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Hades 2 is here & Xbox brings the bummers - Add to Party 05.09.2024
24 Plays5 months ago
This week we discuss the Helldivers 2 drama, Xbox closing studios, Hades 2 in early access and Pokerogue!
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Transcript
Introduction and Tomato Talk
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to Add to Party, a friendship simulator masquerading as a new show. I'm your host, James Hartwell, and I'm joined by... Andy Kay, and I'm joined by... Derek Kostiha.
00:00:28
Speaker
Good evening, gentlemen. Good evening, everyone. How are you doing? Oh, doing good. Spring is springing. Oh, what does this mean? Does this mean you have plants springing in your bath or your basement, James? Yeah. Oh, yeah, my basement. My basement plants are fully alive.
00:00:48
Speaker
and some too big. I'm watching every day or I'm like, can I plant these yet? Can I plant these yet? Wait, which ones did you give too much love? Which one are your favorite children? There's some tomato plants that I think are already like four feet tall. Oh my god. Wait, do these eventually go outside or do you just have a dungeon?
00:01:09
Speaker
No, well, I haven't. No, they always go outside. Oh, OK. But I mean, like my tomato plants end up being like 10, 12 feet tall. So. Oh, my God. Are they better? Like when you when you when you pluck it off the vine, is it better? Oh, yeah. Oh. The trash you eat in the supermarket. Yeah. But we're not your labor without all the pesticides. I use all natural.
00:01:35
Speaker
All natural pesticides? Yeah, they do. It's called it's called Dr. Zimes. He's an enzyme based pesticide. OK. Does it have the writings of a cult all over the
Marketing and Political Discussions
00:01:46
Speaker
bottle? Like Dr. Bronner's or whatever? No, at least not that I've been able to decipher. Well, that's too bad. It's not natural enough and James. That's fair.
00:01:57
Speaker
If you're not claiming the second coming of Christ, I mean, what good are you doing for the world? Actually, I don't remember what's on that. I need I need Christianity in my cleaning products and my bed pillows. Wait, what's in your bed pillows? That's the my pillow guy. Oh, yeah, he he's definitely been touched by God recently, at least. Was he religious? Oh, what are you talking about? He had a giant cross in every commercial he ever did. Oh, I didn't know that.
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, he was always wearing a giant cross around his neck. Like, I knew he got off hard drugs. I was like, cool for you. I might give you a try one day if I ever see one. No, don't. Well, he's he's also like a hardcore right wing trumpet. So did you see the device he invented to save the elections?
00:02:48
Speaker
No. It's basically like, I don't know if you would call it like a Wi-Fi sniffer or something, but basically you go into your polling place, you lay down this device, and it checks like all of the things that are connecting to Wi-Fi. I don't know how it works, but he's basically looking for like devices that are like stealing data from the electronic polling machines.
00:03:12
Speaker
And I think he put all his money into it and lost all of it. But he's saving America. He's saving America. God bless him. He has to be on drugs now. I mean, God bless him for getting off of it. But at least from what I've seen, granted in the context of others dunking on him. So I'm sure I'm only seeing him at his worst moments right now.
00:03:37
Speaker
Oh, speaking of worst moments, oh actually not worst moments, but I just learned about someone.
Nardwar's Interview Style
00:03:44
Speaker
What's that? Nardwar. Have you guys ever heard of nardwar? Maybe? It sounds familiar.
00:03:53
Speaker
So by extension, not that I know anything about hip hop, but I fell deep into the Kendrick Drake beef. Have you guys been following? Oh, yeah. Okay. I do know about Nardwar. He, he will just do interviews with people in the hip hop rap community. And he'll just pop in with info from like the earliest days that they that they almost forgot. And they're just like,
00:04:17
Speaker
How the hell did you know that? Yeah. And then he replies, you are X person. We have to know. And that's like he always finds like these super deep cuts. And I've just been trying to figure out how does he find that out? And then it occurred to me, does he just call up their mom? Is that his secret?
00:04:41
Speaker
How do you find deep cuts about people? I don't know. And then it made me wonder, like, what about my life? Would someone like, oh, maybe that they found out I have a podcast. Maybe that would be the deep cut. Granted, we're known world over, okay? We're marketing journalists. So it's not a deep cut. But I don't know what my Nardwar deep cut would be.
00:05:07
Speaker
Hmm I can't think I think I just talk about everything Well, this is a problem But do you guys have nard war deep cuts little seeds to plant for him to ask in the future? I still don't know who this is
00:05:23
Speaker
I think Derek basically summed it up. It's this guy in Canada who does these interviews primarily with hip-hop artists and he's kind of goofy. He kind of has a character eccentric and he shows up and he will like just give him a bunch of gifts or whatever, but he will always land on them like stuff that they don't understand how he knows. Like if you just look up Narwhal, you're just gonna see a bunch of clips of people going, how did you know that?
00:05:49
Speaker
What? And it's a bunch of stuff either they've never told anyone or from their childhood. He's like the most like deep intense like investigative journalist and but no one knows his secret. So I was trying to figure out his secret.
00:06:06
Speaker
And I think he just might ring up their parents. That's the only thing I can figure out. That's the only thing! But I learned about Nardwar. So guard your secrets closely, everyone. Otherwise, well, at first, get popular enough for Nardwar to interview you.
00:06:24
Speaker
but he ended up being a joke passed around during the Drake and Kendrick beef, because everybody was like, how did Kendrick find all of this out about Drake? And everybody was like, oh, well, Nardwar was on the case. And I was like, oh. And so everyone was laughing, and I was left out.
YouTube Algorithms and Content Concerns
00:06:42
Speaker
Well, I was left out on a lot, because I don't know anything about Drake or Kendrick. I just know Drake's not good for the culture. That's about all I know. And then Kendrick proved that.
00:06:52
Speaker
But anyways, that was what has occupied my last week is I am now a hip hop head. I know everything. And YouTube is now giving me a bunch of recommendations of hip hop artists. I have been recommended ASAP Rocky and Tyler the Creator.
00:07:17
Speaker
Tyler, the creator is very good. And, um, Little Uzi and, um, ah, what were some of the other ones? Oh, I can't remember. I don't know. And then a lot of Eminem. Eminem's still relevant, apparently, but I've been learning a lot, but not listening to a lot. So I guess I am kind of a fake fan, but who knows? I might become a big hip hop person now. I don't know.
00:07:44
Speaker
I mean, the algorithm knows you best. So you're already on the path. So here's the interesting thing. So the algorithm gives me now a bunch of information on hip hop, like new artists and just like kind of interesting stuff about it. And then a bunch of like shorts that are like the best I can call it is like, what is it called? Retributive justice?
00:08:07
Speaker
What is that called? The kind of stuff that the Punisher is about that a bunch of thin blue lines use him for. Where basically it's just people getting their comeuppance. If you mess around, the cops are going to step in. You're going to get it, blah, blah, blah. Taking it into your own hands. I don't know if it thinks I'm conservative now. I don't get it.
00:08:32
Speaker
But I don't like the correlation of hip-hop and retributive justice. Not digging it. I don't know what that means. And I don't know if I even want to unpack that a little more, but that's what my feed has turned into. And I hate it. Oh, and then more like Andrew Tate stuff and hardcore Christian stuff. So I just. This is YouTube, right? This is YouTube shorts. I'm assuming YouTube is essentially TikTok.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yes, and it's terrible and I hate it, but the algorithm for YouTube Shorts is wild compared to my regular algorithm. My regular algorithm is just lefty crap in video games. But my Shorts algorithm is, again, like cops and, oh, like 911 calls now. And of course it thinks I have autism and ADHD.
00:09:24
Speaker
And then like people role playing weird like therapy things. It's really weird. I don't know. But then, yeah, a lot of a lot of cop stuff, a lot of conservative stuff and Christian stuff. It just sends me like these daily prayers. And it's like, oh, my God. Why? Why tick tock? You two shorts. Andy, quick question. Yes. Whenever this comes up, do you just get so surprised? Do you let it repeat multiple times? Here's the problem here.
00:09:55
Speaker
No, I'm asking because I think if you loop a video and you don't go to the next one It's it registers in as you enjoyed this content you went back to watch more. Oh, so that's interesting because I do I'm not gonna lie I watch a little bit of it because a little bit of me just wants to be mad. I don't know why Just want to feel a little rage in your life. Yeah, you just kind of want to get mad. I
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, but Andy, that's the reason why there's these reels and TikToks where it's just like some kind of asinine question of like the name of this crossword puzzles, the person who's going to do X and there's zero names of the crossword or it's like a question with all wrong answers that wants you to sit there and like figure out like why doesn't this make sense? And then you just get loops of it. And then that's basically content interaction from yours.
00:10:47
Speaker
Okay. Yeah, those have not come across my scrolling feed. So maybe I haven't fallen deep enough, but it is hot trash. I do watch a bit of them, but I do scroll. But I've never been a dislike person or like person on YouTube. Do you guys thumbs up or thumbs down?
00:11:05
Speaker
Very, very rarely, which is bad. You should, honestly. Yeah. What about you, Derek? I do very often. Is yours like dialed into your brain then? Is the algorithm just a mirror to your soul? I get way too much Pokemon stuff for me to say yes to that.
00:11:25
Speaker
Because I do not like Pokemon stuff there. I think you're a Pokemon guy. I'm not, which is why I don't like better than cops beating people up. Like my I just went to YouTube in the first row. It's Vtuber, Vtuber, Vtuber, pirate labs. The former blizzard of his he's taken off Pokemon some random flesh guy.
00:11:52
Speaker
VTuber VTuber VTuber. And that's pretty much dialed into what I'm into. Well, maybe I just need to start liking and disliking. I don't know why I can't be bothered. I just can't. It's such a commitment.
00:12:06
Speaker
It's such a commitment. You just don't want to feel like, you don't want to be judged that you said yes to this. I guess? Yeah, it's like I don't want YouTube to know I like it, but then YouTube feeds me trash that makes me mad. Why are you giving me podcasts where it's just like misogynist dudes like yelling at women? What's wrong with me? Like, does YouTube think I'm a misogynist? A little bit.
00:12:35
Speaker
No! I'm watching, like, no, I'm engaging with so much content, that's the opposite.
00:12:42
Speaker
Now, your dislike can come down horseshoe style and then they want you to hate watch it. They want you to watch it and get upset and say, this is stupid. You're stupid. And you're still watching it. You're still going to click that ad. Derek, I think you're on to something. And that's only something that I think I've been thinking about recently is that, yeah, maybe it's just rage watching. It's giving it to me because it will make me mad.
00:13:07
Speaker
I don't, oh my god, ugh, ugh. I mean, I think I'm just talking to things you already know, but like, the editing and the music and like, are they like, crop videos and they're using something to like, follow their face or whatever? Do you get those? And then they like, put the text on the screen and they're trying to make it sound so important and like, this guy owned this SJW loo.
00:13:30
Speaker
And then it's just like someone just says something reasonable and then a white guy says something embarrassing. And it's just like he owned her. How embarrassing. And then you go to the comments and it's just a bunch of embarrassing people. And this is what YouTube thinks I want. YouTube is trying to turn me into a misogynist. You guys, if I turn into one, it's not my fault. Oh, no, that's your fault. Hold on. Hold on, Andy.
00:13:59
Speaker
You don't like this content. You don't support it, but you watch enough to get a gist of it and then you go read comments. Oh, well, yeah. You got to read the comments. He got comments. No, I read comments, but that it is. It's a bad habit. Like the comments section is like the like a fish net to catch the trash or the bottom heaters. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:14:28
Speaker
What is that supposed to mean? Exactly what I said. Fair, okay. I'm not commenting, I'm just reading comments. There's a lot of funny people in the comments. My favorite thing, the whole reason I went on my psychedelic journey was that Alvin and the Chipmunks album, the comments were incredible there.
00:14:50
Speaker
Um, and it was such a shame that that video, original video was removed, but someone reposted it and everybody was trying to recreate the community of comments that happened there. People are so funny in comments. How are people that clever? And then I wonder, are they funny in real life?
00:15:09
Speaker
Does that translate? It's the it's the monkeys thing. You know, you give enough monkeys typewriters, eventually they'll type Shakespeare. I guess. But they're just so funny. I guess. Yeah. You open up a platform to enough people and you're going to get some gold in the comments. I could never be that funny. It makes me just feel kind of bad and wish I could be that clever. But those have been my reflections. But there's no clever people on the misogynistic videos.
00:15:37
Speaker
Oh my god, they're so bad. But anyways, enough about me. This is just me laying the groundwork that if I turn into a misogynist, it's not my fault. Okay? Alright. Sure, sure. Well, you know, that's what the Helldivers 2 devs said during their most recent
00:16:03
Speaker
There are most recent issues. It's not our fault. Oh, OK. I appreciate it. So it wasn't their fault. This is this is actually we get to talk about the story is resolved. So well, but let's wind it back to May 3rd, where hell divers to popular PlayStation and PC game announced that they would be they would. I just opened the article and the gift made me laugh.
00:16:32
Speaker
Um, they would be, they would have to link an account to a PSN account to play the game on PC.
Sony's PSN Controversies and Gamer Reactions
00:16:41
Speaker
Now you didn't need to do this previously. You could, in fact, cross play with PSN players without any sort of PSN account. However, you know, you assume this is some kind of, this was a big move on Sony to get their account activation numbers up because all numbers too still.
00:16:56
Speaker
incredibly popular. And as I understand, they haven't done it with their other games. Yeah, like they're the single player games that they've released the PC. But they have done it for the multiplayer portions of those games. Oh, they did. OK. OK. Never mind. And the hell divers to community took this and stride. Oh, yeah. They said no problem, champ. No, no, they didn't.
00:17:26
Speaker
Later that day, Helldivers 2 had received 85,000, 84,000 negative reviews in the past day on Steam. Just review bombing it until, actually, I think it got to almost negative 150,000 or 142,000 negative reviews on Steam. You know what? Good on them to organize that well.
00:17:53
Speaker
I don't I don't think it was even organization. I think people just got mad. Yeah, I saw the change. I went and gave my bad review. I don't know if this was all spurred from or I thought there was some type of organization campaign to get people to do it because like, I guess like on Reddit, because there's this whole movement of like, if we don't dive together, we don't dive at all or something about it.
00:18:17
Speaker
Um, but I don't know. I don't know. I'm just still proud of the community. Okay. Organizing and protest works. All right. I want to make a reference. Well, as, as Andy, as Andy is saying, they did eventually pull back on this Sony after the hundred 40,000 negative reviews, Sony kind of went, Oh, hold on. We're sorry. Uh, posted on may six. So three days later, uh, how the hell divers fans would pull out or read the, the PlayStation tweet.
00:18:47
Speaker
Helldivers fans, we've heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6th update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players, beginning May 30th will not move forward. We're still learning what is best for PC players and your feedback has been invaluable. Thanks for your continued support of Helldivers 2 and we'll keep you updated on future plans.
00:19:09
Speaker
What were you saying, Derek? So it's not just the review bombing. So Sony PSN is not legally able to operate in 177 countries and territories. They were sold on Steam in those 177 countries and territories, and they didn't require PSN. And when they asked for refunds, no matter how many hours they put in, Steam said, you know what?
00:19:35
Speaker
You get a refund because Sony is saying you no longer have access to the game you paid for. And it got to the point where refunds outnumbered sales for the month. No. Yeah. And then Steam stopped selling in those hundred, seven countries and territories through all this. So, yeah, it was. Yeah.
00:19:58
Speaker
That's we kill or I don't know why I keep calling this game Killzone. Helldivers is crazy to get more of like, oh, my God. And Sony is saying, we're just learning. Oh, my God. Good on these people. I mean, it sucks that the only thing people listen to is money and regulation. But screw them. Yeah. And I think and to Derek's to Derek's point that
00:20:25
Speaker
You know, I would have said, rightly so. This is not a big deal. This is the Internet getting up in arms about, you know, being told they have to do one extra thing. But for people who bought this in certain countries and they would have to break terms of service to create a PSN account like, no, that's that is that is an improper implementation. You can't just do that after the fact to people. And I think that is completely worthwhile.
00:20:54
Speaker
Sony having to backtrack this and go, OK, maybe maybe we did do this right now. And there's also some territories like that are bordering large areas like Russia to make a piece in account. You need a physical piece five or piece for now. Really? So Ukrainians wanting to play on PC have to get a piece for piece five console with what Sony wanted. Interesting.
00:21:18
Speaker
So yeah, it's for me, very minor thing. I would just have to make a dummy PlayStation networking out, but potentially millions of people around the world would have been shut out. You don't have a PlayStation, Derek? We played desk. I have a PS4. So you should have a PSN account. I'm not going to use my PSN account and then get to my PSN account. Wait, but it's your PSN account. Uh, let me just go through a little timeline.
00:21:43
Speaker
Okay. April 2011, hackers excess personal data of 77 million Sony PlayStation. Oh, that was 2011. 25 million more from Sony online entertainment. June 2011, Sony picture website hacked exposing a million accounts.
00:22:00
Speaker
November 2014, hackers steal 100 terabytes of data from Sony Pictures. Then 2023, just last October, Sony notifies employees of another data breach. So they've gotten a lot better. Everybody gets breached. Like, look at what happened to United Healthcare responsible for what did they casually say that they have like half of America's health information? It's a big deal.
00:22:28
Speaker
Everybody gets hacked now. I remember that 2011, Derek, the one that you brought up, that was such a huge deal. I remember when it happened. And I was like, I can't believe Sony did it, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And again, it shouldn't have happened. But I remember such a big deal. It really does feel like everyone is hacked now. Everyone. No, but Andy, those two thousand eleven ones were extra bad because the leaked information included credit card routing numbers. So they have the credit card numbers on it.
00:22:58
Speaker
And people did as long as they did. That was an experience. Leaked my Social Security number to the Internet. I was part of the coin flip of people who got exposed or not. Yeah, like I personally don't think any of that critical information is at risk with PSN this today. But their track record is so bad, I don't want to risk it. Fair, fair.
00:23:22
Speaker
I don't blame you. Derek, are you the kind of person that goes to the store and buys Fortnite gift cards instead of putting your credit card in? Is that you, Derek? First off, I don't play Fortnite. I play maybe one. But if you did. What if you did? No. Okay. It's like, it's a convenience thing. Just give my credit card. I trust that my credit card is not going to get leaked after all the updates from 2011. Sure.
00:23:53
Speaker
I just always wonder, cause I see like some people, they only use like PSN gift cards or yeah, Fortnite gift cards or, and I don't know, I don't know. I mean, God bless them, right? If it works, it works, who cares? But I was just curious. So Derek's creating a dummy account, but you no longer need to, praise everyone, thank God. Well, I think it's gonna be interesting cause you know they're gonna do,
00:24:21
Speaker
Ghost of Tsushima's PC ports coming out in two weeks, I want to say. I think you're going to, I guess to Derek's point, they're probably only going to do PSN account activation for the online portion of it maybe now, but who knows? They might still do it for the single player portion.
00:24:39
Speaker
But I think that does maybe change how they have to do their steam region locking to make sure. Yeah. So just live update. Well, not live. Live updates last week. Sucker News came out and said a PSN account is required for Legends Online multiplayer mode. Yeah. And he's the PlayStation overlay. It's not required for single player.
00:25:00
Speaker
okay okay and they put that up basically right before all this actually wait five days ago was after the third so one two three four on the same day okay so sucker punch saw the hell divers nonsense and got ahead of it good for them yeah good for them the multiplayer is excellent in ghost of sushima way better than it had any right to be
Microsoft's Studio Closures and Industry Impact
00:25:25
Speaker
So I actually, I'm kind of, I'm hoping, I don't know. Maybe I won't get into it. It launching on PC kind of makes me hope to get into it. But I, I think you need a, you need to almost like a destiny raid group for that. And it's, we don't have that right now. Well, it's a good time. It's a good time.
00:25:47
Speaker
Well, you know who's not having a good time? Oh, no, James, no. Yeah, we've avoided these stories for too long. No, did we? Yeah, we did. We just didn't have podcasts. Oh, boy, that's Phil Spencer in Microsoft.
00:26:06
Speaker
Microsoft closes Redfall developer, Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush developer, Tango Gameworks, and more. Let's see, yeah, so this is an article from IGN. Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, including Arkane Austin,
00:26:23
Speaker
tango game works, maker of evil within and high fire rush. And just, uh, let's see, alpha dog games maker of the mobile game, mighty doom. We'll also be closing roundhouse studios will be absorbed by the elder scrolls online developers, any max online studios. So it's essentially closing down.
00:26:43
Speaker
IGN also threw this little barb in here. Microsoft currently valued over 3 trillion, did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable. IGN has asked Bethesda for comment. Microsoft declined to explain further when contacted by IGN. That's what's an incredible $3 trillion. Yeah, that's their market cap. Yeah.
00:27:02
Speaker
Oh my god. But besides the studios, they also began offering voluntary severance agreements to producers, QA testers, and other staff as NMX, which it just bought in 2020 for 7.5 billion. Oh, really? Yeah, really trying to get rid of people.
00:27:21
Speaker
And I just saw a headline that I thought was interesting. One of those studios, you called out, James, the Tango Works or whatever, really are creators of Hi-Fi Rush. The day before they closed the studio, Microsoft talked about how they needed smaller, original titles, like huge titles.
00:27:41
Speaker
Like literally describing hi-fi rush and hi-fi rush they said was profitable profitable and met well They said it met all of their expectations and then they closed the studio Yep, like what do they even want? What do they want in there in their statement? They say they're just gonna double down on existing properties. Do we want that?
00:28:02
Speaker
So here I can read. This is an email sent to staff by Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft blamed the cuts on reprioritization of titles and resources. I'm not going to read this entire thing, but at least the first two paragraphs. Today, I'm sharing changes we were making to our Bethesda and Zenny Max teams. These changes are grounded in prioritizing high impact titles and further investing in Bethesda portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds for which you have nurtured over many decades.
00:28:32
Speaker
To double down on these franchises and invest to build in new ones requires us to look across the business to identify the opportunities that are best positioned for success. Oh, I'm throwing up in my mouth as I read this. This re-prioritization of titles and resources means a few teams will be realigned to others and some of our colleagues will be leaving us, skipping down his email.
00:28:58
Speaker
These changes are not a reflection of the creativity and skill of the talent individuals that these teams are the risks they took to try new things. I acknowledge that these changes are also disruptive to the various support teams across ZennyMaxx and Bethesda that bring our games to the market. We are making these tough decisions to create capacity to increase investment in other parts of our portfolio and focus on our priority games. Oh my God. I well, literally what you said, James, it makes me want to throw up in your mouth.
00:29:25
Speaker
It's just, it rings so sour because it's like quarterly revenues up. Yeah.
00:29:35
Speaker
So you like where their own is up because they lead people off. Mm hmm. And remember when Microsoft bought Blizzard and we're like or an Activision was like, this is what they need. Microsoft's going to step in when that with their infinite money and let them really create good stuff. Bethesda created good stuff.
00:29:57
Speaker
And they're like, they still nuked some of their studios. Like, yeah, it's all gross. People are hitting record profit and hemorrhaging people. I don't understand. Capitalism doesn't work at this stage. It just doesn't. And it bums me out. Bums me out. What do you do? And that was something I was learning, too, how capitalism is affecting hip hop right now.
00:30:24
Speaker
That was one of the things that Kendrick was. I mean, Derek, do you have any thought? I have thoughts, but do you want to throw anything out first? So I'm not surprised. So it was just 11 years ago or 10 years and change that Microsoft's cut almost 20,000 jobs. Oh, wow. What was the previous purge for their reasoning? I guess I should say it was 2013 and it was signaling a new era with a heavy finger on the
00:30:52
Speaker
No, that's what Los Angeles Times is saying. Los Angeles Times with their obnoxious wanting me to give them ads. How dare they? How dare they make money?
00:31:05
Speaker
But it's just a fundamental restructuring of Microsoft. And this time it's less about playing catch up and more about looking forward is what higher up in Microsoft had to say. But this is Microsoft's bread and butter. They expand, they invest, and then they cut everything they can, and they keep on trucking forward. And they're just going to start hiring like a bunch in probably a year, I bet. Like you said, James, it's just to make numbers look good now. Yeah.
00:31:35
Speaker
It's only about now. People have bills. People need to eat. Like, I don't know. I don't know. But granted, does every business need to be a charity? For Microsoft, it's not charity. When you're valued at three trillion, screw you. Andy, have you stopped thinking about the greedy employees and started thinking about the investors?
00:31:56
Speaker
Have you thought about private equity Andy? Oh my god. Have you thought about private equity lately? Oh my god. And how they're struggling? They are struggling so much. The rate of return is 2% lower than they expected, Andy.
00:32:13
Speaker
They're going to be on the streets. Poor them. Poor them. Now let's be clear, the rate of return is still positive, but it's not as high as it could have. They could have put that money into a high yield interest saving bond. They could have made the same amount of money, lower risk. They took all that risk for what? The same.
00:32:35
Speaker
unacceptable that's it is it is it's so it's just you guys see this is what my youtube algorithm gives me depressing news fueled by capitalism I don't need videos about cops this is what I need to hear about but Jesus Christ but anyways so screw Microsoft
00:32:58
Speaker
Well, unsurprisingly, too, on the heel of this news, there's been a lot of talk about has Phil Spencer run his his goodwill out at this point?
00:33:09
Speaker
Oh, I mean, to be fair, I don't think it's him making these decisions. I bet he's. Well, no, he I'm sure this comes from Microsoft's like, you know, you know, we have to each each division has to be X percent profitable or has to make X percent cuts to. So I'm sure, no, I'm sure Phil didn't make these decisions himself, but.
00:33:34
Speaker
Phil also has had the reins of Xbox for, I want to say over 10 years now, almost 10 years. And, you know, sure it's to say like, Hey, you know, he's in third Xbox is in third place because of a lot of bad decisions, but
00:33:50
Speaker
You know, like Phil and Phil didn't make those decisions. Those those decisions pre pre pre dated him. But have has Xbox's leadership under Phil got them in a better position? Like, I think we all feel better about Xbox under Phil's guidance, but that doesn't necessarily reflect in better games, a better experience.
00:34:13
Speaker
You know, the best thing he's done is Game Pass, right? And Game Pass is a great thing, but you need games to go on Game Pass.
00:34:21
Speaker
Yeah. Hey, he's done something into that effect. What's that? So he, when they consumed Vetsuda, Spencer told Kotaku, it's not done to take away games from another player base. He wants more people to be able to play games, not fewer people to be able to go play games. And then Redfall and Starfield shipped only next box in PC. There's some titles that are on the game pass.
00:34:47
Speaker
Right? There we go. And both will redfall, but like redfall, as I understand, wasn't even their fault. They were like forced to make this game that isn't in their wheelhouse and they didn't want to do.
00:35:02
Speaker
I think that's also another interesting thing is that, you know, I think we've all kind of forgotten about Redfall, unsurprisingly. You know, they were, I think, honestly, they were working on it up to this point of like trying to get it into some sort of like actual shippable state versus what it really was.
00:35:24
Speaker
I think they, I think that's not like them cutting support for Redfall is not a surprising thing to me. Them closing the studio that made Redfall. But again, when we talked about why Redfall failed, remember it was like something like 70% turnover rate for RK in Austin. So it's like, is that studio even worth keeping around? That's a good point.
00:35:47
Speaker
Well, I mean, other than the fact that people work their jobs. Yes. Yes. But, you know, like the talent of that studio is kind of gone. Mm hmm. Yeah. It. Dude, there's such pedigree to that studio. I just and I can't get over the Tangleworks one either. Hi-Fi Rush. They announced was a success and they close it. I don't know. I don't know. There's numbers on a spreadsheet that
00:36:15
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know what they want. I don't know. I don't know. What are you supposed to do? What are we supposed to do? Us, this podcast, what change can we make? Oh, none. You just talk about it.
00:36:31
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know. But I just I hope we're coming to the end of this. I don't know what it means. I don't know if like this means we're going to get more. I mean, with the indie game market now is so crowded. But things still pop through. Good stuff still shows its head. So I don't know.
00:36:56
Speaker
But you need to be careful there, Andy. What is that? If you're just wishing for an end, that's not wishing for a good end.
00:37:03
Speaker
Hey, of course, I want a good end. How dare you? How dare you? Like what if Sony acquires Microsoft Activision? Would that be a good end? I mean, Sony. Well, they wouldn't acquire. You mean they acquire Xbox game studios. But, yeah, no, Sony, Sony, Sony is a rounding error in Microsoft's overall portfolio.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah. Sony doesn't. Well, they closed Sony Japan Studios or whatever it was. Yeah. Bummer. And then there are other studios make good stuff, but the other studios are making expensive games. There was someone was talking about this, and I think there was like just the idea of how big Microsoft is. It's like in the time we spent talking about this story, Microsoft made enough money to pay all the developers. They laid off for a year.
00:37:58
Speaker
Oh, shut off. I mean, not necessarily. That's not that's kind of like a. Yes, yes, yes. It's that wasn't me to yell at you. That was me frustrated with the situation. Yeah. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying, like, that's not like a like a.
00:38:15
Speaker
attributable thing, like you can actually, but it's just to go shows like the larger magnitude of numbers you're working with, with a company like my Microsoft. Like that is, that is not an unreasonable thing to, to see as being real, that they make so much money in that amount of time. So, and that's, and to call it, yeah, it's all it's theater. Like it's not, I don't think it's making that big of a difference. Like it's just to impress the investors to make them feel good.
00:38:45
Speaker
These are people's lives. But, love video games, you guys.
Hades II Early Access: Features and Impressions
00:38:51
Speaker
I love video games. And this is why I don't support Game Pass. Get rekt, James. That's fair. Okay, I support the PlayStation Game Pass or whatever. Do you support early access? Sure.
00:39:07
Speaker
Well, guess what? Maybe you can go soothe your wounds and hopefully those people who got laid off to get their wounds because Hades two is currently out in early access now available on steam and the Epic game store. It's $30. Um, supergiant has said that the price might go up when it gets to its launch state, but for right now it's $30. Um, I have played about, I want to say 10 hours of it. Okay.
00:39:38
Speaker
Derek, you did you play at all? I have not. And did you play? Did you play Hades one? I did not. Oh, did. Derek, did you play Hades one? I did not. The fuck is wrong with you two? It's a game style that I'm not overly happy. Like, I'm not excited to play. It looks like a Diablo type game. It's a roguelike. I mean, you can have roguelike elements, but the game. No, it is. It is by definition a roguelike.
00:40:07
Speaker
I know, I know, but it looks like the gameplay is very Diablo like where you're like going here from above. Well, it's it is a sort of isometric. Yeah, it doesn't feel to me at all. Unfortunately, but everybody is hot in it. That was the one to take away. I'm going to have to disagree. You don't think everyone's hot and not have faced us. Well, he's the larger man.
00:40:33
Speaker
Well, he's well, he's well, he's also being ableist because he's in a wheelchair at least in this for in Hades do he's in a wheelchair. He does have a sick beard though. He does have a sick beard.
00:40:47
Speaker
Um, no, so I've been playing about, well, then I'll get my next two, next two stories. Just be me talking to you to expert James. I love it. Go in. Yeah. So I, when they announced this, I remember being very lukewarm on it because Hades one is such an.
00:41:06
Speaker
almost perfect, if not perfect game. It's hard to see where they would go about improving on it. And here's what I'll say. They didn't improve on it.
00:41:22
Speaker
But they just made it just made it slightly different and still excellent. So it's it's it's kind of weird to say, but this it's this idea that Hades two is a different game than Hades one in in how you play it like the kind of the mechanics are a little changed up in like how you played Hades one is not necessarily how you can play Hades two. Sure.
00:41:48
Speaker
So you are kind of have to relearn how to play the game a little bit and you know what to focus on in terms of building up your character. And I think that's what saves it because it feels fresh in that way because I went I had actually just recently replayed Hades. I don't know about a couple of months ago because I got the itch and because Hades one is a fantastic game. So I was thinking about that while I was playing Hades two and I was like,
00:42:14
Speaker
It's so weird how it doesn't feel like the same game, but it is so much the same experience.
00:42:26
Speaker
So I what is different? So from a what is different perspective is like the. This game has a lot more focus on collection, where instead of just kind of like collecting XP or progressing through beating bosses, this has you doing like little quests
00:42:53
Speaker
And they had this in Hades one, but I think now it's they've kind of expanded on this in Hades, too, is it has you like collecting resources like mining and picking up flowers or fishing or digging up or growing plants. And oh, interesting. And you kind of it kind of gives this little bit of like.
00:43:13
Speaker
reward to your runs where it's like, oh, I have these two plots of land in my, in my home base where I can grow, grow these flowers, which when I get these flowers, I can use them to cast these spells, which will give me these additional abilities. But these flowers only grow after I do a certain amount of runs. So, okay. Well, then this gives me a reason to go do runs, even beyond the fact that like, you know, doing the run is the whole point of the game.
00:43:37
Speaker
Now it's like, well, yeah, but I also want to progress these, these growth plots so that I can progress and get these other abilities. So they've added kind of all these little other features to the game to kind of give you reasons to do runs other than just the fantastic gameplay that is Hades. That's cool. Yeah.
00:43:58
Speaker
Because that is a struggle for roguelikes. The only roguelike I've ever really connected with was, I think I've talked about it a bunch, but the Crypt of the Necro to answer. And they have some of that, but eventually you run out of stuff. Yeah, eventually. And in this game, I'm sure there's no difference. You will run out of stuff. Yeah.
00:44:17
Speaker
You run out and then it's just the joy of the game, which to the Crypt game, I wanted to keep playing just to get through it. And they give you different characters to play through. But I mean, you just run out of stuff. But that's fun. It's fun to come back from a failure and have stuff to see progress. So I think that's cool that Hades two does that. Yeah, that's what we need. But that is it really or all. That's why it's called a rogue like.
00:44:44
Speaker
And also, man, everybody's fucking hot in this game. I know! Even Hephaestus. Derek, he has beautiful eyes, don't you dare. Okay. There's gonna be some difference in everyone's ideals of beauty, but Hades has a wide variety of all kinds of beauty. That's true. Andy, I'm gonna send you this picture of Hecate. You know Hecate, Andy? Nope. Witch of Greek mythology? No. Yeah, don't worry about it. You're gonna know her.
00:45:18
Speaker
I'll send you this picture here. Yeah, who is the artist for Hades? I wonder. That's a woman, Andy. Is that really? Yeah. With a crop top and a six pack. Go in. Go in. She's rocking it. Yeah. And she's your mentor, essentially. You know, your sage, patient guidance teaching you how to move forward in the game.
00:45:45
Speaker
But she's roppin' a crop top in a six-pack. Yeah. And not, you know, generic, like, female armor or whatever. Oh, no. I mean, here, Andy, this is also there's nemesis. Oh, show me nemesis. Yeah. Oh, let's go. Big muscle mobby energy.
00:46:05
Speaker
The art in this is just fantastic. Just fantastic. And here's the thing, Eddie. Nemesis, she doesn't want to be your friend. God damn it, I'll make her my friend. Wait, is she more of a tsundere? She's definitely a tsundere, but not even that way of like, I didn't care. You know, it's like she's just really annoyed by you.
00:46:27
Speaker
Oh, but that's going to make me feel bad. No, you just love her so much. You're like, hey, I'll make you real. OK. And it works. She's not a cinderi. You're a yander.
Andy and the Art of Beard Choices
00:46:41
Speaker
I well, I support it. And I think that's cool. Wait, did you was there a dating element in Hades?
00:46:49
Speaker
No, well, there's a you could give get all these people who have pictures. You can give gifts to essentially. OK. And those gifts unlock like extra dialogue. And first time you give them, they give you an item that you can equip during your runs. So there's kind of a reason to, you know, grow the give gifts and do the dating aspect of it. And honestly, all the writing in Hades is really good. And here's the fastest, by the way, if you want to see what he looks like.
00:47:19
Speaker
Yeah, I had to Google. Oh, OK. Yeah. So he's in a wheelchair. Derek's ableist. I'm jealous of that hair. No, I'm going to be honest. I'm very unfamiliar with the Greek Roman lore and my first interaction with Hephaestus and was a novel called Forging Hephaestus, where the main character is a woman. And I was just like, oh, cool. The God Hephaestus is a woman. And I thought I was going to be. Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dish?
00:47:48
Speaker
No, no, then, then Don Machi reinforced that by having another woman that faced us. And then I come to this and then I'm like, that's not right. I have to prove this person online wrong. And she's like, Nope, it was a man all along. Oh, really? Yeah. So it's more of just, I expected
00:48:06
Speaker
Any kind of woman, not on his basis. But God, that beard is nice. It's nice. And he's got like a top knot going on. I was wondering if I should do that. A top knot or a top knot. Yeah, you could pull it off. Make you look like a douchebag. Can I very quickly talk?
00:48:29
Speaker
about my beard because I went to- Yes, I will give you under five minutes. Thank you, because I went to go get my beard trimmed, and I forgot if I've complained about this before, but my person that I go to, well, I go to her because she works at the place that my regular person owns, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But every time I go in, she's like, so do you want it squared off? And I say no.
00:48:53
Speaker
I want my beard rounded. And she always goes quiet and it always gets really uncomfortable. And then like she cuts my beard. And normally like she's like vibrant and happy and excited. And then every time I say I don't want a square beard, she gets weird. And then every time I tell her, no, I don't want a square beard because conservatives have square beard.
00:49:14
Speaker
Like, I don't want that. And then this time, this time, I confronted her and I was like, what don't you like about square beer or round beards? And she's like, no, no, nothing. They're my favorite. And I was like, tell me one person you cut their beard that has a square beard and it is not conservative. And she could not tell me.
00:49:36
Speaker
And then I was like, so what's wrong with a round beard? And then she told and then I tell it, tell me who gets round beards. And she's like, the only person I can think of is Santa Claus. And then I was gutted. Well, should I be gutted? Should I be gutted if I look like Santa Claus? I don't think I look like Santa Claus. Listen, Andy, one day, God willing, I'll become Santa Claus. Oh, one day, I'll kill Tim at Tim Allen. Yeah.
00:50:07
Speaker
Well, you're going to have to get a rounded beard cut.
00:50:10
Speaker
Well, I have to I can't grow big bush big bushy beard. Wait, does that mean people with big bushy beards are conservative? No, no, no, Derek. Derek, people with square beards are. But rounded beards, I feel like there's like an approachableness to someone with a rounded beard. But with a square beard, they're going to tell you why, you know,
00:50:37
Speaker
There's no such thing as misogyny, or whatever it is. I forgot what I watched today, but it was basically a guy saying, like, feminism doesn't need to exist, men have it harder. So it's like, oh my god, shut up. Anyways, that's my rant. And it made me think of this because this guy's beard. I'm trying to have a beautiful beard here, but apparently you can't get a rounded beard. I don't know. I don't think it's that uncommon. Right? Right?
00:51:03
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know, you guys. I don't put that much thought into my beard. Well, I don't either, except when you're asked, how do you want your beard cut? And then you really got to think about it. And then you realize everyone with like a square, sharp manicured beard, all conservative, all of them. You know, if you're listening to this podcast and you have that kind of beard, you're conservative. You're conservative. I guess I'm the middle ground here. Well, more leaning on James. I go up and say, hey, what do you think would look good? Yeah, do that.
00:51:32
Speaker
And then I think I had a discussion once and then, and then from now on, I welcome him as usual, usual. And that's it.
00:51:41
Speaker
And that's actually a really special relationship. And that's why I've been going to my same hair person for probably 15 years now. She's awesome. She's everything. And I just show up and, Derek, kind of like what you said, but it's just vibes. She just knows what to do. And that's why I want to go there because she owns the place, or part owns it, and I want to support this other person. But every time I show up, she doesn't know what I want.
00:52:06
Speaker
She's just always talks about like, oh my God, you're so funny. I always get excited. And it's like, no, you're not excited because you shut down every time I say, I don't want a square beard. Stop. Anyways, you've hit your limit. Yeah. Hephaestus though, doesn't have a squared beard and he's very
Introduction to Poké Rogue and Its Rise
00:52:25
Speaker
approachable. He's hot. So what? Nobody with this, nobody should have a square beard. They suck. Anyways, go on. I had my five minutes.
00:52:34
Speaker
Well, let's finish it talking about one other roguelike. Oh, and that's the that's the roguelike that's taking over Twitch and the Internet right now. Poke Rogue, your favorite game. I have probably put in.
00:52:51
Speaker
30 hours. That's awesome. Hold on, James. I just make sure I'm not mishearing you. You're saying rogue light for both of these or rogue like? This is a rogue light. OK. Hades is a rogue like. Actually, no, technically it's a rogue light because if if you have a progression mechanic, then you are a rogue light. Oh,
00:53:19
Speaker
Okay. Rogue does have a progression mechanic and it's the inherent values of the Pokémon. Because they like to have fun. So no, there's eight elements of rogue-like. Oh, Derek, go in. Oh, Derek, Derek, give me a... for 55 minutes. Okay. Okay.
00:53:36
Speaker
I listen, you're not wrong. You are. You are correct. But but the easiest way I've always found to differentiate them is rogue likes don't have progression. Rogue lights do that. Does that line up with what you're seeing? Not at all, but we'll see.
00:53:53
Speaker
We'll revisit this later when we will revisit this. I'm January. Oh, I really want to know. Pokey Rogue is a Pokemon fan game that is currently live now. You can go play it. Well, maybe if the server is up at Pokey. P O. K. E. Rogue R. O. G. U. E. Dot net. That's right. You just go play it online right now. Hey, remember when Nintendo took down all that Gary's much shit? Yeah. Come at it. Come at me, bro. Wait, is this like really like looks like Pokemon?
00:54:23
Speaker
It has it. I mean, it literally has the sprites from black and white to still alive. Yeah. So they've literally taken the sprites from at least some of the Pokemon games. It has Pokemon from all generations up to generation nine, which is the current generation.
00:54:40
Speaker
Uh, and basically what it is, is you get to pick a small number of starter Pokemon and it, and then there's a bit of a mechanic of like a Pokemon is worth a certain amount of points and you can only spend 10 points to start out a run. So it's like, Oh, I pick a Charmander, Charmander is worth three points, but I pick a Caterpie, a Caterpie is only worth one point or something like that. Mm-hmm.
00:55:05
Speaker
And then it gets much more complicated if you get into the later gen Pokemons, things like that. And usually you can only start, and this is just for people who care, but you can only start with unevolved Pokemon. So if your Pokemon evolves to a later form, you can't start with its later form. You only start with its unevolved form.
00:55:25
Speaker
And once you do that, you then go into poke rogue, which is just battles, battle, battle, battle, battle. Every you go through every floor is a every 10 floors is a specific type. So it's like I'm on the ice floor. I'm on the fighting floor. I'm on the grass floor.
00:55:46
Speaker
and there's variations between those like the jungle floor will have pokemon that has they can have like fighting type pokemon in it but are also have grass type pokemon in it but are also have electric type pokemon in it and you have to go through and catch pokemon build your team and survive
00:56:03
Speaker
Um, it also gives you every time you beat a floor. So like you beat level one or you beat level two, you get a little, you'll get a little, uh, screen where you can pick among three to five rewards, um, based on how much luck you have. Um, and yeah, those are things like, Oh, rare candies or potions or revives to bring your Pokemon back to life. And if all your Pokemon faint, your run is over and you start again.
00:56:32
Speaker
No, I'm sorry if I missed it, but you said it's just battle to battle to battle. The battle to battle to battle. And it's the same battle system? Yes, it's the same battle. So there's some moves aren't completely implemented. This is a work in progress. Sure. So as long as it's... Listen, James, did you curse the game by bringing it up? I downloaded the GitHub repository and I have the local copy ready to go if this gets shut down.
00:57:01
Speaker
Uh, but no, I mean, their servers are getting crushed right now. Like it was down a lot of today. Um, I think on average there's anywhere from 30 to 80,000 people playing it at any one time.
00:57:19
Speaker
I mean, here's the thing, though. Why is this just not a game? Yeah, like this is so like these guys did, you know, this has a group of developers working on it and they're not taking any compensation compensation for it currently. Sure. We're not going to see them in court and averaging their wages for the rest of their lives. And this game is fantastic. I mean, just in terms of like.
00:57:42
Speaker
playing it with the like, they're, they're a little to no bugs that I've experienced with it. There's, you know, obviously in the discord, there's bug report points and people who are much deeper into Pokemon than I am notice certain things that are off. But I mean, you can just sit there and play it. And it's like, if you love the battle system of Pokemon, this game is like crack. Oh,
00:58:05
Speaker
I love that. And you've already got 30 hours into it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm going to play it right after we're done with this. I'm going to go play more. The important thing actually, one quick thing, the important thing to say is you can bring this up on your phone and it and in your web browser on your phone and it brings up a little D-pad A, B. I opened it up on my phone. It opened that was very. Yeah. So it's just like it goes perfect. Like it's perfect for mobile. What were you say, Derek?
00:58:30
Speaker
So I don't know if this is any of the more recent Pokémon, but can you explain DNA splicing in this Pokérogue? DNA splicing is a fan made thing that has been in a lot of ROM hacks where you can take two Pokémon. This is in a bunch of ROM hacks. The most famous one is Pokémon Infinite Fusion, which has a community that develops sprites for the
00:58:56
Speaker
I think it's a foul. It's something like a hundred fifty thousand possible combinations or even higher than that, honestly, because it's I'm always bad at this math. But there's a thousand Pokemon and you can combine any two Pokemon together. Oh, wow.
00:59:15
Speaker
So that would be is it's not a thousand squared. It's when to be thousand to the south of 999th hour. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's like a thousand to the 999th power. Oh, no. Yeah. And there are people. It's a big number. And there are people and they have a community that are literally developing sprites for every possible combination.
00:59:39
Speaker
And you download the play again. It's great. That's a that's a game that you can download and play on. It's it's Windows based. That's a more traditional Pokemon game, though. It's based on like fire red leaf green. So but DNA splicing is. Yeah, you get this thing and you can combine any two Pokemon. They have this in this game. It doesn't have the crazy sprites.
00:59:59
Speaker
You just, it ends up just picking one of the sprites and that's what it has, but it'll smash the two names together. So again, if you have like Charmander and Caterpie and you splice those two together, you would have Chatterpie or Char, Charpy or Cata Mander or something like that. Yeah.
01:00:17
Speaker
And the reason you do that is because you can get like Pokemon types that aren't at least readily available in the game or you're trying to mix together two really good Pokemon you have to get a type advantage because this game is hard. Sure. There is a hard wall at level 145 that I have yet to beat. Oh, 200 is the max. If you beat level 200, you beat the classic mode. But I have hit a hard wall 145. Why are you so bad?
01:00:46
Speaker
uh i've been actually watching people play who beat 145 and beat the game and i'm like i'm studying i'm seeing what they do and i'm like okay okay i now i know what i need to do i'm actually on my current run i'm on like 130 and i'm like i'm not beating 145 on this run
01:01:02
Speaker
Let's go. I'm just doing it to catch better Pokemon for another for another run. And that's the roguelike part of it, because oh, sure. If you don't know about Pokemon, there's this whole thing of inherent value. So like a Pokemon has a certain amount of strength or like an attack value, and it could be higher load depending on its inherent value. That's very nerdy. It's a basically like if you ever seen like a stat diamond, it's like that.
01:01:32
Speaker
Andy, do you know what I'm talking about? I think so. OK. I know there's always been hidden numbers thrown around. I'm just like, I love that for you.
01:01:40
Speaker
I think you can play this game without having that deep, deep knowledge. Like you could just have fun and play the first, you know, 30 floors or something like that, because you still get to like catch Pokemon. It's like Pokemon with none of the bullshit. Sure. Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's exactly it. But don't you miss wandering around? No, no.
01:02:01
Speaker
This is this is this is great. I don't have to do any stupid like questing or anything like that. I'm just the Pokemon come to me and I gym gym trainers come to me eventually on certain floors. Hmm. Yeah, it's great. I highly recommend if you have even a passing fancy of Pokemon to play this while it still exists. Yeah. Before it's blown away and download the GitHub repo.
01:02:26
Speaker
How did you find out about Pokey Rogue? A streamer I was watching started playing it and I was like, this looks like fucking fun. OK, because I was wondering if it hit like like super mainstream.
01:02:38
Speaker
I mean, it's definitely it's definitely starting to hit critical mass on Twitch. OK, amongst like Pokemon people who play Pokemon, I think it's going to start heading into the mainstream mainstream soon, in which case the server problems are only going to get worse. Yeah. Oh, man. Well, that sounds awesome. Yeah, it's not for me, but it sounds awesome.
01:03:03
Speaker
Well, who knows how many hours I'll have put into Poke Rogue on another episode of Add to Party. By the time we're on another episode of Add to Party, a friendship similar masquerading as a news show, I've been your host, James Poke Maniac Hartwell, and I've been joined by. Andy, round beards are valid. And I've been joined by
01:03:30
Speaker
Derek, Phil Spencer hater. Oh, gee, gotcha. He's just trying his best, Derek. A hypocrisy? Yeah. It's nice to get mad. Eat into it. All right. Bye. Good night.