Next Xbox Console Prices Could Be $1,800

0:07 Hey, everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with me, Jeff Grubb, your host from GiantBomb.com. Thank you for tuning in. In this episode, we're going to be talking about more rumors of next-gen consoles being way, way too expensive because that's just all we have right now. It's going to be a good one, though, because we have Brian Eltono on the show.

0:25 Brian, how are you doing?

0:27 I am doing great, Jeff.

0:29 I realize I, for some odd reason, you and I have never recorded anything together.

0:33 No, yeah.

0:34 Yeah.

0:34 I think like you have been near the couch like for some time, but you're also always doing shows at the same time as us during summer game fest and stuff like that.

0:42 Yep.

0:42 It's, I think that's what it is.

0:43 It's like always doing stuff at the exact same time and can't get away.

0:47 So no, this is great. It's awesome.

0:49 I've, uh, Always love you, Brian. So glad you guys got X button happening. You want to tell everybody about it?

0:54 Yeah.

0:55 So I don't know if folks caught the recent news in the last couple of weeks, but there were some sort of restructurings at IGN, my old gig and me, Max Scoville, Seth Macy, and a bunch of.

1:07 Other really good people all got let go.

1:10 We kind of woke up the next morning, you know, in the middle of the morning period and decided to just hit the ground running, build a new thing. We had a whole bunch of people telling us, yo, we're going to follow you wherever you go. We want to see you guys make more shows. And so, yeah, we created X Button, which is basically our brand new independent crowdfunded video game podcast network. It allows us to collaborate with everybody. We want to bring guests on. We want to do all that fun stuff. We've got a Patreon.

1:35 And we hit the ground running with two new shows.

1:38 One is the X Button Video Game Podcast, which is a weekly video game show covering everything. And the other is Ninfrendo 64, which is our Nintendo show. I'm really excited about that one, especially because... i've been covering nintendo stuff forever for ign yeah and people were just like i want i want you to keep doing nintendo shows so yeah here we are i think nintendo's in a really awesome spot right now a really interesting spot right now can't say so much for everybody else but you can kind of lump all them into one show so uh biggest the biggest thing about all of this is that we're we're free right we are free to do shows like this we're free to do have people like you on our shows and just collaborate with everybody.

2:17 We're not competing with anyone.

2:18 Nudity. Yeah. Nudity. Nudity now. Yeah.

2:20 We can finally do nudity. That was like, I think the one thing holding me back on the old gig.

2:24 You can tell. You can tell.

2:26 Yeah.

2:26 You can tell.

2:27 Yeah. I mean, in most videos, you could see me like start to pull my shirt up and then. I had kind of like a shock collar and it would immediately stop.

2:35 Well-trained for sure. Absolutely.

2:37 Yeah.

2:37 Well-trained. Yeah.

2:38 And you know, I can, I can, I can pee in the yard. I'm excited for you guys. It seems like it's been like a crazy week.

2:47 Yeah.

2:48 But yeah, people showed up.

2:49 Yeah. People showed up. People showed up.

2:51 Our, our, our YouTube channel is doing well. Our, our podcasts are, are kicking ass. Our Patreon soaring. It's a, it's lovely, man.

2:58 It's love.

2:59 I'll be honest with you.

3:00 Like I, what was it Sunday night before we launched I had like the worst night's sleep ever because I was like really nervous and then Monday night I had the second worst night's sleep ever because I was really excited and last night was the first night where I was like this is working I'm gonna just sleep like a baby and it took a minute you guys know you guys went through the exact same thing right like yep it's terrifying it's terrifying to jump out into the great unknown and hope that this thing's gonna come together but people people have been fantastic and so it's just it's just the best feeling man.

3:31 Yep, that's, like I said, great to see. Glad you guys are being able to stick together. We've always loved you and Max and Seth, big fans over here. And that goes for not just the crew over here, but the community, like I was telling you earlier.

3:43 It's just they're so into what you're doing.

3:46 Right back at you, brother, man.

3:47 It's the best. Fantastic stuff. We will keep following you. We'll probably get Max on here at some point, everybody. So keep your eyes open for that as well.

3:55 Let's, you know what?

3:56 Let's get into it. Let's explain ourselves. We're Giant Bomb. Go to giantbomb.com slash join, become a premium member. If you do, you are supporting Independent Games Media. You're going to get access to a bunch of cool premium exclusive shows that we do. Right now, that does mean Metal Gear Scanlan. Drew is back playing through Peace Walker with Dan Reichert. Me and Mike have hopped in there for a couple of the four-player cooperative missions. It's been a riot that just got started, so go check that out now if you want to watch along as we release those episodes. We are in the works putting together 13 Deadly Sims 2 with Abby. She's going to kill us all in The Sims, so... Look out for that soon

4:32 as well. That's just the new stuff. There's plenty of active shows happening right now and a huge backlog. Go check that all out on GiantBomb.com and, again, become a premium member.

4:42 We really appreciate everyone who does support us.

4:45 It makes a world of difference, and it means a lot to me personally. As far as this show goes, most weekdays, I, Jeff Grubb, will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting. For all these topics, I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart.

5:02 If you are watching live on Twitch, welcome.

5:04 You can always listen to the show later on podcast feeds by searching for Game Mess Mornings. or find the RSS feed on GiantBomb.com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube.

5:17 Hello, YouTube.

5:19 All right, we have a lot to get into, so let's start the morning mess with Final Fantasy Resonance reviews. Got a couple of, uh, review rounds of round roundups here for everybody. Uh, let's do a Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Resonance. Uh, I have not had a chance to play this, not even the demo yet. Uh, it's doing well though. 85 on open critic. Uh, that includes a three out of five, three stars from Dom Peppiet at Eurogamer, a fantastic example of how to rewrite battle mechanics to suit a full fat RPG. It's just a shame about all the actual writing. This is a common thread I've seen across a couple of reviews. Uh, where people are like, eh, the writing's still a bit eye-rolly. Not everyone feels that way,

5:59 but I've seen it in a few places.

6:02 Let's see here.

6:02 GameSpot's Heidi Kemps gave it a 7 out of 10, says, but for Resonance's faults, the game otherwise delivered exactly what I wanted, a way for everyone to experience the story, characters, and world of Brave Exvius once again. And yeah, that's right. This was a mobile game, Brave Exvius, that has now been updated online. to run on consoles, remade in a lot of ways, and re-presented. And they seem to have captured a lot of that for these reviewers. The Six Axises, Dom Layton gave it an eight out of 10 and says, if you're left cold by the modern Final Fantasy games, Resonance returns you to a simpler time, offering old school action and a decent narrative while wrapping it in a delightful visual wrapper. Yeah, any interest in Resonance from you, Brian?

6:47 Yeah, this looks awesome.

6:48 I think the entire concept of like basically taking what is, you know, by all means an abandoned mobile game and pumping it full of steroids and turning it into a full fledged modern game is fucking brilliant. And it's one of those things where there are so many core great ideas in a lot of mobile games that you just can't access anymore. And maybe playing them on your phone was never the best place for those things. So I'm all for this being a success and that people basically going back and mining like these ancient abandoned mobile games and turning them into something that feels like an actual real adult.

7:25 Full-fledged video game, right?

7:27 Like it's very easy to roll your eyes at a lot of the sort of older mobile offerings, but there is good ideas in a lot of those things, even though a lot of them were sort of, you know, rat fucked with bad monetization angles. And so, yeah, turning those into real, full big ass video games, all for it.

7:44 Bring it on.

7:45 It also just like, it's such a smart idea for a company like Square Enix that is, they're taking a long time to make their big boy Final Fantasy games.

7:53 And that's the right move.

7:55 Final Fantasy has a layer of prestige on it that it has to apply every single time. They always got to come out and feel like, It's a big deal. And you could tell just by looking at it and that a lot comes with that in terms of time and money. How do you fill in the gaps in between? They haven't always done the best job with that. And this feels like one of their more creative attempts while also being very efficient with what they have, you know, the parts of the buffalo they had lying around them still.

8:20 And they're reusing it here in really smart ways and delivering something. I think a lot of people go, not only is this filling in the gap, It's it is providing that sort of old school turn based Final Fantasy, the fantasy of playing that kind of Final Fantasy once again. And that's something that I think a lot of people will be very excited about. And they could sort of speak up to Square Enix and say, we want even more of this by showing up for this game that it by, you know, by all accounts is at least pretty good, according to all of these reviews.

8:50 No, I think you nailed it.

8:51 I think that that, this is the strategy or should be the strategy for every, you know, AAA or AA gaming studio right now. That's got legacy IP that people really love. It is, you're going to work on a video game for six or seven years, right? And it's going to be gigantic and expensive and flashy. How do you fill in the blanks between that? How do you keep the lights on?

9:09 Right?

9:10 Like even, even Capcom's like, Hey, we're bringing back 2D Mega Man. And you're like, hell yeah.

9:14 Like between the big ass Resident Evils and Onimushas and You know, Pragmata, you get smaller games like that. I think Nintendo's always been really good about that. You know, I think Sega's starting to figure that out again, too. Ubisoft, I think, was, like, sort of scratching at that for a little while, and it just seems like the balance wasn't necessarily there just yet.

9:34 We have a story about Ubisoft bringing back a game to Switch 2 here in a little bit that's going to be kind of a wild one.

9:39 Oh, interesting.

9:40 Yeah.

9:40 Okay. Yeah. You're right.

9:44 Like, you can look at each of these companies and be like, what is your... what strategy do you have to approach this way of providing a steady cadence of releases, a steady cadence of new stuff for people who want to spend money on the things you're making and there are clearly a couple of companies who have it figured out like Capcom. And when you look at this, it's like, okay, yeah, more of this, please. I think, you know, a couple of years back, Square Enix, it's not like they had a dearth of releases. They were releasing a lot of games, but there was a lot of them that were like, who's this exactly for? I'm trying to think like the name of some of them. They've all escaped my brain.

10:19 But there was a couple of words like, yeah, OK, you know, some of these games are pretty good, but you're releasing a lot of them. And in the meantime, people are wondering what's going on with Final Fantasy. And this feels like taking some of that, those efforts and applying it back into the thing that does matter most to them. And that's that that is the lesson to learn from a company like Capcom and now Konami. Get your big stuff right. And that means a right in a bunch of different ways. Do Resident Evil right in all these different ways. And then that frees you up to now go back to worry about the 2D Mega Man games again. And it's, yeah, I think this is them on the right path with something like this. And

10:56 I do expect them to learn from this. This won't be, I don't think this is like a one-off. Oh, they got it right this time and they're going to go back to their old ways or something like that.

11:02 I expect them to kind of repeat this.

11:04 I also think that they and no other studio will ever remake a game from 25, 30 years ago and turn it into a trilogy that spans nine years. The middle part is console exclusive for a little while. Like, I think there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot. That game is going to be complete. And when it's done, I think it's going to be one of the biggest and most incredible video game success stories of all time.

11:27 Yes. kind of rocky as a rollout there.

11:32 And like, it'll get there eventually where somebody will be able to buy Final Fantasy VII Remake as one complete thing. And they'll play it start to finish and they'll be like, there's nothing like that that's ever been made before.

11:43 But fuck, man, I don't think anyone's going to ever do anything like that again.

11:46 Nope. It truly is singular for a bunch of reasons.

11:49 No other game could really stand up to that kind of that level of remake scrutiny and no other company would want to spend the time and money to do it.

11:57 Real quick, some of those Square Enix games I couldn't think of. D.O. Field Chronicle, Various Daylife, and Triangle Strategy is a pretty good one. I think that one broke through.

12:05 But yeah, all of them were like, there was a lot of those and they just weren't getting the mind share that I think they needed.

12:12 I can't believe you couldn't remember those names.

12:15 Square Enix.

12:16 Those household names, you know?

12:18 Come on, man. The children will not shut up about various daylights.

12:22 You can't walk outside without hearing them talk about it.

12:25 All right.

12:26 Meanwhile, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort reviews are also in this week. And 80 on Open Critic. And that's like, this is not one of these ones where it's like, oh, there's a lot of fives and a lot of nines. It's almost all eights, eights and 8.5s. People are like, no, this delivered exactly.

12:42 What I wanted.

12:43 And then I say that. And of course, Kurt and Davina over at GameSpot gave it a nine. As someone who played the original Wii Sports when it first released and was awed by the rudimentary real life movements being mimicked on screen, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort allowed me to feel that all over again as an adult. And it's a feeling best felt surrounded by friends. And then four stars from Chris Scullion over at VGC. As the 20th anniversary of Wii Sports approaches, Nintendo Switch Sports Resort delivers the fifth and finest iteration of the series to date.

13:11 The 12 sports provide.

13:12 A good variety, and while some of them continue to have the same deliberate control quirks that have remained for two decades now, the overall package is rammed with content regardless of whether you enjoy local or online multiplayer or prefer to play alone. I think there was another review, and I'm sorry, I can't remember who wrote this one.

13:29 They pointed out something that's very true about a game like this. when you're making a game for a casual audience, you could tell a lot of work goes into making it feel like it's not a lot of work to play. Like it just gets to the fun in a very immediate way. And that there's a lot of unseen invisible work on Nintendo side to reach that point. And this game apparently very good at that. I've not touched this one yet. I want to, I really enjoy the Wii Sports series.

13:57 How about you? You interested in picking this one up? Oh, yeah, big time.

14:01 Yeah, I'm a big fan of Woohoo Island.

14:05 Yes. Woohoo Island lore is very important to me, yeah.

14:09 Yeah, I think Nintendo was like, we want to treat Woohoo Island like it's its own character.

14:13 And I was like, okay, mission accomplished.

14:15 Like New York City in a romantic comedy, yeah. Yeah.

14:18 Yeah, no, I love the idea of, like, you get to, like, skateboard around this island and, you know, fuck stuff up. There's some GTA stuff where you can hit people and steal their vehicles and stuff like that. I think that's awesome. They added guns, which is– it's huge. Like, it was the number one most requested thing from my kid. Helicopter crashes.

14:35 There's bank heists and.

14:36 Stuff like that.

14:36 So, yeah, Woohoo Island is fucking crazy now.

14:39 It's no– It's nuts.

14:41 It's, it's, it's going nuts.

14:42 There's riots and it's, it's on fire. It's fucking insane. No, I, I really can't wait for the play this game. I think it's so funny that they, they made like a video game where you can thumb wrestle.

14:51 It's like, you can just fucking do that.

14:53 You just turn to the person next to you, but yeah, then you have to touch human skin and yeah, I get that. It's scary.

14:58 Yeah. I am allergic to that. No, uh, I think, I think this is awesome.

15:02 This is also, I think this is going to be the first, this will be the first Nintendo game I buy since getting laid off.

15:08 So, uh, It better be worth it. I.

15:10 I definitely, uh, yeah, I have my, uh, my Nintendo podcast and I'm like, you know, I like buying the Nintendo games and just kind of having that, uh, cache of saying, yeah, I buy these things. I spent a lot of money on Nintendo's first party games and their partner games and stuff like that. And yeah, this is one I'll be picking it up and I'll try to play with the kids. I often find that they, uh, any any game that is a competition and then we play as a family they just get pissed off at each other and that's a bad time.

15:35 Oh they get pissed off at each other do you do you like do you crush them on purpose or do you just kind of hang back and.

15:39 I try to beat them one out of like five times so like just to kind of keep them honest uh like it's like oh you're not winning every time but most of the time but if they lose one out of five times it's still devastating to them it's like.

15:50 You kids you heard it here first uh giant uh jeff jeff grub beats his kids.

15:54 One that's right absolutely go tell them I'm.

15:58 In the same boat and I have to turn to my daughter and be like, Hey, this is supposed to be fun.

16:01 Like this is a video game.

16:02 And at the second, it's not fun. Uh, we're going to, we're going to turn it off and then we're just going to turn it off. They were going to turn it off. And I, and then I'm going to play it myself.

16:09 Yes.

16:10 I'll take it another room and play this video game like an adult, very quietly and solemnly.

16:16 I'm excited for this.

16:18 I want to go bowling and all that and fly around the island and do crimes.

16:22 I just had my best bowling match.

16:26 We switched sports for the first one for the Bombathon, and I got a striker's spare in every frame, and I was very proud of myself, Brian. I did very good in that. So I'm ready for some more bowling here.

16:38 Dude, you're a dad. Fucking real bowling now is like $ 200.

16:41 It's crazy. It's fucking insane.

16:45 Like what am I supposed to do? Yeah.

16:47 It sucks.

16:47 Yeah.

16:48 You're like onion rings. They're like 25 bucks.

16:50 Yep.

16:51 It's a, it turned into a, into a true nightmare. And there's, yeah, there's actually been a lot of reporting about what's happened to bullying alleys.

16:57 It's depressing.

16:58 It's not depressing on woohoo Island. You can never say that. I mean, if you, if you're depressed, they'll shoot you.

17:03 So that's how they deal with them on woohoo Island. I, yeah, I, I.

17:10 Always loved the, the original Wii sports realizing that, that the golf courses were the same courses as the NES golf game.

17:19 That was insane.

17:20 That was such a, I'm like, oh man, I love that kind of thing. They didn't make a big deal about it. They just did that and being like, oh my God, yeah, you could see it. It's like they recreated that NES 8-bit style course here on Wii Sports.

17:32 And there's a lot of that sort of thing in these games.

17:34 Do you know that there's always that specific type of video game consumer who gets really mad at stuff like that sometimes?

17:41 They're like, they reused the tree from.

17:44 The last Pokemon game.

17:45 And I've always been like, yeah, I don't give a shit. Yes.

17:49 Jeff Vogel of Spiders, I think is the name of his studio, did talk about that. He's like, I've used the same wolf model. in like 20 of my games. And I'm like, that's a dude right there.

17:58 He gets it.

17:59 Yes.

18:00 If you make a good wolf, you should be able to use it for the rest of your life.

18:03 That's the law. Yes, absolutely.

18:05 Put that on a shirt. I am going to be checking this game out for sure. Maybe we'll make the whole crew play it here pretty soon, everybody. Looking forward to that.

18:13 All right, let's keep going. Next story.

18:15 That's the story that's been happening right now. Price is going up. Report claims Xbox is targeting 2028 for Project Helix. and costs could be between $ 1, 200 and $ 1, 800. This is from Andy Robinson at VGC. Xbox's next console, Project Helix, will release by holiday season in 2028 and could cost between $ 1, 200 and $ 1, 800, according to a new report. That's according to a new profile of CEO Asha Sharma by Fortune.

18:45 which features alleged new details on Xbox's progress developing Project Helix. According to the publication, Microsoft's gaming arm is planning to release a next-generation handheld device by 2027, the holiday of, which is kind of, that's new information. I think we weren't really expecting that anymore. And its next console, the next home console, will arrive the following holiday in 2028.

19:08 As it stands, the price of the Helix console has internally been projected to cost consumers between $ 1, 200 and... and $ 1, 800, it's a big margin, but also there's still a lot of price increases to come for RAM and memory and storage and all that. And they say that will be the price unless Microsoft decides to subsidize the cost, which.

19:26 Is seeming less and less likely as well.

19:29 The Helix price projections align with analysts and insiders and what they've warned could be on the cards for the next generation of game consoles, given ongoing global component shortages, which we've gone over ad nauseum over here. Brian, I mean, the headline is kind of the important thing here. People see a comma in the price.

19:50 For a console. That's not something we've seen before. And what, what do we do? Like, what do we do about this? Yeah.

19:57 The thing I keep coming back to, and I don't, I don't think anybody, any of the console manufacturers, you know, any of the big three are going to be able to avoid what's, what's happening right now.

20:07 Right.

20:07 But I think with with Xbox specifically, the thing I keep coming back to is that in any any point in video game history, this is probably the worst time to be in last place. Like it is the it is the worst time to climb back up. You have, you know, as we all know, people have built these gigantic digital and sometimes physical libraries for for their game systems.

20:28 For a while.

20:28 That's going to be worth who knows. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

20:31 And.

20:31 You know, like I've got a couple hundred games on PS5 and my Switch that I started building that library on Switch 1. And, you know, PS5 was PS4 and all that. And with Xbox, you know, to a lesser degree, I think that they've had a really hard time breaking in this generation. And they had a lot of difficulty with Game Pass and stuff like that. I love my Series X. I bought it on launch day. I thought the Quick Resume and Game Pass and so many other things.

20:56 Yeah, it's awesome.

20:57 It's awesome hardware.

20:58 Their controller lasts like a fucking million hours compared to my DualSense that dies when I walk by it.

21:04 Look at it, yeah.

21:05 But this idea now of asking people to put aside their Switch 2 and their PS5 and go in on the next generation with Xbox at a starting point of $ 1, 200 minimum, up to $ 1, 800, it is just appalling. It's not going to work. And I feel for them because it's like. I do believe that they have a good game library.

21:28 I do believe that they're really competent and brilliant when it comes to designing video game hardware.

21:34 I think competition is good.

21:36 I think it's awesome when all three of these systems are doing well and people are also playing on PC and everything. That is a net positive for consumers, right? But I cannot imagine anybody being like, hey, I'm going to trade in everything. I'm going all in on an $ 1, 800 next-gen Xbox. I understand what they're saying about You know, this there's the rumors of it being basically a PC that you can also access the Microsoft store on.

22:02 Right.

22:02 Cool.

22:03 I mean, consumers have options in that space now, too. Like it's a lot easier to sort of buy a kind of battle ready PC at.

22:10 A at a Best Buy or something like that. So it's they're just getting squeezed on all sides. Right. It's so.

22:16 Yeah.

22:17 Yes.

22:17 Every every which way. They're absolutely there is pressure on every side.

22:21 When I talk about PlayStation, I was talking about like the piracy stuff is really starting to bubble up.

22:25 That's even more pressure on a different side to act. But yeah, when it.

22:28 When it comes to Microsoft, yeah, they have to find a way to make people care about this console. And then you go, wait, do they have to? They could just sell their games everywhere. And then you see the recent choices seem to be, no, they are moving in that direction of more exclusives on Xbox. And then the recent rumors are they're looking at doing that way more.

22:51 And it's like you pointed out, like, wasn't the rumor that this thing's basically an open PC?

22:54 How does.

22:55 How do they make exclusive games? Well, there's going to have to be some solution for that. That's their problem. They'll figure it out. But OK, then you're going to have games that are exclusive to this twelve hundred dollar console. That doesn't I don't buy that for a second. There's going to be way there's got to be other ways for people to access these games that cost 100 to 200 to 300 million dollars to produce There's no way you're locking it down to something that a very small subset of what was already a small subset of people.

23:23 You're not gonna lock it down to them.

23:24 You know, you're gonna have to find a way to broaden that audience and Like what is their big motivating factor here? is it to broaden the audience for selling the selling of the video games or is it to broaden the audience of selling the hardware so you can kind of control that ecosystem and And you said it, in a lot of ways, it was already lost when people started building their libraries on PS4 and Switch and PC.

23:47 And it's an uphill battle before the price went up to four figures.

23:51 Yeah, and that's, you know, you think about when Nintendo was faltering with the Wii U, right? And they still had the 3DS to kind of rely on at the time. Numbers were kind of declining around the same time for both of those things. They were selling Amiibo. They were getting into merchandising. They started making deals to create movies and theme parks. They had other revenue streams. Microsoft has those too, right? Not specifically Xbox, but they've found ways to make other money, right? They're a trillion-dollar corporation. But Nintendo at the time, when they decided to sort of consolidate all of their concepts and make the Nintendo Switch, which unified their handheld and console lines into one complete

24:28 form factor... They weren't dealing with global chip shortages, right? They weren't dealing with tariffs. They weren't dealing with all of the issues. They weren't dealing with an economy that the average consumer is dealing with right now. When Sega decided, you know, things are not going so great for our console line, they did what you just suggested Xbox should do, which is like, yeah, we're going to keep making games forever.

24:48 We're going to sell them everywhere. We're just going to become a third-party publisher. And we're still talking about Sega games today, right? They're still making cool shit. They're still successful. There's a way for them to pivot here. And I don't necessarily think that, you know, like I said before, it's good to have competition in the space. I don't know if they're the ones to do it anymore. And I don't know if an $ 1, 800 console is competition. I think it's a non-starter for the average consumer right now.

25:15 We saw people wouldn't even get invested into this generation, right?

25:18 Yes.

25:19 You had companies messaging people on their PS4 being like, hey, just a heads up, we made a PS5, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's crazy because people were like, I'm going to play my games that I can play. The graphics are good enough. Most of the games are still coming to last gen. And, you know, people are just sticking with what they have in this economy right now.

25:38 And I do not blame them. So it's going to be really tough. And it's going to be tough for me because I want to buy all these systems on day one. That's like a conversation I have to have with my family. And I'm like, hey, $ 1, 800, we could go on vacation.

25:51 Yes, right.

25:52 Yes, that's a weekend trip, a nice weekend trip at that. And it's, yeah, we're starting talking about, I guess I'll finance this. It's like, no, that's insane. Why would I put myself through that for what? And then that's when it's on these companies to present their case. And this was the original sin of this next generation. There's not a lot of buzzwords they're going to be able to turn to. This is something I talk about all the time as well, where they were always going to have issues, even if it was, you know, there was an Xbox Series S at the beginning of this generation, if they had the equivalent for $ 300, again, they were going to have a hard time getting people to buy that thing because, what,

26:27 now it supports 8K?

26:28 No one has an 8K TV. No one cares. What... What's the equivalent buzzword?

26:33 There is nothing. We have plateaued. The valley, what's it called?

26:40 The sort of.

26:40 Uncanny Valley, yeah.

26:42 Thank you.

26:42 The Uncanny Valley has been either bypassed or people have just forgotten about it and don't care anymore.

26:48 The return there is done.

26:51 We've gotten to the place where video games don't need to look much better in a lot of people's opinions and the real sort of threshold of how can we make our games look better is no longer, oh, it's being held back by hardware. It's being held back by processors. It is time and money. And that goes back to the PS4 and Last of Us Part II looking better than anything that had ever come out before. So there's all these problems of like, okay, so how do they get us excited about this new hardware?

27:16 And that's before the price increases. That's before they were probably gonna have a PS5 and an Xbox that are gonna continue on for a very long time that you already own and keep releasing cross-gen games for both.

27:28 And so not giving you much reason to move on. And if they do, Those games better really be magical, and that feels like it's harder to come by than ever.

27:36 It's exactly that.

27:39 You and I are old enough to know that when you get six years into the average console generation for the longest time, you start feeling like, okay, these things are starting to show their age. Yeah, you're like, I'm ready for the new thing. This hardware is holding back the developers.

27:53 Visions here.

27:54 These games are not as good looking as they should be. I'm not feeling that right now at all. Like, I had issues with Wolverine, but I wasn't sitting there being like, God, this thing barely runs. Like, you look at the GTA 6 trailer and the amount of details in there that people are pulling off on six-year-old hardware. That thing's going to run on a Series S. I can't wait to see that, by the way.

28:13 I can't wait.

28:14 Yeah, that's going to be a blast. I think it's going to be like the cyberpunk last-gen stuff all over again.

28:19 But, yeah, no one looked.

28:21 At the GTA 6 trailer and said, man, this looks like shit. We really need an $ 1, 800 console to help sustain Rockstar's vision here. Like, it's just not happening anymore. And in many ways, that's really good, right? Like, that's a really good thing as an investment. I mean, the fact that console prices have gone up for the first time in the history of the industry instead of getting price drops or, you know, smaller form factors, new entry points like the Switch Lite or whatever, the top-loading NES stuff.

28:48 All those things.

28:48 Like we always had options, right? That's gone. That doesn't really happen anymore.

28:52 And so, yeah, if you bought a PS5 in 2020, it's worth more now than when you bought it. And the games still look and play awesome. So you're good to go, which is great for us. But that's not great for Xbox. It's not great for Sony. Like these guys need to make money off of hardware at some point because game development takes so long. So all they can really do is get subscription service money out of us, right? Yes.

29:16 They're like, pay us every month.

29:17 That's super important to them.

29:18 Yeah.

29:19 Yeah. So they figured.

29:20 That out like last generation as well, where it's like it was up until this point, the new generation would lose them a ton of money. And I'm talking about Sony now specifically, the new generation would just lose a ton of money for the first couple of years. And then they smoothed that out from PS4 to PS5, where it was not just like seamless. They actually started making more money right away. And it's like okay they have that built in now so their expectations are now we need to grow even more like they've that is this this real tough spot that they're in we're talking about how do they maintain this momentum how do they kind of keep keep a hold of what they already have they actually need to grow to justify themselves to investors

29:55 you know if uh They're not growing 8% per year. The investors will just go, well, I'll just put it in the stock market instead and I will get that return there. And that comparison is very, very tough for these companies. And that is why they turn to squeezing us for more money and nickel and diming us. And we're going to like we have already felt it. It's definitely been a pressure that I think consumers are feeling in their wallet and they will notice it more because it's not going to stop. It's only going to increase from all of these companies going forward. And the obvious price of the console is just the start of that.

30:27 You did a great video recently that I really loved. I meant to message you about this.

30:30 It was about PlayStation just not really caring about building brand loyalties.

30:37 Right.

30:37 Yeah.

30:38 And it was it was more about just.

30:39 Yeah, no, it was I thought that was like so eloquent and so well stated in terms of like an angle that I think a lot of people aren't really understanding right now is that that used to be what felt like the mantra for a really long time for these companies was to. build this thing that you create generational fans. And at this point, I think they're like, no, we make a box that makes money. And that money has to come from subscription services. And it comes from, you know, predominantly third party games that we have no investment in whatsoever. And, you know, we get a nickel and dime off of every Call of Duty microtransaction, every time a kid plays Fortnite on our system. But the average person does not care about the PlayStation ecosystem anymore, right?

31:21 Or at least.

31:22 That's what the idea is that that's what these companies are thinking.

31:25 And it bums me out, man. It bums me out.

31:27 But yeah, go watch that video if you haven't because Jeff killed it.

31:30 Thanks. I appreciate that. Let's just talk about this very briefly.

31:35 Speaking of like keeping these current generation consoles around for much longer, there's more and more like small tech coming to support that. AMD is bringing FSR 4.1 to Xbox Series X and S and older PC hardware as well. This is tech that's sort of basically FSR, obviously, is the upscaling from AMD, similar to DLSS, which a lot of people kind of know is the name brand there.

31:57 FSR 4.1 specifically is actually when it did get pretty good. They made it look a lot sharper in motion. It handles a sort of scaling of resolution. So when a game is like in this scene, we actually need to lower the resolution dynamically. 4.1 can handle that a lot better. And there's just a lot less shimmering, a lot less of the shadowing of edges and stuff like that. And now 4.1 is going to be supported on Xbox Series X and S. And that is kind of a very it's a big deal just because image stability was something a lot of these consoles were losing as they were turning more and more to these upscaling techniques.

32:33 It's not going to be some magic bullet.

32:36 And it's definitely not going to be like, oh, now all your games are going to look better necessarily, but it will be something developers can turn to and have a little bit more headroom when they're working with their games.

32:45 And that's going to be at a premium.

32:46 Because I think in five years, it won't, it's not impossible to me that more people will still be playing on a PS5 or an Xbox Series X and S than will be playing on the next gen consoles if these prices are maintained like this.

32:59 Absolutely.

33:00 And like, look at what you just said, right? It's like the tech underneath the hood of the system you already own is getting better. And you used to have to buy the N64 expansion pack.

33:09 Or download more RAM. Yeah, you could download more RAM.

33:12 Yeah, or download more RAM, right?

33:13 But for consoles, it was pretty much like you get what you get and it's there forever. And developers were figuring out how to pull off tricks on individual games, right? Like you would look at the fur textures in a rare game six years into the N64 versus the first year. And games did get better looking over time. Developers figured out how to play with the hardware to its best powers.

33:35 But this stuff now where they can just beam you an update that makes your games look better, that's all the more reason to just hold on to what you have. And so, yeah, man, it all goes back to the same thing. It's like the best time to buy a current-gen console was six years ago, and the second best time is today because the worst time is tomorrow when it goes up in price again.

33:55 A million percent. All right.

33:56 Let's let's take a break. We're going to come back with some more headlines here in a moment. If you want to skip out on these ad messages, just go to Giant Bomb dot com slash join.

34:03 The ad free version of the audio and video show is there. We will be right back. Gosh, what am I going to do?

34:10 I know plenty about starting a business, but I don't know anything about spinning.

34:13 Up a store. Jeff Grob, don't worry.

34:16 My best friend Merchant Tech can help you do that.

34:19 I thought I was your best friend, Mike Minotti. Not anymore.

34:22 Merchant Tech is here to help support independent sellers like you. They can do it all in one easy-to-use platform.

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34:49 I hope Merchant Tech will be my new best friend, too. I needed a way to figure out how to make a merch store, figure out payments and other stuff I've struggled with starting my business.

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35:05 Easy to use tools and unmatched customer service. Hit up our friends over at merchant.tech slash giant bomb.

35:14 It's Game Mess Mornings. I'm Jeff Grubb. That's Brian Altano. We are back.

35:18 Let's get right into it. EA Sports is officially reviving Fight Night, the boxing series.

35:23 Yes.

35:24 Andy Robinson of EGC writes, EA Sports is officially reviving.

35:27 It's a long, dormant boxing game series, Fight Night.

35:30 In an announcement on social media published on Tuesday, the publisher simply wrote, to everyone who stayed in our corner, Fight Night is coming back. Fight Night hasn't seen a new installment since 2011's Fight Night Champion. And 15 years following the last game's development, EA shifted its attention to UFC, releasing five entries of EA Sports UFC between 2014 and 2026.

35:53 I like Fight Night.

35:55 This is cool.

35:56 Although my expectations for what an EA game looks like now compared to when 2011 Fight Night came out.

36:03 Very different.

36:04 Uh, I don't know how they're going to do fight night ultimate team. I'm sure they'll find a way to try to do it though. Uh, regardless, you know, if they're going to keep making games like this, I personally prefer fight.

36:14 Night to UFC. So glad to see this is happening.

36:17 Same.

36:17 The, uh, fight night demo that they put out on Xbox 360. I played, I played that like 150 times. That was what one of the, at the time I thought that was one of the best looking video game. It was like there was there's sweat and they're like the, You know, you would see folds on the punching gloves and stuff like.

36:37 That.

36:38 This is a tangent, but my nephew went to a toy convention on the East Coast the other day, and he's a big G.I.

36:43 Joe fan, and he got this G.I. Joe named Knockout. Do you know him?

36:48 I do not know Knockout.

36:49 Knockout is he's a shirtless man with a helmet and punching gloves.

36:54 And I was just texting my brother.

36:55 Yeah.

36:56 I was like, I was just thinking like this guy is like scrambling on the battlefield and he's like going to unholster.

37:03 Let me lace up real quick. Yeah. Like, yeah.

37:05 Imagine you're like in an active war zone and the guy fucking punches you in the head with boxing gloves.

37:10 It's like specifically designed to be non-lethal.

37:12 You're like, yeah, I'd be, I would be way more upset than if he just shot me. Actually. Come on, man. How do I deal with this? I need to talk to somebody. I'm going to.

37:21 Have the weirdest PTSD after this.

37:23 Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking forward to what they do with this.

37:27 I think that it does seem like, oh, they're going to put the Paul brothers in here and kind of modern celebrity boxing as right as an aspect of this.

37:36 Cause that is where that sports at, at the moment.

37:38 Didn't they put, they put little Mac in one of these games, right? Do you remember that?

37:43 I don't remember that. Is that true? Cause I would, I love punch out.

37:46 So it's like, yeah, they, they put in, it was like a hyper realistic, but still cartoony little Mac from punch out.

37:53 And I'm, I'm hoping I'm not just a mad, I'm almost positive.

37:56 This is really a thing. Yeah.

37:58 Look it up if you can. It's, I remember just like how disgusting it was. It was totally off model from everybody else in the rest.

38:05 Of the game.

38:05 Round two on GameCube says turbo Sean. Okay. Wow.

38:09 OK, yeah.

38:10 So it happened.

38:10 Cool. I'm very glad I didn't just hallucinate.

38:13 I need to go see this for myself. I am.

38:15 I am imagining like a way too terrifyingly realistic Mario, that sort of scenario.

38:21 And that's what they've done in this game. So I want to see this for myself. Yeah, he he looks.

38:25 Really fucking weird. Oh, my God. Yeah, he actually looks. So they made him look like.

38:30 The the the the little Mac from Super Nintendo, actually. Oh, OK.

38:34 Interesting. Yeah. I like that one, too.

38:37 Oh, man, that is that is a disgusting looking character model. Yeah. And he's bleeding. You can see his eyes bleeding because they put in all the realistic disfiguration.

38:46 Oh, my God. That's yeah. God, his eyes are insane. It looks like that.

38:52 God, that Looney Tunes character that was made after the actor Peter.

38:55 Lorre is what I want to say.

38:56 Yeah.

38:56 Oh, my God. That's spot on. That's what he looks like. That's fucking nuts.

39:01 You can make him fight Mike Tyson.

39:02 This is fucked up, man. Man, that was the best generation. Come on. It really was. Unhinged us.

39:10 All right.

39:12 Sorry.

39:13 No, I'm just I'm like getting hung up on this next headline. Riders Republic is coming to switch to this.

39:20 Yeah.

39:20 Riders Republic from the ubiquitous software company. This comes from Brittany Sperlin, who writes for Ubisoft. Switch 2 announcement. Riders Republic is coming to Switch 2 on December 9th, letting you complete in Extreme Sports on the go. I believe this game came out in 2021.

39:37 And now it's on Switch 2, which is, it's just bizarre to me, I guess.

39:44 But this has got to be one of those games that just has an audience that I've missed, that I don't see.

39:50 This was a game that Ubisoft put out like a year into the pandemic where no time didn't make sense. And I did, I did a, I think I did a let's play of this game with BMX legend, Matt Hoffman.

40:05 Okay. Incredible.

40:06 And yeah, it was one of those things where, you know, you were, you were doing shows remotely.

40:10 Like you would occasionally, like, I don't know, you would occasionally hop on a call with like a celebrity for a shoot and, Then just kind of like stand up and you'd be in sweatpants and you'd walk into the kitchen, you know, eat, eat peanut butter over the sink.

40:23 And you'd be like, what the fuck is life anymore?

40:27 One day this game is going to be on the switch to. Yeah, I will get Matt back on the horn because they're doing it. There is another aspect to this. Offline play is coming to Riders Republic on all platforms on December 9th as well. So alongside the Switch 2 version's upcoming release and the game being certified on Steam Deck, the team worked on empowering players to continue the progression even without an internet connection. This nomad mode allows players to enjoy the majority of Riders of Republic's content in single player. Explore the open world freely and progress through your careers at your own pace. Unlock landmarks, uncover beauty spots, and find all the balloons scattered across the world. Continue

41:06 to customize your character as you wish.

41:09 Notable maybe because... The crew.

41:11 One was that game that was one of the main targets of stop killing games, the movement of, Hey, we bought this game and sure there are multiplayer aspects of it that we do not expect to work forever for a variety of reasons, but there is also single player content that seems to require an internet connection. And when you take that away from us, like you've done with crew one, uh, This game that we paid for is now useless.

41:33 And Ubisoft, you should do something.

41:35 And maybe, hey, government, you should do something. We will begin petitioning you to do exactly that. I would say in response to that pressure, Ubisoft seems to be making some choices here of like, why don't we preemptively make our games work offline that we once required an internet connection for?

41:53 Good news, in my opinion. This is fantastic. Great news.

41:55 I think, I think, you know, that I think this is a direct correlation to the efforts of the stop killing games movement.

42:00 I'm all for the work they're doing.

42:01 I think it's, uh, I think it sucks when you pay for something and then it just disappears. Like for regardless of what that thing is like, that's, that's just been the, you know, you, you, you have a digital movie library. The amount of times I've, my kids been like, let's watch ghostbusters. And I'm like, I know I fucking bought that.

42:18 Yeah.

42:19 I know I bought it. Uh huh.

42:20 And it's just gone because you know, somebody behind the scenes at Amazon was just like, flip a switch, make them pay for it again. And yeah, so anything they can do to make sure that the games that we purchase are playable in some form for as long as we can own them, whatever the ownership means anymore, I'm all for it.

42:38 Yep, absolutely.

42:39 And this is a game that I actually did enjoy when it first came out. I didn't play a ton of it, but I don't know if.

42:44 I'm playing on the Switch 2 or even the Steam Deck, but I'll check it out one more time, I think. All right, and then there's a... There's a big war happening on Twitter right now.

42:54 Tekken 6's fan-made PC revival sparks a fight over preservation, piracy, and loyalty to publishers. A fan project that brings Tekken 6 to Windows with rollback netcode and online lobbies has sparked a heated disagreement on Twitter between prominent Japanese fighting game figures and Western supporters. The argument escalated over October 17th through the 20th.

43:16 Let's see. Tekken 6 native online, which is maintained by.

43:19 Xpam, recompiles the Xbox 360 game to run natively on PC. Its current documentation says the package contains no game files. Users supply their own Xbox 360 disc image and build it locally. This is distinct from X-Spem's earlier PS3 emulator-based project. Fighting game pro Degura, who I'm sure I'm saying his name wrong, condemned the unauthorized port and expressed disbelief at overseas acceptance. Arica vice president Ichiro Mihara, who advised on Tekken 8's online networking, also criticized public defenses of copyright infringement.

43:53 Their central objection is that fans are using someone else's work without permission, regardless of whether the publisher offers an equivalent product. There has been sort of a lot of backlash to those statements, Brian, where people are pointing out, well, then let us buy the game. You can't buy this game anymore. So we're just going to do this ourselves.

44:11 And then the response to that from some Japanese posters has been, well, no, you're still kind of taken away from the companies because you should go buy their new game or make your own game, make your own equivalent or something like that. And this has revealed sort of this, a chasm in the culture around these things. And I will not try to speak for or, you know, sort of even criticize the Japanese cultural perspective on this. I will only speak from my own perspective here, Brian, where I say corporations will take it all from us if they can. And I am I am in no mood to sort of be like we need to do extra go through extra efforts to protect ourselves. their properties. Uh, if, if they want to pursue legal, uh, sort of, uh,

44:54 DMCA is on this stuff. They're welcome to, in the meantime, uh, as hobbyists people, I think should push against the, the outer boundaries of copyright law, because we know that that has almost always led to better outcomes, uh, creating space for fair use, creating, uh, sort of somewhat of a backlash against the, uh, ever growing reach of trying to stop the public domain from happening where, uh, you know, Disney would take more and more. And now it's actually reached a point where if they tried to extend public domain again, or, or the prevent print public domain from going into effect and keeping the copyright going longer, they actually would run into a wall and they wouldn't even be able to do that in today's Congress in the

45:32 United States. Cause they reached a point where they went too far and that's because people pushed back. Um, and, it's kind of hard for me to like, look at this and be like, you know, if they offered a way for people to play tech and six online, I bet people would show up and buy that game. And this is going through the hoops of, they are not providing anything that is copyrighted.

45:52 They're providing a tool and then you've got to provide the game yourself.

45:54 And of course we all know 99% of people are going to go get the pirated version of this. They're going to go download it themselves. But again, you cannot just go buy this version of this game right now. They don't sell it anymore. I am, interested in like hearing like, for like why so many Japanese people felt feel this way. And they, there were some good points that I will bring up again. I'm not speaking for them in any way. I don't feel comfortable doing that.

46:16 They're like, uh, Japan feels a little bit under assault, uh, because they are very good at making physical products. And in the last 10 to 15, 20 years, they've seen, uh, software services sort of take over the economy. And so there's this massive deficit in Japan between them producing excellent cars.

46:34 And then in the meantime, Google and Facebook and Microsoft have taken over their economies as well as the global economy. And they feel like if people are not respecting Japanese software copyright rules, that's going to take even more.

46:47 And it's like, I see that perspective.

46:50 I still think, We can't it's hard for me to humor the sort of corporations needs here.

46:57 That is not my concern. It's their problem. How do you feel about all this?

47:00 No, I mean, I think you nailed it specifically with the stuff about them not offering a legal viable, you know, over the counter solution to be able to actually purchase these games. I think that the stuff happening in the sort of decompilation recomp scene.

47:18 Right now is brazy.

47:21 It is, it is like the toothpaste is out of this tube, the genie's out of the bottle or whatever. And yeah, most of these things, these people are effectively building a shell that you provide your own, you know, ROM for or whatever it is.

47:35 And you're off to the races.

47:37 And like, I think about recently I played through Dusklight, which was this incredible sort of like fan recreation of Twilight Princess. And my kid and I have been playing through all the Zelda games and we love doing that. And I have Twilight Princess HD on my Wii U and I plugged it in, set everything up and the disc didn't work. It just stopped working. And I was like, okay, well, I can't buy this.

48:03 On Switch 2. There's no legal way.

48:06 Yeah, I own it. I own the game.

48:07 And so.

48:09 I launched Dust Light and I played it on my AYN Thor and I loved it.

48:14 It was awesome.

48:16 And when they put that game out again for Switch 2, I will buy it. And, you know, I will buy the next Zelda game. It is a net positive for me as a fan of that franchise. And I think the same thing happens here with Tekken. I completely understand their point of like, hey, that's our thing. But there's no legal recourse currently for, you know, putting out a free shell that somebody else provides their own software for.

48:41 that then allows them to play a game that you are no longer selling anymore.

48:45 So we know if we give the corporations, then she'll take a mile.

48:48 We know that if we, uh, be like, okay, yeah, make this, uh, this, the John Deere tractor have better technology.

48:54 Like they're okay. We're going to do that.

48:55 And we're going to remove your right to repair. And we're going to charge you $ 25, 000 to repair your transmission. Cause no one else can do it.

49:01 Only we could do it. So we get to set the prices.

49:03 We, we, we know how we've seen this over and over again. And again, this is cause you know, this terrible form of capitalism. is laboratory here. And so we've seen it firsthand and we know how it can get out of hand. In fact, I feel it in my bones that like, oh, I could see how my people created this awful, version of capitalism that takes and takes and takes. And maybe they don't feel that in Japan.

49:24 So they don't have that same exact fear of it that I do. And that we got to put a little bit of a stake in the ground and say this far, no further. And I definitely feel that with all of these things. But the right to repair movement is right in line with this sort of, hey, He owns that copy of Zelda. He's going to be able to find a way to do that. And he's completely in the ethical and moral right to do so. In my opinion, I am, uh, I, you know, I never am going to chastise anyone who is pirating modern games. I, it's just, I don't care that much, but I don't go in like pirate switch one games.

49:54 They're actively selling those games. I don't do like the games that I could buy right now. I don't do that. That's my own personal line.

50:00 But, you know, this is definitely something where, obviously, these things are all in one big bucket together in a lot of ways. And it is hard to, like, strip them apart. But the line for me is, if I can't buy it anymore, and especially if I own a copy of it already, I'm going to do what I want with it.

50:16 It's mine.

50:17 Yeah. Yeah.

50:18 And I think it's, you know, it's very, very tricky. And I totally understand what you're saying. And I understand the concern from the Japanese game developer scene.

50:28 But at the same time, ultimately.

50:30 somebody wants to enjoy a thing you make and you are not a, you're not giving them a legal pathway to do it.

50:36 They're going to find a way otherwise.

50:38 And then after that, they're going to go, you know, I really liked this franchise and you put out a new game and they're going to, they're going to play it.

50:43 So yeah, like I, they don't. Yeah.

50:46 So what, you know, like this, like someone did point out, like potential customers, aren't.

50:49 A publisher's property. Like they don't own anything. like your future money. Yeah.

50:53 And it's like, yeah, that was a really, really good line. I can't, I actually don't, didn't write down who said that here. Uh, but yes, that was a really good line. I saw when people were arguing about this, uh, last thing DreamWorks Trek to remastered announced, uh, they're bringing it back.

51:05 Aspire announced that during.

51:06 The, uh, yes, the idea Xbox show. It finally happened, Brian. We can, uh, we can now truly celebrate, uh, he's back and.

51:15 They're doing their thing.

51:16 Did you see the trailer for it?

51:17 I saw a little bit of it. Yeah. What'd you think?

51:21 They basically did a teaser trailer that looked like GTA 6, right? So it's all these very sunny, very kind of tropical-looking places.

51:28 Okay, I didn't notice that. That's incredible.

51:30 You see the laser logo start coming in, and it's the two with the fucking animal, whatever, that ogre ears.

51:37 Yes, the ogre ears.

51:38 Whatever those fucking things are. Does he hear through those things?

51:42 I don't know.

51:42 Does he also have holes on the side of his head?

51:44 Is that what it looks like down there?

51:46 Yeah. I.

51:50 I'm just going to assume. Yes, I think.

51:52 Yeah.

51:53 Yeah.

51:53 But there's, there's, there's two of them down.

51:57 It's the Shrek. He's got those on the top and on the bottom for some reason. All right.

52:02 Let's let's start wrapping this up. A poll question from Monday's show. Let me get the most. up-to-date responses there. So we have everyone's input. Let's see here from Monday. What do you want from a new Star Wars Battlefront? A new one from EA Dice, a new one from Bungie, a new one from a different team, or I don't want one. 37% said, I don't want one. These are people that are probably over Star Wars in every way.

52:27 Completely fair. 28% said, I want a new one from a different team. Brian, I think these are the people who want the return of the pandemic games. The games, the original ones from Xbox and stuff like that. Then 23% said they do want Bungie. 12% said they want one from DICE. We made this poll before that rumor expanded into maybe it's DICE and Respawn. Maybe that changes things a little bit. But yeah, look, I just think I do want a return to Battlefront. I think that they're going to do a good job. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do.

52:59 Me too.

52:59 I want, this is such a weird, peculiar little thing, but I'm a big fan of like toys and action figures and collectibles and stuff like that. And I really loved in some of the Battlefront games where you could unlock like 3D models of every single character model. I want that, but in like action figure packaging. And I want that to be like a bonus thing that you can unlock in the game. You get like a Boba Fett action figure that you can pose and stuff like that.

53:20 But yeah, I think Battlefront 2, like, you know, rocky start there, but turned out to be one of those most feature complete Star Wars games ever made.

53:27 And a real success story by the end.

53:29 So yeah, another sequel to that that has even more planets and even more Star Wars stuff that maybe was in Andor or maybe some of the other things. I think that's awesome. Yeah, take all things Star Wars and throw it in there. Let me shoot Grogu in the head, like whatever you want to do.

53:44 Exactly. It's time.

53:46 Yeah, I think that they can do years of battle passes, however they need to do the business model, with just Star Wars stuff and not run out anytime soon. They could do the Muzang Vong or however you say them from the EU or whatever shit and bring all that shit in there at some point.

54:01 I would love to see it.

54:02 We have a new poll question we'll get to here in a second. Before we do that, though, one more time, Brian, I'll tell people where they can find you on the Internet, your new thing.

54:08 Tell them all about it.

54:09 Thank you, Jeff. So, yeah, I used to work at IGN. I don't anymore.

54:12 I am now the co-founder of something called X Button. We are at Patreon.com slash X Button Show on YouTube. We are X Button Show on Twitter, Twitch, Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, Classmates.com, Pets.edu, all those things.

54:26 We're everywhere. We are crowdfunded, so head on over to Patreon.com.

54:30 We have two new shows, a weekly video game podcast, and a weekly Nintendo show called Nenfrendo 64, which we're all very excited about. It's me, Seth Macy, and Max Scoville, and it's going great so far. So come on board, come join us, and let's make a big family.

54:45 I said, let's make a big family.

54:47 I mean, look, they're Mormons. All right, everybody, they're going to do it their way. And we respect it around here. I, yes, go check that out. Everybody there on Patreon, please, please, please.

54:57 All right. Let's see here. New poll question. Are you getting into no switch sports resort? Simple. Yes or no.

55:01 Yes.

55:02 Yeah.

55:03 I got to go do crime on woohoo Island. I'm all in. I'm all in wrestling. Yeah.

55:09 If they did just make their GTA on woohoo Island, I would be, I would be ecstatic.

55:14 Somebody should recut the GTA six trailer and it's just woohoo.

55:17 Yes.

55:17 Do that. Get to work.

55:18 We'll, we'll cut that. We are going to have, let's see here. What do I do now? Oh, here's what I do now. I say, thank you everybody for watching Brian. Thank you for hanging out with us today and talking about video games, man. I really appreciate it.

55:33 Of course, man.

55:33 It was a blast.

55:34 Have me on whenever you want. We'll love to have you on our shows as well. Like I said, big, happy family. We'll make it happen for sure. Plenty of cool stuff happening today on Giant Bomb. Tune in at 2 p.m. today or 3 p.m. today, Jan, for Blight Club.

55:47 2 p.m. 2 p.m. Eastern. That's 11 a.m.

55:51 Pacific, everybody. Duke Mike comes back. So tune in for Duke Nukem Forever there.

55:57 We'll see you then. Bye, everybody. Catch you next time. Have a good one. Take care of yourself. Bye, guys.