Boom. We're on episode one. Where's the blowjob?
He's cracked open the tinnies. Oh my God. It's
half free on a Monday. I was waiting for that
to go up my nose. Banging them straight out.
Oh God, it's so nice. Oh my God. Oh my God. That's
a running theme in the... On the raid nights,
there's always someone that cracks open a tin
and it's so crisp. Crack a cold one. Tasty, tasty.
Crack me open. We've got a couple of topics pre
-loaded. Very, very unlike Wash the Buttons.
So, we've got three subject matters. Three categories.
That we can float off of. Hello, it's me as well.
Oh yeah, Connor's with us. It's not. It's not
the usual suspects. Hello, Ash. You haven't been
here in a while. Come back. I met up with a load
of the guild lot. The hoofs and hoes. When was
that? Saturday? No, Friday. Friday night. And
a couple of them said, because Connor and Joe
were wearing Watch the Buttons t -shirts. Nice.
And they said, you need to fucking do t -shirts
for everyone else now. Like all the other people
that come on the podcast. Basically said, we
need to do one where it gets rid of Ash's face
and puts a question mark instead. Oh yeah, the
Royal Rumble t -shirt. Choose that co -host.
No, it should be, so you've got a little Velcro
patch. on the chest just little sticker heads
you can just take them off keep swapping them
on who's on today I don't know just take them
off it's just you there was fucking one of the
guildies that listens quite a lot Corey I was
chatting to him the first time I'd met him and
he's like he's exactly how it's really weird
so you you spend like two days a week and then
throughout the rest of the week playing with
these people, getting to know them, talking to
them, blah, blah, blah. Everything bar meeting
them physically. And then when you do meet these
people physically, you're shocked because they're
exactly how they sound and behave. You go, oh
my God, you are exactly who I thought you were.
And yeah, I was chatting to Corey and he was
like, he listens to the pod quite a lot. And
I was saying to him, I was like, I need to get
you a t -shirt. He just looked at me and he was
like, I don't want your face though. I went,
oh, great. And then they pointed out the fact
that when that logo was done, I was almost four
stone heavier. Longer hair. Longer beard. Big
old long beard. It just doesn't look like me.
Who's this? Where is it? Maybe there's an update
that needs changing. Oh, God. Move some shit
around. Let me zoom in. There we go. The old
Sasquatch. The old Sasquatch. Yeah. Or what was
it? Fucking Joe Wilkinson is what people were
saying. I remember the first time that we did
the T -shirts and when me and Ash went to the
Star Wars celebration and someone pulled me and
they said, oh, is that a Joe Wilkinson T -shirt?
I went, no, no, no. No, it's just me. That's
me. That's me. Thank you very much. Xbox Game
Pass. Money, money. Money, money. You're not
a patron of Xbox Game Pass, are you? I used to
be a long, long, long time ago. Same here. It's
one of those ones, it's any of those subs that
you just forget about. And I can't remember why
I had it more. So apparently... But it was a
long time since I turned it off. It was probably
like Halo 4, maybe, was like the last game I
played through Game Pass. It used to be good,
but like... I haven't really looked into it.
I just saw they said they had a price hike. It's
quite a hefty one. So they're going from... What
is it? From $14 .99 a month for the Xbox Game
Pass Ultimate to $22 .99 a month. That's quite
chunky in terms of subscriptions. It's quite
a heavy one. To put that into perspective for
our American listeners, obviously that's $20
to $30. $30. Which is quite a fucking... $36
Australian. Quite a hike, to be fair. Because
I find it weird in that Game Pass is so incredible
for gaming. Maybe that's why they bumped it out,
though. Yeah, but that platform as a whole...
is mental. Obviously, PlayStation have tried
to do it with PlayStation Plus and their different
tier systems with that. It seems to be the done
thing now is that you pay a sub and then you
get access to various amounts of games. But I've
always felt like Xbox is the flagship for that.
Well, I think that was Microsoft's key thing.
Yeah. Where you turn around and go, instead of
excluding Xbox users or PC users, you're basically
on the same... roughly the same kind of platform
except one's a console and one's not that at
least you can then turn around and be like well
all these games we've got yeah we can just let
the pc players have a go of them because it was
i know i've definitely had my worth out of it
in the past where you go right i don't really
want to buy this whatever game that i'm not going
to play that much of and for 13 pound or whatever
i was sure it was cheaper then because or even
less than that like seven quid or eight quid
or something. Maybe I'm thinking the lower tier,
but even that's typical that they'd release different
tiers. You go, oh, there's an ultimate version.
I remember EA did exactly the same thing. They
had their own Game Pass style EA. I can't remember
what it was called, but that basically gave you
exactly the same aspect. Because you had Ubisoft
Club as well. They had a little touch into it.
It's clever, but it's a bit... There's a little
bit of a steep jump. to turn around and go, okay.
It's something we don't take lightly and we're
listening to the feedback of the players in the
community to try and provide them with more of
what they're asking for. Earlier this week, the
firm announced it was increasing the most expensive
tier of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate from £15 to £23
per month. It also announced rises of Xbox Game
Pass Standard, renamed Xbox Game Pass Premium,
and PC Game Pass. blackwell noted the price increases
reflected additional content added to the service
specifically is ultimate tier game pass ultimate
will now include access to more than 400 titles
globally this includes the majority of our partners
who want to continue to bring their future games
to xbox game pass we're also now giving access
to more than 75 day one releases at That's a
50 % increase over the last day one titles we
provided last year. So that's how their cost
will rise from between $20 and $70 across its
hardware range. Because they're adding more shit
to Game Pass. That justifies bumping up the cost
of it. That just seems like... greed let me open
up another tab let's find out how much Game Pass
went just red ones and they wouldn't be surprised
if it is PlayStation bumps theirs up yeah of
course but the thing is with PlayStation's one
is shit it's not value for money and it is nowhere
near as good as something like Game Pass yeah
see this is in my head that would be the gaming
community as a whole there's already an uproar
people are already boycotting Game Pass standard
um kind of with him on that so in my head if
i was sony i'd be looking to try and grab that
customer base rather than following suit and
increasing your price try and add some more shit
into it get some people more value for the money
you're putting in someone's put ah they've like
you said it's really tempted of me to call it
greed especially given uh microsoft's 100 over
100 billion annual profits. You go, right, why
are you... Game Pass was good because it was
affordable for what it offered. And do people
really care about day one releases for a lot
of stuff? Xbox Game Pass is profitable according
to Microsoft executives who reported record revenue
of over $5 billion in the previous fiscal year
ending mid -2025. This is seen as a confirmation
of the subscription model. It's sustainable and
beneficial for the company and developers despite
past concerns about its financial viability and
impact on the gaming industry. Record revenue
of $5 billion. So what do they then do with that?
Let's increase it. Let's double that. What the
fuck? Let's make that better for us. How does
that make sense? So records of $5 billion in
revenue. We're now going to add more to that
subscription, but because we're adding more to
it, we're going to lose out on some profit. So
we've obviously got to claw that back. So let's
fucking... We've put more in, but we expect you
to pay more. But do they not... Do companies
like this do... They don't think... Do you not
see that? If you're... Depends, because it'll
be people who aren't gamers, and it'll be money
men. And board members. But it doesn't make any
sense. We run a Patreon. Okay. You're a sub to
them. Get them prices up. Go on. Patreon .com
forward slash what's the buttons. You're going
to get one more episode a month, double the prices.
Exactly. It's a five a month for an extra episode
every week. So if I then add another episode
into that and then double the cost and then wonder
why half the patrons unsub. Yeah. I can't sit
there and go, well, why have they done that?
Why have they done that? I'm giving them more.
You go, no, because you've set a precedent of...
By that point, it becomes, you're basically paying
half the value of a lower tier game. What you
should do is... So you may as well just buy the
game. This is how I would have done it. Or if
we're talking in terms of the patron, if I was
ever planning on doing something like that, you'd
put out a poll asking for feedback. You'd go,
look, we... we'll add this, this, this, and this.
Do you think it warrants increasing a sub to
this? Would you pay an additional fee if we included
all of this other stuff? And then you gauge off
of what everyone says. If everyone turns around
and goes, fuck no, you go, all right, okay, we
won't do that then. Or you just ignore the poll
altogether and you go, well, I've got a good
system here. I'm getting money. So let me just
add some more to this to make it even more enticing
because you're going to get... More people that
will boycott and cancel their Game Pass sub because
of a price increase. I think regardless of bragging
about how many titles you're going to be adding
to it, you're taking money out of people's pockets.
It also appeals to what new titles they're going
to put on there. Yeah. Because if you turn around
and go, okay, we're adding however many new titles
and it turns out none of them are actually what
people want to play, then you turn around and
go, right, well, if I'm paying... 50 more and
getting still getting the same amount of shit
realistically i'm not not getting anything better
than what i've already got then what's the point
i don't like i can i kind of see where they can
come from but where they're pulled to figure
out of their their asses and gone right well
yeah now we expect you if you turn around and
giving you a definitive answer of oh yeah we're
adding all these more titles but truthfully does
it make that much difference All you're offering
is the digital licensing just to access the game.
And as soon as someone even finishes that or
doesn't finish and doesn't pay their sub, they
don't get access to that anymore. So gamers cancelled
their Game Pass subscriptions in droves when
the price increases were announced earlier this
week, the most egregious of which was the new
$30 per month rate for Game Pass Ultimate. even
game pass pc went up from 12 per month to 16
49 per month at these prices it's difficult to
justify effectively renting a game through a
subscription rather than just buying it outright
especially with game pass ultimate take pricey
new releases like the outer worlds 2 for example
you may have been planning to use game pass to
dodge its 70 price tag but you're not really
saving any money now considering that just a
couple of months of game pass ultimate and the
same price you would have to simply buy in the
game potentially ruin you experience by trying
to rush it within say two months plus which is
easily doable but like for me i don't get i don't
spend a lot of time gaming at the minute yeah
so why are you paying 30 pound for a sub to be
like i'm not really getting a lot in and it says
plus when you play on game pass your save files
are effectively locked behind a subscription
meaning you'll need to start a new save if you
ever decide to buy a game pass game elsewhere
This article is talking about how GameStop have
made a commitment. to the old Game Pass Ultimate
price for now. For now, yeah. And then it says
somehow, it does say how exactly GameStop is
able to continue offering Game Pass Ultimate
at the old price is unclear. What is clear is
that GameStop is listening to the complaints
about the price hike. In contrast, Microsoft
is reportedly attempting to smooth things over
by considering a free ad -supported version of
Xbox Cloud Gaming. Great. What? Yeah, what is
that? What is that? That's highlighted. Let's
have a look at that. Add three. cloud gaming
is microsoft is reportedly spinning up a free
version of xbox cloud gaming but of course you'll
have to sit through ads earlier this week microsoft
announced an up to 50 price increase for xbox
game pass offering the compelling value proposition
of what if one month's access to a new xbox published
game cost almost a quarter of the price of just
buying the damn thing and owning it forever microsoft's
explanation for the price hike was that it was
seeking to offer more flexibility choice and
value and it's apparently got similar flexible
plans where's the flexibility because if you've
update if you've made every tier more expensive
where's the flexibility and where's the value
in that it's not like turning around and saying
okay you've got your your pc tier which has whatever
that has you have your budget tier which says
goes all right you can have access to all these
low grade you know single a games and then you
have to pay the ultimate fee for all the new
the brand new AAAs that are coming out, you know,
day one releases, that makes more sense to turn
around and say, that one's 30 quid, because you
go, that's on you to decide if you want to, or,
you know, $30, that that's on you if you want
to pay that chunk of change and bang that game
out early doors, especially like if it's a single
player game or anything, or if you turn around
and go, right, this one's only $10. but you can
only play AAA titles from a year ago. You'd have
been better off adding an additional tier on.
Yeah. You go, all right, well, we're going to
bump... There's no movement in that. We're going
to add 50 % more titles to Game Pass, 50 % more
day one releases. Okay, cool, sweet. But they're
locked behind another tier. For an extra five
for a month, you can have these additional...
I'm sure that's what EA used to do. For there,
I haven't been on it in a long, long time. Because
I don't really buy EA games anymore. But they
had one that was like that, where you could get
different... It used to be like an ultimate tier
for everything new. But that's kind of the only
way you would ever say there's flexibility in
it. Because if you turn around and say, I don't
want to pay $30 or equivalent this month. because
I don't see anything that's coming out, you should
be able to move down to the next tier because
you're still playing a three -year -old game
and you go, oh, I've still got access to that
through the £10 sub, not the £30 one. So turn
around and save yourself 20 quid for a month.
Not, oh, fucking, yeah, we've just bumped everything
up. says according to reporting at the verge
sources at microsoft say that the company has
been running internal tests of a free ad supported
version of xbox cloud gaming with a public beta
test and full launch plant planned in the coming
months Sources tell me the internal testing includes
around two minutes of pre -roll ads before a
game is available to stream for free through
Xbox Cloud Gaming. Microsoft is also currently
testing a limit of one hour for sessions with
up to five hours free a month. The Verge's Tom
Warren writes these limits may well change when
the service is officially launched. So, you know
what they are? That's demos. I'm not freaking
about making demos. That's just a demo. That's
a demo with ads. Proper demos, not just like,
yeah, you get to play the first couple of hours
and then good luck because you're going to play
them again because the first couple of hours.
But that's a demo with ads. You're going to make
me watch two minutes of pre -rolled adverts and
then you're going to let me play for an hour.
Interestingly, I was just looking up the EA version
by comparison. They've got EA Play, which is
the... the budget tier, £6 a month. That's that
red one, isn't it? Yeah. So you've got play trials
of new games for up to 10 hours, unlimited access
to the top title collections, score rewards.
I don't know what that means. And then obviously
money off digital purchases, 10 % off digital
purchases through their thing. Then if you decide
to go to pro, which is £16 or £17 a month. You
get day one access to full premium editions of
select new titles packed with added content and
extras and then all the rest, which is the unlimited
access to premium, well, the library of premium
editions. So that'll be your top tier ones with
all your extra content, season passes and shit.
And then obviously the new rewards for EA titles
and the discount. So like, that's what I mean
where some things kind of make sense. So you
would have those kind of tiers that you go, yeah,
maybe it's not worth 11 quid more. But then in
the same breath is telling you it's giving you
the access to the premium editions, not just
the standard editions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't
believe they're going to potentially throw out
ads. Let me finish reading this. Imagine you're
playing a game and all of a sudden ads pop up.
Like a mobile game. The ad -supported offering
would, according to those sources, allow you
to stream some... games you own alongside eligible
trials from xbox free play days and xbox retro
classic games microsoft cfo tim stewart publicly
alluded to a potential ad supported xbox cloud
gaming tier in 2023 but considering the longer
wait times and lower resolution cloud streaming
being offered to essential and premium tier game
pass subscribers as part of the new pricing scheme
it's probably safe to assume that users of the
free version will be enjoying a less than optimal
experience during their hypothetical five hours
a month. That's the bit that I find mad. Let
me read that bit again. So Microsoft is also
currently testing a limit of one hour for sessions
with up to five hours free a month. These limits
may well change when the service is officially
launched. So you get... So you get... When you
play a game that you like, you get an hour. And
it's heavy in cut scenes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
You play like a God of War game and you haven't
actually played any gameplay for like close to
five minutes or whatever some of those cut scenes
are. The difficult thing with it is... Or playing,
what is it, fucking Final Fantasy. But you've
got that thing where you always get a load of
people that will stand there and go, it's free,
so what can you complain about? And that I agree,
it's free. However, adverts is something that
has always been able to be kept away from console
gaming and PC gaming. If you own a game or you're
streaming a game, you've always been able to
stay away. You've already paid for it. Stay away
from the fucking adverts. And then obviously
what happens is with streaming services like
Netflix, like Amazon, where... you then pay your
sub and then they slowly introduce adverts. And
for an extra two quid, you can get rid of your
adverts. This is what we spoke about a couple
of weeks ago. Yeah. My Amazon Prime, I get adverts
on that. I'm not paying the extra fucking fiver
or whatever it is. It ain't happening. I deal
with the adverts. But even then, you sit there
and you think, well... Yeah, I was telling you
about Disney Plus. I couldn't even... It was
getting me to a more and more point of, I might
as well just get a dodgy stick. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because... I can't even watch an episode without
having three ads and they're about a minute long.
Yeah. So you go, well, what the fuck is the,
what is the point? Why am I, why I shouldn't
have to pay any more for this because, because
you get. Same with that horror podcast. I was
like, at least this is free. But you get, you
get used to the idea that I will pay, I will
give you money for access to, to your entertainment.
I don't want to watch any adverts. That's why
I'm giving you money. It's for this privilege.
Yeah, it's not cable anymore. I'm not then going
to pay you additional to get rid of adverts.
It's not going to happen. So the fear, and I
remember me and Ash, and I believe me and Steph
have spoken about it before, was if that ever
makes it to games. there's a big problem. Because
obviously that's such a big market to try and
fucking shoehorn adverts into and slowly but
fucking surely. Watch it be that the adverts
will be, you know when you're like playing GTA
or Cyberpunk or equivalent and there's like the
billboards around. Wait till they're actual adverts.
Oh, yeah. And they're like coded into the dynamic.
Yeah, AI adverts. And then it'll get to a point
where it'll be on the loading screens. You'll
have adverts. I just don't like the idea of it.
I don't like the idea of it. But like I say,
you sit there and you go, well, it's free, so
what are you complaining about? VR picked up
even more and you got adverts literally beamed
into your face. It's the principle of it. It's
the fact that you're... Let me increase Game
Pass so a load of people either can't afford
it or won't want to pay that amount of money
because I fucking wouldn't. No, not fair. And
then let me release a free version, but... You
can only play for five hours a month. Is that
what I was... Up to five hours free a month.
Five sessions of an hour each. Also currently
testing a limit of one hour for sessions with
up to five hours free a month. So you can play
for five hours for free. What the fuck? That's
just a demo. That is a demo with adverts. It's
a shitter demo. Well, it's a timed demo because
I remember back in the day, do you remember those
old CDs? Yeah, yeah. There's like three games
on it, but they're all demo for something. I
remember playing one. I have no idea what it
is or what it was, but I played a load of it.
Star Wars Outlaws gives you a fucking demo for
free. For free. We've spoken about that before
on the pod, where on the PlayStation Store, they
just got rid of the demo section. You have to
physically search the game. I do miss demos.
So do I. And that's why the subject come up,
because I was trying to find something new to
play. And then that's when I discovered that
the demo section of the PlayStation Store got
deleted. So if you want to find a demo for a
game, you've got to search the game. That defeats
the object. It is just greed, isn't it? Because
it's not going to be right. Massively. If you
turn around and go, there's a free demo. for
it's like an hour and a half or not even that
you say it's 45 minutes worth of gameplay and
you go that's probably good but then no one's
going to give that out because they want you
to already have spent your money before you enjoy
the game because there's been a lot of games
out there that I'd be like I'm not enjoying the
first like two hours and you go yeah if I was
based on a demo I'd probably be like yeah nah
you're alright or games that are very slow to
start before they pick up you think I might swerve
that so maybe it's demo culture is not really
a thing anymore but at the same time I'd definitely
rather have them because there's a lot of games
out there that I'd rather trial before I actually
commit to them I just don't understand how especially
for a fucking 75 plus quids I don't get how you
can be making 5 billion dollars worth of revenue
I know it's not overall profits, but still revenue.
I know. And then go, right, well, we want to
increase the price by 50%. Not even by like a
quid, two quid, 50%. Yeah. I want an extra half
out of you. What? It's fucking everything now,
isn't it? For what? Turning around and going,
oh, okay. Oh, we're at record profits. Charge
them more. But you have something good. Milk
them dry. But you have something really good
there, and you're the king of it. It was premium.
It was the best one because there was nothing.
The best one. EA Play was, again, too niche.
It was only their games. And at the end of the
day, were you probably buying them anyway? I
haven't got PlayStation, so PlayStation Plus,
whatever the fuck it is, doesn't appeal to me.
Whereas as a PC gamer, the Microsoft one is easy
because that's the one that's there to grab hold
of. And if they're turning around and going like,
yeah, granted, I've not. paid for it in a long
time because there isn't a massive amount of
stuff on it but I would still entertain the idea
of going back to it if it was the original price
but for if I'm looking at having to pay 20 whatever
it is like nearly 25 quid I'm not going to jump
on that just for a month of gameplay that at
the minute you know I don't get not the time
but I don't I'm not sitting down to game at the
minute I just And I can imagine, unless you're
really committed to it, and I guess some people
will still be involved in that, but it also depends
on what titles they end up putting out. I know
the console wars or the division of brand is
slowly slipping away, but there has to be good
titles on there to merit it. If you're going
to charge me 30 quid or 20... £6 .25 or whatever
it was for England. I might as well wait for
a fucking Steam sale by that point. And you can
basically own the game. I want every single AAA
that comes out to be on that game pass. Every
single one. If you're going to charge me that
a month. So let's talk about this month, for
example. So I want... Well, back it on from a
little bit from last month. But last month heading
into this month. I want Dying Light the Beast
on there. I want fucking... I want... Ghost of
Yotai on there, which isn't because obviously
it's PlayStation exclusive. Fuck it. I want it
on there anyway. I want Little Nightmares 3 to
be on there. I also want Battlefield 6 to be
on there. I then want The Outer Worlds 2 to be
on there. You know what I mean? I want five AAA
games, please. I know Little Nightmares 3 probably
isn't in the AAA category, but it deserves to
be. But I want five of those games on Game Pass.
So for one month, have my 30 quid. I want those
five. But like you say, so you've... It's then...
It's all right, because you'll get Just Dance
2026 edition. For some people, that's great.
For most people... Or Jurassic World. But like
you said, it becomes a race. So tell a little
bit of a naughty for a while until Amazon caught
on and Mark was doing the same. You buy a game
off of Amazon, play it, complete it, send the
fucker back. Done. I've done my time. Yeah. Unless
it was an online game. Sweet. And then they cotton
on and they flag your account. They go, you're
fucking around with us. Sorry, Baze. I also thought
you could afford it. So... Fuck it, Mr. Moneybag.
Share the wealth. Yeah. You then throw... I saw
something... Let a man have his hobbies. I saw
something the other day saying that the geezer
could spend... I think it was like... It was
either... I think it was a million quid a day
and it would still take like 500 and something
years for him to skint himself out. Sounds about
right. Yeah. So you're... Scrooge McDuck swimming
in his fucking pile of gold. Yeah. But you're
now charging me $30 a month. So if you're putting
all those AAA games on there, there's too many
games to get the value out of it. yeah in terms
of so let's say that you have to commit some
hours yeah so the list that i just threw out
there so dying like the beast is around 20 to
30 hours worth of gameplay to to do the story
sweet so you then throw little nightmares free
into that i'm going to hazard a guess that that's
probably around 20 hours worth of gameplay you
then got ghost ghost i wouldn't be on there but
outer worlds 2 again i'll hazard that there's
maybe like 40. 50 hours worth of gameplay there.
Probably an approximate. There's too many hours
for you to get the value out of that because
it'll roll into the second month and then you've
got to pay another 30 quid and then you've got
to pay another 30 quid. So in order for you to
get the maximum value out of that, you have to
fucking... Every day, consistently. Yeah. To
get something out of it. Not necessarily every
day, but consistently and with big stints. Like
if you came to the weekend and went, yeah, I'm
putting down 12 hours, you go, yeah, sweet. But
then that's that same return of... like we've
said about hobbies and stuff, is what money you're
putting into it versus the time you're getting
out of it. You go a £75 game that you've spent
300 hours in, that's money well spent. But if
you do a £75 game and you get four hours out
of it. But that's a lot. £30 is a lot of money
to be throwing a month at a time. Especially
for something that isn't tangible. Yeah, for
gaming as a whole. I don't think other... Again,
if you were going, this is the... Maybe it's
because it doesn't appeal to heavier gamers.
Because it's like, oh yeah, you spend 30 quid
and you don't really have any access. You don't
own anything. But you've got all these games
that, I don't know, if you were just committed
to one in that month, it might be worth it. Because
if you could, say, get one game complete every
month. you would have a half price roughly on
having not bought the game outright. But then
is that a feasible way to go? Is that the we're
back in fucking blockbuster days where you just
used to rent a game for X amount? Here we go,
look. I'll read out some of them. I miss that
as well. Just fucking, I remember I used to have
one at the end of my road. What, Blockbuster?
The equivalent of, and it'd be like when you're
stuck for a game and you'd be like, oh, just
go down there and like my brother would pick
a game up and then be like, yeah, just play that.
And I remember playing like loads of different
little bits and pieces and games you weren't
going to pick up and own, but you could just
go down there and have hold of for a week or
whatever. Here's your October 2025 lineup. The
thing that's going to make you spend 30 quid.
Hogwarts Legacy. No. Assassin's Creed 2. No.
Assassin's Creed 3 Remastered. I already own
both of them. Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Own
it. Black Flag with the DLC Freedom Cry. Assassin's
Creed Brotherhood. Assassin's Creed Chronicles
China. Chronicles India. Unless they're remastered.
Chronicles Russia. Liberation HD. So there's
one. Two, three, four, five, six, seven. I could
probably go on fucking EA Play for £7 and get
all of them. So out of the 45 games here. Considering
I still own most of them anyway. Out of the 45
here, 14 of them are Assassin's Creed. Wow. And
they're not even the new ones, they're the old
ones. Child of Light. Far Cry 3. Far Cry 3 Blood
Dragon. Far Cry Primal. Hungry Shark World. Monopoly
Madness. Monopoly 2024. Prince of Persia, The
Lost Crown. That's the really shit one. Rabbids.
Rayman. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Skull and
Bones. That was meant to be their absolute flagship
that fucking died. South Park, Stick of Truth.
Starlink. Steep. The Crew 2. Ghost Recon. Rainbow
Six Extraction. The Division. Not The Division
2. Just The Division. Just The Division. Trials
Fusion. Uno. Watch Dogs. Yeah. The thing is,
you may as well, like currently, funnily enough,
we're discussing it. I don't know whether this
is relevant. Go on. Obviously, all this is going
on with Microsoft. Steam's got a sale on currently.
Let me have a look at that. Let's open up Steam
and have a look at that. By comparison, you go,
like, games have got 50 % off, £60 games that
are down to, you know. Because it'll be... 30
quid and whatever. And that's the new title.
So that was fucking... Because Steam is a type
of company... Modern Warfare 3. Well, someone
made a good point and I saw it in, obviously,
during the discourse. I didn't know how much
the price increase was that someone turned around
and went, you know the comparison that someone
put a tweet out or equivalent or whatever it
is and went, funnily enough, it was like a snapshot
from their account saying that their account
had been refunded. After they bought the game.
They then went into it, and it was because they
bought the game, and then it had gone on sale,
so they refunded them the difference. Yeah, yeah.
But then someone said, the reason they're like
that is because they've got no shareholders.
They've got no one to impress, except themselves.
Then they're their customer base. That is it.
Which is how it fucking should be. There it is.
I'm just loading up the cell to see what's on
there. I heard it. Hogwarts Legacy is first on
here. That's a tenner. Reduced from 50 quid.
80 % off. There's no way you're going to turn
around and go, I'm going to play all of these
games in this time. If you go, okay, I'm going
to play Hogwarts Legacy. It's probably going
to take me two months. I'm going to pay you £10
versus 60 quid. Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered,
40 quid. Monster Hunter Wilds, 40 quid. Fucking
Ghost of Tsushima, 33 quid. Yeah. Surprised that's
still so expensive, but that's the remaster,
I think. Sons of the Forest, 8 quid. RuneScape
Dragon Wilds, 20 quid. Helldivers, 27 quid. Even
this, Assassin's Creed Shadows, 40 % off, 35
quid. That's not bad. Even Red Dead 2, which
is still mad expensive, but 75 % off, 15 quid.
God of War Ragnarok, 40 quid. Anything else?
Space Marine 2, 27 quid. Space Marine 2. Civilization.
Oh, there's a fucking rematch on sale. Cyberpunk,
17 quid. Yeah. So these are some pretty heavy
games that still fucking... That's what I mean.
Pretty much all of those games will take you...
Ah! Far Cry Primal. The thing that was just announced.
I bet that's like £4. £2 .49. Or spend £30 on
Game Pass and then you can get access to that
and Far Cry 3. It's on Steam for £2. That's what
I mean. If you're not over -rushed to feel like
you want to play these games, then who gives
a fuck? Elite Dangerous, £1 .49. And Elite Dangerous
is a good game. That's a good fucking game. I'm
tempted to buy that myself, to be fair. Haven,
£2. Code Vein. Code Vein's a good game. £4. Have
you ever played Code Vein? It's a good game.
It's probably your type of thing. But that's
got very positive reviews. I remember playing
it on PlayStation. And it is fucking... It is
good. Doom Eternal, £3. Fuck me. Destiny 2 Lightfall,
£1 .24. That's what I mean. Just like... I get
it works for maybe the new AAA titles if there's
any good ones. But these are mad. These are mad.
Rise of the Tomb Raider. £2. Yeah. Mafia 3. £2.
Fucking Control Ultimate Edition. £3. Yeah. Like,
what the... Like, they're... That's... They're
mad discounts. Like, they're not just... Little
discounts. That's mad. That isn't even probably
the best you'd get. Sniper Elite 5, four quid.
This is just an autumn sale. This isn't like...
Yeah, this isn't a crazy, crazy sale. I think
it ends today, actually. But that's mad. Yeah,
it ends today. That is madness. Ends today, the
6th of October. I can't... Diablo 4. Same as
nothing I'm actually interested in at the minute.
18 quid. Starfield 35 quid oh yeah that game
even Horizon to be fair the only time I think
that was probably the last time I had Game Pass
was for Starfield yeah same here and I literally
can't like played about four hours maybe not
even that went this is terrible deleted it and
quickly went yep Game Pass goodbye Horizon Forbidden
West 30 quid this is a good shout out opening
up this con because there's some fucking There's
some mad discounts on here. Days gone. I'd get
in quick because that's going to finish soon.
If you're going to buy anything. There's some
madness on here. Top played on Steam Deck. Fallout
4. 6 quid. DVD. Fiverr. No Man's Sky. 20 quid.
Halo. The Master Chief Collection. 8 quid. You
know what I mean? These are some... Why... When
you... It's a good comparison, isn't it? I kind
of get it from Xbox side because we don't have
access to Steam. But from a PC side, which is
the most expensive edition of the Game Pass,
the PC Ultimate Edition, why the fuck would you...
commit to something like that yeah because steam
has a sale like every five minutes and all pretty
much they're very very good you're probably talking
a minimum of six a year yeah but they also they're
also very good one i fully imagine there's going
to be a roughly about a three day sale around
halloween but they're also very good at notifying
you when when you put a game on your wish list
and then it goes on sale i could i get emails
all the fucking time off of them i don't think
i've had a pop -up this time but maybe dragon's
dogma 2 23 tell me what himself nine days ago.
It's just mad. It's crazy when you have... I
obviously just wasn't paying attention. It's
crazy when you look at it and you see because
obviously when something like Sony does... There
you go. Straight off the bat, the least discounted
item is 15%. That's what I was about to say.
Out of what I've got just on my wish list is
15%. That's what I was going to say. The top
one, 75 % off. That's madness. With PlayStation,
you look on the store and when they've got sales
going on, it'll be like 15%, 10%, 5%. There's
sometimes when I've seen 2 % off. This, 75, 58%,
50%, 85%, 80 % off. Like it's mad. Icarus, down
from 29 .50 to 5 quid. Mostly positive reviews,
23 ,000. Have you seen Forza Horizon 5? Is this
co -op? Or is it not co -op? It doesn't say.
I don't think it's co -op. It's madness. Because
I was going to say, there's a game called Witchfire
that I've seen on my wish list. I obviously tagged
it a while ago. So you just think, why would
you? Well, like you said. It's only single player.
That's exactly why. this is the way that it is.
It's because, like you just said, Steam doesn't
have shareholders. So they don't answer to people
fucking pushing them on the head saying they
won't profit this, they won't profit that. Whereas
the likes of Microsoft very much do have shareholders.
And it's just, it's so interesting to see something
like that because this, this is the type of shit
that people come back to. Good example for me
in the world that I'm in. Obviously, everyone
knows because I always talk about it. I'm a runner.
Yeah. I'm a fucking runner. My shoe rack is behind
you, right? Which consists of one, two, three,
four pairs of Brooks, right? They're expensive.
Running shoes are expensive. I like Brooks. One,
because I like running them. They're comfortable.
Never had a problem with them. But number two,
they have a 90 -day return policy on their shoes.
So I can wear them as much as I want, get them
as fucked as I want, but in three months I can
return them. And they'll give me a full refund
or they'll send me another pair of shoes. I sent
them a pair back just on the cusp of three months
and they were torn to shreds. They were fucked.
They stunk. They were horrible. I climbed up
a fucking mountain in them. They were grim. No
questions. Returned them because they were torn.
So they went, well, within three months they'd
broken down. I'd done like fucking 350 miles
in them which is like within their lifespan 300
to 500 but they were torn so I sent them back
and then they sent me another pair good Bob's
your uncle Steph needed a pair of shoes I bought
her Brooks alright my Nana needs new running
shoes I recommended Brooks because I trust them
because their return policy they're not treating
me like a cunt you go right well Because of that...
Well, I think that actually it was your toenails,
sir. But you think because of that now, I've
spent collectively nearly... Loads of money on
a specific brand. Like 500, 600 quid on shoes
from a specific brand because of their return
policy. He's got too much money on this Patreon.
But that's what happens with something like Steam,
is you look at that as a whole. PlayStation Store,
for example. I refuse to buy games off the store
if I can help it. Download it and they won't
do anything, will they? No, but also it's fucking
expensive on the store. When I could go on Amazon,
wait a day and save myself a 10, 15 quid most
of the time. Why am I going to do that on this?
And it's the same with Game Pass. Why am I going
to look at the Xbox catalogue when I've literally
just fucking reeled out... the fucking October
list of games they're bringing none of those
were new either no but the ones that were relatively
new I've then fucking called them out on the
Steam on Steam for fucking a third of the price
what the fuck it's a good comparison fuck them
like what the fuck is that so if you if you were
wanting to get Game Pass to play Hogwarts Legacy
Save yourself the money. Spend fucking a tenner
on Steam. Boom, there it is. You own it forever.
And you don't need to rush. And then the best
bit is, if you want to return the cunt, you can
return it. You don't actually like it. You can
give it back. You've not wasted an extra 20 quid.
You're good. You have a time limit. How much
time you can put into it and then you can send
it back if you don't like it. Kushti. Fucking
Elder Scrolls Oblivion Remastered. If you want
to own that outright, 40 quid on Steam. There
you go. That game's definitely going to take
you more than a month. Of course it is. But you
own it now. That's yours. You do whatever the
fuck you want with it. But no, instead, you pay
30 quid a month, don't get it finished in a month
and then go, fuck, I have to either roll over
another 30 quid or just don't play it. and cancel
and then lose access to it and then lose yeah
never go back to it ever again and then if you
do want to buy it outright you've got to buy
it from xbox let me see how much that it actually
is on xbox let's have a look at how much hogwarts
live because you can buy when you think about
it imagine imagine you put like a month in solid
or at least you know close on you were nowhere
near to finishing a game like that and then you
decided Yeah, you add the rollover and then you
get busy or you get ill or whatever and you don't
end up playing the game again. So you spent 60
quid on a game. Even the catalogue. So Hogwarts
Legacy on Steam without a fucking 80 % off is
£49 .99. Yeah. Buy it for £9 .99 on Steam. On
Xbox, it's £64 .99 but there's a sale going on
so you're fine. £51 .99. So on sale, it costs
more than what it does without a sale on Steam.
It costs £2 more on sale than full price on Steam.
How does that make sense? I suppose there's a
captive audience element because if you're...
But how does that make sense? If you're only
a console gamer, yeah, you are kind of trapped
in that market. But then I'm sure you could probably
find it... But you're telling me that the game
itself, without any discounts... just on its
own, is more expensive on Xbox than it is on
Steam. So why are you not at least making it
the same price as Steam? Here's all the fucking,
here's all the Assassin's Creed that they're
banging on about. How much is fucking... And
it's not even like they'll give you a physical
to any of that either. How much is Breakpoint
on fucking Steam? Tom Clancy's Breakpoint. It's
reduced from £49 .99. That's 90 % off. It's £4
.99 at the moment if you wanted that. I've already
got it, to be fair. If you wanted it on Xbox,
you'll either subscribe for 30 quid, because
it's part of the Ultimate Edition, or pay 50.
50. It makes me glad I'm not a console gamer
anymore. What the fuck? What is that? As much
as, yeah, it's expensive to make a PC, I will
advocate that just fucking... But here you go,
because Xbox does this lovely... Just the gaming
scene is so much like... it does this lovely
thing where it tells you the play times for it.
So, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, main story 23 hours,
main plus the extras is 53, completionist is
99, all styles is 44 hours. So, you've got to
spend an entire working week in a month to get
your... To at least get that done. To make it
cost effective. That's just one game. That's
just one. You want to fucking do... you're interested
in Hogwarts Legacy, that's fine. I'll tell you
how long that's going to fucking take you. It's
going to take you all styles, so a mixture of
both, 47 hours. So there you go. There's two
working weeks out of a month that you're going
to have to spend. To get two titles out, which
is the, you know. To get two titles out that
will cost you, that will cost you less than 20
quid on Steam right now. Yeah. For both of them.
Oh, they fucked it. What a great episode. This
is a very informative episode. This is very,
very good. It's actually been my... It doesn't
make any sense. Why would you do that? I completely
forgot that we're actually doing a podcast at
the moment because it's just so interesting because
I don't understand where the logic is, but where
one fucking door closes, another one opens in
that Xbox's... royally stiffed themselves with
this kind of bullshit and then Steam have jumped
on it. Obviously, I know that... Well, that's
the thing, actually, is that this sale was active
before that shit. 29th of last month it started.
So it's been... So it's been a month. A week.
Oh, a week, sorry. A week's worth of discount
so far. Today's the last day. Ah, so that does
line up pretty well with Xbox announcing that
they were going to do a price hike. Yeah, it
does. It doesn't look any better on them. If
you turn around and go... Of course it doesn't.
You announce that when it's not sale season,
and you turn around and go, someone who's...
Especially, I don't know how much of the market
is for Game Pass, is PC gamers. Because seeing
that, you would turn around and go, I don't give
a fuck about Game Pass anymore. There's no point.
Steam holds the monopoly when it comes to PC
gaming. But then that's why I'd say, I'm glad
I'm not... I feel sympathetic to... Console gamers.
Imagine being an Xbox gamer, which probably ain't
the best at the minute because the games are
pretty shit on it. But if that was your captive
audience and you go, right, either I can buy
the games and now because games aren't physical
and whatever else, unless you're getting a good
deal in whatever shop you're going to buy it
from, you're captive. by the fact that the Microsoft
shop is just more expensive than everything else.
Yeah. It doesn't make any fucking... CD keys.
Here we come. But it doesn't... Well, yeah. But
it doesn't make any sense. I don't understand
why... They're going to... It's going to be a
heavy hit for them because they're going to...
Because what you find as well with Steam, I'm
just looking at the... Because even I do, like,
even games on Steam, I'll be like, if there's
not a sale on... I'll have a little gander at
CD Keys just to see what their discount is. So
you've got, so I'm looking at Steam's top 100
selling games right now by revenue. I'm not going
to fucking go through them. Obviously Steam Deck
is at the top as it would be. But you've got,
if I go from the top fucking, so from the top
21 games here, there is one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. There are
currently 12 games in the top 21 that are on
sale. And I'm talking like 67 % off, 60%, 75%,
75%, 80 % off, 53%. Part of me makes me wonder
whether they changed that halfway through the
sale. What do you mean? Like if they started
with an amount, because sometimes they... you'll
see a game on sale for one amount. Like they
might say, oh, everything's 50 % off. Whether
they adjusted that and went, oh yeah, some of
these important new titles, make them 75 % at
the minute. Yeah, probably. Rather than 50%.
Because it makes more sense. Makes far more sense.
I'm looking through the store right now. I am
so much more likely to buy something because
of how fat the sales are. I'm going to buy something
anyway just because of this fucking podcast.
I think you've got less than two hours to get
some purchases in. Even like V Rising, 14 quid,
and that's a good game. There's just so much
shit. It's done how you'd want it to be done.
That to me is how the world works in terms of
consumerism in that don't increase, don't give
me more and increase the price. Yeah. Give me
more and fucking keep the price the same or make
it cheaper. Yeah. Because then you're going to
get more. Or have another, make a new tier that's
more money. Yeah. And turn around and say, everything's
staying the same. So your PC tier, your fucking
standard premium tier, your ultimate tier is,
or you change the names of them. So you go, you
just stay with the standard one. The old ultimate
becomes premium. And then you bring out a new
ultimate that is this new value. And you turn
around and say. this is where the new titles
are going to be at. We're not changing anything.
It's up to you to make that decision if you want
to move up to the next tier because we're going
to put this much more content, this much more
gaming material out there for you if you want
access to these new titles. I know it's a bit
cunny because you turn around and go, well, that
should be included in what I'm already paying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then don't stiff people
and turn around and go, yeah, we're increasing
it by 50%. Good luck. Atomic Heart, you can buy
it for £54 .99 on Game Pass or you can just go
to Steam and buy it for £16. Yep. That's enough.
I'm done. I'm done looking at it. I'm taking
up enough time. You get the gist. Everyone listening,
you get the gist. Fucking, if you're boycotting
Xbox, Game Pass, Microsoft, whatever. Fuck them.
You know where to go. Fucking move yourself over
to Steam. If you've only got an Xbox, sort your
life out. Yeah, there's a problem there. I really
hope they bring Steam to Xbox for you. I hope
that was an informative episode where... I feel
like that was. I feel like that's a good little
bash there, but for good reason. Just highlighting
how shit should be done. Yeah. They've been on
the downward spiral, I think, anyway, let alone...
everything comes to a full it's the same with
cod and black ops 7 that looks fucking shit that
looks waft especially when you're comparing that
to battlefield 6 you go oh my god i'd hate to
be i'd hate to be in the development room for
for black ops 6 black ops 7 looking at all of
that i see the beta i see clips of the beta today
and there's already hackers in it is there in
a beta wow what the fuck oh god anyway anyway
Thanks for listening to that one, everyone. See
you later.