The Tariffs Are Coming, PSN Changes, and the Great $100 Debate | OTC EP 15

Good morning, everybody. It is another

episode of Off the Console,

the hottest podcast about tech

and gaming and anything nerdy.

We're here today with my

friends, James and HiTechLilLife.

How's it going, guys?

Going to and fine. How about you?

Doing all right now that I'm on the show.

This week, we've got

some like crazy news.

DeepSeek, R1 kind of

upset the entire tech industry

and wiped a bunch of

valuation off of Nvidia stock.

We'll talk about that.

We're going to talk about the tariffs.

We're getting political guys.

We're going to talk about it.

And also, there's a ton of Sony news this

week that we're going to cover.

And like a ton like it's

half of our document this week.

I know. So we like to start this show off

with talking about what

everybody's been playing this week.

What have you guys been playing?

James.

Ah, I have been playing the news game.

I've been looking at

Apple News and also Reddit and

trying to stay away from X because it is.

It's a cesspool, but

yeah, no, honestly,

what have I been playing?

There's a reason they call them

excretions when you post something on X.

Dude, that is amazing.

I love that.

I think that makes me want to use it more

now because it's stupid.

I've been watching my wife play Ratchet

and Clank on PS5, actually.

Funny. Oh, nice.

That's a that's a fun

game that I've not beat yet.

I should pick it up on PC.

It's a good one. It's like I forgot how

good that game looks.

Insomnia, insomnia is so good.

And I'm making games.

I know Spider-Man 2 came on PC, too.

Also developed Insomniac.

Yep, they're really like

they're top tier developers.

Would you say better than Naughty Dog?

I'm different. That's a hard one.

Really? In terms of what I like.

Yeah, you don't like Naughty

Dog games that much, though.

So as as for me, I

guess I've been playing

Blotrow still trying

to 100 percent the game.

It's pure insanity.

But I also am playing

Marvel Rivals as as usual.

I also got this new game

called a needy streamer

Overload Typing of the Net. It's OK.

All right. So the bit was so there's

going to be some spoilers,

but I'll tell you what it is.

So it's basically like a typing game.

Like think of like typing of the dead.

But instead of typing like actual words,

you type in like in that slang.

And it's the funniest shit ever.

And there are some really deep cuts.

Like you'd have to be a four channeler to

like know what these are.

Like nice digits is one.

Do they have for who goo gods?

I don't think I've seen that yet, but

there's some not for who goo gods.

There's a lot of like we have.

There's like a lot of we do

references to it. It's crazy.

But then when you beat the game,

there's actually a whole secret second

game that's like not advertised at all

in the game itself.

That's your spoiler warning. Nice. Nice.

But yeah, just me mostly

trying 100 percent Bellatro.

And it's going to take a while.

I bet you if I actually took this

seriously during like last year,

I probably would have

finished by now, but you know.

Oh, so you've been playing it for.

Oh, wait, Bellatro

you're talking about, though.

Yeah, Bellatro. I've been

trying to 100 percent it.

So the requirements for 100 percent

Bellatro is a you have to beat

the game with every deck on the highest

difficulty gold state.

And in order to do that, you

have to beat each individual.

You don't like a lot.

You like a lot of difficulties for the

deck you're playing.

So like you don't just I'm not golden and

you can just play all the mongol.

You have to like go

through every single like level

with every single deck.

And then you have to get a gold sticker

on all the jokers, which means

you have to beat the game with

all of the jokers in inventory

at some point in time.

Oh, that sounds intense.

That sounds like some I don't know.

And then you have to be all the

challenges, but I'm not

going to worry about those

until I gold star gold

sticker, all of them.

Wow. I mean, it sounds

like a fun challenge.

I don't know if I could do it.

I 100 percent at half life.

To an episode.

I don't think I was able to know.

I think I did all the episodes

also half life to an episode.

That's about it.

Yeah.

100 percenting.

I don't have the

patience to 100 percent games.

Like I really the only actually the only

game I did 100 percent was Spelunky.

And that took years for me to do.

Damn. Yeah.

That's Spelunky Spelunky.

Oh, my God. Spelunky one.

But I think it.

Yeah.

Like it was like.

There's a like a whole secret level that

you have to get that.

There's like nearly impossible to get to

unless you have the right like run.

Basically, I think it was like Eldorado.

I believe it was.

Yeah, or something like that.

It's like a city of

gold or some sort of gold.

Dude, I mean, and eggplant run is crazy.

Like everything about

that game is just insane.

So yeah.

Games are.

I don't know if I

actually fully 100 percent of it,

but that's as close as I've ever come.

Like I I did.

I think I've been to every level and I've

killed pretty much every enemy

that you can get in your journal.

OK, are you sure you said it?

No, no, I'm saying I don't think I did

now that I am thinking back on it.

I think you might have to go back to it.

I don't know.

Is that it?

You're not going to

get fact checked here.

You could just say it.

It'll be so.

Half Life's an easy one.

Half Life 2 is a fun one 100 percent

because like their achievements

are just fun to go out and find like

going find the vertigo

that's like in this sewer system that's

roasting headcrabs to eat.

You know, that was one of the

achievements is just fun stuff.

So it was a fun one to do.

There's.

Man, so like.

I heard some other

interest, Gungeon, like a while ago,

and that took a while too, because you

have to get every done

and a lot of them requires.

I don't know. It was a lot.

And then they added more stuff after I

100 percent the first time.

So I had to do it again.

Yeah, man.

I hate when that happens, to be honest.

That when vampire survivors like 100

percent of that game,

and then they just kept making updates

and now I'm probably like

at most 50 percent done.

That's what Astros kind of like.

Astros come out with a couple extra, but

I played it right after.

So technically, there's supposed to be

like 300 bots, but then you can get

like once you had 300, the new levels

unlock and you have like 18 more

you have to get. So because they're like

Christmas specials and stuff.

They are. Can you only get

it during Christmas time?

No, well, I don't think so.

It was just unlocked.

So you become like you

have Santa Claus outfit on.

You're playing a snow level.

It was really honestly like I know I keep

on praising that game.

It's just it brings me back to the good

old days of making really good games.

And it had some complexity to it.

So like it's what gamers want, right?

They don't want unfinished games.

They don't want, you know,

a lot of extra crap at it.

They want free stuff. That's like.

What that game is, there's no DLCs.

They have new content comes out. It's

I play I'm playing it almost

a year after it's released,

but there is no real bugs in it.

So it's really good.

What I've been playing this week,

it's I've been so I was it last Monday?

I posted a video about like emulating the

3DS on your on your steam deck.

And a bunch of people in

the comments were like,

you need to do VR 3DS stuff.

And I was like, is that

even possible? What? And.

So I ended up screwing around with this.

Which looks ridiculous,

because it's too small for my head.

Oh, wow, that's a narrow.

Is that the is that the

venture or the venture? Yeah.

And and it's actually pretty neat.

They sent this to me a long time ago.

And like when it first came out and like

there wasn't like wide support for it.

And it was like making

me feel a little sick.

So they were like, you

don't have to make a video.

It was making you sick.

And so and they didn't ask for it back.

So I never did, but I never sent it back.

But then I had it in my

drawer and I was like, hey,

I could probably do

this with my steam deck.

And there's a frickin decky

loader app or decky loader plugin

that will turn your your steam deck into

like a virtual screen.

And it's pretty neat.

So I've been just doing that and trying

out different games.

And you can't really do VR like that on

here, because it's like.

I don't know how to explain it.

It just it doesn't do

like the depth on each eye.

It with the decky loader app,

but it's pretty neat anyway.

So if you switch into desktop mode,

there's like a I

think it's called Breezy.

There's an application that

will help you do VR stuff.

And you can do side by side mode.

Anyway, I've been messing around with

that and it's pretty neat on

and trying to get the

three years emulator to work.

Hasn't haven't played

playing the game in 3D on.

Wait, it doesn't.

Wait, you say what you said

it doesn't do that perception.

That's my bad.

Well, so each each

lens has its own screen

and you can do like side by side mode

where it will split an image

if it's rendered in 3D in the device.

But it doesn't work as far as I've seen.

It doesn't work with like Steam VR.

So so it does.

You can't play like VR titles on this.

But you can play games in 3D.

Sorry, what?

But you can do like 3D.

Yeah, so like if the game if

like you're watching a 3D video

or you're playing a game that renders in

like a side by side thing,

then you can set up this to do that.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah, and there might be a

way to do Steam VR on here.

I don't know for sure.

I haven't I haven't been

able to figure it out yet.

But I'll probably make a video about this

because it is really neat.

Have you tried using?

If either of you guys tried using those

glasses on and like a flight?

No.

Really tempted to try to get some.

I'll tell you like

I'll tell you like that.

I am really interested to try it on a

flight because when I'm if I'm on

a those chairs are so uncomfortable and

I'm like six foot three

and so like sitting there

and hunched over like this.

It like kills my neck.

So hold on.

Hold up.

You're six foot three.

Yeah, I did not know that.

No, that's crazy.

Oh my gosh.

That's crazy.

I know that really tall like everybody I

know is like I forget how

tall you are until I come back to you

like until I see you in person.

Wow, that is probably the

biggest news for the last week.

And there's a lot of news.

Oh my god.

I'm also 36 which feels crazy.

You're doing what you're

that no, I'm just kidding.

Yeah, not by much though, right?

We talk about that last week.

Dude.

Dude, what that's crazy man.

You're six foot three.

I didn't know that and that's for taking

and that's for taking on

the flight.

I do have I don't have pictures.

I do have I have the raid nears.

I think they're called the air to use.

Fast similar.

I do want to take them on a

flight and try them out there.

I'll let you know how it

is, but I'm pretty sure.

I mean, I'm pretty sure is gonna be a

good experience because I

mean, why wouldn't it be right?

It's better than fucking like you said

like lunch crunching

down a player steam

deck or whatever, right?

It's more or less just to relax and kind

of forget about everything

else as much as possible.

Yeah, see the thing is I'm really I'm

super sensitive to like VR

like nausea and stuff.

So I have to like turn off the shade

darkening that it does like

you can see through the shade here and

you can see that like

the reflector there but like when the

screen is on those the

shades automatically darken and so it

like excludes everything

so you can just focus on the image.

But if I'm focusing on the

image and it's static and moving

with my head, it makes me so sick.

What's the what's oh, yeah, sorry.

Well, I was gonna say like if

I turn on like follow mode on

on in the XR app, then it then

I'll move and then the screen

will start will like move after right

like so it's it gives

you that sense like there's

a screen floating out here.

That's moving rather than

having it stuck to your view and

that helps tremendously.

But also if you turn off the darkening

when screen is active

it's enough visual information did not

cause me to feel sick

because actually I was on the treadmill

with these and I was

watching a YouTube video and I was very

impressed by how that

how work.

Yeah, that's cool.

I wish my awesome.

I wish my glasses

electric from a dimming.

So it's really nice.

What's the refresh rate on

those like I don't know I cuz

that's a huge part of nausea.

Like if you have a lot of

motion sickness and stuff like

that, it's usually comes down

to both the game performance

and refresh rate of the I wear isn't

yours like 120 gardener.

I believe I am not not sure

I'm googling it right now.

Well, even if refresh rates of 120 you

got to make sure the

game or whatever you're doing

is matching that or and that

could be worth DLSS like we've talked

about before and FSR

like frame generation could

actually be nice even though

you'll get artifacting if

you're doing if you're doing

AR or stuff like that

you're going to want that.

Yeah, I mean 120 Hertz is

what it says which I can't argue

with that but I can tell you

that my steam deck does not

generate that amount of frames.

Then you just need you just need someone

that Nvidia multi-frame

generation turn your 30 and yes and 120.

Yes.

Well, here's the thing.

I don't know.

Did we talk about this yet?

But there's a there's a

plug-in for decky loader to enable

especially games that use

DLSS to enable FSR 3 on them.

No, I haven't seen that.

Yeah, so some games can get

a pretty big hit like bump up

and performance and then

obviously if it's 30 or lower it

doesn't okay.

Well, yeah, I'll get out to try that out

later on my own time.

Yeah.

Well, I think with that we

should move on to the stories

of the week.

Huh?

Yes.

Yeah, well actually before we

get to the news we should we

should ask everybody who's listening and

watching to subscribe

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If you enjoy these like three

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Yeah, we we are I think we

should at some point and start

including comments that people leave

because we're getting

some now on YouTube which I

think is really important to

engage with.

Ask questions to like

hey, we need to start.

Answering some questions if

you guys have questions and ask

them in the comments of

all try to pop them on in.

I think that'd be really fun.

I agree.

I think that would be great.

How many subscribers do we have now?

We've got 273 on YouTube.

I don't know how many we have on like the

other podcast software,

but like yeah, I think

we're doing pretty good.

I think we're getting lots

of views and downloads too.

So it seems like people are enjoying the

show which I'm happy

about.

Um, cool.

All right, you guys

want to get political.

A warning.

Hello political.

This is gonna be

interesting territory to tread into.

So Trump apparently wants to issue

tariffs to Taiwanese

chipmaker TSMC with supposedly 100%

tariff on on all things

which James you were saying before we

started could end up

stacking.

So like multiple components in a build

would get like would

mean you'd have more

500% tariff or something.

Yeah, I mean it wouldn't be

quite like that, but it would

be stacking a sense of

like they're a terror.

Yeah, it's gonna be nasty.

Let's just say that well, I

honestly have been like I have

checked out of politics

because I had too much opium and then

it all vanished in an instant.

And so I've checked out of politics.

So I'm gonna need one of

you guys to tell me about this

because I don't know.

Okay, so Trump wants to

tear wants to issue a tariff to

Taiwan up to 100% tariffs

because they you know, they

want American chip

manufacturers to be protected or some

bullshit like that because

everyone's going to TSMC.

Yes, even Intel is going to TSMC too.

If I'm mistaken, they started

doing that with a arrow Lake

and whatnot.

And to be fair Intel's

foundry seem to be not able to do

like low nanometer process.

I think they've been stuck on like 10

nanometer for years,

right? They've been stuck in 10

nanometers like that 10

minute process.

They've been stuck on a nanometer.

I don't think it's 10 though.

I think I'm pretty

sure it's lower than that.

I'd have to look it up though.

They were stuck on

something that for a long time if I

recall but Intel is still stuck like

we're pretty much hit

that like theoretical limit, I think.

Yes, and so the problem with

this is that everything uses

chips, computer chips and two of the in

like here's a problem

with doing this.

Everything uses chips.

Everything is going to go up in prices

and like even things

that aren't necessarily chips like

fucking food and stuff

that gets transported by

cars that may have chips inside

them, correct?

That's probably the price too.

Yeah, it literally will

affect almost everything.

Maybe even your toaster if

it's an Xbox but it's I'm sorry.

I'm going to keep on with that.

I really like that.

So so Intel is that

stuck at five nanometers.

I think AMD is like a step below that.

But I'd have to look that up.

Yeah for me.

I mean, there's I believe is

where AMD is but Intel's been

stuck between seven and five for a while.

But here's the thing guys.

There's a reason why we get

our chip sets and most chips get

made in Taiwan.

They have the tech.

They have the know-how the

copyrights and everything.

We have really good relations

with Taiwan and we've continued

to do that.

It's caused major issues with China

because China doesn't

want Taiwan to exist, right?

And so it's all a mess.

I don't know why Trump's

going after Taiwan who's been a

really big ally with us except for he

wants to usually with

tariffs like a little bit

of background with tariffs.

Tariffs are usually meant

to push domestic produce.

It's usually meant to like

try to punish another country or

not a country but like an you know, an

import that's coming

in to then do it domestically is

oftentimes but the last

time we had a major tariff

war it nearly wrecked us and

destroyed multiple politicians lives

about a hundred years

ago a little and then.

With these tariffs that

are going on right now.

They are going to they don't

like with tariffs like what

we found out over years

because we still use tariffs every

once in a while still like

we've used them over decades,

but they're very strategic.

But they always

trickle down to the consumer.

They're never paid by the

companies on the other side.

They're paid by domestic companies.

So anytime we buy anything,

they're just going to include

like everything's made and everything.

They're just going to

include that price tag to us.

So this ends up always like

and tell like what would be

the most strategic thing is open up.

Well, here's the thing, but

the Biden administration did

a chips act to start doing

more domestic made it chips.

That's the way to do it.

And then if you want to once

it's up and running and doing

really well, you could then

implement tariffs to then do

more domestic and that's

the correct way to do it.

If you want to go that

route, you don't just like

well, I want to be domestic.

It might take decades and and like

royally fuck over our

whole tech scene and

potentially give even more wins to

other countries.

And though I don't like

looking at it that way.

This is going like if this

does go through which Trump

keeps on going back and forth on on

tariffs back and forth

on tariff.

So we'll see if this goes through.

I'm really curious.

Yeah.

I don't I don't want to get

into like politics, right?

Like I just don't I find it very

obnoxious and I don't

know but at the same time,

it's like it's clear to me

that like this guy doesn't

know anything about trade and

he doesn't know anything about like

business even though

he's like supposed to be a businessman.

So that's my that's my take

like I the fact that he keeps

going back and forth.

It means that he's he's

listening to many different people

who are telling him many

different things, right?

And I just it doesn't stand

for anything as far as I'm

concerned.

He wasn't just a businessman.

He was the businessman.

He I think he I remember he

had his own show like back in

the like the early 2000s and

then his his catchphrase was

you're fired.

It was always the funniest

shit ever but man that wouldn't

and that I don't know man.

I don't yeah, you're

I'm with the gardener.

I don't really like

talking about politics.

But yeah, this is something that directly

affects our interests

and livelihood like look at this.

It's gonna jack the prices

of basically everything and I

was looking forward to

building a new computer this year

and I might have to accelerate those

plans because of the

incoming tariffs like

fuck man like what was it?

I was gonna build like

let's say you were gonna build a

computer that was like $2,000 right?

I could probably see that

rising maybe even doubling too

like imagine how fucked about be.

It could potentially yeah

that $2,000 Nvidia video card

it's gonna be $4,000 potentially.

Yeah, I mean I don't think

all of it is done through

TSMC.

I'm sure the physical

materials are done through China

but like the chips are

definitely done through TSMC

if I'm not mistaken.

He's he's doing a

blanket on a lot of the stuff.

So it might say TSMC but Trump isn't

necessarily going to

target just one company

if he's targeting typically

countries.

He might he might have like

minions targeting specific

companies in those but

typically he's been trying to

do more like if he says

electronics is probably going

to cover it.

Once again, we don't know he

goes back and forth on this

whole thing.

I'm not trying to be

political like I don't mind being

political but I'm trying not

to be like this is just the

realistic nature of actions and

consequences kind of stuff.

We he said he's going to do tariffs.

I mentioned he was going to

do tariffs back early November

and there's a good chance

he's going to do it even though

I don't think any of his

visors want him to do it for

some reason.

He has got it in his mind

that he wants to do tariffs and

he has recently said that

it's one of his favorite words to

say is tariffs.

I so it is once again, the

reason I only bring this all

up is because I try to be

very skeptical that this is going

to happen.

But if this does happen, this

is going to fuck everyone over

this year that wants to buy anything

electronic because it's

going to somehow hit you

whether it's 10% increase whether

it's a 50% increase.

We don't know yet and we

might not know until it actually

happens because yeah,

even the uncertainty of it.

Will he do it?

Will he not do it is

having an economic toll, right?

Like that it just I don't know dude.

It bothers me in a lot of ways because

it's like I can I can

I can get behind some of

the sentiments for people like

wanting tariffs, right?

Like, you know, I want

more domestic manufacturing.

I want more domestic like

food production because a lot of

our food comes from China, right?

It's like I want more of agriculture.

I want more things locally.

Create jobs, right?

Hey, that's a good thing.

But if it's not done, right,

it will have the opposite effect

of what we want and you know,

people are complaining about

prices now, but like prices

will go up across the board on

everything and you know, half of the

things he was running

on was like, oh, yeah, I'm

going to bring the price of eggs

down. It's like dude, dude

doesn't even know you don't need

an ID to buy a loaf of

bread for God's sakes, right?

Like he said that once or

twice on the game and it's like

what do you talk?

He doesn't he's so disconnected.

It makes me upset and that's

why I don't tune into politics

anymore.

It's that's a tactic.

It's not he I don't think he believed it.

It's a tactic to say this other and no

one facts checks them

anymore.

Yeah, so and anyone can say

this bloke learn if this gets

you upset like you need to go check.

I just check out a politics

of this is getting you upset

because I try to too, but

it's really hard with the like

talking about the food

stuff like we actually produce.

I don't think people understand how much

we produce domestically

on a lot of stuff.

We actually produce a lot of food,

California, especially

produces a lot of food.

And so like we we there's it's world

trades because it's no

country.

It can be a hundred percent good at

everything and usually

you like to specialize.

That's usually how it works.

The problem is is that then

if you end up in a bad dispute

with that country where they're really

good at mate like Taiwan

making chips, then your products go up.

But that's the thing people might get

upset at Taiwan, but

we do the same thing.

We're doing it right

now to other countries.

And so that's why we want to

have that's what a diplomat is

for.

I don't know why Trump's trying to be a

diplomat like we have

diplomats to go and talk and do

negotiations, but ultimately

I think no matter what even if

this does not go through this

might even trigger some

companies to raise their prices

just out of anticipation and

they'll just won't say anything

like well, we thought maybe so and then

they've justified it

multiple times.

It will be very interesting

to see like what Nvidia does

because the CEO of Nvidia

just met with I don't know if we

have it in our new things, but he met

with Trump yesterday

I believe about all the stuff going on.

So like with the tariffs

and a couple other things so I

man, so fucking Nvidia will

take every opportunity to jack

of the prices of the

graphics cards and the network bring

it down and AMD is also complicit too.

They don't direct they are the ones

leading the charge, but

they're the most okay with it because

they'll like they'll

make it graphics card that like is $100

cheaper, but it's like

75% the performance and it doesn't even

have great retracing

performance and that really

pisses me off about fucking

AMD.

I'm also curious.

Yeah, that's the thing like

you can never expect prices to

go down for like that's a

little I think a little bit of a

perception of like capitalism

like you're always should be

trying to get the lowest cost item like

whatever like unless

you have really good manufacturing and

automated manufacturing

and really automated systems

there there becomes a point

where you can't can't reduce

it much more and I'm wondering

because I think China has been doing

better have better pay

for their employees same with Taiwan.

I wonder if some of the

costs going up is because those

countries are doing better and

so some of that's been offset

to even other second world

countries because China is

really growing from their boon and tech.

So it's a very complex system that I

don't need to go into

too much, but it's I try not

to jump on the whole like it

went up in price bad kind of thing.

I want to know why but

definitely Nvidia it definitely

feels like sometimes the

Nvidia just does it just a and they

they've kind of

bragged about it too before.

Yeah.

So well Nvidia is like to

the point where you know

graphics card sales to to

gamers is like chump change

right like they want to

sell a hundred thousand GPUs to

Enterprise, you know

server forms or whatever.

That's true.

So they might just be jacking up the

price because it helps

them on the other side rather than

actually are yeah like

there's actually a lot about that.

There's some news

articles over the years.

I forgot about that.

That's actually one of the

things that they some insider

leaks kind of stuff.

Once again, I don't know source wise.

This is more rumors than I think that

that's what they do.

And if I'm not mistaken,

I've read that this is also why

Nvidia likes to like really

short changes on VRAM because

they don't want us to have powerful

graphics cards to run

like these AI models.

They want us to buy the

really expensive Enterprise models

because those have way more

VRAM and yes, they are better

suited for AI but like they

don't want people at home to

be having enough VRAM to run

these AI models on their own

computers.

And that's why anything

short of like a 5090 has has like

16 gigs of VRAM at most.

Oh, we'll get it.

Let's just say a little sneak peek a

little bit later that

Nvidia got some.

They got what they deserved

a little bit and hopefully it

sticks but we can we'll

talk about that later.

Yeah in the meantime, let's

talk about the hundred-dollar

video game.

$100.

got to do it so I just added it just now.

So people in the games

industry want Grand Theft Auto 6

to be the first $100 video game.

And because let's be perfectly frank,

GTA 6 is going to sell

basically no matter what,

let's be honest.

They would not lose much

sales if they did $100.

I had a fight with, okay,

I know I keep talking about my stream,

but like I had a fight

with some people in my stream

and they're like,

"Well, I wouldn't pay $100."

I'm like, "Would you

buy it when it's 60?"

Then you're gonna buy it when it's 100.

You might say you're not going to,

but if you're so excited for this game,

most people will buy it at $100.

It doesn't matter

because they're excited.

And it might be the only

game they buy this year.

That being said, these other companies

that are hoping that,

because once one company kind

of does it and it does well,

all the other companies kind

of start to follow through.

Like that's why you

get the $70 price tag.

It's not gonna work though.

It is gonna fail.

It's gonna be horrible.

I hate that I'm so cynical,

but it's like there's so

much fervor in the games media

about this.

I'm wondering how much they're being paid

to talk about this, to see this idea,

because like it's, you know, dude,

I'm never going to buy GTA VI.

I'm just gonna say that out.

They screwed over their

Linux gamers on the Steam Deck

and I'm not gonna buy it.

So just on principle, but if it was $100,

I wouldn't buy it if I was

gonna buy the game anyway.

Like that's too much in my opinion.

I feel like any, well,

the game is very big.

So I actually think

they can justify the $100

and justify it.

I think that's fine.

You charge what you

think your game's worth,

and especially if it's how much you're

gonna get out of it.

But my point is I think

they'll lose some people

that won't buy it for $100,

but that would have bought it for 60.

I think most people,

anyone that's excited for GTA,

which I don't think you're

really that excited, right,

Gardiner?

Like I'm not really that excited.

I wouldn't pay $100,

but I wasn't gonna pay 60.

I was gonna wait until it dropped,

unless I got talked into it,

which you never know with me.

If they hadn't screwed over their fans,

like the Steam Deck

players, I would have been,

I wouldn't have been like you, James.

I would have been like,

I'm gonna wait for it to go on sale,

30 bucks maybe, 20, 28 bucks, whatever.

No, I don't pay full prices for games.

At least triple A games.

I'll pay a full price, like

20 bucks for an indie game.

We'll see, Half-Life 3

coming out this year.

We'll see if you do it or not.

Oh, well, yeah, but Half-Life.

Okay, all right, so

the main justification

over the years for game

developers raising the prices

and also introducing microtransactions

is because game development is expensive.

I'm not going to refute that.

The problem is, is that Rockstar

is going to make this game $100.

If they make this game $100,

they're gonna make $100,

but then later down the line,

they're gonna include fucking shark cards

and make the game pay to win anyways,

much like Grand Theft

Auto Online for GTA V.

Wait a sec, hold up, guys, hold up.

The game about robbing

people and doing theft

and doing things,

they're practicing it also

from their side from selling things.

I don't know that.

I'm kidding, but that's

what it feels like somewhat.

It feels like, they're

like, well, you bought the game,

you're being the

frickin' bad guy, essentially,

and then we're gonna just

take advantage of that, I guess.

Yeah, well, I mean, video

games don't influence anybody

to do anything outside of the game ever.

We know that for a fact, so.

Oh gosh, oh gosh.

You can't tell what

I'm thinking, actually.

We'll leave it at that.

It's like all of those

cyberpunk video games

and movies that are

all like corporation bad,

but they're all funded

by massive corporations.

Unless it's Disco

Elysium, I don't think, yeah.

I mean, that's how

creative works work, right?

Like books and anything that's creative

is gonna push limits of

what's in the current mainstream.

That's how it's worked for millennia.

So, people that get mad at anything

that's slightly

progressive, even if it's like,

oh, corporation bad, doesn't mean

corporations are bad,

but I think, yeah, that was a funny one.

Cyberpunk 2077 dropping and being bad,

about how corporations are

essentially bad in some way,

like if you wanna take it that way,

but then them having their shareholders

push for them to release it

before our stakeholders do,

before it was ready, kind of.

Man, that, oh my God.

It was so funny.

I still love the game though.

I mean, yeah, after

they fixed it, of course.

It ran great on my 3090 back then.

I loved, I liked it back then too.

Okay, the real difference

though is that you had a 3090,

out of 2070.

Yeah, I had a GTX Titan X.

Oh, okay.

Damn.

Titan X.

It didn't run too great.

I bought the PS,

because I was so excited,

I bought the PS4 version,

which came with an upgrade for the PS5.

Partially so that my

friend could play it too,

and it was bad.

No, no, oh my God.

I've seen videos of PS4 Cyberpunk.

It was, oh no.

It was, they deserved, I don't know if,

I think they had a class

action lawsuit against them.

They deserved that.

There really is like,

comes to a point where,

are you selling something that's a lie?

And I think more

marketing needs to get called out.

If you're marketing a

game to look a certain way,

and it does not look like that,

stop marketing like that, come on guys.

False advertising really needs to start

getting punished more.

That was an interesting game,

and an interesting month too,

just Cyberpunk came out, and then Amore.

Also, have you guys

heard of a game called Amore?

Yes, but I've never played it.

So it's like an indie, so garden,

it's like an indie RPG, RPG maker RPG.

It's inspired by

Earthbound and Yume Nikki.

I enjoyed it for what it was.

They came out the same month too,

which is kind of funny

too, because it's hard now.

But yeah, I think it's

kind of ballsy for a game

to come out the same month Cyberpunk did,

even if Cyberpunk kind

of botched the launch.

Dude, when GTA 6 comes out,

I'm really curious

what games are coming out,

and who's planning that?

Dude, is it gonna be shadow dropped?

Then all of a sudden, oh

man, that would be horrible.

I wanna see Half-Life 3 shadow drop

right when GTA 6 comes out,

just to see, I'm just curious.

I know GTA 6 would win, but I'm curious.

GTA 6 would win handily, I think, but--

Not--

I don't know.

Well, it's not coming

out on PC right now.

Oh, that would be

really interesting, too.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, the thing is, like,

if if if Half-Life dropped at $100,

I don't know if I would

buy it like Half-Life 3.

I mean, I did like

granted, I did spend $1,000

to get the headset to play Half-Life,

Alex, when it came out.

But that was I could justify that because

I could play other games with it.

Right. It was hardware.

It was more than just the game.

Right. And I'm struggling to say that I

categorically would not

buy Half-Life 3 for $100.

But it just feels wrong to me

to pay 100 bucks for a game.

Like, even even if it's like GTA 5 or 6

or whatever, where they spent like,

you know, $2 billion or whatever they're

spending to develop it.

Like that that budget feels wrong to me.

Like, agreed.

Like, it's so excessive

and it doesn't need to be that way when

you can make really great games

that I think personally that I find more

fun than a game like GTA

for for like fractions of that budget.

It's like you it's not justifiable.

And it's well, here's the thing.

I think it is.

I think it's unjustifiable

when it becomes a standard.

I actually much rather have a more

variable rate instead of being like,

oh, like on PS5, there's kids games will

come out at 60 where I'm like,

no, this is legit is a $20 game when it

comes out like is why?

Just because they can, because that's the

standard when it releases.

There needs to be a variable rate.

I don't mind paying $100.

Let's say $120.

I don't mind if Witcher 4 was $120.

But all the future DLC that if it's just

like Witcher 3 and it

has really good DLC,

all the future DLC and

everything is included.

There's no like microtransactions or

anything like and they

think it's worth that.

And I'm going to get

two hundred hours again.

I'm going to pay that price.

Yeah, that's where and

how big is their budget?

And some games just

require a bigger budget.

I don't like this arbitrary try to

squeeze as much out.

Fire the developers

afterwards instead of retaining them.

Like I want ethical

reasons for a hundred dollars.

Yeah. Are you going to

retain your developers?

Are you going to do the ethical thing?

Is it going to

trickle down to developers?

What is going on?

That's for me.

I don't think most people are going to

think that way, though.

You know what, though, I

actually agree with that.

And the thing that is interesting is like

they're already selling

games for one hundred dollars.

Right. It's like they have the deluxe

editions and the, you know, ultra deluxe

season pass edition

and all this other crap.

And they don't get you much.

No, it doesn't offer anything extra,

really of value, in my opinion.

And it's like, I don't know.

Just to arbitrarily set the new standard

and say games aren't 60, they're a

hundred dollars now.

It just that's that's what I'm really

feeling so negative towards this, you

know, because of it's just going to let

everyone else do it.

So I will say a lot of people for so.

A lot of companies are going to want to

jack up the prices of their games if GTA

six actually does make it a standard.

You know, the hundred dollar video game

because get this a lot of we don't get we

don't see it this way, but a lot of

regular consumers see like the difference

between a 60 dollar and

a 70 dollar video game.

They think the 60 dollar video game is

worse, therefore it has less value.

Right. So we're going to see a lot of

that happening because, you know, a lot

of a lot of people are going to see that,

you know, they they have a game and they

want people to play it.

But if it's like 70 dollars instead of

100 dollars, people are going to think

it's worse and

they're not going to buy it.

So they have to jack it

up to let people buy it.

So because, you know, so they can say

that it's a high quality

product or whatever. Right.

Potentially, I think

that would have a revert.

Like, honestly, I think that would have

like in today's world of YouTube reviews

with a lot of information.

I think that would have

worked back in the 90s and 2000s.

I think nowadays I don't

know if that actually worked.

And I think once let's say if G.T.

Six does release 100 dollars and everyone

else tries, I think they're going to be

woefully mistaken on that price and

they're going to get screwed over.

And then they're just going to blame

developers or the consumers once again,

like Ubisoft and EA are

just going to blame them.

Well, shit, man. Blame them if they want.

But the consumers did

destroy Ubisoft and EA after all.

Also, one more thing, too, is that I feel

like if it becomes a standard, we can see

indie games rise in price, too, which I

mean is not necessarily a bad thing

because, you know, some of these

developers do deserve more money.

Would you pay 60 dollars for Bellato?

I don't know, maybe would you?

So inflation is a thing

we've got to remember.

I've mentioned this multiple times.

Inflation is a thing is we've the amount

of inflation that's

happened since it's been

the price has gone up to 60 dollars.

It's quite a bit. We

should be paying more.

That being said, what

is the development cost?

What are people still willing to pay that

still like there's such a big market of

games like you think these companies that

are starting to realize that they need to

be competitive again.

Then you might have to drive some of

those prices down potentially even.

So so I will say like, yes, games, even

back in like the Super Nintendo days used

to be 60 dollars, which I think should be

like 150 dollars right now

if taking the calculation.

But also the gaming market has gotten a

lot bigger since then.

There's way more gamers

now than there are game.

There were gamers like back in the 90s.

Right. So that also helped like to like

reduce the prices of video

games or just keep them the same.

You know, 60 dollars

instead of Jack and Michael.

But I think it's going

to be like 150 dollars.

I don't think anyone would buy a video

game for 150 dollars

if that were the case.

Well, the other thing with the Super

Nintendo and 64 and even this base games

was there was an overhead for

manufacturing, which you

don't have now for the most part.

I mean, the switch games do have it, but

you can release it digitally and

digitally still has overhead.

It can still be more

expensive than people realize.

But it is not it is

not the same in any way.

It is much cheaper. Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I don't know. Is there anything

else we want to touch on with that story?

I I know that this is very difficult.

It's not even a divisive thing.

You know, most gamers

don't want to pay 100 dollars.

Yeah. But what people say and what they

do, especially if it's GTA

six, I think is going to be.

Honestly, I just if someone wants to

chase six enough,

they're going to buy it.

I think it's going to happen.

And I think GTA six is going to succeed.

But the only way to prevent this feature

is for GTA six to fail.

And that's practically

impossible at this point.

I would love it if GTA six failed.

Honestly, I kind of

would be here for that, too.

And that's going to get a lot of hate.

But I don't know for it.

Dude, that would that has to be a

headliner if that ever happens.

The that would be so

that would be so crazy.

Can you even preorder GTA six right now?

Because you know, you make GTA six fail

is you go on and post an expression

about how, you know, the

eye or something in the game.

I'm I'm already seeing that.

I'm I see that.

I've already seen it, too.

Oh, really? I was joking.

I don't go out there.

Yeah, there's there's D.I.

hires in the video game.

You can you can watch the trailer.

Oh, geez.

There's non white people in it.

Oh, that's it's gotten that bad.

It's gotten that bad. I'm sorry.

I try not to get

political, but like it like I do.

Well, I do get political, but I try not

to get too political on here

because I know it gets really heated.

But it's already happened.

Just enjoy games, guys.

Enjoy diversity.

This is based in Miami, which

is a very diverse city. Yeah.

Very diverse. Vice City, Miami.

Sorry, Vice City.

My city, right. Yeah.

All right.

Let's talk about let's talk about the

Sony leadership kerfuffle

that's happening right now.

So Hideaki, is it Hideaki Nishino

and Herman Hulst were both CEOs.

They were co CEOs of Sony

Interactive Entertainment.

And now Nishino is

the the sole CEO of SEI.

He was going on.

So it's as you said,

Hulst is now serving as the CEO of the

the studio business group.

But he'll still be he'll still be helping

their first party studios.

But he reports a Nishino now rather than

being, you know, co CEOs,

which emotion.

I mean, it sounds like

an emotion, to be honest.

I can tell you what this actually means

of practice, because I'm not a Sony.

I'm not a Sony C-suite,

but it seems like there's some

dissatisfaction with

what's going on with SEI.

And I mean, and with

what was a sixth field

live services that got

canceled or some shit like that?

I mean, shit, man.

So was the Herman the one

that was over the live services?

Was he the one that was

pushing for that then?

So I'm assuming

shareholders probably demoted him.

I believe the

initiative started with Jim Ryan,

who, as we know, no longer works at Sony.

Right. But he but Herman

Hulst kept kept going with it.

And I believe Herman Hulst is also was

also from Gorilla Games.

So it kind of also

explains why Sony is pushing.

It kind of explains why Sony is trying to

push Horizons so much,

because, like, you know,

it's probably his baby.

Gorilla Games is a good studio.

I want them to make

Killswitch, not Killswitch.

Killzone. Killzone.

It's not. Can you

believe it's crazy, man?

Killzone is a universe people like.

I mean, back in the day, it was just

regard as a Halo killer.

But then now we're getting reports that

made that Halo may be

coming to PlayStation 5.

Like, could you imagine getting a Halo on

PS5 before getting a PS5?

Killzone.

Dude, go back and play Killzone for PS4.

It still looks good.

I am shocked how much they were able to

pull out of that game

and how optimized it was.

But yeah, I don't I don't know.

Halo is kind of a

dead series to me. Yeah.

I agree with that. Yeah.

It's sad that Halo has been bad longer

than it's been good.

Honestly, there's a lot of truth to that.

It is. Oh, no. Don't do this.

Cindy, we're going to

get more Xbox Hater covers.

All right. Well, here's the thing.

There's Xbox does a lot of well, they own

tons of good stuff now. But

I've never been the biggest Halo fan.

It's only fun when you

play with other people for me.

Yeah, I mean, I really loved

the story of Halo 1, 2 and 3.

And Reach, Reach was awesome.

I loved the story. I'm a huge Halo fan.

Reach. Yeah, Reach was good.

A couple of their stories were good.

The original trilogy.

The original trilogy, I believe some of

the greatest in game, to be honest.

I mean, yeah, I'm not a

big story opposite on this.

I'm a big story guy.

And I feel like Gordon

Freeman, not talking at all,

has more story in Half-Life

than Halo, like interesting,

which I find interesting.

I actually like both of them on. Yeah.

Like on a similar

level. Right. But like, yeah.

But the fact is, like

Half-Life story was kind of like

added on after they had

built most of the game.

And that's how it's been

for every Half-Life game.

And and Halo approached

it from story almost first,

as far as I understand it.

And so I don't know.

I appreciate them both for what they are.

And I like the

storytelling in Half-Life more

because I don't like having cut scenes

and getting my control

pulled away from me when I'm playing.

That's fair. But yeah,

I just don't think this.

So Halo was revolutionary for its time.

I think it did a good

job. Like I liked it.

But it's just I feel like it was missing

some rudimentary things.

It was very confusing at times.

They didn't they confused

more than expanded on stuff.

The cut scenes didn't help with that.

I feel like they made it

more confusing sometimes.

But yeah, to be fair, Halo 2 story

was only half of what they initially

planned because Halo 2

has a really famous

development health cycle.

You can read all about it, too.

There's so there's so much that they had

to like redo and revamp and recycle.

There's so much of that.

It's a miracle that the game is even like

considered like a nine out of ten.

Yeah, a great story was supposed to be

basically all of Halo 2 and 3.

So yeah, like and so they had

to cut it in half basically.

But yeah, I mean, I don't know.

See, my kind of like I my one of my

favorite stories in games.

I'm just going to go

off complete tangent.

But like Bioshock is like

one of the greatest stories.

I agree with that. I

actually agree with that.

Which Bioshock?

Bioshock one. Infant, it's pretty good,

too, but I like

Bioshock one a little more.

I saw something interesting where I

remember when Bioshock came out,

it was getting rave reviews and now all

of a sudden people fucking hate the game.

It's crazy how like

quickly they turned on it.

Which one, Bioshock? Infinite?

Infinite, yes, infinite.

Not Bioshock one.

It's a it's really weird.

Yeah, because I really liked Infinite.

I thought it was an amazing game.

I really like how they turned it from

deep down to in the sky.

I really love that.

I don't know. I need to go back.

I haven't played it since I played it

since I beat it the first time.

I loved it, though.

I thought it was good.

It's one of my favorite favorite titles.

But, you know, going back to the Halo

thing, the story in Halo.

The only thing you need is

the visuals and the music.

And that tells the whole story to me.

Yeah, I personally agree.

I do agree. Yeah.

I just think my problem is that Halo has

so many good workings in it.

I love the concept of the Halo.

Yeah, the planetary system, right?

Artificial planet, essentially.

I like a lot of the stuff

that they were going for.

And I just felt like

it was very dumb down.

To in my opinion, I don't

feel like they went really.

Complicated for why anything was why it

was like it just didn't for me.

So while I say the storytelling is very

like all over the place

and doesn't explain things well enough,

other times it just doesn't.

It could like, I don't know, I felt like

it could have been more fleshed out.

But for the time, it was really good.

Like, don't get me wrong.

I won't dive into this much more, but I

think for its time, it was good.

It's just I think I have a

little bit of a taint of like

playing Half-Life or playing some other

games where that was just my fixation

and how I liked my delivery

of games or Final Fantasy.

Like I played tons of like

really story heavy games.

So yeah, I understand.

Yeah, so I think Halo's biggest success

was like the presentation because yeah,

the story on paper doesn't sound that

like unique or interesting.

But like the cutscene,

like Halo 2's cutscenes,

they had some like actual

cinematography going on there.

So much so that like the remastered

version of Halo 2,

the anniversary edition,

they basically just use the same

cinematography, but like upgraded

the graphics and like,

the fix and all that stuff.

So it's like I don't

it's not nearly one to one,

but the idea is like

nearly one to one, so to speak.

It's yeah. Yeah.

It like elevates them.

It makes it like look real nice like.

I don't know.

It's definitely more of a remake than a

remap or more of a remake

than like a like a redo.

Yeah, yeah, that's that's fair.

That's fair.

Halo.

Yeah, I mean, what we're talking about.

We were talking about Sony's leadership

and we got off on Halo.

Yeah, that's what we want

to talk about all the time.

But but I mean, the thing is that kind of

leads us to our next story.

Microsoft's bringing Halo to everything

and the Moon Studios CEO

believes Sony is going to follow

Microsoft's example.

What do we think about this high tech?

So for those who don't know, Moon Studios

is the guy are the guys behind

or in the blind forest and the sequel.

And most recently, no

rest for the wicked.

And so. They have they had a relationship

with Microsoft, of

course, with the Ori games.

So I am kind of believe

that's a little biased.

Another new list game is on everything,

and it's not like Microsoft published.

But I do think it

might be a little biased.

I'm not sure if Sony will

push everything on Xbox.

I don't know if they'll

even put anything on Xbox.

So they have they had a set up to like,

you know, death stranding.

You know, that's how you

know how that's on G force now.

So I don't know if this has changed, but

death stranding at one point

was on G force now because it was on PC

and you can you can access G force now

on Xbox, except for that one game.

Except for death stranding,

because Sony mandated it, sir,

because they didn't want people to play

death stranding on an Xbox,

even though it was a PC version that was

published by someone else.

So I'm inclined to believe

that this is not the case.

I think new studios might be wrong.

Yeah, I mean, Sony, I think Sony

understands the importance of having

exclusives for their platform as a as a

driver for their for the

sales of their hardware.

And I don't know if they

would like completely abandon

exclusive with the way Microsoft has.

Everything can't be an Xbox and a

PlayStation at the same time, right?

Right. It has to be one or the other.

I think we're getting

into a world where it's all

companies feel like I say the same thing

every week, potentially.

The companies have to

keep on making money, right?

So every year they need

to make more and more.

So if they can't

reach that, they're going.

That's why they put I think that's why

Sony started putting PlayStation games

on Steam is because they need

to keep on making more money

and keep increasing like how much they

make for their shareholders.

And I think that's why they did it.

So I would not be shocked in 10 years if

people even know what a console is.

A traditional console.

So I mean, yeah, the

thing is, I think Sony,

I think Sony would definitely

like publish all of their first party

games on PC and console.

But I don't think they're

going to do what Xbox is doing

where they get rid of their console or or

just like not treated

as like a first class

citizen in their lineup.

You know, I just don't see that happening

at least anytime soon.

Hardware wise, for sure, like the like we

talked about last week,

the PS5 controller is amazing.

And so I definitely wouldn't want to see

them go away from that.

And I'd like to see that initiative, but

I do like to also see them open up more

and to have like make sure

that this just works anywhere

that their game is, that this works.

And I think that'd be a

huge initiative for them.

And then they could eventually

diverse out of consoles if they really

wanted to and still

have like a solid hardware.

Yeah. But like I want

to see consoles start

taking risks again to where it's like,

why do I buy the like it's

right now, you're just buying

a PC with a very powerful APU.

That's what you're buying

right now when you get console and

and develop like and for

developers, like they have an SDK,

like a really good SDK to work off of and

can guarantee performance

for a certain level beyond that.

Consoles don't offer anything else.

It feels like especially Xbox, Xbox just

doesn't offer anything.

No. So here's something here's something

I want to talk about.

So Sony, as you know, Sony has been

releasing games on PC,

but they usually release them

in like a two year interval.

Like the original God of War PS4 came out

and then two years later,

it came out on PC.

So now my question is, do you

see them shortening that gap

or maybe even releasing them on day one?

Because I mean, I've seen

him shorten the gap already.

Like it didn't they didn't wait two years

to release Spider-Man 2 on PC.

I could see them shortening the gap, but

right now I don't know.

I don't know if they will,

but I could see them doing it.

Yeah. I said last week.

I'm sorry. I think I

think the thing is like if you

don't release your game day one on PC,

you're telling PC gamers to wait.

Right. Like if you have a PlayStation

and an X and a PC, you know, if I did,

then I would wait for the PC version and

I would I would wait.

And if you make them wait too long,

they're just going to wait

for a sale at that point.

Yep. So I don't know.

I think it makes a lot of

sense for them to shorten the gap

because they're going to have their

dedicated hardware guys that

only play on on PlayStation.

And then they're going

to have their PC sales.

And I think that that's

that would be their smart move.

And so now.

D would you buy Astrobond PC, James?

Yes, but I honestly might still would

have bought it on PlayStation 5 first

because, well, it doesn't have co-op.

That's true.

Because if it has co-op, then I'm almost

guaranteed to get it on console

because it's just easier to deal with.

Oh, damn, that is a

that is a benefit. Yeah.

It's just easier, like with my kids and

stuff, it's just going to be easier.

And they've been enjoying the PS5 lately

a lot more, which is nice

because it was

collecting dust for like a year.

But I mean, for certain games, yeah, like

I have I own Ratchet and Clank,

the new one, the Rift, the Rift one.

I have not beat it.

I want to play it on PS5, but then I want

to play it on the Steam Deck.

And so I'm like.

But I haven't bought it for the Steam

Deck yet, but I'm kind of like,

you know, I definitely play that game

where if I know, especially if it's like

GTA six, right, I might buy it day one

for the PS6 if I get talked into it.

But there's a good chance I'll just wait

for the PC if I really want to get it.

Like because mods and everything else,

like why would I not get it for the PC?

Yeah. And buying a PC game just to me

feels like a better investment, like I'll

be able to play it longer on newer

hardware when I upgrade.

Yeah. How do you own the game forever

and not have to worry about if the game's

going to be backwards compatible?

I mean, it depends on

where you buy it from.

But yeah, for the most part,

it's well with a little CD

key kind of a little magic.

With a little magic, it can be forever.

Oh, yeah.

And you can burn it to your own CDs too

or Blu-rays or whatever.

Floppy disk, I mean, I'm

an 80 80 floppy disk person.

Did how many floppy disks around here?

Did how many floppy disks will it take to

store a single like 100 gig game?

Have a call duty.

Oh, God. All right.

We got to do the math right now.

What is the biggest floppy?