Joystick & Mouse | Video Games News & Reviews

The XBox Console Is Dead

The demise of the XBox console as we know it. Another studio forms a union and we take issue with a poll.
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Show Notes

Here is the press release from Microsoft - At Xbox, we’re committed to bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone.  Today, we’re announcing a collaboration with Amazon where Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in over 25 countries can play games directly from the Xbox app on select Fire TV devices via cloud gaming, giving people even more choice in how they play their favorite games.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/27/xbox-cloud-gaming-amazon-fire-tv/

We follow up that story with another that heralds the end of the XBox console as we know it. A leak from NVidea shows that users will be able to play games from GeForce Now on XBox consoles. 
https://www.videogamer.com/news/nvidia-geforce-now-app-allegedly-coming-to-xbox-consoles-according-to-leaks/
https://www.videogamer.com/tech/nvidia-geforce-now-games-list-in-2024/

Bethesda Game Studios Montreal has filed to unionise with the Communications Workers of America. The BGS Montreal union announced yesterday in a thread on social media that they filed for certification with the Quebec Labour Board.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/bethesda-montreal-files-for-unionisation

The worst thing to ever hapen to our wallets is the Steam <insert season here> Sale. We've all done it. That game we've had our eye on goes on sale and it's too good of a deal to pass up. Thennnn it just sits there in our library. Staring at us every time we log in. Well we are not alone. According to a report this week users have spent $19 Billion on games that they have never played.
https://www.pcgamesn.com/steam/pile-of-shame

Of course we have a list and man do I have issues with this one. BAFTA released a poll they did of the most iconic characters of all time in video games. let's go through it.
https://www.bafta.org/media-centre/press-releases/bafta-most-iconic-character-poll-results

Ubisoft, Sony and XBox Oh My!

It's that time of year when the game companies put on their dog and pony shows to try an entice us (the consumer) to get enamoured enough with a game to plunk down our hard earned money on it at release. Well there were three of them since the last time we were together so we're going to wade through all of that as well as a quick story and some insight into one of our favorite topics, the state of the video game industry. 
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Show Notes

A real quick mention of an article I ran across this week. EA Execs earned 60 million in compensation as the company laid off over 5% of it's work force this year. But that number doesn't tell the whole story so let's take a look at that.
https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/ea-execs-earned-60-million-in-2024-despite-layoffs-and-office-closures

The Ubisoft Forward 2024 is a wrap and the two big releases coming this year got a lot of air time. Let's discuss what's coming in the worlds of Star Wars and Assasins Creed.
https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-forward-2024-everything-announced
https://www.gamesradar.com/gaming/events-conferences/ubisoft-forward-summer-game-fest-2024-live-coverage-everything-announced/

After months of rumors and speculation fueled by the company's radio silence, Sony's latest State Of Play presentation took place on May 30. 14 games for PlayStation 5 and PSVR 2 were shown throughout the 30+ minute video, which included updates on Concord, Marvel Rivals, and God Of War Ragnarok on PC. Read on for a full recap of all the biggest announcements and games from the event.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/state-of-play-may-2024-all-the-biggest-ps5-announcements-and-games/2900-5435/?utm_source=crm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=category%3Dnewsletter;name%3DGameSpot-Report;id%3D10025581;date%3D060124;lctg%3Db3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1

There were big expectations for Microsoft’s Xbox Games Showcase this year, the first summer event since the Activision Blizzard merger in 2023. The Xbox Games Showcase included a slate of games from Activision, Blizzard, Bethesda, Xbox Game Studios, and third-party developers. It did not disappoint. let's take a look at everything announced.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/06/09/xbox-games-showcase-2024-recap-everything-announced/

Unfrosted

Some news about the health of the video game industry. Sony tries to invigorate their VR offering and we have a couple of good lists to take a look at. Oh and we actually have a game review to go over.
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Show Notes

It's been a rough year for the video game industry. The games industry saw almost same number of layoffs in first five months of 2024 as in all of last year Take two is the latest company to have large cuts. Is the video game industry in a downturn?
https://www.vg247.com/take-two-reportedly-looking-to-sell-or-shutter-private-division
https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/06/03/over-10k-games-industry-layoffs-in-2024-so-far-vs-2023

Sony is trying to breathe some new life into their underperforming VR system. This week they announced a hardware solution to allow PSVR2 users to access their steam library. Will this revive the flailing system or will it just be another unutilized peripheral?
https://blog.playstation.com/2024/06/03/playstation-vr2-players-can-access-games-on-pc-with-adapter-starting-on-august-7/

We've talked recently about the adaptation of video games for television but gamespot came out with a list of the 12 shows that they deemed as awesome. let's take a look at their list and see what we think of it.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/12-video-game-tv-shows-that-were-actually-awesome/2900-5438/

Epic Indies

Apple relents on it's app store stance. The Microsoft/Blizzard merger starts to pay off and we have a list ... and another list. that's right, we have 2 lists for you tonight although they are on the same topic.
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Show Notes

Remember how we talked about Apple would never allow user to download games from an app store that wasn't apple, well under pressure from gamers and regulatory agencies, Apple has agreed to allow downloads from rival Epic's app store.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/apple-reverses-course-clears-way-epic-games-set-rival-iphone-app-store-rcna142741
https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/apple-reverses-course-allows-epic-games-launch-fortnite-app-eu

Gamers reap their first benefit of the Microsoft aquistion of Blizzard. This week Microsoft announced that Diablo IV will be available on Game Pass. This is available on both XBox and PC. You can go grab that now.
https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/04/26/blizzard-announces-its-skipping-blizzcon-this-year
https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/diablo-iv

We hear about the triple A titles all the time but this week Nintendo held it's announcement of upcoming Indie titles. Here's the list and a couple of them that really peaked our interst.
https://www.gameinformer.com/2024/04/17/everything-announced-during-the-april-2024-nintendo-indie-world
https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/News/Indie-World/Indie-World-1440347.html

Not to be outdone, Microsoft held it's Indie show this week. Here's what they announced.
https://kotaku.com/xbox-game-pass-palworld-vampire-surivors-1851444052
https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/29/24144369/id-xbox-indie-showcase-april-2024

Video Game TV

We are having another TV centric episode. We will discuss another huge video game based hit on streaming and we may even have a list based around TV shows. Beside TV we have another tone deaf statement from an ex Blizzard exec that sort of epitomizes how out of touch they were.
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Show Notes

Oh Blizzard, here we go again. In a completely tone deaf message Mike Ybarra, former Blizzard president, said that gamers should tip developers when they like a game.
https://nypost.com/2024/04/15/tech/video-game-exec-slammed-suggested-players-tip-developers-always-put-burden-on-customers/
https://www.thegamer.com/no-we-are-absolutely-not-tipping-video-game-companies-blizzard-president-mike-ybarra/

We have another huge crossover hit as the fallout series on Amazon prime has taken the world by storm. It's just exception done so let's discuss the show.
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/the-fallout-tv-show-gave-the-fallout-games-a-huge-player-bump-as-everyone-remembers-they-like-fallout
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2024-04-12/amazon-s-fallout-show-is-a-fantastic-video-game-adaptation

We had "Last Of Us" and now"Halo" and "Fallout" that have been huge hits. So what video games are out there that we would like to be turned into a TV series. Well The National News has a list so the's go through that and see what we agree with and which ones we aren't so hot about.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2024/04/13/video-games-tv-shows-adaptation/

RIP Akira

Some sad new in the comic world. There's some Playstation news and we have a couple of great lists to take a look at.
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Show Notes

The comic world lost a pioneer and inspiration when akira toriyama passed away this past week. His Dragon Ball comic is revered as one of the best animes ever. His creativeness and vision will be missed.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/08/arts/akira-toriyama-dead.html

 

 

Some PS5 news. The PS5 pro specs were leaked (yes, there is a PS5 pro coming) and the PSVR2 production was halted. 
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-vr-2-headset-production-paused-report/1100-6521906/
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/impressive-sounding-ps5-pro-specs-and-release-window-reportedly-leaked/1100-6521894/

One of the studios that has brought us some of the best games ever produced is Naughty Dog. Well IGN put out a list of all the games they have developed and well you know we couldn't pass up a great list so let's dig in and talk Naughty Dog.
https://www.ign.com/articles/all-naughty-dog-games-in-order

We love video games. We love the story and escape that comes with playing them but sometimes you just want to throw the controller at the damn screen. We all know that feeling. Which begs the question, What is the hardest game you have played? Well yardbarker came up with a list and well you know how that goes around here.
https://www.yardbarker.com/entertainment/articles/the_25_most_challenging_video_games_of_all_time_031524/s1__38319193#slide_5

Nintendo, Don't Be A Dick

Nintendo picks it's battles and the Game industry takes another hit.

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Show Notes

Sony lays off approxamately 85 of its work force. This include the closing of a full studio in London a week after the CEO visited and said all is well. Just another in the blood bath that is the gaming industry this year.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/2/27/24084494/sony-playstation-layoffs-2024
https://fandomwire.com/playstation-ceo-jim-ryan-closes-london-studios/#:~:text=Jim%20Ryan%20shuts%20down%20London,hand%20and%20an%20uncertain%20fate.

Speaking of that gaming industry bloodbath, add almost 700 employees at EA to that total for the year. Along with a few other smaller companies that's over 2000 employees in February alone. So what is this all about and what does it mean for our games going forwards?
https://gameworldobserver.com/2024/03/04/game-industry-layoffs-over-2000-february-compared-to-2023

Just over a week ago, Nintendo sued the developers of the leading Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, for “facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.” Now, it appears that Yuzu will give up without a fight — and give Nintendo everything it wanted. And it affects the Nintendo 3DS emulator Citra, too.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/4/24090357/nintendo-yuzu-emulator-lawsuit-settlement
https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/yuzu-shuts-down-to-better-emulate-video-game-industry/

The Last of Us was definitely one of the biggest and most talked about shows of 2023. Starring Bella Ramsey and Pedro Pascal it was an amazing adaptation of a video game and we now have the cast for season two that details the game sequal.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/noradominick/the-last-of-us-season-2-cast

Pikachu ... WITH GUNS!!!

... Labor strife in the video game industry. We discuss a pokemon wannabe as well as the future of micro transaction and oh yeah, another video game awards show and all the winners.
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Show Notes

We've talked quite a bit about layoffs and force reductions in the video game industry lately but why is that happening? I think we have touched on our theories but this article from polygon looks into the current development industry and why these things are happening.
https://www.polygon.com/gaming/24074767/video-game-industry-layoffs-explainer

Take pokemon. Throw in Arc: Survival, a little rust and a smidgeon of Fallout and you have the latests game from Pocket Paire called Palworld. Some (well a lot) feel it's a rip off of Pokemon? But is it? Let's take a look at what's the same and well what's not.
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/video-games/palworld-game-pokemon-response-rcna135687
https://screenrant.com/pokemon-palworld-survival-game-clone-rip-off-fakemon/

We all thought that micro transactions were the future of video game monitization. We have talked about this also quite a bit. We were wrong. Here's the future and it's bigger than we thought.
https://www.pcgamer.com/if-youre-wondering-why-diablo-4-has-a-horse-for-sale-with-dollar65-of-premium-currency-stuck-to-it-let-me-introduce-you-to-price-anchoring/

And yet another video game awards show. Here's the run down of winners.
https://www.ign.com/articles/dice-awards-2024-winners-the-full-list

Game Review

Palworld - Diddi

Microsoft Blizzard Layoffs

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Show Notes

Embracer Group, the company attempting to forge one video game publisher to rule them all, has just presided over another round of layoffs. Eidos Montreal is letting go of 97 game developers and support staff, the company announced today on X.

https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/29/24054659/embracer-eidos-montreal-layoffs-deus-ex

CES 2024 happened while we were away. The big kids at the gaming table tend to use their own events to announce their own devices. Microsoft isn’t going to announce a new Xbox in Las Vegas. Don’t expect a Nintendo Switch 2, either. That leaves the attention that is at the Consumer Electronics Show for the niche, weird, and decidedly enthusiast hardware. So let's take a look at the best gaming things announced at this years CES.
https://www.inverse.com/tech/best-gaming-hardware-ces-2024

Blizzard has been through some stuff in the last couple of years and the last couple of weeks were no different. Here's what is happening at our favorite company to dish on.
https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/25/24049050/microsoft-activision-blizzard-layoffs
https://www.digitalspy.com/tech/a46558068/blizzard-odyssey-cancelled-microsoft-layoffs/
https://gamerant.com/blizzard-president-johanna-faries-announcement/
Halo looks amazing.
https://www.polygon.com/23984110/halo-tv-show-season-2-releaes-date-free-youtube

2023 Year End

We're talking TV

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Show Notes

It's award season and although the big emmy show is in a couple of weeks, there is a smaller show known as the Creative Arts Emmy Awards which has a lot of the awards such as best visual effects and prosthetics and the such. The last of us was up for several awards on this as well as the golden globes so let's get into who won and how the show did.
https://kotaku.com/golden-globes-the-last-of-us-succession-emmy-awards-1851148385
https://www.emmys.com/news/awards-news/creative-arts-news-240106
https://edit.emmys.com/sites/default/files/press/creative-240106-v1.pdf
There are a lot of video games scheduled to be released in 2024, currently around 125. As much as we love a list that was still a few too many to go over so we needed a way to whittle that down a bit. Well Inverse came up with a list of the top 13 annd that seems like a pretty good number so here we go.
https://www.inverse.com/gaming/2024-video-games

OK, completely off topic here. Being the beginning of the year theres a lot of what's coming this year and this topic is no different. We are going to take a quick look at what gamespot says are the top 9 TV shows coming this year.
https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/most-anticipated-tv-streaming-shows-2024/2900-5018/?ftag=NL&campaignName=GameSpot-Report&date=010624&lctg=b3a7b738bd17d2fa16eb5ab92783891fb0c35bd6f93fb6c92ad5b2d8754d0c30#1