Latest / Respec: Video Game Ramblings / Price rises, GTA 6's Netflix deal, and how many Freddos is a high end graphics card worth? | Respec Ramblings

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Price rises, GTA 6's Netflix deal, and how many Freddos is a high end graphics card worth? | Respec Ramblings · Respec: Video Game Ramblings

0:03
There is no Netflix subscription required here
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unless, of course, they do want to give us a
0:07
giant stack of money coming to you over the internet.
0:11
It's time for this week's edition of the Respect
0:13
Ramblings podcast with me, Alex Donaldson, with
0:17
The Return of the King, Tom Orre, with Rebecca
0:20
Jones, and with Mikhail Madnani. How are you
0:24
all doing, guys? Hello. Yeah, I'm good. Yeah,
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pretty good. Yeah, good, good. Sleepy, but good.
0:31
Tom, did you have a nice holiday? Yeah. You can
0:35
read all about it on my newsletter, lowpolymess
0:38
.com. 38 seconds and he gets a plug in. It's
0:42
impressive. That was really good. But you set
0:46
it up. I mean, that is what it's about this week.
0:49
It is true. And I think you've got a little video
0:51
diary thing going up, right? There's a video
0:55
for Patreons called Respec. I am going to make
1:00
a... A little video diary of all the stuff I
1:03
did. And just waiting on some suitable music
1:06
to go along with it. Yes. Yes. Yeah, we'll sort
1:12
that out after this. This is like behind the
1:13
curtain straight away. Yeah, I'm gearing up to
1:16
do a video diary as well because we've got Gamescom
1:18
coming up, which we probably won't talk about
1:21
this week. But nevertheless, speaking of Gamescom,
1:24
Rebecca, you're also coming out. How are you
1:26
doing? Yeah, I'm getting excited, getting nervous
1:30
because I've never been before. It's my first
1:32
Gamescom this year. And I have to, I've got another
1:35
thing on for most of next week. So I'm barely
1:37
home for the rest of August. So I'm just sort
1:39
of trying to, yeah, trying to manage my travel
1:44
nerves. I've bought new suitcases. I hope they
1:46
arrive in time. I need new shoes. I've just,
1:48
you know, my life, I've done nothing for years.
1:51
And now with two weeks to go till I need to do
1:53
everything, I've elected to sort my life out.
1:56
You definitely want good shoes. You should come
2:00
on because I was talking to Tom about we were
2:02
going to do some sort of video before Gamescom
2:04
where I was talking about my tips and beliefs
2:06
and things that I think people should do all
2:10
around Gamescom. You should come on and thereby
2:14
receive the advice live. Yeah, I'm hitting up
2:17
everyone I know for advice. The shoe advice is
2:19
from old pal Ed Thorne from RPS, formerly of
2:23
RPS. He was very helpful to be like, buy good
2:25
shoes. That's the one and only thing I need to
2:26
tell you. And I was like, that is very helpful.
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Thank you. Always absolutely key. It's the key
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trade show thing. I have those on cloud trainers,
2:33
which is supposed to be like really, really,
2:35
really, really good for support. God, that is
2:39
a boring, boring. 30 something plus conversation.
2:45
We can get more boring with it, I promise. We
2:46
can really talk about shoe shopping, which I
2:49
hate to the point where I'm going on Monday and
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I've made my mum come with me. My 66 year old
2:52
mother is going to escort me to buy new shoes
2:55
to make sure I don't get distracted and buy books
2:57
and video games instead. So why not both? Why
3:00
not both? I bought these running shoes when I
3:03
was a phase last summer where I thought I'm going
3:05
to get fit. So I'm going to run. I bought these
3:07
running shoes that were like, this is when I
3:09
had an actual job. And I was like, they're 120
3:13
quid. I thought, I'll buy them. I need to invest
3:15
and not injure myself. Immediately injured my
3:17
knee. And then I can barely run anymore. So I've
3:21
just got these really expensive shoes, but they're
3:23
really nice to walk in. And there you go. Yeah.
3:26
Money well spent. Yeah. It's just, yeah. Don't
3:29
get old because you just can't do anything about
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that. Speaking of expensive things, on his anonymized
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feed this week, I see a copy of Pokemon Emerald,
3:38
which assuming that is a real one, that's actually
3:40
going to be a decent price. How are you doing,
3:43
Mikau? I'm good, I'm good. It is apparently a
3:46
real one. What happened is, I'll probably talk
3:49
about this next week more in depth, but a friend
3:51
of mine sold me his analog pocket for like half
3:54
price. I've been told you need to get official
3:58
cartridges for this. So I just opened one of
4:00
my drawers like in one part of the house, which
4:02
hasn't been cleaned since probably like videogamer
4:05
.com was relevant. And I found like a lot of
4:09
dusty Game Boy Advance consoles, like two of
4:12
them. I found one of the SPs and I had like four
4:15
cartridges. One of them was this and I didn't
4:17
know these things have batteries in them, which
4:19
apparently might be dead now. for the cards yeah
4:23
yeah yeah yeah the pokemon ones so i had a friend
4:26
of mine who like in canada he sells and like
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he does a lot of like used game stuff and he
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verified it for me and he said it's legit and
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he's like i need to buy this off you and i'm
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like yeah i don't care about pokemon like so
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you can take it i'll just test it when i get
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the pocket and yeah and the the other thing i've
4:41
put is the realm reborn security token from the
4:44
collector's edition which i picked up like 10
4:47
years ago which is insane to think that game
4:49
is so old now That's their function. This is
4:53
the first time I actually removed it out of the
4:54
collector's edition box because I was taking
4:56
a photo for the RPG site article, which should
4:59
be up. I don't know. Like, I don't want to get
5:01
off too much of a tangent when this is just the
5:03
introduction, but I've been like mega frustrated
5:05
recently about having to deal with a lot of these
5:08
tech articles where the shit just keeps coming
5:10
in so hot that I have to like wait and then it
5:13
gets a bit late and stuff with, you know, like,
5:15
oh, wait for the day one patch and then you need
5:17
to hot fix this stuff. So it's been like. it's
5:19
like added to the stress basically so yeah i've
5:22
been playing ff14 for that and i just thought
5:25
i'd i found this because i was taking the photo
5:27
i was like it'll be something dumb to show in
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the video feed we have had a game this very week
5:32
where code basically didn't but code did not
5:36
go out to media seemingly because the game was
5:38
coming in super hot and even now all the matchmaking
5:41
and stuff on pc is completely broken so it's
5:44
impossible to get a game i'm talking about um
5:45
marvel um in this instance this stuff happens
5:50
a lot and at the same time then you get games
5:52
that are so ready that they're coming in almost
5:55
two months before release which we won't name
5:57
any games but yes it's um yes weird old uh it's
6:02
weird how and frustrating how that stuff goes
6:05
anyway we've got some interesting topics to talk
6:08
about this week so i guess let's just jump right
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on into it first of all I alluded to it in the
6:16
opening. But we now know that people will be
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able to get an extended look at Grand Theft Auto
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6 on the 27th of August. The really interesting
6:27
thing about this is it will be Netflix exclusive
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for six hours. And then after six hours, it will
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then pop up on Rockstar's official YouTube channel
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and Rockstar's website and stuff like that. If
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you want to mark your diaries, that is August
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27th. That's 12... 12 p .m. Pacific time, 3 o
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'clock Eastern, 8 o 'clock here in the UK. And
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for those of us who are at Gamescom, because
6:51
it is in the middle of Gamescom, that'll be 7
6:53
o 'clock in the evening in Germany. That's a
6:57
Thursday, is it? It's a Thursday. That is the
6:59
Thursday. So it's the second day of Gamescom.
7:01
So opening night live will be the Tuesday. Then
7:04
you've got the Wednesday at the show, the Thursday
7:05
at the show. But I did, I was speaking to someone
7:07
from a big publisher who's got quite a lot of
7:10
stuff at Gamescom this year. They've got games,
7:12
they've got a game in opening night live. They've
7:14
got several big games of theirs available for
7:18
media at the show. And they were saying, for
7:22
fuck's sake, like half of that, like any coverage
7:27
will be blown out of the water by 500 page analysis
7:31
of what GTA trailer. content mean and stuff like
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that um but yeah i mean pretty interesting that
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it is on on netflix first so i have some thoughts
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on that because no go ahead tom i just think
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like people i don't know the reaction to this
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has been i don't know what you'd expect from
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anything to do with this game but um it feels
7:56
like if there's like it may it just netflix is
8:00
a big thing for a lot of people that maybe are
8:03
just like into things that are popular right
8:07
it's not it's not particularly like uh surprising
8:11
that this massive game that is trying to sell
8:13
to every possible human is on netflix and also
8:17
if you don't want to watch on netflix just wait
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six hours i mean christ like it's not a massive
8:23
deal is it that is like that if it was only ever
8:26
coming to netflix i mean obviously it would leak
8:28
everywhere anyway yeah um It's like, I don't
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know, just wait six hours. If it bothers you
8:34
that much that you need to have Netflix, just
8:37
watch it later. Just don't bother watching the
8:39
day after for breakfast. I'm very curious how
8:42
this is going to go because clearly Netflix,
8:44
to me at least, it seems pretty obvious that
8:47
Netflix will have paid for this. And I think
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it's a great use of money on their part. It's
8:52
a great exclusive. And they're all about trying
8:53
to get these exclusive events, whether that's
8:55
UFC fights, whether that's, you know, over the
8:58
World Cup, they had Gary Lineker's football podcast.
9:00
They had the video version of that podcast on
9:03
Netflix at a higher production value. So it makes
9:07
sense for them. But I'm curious how it's going
9:10
to go. They've been doing this for a while with
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Rockstar stuff. Like when GTA trilogy, the remakes
9:16
released on mobile, they were exclusive to Netflix
9:18
or you could buy them separately. Then Red Dead
9:21
Redemption came to iOS and Android also exclusively
9:24
on Netflix for a bit. So they've been paying
9:27
for Rockstar stuff for a while. So I think it's
9:29
just been building up to something like this
9:31
and potentially maybe even. I don't know like,
9:34
I don't know if GTA 6 is going to be on GeForce
9:37
now when it comes to PC, but I think for sure
9:39
they'll have some streaming nonsense where you
9:41
can play it if you have a Netflix sub like a
9:43
year later. Because, yeah, they've been paying
9:46
Rockstar for a while for getting these games
9:49
on there. So I kind of, if it was day one on
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PC, I feel like they would have even like funded
9:54
a... obviously they couldn't cover how much they'd
9:57
earn from like you know a paid game but they're
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pretty sure they'll they'll push for something
10:01
where you can play the thing via netflix somehow
10:03
because they have this uh i don't know if you
10:05
know this they have this app which is called
10:07
a netflix game controller which gives you a virtual
10:09
controller which you can access if you have like
10:11
a smart tv or something and you can play some
10:14
of the netflix games on that so i'm pretty sure
10:16
i'm pretty sure they've been pushing for something
10:19
like this for a while it's just that uh I don't
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think anyone expected it to happen for this because
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like, but then like also like to what Tom said,
10:28
like, do you really need to see this six hours
10:30
before? I'm in this weird space where I'm going
10:32
to buy the game for sure. Like I've played GTA
10:34
5 11 times or something. Do I really need to
10:37
watch the trailers? I'll just play it directly.
10:39
Like I did that for Big Walk. I didn't watch
10:41
shit except for the first trailer and then I've
10:43
been playing it with a friend. It's been fantastic.
10:45
Like if you're buying it, do you really need
10:47
to watch it? I don't know, because I think this
10:50
was the next question, was what's it going to
10:52
be? I will say, by the way, just to pick up on
10:54
that tangent very briefly, some of the Netflix
10:56
game stuff is really good. And some of the playing
10:58
real games through there, like Netflix is a perfectly
11:03
viable way to play Civilization, for instance,
11:06
which is really interesting. And to your point
11:10
about streaming, GeForce Now doesn't have any
11:13
current GTA games, for one. And for Netflix...
11:17
If they're going to do a streaming version of
11:19
GTA 6 at any point, they will need serious compute
11:22
on a scale that they don't currently have. The
11:24
streaming stuff isn't amazing. I play it quite
11:28
a lot, the stuff on the TV. So they've got like
11:30
a section of games that stream, right? So you've
11:32
got mini golf, Pictionary, Boggle, like party
11:36
game type stuff. And they work well for that
11:39
scenario. where you're like like the golf game
11:41
literally the controller on your phone just does
11:44
the strength of the shot right and the rest of
11:46
it's just streamed to the tv and it works fine
11:49
but it's super basic a picture you're obviously
11:51
drawing pictures on your phone and that gets
11:53
sent to the tv and stuff but yeah if they're
11:55
going to do anything beyond very sort of lag
11:58
friendly uh games they're gonna have to do a
12:01
lot of work but yeah i think like netflix just
12:05
feels like I think more than the people like
12:09
us who are going to watch this anywhere, it makes
12:12
sense for them to go, right, millions of people
12:14
are going to be on that platform and they're
12:17
going to see it. And maybe these aren't the people
12:19
that aren't. They're not counting down the days
12:23
until this releases. They're just seeing this
12:24
potentially for the first time, even some people.
12:26
I know that's hard to believe that people maybe
12:28
aren't aware of a video game, but some people
12:31
aren't. When it's GTA 6, though. I know, but
12:34
I still think some people will be like, oh. GTA
12:36
6 and it'll be like I haven't really seen much
12:38
about this yet but no one has there aren't many
12:40
things that eclipse the number of copies that
12:43
GTA 5 has sold but one thing that does eclipse
12:46
it by about 50 million people is the number of
12:50
Netflix subscribers and the idea that that is
12:53
going to be on that front page the first thing
12:55
you see like when like they would put a new season
12:58
of I'm so out of it. We have a Netflix distribution,
13:02
but I don't watch it. So I'm like, I'm trying
13:03
to wrap my brain. The only Netflix show that's
13:05
coming up is Umbrella Academy, which finished
13:07
two years ago. But like the way something like
13:09
that would be front and center. Stranger Things.
13:13
That's a slightly more recent pull. Yes. Yeah.
13:16
And slightly more popular as well. But yeah,
13:20
the way that if you're going to put that in front
13:23
of all those people and also for Netflix, there
13:25
probably are going to be people who. sign up
13:28
for netflix um in order to watch this which is
13:31
crazy but true but also the thing that i'm most
13:34
interested in is are we going to get like an
13:36
insane wave of twitch and youtube bands and stuff
13:38
like that because the the tradition in gaming
13:41
is that something like this would be co -streamed
13:44
by streamers big and small you know um by probably
13:48
brands like back in the days when websites like
13:51
eurogamer did have a youtube account they would
13:53
possibly co -stream an event like this um You
13:57
can't do any of that with this, but a load of
13:59
people are going to chance their arm and capture
14:00
it and try and be the first to cut together their
14:02
hot take. Are they going to copyright strike
14:05
those people if videos go live in the six hours
14:07
between? I think they might. I assume they'll
14:10
send out some advice for that because people
14:13
will do it without thinking. And this is a bit
14:15
different to just, I don't know, like what you
14:18
say, like co -streaming the Game Awards, whatever.
14:22
But still, like, I think. If you treat it, I
14:26
think you maybe have to treat it like a TV show,
14:29
right, which you couldn't get away with just,
14:30
I think, streaming and going up. Like, it's just
14:33
a video game. It doesn't make any difference.
14:34
It's still Netflix at this point. I think there'll
14:37
be loads of people just doing reactions, right?
14:39
You'll get, like, watch -alongs where people
14:41
will be talking, but they won't, hopefully, unless
14:44
they want to get banned, showing the game as
14:46
well. But maybe there'll be, I assume, Rockstar
14:48
will release some kind of, like, if you're a
14:51
streamer, be careful because this is a... Wait
14:54
for the six hour one. The one that's six hours
14:56
later. How long do we think it's going to be?
14:59
I have to assume it's going to be at least half.
15:00
It's going to be about half an hour. Yeah. I'm
15:03
interested to know if they actually show the
15:05
game being played. Rather because, I mean, I
15:10
guess it would be like, it's been so long, but
15:12
like was Red Dead 2 the last big game they put
15:16
out? Yeah. And that had some really good like
15:20
explainer type video stuff. like it was like
15:23
one of those games where they thought is games
15:25
media needed anymore because they're doing all
15:27
this stuff themselves i expect to be similar
15:29
to that i wouldn't be surprised if they get some
15:31
like celebrities on it or something to be like
15:35
oh i'm a cool celebrity i don't think of any
15:37
i'm not current enough i hadn't thought of that
15:39
it could be like a big event type thing i mean
15:43
maybe they get some netflix people who maybe
15:46
netflix pays them like if they've obviously paid
15:49
them to get this maybe they'd be like we have
15:51
this show coming up like we might see like a
15:53
stranger things billboard and gta6 like who knows
15:56
at this point i know they won't do that they
15:58
will not do that but i i never even considered
16:01
that it could be real people i always just my
16:04
assumption was just it's going to be a voiceover
16:06
over a bunch of gameplay footage um Because Rockstar
16:10
doesn't surface people. They don't surface, you
16:13
know, you don't have footage of artists working
16:15
in the studio, especially not now with all the
16:17
stuff that's going on with the union and the
16:20
firings and stuff. My assumption was that it
16:23
could be a voiceover. Here's much gameplay. They
16:26
have a history, though, of working with stand
16:28
-up comedians, don't they? Both Rockstar and
16:30
Netflix have got quite a lot of history there.
16:32
So maybe that's a point of crossover that they'll
16:35
be looking to take advantage of somehow. I totally
16:40
reckon that it's going to just be gameplay. And
16:44
I reckon it's going to be things like, you know,
16:46
yeah, it's going to be things like what are the
16:49
actual systems? What are the mechanics? Are they
16:50
bringing back some of the stuff that we had in
16:52
games like San Andreas that haven't been in the
16:54
last two? The last thing I could think of that
16:58
was similar to this, and we're going back a long
16:59
way. and this is why I'm thinking maybe it might
17:03
not be what we fully expect is that when the
17:05
Xbox 360 got announced on MTV right and it was
17:09
like everyone was waiting for this thing everyone
17:11
was waiting for it to happen and it was light
17:15
on gameplay right it was more of like a like
17:20
showcase like get people excited and stuff and
17:23
this is different because this is a game and
17:24
it's not quite the same thing as launching a
17:26
new console or whatever but I think there's the
17:29
possibility that they might go you're like this
17:32
is such a big deal we've got freaking like i
17:35
don't know who the the biggest person attached
17:37
to netflix is but on it somehow but yeah it could
17:41
just be gameplay it might just be a mother they
17:42
just explainer type video stuff but i suppose
17:46
you could you could introduce the cast as well
17:48
right so then you've got some vox poppy interviews
17:50
with the with the stars um but then again they
17:54
were always like you know um there's some great
17:56
interviews with the guys who played um uh michael
18:02
trevor and franklin about this about how like
18:05
for the longest time roxar was like we don't
18:08
want you to fucking talk to anyone and we don't
18:10
want your face to appear anywhere so um but maybe
18:14
they've mellowed on that and there probably will
18:16
be some celebrity casters like rebecca mentioned
18:17
about comedians right like ricky gervais was
18:19
in four um Was Frankie Boyle in one or am I completely
18:23
misremembering? He seems like the sort of person
18:29
that would be in a GTA game. Yes, he was added
18:34
to the same stand -up comedy club in GTA 4 that
18:39
Gervais appears in in one of the DLCs. Okay.
18:43
I wonder who wrote all that material because
18:45
he doesn't write his own. But yeah, it's... i'm
18:51
expecting do you remember that gta 5 10 minute
18:55
trailer where it was just like a you know a gravelly
18:58
voiceover explaining how things like the character
19:01
switching worked and the heists and all that
19:04
sort of stuff and then at the very end there
19:06
was a tease of online i'm sort of expecting something
19:09
a bit like that but longer but um i think the
19:12
problem the problem with that is like Obviously,
19:15
the new trailers have had like billions of views
19:17
and stuff. But remember that trailer they did
19:19
for GTA 5, which was Franklin, Michael, Trevor.
19:21
They had these three trailers go up like one
19:23
by one. I feel like we haven't had that kind
19:25
of moment for this game yet. Because like you
19:28
said, they always do this long trailer, which
19:30
is like 10 minutes where they have like voiceovers
19:32
saying, in Grand Theft Auto 5, you're gonna whatever,
19:35
like, you know, that kind of thing. They probably
19:37
do that. But we still haven't had like a proper
19:39
cast trailer for like the two protagonists. or
19:43
whatever in this one. So I think that's also
19:45
something. I mean, we're like, what, five months
19:47
away and we've still not even seen the UI of
19:49
the game. Like, that's insane. We haven't seen
19:52
a single second of gameplay. That's the reality.
19:55
That's the thing. I'm kind of asking myself,
19:57
it's Rockstar. Do they actually need to? How
20:00
little can they get away with? Yeah, exactly.
20:02
Because not only do they need to, but it's almost
20:05
their studio brand at this point to be kind of
20:09
a troll about it. And part of me is wondering,
20:12
see, because I had this world prediction when
20:15
I heard about the Netflix thing. And I was like,
20:17
it's out there, but bear with me. So a six hour
20:21
exclusivity window for GTA 6, six minute long
20:25
advertisement on Netflix. Great. Especially because
20:31
people are so mad because the package on Netflix
20:33
has got people thinking it's going to be a half
20:35
an hour. Yeah. No, I could almost say I'm...
20:40
50 % serious about that. I think it could be
20:42
something they do, but I also think it could
20:44
be a legitimate, like, as you say, half hour,
20:46
45 minute special of something. But yeah, I mean,
20:49
they've kept so much under wraps to this point
20:51
and they don't need to. People will buy it if
20:53
they never see anything. before launch day so
20:56
I mean I will for sure like even if they just
20:58
say that the game is gonna like break your console
21:00
I'll be like okay I have two consoles I'll give
21:02
it a shot on one of them I don't I mean I'm gonna
21:04
get GTA like I bought a PS4 for GTA 5 so this
21:07
is I'm gonna play this for sure but yeah I mean
21:10
that's the case for so many people it's still
21:12
I mean you know as someone who a lot of the people
21:15
in my life aren't super into video games my aunts
21:17
ask me about GTA 6 like every Christmas they're
21:20
like do you know any more about when GTA 6 is
21:21
out and I'm like I'll let you know. I'm waiting
21:25
for it to trickle through from... So my wife
21:28
is a school teacher and I'm waiting for her to
21:32
come home and go, oh yeah, GTA is all anyone
21:35
at school is talking about, which hasn't happened
21:37
yet, but I assume it will happen quite soon.
21:40
I hope they're not five -year -olds. Well, this
21:42
is the thing. She does teach younger kids, but
21:44
obviously the school's got the gamut in it. But
21:47
also I fully expect some of those six, seven,
21:49
eight -year -olds are going to be playing GTA.
21:51
I feel like... I was just going to say that,
21:53
like, do you remember how old you were when you
21:55
played your first GTA? I'm very old. So for me,
21:59
it was GTA 1. And I probably would have been
22:02
about 11 or 12. Oscar's a bit older, but my gran
22:06
bought me GTA 1. My gran bought me GTA 1 because
22:11
I asked my mom to buy it and she said no. So
22:14
I just looked it up. GTA 2 came out in 1999.
22:18
So that means I would have played it when I was
22:20
11 -ish. yeah i think i got a little bit later
22:23
so yeah although they were a lot less yeah of
22:27
course like they were a lot less visual the main
22:28
thing i remember being really amused by in gta
22:30
one is like one of the mission givers obviously
22:34
they were like flat 2d drawings where the mouth
22:37
flapped and the guy were there was a lot of swearing
22:41
and i thought that was amazing um the actual
22:43
game bit i never thought was that i don't know
22:46
he never really registered for me um Pretty different,
22:49
wasn't it? Because a lot of it was actually about
22:50
stealing cars. Yeah, the first couple of games,
22:52
certainly. It was actually a car stealing game.
22:55
I remember stealing Molotov cocktails in GTA
22:58
2 was like the biggest thing ever. Like seeing
23:00
the explosion, I was like, wow. And that was
23:02
like a top -down thing. That intro movie to GTA
23:06
2, all -timer. Where it's live action. And it's
23:12
live action and the guy, the clothes the guy
23:14
is wearing are the clothes they're then dressed.
23:16
for the protagonist in GTA 3. All -time great
23:20
opening movie. I mean, they've always had those
23:23
GTA 3 with the, you know, the credits and the
23:25
piano playing was fantastic. Also classic, yeah.
23:29
Here's a question in terms of like seeing kids
23:32
get hyped for GTA 6. How old were you when you
23:35
remember getting hyped before a game launched?
23:37
Because I think that's, you know, kids that age
23:39
don't really have a sense of stuff coming up
23:42
as much. So I do wonder if that's just like...
23:45
Mario 64 was the one that I remember the most.
23:48
It was Ocarina of Time for me. Or maybe, yeah,
23:51
it was Ocarina of Time for me because it was
23:52
just, that game was delayed so much and was in
23:55
the magazine so much. And the thing I'll always
23:57
remember is N64 magazine. It's funny now, you
24:00
realise, being in the business, you realise the
24:04
realities and what... how much stress there was
24:06
probably going around at that time. But I remember
24:08
N64 magazine split their Ocarina of Time review
24:11
across two issues because they said the game
24:14
was too big to finish in one issue, which obviously
24:16
just meant they got it super late before deadline
24:18
and couldn't finish it. But at the time, I remember
24:22
being like, whoa. Yeah. What was yours? Mine
24:27
was Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness. So I would
24:29
have been 12 or 13 at the time. okay I will still
24:35
be the defender of that game but also yeah it
24:37
was it's kind of a rough one to have been your
24:39
first one to be really really hyped about I think
24:42
mine was mine was either Doom 2 or Jazz Jackrabbit
24:46
2, both on DOS back then. And I remember for
24:49
Doom 2, I had to, you couldn't get that over
24:52
here except for the shareware version. So I thought
24:55
shareware Doom was actually the full game. And
24:57
I kept playing that like a thousand times. So
24:59
when I convinced my dad who was traveling to
25:01
get Doom 2, he didn't look at the rating. And
25:03
I think I was like, what, seven or eight or something.
25:05
So he got me Doom 2. And I was like, how is this
25:08
game like 15 times as long as this? Like, what
25:10
have they done? Whatever. So it was that. And
25:13
then after that, it was WWF Attitude. on ps1
25:15
because i played so much warzone and uh i was
25:20
like i can't believe they made a game so much
25:22
bigger so like i think most of my ps1 time was
25:24
literally just wrestling games like wcw mayhem
25:28
nitro ecw and all that shit best thing ever so
25:31
yeah those three probably i am very very very
25:36
uh i find it quite rare that i feel truly excited
25:41
for a video like in the way I was as a kid I
25:44
get excited a lot like I'm excited in a sort
25:47
of grown up way for Final Fantasy 7 Revelation
25:51
for instance but I'm not excited in that way
25:54
I was as a kid I was that way the last time I
25:57
was that way was probably for Street Fighter
25:58
6 and now GTA so I am really excited to see more
26:03
of it I yeah yeah it's so yeah august 27th um
26:09
it's a real bomb in the middle of games come
26:11
like i realized that like i've got plans i'm
26:14
gonna be out on the razz that night so it's gonna
26:18
be you know people cuddled around their phones
26:21
in the middle of the pub yeah i just realized
26:23
we're at the same event that night i think aren't
26:24
we so that should be an interesting um oh yeah
26:27
oh yeah god i forgot about that yeah um christ
26:31
to move that event If that's an actual press
26:33
event, they need to move. Well, it's just like
26:36
a mixer. But yeah, I think there's probably going
26:38
to be a lot of people at Gamescom going like,
26:41
for God's sake. There was one particular publisher
26:47
who sent out an invite for like a drinks mixer.
26:52
And they sent it out right before this was announced.
26:56
And then when this was announced, they were like,
26:57
we're going to do it on Friday instead. Fair
27:01
enough. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, next story. So all
27:08
the hurdles have been cleared, and in fact, it's
27:11
happened now. EA is now a private business again.
27:16
Electronics Arts is now owned by a varied group
27:20
of people, but ultimately, it's the Saudi Arabian
27:23
government. It's the Saudi PIF, which stands
27:27
for the Public Investment Fund, which is a load
27:29
of money that the Saudi state keeps to invest
27:32
in things. And the PIF's got investments all
27:35
over the place in things like, I think they've
27:37
got investment in Formula One. They obviously
27:38
did a golf thing and they've, you know, got other
27:41
stuff in video games as well. But this is by
27:43
far the biggest thing now. EA has been public
27:46
since 1990. This is 36 years of a public company
27:52
now gone private again. It's a $55 billion buyout.
27:59
Just to break it down, the Saudi PIF will own
28:01
93 .4 % of EA. Silver Lake Partners, a US private
28:07
equity firm, will own another 5 .5%. And Affinity
28:11
Partners, which is another investment firm, but
28:14
notably it was formed by Jared Kushner, Donald
28:17
Trump's son -in -law, owns the number 1 .1%.
28:22
And it sounds like Kushner was pretty instrumental
28:25
in getting this over the line in a regulatory
28:27
sense and stuff like that. Probably the most
28:33
striking thing about this, other than EA entering
28:37
into what is essentially government ownership,
28:39
is that... The company has taken on somewhere
28:43
in the region of $18 billion in debt as part
28:47
of the deal. How this all works is way beyond
28:51
my pay grade. But a friend of the show, Jason
28:55
Schreier, was crunching some numbers and he was
28:57
basically suggesting that it's potentially as
28:59
much as $1 .8 billion in interest every year
29:03
that EA is now going to have to be working and
29:05
crunching to be making enough money to pay back.
29:10
um yeah it's a it's it's a big big big deal arguably
29:15
probably a bigger deal than even when xbox bought
29:19
activision blizzard in a way um probably you
29:23
play football games you're into football what's
29:26
your thoughts on because i think that's the thing
29:27
that's driven this deal right it's the biggest
29:31
thing right i mean it's the I mean, people talk
29:34
about all the other stuff. I mean, EA has a lot
29:37
of big stuff, but obviously EAFC, what was FIFA,
29:41
is a huge part of this. And obviously it's, I
29:48
don't know, it's hard. Obviously on the face
29:50
of it, and most people will probably agree that
29:53
it's bad news, right? This is not a deal that
29:56
people are happy about mostly. I mean, I don't
30:00
know what it's like working at EA at the moment.
30:02
like lots of places but it feels like this is
30:04
uh things are going to be uncertain for a while
30:08
when there's that level of debt and they've talked
30:10
about how they're going to sort of make some
30:13
of that back and the rumors of things being sold
30:15
off and everything else with like the games i
30:17
mean i expect from a purely like game point of
30:23
view like is this game could continue being good
30:25
etc it probably will be fine like of all the
30:28
stuff they have they're not going to want to
30:30
mess with that too much i mean how it what happens
30:33
to it longer term i don't know but i mean i don't
30:37
i don't think the big things are going to be
30:38
a massive uh problem for them it's the other
30:41
stuff like like i'm sure rebecca talked about
30:43
what what the future is for the sims and stuff
30:46
and we've obviously got things like mass effect
30:48
which don't exactly align fully with what you
30:51
expect they can be putting out and that's where
30:53
rumors of are they going to sell off various
30:56
different IPs etc and what that looks like who
30:59
buys them how those things survive etc because
31:01
it's fine to say oh someone comes in and buys
31:04
Mass Effect but we can people might want that
31:09
to happen but then who buys it what happens to
31:12
it Mass Effect is not a cheap thing to put together
31:16
and to make successful so who knows for some
31:20
of these things I mean Rebecca I mean Sims what's
31:22
the feeling amongst people So there's like a
31:26
few different angles you can tackle this from
31:28
in terms of the Sims community, because obviously
31:29
a big thing for the Sims community is the LGBT
31:32
representation in the series, which is like very
31:36
long running. It's been there since the beginning.
31:38
It was always a very forward thinking series
31:40
in terms of diversity. People are worried that
31:43
that is just going to be removed. I personally
31:45
think that that is not how this is going to work.
31:47
That's not typically how buyouts, you know, including
31:50
like Saudi Arabian government buyouts have worked
31:52
before. That's generally not so... The thing
31:55
with this as part of it is the kind of soft power
31:57
you get from owning these big gaming franchises.
32:00
And so I strongly believe that the choice there
32:04
is not going to be to make it a very conservative
32:08
and restrictive version of The Sims. I think
32:09
that's a fairly unfounded fear. I do think that
32:12
thinking about where your money is going when
32:14
you buy Sims products now and it's going to,
32:16
you know, very restrictively homophobic government
32:18
is, it's its own separate thing. But I do agree
32:22
that in terms of what's in the game, I don't
32:24
think they're going to pull anything back. I
32:25
think that the developers of The Sims, as far
32:29
as I'm able to tell, and obviously everyone is
32:31
being very quiet right now because I don't blame
32:33
the devs for not wanting to talk about it. It
32:36
seems to be as much business as usual as possible
32:39
with the caveat that there is now obviously a
32:42
greater threat of quite a lot of redundancies,
32:45
quite a lot of teams potentially being cut. And
32:47
The Sims is a weird one because it's very borderline.
32:51
So obviously, it's no secret that the sports
32:53
games are the point, really, of this buyout.
32:56
And The Sims is still a huge earner for EA, but
33:00
it's maybe their fourth or fifth biggest. It's
33:02
their biggest thing that's not sports, I think.
33:04
But there are lots of sports franchises that
33:07
are just doing bigger numbers every year. So
33:09
there's a lot of hope in The Sims community that
33:12
almost... Maxis will be cut loose or sold somewhere
33:15
else. I don't, I can't see it because it's the
33:18
one bit that may, like you, like you say, it's
33:20
the one bit that isn't sports. Yeah. Yeah. Something
33:24
like the Mass Effect, I think, which could, I
33:26
could see Mass Effect being sold off, but. I
33:28
will say they did put out a statement, but not,
33:31
but in January, when this was first all started
33:33
to come out, where they, they didn't name the
33:36
PIF, but when, or the Saudi or the buyout or
33:38
whatever, but they put out a new year statement
33:40
in January that was like. The values of the Sims
33:43
are unchanged. And we have created, we being
33:46
Maxis, have creative control of the Sims, not
33:49
EA. Which is a knotty issue because really, you
33:53
don't really have creative control because you
33:54
answer to EA in the end. It does seem like that
33:59
situation has moved on a little bit since January
34:01
because now things like the marketplace and a
34:04
lot of the directions of how it's monetized have
34:06
certainly been taken more centrally within EA
34:08
since that point. Which is, again, not quite
34:10
the same as... the creative control over the
34:13
contents of the product if that makes sense I
34:15
mean again I think it's like in terms of representation
34:18
I do think it will stay the same because I understand
34:22
the concern but I don't think it's as it's a
34:24
realistic concern as much as where does your
34:27
money go potentially now I think that the game
34:31
will stay broadly the same although with worse
34:34
monetization practices but probably would have
34:36
come under EA no matter who owned EA at this
34:38
point in time I think So, like, completely coincidentally,
34:45
and I genuinely mean this, I've gone back to
34:46
The Sims 2 this week and I'm probably going to
34:48
park there. Just because I was looking at my
34:51
life and I was like, I have so many Sims games
34:53
on the go. Which do I think is the best one?
34:55
I'm at an age where I should just pick one. And
34:57
the fact that I'm not giving any money to the
35:00
PIF is a bit of a bonus, but it's genuinely not
35:02
the main reason. The old ones are classic. I
35:04
went back when they did their Steam releases.
35:06
I went back to one when they did that. One's
35:08
so hard. What I will say is there have already
35:15
been some rumors that EA is gearing up to sell
35:17
off IP. I've heard that both from people that
35:20
I think are reliable and people that I think
35:22
are charlatans who don't actually often know
35:24
anything most of the time. If you've got that
35:28
$18, $1 .8 billion in interest to serve every
35:32
year and that massive thing to pay down, I think
35:35
something you do look at is maybe, yeah, you
35:38
want to carry on with Mass Effect. I don't know.
35:41
I felt ever since Dragon Age came out that I'd
35:44
be shocked if Mass Effect came out under EA.
35:47
But nevertheless, even if you are like, yes,
35:51
we're keeping Mass Effect, I see a world in which...
35:57
EA steps back and goes, right, what do we own
36:00
that we can get rid of that can generate, you
36:03
know... Yeah. Like, I'm just thinking, like,
36:08
you know, maybe Dead Space as an IP, Command
36:12
& Conquer, you know, Need for Speed. Do you sell
36:18
these IPs? And then there's the things that EA
36:20
I can see definitely keeping, so The Sims, Plants
36:23
vs. Zombies. Is Peggle them? Like these sorts
36:27
of things. Peggle, yeah. Peggle. PopCap, wasn't
36:31
it? Yeah. I think they are now. I forget. But
36:36
there's also a lot of stuff that they're just
36:41
not using. Commander Conqueror is the perfect
36:43
example. Like where they're clearly not going
36:48
to do it. And maybe you could get X million,
36:51
you know. for that from someone who actually
36:54
wants to make. And yeah, Mass Effect, Dragon
36:57
Age, obviously on that list. Mirror's Edge. God,
37:03
Mirror's Edge. Crikey. It's been dormant for
37:05
a while. SSX, Medal of Honor. There's Burnout,
37:09
obviously. These are things where potentially
37:15
they could get rid of them and get some money
37:18
back. Yes. I do think that just... The one thing
37:22
that won't happen is that they will dismantle
37:26
any IPs. I just think you wouldn't ruin the appeal
37:31
of something to its core audience after making
37:34
the point of buying it under these circumstances.
37:37
So that's kind of the thing that I always want
37:39
to say to Sims players, particularly. Sims is
37:42
successful. That's the key thing. Yeah, exactly.
37:44
The game is successful, so it will stay the same.
37:46
Trust me, these people are more capitalists than
37:48
they are homophobic. Ease your mind on that front,
37:52
but also, like, do you think about where the
37:54
money's going? It's all I can say, really. Yeah,
37:58
it's, I mean, I think this sort of thing isn't
38:02
necessarily good. The one advantage of it is,
38:05
however. I don't know anyone who thinks it's
38:06
good. The one thing about it is private ownership,
38:10
you do enter a different situation in terms of
38:13
how you're servicing profitability and debt and
38:15
how you're, the yards by which you're measuring
38:17
stuff. I mean, it's the difference between what
38:19
we're doing. And what we did before being owned
38:21
by IGN, there's a world apart of how you're judging
38:25
success. And maybe that scenario makes a world
38:29
in which the pressure comes off a studio like
38:33
Bioware a bit in terms of maybe you don't need
38:35
to try and sell 15 million copies of the next
38:37
Mass Effect. But the flip side is I don't think
38:39
anyone's being fooled. Like you said, a lot of
38:44
it's about soft power. The PIF has made plays
38:46
in this sort of zone before. whether that was
38:49
starting the liv they're in their own golf thing
38:52
whether that is the way they've interfaced with
38:55
the wwe or indeed whether that is you know within
38:59
the video game space they've been very keen on
39:02
esports so you know in that middle east in general
39:05
has been very keen so a lot of these middle eastern
39:07
states you've got stuff like the esports world
39:09
cup you've got investments in in um snk and keep
39:13
them there by king of fighters you've got ownership
39:15
of evo in the fighting game space as well and
39:18
so some of this feels like a play for um you
39:23
know the esports side of they've got fifa they've
39:25
got madden they've got college football nhl pga
39:28
tour um the f1 official games the ufc official
39:32
games obviously all these are licenses that can
39:35
go away but also ea has proved that the license
39:37
can go away and they can make it work as they
39:39
did with the football. So yeah, we will see how
39:43
it goes. I wish all at EA the best of luck because
39:46
usually with, let's be honest, with a buyout
39:51
like this, regardless of who is doing it, they're
39:53
usually followed by some cuts as there's a consolidation
39:56
and a thinking about what is important. So hopefully
40:00
that doesn't happen here. And if it does, people
40:02
come out of it okay. And we will watch it closely.
40:08
Next up, our last piece of major news for this
40:12
week. Price increases for Xbox. I feel like every
40:15
week, I feel really bad because I feel like every
40:17
week we record this podcast, there's something
40:19
bad or rough for Xbox. But I guess that's just
40:23
where Xbox is at the minute. So... Long story
40:28
short, we had the price rise before us. This
40:32
is not a new price rise. This is the one we previously
40:35
discussed. But what happened was, inside baseball,
40:39
the thing that I've heard is that that price
40:41
rise, when it was announced, happened quite quick.
40:44
And the thing that my understanding became, that
40:48
what happened was, Microsoft was planning a price
40:51
rise anyway, but they hadn't ironed out all the
40:53
details. and then Apple announced all their price
40:56
rises, which we even discussed on this podcast,
40:58
where everything was going up, everything from
41:00
AirPods to HomePods to iMacs, whatever. Apple
41:03
announced all their price rises for all their
41:04
entire product range all at once. My understanding
41:08
is someone at Xbox then went, shit, this is our
41:12
chance to do this at the same time, and it all
41:14
sort of gets lumped together. And so they stood
41:18
up an announcement and got it out very quickly.
41:22
And, you know, bless the people who had to do
41:25
that, working that out. But the result of that
41:27
was when they announced those price rises, they
41:30
only announced them for the US manager because
41:32
they didn't have the numbers for the rest of
41:34
the world. So now we have the numbers for the
41:37
rest of the world and for Europe and the UK in
41:40
particular. So just to remind, so in the US,
41:44
the Series S 512 gigabytes went up to 500, was
41:49
400. The 1TB Series S went up to 600 from 450.
41:55
The Series X went up to 750 from 600. That's
41:59
the digital one. And the disc one went up to
42:01
800 from 650. For us in the UK, well, let's do
42:06
Europe first, actually. So Europe now, the Series
42:09
S 512GB is 500 euros, up from 349. The 1TB Series
42:15
S is up to 600 from 400, so 200 euros up. The
42:19
1TB Series X is up to €750 from €550. And the
42:24
disc -based Series X is up to €800 from €600.
42:30
And in the UK, that translates to Series S was
42:33
€300. That was already €50 more expensive than
42:37
launch. It's now €430. The 1TB Series S was €350,
42:44
is now €520. It's just close by. number if you
42:48
can look at that 520 for a series S I mean I
42:52
know there's a cheap option but it's just like
42:54
what it's hard to get your head around how ridiculously
42:58
expensive that now what is it five and a half
43:02
years old is it five yeah four and a half 2020
43:07
six right end of 2020 six years this year yeah
43:10
and it's like 520 it's it's it's yeah And 620,
43:17
100 more for the digital Series X. That was 450.
43:21
So you can also see that gap is narrowing because
43:24
it's gone from free... And Series X disc from
43:31
500 to 670. There's an article that I wrote about
43:36
this on the site where I talk about this isn't
43:38
just about Xbox. This is about a wider problem,
43:41
a wider trend in and around. video games where
43:45
games are becoming a hobby that it's becoming
43:49
a more middle -class hobby because of how expensive
43:51
it's getting um and that is a big problem for
43:54
the industry because that potentially means less
43:55
gamers potentially means less sales for games
43:58
which potentially damages game budgets and stuff
44:01
like that um i highly recommend um matt piscatella
44:05
who's at the um consumer analysis company in
44:08
the u .s sir karner he's got a great blue sky
44:11
account where he talks a lot about stuff he sometimes
44:13
also pops up on chris strings the game business
44:16
show um but he noted quite recently that in the
44:20
last quarter of 2025 53 percent of people who
44:24
bought gaming hardware had a household income
44:26
in excess of a hundred thousand dollars If you
44:29
go back to the start of the generation, that
44:32
was only 40%. So that's jumped by 13 % in a few
44:36
years. And it seems like these price rises are
44:39
only going to go higher. And yeah, I mean, it's
44:43
obviously driven by a lot of things, by being
44:45
driven by some of the price rise stuff was obviously
44:48
driven by tariffs with the US government. So
44:51
it's been driven by all this. like AI nonsense,
44:55
driving component parts up. Something I say in
44:58
the article is something vaguely ridiculous about
45:02
an Xbox executive saying that the component crisis
45:06
scares them, which is something Xbox executive
45:09
Matthew Ball said when Microsoft is one of the
45:12
top three for spenders in AI and thereby are
45:15
driving the bloody rise. It's that guy in a hot
45:18
dog suit saying we're going to try and find the
45:20
person who did this. But yeah, that is, like
45:24
you say, Tom, it's, it's, it's, I was trying
45:28
to work out. It's like 520 quid for a Series
45:32
S. I know that's the most expensive one, but
45:34
it's like the 512 gig isn't really, I think that's
45:38
quite small for modern gaming anyway. So say
45:41
you want a reasonable amount of storage, 520
45:44
quid for something that is considered by most
45:47
people to be not that great. Like I realized
45:50
the Series S and it. had a place and i think
45:53
was it like i think your article talks about
45:55
this a bit about how like as an option for people
45:58
that weren't mega like bothered about fidelity
46:02
or 4k or whatever when it was like i'm sure i've
46:06
seen these for like 230 quid years back right
46:08
they were like a really good cheap option or
46:11
less even um and now it's like who is is a single
46:16
one of those gonna sell is there anyone is anyone
46:19
going to buy a series s 520 quid i'd like to
46:22
know i think the problem now is also that the
46:25
switch 2 is actually getting the same games it's
46:27
not like the switch one where you have to wait
46:29
like years and you got like shit versions the
46:31
switch 2 is getting like resident evil day one
46:33
it's getting eafc it's getting madden and all
46:36
that and it's cheaper and now obviously the switch
46:38
will be cheaper for now i mean yeah that being
46:41
that much cheaper I feel like it's going to be
46:44
cheaper than the Xbox regardless. And also because
46:47
it only has 256 gigs of storage, the games themselves
46:50
are smaller on Switch 2 because they ship with
46:53
like more compression, like lower quality assets.
46:56
But then I feel like if someone just wants a
46:58
cheap entry point, cheap being like variable
47:01
term at this point, I feel like they can just
47:03
get a Switch 2 and play all those games now.
47:05
You don't need to. Like, you know, if you're
47:07
one of the people in Japan who used to buy a
47:09
Switch one and you had to buy a PlayStation to
47:12
play Final Fantasy, Resi, Street Fighter, you
47:14
can just play that on your Switch 2 now and it's
47:17
cheaper. You don't need to buy the other one.
47:19
Never mind. Never mind Switch 2 for a second,
47:21
Miguel. Like, in the UK... That's the same price
47:24
as a digital edition PS5 slip. Oh, okay. Which
47:28
comes with 825 gigabytes of space. So that means,
47:32
yeah, it's 170 gig less, but it's still more
47:35
than the cheaper Series S by some way. And obviously,
47:39
it's actually a full -powered machine. So what
47:43
I will say is that probably won't last that much
47:45
longer because I think the impression that I
47:48
got from some of the talk... both public and
47:52
private, around the price rise announcement when
47:54
it was announced for the US was this rise is
47:57
bigger because we expect the component costs
48:00
to keep going up. And rather than do a small
48:02
rise now and then another small rise in nine
48:04
months, we're hoping we can just do one larger
48:06
rise now. Whereas Sony have only had that first
48:10
bump. And so I fully expect PlayStations to get
48:13
more expensive again. And I think the switch
48:15
to... My guess is Nintendo is holding out to
48:19
get to this holiday and they want to sell as
48:21
many units as they can this holiday. And then
48:25
the price will go up. I can't see the Switch
48:28
staying at 396 quid, I think. I've seen, yeah.
48:33
I mean, the prices in reality are actually quite
48:36
different still to what we're seeing here. You
48:39
can buy a Switch. I've seen them 350 quid. I've
48:42
seen Series X's. A Switch 2 for 350. Yeah, I've
48:46
seen one for 350 quid on some retailers. I've
48:48
seen a Series X still for 450 odd still. So it's
48:52
not that everyone has suddenly switched, but
48:54
some are. So if you want to buy anything, it's
48:57
weird, isn't it? This is the time then we look
49:00
at like five and a half years, probably six years
49:03
this end of the year, where generally you'd have
49:05
had the cheaper revision of hardware. You'd have
49:08
had the people that have been like holding off
49:11
to buy one. And it'd been like... Maybe the Series
49:14
S could have been like 150, 200 quid max, right?
49:17
And it'd have been a good, imagine that going
49:19
into GTA release and you've got this amazing
49:22
option for, I'm kind of surprised. I know Microsoft
49:25
is like, it's a bit of tightening up. Everything's
49:28
about spend and not hemorrhaging money, et cetera.
49:31
But imagine the possibilities of sales or getting
49:35
people into that ecosystem for like, here's something
49:38
that is. 250 quid cheaper than the other option
49:41
to play this game i realized that would have
49:43
taken them they'd have to take a massive hit
49:44
but i do did they is that was that ever considered
49:48
as a let's just go in and just try and make something
49:51
happen because they're to be fair they're the
49:54
console market xbox i know that there was maybe
49:57
talk of sales being up the last quarter or whatever
49:59
but it's dead isn't it xbox you look at these
50:03
numbers for this generation at least it's not
50:05
good like no one's buying i'd i'd love i'd love
50:09
to know like if there is a 520 quid series s
50:13
at a retailer is anyone buying it because who's
50:16
who is who would ever buy that maybe that's the
50:18
point they don't want to sell them because it
50:20
just loses the money so let's just price it out
50:21
but just withdraw it if that's the other thing
50:25
it just looks it's bad there's no stock anywhere
50:27
there's no stock anyway that's the other thing
50:29
is that it is very very difficult to find an
50:31
xbox um and I don't know if it's very, very difficult
50:36
to fare, but there's definitely less Xboxes.
50:37
You would need one to buy their big game of the
50:39
year, so they're going to have to have some stock,
50:41
otherwise no one's going to buy bloody Gears,
50:42
are they? There's no Xbox to buy. Something that
50:46
was said to me, to be fair, so Series X is, no,
50:51
that's refurbished. That's renewed. That's renewed.
50:56
Yes, refurbished. It's still reasonably priced,
50:58
yeah. But what I'm getting at is that I've just
51:01
searched the word Xbox on Amazon UK, I've got
51:05
a refurbished Series X, 430 quid for what is
51:09
essentially a secondhand one. I've got a new
51:11
Series S 512 gig, which is currently 398 pound.
51:16
So that is actually 30 quid less than this new
51:20
RRP. But it's not from Amazon. It's from a random
51:24
retailer. It's got a long ship date. So who knows
51:27
if they've even got it in stock. Then renewed,
51:29
renewed. So basically I can't see. a new Xbox
51:33
that's stocked by Amazon here on Amazon UK. And
51:37
that was something that was in relation to the
51:40
component crisis, which is something that I was
51:41
told was that obviously all the companies are
51:45
having this problem, but in the order of who
51:48
had the most components sort of stockpiled and
51:51
who had the least, when Nintendo had quite a
51:53
bit, Sony had a bit, and Microsoft had next to
51:56
nothing. So that meant... as the component crisis
51:59
because it's not just prices it's hard to get
52:01
stuff as well so if you're struggling to secure
52:04
memory this is what's one of the things that
52:05
valve said in the steam deck a steam machine
52:07
interviews that valve was just like you know
52:11
we are getting the stock and building them as
52:15
quickly as we can but it's not even like they
52:17
know they're able to build x amount a month because
52:19
they don't know how much memory they're going
52:21
to be able to secure month to month um So that's
52:25
the other thing. As much as we talk about these
52:27
price rises, Argos has got them all, to be fair.
52:31
Argos has got Same Day Collection for me on all
52:33
of them, and they do have... It's weird. It's
52:38
a weird mix. So, you know, they've got the new
52:42
price for the series. but the Series S is still
52:47
showing the old prices currently. Man, I should
52:49
have bought one of these when they had these
52:51
like on the US for Black Friday, had them for
52:53
like $200 for a Series S with Game Pass or something.
52:56
I was thinking of getting one just to have Street
52:58
Fighter and Tekken in the other room on the TV.
53:01
Now that's just not happening. I can just put
53:03
my Steam Deck on the TV and like that's a problem
53:05
solved. But yeah, it is unfortunate. Never buying
53:08
that. I need to make sure my Xbox holds up because
53:11
like shit is expensive now. I was thinking about
53:14
this. I was like, you know, I hope nothing breaks
53:17
because everything's so expensive to replace
53:18
now. My son came out the other day and said the
53:22
Xbox is broken. I was like, is it really? Is
53:25
it really? No. It's not broken. It's fine. That's
53:30
just the Xbox that you said happening. It's not
53:32
broken. Yes, it's just return of Xbox. This whole
53:39
thing is a nightmare for anyone who wants to.
53:41
It's unbelievable. my son's kind of trying to
53:45
what wants to be into more like pc gaming and
53:47
stuff and it's just i remember when i was like
53:51
not much older than him like 13 maybe and i used
53:54
to build pcs and stuff and like it was expensive
53:58
for what were kids buying it but it was still
54:02
achievable we had like little part -time jobs
54:04
and stuff and we could make it work so it's lucky
54:06
with me and my brother bought the same stuff
54:09
but um these days it's just impossible like it's
54:12
absolutely like him like the possibility of him
54:15
upgrading what he's got at the moment is so like
54:19
out there as a concept in terms of cost it's
54:23
just not possible and like realistically he's
54:25
got a pc that's probably six seven years at like
54:30
old in terms of hardware he's gonna have to live
54:33
with that for like probably the next what three
54:36
years i don't know when this is like who knows
54:38
like there's talk of like are things gonna ease
54:40
in 2028 i mean why would they like are they going
54:43
unless something actually happens to the the
54:46
stuff behind it all like like the sort of uh
54:49
hoped for ai crash or whatever um it doesn't
54:53
seem likely that there's going to be any change
54:55
and if anything things will just get worse I
54:58
think if Apple had to raise their prices as much
55:00
as they did, that should be like the biggest
55:02
red flag for everyone. Like they are the ones
55:04
who have the margin for a lot of stuff. And even
55:06
they had to like, I think the only thing they
55:08
haven't raised is the iPhone. That's probably
55:10
happening when they announced the new models
55:12
next month. But everything else is up by like
55:15
quite a bit. Like the Apple TV, which is already
55:17
like super outdated. They had to like nearly
55:19
double the price in some countries and stuff.
55:22
So I think that the fact that they had to do
55:24
it is like, yep, it's over until like. It's going
55:27
to be like a shit show for a while. I'm actually
55:29
thinking of getting a second Switch 2 as a backup
55:31
while the prices are still kind of like how they
55:34
are right now. Because like it's super important
55:36
to work. I use that thing like for multiple hours
55:39
a day. And if the price increase happens, the
55:42
dollar is getting stronger. It's just going to
55:43
cost me like 30 % more if anything happens to
55:46
it in like a few months. So like I'm just, that's
55:49
what I'm thinking of right now. Like it's just
55:50
awful. And like buying multiple SD cards a few
55:55
years ago. When I had like one Steam Deck with
55:58
256 GB and everyone called me an idiot. And now
56:01
I have like, now who's laughing now? It's literally
56:03
like, I just keep thinking about that. It is
56:06
so weird, right? This is the first time in my
56:07
life I've bought hardware as an investment rather
56:10
than like waiting for it to go down to the price
56:13
I'm willing to pay and then being like, okay,
56:15
now. But yeah, I'm doing the same. I'm buying
56:17
things as like, well, it's not going to get any
56:20
cheaper. So I need to look ahead a bit. And buying
56:23
now is now the... the smart choice i've gone
56:27
the other way i've sold stuff and then gone for
56:29
fuck's sake so when we bought so when the switch
56:31
came out there was all the there was all the
56:34
stock concerns and so i pre -ordered from a couple
56:36
of different places and i was going to cancel
56:38
but very the shitty online catalog literally
56:42
wouldn't let me cancel so i ended up with an
56:44
extra switch that i switched to that i didn't
56:46
need on launch day. And so I just, and, and,
56:49
and very wouldn't, I don't know, various returns
56:51
process seemed like a massive nightmare. So I
56:54
just basically sold it to a mate at cost. So
56:56
I just got my money back. Yeah. But now I'm looking
56:58
at it and like, I should have just sat on that
56:59
for a year. Could have sold it for 150 quid profit
57:03
to fucking CX or gas converters. Anyway. Yeah.
57:08
It's, it's, it's, it's, it's pretty, it's pretty
57:14
grim and as i've said before on this podcast
57:16
the best time to upgrade your pc buy a console
57:21
buy that hardware buy a new phone buy that thing
57:24
you've been thinking about the best time to buy
57:26
it was yesterday the second best time is today
57:29
do not wait if you want to do it because it's
57:32
good unless you're willing to wait two or three
57:33
years because yeah it's definitely not going
57:35
to ease up next year and hopefully then and the
57:37
thing is what tom said about people praying for
57:40
an ai crash i'm not praying for an ai crash because
57:43
the damage that's going to do in other places
57:45
is insane immeasurable so yeah you you gotta
57:50
want to watch it all burn in quite a dispassionate
57:53
way to pray for an ai crash which by the way
57:55
i am doing You do, but I worry about the damage.
57:59
I worry about the damage that's going to do elsewhere.
58:02
I think the thing is we're in a situation where
58:04
damage is coming from one direction or another,
58:06
inevitably from this now. I mean, it already
58:08
has. We're talking about it. It already has.
58:12
Freddo's a 30, I saw one, but 37p. Shocking.
58:16
37p. I was looking this morning and when they
58:20
released in the 70s, there were 2p, 2p of Freddo.
58:23
And they were obviously the 10p one is one people
58:25
remember from like, Like, remember when Freddos
58:28
were 10p? I actually do. They also were two grams
58:31
bigger at one point. A Freddo is a small Cadbury's
58:35
chocolate bar. In the shape of a frog. It's kind
58:39
of got the, it looks like a frog. Yeah. So it's
58:42
not really frog shaped as much as it's like sort
58:45
of oval -ish, but it has a frog drawing on it,
58:49
like imprinted. Like it's, I go through a lot
58:51
of Freddos in this house with children. And you
58:55
can still get deals like multi -packs and...
58:57
What I think of is I think of the Freddo at 10p.
59:00
That was the... When I was a child, they were...
59:03
They were... They were... Yeah, when I was a
59:08
child, they were 10p. I think it was 2000...
59:14
I've just... Here we go. It's come up. It was
59:16
at 10p from 1990 to 2005. And then it's increased
59:21
every year since. Yeah. That's Freddo's lament.
59:29
How many Freddos is a GeForce RTX 4080? It's
59:36
the millennial recession indicator, isn't it?
59:38
Yeah, that's the Freddo index, isn't there? Freddo
59:41
index. Can I trade you my Pokemon Emerald for
59:43
some frogs? I wonder how many Freddos is that
59:47
copy of Pokemon Emerald worth? This is when society
59:50
collapses, maybe we will become a Freddo -based
59:52
economy. I've got about 60 bars downstairs at
59:57
the moment. I don't have any Freddo's in this
1:00:01
house. I've got marshmallows. I might have to
1:00:05
go to the corner shop and buy some at lunch now.
1:00:07
Would you buy 60 Freddo's or another Starbucks
1:00:10
iced whatever crap you bought for like seven
1:00:12
bucks? I will not. I'm not talking about this
1:00:15
overpriced syrup drink. Twice in a day though.
1:00:20
That's what got me. Kids can get you to do stuff
1:00:24
you don't want to do. It's true. I can also vouch
1:00:29
for that. Just very briefly, we're getting towards
1:00:32
the end now, but very, very quickly, just to
1:00:34
note, you go to respec .net, the website, there's
1:00:36
some lovely stuff on there this week. There's
1:00:38
a review in progress of Big Walk from Mikhail,
1:00:41
which we haven't really had time to talk about
1:00:44
this week, but maybe you can talk about a bit
1:00:45
on the after hours. Rebecca wrote a thing, it's
1:00:49
just last week, but about Honkai Nexus Anima.
1:00:52
the Pokemon -style thing from Mihoyo. There's
1:00:57
also a think piece from Tom about PlayStation,
1:01:01
who are simultaneously in first place and sort
1:01:04
of suck shit at the minute. That's my words,
1:01:07
not Tom's. His are much more nuanced. There's
1:01:09
a review of Beasts of Reincarnation from Kirk.
1:01:11
That's the new Souls -y game from the same people
1:01:15
who make Pokemon. And there's a piece from me
1:01:18
about the Xbox. stuff we've just discussed that
1:01:22
is very similar to what we just said but a little
1:01:24
bit more articulated and there is the latest
1:01:27
part of Tom's Elden Ring piece which is sees
1:01:31
him fighting a dog cat thing which I haven't
1:01:36
yet watched it but I think I know what boss you're
1:01:38
talking about but I need to watch it today probably
1:01:41
one of the easiest bosses of the game but every
1:01:43
boss in this causes me trouble so lastly just
1:01:48
want to do some shout outs as we always do in
1:01:50
a retrospective to some of the games that are
1:01:52
celebrating some anniversary birthdays and make
1:01:57
everyone feel a little bit old so on this week
1:02:01
in the past Rhythm Tengoku 20 years ago that's
1:02:04
the first Rhythm Heaven game that began as a
1:02:07
Japan exclusive also Star Fox Command for my
1:02:11
money probably mate Probably maybe my least favorite
1:02:16
Star Fox game, but interesting nevertheless.
1:02:19
Ultimate Ghosts and Goblins. That's three games
1:02:21
that all turned 20 this week, all released on
1:02:24
the handhelds at the time, and it sort of makes
1:02:27
me miss the PSP and the DS. Insanely Twisted
1:02:32
Shadow Planet is 15 years old. Bubble Bubble
1:02:37
is 40 years old. The whole series, as is Rampage,
1:02:41
you know, a series. Big and famous enough that
1:02:44
it had a movie starring Dwayne The Rock Johnson.
1:02:49
I've seen it. Is it good? No. Thank you, Tom.
1:02:56
And probably the biggest one where I've seen
1:03:00
some websites have had individual articles about
1:03:01
this. Metroid, 40 years old. You know, a real
1:03:06
classic. And just a real... Metroid's a visionary
1:03:14
game. The first one. It's pretty hard going.
1:03:17
You know, if you're going to replay it now, play
1:03:19
the Game Boy game. But yeah, Metroid is lovely.
1:03:27
And finally, my last few. Harvest Moon is 30.
1:03:34
Sort of, you know, series that I think gets lost
1:03:39
in the discussion because Animal Crossing exists.
1:03:43
But great game. Dwarf Fortress is 20. No Man's
1:03:47
Sky is 10 years old, which feels insane to me.
1:03:50
When did that happen? Oh my God. I think that
1:03:51
might be an early access date. It's not the weekend,
1:03:54
is it? No, no, no. It wasn't. It was the proper
1:03:57
thing. They didn't do early access. They just
1:03:58
launched on PS4 and Steam. It basically launched.
1:04:01
It basically launched. Everyone thought it was
1:04:02
early access. Yeah. Well, I was hoping that it
1:04:05
was early access and thereby actually the date
1:04:07
I was thinking that was maybe two years later.
1:04:09
But no, it is that long ago. that's scary i mean
1:04:13
what a story yeah the funny thing about no man's
1:04:16
sky is i uh at the time uh sony used to import
1:04:20
i mean they still do they they get the austria
1:04:22
or like uk versions of their games over here
1:04:25
but i'm an idiot with physical stuff so i wanted
1:04:27
the us version because it had the logo on the
1:04:29
spine i don't want like the plain tech stuff
1:04:31
so i had to pay my import store like five quid
1:04:35
extra just so he would get me the us version
1:04:37
and i did all that for this yeah i did all that
1:04:40
for this much for this game which ran like dog
1:04:43
shit and had like nothing at launch but i actually
1:04:46
did play that for like 30 hours and i stuck with
1:04:49
it and i think it's the only non -final fantasy
1:04:52
and gta game i've played and own so many copies
1:04:55
of now it's like one of the all -timers so yeah
1:04:57
they did over deliver over there Yeah, what a
1:05:01
comeback story. One of the greatest comeback
1:05:03
stories in games up there with Final Fantasy
1:05:06
XIV and Cyberpunk, except I think the thing about
1:05:09
No Man's Sky is probably it did launch in a better
1:05:13
state than those games. It wasn't broken. It
1:05:15
was just boring, in my opinion. But they certainly
1:05:18
turned it into something. I think I said Dwarf
1:05:23
Fortress is 20, one of the all -time great mega
1:05:25
nerd games. And last but not least, well, I have
1:05:32
left this for last because it is my personal
1:05:33
favorite and I can't quite believe it. Dead Rising
1:05:36
is 20 years old, which, you know, happy birthday
1:05:41
to Frank West. I bloody love that game. I think
1:05:45
it's, I think, you know, perfect games don't
1:05:49
really exist unless you're talking about Tetris,
1:05:50
but every now and then there's a game that's
1:05:52
so close to expressing perfection. and dead rising
1:05:57
is one of those games it's just there's not a
1:06:00
thing i wouldn't change about it um it is it
1:06:04
is it's it's brilliant and i just remember it
1:06:07
being that was the game right with an xbox 360
1:06:10
where you were like look at look at all the shit
1:06:13
you can do look at the amount of zombies you
1:06:16
look at it now and it's nothing of course but
1:06:17
um you know you can pick up anything in the mall
1:06:21
which by anything i mean about 100 150 different
1:06:24
items um But I just, I love Dead Rising so much.
1:06:29
And I very much hope Capcom is working on one
1:06:33
as we speak. I sort of expect it will be a remaster
1:06:38
of the second one. But I'll take that because
1:06:41
that game is awesome too. But I cannot believe
1:06:43
that was 20 years ago. That's definitely on that
1:06:47
list that we discussed earlier of games that
1:06:49
you were genuinely hyped for pre -release. Yeah.
1:06:53
Dead Rising was one of those where I'd watch
1:06:55
the trailers over and over again and watch all
1:06:57
the gameplay footage and stuff like that. I have
1:07:00
to say, go and check out, there's a YouTube channel.
1:07:03
If you like Dead Rising, I'm going to check his
1:07:06
name because I want to get it right. But there's
1:07:10
a YouTube channel called, yeah, Nippo. So that's
1:07:15
S -T -I -P and then the number character zero,
1:07:19
Stipple. And he's a dead rising YouTuber. That's
1:07:23
all he does. Bless him. But he's got loads of
1:07:26
content. He's tracked down loads of the pre -release
1:07:29
discs and stuff like that. So he's got all the
1:07:32
super early stuff. And he rips it all and restores
1:07:37
all the old content to the game and stuff like
1:07:39
that. And it's all super interesting because
1:07:41
it's a game that had a really interesting...
1:07:43
Changed a lot over the course of its development.
1:07:46
Anyway, that's that. Yeah, it's a good week for
1:07:52
anniversary. Shout out to Bubble Bobble, especially.
1:07:55
There's not much to say about it, except it's
1:07:57
good. Right. I think that's going to do us, right?
1:08:02
Until, well, at least, you know, we'll have a
1:08:04
little bit more to discuss in the after hours,
1:08:06
but we've kept people long enough. i dare say
1:08:10
please don't forget you can join us on discord
1:08:12
to hang out and chat if you visit respec .net
1:08:16
that's r -e -s -p -e -c dot n -e -t you can hit
1:08:20
a link in the top banner of the website to get
1:08:22
to our discord you could also hit a link there
1:08:25
to get to patreon or you can go directly to patreon
1:08:27
.com forged last respect net so the same but
1:08:31
without the dot and you can support us there
1:08:33
if you support us there you will get a warm fuzzy
1:08:36
feeling inside knowing that you're keeping independent
1:08:38
media alive but also you'll get some bonus content
1:08:41
um such as the after hours podcast every week
1:08:44
and silly stuff and over the next few weeks you
1:08:46
can definitely look forward to um tom's holiday
1:08:49
log and some travel logs and behind the scenes
1:08:52
from me my son my son repeatedly kept shouting
1:08:55
at me to stop vlogging He said, stop vlogging.
1:08:59
And I was like, I need to vlog because the people
1:09:01
want to see it. I mean, he's not in it. No one
1:09:06
is in any of these videos apart from me. But
1:09:08
yeah, it'll be interesting. There's some zoo
1:09:13
animals in some of the videos. So there are people
1:09:16
in it. Well, animals. Animals. Yeah. I hope you
1:09:20
ask their permission to publish them online.
1:09:23
No. Probably going to get a takedown notice from
1:09:26
the zoo, but we'll deal with that as it comes.
1:09:28
Not from Starbucks. No, I don't think I filmed
1:09:32
in there. Should have done. You would have at
1:09:35
least got some, could have expensed that £7.
1:09:39
Can I change the zoo tickets? That was quite
1:09:42
expensive. Right, that's it from us. Anything
1:09:48
you guys want to plug, talk about? I'll just...
1:09:52
Mention again my podcast, indieadventurepodcast
1:09:55
.co .uk, because I have to say it every time.
1:09:57
It's linked in my bio on the site on Respec.
1:09:59
We had our latest episode out yesterday all about
1:10:02
detective games. So if that sounds cool, go and
1:10:04
give us a listen, please. That's that Ace Attorney
1:10:07
desire continuing to... It wasn't even me leading
1:10:11
it. It was one of my co -hosts, but you better
1:10:12
believe I managed to bring some Ace Attorney
1:10:14
into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, we
1:10:17
need to talk about this. There's that really
1:10:18
cool Ace Attorney I like on Steam, an indie one.
1:10:21
Oh, there's so many. Which one are you thinking
1:10:24
of? I can't remember, but I saw it and I bought
1:10:26
it on site because it looked so much like anyway.
1:10:29
Message me when you remember because I want to
1:10:31
know which one you've got. I will find out which
1:10:32
one it is. Mikhail, anything you want to add?
1:10:36
Yeah, actually, a lot of stuff is like lined
1:10:39
up. So I probably will have a shitload of stuff
1:10:42
on Respec and RPG site next week. In addition,
1:10:45
I have some family visiting. One of them's bringing
1:10:47
some of my controllers and stuff. That's all
1:10:50
I care about when they visit. I need them to
1:10:52
bring me stuff. But yeah, I have a lot of probably
1:10:54
like a lot of handheld stuff going up on both
1:10:57
sites next week. Maybe some interviews also.
1:10:59
Like, I don't know. I have to deal with this
1:11:01
three hour long interview I did and editing that
1:11:03
seems like I'd rather have like a seven quid
1:11:05
Starbucks and kill myself. But yeah, we'll see.
1:11:10
Well, I look forward to all that. So yeah, if
1:11:14
you're a patron, we'll see you in the patron
1:11:15
episode in a minute. from us it's bye for this
1:11:19
week and we will see you next week so thanks
1:11:21
from everyone see ya bye