Xbox Developer Direct 2024 showed off a collection of great looking games including Bethesda and Machine Games' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Avowed, Visions of Mana, and Ara History Untold. Ubisoft director says gamers will et more comfortable not owning games with subscription services like Game Pass and Ubisoft+ finding success in the market.

Nvidia will release new GPUs this month including the RTX 4070 Super, RTX 4070 Ti Super, and RTX 4080. Samsung TVs are getting a new controller for the Samsung Gaming Hub. Unlike existing compatible controllers, the new Samsung controllers are able to control the power and volume of the TV. HBO has hired Kaitlyn Dever to be Abby in the upcoming The Last of Us season 2. Ubisoft has signed up for Nvidia's AI-generated video character tool called ACE (Nvidia Avatar Cloud Engine).

Happy 2024! It's our first episode of the year and coincidentally is releasing exactly 11 years since our first episode launched. This week we'll be discussing MSI's new Steam Deck competitor called The Claw - it should give us a good look at mobile PC gaming on the Intel side of things. Switch 2 speculations are always floating around, but this time some former Nintendo employees offer up their insight into what the next Nintendo console may look like. Xbox released a fridge not that long ago and now they're back at it with an Xbox toaster available from Walmart (in select regions). Then for the Query Corner Question: How bad should a bug be to warrant a delay?

The sequel to 2019's Gears 5 could soon be revealed after an alleged tease by one of the level designers potentially working on the project. Is Gears of War 6 coming in 2024? E3, the annual "Christmas for gamers" has officially be cancelled indefinitely. The show has recently struggled to get back on its feet after being cancelled due to COVID in 2020, returning in 2021 as a digital-only event, and then once again being cancelled for 2022. The event was supposed to return to the LA convention center with a revitalized showcase, but sadly it seems the event won't be coming back for the foreseeable future. Starfield's recent reviews on Steam have fallen to a "Mostly Negative" rating. Bethesda has promised a series of updates to the game on a regular basis in 2024, including a story expansion...but will it be enough to revitalize this struggling space game? The teaser for Monster Hunter Wilds was shown off at the Game Awards 2023, showcasing what appears to be a first for the series - an open world. Gaming in Review 2023: This year was absolutely loaded with game releases both big and small. How did this year's absolutely stacked collection land in the hearts of gamers.

Starfield's design lead took to Twitter/X to talk about his thoughts on all the negative feedback that Starfield is getting. He wrote a long thread that covered several points including: a reminder that games are developed by hard working people, he doesn't criticize games anymore due to his position at Bethesda, and that games are made in a particular way for a reason (ie technical limitations) that most of us won't understand unless that behind-the-scenes information is revealed and verified. The Last of Us Online has been cancelled due to Naughty Dog's concerns over supporting it long term. Due to the amount of resources that it takes to run a games as a service title, Naughty Dog was concerned it would affect their future single player games. Insomniac has sadly been hacked and affected by ransomware. An online auction has begun for the data on top of a ransom demand, with the data including information on their new game - Wolverine, as well as employee personal data.

The Game Awards 2023 just wrapped up so let's talk about it! We discussed a collection of the awards including: Best Ongoing Game, Best Multiplayer Game, Game of the Year, and more. We also covered some of our favorite reveals including Light No Fire; a new game from the creators of No Man's Sky about a large-scale procedural planet that you can build on and explore with your friends, Rise of the Ronin; an open-world samurai game, Skull & Bones (again), and much more! This past week we also got the first official trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI and we discuss our impressions at this first and early look at the mega popular franchise's latest entry, coming in 2025.

Despite some comments by Xbox CFO Tim Stuart about the hope that Game Pass would end up on all screens, including those of the PlayStation and Nintendo - Phil Spencer has clarified, or maybe doubled back a bit by stating that there are currently no plans to get Game Pass onto PlayStation and Nintendo. According to some Christmas lists, the demand for physical games have dropped below subscriptions and virtual currency. This comes as little surprise, considering the value that game subscriptions like Game Pass bring to the table. Coupled with the popularity of games like Fortnite that use virtual currency to purchase in-game items. After having members of the public disrupt both The Game Awards 2022 and Summer Game Fest 2023, Geoff Keighly has confirmed that the security for The Game Awards 2023 has been enhanced. He did not elaborate much, understandably, as revealing security measures would open the door for them to be circumvented. Fingers crossed these security enhancements keep the show running smoothly this year.

Xbox sales in Europe have collapsed with a 52% drop from October last year, meanwhile PlayStation has seen an increase of 143% in the same time period. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic Remake fell on hard times alongside the difficulties found at its original developer Aspyr. Embracer Group moved the development following these problems over to Saber Interactive - the developers of the recently delayed Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2. Complete silence on the project's progression sparked worry that the game was doomed to be cancelled but according to Boomberg reporter Jason Shreier on X, the project is still being worked on in some capacity. Ad placements are no stranger to video games, as seen years ago in games like Crackdown and Rainbox Six: Vegas on the Xbox 360. Typically these ads have been limited to in-game advertising like billboards and banners that would fit within the world the game is portraying. More recently blatant banner ads have been found in games' main menus and console home screens, but have steered away from appearing in-game. For some Assassin's Creed Odyssey players, in-game banner ads started showing up within the game's map...but Ubisoft has since removed them claiming that it was a technical error all along.

This week Ryan, Tim and Matt discussed The Game Awards 2023 Nominees for Game of the Year, Best Action Game, Best Audio Design, and much more!

Rockstar has broken their silence on GTA announcing that a trailer for GTA 6 is coming in December 2023. What do you think about video game movies? Well they're going to keep on coming, this time with Nintendo confirming that they're working on a live-action Zelda flick. Will the tone by like the games, or more serious? Valve has announced a Steam Deck refresh with the Steam Deck OLED. This new model has an OLED screen, increased battery life (30-50% estimated), and a new chip.