Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Predicting Fall 2021 in Video Games - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 73

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

We discuss what we expect to see at E3 and what we really think the holiday season is going to look like on the video game front. Time Stamps - 00:00:00 - Start 00:01:30 - Housekeeping 00:02:20 - What Does Fall 2021 Look Like? 00:36:37 - Ads 00:42:07 - More Bethesda/Xbox Talk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up and welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast. As always, I'm Tim Getty's joined by one of the coolest dudes in video games, Greg Miller. Hello, Timothy. How are you? I am fantastic because I'm also joined by the new face of video games blessing at Ae O. We're a week closer to E3. A week closer to E3, man. They're just this rolling in. They don't stop coming.

I love it. We're legitimately less than a month away from every single one of our hopes and dreams coming true. because that's what E3 is all about, right? Or being slashed. Metalger's solid six. I mean, remember, you'll say, I mean, even if you, I mean, you had the day before, it's 12 through the 15th, right? So you still, even if you're getting this hot off the presses on Tuesday, right?

You're thinking we're on Wednesday this week. We're not, but I appreciate where your heads at, Tim. You're a professional, a consummate professional. I am a consummate professional. That's how it works here. I don't want to burn content because I know we're eventually going to do it three predictions. How much of this fault do you guys think is going to get filled out by E3? because E3 usually does a good job in previous years

of like giving us what to look forward to for the rest of the year. And right now the rest of the year isn't looking that active aside from things like Death Loop and possibly Halo. Do you guys think you're going to go to a lot? Ragnarok. Don't worry about you're going to be playing that.

Oh yeah. A God of Warragor. Let me do the rigmarole and then let's answer that question to start off the show because this is the kind of funny games cast for each and every week we get together to talk about video games and all the things that we love about them. You can get the show on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games or roosterteeth.com.

If you want to get it as a podcast, just search your favorite podcast service for Kind of Funny Games cast and we'll be right there for you. If you want to get the show, ad free. If you won't watch it live, as it be is rock recorded. Or if you want to get the exclusive post show, Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny Games is where you want to be. Just like our Patreon producers. Omega Buster, Tyler Ross, Delaney, Twitting, Julian the gluten-free gamer, James Hastings, Casey Andrew Elliott and Tom Bach have done. Thank you all. So very, very much today.

We're brought to you by Purple Mattress, Human and Titan. But Greg will tell you all about those later for now. Let's just get right into it. Bless, you're talking about fall 2021. Does it fill out? Does E3 say that? What's it all look like? Greg, what do you think? It has to, right? We have to know what's coming. It is a quiet fall right now. And obviously that's not unheard of by the stretch of the imagination. But I do feel we have to start lining things up to what it's going to be, who's doing what. And that doesn't mean, I don't think, you know, PlayStation doing a state of play,

Microsoft doing their whole conference, and like, like, Microsoft actually probably. But like, you know, I don't mean like, you're going to get everything from everybody in terms of the big guns. I think it is more of like, here, Ubisoft for sure. What do they got?

You know, they always have a big fall. Far cry. It was going to be, I think, this spring. So that makes sense for it to line up then. But then, you know, where it is, and I expect other games from them as well. Not tons and tons anything. But like, what's going on with the writer?

Republic? Is that the one? Is that it right? Ryarschal Republic was pushed from spring to fall. And so that's expected then right there. And there's also things like Rainbow Six quarantine. That's not called Rainbow Six quarantine now. There's a splinter cell too. That's right around the corner probably. Can't wait for that splinter cell. It's going to be right there too. Yeah, yeah. Prince of Persia, where are we at with that? What is going on with the one that keeps getting kicked down the road? But I do think that'll solidify to an extent. You'll know where those games actually aren't

be able to plan for it, let alone what you're going to see from. Somebody like EA, somebody like Activision when they start lining that stuff up. Do you think that's the hits though? You know, because like this year is an 8th year. Yeah,

like any of that's, I'm sure companies plan for things come out this year, but with quarantine, that's kind of screwed up all the release schedules in a way where maybe we just don't get a fall

full of games because people weren't able to hit it. The thing is that have to put games out, though, because they have to make money, whether or not the games are finished or the games, the big ones,

or they're going to be more like smaller titles and smaller, not necessarily meaning like in terms of budget or in terms of, in terms of like game design or whatever, but just smaller in terms of they know that they can kind of put these ones out to the wolves, things like Prince of Persia.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see a lot more of those. Greg? Yeah, where I was going to drive with the conversation was I think that, yeah, I think not all of them will hit. I want to be surprised, and this isn't, I don't know anything on the inside at all, but I wouldn't be surprised if like Riders Republic fell even further back if they held that till where they wanted to put it this year, right? Put out in the first part of 2020, put it out right there in that January.

February, March area where there is a little bit more room to breathe and get people behind it as we're talking about like Outwriters. Like if Riders Republic had hit at the same time or right around the same time, right? Like maybe it would have only been a week like Outriders or whatever, but it would have made money.

It would have had a thing in there, right? Whereas in the fall, I think you'd galloped up. What I think might happen is, yes, there will be fewer fall releases. You know what I mean? Yes, there will still be some though. But I honestly think this would be, I am starting to think,

and myself personally, get excited for Far Cry 6. and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not alone. I wouldn't be surprised if this Far Cry does big numbers because it's going to get there and have, I always forget the guy's name, Gianna Carlo Esposito, is that right? Oh, yeah, John Carlin. Have him out there leading the charge.

Have it be a big AAA game that is running best on your Xbox Series X and your PlayStation 5 and has all these bells and whistles and you can be Trezzo, the sausage dog. Like, I could see that hype cycle really building up and hopefully, you know, the few problems I had personally with Far Cry 5 in terms of it just being, everywhere I went. I'm going to go to point

right across the map. I'm getting attacked by everything in the world all the time. They iron out some of that stuff. I think that could be a game that really people sink their teeth into and are excited.

It is a big budget blockbuster AAA game in the fall that could really eat up a lot of time. Yeah, it's interesting to look at because a couple weeks ago on Gamescast we did our, I don't think you were on this one, Greg, but we went through all the games

with the release date. And so far we were talking about like our hype levels for them. And it's funny where every year's kind of like this, but I think this year more than ever, there's just a fall off after like the June release dates. There's just not many things that we know.

We have some 20, 21 dates and stuff, but there are some games, exceptions, like Back for Blood, October 12th. That's one that I'm praying makes it. You know what I mean? Like, that's one that I mean, I have, I want that game to be great because I loved the alpha we played of it, right?

I'm totally down for more left for dead, even though it's not left for dead, and I think, dude, put that on October. that's going to be like you know people people you're looking at that spooky game i think that could have a huge thing too but i don't rush it but that'll be such a perfect time for it totally uh and then on top of that too we have death loop come in september 14th uh but those are kind of the big titles that we know um like the later latter half of the year so far colors also yeah yeah there is a ton of stuff and like we got cana bridge of spirits august 24th uh and then of course for blessed no more heroes three august 27th yeah it's not gonna hit but yeah yeah but then it's like looking at the i'm on the wikipedia right now for the 20 21 in video games and unscheduled releases that have a 2021 uh hold over date for it right now and it's like there's a lot

stuff here but like going through we got 12 minutes which obviously a small title but something exciting But then we have the big dog stuff like the expected annualized games. Let's just start there. Battlefield 6. We know it's going to be announced sometime next month in June. Do we expect that it's going to hit in the fall of this year? I'm going to say yes. I think Battlefield is traditionally a fall game.

That's what you think of when you think of a fall game. And I think EA thinks of it the same way also. And the way that they've been pushing it and advertising it and teasing it and talking about it in their investors meetings. I know in investors meetings, you say what you need to say to keep them invested. Keep the stock up. Yeah, keep the stock up. But I think there's a certain level of confidence that they have with it in the way that they talk about it, that I think it is indeed going to hit in the fall. Especially what I forget what the studio was.

They had some other studio come through and work on it also. And the way they talked about how I think it was a need for speed studio. They're like, okay, yeah, you're going to come here, but you're also going to go back and work on your own thing after this. Like we're trying to really push this game out. And so I think that's one that's for sure going to come out. Greg, I'm interested. You made a face that you're not sure Battlefield would be hitting this year. What's that about?

It's another thing of what does EA think they have, right? Like, do they want to go out and come up against Call of Duty? Do they want to come? And it's what we're talking about, too, what does the fall look like? If the fall's quiet, maybe that is its chance to succeed. But it's a game that, yeah, they've teased that they're going to reveal here momentarily, but are they confident they're going to actually hit that year? Or do you want to, again, push it to the spring and try to have something there?

It's interesting. You said this. and did you cover, did we talk about Battlefield 6 on Games Daily today? I caught the first 30 minutes of the show and then walked away. Then I came back and you guys were like 10, 55. You're like, one more story. I'm like, Jesus. I just Googled it to see what I, if I missed anything.

Tom's guide, Rory Mellon, Rory Mellon, Tom's guide says Battlefield 6 reveal could be delayed. Here's why. For months we've been hearing that Battlefield will be officially unveiled in early May, but they might have to wait a little bit longer. According to the industry insider Jeff Grub, the reveal of Battlefield 6 was originally scheduled for early May. He received his information in March of this year. However, the situation has changed, pushed it back to June, or potentially into June,

which we've, that's what you're talking about. So I'm old. Sorry, this is all old information. Just like Jeff Rob's old. God, I saw a tweet that it was something like June. What rhymes with June soon or something like that from Battlefield? Oh, yeah, yeah. They're being more official.

I would think if you're making a big deal about the announcement and stuff, then yeah, you're going to do it. It's, you know, another conversation you guys were having today on Games Daily about, like, you know, everybody talks about fallout in their release plan, right, but the other games that have done it right? in the other game being Resident Evil and how Village is the one we've known about the longest, but that's also not entirely in their hands based on the way the world went in 2020.

I would think if you're going to make a big deal about it and come out and talk about it, EA play, you assume, then yeah, you'd want to be able to go and say, hey, it's this fall. Yeah. I mean, what's interesting is looking at, you know, EA's definitely shot itself in the foot when it comes to big fall releases, Titan Fall, and the last battle field we saw.

But looking at where we're at now, this could be kind of the fall, ironically, could be kind of a more free open space like you're talking about here, Greg, for battlefield to actually make an intent. The opponent there, of course, would be Call of Duty. Do we expect to see the Call of Duty this year actually hit the end of this year? Yes. Yeah.

I think that's a hundred chamber game. Yeah, I feel like that is, you want to talk about a company that will not miss their deadlines. I think you talk about Activision, right? And like, they what, they've totally dropped modes from games to make sure they hit at the right time. Black Ops 4, I think was the one that I was like, okay, we're releasing this without story mode. And they revealed it and marketed as like a, hey, we don't need. Like it's going to be big multiplayer. Welcome to the future.

Welcome to Jr. I was like, no, that's not that's not worth it. Yeah, Jason Fryer's like, oh no, they just couldn't finish it in time. And so they're just shipping it. And so, yeah, no matter, come hell or high water, they're releasing that thing this fall. But it's interesting to look at kind of the landscape of these third party AAA annualized releases in some form, right? Where we have, okay, let's imagine we do get a battlefield and a call of duty this year, which I would bet we do. I imagine that they won't be released the same month, but it'll probably be an October, November type situation, right?

But then on the Ubisoft front, like that's kind of the other group that has a lot of these games. We know we're not getting an Assassin's Creed this year. We know that all the Ubisoft games that we know of currently are kind of the smaller titles, not their big AAA pushes when I'm talking about things like Writers Republic and Prince of Persia. The exception is Far Cry. So yeah, I do think that that would be make a lot. Imagine like an August, Far Cry 6th, September or October battlefields, and then a November. college duty switch any of those months with any of those games doesn't really matter but it's just like

that is a big tent pole third-party title that you imagine all of those are going to be cross-gen on you know for last gen and next gen so it's like that would make a lot of sense financially but it's like what else do they have around that this year that's the bigger question for me i mean you do know about rainbow six quarantine i keep forgetting if that's if that's rainbow six or if it's a different thing. But yeah, Rainbow Six quarantine, which is going to get his name changed. I'm sure that's going to hit either late this year or early next. You got to imagine. And Ubisoft, I think they tend to do good at pulling stuff out of their hat that you wouldn't necessarily expect. Like, what if we did get a Mario and Rabbits 2 later this year or like some UBi

art game that we weren't big? A new Rayman or whatever. Like I can see them easily at E3 because we know they have more Ubisoft forwards coming up. What if there they do announce there's smaller stuff, but then maybe one more big temple thing that isn't Far Cry. And I guess the question would be, what is that then? Skull and Bones. I keep forgetting my school and bones. Yeah, baby.

It's Pirate Time. The world keeps forgetting, but maybe one day, you know, we'll understand more. Yeah, looking at this list of 2020 and games, Rainbow 6 quarantine's not on it. So I don't know if Rainbow 6 quarantine, whatever it's going to end up being called, has a date of any sort attached to it currently.

I don't expect to see it this year. I wouldn't either. really yeah yeah I feel like it's still too close to everybody being quarantined I think that and everything else that's happened you just got to punt that down the line and give it more time to cook and get away from a pandemic yeah I don't think that that has that much to do with it

especially if they're going to rebrand it and like thinking about all the different forms of media that have had to deal with that I mean even Resident Evil Village right to an extent is the similar type of thing of things being infected and whatever I imagine if they take that quarantine just take the name quarantine quarantine out of it. It's just like, you know, I think it's more just the level of where the game's

going to be at. I don't think it's coming out this year. I don't know. That game was announced, what, two years ago now? It feels like that game has been out in the ether forever in terms of it being announced. And that's the game I would have expected to have been out by now, but I, but I think that's the thing where you assume quarantine has kicked that one down the road. That plus Ubisoft delaying a bunch of their games, uh, like, I guess over a year ago now, when they did have that financial year that wasn't being met up. Like they, what was it?

Rainbow Six, not Rainbow Six. The other one that I keep mixing up, it came on the fall. It was a multiplayer game. Wildlands was the predecessor. Ghost Recrecon. Breakpoint. Breakpoint, thank you.

After breakpoint, they're like, okay, we're going to delay all this shit because we got to, we got to regroup. We got to figure out what UESoft games look like coming up. And I think that...

Newsoft originals. Yeah, we got to figure out. Yeah. How are you get branded. Don't forget about the division heartland, right? Yeah, now you got the division heartland. But I think that's the thing. That plus quarantine, like quarantine in the world, not quarantine the game,

probably leaves to them kicking that game down the road a lot because they're just trying to get their shit together. But that's a thing that I would have expected to have been out by now if the world was way more normal. I mean, let's have the big conversation now about the big dogs, Halo Infinite. As of May 10th, 2021, do we think that it'll come out this year. I think yes. I think it will. It's one of those where probability-wise,

the majority, yes, it's going to happen. I do believe there's enough of minority where if they came out tomorrow and we're like, hey, hey, we need more time. I would believe that just as much. And I wouldn't be shocked. I wouldn't be like, I can't believe it. You know, Xbox and Microsoft and of course, three-four-three have been, I think great this entire time about being like, hey, this game isn't where it needs to be. Like, they've been open about it before they even started doing these monthly blog posts and really getting open about it and really talking to the audience about it. So if they were like, guess what? Still not there. I'd be like, I think it's crazy that this is happening, but it's not unbelievable by and stretch the imagination. Yeah, I think

the only way it doesn't make this year is if Microsoft Xbox has a different big title to hit. If Starfield actually does it does make it this fall or something of a similar scope or similar size makes it this fall, then I can see Halo getting kicked. But I don't think you can kick Halo and not have no big game this fall because that's two big falls in row where you don't have a big game. You could listen to X-Cats where they talk about that there's a probable world where we could

get both Starfield and HALO this this fall. I can see it. No, there isn't. No, I'm just kidding. You're John BX-32 Starfield this year garbage out of here. I love it.

They're two very different games, so. I'd love it. But I think if I was, if, I think for Xbox, the stronger move would be to just hold one for the fall and then release the other in the spring so you can get that consistent flow of big tempo games as opposed to releasing them

both in the same season. See, my think the season's a long time. And I feel like especially with where we're at now, it's like, you know, last year, PS5 launched with Demon Souls and Miles Morales. And it's like that, then it's like kind of just market penetration of just quality across the board, right?

And it's like if we get Halo and Starfield to obviously different genres of games and all that stuff, the core thing being game pass being such a big push for both of those. Like that's a very enticing thing for people to either make the jump to Xbox or just add Xbox to their their console lineup or whatever, especially when you compare that to the other side of is PlayStation going to have the games to compete? See, my thing is, how hard do you need to push Xbox right now as a console and a platform

when you can't buy them, right? Like, they're not available in stores right now. And if you put out both Starfield... That's the chance to get the opportunity here, I think, in a lot of ways. Where I'm with this theoretical X-cast, you know what I mean? I've never heard of it. I don't listen to on Saturdays. And I don't know anything like Gary Wood or Paris or Mike.

But I could see... Yeah, I don't think Halo Infinite and Starfield coming out around each other is that big of a deal in terms of, oh, man, it's going to cannibalize sales, right? Because it would be actually enhancing the sale of Xbox Game Pass, which is what they want. And so I think again, there it is, if we get to the fall, which we will, and you still can't get Xbox Series X's or, with all due respect to everyone, more importantly, in terms of the pop culture, the PlayStation 5, if you're hungry for a next jet experience, or hungry for more video games and yada, yeah, yeah, but you can't get that PlayStation 5 to play, everything that's come out this year for PlayStation 5, to play Returnal, to play ratchet, to play Horizon if that actually hits, right? Got a war, not a chance in hell. It is a pretty enticing offer of Xbox is like, hey, though, you can play Halo Infinite. It's getting great. scores and so Starfield, you can play those through the power of the cloud, through Xbox Game Pass, on your mobile device, on your PC at that point in terms of the Xbox Game

Pass, they've done it there, like streaming the cloud and all these different ways to do it. And natively, obviously, you're using GamePass and PC, but just stick with me. It is a way of like, you don't have that next gen console, so why not get in here? And then hopefully, you know, that does what they always want, which is the doors open a little in there. Your Xbox is able to burst through. It's like, cool. You're in the ecosystem.

You got Xbox Game Pass just right now so you can play Halo Infinite. If you hang on until next month, Starfield's here. And if you hang on to next month, whatever else is there. But hopefully by the third month, you're not even thinking like what's going to keep me around. You're thinking, well, my Saturday night multiplayer session of Halo Infinite and then my everyday Starfield, you know, 300 hours I put into it, are going to keep me around, let alone. Then I'm looking at when can I get a Series X or when can I buy just, or I'm going to buy a used Xbox right now so I can play on the TV or some dongle. or whatever. See, I think where you're saying makes sense. I don't know

if Starfield and Halo Infinite are the games to do that with. I think there's still plenty that they have in their catalog that they can bunch together in a way to get people excited for Xbox in the fall, right? And so, like, if you do this fall is, Halo leading the charge is the 10th pole title, and then you have around it games like

Psychonauts 2 or games like whatever Forza is going to come out in the fall, or maybe Ever Wilde could be ready. I don't know. Like, whatever games you package that around, you can build, you can build that to be a great fall so that you don't have two tent pulls at the same time. And then you can have maybe a tent pole per quarter. Because if you do that, if you do, if you do the one tent pole this fall and then let's say three titles around it to really define what Xbox looks like in the fall, you can follow that up with possibly another banger spring, which is like, okay, cool. Now let's release Starfield.

And around Starfield, let's say, let's say if Starfield comes out in April, you know, May we're going to have Ever Wild or, in March we could have X, Y, and Z game. And I'm sure that can then lead into another fall that is, okay, cool. Now our tempo is going to be Hellblade. I think there's a cadence that they kind of got to build with Xbox that hasn't been there that could work very strong for them.

Because now they have so many games that they could use to kind of build a narrative. And if they drop multiple, if they drop, I guess, too much at once, does that narrative a year later feel like it is right now where it's like, cool, we had that amazing fall, but now we're back to waiting for whatever the next thing is. But don't you, I feel like it's going to be like, I use this loosely because obviously you have to have hundreds and hundreds of first party studios for this. But I do feel like once this starts,

the floodgates kind of open, especially with Bethesda, because it is that, or in Zenimax in general, because it was that idea of, cool, they're building from the ground up, right? And they have a coalition, and they have the initiative and they have these other stories, you know, Ninja Theory is working at Hellblad. And it's like, this is all great, but those games are still a ways out. And this isn't me transitioning to any kind of list. Yeah, exactly. It felt like it, right? These are games are still a ways out. So what are you going to do in the meantime?

And I feel like with bringing in Bethesda and the games they already have on the slate, the ability to be like, all right, cool, they're there. You have a little bit more cadence to it. And that means Xenomax, let alone the other exclusives and stuff you're getting in there. And again, I really do think it just comes down to giving people a reason to get game pass and then stick around and understand why this is cool and what they should be doing with it or why they should do it. I guess the question for me also is what is going to be, what's prepared for this fall?

Because in my mind, you know, my mind we're going to get Halo Infinite, but then I go to, all right, where is Wolfenstein 3 at? Because I wouldn't be surprised if that's ready for this fall,

right? Like there's, now that they have Bethesda, there are tons of games that they probably have going with them. Well, they're like, cool, let's organize this shit

and figure out how we're going to hit. Because, yeah, Wolfstein 3 is another one that's there. Ever Wild, I mentioned before. There's plenty of things that right now. Do you think Ever Wilde exists? Yeah. Yeah. Like I think everyone is going to be their next year.

Yeah. Oh, 1,000%. Yeah. I think that is going to be their next year. I think it exists. I think it's very early in its existence, though. I give that game a 20% shot up coming out in the next. Ever coming out? Two years. Really? Yeah. Why so? Just from what we've seen of it and like the how little we've seen and how long we've seen that little bit, at least it feels like. And maybe I'm wrong about timeline. Let me know. But I thought it got announced. It got announced last year at E3,

and I think that's all we've ever seen of it. Okay, maybe I'm thinking of something different then. Well, it definitely was announced last year to E3 because there was an E3 last year. Well, whatever, the fucking summer game of that, whatever. I think it was announced before then. Let me look, because I could have wanted to announce for like two years. Right here, yeah, exactly.

Official Everwhile, the Turtles trailer came out on July 23rd, 2020, Xbox game showcased July 2020. Well, damn. I'm going to have to write to Jeff Keeley. Looks like we had a new member of the Future Class. No, it was that. It was that. Yeah, good.

It was named after. Steve Byr Courtney! Hold up before you, because you're going to eat your words. It was announced at X-O-19. What? Yeah. It was a long time ago.

Either way. Yeah, I'm looking at the announcement trailer right now. But yeah. Taking my title back, future class. Might as say we're taking away. I said we're adding Barrett to it. But now we're going to take me off. Just take me off.

Barrett's like Cinderella. We'll get everybody else in future class. Barrett's still here pushing the buttons. I feel like I'm at a 51-49 situation, where I am leaning towards Halo not coming out or not making it this year. I'm sure that the plan is for it to come out this year. It wouldn't be surprised if it does. The level of quality of the game, that's a different conversation entirely.

And I think that that also leads to the double punch of if there was a Starfield, which that's the thing too. Like, Greg, what's your percentage chance of Starfield coming out this year? It's John BX32 got in my head about it a bit. And they haven't been in our live chat in a while. so they might be He did his work. Maybe it's Pete Hines.

You know what I mean? It was just Pete's a student him getting in there and being a part of it. I don't see it. Like it's another one where I can see it. And I, you know how we are,

it's him, of course, where you and I are very similar where it's like the, I think the minority of the probability that is that it can happen makes me super excited. So I fucking want it to happen.

I want it to be that at E3. I'm like, here's Microsoft and Bethesda. And they're like, if I can see your Starfield and it's coming out this fall. right? I just don't see it happening. And I don't think that means beyond a spring of next year, but I just feel like this isn't, I don't feel like it's fallout where it's like all you need to say was

it's fallout. Everybody gets stoked. I feel like this is a game you want to be like, hey, here's this new thing, this open world, there's so much to talk about. There's so many things to meet and introduce you to before you ever grab the sticks because video game marketing. I think they don't want to, in quotes, rush it from an E3 to a fall release. I just feel like they, you know, Tim, we're having a conversation about video games the other day. You were talking about this golden opportunity. It was a different project. But like this, I feel like is a golden opportunity for them of like really drumming up this brand new world from the, you know, innovative minds of Bethesda and Todd Howard and here's everything that's going.

Like on top of the fact that where is that game and how much has COVID set it back and yada, yada, yada. Like there's two different competing things that I think make it not this year. But I would love it to be this year. I just don't see it. Yeah. It's interesting. It's funny to look back to, let's say, two years ago, looking at the PlayStation Slate of Content and it being Spider-Man and Horizon,

God of War, Death Stranding, and Ghosts, and Last of Us, if I didn't say that. And the amount of conversations we would have about, what do we think the light up's going to be? What's the release schedule going to be? We were all so off. Like, Sony made some whack, like out of left field whack-ass decisions that ended up really working well for them and changing the way people can do things. Like the fact that Ghostos Hashima came out that close to Last Office Part 2 is crazy.

And granted, COVID had a lot to do with that, whatever, but it worked. You know, so I think that like when everyone, including Microsoft are looking at how people are buying and playing games or thinking about video games even, I think that it's not necessary to look at how things used to be as much as it is being like, okay, what do we need right now? And I do think that it would be powerful for Microsoft to have things that don't put them out day and date. Don't do the Titan Fall 2 thing. But putting them out within the same month or even within two months or whatever, getting that kind of like, there needs to be the holy

shit. I can't believe this is on Game Pass moment. They haven't had that yet. They've had a lot of dope stuff. They're adding a lot of really, really, really cool shit. But there hasn't been a game that's like, oh my God, you have to get an Xbox somehow to be able to play this game. And I think that we're going to see that, whatever it is this year. I just don't. know what game it's going to be yet and I think that it might be multiple games. See, I think that and that would be a really interesting take on it. Again, with firing on all cylinders, right, or the dominoes tipping over, whatever analogy you want to use for it.

But if it was like literally like, I mean, like you, you know, another XCast conversation, right, of like a psychonauts two of us, just shadow drop and release, right? Like if it was that they're just like, pop, pop, pop, and it is like, you know, we're talking about this happening this month and this month and that, but next year we're not slowing down either and not dates, but games that were actually. confirming our next year and shit. Like it does such a great job of getting that energy behind them and that momentum back for Xbox because I feel like that's what Xbox has struggled with where the hardware is great

and the services are great and it's just this struggle of what games are over there. And they keep making cool announcements and acquisitions and yada yada yada, but it's just loading the chamber, loading the chamber, loading the chamber, and now it's time to start firing. Yeah, quarantine has made this such an interesting thing to talk about to think about because I think in the absence of quarantine, I think this. this E3 would be that E3. Like this E3 would be the most banger E3 of all time for Xbox where they are like this fall, look forward to X, Y, and Z.

Next year, look forward to X, Y, and Z. And everything they mentioned are all bangers. And in a perfect world, I could see them, I can see the first two hours, let's say an hour and a half maybe of Microsoft's press conference being, cool, let's focus on the Microsoft First Party Studios. Now we're going to transfer it to Bethesda and let them know, tell us about some stuff. And literally half of Bethesda's E3 conference and the way that, in, I forget what year,

2016 was it, or 2015, was Fallout 4, I could see that being Starfield. And I, like, I do think that, that would be, that would be enough, right? If Starfield was coming out, let's say November,

like Fallout did that year, I think that five months of, at E3, blow it all wide open, talk all about Starfield. Like, we'll do a deep dive in front of everybody, show all the different systems,

show all the characters that you're going to fall in love with, all that stuff, break all that stuff down and then over the course of the next, five months on that conversation, own the industry's attention. I think that would work because from there it is word of mouth and it is people getting their hands on it and telling their friends about it

and people being fans of Bethesda and knowing that they worked on Fallout and Skyrim and the games they loved and then getting into it. I think that would be such a perfect situation for that game. But again, like back to quarantine. It's like who knows where it's at? Who knows where who knows where plenty of studios are at with all this? But either way, like even if Microsoft's conference this year for E3 is a bunch of trailers that don't have release dates and a few that are, okay, here's what's coming this fall, then here's what's coming next year. I think either way, we're going to see some shit. Like, we're going to see some game announcements that are going to be like, okay, let's fucking go.

At least I hope. I am, one of the things I am most interested in at this E3 is how they handle the Microsoft Bethesda press conference situation on how integrated they actually end up being, how much of a, like, handhold it's going to be. or if they're presented as they are two very different products. Like, I'm sure during the Microsoft one, they're going to talk a lot about the Bethesda one. I'm sure during the Bethesda one,

they're going to make it very clear that the stuff's available on Game Pass. But I wonder if it's going to have a different kind of identity and tone. Because in the past, before they were owned by Microsoft, the Bethesda Conference did not feel like the Microsoft Conference, right? Do they stay with that kind of vibe or is there some deeper level there? And with that, two questions for you guys. Do you mind if I answer your question with a question? Yes.

My question to answer your question would be right now, is it worth it, or how worth it is it for Microsoft to keep the Bethesda branding, not just with the Bethesda Game Studios, but with that publishing label overall. You know, when we're talking about software, when we're talking about machine games and all of them, how valuable is Bethesan name?

Because if you want to say that it is valuable to keep so that they can keep that under that umbrella, then for sure, for E3, they're going to do the same thing and have that transition. That's an extremely, extremely wise observation there. That brings me to these two questions. Starfield, is it cross-gen or next-gen-only?

And as of May 10th, 2021, do you guys think it's Xbox exclusive or does it also come to PlayStation platforms? Greg Miller, what do you think? Cross-gen, it comes to everything. I think it's been in development too long to... I think it's been in development too long to be just next-gen. I think they've been working with having that for so long, let alone, even if you were there now in this conversation of,

unless it was Xbox exclusive, the number of units out there, right? Where, like, why would you, if you're next gen only, like, so what you, the PS5 shortage is going to fuck everything up. And Xbox, obviously, smart delivery, you'd be able to play it anywhere and be fantastic. And then also for, is it Xbox only or everywhere? I think it's everywhere because, again,

just how much time it's been in development. I don't think you put that much time in and have a playable. And I know people think it's so. easy to just hit a button and have an Xbox game work on PlayStation. There's more to it than that, right? And there's so many assets and resources that go into that. And so I think to get to this point and have it be that, cool, we've been bought. I don't think Xbox walks in and goes, okay, kill that.

And I understand that there is a business argument of like, we'll kill it and we eat the costs and sunk all you, blah, blah, blah, because, of course, we're going to get you on GamePass. We're going to get you buying this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just, I don't see it. I feel like we're just too close than that one personally. I think it's happening. Yeah.

What you just said, that's where I bet. I do think that it doesn't necessarily make the most business sense in a lot of ways, but it does in others. And I think that it is a, my bet is Starfield is a next gen only Xbox game. But do you think come, but here's my, okay, so hold on. If I can, if I can pump the brakes for one second, though. Everything I just said was Starfield's coming out this C3, this year. Is that what you're saying to?

Because if you push it to next year, then I think we start to have a really interesting point of So, okay, that is, of course, yeah, let's make it next gen, only let's make it, dude. Yeah, so many hypotheticals here that we're dealing with. But I don't think Starfield is this year. I think regardless, even if it was, I still think that Xbox is going to take this and run with it. Because it's interesting with what Bless brought up, though, about how they treat this press conference. Because what is the point of keeping Bethesda as this weird middle management thing when Bethesda game studio still will be under, Xbox game studios, that makes sense.

But then all the other teams as well would just be, they make more sense. There's too much branding at some point, right? Yeah, of course. But it's like, is this the E3 to get rid of that? Because we are still at that point where even if they were at what I'm saying, go full on Xbox. They're not going to put stuff multi-platt. This year they're still going to. They're still there.

They have to have a place to talk about Death Loop and to talk about Ghostwire, Tokyo and all that stuff. Right. So it's like, is that. I mean, that is a good. That's another business thing. I'm just like, okay, cool. Like, I'm sure it's a PlayStation exclusive and those exclusives come obviously with money, but also multi-tiered marketing contracts or paragraphs in contracts. So it's like perhaps PlayStation's going to do all the heavy lifting on that. And perhaps like they already have stayed a place planned and all this

other stuff that, Bethesda doesn't have to worry about it during their showcase. And again, to your point of Microsoft and trying to be Microsoft about it while I promote this PlayStation game. Yeah. And the counterpoint to that would be like how Burrower. does Arcane feel about that or how burnt does Tango GameWorks feel about that? But what if it is? All right, cool. At the Microsoft conference, let's announce their next project. Arcane's next project that they're going to work on after Death Loop.

Right. And that's far, far fetched. But when we're talking about this competitive nature between them and like where exclusive lie and all that, I could see it being like a kind of a, I'm going to say a dirty play. Even though like it's business and so whatever, whatever, it's all dirty. I can see it being this play of like, cool. let's really own what this conversation is. As Xbox, let's own where these developers are, or let's own these developers, right? Like let's bring them into the family and really put them out there in this competitive way to really push the fact that now, yeah, these are Xbox studios now.

So yeah. Greg. Yeah, buddy. I am remembering somewhere that in the Jeff Grubb summer game mess of this year, there was at some point conversation about how they were going to handle the Bethes to Microsoft thing. was a confirmation in air quotes that they were going to be different events, not the same event. They might play back to back, but whatever.

Can you do me a favor? Can you call one, Jeffrey Grubb, see if he's available to answer. So you're going to ask him to call E3. Can you call the ESA? I just ask him what his most up-to-date understanding is of the Xbox Bethesda press conference situation at E3.

For the record, yes, what you're talking about. And, yeah, so we don't even need to, I remember, or you want the updated thing, though? I just want where his head's at right now. Okay, because last we heard it was from him, actually, was that, yes, they'd be the same stream, but there'll be a delineation, that there'll be a break, or whatever, there'll be something to separate them from.

But hold on, you want, Jeffrey Grubb, go. Give me some time. Yeah, the baton pass. Fill your time. While we're talking about this, I, I, but hold, before we do all that, let's have Greg tell you about our sponsors. This podcast is brought to you by Purple.

As the world becomes increasingly uncomfortable, we're all looking for as much, comfort as we can get. And I'll tell you what, when it comes to comfort, Joey Noel won't stop talking about her purple mattress. It's soft, it's comfortable, and it keeps her cool when she needs to be cool, and it keeps her warm when she needs to be warm. That's because the one thing you can count on in this uncomfortable world is how comfortable your purple mattress is. Purple is comfort reinvented. Only purple has the grid, a stretchy gel material that's increasingly supportive for your back and legs while cushioning your shoulders, neck, and hips. I don't know how it does it. It's just

fantastic. Because of how it's designed, the grid doesn't trap air. Air actually circulates and flows through it so you'll never overheat. The grid bounces back as you move and shift, unlike memory foam, which remembers everything. That's why memory foam has craters and divots. Again, Joey's been using this for a while now. She loves it, still uses it, has no plans to ever change because she loves that purple mattress. And right now you can love yours too. You can try your purple mattress risk-free with free shipping and returns. Financing is available too. Purple really is comfort in an uncomfortable world. Right now you'll get 10% off any order of $200 or more. Go to purple.com slash kind of funny 10 and use the promo code kind of funny 10. That's purple.

com slash kind of funny 10 promo code kind of funny 10 for 10% off any order of $200 or more. Purple.com slash kind of funny 10 promo code kind of funny 10 terms apply. Our next sponsor is HVMN trying to lose a little weight, sleep a little better. and not feel so groggy during the day, health via modern nutrition can help you do all of those things with a few small keto-friendly choices to improve your metabolism throughout the day. The average American consumes around 17 teaspoons

of added sugar each day. If you put that into your body today, it's the foundation for who you will become tomorrow. Start reaching your goals by being aware of and cutting out unnecessary sugars from your diet. HVMN is obsessed with helping you reach those goals through modern nutrition, powering your metabolism with less sugar and more ketonous.

HVMN is a nutrition company that takes the mystery out of counting macros. The results driven modern nutrition for modern lifestyles with less sugar than competitors. Their products provide lifestyle and habit upgrades that help their customers become healthier and better versions of themselves. By using real organic ingredients, HVMN has made keto and lifestyle improvements easy with healthy and low sugar options that are great for you and deliciously, satisfying. HVMN offers single items like MCT oil, keto food bars, and keto collagen powder, or you can grab a kit that includes all the essentials at an everyday discount. The one and only

big dog, Kevin Coelho has decided to try to eat better. He has this on his desk right now. He just started it. They're sending him what he needs is getting delivered right to his door. It's super easy. Right, Kevin. Absolutely. I got the full, the one with all of them in there. And let me tell you, It even comes with a night night sleep one called yawn that I take and it helps me to bed. It's better. Okay. You taking that in the middle of the podcast? Nope.

No. I'm watching you. I'll see if you're napping. I'll catch you. Whether you're curious about keto want to improve performance, weight loss, or boost brain and body wellness, HVMN will have a non-intimidated solution for you. HVMN is modern nutrition for modern lifestyles and their new kits make it easy. to embrace healthy living and quickly feel a difference.

Right now, HVMN is offering our listeners an additional 10% off your first order when you go to HVMN.com slash kind of funny. Embrace healthy living today. Go to HVMN.com slash kind of funny for 10% off your first order. That's HVMN.com slash kind of funny for 10% off today, today, today. And the final sponsor of the day is Titan. For far too long, Wall Street has neglected the average investor, giving out the same old, generic advice like buy index funds. Meanwhile, for the ultra wealthy, they get access to the premium investment strategies and resources.

That divide didn't sit well with Titan, so they built an active investment management platform that's accessible to everyone. Thanks to Titan, now everyday consumers can have their capital invested like a world-class hedge fund. To get started, download the Titan app. There, Titan delivers daily updates, in-depth videos, deep dive reports, podcast, and more, Titan ensures that clients know the what and the why behind their investments. It's a super simple to use app, super simple design. Tim was telling about it the other day. Unlike conventional investing apps, Titan doesn't invest their clients into publicly traded index funds or mutual funds.

Instead, Titan has an in-house investment team that actively manages investment strategies designed to outperform the market. Their goal is to compound your wealth on average of 15% or more annually, which implies the potential of doubling at least every five years. Titan manages hundreds of millions of dollars for 25,000 plus clients. With Titan, you get front row seats to your money, helping you become the smartest investor you've ever been. To start investing with Titan today and get three months free,

visit Titanvest.com slash KF Games. That's three months free of investing for, I'm sorry, that's three months of investing for free at Titanvest.com slash KF Games. Titan, first class for your capital. Cool. Go for it, bless. Yeah, so while you're talking about the umbrella that is Bethesda and whether or not to stick with them, or to keep that umbrella as a branding term for these certain developers to get rid of it,

could be a cool move at the Microsoft E3 Press conference to have it, B.A. All right, and now we're showing off our cast of studios, and you see the Microsoft Game Studios logo in the Bethesda Game Studios, or not Bethes game studios, but that's a, let's say, publisher logo next to each other. And somehow the Microsoft logo eats the Bethesda logo that disappears in all, like they introduce it as all one brand. I think an E3 could be a good stage to do that. I agree.

And that's awesome. However, it doesn't make sense if there's a Bethesda conference right after the Microsoft one. That's the one part that this falls apart for me. Because that is very interesting. And I think that that is the right plan going forward. We just are in this middle ground where they still have to deal with their PlayStation deals.

But they don't need, like competition doesn't need to be, we don't ever fucking deal with them. Guess what? They're the ones making the money from the PlayStation game. So I wouldn't be surprised if they straight up do talk about Death Loop and do talk about GhostWire.

Even if it was just a Microsoft press conference, if it was just one long press conference, they'd still talk about those games because they're going to make the money off of them. They own them, right? The one thing that gets weird about that is, I guarantee that they want to be able to say all of these games are available on GamePass.

So to me, that is the biggest reason that they would have to, different events so that one event they can say every single thing here is game pass and then the other event is like and then there's these other games that we still want you to buy but you know unless unless it is the thing where I know there's been like the theory thrown out there from people like all right do they come out day and day on game pass PC because the deal is with PlayStation and and in PlayStation's terms they probably done like a console exclusivity and not a platform there's no way it works how dirty would that be though

I mean, that's just, that's... That'd be so dirty. I don't think that can happen. I don't think that's going to happen. I'm sure somewhere in the fine print that's, that's maybe against the rule somewhere. Or maybe out of respect, Microsoft's like, no, we can't do that. We're going to piss people off. But he knows.

Yeah, not going to happen. That's impossible. Sorry, I joined, but you're saying that it is, so this is a death loop or ghost wire? Both. Okay, so you're saying that they just come to Game Pass for free since they're technically not being sold? And that negates the exclusivity? Oh, on PC.

Gotcha, my apologies. Yeah, which does have some weird nuance there, but yeah, I still don't think, I don't think that that's played by the rules entirely. I also, I also didn't, I didn't answer the Starfield question of it, if it's coming out this year or not. But for my answer, it depends on how far along they are with the game, but I would assume I think, I think that's a game that's coming out cross-chend on all platforms. But I also think it'll be the last, but that's the game studio game that would be that.

and I think it's part of what Greg said of like it's hard to flip that switch to just like not do other platforms if you're already far along on development for that and at that point like just release and get the money you know that game is gonna sell astronomically on PlayStation and so

yeah just oh yeah Astro so just sell it get that cash get that bread and least so I hail Jeffrey Grub Grub and I got it a response, but it's a response where it seems like an AI might have taken over for him, where I was like, I texted his number and then I also DMed him on Twitter.

And I was like, you want to hop on Discord, gamescast appearance? And he responded, gamescast appearance. And then I, I sent him the link and nothing's happened. So he might be a robot now. He got so old, he put his consciousness into a robot finally. Yeah, it's finally coming around. Wow, wow. Greg, what of the E3 press conferences are you most excited for?

Oh, damn, man. Actually, no, no, no. Fuck that is a question. What do you, like, what press conferences do you expect to see at E3 this year? Okay. I like that question. And again, I'm hosting E3, but don't have inside knowledge yet. I haven't been.

I know things about how we're setting up E3. I don't know who's presenting what at E3. So, right, where, what's the list now? What's the confirmed list as I go crank it open, right? Because they put out their press releases. obviously we remember the old Microsoft. We remember the old Ubisoft. We remember all the,

oh, here he is, ladies and gentlemen. Can you hear me? Oh, man, finally figured out of Discord. How's it going, guys?

Good. Good, good. Good. We have a question for you. Please, Jeff Grub. You, of course,

the ringleader of summer game mess 2021 and, you know, all summer game is previously and that will ever happen, correct? Oh, yes, of course.

Yes. Yes. Good, good, good. So we're talking about E3 this year. We're talking about the Microsoft press conference and the Bethesda stuff. We're talking about a whole bunch of things. Starfield, where we think it's going to end up.

So actually, let me start there with you real quick. Starfield. Does it come out this year? Is it cross-gen or just next gen? And is it Xbox exclusive? Yeah, let's see. So I think it gets announced this year. I'm pretty sure about that.

No guarantees yet, but it's getting close enough. And I haven't heard it been like yanked or anything like that. So I'm pretty confident it gets announced this year. And then I think to me, it seems like it's trending in the direction of launching this year. But all the reasons why a game wouldn't launch this year are still there, right? Like there's a million reasons why everything gets delayed right now. Those things are still happening to everything. And so the safe bet would be like, yeah, yeah, they'll probably just put it out early next year, right?

Or something like that. But it does seem like they are pretty confident about it. I think that there's a good chance they want to launch it alongside Halo. And it's not like in the past, where they would be worried about these two big $60 games competing against one another in the marketplace. Everything's additive on GamePass. So it would only be a boon to each of those games

if they come out side by side. So I'm hopeful. These young kids, Jeff, they can't wrap their head around how, you know, the new school generation, my ass. Things are changing. We're going to, if that's the case, we're going to get to spring 2022,

and it's going to be a desert. We're going to be like, where are the Xbox games? That's going to be the exact situation. Barry. Jeff, we did not take the time on your camera. Yeah. You know what? It fucked everything up, Jeff.

I'm turning mine off. I turn mine off. I'm sorry. But I want to give it to our, that's a cool. That's a cool Captain America chair. Yeah, very cool. Yeah.

Yeah. The way he said it was like he didn't think his own chair was cool. It's a high. I've had this chair for a long time and I've been waiting to make you jealous. I thought you didn't, I thought you never cared. So I was like, all right.

I guess Greg doesn't actually care. Like my chair. All right. Fine. I don't think it's going to be too big of a deal. for like spring 2022. They'll come up with some other stuff. They have a lot of games in the works.

They have a lot of companies. You know, if they don't have Starfield now, maybe they'll have Wolfenstein or something like that, or they'll flip them and then Starfield will launch now, then maybe they'll have Wolfenstein 3 for early next year. I think that would be a great lineup. That's my big thing is like, I don't think it's the fact that they wouldn't publish

like two big games close to each other. I think it's the, I just think it's the biggest games. I think between Starfield and Halo Infinite being your two, like big, those are the biggest titles you have as Xbox. And so for me, if I was them, I'd be like, all right, cool. Let's position Wolfenstein 3 with Halo Infinite for this. That might be working as two first-person shooters.

But let's say Wolfstein 3, Starfield for this fall, Halo Infinite for next spring or whatever, or vice versa. Like, I would mix it up a little bit more instead of doing like the two biggest titles you have right next to each other. Yeah, but you got to keep in mind that if Bethesda is ready to launch this game, saying, hey, wait, like, hold up where you can't do that yet. That's still kind of early in their relationship to be like, all right, we're going to make you wait just because Halo. We are like, get in line.

That'd be weird. This has been a fun acquisition. We said we wouldn't change anything, but fuck all of your plans and content. Hold for five months. Yeah, yeah, go sit on your thumbs for a while. Exactly. Yeah, they're not going to do anything. They probably wouldn't do that.

Also, I mean, I think that they totally see everything they do on GamePass as additive. Things are not competing with each other on that platform. It's just not how that works. If Halo is the reason you subscribe, that's great. If Starfield is the reason you subscribe, that's great. If both are there at the same time, and that really convinces you, that's even better. But it's not like you are picking and choosing where you're going to spend your $60. They have just completely flipped those incentives.

And so you have to really think about it in that direction. So I still think there's a good chance. There's lots of rumblings and rumors about why it definitely is coming out this year. And I'm not confident to that degree. But I think we'll start to hear pretty soon if that's the case. We got a month to go before you three. So I'm pretty excited to hear about it. Do you think it comes to PlayStation as well?

No, no. No, I don't think it does. I mean, listen, if it does, it's going to be a time exclusive. Okay. So my question when we talk about Starfield, right, and this has been the conversation, obviously, on the podcast, about it going back and forth and is it this year, is it next year?

So do you think, again, Microsoft would have walked in and been like, because they would have been working on a PlayStation version already, right, for Starfield? You think they walked in and were just like, kill it? Just don't even worry about it. shove it away. Put it on the side at least. You know, get the Xbox and PC versions ready and done and finished.

And then maybe we'll reassess. I mean, this is the thing. I'm never as confident about these games being exclusives as like as Paris. Like Paris, like right away. I was like, now these things are exclusive for sure.

And I was like, I don't know. It could go either way. And I like to, you know, I was playing both sides on that one for a long time. And so I'm still in that, in that like thinking where,

sure, I guess once the game is out, on Game Pass and you have, it's gone, a few months have gone by. At that point, why wouldn't you put it on PlayStation? I guess there's still reasons that you want to make people feel like that, the, the subscription that they paid for, that they're getting a lot out of it. But I don't think they're going to think that they're going to be hurting themselves if they do put on PlayStation later. I just definitely don't think day one. That's kind of, but again, I'm just, I'm not confident about that at all. Yeah, interesting. And then the last question we got for you is

looking at Microsoft and Bethesda, how do you expect that E3 is going to look. And on top of that, do you think that we see either at this event or in some point, then getting rid of Bethesda as a brand separate from Bethesda Game Studios, just being one of the studios under Xbox Game Studios? Yeah. So for that first part, I think it, so for a while there, I was hearing that they were going to do relatively separate events that were going to happen under like one big umbrella where you're like, here's going to be the Microsoft, Bethesda showcase, Microsoft goes with Xbox stuff, then it ends. Maybe it ends with something like Starfield to sort of stitch the two things together,

but then Bethesda starts and it feels distinct and different. I think it's much more likely now that they are going to make that the stitching, the thing that connects the two, it's going to be a lot more connected. These two things will feel much more like one thing. It will still be Xbox and Bethesda, but they might just actually just like transition one and the other almost seamlessly. And I think that's, these are decisions that they're still working out. I think this is kind of what they settled on at this point.

But it sounds like that's the direction they've chosen. And what was the other question? I'm sorry, 88. In terms of the branding of it. Like, do you think that at this E3 or somewhere else they'll reveal that like it is now just, it's Xbox and then Bethesda is just a game studio, a team next to Arcane, next to 343, et cetera, et cetera? Maybe down the line.

but for now there's still a lot of cachet attached to Bethesda. They are one of the promises they made was that we're not changing the culture. That means not putting Xbox PR and Xbox, you know, business development people in charge of Bethesda stuff, keeping all those people hired instead of treating them as like, you know, we're going to lay you off now because you are redundant. They're specifically saying these people aren't redundant. They are going to be doing Bethesda stuff under Xbox. And I think if that's the case, if that's how you're treating this,

You keep the Bethesda brand as a separate thing that feels distinct. And there's value in that, right? Like, I think people, like, have love for Bethesda. I remember that 1E3 where that lady was screaming the entire time for Elder Scrolls online. There's people that love these games. So, yeah, maintaining that identity has a lot of value. And it, like, mixes things up, right? So if you release a bunch of Xbox games and people are feeling, like, sort of like, okay, none of these are really doing it for me.

If Bethesda comes along says, all right, well, that's Xbox stuff. Now, here's Bethesda doing something. that'll interest you. There's there's a lot of stuff they can do with that. And it gives them like a little, maybe a little bit more freedom, a little bit more, you know, flexibility to try to win you over. And also you figure too, like into the freedom argument you're making Jeff right of in what you've talked about. We read a little bit of an article before we brought you on of this idea that they're going to be the same conference at E3, right, but there'll be a delineation. Think of how that gives you a before and after tent pole marker to move on to something else.

And rather than have, let's say, a three-hour conference, where everything in the middle becomes mush outside of the big stuff, you get this moment of like, okay, cool, it's an hour and a half of Xbox and then an hour and a half of Bethesda or an hour, two hours of Xbox, one hour of Bethesda.

Like, it feels like it's breaking you up, but it's actually still keeping you inside the Xbox ecosystem. Exactly, yeah, and they can change those flavors. It's, you know, the human mind's very good at breaking stuff up in the chunks. You learn a subject. You want to like do it in 12 minute, those chunks.

And anything you could do to add that sort of like, oh, we are shifting gears now. It reengages people. And again, that has value. It's the kind of stuff that they can really play around with and keep things interesting for people. And that works in terms of a presentation at E3, but it works in terms of winning people over to GamePass. Like there's going to be people who, you know, just like we see on Disney Plus, there's the Star Wars thing, the Star Wars vertical and the Pixar vertical. There is, when you're paying this money and you feel like you're getting multiple things for it, when really you're just getting everything at's Xbox and then some third-party stuff.

when they make it feel like you are getting a lot more than that, that is a good, like, mental trick to make people feel like they are getting a really good deal when they get game past. Like, I'm, how are they making money off this? Something people always say, but, you know, we don't see the, the backside how it actually works. All we think is they must not be making money because I feel like I'm getting away with something because I see all these brands on there. Yes, this is all valuable stuff that they're going to keep for quite some time. Jeff, do, do you, do you have time for maybe the next couple minutes to hang out? I do. Yeah, no, I just finished, I just finished e-learning.

we're all good. Like literally, Greg DM'd me and I just finished e-learning with the kids. So I'm good to go. Let's do this. Manati's doing all the work over there anyway. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for real. Yeah, man. Well, I love this. So right before you joined us, I was asking Greg, what he thinks we're going to, like, what press conferences he thinks we're going to see at E3 2021. Greg, do you have your answer ready there?

Yeah. So what I did is I pulled up at E3Expo.com where you can go look at press releases about me. And remember, I know nothing of the insider nature, right? but like they have on their front here all the logos for partnering exhibitors slash sponsors, right? And so a refresher is Nintendo, Xbox, Ubisoft, Square Annex, Verizon, which I'm sure I'll have a big conference, take to Capcom, Warner Brothers Games,

Sega, Bandai Namco, it'll always be Namco Bandai to me, Gearbox, Marvel slash Exceed, Mythical Freedom Games, NetEase games, Turtle Beach, Otter, Devious Eye Entertainment in Binge, right? And so right off the top, I think Nintendo's getting their own conference. I think Xbox is getting their own conference.

I think Ubisoft's getting their own conference. I think Square will do their own conference, especially since they just did their thing. Then you wait into the interesting spots, right? Of like, what's Take 2 going to do? What's Capcom going to do? What's Warner Brothers going to do? And I think again, like, you know,

what we've talked about before in terms of what E3 is actually going to be this year. There are going to be conferences. There are going to be demos. There are going to be, like, interviews and stage shows like that. You start having to go in and suss out what each one of these would be. And so it gets to that interesting thing where, take two i don't see having their own conference but i could see a segment i could see that they have a couple of games they want to show and they come on to get interviewed by me jacky and golden boy or they send in something

pretty can and we put up that way same thing with capcom right i don't think they have their own hey we're going for an hour and a half of capcom games but they could have announcements water brothers i feel like has enough going on even though it's all to late till next year to come out and actually give you like hey here's the water brother's direct right we close it off and go and then you start getting into seating into Sega Band, blah, blah, blah, where you, I wonder if E3, because I don't know if E3 and ESA is going to do like, hey, we're doing here's

and we are doing an hour long block of like five upcoming games and you're putting in one by one each one of these. Sorry, Barrett, I know you're trying to talk to. Like WB was fully going, trying to go into their own conference last year as well before everything hit the fan. Obviously since then, like they announced stuff at

whatever summer games mess last year with the Harry Potter game and then the DC Fandome Always living my life I'm going to my life In the dome Tim gets it

All that stuff That dome life We could still get like What you're saying Greg Like a direct where they Even though Gotham Knights is now next year Maybe we get to see a little bit more Which totally makes sense

See a little more of like Lego Star Wars and stuff like that Because that keeps getting Yeah that keeps getting delayed And I feel like that's probably gonna be there like the big title that they push this year because it doesn't seem like WB has like a lot else to really push this year. I mean that's

a decent amount of things to talk about, right? If it is Lego Sky Rockasaka, if it is Gotham Knights Suicide Squad and the Harry Potter. I don't think we hear about suicide squad until middle of next year or by early earliest. Fandome. Right.

It again this year. Yeah. There's another fandom. Do they have reason over at Fandome? Because the reason they appeared at Fandome last year, it seemed like was because E3 got canceled, and so that was the next best place where they could show off their games. If they are going to, if they are going to commit to E3 this year, I guess maybe they do,

maybe they could reappear at Fandone to give additional information, but I wonder if I could see that too. Maybe it's not a full direct. Maybe what Greg's talking about, or like Take 2 has a segment where they send something like WB sends a segment for Skywalker Saga, a Lego game. And then we get like a Gotham Knights, kind of another demo of Gotham Knights at fandom. Again, I don't think we see anything from Suicide Squad until next year, since that's not even... I think it depends on how big they're going.

It's still slated for next year. I don't think we see that game until 2023 if Gotham... But I think for that game, you don't even have to show us gameplay. Like, they could do another... And this is not me necessarily saying what I want from them, but what I think they could do. You could do another cinematic trailer and have it be another tone setting thing and get people salivating for it as they're giving us Gotham Knights in the meantime. Jeff, what do you think about the conferences at E3? Yeah, I think that the ones that Greg List is like definitely having showcases sound right to me.

To me, this sounds like E3 and the ESA have gotten their stuff together in terms of telling people, you can come to us with a bunch of different stuff in a bunch of different formats and we'll make it fit. We'll make it work. You can work with us. If you want to handle most of the production yourself, you can do that. But if you want a little bit of help about how to present this, well, we have these, we have Greg Miller. come talk to Greg and he'll give you a way to like transition into showing a trailer or something like that. If that's all you have, we're going to make it work.

You could still be a part of E3. And I think that's going, that has got to be way more appealing than what they were talking about, you know, a little bit ago where it was paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for what exactly. I think they've figured out their messaging to these companies. And that's why we're seeing so many more companies jump on board. And I do think we're going to get a lot of different formats in terms of what these things look like. Like I was even like on our podcast last week, I think is where I said this was someone asked,

do you think like the Microsoft Nintendo thing that we always hear rumors about, do you think we'll hear about that at E3? I'm like, if we hear about it at E3, it will be in one of these roundtable sort of, you know, fireside chats with Greg Miller. And they're like, hey, Greg said, hey, we hear all this stuff.

What's going on there? And they'll be like, okay, well, here's what we're doing. And it'll be, they'll try to explain it in the way that's like we know hardcore fans are listening right now. I can see that sort of stuff happening a lot throughout this thing because they'll be able to fill in a lot of these minutes between the best. bigger showcases with a lot of these,

a lot of like sprinkling these things in. I think that could work. If that happens, I'm going to get Phil and Doug Bowser to kiss. Yes, please. Yeah. Let's seal this deal with a kiss,

boys. Get that big old sloppy smooch going. Yeah. So, okay, what do you think about PlayStation then? We've been talking a lot about where a state of play fits.

Is it right before? Is it staying out completely? Is it the month after? Where is it at? It's going to be after, right? Because they have Ratchett on June 11th, right?

So they're not, you know, I know, like I was saying that Returnal and Ratchet were going to be kind of additive when I was talking. Someone was asking me about that as well. I was like, I don't think when they were doing the Ratchet state of play that they were worried about Returnal getting hurt by that because people get excited about games and that enables them to go look at the store and say, hey, I'm really excited about Ratchet. What else is there for me? Oh, there's Returnall. I can play that right now. But that said, I still think that they will want to wait until after Ratchet, after E3. They like going last anyhow, right? The PlayStation's always gone last. And so I think that we'll see them in the days to weeks following. I say weeks, yeah. Maybe you're right. I would think into July. Yes, I think, yes, end of June, beginning of July, I could totally see that for sure.

I don't think they'll try it because I think they will want to make sure that it is clear that they weren't part of E3. And I think they're also going to be worried about selling Ratchet for right now. And that's going to be their main thing. And I think they're going to be hearing a lot of people saying, hey, I still can't get PlayStation fives. I really want to play this Ratchet game. Can we do something about this?

And they're going to be worried about putting out those fires for a little. bit. And then once they get a little bit past that, they'll want to talk about what they have for you three. Yeah. Very exciting stuff. Well, I'm going to let you go, but before you do that, do you have any fun secret Jeff shit you want to tell us? Uh, I have some fun secret Jeff stuff that I can't say right now, but maybe soon. I'm actually, I was like, I was actually writing a Discord message to someone about something fun that I'll be able to talk about soon, uh, when, when Greg came and bothered me, uh, but soon. So, uh, you know what? I hate your chair. Take you back.

It's so good. All right, guys. Thank you for joining us. Where can people find you? Absolutely. Yes, just follow me on Twitter or don't. I tweet too much, but if you do, it's at Jeff Grub and I do all my stuff there. And there's a link to my Discord in there.

That's where I'm like a little bit less obnoxious. So come in there, come and hang out with me. We'll talk about games. Love you, dude. Bye guys. Bye. What a nice young guy. What a great guy.

I love, like, him and Imran are like such unique people to me in the industry where it's like, every time I talk to them, I'm just like, they're going to say something that I don't know. That's really fucking cool. Every once in a while they kind of hinted it. I'm just like, I love that I have these cool friends because they're fucking cool. They know things, Greg. They know things we don't know. You know what I mean?

They got their ears to the floor, ears to the streets. Yeah. Do you have secrets for me? I'll take secrets for me if you have them. I tell you my secrets, but off air and NDAid. Blessing, why are you always fighting with him, you know? Leave Jeff Grub alone. He's so old.

He's so old. He did start it. Yeah. And I'm ending it. I'm going to go pee real quick. Are you guys fight about this? I don't think I don't think there was anything to fight about you know what I'm just talking about it

back here E3 man was the month the way yeah he looks so brush he stands up and he's wearing his me undie jamie pants I didn't see that coming I didn't see that coming yeah by the pants I'm wearing definitely definitely did not match a shirt I'm gonna tell you right now

I'm wearing my Marvel sweatpants oh the ones from the team liquid yeah I feel like you kind of matches though that's a I mean your shirt's this gray charcoal it's like neutral my shirt is almost approaching like less casual

like it's a nicer shirt and then I got it's a t-shirt but it's a t-shirt yeah yeah that's true uh well yeah I'm I'm of course this is the last you'll ever hear of ladies and gentlemen but uh I as Jeff said they's like yeah you know Ratchez June 11th I was like fuck Ratchet is June 11th

so currently the email I'm writing is to Sony hey how fucked are we for the Ratchet review is that review code coming the week E3 we have to be bringing PS5s all over the goddamn I guess me E3 is what? June 12th through the 15th. Oh, it's 12th.

That's the public portion. There's the media influence or stuff before. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, wow. Yeah, that is fucked up. Oh, man, yeah, I hope we get that soon. It's like Arkham Knight when Arkham Knight launched the same month as E3 as well. Last of us as well.

Last of us came up during E3 that one time. You make me feel like dancing. Tim, what does Nintendo's E3? We've been talking about all these other places. where are we at with Nintendo? I mean, like, we're not even just E3, but like, fall. I think those are one and the same. Like, I think that this, they're direct.

I expect it will be a direct. And I expect that it will definitely give us a much better idea at the heavy hitters of fall. We have a ton of switch games with release dates the rest of this year. None of them are that major, major, major level. We got Mario Golf. We got Skyward Sword. And then, you know, underneath that, we have things like, No More Heroes 3 and we have like a bunch of other games and especially on the Japanese side of things.

You put No. Heroes 3 under Mario Golf? Yes. Yes. I did. I understand. I understand. Mario Golf really popular.

Yeah. And so, you know, with all of that, I feel like a broken record here. But I, I truly do believe that this is going to be a major E3 for Nintendo. I think this is going to be, I think that the, that the Nintendo showcase director otherwise, that they're going to have at E3 as part of. the ESA thing is going to be the biggest most games announced Nintendo thing that we've had in the last two years.

Wow. And I think that I think it's going to set up a lot. I'm on roller coaster where it's like, you know, like I was like you and I drafted a bunch of games for my fantasy critically that are probably not coming out this year, Tim. And like I'm still holding out hope for Breath of the Wild too, but then I look and I'm like

there is a good chance that like the Pokemon remasters for Diamond and Pearl are like their big games this fall. And that's like, I, I very, very, very highly doubt that. I doubt that's the plan. Like, here's my thing is Tim, I think you could be right if the Switch Pro actually comes out this fall.

But with the semiconductor shortage and just manufacturing troubles in general, like, I think that's the question is if they're ready to, if they're ready to talk about the Switch pro, I do think that it will be the biggest E3 for a Nintendo. in a long time. They will talk about all the stuff. We've had reports about how they're trying to make it a great, they're trying to make a great software lineup to go alongside the Switch Pro, yada, yada.

But if it's not ready, then I'm like, this might be an off year for Nintendo, like another one. And I think they're fine with it because people are buying it anyway. Totally. I mean, yeah, there's so many factors at play that we just don't know. I'm just talking about even keeping COVID in mind,

like looking at Nintendo and knowing their teams and knowing the games that they've worked on of the past and how many teams we don't haven't heard of for years from. That's where I'm at where I'm like, even if the game's not coming out this fall, getting it announced, having things to look forward to with some type of date, some type of something, right? You look at the Xbox side of things and we have years of games to look forward to there that we know about that are announced from all their different teams, but we don't know exactly when they're going to hit.

On the PlayStation side of things, we have this like ridiculous set of games look forward to. in addition to games that we can kind of expect. We don't, Spider-Man 2 is not announced, but we are eagerly anticipating that announcement, you know, and meanwhile, we're getting Ratchet, we got Miles and all this stuff. On the Nintendo side of things,

Metroad Prime 4, Breath of the Wild 2, those are the big ones. Besides that, it's like, and then, yes, there's Bata 3, but that's platinum, right? Like, yeah, that's true. Looking at just like the Nintendo first-party titles, it's like, we have the, the Pokemon Legends,

uh, from Game Freak, uh, a Pokemon company. we know that's slated for next year. That's definitely going to be a huge game for them and potentially could be a very, very, very big deal in the space. But we don't know what so many of the other Nintendo teams have been working on and what they even might be announcing. We're just in a very exciting place for Nintendo

where there's so many questions marks and those question marks have burdened me before many times where I'm like, well, they have so much to announce and then they don't announce shit. But I think with where we're at now, it'd be weird for them to announce the Switch Pro with a slate of games at this E3 for Nintendo because they've never done that before.

But I think that things are changing. And I wouldn't be surprised if they straight up were like, yeah, there's a Switch Pro. Here's when it's coming. And here's the games to look forward to this year, next year, and some games that don't even have release days. I guess we have Splatoon 3 is another game that we do know a team's working on.

But we got to start getting some answers at some point. And they could have not been a part of E3, but they decided to be a part of E3. And I think that that's an important note because Nintendo really weird when it comes to that stuff, right? So they have something. Is that something ready? Is that something coming out this year?

Those are much bigger question marks. But I don't think that we're going to end 2021 with the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl remakes being the biggest releases, especially with how those games look. They don't look like Nintendo is pushing that much behind them. It does kind of look like a thing where they're just like, we just got to get these out.

Yeah, but that's what I'm thinking. We're just because of all the uncertainty. Like, I'm not saying, I wasn't saying that and like, oh, like those are going to be like huge juggernaut titles. It was just like,

we could end up with another weird year like last year where it ends up like, uh, like not trying to point to Animal Crossing or anything, but like last fall, right? Like, what was anything major Nintendo out? Like,

yeah, it was just all done. It was just like, Harrowers. Yeah. So it's just like, could that small of a remaster remake, whatever you want to call Brilliant Diamond Shining Pearl, like, would those be the two biggest games we get in the fall? I mean, I think, regardless, it's Pokemon. And Pokemon, I think, no matter the size, if it's a mainline or remake, it's going to sell and it's going to have a big presence.

And by the time Brilliant Diamond Pearl come out, like, they're going to be, like, people are going to focus in on them. People are going to talk about them. They're going to be the talk of the town. but I think Nintendo usually has something else. This last year was definitely an off weird year where it really was Hyrule Warriors and like in the middle of the year we got Paper Mario and then earlier we got Amble Crossing and that was pretty much it for Nintendo. But when you think of the years that, in the Switch years that Pokemon has come out,

uh, Pokemon Sword and Shield came out right and around that same time. I believe we had like, uh, Zelda. What's the, the cool looking like style? Links Awakening. Yeah. And we also got Luigi's Mansion. and then a year before that I want to say we got Pokemon Let's Go Pikachu and Evie

and I think that year we also had some fall titles for Nintendo too. They usually have something in the fall. And this fall I would think that they would have something that is, if it's not like one of their biggest temple titles like a Breath of Wild 2 or a Mario Odyssey 2, then I would think it would be something at least like

maybe a tier below, but not I don't think it's going to be another Harrow Warriors fall. At least I would hope it's not going to be another Hyrule Warriors fall. Yeah. I don't think it's going to be. What do you think? Let us know in the comments below. Thank you very much for joining us for this episode of the kind of funny games cast.

We're about to do the Patreon exclusive post show. Bless, what is it? JRP, your bullshit. Ooh. A fun little game that Barrett Courtney is going to join us to play as well. So that's fun. So all you Patreon people, we'll see you there. Everyone else.

Smell you later, losers. Whoa, fuck, I don't think you're losing. He turned into a JRP antagonist.