[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right? It's one of the best GDC talks you'll ever see. If you're a young game designer or developer, watch that talk. Curtin, I forget what the other guy's name is now, but they crush that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We had a thing when we added the mobility with the chain and moving around and we called it enhanced mobility because everybody needed to move. Like, so when you're fighting like, you know, in Vanaheim and I knew her jumping around and climbing up and down and you're zipping all over the place. It's based on that idea of that talk. Like how do you take that FPS?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's way too much media in the world. I don't care. I'll go find it. Here's a little known thing. There's this...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, see I'm probably gonna start warring the internet right now. There's this Disney book. Uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Fantasia. Do you know what Fantasia is? The original one? If you can find this book, and you look at it,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you take the cover of that book off and you said, oh, this is, this is the art book for the original Legend of Zelda.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, we go on and on, like, it's like, but, that's, you know, they probably saw that and it's like, think about Miyamoto when he grew up in the time frame. It clicks. Probably one of the first animated things that stays in your brain. It stayed with me forever. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm just saying it's like everybody bars.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But that's the beauty of it, I mean, we're at a place now, I mean, think about music's been going through this forever, like remix, borrow, you know, all this interpretation, covers, like, it's all still good. Like, why are we all of a sudden, like, it's not allowed in games? Like, I don't understand. That's weird.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That was the inspiration. You could see the design document, it literally says like comic book shot.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, and that's what we, we talk in shorthand like that all the time, like what we want to do. Um, and even back to the original, I can think of the colossus of roads, like design document has stuff like foot through wall.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, I think it's more like, people will remember it. If you give it a little thing, like all the weapons have this. You know what I mean? Like the, like, the phrase for the spear was like, beat the door down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like everything the spear did had to feel like you were like kicking in a door or you're like the SWAT team with the big, you know, ram, like knocking a door down. Like that was, and everybody can get behind that. So whenever they're like, oh, is this right? Like the way I'm killing this guy with the spear is like, does it embody that phrase? And it's just like these easy things for people to click and they stay in their brain with so much going on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, and you know how you always see those like corporate like messages, like what their mission statement, nobody remembers that stuff. But if you boil it down to like, like the one I always remember our studio, you know, it's like our story, your journey.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, it's like, and so I, it's probably just maybe something about me that I like that little phrasing but it always works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, yeah, I want to stay here. I would love to finish my career here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think this gets back to your, your question about the art tour, right? Like I think they have to make something new. It has to be wholly them and that's fine. I mean, there's other people that are just like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I have this title, but it, it took so many people to make this game. So many different groups, even outside of our studio, like Valkyrie, Bluepoint, Jetpack, Super Alloy, you know, Jacobus and his whole crew out in Vegas doing stunts. Like it, it takes so many people to make these games now at that quality.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you go indie, that's a different thing, but that's not something I don't want to run a studio or build a company. That's not me. That's for other people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel good. You know, for some people, I'm sure it's like just jumping on a call to you and just hedge out the crap out of people. You know, just like just blow off some steam. Like it's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We always talk about the weapons like we want them to have this toy aspect to them with some degree, you know, and that's the triangle button is wholeheartedly embrace that in this game. You're just whipping that blade around and smashing somebody with a freezing axe and just blasting them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that's what's great about training mode, those fighting games, cause I'll do that. I'll literally just go in and you can just be on buttons. Like, when we'd have hard days, uh, when Derek was still here and we, he'd just message me, he was like, dude, buttons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that means like, oh, some didn't go well. That meeting wasn't good. And we were just going there like bang on third strike for a little bit or alpha three or super turbo, which is our favorite game. Um, you know, play good five rounds and then just go back to work. And then like, you know, around seven o'clock, you'd probably get that message again, buttons.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, that, we left that for everybody to have their own feeling, you know, like there's, the one thing that is, is that those triptychs were all created by someone else, but that last panel's, you know, Angerbota went in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We wanted you to have that feeling of the separation with your child. Like you're like, I, if only I would have spent more time of I wouldn't have missed out on those people go through that for real. You know, we wanted that to be like felt through the gameplay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, but no, that's what it's, because it's not written, right? That's the whole part of the story.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I will say this though, like the, what he says when he comes around the side, when they ask him what he saw, that's the key. He says a path.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just because you see it, doesn't mean you walk it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Friends Per Second Podcast where every other week four pals get together to talk about video games. What's the thing we have on Apple? It's like four nerds, four microphones, zero idea what we're talking about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Let's quickly go around the room, in case you are listening, uh, via an audio device, whichever audio device it may be, and you don't know who we are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'll go around the room, I'm Lucy, I work at Gamespot and GIANTBOMB! Ralph, I'll kick it to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To, I mean, we're all friends here like just to check in, to talk about g4, uhm, because.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where it was given the runway to do so. Instead of just being the fucking clip from Wallace and Gromit where Gromit's laying the train track as he's going ahead.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm honestly like, you know, we've all talked about it a lot over the past week and honestly like, I'm just first of all very proud of you for all the work you did there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like, you produce some amazing shit. But I'm also exceptionally proud of you for like, just, bigging up all the people who work there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But ultimately taking care of yourself as well, cause that can be, I can't even imagine how you've been this last week, cause it, you know, just on the outside looking and it's been shit all around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh, of course, like we obviously wanted to talk about it and just like check in with you and so yea, you know, you know we've got you back.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We just did GameSpot after Dark before this and that's why I was running a bit late. And uhm, we realised that I had been off the show because I've been travelling and I've been sick the entire time she was Prime Minister.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pretty much your entire constituency, you tank the pound.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's been such a whirlwind of a couple weeks that like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everyone's working really hard to embargo and code's coming in and we're doing all this shit and it's really like all these cool games and I get to talk about it with my friends and then this week happened I was like, ugh, okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Bit much, uh, so I guess we had two showcases this week alone, so we had the Silent Hill one, and we also had the Resident Evil one, and so I am not a Resident Evil fan.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A Silent Hill person, necessarily. Uhm, but I understand Jake, you are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What can announce what people are actually excited about? Why people are mad about a reflection in a mirror? I didn't quite get that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If you're watching, I just blew a kiss off screen, it's cause I had to check in on my cat, cause I was like, this would never happen to you.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I enjoyed the medium. Yeah, but like, with the caveat. Sure, the ending was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I watched the comparison from Final Fantasy Gamer. Uhm, thank you for your service.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Raising my hand, question. Elijah Wood was doing all of this like, he was quote tweeting stuff and using the eyes emoji and people thought that he might be involved in any of these projects, did that actually happen?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm gonna be Wendy from The Shining, I got a bat, I got like the whole corduroy dress thing and the green shirt, and I'm gonna use some red eyeliner to make it look like I'm crying. Maybe I'll just cry, it's probably easier.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, alright, from one spooky franchise to another then, because it was Resident Evil, we were recording this on Thursday, it was the Resident Evil showcase today, a nice little half hour, we finally got to see some Resident Evil 4, uh, remake,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they also start off the showcase with like the Ethan Win- the Project Winters expansion.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I went to, I went to, uh, Capcom, actually. Oh, sick! And I, I, I'm not gonna say we were debated, but...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were like, oh yeaah, you get to do all this stuff, and you know, these are the games that are here, and then this secret, like, unnamed title, and we were like, Dragon's Dogma 2, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's gonna be remake, and then, uh, no it was not. But, I mean, it was, it was good, it was, like, you know, fun to see Rose and Evil, uh, village in, I guess, well, the, the kind of,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What we know of Resident Evil Village, you know, but experience it in third person. We didn't actually get to play Village in third person, but that is also coming out. Ethan doesn't have a face.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I loved it until the factory. Oh the factory, you didn't like the factory?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I enjoyed village a lot, but the factories when I was like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, but the main, obviously, the meat of white people were there. There was some reverse stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the main meet was the Resident Evil 4 remake. Uh, gameplay. For the first time. Looks great. Looks really great.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm super stoked about it. Kurt and Tamar played it from GameSpot, and I remember when they went to the event, because Tam was just texting me about like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, they did, they did, but they played it and like, um, they put a preview together and like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just way more atmospheric, like I always, I always when I think about Resident Evil 4 in my head, the kind of brown.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Colour palette? It's like these dark blues and blacks and just super...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They were saying that like, they all just kind of like, even the AI is so much better, they're not just, they're just, you know, slowly walking towards you and putting their hands up and whatever, it's like, properly trying to fuck you up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Alright, that was Resident Evil. Let's, let's move on. So we talked about games that are upcoming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I honestly haven't played as much as I wanted to, I will say that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Love deeply i love the characters i love the game feel no i i i love overwatch and i have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think a lot of the main criticisms that people have are in regards to the battle pass and I am not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because I've put so much time into Overwatch, the unlocking is not giving me the dopamine rush anymore, like I just... Okay, cool, I've got a new charm for D.Va's thing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Do some of the, uh, the new skins, et cetera, look amazing? Yes, they do. But now that I know they're gonna be in a store, if I really, really want stuff, I can, I know that option is there right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In terms of new heroes, uhm, I do really like the new, uh, support hero Kiriko. I believe her name is Kiriko. I don't want to get that wrong. Uhm, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really love her. I was fully, I fully thought she was gonna be completely broken when they launched because when you introduce a teleporting hero, I was like, oh my god, this is gonna be an absolute fucking nightmare. But she seems pretty okay. And I will, I will preface this with like, I am not a fucking high level player at all. I am...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, when it comes to Overwatch, but I really like her. I think she adds a lot. I think Moira is an absolute menace at the moment. It's a really interesting balance thing that they've done with her is that like, I've always felt that she's felt weirdly overpowered. And for some reason,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In Overwatch 2, she's completely dominating, and I'm like, good for her. You know, good for her. They fucking broke Bastion though, and I think they've had a really tough time of it launch-wise, and, you know, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shit that's going on with Blizzard aside, like, parking that conversation, but like, DDoS attacks on the game, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Heroes being taken out of rotation. That is not the launch you want to see from a game like Overwatch 2. Especially when there's so much controversy around the fact that it's going free to play and the fact that it is having this, uhm, new battle pass model and that people are unhappy with how frequently stuff is updating. All I say is that it could be West, it could be Halo.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But no, I mean, ultimately I've been playing a bit on PC, I've been playing on PlayStation, and like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've been saying this throughout as Overwatch has like, you know, getting hands on with it and it's been getting closer to release. It's just been really nice to be excited about Overwatch again, to see that bump in people playing it, uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cool, fair enough, fair enough. Uh, and it is getting a lot of like lapsed players back in as well. I will say though, um, we did have a very emotional, so I have two, uh, two Overwatch groups, right? Oh, I see. Tam is in both of them. Um, but one is on PC.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean pretty much we are the same person at this point. Uhm, one's on PC and one's on PlayStation and the PlayStation one is with uhm, basically the IGN UK crew and uh, Krupa who's now RKG and our friend Gary and we've been playing together since


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I've all had a lot going on recently and then the weekend before, the day before they were turning off Overwatch 1, the six of us got together and we just had this massive Overwatch 1, like one last time session and it was


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were just chatting shit the whole time, which is what we always do and it just felt so good that like a game, you know, we kind of just reflected on the fact that a game brought us together to do that and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, hey, Giant Bomb, we're all playing Overwatch 2, actually tomorrow, so if you're watching, oh, it's gonna be, it's gonna be out by the time this podcast is out, but like, we're getting Jan involved, he's never really played, and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We should, I mean, we could all play Lycia or anything, but if we wanted to play Overwatch 2, I'd be very happy to show you all the ropes.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Oh no. I'll do. I'll do. I think Destiny 2, like in terms of how the guns feel, I think they feel absolutely incredible. I just can't navigate all of that so you would have to shepherd me around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I was gonna say, I think it'll be spoiled by Destiny, but also they made a couple changes to, uhm, they've pretty, actually quite a lot of changes to Soulja, mmm, a few months ago, maybe it was last year at this point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel like they should have just called it Overwatch and just, you know, evolved into that model.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, alright, what should, what should we hit on next? Do we want to go through?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The major game releases for the past two weeks or do we want to just jump straight into what we've been playing? Cause it's most of the same.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, alright, uh, I mean where do we want to start? Do we want to start with Mabbids?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I played a little bit, but then I got Gotham Knights code in, so I did, uh, jump ship, but I know Jirard, you've been playing a lot of it. You're almost done.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He genuinely, like, I think I said it in Discord to you guys, and then Alex Navarro tweeted it, but I was like, he has a better Mario voice than Chris Pratt.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Okay, cool. Yeah, I really want to get back to that one, but I started it and then I dropped it because I got my Gotham Knights code, which feels like a good enough segue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really, I tweeted that out at embargo, but like, I really wanted to like this game. I really, I really hoped it was gonna be.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Something that would prove that you didn't necessarily need Batman. Batman is dead. Uhm, to, to carry another DC game in this universe. I know Suicide Squad is happening, I know Wonder Woman is happening, but like, with the Bat family, they're strong enough characters, and ultimately I think the heart of the game


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is in the right place. I really enjoy the interaction between all the Bat Family.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Everything else though. Oh my god. Like.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were chatting about it in Discord and Jake and I were pretty down on it and Ralph was like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I thought that fucking getting the premeditated crimes was a slog as soon as they introduced that fast travel system, which if you haven't played it, Lucius Fox


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I, I went to Warner Brothers a couple weeks ago, right? That was, you know, a few, a few weeks ago I went up there and it was like, it sucks to see just how passionate everyone there was. Like, and you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You kind of uncouple yourself from that a little bit when, like, I'm not reviewing this game, I'm just playing it and I'm talking about it, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Being there and seeing first hand just how passionate everyone was, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, I remember playing the demo and it was a very, very strange game to demo because you have four nights.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so they would, they'd put us at the beginning and then you'd skip ahead a couple hours and then you'd be playing as a different character. And so you didn't get the chance to level up with that character. So I had all these fucking abilities that I had no idea what to do with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And every part of my muscle memory was screaming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Arkham combat, and that's what I kept trying to do, but that is not what this game is. It is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Just Avengers combat, it is pummel, pummel, wait until your, wait until your gauge grows enough and then you unleash an ability, but the lock-on doesn't work and so you'll, you'll have one particular ability that will stop a charging person and then you'll fire it off into a wall. Maybe, and so like, I was trying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was trying so hard. It's just, it didn't feel like the flow is not there. And that, like there's no weight behind any of the punches. There is no.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, when you build up a combat in, a combo in Arkham, you get to a point where you are just dancing around that encounter. You are flipping from one person to another. Even when I was playing as, you know, Batgirl, who's the closest to Batman, or even Nightwing, and so you've obviously played as Nightwing in Arkham Knight, right, and you are like, you're-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Flipping around, you're going, you're, you're like water, you're going and hitting and then going on another person. It's like that. I just never got that regardless of how much.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Especially if the back yogurt cancelled as well like a movie. So just having any kind of representation of that character is pretty good. And like, like I said, the heart is there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, you will maybe know in an exposé in a couple years time what exactly happened there. Now it all went down, for sure, for sure. Alright, what else, what else do we gotta talk about? Uh. Plague Tale. Plague Tale. Jake you've been playing that one, Ralph you've been playing that one.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think the performances, at least in the first game, were incredible. So how are they in the second?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I was gonna say, well, I mean, let's go from, that's enough, that's as much as you can say on that one too. As much as we can say about God of War, Ragnarok.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, spoiler free. It's a pretty strict embargo, so there's gonna be no spoilers.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The way that the opening sets itself up for the rest of the game, I think it does it in a really smart way in that it just, it does feel like that continuation like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I really wish if I hadn't been so busy recently, I really wish I could have played 2018's God of War and then just gone straight into this because I think that would be such a great, um,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, sort of transition between the two. I'm at the point now where I'm


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Out. I'm in the world. I'm visiting the realms. I, you know, I'm, I'm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] In the thick of it, like, it's kind of wild how quickly it throws you back into combat and it just comes back. There are significant but subtle changes, I would say, like, it just feels really good, like the story...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I remember why I love these characters so much. The evolution of the relationship between Kratos and Atreus is a really great, like Atreus is still very much a boy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Although Kryptos doesn't say that actually. No. I haven't heard it, I don't think I've heard him say it in the five hours, but uhm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Atreus is kind of leading the charge a little bit more. Kratos is very much the reluctant going along with it, uhm, doesn't necessarily want to go along with everything because Atreus is like, he wants the finances if you, I'm not gonna spoil the end of 2018 if you haven't played it, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's kind of a big revelation and Atreus wants to get to the heart of it and understand what it means for him and his father and who Kratos is like, fuck that. I just want to live quietly. We don't have to do anything. We're just going to prepare for Ragnarok. Okay. And like not get involved, but Atreus is, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wanting to push forward and Kratos kind of concedes and lets him do that and follows him. And so there's a point where you kind of, you go through Svartalfheim.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and you are going through all these minds and Kratos is saying things like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Here's a mental exercise, I think that is the phrase he uses, and he's like, what if this, what would happen then? And Atreus, like he's basically teeing up Atreus to give these answers, and it's-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It seems like he's kind of negging his son, but I think if you know the relationship between them, you know that that's his way of teaching him. And you still see these moments where, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Even in combat, there's a, there's a big takedown that I did as Kratos and you


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You hold the neck of, and it's in a trailer, like you hold the neck of this beast open and you get Atreus to fire the killing shot and then the two of you finish off this animal together and it's like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a point where, there's a point where like, he's trying to, he, he goes and helps you with a puzzle, and he's like, oh, I think your knees can take it if you jump that, like even you can jump that, it's really, it's like, and then you go, Kratos being like, mm, I don't like this, you don't know to be like that, and so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm really enjoying where it's going. I think it's got, the pacing's really good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Cause it, it does the thing really smartly where, you know, it funnels you in for a bit, it pushes you along the story and then it'll just open you up into.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A little mini lake to explore, for example, if you're considering like the lake from, uh, the first game. It pushes you into sort of like a mini area. This is in the first realm that you visit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you go off and, you know, do little side quests and favors and, uhm, there's, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Things that you can clearly come back to later once you've unlocked more things. And so I, you know, I'm making the mental notes of stuff to collect or whatever. And then, you know, if I feel, oh, I want to get back on track with the story, straight, straight back there again. And it's,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yes, it's more God of War, but that is great. And I'm really enjoying it. And I really, really hope they stick it because yeah, I'm loving it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it's like, there are other subtle changes that I really enjoy. Like you have the blades from the outset, which is just super satisfying.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I could take or leave personally all the upgrade stuff. I, sometimes it can feel like a little bit overwhelming, uhm, but I really, really enjoy like the tweaks to gameplay, so.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's uhm, like you can sprint off a ledge and like deliver a killing blow from above now, which I really enjoy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Atreus already feels way more useful. Like he was always useful, but even now like his callouts are better.


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[Assistant] His arrows seem to pack a little bit more of a punch, like he's, I dunno. I never, I never had to worry about him in a kind of escort mission sense, but now I'm just like, oh yeah, it's me and my boy and we're going out and we're doing this together.


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[Assistant] I like, Ralphie will not have got to that bit yet cause you're still very much in like the emotional opening, but it's really, really funny. And I'm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's ca- it's weird seeing so much humor in a game, especially one where it's just so emotional like this one, but I think like with the writing and the performances, it really-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, it really works. And there were some lines, you know, I was texting Tamor about it, uhm, and I was just like, oh, did you get to this bit? Yeah, like, yeah, it's just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think, yeah, I think there'll be a lot of, uh, people really took boy from the first one, but I think there were a lot of jokes from this that people will be repeating. Interesting. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so we've been playing a lot of games, uh, tis the season, uh, but we do have a bunch of your questions that you've sent in. Ralph, what's the email address?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Five to ten, so you get the nice family feeling of being amongst rats.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As a Kingdom Hearts enjoyer, Kingdom Hearts 2, at least.


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[Assistant] When, you know, it was one of my favorite games of all time, and I think it holds that position still in my heart, but I don't think I would replay it again. Now.


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[Assistant] But it, I was very, it was my entire personality for a while.


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[Assistant] I would, this is not an original answer by any means, but if I had to take like one property that I loved to turn into a video game?


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[Assistant] Like a big budget one that could really work Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Like they, that magic system is so cool and I think it would make a really really fun video game. Like a big Bioware style


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] RPG where you have that magic system would be really cool. I really enjoy it or else fails. I just love to make a Mass Effect game.


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[Assistant] Don't let your dreams be dreams. And the final question from Bing L. Do you all believe that a video game crashed like the one that happened in 1983 could happen today?


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[Assistant] So, uh, well thanks for all of that. Uhm, so, uhm.


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[Assistant] I knew that I wanted to get on the other side, onto the publishing side, so managed to get a job at Virgin Interactive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, where I was there for four years, uhm, and that was, you know, the formative part of my time because we, Virgin, as it was in those days, a lot of companies didn't have their own publishing set up in Europe, so we represented people like Capcom.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For around about a year, that was just to finish Tiberian Sun. Once that was done, uhm, I moved on and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And a couple of other rules in smaller companies then ended up at TIG2, which had acquired Gathering with Developers, and that's where I met, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And uh, yeaah, that's where we, and that's, you know, the thing that intrigued me about.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, to, to get itself up and running. But in those days...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The additional cost you always faced was physical goods.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I suppose, I don't want to say, well, it was a bit of a cartel. You had to go through distribution companies to get to retail.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you, so if you imagine that you're, you're fronting all the money, distribution takes the chunk, retail takes the chunk.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Who are working across the world. We're only really interested in Grand Theft Auto and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You're going into retail to sell something called Grand Theft Auto 3. You've got a lot of excited people if you're trying to sell.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that, that was the premise of gathering was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The super successful developers would have had better deals, but by and large, that's where you were. Also, again, back to what I said earlier about cash flow. I mean, when Steam, it was 70-30, but you got paid every month.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That business model transformed things because again, you know, it's the boring part of the industry of running a business, but cashflow is pivotal. So yeaah, that enabled.


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[Assistant] I think that was when the Gathering of Developers idea finally found a business model that could sustain it. Uhm, by that point it was called Devolver.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was, it could be perceived as a risk that you don't have those rights.


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[Assistant] And, and the developers we work with today are ones we've been working with for many, many years in most cases.


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[Assistant] So Croteam go way, way back with, with Harry. They, they, they were one of the first teams that Gathering of Developers actually signed.


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[Assistant] So when, when Take Two, you know, moved in a different direction, Quoteam were free and clear to move on as well. As I say, we kept in touch.


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[Assistant] It was Nigel and myself with laptops, uhm, and nothing else really. But the trust they had in Ari was there.


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[Assistant] And uhm, that, yeaah, it was thanks to them giving us the, the opportunity that we, that gave us the initial kind of, uhm, impetus and then momentum.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, CSI was a relatively well known and trusted IP.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So yeaah, that's where we started out.


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[Assistant] CSAM 3 was the game that the Quoteam were working on, but that was always going to take...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But as, uhm, you know, took longer than anticipated, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Basically said, would any of you like to make a serious Sam game? Uhm, and uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, we're one of the teams that, that said yes and, and they thought they were, I suppose they thought they were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean they just, they just sent through a very flamboyant kind of like set of ideas which they just assumed that we would reject.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I mean they just went crazy, they just assumed that we would say no.


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[Assistant] You know, JW and Rami said, oh, we've got some friends up in Gothenburg who've got an idea for a game.


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[Assistant] And not to say that the rest is history, but it was you kind of know when you've got something that is special.


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[Assistant] And then I think over the, over the course of the next seven or eight months, we took it to a show in London. So it was in Brighton called Rez.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I remember Tom Bramble, who at that time was the editor of...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, there was other games, but at one event Mike was adjacent to us, and, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Microsoft had yet to bring the 360 out, and there was this almost like a pause, so Microsoft were heading towards their new


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And there was a bit of a hiatus, you know, all the big AAA publishers were noodling on which direction they would go in. And it felt like there was this almost like a year where...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The indie games got so much oxygen from media, uhm, because there wasn't that much else.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and, and again, it was, you know, these small events, uhm, and then later on it packed in the mega booth.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You'd be surrounded by small companies or small, you know, standalone devs. And it's just always something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was almost like you could, you could watch the crowd morphing around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, you were just excited for anyone being successful because each game that came out, I was successful, would validate the space.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, if you go back to that period, you know, around Hotline and then what comes next was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, like I was just saying earlier, there was a real enthusiasm and energy around the indie scene. And we were, we were fortunate.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These developers we were working with would validate other developers and say guys, you need to check out this team. Uhm, so.


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[Assistant] A lot of the things that came after that was a combination of either the developers introducing others.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Nigel, I mean Nigel is, I still to this day don't know how he finds the time. Uhm.


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[Assistant] Andrew, I would always talk about, you can just feel it, you can just pick up.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Group of people devolve and this is their life, you know.


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[Assistant] Angerfoot is in the future, 10-0. I mean, working with them is, you know, I think we can honestly say we never know what's coming next.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We were introduced, as I said, we were introduced to us through people like Daniel Tennant.


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[Assistant] Oh, we've got to go and find three games for 2022 or 2023. It's been very organic.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is a nightmare from a business perspective.


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[Assistant] So I think the actual devolver piece, I think, is now 50 people.


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[Assistant] Um, well, you know, I'm still struggling with all the names. That's the change. Um, you know, pre, you know, pre fall guys, I think we were around about 20 people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But when Fall Guys hit us, we, we had to, we, we literally had to fast.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And that, I think that took us up to probably around about 30 people, which I was terrified of. I think we all were.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It sounds bizarre now because at a certain point people who were trying to stream games were having takedowns and shit all the time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so the relationship with Twitch at that point, you know...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At the time, I do remember him saying, oh, I'm going to name all the presenters after our kids.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The actress who plays Nina, Marina Zik, just, just was astonishing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And like, I don't know, 24 hours after that thing went live at my daughter, Nuna Strada, I was just like, well, that's my social media profile busted. And she also had, she had a few.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, of the nastier parts of the internet reaching out. Sure.


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[Assistant] And that, that, that then I think effectively gave Nigel a blank check to continue.


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[Assistant] Since then I've followed the same, I don't watch them until they go live. So.


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[Assistant] I kind of would have preferred not to be sitting next to them.


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[Assistant] But specifically, I think, you know, it's allowed us to meet the media in all of its forms.


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[Assistant] And when you, when you are a small company, those, those events are really, really important and, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And E3 has always been like a prior to Covid was a big part of our year. So we want to get back to that.


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[Assistant] And, but, you know, the challenge that any event crisis is being relevant to media as well as, as, as exhibitors. I mean, the bigger companies seem set on their own path, doing their own things.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is understandable because they can attract all that attention doing things themselves. But I think it's important these events, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Are sustained and that's why like, you know, mentioned again, PAX Australia, you know, it can be seen as a small event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] For Devolver, Pax Australia has led us to three or four games that have been hugely successful coming from Australian devs. We would never have met them without that event.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We wouldn't have met them in person without that event.


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[Assistant] Well, uh, we met, uh, Media Tonic, uhm, actually it was before Hatable Boyfriend, they had, uhm, had a game called Foul Play, uhm, and, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So after passing on 20 passing company, they were, they were pretty small.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're in London, and so, you know, there was, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I led tonight to setting up a Tinder profile for a pigeon.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And again, you know, they, they were part of our, for, for about a year, maybe a bit longer, we were out on the road with them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So they were coming to PAX, they were coming to Gamescom, and of course they met the guys from Road 7, Demeton, Free Lives, and of course...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But they always had, uh, part of the studio with, with Game Jam and, and, and Refine Ideas. And because, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they talked about this, this game and I would always tease them saying like, you know, you've got a picture to us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It wasn't like anyone ever pitched us or we, we pitched them. It was more like just, it was a conversation that just went on for a number of months. Uhm, and, you know, I think they, they had every right to be skeptical of Devolver being able to take on such a project.


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[Assistant] I think they felt, well if we go as devolver, we keep our IP.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm sure they would say the same. It was like those two years of hanging out with each other, doing events, formed a lot of strong bonds. Uhm, and yeah, worked out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, and, and the build up to launch, you know, the momentum was just crazy. And then I think.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if any of you guys ski or do anything where you have these moments where you suddenly think, I could die. You know.


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[Assistant] There was a definite sense of like, oh my god, this could wipe us out, we might not cope with what's coming.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Whether it was marketing or, uh, life ops or, you know.


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[Assistant] Scaling in servers, it was, it was, it was brilliant and awful, uhm, at the same time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then of course, you know, what comes next is that the bigger fish in the industry, uhm, they, they, they see something that they want and, uhm,


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[Assistant] You know, our relationship with Mediatonic has been mentioned earlier in our call, in our chat. You know, we don't own their IP, that's theirs.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] At some point, you've got a studio, you've got a lot of people. They could see in front of them that the Runfall guys would need them to scale up massively.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, and I think, you know, what ECIC represented was, there's a lot of infrastructure there, there's a lot of knowledge, uh, it's a safe haven, uhm, and, you know, we, we stood back, and, and, as, well, you know, rightly so, and they, they


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Did they deal with Epic? And uhm, it was inevitable then that Epic would want us out the equation and then that's just down to negotiation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was the best outcome for us and for, for Mediatonic. I don't think Devolver would have been able to, we would have had to scale up to such a degree.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's all consuming, uhm, and it takes, it takes over. There's no two ways about it. You can't.


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[Assistant] Feel that anything we sign has to get all of our attention. We can't be in a situation where one thing takes everybody off.


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[Assistant] Uhm, it would be really unfair on those developers if we suddenly...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, lost our way and, and I think at that time Devolver was 18, 20 people who did fast hire a few people. Uhm, but even so it would have, it would have.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, as I say, this is retrospective looking back, but I think if I was a developer, if I was a developer, I'd be thinking, well, they're so busy with Fall Guys, are they really going to be able to give me the time and attention that I'd hoped for?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm glad it happened. It was, it was awesome. It was great to be involved in the launch. It was, it was crazy. It was mental.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, we have to shut the game down because people have hacked it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they're starting to put things into the game which are politically, uh, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Server infrastructure, running the game, customer service, having all those agents available. And so you scale it to the point of like, well, what if we launch this game and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then we had another forecast which we launched this game and it does okay, it does okay in the sense that we're scaling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where it was, you know, it launches and it takes off.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the guys, the guy that was running all the backend for us, his name's John Bark, he's our CTO.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And it was John and myself who were working together on these forecasts because John had to provide all the backend costs and all the things that scale. And, you know.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You come back to looking at the forecast that, that, that's the one that says, you know, it's gonna fail, you know, and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And John was confident that the game would be strong enough. John was confident that we would be able to launch this game well. Uh, he was also super confident that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What Nigel had in line for all the marketing would, would help find an audience. But I was the one who kept on going, yeah, but John, what if.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And the day the game launched, it went through my most preposterous numbers. And, so, I guess that answers your question, is that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But we were really confident that we had something that could do well.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A lot of that credit goes to, to Jeff and, and Joe at Mediatonic and, you know, they always had that plan and...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We went out and approached, you know, a lot of other games companies, uhm, at the time, and it was...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So you mentioned Gungeon, the hotline for, I mean, they were all just happy for that to happen. Uhm, I think now it's a business.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And he would have thought the Billitkin would be the most obvious, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think I'm right in saying, but I mean, I don't have insight to the numbers these days, but Gato Roboto was also hugely successful in Fall Guides.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It was at the time that the game was pitched to us, we didn't have the financial means, we didn't have the capability to take them on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And we've always been very discreet about that because we never want another publisher to think, oh, we were second choice or, but there's been a few that we've


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, I couldn't say, well, Rick, but this game we're about to launch will do really well. Well, then we'll have the cash. It's like, no, we have to know that we, it has to be in the bank now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The entirety of that budget, of our cash flows. So even if, if the other games we launched and interim didn't succeed, we'd still have that money. So he, he, he stopped knives on myself signing stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, because I mean, it is, we never want to be those guys that are acting like we knew something.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The business model there is not working for the creator. I think in film, the all you can eat model is...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So that's, that's things that you should be, we should be concerned about, we should think about, uhm, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I feel comfortable saying this, but whenever we speak to first parties, our concern is that your stores naturally are pushing the really successful things to the top. Uhm, you're currently


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] More toward live services games than you are to the smaller form indie games. And uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would say our advantage however, and I think this is where Sony and Microsoft do deserve credit, is they've given commercially reasonable terms, whereas the film and music industry do not.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I also get the impression that Sony and Microsoft as businesses are still run by game-centric people.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And they, they, they still get as excited about cult of alarm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then, but if it becomes vice president of content, who came out of some other industry,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Then you as the game developer or the publisher, you have to look at your own business and analyze what it is you're


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Your, your, your short, medium, and long-term objectives are, so for example, full gasoline station, plus absolutely superb.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I think you have to, you as a game developer and us as a publisher, we have to look at these services and think from the perspective of the game itself, what's the value of subscription services? What's the, you know, cause


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Um, I don't feel that way about Spotify. I think that's pretty horrendous.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, again, I would always say this is the, the people that we deal with, it's Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, and Nintendo are part of the subscription conversation.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I think the people really look forward to meeting and hanging out with. The way they talk about games is no different than how we talk about them. Uhm, so that's


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a number of things, firstly, you know, obviously I'm getting to mark my own homework right now, so that's always dangerous. So the thing was for us is that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, you know, we are actually the shareholders, uhm, uh, the majority shareholders. Uh, we're very fortunate as well that, you know,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I feel like we're quite insulated from that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Dodge Roll, Firefly, Cruel Team, Good Shepherd, so I feel like... that...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Pressure, whilst it's there, it's not maybe as, as profound as it might have been if we'd, by floating our company sort of sold 60% or something to, to get to that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, but again, Harry, you know, he was very carefully considered decision and, and what Harry, uh, did along with, with, uhm, Doug and his, uh, CEO, I always get the C things mixed up, uhm,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Dan, who's the CFO, when they went out, did the road show where you present to potential investors.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They really did spend a great deal of time explaining that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, went through that whole process. So I feel like...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Saying, okay, in the next 10 years, we're going to be a billion dollar company in terms of revenues that we're going to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We never made those promises. We just said, this is what we're good at. We're very confident in the spaces we work in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We've always felt like we've been given a fair crack of the whip at every tongue.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The games media in general because you've really given us the oxygen.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I got excited, I hit the table, I like knocked everything over, so. Just a disaster, as usual. We are off to an excellent start.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, you guys did a great job. I'm very proud. I wish I could be there as the resident. I would say I'm the Jeff Keighley fanboy here. I enjoyed watching you guys chat. Good shit.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like, I like this lecture, like it's like, it's like, remember the, remember like the beginning of Skyfall where Bond like gets shot and then he washes up on a beach and then just lives there for a couple years drinking tequila, like in a hut with a woman. I like to imagine that that's what Gabe Newell is doing in New Zealand. I've also never been in New Zealand. I don't know what it's like. I just assume it's a beach and like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] What the hypothetical be essentially these companies would still look at look at feedback, but it wouldn't necessarily be a two way conversation, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But it's an interesting point too, because it's like on the more product side, which you know, video games are like physical things you're buying sometimes. Uhm, you don't have Apple, like you don't have Tim Cook like arguing with people online, like there's not a debate about their products necessarily.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, it's a weird spot with how video games are. I do think...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, maybe it's because they had a different upbringing, if you think about it. Like, I just can't help but think about, like, you know, kids writing it. Like, uh, Jeff, in the interview, we're gonna see, uh, Jeff talked about writing in to his favorite game developer, like, hey, how did you guys make this game? And they write back. You know, there was the old Nintendo hotline.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, there was the early days of Doom and how games were just passed around. So it's almost like it was because it started as this grassroots...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's kind of been integrated into the newer communication pipeline slash business model, whether or not that's.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Good long term, I don't know, but I think that for me at least explains like how it is here right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I think it's interesting too where it's like some can totally get by without doing anything. You know, like how you mentioned Nintendo, uh, you know, there are some things that just try to remain like these monoliths and sometimes it works out. It's the same thing too, like not to like go off on a different tangent, but like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, if you're a content creator, you know, not every content creator is like hyper online every day and like rotting their brain on Twitter. Sometimes they're just like, here's a video, I'm out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Goodbye. And it works out for them and it's fine. So it's really kind of like, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I like, I would love to see the data behind, uh, things getting fixed. I think that's like honestly the most important thing about games if you want to just boil it down as like product, fun thing I play with.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is it better to have a community and immediately get slapped in the face with these things that need to be fixed? Is that better than just having a forum and a support ticket and going through those? I don't know. I think that would be interesting to see if there is a real benefit. I think there is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I have nothing to back that up other than feeling. It's good to just have a community and be like, this gun's broke, fix it. Okay, got it. No problem. Like I think that's like the raw, the basic one-to-one benefit. I mean, we definitely.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hmm. Is there a company that has a balance? Warframe? Uh, which is, uh, who are they? Uh, Digital Extreme? Yeah, Digital Extreme. Yeah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would just say that the whole thing is very much, uh, a thing of nuance on a thing that is, that just does not see nuance at all. Does that make sense? It is something that requires finesse and it is going on social media, which is something that does not take to any nuance or finesse really.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So many of us, except he runs an award show and I'm just in shorts in the room talking to you guys.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It does have a good focus on landscapes and like the American heartland, you know, it's cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's got a little cringe, it's got like some cringe gamer talk, but I think like ultimately there's like heart beneath it and CW, like the old writer guy, that actor is like one of his best roles. It's also better if you just come into it liking.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, uh, Rob McElhenny, just because he's got like, he's a very specific type of thing. Which guys, which, oh, is it the? Iron Grim. He's the main guy. He's the idea guy. Oh, okay, he's that guy, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know what will cleanse you at least is the, the, there's a, there's that Netflix thing. It's like technically Black Mirror, uh, and it was like a choose your own adventure. Oh, I've sold that. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. Bandersnatch. Yeah, that was good. I like that. Gaming goodness.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Wait a minute, so it's all canon and then it's like, so what do the teenagers in this world think? What are they up to? It's so weird, like who do they make this for?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So, since we last met, the biggest releases are multiverses? Multiverses? Multiverses? I don't know how to say it. Uh, it's the one where Shaggy fights Batman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sorry, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 also, uh, Two Point Campus, Cult of the Lamb,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Rumbleverse and Spiderman PC. So, uh, Ralph, I want to hear from you because you did jump into Spiderman PC. Yes. Save me the technical jargon, okay? Oh, sure.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, I mean, it also is like, if the locomotion is good enough, if getting around that world is fun enough and doing the thing moment to moment is fun enough. I mean, like there's a, the game has fast travel and you really only use that fast travel when you're trying to like really 100% after you beat the game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really now. Yeah, do what, you know, do you, do you go to towers and unlock a thing to unlock more things? Yeah. But.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's so much more to it, like you said, there's so much more context to it than that. And it also just has that longevity, that leg, the legs where it's something I've never uninstalled on any of my devices where, and I'm going to have it on Steam Deck. So it's something where I always am like, I'm going to have a beer and go for a swing.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I had a bad day, I'm just gonna go fire up the game and swing around again. Do I wanna swing during the day or like when, you know, at night, like let's go, like I, I just have always done that with every, I play every single Spider-Man game, like even the bad ones and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I just, this just makes me happy and I'm really excited for the sequel.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm curious if, sorry, go ahead, Jack. I was just gonna say it also, uh, like, you know, alright, like, yea dude, if you're not like crazy about Spider-Man, sure, that is probably what it is to you, but if you like Spider-Man and you wanna see this story and have fun, playable sequences too, like, then, come on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so I have been playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, and it is a good ol' JRPG. It is, uh, I really like the second one, but I think vibe-wise and story-wise and stuff, I really like this one. Uh, this one is less like


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Anime babe and more like cool sci-fi. Uh, it's, it's very creative. Like once like, so it starts off really slow, right? And like Ralph, you're playing it, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Yeah, it definitely, it has a slow start, like so many, uh, but once it clicks and like once the kind of story, it's kind of like a little bit of a twist, like once, once that hits, it's like, oh, this is like really, really cool and the combat


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's like these games are known for like verdant endless fields with a great sense of scale and repetitive dialogue over and over again hitting you over the head. But there's something about these games that just has this like good charm to it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not, it's like the right level of depth where it gets more and more complex as the game goes on and like, you know, you're like, I'm like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Man, the OLED switch, that screen is, mwah. It is, it is something, what a hell of a device, man.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I, I would say that they should relax also because like this thing looks not great. Uh, it really oof, like it's, I'm very forgiving for Switch, like whatever dude, like I get it, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, it's, it's hard to defend it and that's on hand. I'm not talking about me blowing it up on my OLED and being like, why does this look bad? No, like I'm playing it on handheld mode and the only thing saving it is like the crispness of the, of the OLED switch. Like, but other than that, it's, it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's, it's, it's not looking good. So I, I wish that, you know, they, they took more time, maybe waited for the next.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Big switch upgrade because it would have helped and they did build a really cool world here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like, I love learning about, like, this, like, society, this planet, uh, the different types of factions, the cool robots they have, and the fact that you could turn into, like, a cool, a cool anime man, like a, like a, a Neon Genesis thing, and then, like, fight. Ultraman.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Keep playing Mad Max, I talked about it a little bit here. Thank you guys for allowing me to talk about that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shout out to my audience, like my folks who watched me, who watched this show, cause they were all like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It scratches a good itch where I'm, I'm burnt out on the open world.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] On Smash-like games, I enjoy them, uh, but I don't, I don't know, I like, I like Brawlhalla, I like Smash. Never really touched any of the other stuff, uh, but I touched this and I think it's, I think it's kinda cool. I don't like the free-to-play stuff. I, I, I, I just, I see battle passes and grindables and things and I'm just like, uuuh.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] BORING. But then they made, they hired Kevin Conroy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And you know, a lot of their moves will be like, uh, Tom trying to grab Jerry and miss. And that hit is like York, uh, the, the enemy just getting hit in the crossfire. And it's like little creative things like that. Bugs Bunny, you know, he's just got a bag of tricks. Like I love that stuff. And that's really why I've dug it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I don't know if it's gonna like last forever. I think they have a treasure trove of characters to really, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean they have like super saiyan shaggy or whatever, ultra instinct shaggy, so like that's funny, so if they keep


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really playing into that. I think it could do well. Uh, I said, like, I'm like, I don't know if gameplay wise it has the chops to like be at EVO, but like technically they are at EVO. Uhm, I think it's more of like a they bought their way in thing. Uh, I don't know. I'm not too well versed on that stuff, but.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's fun for casual play and it's free to download. So like, that's why I was like, yeah, check it out if you like the iron giant and you want to beat up a adventure time man or whatever his name is or, you know, but yeah. Sorry.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] He's got some great moves. He can, he can kick, like he'll, he'll like kick his, his, his down smash is like kick flipping off of someone's head and every time you pop, pop, he'll like kick flip the board and it's...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Got a lot of creativity. Uh, it's still an open beta, so there's not a lot of levels.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not a lot to it yet, but you could spend money on it. You could, you could spend money on skins. So there you go. I actually, we should save this conversation for another video. I actually, uh, cause I was like, Hey everybody, this is what I think of the game. I don't like the free to play stuff. And there's like a whole new sub genre of folks that


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Play Fortnite and they, they embrace that stuff and they don't mind.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Doing? I don't necessarily think they're hobbies. Like I like hanging out with my wife and my dog. I like cooking. I like, uhm, you know, mixology. I like fucking around and inventing fun little drinks. I also, uh, I'm bad at it. I'm so bad at it. I'm trying to, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like I like kind of trying to be handy, you know, like I have a small home and I like trying to figure out how to fix things and messing it up. I'm a little bit of a car guy. I'm like starting to learn how to do things. I went from not knowing anything to being able to like use a wrench.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, so I'm getting there, uh, and I've kind of fallen into that and have been learning to enjoy that in my spare time. Very spare. You have a ton of hobbies.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's just, that's like occasional when I have time. Most of the time it's like when I'm not, I'm just playing games, watching movies, or reading comic books. I read a lot of comic books. Yeah, but I'm having fun. So that's good, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I think for me it's like, just weird old stuff that I never got into. Like, I never got into .hack those games. Oh yea.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Certain genres where you're like, oh no, can't do that. Uh, I started to realize that with, uh, Disco Elysium.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Where I was like, this is well written and really cool. I'm not like smart. I don't know what's going, like there's definitely something cool and deep here, but I can't tell you what it is. I like the guy. He's cool. So I just I bounced off of that. I tried it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And then it's like genres, like, you know, like, uh, I call them dad games. There are people who love, love, love, love those simulator games or it's like games where it's just a map.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm ready for some jokes. Go, good, good. Give us jokes. Alright, so, two podcasters walk into a bicycle store. I got it. Okay, here we go. Wait, we have to hit the end of the joke. Go for it, go for it, go.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And Jake. At Jake Baldino on GameRanks and, uh, on Google. And, uh, yeaah.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Or something. There's something deeper we can come up with there. I'm trying. Like, as time goes by, as games of past slip away, so does the...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Right out of university, so actually Xbox is only the second job that I've ever had. So I started working on arcade games and was very fortunate to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, the acquisition of Mojang with Minecraft and got to work with that awesome crew for four years, uh, both here in Redmond and over in Stockholm.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Studio heads and creators across Xbox Game Studios.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really what my job comes down to is making sure that our studios have what they need to make great games. So whether that's being the interface.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The more that studios gotta worry about what's going on back at Xbox or.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A combination of air traffic control and firefighting to just make sure that they have got everything that they need to go make a great game.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Is being part of that process, right? So my uhm, you know my passion around games really is around.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Not as part of a formal visit, not where everybody's got something together, but just, you're just walking the floor and can stop by and talk to somebody about, you know, what they're working on. I think, you know, a big frontier in games right now is, you know, procedural content development, right? Where you, instead of going and making


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Which is such a great example of procedural generation of a city. And uhm, you know, I wish that I could spend more time.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Naturally, uh, and then there's some of it that's more coordinated. Uh, the coalition up in Vancouver, uh, and Kate Rainer is the tech director up there. They really lead a lot of our work with Unreal Engine, so that includes the team working on Perfect Dark, Sea of Thieves. It includes, you know, up and down.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have a structure, these things we call summits. There's nothing really innovative about that, but they are.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, typically by three or four people per studio and we do about 15 to 20 of them a year and they last a couple days and that's how they get together to share and talk about what they're working on, share technology, bring things, ideas across the studios. One of the


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's cool to be able to go and see an update and see a demo and hear the teams say, oh, and here's this code that we got, you know, from the coalition and look at how we put it to work. And you're like, wow, that's really cool. And I didn't see that as stated K2.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That's pretty cool, right? Another example, even within a studio, uhm, would be something like grounded, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Over 13 million players as of today. We just did the full 1.0 release. Very small team, right? Of about 20 people. And how do you get a game done with that small of a team inside Obsidian? Well, you use all the tools that Obsidian has got. All that RPG tooling.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So we don't, uhm, do a lot of what I call portfolio bingo. You know, we've got this grid. Okay, we've got one of these, one of these. Oh, we need a mascot platformer. Oh, we need, you know, one of these. It's like, it's more, what are people excited to build? And that, uhm, you know, with Josh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, this is kind of the game that he's been waiting his whole life to have the chance to make because it's a topic that's very close to him. It's kind of this weird intersection of an expertise of his from school along with a hobby. So it is.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] One of the things back to sort of like one of the things that is part of my job is I like to think about a little bit like a greenhouse is


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, you know, it doesn't mean that sort of day one we just say, oh great, yeah, you know, it's a medieval monastery monk murder mystery go, but we want to give them time to


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Show us the idea. Okay, great. Like go nurture this thing. Let's grow and see where it goes and it became clear pretty quickly that there was a cool hook there that it was going to build on again that obsidian RPG lineage and.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Really, for me, it just comes down to probably the biggest principle that drives Xbox, which is player choice.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thanks. Great. We're not going to, you know, that's going to be an option for us. We really want to focus on player choice. So if that's the, you know, and to your point about game ownership, uhm, just it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, what's your 30 second loop, your three minute loop, your 30 minute loop, those things all matter. So that is an evolving thing that happens on a pretty.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that we are always going to want to follow and pursue what players want, what they see as good options for them.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, questions about how is that going to work because it was the first game in that ecosystem, but we didn't, you know, it's not like we flip over to one business model or another. If you look at what's evolved in terms of bringing free to play to Xbox, bringing a subscription option to Xbox, it's additive.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I would just look at those and say great if you're just looking at it as an isolated vertical, but it's always been a big principle of ours that we're going to be additive. We're going to add more choice and we're always going to start with the player and where they want to be what they want to do.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Shipping the game is just the beginning. There's gotta be a plan for content sustain. There's gotta be a plan for regular continuing engagement.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We have really retrenched. We have got some changes in how the team is set up. We've got some changes in leadership.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That we're bringing a regular update of content for the players and


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The content getting back to that and it was a think you know you put it well. It was a little bit of good finish across the finish line and then.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the burden is on us. The team's very focused on that right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The shared history, you don't have people that have worked together for 5 and 10 years. We were doing a lot of experimenting with


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, the relationship that we've got is we have a full team in our studio, the Initiative in Santa Monica, and Crystal Dynamics has got a full team, and it is what I would call co-development.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And I think that as we chart a path forward for what post pandemic, post hybrid work,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Successful projects. We've had flight simulator for us, you know, built in tight partnership with a Sobo, which is over in France, but we've also got a full team in Redmond, uhm, something like Minecraft, uh, Dungeons or even the upcoming Minecraft Legends, which we were really excited to just show off this past weekend. You know, that is made in partnership with BBI.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, you know, that is partnership between a Redmond studio and a studio in Stockholm. Even something like Age of Empires 4.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] We built in partnership with Relic, which is up in Vancouver. But again, we've also got a full team here in Redmond. So, you know, it's not a case of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, they're not gonna sign up to work in this way for something that they're not excited about. So to me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's, there's stuff that I wish I could share and show because there's some of the, just the, you know, the things that I've seen are just so encouraging and uhm, your point is really spot on, right? That you don't...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] There's a danger sometimes that you don't want to give, you know, the RPG team to go make a racing game or vice versa. You don't want the shooter team to go try to make a kids building block game. I mean, you can get in trouble there, uh, but,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They've got a great technology base. They've got a passion for the IP and they've just got such a demonstrated commitment to craft and quality. You put all that together and then, and admittedly, I think the team would share.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That during some of the first reviews, I shared a little skepticism, you know, that look, I feel like we're kind of going out on a limb here to do this, but they've since put that to rest and I'm excited for everybody to see it when we are ready to show stuff.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Call it six months or so of the times when I've gone to see a demo and the team is kind of showing us something new, uh, going to get the demo on what they're working on and the vertical slice of what they got was.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] A really cool moment because uhm, it just, it was actually a moment where we had all the studio heads together, we were reviewing it.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The coolness of what you've created as a ratio to how many people are working on it. That studio has to win some kind of prize because they just get the absolute most out of everybody and make the most focused use of the resources that they've got. You know, Brian Fargo leading that studio. It's just a master class in.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] These are the resources I've got. These are the constraints I've got. This is how big I am. Okay, what's the best thing I can do with that?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So I love what you said about could this be the one that puts in exile on the map? I think they are a little under the radar. Uhm, but we were just down there.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] To visit right after E3 back in June, we stopped by there and continue to be excited about what they're working on. So that's another one that I'm again. I don't want to steal the team standard or will let them reveal it, but it'll be. I think people will be excited when they see what they're working on.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well, just knowing, having had the chance over the last, uh, year and a half or so to spend more time with Todd Howard and, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] See how he works and see what he brings to game design. You know, I'm confident that he's not going to sit still on what was built before, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just, it's not his approach to come in and kind of reskin something, right? So there's going to be an awful lot of things that move forward, uh, with this game. You know, just from,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] My view a little bit from the outside looking in, in the case of Bethesda, uh, the things that excite me first are just.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Reading today some early stuff around the new thing from Fat Shark and Warhammer. Uhm, Darktide I think it is, which is pretty cool. You know, we've got these


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I'm so sorry. For everyone listening on RSS feeds, I was saluting with my right hand. Hello, I am the completionist. It is nice to see you all and have you hear us.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Could you argue- Could you argue the same about vampire survivors?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] No, but he's definitely lost a ton of weight and is no longer the Star Wars kid, so. He's the Star Wars man! Good for him. I loved him.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The graphics on level two will be fine.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] That, that, that, in this instance, Ralph, maybe, uh, again, I'm not a games journalist, right? Maybe the mentality is, hey, I've only played so many mobile games this year. Diablo Immortals was one of the news the most. I guess that's the one that I identify with cause. Yeah. Literally just a game that everyone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Music for sure, T-Lopes crushed the soundtrack. Uhm, and I also would argue, and I know people wouldn't really necessarily agree with me,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's an indie game. It's made by Tribute Games. While it was paid for by Nickelodeon, Tribute Games is a very small studio, and they've never made any triple A game, or even a double A or single A game before. So to them, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know it's like technically they got paid a bunch of money by Nickelodeon, but I don't know. It's made by an indie team. I would consider it to be indie.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I mean, it's, it's, it's a, the reason why it's so good for me is it's like a completionist itch scratch. Like everything, micro achievements all over the place. It feels good. You're constantly being rewarded.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It's, it's kinda like, it's kinda like it has fighting in it, thus it is considered a best fighting game, but to me, fighting game is classified as a playing against another player. Is it not? To everyone, that is the definition. I don't think anyone looks at this.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] This is the one year where I know everyone. Uhm, the thing that I think is, is, I think Lucy, you and I talked about this last night. I was in San Francisco last night for a little bit. Yea, we hung out. We got pizza. Yea, it was great. Uhm, I think the thing is that these categories


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It used to be trending gamer, right? And then it got boiled down to content creator. I think content creator is too broad and I think you have to be able to.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like to me, streamer of the year is not the same as content creator of the year. Uhm, you could argue that content creation comes out of streaming, it goes into a content system like YouTube or whatever it may be, even TikTok at that point.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It just feels a little too broad. I, I would get specific on it. Uhm, and otherwise, like,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] As in this category, could be if I'm wrong, judges in this call, uh, it's all voted by the audience, right?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Correct. So this category is, hey, YouTuber, streamer, TikToker, whoever's in this category, send your audience to our website to vote for the favorite one to drive traffic to a piece of advertisers. No offense, Jeff. I know what you're doing. It's okay.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, I get it, I get it, I get it. Uhm, I just think it's weird cause, uh, I mean, yeaah, I don't know, what do you guys think?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Try, try next time. I'm too young to be Drake, but I could have been. Come on!


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Fuck it, he can replace Chris Pratt at this point, let's just do it. Wow, I'm Mario, what's up?


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[Assistant] I fucking love this game a lot, okay? I love this game to pieces.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It, I, I, for the first time in my entire gaming career, I was on YouTube trending because my video was called, I really loved Sonic Frontiers. I, it was a huge win for me and a lot of the Sonic community turned to me to, as, as, uh,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, a beacon of hope for them and I'm appreciative of them because they didn't come after me for once. And more importantly, like I identified with everything they loved about this game through and through as a Sonic fan, as a, uh, a 3D platformer enthusiast. And, uh, I thought I was going to be the only one that really had this kind of.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, love for the game, and I was not. And that felt pretty good.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But I feel like, like, I just saw in your comments, Ralph, over the last couple of weeks, like, can't wait for Gerard and Ralph to talk about Sonic, because we are so on the opposite ends of this conversation. But I don't know what people expect, like, I don't know-


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uhm, there's tons of references that aren't just references. Everything had weight to Sonic lore. If you were a fan that's been playing since the Genesis era, or recently played Sonic Forces, or even Sonic Mania,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Hey, why is it this way? This reminds me of when this big space monster happened. Like there's, it rewards the player for, hey, you've played this game, you've played all the games. Because you've played it, the lore is respectful.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Eggman's a father. Like Eggman is a father and you see his evolution of being like a, well, I just want to get the hell out of the cyber zone too. I really miss my daughter.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Like that's, that's the arc of Eggman in this, in this game. Is that like, which is weird because it should be, I'll get you next time Sonic and Knuckles and Tails and instead it's like, instead, instead it's just, wow.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I grew to love this, this not real software.


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[Assistant] They do, they need to really stick to the idea that each biome feels like its own.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Because the first two biomes, distinct, feel fun, feel different, feel unique. The third one is like, yea, it's like ashy and snowy, but


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Starts to feel a little more on the repetitive side. The fourth and fifth biome are the exact same looking as the first biome. And within that you have those, the rails, like Ralph was talking about, right? The rails and how you do puzzles and how you figure things out.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] If they go in on making these areas a lot more distinct, a lot more robust, and flesh it out to feel like it's its own environment, yeaah, I think there's a potential to do super well here.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] You know, there's a lot to do in all these maps, and you can get there very fast if you're leveled up all the way.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] But there's not really the need to, like, you know, you can, you don't need to collect all of the little heart fragments for Rose or Sage or whoever, because the map has dozens of them. But you can also earn them by not playing the game. You can kill enemies, they can drop it. Like, the game just has to narrow its focus a little further.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Focus in on what makes it unique, which is the biomes and the moves and the atmosphere. And then also fix the cyberrealm stuff, because the cyberrealm stuff I think was, to me, was the least fun part about, about Sonic Frontiers. It literally just did, it's the third time in a row in which


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Sonic Team took Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone and Sky Sanctuary and just chopped it


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] 27 different times. And said these are levels. Like that's what Sonic Forces was. There's so many levels in Sonic Forces that was just 2D, 3D Green Hill Zone, 2D, 3D Chemical Plant Zone.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] They could have gone so many, they could have been like, hey, we're taking a level from Sonic Mania. We're taking a level from Sonic 3 & Knuckles that no one's played in years. They have so much material that if you're going to dig into that nostalgia well,


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And if they can, if they can figure that part out Jake, I absolutely think there's a future here for Sonic fans. Because then you can create different universes and create coherent ones that are respectful to Sonic's lore. Instead of just...


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Same nostalgic stuff every time. Mario 1-1. Keep putting Mario 1-1 again and again and again and again and again. It'll just work. It just works.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Well I feel like, just, just, if you're, if you're at home listening to this, if you're like, on a scale of, of like, extreme enthusiast to like, someone who enjoyed it, to like, someone who didn't like it, you have three distinct, unique opinions that you can choose to watch.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] So this actually makes me want to ask you a question, Josh, and please forgive me. This is too basic, but, um, where you've heard it before, you've been a part of so many projects. Did you take any influences from your previous projects going in to this? And if so, how did it affect your guys' development process?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] The favorite thing that I got out of all this was the weed whacker. This thing is so nifty, it's safe, it's friendly, doesn't hurt your nose, and as someone with really weird nose hairs, it's perfect for me.


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[Assistant] It went very well, we raised a hundred thousand dollars this year. A hundred and three thousand to be precise.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Thank you. Uh, I got my hair waxed. I ate a lot of hot peppers. I got an ephemeral tattoo of Shovel Knight. You can't really see it's healing right now.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] And so, uh, yeah, uh, not only did, uh, I play a bunch of awesome indie games, which, uh, I'll tell you about one before I promote my own, uh, Berserk Boy. You guys have not played Berserk Boy. You have to have to try out Berserk Boy.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] I know the developers can hate me for saying this, but it's the easiest way. Berserk Boy answers the question, what if Mighty No. 9 was really, really, really, really, really, really good?


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] It is incredible. And the music is T Lopes from TMNT fame and Sonic Mania fame. It is, it is all about lightning fast momentum. You have different forms. You can change at any given moment once you've unlocked them. It's all about style. It's freaking cool.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Try the demo on Steam or Wishlisted if you haven't. Super super pumped about that.


[User] Please transcribe this text

[Assistant] Uh, officially, there was Elsie that I announced during Steam's Next Fest. And now, uh, Indieland, I announced I'm producing a new game called Gestalt.