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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. My name is Colin Moriarty. As always, I'm joined by my co-host, Chris, the VidCon model, Ray Gunn. Chris, I know there's a lot of what I would interpret as dramatic photos, also...
Germanic? Yeah, a little bit dramatic here, you know. Oh. It's like an action shot.
Oh, I thought you said Germanic. Oh, Germanic. Like the languages. Oh, what is Germanic?
Like Germanic language. Oh, Germanic. Yeah. Like Germany.
I see. No. No, they were real. That's all...
So I went to VidCon. I don't even know how long ago that was at this point, because I'm so deeply out of touch with the way time works. But I went to VidCon, had a good time, met up with some people that I haven't seen in real life. It was cool.
There's a photographer who goes every year. I don't know his real name, actually. I think it's Christian, but he goes by Vox Providence. And he just walks around.
He has a camera. Everybody just... It's just an unspoken rule that he's going to be there. And he takes amazing candids that somehow make everybody look like they're not trying to die.
Right. You know? A lot of people on their phones. Yeah.
A lot of people making funny faces. It's really good. He's a great photographer. Yeah.
And he does it all just because he likes to be there. That's fun. It's really cool. Photography is interesting to me, because I feel like it's one of those crafts that anyone thinks they can do, but indeed, it takes a lot more skill than you.
We all have a camera on our phone. Yeah. But like lining things up and getting the right shot and the right lighting and stuff, I think it's an underrated skill. I think so, too.
I noticed that, like, because he took all these pictures, and I'm like, wow, I look pretty good in all these. And I realized I can't take a photo of myself that looks good. Oh, yeah. So it's like, oh, you know, this has to be good at this.
I look at a fucking doofus when I take my own phone. I look at a doofus when other people take photos of me as well. I bet Vox can make it look great. Well, let's get them out.
And you can take some. I don't leave the house, but you can take pictures of me here in my house and pretend that they're candid of four spots. Well, Chris, it's good to have you back here. We recorded two episodes in a row, so we haven't seen you in two weeks.
Yeah, it's been a minute. It's nice to see you. I was tweeting out a little bit. I was all this point.
I didn't hear back from you. I was excited that we were maybe going to be able to do some Alinity Divine cosplaying and whatnot on our show. I was going to throw you over my shoulder, put you in my lap, spit a little bit of vodka in your mouth. You didn't answer any of my tweets about it.
You just ignored me. I was a little, I don't know. Did you? Wait, did you?
I don't remember those tweets at all. I tweeted about it. I didn't get them. You got them.
I just want to see them. Well, that's the same. Yeah, I guess. I suppose it is.
Twitter does this thing where it'll let me know when I get notifications sometimes, but then other times I'll check the notification tab and it'll be like, one person liked your tweet and then nothing underneath it. So I just missed probably hundreds of things. Yeah, I find that I miss a lot of things too. Like on the Twitter app, it says show more when you haven't been on it a long time.
You have to keep clicking that to see things. There's some things in that pocket. I think desktop is horrendous. I think desktop mode is awful.
It's no good. It's no good. Well, it's going to be back. This is episode 56.
We're going to give you a lot of news today, a lot of information. There's a lot of setup, I think, for this episode because I have a lot to say. You have a lot to say as well. We have things to say.
I want to start by just giving a shout out to Kyoto Animation, the firm in Japan, the animation firm that was burned, I guess, down by an arsonist last week. And so I have to hear that 33 people have died because of this. And they don't make games, but we have a lot of crossover in the so-called weed culture obviously with our podcast. And this was really a sad event for a lot of people and incredibly sad to read about.
So I wanted to just wish our best to those people. That was really sad. Yeah, really out of nowhere too. Like crazy, random.
Yeah. I mean, I guess he had an intent. I was reading a little bit about it, but what kind of madness drives you to not only kill people and not only kill people in mass, but do it in such a horrifying way, right? I actually feel like that's fucking even crazier than just doing what you did.
It just brings it to a whole other hellish level. Yeah. I don't know. It's just an animation scene.
It reminds me of, I mean, obviously a little bit less similar, but it reminds me of Charlie Hebdo back when that happened. Yeah. It's like, what? Yeah, it's actually somewhat similar.
I'm saying they were a bit more provocative, but still, it's so insane. Very sad. So I saw that going around. I just wanted to acknowledge that.
Yeah. But with good news, Chris, I'm bearing good news as well, and we already tweeted about this and people know, but Chris and I, Sacred Symbols will be at PAX West in Seattle. Seattle, Washington State, United States. PAX West 2019.
Sacred Symbols live will be Monday, September 2nd at 11.30 a.m. At the Hydra Theater, which is in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Seattle. This is apparently one of the bigger rooms. I actually think that in 2015, I did a, I hosted a panel there with KG and Afune, if I remember correctly.
So it's a sizable place. Hopefully we can fill in half of it. I don't know. But I would love for people to come and hang out with us.
This is probably your only opportunity to ever see me outside of my house. At least anytime soon. I did promise everyone that I would get out and do something this year. So this is it.
We'll be at PAX West, Monday, September 2nd, 11.30 a.m., Hydra Theater. And it'll be streamed on Twitch. If you can't be there, we prefer you be there, but if you miss it, it'll be there as well. And I will try to get the audio.
We'll make that an episode of Sacred Symbols Plus, which I'm going to talk about in a minute as well. The episode that week will be delayed by a day because Chris and I will be in Washington. But I'm very excited about that. Are you looking forward to our PAX West panel?
Yeah, that's super cool. I've never done anything like that. I've done a lot of these like comms, obviously, but I've never had like a speaker thing going on. So it'll be interesting.
Yeah, it'll be a speaker badge. Yeah. Which will give you unlimited access to the show all four days. I will be flying in Sunday night and we'll just be there Monday.
And by the way, just to throw it out there, because I know some people get upset about dates and times because of the passes they have. We're all having an audience, so I think we'll just give you guys the mic and just let you take it away. Yeah, that'll be fun. I actually, I was talking about you right before we started recording, there's this kind of fringe game journalist who hates me, and she was writing about how we don't belong at PAX and all this kind of stuff.
So I've actually invited her to come and ask the first audience question if she'd like and tell us why we don't belong at this. And I doubt she's going to take us up on this offer. Probably. Who knows?
Maybe we'll have a nice debate. Yeah, I'm perfectly suitable. She's totally normal, so you can go read that Twitter feed for a nice, actually, she has like, you know, one of the most racist Twitter feeds I've ever seen in my entire life. If you guys go, just go check it out.
It's one of the most overtly racist Twitter feeds I've ever seen, this particular writer has. And she writes for like Waypoint, so it has wild stuff. I've never heard of her. Well, most people have, I suppose.
Sacred Symbols Plus, this is what we really need to talk about. Right. Sacred Symbols Plus is going to be a second episode of Sacred Symbols every week, and it's going to be exclusive to Patreon. Now, we've been talking about this for a while, and we're all set and ready to go with it.
So my idea for it, Chris, and I think your idea too, is that once a week we get together to record, sometimes maybe we'll have like an overflow conversation about a game, or we'll just take a bunch of questions that we weren't able to use, or sometimes we'll play a game. Like, I'm playing Persona 4, I'd like to sit down and just do an episode about that one day and stuff. That will be the nature of Sacred Symbols Plus. And again, it'll be a Patreon exclusive.
I have dates written down here, so we're going to start posting these Sacred Symbols Plus episodes the week of, let's see, August 9th. So it'll be in two weeks. August 9th, the first episode will go live on Patreon for $5 and up subscribers, and then it'll go live on August 12th, the following Monday for $1 and up subscribers. And that's just the system.
That's the way it's going to be. So if you have a $5 subscription with us on patreon.com slash challenge.stand, you'll get three days early access to the episode, and then it'll go live only for Patreon subscribers of any level. And I think this will be a fun way for us to kind of keep the conversation going and do fun stuff. For sure.
And I'm really excited about it. So Sacred Symbols Plus begins August 9th. It'll be available to anyone that supports us on Patreon, and occasionally we'll make an episode free once in a while on the free feed. I like to do that specifically for big game spoiler casts.
So those will continue to be free, but everything else will be behind that paywall, and it won't materially change our episode here at all, our normal episode. So if you like what we do here, you won't see any change. This is just additive content for people that are big fans. Does that make sense?
Yeah, that will be clear. You never know. Yeah. You really never know.
Also, I just wanted to throw out here that Sony will be at Gamescom and TGS, which is a little bit of a surprise, considering they had no E3 presence. We know they're going to be on the show floor showing games off, probably no press conferences, but we'll have more information on that in the coming weeks. I just wanted to throw that out there since I think we were assuming that they weren't going to be at these shows. Now, Chris, I have a shit ton of listener inquiries to get into before we even get into the games we're playing.
Right. I want to touch base with the audience, because we haven't talked to them in a couple weeks. Remember, on Patreon.com slash Colin.com, if you support us there, there's a thread that goes live every Friday encouraging you to give us your questions, comments, concerns, thoughts, and ideas, which we then go through. And I actually have created a second document copying a bunch of stuff we're not able to use that will appear likely on Staker Civil's Plus.
Bryce wrote to us. He said, hey, Colin, S. Preston, Esquire, and Chris Theodore Logan. I get the reference.
I don't understand this reference. Is Bill and Ted? No, I don't know. I haven't seen Bill and Ted all the time.
I'm sorry. It's okay. It's coming back, I guess. So I guess I should re-familiarize myself with it.
Just subscribe to you guys a couple months ago. First ever Patreon. I subscribe to you because you guys are amazing and deserve my heart and cash flow. Thank you very much, Bryce.
However, you have exhibited egregious double standards on an episode a couple weeks ago. You complain that the original Xbox controller had too many buttons because of the black and white buttons. Yet, the DualShock and the Xbox One controllers both have just as many buttons with the addition of the R1, L1, or bumper buttons. DualShock with arguably more buttons because of giant start touchpad.
I hope you correct this in the next episode so it's to appease those of us sensitive to the price of the original Xbox controller. I didn't think that was a weird thing you said, that it had more buttons. Well, why didn't you correct me in the moment with that? Because I was just like, ah, maybe he's just like office meds or something.
I didn't want to be sensitive. Yeah, I appreciate that. It has the same amount of buttons. The original Xbox had triggers with no bumpers and those black and white buttons were just the bumper buttons.
Right, I forgot about that. I guess I just forgot that there was an era where we didn't have bumpers. Bumpers. Yeah, it is weird.
But, yeah, but, wait a minute. I understand what he's saying because it's the same amount of buttons. I guess the specific thing is I forgot Xbox, the original DualShock controller, didn't have bumper buttons. Yeah.
But actually, the PS2 controller did. So, the PS2 controller also did. Right, exactly. So, I see.
And I'm glad that we got to read all that. You could have just corrected me in the moment. But at least Bryce got his shiny on Sapers in the PlayStation podcast. That's insane.
I still think that's too expensive. I think it's fine. I think it's a good price, actually. Given the things that other people who are not me can do to them.
I was reading about that today, actually, on the Collins last stand Facebook group, the fan-run Facebook group. Someone was saying that he bought something online, like a thumb drive with a bunch of games on it, and then just transferred it over, and they work perfectly fine. Again, I really have no issue with emulation of all the games. Especially because Sony doesn't make these things easy to play at all.
So, that's kind of their problem. They also dropped the ball here pretty hard on this one. I agree. So, 1999, I have one.
A listener sent me one. He said he used it as a doorstop, and I am. But it's heavy. It's kind of heavy.
I was surprised by how the box was. It's a nice little box, honestly. I like the box. I kept the box.
You know? The box is nicer than the actual thing. I believe it. So, anyway, 1999, if you're looking for a PlayStation Classic, according to Jonathan Rice, at Best Buy, probably other retailers as well.
Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's a good price for you guys to get one. Even if you just use it as a model on your shelf. It's a good little, like, just kind of decorative piece for $20, honestly.
You can see that on a hot topic or something. Sure. That makes sense. Barsha Kassar wrote in one.
He said, any plans for the two of you to join the Area 51 raid? If successful, what kind of secrets do you think you'll find once you get past all the security defenses? That shit's been cracking me the hell up. It's very funny.
I love the idea of it. Because it's like, yeah, I guess they couldn't really do anything if it was that many people. But at the same time, it's like, you gotta know there's nothing there. You gotta know there's nothing there.
Like, I'm not saying there never was anything in Area 51, but certainly by now, the fact that everybody knows that it's in a secret base, I'm so sure that they've moved anything that was sensitive away from there. Yeah. What's that guy named Bob Lazar? Bob Lazar, yeah.
Who claims that he was a, I felt in that rabbit hole, but I loved his comment. His really earnest comment where he was like, don't do it because all the alien stuff's in Area S4, not Area 51. Like, it wasn't even like, I'm like, I like you, Bob. That's a funny little thing.
It's fun. I think this is pretty funny just because it's all the media's response. Like, this had apparently been bouncing around for a long time. It was the media that kind of made this a thing, which I thought was funny.
Yeah. Some dude just made a Facebook group and it exploded. Now, like, he's probably on some list. I kind of believe that even if a thousand people stormed Area 51, that they would all die.
I don't think they would do it. I don't think they would do it. I don't think they are worth killing them over. That's the thing.
The second you kill anybody is the second you admit something's there. That's true. It's just going to incite even more people to be like, what's going on? It is a very funny thing, though.
The memes out there are really funny. Everyone would do what they would do with the aliens once they found out. I saw a video of a dude working out with an alien about having him on his back while he's running and his plan to, I guess, help one of them escape. Area 51.
So, that's happening. I wouldn't recommend it, but you guys don't start on Area 51. Do you got to do it, guys. Ben Rousseau wrote in this question specifically for Mr.
Raygun. It has nothing to do with PlayStation, but seeing as Chris is such a fan of furries, I would love to hear his tag on the trailer for Cats that came out the other day. The stage musical source material is already creepy, but I find the characters in this trailer would be horrifying beyond all reason. What are your thoughts, guys?
Grotesque and sinister. Did you see it? Did you see it? Yeah, I unfortunately watched it.
So, in fairness to them, the original source material is creepy already, so props to them for sticking with that, obviously, unsightly art design, I guess. But, I don't know, man. That is the most uncanny, most eldritch thing I've seen. You love that word?
I actually looked that word up when you used it. It's just a really lovecraftian horror. When you're watching it, you're like, this is something's wrong on a deep level. Something's wrong, right?
I don't even want to know what's going on. What is the story? What are these cats? Are they human cats?
It's a musical about cats. But because it was a stage musical, you can't have people dressed as cats. Honestly, a lot of people, if you watch any Broadway or any of that stuff, it's like, anything delving into any subject that's not grounded in reality, it's like, it looks terrible. The Shrek musical is a thing.
Have you seen that? That is unsightly. Yeah, that's not going to do it for me. That's just not going to do it for me.
It somehow looks less worse than cats, though. I've got to be honest with you, all I can think about, and I'm being totally honest, all I can think about when I was watching that trailer were the furries that were undoubtedly masturbating to it. I hear a lot of furries are disappointed with it. Why?
Because the cats aren't hot enough? I don't know. I think it's because they're not... I saw one comment, like, why didn't they just blend the anatomy?
It's basically just people with ears, you know? So it's not far enough. It's not far enough. We're going to take it far enough for the furries.
Holy moly. Yeah, but I just couldn't think... Because I knew someone somewhere is getting real excited about this. Yeah.
Like, real excited about it. So that movie can stay far away from me. I don't want to know anything else about it. It's like one of those things.
What was that character you brought up where he's literally eight feet tall or something but he's a boy? Oh, can you? Yeah. That's the same kind of level of terror that I'm dealing with here.
Yeah. With the cats thing. Yeah, I'm going to pass on it. But props to them, I guess, for adapting it faithfully.
Tom Cargill wrote in and said, Hi, guys, I have a question of critical import. This is a weird one for me. He says, what do you turn on first? The console or the TV?
The console. What do you turn on first? The console or the TV? I turn on the console because it turns the TV on for me.
Yeah, yeah, same. So that's an obvious one to me. Yeah. But even when it doesn't, I just want to do it anyway.
It's like what am I going to do? Turn the TV on and stare at that stupid little box in the middle of the screen saying, Ah, no input. Yeah, and also then the PlayStation is going to claim you unplugged it at some point, even though you didn't. All the other stuff, the fun stuff that you have to see when the PlayStation gets turned on.
So it's a really great pleasure. Death Stranding's box art was revealed. Chris, I just wanted to let everyone know that. So you can go see it.
This is an audio podcast, so we can't really show it to you. But that's out there. It's on the PlayStation blog if you want to see it. Death Stranding coming out to PlayStation 4 apparently this fall.
And finally, Ben Williams wrote in and said, Hello, Charismatic Chris and Comely Colin. That's not, comely? Comely? I guess that's not homely is the one that means you're ugly, right?
So I don't want to be homely, but comely. That's the exact opposite. All right, I appreciate it. Thank you, Ben.
New patron here, you have previously discussed the much maligned Nintendo bump. Can you discuss if you think there is a Kojima bump? After watching all the Death Stranding trailers, especially the most recent gameplay, I have no idea why people are excited about this game. The gameplay looks boring and the story is clearly incomprehensible.
Metal Gear 5 was lauded and sits at the 93. I'm Metacritic. I doubt anybody can articulate what the game was actually about. We'd love to hear your thoughts Keep making Tuesdays right now The only thing that he was able to comprehend About Death Stranding Is that the story is incomprehensible Which I kind of agree I totally agree What do you think about this We do talk about the Nintendo bump Does Kojima also get a bump?
There is a Kojima bump I think But I will preface that By saying Millionaire Solid 5 I really like A lot I think it's a video game It's really solid It's like around Probably better than Breath of the Wild To me in my personal opinion It's got that same kind of Open world kind of like Physics playground thing going on with it And it's just It's a solid game That is not something That's got a bump from Kojima In fact I think it's probably The only game in the franchise That probably has The most level headed approach Because a lot of people Are just kind of like Eh I don't know if I like this You know That was the first Kojima game That I saw people reacting that way to But you know I think yeah People are excited about this On name alone And I have friends Who are excited about it And I'm like why And they're like I don't know And they're like I trust Kojima It's like literally what they'll tell me It seems to me that this game Was made too quickly I'm going to kind of stand by this I feel like it's too quick Of a dev cycle for a Kojima game So I actually don't really Let me put it this way I do understand why people are excited about it It's a Kojima game It's a PS4 exclusive That's very exciting People so he's publishing it Sure we get excited about those things But I'm kind of in agreement That I don't really see it Like I don't When that game comes I'll play it I don't know what the fuck it is I literally have no idea what it is I'm being totally not facetious here I don't think anybody does really It's about connecting societies To rebuild America I guess But that's So there's also babies in the tanks Yeah there's babies in the tanks And they glow And there's ghost men With invisible hands And I don't know what's happening Troy Baker's there Yeah of course he is Why wouldn't he be there Of course Troy Baker's there I'm sure Michael Richards is in there Some random ass camera Lord knows Ben I agree with you We'll see how it all goes I think the Kojima bump is real I agree with Chris That Metal Gear Solid 5 was kind of It actually does have an unusually high Metacritic score for how divisive it seemed to have been I didn't like it at all Because it wasn't a Metal Gear game for me But I think that's why people enjoyed it It was not a Metal Gear game It didn't have any of the story That I was looking for It had all the gameplay That I felt was missing From every single other one It didn't seem weird enough to me From what I was playing Like I mean weird camp Like really weird camp It definitely wasn't as campy Yeah for sure Alright so we'll see I mean I want to go in with an honest And fair assessment of it We have some months to talk about it And I'm sure we'll talk about it more And I wouldn't be surprised if it got delayed PS4 firmware by the way 6.72 is out So go download it It's mandatory A lot of people have already done it I'm sure You have no choice Yeah you have no choice But it's annoying as shit When you want to go play in them There we are Chris let's talk about what we're playing I was on vacation So I played very little But it seems that you were playing The Witcher 3 So let's talk to me about it Okay so they recently put out That Netflix trailer for the new Witcher show And everybody's like Oh it's good And I'm like I guess it looks good I don't know anything about The Witcher right But then I got an influence of messages Like you gotta play The Witcher You gotta play The Witcher And I was like fine So I bent the knee And I downloaded it again I downloaded it I got it I'm playing through it But I started from my old save And I have no idea what's going on So I really got to restart I wasn't that far in anyway I was like two hours in Oh yeah So I could restart But like I don't know I'm trying I'm trying to like get into it Because I know there's not gonna be A lot of stuff for a while I know Wolfenstein's out soon But they're like it's out Yeah well if a lot of people hear this It will be about out Yeah yeah So that's gonna be a linear shooter That's gonna be easy to go through So I'm gonna use this time This break To finally get through this thing That I probably should have gotten through Years ago And I don't know We'll see I'm not far enough into it really To say whether or not I'm having a good time Because I'm retreading old ground Right we'll track your progress as you go It's a game that I need to go back to as well But I don't think that I ever actually will I played it a lot more than two hours But I don't think that I ever actually will I played it a lot more than two hours later for about 40 but It is a dense game So we'll see how you like it Daniel Rogers He says Hey guys I've heard Chris mention a couple of times on the show That he'd be happy to play a spiritual successor To Shadow of the Colossus Well there actually is such a game And I believe it's available on Steam and Early Access With plans to support the consoles in the future Pray for the Gods I learned about it immediately Like the second that Kickstarter came out But The issue right now Is that it is in Early Access And I don't want to touch it I don't want to touch it until it's done Something like that especially Something that I presumably Will have been waiting a long time for I don't want to touch it right now I'll play it when it's out When it's done When it's on a console When it's gotten through that You know rigorous Very obviously like rigorous You know testing ground Oh definitely Yeah By the way people that want to look into it It's Pray for the Gods P-R-A-E-Y For the Gods He says I haven't played it I don't have a gaming PC Because I'm not a fucking dork But it looks pretty amazing Maybe he can check it out And report back Well as Chris said He'll check it out when it's done And I don't really blame you for that It does look really great Like really stunning But like yeah I'm going to wait Alright well there you go Chris is Chris is busy with Witcher 3 And maybe he'll play Pray for the Gods In the future I'm kind of just looking to get through Some of my I don't know I need to beat the Phoenix Wright collection I don't know I just want to get a bunch of shit off my plate And we'll have Wolfenstein soon as well So that'll be a nice attraction But I pretty much didn't play any video games When I was gone It was kind of nice to be honest I'm still working my way Through Persona 4 though As I said at the beginning I'm just playing like an hour or two a night When does it get great guys Like I'm really still waiting I really feel I have a lot to say about this game I really do have a lot to say about this game Because it's fun But we've got to ground the reality On this one a little bit I think Well we'll be able to take it We'll see I've never touched it Well you never will I suspect Alright let's get into the news Quite a bit to get through Number one The best selling video games In the United States For the month of June 2019 Had been revealed And not surprisingly Nintendo dominated the month With the launch of Super Mario Maker 2 Which was June's best selling game And that position comes Without counting digital sales Which all the competitors now do So it's pretty amazing When you look at the MPD list There's usually an asterisk Next to Nintendo games Because they don't report digital sales So anytime you see their sales numbers It's even more impressive than it seems So they would have been There you are number one Just based on retail sales Which is pretty amazing And Super Mario Maker 2 was really good Notable PS4 games in the top 20 include Crash Team Racing at 2 Hell yeah Mortal Kombat 11 at 3 Grand Theft Auto 5 at 4 And Minecraft at 5 Four PS4 exclusive games charted as well Spider-Man at 7 Days Gone at 10 MLB The Show 19 at 14 And God of War at 20 Mortal Kombat 11 is now the best selling game Of 2019 so far Bumping Kingdom Hearts 3 to the second slot Thank God Thank God The Division 2 Anthem And Resident Evil 2 remake Rounded out the top 5 With PS4 exclusives Days Gone at 7 And MLB The Show 19 at 9 It's unbelievable that Days Gone Is the best selling game of the year In guidance That accompanies the figures The MPD group notes That hardware sales are starting to stagnate With the next generation now Very much on the horizon Here at least console sales are plummeting That makes sense I mean yeah Why would you Especially when you know They're just going to go down price Once the next Even if you're not interested In the next generation You might as well just wait I agree Okay This isn't a controversial thing Like we were talking about Metal Gear Solid 5 Some people like it Some people don't Fine Kingdom Hearts 3 is incomprehensible They just believe these people They just like their Disney game We're just believing Oh my God Number 2 US-based games retailer GameStop Is in serious financial peril Having lost about two-thirds Of its total market value During the calendar year To many it appears There's literally nothing GameStop Can do to save itself And that's probably true But the company is still going to try The company revealed Via a press release That it's working with outside firms As quote Part of GameStop's Broader business transformation strategy To evolve its efforts In cultivating innovative Customer-centric opportunities To bring video game culture To life in every neighborhood What the fuck does that mean They continue GameStop's renewed customer-first focus Stems from qualitative And quantitative research That identified four major motivations Gaming fans have For playing video games Immersion, achievement, creativity And community End quote As such GameStop is in the process of Developing and piloting new And streamlined physical store concepts Including new ways for gamers To try new titles before they buy them And giving stores a unique layout And purpose that appeals to gamers From store concepts that offer Competitive sessions in homegrown e-leagues To locations that sell Strictly retro gaming software And hardware GameStop will pilot new store concepts And select markets To present something new to players Both old and new And searching for experiences In gaming beyond the console End quote Now I didn't look today At the market cap But GameStop when I wrote this yesterday Has shed 10% more of its value Since this announcement was made So they are This announcement did not Please the market at all What do you make of this GameStop is trying to survive by I think this is kind of weird Because they're talking about retro games But there's one quote It says Giving stores a unique layout And purpose that appeals to gamers What the fuck does that mean I don't know What is a gamer a different kind of person Than a person that goes to a supermarket Of course Have you ever seen a gamer In a supermarket, Doc? I don't know I've never seen them there Usually in the frozen food aisle Buying pizza and what have you Settling across the floor On all eight of their legs I don't know I think It's probably smart They've got to do something They can't say what they're doing Because they're just going to Plumb it inevitably Towards the great unknown I think they'll probably I haven't seen this for years I feel like GameStop Should just embrace the fact That most people don't go To GameStop for their new shit And just focus on old shit I love going to those old places You know The places like the weird mom and pops That have been around forever For some reason Even though no one ever goes there And buys anything Surely they could get something out of that Actually sell PS1s proper Or offer something for used shit Like old retro stuff I don't get why they haven't just I don't get why they didn't see Dragons that long as time ago And be like We should just do that Like it just blows my mind That they never even thought about it It is strange that Well I should say I should preface it by saying Of course GameStop's going to do something They're not just going to die We're not trying to survive What was interesting in reading The press release You guys can look at it on their website But they contracted some outside firms To do this research for them So they're spending a lot of money Trying to figure this out And I don't know if that's a great idea I'm looking at their stock now live As we're recording this the day Before it goes live for our patrons They're down another 4% today So the company's dying Now they're getting actually Close to being delisted They're getting to the territory Of like junk stock now And I'm actually almost tempted If they were like around $150 To just buy a bunch of it Just to see if someone comes in And offers like $3 a share To buy the name or something And they need to be a little profit That's really a predatory I don't know that That's the way the market works Yeah it's literally Very speculative But I agree with you They need to shut a bunch of their stores They probably do have high traffic stores In cities and stuff They can keep those the way they are But I don't know if going into Like a retro direction makes any sense Esports seems to have Its kind of narrative With its broadness Not with its smallness So saying like we're going to have Localized esports leagues That doesn't seem to really I'm not an expert It doesn't seem to make any sense To be based on what I'm looking at It looks like Overwatch has like An international league And League of Legends And all these things So I don't know Thinking smaller is the right thing Also GameStop is a console centric Environment that doesn't appeal to esports So it doesn't really make any sense From that perspective either So I think that they're In their little death rows right now And it's sad A lot of people are going to lose their jobs But I'll be interested to see This retro store that they're going to pilot And I also want to see What markets they're going to try these things in Yeah I can see them trying All sorts of weird shit Like TVs set up with couches Yeah I can see that It was a great store that I loved Back when I was growing up It was like when I was in high school It was like in Poughkeepsie It was this place called Dot Game It was awesome It was just a bunch of couches and TVs And they would just host tournaments every day It was awesome They died though Because that mall was the worst I mean I remember going to a place In Dover, New Hampshire Where I lived up there Called Game Exchange And I think their big business Was in the 90s But I think their big business Was like you would Like you said go rent a console I remember renting games on S64 That I didn't have And just playing in there Like Shadows of the Empire and stuff And you pay like an hourly fee Yeah exactly But I don't know that that's really There's any salvation in that Probably not from a corporation Very interesting stuff Very sad They're dying quicker than I thought Which is interesting It's getting to the point Where I don't know if they're going to be able To even hold on for the next generation Because that will be a nice little bump for them Like the next gen consoles And I'm selling them And I'm selling the games That'll be a nice little bump For their sales But that's too far away I mean we're talking about over a year I don't know if they live that long If they do though And then you buy stock I'm not telling anyone to buy anything on the market But if you buy stock at a really low level And then they survive that long Then you might be able to get out With a little bit of a profit I'm very tempted I'm watching this price I don't know how you can be Yeah really I'm very tempted to just buy it But I don't think it's probably a good idea Number three This is an interesting one Chris I'm interested to see what you think of this PlayStation 4 exclusive Spider-Man Is already the best-selling superhero game in history According to the NPD group Which tracks game sales In the all-important American market NPD's Matt Piscitella Who has still blocked me on Twitter For I have no idea why Tweeted out the list of best-selling superhero games Through May of 2019 And Spider-Man Which didn't even launch a year ago And is only available on a single platform Tops the list Beating out Batman's Arkham City And Arkham Knight games Which slotted in at two and three Lego Batman Lego Marvel Superheroes Spider-Man the Movie Spider-Man the Movie 2 Injustice Gods Among Us Batman Arkham Asylum And Injustice 2 Round out the top ten That's kind of crazy I don't know if I believe that That's like too insane to me It's possible It is possible But I just There's got to be something That's being like omitted There's just no way That I believe that Spider-Man Outsold Arkham on every platform That's what it says That's crazy Now I mean congrats if that's true But I feel like there's some funding going on NPD group only tracks American sales But you can extrapolate those sales I mean if they're saying In the American market this happened Then there's no reason why It wouldn't have happened In the British market for instance Or the Japanese market Well Spider-Man is pretty American Yeah that's true I can see that not translating To Japan all that well That's true Europe maybe a little bit better But like yeah That makes sense It's American I can see that It is American But I think that the numbers Are safe to extrapolate Across western locales I would be shocked If like worldwide It was the best That would actually shock me To my core To the point where I would go to sleep In a sarcophagus And never wake up That's insane in my mind Or sales Going to sleep in a sarcophagus Would be a little unsettling Because I think that they Paint the inside of them And they do all this weird Embalming and weird painting And they actually lock Your own servants in there Pretty interesting stuff I'm a little horrified That everyone's like Yeah I'm a servant For this pharaoh You can just lock me in here And I'll die I'm just gonna die You know people got passions Also this man's heart Is in a jar I don't know why that is Why is this man's heart in a jar A jart A jart In Game of Thrones One of the things I did like Were the burial rituals That they would show Every once in a while They never go into them Very deeply But they do like show The embalmed organs On this like shelf By the body Pretty classy stuff Yeah make sure that happens To me if I die I won't Thank you Adam Blodger said Hey CNC Hope both of y'all Are having a great week so far In regards to last week's Best of episode I'm realizing that my game of the year Is actually Batman Arkham Asylum I'm very late to the party But I've only ever played City at night And I have to agree with Colin When he said it's the best of the series Rocksteady delivered gold But the series lost some luster With each sequel in my opinion Are there any game series More specifically trilogies Where you all have seen this happen Dead Space comes to mind for me I think the first Dead Space Is by far this superior game I didn't even play the other one So I can't speak to it But it'll look terrible Compared to the first one But Batman Arkham Asylum is really special Really really a special game Compared to the other two Because it's so limited And dynamic I mean I haven't really played A 3D Metroidvania type game Like that before I hadn't Yeah it's really cool So I really liked that I thought City was a little big I thought Arkham Knight Obviously really lost the plot But what do you think about Arkham Asylum specifically Is that a game you look I love Arkham Asylum a lot I was actually thinking about Playing it again Just because it was on Xbox Game Pass It's been a minute since I played that But I think the only thing About that game that I don't like Is that ending man That last fight It's so terrible Isn't it against like Well it's 10 years old It's Joker But it's like a boxing ring Or something weird Yeah Joker takes a Sierra And becomes like a big Joker And you have to beat him up And it's like It's so terrible compared To like the rest of that Really kind of perfect game It's a sign Games are getting better at this Because it's a sign That games felt like They needed to have a last boss Think about the end of Uncharted Or Uncharted 2 And how like Oh like Yeti How weird It was Yeti's And Uncharted 2 That took like 50,000 clips Of your free game Oh yeah the Yeti's were terrible And also the exploding blue Stuff that you had to fight I just like when games You know what There is no fucking last boss Because it's a really antiquated idea That only belongs in certain types of games And they haven't really gotten the message I don't think of Arkham Asylum yet Although I do like I remember very well The scene walking in there When everyone's talking shit to Batman I really love that scene Like he's walking All these thugs around him There's all like I think smack talking him That's a very memorable scene If you walk up to that bad boss battle But I love when I play a game And there's just no last boss Like it's just over Because I really think It's just an old idea It works in Mega Man But it doesn't work in You know something like I think you just gotta be creative With your bosses really Like you can't just have Like the old antiquated Like here's a health bar Here's a ring Go fight this thing Feels a little weird Like I've played some FPSs That have really cool ones Where like you know Shit drops down You have to disable And there's like all sorts Of cool things going on there But yeah I agree It does feel kind of out of place And a lot of things That it's usually shoehorned into Like in a first person shooter We're gonna play Youngblood soon Which I'm so excited That looks fucking awesome But I'm hoping that When we get to the end of the game It culminates in something Like a really hard map Or a really hard stage Where it's just like The enemy's throwing everything at you But when you survive It's not like Hitler in a tank Or something like that anymore Because I just don't Even you know Machine games Hasn't even really gotten Away from that And so I hope that More people take that instruction That unless you have something Really clever Which the Joker battle Obviously wasn't It just seems very forced And the Lazarevich fight In Uncharted 2 Always sticks in my mind It was such a weird thing In that game Even the last fight Against whoever's name Is in the first Uncharted When you're fighting On like the ship Or one of the I'm like, this is just so weird. Why is it ending like this? Like, if it's supposed to be a real adventure, you're not going to fight a last boss at the end of a grand archaeological adventure, I don't think.
Which one was that? Was that Uncharted 2? Yeah, Uncharted 2 was one of those garbage. First of all, I can't remember the guy's name.
He's like an Hispanic guy, I think. And he's like hiding behind crates. He's like, keep moving. I think that was the one way to keep...
It was just a weird... It's charring, actually. Yeah, I don't know. Then that happens a lot.
I feel like a lot of games kind of like, they do something and they're like, we got to do more. I think I remember like Crash 2 was the best one to make because 3 is so like, they have these weird driving minigames but they control way worse than team racing so it's like not fun. I don't know. It happens a lot.
What are you going to do? I don't know, man. Got to figure this out. Got to figure this out.
Sound a little drunk there. Yeah, it was an aneurysm in the making. A little rusty, I guess. Jeremy Michael Andrews wrote in and said, Hey guys, big fan and now super proud to be a supporter.
I'm Patreon. Thank you, Jeremy, and welcome to the Madhouse. I wanted to follow up on something from one of the previous shows. You mentioned on an episode of Sacred Symbols that Rocksteady might be working on a Justice League title for their upcoming game.
As a huge Batman fan, that kind of disappoints me as I would want a standalone Batman title. My question is, what would you and Chris speculate that a Justice League title would look like as far as mechanics and gameplay? I'm having a hard time picturing what it could be. Thank you guys so much for providing a true PlayStation podcast experience and for continuing to make Tuesdays great again.
Now Chris, about making Tuesdays great again, I wonder now if we should segue to keeping Tuesdays great. Oh yeah. Right? I think Trump is segueing to keeping America great.
But MAGA is still a thing. I think we're going to start segueing to keeping Tuesdays great because now we've already made them great again. Yeah, we've already done it. What was the question we're talking about?
I don't know what you do to Superman to kill him or what you do to Wonder Woman. They seem extraordinarily powerful. So from that perspective, I almost hope that they stay with Batman because it seems like they really get it. But if I were them, if I were Seth and Hill and these dudes, I'd be like, I'm fucking tired of this shit.
And so maybe the dark horse would be that they're making a new game. And that would be pretty cool, but I just don't think that WB's going to let them walk away from that big IP. I hope they're making an original thing. I really love that.
I can imagine, I don't know. If they made a Justice League game, it would probably look like the Marvel thing, which doesn't look great. Did you see the leaked gameplay? No, I heard it was better.
You get a more comprehensive look of what that game's going to play like, but it's still just kind of like, what is this, really? It just seems like a weird... Did you ever play Marvel Nemesis? No, what console was that on?
That was on Xbox and PS2. It was like a while ago. It was like Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects. It was like a fighting game.
It was also like a 3D kind of brawler. It was weird. But it seems like it might play a little bit like that except more of a more traditional third-person camera. It's weird.
I don't know. I don't know if I'm really excited about it at all. It's one of those. Especially because we've just gotten through like 10 years of having a specific look for a lot of these characters.
So they can't escape the fact that this is just going to look like a knockoff. Yeah, the Uncanny Valley kind of situation. Which is nice with Batman because... Well, Batman has had so many different incarnations.
I know, but he still has an iconic look. Like he can have his cowl on or whatever. That's what they call it. And it kind of looks familiar.
Like the Uncanny Valley shit with some of these characters. I'm not very familiar with them, but I'm like, that kind of looks like a man who's kind of like, what is it, Chris Hemsworth? Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, that looks explicitly not like Chris Hemsworth.
Yeah, it's very strange. I understand why they're doing it, but... Oh yeah, you're not going to pay Robert Downey-Junifer's likeness and go out of business? Yeah, exactly.
For no specific reason. But I'm actually surprised by how hard people are being on that game because I thought a lot of people were excited about it. But I think Crystal Dynamics is a little late over their heads with this game too. And I think that's why it took so long to reveal because that was an open secret for many years that they were making it.
They should have just made it more cartoony. It would have been fine if they just went with a cel-shaded art style. That would have been such a good idea. Yeah, that would have been nice.
I think that they commented, we might have talked about it a couple of weeks ago, but I think they commented that they just are not going to change the models at all. Well, why would they? Infamous Tuso was a great example when they actually changed the whole model for Cole because people hated it. Right, but the issue with these new Avengers is that they don't look right because we're so used to seeing such a specific look for those characters and they're not going to pay that money.
Of course not. Keep your paper, as one might say. This is so expensive. Jake D.
Agrella wrote in with, he said, Hi, CSE. Long time, first time. The recent news of Insomniac Spider-Man becoming the best-selling superhero game in the US is no small feat and the team should be proud. It really speaks to the quality of their game.
Of course, this has inevitably brought up the imagine if this was sold on Xbox and PC2 comments and the follow-up it wouldn't have been as good of a game if it were multi-platform. I think this brings forward an interesting question. Do exclusives tend to just be better games than multi-plats? You get your rock stars every now and then, but especially in Sony titles this past decade, you'd be hard pressed to argue their value or against their value.
Is this a chicken or the egg situation? Do Sony and Microsoft hunt down the best of the best or does this arise from the first-party studios being given the resources to push out quality time and time again? My take on this is that yes, exclusives do tend to be superior games and it's because they only have to make one version of the game they have to focus on one machine they have first-party resources they usually get more time these games are usually more expensive so it's just no surprise that Naughty Dog game has Naughty Dog's the last part 2 is going to be way better than almost anything on PlayStation 4 I'll just tell you that right now and a lot of that has to do with the fact that they got to focus I think but I'd like to hear your opinion. Yeah, I think I don't know, it feels like especially with Red Dead 2 that comes to mind specifically where like how insanely good that game was and how much better it was than most of the other like I thought it was by the God of War I love God of War a lot but I think a lot of the allure or a lot of the quality behind first-party exclusives is the fact that they're first-party I think that alone the exclusivity of it kind of heightens the value of it in a lot of people's minds because I think Spider-Man is a very, very good game like a super, super good game I don't know if it's one of the best ones that's on PS4 I don't know if it's one of the best ones of the generation but it's definitely up there and I think it's like a mind thing where it's like that's only available there so it's automatically kind of a little bit better because of that exclusivity I think that's something that happens in a lot of people's minds and probably mine too to a lesser extent but yeah I don't think you're wrong to say that most first-party exclusives tend to be better because I think there is an element of that focus but I also think just the fact that they're exclusives is kind of I think it's a mental thing a lot of the time yeah it could be you could be right because I think there's a lot of advantages just baked in advantages when you're making an exclusive so I think maybe the most effective thing to say would be that they have just a better opportunity a better mathematical chance of coming out with a really good game simply because again the focus is there like Sony is much more in line with the exception of Destiny 2 and other third-party games where they have these agreements they have a huge investment literal investment in selling these games because their 35 or 30% cut is their 30% cut which means Spider-Man is 100% Sony's profit except for Marvel and all that but the point I'm trying to make is that when Justice League for instance comes to PS4 only 70% of that money is going to go to WB so Sony has only a little bit of a reason to kind of invest in that because they only get 30% back so I just think there's a lot of underlying advantages it's like being the incumbent in a presidential election you get to stand in front of the lectern and have that logo in front of you while the other person is trying to take your job so you just have a baked-in advantage it doesn't mean you're going to win it just means that you should win so it's an interesting kind of thing to think about and we talk about the Nintendo bump we talk about all those things I think that there probably is a Sony bump I think that that's probably true I think it's universal but I think that that kind of comes from a place of quality but we have to remember that PS3 exclusives weren't all of a high quality certainly not in the mid-generation certainly not early on there were some games that were very questionable I feel like they really picked up at the end there yeah towards the end these were second-party or third-party exclusive games when you talk about Lair from Factor 5 and Hayes and Folklore and all I mean these weren't like great games by any stretch of the imagination even in the mid-generation when you're getting into stuff like Starhawk and I mean they're fine PlayStation All-Stars these are fine games but they weren't the last of us and they certainly aren't that trifecta of like God of War, Spider-Man and you know Detroit for instance a pretty superior line-up of games where we're going to get Ghost of Tsushima that's Stranding Last of Us Part 2 these are probably pretty superior games so let's remember it's not always been this way let's remember that as well yeah just to be fair it's a good question it is thank you for writing it Jake number four Chris Sony-owned developer Sony San Diego has officially moved offices following recent moves by other Sony-owned studios in recent years including Sony Santa Monica website for Square reports of some social media postings that confirmed move which comes alongside a brand new San Diego studio logo which Sony Santa Monica also received when it moved offices several years ago while only a minor piece of news in passing such investments indicate that Sony is indeed doubling down on its dev initiatives in San Diego which releases Sony's popular MLB The Show series each year but has otherwise had a churn of talent come in and out working on games like Killstrain that the market simply didn't take to rumors have persisted that Sony San Diego is incubating a new team that is taking over the Uncharted franchise from Naughty Dog and this news certainly won't quell those rumors the fact that they are moving offices Chris and they got a new logo indicates that there's an investment deeper than simply the show going on over there the show is made by just one fraction of that team and they have had a long running production and ex-dev presence there that has come in and out with PlayStation Move games I think what was that I don't know if you know the guys that made sports champions Zindigy that's like a studio that's the second party team that was working out of there Killstrain was working out of there Drawing to Death was produced out of there so a lot of guns up a lot of stuff has come gone it seems like they are putting a lot of resources into AAA development and I wouldn't be surprised if those rumors of a team spawning there are quite true whether or not they're taking over Uncharted remains to be seen but as Uncharted 4 ends in such an obvious way to continue the game spoiler alert I'm going to give you guys a chance to shut it off with Drake's daughter as the main character which I think is so obvious I wouldn't be surprised if they just moved it down there and had something going for PS5 so very exciting very exciting news and congratulations to those guys a lot of great guys work over there if Sony Santa Monica moved to Malibu would they still be Sony Santa Monica?
I don't know it's a good question they used to work in this series of really weird brick buildings that looked like from the 50s in Brooklyn and then they moved into a nicer pad during the development of God of War the PS4 one and I actually think that moving studios and investing in your teams like this boosts obviously their morale they have free food and they got I'm just curious about the naming convention can you call yourself something like it? Oh no certainly it's certainly a question worth asking but I think this is good because I think it just gives them a chance to try again and instead of going out and buying studios I think that's going to happen too there's rumors that Sony's taking a look at Remedy and other studios again we talked about that's not true I don't think there's any purpose in that acquisition I think it makes more sense for them to go to Sony London to go to Sony Japan to go to Sony San Diego places like that just make new teams there and have them quietly toil away so congratulations to everyone moving to the new office number five legendary developer Tim Willits is leading his post at id Software after 24 years at the company Willits announced the move on his player account noting that he'd be leaving the company following QuakeCon which is happening around the time you're hearing this episode Willits joined id Software in 1995 during its upstart indie days following the original Doom's release Willits is most notable for being a level designer for 1996's Quake and I always felt like he was kind of working behind the scenes and was quietly toiling away on shit that wasn't really getting a lot of shine until Doom 2016 do you feel like this is an exit that matters I mean I would imagine if it's any kind of legacy talent that you lose is always kind of like you know a big deal because it's as if you had you know if you were writing a show for a long time then when your lead writer leaves you know no that's going to do something it might not hinder really much of anything but it's definitely going to affect it in some way and yeah I mean that sucks but I mean is he going off to do other shit presumably I'm a little confused by this because I would wonder why he wouldn't wait to make this announcement until Doom Eternal came out why would you leave now this scene again I don't want to start conspiracies I have no information about this but it doesn't seem like it was necessarily his choice or this was like a mutual thing it's very weird for the head of the studio to leave when their big game is still being developed that's very strange even when Bruce Traley left Naughty Dog and you heard about some tensions and all that kind of stuff with him wanting to leave and go and do something else and do something smaller and getting away he didn't leave until the last of us came out and then left so it's a little strange from that perspective it doesn't make you worry about Doom Eternal because I doubt he was in the day today on that but it does make you worry about what else is going on there and it makes you question why you would leave and make this announcement right before QuakeCon you're going to go to QuakeCon and then you're going to leave and this game that you're the head of the studio is still kind of being made and it's a little strange to me it just doesn't seem like a move someone would make at a studio unless he didn't have full capacity or making that choice on his own because you even assume you'd hang on for the bonuses and stuff that would inevitably come when Doom Eternal gets you know 85 on Metacritic and sells several million copies so a little weird but Tim Will's a nice guy sad to see him go legendary dude I was reading about him a little bit this is like a pretty controversial thing I was reading a lot about this he claimed that he invented multiplayer DLC basically and Carmack and Romero and a bunch of other guys have shot back at him and claimed that he's lying and all this kind of stuff go read it very weird shit between the students and the people that founded id because he came in right after id released Doom so he wasn't a founder but he's been there for a long time apparently he has some beef with some people there as well go read it I thought that was so weird it's like there's a whole part of his Wikipedia page like the biggest part of his Wikipedia page is about those claims that's awesome yeah very interesting I'm curious number 6 the much anticipated FPS RPG Borderlands 3 which launches on September 13th will have cross-platform play apparently according to developer Gearbox software but it will happen after the game is already on the market word comes by way of Randy Pitchford Gearbox's founder and CEO who tweeted out in part we are committed to supporting cross-play for Borderlands 3 with our partners as soon as practicable after launch to be clear there will not be any cross-play functionality in Borderlands 3 at launch as we work closely with our partners to create a positive cross-play experience as soon as practicable we are committed to cross-play on as many platforms as possible so it seems like maybe they're running into a little bit of difficulty since there should really be a switchy turn on yeah I wonder who's doing that I wonder who I wonder who's complicating issues of Sumo Digital's recently acquired internal studio Red Kite Games a team mostly known for contract work on games like Dirt 4 God of War 3 remastered and internally incubated 2.5D shooter platformer Hollow Point as Sumo Digital expands its own internal projects it seems like it will be doing so with a partner Sumo Digital is a British studio founded in the early aughts and most recently released Crap Town 3 on Xbox One and PC and is working on the revived version of Dead Island 2 also made PS3 and PS4's little bit plan 3 back in 2014 and has done a ton of work on the Forza franchise the 2K moniker was founded in 1993 and is under the Take 2 interactive umbrella which also publishes Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises big upcoming 2K published games include Borderlands 3 from Gearbox Software and the Outer Worlds from Obsidian Software as well as the newest entry in the popular NBA 2K series so it seems like Sumo Digital is getting in the bed with 2K this was a really weird press release there was almost nothing in it so I don't know why they announced it other than I think that this might be laying the groundwork for 2K to acquire them so we'll have to keep an eye on that because that would be a pretty big acquisition for them Sumo Digital is a pretty big independent studio one of the biggest independent studios available in the world like up there with Insomniac and others in terms of how many teams they have so it's a time when people are getting gobbled up and the remaining independent studios are probably not going to be independent for much longer like Insomniac I think will probably join Sony that's been attempted in the past but I wouldn't be surprised maybe if that happens number 8 as we discussed a couple of weeks ago quirky JRPG Conception Plus Maidens of the 12 Stars is coming to PS4 in November of this year a notable release for the once PSP exclusive game that was only launched in Japan however to continue the brewing conspiracies about increasing censorship on PlayStation platforms publisher Spike Chunsoft published a brief blog post about the game's localization quote we would like to inform the community about a content change made to this release the post reads in part during the classinating rituals the Star Maidens 3D models will appear as blue and purple rather than flesh colored I will not have detailed facial features the animation itself is identical this change does not affect gameplay and no other content has been modified this content change will not be applied to the Steam version end quote while not major news to most of us Spike Chunsoft's posting does indicate that Sony's standard for questionable content is becoming stricter and fanservice to Japanese games are the titles seemingly being targeted the most so this is another uproarious situation with censorship agreed yeah another one whether or not it's appropriate or not remains to be seen yeah but I think Sony is slowly pushing the weebs and the niche gamers that play on their platform to Steam which is a bad idea for them because These are people that reliably buy consoles and games. They might not buy tons of games, but they do reliably buy these games. And I think it makes PlayStation kind of a unique ecosystem compared to Xbox.
So, I don't know, just wanted to throw it out there. Maybe not a big deal. You guys can tell me. It's a thing that's happening.
Number nine. It appears a new Plants vs. Zombies game is coming to PlayStation 4. If leaked alpha playtest invites are to be believed.
Over the past few days, select players have received emails from EA's community playtesting initiative with an invite to sign up for an alpha for a project Electronic Arts is calling Picnic. The email purportedly reads in part, quote, you are invited to participate in a new PVZ shooter playtested on Xbox One or PS4. Made by the team that created PVZ Garden Warfare, the Picnic closed alpha will give players a first glimpse into the new game, end quote. The first Plants vs.
Zombies Garden Warfare launched in early 2014 and was initially exclusive to Xbox platforms. Its sequel, Garden Warfare 2, came in 2016. This is likely to be Garden Warfare 3 and is not to be confused with Plants vs. Zombies 3, which is the newest game in the franchise that was just released in pre-alpha format for Android devices.
The original Plants vs. Zombies did come to PS3 and later Vita, though its sequel never migrated to PlayStation platforms, so it's unclear if the proper PVZ 3 will come to consoles or not. Geekaloud wrote in with some Patreon and said, gentlemen, with the announcement of the Plants vs. Zombies 3 alpha starting on Android next week, does this signal the release of that PVZ Garden Warfare 3 was in development, no word on it since been reported, is it possible that on the call they misspoke and were instead referring to PVZ 3.
Good day to you both. This is why I wanted to throw this out. Both games, PVZ 3 and PVZ Garden Warfare 3 are in alpha right now, so it seems like they're going to release them at the same time. Maybe a little bit of cross-promotion.
Cross-promotion. Dare I say, cross-pollination. Oh. I'm a huge Plants vs.
Zombies fan. I love the original game. Very much. Really, really, really great game.
Just like sink in your couch and play a game. I loved it. I was disappointed PVZ 2 never came in the console, but it was a fucking microtransaction nightmare. Yeah.
It was probably a blessing anyway. Indeed. Are you a fan of either PVZ or the Garden Warfare games? I mean, I liked Plants vs.
Zombies, but like not, you know, I played for a little bit and I was like, yeah, that's good, yeah. And then I never touched it again. I didn't dislike it. But the Garden Warfare thing I never understood.
I just never, never even remotely grabbed it. I thought, like, I saw it in E3 thing, I was like, ha, that's funny. And then, like, that was it. That was it.
That was a clever satire. I thought they were doing, like, that Tropic Thunder thing. Right. You know, like, at the beginning of Tropic Thunder, they have all those fake movie trailers that play, like, oh, here's a real movie with Ben Stiller as an idiot.
Simple Jack. Yeah, Simple Jack. And you're like, that's not real. And then, of course, it's not.
That's what I thought Garden Warfare was. But it was real. And I was like, oh, okay. It wasn't so.
All right. It must be popular enough where they keep it in the third one. I mean, that's really surprising to me. I think it's just low cost.
Yeah, maybe so. I think I played the first one on Xbox One briefly. It's cute. Yeah, I like the idea.
It's like a class-based shooter. It's cool, but, I don't know, not for me. But, yeah, what I love most about this is that the alpha email basically says that it's confidential. All of a sudden, we're just leaking.
Anyway, no one cares. Finally, Chris, number 10 is a wrap-up. The newest Tropico game, Tropico 6, is coming to PlayStation 4 on September 27th, according to website Eurogamer. Racing platformer hybrid Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD is coming to PS4 on October 29th, according to website Push Square.
The website also reports that Bus Simulator, which looks fucking awesome, will be coming to PS4 on September 17th. Website Gamatsu reports that 3D action game The Forbidden Arts is coming to PS4 on August 7th. That strategy game Northgard is coming to PS4 on September 26th. That action RPG Emery Reach Project Eden is coming to PS4 at some point later in 2019.
That free-to-play RPG Caravan Stories open beta and launch date have both been delayed out of July to an undetermined point in the future. That action adventure game A Rat's Quest The Way Back Home is coming to PS4 in 2021. And that action game Road-like Heroes coming to PS4 at an unknown time in the future. Publisher NIS America has revealed that the Western PS4 launch of JRPG Trails of Cold Steel 3, which I know Chris is excited about.
Oh, hell yeah. Has been delayed to October 22nd. And finally, publisher Bandai Namco has revealed that its popular fighting game Tekken 7 has surpassed 4 million copies sold globally. While Capcom has revealed that Monster Hunter World has surpassed 13 million units sold, maintaining its position as the publisher's best-selling game ever.
Crazy. Capcom, keep going. Chris, it's time for the new game releases as tradition dictates. You will go first unless you want to do something a little different.
Nah, we'll keep things normal. Conga Master Go comes to PlayStation Vita. The dance floor fills. The line gets longer.
Come on down. It's time to conga. That's what's written there. All right.
Stage your virtual hips to the ridiculously fun arcade action of Conga Master as everyone fights to make the longest conga line possible. No rhythm required. Anyone can conga. All right.
Right up. Right up. Yeah, not bad. Not bad.
Data live or data live on a real reincarnation comes to PS4. The story begins 30 years after a series of space quakes that were caused by spirits. The spirits is capitalized. Shido encounters one and learns that he has the ability to seal away a spirit's power.
Shido is determined to save the world and the spirits with the power of love. Experience new date endings and event CGs in Rio reincarnation. I hope I never thought of the word space quakes before. That's such a great word.
That is a good word. All right. Elia or Elia comes to PS4. In 2073, Earth was struck by a horrid childhood disease.
And Elia's husband, Ethan, joined an expedition to colonize Solace, a habitable exoplanet, to save humanity from extinction. 13 years later. Wait, what is happening? 13 years later.
I'm still in the conga. 13 years later, Elia joins a recovery mission to investigate the fate of the expedition. What follows is a wondrous journey through space. Spice.
Fantasy Strike comes to PS4. Fantasy Strike is a colorful fighting game where fantasy meets martial arts. Gameplay uses the excellent G.G.P.O. networking technology.
What does that mean? Thank God you included that in your write-up. Fear of traffic comes to PS4. With its colorful world and a magical soundtrack, your mission will be to find the way out, avoiding blocked roads, animals, odd objects on the way, and traumatic accidents with other drivers.
You can try to ramp up your score by finding hidden collectibles in every level. There we go. Very well done. Hagi 2 comes to PS4 in Vita.
I don't remember the original Hagi. Hagi 2 is a classic platformer with more than 200 levels. The pink slime named Hagi is back in a whole new wonderful adventure awaits. Except this time around, Hagi isn't on his own, as Hagitha is keen to join him.
And the two must work together to rescue their slime mold children from the evil moon men that kidnapped them. It's a pretty good right-up, actually. Thank you for that. Mighty Switch Force Collection comes to PS4.
Switch up the fun with four games in one. As cybernetic peacekeeper officer Patricia Wagon. Ah, Patty Wagon. Ah, that's good.
You'll use your platforming skills, puzzle-solving abilities, and special level-altering siren helmet to protect the people of planet land and smash enemies into the screen. Four games in one. Not too bad. No, good value.
Robbie Swifthand comes to PS4. Robbie Swifthand and the Orb of Mysteries is a 2D platformer with unique boss fights accompanied by groovy and mystifying music. Plan your every move and outsmart the traps that are lurking in the temple or get dissected in hilarious ways. Experience rage and satisfaction in this hardcore platformer.
Robbie Swifthand. Sabre VR comes to PS4, obviously. In the future, the UN bans the research and development of killer robots. No AI can terminate human life.
These AI are repurposed into human-controlled, state-of-the-art weaponized drones. High-tech military corporations race to create mechanized animals called SABRE, synthetic animal bioremote entities. They're really trying there. Yeah.
Fair enough. It's like S.H.I.E.L.D. Really trying. Smuts Summer Games comes to PS4.
Excuse me, it's Smuts. I'm sorry, Smuts. I don't know. It's S-M-O-O-T-S.
Smuts? I don't know. Get the gold medal. Play Athletics Events from your sofa.
That's what it says. Play Athletics Events from your sofa. Prepare yourself for the next season. Smuts Summer Games is a sports arcade game for one to four players, where you can play 18 Athletics Events.
And that's where it again says Athletics Events. No one at PlayStation Blog will get the flying fuck out of this. Play with your favorite Smuts characters in practice, special challenge, and championship game modes. Who's Smuts?
Smuts characters. I don't know what the fuck's going on here. Does anyone read anything over there? No.
The answer is no. They don't. Songbird Symphony comes to PS4. A heartwarming journey of discovery as orphaned chick Burbs sets off to find his true origins.
I like that. That's cute. Follow this cheerful little bouncing bird who revels in singing and guide him through this magical journey of stunning pixel art and gorgeous animation that shapes itself to your musical interactions. That sounds kind of neat.
Yeah. That sounds like rhythm and Burbs. Burbs. Tetsumo Party comes to PS4.
It's Tetsumo Party time. Help sumo warriors win in a hilarious competition. Control their arms and legs to fit the incoming bamboo wall or drop out in the most ridiculous way. Riddle me this.
What do sumo walls and dancing have in common? The answer is all these elements form. Tetsumo Party. It sounds like that game Hole in the wall.
Remember that game show? Yeah. Here Comes the Hole. Oh man.
What the hell was it? Oh my God. It was like Whiplash or something. Yeah.
Weird. Wipeout. Wipeout. There it is.
Wipeout. Yeah. Here Comes the Hole. Beep.
Beep. It's like baked in my head. I would love a game show like that where they came at like 80 miles an hour. That would be so good, dude.
God bless Japan with their great game shows. Wargroove comes to PS4. Take to the battlefield with Wargroove, a strategy game for up to four players. Choose your commander and wage turn-based war on battling factions.
Design and share maps, cutscenes and campaigns with easy-to-use editors and in-depth customization tools. The game's supposed to be excellent. Sounds kind of neat. I'm supposed to, or I'm supposed to, I'm so happy rather to be able to buy it this week because it was supposed to be great on Switch where it came out I think several months ago.
A lot of people are saying it's kind of like Advance Wars which is pretty tickle. I hear a lot of people talk about Advance Wars. I've never played Advance Wars. Advance Wars is fun.
It's a pretty manageable turn-based strategy game that began on Game Boy Advance. Hence the name. It was also on DS. There might have been one on 3DS as well.
But Wargroove looks great. It was like a spiritual successor to that. Very similar to Felsteel, Colin Moriarty's game of the year 2019 so far, which is a spiritual successor to Final Fantasy Tactics. Wolfenstein Cyberpilot comes to PSVR.