Septic Sauce

Here we go! The big annual Xbox showcase event and this week we also had State of Play from Sony. Will Xbox deliver enough to satiate people? The Nintendo Switch 2 released this week and the reception has been a bit tepid. Black Myth Wukong is now coming to Xbox exactly one year after the Playstation release. Not suspicious at all!

We are a week away from the Xbox Games Showcase and already we've had some bad news that Xbox has sidelined its handheld project 'Pembrook' according to Windows Central. What of the rest of Xbox and its expectations for next week? Last year it delivered a stellar show. This year expectations seem to be a bit mixed but why? The new Cyberpunk game was officially revealed as Cyberpunk 2 and will be hitting pre-production, MindsEye, the game behind the former GTA creator seems to be courting a lot of controversy, Shuhei Yoshida thinks Xbox Game Pass is evil , Marvel cancelled its Black Panther game, Elden Ring Nightrein has received middling reviews and The Order 1886 had sequels in the works but the poor reception of the first game led to the cancellation of the series. Joining me will be Lord Cognito ► https://www.youtube.com/@IronLordsPodcastRoundtable

You can't dismiss the quality of Xbox games anymore when they top the charts and in such comprehensive fashion. Playstation gamers really are loving Xbox games! Is Xbox's multiplatform strategy actually working? Randy Pitchford says real gamers will pay $80 for Borderlands 4. Warhammer Space Marines is coming to Xbox Game Pass and PC but is oddly not coming to Playstation. Hellblade 2 is coming to PS5. No red lines.

Whilst the Xbox hardware division can get plenty of criticisms it looks like its software offerings, particularly in relation to Xbox Game Pass are another story entirely. Xbox Game Pass subscribers just got the Oblivion Remaster shadow drop on to the service and this is no mere remaster. Its restyled in Unreal Engine and not one of your lazy cash grabs that you see from other platform holders (you know who). Then Expedition 33 wowed everyone with huge critical acclaim and Xbox benefits by having it appear on Xbox Game Pass. Many are calling it a serious Game of the Year contender. Ghost of Yotei has also received a release date in October of this year. PC increasingly seems like the place to be and Atlus is yet another dev that cites the PC as a huge growth space, stating that PC sales for Metaphor Refantazio exceeded expectations. Joining me will be Gaming Forte ►    / @gamingforte  

Console gamers continue to get the shaft as Playstation increases the price of Playstation Plus in several regions, Nintendo continues to reveal how greedy it is, but not when it comes to trying to pay off Digital Foundry for their tech comparisons. Marathon had its reveal last week and the public reception isn't great. This may end up being another failure for Sony with its GaaS endeavour but is this just recency bias with Concord and does the game actually stand a chance to be successful? Xbox apparently has more unannounced games that are coming this year, that might be the Oblivion remake that has leaked, Housemarque confirms that we'll see gameplay later this year for Saros and more!Joining me will be Samurai Kibiji ►    / @samuraikibiji  

Nintendo has stumbled in a very big way. After the offical reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo revealed information about its game pricing and Nintendo is seeking to singlehandedly increase game pricing from $70 to $80. Nintendo is also seeking to charge for upgrades for the same games from the Nintendo Switch to the Switch 2. This has understandably incensed the gaming community who see little justification in Nintendo doing this. Internet discourse has been loaded and vehemently one-sided against Nintendo in its endeavours here and I am right there with them. Nintendo of all companies has no basis to justify this increase. It is greed pure and simple.

The industry continues to shift more and more as the lines between platform exclusivity and walled gardens get blurred. We had the Nintendo Direct and Playstation games made an appearance including Everybody's Golf Hot Shots and Patapon 1+2 Replay. These certainly won't be the last Playstation games appearing on other platforms. Talk of the Xbox and hybrid console really gained steam (pun intended) this week as Microsoft removed a UI mockup that showed Steam integration and people wonder whether there is any point in it or if Xbox is really going to commit to this. Ubisoft got a big lifeline this week as the struggling company got a sizeable investment from Tencent who bought in 25% shares in a newly created subsidiary that houses Ubisoft's biggest games.

This week we got a fair bit of news from all over. Kojima wowed everyone with a 10 minute trailer for Death Stranding 2 which looks absolutely amazing. Jez Corden from Windows Central broke the news about an OEM Xbox Handheld but it sounds kinda rubbish to me and all the bold sqwaking from the Playstation faithful about the PS5 Pro and its so-called PSSR tech morphed into waiting for the tools and FSR as they massively damage control what has been a pretty lackluster performance from a mid-gen console that looks uninspiring at best. But there is hope....coming by way of an update...in 2026! THE TOOLS!

I was away last week and since then lots of things happened. Fable got delayed (as I expected), AMD shocked everyone by slapping NVIDIA in the face with its new GPU that finally brings real competition in the graphics card space, Hazelight Studios and Josef Fares just keep on winning with Split Fiction that wows critics, Playstation had more layoffs and Ballistic Moon behind the Until Dawn series got shut down, there might be no The Last of Us Part 3 according to Neil Druckmann and a Gears of War collection is rumorued to be set to be revealed this summer coming to Xbox, PC and Playstation (spit) but without multiplayer.

Its about time I got this POS on the show. Nick Marseil, the serial Playstation defender will be joining me as we talk all things Playstation, the State of Play that really did hurt his feelings (which he will vehemently deny), how Jim Ryan set back Playstation for years, the future of Xbox and Playstation in the gaming space and more.