Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Dev Team Potentially Reuniting

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1:07Hey everybody, welcome to Game Mess Mornings with me, Jeff Grubb, your host from giantbomb.com. Thank you for tuning in in this episode. We're going to be talking about getting the 2024 Game of the Year band back together and Capcom nerfing cousin marriage. It's going to be a good one because we have Janet Choa on the show, Jan, how are you dealing? I don't know what that means, Grubb. Nobody does. All right, cool. Cool. That's an interesting way to hear about the headlines today. Uh-huh. That's how it goes sometimes. They're doing their thing. Hey, good news. They barely changed anything. Well, we'll talk about it, but how you been, Jan? You know, I just feel like fist fighting a whole medical organization due to their ineptitude in handling patients and just dumping them out sides. Well, America's greatest pastime. Exactly. Exactly. I know. That's apple pie baseball taxes, hating the medical infrastructure we have here. Yeah. And let me tell you, I want, I'm trying my hardest, Grubb, not to hate people at the

2:08various levels of this ladder because I understand they're beholden and they're agents in the matrix, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Right. But perhaps when, you know, they know information and they see a 411 older Filipino woman desperately waiting for answers, maybe you fucking inform her and you don't just wait around there looking on your phone. You fucking idiot. Sorry. Yep. Yep. It's boy, any sort of interaction I have with it is like, oh, we've just messed up and we don't know how to clean ourselves up. We've covered ourselves in shit as America and are looking at it and be like, well, can't do anything about this. It's great stuff. I love it. It's fantastic. Alright, Grubb. Yep. It's good stuff. I played some Tomodachi life. Here's the thing. Amy was so excited. She literally could not sleep and I went to go check on her and it was like, I wanted to check it. She's like, so how long till it's out like that doesn't matter. You have to go to sleep and then I checked on her and it was midnight and she was still

3:11up. So I went in there real quick and showed her and she made one more character and immediately she's just like, oh, I get it. Like this is going to be everything. I could tell that it really fits into her way of playing games, which as someone who was like, played games a certain way for a long time, Jan, the way that kids play games where they're just, it's about play. It's not necessarily about accomplishing something in the game or like getting to the end. It's about play. It's like, hey, we are going to come up with characters and tell ourselves stories. Tomodachi life might be the perfect video game. It's crazy how well it fits with their brains. I'm curious if this is going to be for younger gamers like the gimmicks, right? If this is going to wind up being an on ramp to something like the Sims, and I know the Sims isn't quite doing like the, the curated scenes and tablos that Tomodachi life is doing, right? And you kind of have to make more of your own fun.

4:12I wonder if like the gimmicks will wind up wanting more modularity with the worlds that they can create and more specifics than something like Tomodachi life is able to do. That being said, folks, Tomodachi life quick look for living the dream is out now. Grub, Dan and I have a fantastic time visiting KFA Island and learning that apparently grub dogs love lobster rolls. They really, really do God. What a moment. Yeah, go check that out. Everybody. It's on the website right now. Speak into the website. Let's explain ourselves. We're a giant bomb. We're independent games media. We need your support to keep making things happen over here. Go to giantbomb.com slash join become a premium member gets you ad free versions of our shows. Gets you early access to a lot of other stuff and it gets you exclusive access to stuff like nine lives of Mr. Mustafa Lee's. It's going to get you portal pals. It's going to get you new grub's next premium I'm probably going to record today. So make it happen and get that satisfaction of knowing that you're supporting independent

5:13games media as far as this show goes. Most weekdays I Jeff grub will help piece your gaming life back together. That includes breaking news and maybe even some of our own original reporting for all these topics. I'll get the input of a bona fide expert who will make me look smart. If you are watching live on Twitch, welcome. You can always listen to the show later on podcasts feeds by searching for game this morning's or find the RSS feed on giant bomb.com. You can also catch the show later with chapters and timestamps on YouTube. Hello YouTube. All right. We have a lot to get into. So let's start the morning mess with Prince of Persia, the lost crown development team reportedly reunites set to pitch new ideas to Ubisoft. This is from Alex Hopley at Game Reactor. We're getting the band back together. Well, maybe we are as it's believed that the development team behind Prince of Persia, the lost crown, which was previously disbanded to go work on other titles at Ubisoft, like Assassin's Creed, is being allowed to reform at the company.

6:15In a now deleted post on Blue Sky, French journalist Gouthier Gatoz Andres claimed that Ubisoft has brought the development team back together and is letting them pitch new ideas once more. Considering the post is now deleted on Blue Sky, it may be the case that something is missing with Gatoz is reporting. So keep your salt shakers handy for this one. However, this might be a glimmer of hope in Prince of Persia's future after the cancellation of the sands of time remake. It did seem like the franchise was all but dead and buried. However, if the lost crown developers are keen on making some sort of sequel to the game which brought in millions of players, it's possible it will have a strong audience already. That is one of the things that did happen here, Jen, is since they seemingly disbanded this team or did disband this team, it does seem like Prince of Persia, the lost crown specifically has continued to pile on more players as word of mouth like slowly spread and then the price came way down. It's been available for as low as $10.

7:16People can get it now for like 20 to 30 and that includes physically at a lot of places. At that price, it's like the easiest recommendation in the world. And then it does seem like people are taking that up and picking up this game. So maybe the mathematics have changed by it since they disbanded the team and they're like, you know what, we were wrong. We see now how this can build up slowly and maybe we can take that momentum and do something with a sequel. What do you think? I am a little bit hesitant about this news grab. I'm happy that the team may possibly be getting back together because they formed or they developed a fantastic game. It was our game of the year two years ago at this point. It has to be 2024, right? I was I wrote that here, but I'm not sure if that's exactly right. I'm pretty sure he was I think so. But you know, it was it deservedly one our game of the year because I feel like it captured all of our attention. And you know, this whole website is so dang Metroidvania pilled that of course that

8:19game and it also helped that it was a fantastic game. It was fantastic. The part that makes me hesitant grub is that this is still falling underneath the Ubisoft umbrella. And if Ubisoft made that decision to spread out that team potentially cut some of those developers out of the company and let them go, I'm not super confident that Ubisoft is going to follow through and even listen or entertain some of these ideas, especially with how we've seen Ubisoft handle various other projects, specifically Prince of Persia projects. Yeah. And it's, you know, maybe things did change and they're like, okay, yeah, we are we would be more happy with a game where we can make it at a certain budget Terry level. And then we put it out. And over the next couple of years, it gets to one to two million copies sold. And maybe in this moment, they're like, thumbs up. That sounds awesome. But we know how how fickle these companies are. And it feels like three months, Herman, now that will be the kind of thing where you bring

9:19that back into the boardroom and it becomes poison to the people sitting there as they're like, no, it has to be the biggest swings ever. We're back on that bandwagon. It's an insane line of thinking to not realize, oh, if we give something the proper amount of runway and then kind of course correct in terms of price, then we can eventually make up for that. And also just having Prince of Persia, the lost crown has to be a smaller budget title compared to the other things that Ubisoft has been trying to do, right? Right. Yes, all of those ones that ran into like brick walls for whatever reason, whether that's coming out to zero acclaim and zero notice or whether it's like a failing and development. And it's like, yeah, all those projects probably were bigger, more complicated, and then do they really have that much of a higher ceiling? Maybe they do. 2D games, like Prince of Persia, the lost crown, always seem like they're fighting an uphill battle these days. But this one, you know, over time just seems like it won that battle and it's probably

10:22a story they can tell right now internally at Ubisoft to say, look, we have the ones that we know we're going to make. We have our assassins, creeds, our far cries, a handful of other things. We know we're going to keep making those. We do have this massive development team of 10,000 plus people across the world. We should be like diversifying somewhat what else can work. And it's like, OK, so this doesn't have the highest ceiling, but I think you can prove it does work. And so can you just make the math, like set out with a mathematical equation that works from the beginning if we spend this much time with this many people and it does X amount of sales, we will no matter what be happy, the rest of what's happening at Ubisoft be damned. And it's like, yeah, that's like cool. That's maybe the way this whole thing should work. And it feels like a lot of the times it doesn't, right? It doesn't make sense to be great because it feels like at this point, at this juncture with how video game development and funding for it is, it is the same, it feels like the

11:26same cost analysis of them dumping millions and millions of man hours and dollars into a game a live service game that is ultimately going to get canceled or get the rug pulled from underneath it a month, maybe two months after launch versus a single player game or something smaller in scope that will eventually make up for it. And like you said, eventually sell one, two million copies. I think part of the problem also with with Ubisoft is correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the lost crown launched on steam, right? It was on that. I think that might be right. Yeah. That sounds right, Jan. I think it was through whatever Ubisoft launch where they had, so again, they're like shooting themselves in the foot here by not putting it out on the biggest storefront on PCs. Yes. And we've seen that happen a bunch of times now where a game gets hurt by not doing that.

12:27And why would this be any different? In fact, this might be the exact kind of game that would receive the most amount of damage from not being on steam at launch. And I feel like with, you know, other 2D games like God of War war, sons of Sparta, not necessarily sticking and landing with a lot of folks. That is an opportunity to make a renewed push of like, hey, this didn't land for a lot of people, but this game for sure did. And if you missed it, it's on sale. And it's, you know, there's always the possibility that, you know, it says they're going to start pitching Ubisoft new ideas. Maybe it won't be a Prince of Persia, but I just think you should let this team stick to what they're strongest at and you can make more games in this style. I mean, a, I think someone at Chambas said this because I saw 2D Splinter Cell and I didn't like read the rest because it was going by fast and we were having a conversation, Jan. But I think they were must have been getting at a 2D Splinter Cell Metroidvania in the style of shadow complex or something like that. Sure. That would be great as well.

13:28You can really do a lot of fun stuff there with a path traced, ray traced lighting in a 2D environment and have that be like a physical element that you could play around with. And in a 2D game, it's like, oh, you can really control that in a way where performance wouldn't be such a big, a big headache and you get that, that character come to come back and, and then it's another new Metroidvania game, which will just feel awesome. So yeah, they could do something like that and I would welcome it. Mark of the Ninja is a good blueprint to base a two stealth game off of. I saw someone mention it in chat there, but you could apply that not only to Splinter Cell, but they won't stop making Assassin's Creed games. Yeah. A 2D Assassin's Creed game that kind of relies more on the stealth aspect, I think would do well. I think that'd be cool. Yes, absolutely. I mean, an Assassin's Creed game that is just Mark of the Ninja would be exactly what the doctor ordered for something for a 2D game like that. Absolutely. All right. The possibility that this is a diversion news that's got that got put out there to distract

14:29from other Ubisoft news like Ubisoft settles with developers who are laid off at laid off after unionizing. This is from Ethan Gotch at Kotaku. Ubisoft Halifax would have been the French publishers first unionized studio in North America. If it hadn't been immediately shut down after developers there organized months later Halifax workers have finally secured a settlement as Ubisoft moves forward with the cost-cutting measures across the rest of the company. 61 union members voted overwhelmingly for the deal. CWA Canada announced earlier this week the terms of the settlement will remain confidential, but impacted developers said that despite a tough negotiation, Ubisoft respected the union, quote unquote, and acted in good faith, which I'm sure were the contracted terms that they have to say that. It came as a surprise to all of us and to the frontline managers as we were in the middle of many ongoing and new projects and doing great work. Former Ubisoft Halifax employee John Huffman said in a statement, we are extremely grateful to our union for negotiating this package for us.

15:32Ubisoft, you know, kind of putting a period on this, but boy is what I would say to this Jan is, every time we think a company in the video game industry might be union-busting, I bet we're right. We were right in this case, you know, this is a settlement. I bet part of the settlement is no agreement of wrongdoing. So I'll still say alleged to cover ourselves legally, but you settled, you paid up, paid them a bunch of money so that you can make this go away because you would probably have to owe more money if you actually went to court and would cost you more. So yeah, union-busting at Ubisoft very likely, right? Yeah, especially after like hearing the story, Greben, and going through these points here, if it does feel fishy folks at home, it probably is a little bit primarily because the employees let go in whatever settlement probably have to not necessarily a non-despairaging agreement, but make, play nice, I guess, to at least get some type of kickback rather than just straight

16:33up getting let go. It's, I don't know what to do, because like, of course, I want these developers to unionize because I think wrestlers should also unionize while we're at it. But the powers that be up top are just going to keep swinging their hammer and trying to squash any of these organizations under, you know, the guise of budget cuts or whatever else. Yep. You know, we see these companies constantly looking for ways to make their bottom line look better and that has led them back to cost-cutting over and over and over again. The urge to do this isn't going to go away, but Ubisoft does need to like figure their shit out so they can either sell the company to someone who knows what to do with it, or they start putting out games that people are buying. The last we heard from them as they led into this series of layoffs, like one month after another where all these studios were seeing cuts.

17:34Right before that, it was like, oh, a bunch of games are coming very soon and then no actually we're delaying all of our games except for like six that were just canceling outright. We're sort of on the other side of that a little bit now, it seems like where maybe this assassin's creed of four black flag remake or remaster whatever it's going to be is going to come soon. And now there's the word that they're getting the Prince of Persia lost crown team back together. Do you think there's a chance that they are on a path forward or is it just like the dust has settled from their lowest moment and we're just waiting for the next lowest moment because I really don't know where to put my finger on the pulse with Ubisoft at all right now. Ubisoft is such an outlier with all this grub that I don't know which way they're going to move forward. Nothing is particularly changed with management at the tippy top so I don't have much confidence that they're going to stick to their guns because it feels like they've just dropped

18:34them all on the floor and don't know which one to pick up. Yes. Yes. Very much feels that way. And it's like my guess is they are just grasping at something and that's what stuff like this Prince of Persia thing is. And we are going to hear a very different tone in six months as they continue to just as scramble. So when you said you were hesitant out of the gate with that previous story, that's where I settle as well on this where there's just no reason to have faith that this company is going to figure things out in this moment. And who's to say grub that they are just trying to build whatever positive sentiment that they can that they're going to wind up trying to sell the company and thin out the company within those the next six months. Yep. All right. We should move on. Let's get to this next story, which is a continuation from something we talked about on the show yesterday. Starfield Nintendo Switch 2 rating has now appeared as well. This is from Nintendo. Everything. The strongest evidence yet of Starfield coming to Nintendo Switch 2 has come to light following a new rating discovery over in Taiwan.

19:36A new entry has was just added for the game on Nintendo's console. The classification does include any notable information outside of that. And it's unclear when the port would release. Previous rumors did say the Starfield would be coming to Switch 2. And then it was like, Oh, is it actually going to happen? And now this is here alongside Jan. I talked about it on the show yesterday, several other Nintendo Switch 2 ports that have shown up at ratings agencies around the world that is on top of two first party Nintendo Switch games that got rated by the ESRB are re rated in the last couple of weeks. And that was Splatoon Raiders. And I can't remember the other one, but the upcoming game I know I'm trying to place it. I'll look it up here in a second. But point point being a lot of stuff lying in wait for the Switch 2, whether it is many of these third party ports from other consoles and the PC, it's first party games that we know are coming. And then the first party games that have been rumored to be announced, Star Fox, Ocarina of Time. So more evidence of like, at the very least, they do have a roster of games that they could

20:40use to make a Nintendo Direct. One is likely coming soon. I believe Fire Emblem was the other game, Grub. That's it. Thank you. Fantastic. I am not the target audience specifically for Starfield, let alone Starfield on the Switch 2. Switch 2, sure. And we've reported this week about the performance and how many people have been upset with the performance of the Starfield port on the PS5 so much so that Sony is actually offering refunds for the game. Something they don't normally do, yeah. I can't imagine that Starfield on the Switch 2 is going to be the way that anyone should play this game, if you were at all curious, and I can't imagine that any of the news coming out of the Starfield port from the PS5 will instill any confidence at anyone that is still curious about checking it out and was perhaps possibly waiting for a Switch 2 port.

21:44I mean, I think that's certainly the biggest thing about this story specifically, all these other games coming to Switch 2 getting announced. The one thing with Starfield is, yeah, this feels like still it would be an impossible port to even come to the Switch 2 just based on how the game runs on these other consoles. Now, as always, the Switch 2 does have better built-in, baked-in, ray tracing hardware, and there might be some ray trace lighting in Starfield that that would help with. But my understanding was always that the CPU side of things is what was really causing problems with Starfield. It's simulating so many things that's causing problems across the board, including on PC. And Switch 2, while relatively modern CPU, it's not super modern, so isn't that going to struggle? And my guess here would be the safe thing to assume is, yes, this is going to have problems like all these other Bethesda games have had over the last several years, obviously. Bethesda games have problems from decades ago to this day, Grubb.

22:52Some that perhaps mess up a whole recording because they won't, they refuse to be captured properly. Who can say? Who can say? It's nothing's happening on that show anyhow, it's untouchable. Just a bunch of goofballs, 9 Lies of Mr. Mustafa Police for folks at home. If you're not a premium member, I suggest you sign up, go check that show out. If you ever wanted to get harassed by Jeff Grubb and I, that's the show. Oh, yeah. To live by showers. I just don't know what is Bethesda doing, Grubb. They don't want to make a new fallout, or maybe they do want to make a new fallout, but they're not. Older scrolls, whatever number we're up to is never going to come out and then Todd is lost in space. Part of me feels like they jammed away at this port to like, oh, there's renewed interest in space because of the Artemis tube team. Let's launch our game or re-launch our game and it's, unfortunately, had very poor performance

23:58on the PS5. Yeah, you know, I keep waiting to see if Starfield is going to have one of those. It's back moments like a No Man's Sky's had so many times and every opportunity with like that first round of DLC, it's like, no, people seem to hate this more than based Starfield and with this, these ports, it's like, no, people are having a terrible experience with this and that is the takeaway here. If there's positivity underneath the surface there, I'm not hearing about it because it's getting buried by the reaction to the performance. All right, let's do this story. 44% of games industry professionals have considered leaving the industry as a result of redundancies. This is from Sophie McAvoy at GI.Biz. A survey from games recruitment firm SkillSearch has found that overall, 44% of respondents have considered leaving the industry due to redundancies in the UK, 76% said that they will be or are considering job hunting outside of the industry in 2026.

24:58The annual salary and satisfaction survey collected responses from 1000 respondents across the UK, Europe, North America, APAC and MENA regions between November 12th, 2025 and February 2024. 22% of respondents had been made redundant in the past year and 12% said they had been made redundant more than 12 months ago. The leading causes of redundancies were reduced investment in the investor funding, budget cuts and a lack of projects, so just overall less money in the space, which I think we've kind of been feeling over and over and over again. That as led as the headlines says here, Jan, people would be like, hey, why do I keep trying to get a game in this industry? I have skills that could work elsewhere. I could go work in finance or bank banking and we have so many games coming out. It's not a problem. Right now in a couple of years is when this begins to rear its ugly headwork, there are no like senior leaders left in the space and games that we're already mismanaged are

26:01going to be even more mismanaged going forward, right? 100% grub. It's depressing to read this news. I mean, I could already tell because we have acquaintances out there that have had to leave the industry outright just because it's impossible to get another job or it is like such a uphill battle if not straight up vertical climb to even like get your own studio going or to stick around at a AAA place. And I feel like this also applies not just to the development side, the publishing side, but also to the PR side in the media side that we occupy where it we are quickly losing ground to stand on. And we are just nervously looking around like you're okay, you're okay, okay, cool, let's keep weathering it out together. And it's just such a bummer because there is so much talent being lost that could potentially

27:04make whatever runaway success that these AAA publishers are trying to chase. Yeah. And it's as we stay in these spaces as consumers on the other side of it, these companies that felt like, hey, we charted out growth this direction and now our growth is way below that. How do we close that gap? And it's like, I don't know, motherfucker, that's your problem, not mine. And they're like, well, hold my beer, we'll make it your problem. Here is another set of price increases after the last set of price increases, which were a great follow up to the previous price increases. And it's not stopping. I mean, they have every excuse to keep it going. They can just keep saying fuel prices have gone up. It's like, yeah, we know we will be paying the most because that's happening. And you as a company, I get it, you're going to be paying more as well. You're going to pass that on to us. We don't get to pass that on to anybody. So it's going to just keep coming and it's going to keep getting worse and worse. And so we're going to have sort of this resentment to this industry and we will be looking for every way to save a dollar and spend less on games and maybe play more free stuff or

28:08maybe do other things entirely. Get miserable and doomscraw on social media because that's presented as this free thing as opposed to spending $70 on a game that's only 10 hours or whatever. And so people begin to shut down and it's going to spiral a little bit. I don't know, this industry does all right through moments like this, but I do not think we're necessarily at a bottom for the way, like how bad things could get. But I don't know. I'm always pessimistic about these things, Jan. How do you sort of see through this fog? I am kind of with you, grub, because talking about people leaving the industry, that's also not just ideas, but that's also institutional knowledge of folks that know how to use a specific engine or people that know how to wrangle and manage and produce a game or manage a team. And all that is just going out the window because we have to appease whatever shareholders want. And it's just a big bummer that, and I think it's been Microsoft's CEO that has highlighted

29:14short form video as a major competitor. And grub, it's because doomscrolling is free for the most part. And it's like instant dopamine and all this other stuff. And it's just like, yeah, people are in that, it shifted into that gear right now because we're defending ourselves from spending money. We are building this protective shell, this callus against that. And these companies are trying to break through and that also means the people who are still spending money are going to get nickel and dime even more as these companies say, like I think it was the PlayStation CEO that's like, hey, we'll just make more money from the same people. And that means prices go up on everything. And the wild part, grub, is like hearing, I think it was in the story, you just read, but like that there's not enough money to go around when I don't find that to be true because these people at the tippy top still have so much fricking money, grub, like Tim Sweeney with those recently off said epic insane, we bought all those WB studios and David Zasloff's golden handcuffs that are like a billion dollars that he's going to get for

30:17fucking running that company into the ground. It's crazy. It's insane. And I don't know how we on, and I'm just going to want us into the consumer side. I don't know how we are able to hold anyone accountable when they just keep getting away with it. Yeah, and yes, and then they're going to move on to the next thing and get a promotion every single time they just fail upward, over and over again, it's a club and none of us are a part of it. All right, let's go to a break. We have plenty of other headlines to talk about, including fun or topics like that Street Fighter 6 movie trailer that I had a lot of fun with. We're going to go to this break. It is a new trailer for the launch of dosa divas. You can catch this game right now. Be sure to do so. You can get it on steam. You can go ahead and wish list if you're not ready to buy right now, but go check out the trailer for yourself right now. Hey, there. It's Ryan C. Cress for Safeway. You don't want to miss the annual beauty event for big savings on all your favorite beauty products.

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32:18Science says that stimulating the brain increases alertness. So here's a pop quiz. How many months have 28 days? What gets wetter as it dries? What is keys but can't open locks? If you don't want to hear the answers, turn off this Liberty Mutual ad now. 12 months, a towel, piano. Enjoy being fully alert. Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty. We're back with Game Mess Mornings. It's Janicello. I'm Jeff Grubb. We're going to continue on now with the headlines starting with Xbox CCO details unified approach for the next gen hit project helix console. This is from Sophie McAvoy at GIup is Xbox's first party studios will collaborate closely with its hardware team as the company develops its next generation console on the official Xbox podcast CCO map booty outlined the company's unified approach to project helix and emphasized early involvement from publishing and development teams. One of the really cool things about us blah blah blah basically he just says that the

33:20publishing and game development side are going to work with the hardware side. It's it is a pretty old story at this point, right? And he's even says that we've always done that. So really what I'm getting at here with the story Jan is we keep hearing about project helix and we hear how it's different that it's going to be a PC and in the console experience put together, but a PC like underneath everything. And then it's like that sounds very different. And then all of the language that they use beyond that is to set it up very much like this is just another Xbox. And I wonder it's like do you think that that is a thoughtful approach like they're doing that because at the end of the day this is going to feel like another Xbox or are they doing that because that's the playbook they have and they don't really understand how to communicate what this thing is yet. I feel like it's more of the latter that they don't know how to communicate this because they themselves don't quite know what they're making at this point because they don't know.

34:22I feel like they've prompted whatever AI that Microsoft is using too much to that they have so much confusion as to they don't know which masters to serve grub because I am very curious what it looks like on the ground floor for someone that is still waving the Xbox console flag like what does that look like for you what do what do you want from a next gen console right other than Xbox exclusives potentially like what and more bang for your buck what do you want and I the thing is what the console player wants I don't think people at the tippy top at Microsoft are going or interested in delivering on that. I mean I think they're interested in using the interest in it to like keep a strong link between them and they're they're like remaining player base but I think you're right that that is not the real motivating factor for them that is not really what they're after but they're not sure how to like make those things meet up like what's speaking of bringing to like to unifying unifying

35:28two sides of a thing like can we unify at at Xbox this desire to move on to the future of what our ecosystem can be while speaking to an audience that very much wants the ecosystem to continue to be the thing they've already put a lot of a lot of money into and it's like oh yeah okay you're not going to be able to figure that out that is going to be challenging and that is why we keep getting comments like this that just feel like what are you guys what are you trying to say about this project helix again like the the pitch is it is going to be more of a PC than ever before and obviously the last several boxes from them have been x86 PCs after heart with a windows core and all this stuff sure yeah that that you know a kernel in there that is the same as the windows kernel that's not what they're talking about they're talking about the windows operating system being foundational here to the point where you can install steam you can install the epic game store and that will be very different from a console we've had before so how should we think of when we boot the thing up like what what is what am I going to see am I going to see Xbox first

36:31is am I still buying games primarily through Xbox are there Xbox console exclusives that won't work on PC other PCs like it just doesn't seem like that's in the cards but they aren't ready to talk about any of that I don't think no I think also it's just such a weird statement statement that's really a non-statement from that booty of like yes yes okay cool this is how I have assumed things have been done for forever now yes thanks for clarifying it I guess dog the only thing that just popped up in my head grub that may be potentially appealing is if they try and pull the rug from underneath valve and make their own equivalent of like a steam machine that could run the epic game store that could potentially run steam OS or let you like back door install it in in a way however part of me is just concerned that if and when this comes out project helix it's gonna be riddled with various miscalaneous Microsoft products that you don't need like teams

37:33yeah I mean there's a very strong chance that that will be exactly the case yeah they just won't take that stuff out at the very least it's going to be riddled with Microsoft design and that might be enough of a problem because that was a problem with the Xbox Roger ally handheld you know it's not such a problem that that thing is unusable of course but it is less elegant than you would expect from what is supposed to just be a dedicated gaming device and now Xbox Microsoft continue to say they want to get that stuff right they've said that they've said that before and for a long time now we'll see you know going back to the very very early into the show grub where you're talking about how the gimmicks your kids really resonate with something like tomodachi life because it is a method of play right they're they're playing with it I feels like at Microsoft and in other places the vision is so blurry now that they forget that that is what the primary objectives is to get people to play things rather than to just spend money yes I mean they they're a platform

38:40company and they look at everything through the lens of platforms and ecosystems and that becomes their product first and the games become secondary thought I so desperately wish these tech CEOs would have a ratatouille moment where their hearts are cured and they remember oh the love of the game literally the game but I don't think any amount of rats cooking food for them will we'll solve that yeah unfortunately yeah that that's the biggest fantasy of a Dickinson is a billionaire the equivalent of a billionaire learning a lesson that's not gonna happen all right let's keep going here I'll just read it headline writing as a law start everybody street fighter sixes long awaited incess to nerf is here and does basically nothing street I think this is from I have to assume this is from Kotaku I didn't write it down but okay do you think it's from Kenneth is why I think I'm pretty I'm pretty sure it's from Kenneth yes that's that the cat is shepherd at the very

39:43least I know it's that Kotaku had had line writing team and they always crush it street fighter six has been dealing with the problem of its own making for about a month now after a put fan favorite fighter Alex in an incestuous relationship with his second cousin slash adopted sister Patricia much to the day just doubled up the incest much to the dismay of longtime fans Capcom said it would be addressing quote misleading text in Alex's story that might have led to all the discomfort and even released a short story trying to cover its decades old tracks now the long awaited patches out now and it does absolutely nothing the patch notes don't get into the specifics as they merely say that the text of Alex's world story segments have been adjusted but looking at the game itself it seems that the change is to one line of dialogue in which Alex tells the player about growing up with Tom his first cousin once removed and the father of his future bride Patricia in the original version Alex explicitly tells players that Tom is his late mother's cousin

40:44which would make his daughter Patricia Alex's second cousin how could Capcom possibly hope to quote fix this whole thing with years of established back story establishing that Alex and Patricia are blood related blood related it can't and it barely tries yeah okay so this is how you do it this is how you patch cousin marriage in your video game I guess they no I don't it doesn't sound they didn't change it really the foundational elements here all that's still true and the one line they took out here it's not like it changes any of that lore yeah it just drops a reference to something that as the story points out is already established lore so that is from that's predating the game just dropping that mentioned doesn't change anything so yeah I think this is what are the rare Capcom stumbles of this year you know they're they're on a heat heat grub with with re9 pragmata I guess incest comes for us all huh yep and here's the thing I feel like

41:49people will latch onto whatever story is available in fighting games because it's so light on most right like we're all very familiar with what or at least what has happened in the world of mortal combat and because the story is is a part of that game but with street fighter it's kind of less so we're just like oh these two dudes kind of do the same moves and they kind of wear the same things but one wears a headband oh okay cool the guy with like the the American flag tattoo he's friends with that guy but that guy is sad and then now that guy's just like amidst electricity and oh that guy incest that's a special power yeah uh so yeah I'll read this chat if you're freaking out about it um Alex the line change was changed from whatever it was before to now uh Alex refers to Tom as quote a distant relative of my mom or something which is hilarious

42:50not only because it doesn't change or contradict anything from before as it still confirms the familiar familiar relationship between these people but because calling someone and so a cousin a distant relative is incredibly disingenuous yep wait uh he's he's embarrassed and he's trying to cover it up god it's okay it's it's a little too late uh grab you it's one of your uh idioms that I I really enjoy but you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube you can't yes absolutely not yeah I uh I this one is just going to be how people will think of Alex and and at least partially street fighter six for forever this is just gonna be on this game and now on this series it's yeah I even if they try and retconn it and like a couple months to a year it's it's just gonna stick Alex can build a thousand bridges he fucked one cousin he ain't we were not calling him a bridge builder is what I'm saying that's no we're gonna be calling him no no he could probably

43:51do something heinous in the video games he could become the primary antagonist yes he could do a terrorism and we're not we're not he's not that's not a terrorist that's the cousin fucker come on like grub like unfortunately you know some things some things even from school or high school stick with people this is gonna stick with Alex and unfortunately I hate that a byproduct of this grub is that it's kind of lingering around Kenny Omega yeah he's just walking around with that Alex tank on him now he did so much work so much good work on it it's uh so much good work and Kenny is such a like the dude dude dude yeah all right well speaking of of wrestlers and street fighter street fighter exudes a visual identity and charisma and it's a official trailer this is from Alberto Garrito at Game Reactor Jan did you get a chance to check this out this morning I have not grub unfortunately all right I did and I liked what I saw I wrote that it reminds me of like

44:54or it makes me think of what the world would have been like if the original 1990s Super Mario Brothers movie was a massive hit and it like that sort of camp became like the default way to adapt a video game into a movie this looks campy as hell and okay like a lot of fun and straight dog shit like it looks like dog shit but but I don't care because I'm just like I love it it looks so visually weird and interesting and they have harsh bright colorful lighting on so many of the scenes and a way that feels like yeah the game is this cartoon come to life and then made 3D so it's it's like they always stood in this position between photo realistic and completely stylistic and the movie is trying to adapt to that sensibility in a way that I find admirable because it doesn't have some huge endless budget obviously to accomplish that so they pick and choose what they're going for and the answer in a lot of those those situations their idea is what we can do turn it

45:56up to 11 just go all the way off the charts no middle sliders the movie and I'm into it I am scanning through the trailer now and yeah grub you kind of nailed it with with the vibe of this movie it looks stupid but it's not a bad thing right like it's interesting yes and I feel like we have we're in such an interesting place with movie adaptations of video games grub where the I forget the name of the game apologies folks at home is it exit eight exit eight yeah exit eight is like on a is is doing incredibly well critically fans of the game really enjoy it but also we're in a place where you know the sonic movies are some of the biggest grossing movies now and as as changed sonic's trajectory now and yeah Mario doing incredibly well despite the movies kind of be middling and a little too loud for Jeff Bakkerlar but that's okay okay and then we also have like the five nights movies right we're at a second one and they

47:01are probably going to make a third one because those do so well with those the audience of those games I hope this does well I don't think it's going to do critically well but I hope this does well because this is going to remind people of the campiness of like like you said the original Super Mario live action movie and the mortal combat movie because I can't shake that from my head seeing this yeah you know and I get like someone said like camp is good force camp we'll see and it's like yeah look I think some people involved might be forcing the camp I don't think anyone on the cast thinks they're doing anything but the coolest shit anyone's ever done they all look so proud of themselves and that's great that's awesome not judging them other than to say it's not that cool and it looks really dumb and I love that you are just still going for it and acting like your shit don't stink because that just that has such a strong contrast in the sort of a spirit of the movie and it comes through I think for god 50 said is in this movie that's I think that

48:06might be like what really set me over it's like he's just he's just being 50 cent with a really weird headpiece to make him have the bellrog hair or whatever um yeah I it's great they're going to make embison a doofus aren't they yeah it's what's his name I can never remember how to say his name but uh polka dot man polka dot man from suicide squad yeah um also there's a shot of like guile in full costume sitting next to the Andrew Koji who plays are Ryu in a hoodie at a club yep yep and that's uh uh Cody is uh is guile and uh his his hair if they just do the hair and it's the hair from the game I'm like okay yeah this that they're not eat cowards even like that original campy street fighter movie which is also kind of great a really good time so I look we're getting the mario movies they're making a ton of money and I do think that there is something a little bit of the the lost art of the weird adaptation that that movie completely sands

49:11away and find whatever I still have a good time with the mario movies I'm glad we get these as well this I think it's going to be a good time 100 percent all right uh hey these two is out this week on ps5 and xbox the xbox doesn't have enough reviews yet to get a metacritic but the ps5 version being very well received 93 on metacritic for that version right now people can check that out and then uh right as the show was going live see here the neo geo let's I think it's the uh yes the neo geo aes plus was announced um they're gonna release this thing uh November 12th it is kind of a all in one way to play neo geo games but I think you can even use the arcade boards in here is that how that works chat uh I remember seeing this and not having enough time to check things out uh but it's well priced it's only like two hundred and fifty dollars uh for the all-in pack uh I think you can get the one with the arcade stick for even less than that I don't know I'm sorry that is just the arcade stick um yes this is from play on which is

50:14impracer which is kind of weird um but hey I will probably be looking into this thing never really had much experience using anything neo geo like in terms of shoot hardware uh so we'd really like to check this out uh so okay does the old eight home aes cards those are often pretty expensive right so that that that might be a little bit challenging if that's the way to do it but there's um ways around that uh and it is not an FPGA thing interesting I wonder is it just an emulator box if that's the case that's a little bit less exciting um all right well I'll look into this more we'll bring it to tomorrow store tomorrow's stories and really cover exactly what's going on here uh it's Thursday it's not time for the bomb 12 everybody but you do have one more day to get put your game in uh for the bomb 12 so go to johnbomb.com hit the vote here tab plenty of respondents so far let's get as much of a response as we can we'll do that tomorrow so for now let's switch over to the poll question from yesterday I have the results right over here I'm going to refresh

51:15let's see there all right are you excited no I'm sorry are you getting forward to horizon six in may your options were yes no no I'll get it later and no I'll wait for the ps5 release 43% said just straight up no then 27% said yes they're going to get it in may 16% says no I'll wait for the ps5 release and 15% say no I'll get it later um we know this is a massively successful series so I wonder if that's uh you know predictive of oh yeah that's this is also going to shoot out of the gate really strong or if there's a chance people are a little bit tired efforts to horizon maybe not I don't know what's hard to say you know we were talking about um rock star and they're positioning uh I believe is on the bomb cast this week grub um and I completely forgot that midnight club was a rock star Jimmy jam yep people of cars people love driving especially in games it's too expensive to shoot drive now grub uh so people

52:15just looking for that escapism and and forces definitely for to horizon specifically has definitely been delivering on that that I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been more of an effort from the AAA side to make more driving games yeah I um yeah I was just actually like craving this so bad they're like I kind of want to play the crew motorfest which I know Mike really liked I'm like I might go do that although forza six horizon six is out next month so it's not like it's that much of a wait for the one that's gonna take place in Japan which is it a region I really want to play in that game so yeah I will occasionally think about and I would never use it it'd be the stupidest expenditure of my money uh which I probably you know should be more mindful of but um um I occasionally just want to race in wheel grub I know yeah I mean look we can reach out to like launch a tech and see if they have anything new um either that or like one of those uh uh guitar here a rock band control or guitars I uh did kick starter back a um new kind of high-end DDR pad

53:25and I can't wait for that to get here oh that's what I'll be spending my time doing is dancing I gotta dance chat thank you Jan that's what I'm trying that's all I need people to say is I deserve to dance all right uh a new poll question are you excited about the street fighter movie yes no we'll talk about that here on giant bomb on game this morning's tomorrow speaking of giant bomb Jan it's Thursday we're gonna have voicemail dump truck anything else we should tell the people uh for premium members out there the hottest dating show mirror me tomodachi is gonna be popping off a later today this afternoon and folks at home if you're looking for some thing to watch in between the dump truck and tom uh mirror me tomodachi the tomodachi life living the dream quick look as well as the pragmata quick look are now up on the site both very good quick looks uh and also tomorrow grab on top of UPF we're gonna be playing scam lines with our friend Bailey Myers you are going to be doing a launch look of your own with a grub moda that's right I'm uh I'm looking forward

54:25to it uh people uh in chat are saying hey grub did you cancel your dance sub for uh just dance and it's illegal for you to ask me that you're not allowed shut up yes also someone can guide me through the process of canceling your paramount plus subscription please all right let's see we did the new poll question we told people what's happening uh yeah I'm looking forward to doing grub moda I'm uh everyone just seems to love it and I bet it's gonna be my shit at the end of the day so yeah learning about your taste in games grub and what you like and and the stories that do resonate with you I I don't want to gas you up too much I do think you will enjoy pragmata okay yes I'm looking forward to it is what I'll say so yep we'll be starting that Friday evening tomorrow evening everybody so let's uh let's wrap this show up and get on to the rest of the week Jan thank you so much for hanging out with me today and talk about video games man I really appreciate it see only way to start a Thursday grub thank you all for watching and listening you are the best

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