Defining Duke: An Xbox Podcast

As the "Curse of the Dukes" continues, we have another massive reveal that occurred so quickly after our latest episode of the show was produced. In the last week, we've learned a lot about Xbox's direction for their future and, to their credit, they're being incredibly direct about it. Introducing Project Helix: the codename for Xbox's next bit of hardware that is capable of playing your PC and console games. Following the announcement, they revealed a chockful of information on their plans at this year's Game Developer Conference. "Xbox Full Screen Experience" has evolved into "Xbox Mode" and that arrives on PC in April. After months of testing on the Xbox Ally, Xbox deems this feature ready for the big leagues. As for the next Xbox itself, alpha versions of the hardware will be out by early 2027 for developers. Is it possible we also see a retail release by holiday 2027? Best of all, there is a tease of more to come with Xbox's backwards compatibility program which has lied dormant for years. Is it possible they have additions in store or maybe (just maybe) achievements being added to classic games? Will these classic games be native to the platform or just streamed? Indeed, there are many questions surrounding the brand, but the wind is blowing in a positive direction for them and that's mostly due to seemingly having their ducks in a row on just how they wanted to communicate what their plans actually are.

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:08:31 - What We’re Playing
0:39:55 - Xbox reveals Project Helix
1:13:45 - Satya Nadella renews his vows with Xbox
1:34:41 - Opening platform to game developers

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Many have said that you can't put the genie back in the lamp, but PlayStation begs to differ. After years of flirting with PC releases (many of which were delayed after the game's initial launch), Sony's gaming group is erecting the walled garden. Naturally, some Xbox fans are looking over at these moves and wondering if the new leadership regime at Xbox can pull off a similar feat. Have these platform holders been running from their fate all along? Can Xbox even dream of undoing all their years of work on damaging their brand? The Dukes sound off on a topic that we imagine will cycle around for a while yet.

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.
0:00:00 - Intro
0:07:52 - What are we excited about in video games?
0:16:32 - We came so close to a Fallout remaster
0:22:06 - Highguard is officially shutting down
0:34:34 - Nacon is in trouble
0:38:44 - What is happening to WB Games?
0:48:05 - DOOM: The Dark Ages DLC is like a sequel
0:52:38 - Halo MCC gets a surprise update
0:56:13 - A look into Assassin’s Creed’s future
1:03:44 - Bloodborne Remake was almost real
1:22:35 - Pokemon Winds & Waves revealed
1:33:20 - AI game reviews are trickling in
1:51:09 - What We’re Playing
2:56:09 - PlayStation is mostly walking away from PC

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The winds of change are blowing through Xbox! Two of their three leaders that have guided the entire Series generation in Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are out. Staying is Matt Booty, who was also promoted (!), and joining as the new CEO of Microsoft Gaming is Asha Sharma. Despite Sarah Bond seemingly being groomed as Phil's successor, Asha steps in with a background that touts her as President of Microsoft's CoreAI alongside time spent at Instacart and Meta as an executive leader. Similarly to when Phil inherited the mess from Don Mattrick, Asha has her work cut out for her. Joining the Dukes is none other than the man to blame for all this nonsense, Brad Ellis. Together, the trio comb through the initial Microsoft blog post that broke the news. From there, we dig into an article by Tom Warren of The Verge who lays the blame of many of Xbox's shortcomings at the feet of Sarah Bond. Like many in our audience asked, we discuss if this is a hit piece, the truth, or somewhere in between. Lastly, Asha Sharma and Matt Booty sat down to chat with Jez Corden about the new lay of the land for Xbox. There are some answers and many questionable non-answers that lead to conversations of their own. Together, let's unpack what is a seismic change for Xbox as the brand continues to feel like it's hanging on by a thread.

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Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro

0:06:36 - What We’re Playing
0:35:06  Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond depart from Xbox

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It's the Todd Howard show this week! In a mega interview, we have plenty of juicy information to pick through. How are things going with Elder Scrolls VI and what's the direction for that game? What's going on with Creation Engine 3? Are there any new Fallout games enroute? How are things hanging after the TV show? The questions are many, but the answers are far more tantalizing!

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Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:14:22 - A reminder to play Lies Of P
0:21:44 - Defining Books
0:27:54 - Checking on Matty’s wardrobe
0:38:19 - What old game would we give DLC to?
0:42:42 - Gabbing about the latest State Of Play
1:07:24 - Steam reviews include PC specs now
1:09:52 - Highguard was “secretly funded” by Tencent
1:20:13 - Do PlayStation exclusives still matter?
1:37:00 - PS6 delayed to 2028 and beyond
1:51:32 - No MTX in Crimson Desert
1:58:22 - Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 dev speaks on multiplatform push
2:04:07 - A new .Hack game was announced
2:06:14 - What We’re Playing
2:36:16 - Todd Howard interview

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As Grand Theft Auto VI begins to lock in its November 19th release date, we're already started to see publishers scramble with their release plans. A recent report out of The Verge firms up that Xbox, like much of this industry, will be attempting to evade the blast zone. As such, they are moving some games up and there's a chance others fall out of the year. Joining Matty this week is Last Stand's own Brad Ellis to talk about everything from Halo Campaign Evolved to Gears Of War: E-Day as we debate and discuss the respective windows of these games. The main question that lingers in our head is if Xbox is avoiding Grand Theft Auto, does that leave December as an option? If not, can all of their 2026 calendar make it out in the anniversary year or would it be best to delay some games into early 2027 for additional polish and breathing room?

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:02:33 - Health is wealth
0:04:58 - Lies Of P reminder
0:08:39 - A write in section
0:10:40 - Checking in on Brad’s Trails progress
0:17:55 - Book check
0:21:57 - Greedfall vibe check
0:30:17 - Have we played Resident Evil Outbreak?
0:36:27 - Valve breaks silence on the Steam Machine
0:50:31 - Is it safe to lock in GTA 6 for this fall?
0:58:48 - Diablo 2 DLC in 2026
1:05:48 - The absolutely insane Mindseye drama
1:13:59 - Obsidian says it took over 5 years for people to like New Vegas
1:23:29 - Yakuza Kiwami 3 is the final Kiwami game
1:28:31 - Resident Evil Requiem’s game length
1:35:46 - Highguard team suffers layoffs
1:42:59 - 2XKO layoffs
1:51:57 - What We’re Playing
2:21:23 - Xbox’s 2026 release schedule leaked
2:45:28 - Next gen Xbox details leaked

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Xbox's marketing beat for 2025 was "The Year Of Obsidian Entertainment." Frankly, it made sense. No matter how you feel about the quality of these games, the fact that this team shipped Avowed, Outer Worlds 2, and Grounded 2 all within a calendar year (while many other teams within the first party fold continue to stumble around) was worthy of all the praise. Well, Obsidian has some thoughts on that marketing tagline. Indeed of it being a rallying cry, Obsidian's own Josh Sawyer defined as a "sign that something went wrong." Both Avowed and Outer Worlds 2 were in development for over six years and the result is that both these games failed to meet financial expectations. What lessons can they learn after shipping so many games? What can they do to cut development costs? What games should they make to meet Xbox's new profit margins? Part of the solution to the team at Obsidian is Avowed 2, but it's anyone's guess what lies beyond that. Thanks to a transparent conversation with Obsidian, the Dukes now dig into the company with this new perspective.

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:06:36 - Reading Recs
0:14:58 - Ashes Of Creation is the latest scam in gaming
0:28:31 - The suspicious Dispatch censorship situation
0:36:02 - Is Nioh finally coming to Xbox?
0:45:17 - Tekken Season 3 revealed
0:51:03 - Forza Horizon 6 supports cross save
0:54:24 - Highguard moves up to Mixed on Steam as it gets 5v5 mode
0:57:26 - Ex Bethesda dev talks Morrowind Remaster
1:14:06 - The Amazon Fallout countdown ends
1:21:29 - Epic Games plans to take on Steam
1:26:59 - AI surveys conducted at GDC
1:34:33 - Ubisoft says volunteer to get fired or get fired
1:39:39 - The Division: Definitive Edition isn’t what we expected
1:42:10 - Beyond Good & Evil 2 officially has a pulse
1:43:58 - RIP Comcept
1:48:04 - Cairn passes 200K copies sold
1:50:49 - Nintendo sales update
1:56:53 - What We’re Playing
2:22:05 - The Year Of Obsidian isn’t quite what we made it out to be
2:55:22 - AMD hints at next gen launch plans
3:04:39 - Xbox is the least desired console to develop for

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Well, we've seen our fair share of Xbox earnings reports. As expected, there's a lot of negative discourse around it, but this time there are some more troubling facts resting within these underlying numbers. As we've seen Xbox's hardware has been down for almost two years now. That continues in this quarter, so it is not much of a shocker by this point. That is if you only consider the console and not the recently released Xbox Ally. When it comes to gaming revenue as well as content and services, they're down. This is significant because this is all based on the holiday window where we usually see spending go up. In a window where they had the likes of Call Of Duty, which became the number one selling game of the month in December, they still ended up with losses. The likes of Outer Worlds 2, Keeper, or Ninja Gaiden 4 couldn't do enough, nor should they be fully expected to make up that sort of difference. The sum of it all is despite this being one of Xbox's busier holidays, they couldn't escape a loss and that comes shortly after a Game Pass price hike.

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:05:04 - Snowy Dukes
0:11:48 - Our workflow
0:19:03 - A second Xbox Developer Direct in 2026?
0:26:37 - Forza Horizon 6’s pricey premium upgrade
0:31:33 - State Of Decay 3 has a pulse
0:39:00 - The Coalition opens up on Gears Of War: E-Day
0:45:14 - Achievement overhaul inbound?
0:50:53 - Xbox Q2 earnings are in
1:04:48 - PS6 after 2028?
1:18:45 - State Of Play and Nintendo Direct in February?
1:22:57 - Beyond Good & Evil 2 has survived the Ubisoft purge
1:30:26 - Indie publishers should be avoided
1:42:37 - Emberville gets a release window
1:45:16 - BioWare is quietly hiring for Mass Effect
1:46:34 - Dragon Ball Age 1000 Announced
1:56:13 - Resident Evil Requiem will not be open world
2:01:17 - Code Veronica Remake is targeting H1 2027
2:03:31 - What We’re Playing
2:50:50 - Xbox realizes the most obvious thing ever
3:05:22 - Brian Fargo opens up on Clockwork Revolution

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Everything from Forza Horizon 6 and Kiln to Beast Of Reincarnation and Fable was shown off here! While the other games made their own noise, the Dukes (including Gene Park) were most captured by Fable. Judging by the noise online, so were many, many other people. For the first time in a long time, it feels like Xbox has a broadly appealing hit on their hands. Playground Games showed off everything from combat and choices to the economic and social simulation elements that always made Fable such a joy to play. With this comes the new introduction of "Living Population" where 1,000 NPCs all have their own hobbies, schedules, voice actors, and conversations. This is all designed to bring to life the replacement for Fable's famous morality system in the form of a reputation system that is similar to what is seen in Fable 3. Are there any snags for the Dukes with these changes? What has us most hyped? It's time to dive into what is now one of the most anticipated games of 2026.

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:12:57 - Forza Horizon 6
0:20:04 - Beast Of Reincarnation
0:29:07 - Kiln
0:39:05 - Fable
1:30:56 - Ubisoft undergoes massive shakeup
1:43:10 - Fallout TV show thoughts so far
2:22:05 - What We're Playing

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After years of secrecy and many delays, Xbox is set to pull the lid off one of its most anticipated RPGs at the upcoming Developer Direct. First rumored in 2017 and announced in 2020, Fable has been baking at Playground Games, the prolific racing game studio, for a long, long time. Now, Xbox promises a deep dive on everything from combat and choice to British humor and chickens. Is it do or die time for Fable? How does its early year showing shake up the already packed summer showcase? Will we finally get a release date? Perhaps just a release year? Indeed, there are so many questions, but most of these will be announced very shortly!

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
0:06:26 - A time games did play for us
0:12:04 - The Rook speaks
0:14:41 - Baby Dukes on the way
0:18:04 - Motivating ourselves after work
0:24:22 - Would Matty interview Todd Howard again?
0:36:29 - Avowed is headed to PS5 with its biggest update yet
0:50:54 - Forza Bros collect their biggest win yet
0:59:50 - Hellblade 3 is the focus
1:10:16 - Towerborne releases February 26 for $25
1:16:55 - Masters Of Albion releases on April 22nd, 2026
1:21:39 - Crimson Desert’s map size debate
1:26:07 - Is ATLUS finally revealing Persona 6 this year?
1:32:43 - Division 3 will have as big an impact as Division 1
1:38:19 - Details on the secret Witcher 3 expansion
1:42:54 - Stellar Blade Boss speaks out on AI use case
1:47:59 - Meta closes several VR studios
1:58:44 - Everything we learned about Divinity in Larian AMA
2:19:46 - What We’re Playing
2:42:16 - Developer Direct confirmed for January 22nd

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Xbox didn't miss a beat to kick off the new year. In a scratch pad by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, he spoke to how we need to accept AI as slop versus sophistication. As one would imagine, this had the adverse effect as "Microslop" began trending all over social media. The timing could be better as the rise of AI datacenters have caused a massive spikes in hardware prices. So much so that there are now reports that both Xbox and PlayStation may delay their upcoming hardware as a result. The question now becomes if a delayed Xbox system ever sees the light of day since it feels like 2027's new hardware was to be an offramp and the benefit of plans already being in motion. Time would tell, but for now, let's eat some "slop."

Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement.

0:00:00 - Intro
00:05:37 - Holiday break updates
00:17:29 - Fallout season 2 thoughts
00:28:03 - The state of the Health Is Wealth grind
00:33:16 - Vince Zampella passes away at 55
00:49:02 - Bethesda wants to make a 600 hour Fallout game
00:58:11 - Xbox console sales are downright terrible
01:04:04 - A New Witcher 3 expansion in 2025?
01:11:44 - Clair Obscur dev on what’s next
01:18:39 - Sony patents AI playing games for you
01:26:32 - The Ubisoft Holiday Hack
01:29:41 - Update on Exodus leadership changes
01:39:46 - What We’re Playing
02:17:49 - What to expect from Xbox in 2026
02:43:21 - Next gen consoles are delayed?
02:55:51 - Satya Nadella says to stop calling AI “slop”
03:17:58 - Zenimax Lead Departs After Xbox Cancellation

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