Get this 45 minutes out of the way and then I
can fuck you off out of my house. Yeah, nice.
That's how we start on it, isn't it? Welcome.
I'm back. Welcome to this episode of What's the
Buttons? Mark's with me. We've devoured a pizza
and we've watched Steph finish Shadow of the
Tomb Raider. How long has that taken you? Eight
years. But it's finally done. And might I add,
100 % completion. It was on Xbox, so does that
mean that 100 % is that just their version of
a Platinum? Do you get anything? No, just game
scores. That's it. Well, that's what it used
to be back when I played it. Fair enough. So
the PlayStation version of a Platinum, which
is pretty cool to be fair. Get this left. You've
done it already, haven't you? Sorry. Sorry, I
forgot. This happened last time, I was just constantly
laughing. No, don't start. Come on, focus help.
You've bought some pins. I have bought some pins.
I want to talk about that because... Shout out,
Carl. Yeah, one of the patrons, Carl, he pointed
out, sent us an article where... I don't know
if they're introducing that into... every Platinum.
Well, he said it was the replacement for PlayStation
Stars. Yeah. If you don't know what PlayStation
Stars are, they're like Game of Score, aren't
they? I don't know. I didn't really look into
it because you've got points and then you could
use them for vouchers, couldn't you, I think?
Yeah. I don't actually know what you had to do
to get the points. Was Sony's free loyalty program
rewarding players with points and digital collectibles
for completing campaigns, playing games, and
making purchases? I remember they used to have
challenges that you could see. I don't know where
you could see them on the PlayStation. Oh, yeah,
it was on the app, wasn't it? Yeah, and it would
activate certain challenges and stuff. Yeah,
play free online games. I think a lot of that
was to get the... You know the little things
that was on the shelf? Yeah, the collectible
things that no one fucking looks at. But I don't
actually know if you got points for any of them.
I'm not too sure. Well, it says here that you
did or at some point there was some aspect of
it where it gave you points. Yeah, I definitely
bought like two five or ten pound vouchers. Yeah,
yeah. So it's officially ending November 2nd.
review that users able to redeem points for wallet
funds or items until then um following a refocused
strategy from sony um earned by completing monthly
campaigns like playing specific games or earning
trophies purchasing from the playstation store
or being a playstation plus member so i reckon
we would have just got points passively for having
a fucking membership running i don't think i
was even at a membership at that point fuck those
in Either way, we've got something out of it.
It says, Sony is refocusing. New members are
no longer accepted. Campaign, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. Why it's ending. Sony is evolving
its player engagement, learning from stars. Oh,
learning from stars to potentially build a new,
improved loyalty program in the future. Though
the current version's financial viability was
questioned. Financial viability. Well, they're
struggling, aren't they? It's fucking digital
trophies. What the fuck? And a £5 voucher. What
were they struggling with? £5 voucher going on
a game that's already overpriced on the PlayStation
Store. So Kyle sent in an article where for...
Is it just for Ghost of Tsushima and Ghost of
Yotai? Yeah, just them two games. So for those
two games, if you've got the platinum for those
games, you can get a pin. Yeah, there was also
a T -shirt and a jacket. Yeah. You had to get,
I think it was a certain gold trophy for them.
So here we go. That's a voice crack straight
away. Ghost of Yotai legendary Onryo platinum
trophy pin. Pre -order. $25. Highlighting Atsu's
twin wolf Tsuba spinning behind her mask. It's
a cool looking fucking pin. Yeah, it's very cool.
That is a very, very cool pin. All I see was
the thumbnail for the article. I didn't actually
click on it and read it. That looks fucking sick.
So Ghost Rewards offers collectors items to earn
and purchase that are uniquely crafted to commemorate
various tiers of in -game accomplishments. And
then, yeah, this is just a Players Who Complete
Ghost of Yotai Platinum Trophy by April 30th,
2026. will be eligible to order the products
between November 4th and May 31st. November 4th,
2025 and May 31st, 2026. Yeah, so I've ordered
both of mine, but it says that they come between
two and three months. I wonder where they come
from. Yeah, I don't know. Oh, so that bit at
the back spins as well. Did you know that? No,
I didn't know that. So the pin with the mask
and then the two wolves behind it, those two
wolves spin around. That's cool. I quite like
that. And then, yeah, you've got a ghost of Tsushima
pin as well. Yeah, they're bastards for it though
because I tried to order them both together and
they won't let you do it. So I've had to pay
like £10 postage per one. Dirty little fuckers.
Why would they do that? Is it ghost? Yeah, the
Tsushima. Yeah, kind of similar. Does that one
spin as well? I don't think it does. Yeah, they
look very similar. Yeah, very, very similar.
But they're very, very... Be prepared to wait
two to three months before your order is shipped.
Was it Carl that also said that it's rumoured
that, yeah, they're replacing the stars? That's
what started this whole thing, wasn't it? I don't
know if that would be replacing stars. Because...
Well, that's what I say. It all depends whether
stars you got rewards for platinum games. That's
what I say. I'm not too sure. I get what he means.
If that is the thing, instead of money replacement,
like they're putting pins instead of giving you
rewards for money. I feel like, because what
was it? It was 25 quid a pop. Yeah, like 28 euros
or something. And then 10 quid posted. Yeah,
something like that. I feel like that's either,
like that's cool that you get something to commemorate
getting a platinum rather than just a digital
trophy. But at the same time, you imagine if
you platinum every game you get. Yeah. Yeah,
it's going to get expensive. Of course it is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you fucking... But
then you've got, obviously, what Carl said in
there, that they're going for, what, 130 quid
on eBay. Shall we see what they are? I'm assuming
that's just Tsushima. I don't think anyone's
got the Yota ones yet. But it's mad. Instead
of someone platinum the game... They'll just
buy it. Yeah. I suppose it's because it's collectible,
isn't it? It's something that you're... But I
feel like once you put a date on it where you
say this will no longer be available for purchase.
Yeah, I guess it makes sense. Didn't he say that
you had to platinum Tsushima by the end of the
year? Yeah, yeah. So now I guess it makes sense.
But for Yota, I would just buy the game, grind
it, if you're that interested in having the pin.
Yeah, but you've only got until May. Yeah, but
that's easy. I've platinumed it in about a week.
So there are only like 50 -hour games to platinum.
Yeah, but you also, I'd imagine... We wouldn't
know about it unless Kyle would put it in the
page. Yeah, yeah. It's only a select through.
I've never seen anything on this before. Let
me tell you something. PlayStation. Yeah, to
be fair, I didn't even look and see if there's
any other games doing it. PlayStation Platinum
Pin. Let's have a look. Platinum Pins. Here we
go. PlayStation have announced physical rewards
for achieving the Platinum. That's for Ghost
of Tsushima. I wonder if, yeah, maybe this is
a... What, a one -off from Sucker Punch? Well,
either a one -off or if it's sanctioned by Sony,
if they then decide for certain games that they're
going to implement. It would make sense, because
obviously they come out as Sony exclusives, don't
they? Before, obviously, they eventually go on
PC. I wonder if they decide that... to do it
with every future and relatively present Sony
exclusive. I would love one for Ragnarok, but
obviously that's probably too far gone now, isn't
it? Ragnarok would be sick. That's probably my...
Yeah. No, I wouldn't say my proudest, but my
favourite platinum out of all of them. Because
that would... If you was going to do it with
every game that come on the PlayStation, that'd
be far too much. There's going to be a lot of
games where you go, I'm not going to fucking
waste money on a pin. But I feel like those PlayStation
exclusives, at least the AAA ones. It means more,
doesn't it? Yeah. The game you've actually had
to put effort in to get. Because obviously there's
a lot of games out there that are piss easy to
platinum. If you've got a pin for that, it doesn't
really mean anything, does it? Could you imagine
if they started releasing like collector's edition,
let's say God of War hasn't come out and then
it's due to come out this year and you buy a
collector's edition for it. Could you imagine
if they did like a little add -on where it was
like for an extra 20 quid, you can reserve a
platinum pin. And then we'll send it out. We'll
send it out once you've got it. It would be a
good idea to do something like that. That would
be quite cool because then at the end of the
day, if you don't get the platinum, they've still
got their money. Yeah. But it's an incentive
for you to actually do it. Yeah, yeah. Because
obviously that's what I'm saying. Now you're
only doing it for, I guess, the joy of it. Yeah,
because it was Ash that actually first gave me
his viewpoint on it of he will platinum a game
as a sign of respect for... Like the devs. Yeah,
yeah. I like this game so much that I'm going
to platinum it, which seems like quite a good...
Outlook for it. Obviously, people just platinum
it for the sake of platinum it. We actually spoke
about platinums when you was last on. Yeah, yeah,
we covered quite a bit. I think it's just because
it's niche. For me, anyway. Yeah, I guess. Not
everyone's cup of tea, obviously. I haven't got
a shitload, but I would like to do more this
year. What the fuck have you been playing? Everything,
really. Obviously, I've been playing ARK with
you and Jay. Won't get into that. No, we will
for a quick five minutes. The most useless...
I'm not going to slag him off. I said I'd shout
him out on this. The most useless cunt I've ever
played with. But you had a fun time. I did have
a fun time. I had a great time. 10 out of 10
would do again. 100 % we'll plan tomorrow, won't
we? Yeah, I can't wait. I fucking love it. He
is shit though. Sorry, Jay, but I can't get over
that fight. Three on one, and I've got what?
What's it called? The Pharaoh. Yeah. The one
-shotter. Yeah, the one -shotter. I'm basically
playing with a sniper against three people, and
this guy's just running around looting. Close
call. And he's got a rifle. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which has left me in the smoke. I've never, I
have never seen such a poor play, and I feel
like I have, I'm allowed to have such a high
opinion of it, because I was dead. Yeah, that's
the funny thing, because obviously I've listened
to what you said with Ash. Me and Jay couldn't
hear you at all. Could you not hear me at all,
though? No, when you die... You go silent. I
think so. I don't know how it works. Sometimes
you can hear people and other times you can't.
I don't really know how it works. I think...
It might be if you're in proximity chat and you
die. Maybe it's... You stay in that, I'm not
too sure. Maybe it's if you die, your voice disappears,
but once the other person's knocked down, they
can hear you. Yeah, because you hear me and Jay
during all of that. The entire thing? Yeah. So
you can hear me shouting. yeah yeah on there
yeah voice chat when dead let's have a look because
i'll be very interested to see in our graders
voice chat um when dead is often bugged especially
with proximity chat making you unable to talk
to teammates yeah but you can try switching your
audio settings between open mic um slash toggle
for your party chat to fix it or use discord
as a workaround so it's a bug proximity chat
bug Yeah, so the only way around it, I guess,
is just doing a party chat on PlayStation before
you go in. Yeah. So we can both scream at Jay.
Dying while using proximity chat often locks
you out of team chat until the match ends, a
known issue. So I must have been in proximity
chat. Yeah, I reckon so. Or is it when you die?
You were screaming at them people not to kill
you, so it would make sense. And then you're
just calling them cunts while they're shooting
you. I was going livid at Jay. No wonder he weren't
listening. That made it even worse. He's that
geezer, isn't he, when you used to play Battle
Royale? He'd just steam in. You'd say, don't
start. Start on a team of four. Goals down. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. He's that geezer, but he's somewhere
else on the map. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've never
seen anything like it. It was biblical. just
you fighting for your absolute life and then
I reckon if I had a rifle I would have done the
three of them they were shit yeah they were genuinely
shit because I was watching you and then I swapped
over to Jay and then I literally just see him
with his hands in a box and I was like what are
you doing makes sense now I know that he couldn't
hear me because I was just shouting at him I
was like what the fuck are you doing I was like
go and help him but the thing is this whole time
I was calling for him I'm changing between proximity
to have a go at these people and try and talk
to Jay to tell him to hurry the fuck up. It's
just the fact that I see him run in and then
run straight back out and take the longest route
possible round and then to just watch you die
and then go I can't see him. Standing right in
front of you. What do you mean? I literally watched
Mark's body drop to the floor and then reveal
the person that shot him behind him. How can
you not? It was just bad from the offset, wasn't
it? Our very first game together, he got downed
by the arcs. Shot a load of them fucking... What
are they called? The little ones, weren't it?
What, the snitches? No, the... Or snitches, whatever
they're called. No, not the... Not the snitches.
Or the snitches. The fucking... I can't remember.
We haven't played for a few weeks, have we? I
know. Arc... Because you've got that big bastard
that always gets us. Here we go. We have the...
You have the snitch, the wasps. That's what it
is, a wasp. Yeah, what's the one... That one
that takes wherever to kill? Which one? Flying
or on the floor? No, flying. It always sends
bombs at me and you. That's a rocketeer. That's
it, that's the one. Right cunt. That thing is
a fucking nightmare. I've got a list of them
here. So we've got the snitch, which is... It's
got 100 health. Yeah, that's very basic, isn't
it? It says destroy 100, loot 200. Oh, that's
XP. Sorry, it doesn't actually give you health.
Weakness, destroying two of its three thrusters
will cause it to crash and be destroyed. Wasps,
destroying two of its four thrusters will cause
it to crash or quickly use an entire mag into
its body and it will be destroyed. A hornet,
which is the one with a little turret on the
underside of it. Yeah, they're not too bad either.
Heavy ammo or medium ammo guns are best for destroying
hornets. Take out. Two of the four thrusters
on the same side will cause them to crash and
be destroyed. And we've got the ticks. Single
shot of most guns will destroy this arc. Then
the little fucking spider things. The pop. Yeah,
they're annoying. The pop, the little ball that
rolls around. Oh, they're fuckers, man. They
come out of nowhere. And then you've got the
fireball. This arc will open its armour to attack.
Yeah, that's fucking annoying and all. Shoot
those open spots to destroy it. Several shots
from most weapons will destroy this arc. What
was that thing that took us out? What was that
map called? That hard one we jumped on first
game and got blitzed by it. That was a shredder.
Yeah. That was a shredder. Take out its thrusters
with heavy ammo weapons. Yeah, those things take
a fucking beating. Hide behind cover as it's
about to attack. Repeat. The thing was on fire
for about two minutes and still took us both
out. That thing fucked us up. Oh, and this tells
you what they dropped. So what the fuck is a...
So you've got a snitch and a spotter. So a spotter
is the one with the light that shines on you.
And then a snitch is the one that screams. Yeah,
very basic, like a drone. And then you've got
the bombardier, which is like one of those crabs.
You've got the bombardier and you've got the
bastion that look very, very similar. They're
like the crab things. Weak points, mines can
be effective. Yeah, you've got the big spider.
And then you've got the leaper. That is it, isn't
it? Yeah, the big spider. Which is obviously
easy to take out, like Jay said. Stun grenades
and hornet drivers are effective at keeping this
unit from moving around. Focus on its eye and
mag dump until it is destroyed. And then a rocketeer.
Break line of sight as much as possible. Heavy
ammo weapons are most effective at its thrusters.
Well, we've done that with pistols. I generally
don't think I've actually beat one yet. You've
got the Queen as well. What's that? Big fucking
spider looking one. Big, big bastard. I don't
think we've had a fight with one of them. I think
we've come across one, but we haven't had a fight
with one of them. That actually doesn't... Was
that the big... You remember when one of our
first games, that other team took out a shitload
of stuff and we just kind of stood in the background?
No, that was a... That was either a Bastion or
a Bombardier. So this is bigger than that. Oh,
brilliant. Yeah, and this doesn't actually say
what his weak points. And then you've got a matriarch,
which is even bigger. But I don't know if you
can actually fight them yet. I don't think a
queen and a matriarch... A queen I think you
can fight now. I don't think you can fight a
matriarch yet. And they're like... Yeah, as I
said, I definitely haven't seen any on the map.
That's because they're not on the map. They're
outside of it. So if you're in a game, every
now and then if you look outwards, you can see
these big fucking arcs just walking around. And
that is a matriarch. Wow. huge fucking things
and I don't think it's very difficult because
all of my like Ark Raiders info I was getting
from Instagram which now I don't have Instagram
so I don't see anything that's going on anymore
I literally just have to sit there with Jay while
he's watching Mr. Peanut burnt peanut fucking
dying all the time my knowledge is literally
just from downloading it giving it a go with
you and that's it I've enjoyed it a hell of a
lot more than I thought I would I'll be honest
it's good man It's really good. That proximity
chat is great. You running around with the flute
and me screaming. And the fuckers trying to shoot
us and all when I'm giving them a little concert.
Fuckers. It's been good. Proximity chat's great.
Doesn't Rocket League have proximity chat now?
Or have in -game chat? I have not got a clue.
I'll be honest, I'm not toxic on Rocket League
anymore. Are you not? No. Gabby's. Every game
is abusive to everyone. But I've been banned
on that game so many times I don't do it anymore.
Voice. It does have voice chat. No one talks
on it. No one really entertains the abuse in
the chat anymore. Do they not? No, it's not really
that sort of game anymore. Everyone's grown up.
That's upsetting. Yeah. Yeah, it does have...
It has team chat. So not... I don't think you
could talk to opposing... Is it... Cross -gen,
though, because a lot of the time we play on
there now, you play with PC players, you don't
come across a lot of PlayStation players. It's
cross -gen, and the chat also lets you talk with
teammates across platforms. Yeah, a lot of cross
-play, because I turn cross -play off in Artgraders.
I don't even know if I had it on. I think it's
turned on by default, but the thing is, I know
that playing on a PlayStation, you get aim assist,
but playing on a PC is just... Do you reckon
they're more toxic, though? What, PC players?
Of course they fucking are, because they can
type quicker. Could you imagine us if we could
type quicker? On old school Rocket League, if
you could type with a keyboard, rather than having
to... We'd be ruthless. It's bad. You can't say
nothing on that. There's no loophole to swear
on it anymore. Everything's blocked out. The
good old days, we would just put a space in between
and just call everyone cunts. Yeah, you used
to find every single loophole possible to say
whatever you wanted in there. In that game. Yeah,
times have changed. Yeah, PC players are way
more toxic than... Do you think? ...than console
players. Yeah, I think so. Because they're the
elite. Well, supposedly. Every country you play
with is useless, but... I think... I feel like
if you're going to get a typical sweaty geezer,
chances are you're going to find them on PC more
than console. I think. I'm not saying you're
not going to get sweaty people on consoles, because
you do, but... There's some people... I've met
some people in WoW that are just absolute cunts.
Like proper fucking... Just the most annoying
people ever. I've met way more annoying people
on PC than I have on console. It's only a PC
game though, isn't it? That's the difference.
You haven't got a choice but to play it. Yeah,
no, that's true. I wonder what... Is it not meant
to be coming to console? It's... it's rumoured
so there's nothing set in stone they've got like
they've integrated being able to plug in a controller
and then do all of your keybinds and make it
work so when Ash played well he played on the
controller because he couldn't play on mouse
and keyboard because it hurt his wrist so he
played on controller fuck knows how but he got
on really well with it I couldn't I've never
even tried it but I just know that like I was
saying in our chat earlier I've been playing
this for almost 20 years So I've been doing that
mouse and keyboard. So I'm not going to switch
to a controller now. But it works. There's add
-ons for it as well. But like I say, they've
integrated it so you don't really need them.
And then with the next expansion that's coming
out, so the pre -patch for that is coming out
in like four days. And alongside that, they've
like pruned a lot. Basically every class has
been pruned. So you're talking like... half the
abilities have been taken away and turned into
like passive abilities so now most characters
will have like three or four rotational buttons
and then your big cooldowns are separate buttons
but even then i think you've only got like a
couple of them so it's all streamlining down
to being able to play it on a controller effectively
because like eso you can play on console final
fantasy you can play on consoles there's been
plenty of mmos that have been brought to console
and they work pretty damn well so yeah i feel
like maybe in the next two or three years you'll
get like a surprise maybe with the next gen that
comes out possibly because you don't because
you don't you don't need a lot to run Well, in
comparison to how PCs and consoles are now, you
can fucking run it on anything. So I don't think
it's a hardware issue. I think it's just a...
There's no real necessity to do it, but I think
it's a server issue on how you work. So like
Final Fantasy, I think, is cross -play or cross
-platform. So everyone can play with everyone.
I think. could be wrong in that ESO definitely
isn't so like me and Steph obviously played a
shitload of Elder Scrolls Online but originally
had it on console so you had to start fresh so
nothing carried over so they run on separate
servers so the console players are completely
separate from the PC players I don't know if
that's how World of Warcraft would work if they
were to do it because they've got shitload of
servers like they call them realms And it gives
you a population, not an in -depth one, it'll
just say low, medium, high, full. And they've
got fucking loads of dead ones. So there's shitloads
of servers. So I don't see why it would be an
issue for them to be able to just have everyone
playing with everyone, but then you've got the
skill gap of it. It's like the people that are
on PC with a mouse and keyboard. are going to
be better yeah don't get me wrong there are people
who play on controller and they do like the top
top tier content and they do it very very well
but the the bulk of people are not going to be
able if you're playing against people with a
controller i think in a pve environment it's
not really that big a deal but on a pvp scale
it's The gap is too big. It's massive, yeah.
I think. I'd like to see it happen. They make
a fuck ton of money. Well, because they haven't
made enough of it so far. How much does Blizzard
make? Blizzard make a year from WoW. Let's have
a look. It's just WoW. Doesn't release specific
WoW revenue, but it's a huge earner with estimates
suggesting hundreds of millions annually from
subscriptions, expansions, and in -game purchases,
potentially exceeding $30 million monthly just
from subscriptions. Monthly, Jesus. Just from
subscriptions. What do you pay them? What, like
every month? Yeah, you pay a tenner a month.
So you pay a tenner a month, or I do a yearly
subscription, I think. I think, no, I don't.
No, I do a monthly one now. But a yearly one
is like 60 quid, something like that. That's
not bad. It's not bad. Or is it more? It might
be more now. It's definitely more value to pay
for the year. But that's just a subscription.
So the way it works now is if you were to buy
an expansion, you have access to all the other
previous expansions, blah, blah, blah. But it's
the in -game store with the mounts and shit.
is where they make a load of money because they
did a mount that had an auction house on it um
which in a previous expansion they had one and
you'd need basically like the gold cap to buy
it so only like the the richest of the rich would
have access to it and then after the expansion
was gone for a little period of time that mount
was gone you couldn't have it this is the one
you got before way back when I haven't got it
no you didn't no I never got it I remember you
talking about the one that was a lot of money
yeah I never got it and then they released it
to the masses yeah they re -released it under
like same thing but different skin on the store
for I think it was was it 60 quid or was it 90
quid one of those two either way it was a lot
of money yeah I remember you saying it was a
chunk and every fucker bought one so I was like
well everyone's got one I'm not going to buy
one because I'm just going to use theirs And
how much did they make? How much did WoW make
from the Brutoshaw? It was called the Brutoshaw.
It was loads. It was loads and loads. Likely
earned. Traders gilded Brutal Seal with estimates
suggesting figures between $15 million to $20
million or potentially more based on community
data shown. Nearly 20 % of tracked whale accounts
purchased the $90 amount. Just for one item.
Or it's equivalent in gold slash blizzard balance.
So you can buy like tokens. So you can use in
-game gold to buy a token. that puts money onto
your blizzard account and you can buy a um you
can buy time with it so like a subscription so
there are plenty of people where they'll play
the entire game for free because they're earning
enough gold in game to be able to do it but you
can also do it the other way around as well so
you can buy those game time tokens and then sell
them in the game and that's how you can buy gold
um i've done that many times of course you have
um it's just easy uh but yeah So nine months
ago, 18 .38 % of accounts own the auction house
store mount, which is around, yeah, 20 million
US dollars. So that's just from one fucking mount.
Just one. There's like between like 20 and 30
different things in that store that people can
buy, and most people do. Yeah, so they're not
struggling. No. No, they're not struggling at
all. Money's not a fucking issue for them at
all. And that's just from one game. You think
they make Diablo? They've got Call of Duty now.
Oh, they've got Call of Duty over there? Yeah.
Fucking sucks for them, doesn't it? If I open
it up, so you've got WoW, Diablo, Overwatch,
Hearthstone, Diablo Immortal, StarCraft, Warcraft
Rumble. They don't own Call of Duty, but obviously
they're all owned by the same fucking people.
So it's in their launcher. It's just... astronomical
the amount of money they make I think it's the
reason why they're the top earners but it like
it's unfathomable you think what was that that
was 30 million dollars a month just from subscriptions
yeah a month 30 million 360 a year just for signing
up to the game not even playing it just having
a go I wonder if you can find since release.
I wonder if there's a guesstimate of how much
they've made since that came out. So while exact
cumulative figures aren't public, World of Warcraft
has generated billions for Blizzard, estimated
at over $9 billion up to 2017. So it's just another
almost decade on top of that. So it's probably
doubled that easy. By 2017, WOW had already grossed
an estimated $9 .23 billion in revenue. Annual
earnings suggest potentially there's such a large
gap. Reports suggest WOW generates tens of millions
in monthly revenue, potentially $156 to $564
million annually as of 2021. That's such a big
gap. It's mad, isn't it? You know it's at least
360 if they're getting that just from the descriptions.
The broader Warcraft franchise, including strategy
games and the film, grossed around $15 billion
by 2017, with WoW being a massive contributor.
Like, it's mad. Serious, serious money. From
just a... Well, it's not even a random game.
The lore of it. It's so mad. We were talking
earlier with graphic novels, the amount of books
that you've got surrounding that. But then when
you delve into other games, that was just from
a quick search find in that Hitman series and
the God of War one. There's loads. There's loads
of stuff. I think I've done an episode on this
before talking about graphic novels. Yeah, you
did something with Connor, I think, didn't you?
Yeah, they're really cool. Really, really cool.
I've never looked into it. Even just the artwork
of... Graphic novels. I know you said God of
War or Hitman. Throw another game and then we'll
see. Well, you said about the cyberpunk ones,
didn't you? Cyberpunk ones are cool, man. They're
really cool. I don't know how many cyberpunk
graphic novels. I don't know how many there are.
I think I've got most of them. Cyberpunk graphic
novels. Let's see if there's a list. That's not
a fucking list. I think there's maybe like 10.
What's that? One. Two, three, four. Because they
do it in volumes and then they do it in numbers.
There's loads and then there's spin -offs. But
Cyberpunk is... I think Cyberpunk was the first...
Was it the first ones I read? I think. I think
so. There was a load of World of Warcraft ones
that I read. There was a couple of Bloodborne
ones that I read and they were quite cool. Can
you get into some ones called Berserker or something
like that? Yeah, Berserker was really good. I
think that's what you started out with, wasn't
it? I think Daryl started reading them. Berserker.
Because they are written by Keanu Reeves. Oh,
really? Mm -hmm. I think that's why Daryl got
into them. Berserker. It's spelled B -R -Z -R
-K -R. And I've read the first volume. And then
I think... I want to say there's maybe like 12
or something. Comic series created by Keanu Reeves,
Matt Kind, Ron Garney and Bill Crabtree offers
an engaging start to the Berserker series storyline.
While I wasn't enthralled by the first volume,
I still came across some very interesting moments.
I'll give Berserker a rating score of 7 out of
10. Who was that from? Greek God's Paradise.
How many volumes does that have? Volumes. But
I'll probably look into getting the rest of them.
Because the thing I like about them is... You
read quite a bit, don't you? I did. I've gone
off it again. Are you a fast reader, though?
Fairly. I'd say normal. Yeah. See, I think I'm
quite a slow reader. I'm not a shit reader. You
take it in more. Yeah. It takes more for you
to take in what's going on. I think. I think
I take it in, but what I do is I find myself,
if I read a chapter, I start to find myself not
getting bored, but almost like I want to do something
else. What do you mean? In that like, so like
the book that I'm reading at the moment, The
Lich King. So I know a lot of the lore already,
but it's really interesting to read about it
rather than just play about, like play it. So
I'm about halfway through it and I've had the
book for fucking ages. But I'll find myself reading
a chapter and then trying to like debate with
myself as to whether or not I want to read another
chapter if I can be bothered. But I'm enjoying
the book at the same time. Yeah. It's really
weird. Yeah, that's what I used to do with, because
the last book I read was the David Goggins one,
which is obviously what you've got now. Yeah,
yeah. You can start reading soon. That's what
I used to do. a chapter so i would say a day
but then it it went to a chapter a week or whatever
because i've kind of lost interest in reading
but yeah i'd always sit and make myself read
a chapter yeah yeah yeah and after that you kind
of decide whether you want to continue with it's
exactly what i do yeah i go i'll at least get
a chapter done yeah and then if it's like at
a pivotal point sometimes i carry on and read
another chapter and another chapter um but yeah
sometimes i i can sit there three four hours
and read other times 20 minutes and I think that's
enough for me. Yeah, yeah. I think you've just
got to be in the right mood for it. Yeah, I think
it's... I think it's helping not being on social
media. Oh, 100%. So, like, there was... There
was a whole fucking... I watched all of the cinematics
for World of Warcraft and it was four hours long.
Yeah. And I watched the entire thing over, like,
two days. And I watched it, not, like, just put
it on in the background. I fucking watched it.
And... from that point that just got me a little
bit more amped up to read some more books about
wow um but yeah definitely not sitting on your
phone um endlessly scrolling it just gives you
more of an attention span to be able to do those
kind of things which is ironic having a conversation
where i've just said i can only read one chapter
and then i need to do something else yeah but
I used to do the same I'll admit it I'll read
a chapter and I'll say why are you debating to
read another one you're sitting there scrolling
yeah and then it draws you away and you think
yeah can I be fucking bothered now yeah that
was the worst one I used to do that all the fucking
time yeah stop halfway through a chapter I think
you're safe to say you were probably a lot worse
with it than me 100 % but i i understand what
you mean you you do something and then it's like
well we'll scroll for a bit and then i'll go
back to it and then you never do yeah never never
do because it was me and steph were obviously
talking about screen time and stuff and that's
what that's what started the the getting rid
of social media and i was chatting to my mate
rosie um about it because she was like i've messaged
you on instagram like where have you been i said
oh shit sorry like i've deleted it um I then
explained it to her and she was like, oh, fucking
hell. She's like, yeah, no, I really want to
as well. And I was like, well, just do it. And
she was like, oh, my boyfriend Cam was chatting
to me about it. And what was he calling her?
Doomscroll Rosie. Some shit like that. Because
she was saying, she was like, I'm spending like
six, seven hours a day on my phone. Fucking hell,
man. I was like, shit. I was like, there were
some days where I was near that. But I think
like the general was between like four and five
hours a day. And then she was talking about her
sister because she was like, my dad pulled me
and my sister because he found out how big my
screen time was and then wanted to see Mia's
screen time. 11 hours her sister sits on her
phone a day. 11 hours. How do you do that? I
mean, us in a group chat is probably not far
from that. Back in the day, that used to take
up an evening. At one Saturday. Oh, don't. We'll
never bring that back. Shout out, Roman. 11 hours
is mad. Yeah, that's too much. 11 hours on your
phone. That's just like brain mushy. Well, that's
just literally from the moment you get up, isn't
it, really? Wake up and scroll. Yeah. Wake up
and scroll. Which I'm assuming you used to do
as well. Yeah, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd
like, I'd wake up and if I was brushing my teeth
like four, fucking half four in the morning,
I'm scrolling on my phone and then come downstairs
while I'm waiting for the kettle to boil, I'm
scrolling on my phone, get to work, like sit
in the yard waiting for everyone to turn up,
scrolling on your phone. I still, do you still
do it as well? Because I, like, like I say, I
said it to you boys the other day, what do you
do when you're having a shit? I instantly pull
out my phone to scroll. I still do it. I've been
off social media, what, a week? yeah I pull out
so sometimes I just don't go on my phone and
then which I find alien because I remember being
a kid and you'd read like the back of a bottle
of bleach yeah or like a book or any just looking
around the room for stuff anything that was by
the toilet that had text on it you'd read it
like an ancient scroll while you're banging out
a dirty one I've just got a habit of texting
you when I'm having a shit night it works are
you shitting yeah I'm shitting too nice yeah
sometimes I just won't look at anything and then
other times I'll just open up YouTube because
I've usually always got a video that I'm like
halfway through yeah but even that even YouTube
is a fucker because you've got YouTube shorts
but when you open up YouTube the shorts are right
there when you scroll down like you scroll down
a tiny bit I'm pretty sure if I do it now and
it's just annoying because they They look like
the videos. Yeah. But they also tailor it to
what you're watching as well. So there's a streamer
that I'm watching called Zaru for WoW. He's a
very cool guy. So I just watch a lot of his live
streams and a lot of his clips and stuff like
that. So now whenever I open YouTube... I've
got one of his videos open now. But YouTube video,
straight, shorts. Shorts. Just a fat man in the
games with a six -pack. Yeah. Football. And then...
Something else I noticed, they do games on YouTube
now as well. Really? Of course they do. I didn't
notice that. I played that whole .io one for
a good couple of hours and then I was like, no,
this isn't... Steph pointed out, she was like,
it's no different to just scrolling because that
is just mind -numbing games. Yeah, I guess. At
least you're gaming though. I was like, yeah,
no, maybe. I can just say I'm not interested.
I didn't realise I could do that. But yeah, they...
More fucking shorts. I wish there was a way for
me more games. I just said I'm not interested.
Yeah. Well, try again five scrolls later, won't
you? Yeah, that's what I do. But it's the watching
YouTube. I'm taking it in and actually understanding
what I'm watching. Yeah, it's not just background
noise. Yeah, which is... It's just weird that
you have to sit here and have a conversation
about it like it's a fucking big thing. Like
it's a fucking AA meeting. Yeah. Look how proud
I am of myself that I'm not just fucking sitting
here scrolling on my phone. Yeah, I've done a
week without it. I'm fucking better than you.
Yeah, pretty much. It's bad. It's really bad.
It was probably a good time, to be fair, to crack
open the Steam Deck again. Crack open the tin
it. crack open the tinnies and snort the lines.
But the Steam Deck would probably be a good shout
-out because I genuinely feel like that was possibly
one of the diminishing factors to me not playing
the Steam Deck so much was because I was just
addicted to my phone. You're probably not wrong
because obviously going back to not the company
I've just left but the one before when you first
got your Steam Deck. Do you remember you used
to bring it on site? Yeah. And we used to just
sit on site and sometimes play it. Yeah. phone
to go away and the steam dip will come out for
an hour or two yeah yeah because you're playing
with that and i i feel like even then like when
i towards the end of me not playing it i would
find that i would stop like reading the books
and just scroll yeah it's like but you've got
you've got a game in front of you if that's not
fulfilling enough on your brain then there's
there's something wrong but that is what that
short format fucking instant dopamine hit constantly
you say that obviously it is just short clips
but like you say you lose two three hours it's
not like you just sit there for five minutes
yeah and then you come away from it and play
your game or whatever again you've just wasted
three hours yeah but that's the thing though
is that you've been endlessly hit with a dopamine
hit yeah so you're just constantly scrolling
through trying to find the fucking random videos
i mean don't get me wrong i miss the the the
ai fat people shitting on themselves i miss that
I do miss the odd funny video. I won't lie. It's
funny. But we have to make do somewhere else.
I have to hope I see someone fall over in London.
We know you have. You think about the woman face
-fighting and all. I think I'm quite a nice,
empathetic person. you're wondering what we're
laughing at it was i was driving um to acton
and the road that i was on it had i don't know
why it was there because it's so stupid in hindsight
but it had like a bicycle lane over the road
but it was made out of cobblestones so why would
you make a bicycle lane made out of cobblestones
that's just a recipe for disaster and exactly
what happened was a woman was riding down on
a bike and um like one of them normal like bikes
with the baskets on them and shit like not not
a boris bike but just like a normal bike yeah
and all i heard was was the ring of the bell
on the bike and i looked over and she'd locked
the front wheel up and then face plant just skidding
down these cobblestones and i was just laughing
He just carried on driving. I didn't feel terrible
at the time and I kind of still don't because
it was funny. The same thing happened the other
day, funny enough. My newspeak was driving me
to the station to where I go and he just went,
he goes, I felt bad this morning. It was an old
woman crossing the road there and she fell over.
I was like, did you get out and help? He goes,
no, I just carried on driving but I felt bad
for her. it's like it's like when i was driving
a site years ago and it was like fucking like
four in the morning or some shit because i well
i used to work in west london but i used to drive
to west london in my own car every day so to
beat the traffic i was like fuck it i'll just
leave earlier for work beat the traffic get the
site and then go back to sleep which is what
i used to do for fucking ages i will never forget
yeah about four in the morning or something And
then I come to a T -junction and then just seeing
some geezer fly over the speed bump on a moped
and fully Superman and then just disappear. I
was like, what the fuck? And I drove onto the
T -junction and then just looked and just see
him on the floor, but then see him get up. So
I just carried on driving because I wanted to
go to site and go to sleep. he obviously didn't
see the speed bump he just went flying just ET
style just over the fucking speed bump 4 in the
morning I'm not getting out and helping I'm going
to sleep I was like 10 minutes from site I was
like I ain't doing that felt like one of those
ones where if you get out and help you're going
to be there for a couple of hours I was like
no that's not me let someone let someone else
deal with that I love London. Brutal, innit?
What have we got? In standard... With the Deluxe
series... This is back to the Berserker. Oh,
we're actually getting back on topic now. I don't
know how we got so off topic. Collecting three
standard volumes per book in a hardcover format.
Currently up to Deluxe volume 14. Covering up
to... Standard volume 42. I don't understand
that at all. These are the original single volume
releases with over 40 volumes published. Deluxe
volume 1 to 14 cover up to... Why is it sounding
like fucking... Sounding very complicated. Yeah.
Deluxe volume 1 to 4 cover... up to standard
volume 42 and the official guidebook. Volume
14 includes volumes 40, 41 and the official guidebook.
What? So the standard volumes... It has 12 issues.
Yeah. But there's like 42 books. So many in each
volume, I guess. But I don't understand. What's
the difference between a volume and an issue?
There's probably so many issues in a volume.
Yeah, certain volumes in an issue, maybe. So
there must be 12 books with up to 40 volumes
within those 12 books. I'm guessing that's how
it is. There's a lot of books. Yeah, a lot of
books. And you've read like one. Yeah. Well,
I don't know. This is volume one. so how many
there's 144 pages so is that there's volume 2
volume 3 so what's an issue then I don't know
you've fucking lost me on this either way get
some get some graphic novels because they're
fun yeah I'm going to start getting into some
lore games because I've gamed for well since
as far as I can remember but I've never been
into lore Yeah, so the only comparison that I've
got for it is something like WoW. And I can say
that it definitely makes the game richer because
you understand it's like there's shitloads of
dungeons that you do where you don't particularly
know why you're there or what you're doing. And
then when you read specific books surrounding
various parts of lore, That's when you start
to realise that some of these dungeons go, oh,
fuck. I know what the... what the genesis was
to me being here in this dungeon and I know what
this dungeon's about because I've read an entire
book about it. I know why this character's doing
this. I know why this has happened. Would you
ever recommend reading before playing? Or would
you always go play it and then understand after?
I think... I think you'd have both benefits.
I feel like if you were... I feel like you could
play the game and get an initial interest in
a franchise and then go, I want to know more
about the lore of this. And then go reading the
books because it helps you either way. But at
the same time, if you read all the lore of a
franchise via book format and then... play the
game i reckon like if you was to read all of
the lore books surrounding world of warcraft
and then start playing world of warcraft it's
gonna it's not gonna make you play any better
but it's gonna make you understand the game a
lot more going in but it's not a necessity it's
more like just an add -on so i feel like either
way it works pretty well yeah it's like reading
a book and then watching a film yeah yeah it
just makes it more more engaging i don't know
what the I don't know if the God of War one that
I sent you is... I don't know if that was lore
-based or if it was just a novelisation of the
actual game itself. So, like, if you get it,
read it. Yeah, it didn't really give you much,
did it? It just showed the cover, which was obviously
the same cover as the game. Yeah, so you think...
So it might have just been the game made into
a book. Yeah, am I just going to read the storyline
of the game that I've got a platinum for? Is
there any point? There are... I haven't actually
platinumed that one. Have you not? I thought
you had. Nah, the 2018 one, I was going to go
back and do it. There were comics for it, but
they have been discontinued. So I'd imagine you
can buy them. But they're the comics. What is
the Amazon graphic? Was that the novelisation
of it? God of War takes on the world of Norse
gods. Starting with a cult of bear berserkers.
Well, that's not that then. But that is on Amazon
for... Fuck it, do you have a Kindle? No. I was
going to get one, but... Yeah, see, everything's
on Kindle now. There's a lot... That's the problem
with a lot of these law books for gaming. A lot
of them are available on Kindle, but they're
not available on paperback. That's why I was
saying to you, a lot of the stuff that I bought
was on Vinted and eBay. because they've already
been discontinued so you have to get them elsewhere
but it looks like they're oh God of War Volume
2 Fallen God God of War 2 yeah they've got their
own books I just don't know if that novelisation
one I sent you was the thingy but yeah we'll
wrap it there fuck it I've had their time see
you later everyone