[Music] my name is atrian and I am the last face you will ever [Music] see PlayStation we have one goal which is to bring more games to more Gamers on all platforms uh and provide more choice for Publishers everywhere and developers everywhere uh and so everything that we’re doing with our content with our uh sub you know our cloud and Community really is about driving that choice and that opportunity today is all about the hype PS5 Pro getting better every week we got new information on GTA 6 from Take 2 CEO fresh games are on the horizon big wins are rolling in and it’s nothing but good vibes for the Sony Squad today so you know Sacha Nadella the CEO of Microsoft he was recently on an interview panel where he talked about Xbox their ad strategy and everything else they’re up to he laid out their strategy very plainly he mentioned growth which is like a trigger word immediately you think oh that’s why gaming is a massively growing industry it has been for the last 10 20 years it’s been expanding like crazy and continues to do so although the last year or two has slowed down a bit but that’s normal when a chart’s going up like crazy there might be a couple of years where it plateaus or dips a little before continuing upward I think that’s where we’re at right now now which is why we’ve seen so many layoffs and stuff but gaming is a huge opportunity in the tech space and it’s an opportunity that companies like apple besides the App Store haven’t really tapped into they’ve tried some things like letting you play Assassin’s Creed Mirage on your iPad but that’s about it when it comes to breaking into the gaming market so apple one of Microsoft’s primary competitors in the tech space is pretty much Mia in gaming Google tried with stadia but that went nowhere Amazon has their cloud gaming thing called Luna but I honestly don’t know a single person who’s ever used it there’s just not a lot of competition in the gaming space Satya being The Savvy businessman he is saw this huge opportunity Microsoft’s coming in with buckets of cash expanding the Xbox platform building it out and becoming one of the biggest Distributors of gaming software in the world pretty much overnight easy money right and that’s what they’re doing it’s really not that complicated what’s interesting is that people seem to struggle with the idea that Microsoft has changed how they view the games industry and their role in it for a long time basically 20 years it was PlayStation versus Xbox PC was its own thing Nintendo was its own thing but fundamentally it was the console war between PlayStation and Xbox nowadays that’s not how Xbox sees it maybe Playstation still does but XBox doesn’t they’re like yeah we’ve been losing that fight so why keep going back into the ring when we keep getting beat let’s make our own game and do our own thing and that’s exactly what they’re doing they’re focusing on Distributing software first and foremost using things like Game Pass to guarantee consistent Revenue instead of relying on big spikes intermittently which is very high risk High reward it just makes more sense for Xbox and Microsoft to do it that way especially since that’s how Microsoft handles the rest of their business Microsoft isn’t a multi-trillion dollar company because they sell the best laptops or desktops or tablets they’re massive because they distribute software all over the world both on individual levels with PCS and on Commercial levels with servers and all the software that runs on them that’s where they make their money that’s what they’re good at and that’s what they’re doing with Xbox so their approach is to stop fighting a battle they’ve struggled with for years and move the goalposts instead of trying to win over who has the largest percentage of consoles on the market they’re now competing based on who has the most Revenue in gaming who has the most profitability with microtransactions and other things who is the most capable distributor of software regardless of platforms and that’s a game Microsoft can start winning very easily they came in spent a ton of money 70 billion 77 billion if you count zenimax and now they’re seeing significant Returns on that investment already but it’s fundamentally a different game than they used to play 5 or 10 years ago I think Xbox fans the hardcore ones who make Xbox part of their identity are frustrated and Confused they’re like no Xbox is supposed to have exclusives now and finally one up PlayStation with games only we get to play but now they’re sending those games over to PlayStation anyway and those fans are frustrated on the other hand PlayStation fans are like what losers they have to come over here and sell their games to us anyway but they’re looking at it through the wrong lens Microsoft is trying something different and it’s a game I think they can win it’s not the game they’ve played before and it’s not the game PlayStation or anyone else is playing I think we’ll see them gain a lot of financial stability over the next few years in the gaming sector especially if Game Pass continues to grow it’s been doing some crazy numbers for them people like jez Cordon from Windows Central are even saying Xbox won’t have exclusives going forward everything is a timed exclusive at most if some games are exclusive though it’s going to be incidental at best the caseby casee argument is by and large going to be multiplat timed and with maybe a few outliers in response to someone who didn’t believe that Xbox’s upcoming Fable game could come to PlayStation Cordon wrote that game was monstrously expensive it might not be day one multiplatform but it’ll come with the current plan in place in my opinion and this is something where the writing is on the wall you can’t spend $200 $300 million on a game in 2024 and make that back with a console exclusive it just doesn’t work that way anymore there are a few rare exceptions like if you have a big exclusive for the PS5 or if you’re Nintendo and you have Mario Kart 9 those games are literal console Sellers and can move 2530 million copies for example Super Smash Brothers ultimate has sold over 31 million copies if you sell that many you can spend as much money on it as you want but even games like God of War Ragnarok a huge exclusive that was cross generational and also launched on PS4 because they needed more than just the PS5 platform to get enough sales to break even you’ll still see some console exclusives but even now PlayStation is very openly bringing those exclusives to PC later because it’s money on the table I don’t think PlayStation will bring their games to Xbox but I do think you’ll continue to see them come to PC because games are so expensive to make nowadays you need to do that to put it in perspective The Witcher 3 cost 81 million plus $35 million in marketing with some overspending here and there making that game today would probably cost $2400 million and that’s only for 3 and 1/2 years of development the industry is different today it’s fundamentally changed there are no magic shortcuts or other Solutions you either make the game in less time so it’ll be smaller pay your developers less or have fewer of them which won’t help with quality or your game is just going to be expensive to make and you need to sell more copies maybe more DLC or premium editions to pay for it it’s really not that much more complicated than that for Xbox games they have Game Pass and they’re hoping a lot of people sign up to play these games when they launch and keep their subscription on the flip side they hope that on Playstation people buy it at full price that way they get the best of both worlds PlayStation Gamers who are used to paying full price and Xbox Gamers who are used to subscriptions PC Gamers can choose they can buy the game through Steam or the Xbox store at full price or sign up for game pass on PC it’s fundamentally about meeting players where they are with their expectations for purchasing a game and just being everywhere for everybody at the same time I don’t think it’s a bad option some people suggest that Executives should take less money to make games more affordable or lower budgets the problem is executives are compensated with stock options that pay out over scheduled periods it’s not like they’re receiving cash payouts in the millions of dollars when you hear that an executive received a compensation package 30 million or 10 million it doesn’t mean they got a deposit to their bank account for that amount that’s not how those payouts work it’s a fundamentally different way of being paid that 99.9% of people don’t experience when people hear that someone like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos is worth a certain amount they think that money is just sitting in a bank account but it’s tied up in stock value if the stock price drops their net worth decreases it doesn’t mean their bank account changed so when people say to make games more affordable or lower budgets by paying Executives less Le in principle yeah but the budget isn’t factoring in a $10 million payment to the executive that’s just not how it works the budget is independent of that and is a function of cash flows executive compensation is a function of stock performance the company’s performance more broadly so they’re in different areas they’re different things ladies and gentlemen introducing Xbox One TV TV and movies TV Xbox watch TV TV TV TV Rockstar owner Take 2 is certainly eager to repeat the success of Grand Theft Auto 5 which became the second bestselling game of all time after Minecraft with over 200 million units sold CEO Strauss zelnick recently spoke a bit about the next Grand Theft Auto in a video interview with Connor Mather hyping it up with a single sentence I would say I think it’ll be extraordinary and worth waiting for he went on to say we definitely listen to feedback from our fans absolutely you need to in our business and you’re able to but remember the biggest hits are always the ones that are unexpected everything that we do has to be new and different not derivative so by definition when people are commenting on something that is in the market that means they’re looking at something that was done before our teams are focused on what’s new that you haven’t even thought about like you thought you were anticipating this thing but this is way bigger and way better and more exciting and more beautiful than you could have possibly thought of I don’t think any any of us did I think that we saw it as a really interesting add-on to the title we actually originally had not planned to have virtual currency in the game so it wasn’t going to be an economic driver it was relatively late in the day when we decided to pursue virtual currency because it was so long ago we’re looking back to 2013 and it wasn’t an immediate success you may recall it was pretty buggy at first we had some trouble coming out of the gate because it was all new and we were innovating we were doing it all in real time it was like building a plane while you’re taking off and then flying it is an incredible durable success and it continues to to perform many many years later it’s astonishing and no I don’t think any of us expected that but we also didn’t expect to sell 205 million units we never expected that that was way outside of the realm of anything we contemplated previous GTA 6 trailer 2 conspiracy theories have fallen through and so fans shouldn’t get their hopes up about the newest one being correct but it’s definitely interesting Rockstar Intel has compiled a complete rundown of the theory which all revolves around the number 27 the gist of it is an image of the Willard Outreach faction car recently shared by Rockstar Games shows a license plate that reads 6dw 31980 added up the numbers equal 27 while D and W are the fourth and 23rd numbers in the alphabet respectively which also add up to 27 other connections to 27 pointed out by GTA fans and compiled by Rockstar Intel include rockstar having 27 posts on its Instagram account the first GTA 6 trailer showing a car with the number 27 on it at the 27 second Mark in the trailer and an image shared by the company that shows a helicopter with a 27 on it this has all LED fans to theorize that the GTA 6 trailer to release date is Friday December 27th what do you think about this Theory the PlayStation 5 Pro game boost mode can bring significant improvements in terms of image quality and performance even in games that haven’t been patched to take advantage of all the systems features a new analysis highlighted in a new video shared over the weekend digital Foundry took a good look at how the current generation Final Fantasy games run on the mid generation system released last month being the only PS5 pro- enhanced title Final Fantasy 7 rebirth is clearly the star of the show in the new versatility mode only available on PlayStation 5 Pro the second entry in the remake series features improved image Clarity and more stable performance over performance mode in pretty much every scenario in combination with a small resolution boost over the bass model the PlayStation spectral super resolution upscaler delivers some impressive results although with some issues that are unique to the game such as vegetation issues both at a distance and up close and common among games using the current iteration of the upscaler which should become a thing of the past in future versions things get more interesting with the other current generation Final Fantasy games as none of them have received PlayStation 5 Pro patches Final Fantasy 16 for example shows significant improvements in both display modes in graphics mode for example game boost mode allows the game to to run at a higher internal resolution which results in clearer and more detailed image performance mode Sports a far smaller internal resolution boost but considerably more stable performance with a 24% uplift which often falls into the system’s vrr range in scenarios where the base model struggles to hit 60fps the PS5 Pro manages to do so consistently in addition the game’s combination of TS C MAA and fsr1 leaves much of the image pixel structure intact resulting in less aliasing on the mid generation system Final Fantasy 14 improvements are more significant on the PlayStation 5 Pro with game boost with an up to 40% performance Improvement in 4k mode with Dynamic resolution off on the new system the game manages to hit 60 FPS consistently and only the most intense scenarios cause drops at 1440p resolution the game also often manages to hit 120 frames per second resulting in great image fluidity even stranger of paradise Final Fantasy Origins sport more stable performance on the PlayStation 5 Pro without a dedicated patch which is a significant Improvement for an intense action game like the spin-off developed by team ninja CD project has chosen Siri as the protagonist for The Witcher 4 a decision made a decade ago this Choice while causing some controversy is supported by the Studio’s belief in series depth and potential for storytelling Cilla Fiona Ellen ranan was always meant to be the descendant of The Witcher series CD project asserts one piece from Bloomberg’s Jason shrier reveals that CD project had chosen Siri to star in The Witcher 4 a decade ago which would be around 2014 months before The Witcher 3 even came out in other interviews executive producer malarat matranga tells IGN that The Witcher 4 was always her it was always about her starting from Saga when you read it in the books she’s an amazing layered character and of course as a protagonist we said goodbye to geralt previously so this is a continuation I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be that was always in that same interview game director Sebastian Cola gave more thoughts on CD Project’s Ardent choice in Siri there was an intention behind this Choice it was far from roulette it wasn’t random I remember we had discussions 9 years ago we were talking about who’s next the very very instant answer was CI colus said there are many reasons behind that we’ve already mentioned a few but she really deserves a stage and we want players to really experience her story because she has so much to tell so much to prove the amount of challenges that are in front of her give us so much amazing energy and fuel to create an epic Saga that we had no choice but to go with it we all felt that this is the way I believe this is the super right choice The Witcher 3’s map was roughly 88 square m or 142 km including all the DLC and additional areas it included areas such as white Orchard Vin novag Tucson the skela Isles K Moran and more there isn’t any information as to what areas will be included in The Witcher 4 but we can likely expect some of these areas to reappear new locations are also also likely to be added depending on where Siri’s Journey takes her we know she will at least go north of the continent based on the Village from the reveal trailer regardless of the specifics CD project red assures fans the game will be big and have plenty to enjoy there is also the possibility The Witcher 4 will receive DLC just as The Witcher 3 did The Witcher 4 will pick up after the events with The Witcher 3 it may check players save files for the third game to make some choices but it seems to follow the cannon ending of Siri becoming a Witcher those who haven’t seen the reveal trailer for The Witcher 4 during the game awards should absolutely check it out to get an in-depth look at what to expect from the upcoming title with Siri being the defined protagonist fans are still hoping to be able to run into geralt in The Witcher 4 geralt retired at the end of The Witcher 3 with the players romance option into Sans corvo biano so it would be nice to visit and see how geralt is getting on hopefully geralt will have a happy ending Jonathan deont working as creative director on the game has revealed that Nai one of the protagonists will be the fastest playable character the series has seen yet she runs super fast she has a lot of gadgets to keep her stealth so that she doesn’t have to fight often we wanted to satisfy that for players that come in for that Ninja Assassin game he said in a recent interview according to dant the female Shinobi will be seen pulling off the popular Naruto run in which the character leans forward arms bent back and sprinting at full speed we do have a run on top of buildings that has a little bit of a wink wink to it the Ubisoft official added giving insights into the setting of Assassin’s Creed Shadows the Ubisoft official said that Nai hails from the IGA Province a rural remote local in the middle of the country that also plays into the origins of the Shinobi or ninjas while the other character Yas introduces players to the nobility of the feudal Japan era naoi storyline will show the day-to-day relatable hardworking farm hand