Episode 11 - What Happened to Xbox?

Transcript

neocharge: What's up everybody and welcome to Shapes of Gaming, the weekly conversational podcast all about video games that's unedited, unfiltered, and always unhinged. I'm one of your hosts Matt Stenson, NeoCharge on PSN, and joining me as always for episode number 11 is the retro gaming encyclopedia Bob Harriman, Leon Lionheart Lee on PSN.

neocharge: How's it going man?

Leon Lionheartly: You can't fucking get rid of me, folks. I'm still here. ah No, I'm doing good, man. It's been a been a bitty busy, busy week. i like I turned around and blinked and was like, oh, shit.

Leon Lionheartly: It's already time to record. We got to get this put together. like I feel behind the ball. And it's not that I've been doing nothing. Trust me. It's just been I've been doing so fucking much that I didn't even realize what day of the week it was.

Leon Lionheartly: What about you, dude?

neocharge: Oh, yeah, dude, I've been so busy with stuff. ah Life is life. ah We're, you know, barreling down it.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: There's going to be a conclusion at some point. It's going to be good or bad. Regardless, it'll be exciting. So I'm just going through the motions, trying to get through this shit. And we'll see how it goes. But we're here to talk about games. And if you have anything else you want to want to say, what are you drinking?

Leon Lionheartly: I was going to say games and always drinking. um I went with a little refreshing.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: I don't know why. was just walking through the store. Everybody's going to know this one, but I love it. It's ah not your father's root beer. It's a malt beverage, but it tastes like a root beer, but with that little bit of extra adultness, if you know what I mean.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um It's absolutely delicious. Very refreshing, especially in the summertime as a guy. I like my ah darker beers. I like my stouts and my porters and my reds and my browns. But ah come summertime when it's 90 degrees, that shit will put you on your ass real fast.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. yeah And that links up with a little bit more of life stuff because we hung out recently for the 4th of July on Friday. ah You, me, and a listener of the show, Alex. And we just came over to my place, talked about some games, watched some fireworks, played some games, played some Doom the Dark Ages, showed Alex the light of PS5 Pro.

neocharge: ah And i think I think Death Stranding 2, the intro, sold them. What do you think?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, I'm very convinced of that. And I apologize to ah to his wife already. Because that was you could see it in his face, ah folks. When he lit up Death Stranding 2, and if you've played, you know this opening scene I'm talking about where you question whether it's pre-rendered and or not.

Leon Lionheartly: um And spoilers, it's not pre-rendered. Yeah. I saw the look in his eye because he's a PC gamer. He loves his his ah he his TV. He said, oh, I can do this on my graphics card. I can do this on my rig. And I'm like, just wait, buddy.

Leon Lionheartly: And the second he fired that up, I saw the light bulb go off it and I went, oh, I need to get me one of these fucking things. This is nice. ah

neocharge: Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: So, ah yeah, absolutely. We saw him ah see the light ah light of day. um And another one will eventually, we're almost there, well he We'll help push him over the edge and he'll join the family of us PlayStation folks.

neocharge: oh yeah. I think so, too. And we'll certainly welcome him with open arms and give him a huge backlog to to play because there's so much on the PS5 Pro. But yeah, we had some drinks. We watched some fireworks. You actually brought the Not Your Dad's Root Beer.

neocharge: ah And that was that was very fun. We made some smoked cheddar beer brats, your recipe. ah Those were delicious. And we should definitely do that again.

neocharge: um That was very fun. So, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I agree, man. let's let's Let's do that again. i me i will say it was a little weird because I'm i'm a grill guy, but then I realized yours was a grill smoker.

Leon Lionheartly: So it was a quick pivot and shift. And I think you give me another one or two times behind that smoker um and I'm going to make some food that's going to blow you away. Trust me, man.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Dude, I love my smoker. I have a Traeger. ah It's a pellet smoker, electric. And it's incredible. I showed you the app. You're like, you have your fucking grill connected to Wi-Fi in the app?

neocharge: And I'm like, yeah. And I like powered it on and I saw the temp. ah Yeah, I loved it. actually just made some smoked salmon. I take just the salmon. I smoke it to about 120 degrees.

neocharge: And then I pan fry it, get that little crisp on it to around 135, 140. And it's delicious, dude. I use that smoker all the time and I intend to use it more made brisket, made pulled pork, ah all kinds of shit. It can act as an oven or a high temp, you know, searing machine for steaks. It can go to one from 165 controlled temp to six hundred degrees ah at at most.

neocharge: so And i'm not this isn't ah an ad. It sounds like an ad for Traeger.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: ah But no, we're not paid by Traeger. I'm just a big proponent of the the grill. And I've had it for about four years now. And it's amazing. I love it. The food is delicious as you ah saw and tasted.

neocharge: And looking forward making some more stuff on it.

Leon Lionheartly: You know, the the the moment Alex had with that PS5 Pro, um I had that same moment with the Traeger as well.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: So I apologize to my ah wife because I'm going to make a bad financial decision in the future.

neocharge: Nice.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: More like a good financial investment for delicious smoked food.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: ah Yeah, no, if you're interested, I'll i'll point you in the right direction for sure.

Leon Lionheartly: i

neocharge: And if anyone else is interested and they want delicious smoked meats, ah let me know because I did a lot of research. Shout out to my good friend, Zach, as well. He he pointed me in the right direction.

neocharge: But I do a lot of research before I purchase things. And ah you have to, right? I find value in few things rather than just get a lot of things that'll break easily. Uh, and I do a lot of research. I did like a year of research before I got my TV and you've, you've seen, and you've seen from my recommendation on your panel that I think I did a good amount of research and shout out to Caleb as well. He, he gave me the recommendation for the Sony TV, but yeah.

neocharge: Uh, Uh, value in things is important, especially if you want them to last. And I'd say, uh, Traeger is the the way to go. If you want a good, uh, electric, convenient, uh, technologically advanced smoker that makes delicious smoked meats.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: And you can make a, you can bake a fucking cake in there, man. It's like an oven too.

Leon Lionheartly: ah See, ah I'm telling you, man, that's where it's going to get me is I've got a cheesecake recipe and I need to find a way to do a smoked cheesecake. I know you can.

Leon Lionheartly: i just i

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Like you said, so we do all the research you do on the products you buy, um we call that the tism in the professional industry, folks. I do this...

neocharge: Twas the fissom.

Leon Lionheartly: Twist the tisem, my lord. odd I do the same thing, but for like recipes and cooking, i will I'll look and I'll research and I go, okay, what wo how does this person do it? What does this person do?

Leon Lionheartly: And then I go into the history of it because I'm like, okay, um some people are purists about their food. And then I stop and I go, if you're a true purist, you would be eating shit lasagna. like Let's be honest, folks. The original lasagna was just some noodles with cheese and So a experiment a little bit.

Leon Lionheartly: And I think about and go, okay, is this type? I'm the kind of asshole that sits there and watches Food Network stuff because i want to learn. I want to be like, oh, I never thought about combining this with that to to end up with this or that's the proper technique to make ah this kind of sauce.

Leon Lionheartly: I nerd out on that stuff all day long, man.

neocharge: Oh yeah, same here. ah we eat We live to eat. We don't eat to live. And I think we're both foodies. And I know a lot of great places around the Springs.

neocharge: I like trying ah new food places.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: And yeah, I watch Food Network too. That's where I got my awesome mac and cheese recipe that requires no rinsing of the noodles. But I love to cook, especially meat and stuff like that.

neocharge: And ah it's ironic because we got a question on the Discord ah regarding a food item that we, I don't know, we can address it now or address it after the cast.

neocharge: We're kind of in the food realm. We we might as well, right?

Leon Lionheartly: I totally forgot about it. And you know what?

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: We call this a good segue, folks.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Good segue. We can go right into our listener questions. And we did get one ah recently. So let me ah bring that up and we will talk about it.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: So it's regarding food. And the question was from... me get there here.

Leon Lionheartly: Just from Jay.

neocharge: ah Yeah, just from Jay. Shout out Jay, the listener. He sent in a question and he said... Hot or fridge temp pizza?

Leon Lionheartly: Thank

neocharge: So which do you prefer? Pizza cold or hot? And that wrapped into another ah question that is very divisive ah that we'll go into as well. But Bob, what do you what do you think? Hot or cold temp pizza? What is your preferred method of consumption for a delicious pizza pie?

Leon Lionheartly: You know, this is where I'm going to be known as that unhinged motherfucker in this entire podcast who just says things. But I'm telling you folks, cold pizza is amazing.

Leon Lionheartly: I am a firm believer ah in the ability to just grab the slice and be like, oh, look, it has all the flavoring. All the toppings are in place. It's not flavorful. falling apart off of off of this slice. And then I got hot lava red sauce burning my mouth.

Leon Lionheartly: Guess what? It's all there. And if I want to heat it up, you can always heat it up. You throw it in the freaking toaster oven or my don't microwave it. Don't be a heathen. But you put it in the toaster oven for five minutes and hey, there's your hot pizza if you really want to But cold pizza, I'm telling you, especially after a couple of beers can not be beaten.

neocharge: All right, so let me preface that I love hot pizza and I love cold pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: All right.

neocharge: But if I go to a restaurant, a pizza restaurant, and i order a pizza, I'm not going to say, oh, can I have that pizza cold, please? And are you kidding me, dude? the The melted cheese dripping and stretching as you take that piece of pizza and put it in your mouth, that delicious, fresh pie taste.

neocharge: If you're reheating pizza, you do not get that. And you know it. I 100% think that pizza hot is the preferred method to eat it.

neocharge: Now, I love cold pizza, but that's just the aftermath. That's after you've enjoyed that nice, hot, fresh pie and you want to keep it for the ah morning after.

neocharge: Dude, cold breakfast pizza, amazing. But and dude, preferred method of eating pizza is hot. And I just don't understand if you think that cold is. ah Cold is convenient, but you get the harder cheese and the cheese is like not gooey.

neocharge: ah i don't I don't understand. i do I'm not knocking cold pizza. I love cold pizza. But if you ask me, hey, you want some pizza? And the next question out of your mouth, do you want it cold or hot?

neocharge: I'm going look at you like you're a... fucking like psychopath what no i want hot pizza name a name a pizza delivery or a pizza place or a pizza restaurant that serves you cold pizza oh wait

Leon Lionheartly: Papa Murphy's.

neocharge: yeah it no that's raw though and oh

Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry, Papa John's. Papa John's. Because we know those motherfuckers are always late and it's already going to be cold anyways. ah

neocharge: But it's it's intended to be hot. And ah speaking of Papa Murphy's, we need to go and I get the the take and bakes. And guess where i guess where I bake those?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh!

neocharge: In my Traeger. I smoke it. I smoke the pizza. You know who else does that? Cogstone Brewery. And you can get their flatbreads and you can get them raw, unbaked, uncooked.

neocharge: Throw it in the smoker. You get a smoked pizza. Guess what that is? It's a hot pizza. It's hot pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: ah I will say this. So it happened today too. So this is my preemptive. I'm sorry, dude. My kid, he'll order a pizza from like little, so little Caesars, get a $5 hot and ready.

Leon Lionheartly: i wait. He'll eat like three quarters of that son of a bitch. Cause that's what 16 year old ah ah boys do. And then he throws it in the fridge. And then dad goes in there later that evening because the question is fridge temperature piacha pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: I'll go in there when it's at that fridge temperature and I'll just grab a slice, break it off, walk away. And I'm sorry, that's been me stealing your pizza, but don't leave it in the fucking fridge. um yeah I'm kidding, of course.

neocharge: Yeah. No, I have nothing against cold pizza, but my preferred way of eating it. And I i think most people's preferred way is hot. um But you know prove me wrong on the Discord.

neocharge: Let us know. Go into the questions, go into the general comments, and let us know how you like your pizza, hot or cold. What is your preferred way? um And answer this next question because it's the question on everybody's mind when it comes to pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: And i even, it was funny because I was like, oh, I like that that question we got. And we talked about this one-on-one before it was even brought up in the Discord. And that's, do you like pineapple on pizza?

neocharge: Yes or no?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm in the camp of... It's fucking delicious. ah And I'm sorry. If you don't like it, then I just assume you have the gene that assumes cilantro tastes like soap because you have no taste.

Leon Lionheartly: I said what I said. Fight me on the Discord. ah No, seriously. I've always loved it. um i People like to use it with Canadian bacon, which I think is a very... It's a very classic pineapple on pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: I know, once again, going to be the unhinged guy. Pineapple with black olives is amazing because you get the sweet and then that tangy saltiness that comes from the olives and then the savory on top of the cheese.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: You get this this whole gambit of like flavors hitting your tongue. um It's delicious. I love it.

neocharge: Yeah, that's what it's all about. The sweet and savory. I 100% agree. I love pineapple on pizza. It's a Hawaiian delicacy. ah You get the pineapple, you get the ham or the Canadian bacon ah with the red sauce, cheese on a pie.

neocharge: Give it to me all day. ah I have had it with olives and I agree. those The olives give it a nice little flavor profile. And yeah, I'm a big fan of sweet and savory. I don't understand why people have such a big problem with pineapple on pizza.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: ah One, if you haven't tried it and you're judging it, don't do that. ah if If you're knocking it and haven't tried it, you have no say. go Go try pineapple on pizza and then make a decision.

neocharge: But yeah, I 100% agree with you. Love pineapple on pizza. I will get it i at a... place. Like I will get the Hawaiian style pizza and yeah, I love it. I love the sweet and savory and I don't think it's really, I don't see why it's such a big divisive thing out there.

neocharge: It's just sweet and savory treat, man. I love it.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: So I'm going to agree with you on that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, absolutely. and they I think it it goes back to what I originally said. And I don't mean to be mean to anybody out there, but there's there are fewer food purists who say this is what X stuff is defined as.

Leon Lionheartly: um and And they live in that box. And if they that's the comfort you live in, I totally get it. Some people have an obsession with, not for example, not letting their food touch. I get it, right? But... Pizza evolves. Food evolves. It speaks to our culture.

Leon Lionheartly: you the most new like You think of the most common thing. Tomatoes were not brought into Europe originally. So when we talk about pizza and you put in the sauce on there, well that's not originally from Europe anyways. The tomato didn't come from Europe.

Leon Lionheartly: So if you want to be a purist, you might as well take the tea yeah the tomato off. you know And then if you, oh, wait, sorry, that's not where the cheese came from. So you might as well go ahead and remove that off. I guess you have bread.

Leon Lionheartly: So like I get it. Just live a little, folks. And I get it. Trust me, there's one food in this world I will not eat. I have an absolute cannot touch it kind of thing. And it's not an an allergic reaction. it's so It's a visceral reaction. mike My body rejects it and goes, that's the most disgusting thing in the world.

Leon Lionheartly: But outside of that, live a little. You never know.

neocharge: Exactly. ah Take those experiment experiments and experiment with your food. you know Try something different. right um And by the way, I like my pineapple on pizza hot.

neocharge: And if you...

Leon Lionheartly: I like

neocharge: Yeah, no. i I like cold pineapple pizza as well, but I prefer it hot. And if you're like, ew, hot pineapple, that's weird. You ever had grilled pineapple?

neocharge: You ever had grilled pineapple slices? Pineapple hot is amazing, and it brings out the flavor. And actually, if you want to get scientific on it, the colder the item, the less flavor you taste.

neocharge: the The hotter the item, it hits your taste buds more, and you taste it more. So if you like eating cold pizza, you must be eating shitty pizza, and you don't want to taste as much. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: i hope and will I will say, grilled pineapple, you know what would really do well to for the pineapple?

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: A Traeger smoker.

neocharge: Yeah, I have done it.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: I've done it. I'm down to do it again.

Leon Lionheartly: oh

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah, with some ah smoked chicken and some pineapple glaze or mango glaze or stuff. Oh, yeah. so it's unlimited, endless possibilities. You can pretty much smoke anything on the Traeger, including fruit.

neocharge: So... Yeah. um Thank you so much for that question. We really appreciate you you writing in, Jay, on Discord. And keep those questions coming. We're going read them on the cast.

neocharge: And if ah people are listening to this podcast and they don't know how to what this Discord is or where we are, how do they join?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, so that's the great question. ah You can find the landing page with all of our links for social media, um where you actually can hear this podcast, as well as the Discord channel.

Leon Lionheartly: um You'll go to https colon slash slash linktr.ee slash shapesofgaming. That's linktree slash shapesofgaming.

Leon Lionheartly: https colon slash slash linktr.ee slash shapesofgaming. You'll find us there. That's your landing page. Come join this community. And feel free to throw out some more unhinged questions because I was divisive.

Leon Lionheartly: But i know I know you folks out there. You got some better stuff for us.

neocharge: Oh yeah, for sure. And we love getting the community engaged and having a conversation because that's what this podcast is all about.

Leon Lionheartly: to say.

neocharge: Another thing we got a question on that is relevant to what you just said is, are we on YouTube? Are there any plans for YouTube? We actually are. We are on YouTube, not video yet. We're working on that.

neocharge: um But you can find us on YouTube at, ah it's at Shapes of Gaming. And if you can't remember that the link tree, uh, URL, then you can always just go to Facebook, go to Twitter, go to Instagram and just search shapes of gaming.

neocharge: We're there. And, uh, we have the discord link invite on our socials as well. Uh, and we're going to try and ramp up, uh, social stuff soon. we're just lining things up, man. We're on episode 11.

neocharge: And then like we said in the beginning, this show is going to keep evolving. And, uh, we ah We'll shape it with the community. So.

Leon Lionheartly: I love it. I love it, man. Yeah. ah I don't know. got anything else going on in your life before we kick this off?

neocharge: ah Not really. Been playing Death Stranding, which we'll talk about. But other than that, nope. So we'll get into the news.

Leon Lionheartly: no

Leon Lionheartly: Without further ado, who wants to go first? You want to start this off this week or...

neocharge: ah all Yeah, I'll start off. um A news item that broke, I think, when we were either recording last episode or shortly after. ah Neil Druckmann, the creative director of Naughty Dog, famous for Uncharted, The Last of Us, and soon to be Intergalactic, The Heretic Prophet.

neocharge: um And also... ah involved with the HBO show, The Last of Us. He has announced he's stepping down from HBO.

neocharge: So when I read this, I was like, I'm stepping down. And I'm like, oh gosh, don't please. From HBO. And I want to focus on Naughty Dog. uh it dude he was an intern there and became the creative director this is what he's ingrained in and what he was honestly born to do he gave us greats like the last of us and ah uncharted they made crash bandicoot of course and i'm pretty sure he was there for most of that so he recently dipped his toes into i

neocharge: TV show and directing. And he directed just a very small few ah The Last of Us HBO episodes. i And he is kind of easy he's wanting to step down from that and really focus on Naughty Dog and the developer and the game development. And I couldn't be more happy about this.

neocharge: ah Focus all your energy on your new IP, Intergalactic, And i can't see what they do. i can't wait to see what they do with that game. And I'm super excited. He's, you know, ah narrowing his focus into what he was honestly born to do.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah Absolutely. this ah i mean, you you think about it. He started as a ah fucking intern um here at Naughty Dog um and then rose rose through the ranks to now be the the head of the studio.

Leon Lionheartly: um I've had aspirations to do certain things, not from in video gaming, but you know with ah other parts of my life. And um big congrats to him to being there.

Leon Lionheartly: um But the the part of this that ah I wonder, because it's obviously important um for him to step back, because I get a feeling that Naughty Dog, we got Intergalactic's... Let me put it this way.

Leon Lionheartly: We got Intergalactic's announcement at the Game Awards last year. This was six months ago. um So almost seven now as the date of the ah day of this publishing.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: I wonder at what point have they gotten to development in this game and the development cycle? and they said ah And they being ah Naughty Dog have come back to Neil and said, look, we're were're glad you got to go do this and you got to to put a bucket list item um completed, ah but we need you, man. Like,

Leon Lionheartly: we we need your mind, we need your drive, we need your vision ah to be able to get this thing over the the ah the the the finish line because, quite frankly, it's out in the wild. It's there.

Leon Lionheartly: And the last thing we need is to have a cancel just a game just quietly go... to go quiet for two to another three years because we're already gone how long since ah their last release?

Leon Lionheartly: um You know, with Last of Us 2, you It's time, buddy. um and that's And I get that. But the the the part that I did want to lean to um on this and is, and I don't know if Neil feels this way.

Leon Lionheartly: um i'm not I don't know him and personally. I think he's a great individual. But um think about it this way, Matt. You helped with Jak and Daxter and Uncharted with Amy Hedding, and you you built this this reputation.

Leon Lionheartly: um And you climbed through the ranks, and you created The Last of Us. smash hit, probably in my top 20 games, easily. You created The Last of Us Part II.

Leon Lionheartly: Wild Divisive is a very well-beloved game and still sold extremely well. And then you sold Last of Us Part I Remastered. Then you sold as Last of Us Part I and II Compilation Remastered. And The Last of Us Part II Reimagined Remastered Edition.

Leon Lionheartly: And then there's the HBO show that's selling. um

neocharge: And don't forget factions.

Leon Lionheartly: And don't forget factions. The thing that, as a creative mind, the last thing he would I would personally, and I don't know if he feels this way, but I could see it is, do you want to be known as the guy who was the last of us guy?

Leon Lionheartly: Or do you want to be known as Neil Druckmann, the major hit hitter in the industry? Because ah think about it this way. um We have the great, great mind of an individual who just created a game that we're talking about today.

Leon Lionheartly: He's known for a lot of things, but he is known as a creative and driving force in the industry. I think Neil doesn't want to get caught into that. And it's just speculation. I want to specify that, but I think he doesn't want to get caught into the creative rut of, all right, cool.

Leon Lionheartly: Let's get this last of us monkey off my back. i want to set I want to spread my wings and please bring Intergalactic on because I'll be there day one.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. It looks incredible. And yeah, shout out to Neil. He's one of the greats. And the the fact that he went and and poured his love of The Last of Us and that IP from a video game and wanted to make sure that the TV show reflected a lot of what the video game was, shows dedication and passion on his end.

neocharge: I watched season one of The Last of Us. It was great. I like the game better, but that's like the person like, oh, the book i just personally like the game better.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: And I have not watched season two. I've heard things about it, but I can't really comment on it. I've only seen clips and stuff like that. I don't want to spoil anything, ah but I haven't watched it and I don't intend to watch it.

neocharge: And not. If that tells you anything. I heard Craig Mazin wrote a lot of the stuff for season two and Neil wrote an episode or two for season one. And i think he was more ingrained in that and had more ah creative direction. So um I just love that Neil is going back to focus on the video game. I think ah video games are the ultimate form of storytelling. You are in the shoes of the character. You control the character.

neocharge: I think you create a more ah heavy relationship with the character and ah when you're controlling them. And it's not kind of shown to you, but that's that's just me. And I'm so glad that he's going back to Naughty Dog and going head down focused on Intergalactic because, man, Intergalactic looks so awesome.

neocharge: And he said it's heavily inspired by Cowboy Bebop and Guardians of the Galaxy. And Akira. Fuck yeah.

neocharge: Give it to me. And with Naughty Dog's like polish and precision and amazing gameplay mechanics, dude, Naughty Dog is top tier in the top three at least um for a PlayStation first party studio.

neocharge: And this is a new IP from them. I couldn't be more excited. And I'm so glad Neil is focusing on this project. It's just great news for gamers.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. but Welcome back to the community, Neil.

neocharge: So hell yeah. Hell yeah. What else we got?

Leon Lionheartly: ah Let's see. So I'm going bring that. I'll take this one. As a no surprise to anybody, actually, in all seriousness, um this is a huge surprise ah to a lot of people.

Leon Lionheartly: um Some of the community has been asking for. um This one comes from Video Games Chronicle, but ah this broke right after we recorded last week.

neocharge: Hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: But Helldivers 2, the smash hit from last year, and one of my top... three games of last year is finally coming to Xbox um on August 26th of this year.

Leon Lionheartly: um Which, by the way, Matt, you know what else comes out on August the 26th.

neocharge: There's so much in August. Shortly after, it's Metal Gear Solid, Snake Eater. And then, let's see, the 26th.

Leon Lionheartly: All right,

neocharge: Let me look. There's so much coming out in August. I'm going to look at my list right now.

Leon Lionheartly: well...

neocharge: August 26th is, yeah, Gears War Reloaded. Interesting. That is conflicting. Damn.

Leon Lionheartly: uh-huh yeah yeah uh so it sounds like uh um you can guys go uh the community can go look this up but uh this was announced uh just this last week and it is launching the same day that gears of war reloaded is coming to playstation um this is an interesting strategy man

neocharge: Damn.

neocharge: i got my I got my head in my hands, shaking my head right now because this isn't the first time Xbox has cannibalized their releases. Even if it's second party or third party, they did this with Claire and they did this with the Elder Scrolls Oblivion remastered Shadow Drop two days before Claire Obscure, which they helped publish. They helped fund and publish And they cannibalized sales on both ends.

neocharge: And I feel really sorry for Elder Scrolls, unfortunately, because Claire <unk> i was a smash hit.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank

neocharge: It's probably going to be game of the year. and that And you actually were a little late to Claire because of the Elder Scrolls Shadow Drop. And they're doing the same thing. They're releasing Gears of War.

neocharge: They're one of the top three first-party IPs that are that we want to PlayStation. We got Forza. we're getting Gears of War, the next one's Halo, it's coming.

neocharge: But this is like their second major IP coming. And it's on the same day that they're bringing all these players to Helldivers. Dude, people only have a certain amount of time and a certain amount of attention.

neocharge: And they're going to pick one or the other. And this might cannibalize sales on both ends because Helldivers is what, 40 bucks? Gears is 50 bucks? third person co-op, uh, non or yeah. Nonfiction or fiction. Uh, I always get those two mixed up, uh,

neocharge: Like they're kind of in the same vein and they're both shooters. And I, I don't, I think they need to stagger these and I think they need to push the hell divers date back.

Leon Lionheartly: ah I don't think so. um

neocharge: I don't think so.

Leon Lionheartly: but that Yeah. So the the the way I look at this um is, ah so first off, and we'll talk about this later, this will be ah in our main topic, but let's be honest.

Leon Lionheartly: Xbox has trained its user base not to purchase games. and and the way i And the reason I say this and then where I'm going with this is um I played the original Gears of War and then immediately stopped and did not pick up with two.

Leon Lionheartly: um A multitude of factors like other games that came out and stuff like that. But you know the reason, the biggest, biggest reason I didn't play anything beyond the first Gears of War, Matt?

neocharge: Why? a ton of people played the multiplayer. It was like one of the best multiplayers.

Leon Lionheartly: Bingo. Gears of War was sold as a single player or co-op action third person shooter. Most people played the multiplayer aspect because ah if you haven't played Gears of War, folks, I'm going to give you this to suit for your consideration. It's not a spoiler, but that game can be beaten in like six hours.

Leon Lionheartly: The campaign. Yeah.

neocharge: Right, but that's my point. is this is they People love multiplayer Gears of War, and it's an ongoing live ah like multiplayer online game.

neocharge: What else is that? Helldivers. like You can't play both games at once. And if you're getting if you're getting Gears to just play the six-hour campaign, I totally get it.

Leon Lionheartly: you cant Yeah, so Gears is competitive co-op.

neocharge: It's not cannibalizing it. But a lot of people are going to get Gears to play that six-hour campaign and then dive into the multiplayer with their friends. And that's exactly what Helldivers is too. um Online multiplayer co-op experience.

neocharge: Well, yeah, Horde mode came in three.

Leon Lionheartly: It's PV.

neocharge: ah Yeah, it's PvP.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes, it's competitive.

neocharge: Yeah, it's PvP.

Leon Lionheartly: It's PVP. And the last thing, as a guy who's... ah So I'm a 40-year-old father of three, full-time job, loves to play his games when he can and still podcast, right?

Leon Lionheartly: The last thing I want to do... I only play one competitive game, but that's not the point. The last thing I want to do is play a PvP game and then go get stacked up against a neckbeard sweat who never leaves his grandma's basement. And I'm being serious on this.

Leon Lionheartly: To play against him in a lobby because they don't have skill-based match matchmaking and watch him bounce from wall to wall. Guess what I'm going to I'm going to say two words.

Leon Lionheartly: Fuck this. And because Microsoft has trained me not to purchase your software, I'm going to go over to Helldivers where the community is going to troll you a little bit, but they're not they're there to to complete an objective.

Leon Lionheartly: So they're going to bring you in with open arms and then I'm going to be, wow, this is really cool. And then going see six banners of war bonds that I can purchase off there. And all of a sudden...

Leon Lionheartly: You know who's getting those rips? Arrowhead. Microsoft's going to get 30% of it, but Arrowhead's going to get rip after rip after rip. You know what you're not getting rips of? Cosmetics and Gears of War.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm telling you, i'm telling you the gears of that this is is not to cannibalize each other from a perspective of, like you said, people only have so much time.

neocharge: That's,

Leon Lionheartly: um And if I get into a PvP, I would never play Warzone right now because everybody that's in a Call of Duty or a Warzone lobby... loves that game so much that I have zero interest in spending 15 hours of ah of my life every two days to to practice so I can be get good. Because if I'm going to get good, it's going to be in a Sekiro or a Dark Souls, right?

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. um Is Helldivers coming to Game Pass or is it a purchased title? Look that up because that's my point.

Leon Lionheartly: it

neocharge: you Your scenario was purchasing both. What if someone has to choose and they're huge Gears of War fans? I agree with you. Helldivers is a better multiplayer experience. It's one of the best.

neocharge: And I put way more hours into Helldivers than I did Gears of War, I think combined. I played some PvP stuff, but PvP isn't my thing. And it is team-based PvP, so it's somewhat co-op online.

neocharge: ah But Helldivers is co-op PvE for sure. And it's a better experience, in my opinion. I just still think they're going to cannibalize each other. And people out there, you know, a lot of people out there are going to have to choose.

neocharge: They're going to be like, well, do I check out this Helldivers game that a lot of my friends are saying that's really super fun? Or do I go back to my beloved franchise because I left Xbox a long time ago, which we're going to be talking about, and bre and finally play Gears of War on my PS5?

neocharge: You know what I mean?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you're you're absolutely right. Oh, shit, dude. I heard otherwise. I apologize to the community on this one.

neocharge: Ah, okay.

Leon Lionheartly: So um this one is coming from Game Rant um ah just because this is the one that's easiest to read. can i Aside, can I talk about how these news sites are fucking trash um with their ads?

neocharge: I hate them.

Leon Lionheartly: But they don't.

neocharge: Shout out to Game Informer because they they don't have a lot of ads and they're very, ah yeah, less ads for sure.

Leon Lionheartly: ah don't

Leon Lionheartly: um But anyways, unfortunately for Xbox players, Arrowhead community manager Baskinator confirmed on the official Helldivers 2 Discord server that the studio had, quote, no plans to launch Helldivers 2 on Xbox Game Pass.

Leon Lionheartly: Baskinator replied to a user who claimed Helldivers 2 was coming to the service with, quote, definitely not, no plans to bring it to Game Pass, end quote. That that means... for those that are on the Xbox, you're going to have to pay $40.

Leon Lionheartly: I think this is huge, man, because just like I said at the top of the hour, top of the hour Xbox has treated it has trained its people, its users, its hardcore base, not to purchase their games.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: and which Which sucks, because if this came to Game Pass, there's so many good quality microtransactions within the Helldiver's U game, they could earn their money back and then some, I believe. um Plus, you're looking at How many?

Leon Lionheartly: Two million players maybe if it was a huge smash that are going to get into Helldivers out of the Xbox space. I'm not trying to be take condescending. I'm just being realistic here.

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Sure.

Leon Lionheartly: that's That sucks. i ah But I get it.

neocharge: Yeah, so...

Leon Lionheartly: I get it because they're not going to and make their money.

neocharge: That was my assumption, because if they were open to a subscription model, we would got it on PS Plus, and we didn't. And I respect that, because i i don't like the subscription model.

neocharge: And, you know, it's it's good value for other people, um but I feel like it breeds predatory... ah experiences and decisions on the developer to really try and extract little amounts from you as you go.

Leon Lionheartly: Good one.

neocharge: Look at Genshin Impact. It's free, free to play. All these free to play games, they usually come with a caveat, and that's going to be pestering you with little microtransactions every time.

neocharge: And you're you're probably going to end up paying more for your experience. ah But yeah, Xbox players, if they are a huge Gears of War fan, they already own Gears of War Ultimate Collection.

neocharge: They're getting Gears of War reloaded for free, whereas Helldivers is a $40 game. Helldivers is the better experience for sure. But I mean, it doesn't have a campaign, so it really is all up to your taste. If you want a story based campaign, Gears of War is is awesome. It's an awesome story. It just gets better with two and three.

neocharge: One kicks it off. ah But yeah, Xbox players, like you said, Xbox has trained them not to buy their games. And they're going to look at this $40 price tag on Helldivers, which you and I both know is a steal because we put hundreds of hours into it.

neocharge: And we had a ton of fun. And it was my multiplayer game of the year. And they're going to say, eh, nah,

Leon Lionheartly: That's a bummer, man. And you know the ultimate irony out of this, dude? And this is why it's important to trade your users to purchase your products. You know how much Gears of War reloaded is on PlayStation 5?

neocharge: 50 bucks.

Leon Lionheartly: No, it's on Amazon right now. $40 for pre-order.

neocharge: Oh, I think MSRP, it's 50. But if Amazon has it for 40, I might be mistaken.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: it might be It's 40 or 50 bucks. Yeah, it's the same. And they're releasing on the same day. Just stagger them.

Leon Lionheartly: That's wild.

neocharge: Just push it back or push it forward like two weeks or something. It's yeah, it's Xbox does all the time. They cannibalize their sales. They're stupid. and we're going to talk about it in depth with our main topic.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, but not to beat a dead horse.

neocharge: So but yeah, dude, Yeah, but positively, this is awesome that Xbox players are coming to Helldivers. Welcome. ay If you're on the fence about buying this and you're on Xbox exclusively, go go buy it. It's 100% worth the money.

neocharge: ah The microtransactions are in the background. I didn't feel pestered with them. They're there if you want them. And it's just as an amazing co-op experience.

neocharge: ah we We got it on launch. We had a blast. There were so many ah funny moments. And it's ah it's it's amazing. I love Helldivers. And it's it's Starship Troopers, the game.

neocharge: So you should go play it. You should buy it. It's 100% worth it. And welcome to all these Xbox players. ah Welcome to the fight. Ready to spread some democracy, baby.

Leon Lionheartly: For Super Earth.

neocharge: Exactly. Have some liberty. ah Yeah. So, and Arrowhead is has been in pretty good at supporting the game and releasing content. There was the PSN name debacle, but that wasn't on them. That was on PlayStation.

neocharge: And their next game, I think they announced that they're just going multi-platform because PlayStation probably pissed them off with that. And ah we'll ah we'll see. I can't wait to see what they do next. And that's it's amazing news, honestly, that they are sharing the game with everyone. Xbox players and PlayStation players and PC players all unite.

neocharge: Let's take those bugs, bots, and Illuminat down and spread some democracy.

Leon Lionheartly: i i you know If you know, you know.

neocharge: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, yeah. So little rant there. and it's probably going to lead into the, the main topic that we're going to talk about as well. Uh, more news on my end, uh, on, so ghost of Yote, uh, we're getting a dedicated state of play on, uh, actually today, uh,

neocharge: July 11th, today at 2 p.m. Pacific time, 5 p.m. Eastern time. ah And if you are interested on the fence about Ghost of Yote, go check it out.

neocharge: ah They say there's going to be about 20 minutes of gameplay and I might lightly watch. I kind of want to see the UI and how it, how it runs on a you know, game cycle basis and what they're going to show, but I'll probably check out if I see anything that's like spoilery.

neocharge: I'm debating on watching it because I'm sold. Uh, I'm sold specifically on that. Ghost of Tsushima was incredible. It was my game of the year and I can't wait for the sequel. And, uh,

neocharge: There's this has already been in the marketing marketing material, but they are alluding to a wolf familiar that you can control. And boy, oh boy, am I excited for that?

neocharge: I love that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, ah definitely.

neocharge: So.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm glad, excited for you on this one, man. um I don't know. Sorry, i'm ah I'm so scattered brained right now, dude.

neocharge: You're good. You're good.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: um Did you you like Ghost of Tsushima? You were a big fan, right? Did you finish it?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, yeah.

neocharge: Platinum it?

Leon Lionheartly: So Ghost of Tsushima um came out the same year as another game. that And i think ah I think, let's just put it this way. I think Tsushima was my game of the year that year.

Leon Lionheartly: um Absolutely. What made him make it great is it was a late entry um because if it came out around the same time as Yotei is going to drop. I remember that. ah Because it was a i there was on this Last few was the last of Us Part 2 thing where I was like, I want to play this and I just really couldn't get into it. And and It wasn't... Nothing personal, folks. I didn't have anything spoiled. It was just I wasn't in the mood for that game. If you're a mood gamer, you get it.

Leon Lionheartly: right um And I was in this weird b limbo where I was playing Civilization VI because suddenly I got the bug to play 4X games. And then Ghost of Yote hit.

Leon Lionheartly: And I remember not seeing anything about it. It just kind of... but i was i wasn't even paying attention to anything. he was That's how out of it I was. And then all of a sudden it comes across. And I was like, ooh... This looks good.

Leon Lionheartly: And you know that game, when you see it, you know it has style. i'm Persona 5 was that game um and others where you just see you go, yep, that's going to be a good time.

Leon Lionheartly: and was good That was Ghost of Tsushima. And boy, oh boy, I was so right on that one. It was my game of the year. But um to bring this all to another close, Yote, I'm excited.

Leon Lionheartly: I think it looks really good. i think on a PS5 Pro with the lighting effects, it's going to be fucking bomb. But at this point, I don't need to see it.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm sold. You've got my sale. um It's a matter of when I get to you, but you have my sale 100%. So I don't need to see gameplay footage. I did the same thing with the game we're going to talk about later. Day one.

Leon Lionheartly: Don't need to see it. I'm good.

neocharge: Yeah, I have it pre-ordered. i'm I'm right there with you. And ah talking about the top tier first party PlayStation developers, Sucker Punch don't miss.

neocharge: they They made the Infamous series. They made Sly Cooper. they They make ah great titles and they they made the new IP Ghost of Tsushima. It was along with all the the new IP from the top first party devs that we got on PS4.

neocharge: i And I couldn't be more excited for this one. So yeah, I'm very excited to see what Sucker Punch is going to do. And I might check it out. I might not. I'm on the fence of checking out the content because I'm 100% sold on the game like you are.

Leon Lionheartly: for

neocharge: so yeah. Yeah, you want to check it out, today ah at 2 p.m. ah PT, 5 p.m. Eastern time. So YouTube. um So Thursday, July 10th. Today.

neocharge: So 10th or 11th? Yeah, 10th.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, 10th.

neocharge: I said 11th. Today, folks, if you're if you're listening to this on release, Thursday, July 10th.

Leon Lionheartly: Nope, we're not.

neocharge: So.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um Let's see. I think we got one last piece of news here. that so This is a smaller one, um at least in my realm.

neocharge: All right.

Leon Lionheartly: But ah i as it was released, ah this one coming from Game Informer, or lovely site, came out a couple ah chair with another of article that came out right after we recorded um Seems to be yeah last week. This seems to be a trend.

Leon Lionheartly: um BioWare has officially announced that it is planning to sunset online support for Anthem. um It will on January 12, 2026, the sci-fi shooter servers will be shut down, re rendering the online only title completely unplayable. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: It sounds like they're going to go in however this was canceled. um It's shifting towards ah looks like a maybe the next next Mass Effect is the rumor I'm hearing. um cause Supposedly that's where the a coming but ah yeah what What do you think here, man? i don't know Did you play Anthem at all? I don't remember.

neocharge: I played the shit out Anthem. I have the Platinum and I'm one of the very few that do because that Platinum is an RNG nightmare. I loved Anthem. I didn't love it for what they promised it would be.

neocharge: i I played the campaign. every Usually when you were out in the world in your mech suits, I played Storm, ah the Storm class, so the the magic user. I thought it had ah incredible gameplay, really cool Iron Man flight sim, really cool flight controls. Loved the story.

neocharge: ah when you were first person, not in your suit, it wasn't that fun. And they the writing wasn't great, but I love the premise. The gameplay was fun. i put 60 hours into it.

neocharge: I beat it. I put it down. And then when i they announced this a long time ago, the anthem was kind of was probably going to get shut down. i was like, I got to get that platinum now because you'll never be able to get it.

neocharge: And I just had some RNG stuff that took a lot more hours ah to get. But yeah, I really liked Anthem. And they promised it to be this whole, you know, game as a service, ongoing story, kind of like Destiny. Everyone's called the Destiny killer. But hey, you know what?

neocharge: Both can go exist at the same time. Nothing has to be killed. And clearly Anthem got killed here. But yeah. I played it, loved it. And after 60 hours, I put it down and said, hey, that's a great game.

neocharge: I hate that it was always online. i hate that you can't won't be able to play it again because I mean, it was super fun to play. Really cool co-op gameplay. And I'm ah very sad that you won't be able to play it anymore.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: So that that really sucks. Yeah, I'm an Anthem fan.

Leon Lionheartly: I didn't know that. Today I learned. ah this this Anthem was one of those games, ah and I'm sorry, because Anthem was one of those games that I thought always was I heard about, but I never got a chance to play.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: um I'm definitely not now because I'm not going to have an incomplete trophy list in that regard. ah Or at least I'm not going to willingly do that to myself. Unknowingly is one thing. um You know what i think you should do, Matt?

neocharge: What?

Leon Lionheartly: You can go see compilation videos of when games get shut down. I think you should log in and go be there during the system shutdown.

neocharge: Yeah.

neocharge: Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: You can see compilation. I don't know if you've ever seen them on YouTube, though, for like certain servers for games ah that that got shut down, and you see the community there and everything.

neocharge: oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Is it one of those... like yeah Is it the end of the world? No, not really. But it's a really cool moment to see the end of something. um and kind of I bet you there'd be some good community ah like ah i don't know events.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah Self-driven, of course, ah for that. um But yeah, man, that's... That sucks. um And as a side to this, I don't know if you heard because of the the single player component going bye-bye on this.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: this is ah this ah This plus another event, which I refuse to go into right now because I do not want to diverge this show, is part of that Keep Games Alive initiative that's been going around. um I'm not opening that bag of worms on this show. we're We've only got so much time.

Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, that sucks, man.

neocharge: ah yeah

neocharge: I was planning on jumping back in for a little bit, maybe not, you know, closing down the server with everyone else. Cause I have seen the halo two videos and stuff like that.

Leon Lionheartly: a

neocharge: Cause they can't shut down the server unless the last person leaves. Right. So, I mean, you can, but, and I, I guess, cause halo two, the server lasted as long as the last person was in there.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you can. and

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I believe that's what it was. It was something, I remember that, um because I'd have to go back and look at it, but you're right.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: There was a, they just didn't shut it down until somebody, I guess they were playing the waiting game and being patient. um

neocharge: Yeah. Right.

Leon Lionheartly: And what I mean by that, folks, is these servers are nothing but virtual machines.

neocharge: hey mean

Leon Lionheartly: You could just literally power the fucking thing off, is the equivalent of unplugging the power.

neocharge: right

Leon Lionheartly: But it's really cool. I wonder if they'll do that.

neocharge: Right. Well, it might have been because it was peer-to-peer hosted and you host your own server. And that's why. Because there's server-side hosted ah lobbies and then there's peer-to-peer hosted lobbies.

Leon Lionheartly: True.

neocharge: And that might be why. But yeah, I'm going to dive in. I'm going to fly around for a bit ah the last time I can. I'll probably stream it. Maybe be on mic. We'll have like a little... Anthem going away party. I might do it for an hour or two. i don't There's so many games to play, but I am going to give a swan song to Anthem and shout out.

neocharge: They tried. Bioware tried. ah and I liked the game. I think they succeeded in what they made, but they had too much of a focus on the ongoing and games as a service.

neocharge: And they didn't, they didn't really make what they were selling, but they made a solid 60 hour, uh, multiplayer co-op adventure, honestly, in my opinion. So rip Anthem, uh, end of year.

neocharge: So, yep.

Leon Lionheartly: RIP and peace.

neocharge: Uh, Yeah. So a little bit of negative news and that that's OK. The gaming industry is a little shaken up right now and ah mainly because of our our main topic, honestly, and ah Xbox.

neocharge: So we've we've seen a lot of shakeups in the industry, especially the 9000 fucking layoffs that we just saw from Xbox shutting down studios, shutting down games.

neocharge: And I thought it would be a good time and a good topic to maybe reflect on where the fuck they went wrong. And why are they here now?

neocharge: And maybe a little bit of the state of the gaming industry, because PlayStation is doing better, but they're hurting a little bit too. But dude, Xbox. ah So that's the main topic. Where the fuck Xbox went wrong?

neocharge: We're not industry analysts. We're not industry experts. But I can tell you that... I was on the Xbox 360 primarily. It was my primary game system. I'm a huge PlayStation fan, always have been.

neocharge: um But I ran into an unfortunate circumstance in 2010-ish, I think, or 2008. I don't know. Sometime in there. Where am i my PlayStation original launch 80 gig backwards compatible console got stolen.

neocharge: from my house. Someone broke in and stole that, my iMac, my GameCube, all my game systems along with my, and I didn't have an Xbox. So I only had the PlayStation and they so stole my Wii and all kinds of high ticket items.

Leon Lionheartly: right.

neocharge: Anyway, I don't know how it happened, why it happened, but they kicked in my door and stole everything. I wasn't there, thankfully. I was gone. So there was inside information, I think, of when I would be there and when I wouldn't be.

neocharge: No one got hurt, but all my shit got stolen. And the launch of the, shortly after the PlayStation 3 launched, it wasn't great for PlayStation.

neocharge: And they were hurting. This was around the time the p at big PSN outage. um They didn't have a lot of first party titles. And the 360, everyone, all my friends had a 360.

neocharge: And I said, you know what? And the ah there were achievements too. And I was like, you know what? I think I want to check out this 360. got Xbox 360 and... i got an xbox three sixty and I was a primary 360 player for a few years and I had i had the PS3 Slim eventually.

neocharge: And that's ah that's why I eventually left ah Xbox because the PS3 was technologically superior. I put Final Fantasy 13. I bought both copies because I'm insane like that.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: And I compared them and dude, the PS3 just ran the the games way better. They looked way better. They ran rape way better. But it was all about the community and gaming online. And I played Halo, Gears of War,

neocharge: everything And I was big into the 360. I was a 360 gamer for a while, and I was very excited ah for what Xbox had in store for the next generation.

neocharge: And what do we get, Bob? What do we get in 2013, which I think is when Xbox died? What do we get?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, you're talking about the Xbox One.

neocharge: Yep.

neocharge: Yep. i was a i was an Xbox fan. I was ready to support. And dude, the 360 was amazing. It was a gamer first console. um Xbox Live was ahead of the game. The achievements were ahead of the game.

neocharge: ah And it was awesome. It didn't run games as well as PS3, the third party stuff. But I had a blast. i'm i'm I got to like 50,000 gamer score. I played a lot on it.

neocharge: I was excited for the next generation. And they basically were like, here's the Xbox one. It's all about sports TV and no video call of duty, call of duty.

neocharge: And no video games were mentioned whatsoever. They're like, they were like, and here's halo, the TV show.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah How'd that work out?

neocharge: And, it's Yeah, it's crazy looking back because they announced a game console as a, ah like they said, water cooler that everyone can talk about.

neocharge: And nothing was shown game wise. And they imposed a ton of restrictions on it.

Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: It had to check in every 24 hours to license the content. It's a... there You couldn't share your games, which bred one of the most brilliant 23-second marketing, ah pieces of marketing material ever from PlayStation, by the way.

neocharge: ah

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: you you You couldn't trade in your games. Everything was locked to your profile. And they backpedaled all that, by the way. ah And it just, they kind of, the day after, literally the day after, I was like,

neocharge: Well, the PS3 is more technologically advanced and i have all these 360 titles. I went to GameStop. i trader and all ah traded in all my third-party 360 titles for all third-party PS3 titles.

neocharge: And I think it was shortly after PlayStation came out, they announced the PS4. They announced they weren't imposing restrictions on checking in or anything like that. They announced you can just trade your physical games.

neocharge: Xbox said you can't trade physical games with your peer. It's locked to your account. And not only that, it has to check in every 24 hours. And dude, what a misstep from Don Matrick. He was the head of Xbox at the time.

neocharge: He's not anymore. And we can see why.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: But someone, I think it it was a reporter, said, hey, like what about military guys overseas if they want to an Xbox One without an internet connection?

neocharge: And Mattrick was like all smug and he's like, well, uh, there's a console fortunately for them. And that's called the Xbox three 60. And I was like, what a fucking douche.

neocharge: And all these, these people came up with suits and it was, you could just see, it was about greed and chasing the next big thing. And they didn't give a fuck about gamers. And then,

neocharge: ah who was it ah ahead of Xbox at the time or ahead of PS PlayStation at the time, his name is slipping me, ah but he came out and he was like, we're, we're here for gamers.

neocharge: And they showed games. They showed a ton of awesome PS4 titles and they were focused on the gamers and they were leaning into the fact that we're making a console for gamers and we're not imposing and restrictions like Xbox is.

neocharge: So that's, That was the beginning of it. What did you, did you watch that? ah Jack Trenton, Jack Trenton.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep, Jack Trenton, that's what i was looking for right now.

neocharge: He, he came out and dropped the fucking mic, man. ah You should, are if if you're ever curious to see when Xbox died, it was at that PlayStation conference. It was at that PlayStation E3 conference.

neocharge: And you can hear the crowd go wild. This is the same crowd E3. You know, you went to all the conferences, all three major ones, ah Xbox, Nintendo, PlayStation, all the major players. so And you could hear Xbox die in that crowd because they they literally were targeting what Xbox has said like a couple days before, and they put it in their keynote.

neocharge: to basically counteract the terrible, terrible anti-consumer practices that Xbox announced.

neocharge: They were like, and we won't be imposing any restrictions. You don't want to check in. The crowd goes, ah! That's when Xbox died. Did you watch both both those events? I watched them live.

Leon Lionheartly: well

neocharge: Well, not there, but I watched them live digitally.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, yeah. not Not live in person. Trust me, I never got to. And that's a rest in peace to E3. I watched them. And I'm going to be honest, because I remember Microsoft was one of the first ones. If not, it was like the second a person or a presentation ah for the event.

Leon Lionheartly: And i just I was excited. It was E3. was ready to watch you you know and It kind of just fell flat. um I was like, we what are you selling? are you selling a game console? I'm having a hard time understanding what you're selling me here.

Leon Lionheartly: um and That note aside, I did buy an Xbox One. It did not live long in this house. I'll leave it like that. um but yeah I watched it. um It's interesting.

Leon Lionheartly: you You think that's the moment xbox dot ah Xbox kind of started hitting the down trail and died?

neocharge: Oh, yeah, that that was when it started for sure.

Leon Lionheartly: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: ah And yeah, I bought an Xbox one as well. And it lasted, I think, three weeks. the The release titles on it were like Rise, Son of Rome. ah

Leon Lionheartly: huh

neocharge: I don't know Titanfall was a release title but or a launch window title. But ah the release titles for the PS4, there was a free one that blew me away. Resogun. ah from Housemarque, who makes Returnal now, and they make Nexmakina, they make Matterfall, incredible developer um that PlayStation actually bought because they loved them so much, and now they're a first-party developer making Soros.

neocharge: What?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah. Sorry. i You're right. I do remember ah the ah the Sony presentation because there was a game announced that year um because I watched it with my wife.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: And the second I saw it, my jaw dropped and i I felt a little funny in my loins, if you know what I mean.

neocharge: What was it?

Leon Lionheartly: ah Final Fantasy fifteen

neocharge: it Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: That was i was officially announced at the 2013.

neocharge: Mm hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: It came much later. I get that.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: But when I first saw that, I composed that. like As soon as I saw 615, everything that happened with Microsoft kind of went out the window. um ah The bad feelings and energies because I was like, oh oh my god, we're finally getting a fucking Final Fantasy for ah you know yeah mainline and it's not MMO. and i like i That's a different diatribe. But yes, I remember now.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. all And by the way, mike so p s four was one hundred dollars announced to be cheaper out the gate.

neocharge: oh

neocharge: $100 less because they bundled the Kinect in with Xbox One, which is where I want to go next to the the slow downfall. ah But yeah, launch window exclusives for the PS4, infamous Second Son, Sucker Punch.

neocharge: ah They came out the gate. Second Son is one of my favorite games on the PS4. It's incredible. I love it. Killzone Shadowfall, Knack. ah As much flack as people want to give Knack.

neocharge: Yeah, it just rhymed. ah Didn't mean to though. It is a great game. i loved it. It's technologically advanced and very impressive. ah There were a lot of particle effects and a lot of stuff going on. I loved Knack and I tried platinuming it, but there's a lot of there's some trophies that are nuts on that.

neocharge: ah But those were.

Leon Lionheartly: Fuck that. No, I can't do that.

neocharge: Yeah. Right, right. ah And then let's see, Supermassive. We got Transistor. That wasn't a launch exclusive, though, or exclusive title. But yeah, PS4.

neocharge: They just showed games. ah Crazy, right? You show games at your game ah presentation and unveiling of your next generation console at E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo for games.

neocharge: And yeah, Xbox fumbled the ball. They didn't show any games. They didn't, they just announced a bunch of shit and they thought they were on top of it. And it's the third console curse. ah PlayStation had it with the, and they, they ended well on the PS3, but the out the gate, they didn't do very well. And that, that console had a rough lifetime.

neocharge: ah But yeah, it's the third console curse. So yeah, PS4 came in. uh, what, $3.99 and the Xbox One was $4.99. four ninety nine And what do we get next year at E3? We got a fucking Kinect presentation bullshit with little kids on stage flying around collecting the coins.

neocharge: And I'm like, dude, where's Halo? Where's Gears of War? Like, why are you leaning into the Kinect so much? And we saw how well the Kinect did. It died just like Xbox started to when they were anti-consumer, anti-gamer and didn't really focus on the roots and what made them.

neocharge: um I feel like Nintendo kind of did the same thing with the Wii. They started branching out. The Wii is a successful console. let's Let's get that straight. But... They branched out and they said, we want to get as many people in the platform as possible.

neocharge: And they stopped kind of focusing on the games and the gamers that made them who they are. And Xbox started chasing that as well. um did you Do you remember the E3 conferences where they had little kids come out and collect all the coins and all the Kinect bullshit? And they were having technical difficulties on it too. It's just a shit show.

Leon Lionheartly: No, no, I missed that one that year. um on for Unfortunately, I wish I could tell you why. mean, be perfectly honest. I was probably drunk at the time.

neocharge: yeah Yeah. Well, no, I would have E3 parties. I would be super excited. Just like I do with Summer Game Fest. E3 was like the celebration of all the games. This was before we even had the Game Awards, before we had Summer Game Fest. This was E3.

Leon Lionheartly: I think that...

neocharge: And you remember that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, I think I know what the issue was. E3 kind of lost its touch early on, but there was so there's another event that usually happens in June that massively gets my attention, and it fights for like a lot of these events, like Summer Game Fest.

Leon Lionheartly: And... Hate to be that nerdy guy, but that's because it's the... um Usually, that's right around the summer kickoff. um There's usually a tournament. um In fact, we just finished one ah right now for League of Legends and its esports events.

Leon Lionheartly: I still don't know why to this world all day I watch that shit, but that's probably why. Because there was a tournament, MSI, or it was a or was it or is a finals for a region or something silly. It was probably the reason I was distracted.

neocharge: Gotcha. Yeah. I would have e three parties. Um, I ran a podcast like seven years ago and we did e three coverage. Uh, I think the last podcast we did was the, the E3 of that year. I think E3 2018. Uh, but I was big in E3. I loved all the conferences. There were some just terrain wrecks.

neocharge: Konami had a conference one year that was just, it was entertaining to watch because it was falling apart.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah

neocharge: i like before your eyes. It was nuts. If you ever want to entertain with E3 stuff, look up E3 fails over the years.

neocharge: Caffeine Man from Ubisoft. Dude, there were some...

Leon Lionheartly: Oh my God, i forgot about that.

neocharge: cringe

Leon Lionheartly: ah

neocharge: cringe-worthy moments. But there were also some gems in there. We got the announcement of Twilight Princess. We got the announcement of basically all the games we've come to know and love in the last three decades, right?

neocharge: E3 was like around in the 90s, and they recently went away, ripped E3. um But yeah, Xbox didn't do great at E3. Their Xbox One console didn't sell well.

neocharge: Uh, and then Don Matrick got kicked out. Phil Spencer came in. I met Phil Spencer. He's a good dude, but here's, here's where I know something's fucked up because I met him in the game awards lobby, uh, which by the way, ah this year game awards, we're going to, we're going to be there. And in the lobby, you basically just run into people. I ran into, Sean Layden ran into Phil Spencer at the after party. I ran into Troy Baker and you just go up and you say, hi.

neocharge: Uh, you thank him. I'm like, Hey man, dude, you're an amazing voice actor. Thank you. He cheers me. And then I went or along my merry way, uh, went into, ran into Greg Miller. He's one of my inspirations for running a podcast.

neocharge: Um, call him more areas, my favorite, but and him and Greg Miller started kind of funny along with two others. Uh, but yeah, uh i i was inspired by both of those those people and i met them at uh the game awards in 2015 2016 but anyway i met phil spencer and i said i was like hey thanks for everything you do i have a quick question for you if you don't mind and they they want to talk they're like just hanging out in the lobby and i was like what's what's your favorite console

Leon Lionheartly: Oh,

neocharge: And he he looks at me and he knows he he's like, oh, but he gave me a truthful answer. And this is why I respect the hell out of Phil Spencer, because he said, and I quote, I remember it.

neocharge: It's burned into my brain. You know, i just wish PlayStation four had better and more and better exclusives.

Leon Lionheartly: ho, ho, ho, ho.

neocharge: Because this was when PS4 wasn't like the new IPs weren't coming out. um It was either 2015 or 2016.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep. Uh-huh.

neocharge: And I was like, oh. And he's like, yeah. ah And he's like, are you are you an Xbox fan? And I'm like, you know, I used to be. And he was like, we lost you on the Xbox One, didn't we? And I was like, you sure did. And he's like, he takes it he takes his drink. He takes a drink of his drink. He's like, yeah, man, we lost a lot of people then.

Leon Lionheartly: u

neocharge: So oh I got firsthand experience of Phil Spencer. He's cool dude. He's a gamer. We talked a little bit about games. I didn't want to take too much of his time. ah But he is actually a gamer. He does care.

neocharge: i think the by conversations and the decisions from Xbox now aren't him. i think it's ah higher up. And I think it's because Xbox has been literally hemorrhaging money and buying all these things and losing a ton.

neocharge: And I think sataa Satya has stepped in and he's a big promoter of multi-platform, put everything everywhere.

neocharge: And i think that's what's happening now. i think phil spencer I think Bill Spencer is stepping down soon. ah Some of the decisions were on his end. I'm not an expert in the industry. I'm just speaking from what I've seen through the years. I've been ingrained in the news and everything.

neocharge: Uh, so yeah, I talked to him and that's what he said. He said, I just wish PlayStation four had more exclusives. And I was like, wow.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: it and Dude, it's funny you say that. um I have a completely different thought process. It's not one... is it Once again, this is my... Twasitism, my lord, because i see I look at things way too deep. but um and So that was the... I look at the 2013 the xbox of One fiasco as the finally showing the symptoms of what I felt was going to happen with Xbox all the way back to the very beginning.

neocharge: o

Leon Lionheartly: um ah To put this most succinct succinctly, um i think Xbox, unfortunately, as a brand, um had a cancer. um And it always has had a cancer.

Leon Lionheartly: um And they have not been able to shake it. It was a matter of time until it blew up on them. um And that's Big mama, and I could go on, guys. I work in the IT industry, and it's big mama Microsoft, okay?

Leon Lionheartly: um

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: they' They've been living under that foot. um i think about the Think about it this way, Matt, okay? i a Xbox and Phil Spencer, what they're trying to do makes a lot of sense, but I think they're getting held back by a lot of the parent and company.

Leon Lionheartly: um And I'll come more into this, but... um So I'll take you back as a young teenage Bob. Um, I was on my PC, my windows PC, mind you playing this amazing game. That's in my top 10 list. Um, we talked about last week called half life.

Leon Lionheartly: Um, and produced by an amazing company that went on by valve to make it. That was at the time. I mean, they were successful, but this was their blow up moment. Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Um, As part of this, they were looking at a way when they were launching later on ah with the online services and games like Counter-Strike that were coming out, um they needed to figure out a way to unify that.

Leon Lionheartly: So they they they, as in Gabe and his team, identified problems with online services at the time. um such as unification of keeping games up to date, um built-in anti-cheat to prevent people from hacking their game and trying to offload that.

Leon Lionheartly: um They were trying to find ways to unify this and make it easier for the end user because unless you were very PC savvy, you were kind of in the dark and you were at the the mercy of of ah of a very still bo booting our but brooding and budding google ah And they went they went to a company.

Leon Lionheartly: They went to Microsoft. And they said, hey, we know you have the surfer infrastructure. We know you're in the you're in the tech you're a tech giant. You're the lead in the industry. Here's this idea we have. um We would like some funding from you, and you'll get a so you'll get a cut from everything.

Leon Lionheartly: um And here's what we want to do. Microsoft said, nope, because we have Xbox Live coming. they didn't tell They didn't tell them this, but they had Xbox Live coming with Xbox.

Leon Lionheartly: um Because if you remember, Xbox had an Ethernet jack, right? The OG ah back in 2001, which is wild, considered broadband internet was not popular, that or was not a was not widely used

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um Matt, they said, oh, that's fine, and walked away and went and made the platform we know in today as Steam.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: The platform that holds 90% estimated of 90% PC game sales are ah through the Steam platform.

Leon Lionheartly: Keep in mind.

neocharge: you know other

Leon Lionheartly: please Oh, go ahead.

neocharge: ahead You know another ah way they fucked up? You know who else came to them?

Leon Lionheartly: Hmm.

neocharge: Marvel for Spider-Man.

Leon Lionheartly: o aha

neocharge: and And they said, now we're good. So they Marvel went to PlayStation instead and look at what we have now.

Leon Lionheartly: Yep. say ah you're You're exactly right. This is more of what of that cancer that I'm talking about. um i mean the what the the most ah The biggest irony is, and we'll get I'll get this ah to the end, is ah because I'm doing a historical perspective here, is at the end,

Leon Lionheartly: The Xbox store is going to have links to Steam anyways because you can still play your games anywhere.

neocharge: Yep.

Leon Lionheartly: um That's the ultimate irony, okay? um

neocharge: yep

Leon Lionheartly: But that I think that's that's been a cancer for the problem, despite their successes. I want to point this out. I owned an original Xbox. I was an Xbox 360 guy, um mostly because my PlayStation 3, that was more expensive...

Leon Lionheartly: literally died on me. But Blu-ray, pool because microsoft Sony and their engineers screwed up with their software-based disk ejection systems on the Blu-ray, it blew up my Blu-ray system.

Leon Lionheartly: i could And I was in Germany, so I was not going to ah i was not going to get it repaired. And I said, well, fuck it. I at least got to play the one game I wanted um on the PlayStation 3.

Leon Lionheartly: Sons of the Patriots, 10 out of 10. Go che play it.

neocharge: Oh, oh yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um But I said, screw it, going to be an Xbox 360 guy. And guess what? I played halo all the Halos on there. I played ODST, all of the greats. yeah that was my bo that was my That was my machine where I really dove into the Halo series, as well as a few other good stuff that was in there. you know The original Fable, um you've got Oblivion that was on there.

Leon Lionheartly: um You have the Fallout 3. You have these games are were so but phenomenal games that were on on this platform.

neocharge: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: And despite all of those successes, microsoft still or Xbox still screws up ah ah screws up and still manages to come out on top in this generation because of the competition. competition ah we We all know, if you've been gaming for a long time, you've heard about the Xbox Red Ring of Death, the 360 Red Ring of Death, right?

Leon Lionheartly: PlayStation had something similar. Nintendo had something similar. They had, on the Wii, they had the blue ah blue light of death. um Not as well known because it's been estimated over 52% of Xbox 360s dealt with the red ring of death.

Leon Lionheartly: um And what makes this even worse, and this is why it's the cancer of Microsoft that, i in my opinion, but still that still haunts the Xbox brand to this day, is when it was identified,

Leon Lionheartly: They said, fuck it, we pushed through anyways. And pushed shipped out the consoles and and rolled the dice on it. um that's

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: That's wild, dude. And I think that's that's when we came to the fruition of 2013.

neocharge: yeah

Leon Lionheartly: When you saw the Xbox identity brand shift. um as, all right, well, now we can make it a home entertainment system because we're going to integrate it. and we're gonna And I think that was the start of them trying to integrate into becoming more of a unified platform because Microsoft is not a... ah they They don't sell service ah products.

Leon Lionheartly: They sell services. They have Windows, but it's a service now. Microsoft 365 and all their other stuff is a service that they sell to you. Satya is on to something. I get it. It's going to give them profits.

Leon Lionheartly: But from a gaming perspective, it's not it's not conducive with the market. um And we're seeing that with Game Pass being... um we're hearing conflicting I'm hearing conflicting reports whether it's profitable or not, but I'm pretty sure it's flat.

Leon Lionheartly: That's why they're not telling us the numbers. It's leveled out. That's why Helldivers 2 is not coming to Game Pass because Arrowhead would rather get 30,000 sales on the Xbox than deal with the Game Pass money and and the support.

Leon Lionheartly: um and it's It's a bummer, man. I feel bad. um i miss a lot of I miss a lot of those games. um I just looked when you mentioned it.

Leon Lionheartly: have a 66,000 gamer score.

neocharge: Yeah, that's solid.

Leon Lionheartly: played a lot of fucking games on the Xbox, within the Xbox ecosystem.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Um, but unfortunately, that I think that what I'm, what I'm trying to drive home is despite all of their successes, I think Xbox has always had this mommy on their back of Microsoft because they're the ones paying the bills.

Leon Lionheartly: They're the ones who forked out the fucking, whatever, 700,000, quadrillion, billion, fulgillion, jillion dollars for the but yeah for the Activision Blizzard deal.

neocharge: I think it was 70 billion. Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah. um I don't remember, so I was being the dramatic. ah But I'm someone who footed that. if i You're right. Phil Spencer's a gamer. He knows this stuff. If Xbox could just get away from the daddy that is my um Microsoft paying the bills, I think Phil Spencer could finally get ah be able to take that that team and do something.

Leon Lionheartly: If he had final say on a lot of that stuff. um I know there's speculation he got to play free for a while, but I truly think he's got a good heart ah at this and he could have done it.

Leon Lionheartly: um And that sucks, man. But yeah, that's what I'm saying. microsoft our Xbox has has the cancer of Microsoft. um And unfortunately, I think they're going to go the way of Sega. um Just give them another generation and they're going to give you the frog in boiling water of where they're going to slowly raise the temperature.

Leon Lionheartly: And then you're going to turn around and not realize you're you're already it's already too late.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. ah i I do think Xbox was successful at one point. They hit their stride with 360. Xbox Live was ahead of its time. Achievements were ahead of its time.

neocharge: And PlayStation copied off of them. i But I just feel like they made some missteps for sure. And I think 2013 was one of their biggest missteps.

neocharge: ah And let's talk about Game Pass, right? They started pushing Game Pass after that. And it's more like... quality quantity over quality. They just want to give you as much stuff as you can or as they can and make it cheap and accessible.

neocharge: ah and There's value in that for sure. But look at the other side and look at PlayStation. They meticulously craft ah their titles and they incubate their developers and they take care of them.

neocharge: ah And they don't usually buy studios off a whim. Look what I mean they did with Bungie and look how that's happening.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: Look what it's doing now. i But Microsoft had Game Pass and they just tried to go out and buy success because they were hurting. And they gobbled up all these developers. they And they two of the big ones were Bethesda, ZeniMax, and Activision.

neocharge: Like they just bought them. But then they came to realize, oh, we we bought the company and the name and the IPs. ah And after the retention is over, we didn't we can't buy the people because that's slavery.

Leon Lionheartly: Hehehehe

neocharge: And the people can leave. The people can leave. And that's what we saw. The big names from these developers, they just kind of left because they were like, we don't want daddy Microsoft looking over us and telling us what to do.

neocharge: Where PlayStation... Go ahead.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, no, you're exactly right.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: this goes And this goes back to what I'm saying about to the original beginning of Microsoft.

neocharge: Right.

Leon Lionheartly: Because microsoft who did Microsoft buy in the very beginning?

neocharge: Who? Who?

Leon Lionheartly: Bungie.

neocharge: Yeah, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Or, I'm sorry, Xbox. They bought Bungie.

neocharge: Wait. Yeah, Xbox. Yeah, Xbox.

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, they bought Bungie.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: And as the famous story goes, when they bought Bungie, Bungie resisted and said, we do not want to be owned by a bunch of corporate types. So their studio that co-located within the within my Microsoft's headquarters was walled off.

Leon Lionheartly: Like literally, they put up partitioning walls because that's how much they didn't want to be part of that corporate world.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: so And now look at where Bungie's at, right?

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: But yeah you're you're right.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: This goes back even further.

neocharge: Oh yeah. No, I, I think they were successful at three 60. I think they had something going there and then they misstepped heavily in 2013 and leaned into the, uh, the Xbox one and the connect and the motion controls.

neocharge: Uh, they were chasing, I think what the, we had, but they, without the waggling sticks, right?

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah.

neocharge: ah And i feel like they put profits over people, whereas PlayStation really takes care of their developers. You can hear it in the developers' voices. you can in in the If you're ever are curious, look at like some behind-the-scenes stuff. I know the camera's on them, right? They're going to act i like they they know they're being recorded, but you can kind of hear it in developers from PlayStation that PlayStation really takes care of their studios. And most importantly, they give them...

neocharge: complete creative freedom of on what to do. And that's how we get games like The Last of Us. Like, dude, do you think PlayStation, the best course of action financially was, ah hey, Naughty Dog, I know you made you just made Uncharted 1 through 3 and it's a smash hit.

Leon Lionheartly: Okay.

neocharge: Uh, and Naughty Dog's, yeah, but we have this really special project that we think is going to be awesome. Uh, and it's a new IP. Take a gamble on us. Do you think PlayStation, the, they were like, uh, oh yeah, that's the best financial decision. Or were they like, no, make us a new Uncharted.

neocharge: No, PlayStation believed in their developers and they said, you know what? if we If you think it's good, we believe you and you have complete financial and creative freedom on this.

neocharge: And we're going to back you 100%. one hundred percent Look at what Gorilla did. Gorilla was making Killzone. And they were like, hey, we we kind of want to change it up and make... a Make this game Horizon, third person, action adventure, kind of RPG elements, complete far cry from Killzone.

neocharge: What PlayStation do? You do it. you you You go at it. It's all you. ah They give their studios and their developers...

neocharge: financial freedom because they trust them and they take care of them and they back projects. Uh, and they've kind of lost their way to a little bit. They started focusing on the games as a service initiative. Fuck. They had their best remake studio that made us incredible titles like demon souls remake, which was a launch title on PS five, which is one of the best.

neocharge: And, uh, Shadow of the Colossus remake, which was incredible. And they were like, hey, we want you to make a God of War live service multiplayer game.

neocharge: I bet Bluepoint was like, what the fuck? No, we we want to make Legend of Dragoon remake, please.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank

neocharge: And so PlayStation, I don't know, man. I think they they started seeing what Microsoft was doing, but they didn't see results. And that's why they bought Bungie under Xbox. they're like, well, if you're going to buy all of these, we're going to buy Bungie from you.

neocharge: And that's kind of biting them in the ass because they were following what Microsoft was doing. They started the PS Plus stuff because Microsoft did Game Pass and they started PS Plus and they're offering stuff on PS Plus.

neocharge: but I feel like Microsoft had profits over people. And we've heard some exit interviews like, yeah, no, ah Microsoft didn't didn't treat us well. And I don't know from first, you know, firsthand experience. I'm not a dev.

neocharge: I don't have, I'm not a dev of a studio owned by Microsoft, but you can see like the little cracks are coming out now, right? developers are being canned and rolled off the the Microsoft first party train.

neocharge: And IPs, like big ones, Perfect Dark is being canceled. ah Games are coming out that are terrible, like ah Arcane, ah the Redfall.

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. right i

neocharge: Arcane...

Leon Lionheartly: You said Arcane. I went to the TV show.

neocharge: Right. No, no. Yeah. yeah um Arcane Austin, I believe it was. But I know Arcane was behind but bangers like Dishonored. And they, I think that that's when they were, ah you know, had a better development environment.

neocharge: And then they were like, oh, no, make Redfall. Redfall was bad, dude. Real bad. And Xbox pushed that. And now it's it's dead. It's gone. no one No one's on that game. And if you are, then cool. If you're enjoying it, whatever. But I heard it's empty.

neocharge: I don't know firsthand experience, right? I've seen it played. I watched it played. i wasn't going to buy it. ah But yeah, we're we're seeing games like Fable. How long has it taken to make fucking Fable, man?

Leon Lionheartly: Oh, absolutely. that's That pisses me off. um

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: a

neocharge: at Look at ah Halo, their biggest IP. They took it from Bungie. They gave it to 343. They renamed the studio now because of the shit show Infinite was.

neocharge: And Infinite didn't even release with like ah some of the multiplayer stuff. And it was kind of half-baked. I haven't played it. I heard Infinite has a pretty good campaign.

neocharge: But... They've just been misstepping with core IPs left and right, and they're just focused. Now they're focused on Call of Duty. They closed their summer game fest showcase that was a banger last year.

neocharge: They closed it with Call of Duty Black Ops 7. Okay. yeah okay

Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.

neocharge: It's a cool game and all, but you don't close a showcase with Call of Duty unless you're really trying to push it. And you, but I mean, they own the IP now and they're, yeah but man, and if you do close it,

neocharge: Tell us straight up it's Call of Duty. Don't give us this awesome fucking CG pre-rendered trailer of something that looks straight out of Quantum Break, Alan Wake, and and just sci-fi incredible, and then throw up the Call of Duty Black Ops 7 logo, the splash screen. Come on.

neocharge: And yeah, we didn't even see Fable. We haven't seen Gears of War. Forza Horizon is all right, but I want Xbox to succeed.

neocharge: And you know why? Competition is good for the consumer. if Xbox goes the way Sega went and it's going to happen, it's going to happen. They're going to go, uh, as a third party developer for other platforms. You're you're already seeing it. We're seeing gears of war in ah August on the the PlayStation and it's going to come to switch to their games are going to come to switch to, we're going see halo.

neocharge: It's already happening slowly started with hi-fi rush. Dude, Okay, look at Hi-Fi Rush. It was a commercial success. And what'd they do to the studio? Tango Gameworks. They fucking got rid of them.

neocharge: They spun them off. When they had probably one of the best games of the year, I've heard, and I bought it on PlayStation, and I really want to play it. Hi-Fi Rush. but like What are they doing?

neocharge: I don't know, man. I'm not an expert, but all I can say is it's bad news left and right from Xbox. And PlayStation is starting to get their footing, but they kind of went on that train too. And they're left with Concord and everything, but they're like, maybe this isn't the way to go. And they've canceled a lot of live service projects.

neocharge: And now they're back on track, focusing on what they do best.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah in fact You know, it's it's funny you mentioned that, that to lean off of that point, um is PlayStation has made its stumbles this generation. ah right we let me back up.

Leon Lionheartly: The one thing you need is a good selling game that's going to... If you're keeping this in a profits corporate realm, right? um I could go on about how Xbox and PlayStation yeah being pair ah subchildren of their appropriate companies, Sony and and Microsoft, respectively...

Leon Lionheartly: um should be seen and funneled like ah by the parent companies, but they should be kind of like a black hole. they They need to be the whatever it is, right? um I'm not saying unanswerable, right? If you're you're hemorrhaging money, um then that's a that's a look at leadership, but they should be, we're going to stay out of this unless we have to step in, do what you got to do, right?

Leon Lionheartly: um But what Microsoft has is they have I mean, let's be honest, I have one of the biggest game, a console game, should I say, um that's going to be here for a while, that re annually comes back to back to back to back every year, right?

Leon Lionheartly: um yeah Sony, they have, or PlayStation, they have MLB The Show, they have the baseball stuff, right? EA, they have Madden, right? Microsoft, or Xbox said, we need we need something, right?

Leon Lionheartly: And that makes sense because you need a cornerstone because then that helps generate revenue every year that you can count on that you can give to teams to go make the cool shit that you and I play, right?

Leon Lionheartly: um You're going to say something?

neocharge: Yeah, but they but they went and bought it instead of bred it internally. That's where you're getting, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Well, see, I don't think it's necessarily that they they didn't breed it. um Most notoriously, can you imagine, you talk to a dev, I haven't had a chance, and if I ever get a chance to talk to game dev and you're out there and you're listening, I'd love to be able to interview you about this about this lifestyle.

neocharge: Oh, yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um Totally keep anonymous or if you need to or whatever. But... um You think about the churn and you work at EA and be a ah be a a developer for Madden.

Leon Lionheartly: You have one year cycles to pump out a game that includes updating rosters and all this other stuff and being in a creative field. You would burn out real fast, right?

Leon Lionheartly: um So in that in that sense, that is part of that. What Xbox needed was that breadwinner and they had it. The problem is they they they did a what we call in the poker, they they did a faux pas in the the the gambling.

Leon Lionheartly: They looked at it and said, oh, hey, that's what we need and tried to buy the pot, so to speak. And they bet the fucking farm on that purchase. I think they could have gone for something smaller. They could have, they they, there could have been options for them to get that. And then that generates the revenue that keeps you going.

Leon Lionheartly: And then you all of a sudden, now you start looking at, okay, Hey, what is this studio working on? Cool. Let's go let, you know what, um, halo studios isn't now whatever 343 is. All right.

Leon Lionheartly: What do you got for us? Cool. All right. That's awesome. If they'd spent a fraction of that amount of money, they would have a lot more playroom, but they got the attention of Big Daddy because they, guess what?

Leon Lionheartly: They spent way too much. They but they went all in on this. They literally went all in. um And they being my ah Xbox, went all in on that purchase. So now, and we don't know what the profitability is, right?

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: But you went so much, you got the attention. And you spent so much, you're in the hole on there to try to earn that back. And that's why we're seeing these studios do this.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm really sad because I don't like to see anybody lose their job. But... by at the end of the day, corporate life is corporate life. And I think Xbox took it a little bit too far. um And what I mean by that corporate life, anybody that's been in there knows what I mean, is we're a family, but you better make sure you're hitting certain metrics, you're hitting certain utilization. You're making this because we live in a world where, and this is my diatribe, where short-term profits will be better than long-term gains.

Leon Lionheartly: So I would rather push through and make a quarterly profit that looks better because my investors need to see it versus, hey, investors, you're going to earn money in the long run.

Leon Lionheartly: um That's my diatribe. But the point is, unfortunately, it doesn't work in the creative fields and you're seeing the burnout. um And the only thing I can hope is on the other side, um we get some really cool studios, passionate studios like John Romero Studio, ah who's confirmed they haven't shut down yet, even though the funding's been cut off.

Leon Lionheartly: Because guess what? He's a name in the industry. Somebody's going to snag him up. Hey, Sony. go knocking.

neocharge: he

Leon Lionheartly: He's working on an FPS. We're talking about a guy who generated doom, the dark ages. Um, Oh, well he generated doom dark ages just hit.

neocharge: Yeah,

Leon Lionheartly: And guess what? 25, 30 years later, it's still fucking slaps. Um,

neocharge: yeah it does.

Leon Lionheartly: But yeah, we'll see. I think i think we're going to get some good smaller studios, and that's what we need. We need smaller, more agile, nimble, creative studios who said who look at things and go, man, this GoldenEye game is really cool.

Leon Lionheartly: ah you know would be really cool? Let's throw a multiplayer in real quick, and then boom, you've got the one of the best-selling fucking N64 games of all time.

neocharge: Oh, yeah. Yeah. And PlayStation, Xbox, Microsoft, Nintendo, these are all corporations. These are all businesses. the goal is to make money. But you do have to balance people and people make your company.

Leon Lionheartly: Aha.

neocharge: And it to put it quite simply, you take care of your people, your people will take care of you. And it feels like Microsoft and Xbox aren't really taking care of their people. Like I read something that ah Jason Schreier, he's an awesome journalist, said and reported that some of these people that were laid off,

neocharge: They weren't even notified. And it's funny because they said their Slack access got revoked. And that's how they found out that they were basically laid off.

neocharge: ah Why aren't they using Teams? It's a Microsoft-ran backed company. Why you using Slack? I use Slack. I love it. But... It sounds like it it was just chaos with the layoffs.

Leon Lionheartly: Thank you.

neocharge: And, you know, there are people behind these games. Every game you play, every piece of art you see in the game is made by ah person ay for now.

neocharge: Right. AI is coming. Don't worry. um But there are people with lives and families and you know, the these this is their job and they have livelihoods and like 9,000 people up and losing their jobs, especially in this economy, ah if they have families and stuff, like I feel like profits are being put over people. Yes, you have to chase profits as a company, but you can't do this to people. And think about like just the if 50% of a team was laid off, right?

neocharge: Think about the people behind, right? what they're thinking and what kind of artistic output we're going to see from them. They're probably terrified of losing their job. And we can see that with the games being released.

neocharge: We don't see the passion and the art ah behind a lot of Microsoft games anymore. It's kind of just like churned out. And I feel like ah people aren't being put ah first.

neocharge: And I think from the output of PlayStation, we we see in the the projects that PlayStation really cares about the people. They are a business. They look for profits. But I feel like the people are being more taken care of. And they even said, they're like, we're not going to go out and buy a bunch of studios. Nintendo said the same thing, ah even though they bought Bungie, but that was a one-off thing. They said, we want to work with the studios. We want to work with the developers. We want to see what they can do. We want to see if they're a good fit.

neocharge: And dude, they worked with Insomniac for probably like... 10 years before they bought them. And I mean, they bought for like, i don't know. It was way less than they bought for Activision. I think 3 million or something.

neocharge: ah But they said, we want to build a relationship and then we're going to buy them because I feel like they do care about the people. They care about the artists behind these games and they fit they know the golden rule. You take care of your people, you're going to get a incredible artistic product.

neocharge: So...

Leon Lionheartly: Yeah, no, you're you're you're right. um I think yeah i think the the best way I always describe it is I think about the Toys for Bob incident.

neocharge: Oh,

Leon Lionheartly: um Toys for, for people don't know what I'm referring to, Toys for Bob was the maker were the makers of the Skylander series, um which I loved, by the way.

neocharge: but yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: Long story short, when the funding kind of started to drip out because ah it got so big and it oversaturated the market, um instead of being allowed to create new stuff, they were put on the toy they were put on the Skylanders train so much um that it imploded the company.

Leon Lionheartly: um And when Toys for Bob was ultimately bought by EA black ea and Blizzard and got swept up in there, that studio went away.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: um And it sucks. ah I'll let you guys go do your own research on the community. um but um For example, like Did You Know Gaming put out a video on them? um There are some others out there on the interwebs.

Leon Lionheartly: It's fucking heartbreaking, Matt, hear ah here's some of those stories and tragedies.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: but

neocharge: Go do your research. Listen to these developers. Listen to their story. Listen to, you know, if they want to talk about how they were treated, you know, listen to them. These are people behind games. And yeah, I just, I feel like PlayStation might be taking care of their developers or second party studios.

Leon Lionheartly: Uh-huh.

neocharge: Yeah. And yeah, we we can rant about Xbox all day. We can rant about the game industry all day. It's not in a great position, but hopefully it turns around. Most importantly, we want to hear what you think about the Xbox. What are your thoughts on Xbox's standpoint here and or the the gaming industry?

neocharge: in general. What are your thoughts? Tell us on discord. We want to hear from you, but speaking of taking care of your people and the art that comes from that and an amazing second party developer that actually came ah to PlayStation and they said, yes, whatever you need, Mr. Kojima, we'll, we'll give you i speaking of which, how's a, how's death stranding to going for you from the amazing Kojima productions.

Leon Lionheartly: i have

Leon Lionheartly: So I have a problem, Matt.

neocharge: Yep. It's delivering packages. I got it too.

Leon Lionheartly: yeah The problem is I cannot get away from trying to get five stars at delivering packages ah all night long. I need to push the story.

Leon Lionheartly: so i yeah yeah i'm about I'm in chapter three i want to say. um I don't want to give away too much. We can talk offline sometime.

neocharge: Sure.

Leon Lionheartly: um and But I'm getting to the point where it's like, hey, you really should go do this, but I see a package and I see a mission and I see I could go do this. And then um for anybody that's curious, I played Death Stranding or rather, let me put it this way.

Leon Lionheartly: I played Death Stranding one very ah passively. guess ah because the combat was very meh, this feels like Kojima said, hey, you know what would be really cool?

Leon Lionheartly: I don't know if he phoned up some of his old buddies or whatever, but he, if a development team and said, hey, Yo, I know you worked on Metal Gear Solid V. You want to come help me and work on Death Stranding 2?

Leon Lionheartly: Because the combat is like this beautiful, there's just this underlying bit of what you saw in some of Kojima's late Metal Gear Solid artwork games.

Leon Lionheartly: um I raid. I actively look at a base ah of enemies and I go, I need materials to build a road. I need materials to upgrade this. I need materials for this.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm going to go raid you and I'm going to figure out which way I want to do it. I might be in the mood for stealth. I might be in the mood for sniping. I might be in the mood for running in there with a shotgun and hitting you in the chest with rock salt.

Leon Lionheartly: Guess what? It all depends on my mood. in Every attempt is enjoyable. um But yeah, that's my ultimate problem is I keep getting sidetracked and I'm not pushing the story as fast as I feel I should because we are already two weeks into this release and I i know looking at the trophy list, I've only gotten that much of the story done.

neocharge: know

Leon Lionheartly: And for the non-visuals out there who can't see me because I don't have my camera on, I'm looking at ah i'm looking at about one inch into it.

neocharge: one inch

neocharge: yep uh yeah you nailed it uh the combat they enhance it so much and dude you haven't i'm on chapter six you haven't seen anything yet and just wait till you get to chapter five that's all gonna say combat wise uh

Leon Lionheartly: Ooh, now you're talking.

neocharge: oh Oh, my God. Oh, dude. it's ah I watched what happened unfolding on screen, and I literally said, how the fuck did you do it, Kojima? On a technical level, on just every level imaginable.

neocharge: this This game has exceeded my expectations. I'm actually not doing five stars for most people. I try and get them between three and four. But if any, if ah Death Stranding 1 taught me anything, it's that you get tools,

neocharge: i progressing into the story to make your package deliveries and basically the core gameplay mechanic so much easier. And you can go back to a previous place and do something in three minutes.

neocharge: Whereas if you'd just be spending 10 minutes, ah if you didn't have that tool.

Leon Lionheartly: and

neocharge: So that's why i was like, because you were in a specific area and I was like, Bob, progress the story.

Leon Lionheartly: I'm sorry.

neocharge: And you're like, but but these packages, I need to deliver them. I need to get five stars on everyone. And I'm like, Bob, you're still on chapter one. I'm telling you right now. Progress the story. And you're like, all right.

neocharge: are you Are you glad you did? I hate to like impede in in your your gaming journey, but just trust me on this.

Leon Lionheartly: i say yeah you know I'm kind of glad I did because I really need to be it told, Bob, you need to stop. If not, might my tizzle will kick it hard, and I will spend hours and hours just deliberate.

Leon Lionheartly: Dude, I'm telling you, Matt, I've gotten to the point where when I go to a site... I not only check the missions, but I go to the community ah packages and I go, i'm the guy I'm the asshole when you say, hey, and trust packages to other people. I'm the asshole that looks at it and goes, okay, cool.

Leon Lionheartly: If I grab these ones and I stack up, that means I can do a route this way and I'll drop them off for you. I'm that guy who's delivering the packages for the other players in Death Stranding.

neocharge: That's amazing.

Leon Lionheartly: It's bad, man. It's bad. I'm terrible with this. i' but I'll pick up a random like materials and weapons and things like that, and I'm like, oh, I don't need it.

neocharge: Mm-hmm.

Leon Lionheartly: Guess what? Donate to other players. Donate to other players. I am just shaking and moving nonstop in this game, and I'm glad you do that because here you on Chapter 6. I'm like, shit.

Leon Lionheartly: I really need to get this story moving because if not, I'm going to spend the next six months playing this, and it's going to be Ghost of Yote is the next game I play.

neocharge: Yeah, that's what I was saying. It's going to go right into Ghosts of Yotei at this point. i'm It says I'm like 33% and I've put in about 30 hours. So I've been doing a lot. I'm a road builder. I'm a... Oh, I see a package in the distance. Gotta go grab it.

neocharge: Gotta go grab it for my people back at the farm or whatever. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm just telling you, i learned in Death Stranding 1, you have to progress the story.

neocharge: And I said that kind of selfishly because there was a big story beat that I wanted to talk to you about where you were like, oh, and you you got there. So ah <unk>ll we'll talk more about that offline or maybe in a spoiler cast we do in the future. Who knows? Because this is crazy story, man.

neocharge: ah Chapter 5 was a wild ride. Let me tell you that.

Leon Lionheartly: Yes, it was.

neocharge: But I think... I think I'm going to stop progressing the story as much as I did. I'm going to, you know, play around in the sandba sandbox for a little bit, go explore. ah And yeah, we're, we're building roads. We're delivering packages.

neocharge: We're picking up those, uh, Kyrelium deposits. We're mining all kinds of stuff. Uh, this game is incredible. Uh, no story spoilers, of course, but, uh, Kojima has done it again.

neocharge: I, i Love it. I love the journey. It's just such a cozy game. It's a vibe, man. It's a vibe. but And there's an item you get.

neocharge: i think you're close to it. That really helps you vibe ah during the entire game, whatever you're doing. Let me just say that.

Leon Lionheartly: And I think I know what you're talking about. We'll chat with it offline.

neocharge: Yeah.

Leon Lionheartly: um But yeah, final thoughts. This is Kojima at his peak, man. That's all I got to say.

neocharge: Yep. And we're going to talk way more about it in the, probably in the next five episodes, because I mean, I'm going to platinum this game and I'm going to pour probably another hundred hours into it.

neocharge: And I'm going to take my time. ah sometimes dude, I just look at the scenery because this game is gorgeous. Uh, Yeah. Final thoughts, incredible game.

neocharge: And I can't wait to play more and we'll talk about it way more on future episodes. So if you're playing it, let us know what, uh, you think of it. And this has, uh, this has been episode 11. It was kind of an Xbox rant, uh, some news, a little bit on the negative side, but, uh,

neocharge: Yeah, ranted about Xbox because, boy, they need they need some work. um But this has been episode 11. We appreciate you listening. And you guys have a great rest of your day.

Leon Lionheartly: Peace.