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Portal 3 is out now & Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake is this year! - Add to Party 1.10.2024
8 Plays11 months ago
This week we discuss more layoffs, Portal Revolution, Xbox Dev Direct, Yakuza 8 impressions, and Metal Gear Solid 3 Delta confirmed for 2024.
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Banter
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by Andy K. And I'm joined by Derek Castillo.
00:00:27
Speaker
Good evening. Let's please recognize the swiftness and promptness. I announced myself a second. And let's also acknowledge that Derek reminded me to do that about 30 seconds ago. You got to act like you've been here before, Andy. Wait, and I think I even said I'm instead of I've. You did. Oh, I was listening.
00:00:53
Speaker
Look at that. You know what? That's what I've been practicing all these weeks. You know, it was perfect, Andy, just perfect. Aw, thanks. I appreciate these compliments. I'll return them in kind, but I want to hear how you guys are doing.
Unusual Beverage Combos
00:01:06
Speaker
Well, Derek, I discussed this with Andy for a half second before you joined, but when was the last time you had orange soda?
00:01:17
Speaker
Actually, I just, okay, this is not a pure orange soda, okay? Kill me. Ooh, I will. If you don't like that. But in my international snack box from what's it called, Austria, they have a, they mix cola with orange juice.
00:01:37
Speaker
So I had, it's actually pretty good. Well, do they mix club soda with orange juice or do they mix cola as in like a Coke esque product? A Coke esque product. No. Okay. Well, isn't that just a remix machine?
00:01:53
Speaker
Well, they don't put orange. There's an orange juice and remix machines. Yeah, but there's orange flavoring. But that I had, I think on Saturday. And how was it? It was OK. It was it was fine. Oh, OK. But OK. Say what you want about mixing things with Coke. It's better than the Spanish who makes red wine with Coke. OK, I like that. And it's fine because they use cheap red wine.
00:02:18
Speaker
I could be into that. My sister taught me that she makes white wine go further by putting Miller Lite in it so you can still get drunk, but maintain the taste. And so. Hey, you're only helping you by using the champagne of beers, OK? Exactly, exactly. Actually, the champagne of beers is high life. Oh, OK.
00:02:40
Speaker
Miller Lite is just my knowledge of cheap beer ends at I know Stella Artois called Wifebeater. Oh, God, I don't know if I've ever had Stella Artois. It's really cheap in the UK. You've had Stella Artois or you've really seen it, Andy. I've seen it. Well, that's the man who isn't that the commercial with the guy who's a meme?
00:03:04
Speaker
I think you're thinking about Dos Equis, the most interesting man in the world. Yes. That's Dos Equis. I definitely haven't had stuff. Wait, doesn't Stella, Artois or whatever have its own glass? Yes, it does. Like a gold rimmed glass? Yes, and it actually has one. I have one. It's quite successfully in South Korea as being a high-end beer. Is it high-end? No.
00:03:28
Speaker
It's not, listen, it's better than American beers. Hey! You mean like a Miller? Domestic American beers, not craft American beers. I'm not gonna lie, I like High Life. And I like
Beer Preferences and Perceptions
00:03:42
Speaker
PBR, so sue me.
00:03:44
Speaker
Um, I'm looking up stellar. I want to look up what their prices are like. Well, if it's an imported beer, it is. Oh, cause people, domestic abuse has a long and tangled history.
00:03:58
Speaker
With beer, yes. Oh, well, okay, fair, fair, fair. I have not heard of that nickname, but yeah, High Life is, I don't know, it's fine. If I go to a show, I get High Life. If they don't have PBR, that's my second in command.
00:04:15
Speaker
How did we get here? I forget that you're a PBR trash boy. I am. I like it. I like it. Look, it's in his DNA. He's from Wisconsin. You can't hold it against him too hard. Oh, I can hold anything I want against him. Listen, I don't drink it like... Recreation.
00:04:39
Speaker
I will say PBR, oh god, I don't want to sound this pretentious, but I always sound pretentious. So I'd only drink, oh I feel bad, I only drink it if I'm like at a concert or a show and especially around here they've always got tall boys of PBR and you get that and that is the concert experience. You hold it in your hand, you stand around and you drunkenly sway to your favorite mellow indie band.
00:05:07
Speaker
That's what you are. Yeah, a six dollar tall boy sounds a lot preferable to the probably twelve dollar good beers they have. So that's literally. Yes, Derek. Yes. You just described it. There's just something about it. It's something about it. I also buy PBR if I'm having like a party and it's for, you know, the, you know, it's the B roll or not the B roll, but it's the backup, I should say. We run out of booze.
00:05:36
Speaker
then you have the PBR. So I think PBR is fine. It's fine. It's better than most, right? Maybe? I don't know. I don't know. What's my trash beer? My trash beer is Coors when I want to drink beer.
00:05:53
Speaker
You don't know about course. I think I actually poured out cores once because it was so gross. And it's the silver bullet. You know, it's cool. It's it's you know, it's cold when the mountains appear. It's got these. I do like that. That's the branding is it's listen, if I want to drink trash beer, it has to have good branding. It's that's fair. That's that's.
00:06:18
Speaker
I'm remembering this now. I'm remembering this. Oh wait, don't you call it natty light? Or what's natty light? That's natural light. That's the next level of trash beer. That's college trash beer. I remember a can of natty light is something like 30 cents.
00:06:37
Speaker
Oh, my God. I'm like cringing. Well, I don't know. I don't know. It's it's been it's been it's been a minute since I bought a 30 rack of Nettie late, but at one point it was like 18 dollars for a 30 rec. So the kids these days are coddled.
00:06:52
Speaker
Now the college kids can go get a case of beast and down that. What is a beast? It's made by Monster Energy. It's sugar free, caffeine free, and it tastes just like the monsters. But it's alcoholic? Yeah, six percent. Is it like four loco? No, no caffeine. Oh, it just tastes like a monster, but it's alcoholic. Who wants to drink a monster like record? I thought a monster was a means to an end.
00:07:22
Speaker
People like Monster Energy, especially the white can. I know people love the white can. Yes. I like the chemical taste of the white can. You like the chemical taste? I call the chemical taste because I cannot identify any flavor in the white can. So I call it a chemical flavor,
Twitch Layoffs and Industry Impact
00:07:41
Speaker
but it tastes fine. That just means it's a new flavor.
00:07:48
Speaker
Like eggnog. Nothing tastes like eggnog except eggnog. Eggnog tastes like pancake batter, because it is. I was trying to put a name on it. Or just down some pancake batter, you know? Ew. Oh, that's making my tummy hurt. But you don't have to now, because now you can buy it. Eggo look cool. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot they made that. Eggo what? Yeah.
00:08:16
Speaker
Oh, also, Sunny D makes hard shelters. Can we just stop? Is this like? Everything is marketing now. All of your childhood is alcoholic now. This is embarrassing. This is all embarrassing. I mean, it's whatever. I don't even know what to say. I'm just looking at a giant jar that says Eggo brunch in a jar. What?
00:08:41
Speaker
Well, Andy, Andy, do you know what else is embarrassing, though? I want to hear it. The current state of the video game industry. Oh, James, you took your transition. I know. Derek, don't think I don't see you gunning for my position. I'll stamp you out. I'll stamp you out. I saw my shot. You weren't going to take it. Oh, I love it. Thank you for saving me from that, because I was spiraling. Yeah. Listen, add to party.me is in my name.
00:09:13
Speaker
That's right. OK, we'll see what the bill says. .com was like $60 a year. Got the thing that. Oh, no, no, no heavens, no. And even I used to own Andy K dot com. Oh, where does it go now? I wonder if it's born. Let's see. Yeah, we'd spin. Oh, Andy K dot com.
00:09:37
Speaker
Well, while he does that, we'll actually, we will talk about these. If it goes nowhere, does that mean I can buy it? Probably. Yeah, probably. I used to own it. You know who can't buy it, though? The people who were laid off at Twitch. Oh, we're going to go with the back. Maybe they need a resume. That's why I bought it. I put my resume on it.
00:09:57
Speaker
Yeah, more sad layoffs. I don't know how much time I want to spend on this, but there are at least two interesting things, one in the continuing story of Unity and the other that Amazon is cutting 35% of Twitch's staff, about 500 workers. Interesting to know that this was actually leaked, so the Twitch staff found out about this from the leak and not from corporate.
00:10:23
Speaker
That's not a good look. Yeah. But they put out a statement saying, over the last year, we've been working to build a more sustainable business so that Twitch will be here for the long run. And throughout the year, we have cut costs and made many decisions to be more efficient. Dan Clancy, who's the CEO of Twitch, wrote, unfortunately, despite these efforts, has become clear that our organization is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.
00:10:51
Speaker
So get the fuck out of here. One third of her staff. So this is sort of telling because Twitch was sort of a walled garden within Amazon. Like they kept their leadership structure. They kept their decision making ability and they still got put into a corner by corporate basically to, you know, stop bleeding money. So.
00:11:16
Speaker
I mean 500 employees make up a third of your staff, so 1500 people were behind Twitch. I do think that's a bit much when you're not expanding the infrastructure to support it.
00:11:26
Speaker
I mean, it's not like they had 1,500 coders. To support Twitch, you need a decent amount of content and moderation support. You think of it as a global brand, right? I'm assuming this is considering it's like global staff, right? You need local people who handle streamers in different continents and different languages and everything like that. And of course, whatever the newest titty streamer is trying to figure out,
00:11:56
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. But I guess the 1500 for the largest live streaming site in the world does not see. Well, I think YouTube technically has that.
00:12:09
Speaker
Live streaming? Yeah. Live streaming? It's a bigger site, but it does more than live streaming. So. Yeah. Also, I'm saying I think Twitch is still the biggest live streaming site. Well, in the in this article from Bloomberg that I'm referring to, it says that Twitch live streams one point eight billion with the B hours of live video content a month. That's got to be so expensive. What do you.
00:12:39
Speaker
That's, that's something like, oh, that's the thing too. It is probably incredibly expensive. Well, you also have to keep in mind that to be in the top, uh, what is it? The top 5% of the site you just need on regularly 15 viewers. Yeah. So really, so a lot of these are one, two, who's.
00:13:01
Speaker
where it's just like it's not costing that much money to have them stream to nobody. Interesting. I didn't know that volume. Hey, you know what, though? Isn't that kind of like encouraging? Look at all these people shouting into the void. Oh, I just did the math, by the way, because I was curious. Two hundred thousand years of content is streamed once a month. That's incredible. Both of it. No one.
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah, I hope to have that type of ambition and motivation to perform for an audience of I don't know. Like, how can you just talk that long? And some people have the solution for you. Oh, OK. I'm. Yeah, I just currently brought up Twitch. A hundred viewers, a Vtuber is painting Warhammer minis. You can do Gunpla with a Vtuber model. Yeah, as a Vtuber model.
00:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, I do. I do. There's one person who I follow who I didn't follow them for this, but they actually do gun plus streams where they build a model usually Mondays. Really? Yeah. Well, that's pretty cool. Maybe I'll start. Maybe I'll start doing that. All right. I am building some of the worst kits I've ever built. I'll finish them. But Jesus Christ, they are not meant to be built by it. Yeah. I mean,
00:14:28
Speaker
It's I don't know. This has been a thing in the industry. We've talked about layoffs across the gaming industry. Twitch, you know, gaming industry adjacent. I don't know. Is it would you consider Twitch part of the gaming industry?
00:14:44
Speaker
Oh, yeah, unfortunately. I mean, it certainly it certainly goes hand in hand with it. But yeah, you've seen cuts from staffs across, including Unity, who we're going to talk about in a second. But yeah, it's just it seems like, you know, we have to get those quarterly numbers up. So you know what? The best way to do that is fire a bunch of people.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I think I forgot which one it show, but like after the firings, their stock went up. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, they always. Yeah. Fucking layoffs always lead to stock increases. So depressing. Yeah, it is. It's so by the way, I feel like.
00:15:25
Speaker
Obviously, we've been exposed to a lot of layoff notices with everything in the news, and I feel like they always sound the same, so I just asked Google Bart to write me a notice to layoff a part of the company to see if I could get similar language.
00:15:45
Speaker
And to its credit, or maybe not credit, actually this is a little bit more scary, but it asks for more details to make sure we can include the appropriate legal complexities. But they tell me, I'm here to help you navigate this with sensitivity and accuracy.
00:16:04
Speaker
Well, small tangent when chat three like first started blowing up, lawyers were using it to write contracts and they had to shut that down real fast. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's oh, my God. Anyways, it's it's weird. Bard telling me to remember that layoffs are different, difficult.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah. It literally says, remember, they're a difficult situation for everyone. So it's crucial to handle it with empathy and understanding as if I, the user, the one laying off, doesn't think this.
00:16:44
Speaker
Oh my god. Hopefully Unity got the same message because they're laying off 25% of its workforce, 1,800 jobs. So that's what 22 grand. There's one really good thing about the stock prices going up. Unity software engineers were
00:17:07
Speaker
paid handsomely, and I think that included stock. So they get some benefit from getting fired, right? Oh, my God. Or wait, if you're fired, what happens to your stock options? Usually in layoffs, the companies are off. Yeah, it depends. They'll like if you're close to vesting, they'll like will vest you a certain percentage of your shares. OK. Well,
Fan-made Portal 3 Mod Celebration
00:17:38
Speaker
It is sad, literally every week. Yeah. And news of this did shoot unity shares up 5%. Love it. We love that. Now, a lot of organizations did overfill during the pandemic. They did. And there's a lack of hands on understanding of what each individual cog does when so many people work remotely. So I could see them.
00:18:03
Speaker
seeing the cost and not seeing an increase in productivity or profits related to it and just figuring out like, okay, we overhired.
00:18:13
Speaker
Well, I mean, Unity, I think in Unity's case, they were just poorly managed, right? So it is not in the realm of possibility to say, yeah, they probably may have hired too many people in their recently company. Unity's made so many acquisitions in the past few years. I feel like they could have just not bought one company and kept all these jobs. Derek, that's exactly it.
00:18:38
Speaker
At least I feel like I'm on that wavelength with you. And yeah, I'm sure some percentage of it might be overfill, but the majority of it, it's just leadership. Making dumb decisions to make themselves look good, like buying all these companies. Yeah, because if you didn't do it, all these people would be working and you could, who knows? I don't know. What a bummer. I bet they used Google bar to write that, those morons.
00:19:04
Speaker
Well, well, let's, let's swing wildly from bad news to incredible news. That's portal three is out. Okay. What is it? Okay. So developers
Gaming Setups and Innovations
00:19:17
Speaker
has been the past five years making a mod that is free for all portal two users. Yep. It's called a portal revolution revolution.
00:19:28
Speaker
currently installed. I haven't played it yet, but I played the first two hours of it. And I want to tell you, it's Portal three. Like it is a new narrative. You are in new maps and it introduces new gimmicks and challenges like it. It is a new game for all. This is not an expansion of Portal two or just kind of. I mean, it is to a certain extent, but it almost comes off as like a large DLC package.
00:19:57
Speaker
It has 21 Steam achievements in comparison to Portal 2's 52, so 51. So it's likely going to be not nearly as well. Also depends on if there's multiplayer. I think there's a lot of multiplayer achievements in Portal 2. There is. Oh yeah. In any case, this is just good news.
00:20:17
Speaker
before they gave Portal 2 for free. Well, it was December 2018, 2017. So a lot of people have it. And here's some more free. I have it on PS3. Am I going to get it on my PS3? No. No, you're not. This is PC. For the moment, this is PC only. Oh, it's only 99 cents right now?
00:20:38
Speaker
Oh, Portal 2? Yeah. Yeah. I wonder if I should buy Portal 2. So wait, let me just ask something really quick, though. Derek, did you say it was from the developers of Portal 2 worked on this new one? That's what it looked like from this. So it looks like it's built in-house from Steam, but I don't know if the exact dev team worked on it. Oh, oh, oh, oh.
00:21:02
Speaker
Why don't they just call it Portal 2? It's developed by second-face software. That is the name of the mod team that did it. Let's Google them and see what comes up. Should I buy Portal 2? I mean, you should, yeah. I loved Portal 2, but I haven't played it in... Well, when did it come out? 2011? I guess I haven't played it since 2011.
00:21:24
Speaker
Yeah, and this and it takes place after the events of Portal 2 as well. So it's and I mean, Steam is like giving this kind of like a real rollout to being like, hey, we want you to play this. So I don't know if they're going to necessarily consider the events of this game canon, but they're certainly acting like it. Hmm. Well, maybe I'll I'll just buy I've spent a dollar on work. I'll tell you, I, you know. Portal.
00:21:54
Speaker
I have barely gotten to the point where usually in Portal, you get the gun and it only fires one portal and then eventually it fires two portals. I just got to the point where I can fire both portals and on the path to getting there, I was stumped by a couple of these puzzles. I had to really sit there and think about them. I love that.
00:22:16
Speaker
Is it? In fact, I stopped at one where I'm like, I'm not sure how to solve this. Oh, it's going to feel so good when you solve that. Yeah, I know. I'm going to go back to it and have fun.
00:22:27
Speaker
And seeing that and this is not like a community workshop mod, like it has a store page that you can just install from as well. Again, me saying like steam is really rolling out the red carpet for this. But yeah, I imagine it plays great on Steam Deck, too. I will I will probably try that out later tonight. But yeah.
00:22:51
Speaker
It's this I cannot stress enough. I mean, I'm only a couple hours in, but this feels like Portal three. That's very cool. Well, maybe I'll try it. You should. I now own it. Yeah, if you own it now, there's no reason not to. I just don't like playing like so hard sitting in my computer chair.
00:23:17
Speaker
Just haven't we discussed this just now eight HDMI cable or you got to see the cable and I don't want to see the cable. All right. I can mail you my
Speculation on Xbox and Microsoft's Future
00:23:27
Speaker
steam box. What are those still around? I don't know. Well, no. But if you have them, yeah, like I have a steam link.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, I was looking into that like a couple of months ago, and I think Steam actually has a way to like they have an app I can install on my TV. I was going to say a lot of TVs have the Steam link app you can just install. Yeah. And then I looked into if it works, everybody's like, yeah, I guess I don't. Because that's what I want. I don't want I never want to see cables. I want to live in a cableless world. OK.
00:24:01
Speaker
I never want to see him. You don't have a steam deck, right, Andy? No, I don't. OK. But I'm not I'm not I guess the steam deck works is a really good steam link, ironically enough. Oh, OK. I hear you. Oh, I don't know. Wait, Andy, I thought you were big into your switch. Myself? Yeah. I like playing my switch on my TV. But no, I don't like holding. I just I've never been a handhelds person, really, I think.
00:24:29
Speaker
I've accepted that about myself. Doesn't mean I haven't bought every handheld system, but you know. I think now, now in my age of handhelds faded away, I realized, no, they're just not for me. That's okay. I did my Super Mario RPG though, first switch. Haven't started yet, but I bought it.
00:24:47
Speaker
Well, maybe Xbox will have something for you. Don't bring up at their developer direct coming next week, January 18th, the 12 p.m. Pacific time, 3 p.m. Eastern time in which they're going to show game. They're going to have updates from Ninja Theory with Senua's Hellblade machine games with their Indiana Jones game. Yeah, what? What is it? Yeah.
00:25:13
Speaker
You haven't heard. This is like an old thing. Oh, well, is it going to be like. We don't know. Uncharted. Maybe a vow from obsidian and our history untold from oxide games. They're the four that they have said they're going to drive into. And, you know, maybe there might be a secret one in there. We also don't know what Double Fine's been up to.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah, we have no idea. Yeah, so I wouldn't be shocked if maybe there was a secret update for Double Fine hidden in there as well. Aw, I like Double Fine. I was just thinking of... Yeah, this is... Machine Games is... I think they're... This is me talking out of my ass, but I'm pretty sure they were under ZeniMax.
00:26:00
Speaker
So this was like, because I believe Bethesda revealed that they were making in the not Bethesda, ZeniMax was they were going to make an Indiana Jones game. And now this is, you know, under Microsoft's umbrella. So just who wants that?
00:26:14
Speaker
I like Indiana Jones, but I'm old. You're old, though. Yeah. And the new movie was bad. Yeah, because I was I was watching. I think Red Letter was even saying, like, who is this Indiana Jones movie made for? I mean, the first three. Well, it was made for nostalgia purposes, Andy. Hollywood can't do anything original these days, so they have to go back to our beloved series and hope that we just enjoy it. But they don't do it well either.
00:26:41
Speaker
Oh, I remember now Oxide Games. It's a bunch of people from this Sid Meier studio or for axis. Oh, yeah. So their new game might have a bit of sieve in there. So like sieve people. Yeah. In an Indiana. I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's machine games. Oh, OK.
00:27:08
Speaker
Machine Games is making Indiana Jones. This is a separate studio who will be in the Dev conference. I was like, Oxide Games, who are they? And I was looking through the article and yes, they are made up of veterans and creators from Civ 5.
00:27:23
Speaker
Hey, PC players love those civ games. Yeah, they do not like civilization. I have I played the second one for about 20 minutes and it was too confusing. I've avoided it. I mean, yeah, the second one was very confusing. I think four is kind of where it hit its mainstream stride. Hi. Hmm. I always felt that it was crippling itself in the multiplayer aspect, though, because it's multiplayer games and civ are tough.
00:27:51
Speaker
No, if two players engage in hostilities, you no longer get to take everyone's turn at the same time. So the game becomes a slog. So whenever someone starts shit, usually the entire lobby just dogpiles whoever started it. We want to just play our game. Okay.
00:28:10
Speaker
Wait, do I play multiplayer? Because we have friends, Andy. No, but like if you're not like interacting with... Because violence and war is not the only way to win a Civilization game. I genuinely don't know how the game works. I know you're just like only playing on my computer, but I feel like you would enjoy a game of Civ. I remember being very complicated. Yeah, but they've streamlined it now. They've streamlined it now.
00:28:40
Speaker
It was. And you can go even further with custom house rules. There's like a little advisor who will come up and be like, hey, do this. You know what? That's probably what I need. Well, people love those civ games. So I do. Yeah. And and again, finding out more about Senua Saga Hellblade, which damages look so pretty. It's just insane how good it looks. Well, good on them. Hey, Microsoft after Starfield.
00:29:10
Speaker
Hey, uh, was it fucking kind of funny? Did their game of the year today in the heat. They gave starfield number six on their list over, over lies of P and, and, uh, final fantasy 16.
00:29:26
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. Well, kind of funny is I know kind of funny thing is very different than everyone else's is they do more or less kind of ranked choice voting with scores. So if you vote a game for first place, it gets 10 points. If you have a 10th place, it gets one point. And then they have eight people who all vote for whatever games they want. And then they sum up the totals and that's how they get it. So that leads to them having some weird things happen sometimes.
00:29:56
Speaker
Yeah, it all takes us two people to say Star Citizen was really good and then he's gonna place. Yep
00:30:02
Speaker
Oh, well, I mean, I can't really hold them like, like if you ask me my game of the year, it was Mecha Bellum. I'm in act two and Baldur's Gate three on honor mode, but I still get more action out of the auto battler. So, oh, is Mecha Bellum an auto battler? I've been wanting to play an auto battler again. It's been a minute since I played one. Yeah, I'd recommend it. It's your game of the year, Derek.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah. Over Baldur's Gate? Yes. Wait, let's look up this Mecha Bellum.
00:30:38
Speaker
Okay, while you look that up, let's get back into Xbox. It looks really nice. No, I was going to explore this game of the year. What's all the studios show off what they're working and it's in line with my pocket conspiracy theory with Microsoft. Wait, what's that? I think that they're going to transition away from hardware entirely in the next 10 years and only do Xbox game pass on PlayStation and on PC.
00:31:06
Speaker
And maybe I imagine they will. I imagine they will move to a cloud based system and they'll sell cloud sticks. But I still think there will be Xbox hardware, but I don't know if they'll. I think they'll. I don't know, Derek. I don't know if I understand. I agree with that. I think they will consider to release a like a series X version of their consoles in which they'll just go, hey, this is a lot of money. Buy it or don't.
00:31:34
Speaker
And then they'll release a cloud version of their console, which just uses the Azure cloud to play games on. Yes, but at least on release, they may take a loss on every console sold.
00:31:49
Speaker
Well, that's what I mean. They might they might stop doing that and just be like, we're putting this out here to have something. Yes. But look at their other behavior. They've hinted or there's rumors about see if he is coming to PlayStation. They bought Activision and signed a 10 year deal promising Call of Duty would stay on PlayStation. Well, that's I mean, that's just good business. I mean, if they wanted to sell Xboxes, they could just not put Call of Duty on the PlayStation and that would sell millions right there.
00:32:16
Speaker
You know, it wouldn't that. Yeah, but they want to make billions. No, no, no. I mean, Call of Duty is a weird not. It's not to undercut you, but Call of Duty is a weird example. Like it's I don't know. Fucking the second most profitable game in the world. Yeah. And with their Activision pickup for Fortnite, I would assume Fortnite, I would assume is number one and then smatterings of mobile games.
00:32:46
Speaker
I feel like Apex is competing. Well, it's competing with Fortnite until the latest release, where they brought in a lot of old people with the original map they put in. I would imagine Riot Games is above Apex. You mean Epic Games? No, Riot Games, like Valorant. People fucking love Valorant.
00:33:11
Speaker
They love spending money on Valorant. But yeah, no, I agree there. And that, that did come out that Microsoft is thinking about bringing Sea of Thieves to PlayStation, which yeah, why don't you? I mean, if a game has been an exclusive, like if a game has been an exclusive for like, I don't know, six fucking, how many years has it been at this point? Four or five, six. Um, Sea of Thieves came out a long time ago. Yeah. Like why wouldn't you just try to get more attach rate to it?
00:33:42
Speaker
It's like it's its benefit as an exclusive has lost. Right. Yes. And if people aren't and if people aren't buying X bosses to play Sea of Thieves, then why don't you just give them more of an opportunity to play Sea of Thieves immortality? The game I pushed for last year when we were talking about our game of the year, which is the I forget his name, but the guy who did her story and tell me lies. Oh, that one. Yeah, that's coming to PlayStation now.
00:34:13
Speaker
I know I don't think that's necessarily X. That's not an Xbox own thing, but they certainly Xbox let their exclusivity lapse on it. Sure. Like, hey, you know, go put it on PlayStation now. So, yeah, I have. I mean, this is always the argument to where Phil Spencer has been like, hey, we'll put game pass anywhere. I'll put a game. I'll put game pass on PlayStation. Dare me. Dare me. Yeah.
00:34:40
Speaker
Yeah, they're willing to go the mile. I don't see a problem with them leaving hardware. I don't know what they add to hardware. I just, I wouldn't mind because I was sitting here thinking like, why buy an Xbox if I could use it as my computer? And then I'm like, well, Andy, that's just a computer. Then you don't need an Xbox.
00:35:03
Speaker
I just want a nice little box I can buy. I like the form factor of a console, and then if I can turn it into my computer, then we've won. The whole world has won. I don't want to think about my computer. You can buy a mini PC with an external GPU and Bluetooth and just use it as a console, just only install games on it. An external GPU?
Upcoming Gaming Events and Releases
00:35:25
Speaker
Just buy a Steam Deck at that point.
00:35:28
Speaker
Or buy like one of the new fucking MSI razors or whatever, you know, those fucking things. Oh, yeah, those actually look nice. Yeah. Although they run like those. I've got my PC and I've got my LED lights. That's true. The Xbox isn't going to glow between blue and red and green and others bots for that.
00:35:53
Speaker
Oh, I guess. Yeah. Also, that's so 2010s. Like my next build is going to be no LED whatsoever. Why Derek? Why not? I mean, I like a like a crisp white. I mean, my computer. Oh, yeah. My computer only has LED because it has built in LED. Like I don't. There was no installation of LED in my computer.
00:36:19
Speaker
I put, I was against it, and then I put lights, because you can see into mine, it has like a window. And so I put LEDs all around it, and then you can just tell it to glow random colors slowly. It's just so cool. It is so neat. You know what else is cool? What's that?
00:36:40
Speaker
that in addition to the Xbox Dev Conference, we're probably going to be doing a new state of play in a few weeks and a Nintendo Direct in February, according to Jeff Grubb, a transcript from, I think it was Games Mess. I'm not sure which. Hold on.
00:37:00
Speaker
It's one of the giant bomb shows. Uh, he said, quote, is one, it is the one I heard that is coming up the fastest, but you always count on Nintendo direct in February is almost certainly going to happen in February. Again, there's a question about a state of play. There is a state of play coming. There's a state of play coming when exactly not sure, but I expect in the next few weeks, state of plays are always weird, man. Get the sense that they're just these contractual obligations. They told the company to give them free marketing. So they need.
00:37:27
Speaker
So they feel a need and have to do it. So they could be disappointing, which we have talked about in the past. Sometimes there's a place where it's like, these are, this is a make good stage. This is a make good. Yeah. Okay. But then there's also the full on orchestra performances. Okay. Those are showcases. Those are not sure. Aren't they during on the same day, like same venue as data plays? No, they, they, they specifically called them PlayStation showcases when they do things like that.
00:37:55
Speaker
Yes, Data, like, what is there even to announce? Like, I don't even want anything. We have too many games right now, and they only just take a break. Let's see. I mean, they could do a deep dive on Rebirth. Ah, but Rebirth is already... We don't need anything, one Rebirth.
00:38:09
Speaker
I don't want more spoilers. Oh, they're going to spoil. What else is coming up? Let's see. Rise of the Ronin. Oh, yes. The other one that Rise of the Ronin was the other one. They probably have a contractual obligation to market that in the hell divers to also has that sort of feel. Yeah, although it does look good, but I like the first one a lot. The first. Yeah, I think those are the big ones that we're expecting this year. Yep.
00:38:38
Speaker
I just want everybody to take a break. I just, we don't need it. You might see some more Suicide Squad kill the Justice League in there too. I wouldn't be surprised. Tekken 8 if it happens before the end of March. Okay. Let's see what else we got. Yeah, that's probably it. They don't announce stuff at State of Plays, right? Oh, they do. They've announced stuff at State of Plays.
00:39:07
Speaker
But we'll have to see. I don't know. I'm looking forward to it. I always like a good conference here. Yeah. But I don't think they've ever pulled like a Nintendo and announced something getting released the very next day. So yeah. State of play is don't shadow drop all that often. No, they're like, I just never get excited for them.
00:39:25
Speaker
Like they always just, well, like we just talked about it and like you called out, they always just feel like telling you more about something you already know about. Like something you know about or maybe want to know more about. I always do. Is that hands-on impressions of like a dragon infinite wealth are out.
00:39:46
Speaker
It is good. Yeah, that's what I've actually because you linked an article about it. And then I like the least spoilery one I could find. I couldn't I couldn't even read it. I read the title and it's just like like something about like playing like a dragon, whatever is like going to a restaurant where the staff already knows. Yeah, that's exactly it. And I was like, that's all I need to know. That's all I need to know.
00:40:10
Speaker
But so I'm glad to hear that it's excellent because the other one is one of my favorite games of all time. And I'm going to I'm going to spoil one thing for you because I want you to react to the ridiculousness of this picture. When does it happen? I don't know. Who cares? I don't want you to spoil something beautiful. Look at it.
00:40:32
Speaker
Here, one second. Oh, it's a tiny picture. Yeah, click it to increase its size. Oh my God, that's incredible. Oh my God, this game is incredible. I have shown Andy a picture of a giant shark has perched itself on the end of a boat and you are fighting it.
00:40:56
Speaker
And not only fighting it, you're fighting it in a line using a turn-based combat system. This looks like something out of a Final Fantasy. It really does. It could just be a Kraken and then you're fine. Yeah. Oh, my God. Or what was the thing in six? Was that the Kraken? I don't remember. I'm so unbelievably excited for this game. OK, I need your guys' input because I'm going to have to be real strong next month. Mm hmm. I because.
00:41:26
Speaker
Like a dragon comes out in like a couple of weeks. I think like two weeks, two weeks, two weeks. Rebirth comes out next month.
00:41:36
Speaker
I think I'm going to not play like a dragon. If you start playing like a dragon, infinite wealth on January 26th, that would give you, let's see, one week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks. You would have four and a half weeks to beat it before February 29th with the release. That is impossible for me. Andy, Andy, I will recommend you start playing it as soon as possible.
00:42:04
Speaker
Why? Because I need someone to talk to about it. I'd love to talk to you about it. I'm recommending it because one of my favorite VTubers is actually in the game and voices herself. Oh, really? Is she? Derek, is that true? Is she a real VTuber? She is a VTuber, yes.
00:42:23
Speaker
No, no, no, no, no. But I mean, the VTuber I so we've talked about this before in the podcast when the trailer came out. But it looks like each upon the protagonist gets canceled by a VTuber. This is a conceit of the story. So that is not the case. She plays a bartender. Oh, OK. So she's not the VTuber that's in the game. OK.
00:42:49
Speaker
God, I'm so excited for this game. I am. But I just I don't want like you cannot beat this game or rather, I could not beat this game in four weeks. It is just impossible. And I want to spend and I don't want to beat it in two and a half. No, you will not. Yeah, I will. No, this game is going to be like 100 hours. Yeah, he'll just have less meetings for those two weeks.
00:43:17
Speaker
Well, it's just one of those things where my partner is going to want to watch the story parts of it. So I'm just going to every single moment that she's not there, I'll just be grinding outside side. Sure. So and I'm buying this on PC. It's by the way, Andy, it's not coming out on Game Pass. Oh, oh, I actually read an article. They said they wouldn't put it on it. Yeah, they're like, fuck you. It's not going to. But I am buying a PC so I could play it on my steam deck. Oh.
00:43:44
Speaker
I'm okay. Well, here's my only other option. I start at the end of January playing like a dragon, but then I don't start rebirth until I beat like a dragon. Oh,
Remakes and Konami's Strategy
00:43:55
Speaker
you can't do that. Charles going to talk to I mean, to be fair, it took you the most time to beat 16 as well.
00:44:02
Speaker
I 16, I have a complicated relationship with that. It was a great game until it wasn't. And then I just it was a. Yeah, it's 16. We've talked about it, but 16 is a game that has high highs and low highs and then it's just like you want a lot of side quests that are miserable. God bless. It's just the. But.
00:44:32
Speaker
Now you're making me regret my plan, because I really was, like, all geared up. And then you saw that giant shark. Like, this game just looks incredible. No, I really don't think I'm going to play it. Sorry, Andy, I'll tell you all sorts of things that me and my best friend Ichibon get up to. Yeah, you better not tell me a single thing. God, I will not be able to play Rebirth then until I beat like a dragon.
00:44:59
Speaker
But I don't see the problem with that. I. Yeah, you've already played Final Fantasy seven. But like, I know, I know how much of a fan I am. I'm excited for both of them equally, I think.
00:45:14
Speaker
OK, I think you don't forget to two weeks after Infinite Wealth comes out, Persona 3 reload comes out to that that I can wait on. I know I'm going to wait on that to play that after rebirth. But I feel like you subconsciously already made the decision.
00:45:31
Speaker
that I wasn't going to play it. No, Final Fantasy, because you didn't get the super expensive limited edition one with the figure. Because I already have a Sephiroth figurine. Sounds like a fake fan. Stop! Fake fan. Fake fan. Don't do this to me. I've already got a Sephiroth.
00:45:50
Speaker
Yeah, and you could have two. Yeah, I could have two Sephiroth. Oh, no, I didn't get the most expensive one. And I loved the first one, but I just love like a dragon.
00:46:04
Speaker
I really think I'm going to put it off. I really do. I think that's the most responsible thing I can do. OK. Well, Andy, let me tell you something. You may have to put off more games in 2024. Why is that? Because PlayStation confirms that Metal Gear Solid Delta, Snake Eater and Silent Hill 2 are set for release this year. That's right. That's right. What was that?
00:46:29
Speaker
I can't wait for Metal Gear Solid. That was my genuine reaction to Metal Gear Solid releasing. I love it. I love it, Derek. Wait, now you're a big Metal Gear Solid 3 person?
00:46:43
Speaker
Yes. Oh, three. Three was the first Metal Gear I played. Oh, three was the first one I played end to end. I played a little bit of the PSP one, but I didn't own a PSP. So, of course, I didn't beat it. I just played a little bit of my friends. Sure. I played it on my college roommates. PlayStation two.
00:47:05
Speaker
But I beat all of them right before Metal Gear Solid 5 came out. Oh, you beat all of them before 5? Yeah. Oh, so you even played 4? Yes. I watched that movie. Yeah, and it was a great movie, OK? 4 is brilliant, don't it? Don't even go at it. I'm just saying when you have like a two hour cutscene, it's sort of a movie. There's nothing wrong with that. I love those cutscenes. Give them. Yum, yum, yum.
00:47:31
Speaker
I would have if I bought that game the day it released and didn't know about it. But since I knew all the baggage it had, I enjoyed it. Or can be enjoyed divorced from the rest of the series.
00:47:43
Speaker
Oh yeah, no, that's the endgame of fucking Metal Gear Solid. Yeah, it's brilliant, but only if you played the other one. Yeah. That's why I rate endgame a little lower than Infinity War. Oh. Yeah. Endgame doesn't mean anything if you haven't seen everything else. Infinity War, you could just watch Infinity War and enjoy it.
00:48:05
Speaker
Um, but yeah, and rumors are happening. Rumors are abound too, that the Metal Gear Solid 1 remake is still in the work as well. So I wouldn't be surprised if maybe we hear more news about that soon as well, probably after Delta gets released. If they could do the Metal Gear Solid 1 story with any gameplay of the series besides Metal Gear Solid 1, it's going to be phenomenal.
00:48:31
Speaker
I heard someone talking about this recently. It's like you kind of just have to remake Metal Gear Solid, like to the extent of like Final Fantasy 7 remake, like because this is everyone's problem with Twin Snakes, right? They made the game too easy by adding that first person mode. Yeah. But in Metal Gear Solid 1, I think it's just a genuinely completely different gameplay wise. It's just so divorced from the rest of the series that
00:48:56
Speaker
Like most people just got by doing a recap of the story of Metal Gear Solid 1 and couldn't actually get through playing with it. It was, it was rough. What I would, I wouldn't be shocked is if they're using whatever the engine they're using for Delta to remake Metal Gear Solid 1.
00:49:15
Speaker
Because if you think about it, if you think about adult, I mean, outside of the food mechanics, right? Delta or Delta three and one share a lot of like just kind of being. Very, very based, like they don't go as crazy as two and four is in terms of your gadgets. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, like three has the camo and the food. But other than that, it doesn't get too crazy in terms of gadgets.
00:49:45
Speaker
I would be down with another one. I just don't trust Konami. And I don't think, well, I don't know if it's, I don't know. I mean, they've been doing okay lately. I don't even know what they've been doing. I personally am going to trust Konami. Konami respects two IPs, a hundred percent for sure. Metal Gear Solid and Monster Hunter.
00:50:06
Speaker
Wait, what? They didn't do Monster Hunter. That's Capcom. Oh, fuck him. I know I'm getting confused. I know I'm getting confused. Konami is Castlevania Metal Gear. No, I don't know why. I just I'm such a big Monster Hunter head that I just went back to
00:50:25
Speaker
the three monsters you could hunt as a side missions in one of the games. Oh, could you really hunt them as a side mission? Yes, pretty cool. You could got picked up by a palico on the coast, and they would take you to Monster Hunter Island, where you'd fight Arathlos, the Tigrex, and a new monster that was basically just one of the metal gears, but in like a monster form instead of a mech.
00:50:49
Speaker
That's so incredible. That makes me so happy. And we still have and we've been focusing on Metal Gear, but Silent Hill 2, the remake made by Bloober Team is also set to come out. Yeah. And you know, Bloober Team well known. What was it? Layers of Fear, right? That's what they did. I think.
00:51:09
Speaker
believe those layers of fear amongst other games. Yes, you're right. Yeah. Yeah. Layers of fear. They did a Blair Witch game. They also did the medium. Yeah, which people had mixed feelings on. Yeah. But I mean, Silent Hill 2 feels like they then they're just doing a remake. So I mean, that feels like a good like, hey, let's see what you guys can do. Don't I don't think that's just a game where I don't think it would make anyone happy to remake it.
00:51:40
Speaker
Really? Annie, did you play the Silent Hills? I played the first two. OK. I didn't like the second one to be fair. Is the second one where Pyramid Head comes in? That's correct. OK, so I and I have still I think I've still avoided the the twist of Silent Hill to all these years.
00:52:01
Speaker
Um, but, uh, I don't know. I just know it's one of those games that it means a lot to people. And I think changing it around my, well, who knows? We'll see. We'll see. I granted, I thought, um, remake from seven, they did a fantastic job. So maybe I'm a big old casual and I'll like it.
00:52:24
Speaker
But we'll see. We'll see. Good on them. Konami getting back in the business by remaking stuff or paying other people to remake stuff. No. Let's just give them credit for not making more pachinko. They're making actual video games again. They're making real video. Oh, Yu-Gi-Oh. I just went to their Twitter. Oh, yeah. Yu-Gi-Oh. That's the that was the other one I was trying to remember. Thank you, Andy. Yeah, they're doing stuff. Whatever. They're doing stuff. Doing stuff.
Conclusion and Farewells
00:52:54
Speaker
Well, we'll talk about more of what Konami is doing on another episode of Add to Party. A friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I've been your host, James. I do like orange soda, Hartwell. Bring it all the way back. And I've been joined by Andy. PBR is OK, too. I do like it.
00:53:22
Speaker
And I can admit it. And I can admit it. It's nothing embarrassing. And I've been joined by... Derek, completely clueless about the video game industry, but still talking like I know anything, Castiel. You know a lot. It's all being an influencer, baby. Derek, you know a lot, all right? You know that Konami made Monster Hunter. Oops.
00:53:48
Speaker
Have a good night. I'm sorry, I feel bad about that. Fucking dunked him. Just right. Just hook him right to the paint. No, no, you only made that because you had a deep pull. A slam Derek to the ground. Have a good night, everyone. Andy hates Derek. I don't at all.