Are consoles dying? In this episode we discuss Xbox putting some exclusives on other consoles and if this will be the last console cycle for Xbox and Playstation
I'm going to go ahead and talk to you about the city of Atlanta, georgia, going out to what I assume is the always sunny city of Los Angeles with Danelle. How's it going, danelle?
Speaker 2:It's going pretty well. We've survived.
Speaker 1:I have to say that rain was that heavy. Was that heavy rain? Is that what?
Speaker 2:that was you. I mean, in your part of the world you might say that it was heavy rain, but to us it was the storm of the century. Just say I don't know, I don't know if I'll be able to tell my children my non-existent children about this one day. Just let them know hey it rained.
Speaker 1:I'm very happy that you survived it, danelle. So you'd be here with me to discuss trivial stuff like gaming. Right, you moved, you got through this storm of getting to come and talk about gaming with me here, and you know what's interesting is, I really wanted to get at this because of the news that came out and I've done shows for people who don't know. Then a lot of shows in the past and we've talked about this before over the years of different consoles and if they were still be around and people seem to every generation. It's kind of like the in-the-days crowd right, it's in the days with somebody. Somebody right now thinks that we're in the in-the-days right now.
Speaker 1:Right they're doing, say, prepping. It's a whole industry now and the thing is is, like with gaming it's the same thing, like hey, there won't be consoles ever again, and people said that a couple of console cycles ago. So now we come up with Xbox and this is kind of like brought it up, brought this back into the fore, I would say, with Xbox announcing that they're going to put their consoles on, put some of their exclusives on other consoles. I put some of their exclusives on PS5 and people were on the Internet going crazy, like Xbox going out of business, like what are they doing? And, yeah, some people that were like this is the end. This is the canary and the coal mine, so to speak. This is clearly going to be the end For the uninitiated. Let me pop up my little Instagram here. Alright, there we go. I had to pop that up in the corner, so actually I'm going to log into there one day. Yeah, you know what I mean. One day I'm actually going to like check on that. So let's go through the like the generational gap here For our generational recap, so to speak, for people, for the uninitiated. So, of course, if you go all the way back to the Nintendo days. I'm just going to announce, I'm just going to say who I felt was the winner of those particular generations, kind of leading us up. We're on the fast one. We're not going to. It's not going to be a three hour show with us going back to Nintendo and recapping all the way up to now.
Speaker 1:So you had this Super Nintendo or Nintendo in general. Then you had the JGIS. I don't really feel like Nintendo had many competitors when it first came out and then it comes to like the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. That was a decent competition there. I still feel like Super Nintendo kind of came out on top of that. Playstation comes into its own. I want to say like mid 90s. I want to say you got the first PlayStation and I think that Sony originally had made that try to do a deal with Nintendo. It's funny how some of these companies come about by trying to present their ideas to other companies, like Netflix when it tried to present itself to Blockbuster right, and Blockbuster is like get out of here, we don't need you now.
Speaker 2:You see what's going on, we'll do our own thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we don't need you, We'll just form our own Netflix. So it's interesting because Sony, I think, had a deal with I think it was Nintendo. It's a company that had made a console for them. I'm not sure how that failed to, I'm not sure. There's many YouTube videos you can check out on the history of why that fell through. But then it worked out very well for Sony because Sony started PlayStation and the rest is history.
Speaker 1:I'm going to fast forward a bit here because you do have the Nintendo systems in there. I wasn't a big GameCube guy, but GameCube and 64 and 64 are definitely in there, you know. I mean they're legendary, legendary status, and we'll talk about Nintendo in its own right. I don't really feel like Nintendo competes with Sony and Microsoft. I feel like it's got its own lane to a certain degree. So then you get to like the around 2000,. You got PS4 and Xbox. I feel like or I'm sorry PlayStation 2 and Xbox, which I feel like PlayStation 2 is kind of annihilated Xbox, but Xbox was just coming into its own though right Like they were.
Speaker 1:Just it was. That was like their first release. So it's always hard when it's your first time and you're going up against an industry titan that's been there for a few years and it wouldn't establish base. So they go from PlayStation 2 to PlayStation 3. And this is where I believe Sony kind of stumbled here, in my opinion, because Sony got all of themselves overcharged for the PS3 and in Xbox 360, I feel like, won that console cycle. I feel like Xbox 360 was. They had Gears Award, they had, of course, halo, which I think came over on the original Xbox. Then you go to PlayStation 4, which I feel like Sony kind of made up for it and after, like with the Xbox One, xbox got full of themselves. They were overcharging for their console and Sony came in and took that console cycle. And now that leads to the console cycle that we're in right now, which is with the PS5 and the Xbox Series X.
Speaker 1:Now, me personally, I like my Xbox. I didn't have an Xbox Lost console cycle. It wasn't enough exclusives for me and what kind of touch on that which I feel like is the heart of the issue with Xbox. But I feel like Sony at this particular point in the game has so many installed like God of War, gran Turismo, so many, a lot of the Square Enix, square Soft games I think it's been Square Enix since it's been on PlayStation that were just exclusive to PlayStation, at Bloodborne, some From Software games that were exclusive to PlayStation.
Speaker 1:And I feel like Microsoft was trying to kind of correct this mistake by buying some major studios like Activision, blizzard and stuff like that, because you know they have like Call of Duty and stuff and Bethesda, who had like Skyrim, which has been made for like a million different things. I don't know if you ever played Skyrim. Skyrim is an amazing game that's been made for like Calculators and it's going to be Skyrim on your refrigerator here at some point. Yeah, it probably already is. Yeah, like where there are probably some version of that we can find here somewhere. But when we, when we kind of go through the history, I kind of can see why we get to the conclusion that we're at where people will feel like they'll just Xbox, just losing, losing, losing, losing and they're eventually going to go out of business have to put their consoles like you know that happened with Sega and Sonny, you're playing those Sonic games back today.
Speaker 2:Of course Sonny's all about it Until he started doing the movie stuff and kind of ruined the nostalgia for me, you didn't like them, you didn't like, really you didn't like the movie.
Speaker 1:I know some people who really care about it.
Speaker 2:You didn't like them. I mean, that's kind of how I feel about any kind of live action. Well, I've sort of live action adaptations. I'm just not. It just takes away.
Speaker 1:You didn't know Mario Brothers? No, you didn't watch. Oh, wow, wow.
Speaker 2:I mean, I watched it. Of course you do so, you watched it. You did more than me.
Speaker 1:You didn't like it.
Speaker 2:Okay With the Mario shirt, but you didn't watch the movies as I rock my Mario shirt.
Speaker 1:I have not supported it, but, but, but I do. I do play. So there is a Mario game is to, because Mario Kart is still dope on a switch, by the way, mario Kart is still always still a great game to play, still fun.
Speaker 1:And then they came out with Super Mario Wonder, which I think Nintendo's come out with the latest Mario game, which I do play. So I can say that I do enjoy some of the late Mario games. I think that's one of the reasons that gives Nintendo kind of a heads up and puts them in a whole different category than Sony.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but you play for the games, not for the console. So Xbox making this move kind of makes sense, that's they're getting away from that. You're, especially when you're trying to add to the stream wars and everything's online and on your phones and easy access consoles, carrying those around through the airport or anywhere you go. I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:Thanks, right, thanks, they're going to be upping.
Speaker 2:I know you're one of those people Pack it, pack it. You know what I mean. Do you have a case? Do you have a case?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course. Well, I had a system, man, so I had this little briefcase type thing where I could put my console in. I knew where my console was going to go, I knew where the plug and all that stuff were going to go. I had a system. So it got to the point where I was traveling with my console so much that I could just put that thing together.
Speaker 2:So if your bag was overweight, would you be looking at your console like I'll need this a little bit? Do I really need these jeans?
Speaker 1:man, do I need these jeans and these shoes? I don't think so. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:I'm coming you out. They're doing you a favor thing, so now you don't have to carry that around with you.
Speaker 1:Very true, because of my last trip when I was in Korea, I did gaming on my Xbox. When I went there, I went gaming on my Xbox Game Pass and I gamed on the app and that is something that I feel like we talked about it before in the past. But one of the biggest hindrances to that in the past that we've talked about was the fact that broadband and Internet connectivity around the world is not the same. I didn't know if it was at the place it needed to be to strongly support a cloud gaming situation. But as we get, you know, we have gigabyte speeds and stuff like that. Now things are getting easier, I think. I think it's getting easier to support a gaming app. You know what some TVs are coming with the app already on the television Like you can have, just like a Netflix. You know smart television.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I feel like even for the stuff that happened through the COVID, it was a really big boost to the gaming industry. A lot of people didn't have anything else to do but game, so, like a lot of eyes, more eyes were on them for that, especially when it comes to the Internet service and all the kids need to use the Internet. That's been the best thing ever for the gaming industry. Now the US government is making investments into infrastructure, which includes Internet access and broadband and everything else More gaming More areas get faster speeds, more gaming.
Speaker 2:So what do you mean by that? You know I'm going to let it go.
Speaker 1:I feel like there will be a day, so it's, and we can kind of see society movement, so there will. That day will be coming at some point. Right, when you look at other peripherals like the BCR, dvd, blu-ray or whatever there's, are they really? I mean, have you seen a Blu-ray player? When's the last time you saw a Blu-ray player?
Speaker 2:What is Blu-ray? I know another fish, because Steve Irwin, the stingray, close enough, is that saying?
Speaker 1:No, you know, what's interesting is that we are, as a society, I guess, move away from having to carry around these things. So back in the day, for all you kids out there, there used to be a thing called a Walkman and we had to carry that thing around with us. We're attached to our hip, it's like this thing, it's like that big and we have an attached to our hip and we were proud, but we're showing that thing off man Like look, I got my new Walkman.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. Do you have a Walkman like this? It's going to be like different colors, and then we're like a little smaller and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:And now I'm just streaming on your, your phone, right, you're trying to limit the devices. Less devices is better. I guess. From a humanities standpoint it seems to be where we're going. So I'm not necessarily. I'm not knocking this, because as long as the game, the game is open, what we're here for, danelle, right. We're not necessarily here just for the machine. The same thing with the movies or music, right, we're here for the media, the content that's on the device, versus carrying around the device itself.
Speaker 1:So you brought up a good point in a sense of like do people want to carry around their consoles as much as I was doing it? I don't necessarily recommend it. It's not easy to do. That's why you can have like a switch, a handheld. I did, I gained a lot of my switch when I was, when I was traveling. I usually go to my switch in my game pass Now. So now I don't travel necessarily with the consoles like I used to. Now to be like I'll travel with a controller so that I can use my tablet, my controller, for game pass and then I'll do my switch. Now I'll game on there as well, so I can have some portability there and a lot of people now gaming on their phones. Have there been like a phone gamer? There's a lot of phone gamers. That's a major industry, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, even for some of the ads that I get on TikTok it's a little games of people going by. I was like, honestly, like a cool game, you actually go down to the game like this, nothing like that. It's not what I wanted to be. They got me over and over again. But no, I feel like a lot of people are going to. It's just about the convenience and access and getting meeting people where they are. A lot of people are trying to, you know, get out and about, not just be at home, so, and gaming is more about the community anyway, so why don't you go to places and have it in groups? Everybody can log in the same thing.
Speaker 1:It's like it's just a little bit easier. You have a game called Power World right, and I was kind of taking the world by storm that people are really loving into playing. I would say it's a little more economical a little more affordable, but those who are low income.
Speaker 2:now I don't have to buy a whole console. It was three, four or $500. I'm saving the money and they're thinking about the environment. So less plastic please. I would say they're ahead of the game.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, being ahead of the game, we should name this. I'm going to name this episode of that and I will, I will go into the game. I was going to talk about our console's dime, but nobody wants to talk about console's dime. We want to be ahead of the game. What's?
Speaker 1:interesting is when Xbox bought, I think, activision, blizzard and Bethesda, they were really trying to answer some of the questions that people have had about their viability as a gaming company. Yeah, in the sense of you guys don't really have enough games coming out, because Sony, when you look at the PlayStation five versus the Xbox I mean I'm just going to go on last year's number they're out selling them something like three to one, something like that. You know, I think there was like over 20 million PlayStation soul last year versus like 7 million for for Xbox. So there I can see why Xbox would want to make a move to kind of appeal to that install base. And I will tell you full disclosure Microsoft as a company, I love, I love Microsoft.
Speaker 1:I love Microsoft as a company. I love it because I like Sachin Adela. I think he's a great CEO. He's led that company very well. This is kind of like the investor in me talking here. I think he's done that company very well. I like Bill Spencer and how he represents the Xbox. You know universe in there.
Speaker 1:And the thing is, is that Microsoft is such a large company? If not, I think they overtook Apple. I think they still are as a largest company on earth. All right, when you have that much money you can. Xbox can be like a tax write off. They're not depending on it. It's whatever to them. Bring in the money, like Azure does or Azure does, or as the Microsoft Office and Windows, all the other things that they do, you know that make them money. I feel like Xbox is just not a major worry for them, whereas when you're looking at a Sony or Nintendo, that is them right, like and now no, sony, I'm pretty sure, still has their media stuff that they do. I don't. I think they still sell electronics. I'm not sure you have a Sony. Do you have any Sony electronics like television or anything like that? Do you have your Walkman?
Speaker 2:Your Gistman? I do not. Unfortunately, I had to let it go like three moves ago. I'm so upset about that. But yeah, no, I guess electronics. That's the only thing I really know about Sony for, besides the gaming that's pretty. Oh well, sony Pictures, but I don't know if they're they still with actual Sony.
Speaker 1:I feel like their media is still decent, like their media presence. I feel like it's like okay, but I really think that PlayStation is just like a large part of their business, whereas that's just not going to be the case for Microsoft. I don't know if Xbox could ever get big enough in Microsoft's portfolio to overtake some of the bigger businesses Maybe I don't know, but I don't feel like they're depending on it as much.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean as Sony, but I feel like that's Microsoft's thing. They don't really depend on any portion of their business. I feel like they're so big that, like they have the ability to fail on certain areas and they're like, yeah, on to the next or let you guys be, that might help with creativity. Let them do whatever it is they do, however long they do it, and they might not pop up with something that's amazing and innovative, because they have the freedom to fail and nobody's really looking at them. So it might be a bonus.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree, I think anytime you don't have to depend on one thing, kind of just doing it all for you, it is a bonus. And you know, it's interesting because one of the big upwars was the fact that they came out and they said they were putting their games on PlayStation.
Speaker 2:Now the thing is is the game could have been announced. I just don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Look, people were very like it's like cheating on you.
Speaker 1:They were like up in arms, like, oh, this is it, like this is the downfall of console kind, like it's out of here, Like this is dispells doom for Xbox and I feel like when I look at the game so so far there have been four games. Maybe somebody listens to this far. In the future there'll be more. But I think I had looked at Pentamint, which is a pretty good game, hi-fi Rush, also a pretty good game, grounded and Sea of Thieves. These are all quality games. Pentamint, hi-fi Rush, grounded, sea of Thieves these are games that are gonna be there, microsoft games that will be coming over to PlayStation here relatively soon. Now the issue that I take with this is it's not Halo, it's not Gears of War, it's not any of their big like marquee names. You know what I mean. That I would be looking for like a God of War kind of from PlayStation coming over to Xbox would be monumental. So it's not one of those. So that's when I first heard this announcement. That's kind of what I was thinking. I was thinking, okay, this is gonna be major games that are gonna be coming over and people are right about the downfall of the Xbox and stuff like that. But I don't see that yet. And what's interesting is, sony has just so much more of an install base that I don't think Microsoft will really lose money doing this. I think if you buy Xbox and there's still Game Pass, if you'll talk about is a major issue I think Xbox, depending on what Microsoft strategy is, might just become a Game Pass machine. Like you pay your monthly, you get a certain amount of games. You can play those games anywhere. I was playing those games on my tablet. They're like in a cloud and they also you don't necessarily have to download them to your console. I think you get better quality, but they were in a cloud and you can play them anywhere. I think that's gonna be the pivot, so to speak, like if you can take, if you can become and establish a Netflix for gaming which Netflix itself is getting the game. I don't know if you've seen, but Netflix has a gaming situation on there. So I think Netflix sees the writing on a wall of where that can go. But if Microsoft is able to get there, invest in it early, get a foothold in that, keep releasing its AAA titles to Game Pass Day One, because that's something that PlayStation has its own streaming option but they don't do to know they don't release like great, amazing titles Day One on their streaming platform like Game Pass does. Yeah, for sure. So I feel like that's in the one up. My Xbox still has value because of Game Pass and whatever exclusives may come on at.
Speaker 1:Starfield was kind of like a hit and miss for them, which I think at some point Starfield will come to PlayStation. But they bought Bethesda. Starfield been in the works forever. Everybody's waiting for that follow up to Skyroom and it just fizzled out for Xbox. They missed it on that. It just wasn't a great. It wasn't the game underwhelmed. So I think that that was a big miss for them. But I also do think that maybe that will find more gamers on a PlayStation that has so much of a larger base you know what I mean than what Xbox has. So I think there's value there for them to do that. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 2:No, I mean, it's definitely value, especially they're trying to do more of like a Netflix thing. But, like you said, doing the whole not having the release is Day One. It's kind of a big thing. People want that and they can try to do like Bethesda's where they have the sign of deals with the movie theater release and then, like you, gotta wait three months later and then actually get the streaming release. I don't know if that is the best thing to do. People want the big names right then and there. So if they're gonna do more, like we put God of War out there, I think they should do something like that or create a whole different game for that, to create the buzz for that type of thing, even with the stuff they just had, like what I would just binge watching with the last Airbender.
Speaker 1:Wouldn't have the last airbender. Good discretion, you know that's a very. I went to the side show on the last and side note of the last airbender. I had never heard of the show. I had never heard of it in life Years ago. This is about man. This would have been like 12 years ago, 12, 13 years ago. It was a long time ago. I was on a date, first date. She wanted to go watch the last airbender in a movie theater. We go watch the last airbender and I remember thinking like I don't know, did it ruin your date?
Speaker 1:Well, here's the thing. Here's the thing. And this is where the caveman and me comes out. I'm a guy, it's. I'm there with a girl. I don't really care what this movie's about. You know what I mean. What is happening after this movie is what I care about.
Speaker 2:Now I'm just going through the movie.
Speaker 1:I'm going through the motions, but I do remember thinking and I'd I hear a couple of times like because she was a teacher, right, and I remember Sadie and her a couple of times and maybe this is like the world that you're in. She was like elementary, elementary, middle school teacher and maybe that was like the world you're in and maybe that's why she wanted to see it. Maybe she watched the show.
Speaker 2:And that shows very.
Speaker 1:For one, the last airbender series is very popular.
Speaker 2:It's a very popular series.
Speaker 1:So, but every time I hear last airbender I think of I go back to that place in that movie theater.
Speaker 2:Like I didn't ruin it for you.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean. It's just kind of like, what are we doing at later?
Speaker 2:Like I, would say in my Shyamalan Ruined your Date. Just say that I mean that's fine, but I feel like if you'd watched this one that just came out, you'd have been good.
Speaker 1:How many dates has Shyamalan Ruined here, I know, but you know, I think that it's a valid point brought up is if you can make deals, because right now when you look at a lot of the games that are released on Game Pass, they are kind of like Xbox exclusive games. I don't know if Sony, because God of War is a Sony game I'm not sure if Sony will ever do that, because I don't think that Sony has the motivation to know to or the stomach to do stuff like that, because they've had, they're winning now. You see what I'm saying. So if you're Sony and they're looking at you guys like, hey, you guys can keep your game pass, you keep doing what you're doing, but even with everything that you're doing, we're still outselling you three to one. We don't really have any real reason to do anything.
Speaker 2:You're not saying that you're the game.
Speaker 1:You have to stand by innovation by doing different things.
Speaker 2:So that is the incentive to do something like this.
Speaker 1:You like with Game Pass. Basically, you think Game Pass can pressure Sony to put a God of War on a streaming service like day one? Did you? How much pressure could Microsoft put on Sony to do that? If Sony's like yo, we're already winning over here and I definitely co-sign your innovation because we all remember a Kodak moment, we all remember Blockbuster videos. These companies are not around anymore because they did not innovate and they were industry leaders at one point in time and they chose to ignore the writing on a wall, not innovate, and now you see where these companies are. So I'm not saying that that couldn't happen to Sony, but do you think if a company is winning already, do you think they're motivated to do what the other guy's doing? That they're kind of like obliterating from a sales perspective?
Speaker 2:I mean, if the company is looking at past, the history of things, yes, I think they should. I think they would be more apt to do something like that. Or if not, since we've got a word, maybe a spin-off or something else. It's like oh the past, exclusive type thing. It says they want to invest in the future and build that more and get more people on to online streaming games. I think they need to. I think that would be the best thing to do. I feel like it's too risky not to, in a way, even though you are the leader or whatever. But it's just like running track sometimes when you're a leader, somebody might come up behind you and surprise that last little stretch Especially, they're more motivated, right?
Speaker 1:They're more motivated because they're sick of losing.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly. If people are hungry, somebody's going to do something, somebody else is going to try, your competition is always back there lurking. They're going to pop out, but I got you. Now what Come?
Speaker 1:see me. You know what's interesting? I just take my phone. It totally. I 100% agree there.
Speaker 1:You won't get any debate with me from there, because I do believe that Sony's not motivated to. So I can get why they wouldn't do it today, but does that mean that you can keep living tomorrow the way that you're living today and feel like things will just always stay the same? Many companies have paid the price for that line of thinking. So I think that it can definitely happen to Sony. If Xbox keeps being aggressive. If Xbox is putting Call of Duty Day 1 out on Game Pass, if it gets very aggressive and it keeps putting out these games, I think there will be some pressure put on Sony. I don't know if that pressure is there today. Let's talk a little bit about Nintendo. In a sense of the space that Nintendo occupies, I feel like Nintendo is sitting off to the side and watching a fight happen. They're just sitting off to the side. They're that person that's just in the crowd, that background person in the crowd watching a fight happen. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like, y'all got this.
Speaker 1:As long as we have Zelda and Mario, we're going to ride this thing to the moon Like we're never. I don't think I would ever Like. Well, if I'm Nintendo, maybe I do go with a Game Pass-type model, because Nintendo occupies a certain space where their games even their old games, because they're only available there you can still sell that on their premium because you can't get them lower. It's kind of like Apple products right? Apple's only going to sell its products below a certain price because they know that you're not going to find a budget iPhone for like $150. It just ain't going to happen. You've got to go back 100 years, go back to the iPhone with no number, and I even think that's worth a lot more money now.
Speaker 2:So you think Nintendo is the luxury brand of the gaming?
Speaker 1:I think they have pricing power because they have characters and exclusives that people will always come to them for. So as long as you have, like a Donkey Kong, a Mario, should I just name the people on my shirt here Ever?
Speaker 2:So it's like er or Nintendo. I'll just name the whole Mario universe on my shirt.
Speaker 1:But as long as you have these characters that people are forced to mess with you, like what do they have to go there? If Mario was available on like five different consoles, then that dilutes Nintendo's power, so to speak. And I feel like when you're a company like Nintendo and you don't have the same money as a Microsoft I'm not even sure if they are as big as Sony or the Look and See, but I know they're not as Microsoft so if you don't have that power, then you've got to be very concentrated. You know what I mean, and I feel like Nintendo has done a very good job of concentrating its market. And if you want those games, you want to play Mario Kart sorry, you're going to have to play it on a Nintendo device.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm going to agree. They've done very well in protecting their brand and their characters and that's helped them out over the years, so that nobody else is coming up with something similar or just like it or close enough to it, or whatever.
Speaker 1:And I think that's Say go try it with Sonic. It just didn't really hit. I mean Sonic's still around, unfortunately for Sega, but it was never any Mario right.
Speaker 2:But that live action kind of, was it For the pergate. That's who that was, Yo pergate, oh my God it was weird.
Speaker 1:It was insane. Crazy, but how sensitive they get about characters that they've kind of loved. You know what I mean and you know what's interesting? Probably so, do you feel like the fan boys and girls, take over once it gets on the net, and then things kind of take a whole life for their own.
Speaker 2:So maybe just a.
Speaker 1:Mr True character.
Speaker 2:But that's with all kind of animation or like imagination based things, like people have an idea of what this is and how it should be, and if it doesn't align with that, that's a problem. Same with book talk and everything else. If you come out with them, that's not along the lines of what I think. It's going to be chaos, especially when somebody or people are so united around such geek things Like gaming used to be big. Only this group used to do it. So of course they're going to be very protective over what that stands for and what it means and everything else. But, like with other gaming companies diversifying, doing different things, stretching out, wanting to appeal to more people just like what if they would pay the slip in the Super Bowl they want to reach more people and get out there so they don't die off, so they don't become obsolete, and it's just the happen that has to happen. That's why, getting rid of the consoles and everything else, it's going to be the way they go Really.
Speaker 1:So when do you think? Because a lot of people because I feel like if you say something will happen like that, right, it's like people who say they feel like it's the end of the world. If you say that every day of your life and you go, you fast forward a million years and people are always saying it it's gonna be right for somebody one day, maybe in time somewhere, if it's being said literally every single day at some point in history, at some point in time. So I think that where I'm at, with the whole console's dying situation, which is kind of like the point of the show, is I think that of course there will be less need for a console at some point in time. Right, it's just that when is that point coming? Like I don't know how. I still think personally, we're a console or two away from that. Maybe at some point they will do like a Roku type situation where they have like just a little streaming type device.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean when you can say, yo, it's like the worst.
Speaker 1:Do you really? Why, would you say I don't know like, but you can get into a cheaper price point there, cause I think so many things you brought up were valid. Like you brought up the point of the console's costing so much, right, like in these three, four $500 price points are expensive.
Speaker 2:I don't want to plug in the console like that Fire stick you can have like little consoles the little Xbox stick.
Speaker 1:Put this stick in your HDMI. Man, you paid 30 bucks for that. I feel like that thing will fly off the shelves. Dude, I don't know, I think what you call it Google. Try that with Stadia, and we did a Stadia show years ago, yeah, and it has not.
Speaker 2:It has not worked out. It has not, it has not, it has not worked out.
Speaker 1:We should do a Stadia recap. I remember we did that show. We did that show like three, four years ago and yeah, man, fast forward to now and my Stadia is selecting dust. I got to send a Stadia. I got sent one for free and did not play it.
Speaker 2:You couldn't force you to get into that oh my God.
Speaker 1:It came with a Comcast like Ultra, right, a little Chromecast Ultra, and it had a joystick and it had games you could play, and I feel like the issue with Stadia is you know what let me bring. Draw attention to my fallout. Watch, too, for people who don't. So I'm not sure if I'm not really moving yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a little more watch there.
Speaker 1:By the way, if people think that this is just a game, it's here every day, my gaming is with me every day. But it came with a controller and I feel like the issue with Stadia was the biggest problem I would say was no exclusives, and then it would get certain games late. They'd be like oh, we got this Assassin's Creed out now on here and that Assassin's Creed been out on other consoles for like a year or two, so it was kind of like it was like no big deal and I think that they played up the whole stream. You don't need to have a console and stuff like that and that's great. But maybe they were just here too early, Like you know, the Palm Pilot and a couple other devices that were similar to, like Apple what iPhone is now? Yeah, because sometimes you come out just too early and then you were just too ahead of the game and I feel like that's where we are with streaming.
Speaker 1:I feel like Stadia is a good example of that. If we were closer to just streaming versus having consoles, I'd like they would have done a little bit. I'm not saying that they would have been done amazing, because exclusives are still gonna be what sells your brand, no matter what, and they just didn't have them. But at the same time, I feel like it would have sold better if society was moving in that direction, if that makes sense, If society was moving in that direction, it might have been salvageable. But I think like yo. Instead, people are waiting in line for PlayStation 5. Is PlayStation 5 selling out in seconds?
Speaker 2:You know, if that's what they're looking to do now, but I feel like the COVID stuff added to that though Like COVID added to that. It was like literally three years of acceleration and we'd almost have to have another COVID level event for the streaming to really kick in, especially if the Wi-Fi or internet access and broadband gets to where it needs to be. Like that's all we really need. It's one more pandemic.
Speaker 1:You know, what's interesting is that that's true, Like COVID definitely pulled some of that forward from a streaming perspective, and COVID definitely had an effect right. That being said, though, I will tell you I'm gonna go deep into my nerddom here.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna expose myself here for the audience here with you tonight. You were in a hurry there. Sorry for my yes, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 1:I've already done quite a bit of exposing For our PlayStation 2,. I spent the night at a local Best Buy For our PlayStation 2.
Speaker 2:There was people out there playing songs. You passed the. Why did not? I know you spent the night waiting. So back in the day when PlayStation 2 came out.
Speaker 1:I had a friend named Randy I worked with and me and Randy were at work and we were talking about man and when a PlayStation comes out tonight, you know, midnight drop, whatever. And he was like yeah, you know, I'm trying to get one. Oh, yeah, me too, man, I'm just don't know if I'm gonna be lucky enough to get one. They're very cool. Fast forward to about 9.30, 10 o'clock-ish, 10.30-ish or night, randy calls me. He's like hey, man, I'm here at this Best Buy and they have some consoles here. They have a limited amount. They have some, but they have some here. He's like bro, I'll be right up there.
Speaker 2:So I go up there.
Speaker 1:I'm up there, right. So I'm up there, I'm in line. Like I said, there was lawn chairs, people. It was good because it was entertaining, because there was a moment, because I've never spent the night for any. I've never been the guy to camp out for like concert tickets, or been that guy for sneaker releases where I'm just gonna sit here for three days and wait for this sneaker. I've never been that guy. But it was interesting being around these people because they, some of these people, look like professionals. They have lawn chairs, people are singing songs, somebody's out there with a guitar and I'm like yo, this is incredible. So I sat in my line. Randy was about 20 people up. You know I got there, you know I was just gonna throw him the deuces, oh he wouldn't let you sit with him.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not, listen, I don't need all that. Randy, you've done your job. You called me and I'm here. You called me. Yeah, you called me, and that's all I needed. So we're there and we spent. You know, best Buy doesn't open till like 10 o'clock. Best Buy doesn't open at like six o'clock in the morning. So we were there for hours. We spent about there for about 12, 13 hours waiting for my PlayStation, so I waited. Then Fast forward to I skipped PlayStation 3. I didn't really my Xbox 360, I didn't buy until Gears of War came out, and then I felt like I had to have it. Fast forward to PlayStation 4, playstation 4 pre-order.
Speaker 1:I went to Walmart. I waited in line at Walmart. This way it was only about four hours though, so we're in line. I'm waiting in line back there and luckily, at the Walmart they were like you can. They came and gave tickets at a certain point, so mercifully, we didn't have to freaking stand in line, cause I got up there about seven ish, six or seven, six or seven. I got up there for a midnight release, so it's going to release like six, about six hours later. So I get up there and luckily, with that situation, we were in line about four to five hours before they came and just gave tickets to people and they were like you tickets, but they're like you can keep your ticket, but you can't leave the store, but you don't have to stand here.
Speaker 2:So then I just went and waited out. You're staring at people.
Speaker 1:They just in line and we're there and we're like, we're here, bro, we're not moving. And they were like, okay, here are tickets for your PlayStation fours and you just have to go, like you can go like Ralph's, a store. They had this particular store had a McDonald's. So I just went and waited out the rest of my time like at the McDonald's and got some food and just like sat there for an hour or two. This Lex console cycle, which was the PlayStation five, same thing. I'm ready. Okay, I'm ready and I'm. But here's the problem. I got worried about it because I couldn't go wait. You know, this is pandemic time here. They're not like releasing this at a store. It has me shipped to you. So we're like waiting and I'm like I'm just refreshing on my phone and refreshing on my phone, I'm trying you know, this is when you have the devices.
Speaker 1:Anybody who knows what I'm talking about. You got three or four devices setting up a year, like all of them, refresh, refresh, like. And I kept getting closer and closer, like my console will be in the Basket or my console will be in check out, but I could not complete the purchase before it was like all this item is not available. You know you're just clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking, yeah. But then my girl told me about Somebody she follows online called a freebie guy. She follows the guy on freebie guy. She's like, hey, well, he just Said of that Walmart has released some more Playstations. I Hate the refresh right then, and it went through right at that second, like, right at that second.
Speaker 1:And I was like yeah, it's got a pretty, I got a pre-order. I'm super hyped. So I will tell you that for me personally, the hype of being there for when a new console drives has not dissipated like whatsoever, despite where Society seems to be moving with just streaming of games. And I the same thing too, when I play. Season 4 pro comes out, placent 5 pro comes out, I'm going to be there for it. If a place just moon 6 console comes out, I'm prepared to spend the time. I'm a hunker down. You know what I mean. I don't care what it takes, I'm gonna be there to try to get it.
Speaker 1:But I do think that at a certain point in time this will be right. I was a kind of a long way of coming back around to the original point of like At some point in time, the now this will be true at some point in time. At some point in time you're gonna have Just streaming gaming and there will be just an app that's capable of giving you the same fidelity and no, no lag that a console has. But I think that we're a console cycle or two away from that as we close out our show. Where, how far do you think? You think there's any more coffee. Do you think this is the last, like some people saying this is the last one, do you? Are you in that camp?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think it's the last, definitely not, because people, like I said, people like the nostalgia, they like having physical things now, because everything that round is seems like you don't own anything anymore, like you don't own homes, like they've gotten away from doing some of the console stuff too. It's like sometimes people don't even really own their phones, so they're they're buying that back from like whatever built phone company.
Speaker 2:Yeah so I think that at least they all would say two to three cycles. Then people start kind of waning off of that. I mean, if we have another major event, that people will throw out the door too, especially if another option is cheaper and they really want to gain with something. But to add to your story, I think the the Emotional gratification of getting that camp console. I think the companies will have to find a way to make up for that or or give you that feeling of Having that in a streaming platform, in in a release. So if they do the releases and have some kind of Exclusive for like a new world that you can only get through the streaming, like they need to find a way to make up for the emotional gratification that you get for the console itself. Until that happens, I think that people will still have it.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm gonna end there because I want to still have it and I and I'm before. Before you say that we're not gonna have it, let's just go ahead and end in this show here. Danelle, I appreciate you taking some time out to entertain a nerd. You know I gotta do more nerd topics. I do a lot of different topics on the show, but I don't do enough nerd topics which I want to do more of. So we'll definitely do some more. That we gotta, you know we got to get back into. You know we started because we started under the premise of our love for anime and we haven't done any anime shows we haven't done. So we will definitely.
Speaker 1:We will get back to doing some, maybe some, anime shows here at some point. Definitely appreciate you taking some time out here, you know.
Speaker 2:No, thank you for having me on. The netflix is doing a push to have more anime on their platform. I still have my country rolling, everything else, so I'm I'm here Yo.
Speaker 1:I heard that formation is gone now, like I, I think it's it. I'm sad. I'm sad about that. I think one of nation had, like English, no.
Speaker 2:I thought just so, just for their opening title secret formation.
Speaker 1:Yes, Deep dive into those, those kind of stringy situations to see kind of where we're the direction of anime is going here. This is Reginald ATL. Check us out to try heart radio, google podcast, apple podcast, spotify, wherever you find your podcast, also on Instagram, which I will be on one day in my life.
Speaker 2:I don't know when would be on.
Speaker 1:I say that every show I'm gonna say that every show until it actually happens. I'm just just not too busy with gaming, with my consoles and like living my life, but I will definitely be on there at some point and and maybe I'll put these on YouTube. When I put my sports shows on YouTube, so maybe we'll put these on YouTube here one day at some point in time. Thank you for checking us out, ladies and gents. See you next time.