Game Scoop! 861: Xboxed Into a Corner

Summary

Game Scoop! #861: "Xboxed Into a Corner"

Date: June 19, 2026
Host: Daemon Hatfield
Guests: Nick Limone, Sam Claiborne, Justin Davis
Producer: Geek Media / IGN Entertainment

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Episode Overview

This episode of Game Scoop! dives into the turbulent state of Xbox following its recent summer showcase, analyzing the fallout from industry shakeups, studio layoffs, and Microsoft's shifting strategy in gaming. The team also discusses newly confirmed details for Grand Theft Auto 6, shares what they've been playing (including 007: First Light and retro curiosities), gives pinball tips, and fields listener questions—with the usual blend of deep industry analysis, banter, and shared nostalgia.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Xbox in Crisis After a Seemingly Strong Showcase

(Starts ~02:00)

• Post-Showcase Disaster: Less than two weeks after Xbox’s "well-received" summer showcase, major negative headlines emerged:
  • The head of Xbox Game Studios departed amidst rumors of further layoffs and studio closures.
  • Reports (not all confirmed) circulate about closures or threatened closures of Ninja Theory, Double Fine, and Compulsion Games (developer of We Happy Few).
  • Microsoft's CEO emphasizes that there's more monetization of Xbox games happening through YouTube content creators than via Microsoft itself.
  • Xbox is reportedly "accelerating" work on new Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Halo titles. Suggestions swirl that Microsoft might spin off or even sell the Xbox business.
• Industry Analysis:
  • Justin: “That’s a luxury that when you’re in third place—and kind of a distant third—you just gotta play the hits … Risks are a luxury they can’t afford.” (08:00)
  • The panel questions Microsoft’s handling of layoffs and whether bad news announcements were deliberately delayed until after the showcase.
• Nintendo Comparison: The panel notes Nintendo’s mastery at keeping IP fresh and thriving through creative, lower-budget spin-off games.

2. Why Are Studios Like Double Fine and Ninja Theory Vulnerable?

(13:41+)

• Production Lags: Studios acquired in 2018–2019 (Compulsion, Ninja Theory, Double Fine) have released few titles under Xbox—with most not achieving blockbuster status.
• Double Fine: Only released Psychonauts 2 and a couple of smaller titles since acquisition.
• Compulsion: "We Happy Few" (63 on OpenCritic) in 2018, almost nothing since.
• Ninja Theory: Only Bleeding Edge and Hellblade II—neither major hits.
• Livelihoods at Stake: The team laments the loss of creative boutique studios but understands Microsoft’s tough position in a hyper-competitive, hit-driven business.

3. The Game Pass Gamble—And Its Limits

(16:09+)

• Microsoft’s bet on Game Pass encouraged “intriguing, engaging” games that could keep people subscribed, not necessarily big sellers.
• Now that Game Pass is plateauing, there’s less tolerance for risk and “quirky” projects—potentially spelling doom for diverse or innovative studios and games.
  • Justin: “The only thing that matters is: did your product grow the subscriber base?”

4. Speculation on Xbox’s Future & Industry Trends

(17:50+)

• Rumors abound that Microsoft could sell off Xbox, with possible buyers including Amazon or Netflix, both eager to expand their gaming and streaming empires.
• Sam: “I don’t want to see Xbox under Embracer.”
• The lack of nimbleness and trend-chasing, especially with hot genres (like extraction shooters), is driving missed opportunities.

5. GTA 6 Proof at Last, Pricing Speculation

(24:08+)

• GTA 6 box art officially revealed; pre-orders open next week (timestamped November 19 release).
• The team bets on an $80 base price with a likely “Ultra Deluxe Collector’s Edition”; expects Rockstar to set market precedents.
  • Nick: “We’re gonna get prices, and my speculation is $79.99 Standard Edition with… GTA+ [included in a higher tier].” (27:13)
• Discussion of GTA’s consistent box art themes (e.g., helicopter always top left).
• Anticipation for possible gameplay reveals, promo events, and how “handcrafted” GTA 6 might be one of the last titans of its kind in a post-AI era.
  • Justin: “Is this going to be the last big truly AAA, mass-market, mainstream game not made with AI?” (30:42)

6. What We’ve Been Playing

(31:28+)

• 007: First Light

  • Daemon, Nick, and Sam are finishing up and praise its Bond atmosphere but wish for more open-ended “Bond-like” missions.
  • Sam: “You only do James Bond shit three times in the game. So I’m a little bit sad about that.”
  • Music and splash screens are praised for evolving as you progress.
  • Nick: Concerned future Bond adaptations may not live up to the game’s take on a young Bond.

• Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch 2)

  • Nick gives it another shot after the Nintendo Direct, “finally clicked with me,” calling it the perfect podcast game for grinding.
  • Comments on “four-digit damage” and the massive time commitment for the series.

• Factorio Modded

  • Justin “back on [his] Factorio bullshit,” uses it to “defrag” his brain, praises the extreme moddability and endless replayability.

• Steam Next Fest Demos

  • Sam highlights “Order of the Sinking Star” (Jonathan Blow’s new puzzle game), talks about its inventive mechanics and meta-puzzle construction.
  • There’s a short Star Fox 64 nostalgia detour following Nintendo’s new demo release.
  • Nick and Sam discuss the timeless fun and jank of N64-era games, the return of classic titles with modern tweaks.

• Black Jacket

  • Daemon shouts out this Hades-like roguelike but with blackjack mechanics and a voiced-over story set in hell. Calls it “one of the best games I’ve played this year.”

• Time Gal

  • Daemon explores this newly HD-remastered ‘80s Japanese laserdisc arcade game, which he describes as “Dragon’s Lair but for anime fans.”
  • Sam notes the rich legacy of Japanese laserdisc games and their presence at retro gaming shows.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Xbox's Dilemma:
  • “There’s the duality of the Game Scoop panelist… The industry analyst says, ‘Yes, they have to cut costs, make hard decisions’; but most of my favorite games are those weird, risky ones from boutique studios.” (Justin, ~09:25)
• On Game Pass’s Limits:
  • “Good TV show? Layoffs. Bad TV show? Layoffs. Good game? Layoffs. Bad game? Layoffs.” (Justin, 17:26)
• On the Future of Gaming with AI:
  • “Is GTA 6 the last big, truly AAA, mass-market, mainstream game not made with AI?” (Justin, 30:42)
• On Pinball Tips for Beginners:
  • “Every pinball machine, basically from the ‘80s onward, you want to get to multiball or the easiest multiball. Green lights mean lock for multiball, orange is extra ball.” (Sam, 51:27)
• On Promotional Misfires:
  • “You only do James Bond sh*t three times in the [007] game. So I’m a little bit sad about that.” (Nick, 32:29)
• On Retro Oddities:
  • “I had a lot of fun playing through Time Gal… It’s less gruesome than Dragon’s Lair. When she fails, she just gets bonked on the head and turns into a chibi version of herself.” (Daemon, 47:13)

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Other Highlights

Pinball Tips & Listener Q&A

(50:58+)

• Sam lays out color-coding and mechanical basics for pinball beginners (multiball, extra ball, nudging/tilt) and gives “pro” advice like not flipping both flippers simultaneously.
• Monster Bash and Lord of the Rings are named as top entry-level pinball tables.

Audience & Community Shout-Outs

• The developers of indie game “Vivarium” comment on a previous episode, to the delight of the team.
• JRPG fans (and Nick) express excitement over the glut of new announcements, with the Persona series and Xenoblade dominating their hype list.
• The answer to the “TIFA question”—“Should this game have TIFA in it?”—is canonically always “yes.”

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Game Scoop! 20 Questions

Game: Peggle

• The team almost stumbles, but guesses the classic PopCap puzzle game thanks to in-depth deduction and their own historic affinity for the title.
  • Notable Quotes:
    • “The video game industry is so strange. A new Peggle is such a sure bet, right? Just make it!” (Justin, 79:58)
    • “Star Wars Peggle … Fallout Peggle … Mario Peggle… why doesn’t this exist?” (Daemon, 80:06+)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:00 – Xbox Showcase, sudden wave of layoffs and rumblings of closures
• 13:41 – Analysis on productivity of acquired studios (Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory)
• 16:09 – Game Pass model postmortem and its creative limits
• 17:50 – Xbox future speculation (sale, streaming, Amazon/Netflix interest)
• 24:08 – Grand Theft Auto 6: Box art, pre-orders, pricing discussion
• 30:42 – “Is GTA 6 the last handcrafted blockbuster?”
• 31:28 – What We’ve Been Playing: 007: First Light, Xenoblade, Factorio, Steam Next Fest demos
• 50:58 – Pinball 101 listener Q&A
• 57:14 – Listener/fan/dev shoutouts; indie hype
• 66:20 – Video Game 20 Questions (Peggle!)

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Tone & Style Highlights

• Conversational, irreverent, and self-aware banter.
• Deeply knowledgeable, with both industry critique and love for gaming’s finer oddities.
• Inclusive of community voices and questions, punctuated with in-jokes and recurring bits (“Should TIFA be in this?”).

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Memorable Closing

• Daemon wraps by teasing the PopCap deep cut “Chuzzle” and giving future listeners a retro-flavored “deep tease.”
• Sam jokes: “Keep on chuzzling,” to which Nick deadpans, “I don’t think you can say that.” (82:46)

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For longtime fans and new listeners alike, this episode offers a sharp snapshot of the current gaming landscape—and plenty of classic Game Scoop! heart.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

I'm back, baby.

[A]

And we are also joined by Sam Claiborne.

[C]

Hey, it's so good to be here on a lovely June afternoon.

[A]

And Justin Davis Scoop, who is not mirrored this week. I don't know how we didn't notice this. That happened last week. He was mirrored the whole time. And like the IGN sign was backwards, but I never noticed it until the comments pointed it out.

[C]

It said NGI the whole time.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And he had the goatee. That was Justin.

[D]

All the comments were very bad.

[B]

Mirror World Justin.

[A]

I don't know. I don't know how it happened and I don't know how he never noticed it.

[B]

That's actually how his room normally works. We actually just reversed. We reversed that for the sake of everyone watching.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Interesting.

[D]

You're normally getting mirrored dimension Justin. And then we unmirror it for the show.

[A]

Well, we've got a great show for you this week. We've got what seems to be the final proof that GTA 6 will arrive later this year. We'll share what games we've been playing And, Sam, someone out there needs some live game, some live pinball help that they're reaching out to you for. But first, just less than two weeks ago now, Xbox held its showcase, summer showcase. And everyone seemed pretty happy with it.

[B]

It was pretty good.

[A]

Pretty good show. Everyone seemed pretty happy about it. Like, okay, we got new leadership in there. Maybe good times are ahead for Xbox.

[B]

Yeah, exclusives are back.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah, baby.

[A]

Since then. Since in the less than two weeks since then. Let's see here. The head of Xbox Game Studios departed amid growing concern over layoffs and possible studio shutdowns. Xbox has reportedly shut down south of midnight. Developer compulsion games not confirmed, but reportedly also Ninja Theory and Double Fine are also reportedly under threat of closure. Microsoft's CEO says there's more monetization of Xbox games happening on YouTube than at Microsoft. And now, finally, Xbox is reportedly speeding up new Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Halo games as Microsoft leaves spinning off the Xbox business on the table.

[C]

They actually did the can you work harder Homer Simpson thing then, did they, with the Elder Scrolls? Can you just put out the game?

[A]

Well, that's what we've been saying for years.

[C]

It's so weird to, like, I mean, maybe there. I mean, clearly they listen to Game Scoop, right? Because we prescribed that fix. I mean, I just want to go on the record, say none of those other fixes were ours. So there was clearly a mix and match of other bad ideas from bad podcasts and one great idea from a great podcast.

[A]

Yeah, it's kind of an open secret that Satya Nadella is Big Tony style. But what. I don't know what's going on. What's. How do they.

[C]

It's pretty diabolical.

[A]

How do they dig themselves out of this one? And why, since they knew all this bad news was coming, why didn't they get all that out ahead of their showcase?

[B]

Then it'd be gloom and doom on their showcase.

[A]

Well, but at least you could start, say, okay, we've made some tough decisions to try and course correct here and now. Here's what our future looks like. And then there's an element.

[D]

The corporate thing to do is you give terrible news three weeks before your showcase, and then at your showcase, you're sort of like, okay, new era, new now. Let the hype build. But I think Asha Sharma just didn't have time. Time to, like, they just came up. I mean, I think, like, look, she came in as the new CEO of Xbox and said Elder Scrolls and Fallout and Halo are three of the biggest video game franchises on the planet.

[C]

That's not. According to Mark Medina. That's just.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And like, you know, and they. And then they don't make them. They don't make them and release them once every 10 or 15 years.

[A]

Like, it's completely.

[B]

They made Fallout 76.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I know. And Elder Scrolls Online. So they're. And they. Which always show up with that Bethesda logo right in their conferences. It was. Oh, and then everybody's boom.

[B]

I mean, I'm sure those games have gigantic audiences, but at the end of the day, I'm like, sure, they're fine. Let's just remove those from the showcase at this point. Because the people who are already interested in those games are already up to date with everything happening them. Otherwise, I'm like, you just make yourself look weaker as a result. It's like, oh, here's not a real elder. It's not a real elder. That's mean. But you know what I mean? It's not the single player.

[A]

It's not Elder Scrolls 6.

[B]

It's not the main. Same with Fallout. It's like, I don't want another Fallout 76 expansion. Just give me a new Fallout or remaster of Fallout at the start.

[C]

Exactly that. Yeah. So remasters fine as stopgaps. And then also just the idea of like, you have a franchise like Fallout Shelter was really cool. Like, what are a bunch of like, little, like, do the Nintendo thing. You know, Mario is not just in mainline Mario games. Just find Mario in so many different types of game. Like, use the franchises, do cool stuff, give it to indie studios, give it to other people to do Fallout Bethesda. And let me just add to that. The thing that really, really got me going this week is that there hasn't been a Starcraft game in what, 15 years? Something like that. And it's like, Microsoft owns StarCraft.

[A]

Well, now they do.

[D]

They own Blizzard.

[C]

Isn't there a blind. They could just put out a Starcraft game.

[B]

Starcraft. What are we doing? Is still coming. I guess I heard that it doesn't feel.

[D]

I mean, Nintendo. Nintendo is really. They're the. Probably the best in the industry at like having extensions of their big franchises and their big IP that doesn't cheapen it. Of like. Because I understand the argument of like, you want NER Scrolls in a Fallout to be like an event. Like, this is the game and this is the moment in time. But it's like you can do both. Like, you can have Fallout Shelter and these re, you know, these remasters and these other experiences and then have you know, a new mainline game coming out every four or five years. Like these, these droughts of like we're just not going to see Fallout or Elder Scrolls. Like so. So really like you know, so for as much as this is like bad news for you know, a developer like Ninja Theory potentially. I mean look, it's all rumor. Like rumor is double fine. Might be in some trouble. Rumor is Ninja Theory might be in some trouble. Like it's probably good news for like Obsidian. It's like hey Obsidian, like your job now is to make you know, off cycle Fallout and Elder Scrolls games whenever Bethesda's not making them. Probably.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Get that Eval 2 out of the

[D]

Give me Fallout kind of. Yeah. No more, no more Avowed two.

[C]

Yeah. I mean just back to the Hellblade thing. Like that is just so cruel and weird to include that in the even. I mean we don't know what's going to happen with Ninja Theory but like if that's true. But the silver lining if there is any is that from what we understand from the reporting there's a chance that like they will be not just all fired as Microsoft employees.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But like given a chance to shop around their games or something. Like it's all. But like think of the talent at these studios. They're not. I mean I make fun of this game and some recent Double Fine games and everything but like there's still talented studios that maybe could have been working on a really fun Bethesda ip.

[B]

But.

[D]

But I mean that's, that's the thing, right? It's like these boutique games. It's like Xboxes. That's a. Like I really like to play them. You know, we really like to talk about them on this show. Many GamesCube fans are fans of them but like they're not. Like that's a, that's a luxury that like when you're in third place and kind of a distant third place it's like you gotta just like they're not in a position they need to just be playing the hits. Like that's kind of it for Mic for Xbox for like a while.

[C]

You know I was one of you were saying Nintendo is really good at this. Just kind of getting their IP everywhere and making smaller games. I. There was a time which SEGA got really good at that and then were like a company where it's like, you know, they had so much just thought put into their universes and their characters and their things and they were just everywhere. They're very good at branding and they're all over and, and Dreamcast was kind of interesting because they really loaded the Dreamcast with as many games as possible and famously really good games. It still didn't work for the Dreamcast and I don't know why but they, they didn't have a game. I mean people would say Sonic Adventure is this game but they really didn't have a game that could compete with the most popular games at that time which became Grand Theft Auto 3 by the end of the Dreamcast.

[A]

You know what I realized this week? You know Xbox, they haven't been able to figure out how to sell consoles for a long time now. But Xbox has been in the hardware business now for longer than Sega was.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, that's interesting.

[A]

Yeah, it's crazy.

[C]

Yeah. Unless you count you know, 1940s coin operated machines.

[A]

I don't.

[D]

We do not been Hawaii so. Yeah, I mean it's sad. I don't know like there's, there's two. There's the duality of the game scoop panelist of like there's you know the industry commentator element of us where it's like yeah, you know like Xbox, they got to figure their stuff out. Like they're spending too much money. They have too many employees. Then there's kind of like you know, Double Fines made some of my favorite games ever. Right. Like often what I like is the smaller stuff and the stuff that takes, takes risks. But yeah that's. Risks are a luxury right. That like they can't afford.

[B]

I also think though it's a little bit unfair to like arm share quarterback of like oh well they should have just made you know not kiln or whatever. But when in reality a lot of these studios jobs is you know they get acquired as part of Microsoft's portfolio and they get explicitly told or not depending on who they are. Don't worry about making a gigantic AAA game. Give me something that's going to win awards and whatnot and that will keep

[A]

subscribers to Game Pass.

[B]

Yeah, it adds you know, different. It broadens the portfolio in a way that makes people feel like they're getting a good deal and getting a wide variety of experiences of Game Pass. So it's hard to fault people like double Fine for not giving us a psychonauts 3 when in reality they've not been told to. And maybe that's just you know the inherent nature and struggle of corporate ownership. You know they kind of detail this a little in their psych odyssey Gigantic video.

[C]

Don't you think they were like you're talking about like, if they put out games at a clip that of some quality, then that's useful. But I feel like Double Fine was completely slowed by the acquisition. And there was a time in which Double Fine was putting out five really interesting little games each year back in like the costume quest and stacking, and then they put out brutal legend alongside of it. Like, it was just. It was at this different clip and that seemed to go away.

[D]

I mean, there was the quote and all of this is off the record, right. Like, none of it, but, like, there is the quote of like, you know, these Xbox studios are being punished for, you know, an executive mandate from five years ago. Right. Of like, you know, game pass. We're all about game pass now. Your game doesn't need to sell 10 million copies. It just needs to be intriguing and engaging. And then, you know, we're going to release a good Game pass game every month and keep people subscribed. And so that's where things like, you know, pentiment, Penitent and avowed and, you know, kiln and like, that's where all of these games came from. Right. And now. But now it's like, that's not seen as commercially viable. And so they're just kind of, you know, these studios are stuck in kind of like a weird spot.

[C]

It makes you really bummed that they got gobbled up to begin with. Right. Because, like, you know, the advantages to having that cushion of a large corporate owner and people getting really behind you, it's like, all exciting. There's a payout. All that stuff happens. But, like, you know, in the end, this is how so many different creative teams get crushed is that they go for this and they kind of spin the wheel. Right. Because sometimes it works out. I mean, Rare has been part of Xbox making games for a long time. I. I don't like the games. They necessarily make the game. They make seems the game.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But, you know, they're there and they're. They're making stuff. After all these years, they didn't get spun out or trashed.

[A]

Yeah. So layoff.

[D]

And even. Even Rare. Rare had Everwild canceled.

[C]

So true. I mean, that's true.

[A]

Layoffs are expected next month. There's reporting from Bloomberg and Jason Schreier. The word he uses is bloodbath. So it doesn't sound like next month will be particularly great for Xbox either. But of these three studios that we're talking about, Compulsion, Ninja Theory and Double Fine, I mean, I actually kind of. I can see where Microsoft would be coming from because let me Share some data with you. Microsoft acquired compulsion in 2018. It released We Happy Few that year. We gave it a 7.3. It has a 63 on open critic. It did not really. Or Compulsion did not release anything else until south of Midnight last year. And then Ninja Theory was also acquired in 2018. Since then, it released the MOBA Bleeding Edge in 2020. Support for that was ended nine months, nine months later. And then it released Hellblade 2 in 2024. That's it. They've announced Sinewa, but who knows what's gonna happen to that? And then Double Fine was acquired in 2019. Since then it has released Psychonauts 2, Keeper and Kiln. So, yeah, these studios have not been very productive under Microsoft and they're not making hits. Although I think Psychonauts 2 actually is double Fine's best selling game.

[D]

Yeah, I mean, it is. You think about a game like south of Midnight, like I. And I still. It's in my backlog. Like, it's definitely a Justin game. I want to play it. I'm conf. Confident I'll like it. The IGN reviewer loved it. I mean, everybody loved it, right? So, like, it's a real shame. I mean, it's very sad. Like it's. You made it, you did, you made a great game, you made a really great piece of art, but it didn't connect with people commercially. Right. And it took a really long time. Like, I don't know if it was behind schedule, but like, probably, presumably. Right. And so then you end up endangered as a result of that. Like, it's a, it's very, it's very, it's very sad.

[B]

It also just kind of. I lament the fact that you, you brought up, you know, Obsidian earlier and you know, I, I just think that this new direction that Microsoft is heading in and Xbox is heading in is going to pave the way for just things that are what is commercially viable as opposed to, you know, I. It's going to be sad if we don't get a Pentiment. Like, it's something that evokes the same kind of feeling that I don't think, you know, the astronomical cost of something like Pentiment. Despite looking like, you know, a small, quirky indie game, it takes a lot to have all of these different things that make that game uniquely it. And it's just a shame that we're not really going to be able to see, I assume, things like this in the near future coming from Xbox, because this is a one of a kind experience.

[C]

That's like, you're really getting at. My Damon was getting at this earlier and you kind of mentioned this. And it brings. Brings me back to like, I want to talk about Xbox the way we're talking about them, and it's fun, but really I just want to play really good video games and I want more people to make them and I want those people to be employed so they can make good video games. And the thing that really disappoints me about all this is that I actually thought it was a good idea when Microsoft was like, let's give these companies that everybody likes a lifeline and they're going to make some games under us now. And then it kind of. That's exciting because then they get to market it in their big E3 replacement conferences. We talk about all the games as Xbox games. That's all fun. Like, it's just fun to think about it that way. And then the games come out and they're good or bad or whatever, but there's just lots of games. And like by almost to the definition of this, like this downsizing process, we're just going to have fewer of these good games and fewer creative teams and fewer jobs. And it's just like, what was the point? You know, like, could we have solved this in another way by managing it better this whole time? It seems like it.

[D]

Well, it's hard to. They need, you know, they, they need Game Pass to keep growing. I mean, it's a bet. It's a bet on Game Pass that has not panned out.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

The way that's exactly needed it to. And so, you know, they need to break through from this hardcore. Like, if you listen to Game Scoop, you're a pretty hardcore gamer. And like they need Game Pass to reach a very mass market, mainstream audience. And that's the exact opposite. Like, you know, who, who subscribes to Game Pass for Pentiment. Right. Like they have, they already have every single one of those customers. So that it's.

[C]

And we saw the TV companies all do this, right? Because Netflix put so much money then Amazon put so much money in developing television. Now all of my friends that worked on those television shows don't have jobs because that money went away, the creativity went away, the teams went away and it's. And they've copied the Netflix strategy. That's what Xbox strategy was, right? It's to like, get as much content as you can to appeal to as many people that they. That you have bigger subscriber bases. And like, boy, it didn't work for either of them. Now, for Netflix, it was different though, right? Because for Netflix, it was like, all of a sudden there was Disney and, you know, to a lesser extent, Hulu and all these things that ate into it. And Amazon came out swinging in Apple. So it's like, that didn't happen with Xbox. I think Xbox kind of has an unparalleled subscription service, but it's just niche.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And so that's. Yeah. So then you have. Then. Then it doesn't matter if you made a good product or not. The only thing that matters is did your product grow the subscriber base. Right. Like, that's. That's the kind of economic incentive. And so good TV show, you know, layoffs, bad TV show layoffs. Like, good game layoffs, bad game layoffs. Like, it's bleak, right? It's. It's very. You know, it does bum me out.

[A]

It's wild that they're, like, apparently selling off the Xbox businesses on the table, according to the reports. I don't know. Like, I. What? I don't want to see Xbox, like, under Embrace.

[C]

You interested?

[A]

Like Embracer, Like. Yeah, that's not. That's not what they want.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Who could buy them or Amazon.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, these companies, Netflix, these companies that have streaming platforms. That's what would make sense because there's this existent streaming service, and then, you know, they would be able to. They want to get into gaming. Like, we were always hearing about, you know, Amazon and Netflix's efforts to try to build up their streaming games. Surprising what they have, honestly.

[A]

I see that Amazon logo every time I boot up. 007 first light.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, also, just real quick, we happy few. That was the game we were trying to come up with while watching the Xbox conference. Damon.

[A]

Yeah. Yes.

[C]

We were, like, watching it. I was like, there's this game and it has these.

[A]

That's like the devil's.

[B]

The devil's deal.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, you're like, this is a new we happy few games.

[B]

I mean, giving them something like a. You know, the compulsion games feels perfectly aligned with something, in my opinion, with like an M sim, like, you know, dishonored, like, or something like that. Especially, you know, what happened to Arcane? Like, come on. Like, guys, you have all the good studios. You made them all go away. It's so. It's so sad.

[A]

Yeah. Redfall.

[B]

Redfall.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, even your caliber of game doesn't matter if you have just one flop. Right.

[C]

I think it's interesting that there's trending genres right now, like extraction shooters. Arc Raiders is the most popular one, but before that it was Escape and Darkrai. It's like Call of Duty is aiming at that. They want to do an extraction. They have this one. They're doing all that. But you would think Xbox would be like, two years ago. It'd be really interesting if we used one of our franchises to make an amazing extraction shooter in two years. That's the kind of like, nimbleness that would be really interesting with so many studios around. And then that's where your subscribers come from. Right. But they're not thinking that way.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, how many indie games can we

[D]

get on this platform? Yeah. Games take too long to make and

[A]

exactly that too, for western developers.

[C]

Well, yeah, and we don't need to go into the depths of this argument. Argument to the space, but a lot of developers came out after last two weeks and said, like, hey, we're using AI assets and this is how we're using them. And everybody's like, boo. Which is. I'm not commenting on that. I think it's interesting that they're saying it now. And I just think that that's an. It's interesting that they're just like, this is how we have to make games now. And they like, get the PR out before it leaks or whatever, and they get mad at it. Like, that is an interesting topic that's happening right now. And I'm looking forward to watching that space and covering it.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know. The. The. The task of, like, turning things around for Xbox hardware sales, it just seems like such an uphill battle. I have to assume there have been actual conversations Satya, Nadella and Asha Sharma discussing shutting it all down and selling off the franchises. I mean, that has at least. That has to at least have been discussed behind closed doors at this point.

[D]

Yep, I would imagine so.

[A]

But they all did just spend $70 billion to buy Activision, so would seem pretty crazy. We'll see how things shape up hopefully next month. I don't know if there are layoffs. Hopefully. I don't know. Don't like the term bloodbath, but.

[C]

No, I know they only need to sell a couple hundred million copies of Windows to cover that.

[A]

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[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And we got the announcement pre orders open up one week from today. Nick, you did a whole little GTFM show on that this morning.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

This is surely this is a confirmation. Nobody should be expecting another delay. I don't think November 19th they have

[B]

delayed before or after opening up pre orders. That happened with our Red Dead Redemption 2. But I think at this point, there's that IGN story with Strauss Zelnick from after a take two earnings call with IGN where he's basically reassuring like, no, no, no, it is coming. Don't worry about it. It's all good. And I am inclined to believe him. I think this is timed very specifically. This is all marketing content that's been planned, I'm sure years in advance. And they're like, all right, we're hitting all of our tent poles and it's all working out nicely at this point. I know part of my job here at IGN to some extent, especially as the GTFM guy, is to watch every trailer and scour them for all the details, but there's another part of me, I was like, let me just play the game at this point, dude. I don't need to have a disembodied voice. And now we're unveiling our brand new free AIM system that allows you to accurately shoot heads for the first time in a Rockstar game.

[A]

Well, I love the box. I love the box art.

[B]

Yeah, it's beautiful.

[A]

It's really speaking to my 80s sensibilities. I love all the pink and purple. I do think it's interesting they kind of missed the window. Like, the big 80s revival thing was kind of a few years old now. I mean, GGA is always popular, but they did kind of miss the sweet spot for hitting that synthwave era of 80s flashbacks. But this looks great. And then I learned from an IGN article today about on the box art. There's a lot of similarities to other GTA 4. Like, apparently there's always a helicopter in the top left. I didn't know that. That's cool.

[D]

They all follow a pattern, which is really funny to me.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Also, like, I know it is just an image. Like One static image. But actually Matt Purslow of IGN has a very detailed breakdown of like literally everything he and IGN team could glean from every single piece. And it's very insightful. Like that helicopter is from Vice City and it's also been customized with the minigun. Is there customization in GTA 6 for helicopters?

[A]

Cool.

[C]

Isn't that cool?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I liked how the, the header for that section was just helicopter.

[A]

Helicopter.

[D]

Also if we.

[B]

So what's his name?

[E]

Booby?

[B]

The. The. The guy 100 going to betray us, right? Like, I don't know. It's just like. Yeah, it feels right given, given like the, the overall tone of the GTA series. So I, I just, I love crime stories like that. So yeah. Cannot wait.

[A]

The guy in the bottom with an assault rifle, he's named character. He has like a buyer I believe and he's a bank robber. So I wonder if we rob in a bank with him. I don't know. When the pre orders go live, we're going to learn so many things. We're going to learn what it costs.

[B]

Do they have to actually. I was thinking about, do they actually have to tell you? They'll be like, we'll take your five bucks. Don't worry about how much.

[C]

That's interesting. I don't know. Do realty retailers have to know? What is that A thing is GameStop.

[A]

You get that, right?

[B]

Yeah. You could pre order anything at GameStop,

[A]

even if it wasn't officially available for preorder. GameStop would take your five bucks and

[B]

reserve and hold a deposit. Best Buy used to do that as well. So yeah, they'll do it. I, I do think that we are going to get prices and my. If you watch the GTFM, my speculation is 79.99 standard edition with a, you know, Ultra Deluxe Collector's edition that has some sort of GTA online benefit. AKA probably includes GTA plus.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, Yep.

[D]

I completely agree. Well, and then I think, I mean, so it comes out next week. The pre order is open next week. We have never seen gameplay of this video game. Are they gonna put the team for sale? Are they gonna take people's money without ever seeing the game being played? Yeah. Or are we gonna get a gameplay trailer next week?

[B]

I don't think we're getting a gameplay.

[C]

And a gameplay trailer isn't really gameplay either. Right. It's always like, I think this is

[B]

the closest we ever get to actual gameplay is that shot of Jason entering the door. Because I, I imagine that GTA like it pulls out A little bit. And that's where you can actually walk around awkwardly.

[C]

Oh, they'll just say this is all gameplay. Like that's. That's a line.

[B]

This is an engine.

[D]

Yeah, there's a bunch of. I mean, go ahead, Sam.

[C]

Oh, I just have a goof. But it was just that if Nick could just say all the things he said on his other podcast of this podcast, it would make it really easy for me. So it saved me time for our listeners. Maybe now that you have them refined too, you'll even make better.

[B]

Yeah, I can, I can workshop it for a second take.

[A]

I'm sorry, you. You guessed $89. 99.

[B]

My guess is 79.

[A]

So $80. Okay.

[B]

Yeah, like the Nintendo first party, you know, the Fire Emblem Fortunes. Fortunes Wii.

[C]

Oh, boy.

[A]

Wait, is that. That one's 80 bucks.

[B]

That one's gonna be 79.99. Yep.

[D]

I think if Fire Emblem and Mario kart world are $80, GTA is going to be $80. And then I completely agree that they'll have some, you know, 100 or $140 edition or whatever that gives you GTA, that gives you a shark card or whatever.

[C]

But you, you're. You're assuming that online is launching with it.

[B]

No, my guess is that it will launch after GTA 5's online mode launched two weeks after launch, and it was borderline unplayable for like 72 hours straight. So Jeffrey, who was on the. He actually made a good point. Like, they don't really need to like put any sort of arbitrary time limit on themselves. Like, he's speculating a month after launch, basically when it's ready. You know, the CDPR method of it'll be ready when it's ready. Gtlm Enjoy the single player campaign.

[A]

Yeah. Someone pointed out though, that I think $80 is totally possible, but someone point out that if it does come out at 70, no other game will ever get away with $80 again. Sorry, that party's over.

[D]

Kill it.

[A]

Yep, that's it.

[D]

Take two could kill it for good. Except for maybe Nintendo, because they just don't care.

[C]

They don't care. Yeah. Nick, do you know what Red Dead's special edition was?

[B]

It was a collector's edition. Off the top of my head, I don't know. But it came with a lot of trinkets. Yeah, yeah, they did do that though, and stuff like. Yeah, yeah. As they did with GTA 5. There's a big box with a map and all that stuff and, you know, perfect for guides. That map we'll have to figure out how to expense one because I remember

[C]

the Red Dead maps. Yeah, it was great.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

Big paper map.

[A]

Well, I'm starting to get very excited for this.

[B]

Yeah. Again, it's the point where I'm like, I know it's going to be good.

[A]

See you in November.

[B]

It'll at least be competent at the very least.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

I want to see a bunch of promotional stuff. I hope they do well. I think all kinds of crazy stuff between now and then this fall.

[A]

I think we'll see a lot of cool out of home marketing for.

[D]

I mean, you know, is this going to be the last big truly like AAA mass market, mainstream game not made with AI. It's all kind of like hand built, handcrafted open world. You know, they like, you know, like it or not like it just the story of unlimited time and money to make whatever they want just doesn't exist in commercial art. Like it just doesn't because it can't. Right. And so like that's just so cool and like fascinating to me. Like even if you don't like it, just kind of engaging with it on that level is always really interesting.

[B]

What's that Albert Einstein quote? I. I know not what development tools GTA 7 will be made with, but GTA 8 will be developed with sticks and stones.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. Yes.

[A]

Famously brutal Albert Einstein. Okay, let's share what we've been playing. I'm just about wrapping up 007, first light. I think I'm right at the end. And Nick, you said you finished it.

[B]

Yes, I finished it, but I really, really like it.

[A]

But it sounded like you were a little bit softer on it than I.

[B]

You know, I think the game has an excellent first half, showing where you get to do the James Bond stuff. You do the Academy, which is incredible. The tutorial bar mission is outstanding. Your first mission where you do the art gallery like. Or. No, it was a chess. It was a chess tournament on this, you know, James Bond esque real estate. All so good. But as the game progresses you start to get funneled into more like linear style sequences that are very fun and exciting, but it's not that like Hitman meets James Bond that I thought.

[C]

Surprised. Never really got back to that.

[B]

You only do that like three times in the whole game. You only do James Bond shit three times in the game. So I'm a little bit sad about that.

[C]

And the Vietnam level is maybe my favorite level. Just look wise but like it's not even as complex as the chess level, which is like, because you kind of just kind of go to little, little parts. There's not much sneaking around to do, like. Yeah, I mean, that just tells me I want more of this game though. It doesn't tell me that. It's. It's terrible.

[B]

Like a game as a service, you know, Hitman style. They keep adding these open world esque areas the way they do. I mean, the way they've already talked about doing with like the return of Bavma for 007's next like DLC update.

[A]

Yeah. Did you finish this, Sam?

[C]

Well, I'm, I'm at the end of that. Well, I got past that, then I was driving a big car around again. I must be at the end. I don't know how many levels there are. How many levels are there?

[A]

It's like 11. 11 missions?

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, yeah. I think I'm at nine or 10 then.

[B]

Are you in the desert still or are you in a tropical location?

[C]

No, no, past the tropical location.

[B]

Oh, okay. So you're near the end of the game.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

You go to the Antarctic Circle.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, that's right. No, that's where I'm at. That beginning of that level is so cool. They do the James Bond intros and stuff like that.

[B]

You don't do this, the stuff afterwards. It's like the beginning. It's like a lot. You get a lot of tease at the beginning of these levels of like, oh, you're going to do this, this and this. But then it doesn't. You don't really do any of that after this certain point. And it's just, there's, there's. It's such a robust like tool set that they have available and it just feels like you don't really get to use it all that often outside a couple key missions. But otherwise I'm. It's still a great game. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad. I'm glad I spent my hard earned money on this and really enjoyed it.

[A]

Justin, you playing it?

[D]

No, not right now.

[A]

Well, it's really, really good. And I. A couple other notes. What? They, they handle the music really well because they, they hold back the James Bond theme.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Because they're not, you know, he's not James. He's not the. He doesn't even have his license at the beginning. He's becoming.

[B]

He doesn't even know what martini to order.

[A]

No, I know. He has to.

[B]

There's so many fake outs in the game where it's like, oh, what would you like to drink, sir?

[C]

But that's Good. Like I like that. You know, they don't just be like this is how he learned that he only likes martinis this way. Like there's a little BO thing and stuff like that. They have that. But for the most part it's restrained. Yeah, I think that's great. And the music is exactly that. It has that kind of like Shadows esque surf sound and it has the right like chord progressions that get you to those like cool like minor changes. Which sounds like spy music to us now. But then they don't play the theme,

[A]

but they even work it into the title screens. You notice this like when you boot up the game, you get the splash screens of the logos and the epilepsy warning and then finally it reveals the title screen and there's always like a big like horn like, but then it's reading your save file. So the deeper you are into the game it's. It starts to sound more and more like the theme.

[B]

Also different locations for the splash. Any game that changes the splash screen when you start to based on where you are in the game. It's so good, dude.

[C]

Indiana Jones with like the hat off.

[B]

Oh hell yeah.

[C]

Was like the start and then you like put the hat on.

[B]

I am a little bit worried about, you know, what comes next from James Bond. I'm not talking about the games because I think this game's like story and its portrayal of a young James Bond is so good that whomever is adapting James Bond next for a movie or a TV series, I know Amazon prime owns it. Like you got an uphill battle because this is a pretty damn good one.

[A]

And this is a good Bond too. I really like.

[B]

He's a great Bond. I'm going to miss this Bond if we don't get him anymore, you know.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, we got to rank the Bonds. I think the first is James Pond, right?

[A]

Yeah, that's definitely true. Yeah. What did you start playing after 007?

[B]

So it's a game that I know I've never really been as into, but it's finally got its hooks in me. After the Nintendo direct that happened, I was like, let me finally check out Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive edition. Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.

[C]

Because you're hyped because of the announcement.

[B]

Yeah. And I don't really care about the Xenoblade Chronicles games. I've tried multiple times. I've owned this version for Switch for forever. So I gave Nintendo and monolith my 999. I bought the upgrade pack to, you know, play the Game at quote unquote, 60 frames per second. It works at 60 frames per second for a little bit, but when you get to some areas, it still struggles pretty significantly, which makes me think they need to do a little bit of optimization. But regardless, I'm having a good time with it. It's finally clicked with me. And it's the quintessential podcast game. You know, watch. Watch a TV show, watch some YouTube, watch basically anything else and just kind of grind it because it kind of scratches that MMO style. Combat meets Final Fantasy 12 combat, where you kind of just walk into things and you see all the things that you just kind of let the game play itself a little bit. But the story hooks got to a point where I'm like, okay, this is interesting now. So that's mostly what I'm feeling.

[C]

Are you doing four digits of damage yet?

[B]

I am. I am doing four digits of.

[C]

That's how you know you're really going to commit to a.

[B]

And I do love it when you

[C]

start hitting over 999, then that's when it pops off.

[B]

And I do love a game that puts you into a giant, like hub area and there's just like one giant enemy that's like 40 levels higher than you. And you're like, oh, shoot, like I'm. I gotta stay away from that guy. I'll come back later. Like, that's always a nice little touch.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

I've never played a Xenoblade game, but the fans say speak so highly of them.

[B]

Everyone says, like, Future, redeem the DLC for 3. Makes playing all of the games worth it. So they said, it's such a trap, man. My brain is wired like, well, I guess I gotta play all three of the games now. So I'll report back because they're dropping the updates for each Xenoblade Chronicles game. Not all at once. So like, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is at the end of August, I believe, with three hitting in December. So it's like I got two months to beat this one. Got like four months to beat the second one, then three. It's all. It'll all work out.

[C]

And those numbers that Justin just said are not an exaggeration. You know, I have been overseeing some of the guides that we kind of missed and the guides we need to put together for this. And we're talking about, you know, 200 hours of gameplay for these games.

[D]

I think they're 80 hours each, give or take.

[B]

They added a motorcycle, though. They added a motorcycle in the game, which Makes navigating the open world so much easier. But that they just added that with this 999 expansion. I'm like, you mean I had to walk this before? This is nuts.

[C]

That's funny. Well, if they added sword combat and, and took it out of turn base hell, then I would play these two.

[A]

All right, well, Justin, what have you been playing?

[D]

Well, I regret to inform you, or maybe. No, let me. I'm pleased to announce that I'm back on. I'm back on my Factorio bullshit. Okay, so just all I was hoping

[C]

you get back to lego. What happened to the LEGO project?

[D]

Yeah, maybe I need to be at a different. Like whenever I get really stressed out, I have to kind of defrag my brain and go back to my conveyor belts for a while. And then I think I need to reach a new level of stress before I want to solo play LEGO games.

[C]

Oh, there's the new one, though. I thought that might tempt you back in.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, no, I do. I am playing LEGO Star wars with my daughter and so that's been really fun. But no, Factorio. I mean, I'm playing it. I've talked about it on the show before. It's like the most moddable video game and so there's always. I've described it as Factorio. 2, 3, 4 and 5 can all be modded into the original with, you know, it's a completely. The game of Factorio that you play is actually a mod that like you install on top of the engine. Like, that's how moddable it is. And so, you know, new materials and new sort of production lines and new, you know, new ores that you mine and new goals and new enemies, like, all that stuff. And so, you know, install a mod pack and now I'm good for another 200 hours or so probably.

[C]

Do you ever zoom in on the little guy slowly like we just saw?

[D]

No, I'm always as zoomed out as I can be. I'm currently dealing with. I have a. I have a surplus of ash. I'm making way, way too much ash. And then you need to get rid of. You can. You can sort the ash into different minerals and, you know, and anyway, that's what I'm. That's the production line that I'm dealing with right now. So I'll let you know how that goes next week.

[A]

Got it. Couple other games to mention. Is there anything else you're playing, Sam? I know you want to mention a couple of movies.

[C]

I have a lot of games to mention. It's Steam next best bet baby.

[D]

Oh yeah. I am playing Steam Next Fest demos. But yeah Sam, you can run through.

[C]

Well, I'm sure you played what I played because I immediately grabbed Order of the Sinking Star which is the Jonathan Blowbu creator of the Witness and Braids new game. It's like a top down block pushing game and the block pushing is super annoying and funny.

[D]

Sokobon. Yeah.

[C]

What's that?

[A]

It's like Japanese. That's the name of that type of game.

[C]

Like it like Adventures of Lolo. A Lolo like is what I call them.

[D]

Do you know the story behind that game? It's so fascinating of like, you know. So Sokoban these block pushing games like a whole genre and Jonathan Blow licensed. I don't remember if it's three of them or four of them. Like that already exists. So like in this game you can go north, south, east or west and when you do that you are exploring the puzzles from another video game that have their own mechanics. And then. But then he stitched it together with thecla studio that it has, you know, a new like unifying story and new twists and you can take things from one of the games into the other game that's like make it this game that has thousands and thousands of handcrafted puzzles. The way that he did it was sort of take four indie games and license them to like remix it as his own. It's so strange.

[C]

Yeah. So you have multiple characters like one character. As soon as you just look at the block, it swaps spaces with you. So you can't even like walk near it and face it. It'll. You'll swap immediately. Teleport. That one's really hard to wrap your brain around. Another one can only move blocks. If you touch the block and then walk away from it, it attaches to your butt and you drag it along. It's so complicated. It's got a nice little graphic set. It has a map Overworld, which I like and it's got that going for it. I played that. Then another demo I wanted to call out. It was just extremely rude for Steam not to have. I played the Star Fox demo and that game is just really not really upgraded from Nintendo 64. I've been playing the Nintendo 64 game and enjoying it. Actually I like the Super Nintendo game best. The first one two I like a little bit, as you can see from my review. But I never really played the 64 one more than playing through it once. But now I'm trying to do the secrets and get through it all. And then I went and played the demo and I was like, oh, this is the exact same game. They even keep like. I think it's funny in this level that we're seeing right now that the meteors are all the same size.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Because when you play it on Nintendo 64, you're like, oh, they had one model of Meteor and they used it and then they kept that. Because this game is exactly the same. It's so interesting. And you know, without passing judgment on it, I just think it's like such a funny thing for Nintendo to do. And it probably shouldn't be the price that it is. Whatever the price is.

[B]

I think it's 49.99 and 59.99.

[A]

Oh, yeah. This is where the physical cost.

[B]

There's like a deal going around where you can get the physical version of the game for $10 off. So I just pre ordered it. I was not really excited for this when it was announced, but then I played the demo and I was like, it really is a benefit and hats off to the development team behind it because the Original Star Fox 64 is so good, man. So just picking this up and playing it again, I'm like, like, damn it. It's still really good and it looks really nice.

[A]

So it is very pretty.

[B]

I am gonna be, I'm gonna be picking this up day one.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. I never played the 64 game, so.

[B]

What a treat. That's exciting. Is it still fun, Damon?

[C]

I, I, we can do that episode because, like, I again, like, I didn't really experience that game that much back in the day. And like, I just played through it. It was, I thought it was still fun.

[A]

Cool.

[C]

It's a little janky.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, man, look at this. I miss when video games look like this, man.

[C]

This, this in the original Star Fox, this level and like where you're fighting the robots in the boss level, stuff like that's pretty impressive for Nintendo 64. It felt a little bit more like when there's like big ships that you're going by and stuff like that Feels a little bit more like the start. What's it called? Starts the Star wars game.

[A]

Yeah. This boss looks awesome.

[C]

Squadron.

[B]

Oh, Rogue Squadron.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The level, there's. And there's a little bit of Rogue Squadron elements in this, which I thought were cool. This is, I think pre Rogue Squad. Squadron.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. It would be cool. Couple more games to shout out. I finished Black Jacket and I don't know if you were here. Are you aware of blackjacket? This is Rog. Like it's blotro. But blackjack, okay, with a story like Hades that's it's slowly doled out over multiple runs. You're playing blackjack in hell.

[B]

I like the setup, same basic rules.

[A]

Trying to get as close to 21 without going over. But you can break your cards in all different ways.

[C]

And you are.

[A]

You're playing.

[C]

There's.

[A]

It's voice acted every. You're like chatting with these people as you play them. And then you start to learn that you have relationships with these people. You're here in hell for a reason. Everyone's really disappointed in you. And then eventually if you, you, you every time you beat them, you'll strengthen your relationship with them. And then when you've raised your relationship everyone with everyone sufficiently, then you can face the final boss and leave heaven or leave hell. So yeah, I finished all that. This is great. What's that, Justin?

[D]

Is the final boss the devil?

[A]

Unclear. Actually. Possibly. Okay, unclear. Okay, could be.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

This is one of the best games I've played this year.

[C]

So.

[A]

Okay, big recommendation for me. And then just a really cool little thing that I found. You know, in the 80s here we had our. We had Dragon's Lair and Space Ace. Unbeknownst to me, Japanese arcades in the 80s had their own sort of laserdisc game fad. I don't know if you knew this, Sam.

[C]

Some came over here. In fact, most of the laserdisc games that are like kind of rare, like adaptations of the Japanese games.

[A]

Well, the one I'm talking about is from Taito called Time Gal.

[C]

Hell. Yeah, I know.

[D]

Yeah, I know. Time Gal.

[A]

And it wasn't. It didn't. I don't think the arcade game came here, but it was released on the. Either the Saturn or the Sega cd.

[B]

Oh, wow, this is beautiful.

[A]

Yeah, it's just like Dragons lair, but it's 80s anime.

[B]

That's great.

[A]

Which is so good. You know, the gameplay is just. You just point in the direction of the flashing yellow light. That's it. But you get to.

[C]

You can generally put these in. You just pop the CD ROM and like whatever laserdisc in the machine that you have. So these are at California Extreme, these crazy Japanese ones.

[A]

Well, there's an HD remastered version of this on Steam.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

It's like that's what I've been playing. Yeah. She goes that they just totally ripped Godzilla's roar for this.

[C]

Oh, wow.

[A]

Yeah, it's exactly. It's just lifted from the movie.

[C]

Yeah, that looks really good.

[A]

I mean it's great. It's a breeze to play through and then you get to watch this cool little anime. Time Gal is like very cute. She goes to all these different time periods. She's chasing some criminal and it's less gruesome than Dragon's Lair because when she fails she just gets like bonked on the head and turns into a Chibi version of herself.

[B]

Love it.

[A]

So that's cool. I really, I had a lot of fun playing through this Time Gal. There's an HD remaster.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

I got sexual to be in Japan at an arcade with these games in it when they were in their heyday. Yeah, that'll be one.

[D]

I'm trying to think. I'm not prepared next week. If there's time I'll share more next fest highlights because I've been checking out some cooler demos but I'm feeling like on the spot I need to gather my thoughts.

[A]

Cool. When people hear that Mint Mobile plans are only $15 per month, a lot of people wonder what's the catch? Well, there isn't one. There are no gimmicks and no gotchas. Just unlimited talk, text and data, fast, reliable coverage on the nation's largest 5G network and an award winning care team. I guess that makes Mint Mobile a catch. Mint Mobile took what's wrong with wireless and made it right. Premium Wireless for 15 Buc bucks a month you can even bring your current phone and your number. Choose from 3, 6 or 12 month plans and say goodbye to a monthly bill. Ditch overpriced wireless with Mint Mobile it's so easy. Sign up online and get three months of premium wireless service for 15 bucks a month. That is right Damon.

[C]

The longest part of the process I'm

[D]

thinking is going to be staying on

[A]

hold with my current provider trying to break up with them. I mostly use it to just scroll on social media and click things that I like anyway. So why am I paying like several hundred dollars a month to do that? And so yeah, easy to use Mint Mobile website, easy purchase, easy activation. I am pretty stoked on it. To get your new wireless plan for just $15 a month, go to mintmobile.com gamescoop that's mintmobile.com Gamescoop cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com Gamescoop that's it. There's no catch. $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month. New customers on first three month plan only speed slower above 40 gigs on unlimited plan additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details.

[E]

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[C]

Game Creative Staff Wolf Team alright, let's

[A]

check in with the listeners.

[D]

Hey listen.

[A]

Hello listeners. Remember you can always reach us at the email address gamescoopgn.com Just like Bruce did Bruce says I have a question mainly for Sam. My wife and I have been bonding lately over pinball. We don't have any pinball arcades near us, so every time you want to play it's about a 45 minute to an hour drive. Problem is we aren't very good so we're driving quite a ways then blowing through our quarters in a hurry. We're having fun, but it sure would be nice to have one credit last longer than three minutes. So my question is, what are some good tips for beginners to pinball?

[C]

Okay, this is perfect for my ngi.com segment that stands for not getting Internet gonna play pinball instead. So I do have some really basic cool stuff that you can start. You walk up to a pinball machine. Okay, so every pinball machine basically from the 80s onwards, you wanna get to multiball or the easiest multiball usually. What does that mean? That means it kicks out two, two or more balls and you get scoring and you can Kind of just score really well during that. They're all kind of set up that way. So there's. There's a color coding that you might not know about with Pinball, which is that generally since the 80s, a green lit up shot is your lock shot. What is a lock shot? It means it holds a ball for multi ball. So if you light up something green on the play field, shoot for that because that green arrow or that green dot is going to be your locks. And you can read the little card in the game about what More about multiball. But sometimes those get out of date because the games get updated so much. But there should be a central multiball to go for. Usually like in the Transformers game. I just did a video about Fry Gen. It was a center left shot. It's just upkicker. You hit it once and it lights the lock. Hit it twice and it locks the ball in one of the Transformers cassette decks. And then you do that four more shots and you just spits out all the balls you play. Multiple. That's my one. That's one. The other color you should know is orange. Orange is extra ball. So that means that if something in your game lights up orange, that generally means if it says EB or extra ball, if you hit that shot, you're going to get a fourth ball in play. So that's pretty good. So those are two things that can extend your game. The other one is just that every game has the ability to give you a free game. It's generally if you get a high score or if you, if you just at the end of the game match two numbers, you might know this. But generally just don't start the next game. Wait for that to happen because it really wants you to just go ahead and start your next game or put in your quarters and coin up and skip that. But you, you're gonna run the risk of missing out on your free game. So don't walk away until you hear. And if you hear a knock, a really loud knock sound, that's your free game. You're gonna save some quarters that way. I keep going. But those, those are good starts.

[A]

Something I also.

[D]

3, 3. 3 minutes is not that bad. Just to. Just to say, I mean that's like.

[A]

I mean like. I think most arcade games back in the day were designed to keep you wanted play for just two minutes, you know?

[C]

Yeah, two minutes for quarter.

[A]

Sam, what. What are your thoughts on tilting?

[C]

Oh yeah, I can talk about that. So nudging is what you would kind of call that.

[D]

That.

[C]

No, you're, you're right. So basically in all modern games, you can shake the game to save the ball. The best way to do this, if you're just super simple minded, there's things called out lanes. And on the far right and left side, you can drain the ball there or you can drain the ball in the middle of the game, right? But on those out lanes, if the ball gets anywhere near them, like if it's within an inch of them, if you push the game towards the wall, then it's gonna close that space that the ball can get into because the game is going up and down really fast and, and it's making the, the spot, the slot for the ball to accidentally be lost smaller. So if it's just going, that's what general, that's how you can start nudging a game. The game is going to let you do that, but if you do that too hard, the game is going to say, hey, you did that too hard and give you a tilt warning. And it might give you two if you do it really hard. But just be aware that you are allowed to do that. And if you get really good, you're never even going to get tilt warnings or you're going to get tilt warnings and then not do it again. Right? Because the next ball, those tilt warnings reset. If you tilt, you lose your score in your bonus, which is your, you know, you keep all your points you've made. You don't get this bonus score and you drain the ball. So that's that. And then I guess if you want like a verde tip moving on from mild, you know, just, just, just to please pinball players, don't flip the flippers at the same time. Don't, don't do that. It makes you look like a 10 year old and, or a 5 year old and like it's just embarrassing. It's a technique like, like you, you can do that but it's, it's, it makes you look silly. So just be aware of that. I'm not, I'm not criticizing you for it because that's like, it's like throwing the ball underhanded in basketball. It probably is a good technique, but it just makes you look so sick.

[B]

Hey everybody, this guy's using both flippers. Yeah, exactly.

[C]

So, and then, so that's, that's, that, that's the aesthetic thing. But here's another one. You don't have to flip when the ball is coming down to your flipper. If and it's just right there. It's just gonna Hit your flipper, it's not gonna drain. You don't have to hit the button. If you don't hit the button, it just hits your flipper really nicely and it bounces over to the other one and you flip up the other one and it traps the ball. Scoop.

[B]

Pinball hotline. I love it.

[A]

Bruce says of all the mach. Of all the machines I've tried so far, Monster Bash has been my favorite.

[C]

That's my favorite game too, that Lord of the Rings.

[D]

It's up there. Monster Bash is top five, I would say.

[C]

Yeah, Monster Bash is nice because you can walk up and just. It's just about making a band of monsters. And each monster has a shot tied to it. So what the ramps are. The Bride of Pim by the Bash Toy is Frankenstein. You know, the mummy is. Is behind the pop bumpers. And all you need to do is just hit those things so you just like, you can walk up and build the band by hitting those shots multiple times. Just like Lord of the Rings on constantly.

[A]

Cool.

[C]

Okay. All right, Nick, Last week we were talking about ngi.

[A]

We were talking about all the Internet, the games that were announced during the showcase week. One of them was Vivarium, which is part of the Xbox Showcase. Do you remember that one? It's like another anime looking game. That game's being made by Serenity Forge. And the top comment on the YouTube version of last week's episode is from Serenity Forge.

[B]

Oh, wow.

[A]

They said thanks so much for the shout out on Vivarium. We're really glad to hear you enjoyed it.

[B]

That rocks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The game looks gorgeous.

[A]

This game looks very cool.

[B]

It looks very Bokuno Nasuyasumi. The My summer vacation. The PlayStation game where you're just kind of hanging out for 30 days at your aunt and uncle's house.

[C]

I was trying to think of that game. I completely agree. Also put it out on laserdisc.

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. This is stunning. I think they made like a big statement like this is made by Norman. Real people all handcrafted. I'm like, dude, they know exactly how to get me interested. This looks so charming. And I cannot wait to check this out.

[A]

Yeah, that looks very cool. But then also Nick Fallen Sniper commented, it is criminal to not have Nick on after all the JRPG announcements.

[B]

Brother. I was screaming in the control room during the. The. The. The Final Fantasy Showcase. I was like, why is no one on the stage talking about Final Fantasy in the post show? What is happening here? Here? Yeah, that there's the Persona 4 revival. The Persona 6 reveal. So, so much good JRPG.

[A]

Another Xenoblade.

[B]

Another Xenoblade Genesis. We're spoiled JRPG fans. We are eating Final Fantasy Resonance Residency.

[C]

Resonance. Yeah. There's so many and that and action games like the, like the Mitchell Salzman style of action game were just all over. And I kept on like watching this and thinking like, oh, Mitchell and Nick are gonna have so many great games.

[D]

Dragon Quest too, man.

[B]

Yeah, dude, the new Dragon Quest. I put it directly in my veins. One thing that not JRPG related, but still action game related. Apparently Devil May Cry 5 had its strongest selling week ever for selling its copies of its game since launch this. This past week.

[A]

That just happened to red Dead Redemption 2 also.

[B]

I think it's because it got a switch to release. But I'm like, dude, that means we're so close to another Devil May Cry. Please, please, Capcom, give it to me.

[C]

Did you like the gritty dmc?

[B]

People aren't gonna like me for saying this, but I did like DMC Devil May Cry quite a bit. I think it's some of the coolest level designs I've seen in a video game. Not necessarily a Devil May Cry game, but I still really liked it.

[A]

Who made that one?

[B]

That one? Wasn't that Ninja?

[A]

I was just gonna say, Was that Ninja Theory?

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good luck. Great level design, great music. I think a solid game should have

[A]

them making that should have making another DMC2 or whatever.

[B]

That'd be great.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Then. Then the fans could all fight each other. It's fantastic. DMC versus Devil May Cry. This game writes itself. Both Dantes fight each other. Oh, that'd be.

[C]

Oh, that'd be cool.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, fan service.

[A]

Did you watch the Netflix series?

[B]

Yeah, Netflix series is great. It's a good time.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Very good time.

[A]

Finally, Bad Wolf Bay commented that they said, should this game have TIFA in it? Should be a new regular question.

[B]

The answer is always yes. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah, that's what I say. So I think you asked that in 20 questions or joked about at least. Yeah, it should be. It's just not going to be very helpful because the answer is just always going to be yes. Right?

[C]

Yeah, I mean, it's just more is a question that developers should ask themselves when they get their design docs in order. Should TIFA be in this?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Can we license tifa? Jonathan Blow should have been like, I'm going to license the puzzles from these games and TIFA in tifa.

[D]

Yes. I'm going to license pushing blocks around

[B]

that one jump Puzzle from the original Final Fantasy VII that is borderline impossible unless you have perfect frame timing. You know, the one you have to swing. Heading up to Shinra headquarters. Oh, yeah, it's a nightmare.

[C]

I forgot to bring it out during what we've been playing. I know we need to move on, but just in the speedist run of things. I saw backrooms last night, which I. It's okay. It was fun to watch. Really amazing carpentry. The best carpentry I've seen in a movie all year. Really impressive. Like, the sets are really cool. And then I saw the Spielberg go, too, and it was great.

[B]

Great, great disclosure.

[C]

I mean, it was. It was a bad. It was a bad movie. But it was really fun going to the theater to watch it.

[A]

Okay. Yeah.

[C]

Like, it is a really. It's corny and, you know, it's like, full of those kind of Spielberg, like. Like SAP moments. And the alien stuff doesn't make any sense. In the end, it's just, like, what. All this was such a waste. And. And this. Those CG animals look bad, but then everything else looks so good. Like, every time Steven Spielberg's, like, doing like a. A, you know, like a dolly shot, like, going across the room and people are, like, focused or, you know, he's using his lens flare while a train drags a car around. It's so cool. It's. It feels great. It's like watching a Neon Jones movie with a bunch of, like, uncharismatic actors. Talk about aliens.

[B]

I mean, Steven Silver's master is always there. Yeah. The mastery is always there. Fables. Fablesman was fantastic.

[C]

And it's Sean Williams. The score is incredible. Yeah.

[A]

Is this gonna be like, the final John Williams score?

[B]

Like, I think every.

[C]

They've never. They've never made a movie without each other. That's just incredible.

[A]

John Williams did, like, Catch Me if youf Can Even.

[C]

I guess.

[A]

So what was this movie? What was the movie from a couple years ago? Alien Invasion movie with the girl who plays Abby on Last of Us. And the title is something like, no one is coming to help you.

[B]

No one is going to save you or something. No one's going to help you. It was like a. Like a oner. Like, there's, like.

[A]

It's where she lives alone out in a rural environment and then dropped on Hulu, like, exclusively.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

That was a fun one.

[A]

That was a good movie.

[B]

That was a fun one.

[C]

Yeah. I think you could wait for back rooms.

[D]

That was called. Yeah, what's it called?

[C]

Yes. To come out on streaming or whatever and you're not going to miss a lot. But it was just really fun seeing a very loud 70 millimeter gorgeous print with some projection errors, which was always fun in the theater. And you know, we got lunch and got some beers and watched it. It was great. I love Back Summer movie.

[A]

You loved it?

[B]

I loved Back.

[A]

I just love.

[B]

And I loved Obsession.

[A]

So I haven't seen either one. But see that this weekend. I love the story of backrooms that it's this 20 year old.

[B]

His dad was a telltale dad.

[A]

We're telltale.

[B]

You can.

[A]

There's like whatever.

[B]

It was a Facebook group where like

[A]

the telling in 2015, he's like, My son wants to get into filmmaking. Does anyone have any tips for him? And now he's his movie made more than Star Wars.

[B]

Well, like also he goes, my son's YouTube channel has like his first video has like 50 million views. Is that normal? And everyone's like, no, that's not normal.

[C]

Honestly, like the technical nature of this movie is great. Like the acting's good. Like it's just, you know, it just has. It's a little drawn out. And I did like it a lot. But I think it's not like a theatrical experience I would recommend for people. But it was cool. The girl from shrinking is in it and she's great.

[A]

Great.

[B]

One thing I really enjoyed because I've never watched the Back Room series, so I've been watching that because I was such a big fan of this movie. But one thing that really stood out to me is such an interesting like game developer mind. The thing that got me interested is an interview with Parsons where he just says, you know, I got approached when Half Life Alex came out and I was ripping models from the game to do stuff with in Blender and I was like, oh, this dude knows ball. Like he's cool. And apparently he designed the original YouTube series in Blender. It's all digitally done.

[D]

It's all Blender.

[B]

His face does not exist. But then when this movie came out, he did the pre lighting in Blender and he basically sent his director of photography. Here's the Blender file for what I'm thinking of how this movie is going to work. And the director of photography is like this kind of rules because like this guy has a very distinct and clear vision going into this movie. How it should look and how it should feel and any stuff like that I'm a big sucker for.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like, it's like the ultimate storyboards.

[B]

Smart though. It's a good use of the medium of. Of, you know, game dev to some extent. Or I guess just digital illustration.

[C]

By the way, like three weeks in or whatever, the theater was packed for this.

[B]

Same with Obsession. Yeah, I watched Obsession after IGN Live because I had no time for movies leading up to it. And our theater, our screening was packed. I was very impressed.

[A]

Yeah, I feel bad.

[C]

People are really participatory and having a good time.

[A]

I want to see both of these. And I want to see the Furious.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I even want to see Masters of the Universe. That's supposed to be good, but I just haven't made it to the theater in a long time.

[C]

I've heard nothing but good stuff about that movie.

[B]

Let this be a PSA though. If you're watching, if you're a Game Scoop listener, I don't expect this behavior from you. So tell your friends, put your damn phones away in the movie theater. It is so common nowadays. I see so many people, either one, chatting with their friends in a way that's not movie theater appropriate, where they're trying to get a rise out of people. Like, make your buddies laugh. Don't do that. And put your damn phone away. I will yell at you if you are in the screening with me.

[C]

Can you imagine Nick yelling? I mean, this is the most.

[B]

I just. I always just go put your phone away. And that usually does try to make it scary.

[C]

That's good. I. You know, we all know what you're doing. You're playing Zen pinball and flipping those flippers at the same time. Just double embarrassment. It's probably a Sonic game to boot.

[A]

There is a Sonic pinball game, isn't there, surely?

[B]

Sonic spinball? Well, I mean, I mean, on Game Gear, but there's.

[C]

I'm sure there's like that modern stuff, too.

[A]

All right, that makes.

[C]

He makes for a little pinball.

[A]

Yeah. That brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion comes from Michael Hamm in Durham, North Carolina, who says, Dearest team counselors of Gamescoop, I may not be Matt Jones or Big Tony style, but I have been listening to gamescoop every week since the episode numbers were in the single digits. I've heard about a lot of amazing games in the 20 years that I've been listening to Scoop. So I thought I would suggest one for 20 questions that I fell in love with specifically because I learned about it on Scoop. There are many games like this, but most of them have already been used on the show. However, I cannot find any evidence of Redacted being Used yet. Thanks for 20 years of laughs and expert scoopation. And with that, let the questioning begin.

[C]

I think what he's going for is just awful licensed games. There's so many examples of those, but this one hasn't been used.

[D]

Yeah, interesting that he learned about it on Scoop. What are some games that we've championed over the years?

[C]

Could they be Justin games?

[D]

I mean, they could be anybody games.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Is this game from the 70s, 80s or 90s?

[A]

No, not time Gal.

[D]

No.

[C]

It could have been Time Gal or Time Traveler. Another laserdisc game.

[A]

Is that the hologram game?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Oh, I've always wanted to see that one.

[D]

Can you play this game on the Switch? Hmm. I think it's the Witness. Damon doesn't know if the Witness is on Switch or not.

[A]

I don't think you can play this game on the Switch.

[B]

I was thinking about the Witness earlier.

[A]

I do not think you can play this game on the Switch.

[C]

Can you play this game on Steam? First time for everything.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay, this is cool.

[A]

Now I'm back.

[B]

If only there was some sort of device that you could.

[A]

Let's find out. Let me. Let me.

[B]

We wait with baited breath. Do we want to.

[D]

About Steam?

[B]

Yeah, he's checking on Steam right now, I think. Do we want to maybe, like, console generation? Like, I mean, I would assume if it's on steam, it's like 360 era and up.

[A]

Oh, this is so weird. It is not on.

[B]

On.

[A]

You cannot play it on Switch.

[B]

Cannot play it on Switch, and you cannot play it on Steam or. We're still waiting on that one.

[A]

Okay. Yes, you can play on Steam.

[B]

Okay. Okay. It is Steam playable, but the fact

[C]

that it's iffy is super interesting.

[D]

Yeah, I agree. That's very sus.

[C]

Was this developed in Japan?

[A]

No.

[C]

What?

[D]

Okay, I mean, I think. I think not knowing if it's on Steam or not is very like. I assume it's like a Ubisoft game or like, you know, something that maybe would be on some. Yeah, like a Blizzard game. Yeah, yeah. Call of Duty was not on Steam for a hot second.

[B]

Is this in the PlayStation 4 generation of consoles?

[A]

No, that's five.

[C]

Is this playable on a PlayStation console?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

PS3?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Wait, okay. It's playable on PS3 is what you're asking?

[D]

I mean, yeah, okay, it is, but.

[C]

Okay.

[D]

What?

[C]

I just don't know.

[D]

Why are you all looking at me like now?

[C]

We don't know if it launched for PS3 or if it got ported from PS2 to PS3.

[D]

Okay. I think it launched on the PS3. Okay.

[B]

Did this game exist in. As a physical media? As. As a physical release?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Okay. So not like a pain or something like that. I feel like Pain should be on Steam today.

[C]

Is this game part of a collection?

[A]

Well, that'll be a freebie, but probably. Probably. But I won't count that one.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

PlayStation 3 game that's on Steam.

[C]

Is this part of a series?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

Was this game published by EA, Activision or Ubisoft?

[A]

No. That's 10.

[D]

There goes my theory about it being on a weird launcher.

[C]

Was it. Is this game kind of focused on single player?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. Single player centric.

[C]

Do you play as a human?

[A]

Unclear.

[C]

Oh, so maybe it's one of those City builder type things. You can't see yourself.

[D]

I'm still going back to this. I'm still going back to this game being a scoop gem

[B]

on PS3. A scoop gem. And it's on Steam now. Maybe it's like Overlord or something like that. I don't know. I feel like you guys would have been in Overlord.

[A]

Yeah, I was into Overlord.

[D]

I like that you're metagaming by, like, what would we have been into? 600 episodes?

[B]

That'd be like the 360 era. That feels like a cool enough game to talk about on Game Scoop. Like. Yeah, that all tracks.

[D]

Yeah, you're right. We do like Overlord you as some

[C]

kind of invisible omnipotence that controls things.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Oh, okay. So it is a builder to some extent.

[D]

I mean. Yeah. Except. Yeah.

[C]

I mean, you're not the driver of

[B]

a car on PS3, though.

[D]

Yeah. Okay. Is this a. Is this a strategy game?

[A]

No.

[B]

Is. What are we. How many questions are we at?

[A]

You've asked. 14.

[B]

Is this a. A builder game, like a city builder?

[A]

No. So it's 15.

[B]

You play an omniscient force. It's not a builder game. It's not a strategy game.

[C]

Maybe it's a puzzle game.

[B]

It's black and white 2. It's black and white, too.

[D]

I was.

[C]

Oh, God.

[D]

I was thinking Puzzle Game two. I don't know that I want to burn a question on it.

[C]

Or like Rhythm Tetris in the middle of all this Tetris stuff. Rhythm? Well, no, you play as the guitar player in a rhythm game.

[D]

I was thinking about. I was thinking about it being Guitar Hero or Rock Band. You know, it'd be a little bit weird to hear about it first on Game Scoop, but IGN did help popularize Guitar Hero back in the day.

[C]

Do we want to I think you play. You're in the band in guitar here. You're not an omnipotent force.

[D]

Yeah, no. Is this a. Well, puzzle game is where I think. I think. Is it worth asking if it's a puzzle game?

[C]

I think so. Because if it's not, we gotta really reassess what we're doing. It could be sport, like a sport

[D]

management game, but we have strategy. Like, I would argue Football Manager. Is this strategy game?

[C]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[D]

Is this. Is this a puzzle game?

[A]

Yes, puzzle game.

[D]

Sick.

[B]

PS3 era puzzle game that is on Steam. Part of a series.

[C]

Not Japanese.

[B]

Not Japanese.

[D]

Oh, is it. Is it luminesce? Probably. It's probably luminesce.

[B]

That's Japanese.

[D]

Is that the right era?

[B]

That's Japanese.

[D]

Oh, you're right. Yeah, you're right. And plus, that was psp.

[C]

I'm thinking it's a Tetris company game from that era, but I can't remember. Is that the era where people played that Tetris game that made them cry because it was so good?

[D]

No. Tetris Effect. That's a really mean way to phrase.

[A]

I've never heard that.

[C]

Justin has.

[B]

It's one of the greatest trailers for a game, though.

[D]

Tetris effect is incredible.

[C]

What other generation is that?

[D]

I never played it in VR. I feel like if I played that in VR, that probably would send me over the.

[B]

That was PS4. That was PS4 era. Tetris effect. Also, that's from Tetsuya Mizuguchi still, so it can't be.

[C]

Sure. Sure. But it's Tetris Co. Which is, you know, published outside of Japan.

[D]

Damn. What game is this?

[C]

We got Meteos. We got. But that never made it over. That's Japan.

[E]

No.

[D]

And it's on the PS3 witness or something.

[B]

What if it's like Super Hexagon or something like that? Were you guys into that?

[D]

Yes. God Rules. I reviewed that game for ig, but it's not a. It's a puzzle. This is a puzzle game game.

[C]

Or Zoom or whatever.

[B]

It's Peggle

[C]

or the Rope.

[D]

Peggle. Zuma's good. Yeah. Pop cap game. Except those are all ea.

[C]

Is that a problem?

[D]

Yeah, we ruled that, asked if it was ea. So. Wait, so hold on. We know a lot about this game. We know it's not made in Japan. It's a puzzle game that's on the PS3 and now on Steam. And it's not. Not published by Ubisoft, EA or Activision.

[C]

Angry Birds.

[A]

Huh?

[B]

There's no way anybody heard about Angry Birds for the first time on.

[A]

On screen.

[C]

We can eliminate that. This did this. Was this, like, mainly a iPhone game? Right. Because all those games we just mentioned are iPhone games.

[D]

Do people mostly think about this game as an iPhone game?

[A]

No.

[D]

Mobile game?

[A]

No.

[D]

Okay, so it's not any weird PS3 port.

[B]

What if it's like, genre? What if, like. What if, like, flavor of like. Like cosmetic? Like, you know, is it a fantasy game? Is it, like, Sci Fi that might help us?

[D]

Oh, oh, oh, oh. I bet it's Puzzle Quest.

[B]

I was thinking Puzzle Cast or, like, Heroes of Might Magic or something like that.

[D]

I bet it's Puzzle Quest. Damon loves Puzzle Quest. I mean, I also love it, but it's like, we used to rant about how good that game was all the time.

[C]

It had to be made in Japan?

[B]

I don't think so.

[D]

In the United states by. Well, D3 published it, but I now I can't remember who the developer is. Okay, how can we zero in on this being Pu Quest? Does this game also have RPG elements?

[A]

No.

[D]

Oh, I was so sure. I was so sure. Could be that also may not have ever come out on PS3 because it was DS and PSP in the beginning, before then it got ported to everything else.

[C]

What about Catherine's Japanese?

[A]

You have one question and a guess.

[B]

I wanted to ask the TIFA question, but I won't.

[A]

I'll give it.

[C]

That's a free one.

[A]

Yes. The answer is yes.

[B]

Tifa. Okay, that's a free one.

[C]

And just to be clear, if you just tuned in, the question was, should Tifa be in this game? Not, is Tifa in this game?

[A]

She should be.

[D]

I mean, this is the right era.

[C]

Should we just ask if it's blocks?

[D]

Did we ask if it came out?

[A]

You should just use.

[C]

Yeah, but then there's so many games we mentioned.

[D]

Well, maybe we haven't mentioned it. Okay, did we. Did we ask if this game. Hold on. Just before we do that, did we ask if this game came out in physical.

[B]

Yes, we did. It does release in physical form.

[D]

Wow. So then that even.

[C]

Even.

[D]

Even like Braid. I mean, I know it's not Brig because you play as a little man, but, like, that means it can't even be something like Braid.

[B]

Do we want to ask the hack.

[D]

Unfinished Swan Limbo.

[B]

We have it. Wait, no, don't. Don't start adding more games to the list that we named.

[D]

Oh, wait, I. I actually think I know what it is. Is. I think it's Catherine.

[C]

No, no, because that's developed in Japan.

[D]

Is it?

[B]

Yeah, that's Atlas.

[C]

I mentioned that earlier, too. Did we mention this game?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Oh, man.

[D]

So sorry.

[C]

Is there. Is it because Angry Birds is associated with iPhone that we have to eliminate it?

[B]

I mean, it did release on PS3 though, right?

[D]

Yeah. But we asked if people think about this game as a mobile game.

[B]

Got it, got it, got it.

[C]

So definitely that eliminates the Cut the ropes and the.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So could it be Tetris effect?

[D]

No, that was PS4.

[B]

I did mention Heroes of Might and Magic, and I think that's a very similar puzzle quest style as we know.

[C]

I don't think so. We wouldn't call that a puzzle game.

[D]

That's like a strategy rpg. It's not a puzzle game.

[C]

We. We did say it's a puzzle game that gets puzzle.

[D]

We've mentioned it. Oh, man.

[B]

That makes it hurt even more.

[D]

I don't think it's Unfinished Swan or Limbo. Because I mentioned those after Damon suggested you should use the hack.

[B]

Correct.

[D]

We're out of questions, Right?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Maybe it's the one of the ones I mentioned, like the Pagel or Zuma.

[D]

Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I guess. I. The EA question maybe, like, because. Because PopCap was independent and then EA bought them after.

[B]

Am I crazy to say that they even now would just publish the game they didn't develop It's King who developed those games, isn't it?

[D]

No, it was PopCap.

[B]

PopCap.

[E]

Okay.

[B]

But it wasn't.

[D]

I think it's. I think. I think. I think Peggle's a good guess. I think Peggle's a great guess.

[C]

It's weird that we wouldn't have had this before.

[B]

Do we want to ask is this what? Do we want to lock it in?

[D]

I mean, we're out of questions, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah. Is it Peggle?

[A]

Yes, it's Peggle.

[D]

Yeah. We need the music. We need the music to play now. You wouldn't call this an EA game.

[A]

It wasn't at the time it was published by popcat.

[C]

That's true.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

It just occurred to me, we could have done Plants versus Zombies and be totally convinced that's what the answer was.

[D]

Yeah. But I was thinking about it being a scoop gem, which. Not that we didn't like that game.

[B]

So what.

[C]

What genre did this person never know about Peggle for? Because we have talked about Peggle kind of recently, which is kind of cool.

[A]

He just. He just heard us talk about on Game Soup, that's all.

[C]

Oh, I thought you said there's types of games that we talk about. But this was one of them or something.

[D]

No, video games. It's so the video game industry is so strange. Like a new Peggle is such a sure bet, right? Like just make it. Let a team of six people make a new Peggle.

[A]

Like I was saying, they should have given it the Angry Birds treatment and we should have like Star Wars Peggle and Marvel and like what?

[B]

Antifa is pretty good there.

[D]

That's a better idea. There are executives that make an obscene amount of money that we'd be furious to find out what their salaries are that you just did a better job at. Like their job by saying Star Wars Peggle is like a better idea than ideas that have been greenlit for, you know, 100 million dollar budget.

[C]

I mean Fallout Peggle would be great.

[B]

Yes, sure. That'd be great.

[C]

Fallout. Angry Birds with the pip boy thing. Crash you throw them at.

[B]

It'd be so cute.

[A]

Mario Pagle they make themselves. The reason I was confused about Steam is because it would have. Popcat would have had its own launcher when this was released back in 2007.

[B]

I believe the EA. I forget the name of their launcher is no longer.

[A]

Yeah, but it's on Steam now.

[B]

Apex.

[C]

I think Peggle was like a. Like a downloadable executable file. Right. Like it would just.

[A]

Oh yeah, you'd probably just do that. Yeah, probably do it that way.

[D]

This is weird. I'm on the Peggle Wikipedia page and it says that it originally sold poorly, but it was boosted by the inclusion of a special demonstration involves the orange box. And then it became a bestseller after that. What?

[E]

I don't.

[C]

Orange.

[B]

It's in the orange box.

[D]

I mean it's like a demo. Like not the full year.

[C]

There you go. It's part of a compilation. You know, we could basically ask to start 20 questions we could always ask was this in the orange box? And there's a good chance. There's a good chance that it was in there.

[A]

That's true. That got a physical release as like a popcap.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Collection. It probably had Zuma on there as well.

[C]

And the 3Ds or the DS one was physical release.

[A]

Yeah, that's the first other platform besides PC that it came to actually.

[B]

I played the Xbox 360 Arcade demo so many times.

[A]

This game is great. Everything PopCap was doing back then was great. I love all those games they made.

[D]

They made Peggle and then six years later they made Peggle 2. And then they made a crappy game called Peggle blast. And that was it.

[C]

Weird.

[B]

Hey, if you guys are looking for another Peggle, Peglin is great. It's on steam. It's a roguelike peggle. It's fantastic.

[C]

Really?

[B]

Yeah, it's pretty good.

[A]

Cool. Around that time, around that same time as Peggle, Popcap released a game with the very unfortunate title Chuzzle. I'll leave you with that.

[B]

What a. What a deep tease.

[A]

Thank you for the suggestion. Ham in Durham, North Carolina. Viewers, listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at the email address gamescoopgn.com and that is all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Nick. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Tayo working behind the scenes to make this episode possible. My name is Damon. This is IGN gamescoop. And we're out.

[C]

Keep on chuzzling.

[B]

I don't think you could say that.