Abiotic Factor

[00:00:10] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Cameron Warren and I'm joined as always by the Pixel Professor Jacob Price. It's February 27th, 2025 and we're back to talk about video games and Jake, what are we even doing anymore? Questions I ask myself all the time.

[00:00:37] What's the point? What's even the point? Why are we even doing this? Why does the games industry even try? Just quit. Just sell off all the assets. Just sell everything to the highest bidder for pennies on the dollar. Fire everyone, take the tax write-off and just be done with it.

[00:01:04] I'm sick of hearing about it. I'm sick of it. Because those bamboozlers at WB Games can go jump into a lake or something much worse. This is how threatening we get on the Pre-Order Bonus Podcast. Go jump into a lake, you scallywag. Jump into a freshwater lake, you punks. No, seriously, they can...

[00:01:31] This is a family podcast, but they can get... They can... Take a long walk off a short pier. They can... They suck. They suck. So, if you haven't heard, Monolith Studios, part of WB Games, creators of games such as Shadows of Mordor, Shadows of War,

[00:01:54] who was working on the Wonder Woman game that has been oft discussed on this podcast and predicted to come out by me many, many, many times. And oh, how wrong I was. How just completely, utterly wrong I was. Yeah, so studio was completely shut down. Tons of incredibly talented folks over there lost their jobs. And WB Games is essentially just bearing down. They have a Batman game.

[00:02:23] Rocksteady's back to working on Batman, which they should have been doing 10 years ago. But... That's neither here nor there. And then... There's... I think people are working on Lord of the Rings stuff. And then Mortal Kombat and Harry Potter. And that's it. And everything else is... That's it, though, right? Like, they're cutting everything else that doesn't fall into those major IPs. They're cutting everything else that doesn't fall into those categories. So, like... Dude... It's... I think it's a huge...

[00:02:52] This is what... Okay. So, I listened to an episode of a kind of funny podcast. Gamescast. Where they brought Jason Schreier on. Jason kind of gave the breakdown of what actually happened. So, apparently, the guy who has headed up WB Games over the past several years is really the one to blame. And is really responsible for kind of tanking things in these studios. And kind of ruining things for everybody. He's...

[00:03:21] When it comes to... He's the one who basically pushed the Suicide Squad stuff. Which, you know... We know... We've discussed that so many times. How just absolutely insane it is that a Suicide Squad life service game got approved and pushed to the level that it did. And then, obviously, completely failed. And then... He also is responsible for the... So, apparently, Monolith was working on a procedural narrative game. Okay.

[00:03:52] Interesting. In the wake... Yeah. So, procedural narrative... Like... So, the Nemesis system is sort of a, like, procedural narrative thing. Where they... Obviously, they have NPC enemies in the game who can turn into... Like... You played the Shadows games, right, Jake? Yeah, yeah. So, like... You cut off the Orc's arm. He comes back with his arm, like, recrafted. And then he's now a captain. And he's, like... And he can advance up the ranks. And it was a super cool system.

[00:04:21] They patented it for some stupid reason that nobody knows. And they'll probably never see the light of day again. Now that Monolith is completely dead. But, yeah. Anyway. So, they were working on a procedural narrative game. That got canned in favor of... Because Fortnite exists. And they said, well, we need to do something else. And so, then... They bounced... They tried to make that into some, like, live service thing. That failed.

[00:04:48] And then in 2021, when we got that teaser trailer at the Game Awards for Wonder Woman... They had... They were only six months into even, like, pre-producing that project. Holy crap. So, we were all... Everyone was out there thinking, like... Oh, we're getting this Wonder Woman game. And, like, two... Which is me, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was me. I was saying, like... Oh, yeah. This game's gonna come out. We're gonna see the trailer. And so, then around that time, the directors... All the directors left.

[00:05:18] Like, all the people who worked on the Shadows of Mordor games... And this is all on the kind of funny podcast. So, I'm, like, reiterating. But it's just super interesting. So, all the directors who worked on those two games quit and formed their own studio. And they're actually working on another game. I don't know what it is. But... You can go Google, like, whoever those people are. But anyway... And then they did the whole pivot where they changed... They were working on this Wonder Woman game where they were gonna use the nemesis system in reverse.

[00:05:46] Where you would befriend people in the world, which is very, like, Wonder Woman-esque. And then they would become, like, your allies through this, like, reverse... That's kinda dope. Kinda dope, right? Like, a cool... Actually, like, a cool, like, unique concept. So, they ended up canning that whole idea. And then at the end, what they have been working on for the past year or whatever was just an action-adventure game.

[00:06:13] Just, like, they took out all, like, the cool stuff out of it. And it was just, like, a straight-up, like, third-person Wonder Woman game. And they just... And they just got rid of it, dude. And it's, like... We live in a world... And, man, we've talked about this so many times. But I guess it deserves repeating. We just live in a world where, like, the people who make the crap decisions have zero accountability. Zero.

[00:06:40] And the people who actually are important get screwed. And that's the monolith developers who are these, like, crazy talented... Make incredible games. Like, just really awesome. Those Shadow of Mordor games are, like, so good and so well done. And, like, had such interesting ideas in them. And they really, like, took advantage of the Lord of the Rings IP in super interesting, like, cool way. And now, like, we'll just never see the light of the day.

[00:07:08] And the thing I always come back to is, like, if your business is making video games, then you need to figure out how to make video games. More video games. Not less video games. It sounds straightforward. The other thing that I'm just realizing, Jake, is that I'm going... I'm genuinely... And I'm saying this with all seriousness.

[00:07:33] And if anyone's, like, interested, I legitimately want to write a long-form article or essay on how Fortnite has ruined the games industry. Like, Fortnite broke video games. I'm, like, not kidding. I know we've said that before jokingly. But after this... I think something about this Mordor Brothers situation legitimately has me...

[00:08:03] Like, Fortnite... And look, I'm not saying Fortnite's bad in and of itself. I'm not saying, like, it's a bad game or it's, like, you shouldn't play it. I've played it. I've played it with my kids. Like, what is what it is? Like, that's the world we live in. But it has ruined video games. It's ruined it. You know, it's, like... It has screwed so many people over because of executives getting giant dollar signs in their eyeballs and not being able to...

[00:08:29] And with a lack of understanding of this industry and just making the worst decisions possible for the sake of trying to make a little bit more money. And it has screwed so many people over and ruined businesses. Yeah, I think you really say it there. Like, Fortnite itself rose into being the behemoth that it is. And, yeah, I don't know. Is Fortnite the problem? I say yes or no. It's the executives who want a piece of that pie.

[00:09:00] Because every single... And I mean pie. Like, look at the pie charts that have come out about where people are spending their game time. And look at this pie chart that's on the same page of the PowerPoints. The same PowerPoint slide that shows, like, how much money these games are making. Right? And I think you said it perfectly in a very cartoonish way, right? These executives that get dollar signs on their eyeballs and they're like,

[00:09:24] we can get 5% of that cut of pie by doing the exact same thing that they're doing over their epic. We'll just slap a fresh coat of paint on it and we'll get a 5% of that pie and we'll break them. We'll drive a wedge into the... That's just not how it goes. Right? I mean, I just... Like, look, it's... Look, and I'm not saying... Let me be very clear. It is your job as an executive to put the dollar signs in your eyeballs. But to do it in an intelligent way. Yeah.

[00:09:54] Like, do it in the right way. Right? Like, the Harry Potter game sold 30 million copies as of October of last year. Which is just an insane, ridiculous number. But the problem now is as an executive who thinks in terms of spreadsheets with a forecast on it, you now believe that any franchise, any title that you work on must be a 30 million dollar, or excuse me, a 30 million unit level mega hit.

[00:10:24] Which, Harry Potter is a different animal. It's an IP that transcends the universe. Right? It's like, you cannot replicate no DC property or any IP that Warner Brothers owns. Dune, like, whatever you want to call it. Right? None of those properties can replicate, like, what a Harry Potter situation. So that's like another lightning in the bottle situation that they're just not going to be able to repeat. So just forget that. Yeah.

[00:10:50] What's wild about that is that they released that Harry Potter Quidditch game, which I didn't play. Nobody played that. It was like a 120 million dollar flop. Yeah. And I don't know. It's like, this is the thing that gets me, right? These executives, it's like, how are they not learning any lessons? Like, imagine going, like, putting on your CV that you have X amount of flops on these games that you were greenlighting. And then you want to point your fingers at everybody else. You know?

[00:11:21] I mean, come on. Where's the accountability there? Where's the accountability? This is the plight between... This is really like a good reflection of, like, the plight of the rich and everybody else. Yeah. And look, all these executives are multi-millionaires, right? Like, they're really high up people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, they're all mega, mega rich. And they just can't see... A lot of these guys, they just can't see the forest from the trees. And they're just... They're morons.

[00:11:50] They're morons who made a lot of money because they were in the right place at the right time at a nail manufacturing company. And then their buddy got a job at Warner Brothers because he likes movies. And then they hired him into the games division, right? And that's not how it is for everybody. But, like... Anyways. So, apparently, the new leadership over there is a lot better. So, who knows? Maybe in 10 years, we'll get another Batman game. Yeah. I mean, and that's... It's just...

[00:12:19] That's the other problem that I feel like is not being addressed on a high level in the AAA industry. Or at least with giants. And I'm thinking of Netflix games here. Like, they simply do not understand the timeline that it is required to produce anything that might be a mega hit. Anything that might be a 30 million unit sales type of game. And so, like... Yeah. GTA 6 in development for how many years? One million years. A $2 billion game?

[00:12:49] I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Like, Google. Look at all Google's ventures. Amazon got New World to work. So, they figured... Hopefully, lessons have been learned there, right? But it's like... I just feel like Netflix and Google, all these other companies that are trying to get a piece of the pie, they just seriously cannot figure it out. They cannot... They haven't understood the games industry.

[00:13:15] And then you have people like Warner Bros, who you would assume have figured it out, right? But just are trying to chase a trend that they simply do not know how to chase. Or they do not know how to replicate, right? And so, we see stuff like this in who pays the price? Everybody else. Everybody else is paying the price for it. We can't seem to figure out how to make video games on time and under budget. It just cannot be done. It can't be done.

[00:13:44] And so, I just... It can't be done. And the bigger... And it definitely can't be done when you try and take a template of somebody else's idea with a weak vision and try and reproduce success that that other thing did. Like, it just... It's clearly... Very, very clearly. Yeah. If it's not been made clear... I mean...

[00:14:13] If you're an executive in this industry, like... You have to at least understand the industry that you're in at a macro level. And so, I feel like we've reached a place where, like... If you're not... If that's not getting through your skull now... And I think we're still at the tail end of all these decisions that were made five, six, seven years ago. And are just becoming manifest.

[00:14:41] And none of this has anything to do with, by the way, with, like, Zaslav, who's the freaking... He's the movie guy. He's not in games. He's the guy who's, like, killing all the movie projects for tax write-offs. Like, the Looney Tunes movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll, like, never see the light of day because they can get a $20 million tax write-off. Yeah, dude. It's just... It's maddening frustrating. And especially somebody who works in this industry and is dealing with my own anxieties about being in this industry.

[00:15:08] Who loves video games and thinks, you know, what I work on happens to be super dope. It's just... Is it ever going to be good enough? It's like, can any of these companies... And then, in defense of some discussions that we've had... You know, I'm a defender of Game Pass, right?

[00:15:30] But there is a downside to Game Pass because if Microsoft tanks or the strategy's not working and then they own everything, right? And they've bought it all up. If one of those studios, like, happens to not make the cut or Game Pass tanks, all those studios, you know, like, they probably go down with the ship. Yeah. And so, it's like... You know, I don't know, dude.

[00:15:57] I don't really have a solution for it, but it is very depressing. Stay independent while you can. I mean... Yeah, it's super interesting because I was reading something, I can't remember from who exactly, about the Tango Gameworks closure from Microsoft. Yeah. Yeah. Hi-Fi Rush, you know, did really well, question mark.

[00:16:22] But what sounds like what kind of happened with Tango Gameworks is a bunch of high leadership left and they had junior leadership rise up and they said, okay, here's Hi-Fi Rush 2, start working on it. And then that new leadership failed to materialize, like, a concrete plan or... I can't remember what it was exactly. I don't want to blame that leadership because Xbox also was kind of just like...

[00:16:46] Sounds like Xbox wasn't super convinced by their Hi-Fi Rush 2 plan or something. There's some fuzziness there that I'm not getting the details super well on. But then, to me, that kind of seemed like, how did that not connect? That should have been a slam dunk. You have a good game, comes out, great reviews. It's a win for Xbox. It's a win for Game Pass. But for whatever reason, that follow-up, Hi-Fi Rush 2 didn't seem to work for Xbox.

[00:17:15] And so, Tango Gameworks gets shut down and then they get bought. Who's it? The PUBG people. Yeah. Crafton. Crafton buys them, right? And then it rehires everybody on the team and says, make Hi-Fi Rush 2 because Xbox allowed them to keep the IP or something. But wacky, wacky story. But a part of me is like, that is like the one golden parachute that we need in this industry that we're not seeing.

[00:17:43] And I just want to know, like, for Warner Bros., right? What exactly is the reason for not trying to sell Monolith before just shutting them down? Did they try to sell them? I read rumors that Xbox tried to sell Tango Gameworks and there were no buyers. But we don't actually know that. Those are rumors that I was reading.

[00:18:04] And a part of me is like, what is the advantage to all these mega conglomerate companies to axing your game instead of selling the studio making the game? I just, that's something I don't get. I mean, the other thing is like, it's a brain drain. Like, you just brain drained this incredible fountain of game developer expertise, veterancy, and knowledge.

[00:18:28] Of a studio that made two incredibly successful games that they were able to build and build and build on top of each other. Studios don't, you don't even get a chance to put, to be a rookie anymore. You can't put out like a mediocre first game and then get a second chance to go and like knock it out. You don't get that anymore. It's not like the, it's not like a Mass Effect 2 situation anymore. It's like you get one shot and you're fired if it's not the biggest game of the year.

[00:18:58] Yeah. Yeah. Concord is a great example of that. And then. Which is, which is maybe Jake, you brought this up the other day to support your hypothesis that the Asian Euro Asian studios, maybe that's the key to their strategy is that they, they're holding on to talent for longer. Yeah.

[00:19:21] And so there's like this longer horizon of these teams that just are getting in the grease in the groove on being able to make the stuff that they know how to make faster for lower budgets at a higher level of quality because they have the veterans who are not getting laid off and tossed between studios every like year and a half. Yeah.

[00:19:43] And think if you're on the model F team now, you release shadow of war and now you have an, a seven, eight year hole in your resume where you'd never shipped anything because you just got fricking manhandled so bad. We were going to release wonder woman. That's what I've been working on the past, you know, four years. I've been working on four different versions of wonder woman. It's got to count for something. And I'm sure they're not.

[00:20:10] Well, I'm sorry to start off this episode with a bummer, but, um, on a brighter note, I've been playing, I've been surprised. I had a little, uh, surprise game hit me. I was, I'm always looking for games to play with my son, like local split screen co-op games on Xbox. That's where he likes to play. And we, every once in a while we'll try something new and it won't hit, but we stumbled upon a game from raw fury kingdom to crowns.

[00:20:40] Ooh, nice. Have you heard of this one? I played a bit of this. Um, I don't, when I played it, I don't think co-op was available. So you're playing co-op though. Split screen co-op. Yeah. So this is like baby's first city builder. Yeah. And it's actually, it's really good and it's really addicting and it is like a shockingly simply, simply designed like little side scroll. You can only, it's a side scrolling.

[00:21:09] You can go left to right and you have coins and like, that's kind of, yeah. And you basically build your little city and, and you do like many kind of tower defense and then you jump between islands. And that's kind of like the whole, just the game. Uh, but as you get deeper, like you realize like, oh, there's actually like some stuff here that you don't realize is there. And as you kind of build up, you realize that like, it's, it's got a lot more depth than you think it does.

[00:21:38] And because the mechanics are so simple, it's really easy to play with my kid and there's multiple difficulty levels. So we can kind of just play the game and like chill out. He hits his like two buttons and runs around and it's like perfect. So that's been a nice surprise. That's a game pass, um, game pass. This is a game that has like a million DLC, if I remember correctly, or like a million iterations. That's the other cool thing. It's got like campaigns in it, like multiple campaigns.

[00:22:06] And then they have like different types of worlds. So I think they just released like a Greek mythology version. And then there's like a Viking version and then there's like other stuff. So yeah, I'm, I'm excited to like continue down the rabbit hole. Um, this is like complete surprise. This was not on my radar whatsoever. I had no idea this game even existed. I just went on game pass like randomly, um, like Monday. Yeah.

[00:22:34] And just like, Oh, let's try this. And yeah, it's dope, man. Is for as many problems as Microsoft has game pass is not one of them, at least not for the consumer. I mean, the game pass pricing tiers. Yeah. They've gotten totally out of control. That needs, that was the last changes that were made there were, were bad. But in terms of, if you're looking for a giant library of games to try to find the next thing to scratch an itch, um, yeah, game pass is great.

[00:23:03] And it has a ton of indies on there. And I got to say, whoever is curating the indies for game pass is very good. And please may I work with you. Um, but would like that job with you that, I mean, it's great. It's so great to find wonderful things on there. Um, yeah. Yeah. No, I'm glad to give some praise to kingdom to crowns. It's on game pass, uh, baby's first simulator or city builder.

[00:23:32] Um, yeah. Other than that, I've just been playing a whole bunch of, uh, kingdom come deliverance to, um, so, so have I, and let me tell you ladies and gentlemen listening to the podcast. Every time I play this game, I get more and more just enamored with what is in it.

[00:23:59] But I want to say, I also wish that this game did much better tutorialization. There are, there are so many freaking menus in this game. There's a lot of systems, a ton of systems. Um, and I'm still learning what they are and I'm about to do the wedding just for context. Um, yeah, but I've done a bunch of side quests. Um, I, I like them.

[00:24:25] I mean, I think some people maybe don't love kind of the, I could see people not loving the dialogue or how characters are. Sometimes they might seem one dimensional, whatever. I'm just enjoying the heck out of it. I love that world. I love that like bohemian, you know, era, the place that you're walking around in. The different characters you see, I'm finally getting a grip on combat. So I'm not afraid when I go into combat, I'm not using a savior snaps before every single

[00:24:55] combat encounter. Um, but also this is a mild spoiler. I got the dog and that makes combat infinitely easier. That's a whole new set of mechanics. Yeah. That's a giant, I'm like, Oh my gosh. You know, I haven't even used like half the mechanics of the dog. I haven't. I'm like the, like 34 hours in or something. The tutorial screen pops up when you unlock the dog and I was reading through it and I was like, this is too much information.

[00:25:25] This needs to be taught to me in a better way. I don't want to read, you know, two or three pages on what the dog can do. But I, you know, I could see, I could see on the tutorialization. I think I agree, but you also, you don't want it to be like a JRPG where they have like an hour long side quest where they're walking you through like the tiniest, tiniest minutia of how to do every mechanic. Yeah. But this is definitely one of those cases where I wish the tutorialization was different,

[00:25:52] but I could not give you the first pointer of how it is. And so, or like first suggestion to improve it. And so part of me is kind of like, maybe this is actually the best form of tutorialization that could have given for the game. So I'm a little, I'll give some wiggle room there. But if you're playing, if you're thinking about playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 and you're afraid that everybody's going to just absolutely throttle you, one, they are. And I think that's kind of a fact of life. Yes. But two, unlock the dog as fast as possible.

[00:26:19] I found that I've gotten really good at combat when my enemy doesn't have a shield, but when they have a shield, it gets way harder unless you got the dog. I'll give you one hint. Go chat with the combat master in the nomad camp. Yeah. That's going to open up some stuff for you. Shields are tough, man. So I've been playing a bunch of that and then I have been playing a lot of Returnal, which

[00:26:48] again, it took me a while, but I'm really sucked into right now. I'm getting into it. Nice. Returnal. Yeah. Yeah. It's a good game. I suck at that game. It's very hard. It's very hard, but I feel like I'm getting towards the flow state. Okay. But I also, something happened. You're a cracked gamer, basically? Absolutely not. Not even close. God gamer? No.

[00:27:17] What I realized in Returnal is that you can just run past a ton of enemies. You don't have to fight everyone. Oh. It's the same. I definitely would fight everyone. And I kind of reached a few rooms where I was like, wait a second. The door on the other side is open. If I can just dodge my way through this room, then my health will be higher than it would be if I were to try to fight everybody. So, yeah. Those ones, I've been playing a bunch of Steam Next Fest.

[00:27:48] I've streamed, I don't know, a bunch of games. 15, maybe not 20. Oh my gosh. You did a ton. Well, I've been giving myself like minute limits. So, I started with 30 and that's been shrinking slowly. There are a few demos that took up. I just could not put down though. Like I had to see all the way through. Let's see. I was good. What's the most anticipated coming out of the demos so far? Listen. Number one.

[00:28:17] My number one? That is tough. I want to cheat and give you three, but here's one. That's fine. Okay. Here's one. If you like vampire survivors, you must put on your wish list. Oh my gosh. Agri... How do you say this? It's some... It's some name. Agriels Fall?

[00:28:49] Freak. I'm embarrassed now. I have all this build up and I cannot even figure out how to say the name of this. Agriels Fall? What is it? Shoot. I'm so embarrassed. I'm looking... Please devs do not be listening to me right now as I'm trying to... I'm looking. I'm looking. This is so embarrassing. Agriels Fall? Something?

[00:29:19] My gosh. Well, I can't even find it in my Steam library. That's how. Oh, it'll be on my wish list. Sorry, everybody. In real time, you're watching my brain break. Some game in the next test. Oh, it's Asgard's Fall. I should have known that. Asgard's Fall. That sounds right. Asgard's Fall Viking Survivors. So, if you are a fan of Vampire Survivors, this one is a must. You must be paying attention to this.

[00:29:44] I also played the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles tactical takedown from Strange Scaffold. What? It is shaping up to be very good. And so, it's a grid-based tactics game. But essentially, you are progressing from one starting location to the end of a level. So, the map is constantly changing as you are working your way through it. Oh, nice, bro. Which is a great mechanic.

[00:30:13] Dude, I gotta try this. I highly recommend trying that one. Let's see. And then the last one I'll shout out. Because I'm going to do a write-up of this, too. So, if people are interested in what I'm going to do a write-up of probably my 10 favorite demos. So, another one I want to shout out is Hypogea. This was actually suggested by Slugcat Stew, a Discord friend and listener of the podcast. It's just like a PS2 graphics platformer. But it's crazy fun.

[00:30:43] It's pole vaulting is how you get around. And then you're like pole vault has a hook at the very end. So, you can grapple on to a bunch of different types of ledges to get around. So, I thought that one was pretty creative. Yeah. Asgard's Fall, though, is probably my number one right now. I was a huge fan of that. It feels very Vampire Survivors. But there's just a little more control over what your character can do in a combat scenario.

[00:31:14] Which is great. I think it's a great iteration. So, highly recommend everybody look into that. Yeah. I love that you're deep in the Steamneck Fez. I'm glad that we finally got you to get in there. Because I know you've been putting that off for years. Yeah. And I'd always mention that. Like, oh, I tried out these demos. So, I'm glad you finally got in there. There's a bunch of good ones. Oh, wait. Cameron, you suggested, I think for me, The King is Watching. Right? Yeah. Yeah.

[00:31:44] I think. Yeah. I really only played First Berserker's Kazan, Breathedge 2, and something else. Yeah. Where is it? I can't remember. I've only had time to play a few of them. But I will say on First Berserker Kazan, combat is really good. Yes.

[00:32:14] Like, excellent. Like, it's very, very, very good. I don't know if the story stuff's going to pan out. But the combat is excellent. I don't know if it's going to be like Liza P level. I feel like Liza P kind of really nailed, like, being like a FromSoft clone. I don't. This game is not. I don't think it's going to quite reach that. But the combat is very, very good. I got a little addicted to the combat. They introduced something new, like a different.

[00:32:41] So they have a counterattack. So when an enemy does, there's certain. So there's certain moves you can only dodge. Certain moves you can parry. And then certain moves where you can only counterattack. Oh, interesting. And it has, like, a very specific timing. And so it adds just, like, one extra layer of flavor. And then everything feels, like, very. Anyway. Very good. Feels very good. And that's out in a month, I think. That's out at the end of March, if I'm not mistaken. So that's very cool.

[00:33:12] Just a comment on KCD2 side quests, by the way. I freaking love the side quests. In fact, I don't think. There's very few, if any, that have felt like throw away, go fetch the thing and come back. They all really go super deep and do fun, like, interesting things. Yeah, they continue.

[00:33:36] That's the thing is, I think when you expect the side quests to stop, there's an option to keep going. Yes. And seeing some of those all the way through has been really good. But, yeah. And the game is, like, as you said, is not afraid to punish you if you do a side quest and you cannot. The game will not let you brute force your way.

[00:34:01] It will, like, it'll let you brute force it, but it's going to be, like, the hardest possible outcome in some situations. So the game will say to you, like, you suck and you can't solve this problem. You can try and brute force it if you want, but, like, good luck. Yeah. And I did one of those quests and I've reached, like, an ending point of it. And I literally only have one option that I can't complete. And the game was, like, this is the only option you have left. And I'm, like, well, I can't. I can't do it. Good luck. Yeah, the game did that.

[00:34:31] I have to rob someone, essentially. Yeah. That's the only way I can finish the quest. That's happened to me a bunch where I get to the end of a side quest and it's, like, well, you couldn't talk them out of it. So you're going to have to kill them? You're going to have to kill them? Or rob them? Exactly. Do something that is way above what your skills allow you to do. So I have had to kill people. I've had to assassinate people and hide their bodies a few more times than I would have liked to.

[00:34:59] You got to level up that speech. Yeah. And buy some nice clothes so you can. It's funny because my highest, like, persuasion-related stat is presence. But I look awful and I'm filthy all the time. Yeah. You got to go spend the money on those nice digs. You'll inspire people. Yeah. Well, after that long intro... I just blew up my microphone there. Long intro.

[00:35:28] We'll get into our actual episode topic, which is... Abiotic Factor. Abiotic Factor. This is a survival crafting game. It's been on Steam since November of last year in early access and comes out later this year in 1.0, but already has a huge amount of content. Jake, how are we going to break this one down?

[00:35:53] We will be taking Abiotic Factor through the three categories that we use when we talk about individual games for episodes. So the first one here will be narrative. We'll be talking about the story, the storytelling, kind of what's going on and how it gets you invested in the characters and what it is that you're doing. Secondly, we'll be talking about just the game design, kind of how the game functions. So this is a co-op survival crafting game.

[00:36:21] Cameron and I in our friend group, we always kind of gravitate towards these. But we'll be talking about just how it works, how you do the crafting, how you progress. This game is billed as a narrative-focused survival crafting game. So we'll be talking about how the narrative works with crafting and vice versa quite a lot. And then finally, we'll talk about this and impact on the industry. So this is an interesting one because this game is still in early access.

[00:36:48] But we're getting towards, I feel like, the end of early access. They just released a massive update. It is, they're pushing for a release in 2025. And so we'll be talking about the state kind of of early access, a topic that we touch on quite frequently. But we'll be talking about it in the context of abiotic factor. Just a quick side note before we start, Stardew Valley, yet another patch released today. So we will never be seeing a haunted chocolate tier.

[00:37:18] And this wasn't like performance or bug fixing? Was this adding content? No, no, this is bug fixing. Okay, I was going to say, please don't add it in anything else. If I ever have as much passion about one thing in my life and one single creative pursuit as Eric Barone, I will. That'll, I never will. Nor should he. It's time to move on, Eric. I don't know.

[00:37:44] If you have that same level of passion, I think you deserve the 40 plus million sales. Dude, if one thing continues to give you that level of satisfaction, that is an incredible life skill. I mean, that is just phenomenal. Anyway, sorry. Abiotic factor. Yeah. So survival crafting game. This is legitimately Half-Life turned into a survival crafting game.

[00:38:12] Have you ever played Half-Life, Jake? I have Half-Life 1 and 2 downloaded right now on my PC. So the story of Half-Life is essentially scientists working in a company who does crazy experiments and research and development accidentally or purposefully open a portal to another dimension and let aliens in. And then thus begins like an alien invasion.

[00:38:43] And that's essentially the exact same thing that's happening here. You are a scientist who works in this facility. You end up, you go to this facility, you get taken to this facility and like the intro, you get like driven in and then you kind of go in and realize like, okay, there's crap going down. Now you need to escape from this facility.

[00:39:02] And the only way you can do so is by coming up with ingenious inventions to incrementally work your way out of certain specific situations so that you can get out and you can discover the mystery of what's happening. And that's kind of the baseline. And that's pretty much it. There's like really brief pieces of audio dialogue, like clips that you can listen to.

[00:39:27] But I have to imagine 90% of people, including myself, like don't super pay attention to the audio logs that you can run across. There's a couple of NPCs that you can talk to, but there's not a massive amount of narrative depth here. Yeah, it's interesting because like I said, they very much push sort of the narrative thing here. And I think for like this genre of game, it does have a really good narrative premise. And I think Cameron has summarized it pretty dang well.

[00:39:56] I think a bunch of the best storytelling, which is just kind of true of these survival multiplayer crafting games, is when you're with your buddies and you do something and somebody accidentally, you know, you know, I don't know, aggro some giant enemy that no one is prepared for. And you're just running around shooting peas at this thing, trying to kill it. But also what I will say I do like about this game is just there's a lot of mystery here.

[00:40:25] I feel like I don't know. I know a lot of these games, they aim for like, oh, if you look in the nooks and crannies and you really discover and explore this world, there will be really cool, neat surprises for you. And I just feel like in this game, it feels better to find a shortcut or like just a random portal that's going to take you somewhere. And it might be related to like your main goal or it might be a side quest.

[00:40:55] I just feel like the exploration and discovering in this game is a lot more fun. And so in a recent play session, Cameron and I and the friends we were playing with, we took this portal, the minor spoilers, I guess. And we were suddenly on this train and we had to do all these different combat and puzzle scenarios on this train. And there was some explanation for it. Maybe that kind of went over and went over my head, at least for sure. But it was like, oh, cool.

[00:41:21] We went on this little side tangent here and we ended up finding resources. And this is the other thing, too, is like a lot of these things just feel worthwhile. Something that bugs the crap out of me with games like this is like you go somewhere and then you open a chest and the chest is like three tomatoes. And you're like, you're like, if I try to take these back home, there's nothing worse. There's nothing. Yeah. You feel like the game wasted your time.

[00:41:49] I'm like, I'm going to take these back to camp and my tomatoes are going to rot by the time I can actually store them or cook them or whatever. It is right. This game. And the other thing that I think helps quite a lot is that this game is super silly in the right ways. Very silly. The NPC voice acting is way over the top. And what cracks me up playing this game is you're a bunch of scientists and you're harvesting materials from like, you know, office stuff from like file cabinets and desks and computers. Desk chairs.

[00:42:19] Yeah, desk chairs. And you're just making the jankiest armor like this. I feel like you put engineers to work and you're like, hey, make a suit of armor out of a file cabinet. You don't look cool. You look goofy. You don't look cool at all. It's all for like, I don't know, man. Your main character is like starting off. It's like a short sleeve like shirt with a tie. And like a goofy haircut. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:42:46] So I think that kind of just, yeah, the goofiness, the silliness in it makes it so much more refreshing than just kind of doing a high fantasy version of this game. But it's funny because like we were playing and Cameron was like, dude, we got to get a bunch of metal. We're low on metal scraps. And so Cameron's like, I know a place where we can go. And it's just an open office area with a dozen file cabinets. It's like a cubicle room. It's like a cubicle room.

[00:43:11] And so you're just smashing all the office objects to get the materials that you need for whatever you're crafting. So it's super refreshing. But yeah, is the narrative super deep? No, it's some sort of scientific conspiracy. You've got portals. You've got aliens. And I think it's all serviceable. But I think the setting does make it really fun. Yeah.

[00:43:32] I think the narrative here is like there's really nothing there other than, like I mentioned, there's these audio clips and there's NPCs that will say like one or two lines to you to kind of continue the story forward. But that's kind of all you need. And then you kind of derive from the environmental storytelling. This game does a really good job of that.

[00:43:54] But like Jake mentioned, like earlier in the game, this is like slight spoilery, but you'll find one of these portals and you'll go into it and you're literally on like an alien world. And you're kind of exploring this alien world. And then there's another one. I won't spoil this because if you end up playing this, you want this to be a surprise. But there's another place you go to and some crazy stuff happens. And you're like, what the heck is this thing? And so it has these like, holy crap, this thing happened moments.

[00:44:23] And because you're in this just giant, like science corporate headquarters or base or whatever you want to call it. You don't have the problem that you have in a lot of and this is getting a bit to the design conversation. You don't have the problem that a lot of survival games have where you have giant open world nature syndrome where like Valheim is this, right?

[00:44:49] Valheim is an amazing game, but the world is way too freaking big, right? And sometimes like you like that fantasy of being like in the forest and all that stuff. But when you're running from your base to a base that takes you like 15 minutes of in-game time to walk to, it starts to feel like a bit of a drag. And so this game avoids that problem altogether by you're just in this base.

[00:45:15] And so you learn like the layout and the ins and outs of this area. And then when you unlock new areas, it feels super impactful because you get this brand new section of the office. Yeah. Quote unquote. And so, yeah, it just did a really good job with that and totally nails like the Half-Life vibe, which is this its own vibe, you know, all on its own. The goofiness, the wackiness all kind of comes through.

[00:45:44] And yeah, it's just like a really unique offering. I think the closest thing to it is probably Grounded. Yeah. I think Grounded is a little, it's just maybe like, and we'll talk about this when we talk about the design. I think this game is really well executed. Grounded is probably like for me, and I think Jake, you agree with this, probably the best executed of these types of games in my opinion. But this game does a really good job of kind of having its own identity and doing that. Yeah, I totally agree.

[00:46:12] And I am moving kind of into game design with the next thought that I have. So if you've got anything else on there. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Just to kind of talk about how exploration feels good and kind of what Cameron's talking about when you have like, you know, big forested world syndrome or whatever it is. And, you know, I feel like in a lot of not just this genre of game, but a lot of high fantasy games, it's like, well, we're going to spend the starting time in the grasslands and then forests. And then we're going to go to a desert. Then we're going to go to a snowy place. And then we're going to go to a lava field, you know.

[00:46:42] Yeah, the biome. The biomes start to feel a little repetitive. And it's just refreshing to be in this underground base office bunker thing. And there's like one room, for example, where there's a giant like radioactive spill. And I think, sorry, mild spoilers, but it's fairly early on, I feel like. And what I like about being indoors pretty much the whole time in this game is that it allows just for some classic level design to be in there.

[00:47:11] You want to get to this resource and you need to get through this specific level, if you will, or this like dungeon or base that feels, I don't know. I don't know. It feels really good. It feels this. I think this is this game has a really good use of just space. And it just can borrow way more tricks out of the bag of level design, like classic level design than a lot of survival crafting games can. And honestly, there's plenty of combat in this game.

[00:47:39] And because you're in corridors and alleys and you're hiding behind desks, I mean, combat feels a little more tactical. Feels like, OK, where should I stand? Where should we be? Instead of just like, OK, everybody mob this one guy in the corner of the room and stun lock him, you know? Although that does happen. That definitely does happen. I feel like there's just like a little bit more to it because of how you're walking through things. So I really like that about the game.

[00:48:09] It feels good to do that. Yeah.

[00:48:42] It feels like we are trying to make you feel like how these old games used to feel. Yeah. Right. And somehow they pull it off because of like that goofy nature of it. You're shooting your shotgun and your guys like a goofball and it takes you like forever to reload and you're trying to like line up the next shot. And you're watching your buddies like bat some alien with a giant like hammer made out of a pipe that they made. Yeah.

[00:49:12] And yeah. So like from that perspective, that stuff all works. I think the highlight here from a design perspective is probably the crafting system. I think this is probably one of the better crafting systems in these games that I've experienced. It's a pretty fun thing where like you get a blueprint and then you kind of have to match the pieces to like unlock the recipe or whatever. So you pick up a new item.

[00:49:39] It will say, oh, you can make things with this new thing that you found. And so then suddenly in your in your in the menu, you'll see all these new blueprints. And then you have to go in and kind of like solve the puzzle of how they go. And they're not hard puzzles. It takes you like three seconds to do it. Right. But it's just like a little added thing that makes you kind of feel more like, oh, I'm it. It puts you more into the fantasy of like, oh, I'm the scientist, like coming up with innovative, wacky solutions.

[00:50:09] So these problems that I have. Yeah, definitely. It makes you feel like you're a smart engineer in there, kind of taking whatever resources you have and then creating something useful out of a bunch of junk, to be honest. I like the majority of the crafting items you get in this game would be things that you immediately discard. If you got you were thrown away, like paper scrap. Like I remember I got excited because I found paper scrap or like, yeah, just stuff like that. I agree.

[00:50:37] I think it's a good thing to add that in there. You get a blueprint and basically it gives you like a list of items that are categorized by material type. And the blueprint is like you need three different total different types of items. And they each need to be like these categories of materials. And so you drag what you have from your inventory that's displayed and you match it to its material type and you see if that item will work for whatever it is you're trying to make.

[00:51:32] So I don't know. And at that point, as you continue, this game is does not it feels like it doesn't punish you nearly like it feels like the level of resources that you need is not anywhere close to the craziness that I've seen in like a lot of these other games. Like where you just need some incredible amount of resource and like production lines to create like the next set of stuff.

[00:52:01] Continue. Yeah, no, I'm glad that you said that because so, for example, with what I said about like going to get metal scraps, Cameron is immediately able to think of a place where we could go and get that resource that we needed. Sometimes you need rare items, but typically those items aren't like for crafting items or like materials, I should say. Some of these rare materials are for like story related objectives almost exclusively.

[00:52:29] And so it's like, yeah, and the game has a great marker system. So it's kind of just like, OK, you're ready to move on this story quest, you know, this quest step here. Great. In order to get the rare material, which is what you're looking for in the chest, you're just going to have to go over here and do these things here. So I really like that as well, too. It just feels you're right. I think the grind is definitely streamlined.

[00:52:52] And when you're low on a resource that you need, it typically doesn't feel like, oh, crap, we're going to spend the next 40 minutes, you know, getting X amount of things. And I think your observation about the production line is spot on as well, too.

[00:53:06] A lot of these games have come up with production line types scenarios for you to get like a hundred or hundreds of a specific resource in order to smelt it down into a dozen of that resource in order to craft one tiny thing. Like that number funnel, if you will, with grinding doesn't really feel present here. Yeah, and I really like that about it. Yeah, that is probably my biggest criticism of some of these survival crafting games.

[00:53:36] The last one that we really put a lot of time into was what's the Pokemon ripoff? Oh, Pal World. Pal World. Yeah, Pal World, like super fun in the beginning, but then really quickly devolves into that game that a lot of these survival game trap fall into.

[00:53:53] I think it's a trap where you've got, oh, you need 700 of copper to craft with six other things to produce one of this other thing to make one piece of this armor set. And then there's six of you playing and you all need that armor set or else you're not going to be able to fight the next boss. And so your next 20 hours of game time is literally resource gathering. Yeah.

[00:54:21] And to me, like that's just not very fun. Like it's not a fun part. Like it is up to a point. And I think it's obviously as a developer, it's got to be a really hard line to find how much do we pad the content of the game? So these crazy players of our game, which they're out there, there's thousands of them, millions of them who can just grind through content like nobody's business. Right. And then there's people like us.

[00:54:48] It's almost like you need a difficulty slider where it's like for a lot of these games where it's like, hey, I'm a dad and I play this game like two hours or three hours a week. Yeah. Can I drop the difficulty slider? So it costs me like 30% of the resource grind. I love this because this is an innovative way to think about like an accessibility slider. Like what max grind capacity or like resource cost.

[00:55:16] You know, the resource cost percentage meter, right? Can I sit that at 25% instead of at 100? And if I'm a content creator and I'm streaming 12 hours a day and I have nothing to do, can I move that up to 300%? You know? Absolutely. Pad out the content. I need totally. And that's a big complaint of a lot of these like streamers, right? Is they just burn through content and that's why they play these evergreen games, right? And that's why those evergreen games are so popular.

[00:55:45] But luckily this game doesn't have that. I think that resource grind is very minimal so far. Maybe we haven't. Maybe there's some cliff that we haven't reached, Jake. I don't know. Always possible. And this game's an early access, mind you. So we're kind of talking about it early. It does have a lot of content. It's very close to 1.0. They just did a recent update. That is the final update before they go into version one. Yeah. So. Yeah. I'm trying to think about other things with game design. If there's anything negative.

[00:56:14] I personally don't mind this. But I am sure that there are plenty of people who might. Combat feels pretty old school here. It's very old school. Yeah. So if you're looking for something robust, if you're looking for parrying, if you're looking for like dodge rolls and stuff, no, this is kind of just hold up a shield, get close to the guy while he's reloading and smack him with a pipe several times, you know, or if you've

[00:56:39] unlocked the ability to use projectile weapons, you make your, you know, you're shooting from afar. It's going to feel pretty old school. I don't mind it because I feel like there's a specific like skill set that kind of comes with that. It's like, okay, just be smart about it. And then I feel like combat is also mitigated by, um, you can craft healing items, but, uh,

[00:57:07] your body will just slowly heal over time as well too. So it's not like crap. We came out of this dungeon. I've got two broken arms. I've got one snap femur and my head is bleeding. I need to get back to base within 10 minutes or I'm dead. And then I'm going to have to do a corpse run for all my gear. You can walk out of here, out of combat scenarios here, pretty dang bruised up, but I feel like it's like, Hey, you can actually just keep going in the game too. It's not going to be immensely punishing in that way either.

[00:57:38] Yeah. Combats nothing right. I'm about, but it does. Again, it's got that janky old school feel that doesn't make you like mad about it. It's just like, Oh yeah, this is like a thing. And it's, we're going to go bat some guys heads in with some pipes and shoot our homemade shotgun with nail pellets. And what I understand about it is like, that does evolve, right? Like all these games too. So you'll eventually get to the point where I'm sure we'll have like anti-gravity guns

[00:58:07] and crazy crap and rocket lungers. And, um, and there are some crazy twists and some crazy things that happen. And we've discovered just a few of those. Uh, we're not like crazy, crazy far into this game, but far enough. We've actually, we put several hours in. I mean, we've had several pretty significant progress and did some very, yeah, a hundred percent. Um, but these games like never end.

[00:58:32] So, and, and I'm sure we're very close to the point where we'll have some massive resource cliff that we're going to have to jump off and create epic pipelines to solve. But anyway, uh, let's move on to impact on the industry. Jake, a biotic factor. Um, again, this is an early access game. This is on steam only. I think it is coming to consoles with one auto with cross play. Yeah.

[00:58:59] Um, I think this game is going to do really well. I honestly, when it hits one dot O, I do think it's going to like, I think it's going to hit the mainstream a little bit and it's not going to be like a power world level thing, but I think it's going to do well. I think it has really, really super positive reviews on steam. It has a great, well-planned early access runaway with very communicative developers. They've released everything on time.

[00:59:27] They're getting cross play at launch on consoles with PC. It's got the half-life vibes, which people are itching for, especially with like the heightened tension around a possible half-life three reveal. I think the timing is in it for this one. Yeah, I would say, um, this is one of those games where I think that, you know, to kind of contrast how we started the conversation, it really feels like the devs here had to have

[00:59:52] a lot of experience making a game like this or just shipping any game because, um, and again, this is another game that where it's like early access can really make you, it can really make a wonderful, wonderful experience. It can really make things much smoother in terms of development and release. So yeah, I saw that this game on steam has 20,000 reviews and it's overwhelmingly positive. Yes. That's crazy. That is crazy.

[01:00:22] That is crazy. And you know, the fact that that's why, and Jake, that's why I bought it. Like, honestly, I was literally on steam. It got recommended. I never heard anything about it, but I was like, Oh, I like survival crafting. And this has cool vibes. And then the reviews were like, so shockingly good. I was like, Oh, like, yeah, let's. And it was like 15 bucks or something or 20 bucks. Yeah. I, let's see. I think it retails at 25, but it's on sale pretty regularly. And so I think I picked it up for under 20 bucks.

[01:00:51] Um, my assumption would be with 1.0 launch that this game is probably going to be 40. I think they might, or maybe 30. I think it'll go up, especially if you're doing console prices tend to be five or 10 bucks higher to mitigate. Oh yeah. I could see 30 for sure. We'll see. Maybe even 40. I think you're right. I wouldn't be surprised if you saw a $40 price tag on PlayStation or Xbox for this. Just, just because of the cut that they are taking. That makes sense, especially with the cut.

[01:01:19] Um, I would, I would say though that like Cameron and I, we, we, and we've reviewed a fair amount of early access games. And this is one of those games where it seems like they've figured out how to do early access, um, to really set expectations to the players of what early access means. They've hit their content updates. Like you said, on time, um, they've delivered there and they've gathered a lot of loyalty and a lot of goodwill with the community.

[01:01:49] To the point that word of mouth and reviews are extremely strong. And that's, what's going to carry this game into massive success with 1.0. And I feel like this is an early access dream, right? You start with a small dedicated fan base. And then that fan base slowly grows with each content update and release. And then word of mouth is your major marketing tool. And I don't know, I'm like looking at this game and I'm going down the list and it's checking all the boxes. I think it's really nailed that strategy.

[01:02:19] And so for impact on the industry, you know, I just want the early access model to function like it is for abiotic factor for other games. What's wild to me is that it doesn't for some people. So like Hyperlite Breaker, which is a heart machines, like Hyperlite Drifter co-op multi, you know, co-op follow-up. Yeah. It did not really work for them.

[01:02:45] I don't know if people had the right expectations of what that game was for early access. It also happened to launch not too long after the Hades 2 early access, which the Hades, I mean, Hades 1 early access, I feel like did really well. It's another game that used that model successfully. But Hades 2 early access, just folks, those expectations for how well that game is and how

[01:03:14] good, how polished it is right now in early access are just, it's an outlier. You can't really depend on something like that. But I don't know. They're making it work for them here at Abiotic Factor, which is very pleasing to see. Yeah. I think this game also went, had some help. It went viral on TikTok. I think if I, if I heard correctly, I didn't see it that way.

[01:03:39] I just saw it on Steam pop up and, but yeah, it clearly had some kind of boost because you don't, you don't get those kinds of numbers without some kind of exposure. Yeah. I do. Abiotic Factor. It's coming. 1.0. Yeah. Excited. I'm having fun playing this with, with the homies out here. We'll continue to play that one. Um, yeah, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a big survival crafting fan.

[01:04:06] I just, I think, and this game is kind of right there in that wheelhouse. I think if I had any criticisms, I, I would say they, I think maybe they need to up the tension a teeny bit. Just a, just a slight amount. I think grounded really nailed this where you would hit these situations that felt like really intense and like challenging.

[01:04:34] And I think abiotic just needs like a tad more of that, not more grind, not more grind, but just like a little bit more like, Oh geez, there's some like crazy boss in here or something that's going to like mess me up. Yeah. And I need to like have this thing in order to defeat it and blah, blah, blah. I don't know. Something like that. That would be like, I think my only, just to make it just that slight teeny, teeny, tiny bit more exciting.

[01:04:59] Um, I do think some parts of the game get like slightly dull or can feel just a little bit dull when you're not making new discoveries, which luckily the game gives you a pretty constant clip. But I think that would be my final word. Otherwise solid. Yeah, I agree. I feel like this game shines best when you kind of stop and smell the roses on your way to a main objective.

[01:05:23] Um, I think because it doesn't have this open world feel to it, um, you cannot go into it kind of like an open world. I really think, um, I know we always bring up grounded. Cameron and I will always go up to bat for grounded. So grounded is amazing. Grounded made their open world work because they had handcrafted dungeons and level design scattered throughout that world. Right.

[01:05:51] And so no dungeons felt and giant spiders and giant terrifying spiders. Right. Um, and I feel like abiotic factor also works well. It doesn't have the open world. It does feel handcrafted because it is. And having those level design, uh, like influence in how the world is constructed, I think is really, really good for pacing and for gameplay. And so what I would like to see for impact on the industry is more survival crafting games to go the way of

[01:06:19] abiotic factor and go the way of grounded, really curate that experience as much as you want it to be open and multiplayer. And, you know, a crafting grind, having those curated experiences within the game. That's more than just like a boss set piece, you know, um, I think really elevate these games. Like commit to your vision, commit to your vision. Like if it's a goofy science scientists thing, like I just love how far they go with that.

[01:06:49] They just don't hesitate and grounded. The same thing is like, you're literally making hammers out of pieces of mints from the ground, right? That someone dropped like from a gum canister. And, uh, you find fire candy for like your fire weapons and you're making armor out of like leaves and raw and like this, they just go for it, right? It doesn't feel too polished or too like glean or like try and be sexy.

[01:07:15] It just like goes for what it is, which is just awesome. I agree. Really excited for 1.0 launch. Um, do we have a date for that? Do you know? I think they just announced it in the, I want to say the ID at Xbox. Oh, really? I think so. Cause they announced cross play and that it was coming to, let's see.

[01:07:44] A matter of fact, it's coming to PlayStation and Xbox. Do we have a release date? I swear we do, but I can't find it. Wait, reset arrow. I can't find it right off the internet, but I think it does have a, it's, it's later this year, but I think either late spring or summer. Yeah. And I honestly, I feel confident in that because of what they've been doing, you know? Yeah.

[01:08:14] Yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode of the pre-order bonus podcast talking abiotic factor. If you like survival crafting games, go check this out on steam or wait for the 1.0 and you'll have PlayStation, Xbox, cross play, all that fun stuff. Um, if you like the show, if you like this episode, leave a review on your podcast platform of choice helps people find the show and gets us more exposure for people to, to come in and find us and listen to us.

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