantasy.

[00:04:59]
But here's the thing. Final Fantasy is an exclusive to that. Xbox eventually gets it. But I went over there because of Final Fantasy. But it wasn't just because of Final Fantasy.

[00:05:10]
It's hit after hit after hit after hit with exclusives, and it seemed like everything that Xbox was coming out with was just top garbage. Nine times out of ten, it was lacking in so many areas. pentiment, while it is definitely a niche game, certainly qualifies as something that is worthy to compete against their competitors.

[00:05:40]
It stands out, right? It's not AAA development. I think everyone should keep that in mind. So you can't compare it to something like God of War ragnarok right. But in terms of, I think, just its story and characters alone, it is a little bit innovative in that respect.

[00:05:56]
There's. Like you mentioned before, it's like those stories that you kind of pick your own ending, but I feel there's a couple of games that have done that as well. I feel like Pentant takes it to a whole new level, though, and apparently there's multiple endings. So I have plans to play this again to see how my playthrough turns out that time. I don't want to spoil it because I feel like what we got shown in the trailers is literally just dipping your toe in the water.

[00:06:23]
It is by no means a reflection of where the story goes. I'll be honest. I'll be honest. My whole plan is I'm going to play it the way I would normally play it, which is just play it as I would actually want it to play out. And then if I do a second play through, I'm going to try to give the most botched answers I possibly can.

[00:06:45]
You know what I mean? Like, I think it'll be hilarious to do the bossed answers. Exactly. That's exactly what I did with my first playthrough. I just played it as though I was in Andreas Mallard's shoes and then how I would react in that situation.

[00:07:04]
And now that I know what some of the dialogue in some of the character customisation options are, I just want to go full Goon the second place and see what happens. Which apparently, if you decide to go that silly route, you can actually bang one of the nuns. She is holy. Nuns are holy. We just didn't realize how.

[00:07:27]
Oh, wow. I got you there for me so far. Now, there's still a couple of other games this year that I want to play. Right now, I'm playing through Evil West, which I know canola especially is looking forward to my review on that. I have started the review on that.

[00:07:46]
I am planning to have it on the website next weekend, probably Saturday. That's coming along. I'm also looking forward to Callisto Protocol, of course. That is my most anticipated game of this year. On top of that, we got High on Life, the Rick and Morty creator, his studio is coming out with that FPS game, so I'm looking forward to that.

[00:08:11]
And then Gun Grave Gore came out this past week as well, which I'm putting that to the sideline until I finish, I think probably after Callisto Protocol, in all honesty. So I still got a handful of games I want to play, but so far, out of the 17 I played this year, this has been my favorite one. This is Game of the Year material, in my opinion. I mean, it's not everyone's cup of tea, sure, but again, I think I've posted this on Twitter before. I don't think graphics or style are necessarily representative of what makes a good game.

[00:08:45]
It's how well that game is able to immerse you in its story, its characters, and its world. And Pentament does a spot on job of doing that. Obsidian Entertainment, they're the ones who developed this game, and they've been on a pretty good track record so far this year. And last year this Xbox Studios published it. So ten out of ten, beautiful, beautiful game.

[00:09:12]
Definitely recommend if you're okay with reading a lot. And there's also, like, even the text that you see on the screen here. You can customize all that so it doesn't look as medieval ish right. So give it a go. If you have a Windows computer or you have an Xbox, it's also available on the Xbox One for those that haven't upgraded yet.

[00:09:33]
So there's a lot of LS in tonight's show, so I've kind of pasted out so that we have palette cleansers in between. So we're going to start off on a high note and then it's going to get really stupid for a while. Right? So there was a bit of interesting news that happened earlier. I'm using a mouse when the mouse was set up to a different computer.

[00:09:57]
Hold on. There we go. Frieza Rage, a very popular smash Mash Them video game that came out in for Sega in the 90s. They had a fourth one come out in 2020, which was quite honestly, amazing, especially if you enjoy the Streets of Rage franchise, which I did, and it does not deviate from what you're used to. So you do feel like you're being thrown back into the 90s playing it.

[00:10:24]
Apparently, though, Lionsgate has acquired the rights for Streets of Rage with John Wick franchise creator and writer Derek Colestod behind the helm of this, which, I mean, if there's anyone better to do this, it would be him, right? As I said, Theresa, Rage is one of the most popular video game franchises of the 1990s, with three games between 1991 and 1994 and then a fourth in 2020. Brady Fujikawa and John Humphrey are shepherding the project for Lionsgate, with Shunji, Utsumi and Nakahara overseeing the Sega side of the agreement, johnson overseeing for DJ Two Entertainment, and Shaw Steering for Escape Artists, both of which are companies that worked on the John Wick franchise as well. The reason I included this is because we've had so far a pretty bad track record of recent video game movie adaptations. I think Sonic is really the only exception here, but it's not stellar.

[00:11:28]
But it's not deviating so much that people who aren't familiar with the franchise and people who love the franchise aren't completely turned off of it. Right? So Cole had said, quote, when Dimitri first mentioned the idea of cracking a street of Rage movie, I was so immediately freaking in. And to play with Sega, the ten year old me is still grinning.

[00:11:48]
It's always nice to see that we have people who are fans of the actual source material and games behind these projects, which are staff.

[00:11:59]
Just a heads up, something to consider even. Johnson added he's wanted to make a Streets of Rage films since he was twelve years old, and this is shaping up to be a dream project for him. So right now we don't have anything in terms of even just a vague release date or where the story might go or any actors linked to it. We just know that it is in preproduction at this point. So we can probably expect more news, I imagine in mid 2023 about this.

[00:12:27]
If we do get anything. As I previously mentioned, we do have a lot on the ABK acquisition. I'm just like this part of our podcast. This is four fucking pages long.

[00:12:43]
There was a pretty big New York Times article that came out on the 21st, specifically kind of just outlining some of the major things that have happened during this acquisition, as well as outlining some of the bigger points that not only the CMA and other regulators have, but as well as their potential competitors with this deal. Right, so I'm just going to go through kind of the big quotes from this article and Lamb and Sea will chime in here and there because there's quite a bit in here that I feel can be discussed quite a bit. So in recent weeks, Microsoft has accused Sony, its chief video game rival, of misleading regulators. Its lawyers have showed off game consoles, including an Xbox, to British officials and the president of a major union, that Microsoft would have spoken up on the company's behalf to the Federal Trade Commission, the FTC. These actions are part of a campaign by Microsoft to counterintensifying scrutiny of the $69 billion acquisition of Activision, Blizzard and King, who is the publisher behind those Candy Crush games and is also considered the largest consumer technology deal since AOL bought Time Warner almost 20 years ago, and far bigger than Elon Musk's recent 44 billion buyout of Twitter.

[00:14:01]
Microsoft's aim is simple persuade skeptical governments around the globe to approve the Blockbuster takeover. 16 governments must bless the purchase, putting Microsoft under the most regulatory pressure it has faced since the antitrust battles of the 1990s. Three key places the United States, the European Union and Britain have regulators that have begun deep reviews, with the European Commission declaring this month that it was opening an in depth investigation of the deal that was announced back on November 8. If I remember correctly, if this deal had happened four years ago, it would hardly be of any interest, Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, said in a recent interview. If one cannot do something easy, then we'll all know you can't do something hard.

[00:14:45]
Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple have all faced increasing accusations that they are monopolies, and regulators have tried to block some of their smaller deals. In July, the FTC sued Meta, Facebook's parent company, for those that are unaware, to stop it from buying. Oh my God. Within a virtual reality setup last month alone, Britain force Meta to sell Giphy, which is that image database website that it bought back in 2020 for 315,000,000. So this seems to be an odd.

[00:15:18]
I brought up this point before in previous episodes where I'm not particularly for or against this acquisition, but I am against the idea of big companies like, you know, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Sony buying up all of these developers. I think as much as maybe there are resources with these bigger companies, I feel that it will eventually put a chokehold on a lot of the creative freedom these smaller companies and developers have. That's not to say Activision is small, but I think even then with Microsoft buying them out for that price tag. I imagine there's going to be a lot of restrictions. I just want to bring up the fact, the absolute blasphemy that Brad Smith, the president of Microsoft, said in an interview that if this deal happened four years ago, it would hardly be of any interest.

[00:16:13]
In one way, I could see why he would think that because it was only recent years where people finally started speaking out against the monopolization of these big companies. As you've said, you've got all these companies, you got Meta, you got Google, Apple, all that other stuff Microsoft already owned. I mean, yeah, they have the three six, they have the Xbox. Yes, we know they have the Xbox, but that's a very small part of what they actually do. Microsoft started as a computer company and even now every gaming computer is Windows.

[00:16:48]
Who owns windows. Microsoft. It's Microsoft Windows. Microsoft owns all that. They own a whole bunch of other platforms as well.

[00:16:57]
And to get something like this, people would look at that and it would bring back the scrutiny either way. All right, so I get real tired of Xbox constantly having to, you know, live like they're politicians. Literally, I'm literally sitting here and it infuriates me because, don't get me wrong, it's not even that I'm trying to take Sony's side. It's more along the lines of I sit here and I watch not only what is his name? Spencer Hill Spencer, but also I already forgot the president's name and I was just looking at it.

[00:17:37]
But Brad Smith. I sit here and I watch Bill Spencer and Brad Smith talk all this big game. But if you actually look at the words they're saying and you break it down, you'll notice that a lot of it means absolutely nothing because they're not actually reporting on the truth. And this is something that absolutely infuriates me because people are using these lying tactics to try to gain sympathy with the fans. And the sad thing is, it's working.

[00:18:07]
It literally works because people do not look and do their own research. They just want to read a headline and be like, yup or no. You know, we've created a society. We created a society whose attention span is so little and with willpower so small that if you just put a headline out, they're going to believe it no matter what the headline is. They're not going to do any of their own research.

[00:18:33]
They're only going to look at one link. They're not going to look at multiple links, and they're definitely not going to do any advanced research to see what's actually going on.

[00:18:44]
It's funny you mentioned that because we have actually an entire article section of tonight's podcast dedicated to that that will come to you later. I haven't even looked at this document, to be honest, until like, right now. I know, but we're going to circle back to that. You'll see. So continuing on with this New York Times article again.

[00:19:08]
What I've been reading so far has been quotes, so these are not my words. Just to keep in mind, everyone so mr. Smith said Microsoft was open to formally agreeing to place limits on its business practices to resolve antitrust concerns. But the US government and other countries increasingly see such promises as insufficient unless a company spins off part of its business. Microsoft's deal for Activision will demonstrate whether tech giants can navigate the new environment, said William E.

[00:19:36]
Kovacic, a former FTC chairman. It's a fundamental test, he said. Now, of the 16 governments reviewing the deal, just Saudi Arabia and Brazil have approved it. Microsoft said that they expect Serbia to approve the deal shortly, and the US will also be approving that in a matter of months as well. The most crucial regulators appear skeptical of tech giants.

[00:19:58]
The FDC is led by Lena Khan, a legal scholar and notable critic of Amazon. The European Commission has fined Google for violating antitrust rules and has opened an investigation into Microsoft cloud service. In Britain, the competition and markets authorities CMA has become increasingly hostile to corporate deals as well. Fucking Christ. I have two computers and I keep thinking a mouse is attached to this one.

[00:20:27]
In a statement, the CFA said it would release its findings on the deal in the new year. The European Commission said its investigation is ongoing, and the FTC declined to comment on it. When Microsoft closed its $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn back in 2016, at the time its largest acquisition, the deal required just six government approvals. The Activision deal is substantially more resource intensive, Mr. Smith said.

[00:20:55]
Quote Obtaining approval for the acquisitions critical for Microsoft is gaming has become its most important consumer business, surpassing 15 billion in annual sales, largely under the Xbox brand. That actually accounts for 13% of all of Microsoft's earnings in 2021. By the way, the compensation for Satya Nadella and Microsoft's chief executive is partially tied to the growth of Gamepath, the company's Netflix like subscription service for gaming, and Microsoft agreed to pay Activision as much as $3 billion if the deal fell apart. Now, Bobby Kotik, who is Activision's chief executive, said in an interview that he had a high degree of confidence that regulators will be thoughtful about evaluating the industry. He also added, quote, I have no reason to believe that we won't ultimately be successful in the transaction.

[00:21:52]
We're going to loop back around to this point again as well, because Bobby Kotik, as well as another woman, I have her name later on here, but she went on Twitter. She is someone who works in the financial sector at Activision, but she also very clearly came out this past Wednesday and said that Activision is ready to fight for this deal, like they want this deal to go through. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised. It's a $69 billion acquisition. So yeah, I'd probably want that to.

[00:22:24]
Go through all the bonuses that they're all going to get and stuff for selling. Right, but not only that, but look at all the issues Activision has been facing just over the last four years, five years alone, right. On top of that, sexual assault. That's the other thing is, I'm looking at that and I'm looking at it more along the lines of, quite frankly, all right, they're a huge company, yes, but that deal should have been far more than 69 billion, which I think is hilarious considering all the sexual assault allegations they have against them. It's not funny that they have allegations, but that for them to get paid 69 billion, that's the entirety.

[00:23:08]
But they probably could have been worth double that if it wasn't for all the issues that they're having with their own culture.

[00:23:17]
So what I had read some time ago is actually the deal was much lower. This is what Activision agreed to after some tabling. So this wasn't the original offer. Microsoft agreed to a higher amount because of Activision. So this is what Activision is ready to settle for.

[00:23:34]
Right. But on top of the sexual assault allegations, there was also all of the issues in terms of workers at Activision having to face brutal working conditions and crunch time and under payment and all of that stuff. There's also now, recently, there's some, oh, gosh, what do you call it? Basically, right now, China has failed to renew some sort of contract to allow Activision games to be played in the region. So now they might be losing a sizable chunk because most of Activisions player base is actually in China of all the Asian countries.

[00:24:12]
Right. So they're going to be losing a big chunk of money there because China has made no moves to resign or renegotiate that deal at all. So, I mean, given that, I think 69 billion is pretty good if it goes through. Right.

[00:24:29]
So continuing on with this article, I just got a little bit more from it. Microsoft has been less than successful in neutering opposition from Sony, which makes the PlayStation console. Sony has argued that Microsoft could pull Call of Duty from PlayStation to lure players to exit. Microsoft has denied that it would do that. The first call Satya and I made after the deal was announced was to the CEO of Sony to say, hey, we're going to keep Call of Duty on your platform.

[00:24:55]
Quote, said Phil Spencer, Microsoft gaming chief. Sony was not appeased. In filings in Brazil, the company argued that Call of Duty was such a powerful game franchise that Microsoft could use it to hurt rivals. It hired a consulting firm to set up meetings on Capitol Hill, two people familiar with the matter said. And its arguments were repeatedly cited indecision by Britain's regulator in September to pursue a deeper investigation, which we had covered as well on this podcast.

[00:25:22]
Now, Microsoft in turn has accused Sony of misleading the regulator, saying it overstated the importance of Call of Duty to its viability. Mr. Spencer also said that maintaining and growing the existing Call of Duty business is pretty central to the economics of the deal. In a countering statement, Jim Ryan, who is the chief executive of Sony Interactive Entertainment, said that that was not true and that his company had misled regulators. He said that Microsoft was a, quote, tech giant with a long history of dominating industries, and it is highly likely that the choices gamers have today will disappear if this deal goes ahead.

[00:25:58]
Now, allegedly, Microsoft said on November 11 that it had offered Sony a ten year deal to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony has declined to comment on that offer and we have not heard any update on that. You remember how I talked about the misleading and just flat out lying from Microsoft? Yes. Okay, so I want to go over that last point.

[00:26:22]
In a statement, Jim Ryan said that it was not true that his company that Sony had misled the regulators when they said that they could easily use that and take Call of Duty away from them and that they should be appeased with the ten year deal. Alright, no, it's true because here's the thing, even if they keep it on sonya and I had to explain it to you offstream last week. Yes, no internet issues. Yeah, I had to clarify it to you last week offstream so you could understand. And I'll basically give it just again, sony is still going to lose people because if people want exclusives, if Microsoft Laddault owns Call of Duty and Activision Blizzard, microsoft can just have exclusives whenever they want because they're not paying any extra.

[00:27:18]
Whereas Sony would literally have to turn around and be like, here's some money, I want you to make me exclusive, and no company in their right mind is going to directly give money to their competitor.

[00:27:31]
You had made a statement similar to the whole Minecraft, but first of all, Minecraft hasn't received an update on PlayStation since the whole deal went through for Minecraft in my jump. Second of all, second of all, it was already on their platform before and the money, all right, it's like X Amount gets taken out of every transaction and goes to Microsoft, but the majority is still on their platform, whereas they would have to give 100% of the profits over to them.

[00:28:03]
Yes, they could definitely sway things because there are people who will literally buy games for the exclusives. I've seen people literally go out of their way to buy a game on one system over the other. They'll have multiple systems, but they'll only buy it on one based on how many exclusives they have. And it's a big reason why Sony has always dominated the market, because Sony has invested in the actual companies to make these exclusives and to make these exclusive games and Microsoft now wants to get into that market, but instead of making more games like for example, Pentagon, they decide they want to buy an already established developer. Furthermore, they had stated what was the other thing I wanted to mention?

[00:28:53]
My personal favorite was where was it where you were talking about? Oh yeah, here it is. Their words, and I quote, microsoft was a tech giant with a long history of dominating industries and it is highly likely, which is 100% true. Yes, they are a tech giant. In their own words, they are a tech giant, all right?

[00:29:15]
They don't need to get any bigger. Second of all, for them to turn around, like I said, misleading, and say it is highly likely that the choices gamers have today will disappear if this deal goes ahead.

[00:29:29]
No, if the deal goes ahead, a lot of choices will go away. They could try to deny it all they want, but it's not just Call of Duty that Activision owns. There's a bunch of big IPS that Activision Blizzard owns. I don't think people realize how many different big franchises they own. Which is another reason people are really mad.

[00:29:56]
Because instead of you going out and actually making good quality content, which they have more than enough opportunities to do and invested in making said good content, they want to take the easy route and just buy a big company. And that's an issue I have. It'll be one thing if there's a smaller studio that's helped out on a bigger studio, you know what I mean? Like maybe they helped out with the graphics or something like that and you want to buy that t. Okay, I can understand that.

[00:30:48]
But to buy an entire huge company like Activision Blizzard to try to compete with Sony, it's not trying to get on their level playing field, it's trying to get above a level playing field because they know how big Activision Blizzard is. Yes. So one of the points actually I have listed further down here oh yeah, it's right after this point actually. So on top of what regulators are worried about what this deal might do for the future, cloud computing lets people stream sophisticated games from various devices, including mobile phones. I'm almost 100% certain I brought this up as a point.

[00:31:31]
The deal is not about Call of Duty. I think both sides are shooting themselves in the foot, first of all by trying to focus it on Call of Duty. And like you said, there's a lot of other big IPS under this trio of companies Microsoft is trying to acquire. But the bigger thing that everyone seems to forget is mobile gaming. Microsoft has zero presence in mobile gaming right now.

[00:31:57]
King, which is the K in ABK, they have the largest foothold on mobile gaming right now. Can you imagine how much money Microsoft is going to rake in once they get handicushed under their belt? That's the other. Thing. It's not just that, though.

[00:32:16]
Like, imagine what they could do with all that additional money. If they're willing to go out and go buy a conglomerate like this. They're just going to go buy even more studios instead of just making their own. And then it goes right back to what we've stated before, where when these big companies, which my view, by their own words, they've always been a big tech company, whenever you have monopolies or very few options, it leads to less people want to compete, you get complacent. And who suffers the most?

[00:32:50]
The consumers? Because all right, I'll give you a perfect example of stuff. One of the things I hate the most at completely different company, but EA Vex Electronica, they used to make great games. When you heard EA sports it's in the game, it meant something because they used to make really good games. However, when this happened, there was also so many other brands making football games, basketball games, soccer games.

[00:33:21]
Basically, you name the sport, there were multiple great franchises. So what did EA decide to do? EA decided to go out and seek exclusive contracts with these pro sports leagues. And what ended up happening is nobody else can make an NHL game, nobody else could make a football game, nobody else could make a basketball game, nobody else can make a soccer game. And what happened?

[00:33:52]
EA got complacent because they knew if you like these sports and then one comes out every single year, if you like these sports, you're going to be forced to buy this game. Which is why, if you look at the graphics, they reuse their assets year in and year out instead of actually trying anything. And it's funny, if you pick up a game, if you pick up Madden 2005, for example, and then you pick up Madden 22, I guarantee you there are twice as many game modes in Madden 2005. And why? Because they had to be competitive.

[00:34:28]
So we're getting less of a product with reused assets. When you get these monopolies. This is why I don't like what they're trying to do. If they get this, like you said, if they get King in particular, like Activision and Blizzard have great IPS. Yes, but as you said, with King and all that mobile money, they could just go out and continuously keep buying all these studios until there's no competitors left in the market.

[00:34:50]
And who's going to suffer? We are. The consumer is right. Yeah. There you go.

[00:34:57]
You just tied it back to my I agree. I don't like the idea of these big companies buying up everyone. Right. So the CMA now on top of the sorry, actually the cloud gaming thing. So back in September, the CMA expressed concern that combining Activisions library with the library of games, that Microsoft's cloud computing prowess would give Microsoft an unparalleled advantage over game streaming competitors.

[00:35:23]
Oh, sorry. Just to touch up. I think you misinterpreted a quote. Microsoft was a tech giant. Those are Jim Ryan's words from Sony, not Microsoft Word.

[00:35:31]
Yeah, either way, I may have misquoted it. The fact of the matter is even if alright, so let me backtrack. Alright, I misunderstood the quote. However, my point still stands. If they tried to say anything against it, no, you are a tech giant, you have been for a very long time.

[00:35:53]
To try to argue against it and act like you're not some big conglomerate is just shooting yourself in the foot for lying. Even poor.

[00:36:04]
So Microsoft argued that it had no advantage because it's streaming was not supported by its Azure cloud technology. An annual report this year, Microsoft said its streaming product utilizes Azure. The company said that while its gaming service shared data centers with Azure, the hardware was different. And this has actually been confirmed. I know this was a point a lot of more Sony based fans were kind of throwing out there as well.

[00:36:31]
Nolly has a comment here. Sony did it with MLB, the show no competition, same game with minimal upgrades each year because of no competition. Yeah, and Microsoft made a I can't remember what it was called, but there's a monkey on the COVID I remember that was their competitor until they were able to until the agreement for MLB kind of dissolved. Right. So in terms of this, cloud gaming part of things, which is becoming an increasingly regular thing just across everything.

[00:37:01]
And the mobile gaming thing as well. So the CMA consulted on launching a market investigation alongside its Mobile Ecosystem Market Study Report, which found that Apple and Google have an effective duopoly on mobile ecosystems that allows them to exercise a stronghold over operating systems, apple Stores and web browsers on mobile devices. Do you remember when Windows had a phone, by the way? Yeah, a long time ago. Yeah.

[00:37:28]
So they had their own user interface on it. It still uses the Google Play store, but aside from that, it didn't use anything from any of these other companies. So if we go back to the fact that Microsoft is not just an Xbox based company, it is much bigger than that. They are a tech giant, they have government tech contracts, Microsoft Office, all of that stuff that's under them with acquiring such a large mobile gaming company now puts them in a better position to reenter that mobile market. Because now this duopoly is under pretty heavy investigation.

[00:38:06]
Right? So 97% of all mobile web browsing in the UK alone in 2021 happened on browsers powered either by Apple or Google's main engines. So any restrictions on these engines can have a major impact on users experiences. Honestly, that's also for other reasons. So 800,000 users of cloud gaming services in the UK, but restrictions on their distribution on mobile devices could hamper growth in this sector.

[00:38:36]
Meaning UK gamers miss out in Responses consultation, which was published on November 22 revealed substantial support for a fuller investigation into the way that Apple and Google dominate the mobile browser market and how Apple restricts cloud gaming through its App Store. I know a lot of developers have issues with Apple. I know the app that you're trying to develop. For us, it's easier just to do it on Google because Apple has so many restrictions, right? Many of those came from browser vendors, web developers.

[00:39:07]
And to further your point, it's not just that they have so many restrictions, but in all honesty, they have so many hindrances. And what I mean by that, it's not just the restrictions. They have less technology in their phones, so you have to dumb down your shit just to get it on the Apple App Store. So fun. That's why old people love Apple.

[00:39:35]
The web developers have complained that Apple's restrictions, combined with suggested under investment in its browser technology, led to added costs and frustration as they have to deal with bugs and glitches when building web pages and have no choice but to create bespoke mobile apps when a website might be sufficient. Ultimately, these restrictions limit choice and they make it more difficult to bring innovative new apps to the hands of UK consumers. At the same time, Apple and Google have argued that restrictions are needed to protect users. Let me fuck Apple and Google in that respect. So we already know Google Sensor a whole lot of shit, right?

[00:40:11]
Apple has been on that board for a while, too. But I included this because Microsoft has their making moves in cloud gaming. This ABK acquisition will give them moves through mobile gaming. Like, if this goes through, if this investigation produces anything, I know there's a couple of other countries that are kind of looking into this mobile duopoly that Apple and Google have as well. We could see that market vastly open up, and that's a perfect opportunity for Microsoft because they have the resources behind them to enter that market and make a substantial footprint in comparison to, you.

[00:40:50]
Know what I will say. I hate when companies try to say to protect our users, all right? In fairness, what I'm about to say applies to Sony as well when they didn't want to do cross play. So keep that in mind with what I'm about to say, all right? Okay.

[00:41:07]
Parents, cover your children's ears. They don't need to hear me say a couple bad words, all right? They out of the room. Good. Fuck Apple and fuck Google, man.

[00:41:23]
They don't care about their users experience. They never did. They block things all the time. They feed their data to the governments. They literally harvest our data and sell our data.

[00:41:34]
And then they have the gall, the audacity, or should I say the audacity to turn around and say, oh, we're here to protect our users. All right, I'm sorry, but that's like Google saying that their incognito mode actually protects them alright? Go look at what incognito mode actually does, alright? All it does is prevent those browsers, whatever you visit, from showing up in your search feed. That's all it does.

[00:42:03]
The rest of it, I hate to break it to you, it's all going it's all being harvested, all right? Apple, Google, all of them. All they do is harvest information and then they have the audacity to turn around and say that they care about their users. Now, what you care about is your bottom line. Because you sure as hell sell us out any chance you can to make a quick buck.

[00:42:25]
You don't care what the situation is at all. If you can make money off of it, doesn't matter how shady it sounds, you will do it. All right? Let's be real. You would sell your own kidney.

[00:42:37]
You would sell our kidneys and harvest our kidneys and stuff if it meant that you got a couple more dollars. You don't care about us. All right? You never did. Your actions speak far louder than your words.

[00:42:51]
So sit down, shut the fuck up, and start lying and start actually telling the truth. And sell instead of lying. Twenty four seven. And as far as the fans of Apple and Android and Google and all these companies that are eating this up and acting like they actually care about them, I hate to break it to you. No.

[00:43:11]
You're the product and I'm tired of it. I agree with you. I'm tired of it. To me, that's why I keep saying I'm on the brink of just going back to having a flip phone. I didn't need to use Google Maps so much, I would just have a flip phone.

[00:43:29]
For real. I'm done.

[00:43:34]
Now, as I mentioned, there are several regulatory bodies that are looking into this duopoly. Now, a couple of days ago, Politico, which I know we shouldn't trust Politico anyways, they actually broke a story claiming that four anonymous sources within the FTC are raising the prospect of a big US regulator suing to block the deal between Microsoft and Activision. Now, I couldn't find exactly what the grounds for this lawsuit would be, so I imagine this is something we probably won't see before the end of the year. This is probably news that we'll get in January, because come Christmas, every government body gets fucking lazy, right? December 1.

[00:44:16]
So activision COO recently put out a statement to us I think I quoted that wrong publicly in a tweet suggesting that Activision, as I mentioned, Activision is ready to fight for the merger in court. So as much as everyone is lying about things, it looks like Activision is ready to be bought out. Like, either way this goes, right? Regulators are right to investigate and scrutinize a deal. Regulators of yesteryear failed to properly assess how meta's purchase of Instagram and WhatsApp may limit consumer choice and innovation, for example, while also allowing Google and Apple to get away with a blanket monopoly on how software can be served up practically on all mobile devices in the world.

[00:45:01]
Right back to what I was saying before, all right? There's a reason why every phone comes preinstalled with YouTube. There's a reason why every phone comes pre installed with several things. Because they fucking on the market. Right?

[00:45:16]
The same with Instagram and all that other shit. These big companies just buy up more and more shit, and then people have the audacity to sit here and defend these companies as if these companies have your best interest at heart. All right? Now, I'm not a fan of Elon, and I know this is Twitter. I've seen what he's done in the past.

[00:45:37]
However, I can't deny that the man has turned companies that were subpar into things that actually make profit. However, Twitter was also one of those things where they kind of have a monopoly on the Internet. As far as social networks went, it was Twitter. The whole reason a whole bunch of people got mad is because all of a sudden, free speech was being allowed on the platform. All right?

[00:46:05]
Whenever big companies get involved, they will inevitably either harvest your information or in one way, shape, or form, try to silence you for any opinions that do not align with their own. So when you see these big acquisitions, I don't like them at all, because not only is it a less competitive market, it's also the fact that when you give them the power, they abuse it.

[00:46:37]
No, I agree with you there. I'm not a fan of Elon Musk. I won't deny, though, he's done some good things for Twitter since taking it over. But my biggest thing when this was first brought up was, I don't want a billionaire who runs an AI company owning Twitter at all, because yeah, but. To be fair, to counter that Zuckerberg.

[00:47:01]
That's all I have to say. Yeah, no, it's the same deal either way. It's the same deal. And that was the issue, too, when Facebook was buying a WhatsApp, instagram, snapchat, especially. It's the same deal.

[00:47:12]
But here's the thing. At least you understand that a lot of people will sit there and say, no billionaire should own social media companies. Really? Because you haven't been saying that for the past 15 years. As Zuckerberg gets richer and richer, buying up company after company and stuff, it's only when someone finally says, you know what?

[00:47:31]
We're going to allow free speech and remove child pornography that people get mad. It's ironic. Speaking of which, did you see Alyssa Milano losing? Yeah. My personal favorite is how she sold her Tesla to go get a BMW found to realize Volkswagen talking about how Elon's a fascists, all that other stuff, sitting here and buys a car that was made by fucking Nazis.

[00:48:02]
Now, she specifically said she didn't want to own a product that was owned by a person who upheld views of white supremacy. And then, like you said, yeah, she goes and buys a VW, and the people in the comments section are like, oh, that was 60, 70 years ago. They're not owned and operated by Nazis anymore. And my rebuttal to that was, have people not been screeching for the last two, three years about how we're supposed to abandon all of these things because they were built on the backs of slaves, but now suddenly it's totally okay to accept things built by now? Honestly, it's whatever suits them, all right?

[00:48:42]
They change the narrative based on who it benefits. Let's be real. They change the narrative based on who it benefits. If it benefits anyone who's even in the middle of the spectrum or slightly on the right, then we can't abide by it, all right? It's the whole reason why I was laughing my ass off.

[00:49:02]
I wasn't laughing at the situation. I wasn't laughing at the initial situation. So let's clarify this. But that situation at the gay strip club where the guy shot them all, horrible situation. Nobody is saying that should ever happen.

[00:49:20]
Nonbinary, all right? And all of a sudden, he comes out as nonbinary, and a whole bunch of people were screaming, oh, he's only saying that to get a reduced sentence. Well, first of all, to get a reduced sentence sounds quite familiar. Second of all, you guys have been screaming at us for the past couple of years that if someone claims that there's something and stuff that we have no right to question it whatsoever. But the second that someone, you know, shot up that area, you guys immediately tried to blame Republicans and anyone else that didn't go to the left and then try to squash it got embarrassed.

[00:49:58]
What he called it came out as non binary. And then try to backtrack your own statements you've been trying to shut down or throw for two years.

[00:50:09]
It's an interesting, interesting world we live in, right? On that note, I would just like to add in stop looking at the world with such black and white views, not skin color, because someone's definitely going to take that out of context, which means black and white people only know. I mean, it's one or the other. Life is never just one or the other. Politics is never just one or the other.

[00:50:31]
All these social issues is not one or the other. People are allowed to have diverse thoughts. Accepted. I may not like Donald Trump, but I like some of the things he did.

[00:50:44]
I love how he completely called out all these crooked politicians and said that I know how the game is played because I've been part of the game. There you go. But he himself was kind of a. Crooked I'm not a Trump fan either, but I'm saying even if he was a crooked politician, he flat out said, I know how the game is rigged because I'm part of the game. Flat out called him out.

[00:51:09]
They don't like that. I like the fact that he finally got people to start waking up. So props were props are due. That's all we're saying, right? You don't have to just because they do one thing right doesn't mean you love them.

[00:51:22]
Just pointing that out to all the idiots that I had on my Twitter feed were screeching about their students. Just on a brief side note, you are the problem if you say that you're good vibes only, but then decide to go and trash anyone that you disagree with public. Yeah, that's not good vibes.

[00:51:44]
That's really a cop out there. Whenever I see something with someone who says, good vibes only, I already know what they mean. Is it's good vibes if you agree with me? But the second you say something I disagree with and stuff, I want to be the most toxic person you have ever met, and you can't call me out on it and stuff because I'm good vibes only. It's a way for me to address my toxicity without saying I'm toxic.

[00:52:11]
So I'm just going to put false good vibes out there because I saw someone on my feed. Because Andrew Tate is now back on Twitter. Right? And that's causing a whole issue. I'm going to flat out say some of the things Andrew Tate says is spot on.

[00:52:26]
A lot of the things he says, I agree. There are things I do agree with him on, but there are a lot of things I literally I'm just like, Dude. Are you serious? Sometimes I question whether or not even, like, the way he walks, like, the way his head looks, and this is nothing against him. I'm not trying to say anything mean, but I'm almost questioning if he might be a little bit on the autistic side, because the way he talks, the way he acts, the way he moves, all that other stuff.

[00:52:58]
Like he's smart, but I don't think he's as smart as he thinks he is.

[00:53:06]
He does have some he does have some good points, and I'm glad he's back on the platform whether I agree with him or not, because I do believe in free speech. But it's just funny watching people completely. Meltdown, lose their shit. My personal favorite is when they say that they're going to leave Twitter by tweeting on Twitter that they're leaving Twitter. Okay, yeah, it's not an airport.

[00:53:36]
You don't have to announce your departure. The only reason you actually said this is because you want a little bit of attention, and we all know you're really not leaving anyway.

[00:53:46]
It's the same people that said that they would move to Canada after Donald Trump got into office the first time. I'd like to add on as someone living in Canada, I think some of those idiots did come here because we definitely did get stupid. A lot of them moved to Alaska, too, because we have a lot of dumb people in our country that literally were saying that, like, for example, Trump wins and stuff. I'm going to move to Alaska. I can't be in this country.

[00:54:12]
I'm going to move to Alaska. Hey, dumbass, Alaska is one of our 50 states. Yeah. So, yeah, same people. But you know what?

[00:54:24]
No. Please come to Canada so someone that wants to be in America, like myself can take your place because I will support your country. Unlike you guys.

[00:54:35]
Back on track. How do we get political? That's what I want to know. You know what? It's these damn you know what it is?

[00:54:42]
Let's be honest. The whole reason we're getting political now is because we got all these conglomerates buying everything up. And these are the same companies that are creating the division. These are the same companies that are spending money to create this division between people. Here's the thing.

[00:55:01]
Maybe we didn't have the great, maybe we didn't all agree on everything a few years back, but at least we respected each other a few years back. However, these conglomerates keep buying everything up and then spending massive amounts of money to send to people who create division and hate. All right? And before you say it's the Democrats and before you say, it's the Republicans that they are sending money to, all right? Stats have already shown out.

[00:55:26]
First of all, it's both parties. Both parties are creating hate. But statistically speaking, most of the money these big companies are spending go to the Democratic Party. You know, there's actually a graph you can find online of that, too. You can see how much each of these, like Apple, Google, all of them, how much they've donated in the US.

[00:55:52]
To each political party. Even this FTX thing, right? All of their money went straight to the Democratic Party during the midterms, and now they're going bankrupt. Right? You know what I think it is?

[00:56:02]
It's been a weird week in Canada and politics. That's why.

[00:56:09]
Big companies, though, because it's just one big loop.

[00:56:18]
It used to be you could separate it all in some way or the other, right? But it's like the same level of hate and division and all this shit has leaked into our hobbies. And now you have idiots, the same idiots that blue good, red bad, red good, blue bad. All that. They're doing the same thing with consoles now.

[00:56:36]
Xbox, good. Sony, bad. Sony, good. Xbox, bad. Like, it's the same type of hate and division.

[00:56:43]
I still remember maybe like five, six years ago even, people look at it. If you had Xbox or PlayStation, it would be more of a joke. We joke and be like, oh, you're a PlayStation guy, or, oh, you're an Xbox guy now you like Xbox or you like PlayStation. Like the hell's wrong with you? That's the division that they're creating.

[00:57:06]
It goes through every aspect of life. In response to your comment, I did not call you Old Sasquatch, and I'm sorry if I did. She definitely did. Don't let her lie to you. She's lying, Your Honor.

[00:57:20]
Maybe 31 soon. Is that you're old too?

[00:57:27]
Yes, I'm old too. I've got some nice gray hairs up here. I've intentionally not died them over because I'm hoping eventually they'll kind of do a rogue from X Men thing and I'll just have that nice white streak. Yeah, I haven't dyed my white hairs either and stuff, because I'm hoping that I get like, that salt and pepper look. There you go.

[00:57:50]
So let's get back on track though. So now in response to all of these issues with mobile gaming and the duopoly on mobile, Tony said earlier this week that it plans to expand a program to identify and incubate Chinese made games in a race with Microsoft to tap China's gaming market. Now, typically, that has been a market more dominated by either PC or Sony just because it's an Asian region, but this year, Microsoft has been making pretty big steps to make a footprint in the Asian market. Now, this program will invest more than 100 million yon, or the equivalent of just over $140,000 in each game it enrolls and will only fund small teams, but also big teams with dozens of engineers or more. Bao Bao, Sony's director of China game production, said the Japanese tech giants plans were made public during an event livestreamed this past Tuesday from southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu to restart the China Herea Project program, which came to a halt during the COVID-19 initial lockdowns.

[00:58:53]
Bao said, quote, the scale of the third phase will far exceed the previous two, also adding that Sony will publish some games and its PlayStation studios will support the enrolled projects. Sony said that it will also be the publisher of The Lost Soul aside in convaleria two games enrolled in the previous two phases, which are Chinese games. The China Hero Project unveiled its first two batches of games back in 2017 and 2019 and has since supported 17 titles, seven of which have reached the market successfully. Bao told the routers as well in an interview this past Wednesday that the new batch aims to include ten or more titles and welcomes games of all genres. That's actually a pretty big lead for Sony.

[00:59:37]
It definitely is, but right now I'm not happy with that market and stuff. I know there's something going on with people doing an uprising against the tyranny of their government right now, but the information that's coming out is not that much because of course, as usual, these legacy news outlets do not want to report on factual information. They just want to feed you a narrative and anything that goes against their narrative. Yeah, for our safety. Anything that goes against the narrative, they're not going to report on.

[01:00:08]
So I'm struggling to find the information I need to see what's going on in China. What I have seen though, is that they are doing I don't know if you saw it, but they are making the largest isolation pod center in the world at, like, 90,000 isolation pods. All right? It is insane what they're doing out there in China. And I need to find more information.

[01:00:34]
But I can't abide by anything going on in China right now. So I get that China has a good gaming market, so I'll give the Chinese citizens that are gamers a big win for wanting to play games and stuff. But I give China overall a big help just due to the fact that China has been leading the way in tyranny throughout this whole virus that should not be named. With the initial origin and all that other stuff. They've been leading the way in tyranny.

[01:01:09]
And I can't sit here and stay silent with the amount of tyranny going on over there. It's appalling. It's been long before that. It's been long before COVID It's been almost two decades they've been doing this, in all honesty. So we're going to sidetrack briefly again, because there's basically an uprising happening in.

[01:01:27]
China which is not being reported on. We're talking not being reported on at all. So, first of all, welcome in. White Bear. Good to see you here.

[01:01:36]
Thank you for the lovely compliments. I appreciate it. I mean, I consider 31 old because I feel like my body just breaks down each year that passes, every year. My memory gets worse and worse and stuff. This is why I don't drink, because I'd have no memory.

[01:01:55]
So, yes, I live in Canada, right. Anyone who has even just basic knowledge of Canadian politics knows that China has had a pretty big hand in basically all of our major sectors over, I would say, the last 20 years now, at the very least. Most recently, though, are you aware of what started this whole issue in China, by the way? The current uprising? The current uprising?

[01:02:27]
No. Like I said, it's hard for me to come across information, but no one in China and their extreme mandates that they keep inflicting over and over and over again, it does not surprise me. And here's the ironic thing, all right? No matter how much force you do, if the entire population decides that they want to uprise, there's nothing their government can do except literally mow down and murder their citizens. Due to the fact that China holds probably, what, like one third or at least a quarter of the world's population.

[01:02:58]
About a quarter, yeah. So what happened is earlier this week so, yeah, China has had some pretty severe lockdowns and COVID protocols, right? And this has involved basically blockading people into their own homes. So my boss is actually a Chinese immigrant. She came here in her 20s.

[01:03:17]
She's 42 now, I believe, so she still keeps in touch with her family over there, and she has deep ties to the Chinese community here. And all. That stuff, but she recognizes what was going on there, and it was one of the big reasons why she came to Canada. Now, she showed me a video on Tuesday. I remember.

[01:03:35]
I remember it was Tuesday because the next day it was all over the not mainstream news, but those other big underground news sources will say so what had happened is there was a fire in an apartment building. It was one of the top floors, is what the video showed. And what the government had done to keep people inside is they basically kind of like melted down these bars in front of the main doors to the apartment to keep everyone sealed in. Now, they couldn't move that because it was melted down to the concrete. And as a result, the fire trucks could not get close enough to the buildings in one of these streets.

[01:04:10]
So what happened if you have a building and you have a fire truck parked like a hundred feet away and the spray is not cooking the fire at all. So what ended up happening is a bunch of people died in that building fire, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back, essentially. And now we have what's going on. So basically they hot box them to their death.

[01:04:36]
Not in a good way. No. Hot box is usually I was just trying to put it in more PG terms, and that's not even PG term. Basically, they sealed them off and sealed their fate by just melting the doors, preventing anyone from getting out.

[01:04:53]
I don't blame them for uprising, because now, honestly, they should have been uprising so much sooner. And here's the thing. They're not the only country that is rising up against the tyranny. It's happening worldwide. It's just not being recorded on, you know?

[01:05:08]
Yeah, like yesterday or the day before. So Brazil had their presidential election last month, right? A lot of people were surprised that I can't remember what her name was, but she won against Bolsonaro. And now the Brazilian army is coming and said that we support Bolsonaro. We're going to stand behind him to get to the bottom of this.

[01:05:31]
And Italy, even Italy had their first Conservative government in first female prime minister, too, which is impressive. It's happening. It's just slow in some way. This is why I like white hairs coming right here. It says the difference between having citizens armed or not.

[01:05:50]
This has been horrible for them. See, here's the thing. In our Second Amendment, one of the bits of the Second Amendment, it's not just we have the right to bear arms. And that's not the whole thing itself. Towards the end of it, it says we have the right to bear arms.

[01:06:08]
I'm paraphrasing, I don't know the exact words, but basically it says we have the right to bear arms to stand up against any tyranny, including that from our own government. So this is why the government is trying to take away our guns. Because here's the thing. When we have guns, we can actually rise up against any form of tyranny, including our own government. We take away our guns and it becomes a lot harder.

[01:06:32]
Now, here's the thing. They are sitting here talking about all crime will go down, so on and so forth. Yeah, because criminal, I forgot, there's no murders that happen in Detroit or Chicago because murder is illegal. There's just no way that murders could possibly happen in Detroit or Chicago or anywhere in the US. Because criminals know that it's against the law.

[01:06:54]
Right? Criminals don't care about your laws. It's not affecting the criminals. What it is affecting is the average citizen and their right to defend themselves from not only other people who wish to do them harm, but from their own government, which clearly wishes to do them harm. Right?

[01:07:14]
This is why this is why anyone who says antigun needs to actually look into everything that's going on around the world. Which is why these big news outlets, these legacy news, don't want to report on it because it goes against the narrative. They want you to lose your gun. They want you to lose your freedoms. Slowly, over the last two years, the US I'm going on my rant now.

[01:07:37]
Slowly, over the last two years, we have had freedom after freedom taken away from us. All right? Now, let me start it off like I'm an actual president. My fellow Americans, the time is now to actually start acting, alright? We have watched this government become super corrupt.

[01:08:02]
They've been exposed for their corruption over and over again. And what do we do? We sit idly by. All right? We have video evidence of Mr.

[01:08:14]
Bill Gates talking about how the world is too full and that if they do a good job with vaccines, they can reduce the population between 10% to 15%. This was Bill Gates talking about eliminating people by using vaccines. What do we have happening around the world right now? We have people suddenly dying. We've got a government that is sound asleep with people being ignored.

[01:08:47]
All right? Our future really is in deep shit if we do not stand up against this tyranny. All right? We're watching people die over and over again. Senselessly they are targeting us.

[01:09:02]
The elites only care about themselves. All right? If you have the opportunity to arm yourself I'm not saying go out and murder people. That is not what I'm saying at all. But if you have the opportunity to arm yourselves, arm yourselves.

[01:09:18]
Because the time will come when we will have to rise up whether we want to or not. We stood idly by as they have taken freedom after freedom. And I can't see them taking any more of our freedoms.

[01:09:37]
May I? May I? Go ahead. Okay, just to finalize that note. For anyone who is against guns, go and look up the history of venezuela.

[01:09:50]
I think that's great case right there. On a side note though, this is about to get labeled for covered misinformation. No, here's the thing. It's almost like it's completely accurate. Whenever this happens.

[01:10:05]
It's funny, I'm calling a conspiracy theorist and stuff, and people like me are called conspiracy theorists, but it's funny. Conspiracy theories used to take years, sometimes decades to prove. Now the time between conspiracy to being proven right is less than a year. Alright? Scientists have now said that scientists have now said that within the next six months they're going to run out of conspiracy theories because they're all coming true.

[01:10:39]
Joking for anyone. So let's get back to actual gaming news though.

[01:10:49]
So now there was a statement that Sony released a couple of weeks ago in response to the CMA's decision, right? Specifically their decision to open a second line of inquiry into the Microsoft acquisition. So same thing here. I've just kind of pulled out what I think are the big parts because I really do believe that Sony is kind of shooting themselves in the foot here. So here's a couple of the things that Sony themselves in their report.

[01:11:19]
This was written by them, right? So these are not my words, this is not opinion. This is what Sony themselves decided to publish in response. So a couple of the things they outlined is posttransaction. Microsoft would have the ability and incentive to restrict rivals including PlayStation and PlayStation Plus from having access to Call of Duty.

[01:11:40]
This decision identifies five recent Microsoft acquisition, Game Studio acquisitions, where shortly after the acquisition in question, microsoft changed the business model of the acquired studios and withdrew new titles from competing platforms. This is true actually. You can look at Bethesda. That's a prime example right there. Elder Scroll Six will be an Xbox exclusive that will be coming to PlayStation consoles.

[01:12:03]
A second point that they highlighted was that competition would be harmed. PlayStations and Xbox incentives to invest in innovation and quality improvement depend on the number of customers that competition can attract. Microsoft's foreclosure strategy would lock in many consumers to Xbox, including existing Xbox users who play Call of Duty and those switching from PlayStation to play Call of Duty.

[01:12:31]
Again, focusing on just the Call of Duty part is very narrow minded because this is just one of many big IPS that they own. A third point they outlined was that consumers would be harmed in the short term. Play Station users would no longer have access to Call of Duty or would be forced to spend £450. This was published in the UK. That's why it's a pounds on an equivalent Xbox to play this hugely popular game on their less preferred device.

[01:12:58]
In the midterm, a significant number of PlayStation users would likely switch to Xbox and or Game Pass. Faced with weaker competition, Microsoft would be able to increase console and game prices for Xbox users, including those that switched from PlayStation increase the price of game pass and reduce innovation in quality. I do kind of agree with this last point. And this just goes back to the idea of these big companies buying everyone up. I think already we're kind of seeing that reduction, innovation, quality.

[01:13:31]
Innovation and quality. Anyways, just look at all of the games that were nominated in the game of the categories. Very few of them were very innovative. All of them more or less were just based on their visual quality standards, which is not a marker for a good game at all. Honestly, if that's what one of your indicators is for a good game, get yourself checked out, bro.

[01:13:54]
Like, seriously. Another point that they had was that independent developers would be harmed. Independent developers today have two principal options. PlayStation PlayStation plus and xbox, and Xbox game pass. By making call of Duty exclusive to Xbox and game pass, the transaction would tip demand for multigenera subscription services towards Xbox game pass as Microsoft foreclosed PlayStation, PlayStation plus, it would likely become a critical distribution channel for independent developers in that weakened negotiation position.

[01:14:29]
Negotiating position. Independent developers would likely receive worse terms for their content from Microsoft, or even be required to promise exclusivity in return for distribution, thereby diminishing independent developers ability and incentive to invest in high quality new games. This in turn would also harm consumers further. So in response to this, I mean, I do agree with some of this here. Same thing, just bottlenecking basically the creative aspects of what all these developers can do.

[01:15:02]
However, just to counter it, I guess a bit, there are many developers that have come out saying that they would love to have their game on game pass, or that they would like to work with Xbox studios, or that they have had a very good time working with Xbox studios. Yeah, but that only extends so far. That only extends so far. But they're having fun now, but they also have competition now, you know what I mean? And I think what they're getting at is that if Xbox is buying all these up and they continue to bottleneck it, xbox then becomes the majority player like they are in so many other markets.

[01:15:41]
And then you're forced to play by their terms whether you like it or not. So like they said, they can give them worse offers than they would have gotten, say, this year. And that's just something like I said, going back to all these companies, they're already big buying up even more big companies. It just bottlenecks everything. And as they said, it makes it worse for consumers because there's less creativity.

[01:16:08]
Now, again, in response to this, again, to clarify, I'm not taking either or side. I'm just putting the information out there so you guys can have a more unbiased look at this whole thing. PlayStation is worried about game pass taking over. PlayStation has had their similar they have PlayStation plus right? And they just revamped that.

[01:16:27]
Earlier this year, PlayStation had a really good opportunity to develop a model that would at least match xbox's game pass. Instead, what they did is they made a tiered system that was basically play to win. Sorry. Meaning the more you pay, the more attention you get, the more incentive you get. I think PlayStation really fucked up in that respect because honestly, I'm an Xbox gamer.

[01:16:55]
I 100% agree with the fact that, yes, PlayStation does have big better IPS. I'm not even going to deny that. I will begin to deny that. So with such a backlog in such an impressive catalog, there was an opportunity that was definitely missed here. No, the amount of IPS that they could have put on.

[01:17:15]
And one of the things that pisses me off the most is I've been I play all kinds of systems, don't get it wrong, but I've been playing the PlayStation since the original PlayStation, all right? I don't think there is a single console or handheld that they have come out with that I have not personally played on. So you're going to sit here and tell me that if I don't pay the premium price, i, as a longtime member, have lower priority than some rich person who comes over and says, you know what, I'm going to pay this exorbitant price for the highest tier so I can get the highest class customer service. That person is worth more money than someone who's been with you since your inception, is what you told. Longtime, please advance.

[01:18:01]
Exactly. And even the reward system, it's just not as great as Xboxes. At least with the points system, it's something regardless of whether you're an ultimate or a regular one, you're treated the same. You still get the cloud gaming with both options as well. You don't have to pay extra like you do with PlayStation currently.

[01:18:24]
So I feel this whole point on the subscription services is lost when PlayStation really did have an opportunity that they bungled. That's not to say they can't fix this in the future, but they even came out and said themselves, apparently, according to Sony, game pass on the console has over 29 million subscribers, which is and they said that's more than what they have. And remember that a couple of weeks ago, PlayStation put out their subscription numbers saying that it was at 41 million. So either Xbox isn't being transparent with their numbers or Sony lied to make themselves look better. But right now it seems to be that they're admitting that they lied about their PlayStation plus subscriber numbers by saying that Microsoft has more on game pass at 29 million right now.

[01:19:16]
But yes, sony, you really fucked up there. Like, you had a golden opportunity to crush Xbox's game pass. You really did. And you chose to go the money route. Just something to think about if anyone from sody is listening, right?

[01:19:32]
So in addition to that. Yeah, I think that covers all my big points. Now in this agreement as well, they decided to just throw EA under the bus. I know we don't like EA at all. By the way, everyone in the chat, I can see you and I would like to respond to you, but I didn't realize that you need to pay Rumble to chat on here.

[01:19:53]
I can't chat at all right. But I see what you guys are all saying and I appreciate that you are here and watching. So thank you. Now, I'm just going to take this directly from what Sony themselves published in this report. Okay.

[01:20:09]
Call of Duty is not replicable. Call of Duty is too entrenched for any rival, no matter how well equipped to catch up. It's been a top selling game for almost every year in the last decade, and in the first person shooter genre, is overwhelmingly the top selling game. Other publishers do not have the resources or expertise to match its success. To give a concrete example, Vex Electronica, one of the largest third party developers after Activision, has tried for many years to produce a rival to Call of Duty with its Battlefield series.

[01:20:40]
Despite the similarities between Call of Duty and Battlefield, and despite EA's track record in developing other successful triple A franchises such as FIFA Massa, need for Speed, and Star Wars Battlefront, the Battlefield franchise cannot keep up. As of August 2021, more than 400 million Call of Duty games had been sold, while Battlefields had sold just 88.7 million copies. Because Battlefield don't get me wrong, call of Duty gets worse every year. But Battlefield is owned by EA, and we all know how EA reuses its assets and just throws a sticker on a pile of shit and calls it a game. Let's not forget what they did with the legendary Star Wars Battlefront games, all right?

[01:21:28]
Turned around and we all remember the backlash of Battlefront, too. Now, mind you, that was just the icing on the cake, the proverbial cake to go along with the frustration we've been having for years. And that was just the final straw in the coffin and the final nail in the coffin. And we finally started speaking out. We need to speak out on a whole bunch of other shit.

[01:21:54]
Yes. Can only make the point here. Bowfield is trash. Well, that's exactly what I said. It's because of the EA.

[01:22:02]
That's why I just said reinvent 100%. Sure. And here's the thing. I remember the original battlefield. I never played it, but I heard how great it was.

[01:22:13]
And then the problem was it was EA. So when the next game came out and I finally had a chance to get it, I was like, yeah. No, I'm not getting it because it's EA. I know they're going to reuse assets. That's exactly what they did.

[01:22:26]
It's okay for you to reuse some assets, but to just reuse almost. They probably reuse if I had to guess 60% to 70% of their assets year over year. I think it's more than that.

[01:22:46]
Yeah, no, I've played all of the I think the only battlefield I skipped so far is the last two that have come out, but I've played them since battlefield 1942, which was 15 years ago. So I played all of those major releases. It's more or less been a copy and paste of the same game since about battlefield three. Now, I think battlefield battlefield four, it was like a polished version of battlefield three, in my opinion. So it was like all the online issues that you had with three were just kind of nicely tweaked right.

[01:23:21]
For four. And it was very mint gameplay. It's why even today, battlefield four still has a very active online server base right across all platforms. I don't think it's fair to compare call of duty and battlefield. I do recognize that they are direct competitors in terms of online first person shooters.

[01:23:42]
Call of duty is just a simplified version because battlefield is much more encompassing. Right? Like, you could have roles. Like, you can be a healer or an ammo expert and all that stuff. You can fly planes.

[01:23:54]
You can have tanks. You have more of an interactive environment that develops with you. So I feel it's a little bit unfair to compare them in that respect. And in that same respect as well. The gamer that likes cod will not necessarily like battlefield because battlefield requires a little bit more brainpower.

[01:24:13]
Listen, the only clip I've ever really seen from battlefield because it's never been something I've been interested in. I was so happy for the dude who created the clip when I think it was battlefield four in their trailer. They paid homage to his legendary clip, but I still wouldn't have played the game. But basically what he did is he had like a fighter jet that he was in the air with, and he jumped out of his cockpit and landed on someone else's fighter plane and kicked him out of the plane and took over the plane. You know what I mean?

[01:24:47]
That's a lot of fun. Cliffs like, that's why I can't really like, from my perspective, I wouldn't really compare them as one to one like that. Right. But on a side note, apparently battlefield 2042 will be free to play the first weekend in December. So for anyone interested in trying that out, take a peep at it.

[01:25:13]
So last bit of Sony's, which actually sounds more like good news. I was so happy about this. I have something to say about this. And then after you say after you do it, I'll say it right after that. And then as you get into the next bit after this, I'm going to run to the bathroom.

[01:25:31]
Okay, sounds good. So Sony has reportedly banned a ton of PlayStation four, and five games from its storm will clamp down on future releases that fit the parameters set by a new policy. A report has relayed a word that developers and publishers have been sent a letter by Sony that says it will be cracking down on spam and duplicative content, something that has been a problem with PlayStation consoles in the last few years. As games switch more to digital products whose functionality and or assets are copied and are not meaningfully different from products already published on the PlayStation Store, irrespective of the publisher of record are deemed spam and repetitive. And if a game is assigned to these pegs, it won't be allowed to release on the PlayStation Store.

[01:26:16]
This also applies to multiple concepts and product variants published by individual partners that have duplicated functionality or experiences differentiated only by minor variances of functionality or assets. So essentially, again, I don't have a PlayStation console, so I can't speak for this Lamb and Seaweed, but it sounds like they are cleaning up a lot of the excess and duplicates of everything so that you will have a much neater and condensed PlayStation online store. Is that accurate? To me, yes. Let me put it like this.

[01:26:50]
Every time there's some sort of big sale going on, like the Black Friday sales, cyber Monday sales, anything along those lines, you just look and you look at all this crap that's on the store, you wonder who the hell would buy it? But then you go look at people's PlayStation scores, which it's very similar to your gamer score on Xbox. It's the same thing. You got bronze, silver, gold and platinum trophies. Platinum means you 100% of the game.

[01:27:18]
And I've seen profiles where you look at their profile and they've got thousands of platinums. And you look at them and you're like, there's no way. Well, it's because of games like this, because they're making easy platinum games for people to get to. And I personally know a couple of people who have at least 400, 500 platinums, and I personally know them in real life. And I can tell you flat out they play like two games total.

[01:27:46]
So they probably played those to get the platinums real quick, make their profile look all cool and, you know, in their mind cool, and then go back to their normal game. All right, if you look online and stuff, I don't even have a platinum and stuff because it messed up on my PlayStation Four. I should have had a platinum on the Final Fantasy X, which is a very hard platinum to get, by the way. But I'm not going to even bother trying to get it again because it's just ridiculous. But for some reason it just never registered.

[01:28:19]
But, you know, I just play games just to have fun and all that other stuff. And games that are good, generally speaking, are hard to platinum. And so to sit here and watch all these people have hundreds, if not thousands of platinums speaks to how many repetitive and duplicate games that they had. They were just there for that school. And you could see it every single time you went to that PlayStation store to look at games.

[01:28:49]
It was excessive. I would go through them and I'd be like, I've heard of this, I've heard of this. And then you'd go through like 30 in a row where you're like, what the hell is this? I'm glad they're starting to get rid of that. But on a hindsight, what I find funny is when they talk about, where is it?

[01:29:10]
So irrespective of the publisher of record, if their team spam or repetitive, they'll be removed from the store. EA, you've been put on notice.

[01:29:24]
Oh, wait, hold on. Two k. You've been put on notice. All these big developers. You've been put on notice.

[01:29:36]
I'm so worried about two K just for this upcoming BioShock game, that's all. Like they said, it's going to be a live service game. And I'm just like, BioShock don't need that. BioShock doesn't need that. And it's also being developed in Canada, which is another thing.

[01:29:56]
But if you go avoid your bladder or your bowel. I'll be right back. But I got that. Playing the new video. Okay, yes.

[01:30:05]
Just in the background to the ghost of dashima clips that were playing right before this. And now the alien isolation are courtesy of our boy Gamers little Playground on YouTube. I use his Cliffs basically for everything, so go check them out if you want to see more. Just game cinematics. That's it.

[01:30:25]
Literally, for any game you can think of, that's a gamers Little playground. So on to game announcements and developments. This will now be our pallet cleanser. A bit good at number two. Number two.

[01:30:40]
This will be our palette cleanser. Now before we dive into more Idiocy so Xenomax Online Studios, which is the parent company for Bethesda, is allegedly working on a brand new IP. ZeniMax is also the main mind behind The Elder Scrolls online game. Speaking to the Product Builders Podcast last Sunday. Actually, while we were doing last Sunday's podcast, creative Director Ben Jones talked to some of the work that is going on going into this new IP, including how he has been working on it for the past four and a half years.

[01:31:13]
Joan also shared that the design team he leads consists of about 50 people, while the greater development team working on the game consists of almost 200 developers. This new game, or new IP, has been described as AAAA title with an engine. With a new engine, but otherwise little, is currently known as Bethesda. Softworks is part of the Xbox first party organization. Now, this new IP is assumed to be an Xbox and Windows exclusive, another gaming development news, which I think was the most exciting of the gaming news that came out this week.

[01:31:49]
Allegedly, according to some insider leaks, a new Alien title currently believed to be under the code name Marathon is currently being developed for current generation consoles, meaning PlayStation Five and Xbox Series Xx. With AAAA budget, they weren't able to verify who is developing the project, but learn that the game is slated to be a survival horror, one that will take inspiration from franchises including Dead Space, Resident Evil, and I didn't put it here, but Dark Souls was supposed to be on there as well. The same source who provided the documentation and concept art of the Alien title also said that an Alien Isolation sequel is either in development or is currently being pitched. The developer behind the game wasn't given, but it's assumed that creative assembly could return to work on this project. As of March 2015, Alien Isolation had sold over 2.1 million copies in Europe and the US alone.

[01:32:50]
And according to sources, Sega was actually extremely happy with the reception for this game. I actually think that number is probably almost at least 50% more because Alien Isolation tends to go on sale every time there's a digital sale or Black Friday or something like that. I personally am very alien Isolation is a near perfect horror survival game. If anyone has not played that and you're interested in that genre, or you just like the Alien from movie franchise, no thanks. I'd rather play Hello Kitty Island Adventures.

[01:33:25]
Yes, I know you're not a horror fan. I'm a horror fan, though, so I definitely recommend that game. It was amazing. I don't know, did the PlayStation Four have what's it called, like a sensor bar at all?

[01:33:39]
Okay. I bought it with my Xbox One when I first got it, and I had one of the OG ones that had the sensor bar, which would track your movement and was like voice activated and all that stuff. Did PlayStation Four now have one of those? I mean, it possibly did, but it wasn't like, preinstalled with it, though. It makes any sense.

[01:34:01]
No, it was a separate device that you could bundle with it. I'm sure they did, but Sony never people who play Sony don't play Sony for games like that, so even if they did, it probably would not have been a good seller. I'm sure there's a PS Four camera. Or whatever, games like that, but I haven't even gone into what the game was like. I'm talking about any games that requires a sensor bar.

[01:34:27]
I guess it didn't require a sensor bar. So the Alien Isolation game had an extra feature. If you had at least on the Xbox if you had the Xbox One sensor thing, right, which some of the early bundles came with, you could set the game so that while you're sitting there playing, the camera would pick up on any sounds you would make in your real environment or any movements you would make. And then your character on the screen would move that way too. So if you were trying to dodge an Alien or AI and.

[01:35:00]
Say you sneezed or something, the alien would pick up on that noise and that movement and come attack you. It was a great feature, not a necessary one, but it was a nice extra feature, especially for that genre. Right. The only thing I know of them, and it wasn't even quite the same, was I think the game name was Akaba's Trip. It's an anime based game.

[01:35:25]
If you streamed it on Twitch through your PlayStation, they had this thing where fans can actually mess with you and like, completely screw up your game. So I thought that was a cool feature, but other than that, I think they had something like that. Similar yeah, similar idea, but yeah, similar idea, but that's more digital. Right? It was awesome, though, because just imagine that your community watches you play and then they mess up your game just by the way they chat.

[01:35:56]
The only thing that sucked about it, from what I saw, is that it only works if you stream through the PlayStation itself. If you try to stream using OBS, it wouldn't work.

[01:36:09]
Are you eating something? I have no idea what you're talking about.

[01:36:14]
I can hear the food at the back of your boat.

[01:36:26]
Yeah, Cannoli says now the PS did not have that. Okay. Yeah. So if you do manage to get your hands on one of those Xbox sensor bars, I know they were discontinued pretty fast because they had a lot of issues, but if you do have that opportunity, worth playing it on Xbox just for that, it adds a whole new element. But, yeah, the alien games we've gotten since Isolation have been hit or miss, like Aliens Fire Team, which I did enjoy, was just buggy as hell.

[01:36:52]
So it was very hard to get a team together to want to go and fight aliens when you couldn't fucking open a box or anything, even without the gig crashing. Right. And we've also got two other alien projects, lower budget alien projects that are in the works. Similar kind of online multiplayer aspect. So this would just be a single player game, which is pretty exciting.

[01:37:13]
In other news, though, Bayonetta Three was in the news for the wrong reasons before launch, and then after launch, it was in the news for the good reason. The one with the voice actor that like, lied. Yes. Helena Taylor, the voice actress. Yeah.

[01:37:28]
Might as well be Taylor Lorentz.

[01:37:32]
For those of you that don't recall Helena Taylor, who has been the voice actors behind Bayonetta in the Bayonetta franchise, she famously came to Twitter a couple weeks before the games launch and posted, I think it was like two minutes altogether, a video about how she was underpaid and how it was a struggle and all that. And then the creative team behind banner that came with her seat was like, no, this bitch is crazy. Here's what we actually offered her. And she declined. And then she tried to get people to boycott the game and all this stuff.

[01:38:03]
And people dug into her personal history and were like, oh, how can she support an antiabortion organization? We shouldn't support her anymore, just boycott the game anyways. And it was a mess. But regardless of that, Bayonetta Three did very well sales wise. It outsold the predecessor actually in just a week.

[01:38:20]
It took Bayonetta Two almost two years to hit 1 million copies. Bayonetta Three did it in a week. So very good release for Nintendo exclusive hideki Kamiya, who is the mastermind behind the franchise, sees that Bayonetta Four is actually already in the works. In response to fans expressing displeasure with the ending in Bayonetta Three, he notes that it wasn't conveyed correctly and that Bayonetta Four will be an unexpected development. He said via Twitter, quote I didn't think it was unexpected at all, but it seems that the ending of Bay Three wasn't conveyed correctly to everyone.

[01:38:53]
So I think Bayo Four will be an unexpected development for everyone. After all, when Bayo Four comes out, I'm sure there will be people who say you added that as an afterthought, so I'll say it now. Very good news there. Bayon Three, by the way, is actually on sale right now for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and if you go to thelamencyshow.com you can find a link to that deal, just FY under our Black Friday deals.

[01:39:24]
Last big game development though. So Riot Games, who is the mastermind behind that hit online shooter? Valeriench actually might have game listings suggesting that it is coming to consoles pretty soon. A couple of job postings for senior Game designer as well as just general Game Design Manager were posted both last week and this week saying that both of these roles will work with a team that leads to work with team leads to develop a vision for combat invalid on consoles. That's good news because even though I've never played it and it isn't a game that interests me, I know a lot of people who really love Valerie and I have a few of them, that's one of the main games they play and they want me to play with them.

[01:40:10]
And I haven't started on the PC, but I just don't like playing on PC. I really don't. There are some games I don't mind playing on PC, but as far as FPS, yeah, I get more accuracy with my right arm, but my hands are so used to using a controller that it's just uncomfortable trying to use a keyboard, even though the keyboard gives me far more options.

[01:40:35]
So it's uncomfortable for me. And unfortunately, I learned the hard way that Valerie on PC does not allow controllers at all. So a lot of PC games you can plug in the controller and play ballerin is not one of them. So for it to go to console be great, especially if they allow Crossplay because then I can get kaliuko off my back.

[01:41:01]
For those who don't know, he's one. Of our journalists, not one of our new journalists. Yes. So, no, that is very good news because like you said, I know that it is a very popular shooter, but the fact that it's like PC only has been very limiting. So I imagine that Riot Games is going to be pretty happy should that come to console, because it'll do pretty well now that we've had a nice palette cleanser of exciting game announcements.

[01:41:28]
Prepared to get a headache because gaming journalism decided to take more else this week. IGN is the biggest one, I would say. I mean, I don't know. Kataku tried to compete.

[01:41:42]
We're going to get into that too. Okay, so the Callisto Protocol, it launches on December 2, this coming Friday. Now, I actually put my pre order down yesterday, so I'm pretty pumped for that. Now, on November 23, IGN decided to publish an article. Right?

[01:42:00]
They've since added to that article, correcting a lot of things. But this was just proof that these gaming journalists for these big websites, they just want the clickbait. They don't actually care about the content they're putting in here. And if they do put in content, it's just zero brain cell, zero level reading comprehension. Right?

[01:42:21]
So on November 23, they published an article saying that, quote, striking Distance Studios has announced the contents of Callisto Protocol seasons pass, revealing that several player death animations are locked behind additional purchase. The game Steam page was updated to include the season passes contents, revealing that 13 kill animations that have been a prominent feature in the game's marketing won't be included in the normal $60 version of the game. Players will instead need to purchase the season pass to experience every animation. This is so far only advertised as part of the $80 Digital Deluxe Edition or the $250 collectors Edition, but will likely be sold separately for about $20. Now, Glenn Showfield, who was the game's creator and creative director, came to Twitter not long after to clarify what IGN had failed to read properly.

[01:43:15]
He said, quote, to be clear, we're not holding anything back from the main game for the seasons past. We haven't even started work on this content yet. It's all new stuff that we'll be working on in the new year. Fans have asked for even more deaths, so we're making it a priority next year. If you go and read the Steam page for this additional content, it nowhere says that these kill animations will all be exclusive to the DLC.

[01:43:47]
Sounds about right. That's part of the course with IGN Kotaku is the same way. They never read things properly. They don't comprehend things properly, they can't think for themselves. They literally just post whatever garbage they want to and just try to honestly, this is just another one of their typical tactics of trying to get clicks.

[01:44:09]
And you know what? It works for them. Clicking so good on them for getting something to work bad on them for giving misinformation. If you want to throw the term misinformation out, IGN is one of the kings of misinformation, especially as a Blake. It's like the CNN of gaming.

[01:44:30]
I know Kanali says MSNBC. No, it's more like the CNN of gaming. Now, here's the other problem with this. It wasn't just IGN that published this. For the next 11 hours after this.

[01:44:43]
Article, you know whose versus CNN, or as I like to call it, the Comedy News Network.

[01:44:53]
Over the following 11 hours after this article was published by IGN, about a dozen other prominent gaming news sources decided to reword and repost this as fact.

[01:45:08]
Nobody, nobody at any of these sources decided to actually go and read the goddamn Steam page. They just took IGN's word for it and tweeted it or posted it and published it as actual fact. If there another reason not to read IGN, there it is for you. No reading comprehension whatsoever. None.

[01:45:30]
I'm dead serious that if you go to that Steam page, you will not see that there is death animations that are exclusive. Exclusive like won't be coming in. The base game is ridiculous. More small brain news. As Lamb and C mentioned, it just isn't a week without Kotaku being Kotaku.

[01:45:54]
There we go. I guess maybe Kotaku is more the CNN of the gaming world because they go full block. No, they're the Don Lemon of the gaming world. Okay. Is it Don Lemon?

[01:46:06]
Not lemon. Lemon. It's lemon.

[01:46:12]
I was calling him Don Lemon this whole time. No, Kataku is definitely the Dawn Lemon of the gaming world. Okay, so Cancel culture decided to rear its ugly head again, unfortunately. Sorry, no, I skipped the article. Oh, fuck me.

[01:46:34]
No, hold on, let me do that. Sorry I started off but okay, I'm going to do the second article first and then we'll come back. Okay. The kotaku article. So overwatch two, right?

[01:46:43]
That came out back in, I think, August. It was, if I remember correctly, not really a sequel. It was just kind of another reason for activision to make money off of overwatch, which was bringing them in millions upon millions of dollars. And it is an online shooter for those of you that are unaware. So I'm just going to read you quotes from this ridiculous article, and I'll let you guys form your own opinion on it, okay?

[01:47:08]
Oh my God. Of course, it's like actual reporting.

[01:47:14]
That's what we aim to do here at the Lemon C show, at least in my segment. I don't know about Mikey on the anime podcast, okay, everything I have to say is, quote, okay, overwatch 2 may be a sequel, but it seems that it loves cops skins. Cops like police officers skins just as much as the original game. A brand new bundle recently dropped in the in game shop called Constable Tracer, which puts Tracer in a goofy British cop outfit, complete with absurd hat and twirly mustache. The ten dollar bundle also includes a police badge, weapon charm, and a spray that shows Constable Tracer emerging from a police box.

[01:47:53]
Constable Tracer marks the third time Blizzard has released a police related skin for overwatch characters. Author claims this is sorry, this is my side note. Author claims this is tone deaf. I didn't want to post a whole spiel on that. Continuing the quote, in 2019, as part of its annual overwatch anniversary event, blizzard introduced the riot police Bridget skin.

[01:48:13]
Yes. In May 2019, while America was reckoning with clear and consistent proof that police brutality overwhelmingly affects communities of color, and witnessing how protests against that brutality were often met with increasingly militarized police forces, blizzard thought it was a good idea to give a character with a shield a riot police skin. Pataku reached out to Blizzard for comment regarding the ideology behind this latest cops skin. Feels like Activision is saying the quiet part out loud by indirectly showing support for police forces for interpreting lore a certain way.

[01:48:50]
Dare I say anything?

[01:48:55]
All right, go ahead. Let us know what's on your mind, Kotaku. I seem to have to break down your articles on an almost weekly basis with your shitty writing and actually give you the factual information versus the garbage that you spew. All right, while they may have came out with a cop bundle great, that's fine. All right, that's not some sort of weird culture or anything else like that.

[01:49:21]
They decided to make an outfit. So what? Who cares? Every other game makes skins all the time. There's many other games that do cop skins, but no, you choose overwatch in particular.

[01:49:33]
All right? I think you just don't like seeing thick girl Tracer in anything other than her orange jumpsuit, if I'm being completely honest. All right, so you talk about let's see here, where do we go? All right, so you think it's tone deaf saying that there was consistent proof of police brutality overwhelmingly affecting communities of color. First of all by saying communities of color that in its own way is actually braces itself.

[01:50:07]
But let's take this let's break this down for you. May I interject you for just one moment there? Yeah. As you can visually see, I am a person of color. I think the term people of color is the same as saying colored people.

[01:50:26]
It's still a racist term. So you talk about police brutality and everything, but here's the thing. The statistics never backed up that argument. It's one of the big things going on in America and stuff where people are claiming this and that and this, that, this, that abraham Lincoln hit them with a whippleball bat. Silly.

[01:50:46]
Sally. Whatever. Who cares? All right? The fact of the matter is, if you actually look at the actual statistics, police are far more likely to shoot an unarmed white man than they are a person of color, especially now with all the riots going against.

[01:51:05]
Then you sit here and talk about where is it, how police brutality and that the so called protests were met with militarized force. What you failed to mention in that is the reason that they were met with militarized force is because you were burning down cities, all right? And quite frankly, they were told to stay back more often than not as they continued to loop riot and burn. I remember a time 1015 years ago where you could protest all you want, but as soon as it turned into a riot, it got shut down. But because these are supposedly marginalized people, they allowed it to continue.

[01:51:56]
All right? You don't know what you're talking about. You're sitting here talking and acting like you actually know what's going on in the world when the statistics do not back up your argument. It never did, right? America is the freest and most prosperous country in the world, or at least it was two years ago.

[01:52:17]
Until biden contemplation. You can be anything you want to be. I refuse to sit here and believe that with stats not backing you up that you have some sort of man keeping you down. When I work for, there's one person in my company who is above me, and it's the owner of the company, all right? No one else but him is above me in the company.

[01:52:44]
I'm the next highest position. I refuse to sit here and believe that someone who moved here from the Middle East with nothing but a backpack on his back, that's it, that's all he had can come over here and create a living for himself coming from another country. But you who were born in this country cannot make something of yourself, right? Everybody has an opportunity to make something of themselves. You know what?

[01:53:16]
We don't talk about that. We don't talk about accountability, all right? Take accountability for your own actions. Stop blaming everybody else, especially if you don't have the status, because apparently statistics are racist too. I'm tired of this kotaku, literally.

[01:53:35]
It's funny too, because if you look at all the places they looted and they burned down, apart from a couple of police stations, most of them were their own communities. And these are the same people who are going to turn around and be like, well, why don't we have a target? Why don't we have anything nice around here? I don't know. You burned it all down.

[01:53:54]
Why would anyone want to go there? That's not anyone's fault. But your own actions have consequences. It's a very simple fact to understand, and yet people don't want to understand it. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, Vex, is that a hard concept to understand that personal actions have account?

[01:54:20]
You have to take accountability for your own actions because personal actions have consequences.

[01:54:28]
I do not think that is a ridiculous statement. I would like to make a correction, though, here. This is 2019. The riots that you're talking about happened in summer 2020.

[01:54:45]
Fair enough. But the thing is, this all started fair enough. Your points. You know what I mean? Because here's the thing.

[01:54:55]
At the end of the day, we're sitting here and talking about militarized force. The thing is, militarized forces really didn't start coming until you guys started burning everything down, which wasn't in 2019. So they could quote 2019, but we all know they're not talking about 2019. Yeah, that's what I thought was very odd about this wording, too. They say the skin released in May 2019, but the way that they start to talk about it seems like they're talking about May of 2020, when George Floyd was killed.

[01:55:28]
So I feel like this is just reaching for whatever they can again, this is just clickbait. They're trying to get gay views. This goes right back to what I talk about, about how big companies and politicians have been trying to create dissent between each individuals of any country. They're trying to create that division because the more we fight against each other, the less likely we are to look at what they're doing. Yeah, so it's not you know what?

[01:56:01]
I should just do a Kotaku feature of the week at this point because they put so much gold carpet at this point. So to wrap up tonight's show, though, it looks like cancel culture has waved its wand again. So Brian Wagner, who is a system designer for the Marvel Avengers game, which is the footage that we have playing in the background right now, he worked for the company, or he worked on the game till January 2022, at which point he then took over as lead designer for the games post release content. Now, for those of you unaware, this game has been doing monumentally, badly racist. But according to Culture, I can't be racist because of the color of my skin.

[01:56:50]
It's ironic how that happens. Yes. The most dangerous thing I'll be honest and people might not like this statement the most dangerous thing you could be in America right now is a straight white man, because nothing you do with a straight white man is right. Yeah. Okay.

[01:57:10]
That makes sense. Yeah. Marvel Avengers has been doing historically bad. I actually saw a screenshot yesterday or earlier today showing that it reached its peak player count on Steam at, like, 550 players. Just pretty sad because this is AAAA release.

[01:57:32]
Right. The problem was, it is a live service game, and the roadmap they have for content is, first of all, really lackluster and not on par with a lot of other liveaction games on the market, right? Like, even if you compare it to, say, Halo Infinite. Halo Infinites got a lackluster roadmap, let's be honest, but it's got a hell of a lot more than the two characters and, like, one skin bundle that Crystal Dynamics has for the year for this year for Marvel Avengers, right? So pretty lackluster.

[01:58:06]
But earlier this week, unfortunately, were a series of offensive tweets that were brought to light, unfortunately, from Wagner's Twitter account, one dating back one dating back from 2010 and the other from 2014. Now, the one in 2014 was allegedly a racist comment. I actually couldn't find a screenshot of that one. The one from Ten, as the article describes it, as a sore aimed against disabled people. He just called people literally.

[01:58:36]
I looked at the tweet, and it just says that he's calling people retarded for doing something. That's it. It's how you would have used the word retarded back in 2010. That's all. But now it's considered anti ableist or ablest.

[01:58:51]
Everything's going to be an item or something. Yeah. So in response to this, on a statement tweeted on Tuesday, Wagner said quote over the weekend old tweets I wrote from before my time at Crystal Dynamics resurface and I apologize and take full accountability for the hurt they caused to my followers, the community and those I work with. Since that time, I've learned and grown, and the content I posted doesn't reflect who I am today. I understand if you cannot accept my apology because of the pain I've caused.

[01:59:22]
I will continue to listen, learn, and work to improve myself.

[01:59:28]
I mean, I get why these people feel the need to put out a apology statement, especially since if you're a figure that is on any sort of part of the social media realm, you're pressured by much of that realm to put out a statement on this. And that right. It's the same reason why the Kim Kardashian put out a statement today about the whole Balenciaga thing, because they had cheese pizza content in some of their advertisements on Twitter before they left Twitter. So she finally put out a statement because people were nagging her basically on every platform that she's on to say something about it. Right.

[02:00:09]
But this is what I mean, right? People will hassle you until you say something. So I understand his need to I don't think he needs to refer like he needs to apologize for using the term retarded in a way that we all I guarantee you, even the journalists that are calling for this guy for cancel culture, they probably used the word retarded in the same way back in 2010. Well, even certain celebrities, I can't stand the one I hate the most, all right? And a lot of people don't realize this about how narcissistic and how much of a narcissist and a hypocrite that Seth Rogen is.

[02:00:46]
I can't stand Seth Rogen because he is leading the charge this whole cancer culture as a celebrity. But the second it goes against him and stuff, you were supposed to forgive him and stuff. So basically, he wants to leave the charge as long as he doesn't have to take any accountability for his own actions. I've watched him do it time and time again. I'm tired of this cancer culture.

[02:01:09]
And the thing is, people need to just stop giving apologies, stop cating to these people, because we keep catering to the smallest group of people who just scream the loudest. And quite frankly, I hate to say it, but a lot seemed to happen when they got rid of mental institutions. I'm just saying, you get rid of mental institutions and we got all these nutcases out there seems to be a quenicading.

[02:01:50]
Thank you for popping up. Thank you for popping up. I appreciate you. How are you doing?

[02:01:56]
I'm quite coincidental that mental asylums are gone, but lunatics remain. You know what? Seth Rogen is Canadian. That's what you can blame his craziness on. And he's from the worst part of candidates from British Columbia.

[02:02:13]
British Columbia is like California on crack, and California is already on crack. So let's say instead, British Columbia is like California on a mixture of crystal meth, cocaine, and laced marijuana. That's what BC is. That's what British Columbia is. No, I agree with Seth Rogen is.

[02:02:39]
So I really like the movie Pineapple Express, and I feel this odd watching it now because, my God, you're such a fucking idiot. Where did it go wrong? I'm like, I know where it went wrong. Instead of being a normal human being, you just got high all the time. That's not to say, like, smoking pot is inherently bad.

[02:03:00]
I'm just saying there is enough tangible evidence to show that it can alter your brain chemistry a bit, especially in youth under the age of 21.

[02:03:13]
That's drugs as youth kids. Seth Rogen keep that in mind to. Use the call from South Park. Mr. Mackey.

[02:03:20]
Drugs are bad. Okay?

[02:03:25]
Yeah. Someone's going to cancel culture. One of us. I feel it coming, and I've said it before, too. Someone's going to take something I say on this podcast out of contents, and you cancel me.

[02:03:37]
Well, here's the thing, all right? I'm going to switch off of this screen real quick that you guys are seeing just to show that if you look at our about section, it starts off real nice. This first sentence is really nice lamp. It shows a podcast that covers a wide range of subjects, from video games to anime and everything in between. There's something for everyone.

[02:04:01]
However, I know how campaign culture is. That's why there's a second Sense, which says, we take pride in allowing people to express themselves while continuing to play an active role in the community. Now, what I really mean by this is not only are we taking pride in allowing people to express themselves, but I allow people to have an opinion, right? People are allowed to make mistakes. What I don't agree with is people trying to cancel everything.

[02:04:29]
Let me actually grab one of my reviews real quick because I think it actually says more on my actual profile. Okay? Which should be at the end of the article if you look for me, it says the brains behind the Operation Lambda is committed to providing thorough, impartial coverage of as many subjects are as is practical. Everyone has a point of view and they all deserve the freedom to express it. I am willing to have multiple viewpoints, alright?

[02:05:03]
What I'm not willing to have is people trying to cancel people and expecting it to work on me. The only way cancel culture would work against me is if it's something so egregious, so astronomically preposterous that there is no other option. Like, I don't know, I find out Vex killed a couple of people and stuff and people are writing because I've employed a murderer, okay, I can understand that, all right? But as far as Beck says something and people take it out of context or don't like what she says, that's my personal favorite. They don't like what she says and starts trying to pressure us, that ain't going to work on me.

[02:05:48]
I don't give a fuck, all right? I don't get paid by you. Matter of fact, it's my money on the line that I'm putting on the line. And I'm going to tell you right now, I don't give a fuck about the loudest minority of people that are the small minority of people that are screaming the loudest. I really don't.

[02:06:07]
Because you guys are just crybabies who have never taken accountability a day in your life. Because if you did, you wouldn't be acting like this. Quite frankly. I look at them and I want to smack their mother and tell them never to make that mistake again.

[02:06:25]
Mother didn't raise them. That's why they are no, correction, their mother raised them. Their father wasn't involved.

[02:06:34]
No, the mothers are just as bad. That's the thing. That's my personal favorite thing and stuff. We get women all the time complaining about how bad men are, how bad society they don't realize they're the ones who raise the society. Yeah.

[02:06:53]
Because I work with children, so I have met my fair share of parents and the parents I usually interact with are the mothers and the mothers are just as fucking. Oh, I know, the mothers are just. I work in a toy store. I see it on a daily basis. And it's funny too, because their kids will misbehave and they'll break something and I'd be like, no, you've got to pay for it.

[02:07:16]
The mother's on the phone. What do you mean I got to pay for it? I mean you got to pay for it. Oh, no, I'm not paying for it. Really?

[02:07:22]
Then who is? I don't know. You can do it. Okay, so let me go over to your house and break a few things, see how you like that. I'm not paying for it, though.

[02:07:30]
You could pay for it. How's that? No, you're paying for it. You know what, if you weren't a Caucasian male, they would. Let you go over to their house and break.

[02:07:44]
She could say that she's, in your terms, a person of color, which is inherently racist itself.

[02:07:56]
So, yeah, that is all the gaming news I have for today. I just published the Pentant review a couple of days ago on the website. If you can go check it out. It is a phenomenal indie game. This is so far the best game I've played all year.

[02:08:16]
I think the only thing at this point that will beat it is the callisto protocol, which comes out on Friday. My next review will be on Evil West. As I said earlier, I'm hoping to have that on the website by Saturday because I'm playing through it right now and I'm about a third of the way through the game.

[02:08:37]
Well, now you can comment here. That was supposed to be a response to love she had talked about. She had just noticed commentary. Got you. So, yeah, that should be up on the website pretty soon.

[02:08:53]
And then after that, the next review that will be up would definitely be for the callisto protocol, because I'm also trying to finish Evil West before that comes out.

[02:09:03]
Other than that, I think next week, no, December 8 is the Game Awards, so not next weekend's show, but the weekend after. We're going to be doing a deep dive into everyone that won in the categories there this year.

[02:09:18]
I think that's about it. You've got your anime podcast with Mikey on Tuesdays now. Yeah, but we're still up in the air on whether or not that's actually going to happen, because Mikey moved it over to Tuesday, and a month ago I scheduled an appointment for the same time. The podcast is supposed to happen at the DMV. Which do you think is going to take priority for me?

[02:09:39]
DMV. Exactly. I wouldn't make my key priority.

[02:09:48]
I'm joking. All right, so fresh reminder, you can always head over to our website, the Lambdacoe.com, where you can read our show show. We only have two reviews right now and stuff, and every rate helps, especially on Apple and Spotify. Don't forget, you got this lovely button right here where you can leave a message, but that can also be found on our fan page. So if you go to our website, the Limbandseechshow.com, and click the fan page or bring you to our actual fan page.

[02:10:16]
Now, the cool thing about leaving a message, which this is the same message thing down here as the one here, is the fact that when you record your message, we are actually able to download that message and play on the stream if we so desire. There's also a chat room in there, too. So as you can see right here, I put the fan. It could interact even better with your favorite hosting shows. That's all optional for donations.

[02:10:45]
We don't expect any money, but any money would be greatly appreciated. But we're also not begging for it. Also, just to add on to that review thing, if you people decide to leave us a review, I don't care if it's positive or negative, give us your honest feedback, but I will send you personally a customized video of me making delicious sounds into this microphone.

[02:11:15]
Vex, I think it's time for your meditation. I think you might be a little bit late.

[02:11:24]
Don't forget your water wings and helmet. I'm just saying there's something in it for you lovely listeners if you can leave us a review because, yeah, like Layman C says, that really does help us out because we're trying to be honest news reporting, not biased news reporting. Also, if you would like to be a guest on the show, you could go over to our website, The Liberty Show.com, click the guest forms and fill out the application. The great thing about this and the reason I particularly like this is because not only can you fill out your information, your biography, your own website, all that other stuff, and put in your own photo, but this is my favorite bit right here is you could put all your socials there. So then what happens is, once you do this, if you get approved to be on the podcast, when you get in, there a new tab.

[02:12:17]
You don't see the tab right now because we haven't had anyone on since we opened the site. But a new tab appears where there's a guest tab and we link the article, we link the episode to the guest, and it automatically will put all the guest socials on there, as well as the profile picture and everything for us because they input it. So, you know, Connolly Sasquatch has done it, so he's going to be the first person you see under the guest tab. Isn't he lucky? But of course, he's not the only one lucky.

[02:12:52]
Or actually, maybe he is. But let me actually pull up this picture and stuff because we found something recently on Canola, so just give me 1 second. Can I take us out of the show tonight? Just give me a moment. I got to show one thing.

[02:13:09]
Okay? No, I know, but you usually do. That's why I just want to no worries.

[02:13:19]
Sasquatch and Stuff was recently caught on some weird stuff. Like, I mean, good for him, I guess, but for anyone who hasn't seen it, I'll show it to you in just a second. I pulled this back up. So I don't know. Canola seems to be into some really weird shit.

[02:13:45]
I mean, look how happy he is. I'll give him that. He's super happy in this photo. He's got the two thumbs up. He's ready to go.

[02:13:54]
But I mean, whatever, man. Whatever. Whatever makes you happy, I guess. I can't really say anything, but secrets out.

[02:14:06]
Scandalous photos aside, thank you, everyone, for coming and tuning in for episode 14 of this weekend Gaming. I hope you had a good time here. Hope you enjoyed our little tangents. If you missed anything here or popped in halfway in, you can find re uploads on your preferred streaming service on Spotify, Apple, Google before Wednesday this coming week, and I hope to see all of you guys here again next Sunday, 09:00, p.m. Eastern.

[02:14:36]
Take care. You can silence me, but you can't silence the truth.