XB2+1 (Ep. 9) Talking Xbox with COLIN MORIARTY!

[@jakenash7420]

Man it's really interesting re-listening to this after the news of Microsoft considering sending their games to Sony. Colin was on the money

[@mercurymachines4311]

He knows his shit.

[@trevorstempert1551]

Colin makes a ton of objectively fair points. It’s not even a matter of disagreeing with them but more so that it seems like the other side is just not liking the facts that he is saying for a lot of those fair points.

[@deadplanet2397]

I couldnt imagine "skipping" this episode because you disagree with Colin. This is the first true back and forth him and the xbox two guys have ever had! Which is exciting! Not that its a boxing match, but there are some good moments where colin AND rand/jez challenge each other. So dont be afraid of a little debate. This was fun. We need more of this.

[@TheEregos]

I mean it is very fine to not want to watch it because of Colin lol..

[@EddiXP]

If people can't handle an opinion of his, it says more about them than it does himself. He's a solid guy

[@tom909_ooo6]

Yes. Actual debate without stupid fanboy vitriol is sorely lacking in the gaming space. Big up all three for staying civil, stating their opinions and listening to each other. Great show!

[@RabbitOnKrack]

​@@TheEregosif you're an uneducated ludite who follows conventional wisdom of the gaming "Journos" who are upset they cant make him non-existent in a sphere they fail to create their own audience outside the companies they work for.

[@AK-bd4xh]

​@@TheEregoswhats your issue with him specifically? Genuinely curious; I've watched Colin for years and don't understand the dislike towards the guy

[@Goober89]

Good to see there's still level-headed discussion of the gaming industry that's interesting and respectful of opinions.

[@WEB_78O]

Great discussion! Thanks for coming on, Colin

[@BrendanShiewie]

Colin seemed to be very level headed.

[@WorthFit]

One of the absolute best "console clash" interviews I've ever seen, if not thr best. So informative, so respectful.

[@dbcooper409]

Listened to this on audio podcast and what a fantastic talk. So refreshing to see friendly discourse outside of the traditional averyone agrees and bashes what they dont like. Really hope you'll do this with Colin again.

[@DreBourbeau]

45:05 - Microsoft themselves admitted that Game Pass cannibalizes sales during the FTC-ABK trial.

[@andi5943]

I think that's the first time you guys go out of your comfort zone, I'm highly anticipating this one! Discussions are way more worthwhile to listen to if it's not happening within a bubble.

[@JJ-fk5ys]

There all ponies idiot even random

[@jonathank3759]

Colin was right

[@Spam591_]

This is… a pretty wild listen today considering how right Colin was and how quickly things swung. Crazy how fast my initial opinion has been changed

[@jez.c]

Where was Colin right? On Game Pass? Game Pass isn't going anywhere. Tiers might change, prices might increase a bit, but Netflix has done the same plenty of times too. Game Pass has plenty of tricks left up it's sleeve to try before calling time on it. He might end up being right in the end, but we're not quite there yet. :P I need to get on another show with him.

[@Spam591_]

@@jez.c That’s true yeah, fair. I mainly meant on the creative front and how Microsoft ain’t really gonna give us none of the smaller creative titles/IP revivals like Rand was alluding to. I’m still worried about GamePass being sustainable though, especially now that CoD is going in and the ultimate risk is being taken - what if it doesn’t pay off yada yada yada you know the crack. Guess that’s me being glass half empty, but hey ho. Hell yeah Jez, this was an excellent conversation, and I’d love to see another with him on the “state of the battlefield” this many months later. Much love brother

[@The_Winter_Shoulder]

Fantastic show, it's really great to see you all interact and exchange opinions and debate games industry topics. Hope to see more collaborations in the future!

[@jarettburke7547]

I'm late to this interview but my god it's so interesting to listen to respectful debates on gaming as opposed to console war nonsense. Great job Jez, Ran and Colin!

[@matthewfavaloro2562]

Great discussion, I came here from the last stand media group to hear the Xbox side and loved hearing the other side. Love the Wheel of Time reference tho with the Rand al Thor name

[@jez.c]

Super kind of you, LSM peeps have been really great to us.

[@anantpai5092]

Great episode ….one thing I don’t understand is why is the narrative always been like Microsoft went and twisted activisions hands to buy them……it was activision’s board and ceo wanting to sell to highest possible bidder which In turn was Microsoft.

[@JosephF.]

I actually think the media narrative around Hifi Rush alone is probably reason that Microsoft would continue taking creative risks.

[@TylerNorCal]

I disagree with Colin on alot but he always makes fair points and sticks to what he believes, always appreciate him for that.

[@pureshooter7477]

I also disagree with a number of his points, but he seems like a good guy.

[@CaiSpidox]

This was great. Really good discussion. It was nice to hear the real context of ...well everything.

[@wadegarbutt9758]

Amazing to hear civil debate from a level headed PS fan with level headed xbox fans. Sacred Symbols and XB2 are on the short list of podcasts I can listen to for 3+ hours per episode

[@EddiXP]

This was a damn good listen! Thanks boys!

[@SciFlyZ]

was here for colin, glad i found more great Xbox host and content.

[@Libera4]

Colin, always so polite. Good job Rand, ya killed it.

[@waldor90]

rand was the mvp, he had great points!

[@Ksathwik94]

Really great discussion to listen to. Loved it

[@Wyvborn]

This was a good conversation, thank you guys!

[@Ka0sAssassin]

Fantastic show , and Colin is a great bloke as well one of my only favorite PS guys

[@11d3adly11]

I truly enjoy this discussion between all involved 👍

[@EddiXP]

Awesome dude! Cant wait to hear this out fully! Will prob catch most of it at work tomorrow.

[@alexplummer6397]

Game pass prices will have to increase if the quality of games are to increase, it’s just economics

[@hebablo]

Can’t wait!

[@mcleanF1]

Colin loves to talk about how sony is so creative but all of their aaa games have the same template. I can see why people love them but be honest, they are not that different from one another.

[@darkjorgelink]

I love all the consoles. I own them all. And I can confidently say some of the best games are from Nintendo. Wish these guys would play them more and talk about them more

[@courtneywilliams6376]

Nintendo seems to focus on quality over quantity, and polish above meeting deadlines at all costs, and it appears to pay off both critically and commercially.

[@alexplummer6397]

I’ve been playing on 360 for the start let’s not pretend that they’ve been creative in the same way Nintendo or Sony. They’ve been known to acquire studios for existing IPs not the other way around

[@MisterK-YT]

Great show! I don’t watch any Xbox content regularly (except Duke, recently); I didn’t even own an Xbox until someone gifted me a Series S earlier this year. So, prior to this, all I’d seen were some of Rand’s videos, and heard him once or twice on Dealer’s podcast when I just happened to watch it. ANYWAY, my long-winded point is that I always thought Rand was a totallll fanboy. But this was nice. And hearing him on Duke recently was nice. Good for you Rand - ur not one of those intolerable fanboys. Enjoyed this. Love seeing people from opposite sides of a debate getting together. It’s great content. (Now I realllllly wanna see a Colin vs Ryan McCaffrey debate! The two slightly-fanboyish journos; former colleagues but still on good terms. It’ll be lit.)

[@LicoriceLain]

Rand, outside of his clickbait videos, tends to be very levelheaded and airs on the side of skepticism.

[@Natino64]

Playstation fan here - but own a series s. Just want to say guys, big props for inviting different viewpoints on the show. I wouldn’t have found this great podcast otherwise, as my social media is dominated by Playstation. Hopefully you guys help change that, subbed! Loved the back and forth, great points on both sides that challenged my thinking a bit.

[@jez.c]

Thank you sir 🙏

[@headknocker2020]

Here from the LSM community, enjoyed the conversation

[@pillionaire07]

One thing regarding the whole achievement / completion conversation... I was looking the other day at my Skyrim achievements. Only 80% of people have completed Unbound.... The literal tutorial. So I don't think that's indicative of a game's staying power.

[@mynameismud-qd9vu]

The big acquisitions are for supporting Game Pass, Xbox's last hope of staying in the gaming market. That said, this was a great discussion to listen to with a lot of great points by all three.

[@silverlabguy9670]

What a great convo! Fully listened, worth your time people!

[@ktrotter]

Wasn't worth the time lol.

[@georgeghazi18]

Great show guys, Thanks.

[@simonbrandy9662]

Colin needs to speak with more Xbox guys, because thats when he excels and explains himself far better. Great interview guys. I've always liked Colin, regardless of his Sony bias. Theres nothing wrong with having a preference, but unfortunately the fanboys don't express it the right way. Colin is not a fanboy in my view.

[@Dave0zz]

I never finished Skyrim and I've put hundreds of hours into it. If you have a game with a linear story and no choice that you spent $70 on, yeah, you're more likely to finish it.

[@mr.j3149]

That’s just anecdotal evidence. Because Skyrim has a completion percentage of 30% which is pretty close to god of war and Horizon. Elden ring has completion rate of over 40% as well. So while you might feel that way does not make it actually true.

[@masoud4126]

Amazing podcast, best Xbox two+1

[@WAR904]

Is “the most triple a game I’ve ever played” an insult or compliment? 1:02:29

[@samwymer7059]

This was a great episode!!! It’s refreshing to have Colin in here offering a different perspective. Keeps things fresh and less of an eco chamber

[@billclay2701]

This was better than Sacred Symbols to me. Real push back instead of yes men afraid to speak their true mind. Plus its hard to talk about gaming based on just a single console of your choise today, lines a so blurred now. The PS5 is just as good and in some cases better than my 3060ti PC build. I enjoy Sacred but yeah, this was the stuff. Nice one.

[@sam805236]

On the whole game completion thing. One stat not mentioned is that on PS5 you don't have to be online to play most games, notably single player games like GoW that was mentioned. So the 40% completion rate is probably a lot higher considering many single player only gamers don't connect online. On GP you HAVE TO check in online at some point.

[@PedroSouza-hm6wj]

Colin brought up the "completion" point in regards to pentiment and HI-FI Rush, and i get his perspective, but the main thing is not how many people completed the game, but how many people played the game. And that's the thing about subscription, you don't have to finish.

[@Zoik20]

I don't have it because I'm too lazy to look, but I'm guessing there's data out there that says there's a close correlation between game completion rates and sequel purchases. Doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to assume that a lot of people that don't finish Hi-Fi Rush likely won't buy or even play a sequel which could come back to bite the devs regardless of Gamepass. Say the next Hi-Fi Rush game doesn't generate enough purchases/plays - MS could be wondering "why do we even have this team if their games don't get purchased/played?"

[@PedroSouza-hm6wj]

I get that, but it's also a matter of perspective, you look at a game like hi-fi rush or pentiment, and they don't look like games that would get millions of copies sold, and i don't have the numbers on me, but i do believe that millions of people played them, so even in the most pessimistic view 3% completion may even be more people completing than if the game was not on game pass. And another thing, the fact that is on game pass, may have opened the game up for people that would never play them, and end up loving it, and those open even more of a path for a sequel. But, i'm also talking without data so i may be 100% wrong @@Zoik20

[@PedroSouza-hm6wj]

Again, a matter of perspective, you see a 3% completion rate for hi-fi rush and you think that, and i get what he is saying, but, hi-fi rush had like what 2 million players? if it was not on game pass could you see the game selling that much? and let's say it as a new ip would sell like 500k copies, that 3% jumps up to around 12%. one thing is look at completion rates for AAA premium games that are not on subscription services like FF 16, another is to look at games that are ninche, and because of game pass had millions of players.@@JoltinJoe

[@ClapperDan]

​@@JoltinJoepeople haven't been completing games long before game pass. The reason Call of Duty dropped the campaign for Black Ops IV was because people weren't completing the campaign! When EA said who cares about singleplayer that statement was not arbitrary, it was based on metadata from EA players who aren't completing singleplayer games, which was most people. Singleplayer games for the majority of games, have low completion rates.

[@RabbitOnKrack]

I follow his shows and he also states this idea as fact as if achievements are 100% accurate to telling the tale when the reality is they could be a flawed number with no real proof of their accuracy. Only Xbox has the absolute numbers.

[@smileypolice3524]

Great ep

[@MemeCastGuy69]

Kinda surprised that Colin bought Halo 2 for $40, when he could have gotten Masterchief Collection for less than $30.

[@BrettMedlock]

It's $40 rn on XBL

[@danielberry4765]

#ColinWasRight The Xbox guys here are clueless their arguments, wow bad.

[@danielberry4765]

@@iaqh What Xbox games, lol

[@danielberry4765]

@@iaqh That doesn’t surprise me, not like there’s any on Xbox to play.

[@superteen1717]

Colin making a studio would take like a year or 2 then 6 years for a game 👀

[@realadelphstar]

Xbox players have more choice so they don't have to stick with games they don't like unlike ps when you spend 60 or70 on a game you want to get your money out of it

[@alexplummer6397]

There’s no way horizon overshadows elden ring

[@silverlabguy9670]

That old photo of Colin lollll. But I'm eager to listen to this!

[@travisace]

Pentiment was awesome

[@zombieslayer4415]

No it wasn’t.

[@Natureboy8383]

@@zombieslayer4415😂

[@Natureboy8383]

@@zombieslayer4415people are lying to themselves, lol I’m definitely part of the 94% that did not finish it

[@torturedsilencegaming]

I finished pentiment and all the achievements

[@alexlyster3459]

​@@Natureboy8383They're not fucking lying to themselves. It's a niche game for sure, but for the people who like that game it's fantastic. Brilliantly made, very well written with a great attention to detail. It's just, not for most people.

[@leoric2x4b67]

Really looking forward to this! Big fan of the xbox two and pretty much everything LSM put out, definitely gonna be an interesting one.

[@Rezo2486]

I think Colin forgot what Sony did to Sega and everybody else back in the day

[@Z3ROMyth]

Fax.

[@illreytito]

Na I'll still check it out, just not my cup of tea

[@Keyawnce]

Jez the exec is Phil who said they need to earn it lol. you already said this a while ago

[@Dave0zz]

Percentage completion is a stupid metrical to use. Obviously more people will try it. Numbers of completions is a better metric.

[@Natureboy8383]

Sales*%=numbers Pretty easy lol Problem is Xbox doesn’t give sales numbers so it really is all speculation right now. I imagine the numbers would be a lot worse honestly.

[@Dave0zz]

Rand is right about Sony releasing on PC. I only play on PC and I support xbox for the release parity.

[@mr.j3149]

They’d sell more games and make less money. They make a majority of their money not from selling their own games but from selling 3rd party games and getting a 30% cut of the sale. So that is not an incentive for them.

[@FernandoAR760]

The xbox side is more crowed because there was a demand for it I think Beyond and PS I love you with Greg and Colin satisfied the PS gamers but Xbox didn't have an equivalent Ryan did his best with Unlocked but it wasn't the same and I think Xbox Two and Defining Duke are definitely the top tier Xbox podcasts

[@digitalXP13]

You can see those corporate relationships make a lot of people be dishonest. Take starfield horrible game for a myriad of reasons yet defining duke mr matty plays & cog talking starfield was biased and a lie. Then you see angry joe and girlfriend reviews on Starfield. Yeah it's good to be not tied to corporations and be free.

[@jez.c]

They're tied to Google's outrage algorithm. Totally free yeah sure. OR MAYBE, DIFFERENT PEOPLE LIKE DIFFERENT THINGS. HOLY SHIT?

[@Michael_Jeromy_Kaiser]

This makes me want this dynamic all the time the intelligent back and fourth non biased conversation you guys having Colin on who's a fact based intellectual that kept everybody sharp great podcast

[@glenmcl]

non biased? yeah right

[@grtcara8386]

He’s not fact based and he’s not an intellectual

[@fromBIGHOUSE.]

He is intelligent. Facts based? Mostly.. just not with Xbox. It’s a willful ignorance on that topic.

[@grtcara8386]

@@fromBIGHOUSE. he ain’t facts based and he’s disingenuous. A couple of points 1. He talks about how his indy games sell way better on PS than Xbox yet I guarantee the only people buying those games are his community listening to his podcast and it’s a PS podcast so his audience are PS fanboys so of course he’s going to sell way more on the PS yet he doesn’t acknowledge that. Secondly he talks about Microsoft not being in the entertainment business such as movies yet Sony does therefore better for PS to buy devs and not Microsoft yet he doesn’t acknowledge that PS is at the moment creatively bankrupt as all they currently produce are cookie cutter sequels and remakes that are single player, over the shoulder, cinematic games. Each sequel is identical to the last game and each franchise is identical to the other franchise. Microsoft is the company producing creative games such as Pentiment and hi-if rush which both would never get green lit under PS. PS turned into Disney both creatively bankrupt so he’s full of it

[@fromBIGHOUSE.]

@@grtcara8386 I definitely agree. I generally chalk it up to his bias Against Xbox, but you make good points.

[@Bmartin_001]

Great podcast gentleman

[@cammoses4464]

That was a great show . Hope to see him on again in the future

[@Ian-tg4qr]

Great episode, lovely polite comments too. Loved the argument that without game pass maybe we wouldn’t get Pentiment. I thought the evolution of that argument is maybe with Gamepass we might get too many games like Pentiment

[@ScubaSnacks]

I'd be perfectly fine with more games like Pentiment, and by that I mean games that are clearly passion projects rather than hyper-tailored to the broadest market segment possible

[@triplecombogaming]

I understand where Colin is coming from, with suggesting ABK execs taking over Xbox positions. But i feel as if we'd end up with a situation Ryan McCaffrey had suggested with Obsidian stopping their projects and assisting Bethesda with StarField and Elder Scrolls 6, and so on with other studio working on one project together. Could that be beneficial? Maybe with more manpower available on certain projects, but I'm not a fan of the idea of taking teams away from their own projects to work on someone else's. Now, of course, Colin's idea could simply mean doing a better job in assisting and managing teams without them merger, but wanted to voice the concern nonetheless with how ABK has handled their teams and CoD. Awesome show, by the way, guys.

[@Sushiemoji]

If Ryse and Sunset Overdrive came to ps4 right now , they’d probably each sell a million copies within weeks (probably biased below that for Ryse and above that for Sunset)

[@itsjusterthought7941]

This is strange. I'm listening to Xbox gamers trying to understand Playstation gamers. Never seen that before. Normally it's just negative judgements, but here I'm seeing genuine confusion why Playstation gamers choose Sony. Clearly Xbox gamers think it it just out of habit because that is what we are use to. I've been gaming for 50 years and didn't start on Playstation. The reason why gamers choose Playstation is the games. Not Sony. Not the hardware. Content is king. The games have to be very high quality, then it's nice if the hardware is powerful enough to make the games look great. Gamers trust Sony to deliver the games, due to past performance. Xbox is the opposite. The hardware always comes first. We hear it here how they praise Xbox innovations that are outside of even launching a game reliving the good old days. MS have capitalised on this hardware obsession and ended up with a situation where they just release hardware all the time with no great games. Lot's of controller, but nothing special to play using them. There are tons of mediocre games on Game Pass to cheaply, but nothing worth buying. But MS have realised that they are wasting money trying to beat Sony with brute force consoles, because Sony always win via smart innovative tech that catches MS off guard. The result is that MS are tired of loosing the console war and want to fight a different battle. They cannot out-console Sony, so they are going to focus on streaming. No console required, just a Game Pass app on every device. No need to make cutting edge masterpiece games if it is too hard, because they are only going to be streamed by casuals anyway. MS are a software company who specialises in services and business enterprise networking. Hardware manufacture is not one of their skills. The plan is just buy studios to make the games and stream them via a Game Pass subscription. The current MS consumer base of 25 million console gamers on Xbox is not growing and they cannot earn any more money off them, so the plan is to focus on attracting 2 billion casuals, then sacrifice all the 25 million console gamers by dropping console support. There will be no Xbox Pro or any next gen Xbox consoles. Just an Xbox app and maybe a streaming box to justify the brand name. They need a box with an X on it or they have to drop the Xbox name and choose another identity.

[@Clayaka]

I don't agree with some of Colin's positions but he was a good guest. He made some valid points to at least explain why he feels the way he does and was always respectful. This was a great episode!

[@MrZer0e]

This, will be interesting. Im heading into this with an open mind, but I doubt Colin will act the same. Am interested to see how much back and forth there is between him and Rand though.

[@MalibuJack88]

Totally wanna try BG3😊

[@Formu1a87]

Looking forward to this! Love Colin's and Last Stand Media's content!!

[@burnfeeling8105]

I loved the conversation, but I don’t understand most of his concerns or thoughts. For example, he’s all about creativity and indie, but is against Gamepass. In fact, it might not be a good model for generic AAA games with mass appeal and a potential of selling millions of copies, but for most niche indie titles, GP is an amazing model… if they want to stay creative and reach a smaller audience, an à la carte game can be lost in the crowd and die. At the end of the day, they want their games to be played before profit. So if GP check is covering most of the expanses and the game is played by more people , that’s all that matters! Also, so many games that make billions of dollars are not selling à la carte, they’re “FREE”! There’s multiple of ways for games to make money without straight up selling the games 70$. Right now, Xbox seems to find a way to sell expansion pass with early access on top of the subscription, and it looks like it’s doing great for them! And what about 100$ games! If I can’t spend more in entertainment, with 200$ I can only support two games instead of 3…in what way the industry benefits from it if I support less devs with the same money! Finally, I don’t know if GP is gonna be a good or a bad thing in the future. But it’s up to the industry to adapt to the consumers, not the other way around. If it benefits me as a gamer, that’s all that matters, and I’ll let the industry figure out how to make it sustainable. If it’s bad for gamers, it’ll fail and die. However, we can’t really compare GP to Spotify, as they’re two very different services.

[@FIREPHILSPENCER]

Colin is a PlayStation fanboy who thinks he gets to make the rules of how Xbox is allowed to compete. While ignoring Sony history of buying most of its studios and decades of paying to keep content off Xbox.

[@Spr1ggan87]

"With all these Halo games you aren't going to play them consecutively" Oh ye of little faith...

[@bbajr]

ngl. genshin's very fun n f2p friendly. it's the most fun i had since i played GTA V.

[@DetroitsReaper]

Colin take on the mascot stuff is such an odd because that's a time debate. 20 years ago ps mascots were all 3rd party crash, spyro, snake, Lora croft, cloud etc.

[@yama_yama_yama]

I heard some discrepancies...

[@joepug11]

Finishing games isn't that black and white,I will purposely prolong my game if I'm enjoying it

[@torturedsilencegaming]

Colin sounds like one of the gamers filing the one lawsuit.

[@KevaLeva24]

I really enjoyed this thoughtful discussion, but Colin has been standing on this proverbial soapbox of organic vs inorganic studio growth for the past couple years, but it doesn't really make sense. It sounds like a made up issue to argue about. What is the difference really between doing exclusivity/contract based business with many 2nd and 3rd party studios (to the point that the studio never ever, or maybe only a single time, releases a game on another platform) then eventually acquiring them a number of years later, as Sony has mostly done, versus just purchasing a studio outright as Xbox has mostly done. In Sony's case, they are simply avoiding risk by not purchasing right away, but they are still spending money on a studio. It's like rent-to-own vs straight out purchasing. I just don't understand his argument, it's splitting hairs. Organic growth, in my view, is taking the time and money to hire and recruit devs, artists, directors, and producers to create a brand new studio from the ground up.

[@glenmcl]

Sony is not organic. Anyone who has researched this properly can easily see it.

[@Brakudoprime]

“Console gaming is for boomers” 50% of console gamers are under 36 and of that 50% 24% are under 18. More younger people are on console then ever. Not coming at you just saying that comment seems a bit anecdotal. Great discussion. Cheers

[@jayrob5270]

A lot of Colins facts which he bases his judgements are anecdotal, good on Rand for calling that out. Also Colins mid to long term doom and gloom is very subjective, I just dont see MS driving the industry off a cliff like Jim Ryan and Colin do. I think both of them just dont want to see MS doing well because it will hurt PS which isnt a bad thing as they have become complacent.

[@jonathanhijlkema8247]

Colin talking about how he is annoyed Xbox isn't growing the way Playstation did it since the nineties is just so incredible dumb. As if a company would stand any chance of success doing business in this modern gaming environment with huge digital libraries, growing slowly and "organically". That whole "organic" growth argument is just the luxury a market leader can afford themselves because they don't need to rush things to try and close the gap with the competition. The market leader position has huge benefits and those benefits have only grown bigger and wider in the last decades.

[@d8l835]

I love to see people having a civil discussion about this guy, let alone with him. Colin is a good guy and its a shame the way most of the games journalism space thinks hes thr devil

[@WolfgangKaipz]

Incredible episode

[@FreshWitcher]

Sony makes most of its money from PlayStation because it lost tons of ground in electronics like phones, and computers etc Lol

[@Spartan_83]

Yup, there was even talk about selling their movie division at one point. I'm guessing Spider-man/Marvel must have saved their ass.

[@iluvmusicqwe]

The fact that they let Samsung take the market share without even so much as a fight is mind boggling

[@yoimmoon]

Colin is so obsessed with the fact that Xbox has the money to buy their way into a top position. So what? Microsoft is a much needed force in the industry and he hates MS has trillions to spend. As Rand said, the average consumer doesn't care about how MS, Sony, Nintendo come about great games or content, they only care about the best deal. Rand is 100% right and Colin needs to realize his POV is from a 1% view and it's irrelevant.

[@yoimmoon]

To be clear, I'm not attacking Colin at all, but I don't agree with his take on this.

[@farhanprine]

Excellent work guys. Colin reductive points was extremely grating, would've liked more push back but good to see Rand provide great rebuttals to alot of Colin's nonsensical takes.

[@Natureboy8383]

What rebuttal do you think they made to push back that was great? I feel like Colin pretty much destroyed these guys because they couldn’t really articulate a lot of their points well. I’m a pc player so I just watch these for entertainment lol

[@farhanprine]

Colin fell fumbled quite a bit. Says Gamepass is killing the industry but Rand said how could that be with its tiny userbase. Ignores at the time Sony was a heavyweight in the same way MS was and forced Sega to exit through its questionable tactics. One of MS tools is its money, and he can't quite grasp that, it's all fair and it's all business.

[@Natureboy8383]

@@farhanprine I honestly heard of enough of this debate from multiple avenues that I can see both sides. I personally play on PC, ps5 and steam deck but I have gamepass ultimate (my 9 year old has a series S and she uses it mostly for slime rancher, sims, Minecraft and Among Us) so I do see value in the service. No one knows what is going to happen honestly, I just see these debates as entertainment.

[@Dave0zz]

Can we all agree that... No, Colin. We can't.

[@TimedExclusive]

Comparing Final Fantasy that has a long history and massive following to a small game that shadow dropped. I am disappointed that neither of you 2 called him out on it and just let it slide as a fair comparison. The only people that bought and played Final Fantasy 16 would be the hardcore fans that were going to play it from start to finish no matter what. Quite frankly, 40%....now 38% as Colin alluded to soon after is low. I would expect more of these hardcore Final Fantasy fans to have finished the game.

[@cheeks3211]

Low when you have around 40+ Million PS5 owners? Thats actually really good. It means a high percentage of people who bought FF16 which we know in its first week sold 3 million completed the game.

[@Greenlandersdinositings]

SONY has never bought a publisher!!! wrong!!! Psygnosis back in 1993.

[@manofx5824]

I left the Xbox ecosystem after the Xbox One so I don't tune in to a lot of Xbox podcasts, but when I saw Colin was going to be on, I was pretty sure it was going to be a great discussion. Great episode.

[@proggz39]

Same, I was playing Xbox since the original in my childhood but what they did in that gen is unforgivable in my eyes and they haven’t done anything yet to entice me back. Besides making Starfield exclusive

[@toomastom3827]

Jez comparing Spotify to Gamepass is not even on the same fucking page 🤣🤣🤣

[@jez.c]

That was literally the point I was making tho :X

[@ps4gamrr]

As someone who is banned from Last Stand Media and definitely not a Colin apologist, I will say that Game Pass should NOT become the de facto way gamers expect to play their games. It leads to subscribers undervaluing the real cost of game development and is based on Microsoft being a loss leader in ways that other companies cannot be…sort of like trying to sue a tech company and being unable to keep up with legal fees while the tech company stays the course. When you create a situation where a game that is not on GP is “waited on” because of things like backlogs and a refusal to pay $70 (even if it is a title you are excited about), you send a message that negatively impacts future titles. Plus, you basically have to design your company approach as monopolistic whereby you get every segment of the market and hope it all works out. Microsoft will eventually hit a rhythm, but at what cost??

[@Christos2255]

How did you get banned? 😂

[@bizarrekage23]

The notion that xbox gamers don't buy games is silly. I just brought stray, deaths door, starfield all be being mortal kombat and assassin's creed. So many games to buy! I'm broke! Lol

[@Spartan_83]

Colin is just full of crap lol most of the games that sold a lot on PS5 did so because they were bundled with the console, look at DS, Returnal, R&C, and others they all sold under 3m copies.

[@firefightermp22]

I kinda felt like Colin shit on Microsoft the entire time, the discussion felt gloomy and down this week. Love you guys keep up the good work ❤