July 31, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Game Pass Grab Bag, I'm stepping in for Andrew while he's on vacation. Join Aaron and me as we dive into the latest Xbox and gaming news. We discuss the unexpected move of Splitgate 2 returning to beta, the ongoing debate over game pricing, and the excitement and concerns surrounding upcoming releases like Battlefield 6. It's a fun and insightful chat, even if I fumble through the intro! Tune in for some laughs and gaming insights. Don't forget to join our Discord and follow us for more updates!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello again everybody and welcome to game pass grab bag,
your weekly podcasts bringing you game from the game pass
graduation. I am obviously not Andrew, hence
why I have no idea what I'm supposed to say here, although I
guess I kind of sound like Andrew but he's on vacation this
week. So Aaron and I are here and
we're doing a side quest episodetalking just some Xbox news,
(00:24):
gaming news, other fun stuff bringing you content.
So Aaron's here with me. As always I'd.
Love that you've been on this podcast for how many years and
you do not know the Dang intro at this point.
So don't get me wrong, I don't know it either, but you've been
here since the beginning. True, but you have to, you have
(00:45):
to understand that I don't pay attention until I hear my name.
I'm usually on my phone. I'm usually preparing something
else, not doing anything that I hear my name and it's like, oh,
hey, I am here. I'm like a like a 90s sitcom
like. Yeah, I, I mean, I get it,
Andrew. It's like clearly second nature.
He can like recite that thing with his eyes closed.
(01:09):
I just kind of expected a littlemore from you, Keith.
That was the big You don't even know where to find the music.
And even in this is the first time I've ever done this.
In my in my defense, the only other time I hosted an episode
was Andrew was still here. So this is actually our our
first Andrew free episode. Wow, this is wild.
Yeah, it's only hard to let it go.
Down six years to kick him off. Jeez, really sorry to let
(01:30):
everyone down today. Yeah, So, you know, sorry to let
everyone down. Andrew is not here.
He's on vacation visiting family.
He's with us in spirit. He's not visiting Aaron.
Not that family. Family he cares about.
So yeah, so you just got us tonight.
So yeah, we're talking news. Yeah, we're not reviewing the
(01:51):
game, just to be clear. We're not, we're no, but we are
talking games. So I don't know.
I figured I'd kick us off with, I think, I don't know, maybe the
biggest news of the week so far.You had posted it on our, on our
Reddit page, Aaron, but Splitgate 2 is UN launching.
So they are going back into a beta.
And all I have to say is I'm, I'm glad that we are the voice
(02:13):
of change in this world, becauseI feel like this was, this was
our doing. They they listened and they were
like, you know what Andrew said?This is a what was it, wildly,
wildly average game. And.
They're like, we got to, we got to do some of this.
Andrew doesn't like it. Yeah, the right.
That was the last game we reviewed, right?
Was the split gate? It might have been.
(02:36):
Because we record these episodeskind of a week before they come
out it you're typically moving on to something else before that
episode even comes out. So I tend to kind of get stacked
up a little bit and and and get a little confused.
But we didn't review anything because Andrew wasn't here.
So split again, I believe was the last game that we reviewed.
I was more positive on it than you guys were, but the
(03:00):
criticisms not wrong. It is pretty thin in comparison
to what games are launching with, especially if they're free
to play, free to play games. They got to hook you.
And truthfully, especially with the game like Split Gate 2, it's
kind of got one opportunity to get it right.
Like it's it you can only, what's the, what's the phrase?
(03:22):
You only get one introduction orsomething like that.
One first impression. You only get, you only get one
first impression and that unfortunately was not good
enough for a lot of people. So pretty much since it's
launched, it's been in kind of adeath spiral of just everyone
(03:44):
leaving the game as quickly as they got into it.
And I don't think it was becauseit's a bad game.
I still stand by that. I still think there's nothing
like it out there right now. So I still stand by that there's
there's nothing like split gate right now that you can go play.
I I guess maybe the closest thatis.
I mean, if you stay actively being worked on as Halo as just
(04:04):
like an arena shooter multiplayer game.
So it will stay active. I believe it's still on Game
Pass, so you can still play it. It's just going to be considered
in beta. I don't know what this changes
though. What does that change?
See, that was kind of my thoughtright To me in a way, like I
(04:26):
think it's interesting because Ithink it's, it's almost more of
a publicity stunt is I guess what I kind of feel like it is
like, sure, they'll roll the version numbers back.
It'll probably, you know, 0.9 O or something.
They'll they'll whatever. But anybody who's worked in
software knows that that number is meaningless.
It is nothing more than a way toidentify something.
(04:46):
So like ignore whatever the the version number actually says,
they'll roll that back, they'll call it a beta and it does two
things. It one, it basically gives them
a free reign to be like, oh, if this sucks a little bit, sorry,
just a beta. So in a way it's kind of lazy,
but it I don't know, I think it's it's the public admission.
(05:09):
And I think especially because we talked about this on the
Split Gate episode was the the arrogance that he walked out on
the stage. And that was what show just
drove everybody off the media that they hated the fact that he
was so big on for changing games.
We're going to make first personshooters great.
And then they come out with thisand it's like, well, it's fine,
but you didn't do anything to reinvent or make first person
(05:30):
shooters great. Again, something that already
wasn't not great. We have a lot of great first
person shooters out there right now.
So I thought that, you know, it is a weird statement.
So I think it's just a little bit of him showing humility.
So it's like a publicity thing more than anything.
Yeah, I think that's probably a pretty decent call where this is
them, just nothing's going to change.
(05:51):
You can literally download the game right now.
You can jump in and play it as is.
In fact, today I believe they launched a patch that updated a
bunch of stuff for, I want to say it was for the weapon camo
challenges, which was just one of their most recent updates was
adding that in there. So they added more to it.
(06:11):
So it's kind of odd that you know, the day before, hey, we're
going back into beta and then boom, here's an update for it.
Obviously not a large scale update, but why this stuff
always becomes so murky to me anyway.
It's just in the current state of video games, especially when
it comes to free to play games. Usually they launch a beta, it's
(06:31):
open so anybody can get into it and you just play it until one
day they just tell you it launched, nothing's changed.
You've been playing it and all of a sudden you're like, oh, I
guess this is the the launch of the game.
But you're right. I believe that this is probably
way more of a sign of humility and just saying, yeah, there's
not enough here. This is not refined enough.
(06:56):
They've been spending all this time and kind of squashing bugs
at any time they've got gotten out and and have done kind of
like a round table talk about it.
They basically said everything'son hold until they can get the
game into a stable state. So maybe it was just a
realization that hey, this deathspy was not going to get better.
The question is, you relaunchingit, is that going to work?
(07:20):
I it's so far, I can only think of one example where this has
happened, and that was recently with the Warner Brothers
multiverses game. Do you remember that vaguely you
could play as Bugs Bunny, Batman, scooby-doo, and it was a
(07:41):
Super Smash Brothers style game,free to play.
It was wildly popular in beta, cancelled and then I want to say
it was two or three years later,relaunched, died after six
months. So, you know, that's really the
only recent example I could think of where this has
(08:01):
happened. I hope it doesn't happen with
this again. I like this game.
I'd like it to stick around. It's it's a really fun chill out
game for me. But do you only get one first
impression? So who knows who's coming back
to this? Yeah, I think that's going to be
the biggest thing. Is this it?
And it if it comes back, it's going to have to come back and
(08:25):
hit because if it doesn't hit, yeah, one, if there's server
issues, if it's basically the same content, if it's any just
anything close to what we had today, it's an it's an immediate
fail. There's there's no way that
anybody will stick around for more than that.
But I was going to say too, I wonder, like you said, it's
funny that there was this all we're launching to beta and then
(08:48):
and then it updates the next day.
I go back to I think this is allpretty calculated.
I think that that's a smart moveand probably well timed and well
planned to say, OK, we have thispush that we're going to do
anyways. Let's announce this the day
before, still launch update. And so people immediately get
confidence that even though it'sa beta, hey, I still just got a
new content the very next day. It's just just seems very smart
(09:12):
and not even malicious or anything, just smart timing.
Yeah, I mean, it's obviously I can't imagine these things are
all, you know, incidental. I will give again the developer
some props here. You guys can say whatever you
want about the arrogance of it. You know, I'm sure he probably
feels that way right now too. I will give them props.
(09:34):
When they made the announcement on X yesterday, I was scrolling
through and they probably responded to 40 plus comments on
there and they ranged from you guys are garbage.
I hope your game never comes back.
You guys have burned all your goodwill forever.
(09:54):
They responded to every single one of those and then somewhere
they were genuinely like hey dude, I hope you guys figure it
out because I've had a lot of fun with this.
I hope to see you guys back. They responded to every single
one of them and took their lumps.
And, you know, they admitted, yes, this was not good enough.
This, you know, we deserve all the heat we're getting for it.
So I give them props for doing that as well.
(10:17):
You know, you can come out and be all arrogant, but if you get
it blown up in your face, you should be able to go back there
and say, yeah, I screwed up. Yeah, yeah.
It's good to see they are. I mean, they like openly
admitted where they were at fault, you know, or where they
feel like they were wrong and like kind of acknowledged points
of the community, you know, the transaction system, the lack of
(10:38):
really overall content. It was, it was all acknowledged.
And I think that says something.So Yep, we'll see, hopefully,
who knows, maybe I think next year.
I think they said next year is when they plan on launching it
again. Yeah, it said head down until
early next year and then I don'tknow, but I guess if it's still
around, we're just going to get updates.
I I don't know, but who knows? We shall see.
(10:59):
And, you know, maybe we'll get asplit.
Gate 2, 2:00 on. Keep that as graphic maybe.
But yeah, other news I come across, I was looking and sounds
like that Outer Worlds is now announced that they'll be
dropping the prices on their game.
So it's coming down to $70. Sounding like they're going to
(11:21):
be reversing some course on on this kind of let's make
everybody pay more for games push so.
Yeah, I've, I've seen some interesting takes on this one
too. So obviously this was announced
and it was immediately controversial.
Xbox tried to lead into this a little bit.
(11:43):
They announced ahead of time that some of their games will be
moving to the $80 price structure.
And again, the only person you have to blame right now is
Nintendo. Nintendo did this with Mario
Kart. They open it up for everybody
else to just start pricing theirgames at $80.
And you know, I'm sure Mario Kart's still great because it
(12:03):
was the game that launched with the Switch too.
So it, it probably probably madea lot of money.
I think the writing was on the wall here though.
I think it was enough pushback that they're looking at those
pre-order numbers right now and going maybe this wasn't the game
to price at $80.00. Because remember, this is
(12:23):
launching not just on Xbox, not just on Game Pass, this will be
launching on PlayStation as well.
So they're probably expecting a massive number because this is
PC, PlayStation and Xbox. So they're expecting the whole
community of gaming will have access to this and they're
probably looking at those numbers and going crap.
(12:45):
So they're refunding everybody that did pay the $80, They're
refunding them their $10 back. So that's nice, I guess.
But this is not over. This is just, this isn't over.
Like, I think this just wasn't the right game.
I think what they're going to dois they're going to wait for a
game that is going to be bigger than Outer Worlds.
(13:07):
I still think again, that the the whole $10 thing is a little
overblown to me, but this is coming from me who doesn't care.
I'll I'll kind of pay whatever for games.
Doesn't really bother me one wayor the other, but kind of kind
of an interesting choice to go and do something like this.
Keith, are you excited for that?I mean, you're going to get on
(13:29):
Game Pass. This doesn't matter.
Just. Going to say it changes nothing
for me because it's, it's not, it's going to be on Game Pass
day one. So I'll be playing it for free
anyhow. But I, I do think it's good to
see. I just don't think it's like, I
get what you're saying is, you know, how much does the $10
really matter? But we probably said the same
thing, you know, 10 years ago when it was $60.00 a game and
(13:51):
then it went to $70 a game and then it's going to $80 a game
and the economy changes, things fluctuate up.
I, I totally understand that, but it's, I, I think it's going
too quickly. And it's, and it's wild too that
in the same year where Xbox is already like, hey,
record-breaking profits on our game sales.
(14:11):
We're going to increase the sales though, because we're not
making enough record-breaking money.
We need to break that record. And how are we going to do that?
We'll we'll just charge you morethe customer so.
I think it's a. Bad luck on their part because
like on the counterpoint and andlike, I know it's a separate,
but when you look at the way Nintendo runs things and like if
(14:33):
they had money troubles, like there's, you know, historic, you
know, stories about how the CEO,you know, he's cut his pay to
not have to lay people off like they handle things a lot
differently. So for them to upcharge and
people are paying it. You're right.
Mario Kart was the only game that launched, but it's you feel
safe buying that too. Like it's Mario Kart, you know
(14:54):
what you're getting, you know, you're just going to have fun
with it no matter what. And I know they kind of went
this whole different way with itbeing the open world and
whatnot. But like people will pay $80.00
for that because they know what they're getting.
But if you paid $80.00 for what was, what was the space one last
year or Starfield, and you mean to tell me you're going to be
(15:17):
happy that you paid $80.00 for that game, at least on launch,
maybe now you are, but on launch, are you happy that you
paid $80.00 for it? Yeah, but I think this is a
problem. First, I'll go back and and kind
of agree with your your first statement.
The speed at which game increases, like price increases
(15:38):
are happening is a lot faster. I feel like we just started
paying $70.00 for games. I feel like it was 60 and then
all of a sudden it was just 70 and now we're suddenly talking
80. And it was like, all right.
I will say the jump there is happening pretty quickly.
I also find it funny that games are basically in one of two
categories. Either you're free or you're $70
(16:00):
like that. That's kind of it.
Like there's very little middle ground.
Like there's obviously some, butthere just seems to be kind of
these, these two categories in which people are are excited for
their games. So, but then here's the question
is the question just Microsoft'sthe the, the wrong person to put
an $80 game because you're saying Nintendo's fine because
(16:22):
you know what you're getting. Let's let's say Grand Theft Auto
comes out, comes out next year. We don't know the price for that
yet, people. Pay $100 for that game.
People pay $150.00 for that gameand so is it just, oh,
Microsoft's just not allowed to do it?
Is there a game in the Microsoftcatalog that is worth that?
(16:45):
Allowed to know. But who do I trust to do it?
Do I trust Rockstar more than I trust Microsoft?
Yes. That's I don't even have to
think about that. There's zero consideration given
to that question. It is, Yes.
I trust Rockstar more than Microsoft.
OK so but what's crazy to me though is people say I trust
(17:05):
Microsoft for Outer Worlds too for $70.00 but definitely not 80
and that's. Where I'm like for any dollars
more than my game passed. On OK, OK, see, now that's a
little bit more interesting, butthat's where the fight is.
The fight is over this $10 difference.
And I'm not saying Microsoft is in the right here because your
(17:26):
overall theme of this is 100% true, which is their game
services grew. They're not selling hardware,
they're not selling consoles. They're they're selling Game
Pass and they're selling games. Those things have been
successful for them. So you're not wrong.
Your overall premise is, OK, what's the justification for it?
(17:47):
And there really isn't a justification for it.
It's just we want more money. We've got shareholders.
But I just think again, the, thediscussion here about the mining
details of this to me are reallysilly.
Just because we know that the $80 game exists.
We know that the more $80 games are going to be coming and this
(18:10):
Microsoft will try this again. They're going to, I think
they're going to wait for some other $80 games come up.
This is what I think will happenbecause so far it's been Mario
and then this. I think the weight for a few
more and then they come out and do it and it's just like, dude,
this is the standard now. This is the standard.
We've always been doing this. What do you mean $80 is just the
price tag I. Just don't think they wanted to
(18:32):
be the first. This is a game I think they are
riding on selling a lot of due to the fact that they're opening
up to all the platforms. So because of that, I I just
think that all right, this just isn't the right game at the
right time. We'll wait.
No, you could be right, but I think I have the solution.
Hear me out. Future hardware sales, every
(18:55):
future hardware share sale of Xbox, you are also granted one
share of X of Microsoft. I know that's a lofty price.
They're handing out a lot of money.
I understand this. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll say
like 1/2 a share, but you are immediately the shareholder.
So now when they say we want more money for the games, you're
like, well, it's kind of going back into my pocket because I'm
(19:18):
the shareholder, so they can getyou on board with it this way.
I'm pretty sure that you just described a positive scheme.
Did you just describe a positivescheme?
The investment. The initial investment is buying
the console and then your returnis robbing you.
Unlikely. Unlikely, I think.
That is, I think it all works out.
But it's not a bad idea though. I I think it I think it could
(19:40):
work. I think it could work, but you
didn't mention that outer worlds2 is going to be cross-platform.
So I think so it's a good time to bring this up, which first of
all, it's going to be just that if you haven't joined our
discord yet, if you haven't likesubscribe wherever you are, I'm
going to throw this in here accidentally because instantly
you're probably actually listening right now, unlike the
beginning or the end of the episode.
So go join our stuff like a subscribe wherever you are and
(20:01):
thanks for being here. But Speaking of cross-platform
games. Forza Horizon 5 is the top
selling game on PlayStation fivein 2025 S.
Pretty wild I I saw it was like their store and it was like the
top three games in their store were all Xbox games because it
(20:24):
was Indiana Jones. I think they were all pre-orders
at the time. It was Indiana Jones, it was
Forza, and I think it was Minecraft.
There's. There's I think actually one
more too, because I was just recently watching a video where
someone had the whole list pulled up and it was like of the
top 20, like somewhere at least like previously cross-platform
(20:47):
like Minecraft or something. But like, yeah, it's, it's wild.
I mean, I, I just goes to show, I mean, obviously those aren't
good at Xbox games, so I'm not like taking shots at that.
But this is more of an indictment on Sony.
Sony's had a bad year. Sony's had a bad generation.
I know they sold a lot of consoles, but as far as it goes
(21:09):
for what were the big games of this generation, it's a whole
lot of remakes and remasters, whole lot of them.
Maybe outside of a God of War game in there.
It's been really, really quiet on the PlayStation front.
So it goes to show Microsoft probably made the right choice
(21:29):
and just saying let's open this up.
Let's let's allow PlayStation here to happily pay for these
games. And I know that we've mentioned
that on this podcast too. We're both games as subscribers.
So if they will take this money to then reinvest it back into
future Forza Motorsports games, I'm sorry, Horizon games.
(21:53):
Rest in peace, Motorsport. I know Anders in the chat here
mentioning that Motorsport is axed.
So but Horizon, I'm I'm happy. Go ahead and go ahead and and
sell those games, make more of them, yeah.
I mean it, well, Forza Motorsport was, I never got
(22:14):
wildly into them by any means. Like, while they were incredible
games, I just, I think they knewthey weren't going to go into
Sony and compete up against GranTurismo, assuming they're still
making Gran Turismo games, right?
I made one recently. I don't know if they're still
making them. And this was kind of my point
when they axed motorsport. I think it's a niche.
(22:37):
Yeah, at that point. Then I just don't actually get
into it. I don't think there's many
people out there buying them. There's just not.
I just don't think that's a gamethat sells.
It's like, it's like they need to go back to Gran Turismo too,
like a good balance of SIM and arcade.
Yeah, just a little bit too SIM heavy now.
But I I think though it still is, it's very telling and I
(22:58):
think it says something for Microsoft to walk into Sony, who
is known for Gran Turismo, at least historically, and just
take the top spot on their gamesto begin with and then do it as
a card game on top of that. I think it's it's pretty funny
to me. Yeah, I mean, don't, don't feel
bad for Sony. Sony is going to take a cut out
of this deal anyway. So as long as they're buying on
(23:21):
that platform, they're still going to take a cut.
Obviously Microsoft's going to take a bigger cut of that.
But yeah, everybody kind of winswhen when it plays like this,
so. No, and I think, and that's a
good point too, because like Andrew just asked like how will
hell divers do on Xbox? I wouldn't be even a little bit
surprised if it was in the top five or or higher at least
(23:42):
within the first like month or so of coming out.
That one will be a little interesting because there is a
reputation that Xbox users are all Game Pass subscribers, so
they don't buy games anymore. So that will be really telling.
If that game actually does sell and does really well on the Xbox
platform, it'll be really telling.
(24:02):
I know I'm excited to get it that.
I mean, that game looks like it's way, way up my alley.
So I'm I'm excited to play it. And that's and that's 4999,
right, if I recall. Something like that.
I know it's not a full $60.00 price game.
I don't know if it's 40 or if it's 50I.
I can't. I can't recall.
(24:23):
See if I could pull up the pricereal.
Quick, I also said that I I didn't really care much about
game prices, so I was going to buy it.
No, this is true. This is true.
It's actually 3999 so. That's not a bad price. 40
bucks. And I think that that's, you
know, we don't, we don't need togo back fully on to the, the
whole price description to conversation, But I, I think
(24:43):
saying something that you can put out a really good game.
That's maybe it's not AAA and that's part of it, but like at
40 bucks you can just make a killing and and and it can work.
But yeah, so, so yeah, you'll beexcited about this one though,
Aaron. And I'm sure you are ready now,
(25:03):
but Battlefield's getting a trailer tomorrow.
We are here on July 23rd. So that'll be July 24th.
You're probably listening to this well after it comes out.
But ahead of that, people have dug into, I don't know, APIs or
something, I guess. And as people do and they are
claiming October 10th will be the release date for it.
(25:24):
So I'm guessing that historically that's, that
probably is about right, right. In terms of time, yeah.
So, All right, so I've got a tonof thoughts on this, as do you
know. I'm just going to meet myself
and sit back for now. I'm a big Battlefield fan so I
have a lot of thoughts on this. It is officially Battlefield
Six. That isn't surprising.
Already expected. Expected it to be called
(25:47):
Battlefield 6. OK, so first stuff.
I've been playing the Labs sessions for maybe the last
month. They open it up to consoles.
I get that I'm probably playing a pretty old version of the
game, but it is it needs a lot of cleaning.
(26:11):
It doesn't put you directly intoa battlefield menu.
So it's kind of interesting. It's it's almost like its own
portal and for two hours every Friday night, they open up that
portal and it's got some game mode that you're you're playing,
but all the character models arereally bland looking.
(26:32):
Nobody's actually holding their gun.
It's just kind of like floating.The games felt really fun, but
it feels really glitchy after playing them.
I'm like, oh, so they're like a ways away, like this isn't, this
isn't very close. I'm going to surprise by this.
Maybe I shouldn't be, but I was like, I feel like they should
(26:55):
push this off to next year. But my guess is that the version
we're playing is just not the version that they're actually
working on. They're probably figuring out
some stuff when you're testing it, but it's not just
graphically all cleaned up, but they probably have a version
that is. So we got a trailer tomorrow.
Very excited for it. They also sent out to a bunch of
(27:17):
content creators. Love those content creators.
Basically this giant care package thing that invited them
to a reveal event. So I think we get a trailer, but
then the reveal event I believe is next week.
That is likely. I'm going to guess that's where
you'll get the official launch date is at the event.
(27:39):
In the past Battlefield you brought in content creators and
they'll do like a 2 hour sessionwhere they all get to play and
then they all can post that content on to their their
socials. So I'd imagine we got something
like that. So what is also surprising about
all this October you are going toe to toe with Call of Duty and
(28:02):
that's always been a controversial move.
You want to get into the holidayseason, so coming around
October, November isn't a bad move.
That's typically what they want.They want, I get that fall
season. So maybe they're thinking was we
don't want to wait a whole another year for this and you
(28:23):
don't want to launch this in January, February.
You won't want to launch this close to Christmas.
It's still really close to Call of Duty.
And that's used to be a death sentence.
You've never wanted to compete with them, especially if you
were in a very similar genre of game.
So this one's going to be this one's going to be interesting.
It it does sound like it's all but confirmed there is going to
(28:45):
be a battle Royale mode. From all the rumors, it does
sound like it will be that part will be free to play, very
similar to what Call of Duty wasdoing.
But yeah, it's it's just kind ofinteresting.
I've I've liked the play sessions.
I just feel like it probably will need some time to bake in
(29:06):
the oven. Oh, the other thing that's
sitting over this thing, there was a company that was building
out the single player to this game.
They sacked that team and then somebody else was brought in to
kind of pick up the pieces. I mean, are they?
And it sounds like they were notclose.
They still had a lot of ways to go on the the single player side
(29:30):
of that. So will they just scrap that?
Will they just say we'll add that at a later time to me, from
all everything I've heard, it just sounds like this could be
rushed. It could be which it would be
classic battlefield. It'd be rushed and it would take
them six months to a year to fixit.
(29:50):
That's that's. What we need is more delays, so.
I Oh no, give me delays, give medelays.
Just make sure the delays. Give me, give me a good game.
They're they're going to go charge.
What's going to happen is they're going to show this
trailer. They might open up the
pre-orders for this thing. Would I be shocked if it was
$80? No, not really.
But they're going to open the pre-orders for this thing.
(30:12):
And I will say it and say it again.
Do not pre-order games. The only time I've gone against
that is I would pre-order something like Helldivers
because it already exists so youalready know what the game is.
Nobody's seen Battlefield, nobody will have seen
Battlefield until it launches. Do not pre-order the game.
Don't do that. I love this series and I will at
(30:34):
some point buy this. The point is, I'm not going to
buy it day one. If The thing is a jumble mess.
I will wait the six months to a year.
It'll be cheaper and it'll be fixed.
I'll I'll, I'll happily go wait.But yeah, so we're going.
We're going to find out soon. But I am excited.
I still like Battlefield, so I know at some point I'm going to
enjoy this game. I just don't know if it'll be
(30:55):
day one or if it'll be much later.
That's just that's just remindedme.
I I saw this post today from I think it was like it was on XI
believe someone from like five years ago was talking about how
they use GameStop as their banking, but just continuously
buying pre-orders and whenever they need cash, they just go
return the pre-orders. And because they just can't be
(31:17):
bothered to go to an actual bankand they work in a mall.
So they're already close to the GameStop.
So that's just what they do. I can't imagine this was
actually a real person doing this, but it the whole I posted
it in our discord, it cracked meup.
I was that. Sounds insane.
That is insane behaviour right there.
Yeah, because like GameStop had reposted it with just the
comments. Just please don't do this.
(31:38):
Because part is an addict for them.
But honestly it's going to be headache for all parties.
I mean just just. You walk into the stack of 30.
Five, it's like. I need 20 bucks that'll be I'll
give you battlefield Mario Kart.Oh gosh, it sounds awful.
Wild behavior, wild behavior. But Speaking of delays, Andrew
actually mentioned this ahead ahead of us starting to record,
(32:00):
but it came out today again, theyear, the year of our Xbox, July
23rd, 2025. Sounds like Fable is getting
rumors for some more delays again so.
I mean, they didn't show it. Not surprising.
At what point do we hear that they get the next acts?
(32:20):
Like will they? Because you you would have
thought they wouldn't have done it to perfect dark, right?
Like that was it was it's kind of a staple.
Once they announced it, it was really it had the hype.
Like I feel like. Would it feel any different than
cancelling? Perfect.
Kinda. They're two different stories.
I mean, The Perfect Dark story has sounded like it's been a
mess pretty much since day one, and it just was always a mess.
(32:46):
So that one never sounded like it was in a good state, from my
understanding with Fable. So they showed it.
They showed kind of that launch trailer, and it was a big
blowback on the visuals of it. So they went back and kind of
worked on the visuals. They then showed it again, and
most people are all right. Yeah, it does.
It does look better. But again, we've seen no
gameplay. So yeah, we still don't know
(33:08):
anything about that. I'm going to guess that it's far
enough along that it's going to make it over the finish line,
but who knows? I mean, who knows?
That hasn't been the story of this generation of not even just
an Xbox, but gaming in general just can't.
(33:29):
It's every single week you hear of just layoffs, layoffs,
layoffs, layoffs. They're everywhere.
It's kind of that just post COVID, everybody spent billions
and billions on bumping up theirvideo games.
Then after that, they've just been cut never since.
So yeah, who knows? It's.
Just yeah, it's one after the other.
(33:50):
They just seem like they're justfollowing over, at least as far
as delays and delays. But I don't just at some point
just stop giving us all this information.
Just start not even shadow dropping.
Like announce it like 6 months and ahead.
Once you know you have a date you can go live with, then start
telling us about it. I don't need to know seven years
in advance that like, we're beginning to talk about thinking
(34:13):
about how we're going to plan for the storyline of a game that
we really want to make in five years.
It's going to be awesome. Let us tell you way more about
it than you need to know so thatyou'll be wildly let down when
it never actually happens. It looks worse like it.
What looks worse that you've had?
And this, I mean, this has existed in video games for a
(34:34):
long time, but I, I think in thestate that Microsoft is in right
now, it doesn't look good to be announcing so many games and
then cancelling those games. It just doesn't.
And I'm kind of with you. Like, I don't know if you're a
year out, show me the game. Other than that, I don't want to
(34:55):
know. I don't want to know that this
game's there. Go work on it in secret.
I want to talk about a year out from launched then go ahead and
show it. Yeah.
And when you this is this is a shareholder thing.
Don't get the game announcer shareholder thing.
This is the thing I could get togo back to the shareholders and
say we announced, you know, 50 games at our Xbox showcase and
(35:19):
you know, there's so many new and exciting things that are
going to be there. That's all it is it.
It's just to drum up excitement that things are being worked on.
But gosh, I just don't think this makes them look great that
they gobbled up all these studios, they've showed off a
ton of games, and now they've slowly just started cutting back
(35:40):
on them. Yeah, I don't know.
I, I'm, I'm, you're 100% right. Unfortunately, they, they need
to do it for the shareholders and they've got to, they've got
to get their money. But it's just it, it sucks as
the, the consumers, like the people who it actually impacts
the most are the people who are playing the games.
(36:01):
And the shareholders will never even know because they get the
double benefit because they get the bump in the share price when
they announce it. And then when it gets cut and
they're like, oh, they just saved all this money.
Share price is up for everybody.So they, they always win.
That's why I gave me a free share and at least at least put
some money back in my pocket, Microsoft.
That's all. That's a genius Ponzi scheme.
(36:22):
I love it. It's brilliant.
There's no way that it could possibly fail.
So we're going to do that. But really.
But yeah, I mean, that was aboutall I had for any, any big news.
I did want to bring this up though, because I think it's
been almost seven whole days since we've spoken about Claire
Obscure. So I wanted to make sure that I
(36:42):
highlighted this this story fromthis.
Week we got to pump the ratings.This is how you do it.
Now we can put it in the hashtag.
People are going to tune in. They're going to listen.
They need to hear it. Charlie Cox, one of one of the
main voice actors in the game, hasn't played a game since Mario
64, he claims. So he does want to play Clara
Skier. Who wouldn't want to play it?
(37:03):
You should. If you're not playing it right
now, go play it. But.
If the last game you played was Mario 64, would you recommend
Clara Skier to that person? No, not at all.
Not even a little bit. I feel like Clear Obscure is
perfect for people that have been playing video games for a
(37:23):
really long time because it's itkind of captures so many
elements there. The imagination, the story,
writing, the visuals, all of that stuff feeds into real
gamers. If I was coming from Meyer 64, I
would be like, what is happeningright now?
And I'm just trying to picture the pairing system where you
(37:48):
just have not done any of that type of stuff.
It'd be like there'd be a nightmare.
Yeah, like I could see if he waslike, yeah, you know, I still
dabble in games from time to time.
Like I, you know, maybe a coupletimes a year I'll pick up the
sticks or whatever. But Mario 64, they there's,
there's no, there's no middle joystick on this here.
Yeah. So also what does he do on his
(38:11):
free time I. Don't know.
I mean Uber wealthy. I'm sure at this point he's he's
famous actor and all the likes. He probably does all right, so
whatever he wants. I mean I.
Just like could get good at it. Video games are just such a good
free time thing. Like I've I've picked up, I've
(38:31):
picked up on I know I mentioned this off podcast, but I've been
I've picked up a lot on reading recently.
I used to read and then I just kind of stopped.
So I started to pick it back up,and that's been a nice
alternative to playing video games all the time.
But yeah, it always just cracks me up when people are like, I
(38:51):
haven't played since then. 64. I'm like, what have you?
What do you do when you're just bored?
I mean, my wife, she watches just awful TV.
Oh, Anderson in the chat. He he dates women.
That's that's assuming. A whole lot of things coming.
Well, also, Andrew also just played the video games.
I think that's why he knows, yeah.
Because he. Just played video games instead
(39:13):
of dating. He's the most part of his life.
Obviously not now. He tricked somebody.
Good for you Charlie Cox, I hopeyou like the game.
I'm sure he will not like the gameplay, but he'll probably
likes the story. I mean, he's in it.
The story is good. Yeah, the story is great, but.
Is that like a weird thing? I like, I think especially just
(39:36):
kind of a side thought on that, especially if you don't play
games normally, is it then weirdto play a game that you're in
versus like say Jack Black, who is well known gamer, you're in
games like of course I'm going to play my own game.
Yeah, like. A weird good question.
You know, why not even weird like for him in the sense of
(39:59):
like, oh, it's cringy or whatever, but I don't know, I
just, I could see where a lot ofvoice actors like I'll just give
you my voice and I'm done with this.
Don't care. Yeah, I mean, so why that one's
kind of interesting to me is there's a lot of actors and
maybe this is normal. I I guess just in my head, this
isn't like this wouldn't be how I'd react.
(40:19):
There's a lot of actors that do not watch themselves in movies.
Like they don't like the watch it at the premiere because they
kind of have to be there and then they'd never watch it
again. Like they just never go back to
it. And that's really, really
common. So I can see that being a
similar instance where you did all the voice acting for it and
you're just kind of like, I don't know, I don't, I don't
(40:39):
really need to go back to it. I was there, I lived it, so I
don't need to, but who knows? Yeah.
Well. Again, good luck to him.
Play it on story mode. Don't don't let anyone anyone
grief you for it. Enjoy your fun like the.
Grief you've experienced? Yeah, one weird you did.
(41:01):
It for like 3 fights and yeah yeah man cheater roasted.
Absolutely roasted. Deserved.
Fine, whatever. But anyways, that's all I have.
So unless you have anything elseyou want to talk about, that's
it for us. All right.
Hi, guys. Well, thanks for enjoying it.
Yeah, dude, you know, thanks forshowing up.
(41:22):
Appreciate you, Aaron. Andrew will be back next week.
Which? I guess we're going to have to
review something. Next week right?
I think we are probably going todo an actual game.
This might need to be back sometime soon.
I think there was rumors of thatwe.
Could try the Split gate 2 beta.We're going to do 3 split Gate
episodes. That's some yeah A listener put
(41:46):
in our Discord. They they went through and
counted all the the different series we've done.
I think Halo was the the most reviewed series of all of them.
That makes sense. Split Gate is just going to
become its own without being theseries.
So. Yep, love it.
That'll be that. But again, I've been Keith and
fumbling along this episode, so thanks for being with.
Us play the app here Keith. Keith.
(42:07):
I'm not going to do that 'cause I don't know how I'm doing it.
Both. This is just going to end.
Bye.
Hello again everybody and welcome to game pass grab bag,
your weekly podcasts bringing you game from the game pass
graduation. I am obviously not Andrew, hence
why I have no idea what I'm supposed to say here, although I
guess I kind of sound like Andrew but he's on vacation this
week. So Aaron and I are here and
we're doing a side quest episodetalking just some Xbox news,
(00:24):
gaming news, other fun stuff bringing you content.
So Aaron's here with me. As always I'd.
Love that you've been on this podcast for how many years and
you do not know the Dang intro at this point.
So don't get me wrong, I don't know it either, but you've been
here since the beginning. True, but you have to, you have
(00:45):
to understand that I don't pay attention until I hear my name.
I'm usually on my phone. I'm usually preparing something
else, not doing anything that I hear my name and it's like, oh,
hey, I am here. I'm like a like a 90s sitcom
like. Yeah, I, I mean, I get it,
Andrew. It's like clearly second nature.
He can like recite that thing with his eyes closed.
(01:09):
I just kind of expected a littlemore from you, Keith.
That was the big You don't even know where to find the music.
And even in this is the first time I've ever done this.
In my in my defense, the only other time I hosted an episode
was Andrew was still here. So this is actually our our
first Andrew free episode. Wow, this is wild.
Yeah, it's only hard to let it go.
Down six years to kick him off. Jeez, really sorry to let
(01:30):
everyone down today. Yeah, So, you know, sorry to let
everyone down. Andrew is not here.
He's on vacation visiting family.
He's with us in spirit. He's not visiting Aaron.
Not that family. Family he cares about.
So yeah, so you just got us tonight.
So yeah, we're talking news. Yeah, we're not reviewing the
(01:51):
game, just to be clear. We're not, we're no, but we are
talking games. So I don't know.
I figured I'd kick us off with, I think, I don't know, maybe the
biggest news of the week so far.You had posted it on our, on our
Reddit page, Aaron, but Splitgate 2 is UN launching.
So they are going back into a beta.
And all I have to say is I'm, I'm glad that we are the voice
(02:13):
of change in this world, becauseI feel like this was, this was
our doing. They they listened and they were
like, you know what Andrew said?This is a what was it, wildly,
wildly average game. And.
They're like, we got to, we got to do some of this.
Andrew doesn't like it. Yeah, the right.
That was the last game we reviewed, right?
Was the split gate? It might have been.
(02:36):
Because we record these episodeskind of a week before they come
out it you're typically moving on to something else before that
episode even comes out. So I tend to kind of get stacked
up a little bit and and and get a little confused.
But we didn't review anything because Andrew wasn't here.
So split again, I believe was the last game that we reviewed.
I was more positive on it than you guys were, but the
(03:00):
criticisms not wrong. It is pretty thin in comparison
to what games are launching with, especially if they're free
to play, free to play games. They got to hook you.
And truthfully, especially with the game like Split Gate 2, it's
kind of got one opportunity to get it right.
Like it's it you can only, what's the, what's the phrase?
(03:22):
You only get one introduction orsomething like that.
One first impression. You only get, you only get one
first impression and that unfortunately was not good
enough for a lot of people. So pretty much since it's
launched, it's been in kind of adeath spiral of just everyone
(03:44):
leaving the game as quickly as they got into it.
And I don't think it was becauseit's a bad game.
I still stand by that. I still think there's nothing
like it out there right now. So I still stand by that there's
there's nothing like split gate right now that you can go play.
I I guess maybe the closest thatis.
I mean, if you stay actively being worked on as Halo as just
(04:04):
like an arena shooter multiplayer game.
So it will stay active. I believe it's still on Game
Pass, so you can still play it. It's just going to be considered
in beta. I don't know what this changes
though. What does that change?
See, that was kind of my thoughtright To me in a way, like I
(04:26):
think it's interesting because Ithink it's, it's almost more of
a publicity stunt is I guess what I kind of feel like it is
like, sure, they'll roll the version numbers back.
It'll probably, you know, 0.9 O or something.
They'll they'll whatever. But anybody who's worked in
software knows that that number is meaningless.
It is nothing more than a way toidentify something.
(04:46):
So like ignore whatever the the version number actually says,
they'll roll that back, they'll call it a beta and it does two
things. It one, it basically gives them
a free reign to be like, oh, if this sucks a little bit, sorry,
just a beta. So in a way it's kind of lazy,
but it I don't know, I think it's it's the public admission.
(05:09):
And I think especially because we talked about this on the
Split Gate episode was the the arrogance that he walked out on
the stage. And that was what show just
drove everybody off the media that they hated the fact that he
was so big on for changing games.
We're going to make first personshooters great.
And then they come out with thisand it's like, well, it's fine,
but you didn't do anything to reinvent or make first person
(05:30):
shooters great. Again, something that already
wasn't not great. We have a lot of great first
person shooters out there right now.
So I thought that, you know, it is a weird statement.
So I think it's just a little bit of him showing humility.
So it's like a publicity thing more than anything.
Yeah, I think that's probably a pretty decent call where this is
them, just nothing's going to change.
(05:51):
You can literally download the game right now.
You can jump in and play it as is.
In fact, today I believe they launched a patch that updated a
bunch of stuff for, I want to say it was for the weapon camo
challenges, which was just one of their most recent updates was
adding that in there. So they added more to it.
(06:11):
So it's kind of odd that you know, the day before, hey, we're
going back into beta and then boom, here's an update for it.
Obviously not a large scale update, but why this stuff
always becomes so murky to me anyway.
It's just in the current state of video games, especially when
it comes to free to play games. Usually they launch a beta, it's
(06:31):
open so anybody can get into it and you just play it until one
day they just tell you it launched, nothing's changed.
You've been playing it and all of a sudden you're like, oh, I
guess this is the the launch of the game.
But you're right. I believe that this is probably
way more of a sign of humility and just saying, yeah, there's
not enough here. This is not refined enough.
(06:56):
They've been spending all this time and kind of squashing bugs
at any time they've got gotten out and and have done kind of
like a round table talk about it.
They basically said everything'son hold until they can get the
game into a stable state. So maybe it was just a
realization that hey, this deathspy was not going to get better.
The question is, you relaunchingit, is that going to work?
(07:20):
I it's so far, I can only think of one example where this has
happened, and that was recently with the Warner Brothers
multiverses game. Do you remember that vaguely you
could play as Bugs Bunny, Batman, scooby-doo, and it was a
(07:41):
Super Smash Brothers style game,free to play.
It was wildly popular in beta, cancelled and then I want to say
it was two or three years later,relaunched, died after six
months. So, you know, that's really the
only recent example I could think of where this has
(08:01):
happened. I hope it doesn't happen with
this again. I like this game.
I'd like it to stick around. It's it's a really fun chill out
game for me. But do you only get one first
impression? So who knows who's coming back
to this? Yeah, I think that's going to be
the biggest thing. Is this it?
And it if it comes back, it's going to have to come back and
(08:25):
hit because if it doesn't hit, yeah, one, if there's server
issues, if it's basically the same content, if it's any just
anything close to what we had today, it's an it's an immediate
fail. There's there's no way that
anybody will stick around for more than that.
But I was going to say too, I wonder, like you said, it's
funny that there was this all we're launching to beta and then
(08:48):
and then it updates the next day.
I go back to I think this is allpretty calculated.
I think that that's a smart moveand probably well timed and well
planned to say, OK, we have thispush that we're going to do
anyways. Let's announce this the day
before, still launch update. And so people immediately get
confidence that even though it'sa beta, hey, I still just got a
new content the very next day. It's just just seems very smart
(09:12):
and not even malicious or anything, just smart timing.
Yeah, I mean, it's obviously I can't imagine these things are
all, you know, incidental. I will give again the developer
some props here. You guys can say whatever you
want about the arrogance of it. You know, I'm sure he probably
feels that way right now too. I will give them props.
(09:34):
When they made the announcement on X yesterday, I was scrolling
through and they probably responded to 40 plus comments on
there and they ranged from you guys are garbage.
I hope your game never comes back.
You guys have burned all your goodwill forever.
(09:54):
They responded to every single one of those and then somewhere
they were genuinely like hey dude, I hope you guys figure it
out because I've had a lot of fun with this.
I hope to see you guys back. They responded to every single
one of them and took their lumps.
And, you know, they admitted, yes, this was not good enough.
This, you know, we deserve all the heat we're getting for it.
So I give them props for doing that as well.
(10:17):
You know, you can come out and be all arrogant, but if you get
it blown up in your face, you should be able to go back there
and say, yeah, I screwed up. Yeah, yeah.
It's good to see they are. I mean, they like openly
admitted where they were at fault, you know, or where they
feel like they were wrong and like kind of acknowledged points
of the community, you know, the transaction system, the lack of
(10:38):
really overall content. It was, it was all acknowledged.
And I think that says something.So Yep, we'll see, hopefully,
who knows, maybe I think next year.
I think they said next year is when they plan on launching it
again. Yeah, it said head down until
early next year and then I don'tknow, but I guess if it's still
around, we're just going to get updates.
I I don't know, but who knows? We shall see.
(10:59):
And, you know, maybe we'll get asplit.
Gate 2, 2:00 on. Keep that as graphic maybe.
But yeah, other news I come across, I was looking and sounds
like that Outer Worlds is now announced that they'll be
dropping the prices on their game.
So it's coming down to $70. Sounding like they're going to
(11:21):
be reversing some course on on this kind of let's make
everybody pay more for games push so.
Yeah, I've, I've seen some interesting takes on this one
too. So obviously this was announced
and it was immediately controversial.
Xbox tried to lead into this a little bit.
(11:43):
They announced ahead of time that some of their games will be
moving to the $80 price structure.
And again, the only person you have to blame right now is
Nintendo. Nintendo did this with Mario
Kart. They open it up for everybody
else to just start pricing theirgames at $80.
And you know, I'm sure Mario Kart's still great because it
(12:03):
was the game that launched with the Switch too.
So it, it probably probably madea lot of money.
I think the writing was on the wall here though.
I think it was enough pushback that they're looking at those
pre-order numbers right now and going maybe this wasn't the game
to price at $80.00. Because remember, this is
(12:23):
launching not just on Xbox, not just on Game Pass, this will be
launching on PlayStation as well.
So they're probably expecting a massive number because this is
PC, PlayStation and Xbox. So they're expecting the whole
community of gaming will have access to this and they're
probably looking at those numbers and going crap.
(12:45):
So they're refunding everybody that did pay the $80, They're
refunding them their $10 back. So that's nice, I guess.
But this is not over. This is just, this isn't over.
Like, I think this just wasn't the right game.
I think what they're going to dois they're going to wait for a
game that is going to be bigger than Outer Worlds.
(13:07):
I still think again, that the the whole $10 thing is a little
overblown to me, but this is coming from me who doesn't care.
I'll I'll kind of pay whatever for games.
Doesn't really bother me one wayor the other, but kind of kind
of an interesting choice to go and do something like this.
Keith, are you excited for that?I mean, you're going to get on
(13:29):
Game Pass. This doesn't matter.
Just. Going to say it changes nothing
for me because it's, it's not, it's going to be on Game Pass
day one. So I'll be playing it for free
anyhow. But I, I do think it's good to
see. I just don't think it's like, I
get what you're saying is, you know, how much does the $10
really matter? But we probably said the same
thing, you know, 10 years ago when it was $60.00 a game and
(13:51):
then it went to $70 a game and then it's going to $80 a game
and the economy changes, things fluctuate up.
I, I totally understand that, but it's, I, I think it's going
too quickly. And it's, and it's wild too that
in the same year where Xbox is already like, hey,
record-breaking profits on our game sales.
(14:11):
We're going to increase the sales though, because we're not
making enough record-breaking money.
We need to break that record. And how are we going to do that?
We'll we'll just charge you morethe customer so.
I think it's a. Bad luck on their part because
like on the counterpoint and andlike, I know it's a separate,
but when you look at the way Nintendo runs things and like if
(14:33):
they had money troubles, like there's, you know, historic, you
know, stories about how the CEO,you know, he's cut his pay to
not have to lay people off like they handle things a lot
differently. So for them to upcharge and
people are paying it. You're right.
Mario Kart was the only game that launched, but it's you feel
safe buying that too. Like it's Mario Kart, you know
(14:54):
what you're getting, you know, you're just going to have fun
with it no matter what. And I know they kind of went
this whole different way with itbeing the open world and
whatnot. But like people will pay $80.00
for that because they know what they're getting.
But if you paid $80.00 for what was, what was the space one last
year or Starfield, and you mean to tell me you're going to be
(15:17):
happy that you paid $80.00 for that game, at least on launch,
maybe now you are, but on launch, are you happy that you
paid $80.00 for it? Yeah, but I think this is a
problem. First, I'll go back and and kind
of agree with your your first statement.
The speed at which game increases, like price increases
(15:38):
are happening is a lot faster. I feel like we just started
paying $70.00 for games. I feel like it was 60 and then
all of a sudden it was just 70 and now we're suddenly talking
80. And it was like, all right.
I will say the jump there is happening pretty quickly.
I also find it funny that games are basically in one of two
categories. Either you're free or you're $70
(16:00):
like that. That's kind of it.
Like there's very little middle ground.
Like there's obviously some, butthere just seems to be kind of
these, these two categories in which people are are excited for
their games. So, but then here's the question
is the question just Microsoft'sthe the, the wrong person to put
an $80 game because you're saying Nintendo's fine because
(16:22):
you know what you're getting. Let's let's say Grand Theft Auto
comes out, comes out next year. We don't know the price for that
yet, people. Pay $100 for that game.
People pay $150.00 for that gameand so is it just, oh,
Microsoft's just not allowed to do it?
Is there a game in the Microsoftcatalog that is worth that?
(16:45):
Allowed to know. But who do I trust to do it?
Do I trust Rockstar more than I trust Microsoft?
Yes. That's I don't even have to
think about that. There's zero consideration given
to that question. It is, Yes.
I trust Rockstar more than Microsoft.
OK so but what's crazy to me though is people say I trust
(17:05):
Microsoft for Outer Worlds too for $70.00 but definitely not 80
and that's. Where I'm like for any dollars
more than my game passed. On OK, OK, see, now that's a
little bit more interesting, butthat's where the fight is.
The fight is over this $10 difference.
And I'm not saying Microsoft is in the right here because your
(17:26):
overall theme of this is 100% true, which is their game
services grew. They're not selling hardware,
they're not selling consoles. They're they're selling Game
Pass and they're selling games. Those things have been
successful for them. So you're not wrong.
Your overall premise is, OK, what's the justification for it?
(17:47):
And there really isn't a justification for it.
It's just we want more money. We've got shareholders.
But I just think again, the, thediscussion here about the mining
details of this to me are reallysilly.
Just because we know that the $80 game exists.
We know that the more $80 games are going to be coming and this
(18:10):
Microsoft will try this again. They're going to, I think
they're going to wait for some other $80 games come up.
This is what I think will happenbecause so far it's been Mario
and then this. I think the weight for a few
more and then they come out and do it and it's just like, dude,
this is the standard now. This is the standard.
We've always been doing this. What do you mean $80 is just the
price tag I. Just don't think they wanted to
(18:32):
be the first. This is a game I think they are
riding on selling a lot of due to the fact that they're opening
up to all the platforms. So because of that, I I just
think that all right, this just isn't the right game at the
right time. We'll wait.
No, you could be right, but I think I have the solution.
Hear me out. Future hardware sales, every
(18:55):
future hardware share sale of Xbox, you are also granted one
share of X of Microsoft. I know that's a lofty price.
They're handing out a lot of money.
I understand this. Maybe, maybe, maybe we'll say
like 1/2 a share, but you are immediately the shareholder.
So now when they say we want more money for the games, you're
like, well, it's kind of going back into my pocket because I'm
(19:18):
the shareholder, so they can getyou on board with it this way.
I'm pretty sure that you just described a positive scheme.
Did you just describe a positivescheme?
The investment. The initial investment is buying
the console and then your returnis robbing you.
Unlikely. Unlikely, I think.
That is, I think it all works out.
But it's not a bad idea though. I I think it I think it could
(19:40):
work. I think it could work, but you
didn't mention that outer worlds2 is going to be cross-platform.
So I think so it's a good time to bring this up, which first of
all, it's going to be just that if you haven't joined our
discord yet, if you haven't likesubscribe wherever you are, I'm
going to throw this in here accidentally because instantly
you're probably actually listening right now, unlike the
beginning or the end of the episode.
So go join our stuff like a subscribe wherever you are and
(20:01):
thanks for being here. But Speaking of cross-platform
games. Forza Horizon 5 is the top
selling game on PlayStation fivein 2025 S.
Pretty wild I I saw it was like their store and it was like the
top three games in their store were all Xbox games because it
(20:24):
was Indiana Jones. I think they were all pre-orders
at the time. It was Indiana Jones, it was
Forza, and I think it was Minecraft.
There's. There's I think actually one
more too, because I was just recently watching a video where
someone had the whole list pulled up and it was like of the
top 20, like somewhere at least like previously cross-platform
(20:47):
like Minecraft or something. But like, yeah, it's, it's wild.
I mean, I, I just goes to show, I mean, obviously those aren't
good at Xbox games, so I'm not like taking shots at that.
But this is more of an indictment on Sony.
Sony's had a bad year. Sony's had a bad generation.
I know they sold a lot of consoles, but as far as it goes
(21:09):
for what were the big games of this generation, it's a whole
lot of remakes and remasters, whole lot of them.
Maybe outside of a God of War game in there.
It's been really, really quiet on the PlayStation front.
So it goes to show Microsoft probably made the right choice
(21:29):
and just saying let's open this up.
Let's let's allow PlayStation here to happily pay for these
games. And I know that we've mentioned
that on this podcast too. We're both games as subscribers.
So if they will take this money to then reinvest it back into
future Forza Motorsports games, I'm sorry, Horizon games.
(21:53):
Rest in peace, Motorsport. I know Anders in the chat here
mentioning that Motorsport is axed.
So but Horizon, I'm I'm happy. Go ahead and go ahead and and
sell those games, make more of them, yeah.
I mean it, well, Forza Motorsport was, I never got
(22:14):
wildly into them by any means. Like, while they were incredible
games, I just, I think they knewthey weren't going to go into
Sony and compete up against GranTurismo, assuming they're still
making Gran Turismo games, right?
I made one recently. I don't know if they're still
making them. And this was kind of my point
when they axed motorsport. I think it's a niche.
(22:37):
Yeah, at that point. Then I just don't actually get
into it. I don't think there's many
people out there buying them. There's just not.
I just don't think that's a gamethat sells.
It's like, it's like they need to go back to Gran Turismo too,
like a good balance of SIM and arcade.
Yeah, just a little bit too SIM heavy now.
But I I think though it still is, it's very telling and I
(22:58):
think it says something for Microsoft to walk into Sony, who
is known for Gran Turismo, at least historically, and just
take the top spot on their gamesto begin with and then do it as
a card game on top of that. I think it's it's pretty funny
to me. Yeah, I mean, don't, don't feel
bad for Sony. Sony is going to take a cut out
of this deal anyway. So as long as they're buying on
(23:21):
that platform, they're still going to take a cut.
Obviously Microsoft's going to take a bigger cut of that.
But yeah, everybody kind of winswhen when it plays like this,
so. No, and I think, and that's a
good point too, because like Andrew just asked like how will
hell divers do on Xbox? I wouldn't be even a little bit
surprised if it was in the top five or or higher at least
(23:42):
within the first like month or so of coming out.
That one will be a little interesting because there is a
reputation that Xbox users are all Game Pass subscribers, so
they don't buy games anymore. So that will be really telling.
If that game actually does sell and does really well on the Xbox
platform, it'll be really telling.
(24:02):
I know I'm excited to get it that.
I mean, that game looks like it's way, way up my alley.
So I'm I'm excited to play it. And that's and that's 4999,
right, if I recall. Something like that.
I know it's not a full $60.00 price game.
I don't know if it's 40 or if it's 50I.
I can't. I can't recall.
(24:23):
See if I could pull up the pricereal.
Quick, I also said that I I didn't really care much about
game prices, so I was going to buy it.
No, this is true. This is true.
It's actually 3999 so. That's not a bad price. 40
bucks. And I think that that's, you
know, we don't, we don't need togo back fully on to the, the
whole price description to conversation, But I, I think
(24:43):
saying something that you can put out a really good game.
That's maybe it's not AAA and that's part of it, but like at
40 bucks you can just make a killing and and and it can work.
But yeah, so, so yeah, you'll beexcited about this one though,
Aaron. And I'm sure you are ready now,
(25:03):
but Battlefield's getting a trailer tomorrow.
We are here on July 23rd. So that'll be July 24th.
You're probably listening to this well after it comes out.
But ahead of that, people have dug into, I don't know, APIs or
something, I guess. And as people do and they are
claiming October 10th will be the release date for it.
(25:24):
So I'm guessing that historically that's, that
probably is about right, right. In terms of time, yeah.
So, All right, so I've got a tonof thoughts on this, as do you
know. I'm just going to meet myself
and sit back for now. I'm a big Battlefield fan so I
have a lot of thoughts on this. It is officially Battlefield
Six. That isn't surprising.
Already expected. Expected it to be called
(25:47):
Battlefield 6. OK, so first stuff.
I've been playing the Labs sessions for maybe the last
month. They open it up to consoles.
I get that I'm probably playing a pretty old version of the
game, but it is it needs a lot of cleaning.
(26:11):
It doesn't put you directly intoa battlefield menu.
So it's kind of interesting. It's it's almost like its own
portal and for two hours every Friday night, they open up that
portal and it's got some game mode that you're you're playing,
but all the character models arereally bland looking.
(26:32):
Nobody's actually holding their gun.
It's just kind of like floating.The games felt really fun, but
it feels really glitchy after playing them.
I'm like, oh, so they're like a ways away, like this isn't, this
isn't very close. I'm going to surprise by this.
Maybe I shouldn't be, but I was like, I feel like they should
(26:55):
push this off to next year. But my guess is that the version
we're playing is just not the version that they're actually
working on. They're probably figuring out
some stuff when you're testing it, but it's not just
graphically all cleaned up, but they probably have a version
that is. So we got a trailer tomorrow.
Very excited for it. They also sent out to a bunch of
(27:17):
content creators. Love those content creators.
Basically this giant care package thing that invited them
to a reveal event. So I think we get a trailer, but
then the reveal event I believe is next week.
That is likely. I'm going to guess that's where
you'll get the official launch date is at the event.
(27:39):
In the past Battlefield you brought in content creators and
they'll do like a 2 hour sessionwhere they all get to play and
then they all can post that content on to their their
socials. So I'd imagine we got something
like that. So what is also surprising about
all this October you are going toe to toe with Call of Duty and
(28:02):
that's always been a controversial move.
You want to get into the holidayseason, so coming around
October, November isn't a bad move.
That's typically what they want.They want, I get that fall
season. So maybe they're thinking was we
don't want to wait a whole another year for this and you
(28:23):
don't want to launch this in January, February.
You won't want to launch this close to Christmas.
It's still really close to Call of Duty.
And that's used to be a death sentence.
You've never wanted to compete with them, especially if you
were in a very similar genre of game.
So this one's going to be this one's going to be interesting.
It it does sound like it's all but confirmed there is going to
(28:45):
be a battle Royale mode. From all the rumors, it does
sound like it will be that part will be free to play, very
similar to what Call of Duty wasdoing.
But yeah, it's it's just kind ofinteresting.
I've I've liked the play sessions.
I just feel like it probably will need some time to bake in
(29:06):
the oven. Oh, the other thing that's
sitting over this thing, there was a company that was building
out the single player to this game.
They sacked that team and then somebody else was brought in to
kind of pick up the pieces. I mean, are they?
And it sounds like they were notclose.
They still had a lot of ways to go on the the single player side
(29:30):
of that. So will they just scrap that?
Will they just say we'll add that at a later time to me, from
all everything I've heard, it just sounds like this could be
rushed. It could be which it would be
classic battlefield. It'd be rushed and it would take
them six months to a year to fixit.
(29:50):
That's that's. What we need is more delays, so.
I Oh no, give me delays, give medelays.
Just make sure the delays. Give me, give me a good game.
They're they're going to go charge.
What's going to happen is they're going to show this
trailer. They might open up the
pre-orders for this thing. Would I be shocked if it was
$80? No, not really.
But they're going to open the pre-orders for this thing.
(30:12):
And I will say it and say it again.
Do not pre-order games. The only time I've gone against
that is I would pre-order something like Helldivers
because it already exists so youalready know what the game is.
Nobody's seen Battlefield, nobody will have seen
Battlefield until it launches. Do not pre-order the game.
Don't do that. I love this series and I will at
(30:34):
some point buy this. The point is, I'm not going to
buy it day one. If The thing is a jumble mess.
I will wait the six months to a year.
It'll be cheaper and it'll be fixed.
I'll I'll, I'll happily go wait.But yeah, so we're going.
We're going to find out soon. But I am excited.
I still like Battlefield, so I know at some point I'm going to
enjoy this game. I just don't know if it'll be
(30:55):
day one or if it'll be much later.
That's just that's just remindedme.
I I saw this post today from I think it was like it was on XI
believe someone from like five years ago was talking about how
they use GameStop as their banking, but just continuously
buying pre-orders and whenever they need cash, they just go
return the pre-orders. And because they just can't be
(31:17):
bothered to go to an actual bankand they work in a mall.
So they're already close to the GameStop.
So that's just what they do. I can't imagine this was
actually a real person doing this, but it the whole I posted
it in our discord, it cracked meup.
I was that. Sounds insane.
That is insane behaviour right there.
Yeah, because like GameStop had reposted it with just the
comments. Just please don't do this.
(31:38):
Because part is an addict for them.
But honestly it's going to be headache for all parties.
I mean just just. You walk into the stack of 30.
Five, it's like. I need 20 bucks that'll be I'll
give you battlefield Mario Kart.Oh gosh, it sounds awful.
Wild behavior, wild behavior. But Speaking of delays, Andrew
actually mentioned this ahead ahead of us starting to record,
(32:00):
but it came out today again, theyear, the year of our Xbox, July
23rd, 2025. Sounds like Fable is getting
rumors for some more delays again so.
I mean, they didn't show it. Not surprising.
At what point do we hear that they get the next acts?
(32:20):
Like will they? Because you you would have
thought they wouldn't have done it to perfect dark, right?
Like that was it was it's kind of a staple.
Once they announced it, it was really it had the hype.
Like I feel like. Would it feel any different than
cancelling? Perfect.
Kinda. They're two different stories.
I mean, The Perfect Dark story has sounded like it's been a
mess pretty much since day one, and it just was always a mess.
(32:46):
So that one never sounded like it was in a good state, from my
understanding with Fable. So they showed it.
They showed kind of that launch trailer, and it was a big
blowback on the visuals of it. So they went back and kind of
worked on the visuals. They then showed it again, and
most people are all right. Yeah, it does.
It does look better. But again, we've seen no
gameplay. So yeah, we still don't know
(33:08):
anything about that. I'm going to guess that it's far
enough along that it's going to make it over the finish line,
but who knows? I mean, who knows?
That hasn't been the story of this generation of not even just
an Xbox, but gaming in general just can't.
(33:29):
It's every single week you hear of just layoffs, layoffs,
layoffs, layoffs. They're everywhere.
It's kind of that just post COVID, everybody spent billions
and billions on bumping up theirvideo games.
Then after that, they've just been cut never since.
So yeah, who knows? It's.
Just yeah, it's one after the other.
(33:50):
They just seem like they're justfollowing over, at least as far
as delays and delays. But I don't just at some point
just stop giving us all this information.
Just start not even shadow dropping.
Like announce it like 6 months and ahead.
Once you know you have a date you can go live with, then start
telling us about it. I don't need to know seven years
in advance that like, we're beginning to talk about thinking
(34:13):
about how we're going to plan for the storyline of a game that
we really want to make in five years.
It's going to be awesome. Let us tell you way more about
it than you need to know so thatyou'll be wildly let down when
it never actually happens. It looks worse like it.
What looks worse that you've had?
And this, I mean, this has existed in video games for a
(34:34):
long time, but I, I think in thestate that Microsoft is in right
now, it doesn't look good to be announcing so many games and
then cancelling those games. It just doesn't.
And I'm kind of with you. Like, I don't know if you're a
year out, show me the game. Other than that, I don't want to
(34:55):
know. I don't want to know that this
game's there. Go work on it in secret.
I want to talk about a year out from launched then go ahead and
show it. Yeah.
And when you this is this is a shareholder thing.
Don't get the game announcer shareholder thing.
This is the thing I could get togo back to the shareholders and
say we announced, you know, 50 games at our Xbox showcase and
(35:19):
you know, there's so many new and exciting things that are
going to be there. That's all it is it.
It's just to drum up excitement that things are being worked on.
But gosh, I just don't think this makes them look great that
they gobbled up all these studios, they've showed off a
ton of games, and now they've slowly just started cutting back
(35:40):
on them. Yeah, I don't know.
I, I'm, I'm, you're 100% right. Unfortunately, they, they need
to do it for the shareholders and they've got to, they've got
to get their money. But it's just it, it sucks as
the, the consumers, like the people who it actually impacts
the most are the people who are playing the games.
(36:01):
And the shareholders will never even know because they get the
double benefit because they get the bump in the share price when
they announce it. And then when it gets cut and
they're like, oh, they just saved all this money.
Share price is up for everybody.So they, they always win.
That's why I gave me a free share and at least at least put
some money back in my pocket, Microsoft.
That's all. That's a genius Ponzi scheme.
(36:22):
I love it. It's brilliant.
There's no way that it could possibly fail.
So we're going to do that. But really.
But yeah, I mean, that was aboutall I had for any, any big news.
I did want to bring this up though, because I think it's
been almost seven whole days since we've spoken about Claire
Obscure. So I wanted to make sure that I
(36:42):
highlighted this this story fromthis.
Week we got to pump the ratings.This is how you do it.
Now we can put it in the hashtag.
People are going to tune in. They're going to listen.
They need to hear it. Charlie Cox, one of one of the
main voice actors in the game, hasn't played a game since Mario
64, he claims. So he does want to play Clara
Skier. Who wouldn't want to play it?
(37:03):
You should. If you're not playing it right
now, go play it. But.
If the last game you played was Mario 64, would you recommend
Clara Skier to that person? No, not at all.
Not even a little bit. I feel like Clear Obscure is
perfect for people that have been playing video games for a
(37:23):
really long time because it's itkind of captures so many
elements there. The imagination, the story,
writing, the visuals, all of that stuff feeds into real
gamers. If I was coming from Meyer 64, I
would be like, what is happeningright now?
And I'm just trying to picture the pairing system where you
(37:48):
just have not done any of that type of stuff.
It'd be like there'd be a nightmare.
Yeah, like I could see if he waslike, yeah, you know, I still
dabble in games from time to time.
Like I, you know, maybe a coupletimes a year I'll pick up the
sticks or whatever. But Mario 64, they there's,
there's no, there's no middle joystick on this here.
Yeah. So also what does he do on his
(38:11):
free time I. Don't know.
I mean Uber wealthy. I'm sure at this point he's he's
famous actor and all the likes. He probably does all right, so
whatever he wants. I mean I.
Just like could get good at it. Video games are just such a good
free time thing. Like I've I've picked up, I've
(38:31):
picked up on I know I mentioned this off podcast, but I've been
I've picked up a lot on reading recently.
I used to read and then I just kind of stopped.
So I started to pick it back up,and that's been a nice
alternative to playing video games all the time.
But yeah, it always just cracks me up when people are like, I
(38:51):
haven't played since then. 64. I'm like, what have you?
What do you do when you're just bored?
I mean, my wife, she watches just awful TV.
Oh, Anderson in the chat. He he dates women.
That's that's assuming. A whole lot of things coming.
Well, also, Andrew also just played the video games.
I think that's why he knows, yeah.
Because he. Just played video games instead
(39:13):
of dating. He's the most part of his life.
Obviously not now. He tricked somebody.
Good for you Charlie Cox, I hopeyou like the game.
I'm sure he will not like the gameplay, but he'll probably
likes the story. I mean, he's in it.
The story is good. Yeah, the story is great, but.
Is that like a weird thing? I like, I think especially just
(39:36):
kind of a side thought on that, especially if you don't play
games normally, is it then weirdto play a game that you're in
versus like say Jack Black, who is well known gamer, you're in
games like of course I'm going to play my own game.
Yeah, like. A weird good question.
You know, why not even weird like for him in the sense of
(39:59):
like, oh, it's cringy or whatever, but I don't know, I
just, I could see where a lot ofvoice actors like I'll just give
you my voice and I'm done with this.
Don't care. Yeah, I mean, so why that one's
kind of interesting to me is there's a lot of actors and
maybe this is normal. I I guess just in my head, this
isn't like this wouldn't be how I'd react.
(40:19):
There's a lot of actors that do not watch themselves in movies.
Like they don't like the watch it at the premiere because they
kind of have to be there and then they'd never watch it
again. Like they just never go back to
it. And that's really, really
common. So I can see that being a
similar instance where you did all the voice acting for it and
you're just kind of like, I don't know, I don't, I don't
(40:39):
really need to go back to it. I was there, I lived it, so I
don't need to, but who knows? Yeah.
Well. Again, good luck to him.
Play it on story mode. Don't don't let anyone anyone
grief you for it. Enjoy your fun like the.
Grief you've experienced? Yeah, one weird you did.
(41:01):
It for like 3 fights and yeah yeah man cheater roasted.
Absolutely roasted. Deserved.
Fine, whatever. But anyways, that's all I have.
So unless you have anything elseyou want to talk about, that's
it for us. All right.
Hi, guys. Well, thanks for enjoying it.
Yeah, dude, you know, thanks forshowing up.
(41:22):
Appreciate you, Aaron. Andrew will be back next week.
Which? I guess we're going to have to
review something. Next week right?
I think we are probably going todo an actual game.
This might need to be back sometime soon.
I think there was rumors of thatwe.
Could try the Split gate 2 beta.We're going to do 3 split Gate
episodes. That's some yeah A listener put
(41:46):
in our Discord. They they went through and
counted all the the different series we've done.
I think Halo was the the most reviewed series of all of them.
That makes sense. Split Gate is just going to
become its own without being theseries.
So. Yep, love it.
That'll be that. But again, I've been Keith and
fumbling along this episode, so thanks for being with.
Us play the app here Keith. Keith.
(42:07):
I'm not going to do that 'cause I don't know how I'm doing it.
Both. This is just going to end.
Bye.
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