Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Pitching The Rest of Xbox's Lifecycle - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 31, 2025

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Yo, what the heck is going on? Welcome back to another episode of the Kind of Funny Xcast. You're home for all things Xbox here at Kind of Funny. Of course, I'm one of your show hosts, Snowbike Mike, and today I am joined by both of my gaming dads, Mr. Parris, Lily, and Gary Witta, of course, for you watching and tuning in, whether you're listening or watching over on YouTube and podcast services. This is the kind of funny games cast for your Friday, January 31st, 2025. but we are taking over with a whole lot of grain and a whole lot of smiles on this fun Xcast themed games cast.

So let's go down the room. Gary, welcome back. I feel like in one of those dreams where you find out years later, there's like one test that you didn't take and you've got to go back to school. This is the final, Gary. This is all, God, I'm back.

Why am I back here? No, this is good. It's always good to be with you guys. Just a little bit weird, right? Because Xcast has been done and dusted for a while. And yet we're back in this kind of like pseudo. So it's the X-Cast, but it isn't the X-Cast, right? It's something else, but it's the same.

We're back to talk all things Xbox, and it's pretty exciting of we started the X-Cast. You, me, and Alana, of course, Paris joined as well, but we started it before the life cycle of the brand-new console. This episode will actually be kind of forecasting and looking towards the end of the life cycle of the Xbox series X and S. So kind of a wild one right there. Yeah, I mean, to me, I will get into it,

but like I almost feels a little pre-examble. I'm mature to be talking about the end. I feel like we're mid-cycle. I don't know if it feels like we're kind of like running down towards the X-1 yet. You know, like the Switch, obviously, we've been there for a while. Like we all have been waiting for the Switch too. That's now been announced. But PlayStation just put out a pro, like a mid-cycle console.

You know, Xbox have added some refreshes. But I don't know. I kind of feel like how long has the Xbox been out now? Well, you save that. It's for 2020. Right. And of 2020. And I feel like these cycles generally last around 8, 10 years now.

So I don't feel like, necessarily like in the home stretch yet, but maybe I'm wrong. That'll be the fun part of the conversation. We'll talk about console, but we'll talk about the games that are coming your way, most importantly. But of course, we have to welcome in our other gaming dad. He's in remote. It's my main man, Paris, Lily.

Hi, Paris. How are you? I'm good, man. I am still recovering from probably the worst sinus infection I've ever had. So if I look all weird, one of my eyes looks like it's half closed, that's why. But I do want to comment on a couple things. So to what you're just talking about, Gary. I just feel like Xbox is literally starting to actually hit their stride.

Like it's so funny, we did that Phil interview back in 23, and he kind of talked about, he obviously could see the roadmap and knew what was coming, but they had to deliver. I feel like we're at that place now. Now I think everything that he has said that Matt Booty has said about we want to deliver these big games a quarter, we're here. This is it. They're starting to do that. But I do want to circle back to Xcast for a second, Tim, since you canceled it.

I just want to point out that I'm at summer game fest. I see people wearing X-Cass shirts coming up to me telling me how much you like X-Cass, right? I go to Pax West, people on the escalator, X-Cass shirts telling me how much they like X-Cast. I go to the freaking Bucks and Chargers game at SoFi. Dude runs me down and says how much he loves X-Cast in there, right? I'm at WWRWA Netflix, the debut in L.A. dude's yelling at me from the down big kind of funny best friend he goes dude i mix ex-cast tell tim to bring it back tim what are you doing i'm just i'm just saying we're a popular show people people want to x-cast

i'm just thinking like why it just never happened to me and then i realize because i never fucking go anyway well you're here now and we're back together and that's what's exciting about this is today we're going to kind of look at the future of xbox here with the remainder of this life cycle for the Xbox Series X and S. We're going to be talking about games. We'll be talking about hardware. And we're just going to be kind of reliving the past a little bit because it's been a while since we've had Gary on kind of funny content.

I want to catch up with him. We know Paris. He's been hell diving. He's been working hard. I know Paris over there has been kicking on the YouTube channel, making it look really good with a nice wave to blow up on the YouTube channel. He's been live streaming. So we're going to have a nice little quick, you know, what Mike's gaming dad's been up to

right after I tell you all about the kind of funny games cast. because of course this is the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every weekday. We get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in the video game world live on YouTube, Twitch, and of course on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please consider supporting us with the Kind of Funny membership

available on Patreon YouTube to get all of our shows ad-free live as we record them and of course get your daily exclusive show, Gregway, which today I'm taking over the Gregway. And so I'll let you know what that topic is later. today. Of course, don't forget, we're now available on Spotify and Apple Podcast so you can go support that as well. For a chance to be part of the show, don't forget

to submit your questions, comments, concerns, and just love for Gary Witta via YouTube Super Chats as we go. Yeah, do some super chats about how good I am. Some housekeeping for you. Of course, you already had a great kind of funny games daily with Gary and Blessing. A lot of fun conversations

over there, a lot of big video game news. And then after this, you'll have Kind of Funny Game Showdown, which is a very special episode, Gary, you're taking over. I'm not taken over, but I'm doing a special guest round. I like that. I love that. And then, of course, after that, we will have a big fun marathon live stream.

Tim and Andy will be playing through Star Wars Episode 1 Power Battles live on stream. So tune into that. We'll be rocking all day throughout your Friday so you can come in, hang out with us anytime, jump in, jump out, and have a good time. Don't forget if you're a kind of funny member, you will get today's Gregway,

which is all about me. And I'll talk about my feelings, my thoughts. I don't know. We'll figure it out as we go in the fun day of content. And then after that, you will get no more content because that's the end of the week. But you'll be back next week for even more fun, awesome content. Of course, thank you to our Patreon producers, those who love to support us at that tier. Thank you to Delaney Twining and Carl Jacobs. Thank you for your support.

Today we are brought to you by Better Help and Built Rewards, but I'll tell you all about that later. Let's kick off the show, but not the topic of the show quite yet. Let's just do a quick roundtable. let's check in with my gaming dance. Paris Lille, you've been upgrading the YouTube look, and it looks great. You've been going live, you've been answering questions, you've been talking to the gaming audience. How has that been going for you?

And where can people watch that? It's been fun. Don't ask me where you can find it. I don't know my own URL. And search my name. That's how you find it. I mean, you know, I've had that YouTube channel for a while. We obviously joke about it.

But, you know, I've slowly but surely just been doing some of my own solo content as far as reviews go. and, you know, there's the live stream aspect to it as well. And I was just messing around with it this week because, you know, I've been sick and just like, hey, what the heck. I'll just jump on and talk about it. Because obviously there was a lot of questions about that Phil Spencer interview. I did with Danny at Gamer Tag Radio.

So I kind of just clarified some of those questions. And then Xbox keeps dropping news. So I just figured I'd hop on and talk about that as well. And it's just been fun interacting with people. And then I had a very kind soul, Tucker, reach out to me. He was like, dude, your YouTube channel sucks. let me help you make it look better. So I gladly accepted his help.

And, you know, upgrading a little bit. We'll see where it goes. It's just something fun to do. But I'll continue to put some content on there. And, you know, it'll just be a nice little fun side project for me to do. He's got some great content on there, Gary. I don't know if you've seen. But of course, he's going live stream.

He also went out to Compulsion Games to check out South Midnight, which is very excited about that game. Yeah. InVidia, new graphics card. Paris Lily has been talking about it at CES. So it's like, if you're looking for the high, hottest tech stuff you want to talk? I have not been able to procure a 5090 because despite being the editor-in-chief of the biggest PC games magazine in the world for, you know, several

years. Yeah. I don't have enough juice to get a 50-90. You don't got the juice? No, I couldn't get it. Man, does he have the juice you think? Couldn't get one. I had, I had Adam up at six o'clock in the morning trying to get one for me and he fucking failed. He failed to deliver for me. He couldn't get me one. I would show you my 50-90, but it's on the PC that I'm using to talk to you right now. It's like it's really, it's really annoying. Can't get one. They can't get one. No.

Stuck with my 40-90. Oh, yeah? It's like playing games on a fucking Sega Master System. What are we doing at this point? I can't even look at it. It makes me physically sick to look at that piece of shit. Let's talk about you, Gary. Of course, it's always awesome to see Paris moving and shaking.

But you, of course, are always working hard. You're doing a lot of cool things in Hollywood, but you're also gaming. What have you been up to lately? I'm always working hard, just not seeing any fucking results. By pushing a fucking boulder uphill. Can you share anything with us? Last year was terrible because of the strike and the contraction and everything else. It just, the business just sucks right now.

It's really hard to get anything done. I'm, you know, working on a number of projects that I'm excited about. But it's hard to be optimistic in this business because it's so fucking shit right now. Yeah. How about some fun stuff like an animal talking or maybe hell divers leading a new crew into that, you know, war zone out there? You have fun with any of that? I mean, I continue to play hell divers. I've actually kind of stepped away from it a little bit because I'm really trying to make an effort to be to play more.

games. I can't really just play Helldivers all the time. I've got to play other games. So I've been messing around with some stuff, messing around with, we've talked about dynasty warriors before the show, really enjoying that. Tokyo Extreme Racer, enjoying that. I think me and the fam are going to start Animal, Hello Kitty Island Adventures. Great one now on council. This weekend. Yeah, looking forward to trying that on the switch. And yeah, I want, I was showing this thing, Halfsword. I wanted, it looks like a lot of fun. And you were showing me the headliners. That looks good.

there's a bunch of games out there. I've just got to, I'm deliberately kind of, until the next war bond comes out, I'm going to take a little break because there's literally nothing left for me to achieve in that game. I'm maxed out on everything.

So now's a good time for me to like try and play some other games. I like that. Yeah. Well, of course, Paris, I want to give Gary some recommendations, you and I. Let's throw a couple out of them

if you have some good games that Gary should try because I want to thank Gary. Paris, I don't know if you heard, but I played Half Life for the first ever time. And I reached out to Gary beforehand and I said, should I play the original or should I play Black Mesa, the fan-made remake? And Gary said, you know what, Mike?

Go jump into Black Mesa. It's very good. It will do the job. And I had a blast, Gary. What a great game. Learned about Gordon Freeman, jumped in the suit. Is the crowbar a top 10 starting weapon of all time? I mean, I have to talk about it.

I'm absolutely iconic that crowbar. It was really good, though, Gary. And yeah, my recommendation would be Dynasty Warriors right now. I am loving Dynasty Warriors. I'm just bummed out that there's no co-op. Yeah, it's, you know, when I think of Dynastew Wars, I think of single player, but yes, it does seem like it could be a fun,

really great shared experience. I'm sure there's reasons why it's not a great idea, but as I was playing it, I was thinking, like, there's an MPC buddy that you've got there most of the time, right? He's like, he's helping me, like, why can't that be another player? I don't know, but I'm really enjoying it, though. It was something where, you know, I didn't know it was coming.

I fired up steam one day, and it was like, you know, the main thing because they were primarily, it just come out. It said, overwhelmingly positive reviews. Like, oh, shit, I remember Dennis Dewarries from back in the day. like, what's this? I just grabbed it. And like five minutes on, I'm like, holy shit, this is fucking great. Fucking people flying, like slashing your way to literally hundreds of people at a time with your sword.

And, you know, it just felt very, you know, felt like a badass in that game. Awesome combos. I love getting in the mix of hundreds of people around me. I'm swinging the sword and throwing them all up in the air. And then I love the one-on-one. Kind of like, oh, there's the other general. And I'm going to play one-on-one with them. And I can block.

I can parry. I can dodge. And it feels kind of like that intense. kind of dark, salty action. A really good looking game, too. Yeah, I like that. It looks great. I love it.

Parrish, do you have a recommendation for Gary to check out before we jump in the topic of the show? So speaking of Half-Life, Gary, are you a fan of Portal? Yes. Give it to them. There's a mod that came. I didn't find out about it to recently. It came out a year ago called Portal. Portal Revolution.

It's a mod for Portal 2. It's almost like a prequel to Portal 2. Okay. It's fantastic. Some amazing fun puzzles. And there are stories actually pretty decent. It's a lot of fun. If you love Portal 2, love Portal 2, love Portal.

Love Portal, definitely go check that. It's a free mod. You can get right on Steam. Portal 2. What a fucking amazing game. Yeah, amazing game. You said you never played Half Life. Tell me at least you've played Portal.

I've played Portal 2. Okay. Never played Portal 1, but I've played Portal 2. They actually did a very nice RtX glow up for the first Paul. You should go back and fly that. Yeah, they did. Looks really good. They're doing one for Half Life 2 as well.

I know I'm like, how long can I hold my, I want to play Half Life 2 because I'm riding the high now. Oh, yeah. And it's like, how long do I hold until the RTSX? If they're doing a remaster. would wait. It's come. I'm pretty sure it's coming soon. Play the portal remaster in the meantime. Yeah, do that. And then they had the RTX remake for Half Like 2 at Gamescom. It was playable. And I'm assuming now that these 55,000 series cards are out, it's probably going to come soon. I would imagine first half of this year. It's going to be available. Yeah. I like that.

Final one for you, Gary, before we go, sniper elite resistance. Another sniper elite. Jumping into the franchise on Game Pass. Gary, I love. I love. these sniper I fucking love it, man, shooting those Nazis in the testicles and getting the x-ray view going right through. It never gets old. You can, this game could be the exact same 20 years from now.

Just give me fun new sandboxes to jump around and try to find different vantage points. You know how you get those different x-ray kills, right? And like, you can, you can quit out of any of them. I never do. Never. Even when it's the 500th time of watching like, you know, a bullet go through like a Nazi's, you know,

ball sack. I'm like, oh, I'm fucking watching it every single time. can't get enough of it. Can't get enough. Paris, Gary, are we ready to jump into topic of the show? Let's jump in to topic of the show. Touch, touch, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, today, uh, following up, of course, our friends here at the kind of funny games cast,

the PlayStation crew did predicting the future of the remainder of the life cycle for the PlayStation 5. And we're going to do something similar here for the Xbox side of things. We're going to look at the Xbox series X and S. Look at the life cycle that has been since 2020. and we'll go on for a couple more years. We'll talk about the console life cycle. I would prefer on the back half because I want to celebrate the games. Because as Paris said, you can really see that Xbox right now on the game side is about

to fire on all cylinders. It feels like they are really revving up the engine, nailing a lot of great games. And this year in particular looks like the year where it's getting really, really exciting of like this could be the vision that they've talked about, nailing down a bunch of, you know, Xbox first party titles that are coming everywhere and they're going to be a lot of fun to play. So, yeah, Paris, I kind of want to talk with you and Gary about what are some of the games that we look at

in the next three to four years that we think are going to drop and are really excited to look forward to. I can think on one right off the top of my head. Late Army. Gears of War II. Gary, are you excited for Gears of Warrior Day? Yeah, kind. I think I've said before that Gears has never really, like,

crack that ultimate top tier of like, you know, what I consider to be, I think in most, I may have been outlier. In most people of minds, they would go like, yeah, Halo gears, forts are all kind of on the same level. I don't know about gears. I love gears. The first, the first three, I absolutely loved them. I kind of fell off a little bit after that.

But I think this would be a good opportunity for me to, I did play a little bit of gears five. This could be a good opportunity, though, to like, you know, I like that they're going back and doing, I guess, are they doing the origin when they say E-Day? Are they doing the origin story? Yes, this is an emergency. Want to see it. Okay. Okay.

Yeah, that's cool. So I think that, you know, that's a, that's a, that's a, you know, something, something a little bit different. I think, I think this is going to be a big one. It's, you know, they, Xbox has these, these boxes they have to tick, right? Xbox, sorry, Halo Forza, gears. Maybe one or two at most, but those are the, those, I feel like I consider like the triumvir of, like, the big Xbox franchises. And, uh, yeah. I mean, I'm optimistic about it.

When Gears of War is cooking, it's fucking great, right? Paris, give me the hype on, of course, the coalition working on this and looking forward to Gears Ede. Do you think it's this year? And what are you excited for out of this story and more? You know, it's so funny. And I'm going to give you my conspiracy theory. I've heard, keep hearing a lot of whispers about it coming this year. I've never thought that because even going back to the showcase last year, when I got a chance to talk to the coalition, just it didn't seem it was like,

it was imminent. I mean, I know people can fly has come in now and they're helping them as well, but I never thought this year, especially since Fable is supposed to be this year, allegedly I drafted it, right? So I'm thinking they're not going to put Fable and gears out the same year. But here's what I do think. I think it is 2026. That's the 20 year anniversary of Gears of War makes a lot of sense. Kind of the synergy of doing an emergency day 20 years later just makes a lot of sense. But the fabled Gears of War collection. is this year. And I think

with Xbox's new approach to multi-platform, it makes a lot of sense. Let's get the gears collection out to everybody, PlayStation, Switch, if it can be run on that

at Xbox PC, get everybody up to date on Gears of War, get everybody excited about Gears of War. Then next year we hit you with E-Day, everybody's hyped to go play it.

You didn't just say that it's the 20th anniversary next year, right, Paris? Yeah, 2006. fucking Christ. And here's how old I am. I was at that a launch event in Hollywood.

I was 11 years old. Oh my God. I mean, I was at that one as well. I got that Xbox 360 faceplate that ended up being a lot worth a lot of money. I sold it to someone in the end. Shout to those faceplants. Pairs, I like where you're getting at, right?

For me, I'm very excited about Gears E-Day. I think we've really seen the coalition in particular with the Xbox. game studios pushing the boundaries of what could be on the box and how good it can look, how well it can run. And I love the idea of taking it back to square one. Let's go back to Eday. Let's get new players like maybe a Gary who's kind of laps and wants something new and fresh

to jump into. But for me, Paris, I'm looking for that multiplayer experience. Do we think that horde mode multiplayer will be in this? We see so many people talking about live service games and a lot of people being kind of want to push away from that. do we still see gears as a hey this is a full product you're going to get single player you're going to get multiplayer suites as well

I'm really on the fence about that one I don't know I guess you can't imagine a Gears of War coming out without multiplayer so I'm going to lean towards yes you do but at the same time it would shock me if E-Day is just a standalone story for them and they consider it we're going to tell you the story of E-Day we're going to tell you the story of of Marcus and Dom, right?

Meeting and all that original origin of that. And then gear six, whenever that is, that's when we'll bring multiplayer back and all that. That's the true next evolution of whatever gears of war multiplayer is going to be. So I don't know. I mean,

especially if this collection turns out to be real, you got to imagine multiplayer is going to be a part of that. So I don't know. It won't shock me either way. I'll say that. I was kind of a cop out, but I can see it going either way. Yeah.

I mean, isn't Eday Gear 6 in all but name? I mean, this is not like a little Mars Morales side project, but this is a full-on game. Yeah, it's not six. No, I asked them. I asked them last year. They said this is not Gears of War 6. I still think, though, it would be very, I mean, I don't, in this day and age, it'd it'd be very strange to release a game that is just a single player, especially coming

of the heritage of a franchise that is known for having, like, robust multiplayer, like, regular multiplayer is good, hoard mode is one of its banner features. to not have that purely from a commercial point of view, how are they going to monetize the back end of this game without any kind of multiplayer, like selling skins and stuff? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I think, when I think Gears of War, I think of the total package.

A call of duty, single player, multiplayer, all in one, it's got to be there. And I'm excited, right, when I think about going back in time with gears, what are the maps going to be, where are we going to put that? I mean, multiplayer's always been so big there, so much fun. And so I really hope that we get the best of the best. A major mess of it, if it's not the full sweet. of single and multiplayer options.

Because if I'm not mistaken, Judgment Day didn't have multiplayer. I believe that, yeah, I believe you're right on that one. So they have done it before. So it is possible. Yeah, I mean, it's just kind of my thing. It's possible. Like I said, I just think it would be disappointing

if they didn't have that. Because that's one of the things I'm looking for. It's like, yeah, story campaign, great, but I'm also looking for that hoard mode. The live chat says there was multiplayer for judgments. Thank you on that. Oh, there was. Okay.

Okay. So let's jump into this year, Paris, because you talked about could gears hit this year. You don't think it will hit this year. Maybe Fable, right? So we have a really good roadmap of the first six months. And guys, you know, over the lifespan of the X-Cast, with this new Xbox series X and S lifecycle, we've really talked about that first half of the year, not hitting well. And this year for 2025, they have really brought out all the stops here for the games to kind of get you going, but we don't know the back half. So I want to talk about the first half, of

course. We have Ninja Guideon 2, Black. We know Ninja Guideon 4. coming out with Xbox Game Pass as well. That's a nice partnership with that. You have a vowed. You have South of Midnight in April. You have Doom the Dark Ages in May. And then we look at that second half. The Outer Worlds two.

Fable, Gears. Perfect Dark. Let's talk about Fable for a second, Paris and Gary. Gary, do you think Fable comes out this year from playground games? If I have to guess right now, no. No. I think it comes out this year. Too big?

I mean, I'm just giving you my gut. Yeah. My gut says no. Paris, playground games, we talk about... I drafted it better. You drafted this. You think about it. Do you...

Because they need a fall title here. They need that end of the year. What's their holiday? Fall title. Yeah. And is that a fable? Is Outer Worlds 2 big enough to bolster your second half of a... What could be a great year?

Or is it maybe Geer Z-Day? But see, that's what I'll go back to is Outer Worlds 2 isn't big enough to be this is I mean look call of duty is is a constant so that almost doesn't count in my opinion so I feel like outer worlds two isn't a big holiday game for them I mean you could argue last year they had what flight sims starker two Indiana Jones if gears were to come this year gear Z day then okay yeah that would be big enough to be your holiday game but if that's not coming then what is it fable is dated for 2025 so that's why I'm kind of holding on to that if you think about it is the last game that we saw in 2020 that hasn't been released yet from the original reveal

it's time i mean it's time unless it's just legitimately delayed it for a minute even before yeah exactly yeah so unless you know obviously if it needs more time it needs more time don't want to rush it but if it's ready if playground games has it ready i'm i'm thinking this is their big game like i would imagine this is the big dev direct after the june showcase would be this where we get the full long reveal of fable, they show it all off, and then we get a date on when it's coming out, which I would imagine would be like October, November timeframe, something like that. Fingers crossed, obviously. I wanted to come this year, but to Gary's point, I do have a small thought in the back of

my head that it could get delayed. Maybe Grant F. V. V.O.6 has something to do with that. I don't know, but we'll see. But I'm still holding out that it's 2025. That's a big one for me, Paris. And of course, Gary, this is where I want to get you in us. you've been around the industry for a long time you've seen now the power of GTA is GTA so big that a title like

Fable that would round out your first party studio lineup so big that you would move away from it. Absolutely yes. If I had Fable on the schedule for say October, if I was Phil Spencer and I knew the game's going to be ready, we can ship it in October and then Rockstar comes out and says GTA 6 October

I ain't fucking shipping Fable in October. Seriously, get out of the way. Get out of the way. Because GTA 6 is just going to eat up all the oxygen in the room. It's going to crush everything. Why would you send your game out to die against a juggernaut like that? Is that a get out of the way for the month, for the whole quarter, the end of the year? How big is get out of the way?

I would probably not, again, what do I know? I'm not fucking Phil Spencer. But if I, again, if I, if Fable 2 was ready to ship in October, let's say we're in July, we know we can ship it in October. And then GTA says October, I probably would hold every, like every company that has like major games scheduled for around that window, I would probably move it into early next year. Parrish, do you agree with that? Gary's not wrong.

I mean, I could see that scenario happening. And then we're also kind of forgetting Ninja Guide and Four is going to be a big holiday game as well. I mean, you know, it's going to be on all platforms, obviously. But, I mean, I could see it. I could see it. But the fact that they were confident enough last year to date it at 2025, they knew Grand The F Auto 6 was a reality last year and you said 2025.

So I think it would lean more towards the games just simply not ready versus them trying to avoid GTA 6. I think there is a window in Q4 where both games could live. And again, Call of Duty, we know that's going to get slotted late October, early November, regardless of whenever Grand The F Auto 6 comes out. I think GTA6 isn't a category of one though. Like it's the only game, it's the only game where it's release, once that release, date is announced, other companies are going to change their, this is guaranteed. We're honest of what

it actually looks like. Once the GTA6 release date is confirmed, other companies will adjust their plans around it. You'd be foolish not to. Be wild to see that, yeah. It's going to be fun to see in person. And at one point this year, they'll say eventually 2026, and a lot of companies will a sigh of relief a little bit. You talk about Ninja Guide in 4

to round out this year, of course, the Outer Worlds 2 from Obsidian. We know that they're dropping a vowed, right around the corner here in February. If you're listening to this, you've got about two weeks away, three weeks away, so you're in the window. But do we think that Outer Worlds 2

will come out this year as well? I don't know. Yes, I do. Wow. I'm just going to, I always say, if I don't know what I'm talking about just to the mouth shut.

I don't know anything about where they are in development. I've got no idea where they are on that one. Parrish, you think that they're going to be able to push out two RPGs this year. Pretty wild to think about. It's obsidian. I mean, It wouldn't shock me because you also have to remember,

Outer Worlds 2 is going to be a shorter experience when it comes to an RPG if you go by what the first Outer Worlds was. So it wouldn't surprise me that because remember, A Vowd originally was supposed to come out last year. So that got delayed because they were trying to, to Gary's point, they were trying to get out of the way all the other stuff that was coming out last holiday because Assassin's Creed was supposed to come out last holiday, right? So that's why they pushed a vow to next month. So it could have been a thing of the original,

plan always was avowed in 2024, Outer Worlds 2 late 2025, mid to late 2025. I think it is what it is at this point. Let's just go ahead and get it out because the game's going to be ready to go. So I'm pretty confident in this. I really do think we'll get Outer Worlds too this year. That's exciting. Two games and one year from the team, that's pretty fun stuff right there. I know Outer Worlds is a very good game, very well liked.

Was it a big commercial success? I guess it must have been to the extent that they were able to make a case for making a sequel, but I don't remember it like setting the world on fire. I remember it being critically very well-liked, but I don't know if commercially it was a big, huge hair. Yeah, yeah, I'm not sure sales-wise, but to your point, it must have did well enough that they couldn't let another one. Yeah.

Of course, you know, we kind of take for granted call of duty, which you brought up Paris and Gary, you know, you always have the call of duties here. You do have the Xbox first party live service games that are continuing to thrive and do well. You'll probably see updates from ESO. You'll have updates on World of Warcraft, of course, see if thieves. So you can always count on those to kind of fill in. and some of more of your downtime to boost players up.

And seeing Sea of Thieves go to other platforms has really been great for that team and kept the player base up and excited. So, yeah, I'm sure that ESO, World Warcraft, our normal call of duty yearly will all kind of wound out the year. Is there definitely a call of duty this year? I mean, I know there is every, I ask that only because I know that Phil was making some noises about getting off that yearly treadmill, right? And maybe doing them only like once every two years, but there's probably

Paris, do you think that could truly happen? development already grandfathered in that they have one this year. After seeing those financial results the other day, they think they'll put up called good this year. That's money. I don't ever see us getting off the hamster wheel of Call of Duty yearly. I think that would be a wild move. There's too much money to be made.

So much money to be made. The excitement. I think it's just that perfect game of you buy it in October. You get excited through January. You get a little content update, gets you through the summer. You start saying, I'm bored of this game. I want something new. they hit you again next October.

It is just the perfect endless cycle. And this last one was a hit, right? It was Blackop Six very well liked. So the vibes are back on. Vives are on, but they're still off. A lot of people don't like right now where the game is currently at kind of bug and cheater and hacker-wise. There's a big issue with that one of, yeah,

the game was very good and well-received. But now months later, we do have an issue of the lifespan of this title right now for the player's perspective. And we don't know anything about what this. this new one is, like Mon Warfare 4 or something back to, you know, World War II. Like, you never know, when it's not, if it's not Black Ops, you know, you don't quite know what it's going to be, right? No official yet. We've heard, I think, rumors of like a possible more call of duty black ops, but not quite sure. Nothing official has come out of where this will be and what it will be. I want to see him do something

that isn't like one of the strands that we already know they do, right? We know they do modern warfare. We know they do Black Ops. We know they like to do World War II. They've revisited that a few times now. I don't know. Let's see something else. Now, of course, very exciting stuff. Possibility for Call of Duty Warzone here in the spring for dance to come back. Okay. That gives you a nice shot in the arm, a lot of excitement, of course. Call of Duty Warzone is not in a good spot right now.

It's not. For the players, I mean, I think that if we were a business side, it's probably just fine. It's probably still making money. There's a large active player base. From a player's side, it is not in a good spot where you want to actively play and spend your time. and it is not fun. It is really, really tough. But the exciting time is for the players,

if for Dan's kids to come out, I think that's going to get a big boost. We'll complain that there's still cheaters and hackers left and right, and the game doesn't run as well as we wanted to, but we're still going to go back and get excited for it. So that will be your win there. We have a super chat coming in from all the skills, right, Tim, with the $5 super chat and says,

avowed getting 60 hours out of me, outer world's probably 40, let's go. I'm playing everything they drop. and also shout out to South of Midnight and Doom two games that we didn't really talk about because they're kind of already announced we know there this year, but they had a great showcasing in the developer direct.

Gary, did you see South of Midnight and Doom on that? Yeah, I saw, I looked at, because like I said, last, last night I took an edible and I watched all the directs that I hadn't watched yet. I watched a bunch of the, I talked earlier about the ones that popped for me. Roadcraft. Oh, yes, yes.

We were showing up. We operate in the heavy construction vehicles that looked cool to me. and Expedition 33 looks very, very cool to me. That came out of nowhere. I was like, I'd never heard of that game. I watched a trailer. I'm like, man, what is this?

I'm really into it. It looked really, really cool. And yeah, obviously, for me, Doom is a PC game. This is why I'm so upset about not having that 50-90, right? Because to me, Doom is one of those games that is always represented, like, if you want to show off what your PC can do with the best graphics card, Doom is the game that is going to do that. It's cyberpunk as well, but, like, historically, Doom's always. always been that game.

Yeah. Like, you know, Nvidia will release the new drivers for it. I'll have all that DLSS shit. Like, you know that Doom running on like a 4090 or a 5090 at Mac settings. That's showcase. On a juggernaut PC is going to look like nothing else.

And that is going to kill. Okay. So sometimes you just want that, right? Just that that showpiece. But it looks like a lot of fun. Again, I'm glad that they're coming at it from a different,

you know, the whole medieval vibe. It gives it a different aesthetic, a different vibe, but it's still Doom. I was thinking this the other day. Doom to me is a game. Because I,

again, old enough to remember the original Doom from, you know, 92, whenever it was, 93. More than 30 years later, Doom is still going strong. It has one of the great, you know, one of the great game franchises of all time. It's still killing it. It's evolved to a point where, I mean,

this is like, go back and look at the original Doom, right? And compare it to this, right? It's evolved to a point where it's like from another planet now. But it's still Doom. Yes. It still has that same vibe. It still scratches the same itch, the original Doom did. So in terms of evolving a franchise or a series of games over a number of decades

and keeping it like super focused on what makes those games good while just technically, just technologically just constantly up in the ante, Doom is incredible case study in that. They've done a great job of taking care of, you know, one of the great PC game franchises. It looks great. I can't wait to play that. It looks like a lot of fun. That will be right around the corner. that's in May and then of course south of midnight coming out I believe in April I'm trying to find my notes I got lost in it but yes that I mean a great start to the year here now the fun part is let's talk about the future guys but I want to talk about 2026 and beyond for the games coming to your Xbox ecosystem and more right after a word from our sponsors this episode's brought to you by built if you're a renter I'd start taking advantage of built if I were you here's the thing we're in point

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Betterhelp.com slash kind of funny. And welcome back, everyone. Let's talk about 2026 and beyond for the games. And then we're going to move into the console because I think that's a really fun conversation to be had of. When is the end of the Xbox series S&S lifecycle? What is next, Paris? And should I feel confident?

Because I had a little meltdown this week on the last kind of funny game. where I questioned where I stand with the Xbox console for the future. But we'll talk about that in just a little bit. Let's talk about some future games for 2026 and beyond. We kind of talked about Fable and Gears E-Day, kind of being right at the cusp of 2025, 2025, 2026. Where do those go? But let's talk about some other ones like Perfect Dark with the initiative and Crystal Dynamics.

When do we see that? I mean, Gary? Perfect Dark is like who, I mean, just with that way, you just throw up your hands and say, well, who the hell knows, right? because it's been seemingly such a troubled development with different teams coming and going and the dates, you know, keep getting pushed back and we haven't really seen anything of substance from it, right?

A cinematic trailer, I think, is all, if they showed any gameplay? We finally saw gameplay. They showed a bit of gameplay. Okay, so here's a bit of gameplay. I think, you know, this is an opportunity for this to, you know, Perfect Dark is, again, one of their storied franchises, right? It's been around forever, very well-liked,

game, perfect dark zero and so forth, like back in the day, these were the games. So, I don't know, it looks like it could be cool. He's this thing, nobody knows anything anymore. Remember a year ago when we were talking about Indiana Jones and like, I don't know, like the movie just came out and didn't do anything. Like, maybe people are just over Indiana Jones. This could go either way. You know, Bethesda's had a couple of missteps.

And then it comes out, and it's an absolute banger. Like, way better than anybody thought. So, like, you just don't fucking know. Like, it's fun to do this. It's also like a fool's Aaron trying to predict this. Perfect dark could be anywhere from like Redfall to Indiana Jones, right, in terms of that's what Microsoft is capable of, right? Epic success, epic fail.

Of course. This one, again, there's not, there isn't enough information to know right now. This could go either way. Paris, looking at this, I feel like this is a 2026 game, right? When I'm looking at the lineup, I'm looking at all the cards that are stacked in front of me. I feel like Xbox has done a really good job showing its hand of like, what will be the next three years of kind of heading towards the end of the life cycle. And we know for sure Perfect Dark is in there, right?

We know Clockwork Revolution is in there. We can kind of start policing things together of state of the K3 is probably in there. But when I look at Perfect Dark and we have this conversation, I do think Perfect Dark is 2026. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I think, again, this was something we saw, I want to say it was the Game Awards 2020. It was when they originally unveiled it. So, 2026 makes a lot of sense because we're about six years out.

But to go into Gary's point, we know the studios had some development issues, but they were able to actually give us a vertical slice in the showcase last year. Hopefully, knock on wood, we get to see it again this year. And then you can date it and say, hey, it's coming in 2026. So this is one, I think, yeah, it would, you look at the roadmap, 2026 makes a lot of sense for it. This gameplay footage, which is my first time seeing, it actually looks pretty good. It looks, Gary, it does.

You and Paris, no, I'm a perfect dark kid from N64, played a lot of Perfect Dark Zero on the 360. I had my doubts about reviving this franchise. I didn't think it was the one that if I put my hand in the hat to choose one, I wouldn't have, I would have put this one back, but I'm impressed with what I'm seeing. I am excited to see Perfect Dark in this next gen era, I want to go back with Joanna Dark and relive some of these moments and see a new story. I'm excited now. I will say this. I was saying earlier, this could go anywhere on the scale.

I think it's less likely to go anywhere on. I think it's more likely to be good than bad because I think Microsoft, Xbox, Phil, you know, however you want to define it, can ill afford a game with this much attention on it and this high profile to not absolutely crush it, right? Like if it's a, it doesn't even have to be like a Redfall level failure, right? It just, it just had, like, I think this, this game needs for Xbox's reputation, you know, and Microsoft's reputation to like manage, you know, their internal titles and have them deliver. Obviously, it took a big hit with Redfall on that, on that sense. This one needs to deliver in a way that some other games have not, I think. Okay, okay, okay.

Let's talk about a couple more pairs, because there's a lot, man. I'm looking down my list. we still have to talk about Blade over here. What's up with Everwilds, right? Where's contraband? But let's talk about Towerborn and are a history untold games that came out in early access. Do you expect 1.0 releases in 2026 then, maybe this year? What are the roadmaps?

Because you're one of the few people I know that have jumped into both those games. So as far as Towerborn goes, because I actively play, I can't even talk. I actively play Towerborn in the early access. I don't know if it'll be 1.0. Well, you said 2026. Yeah, 2026, I could see 1.0. I think Xbox players get it this year in early access on console, because right now it's only on Steam.

They've done some good stuff with that update too and just scaling up the difficulty and just some of the fun challenges that you can have in there. Obviously, it's something that that is monetized through like cosmetic items, things like that. Very good chance. That's a one point. know in 2026. I could see that as far as our history untold. I mean, I didn't think that was, is that still considered early access? I thought that was a one-oed product now. I'll have to take

a look. I didn't know where it was still in a manner lords. I think you're thinking of manner awards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Manor lords was early access still. But, but, but Arra, no, are ours out? Because I even know I got to choose to interview the team. Is ever wild the one that we still know nothing about? Like you look at the one where you look at the trailer. Remember, what is that? That is the rare one. Yeah, he did when he, Phil talked with Destin, that came up, and it sounds like we will see it at this June showcase.

That is one, and because you mentioned Blade, I'm going to give you a conspiracy theory stuff leading into the console thing. I think both of those are Next Console. Blade. Next console. And Everwild? Yep. Yeah, I could see both of those.

I could definitely see Blade and Ever Wild next console. I will have a fun conversation of does it straddle the line though of being on both this concept and this? Yeah, I think it'll be both. But I think it comes out around the time of whatever the next Xbox is going to be. So let's rewind that for a second.

You said that Phil was talking with Destin and said that we will see Everwild this summer. Pretty sure he hinted at it at the showcase. That was something he hinted at. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That will be very exciting to see. What a mixed emotion I get what I think of Everwild of. I don't know if I'm interested,

but I am interested. I love what Rare has done. I want to see what they're doing with that. I just, wow, it's been so long, Paris. It's hard to believe that it's almost real, if that is true. And we're going to see that this summer. That's wild.

This trailer, which I think is the last time we've seen it, was four years ago. Yeah. Crazy. I mean, there's a good chance that they've just moved on to something else. I mean, it can be, I don't know. It's, I don't know.

It's weird, right? We knew very little about it. It looks, you know, the aesthetic here, this all looks very interesting. but if you haven't heard anything from a game in almost four years and how many directs and showcases things if they're being,

like that's got to tell you something, right? Why have they not shown anything? Well, maybe this summer, maybe we get the answers and we'll find out. I guess, because I just Googled Ever Wild Phil Spencer. I guess when he went to Rare back in October of this year,

or 2024, allegedly he saw Ever Wilde. So it is still being worked on. Wow. That's exciting stuff right there. Let's talk about, man, we have so many more games to talk about. Let's talk about OD from Kajima Productions. He's assembling all of the biggest horror names in the business to come and make a game.

Do we expect that on this console lifecycle? Let's say the next four years. Do you think we'll see OD playing it in person? In the next four years, I'll say yes. It sounds like this is more of him utilizing cloud tech. okay so this is something sure it probably could be playable on this current gen i'm going lean again more towards this is start thinking next gen with odie gary you know about od what do you think about i think we're talking about meazaki earlier and that kajima's another one you know we're like

no one's going to make him do anything he doesn't want to do he's going to he's going to take his his own sweet time to get it where he wants it'll ship it'll ship when it ships um yeah and that could be a ways off. I'm excited to see. I have a weird, like, I'm kind of like, you know, you know how I'm in Zoolander when Derek Zoolander says like, oh no, it's, it's, it's, it's Hansel that says it. He's like, I don't actually listen to Sting's music. I just, I, like, I just think it's great that he's making it. It's like, I don't, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, Metal Gear Solid was the last Kajima game that I played and, like, really, really got off on. Death Stranding did nothing for me at all. But I'm so glad that Kajima is out there making

these games, because, you know, he's one of the true, you know, original. right no one else is doing what he's doing and you need people like that like the true originals the iconoclast the people are like fuck what everyone else is doing i'm gonna go do this even though like it might be fucking bonkers like that's his brand and you know i i i'm excited to see it i just it's a good chance it's not gonna be my cup of tea okay yeah and it's a horror game he's spoken oh yeah you know very i'm very uh dodgy on those yeah absolutely uh of course we know we have death stranding two still next up then you would assume it's gonna be OD and then the next project after that that he's already announced.

But the question will be, of course, his ties to Hollywood. We've seen the strikes scary, as you know about. And kind of the stop and starts of Hollywood right now, he's tied to that with this game and more. I'm sure there's a lot of holding this game back from, man, Paris. Four years from now is a long time. I think it's longer. I think when you were talking about the next console,

I think the one, I think Blade and the other ones that you mentioned saying next, I think that's a little bit primitive. I think you will see those in this. generation. The Kajima game does feel like it's probably far enough out that that might be one where just its natural development cycle brings it into line with like maybe it's a launch title for the next console or something. It'll be a big deal right there.

So going to Blade, because you're talking about this console cycle cycle, because I'm trying to remember that was Game Rewards 2023. We saw it. And I think Arcane Lion just started development on it too. So it wasn't already actively in development. They were just kind of getting ramped up on it. I mean, yeah, I think 2027 at the earliest, right? I was leaning 2028 maybe.

I was leaning 2028 for Blade. I think I have Blade down as one of those that will straddle the line of this next generation. Of course, we'll talk about what that is. But I think it will be playable on both. But I do think that Blade will be a 2028 game on my list of where I have that falling here. How big is that scope? what does that look like? I'm so excited for Blade, right?

What a property to get, what a team to have it with. We're riding the high of all of the Marvel cinematic universe and the characters that we love from the comics. Blade is one that, you know, we're very excited. The movie might not ever happen, Gary, but man, if I get a game, I'll be happy with that. I'll be really happy with that. Yeah, and I remember thinking the aesthetic for this game looked really cool.

It has that kind of painterly style that's very popular in animation right now, and it's that kind of spiderverse. Yes. kind of style that the Spiderverse has obviously been so influential in its animation style you see it reflected now in other movies and games all the time speaking to your Mike Gary sorry people want that kind of punk rock animation style um and uh this it's a great fit for blade this is cool this is one of those ones that like i really hope this one is good i want to play a badass playing game this wolverine yeah like we've been treated to spider man being so great yeah absolutely i really can't wait for some awesome yeah what's happening with um Marvel 40s didn't we oh amy henning yeah the amy hennig game what's going on with that I'd heard about that forever but it had those amazing cinematics it was a lot of hype around it and now it's just

I don't know when's the last time we heard anything I thought we had that in a new story semi recently within this month I think to start the year I thought we had something at least about it I don't know if it was good or bad but I thought we did talk a little bit about that I mean the last thing I remember yeah was this trailer from 10 months ago that said it's coming out this year 2025 yeah ready we'll see I mean

it looked to be good terrific in this early cinematic, but who the hell knows where it is? We haven't heard anything for a while. Yeah, because you also, you have the Wonder Woman game that's being worked on and Black Panther game as well. Yeah. So there's some stuff coming. We still have more games to talk about. Tell me, Paris.

Yeah, what you got? I would just bringing that back to exactly what you were saying, one that we've not talked about, which I would assume we get to see this year, contraband. Contraband with Avalanche Studios group. This one I've been excited for, right? We read Jez Corden a long time ago talking about what this game could be, this kind of heist-like game with vehicles, but all we saw was just a very quick cinematic of just, you know, people opening up a box, a cargo box way back in the day that you'd put like

drugs or guns in, and we didn't see much past that. So I am really excited to see contraband. I like the idea of what could be from what Jez told us, but we've seen nothing since. Paris, you think this is this summer showcase at least game? I would hope we see it. We just see it. And I can't remember if this was a part of the conversation Destin had would Phil, but I think he alluded to this one too.

So, I mean, it's time. We should start seeing it. It would make a lot of sense. I have on my big board. Contraband is shown this year, and we will be playing it next year in 2026. That's how I have written down on Contraband. because it has been so long, I expect it to be this summer showcase and then next year.

This one, this is my cup of tea as well, like a heist game. I love shit like payday. Yes. Those kind of games. Yeah, this could be really fun.

Let's talk about Clockwork Revolution from in exile entertainment. Paris, where do you think this lands? This is feeling like 2027 to me. Oh, that's what I'm thinking. Okay. Okay.

I like that. Yeah. I mean, sure, we might get a, another tease this year, but I think actually coming out, this feels like 2027. 2027. Gary, have you seen this game? Yeah. So this is one that's like, I don't know, this, this theme punk vibe is not 100% my sort of thing. I guess it's given some Bioshock vibes as well. Yeah, this one's not necessarily my vibe, but again, it's,

it looks, it looks cool. I would say this in general. This is the first time I've kind of had a moment to like take stock of like everything that Microsoft's kind of got in the chamber right now and looking at the developer direct videos recently thinking like the general outlook like in the short to medium term like the year ahead and then the next few years beyond like what we're talking about the back end of this generation looks so much healthier than it did a couple of years ago remember a couple of years ago like red fall and the vibes were so off yeah and phil was on here being very contrite and we were talking about the lcast and like where are the games like come on like It feels like we had, doesn't it feel a little bit like Xbox has turned a corner in terms of the stuff that we now see on the way?

This is where they wanted to get to. I think they could, I think they knew they were going to get here, but they had to get through all of that. And they were just like, hey, we're going to take these shots right now. And we just got to get here and we're going to really show you what we're capable of. I, you know, doing the research and going back, man, what a cycle it's been. It's been a week start to the life cycle of this game. We've been, really, there's been some games. but it doesn't feel like a strong cycle, especially the launch titles when you look up the Xbox

Series X and S launch titles. I didn't think we're personally that strong. And then exclusivity is kind of, of course, gone out the window. So that's moved on. But the first party outlook or the first party output for the first, I would say half of this cycle has been all right. Not great. It's been good. Not bad, though.

And you know, they have a game that nobody is talking about anymore. but it arguably is the biggest thing that Xbox can release going into their next generation. And it probably is a next generation game at this point. Elder Scroll 6. Elder Scroll 6. Yeah, huge. It's going to be monster when that comes out.

That's the one. That's the big one of, man, that will be exciting. The question for me after Starfield, is it going to be another one of these animatronic games? That style is so old now. that style is so old-fashioned. And I was honestly looking back at, I think we have enough distance now from Starfield

to see it like it didn't really cook, right, the way that we wanted it to. I know that's a point of contention for some people, but like that old-fashioned style that I think a lot of other companies have moved beyond. Like look at Balders Gate 3, right? And compare that to Starfield in terms of how the characters and cinematics

and scenes are presented. Yeah. I really, really hope with Elder Scroll 6 that they've moved beyond that because that old like two-dimensional characters standing like, hello, I am the shopkeeper. Like that shit is, so fucking old now. Like, I really hope

that they have moved beyond that with this next one. Parris, do you think they move beyond that? Because I don't think they yeah. Yeah, I was going to say Gary. I don't know if you've seen the rumorville, but it's sounding like the worst kept secret in the world is an oblivion remake is coming and it's on Unreal

5. Yeah. So we don't know if it's true. But let's just say it is for a second. Maybe that's kind of the template for what we can expect with Old Scroll 6. Maybe they move it to Unreal 5, which to your point would kind of change some of the stuff they've done with that engine. Yeah, I mean, it's a

presentational thing as well. I think that there's more of an opportunity with an entirely new game to reinvent the presentational style or update it than there is with, my guess is that an oblivion remake is still going to be this with better graphics, right? And it's might, it'll just look more highly refined or whatever, but they, like, in a post like Baldersgate age and any number of other games you can point

to like Starfield to me and we talked about it so much at the time and it's still something I think about that that that style is so dated now that they have to I really feel like they have to move on from it. What are you looking for more, more of just dynamic movement when you're talking to someone? Is it the storyline? Different camera and just get away from, you know, every interaction. I said before the number one vibe that I got off of Starfield was and never felt like I was in a real place.

I felt like it was in a Westworld style theme park. Simulating like I'm walking around. these NPCs are there and they activate when I come up to me. Everything just felt like, it just felt very theatrical and very fake. And again, just this is all idea of characters that stand there. Their arms by their side and they just talk to you. Yes, hello. This is my backstory.

Like, we've so moved on from there. Again, look at how, look at how one was to end. No other game does that. This sort of thing. Everyone that's watching live, if you can super chat or leave some comments. Here are some examples of games that don't do this. I feel, Gary, I see so much of this. when we talk about these RPGs and we talk about talking with people,

it always seems to be this. Now, sure, this on your screen might look a little more robotic than some, but it feels like I see a lot of this in all of the games. I walk up, the guy turned to me and we do the dialogue. I mean, I'm sure chat or someone else could find other examples, but, like, I'm struggling to think of, like, many other games, like modern games that still do that kind of style where you just feel like you're talking to like an amateur

on it. Like if you look under the, you don't ever seen from here, like, you look at any, they're just like on a pedestal or something. And they're like, they're like this. And they're looking directly to the camera. You know, it just, I don't know, there's something about it. It just felt like it worked for a long time, but we've moved beyond it. Now I think it looks very old. I was amazed that

Starfield did not move beyond that. I think, yeah, I think it's less to do with the, um, what's it called? The camera angle in of itself, because yes, a lot of games do that and a lot of, chat is popping off with a lot of other examples. I do think it's more so of the, you know, the engine, the character assets and how, like Gary is saying,

like the quality of the animations in like the faces and stuff still much scary. It's just like blocking and camera movement and angles. It's just, it's very regimented. It's always the same. Yeah. You know, frankly, Bethesda's character models are just not that great, right? They look a bit goofy. Look at it.

They look a little bit. Old gen. The last gen. Yeah, exactly right. you look at other games that are out there, whether it be Balders Gate or Cyberpunk or Horizon or whatever, like they've all moved beyond this. Yeah. You know, like they feel much more cinematic than that's what CJ splits on writes in with

the Super Chen says, Horizon, motion captured MPCs. So yeah, there's been pushes in that. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that next game, I guess, in my eyes that I see really breaks that, but I see it so much. And we talked about Starfield, right? I was on camera saying, Starfield has to be a game of the generation. but we just got more Bethesda, right? And they did different things, but it was Bethes at its core.

And so when I think of the next Elder Scrolls, I do think of like, I'm going to get a Bethesda at its core game. I think it will have some probably elevated writing, maybe some different storylines that will have more branching narratives than we've seen in an Elder Scrolls game in the past that will kind of mimic what we saw with Baldur's Gates and other newer titles. But I do think at the core, I will probably look at Elder Scroll 6 and go, that's a, but there's the core name.

And I think that's where they're torn, right? Is that unlike Starfield, which was a new game in a franchise, there's perhaps even more of an expectation after oblivion and scarring. I've all done that thing with the characters like stand and talk to you. But that's because this is a style that was developed decades ago, right? Literally decades ago. And they haven't moved on from it. So I think they're kind of torn from like, but that's just the style.

That's what these games look like. That's what they've always looked like. And wanting to and, but at the same time feeling like, as you've stayed in one place, the graphics have overall gotten better in terms of like fidelity, right, and like pixels and what have you, but when the aesthetic has remained the same and other games have moved beyond it, you just increasingly look like you're not going anywhere. I don't know. It's, it's, I don't have that same. I don't have that same. To me, even if I was like hardcore Elder's Cross, I'm like, well, it's always been that way. So I still want my characters to look like this. No, like push it. Do

other things. Other games are making you look silly at this point. And I wonder if the same conversation in 2015 when fallout four came out next to witcher yeah and so that makes me wonder if the reaction because i wasn't the only one saying this right a lot of people saying like this shit just looks fake like it just looks really old-fashioned in terms of like the camera doesn't move this you're these characters are always just staring at me kind of dead-eyed and you know there's no they don't feel like they're alive you know there's everything about it just feels kind of like again they feel like animatronics yeah like they got hit hard for that right it wasn't just me saying it a lot of people said that because it's undeniable i don't know if that if they're

they're looking at and going, well, yeah, maybe we should really try to advance the presentational style or like, no, just stick with it. This is what people expect from these games. That's a really big decision that they have to make. Of course. Captain Chat writes in with the Super Chat and says, Oblivion remake being UE5 is a test bed, as Paris says for hopefully Elder Scroll 6. Would make sense as Halo C is getting a UE5 remake and would be a test bed to move future

Halo games onto UE5. Missed you guys. Captain Chats, thanks so much. Yeah, of course. Paris, we can jump over to Halo Studios. Of course, not 343 anymore. Halo Studios now. Thankfully, I remembered that name.

It's been a long time since you and I talked about that. But we are in a weird spot of you probably won't see Halo for a while unless it is the Halo C-E remake. Do you think we see Paris Halo in the next three years? Yeah, three years, yeah. I do. Again, I'm going to stick with 2027 again. I think that's probably when you get that C-E-Row. remake.

I don't think, because it had been nice if they could have met, if it could have been 2026 to go with the 25th anniversary of Halo and Xbox. I don't think they'll make

that window, but maybe the year after 2027. Again, you get Halo Kombat Evolve, remade on Real 5, reintroduction of Halo. If that works out,

now your future Halo games, you can move on from there and Unreal 5. Just that makes a lot sense to me. If they were to do an original Halo remake, would that be the first time that a game's been remade

twice because they did it already, right? Master Chief Collection, they, they, they put out like a remastered version of Halo where you can remember you can click back and forth through graphics and new graphics. Great, yeah, yeah. Well, in the new one, will he be able to click like three times? Here's what the old remastered look like. Now the original, now back to the newest one. Like, you can see all the different stages of it. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I think, you know, Halo's been around long enough that I think it would be, I don't think it would be illegitimate to like, or a waste of time to bring it back again. Like the modern next gen technology and what have you. It's just, it's just interesting. It's like, I don't know.

Is this where we're at now, like remaking games that have already been remade? I mean, they are the pillars of Xbox, right? And you want to remake them for a new audience that might be getting them in different ecosystems. And there's a Halo fan inside of me that is excited about the idea of maybe parents, I'm just going to put out my pipe dream next year, Halo Master Chief Collection comes to all the ecosystems, PlayStation, Switch, if it can run it, whatever. And we get that fervor, we get that excitement back for a couple weeks. were to do Halo combat evolved, evolved, which is what it would be at this point.

Re-envolved. That, because that is the introduction point to the Halo franchise, right, the first game, I was going to say that's the one that maybe you see on PS5, PS6 and Switch 2. I mean, that one you were definitely going to see us, right? Because I know you covered it already, but like forts are already, like the floodgates are now open, right? All bets are off. Yeah. I don't think at this point we would be shocked if something only maybe a couple of years ago would have seen unthinkable,

as Halo on on rival console platforms. But now it's starting to seem it's probably more likely than not. And it's going to be a great boost in the arm for the multiplayer and just in general, Halo and everything. Of course, Xbox, this is the strategy. This is how it's going to go.

It's going to go. It's going to happen. It's right. And it's going to be exciting, right? For someone who wants to play Halo 2 multiplayer again, Paris, I'm dying for the week to a month that everybody now on PlayStation has Halo Master Chief Collection

and all the servers are filled. we're having fun, nonstop playing. I can't wait for that to happen. I'm so excited. Here's a big question about Halo. And I apologize on camera. My sinuses is like acting up as we're on here. So I keep my eye watering.

So I apologize. But the big question for me is, is Steve Down still the voice of Master Chief? I mean, you know, he's getting older. And, you know, if we're heading off into a new era of Halo, do you want to start off with, all right, here's the person that's going to be the new voice

of Master Chief moving forward. Maybe even Jen Taylor-Wittor-Cortana, you could potentially see that as well. I'll be interested on that one to see. Maybe they'll just paying both a ton of money to use AI like they did with James L. Jones and Darth Vader. Co-pilot will take care of it for you. We'll just do it for you.

We will see that moment when Steve Downs isn't Master Chief is right, pairs. There will be a moment. that will have to happen eventually. Let's talk about a couple more before we get out of here and talk about hardware. State of the K-3 from Undead Labs, you would assume it has to be in the next three years.

I'm jumping out and saying that's got to be, man, I thought 2027, but I guess maybe at the end of this life cycle, stated in the K-3, 2028? I didn't even think that long. I kind of thought the fact that we saw it last year, it potentially could have been this year and maybe it's next year. So I'm going to

think 2026. You're excited for state of the K3 Gary? No, I played the last one. It seemed like the sort of thing that I would get into. Yeah, it seems like this is a fun multiplayer game that you can share with your friends. Yeah, but it's like I said, I need cozy fucking vegetable picking games.

You can pick vegetables at the base? We'll run out of the zombies. I already have a shit life. Why don't want to have a shit life in a video game as well? I don't have a shit life. I have a lovely family life. Just everything else that sucks. Paris, if it comes out next year, I'll be very excited because I'm looking forward to seeing how they improve upon State of the K2.

I felt like State of the K2 was almost there. There was just certain things that really held it back from like that being that survival crafting game that you really want to play with your friends. It feels really good, but I'm excited to see how they improve upon that. But, man, next year would be wild. It's a tight calendar, Paris. It's a very tight calendar to be trying to shoving these games in. Well, you know, when you got 30 plus studios at some point,

again, this was the whole dream of what they've been talking about, getting to the point where they got to start making tough decisions on when they're putting out games because they have so much stuff coming out. So you can't just keep pushing it down the road. At some point, these games got to start coming out. It's exciting because we don't really, they're so fresh and brand new that we don't talk much about them, but you still think about Blizzard, right? It's like, what can you do with Blizzard?

What is next, right? Is it, of course, we know you can bank on World Warcraft expansions, but what is the next move? Could we potentially pitch Phil on, hey, here's of the storm is a great moba. Let's figure out how to put that on the consoles. Let's get that out to everyone. Do we look at Starcraft? Do we look at Warcraft?

What is that survival game in the future? Is there anything else that we can make that in the Blizzard world that would be next, right? What's Overwatch got to do? I've said it many times before, and I don't know how viable it is or how seriously they're thinking about it, but I would love them to find a way to bring some form of World of Warcraft-type experience to the consoles.

Oh. Right? Other MMOs do it, right? Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls online. We know it can be done. I don't think it would be necessarily just, oh, Water Warcraft is now on other platforms and, like, you can cross-play or whatever.

I think it would be a different thing. But I would love to see some kind of, if there was a Warcraft-based MM. A World of Warcraft-like MMO. It would get a separate thing, a separate fork. It wouldn't be the same game. Find a way to kind of simplify the control scheme and make you work on consoles.

I think that would be great. Why not start with Classic? Bring Wow Classic to consoles. Simplify the control scheme and just do it just like you did with Warcraft, World Warcraft and what they're doing now with Wild Classic. I kind of... You get the training wheels on because I don't, at the end of the day, I don't want a wow that's separate from the wow.

You know what I mean? I don't want Wow console to be its own thing. I think it might have to be, though, because Vanilla, what they now call retail, Wow, the one that has all the expansions, has evolved to such a degree of like immense complexity that, you know, you need mods to play at the highest level and we're talking about like, it's just incredibly, it's not, it's not, that's why Wow Classic exists, right? Because it's not the same game in it's not even close. And I don't think it would, I just don't

think it's workable on a console. My, I would rather than build something new from the ground up than try to just find a way to, to kind of like, simplify or slim down, like, wow, class an existing version of wow. But I'm just saying there's an opportunity there for a Warcraft live service game on consoles. What that looks like, I don't know. I just, I think like just trying to pour over existing

wow is like probably the least interesting version of it. Of course. When's kind of funny? When's kind of feudy? This is boring? Why don't you fuck off then? Tell him, Gary?

What the fuck? How is that a useful comment? Go fuck yourself. Gooseberry. Gooseberry? You're my dude too. Gooseberry. They've been timed out for 10 minutes. Who's Barry? You're better than that.

Let's keep it going. We only have a couple more games, then we'll talk about the hardware, and then we'll get to games showdown. Of course, Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon. Playground games with Horizon 6. Do we expect that in the next three years? Especially with Fable being on the docket, we know

that they have other teams. What do we think there Paris Lily with Horizon? I think Horizon 6, for sure. Motorsport probably not. I mean, obviously the news this week with 5 going to PlayStation and you see how excited so many new people are to

play that game. I mean, Horizon 5 arguably is the best game that they put out this generation for Xbox as far as popularity goes. So six is inevitable. I couldn't imagine them not having one in the next couple years. What I like about this podcast,

this episode in general, because it doesn't know about stuff it years away. You can say whatever shit you want, right? Yeah, of course. And by the time it gets to be proven correct or incorrect, you know, no one's going to fucking remember. Someone should pin this because this is going to be rich source of like, hey, remember when you said this three years ago? How fucking wrong was that? Right.

Yeah, yeah. Let me tell you something. A year ago, I said when all this multi-platform stuff was first starting, I was like, man, if Halo and Gears goes, man, people are going to have to get their pitchforks. People throw that shit in my face every day. Every day. They're like, you said this. We're in a pitchfork.

Like, look, it's happening. I don't know what to tell you. We just saw, of course, Fort's Horizon coming over to PlayStation. That's very exciting news. Yeah. I was genuinely surprised by that. that, I thought, wow, that feels like that's an escalation. Right?

We've already, yeah, we're taking it to the next level. It's right, Gary. There's no coming back now. It's right. Great news for PlayStation. I mean, Forcer is a fucking great game. I presume this means that now, what do you think will happen? Let me ask you this.

Forza 6 and beyond, because obviously that's, you know, Fortza Motorsport and Horizon series are obviously both going to continue into the foreseeable future because it's one of Microsoft's big, big, big ones. Do you think that going forward now, like, Let's say when Forza Horizon 6 or the next motorsport comes out, is that day and day across platforms? Or is the thing like, well, you're going to get, PlayStation guys will get it, but you've got to wait a little bit longer. I guess the benefit is just game pass, right? That's still the differentiator.

Yeah. Gary, what I took from the conversation that I just had with Phil, when we were kind of getting into this and talking about hardware in the future and all of that, he specifically has said multiple times. There's no red lines on anything in their portfolio. and I don't want to put walls around our, basically, our creators and our games. So in other words, if a studio has the capability of putting a game out day and date, they're going to put a game out day and date on all platforms. They're not going to purposely go, well, we're going to hold Halo for six months, and then you can put it on PlayStation.

If Halo Studios can put Halo on PlayStation the same time as Xbox, they're going to do it. So is your prediction, Paris, let's say, I don't know, 10 years from now, give us like plenty of runway. The new original Halo games are shipping on all the major console platforms day and date. And then it's, okay, all right. I think that's huge. I don't even think we need 10 years.

I just think it's happening. Yeah, I think that. Maybe five. Yeah, it's going to happen. Whatever the next, whatever the next Halo game that comes out from Halo Studios, I think it's day and date on PlayStation. So, I mean, it's interesting, does that mean in the bigger picture that the idea that console exclusives are going away.

Not really, right? Because Xbox is doing this unilaterally, right? Sony and Nintendo have not shown any interest at all ever about having their games on other consoles, right? Sony have really said, no, fuck you. Like, Last of Us, got a war, hell-divers. You want these games, you've got to come buy our hardware.

Nintendo, obviously, never going to put, like, Super Mario Odyssey on the Xbox or the PlayStation. Microsoft is the only one doing this out of the big three. So it's very interesting to see, like, suddenly radically different approaches, like, Like, it is kind of like unilateral disarmament. I don't mean, they're surrendering.

They're doing a wildly different approach. And I think it makes sense because trying to compete on Sony's own terms, I don't think it's working, right? So they have to come up with a different strategy. I think it's really interesting. You can look at it as like kind of unilateral disarmament. I don't think it is. It's them saying, this is a different path to success.

But it's just interesting to see like, you know, we all grown up with the console wars through multiple generations. This is a big shift away from that. even if it's only on the part of one company. That is the ongoing conversation right now. Yeah, that's right. I would just say, Mike, because I thought the conversation you had the other day was great, because I think that that is just the genuine concern of anyone that has been invested in the Xbox community or ecosystem,

whatever you want to call it over the past couple decades of, all right, Phil Spencer, you are telling me now, because like I asked them, I go, if you're putting the games everywhere, then why am I buying your hardware anymore, right? And his answer is innovation, that we're going to do something so unique with our hardware. Yeah, that's the other thing. That you will willingly want to buy it, not that you need to buy it to play our games. What is that innovation going to be? Is it this hybrid thing?

Is it the handheld itself? What is it that you're doing that's so unique that even though I could play this on PlayStation, you play your games on PlayStation and all the PlayStation games, I'm still going to choose to buy an Xbox? That is a fundamental question. they have to answer. And that's, and that's the big, and that's the, that to me, Paris, ties into the bigger issue, which is the hardware strategy as well, right, which they have to look at because I think we've seen. It keeps coming back to me, that one thing that Phil said on this show, a while back,

that has always stuck with me, and it's been repeated many times is the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 generation is where, is where we lost it, basically, because that was the first generation where people started building their digital libraries and you start to feel like, you know, you're bought into an ecosystem. Well, I can't switch now. Well, my games are already over here. my friends, this everything. That was the generation

when people started building their libraries and it was a generation where Sony had a really strong offering in the PlayStation 4 and Microsoft had their worst offering historically the Xbox 1, which was a complete dud, right? And so that's where they kind of lost it.

I think they recognize now the one full generation later where the Xbox series S and X consoles lagged way, way behind the play. It's not even close, right? I think they recognize now that they can't compete just doing the same thing.

Here's another box. that you put on your shelf and it plays games on your TV and it's roughly comparable to, you know, the PlayStation, that's not going to, you know, you can't just keep doing that and it's suddenly going to work because it's not been working. So I think that they're innovating, they're trying to be different on the software side, well, games everywhere, right?

We'll put our games everywhere. Because Paris is exactly right. If I had to choose, if you've got Sony, right, a Sony console and an Xbox console, and the Xbox games are on both, but the PlayStation games are only on PlayStation, you're going to buy the PlayStation because that then becomes the only place

you can play all the games, right? Unless Microsoft always says, ah, but on the hardware side, they don't have this. We're something different now. And whether that's like a switch like dockable, I don't know, but it seems to me that it's something

that has to be in concert, in harmony with their software strategy. We can just play these games wherever you go. So on a hardware side, that seems to speak to, well, there's going to be a handheld, right? Maybe it is a switch. like Dockable. Maybe they'd steal that idea, right?

Everybody, you know, everybody stole the Weimotes, right? Sony tried to do it. Microsoft tried to do it. They both failed. Right, but made this, this is a more like the Dockable console. That's a proven concept. I talked to on the earlier show. That's why Nintendo's not reinvented it, right? Such a fucking winner. Just stay with that. Maybe Microsoft borrows that. Maybe it's a powerful. Maybe they also say like, this is not about a console. This is not about a hardware arms race anymore. We've seen so much coverage in recent years about how going for graphical fidelity is killing teams. It's driving up the cost of development, right?

It's driving up the cost of failure, right? Because these games cost a fortune to make. And if they don't hit, that's it. The whole team's fucking disbanded. Games already look pretty fucking great. Like, why are we constantly chasing more and more expensive high fidelity graphics when Nintendo has shown you don't have to have the best graphics to have a mass really successful console with lots of games that people love? So maybe Microsoft says, you know what, we're getting out of the hardware arms, right?

We're going to take a leaf out of Nintendo's book, which is, you know, more accessible hardware, an affordable price that you can take anywhere, and you can stream things on it, do whatever you want, take it, you know, dock it, do whatever. And maybe there's some other innovation we haven't even thought of yet.

And also you can play these games all over the place. I don't know, but they have to, they have to mix it up, because if they just continue to say, well, here's another more powerful big black box, you can't, Sony's already won that battle. Yeah, right?

So you have to, you have to, you have to find another battlefield to fight on. Well said. I agree. Pairs really quick before you go, because I'm going to tee up right now. BJ Bernardo does want to know, Perez.

What are the improvements less innovations you're looking for from the next Xbox? Is there something that would get people not to buy a PS6? As we start to ramp down our conversation, talk about the next gen of Xbox and beyond. Yeah. So a couple things on that. Just kind of going by what Phil Spencer has alluded to,

and Jason Ronald, as a matter of fact, over the past calendar year. I think it's a combination of a couple things. First and foremost, the merging of Xbox with Windows. That is something that I'm very interested to see what it's going to be. Jason Ronald alluded to that at CS this year. We're gonna find out more information this year.

I just think overall, I don't know if it's a June showcase, whatever it is, they need to start teasing whatever this next generation of Xbox is going to be similar to what they did with Project Scorpio. So we kind of get an idea and an expectation of whatever this innovation is going to be. Phil has alluded to open platforms. So are we going to have the ability to add a third-party digital store onto our whatever this next device is going to be hybrid PC, whatever it is, right? So that to the point he made on our show and you just talked about, Gary, people have already invested in their digital libraries.

So what is it that you're going to do to get me to stop investing in my Steam digital library? library or the PlayStation Digital Store or whatever the case may be, right? Because I'm already ingrained in that. Me personally, I think the differentiator that if you want me to start buying games in the Xbox slash Windows Digital Store is the Play Anywhere aspect in that I buy it one time, I can cloud stream it. I can play it on my Xbox hardware. I can play it on PC and whatever third party vendors that might have certain

modified Xbox Windows or whatever the case, right? Other than if I want to play them on PlayStation Nintendo, I'm going to have to spend, I'm going to have to buy them again, whereas I only buy it once in that Xbox digital store and I have device flexibility as a result. Not to mention we're starting to see examples like with Indiana Jones, even if you buy a game in Steam, I'm able to have cross progression come back across over into my Xbox hardware.

So again, I'm taking my progress wherever I go. Maybe they do that with PlayStation, Nintendo, but we'll see. But if you want me to buy your box and whatever Phil's talked about, they're not going to be subsidizing as much anymore, Satina Dell even just alluded to that and the financial call, I mean, it's, I just think it's going to become a niche product. I think overall, I think the hardcore Xbox community will still go buy it no matter what because they love what Xbox does. But the casual person, to what you're just talking about, Gary, they're going by a PlayStation.

Yeah. Because I get to play your games and I get to play them on PlayStation. That's the thing. And something has to mitigate that on the other side. Because if you're going to, that's a massive giveaway to say that, right? Or now Sony's the only console where you can play games from both platforms.

You can't do that on PlayStation because they still have that wall up. What if it's something like, and again, I'm not the CEO of Xbox and probably about to illustrate why. But what if it was, what if, what if it was like they hedged their bets a little bit and it was like this Xbox has two consoles, right, S and X. what if the next one, they kind of hedged their bets a little bit, you still do like the high-powered local box, which is basically just the next generation leap over the X, right?

Standard box. But then the S becomes like a more low-powered dockable handheld or something, which could also function like a PlayStation portal, right? So if you want the most local compute power, you get the next generation series X, whatever that is called, right? But if you don't care about that so much, you can have a series S, which is more like a switch, and it can also stream games over the cloud,

or it can stream games from your next-gen series X, you know, you can do, there's just different options for different people. I kind of feel like there's ways for them to, I feel like the next, I don't know exactly how they're going to do it, but I do, I do agree that the next generation of Microsoft hardware has to have like kind of a wow factor that's not just about more compute. Don't forget as well, Paris, of course, they talk so much about the cloud, right? That's only going to get better and better as the network infrastructure gets better. I think there's a possibility that you will see something that's just a cloud box,

There's very little compute power in it, right? But it's similar to like the Logitech thing that I have at home, which is all it is is a streaming handheld. But it plays all of my Xbox cloud games, no problem at all. So there are all these different things that you can see Microsoft doing in terms of non-exclusively around games, the whole like more games, more games everywhere. This is an Xbox, this is an Xbox.

Increased focus on cloud. All that points to, if their whole strategy is actually kind of joined up together and coherent, that all points to them doing something like what we just described on the hardware front to support that strategy. Well, Gary, I think for me, me, like what you talked about Mike the other day, I'll say for me personally, the thing that I know I would be there day one to buy for Xbox hardware moving forward, despite it being multi-platform, would be that handheld if it's not a PC. It is truly an Xbox.

And when I say that, my entire Xbox digital library is available to me. First party games, third party. So whatever I could do on an Xbox sitting at home on my TV, I can do it on that handout. That experiences there are in that handheld. All my digital games are there in that handheld. Obviously, you bring GamePass into it. I can subscribe to that. I can play those games on it too.

But it is truly the Xbox experience. That is something that Steam Deck can't do. That is something the Lenovo Region, Legion Go can't do, RoGalli, all that stuff. They can't do that because they're PCs. I want something that is an Xbox. So if that's the future of what they're doing with a handheld, and to your point, if it's also dockable, that's a bonus as well. That's what I want to see for them. That is something that, yes, I will still purchase your hardware, regardless if I could play your games on PlayStation or Nintendo.

Because that would be desirable to me. I'm confident, again, this is not like, again, like pin this, the time codes, right? Pan it in my face in a couple of years or whatever. But like, I would bet real money that there is something very much like what we're talking about sitting in a lab at Microsoft right. Of course. I agree. Yeah, that's where I came from on the games cast, Paris and Gary, of we got really excited about this console generation. Xbox coming out, bringing out this super strong box that you could rally behind. All of a sudden they purchased Bethesda.

They purchase Activision Blizzard King. And you're going, okay, like here we go. And then halfway through the console generation, they said, well, hold up. We are changing the strategy up. And that's fine and great. but we haven't had true answers to like, okay, what's the vision for the next box going to be? And I worry about that.

I'm concerned of, well, what is the selling point? Is it the handheld you to speak about? Is it this weird hybrid box that can do everything? Because, man, I was sold on this box in 2020, but now as we head to 2027 and beyond, whenever this may be, I don't really have answers. It's cloudy in front of me. And I'm not supposed to probably know

until it's time for them to reveal it. But I do start to concern. I start to ask questions of, do I need this anymore? Should I be migrating over and moving somewhere else? But it will be exciting to see when it happens. So Paris and Gary, let's end this with, do we see this this summer? Is this the future in 2027, 28? When do we start to have a real picture of what is going to be next for them? My two cents, I think it is essential that they start talking about it this year. Now that it's coming this year, may not even come in 20,

But give us a glimpse into the future of where you're headed with your hardware. So as a customer, I can understand, is this something I want? Not to mention, you get early feedback on it. You'll know if this is something that your customers are excited about. Like, yeah, I'd buy that. Or, ooh, no, I don't care about that. I'm just going to go get a PlayStation. Start talking about it.

Hint at it. I mean, like I said, Jason Ronald is hinted at what the Xbox Windows experience is going to be. But I do want to know also what is the next hard. hardware experience is going to be. They've teased that goddamn handheld enough that let's see what it is. Let's see what the under the television box is going to be as well. I think sooner or later, maybe as early as like, you know, game awards this year, this December or whatever, you might see something transitional, like the Keystone thing that we talked about, you know, the streaming box, something that kind of like feels like the next logical

step towards what we're talking about. I still think, oh, back to what I said at the very beginning, I still think that we are not near enough to the end of this, to the next general generational crossover to be talking to be showing this stuff. A, why would you why would you show your hand to the competition that far in advance? And also I kind of like as soon as you show the next gen thing, the current thing like it's like why would I keep buying game? Why would I buy one of these or keep buying? We're already there with that. No one's buying it now anyways. I just I don't I don't see how that helps. It feels like Xbox is poison a situation of people aren't buying that. They are in third place. Now is the time to shake it up and get

ahead of PlayStation and start doing that. You can break the cycle now. You can change the narrative and show something truly different. Again, I don't think it's going to be super innovative. I just don't think Microsoft is that company. They're too big and too conventional a company. There's a reason only Nintendo can do what Nintendo does. Neither

Microsoft nor Sony would have, nor did they, come up with the Wii or the Wii or the Switch. Nintendo did that first and now everyone's like trying to iterate or trying to find ways to like bring that to their platform. The switch is fucking genius. Absolutely genius. And no other company

would have had the balls to do it. But now that it's, now that it's been shown as like a proof, like that's a format that is wildly successful. People love that. Dock it on your TV playing, pick it up and go. I think you will see something. And the portal is like Sony's halfway movement towards that. I do think you, I think

this will be that it's one thing that it can do, and I'll just argue against myself here is like it changes the narrative. Right. It says, oh, Microsoft's doing something. they're changing it up. This is a new strategy. Like here's, it's not just,

Phil Spencer going, all, you know, everything's in Xbox. We just, you know, after a while just sounds, just, it's just talk.

Show us something, right? Here's a new piece of hardware that demonstrates where, you know, they're doing it on the software side. Forces is coming to PlayStation. I do think Xbox, I do think, Halo will eventually follow.

I think that is part of the overall strategy, no red lines and everything. There has to be something equally different and, and, kind of game change. Like, if you're on a, if you're on a sports,

field and your team's getting fucking plobbered, you've got to change your tactics. That's changed it up. You've got to change your tactics. And I think that's what's going to happen. Well, let's jump in and thank those, of course, for watching and listening. Thank you so much for tuning into a fun, kind of funny games cast to end your week. And of course, a little ex-cast for Union.

Alana, you're the absolute best, but my gaming dads, thanks you both for your time and being here. Let's jump into some super chats because I always like to thank those who support us here, kind of funny. Before we go. So let's go through some of the super chats to end out today's show. Mr. Nice Guy Rise, Super Chat, and says, Play the X-Cast theme. I need it in my soul.

Let's go. Turn on an old episode. Enjoy the music. We love that so much. Jared writes in and says, can we get a one day hopes and dreams for Elder Scroll 6 episode? I'm sure one day on the Games cast, we will definitely look forward to Elder Scroll 6.

Nigel writes in and says, Mike, would you kindly please pay attention to the security cameras in Bioshock, just zap it and run under it, then smash it. Having a tough time with the security box of Biosch. Well, you said, would you kindly? Now you have to do it.

Let's jump in to some more. Jordan writes in and says, something that I haven't heard anyone mention. Do you think we get an announcement for the next Xbox this year? And they said the handhelds a few years away, but everyone is speculating the console to come out next year. We kind of talked about when we think we'll see that there on that one. It is going to be very excited of what will happen.

Up next, Phil says, gamers complained for a decade about console, exclusives, timed windows, backwards compatibility, etc. Xbox is the first one trying to break down those barriers and we complain more. I'm happy with what...

I'm happy. What does an average gamer really want, personally? They just want great games. I mean, ultimately, I think we're hearing the loud voices, but I think most people, like I saw a lot

of people very excited that Forsa Horizon 5 was going to PlayStation. I've had the comments of, I've never and own an Xbox and I've always wanted to play it now I can. And I think that's what Phil is talking about. They're reaching more people. Sometimes it really is that simple. I mean, again, look at Nintendo. Nintendo is always innovated on the

hardware side, but when it comes down to it, why has Nintendo been successful for like almost more than 100 fucking years? They have the best games. Nigel writes in one more time and says, I absolutely love that I will get to play Halo Gears Forza with my PlayStation friends. Plus PlayStation

gamers might subsidize my GamePass sub. So everyone wins. Well, you're going to have some friends jumping in with you. It's going to be a great time with that. A couple more. Jordan White writes in and says, I know Xbox has grounded and Minecraft, but I would love for them to create a brand new, insanely deep survival crafting game. Maybe that's what Everwhile turned into, but we'll see. You never know what could be next. Survival crafting games, one of my favorite genres out there. Powell World, fantastic. Go play some Powell World.

Loved Power World. So, so much. Gary, remaking games is already Gary, remaking games we already remade, that's a PlayStation 5 era type of thing. Why is it so bad? When I said, as I was saying,

is it the first game that would have been remade twice? I knew in my head, like, that can't be right. Like, GT5, right? How many times have they redone that? Of course. Right? And again, that's an out like,

that's an outlier because GTA5 is GTA5. But no, it's, it's, the Halo one for some reason just seems funny to me. But I do think that if they are going to bring, if they're going to release Halo across the platform, forms like a super duper PlayStation 5 stroke 6 remake of the original game would be a great way to kind of launch that game into that ecosystem. Thank you to Kababs, who writes in The Last of Us.

Shadow of the Colossus and RE4 got remasters and a remake. Luke writes in and says, Blizzard should do a warcraft version of Vellheim survival crafting. That'd be kind of fun. I'd never go into Valheim. Belheim's a great word. Some people did. Phil writes in says, my wrong ally X is the best Xbox I've ever had.

Yeah, I've got to get one of those here. You like that? Players, you got one of those? I don't have the X. I have the original one. Oh, they have a second version. The price performance delta on those PC gaming handles is still not quite there. It'll get better.

But right now, they're still too expensive, still too chunky, still too many performance limitations, battery life. It's not quite there yet. Yeah. Yeah, I was at CES just really quick, and I did get to check out the Legion Go. running windows and the one to run a steam OS pretty nice. So yeah.

It's only going to get better. But like, you know, I have not yet fully embraced that category. I feel like it's really exciting to figure out we're going to be in a couple of years, but we're not there yet. Okay. Final two ones here, of course.

Thank you so much for your support. Thanks for watching and listening out there. Sky writes in and says, are we purposely avoiding the Halo slash Flight Sim slash Starfield leaks from this morning? Love you guys. I don't know what those are.

Am I living under? I mean, that one, I don't know what the leaks are. Is it just that they may be coming to another console? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, there's like 10 million of them that, like going to switch to and PlayStation and all that. I mean, I think, look, at this point, they're all freaking going. Yeah, I mean, at this point, we've said, like, it's all bets are off, right?

Yeah. As soon as you say, hello, then what's, that's it, right? That's the pinnacle. I mean, you're putting 40. Yeah, I think everyone on this desk has the belief that all these games are coming out there. So, yeah, we're not, we're not being blown away by any sort of leaks or rumors that they could be. I think we've all moved on and accepted

that one. I heard you're just too scared to talk about it. Mike Howard. Cowerd. I will say, you know what game stole my heart this year? Microsoft Flight Sim. 24. Well, I mean, Gary, I can't get enough of this game right here. I'm addicted to it here. I got a

problem. I'm old enough to remember Microsoft Flight Simulator from back in the day when it was very, very rudimentary. And there's flight sims always at its hardcore, you know, the people that build the rigs at home with the pedals and the yokes and the throttles and everything. and get really into it. People that love those games,

they must be an absolute nirvana right now because when I sometimes watch YouTube videos of the new flight sim and I'm like, holy shit, you can do that in that game. What that game has become is absolutely phenomenal. And our final one, it's amazing. It's so good. Can I have the whole fucking planet.

Deshaun writes in and says, The Xbox should become the equivalent of a pre-built PC only for gaming, giving you access to Steam and Epic. Just call it the Xbox. and have each new model named after the year like MacBooks. Parris, do you think we ever see that? I think that is a very good possibility.

This is what we're going to get moving forward. If they can pull it off, we'll see. But what Phil is hinted at is what he's describing. So we'll see. I think, I do think, and again, this is a very easy thing to say, but it's something that hasn't changed, right? The general picture of what the console was, the marketplace looks like for the last 30 years or so have been roughly the same.

The players have changed, right? It used to be Nintendo and Sega. And then it became, you know, Nintendo and Sega and Xbox and PlayStation. And then Sega went away and now we have the three that remain. But it's always been the same thing, right? Xbox and PlayStation, both fundamentally offering the same thing. Here's a box that is N-powerful versus here's a box that is N-powerful, basically the same. And here's a bunch of really great games.

which are exclusive. Here's a bunch of games, really great games, some of which are exclusive. And Nintendo over here going, yeah, we don't fucking care. We're going to do mad stuff

and have the best games and a weird dockable console or things that you wave around and we're going to do our own thing and be wildly successful at it because when Nintendo, that has been the status quo now for a good long time.

I think it's safe to say that, again, maybe even five, but certainly 10 years from now, that will not be the status quo anymore. I think you'll have three different companies all doing very different strategies. Different stuff.

Yeah. I like that. Very exciting stuff. I think that's more interesting. Very exciting. We got a great future ahead. A lot of awesome games, especially from the Xbox first party side.

They seem to really be getting into it and showing you some great titles. So we're very excited for the future. Of course, thank you. Kind of funny best friends for watching and listening to today's Friday Gamescast. Of course, this has been an Xcast takeover with. Why did we ever get rid of the XCast? This was good.

Snowmike Mike and my two gaming dads. We'll be back again the three of us at this desk to have some more fun green gaming talk and the future of all things. Games will be having a good time. But, of course, this may be the end of games cast, but this isn't the end of our live programming if you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch.

Stay right here because Games Showdown. The show you want to see is right after this with a small little Gary segment takeover. That you don't want to miss. And then a very fun Star Wars stream after that. Kylo Ren is in the building for karaoke. You don't want to miss out on that. It's going to be a blast.

We'll see you all back on the next one. And we'll see you on the next show. Goodbye, everyone.