transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:38] Testing, testing, one, two, three. Oh my God, infinite PC problems. I'm so sorry about the delay. I was planning to like basically like, oh shit, let's go live immediately in 15 minutes. And here we are, almost half an hour later. I can't believe it. How do I sound? Do I sound okay? Like I've had so many PC issues this week, man. I've had like something wrong with my monitor, my laptop display. There's all these corrupted artifacts all over it. Apparently it's a common issue with Razer laptops, which is hilarious. So I wiped my laptop and I was like, I set up all my streaming stuff and I was like, okay, all that's sorted. But then forgot to install the drivers for the microphone, right? So before we go live, I'm frantically trying to install the drivers for my microphone. And then it's like, okay, you drives are installed, reboot now. Boom, Windows starts doing an update. Oh my God. But we're finally here. We don't have any gameplay though, because I don't have any downloaded. So what am I going to do just so the screen isn't blank? I'm just going to throw on Battlenet. And we'll throw on some random ass walk around Silver Moon City or something. But how are you guys doing? Are you guys rocking or rolling? It's been quite an eventful day. God, like it was very, very frantic and hectic and I totally screwed it up. I was having a nap when they announced it. And I swear to God, right? I think I've got a sixth sense for journalism. Because about 15 minutes after the embargo, because I'd already pre-written this, right? Because I kind of knew it was coming this week, but I didn't know when. So I knew it was coming this week, but apparently I got the time completely incorrect. And I was having a nap and chilling and all this crap. And then, oh dear, I got insane cramp in my leg, absolutely insane cramp in my leg and woke up. And then it was like they'd announced it 10 minutes ago. So like, you know, getting up frantically, filling the details of the article, doing all that kind of shit. And it's like, oh, but we made it, man, we made it. SnowDragon1023 says, can you draw pictures? I mean, I mean, you know what? I've actually got a drawing tablet I need to review. So maybe we do do a stream where I draw some pictures. Maybe, people used to do that, right? People used to do that on Mixer and stuff. I think people still do it on Twitch, but. A dedicated beard, great day it's been. Omegatotles, very convenient. Jez has no gameplay save when he's to grind in WoW. Very convenient indeed. You know, I've actually sort of come to the end of the WoW season now. Like, I've done pretty much everything I want to do. So now I'm only like doing, I'm only attending the raids now. You know, but I don't know, I'm going to drop a poll here because I want to see what you guys think about all this shit. Xbox Game Pass news today. W or L. That's what the kids say, right? So I need to know what you guys think about this. So is that working now? Yeah, so there we go. There's a poll. Yeah, and as usual, this show is sponsored by Surfshark VPN. You can get 86% off with the link in the description. They've been very good to us. And, you know, not going to do a full ad read, but the VPN is fantastic. And if you grab our deal for surfshark.com/xb2, then you get 86% off a two year plan, which works out to about $2 a month. It's absolutely fantastic in this era of your data being stolen and all that kind of good stuff. But yeah, so anyways, let's, I suppose we should first and foremost talk what's going on with Xbox Game Pass. So drop your questions in the chat about it specifically. I've had a ton of DMs about it, you know, and I've seen some of the takes like initially, of course people very happy about it and all that kind of stuff as you'd expect. But then like, as time went on and the sort of honeymoon period, I suppose, settled over the news, we start of, there's a lot of questions, there's a lot of legitimate questions about Xbox Game Pass' status, its viability as a business model, did Xbox get it wrong, who had Xbox got it wrong, you know, and all this kind of stuff. And, you know, increasingly it does feel like, you know, this was a data-driven move in essence. And I know, like, Asha's been on a tear doing things that are sort of, like, visibly good for the brand, and, you know, reacted to feedback and that kind of stuff. But this was one that I think was pretty heavily data-driven, because there's no business on earth that gives you constant data like a subscription service. And you only need to, like, look at how users are behaving month over month to figure out, you know, how to run it, basically. And I think, ultimately, what they saw was people were subscribing to $30. I think, I really think it's pretty much that simple. People are unsubscribing at $30. And especially, like, six months now, after Call of Duty is launched, or however many months it's been, it's $30 just isn't the price for this. It's just not, you know. Call of Duty was, um... Call of Duty was, um... a huge... a hugely disruptive entity to put into Game Pass, I think. Um, Frosty says, Jez, you say it's dangerous, but on the poster, said that made this move because of player feedback. That's pure PR, man. But I think at the same time, it's like... people unsubscribing is feedback, you know. Um, for me, like genuinely, this all up is about people unsubscribing and Game Pass not growing and having, like, um, Call of Duty ultimately having, like, an inverse effect on Call of... on Game Pass. And also Xbox Game Pass having an inverse effect on, or adverse effect rather, on Call of Duty engagement. So, it just, that's the limit. That's the limit of the... We found the limit of Game Pass, what they can put in there, right? SnowDragon1023 says, a $30 increase related to the 30% margin mandate. Um, I don't think it was. Um, the increase was entirely related to Call of Duty. So, like I said in my article, that the way... The way Xbox Game Pass works, the way Xbox Game Pass works with first party, is that Microsoft has a formula. I can't remember exactly what the formula is called. It's called Engagement Weighted something or other. I can't remember what it's called. But they've got a formula. And the way it works is they work out how much, how much retail sales has been lost as a result of Game Pass. And they charge the Game Pass fund. They charge, you know, the people using Game Pass and the profits from Game Pass. They charge that back to the studio. So because of how expensive Call of Duty is to run, and because of how popular Call of Duty was in Game Pass, but with existing users, it kind of vacuumed up all of the funding, or a disproportionate amount. And that money would have to go back to the studio. So they had to put it up to $30, you know, and sort of be like, well, this is the only price where we can actually claw back some of that cannibalization, right? And this isn't speculation. This is like information that I've gleaned from discussing the matter with Microsoft figures who are unauthorized to speak publicly on the matter. But I think that's essentially what it is. Like Call of Duty is a disproportionate amount of console revenue for Xbox. It's a huge operation, but it's also disproportionately expensive to run. Like the studios are based in expensive places. The live ops is very expensive. Call of Duty has its own customer service team, you know, all this kind of stuff. It's got like a huge amount of overhead. So putting it in Game Pass was very much like a bit of a Hail Mary. It was like, if we can we make an Xbox Game Pass that is hyper premium and will people resonate with that? And I think it was the wrong price at the wrong time, especially time when everyone's really more concerned than maybe typical about extraneous expenditure, you know. So it's kind of like, we've kind of gotten to that point where that's it, $30 was just too much. Even with Call of Duty in there, $30 was too much, you know. That's kind of like my read on it. Cappy912 with the $2 Canadian, thank you so much. If Xbox is serious, bundle card with console, do you mean like make a Call of Duty Xbox bundle? I mean, I would agree. I wrote an article on Monday as well, where I was like, why does an Xbox market against Call of Duty? Like they did in the 360 days. They paid for Call of Duty, and they're not really using it competitively at all. You know, like PlayStation had the marketing deal for Call of Duty for however many years. PlayStation weaponized the marketing very, very effectively. And Xbox has done absolutely nothing with it. You know. AirRank says, coming out with a shit card also had an adverse impact on the card. I mean, yeah, that didn't help either, right? So like, I think like the fact that Call of Duty was also having an off year, probably made people think like, well, I still want to play Call of Duty, but you know what? I'm just going to play it via Game Pass instead of playing it via retail sales. So like, that probably had an impact too, undoubtedly so I think. I think it would have been like a better Call of Duty. Maybe the outcomes would have been different. But really, what the play is, what the play is, and this is again, this is something that I've, what the play is, and this is something again that I've spoke to Xbox figures about, and something I put my mark on it, something that, you know, it's not exactly a revelation. Like, they've kind of, they've kind of hinted at it through a bunch of interviews and that kind of stuff. The, I'm just pulling up the article here. So I wrote my article that Asher is, and Asher and the Game Pass team are basically, they're exploring a sort of, a more modular version of Game Pass, right? A more modular version of Game Pass where you can sort of pick and choose your own plan essentially, right? So you'll be able to at least like, you know, let's speculate on what that could look like. You'll be able to like make a premium bundle that does include Call of Duty, that maybe includes World of Warcraft or Fallout First or Minecraft Realms or any other number of like potential future services too. Like what if there's like, I don't know, a State of Decay 3 or 4 dedicated server layer or a Grounded 3 dedicated server system, you know. There's all sorts of things that could, they could let people pick and choose into their personal Game Pass bundle. And this is how like it works in my phone operator, this is how cable TV works and all that kind of stuff. And I know like people complain about like, oh, this is getting complicated now. But at the end of the day, like, as you sort of find, as you try and seek where people are, you kind of want to offer them deals that are sort of exactly tailored to them, right? And the sort of... Rand said it on Defining Duke, me and Rand did Defining Duke last week. And Rand said like, I feel like I'm paying for other people's fun. Like I would never use Fortnite Crew or Ubisoft Classics, you know, or very, very unlikely to. I did play Call of Duty and Game Pass a little bit, but not enough to justify paying $30 a month for it. Like I wouldn't do it. I think $30 is too much. So when you consider these things, like one thing that I would do though, I would like to put World of Warcraft in my subscription, because I do play World of Warcraft. I would like to maybe even put Minecraft realms in my subscription because I like having a persistent realm that I can jump onto every now and then, you know, that kind of stuff. So, I think there is like, there is a universe where Call of Duty will probably come back to Game Pass, but it will be part of this sort of premium kind of modular system. You know, so I think that's kind of like where we'll be out with that stuff eventually. All right, let's have a look, see what you guys have been saying. I'm trying to keep up with the chat. You guys are awesome. Thanks very much. 9lives210 says, Jez, I'm subbed to 2028. Will it get extended for the price drop? I mean, those are some of the nitty gritty kind of questions. Like one person I've been speaking to in DM is kind of like, I paid for a year of Game Pass at the $30, expecting this year's Call of Duty in it. Will I get a refund? I think that's a completely valid question. I mean, if you subscribe today, you haven't lost anything. But if you've subscribed all the way through to next year, under the assumption that Call of Duty will be in there, and it's no longer going to be in there, I think that should probably make you eligible for a refund, at least under European law, I'm pretty sure that would make you eligible for a refund. It makes me wonder, but Microsoft's usually pretty good when it comes to legal compliancy. So there's probably something in the terms of service where it's like, you're not eligible for a refund if we remove some shit. But I don't know. But I think it's a valid question. It's something I can explore and ask some of my sources about. I'll definitely do that. Yeah, I don't know. But I think pulling it back to the data driven point, I think the reality is that most people didn't do that. I think most people didn't pay for a year of Game Pass with the view that Call of Duty would be in there in several months. I think the vast majority of people didn't do that. I think what more likely happened is the vast majority of people unsubscribed like I did, like I unsubscribed. I resubscribed via my phone carrier as an add-on package and at the old price, because my phone carrier clearly has some kind of contract with Microsoft where it's like they've got to honor the old price, right? I think that's also why we still get Fortnite Crew and Ubisoft Plastics in there because they've cut a contract with Epic Games and Ubisoft for that inclusion. So that's why it's still a little bit more expensive than it was. And also, there's probably like an inflationary factor as well. So Jay Cassidy says, in your article, you mentioned Call of Duty cannibalizing the budget cash being sent to the first party. Wouldn't the multi-plat push be so first-party studios could recoup that elsewhere? I mean, yeah, that is sort of part of it too, I suppose. I mean, it's always ultimately about line goes up. Line has to go up. And if Game Pass is saturated, and how are you going to make line go up when new people aren't coming into Xbox or Game Pass, right? So the obvious way is put Forza on PlayStation. And one question I've seen banding around a fair bit is like, will we eventually see other franchises like Forza, will we eventually see Forza removed from the service or put into this premium bundle kind of thing, right? I asked some of my contacts about that. It was the first thing I asked them about was like, is this going to be like a slippery slope now where if a franchise gets too big, you start pulling that out of Game Pass, you know? I think like it could happen down the line, but what I was told was at least for the medium, the short to medium term, those studios and those franchises were kind of, they were set up with Game Pass in mind. And their business model is adapted to Game Pass, whereas Call of Duty is just straight up isn't. Call of Duty was never designed with Game Pass in mind. The whole business operation revolves entirely around its retail sales presence and giving that away at a discount. And I think Nuus in our Discord worked out that like it's like a $30 saving or something over the year, if you get Call of Duty that way and, you know, use it like extensively and that kind of thing. It's a saving ultimately, but Microsoft's shouldering that saving, you know, like even at the, even at $30, it was Game Pass is potentially like a really good deal if you use everything in there. The problem is just most people don't use everything in there, which means that it's not, it's not worth it for them, I suppose. But yeah, I don't know. But the thing is, right, I mean, you only have to look at some of the polls that I put up about this. The vast majority of people wanted this. Like, I put a poll up last week, 75% of people said they would take a lower price for Call of Duty being removed. Most people in the poll I put up, I think it's like 90% of the people, hundreds of votes, people said this news was a good thing for Game Pass. Like, I think the thing is like Game Pass is a variety gaming service where Call of Duty is like an endless game kind of service, right? The idea with Call of Duty is that you play that and basically nothing else for the whole year. And I think that's how most people play Call of Duty, like the casuals, the people who only play FIFA, Call of Duty, Madden, Fortnite, whatever. They aren't interested in the variety gaming aspect. There's almost like two different types of gamer on console. And there are people who play the service games, the sort of 20 games that we know are always in the top 20, like Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, Call of Duty, all that kind of stuff. And then 50% play a lot of plurality of games or lots of different variety of games. Game Pass is really for people who play a lot of a big variety of games. And Call of Duty just doesn't make a whole lot of holistic sense in there, I guess. But it could make sense if there was a plan which only included first party, you know, like the rumored Triton codename, right? So as we close this poll, 90% of you say the Game Pass News was a win. Only 11% say it's an L. So, you know, I think ultimately this is a good thing. I think Call of Duty probably should never have been put in there. It was absolutely a Hail Mary Pass to see if like they could get, you know, somehow Call of Game Pass would grow with Call of Duty in there while also not losing money. It was like a huge Hail Mary and it should never have happened. You know, like there wasn't a single person on earth or very, very few people who saw that price increase and were like, shit, that's a good idea. I don't remember seeing any positive reaction at all to this, you know. And it just, it baffles me. It feels like it was an out of touch decision to expect people to pay $30 a month, you know. But yeah, I think the future is that we get some kind of modular Game Pass, you know. I imagine that like, imagine it like this, you pay for Game Pass premium, and then you can like attach Call of Duty to it. You can attach World of Warcraft to it. You can attach whatever else you want to it, right? Or like pick like maybe two hero franchises, and then attach those to like the Basic Plan or something like that, right? Pick your poison kind of thing. So I think that's how it goes, right? Game Walk Bandit says, this is like Netflix removing Stranger Things. The thing is, it isn't, man. It isn't like that because Stranger Things was never ever sold at retail. Like Stranger Things is baked into the business model, but Call of Duty was never designed for a subscription service. I think Call of Duty actually did try a subscription service at one point. Back when World of Warcraft was at its height during Wrath of the Lich King, I remember a lot of discourse was going around about like, can we make Call of Duty a subscription service where you just pay for a Call of Duty subscription for an endless Call of Duty? And I think they did flirt with that idea, but it just didn't work. Like the whole business is predicated on the $70 annual retail buy, you know. And it's not just like, it's not just like, it's also not just like the selling of the box. It's like the physical presence of Call of Duty in stores and all that kind of stuff, you know. So you can't, you can't, you genuinely can't compare these, right? I suppose like one way you can compare it is how Netflix, not Netflix, sorry, Spotify operated. So Spotify basically spent over a decade operating at a loss to change the entire global way humans consume music and they operated at a loss for over a decade to change everyone's habits around buying and consuming music. It's been hugely disruptive to artists. As we all know, right? Artists often decry being screwed by Spotify and that kind of stuff. And in another universe, if Spotify was a Microsoft service, Microsoft probably would have just been like, we can't operate this at a loss for 13 years. I think that's what it would ultimately take for Game Pass to do the same thing as Spotify did is to operate at a loss and be subsidized for over a decade. In order to be a deal that's so good, that you can't ignore it and that people come into it. But the problem is, a problem with that is Apple and Google block Game Pass from their stores using their policies. You can't put Game Pass anywhere really except Xbox hardware and PC. So it's again, it's not an Apple's to Apple's comparison, but you can see how disruptive Spotify was to the music industry and Game Pass in a similar way was disruptive to Call of Duty. But Game Pass was never big enough or Microsoft was never willing to subsidize it enough. It'd be one thing if they had added Call of Duty to Game Pass and didn't increase the price. Then Microsoft was like, we're going to subsidize this for 10 years and make Game Pass the default way people consume gaming media. But they never wanted to do that. They always wanted it to be supplementary. They didn't want to disrupt the gaming industry. They wanted it to be an option. Whereas Spotify was out to disrupt everything with regards to music. Spotify has completely changed music forever. I don't know, there are weirdos like me who still buy vinyls and CDs, but I still buy CDs because I'm old. Most people aren't going to do that. They ain't going to do that, man. So yeah, LadaRape says, Spotify workers of convenience, Game Pass can't. Yeah, like Game Pass can't offer that convenience because it's actively blocked by competitive platforms, you know. It's not convenient to buy a $500 console. It's never going to be there. So because it can never be as convenient as Spotify, it's actually got a function as a virtuous business. It's got a function as a virtuous cycle. It can't be subsidized like Spotify was. So, here's where it is, man. Here's where it is. Throw me some of your questions about the Game Pass stuff. I'll see if I can answer them because, you know, there is lots of like nitty gritty and stuff like that. Like, how many of you guys like, how many of you guys like actively use Cloud Gaming in Game Pass, for example? How many of you guys actually use it? You know, like we're paying for a lot of stuff in the subscription that I think a lot of people just don't use. Like, I never use Fortnite Crew. Since I got an Xbox Ally, I don't reuse Cloud very much either. Like, I used to use Cloud fairly often. But now I've got an Xbox Ally, I never use it. I never use it at all. So, I don't know. I'm just going to craft me a Haranir Fowl of Ingenuity. And I'm going to drink that Haranir Fowl of Ingenuity. And then I'm going to craft me this Flask of Magisters using Concentration. And then boom, we have two Flask of the Magisters. That's awesome. That is awesome right there, bro. I'm going to buy some more vials because I need some more. And then I'm going to craft another Concentrated Flask of the Magisters. Oh, I missed the Super Chat, did I? Thanks, Didac. I need... Scroll up, scroll up, scroll up, scroll up. Sorry about that. I really need a better system for seeing Super Chats and stuff. I bet Elder Scrolls 6 will not be on Game Pass Day 1 now. Anthony, I think it will be. I think it will be on Game Pass Day 1. Because Starfield was in there and at the end of the day, that was like a virtuous business cycle for them. I think like everyone I've spoken to has told me, this is just about Call of Duty. It's not about other franchises. It's not about Forza. It's not about any of this stuff. Forza Horizon 6 will be in Game Pass Day 1. That was confirmed to me today. So, you're going to get Forza Horizon for cheaper now as part of Game Pass. So, I don't think we lose things like Elder Scrolls. I could be wrong, but I don't think we will. I think Microsoft's like, this was always about Call of Duty, man. This was always about Call of Duty. Oh my God, we got Nocturnal Vision with five gifted memberships. Thank you so much, dude. I really, really appreciate that. I really need to set up some emotes and share on this channel. I'm actually using this channel more often now. So I need to start maybe taking it more seriously. I really enjoy streaming. I don't know. I love streaming with Rand, of course, but I was always like, I need someone to talk to and riff off. Riffing off the chat is just basically the same thing. It's awesome talking to you guys like this.

Speaker 2:
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Speaker 1:
[32:40] Dr3amsteel says, Jez, I feel hyped with the price drop, but to your point, console still pays a serious tax compared to get PC Game Pass. It will be interesting what happens with Helix. That's a really good point. Like, what is the play with PC Game Pass? Like, for me, one thing I've always expected is that PC Game Pass would eventually be removed. I think like PC Game Pass kind of like, it feels like there was sort of phasing it out when with the last change, like PC Game Pass is like hidden on the Game Pass website. Basically, you have to click a button to find it. So I was surprised when they lowered the price of PC Game Pass, because for me it was like, well, that kind of suggests that they're still in, they're still in with PC Game Pass, you know. But again, I'm kind of like, I'm in the dark about what the current plan is for PC Game Pass. It's something obviously I can look into and research a bit more. But like I do think under the previous regime, the plan was to get rid of PC Game Pass eventually, which is why like Game Pass Premium, Game Pass Essentials, they have PC games in them now. So I was kind of thinking like, okay, well, eventually PC Game Pass is going to sort of be cut up and merged with, you know, the current tiers. Because if you subscribe to Game Pass, the previous tiers, you do get PC versions of games. Not just via Play Anywhere, by the way. There's actually like legitimate, like PC games in there, not just Play Anywhere games. So yeah, I don't know what's going on with PC Game Pass. I can't lie. But I suppose I'll ask. I can dig into that, man. Die Hard Eddie Edwards with 5 US. Thank you so much, dude. Couldn't PC Game Pass be bigger if the Xbox app weren't turbo mega dog shit? I mean, yeah, probably. I'm not a fan of the Xbox PC app. I think it needs to be overhauled. Like at this point, I'm like, they've done a lot of work on it and it has improved a lot, but it's still nowhere near as good as what I would personally want it to be. You know what? I'm going to pull it up on stream. We'll have a quick look at it. I'm really not a fan of it. I have to tell you, I'm not a fan of it. It's on PC, at least. It's fast enough now, like on a proper gaming rig, but on my handheld, it still slows balls. I don't know why it's so slow. It's the code based or the electron stuff. I don't know, but it's so slow on my handheld, like to navigate and do that initial load. It takes like two or three minutes before the app becomes responsive, which is absolutely miserable, right? But for me, it's stuff like discoverability. Like on Steam, one thing I really like about Steam is that you can just mouse over the name of a game and it will show you what the game looks like, like screenshots and stuff. But in this, you have to like click into the game, you have to kind of guess based on the logo and the art that the devs have uploaded. And then like it loads up a page and the page is kind of slow and you know, all this kind of stuff. It's not good for discoverability. And also the search system doesn't work that well. Like sometimes like a game will come out and I'll search for it and you can't find it. Like for example, that new PI. Mouse game. Okay, that's showing up now. But when that PI. Mouse for hire game came out, I couldn't find it in the search system. It just wasn't there initially. I had to find it from my game history and stuff. Oh, I see they've added Call of Duty Modern Warfare to Game Pass, the original version. I mean, the remake of the original version. They've added that to Game Pass. I didn't know they've done that. So that's interesting. I guess we're gradually moving towards including all the previous, the older Call of Duty games, I guess. But I don't know. It's too sparse, man. Like these icons and shit, like I want to see lists like Steam, like give me like a version where there's just more information. I don't know. Just make it Steve. I don't know, but not too much like Steve. Because I have issues with Steam too. Frosty with 760 says, Xbox has lagged behind competitors. Why is that? Xcloud is actually the biggest cloud gaming service. I mean, in terms of users, it's not lagging behind. I think it's the most used service. But I suppose like in terms of, if you're talking about like quality and stream delivery and that kind of stuff, it helps that Nvidia make the chips, right? Nvidia actually make the chips and the thing is they can use idle compute in their data centers and send them over to cloud gaming. And when cloud gaming is not being used, they can send that over to AI compute. So like they have like server technology, which kind of Microsoft has to go through AMD and other companies to set up their infrastructure. So I think that's part of it. You know, the fact that they can't make their own chips. But, you know, I try Xcloud today. Like I was playing Xcloud the other day and like I was quite impressed with the quality. There was a time where you couldn't play FPS on Xcloud at all. Like it was impossible. I remember trying to play Halo Master Chief Collection on cloud and it was just too slow and too sluggish. You couldn't place your shots very well or you had to like, you had to play it in an almost an anticipatory kind of way. But these days like FPS, single player FPS, I should add. I wouldn't play multiplayer shooter on it, but single player FPS is totally playable on Xcloud. I was playing the mouse PI game on it just to test it out the other day. So I didn't have to install it, right? But it's, Xcloud is not as bad as you think. Like my internet is terrible. Like I'm half expecting by the way, that I'll get disconnected sometime during the stream. Because my internet where I'm living right now is absolutely terrible. Mr. Supernova with the two, thank you very much. Jez 2028 and Murica first. I'd be a great president man, I think. I give everyone a free Xbox, free World of Warcraft subscriptions and free booze. That's my platform would be free Xbox, free World of Warcraft and free booze. Oh, and also, we'll spend, I don't know, five billion dollars making Windows Phone viable. We'll bring back Windows Phone. I'll run on that platform actually. Free mayonnaise, hell yeah. Free mayonnaise too man. Thank you for that dude. Game Rock Monday says, Any of your sources can't confirm your exclusives coming or not. What about E-Day? Is day one on PS5 or isn't? You think they will walk back exclusivity? That's a tough one man. So, I did say on a previous stream that they're talking about exclusivity, right? But that's exactly what they're doing. They're talking about it and there are debates happening about it. Now, whether or not they bring back exclusivity, like when I talked about, I was pretty definitive, right? When I talked about on the previous show, how they were going to get rid of Call of Duty, or they were talking about getting rid of Call of Duty and lowering the price for Game Pass, right? Then me and Rand talked about it and stuff like that. But on this one, it's very much like, it's, I personally think it's going to be tough for them to put the Genie back in that bottle. There is so much money they've been leaving on the table doing this. And as we all know, line goes up, which kind of makes it really difficult for them to justify going back on this. I think basically what they would need to be is some kind of formula where they kind of look at wholesale. What are we expecting to gain from going back to exclusivity from a monetary perspective? There's a lot of goodwill that could win on Twitter if they did go back to exclusivity, but that ain't enough for running a business, right? They've got to actually show some kind of business benefit to going back to exclusivity. Will going back to exclusives drive Xbox hardware sales or bring new users into the platform? That's the real question, you know, and Phil Spencer said in interviews that Starfield could be a 12 out of 10 and it wouldn't bring new users to Xbox. I think, yeah, like V Chair in chat says, for the P&L, Twitter means zero. Yeah. Twitter, like the discourse doesn't mean anything. Like what do, what does the wider, how does the wider audience, the wider market, how did they respond to Xbox going back to exclusive games? I think in the very least, Forza Horizon, there's absolutely no chance that Forza Horizon will go back to being exclusive. Personally, I don't think that's something that will happen. You know, and again, like, I don't know for sure, but I would, I would bet a lot of money that Forza Horizon will be, will remain a multi-platform game. There's just, it's the biggest racing game on PlayStation now by a mile. And there's just, there's just no way that could pull that away now. However, could single-player games go exclusive again? Gears E Day, to your question, could Gears E Day go exclusive? Was Gears E Day ever announced for PlayStation? You know, I think some stuff like Gears E Day, maybe even Elder Scrolls at a stretch could become at least timed exclusives. I think if the whole point of having content is to drive interest in your service, whether it's Game Pass or console, you kind of need some exclusive content, right? That's always been my view, that they need at least some exclusive content. They need some mascots, they need some characters and some worlds, which you can showcase your ecosystem with. And as it comes back to like the choice of being like an ecosystem company or a publisher, I don't think you can do both effectively. You've either got to be one or the other. You've got to be all in on one or all in on the other, you know? And I think, I think that there's like, they are leaving so much to chance by becoming a publisher. They relinquish control and political clout in the industry by moving away from being a platform holder. And we've seen the damage, and I know I always come back to Windows Phone, but it's a great example. We've seen the damage to Xbox, I mean Microsoft's entire business by leaving the smartphone business. Microsoft can't promote AI, it's AI products, it can't promote its business products like Google Apps, and Microsoft Office, sorry. They can't promote Game Pass on mobile, because Google and Apple won't let them, because they don't have a mobile platform of their own to compete with. They purposefully didn't want to compete. And that's fucked up all aspects of Microsoft's business. So for me, if Microsoft was just going to be like, oh, we're going to be a publisher now, you know, they relinquish a ton of control. So it doesn't make business sense for me, for them to do this. You know, and this kind of feeds into the next super chat from diehard Eddie Edwards, with the 10 US, thank you so much, dude. He says, why doesn't Microsoft see Valve's competition? All their games are on Steam and the Xbox app sucks, and they're not communicating anything about proving this to the PC platform. I mean, this is another aspect of it, right? PC, they've invested a ton in the PC app, and it's still not particularly great. But Steam is undeniable. There's a huge amount of people on Steam, and Steam is seen as a default. Like you have to be there. It'd be kind of like blocking your website from Chrome, like Chrome is the default web browser, even though I use Edge for Microsoft rewards, which has also been in the news a bit this week. Steam is the default, so I think they have to show up on Steam for the health of the Windows platform all up, right? But it would be great if the PC app didn't suck. And it's kind of funny because battle.net, like battle.net for World of Warcraft and stuff like that, is far better, it's far, far better than the Xbox PC app, and I don't know why. Like for me, if I was Microsoft, I would scrap the Xbox PC app, and I would just start turning battle.net into my Steam competitor. battle.net is already huge, it's got decades of recognizability, you know, and I know it's weird to say this after writing an article that Xbox shouldn't hide, but if they're not going to make the Xbox PC app like actually good, for whatever reason, they can't seem to be able to do it. It's just slow, discoverability is bad, all that kind of stuff. Maybe they should look at what the battle.net teams do it, because battle.net is just so much better in every way. But maybe battle.net is better because it doesn't have all that extra stuff in it. Maybe battle.net is better because it's so light weight, and it doesn't have to pull in all this extra data, you know. And it's easy for me to sit here on a stream and say these kind of stuff. I'm not developing it. But man, I really like, the Xbox PC app is still like a huge point of contention for me, you know. I mean, it's solid, but it's like, it could be so much better. Like it's so hard to discover content on it. The whole point of a PC app is like, the whole point of a store is the discoverability of content. Like I should just be able to click around and instantly see what a game is. I shouldn't have to click through multiple different types of pages. Like it's so dumb that games on the PC app, they have a store listing and they have like a library page. Why isn't there just one page with all the stuff on it? Why do I have to click through the store page to find the screenshots or vice versa, you know. It's, it could be so much better. It could be so much better. But yeah, I don't know. Alvin with the five US says, if Elder Scrolls, Blade and Clockwork are full exclusive, then PlayStation guys will buy Helix's. If they're only timed, they will wait. Simple as, no. I mean, you're probably right. You know, it's tough. But at the same time, it's kind of like one of them. It's like, for people who have, a lot of people have both consoles. So for people who have both, Microsoft potentially captures the people who are using both, but maybe not using their Xbox enough. Like Rand, for example. Rand has a PlayStation. He only uses it for exclusives. Even though Death Stranding 2 might eventually come to Xbox, now Kojima owns the franchise, and Death Stranding 1 came to Xbox and all that kind of stuff. I'm waiting for Death Stranding 2 on Xbox before I play it, or I was waiting for Death Stranding on PC. I know it's on PC now and I haven't gone around to it, but I want to play Death Stranding 2, but there's no way in hell I'm going to buy a PlayStation for it, knowing that it will eventually come to the platforms that I do prefer. But a lot of people do own both. Like if I did own both, and I think eventually like when I get my own place, I will own both. We currently look at me and my girlfriend are currently looking for our first place. Now she's got, my girlfriend got a full time job, so now we've got enough money between us where we can actually get a place. Now I'm going to have more space. I might actually buy a PlayStation and a Nintendo Switch because I'll actually have an entertainment center where I can set them all up and not just like my entire universe is on this tiny desk right now. I physically can't fit a PlayStation or Nintendo Switch into it, but if I did have the space, I will buy those consoles. But I would probably like, I wouldn't, if I did have a PlayStation, I wouldn't wait for the Xbox version then. I'd probably just buy it outright on PlayStation, right? So a lot of people who are really into gaming have multiple systems. So like for me, I think timed exclusivity isn't completely worthless. You know, but I do think what I would do, I wouldn't do timed exclusivity either. Personally, I think they should be permanently exclusive. And I would create a branding like Xbox Original or something like that. To denote the fact this game is going to be permanently exclusive to our ecosystem, whether it's cloud, PC, Xbox PC and that kind of stuff. I think Steam is kind of like, I think if they can get the Xbox PC app to where it needs to be or where it should be, they could even preclude Steam, you know. But, it's a big if. And I think at the end of the day, people are creatures of habit. They stay where they are now more than ever. Like getting someone to switch from an iPhone to Android or vice versa is just something that doesn't happen anymore. So, I don't know. Personally, I don't think exclusives will come back, personally. But we'll see, man. It doesn't seem like anything's off the table right now. I think they're, like Asha said, they're examining everything. They're examining every aspect of the business. So, if they come up with some kind of argument that they should have exclusives, then we'll get exclusives. But personally, for me, I don't think exclusives will come back. But could be very wrong. Could be very wrong. Kenny Powers with $4.99 US. Thank you very much. Why don't you or any journalist ask Xbox if Helix will run Steam? People are assuming it will, but leading PC storefronts language isn't clear. I have asked and I have reported that Helix will run Steam. I guarantee you here that Helix will run Steam. So there you go. I've asked plenty of times and I've reported plenty of times. Helix will definitely run Steam. But you'll be able to run anything on it, because it's just going to be a PC. It's going to be a PC the same way the Steam Deck is a PC. You'll be able to exit out to the desktop and you'll be able to run whatever you want. It's going to have a full PC ecosystem. So you'll be able to run Adobe Cloud on it, presumably. An office and whatever else. There's going to be downsides to that too. You're probably going to be more open to being hacked and that kind of stuff. And also, the stream today was delayed for 30 minutes because of a Windows update. Will that happen on my Helix? Maybe, but I suppose we're going to find out how much of all that Windows bullshit, how much effort goes into making that feel more console-like and more simple, more seamless, but it is going to be PC in essence. So yeah, it will run steam. Mr. Calary with the five. How you doing, man? Hey, Jez, long time. Is there merit to making multiplayer games permanent exclusive? Poor single-player to PS5 as multiplayer is a recurring revenue. Make Xbox King a multiplayer again. I don't think there's any chance whatsoever of multiplayer games going exclusive. I think multiplayer games live or die based on their virality. In order for a game to go viral, it has to be on every single platform possible. I don't think you can make a multiplayer game viral if it's not on everything. Especially certain types of games like a shooter. Imagine if Marathon was exclusive to PlayStation, it would be dead already. It would be dead already, guaranteed. Marathon was exclusive to PlayStation, it would probably already be shut down. I don't think that shit works anymore. I don't think multiplayer games will be exclusive anymore. But I don't know. Well, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. HazardOgaming said, I switch from Apple to Android. Fair play, dude. But we are the minority. I switch my girlfriend, my girlfriend switch from Apple to Android because she really, like a sister got a Google Pixel and the Google Pixel camera is absolutely nuts. I don't know if you guys have tried a Google Pixel camera, but man, I used to think the Samsung cameras were the best, but the Google Pixel camera absolutely wipes the floor with it. I know like there's some AI stuff going on to make the pictures look better, but it's absolutely fantastic. But it took me a month to move her iCloud off her iPhone and put it onto OneDrive for the Android phone because iCloud is just so slow, and she had like 500 gigabytes of stuff in there. The iCloud app for Windows is devastatingly bad. It's pure trash. It was so slow moving all these videos off it, but got there in the end. Most people don't want to deal with that shit. Mr. SuperNo with the $5. Thank you, dude. If there are no exclusive, what is Ashley's long-term plan? What are the reasons to own an Xbox if no exclusive? I mean, these are the questions, man. I suppose one thing you could point to now is that Game Pass is affordable again. So Game Pass is a good exclusive aspect of the Xbox ecosystem. One thing Phil used to say was like, he wanted Xbox to win on the merits of its hardware and features. Helix is going to have some unique features. Presumably, it's going to have free online multiplayer. So Helix potentially beats PlayStation and Nintendo on that front. If indeed, we are losing the paywall for multiplayer. I don't see how you can sell a PC with a paywall for multiplayer. I don't think that works in 2026, 7, 8, but we'll see what happens there. But assuming that it doesn't have a paywall for multiplayer, then that's a pretty cool exclusive feature. Game Pass, again, be a pretty cool exclusive feature. And then there's probably going to be some like, it's going to be the most powerful box, presumably that's what they've said their goal is. And then also like whatever AI shenanigans they're putting it to do upscaling, that kind of stuff. But, you know, it's funny because like Windows is the dominant PC gaming platform because of its exclusives. You know, like most games run on Windows and Linux has a lot of gaps. Like Linux has gotten better at running games, but it runs Windows games at the end of the day. And a lot of those games don't work that well on Linux. And then you've got all the issues with multiplayer games and kernel level anticheating stuff. So Windows is dominant on PC because of its exclusive stuff. So, you know, they got to look at all this stuff and analyze the data and come up with a plan. Like personally, you know, like I've always said, I think Xbox should have stayed with exclusives. They should have stayed with exclusives and like gone ahead with this hardware plan of like OEMs making devices and then like having an Xbox for every price point, doing cloud to access TVs, you know, using Steam to access PC and like subsidize a secondary audience. I don't think they should have ever gone to PlayStation. You know, I mean, Forza Horizon is going to feed so much money to PlayStation. Like Forza Horizon being on PlayStation helps PlayStation. Obviously, right? And that PlayStation wants Xbox to be dead. You know, it's kind of weird that they want to help PlayStation in that context, right? It would be, it's a nice thing. It will be a nice thing if we could all play all the games on the platforms we want to play them on. But that's just not the universe we live in. That's just not the universe we live in, right? Can you, Mario would never be on PlayStation. You'll never see Zelda on PlayStation, ever. That will never happen, I don't think. I don't know what Microsoft thinks they can have their cake and eat it, because I don't think they can, but I don't know. I don't know. A dedicated bit says, Jez C, do you see Tim Cook stepping down? I did see Tim Cook stepping down. You know, he's been getting on a bit, you know. I saw someone say he grew Apple's share price a thousand percent, you know. He arguably did more for Apple than Steve Jobs himself did. But, you know, I don't think Apple be where he is today without the iPhone, and that was all Steve Jobs, right? So Tim Cook was always like, he was the money guy, right? Even like under Steve Jobs, like Tim Cook was the money guy. And like Apple today, like it doesn't really innovate. Anymore, but it might make a ton of money for shareholders. You know, which is supposedly the job. It'd be interesting to see what like, because they're going back to a sort of a hardware focused CEO now. The VP of Hardware is becoming the CEO, so maybe they want to go back to an innovation era. It'll be, it'll be interesting to see what the new guy does. You know, in an era where Apple is kind of boring these days. Although I've been said that, like the new, you can't deny Apple Silicon, like Apple Silicon and the new, the new MacBooks, like the $700 MacBooks, really impressive shit, man. So even saying like you didn't innovate is probably bullshit on my end. You know, I always clown on Apple, you know, I hate like how closed their platforms are and how anti-competitive they are. They're kind of really irritating that way. But you can't deny like that's what, that's what competition is. You know, I think like the way, the way Apple competes so aggressively ultimately serves to give their customers a polished experience that they seem to want, you know, people wouldn't buy Apple products if they didn't like them, you know. But yeah, the Tim Cook era is over. C. Lord of Braba says, As a long time Apple shareholder, I am grateful for Tim Apple. Man, seeing all the stock market stuff over the last few weeks with the war and stuff, and how much money people have been making with the markets being manipulated, I'm sitting there like, I own zero stocks. I don't get the stock market. I've never invested in anything. I had Bitcoin at one point, and I didn't make a bit of money on Bitcoin, but it just felt like gambling to me. I was like, this is stressing me out. I was checking my Bitcoin every five minutes. It was stressing me the fuck out, man. I don't know how people do that shit. I don't know how people do that shit, man. I'm terrible with money, man. I'm so bad with money. I'm so, so bad with money. As you guys know from my Lilith statue, I'm so bad with money. Like, if it wasn't like, I'd probably be able to afford my own place already if I wasn't so bad with money. But, you know. Money's for spending, right? Guys, guys. Max city can, Max city ent 9568 says, Exclusive E is dead. I think, I think you're right, man. I don't think Exclusive E will come back personally, but maybe someone at Microsoft will be like, if they can work out a good reason to bring it back, then it will come back. TGI says, Jez, put your money in an ETF. It's a fund that has a lot of stocks. It's not secure. It's not secure. Yeah, ETFs, right? I don't know, man. I just, maybe I should just like give the money to a stock broker and be like, invest this bit for me. I don't know. Erank says, saving. Yolo, am I right? Yeah, I don't do savings. I got some savings, but it's like my emergency fund savings, like if I lose my job or something. It's like, okay, well, if I lose my job, I'll have savings that will like help me survive for a few months, you know, to offset it or whatever. I'm pretty sure I am going to lose my job this year. Oh man, it's a fun time in publishing, right? So what I'm going to do now, guys, I'm going to do the Patreon Q&A, because we did have a Patreon Q&A last week, but Rand couldn't make it because of IRL stuff. If you know, you know, Rand's kind of going through it right now. Hopefully we're going to do a show on Friday, but I'm not sure if 100% if we will. So but here are some of the Patreon topics from this week. I'm just pulling this on Patreon. If you want to join Patreon, it's currently 50% off. So on Patreon, you get weekly Q&A's on the higher tier. It's on the higher tier because if it was on the lower tier, then there'd be like a million Q&A's and we couldn't get through more. You also get ad-free audio on the podcast. Also, I'm trying to do a weekly newsletter, although I didn't do one this week because I was just so damn busy. But if I do lose my job at Windows Central, which I think is probably inevitable, the way the industry is going, I'm going to go hard into Patreon. So it's free to join at the basic level. I probably like, I drop articles and other bits and pieces in there for free. And that kind of stuff, I'm just going to drop a link here. So, that is the Patreon. I mean, Rand said it on a previous show, but for those who don't have missed it, Rand's mother died a few weeks ago. Oh wow, a couple of weeks ago at this point. So Rand's been dealing with a lot of legal stuff. His mother died unexpectedly, and Rand's got quite a big family. So there's a lot of funeral arrangements, lawyers, legal shit popping off, and all that kind of stuff. So Rand's dealing with that kind of right now, which is why the show has been a little bit disrupted. But I wanna keep it rolling for you guys, because you guys have been so supportive over the years. And as we still try and navigate the crazy changes to the media landscape, and the algorithm and all that kind of stuff. But you guys have always been incredibly supportive, and especially the Patreon peeps who supports directly via Patreon. Patreon 50% off right now as well through April, if you haven't joined before. Me and Rand split the Patreon, like everything we do is 50-50. And it supports the show and that kind of stuff. So let's do some Patreon Q&A. So the first one is from Lazowolf. Jez, on your recent solo show, you said Xbox should keep exclusives to encourage people to buy the system. Haven't you said yourself you wouldn't buy a PS5 just for exclusives, as you already have too much to play and wouldn't abandon your digital library? I just want to see how exclusives help sell systems and people locked in their digital libraries during the PS4 and Xbox One era. I mean, that's exactly true. I did say that. That is Microsoft's logic at the end of the day. Microsoft's logic is people are creases of habit and they won't change systems. I certainly won't for a few exclusives. But the thing is about Microsoft is they own a ton of exclusives. PlayStation ships how many games in a year these days? PlayStation doesn't ship a lot of stuff. Imagine what would happen if Doom, Elder Scrolls and all these big, massive, known franchises went exclusive. I think for me it's a slightly different equation for Xbox and PlayStation. Just speaking personally for myself, I'm not hugely invested in or that interested in any of the games that PlayStation puts out. But a lot of people are invested in The Elder Scrolls. A lot of people are invested in Fallout and Doom and these legendary franchises. So I do think some of those classic franchises would sell systems. I really do, but maybe they wouldn't. I think certainly Phil Spencer believed they wouldn't. So you could be right. Maybe people don't and won't switch. When I discuss these things and oftentimes, I think it's growing up on the BBC. If you're British and you grow up on the BBC, the BBC does this. By law, the BBC has to present both sides of an argument. So a lot of the time when me and Rand are discussing things, I do this thing where I apply devil's advocate and we discuss different perspectives on things. It's a habit I've got. So it catches me out because people clip me saying one thing where I'm playing devil's advocate. And then they say, oh, but Jez, you said this, right? But sometimes when I speak about Xbox, I speak about it from my source perspective and then my own perspective. I personally think that platforms need their mascots and their exclusives, even though I don't think Halo, unless Halo is amazing, I don't think Halo is going to sell systems in 2026. But I think the Elder Scrolls would. And I think if you made all that shit exclusive and the classic franchises, it would definitely sell systems, you know. But maybe it wouldn't. Maybe it wouldn't. Yeah, I don't know. Ajay says the BBC have been questionable a few times. Like the BBC is questionable all the time, man. But like they do, they do by law have to present both sides of an argument. And the problem with that is sometimes you're presenting a ridiculous argument in the BBC. Like they have some like fucking idiots on just because they, they like, they try to do like the both sides kind of thing. Because they have to by law, you know, like off com, off coms, like the BBC has to represent multiple perspectives and points of view and all that kind of thing. I don't know. But the problem is sometimes they platform fucking idiots as a result. And there's a lot of fucking idiots out there, man. A lot of fucking idiots out there. Polish Kraken says with the $10 Canadian, thank you so much. Give us a rock band and Asha is a bae. Yeah, man. I mean, I heard long time ago, I heard an interview with a game adaptation newscast like Piers Morgan. Piers Morgan is not on the BBC. I just want to throw. At least I don't think he is. Piers Morgan is a fucking clown. No, but he's like, you know, he's pretty consistent in his convictions. At least he's not a grifter. Sometimes he's very ignorant, but he doesn't do the grift thing. Like, he will go against the grain and follow his beliefs, which at least to some degree I can respect, even if a lot of his beliefs are fucking stupid. But anyways, let's see. What else we got here? Oh yeah, I was gonna tell you a story. So a long time ago, I heard an internal interview with Bobby Kotick, which was presented by James Corden, my arch nemesis, my evil doppelganger. Or maybe I'm the evil one. But it was so strange. Like when they sold to Microsoft, Bobby Kotick did an internal Q&A, which was hosted weirdly by James Corden. And in that Q&A, Kotick said, and I'm paraphrasing here and I've got the recording, so I could go and look it up. But he said something along the lines of, and this was like to the whole company at ABK, like a live stream. They said, he said something like, without Microsoft, we wouldn't be able to bring back Guitar Hero. And I was like, ooh, they want to bring back Guitar Hero? And I was like, why do they need Microsoft to do that? And I was thinking like, maybe Microsoft, you know, gonna invest in the music licenses, like all that kind of stuff. And so it sounded to me like, they were gonna bring back Guitar Hero at some point, but it was like part of the plan or something. And then it just never happened. You know, I did write about that at the time. Like you can go and find the article somewhere up on Windows Central, but yeah, it was so weird. James Corden doing the internal Q&A. How much did he pay for that? How much did he get paid for that? I want to know. That's fucking weird, man. Died that breastless, James Corden with Kotic, such an evil duo. Oh man, I don't think James Corden is evil. But he's got a lot of, there's a lot of negative stories about James Corden, ain't there? I don't know. My dad did some genealogy stuff, and he reckons that we are distantly related to James Corden, like my family is somehow, some weird way. Cause Corden isn't like a very, it's not a very regular surname, right? So, you know, my dad did some genealogy on like one of these heritage websites. And he was like, I think, I think we related to James Corden in some kind of weird way. Like some of my relatives kind of look like him. It's kind of freaky, you know. But hey ho. Yeah, I don't know. But I would like, I would love it if Guitar Hero came back, man. I love that game. I've actually got, I actually bought the guitar, because Fortnite has the Guitar Hero mode, right? I actually have the Fortnite guitar and I was, I never tried it out. Like the guitars at home gathering dust. I don't know. So another Patreon question we've got from Good Old Collingwood. Hello, Rand and Jez. We're getting a Call of Duty movie in the next couple of years. Which game should the movie be based on? Should it be original World at War, World War Two, Vanguard, Modern Warfare, Black Ops, Infinite Ghosts, the one with Milo, Venti Miglia, or Battlefield? Who would play Captain John Price? That's a really great question. I think you kind of have to do Modern Warfare. Like Modern Warfare is a big one. I don't know if you guys in chat, how do you guys feel about it? Like what story arc should the Call of Duty movie be based on? Like for me, it's gotta be Modern Warfare, right? It's gotta be Modern Warfare. I can't see how it could be anything else than Modern Warfare, but who would play Captain John Price? I don't know. I don't know, man. Like Tom Hardy? I could see Tom Hardy doing it, John Price, man. I'd watch that. Seth Green, The Duck of Death. Black Ops is a more interesting story, but it's a spin-off. I think as well, the Black Ops stuff, like because of Black Ops 6 and 7 being back-to-back, I think the Black Ops brand is kind of like taking a black eye recently. Don't know if you guys see Cody Rhodes' face, by the way, speaking of black eye, like Randy Orton proper kicked him in the face. The rest of the man, yeah. It's like his whole face is caved in, man. It's crazy. Alcohol9922 says 6'7, I agree, I agree. Oh shit, I said 6'7, didn't I? Oh well. Don't clip that. DedicatedBeard says, I assumed it wouldn't adapt to any of the games, but be a new story. Yeah, maybe. A-Rank says, Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey will be perfect for a card movie. Maybe Bella Ramsey plays Captain John Price, right? I want that to happen just to see people meltdown. I think that would be hilarious. John Titor, the next super chat... Sorry, Patreon Q&A says, Hey Rand and Jez, it's become increasingly clear if it wasn't already that Halo Studios may not be the right steward for the Halo franchise. With Xbox owning id Software and several Call of Duty Studios, I would love to see a different approach and delegate Halo to external teams, similar to how Konami has successfully handled the Silent Hill series with third party developers. I'd be really interested to see what a Halo game from id Software or machine games could look like, even if it meant delaying a new Doom, Quake or Wolfenstein. At this point, priorities should be rebuilding and strengthening the Halo brand. What would you like to see taken on a new Halo game? I completely agree. I think the way Konami has handled Silent Hill has been absolutely fantastic. I think what you could do is you could have Halo Studios, you could have them steward the mainline game. But I don't see why you couldn't have id or machine games or one of the Call of Duty studios do some spin-off, man. You could have an ODST2 from id Software. You could do a stealth game where you play as an elite with an energy blade or whatever. You could do all kinds of shit with Halo. Keeping it insular like that is problematic. I will say, Reb's Gaming has been reporting on Halo Studio stuff. I've been trying to very... part-timedly so, because Halo isn't my typical beat. But a lot of what Reb's Gaming has reported seems to be true from people I've spoken to. Pierre, the studio runner Pierre, does seem like a controversial figure internally. Apparently, he's got a short fuse I've heard, and someone told me a story about shouting matches and yelling at people and that kind of thing, which doesn't sound like a fun working environment to me. But there's always like two sides to a story, right? So I don't know exact... I don't have CCTV in Halo Studio's arena, but I am sort of working through some of these reports, and a lot of them seem pretty well-founded. You know, so it is... It's kind of frustrating that Halo has been mishandled like it has been, you know? But even as someone who's like a casual fan, but like they did like the Halo RTS games, like Halo Wars 2, which was like not... It was not a spinoff story, but it was like... It was in universe and it was like the proper law, right? But they allowed like an external studio to handle that shit. So like if they're willing to do Halo Wars, let some other devs take a crack at it. But I would love to see a Call of Duty ODST. Like why not have one year where they go all in, making a Call of Duty based on the Halo Wars IP. I mean, the Halo IP, not Halo Wars. My amazing girlfriend just bought me a cup of tea. So thanks to Andy for that. I also want to see Halo Wars 3, man. Halo Wars 3, bring that shit back. Just checking for super chats here. I think we're clear. Polish crack me the last one. Thanks dude. The next Patreon Q&A topic is from C. Woody. Good afternoon, fellas. Has anyone heard any rumors on what the form factor for Helix will look like? If not, what would you like it to look like? As much as I like the Series X, I don't want Helix to be just the same or look like an average pre-built PC. Let me know your thoughts and thanks for the show. That's a really good question. I actually personally really like the Xbox Series X design. I actually think it's the best looking video game console ever, to be honest, but I also quite like minimalistic black tech. I've got a razor blade. Even though I said I was saying at the start of the show, my razor blade display is not working properly. But for three years, this razor blade has served me incredibly well. And it is just a simple industrial slab of black aluminium. I love that kind of look, right? But I appreciate not everyone likes that. I think the play would be to let people customise it. I love the faceplates they've got going on with the steam machine. That is amazing and genius. And I know Xbox has the wrap stuff. Like I've actually got from Toast and I've never set this up. I've got a wood wrap from my Xbox Series X that I was going to try. So I know they've got the wraps, but like some kind of customisability would be fantastic. But I do think I would, I think personally I want it to retain the cuboid kind of look, whether it's a cube or a tower. I prefer that, personally speaking. But I think a lot of people do still use their console under the TV. So maybe going back to a sort of a flatter form factor would help maybe. Because I will say that like the Xbox Series X looks great when it's upright, but when it's laid out horizontally, it looks like it's fallen over. It doesn't look good horizontally. I think it looks pretty hideous or it's pretty clear. It was designed to be upright, and that horizontal was like an afterthought. DidacBros says, he looks like a pre-built PC, bigger Series X. I think the Xbox One X was the best looking one, small but perfect. Yeah, the Xbox One X was fantastic. No Talent Talon says, Razer Blade quality control is bad. Like seriously, like my Razer Blade has been immaculate. Like I haven't had a single blue screen of death on this thing. And now I've said that it'll probably happen. Like I haven't had any issue with my Razer Blade at all. All the ports work great. The keyboard works great. The trackpad, everything. Like it's honestly one of the least problematic laptops I've ever had. However, as of a Windows update the other day, now I've got all this weird display corruption at the bottom of the monitor, which is driving me fucking crazy. And the thing is, I don't think it's a hardware issue because sometimes I can get rid of it by, you know, control, Windows key shift and B to reboot the graphics driver. Sometimes it will go away by rebooting the graphics driver, but maybe that's like, I don't know, sending a new connection to maybe there is a hardware fault. Like, there could still be a hardware fault. But I don't know. I'm so, I'm so upset because this laptop's like served me incredibly well over the last few years. But that was a really great question. I suppose like, I think they'll probably keep the black cuboid kind of design because that's just what the team kind of makes these days. But maybe they'll go off in a different direction. I don't know. One cool thing I think about is that the next platform is like, there's going to be a plurality of Xboxes, right? Because OEMs are probably going to make them as well. I don't know. Gntlstone says, run DDU and reinstall graphics drivers. Dude, I've tried everything, man. I've tried everything except, I haven't tried re-seating the graphics, the display ribbon, because I'm scared that I'll break it. Those things are pretty fragile. So maybe the display cable has come unglued, or come unstuck a bit. But I don't really want to mess with that. So I don't know. I don't think it's a hardware issue, because like I say, I feel like if it was a hardware issue, I wouldn't be able to get rid of it by turning it on and off again. Sometimes it comes back, and sometimes it goes away. But maybe it's only a slight hardware issue, to the point where just rebooting it sometimes fixes it, I don't know. I don't know. Mr. Supernova with $5 US. Thank you again, dude. He says, what does Josh Sawyer do? His last project was in 2022. I mean, maybe Josh Sawyer is working on, maybe he's working on something big, bigger. Maybe he's working on a bigger project that's going to take longer. I have no idea what they're working on, man. I have no idea what they're working on. But Night Dog says he was working on Fallout until Todd asked Microsoft to scrap it. I don't think that's true. But yeah, I suppose we'll see. I don't know what he's working on, but maybe they're working on a bigger project. Maybe they're just like, because the Outworlds 2 didn't do that well, Avowed didn't do that well. Maybe they're just like, instead of making these AA kind of games, we actually need to push further towards AAA. I think when Clockwork Revolution comes out, and it probably is more towards the AAA end, I think people are going to look at games like Avowed and the Outworlds and just be like, these could have been so much better with a bit more budget, a bit more time. I think in today's era, you either need to be like, if you were selling a full price game, you need to be on a higher level these days. I think because there's so much to play, so much is free and so much is cheap. I think if you want people to pay $70 these days, the game has to be exceptional. Avowed and the Outworlds too, were just not exceptional, unfortunately. Mr. Supernova says, Path of Exile, not Path of Exile, Pillars of Eternity 3, let's fucking go. I agree, man. I think Pillars of Eternity is the play, but you have to wonder how much of Pillars of Eternity was people that are no longer at Obsidian. You have to wonder that. Next Patreon Q&A is, Hey guys, hope all is well. Long Halo question. After years and years of turmoil with the studio in charge of the franchise, at what point does new Xbox leadership consider a change of stewardship for the franchise, like either giving the IP to a different studio, building a new studio at a different location? It feels like there's something always up at that place. I agree, Halo Studios has a lot to prove, but we've already recently had a new leadership change. Although I suppose the fact that it was someone internal is probably maybe not the best move. Like I say, I haven't heard anything particularly positive about Pierre. But again, I don't know the guy. I don't know, I haven't interviewed 100 people like a Bloomberg reporter would do. I've just like, I always just get these little rumors and little bits and hints. I've spoken to four people, past and present Halo staffers, about four people, maybe five, about Pierre and it's not always been positive, put it that way. So I don't know what's going to happen to Halo. I just hope that can sort it out. I'm sure that like, because all this stuff that's come out about Halo Studios recently, from that chat on LinkedIn, I can't remember his name off the top of my head. But a lot of what he said, like, has really exposed the culture at Halo Studios and whatever. But Didac Bruss says, Pierre saved Master Chief Collection, to be fair. I think that's why he has his job now, right? That's why he has his job is because he he delivered, you know, ultimately. But I suppose, like one one really, it's one thing delivering on previous content, and it's another thing delivering something new. And for me, it's a bit telling that the thing they wanted to do first was remake the original Halo again. Like, that isn't particularly encouraging for me personally. But, you know, and I know there's some new missions, but we should be getting a new Halo, not a reboot in my view, or a remake or whatever. Oh, it's tough, man. It's tough being a Halo fan, I think, in current era. Like, oh, it's Joaquin. How's it going, man? New Heroes of the Storm Patch is live. Here's the Storm Patch. The Storm Patch. Let's have a look. Here's the Storm Patch notes. Sweet. So, I'm probably the only content creator on Earth who still cares about Heroes of the Storm. What have we got here? Let's look at the news. I really want them to run something for Heroes of the Storm at BlizzCon. I really badly want them to do that. Oh, snap, they're adding a new mount. Unranked mode has been removed? That's crazy. So, that's kind of interesting, because unranked mode in Heroes of the Storm, like, it becomes so toxic and stuff. That's interesting. That's a pretty big update. And they've added a mount. Like, is that the first time they've added new assets in a long time? Like, new art assets? It really feels like there's actually a team growing there again, man. I'd love to see Heroes of the Storm on Xbox. Like, MOBAs work with the controller. I don't know why they don't put them on Xbox. You know, like, Pokemon Unite on Nintendo Switch, it's fantastic. It's absolutely fantastic. The only thing I don't like about Pokemon Unite, it's pay to fucking win. Like, how are you going to make a MOBA and make it pay to win? You know, I'd love to see that game on Xbox, man. Joaquin says, Jez, how do you feel about the Insomniac guy going to Blizzard? It's funny because he was at the initiative. Drew Murray, Drew Murray was at the initiative. So he was a, he was an Xbox guy. And then he was a PlayStation guy again. And now he's a Blizzard guy, I think. I think that was his career path, wasn't it? Something like that. Or maybe he went from the initiative to Blizzard. I can't remember. But I think it's going to be fantastic. I'm like so excited for the Starcraft, the Starcraft shoot, man. I can't even tell it. I can't even tell you. I think that game is going to be. I just want to believe that game is going to be amazing. Yomero Soy says, Is Shadow Complex 2 ever happening? Probably not, man. Probably not. I think like, chair games like I wanted Shadow Complex 2 so bad for many, many years. Shadow Complex 1 is like amazing, but it's all about that Fortnite money, man. It's all about that Fortnite. All about that Fortnite money. So next Patreon topic is from Chris M. Hello, gentlemen. Hope you've had a fantastic week. First off, quick shout out to how great Maul Shadowlord is. Star Wars animation is top notch once again. And you guys watch the Star Wars Darth Maul show. It's the highest rated Star Wars project now, I think on Metacritic or something. I'm going to watch that. Probably watch it this week. To my question though, why game publishers still generally ignoring the summer months for releases? I imagine back in the day, it was due to family vacations and kids outside and distractions that made it less viable to release new games this summer. But with the rise of hand out gaming playing away, and the shifting gamers that are skewing older and largely still home and working most of the summer, why don't they start targeting those months for releases? Especially in a year that has GTA 6 on the back end that's going to vacuum up all the attention for at least six weeks. I think better utilizing June and July will benefit them. And yet, once again, it's mostly tumbleweed for the summer. I completely agree, as someone who doesn't go outside, I would prefer more games to launch in the summer. Like summer is usually dead for game releases, as we all know. I suspect that like there's still enough, there's still enough of a sort of, I don't know, a sort of a telemetry to suggest that it's still better to release your games towards Christmas. But I honestly, I don't know why they do it. I mean, I can ask someone. I'll ask, I'll ask my business, gaming business contact. Right now, I'll ask. Why don't more games release in the summer? What's the logic there? Let's see if they reply, Chris. But the truth is, I honestly don't know. Proper hater says, dude Jez, have you seen the insane Star Wars mod for Starfield, Star Wars Genesis? I haven't seen it. I mean, I have heard of it, but I haven't really seen it in motion. I'm surprised that that mod doesn't get deleted by Disney. But I did see some bits and pieces of it. Like, you look at those kind of mods, and then you look at a game like Star Wars Outlaws and just be like, how did they drop the ball on this, man? I know people say Star Wars Outlaws is okay now, but an open world Star Wars RPG should be a no brainer, pure win, right? But I think a big problem with it is, the Disney's license for Star Wars is really expensive. So that kind of ruins the business model of actually making a big AAA game. But I don't know, man. I don't know. I have a love high relationship with Star Wars. I love the idea of Star Wars, but Disney has just fucked it over the last, like how many years now? Like 10 years? They've just fucked it, man. They've fucked it. Okay. So my contact replied. So this is what my contact replied, who's like big in the industry. It is true that gameplay hours go down a bit in the summer, just due to people going outside and taking vacations. But there is no real logic other than history, Chris M. So, you know, it does feel like it's almost just, almost like a illogical kind of tradition at this point. So there you go. And this is someone I trust very much on this kind of topic. So I would say that devs start releasing your games in summer because there's no point. Dr. Dingle says, tell Phil he said I did. Oh man. Oh man. We'll see. We'll see. I'll send him the clip. I'll send him the clip. Moray says, the next Patreon Q&A. Moray says, Hi, Rand and Jez. When do you think we will start to see the fruits of Microsoft's push on making it easy to develop for console and PC? Right now, some games come at least to the Epic Store besides Steam, but not to Xbox PC or not to the Xbox PC one. Are there other reasons they skip Xbox PC, but not the Epic Store than developmental ones? It's a good question. I think developer relationships. Oh, got some on the front. I think part of it is probably money. I think one of the reasons why Epic gets games is because they literally throw money at devs and fund them. Like oftentimes, we see games hitting Xbox PC as a result of a Game Pass deal or some kind of marketing deal. Like for example, Metro 2039 is coming to Xbox PC, it's going to be Xbox Play and Wear. It doesn't seem like it's going to be in Game Pass, but it is at least Xbox Play and Wear. I think part of that is part of the marketing deal. I don't know if it's necessarily the development issue. I think the backend could be better for the Xbox PC store maybe. That's something I often hear people complain about. Discoverability seems to be an issue, and footfall seems to be an issue on the Xbox PC store. Like there's not enough people actually buying games on Xbox PC store. Most people just use it as a Game Pass app, because that's historically what it was. It was a Game Pass app. So I think Microsoft still got a lot of work to do there, but Steam is where, even though Steam is not the biggest, I think Steam owns 40 percent of the market, but then you've got things like battle.net, Riot Client, Epic Games Store, Xbox PC, and there's a lot of other stores. I think what Steam did was corner the variety gamer market. The people who want to try new things, get good deals and good sales, and they built up a huge user behavior of people willing to try new stuff, whereas Xbox PC stores curated an audience of people who only use Game Pass. So I think Microsoft's got its work cut out to try and claw some of those users who do want variety. I think it's ultimately devs will start showing up more organically if more of those gamers actually use the app. But it's chicken and egg, right? The app needs to actually be good for discoverability. Right now, I think the Xbox PC app is probably the worst for discoverability. I shouldn't have to click through multiple menus to see the games. Like there's so much screen real estate being wasted by logos, which don't tell you anything about the game. You have to do your own research. I shouldn't have to do my own research. It should be a list of games. I should be able to mouse over the game and immediately see what kind of game it is. I shouldn't have to click through multiple menus or do my own research to find the games. So I think discoverability is an issue, but I don't know. That's just my opinion. Didapress says, Ask Phil, where is Hexen? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm sure I think Phil is chilling right now. He's probably snowboarding or something. Let's see. Panda Man with 77 says, Hey guys, a Panda Man with the 77. I'm getting tired now. Panda Man 77 says, Hey guys, hey dude. We got Silas. Happy Friday, Jez. You have complained for years about the WoW new user experience. How would you change it and make it more accessible so that 500 players are online at a time? What do you mean? I think World of Warcraft servers can handle thousands of players at a time. I don't know what you mean about that one, but I think the World of Warcraft user experience, just needs to go back to what it was back in the day. Like every race needs its own starting experience, and every starting experience needs to feed into an evergreen sort of world where you deal with localized threats and you get to feel like a level one player for a bit. Like the whole World of Warcraft experience right now is about speeding you to the addictive end game flywheel. It doesn't immerse you like it used to. So I think really, honestly, they just need to remake classic WoW in modern graphics, add some evergreen low stakes threats, and then add a starting zone for every race. It'd be a huge investment, but it'd be so much better for the game. Like, cause what they've got now is absolute trash. Like it is trash, super trash. I might write an article about it being trash. DidacBress says, Steam UI is so bad, people are just used to it. I mean, I don't agree. I don't agree that it's bad. I think it's a very PC optimized experience, right? Whereas like the Xbox PC app is quite, it's more of a console optimized experience. So I think the big tiles with logos, I think that works on console when you navigate with a controller. When you have a mouse and keyboard like you do on Steam, I think lists work better. I think lists of content more like a website where you can find the shit you want to find and mouse over them really easily, right? But yeah, I don't know. The game adaptation newscast says, I don't agree at all. Jedi Survivor is awesome and Star Wars Outlaws is awesome too. Yeah, I mean, I do want to try Star Wars Outlaws again. Now they've updated a lot, but when I first played it, which was, I played the review build. I was playing the roughest build of it, to be fair, to Ubisoft. But I didn't like the characters really, for one thing. I didn't like the gunplay very much. I didn't like the variety in the combat very much. And also the stealth mechanic of resetting you when you get exposed, that was just dumb as hell. I can't believe that was a thing. But hey-ho. But yeah, I agree. Like the Jedi Survivor games are fantastic. Like I still haven't completed the first one. So but what I'm pretty sure I'm near the end, but like I was I was really enjoying that. It's just just new games kept coming out, man. New games kept coming out. Yeah. And also it's not open world. I was really talking about open world RPG, whereas like Jedi Fallen Order and stuff, them a little bit more linear, right? The Star Wars XCOM game is coming soon. I haven't heard of that. There's a Star Wars XCOM game coming. XCOM game. Where the fuck is XCOM 3 actually on that point? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'll check that out again. Next up, we got Shay Elephant with the Patreon topic, Happy Friday, Rand and Jez. With the reports that the profit margin for Xbox is relaxed and not 30% anymore. What do you think, Phil, why do you think Phil will resign at this time? That is after holding the line for past five years, after all the shit he's been through, he could finally relax a bit and spend money to grow the business he built. Thank you, Jez. I think genuinely, Phil just felt like retiring. I think when he was under a lot of pressure from the margin situation, and I think the problem is when you see, even though he was under pressure from up above, he did make some pretty clear mistakes. I think Call of Duty and Game Pass is pretty evidently one of the mistakes. I think that was an out of touch move. I think putting that up to $30 was a huge, huge mistake and really damaged the Game Pass business. Right. So I think rather than attribute more U-turns to Phil, because it would have been like, you know, Phil would have had to like go through this whole thing of like, we made a mistake, we did this wrong. Like, it's probably like thinking of it in WWE terms, almost like part of the show, they can say like, we messed up the business, we need to fix this. And Phil was probably like, we won, we won like, Microsoft acknowledged that these margins, these margin, this margin pressure was ridiculous. But what they can do is make it look like, it's kind of like what Asher's doing now is, she's kind of become the face, the face turn for the brand, right? Whereas like, if it was Phil, people would have been like looking at Phil's previous decisions and like, oh, well, Phil did this before and Phil did that before, you know? So I think like from a, almost like a KFA perspective, like a PR perspective, it kind of, it looks better when it's a blank slate, I think. So it was probably just like a logical time from a PR perspective. And Phil was like eventually gonna retire anyway, like, you know, Tim Cook just retired. There's a lot of tech CEOs retiring right now. But yeah, I think a blank slate in this new era was probably the right move, man. But yeah, like, I'll never like, I'll never slander Phil. Like I didn't agree with everything he did. Like I said to him, I said to him, him and Aaron and Matt Bowie, we're in the Academy Museum or whatever it was in LA. And I just watched the showcase and I was like, why are we going multi-platform again? Like that was a fantastic showcase. Like, you know, so I didn't agree with everything they did, but Phil saved Xbox. Xbox would not exist today without Phil. Phil came up with a plan. He convinced Satie to stay the course. He convinced Satie to buy ABK. And ABK anchors Xbox for the long term. You know, I think without ABK, it becomes increasingly difficult for Microsoft to justify Xbox's existence in the AI era. But like with ABK, with World of Warcraft, with Call of Duty, with King, Candy Crush, so on, they've got so much. They're so anchored in the industry now that it will be a staple for decades to come, I think. It's just going to be on someone else to figure out how to bring all that content together in a cohesive way. It's another five to 10 years of work. Like I said, like Candy Crush Saga should have Xbox achievements. You know, all this kind of stuff, you need someone who really understands and can spend a lot of time navigating that whole landscape and bringing it all together in a cohesive way. And I think Ash's expertise across social media, not only social media, but also dev tools and knowing how to organize dev teams and build platforms. I think that's her strength. You gotta remember, Phil came from game dev. Phil was a game dev, and that's why a lot of the moves that we've seen for Xbox over the last, over the Phil tenure, I kind of felt like, people say, come by R, right? A lot of the things Phil did were good for devs. He lowered the cut they got on the PC store. They advertise competing versions of games. All that stuff is good for devs. And Phil comes from game devs. He really understands game devs. And I think that informed a lot of Phil's decision making. He wanted to do the right thing for everyone involved, right? Not necessarily to the detriment of competing, I think. Whereas like Asher might have a different perspective, but that's just my opinion. That's just my read on it. Yeah, I don't think Xbox exists without Phil today. So I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. And finally, we've got Pat Rock with the Patreon Q&A. Do you think it will be worth Xbox's time and resources to develop a late cycle refresh? If the Helix does end up 1K or more, shouldn't they still offer a cheaper option? Helix is supposed to get auto-SR. So what if they redesigned the Series S, made it half the size, put the auto-SR for better image quality? Devs apparently don't have to do anything. Package it in a new haptic controller and try to get it back down to 299. Let's be honest, this generation is going to last another 10 years whether Sony or Microsoft like it. Might as well offer something more compelling in price with a bit of an update. You know, I think, I don't hate that idea. I think it would be probably smart. Like if you took, could you bolt on auto-SR to the previous generation's chip? I think one of the issues is like, does AMD keep those, keep that chip being manufactured? Because like, one of the big issues with chip manufacturing these days is capacity. And a lot of these companies like AMD and, you know, the fabricators, they want to move on to the next chips. And, you know, depreciate the old ones. So, hmm. I don't know from a business perspective or a supply chain perspective, whether or not that would be viable. Especially at $2.99 in today's market. And I suppose, like, OEMs are supposed to fill the gap here to some degree. I think we could see an OEM Xbox Helix that does get down to the sort of $3.99 mark or maybe less. But I think in the short to medium term, things are going to get more expensive. Things are going to get even more expensive. I was looking at flights today to go back to the UK. And there was a time I could fly from Germany to the UK for like $100, well, 100 euros. Not exactly $100, but like 100 euros. But like, and then during the COVID, it went up to like 150. And then it went to 200, now it's 250. Now it's like 300, you know? And it's like, it's only gonna get worse as the jet fuel shortage continues. But it's not just jet fuel. It's like, that's, you know, that's shipping, that's supply chains, that's materials, all kinds of stuff. Like I think $299 is like for like a console. It's just something that's not in the, it's just not gonna be in the conversation, you know, at all based on, based on existing constraints, you know. But the sentiment is completely right. How do you compete with Roblox, which is on your iPad? You know, how do you get those younger gamers into the system when there's such a huge upfront cost? You know, and cloud was supposed to be the answer, but Apple and Google block cloud. They block Xbox Cloud Gaming from happening on their platforms. So how do you meet those users where they are? How do you meet the next generation? I don't know, man. Getting the price down should be absolutely paramount. I think probably the play is like, you've got to have like a cloud console, man. Like a cloud console that comes with a controller that doesn't have any local compute, just has a nethernet port, you know, and maybe can turn any TV into a cloud TV. Maybe that's the play to get the price down. And then bundle that shit with Game Pass, subsidize it, so like you get 12 months of Game Pass for free or something with the cloud console. And it costs like, I don't know, 149. Maybe that's the play, you know, but again, it's tough, man. Figuring out, like navigating that shit. I do not envy Rowan Sones or the hardware team on how to deliver some of that shit. But you know, that's why they're employed and I'm a blogger. So that's the Patreon Q&A. So thanks to all our Patreon VIPs who dropped questions. Really appreciate you guys. Like I say, Patreon is 50% off. Through the month. So if you guys want to join in as well, there's the link. Supports me and Rand and all that kind of stuff. And let's see what we've got here. Just as to wrap up, do we have any more super chats? Let's see. LK9922 says, You can just buy a fire stick. Sure. But like what we've seen from the Xbox ally is that simply put in the Xbox branding on it will sell it. So maybe you could do an Xbox branded fire stick maybe. But I think like having a dedicated specific box, which comes with the controller, because don't forget, don't forget the next Xbox controller will connect straight to Wi-Fi. So it eliminates that extra gap of latency that you would get from connecting your controller to a fire stick. I think, no, I think having a proper Xbox cloud device is the play for me. But I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. So I think we're going to end the stream there. Thanks to everyone for tuning in. Sorry again for the disruption. Send Rand your well wishes. He's going through right now. Hopefully, we'll be on Friday. Don't know for sure if we will be. But I really appreciate you guys sticking by me, and sticking by me and Rand, and sticking by Windows Central in what is proving to be an incredibly tough content creation landscape. Yeah, I see you guys on Twitter. And like Rand always says, keep it gaming. And this Friday, me and Rand will discuss. I'll do some research and see if I can find out anything new about what's going on with Game Pass, exclusives and that kind of thing. We'll discuss whatever other news comes out this week. If Rand can't make it, I'll do another solo show and do the Patreon Q&A that way. But love all you guys, much love to you guys and I will see you next time. Peace.