Phil Spencer’s WSJ Podcast, Lots of Witcher News & Gamers Are Bad People? (TWIG 10)

[00:00:00]
And welcome back to the Lambdency show. I am Lambnessy. Joined here by our this weekend gaming host, Lambency & Vex Electronica, as well as a potential new cohost by the name of Sharper FBS. Vex and Sharper, how are you today? I'm in the Halloween spirit, as you can see.

[00:00:22]
I can't get this fucking wig to agree with me though. You're looking kind of blue over there, Vexico. Did you just call me? No. Never again.

[00:00:38]
Never again. Sorry. This wig, it just didn't store as well as I thought I would, so the style is a little bit off. It used to look a lot cleaner before and my headset is okay. Sorry.

[00:00:54]
Sharper, can you talk? How are you doing?

[00:01:00]
I'm here. That's the greatest introduction to a potential new cohost we've ever heard here on the Lambda Show. Yeah. How was your week this far?

[00:01:16]
Long and tiring. Would you care to eleven every day. Every day.

[00:01:25]
Okay. I see where you're going with this, Rebecca. Sorry. My internet is also cutting in and out, so I don't think that is helping things at all. So forgive me a little bit.

[00:01:38]
I think we have some news though, about the actual website. Right? Are you talking about what I did earlier? Yes, I am talking about that.

[00:01:52]
Maybe a madman. Help me. Save me.

[00:01:58]
We used to only be on six podcast platforms, now we're on twelve. So now you can find us on Spotify. Apple Podcast. Amazon Music. Google Podcast radio public Podcast iHeartRadio Pandora audible Podcast addict, Diesel and Castro Also, there's a buy me a coffee if you decide to be a member, which will go more in depth with later.

[00:02:20]
And I'm not even a coffee drinker, but I'll gladly take a coffee with all the hard work I've been doing in the background. Just wink wink.

[00:02:31]
But yeah, we've been putting a lot of effort into improving the quality of the content.

[00:02:41]
But yeah, that's what I've been pretty much doing this week, is either working on the website or procuring new podcast platforms for us to be on. I've also been filling out potential sponsorships affiliates that make sense for us to try to improve it even further.

[00:03:04]
And just, all in all, just doing the back end work as well as obviously actually working at work. So fun. You have a job? I thought you were just a homeless dude, to be honest. I mean, with the amount of work I put on in the background and stuff, one would think I have all the time in the world.

[00:03:24]
And what would be wrong? Okay, we have the giveaway still going on as well, right? Yes, we do. And stuff. So the giveaway is for this demon slayer, Kanetsuno Yeba, figure of Tangen Uzui, figure art, zero statue.

[00:03:43]
This is like an almost $100 statue. All you have to do to enter is go like, follow and retweet this tweet to enter.

[00:03:54]
So like the tweet, retweet the tweet and follow us to enter. Now you'll see it ends on November 4, and we don't have that many entrance right now. That also leads us to our next thing. We also have our buy Me a coffee officially up and running. And one of the perks is depending on which tier, you get bonuses on entrance.

[00:04:17]
So, for example, if you decide to be a Bronze member, $5 per month. One of the things is you get double entries in all Lamborghin Seashell Giveaways. If you go to Silver, you get triple entries, and if you go to Golden Shower, which is the Gold tier, which obviously for obvious funds with Vex, we had to go with Golden Shower. If you go to the Golden Shower tier, you get quadruple entries into all Lamb and Seashell giveaways. Now, there are going to be some giveaways that are really good versus some that are just kind of minor giveaways.

[00:04:53]
A lot of them are going to be minor giveaways as we're still growing. But just imagine we get to the point where we're a well known company. Imagine we start giving away mind you, this is not going to happen anytime soon. But imagine I turned around and said, yeah, we're going to be giving away a whole gaming chair or a gaming desk. Those four times entries will come in extra handy, double entries, too.

[00:05:19]
But yes, we still have that giveaway going on. It's over on our Twitter Twitter comfely show. How about you, Beck? How was your week? My week has been okay.

[00:05:34]
It's been busy since I got back from vacation. I had a child. Tell me that you had a child. I just know, okay? I didn't have a child.

[00:05:44]
I work with children for people that aren't aware and for also those of you that aren't aware. In the last few years, they've started shifting a lot of classroom work onto something called Google Classroom, which is essentially just an online classroom where teachers post everything and in turn, students can turn in their work there. So I had just like a bit of an L moment, I guess, or maybe an inappropriate moment in which this student told me he's in a grade three. He's like, look, I have 69 assignments on my Google Classroom. And immediately I was just like, nice.

[00:06:20]
That might be the reason why. And I think I texted like, I think I texted I posted it in the discord, and I told Sharp for this as well. What happened? I'm just like, I am not in it to win it this week at all. I know.

[00:06:34]
I remember seeing it in the discord, and my response was nice. There you go. Right? I mean, it's not nice that you did that to a child and stuff, but 69 nice, right? So other than that, it was not a bad week.

[00:06:49]
It's starting to get cold up here in Canadia, unfortunately. I had frost on my car the other day you're dressed for the weather. Yeah, I know, right? Totally. Fish nets.

[00:07:01]
Perfect to insulate. Look at all these holes. It's to make sure that hot air both gets in and out. Sharper, you're just ghost because she's extra religious and extra holy today. Oh, my God.

[00:07:16]
Okay, we'll jump right into it. There's actually quite a bit of interesting stuff that happened this week. I figure we'll start off with a little bit of an interesting one, though. So for those of you that weren't aware, there was an article that was trending online a couple of days ago. Basically, it was a new study that was originally released on October 17, but people finally, I guess, got around to reading it and posting about it.

[00:07:40]
But the study revealed that people who identify as gamers in quotation marks are more likely to exhibit extreme behaviors such as racism, sexism, and misogyny. May I just say something before you continue? Sure.

[00:07:59]
How many times are we going to beat this like a dead freaking bush? They've been saying this since gaming. They've been saying this since I was a child on the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis about how it makes people violent or this or that, so on and so forth, with no tangible links in between. They're just trying to do anything they can. I mean, we already talked about the article I wrote about the Department of Homeland Security given grants, Dick Fight, Extremism, and video games, and we all know what's really going on.

[00:08:32]
This has nothing to do with any of that and stuff. This is them trying to control the narrative. But go ahead, continue. I agree with you. I think it's more just trying to pin the blame on something, right?

[00:08:44]
Because we like to have an answer for everything, and this is another way where we can be like, oh, this is a reason for a lot of things. So, as I said, as a new overwatch gamer, all those statements are a fact.

[00:09:00]
Now, are we going to deny that there aren't some toxic communities? No, we're not denying there isn't toxic communities. However, to say that they're more likely to exhibit these extreme behaviors is highly unlikely. Now, like I said, there are toxic communities. Sharper, you tend to play a lot of FPS games, and FPS games tend to bring out the worst in people, alright?

[00:09:26]
But overall, gaming as a medium does not have a whole bunch of sexist, homophobic, racist, and extreme behaviors and stuff. There are outliers. But that's the same with every nation, creed, gender, whatever you want to call it. Every group of people has extremist people and people who are over the top, so to speak. What they're currently talking about the fringe minority, let's not throw that there because that has a whole other meaning to me as a Canadian.

[00:10:12]
The study, which is called Not Just a Game, Identity Fusion and Extremism in Gaming, consisted of 304 participants in total 146 males, 155 females, three nonbinaries, all between the ages of 19 and 77. So there was quite a range in age right there. I'd like to point out if you look at the statistic number as well, it was actually much bigger but there were some requirements that not all of them met so the pool actually ended up quite small. So for everyone that is quoting this article saying that gamers are extremists, I just like to point out this is not nearly enough of a large enough sample to prove what the study is saying and a couple of people have come out and said you should honestly just disregard this because this is honestly just this is a drivel at this point, right? So while toxicity and radicalization have long been associated with gaming culture, the study released last week by Take this, a nonprofit mental health organization working with the gaming industry and community, showed just how easily gamer identity can take over a person's life and where that can lead.

[00:11:19]
The study, which examined these attitudes of over 300 American video gamers, specifically looked closely at the pros and cons of life inside these communities. They said that gamer communities represent a double edged sword. On the one hand, they may provide a sense of connection and purpose for individuals who suffer from loneliness and insecurity. Very true. On the other hand, they may expose gamers to hateful speech and social toxicity that can increase their susceptibility to extremist propaganda.

[00:11:47]
In the worst case scenario, gamers may be lured into embracing extremist beliefs that lead them down a path to radicalization. When the gamer identity is core to who you are as a person, that seems to reflect what we call toxic gamer culture, which tends to reflect more exclusion than inclusion, so things like racism and sexism and misogyny, said Dr. Rachel Coert who was the research director. So this AntiDefamation league back in 2019 revealed that one in ten young gamers between the ages of 13 and 17 had been exposed to white supremacist ideology to communities such as Steam and discord. I'd like to jump on the ship here and just say yes, I think you should definitely disregard this entire study.

[00:12:35]
I think it's absolutely ridiculous. The fact again, like Laymancy had said, anywhere you go there's going to be toxic communities, whether it be in gaming, whether it be in pop culture, whether it be in politics. So you can't really avoid it where you go. I also feel this is increasingly unrelevant now that the more popular interfaces like Xbox and Sony especially and now Discord even have a lot of monitors to get like to identify this kind of behavior and stop it, right? Which is the added fact I like in particular that they basically are talking about how they use gaming as a way to basically quote unquote gword I think you know where I'm going and rhymes with broom these children into their ideologies but here's the thing and they also talk about like toxic game or culture.

[00:13:30]
There's a lot of toxic communities, some you can't call them out on their toxicity because you get called a misogynist or something along those lines, some sort of sexist or anything else. And they too do a lot of G word drives with brooming. Alright, but it's funny, we don't want to talk about that. You specifically want to target people that most that are far extremists, that nobody really tolerates. But we tolerate other things that we shouldn't be tolerating.

[00:14:08]
So if you're going to go after one group, you have to go after all toxicity. To say that one group is more toxic than the other is toxic in itself because they're both toxic. And then on top of that, as far as white supremacist, the whole quote on one in ten young gamers between the ages of 13, seven to 17, had been exposed to white supremacist ideology I find highly suspect, mainly due to the fact that white supremacist groups are so small in this country. Then it's almost a null factor. Now, if you go into a prison, that's a different story.

[00:14:54]
But that's also a survival of the fittest thing, all right? That's a whole different story because you have to be in some sort of group. So even if you don't fully agree with that ideology, you know, if you want to survive, you might have to go with them. That's a completely different ballgame. But as far as out in the public, white supremacy, hate to break it to you, while there are some white supremacist groups, they're not as far reaching as they're trying to say.

[00:15:25]
And most of them don't play video games. Most of them are so old that their sheets look yellow.

[00:15:40]
Sherberts, I was like, you have something to say? I was just thinking, because they're probably using that term very loosely, right? Because we've all played Modern Warfare Two, the original one, that's where boys became men. Yeah. And there were a lot more words said in that, you know what I mean?

[00:16:05]
Well, yeah, but at the same time, that's what I'm saying and being loosely. Yeah. Now, nothing's tolerated anymore and stuff, unless you lean a little bit on the left hand side, you know what I mean? If you lean neutral or right at all, all of a sudden it's a problem. Now, I'm not saying racism, I'm just saying you could have conservative values, you could believe in personal accountability and believe in having a family, all that other stuff, and you're considered an extremist now.

[00:16:37]
So anytime I see reports like these, I look at it like how I looked at the Department of Homeland Security and I'm like, I don't think this is what they're actually reporting it on. And if you read behind the lines, it's not spelling out something good for the world as a whole.

[00:17:02]
Anyway, has anyone else got anything else to add on to that being mainly FPS and stuff. A lot of those communities just throw around words. But to say that it's white supremacy is probably a little disingenuous. See, I like the way he said that. I like the way he said that.

[00:17:26]
Because as I have said, the FPS community tends to be a lot more toxic as a gaming community than most other gaming genres. Now, there are other gaming genres that are toxic, but FPS as a whole, generally speaking, tends to breathe toxicity. But I don't even think, like, he said that they mean it the way they say it. They're just saying things just to say it at that point, to see if they can see if they can get elicit some sort of reaction. Not because they're racist or this or that.

[00:18:02]
It's more they're trying to get a reaction out of somebody. And unfortunately, that's 2022. If I say the sky is blue, someone's summer just got offended. Someone who doesn't have 2020 vision or unable to be able because not everyone, not everyone could see every color, okay? It's that thing of being on the internet.

[00:18:27]
Everybody's got to be a contrarian or they got to say something to stand out. Everybody wants to be in the spotlight, kind of. Everyone wants to be famous for something or recognized for something, no matter what it is. Right? Whether it's good or bad.

[00:18:44]
Yeah, exactly. My main thing, my whole thing is I've been alive for over three decades now. I've watched this gaming as a whole completely grow from offline spending most of your time, if you're doing multiplayer, going to arcades, or just sitting at the same building, playing side by side to what it is today. And even when it was arcade culture, people were saying that video games caused violence. Video games breeds this, video games breed that.

[00:19:24]
Never, and I repeat this, not once, never, zero times has there been a tangible link between video games and violence, or video games and racism, or video games. And any of these things that end with ism alright, this is beaten the dead bush over and over and over again simply because they want to gain clicks, stock value, shock value. Right? So, yeah, as I said, a lot of people said just to disregard this entire study. So I implore those of you in the gaming community also to disregard this, because this is by no means a reflection of how the vast majority of us are.

[00:20:14]
So as you guys recall as well, a couple of weeks ago, we covered when G four TV's revival died and all of the drama surrounding that. And I've actually got some updates on that. Don't worry, we won't be discussing any more Frost quotes, all right? Don't worry. I don't want to deal with Frost.

[00:20:36]
Yes, she's going to be mentioned, but we're not going to quote her on anything. We're good because she doesn't deserve to be quoted on anything.

[00:20:47]
Chris Lin, who is a former G Four TV technical director who worked on the network from 2006 to 2012, which is up to when the network was canceled, actually did an interview earlier this week and had quite a bit to say about the revival. For those of you who also aren't aware more of his role, he oversaw many of the technical elements of the shows, including the effects and camera shots for Attack of the Show, which was famously one of G for TV's segment bits. He also worked for various productions at different studios in Hollywood before and after the original G Four TV was live on the air and like many alumni from the network, it seems like a lot of them share the same opinions on this, on how things went down. So in talking to YouTube channel VGX, he said, quote I felt they came back with a hollowed out version of Attack of the Show. I had advanced knowledge through inside sources six weeks ahead of time that they were doing what they were doing and what the plan was.

[00:21:43]
And he's referring to how the source that he got this too. That source was rehired by G for TV and informed him that the people that were in charge had no intention of bringing back older shows that were popular in the classic G Four TV. Instead, the focus was going to be what was new with a big emphasis on esports, which I guess is inevitable given where gaming has gone in that respect, right? Which would be understandable except for the route they decided to take under that, but go ahead. Exactly.

[00:22:16]
So he also noted that the campaign which was trending under the hashtag G Four Needs Talent was also a complete mess where most of the talent added to the network was already decided well in advance. According to Chris's sources, the network was very scattered as well and didn't even figure out or have a crew as close to around two weeks prior to the official relaunch. He said, quote you had people who were supposedly running things and building the company, yet when the director would come in, they would be like, thank God you're here. These were the people who were the show runners. Things got crazy enough of the conflict between staff causing a lot of tension with the shock and the sorry, I'm tongue tied today with the shock of working on a real production schedule.

[00:23:02]
A trying to maintain order within the production caused a lot of people to leave. He also noted that one of the bigger issues he saw was that the new content produced for the new G Four TV was a rotation of the hosts and lackluster gags. And if you guys don't recall, that was actually something that was brought up time and time again specifically in critique of this relaunched G Four TV. And this was happening well before Frost's infamous rant seven weeks in, so a lot of people did notice that it felt like the material was overly recycled and nothing fresh was being introduced. He also said he noted that some of the hosts would linger in the background during segments looking bored, rather than allowing them to connect with the audience on their featured on.

[00:23:45]
He said, quote, typically, team would have two dedicated hosts instead of having everyone else twiddling their thumbs on the bench, they would be a role player on the bench. Everyone has a role to play. That was something I also noticed in a lot of the clips that were circulating compared to the old G Four TV, where it's like everyone on screen was really engaged, really into what they were doing versus this relaunch, where it felt like the spotlight could only be on one of the hosts at a time. And it was almost like it would be too much work for us to have a more, I guess, natural connection between all of them. It's easier to just put the spotlight on one person and leave it like that almost lazy from what I saw in the clips.

[00:24:30]
And. You know. I wasn't a G Four person. But I did see a lot of the things that led to its downfall. Which didn't shock me.

[00:24:37]
But in the clips I saw. It almost looked like. And obviously without having any knowledge of what they may or may not have done outside of those individual segments. But when you look at it. Not only were they not interested.

[00:24:51]
Like you said. If the spotlight wasn't on them. It also looked like they'd never done any kind of team building exercises. Now, you don't have to call it team building exercises, but for example, the Lamb at Sea show, a Mikey RP. Gamer wanted to do a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

[00:25:15]
Vex, myself and Sharper have all signed up to be part of it whenever he decides to do it and stuff. And that's a way to build camaraderie between one another. And it looks like outside of what they do in those segments for G, for TV, it literally looks like they show up, they do the segment, they go home, they don't hang out with each other. You know what I mean? Like they have no interest in each other.

[00:25:42]
That's what it looked like to me. It's just a job. They go there, they're not having fun, they're there to collect that paycheck, but they have no interest in one another or what another has to say. That's no way to run a business. I agree 100%.

[00:26:01]
He also noted that a lot of many things that worked for the new host coming from the twitch backgrounds didn't work for the audience watching where the same kinds of gags would be rinsed and repeated when they didn't always work. I think this is actually a good thing to point out that a lot of the other critiques of the relaunch didn't point out. Okay, this is going to be a hot take and I'm sorry if this offends some people but is this a lambda to show hot take or a vex hot take? This is a vex hot take. Just to clarify.

[00:26:31]
Remember we have to clarify because we want to bring back real journalism. This does not reflect the views and thoughts of our other co hosts and people here at the Laminsey show. But in my opinion it is very obvious that a lot of people that decide to stream on Twitch and engage on twitch do not have adequate social skills for the real world. And as a result their sense of humor, their sense of perception is very skewed compared to someone who touches grass on a semi regular basis. Now that's not to say that all streamers are like that and all twitch users are like that, but it seems to be a very common occurrence, especially if you tune into some of the twitch drama that goes on.

[00:27:20]
A lot of these people are really stuck in a bubble and just don't understand what appeals to the real world outside of this bubble. Well I want to add on to this hot take. It's not only that they don't understand what appeals to the other bubble, they're incapable of self reflection and they're incapable of taking another person's viewpoint. I've had experiences where on my old channel and stuff someone would be like, oh well this just happened to me, blah blah blah, blah, blah, blah blah. And I would give them a quick fix or something, you know what I mean?

[00:27:55]
It wouldn't even be that serious. I'd just be like, well if you go to this website right here, this will actually allow you to fix that aspect of your stream. If that's really that much of an issue. I don't need you man splitting, I know how to do my stream, blah blah, blah, blah blah and then I'm getting attacked and stuff simply for helping and it's always something along those lines and yet a lot of these streamers, that stream and this is also a hot take but this is a lamb and see hot take, okay? A lot of the people who stream to twitch are copy and paste.

[00:28:31]
They're literally copy and paste. They will play the same game over and over again. They don't interact with their chat that much. Their whole stream is literally just them playing. They don't communicate at all, you know what I mean?

[00:28:45]
So like they expect people to communicate first. But here's the thing, at any point someone comes into your stream, it could be the first time, the first impression they've ever gotten. And if you're just sitting there playing a video game, not communicating what you're doing, not communicating with chat, doing some form of communication and providing value, they're going to leave and they're never going to come back. So a lot of these streamers. I'll literally sit here and watch them complain on Twitter, on TikTok, multiple to TikTok, this and so on and so forth.

[00:29:19]
And I'm looking at them and I've watched their content, and I'm like, your content is not good. It's not warm, it's not inviting. It's got no personality. Like, I've seen this a million times, and you're not providing anything of value for me to want to go watch you. Why are you complaining about not having viewers if you yourself are not putting in the effort to give them something entertaining to watch?

[00:29:50]
Nobody would want to watch a podcast if the host literally said one or two words every now and then and just sat there just Twittering their thumbs, all right? And podcasts, obviously, you're supposed to be talking, but the same concept goes towards whatever kind of medium kind of content you decide to create. I don't care if you're a first person shooter streamer. I don't care if you do minecraft. I don't care if you're doing IRL.

[00:30:27]
There has to be something engaging. And if you can't engage your audience in a meaningful way and then you complain about not growing, you've got nobody to blame but yourself.

[00:30:41]
It also is an incredibly saturated market as well, which I feel like people fail to realize. And let's also face it, not all of us are born to be stars or YouTubers or Internet personalities. It's a hard reality a lot of them don't face at all. But welcome in. By the way, Mikey Shopper, you got anything to add?

[00:31:05]
Your own personal hot? Rant vex had her little hot take. I had mine. Do you have a hot take you want to add in? I already said my piece multiple times on stream.

[00:31:18]
Hold on, give me 1 second. Multiple times on your street. Maybe transparent with it. I am how I am. I'm not going to sit there and I'm just going to do what I want to do because I don't really care.

[00:31:37]
But as far as everybody bitch about nobody coming and watching their stream, it's like, dude, I've been in a lot of people's streams. They put in zero effort to their actual stream quality. And then as people, they're not entertaining. I'm going to be honest, I wouldn't watch me, but I just like doing it so I can hang out with my friends. Yes.

[00:32:04]
And that was like a big that's literally all I do. Literally the only reason I stream. And that's the thing. I can understand that, you know what I mean? But you're not complaining about not growing because, you know, you're able to self reflect that.

[00:32:18]
You know what I mean? A lot of these people, though, cannot see that they think just because they turn their stream on that they're old. All these viewers, no, you're not providing content for them, all right? If you're just streaming so a couple of friends could watch or play with you and you. Could like collaborate or whatever the deal may be, all right?

[00:32:42]
That's one way to stream. But if you're trying to grow and you're complaining about not growing yet, you're not providing quality content in any way, shape or form, you're not putting any work into your stream. The way your stream looks, the way your stream behaves, the way you interact with the game, your chat and communicate about what's going on, the back end work, if you're not doing any of that and you're complaining, you've got nobody to blame but yourself. Well, it's like even the simplest parts of that, like people like audio, like the video quality camera, I understand people don't have money to put into stuff, but there's stuff you can do to make your shit work better. On top of that, it's about constantly trying to improve yourself for like two years.

[00:33:36]
And it looks like day one. Dog shit. I mean, when I started way back in the day, like on my original channel, that got deleted. I'm not going to lie when I tell you that I streamed through the PlayStation Four, like through the PlayStation Four itself, I think we all did at some point, which it's perfectly fine to start on something like that, but you should always be striving to improve your stream. I don't care how good your stream is, all right?

[00:34:08]
You should always be looking for ways to improve your stream. Because if you put in the effort to constantly keep improving your stream and your content, people will eventually notice. It may not be overnight, but over time people will notice the care and the effort and the value that you're putting into your product and will want to be a part of that. But if you're sitting there on your laurels and expecting people to just come your way, it's not going to happen unless you get extremely lucky. You know what I mean?

[00:34:46]
And you want to do everything you can to eliminate luck out of it. All right? Everyone can catch their break if they're willing to put the work in and provide quality content. But if you're not in, sorry in advance for our non Twitchers who listen to this podcast, I think they don't know what the fuck are talking about. In all honesty, to be fair, twitch is at this point synonymous with gaming.

[00:35:14]
That is true. So just to get back, I guess, get back on track. Now, Chris did have some thoughts on Frost, also in real life named Indiana Black, which, and honestly, I'm going to be honest with a great name, I like that name quite a bit. Cornstarch name, it really is. I suck at that motion.

[00:35:38]
Okay, I don't think it's a bad name. I can already see it. I can see it right now. Indiana Black single handedly FS her entire company. Oh, wait, she actually did.

[00:35:51]
Right, so he said his thoughts on how things turned with the controversial host and her speech to the audience. He said, quote, I understand you're all going to do whatever you want. You are new to G Four and I respect that. Just don't screw with our legacy. Once you had Frost telling everyone to go to hell.

[00:36:08]
Now you're messing with our legacy. You're taking all that love and nostalgia that people had for us, and they are now questioning it. He also went on to talk about some of the backlash and fallout from her posts on Twitter, which, if you guys recall, there was a giant rant about how just leave me alone and that stuff. And then after a bunch of people got fired, she posted to me about how she was safe. I survived, right?

[00:36:32]
And then later got canned anyway, even for me, that aggravated me and I'm not even a fan of that. So he said, this is a person who needs to go away from social media, needs to stop talking public. Just stop. She said our mandate was to fix the past. Hold on a second.

[00:36:48]
Our past needed to be fixed. We lasted twelve years, launched the careers of Olivia Mun and Chris Hardwick. You all crashed and burned in eleven months. And Frost says she's leaving the business. How can you say we needed to be fixed?

[00:37:01]
Which I think is a great response to that, and I do agree with it. There was nothing that needed to be fixed about the old G Four. I think it was more people felt the need to adapt to modern times. And let's face it, when you tend to do that, it doesn't always translate well. And a lot of sales numbers reflect that.

[00:37:22]
Where they fucked up is they didn't rehire Olivia Mud. I think she's too big for them. I think she would have required too big of a paycheck. So it makes sense. The other dude, what's his nuts?

[00:37:32]
I can't remember his name. An older guy? No, I think she's talking about Olivia MUN's, cohost I can't remember his name. They brought back Adam Settler. He was an original.

[00:37:45]
He had been on screen with Olivia Munn a couple of times as well might have been, and they brought him back. But he also is just a toxic personality. And we discussed that last week when he just went on Twitter calling everyone a Nazi who questioned him about I think the bigger problem was there was already a toxic culture there and it was just magnified by the people they chose to bring onto this revival. Right. So in other related illnesses, it serves to show though, like you don't when you're trying to run a company, there's a time and a place for activism, but when your company is filled with activists, nothing good will ever get done.

[00:38:32]
We're going to touch on this actually a little bit later. Save that thought. Save that thought. Okay. I'm not going on a ramp.

[00:38:37]
I'm just saying in general, if you're going to run a business with a bunch of activists you're doing to fail. That's why we're going to touch on this again later, because that's why I want you to save that thought because I have some input on that as well. So, as you guys also recall, the last couple of weeks there's been some drama around Bayonetta Three, which has been playing in the background. Shout out to our boy Sharaco on YouTube. I get basically of the game footage we post on here from him.

[00:39:09]
I even follow him on Twitter now because he's our illegitimate boy. He's your manchild. Exactly right. So as you guys recall, a couple of weeks ago, helena Taylor, who is now the former voice actress behind the lead character in the Bayonetta series, took to social media to discuss how she was basically disrespected by the alleged offer that Platinum Games and Nintendo had given her to reprise her role for the third game. She went on to say that she was offered only $4,000 USD and that was an insult even after she had talked to, I'm going to say this wrong, hadiki Kamia, who is the series creator, and she basically doubled down on it when Platinum Games came out, with the receipts being like, no, it was only $4,000 and I stand by that.

[00:39:59]
Well, she decided to finally come fucking clean, but on Twitter as well, saying that, yes, the original offer was indeed $15,000, but that still seemed too low, and this would have been $15,000 for four to 5 hours of voice actor work. So in a series of tweets, basically, she said, quote, as posted in the three part of my video thread, I explained that their first offer was too low, that offer was $10,000. I'd like to point out that this was never an amount that she initially put out there. When this story broke, she stuck to the $4,000 amount. She said, Remember, this is a $450,000,000 franchise, not counting merchandise.

[00:40:42]
Then I wrote in Japanese to Hideiki Kamia, asking for what I was worth. I thought that was as creative, that as a creative he would understand. He replied, saying how much he valued my contribution to the game and how much the fans wanted me to voice the game. I was then offered an extra $5,000, so I declined to voice the game. Then I heard nothing for them for eleven months.

[00:41:02]
Then they offered me a flat fee to voice some lines for $4,000. Any other lines, such as 4000 for five sessions are total fabrications. Again, she basically lied by omission to get her point out, which is unfortunate for voice actors in the industry because it's not like they already didn't have issues when it came to their fee structure. But I think this has painted them in a negative light, knowing that there are voice actors that are willing to omit very pertinent information to get their point out, especially when you consider the fact that the person that they ended up hiring to replace her is a well known supporter of hello. Voice actors.

[00:41:47]
Yeah. And worth a hell of a lot more. And there were quite a few voice actors that came out also in response to now this updated information for the story and said, like, hey, I was literally offered like $3,000 for 15 hours of work. In some instances, I was offered more than $5,000. So a lot of people say, like, hey, this $10,000 to $15,000 for the amount of hours that you would allegedly be working is actually above the standard for voice actors in the industry.

[00:42:18]
Not only that, yeah, a lot of people did call her out saying that, hey, like, if you are so desperate to keep a roof over your head like you would claimed in your original videos, why didn't you just take the work anyways? And another thing people pointed out as well is the $450,000,000 franchise number. Nobody can actually find a source for that. So I'd like to tentatively retract that because I know that I had put that out there in one of our previous episodes covering this, but apparently that is a fictitious number, in all honesty, basically, yes. So, Mike, you want to say, well, what she did was shit, I can't live.

[00:43:02]
Plat is known for underpaying their employees and all the agents don't get enough pay. Plus the way the guy who makes it handled. Yeah, I don't agree with how Kamiya decided to handle things. He could have just been honest for the get go and saved himself a lot of issues. I just don't like the fact that this was like, the perfect example of why you don't hop on a ship before you learn all of the information.

[00:43:28]
Instead of handling this in a much more professional way, she decided to just go to Twitter. She went to Twitter with inaccurate information. Platinum Games brought the receipts not long after, and she still stuck to her original story. Now two weeks later, she's like, oh yeah, it was $15,000. They weren't lying about that.

[00:43:49]
So there's a much better way to get your message out without not only fooling your audience, but gaslighting them as well. A lot of sources also did claim, and this was verified, that she was asking for a six figure sum. Now there's apparently $250,000 thrown out in there. She says that I was inaccurate, but she didn't deny that. She asked for a six figure sum.

[00:44:14]
And keep in mind that six figures starting would be $100,000 if we're just talking in that range. So I don't know. I think she's ruined her career personally, and she's made it a lot harder for voice actors to get kind of fair pay and fair treatment in the industry. And this has just been a mess. This has just been an absolute mess.

[00:44:38]
I know what I want to say about the potential of ruining her career, but I want to hear sharper thoughts on what this may have done to her career as a whole.

[00:45:11]
She's going to be blackballed or blacklisted.

[00:45:15]
She's never going to get work again. Well, she does it's going to be at a severely discounted rate or she's going to be able to take what she gets.

[00:45:29]
Whatever she's offered, she's going to probably have to take.

[00:45:34]
She ruined her reputation. Yeah. I think she'll probably move away from voice acting, if anything, because no one's going to want to hire her for that anymore. Right. And I do recall seeing somewhere in this that she had been on the theater circuit for a while in the last few years.

[00:45:50]
So I figure maybe that might be more of her calling now. Is there a sign up sheet for blackballing, Mike? Yeah, we can make one. My whole thing is, you ever heard blackball before? Not for this.

[00:46:07]
So my whole thing about her ruining her reputation is now anything she says. People now know that she's a liar. And even if she's telling the truth, it's going to be very hard for people to believe her just due to the fact that she was willing to stoop to the level she did here. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I understand that people want to jump to conclusions and automatically assume that somebody's telling the truth simply because of they hear of a horrific situation.

[00:46:46]
But this is why I say that someone's past does play an important factor into whether or not that person's story is believable. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't take that into equation. And what ends up happening is they end up being made for fools for immediately following what that one person said when they get proven wrong. This is why I always say that you need to pay attention to someone's history and the way they act and what they have done in their past. If they've proven to be someone who is an honest person who doesn't cause drama or anything else like that and something like this was to happen, I would completely understand that.

[00:47:28]
Now, I don't know Helena Taylor's past, but I do know that now anytime she tries to say anything, people who will remember this will remember that she lied about this. And it's going to completely make it where there's going to be a large portion of people who will not believe anything she says without doing their research first, which even if she didn't do this, I believe everybody should do their research before jumping to conclusions. To begin with, I like your little thing right there bex where you say nobody wants to hire a liability.

[00:48:09]
Anyone else want to add on to that?

[00:48:14]
No.

[00:48:19]
He's talking to Chat. She said that he would be surprised. He wouldn't be surprised if she got work again because some companies don't care. And I'm just saying nobody wants to hire liability, especially when she also called to boycott the game on this false information. And this is a game that take Nintendo and Platinum games out of it.

[00:48:40]
You're talking about hundreds of developers and artists who earned a living off of this and you want to screw them over because you allegedly got screwed over? That doesn't seem fair at all. And actually, in light of this, Bayonetta is actually doing very good. Bayonetta, it actually beat a bunch of sales targets compared to the two previous entries. So if anything, you actually helped sell this game.

[00:49:05]
Helena, I'm sorry. So those are the only updates I have from the previous week stories. Now we do have some big things in terms of Sony that is not related to that goddamn Activision Blizzard deal. Alright, I'm looking forward to more Activision deals. Girl.

[00:49:23]
No, I'm kidding. Go ahead. There was some news that broke earlier this week that Sony is apparently building a new development studio to work with Naughty Dog, who is most notoriously known for their work for The Last of US part One and two on a PlayStation game. So this was spotted by VGC or the video game Chronicles. That's what the abbreviation is for.

[00:49:45]
A job listing shows the new team is being created in collaboration with PlayStation Studios Visual Arts, a developer that previously assisted with PlayStation's, motion capture, cinematics animation and more across several franchises, including Uncharted and The Last of US. This new developer will then work with Naughty Dog to create a new PlayStation game. In the job listing it said, quote, this high visibility project is being developed in collaboration with Naughty Dog through Currently Unannounced. Though Currently Unannounced, we have a clear vision and plan to release. Using our existing expertise and premier talent, we will guarantee a high visual quality bar for the game and a compelling experience for our players.

[00:50:24]
So Sony has not named explicitly what this new game is. A lot of people are just based off of the full job listing, which you can find online. A lot of people are suspecting that this might be another Uncharted game. Quite honestly, it would make sense because I think the last new Uncharted game they got was back in like 2018. I want to say it's been some time since there was an entry and we've had a movie in that time.

[00:50:50]
I know that there's also been circulation or rumors at least, of a second Uncharted movie because there were plans to make that into a whole franchise of its own. So if they were working on another one, it would probably go in hand with another movie release. Right? Mikey says hot take. The Uncharted series has been milked to shit.

[00:51:10]
I actually haven't played it on chart again because I don't have a PlayStation. It's been on a list for me to play. I like that. PlayStation now has a PC option for their games, so the first three aren't on there, which is kind of disappointing, sort of related news. Actually, they did just post uncharted four on the PlayStation.

[00:51:29]
Not plus. The PlayStation starred subscription and it actually did disastrously bad. It only had something like 300,000 downloads and a lot of people think it's just because nobody wants to jump into a franchise on the fourth game, which I can agree with. Right?

[00:51:49]
Star wars. You can't just start with episode four. Exactly. Since we're talking about TV series as well, PlayStation's Horizon TV series, which we've covered earlier on the show, or previously on the show I should say, is going to apparently be called Horizon 2074, indicating that it's partly set during the fall of the civilization and takes place 1000 years before the games. The name was shared alongside a crew listing on the Directors Guild of Ontario website, which I didn't know this was being filmed in Ontario, so I'm going to go on a little search for this.

[00:52:21]
Now. This matched a lot of reports from industry insider Geoff Grub, who originally actually broke this news. So this comes alongside some other announcements for multimedia franchises for Sony. There's also plans for the God of War and Gran Turismo series. But other than that, we don't have any other news about Horizon 2074.

[00:52:45]
We don't even know who's starring in it and what the general plot will be. But Sony has promised there will be more news to come very soon about the exact details of the show, which will air on Netflix. If we're talking about things in the near future, we do know that on October 31, 2022, not Highdive on October 31, 2022, aka tomorrow is the release officially a Sword Art Online for the nerve gear. I'm looking forward to it and stuff. I thoroughly trust Akahiba god, I can't remember his last name right now, but I thoroughly trust the developer not to do anything shady.

[00:53:33]
Sword Art Online looks like a great game and I'm looking forward to doing a full dive with my nerve gear. You know nothing about this. This is an anime reference. You're just saying words to me right now. No, this is an anime reference.

[00:53:49]
So sort Out Online is an anime about they have this virtual reality set where they lay down in the bed and they actually transverse into the game itself. I know what it is. And the date that that game got released is actually tomorrow.

[00:54:13]
And they get trapped in that game. But that's actually tomorrow.

[00:54:20]
You can discuss that on the anime part. Oh, I know, but it's also a video game. That's why I brought that up. Yeah, no, I understand, I understand. So there's also been some rumors that have been circulating for a while, which again, we're going to circle back to some of this topic later on in the show.

[00:54:35]
But it's been a longstanding rumor that Sony has approached CD Projekt Red multiple times about acquisitions. There were some more backing by industry insiders this past week. But again, there wasn't a 100% confirmation. It was just more people confirming like, yeah, we heard about this and it's possibly true, but nothing set in stone. It looks like Sony is on the acquisition game as well to try and compete.

[00:55:02]
It would also make sense why CD Projekt had that big announcement last month where they detailed the outline of everything literally upcoming for the foreseeable future to boost that stock value, which is something I also touched on when that happened. I was like, this is definitely to interest investor like, this is definitely to peak investor interest and booster value. And that's exactly what it ended up doing. So you need to acquire Square. I feel like that's not a bad thing to go after CD Projekt.

[00:55:35]
Red makes some good games, even if they flop in the beginning. Overall, they tend to do really well. But I also agree with Mikey. If they're going to go after a studio first, it's got to be Square Enix because Square Enix is the company who makes all the RPGs. I became famous on the PlayStation itself, actually, since you bring up Square Enix, I forgot to put this in the script for today, but I did read this.

[00:56:01]
So Square Enix, actually one of the Japan studio heads for Square Enix, came out in an interview earlier this week and said that they're very open to other companies acquiring stakes in Square Enix Japan. And that also they're starting to notice that their games are not tracking as well as they used to in the Japanese market. So they're looking to expand outside of Asia now as a result. I believe the article information, the article I read spoke about how they have an aging population. So it is no longer feasible and plausible to be profitable just focusing on the Japanese market and how they need all games that they make from here on out to be profitable on outside markets, and so that they're looking into making games that appeal to outside audiences as well as the Japanese audience.

[00:56:58]
Exactly. And I'd also like to point out because remember, we also covered this on the podcast when it happened over the summer, embracer Group actually bought out Square Enix North America earlier this year. So I think if anyone is likely to acquire another part of Square Enix, it will probably be Embracer Group or Ten Cent because Tencent is also getting some big stake values and some big players. $0.10 also dropping a lot of companies at the same time as the Chinese market has crashed recently. But they're expanding their hand in other that's what I mean, they're expanding it in they're investing it in things outside of China.

[00:57:33]
I know they're investing in other things, but the thing is, the way their particular capital gets in order for them to get the capital needed to buy companies outside, they need more value in their current stock as it is. And being the fact that everything crash, they don't have as much money as they used to. Ideally, what I'd love to see is Square Enix turn around and buy both CD Projekt Red and Square Enix. Because can you imagine, not only if they own both of those and have, like, games made for the PlayStation off of them, but imagine that they turn around and because they're both owned by Sony, CD Projekt Red or Square Enix, reaches out to the other and they do a collaboration between the two studios. Both of those studios make some really great games.

[00:58:25]
Can you imagine a crossover between CD Projekt red and square enix? That game would be insane.

[00:58:34]
That would be pretty awesome. But I'm also on the track of it. I don't want studios being acquired anymore. I don't even want the Activision Blizzard thing to go through. I just want this to stop.

[00:58:44]
I'm done with this trend. Because nothing good can come of a handful of conglomerates owning everything. Well, we spoke about this before. We know that this is where this world is going to. This is what K Schwab wants of everything.

[00:59:05]
Let's hope I don't get targeted and stuff. This is what Claude Schwab wants. This is what the World Economic Forum wants. They want everything to be owned by conglomerates. Wow, Mikey.

[00:59:17]
Wow. He said the Xbox player says she wants companies to stop acquiring. I don't want Xbox acquiring. I don't think Xbox acquiring Bethesda was a good idea. Because, again, I can see where this is going.

[00:59:29]
When one guy starts buying up everything, everyone else starts buying up everything and what we have, instead of, oh, yeah, it's great because now on Game Pass, I can play Bethesda things. But in the bigger scheme, like the grander scheme, it takes away the competition. No, not only that, but it takes away the creativity. Because now you have one company dictating the creative works of all of these studios that created such amazing things. That's what I'm saying.

[00:59:56]
When you take away the competition, competition breeds creativity. If you take away the competition, there's no need for them to be creative because they own the right. I don't want any more of it. I think Facebook was a prime example of this. Facebook bought up Snapchat, they bought up Instagram, they bought up WhatsApp?

[01:00:16]
And all of those things just they still lost trillions of dollars in the meta. It's wild. It's absolutely wild.

[01:00:27]
For the little positive things I get out of it, it's not worth the bigger picture things. Agreed. But anyways, back to the topic. Right, so we also had some sales numbers actually come out for next gen consoles for the month of September in Japan. Specifically, it looks like the PlayStation Five has finally crossed the 2 million sales milestone in the country.

[01:00:50]
However, in doing so, it has become the slowest modern Sony console to do so. According to sales data forum. Sales data from them. Thank you. The console sold just over 2 million units in Japan as of October 23.

[01:01:07]
This dividend divided into about 1.7 million PlayStation Five consoles and just under 280,000 PS Five digital Digion consoles. So this means that the console managed across the 2 million threshold in 101 weeks, or just short of two years following its launch. For comparison, the PS Four took 90 weeks to do so and the PS 373 weeks. Right. Because the PS Two was, I think, their best selling console.

[01:01:39]
I think it was 2100%, probably even better. I even bought another PS Two and stuff recently and stuff. I have to tell you, it's shelf life. 40 years later, still investing.

[01:01:55]
So now, in tandem with that, we also got some sales figures out of just actually worldwide in terms of PlayStation Five and Series Xx sales as of September, 20 million. What we're talking about? I'm looking it up right now. How many million? What are you talking about?

[01:02:13]
To get to how many million, it took x amount of weeks, 2 million mark. It took 101 weeks. 2 million mark. Okay, looking it up, but go ahead. Almost two years.

[01:02:31]
That makes sense since there's been a shortage in covet happen though, right? So I wouldn't take that number to heart, to be honest. What did you say? The PlayStation Three and PlayStation Four. How many weeks?

[01:02:43]
Bro, you have the script open because apparently hold on, I'm looking at the wrong thing.

[01:02:56]
No. It's only showing PS five, PS four and PS three from what I'm looking at. I'm gonna have to dive deeper, but I'm pretty sure the PS Two beat it both. If I had to take a guess, the PS Two probably sold that in probably like 50 weeks, if I'm being honest. I'm going to say either on par or less than the PS Three.

[01:03:17]
I agree with you. I agree with you 100%, especially given how popular the PlayStation One was. Right? Yeah. So for September 2022, it looks like out of total, in the last twelve months, the PlayStation Five has outsold the Xbox Series X by 168 million units.

[01:03:37]
The PlayStation Five is currently sold 6.8 million units worldwide, which means almost like a third of that is just in Japan, which is wild. The PlayStation Five has sold 23.95 million units since its launch, by comparison. So right now, when you look at the sales figures, though, there's only about a 2.9 million console difference between the Xbox and PlayStation Five as of September 2022. So that gap is closing actually pretty quickly, which I was surprised by. I thought the Xbox was underperforming even more, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

[01:04:15]
And it's definitely an availability thing more than anything, especially with the series as being the price it is. Right. So segwaying into our next segment, actually, we have a lot of Microsoft news because on top of Microsoft financials getting released earlier, This week, our boy Philly Spencer decided to run his mouth on a Wall Street Journal podcast as well, where I think he said just enough in some respects, but too much in other respects. But we're going to get there. Since it is a new financial year for Microsoft, the Windows and Xbox maker has just posted the first quarter of its 2023 financial results.

[01:04:54]
Today. Microsoft made 50.1 billion in revenue for a net income of 17.6 billion during Q One, that revenue is up 11%, but the net income has decreased by 14%, meaning that overall profits were down at Microsoft this past quarter. So while there were signs of PC declines earlier this year, it's clear this quarter that the PC is very much in decline and that has impacted Microsoft's Windows results. PC shipments experienced another big decline in this recent quarter, 15% according to IDC, which is a tracker website if you guys are interested in that. So they say that geopolitical tensions, inflation and continued supply chain challenges all contributed to the decrease in PC sales along with softer demand, which also makes sense because PC parts have been pretty expensive the last couple of years as well.

[01:05:46]
Microsoft Windows OEM revenue, which is the price PC manufacturers pay at Microsoft to put Windows on their machines, sell 15% as well in key one driven by what Microsoft describes as a continued deterioration in the PC market. Do you have any actual, since you're a PC gamer, Sharper, maybe you have some insight here that you want to throw in about what exactly just PC demand in general. PC demand is still like pretty high, I'd say. But what hurt it for a while was the prices like parts for sure as soon as the bitcoin and shit crash. Everybody's building a PC now because price is tanked, but I wouldn't say the demand has gone down necessarily.

[01:06:40]
I agree with you. I think the demand availability, it'd be harder to say for sure without seeing actual numbers. But anecdotally like, everybody I've talked to is building a PC because now they can afford it. All right, so Microsoft's other hardware, the Xbox, is actually up this past quarter, so hardware revenue increased by 13% alongside a 3% dip in Xbox content and services revenue. Microsoft says this was driven by declines in first party content and third party content with lower engagement hours and higher monetization, particularly offset by the growth in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions.

[01:07:22]
So overall, the gaming revenue for Xbox grew slightly year over year, which actually is not a great sign in this report. They also revealed that nearly half of the Xbox Series S buyers are new to the Xbox ecosystem. And that explains Microsoft's investment, like continued investment and production of the console as well. Now, as I had mentioned, Phil Spencer was on the Wall Street Journal Live podcast earlier this week and he had a lot to say. This was on October 25, so this was about a day after those financials were posted.

[01:07:59]
The company conceded, actually, that energy cost in Europe could raise prices for its cloud provision by anywhere to up to $800 million. Which also would explain why there's been a bit of a revenue dip with the cost of manufacturing going up. So for services like Xbox that are powered almost entirely by data centers, either for selling digital games content or even streaming games via services like Game Pass, these kinds of overheads are starting to eat into profits. Phil Spencer emphasized the company may not be able to keep the prices as they are today. So this is pretty big news when this broke, because remember, famously, Phil Spencer did not hold back in criticizing Sony back in August when they announced the $50 price increase, at least in the more western markets for the PlayStation Five console.

[01:08:46]
Now, I think this is a bit of hypocrisy. At the same time, I can understand it, given where the economy is going, so it was going to happen regardless. On top of that, when you have a 69 billion acquisition deal in the works as well, the cost of that is bound to be reflected in the products that you create and sell. And on top of that, I would like to point out that Sony did raise their price amidst a shortage of their consoles. I feel like if they had more availability, it would be a different story.

[01:09:19]
But they did this right before the major, like, up in availability happens just this past month. So to me, it seems a bit weird that you'd raise the price on your console when nobody could even find your console, that's all. So a little insider ball on that.

[01:09:40]
So the reason Sony raised prices was because the way they buy their chips and stuff, to make parts, they have to pre reserve from one of three different companies that produce them. They over reserved, they couldn't get their money back for it, and nobody else wanted to buy their chips from them. You get what I'm saying? Yes, I get what you're saying. So they had to raise the price to COVID the loss on their fuck up, which also makes sense.

[01:10:27]
But again, the timing, I guess, could have been better. That's all right, because a lot of people don't see it that way. They see it as, oh, this is just so you don't understand how this whole thing works, right? It's like how phones are partnered with literally a dozen other companies for camera, for glass, for all of that stuff to put the final thing together. Right?

[01:10:45]
So I agree with you there, and I can understand that in that respect. Right? But it's the same thing here. Apparently, it's bad optics. Yeah.

[01:10:54]
The SSDs for the Xbox consoles are actually costing quite a bit for them, which will also be another reason why the cost would increase for it. And when you put that with the $800 million that is going to cost Microsoft extra in Europe because of the rising energy costs. That's also pretty wild as well. Right? Well, here's the thing with consoles is they've never turned a profit on their actual consoles.

[01:11:21]
Like the hardware. Yeah. Sony or Microsoft, it's never profit on those. It's always from the subscriptions. That's where they make their money, the accessories, the games and subscriptions, all that stuff.

[01:11:33]
Yes. So in light of that, actually Spencer also did say that right now Microsoft is subsidizing about $100 to $200 per Xbox Series X and S console that they make. So they're hoping that in light of that, they're going to make up the difference with Game Pass subscriptions and accessories as well as, you know, other in store purchases. In a related frame though, the only thing I'm going to add to this is basically up to Sharper. The only thing I'm going to add to this is I'm sorry Phil, I have an Xbox Series S.

[01:12:08]
I pay for the Game Pass for two months, shut off my Game Pass. I don't think my like $30 I gave you is going to subsidize that couple of hundred. Yeah, but $30 times, you know what I mean? No. $30 total over two months is all I gave them $15 a month.

[01:12:31]
And that's just in the US. Though, right? Because for me, I have Game Pass Ultimate and I pay after taxes, almost $20 a month for it. The price varies. Right?

[01:12:44]
Hi the Reds, how are you today? We're in the Halloween spirit here.

[01:12:52]
If they're subsidizing $200, they are going to make their money back within a year for the most part, let's say half of it.

[01:13:03]
So within the next year and a half they'll have all their money back. And that's not including all the other deals that Microsoft is in the midst of making, especially with the cloud gaming. Right. They've got a partnership forming with Samsung now for their TVs to have it. And there's also Keystone, which we got some insight into earlier this year.

[01:13:23]
And actually Phil Spencer had some words on that to say as well. So he did say that in the late spring we pivoted to working with Samsung. We put the app on Samsung TVs that let you play Xbox games and still have the prototype. It sits on the shelf behind my computer. Remember very infamously last month there was a picture of Phil Spencer and you could actually see Keystone on a shelf behind him along with a white Xbox Series X, which was also quickly just like, no, we're not making a white one.

[01:13:52]
So they are planning on oh hold on. While Microsoft did originally announce it last year and that was planning to launch it pretty soon, it's no longer coming anytime soon, they suspect it's actually going to be years away. Now, it's not exactly clear why Microsoft pivot away from a dedicated Xbox streaming console, but it could be related to the size. Keystone looks like an even smaller version of the Series S, but consumers are now used to devices like the Chromecast that are essentially dongles that hang out of an HDMI port. So Microsoft is always careful to describe Keystone as a streaming device rather than a stick, but many were still expecting, like, a dedicated streaming stick.

[01:14:33]
So it looks like Keystone is going to be put on an indefinite not indefinite hold, but there is no longer a set of release for it anymore. I'll just say this about all the streaming shit, they're getting way ahead of their sales on it. Technology is not at the point where they can do that. What do you mean? They're investing way too much.

[01:14:56]
Not just the Keystone thing, but like the stadia, the online only kind of thing. Yeah, technology is not at a point where they can do that. Reliably it will not come for at least another five to ten years.

[01:15:16]
We're just now reaching the point where, yes, you can stream a game, but the amount of latency what I'm saying, like, the quality of it is not feasible for anybody to put their money into. They're dumping money into all these projects.

[01:15:36]
Well, a lot of these projects aren't going to be coming out next year, even the year after. Right. They are planning for that five to ten year window that you're talking about right now. And Xbox decided to jump on it way before anyone else did it. People laughed at them for that because they started doing it during the last console generation and now it's starting to take off.

[01:15:54]
Yes, it's not perfect, but it's gained a lot more traction because of kind of this digital only trend that a lot of other factions of the entertainment industry are going along. We're actually going to come back to this because I do have a segment on that. Okay, but also you got to think about outside of the US and Europe and parts of Asia, 90% of the world does not have the internet capability to do that.

[01:16:29]
Okay, that's a bit of a misnomer there. Hold on, you're saying the internet quality is not good enough for most of the world to experience online only gaming? As far as, like, if you're comparing it one to one with, like, a console and straight up, like, streaming, 90% of the world doesn't have the internet to handle that.

[01:17:04]
I think what he's trying to say is that 90% of the world his numbers and stuff, not mine. 90% of the world.

[01:17:15]
He's saying a large portion of the world has the internet, but the Internet speeds aren't up to par to be able to make the game feasible to be played through cloud gaming. Especially if you're going to do a game where it's a multiplayer. I'm assuming you mean especially if you're going to play a game like a multiplayer kind of game where a mere millisecond could be the difference between life and death. And when you're trying to stream games through online, only if you don't have the Internet for it, your experience isn't going to be as good as others, which I understand if you're trying to have. I'm thinking of it as they're wanting it to be a one to one comparison rate, like how it is now on like a console or hardware.

[01:18:05]
They want the same quality of the cloud gaming, regardless of what they do or how much technology they put into it. It's going to depend on the Internet. And the vast majority of the world, either there is no Internet or their Internet speed is abysmal. But this is an assumption you're making here now, how's it an assumption?

[01:18:33]
I don't have the numbers in front of me. Right, no, but I'm saying it's an assumption in that okay, hold on. There's a couple of things to unpack here. First of all, a lot of the world that is developing is developing far better Internet and electronics infrastructure compared to what we presently have here in the west. Okay, second point as well.

[01:18:55]
Hold on, let me just state the points first and then you can refute them. The second point I have as well is that people that are playing online games or buying games, given where the console, especially generations, have been, right? Because especially during the last one, we became a very Internet dependent one. A lot of people that are still buying these things already have stable enough Internet connection. I do agree with you that it's not like across the board stable enough for us to make the complete switch, but companies like Microsoft are preparing for that switch to happen within the next decade.

[01:19:32]
Right? So I don't know. I understand what you're saying and it makes sense, but I feel like you're making a very big assumption about how most of the world is gaming, that's all. Okay, listen, you guys could say whatever you want about the Internet, so on and so forth. I just want them to bring back disk gaming where I don't have to buy the disk, only then to get the pleasure of putting the disk into my system, only to install the game.

[01:20:03]
You're spoiling the show. We're getting there, we're getting there. Hold that thought, hold that thought. Okay, all right, just for what you said, okay, two parts of that. Even in your situation, you're in a first world country, your Internet is not good enough.

[01:20:28]
Why aren't it as shit. Yeah, but you see what I'm saying? Yes, but again, you're making a great I feel like you're making a really big assumption here, that's all. It's an assumption, but it's a safe assumption because even in parts of, like Japan and Korea, where they have the highest Internet speeds, even their shit couldn't handle it, for instance. That's true, that's true.

[01:21:03]
Especially given the recent incident that happened in I also feel though, that a lot of these places we're talking about and stuff, as they continue to get better and better technology when we install the infrastructure that we have now, our technology wasn't as advanced as it is at this moment. So our current infrastructure, for example, I use America, our current infrastructure for a lot of things. While it works, it's not the most efficient technology out there and we know this. But the problem is in order to fix it, we'd have to spend billions of dollars tearing up the infrastructure to reinstall it. And that's just like on a city to city basis.

[01:21:51]
Whereas a lot of these developing second and third world nations that I think you may be referring to, as they develop, they have the luxury of having the knowledge of the better technology to be able to lay down the groundwork, to have a better and more stable Internet than we have. Are they there yet? No, but when they get to the point where they will be there, they will have a better infrastructure in place than what we currently have. That's part of what I'm saying though, is this all goes back to they're putting all this effort now into the stuff, into the technology, when it's not even going to be feasible for another, at minimum ten years.

[01:22:44]
You get what I'm saying? I think it'll be within ten years at the rate we're going on their side. Not even like the consumer side, company side. It takes an unfathomable, like, I can't stress this enough an unfathomable amount of computing power to stream at the scale that they're expecting to keep in mind. They've also got new infrastructure coming in.

[01:23:28]
For example, I've spoken about this before about how I had a backup Internet. I was waiting for it to become more stable. I don't think the technology is quite there yet. It's good enough if you're using just regular, like Internet or streaming videos, so on and so forth. But that 5G Internet actually has some very fast speeds.

[01:23:49]
The problem is reliability. So for example, the Internet I'm using right now is comcast and I get about 20 megabytes per second, upload to about 120 download. But it's stable at that. Whereas a mobile internet I had, I was getting 300 megabytes per second download and about like 40 upload. However, it was unstable.

[01:24:21]
The more people that were on it, the less stable it became. I feel like it was phoradic. I couldn't trust it enough to stream the podcast through it. But if that was to become more stabilized, that's another option for a lot of people.

[01:24:39]
If they can improve that technology, we don't just have to put wires underground or through the poles or anything else like that. They can really do like five G and other things else. That's a little supplemented coverage.

[01:24:56]
That's a whole another beef that they would have to work with, but outside of the Internet issue, the amount of, like, sheer hardware on company side and like, space that they would have to have and just processing power at the moment, it's not feasible for them to feasible? I think at the end of the day, while that may not be feasible, and I kind of agree with what you're saying, I think if Microsoft doesn't take these steps, there's not going to be any incentive for people to make it feasible. A lot of the times when someone works on one side of things and improves it to a very respectable point, the other side that was lagging behind, looks at it and is like, I need to catch up. So I think if they stay at the status quo, nothing's going to change. But if they make pushes, when people make pushes, opportunities arise.

[01:26:07]
Let's just put it like that. Competitiveness. Exactly. All right, so let's move along. We've talked about this for long enough and stuff.

[01:26:17]
I now see what you were talking about, about spoiling it. I had no idea we were talking about this game. I was just literally just thinking to myself, I hate the fact that I can't download anything, like, on my system. I have all these games and they want me to download everything, but go ahead, Beck, take it away. I think you jumped the gun on the video footage, actually.

[01:26:42]
Oh, I thought we were already onto MW. Two. No, we are not. I still have like, four articles to talk about totally testing you. You passed.

[01:26:51]
All right, we'll get the video back. Okay.

[01:26:56]
See, this is what I have to deal with, Sharper. This is what I have to deal with. Are you prepared for the saltiness? That is vex.

[01:27:05]
All right, move it along. All right. Vex. You got it? Yes.

[01:27:09]
So, as you guys know, because Xbox has been in this business of just buying up exclusives and shit like that, apparently Microsoft had passed on the chance to make Genshin Impact an Xbox exclusive, which, for those of you are not aware, it's a Japanese action RPG game that actually skyrocketed to popularity when it came out originally in 2020 for Mobile, Windows and PlayStation Four. The series actually in the first year, it's a release that earned $3 billion USD, which is just one of the highest for any video game possible. So reported by Rotors. Originally, sources familiar with the batter said that Microsoft met with a Chinese developer, Mi Hoyo forgive me if I mispronounced that mi Hoyo early in gutter's development, but failed to reach an exclusivity deal. Sony would later secure the deal for itself, making the game a PlayStation console exclusive.

[01:28:09]
The company is reportedly building a team specifically to scout out Chinese games now and developers with a high potential in an attempt to emulate the same move made by Sony back in 2017 with its China Hero Project, an initiative to help Chinese developers publish games on PlayStation. I mean, this is no surprise here because even it wasn't this past week, but maybe last week Games.com Asia took place and Xbox had a very big presence there. So despite this L that they took was one of the biggest games ever, they are looking to really secure their stake in the Asian market.

[01:28:49]
Definitely something that needs to be explored, not just in this podcast. Mikey was telling me something about, I think it was last season anime, not to sleep on a particular anime, I can't remember the name of the anime, but a lot of people are sleeping on it simply because the animators were Chinese. I don't know if it was Chinese or it was something in the Asian market, but it was not Japanese animation. And if you think about it, we've got 8 billion people in this world now, which is funny because when I was growing up, it was 6 billion. Now it's 8 billion.

[01:29:26]
But we got 8 billion people in this world and over 25% of those people are in China. So there's bound to be a lot of potential when you have 25% of the world's population. However, we have not tapped that market. To the extent that I think it could be tapped is beyond me. I'm just saying the Chinese have 25% of the world's population and yet how many Chinese video games do you know of?

[01:30:04]
How many Chinese anything do you know of? You know what I mean? I thought Genshin Impact was a Japanese game. No, Gentian Impact is what I'm saying is they're trying to well, Gentian Impact may or may not be I don't know. What I'm saying though is with the Chinese market, with them having 25% of the world's population, there's bound to be so many things that we haven't experienced yet that would be hits out here, you know, whether it be movies, anime, video games, whatever the case may be.

[01:30:50]
Sorry I tried to leave woman speechless. No, Sharper just sent me something and I didn't expect it, that's all. In Phil Spencer's podcast interview, he did have some words about the Metaverse, our friend Zuck's. Beautiful creation. He said, quote, today it's a poorly built video game.

[01:31:13]
Building a Metaverse that's like a living room is not how I want to spend my time. What I see in the better verse world is what we're at the early stage. At the early stage, and this will evolve. So this comes on the heels of the beginning of the week. We actually got some interesting information about Facebook and the Zuck's stock value.

[01:31:32]
So apparently on Wednesday night, that would have been oh my gosh, october 25 24th. So investors apparently wiped about $80 billion off, or £69 billion off the market value of Facebook and Instagram's owner Meta after Mark Zuckerberg's company reported profits had halved during the third quarter as advisors reigned in spending amid the global economic downturn. The 25% tumble in Meta share prices Wednesday evening there we go. Has knocked billions off the personal wealth of Zuckerberg, its chief executive and largest shareholder. So Meta shares briefly dipped down to $100 as well, taking them to their lowest level since 2016.

[01:32:19]
And with a 13% Meta stake, Zuckerberg saw his net worth plummet by $90 billion in the last week alone, which is insane. From top five richest to 27th. Something like that, yes. He was like third and then he dropped down to 27 in a week into crypto shit. Right.

[01:32:47]
I think we're witnessing this has been a long time coming, to be fair, but we're definitely in the midst of witnessing the fall of Facebook and its enterprise, much like we did with our beloved MySpace. Now, I had to mention it somewhere because has been a hot topic. I just want to say this real quick about MySpace. MySpace still could have survived even after Facebook arrived if they simply get stuck to their roots. Instead, they try to compete directly with Facebook by trying to be a clone of Facebook.

[01:33:19]
And if you're going to be a clone of a company, you might as well just go to the actual company, which is exactly what happened in MySpace. Exactly right. So since the decision by the UK's regulatory body is coming up on this Activision Blizzard deal, it's going to happen in the next week, now that November is coming up. Microsoft head of gaming also commented that the scrutiny, the heavy scrutiny on this deal is actually fair and warranted. So he's totally okay with all of this now.

[01:33:47]
While the CMA has officially expanded its investigation into the second phase, the European Competition Watchdog has also set its own provisional deadline for November 8 to clear the deal or choose to enter a second phase as well. The US's regulatory body is also expected to rule in November, so November is going to be pretty big for this deal. In the interview, he said, quote, it might be surprising to people, but I'm not an expert on doing $70 billion deals, $70 billion deals. But I do know that we're very focused on getting approval in the major jurisdictions and I'm spending a lot of time in Brussels and London with the FTC here in the US. I would like to say the discussions have been very fair and honest.

[01:34:27]
It is a big acquisition. There's no doubt. Microsoft and his role in the tech industry is a large tech company. And I do think the discussion around an acquisition of this size is warranted. And I've appreciated the time to go spend or the time to go spent.

[01:34:41]
We're really focused on getting the deal approved in the markets. I'm confident that I was just in London last week continuing to have discussions with all the regulatory boards and I'm remaining confident that we'll get the deal approved. So some uplifting words from our friend Philly Spence. Right now you can play the Modern Warfare footage.

[01:35:05]
Okay, so as you guys are aware or not aware, october 28, Call of Duty, Modern Warfare Two. The remake, remaster whatever came out. There was a lot of hype around this game. A lot of people were excited about this game. I'm excited about this game because Modern Warfare Two is my favorite entry in the series, the original Modern Warfare Two.

[01:35:25]
So I'm very excited to see where this game goes, and this is what I'm willing to actually spend money on for the first time in what feels like almost a decade. So allegedly. Now, physical copies of Call of Duty include just 72 megabytes of on disk data. Now, according to an account, this comes from a PlayStation user. Apparently, the game size is actually well over 100GB, but there's only 75 megabytes stored on actual physical disk should you choose to buy a physical copy.

[01:35:58]
Now, at the time of publishing this article, which was just earlier this week, excuse me, quite a few people have actually come out since and confirmed that this is actually true. I went to go help a friend move furniture earlier today, and her boyfriend has a PlayStation Four, and he went to go pick it up. On our way back to their place, he stopped by to trade in some games for it, and he started installing it, and he said, yeah, it's just a few megabytes. I was like and this seemed to have sparked a bit of debate on the Internet as well, in which we seem to and you guys have touched and only as well as we're going farther and farther into a digital only realm with gaming. And it's becoming very dangerous, especially when we encounter issues like the one that happened with Amazon last month, where people that had bought digital copies or digital editions of specific TV shows could no longer access them because the license had expired in the original agreement.

[01:36:59]
So despite having paid full price and getting no reimbursement at all, they now have they bought a product that they can no longer access thanks to a licensing thing. So I feel like this is just a waste of resources as well, because why the fuck would you bother making a disc at this point if it's it's worthless when you trade it in. Now, nobody can play that because you're getting sorry, go on. What annoys me the most about this whole situation is if you own the disk, it used to be if you own the disk, you could pop it in. You don't have to download anything unless it's like a game update or DLC that wasn't on the original disk, and even then, the files weren't that big.

[01:37:46]
Now it's like you're buying the disk for the privilege of putting the disk into your system, only to then have to download a large file. And every time you go to go play said game, guess what? You're going to. Have to prove that you own the copy by putting in the disk again. And I don't like that, all right?

[01:38:07]
Especially when they are losing a lot of their what is going on with my Internet? My browser is acting up. I'm going to have to switch browsers, especially when especially when they're giving us less and less memory on our systems. Like, what's up the bat, you know, so we can't just pop in our game anymore. You're giving us less and less memory, yet all of a sudden I'm supposed to be okay with this.

[01:38:41]
Let me close all windows. Right. And a lot of people also brought up, like, this trend is very dangerous because now you can just no longer own anything. And I very like I know Sharper has also been on before this because I specifically wanted a Series X for a disk drive because I like having hard copies of all of my games. And like, I have dedicated space for all of my hard copy games, but it's just I have it and I can play it whenever I want and there's no one that's going to tell me or stop me from playing that game if I physically have it.

[01:39:15]
And it's the same with a DVD, for instance, or a CD as well, right? Which is again, I feel like sorry, go ahead. No, the thing with hard copies now is they're not actual games on the disk. It's just a key for you to download the game. That's why it was a problem.

[01:39:35]
75 megabytes. It's a code to get you into the game. It's like how games back in the 90s, like, you'd buy the disk and you have the disk, but there'd be a CD key attached to it to basically verify your copy of that disk. And then you couldn't play the game without having that key, essentially. But here's my thing with Call of Duty is I think it's like a two fold thing, okay?

[01:40:05]
A, they can't physically fit the games on the disk anymore, just don't have that much memory to hold what the modern games are. And B, they want to be able to make their games as big as they fucking can because there's a lot of code and shit in Call of Duty that doesn't need to be there, that causes it to be, like 250GB so that you can't have very many other games on your hard drive. They want you to only be playing that. Oh, yeah, no doubt. Have you not seen Call of Duty War Zone?

[01:40:45]
You could download their update, which is why, like, it's 260gb. Yeah, but then they got not one, not two, but three different texture packs that are all like 150 gigs each.

[01:41:00]
They're optional, but come on, it's ridiculous, right? I missed that era of gaming where you had a disk and the game was on the disk, and if my Internet went out, I could still play the game on my console. I missed that without having it previously downloaded. Exactly. I want that era of gaming to come back.

[01:41:26]
I think it's extremely valuable and it preserves a lot of the art that people have. Gaming is art. Let's face it. What these people are creating is an art. So it just helps preserve all of that for longer, that's all.

[01:41:41]
You don't lose it, then.

[01:41:46]
Don't crush my dreams like that, please. Also, other Call of Duty news that happened yesterday that I don't know if you put in here or not. Skump retired after who's? Skump. Who?

[01:42:03]
He's a pro. Call of duty player. Okay. I don't watch college pro. 15 years of being pro.

[01:42:11]
He's like the only original pro player that still actually plays. This is his last season. Why is he retiring? He said he wants to focus on, like, streaming and doing his own content. Not have to focus on, like, actually competing.

[01:42:29]
That might be better off for him because there's a big name that I'm sure even you've heard of. Vex from the poor pro scene that retire, which was not Cloud. What was his name? God.

[01:42:54]
Call on Duty can't remember exactly which scene he was in and stuff, but Cloud, I think his name was. Right. Cloud. No, what is his name? God.

[01:43:05]
There's one really big and popular streamer. He's known for his accuracy, like insane accuracy. Oh, shroud. Shroud. I knew it was something without oh, he's been retired, though.

[01:43:20]
Yeah, but what I'm saying is with this Strokes guy you said his name is SCUMB Skunk. It might be better for him. Shroud left the proceed to become a content creator himself because he saw more potential in it without having to basically sit there for 15 hours a day and training on the same game over and over again. Now he can play pretty much whatever game he wants. He built a community around it.

[01:43:50]
And mind you, he still trains, obviously, but he's also able to do far more. And I think in the long run, it's more sustainable if you have the fan base that they do. It's not something sustainable if you're a first starting out and so on and so forth. But if you made yourself a name the pro gaming scene, for some people, it's worth taking that jump over to streaming if they have enough of a fan base as it is because their fans will follow them over, they have that initial boost. And if they work on their craft like they worked on if they work on their craft of streaming and content creation, like they worked on their craft on the game that they became popular for as a pro, they have a very high chance of succeeding.

[01:44:36]
Well, that's like most of the biggest streamers now are just like, ex pro players from different games like Summit and Trout and ASU and all that. Biggest of them all was Tim the Tapman. The absolute bot. No, I'm kidding. I don't know any of these names.

[01:44:56]
I know Tim the Tapman, but that's it. I don't watch Streamers at all. Like, once I left that world, I left it well, to your credit, they're all like CSCO players and shit. That also doesn't help. Yeah, that doesn't help.

[01:45:11]
I know some I don't know a ton. I was never one for really the Proceed and so on and so forth. But there are some names that they just made a name for themselves in the streaming sphere. And I had to look it up. Like, where did they come from?

[01:45:23]
Because I never heard of this student or this person. And every single time it was like, oh, this is a former Cisco pro player, or this guy with a Call of Duty pro, or something along those lines. Well, yeah, that's where Ninja came from. He was a pro player. He was one of the most toxic pro players out there.

[01:45:42]
Yeah, well, we're not going to talk about that. You want to talk about toxic gaming culture?

[01:45:52]
He was a halo. Pro.

[01:45:56]
Nick Murphy, Gears of War Pro.

[01:46:02]
I think Beck's wants to continue her podcast. Continue on. I'm sorry.

[01:46:11]
I guess in related Call of Duty news, but not really related Call Duty, a lot of people are upset with the whole crossplay system thing because of how unfair it is. And people reveal that you can toggle it off easy on a PlayStation system, but on Xbox, PC, when you toggle it off, then you only get restricted to a pool of people that also have it toggled on or off. So there are issues there. And a funny bit, if you did buy a physical copy of Modern Warfare Two in Canada, on the back it says the best selling franchise on Xbox. But in the French translation it then says best selling on PlayStation.

[01:46:48]
I don't know how Xbox gets translated. I love it, you know, fucking Canadians. We'll just leave it at that. You could say that she's Canadian for anyone listening in the future. Yes, we are efficiently inefficient in everything that is the mark of a true Canadian.

[01:47:12]
So we actually had quite a few game developments. I think the biggest one, which actually ties in because there was a multitude of news surrounding the Witcher this past week. But what started off first is on what is it? October 26, CD Projekt Red announced that it is announced a remake of the first entry in the Witcher series, which originally came out in 2007. And both said that the coming Titan title will be a water to react a bit of the original and that it will be rebuilt from the ground up.

[01:47:47]
Now, over here on the Lamincy Show, we know what modern reimagining means if we throw it in that same pool as diversity and inclusion. Modern reimagining most often means that the game is going to go to shit or whatever it is, they're going to make it too appropriate. Exactly. So CDPR did stress the suitability for the title, for the stresses that it is oh, sorry. Tentatively titled The Witcher remake and is still in very early development, but that the game is being spearheaded by federal Polish studio Fools Theory.

[01:48:25]
Now, the head of that studio, Adam Badowski, explained that collaborating with Fools Theory on the project is just as exciting as some of the people there have previously been involved in the witcher games. So fool theory had previously worked on the Witcher Two and Witcher Three. So they have a lot of experience with not only the game side of that, but they also are very well versed on the lore as well. So CD Projekt is very comfortable that Fools Theory is going to do a good job on this modern reimagining. Only time will tell.

[01:48:59]
That's what I said before about when you try to just be activists instead of artists, it tends not to go that well. And we're going to get right now. Right now, we're going to get to that. Okay? Because I have a whole thing about this, in all honesty.

[01:49:16]
But the bigger news that broke yesterday is that the witcher series on Netflix, which is very famously led by Henry Cavill as Geralt, the lead character in the series, it was actually revealed yesterday that he will be leaving once season three of season three, and he will instead be replaced with Liam Hemsworth. Now it's one hot guy being replaced by another hot guy. That's fine.

[01:49:49]
I wouldn't have called you either, motherfucker.

[01:49:56]
That's the rudest shit I've ever heard. I mean, you put yourself out there and got burned, bro. Sharper does rock the long hair. I mean, I will give him that. Like hardwashboard ABS.

[01:50:14]
Good Sharper. Damn right.

[01:50:19]
Did we just become best friends?

[01:50:25]
I think this is a bit of a downgrade at all odyssey because Liam Hemsworth, I mean, okay, you can make him look like it. That's not a big deal, but it's just the acting chops. I haven't actually seen him in anything that really displayed his acting ability in this kind of role. So it'll be interesting to see what happens. Henry Cabill actually also posted the news on his social, explaining that after, you know, it's been great playing this character, but I'm happy to move it onto such an actor like Liam Hemsworth and all that jazz.

[01:50:56]
Liam Hemsworth, in turn, said that he is a fan of the series. I'm a fan of the series is a key phrase right there, because that means that he has no understanding of the source material, whereas Cavill, when he was cast, he's notoriously a very hardcore gamer and he's a very big fan of both the witcher novels and games. So a lot of people had even said previously in interviews that while on set, he would explain to some of the cast and crew about the emphasis on certain things or why this is important or why this character is like that, he would try to expose more of the crew to kind of the inspiration behind this series. Now, before this news broke, though, I think it was on Monday, there was an article that came out that the writers for the Netflix witcher series hated the source material. And I throw that in there because nobody has been able to confirm why Cavill is leaving this role.

[01:51:56]
But there are two things that I'm going to throw out there, one of which a lot of people have already speculated on Superman. It was announced that he's going to be reprising his role as Superman in the DC extended universe. So I imagine that's going to be taking a lot of time. On top of that, there were some articles published last year that Tabbell had, you know, had some words in. Now, he was actually prepared to do a seven season and long witcher series, and his one and only condition was that they must continue to tell great stories while also honoring the art author, Andre Sapkowski.

[01:52:33]
Sorry if I butchered that. As long as we can keep telling great stories which honor his work, that was his only requirement. I don't think they're doing that anymore. And honestly, it shows in the show that the writers did not like the source material because I'm sorry, maybe this is a hot take for some of you. Hot take?

[01:52:53]
As in, this is Vex's view, not the show's view. But the witcher series is super overrated, and the only good thing it had going with Henry Cavill is geralt. Just putting it out there. Netflix is nothing but consistent, I guess. Exactly.

[01:53:09]
You can depend on them on one thing, right? Nepla's slogan should be consistently inconsistent. Exactly. They hate source material. They hated the Halo source material.

[01:53:24]
They didn't do Halo at all. Who was it? Paramount. Everybody just fucking hates source material. Then I guess everyone hates source material.

[01:53:32]
No, it's been a pattern, especially the past five years and stuff. In particular, source material, the original authors, all that other stuff. We get these actors and new writers for these spin offs, and they don't care about the original author. They don't like the original story. They want to change the story to fit their narratives, whatever their narratives may be, and basically turn everything into some sort of activist political tool or just something that's completely even if they don't go that route, they'll do something that's so completely opposite of what the series are supposed to be representing, actually meant, and it all goes to trash.

[01:54:21]
Exactly. This whole thing is terrible. Let me put it like this. If someone ever decided to make a Final Fantasy X TV series and they don't go off of the source material and they go off script and all that other stuff and do their own thing. I am going to be livid and this is why I can understand why any series that are coming off of video games or anything else like that when they get off the source material.

[01:54:51]
The fans of that series yeah. I can understand why they be livid and stuff. Because you're clearly showing that you don't respect the original art. And I'm not just talking about the graphics art. The whole thing is an art, all right?

[01:55:06]
The writings and art, the stories and art, the graphics are an art. The lore's and art. And as soon as you start disrespecting one of these, you disrespect an entire franchise in its fan base. I agree. And it also explains why, much like Hollywood, the gaming industry seems to be going on this endless kind of train of remakes, which, I mean, I'm both for and against it because I like that games from 15 to 20 years ago are getting upgraded to today's standards.

[01:55:42]
But at the same time, it's become such a thing that it's like, is there really any creativity left in the industry anymore? Because even new IP, they just tend to be kind of person which has creating it. So long as they get a specific message out there or so long as they can represent a specific kind of person, that's all that needs to be done. There's no actual craft left in it anymore. My whole thing is if you're going to remake a game, stay to the source material.

[01:56:14]
You can go a little bit off script, but not too much. But it has to be a hit game. All right, so Final Fantasy Seven, the reason why it succeeded even though it went off script, is it's still the original writers. They're just retelling it in the new way, all right? They basically kept the source material, but they're switching around the story, and they're not really trying to do anything too crazy for some people.

[01:56:38]
With Sacrilege, I can get that, but I actually don't mind it because Final Fantasy Seven came out at 1997. I know the story well because I've beaten it so many times, so I know what to expect. So with them switching the story up a little bit and stuff, even people like me who know the source material are still kept on a loop. But like I said, it's got to be a hit game in order for you to do a remake. And you got to stay true or consistent with the lore itself.

[01:57:12]
Yes. I don't want to see another Last of US remake. How many Last of US, part twos are we going to get? You mean part one? Part one, part one, part two.

[01:57:21]
I don't care. How many remakes are we going to get of The Last of US? The Last of US came out in, what, 2016, and we're on our third or fourth remake. 2013, and we're on our second remake. Might as well be third or fourth.

[01:57:37]
Yeah. It hasn't even been a decade. Yeah. And yet I can't get a remake or a spin off, like a new spin off of Final Fantasy X, which came out in 2001. And even if you don't do a remake, there's a spin off that's been cached them numerous times where you tell the story of Brasca, Jack and Oron, all right?

[01:58:07]
As a prequel to the actual game, all right? People would pay to play that. Words and you don't have time out. Sharper right, yeah, sure. No, people would pay to play that because for those who weren't Final Fantasy fans, Roska, Jackson, Oron were the summoners and guardians before the original story who went on that same pilgrimage that the new protagonists are going through.

[01:58:45]
Fascinating. So there's a lot of lore behind that, but Last of US gets two remakes in nine years.

[01:59:00]
Okay. To the last of us defense a little bit. One was a remaster, one was a remake, but that still doesn't make it any better. But yes, I'm just not, like, both for and against this whole remake. Train I think the Witcher One, though, given that it did come out now over 15 years ago, it'll probably be closer to 20 years when this actually comes out.

[01:59:23]
It wasn't available for any console. It was PC only. So this would make the game a lot more available because most people that have played a witcher game played the Witcher Three. That was their introduction to it, and the Witcher Two was only available on PC and Xbox. Prior to that, it was four disks on the Xbox.

[01:59:43]
I owed it. So this is great news for people that haven't had the opportunity to experience that first game. That's all multi disc games in terms of actual releases, though we did get some official release dates for a couple of games. Wolong, which was one that was highly anticipated by both myself and Lambda Sea, has an official release date of March 3, 2023. And Somerville, which is an interactive story game from the studio behind Limbo, will launch on November 15 of this year, and both of those games will be day one on Xbox's game pass for those of you that are interested and or subscribed.

[02:00:27]
Speaking of long, I need to make a retraction, and this is my personal opinion from Lambda Sea. Okay. Previously, I had stated that I'm definitely looking forward to a long following dynasty that looked like a very fun game. It looked like it was going to be a great game, so on and so forth. I have played the demo.

[02:00:49]
This is an update.

[02:00:53]
Let me put it like this. If you like games like Elder Ring, which not really my thing or anything along the lines of the Elder ring kind of thing, you'll love Woolong. However, okay, I'm not a fan of Belgian ring or any games like that, and I did not have fun playing the demo. After about an hour, I stopped playing it. I could see why people would like it.

[02:01:29]
For those who like that style of game, it wasn't like it was done bad. It was just a style of game that I do not like. But there is definitely a fan base for the style of game that was made. And I think those who like that style of game will find Will Long Fallen Dynasty an amazing game. Me, on the other hand, I am no longer looking forward to it.

[02:01:53]
I have played Woollong Fallen Dynasty and for me, it is not my type of game. And for those reasons, I am out shortcake reference.

[02:02:08]
I don't know, I saw a gameplay of it, I was just like me. Well, see, the thing is that the trailer made it look like if you would have seen the trailer Bert Sharper, I don't know if you did, but yeah, I did. Okay, you cannot tell me the difference between the trailer and the gameplay worked vastly different. All right. I think if they would have marketed it more like probably closer to like a Ninja Garden kind of game yeah, it would have made a little bit more sense of stuff.

[02:02:46]
Instead, it kind of looked like they did a cross between like Ninja Samurai and like Assassin's Creed, which made it look sick as hell, but that's not what was delivered. I almost feel like the trailer was misleading in the style of game that it actually is. So I'm taking it you didn't like Sekiro either? Never played it, so I wouldn't know. It's kind of along the same lines, the same people that made like Dark Souls and stuff, then I probably wouldn't like it because that's just a style game I do not like.

[02:03:21]
For those who like that style game, that's more power to them. I don't take anything against people who like that style game, but for me, personally, I do not like that style game. It's not my kind of thing. Fair enough. Okay, well, that's sad news for me, but I guess I'm willing to give anything a shot.

[02:03:41]
So unlike you could still download the demo.

[02:03:51]
Oh, the demo was next gen, wasn't it? Yeah. Okay. I can actually play it now. Okay, I will try that out.

[02:03:58]
So I will say for those who have a next gen console, I would highly recommend downloading the demo before actually going out and buying it because it may be the type of game you like and you may fall in love with it and go buy the full game. More power to you. But I also feel like the trailer was severely misleading. So if that style of game that bex and I originally thought it was, it's not exactly like that. I'm going to be honest, I totally expected it was kind of going to be a Dark Souls s game.

[02:04:36]
Okay, maybe you expected that. I didn't, because to me, I was getting more Assassin Creeds vibe, but like in a different kind of way. Like the way they were jumping across buildings and everything in the trailers and stuff. It made me feel like there's going to be a lot more elements to it and stuff. Like I said, it's still not a bad game.

[02:04:59]
If you like that style of game, I could definitely see where people would get joy out of it. It's just not my thing. Not your cup of tea. That's totally fine. There was some other confirmations though, in terms of upcoming releases.

[02:05:12]
So recall that at last month Nintendo Direct, nintendo did announce that there was going to be remake of Harvest Moves a Wonderful Life, which originally came out on the PlayStation Two and is one of my all time favorite games. And I recall when that was announced, I even said that I would buy a switch for that game. It turns out that it is going to be getting a PC release as well. There's no word on when that will be still in a release date, but now we do know that it will be coming out both on Nintendo and PC for those interested. PC.

[02:05:47]
Exactly. PC Master race, I guess for you. Right.

[02:05:54]
And some unfortunate news though. Callisto Protocol, which is my most anticipated game of 2022. Oh my God. Okay. It's going to be wet everywhere when that game comes out, but go ahead, say it, Vex.

[02:06:12]
Say what? Say it. Say what? What are you going to give it?

[02:06:19]
It's not going to be a golden shower. It's going to be a golden hosing. There we go. Yes. Okay, now granted.

[02:06:29]
Oh no. You did it, you cheeky little bastard.

[02:06:37]
I suppose payback is a bit after what I did with you, buy me a coffee. I suppose payback was due. Here you go. The Japanese release of Callisto Protogol has been unfortunately canceled by the developer as it was unable to reach an agreement with Japan's video game regulating body, the Cero, which stands for Computer Entertainment Rating Organization. So the news was broken in a statement posted to the Japanese Coastal Protocol Twitter account by developer Striking Distance Studios and publisher Krafton in Translation, it read, the Callisto Protocol has decided to stop the release of the Japanese version.

[02:07:17]
As of now, the Cero rating cannot be passed. We have decided that we would no longer be able to provide you with the experience you need. We hope everyone in Japan will understand. If you have already pre ordered, we will refund you. So I mean, the game is still slated for release December worldwide.

[02:07:34]
A bit disappointing for Japanese fans, but also unsurprising because actually with many releases, both of Japanese games and Western releases, there is a lot of heavy censorship that happens over there. So developers do often have to have one could say they have zero tolerance for gore.

[02:08:02]
Are we really shocked though? Are we really shocked that we're not really shocked, just disappointed? No, I'm not even talking about that. I'm saying, are we really shocked that Ciro is blocking it in Japan? Ciro is very well known to censor absolutely everything out there.

[02:08:21]
Even the Japanese etchy games get censored over there, developed there. Exactly. And the fact of the matter is, the callisto protocol, its whole scheme is blood and gore. All right. Yes.

[02:08:36]
What do they want to do? Just have, like, sunshine and rainbows come out? Pixels. Everything pixels. That's all.

[02:08:43]
There's no way that they were ever going to come to an agreement. We knew this because their whole game is based on blood and gore. So there's no way they're going to be able to center things or change things just for one country, which, by the way, one of their biggest developers, which we spoke on earlier, Square, has turned around and said that it is no longer profitable to market just towards the Japanese market. So there's no way some companies are going to completely change their game for the Japanese market, which itself is not profitable enough for their own development anymore. Anymore, yes, exactly.

[02:09:22]
So we'll see if the decision changes, though, because we do still have just over a month before the game comes out. If anything, maybe if they do reach an agreement, perhaps the Japanese version will just be a little bit delayed. That's all. And some sad news, but also unsurprising news, though rocksteady Cofounders. Had studio heads thefton hill and Jamie Walker officially announced their departure from the company on October 26, with their roles being filled by Rocksteady director of production in Nathan Burlow.

[02:09:51]
And Darius said I can't pronounce that. Darius said, Senegian, I want to say, okay, thank you, in a letter posted on Rocksteady's website. Hill and Walker didn't provide any reasons for the departure, but they were very thankful to staff and fans for the support over the years. They also did note that they are going to be starting a new adventure together, so they're not necessarily leaving the gaming industry altogether, but it looks like something new will be on the horizon now. Rocksteady kind of rose to fame back in 2009 when Batman Arkham Asylum came out and the Batman series has more or less been their most popular franchise that's come out.

[02:10:35]
I actually don't know what else Rocksteady has made aside from Batman, Gabe. So, yes, along with those allegations, plus the issues surrounding Gotha Knights with its multiple pushbacks, delays, average score, and then launch issue, it's kind of no surprise that they would maybe want to step away. Now, my other thinking for this is recall that earlier this year, WB had hired, like Warner Bros. As a whole had hired a new guy to kind of reformat their film and TV department. And as a result, we saw kind of the cancellation and basically erasure of several notable series, including that backgirl movie that was supposed to come out that's just gone from existence now, but.

[02:11:20]
At that time when that was happening. WB did say that nothing was going to change to the gaming division.

[02:11:28]
I think it's safe to say that there is something going on with the gaming division at WB, and I think the recent kind of issues with Gotham Knights has proved that as well. So I think we're going to see a little bit more reformatting of that division of WB. To be honest. I think WB as a whole has been kind of going downhill and struggling and stuff for a lot of their that's why they needed that guy. Yeah, that's why they needed that guy.

[02:11:57]
Right. So it's a good thing, though, because the decisions he is making are pretty good, especially now that James Gunn is also heading the DCU for the notable future and they are firing as Ramillar, finally. So we'll see what happens. But, I mean, hopefully good things hopefully good things happen. So, yeah, I've got nothing else to COVID though, for tonight.

[02:12:20]
Any other words of encouragement or interest you'd like to share with our viewers before we encouragement or interest? It is only when a mosquito lands on one's testicles does man truly learn there's always a way to solve issues without violence.

[02:12:45]
Oh, son. All right, reminder, everyone, we do have a giveaway going on over on Twitter for tengen Uzui figure art statue. All you have to do is, like the post, retweet the post and follow us to enter for a chance to win. That giveaway is over on the 4 November. You can also gain additional entries if you are a buy me a coffee member, you could get double entries for Bronze, triple entries.

[02:13:19]
I don't know why it's acting up. Double entries for Bronze members, triple entries for Silver members, and you can get quadruple entries for the golden shower tier. Now, it isn't just for this giveaway, those entries are for all giveaways, so it just multiplies your chances of winning. While we also work on more potential rewards for each tier. We haven't quite figured everything out, but we do know that we wanted to give you guys at least something.

[02:13:48]
So that's one of the things we did. You will see that we have a bunch of things, like, for example, the golden shower tier. Obviously, you support us on a monthly basis, you get a shout out for all new members, especially if it's on stream. Not only does that pop up on the stream itself, but we will shout you out on the stream. You get a special role in our discord, as well as a special chat room as well, where you can chat with the cohost and host and other people in the coffee be grade.

[02:14:25]
I'd also like to just point out the contest ends on November 4. Right? That's the last day to enter. Correct? And also, if you guys could kindly pour favour, head on over to the Lamincy show.com and maybe leave our podcast, a review that would be greatly appreciated for us just because that does make quite a difference for what we're trying to build here.

[02:14:54]
So good or bad, I don't really care. Whatever your thoughts are, things that we can improve on included in that review. Things you don't like included in that review. It's obviously just great feedback for us to figure out what we're doing good and what we're doing bad. We obviously want to improve the content as best as we can for you.

[02:15:13]
Got anything you want to add? Wash behind your ears and eat your vegetables. You need to eat your vegetables first. Okay. Honestly, in my head, all I was thinking was, is Vex going to say it?

[02:15:27]
Oh, the things I do for this man to make sure he eats his vegetables. Okay, so we are going to be bringing Sharper back next week. I am going to let you guys know ahead of time. Next week, my microphone is off. It will only be on while we were setting up the podcast or if I need to interject about something.

[02:15:53]
Sharper, I'm taking off the training wheels for the communication. And basically just you communicating with Vex throughout the podcast and stuff to create that rapport. That's all on you. Next week, I want to see Rock Lee when he dropped his weights, what happened? That's why I'll be like Rock Lee when he dropped his weight.

[02:16:20]
I'll still be in the background doing all the web things, so on and so forth and stuff. We're going to see how this goes. So officially, next week training wheels are off. It's going to be Vex and Sharper 100% on this weekend gaming episode 11th, which is feels like a play date that you're setting up. I mean, it could be.

[02:16:45]
Yeah. Setting up a play date with my wife.

[02:16:51]
Now behave, children.

[02:17:01]
Yeah. Odd. All right, so at this point of the podcast, as we are at the end, we are going to go look at potential people to rain. So let me refresh the page, and I'm going to show everybody my beautiful wig cap because this shit is itching the hell out of me. I know exactly who I'm going to rate.

[02:17:22]
So we're going to raid Emmy, who is playing Avalanche. We're going to hit her with a hashtag limb and see show raid. Okay. That being said, though, that is going to be the end of this podcast. We hope you guys enjoyed this podcast.

[02:17:39]
And until next time, you guys enjoy yourself. PA, everyone. PA. Bye.