Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Why The Xbox One X Exists (w/Xbox's Albert Penello) - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 143

Episode Date: November 6, 2017

Greg Miller sits down with Xbox's Albert Penello to discuss the Xbox ONe X.(Released first to Patreon Supporters on 11.03.17) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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You'll love how good it feels and tastes to create incredible home-cooked meals with Blue Blue Apron. So don't wait. Blue Apron.com slash Gamescast. Let's go see what Gamescast is this week. Just kidding. It's me and my friend. No Tim. What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Gamescast, episode 143.

I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside one of the coolest dudes at Xbox, Albert Pinella. One of the. Yeah. So there's a whole thing. Who's cooler? I don't, Major Nelson? Jeff Rubenstein?

Jeff's pretty cool. Zombie Bloss, man. Yeah, Jeff Rubenstein. So, no, you see, I was doing a play on words. Because usually Tim Getty's host this show. But Tim, he's fallen sick with LeCroy flu. He's sick at home. Is that the thing with the shirt and he was...

Oh, yeah. He's finally overdosed. He's had too much LeCroy. And he can't be here today. So I'm usually one of the coolest dudes in video games. All right. But I was giving them a window into who you are, Albert. One of the cool.

Because you... At Xbox. I'm the least coolest dude. What? If there was a ranking, I would be at the bottom. I believe Nate Ahern works there, so trust me. Nate Ahern is a cool dude. No.

Also a new dad, by the way. Yeah. Nadine and her is also a new dad. Yeah, I know, I know. We're by the end of this show, I'm going to convert you. No, I'm in. I'm down to have kids. This is the whole thing.

I'm at the love of my life. Javier Sainte de Melerre. Married her in May. Six month anniversary today. Oh, congratulations. No, she, as soon as she said she wanted kids, I'm like, yeah, whatever you want. She's like, I want half you want. Whatever you want to do.

Whatever you want to drop it down. Yeah. Albert. This is the kind of funny games cast. This is a sweet gig, as I've mentioned. This is a great setup you guys have. and you have quite a dedication to Sega Master System and Ghostbusters. We do.

Yes, you've nailed who I am. You know who I am. That's what it's all about. Many of my college hours were spent playing Ghostbusters on the Genesis, a great unsung. Thank you. Hold my hand. Thank you.

This is it. You thought you met the love of your life. Here we go. I thought you're going to sell me on kids. I'm going to be a close second. Oh, wow. This is good. This is going a while.

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and every Monday when we post it as one big video and then MP3. Now, Albert, yes. What is your job title at Xbox? Well, officially I have a big, long, boring Microsoft title. I want to know. But I'm just going to say director of marketing is fine. For Xbox. For Xbox. I'm in marketing, which I know is not the cool. Again, not the coolest title to have the marketing title, but that's why not? Don't let them get you. Nobody likes marketing people. But that's because they don't know marketing people.

That's right. You play games? I do. Not as much now as I used to. If you want to talk to old school Genesis or Portland retro gaming, I'm in. I was there. Modern stuff, I just have a stack this highest stuff I haven't gotten to. I'm always envious.

I listen to you guys and how you talk about like the depth. And I'm going like, I like literally turned on Mario Odyssey. And I just went, oh my God, I'll never get to this again. No. And I know I just don't have time for anything. See, now you're unselling people on kids. I don't. People who have children right now are putting them out on the curve.

So, so I was playing a cup head. My daughter will now say, I want to play Cuphead. And then she watches it for two minutes and realizes it scary. And she goes, I don't like Cuphead. Yeah.

But then inevitably, I turn it off. And she goes, dad, let's play Cuphead again. So we play Cuphead's a great game. Cuphead is a great game. Yeah. And it's on the Xbox. So I do play.

I played more than I do now because of time and work and job and life and things. But yeah, I want to go old school. I'm with you. Okay. We'll get there. I want to talk about your career and how you become the head of marketing.

Oh, okay. But you're, you're making the rounds right now on the video game industry. I am the part of my over exposure tour. Talking about the, don't,

don't over expose yourself, please. Talking about the Xbox 1X. Yes. It's release dates right around the corner. Is it? Yeah, I think the seventh, right? Yeah, that's what I've heard. I immediately erase the release dates once I get it.

My Xbox 1x is at home right now. I'm playing on the last night. It's there. I'm fine. Good. You got it. You got it all set up. went well for you?

Yeah, I didn't have to beg and plead like Gary Witt over there. You know what I mean? Gary Witta. Just, he's just like on Twitter begging me for one. Oh, can I get one, please,

Gavinette? You know what I mean? I gave in, though, and I just gave him one. But I told him I'm going to swap him for Rogue One's gossip. So he's going to have to give me some of the good stories. Yeah,

I want to get him drunk. I just want to get him drunk and have those lips start flapping. They don't even to get him drunk. He's desperate to talk to anyone. So once he does that. Because he's had kids. Yeah, exactly.

Xbox 1X though. Yes. Here's what I want to know. Sure. You guys have been bold all over the place with this. And we'll talk about Xbox in general and everything you've done. But with this one, you're talking about the Xbox 1X kind of being the end of console generations.

Have we? Yeah. Oh yeah. You're talking about it. This is the future now. I'm talking about it. Am I? Explain this to me because this is a message that I think is getting lost.

Yeah. And so I have, this is like a course I have to get into like, you know, like the mode, right? Which is, I don't think it's the end of console generations. And I don't think that's actually what we said.

There is going to be like console generations is what makes this industry interesting. Like that is where you get all the excitement, right? It's like when, in fact, there's always talk about like whenever a new console comes out, the only thing people can talk about is when's the next new console coming out. Of course. And so what I think we're trying to do is introduce the idea that maybe console generations can work a little bit differently. Because the game's business, you know, again, and we're looking like looking at your shelf, it's worked a certain way from the beginning.

Like from the day that the, well, what do you want to? call the first consulers. Can we agree? Is it an Odyssey 1? What do you want to call the Odyssey? Sure. Oh, so the Odyssey. Okay. Since the Odyssey one came out in 72, right? It's always sort of been the same kind of every seven years. Here's a new box. It looks better. You throw the old stuff away. You go on to the new thing. And one of the questions we asked ourselves was, does it really have to work that way? Do you have to throw all the old stuff away? Does it all have to be relegated to like a cool shelf that you like have to go find an old TV to actually, I have the same shelf. No, I know. But I can't stop staring. Get out your RF converters and put

I mean, I could tell you so many stories about that. But like, you know, trying to find an old TV to like sell again. But I think with the idea is like, does it have to work that way? Can we get all of the excitement and energy of a console generation without the pain? It's painful. As a business, it's painful. It's painful for developers. It's painful for customers. But it's the thing that everybody gets excited about. So I don't think we said it's the end of console generations. I said, I think we think about it differently. And we're trying to figure out how we can make it more continual with your software library. Because I think that's what people really care about is the games.

Sure. And, you know, we go back and I'm sure we'll talk about OG Xbox game compat that we did. Yeah. And we talk about, you know, having play anywhere. So stuff plays on the PC. And all these things are little pieces of a story that is, it's going to be more about your games than the specific device you're playing on in that day. And that's, I think, a lot of the energy that we're putting into this is around games. compatibility.

Gotcha. What I like about everything you just mentioned is the fact that it touches on what I think is your strongest step forward with Xbox, right? From the launch of the Xbox one, even to now where we are, is the fact that I've been saying on the shows for quite some time that quietly you guys have been making all the right decisions. And you've been building this foundation that I don't know when, but I feel like a domino's going to topple or something's going to happen or maybe it's just PubG's

finally out and everybody's ready to go where it's going to be a no-brainer if you don't already have an Xbox one that you'd want to go get an Xbox one. Because for me, backwards compatibility, such a big deal. Games Pass, such a big deal. The way that you are supporting these devices in talking about it'll play here, it'll play there, it'll do this, to play anywhere stuff, you're giving people a reason to not play the games on your system necessarily, but exist in this ecosystem. And I think that's what it's all about, right? You talk about today, um, how Mark putting out this statement right of how they're they called the death of the arcade game or whatever and they're done making games like Outland and Reso Gun and all these little arcade

things because they're seeing that the future is multiplayer and it is community. Community extends beyond I'm in the Xbox family, the PlayStation family, the Nintendo family. It is now I am an Overwatch player. I am a Dota player. Yeah. And so what you guys are quietly doing is giving everyone a reason when they finally look at it to be like, oh, I should play an Xbox more. Yeah, I think it's I'm glad you picked up on that because there's there's like a phrase that that I some of us use internally, which is like, you know, your dollar goes farther with Xbox. And it's not like a slogan or anything, but it's like when you spend money with us on something, the utility of what you get the value goes farther. And I'll even like if you buy our controller, it also works on the PC. And then you can get into a topic about whether as a PC gamer you care. But I can say if you do, it works. You don't need another controller. If you're, if you're, if you don't need another controller. If you're, if you're If I buy a copy of Forza 7, I also get a PC version. If I invested in the Xbox ecosystem, oh my gosh, in years from now, is it going to still play? Maybe it'll play even better.

And those are all things where it's like investing in the Xbox ecosystem is something that we want people to feel like they get a great value and that there's going to be a long-term curation and care of your friends and your games and your investment with us. So I'm glad you're picking up on it. It's all the pieces are starting to come together. How long have you been on Xbox now? I started a year before we launched the first one. Oh, wow. Actually, 17 years this month. Oh, wow.

Congratulations. Yeah. Well, it's a Pyrrhic victory. Hey, you're old. Congrats. You're like, I remember when it didn't look like this. This is what it was. I remember four by three in tubes.

When you start right before the original OG Xbox, are you expecting Xbox to become this brand that is going to, is it going to be successful? Are you worried about your job in a year, two years after lunch? Well, for me, you know, personally, I actually been in the games business for even longer than that because I was at EA for six years before that. And I was at Sega many eons ago, even before that. Okay. So I've been, I think like every paycheck I've ever received as a working person has been in the games business.

Okay. In some form another. And so, you know, because back in those days, it was just like, oh, are you local and you know how to play games and you can speak in complete sentences? You've got a job. Yeah. Come test games or answer telephones or something. So that's how I got started, just, you know, started working my way up through the business. Well, did you go to college?

I did. I was actually an art major. Okay. And then I got in a car accident and got a job answering phones at Sega one summer. That's a true story. That's a different story. Well, we're doing a podcast all about you and Xbox. So come on.

Now we're into it. What does that work? So, okay. So this is going to be highly embarrassing. So I was one of those. It's all we do is kind of funny. Don't know. I was one of those kids that would call into the customer support lines and beat the games.

I was that dude. I'm sorry. I was only child. Oh, you call me like, I need help on this boss. No, no, no, no. I would call them and say, hey, I just beat this game and you guys don't know how to beat it yet. So I would actually beat the games before they would. And then they would write down how to do it.

And then- You gave away the content for free. I did back then. And it was also a toll call, too. So that's how dedicated I was. It's like, I'll make a toll call as like, you know, as a teenager. And so this is going to sound silly. I was on a break from school.

My buddy and I were going to come up to the city because I'm from the Bay Area. So I grew up in San Jose. And I'm like, oh, let's go. Let's go to Sega. Like that's a thing you could do. Sure. Like, we'll just go to Sega. It's not a company or anything.

We'll just walk in and take a tour. There's got it. And so we walk, I walked in with my friend and they're like, who are you? And I'm like, I'm Albert and I want to see Sega. And they're like, do you have a parent that works here or something? Why are you here? I go, no, I just like Sega. And then I said, and I knew some people that I talked to on the phones.

And they're like, dude, get out of here. And so, well, that didn't work. So we go out. And as I'm backing out, I, this guy hit me. I hit him. I hit him. And totaled his car. Jesus.

And I backed out. Well, he was speeding. Okay. And I was, and I was a terrible driver. And no, so I'm like, I'm a teenage driver. I'm like, all shaken up because I didn't get to go see Sega. And so I back out. I told this guy's car.

He's on his way to his, um, uh, brother's wedding. And his name was Greg Suarez. He's still in the business. Greg, if you're listening. Hi, Greg. I owe you everything. Um, Greg went to the same college that I was going to. He stayed in the same dorms that I was living in.

And he asked, why are you? here, assuming I was the kid of someone. And I was like, I lo Sega. And he's like, all right, well, just bring me money and we'll introduce you to some people. So he came up. I came up. I paid him off for the car. It was a piece of junk.

And I paid him off. And he took me on a tour and two weeks later, I started answering phones. So that's how I got my start in the video game business. That's right. Wow. And it's been just a meteoric rise since then. Over many, many decades. Over many, many decades.

The overnight success of Albert. More like a comet that orbits. Yeah, yeah. I would say that a media. That went a really different direction. Because you were like I was majoring in art and then I got a car accident. I thought you were going to like break your wrists and you couldn't draw. So you're just like, I don't know how you play games either.

Broke my legs. Broke my legs. You broke your legs. Couldn't walk to class. No, no. So that's how I got my start. And then of course, the funny part is I'm reading the books and like a bunch of stuff in with stuff I had written by calling in over the phone.

So like reading my own test. Here's how you beat Ivan Drago in the master system version of Rocky. I'm like, oh, I did that. Wow. That was me. So yeah, there you go. That's my start. Okay.

So you start at Sega answering phones. Yeah. Then what happens? They noticed that you're really good at games? Well, then I try. Yeah, well, you know, I think what it is is in those days of the games business, it's so much different. It was like so much a hobbyist.

It was like people who, if you didn't work, like if you wanted to sell video games, if you wanted to sell, you want to be in toys. So it was like a lot of ex-toy company people. I think Kalinsky was like ex-Hasbro or Mattel. A lot of those guys were ex-toy guys. And it was like there was no video game industry. Like it was a toy thing that toy people sold. and everybody just did everything.

So I was just like a kid who's like, I loved it. And anything that I could volunteer for, if there was an extracurricular activity, I was in. So I wrote articles. I did testing. I took screenshots. I'd go set up little events at local whatever schools and do little events at Sega. And what it really did is it gave me a good sense of what a career in the games industry could be like. Okay.

And I'm not smart enough or creative enough to make games. I don't believe that. No, trust me, I'm not. But I'm good to talk. I like to talk to people. And so I realized there's this thing called marketing that you could go do. And actually, Greg, many years later, ended up going to EA and set me up with EA. So I started my marketing career.

You totaled someone's car. Yeah, no, the same guy's car. And yes, by the way, kids do as I say, not as I do. Please don't go totaling anybody's cars. All these people are just parked outside of EA waiting for people to come out of the park. Doesn't just ram. There's Andrew Wilson. Hit the gas.

And so it doesn't always work out that way. But yeah, that's how I got my start. And then you just work, right? You just do whatever you can do and you learn. And you guys, you hustle. You just, you know, it's like, hey, we want to be in this business. I want to be part of it. Where can I add value?

And there you go. Okay. So then EA and it's a Microsoft? And then EA to Microsoft. Yeah. Was it a hard sell to get you to go from EA? Someone who's proven that is doing video games is doing well to then go to Microsoft. Hey, we're going to launch this weird console.

It's funny because at the time, that's the nice thing about being young and dumb is that you're just like, let's go do something. And I think that, uh, At the time, wanting to be part of a console launch was something that you just couldn't do because Atari wasn't really in the business. And Sega Nintendo, and this was even before Sony, we're all Japanese companies. And a lot of those decisions get made in the headquarters of the company that they're made in. So the thing that really interested me was this idea that there was an American company that was trying to do a game console launch. And I thought, hey, I've launched a bunch of games.

I did James Bond and Strike and RoadRash and all these games. Oh, Road Ratch. Yeah. So those are tiles I worked on. And then I'm like, but you know, I'm not going to get a lot of chances to work on a hardware. Yeah. In a company that I can actually have a say, a point of view and contribute. Someone will listen to it might actually change the course. And so I thought, you know, I don't know, by the way, it's going from electronic arts to Microsoft doesn't look like the worst thing on a resume. So I didn't think there was a lot of downside to like packing up my then girlfriend and, you know, go see how this Xbox thing at Microsoft works out. Yeah. So that's me. Okay. So you go there and then like are you, it's the best thing ever. Are you worried though at any? Any point? No, after I saw the product, I remember my first day. The first thing I wanted to do is I wanted to see the hardware and the controller because

like that's what you want to say. I'm not care. I don't know anything on Microsoft. I don't anything about business or how they work, but I'm like, I want to see the product. So I remember seeing the controller. I remember seeing the console. I remember them telling me about the specs and seeing some demos and I'm like, oh, this

thing's going to be pretty sweet. Yeah. And oh, by the way, we got to fix this controller. That was like literally day one. It was like, yeah, this controller's going to take some work. We got to fix this. Yeah. So that was actually my first.

The first planning project at Microsoft was the Japanese controller, which ended up being the one that we switched a year later. Wow. Yeah. So there you go. You're fascinating career. It has been, it's like Forrest Gump. Like I wasn't at the front of anything, but like somewhere behind the scenes. You're always just there somewhere.

So yeah, it's been a fly on the wall for a lot of stuff. Before we jump any further, did you go back to school for marketing? Did you learn it all in the fly? I was, like I said, I studied art. I have a graphic communications and degree and the marketing thing was just like, wow. You all picked it up on the site. You just work your way up on it. Yeah.

It's a little bit different now. Way different now. Yes, I would not be qualified for the job that I have. There's no way. There's way smarter people out there than me. I like how you look off to the side. As I'm getting the look. Yeah, yeah.

She's like, this guy just kept failing up for it somehow. Got a car accident. No, there are super smart people in this business. It's great. I mean, and like, just how much knowledge people that enter this business have about how the industry works and stuff is amazing because that kind of information was not.

available back when I was doing it in the early days. So what do you think now when you see and here, you know, basically the eve of the Xbox 1X launching? What do you think about when you look at that box and compare it to the original Xbox? I think there's a lot of the spirit of the team is, is in the Xbox 1X. And we've made some subtle and not so subtle callbacks to the original Xbox,

like the name and bringing backwards compatibility. And that was, that's not unintentional, but there's just sort of that same feeling of doing something. really interesting and different. Yeah. And this vibe inside Xbox is really, really good. And it reminds me a lot of the original Xbox launch.

Has that been palpable around the office? Because I mean, again, this is always that thing from us being industry observers or pundits or whatever you want to call it, right? There's been so much made of what the original Xbox announcement was, right? And then the slow change and then Phil coming in and all. Like you guys have been on this upswing, but like I said, it's been this quiet up swing where I almost feel like you're doing it like, don't, don't let them know what we're doing until it's happened until we're ready to take over the world kind of thing. Is everyone there? You feel when you talk about the spirit, that's where everybody's at? I think there's just a good spirit of trying to do the right thing for our fans. And like having Phil really center us back on the gamer and back on the fans gives you focus. It helps you make decisions. And instead of sort of talking about what we're going to do, let's just do things and just trust that by doing good things for the fans, they're going to respond well. And so I think, you know, and I appreciate you saying that because that's how I feel.

It's like, I think we're just trying to do good work and we're trying to do cool stuff. And the more good work and cool stuff we do, the better people are going to feel about the product. And Xbox Onex is coming out at a great time where I think there's just a lot of great momentum. And we've got a lot of great features and a lot of great games. And now we have a really great piece of hardware. And so I'm excited. I mean, it's you guys, I feel like I've said, making the right decisions when they need to be. And I know that like when you guys cancel a game or

you know, hey, crackdown's getting pushed. It was that thing where everyone's knee-jerker action is like, oh my God, they've found it. Then you have that moment where it settles me like, well, what do you want them to do? Do you want them to release a game and charge you $60 for something that's not great? Or do you want them to say we're pushing it or we're not doing it

or we're making this tough decision? And that is that, again, gamer's first attitude, I think you guys have. Yeah, I think some people, you know, if Gary was here, he, you know, I think he would understand the games are a creative process. Some people think of them as a technological product, but they're actually a creative product. And just like in a piece of creative, they need to take time and you make changes.

And you want the best thing to come out. And the nice thing about the games is you just go, well, you know, we're going to give it the time. It needs to be the game it needs to be. And that's like almost never a bad call. From the inside, what do you think is the biggest misconception or thing the general public and gamer like myself don't get? You know, you talked about that they are a creative. creative industry. And like right now, there's so much hullabaloo, whether it's games and services, it's micro-transactions, it's, uh, the incremental console generations. What, what do you see somebody

saying, oh my God, that's not how it really works on this side of the fence? I think, wow, this is a really great, this is like a really good question. That's why now we're coming to kind of funny now we're going deep. Now we're going now, it should be called kind of deep because that was kind of a deep question. Uh, I think maybe this is just a general phenomenon. that when a decision is made, forget us, anybody, when any company makes a decision, there's always the guy that's just like, well, that was dumb and it's so obvious

that this other thing should have happened. And the answer's, like, how did they just not realize that they should have just done this? Why'd they put the button there? It should have been over there. And it turns out these decisions are extremely complicated. And that there is a lot of factors that work beyond that people, unless you're in the industry,

just don't understand. And so I have learned myself just as a consumer that when I see something that seems obviously like a bad decision, my first gut reaction is, I wonder what really happened because there's no way they didn't know. Something else is going on. What's the something else? As opposed to like, oh, that's dumb. They don't know what they're doing.

So the biggest misconception I think about games is no different than anybody else, which is there's a lot of other factors at work. We talked about this with, you know, I'll give you a good example. is the OG backcompat and 360 back and pat and we just talked about this that we thought the biggest challenge was going to be technological like oh my god we've got to get like these 15 year old

games running and then like that was hard but the reason that we don't have a huge amount of games is not a technology thing it turns out it's a licensing thing and sometimes it's not even our licensing thing and sometimes those licenses don't even exist sometimes we don't even have the piece of paper that shows you the person is we even need to talk to because

that was so long ago so there ends up being all of these other factors that people just don't understand sometimes. On that licensing front, this is an interesting question I have for people on the inside. Are you seeing or hearing that contracts, deals, whatever you want to call, are getting future proof that way? Because it always is, you make a great point of like, oh, man, they're re-releasing crazy taxi. And you start it up and it's not the offspring. And you're like, what the hell is this?

You've lost a bit of that magic. And it happens all the time where something gets re-release, but they have to take out this or this track or this voice because the deal was, I sign up for this game for this thing and it never talks about digital management rights or anything that stuff. I'm, I'm the hardware guy. I'm not the right guy. I know. That's why I was just more. Look, I think in general, the globalization and sort of understanding that there's going to be other things, other technologies that haven't been invented that this might apply to. I think the industry and people are getting smarter about that kind of thing. Yeah. So it's, and it's definitely something the industry needs to think about as we think

about compatibility into the future. Sure. Going on and on. For Xbox 1x. Yeah. Was this an easy decision, a no-brainer? Like, internally, what's happening when you guys, like, we need to do something else and are we doing Xbox 2 or are we doing Xbox 1X? Or how does that come to be? Because it's a weird thing of like you and PlayStation kind of start coming together, not coming together. You're very separate. But coming to the same conclusion at the same time. That was, you know, I always say that was the biggest surprise to me is because, you know, I'll be honest.

I thought we like had this lockdown. I thought we were the only ones doing this. We got the tiger with the tail. We're the only ones. No one knows. We're going to surprise the world. And it's like, oh, they're doing it too. Oh, man.

Oh, man. And then it's, then it becomes interesting for me, different from other customers. It's like, oh, why did they make those choices? And we made other choices. Yeah. Has it been easy?

No, because we're doing, I think we're doing something big and different. You know, in some ways I'm glad PS4 Pro came out and we're doing it now because it's an industry initiative that everybody, he's looking at. And so I think that's good. I do think it's a good thing for gamers. I do think it's a good thing for the business. But we had a long journey of discovery and discussing how this was all going to work. And I have to say, I'm really proud of working on a team that's had kind of a pretty clear vision of what they wanted to do. And even though the details change

over time, the core idea has remained really, really consistent from when we first started thinking about this. And what is that idea? Well, the core idea was, can we, can we change the nature of console generations? Can we make it easier? Can we get all the- Can you kill them? Remember, you said earlier on this show. Am I going to, is there going to be a quote? If there's a quote, then I'll be asking if there's an extra spot on an extra spot on the kind of- We just hired Gary Widow. We can't bring you on to. Oh, man. We got to feed the baby. The, uh, you should have thought of that bad for he killed console generations. No, but like, can we have all the fun of a console generation,

all the excitement? I've said this without the pain. And that was the, that was a, that was Genesis, compatibility. Like, this thing wasn't going to go unless every game worked. And that was a major technology hurdle. And can we actually develop a piece of silicon that is advanced enough to be different and 100% compatible is a much more challenging thing than, again, I think people on the outside would think. So there was a lot of technology hurdles and business hurdles and marketing hurdles. When do we name it? How do we talk about this? It's kind of a new idea. What do we pull from things other customers are used to seeing like phones, like is there ideas and concepts we can use that already exist? And we had a lot of time to really think about those things. And I feel like one of the

things I'm happy about is that that message has gotten out there and pretty clearly. And I feel like we've been pretty consistent and pretty good about telling people what to expect and then and then meeting those expectations. Why, I mean, you talk about phones, which I think have changed obviously the way we all think of technology, right? As I wait for my iPhone X that I just free ride right perfect time yeah is that one of the motivators is it trying to keep up with PC games is they escalate and especially with you guys doing play anywhere and be able to play why the idea though of this like we're gonna make an Xbox 1x rather than the Xbox 2 or rather than jump to this next I mean you talk about being good at the gamers and I know we're kind of

there I think but I just want what what you think about it well there was a lot of observations that were made and that that led to this idea and and so I think part of it was, you know, seeing 4K TVs and talking with TV manufacturers and understanding where that was going to go and believing in it. That was a real thing, right? This isn't like the fat of 3D, where everybody was like, that was going to be the thing. We're like, no, it's not. Yeah.

And we, you know, sometimes just as people who like technology inside the company, we look at a lot of things. And sometimes we go like, yeah, we dig this. We should get behind it. And 4K and HDR and white color gamut. We saw some early Dolby demos on this stuff. And we're like, man, this is awesome. And then you go and you say, like, well, what are the analysts saying?

Oh, it looks like 4K TV is going to take off. And then you start observing like, wow, the state of the art on PC is like really accelerating fast. And man, developers are already creating this content in 4K. They're already building the textures and the worlds in the geometry for 4K. And then you say, well, like, what are customer is going to think? And this is where I don't love to use the phone analogy, but I think it's applicable in that who would have thought you'd be replacing your phone every year or two. Yeah.

And, you know, people just got used to the idea that I want the latest and greatest tech. I don't want to wait. But as long as all my stuff comes with me. And so you kind of merge that genesis. How do we do it right for consoles? How do we make people have all that compatibility and feel confident that it's all going to work? And, oh, by the way, we can capture all this energy around 4K that's happening on PC and happening

with TVs. And you sort of put those together and you're like, yeah, you know, and oh, by the way, we prove that we could do it. technologically. And you're like, oh, man, we got to do this. Like, it's going to be great. So now that you have it, do you see it? Did it change internal timelines of how long you thought or project the Xbox One is going

to be the console generation? Like, because that's the thing of, is this a step that extends it? Or is just a halfway mark in there? Not that it's really the halfway mark. But you don't know what I mean. Is it just a tent pole on the way to the next thing? Uh, you know, at this point now, we got to launch and see. what the customer says.

I think there's maybe an idea that we absolutely have a date and it's done and it never shall change. But 360 went on for a long time. But it went for a long time because the hardware was able to continually get pushed and the games continually got better. And that generation went on longer

because customers were okay with that generation. And I also need to wait for tech to change enough and prices to be in the right place. Components need to come down, right, to be able to get put into a box. to make Xbox. There's a lot of factors. So I think I don't,

I don't use this as any sort of marker for the generation, but I do, I do want people like, because it gets asked a lot as like, the intention is not to make exclusive games. And at some point, the Xbox 1S goes away

and Xbox 1 becomes, you know, the only, or Xbox 1x becomes the only thing. Like, there's a reason they're both called Xbox 1 and we're going to make games for both and that's how we built it.

And, you know, now we have to see how people respond. And sure, I think the, the developer response has been great. You know, the amount of titles that we have already announced and that we're going to have at launch

that take advantage of a new console is crazy. I mean, typically when a console launches, you have 15 games, 20 games, if you're lucky. We're going to have 50 to 70 titles in the first couple of weeks

that take advantage of the box. We've announced 160 games that are going to, that developers are committed to doing Xbox 1X enhanced versions. That's a huge, library taking advantage of a new hardware. That's one of, I think, one of the great benefits of this sort of shift that we're making. It's like there are people now who own games that they bought last

year that work on a new console that they don't even own yet. And I think that's a pretty like, as a guy who's been in the industry a long time, it's a neat way of thinking about it. Well, it's a great way to inject life back into those games, right? They're like, how many, we all have the pile of shame. The game that's sitting there in the cellophane on your shelf that you never got to. Mine's about 17 years old. Exactly. Yeah, totally. And so now a reason to go back and pop these things in and actually give them the shot. Yeah, totally.

And what's fascinating, I really feel about what you guys are doing is the fact that, as you and Sony, right, with these systems, is the fact that putting them out there on the market gets more people to go buy them. It gets the person who hasn't adopted yet to come back and get there and get it in. And if the system continues to sell, like you're saying, the generation sticks around longer. And you're actually getting, even if you never upgraded your ex, you still have the original Xbox Xbox 1X, you're still getting more out of that now because more people are buying it, which means more people are supporting it. Yeah, totally, exactly. It's fascinating, but it's got to be so terrifying. I can't imagine running a multi-billion dollar business like this and trying to, or even being a part of one division in trying to figure out where we all play and how it all goes.

Yeah. I would like to say you're wrong, but it is. It's fun. But again, you know, and it's sort of back to the OG. I just, I think there's a good vibe. I think, you know, know, we feel really good about what we're doing and we're really feeling great about the developer support and the enthusiasm and all the questions, like even tough questions or hard questions or questions that are misunderstood. If someone's asking the question, at least they're interested. Yeah. So, and just the level of interest in what we're doing makes me feel really good.

And then, you know, I just go and then someone ultimately ask, well, which one do I buy? Well, it doesn't, it's okay. There's no bad call. What, what is, what's important to you? Yeah. Are you, you know, just turned in 13 and you're going to get your first video game console? Or are you a PC gamer who finally want something, you know, worthy enough to, you know, exist in your 4K screen downstairs? Well, you know, you can figure that out.

But, you know, here's what I can tell you. All your games are going to work. All your accessories are going to work. And, oh, by the way, you can play games from, you know, two console generations ago as well. And, oh, and if you like PC games, buy them because they also work on the PC. seems like a pretty good, pretty good gig. Right. A good reason to get an Xbox.

It's that gamer first stuff you're talking about. Yeah. And it's the fact that like I, you know, yes, I think you are showing everybody as you do this interview is the fact that this is also the, the 2017 publisher, developer, however you want to call it, interview that works so well. I'm like, yeah, ask me a tough question. And if I don't answer, I don't know, and I'll tell you that or blah. But it's the fact of that it isn't a suit hiding behind a prepared statement trying to do this, right? You guys are out there talking to people the way you're supposed to be. Yeah, I don't have my piece of paper with my...

Well, there's this big Q cards over there. That's right. Jeff Rubenso's one of them. Oh, Gary Witta finally came back too. Oh, it's Gary Witta. We've taken some shots at you, but you weren't here, so then they kind of came off me. Oh, you heard him.

Okay, just making sure. Just making sure about that. So has it been difficult as the guy in charge of Xbox 1X marketing to market the Xbox 1X? Is it hard to come out and say, hey, buy this box without saying because your old box isn't as good or the, you know, the box we're still selling isn't the same. It's a tight rope. It seems like. It is. It's been a ton of fun. And like, again, you guys know this. It's like,

there's a, there's a production that goes on. And sometimes like the new tech, new ways that you can reach your customers, there's other parts that make your job fun. Yeah. That aren't always like quite so visible and sexy. And so like as a marketer, this has been an unbelievably interesting marketing experience. Because I think everything we've done and this launch has been sort of different. It's almost, it's almost been a mantra for us that, you know, if we're going to introduce this new idea of this mid-generation console that's more powerful, maybe we should actually launch it differently than consoles typically launch. And it started with announcing, you know, E32016 with the S and ending it with Project Scorpio. You're insane. You know, like, who launches,

who just says, here's a brand new console, go buy it now? And next year, there's a better one coming out. But it started the conversation that we were doing something different. And so as a as a marketer, it has been really, really fun. Um, and internally, do people try to stop you from doing that? Trying to come out a year, you basically gave like an RCP a year out of like, hey, we'll talk to you next three about X. There's a really cool party coming out right now. And there's another party coming out next year. Nobody tried to stop it, but you have all the, you have all the smart conversations. Sure. Like exactly the same conversations you guys had after we. did it, we just happened to have before we did it.

Sure. It's like, you know, is this the right thing to do? What's going to happen? Are we going to stall sales? Are we going to confuse people? And when you ask yourself those questions, then you can take the time to try and answer them. And we were very thoughtful about what information we put out. And it allowed us to start having the conversation we needed to have right off the bat, which is,

no, we did this because it's all going to work. And we want customers to know it's coming because we're doing something different here. and it's, you know, so if you ask me, is this just like another console? No, because if it was, I wouldn't have done this. I wouldn't have done it this way. It was just another console generation. I would have done it the way. It's always been. Yeah. I've done it the old way. But we're doing it the new way. And so that's been fun. It's been a ton of fun. It's been a ton of fun. It's been a ton of fun. It's a guy who clearly love talking about the business. It just makes a really fun. It's like, what should we do this or this? Should we say it this way or this way? Nice. It's fun. Why should people buy the Xbox One X? Well, I think if you want, here we go. Get out the prepared statement. It has the most tariff flops. Yes. I have all the terror. I don't know what it means, but we have six of them.

I should hope you know. Well, you know, yes, I do know, but I probably couldn't explain it. The, the, there are people who want the best experience. And I think one of the things we want to deliver is we wanted Xbox fans to be able to play the best versions of the games. If you want the best version of the games that are out, they're going to be on Xbox one. And we could talk about 4K and we could talk about power. But really, at the end of the day, you have many platforms to choose from. And one of them will have the best version.

And I believe it's going to be on Xbox 1X. So, you know, simply put, that's why I would suggest people get it. Now, someone might say, I'm on a budget. My kid's too young. I'm not ready. I haven't moved over. Great. Buy an Xbox 1S.

And if you're ready, when you're ready later, all your stuff's going to work. So there isn't really a bad choice. What's been the biggest hurdle? to the Xbox 1X for you? The biggest hurdle has been explaining to people that it's, that in 4K TV is not required. The, the, when you're, when you're on the forefront of 4K and you're talking about 4K Blu-ray and 4K,

and in fact, you know, I was just talking about this with Mr. Witt earlier is like, um, then people want to just pattern match and say, well, I don't have a 4K TV. Therefore the Xbox 1X is not for me.

And you go, well, that's actually not true. And now let me explain to you why. all this stuff that we're doing is also going to apply, but slightly differently on a 10-8 TV as well. So that's probably been the question that I get the most that I completely understand why people ask it.

And then you have to get into a little more detail about why a 4K TV is not required to enjoy an Xbox 1X. Sure. I feel like that for me, I mean, when this starts with the conversation with PlayStation 4 Pro, right, is the thing of like, well, I don't need that. Like, I don't have that. And I don't do it.

For me, it strikes such a similar balance to when Xbox 360 launched. And I remember looking at it, I'm like, oh, that's really cool. I don't have an HD TV. And I don't even have at my apartment at the time internet. You know what I mean? Like, I was like, this just isn't a console for me. And then to get it and like you're getting the games out of it,

you're understanding differently. Tell you what, trying to read the dead rising texts on my giant TV. Wasn't there some early rare games that had like, I think one of the, it was a perfect dark that had the same thing? I think, yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. The text problem. But it's just the fact that the innards in both of these machines, right, are such a step up from where they were.

let alone you guys with your flops and your bits and your bots. You know what I mean? And like how it's getting in there and actually becoming like, all right, if you have a console and you're fine with it, great. But if you've been hemming and hauling, if it's not doing something correctly, if you don't have it, period, this is the reason to go for that one. Yeah, exactly. So then, Xbox 1X comes out.

Pretty much by the time people see this, what's the next step for you then? As a marketing dude at Xbox, what happens for you? Well, now, you know, now the day-to-day boring marketing work comes in. Now, you know, after we launch, then it's going to be, you know, a lot about the games that are coming out. We've got a great lineup of titles this holiday. We've got a bunch of games coming on in H2. PubG is going to be, you know, that's a whole thing in and of itself. Like, I was talking to way today.

I was like, well, the Xbox 1X will be at home so I can play it there. And I'm going to bring the Xbox 1S to work and put it on the desk. So I'm ready to play whenever it's ready. Whenever it's, yeah. As a guy, like every time I want to get ready to play that game, it's like there's like 50 million more people playing it than there was the week before. And so I go, ah, I'll just waiting for the, you know, like, I'll just start with all the other nobs on the console. Yeah, like I missed the, I missed the boat on PC. 100%.

And so I'm going to just, I'll just wait for the level playing field where everybody's bad at. Well, I mean, like, that was such an ingenious move by you guys getting them and locking them down for exclusivity, just in the way that I played it on PC. And I'm like, yeah, this game's great. And I can totally see where if I'd play for 20 minutes and kill it. But, or just to call time. I'm not good at it. Yeah. But it's for me, PC game is just not my bag.

You know what I mean? I like the controller. and I like a TV and I like a console. And so I was like, I'm just going to wait for this. And like to have it be suddenly my Xbox I think will go right now. I have this like a, you know, it's been a weird year for me. Well, you got married. So that's, well, sure.

That was weird too. She's taking half your stuff. Exactly. She's already drawn up papers. Uh, but it's the fact that, you know, for years and years and years, I've been saying, I'm the single player guy. I don't play multiplayer games. And then this year has been like Friday 13th, Destiny 2, Marvel Heroes, Omega, like all

these things where I actually am getting on and playing with other people to have it be like now I'll jump in and I'll play Wolfenstein too I'll play Super Mario but I then find myself going back to the comfort food these these worlds I've invested in these games I've been a part of and I can clearly see that PubG is going to be that same thing so to be consistently now on Xbox turning this on wanting it at my desk here that's a huge turn it's funny I it's so funny because I'm kind of like being growing up in the single player in my world yeah that I grew up in playing games multi-I've never been like a hard core multiplayer person myself.

PubG is probably the first game I've seen outside of like Halo land parties, because that was still kind of single player just in your house. But like PubG were the pace of the game and like, you know, the achievement isn't necessarily being the last guy, but like just surviving. Do it a little bit better. You know, can I just do a little bit better, last a little bit longer? So the whole pace of that appeals to me. So it's probably I can like you, I can see myself getting into that.

And I like what you said, by the way, because I think a lot of people miss this about PC and consoles like there's some sort of conflict. But there are just people who like games who play on PC, but just prefer to kick it back. So when, you know, when people say, well, PubG is already on PC, but yeah, there's hundreds of millions of console gamers that don't have the rig or, you know, don't have the time. And they're like, it's a new game for them. Oh, yeah. And it's going to be a different experience on console than LD as well. So I think it's going to be a huge game. I mean, I think it's got enormous potential. I don't even think, I don't even think there. There's a, you have to think about it.

Like, it's going to be. Then that was the thing today on Kind of Funny Games Daily, a guy wrote into me and Mr. Witta saying the fact of, yeah, like, you know, do you think it's going to actually make a dent? Is it going to matter when it comes to Xbox? Because Fortnite's already out there and you can play that on Xbox. You can play somewhere else. And so many people are playing that and that it's on PC.

And it's like, it doesn't matter. And as I've said before, like, I play Fortnite. I like Fortnite. But, like, Fortnite is admittedly from the developers, Pepsi. to Coke. And people, even if you've just heard about Coke, when Coke lands and it's $30 for early access, people can go, yeah, sure, here, let's try it. Let's get in there. Let's see what it's all about. It's hard to explain because, well, now it's not hard to explain because so many people are seeing it. There's just something about that game when you see it, like, you're just immediately,

it's a fun game to watch other people play. It's a fun game to talk to about people. It's got a lot of those great moments. It's water cooler moments, right? Yeah, it's got a lot of great water cooler moments. I was doing this, and I came over and then the guy came over and he jumped out of the car, he shot me in the head. But there's lots of games that have similar game styles that doesn't make them the same game. Right. Exactly. So I totally agree. Yeah. It's going to be fascinating when that finally drops. And I think it's just such a great win for you guys to get. And I'm glad it's coming out this year. And even though it's an early access, it's still like a really solid game. So I think, I think in this in this case, the early access is more about content than sort of things like game balance. I mean, I think it is a game that you can play. And it's,

you know, tried and true tested. And then, you know, I think whatever they do for 1-0 will get more in sync with them over time. Sure. But I think it is going to be a good solid game onto itself, even though it's under the early access spanner. Yeah, but I feel like that's, it's such an, you and I are old guys. It's such an antiquated way of thinking. And this has been a conversation I've had with kind of funny, everybody on Kind of Funny Games Daily, even when I was chilling out yesterday, getting ready for the bomb cast of just like, I feel like we, and I point to myself if you're an audio listener, people who came from in IGN background and video game reviews. And it was like, the sanctity. And Scooter knows I'm talking of like action game of the year, shooter of the year.

Here's our rigid policy. And games aren't that anymore. And so like you're paying money to play PubG. I don't care what it says if it says early access or beta like his Minecraft is in beta forever. Like that's in the running for game of the year. In the same way, I think honestly when you get to 2018, if you're still playing Fortnite or Dodo or whatever, like that can still be your game of the year because that's how games exist now. Yeah. That's right.

Because they evolve over time. And that's what's been awesome. and weird and we're at such a cool place in video games that's terrifying because it's brand new and cutting edge, but it's like games are changing to be ever evolving and be this thing. And now consoles are literally doing the same thing too. It is, this is like the, last couple of years. I agree. It's like one of the most exciting times as the as sort of, you're right. Every, how games come, game styles. The technology is coming faster than it ever has before. Um, the power of software and like being able to go do things in software and

fix things in software and bring games back through software. Sure. That you couldn't do in the old days. It's like, I mean, it's an amazing, it's amazing time. Yeah. Man, back when I was a boy. Oh, yeah. Now, does everyone embrace that or is there one guy terrified at his desk right now? Because like, I can't, again, a billion dollar corporation. We're trying to chart the future. Literally every day, something changes drastically. Oh, man, but that's like what makes us the most exciting business like on the planet. Yeah. If it was the same thing, we'd still be on the Atari 2600 or the Odyssey one. Yeah. Depending. But like, so yeah, it's got to change. And yeah, it's like, that's what's fun to talk about. And that's why you go to lunch. And like, if you're,

If you work in this business and you're not like talking about this all the time with people with other people or your coworkers, like, I can't, I, I talk about games now more than I play them because I don't have time. But you're always like, what's changing? What are people saying? What are people like? And even with Xbox 1X, we had years to like ask ourselves these questions and debate with ourselves how we were going to go about doing it. And, you know, that's it's why I love this business more than anything. Do you feel like, you know, we talk about it here, like how cool it is. I think maybe you mentioned it. Sorry, I've done like 15 shows that I don't know. But it's the idea that, you know, people play NES stuff. They play old school games and they come up and they make games that are here now. And then you were talking about the fact that, you know, when you look at the original consoles, they were made by toy makers, right? And they're just, that's what they think of. It's an evolution of action figures. Whereas I think so many of us now see it as the evolution of storytelling. It is an art to itself. Do you see, and it can just be for within Microsoft, have we bred?

out or have we almost bred out all the suits who don't get it that are here and they are just business minded and it is just a spreadsheet and it is this is what's happening because back and forth with everything that's happened in the recent weeks with EA and visceral. Right. It's been this thing of like how do you balance business but also make it art and how do you find that sweet spot where your creators are happy, your customers are happening, your shareholders are happy. Like you're talking about having these great conversations and I totally believe that's happening. Yeah. Is there one guy who's still like, you know, American Psycho, Harris, look back, business card being like, let me tell you, though, about my, my shareholders. No, I can tell you Microsoft, those,

even the most business-minded people that are not like that. Like, everybody, one of the things I think is really interesting about working on Xbox is everybody loves games, and they love this business. They might not all be gamers. So you're definitely, I think there might be a mistake that, like, you can like the thing you're doing and not be an expert at it. You guys are way better gamers. And we're not good now than I am. And, you know, as Cuphead reminds me every five minutes. But that doesn't mean you can't love the business.

And so I think what's exciting is we get to work with a bunch of people. But you want the dinosaurs who think the old way and you want the people who are like way off the reservation. Those are without a doubt. That's where magic happens. I mean, I was just saying, I was just at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo because I'm a retro gamer. And I can, I will tell for me, I know this is only my own point of view, I like to think about how things used to work and figure out if there's a way that it can be applied today. And then also go hear about things like Game Pass and hear about all these new types of business models and free to play. And there's got to be a place where these things come together.

And when you can do it right, you know, then you're. really doing something amazing. And I want to hear from the guy who's like, we always did it this way. It's never done any other way. You can't change at all. And then I want to hear from the greasy guy that's like, let me tell you about the land. I'm going to sell you. And then ultimately you go, hey, somewhere in the middle here is a great idea. And those kind of conversations are the most fun conversations. So we talked about your car accident that led to your amazing job. Nowadays, you know, something I see all the time in that I think so great is so many people that listen to our shows or watch our shows, want to break into the industry. And I often get the, I want to do something

in the industry, but I'm not a developer. I'm not a writer. I'm not the creative type. I am marketing. I am something of that branch. What do they need to be doing? What do you look for in someone who wants to come work at Xbox? It's way harder now than it is. But there's also a lot more opportunity. In the old days, if you didn't live in the Bay Area, then you could have pretty much forgot it. You know, it's kind of like breaking into Hollywood and not living in LA. All the game companies were in the Bay Area, and I was fortunate enough to be in the Bay Area. And frankly, just liking games and wanting to work there was enough in those days. Today, the industry's bigger. It's all over the world. It's all over the country. But I think people have so much more of an

opportunity to create. Like there was no outlet to show that you were passionate about gaming. And it's not just about being a great gamer, but having interesting insights. My favorite thing now is to go online and look at the comments and try and pick out people who are coming up with interesting points of view on things. Yeah. And those outlets didn't exist. So my advice to anyone that wants to break into the video game industry is be part of the

industry and try and create something. Try and do what you guys are doing. You know, get out there, be involved, play, participate, communicate, create something. And I see a lot more people breaking into the business that way because, man, this guy's just hustling. He's working hard. Passion recognizes passion. Yeah, I think that's what it is. And so there's different ways to express your passion now that didn't exist in the early days.

Interesting. And that's not just about being great at games. It's like a passion for everything that people are doing. Sure. Yeah. Like, even though it's harder, right, I mean, people who see somebody who's going to get out there and bust their ass, they're going to come looking for them for those kind of jobs. Totally. So back to Xbox 1X.

Back to Xbox. Bring it back. What's 2018 look like for you guys? It's looking like it's about a month and a half away. It's looking like it's coming soon. Real quick on you. Yeah. Well, I think next year is going to be interesting because next year it's going to, we're not launching a new piece of hardware.

It's going to be all about the games. And it's going to be, I'm really excited to see what people do with the Xbox 1X enhanced games. I think one thing that gets lost on people is we only had the developer kits out right around E3. So all of the, when we talk about having, you know, a bunch of games in the first week and 160 titles, that's just six months of work. So the stuff that's going to happen next year when people have had time. So I think there is a lot of headroom for how. much more amazing the games on Xbox 1X can look that they're just like on the tip of the iceberg right now. Yeah. And then of course, you know, E3 will be fun and all the new games

announcements. And we've got, you know, a bunch of stuff like coming in in the first half of the calendar year. I got to get out of my fiscal year. Yeah. Thinking that like that's coming and say the K2's coming. Don't tease me. Don't tease me about state of the K2. There's a lot of good content coming in in the first part. And so it, you know, it's going to be a bigger focus on the games, you know, next year. Oh, that's what you got to do, right? Yeah, totally. That's what it's all about.

That's why we do it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Any final words here? Anything else you want to say about? This has been a lot of fun. That's been great. I really appreciate it. You're a great guest.

I don't know if you know that. No. When inevitably, you leave those schmucks behind. Which might be shortly after this. Exactly. Well, you can come down here. You can host the show with Gary Witta. I would love to.

Gary, you got questions? Do you want anything in here? You want to shout anything in kind of funny games? Well, they can't hear you. Hollywood outside of LA. He says, oh, by the way. So this guy, right, Gary Wittitt, I mean, he's the dream, right? I mean, it's what we all wanted to grow up to be Gary, like one of our own broke out.

So one of our own video game industry's own got out and went to Hollywood. There are a bunch of people. That's right. He got out, man. He made it. It's like the Shawshank. I was going to say he sent him postcards back to us like a shushing. No, I mean, the funny thing is this Gary and I sort of orbited, you know, no pun intended, each other because he was on the PC gamer side back in the day.

when I was in EA, but I was launch of console games. A lot of people he worked with, like Chris Charla and Blake Fisher and a lot of those guys now I work with. And we were just reminiscing that he didn't remember that actually as a young, young marketing lad working on Jane's flight simulators, actually pitched him some stuff back in the PC Gamer days. But I've always known of Gary. And so, like, I remember like when Blake was like, oh, man, we got to go see Book of Eli

because Gary wrote that. We're like, oh, what? He wrote a movie? That's the greatest thing ever. So we all like, you know, everybody back at home like Blake and Charlo, we're always like, oh, Gary, he made it. He got out. And then I sucked him right back into kind of funny games daily. He couldn't get too far right back here. Come on back. Thank you for coming. You got to come back at some point too. Anytime. All right. Also, hey, make the controllers rechargeable. They are rechargeable. You buy it. Just do it right away. Just do it right away. It's a suggestion for 2018. Okay, fine. Okay. I'll get right on it. That's right. It'll be the shipping next week.

Thank you. Whatever you want. Oh, wow. All right. Great. I also want. a state of decay to Xbox 1x like bundle like I can design it for you yeah big state of a K fan I don't know if you know Jeff did you tell them just letting you know big state of a K fan I threw that out right for you how's the game coming is it looking good I haven't seen it since C3 I don't see anything you see games

the hardware's got to play something it can be forwards all the time yeah you can't damn it's alright fine off wards all the time Albert thank you for coming by awesome it's been awesome Xbox 1x pretty much out now 117 yeah come get it yeah ladies gentlemen this has been the Kind of Funny Games cast each and every week on a variety of platforms we talk to you about the video games we love.

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That'd be helpful. Tweet it Ryan McCaffrey that he should watch this and break out news story. Actually, I guess that's goldfarb's job. Maybe even Dornbush. I don't know how IG does it anymore. Until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.