Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - 2023: Greatest Gaming Year Ever? w/Jeff Grubb - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

Industry Icon Jeff Grubb joins us to discuss the Streamdeck and if 2023 could actually be the greatest video game year of all-time potentially having Zelda Breath of the WIld 2, God of War Ragnarok, Starfield, Dead Space, Last of Us Remake, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and more! Follow Jeff: https://twitter.com/JeffGrubb Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:03:27 - Housekeeping 00:05:15 - How’s it being Jeff Grubb?? 00:12:48 - Steam Deck Emulation 00:31:32 - Ads 00:33:39 - Will 2023 Be The Best Year in Video Games?! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the kind of funny games cast. Of course, I'm Tim Geddes and I'm joined by the new face of video games. Blessing Adioia, Jr. Tim, I was hoping you wouldn't intro me first because right before the intro hit, I started eating a Ricola because I've been having like a little bit of throat issues. And as soon as the intro hit, I was trying to like crunch it real hard, you know, to get it down there to not worry about it. And let me tell you, it was more effort that I thought was going to be. I am not done crunching on this thing. Yeah, yeah, we'll crunch away, a little bless, crunch away.

I'm rounding out the rest of our group. We have the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez. Bless, soon enough, you'll be back to your throat, goat, and ways, all right? How'd you know that was my nickname? And rounded out the group today. I'm very, very, very excited to welcome back. Jeff Grubb. How's going?

Here's what I wonder. Andy, do you wear earbuds because your hair is just too pristine? You have to keep it looking good, so you don't want the headphones going over your hair partially but it became the heat it became the heat um that's a good point okay yeah the overheads um because of just the nature of san francisco and our rooms and our zero insulation yeah yeah yeah it uh it started getting really bad i started streaming with like the astros and that's how i would primarily stream but then at night uh you know on certain summer nights i would feel that shit and uh it just got like it just got really uncomfortable i got i'm envious

because i'm like i would love to let the hair go but it's like yeah when i I can't with these headphones. It's just a funky. Look. Hey, hey, Jeff. You tell me, you tell me. No, I don't have them down here. Never mind. I was going to grab some extra headphones and, like, throwing me.

I was going to like. Yeah. Andy, how do you like using the earbuds? Because that's the thing. I'm not done that since working from home, like, actually podcasting with earbuds. And it makes me nervous because I do feel so comfortable with, like, my noise canceling beats headphones. But for the last year, this is a peek behind the blessing curtain. I've been

I think I don't know why I say exclusive I think this is a world No I've been I've been considering getting my ears pierced and I know once I do

for at least like a small period I'll have to rock the earbuds But like I'm nervous about it I don't know if I'll be able to function The same with earbuds So I'll say this Like I've been buying these headphones

For the better part of like almost a decade I've gone through like six pairs Over 10 years whenever I lose I'll just buy another one These are the Sony Extra Base nothing miraculous sound quality-wise. I just feel like overall build quality, they're really good.

And they're not noise cancelling by any means, but they are earbuds and they get stuck in there and they will isolate a whole lot of noise without really kind of intending to do so. Like there's no noise suppression tech in there, but there are plenty of times where Lulu is barking up a storm and I only hear her through Barrett's mic as opposed to like in the living room, you know what I mean? Let me tell you something about having kids.

You get to a point where you do not want any noise cancellation because as soon as that happens, they are going to like do something to kill themselves and you're not going to know what's happening. So I'm like, I want as much pass through as possible at a certain point. I got a Michael Hyam here that I do worry about a little bit. I mean, you same exact thing.

You have the same scenario. Yeah, yeah. I get it. Of course, this is the kind of funny games cast. We each and every week we get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. You can get it on YouTube.com

slash Kind of Funny Games or Rooster Teeth.com. You can also get it as a podcast by searching your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Gamescast and we'll be right there for you. If you wanted to get the show ad free, if you wanted to watch live as we record it, and if you want the exclusive post show,

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which makes no sense on a show called screencast, but you know what? Hey, just appreciate it. We did it, okay? People ask for it and we did it. Also, later this week, we're going to have the Halo season one review going up, and we have our Top Gun Maverick, spoiler-free review. They can go check out.

If you want to get some super dope merch, kind of funny.com slash stores where you want to go. And if you want even extra super more exclusive merch, patreon.com slash kind of funny or kind of funny games. You can get the Patreon platinum print shirt for this month, which is the super dope Foxhound Portillo shirt that Andy has made. Before we get into all the other stuff, Jeff, I have a question for you.

Please. What's it like being Jeff Grubb? Because I feel you were somebody that I've known for many years now, just as kind of like, you were like probably the best example to me of just up a Twitter person, you know, somebody that I didn't know existed, and then all of a sudden out of nowhere I knew existed,

and it's like, now we're best friends. You know what I mean? And we have this like circle where it's like, all, cool. Like, you're just one of those dudes. And I imagine in some ways I'm one of those dudes to you, just like Andy and blessed as well. But you are different in that you have all the secrets. You have all the knowledge. You have your tendrils everywhere.

So you get all the leaks. And you have exploded in popularity where these days, I can't go five minutes scroll in a Reddit thread without your name popping up. And that must scare you a lot. You're so big. You got banned from KF. like how does that feel that's that's me on tic talk i can't grow a couple of swipes without seeing industry insider jeff grub and and also uh i got one game awards from 2015 which is like

almost a decade ago greg miller right like it's always one of those sort of things yeah i it's um it's weird uh i'll say i i i told myself i would stop saying stuff about my ADHD because people don't want to hear it but uh for me a lot of time stuff is out of sight out of mind um that's true for almost everything in my life. I got a baby brain when it comes to, like, retaining, like, emotions about things or even, like, experiences. It's pretty useful when I'm, like, playing video games because I get to go back to the video games

so I can play them all over again. But when I, when I, like, look away from the internet, the internet goes away. And so I forget that the internet is still sometimes talking about me. And, you know, part of that, it's like, that feels vain to even, like, consider that that's happening. But, but it's a reality it is. And even if I wanted to consider it, it just does not exist in my brain. So when I get back on the internet and there's there's like people have been having like a conversation about like this is happening today, right?

And it's because like I decided to have an opinion on Johnny Depp or whatever. But people over said there have been talking about me all day. And I'm just like, okay, that that is, this is actually legitimately weird. So it is a little bit. Scary is not the right word because I'm a white man and I haven't been threatened in any real way. I've definitely privileged on that front. But it's definitely weird and sometimes. obnoxious, which is why I value communities that know how to keep it cool.

Like there are communities out there that know how to keep it cool. I've cultivated one. Artis community is great for like game mess and stuff. And I just decided like, I'll just lean into the branding, right? Game mess was the thing I was just doing as a joke because game fest was Jeff Keeley's thing. And I'm going to pretend I'm in a rivalry with him and I'm going to do game mess. But you know, the brandy became a thing. We did our own community.

And they know how to keep it cool. That's why I like kind of funny community because everyone seems to understand like the relationship that we have here. I'm totally okay with it's, I don't view it as that parasycial sort of thing. It's not how I view it when it's people who are like, who are like interacting with me on Twitter or interacting with me on Discord. I honestly do feel like I have a relationship with these people. And I try to focus on that stuff. And that makes it a lot easier to like get through the day, even if other weird stuff

is happening in the periphery. I can easily ignore that if there are cool people right in front of me. So I just put the cool people right in front of me and that works. Can you talk about how it started and how it's progressed in terms of terms of you becoming one of those guys, right? Like, I remember your first joining kind of funny. And when I, when I started to listen to Kind of Funny Games Daily, Imron Khan was one of the first people I remember of being like,

oh, this guy's just, this guy just knows things, right? Like, he's an insider, like, he has his connections. He, like, works in media, but also like people trust him enough to dive old secrets with him, right? Like Jason Fryer's another one of those. I feel like your name came around a couple years ago. And I forget exactly like when the first instance of it was, especially on Kind of Funny Games Daily,

I was bringing up like, oh yeah, Jeff Grub from Gamesweet mentioned this. right and that snowballing into what I imagine is your name becoming more popular in terms of somebody who has these connections in the industry and that make people a little bit more comfortable with divulging secrets to you is that how things progressed and like where did that start for you yeah I mean a lot of it's right place right time almost all of it is uh you know the the learned skill part of it is making people feel comfortable telling you stuff in the first place and a lot of that comes down to it's video games so a lot of times I'm very comfortable just saying video games aren't worth of this video games aren't worth of this video games aren't worth

getting people in trouble. Video games aren't worth people losing their jobs. So let's just, we will dance around this. We don't have to divulge this. And people get to a point where they're like, well, you know, I do trust you. But like, why should I share this information with you? And then that's the other side of the learned skill is why are we talking about any of these things? And I always try to do it from a point of view of I'm explaining gamers to game developers and I'm explaining game developers to, but I'm trying to do it both ways. If you're a gamer, I want to explain game dev. And if you're a gamer, I want to explain game dev. And if you're in game dev, I want to explain gamers and how each side is feeling. And so when a really kind of

got started with like, I got a good lead on when the Nintendo direct mini was going to happen in March 2020. And no one was like, everyone had an idea something was coming, but I had the exact date in time. And I just didn't know it was a mini. I called it a direct. But like Nintendo didn't announce it the day before like they do a lot of times. So it's still the day before. And I know what's going to happen even though I'm freaking out because they haven't announced that. I remember being sick to my stomach. And I decided to just say, listen, I've reported on stories before. No one's really cared. I've reported like stuff on battlefield before. And that story didn't really do traffic, even though it was all kinds of cool inside information. I'm just going to, I'm just going to

ride or die on this. And I'm going to say, this is definitely happening tomorrow. And people are like, oh my God, he's doubling down. I can't believe this. And then when we woke up the next day, there was a Nintendo direct mini there. And I think people sort of got what was happening at that point, where it's like, I do have information. And I'm also going to make like the dispersion. future. Yeah. I'm going to try to make it fun, right? I'm going to try to make it fun.

Like, it's video games. Again, we're going to go back to this is video games so we can have some amount of fun with this stuff. And like, I've tried to keep that throughout this entire thing. And from there, it was like, okay, I had a string of like really big ones. Eventually, like, Mass Effect Legendary Edition was another really big bump in terms of like that audience is crazy and they're super intense on that stuff. So, but most of the time, it's all gone back to explaining one side to the other and then

having a good time. And most recently it was the name of Star Wars Jedi Survivor, where I've had that name for forever this entire year. And I didn't see much of reason to put it out there because it's just the name. And they said the name of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order at E3. And no one really cared. Like, okay, it's a name. But we made it fun by just like, I had the audience guess and until someone got it right, eventually someone got it right. And it's like, okay, well, I said I would say if you got it right. And I'm seeing in the giant bomb chat. I'm like, yeah, okay, I'll just, I'll confirm it. But yeah, that's been the focus.

And it's been like, as long as I kind of try to keep it fun, it stays fun for me. And I can kind of keep a good sense of humor about it all. But yeah, it's just a weird thing. It's not something I could have ever intended to happen. Like this was never a plan of like, I'm going to become a Twitter guy. It was just like, yeah, I'm just going to put the stuff out there and we'll see what comes back. And this is what has come back. Crazy.

Andy, you had your hand wrist a long time ago. Do you still got something? I was just going to say, like, I know what it's like when the, internet's talking about you and when people are talking about you Jeff because like when I interviewed Shaq he said his son watched my content which is like like definitely not true but it's something that I made myself believe you know what I mean yes it's important it's important to believe Jack when he tells you things yeah absolutely yeah yeah yeah I love that now moving on from Jeff Grub as a topic uh to another topic that involves Jeff Grub a lot um you are a Twitter guy

in my mind and in my heart for many reasons. One of them being your industry knowledge, all the insider stuff, just being a cool guy. But the other side of it is you're into all the nerdy shit that like I want to be into. And the Steam Deck and your adventures with the Steam Deck recently have definitely made me believe

that I am right in thinking that. Now, Bless and you both have these things. You've been playing a whole bunch of games on them. What are your thoughts about this device as a device but then also specifically as an emulation device? I'm still in love with my Steam deck. Steam deck is very important for me because I do want games to sort of meet me where I'm at. I've always been into handhelds and portables from the very beginning.

And some of my most intimate and important gaming experiences happened on handhelds. I mean, my favorite game of all time, the one that really turned me into a gamer was the Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening on Game Boy. And I've told the story before about a kid just handed me the cartridge in class. And I have no, it's not even like a friend of mine. he just gave it to me. I found out, I didn't find it. Years later, I put together that when the teacher's assistant came to me was like, oh, you're playing that game too? Where'd you get it from? And I was like, oh, some kid gave it to me. He stole it from that teacher's assistant because she was playing it as well. And years later, I put two and two together. But the point is like, I had this,

this relationship with gaming when I held it in my hand right in front of me. And a steam deck absolutely builds on that, like, lineage. And then it also, it pairs it with sort of an unlikely partner in PC gaming. And at first, I get the skepticism about that because PC gaming is this oblique, odd-shaped duck. And you're like, you're supposed to like sort of struggle with it a little bit because there's like, you know, the greater reward and all that stuff. And what Valve has done with the Steam Deck is just like solve almost all those problems out of the gate. And that, I was not expecting that. I thought it'd be kind of a long, arduous process between the thing launching and then turning it into a good console. But it launched as a, a very, a very,

very good console and it's only gotten better. And a lot of that comes down to the interface and stuff like that. But all of it also is just like it is also still a PC underneath. And if you just go one layer deep, if you so choose, you can get in there. And then it's super powerful. And now everyone who has a steam deck has this one set unit and you can sort of set something up and then distribute it to everyone else with a steam deck. And everyone can get the benefit of that. And emulation has clearly been the forefront of that right out of the gate with, I mean, I mean, I don't, and plus I don't know if you've used this, but emu-deck? No, yeah.

Emmy deck is like a must-use, yeah. Like, that has really changed the game in terms of the, it being a console and not just a PC. Because I'm somebody who I messed around with emulation for as long as, like, I guess, like, around 15 years ago. Ever since I got access to a PC that I could even use at home, right? Like, one of the first things they did was learn that you could get Project 64 relatively easily. And that's- What was the first game? What was the first game you guys emulated? On the Steam deck?

Just in life. Oh, in life? Oh, shit. I was typically like a Nesicle or something. Oh, that's a good one. I know because I downloaded it off of lime wire and I couldn't figure it out because I didn't understand the whole process of like the ROMs and the emulators. So I'm sitting here just trying to double click on the ROM and it's not opening and I'm like, what the fuck's going on? It was definitely like, it was definitely like the SNES 9X, whatever the hell that that EME was called. and it was

I want to say it was on some old shitty laptop and I just thought it was so dope that I could get like Legend of Zelda linked to the past and all those old Super Nintendo games and then eventually it turned into getting ROMs and emulators on my old Android phones and that was like the coolest shit of all the time. And that was the thing that changed the game for me

where I like to answer Tim's question right I think the first game I emulated must have been Super Mario 64 because it definitely was Project 64 and that definitely was a thing that opened the doors to me in terms of, fuck, I can do this. And then once Android phones became a thing, the phone I had in high school, and like, it was either sophomore junior year was the Samsung moment, which was a, it had like a keyboard that slid out. It was the Android. And I remember getting the Super Nintendo and GBA emulators for that. And I played so many games in the back of English

class. Like, I think I beat Pokemon Emerald in the back of English class. I played most of earthbound. Like, the list goes on in terms of games that I really got into during high school. school that I just played on my phone and that was such a mind-blowing thing for me. And that's actually the thing that playing emulated games in the Steam Deck has been such a throwback to, for me, is like, oh shit, not only was it cool as hell back in the day to be able to play Super Nintendo games on my phone, mobile wherever I go on the bus wherever. But now I am like, last night I was in bed playing Burnout 3. And it was like a religious experience, me being like, what am I doing right now?

Like if I told myself 10 years ago that I would be doing this, right? like playing this thing on a handheld device with like with all the controls they need right with like extra buttons the bumpers all that stuff I'll be my mind would be blown so that actually is a great segue for me because I feel like I I dabbled with a lot of emulation on my PC

but it was really the PSP when I went full on I'm a goddamn pirate on the seven Cs and I was playing like everything right and like that thing you could bust open and there was so many different firmware updates and shit that allowed you to do stuff but there was always the workarounds that you had to do like even for things like a super nintendo you'd have to activate frame skip you would have to really kind of dial in and

like it was a pain in the ass to get right um and some certain games wouldn't even run whatever i'm seeing the steam deck now and like bless you sent me a video of you booting up marvel versus capcom too and i'm sitting here like god damn how is this possible take you for a ride like go take me for a damn right but i'm like is are the problems that i'm talking about still a thing with the Steam deck or are we at a point that like, you know what? It works 98% of the time. There is a 2% little thing you have to do. The Emmy deck is the thing I made it super easy, right? Like this is the thing where it's like it configures it all for the Steam Deck itself. That's the thing about the Steam Deck being a single piece of hardware that everyone has access to.

You could just standardize everything. And that's what EmuDec is. It is this open source tool that these guys made together. And they basically just said, okay, you click this button inside the Linux operating system on the Steam Deck. and it's just going to open up a command window and it's going to download every single emulator you need and it's not just going to download them it's going to configure them so it works with the button controls of the Steam Deck it's going to configure them so the screen looks right

and it's going to configure them so then they run like on the right you know graphics library so it's going to use a Vulcan instead of OpenGL so it runs really fast it's just all set up for you it's the kind of thing it's like yeah I got someone you like text me like hey how do I do this I'm like just go to Emu Deck and follow the instructions it's so simple It was a 13-minute YouTube video that I watched that explain those exact instructions. It took about that long to get it set up. And there are still some twarks like this is someone else configuring it for you.

So like GameCube, I was like, oh, they have GameCube button set to like the letter being the letter. So the A button is the A button, but then the B button is the B button. And it's actually not the GameCube is a little bit different. Like the X was over here and the Y was over here. So I just go and then change that myself. But then it just saves that. And if I want to upload or update EmuDEC, I could just save my GameCube stuff for. separately and just say don't mess with that but update everything else.

It's it is still emulation. It's still people figuring this stuff out, but it's so much smoother than what it used to be, especially if you're considering the fact that you are like basically setting up every single system from the beginning of time, anything that's like on retroarch, and then anything up to PlayStation 3 and Xbox, which all still work. Question for Jeff and Bless. get a I'm a magic genie all right I pop into your room

you call the cops and I'm like don't call the cops I'm a magic genie I have to convince you and then I say I wave my wife magic wand and I say you can go back to the inception of the steam deck and you could change one thing about it what would it be and also

what do you want to see from the steam deck too what would you like for them to improve on they may be the same answer I mean battery life would probably be my answer for both like this thing is doing so much, which means that it dies pretty quickly. And it ranges from game to game. Most of the games I've been playing on this thing have been either indie stuff or emulated stuff.

I've not played the, like, Securos or the God of Wars and all that stuff. And that's funny enough, that was my plan originally. But, you know, talking about, like, how well it consoleizes PC, my, like, my store with the seam deck right now is, you know, getting it, feeling so comfortable with it and so easy access with it in a way that I've never felt with PC, because PC, not that PC isn't easy to use. use or Steam's the easy use or any of those things, but I still view PC, my, like, my PC as, like, a work thing or a place I come to browse or a place I come to use turbotex.

Shout out to Greg Miller, right? Like, I don't, I don't necessarily want to sit down on my desk to play video games. I know there are ways to, like, do that on my TV and figure out that setup. That's always just been too much an extra step to me. Yeah, like, I have my PS5. Why would I do that my PC? I have an Xbox Series X, right? Like, why would I go the extra mile to figure out how to make all that shit work?

The Steam deck makes it feel as accessible as a console. right but then also have that extra layer of depth where I can do the emulation go to Linux do all that stuff right and being able to have that and then find games like Patrick's Paribox which I've been playing and like I beat Patrick Parabox last week during my trip to Houston like that was a game that's only available on PC and it's one of the best puzzle games I played in the last year and it's incredible right and it's only on PC same with um there's this game electhead that was announced at Nintendo's Indy World thing during the Nintendo Indy World there was somebody in chat that was like oh this game is out on PC. right now and I was like, fuck, maybe I'll just download this and play it on PC, right? And I bought it and played through it. And it's like a two to three hour game. But I'm like, damn, this has been on PC for a while. And I've not heard anybody talk about a leghead. And it's a really cool game with a really dope art style, really great soundtrack, puzzle platforming, really clever platforming. And like, I can't believe this is way off my radar, right? Like, the Steam deck is doing so much in terms of

opening my eyes to other games that are out there. And I think right now, like, more power obviously is like a thing that I that I could ask for in terms of like being able to run more games and shit but like right now I think the thing that I am more most conscious about is the the battery life. I think I wish I could get more juice out of it even though I understand why it's like it's running out as big as it is like look at this thing. The battery for me it's like I do wish the battery life was better but but I wish the battery life was better on my switch in the same sort of way. It's very comparable. It is well within that range of what a modern handhelds have been since the PSB and not quite,

the DS was pretty good. But like I went the 3DS and then everything since, we get like 2.5 to maybe six hours on the top end. Most games you're not going to get six, seven hours on the steam deck, but you will get five on the smaller stuff. And especially like when you're emulating old stuff, you can like, this is one nice thing.

It's like if you were willing to go one level deeper, it would menu that pops up to the side, you could see your battery stats and you could have that stuff like just overlaid so you can see how much juice you're using, how much wattage you're actually using. And I remember with the PS3 emulator, at least on day one, I haven't checked in in a while. I was playing 50 sit, blown on the sand. And it was using like 24 watts of power, which is a huge amount.

That's like basically maxing the thing out. It was like more wattage than I was getting when I was playing Eldon Ring, which I played the entirety of Eldon Ring on my steam deck and had no problem with it. But when you're playing anything else, like even like Dolphin, dolphin was using like 8 watts. And that is very, very good. So I was getting, I get like five hours when I'm playing anything on GameCube. And it's like, okay, this is kind of an incredible GameCube machine.

Like I was not anticipating that. And yet, yet here it is. So when it comes to like what I would change, I think, you know, it is light for what it is. I think I would like you to be a little bit lighter. I have one of the early production models. So I have the good fan in it. Even still, I would like it to be a little bit quieter. But they don't have to do much.

I guess the next one, if it's just like a little bit more streamlined and more powerful and has a slightly better battery life, that's kind of all I really need. This thing is almost, it is my favorite gaming PC of all time, and it's almost perfect. Yeah, like, it's, I, I, this could end up being my,

one of my main platforms, if not maybe my main platform to game on. Like, that's how much I'm enjoying my time with the Steam deck. And, like, even to go back to Tim's, Tim's questions about, like, emulation and, like, quirks and all that stuff, right? Like, I am shocked by how well emulation

is working on this thing. It's not necessarily perfect. Like, there are just weird things here and there that I might just be part of the game, right, in terms of like, I, with Burnout 3, with default controls, like, obviously, PS2 era, X is to go. It's like square to, I guess technically like A to go on my Steam deck, right, X to break, all that stuff, yada, yada, right? I wanted to remap and make it R2 to go, L2 to break, you know, the modern way to play a driving game.

In Burnout 3, L2 naturally is to change the songs playing on the radio station. I remapped it, figured it'd work, and like, it was working at first, and then I realized it like, oh shit, every time I break, I'm changed the radio station. And there's no way for me to unmap change radio station for some reason. Like I can't remap the trigger controls for some reason in the emulated games. Like that's one quirk that's kind of weird.

That's like not a big problem until it becomes a problem. And then like just things here and there in terms of like Emudek isn't perfect and Steam ROM manager isn't perfect. Like I do want to give a big shout out to how it pulls artwork because when you place games into your folder and into your libraries, you then run a script. It then pulls artwork from a database. And the artwork, I think,

it ranges from like official to like fan made artwork and all the artwork is fucking immaculate. It is really good looking artwork for like classic games. Like I'm looking at N64, the Zelda artwork that is like just the sword and it looks fucking cool as hell. It's stuff that they've, the people have been doing for a long time because like I remember years ago when I got my Steam link actually, I set up my all my ROMs in Steam and then I'd be able to just pick them from the Steam menu on my Steam link and it would just stream them over to me and it would have all the art and it would say what game I was playing in Steam. So people would be like how are you playing like chrono trigger on on state?

Right of this before it was on there. And I'm like, oh yeah, no, I just, I feel the ROMs there. But there's like, there's quirks, but there's also like miracles, right? Like when you think about the fact that this is a Linux PC and there are some emulators that don't run on Linux like the WiiU emulator. So that's, you're going to be running a Windows version of that through a translation layer. And this is already something that is emulating a different computer. And it's like we're jumping through so many hoops and it works. It works really well.

It's crazy. Like it works better than like even like certain games like Mario 64 I'd play through Project 64 and there'd be hell of texture is missing like you'd walk into the castle and the rug in the middle is like missing and stuff hate that like there's stuff that I've seen consistently and Project 64 and other emulators that be broken in that way and Steam decks surprisingly like so much of it just much of it just much of it just much of it just much of it's fine. Like there are things like Mario Kart 64 was one of the ones that I tried out where I was like, oh, I don't know what's going on here where like you come in and like all of just all the textures are missing in the menus like the menus just have everything missing and then you get into the race and it's fine. like, you know, there's weird stuff like that. And there's just weird stuff in terms of an amoe that can see Rom Manager, like some artwork that's missing or that pulls the wrong thing. Like, I got You can also set your own if you want at any time.

Yes. Which is like such a great solution because I do want to go back in there and do it. But like Sonic 3 and Knuckles I got for Sega Genesis. And for some reason, the art keeps pulling Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing. And I can't figure out how to get it to read the right thing. Maybe that's just because it doesn't

have Sonic 3 and Knuckles in that way. But like, it's all just weird. one-off quirks compared to like the, again, Jeff Greb says a miracle, and I 100% agree, like the miracle that so much of it works the way it does. And also quick disclaimer that like, you know, I'd mention playing burnout three in these other games. I own these games. And so, you know, if you're going to come at me for breaking the law, I own these games. I, uh, the library of Alexandria gave us the example that these things should belong to everybody, belong to the people. This is just a real quick spiel about this. Um, video games are experiences.

And, uh, you can't, you shouldn't be able to deny people experiences at a certain point. I understand if it's a product on a market. But the day it stops being a product, it becomes a memory. It becomes an experience. It becomes an educational tool. And if you're someone who has even a passing interest in video games, treat the internet as the library of Alexandria. And you are just checking a book out. You're checking a game out.

And you're going to play it. And that experience belongs to you. Just go emulate games. Emulate games, please. I had a real quick question. Just like patents wise. Obviously, we see a lot of. kind of like unofficial mini-pc's being built, and it's always like, it's always something that I see

Bob from the Wolf then on his YouTube channel buying all these weird little handheld, and so does Anthony Carbone. But what would stop a larger, more official company in the likes of like, I don't know, Samsung or an LG? I'm just trying to think of like whoever makes Android phones. What would stop them from trying to make a comparable product? Yeah, I have an answer to this. they are subsidizing such a huge part of the cost of this thing. So there are comparable handheld gaming PCs before this even came out. And they are less powerful.

They use older components and they are twice the cost. They are like $1,100 to $1,300. That I Aeo, something. I was going to get like the win GPD 3 is the most recent one from GPD who's been doing these things for a long time. I was really, I was looking, I was looking $1,000. I'm like, I'll save us some money and I'll get one because I really need to be able to play games this way, even if it's going to run it at like 720, 25 frames per second, 30 frames per second. I still kind of think I want that.

Valve is like, we are going to make the money up by selling you more games on Steam. And I mean, hey, bless, have you bought any games on Steam at a higher rate than what you used to? Right now, yeah. Yeah, I'm buying like, I mean, I usually don't even buy games on Steam. And now I do. Like, that is the difference from me. That's the difference. And we're going to see other companies also try this stuff.

But guess what they're going to do when they, when they put their stuff out, they're probably going to use Steam OS instead of Windows. And then who gets the money? It's still going to go to Valve because they're going to use the Valve. They're going to use the Steam store because they've solved all these issues for them. And it's like, why wouldn't you just instead of putting windows on there, I have to put your own stuff on top of that? You get all those Windows games now. Just use Steam OS. This is their plan all along.

Wow. All right. Moving on from the Steam thing. I want to talk about games in 2023. But before I do that, I'll tell you about our sponsors. Shout up to Maple Story for sponsoring this episode. Are you tired of being judged based on the way you look? Maple Story is too.

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And who the hell knows what's going to happen. But the reason I want to do this topic this week, and I wanted to get Jeff for this because he has all the inside information. and he has an understanding of all this stuff. He's a fortune teller. He's a fortune teller. In the last week, a bunch of games got delayed. We officially got word that Redfall and Starfield are not going to hit 2022.

They are going to hit 2023. And that is adding to a long list of games that we already know had either been planned for 2023 or things like Breath of Wild 2 that also got delayed earlier in the year. Just now we know, 2023 is what we're looking at. I want to start this conversation looking at the rest of 2022 and thinking about what games do we think are remaining to be delayed or pushed. And then looking at 2023 and asking ourselves, is it going to be the best year for video games ever?

Or is it going to be a similar situation we've had in recent times where everything's just going to get delayed again? And it'll be spread out where the games that are getting delayed from this year to next year, sure they'll come out next year but the games that are already planned for next year are just going to get to late even further out so starting with 2022 Jeff what do you think are there going to be any major shakeups left uh I mean we still like the other but the other the other shoe needs to drop right we need to hear about what's happening with god of war and all that stuff right like we still don't know anything that doesn't have a solid release date and even those that do like we saw with starfield

it feels like they are so ripe for the picking to get just pushed in the next year. And like what is happening here is what's happening with everything is just there's not enough talent. There's not enough people to work on these games. And you could try to go hire a contract studio to like work on a very specific thing you need done. Well, they're all busy working on games too. Everyone is maxed out. And you like, I think we saw that Microsoft was going to double its budget for giving people raises across the board. and that definitely applies to games as well.

Like they are looking like, hey, what do we have to do to keep you? That's where they're at. They're just trying to keep their talent around. And so expanding and trying to like build out these teams is not even really an option. So every game seems like it is possibly going to step into next year. I want to believe that God of Wars coming out this year. I think they really, really want to get it out. But then beyond that, like what are the other big games this year?

Like, I mean, need for speed is probably going to come out in November. Are they going to delay that? Maybe, but it's need for speed. It will come out when it comes out. Yeah. Going around the table, as of this moment, does your gut say God of War comes out this year? I say yes. I say yes.

I'm 70-30 on it. I think, like, there's a 70% chance that it doesn't, that it slips into spring next year, but then a 30% chance that it does. God, I hope it doesn't get delayed only because spring is already looking like this past year's spring. I'm going to put my belief in the power of Jesus Christ and I'm going to hope that it comes out this year until Crados beats the crap out of them right and so then Jeff I guess the other big release

that potentially I think a lot of us thought was going to be this year but from things you're saying maybe not Jedi Survivor what the fucks it called Star Wars Jedi Survivor that's right yes yes that was I've been saying that for a while that they wanted to come out this year. And even when I was saying that every time I was like, I keep hearing, they keep telling me it's not going to come out this year. That's coming out in the first quarter of next year.

At least that's the plan right now. They haven't even named it when they said that. That was part of their earnings report where they're like major IP first quarter. And then later they confirmed that the remake was Dead Space. And that's coming to January. So February or March for Jedi, that seems right. But it also seems like, okay, we're starting to really pack up those dates already. But yeah, that game didn't really have much of a chance of ever coming out this year,

just like everything else. So are there any other big games that we're missing here? Like looking at the rest of this year, the 2022, the mega, mega big hitters. I mean, I don't know if we count these as mega, mega big hitters, but there's the, I think the triple threat of Forspoken, Gotham Knights and Saints Row. Like I know we don't put those out. I'd like the God of War level. But I think like all of those are candidates. Saints Row, I would be surprised because they do have that specific date in August. And That one already got delayed. Yeah, like got it delayed out of February into August.

And they've been working on that one for a while. But like between, like, Forspoken also got delayed. But that's one that like, I forget if they put a hard date on it. I think they did put a hard date on all these, actually. But I can see it happening for those, right? Like, I don't think there's any reason why those can't, right? Like, why those wouldn't have a reason to not come together by then.

October 11th. I agree with you on that. Oh, sorry, go ahead. October 11th is Forrestoken currently. Then the other one is Final Fantasy 16. right does that come out this year and I think I'm gonna say that one probably actually they want to get out of this year and probably also ends up slipping the next year is what I think man now I'm coming back I'm coming back to Tim's

question of like will next year be the best year ever and like at first I was like how you said every single year like oh man will that next year have that many bangers and now like going through the list I'm like shit okay maybe there's a chance right I forgot about found Fancy 16 yeah so I mean we're we're saying this of let's just go with the assumption that God of War somehow does come out this year. So sure, 2020, we won't have God of War.

But what it could have potentially, Breath of the Wild 2, Starfield, right? Redfall, Final Fantasy 16, like, continuing going down, like you, I think has a slate for 2023. Like, yeah, let's start there. Spider-Man 3. Do we think it comes out?

Sorry, Spider-Man 2. Does it come out in 2020? I don't think so, but I mean, It's insomniac, so why would I doubt them? I don't know. Should they may drop it in two months, Jeff? Not and Wolverine. Oh, yeah. You know what?

Yeah, sure, that comes out next year. Why not? That would be wild if that came out alongside all those other games. What a year. I hope it comes out. I'm pulling for him because I would, I mean, I love Spider-Man. Those games are so good. I'm going to lean towards no, but that would really break my heart,

because I would just push Wolverine out even further. Like I don't know exactly how the teams are split on this and whether it's like what most studios do where they have a small kind of production crew working on the next thing and a larger crew kind of finishing up the more released or the more finished product, which would be Spider-Man at this point.

But that would absolutely break my heart because I think that that's kind of means like 2025 for Wolverine or something like that. My question is, when was the last time you got a year without a big first party Sony exclusive. Because if our prediction is that God of O'Rack and Rock does come out this fall and Spider-Man 2 ends up getting

delayed next year, right? Then what do we get from Sony? Because it's going to be something. We have to get something. And there's like Lasfuss factions. There's the whole rumor regarding Last First Remake and all that stuff. And it seems like that might be slated for this year. Yeah. Yeah. And like... This year. This year.

The Last First remake this holiday, yes. No shit. Yes. That's really fast. That surprises me. Because so, I mean, you got, you got keep in mind like last of us part two came out a while ago and there's people at that studio that were

looking around for something to do and then that visual arts group was looking at maybe doing maybe kind of taking over uncharted and becoming their own studio and that never really became anything so they're like well we'll do last of us remake and then the people that weren't doing anything at Naughty Dog were like hey we could take this over and

I don't know that that's a pretty efficient well-oiled machine over there at Naughty Dog and they wouldn't have to do too much because that's the whole point is that this is a game that make an update really quickly. So, I mean, think about how frequently those Resident Evil games are coming out. I think it's a similar, very similar thing where that's like we have the bones here. We can build on that.

And so, yeah, this holiday is what we keep hearing. And these are even less bones. I'm pretty confident about that too. These are even less bones to have to update. But I wonder like, what are they doing engine-wise? Like, I don't understand how, because it's obvious that there's a big graphical leap between the Last of Us one and two. Like just lighting and everything else wise.

And I don't know exactly what they're doing to help mitigate all the issues that would happen on the tech side. Like that just seems like kind of a nightmare with everything that they've had going on in part two. I think that they welcome the challenge more than the. But I mean, it's not, I don't think it was going to be too much because it's like they know what the scene needs to be already. And so they're just filling in the technical gaps. And that's the stuff that they're best. that the people that were working on this at naughty dog this is not the people that were like are you know concept in the next game these are the people that have already solved these

problems before uh so yeah uh i think it probably is one of their big holiday games this year i'm just surprised at that with the hbo show because like looking at the witcher and knowing that the netflix show kind of boosted sales of yeah but that but that came out when did the witcher three come out though years and years before that so as long as that thing is relatively fresh and they're on the shelves, it should see a boost when it comes out. And then when the show comes out, another boost. That is their expectations. That is what happened. It's a good point. And I think that was the method. I believe in the report that came out from Bloomberg, what about, like, a little bit over a year ago. I think that was part of the methodology of it was let, like,

yeah, we want to green light this remix so that we can have this shoes going into the last was HBO show and it all worked together. And there's been back and forth regarding, okay, are we going to release this alongside factions? Like, does this fit in? And I forget this was reports or this is like us speculating. but like does it come out alongside a director's cut for last month's part two like i could see it being bundled in pretty much any way in working or getting divvied up in terms of like okay cool remake drops this fall and then part two plus factions part two directors cut plus factions drops next year like i think there's so much that they can do with that and i think i think it paste a good picture of like oh shit we're

going into another year where like next year might be the year of the last of us right if we get it this fall and then get more next year plus the HBO show like that might be a lot of what son has to offer. But I also think it frees up this fall as well, too, in case, like, God of War isn't able to hit. I think if you have a Lastless Project hit this fall and then also have PSVR2 hit this fall, then, like,

the fall might be covered. And it might even be more advisable to hold God of War up until February and let God of War plus whatever other Lasfuss project might hit. Hold down the fort for 2023, which could be crazy for 2020. It's perfect to, like, for this show to kind of help

you know, bring more sales to the franchise and once that comes out the game will obviously sell gangbusters when it releases Last of Us Remake and then the show will help you know, obviously add a big boost into that and what else should they do that for and where else

are they going to capitalize on that? Twisted metal baby. Let's go. Anthony Mackie. Who the fuck wants this? God damn it. It's so stupid. Anthony making it happen. I'm looking forward to the show. I think the show's going to be hilarious. I think it's a fun one. Watch.

We're with the boys and have a drink. He's a funny dude. Like, you know him? Driving a clown car. It's him, Andy. It's him. You know what? You sold me.

Yep. I mean, Anthony. So staying with the zombie remake situation of a big AAA games, Resident Evil 4, right? All sides are pointing to this thing existing. When is it announced and when is it actually released? And I think Capcom is in a interesting place right now where they, I guess, I guess have the summer.

So at any point, they could just drop a showcase during Game Fest somewhere. Right. Or even just during the Summer Game Fest showcase itself. That would be a great place to announce Resident Evil 4. But do we think that that's this year or next year? Because my gut says next. Yeah, I'm kind of with you on the gut feeling of it feels like if they announced Resident Evil 4 at Summer Game Fest and then released it this holiday, I would be like,

whoa, that's happening already. But it's also, it's not out of the realm of possibility. It feels like the right kind of game for Summer Game Fest. This is all just like me, like speaking up to the dome. I don't know if that's the case, but it's like that seems like it would be a good fit. And that some relationship that Jeff Keeley would have and be able to make happen. And yeah, I think it's the kind of game that could. Again, these remakes come out at such a clip that they probably could have it ready.

But I'm not ready to commit to that. I think that there's a good chance. It's one of those things that just doesn't even get talked about until next year. then do you think though we get it next year? Yeah, I think if, I mean, that's not the latest, I think, actually. The latest it would be next year. I don't think it's, that doesn't feel like one of those ones that's going to keep slipping and slipping forever. So man, that's nuts, guys.

So then we start the year guaranteed, well, and there's no guarantees, but Dead Space Remake, right? It has that January date. Let's start there. I'm actually surprised about, like, they announced that in this last week, one of the the pieces of good news in terms of game, not delays, but just like release date announcements, that is sooner than I expected it to be. Do you think it hits it? Did you believe they were originally going to do it in October?

They were originally planning to have that for this October, which of course was never really going to happen, but that was the target. Do you believe January 27th, 2023 can happen for Dead Space remake? I do just based on what I've heard about it. It's like everyone's really happy with it. Everyone's really impressed the way with the way it looks. that doesn't necessarily mean there isn't just something that isn't getting to me in there or there aren't other concerns that won't crop up between now and then but it definitely feels

like one of those games that could make that release date I think they want that game out before the end of the fiscal in March like if it gets delayed it gets delayed to like March it's kind of what I would think because EA doesn't have a lot for this holiday season they do plan to have two big games before the end of the fiscal but which one of those is more likely to get delayed it's going to be Star Wars Jedi Survivor so God damn. I think that Dead Space probably does make it. They do have something big right now, Jeff.

Apex Legends Mobile, Baby. I'm interested to see what that does money-wise, though. Like, legitimately. I feel like that's a really interesting spot for EA to be in mobile-wise. For a franchise, that's been successful for quite some time. You're not wrong, though. That's what they're focused on instead of, like, Battlefield. They're like, hey, it's all about Apex, baby.

That's what makes the money. Right now I'm in a place where I'm like, yo, fuck, Starfield versus Breath of the Wild versus God of War Ragnarok. Like I want the Dead Space remake versus Resident Evil Four remake battles. Versus remake. Yeah, versus Last of Us remake, right? Like those are all games that like have that like core DNA in them that like, you know, ark is back to like the survival horror shit.

Too scary. I'll sit this one out. That's going to be such a great back and forth to see how these games like either success or fail, what they're going for. But also like when we get to the discussion of the end of the end of the year of like best tour or remake, like which one stands supreme. I'm so excited for that. Yeah.

I mean, okay, like taking the go forward, Jeff. I was going to say, do you want me? I have a list of games that as of last year, Microsoft was targeting for 20203. I was, do you want to hear it? Because I can just get it. Let's go. Okay. So these are the games as of around the time of E3 last year.

This is what they expected to have ready by 2023. So a lot of this is going to change. And I guarantee some of them aren't. But here we go. A vowed fable. perfect dark no way ever wild which has definitely been

just blasted off the face of the planet hellblade two contraband which is the one they introduced with steely day last year in exile's next game compulsion's next game and the coalition's next dongears project they wanted it vowed and fable in the same year

they were targeting both for 2020 to be fair they're they're making it rain RPGs like they have more RPGs and they can handle at this point they got to put out multiple big RPGs a year to keep up multiple high fantasy RPGs in the same year? Almost certainly one, if not both, are going to get delayed, though. Like, that's the reality.

So why not target them both for 2020? You know what? Fuck it. Release them on the same day as a little double pack. You know what I mean? Honestly, at this point. $6 or $1.70 for both. We don't know how to do business.

My children are starving. Please help me. Okay. So now that we have that list of games, that obviously some of it is comical, that yes, it'll be way later if it even happens at all. But now we are adding, Redfall and Starfield to the mix, where those games, I believe, are 2023, right?

Like, yeah. Yeah. So with that, I imagine both are first half of 2023. I imagine they're going to want Starfield out, what, February, March? February, March sounds right to me, but who knows? What does that leave Redfall too? Because, again, that was expected summer of this year. And that was the concern I had for it when they announced the delay of both of those games.

you know, Starfield didn't surprise me because if it got, if it got delayed even once past its 11-11, like it was going to get pushed out of this year. Whereas Redfall now is getting with its vague summer release window, right? It's like a good six, seven-month push. So it's like

are they really, did they really need that much time to fix up with whatever Redfall needs fixing up and push it past Starfield's now predicted date? Barrett, that had to have been a typo. I feel like Then saying that Red Ball is due out in the summer, like, you know, that had to have just been an oversight, like some intern typed in the wrong day.

Because that just seems like the most unrealistic thing ever. That's the team that did Prey, right? And like, what big project have they been doing since Prey? Like, they've supported Prey since then, but they haven't, like, worked on a major game since then. And that was... I think this being multiplayer probably throws them for, no pun intended, a loop a little bit. It's a loop of death. But I do think that it is a different kind of undertaking for them where I honestly could see it being delayed past Starfield, where like Starfield gets delayed into, what, let's say like March, April, May, that area.

And Redfall maybe goes into an early beta because I don't think Microsoft has recently had experience with Bleeding Edge, which came out and immediately just fucking died. And I think with something like Redfall, which does have Arcane Austin working on it, right, like a talented studio, a big studio, making this game that I think does have the potential in terms of genre. right because like it's a co-op shooter is like an open co-op shooter it could be like a borderlands right mixed with the arcane sense of design i think there's a lot of promise there that could be cool even though we've not seen much i can see the case for hey let's take our time with this one let's treat it well let's like we've seen uh the way we've had the halo test flights work right like what if we had uh red fall test flights where it is all right cool in january you guys are getting your hands on it for the first time for like a couple weeks let's take feedback let's pull back all right

cool let's come back in march give get more feedback pull back pull pull it back and then release in summer 2023. Like, I think it's one to take your time with. I even wonder how much they're hearing, that's such a great point bless, because I wonder how much they are hearing about that from people not at Arcane or not at Bethesda's

like, like, just straight up people from Xbox being like, hey, Halo Infinite was kind of messy and all that process was not ideal. Please do what you all need to do. Don't rush out anything. Because like, I just feel like they can't make

that mistake again with another large multiplayer title. Well, in 2020, three was always the proving ground for Xbox, right? It was always going to be like, this is why what people are like calling for heads right now this year, like we got to fire this management. It's too early because they never really were intending to prove this model of how Xbox was going to work in 2021 or 2022.

It was always going to be about in 2020, can we hit that one major game per quarter? And will every one of those at least be in the talks for being in people's top tens, not everyone's top tens, but enough people's top tens that they feel like they were worthy of putting this much effort into. And they were never going to do that this year, but they were going to do it next year. And it's like at this point, like, you know, maybe Redfield, at Red Fall and Starfield helps them fill out that calendar so they are able to do that. But that's, they need to get that right. They need to get 2023 right, even more than they needed

to figure out like something for the later, the later half of this year. They have nothing for the rest of this year, which they probably will have maybe at one or two small games. But if they have nothing for the rest of this year. That's one thing. If 2023 is a wash, that's the whole, that's the ball game. It feels like they have to prove it then. And then, you know, like, not to beat a dead horse and get too into this. People that have listened to the show know the argument that I'm about to make to an extent. So I'm going to jump off from there. But it's like, we've been waiting for Xbox to have this forever. Yes. You know, since 20, since the Xbox one was announced, it's like, well, they're getting these acquisitions. They have all this IP that they're working on.

We're past the stage of everything has to be either gears or Halo. And we're getting some new IP. We're getting some new blood in here. And with GamePass being the success that it is at this proven kind of distribution platform more than anything at this point, like they are just kind of getting all their pieces in place to eventually dominate. And then that domination just won't stop. And that'll be similar to like what we saw where PlayStation did the exact same thing during the PS4 generation. And towards the like the beginning of the PS4 life versus the end of it is just, it's completely different things. But now blood born and after bloodborne like yes, yes, those are two different 100% and it's like now PlayStation's just continuing on that momentum and they and even with the pandemic that obviously changed the exact strategy of things the core remain the same where we're going to consistently get PlayStation studio titles you've got to imagine until the end of time at this point because they have that system in place we're going to eventually get that with Xbox and when you look at like the the streaming war side of things of like tv and movies and stuff like Disney Plus right at an HBO Max and um the uh the

Apple TV, like some of the heavier hitter streaming giants out there, they are still trying to figure out like what their cadence of releases look like. And on the Disney side, it's like they have, we're about to for the first time next month, get overlapping Marvel and Star Wars content in the same week. And I'm surprised it's even taken this long. And it's only taken this long because of the pandemic, because things have moved around.

The other side of that story is, though, with all their Star Wars projects and specifically with their Marvel projects, there is an order they have in their mind of marketing and strategy and release, where for the first time ever in Marvel history, they're sitting on essentially finished projects, whether it's TV shows or movies, that they're like, we're just going to sit on this.

And we're moving some things around because it makes more sense marketing-wise. I think we're going to hit that point with a lot of the Xbox games. Oh, 100%. Where I wouldn't be surprised if Redfall is actually done sooner than Starfield or whatever, but they still hold it for a May or August slot

because it just makes more sense for them for the grand Xbox rollout that I truly believe we all. are going to get one day. And I think once we get it, it's not going to let up and it's not going to stop. And I think that them putting out Halo Infinite last year was them not being confident and be like, we got to put something out. We need, we need to put something out. I mean, look at Nintendo as like an alternative. Like it's a, it feels like it's a different world. But I mean, it is because they just treat it so differently. And Nintendo does this all the time now.

In the last few years they've held on to stuff since like Picman 3 Deluxe, which was one they held on two for months and months. And I knew about it and was waiting for them to announce. And I would say it was going to happen. And then it wouldn't have to people like, where is it? And then finally it comes out, it's like, okay, they're doing this new strategy where they just hold on to stuff for quite some time and wait until it makes sense. And I think a lot of that comes down to Nintendo only has so much marketing resources that they're like, just line things up and we will get our marketing resources around to it when we can. So it's a little bit different.

But it also has really benefited them for when they have had to move a game back. They can now move something else forward, which is kind of unheard of. So they move up, which was, which was, you know, like, Zeta Blade moved up. Like, that's that who else could possibly do that? Well, I think you're right that while right now, it seems absurd that Microsoft would be able to do that because what just happened with Halo, but that's almost the exact thing. That's what would have taught them the lesson that getting to that point would be so worth it.

If you would have had something else you could have moved up in Halo's place, you would have waited on that game and it would have been a completely different story. So I think you're absolutely right. So then with that moving to Nintendo, because I feel like Xbox, we can kind of talk about it and assume we will get Redfall, we will get Starfield, maybe we'll get one. one or two of the other games you mentioned in that list, like, perfect dark. Oh, we got to get high.

Helblade. It seems very likely, yes, yeah. Which, for like a quick aside, hellblade two is going to be a banger. Like, we were talking about Hellblade one a little bit earlier on the stream, on the kind of funny stream. And, like, you know, that's a game that didn't come out under the radar because it was like an indie darling, right? It was a hit.

But also, it was like an indie game and one that, you know, was the first in its series and one that, like, a lot of people didn't know about. And so it comes out and it becomes something special for the audience that, loved it. Now it is coming out under Xbox, right? First party. More resources. It looks like is going for it way more. That's a game that I think is going to come out and straight up slap people in the face. And I have people go, oh, what the fuck? This is what this is what this is. Like, I think it has potential to be that and put Ninja Theory on the map more than what we've seen from them prior. And so I think that's one to look out for in terms of like the big game

conversation of 2023. Yeah. So I mean, look at that like that's PlayStation. That's Xbox. I feel like we talked a little about the third party stuff. But then the last big ones Nintendo. And I think going into 2023, we're in such an interesting place where since the launch of the switch back in 2017, like you can look at each of the years and each one has like a defined kind of taste

to it where it's like 2017, obviously bangor after banger, 2018 kind of kept that going. 2019 was a bit more like let's get, let's do the Luigi Mansion 3s get some astral chain, like that type of stuff. And then 2020 was Animal Crossing, that's it. And now 2021, 2021, is kind of like, I think them finding their footing a bit,

but kind of delivering the sequels to, like, the Zedelblades. And it's things like that. And the Fire Emblem spin-offy stuff with Warriors and all that. And Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon, Pokemon. Like, we're just at a point now that we have now Pokemon core games, Pokemon remakes, and Pokemon Legends, whatever that's going to be. So they got all that down. Looking at 2023, Breath of Wild 2, right?

like we do we think that's actually going to hit 2023 it has i say yes yes yes yeah yeah but then what's the rest of the year look like for nintendo and i think that is but big x factor that i i can't even imagine with all the amazing games that we just talked about probably hitting in twenty twenty three guess what there's so many questions we don't know about nintendo for next year where it's like the odd team what have they been working what have they been up to what is was the maria rumors that was up with that third person i mean did i make this up in my head because it's something i made up a third person donkey con game no wasn't that the odyssey team was working on a two d d donkey con game two d that's what it was uh i i mean we'll see if that's if that's the case

it's always possible that they could be doing something uh with like a smaller team or something like that and then mario maria odyssey two is still happening um or or maybe maybe they're going a completely different direction and we're going really doing a donkey con game or something like that. But yeah, I think the real question here is when does the switch follow-up come or a switch pro, I suppose, could still be there as much of a nightmare as that is to talk about. I think by like March 2024, we're getting probably a new switch of some sort, probably a switch two. And then that means, okay, so what does that, what effect does that have on the launch, the release list for games in 2020? I would expect that they would be like, okay, we'll go pretty heavy earlier in the year. And then if anything is like going to get close to the switch tube, we'll just hold it back for that,

except for in very specific circumstances. So that's probably why 2020 is going to be pretty hard to nail down for Nintendo. Hey, Zelda fans, you, you're not a fan of how Breath of the Wild 2 is running? Get this new switch, man. It's going to look real good. You know what? We're not a fan of less. Just what's Zelda launching every generation now, because that's what's happening.

now and it's driving me and it's always cross-generation that's the thing that blows my mind so like that was the thing we talked about like i think a month ago at this point of like there was the latest trailer for breath of wild two and how like people i think it was digital foundry that was like you know that trailer looked too good to be running on a base switch and that leading into speculation of like yeah Nintendo usually does keep with the tech in terms of the trailers they put out are they working on a upgraded version of the switch the switch pro versus switch two conversation is one that yeah it is scary to talk about because people go crazy with it online but And also, in the conversation about a Switch 2 specifically, it's so hard for me to imagine a Switch 2 anytime soon because the Switch is doing so well, right?

And how Nintendo rolls, they like to kind of ride that wave of success. You know, it's why we don't see a new numbered Mario Kart. It's why we're seeing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe D.L.C. Years and years past that game coming out, right? Like, it's why we see them sit with certain things. And Switch seems like one that I could see them doing the same thing in. And, like, not that they can't package the Switch 2 in a way where it feels way more iterative than innovative where it is keeping with the same console family

and backwards compatibility. I think you're going to do that. You think that's what they're going to do? Yeah. I really don't think we're going to get a straight-up just Switch 2. Like, I think no matter what it is, whatever they call it, I think it's going to be more in the family of the Switch

than we've ever seen in previous years from Nintendo. Like, more so even than like the Wii being backwards compatible with like GameCube games. Like I don't think it's going to be backwards compatible. I think it's going to be talked about as if it's a similar family. Yeah, and they mentioned a little bit of this, like, when they were talking around, like, the console transition coming up, and they got misquoted saying they're concerned about that stuff. What they were really saying is, we're going to do what PlayStation's been doing, which is try to keep everyone connected to their Nintendo account through whatever services we have.

And basically, we wouldn't have a lot of continuity from one thing to the next. And the way you could build the most continuity is just say this is basically like an iPhone upgrade. that you know that's a little bit dangerous waters because you know they were there with the nests to the super nintendo and trying to convince parents that you needed to go from the nintendo to the super nintendo but it's a different world and people are used to upgrading their phones every couple of years and so it's going to be what by by march 2024 it'll be seven years um at that point and any point in the future from that point forward uh they could drop a new one and basically just present it however they want and i think the option to do it like a like an ip phone or ipad upgrade is definitely the one they might actually go with. See, like looking back at Nintendo to try to find any pattern for the future is a fool's errand. Like I feel like that's been proven time and time again. But I think that the most similar thing that they've done in the past to what I expect to happen here is the Game Boy color to the Game Boy, where it is still the same thing. It plays all the old ones and it actually enhances a lot of the old ones to have the new fancy upgrades.

But instead of the jump being, oh, it's the old games, but in kind of color now, it's the difference now. it's the difference now of like it actually runs how a video game should run in 2020 to three or whatever it is um but also it does play all the old things but there will be games that are exclusively available on this this new version and that's where i think the modern type of iphone talk that grubbs talking about comes into play where at some point there is the line of like you don't get everything but if you get the new one you get it all yeah and i'm so curiously how how and if they pull it off because i think we've seen it happen with them recently with the with the 3ds and i always forget the name and scheme. I think it was like the new 3DS that only played certain games. It was like what

three games or four games. It was a very small list. It was a very small list in a way that looking back I'm like did you really need to do that was that thing that was. Minecraft only worked on new 3DS right? That's the needle blade chronicles. It added the C stick or whatever right? It added like the the nub the the Nub the C Nub. Love a C Nub. But I do I do think that it'll no matter what that is right, no matter the case being, I do think that that will influence the games that launch alongside it. Because I think whether it's a Switch Pro, Switch 2, the new Switch, I think they are going to want to launch games with it. And I think it's very fascinating thinking about it in terms of when does that that thing hit. Is it at the end of 2023 or is it sometime into 2024?

Because if it's at the end of 2023, does that mean Zelda is then getting pushed towards the end of 2020? Because I think that makes the most sense. Like if I'm Nintendo and we're going to release in 2023 anyway it's like fuck hold it until we lost the new hardware right unless you got maria want to give me my goddamn wind waker and twilight princess ports for the love of quite i think that's this holiday actually the only thing they haven't ported this holiday ported i think everything from the one hundred percent except those are games that those games have been uh done i think for a long time too and i think they just been holding on to them for a rainy day and the rainy day came when they don't yeah when they don't it was like a laid uh yeah yeah i think so but i think this is exactly what the

their whole strategy is, is like, well, we were going to be marketing a breadth of the while too here. We're not going to be doing that anymore. So now we can just have that team work on this Zelda thing instead. And I think that's how they view it. And they wanted to have one Zelda game release per year on the switch. And I'm pretty sure if they don't release something this year, they'll miss that. So it makes sense that. I mean, I always heard it was it was both games for $60, but we'll see.

Do you think it's the same thing for, you know, we've been hearing about Metroid Prime trilogy? Yeah. For five years at this point, I've been hearing rumors about this thing. Right. So that one, that was my fault. My bad, everybody. I heard Metroid Prime coming to the switch, and I just assume they meant trilogy. What was actually happening in there is they were, they have retro remaking slash remastering.

You know, who knows where it falls on that spectrum. But the remake into the first one, just the first one. That is in the works. I think that this is me, this is me speculating. But this November is the 20th anniversary of that game. I think it comes out this November. Jesus, 20 years. I would love that.

Bless, I don't know, maybe you think differently about this, but that's my preferred thing. It's focus on the first game and get it as right as possible, because two and three are fine. They're fine. And so I just want the,

I want the reason and the excuse. And so maybe I'll go ahead and go to my local game store, and then download it on my beautiful text. It's still good on there. I was going to say real quick, do we know, like, how many,

What the switch hardware sales have been since kind of pandemic-ish era. Because I feel like that definitely jump started. I feel like very good. And I feel like that's a large chunk of their sales, obviously, since the pandemic, and since Animal Crossing kind of had its time. And I wonder if that's kind of making Nintendo think about what they do with this hardware. They said this exactly. They said that the way things are going, this is like the middle of the life.

cycle. This was like not the no most recent earnings report, but the one before that. Like we are in the middle of the switch's life cycle instead of like being near the end after fiveish years. And it's because the thing they expected to sell another 20 million consoles in the next year. And you don't, it's very rare that a console gets its successor introduced when you are still planning to ship 20 million consoles. So this is like, you know, a successor at any point. They are definitely working on it. Invidius definitely got like probably a lot of stuff. and they probably do want to hurry Nintendo along in some ways, but Nintendo's going to go at their own pace.

And if they're going to sell another 20 million switches next year, it does seem very unlikely that we're going to get another one right away. But wasn't there a report about some sort of fallout between Nintendo and NVIDIA and something about a chipset, not? Because that's the thing that may be initially worry about the news about the... If they've had any issues, I'm sure that's been... They really do plan to work together for 20 years. It's been five years now, but for the next 15 years,

still they're going to keep working together making stuff it's going to be nVIDia and nintendo that entire time that's that's the reality if i if i had to predict i would predict that this uh that the switch life cycle will be the longest nintendo hardware life cycle like i can i can tell you on my fingers how how long was the game boy 89 to if you're counting gbc which you should oh yeah okay well that's a good call but i do think you know for counting that out it may be i don't know like the switch life cycle is going to be long right like and whether it is a switch two or Switch Pro, yeah, I think it's going to be iterative in a way where they're going to count that alongside what we have currently.

Because, like, the question is why, right? Like, why do you need to make another hardware, a piece of hardware as Nintendo? Because, like, your people are buying the Switch to play Nintendo games. People aren't, like, you know, in terms of, like, power and fidelity and keeping up with all that stuff, like, they've not been keeping up anyway. And why would they start now, right? Like, I can't think of one reason why they would make a Switch to or make a big next step. I could see it maybe internally with, like, you know, when it comes to the dev side of

things of like what they want to be able to pull off and them realistically having a conversation with their their hardware like a team and the people who make those decisions of like hey like we can't keep you can't keep developing yeah we can't keep doing this and you know even in the the Nintendo side of things uh push the way that we push of like how we make games and stuff like stop holding me back but you know yeah no hey I'm right there with you and being a Nintendo fan for as long as I have been I have had to learn that they have to innovate in their game design as opposed to their tech side. And we've had clear examples of that too.

Yeah, like as the words were coming out of my mouth, I immediately thought back to like Majora's mask where they wanted to, you know, quickly come out with a sequel to Ocourine of Time and with their, even with their limitations, like figure out a way to make a game, ship it quickly and all that stuff. And Reggie Fizamay said as much in terms of like,

with big Nintendo franchises, like the idea is like, cool, we need a Zelda, we need a Mario, we need a split two, We need like they think in terms of thinking about the sequelizing of their franchises, right? Like they kind of think about it in terms of like one for console. And we're going to get to the point where it's like, oh, everything has come out for the Switch. And they could start making sequels. But who knows how much that influences console.

That's kind of where I'm out with this is this, the Switch life cycle lasting as long as it has. Like we have hit something that we haven't had on it on the GameCube or the Wii or the Wii, which is. And we've been talking about this forever now. But it's like the Switch is the first time Nintendo didn't. have to make games for a portable system and for a console it's all just been in one pipeline but we're not hitting a point that we're already getting some sequels and stuff in the same generation but we're now having this opening where there's a lot of question marks of what are these different teams working on the team that made odyssey what are they working on the team that made mario cart

what are they working on sure they're doing the dLC stuff that we've seen the amount of effort and work being put into that it is not a full video game what is the team that made smash brothers working on now that Ultimate's done now that there's no DLC for these characters and it's like we're going to start getting the answers to these questions what about the team that did uh links Awakening deluxe yeah yeah yeah like we're these are the questions that have to be answered at some point and i think that we are going to get the answers in 2023 and i think or or 2022 but i think that we'll see the releases in 2023 and that starts to add up really quickly to a ridiculous year for Nintendo for core Nintendo fans.

Then what do you think happens with Mario? Because Mario, we've seen have a game like yearly for the most part, right? At least yearly, if not more. If we're bringing in like side games, right? Like I'm talking about Mario Maker. I'm talking about Mario Strikers coming this year. I'm talking about Super Mario Party coming out last year and all these things. We're going to get Mario games next year.

What Mario games are going to get? I think that's the most interesting question of them all because not only, have we not had a new 3D Mario game since Odyssey. We also haven't had a full 3D world style game since the last one that did have Bowser's Fury, right? But what's that team been working on? But then there's the other X factor that I'm just going to keep talking about so it actually exists. We haven't had a new 2D Mario in, at this point, must be a record amount of time since the last one. Mario Maker doesn't count.

It's not the same thing. That's kind of like a subgenre even within that genre. But like we're gonna get another 2D Mario game. Those games sell way, way too well for them to not do it again. And a Mario team is EPD 8 and they only make Super Mario Captain Toad in the NES remake remix games. So it's like they what have they done since Odyssey? And you know, they obviously did Bowser's Fury. They obviously like worked on that prototype to turn it to something.

But it's like there's still a big question about what do they have next and they probably should have a big real game coming up. They would have known what Bosphory was going to be pretty quickly. So, yeah, I would expect them to have something next year, I think. I guess the big, okay, so the reality is that if Zelda comes out early next year, it's actually not going to be a cross-gen game because it seems like a very small chance that we're going to get that new next-gen switch early next year. So then maybe that does open the opportunity for Mario to be that cross-gen game or maybe just the switch to launch game.

I still think it's unlikely that you work on a Mario game for years and years and you don't sell it to 120, 130 million people that own a Switch. I think it's probably going to happen. But at a certain point, that's like, okay, yeah, cross-gen or not cross-jum, whatever. But like, when does it come out? That could be 2024 before we actually see that. If we get to an E3, let's say E3 2023, Summer Games Master, whatever it is, and it is Nintendo and they show off Switch 2. And then the first trailer they show is Super Mario 128. Like we have a new Mario launch game for the first time and forever and it's like,

well, Metro and dread happened. So who knows, man? What about Metro and Prime 4? It's not real. Yeah, it's not real. I don't think about Metroid Prime 4.

Yeah, I mean, Retro is working on that Metroid Prime 1 remaster. So it's like, they're also doing Metro Prime 4 at the same time. And I'm sure it's like there's a lot of overlap where there's plenty of time for people to work on one and not the other. But, I mean,

that game still does not feel like it's likely, for even 2023. So maybe that's like a first year of the next thing at that, like 2024, the earliest. God, even 2025 sounds more realistic for that game, though. Andy, was that like a no in agreement? Or was that a no in terms of like, oh, God, no. No, no, no.

No, no, no. Like, I, just based on what I've heard and friends of friends that are getting hired and applying for stuff, like 2023 is, like not realistic whatsoever. We may get a new logo. Who knows? We make it a new shot of a cool logo.

New JPEG. Yeah. Man. So how we said all that? Do we think the 2020 could be the best year in video game history? Honestly, yeah.

Like, I think you convinced me. I was, I don't know if I was in agreement at first, but like now that we've gone through all the doctor strange possibilities of shit that can come out, I'm like, yeah,

next year is going to be jam-packed in games. The shit actually hits and doesn't get moved to 2024, which at this point, point would be crazy if a lot of these games that we've been seeing for years and years and years end up getting moved to 2024. But yeah, like I think it's going to be a banger. I think the fact that it's likely going to be. I was going to say that I think just putting the sequel to one of my fair games of all time, like God of War II being there along with Breath of the Wild to another sequel to one of the best games of all time. I think those two

alone can do it. I think everything else can be sort of those ancillary kind of, yeah, those strengthen that year as well, but those are like the two main things that I look at. Oh, Starfield, I'd say also. Like, there was Starfield in there as something that could be a larger than life kind of release that people point to as like a place in time and like, where were you when Skyroom release? Where were you in Starfield release? Dude, jump in off that real quick.

I know we're going a little long on this, but like I want to say this, has there ever been a year in recent console wars that Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft all. all had their fucking bangers come out. Because we got close in 2017, right? With God of War. Sorry, 2018. But wait. No, even then.

It would combine 2017 to 2018. Yeah. Like 2017 was the closest between Breath of the Wild and Horizon. Yeah. So this would be insane. If Starfield, God of War, and Breath of Wild 2 are all in the same year, it's like, that already is unprecedented to go back to like the PS2 game. cube Xbox days.

Yeah. That's wild. That's exciting. And those answer to the titles are the ones that like fill out the year though, right? They're the ones that make it feel like, uh, like yeah, like the big game of the year stuff came out. But then I'm going to number 10, number 15 on my game of the like game of the year list.

And these games are games that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. Like, and I think this like 20, actually looks like it might be that kind of year because of stuff like, uh, what we're like Dead Space remake. And, uh, and if we get, um, uh, like red fall of that put pants out. and like Spider-Man 2 where like you're mentioning like games that might be like

big bangers and Spider-Man 2 comes up like fifth or six like that's a big big big year yeah any final thoughts there are a lot there are a lot of games that we didn't even talk about

they're like gonna be fucking bangers like Callisto Protocol like the Talesman of Orleans 2 I assume is probably gonna get delayed till next year I forget if that's later for this year or not but like that wolf among us right like um

I'll wake 2 god damn yeah There's that game from Game Wars that looked really cool called Arc Raiders that I think is slated for this year, but that'll probably get delayed. There's a lot of... Gunbrella, bro. Gunbrella, baby. Oh, my God. The books.

I mean, you know, the craziest thing. Last thing I'll say, we're closing out the show here, but like, where are all the FromSoft games? There has to be something, right? It has to be something in 20-23. If we get fucking, what's the big Mac game? No. No. No.

Arbor core. Armored core. You went on Hurt souls? that'll change the world. Well, let us know in the comments below what you think about 2023's gaming potential. We're about to do the amazing post show

exclusively for patreon.com slash kind of funny game supporters. But until next time, Jeff Grubb, where can people find you? Yeah, you can find me on the internet. I tweet too much on at Jeff Grub. That seems to be where most people find me. But if you want to have a little bit more of like a closer relationship, just join the Discord.

It's game mess.net. That'll get you right into the Discord. Love it. Absolutely love it. Thank you so much for joining us. You are. Thank you guys for having me. Fantastic person to talk to you.

You're the coolest dude in the entire world. I love it. Round of applause for Jeff Grubb, everybody. Yeah. Until next time, love you all. Bye. Thanks, guys.