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Episode 5 - Sony remakes Last of Us & XBOX buys Kojima?!
8 Plays4 years ago
Originally recorded live on 4/13/2021 @ twitch.tv/addtoparty
The boys discuss kid safe lyrics to WAP, Sony hunkering down on proven hits, Xbox courting Kojima, & one man's journey to be the most subbed channel on twitch
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Add to Party'
00:00:00
Speaker
you
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a news
James' New Audio Setup
00:00:21
Speaker
show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, joined by Charles, the new immortal after getting his second vaccine. Oh, and this is Andy K. Coming at you in HD. All right. I am no longer transmitting wirelessly to a dongle on my computer. I am transmitting wired through a XLR.
00:00:45
Speaker
That is correct. It's an XLR cable. And it's going through a phantom power supply. That's the official name phantom. I don't know what that's about. And then going through another XLR into a three and a half millimeter. This is all to say that I sound clear. Thank you.
Kids Bop and Cardi B: A Humorous Take
00:01:05
Speaker
Thank you.
00:01:06
Speaker
Andy, can you can you say at the top of the hour we'll have the great the top 10 hits coming out to you? And at the top of the hour, we got the top 10 hits coming at you featuring cash cash. What are the kids like, Andy? Come on. What is the WAP? The WAP.
00:01:30
Speaker
Oh, well, she prefers Cardi B. Yeah, Cardi B. Thank you, Mrs. B. As she is. And or Miss B. That makes your parents uncomfortable. Have you heard? Have you heard the kids bop version of WAP, by the way? There can not. Oh, oh, yeah, there is. There's.
00:01:53
Speaker
I got speed to the the kids Bob lyricists that get to listen to modern hits and translate them to kid safe or kid friendly version. I that's incredible. I highly recommend you look it up. I'll look up the lyrics right now, just but it's basically about food. Oh, no, kids. Mac and cheese. No, no, ring neck and cheese. Let's see here.
00:02:21
Speaker
You know the background lyric that gets repeated, right? Yeah. In WAP. There's some whores in this house. Yes, there's some doors in this house. There is some whores in this house. This is still a little racy. It's like I said, instead of a certified freak, I said certified beat seven days a week. What's her bottle? Make that pull out game week, which I would argue is still kind of racy for a kid's box song. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:50
Speaker
Full out game is not is not ambiguous. Hmm. What about when the kid is curious about the original? Like when I listened to Weird Al, I wanted to know where Amish Paradise
Sony's Blockbuster Game Focus
00:03:04
Speaker
came from. I want to know where WAP came from. That's not for children's ears. Or is it? Let's introduce sexuality at a young age. Who cares? Why not? I don't know. I am both for and
00:03:18
Speaker
I am both for and against your stance, Andy. I am fair. That's all right. Oh, kids bop song. This is one of the worst parts about the whole DMCA thing, because I would love to just be playing that song right now. Yeah, it's about drinking. It's about drinking water. But there's actually no there's another one, too.
00:03:42
Speaker
where it's like about food. So the kids bop one's about a water bottle. There's also another one, I guess, that is independent. That's about, yeah, it talks about ice cream and pepperoni and things. Yeah. I said, you know, I like to eat 11 days a week, wings and pizza, stuff that crust with extra cheese.
00:04:05
Speaker
okay i i went i went to the second the second verse for kids bop bop and it is still delicious let me tell you how to swallow it drip down the side of it it's the water bottle and i know you're really wanting it no is this this is real yeah this isn't like an april fool's no
00:04:30
Speaker
Kids bop does this shit. The kids bop lyricists had to go on vacation the next day and this need to be sent in before 4 p.m. OK. Everyone's a joke. Times are tough. OK, we got to let the guy get let some of this slide just a little bit. Be understanding for once. You know, the song became part of the conversation.
00:04:53
Speaker
right so why not make it accessible to children you know you know i'm a thirsty kid drink the water put me on my knees because i know i want no grateful the water because it's always making me stronger a little bit a little bit oh boy yes you know what
00:05:16
Speaker
That is hilarious. There's no one to actually listen to kids about because I bet this would have caused a minor stir for Karen somewhere.
00:05:28
Speaker
Oh, that's right. How come a million moms aren't marching for this? Oh, Andy, I can tell you what else caused a minor stir this week. I want to hear about it. Well, that's that. That's that Jason Schreier reports that Sony only cares about the hits to the surprise of absolutely no one.
00:05:50
Speaker
I mean, yes and no, right. So Jason Stryer had a report, which I will do my best to summarize. He put out kind of the bullet points of them on Twitter as well. But PlayStation developers are a bit unhappy.
00:06:06
Speaker
because management Jim Ryan, as it were, is basically focusing Sony on making cinematic open world games. That's where they make their money, and that's where they're going to put their focus on. And you know how they're going to do that focus, Andy? Remaking The Last of Us. I wouldn't say open world games, by the way, because Last of Us is also not that.
00:06:31
Speaker
It's not an open world game, but it's pretty close to being one. It's big budget. Last of us. Part last of us. Part two was almost technically an open world game. Oh, because
The State of Gaming Journalism
00:06:45
Speaker
they had that big area in the city where you went from side quest to side quest. That was the one area. Hey, you know what? They saw movies. That's all they do. So.
00:06:59
Speaker
So before before we talk about this and go like the direction argue about open world games, there's really like I my stance on Jason Shryers thing here is he's being a little too sensationalist.
00:07:16
Speaker
Which honestly, I feel like he does every once in a while. He's never been good at making any criticism. Jason Schreier also says fuck you for that because he also put out a statement after releasing this article that says the worst part about games reporting is hating when gamers give him hate for reporting negative things about outlets they like.
00:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I was just like, that's not my problem with your reporting. Here's what I think. I think Jason Schreier is one of the few people that has good leaks and writes an OK article. But notice how I say that. I say OK and good and not great, because those are important differences I'd like to make.
00:08:08
Speaker
Because because I'd like to say that gaming journalism is at its infancy and not hasn't fully matured yet to be like hard-hitting news. I like in this case, I would say Jason Schreier is probably the latter to the to that, though. Right. No, exactly. That's what I think. Like we have a low bar, but Jason's at the top of this low bar. OK. He's like he's there. But like, for instance,
00:08:38
Speaker
Let me do a comparison. If we are a niche reporting studio, gaming as a niche reporting in terms of like, what is serious journalism, right? Having sources, confirming them, talking about it, reporting it in an unambiguous manner to show the facts. Like from being from Kotaku and like all these other things, there's almost always a slant and an opinion that gets like flipped into our gaming news all the time.
00:09:08
Speaker
Because if you read his article, it's just saying, hey, Days Gone 2 was pitched, didn't work out. There was an uncharted game, didn't really work. We did this for Last of Us Remake.
Sony's Strategy: Big Games vs. Indies
00:09:25
Speaker
We decided to shift things around and have, let's say, Naughty Dog come in to work on this because this other studio, we felt we were spending too much money. And it was just like, OK.
00:09:37
Speaker
Yeah, one part of that one part of that is saying Sony is shifting their focus to blockbuster games. And like, like, really, it's not it doesn't necessarily say that, right? No, I mean, it just seems like normal business. Well, I guess I guess that's true. But you also have to look at what they've been releasing lately. They don't do smaller double A games, right? And they don't have a focus on Indies as much anymore.
00:10:07
Speaker
Nintendo and Xbox are kind of filling that. And Sony's like, we have our studios and then we have multi-platinum. And that's about it, right? So it's less that they're kind of cultivating new IP, but they still do on occasion, which is not fair to say they don't. But they're kind of sitting on their war chest of IPs and going, yeah, we're good right now. And we don't have to innovate.
00:10:32
Speaker
Well, and they also closed the Japan studio. They did. Which was there. That was their, you know, kooky side studio or whatever. Right. Yeah. That kind of made Sony feel like they had a little bit of heart. Right. I mean, the studio still release excellent games.
00:10:52
Speaker
on on on the most part so but did but for them to be slightly experimental that's what it felt now it's all moved to what the Astro studio I don't remember what they're called yeah and I'm fine if we get an Astro boy game another one I adored the Astros whatever it was called I loved it so much I forgot the name
00:11:15
Speaker
I mean, what do you what do you classify astro the astro bot games and the VR? The well, they don't seem like showcase games like they served a function to introduce. Right. They were designed with a purpose.
00:11:32
Speaker
And now there it seems it seems like that is supposed to take the place as Sony Japan Studios. But I don't I don't know. And there is that mass exodus of people over the last month. You had, you know, the gravity. Oh, crap. Not gravity fall. Gravity rush. Gravity rush. You had the Bloodborne guy.
00:11:55
Speaker
You had, I don't know, a couple other people, all all very creative, successful people, all of them leaving. But so I guess. Board guy. Yeah. He left Mia. What's his face? Not Miyazaki. It was someone someone else. But like from software isn't a PlayStation. No, they're not company. They are a second. They are a second party.
00:12:23
Speaker
I don't know. I just remember he was heavily involved in Bloodborne. I did a little bit of looking into him because I was like, Oh, who's that? Andy, could I tell you the name? I think it's interesting to bring
Future of the Gaming Industry
00:12:32
Speaker
that up, too, and kind of reinforces that point, because one of the things they said when they did that cleanup of Japan is basically they said, we don't want to produce smaller games that are only successful in Japan. They want to make games that have broad appeal. And I think people kind of read into that of well, what are broad appeal games? That's open world cinematic games.
00:12:56
Speaker
I and this this kind of comes on the heels too of the the rumors right that they're trying to remake Last of Us 2 or Last of Us Which is a game that does not need a remake Yeah, but but if you look at it from a business perspective right they have that HBO series coming and
00:13:15
Speaker
And and if they could have, hey, you can get the Last of Us remastered Last of Us part two bundle, you know, right when right when people finish that series on HBO, it saw gangbusters, right? You saw that when the Witcher series happened. Witcher sales, Witcher three sales on GOG went up like 500 percent a week after the Witcher series ended.
00:13:40
Speaker
So I think they're looking at those numbers and going, hey, well, we're not going to get a new Last of Us game by then, but we could definitely go back, put a shine on it, put it in the new engine and get something out of it. And I think it's just kind of a, it's a, it's a, it's a trend of decisions that are making people concerned.
00:14:02
Speaker
You know, this is how you got ps3 sony, right? Yeah. And this is starting to. Well, what's the meme? The it was a lobster or a crab, right? Massive thing. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I just remember during the video, there was like a couple of memes that came out of it and it was just like, Sony, Sony. I know the PS2 sold a lot, but come on. I know the PS4 sold a lot, but come on.
00:14:32
Speaker
And I mean, it's if they're a business and businesses are going to do what businesses will do. I feel like if it still makes money and it improves your image, why kill it? But well, the one thing I find really like I would say this seems almost ubiquitous, ubiquitous to the point of not even need to be part of the conversation. But like when people say,
00:14:57
Speaker
Anyone noticed that the previous console that won the other generation tends to be do bad the next generation? And I go, yeah, of course. Like, shut up. Like, it's not like it, like, yeah, that tends to happen. Like, we see that just because it's, you know,
00:15:17
Speaker
the current company gets very comfortable, decides not to do as much, and the other companies does the opposite, and then eventually wins it over. It's what keeps us in balance, really, at this point, right? Like, previous generation, PlayStation 4, when Xbox messed up about their whole DRM and, like, how to share games thing, and then Sony immediately jumped on that and was like, look, it's all about games, and look how easy it is. And then they win this, you know, they win that generation.
00:15:48
Speaker
this next generation of PlayStation 5 and Series X, it's gonna be interesting to be like, what is the most standout problem between the two? And who's gonna go the opposite way? Because right now, neither of them are doing necessarily the most outright wrong thing, but it's very clear that Microsoft is at the very least taking the
00:16:16
Speaker
about video game stands. Because they are doing things like with Game Pass, where suddenly Game Pass, which by the way was a smart move for them, is to be like, look, we're going to be Game Pass available for your PC. We're going to make it available for your console. And we're also going to get good games right away for cheap. It's very affordable. That's something I think outright by itself could probably win this console generation in the end.
00:16:46
Speaker
like I don't know how well like just some like blockbusters are going to do for Sony in that Nintendo is very similar in that Nintendo's strategy is almost very similar to Sony if they rely on blockbusters in that Nintendo has great first party games and then if there's third party games you probably are better to just play on different consoles. So if Sony does the same thing we're gonna look we're gonna foster first party
00:17:15
Speaker
games this entire time. I mean, it can work out for them. But at that point, it's just like, then there's probably not going to be much of like caring about console wars by the end. Because then by default, it's just going to be like, none of them are really trying to compete with each other anymore. Like, do you ever see, do you think like treats like the switch as competing with the other consoles? Nintendo certainly doesn't. Oh, no. Exactly. Exactly. It's just like, we
00:17:41
Speaker
Like we argue about Sony and Microsoft and then say, and Nintendo's over there. And no one talks bad about Nintendo for just being over
Sony's Historical Innovation Approach
00:17:50
Speaker
there. So it's going to be interesting because you're like, well, what does that gaming landscape looks like if suddenly they don't necessarily, none of these consoles care about complete directly competing with each other? Well, I think
00:18:07
Speaker
And I don't know, that's a tough position to make just because even I think Nintendo says they don't care about competing with others, but they do. Right. And, and I, what I'm going to say, right, is, is the indie thing, right? Nintendo has a strong focus on Indies and that's what supports it in between those tentpole franchises, your Mario's, your Zelda's, your Splatoon's, if you will.
00:18:35
Speaker
We needed a third one. That's right. Everybody asked for it. That's right. People love Splatoon. People love Splatoon. But in between those tent poles, you need something to fill the gap. And I think Nintendo realized, oh, hey, we just let indies come and do whatever. And you throw 100 of them on the eShop, one of them hits, and it's a darling. And then we just kind of ride that wave in the in-between.
00:19:03
Speaker
PlayStation doesn't seem to have that kind of strategy right now where it's like they're kind of depending on like multi-platform games to fill that need. You know, indies will still eventually come to PlayStation 5. It's the biggest console and it more than likely will. But think about Hades, right? Hades isn't on PS5 or Xbox yet. It's only on Switch and PC.
00:19:24
Speaker
Mm hmm. And I wonder if you think Microsoft's probably not paying trying to get Supergiant to release it on Xbox first instead of releasing it on PS5. You're crazy, right? So it's just I don't know. There's also been rumors that Sony's been pushing into making some of their franchise mobile games, too, which is always I know they're not for us, Sandy.
00:19:53
Speaker
Well, in its defense, though, Nintendo did it. And Charles, you love Fire Emblem Heroes. It's true. I do. It got you in to Fire Emblem. It did. But in all their games. So the thing about mobile games is always weird, right? Because like we said before, and like we talked about last week with Sonder, there are entire countries that are all about mobile games, right? China, Japan.
00:20:22
Speaker
and some other ones maybe. But I think those two are the major ones. And there is a lot of money in mobile games. So I get it. But for us, I think in the West, we tend not to necessarily fully care about mobile gaming yet because we don't necessarily fully see them as full gaming experiences. I don't see a mobile game as this thing I had to play through to completion is a thing. But I agree. There's some interesting words here.
00:20:52
Speaker
PlayStation doing their thing probably makes sense, but it also doesn't seem like it's something where they wanted. They're fighting over consoles. That's not the console. Creating mobile games is not about consoles.
00:21:05
Speaker
day
00:21:26
Speaker
I don't know. Patapon Patapon, right? Like, you know, there there's like Sony wasn't afraid to be weird. Sony was persona persona. Well, but persona, I wouldn't call for so many money. Yeah, but it's it's only on PlayStation. Yes, exclusive to it. And the only thing I can think of, right, is that Sony, every business, right? They have spreadsheets.
00:21:54
Speaker
Right. Very complicated spreadsheets. And I'm sure they look at the numbers and they see that the big ones sell the consoles. That's all they care about. Let the indie games be weird. Right. Let Atlas be weird.
00:22:10
Speaker
Let, you know, Niponichi and all these other people, let them feel the niche. Let's us make games that get people consoles. And that's it. I mean, Spider-Man sold consoles. Last of us sold consoles. God of War sold consoles, right? You're getting all these console additions. Let's sneak square some money to release Final Fantasy 7 on ours. We don't need to do that internally.
00:22:33
Speaker
So I think it's just Sony like this is a different landscape than when Sony released the PS1. We're in a different world. So let the let the smaller teams take the financial risk. Let Digital Devolver do it.
Kojima and Blue Box Games' Mystery
00:22:46
Speaker
But I care. I got I got God of War.
00:22:49
Speaker
What do I care? So that's all I can think of, which when I start to recon or contextualize, what has Sony done in the last five years that released on a smaller scale that like really fulfilled me? Not much or not anything that I can remember. So well, Andy, not to interrupt you, but would you like to hear about the next smaller scale game that Sony will be releasing? Not just want. I need to know.
00:23:19
Speaker
Okay. But it's actually, it's a story about Kojima, but we'll get there. So much in the same way of what we're talking about exclusives, there's a big rumor going around. Huh? What was that?
00:23:34
Speaker
I was hoping this would come up. This was very funny when I saw it. You think I didn't order this for this conversation? I'm a professional, damn it. But anyway, so over the course of this week, a trailer stuff dropped for this game called Abandoned.
00:23:54
Speaker
And it's from the studio called Blue Box Games. And the trailer is very like, you know, uh, let me go to YouTube here. The trailer is very, uh, atmospheric, especially in like a PT kind of Kojima esque way. Um, um, yeah. So it's, and it's really, it's, it's a very weird trailer.
00:24:23
Speaker
Because it's literally nothing but just backgrounds. I'm not going to lie, though. I look at that fireplace smoke. There's that fire pit smoke. That doesn't seem very Kojima. That seems too unpolished to be Kojima. That's true. It is a very unpolished demo. So honestly, that gives it away. Come on. Anyway, so this came out. And this is a horror project from a developer called Blue Box Games. And everybody was like, wait a minute.
00:24:52
Speaker
This kind of looks like this is they said this is a horror game and blue box games. There's not really any info about this developer. I bet this is Kojima's next game. So my favorite thing was I actually I saw this trailer get posted in the PlayStation five subreddit last week and I watched it and I was like, it's like, well, that's whatever. And then top comment was, is this a video Kojima game?
00:25:21
Speaker
And then the train went down in that common thread, which is perfect because they're like, blue box games, initials, BB, Kojima's last project, death straining. And then they went, let's see, the Twitter accounts weren't used that often, like hasn't been, has been barely used. And then you have the other people are like, would Kojima?
00:25:46
Speaker
create a blank account five years ago and just not use it just to separate the seeds. And everyone went, yes. But then the best part was the smoking gun, that one that comment thread, though, was basically CEO of Blue Box Games is some Middle Eastern name. But the initials
00:26:15
Speaker
all the red string on the on the on the Holton board just came together also Kojima did this too right didn't he do this one none of your solid four right he did you know he did it for five oh five yeah but the problem with that one though was um
00:26:32
Speaker
One, yes, I will agree that Kojima faking your game studio is definitely a Kojima thing to do. I will say that with the Phantom Pain, people did figure it out and were to give much better points to say, like better evidence in the trailer to say it's the creator. But the funny part is I think because Kojima at the end of the Metal Gear Solid 5 reveal was like,
00:27:02
Speaker
Hi, I bet you guys didn't see that coming. And now everyone needs to just be on their guard. Similar to a Tide ad from the Super Bowl a few years ago. I know. But like, where everything gets co- any vague game can potentially be a Kojima game.
00:27:20
Speaker
And it just gets co-opted, which I did feel bad for the studio because the studio was like, guys, we're not a studio Kojima. We're not. We're just, we're just the upcoming studio. We don't have enough people for our social media presence.
00:27:35
Speaker
We don't, we're just, this is our first bigger game. Sorry, we're not. If you have to be a small studio that has to apologize to all these people, because you're not actually who they expect you to be, it does feel a little, it must be a little bit sad.
00:27:51
Speaker
Well, I mean, they did. They did almost come off a little offended. But you know, and that I'm going to I'm going to say something slightly stereotypical, but in that stereotypical Japanese way. Right. But they're like, no, we are not this developer. We are our own studio and we're a little offended that you think that, you know, and they kind of they kind of threw that back on everyone.
00:28:15
Speaker
Which, you know, it's understandable, right? This is their big moment, their big release
Sony vs. Microsoft: Gaming Strategies
00:28:20
Speaker
on this game. They've been working like, what are you saying, Charles? But also it's like, do you think anyone would have fucking given a shit about this game? And now it's got so much real estate in people's minds. Like everyone's going to be like, all right, abandoned. We'll believe you for now. Well, I'm getting kind of excited.
00:28:41
Speaker
Well, is this like QAnon sprouting up? I will say you're a little bit racist here, James, because Blue Box Studio is a danger. Oh, is it? Yeah, this is I'm a bad I'm a bad I'm a bad reporter. That's that's why I'll never be Jason Schreier or Jeff Grubb, who wrote this article. And what I think the most pumping out mediocre journalism.
00:29:08
Speaker
That's right. And I'm going to continue doing it right now. So all of that happened. That's why we can't be called journalists. We're just enthusiasts.
00:29:18
Speaker
No, I don't even want to be a pundit. I'm an enthusiast. It's an enthusiast media. But anyway, so yeah, so all that happened with abandoned. And then people wrote about that. And Jeff Grubb, whose article I have so displayed here, basically said, one of the reasons people believe abandoned isn't from Kijina, or excuse me.
00:29:41
Speaker
Oh, but the biggest piece of evidence I have that abandoned is not a Kojima joint is that Kojima is in talks with Microsoft about publishing his next game, according to a source familiar with the matter. And yes, that statue on Phil Spencer shelf during a direct was a potential deal, a reference to the potential deal with Kojima.
00:30:01
Speaker
Also, Jeff Grubb further updated this later in a tweet saying that that deal was at the lawyer's point. So you can expect an announcement if true pretty soon. But Andy, I think the one more twist on this, too, although I think it would be more of a knife twist on you, is remember Konami and Microsoft have been very friendly lately.
00:30:29
Speaker
What else have they collaborated on?
00:30:31
Speaker
Just in terms of I think just in terms of dealing and the fact that they're both going to E3. Oh, and Kunaami has kind of openly stated that they're licensing out their IP to other developers. Are they going to like pull a Capcom with the GameCube and then we're going to get another Resident Evil four that changes the landscape of gaming and I can't play it because I won't buy an Xbox and I don't like playing on my computer.
00:31:01
Speaker
Andy, but here's what I want you to think about. Metal Gear Solid 5, the complete edition. Kojima goes back in and finishes that story because I like that. To be fair, I've never finished it. I just didn't have the emotional availability. And it was I keep hearing that it was incomplete.
00:31:24
Speaker
Oh, yeah, both in just the appearance of it. And I think by Kojima's own words. Yeah. So there is unused cutscene data and voice data like voice acting data that you can find online that there's like a whole chapter of that game missing.
00:31:44
Speaker
Um, like even, um, double fine went to X-Box and I didn't care that much. But Kojima going to X-Box. That's tough. That's tough. I don't mind them doing anything with that, but Ooh, new IP. Yeah, I will say the, um, PlayStation's, oh, here's, here's my thing about Kojima going.
00:32:12
Speaker
One, if he does, that's PlayStation's fault. There was another separate just interrupt. There was a separate rumored report that Kojima did go to Sony with his next game and Jim Ryan went, nah.
00:32:29
Speaker
Jim Ryan Okay, I just I just sympathize with you about getting rid of the Indies, but you turn away Kojima and you're wrong. He was He was I can't remember his official title, but he was the director of like Sony Europe
00:32:46
Speaker
And he really turned. See how punchable his face is. It's kind of punchable. Let's take a look up at Jim Ryan. One second. This is important because he said no to Kojima. And just sorry, one more side before I'll let you back Charles. But also during this whole like the previous story where people were talking about, you know, the Sony losing its focus and focusing on blockbusters and all that, people were tweeting at Shawn Layden.
00:33:11
Speaker
Like, oh, we miss you, Sean. And Sean was liking every post. Yeah. No, I've heard about that one, too. Yeah. I was just like, I just want to say really quick, according to Google, Jim Ryan is the former Illinois attorney general. He's not. And he's a Republican. So this all makes sense now. That's not who he is, Andy. Only a Republican would turn away coaching. We don't know his politics.
00:33:41
Speaker
Allegedly. Allegedly. I actually believe he's I believe he came out in favor of diversity in the gaming industry. So I'm not sure. But anyway, Republicans sometimes hint at that. Anyway, Charles, you were saying sorry for that interruption. Lost your train. Well, I would you know, we've been taking so many turns.
00:34:07
Speaker
Well, the entire thing with Kojima is like, and maybe Jim Ryan did make this decision, but yes, Sony and Kojima's relationship after death stranding must have been interesting because they were banking on Kojima there. And this is the one where I find interesting in that
00:34:36
Speaker
While Sony may be moving their focus away into like blockbusters, there are still new IPs being generated by Sony, right? Like Death Stranding, completely experimental game, you know, trust and was given a lot of leeway because of one, it was Kojima, but also it's a new IP. That was a lot of faith in that person. And they did make money, I believe, from Death Stranding.
00:35:03
Speaker
Maybe not as much as they wanted from it. It's not a system seller, though. Yeah, that's the thing, right? So I can understand why they would say no. However, the perception for the gaming community, and by that, I mean the gaming community that cares enough about E3 will probably care about where Kojima is playing.
00:35:32
Speaker
It's very likely. Because there's casual games, whatever.
Ludwig's Twitch Subathon Phenomenon
00:35:37
Speaker
They don't necessarily care about console wars or whatever. But people who pay attention to E3 and watch all the conferences are people that also have an opinion on the console war or whatever. So in terms of Kojima switching, and if he makes a game for Microsoft, those people's perceptions will certainly go, uh-oh, Microsoft is.
00:36:02
Speaker
And if people do care about the console wars in that way, and this is a good win for Microsoft, pretty good. Oh, I think, I think the thing people have said too is just, there's just a constant stream of Microsoft wins, right? Every week you hear a piece of news that's like, Microsoft gets this, Microsoft does this. And you know, it's just always positive news. And then with Sony, it's just,
00:36:29
Speaker
nothing. Well Sony saw money and capitalism kicked in. It's just we're waiting for that big win on the Sony side right to be like this is this is like oh we did this we secured this and all that but you know it's Microsoft like we have Bethesda we have we may have Kojima game passes
00:36:50
Speaker
has outriders for free. You know, it's like just every week there's this little piece of like, man, this is a reason you should own an X box. And Sony, you don't necessarily get that. There's just a lot of mindshare being occupied by the Microsoft space right now. Yeah. It's a, my, I'm not going to lie to you. My thing.
00:37:09
Speaker
for this generation was my perception basically in terms of like who was coming out ahead, right? Is that PlayStation was ahead and like by a lot at the beginning of the console generation, right? And by that six months ago or five months ago, whatever. And like, so each of these here makes things closer, but I'm not there yet to say that they are
00:37:36
Speaker
that they are now behind. Certainly not. It's one of these things where we've all said it before, Sony is definitely trying to bank on saying, look, we are known for these quality games and their experiences, and they are worth playing our console to experience them. And I will say, my judgment on it for me personally is I want to see how Sony's next set of first party games do.
00:38:06
Speaker
Like if they, if God award does come out this year, which has not yet necessarily been announced to be delayed. It's, it's right. Right. That's what I'm saying. If, and because they haven't announced that it's been delayed yet. Like if one of those like triple a first party games comes out this year and it's still great, then I would say, okay, still good. Still good. Uh,
00:38:31
Speaker
Like, as soon as one of those flops or it becomes just like, or even just turns out to be good, but not great games, then I will be like, okay, well, it looks like Microsoft is starting to pull ahead here and that'll be it for me. Ratcheting Clank is your, uh, your next milestone, as it were, because I think that's the first game that's going to be coming out. Okay. I'm not personally a Ratcheting Clank person, but there is a, there is a need for a platformer game. So. Yep. Sure.
00:39:02
Speaker
It turns out to be fun. It turns out to be fun and good. I have a great. I'm pumped. Yeah. You know what else you guys should be pumped about? I want to hear it. Some guy breaking Ninja's record on Twitch of subscribers. Oh, yeah. But if you're if you are on Twitch, you know, today, you probably would have seen Twitch streamer Ludwig fucking and one start the final day of his
00:39:30
Speaker
uncapped subathon which started 31 days ago. So a subathon first is where a streamer will go on stream and set a timer countdown that goes to zero.
00:39:49
Speaker
And what will happen is when you subscribe to the streamer, you add time to the timer. So when the timer hits zero, the stream ends. But if you want to keep watching the streamer, maybe you should encourage to be subscribed to add more time for that stream.
00:40:07
Speaker
uncapped subathons mean there's no max to how long the stream will go so Ludwig funny story was like I went on vacation for a few days and I lost a lot of subs so to make up for it I will have a subathon uncapped and you know at best maybe I'll end up going two days straight streaming and that'll be it but Ludwig
00:40:33
Speaker
I guess not fully understanding the enormity of his own audience, because he averages 20,000 to 30,000 viewers every time he streams, doesn't realize the strength of that many people subbing to him. So, Ludwig, starting this sub-a-thon at, I don't know, 10,000, 11,000 subscriptions, is nearing currently, let me check, 200,000.
00:41:03
Speaker
943 subscriptions by six and going up yeah six according to i have the stream up right now yeah so uh which you know if you don't understand the payout system for subscriptions it's tier one basic subscriptions to a streamer it's five dollars the streamer and twitch will is tends to have an agreement where they split it in half
00:41:32
Speaker
If you are a big enough streamer, you can negotiate that ratio a little bit better. So potentially even doing like a two to three ratio, maybe even one to four if you're really good. If you're good at negotiating that deal. So Ludwig ending his sub-athon at 276,950
00:41:57
Speaker
subscribers and just shy of seven hundred thousand dollars this month. If you do two point five dollars for his for his sport. So, Andy, just this month, he will make seven hundred thousand dollars in subscriptions. That's an enormous. And that's what will be, Andy. It's hard. Are we going to do an uncapped?
00:42:24
Speaker
Sabathons? What do I have to do? Here's the thing. We're fine. We are safe. We can do uncapped Sabathons, even up to if we ever get popular enough to have like 2,000 subscribers. It's when you're as big as Ludwig getting up to 20,000 or 30,000 that it's dangerous. Because that's when people are willing to give 100 subs at a time, which is what happened to Ludwig a lot.
00:42:53
Speaker
to the point that he started a new rule, which was banning anybody that gifted them over 100 subs until the end of the cell phone. And people, I'm sure, then immediately started doing it more to be banned. It was actually very funny because I was looking at the stream earlier and he was doing unbanning because this was the end of the stream. And he saw there was one user
00:43:22
Speaker
who made 13 alt accounts, gifting him 100 subs each time. And he unbanned each of them. So there are people dedicated to giving this man money. But I think there's some very interesting takeaways from something like this. Because one, on day, let's say I think day 13 or day eight, around that time,
00:43:52
Speaker
He ended up getting a New York Times article about it because, you know, the rules that I started with on it is that streaming doesn't end. He has to go to sleep. He streamed himself sleeping for 31 days. Like, he'd be streaming or active for like 16 hours, and then he goes to sleep for eight hours. And like, he'd set up a system with his mods, so his mods would regulate while he's sleeping. Then he wakes up.
00:44:22
Speaker
But the funniest part about this for me is that first thing he said was, after day one was, half of the proceeds go to charity and make from this was gonna go to charity. And then the next day he was like, I'm gonna pay all my mods that help me when I go to sleep. Base pay $1,000 and then another 375 for whoever shows up to help out during the nights while I'm sleeping.
00:44:49
Speaker
which average to become, because he has a lot of mods, average to like paying, let's say 5k or 8k a night to his mods, that would help. And then, you know, it all happens with like, it all culminates to this here, which is, at the very beginning, he was like, we're never going to beat Ninja's all time record, which was 269
00:45:14
Speaker
Thousand subscriptions nice and because so because he got closer and close enough He's like the final day of the sub of them, which is today. He was like every sub today I will donate five dollars to I think he said st. Jude's and then like two other cherries one for like hunger and like one for like a you know starving children and something else and
00:45:40
Speaker
So he's going to lose money for today. But it's funny on how much money is being thrown around and generated, because even if his take home after Twitch is that, you know, thousands of dollars and not including donations and everything else, he's going to be taxed on a lot of this and still end up with like probably like
00:46:03
Speaker
less than $100,000, even though you're going to believe he should. Only $100,000. Yeah, but think about the original number. Oh, I know. I know. The original number is a slice. But one of the things I also find interesting for Ludwig is that I do enjoy that he's also been not afraid to talk about social issues in his dreams.
00:46:33
Speaker
He's also talked about, while he has his giant audience, he's talked about issues like, you know, women in gaming and like how there are, there's certain language and mindsets that you approach. You know, women in games that you don't say about men and stuff like that, which I was like consistently, I was like, you know, you have a large audience, you've been very transparent about where all this money is going. It's pretty good.
00:46:57
Speaker
Not bad for somebody. So, uh, I'm just judging how he's grating Parmesan cheese right now. So I'm lost. Yeah. Oh, I mean, I get it.
00:47:09
Speaker
He's not a good cook. It's his girlfriend that's the cook. No, but I think that's good. And that is probably, especially in this kind of moment to take that time and use his platform for that is good, especially when you're trying to achieve something, it's kind of putting yourself out there. So definitely good on that front.
00:47:30
Speaker
It's just always interesting, I think, with these records too. I didn't put it in the list for this week. Recently, the world record for Super Mario Bros. 1 speedruns has been broken, and then broken once or twice more.
00:47:48
Speaker
And they're closing in on the basically human perfection of time. So you know how they have tool-assisted mods where they can basically just do all the inputs frame perfect every time to figure out what is the human perfect time to complete the game?
00:48:08
Speaker
And they're within 0.8 seconds of that time right now. And it's just very, it's always interesting to watch these kinds of things, like with this sub, right? People just want to be a part of seeing a barrier broken. And I can see a lot of that similar behavior in speed running and other things. It's why I think donation streams on Twitch, generally speaking, do very well. There's just a positive energy of people going, you know what? I just want to, I just want to see this number go up.
00:48:38
Speaker
because that's gaming mentality, right? Yeah. Well, I mean, that's, that's actually, um, uh, an interesting dark side actually to Ludwig's, uh, subathon in that, um, there is a point when, uh, you could see people online, get mad at them because like, cause people like, well, one, why, why are people still giving him money? Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:07
Speaker
Don't you think it's a little disingenuous and manipulative for him to be having to sub with them after making this project? So what are you talking about? I was like, what more do you want? Half of that's going to charity, another section of it's going to other people that work for him? It's one of those things where people also just don't want to see others
00:49:37
Speaker
make money. It's kind of weird, because to be honest with you, streamers are fucking, they started out as normal people.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Teasers
00:49:50
Speaker
A famous person becoming a streamer isn't nearly as successful as these guys here. Ludwig here is at, what, 76,000? Somebody like T-Pain, who sometimes streams. T-Pain, the music artist, people love his music.
00:50:06
Speaker
And he gets like 1500 people if he streams. Yeah. I mean, uh, Austin Eckler, uh, running back for the, uh, Los Angeles chargers, he averages under the hundreds when he streams.
00:50:18
Speaker
Mm hmm. And it's you know, it's it's not it's not a one to one thing, right? I mean, I would also say to your earlier point, right? People just people who don't see the value in what they're doing and just like they're just you know, they're just talking into a camera. I could do that.
00:50:38
Speaker
why don't I get that money but they don't do that that's the challenge not like us who said we should monetize our friendship and turn it into a podcast and I was like damn it we're doing it this year and I want how many subs again two
00:50:57
Speaker
hundred and seventy seven thousand subs. Three hundred. Andy, why don't we just say a nice even three hundred K. Right. Beat their record. That's right. We'll do it, Andy. I mean, the benefit of us doing an uncapped subathon is we can take turns. That's fair. We can do it. We can do like a handout. What is that? What does that look like? What would we do in an uncapped video games for my second? For my section, I want us to stream a subverse.
00:51:25
Speaker
And then and then we never play. Yeah. And that's the end of it. And then we and then we exclusively stream on YouTube until we get banned from there. Am I allowed to wear a low cut short shirt? You can't present nipples. So male presenting nipples are also banned. Yes. Oh, well.
00:51:49
Speaker
Not going to lie, Andy, if you have a hot tub that you can stream from, you might be safe. That's true. I don't have a hot tub. That's why. It can't be. Yeah, the purpose of the stream cannot be to show off your body. However, if you are somewhere where you would normally be shirtless, that is acceptable.
00:52:07
Speaker
That's why there's all these streamers who I, I remember, uh, I can't remember. It was a fun house. Get one time where they were, went on Twitch and are looking at and just chatting. And it was four guys just talking to each other on a beach and they had 10,000 watch 10,000 people watching and they just freaked out. Like they're not, what are they doing? They're just on a beach hanging out.
00:52:32
Speaker
So even even people who make content are not immune to that. That's fair. Oh, boy, this has been a fun discussion about parasocial relationships and how we will someday take advantage of them. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. At least as long as it's a two way street, if they're getting something out of it, too. That's true, Andy. What's the alarm? I'm a product ready to be sold. OK, I've got debt.
00:53:03
Speaker
I need to feed the machine. I want tips in Bitcoin. Exactly. And I can present nipples. So we're all set. I'm feeling good.
00:53:18
Speaker
Oh, boy. I think Andy saying he can present nipples is a good place to end this episode. At least be confident to say that right now. That's true. Confidence is 90% of attractiveness. The other 10% is being attractive. That's not true.
00:53:37
Speaker
But just a show note, last week I said we would review Mortal Kombat next week. I'm an idiot. And it was actually not delayed until next week's or this week's date, I should say. It comes out next week on like the 23rd, I believe. So we will review it in two weeks time. So not next episode, but the episode after that, which is what I said last week. But I'm an idiot.
00:54:02
Speaker
Hey, we all make mistakes. We do. Much like much like your nip slip that we'll get. It's right. Listen, well, who's going to cover me? All right. Who is my JT? So my I don't know. Yeah, I was like, why can't I? Whatever. I do want to admit a mistake I made, though.
00:54:28
Speaker
Hurry up. Look up a list of the games that Sony published. Yeah. I take back what I said. I no longer sympathize them. We've we got some great franchises out of them. And and some games I'll never forget. So it's very sad. Hopefully, hopefully in these can take up the take up the mantle.
00:54:50
Speaker
It's we're losing a lot. Well, this is what they did. Jim Ryan is Republican. So this has been episode five of Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm bringing sexy back. And I've been joined by Charles Amott still going strong after two days of the vaccine. Take that. And Andy Kay, who's feeling real confident
00:55:42
Speaker
about my body.