Pitching The Rest of Xbox's Lifecycle - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Summary of "Pitching The Rest of Xbox's Lifecycle" - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Podcast Information:

• Title: Pitching The Rest of Xbox's Lifecycle - Kinda Funny Gamescast
• Host/Authors: Tim Gettys (Snowbike Mike), Greg “GameOverGreggy” Whitta, Blessing Adeoye, and Andy Cortez
• Release Date: January 31, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, hosted by Snowbike Mike, Tim Gettys, Greg Whitta, and Paris Lily, the team delves into the current and future trajectory of Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S. With the consoles having debuted in 2020, the discussion centers around the anticipated end-of-life cycle for these systems, upcoming game releases, and Microsoft's evolving hardware and software strategies.

Xbox Series X/S Lifecycle

Forecasting the Lifecycle: The hosts begin by contemplating whether it's premature to discuss the end of the Xbox Series X and S lifecycle, considering these consoles have been active for approximately five years. Gary Whitta expresses skepticism, noting, "[...] these cycles generally last around eight, 10 years now. So I don't feel like we're necessarily, like, in the home stretch yet." ([01:56])

Current State and Future Outlook: Paris Lilly counters by highlighting Microsoft's recent strides in solidifying their gaming ecosystem. He remarks, "Xbox is literally starting to actually hit their stride [...] Now I feel like we're at that place now." ([02:20])

Upcoming Games

Gears of War: E Day: One of the primary focuses is the highly anticipated Gears of War: E Day. The team debates its release timeline, with Paris suggesting a 2026 launch to coincide with the franchise's 20th anniversary. He theorizes, "I think it is 2026, that's the 20 year anniversary of Gears of War." ([15:14])

Fable and Outer Worlds 2: The discussion shifts to Fable, with Paris hoping for a late 2025 release, though he acknowledges potential delays: "It's time. I mean it's time." ([23:28]) Additionally, Outer Worlds 2 is anticipated to release within the year, complementing the already announced Avowed.

Perfect Dark and Other Titles: Perfect Dark is another title under scrutiny, with the team expressing cautious optimism. While Gary notes the game's troubled development history, he believes Microsoft will ensure its success: "This is one of them storied franchises. It's been around forever. Very well liked game." ([37:30])

Hardware and Future Consoles

Next-Generation Xbox: A significant portion of the conversation revolves around the future of Xbox hardware. The hosts speculate on innovations that Microsoft might introduce to differentiate their consoles from competitors. Paris emphasizes the importance of showcasing new hardware early to garner community feedback: "I think it is essential that they start talking about it this year [...] give us a glimpse into the future of where you're headed with your hardware." ([74:21])

Handheld Consoles and Hybrid Models: There is a strong interest in Microsoft potentially developing a hybrid or handheld console akin to Nintendo's Switch. Paris highlights the desire for a device that seamlessly integrates with the Xbox ecosystem, allowing gamers to play their existing digital libraries across multiple devices: "It is truly the Xbox experience. That is something that the Steam deck can't do." ([84:26])

Cross-Platform Strategy: The team discusses Microsoft's strategy of making games available across various platforms, including PlayStation and Nintendo. Gary points out the strategic shift, stating, "Microsoft is the only one doing this out of the big three [...] It's very interesting to see." ([73:48])

Live-Service Games and Call of Duty

Call of Duty Releases: The conversation touches on the annual release cycle of Call of Duty titles. While there's excitement about upcoming releases, concerns are raised about the game's longevity amidst issues like cheating and server stability: "We don't know anything about what this new one is." ([29:01])

Warzone and Live Services: Call of Duty Warzone is mentioned as a potential booster for player engagement, despite its current struggles: "If Verdansk is to come out, I think that's going to get a big boost." ([30:34])

Community Engagement and Super Chats

Throughout the episode, the hosts interact with live audience comments and super chats, addressing topics such as game recommendations (Half-Life: Black Mesa, Dynasty Warriors, Portal Revolution) and listener suggestions for future episode topics like Elder Scrolls 6.

Notable Community Quotes:

• "What does an average gamer really want?" - Super Chat ([90:04])
• "Can we get an announcement for the Xbox next the next Xbox this year?" - Jordan ([93:02])

Future Innovations and Strategies

Integration with Windows: Paris discusses the potential merging of Xbox with Windows, hinting at a more unified gaming ecosystem that leverages Microsoft's broader software capabilities: "The merging of Xbox with Windows. That is something that I'm very interested to see what it's going to be." ([74:21])

Potential for Cross-Progression and Digital Libraries: The importance of allowing cross-progression and access to digital libraries across devices is emphasized as a key differentiator for Microsoft's strategy: "I buy it one time, I can cloud stream it, I can play it on my Xbox hardware, I can play it on PC." ([81:15])

Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, the hosts express optimism about the future of Xbox gaming, despite uncertainties surrounding hardware innovations and game release timelines. They anticipate significant developments in 2026 and beyond, driven by Microsoft's commitment to a more open and versatile gaming platform.

Final Thoughts: Gary Whitta summarizes the strategic shift, stating, "It's very interesting to see, you know, we all grown up with the console wars through multiple generations. This is a big shift away from that, even if it's only on the part of one company." ([87:39])

The episode concludes with acknowledgments of audience support and a teaser for upcoming segments, leaving listeners eagerly anticipating future developments in the Xbox ecosystem.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Gary Whitta: "[...] these cycles generally last around eight, 10 years now. So I don't feel like we're necessarily, like, in the home stretch yet." ([01:56])
• Paris Lilly: "Xbox is literally starting to actually hit their stride [...] Now I feel like we're at that place now." ([02:20])
• Paris Lilly: "I think it is 2026, that's the 20 year anniversary of Gears of War." ([15:14])
• Gary Whitta: "This is one of them storied franchises. It's been around forever. Very well liked game." ([37:30])
• Paris Lilly: "It is truly the Xbox experience. That is something that the Steam deck can't do." ([84:26])
• Gary Whitta: "Microsoft is the only one doing this out of the big three [...] It's very interesting to see." ([73:48])
• Gary Whitta: "We don't know anything about what this new one is." ([29:01])
• Paris Lilly: "The merging of Xbox with Windows. That is something that I'm very interested to see what it's going to be." ([74:21])
• Gary Whitta: "It's very interesting to see, you know, we all grown up with the console wars through multiple generations. This is a big shift away from that, even if it's only on the part of one company." ([87:39])

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the key discussions from the podcast, providing insights into Xbox's current standing, future game releases, hardware innovations, and strategic shifts within the gaming industry.

Transcript

[Paris Lilly]

Foreign.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yo, what the heck is going on? Welcome back to another episode of the kind of funny X Cast, your home for all things Xbox here at Kind of funny. Of course, I'm one of your show hosts, Snowbike Mike. And today I am joined by both of my gaming dads, Mr. Paris Lilly and Gary Witta. Of course. For you watching and tuning in, whether you're listening or watching over on YouTube and podcast services, this is the kind of funny games cast for your Friday, January 31, 2025. But we are taking over with a whole lot of green and a whole lot of smiles on this fun X Cast themed games cast. So let's go down the room. Gary, welcome back.

[Gary Whitta]

I feel like I'm in one of those dreams where you find out years later there's like one test that you didn't take and you got to go back to school.

[Snowbike Mike]

This is the final. Gary.

[Gary Whitta]

Oh my God, I'm back. Why am I back here? No, this is good. This is, it's always good to be with you guys. Just a little bit weird, right? Because X cars have been done and dusted for a while and yet we're back in this kind of pseudo. This is, it's, it's the X cast, but it isn't the X Cast. Right. It's, it's something else, but it's the same.

[Snowbike Mike]

We're back to talk all things Xbox and it's pretty exciting of we started the X Cast, you, me and Alana, of course. Paris joined as well. But we started it before the lifecycle of the brand new console. This episode will actually be kind of forecasting and looking towards the end of the life cycle of the Xbox series X and S. So kind of a wild one right there.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I mean I, to me, almost we'll get into it but like I almost. It almost feels a little premature to be talking about the end. I feel like we're midcycle. I don't know if we're at the. If it feels like we're kind of like running down towards the next one yet, you know, like the switch, obviously we've been there for a while. Like we know we all have been waiting for the Switch too. That's now been announced, you know, but PlayStation just put out a pro, like a mid cycle console, you know, Xbox have added some refreshes, but I don't know, I kind of feel like. How long's the Xbox been out now?

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, you saved that. 2020. Right.

[Gary Whitta]

So 2020. So I feel like these cycles generally last around eight, 10, years now. So I don't feel like we're necessarily, like, in the home stretch yet. But maybe I'm wrong.

[Snowbike Mike]

That'll be the fun part of the conversation. We'll talk about console, but we'll talk about the games that are coming your way. Most importantly. But of course, we have to welcome in our other gaming dad. He's in remote. It's my main man, Paris. Lily. Hi, Paris. How are you?

[Paris Lilly]

I'm good, man. I am still recovering from probably the worst sinus infection I've ever had. So if I look all weird, one of my eyes looks like it's half closed. That's why. But I do want to comment on a couple things. So to what you're just talking about, Gary. I just feel like Xbox is literally starting to actually hit their stride. Like, it's so funny. We did that Phil interview back in 23, and he kind of talked about. He obviously could see the roadmap and knew what was coming, but they had to deliver. I feel like we're at that place now. Now, I think everything that he has said that Matt Booty has said about we want to deliver these. These big games. A quarter. We're here. This is it. They're starting to do that. But I do want to circle back to X Cast for a second, Tim, since you canceled it, I just want to point out that I'm at Summer Game Fest. I see people wearing X Cash shirts coming up to me, tell me, I want you like X Cast, right? I go to Pax west. People on the escalator, X Cash shirts telling me how much they like X Cash. I go to the freaking Bucks and Charger at Sofi. Dude runs me down and says how much he loves X Cast in there, right? I'm at WWE Raw, Netflix, the debut in la. Dudes yelling at me from the down. Big kind of funny best friend. He goes, dude, I mix X Cast. Tell Tim to bring it back. Tim, what are you doing? I'm just. I'm just saying we're. We're a popular show. People. People want their X Cast.

[Gary Whitta]

I was just thinking, like, why does this never happen to me? And then I realized, because I never go anywhere.

[Snowbike Mike]

Ah, well, you're here now and we're back together. And that's what's exciting about this is today we're going to kind of look at the future of Xbox here with the remainder of this life cycle for the Xbox series X and S. We're going to be talking about games, we'll be talking about hardware, and we're just going to be kind of reliving the past a little bit because it's been a while since we've had Gary on kind of funny content. I want to catch up with him. We know Paris, he's been hell diving. He's been working hard. I know Paris over there has been kicking on the YouTube channel, making it look really good with a nice streaming. So we're gonna have a nice little quick, you know what Mike's gaming dad's been up to right after I tell you all about the kind of funny Games cast. Because of course this is the kind of funny games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in the video game world live on YouTube, Twitch and of course on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please consider supporting us with the kind of funny membership available on Patreon YouTube to get all of our shows ad free live as you as we record them. And of course get your daily exclusive show Greg Way, which today I'm taking over the Greg Way and so I'll let you know what that topic is later today. Of course, don't forget we're now available on Spotify and Apple podcasts, so you can go support that as well. For a chance to be part of the show, don't forget to submit your questions, comments, concerns and just love for Gary Whita via YouTube super chats as we go.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, do some super chats about how good I am.

[Snowbike Mike]

Some housekeeping for you. Of course you already had a great Kind of Funny Games daily with Gary and Blessing.

[Gary Whitta]

Fun.

[Snowbike Mike]

A lot of fun conversations over there. A lot of big video game news. And then after this, you'll have kind of Funny Game showdown, which is a very special episode. Gary, you're taking over special.

[Gary Whitta]

I'm not taking over, but I'm doing a special guest round.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. I love that. And then of course after that we will have a big fun marathon live stream. Tim and Annie will be playing through Star Wars Episode 1 Power Battles Live on stream. So tune into that. We'll be rocking all day throughout your Friday so you can come in, hang out with us anytime. Jump in, jump out and have a good time. Don't forget, if you're a kind of funny member, you will get today's Greg Way, which is all about me. And I'll talk about my feelings, my thoughts. I don't know, we'll, we'll, we'll figure it out as we go in the fun day of Content Then after that, you will get no more content because that's the end of the week. But you'll be back next week for even more fun. Awesome contents, of course. Thank you to our Patreon producers, those who'd love to support us at that tier. Thank you to Deliney Twining, Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Thank you for your support today. We are brought to you by BetterHelp and Built Rewards. But I'll tell you all about that later. Let's kick off the show. We're not the topic of the show quite yet. Let's just do a quick roundtable. Let's check in with my gaming dads. Paris Lily. You've been upgrading the YouTube look and it looks great. You've been going live, you've been answering questions, you've been talking to the gaming audience. How has that been going for you and where can people watch that?

[Paris Lilly]

It's been fun. Don't ask me where you can find it. I don't know my own URL and search my name. That's how you find it. I mean, you know, I've had that YouTube channel for a while. We obviously joke about it, but you know, I've slowly but surely just been doing some of my own solo content as far as reviews go. And you know, there's the live stream aspect to it as well. And I was just messing around with it this week, week because, you know, I've been sick and just like, ah, what the heck, I'll just jump on and talk about it because obviously there was a lot of questions about that Phil, Phil Spencer interview I did with Danny at Gamertag Radio. So I kind of just clarified some of those questions. And then Xbox keeps dropping news, so I just figured I'd hop on and talk about that as well. And it's just been fun interacting with people. And then I had a very kind soul Tucker reach out to me. He was like, dude, your YouTube channel sucks. Let me help you make it look better. So I gladly accepted his help and, you know, upgraded a little bit.

[Gary Whitta]

We'll.

[Paris Lilly]

We'll see where it goes. This just something fun to do, but I, I'll continue to put some content on there and you know, it'll. It'll just be a nice little fun side project for me to do.

[Snowbike Mike]

He's got some great content on there, Gary. I don't know if you've seen, but of course he's going live stream. He also went out to Compulsion Games to check out South Midnight, which.

[Gary Whitta]

Oh yeah, I'm excited about that game. Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nvidia new graphics card Paris Lily has been talking about as well at ces. So it's like, if you're looking for the hottest tech stuff, you want to talk.

[Gary Whitta]

I have not been able to procure a 5090 because despite being the editor in chief of the biggest PC games magazine in the world for, you know, several years. Yeah, I don't have enough juice to get a 59.

[Snowbike Mike]

You don't got the juice?

[Gary Whitta]

No, I couldn't get it, man.

[Snowbike Mike]

Does he have the juice, you think?

[Gary Whitta]

Couldn't get one. I had, I had Adam up at 6 o'clock in the morning trying to get one for me and he failed. Failed to deliver for me. He couldn't get me one.

[Paris Lilly]

I would show you my 50 90, but it's on the PC that I'm using to talk to you right now.

[Gary Whitta]

It's really annoying. I can't get one.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can't get one?

[Gary Whitta]

No. You know, I'm stuck with my 4090.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

It's like playing games on a Sega Master.

[Snowbike Mike]

What are we doing at this point?

[Gary Whitta]

I can't even make, I can't even look at it. It makes me physically sick to look at that piece of.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's talk about you, Gary. Of course, it's always awesome to see Paris moving and shaking, but you, of course, are always working hard. You're doing a lot of cool things in Hollywood, but you're also gaming. What have you been up to lately?

[Gary Whitta]

Always working hard, just not seeing any results. Pushing a boulder uphill.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can you share anything with.

[Gary Whitta]

No. You know, the last year was terrible because of the, you know, the, the, the strike and the contraction and everything else. It just, it just, the business just sucks right now. It's really hard to get anything done. I'm, you know, working on any, on a number of projects that I'm excited about. But, like, it's hard to be optimistic in this business because it's so right now.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. How about some fun stuff? Like an animal talking or maybe Helldivers leading a new crew into that, you know, war zone out there. You having fun with any of that?

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, I, I, I continue to play Hell Divers. I've actually kind of stepped away from it a little bit because I, I'm really trying to make an effort to be, to play more games. Like, I can't really just play Helldivers all the time. I gotta play other games. So I've been messing around with some stuff. Messing around with. We're talking about Dynasty warriors before the show. Really enjoying that. Tokyo Extreme Racer. Enjoying that. I think me and the fam are gonna start. Animal Animal. Hello Kitty Island Adventures.

[Snowbike Mike]

Great one now on weekend.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, looking forward to trying that on the switch. And yeah, I want. I was showing you this thing half sword. I wanted. Looks like a lot of fun. And you, you were showing me the headliners. That looks good. There' bunch of games out there. I've just gotta. And like I've deliberately kind of. Until the next War Bond comes out, I'm gonna take a little break because there's literally nothing left for me to achieve in that game. I'm maxed out on everything. So now's a good time for me to like try and play some other games.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. Yeah, well, of course. Paris, I want to give Gary some recommendations, you and I, let's throw a couple at him if you have some good games that Gary should try. Because I want to thank Gary. Paris, I don't know if you heard, but I played Half Life for the first ever time and I reached out to Gary beforehand and I said, should I play the original or should I play Black Mesa, the fan made remake? And Gary said, you know what, Mike? Go jump into Black Mesa. It's very good. It will do the job. And I had a blast.

[Gary Whitta]

What a great game.

[Snowbike Mike]

What a great game. Learned about Gordon Freeman jumped in the suit. Is the crowbar A top 10 starting weapon of all time?

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, absolutely iconic, that crowbar.

[Snowbike Mike]

It was really good though, Gary. And yeah, my recommendation would be Dynasty warriors. Right now. I am loving Dynasty.

[Gary Whitta]

I'm just bummed out that there's no co op.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's, you know, when I think of Dynasty Wars, I think of single player. But yes, it does seem like it could be a fun, really great shared experience.

[Gary Whitta]

I'm sure there's reasons why it's not a great idea, but like, as I was playing it, I was thinking, like, there's an NPC buddy that you've got there most of the time, right? He's like, he's helping me. Like, why can't that be another player? I don't know. But I, I'm really enjoying it though. It was something where, you know, I, I didn't know it was coming. I fired up Steam one day and it was like, you know, the main thing because they were permitted just come out. It's an overwhelmingly positive reviews. Like, oh, I remember Dennis Diors from back in the day. Like, it's. What's this? I just grabbed it and like five minutes, I'm like, holy, this is great. People flying, like slashing your way to literally hundreds of people at a time with your sword. And, you know, it just felt very. Yeah, yeah. Felt like a badass in that game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Awesome combos. I love getting in the mix of hundreds of people around me and I'm swinging the sword and throwing them all up in the air. And then I love the one on one kind of like, oh, there's the other general. And I'm gonna play one on one with them. And I can block, I can parry, I can dodge. And it feels kind of like that intense kind of really good.

[Gary Whitta]

Really good looking game too.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's great.

[Gary Whitta]

I love it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, do you have a recommendation for Gary to check out before we jump into topic of the show?

[Paris Lilly]

So speaking of Half Life, Gary, are you a fan of Portal?

[Gary Whitta]

Yes.

[Snowbike Mike]

Give it to him.

[Paris Lilly]

There's a mod that I didn't find out about until recently. It came out a year ago called Portal Portal Revolution. It's a mod for Portal 2. It's almost like a prequel to Portal 2.

[Gary Whitta]

Okay.

[Paris Lilly]

It's fantastic. Some amazing fun puzzles in there. The story is actually pretty decent. It's a lot of fun. If You Love Portal 2. Love Portal, definitely. Go check that out. It's a free mod. You can get right on steam.

[Gary Whitta]

God. Portal 2, what a amazing game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, amazing.

[Gary Whitta]

Now, you said you never played Half Life. Tell me at least you've played Portal.

[Snowbike Mike]

I've played Portal 2.

[Gary Whitta]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

Never played Portal 1, but I've played Portal.

[Gary Whitta]

They actually did a very nice RTX glow up for the first Portal. You should go back and play. That looks good. It looks really good.

[Paris Lilly]

They're doing one for Half Life two as well.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, I know. I'm like, how long can I hold my. I want to play Half Life too, because I'm riding the high now.

[Gary Whitta]

Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And it's like, how long do I hold it?

[Gary Whitta]

If they're gonna. If they're doing a remaster, I would wait.

[Paris Lilly]

It's come. I am pretty sure it's coming soon.

[Gary Whitta]

Play the Portal remaster in the meantime.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, do that. And then they had the RTX remake for Half Life 2 at Gamescom. It was playable. And I'm assuming Now that these 55,000 series cards are out, they're probably. It's probably going to come soon, I would imagine. First half of this year, it's going to be available.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. Final one for you, Gary, before we go. Sniper Elite Resistance. Another Sniper.

[Gary Whitta]

Sniper Elite.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jumping into the franchise on Game Pass. Gary, I love these sniper elite, man.

[Gary Whitta]

Shooting those Nazis in the testicles and getting the X ray view going right through never gets. It never gets old.

[Snowbike Mike]

You can, this game could be the exact same 20 years from now. Just give me fun new sandboxes to jump around and try to find different vantage points, how you get those different.

[Gary Whitta]

X ray kills, right? And like you can, you can, you can quit out of any of them. I never do. Even when it's the 500th time of watching like, you know, a bullet go through like a Nazi's, you know, ball sack, I'm like, oh one. I'm watching it every single time. Can't get enough of it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Can't get enough. Paris, Gary, are we ready to jump into topic of the show? Let's jump in to topic of the show today. Following up, of course, our friends here at the kind of funny games cast the PlayStation crew did predicting the future of the remainder of the lifecycle for the PlayStation 5. And we're going to do something similar here for the Xbox side of things. We're going to look at the Xbox series X and S, look at the lifecycle that has been since 2020 and we'll go on for a couple more years. We'll talk about the console life cycle. I would prefer on the back half because I want to celebrate the games because as Paris said, you can really see that Xbox right now on the game side is about to fire on all cylinders. It feels like they are really revving up the engine, nailing a lot of great games. And this year in particular looks like the year where it's getting really, really exciting of like, this could be the vision that they've talked about nailing down a bunch of, you know, Xbox first party titles that are coming everywhere and they're going to be a lot of fun to play. So yeah, Paris, I kind of want to talk with you and Gary about what are some of the games that we look at in the next three to four years that we think are going to drop and are really excited to look forward to?

[Paris Lilly]

I can think of one right off the top of my head.

[Snowbike Mike]

Lay it on me.

[Paris Lilly]

Gears of War E Day.

[Snowbike Mike]

Are you excited for Gears of Warrior Day?

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, kind. I think I've said before that Gears has never really like cracked that ultimate top tier of like, you know what I consider to be? I, I think in most, I may have been outlier in most people's minds. They would go like, yeah, Halo, Gears, forts are all kind of on the same. I don't know About Gears. I love Gears the first, the first Gears. I first three absolutely loved them. I kind of fell off a little bit after that. But I think this would be a good opportunity for. For me to. I did play a little bit of Gears 5. This could be a good opportunity though to like, you know, I like that they're going back and doing, I guess. Are they doing the origin when they say E day, Are they doing the origins to us?

[Snowbike Mike]

This is emergency.

[Paris Lilly]

Okay.

[Gary Whitta]

Okay. Yeah, that's cool. So I think that, you know, that's, that's a. That's a, you know, something, something a little bit different. I think, I think this good. Yeah, I think this is gonna be a big one. It's, you know, they Xbox has these, these boxes they have to tick, right? Xbox, sorry. Halo, Forza, Gears, maybe one or two. But those are the. Those I feel like I consider like the triumvirate of like the big Xbox franchises. And I mean I'm optimistic about it. I. When Gears of War is cooking, it's fucking great, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, give me the hype on of course the coalition working on this and looking forward to Gear Z Day. Do you think it's this year and what are you excited for out of this story and more?

[Paris Lilly]

You know, it's so funny. And I'm going to give you my conspiracy theory. I've heard keep hearing a lot of whispers about it coming this year. I've never thought that because even going back to the showcase last year when I got a chance to talk to the coalition, just it didn't seem. It was like it was imminent. I mean I know people Can Fly has come in now and they're helping them as well. But I never thought this year, especially since Fate, Fable is supposed to be this year. Allegedly I drafted it right. So I'm thinking they're not going to put Fable and Gears out the same year. But here's what I do think. I think it is 2026, that's the 20 year anniversary of Gears of War. Makes a lot of sense. Kind of the synergy of doing an emergence day 20 years later just makes a lot of sense. But the fabled Gears of War collection is this year. And I think with Xbox's new approach to multi platform, it makes a lot of sense. Let's get the Gears collection out to everybody. PlayStation Switch, if it can be run on that Xbox PC, get everybody up to date on Gears of War, get everybody excited about Gears of War. Then next year we hit you with E Day. Everybody's hyped to go play it.

[D]

You just say that it's the 20th anniversary next year, right, Paris?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah. 2000.

[D]

Jesus Christ.

[Paris Lilly]

And here, here's how old I am. I was at that, a launch event in Hollyw.

[D]

I was 11 years old.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh my God.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, I was at that one as well. I, I, I got that, I got that Xbox 360 face plate that ended up being a lot worth a lot of money.

[Snowbike Mike]

It so cool.

[Gary Whitta]

I sold it to someone in the end.

[Snowbike Mike]

Man. Shout out to those face plates, Paris. I like where you're getting at. Right. For me, I'm very excited about Gears E Day. I think we've really seen the coalition, in particular with the Xbox Game studios pushing the boundaries of what could be on the box and how good it can look, how well it can run. And I love the idea of taking it back to square one. Let's go back to E Day. Let's get new players, like maybe a Gary who's kind of laps and wants something new and fresh to jump into. But for me, Paris, I'm looking for that multiplayer experience. Do we think that horde mode multiplayer will be in this? We see so many people talking about live service games and a lot of people being kind of want to push away from that. Do we still see Gears as a, hey, this is a full product. You're going to get single player. You're going to get multiplayer suites as well.

[Paris Lilly]

I'm really on the fence about that one. I don't know. I guess you can't imagine a Gears of War coming out without multiplayer. So I'm going to lean towards. Yes, you do. But at the same time, it would shock me if E Day is just a standalone story for them and they consider it. We're going to tell you the story of Ede. We're going to tell you the story of, of Marcus and Dom. Right. Meaning and all that original origin of that. And then Gear six, whenever that is, that's when we'll bring multiplayer back and all that. That's the true next evolution of whatever Gears of War multiplayer is going to be. So I don't know. I mean, especially with this, if this collection turns out to be real, you gotta imagine multiplayer is going to be a part of that. I, I, so I, I don't know. Won't shock me either way. I'll say that I was kind of a cop out, but I can see it going either way.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I mean, isn't, isn't E Day gear 6 in all but name? I mean, this is not like a Little Miles Morales cycle. They said it was a full on game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's not.

[Paris Lilly]

No, I asked them. Yeah, I asked them last year. They said this is not Gears of War six.

[Gary Whitta]

I still think though it'd be very, I mean, I don't. In this day and age it'd be very strange to release a game that is just a single player. Especially coming off the heritage of a franchise that is known for having like robust multiplayer, like regular multiplayer is good. Horde mode is one of the, one of its banner features to not have that purely from a commercial point of view. How are they going to monetize the back end of this game without, you know, any kind of multiplayer, like selling skins and stuff?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, of course. Yeah, I, I think when I think Gears of War, I think of the total package. A Call of Duty, single player, multiplayer, all in one. It's got to be there. And I, I'm excited. Right. When I think about going back in time with Gears, where what are the maps going to be, where are we going to put that? I mean multiplayer has always been so big there, so much fun and so I really hope that we get.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I'd be a major, a major miss if, if it's not the full suite of single and multiplayer options.

[Paris Lilly]

Because if I'm not mistaken, Judgment Day didn't have multiplayer.

[Snowbike Mike]

I believe that. Yeah, I believe you're right on that one.

[Paris Lilly]

So they have done it before, so it is possible. Yeah, I mean it's just kind of my thing.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's possible.

[Gary Whitta]

I just like that. I just think it would be disappointing if they, if they didn't because that's one of the things I'm looking for is like yeah, story campaign, great. But I'm also looking for that horde mode.

[Snowbike Mike]

The live chat says there was multiplayer for Judgment. Thank you on that. Okay, so let's jump into this year, Paris, because you talked about could Gears hit this year. You don't think it will hit this year? Maybe Fable. Right. So we have a really good road map of the first six months and guys, you know, over the lifespan of the X cast with this new Xbox series X and S life cycle, we really talked about that first half of the year not hitting well.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And this year for 2025, they have really brought out all the stops here for the games to kind of get you going. But we don't know the back half. So I want to talk about the first half. Of course we have Ninja Gaiden 2 black. We know Ninja Gaiden 4 coming out with Xbox game Pass as well. That's a nice partnership with that you have avowed. You have south of Midnight in April. You have Doom the Dark Ages in May. And then we look at that second half. The Outer Worlds 2. Fable Gears. Perfect Dark. Let's talk about Fable for a second. Paris and Gary. Gary, do you think Fable comes out this year from Playground Games?

[Gary Whitta]

If I, if, if you have have to guess right now. No, no, I think it comes out.

[Snowbike Mike]

This year too big.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, I, I, I'm just giving you my gut. Yeah, my gut says no.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris Playground Games we talk about.

[Paris Lilly]

I drafted it.

[Snowbike Mike]

You, you drafted this? You think about it. Do you? Cuz they need a fall title here. They need that end of the year.

[Gary Whitta]

What's that? Holiday fall title.

[Snowbike Mike]

And is that a fable? Is Outer Worlds 2 big enough to bolster your second half of a what could be a great year? Or is it maybe Gear Z Day?

[Paris Lilly]

But see that's what I'll go back to is Outer Worlds 2 isn't big enough to be. This is, I mean look, Call of Duty is, is a constant. So that almost doesn't count in my opinion. So I, I feel like Outer Worlds 2 isn't a big holiday game for them. I mean you could argue last year they had what, Flight Sim S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, Indiana Jones? If Gears were to come this year, Gears E Day, then okay, yeah, that would be big enough to be your holiday game. But if that's not coming, then what is it? Fable is dated for 2025, so that's why I'm kind of holding on to that. If you think about it, it is the last game that we saw in 2020 that hasn't been released yet from the original reveal. It's time. I mean it's time.

[D]

Unless it's just legitimately for a minute even before.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, exactly.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

So unless, you know, obviously if it needs more time, it needs more time. Don't want to rush it. But if it's ready, if Playground Games has it ready, I'm thinking this is their big game. Like I would imagine this is the big Dev direct after the June showcase would be this where we get the full on reveal of Fable. They show, show it all off and then, then we get a date on when it's coming out. Which I would imagine would be like October, November, time frame, something like that. Fingers crossed. Obviously I wanted to come this year, but to Gary's point, I do have a small thought in the back of my head that it could get delayed. Maybe Grand Theft Auto 6 has something to do with that? I don't know, but we'll see. Yeah, I'm still holding out that it's 2025.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's a big one for me, Paris. And of course, Gary, this is where I want to get you in. As you know, you've been around the industry for a long time. You've seen now the power of gta. Is GTA so big that a title like Fable, that would round out your first party studio lineup so big that you would move away from.

[Gary Whitta]

Absolutely, yes. If I. If I had Fable on the schedule for, say, October. If I was Phil Spencer and I knew the game, the game's going to be ready. We can ship it in October. And then Rockstar comes out and says GTA 6, October. I ain't shipping Fable in October. Seriously, get. Get, get the. Get out of the way. Get out of the way. Because GTA 6 is just going to eat up all the oxygen in the room. It's going to crush everything. Why would you send your game out to die against a juggernaut like that?

[Snowbike Mike]

Is that a get out of the way for the month? For the whole quarter, the end of the year? What. How big is it? Out of the way.

[Gary Whitta]

I would. I would probably. I would probably not. Again, what do I know? I'm not Phil Spencer. But if I. Again, if I. If Fable 2 was ready to ship in October, let's say we're in July. We know we can ship it in October. And then GTA says October, I probably would hold every, like, every company that has like a major game scheduled for around that window. I would probably move it into early next year.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, do you agree with that?

[Paris Lilly]

Gary's not wrong. I mean, I could see that scenario happening. And then we're. We're also kind of forgetting Ninja Gaiden 4 is going to be a big holiday game as well. I mean, you know, it's going to be on all platforms, obviously, but I mean, I could see it. I could see it. But the fact that they were confident enough last year to date it at 2025, they knew Grand Theft Auto 6 was. Was a reality last year. And you said 2025. So I think it would lean more towards the game's just Simply not ready versus them trying to avoid GTA 6. I think there is a window in Q4 where both games could live. And again, Call of Duty, we know that's going to get slotted late October, early November, regardless of whenever Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out.

[Gary Whitta]

I think GTA 6 is in a category of one, though. Like it's the only game. It's the only game where it's released. Once that release date is announced, other companies are going to change their. This is guaranteed, regardless of what it actually looks like. Once the GTA 6 release date is confirmed, other companies will adjust their plans around it. You'd be foolish not to be wild to see that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's gonna be fun to see in person.

[D]

And at one point this year, they'll say eventually 2026. And a lot of companies will sigh a sigh of relief a little bit.

[Snowbike Mike]

You talk about Ninja Gaiden 4 to round out this year, of course, The Outer Worlds 2 from Obsidian, we know that they're dropping a. Vowed right around the corner here in February. If you're listening to this, you got about two weeks away, three weeks away. So you're in the window. But do we think that Outer Worlds 2 will come out this year as well?

[Gary Whitta]

I don't know.

[Paris Lilly]

Yes, I do.

[Gary Whitta]

I'm just gonna. I always say if I don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah, I don't know anything about where they are in development. I've got. I've got no idea where they are on that one.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, you think that they're going to be able to push out two RPGs this year? Pretty wild to think about.

[Paris Lilly]

It's Obsidian. I mean, it wouldn't shock me because you also have to Remember Outer Worlds 2 is going to be a shorter experience when it comes to an rpg if you go by what the first Outer Worlds was. So it wouldn't surprise me that. Because remember Avowed originally supposed to come out last year. So that got delayed because they were trying to Gary's point, they were trying to get a rip, get out of the way of all the other stuff that was coming out last holiday because Assassin's Creed was supposed to come out last holiday. Right. So that's why they push a vow to next month. So it could have been a thing of the original plan. Always was. Avowed in 2024. Outer Worlds to late 2025. Mid to late 2025. I think it is what it is at this point. Let's just go ahead and get it out because the game's going to be ready to go. So I'm pretty confident in this. I. I really do think we'll get Outer Worlds too, this year.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's exciting. Two games in one year from the team. That's pretty fun stuff right there.

[Gary Whitta]

Outer Worlds. I know Outer Worlds is a very good game. Very. Was it a Big commercial success. I guess it must have been to the extent that they were able to make a case for making a sequel. But I don't remember it like setting the world on fire. I remember it being critically very well liked, but I don't know if commercially it was a big huge hit.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure sales wise, but to your point, it must have did well enough that they. Yeah, let another one.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, of course, you know, we kind of take for granted Call of Duty, which you brought up Paris and Gary, you know, you always have the Call of Duties here. You do have the Xbox first party Live service. Games that are continuing to thrive and do well. You'll probably see updates from eso, you'll have updates on World of Warcraft, of course, Sea of Thieves, so you can always count on those to kind of fill in some of more of your downtime to boost players up. And seeing Sea of Thieves go to other platforms has really been great for that team and kept the player base up and excited. So, yeah, I'm sure that eso, World Warcraft, our normal Call of Duty yearly will all kind of wound out the year.

[Gary Whitta]

Is there definitely a Call of Duty this year?

[Snowbike Mike]

There is a Call Duty this year.

[Gary Whitta]

I asked. I mean, I know there is every. I asked that only because I know that Phil was making some noises about getting off that yearly treadmill.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Gary Whitta]

And maybe doing them only like once every two years. But there's probably Paris, do you think that could probably like enough development already grandfathered in that they have one this year?

[Paris Lilly]

After seeing those financial results the other day, they gonna put up called good this year. That's money.

[Snowbike Mike]

I don't ever see us getting off the hamster wheel of Call of Duty yearly. I think that would be a while.

[Gary Whitta]

There's too much money to be made.

[Snowbike Mike]

So much money to be made. The excitement. I think it's just that perfect game of you buy it in October, you get excited through January, you get a little content update gets you through the summer and you start saying, I'm bored of this game, I want something new. They hit you again next October. It is just the perfect.

[Gary Whitta]

Last one was a hit, right. It was Black Ops 6, very well liked. So the vibes are back on.

[Snowbike Mike]

Vibes are on, but they're still off. A lot of people don't like right now where the game is currently at kind of bug and cheater and hacker wise.

[Gary Whitta]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's a big issue with that one of. Yeah, the game was very good and well received. But now months later we do have an issue of the lifespan of this title right now. For the player's perspective.

[Gary Whitta]

We don't know anything about what this new one is. Not Modern Warfare 4 or something back to, you know, World War II. Like you never know when it's not. If it's not Black Ops.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

You know, you don't quite know what it's going to be.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. No official yet. We've heard, I think rumors of like a possible more Call of Duty Black Ops, but not quite sure nothing official has come out of where this will be and what it will be.

[Gary Whitta]

I want to see him do something that isn't like one of the strands that we already know they do. Right. We know they do Modern Warfare. We know they do Black Ops. We know they like to do World War II. They've revisited that a few times now. I don't know. Let's see something else now.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course, very exciting stuff. Possibility for Call of Duty Warzone here in the spring for dance to come back.

[Gary Whitta]

Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

That gives you a nice shot in the arm. A lot of excitement. Of course Call of Duty Warzone is not in a good spot right now.

[Gary Whitta]

It's not for the players.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean think that if we were a business side, it's probably just fine. It's probably still making money. There's a large active player base from a player side. It is not in a good spot where you want to actively play and spend your time in. It is not fun. It is really, really tough. But the exciting time is for the players. If Verdansk is to come out, I think that's going to get a big boost. We'll complain that there's still cheaters and hackers left and right and the game doesn't run as well as we want it to. But we're still going to go back and get excited for it. So that will be your win there. We have a super chat coming in from all the skills writes in with the five dollar super chat and says avowed getting 60 hours out of me. Outer world's probably 40. Let's go. I'm playing everything they drop and also shout out to south of Midnight and Doom. Two games that we didn't really talk about because they're kind of already announced. We know they're this year but they had a great showcasing in the developer direct. Gary, did you see south of Midnight in Doom on that?

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I saw. I looked because I. Like I said last. Last night I took an edible and I watched all the. The I hadn't watched yet. I watched a bunch of the. I talked earlier about the ones that popped for me. Road craft. Is it Roadcraft?

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, yes, yes.

[Gary Whitta]

Operating the heavy construction vehicles that look cool to me. And Expedition 33 looks very, very cool to me. That came out of nowhere. I was like, I never heard of that game. I watch a trailer. I'm like, man, what is this? I'm really into it. Really, really cool. And yeah, obviously for me, Doom is a PC game. This is. This is why I'm so upset about not having that 50 90.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Gary Whitta]

Because to me, Doom. Doom is one of those games that is always represented. Like if you want to show off what your PC can do, graphics card.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Gary Whitta]

Doom is the game that's. That is going to do that cyberpunk as well. But, like, historically, Doom's always been that game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Like, you know, Nvidia will release the new drivers for. It'll have all that DLSS shit. Like, you know, that Doom running on like a 4090 or a 5090 at max settings on a juggernaut PC is going to look like nothing else. And that is going to kill.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Gary Whitta]

So sometimes you just want that, right? Just that, that showpiece. But it looks like a lot of fun. Again, I'm glad that they're coming at it from a different, you know, the whole medieval vibe. Gives it a different aesthetic, a different vibe, but it's still Doom. I was thinking this the other day. Doom, to me is a game because I old enough to remember the original Doom from, you know, 90, 92, whenever it was 93. Thirty more than 30 years later, doom is still going strong. It has one at one of the great, you know, Pete, one of the great grand game franchises of all time. It's still killing it. It's evolved to a point where, I mean, this is like, go back and look the original Doom, right. And compare it to this. Right. It's evolved to a point where, like, it's like from another planet now, but it's still Doom. Yeah, it still has that same vibe. It still scratches the same itch the original Doom did. So in terms of like evolving a franchise or a series of games over a number of decades and, you know, keeping it like super focused on what makes those games good while just technically just technology just constantly up in the ante. Doom is incredible case study in that they've done a great job of. Of taking care of, you know, one of the great PC game franchises.

[Snowbike Mike]

It looks great.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, it looks like a lot of.

[Snowbike Mike]

Fun that will be right around the corner that's in May and then of course south of midnight coming out I believe in April. I'm trying to find my notes. I got lost in it. But yes, that. I mean a great start to the year here. Now the fun part is let's talk about the future guys. But I want to talk about 2026 and beyond for the games coming to your Xbox ecosystem and more right after a word from our sponsors.

[E]

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[Snowbike Mike]

Of funny and welcome back everyone. Let's talk about 2026 and beyond for the games and then we're going to move into the console because I think that's a really fun conversation to be had of when is the end of the Xbox series S and s life cycle? What is next? Paris and should I feel confident because I had a little. I had a little meltdown this week on the last Kind of Funny Games cast where I questioned where I stand with the Xbox console for the future. But we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Let's talk about some Future Games for 2026 and beyond. We kind of talked about Fable and Gears. E day kind of being right at the cusp of 2025, 2026. Where do those go? But let's talk about some other ones. Like Perfect Dark with the initiative and Crystal dynamics. When do we see that?

[Gary Whitta]

I mean Perfect Dark is like who? I mean just with that one you just throw up your hands and say, well, who the hell knows, right? Because it's been seemingly such a troubled development with different teams coming and going and the, and, and the, and the, you know, the dates, you know, keep getting pushed back and we haven't really seen anything of substance from it. Right. A cinematic trailer. I think it's all. If they showed anything.

[Snowbike Mike]

We finally saw gameplay. Gameplay here.

[Gary Whitta]

Okay, so here's a bit of gameplay. Gameplay. I think, you know, this is an opportunity for, for this to, you know, the Perfect Dark is again one of them, one of their storied franchises. Right. It's been around for forever. Very well liked game. Perfect Dark, zero and so forth. Like back in the day, these were the games. So I don't know, it looks like it could be cool. Here's this thing. Nobody knows anything anymore. Remember a year ago when we were talking about Indiana Jones and like, I don't know, like the movie just came out and didn't do anything. Like, like maybe people are just over Indiana Jones. This could go either way. You know, Bethesda's had a couple of missteps and then it comes out. It's an absolute banger. Like, way better than anybody thought. So, like, you just don't know. Like, it's a. It's fun to do this, but it's also like a fool's errand trying to predict this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Perfect Dark could be anywhere from like Redfall to Indiana Jones. Right. In terms of. That's what Microsoft is capable of. Right. Epic success, epic fail. Of course, this. This one, again, there's not. There isn't enough information to know right now. This could go either way.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris. Looking at this, I feel like this is a 2026 game, right. When I'm looking at the lineup, I'm looking at all the cards that have stacked in front of me. I feel like Xbox has done a really good job showing its hand of like, what will be the next three years of kind of heading towards the end of the life cycle. And I. We know for sure Perfect Dark is in there, right? We know Clockwork Revolution is in there. We, we. We can kind of start piecing things together and state of decay 3 is probably in there. But when I look at Perfect Dark and we have this conversation, I do think Perfect Dark is 2026.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think, again, this was something we saw. I want to say it was the Game Awards 2020. It was when they originally unveiled it. So 2026 makes a lot of sense because we're about six years out. But to go into Gary's point, we know the studios had some development issues, but. But they were able to actually give us a vertical slice in the showcase last year. Hopefully, knock on wood, we get to see it again this year and then you can date it and say, hey, it's coming in 2026. So this is one, I think. Yeah, it would you look at the roadmap. 2026 makes a lot of sense for us.

[Gary Whitta]

This gameplay footage, which is my first time seeing it, actually looks pretty good.

[Snowbike Mike]

It looks.

[Paris Lilly]

Gary, it does.

[Snowbike Mike]

You in Paris know, I. I'm a Perfect Dark Kid from N64. Played a lot of Perfect Dark Zero on the 360. I had my doubts about reviving this franchise. I didn't think it was the one that if I put my hand in the hat to choose one, I wouldn't have. I would have put this one back. But I. I'm impressed with what I'm seeing. I am excited to see Perfect Dark in this next gen era. I want to go back with Joanna Dark and relive some of these moments and see a new story. I'm excited now.

[Gary Whitta]

I will say this. I think I was saying earlier, this could go anywhere on the scale. I think it's less likely to go anywhere on. I think it's more likely to be good than bad because I think Microsoft xbox, Phil, you know, however you want to define it, can ill afford a game of that with this much attention on it and this high profile to not absolutely crush it, right? Like, if it's an. If it's a. Doesn't even have to be like a redfall level failure, right? It just. It just had like. I think this. This game needs for Xbox's reputation, you know, and Microsoft's reputation to like manage, you know, their internal titles and have them deliver. Obviously it took a big hit with redfall on that. On that sense. This. This one needs to deliver in a way that some other games have not.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay, okay, okay. Let's talk about a couple more pairs because there's a lot, man, I'm. I'm looking down my list. We still have to talk about Blade over here. What's up with Everwild, right? Where's Contraband? But let's talk about Tower Born and Aura History Untold, games that came out in early access. Do you expect 1.0 releases in 2026, then maybe this year? What is. What are the road maps? Because you're one of the few people I know that has jumped into both those games.

[Paris Lilly]

So as far as Tower Born goes, because I actively play. I can't even talk. I actively play Tower Born in the early access. I don't know if it'll be 1.0. Well, you said 2026. Yeah, 2026, I could see 1.0. I think Xbox players get it this year in early access on console because right now it's only on Steam. It's. They've done some. Some good stuff with that update too. And just the scaling up the difficulty and just some of the fun challenges that you can have in there. Obviously it's something that. That is monetized through, through, like cosmetic items, things like that. Very good chance. That's a 1.0 in 2026. I could see that. As far as our History Untold, I mean, I didn't think that was. Is that still considered early access? I thought that was. Was a 10 problem now.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'll have to take a look.

[Paris Lilly]

I think you're thinking of Manor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Manor Lords was his early access still. But. But Ara Nahara's R is out because I even know I got a chance to interview the team.

[Gary Whitta]

The one that we still know nothing about. Like, you look at this. There's the one where you looked at the trailer room. Well, what is that?

[Snowbike Mike]

That is the rare one.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, he did. When he. Phil talked with Destin. That came up and it sounds like we will see it at this June showcase. That is one. And. And because you mentioned Blade, I'm gonna give you a conspiracy theory stuff leading into the console thing. I think both of those are Next.

[Snowbike Mike]

Console, Blade and Next Console and Ever Wild.

[Paris Lilly]

Yep.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I could see both of those. I could definitely see Blade and Ever Wild Next console. I. I will have a fun conversation of. Does it straddle the line, though, of being on both this concept?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, I think it'll be both.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

But I think it comes out around the time of whatever the. The next Xbox is going to be.

[Snowbike Mike]

So let's rewind. You said that Phil was talking with Destin and said that we will see Everwild this summer.

[Paris Lilly]

Pretty sure he hinted at it at the showcase. That was something he hinted at. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

That will be very exciting to see. What a mixed emotion I get when I think of Everwild. Of. I don't know if I'm interested, but I am interested. I love what Rare has done. I want to see what they're doing with that. I. I just. Wow. It's been so long, Paris. It's hard to believe that it's almost real. If that is true. And we're gonna see that this summer. That's wild.

[D]

This trailer, which I think is the last time we've seen it, was four years ago, which is crazy.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, there's a good chance that they've just moved on to something else. They may not be working. I don't know. It could be. It's. I don't know. It's weird, right? We knew very little about. It looks, you know, this. The aesthetic here, this all looks very interesting. But if you haven't heard anything from a game. From a game in almost four years and how many directs and showcasing things that have there been? Like, that's got to tell you something, right? Why have they not shown anything?

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, maybe this. This summer, maybe we get the answers and we'll find out.

[Paris Lilly]

I guess because I just. I just googled Ever Wild Phil Spencer, I guess when he went to Rare back in October of this year, or 2024, allegedly, he saw Ever Wild. So it is still being worked on.

[Snowbike Mike]

Wow, that's exciting stuff right there. Let's talk about. Man, we have so many more games to talk about. Let's talk about OD from Kojima Productions. He's assembling all of the biggest horror names in the business to come and make a game. Do we expect that on this console life cycle, let's say the next four years. Do you think we'll see OD playing it in person.

[Paris Lilly]

In the next four years? I'll say yes. It sounds like this is more of him utilizing cloud tech. Okay, so this is something. Sure. It probably could be playable on this current gen. I'm a lean again, more towards this is start thinking next gen with od.

[Snowbike Mike]

Gary, you know about od. What do you think about it?

[Gary Whitta]

I think we were talking about Miyazaki earlier, and Kojima is another one, you know, where, like, no one's gonna make him do anything he doesn't want to do. He's gonna, he's gonna take his, his own sweet time to get it where he wants. It'll ship. It'll ship when it ships. Yeah. And that could be a ways, a ways off. I'm excited to see. And it's, I have a weird, like, I, I'm kind of like, you know, like, you know how in Zoolander when Derek Zoolander says, like, oh, no, it's, it's Hansel that says it. He's like, I don't actually listen to Sting's music. I just, I like, I just think it's great that he's making it. It's like, like, I, I, I don't, I, I. Metal Gear Solid was the last Kojima game that I played and, like, really, really got off on Death Stranding did nothing for me at all. But I'm so glad that Kojima is out there making these games because he's one of the true, you know, originals. Right. No one else is. Is doing what he's doing. And you need people like that, like the true originals, the iconoclast, the people like what everyone else is doing. I'm gonna do this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Even though, like, it might be bonkers. Like, that's his brand. And, you know, I, I'm excited to see it. I just, it's. There's a good chance it's not gonna be my cup of tea.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay. Yeah. And it's a horror game. He's spoken. Oh, yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

You know, very. I'm very. Yeah, absolutely.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course we know we have Death Stranding 2 still next up. Then you would assume it's going to be OD and then the next project after that that he's already announced. But the question will Be of course his ties to Hollywood. We've seen the strike scary as you know about and kind of the stop and starts of Hollywood right now. He's tied to that with this game and more. I'm sure there's a lot holding this game back from man. Paris four years from now is a long time.

[Gary Whitta]

I think.

[D]

I think it's longer.

[Snowbike Mike]

I think.

[Gary Whitta]

I think the. When you were talking about the next console, I think that. I think Blade and the. The other ones that you mentioned saying next, I think that's a little bit premature. I think you will see those in this generation. The Kojima game does feel like it's. It's probably far enough out that. That, that might be one where just its natural development cycle brings it into. Into line with like maybe it's a launch title for the next console or something.

[Snowbike Mike]

Be a big deal right there.

[Gary Whitta]

So going.

[Paris Lilly]

Going to Blade because you're talking about this console. Second, because I'm trying to remember. Yeah, that was game rewards 20 it. And I think Arcane lion just started development on it too. So it wasn't already actively in development. They were just kind of getting ramped up on it. I mean, Yeah, I think 2027 at the earliest. Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was 28. Maybe I was leaning 2028 for Blade. I. I think I have Blade down as one of those that will straddle the line of this next generation. Of course we'll talk about what that is, but I think it will be playable on both. But I do think that Blade will be a 2028 game. On my list of where I have that falling here. How big is that scope? What does that look like? I'm so excited for Blade. Right. What a property to get, what a team to have it with. We're riding the high of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the characters that we love from the comics. Blade is one that, you know, we're very excited. The movie might not ever happen, Gary, but man, if I get a game, I'll be happy with that. I'll be really happy.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah. And I remember thinking the aesthetic for this game looks. Looks really cool. It has that kind of painterly style that's very popular in animation right now. Almost. That kind of Spider Verse.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Gary Whitta]

Kind of style that. The Spider Verse has obviously been so influential in its animation style. You see it reflected now in other movies and games all the time.

[D]

Speaking to your mic, Gary.

[Gary Whitta]

Sorry. People want that kind of punk rock animation style. And this is. It's a great fit for Blade. This looks cool. This Is one of those ones that like. I really hope this one is good.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Because I want to pay. I want to play a badass blade.

[Snowbike Mike]

This Wolverine.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Like we've been treated good times ahead.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. I really can't wait for some awesome.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah. What's happening with Marvel 43.

[Snowbike Mike]

Didn't we.

[Paris Lilly]

Oh, Amy Henning.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah. The Amy Hennigan. What's going on with that? I'd heard about that forever, but it had those amazing cinematics. There was a lot of hype around it and now it's just. I don't know when's the last time we heard anything.

[Snowbike Mike]

I thought we had that in a news story. Semi recently, within this month, I think to start the year. I thought we had something at least about it. I don't know if it was good or bad, but I thought we did talk a little bit about that.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean, the last thing I remember.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[D]

Was this trailer from 10 months ago that said it's coming out this year. 2025.

[E]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Ready.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean. I mean, it looked terrific in this early cinematics. Who the hell knows where it is? We haven't heard anything for a while.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah. Because you also. You have the Wonder Woman game that's being worked on and Black Panther game as well.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

So there's. There's some stuff coming.

[Snowbike Mike]

We still have more games to talk about. Tell me, Paris. Yeah. What you got?

[Paris Lilly]

I was just. Just bringing that back to exactly what you were saying. One that we've not talk. Which I would assume we get to see this year. Contraband.

[Snowbike Mike]

Contraband with Avalanche Studios Group. This one I've been excited for. Right. We read Jez Cordon a long time ago talking about what this game could be. This kind of heist, like game with vehicles. But all we saw was just a very quick cinematic of just, you know, people opening up a box, a cargo box way back in the day that you put like drugs or guns in. And we didn't see much past that. So I am really excited to see Contraband. I like the idea of what could be from what Jez told us, but we've seen nothing since I. Paris, you think this is this summer showcase, at least game.

[Paris Lilly]

I would. I would hope we see it. We just see it. I. And I can't remember if this was a part of the conversation Destin had with Phil, but I think he alluded to this one too. So it. I mean, it's time we should. We should start seeing it. It would make a lot of sense.

[Snowbike Mike]

I have a. My big board Contraband is shown this year and we will be playing it next year in 2026. That's how I. That's how I have written down on Contraband. Because it has been so long, I. I expect it to be this summer showcase and then next year.

[Gary Whitta]

This one, this is my cup of tea as well. Like a heist game I love, like Payday and those kind of games. Yeah, this could be really fun.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's talk about Clockwork Revolution from In Exile Entertainment Paris. Where do you think this lands?

[Paris Lilly]

This. This is feeling like 2027 to me. Oh, that's what I'm thinking.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay. Okay. I like that.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah. I mean, sure, we might get another tease this year, but I think actually coming out, this, this feels like 2027.

[Snowbike Mike]

2027. Gary, have you seen this game? Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

So, I mean, this, this is one that's like, I don't know, this. The Steampunk vibe is not 100 my sort of thing. I guess you're given some Bioshock vibes as well. Yeah, this one's not necessarily my vibe, but it's. It looks. It looks cool. I would say this in general, as you know, this is the first time I've kind of had a moment to like, take stock of like everything that Mike just kind of got in the chamber right now. And looking at the developer Direct Videos recently, thinking, like, the general outlook, like in the. In the short to medium term, like the year ahead and then the next few years beyond, like what we're talking about. The back end of this generation looks so much healthier than it did a couple of years ago. Remember a couple of years ago, like Redfall and the vibes were so off.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

And Phil was on here being very contrite and we were talking about the L Cast and like, where are the games? Like, come on. Like, it feels like we had. Doesn't it feel a little bit like Xbox has turned a corner in terms of the stuff that we now see on. On the way.

[Snowbike Mike]

This is where they wanted to get to. I think they could. I think they knew they were going to get here, but they had to get through all of that. And they were just like, hey, we're going to take these. We're going to take these shots right now and we just got to get here and we're going to really show you what we're capable of. I, you know, doing the research and going back, man, what a cycle it's been. It's been a week start to the life cycle of this game. We've been really there's been some games, but it doesn't feel like a strong cycle. Especially the launch titles. When you look up the Xbox series X and as launch titles I didn't think were personally that strong. And then exclusivity has kind of of course gone out the window. So that's moved on. But the first party outlook or the first party output for the first, I would say half of this cycle has been all right, not great. It's been good. Not bad though in the middle, you.

[Paris Lilly]

Know, they have a game that nobody is talking about anymore, but it arguably is the biggest thing that Xbox can release going into their next generation and it probably is a next generation game.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what it is?

[Paris Lilly]

Elder Scroll 6.

[Snowbike Mike]

Elder Scrolls 6.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Huge monster when that comes out.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's the one. That's the, that's the big one of man, that will be exciting that one.

[Gary Whitta]

For me after Starfield, is it, is it going to be another one of these animatronic games? That style is so old now that, that style is so old fashioned. And, and I was honestly looking back at it, I think we have enough distance now from Starfield to see it like it didn't really cook right the way that we wanted it to. I know that's, that's a point of contention for some people, but like that old fashioned style that I think a lot of other companies have moved, moved beyond. Like look at Baldur's Gate 3, right. And compare that to Starfield in terms of how the characters and cinematics and scenes are presented.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

I really, really hope with Elder Scrolls 6 that they move beyond that because that old like two dimensional character standing like hello, I am the shopkeeper. Like that is so old now. Like I really hope that they have moved beyond that with this next one.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris. Do you think they moved beyond that? Because I don't think they did.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna say, Gary, I don't know if you, you've seen the Rumorville, but it, it's sounding like the worst kept secret in the world is an oblivion remake is coming and it's on Unreal 5 and it's rumor. So we don't, we don't know if it's true, but let's just say it is for a second. Maybe that's kind of the template for what we can expect with Elder Scrolls 6. Maybe they move it to Unreal 5, which to your point, would, would kind of change some of the stuff they've done with that engineering.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I mean it's a presentational thing as Well I, I think there's more of an opportunity with an entirely new game to. To reinvent the presentational style or update it than there is with. My guess is that an Oblivion remake is still going to be this but with better graphics. Right. And it's look more high, highly refined or whatever but they knit like in a post like Baldur's Gate Age and any, any, any number of other games you can point to like Starfield to me and we talked about it so much at the time and it's still something I think about that, that that style is so dated now that they have to. I really feel like they have to move on from it.

[Snowbike Mike]

What are you looking for more, more of just dynamic movement when you're talking to someone.

[Gary Whitta]

Is it the storyline, different camera and just get away from you know, every interaction. I, I said before the number one vibe that I got off of Starfield was and never felt like I was in a real place. I felt like I was in a Westworld style theme park.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Simulating like I'm walking around and these NPCs are there and they activate when I come up to them. Everything just felt like, like it just felt very theatrical and very fake. And again just this idea of characters that stand there, their arms by their side and they just talk to you. Yes, hello. This is my backstory. Like it's like we've so moved on from. Yeah, again look, look at how, look at how almost. And yet no other game does that this sort of thing.

[Snowbike Mike]

Anyone that's watching live, if you can super chat or leave some comments, give me some examples that of games that don't do this. I feel. Gary, I see so much of this when we talk about these RPGs and we talk about talking with people. It always seems to be this. Now sure, this on your screen might look a little more robotic than some but like it feels like I see a lot of this in all of the games. I walk up, the guy turns to me and we do the, the dialogue.

[Gary Whitta]

I mean I'm sure we, I'm sure chat or someone else could. Could find other examples. But like I'm struggling to think of like many other games like modern games that still do that kind of style where you just feel like you're talking to like a. Like an animatronic. Like if you look under the. You only ever seen from here like you look at me, they're just like on a pedestal or something.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course.

[Gary Whitta]

And they're like. They're like this like it just. And they're looking directly to the camera. You know, it just. I don't know, there's something about it. It just feels like it worked for a long time, but we've moved beyond it now. I think it looks very old. I was amazed at Starfield did not move beyond that. I think. Yeah.

[D]

I think it's less to do with the. What's it called, the camera angle in and of itself. Because, yes, a lot of games do that and a lot of. Lot of chat is popping off with a lot of other examples. I do think it's more so of the, you know, the engine, the character assets and how, like Gary is saying, like the quality of the animations in, like the faces and stuff still much.

[Gary Whitta]

It's just like. It's just like blocking and camera movement and angles. It just. It's very regimented. It's always the same.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

You know, frankly, Bethesda's character models are just not that great. Right. They look a bit goofy.

[Snowbike Mike]

Look at they.

[Gary Whitta]

They look a little bit old. Gen, last gen. Yeah, exactly. Right. You look at other games that are out there, whether it be Balers, Gate or Cyberpunk or Horizon or whatever, like they've all moved beyond this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

You know, like they feel much more cinematic than that.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's what CJ splits on, writes in with a super chat and says Horizon motion captured NPCs. So, yeah, there's been pushes in that. Yeah. I. I'm looking forward to that next game, I guess in my eyes, that I see really breaks that, but I see it so much. And we talked about Starfield. Right. I was on camera saying, Starfield has to be a game of the generation, but we just got more Bethesda. Right. And they did different things, but it was Bethesda at its core. And so when I think of the next Elder Scrolls, I do think of, like, I'm going to get a Bethesda at its core game. I think it will have some probably elevated writing, maybe some different storylines that will have more branching narratives than we've seen in an Elder Scrolls game in the past. That will kind of mimic what we saw with Baldur's Gates and other newer titles. But I do think at the core, I will probably look at Ball or Elder Scrolls 6 and go, that's a.

[Gary Whitta]

But I think that's where they're torn, right? Is that unlike Starfield, which, which was a new game in a franchise, there's perhaps even more of an expectation. After Oblivion and Skyrim, I've all done that thing with the Characters like stand and talk to you.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

But this is, but that's because this is a style that was. That was developed decades ago.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Gary Whitta]

Literally decades ago. And they haven't moved on from it. So I think they're kind of torn from like. But this. But that's just the style. That's what these games look like. That's what they've always looked like. And wanting to. And. But. But at the same time feeling like as you've stayed in one place, the graphics have overall gotten better in terms of like fidelity.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Gary Whitta]

And like pixels and what have you. But. But with the aesthetic has remained the same and other games have moved beyond it. You just increasingly look like you're not going anywhere.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

I don't know. It's. It's. I don't have that same. I don't have that same. To me even if I was like hardcore elders cross. I'm like, well, it's always been that way. So I still want my characters to look like this. No, push it. Do other things. Other games are making you look silly at this point.

[D]

And I wonder if the same conversation in 2015 when Fallout 4 came out next to Witcher.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah. And so that makes me wonder if the reaction. Because I wasn't the only one saying this. Right. A lot of people saying like this just looks fake. Like it just looks really old fashioned in terms of like the camera doesn't move. This. You're always. These characters are always just staring at me kind of dead eyed and you know there's no. They don't feel like they're alive. You know, there's. It's. Everything about it just feels kind of like again they feel like animatronics.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Like. Like they got hit hard for that. Right. It wasn't just me saying it. A lot of people said that because it's undeniable. I don't know if that. If they're looking at. And going well, yeah, maybe we should really try to advance the presentational style or like. No, just stick with it. This is what people expect from these games. That's a really big decision that they have to make.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course Captain Chat writes in with a super chat and says oblivion remake being UE5 is a test bed as Paris says for Hopefully Elder Scrolls 6 would make sense as Halo CE is getting a UE5 remake and would be a test bed to move future Halo games onto UE5. Missed you guys. Captain Chat, thanks so much. Yeah, of course. Paris, we can jump over to Halo Studios. Of course not 343 anymore. Halo Studios now, thankfully, I remembered that name. It's been a long time since you and I talked about that, but we are in a weird spot of. You probably won't see Halo for a while unless it is the Halo CE remake. Do you think we see Paris Halo in the next three years?

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, three years. Yeah, I. I do again. I'm gonna stick with 2027 again. I think that's probably when you get that CE remake, I don't think. Because it had been nice if they could have met. If it could have been 2026 to go with the 25th anniversary of Halo and Xbox. I don't think they'll make that window. But maybe the year after 2027 again you get Halo combat evolve remade. Unreal 5 reintroduction of Halo. That works out. Now your future Halo games. You can move on from there in Unreal 5. Just. If that makes a lot of sense.

[Gary Whitta]

If they were to do a. An original Halo remake, would that be the first time that a game's been remade twice? Because they did it already, right? Master Chief collection. They. They put out like a remastered version of Halo where you remember, you can click back and forth.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Well, in the new one, will he be able to click like three times? Okay, here's what the old remaster looked like now the original. Now back to the newest one. Like, you can get to see all the different stages of it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

Don't get me wrong. I think, you know, Halo's been around long enough that I think it would be. I don't think it would be illegitimate to like. Or a waste of time to bring it back again. Like modern next gen technology and what have you. It's just. It's just interesting. It's like, I don't know, is this where we're at now? Like remaking games that have already been remade?

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, they are. They are the pillars of Xbox. Right. And you want to remake them for a new audience that might be getting them in different ecosystems. And there's a Halo fan inside of me that is excited about the idea of maybe Paris. I'm just going to put out my pipe dream next year. Halo Master Chief collection comes to all the ecosystems. PlayStation Switch, if it can run it. Well, I was going to say we get that fervor. We get that excitement back if they.

[Gary Whitta]

If they were to do Halo Combat Evolved. Evolved Evolved, which is what it would be at this point. That. Because that's the introduction point to the Halo franchise. Right. The first game I was gonna Say that's the one that maybe you see on PS5, PS6 and switch to.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean that one you would bring. Definitely gonna see us. Right?

[Gary Whitta]

Because you know, I know you covered it already but like forts are already like the floodgates are now open. Right. All bets are off.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

I don't think at this point we would be shocked if something only maybe a couple of years ago would have seemed unthinkable, which is Halo on, you know, on, on rival console platforms. But now it's, it's starting to seem it's gonna happen probably more likely than not.

[Snowbike Mike]

And it's gonna be a great boost in the ARM for the multiplayer and just in general Halo and everything. Of course, Xbox.

[Gary Whitta]

This is the strategy ties into the biggest strategy.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's going to happen. That's right. And it's going to be exciting. Right. For someone who wants to play Halo 2 multiplayer again. Paris, I'm dying for the week to a month that Everybody now on PlayStation has Halo Master Chief collection and all the servers are filled. We're having fun non stop playing. I can't wait for that to happen. I'm so excited.

[Paris Lilly]

Here's a big question about Halo and, and I apologize on camera. My sinuses is like acting up as we're on here, so I keep my eye watering. So I apologize. But the big question for me is, is Steve down still the voice of Master Chief? I mean, you know, he's getting older and you know, if we're heading off into a, a new era of Halo, do you want to start off with. All right, here's the person that's going to be the new voice of Master Chief moving forward. Maybe even Jen Taylor would Cortana you. You could potentially see that as well. I'll be interested on that one.

[Gary Whitta]

Maybe they'll just pay them both a ton of money to use AI like they did with James L. Jones and Darth Vader. Co pilot. Co pilot will take care of it for you. I'll just do it for you.

[Snowbike Mike]

We will see that moment when Steve Downs isn't Master Chief is. Right. Paris. There will be a moment that will have to happen eventually. Let's talk about a couple more before we get out of here. And talk about hardware state of the K3 from Undead Labs. You would assume it has to be in the next three years. I. I'm jumping out and saying that's gotta be, man. I, I thought 2027, but I guess maybe at the end of this life cycle state of the K3 2028 didn't.

[Paris Lilly]

Even think that long. I kind of thought the fact that we saw it last year, it potentially could have been this year and maybe it's. Maybe it's next year. So I'm. I'm gonna. I'm gonna think 20, 26.

[Gary Whitta]

6.

[Snowbike Mike]

You excited for State of the K3, Gary?

[Gary Whitta]

No, I, I played, I played the last one. It seemed like the sort of thing that I would get into.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it seems like this is a fun multiplayer game that you can share with your friends.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, but it's like I said, I need, I need cozy vegetable picking games, you know, my life.

[Snowbike Mike]

You could pick vegetables at the base.

[Gary Whitta]

I already have a life. Why do I have a life in a video game as well? I don't have a life. I have a. I have a lovely family life, beautiful life, just everything else sucks.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, if it comes out next year, I'll be very excited because I'm looking forward to seeing how they improve upon State of Decay 2. I felt like State of Decay 2 was almost there. There was just certain things that really held it back from like that being that survival crafting game that you really want to play with your friends. It feels really good. But I'm excited to see how they improve upon that. But man, next year would be wild. We. It's a tight calendar, Paris. It's a very tight calendar to be trying to shove in these games in.

[Paris Lilly]

Well, you know, when you got 30 plus studios at some point, again, this, this was the whole dream of what they've been talking about getting to this point where they got to start making tough decisions on when they're putting out games because they have so much stuff coming out. So you can't just keep pushing it down the road. At some point these games got to start coming out.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's exciting because we don't really. They're so fresh and brand new that we don't talk much about them. But you still think about Blizzard, right? It's like, what can you do with Blizzard? What is next? Right? Is it. Of course we know you can bank on World of Warcraft expansions, but what is the next move? Could we potentially pitch Phil on? Hey, here's of the Storm is a great moba. Let's figure out how to put that on the consoles. Let's get that out to everyone. Do we look at Starcraft? Do we look at Warcraft? What is that? Survival game in the future. Is there anything else that we can make that in the Blizzard world? That would be next, right? What's Overwatch? I've got to do.

[Gary Whitta]

I've said it many times before and I don't know how viable it is or how seriously they're thinking about it, but I would love them to find a way to bring some form of water Warcraft type experience to the consoles. Oh, right. Other MMOs do it right. Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls Online. We know it can be done. I don't think it would be necessarily just oh, World of Warcraft is now on other platforms and like you can crossplay, whatever. I think it would be a different thing. But I would love to see some kind of. If there was a Warcraft based MM. A World of Warcraft like mmo again, a separate thing, a separate fork. It wouldn't be the. The same game. Something that could. Something, you know, find a way to kind of simplify the control scheme and make it work on consoles. I think that would be great.

[Snowbike Mike]

Why not start with Classic? Bring Wow Classic to consoles, simplify the control scheme and just do it just like you did with Warcraft. World of Warcraft and what they're doing now is wow Classic of like I kind of get the training wheels because I don't. At the end of the day, I don't want a WOW that's separate from the wow. You know what I mean? I don't want wow console to be its own thing.

[Gary Whitta]

I think it might have been what they. What they now call retail wow. The one that has all the expansions has evolved to such a point, such a degree of like immense complexity that you know, you need mods to play at the highest level. And we're talking about like it's just incredibly. It's not. It's not. That's why wow Classic exists, right? Because it's not the same game anymore. Not even close. And I don't think it would. I just don't think it's workable on a console. My. I would rather them build something new from the ground up than try to just find a way to. To kind of like simplify or slim down wow Classic or an existing version of wow. But I'm just saying there's. There's an opportunity there for right, the Warcraft Live service game on consoles. What that looks like, I don't know. I just. I think like just trying to port over existing wow is like probably the least interesting version of it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course.

[Gary Whitta]

Kind of funny when's kind of feudi. This is boring. Why don't you fuck off then, Tom?

[Snowbike Mike]

Get me watching this.

[Gary Whitta]

What the fuck? How is that a useful comment? Go fuck yourself.

[Snowbike Mike]

Gooseberry, you're my dude too. Gooseberry.

[D]

They've been timed out for 10 minutes.

[Snowbike Mike]

Barry, you're better than that. Let's keep it going. We only have a couple more games and we'll talk about the hardware and then we'll get to games Showdown. Of course, Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon Playground games with Horizon 6, do we expect that in the next three years? Especially with Fable being on the docket, we know that they have other teams. What do we think there? Paris Lily with Horizon?

[Paris Lilly]

I think Horizon 6 for sure. Motorsport, probably not. I mean, I mean obviously the news this week with five going to PlayStation and you see how excited so many new people are to play that game. I mean Horizon 5 arguably is the best game that they put out this, this generation for Xbox as far as popularity goes. So 6 is inevitable. I couldn't imagine them not having one in the next couple years.

[Gary Whitta]

What I like about this podcast, this episode in general, because it was about stuff that years away, like you can say whatever you want, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, of course.

[Gary Whitta]

By the time it gets to be proven, we'll see correct or incorrect, no one's gonna remember. Remember, someone should pin this because this is going to be a rich source of like, hey, remember when you said this, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Gary, let me tell you something. A year ago I said when all this multi platform stuff was first starting, I was like, man, if Halo and Gears goes, man, people are gonna have to get their pitchforks. People throw that in my face every day. Every day. Yeah, they're like, you said this. We're the pitchforks. Like, look, it's happening. I don't know what to tell you.

[Snowbike Mike]

We just saw, of course, Forza Horizon coming over to PlayStation. That's very exciting news.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I genuinely, I was genuinely surprised by that. I thought, wow, that feels like that's an escalation, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

We've already, yeah, we're, we're, we're taking it to the next level. That's right, Gary. There's no coming back now is right.

[Gary Whitta]

Great news for PlayStation. I mean Forza is a great game. I presume this means that now what do you think will happen? Let me ask you this, Forza 6 and beyond, because obviously that's, you know, Forza Motor, Forza Motorsport and Horizon series are obviously both going to continue into the foreseeable future because it's one of Microsoft's big, big, big ones. Do you think that going forward now, like when, let's say when Forza Horizon 6 or the next motorsport comes out, is that Day and day across platforms, or is the thing like, yes, well, you're gonna get. PlayStation guys will get it, but you've got to wait a little bit longer. Like there's still a bent. I guess the benefit is just game pass. Right? That's the. That's still the differentiator.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

Gary, what I took from the conversation that I just had with Phil when, When we were kind of getting into this and talking about hardware in the future and all of that, he specifically has said multiple times, there's no red lines on anything in their portfolio. And I don't want to put walls around our. Basically our creators and our games. So in other words, if a studio has the capability of putting a game out day and date, they're going to put a game out day and date on all platforms. They're not going to purposely go, well, we're going to hold Halo for six months and then you can put it on PlayStation. If Halo Studios can put. Can put Halo on PlayStation the same time as Xbox, they're going to do it.

[Gary Whitta]

So is your prediction, Paris, that, let's say, I don't know, 10 years from now, give us, like, plenty of Runway. The new original Halo games are shipping on all the major console platforms day and day and then it's okay. All right. I think that's huge.

[Paris Lilly]

I just think is happening. Yeah, I think that maybe five. Yeah, it's gonna happen. Whatever the next. Whatever the next Halo game that comes out from Halo Studios. I think it's day and date on PlayStation.

[Gary Whitta]

So, I mean, it's interesting. Does that mean in the bigger picture that the idea that console exclusives are going away? Not really. Right. Because Xbox is doing this unilaterally. Right. Micro Sony and Nintendo have not shown any interest at all ever about having their games on other consoles. Right. Sony have really said, no, fuck you. Like Last of us God of War Helldivers, you want these games, you've got to come buy our hardware. Nintendo obviously never going to put like Super Mario Odyssey on the Xbox or the PlayStation. Microsoft is the only one doing this out of the big three. So it's very interesting to see, like rad suddenly radically different approaches. Like, it is kind of like unilateral disarmament. I don't. I mean, they're surrendering. They're just. They're doing a wildly different approach. And I think it makes sense because the trying to compete on Sony's own terms, I don't think it's working. Right. So they have to come up with a different strategy. I think it's really interesting. You can't. You can look at it as like kind of unilateral disarmament, but I don't think it is them saying this is. This is a. This is a different path to success. But it's just interesting to see, like, you know, we all grown up with the console wars through multiple generations. This is a big shift away from that, even. Even if it's only on the part of one company.

[Snowbike Mike]

That is the ongoing conversation right now. Yeah, that's right.

[Paris Lilly]

I. I would just say, Mike, because I thought the conversation you had the other day was great, because I think that that is just the genuine concern of anyone that has been invested in the Xbox community or ecosystem, whatever you want to call it, over the past couple decades of. All right, Phil Spencer, you are telling me now because like I asked him, I go, if you're putting the games everywhere, then why am I buying your hardware anymore? Right. And his answer is innovation. That we're going to do something so unique with our hardware.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, that's the other thing.

[Paris Lilly]

Will willingly want to buy it. Not that you need to buy it to play our games. What is that innovation going to be? Is it. It. This hybrid thing? Is it the handheld itself? What is it that you're doing that's so unique that even though I could play this on PlayStation, you play your games on PlayStation and all the PlayStation games, I'm still going to choose to buy an Xbox? That is a fundamental question they have to answer.

[Gary Whitta]

And that's. And that's the big. And that's the. That, to me, Paris ties into the bigger issue, which is the hardware strategy as well. Right. Which they have to look at because I think we've seen. It keeps coming back to me that one thing that Phil said on this show a while back that has always stuck with me and it's been repeated many times is the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 generation is where. Is where we lost it, basically, because that was the first generation where people started building their digital libraries and you start to feel like bought, you know, you're bought into an ecosystem. Well, I can't switch now. All my games are already over here. My friends list everything. That was that. That was the generation where people started building their libraries and it was a generation where Sony had a really strong offering in the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft had their worst offering historically, the Xbox One, which is a complete dud. Right. And so that's where they kind of lost it. I think they recognize now the, you know, one full generation later where the Xbox series S and X consoles lag way, way behind the play. It's not even close, right. I think they recognize now that they can't compete just doing the same thing. Here's another box that you put on your shelf and it plays games on your TV and it's roughly comparable to, you know, the PlayStation. That's not gonna, you know, you can't just keep doing that and it's suddenly gonna work because it's not been working. So I think that they're innovating, they're trying something different. On the software side. Well, games everywhere, right? We'll put our games everywhere because Paris, you're exactly right. If I had to choose, if you've got Sony, right, And a Sony console on an Xbox console and the Xbox games are on both, but the PlayStation games are only on PlayStation. You're gonna buy the PlayStation because that's the, that then becomes the only place you can play all the games, right? Unless Microsoft always says, ah, but on the hardware side, they don't, they don't have this with something different now. And whether that's, and whether that's like a switch, like dockable.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Gary Whitta]

I don't know. But it seems to me that it's something that has to be in concert in harmony with their software strategies. We can just play these games wherever you go. So on a hardware side that seems to speak to, well, there's gonna, there's gonna be a handheld, right? Maybe as a switch, like dockable. Maybe they just steal that idea, right? Everybody, you know, everybody stole the Wiimotes, right. Sony tried to do it. Microsoft tried to do it. They both failed, right. But made this, this, this is a, more like the dockable concept. That's a proven concept. We talked on the earlier show. That's why Nintendo's not reinvented it, right? Such a fucking winner. Stay with that. Maybe Microsoft borrows that. Maybe it's a powerful maybe. Maybe they also say like this is not about a console. This is not about a hardware arms race anymore. We've seen so much coverage in recent years about how going for graphical fidelity is killing teams. It's driving up the cost of development, right? It's, it's, it's, it's driving up the cost of failure, right? Because these games cost to force you to make. And if they don't hit, that's it. The whole team's disbanded. Yeah, games already look pretty great. Like why are we constantly chasing more and more expensive high fidelity graphics when Nintendo has shown you don't have to have the best graphics to have a massively successful console with lots of games that people love. So maybe Microsoft says, you know what, we're getting out of the hardware arms race. We're going to take a leaf, a leaf out of Nintendo's book, which is, you know, more accessible hardware at an affordable price. You can take anywhere and you can stream things on it, whatever you want, take it, you know, dock it, do whatever. And maybe there's some other innovation we haven't even thought of yet. And also you can also play these games all over the place. I don't know. But they have to, they have to mix it up because if they just continue to say, well, here's a more, here's another more powerful big black box. You can't. Sony's already won that, that battle.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, right.

[Gary Whitta]

So you have, you have to, you have to, you have to find another battlefield to fight on.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well said.

[Paris Lilly]

I agree.

[Snowbike Mike]

Paris, really quick before you go, because this I'm going to tee up right now. BJ Bernardo does want to know pairs, what are the improvements, innovations you're looking for from the next Xbox? Is there something that would get people not to buy a PS6? As we start to ramp down our conversation, talk about the next gen of Xbox and beyond.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, so, so a couple things on that. Just kind of going by what Phil Spencer has alluded to and, and Jason Ronald as, as a matter of fact, over the past calendar year, I think it's a combination of a couple things. First and foremost, the, the, the merging of Xbox with Windows. That is something that I'm very interested to see what it's going to be. Jason Ronald alluded to that at CES this year. We're going to find out more information this year. I just think open overall, I don't know if it's a June showcase. Whatever it is, they need to start teasing whatever this next generation of Xbox is going to be similar to what they did with Project Scorpio. So we kind of get an idea and an expectation of whatever this innovation is going to be. Phil has alluded to open platforms. So are we going to have the ability to add a third party digital store onto our. Whatever this next device is going to be, hybrid PC, whatever it is. Right. So that to the point he made on our show and you just talked about, Gary, people have already invested in their digital libraries. So what is it that you're going to do to get me to stop investing in my Steam digital Library or the PlayStation Digital Store, whatever the case may be Right. Because I'm already ingrained in that. Me personally, I think the differentiator that if you want me to start buying games in the Xbox slash Windows digital store is the play anywhere aspect in that I buy it one time, I can cloud stream it, I can play it on my Xbox hardware, I can play it on PC and whatever third party vendors that might have certified Xbox Windows or whatever the case. Right. Other than if I want to play them on PlayStation Nintendo, I'm going to have to spend, I'm going to have to buy them again. Whereas I only buy it once in that Xbox digital store and I have device flexibility as a result. Not to mention we're starting to see examples like with Indiana Jones, even if you buy a game in Steam, I'm able to have cross progression come back across over into my Xbox hardware. So again I'm taking my progress wherever I go. Maybe they do that with PlayStation Nintendo, but we'll see. But if you want me to buy your box and whatever Phil's talked about, they're not going to be subsidizing as much anymore. Satya Nadell even just alluded to that in the financial call. I mean it's. I just think it's going to become a niche product. I think overall, I think the hardcore Xbox community will still go buy it no matter what because they love what Xbox does. But the casual person to what you're just talking about, Gary, they're gonna go buy PlayStation. Yeah, because I get to play your games and I get to play them.

[Gary Whitta]

On PlayStation has something has to mitigate that on the other side because if you're. That's a massive giveaway to say that. Right? Or now, now Sony's the only console where you can play both games from both platforms. You can't do that on PlayStation because they still have that wall up. What if it's something like. And again I'm not the CEO of Xbox and I'm probably about to illustrate why. But what if it was what if, what if, what if it was like they hedged their bets a little bit and it was like this Xbox has two consoles, right? Snx what if the next one they kind of hedge their bets a little bit. You still do like the high powered local box, which is basically just the next generation generational leap, leap over the X right. Standard box. But then the S becomes like a more low power dockable handheld or something which could also function like a PlayStation portal. Right. If you want. So if you want the most local compute power you get the next Generation Series X, whatever that is called. Right. But if you don't care about that so much, you can have a Series S which is more like a Switch and it can also stream games over the cloud or it can stream games from your next gen Series X. You know you can do. There's just different options for different people. I kind of feel like there's ways for them to. So I feel like the next. I don't know exactly how they're going to do it, but I do, I do agree that the next generation of Microsoft hardware has to have like kind of a wow factor. That's not just about more. More compute. Don't forget. Don't forget as well. Paris. Of course they talk so much about the cloud. Right. That's only going to get better and better. As the network infrastructure gets better I think there's a possibility that you will see something that's just, just a cloud box. Right. There's very little, very little compute power in it. It. Right. But it's like, it's similar to like the Logitech thing that I have at home which is all it is is a streaming handheld but it plays all of my Xbox cloud games. No problem at all. Right. So they're all. There are all these different things that you can see Microsoft doing in terms of non exclusivity around games. The whole like more games, more games everywhere. This is an Xbox. This is an Xbox. Increased focus on cloud, all that points to if they, if, if their whole strategy is actually kind of joined up together and coherent. That all points to them doing something like what we just described on the hardware front to support that strategy.

[Paris Lilly]

Well, well Gary, I think for me, me like what you talked about Mike the other day, I'll say for me personally the thing that I know I would be there day one to buy for Xbox hardware moving forward despite it being multi platform would be that handheld. If it's not a PC it is truly an Xbox. And when I say that my entire Xbox digital library is available to me first party games, third party. So whatever I could do on an Xbox sitting at home on my tv I can do it on that handout that experiences there in that handheld. All my digital games are there in that handheld. Obviously you bring game pass into it. I can subscribe to that, I can play those games on it too. But it is truly the Xbox experience. That is something that the Steam deck can't do. That is something a little nova. Well Region Legion Go can't do a rogue ally. All that stuff they can't do that because they're PCs. I want something that is an Xbox. So if they, if that's the future of what they're doing with the handheld and to your point, if it's also dockable, that's a bonus as well. That's what I want to see from them. That is something that, yes, I will still purchase your hardware regardless. If I could play your games on PlayStation or Nintendo, I would because that would be designed, desirable to me.

[Gary Whitta]

I'm confident. Again, this is not like, again, like you know, pin this, the time codes right in my face in a couple of years or whatever. But like, I would bet real money that there is something very much like what we're talking about sitting in a lab at Microsoft right now.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course, I agree. Yeah, that's, that's where I came from. On the gamescast, Paris and Gary of we got really excited about this console generation, Xbox coming out, bringing out this super strong box that you could rally behind. All of a sudden they purchased Bethesda, they purchase Activision Blizzard King, and you're going, okay, like here we go. And then halfway through the console generation they said, well, hold up, we are changing the strategy up and that's fine and great, but we haven't had true answers to like, okay, what's the vision for the next box going to be? And I worry about that. I, I'm concerned of, well, what is the selling point? Is it the handheld you two speak about? Is it this weird hybrid box that can do everything? Because, man, I was sold on this box in 2020. But now as we head to 2027 and beyond, whenever this may be, I don't really have answers. It's cloudy in front of me and it's. I'm not supposed to probably know until it's time for them to reveal it, but I do start to concern. I start to ask questions of do I need this anymore? Should I be migrating over and moving somewhere else? But it will be exciting to see when it happens. So, Paris and Gary, let's end this with do we see this this summer? Is this the future in 2027, 28? When do we start to have a real picture of what is going to be next for them?

[Paris Lilly]

My two cents. I think it is essential that they start talking about it this year, now that it's coming. This year may not even come in 2026, but give us a glimpse into the future of where you're headed with your hardware. So as a customer, I can understand is this something I want not to Mention you get early feedback on it, you'll know if this is something that, that your customers are excited about. Like yeah, I'd buy that or oh no, I don't care about that. I'm just gonna go get a PlayStation, start talking about it, hint at it. I mean like I said, Jason Ronald is hinted at what the Xbox Windows experience is going to be. But I do want to know also what is the next hardware experience is going to be. They've teased that goddamn handheld enough that, that let's see what it is. Let's see what the, the under the television box is going to be as well.

[Gary Whitta]

I think they, I think sooner on later, maybe as early as like you know, game awards this year, this December or whatever, you might see something transitional like the, the keystone thing that we talked about, you know, the streaming box. Something that kind of like is feels like the next logical step towards what we're talking about. I still think I'll go back to what I said at the very beginning. I still think that we are not near enough to the end of this to the next generational, you know, crossover to be talked to be showing this stuff A. Why would you, why would you show show your hand to the competition that far in advance? And also I kind of feel as soon as you show the next gen thing, the current thing, like it's like why would I keep buying games? Why would I buy one of these or keep buying.

[Paris Lilly]

They're still there with that. No one's buying it now anyways because.

[Gary Whitta]

I just, I don't. Yeah, I don't see how that helps.

[Snowbike Mike]

It feels like Xbox is poisonous situation of people aren't buying that they are in third place. Now is the time to shake it up and get ahead of PlayStation and start doing that. You can break the cycle.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I mean you can change the narrative and show something truly different again. I don't think it's going to be super innovative. I just, I just don't think Microsoft is that company. They're too big and too conventional a company like there's a reason only Nintendo can do what Nintendo does. Neither Microsoft nor Sony would would have nor did they come up with the Wii or the Wii U or the Switch. Nintendo did that first and now everyone's like trying to iterate trying to find ways to like bring that to their platform. The Switch is genius, absolute genius. And no other company would have had the balls to do it. But now that it's. Now that it's been shown as like a proof, like that's A format that is wildly successful. People love that. Dock it on your TV playing, pick it up and go. Yeah, I, I think you will see something. And the portal is like Sony's halfway movement towards that. That I do think you, I think, I think this will be the. It's one thing that it can do and I'll just argue against myself here is like it changes the narrative, right? It says, oh, Microsoft's doing something, they're changing it up. This is a new strategy. Like here's. It's not just a Phil Spencer going, oh, you know, everything's an Xbox, which just, you know, after a while just sounds just, it's just talk. Show us something, right? Here's a new piece of hardware that demonstrates where, you know, they're doing it. On the software side, force is coming to PlayStation. I do think Xbox. I do think Halo will eventually follow. I think that is part of the overall strategy. No red lines and everything. That there has to be something equally different and, and kind of game change. Like if you're, if you're on a, if you're on a sports field and your team's getting clobbered, you've got to change your tactics, change it up. You got to change your tactics and I think that's what's going to happen.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, let's jump in and thank those of course for watching and listening. Thank you so much for tuning into a fun kind of funny games cast to end your week. And of course a little X cast for union. Alana, you're the absolute best. But my gaming dads thanks you both both for your time and being here. Let's jump into some super chats because I always like to thank those who support us here. Kind of funny before we go. So let's go through some of the super chats to end out today's show. Mr. Nice Guy Rise super chats and says play the X cast theme. I need it in my soul. Let's go turn on an old episode. Enjoy the music. We love that so much. Jared writes in and says, can we get a one day hopes and dreams for Elder Scrolls 6 episode? I'm sure one day on the Gamescat we will definitely look forward to Elder Scrolls 6. Nigel writes in and says, mike, would you kindly please pay attention to the security cameras and BioShock. Just zap it and run under it, then smash it. Having a tough time with the security.

[Gary Whitta]

Now you have to do it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's jump in to some more. Jordan writes in and says something that I haven't heard anyone mention do you think we get an announcement for the Xbox next the next Xbox this year and they said the handheld is a few years away but everyone is speculating the console to come out next year. We kind of talked about when we think we'll see that there on that one. It is going to be very excited of what will happen up next. Phil says gamers complained for a decade about console exclusives, timed windows backwards compatibility etc. Xbox is the first one trying to break down those barriers and we complain more. I'm happy with what I'm happy. What does an average gamer really want?

[Paris Lilly]

Paris Lily there's one great games I mean that ultimately I think we we're hearing the loud voices but I think most people like I saw a lot of people very excited that Forza Horizon 5 was one of PlayStation. I've had comments of I've never known an Xbox and I've always wanted to play it. Now I can't. Yeah and I think think that's what Phil was talking about people.

[Gary Whitta]

It's sometimes it really is that simple. I mean again look at Nintendo. Nintendo has always innovated on the hardware side but when it comes down to it why has Nintendo been successful for like almost more than 100 years? They have the best games.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nigel writes in one more time says I absolutely love that I will get to play Halo Gears forza with my PlayStation friends plus Playstate plus PlayStation gamers might subsidize my game pass so club so everyone wins. Well you're gonna have some friends jumping in with you. It's gonna be a great time with that. A couple more Jordan. Right. Jordan White writes in and says I know Xbox has grounded and Minecraft but I would love for them to create a brand new insanely deep survival crafting game. Maybe that's what ever wild turned into but we'll see. You never know what could be next. Survival crafting games one of my favorite genres out there. Pal World. Fantastic. Go play some pow world. Loved Pal world so so much much. Gary remaking games is already Gary remaking games we already remade. That's a PlayStation 5 era type of thing. Why is it so bad?

[Gary Whitta]

When I said when I as I was saying like is it the first game that would have been remade twice? I knew in my head like that can't be right like GTA 5 right. How many times have they redone that?

[Snowbike Mike]

Of course.

[Gary Whitta]

Right. And that again that's an out like that's an outlier because GTA 5 is GTA 5. But no it's. It's the Halo one for some reason. Just seems. Seems funny to me. But I do think that, that if they are going to bring. If they are going to release Halo across the platforms like a super duper PlayStation 5.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Gary Whitta]

Stroke 6 remake of the original game would be a great way to kind of launch that game into that. Into that ecosystem.

[Snowbike Mike]

Thank you to Kebabs who writes in the Last of Us. Shadow of The Colossus and RE4 got remasters and a remake. Luke writes in says Blizzard should do a Warcraft version of Valheim. Survival crafting. That'd be kind of fun.

[Gary Whitta]

Some people did.

[Snowbike Mike]

Phil Wrightson says my Rog Ally X is the best Xbox I've ever had.

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah, I gotta get one of those here. It's good.

[Snowbike Mike]

You like that Claire? She got one of those.

[Paris Lilly]

I don't have the X. I have the original one.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, they have a second version.

[Gary Whitta]

The price performance delta on those PC gaming handhelds is still not quite there. It'll get better, but right now they're still too expensive, still too chunky, still too many performance limitations. Battery life, it's not. Not quite there yet.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Paris Lilly]

When I. I was at CES just really quick and I did get to check out the. The Legion go okay running Windows and the one to run a Steam os. Pretty nice.

[Gary Whitta]

So yeah, it's obviously it's only. It's only going to get better. But like, you know, I. I've not yet fully embraced that category. I feel like it's really exciting to. To think about. We're going to be in a couple of years, but we're not there yet.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay. Final two ones here. Of course. Thank you so much for your support and thanks for watching and listening out there.

[Paris Lilly]

There.

[Snowbike Mike]

Sky writes in and says are we purposely avoiding the Halo flight sim? Starfield leaks from this morning. Love you guys. I don't know what those are. Am I living under a rock? I haven't heard any. Is it just that they're maybe coming to another console? I don't know.

[Paris Lilly]

Yeah, I mean there's like 10 million of them that like going to switch to and PlayStation and all that. I mean I think look at this point they're all freaking going, yeah man.

[Gary Whitta]

At this point we've said like it's obvious are off. Right. As soon as, as soon as you say Halo then what's. That's it. Right. That's the pinnacle.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean you're putting for. Yeah. I think everyone on this desk has the belief that all these games are coming out there. So yeah. We're not, we're not being blown away by any sort of leaks or rumors that they could be. I think we've all moved on and accepted that one.

[D]

I heard you're just too scared to talk about it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Mike Coward. I will say, you know what game stole my heart this year? Microsoft Flight Sim 2024. Well, I mean Gary, I can't get enough stuff of this game right here. I'm addicted to it all I can.

[Gary Whitta]

Say I, I'm old enough to remember Microsoft Flight Simulator from back in the day when it was very, very rudimentary. And there's Flight Sims always had its hardcore. You know the people that bought that build the rigs at home with the pedals and the yolks and the throttles and everything and get really into it. People that love those games must, they must be an absolute nirvana right now because when I, I sometimes watch YouTube videos of, of the new flight sim and I'm like, holy, you can do that in that game. What that game has become is absolutely phenomenal.

[Snowbike Mike]

And our final one, it's, it's amazing, Gary. It's so good. The whole planet desean writes in and says the Xbox should become the equivalent of a pre built PC only for gaming. Giving you access to Steam and Epic. Just call it the Xbox and have each new model named after the year like MacBooks Paris. Do you think we ever see that?

[Paris Lilly]

I think that is a very good possibility. This is what we're going to get moving forward. If they can pull it off, we'll see. But that model seem, what, what Phil is hinted at is what he's describing. So we'll see.

[Gary Whitta]

I think, I do think, and again this is a very easy thing to say but like it's something that hasn't changed, right? The, the, the general picture of what the console wars or the marketplace looks like for the last 30 years or so have been roughly the same, right? The players have changed, right? It used to be Nintendo and Sega and then it became, and then it became, you know, Nintendo and Sega and Xbox and PlayStation and then Sega went away and now we have the three that remain. But it's always been the same thing, right? Xbox and PlayStation both fundamentally offering the same thing. Here's a, here's a box that is n powerful vs here's a box that is n powerful, basically the same. And here's a bunch of really great games, some of which are exclusive. Here's a bunch of game really great games, some of which are exclusive. And Nintendo over here going, yeah, we don't care. We're gonna do mad stuff and have the best games and a weird dockable console or things that you wave around. And we're gonna do our own thing and be wildly successful at it because we're Nintendo. That has been the. The status quo now for a good long time. I think it's safe to say that again, maybe even five, but certainly ten years from now, that will not be the status quo anymore. I think you'll have three different companies all doing very different strategies, different stuff.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, very exciting.

[Gary Whitta]

I think that's more interesting.

[Snowbike Mike]

Very exciting. We got a great future ahead. A lot of awesome games, especially from the Xbox first party side. They seem to really be getting into it and showing you some great titles. So we're very excited for the future, of course. Thank you, kind of funny best friends, for watching and listening to today's Friday games. Cast, of course. This has been an X Cast takeover.

[Gary Whitta]

Get rid of the X Cast. This was good.

[Snowbike Mike]

Snow. Mike. Mike. And my two gaming dads. We'll be back again, the three of us at this desk, to have some more fun green gaming talk and the future of all things games. We'll be having a good time, but of course, this may be the end of Gamescast, but this isn't the end of our live programming. If you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch, stay right here because game showdown, the show you want to see is right after this with a small little Gary segment. Yeah. That you don't want to miss. And then a very fun Star wars stream after that. Kylo Ren is in the building for karaoke. You don't want to miss out on that. It's gonna be a blast. We'll see you all back on the next one and we'll see you on the next show. Go. Goodbye, everyone.