Game Scoop! 862: Even GTA Won’t Break the $80 Ceiling

(upbeat music) - What's up, everybody? Welcome, TaiJay and GameScoop. I'm your host, Damon Hadfield. And Jonny, me and this week are Justin Davis. - Scoop. - And Mark Medina. - I'm here, Damon. - Thank you, thank you for being here, Mark. We got a great show for this week. In spite of the fact that it's kind of bummer news to talk about this week, this is usually a pretty fun show. So this will be a test. Can we keep things fun and lighthearted in the light of kind of bummer news? Because we've got, we've got the steam machine out and reviews out, it's very expensive. We've got price hikes yet again for the Xbox. The Xbox is very, very expensive now. But first, GTA6, we know how much that'll cost. Find that, long last. GTA6 coming later this year in November, priced at $80. - Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, I think it was, I think there was some speculation of like, would they do $70, would they do 80? Maybe they would go nuts and go even higher, but like realistically, when Nintendo's charging $80 for Fire Emblem Fortune's Weaf, then it was probably pretty safe to assume that GTA, the base edition of GTA, would also be $80. - Yeah. Yeah, where your car world was also 80 bucks, so. - Yeah, and ostensibly, they'll probably be more content in things to do in GTA6 than in the Mario Kart World, just a few things. - Some people thought maybe they'd go for 70, because they want to get as many people in there and into GTA Online as possible. But in the end, some analysts thought they could get away with charging $100. They went with $80, so. But I think that's interesting. One way to look at is that that is the absolute ceiling, and even GTA does not dare to try and break the $80 ceiling. - Yeah, they had, and then what we talked about this on the show last week or two weeks ago, like the opposite could have also been true. If GTA was 70, then no game would have been able to get away with 80 again. - I don't know, I think it's fine. I mean, I think what you were alluding to a second ago, Mark, was that some people are a little bit, you know, there's some negative sentiment around the $100 edition, the ultimate edition, and that it gives you character customization and some vehicles and gives you access to some shops with cosmetic items and stuff like that for an additional $20. You get these digital in-game extras, and that's made people a little upset. - I have seen people upset about it, but I've also seen a lot of people being like, so once in a generation kind of game, like 100 bucks is nothing. Like that's, I'll spend that on Grand Theft Auto, 'cause we don't know when we're going to get the next ones. - I mean, it's more than a once in a generation game, 'cause a new GTA skips last generation. It's a once in two generations game. - It really is. - Almost didn't make it out this generation. - Yeah, yeah. - I don't think it bothers me either, not necessarily for that reason, because it's generational, but just, like, I don't want to concern police anybody, like, I certainly don't need to defend Rockstar games. They're big boys and girls, they'll be all right. But it's just my personal perspective for me. It just doesn't bother me, because it just doesn't seem that different, like we've seen digital collectors' additions often come with, you know? Yeah, you get an outfit, and you get a new shield, and you get a different sword, and you get two different hairstyles, and, you know, we're gonna charge you 10 bucks for that. And like, GTA just feels like that. That's what it feels like to me. But to paraphrase some of their arguments, it's like, well, when it's a single player-only game, and there's certain shops that you can't go in that are just closed if you don't have this collector's edition, that maybe it sets a little bit of a bad or weird precedent of, you know, what if I want to go get Lucy's nails done, and I can't, because they only bought the base edition of the game, but I don't, I don't, to me, it doesn't feel that different than, like, the digital collector's edition and Crimson Desert, or like, you know, any video game, basically. Yeah, what, what a lot of games do that I like, which is, if you buy it for 80 bucks, that tab will still exist. Every time you launch the game, it'll, you know, on PS5, I don't know what it looks like on Xbox, but on the bottom right, it'll be like upgrade to Deluxe. So I think it, I think it's totally fine to jump in, play 80 bucks, you know, pay your $80, get the game, and if you're like, you know what, nah, I can't live without the extra thing. Then, then pay the 20 bucks, and then you'll get access. It's not like, it's not like it's one or another, and you've made that decision forever. Yeah, that's true. And I think, you know, GTA, you know, none of us have seen it and played it, but based off the description, it sounds like they integrated these digital extras into the game in a really diagetic way, right? Like, it's not other games, sometimes like, you buy this digital collector's edition, or, you know, ultimate edition, whatever you want to call it, and if thing pops up and says, you know, thank you for buying this edition of the game. Your cosmetic items have been sent to your stash, right? And then you go recruit, you could just get them from your stash, whereas in GTA, they did something that's more clever and more cool, on my opinion, and smarter of like, you know, these shops and these NPCs and go customize your truck and go do this, you just can't enter those buildings if you don't have the ultimate edition. So, on the one hand, it's more immersive and kind of more clever. But then that's part of what makes it feel worse that like, there's these closed doors that you just can't go in if you don't have that edition, compared to just something popping up and items appearing in your inventory. Feels like maybe that's a little bit easier to ignore. You don't feel like your, you know, second class if you don't have that item. - Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. Some people are wondering now, does this open up the floodgates for $80 games? And there's a quote from Reese Elliott, he's head of market analysis at Alina Analytics. This is a good quote, but it's a little long so bear with me here. He says GTA 6 has more pricing power than any game on Earth and it still didn't go above 80. If the biggest release in the industry's history looked at the ceiling and chose not to break it, that should tell everyone else the ceiling is real and they'll smack their head on it. The danger is that publishers read GTA is 80 as a green light and push their own run of the mill or new IP games to $80. When the lesson is the opposite, even GTA didn't think you could go higher. The handful of publishers who can charge $80 base share one trait, a captive, price inelastic audience that won't chop around or wait for a discount. That's why Nintendo gets away with it, its players are locked in, first party, famously discount a verse. PlayStation could probably manage it on a marquee first party title. From software has the brand's strength to do it, even if they've historically priced more modestly than they could. Elden Ring is $80 on Switch though. Maybe the big yearly sports games as well. Final paragraph. Almost nobody else has that. For everyone else, the math is brutal. It's always adorable when British people say maths. It's brutal and not raising your base $80 just sheds the price sensitive buyers you can't afford to lose in this economy. That's why I reckon most publishers will correctly stick to a $70 base with $80 to $100 premium addition layered on top, early access, a few cosmetic perks and stuff. That model lets the FOMO prone super fans pay more for early access while everyone else pays 70 or waits for the inevitable discount. You capture the whales without racing the floor on the people most likely to walk. - Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, I would maybe sum that up as like, it's not necessarily a signal of just how every game is gonna be $80 now, but it's a signal that, yeah, like this analyst said, GTA has been, it's got an unlimited budget and unlimited time and money to make whatever game they want to make and they're charging $80 for it. So then it makes the price comparisons to fire up on fortunes we've looked less favorable than the other direction when these kind of, I certainly don't wanna describe them as worse or lesser games, but smaller and scope games are also trying to charge that price. - Yeah, I mean, I think people will speak with their wallets, they always have. We saw it without a world's two. I believe that game was supposed to be 70 and then they changed it and made it 60 'cause they kind of saw that people weren't going to pay that for that game. I agree with Justin, I think what they'll keep doing is something like Soros, which was 70 bucks or 80 if you wanna play it two days earlier, just to give them that. It's something Xbox has been doing for a long time to kind of get rid of that day one on Game Pass thing where it's like, if you pay $80 for Forza, you can play it five days early or something like that. I think that's where they'll continue. But if they wanna go the crazy route of paying 80 bucks, they need to be okay with it selling fewer copies. I love the hoops that these companies go through to like, they call it, get access to the game on day negative three, on day negative five and it used to drive Dan Stapleton crazy. Like, no, your game is out. And they're like, no, it's not, it comes out next week and he's like, no, it is out now. You can download and buy it and play it. But just the mental gymnastics of like you're, like it's not that everyone else is playing on day five. They're playing on day one. You're just playing on day negative five. - Yeah, well, it also doesn't help that they call it early access. So then when you play something like Slay the Spy or Two, you're okay with a lot of the art being hand drawn or maybe there's a bug or there's no actual final boss 'cause you're like, it's fine, it's early access. But like, when you get something like a Forza, people get confused 'cause you're like, oh, I fell through the world and they're like, well, it's still an early access. And it's like, no, it's not. - It's not that kind of an access. - No, I just have early access. It's not in early access. There is a difference. - Yeah. I do, like, maybe you're about to get into this statement, but like with the stuff that they announced about GTA, like, you know, I'm not really like a digital extras kind of guide normally. But like, I think it looks really cool. Like, I really like all the retro stuff, all the callbacks to, you know, just classic vice city. Like, it all seemed very well done and, you know, it made me, I haven't decided which edition I'm gonna get, but it may be more interested in that fancy edition that I would know. - Normally be. - I am part of the crew that it's a once in a generation game. I'll pay a hundred bucks. I mean, I understand that I also work for IGN on the guide's steam, so we'll see what I pay. But like, if I were a consumer, I would probably pay the hundred bucks for it. 'Cause it seems like it'll be worth it if you want to do that whole like dollar's per hour thing, which I hate, but some people do. - Yeah, yeah. I mean, how many millions would Rockstar make a billion dollars if they said, no, the hundred dollar edition gets to play the game three days early. Like everyone on the planet would have played it, paid it, right? - Yeah. - Yes. - What? And we actually don't know for sure if that's still not a thing or not. It could be. - I guess we'll find out. - 'Cause there's this weird thing that a lot of people, I'm seeing on social media, where they're saying, and I know we're gonna talk about the prices of the consoles and stuff a little bit later, but they're saying, you should buy the Xbox version because the Xbox version will get a day early because on Xbox is very easy to just go to New Zealand, change your console to New Zealand, you get a whole 24 hours early. And so that is, for streamers and stuff like that, that want to be their day one, it could be a thing. - But Mark, it's gonna play best on PS5. - That's what I heard. I heard and then it went away and then it came back. - Well, that's into our next topic because I think what a sign of the times that the biggest game of all time will not be available on a disk. - Yes. - Empty, if you buy the physical edition, what you're buying is an empty game case that has a download slip inside. Which is, I mean, you know, Alamake II did that. It's not completely unprecedented. It is sad on a couple of different levels, like just on a consumer, like yes, we work for IGM, but we're also video game fans and video game players first. And like, that means that you can't sell the game used for what it's worth, like that download code gets redeemed. And so it completely nukes any used game sales for GTA VI. Which, you know, feels pretty bad. Like, that's removing consumer choice. Like, part of the thing about video games is that it's a fungible asset that like you can turn back into money if you want to. And like. - To be clear, take two, it does not care. GameStop is pissed. Take two is glad that every copy you have to buy from them. - Why does, like, you know, gamers should just feel bad, right? Like a physical video game that has a disk inside is worth more than a physical video game that doesn't. And not just because of the disk, but because you can turn that game back into cash if you wanted to and needed to. So, you know, like so many people, I have about a physical game in a long time. But I was surprised because GTA is about as mass market, as like mainstream, as any video game could possibly be, and that will reach a lot of people in retail spots, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Costco. A lot of people will be buying these physical boxes for themselves and for gifts at Christmas. And I think a lot of them will be surprised to not find a disk inside. - Yeah, I mean, the fact that it has to be downloaded, you know, look, every year, this becomes less and less of a thing. But we've been talking on GameScope for like a decade. Not everybody has fast internet in their home, still to this day. And so, you know, for most video games, it probably doesn't matter that much because Damon to your point, like, you know, anyone that's buying and playing AAA games, they're online enough to know, you know, there's gonna be a day one patch, I have to download it or I have to do this or that. But like GTA is so mainstream and so mass market that it's kind of like, you know, it's the biggest thing on the planet. And so for the one thing of like, they need maximal reach, right? That like, that every single copy of the game, you know, we don't know how many gigabytes it's gonna be, put, you know, a hundred or a ton. Like, they're all gonna have to be downloaded by every user. That's intense. - Yeah. - That's why they've already announced the pre-load day. Because just like Silk's song, which crashed the Steve's store, they know that the servers are for PlayStation Xbox are gonna go crazy. I saw a lot of discussions about this in I agree. Like, not having a desk is a bummer. That's, it's removing choice, like we mentioned before. Game preservation, it's always a weird sticky thing 'cause the person I saw made the post said like, you know, take any game, take Cyberpunk and put it in your PS5. And I don't have it hooked up to the internet and explain to me how that that's game preservation. Like, you're getting a broken day one version of the game that's like completely messed up, right? Like, you need those patches. And so like owning that game physically isn't game preservation. When it is required to have the internet to be able to play the real version of Cyberpunk. So, unless you already have the patches downloaded. And that's also, you picked an example of a game that was shit at launch. Like, what about a game that was like, you know, to functional at launch and didn't, you know, didn't need, you know, years worth of patches. - Yeah. - I mean, every game gets patches. Sure, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Not always. - Well, in spite of everything we're talking about, I am getting excited for G.J.6. - Yeah, no, yeah. I am not the biggest fan of G.J.5, but I love my city. And everything is getting me really stoked for six. - No, I completely agree. I mean, even just from a, I am a GTA guy and I'm an open world guy. I really liked four and five. But like, even if you're not, even if it's not your thing, just from a, I talked about it a little bit earlier. Just from like a cultural commentary level of like they have, like there's no other piece of commercial art on the planet, but they had unlimited time and unlimited money to make whatever they wanted, just to make this thing. Like, no movie has ever been like that. No other game has ever been like that. Just unlimited budget. Like, and that fascinates me so much, just from a creative pursuit standpoint, even if, even if, even if like, you know, the story that they're telling or whatever, the type of gameplay doesn't appeal to you. Like, I'm just fascinated by it as just a piece of, just as a thing that exists. - I also, oh, sorry, go ahead. - That's does it. - I love cultural moments. And this, you know, Pokemon Go was a cultural moment, Barb and Hymer. And then every time there's console releases, those are, those are cultural moments. And this is one, we're getting one this year. - Oh, totally. - And that's always exciting. - Yeah, it's so fun. Like, you know, we just, like the monoculture, and this is probably for the best, that there is not a monoculture anymore. Whatever you're into, you know, you can find a little community of people that are into the same thing. But it's still nice when there's something. It's just, like, it's just hype. Like, it feels like this kind of old school thing. And also, I mean, the game was handmade. The game was not made with AI, right? Like this big, handcrafted world where every single object in every single store and home and all the dashboards on the cars and just all that stuff was like, you know, made by people. Like, I'm not, I don't know, man. Like, it might be kind of like the last of its kind. - Yeah. I do kind of miss. Maybe this is the boomer in me. I do kind of miss the monoculture. It's like, yeah, a celebrity will pass away and everybody's sad. And I'm like, I've literally never heard of this person before in my entire life. How is this possible? - No. - Anyway, yeah, I like, I mean midnight launches, all that stuff, right? Like, you know, it is nostalgia. Like, we're not, like, it's better that you don't need to go to a midnight launcher that you can just preload and download the game and play it. Like, like, undeniably. But like, that doesn't mean that there wasn't, you know, something that was lost in the transition. - Yeah. - I get a lot of TikToks where it's like buying a PS2 on launch date. And it's like, people have that footage of them sitting in line and, or going to Halo 3 release date. I'm like, you know, midnight launch and I'm like, man, me too. I worked at, it was called Game Crazy, but it was part of Hollywood video type deal before they all went down. And I worked there when Halo 3 and GTA 4 came out. And those are really fun times. We used to cover them on IGN. I think it was Halo 3. We went down to the game spot or a game stop at Union Square in San Francisco. Covered it up on that. - Bring back midnight launches. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Okay, let's move on to the steam machine that our review is out this week. We gave it an eight out of 10. - We liked it, but most critics did not. - Apparently not as much as me, not as as IGN. I just refer to myself as IGN, now as that normal. Just considering just the machine itself, it is a very, it's a very like appealing, it's very well designed and it's cool, it's so small. And it works well, but that price is like, woof. And it leaves me wondering who the audience really is because it's about the same level of power as a PS5, but more expensive than a PS5. - Yeah, a little bit slightly less powerful than a PS5. - Yeah, it's somewhere between a Switch 2 and a PS5. - Yeah, I mean, the whole promise and premise of the steam machine was, it is a PC, place PC games and you can install your own software on it and your own operating system on it, but giving you a more console-like experience of it's portable and you can plug it into a television or a monitor and it'll just go right and it's small and quiet. But then that's so undercut by, you know, we're in this hardware component crisis and then this device value even said it. It's like, you know, $300 more. So they didn't say this exact quote, but like they implied that it costs about 300 more than they really wanted it to. And so that's a bummer and you have to take that into consideration when you're a consumer. So who is it for? I mean, you're exactly right, Damon. Like it's not for the hardcore because they'll just build PC or buy a more powerful one for $1,500 or whatever, but it's not really for the casual audience either because they're probably better served by a game console instead. Yeah, it's for the people who want to play PC games and want that on their entertainment center and not a big mid ATX RGB thing heating up your living room computers are hot. There is an underrated and that's something that we talked about in our review of like, you know, the small form factor and the vents, it's actually the B-rolls matched up perfectly. Like the way that this thing vents out hot air is like, my PS5, it cannot go in my entertainment center. It overheats and turns off. Like, it has to sit outside of it and the steam machine is kind of like custom built to like, like, not you actually can put it in there. It'll be fine. Go into a little, a little cubby hole. And so some of the, some of the arguments of like, you know, you could build a computer that's way more powerful for less money and who cares if it's a tower, just put it next to your entertainment center. I'm like, that doesn't, that's a little bit disingenuous because, because yes, like yes, that is true, right? Like you can build a more powerful computer for the same amount or for less money, but it will be bigger and that does matter, like not everybody wants that in their living room. Yeah. My house is set up in a way where the big ugly electronics are in the offices and the living room is like the aesthetic, you know, we watch movies there and stuff, but it's got the entertainment center and stuff and I don't want a giant RGB giant computer in my sitting in my living room. I don't want that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this thing is $1,050. What a bummer. Without a controller. Yeah. The wild. Luckily, luckily you can use any controller, but it would be a steam controller. And that's for the 500, what, 512 gig? Yeah. The smaller, a little bit. $1,350 for the version with more storage and no controller. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot. Hey, that was a game-circ controller. I want one of those too. I think it looks awesome. Eric Song's always talking about how good they are. Yeah. He likes him a lot on it. Like I love my steam deck. Yeah. I use my steam deck every day. And it's been, it's not like a huge runaway success. I think they sold 5 million units, but it's like a modest success for Valve that isn't traditionally a hardware company. And I think people that own their steam decks really like them. But this I don't really see like taking off like that. There's an element of like, like, look, hopefully this hardware component crisis isn't going to last forever. I hope this isn't just the new normal for the rest of my life. But it's certainly going to last like the next year or two or three. And so like I think, I mean, whatever, everyone's entitled to like or not like whatever they want. And everyone scores their own. And I read some other reviews and, you know, the positive reviews and the negative reviews were both well justified. But I think some of the more negative takes on the steam machine are a little bit indeniable about like, like sticks of RAM costs like $350 now. Like this is just, this is just what, like, you know, the PS5 Pro is $900 and you know, like the PS6 and Helix and all these game consoles, like, this is just what things cost now. And you don't have to like it. But that's, it's become the new normal. And I don't really, I mean, that's kind of it. Like that's kind of just the, my whole, the whole statement. Yeah. I, there was something you said earlier that I was going to somewhat question, but without having done any research, which is that you can build a PC that is more capable and cheaper or around this price. And I actually don't know if that's true because RAM and hard drives are crazy expensive. Yes. Not at all in this form factor. But if you don't mind. Oh, definitely not this form factor. I'm talking about even if you didn't care about form factor to build something like this. Jackie did it. I mean, it's not like, it's not like a one to one, the exact same components and exact same power and price. But like, for roughly the same price, you can build something that's like this, but it just doesn't look like this. Sure. Yeah. So, you know, that was your justification for the eight, which I thought was well argued. But, you know, we were, we were, we were definitely one of the higher reviews. Most hardware reviewers say, look, this thing's too expensive and too weak for what you get for your money. Yeah. I would, I would mostly agree with that. Neither of you are getting one. No. No. Because I'm a big fan of Steam OS as well, but like I use my steam deck exclusively for Indies and stuff like that. And when I even say Indies, I don't even mean, I mean like, hard games, you know, slay the Spyro, Balachro, Vampire Survivors, like I've been playing a lot of risk of brain too. And I don't even really like risk of brain too on steam deck because you have to do too much, like that's more of a traditional shooter. And I don't like that. I'll play Mega Bomb because I don't have to, I don't have to pull the trigger. So I'm just using the sticks. So no. And then especially with Steam OS 3.8, which makes it where you can turn any computer into a Steam machine, I don't see an appeal for this little guy. And I know I'm aware with the Steam machine, you can install, you can install whatever you want on it. But I also decided I'm not getting one because it is Steam OS out of the box and I, what I decided I'm going to do instead is my gaming PC is too old to use it as a 1070 in it. So it's like, it's finally like I'm like, and so I decided I'm just going to bite the bullet and buy an actual gaming PC instead because the Windows, like I need to be able to install BattleNet and Lord of the Rings Online and install other stuff and not be 100% locked into Steam. Even if, even if 90% of my PC gaming is going to be in Steam. Yep. I'm the, I'm the same way you try to launch, because I have a gaming PC hooked up to this TV. It's got a 5070 Ti. It's a very capable computer. And I was like, what if, because they just announced 3.8 and I was like, what if I turn that into a Steam machine? Like, I just turned it on and it just boots up right into Steam. That sounds great. But then like, yeah, we don't, especially being at IGN, we get PC codes for Ubisoft Connect and GOG and stuff like that. I have an account with the Epic Game Store, so it's like, I don't want to like just be locked to Steam, even though same, 90% of my PC games are on Steam. Then the late 90s and early 2000s, there was this console announced, called the Phantom. And Mark, you may not even be aware of this. I remember that. It was called the Phantom and it was a Steam machine back then. It promised to be a box that you'd put, hook it into your TV, easy to set up and it would play PC games like a console on your TV. And I was so excited for this thing, because back then, there were all sorts of PC games that didn't come to console. They were just PC games. But today, that's not the case. Like, unless it's an indie dev that just put their launch their game on Steam out of ease, just because it's the easiest thing to do, every game you can just buy a PS5 is cheaper and every game, every AAA, third party game, you can play, plus the exclusives. So that's why it doesn't make any sense. And a lot of games have controllers who port, like, slay the Spire 2 and stuff like that. Yes. Oh, there it is. There it is. I was so excited for this thing. I'm not sure. It's an appropriate name for a console like this. But I wasn't sure. I was just at the time. It's like, this is like, you know, this is what game consoles is Xbox 360 era. It was rad. I do remember when they did their big push for Steam machines, where it was the first time in India or anybody could make, yeah, yeah, whereas like anybody can make one. And they were, they were, you know, they were called that. But what I was going to say is, like, when I watched Bose review of the Steam controller, he was like, I have this game that I think it was Crusader Kings or whatever. He's like, and it needs a mask keyboard. I tried playing with the Steam controller and it was awful. And I agree. So that's where I also find the thing where I'm like, what exclusive Steam games do I need that you'd still have to use a controller for? Yeah. I don't know. There he is. There's a handsome man. All right. To lighten things up a little bit, Steam Next Fest continues and Justin has some highlights from Steam Next Fest. Yeah, dude. But it's my, it's one of my favorite times of the year. There's just demos of a bunch of really cool games. You know, okay, two that I think you'll like, David, there's one called Restore where when I say there's two games, there's two games that are about, you know, restoring and cleaning up kind of old electronics. And this one that we're looking at is called Restore and it's sort of like Japanese theme. But I think it's in Tokyo and I think it's like, I don't think it's like modern day. Like I think it's like kind of historical and people bring in these old electronics. And then you sort of clean them up and dust them off. And the other one is called Kozy Game Restoration. And along the nose, but okay. Yeah. And Kozy Game Restoration is the same where you're kind of taking old, like someone will hand you like a Sega Genesis cart and then you have to like really carefully peel like stickers off of it and kind of like, you know, yeah, you're seeing the footage here. Just like, these are scratching a similar, because they have to come up with like fake games, right? Yeah. And so you're cleaning these games up and getting the crud off them with Q-tips and stuff like that. And it's scratching a similar, it's just like a power wash simulator. Like that same vibe of like, you know, I really enjoyed both of these demos because, you work is a little bit stressful and so it's fun and satisfying to just sort of like. clean, right? And there actually is one more that is similar. Oh my God, I forgot the name of it now. I want to play that restoration. I follow two companies on TikTok. It's actually a tarry logo they got on there. Oh yeah. The last one, oh my God, I feel so rude because I want to shout out these games because they're all Indies, but someone made basically it's like a 2D power wash simulator, then I can't remember the name of it now, but it's top down in 2D and then you run around and you know, clean up parks and clean up things and that one was really cool. But the other game I wanted to shout out was it's called About Fishing. And it has this kind of like retro PS1, maybe like a late PS1, early PS2, era 3D graphics. And it is a fishing game. Like the main thing you're doing in the demo is like, you know, you're going around and you're catching fish. But it's very kind of like twin peaks, like there's like a mystery. And like everything is kind of weird and unsettling. And you're meeting these NPCs and talking to them and you know, kind of kind of trying to solve this like central mystery that's in the game. So it's really cool. Like the demos really cool. Like my seam wish list just keeps getting longer and longer and longer as I'm like all of these games are just so neat. I see what you mean about the PS1 art style. It's obviously much like higher fidelity, but it's very jagged polygons. And it's got that weird strobing thing that they used to do. That's, it's hit me in my feels right now. Well, that's very in right now, right? Like we saw pixel art, like pixel art was gone. It was dead. And then as these kids that grew up with pixel art got into their 30s, you know, in 40s and 20, you know, started making art of their own pixel art made a comeback. And now we're seeing the same with this PS1 and PS2 aesthetic as like kids that were eight when that was contemporary or you're now adults in our making commercial art. And now we're seeing it make a comeback. And then I also want to shout out Corsair Cove, which is basically, it's like a pirate city builder, like pirate town builder. But what's cool about it? There's nothing that cooler special about it, except that like the pirate villages you make are really cool and vertical and these cool little like jagged mountains. And then you have to like build, you know, bridges that go from one area to the other. And so just the space that you're kind of building on is really, really neat. If you're watching the show, you're going to see a cool moment in the trailer here, because I just watched it before the show. Like watch your town kind of like build up. You can just like place things on the side of cliffs and stuff like that. And I just think that's neat. It looks like Mad Max, like where they just kind of, you know, the water, the water level dropped and so then you just kind of built towns around the things that are left. Yeah, like it. I just like the ramshackle, you know, sort of like, you know, pirates of the Caribbean ramshackle pirate, chaotic pirate town is just like a really cool aesthetic. And that's what really appears to me about this game. And this demo, I actually haven't played yet, but it's on my two playlist and it looked really cool. Then it comes from publisher Hooded Horse, who has never made a video game that I didn't like. Nice. I have to. Okay. I played a black jacket. I don't know if that was necessarily a next test. Mark, I've been singing the phrases of black jacket. I love it. I played during next best. Yeah. It's great. The full game is out. Oh, that's right. Okay. I think I just got confused it because I saw it was, it was, it was recommended to me during next best, but it's, it's a, it's a black jacket, rogue-like game with stellar voice acting. Yeah. It's very, very good. We're talking about your, your playing black jacket in hell against people and having these conversations while you play and learning about your relationships with them. It's really, really good. But it's got that kind of like slay the spire stuff where it's like, you're playing black jacket, but that, or you're playing black jacket, but then it'll have like this card exhaust or this card does this and whatever. It's very fun, very fun. So not an express game, but a game people should check out. Yes. The other one was arcane eats. If you're a fan of slay the spire, it's very much kind of in the same vein where it's, it's kind of a cutie. You're running a cafe and the people that they hurt you because they're complaining because they're food too long. But other than that, it's the same as slay the spire, except for you usually battling three enemies instead of just one. And it's very much, it's different enough from slay the spire for it to feel fresh and new, but same enough to know exactly what you're going into the moment you start playing it. It was very, very fun. That looks, that was, that was a good one. This looks great. And this, this one. I have one more. Okay. There's a game called desktop explorer where it's sort of like a point and click adventure game. And it's another one where there's a mystery you're trying to solve. And it's kind of like psychological horror themed, but you're, you're using clues in the operating system like, you know, opening the file explorer and finding some file and then finding a note that leads you to a website. And then the websites, you know, like really old and like 90s looking because this is like, like a Windows 95 or maybe even older, like Windows 3.1, like interface. And, you know, that screensaver. Yeah. So it's just, it, it's really, really cool. And so that was another one that really stood out to me. That is cool. How long is next best going? It's over. Yeah. It's over. And so some of the demos are still there. Well, they're coming, like it's up to the developer. Okay. Some are like, you know, next best is over. We're taking our demo down and then some are making them still available. Okay. Well, I think the steam summer sale is now going so Lord. Yeah. Brace yourselves. Okay. Add news for both PlayStation and Xbox today. Yeah. Over at PlayStation, huge massive layoffs at Bungie. This is not something we need to get super into. We're not really a destiny crew here, but I a couple interesting things. Sony only bought Bungie four years ago, paid $3.6 billion. Now already winding down destiny. I think they laid off most of the destiny team. Yeah. That's still working on marathon, which also has not, you know, by all accounts is a good game, but has not been a huge hit. Yeah. Seeing the destiny team basically shuttered was the biggest surprise to me. I thought it was going to be, you know, yeah, we have a smaller team now, global law. And it's like, nope, we, we, if you were to read this, you would assume that there will never be a destiny three, which is wild to me, wild, considering how successful destiny two was. Marathon, yeah, it's tough because there's the new season starting and they're coming out with a PvE mode that I'm very excited about. It's kind of barred off from the rest of the PvP mode, but like they're doing things. I don't know. They're trying, I mean, you know, marathon is in, and this isn't going to sound like it. I do mean it as a positive, not a negative. Like they're clearly in a little bit of like desperation mode. And so what I, what I mean about that being a positive is like, you know, they're taking big swings, right? They're like the gate. They're like, let's try a PvE mode. It reminds me. And I, I saw this comparison online. So I can't take full credit for it. But like Fortnite didn't start as a battle royale game, right? It started as Fortnite saved the world. And they're like, let's try a battle royale mode. And like, you know, if marathon, you know, with, with destiny, the engine was famous for like being so inflexible that it was just almost impossible for the bungee team to like make changes. Like, you know, they had to like rebuild the entire game to like, you know, move the location of like one item and just like, it was just really, really hard for them to build and iterate and try things. And so if they fixed that and got it right with marathon, if they're able to kind of pivot and like, let's try a PvE mode. Let's try this mode. Let's try that mode. Like that actually is really encouraging and exciting to me. And like, I hope that they're given enough runway and time to sort of like see what sticks and see what the audience responds well to. Yeah. But I mean, what a, what a management failure that like to buy this company for three point, you point some billion dollars. And then, you know, you're right, it's not been that many years, Dave. Four years, only four years to just flounder and then say, oops, I'm bad. Like, especially since it's bungee. One of the, you know, most notable studios of all the developer of Halo, the creator of Halo. I mean, I think that the greatest, you know, greatest FPS developer ever as far as I'm concerned. I think they, in terms of gunplay, I think they're completely unmatched in terms of the feel of their gunplay. Yep. I totally agree with that. But I feel like bungee's whole history, like, I feel like there's never that very long a period where they aren't on their heels or something because they're independent in the 90s. They make marathon. They get bought by Microsoft to bring Halo to Xbox. Then they spend a long 10 year Xbox, but they, then they want out. I don't know of what the story is. They were burnt out. They're unhappy under Xbox, whatever. They spin out. They're independent again. They make destiny. Then they make a deal with Activision. It's a 10 year deal, but they dissolve that deal five years in. Then they publish destiny to themselves. Then there's all this, like, I mean, workplace harassment issue. That whole thing. Then they get purchased by Sony and then four years later, got it. I don't know. A long running developer that just seems to always be running into some kind of problem. But speaking of Microsoft, over on their side, they have raised the price of Xbox again. The third time, I think, in just over a year. So let me throw some crazy numbers out there now. A 512 gig Xbox Series S is now $500. - Yeah, that's awesome. - And just the regular S, launch Xbox Series X with one terabyte is $800. - I thought it was 750. - Is it 800 digital edition? - That's the digital. - Oh, yeah. It's $800 now. That's crazy. - What is this world? What is this world that we live in? When you, when we talk about, when you look at this, you look at the Steam Deck, switch two price goes up, PlayStation 5 price goes up, you start to think, is it over? Are video games over? Or maybe it's just time to reset while they sort this all out, let's all display retro games for a while. - Yeah. - Maybe we're just gonna play retro games for a while. - Dude, I'm good. I like, I'll stick, I'm in, I'm in factorial, man. Just getting my conveyor belts. $800 for the regular Series X. That's, that, you know, if you wanna be able to. - Six years after this. - And like, so, but then that makes me think, like the PS5 being 650, it's like, yeah, but for how long? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. - Yeah, oh yeah, that'll definitely, I mean, the PS5 Pro is about $900. - Yeah. - Yeah. Which, and when you look at a value proposition, right, you'd compare the Pro to the Series X, one terabyte digital, because the PS5 Pro is digital, with the option to make it desks, but I'm not gonna just give it to that. But it's two terabytes. This one's only one terabyte. For the moment, like, look, and I'm Xbox first in my house, so I don't even, I'm not even sure, my PS5 is hooked up right now. Like, I'm playing everything on Xbox. But there is absolutely no reason to buy this console. The fact that it is, it is, it is $150 more than the equivalent PS5 is, is absolutely untenable. Like, there's no reason. There's no reason to buy it. And that, that makes me sad as an Xbox fan. Like, you know, I wanna root for them, and I want them to do well. - Anyone who wants to play Gears War E Day, already has an Xbox, so. - Yeah, I mean, I understand that it's like needs must, right? Like, if they're taking a bath on each console sold, they're doing what they have to do. But like, they have to know. - Like, they're not, they're not dummies. Like, they know that by doing this, like, Xbox hardware sales are gonna fall to a trickle, right? - But they're already in a trickle. - Yeah. - That's the crazy thing. So I guess the rationale is like, you know, they'd rather sell that any fewer consoles than sell consoles at a loss or at that much of a loss. - I think what was always kind of strange to me is I thought, okay, well, there, maybe they're just kind of washing their hands of the series, platform, and gearing up for Helix. But now there's so many rumors swirling that Helix and PS6 are much farther out than people think they are. - Well, I think people were thinking that Helix was next year. And I'm not sure that that's the case anymore. I mean, they said 2027, but that may be changing. - Yeah, maybe that's case. - Yeah, I mean, you know, the thing about PlayStation, this is, you know, when you're in last place traditionally, and this is coming through with Xbox, you need to move first to launch the new console generation. You need to reset the board and have new, more powerful hardware and get a chance to like, you know, excite your core fan base. Whereas if you're in first place, you wanna slow down the console generations and you're in no rush. And so, you know, there's no PS6 boss yet whereas Xbox is kind of trying to get things going. So if Xbox delays the project Helix can they hold on for the two years or whatever, it'll take him to get a new console out the door. - Yeah. I've also read a lot about them changing the strategy what the Helix ends up being. Because when you think about it, the Helix was supposed to be a hybrid PC Xbox, right? But the Steam Machine just showed what a PC console type of deal is and it's far weaker than what the new platform should be. And so the Helix is set up right now to be a $2,500 machine. Easily, in my opinion. So, they can't do that. They can't launch it for $2,500. That thing will sell a million in its life. So that's my, that's crazy. - Yeah, baby. - I have a, I have a iPhone. What is it Pro, Max, whatever the nice one is called? And, you know, that phone was $1,000, but it wasn't $1,000. What it was was like, you know, $18 a month on my phone bill for two years, right? And that is what game consoles are going to be now is you buy PS, PSN Pro and you buy Xbox Game Pass. And then your console is, is least, you know, to you of, it's added to your bill, you know, it's a subscription. You know, you're paying for your subscription and then you get the console for free and then you pay it off over three years, two to three years. That's, that's how they're going to work. And that's how the console is going to be $1,200. The PS6 is going to be $1,200, but it's not actually, it's going to be $19 a month for, you know, two or three years. That's. - I think that's in our article with the Xbox stuff is that they're doing the Xbox access stuff. Where you can finance it. - They are, but they're not quite doing it the way that a phone contract works now. They're allowing you to get the console on lay away. - They're just doing the, I don't think they're. - I don't think they're. - It's like, yeah, they're doing the car. So I don't think it's going to be a never ending subscription. I think that you buy the console bundled with the game pass subscription and then it's $1, you know, $30 a month subscription or $40 and then you pay that for three years or whatever. That's how I think it's going to work. - Yeah, it's going to work like your phone bill works. - I, yeah, it's, I think it's tough because it's like, that is how funds work and people just have accepted that. That's how cars work. Very few people own their cars. They, you know, everyone's most people are. - Is that true? - I think a lot of people are making car payments. - Oh, I mean, we did that. - That's what I mean. - Yeah, they don't own them. - Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's like, you don't own your phone. I don't own my cars. They're owned by other things, but I own my consoles and now we're going to live in a world where I also don't own my consoles. - Yeah, no, and it starts getting a little crazy. - Yeah, to be clear, I'm not defending. Like, I think this is terrible. I just wanna make me explicit. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like, but I think it's bad, but I do think that that's the future we're heading to. And like, you'll have the option, like look, if you're Mr. Moneybags and you wanna buy your PSX for $1,200, feel free. In the same way, you can buy out your phone, but just most people choose not to, right? - Yeah, I did do it for my, I have the 17 Pro Max and I was the first time I ever did it. I was like, how much is it? And I think it was like 1,400 and I was just like, screw it. And I just bought it. 'Cause I was like, I don't wanna deal with it. And my last phone lasted me five years. So my plan is that this one is going to last me another five years. I hope. - This is our slash, true off my chest. It's really starting to feel like the alien universe, wayland utani, like just five corporations that own everything. - Yeah. - We're completely beholden to them. - It is crazy how the 1970s and 1980s like understood that like, oh, the corporation, the multinational corporation is gonna be more powerful than like the government. (laughs) - It's that chart that's always existed, right? Where it's like you have all these chillions of different companies, but it's all a pyramid. And you find out that Pepsi owns the shampoo that you're using, you just don't know it. And so that's where we're at. - Well, it's quote from Microsoft says in the past several months, storage and memory prices have increased by more than two and half X. And we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. - Yeah, I do like, and in the same way, you know, we don't need to carry water for rockstar. We also don't need to carry water for Xbox. But I do like these statements. I do like that they're being transparent about like, you know, they're not sugarcoating it, right? They're like, you know, like we're chart, like it's costing us double to make this thing like, you know, so that kind of transparency is, you know, at least respected and welcome from me. - Yeah, my advice is to hold on to your hardware. Two years ago, my series X broke 'cause I've had it since launch. And it started doing that thing, you know how sometimes when like, mainly when we were kids, you had a controller. And it was like, it would only work if you held the controller a certain way. Like the wire, you know, like you'd have to like hold it back or like maybe a power cord would only sit a certain way or it didn't work. My series X started doing that with my HDMI. It had to be tilted upwards. And I think putting something under it made it where it eventually just broke it. And now I don't own a series X. - That's probably a pretty easy. - Pretty much can't. - It's probably a fairly easy fix. If you would have like pulled the back off that thing and like messed with the HDMI port a little. - Someone get my hammer. - Yeah, but I do, I do remember game consoles. We do in some ways we have it nice now. Like everything's just a lot more reliable. Like that should use to break constantly. Like my PS1, my version of that story is my PlayStation 1 famously the little laser that would read the discs would get old. And so mine only worked when I kept my PS1 upside down. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like your regular Nintendo, you'd put it down. Like the little lip would break on the motherboard. So you'd have to put the game, you'd push the game down and then put another game into it to hold it down. - Yep. Don't blow on your card, though. - That doesn't work, whoop. - There's a glitch in the matrix. - Yeah, there was. - They changed something. - Yeah, I may have had this episode. It's just a Justin bot. Like what would he say about the Xbox right now? - So far, they're nailing it. This is why RAM prices are so high, though. - Yeah. (upbeat music) Let's check in with listeners. - Hey, listen to your song. - Listen to your song. Remember, you can always reach us at the email address, [email protected], just like Glenn Kirby and Barnsley, Mary Old England did. - Okay. - Great job. - You're gonna have water. - Mary Old England. I bet he says math. - I didn't understand the math's thing. Is that a thing, English people say? - That's what they say in math. - That's plural. - Instead of math. - Yeah. - Huh, yeah. - Okay. - It's adorable. - Yeah. - Glenn says, "I have recently been purchasing some games to play on my tablet." (laughing) - Okay, I'm like, "You're playing games on a tablet?" Get out of here. - Okay, all right, I'm gonna edit that out. (laughing) Okay, I've recently been purchasing some games to play on my tablet when on my break at work, with the caveat that they must play well using the touchscreen. I've purchased Blatro, say this byer, into the breach and Stardew Valley, which are all games I already play on my switch. I've also purchased Gumbann Enza. That's the Chesteroke Light, Geometry Dash, and the amazing Bad North, haven't heard of that one. And I was wondering if you guys could recommend any games that you can purchase, and own outright, no ads, et cetera. So, Justin, I'm gonna say me saying tablets, he doesn't have an iPad, and it doesn't have Apple Arcade available. - I mean, it's intro, I would not actually characterize the tablet version of Stardew Valley trove, me crazy. So, oh gosh, off the top of my head. I mean, balloons, TD-6 is very, very good on iPad. I probably played a hundred of hours of that on an iPad before I switched, I got the Steam version. Minecraft is actually very playable on tablets, I would say. Vampire Survivors is very good on a tablet. I mean, this is old school, but like a monument valley were really good puzzle games back in the day on tablets. I played through, it sounds insane, but like the classic isometric RPGs, like Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 and Plainscape Torment, all the tablet ports of those were extremely well done. Like the modern version, like the enhanced additions that you can still download and play today on PC and other platforms, those were redone first for tablets and the touch controls are really good on them. - I don't know, those are some off the top of my head. - This balloons, this is like the one we're like, man, that game's so underrated and so good, and I played it a lot on my iPad. - Speaking of tower defense, there's a million Kingdom Rush games and they're all good, they're all basically the same quality. You can't go wrong with any of the Kingdom Rush. And then if you like to play the Spire, I would recommend Monster Train 2. - Mm-hmm. - It's great, yeah. - Great road of that car game, both one and two are great, but two contains the entirety of Monster 1 inside of it, so just go with that one. - I like the one free to play game, I was gonna say the one free to play game I've gotten hooked on. Not true, there's been many over the years, but the one that's been inconsistent in my life is Battle Cats. I go through phases of, I'll be really into the Battle Cats for two or three months and then kind of fall off it, but then I don't delete my account when I come back. All my cats are still just waiting for me. - Mark, do you play any tablet games? - No, not at all. - Nope. - Okay. - Well, there's Battle Cats. - It is. - Oh, it's so good. - Look at those little guys go. - I'm gonna get the base. (upbeat music) - All right, that brings us to video game 20 questions. Our suggestion this week comes from Joel and San Diego, who says, "What is going on in Megacops?" For 20 questions, I wanted to propose a gym. I only recently discovered in the redacted genre. - Oh, but what is the genre? - Oh, it's what, oh, oh, oh, oh. - Oh, oh, oh. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. And with that, let the questioning begin. - Don't screw me on this, Mark. There's, it's, it's so rare that I'm on the show and Sam's not, that like I have a very rare chance to increase my win-loss ratio. - Got it, okay. - No, I got this. This is sounds easy. - Okay, hold on, I need to pull up some info. Okay, I got the info ready. Okay, fire away. - Fire away. - Man, San Diego. By the way, if there was one city on earth, like you could live anywhere you could live on the earth, I would probably pick San Diego. - Really, anywhere. - I think so. - I'm not knocking San Diego, I'm just, I, yeah, like beach vibes, like-- - Legoland. - Legoland. - Legoland, fish tacos, man. - It's like, it's like 50% the fish tacos and then 50% everything else. - Legoland has a new indoor roller coaster. It's called the Galactic Coaster. It's close to San Diego and Disneyland is Space Mountain. I dare say Galactic Coaster is better than Space Mountain. - Whoa. - Them fighting were awesome. - It's really, really good, it's really good. Anyway, yeah. - I heard you were just there and I heard it was very expensive. - If you want to, skip the lines. - Do all the fancy stuff, it's expensive. - It's so loud. - Okay, okay, okay. Did this game come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s? - No. - I hit in Jim in a very specific category of just thinking-- I feel like we should, did he say hit in Jim? - Or just-- - He just said hit in Jim. - Oh, okay. - A Jim and redacted. - Redacted. - Yeah. - I kind of feel like-- - Redacted genre. - There's so many genres that it's terrifying to try to nail down what genre it could be. - Is this a puzzle platformer role-playing game? - Yes. - A puzzle platformer role-playing game. - Puzzle or platformer or role-playing game. Okay, I mean, is it a platformer? - Yes. - There we go. - Sick. - Okay, let's see. Did this game come out, is this game exclusive to a platform? - No. - Is this game 2D? - No. - That's five. - I think it's a hat and time. - Could be a hat and time. - What was that really good 2D platformer? I know it's not the X, it's 3D. The one that came out a few years ago, pizza tower. Did you play pizza tower? - Yeah, the Wario type game. - Yeah. Game of sick. Okay, but 3D platformer did not come out in the 70s, 80s or 90s. So you got hat and time, you got ukulele, you got corn kids. Have you ever heard of corn kids, Damon? - No, that's a platformer. - Yeah, there's this growing movement. There's fewer of them than I would like, but more than I would expect of, I guess you would call them like Super Mario 64 likes. Like that era of like chunky 3D graphics, but, you know, but this is kind of pure 3D platforming. - Is this game part of a series? Yeah, I guess you would say yes. - Yeah, so that makes me think it's ukulele. - Yeah, 'cause there's only one, but then there's like all these spin-offs and, - There's not one. - There's not one. - There's at least two. - Is there two? I thought the other one was just replay-ly, whatever it would be. - No, they made a 2D one. They made a 2D one and now they're making their cart racer. 2.5, they're 2.5D one. - They just go, they're all the genres. - That game was really clever because you could go to the final boss, like right at the beginning of the game, you could try the final level, but it's this long gauntlet and it's really hard and impossible. And as you're playing through the game and playing through the levels, what you're doing is earning more lives and more tries to complete the final level. So you can decide whenever you're ready. Like, I have 12 lives now. Maybe that's enough to get through the final level and you can just keep building up the number of lives you have. - Got it. - Okay. I mean, let's just go for it. Was this game developed or published by Platonic? - Nope. - Not ukulele. - And at the time, I'm. - I think it's a one and done game though. - What about Bob Z4D? That's the new one, or what's that other developer, Demon Turf? They made that. - Yeah, yeah, the school ones. - Yeah, Demon's School, Demon Turf. - I forget what the new one's called. - I don't remember either. - Yeah. Is this, is it an indie game? - No. - No. - Let's see. - Okay, but not exclusive. So, yes, I guess it's part of a series. Not indie, 3D platformer. Not exclusive to a console. So it's not like it's Mario or something. - Or Ratchet or. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Not any of the really obvious ones. - Platformer. - Yeah, yeah, this is. - Did this game come out within the last 15 years? Did it come out in, what year is it? Did it. - Did it come out in 2021? - Let me ask what I'm actually asking. Did this game come out after I started working at IGN, which was July 2011? - No. - Okay. - Okay. - So we're in the early 2000s. There were 2000 to 2011. Well, 2000 to 2011 June. - That, I mean, I know that's a very Justin-specific clue, but Mark, hopefully that still helps us get placed in a specific area. - Yeah. Yeah. - I mean, okay, so. - So now we're looking at. - I don't know. - History. - Yeah. - P.S.2, P.S.3. - But not, it's not like Jack and Daxter, any of those, 'cause those are all PS2 exclusives. Was like Cooper, PS2 exclusive, or you know, PlayStation exclusives, and Ratchet, you're right. - Banjo, Nutt, and Bolts, or whatever. - What about I Ninja? That was a cool 3D platformer from that era. - I don't even know what that is. I Ninja. - Did this game come out on the GameCube? - No, that's 10. - Okay, we still have a lot of questions. - Psychonauts, did that come out on the GameCube? It could be Psychonauts 1. - Could be Psychonauts 1. - It's true. And it's not everything. And it's technically double flying is not ND. - It was this game made in the United States. - Hold, please, let's see. - Yes, please. - I feel like you would know that double-fines in San Francisco, they were right down the street. - Yeah, but you can't play that game with Damon 'cause you just never know. Okay, so there was, you know, what else is called? - Part of a series. 'Cause there's not on the GameCube. 'Cause then I was like, okay, maybe, you know, maybe it's like Prince of Projure or something, but a lot of those games came out on the GameCube. - Psychonauts might have come out on the GameCube, I honestly don't even know. - Made in America. I feel like I just need to know more about the game 'cause I'm just-- - Yeah, that's what we're doing here. - I know, I know, I know. - It's the entire game. - That's the entire game. - I mean, if only we knew more about it. - It's not what I meant. I meant what you do with the actual game. I mean, what you do with the actual game. - Ask and go out there and ask some questions. - How do you give it to me? Hold on. - Ask me what you do. What about like Spyro? Was there multi-platform Spyro games back then? - Shit. - That's true. Did Spyro ever come to like Xbox? - I don't know. - I don't know if there are PS2 exclusives. Yeah, probably 'cause-- - Or PS1 exclusives. - Well, so there were PS1 exclusives, but then they do like the Crash Bandicoot thing and then go multi-platform later. - Yeah. - Would like Activision pick them up? - Okay, okay. So Activision has Crash as well. So let's go with, was this game published by Activision? - No. - Rip. - Shoot. - I mean, if there's no reason it can't be Psychonauts. By the way, he did say yes. It was developed in the United States. - Yeah. - Yeah. Okay. - I don't know. How many questions do you have, Damon? - You've asked 12. - Okay, I mean, was this game developed by Double Fine? - No. - Okay, let's figure out how you, when you attack, are you using, is it primarily melee? - Maybe you don't attack. Maybe it's like Monkey Ball. Although that was obviously on GameCube. But, you know, something like that. Like a cooler world or like a marble blast ultra. - Yeah, I don't know. I haven't personally played this game. I don't know. I'm aware of this game, but haven't played it myself. - Platformer. - What about like, what about like, I don't know, it's a stretch to call it a platformer, but what about like a jet set, like a jet set radio? I don't know, I guess I would call it a, but I don't know what I would call that game. - Yeah. - I think you could call it, I think you could. - What would you call Tony Hawk? Is Tony Hawk a platformer? - No. Were they making, were they making 3D Rayman games back then? Although this was developed in the United States and the Rayman games were probably still made in France back then. - Yeah, the United States one is, is, I guess it could be a Sonic game. - Yeah, except they were made in Japan. - Yep. - And they were probably platform excuses back then that they were on the Dreamcast, late era Dreamcast game. - Well, Sonic Adventure, like one and two are on GameCube. - Damon, is this a first person game? - No. - I thought I had a flash of InSpo and I thought it was Mirror's Edge. - Oh, that would have been good. - That would have been sick, right? Platformer of that era, not on the, not on the GameCube probably. - Mirror's Edge. - Next question, are you sure it's not Mirror's Edge? - Yeah, just say, just say, just say, just say it is. - Yep, you got it. The show could have been over. - Yeah. - Yeah. - With the, with the Ape Escape games or exclusive to the PlayStation, right? - Playstation, yeah. - 2011, that doesn't necessarily, I'm picturing like PS, like it could be the Span's generations. It doesn't have to be PS2. It can be like PS3. - PS3, Wii, and. - Yeah, maybe that's what's tripping me up. Maybe this is like a Wii. - And Xbox. - Is this a Lego game? - No. - That's 15. - God. - And the series is, oh, I just said, is it part of a, is this game? - Half, yeah, I guess so. I thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - Is there a game in development for this series? Right now, that's just like, not out yet. - Yes. - Yes. - Okay. - It's not Spyro. Unless Spyro wasn't published by Activision back then, but I can't imagine. Well, Spyro wasn't. - I also don't even know which one it would be. Spyro one, two, and three are PS1 games. And then, you know, they obviously kept making them, but I'm not the, the PS2 era Spyro games and not to be spoken of. You've got three questions in a guess. Since you're down a man, I'll say, there's just, there's one common question you always ask that you have not asked yet. - Have we mentioned the game? - That's not the question I mean. - That's not the question. - Oh. - Well, what's the comment? What is the common question? (laughing) - Does your character wear a hat? - That's not a, that's not the answer. - Okay, now we have to start asking questions to find out what the common question is. - What's a common question that we ask that we haven't even asked yet? I mean, sometimes we ask if multiplayer is like prominently featured. - I don't even know. - I don't even know. Damon, you twist and, you're twisting us up. - Yeah. The one, the, the, it's, it, there's one in development that hasn't come out yet. That's part of this series is totally tripping me up because I'm trying to think of every game that's coming out now. - I don't know if I'd call it a platformer, but like there's like, you know, there's like Tomb Raider. - Yeah. It's Tomb Raider. A hundred percent, it's gotta be. - And that might trip Damon up with like, if there's, if there's punching or kicking in it. - Yeah. - What does that face mean? I wouldn't know the answer to that question. I know she's shooting her dual guns all the time, but you might be kicking raptors in the face in Tomb Raider? I don't know. I can't remember punching your butler, locking him in the fridge. - I must have been in the Tomb Raider, I haven't played. - Yeah, 'cause I think it's, so it's like, for, as far as platformers go, we have, we have Tomb Raider, we have, we have Spyro. - We do ask if you play as a human, maybe that's the question. - A commie? - Yeah. Although that's a, isn't that a game? - No, that was a weak game. - Also, it's super Japanese. - Oh yeah, you're right. - A Tomb Raider? - Does this, - And we have two, three questions in a guess? Yes. - Do you play as a human? - No. - No. - No, you do not. - Maybe you do not play as a human, absolutely not. (laughing) - No, maybe you play as a bandicoot. - Or a dragon. - Or a dragon? Or a. It was not exclusive to a console, so it's not like conqueror. - Yeah. - It's not 90s, though. - Does it not help us at all to ask if it's like a mascot platformer? - I don't think, I think we know it is 'cause you play as some weird animal. - Or a zombie. Or a zombie's humans? Or a vampire? - I don't, okay, okay, okay, okay. We can pull this out. We can do it. I'm not sure how. Do you, I know we're not allowed to, I'm gonna look something up on my computer, but it's not related to. - Wow. - No, I'm talking about platformers. - No, I'm looking up at does Spiro walk on two legs. No, he's a young dragon who runs primarily on all four legs. Do you walk on two legs in this game? - Yes. - Okay. - Shoot. - So, no, that's helpful. That means it could be a PS2 era crash bandicoot game. Maybe, although I think they were all published by Activision, but maybe not. - I feel like they were published by Activision. I also don't know how many crashes that are in development. - Two-legged animal. That means it's an anthropomorphic animal. Like, it's not a, like Sonic's not a real hedgehog. He's like a boy that's a hedgehog. Like, Hello Kitty is a human girl. (sighs) - Yeah. One question, one guess. - I feel like we have to, I feel like we have to do the, have we, have we mentioned the game? - Have we mentioned this game? - No. (laughing) - We're scoring. - And that's it, Judge. - Did I just reveal it? - Sorry, Justin, it's all my fault. I mean, we mentioned a lot of games. - So many, so it's like, what are we missing? And I, I know this is sometimes a question, but like, are we gonna be pissed off? - I'll just, since you just have a wild guess to make, I'll reveal the redacted. And it's related to the question you usually ask. Craig and Sandiego said, I wanted to propose a gem. I only recently discovered in the licensed movie tie-in genre. - If you can guess it off that? - God, that, no. No, that, that actually doesn't help. Maybe we asked if it was a Lego game, which we're all licensed. No, that doesn't help. - All right, are you ready? - Yep. - Yes. - Toy Story 3. - What, I never got it. - 2010. - Never, that was nowhere close. - That's the game, got it. - I've never even seen this game. I know that there's a well-liked, like Toy Story, like I think PS1 era, like Toy Story tie-in game that people have secretly, like those games are right. Never heard of Toy Story 3. - The complete edition is coming this year. - From this year? - Yeah. - The complete edition is coming this October. - Of Toy Story 3. - I didn't even think about like, I mean, we said no GameCube, but like Spongebob, Battle for Bikini Bottom, probably would have been a good guess, but not GameCube. - Yeah, so your question about, is it mostly melee, I don't know, I don't know if there's any combat at all. - What's Woody doing? - Yeah. - This looks cool. - It's supposed to be good. I mean, Craig says it's a gym. We gave it a 7.5. Anthony Gallegos gave it a 7.5. - I don't know. - Oh, I'm his Anthony. - Now he's making some nautica too. - Is that true? - That's the journey. - He's at the studio, I believe. - He's like the design director for it. - Well, already. - Nicely attempt. Thank you for the suggestion. Joel and San Diego viewers listeners, if you have your own suggestions for video game 20 questions, email them to me at email address, [email protected]. And that's all the scoops that we have for you this week. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Justin. Thank you to Samae, who's keeping me company. - No. - This whole time here. For those following along at home in the life of Damon, my daughter graduated preschool today. So check point, we have no kids in preschool anymore. We have kids in public school now. So that's exciting. Yo, ho, ho, it's a pirate's life for me this weekend. My name is Damon, this is hygiene game scoop. (laughing) What does that mean? I know what that means. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Is it just the three of us? - Yep. - Samae's in Italy. - And Nick. - Lemon is unavailable, pairs unavailable. - But I thought Mark wasn't allowed to be on game scoop anymore. - I decide whether or not Mark can be on game. As long as Mark stays in my good graces, we're all good. - Wait, who banned me? The audience? Or is it Sam, for me telling him that I don't give a fuck about other scrolls? - Sam's parting words out the door was, "Don't let Mark be on game scoop." - To be fair, that's this parting words every week. - Yep, that's true. - Why do you keep bringing 'em on? - What's up everybody? Welcome, Titian. Whoa. At the new shot, it's just really throwing me off my game.