Sacred Symbols, Episode 187: In A Galaxy Run Far, Far Into the Ground

Thank you!

Colin Moriarty

Terrific episode as always. Killing it. Thanks!

Giovanni D'Amico

Very true. Mainly just wanted to point out that M$ won't have to charge $70/month for game pass to be a financial success as was suggested, or at least implied by the listener mail during the pod. If that was the case, it would have no hope of ever being profitable.

It will cause an upward suck, and be horrible for everyone who isn't at the top.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you. <3

Colin Moriarty

We don't know what everyone is paying, though. And it took nearly five years to get to 25 million subscribers.

Colin Moriarty

I think it is extremely concerning regarding the consolidation of the gaming industry, will these large corporate behemoths be able to offset the gamepass pricing structure with the cost of opperating a vast supply of studios with hundreds of developers? What happens if the pricing structure does not hold, are game devs at risk? Usually corporations make 'cuts' when inevitably they have to balance the books. Monopoly or corporate communism has a risk of eating itself and flatlining creativity and a growth industry. Secondly, what is the capitalistic metric by which these companies decide which games are a success? Bend studios didnt get a greenlight on days gone 2 with 10m copies sold, does gamepass judge remakes and greenlight future games based on downloads? I think we run a risk of quantity over quality to justify 'game pass', a netflix/holywood stagnation has occured in the movie/tv industry that the title of this podcast could easily be copy and pasted in a future gaming podcast. Game development its a growing and profitable industry and these pricing models threaten to flatten it.

Hadzocol

Snark Tank Opening?!?? Can’t believe this, wish I could travel from the UK! Can’t wait!! Also another amazing podcast to the list thank you LSM 🔥💪🏼

Marcus

Re: Gamepass pricing. It is far from profitable currently, but the math isn't as dire as it seems. They are selling more subscriptions than they would copies of a game. If Halo 3 debuted on GP, and it had 50 million subscribers it would make more money then it did at retail. Same goes if the monthly price was $30 at the current subscriber count of 25 million. The trick is keeping people subscribed when they aren't interested in the big 1st party game of the month, but people are lazy/forgetful and once they are in, they will likely stay.

It doesn't make sense. Something has to give.

Colin Moriarty

Nice pull.

Colin Moriarty

Motorstorm: Pacific Rift has the best track design of any arcade racer ever. There are some close-seconds (shout out to Burnout 3 and Midnight Club 2), but Pacific Rift was something truly special. Even if they did a PS5 greatest hits with various tracks from the entire Motorstorm franchise, it would be pretty fantastic.

Kevin Cooper

I'm not sure the Gamepass maths makes sense - likely still not profitable but 25M subs paying $12 a month = $3.6B per year. That's a lot of AAA projects. And it doesn't include all of the DLC, Microtransactions and other games people still buy on the platform and PC. $60 is the RRP, not the cost to make, so that isn't the correct figure to compare against for profit. It would be good to get some insider info on that, and very interesting in Sony's offering and how the financials appear there.

Greg Dawson

Maybe so.

Colin Moriarty

Perhaps it's that Star Wars is about an individual story and a small cast of characters, and everything else is ultimately window dressing.

Colin Moriarty

This is true, but who knows if it's real... or even who is making it?

Colin Moriarty

Goofy stuff.

Colin Moriarty

If I could just offer a little push back in regards to the ludicrous intertitle card of the Chinese version of Fight Club: If Fox/Disney did condone or even pen the script of that card, it’s pure genius! Anyone with half a brain, be it communist or not, would decipher that as nothing other than insidious propaganda, and much like the penis spliced in a children’s film reel, the viewer should walk away feeling uneasy.

Kid-Organic

So I tried relating to where Colin is with Star Wars since I like it but don't have the mega childhood investment, and I came up with how I'd feel if Disney had rebooted Cobra Kai/Karate Kid. I'd imagine Johnny would've committed suicide before the show started, Daniel was hardly involved, it followed Robby without any real tie to anything from the past other than Johnny was his dad and was solely about mostly randos who decided to take Karate at Cobra Kai. Am I warm? Basically the original characters that were the reason we all cared about the property not only are sidelined or killed but have no real connection to the new people (many of whom are pale imitations) and we're left with empty worlds populated by a bunch of meh people?

Luke Tucker

F-Zero with a story would an awesome racing game opportunity. Maybe even other types of gameplay mixed in.

Sweeney's Girlfriend Archive

First rule of Drive Club

Sweeney's Girlfriend Archive

Isn't Titanfall 3 in the Nvidia leak? The leak can't be completely clear then.

Sweeney's Girlfriend Archive

Regarding the Fight Club ending change, this is not the first time they've done this. In the 2002 Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, which was later remade by Martin Scorsese called The Departed, the ending of that movie was changed where the mole in the police department is immediately arrested in the end of the movie instead getting away with the crime. The point is, any time a movie gives viewers the idea that you can get one over the government or try to pull off some anarchist activity, you will be caught so don't do it. I never imagine this wold happen to American cinema but here we are. There will most likely be more movies moving forward that would either be banned or edited. We are already seeing it now where scripts need to be written to make sure it does not offend their government.

Brian Lau

Holy hell! I think if Sony was going to retaliate they should have gone for a Square, From. Capcom or Konami. This feels like when someone calls a kid a terrible name on the playground and the kid responds with poopy-head.

Greg Hommel

For the inevitable "Sony only bought Bungie as a reaction to Microsoft / ActiBliz". Didn't Mr Hoag tell us that by the time it hits the news, conversations between the two companies have been going on for months?

Greg Dawson

Pretty sure I'm also getting DD Ultimate for the $1 a month, so it's even more value than you mentioned here! :)

Dan T

Hi CDC - It seem the change to Fight Club is not as bad as it sounds. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fight-club-author-says-chinas-censored-version-more-closely-resembles-the-novels-ending/1100-6500077/

I think a major point has been missed in that final question. In the most basic math...if you give away a 60 dollar game each month on Gamepass for the $10 per month fee to 20million subscribers...we have $200mil. If they tried to sell that game for $60, it would need to be a multi million seller (which I assume is rare for most games). Obviously there is a lot more in play...but they should be able to drop a game a mont

Ryan Zimm

No idea. Disney must be pleased with the Spider-Man games, so.

Colin Moriarty

Friggin' Dan, as Dagan would say.

Colin Moriarty

Glad to hear it.

Colin Moriarty

Intent is what matters, not content.

Colin Moriarty

Yes, this was said above. <3

Colin Moriarty

I won't remember this, but thank you. =)

Colin Moriarty

Excellent.

Colin Moriarty

We covered it on the show when it was brought back.

Colin Moriarty

"Everything else" is the least important part of Star Wars.

Colin Moriarty

It's lame to get wrapped-up in such limited universes, and not open your mind up to more!

Colin Moriarty

I'd like to go to China one day.

Colin Moriarty

This is not the write place, no. =)

Colin Moriarty

Mr. Phil.

Colin Moriarty

"Besides two of the three mainline movies, everything's great."

Colin Moriarty

Media Molecule is a ship adrift.

Colin Moriarty

It's obvious that's their goal; I think the question is whether that's even feasible. Unlike most other streaming services, which corporately revolve around the product, Microsoft can simply siphon money from anything else and make it work, whether it 'should' or not. And for some reason, that's deemed good by a lot of people... and not concerning.

Colin Moriarty

=)

Colin Moriarty

Write in!

Colin Moriarty

I have no interest in the Disney+ stuff.

Colin Moriarty

Col, do you think Sony would ever pay EA and Star Wars for timed exclusivity of a future FPS?

NeO JD

100%. We as gamers have become entitled. We want no crunch but also no delays. Every animation needs to be new but you also can’t be in development for more than 4-5 years or your game is in “hell”. Games shouldn’t have too much bloat but also make sure I have enough stuff to do for 60+ hours in case I really like it. And to top it off if I can’t get the game on Gamepass if it’s on Xbox then it’s still not worth the $60. Which is the counter to “I’ve tried so many things I wouldn’t have because of Gamepass”. For every one of those there are multiple “I’ll skip this and just wait for it to come to Gamepass”.

Ethan

Greedopath Traveler would have a killer cantina soundtrack. Fun fact: according to Wookieepedia, the jazzy music Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes play in the cantina is known as "jizz." As in space jazz. I'm late to the party on this one I know, but seriously? Great show as always gents!

James Pies

Never was a Star Wars fan, but this disney era with Solo, Rogue One, Mandalorian and Visions has made me a fan

Simon

Angel Dejesus already mentioned it, but I also came her to say that Palahniuk sort of endorsed the edit because it's way closer to the book. Here's an article in case anyone is interested https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/changing-america/enrichment/arts-culture/591858-fight-club-author-praises-chinas-censored-ending%3famp

Hey guys. So I just wanted to give some more info about the fight club china controversy. I think it's crap, but the author of the book actually supported it, sort of, saying the Chinese ending is actually closer to his book ending. He also pointed out how his book is banned from schools in most areas. So he says it's ironic that people got upset about china with the movie, while the US has its own censorship problems

Angel DeJesus

Chuck Pal-in-ew-ick is how I've always said/heard it. He did an interview on Rogan. Super interesting guy! One of my favorites.

Paul Sabo

I highly appreciate The Nanny reference

GameSimp

Dustin, Motorstorm is still beloved by fans the world over. The first game was brought back online and still holds up today. All 3 games were well received and sold well. Especially the first two. You are missing out if you haven’t played it. The mud physics were great, imagine a ps5 version. Wow.

Robbie Agnew

Mandalorian is awesome . The sequel trilogy sucks but everything else is pretty decent .

Ryan

Never been into Star Wars but I think it’s crazy how much of it there is (video games, tv, and movies). Between Marvel and Star Wars there is barely any oxygen left for other things to breathe. I don’t know, maybe it’s something I’ll just never understand. I loved the hobbies topic. I’m a big vinyl record collector and concert goer myself (shout out Dustin).

Mitchell Lundsberg

As someone who's been to China on multiple occasions through travel for business, I only have one comment. The sky is green on a sunny day! You can't reason with a country who defends this is normal...

Michael

Same people bitching about animations are the same people who bitch about crunch.

Context Should Matter

not sure if this is within the proper channels, but id like to see yall cover a lars von trier film if possible :)

gothichellokitty

Kindly refer to Phil Spencer as Phil Box henceforth.

Tick Dickler

Love you Col’, but you sound like an old curmudgeon. Besides The Last Jedi & Rise of Skywalker, everything else Disney-related has been pretty damn good. I’ll take more Respawn / non-EA Star Wars games any day.

Brandon Soto

Homie just wanted to show dreams some love and you put it on the show just so y’all could bury it in the same 15 minute rant y’all have been doing about it for years. As far as the market for arcade racers, I don’t know how much weight the hot wheels name carries, but the new game from milestone sold 1 million copies in 3 months.

Samuel Ashley

Great episode as always fellas! SS gets me through the finals hours of the work week, and into the weekend. Just wanted to chime in on the last discussion in regards to how Microsoft plans to fund future projects under the gamepass model. With their push for cloud gaming and the intention to offer their service on a plethora of platforms (consoles, pc, tv, phones, and tablets, etc) it seems they’re betting on revenue from subscriber numbers being able to supplement the lack of game sales and the money pumped into the upkeep of titles on the service. I don’t think the interesting question is “how” they’ll do it but “if” they can. It’s going to be a large investment of time and money, and who knows how the subscription service landscape will look in the coming years. As with anything, there’s skepticism aplenty on my end but I can’t deny it’s interesting as hell to follow!

Conor Tickner

Here’s an article for those interested https://variety.com/2022/film/news/fight-club-author-china-censored-ending-book-1235165291/amp/

Peter Jansen

For what it’s worth the Chinese edit of Fight Club is more close to the ending of the book. I don’t agree with the decision, and it’s clearly coming from the wrong place, but it seems like the author doesn’t mind the change.

Peter Jansen

Goodness, the last thing I expected was a throwback to 6 year old me watching Nanny at 2am in the summer.. That was a much appreciated moment, thanks for everything guys!

Carlos Torres

Correction: Twisted metal 2012 had a campaign. It did however put more focus on multiplayer.

Tonys_Always_Write

I think it's gonna hard to get great games and a volume of games. Gotta choose.

Colin Moriarty

Big yup! Completely with you.

Noah Friscopp

If the future of games are in subcriptions then there is no future for games. Not any good ones anyway. Chris trying to put a comforting tone on it by saying the music industry is doing the same isnt reassuring. Albums today are incohesive and lack structure. Shit the concept album is damn near dead save a few artist. A future where we are sacrificing artistic vision for a revenue model kills the hobby we all love in my opinion

Big titty drinker

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but for me, the Star Wars films were *always* the weakest aspects of the property/universe. They gave birth to the universe, but the best stories have always been from the games, books, and shows. I'm a *big* fan of the Mandalorian series, I enjoyed Fallen Order, and I have been impressed with Zahn's new Thrawn books, as well as the High Republic novels. In a lot of ways, I think I'm lucky that my love of that world has always been primarily outside of the "Skywalker saga". Right now I'm the most satisfied I've been as a fan since the golden era of LucasArts.

James McGivern

The latest episode of The Book of Bobba Fett is receiving a lot of praise because it is basically Season 3 Episode 1 of The Mandalorian. Bobba Fett doesn't even appear in the episode. Also, Rogue One is objectively the best Star Wars movie.

Not sure, actually. But we are selling several times more this time, I think everyone who wants to go will get one.

Colin Moriarty

Hey guys, any specific time tickets will go on sale on the 4th?

Chelsea

It's a dumb mentality. Shows how little people know.

Colin Moriarty

I skip most Rogan episodes, even though I listen to it a lot.

Colin Moriarty

Oh no.

Colin Moriarty

Some degree of that “lazy developer” type language has to just be hot takes to run up clicks. The toy community has that on YouTube with folks like Retroblasting just doing the ignorant “angry nerd” take without founding in reality just to drive the business model forward.

Kenneth Koepnick

It’s pronounced pal-luh-nook. He’s been on rogan twice, he’s a very interesting and strange dude. Unfortunately, he’s been moving more towards substack because the subject matter of his books are always prone to scandal. He spoke about it on his most recent appearance, he’s even been kicked out of writer groups that he has been a part of for decades.

Kenneth Oms

I think we have to address the David Jaffe and Dustin beef going on.

NIXNE

I am excited for that, as well. =)

Colin Moriarty

I simply don't understand what Star Wars even is.

Colin Moriarty

They've no choice.

Colin Moriarty

Yes!

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

Please do.

Colin Moriarty

Thanks. =D

Colin Moriarty

Oh man.

Colin Moriarty

Thank you.

Colin Moriarty

It’s a shame Colin’s perfectly warranted pessimism is mainly brought by the sequel trilogy. The Clone Wars final season was awesome, The Bad Batch is great, and the Disney+ live action shows have all been rock solid (with their main downside being another case of small galaxy syndrome). As long as Dave Filoni has the keys to the kingdom, we’re in good hands. It’s high time for a glutton of Star Wars games again. Excited for lego Star Wars in April !

Stephen Forgione

The thing with star wars games is that if the fans just get one half decent, and albeit not totally terribly duck typed mess, they will forgive all and every ills. But EA should have done this before they lost the exclusivity. You had it all, and a great deal of hype and optimism. And now that this is long gone, there is still the last thing that fans will hold onto. Hope. I bought jedi fallen order on day one, full price, and played it. Myriad of bugs and quirks aside, it warmed my heart and ignited a light in my soul.

indigoblue

Suck it titanfall fans

Brian Salazar

Jig time! 🕺🏻

Jackie Rheu

Lol what a name

Alex Bolton

Read time codes - oh shoot Im snagging that Monark demo right now.

Ryan Harvey

Although I'm totally onboard with more Star Wars, this title is clever and Dustin killed it with the thumbnail. Happy Friday looking forward to listening (Edit: Dustin, if you see this, Kojima did say at TGAs that he will be back there in 2022... hope we see his next game then!)

NotSkyWalker

Holy geez, I wanted to lick em!!

Eric Stoughtenger

Fantastic title gents 👌🏼

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