Assassin's Creed Shadows Making The Rounds | House Of Wolves Podcast

Episode 154. In this episode we discuss the Nvidia stock tanking and deepseek, Sony canceling live service games, Assassin's Creed Shadows early impressions, Phil Spencer and Destin Interview and much more.

Intro: 00:00

Nvidia Stock Tank: 13:55

Nvidia 5070 Claims Debunked: 26:22

Phil Spencer and Destin Interview: 35:05

Assassin's Creed Shadows: 01:01:17

Sony Canceling Live Service Games: 01:13:51

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Let them come.

(00:03):
This is their fate.
Let me get my birdman hands in there.
All right.
All right.
Welcome back to the House of Wolves podcast.
I am your host Deontay here with my near and dear friends Jaylen and Josh.
Today we got a few things to talk about.

(00:26):
Not a lot of news.
Unfortunately, it's not that slow, but it's just slow.
And the points of actually entertaining information coming out.
But we got some things to talk about.
We got Assassin's Creed shadows.
A lot of people are getting their hands on that.
We got the Nvidia stock tanking.
We got Phil Spencer talking to Destin about the future of Xbox, Sony canceling live service

(00:47):
because we never got around to talking about that in the ramifications of what they're
doing now.
And again, more information coming out about the 50 70 and that quote unquote claim that
it's going to beat the 40 90 or be comparable.
So a lot of things to talk about.
That's what we want to go jump into today.
But before we get started per usual, Jaylen, Josh, tell the people how you've been, what

(01:13):
you've been up to, what you've been doing, how's life going, what you've been playing
and anything in between.
Talk to the people.
Yeah, it's been not too long since we last talked.
But for me, you know, my my regular games have been in rotation, been playing a bit

(01:34):
of Marvel Rivals, just trying to keep up with like the the dailies and the weeklies, even
though they're not really difficult.
You might take a little bit of time to do all of the challenges because they're like,
oh, play Spider-Man and get 20 kills, and so you got to do like actually focus on trying

(01:55):
to do them.
Yeah.
But overall, the game's been pretty fun.
And I actually tried maybe like five or six competitive matches just to see how long it
would take me to level up because each season they offer a unique reward for like a certain

(02:15):
character.
Like last season, it was like a black and gold Moon Knight skin.
And so this season, I think it's a skin for Invisible Woman.
And so it's a gold rank, I think, or like the bottom of gold.
And so that shouldn't be too difficult to get.
But it seems like it will take time because some games, the longer they're out, they'll

(02:40):
they'll offer placement matches where you play your first 10 matches and they'll like
give you an estimate of your rank and they'll put you there.
So you get to skip a little bit.
But for right now, I'm all rivals.
You got to actually climb from the bottom.
And when I was playing, it seems like there was a lot of people, a lot of good players
at the bottom rank.

(03:01):
So I might wait a little bit longer in the season for people to like spread out their
ranks.
And then when I play, it might be easier to rank up quickly because the first three matches
or first five matches, like I think I won three lost two, which wasn't bad.
But the matches were like super long and super close because it also does the the competitive

(03:24):
rule set for this game is like even if the game type is like the push map where you just
basically push it to the end and the idea you win or lose.
That's normally what happened.
But in competitive, both teams get an opportunity to push.
So if the first team push it all the way to the end and the second team, they only get

(03:45):
halfway, then they lose.
But anyways, that makes it fair in a sense where sometimes in some games, like if the
team has the advantage or like, oh, this map is super easy to push, then they can't just
like steamroll them because the other team will actually get an opportunity to do it

(04:05):
again.
So it could be lopsided depending on how fast that first round goes.
But yeah, overall, it was pretty, pretty good.
And of course, I play in Asia.
So the people complaining and typing in chat is very few as compared to the North American
servers.
Yeah, the player player base experience might be a little different.

(04:29):
As for other games I've been playing, not too much new stuff.
I've been looking at a couple of the Ace Combat games because I never played them.
But I like I do like planes.
But like trying to play Microsoft Flight Simulator was like too difficult in the sense where
every plane is so different.

(04:50):
And it takes a long time to actually learn how to operate them because it's going for
a super real simulation.
Whereas Ace Combat is more of an arcade playing game.
And I guess if you ever played like a multiplayer game with planes, they're they're kind of
inspired by that, basically.

(05:11):
But the plane just you know, it goes you got some control over like your your speed, your
pitch and the yaw and things like that.
But overall, it's pretty straightforward.
And like driving a car.
So I was playing some of the older games.
It's pretty fun.
But it's interesting in which it's a.

(05:34):
Like a arcade flight flight sim or like combat sim, I guess they call it.
But it's made by Bandai Namco.
And so the story is a very like it's written by Japanese people about like Western countries
because it's all fictional.
Right.

(05:54):
But yeah, it's it's like the, you know, Western military dudes, but they act in like anime
characters.
I don't know if I'm in the mood or American or like Western military anime.
But overall, they've been pretty fun.
OK, that's all it for the my gaming week.

(06:15):
All right.
All right.
All right.
OK, not bad.
Not bad.
I'm I'm interested in learning more about this ace combat because.
I mean, I really like playing games, so it's kind of like one of those things where it's
interesting to hear other perspectives on why certain games may be interesting or intriguing

(06:38):
to actually play, especially when you realize they got a story playing game.
But what about you, Jaylen?
What you been up to?
What you been doing?
How's life going?
Oh, shoot.
What are you?
Everything's smooth.
Just registered for my eight K to share Mark Shuffle's trying to see if Beyonce was going

(06:58):
to do it to, you know, Mars when he's heard.
Well, come do it.
Yeah, OK.
I say he's going to jump in the Green River.
Yeah, not that the week before.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, but I said he's lying up here.
You know, your court might win the water so taxes they can put whatever they want in it.

(07:20):
Oh, well, thank you.
I don't know.
Fish going to be looking like when this water turned green, they don't play.
Hey, hold on.
The other fish going to be like, how do you know what the color green is?
We talked about that before.
And they might, you know, it's called that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But I just been working out what to go yesterday.
Trash, I got to really get back to the person in 2025.

(07:47):
So that we just trying to cool out and stuff.
You know what they be saying, bro?
It's a diamond hand, bro, to the mall and get 200 EOD.
Go ahead and share.
I can.
I can sell you all stocks.
I'm a buy it on what you're talking about.
I'm pulling off from when I pull off of my land ball, man, they're going to be mad.

(08:09):
They get on stock with the game.
I was on their train with they were so people have lyrics and all that type of stuff.
So I just say, I know Nvidia had went down.
So I've been tracking has been going up.
It's already, you know, it went from like 140, 150 to like 115 or something like that.
I'm going back to 127, bro, 130 end of the day.

(08:31):
Not just one, but oh, just some of that.
I've been kind of looking at the stock market a little bit more.
And Dan, I've been playing the finals.
Hey, hey, the final will be kind of cool.
I'm playing the finals.
I'm like, man, I finally got back to the game when I was playing.
I'm on for like four hours on like Saturday.

(08:51):
I'm looking like, man, this game is crazy.
Four hours.
Oh, wow. That's a lot of time dedicated to.
No, it's right. It's probably like three or four.
But I was I was in a great show and I had nothing to do.
I had to do my workout or stuff like that.
I'm like. I'm going to have one of the final breath on that one plan is like nine or like 12 or something like this.
And I want to sleep with her getting those shows.

(09:15):
I'm like, man, I told you I was going to come back and play that game.
That's what I do.
That music and that game. Cool.
But I would be the slav game.
I'm about to put that up on.
So just that is cool for what it is.
I'm missing free to play a game.
I find they got a little bit of gated paywall type stuff, pay to win type.
But it ain't a whole lot of this.

(09:36):
Bro, I know other than that, still playing metaphor.
I know I'm past the halfway point in the game for sure.
I think the story kind of expanded just a little bit.
I'm hoping that I'm doing all type of persona stuff or so just get out of context and I'll have any like see for I think persona six or five was the only one that really did it.

(09:58):
Kind of crazy like that.
But other than that, everything that cool man just work, working out.
Drive one stuff like that.
So I'm trying to find my next Japan trip.
Go from there.
Okay.
All right.
Well, that's cool.
Sounds smooth.
Sounds smooth.
The diamond hands is concerning, but everything else sounds smooth.

(10:23):
Glad you signed up for other stuff and more runs.
I'm in here, bro.
I ain't my hands ain't weak, bro.
Stop that.
Stop it.
But, but yeah, okay.
That's good for me.
I mean, I ain't been really been doing much.
I finished my show night agent.

(10:44):
I already told you.
I think I told you last time I finished it.
It was just as good as the first time around.
I love my little CIA espionage, everything in between who done it type shows.
So definitely was a good watch.
Recommended, highly recommended.
I started this new show called Mashal.

(11:06):
I don't even know what this is about.
It's, it's basically a rip off of hot Harry Potter, but the dude don't got no power.
So it is kind of like in between and between Harry Potter and Black Clover.
World that world full of magic.
He only used physical strength to get through it.
And the show is called Mashal.

(11:27):
Is that an anime?
Yes, it's an anime.
Okay.
Same anime tropes.
Same everything.
Everything is just some fodder I put in the background when I'm chilling and doing something else.
But I have been watching.
I think I only got one season right now.
So that's what I've been on.
Game wise, I am on the last boss of Ninja Gaiden 2.

(11:49):
And I've been putting up basically videos of boss fights and giving tips on how to beat them.
So you can check that out on my channel or not.
I'm actually on my TikTok.
I haven't put it on my channel.
I plan on putting on my channel at some point, but I was just going to a compilation at that point.
I wouldn't want to kind of piece it out.

(12:10):
I don't know yet.
So I've been playing that and pretty much almost finished with that.
And then I'm probably going to hop into either.
I don't know.
I don't know where I'm going to play next.
I want to say rebirth, but at the same time, I'm just not super, super interested in playing a long game over a long period of time.

(12:35):
I kind of might jump into another shorter game that I can kind of finish.
I still got Spider-Man that I'm halfway through, so I need to finish that.
So that might be the next game.
Spider-Man 2 that I play.
So.
But yeah, to go to interrupt, I was looking at the steam and Ace Combat 7 is 90 percent off.

(12:59):
If you was interested, Ace Combat 7 is 90 percent off.
OK, I guess that I take a look.
Those types of games, very intriguing in regards to I never like pay attention to them because it's just, you know, it's a playing game.
So but yeah, I show.

(13:20):
Check it out.
See what it's all about.
Watch a review or something.
But yeah, the I've really been doing like two to nothing too crazy.
Still trying to grind on this YouTube stuff.
Make sure I'm putting content out for you guys and all that good jazz.
So, yeah, stay tuned.
Still got more stuff to come.

(13:41):
But really, what we're here for today is to kind of talk through these topics and kind of give you guys our opinion on them.
And really, the biggest one for me, I guess the biggest change that's occurred is due to that in the video stock and deep sink.
And I kind of want to try to explain it to you guys, but maybe it's not the best thing to start with because it's like.

(14:09):
How much do you really care?
But at the same time, what you you can you can understand the premise of what it is and why Nvidia is a direct getting directly hit by it.
Deep seek AI is a is essentially a model that came out for a very cheap price and can be run on very minimal hardware.

(14:34):
I guess I wouldn't I would say minimal as in its consumer friendly, its ability to be able to be used locally is what's really killing the video stock.
The video has real the wave of you need to run these big models on big computers on big servers.

(14:57):
And that is what their bread and butter is in regards to AI modeling becoming so big and vast across the market.
What basically happened was they figured out a way deep seek.
And I and I believe it might might be a little bit of a might want to dig into it some more.
But I believe what happened is they figured out a way for their AI models to only run and operate on certain things that you may necessarily need.

(15:27):
So, say, for instance, you need your model to do.
I don't know. I'm just making up stuff.
I don't have no clue. Just strictly mad calculations.
And you need that part of the model and you don't need this full data or model to actually have to run.
You just need that portion of the model.

(15:48):
Whatever whatever they did, they figured out a way to do that and make it more accessible and cheaper to run.
That is what's causing the video to lose.
The basically the longevity of their stock was based around they were going to be the biggest player and being able to run AI models.

(16:10):
But if they're making them more efficient and more cheaper and cheaper to run, that kind of directly impacts in the videos take on the market.
So, yeah, they lost about one point five trillion.
I think the NASDAQ lost like one point five trillion overnight.
That's a lot. If you don't know, I'm just not.
This isn't supposed to be a gaming channel.

(16:31):
But I mean, you should be at least a little bit aware of some of these things that's happening.
But essentially what occurred was they China has showcased that they can beat us at our own game.
And in a way that I don't know, I wouldn't say China beat us.
I would say that they have showcased another alternative to Nvidia and that kind of what would really truly hit the market.

(17:03):
So a little bit about that, a little bit overview.
Have you guys heard anything about DeepSeek or talk to or seen anything about the the AI model?
Have you do you guys have any thoughts around it?

(17:24):
Yeah, it's interesting because me, I haven't I've not been deep into the AI stuff because so a couple of context.
I've been going out to tech meetups to, you know, network with people in Japan, people who work in tech, either in Japan or outside, you know,

(17:46):
because I haven't been networking as much as I should.
But it's been interesting. But a lot of talk around AI and different AI models, what some are good at, like their strengths and what they're bad at.
And also how over time people have fallen off a certain AI models that were good at one point, but have been surpassed.

(18:07):
But the whole point is that the AI market in the West, at least, has been very privatized.
Every company has their own strengths, every company pursuing different things, and they all require big investments to get up off the ground.
And so it's been a booming industry for a little bit.
But the talk around the DeepSeek has come up out of nowhere because no one knew about it.

(18:31):
But it seems that I don't know how it was developed.
So for me, it's just personal speculation. But in China, if they took a more, I guess, collaborative approach between big companies,
it seems like that may have led to their success. And let's say that they didn't learn or take a look at Western models as well.

(18:52):
They might have been able to learn something from someone else.
But if a lot of companies work together towards a single project that could have skyrocketed their progress if they were successful.
So I think that is just a for me, that's my personal takeaway is that there's been a lot of privatized work in the AI industry.

(19:19):
Trump just announced a whole bunch of money being invested into the industry.
Microsoft's doing their own thing. Nvidia is doing their own thing.
Chad GPT is doing their own thing. And they're all, you know, billion dollars, billion dollar projects.
And this project over here just kind of ate all their lunch.
And it's funny. It's not funny in the sense where it's a lot of money being lost.

(19:42):
But it's funny that none of them were ready. So, yeah, they didn't even understand it.
It was kind of crazy is that everybody is kind of Sam and I and, you know, Elon and and what's the dude name?
I forget his name, but pretty much the big players in AI, they're basically kind of admitting that, yeah, it's a good model.

(20:08):
Ours is a little bit better, but it's a great model. And that just that just signals, you know, it's cool.
I mean, I feel like the the amount of money being spent on AI is was already insane in order in order for them to kind of do this and be able to allow people to run it locally.

(20:35):
It's just going to shift, shift how people think about AI, because if I can run a local server for my AI model and I don't have to send data to anything but to this thing, it makes it more it makes it more it makes it smarter
for it to now be like these, I don't know, people that have actual, you know, things in the house like tech companies, Nintendo, Xbox, PlayStation, phone companies, things that you actually use on your day to day.

(21:11):
If they can make these things run comparatively good on a smaller scale, because that's what the point is now is now everybody's shift into efficiency.
Everybody thought they was going to need a bunch of energy. Everybody thought they was going to need a bunch of basically those chips to run these big models.
But if it's becoming a future where people are now thinking of efficiency and thinking that, hey, we can scale down these models and put them in these systems or whatever the case may be, that does now become where do you want to put your money when it comes to AI?

(21:46):
Do you want to put it in the back into the people that actually make devices that you have in your household on a consumer note?
I'm not talking about these big companies that need these models and use these models to service or to even provide services.
It's a little bit different when it comes to where does the money go?
And that's kind of what was very interesting to me when I was reading into it and looking into videos and people were talking about it.

(22:11):
It's one of those things where it's going to shift how we think about AI and the efficiency of it more so than anything, because AI is still AI is still not changing how it's developed or how it was or the curve of how rapidly it's getting better.

(22:34):
It's more so now just talking to we thought this company was the future in this and for these reasons.
And now we see there's a better way, a more efficient way in a way that possibly could be more consumer friendly.
So, yeah, imagine being able to have a amount of just sitting on your desk and not having to actually, you know, run to a server or ping the server.

(23:01):
You're just literally running that on, you know, consumer grade products.
That is the goal.
And I think that would be the most that way.
That would be my way of thinking about AI moving forward.
Basically, I would think about that.
I would think about it in that way other than thinking about it from who's making the chips, because now it seems as if it's a feasible thing for them to actually have innovation in the actual

(23:30):
models, AI models.
So that's cool.
I like it.
I'm not saying that is I always thought that video was a bubble anyway.
I always thought that there was way too people were putting way too much money in it without truly thinking about the valuation.
I don't even understand how any of this stuff gets to this point, because the point of you putting money into a stock is that you believe that they have a reason to that.

(23:56):
They're going to go up that they're going to make more profit.
Half these people now they just be going off emotions.
I'm talking about how can I believe Trump's mean coin was like bigger than like Target best like all these big companies that actually have physical assets like it's just a coin.

(24:18):
I really don't get it.
But people just spend and like put money into our base off emotion.
So the valuations and thing like that.
I'm hoping.
Well, it's not.
It's gonna still be the same way because that Nvidia valuation was crazy.
It was like, I don't know.
It was like something exponential.
I never thought it.
I still think Tesla's is still blown out of proportion to but everybody believe the same whatever they want.

(24:41):
But yeah, this is kind of one of those things where it just popped a bubble and maybe it recovers.
Maybe people start to maybe people start to think about it from a different perspective.
But that is what kind of caused that big situation to occur.
We're in the video base stock tank.
But yeah, any any any other thoughts on that before I move on?

(25:10):
No, but yeah, within video I think they all got hit really hard because they were kind of the market leader for AI and hardware.
And they just, you know, release start releasing the 50 series. So I think it could take them a bit to recover.
I think personally it might impact their sales for the hardware a lot, especially for people who were really looking to invest in the AI.

(25:39):
But overall, like you said, I think, yeah, they were overvalued for a while and this will hopefully bring them back down the earth.
Yeah, they definitely I believe it.
I forget the name of the chip. I think it's like the H1 something something.
I forget the name of the chip, but that that one probably going to get them because this is I think it's a very expensive chip.

(26:03):
I just don't remember the actual cost of it.
But a lot of that, yeah, a lot of that stuff is going to it's going to definitely that's going to definitely start to see the rippling effects on that.
So, well, OK, let's move on then. Let's move on.

(26:24):
But my my next topic is kind of still in the video related.
I might as well get it out the way. Nvidia also made a claim, a big claim that the 5070 was going to be able to be as performative as a 4090.
There was the catch, you know, I think that's what a six hundred dollar device versus the sixteen hundred dollar device.

(26:52):
The catch is that is not that's not the case.
They're talking when they're adding in DLSS and multi frame generation.
Baseline performance, which kind of is the most important part, because if you have a sucky baseline performance, if you throw more frames on the sucky baseline performance, you're still going to have a sucky situation.

(27:13):
So baseline performance is nowhere near a 4090, which was expected.
But they do have, you know, pretty decent. It's still a decent hardware.
I think that's what people are getting out of it. It's decent.
It's not the greatest. But with these different upticks and all these DLSS and ray tracing and things like that, it still should be a very competitive card.

(27:40):
Just not the claims of a 4090. Which, you know, makes sense.
My question to you all is, do you all feel like how do you all feel about multi frames?
How do you all feel about frame generation? More so than anything, how do you all feel about frame gen?

(28:06):
I think, like I mentioned, it was announced. I think for most games, it's like it will improve performance, but the artifacting or the drawbacks will take a long time to iron out.
It might have to be done on a game by game basis, because big games that collaborate with Nvidia, like Star Wars and Cyberpunk, even those games have issues still with frame generation.

(28:35):
And especially multi frame generation, where it's going to be doing a whole lot of predictive work in order to show what's on the screen.
I think, like I like in general, I like DLSS. I use it for 90% of the games I play and the games that don't have it. I'll see if I can implement it into the system.

(29:00):
But I would say for me, like I have my limit, like I usually play on balance or even quality.
I don't ever push it to performance, unless it's a weird situation like Elden Ring, which is like, I'm trying to push as much performance as possible.
But in general, I think that I'm not, as a person who built my PC, I'm not looking for multi frame generation. I want a good balance between rasterization ability and the DLSS.

(29:38):
Because the whole point of what I liked about the DLSS is that it was optional. And when you use it, there were some drawbacks, but the benefits were clear that you can see it.
Whereas like really pushing it towards the 50 series, it's going to be heavily reliant on the multi frame generation.

(30:03):
And while it will add performance, I personally know that I will see the artifacts and there are a lot of games that won't ever be able to like update to fully compensate for that, especially like day one.
Because that's also what I'm concerned about. It's like, if I buy a game on PC day one, you know, I buy, I don't know, whatever it is, the next Star Wars game from EA.

(30:26):
It's probably going to run trash on PC. And if it don't, it might still have issues with DLSS or something like that or multi frame generation that has to be ironed out over the next couple weeks.
And that's just going to impact my desire to play that game at that time. So yeah, having rasterization ability is a must, I think, for PC gaming.

(30:51):
So that yeah, that's how I feel. I'm not going to go full into multi frame generation.
So yeah, multi frame generation, I feel like has and always will be a gimmicky thing.
I just don't feel like no one cares and no one even has the refresh rates to make make this make sense.
Most of the time, the biggest thing has always been getting to a solid 60 120 being, you know, tops.

(31:19):
Nobody cares about 240, especially not in actually competitive games where there may be a problem with artifacting and issues that are being introduced.
To me, it is a non factor. To me, it feels as if DLSS without frame generation is the more important piece of this.

(31:44):
Creating abilities to have a lower resolutions that produce a 4K image that is kind of the biggest selling point to me at this point.
It is not anything to do with the multi frame generation or even for engine.
I don't find it to be a useful tool yet.
And even if I was to get a 240 Hertz or some crazy, ridiculous, high hurt refresh rates, I just don't find the experiences that I would want to play that with to even be meaningful enough as well.

(32:20):
So. Cats off to them for creating something, but in being innovative and what they try to do and showcase in this stuff.
But you can literally run lossless scaling and they have the ability to throw in crazy multi frame generation stuff.
And that thing is eight bucks on steam. I just don't find the value yet.

(32:43):
I'm not saying that they're not doing anything great.
I'm just saying that the value proposition for the amount of money that they're requesting for these types of devices doesn't make sense.
And at the end of the day, what truly matters is that rasterized performance that your upscaler can't be touched.
That's no, that's no, that is that I am not up. It's not up for debate, but we do have to give AMD time to provide their FSR for implementation and whether or not they actually can start to provide a meaningful uptick and what their upscaling looks like.

(33:17):
I think that is the true, true battle. The upscalers. That is it. All this multi frame stuff. I think it's all just, you know, stuff to be thrown to the wayside.
Not to be important, not to be talked about anymore. I really do believe the upscalers are really what's key here because we what we want to become is more efficient and more scalable.

(33:39):
What we want to happen is to have hand hails that can look just as good as some of these councils we are experiencing from the last generation.
What we want to have is the ability to have that suite of technology and all have the ability to run games well.
What we don't need is more frames that to provide even worse performance or experience based off of the underlying frame rate and sorry, frame rate and latency.

(34:15):
So that's what I think about multi frame generation. That's what I think about the 50 70. I do still think it may be priced to performance. It'll be OK.
I just don't think you should ever go into buying that thing and saying, hey, I'm about to get 40 90 experience. You're not 50 90 for that.

(34:37):
Not even a 50 80 can do that. So just know that they're talking about multi frame generation, which to me, still a gimmick has a proven itself.
You can feel that other way. You can feel otherwise. But that is my take. Anything to add to that before we move on?

(35:00):
No. All right. All right. Smooth, smooth, smooth sailing. All right. Let's talk about Phil. Big Phil Spencer.
Spill Spencer came out yapping per usual. Always yapping. Always yapping.
He had a he had a conversation with Destin Legary.

(35:21):
And this one was pretty interesting because he did double down a few things and also mention other things. And I wish I had the Cliff Notes for this.
But really, I didn't have a chance to read it through at all or talk through it all.
But some of the key takeaways for this is Xbox games and what they're going to be looking like and what they're going to be, what councils they're going to be on and their strategy for to me.

(35:55):
These are important things. Xbox Series S parody and scalability of their games.
The Xbox handheld. And then, like I said, finally, what what does Xbox look like in the future?
Or and what does exclusivity looks like for the Xbox in the future?

(36:17):
Where should I start? Where should I start? Where should I start?
Let's talk Xbox Series S parody.
I always talk to you guys about this already, and I kind of gave my two cents about why I feel like the the Xbox Series S is the reason why we're getting better games, more, I guess, more performative games.

(36:42):
Like you can see the results of Indiana Jones running extremely well on Xbox Series X and Series S with ray tracing and having the ability to probably run that game pretty well on the Steam Deck and things of that nature because of that parody and kind of having to restrain what you think could be, you know, could be accomplished.

(37:09):
Obviously, I think that next time around, they probably give him more RAM, regardless of what anybody thinks.
They're probably not going to stick around with the same type of RAM that they did this time, but I do think it is still extremely important for the games of today to still have a entry level that is cheap.
And with Xbox Series S parody, it allows that to happen. It allows for games to to still be made in a way where efficiency at the top of the top of the mind and performance.

(37:46):
I think those things are key to having a great experience on a game.
The reason why I still own my consoles is because I don't get that experience on PC. There is never a time where they're best optimized and fully optimized from start to finish.
And we've had plenty of examples of that occurring on smaller underperforming consoles than a PC could ever.

(38:11):
So that is the reason why you still want this to be around. You want them to show you want them to do that because it provides better experiences on PC.
Like, if you even look back three years ago, the PC was riddled with bunch of. Well, they still are.
But it was riddled even worse with a bunch of bad Unreal Engine four games. And we're going into Unreal Engine five. And as those games get pushed on consoles, the problems still are popping up on the on the PC side.

(38:45):
And it's it's literally due to optimization issues is due to the engine is due to them not being super performative.
And with a lot of the. What that with that stance of parody, it just allows for.
Performance and scalability to be top of mind. And that's what I like about his Xbox Series S parody stance.

(39:13):
Now, you can argue what comes along with that. You have situations like Barters Gate three. You have situations like even I don't know who is to believe at this point.
But at this point, the black myth, Wu Kong situation, you do have situations where you're missing out on games due to this clause.
But honestly, I would feel worse if they took it away.

(39:36):
And that's my intro thoughts to the parody. Any any thoughts around Xbox Series S parody?
Any thoughts around handhelds and their their abilities to scale? What are your thoughts on this topic at hand?

(39:57):
So, yeah, the parody clause, I think, is interesting because if I put it like every console has it like they are there, but it's usually looking upwards to like upgrades.
So you go from the PS5 to PS5 Pro. Anything that you make has to be parody between them.

(40:18):
You can't make something PS5 Pro exclusive blah blah blah.
And I think consumers don't think about that, but it's super beneficial for them.
Going the other way where it's like a hardware that's weaker, or I guess it came out at the same time as the Series X.

(40:39):
But, you know, when it comes to going down, a lot of people are happy.
How to put it, if you have a Series S, you're happy about it. If you don't have it, then you're upset about it because you think that it could possibly be holding you back.
Personally, I don't think there's a situation that a game is going to be compromised from it. It's just situations where a company, maybe they have development issues and they don't want to put the extra time in to make it work for the Series S.

(41:09):
Or there might be certain features that have to be cut.
And I think that realistically there has to be some sort of middle ground where Microsoft works with the developers. Hey, we know that you guys are going to have issues when it comes to these type of games like open world games or something like that.
And if you're able to work with developers and provide assistance like they did with Baldur's Gate 3, I think that's going to be necessary if Microsoft wants to keep the two SKUs going forward.

(41:43):
That being said, a lot of developers would just rather not think about it at all like the Wukong guys and just say, yeah, we canceled it because of the Series S and whatever.
Yeah, so I don't know. I think it's better overall for consumers and like, yeah, maybe someday I will buy a Series S because I, like you said, having an entry point console to this current generation is important.

(42:13):
And that will be the one that I will buy because I don't necessarily need the most powerful console.
I just think that Microsoft needs to work out the kinks.
Maybe the Series S was a little bit too bottlenecked in certain areas that makes it difficult for some developers this generation.

(42:35):
But if they do a revision in the future, maybe that device is a little more scalable in certain areas. I don't know.
But yeah, I think there is a little bit of work to be done on Microsoft's side, but I'd say a lot of it is still on the developers to do it because most of the Series S ports have been, not ports, but performance has been pretty decent, right?

(42:58):
Would you say, Dianci?
I would say most of the ports have been decent. Yeah.
There hasn't been a situation where I felt like maybe the Ubisoft engine, not the Ubisoft engine, the EA engine sometimes have issues.
But for the most part, no, I don't feel like there has been an experience where the Series S wasn't given out a comparable, well, they weren't producing a comparable experience.

(43:30):
I think that it was also it was all about kind of like lack of time and lack of ability to kind of develop to those restraints.
I really don't think if they're building games from the ground up to have Xbox Series S in mind, I don't think those are that's it. I don't think it ever becomes an issue.
And that is the real, the real problem here is that these companies are not targeting these lower end systems or if they are, they're expecting a baseline or a certain degree of capability before they start to, you know, dwindle away and say that these can't work.

(44:10):
I'm glad they're putting their foot down and kind of requesting that these things occur and that requesting that if you want to use our platform or our where we where we were able to put our games out, it is mandatory for you to kind of support this system.
So, but yeah, overall, I feel like they have been pretty, you know, decent.

(44:35):
Do you think it's any different than when some companies like they'll announce or they'll target like the steam deck because they want their game to be on the steam deck verified list.
And so you'll see something like cyberpunk steam deck verified and technically that's true, but I personally don't like the performance on it, but it's still playable.

(44:59):
But I guess why now I'm thinking why, why am I curious why companies would be want to target the steam deck, but not the series as well.
Or at least like those things that the state, I think the steam deck still has more rammed than the series.
That's what I think.

(45:21):
And everybody keeps everybody keeps going back to that.
The ram is the problem and I'm like, okay, but it wasn't a problem for Indiana Jones.
It wasn't a problem for eternal.
It wasn't a problem for these these well, highly developed and good, but they are triple a gangs.
I can't really be mad at people when they like I got a double a game.

(45:44):
I got the budget to be trying to work through the parody of this.
But at the same time, when you do that and you build gangs from the ground up, expecting them to be as continued as they continue to get a bunch of the market or at least at least attempt to spend their way to become a larger market share of the gaming community in the business and who what box are in people households as they work towards that.

(46:13):
That this is where I start to be seated. They have leverage.
They already own a bunch of different companies and things like that.
And they they have the resources to kind of provide ability to people for people in the ability to kind of have help with Xbox Series S.
But then they have to be more robust approach to development and stuff that and stuff like that.

(46:38):
So I think as time goes on in the continuation of this brain, this generation in the continuation of a entry level approach or entry level counsel, it will continue to get better.
I do believe that these are, you know, stepping stones for a bigger picture overall. And the bigger picture is obviously he has been screaming in night and day.

(47:08):
I don't think a lot of people want to believe it.
But but he's been screaming about, you know, just being a place where your games follow you wherever you want to however you want to play them and whatever format you want to play on, whether it's on a weaker counsel, weaker handheld or stronger handheld or a stronger counsel.

(47:30):
They want those games to work across all board and they want you to be able to not only, you know, have a top line experience, they want you to have an entry level experience as well.
So, um, yeah, I think that the.

(47:51):
And I'm trying to make sure I answered your question.
But yeah, for me, the the ability to kind of have all of that come into play or at least have all of that be top of mind is always going to help pretty much any everyone.
So, yeah, I think that they need to fix two things that the the the the portion of how much they support it and then their relationships with these developers, because I think that's what they're truly doing with the Ninja guy and stuff to pan trips and all that crap.

(48:30):
They throw money around.
They want people to still support their counsel as they go through this shift.
So, yeah, um, next big thing.
Oh, go ahead. Sorry, sneeze. Oh, you're good.
You're good. Next big thing for me is the talk through the exclusivities and whether or not games are going to be coming to other platforms.

(48:58):
What I'll say about exclusivity at this point on Xbox side is that it doesn't matter. They have the game pass. They still have the best place to buy games at this point with the Xbox play anywhere in the subscription service.
You would not.
It wouldn't be. It wouldn't be. I wouldn't be ideal for you to buy games elsewhere at this point in time, especially with their first parties.

(49:22):
Because I don't believe game pass will ever sit on a PlayStation box. I just don't, because that is a big component to why their counsel and their experience is the best or the most consumer friendly.
So the exclusivity portion of it.

(49:45):
There is probably going to be times where you see games that do not come to PlayStation in the future. But then there's going to be a lot of times where you see those games come to PlayStation.
And honestly, I've come to to the understanding that this will be Xbox's make or break moment, not due to the exclusivity anymore.

(50:11):
They are basically shedding armor and what they have to show under that armor is like, I don't know, rip apps or something that showcases that they still fortified.
And to me, the big thing is their Xbox tech, their technology innovating on tech.

(50:33):
And that's where I'm putting on my chips, I guess, I suppose I'm thinking if they're not going to provide exclusivity anymore, they're not there.
They're they're releasing that armor. They're basically saying, we don't care where you play them. As long as you play in our games, we cool.
That's fine. But what makes me want to buy your console? And that's where he started to make a lot more sense to me, where he was like, I'm tired of.

(51:04):
And I already talked about this about, I don't know, like four, four months ago, I talked about why I still mess with Nintendo because I love how they innovate on their consoles.
They don't got to innovate on their games. I like their consoles and what they do to them. I think they always are cool.
There is moments where you see stuff and you like, wow, that's a gimmick, but it's really cool.

(51:25):
I love the Wii. I love the DS. I love the Game Boy Color.
I love the. The GameCube, not so much, but I did love the Switch.
Like, I love the concept of the game console. I didn't love what they did with it, with the final product and like what it is today.

(51:46):
But that generation, it felt like it was something unique and special.
And that's why I always was like, I like to collect the unique and special consoles and not the ones that just a box.
So to me, him even stating that helped made me feel better about his approach to why what's going to differentiate them now, because it ain't games.

(52:12):
It's a crazy thing to think like, oh, you're a gaming company and what differentiates you isn't going to be games.
But it does put a.
They put a target on a back for their consoles to be superior and not just on a power level.
It has to do something magnificent.

(52:34):
So that tells me that they're putting a lot of effort into what that next council will be.
They don't feel like they need to do a mid-gen refresh because it seems as if they are at a point or at least they are confident and feel confident about one drop an exclusivity and two that their council is going to be the council to own.

(52:59):
But why if it's not just a jump in power, what can make me a consumer?
Watch your council over the one that can play all of it versus the one that can play some of it because I'm still not getting no PlayStation exclusives on your council.
Right. What can make you trip the scales in your favor?

(53:22):
That is what I'm excited about.
I really don't care about nothing else at this point.
The exclusivity stuff, you know, it's dead in the water.
He already said it ain't no real.
Ain't nobody stopping nothing.
Only people that's going to stop anything.
It's just not around no more.
None of that stuff is happening.
They need money.
They want to make more money.
They know that, you know, siloing themselves in the market doesn't make any sense.

(53:47):
That's not good business sense.
And I understand it.
That makes me nervous, but I understand it.
And but now, with that being said, I'm now looking forward to what they can bring to the council market.
I'm not I'm no longer in this space thinking that, oh, man, they just made a bad decision.

(54:12):
And they're not going to really have to be able to recoup because even if they are trying to make meaningful strides in how we approach gaming in general, they still have to get through that transition period.
And that transition period is going to be on the backs of their games, which is crazy to say because Xbox was not always known for having plenty of games, but they do now.

(54:39):
And innovation.
And that's not Xbox back.
I'm just I'm just be here to say the truth.
They do bring stuff to the table like the Xbox 360 was crazy work because it was like basically a PC in your home.
And you could do crazy stuff.
You could do this Xbox live chat.
You can chat with people.

(55:00):
And it's like these these these functions that they were doing at that time were unique.
So I'm I'm not going to say that they can't make something cool.
I just want to see what that is, because at this point in time, it's about it's all about providing people how they want to play anywhere.

(55:24):
Those Xbox live chat and all that stuff is it's going to again put it it possibly could put it back into a space where, you know, this is exclusive to this box and it's not going to be able to function throughout your library and things like that.
So how can you improvise or innovate with not with without putting those restrictions back in place?

(55:51):
So I am excited to see it.
I don't know what he's going to do.
I know a lot of AI is out there.
Maybe they were well aware of maybe they wanted a bunch of AI to be a part of their council generation next year.
Next time, next council generation, whatever the case may be, we know it just got cheaper.
So there's that Xbox handheld being the major portion of their business is really cool to see as well.

(56:19):
So a lot of good things are happening, or at least a lot of things I took out of this.
This interview is some things that was just reassuring what I already thought, but it does help to hear a little bit of more about their approach and experience or at least thoughts around topics, because you've got all these Japan trips.

(56:44):
You got all these people yapping about, you know, the brand being losing its identity.
You got all this multi-platform stuff.
You got steam in the mix.
You got the series as parody.
And then you just got games.
So it's cool.
It's cool. It's cool.
Anything that you saw or thought about Xbox or Phil Spencer and his his take on the new regime.

(57:11):
Now, we got called it regime, the new new Xbox experience.
No, not a whole too much to say, but I think that, you know, last year, they were very hush hush about certain like big first party titles coming to the consoles.
Like Starfield or Halo, stuff like that. But I think as we get away from that and the public can finally like stomach the gut reaction about seeing Halo on PlayStation, I think overall, yeah, it's an inevitability.

(57:46):
I think the exclusivity for the first party titles is not helping the Xbox brand grow like it keeps its identity, but it's not helping it grow. And I think that for now, yeah, Phil is completely out of the exclusivity idea.
I think maybe they've they've got enough experience to show that the exclusivity is not enough.

(58:10):
So, yeah, I'm excited to see their new ventures is just I actually want to see what it's like, because like you say, if they can provide a box or a handheld that offers a the best experience for first party titles that might be enough for me to purchase that device just for that stuff.

(58:32):
Whereas but if I also have the option to play those games in another place and I don't want to buy that box, I think that's still good overall, because, you know, maybe this situation where we can convince Jalen to play Halo Halo seven, but he don't want to buy Xbox.
So, you know, no PlayStation, buddy, you know that that that will be the workaround in that situation. And I think that's that's good. Because I mean, if I think back to the Xbox one generation where I have a lot of friends on Xbox 360, but they either want to stick with the Xbox one or switch to PlayStation, and I made it impossible for everybody to play the same games anymore, or at least just like try random games.

(59:17):
Until we start getting cross platform stuff. I think that by Xbox having all their games on everything that can hopefully make a cross platform like native situation to Xbox that hopefully can grow their ecosystem.
Yeah, yeah, it's going to be tough for sure like this. They're they're literally put in this pressure on themselves by doing this, you know, talks about removing exclusivity and all that stuff because that is all people can fall back on really is their exclusives like you don't if you don't want to participate in the

(59:57):
Nintendo's antics, you just like all those are all these exclusives though, and it sucks. But if you don't want to deal with Xbox antics, you still don't lose it, you still are able to go and play elsewhere. And maybe that is the approach that most people are going to be heading down, maybe not
Nintendo, but Sony here soon because again, these things are now becoming just a box. They don't have much of a difference in abilities and it really is one of those things where it does come down to simply who is being more innovative who was providing the better

(01:00:38):
experience and who can also, you know, have the better ecosystem. So looking forward to seeing what they do for sure.
Okay, anything else before I move on.
No, personally, I want to see that Xbox handheld. Yeah, me too. I think that will be their strength in the next generation, but we got to wait. See. Yeah, for sure. I think handhelds are going to make a big comeback. I just hope that everybody is tired of them by the time they drop them.

(01:01:17):
Assassin's Creed shadows.
Let's talk about it.
For me, every time somebody hate on it, it makes me feel better. I feel like I've been more enjoying the, the, the approach to not caring what the critics are thinking, because honestly, I don't think half these people like to play games, they just do it for a job.

(01:01:46):
And I really like the outlaws. I, it was 13 hours. That's not a long time.
I liked it.
I just was like, I kind of over thinking what these people think is important. I'm not over them having a critique and understanding that the game could be approached in a better way. I'm not, I'm definitely not above Ubisoft learning a lesson.

(01:02:11):
But I guess with shadows, I've seen enough to, I feel like I'll be enjoying it regardless of whether or not it's a great game or not. And call me crazy. I'm just, I'm really tired of.
I'm really just, I'm extremely tired of the

(01:02:36):
hating on large games, just to hate on them. Like I hate, I hate certain games.
What I, what I would say about Ubisoft is they never gatekeep me from, well, one time they did Odyssey, where they basically gave levels, levels to the enemies. So you couldn't just run around and do what you wanted. You literally had to progress through that game in the right way.

(01:03:07):
But I give them credit for just allowing stuff, at least now, to just happen in the game. I don't really care to, if I don't want to do something, I'm not forced to do it.
And regardless of, of, of, of the, of the approach to gaming, because I feel like literally Ubisoft is at this approach now where they try to hit a certain amount of playtime hours

(01:03:36):
to sell for that price tag, regardless of the game, they want to make sure the hours are comparable to the price that they're targeting.
Same thing they did with like Prince of Persia, even though the game's play was fun and enjoyable.
They priced it at accordingly because they did not, they thought based off this time that just played is how much you should pay.

(01:03:59):
I feel like with Assassin's Creed Shadows, because they have such a larger budget and they need to puff it up with stuff nobody cares about or stuff that makes the game feel copy and paste.
But if you actually just play through the story, you may actually find what you actually are seeking is there.

(01:04:21):
You just not, you don't need to interact with all the other stuff that they're adding that makes the game feel so copy and paste.
So I guess my approach to these games have changed. I'm not saying Ubisoft doesn't make terrible decisions.
I'm just saying I'm going to give this a benefit of doubt like I gave Outlaws because at least what I saw from Outlaws, there was a lot of, of time put into the story.

(01:04:50):
The story activities, the actual world building and environments you're going to.
And I feel like the same thing is going to happen with shadows where a lot of time was put into these things.
Yes, is on a grand scale. Yes, there is busy work. Yes, there is markers.
But again, I would rather that stuff be there for me later than to not have it. But I can't knock. I guess I'm tired of knocking games for being larger due to providing more gameplay,

(01:05:27):
especially when the route to the story to the start to the finish is can is tightly as tight as like it's not loose. It's not busted.
It doesn't feel out of place. It doesn't feel like you're rushing it. It just feels like it's steadily progressing.
So I'm going to give it the OK there, kind of similar to a Spider-Man 2. I don't have to deal with any of the outside stuff if I don't want to.

(01:05:57):
I could just go through the story and have a good time doing it. I think that that is the most important part.
So with that being said, let's critique some of the critiques. Josh, anything you want to add before we start?
Yeah. So Assassin's Creed Shadows had started their media rollout recently.

(01:06:23):
It started with the story trailer and I watched the story trailer. I personally I thought it was look pretty interesting because I know that you have the two protagonists and they had mentioned it before that one is an assassin and the other is, I guess, working for Nobunaga.
But it seems like at least at some point in the story, they're actually on opposite sides. And it looks from both their backgrounds, looks pretty interesting.

(01:06:49):
So that is what intrigued me because I like part of the Assassin's Creed games.
I like Odyssey. I know you didn't like Odyssey, but Odyssey I liked a whole lot as far as the actual Greek world that they built and the characters that you have in the story.

(01:07:10):
But what I hate is all the animus stuff. And so I personally I hate the animus storyline in Assassin's Creed now and I'm not looking forward to that part of Assassin's Creed Shadows.
But at least what they show from the two protagonists in this game, it looks more interesting.
And I might actually enjoy it.

(01:07:32):
As far as the gameplay previews that I saw for me, I like the stealth elements of it.
I like the they show like the spy network thing where it's like.
So there's a fog of war on the map where basically, I guess it's the same for most Ubisoft games where some of the map is hidden, but you can send scouts out and they'll reveal important stuff that you're looking for.

(01:07:59):
So like this area has a rare item or something like that.
But it doesn't fully fill out the whole map. But that makes it so okay I'm playing the game normally. I can look at the map. I see some scouts highlighted a couple points of interest.
Maybe I'll stop by a couple of those on my way to the next objective, instead of just the whole map is filled with 10,000 things. I think that helps reduce the clutter on the screen.

(01:08:23):
And still it can be completely ignored, hopefully.
But yeah, so far I think it is looking pretty decent.
I'm probably going to check it out. I don't know if I'll do it day one unless I want to do the it's on the like the Ubisoft subscription thing.
But yeah, like you said, I think it's getting a lot of a lot of hate. And unfortunately Ubisoft they're in a desperate place because they price themselves out of the double a even triple a market they got to be the quadruple a, and we got to sell

(01:08:55):
a hundred dollar bundle to 20 million people unless we go on bankruptcy. That's their fault. But I think they still make some good games there's still some talented people there and whatever happens for Ubisoft in the future.
I think those that talent, hopefully can find homes elsewhere. Yeah, yeah.

(01:09:18):
I think that that is the true case I'm not trying to, I'm not sitting here. Last thing I want to do is, is defend an Assassin's Creed game but I believe there there's plenty of times we're here.
I've wrote off an Assassin's Creed game and they probably they had a decent story like Black Flag had a really great story. And I really enjoyed it. And I really enjoyed the gameplay of Black Flag.

(01:09:43):
And I think that was one of the ones that was more well received just due to the fact that it was a different experience. And they have come accustomed to, they have come, you know, someone to actually provide experiences at least in different situations
or like cultures that have like a really cool, you know, aspect to it. So I still do look forward to the Assassin's Creed games and see where they want to go. And shadows has been by far the coolest place and

(01:10:20):
I can't, I can't think of the word, not culture, but it's a different word. But anyways, you kind of get my point. One of those things where they take you to, to experience different culture and things like that.
And they sometimes do a really good job of that. And I like it. So, yeah, I'm gonna play it. Regardless of how bad it looks. Everybody's told me that Dragon Age of Elgar was terrible. Not everybody, a lot of people.

(01:10:48):
I like it. So it's not that there's, there's, there's, there has become a point now on the internet where you kind of got to make your own decision and you can't, you got to retake, go through multiple sources.
And sometimes you really just got to think, you got to listen to what the developers are saying about the game. And that's why I really like the developer directs because in a world full of people trying to make money off of motions and people reactions and people having a strong opinion or a very negative opinion.

(01:11:23):
I'm sorry, a strong opinion, regardless if it's positive or negative is the, is the bread and butter of the internet. That is how you make money. If you're in between and you are indecisive or you feel like you can get something to benefit a doubt, you ain't making no money.
So it becomes a point where I'm like, bro, I'd rather just get it from the developer. Like at this point, I'd rather go to directly to the salesman because the people that are supposed to be critiquing the salesman are just doing it for their own gain.

(01:11:51):
So it's like, bro, I don't even know why I'm even listening to you. I like math at the time. Y'all really are just trying to get a rise out of people. You're trying to make people feel a certain way about a game or make them feel the same way you feel.
Even if you truly don't feel that way. Maybe you just are overstation and sensationalizing it. Maybe you're just talking to talk. That is a big thing on the internet.

(01:12:15):
So for me, I like developer directs. I like when cyberpunk were doing their own thing and they were putting out information about their game. And I was getting it directly from the people that make the freaking game.
I feel like that that should be so that should be adopted by so many people. Like that is what really sales me on the culture of the of the of the the company.

(01:12:40):
And as well as the people that's actually making it, do you actually want to make this stupid game? Do you all want to make it?
Because I can't tell. And that's really, really what it comes down to. So, yeah, I think they need to go back to the roots. Old school, you know, being able to present your case as to why I should buy it and not relying on these other people to tell your story.

(01:13:02):
Because at the end of the day, we all are here to make money if you're on the Internet. You try to make money. Girls, I don't care how honest you is. You try to make some money.
So that is the the key to why I feel like I'm probably going to be less reliant or rely less on people's opinions on things, because sometimes it does not.

(01:13:25):
Sometimes there's ulterior motives. I'm not saying you can't trust nobody. I'm just saying that, you know, take everything with a grain of salt. Don't stop. Just believe in stuff.
So, but yeah, that's what I that's my take on it. That's what I think.
Anything to add to that at all before we move on?

(01:13:46):
No. OK, cool, cool, cool.
OK, last thing we want to talk about today was the Sony canceling their live service games from Ben Studio and one game from Bluepoint.
I think that Bluepoint was working on an unannounced God of War game, I think.

(01:14:10):
And Ben Studio was working on or maybe it was vice versa. Maybe Ben Studio is working on that and they were working on something else.
But yeah, talk to me. Does Sony have the right approach? Is live service dead?
Live service for Sony is dead because.

(01:14:36):
Well, I mean, yeah, because they a while ago that they Jim Ryan before he left said that Sony is pushing heavily into live services. And I guess at that time it makes sense for a lot of studios to do that.
But Sony has had one successful live service or Helldivers. Is that the only one?

(01:14:57):
Yeah, they had one successful. That was Helldivers too.
OK, yeah. And so it but it seemed like every studio at PlayStation was working on some sort of live service project and they have all been canceled so far.
The Spider-Man one, the Last of Us live service, the Days Gone Studio, it says that they were working on a

(01:15:22):
new IP, but it would have live service elements that was canceled. Bluepoint was working on a God of War live service game that was canceled.
The Spider-Man live service game was canceled. Twisted Metal and the list goes on and on and on.
And it seems like that one, they probably were having issues internally making the games.

(01:15:46):
And then two, with the failure of Concord, it seems like I think Sony is just one of fully back out of live services, at least for these big expensive projects like God of War,
because that one was probably super expensive. And also in the meantime, Bluepoint, which is one of their best, one of their best studios internally as far as like

(01:16:12):
remasters and stuff like that, I don't think they've made their own IP yet.
But those studios have all been busy working on something that probably would just come out to middling success, I would say.
Yeah, so it overall, I think Sony is backing out of it. They might have some smaller titles and I think that live services can still be good.

(01:16:37):
And I think Helldivers, I don't know how much that one cost, it might have actually been pretty expensive.
But a smaller scope or smaller idea like Helldivers is good, like it doesn't have a story, doesn't have open world elements.
It's mostly just a multiplayer focused thing. Those games could work, but they got to be really like, I guess, tested internally to be like, hey, this is a fun game.

(01:17:03):
Like Helldivers is a fun game and we can sell this as a fun package instead of trying to get people to jump in on like a hero shooter that has like a big learning curve.
Agreed. Yeah.
The key to this is that basically they had to give up, they had to switch and that is going to put all their studios behind. That just tells me there's going to be even more of a longer wait for certain things for games.

(01:17:35):
So it'll be a gap that they're going to probably try to fill with. I don't know. I really don't. They're probably going to try to go get some third party exclusives and they're probably going to try to maybe rush a few things.
Yo-Tai being the biggest game that's coming out this year for Sony. I don't think that that's going to make the.

(01:17:59):
I don't think it's going to make this year, to be honest, but those that's the only game we have as of now that's announced that's going to be a major release.
And I think that it is going to impact Sony's ability to sell their one mid-year console, but to sell the PS5 as we continue to see additional games.

(01:18:25):
And it's cool that, you know, it'd be funny if Xbox come say today and, you know, Indiana Jones is hitting the PS5 and games that are already have a market.
But, you know, the bigger market is still to be tapped. So it could be one of those approaches.
You know, some of the best games that's coming out on there is, you know, published by Xbox, you know, Doom, Dark Ages coming out.

(01:18:53):
So it will be an interesting experience over the next two years as we go through this problematic approach to live services being canceled, because these are just like three, four years time loss stuff not being done.
And now you got to restart and rebuild or something else. So, yeah, it is going to have a major impact.

(01:19:17):
And it's going to be one of those things where you're going to see the difference in the approach to gaming.
And again, I'm not saying that one is better than the other. I'm just saying that one's a little bit more foolproof.
So I have a question for you, Deontay, maybe from the business sense where let's say because like let's say they worked on that Spider-Man multiplayer game and that was canceled and they put like two, three years of development into it.

(01:19:50):
For most, most of the time for canceled projects, we just never see anything ever come from that. All that basically just put in the trash.
For a big business like a billion dollar business like Sony, is it worth taking that and making like something like super small?
Just like, I don't know, you know, if we can't do a full three hour Spider-Man movie, hey, let's just put out a five minute short.

(01:20:20):
You know, like, is it worth it in any sense? Like, obviously, they don't want to make any money on it, but would they get positive?
I know what the consumer reaction be worth it or that actually be more damaging because you're putting out small stuff that's not making money.
What do companies think of those just like super tiny projects?

(01:20:45):
I think you're I think with a subscription, you you kind of create a platform that is comfortable putting out small stuff.
I think maybe, you know, yeah, like I think I think when you create those types of things, you have the flexibility to put out small things and people eat it up.

(01:21:10):
And it's not like a big deal because you can just write it off as something that you are providing more content to your subscribers.
Now, maybe they can utilize that and piggyback off their PlayStation Plus subscription.
But it's not as big of a scale of tipping for them to dump money into games that are not going to be returning.

(01:21:34):
Not not not too much return on the investment there.
So really canceling and writing off certain things can possibly be a better approach to them.
Yeah, because basically it's going to it's going to turn into a the way the way that yeah, the way you can actually write down taxes and like company taxes with like failed things.

(01:22:04):
And like it becomes your it's like a it's almost like a deduction, dude.
I think I'm trying to find the right term to kind of how they shutter things and why people write projects off of their balance sheet.

(01:22:25):
But it's not coming to me.
It's the same thing with Warner Brothers did when they were just shell of ACME and that bad girl movie just to get the tax right off.
I forget the name of it, but it would probably be more beneficial for them to do that than to ever release anything.
Because then at that point, you had to make some money on it.
So no, I don't think that there'd be smart business move for them to do that, regardless of how much they spent.

(01:22:51):
Same thing they did with Concord. That's why they gave everybody money back.
So, no, no, no, not really.
It's not going to it's not going to win them any favors either because people are going to judge it based off of the content that's there.
And if it's not as meaningful as it was when it was when it was actually going to be a real game, then they really go still be upset, too.

(01:23:15):
I would I would say shelve it business wise. I say, show it. People lose money.
People lost jobs for that stuff. But shelve it wise.
If I'm if I'm thinking of it from a business aspect, I'm thinking like, no, I'll take the test cut.
I'll take it. I'll take that for 200, please.
Yeah, but that would be the that would be my thought process, at least going through some of these situations.

(01:23:41):
But you learn stuff from these things. And obviously, you got a better team for it.
It's just one of those things that's just like you have to be forecasting well when it comes to gaming.
You have to know where your mark where the market's going to be like people creating games today.
Think that people want to go back to single player.

(01:24:04):
And when they start to, you know, get six, five years into development and everybody's back on multi.
And they love enough some six, six arenas or whatever the case may be, whatever the trend is.
That's the problem. That is truly the issue.
Everybody was so happy when they was playing Overwatch.

(01:24:28):
Couldn't believe how happy people were. And that's why they started making those ideas.
So how do we get more efficient, more agile and be able to create and adapt?
Like only person that don't have to ever deal with that is GTA because they always have real life to work off of.

(01:24:50):
Everybody is crazy. The storylines are crazy.
All you got to do is make it more realistic than the last. That is never going to change.
So they're the only ones that get away with it.
You can't do that when you're making games to feed the masses and you're basing it off trends.
You've got to do your own thing. That's why God of War was so successful.

(01:25:13):
It was his own thing. So they have to make sense of what their approach is.
If they can't make sense of it, how the heck am I supposed to sit here and tell you how to run your business?
You already made the bills. You already got the billion dollars. You already got it.
You should have people on payroll to understand it and understand why it makes sense to do it this way.

(01:25:36):
I can tell you that all you can do is kind of understand forecasting is important.
And when you think about what your next game is, make sure it makes sense because there is there is times where the market is fickle.
And they want something even though they say they don't. That's the hard part.
How do you understand your audience?
But I think at the end of the day, Sony has built a reputation for curating and building great games.

(01:26:02):
All you have to do is tap into that.
And if they feel like those small but meaningful approach isn't the right thing to do, then I really don't know what to tell them.
Because at this point, they just don't even want to listen. They only want to learn lessons.
They don't want to learn lessons. They just want to keep doing what they want to do.
So I'm hopeful that as they continue to innovate on their technology with PSSR, with ray tracing capabilities,

(01:26:30):
with the speed of their SSD and pushing forward on quick load times, because then only time you know when PC got better at load times is when the consoles got better at load times.
I'm not saying that PC never was good. I'm just saying it wasn't a four factor. It wasn't a point for anybody.

(01:26:51):
It was like, yeah, we're faster than you. It ain't got to be super fast, but it's got to be fast enough.
And that SSD power wasn't really being tapped into. It wasn't being required until it's required on consoles.
So, again, innovation, again, the things that make you special is that you are you have the market share.
Tap into that, understand it, and maybe you actually make better decisions in the future.

(01:27:17):
But I said I'm not on a board. All I can talk to is just a dude in his basement having a conversation.
But they definitely need to figure out the best way to approach the future, because right now it ain't looking too hot.
But yeah, that's pretty much it. Anything else you all want to add or speak to?

(01:27:42):
I know we had we talked about a lot. So anything I want to get off your chest before we get up out of here?
Oh, no, I feel like we had a long and full discussion today.
I'm going to be playing me some Ace Combat. I bought it for five dollars. Five dollars. I have some more to report next week.

(01:28:07):
Yeah. Let me know how that might have to go cop that just to I wonder if it's Steam Deck Verified.
You said is it seven? Is it like a new one or is it old? It came out. It's a PS5 generation game.
Oh, yeah. But seven dollars. Interesting. Or five dollars. OK.

(01:28:31):
Well, it was like 500 yen, which I don't know how much that is in the US right now.
Bandai Namco. Jalen, why are you about to go get some Dragon Ball Z games?
That is the Lunar New Year sale. I see. I see. They got the Gundam on here. You know, you know, we got the don't make me get the spirit bomb.

(01:28:57):
They got plenty on here. They got Digimon Survive for the 15. Cyber Sleuth for the 10.
OK, they try to get Jalen for the show. They try to get no pocket. Right. Neil. You see, you don't think they got that.
I got to buy Kakarot again. Yeah. How much Kakarot? 15. 15. Yeah.

(01:29:22):
I need the DLC. No, that's what you need. The DLC. Wait a year. Stop it. Stop it.
Don't turn into Mr. Swipe Swipe Jalen. They got the hundred nine dollar version for 59.
The legendary edition. It come with what the fighter.

(01:29:45):
Now, this is the this is the this is the Dragon Ball Fighter Z. Sorry.
They come with the pass. Oh, it come with a come with a come with all the characters.
They finally release one with all the characters. That's crazy.
It says they got do it say all characters or is it? Wait, wait, hold on.
This is the game. Dang.

(01:30:09):
Wait, is we cooked on this one, too? This one's a legendary edition.
It says content for this game. I don't even know that. I don't even know what that mean, bro.
They tripping. Yeah. Double check that.
Fighter Z DLC roster pack before you purchase before you get hooked.

(01:30:31):
You'll have seasons one through five, but not six, seven and eight.
So annoying.
It's just say about this game. It ain't even telling me like.
What all come in it, bro, whatever.
OK, well, that's pretty much it. I want to thank you guys for listening, as always.
I appreciate if you got to this part, you the real O.G.

(01:30:53):
are truly, truly appreciate you all listening to us. Yeah.
We'll be back next week with more things to talk about, more topics as usual.
Glad you stopped by and we will see you next week.
Peace.