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Timestamps Getting ready to go live 0:00 Intro and Housekeeping 10:55 Lord Cognito joins 1:05:20 Activision executives leaving EoY 1:11:00 Insomniac breach, Sony's strategy and Game prices 1:27:25 Superchat Questions and Closing 3:27:47 Incredible show this week! Merry Christmas everyone🎉

One of the best discussions on the gaming industry I’ve heard this year. Not rushing discussed in depth and not joking just serious discussion. Really enjoyed it.

10:52 Show starts

Absolutely wonderful show. Once of the best so far. I would love you to invite Lord Cognite more often. His contribution is a huge addition to the podcast!

Rands rant about playstation in the middle of this episode was spot on. Really good stuff from rand there.

Gotta say guys ive been listening to you for a while and this is my all time favorite EP so far. Great discussions all around

So you decided to have a podcast before Christmas after all then a well that's great love your podcasts🎉❤❤

I wish I could have heard this live. As Cog would usually say, that was fire.

All of my favourite podcasters in a single podcast?! It's a dream come true =)))

Apple owning Playstation would be horrendous

All the people not covering these leaks will cover future leaks by other companies, and they will ignore any criticism.

I loved how u all loved the topics today

Good episode with great guests

Alan Hartman is the head of Xbox Game Studios after Matt Booty was promoted so in reality, he oversees 5 studio heads / presidents which seems pretty manageable

Great show Rand al Thor Jez lord Cognito Shpeshal Nick merry Christmas to everyone

Nick, Boba Fett accent included, is actually an incredible analyst. Really didn't expect that given he's known for fake rumours.

i dont really veiw the big guys (IGN, Gamespot) as "journalism". they arent necessarily fan boy channels eitehr. its somethign in between

Thanks

Merry Christmas Jez Randal And Xbox gamers worldwide Into 2024 💚🔥🔥🔥🔥💯

2024 will be the first year of Microsoft Gaming, which will be incredibly interesting to see unfold even if there's still a LONG way to go before the aquistions are fully integrated. The insomniac debacle is a complete mess. The real issue is the state of brand loyalty and it's gotten frankly dangerous. We're at a point where governments are on the side of businesses due to lobbying and consumers are fighting each other on behalf of businesses and media platforms/sources are just fear mongering or clout chasing for clicks and there's no one fighting for consumers anymore. Unfortunately the scene isn't wholly unfamiliar in other industries and markets. The hack's effect on individual employees is horrible, but frankly I don't care much that Sony has had secrets spilt. Just like I don't care about Xbox getting secret spilt. They're soulless brands that only want my money and I understand that as a consumer. I also really just wish the industry wasn't so closed off and secretive we needed horrible hacks like this just to know the state of the industry. Like we should know the general idea behind licensed content contracts with such strict terms (like that we won't see an X-men focused game by anyone other than insomniac for at least 10 years and no X-Men game on Xbox for that period at all). With the financial leaks it looks like the truth is the current gaming market of AAA games leading is unsustainable and Game Pass is what'll shake things up. The future is more AA games, ongoing updates on live service games (which you develop once), and 1 or 2 (less not more) AAA games a year. This is also really common to all industries. Markets reach a point where producers are just throwing away money for products that aren't really better. It's why streaming took off at such a low price for such mediocre quality. Netflix originals used to be curated niche experiences. Then that market grew and all we are is we're back to a couple of decades ago and there's a push back against these rising prices for diminishing returns. It happens in every market in a cycle. Around now in gaming is just when there's a major shift in the industry and consumer habits.

we don't know when they are adding more new backwards compatible titles on Xbox One/Series X?

Greg showed who he truly was when he publicly threw his friend under the bus for a harmless joke. Screw that guy and his company

Banjo Bros checking in! ✅

i wonder how this was added to the playlist thats on, guy watching a dinosaur game being played... made me look up the channel

Jez doesn't understand Nicks' point. Not chasing the AAA trend means not going full bore on graphical fidelity. For example: facial expressions, insane detail on desks and buildings etc... Not gameplay or AI. So in the example of Cyberpunk what was missing was gameplay stuff, since they probably took loads of time optimizing their insane levels of detail. I STRONGLY believe a game like Starfield could've benefited from a simplified art style to alleviate ressources to allow them to have no load times and better seamless exploration. FromSoft is great at this. Almost no cinematics, no facial detail, not much in interior clutter detail. All gameplay awesomeness with minimal loading times. Other examples are Overwatch, Fortnite, Valheim, NMS, Zelda, Mario ... the list goes on and on. We don't need games to look like movies and take 7 years to make.

LoL when Rand said Nick was playing Fortnite with with a Chun Li skin... I thought he said Chumlee... like the guy from Pawn Stars hahaha That would be the best Fortnite skin ever!

Crazy that also other devs started to protect Insomniac. But let's pretend they are okay with it and only target specifics.

Darkwing Duck 57:29

I think part of the Sony's "problem" was nobody thought Xbox was losing so bad they'd spend 80 bil just to compete. So that was a brilliant move. Just Business.

Any outlet that didnt do there job and cover the leaks may as well put a sign up saying "hey dont listen to us we are compromised"

AAA beautiful expensively made games can ask for $70. If you aren't making something AAA beautiful with all the same features... THEN CHARGE LESSFOR THE GAME! No one will support a lesser game if they ask the same money. The lesser game studios can compete by not asking for AAA money for a purchase.

The Overwatch 2 protest means nothing when they still bought the game. No one at Activision gives a damn about steam reviews.

Sony intially projected to make $125M in retail revenue from HFW sales this year. They instead put the game in their PS Plus Extra tier and LOST $85M. If that's not proof that these games entering a subscription service isn't monetarily detrimental to the business then idk what is.

PlayStation is gonna be left behind because they refused to evolve early enough What happens 10 years from now if the next CEO of Xbox, the one after Phil, decides to be less friendly and makes COD exclusive or even timed exclusive (6 months only on Xbox/PC)? PlayStation will have no way to combat that because they didn’t evolve early enough and they’ll be in a very dangerous position…

The hackers saw the data and they said shoot sony got no money thats why they ask for 2 million dollars

What a joke Cog saying David has all his predictions right in the past 3 years is just laughable, Nick on the other hand is great pity he works for a sellout company , giving Redfall a review score of 9 out of 10 . Yes I'm looking at you xboxera

Why not just make games like they made ffxiv and WoW, small upfront cost with a monthly subscription? I played ffxi + ffxiv for 20 years.... Jez plays wow for 20 years! £10 per month = £120 per year x 20 years = £2400 - for ONE game! Suddenly gamepass seems like the greatest bargain in gaming history! Love the podcast, keep up the great work guys, stay cool 😎

I want them to find me the transformers games and put it in market place

Even $125 aud is too much for ps5 games.

They should've called it leave this movie 🎬 behind 😒

That liean take was so badi got out bed to writer this. fix this man

The James Cameron slander is hilarious. The dude has made three of the most successful films in history and made one of the most iconic characters in cinema with the Terminator. T2 and Aliens are both all time greats. He's a unicorn in the industry with his resume. Show some respect!

2:04:20 jez most of those you are referring lack integrity.

I buy most all my games on sale no console singleplayer one and done is worth over $30.

OK. What game is this and why don’t I know what it is?

Wtf does man with a million mean????

@Rand floccinaucinihilipilification = the action or habit of estimating something as worthless

This all ends one way. 2026 - Microsoft buys Playstation, Nintendo outsells both combined by double

I'm watching this a day late and avatar Frontiers of Pandora is NOT a shit game. I would bet a weeks pay that Jez didn't even play the game.

Yeah course they are. 🤦‍♂️😂. Blizzard and Xbox need to make a good game to start with . Which I bet there will be another starfield 💩

No way Apple would buy PlayStation. Apple isn’t into build games and spending money like that on developing games. Apple wants little investment but big returns. Apple would buy their IP’s and trash the co any. No way Apple is getting into gaming studios. Google would buy PlayStation before Apple would. Apple is into hardware. And Apple dumps products and new projects almost as much as Google do. If Apple wanted to buy into gaming they would have bought ABK to block Microsoft from competing. Trust me Apple won’t. Apple could have bought Warner bros they didn’t. Apple just wants to put it in their App Store. Apple doesn’t want to do any work. And the6 don’t want to use a ready made product. Apple wants to create things from scratch. Apple looks at that PS5 as possibly the ugliest product ever. Apple does art and function. Apples idea of a co sole is Apple TV. I worked for them. That’s not what they would do. I’m sure of that.

Nick being on the show just makes this show even better

The legend Nick finally some class opinions. An hes avatar is forgettable trash

Jez needs to be put in timeout sometimes

Nick view on the Xbox tax is so off it’s laughable. Everyone tries to give "tax" a different meaning, but tax is slang for bias. Don’t say they have a tax, then try to redefine it as something. You just sounds arrogant

Fantastic analysis regarding Sony position, they're not setup for the next 5 yrs. Its all downhill from here if they dont evolve. CoD is Xbox now, console success isn't enough to sustain them, their strategy is outdated, i think we'll see a gradual decline in their investment as its not worth the ROI.

Xbox's eco-system is better. Starts to list off subjective things.😂

Cog, Sony may be concerned and even fearful of Gamepass but it doesn't detract from the fact that Gamepass business model is not sustainable. Microsoft have deep pockets and that's why Gamepass is still a thing. I'll be surprised if it'll ever be profitable.

Nintendo and the Wii U era and PlayStation in the PS3 era doesn't get the same horse treatment as Xbox gets from the Xbox One to today it's more than just them being on PlayStation that whole life PS3 was terrible but that will never articles or hate against PS3 unjustment same with the Wii U and so 13 million consoles and it still wasn't hate on that console like it is for Xbox the tax is more than just people liking PlayStation Nintendo is about them disliking Xbox

Xbox fanboys still deluded after all these years!! 🤦‍♂️ Xbox are crap 💩 just accept it… n buy a ps5 👌💯 you won’t regret it. I was once an Xbox ass licker too. But by 2012 I’d just had enough, 🤬 so I bought a ps3, because of all the bad ass exclusives also caught my eye, and I’ve not looked back. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got the series x also , and the comparison is so far apart it’s unreal! PlayStation all day long people 🎮👊💯

Sony/PS brainwashing is absolutely the correct word. Subliminal advertising to push sales & ensure loyalty. Wake up people.

Nintendo fanboy slander? We will be there