#47: Strange Bedfellows

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But enough chatter, how about you on to the show? Greetings and salutations. Welcome back to Sacred Symbols, a PlayStation podcast. This is episode 47.

My name is Hollemoree, I'm joined by the Halo playing Chris Ragon. Chris, how are you? I'm doing very well. 47 is a lot.

It is, it is a lot. We're almost episode 50. I actually have my brother, Deagan Moriarty, who has a lot of the audience, who knows the co-host of my other podcast or one of my other podcasts, knockback also, the lead designer and animator of Sesame Workshop and an Emmy Award winner. No big deal.

He's making art for us and very basic art that will be sending out to our highest end patrons this month to celebrate actually our 50th anniversary, our last episode anniversary. And so that's pretty fun. I'm getting a call right now. Should we answer it?

Sure. Okay. The Department of Social Security Administration. How?

The phone calls from our department is to inform you that there are the legal enforcement actions have been filed on your social security numbers from online. This is a terrifying phone call. So when you get this message to our officer, we're kindly called back on our hotline number 80070179. I'm a key candidate 0.007749.

Don't disregard this notice and return the call before we begin this illegal proceedings against you. Thank you. Thank you. Oh my God.

There's something about that vaguely humanoid Android voice that really like that's like fight or flight tonight. So here's the disappointing thing though, Chris, is that I got similar phone calls like these robocalls last year about like the IRS threatening something or whatever like these kinds of obviously fake and fraudulent calls. And I tried so many times to call them back and they would not answer the phone. I was like, I want to record like audio of me like kind of just going along with it.

And like, yeah, I really. And so they gave me the number, but I don't. I'm not confident anyone's going to call. You know, I got the phone.

So what's the point? Actually of this, sometimes I watch the world burn. I guess so. Geez Louise.

One glad we got the catch out live. Chris. Oh, very good. That was very exciting.

Yeah, very riveting audio entertainment for people that don't know Sacred Simples and PlayStation podcast is our weekly show because I do it every Tuesday. Actually, your report on Monday goes live on Tuesday over on patreon.com slash. And where you can get the show three days earlier than everyone else and without ads. Yeah, scroll all those people.

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We don't want them. Listen to the show. Chris merchandise still going around. People are still enjoying the merchandise.

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Yeah. Chris, side quest by YouTube channel over at youtube.com slash.com slash. And this was a show that I was doing like once a week or so and it's kind of falling a little bit till like a once a month, maybe twice a month kind of things. Right.

And so as I said last week, I hired a writer. She has written the first script. I've recorded it. It is currently being edited and we'll go live on.

Let's see. I have it here on Monday. I'm sorry, Wednesday, May 22nd. So I have a lot of people here this the first of those episodes will actually go live and we're going to hit a little bit of the cadence I think from here on the side quest YouTube channel.

We know that a lot. We owe you a few. So May 22nd side quest will come back for a bi-weekly then going forward hopefully and then let's play will begin May 29th moving forward from there. Okay.

I think we'll be good. So Chris next week will record the overcoat to do and the kingdom hearts. Let's play that we have to do and those will begin live. So I promise those are coming.

We'll continue to have elections on patreon.com slash. I'm standing and you can determine the game to watch with etc. And so on. I'm looking forward to it.

And the solution, the audio solution I figured out is just much easier than I thought. I'm not a very smart person. I'm not a very smart person. I'm not a very smart person.

I'm a smart person. What was the solution? The controller has the controller tells the PS4's we discuss that audio being driven through that so you can capture it. So older TVs and some small TVs like this one, here in my office have an audio outjack.

So we can just get a splitter for that and then plug both plug into that. Oh perfect. And then it won't tell the PS4 that audio is being captured somewhere else then we'll be able to drive through it so we'll be able to hear it. It's typically we do it like when we did Scrabble and Bloodborne where we don't really need to hear the game.

But we actually unfortunately need to hear the game. For sure. The game starts in the heart. So I just want to know that we haven't forgotten about you.

Chris is also Minecraft's 10th birthday. I know right. And I wanted to acknowledge that it is an Xbox property technically. but it is on PlayStation platforms.

And yeah, it's crazy. I was looking into it. So it came out of May 17, 2019 is the 10th anniversary of the coming out in its most primitive first form, basically in 2009. The game has sold 175 million copies, making it the best selling video game of all time.

And came to PS3 in December of 2013, PS4 in September of 2014, and then Vida in October of 2014. It's still being updated regularly on PS4, PS3 and Vida are basically legacy additions that are no longer updated. But I do wanna congratulate the team over there because that's an extraordinary thing. And you'll remember that Microsoft bought it from Mojang, which is basically I think two or three people for $2.5 billion.

So everyone got like a billion dollars. No, I know Notch has gone completely off the deep end online. And that's fine. That's up to him.

I guess it's prerogative. But I do wonder sometimes when you have that much money, does it really matter anymore? You know, that's why he's definitely got fucking money. I mean, his money has fucking money.

I mean, that's the way it goes. So he follows me. Yeah, he's cool sometimes. Yeah, I don't really hear from him much, except for like when some drama is happening.

Yeah, pretty much. Also, Chris, a little bit less ceremonious. And I do wanna talk about this because we got some letters from the audience. And remember that's how you submit your questions, comments, concerns, all these ideas as well is by going to patreon.com slash-colons last stand.

Switch has outsold PS4 officially in Japan. Oh, no. This has been a pretty big piece of news simply because it did it in about half the time. It's kind of crazy.

And so the numbers are at 8.13 million to 8.08 million in Japan. And obviously they're never gonna cross over again. I assume Switch will be going forward. Switch only came out less than 20, 20 years ago, PS4's been on the market.

It's in its 60 year now on the market. So congratulations to Switch. I did wanna acknowledge that it seemed like news worthy, but I don't really know how. Yeah, yeah.

But we did get some letters from it. It's kind of wild considering how well the PS4 is doing overall. By great. That I managed to sell it in Japan too.

Japan. Japan. And it has Sony given up on Japan. This was just surpassed lifetime sales of PS4 in just two years.

It's Sony's main focus on US and Europe. Well, I don't think they've given up on Japan. It's just not a really vital market to them. I think they told us that when they released PS4 in the United States first, which was unprecedented.

We got literally in the US was the only place you get a PS4 first, and they thought that that was important because of the allocating all the units to the biggest market. So I think that they're just focused like a laser on the US, on Canada, on Europe, on South America, Middle East, these places where they can make a lot of money. And Japan, I mean, eight million units isn't anything, you know. Now that's pretty much one in 10 people in Japan have a PS4.

Not bad. I understand your concerns, but I think it's just an interesting note. I think it focuses more on how they play games there. If you've ever been to Japan, you'll just know that inherently when you're there.

That people are on their phones, they're on their DSSs, they're on their eaters. And it's not a huge surprise. It's a very portable heavy market. It is, especially in Tokyo, where a third of the population lives.

So there's that. Anything political I go right into is and said hi, CNC. Oh, hi. Said parenthetically, pregnant pause, wait for Chris to say hi.

Yeah, I'll go along with it. Now remember, Chris can see this. So we're reading the same document as I write the show and put it all together. Can't get me.

Can't sneak up on me. Can't sneak up on me. And you wrote with the recent news that the ESA Entertainment Software Association has appointed Stanley Pierre-Louis as the new CEO of the organization. After the explosive story published by Variety regarding Foreseo, Mike Gallagher, and his leadership qualities on alleged overall toxic culture in the organization.

Do you think we can expect any major changes in the video game industry or the way ESA operates as a result? Do you think this could result in changes to the way the organization approaches and runs E3, especially given that more and more publishers are abandoning it? Also, why isn't mainstream games media covering this change and the alleged toxic culture at ESA more? It may just be me, but I haven't seen any sites remain in VG insiders or influencers writing or speaking about this except for one or two sites.

Do you think I've given how much game personalities inside or media sites and such are generally quick to blast studios and publishers nowadays for toxic work environments without knowing all the facts? They would be quick to do the same for the ESA if what Variety highlights is true. Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Keep doing the Lord's work and thanks for the content you and Chris put out.

Happy to be a patron. Thank you so much, Anthony. So I wanted to bring this up to the top before we even get into the news. Yeah.

Because I miss the story too. I don't know if you saw this. I have no idea what the hell this is. So Variety, which is a famous Hollywood type publication.

Brian Crescente works there. He's actually got fired, I think, and is leaving after either the end of the day. And he's like, oh, it's a little wild. I'm not doing gaming coverage anymore.

But you guys might know Brian Crescente from his time et cetera. He's an investigative reporter. And every I got this letter from Anthony on Patrons, what the fuck are you talking about? So I went and read it.

There's this expose on Variety about the ESA. The ESA for people that don't know is the American lobbying body, basically, for American publishers and developers in Washington. So, you know, everybody has their own lobbying thing. My friend that I went to college with the girl that Aaron and I met through actually at Northeastern works for the Moll lobby as an example in Washington.

So a lot of interesting stuff happening there. Anyway, the ESA is basically funded, half-funded, by about 45 publishers around the world that they represent are interested in the United States. The other half, interestingly, the other half of their revenue comes from E3. And there's all this interesting stuff in this variety story about if the ESA should split the E3 off that other companies have tried to buy E3 or even run it themselves as a proxy, pop read, I think was one of them or whatever.

There are the guys that do packs. So there's a lot of interesting stuff there. But there's also a lot of interesting stuff about the old CEO, Mike Gallagher being really untoward and really inappropriate and all this kind of shit. And so go to Variety and read the story.

It's really interesting. This is the kind of stuff we ask more for and even I miss it. So I wanted to put it at the top of the show. I recommend everyone go read the expose and draw your own conclusions.

Thank you, Anthony, for bringing that to my attention. Jess Scott wrote in once and said, hey, guys, a tad hyperthaggle here. But if an asteroid was headed straight for Earth to wipe us out, what announced it but not yet released the game? Would you be most disappointed in it if it never saw the light of day?

Also, what game would you want to play one time before humanity's ultimate demise? Chris, I feel like this was a perfect question for our body. That is a really good question. So he asks, asteroid mercifully, hurtling towards Earth.

Right? It's coming. There's nothing that could be done about. There's nothing to worry about.

For some reason, people are still working on video games at this point. Instead of being with their families or going into some weird culture trying to hide and mounds or whatever. What game, Chris, would you want to see released? That is announced, but not yet out.

I would be really sad to not be able to play Doom. That would be so sad. That would be crushing. That's the answer that came to me too, Chris, because it's almost a perfect game to play at that time.

So Doom, Doom Eternal. Doom Eternal. I would be so... oh man, ooh, I don't even think I'm getting sad.

Just thinking about that. I don't kind of excited about it. It's entirely possible, not likely, that there are asteroids around. That their trajectory is unbeked.

But yeah, there are always those moments where it's like a game will come out and you're like, ah, good. Now I don't have to worry about surviving. Because I have nothing else to look forward to. There's a brief moments of that where it's like something doesn't come up.

It's like, ooh, I want to see that. So it's like I'm in the perfect time. It's a shame. Well, Oblivion will be nice for you, I mean, no longer.

And I don't mean the game, by the way. I mean, I'm just complete. I don't think I played Oblivion. Oblivion.

Hayden Pliable, Roney West Press. This is an interesting one. He said, also, I turn 21 tomorrow, Holler At Your Boys CNC. He wrote, also, I turned 20-21 tomorrow.

Holler At Your Boys CNC. Huh? Do you think Hayden is a possible, in fact, that Hayden traveled from the future? He could be a...

I don't know any humans named Hayden. So I'd imagine this is like some kind of fourth-dimensional being a creator of some sort. I turned 21 tomorrow. Tomorrow.

I turned... Curious. 21. I think the government should look into this.

NASA, specifically. Well, happy birthday, maybe. I don't know when you... I don't know where you're from or when.

So it's hard for me. Where are you from? Crystal's getting to the games we're playing. Sure.

I see here you're playing Rage 2. Yeah, I'm still playing it. I still like it. It's gotten better as I've gone.

Like in the beginning, I didn't like the open world, really at all. But I've kind of gotten used to the driving in it, which at first I thought was wonky, and it's like that's made a little bit more bearable. Still empty. I'm finding a lot more fun now.

The abilities that you get later on are like crazy and the weapons you get are insane. So it's like it's really satisfying. I like it. I played it a little bit more because I was distracted by Castlevania Anniversary Collection this past week.

But I must reiterate, you know, having again only been a few hours in, so I haven't seen much of the open world yet and stuff like that, there is something really fun about just popping these motherfuckers' heads with. It's ridiculous. The sound of design is really good too. It's a really crisp, clear explosion.

Yeah, it's fun to play. Like it's just the gun play and all that engagement is really solid. I heard the game's really short. I don't know if that's true.

I heard the game's under 20 hours. That seems really short to me for an open world game of just caliber. That sounds about right for a shooter. For a linear shooter.

I mean, Wolfensteins are 20 hours. Well, like Doom 2016 is probably not even 10 hours. Right. You know what I mean?

But why make it an open world game then? This is the problem of like, I think it's a beta test for an open world to be honest. Maybe. That'd be cool.

Well, maybe not. See, I don't know that I would want that. I don't know if I want to do that. I want a linear Wolfenstein game as well.

So I don't know, like I guess this type of arcade, like this kinetic gameplay feels really good at the moment, but then it's over. And then I have to like go find it again. Exactly. I do hope, but it does feel like one of those things where it's like, hey, let's push this out and see how people react to the open world elements of it.

Just see if it's something we should, it does feel like kind of one of these kind of test bad games to me as I play it. But it's still fun. I like it. I do have a problem with like the lull in between combat, but the more I play, the more satisfying it gets.

And the guns are ridiculous. They're so cool. It's a gravity dart. We can shoot something into somebody and then shoot in the sky and they get flung up into the sky.

It's ridiculous. Yeah, that's so cool. I like that kind of stuff a lot. Yeah.

I do say though, also that again, the games upgrade systems are too up to. So the menus are really laggy and I agree. No, it reminds me of, I mean, this is a weird poll, but it reminds me of playing Chrono Trigger on PlayStation when they ported it to the PS1. The game was so badly ported that going into the menu took all this time.

So people would like hit around about how they would start planning out all the things they needed to do in the menu so that they would only have to go in like once every so often. And it reminds me a little bit of that where I'm like, this sucks. I hit R1 to go to this thing five seconds ago. Why isn't it moving?

It's got a lot of kind of polished problems. They would bother me a lot more if the main gunplay wasn't so good. Like if the main gunplay wasn't so good, this would be like a disaster, honestly. I agree.

But I guess I wonder, well, I wonder two things. I think I go back to Rage at All and why have such kinetic, again, I think it is experimental. I think you're right. You know, have this really doom-like gunplay in such an open and barren world.

It's interesting because I don't mind open barren worlds. I actually think Avalanche's Mad Max was a really wonderful open barren world and it told the story of the game. I don't know. It's funny watching the, it's very divisive.

It's funny watching this. Because some people think it's like the best game of the year. No. And I find that hard to leave.

I think Dave's gone is a much superior game. But, and I don't think Dave's gone is the best game of the year either. I don't know what the best game of the year would be. To be honest.

Yeah, I'm played it. Yeah. And MetroX is what I used to talk about a little while. Anyway, I'm playing Castlevania Anniversary Collection.

I put up a full video review over there. It's like eight minutes long on side quests. You guys want to check it out. It's worth noting that these are the English language ports, but Konami has promised since then they're going to patch in the Japanese versions of the games, which is cool.

And especially noteworthy for Castlevania 3 because Castlevania 3's Famicom release has an enhanced sound chip in it that makes the sound sound way better. So you guys have that to look forward to. But it's good. It's Castlevania Castlevania 2 and Castlevania 3 from the NES.

Super Castlevania 4 from the SNES, Bloodlines from Genesis, the Adventure and Bellmons Revenge from Game Boy. And then Kid Dracula, which is a spinoff kind of kitty game from Famicom that was never released here. So it's actually the first time we've ever played that game on the entire game. So it's a nice package.

It's much better than the Castlevania Rekuiem package in terms of its presentation and all that. And they do have this really neat, like 80-page, almost PDF style book that has interviews and all this detail and art in it. Finally, concept art for Castlevania, which is so rare. And I'm frustrated by it because it's really hard to navigate and look at.

Like, why does everything have to be so hard? It's like, finally, you did this, you gave us some material and now you make it impossible to look at. Like in an ineffective way, it's so fucking annoying. Games are very faithfully ported.

I've beaten almost all of them since I've had it. And I really just love those games. So I highly recommend it. 1999 or about 250 per game is a very appropriate price.

And for those of you that listen that don't want to play on PS4 and have other options, it's available on Switch and it's available on Xbox One and PC as well. There is a peculiar control thing that people need to know about because you can't map the buttons. You usually want to go to X and Square, right, to shoot and jump, but you actually have to go to Circle and Triangle to shoot and jump. It feels the same because the motion is the same, but you have to move your hand to the outside of the controller for the NES games.

And this is to accommodate a consistent control scheme as they get to the SNES and Genesis. And I only really understood that when I started playing the newer games on the collection. So it's annoying and it's going to take a little time to get used to, but it's not a game-breaking situation. It's not like I'm going to end a collection on GameCube, which was unplayable because they literally inverted the buttons and there was nothing new about it.

So jump with shoot and shoot and shoot and jump. I literally couldn't play on it. I don't know anyone who was there. I was able to play this.

I didn't know that. Yeah. This is a notoriously awful collection. So yeah, go check out Castlevania Anniversary Collection, but there is one thing to note.

Paul Murphy wrote it in the list. So hey, CMC, Konami has sucked more life out of me than Dracula ever could. Sounds vaguely sexual. A little bit.

The Castlevania Anniversary Collection is out and it does not have a platinum trophy. Meanwhile, the Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection also published by Konami does have a platinum. These two collections were made by different teams, but shouldn't Konami somewhere along the line be supervising them to maintain consistency among these different collections? I know I'm beating a dead horse, but shouldn't Sony care more about making actual games like IMAO exist?

I know many people will choose to play the game on a different platform like the Switch, now that there is no platinum trophy, and that is why maintaining a good trophy ecosystem does matter. There are many games that face the same problem and Sony is losing their 30% cut every time someone buys on Switch instead. I totally agree. Many people messaged me that they are buying it somewhere else now because there's no reason about it.

That's crazy. And I thought about it interesting. I thought about it. The Biden PC or Switch.

And when the trophies popped because I was really excited about it. I didn't expect much at most, but when the Arcade Collection popped with Gradius and all those games, and they did a platinum trophy, I was like, oh, okay. So they're gonna make a really neat trophy list. Just like they actually did with Requiem.

Requiem had a really thoughtful trophy list. I loved it. This trophy list sucks. Not only does it not have a platinum, but basically you just get one for beating a bronze for beating every one of the games.

And again, I know that this doesn't matter to some people, but it clearly does matter, especially the people that listen to this podcast. And I was reading the message boards on PSN profiles where a bunch of dozens of people are like, I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it. So we use the trophies.

Yeah. That's so interesting. So I really do think that that was a huge miss. We were talking about Shakedown Hawaii, which came out a few weeks ago, which was supposed to be really good on PS4.

That also doesn't have a platinum. And it's just weird. And for me, that does make me not want to play some of these games because I like the meta game. I enjoy the meta game.

And I think Konami really dropped the ball because one of the cool things about these re-releases is capturing the essence of the games. Yes. But also giving experience players new things to do. Beat this boss without dying.

Beat this boss without getting hit. Do this. Beat this game this amount of time. I was so excited for the possibilities.

And the possibilities are just not there. So just too many games. It's, honestly, it's laziness. They don't want to go into the old code and put triggers into them.

And so they just went to the end of every game and put a trigger in saying that, yeah, you beat the game, beat the game, beat the game, beat the game, beat the game, beat the game, beat the game. That's it. Making all these other triggers would have been hard, but Simon's Quest, for instance, would have been so fun with a bunch of different trophies or Castlevania III with all the different characters you can find and not find and the different stages and stuff. I don't know.

I know that this is a broken record for a lot of people, but it sucks. Yeah. I can't argue with it. So you better not.

Chris, let's get into the news. Alrighty. There's a lot of news to get through. Actually, I had a little bit of time because some new stuff even popped up right before we started recording.

That is relevant to our show. It's a heavy flow of news. Number one, it appears that arch rivals Microsoft and Sony are joining forces to develop better cloud based technology for gaming. Word comes by way of a Microsoft press release, which announced Sony Microsoft are exploring in quotes a strategic partnership in quotes in regards to quote new innovations to enhance customer experiences in their direct consumer entertainment platforms and AI solutions.

End quote. The press release continues quote under the memorandum of understanding signed by the parties. The two companies will explore joint development of future cloud solutions in Microsoft Azure to support their respective game and content streaming services. In addition, the two companies will explore the use of current Microsoft Azure data center based solutions for Sony's game and content streaming services and quote other areas of cooperation include AI and semiconductor development both key to the respective companies plans outside of gaming.

The news came alongside an image of the company's two CEOs, Kenichiro Yoshida and Satya Nutella shaking hands. Bloomberg however reported later that this deal completely blindsided PlayStation's own internal team concerning employees that PlayStation five and all the stuff they're working on in relation to it might be altered. Quote managers had a column workers and assured them that the plans for the company's next generation console weren't affected and quote the archals stated in part. Pretty weird story.

Definitely. Ray Briggs wrote it to us and said, Hey, see, and see gaming factory. What did you think of the news that MS and Sony are partnering to improve cloud gaming and streaming platforms? Specifically, what does this mean?

If anything for Sony and PS now and Guy Kai, do you think we will continue to see these tech giant companies continue to work together like Microsoft and Nintendo have been doing moving forward big fan and patrons since day one Chris, what do you make of this strategic alignment with what they call it? Well, I want to find the language. The what is it the under the memorandum of understanding don't know what that means, Colin. That seems like flowery bullshit, but I don't know I don't think we're going to see much of a change as consumers.

I feel like this is all going to be very inside baseball kind of under the under the framework level stuff. Like I don't imagine this is going to be something that the average person is going to be well aware of. I would probably agree with you. I think that for me, I look at it and I read the story and what they say is that this conversation began last year.

So and companies don't like this big don't move quickly. I understand that, but it does seem a little conspicuous with timing related to Google stadium. Not for sure. That's it's strategic.

Yeah. So I think that there's something obviously to do with that as well that they're scared and Sony in particular seems a little frightened and Microsoft might see this is the thing with the publishing Minecraft on all platforms like Microsoft's probably fine. I mean, like fine, you can run Azure. Like we're just going to take your money.

No, yeah. So, yeah, it seems like a very, you know, it's an agnostic solution. But a lot of people have been talking about the possibilities and stuff. And I really think it's just another example of these companies working together out of necessity because they have big competitors to deal with.

And also big things that they need to overcome. Like there's not a lot of expertise in this area. So you don't have to invest anymore in it. So I don't know.

Seems to make sense for me. Yeah, for sure. It's definitely, it's definitely a reaction to Google because I think both of them probably think it's better to just partner with two companies that are on the same playing field as opposed to just allowing this new giant to just come in and mop the floor with everything. I think it is definitely more of a strategic thing.

But as far as like the consumer side, this is, this doesn't mean you're going to get like a Halo game on a PlayStation. This has not to do with any of that. No, I don't think so. And I actually think that the implications are likely well beyond the scope of Sony and React and Entertainment.

I think that. This is like computers and stuff like that. Like, I don't know. They're talking about semiconductors and shit too.

This is stuff that is essential to their electronics businesses. Yeah, for sure. It was the CEOs above how many it wasn't like the heads of PlayStation or Xbox. It wasn't the heads of Microsoft and Sony.

Right, exactly. The important note, I think. But well, obviously, I don't know this. And maybe this will come up at E3.

I don't know. Number two, a major attacker report from Chateon Shrier indicates that the Call of Duty game plan for next year is undergoing some major upheaval. As you know, Call of Duty has been on an annual release schedule for more than a decade, an Activision and its teams have fallen into a predictable rhythm with Triark, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer going every third year. 2019's game is from Infinity Ward and is likely a new modern warfare game.

But 2020's Call of Duty was going to buff the trend somewhat. Sledgehammer would co-develop this game alongside Raven Software. The Activision-owned studio that has been running support on Call of Duty and hasn't released a full game of its own in nearly a decade since 2010's Singularity, which a long time listeners of mine know that I actually love Singularity. However, Raven's Call of Duty game, which was to be based in the Cold War, wasn't shaping up.

Triark is now jumping in according to Kotaku to create Black Ops 5 for 2020, thus being responsible for two Call of Duty games in three years, and unprecedented move for Activision's seemingly well-oiled Call of Duty machine. Sledgehammer and Raven, meanwhile, are playing second and third fiddle on the release. Tanner Franklin wrote in and said, Hey, sedentary Colin and Silly Chris, I was curious about y'all's take on the new Kotaku report on Raven and Sledgehammer being dropped from Call of Duty 2020. But this only gives Triark a year to pick up the apparent mess of Raven's game and Frankenstein it into Black Ops 5.

Given the lukewarm reception to Black Ops 4, which had a three-year dev cycle, I'm really worried about how this game will shape out. Is it time to end the annualization of the series or maybe try a free-to-play model like they've been experimenting with in China? I always thank you both for making Tuesdays. Great again.

This is a huge story. Yeah. Now, I will say Tanner, they're not making a game in a year. They have two years to make the game.

But still not a lot of time to make the game. But Triark jumping in is really interesting because this really doesn't speak well to Sledgehammer. And this really doesn't speak well to Raven. And that's too bad because I was always hoping Raven would get another shot.

Singularity is a really good game. And by the way, they also made the X-Men Wolverine's Origins game and I think it was also great. So they've been making Call of Duty map packs for like 10 years now, but they used to make really good games. Do you know where Raven is located?

They're located in the strangest place. They're in Wisconsin. Oh. Oh, they're in Wisconsin.

And they're up there, I think, hexed in some of their original games, but they actually were founded originally as I think like a Quake modding studio that then became a real team. And this has happened in a few different places, but I've always been fascinated by Raven just being this really quiet Wisconsin-based, activation-owned team that makes Call of Duty stuff. But anyway, the game was taken away from the now Paul, I'm sorry, not Paul. You were at the early question, Ray.

Nope. You were in the early question too. Tanner. That's what we're looking for.

Now, Tanner, you had said again, the year they have two years, but you did say the lukewarm reception of Black Ops 4, there is something interesting in the article, Chris. I don't know if you read it that Black Ops 4 sold really well, but then had no tail. That activation was actually really concerned about the game's long-term viability compared to year on year growth of other Call of Duty games. And there is some chatter that apparently there is a struggle inside the publisher now to make Call of Duty free, or to make free components of the game, and then have a bunch of other spinoffs, apparently this is being heavily resisted.

So a lot of really interesting stuff there. And an employee of Sledgehammer did reach out to me recently, someone I know there that gave some clarification on the situation over there. It doesn't sound to me like Sledgehammer really is the one responsible for this. We don't really know that.

But an interesting story, nonetheless. I just think it's holding us weird. I feel like it should happen sooner, to be honest. It's a miracle to me that they haven't messed up worse than this.

This has been an annualized franchise for over a decade at this point. Yeah, I think almost 15 years actually. It's insane. And the rhythm I think in the studios began in 2010 or 2011.

So yeah, they really have not fucked it up. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. I agree with you there.

But I would have loved to see something from Raven. It was disappointing to read that because they got the game taken away from them. It's not a bad game. They literally just got to take it away.

I like that. I like the state of the game must be then for them to actually wrestle it out of the hands of a studio. That's got to be kind of insane. Yeah.

And I assume that they probably did it now because they're like, listen, this isn't shaping up. We don't have any time. We just need to go somewhere else. So it must be an interesting struggle too because now the Treyarch is leading.

Treyarch is located actually right here in Santa Monica. Now that they're leading the student, the leading the rush, Sledgehammer and Raven are playing second and third fiddle. I wonder how that plays out politically as well. That must suck.

Yeah. To basically be like Raven presumably had a creative directing position there or Sledgehammer. Now they don't. And so there's interesting stuff going on there that we will certainly track as we move forward.

Number three, Sony Interactive Entertainment, the arm of Sony Responsible for PlayStation, is officially launching a film division that will oversee the production of movies based on PlayStation properties. The Hollywood Reporter first reported this news, which notes that the division will be called PlayStation Productions and shepherded by Sony Worldwide Studios, the umbrella that encompasses all of Sony's first party dev teams. Quote, instead of licensing our IP out to studios, we felt the better approach was for us to develop and produce for ourselves. And quote, according to Asad Kiselbash, we'll head the initiative.

You guys probably know him from the PlayStation Europe initiatives over the past few years, actually longer than that, like a decade. Quote, you can see just by watching older video game adaptations that the screenwriter or director didn't understand that world or the gaming thing. The real challenge is how do you take an 80 hour gameplay experience and make it into a movie? The answer is you don't.

What you do is take that ethos you write from there specifically for the film audience. You don't try to retell the game in a movie. And quote, according to Sean Layton, who of course is in charge of all Sony's teams, worldwide studios. What do you think of this?

This is really interesting news. This just broke right before we recorded. Yeah, I mean, I don't want any video game movies at all, but I think it's a smarter way of going about it than just kind of handing off licenses to people who are very clearly unaffiliated with the medium. That could be interesting.

I don't know. It seems like the right idea if you want to pursue this, but I agree with you Chris. I don't understand the pursuit of this. There's money to be made there if you do it right, but I don't want to see it on charge of the movie.

I don't want to see it on a war movie. I don't want to see a days gone movie. I don't want to see a fucking little big planet movie. Maybe they'll make a movie like dreams or you make your own movies with them.

I feel like shows are more appropriate. Yeah, they only one of them too. Well, they did the test there, but then they did that show powers. Remember, PlayStation or Exclusives for two seasons or other cancels?

But I agree with you. Like why not invest in some content that PS Plus users can get for free or something like that? Pretty interesting. I actually agree with you.

I'd be much, I would find an uncharted TV show much friendlier for me for some reason. I don't know. Maybe one big. I don't really know.

But we'll keep an eye on that as well. Number four, Nipani G software commonly known as NIS has been a long time Japanese supporter of PlayStation platforms going back to its first PS one game in 1995. NIS has since been known as one of the most prolific developers and publishers of niche fair on PS 3 PS4 and PETA, including games like Dang and Rumpa and much more. But now it seems like they may be in serious financial trouble, mostly because of the bombing of their disguised mobile title in Japan.

Disgia, of course, is the company's most substantial IP. And we're not a Japan via website DualShakers is that the company is now seeking what's called a moving strike to raise money, basically away from the fine new shareholders to fund operations at cut rates. Ironically, forward works is the team responsible for the Bosch, this guy, a mobile game, a team that Sony actually owns. The game was apparently in such a bad shape that it was completely pulled down for Japanese gamers in mid-March with no word on when it'll go back up.

So I read this yesterday at first and I was shocked because NIS is a small little operation, especially in the United States and I guess America is only a few people. They're in Anaheim, I think. And they are responsible for all these really interesting visual novels and action games and this weird Japanese fair. They announced even a few weeks ago that they were going to release the games in 2020, which is pretty cool.

So I was really shocked and I'm saddened by that. NIS is a company that I have a pretty close relationship for a long time with. They were always really nice and really interesting. A funny story I'll tell you guys about NIS.

One of the times in Japan I went to NIS presentation, it was all in Japanese, there was supposed to be a translator there. And there wasn't, so I couldn't understand anything they were saying. And one of the NIS employees literally sat behind me and translated it as it happened. They always went above and beyond.

They were always a really interesting team. So anyway, we wish for them the best and hope that this all got solved because W really said, the PlayStation community would really be much worse off with NIS. And so we're wishing them the best. Yeah, sucks.

Number five, Pulitzer Electronic Arts, which already revealed that it is bailing out of its annual e-press conference alongside Sony, is now scaling back its planned streaming presentations even further. Website PC games and reports that EA's original streaming plans, which included new game reveals across the weekend of June 8th and 9th, is now only running for one day on Saturday, June 8th. Chris, E3 is getting even smaller and more inconsequential. It is.

I'm sad. Yeah, you are sad. You and I are very different minds here. We don't agree on this at all.

No. Because I kind of want it where you go. No, I like it. It's like the closest thing I have to a Super Bowl.

You just watch the Super Bowl. I hate the Super Bowl. Oh, I guess shit. Unless it's like a New York team, which gives a feign interest.

Right. It's just kind of fun to have at least a day where you can get excited about things and then you're back in your real life wondering what the hell happened. Right. Thinking that it was all a dream.

It was all but a dream. Yeah, I don't know. It doesn't surprise me that E. April.

I mean, what I have really. Well, my assumption is that they're going to show a bunch of anthem shit. Yeah. And that's not going to be ready to go or maybe never even going to happen at all.

My assumption is that it was probably just going to be like sports. Sports in Anthem. And maybe a little bit of what was that respawn game? Oh, Jada Fondler.

I think that that's going to be a big reveal. Yeah. They'll certainly show that. But I think, you know, this ties into the first story or one of the top stories, which was not even a story actually about the ESA.

They were talking about how ESA because for some reason they run the trade show, which they shouldn't, they're now concerned about this and the finances coming in and the truncating of the show. And the more this happens, the worse E.Brie is going to look. It's not so interesting what's going to happen in E3 this year. What's interesting is what's E3 is going to look like next year because Sony is going to come back.

Is EA going to come back or are others going to scale back? Like I really have the mind that Sony would reveal PS5 and really go all in a PlayStation experience. That to me would be a really smart move. Yeah.

I mean, PSX relevant, highly relevant and to talk to your audience. Yeah, they're definitely not going to unveil the PS5 at E3. No, no, no, no. It's way too late even in the year to do that if they're planning for a fall 2020.

All I care about it this morning is what Xbox is going to do. Well, they're really the main people there. So yeah, it's it'll be interesting to see what happens this year because it's been a bizarre year in general for these competing companies. Definitely.

Do you think that the new Xbox is going to be at E3? I think that they're going to at least talk about it like in substantial way. They're going to talk about it. I don't think it'll be there.

I don't think they're going to announce anything. I think it's probably going to be like, this is running on next generation hardware. And then Phil Spencer is going to come out with a shirt. Yeah, with one of his shirts.

It'll be like a jet force jam and I shared her some shit. And then for five years, everyone's like, a jet force jam and I coming back. Battle dude. I know.

Pretty rough one. I got to get excited about battle toads. I fucking hate battle toads. I never like to be with it.

That game sucks. I can't take it. Number six. Last week we reported that Square Enix appeared to be closing up its internal dev studio studio is polio leaving its game project pretty blue ruin in jeopardy.

As you'll recall, long time, Tales producer had a day. Obama left his post at Bandai Namco to lead this new team that we since quit Square Enix. Then last week Square Enix began scrubbing the team from social media and other online venues. In the statement released the website Polygon Square Enix confirmed that the team founded in 2017 and yet to release a game is no more.

It appears the entire staff has been reallocated to other teams. All that's left in Project Kriley Loo Run is a lone trailer. So pretty sad stuff. They apparently even pulled all the trailers down.

So you need to go find mirrors of them. Damn it sucks. That's unbelievable, man. I really want to know more about what happened.

Today, Obama was at Bandai Namco forever, produced all the Tales games, then left to create what looked like a Tales game at Square Enix. Even the team's name is totally a sound like a fucking Tales game. Tales of Estonia. And then they're making this game and something happened.

What happened? At least they got reallocated and not fired unless that's what that means. No, I think that in Japan you can't easily fire people. I think that that's a whole thing.

You can't shut teams down and lay people off and shit. There's all these rules. Yeah, so I think that they're all fine in other teams. Yeah, they could be long, but I don't think so.

But yeah, I wonder. I know you're not a JRPG guy, but I am. I was really quite intrigued by this because Square Enix has been investing very strategically in a really bunch of interesting role-playing games. They invested in Tokyo RPG Factory, which gave us IMS and Suna, which I think is amazing.

They are investing in stuff like, well, it was on Switching Out coming to PC, which is the Octopath Traveler game. And they were investing in this, they were investing in this Tolia alongside Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games and the bigger stuff. So it's kind of disappointing. I was like, well, what was it?

They're also kind of fucking up a lot. Especially with this FS7. Yeah, indeed. We still have no answers about that.

No, except that we don't. I just love that they confirmed that it's episodic. If I were that, we'd have no confirmation on anything. Just fucking leave us alone.

And I would be like, well, we will leave you alone, but you shouldn't have announced the game in 2015. It's 2019. This is now turning into another Final Fantasy 13 versus situation for you. Could have been avoided.

Could have very easily been avoided, actually. Number seven. Publisher Ubisoft is reporting fantastic sales figures for some of its biggest games, has four AAA games on the docket for the next year, and yet is also delaying the full reveal yet again of its long-awaited games skull and bones. For starters, Web site VG 24-7 relays were that Far Cry 5 and Rainbow Six Siege are both cleaning up for the publisher.