607: Xbox One X Enhanced, Pre-Orders and more

Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hyrb. Xbox Live's Major Nelson, Show 607. The gang is here. It's Fall up here in the Northern Hemisphere. We're getting ready for the launch of Xbox One X. So a lot's going on here. Hi, Laura.
Laura Massey: Hello.
Larry Hryb: Did I get it all out in time? I feel like I just blurted a bunch of stuff.
Laura Massey: Just all-
Jeff Rubenstein: At the top of the hour-
Larry Hryb: And then Jeffrey's here.
Jeff Rubenstein: Hi.
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey's here.
Jeff Rubenstein: How are you, sir?
Larry Hryb: It's nice to see you. We're back in the ... You know we have a special guest this week?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, actually he's so special-
Larry Hryb: How special is he?
Jeff Rubenstein: ... that VICE UK has penned up an introduction. Let's talk a little bit about Albert Penello. A word on Albert, I'm now quoting: "Albert is possibly the most enthusiastic and American man I've ever, ever met-"
Larry Hryb: Enthusiastic and American?
Jeff Rubenstein: "... and I want to deeply be his best friend, but as our conversation unfolds, it becomes clear that he already has a best friend, and that best friend is the Xbox One X, available November 7th and unless I have the capability to render 4K-quality footage of a non-4K TV, it is sadly gonna be a very one-sided match in terms of who gets to be Albert's best friend, with me, once again, losing to an Xbox."
Larry Hryb: Well this is ... That was beautiful. Can we put a link to that?
Albert Penello: Why am I friends with you guys?
Larry Hryb: That is extraordinary.
Jeff Rubenstein: I will link to that.
Albert Penello: I'm getting no end of grief about that quote.
Laura Massey: Aww.
Albert Penello: Who was the author? His name is just escaping me right now. I want to just let him know ... I'll tell him I'm making room, I'm booting off a best friend.
Larry Hryb: Do you remember this interview?
Albert Penello: I do. Well, I remember a lot of interviews.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: And yeah, I am very enthusiastic and I've been on the road, which I'm sure we'll talk about. I've been on the road a lot with Mr. Rubes himself, so I did a lot of interviews and I guess I was pretty enthusiastic, evidently.
Larry Hryb: So as you've probably figured out, Albert's here to talk about ... This past week, Xbox One X pre-orders lit up around the world-
Albert Penello: Around the world.
Larry Hryb: Which is unbelievable. We're actually shipping ... You would know this, because you've been here a little bit longer than I have, this console will ship to the most regions we've ever shipped to at one time, correct? Is that accurate?
Albert Penello: I'd have to go back and look. 360 was pretty close. We might have launched in more regions in 360 but we had very few units.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I just remember with 360 ... The one thing I remember about that, and you'll remember this, we're gonna get into old-school stuff here, Laura.
Laura Massey: Back in the day.
Larry Hryb: Back in the day. I remember, in a meeting with Peter Moore and we had to airlift the consoles in, remember?
Albert Penello: Oh, yeah.
Larry Hryb: Because they were produced and we needed to get them into the country so fast, and you know, most people that come over from production overseas, you put on a boat because it's cheap. Flying consoles in, not cheap.
Laura Massey: Not cheap at all.
Albert Penello: Not cheap, no. They were heavy pallets of consoles, yes.
Larry Hryb: But we're not doing that. In fact, we're not doing-
Jeff Rubenstein: Did they parachute in? You know, like an airdrop?
Larry Hryb: So we just airdropped them in,
Albert Penello: Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
Larry Hryb: But anyway, Albert's here to talk about Xbox One X, which we had a lot of press. You were out doing interviews and a lot of that stuff came off embargo this week, so-
Albert Penello: Yeah, yesterday. We've been out for ... I've been at my house for like a sum total of four days in the last six or eight weeks, I think.
Laura Massey: My goodness.
Albert Penello: So yeah, it's-
Laura Massey: How do you do your laundry?
Albert Penello: How do ... Well, I have a wonderful wife who, you know, when we talk about what games we're playing, the game I'm playing is hide and seek with my daughter. I'd like to be playing Destiny, but my wife says, "Your destiny is to play with your daughter."
Larry Hryb: There you go.
Jeff Rubenstein: I had to do the same thing, but I said, "Honey, why don't you go hide? Da-da's gonna be in this room, playing Destiny."
Larry Hryb: Count to a thousand. See, and as somebody who has a new little girl, I can't do any of that yet because she's too young. So I'll get there eventually.
Laura Massey: You can't hide yet.
Larry Hryb: But it's great to have you back on the show. We're gonna talk about what you're doing and obviously we teed it up a little bit but a lot of really exciting stuff here.
Albert Penello: Yep, tons of stuff.
Larry Hryb: There's the consoles, Phil tweeted out Panos is over in China, they're starting to come off the line.
Albert Penello: Touching stuff.
Larry Hryb: Touching stuff for some reason. Anyway, it's funny because we were getting ready for you to come in here and Laura came in here and sat down, cause this is actually a true story. Today ... This is the first time I've seen Jeff in a week plus since the last show and this is the first time Laura I've seen you since the last show.
Laura Massey: That's right, we've been busy.
Larry Hryb: We've been all busy around here but, you know, when Laura came in I said "Hey, Albert's coming by" she said "Oh, great! What's he gonna talk about?" I said "Well, you know, Xbox One X." She's like "Yeah, yeah, yeah." And I said "We're gonna talk about Xbox One X Enhanced." She's like "What's that?"
Albert Penello: Come on.
Laura Massey: Yes, that's what I said.
Larry Hryb: She's been busy.
Laura Massey: And then I asked if there's a new acronym for it and you were like "No."
Larry Hryb: So I said "Well, we'll talk to Albert about it." Usually we start the top of the show talking about what we're playing. We talked a little but about Destiny. I finished that game. Have you finished it?
Laura Massey: You finished it? Already?
Larry Hryb: I finished the-
Jeff Rubenstein: The campaign.
Larry Hryb: The campaign.
Jeff Rubenstein: Which is very well done.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's delightful.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm actually on the last part.
Larry Hryb: So you're on the last mission.
Laura Massey: I'm still working through it.
Larry Hryb: Okay, and Albert, we know, is playing hide and seek with his daughter.
Albert Penello: Yeah, and Sonic Mania is actually the game ... I was using my own gamertag, so I really was, been playing a bit of Sonic Mania.
Jeff Rubenstein: There was the time where ... So, your console was the one that wasn't loaded with a non, you know, prototype game or beta game? And so at some point someone came in to the LA stop we were at and they were like "Who loaded Destiny onto this?" And I just sorta slinked out of the room.
Albert Penello: Yeah, he downloaded Destiny onto my account, which is wonderful of him. Jeff is a real bro there. [crosstalk 00:05:19] He's a real pal but I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Well, the funny thing is I actually worked at Sega back when they launched the original Sonic.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Albert Penello: So I have an affinity for Sonic media, it's fun to watch.
Laura Massey: I have an affinity for Sonic, too.
Larry Hryb: Now what is your affinity? Laura, tell me about your affinity.
Laura Massey: The Sega Genesis was my first console. I wasn't allowed a console growing up but then finally my father gave in to the family and we got a Sega Genesis [crosstalk 00:05:42]
Larry Hryb: It's a great choice.
Laura Massey: Of course Sonic was the best game to play.
Larry Hryb: Oh yeah.
Albert Penello: That was the best game. That was your first console? I was in college.
Laura Massey: How old does that make you feel?
Albert Penello: I am way too old. That's the console I brought to college.
Jeff Rubenstein: I did see you-
Laura Massey: I was honestly an older kid. I was in middle school, I think at that point.
Albert Penello: Okay, so I don't feel so bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: So you were there when Sonic launched?
Albert Penello: I was at Sega answering telephones-
Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.
Albert Penello: - when Sonic launched.
Laura Massey: Do you know all the secrets still?
Albert Penello: This is a story for another time, but yes I actually ... This is how much of nerd I am. I'm from the Bay Area. I used to call Sega when I was in high school and I would beat the games before they did so I would call them and tell them how to beat the boss.
Laura Massey: What?!
Albert Penello: So then when I went to work at Sega I would see tips for games that they took from me over the phone.
Laura Massey: No way!
Albert Penello: Yeah, that's actually, that's totally true.
Larry Hryb: It's a true story.
Albert Penello: 100% true story. I think might still have my binder somewhere, cause back then it was all on paper. So someone would call up and ask how to beat the game and you'd have to flip through your tabbed binder and those were written by people who would go and get the games right before they came out cause cartridges, you know, they have to be manufactured.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And so they'd play them and then you'd have to beat them and write down how to beat it so that when someone called ... So for a bunch of games I would beat them before they would so I had to call and tell them how to do it.
Larry Hryb: Look at that!
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: See, you thought Albert was just a pretty face, didn't you? You were saying that. "That Albert-"
Albert Penello: "Just a pretty face."
Jeff Rubenstein: Now [crosstalk 00:06:55] cause GameFAQs came out.
Larry Hryb: You know, it's funny, cause I actually have a connection to Sonic as well. I had a Genesis before, but one of my very good friends who I used to do radio with, at Syracuse University, is the voice of Doctor Eggman.
Laura Massey: Is he?
Larry Hryb: He's the cartoon voice, name is Mike Pollock, and he and I did a lot of radio together and we were in classes together. He is one of the voices of Doctor, he does a lot of other voices, as well.
Laura Massey: Super cool.
Albert Penello: What video game character should Larry be the voice of?
Laura Massey: That's a great question.
Larry Hryb: That's a great question.
Jeff Rubenstein: You were in a game.
Larry Hryb: Well I've been in-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah, you were in ...
Larry Hryb: I was in Explosion Man.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes and you were in Kinect Sports Rivals.
Laura Massey: What were you in Explosion Man?
Larry Hryb: I was ...
Laura Massey: You were live action.
Larry Hryb: Right, I did, I was at the end ... I was the reverend-
Laura Massey: The priest.
Larry Hryb: - the priest, right. I was doing the wedding at the end. Oh, that's right!
Laura Massey: Spoiler alerts, by the way.
Jeff Rubenstein: With your hair color though you'd have to be the bad guy if it was a Japanese game. You know, that's mandatory.
Albert Penello: I don't know about that.
Larry Hryb: So people with gray hair are always the bad guy?
Jeff Rubenstein: Gray and white-ish hair, you're almost always the bad guy. Except in Devil May Cry and even then.
Albert Penello: So, we're villains.
Jeff Rubenstein: In a morally gray area.
Albert Penello: What Jeff's really saying is we're villains.
Larry Hryb: Cause you and I share a similar tuft of hair.
Albert Penello: Yes.
Larry Hryb: As it were.
Jeff Rubenstein: At least you have hair.
Albert Penello: Not share it as in we take it off of a head and then share it between us. Share it as in we have similar-
Larry Hryb: Similar.
Jeff Rubenstein: We're talking about this now.
Albert Penello: We're not actually sharing hair, to the listeners out there.
Larry Hryb: Anyway- [crosstalk 00:08:14]
Jeff Rubenstein: One of my favorite stories is you were in Kinect Sports Rivals-
Larry Hryb: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And in the demo-
Larry Hryb: Oh, God. I was so angry over that.
Jeff Rubenstein: And you would always, like your character, your NPC, would always finish in seventh place.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Jeff Rubenstein: And I believe you went and had a talk with Rare.
Larry Hryb: Right! I talked to them, I was like "Look, I know that I can't win all the time but could you not make me come in dead last every single time?"
Jeff Rubenstein: And they boosted you, didn't they?
Larry Hryb: They did and then the other thing that irritated me is that when they put me in that game they put me in that onesie.
Jeff Rubenstein: It was a wet suit.
Larry Hryb: It was-
Jeff Rubenstein: Look, you liked scuba diving!
Larry Hryb: I do, but, you know.
Jeff Rubenstein: They took care of you.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, okay. Anyway.
Albert Penello: This is off the rails.
Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:08:47] What we do! It's what we do here, Albert. Laura, what are you playing? Are you playing anything other than Destiny? Let me try to get it back.
Laura Massey: I am playing a lot of Destiny and I'm also still playing Diablo.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah, I see you playing Diablo.
Laura Massey: I'm still playing Diablo, getting through season 11. I'm almost done with all that's left of season 11.
Albert Penello: Are you playing Path of Exile? Where are you on the Path of Exile versus Diablo debate that's raging online?
Laura Massey: Well, I haven't tried-
Larry Hryb: She hasn't tried it.
Laura Massey: Path of Exile.
Albert Penello: I hear that it's, according to some people, better than Diablo.
Laura Massey: I don't know if that's possible.
Larry Hryb: Ryan [tried 00:09:14] on the team is playing it and he's ... He hasn't rendered his final verdict yet but he's leaning in that direction.
Laura Massey: I must give it a try then.
Larry Hryb: So you must, yeah.
Albert Penello: It's supposed to be good.
Laura Massey: Super good. But I did run into ... one of my favorite things in the game, which I didn't know existed. I love finding out new things about this game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: You know how there are shrines in the game? You run up to it, it's a little spire that gives you a power up like you can run faster or you can pick up gold with more radius. Well there is such a thing as a treasure goblin shrine.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, that's right. Your treasure goblin. I remember you talked about this.
Laura Massey: No, I didn't know there's a shrine!
Larry Hryb: Oh, there's a shrine?
Laura Massey: A shrine!
Larry Hryb: Oh!
Laura Massey: And it spawns treasure goblins!
Larry Hryb: Well, what's wrong with that?
Laura Massey: Exactly! I had no idea this could [inaudible 00:09:54] so I ran up to it and like ... Treasure goblin spire? What is that? Click. Treasure goblin spawn, oh my gosh get the treasure goblin! Another one spawned, then another one, then another one, then 15 spawned and you're like "What do I do?!"
Larry Hryb: I don't know, what do you do?
Laura Massey: What do you do?
Larry Hryb: What do you do?
Laura Massey: So, you have to pick your battles and can't kill them all.
Larry Hryb: Treasure goblin.
Laura Massey: Unfortunately I didn't pick the right battle and I ended up having all of them run away and escape.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Laura Massey: It was very sad, but if you ever find a treasure goblin shrine get ready because it's going to be a big battle.
Larry Hryb: It's delightful.
Laura Massey: It's really fun. Really good.
Larry Hryb: Fun.
Laura Massey: I'm playing a lot of Destiny. I logged in last night and ... I finally took part in my first public event. Have you guys done a public event?
Larry Hryb: Sure, quite a few.
Jeff Rubenstein: I mean I did during a conference call today.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, you did one, it was a true story. I was watching him do it.
Laura Massey: I wish I could play games during conference calls.
Larry Hryb: Try it.
Laura Massey: I just wish [inaudible 00:10:44]
Larry Hryb: It's good.
Jeff Rubenstein: This is what happens when you're non-essential versus a very essential person in calls.
Albert Penello: Who's doing the real work in this crowd, ladies and gentlemen? The one who can't play games while they're doing work.
Laura Massey: Right, but I'm running the meeting. And unfortunately I was the only one who was doing this public event.
Larry Hryb: It's funny, Jeff did one and he was the only one as well.
Laura Massey: I felt really sad and lonely.
Larry Hryb: Well.
Jeff Rubenstein: That seems to be a rare occurrence.
Laura Massey: It is rare.
Larry Hryb: You are welcome to join, you know, do Jeff and I ... I played last night for an hour and a half or so, you're welcome anytime you want to join just let us know and Albert, whenever you're ready to do a public event ...
Albert Penello: Yeah, one of these days.
Larry Hryb: I know, I know.
Laura Massey: It does take a few hours to get through the extended tutorial when the world opens up.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, like 20 levels.
Laura Massey: Really?
Larry Hryb: That's what it feels like, it feels like ... just the whole campaign is basically a big tutorial for the whole thing is what it feels like sometimes.
Laura Massey: I see. 20 is the highest, is that right?
Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Laura Massey: I'm at eight, I think.
Larry Hryb: Okay, you're getting there.
Laura Massey: Yeah, getting there.
Larry Hryb: Little less than half way, for those of you having trouble with math.
Laura Massey: Thanks for the math.
Larry Hryb: No problem!
Albert Penello: Hashtag did the math.
Larry Hryb: Alright.
Jeff Rubenstein: Speaking of math, a friend of mine just sent me a countdown timer, it's just until Xbox One X releases. He pre-ordered his Project Scorpio Edition, cannot wait for it [crosstalk 00:11:54] for 47 days.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Albert Penello: Yeah, like six weeks, right?
Larry Hryb: We're gonna talk about that in a minute with Albert. We're gonna talk about what you're playing and then we're gonna go right into the Albert section.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, of course.
Larry Hryb: Albert brings the goods.
Jeff Rubenstein: I've been traveling, so bringing my laptop with me and during that time, when I have downtime in the hotel room playing ReCore Definitive Edition, the Eye of the Obsidian content. I feel like the platform in that game is just so good and ... It's just really fun to keep coming back to it and I've been doing a lot of the races. It took me a while to figure out that the tank ... robot, or Corebot, you can hold down B and boost and I was like "Man, I am having a hard time with these races" and then I realized, though, I can ... you can boost with B. B for boost.
Laura Massey: Hit the button to go faster.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's a little mnemonic. Then I got home and, in addition to Destiny, NBA 2K18 came out.
Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:12:40] That was your game.
Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone was tweeting about 2K Day and I love [crosstalk 00:12:42] So, I'm happy to ... I scanned myself in-
Larry Hryb: Jeffrey Dean Chamillionaire.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jeffrey Dean Chamillionaire. This time, the scan came out a little bit better. I look shifty, though, in this. I look like ...
Larry Hryb: Shifty-er?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, I looked like very dumb, I would say, in my previous scan and this one I just look like I'm up to something, you know? So maybe I'm gonna be-
Larry Hryb: So, far more accurate.
Jeff Rubenstein: A lot of jersey, but yeah. Actually, yeah, it's pretty accurate. I've made it, I'm a walk on for the Sixers, so let's see what happens if Joel Embiid can play this year. We're going all the way. I just feel like we're gonna go all the way with me on the team. That was the missing piece, for the reason we worst team at basketball.
Larry Hryb: NBA 2K18.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good, it's so good. And then ... Wow, FIFA 18's coming out real soon, too.
Larry Hryb: It's actually available now if you have EA Access.
Jeff Rubenstein: If you have EA Access so get on it and if you have the Ronaldo Edition that'll be unlocking very soon as well, so [inaudible 00:13:36]
Larry Hryb: And I know you're a big Ronaldo fan.
Jeff Rubenstein: No, but ... I was forced to do it because I want to get back into the ... The big thing in sports games is story modes and they're like, for me, the most fun. I love the one in Madden. I mean, would you imagine ever, five years ago, if I said to you "You're going to be playing Madden and five years from now there's gonna be a scene where you're singing a Miley Cyrus song, The Climb, as part of the scene and you know what? It worked. Oh, it worked"
Laura Massey: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. See!
Albert Penello: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta play the Madden! You're like a good old boy from Texas, trying to make it into the NFL and when you're in your pick-up truck, you leave on Miley Cyrus. You do that.
Larry Hryb: When are we playing?
Jeff Rubenstein: Let's play it soon cause, you know what? I want us to do a-
Larry Hryb: Co-stream.
Jeff Rubenstein: I want us to do a co-stream on Mixer and we can use it with maybe a USB camera.
Larry Hryb: Okay. Did you see that news this week, Albert?
Albert Penello: Yes, of course.
Larry Hryb: It finally came out, yep. Laura, so now you can use, for alpha members, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just for alpha, those are coming [crosstalk 00:14:33]
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll link to the details [crosstalk 00:14:34]
Albert Penello: Not the mic, though. Just the camera.
Larry Hryb: Just the camera. Mic soon. One feature at a time, gang.
Laura Massey: One step at a time.
Larry Hryb: One step at a time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, most webcams do not have noise canceling and it would be very echo-y unlike the Kinect which has like a whole matrix of [crosstalk 00:14:48]
Larry Hryb: And Array has-
Jeff Rubenstein: An Array.
Albert Penello: An Array microphone.
Larry Hryb: Array microphone, thank you. Much like the top of the new iPhone X, it's got a little Kinect.
Laura Massey: It does have a little Kinect.
Albert Penello: That would be the iPhone 10.
Larry Hryb: The iPhone-
Albert Penello: We're the Xbox One X-
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna call it the X.
Albert Penello: They're the iPhone 10.
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna call it the X.
Laura Massey: It's the year of the X.
Larry Hryb: It's the year of the X, we talked about that. So, alright-
Albert Penello: We started it.
Larry Hryb: So, here we are. I'm gonna talk to Albert about, are you all set with the headlines or do you want to come back to them?
Jeff Rubenstein: We'll come back for the headlines.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I want to get Albert cause I know he's gotta get out of here but we brought you over because you and I did a video, Xbox One X Enhanced. They were just about some of the new titles. I wanted to see if you could, for those people that haven't watched the video and they don't really understand this whole YouTube thing.
Albert Penello: There's an amazing new technology where video stream from the internet.
Larry Hryb: What?
I wanted to talk to you about the program and obviously we have someone here who hasn't really been familiar-
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: - with the program because, again, essential versus non-essential.
Albert Penello: That's right. Also, doesn't know YouTube.
Larry Hryb: No, that's not true.
Albert Penello: Yeah, look, I mean, yeah we shot a video, which was quite fun and shooting videos with Larry are always ...
Larry Hryb: We have fun.
Laura Massey: I bet there were good times.
Albert Penello: We're always the guest. In fact, the first, my favorite one was the very first edit we saw, the very rough edit.
Larry Hryb: Where they left a bunch of stuff-
Albert Penello: Where they left the sort of, like, after we ended we left the trail off.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Where, you know, it's like, you know, you can see both of us just shut off.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And then we're like "Okay" and then we're just randomly looking around and we're-
Larry Hryb: Voices are coming off camera.
Albert Penello: Answering questions that you can't hear that are being asked in the background and it's really fun.
Larry Hryb: We fixed it.
Albert Penello: We did, it was good. [crosstalk 00:16:18]
Yeah, I mean we shot the video, I don't want to sort of re-do the video here now live but there was a ... We're doing something new, obviously, with Xbox One X and launching sort of a console with a different level of performance and so one of the things you want to do is you have to sort of help guide people to understand what's gonna work and what's gonna take advantage of all the power and it's always a balance of trying to make a program simple.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So that people understand it but also be accurate in what you're communicating and so we established what we're calling Xbox One X Enhanced, which to me, basically is just a way of telling people this game is the developer's done work to take advantage of the horsepower.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Because of course all the games work.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So, you've got sort of two almost conflicting things you're trying to tell people. One: if it says Xbox One on it, it works and probably works better on Xbox One X and then two: there's a bunch of games that are doing work to take advantage of all the advanced features and capabilities of the GPU.
Larry Hryb: And there's a lot of different, we talked about this in the video, it's funny but before we continue on this I want to let you know. I had to get my haircut this past week, cause you know I gotta look good.
Albert Penello: Our hair.
Larry Hryb: Our hair, that's right.
Laura Massey: It is shared hair.
Larry Hryb: I was getting our hair cut last week and there was a guy sitting next to me who didn't really recognize me cause I wasn't ... paying attention.
Jeff Rubenstein: Not everyone recognizes you, Larry.
Larry Hryb: Which is fine, but they were talking about Project Scorpio and they said "Well, I don't know if I'm gonna pick a new one up because, you know, it doesn't work, you know, unless you have a 4K TV, it doesn't matter." And that's actually not true!
Albert Penello: That is not true.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, so talk about that.
Albert Penello: So, yeah, I mean it's, we know a lot of people haven't upgraded yet and so we had to be real thoughtful-
Larry Hryb: Upgraded their television.
Albert Penello: Upgraded their television yet to 4K and so that is one of the top questions that we see over and over again is like well, the system was built for 4K so that's great that people understand that but if I don't have 4K do I need to upgrade and the answer to that is yes. There's lots of reasons why you might want to upgrade to an Xbox One X even if your TV isn't upgraded. Some of them are hardware specific with, we have a 50% faster hard drive so loading times will be better. Your existing games will run faster if you have variable frame rate or variable resolution.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Those will run at higher settings. We have some texture filtering improvements in the SOC to make texture-
Larry Hryb: System on a chip.
Albert Penello: Yeah, the Scorpio engine has ... a better texture filtering for existing titles so just if you like the game library you already have, an Xbox One X is gonna amp up all those games.
Jeff Rubenstein: And we've got quite a, there's a whole list that we'll link to of games that are supporting or are enhanced for Xbox One X and there's some great titles on there.
Albert Penello: Yeah, so we have the Xbox One X Enhanced list, we have a new webpage that we just released that breaks this down and in those cases then we have this thing that we call supersampling, which is effectively a technique that downscales the 4K content onto a 1080p TV.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: We've got some examples that we've shown but basically a lot of the jaggies are gone so you have better anti-aliasing, but also all the better lighting, all the better textures, all the better effects that are in the 4K versions you can still see even if you don't have a 1080p television.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: So, even if you haven't upgraded yet there's still a lot of good reasons to get an Xbox One X and our video is just spending time sort of talking people through what those features are.
Larry Hryb: When I was getting our haircut, I went over and I told this guy I said "Well, actually," and then I introduced myself and he felt like an idiot but that's fine. We just talked about, I said "Actually, there is reason," I gave a much, a worse version of what you just explained about how it's okay if you have a 1080p TV then your games are gonna look better and I want to point out the list that Jeff talked about, that we'll put a link off to, that includes previous games so there's some games in your Xbox library right now that are gonna be Xbox Enhance-ified. Enhanced.
Jeff Rubenstein: Quite a few.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: And a lot of like major titles.
Larry Hryb: And then a bunch of ones coming up, right?
Albert Penello: Yeah! And we're gonna ... We've seen unbelievable support and there's two things, sorry, like my mind is rattling thinking of two different things. The first is Xbox One X Enhanced doesn't just mean old games that are getting upgraded.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: That's actually a thing that I think people confused because when we talked about it at E3 we talked about it mostly in reference to existing titles.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: So, Tomb Raider, Gears of War-
Jeff Rubenstein: Fallout 4, Final Fantasy XV-
Larry Hryb: Fallout 4's getting it?
Jeff Rubenstein: Forza-
Laura Massey: Yes!
Jeff Rubenstein: Gears of War 4-
Albert Penello: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: The Witcher 3. Oh I can't wait.
Albert Penello: So those are existing games that are coming [crosstalk 00:20:33]
Larry Hryb: - be back.
Albert Penello: But all the new games that are coming out, like Forza 7, is also Xbox One X Enhanced and all the new titles like Crackdown 3 and all these games are Xbox, so Xbox One X Enhanced-
Larry Hryb: Assassin's Creed.
Albert Penello: Assassin's Creed, so new titles and existing titles fall under the banner of Xbox One X Enhanced.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So when you're trying to figure out what games are gonna take advantage of this new box that I just bought, search for Xbox One X Enhanced.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we're linking.
Albert Penello: Oh, we're gonna link to the site.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, where you'll be able to see it-
Larry Hryb: We'll link off to it and all of that stuff. You were out there talking to a lot of the media, we heard at the top of the show about your-
Albert Penello: My new best friend?
Larry Hryb: Your new best friend over at Vice. Was it Vice UK?
Jeff Rubenstein: It was Vice UK.
Larry Hryb: We're gonna link off to that story. We need to.
You went through, what were some of the things you were hearing? What were some themes that when you were talking to some folks?
Albert Penello: It was great cause we were in ... Sydney, New York-
Larry Hryb: You went to Sydney?
Albert Penello: I didn't go but we had people there so, like, we're kind of like huddling up and taking calls back and forth but I was in London, LA ... San Francisco.
Larry Hryb: Did you do New York?
Albert Penello: No, we had someone else was in New York and someone else was in Sydney.
Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know if you made any best friends but he was good. Ryan was good.
Albert Penello: Ryan was good, yeah Ryan on my team went to New York and Kevin Gammill went to Sydney.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy, wow.
Albert Penello: Lucky bastard.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Albert Penello: It was really good, you know, people-
Larry Hryb: Until you do the flight, trust me.
Albert Penello: Well then once you arrive ...
Larry Hryb: Right, right.
Albert Penello: No, it was really great talking to people and I think everybody's been really awesome about ... just asking really good questions and I love that people have really thoughtful opinions and questions that get asked and so even if they're not questions that are favorable, I mean, people can be critical of us of things and I like those kind of questions too, cause I think it keeps us on our toes.
So, for me, going out on the road is a chance to talk to people that I normally don't get to talk to cause normally the people I've talked to are you guys.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: It's people inside and so getting an external perspective is always really exciting and people ask really good questions and I make new best friends, but we showed the new UI.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And then we got to talk about all the cool new features, all new personalization, all the speed of the new UI. It was a good chance for me to give some demos, we have some supersampling demos.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you do?
Albert Penello: That show sort of what supersampling looks like.
Larry Hryb: I think we saw one, Jeff. You and I saw one a while ago?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it was a ... A bee was involved, yes?
Albert Penello: A ladybug.
Jeff Rubenstein: A ladybug, yes.
Larry Hryb: I thought it was a beetle.
Albert Penello: It's a ladybug.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, maybe it's a ladybug now.
Jeff Rubenstein: Named Bee.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, her name is Bee.
Jeff Rubenstein: I took the time to get to know the lady.
Albert Penello: Look, I want to honestly, there's actually some really, really great videos that other people have done about supersampling that just show, sort of, how it works that have nothing to do with us that I would encourage people to go take a look at.
Larry Hryb: When you were talking with some folks, I know that last year that ... the PlayStation had their PlayStation Pro come out.
Albert Penello: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: Which a lot of people have looked at the consoles and say "Well, it's kind of the same thing," but your response to that is what?
Albert Penello: Oh, man. Is there a lot of PlayStation listeners to this podcast? Cause every time-
Jeff Rubenstein: There's gamers!
Laura Massey: There's some, there's gamers.
Albert Penello: No, I mean, I always say the thing I find most interesting is one of the handful of people that has been involved in Project Scorpio since it was conceived many years ago is that we didn't know what they were doing so when I and the team were putting together this idea for what Project Scorpio might be it was never relative to something else.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: We actually thought that we were coming up with something totally unique so I think it's super interesting that both Sony and us that arrived a similar idea of doing this mid generation platform. They took a different approach and ... I think we built a much more powerful box and I think that now is something that people have seen and we did work with Digital Foundry on unveiling the box, so they're not the same box. I think we, for people who want the absolute best versions of games you're gonna want to play on an Xbox One X. They're the best versions of their party titles. The best versions of their own titles will be on Xbox One X.
Larry Hryb: You know it's funny cause Albert talked about when they were planning Project Scorpio and it's true cause I would come by Albert's office, remember? I'd come by, and I'd shut the door like "Alright, what do you got?" And he'd bust open these crazy powerpoints, and he would explain to me how your games are gonna work, and they're gonna look better. I'm like "that's magical, let's do it."
Albert Penello: It's true, cause Larry-
Larry Hryb: Right?
Albert Penello: One of the best, you know this is a story we don't tell very often but one of the things I think was most exciting about working on Project Scorpio was, it was a blank slate and from the idea, and we got to ask ourselves all these questions, all these questions that people are asking us now are questions we asked ourselves, and the truth is, is like Larry's ... I would use Larry as a proxy for like if we did A or did B, you know, and he wasn't even really [tented 00:25:01] on the program but Larry would come in, and I would say-
Larry Hryb: Right, then we'd talk around it.
Albert Penello: We'd talk around it, I'd say like "What if we did this versus doing that, how do you think people would respond to that?" And so that's why now it's exciting just for me to have, like, remember all the ideas and all the hard questions we asked ourselves and we gotta do this right. We're gonna do it, we gotta do it the right way and working with, and even asking Larry, like there's different answers to questions.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: We could do it this way or that way, and now to see it come to pass and I think people are really responding well to like ... thinking about where the port locations are and that the power cable's the same and then all the games work and all the accessories work and all the old games are better and now we've got these new more powerful games and how we did the development kit.
It's exciting cause it was really a blank slate and so much of what is shipping was reflective on our original ideas for what we wanted to do.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's also, we talked about the new dashboard. There's also a ton of new features that they're putting in, to help make for those of you who own an Xbox One or an Xbox One S the transfer easier, we're doing over network copying over network and a bunch of other really cool things.
Albert Penello: Oh, the hard drive. Yeah, the hard drive and network transfer, thank you for bringing this up because this to me is something, this is, I think, will be one of the most unsung features and as the marketing guy for the console I'm sure that this team is listening they're like "Albert! Do your job!" Is getting people to get a hard drive. Without a doubt ... the experience between moving between an Xbox One or an Xbox One S to an Xbox One X with a hard drive is gonna be-
Larry Hryb: Seamless.
Albert Penello: - so much better and it's not just, I'm not trying to make people spend more money, like I know you can probably get a two terabyte now for about a hundred bucks
Larry Hryb: You can get like four or five like $105.
Albert Penello: Yeah and ... for people that download a lot of games, keeping that stuff on your external hard drive, even on your current box, the load times are faster.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's amazing. Like as someone who has swapped out boxes or if I travel with it, not having to download again, especially if you're a multi Xbox household. I have level caps. I can only download so much and when we come to this time of year I'm definitely pushing up against that but I can download it once and then bring it downstairs.
Larry Hryb: What happens at this time of the year?
Jeff Rubenstein: When all of the [00:27:05] play games.
Albert Penello: When all of the titles come out.
Larry Hryb: You don't have the unlimited package on your home [inaudible 00:27:08]
Jeff Rubenstein: Nah ... I don't live in ... behind the high hedges of Larry Land out there.
Albert Penello: So, for people who don't live in the high hedges of Larry Land I highly recommend, no I mean really like guys, go get a hard drive. It's gonna be -
Larry Hryb: Before you even send somebody out, you just need a USB 3 hard drive, there may be one lying around your house.
Albert Penello: Yeah, in fact, I gotta tell you. I have a bunch, I went and spent like $29 on Amazon on a Clamshell case.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: And I took old hard drives that I have that lying around and plug them in a case and now I've a ton of USB 3 hard drives that really didn't cost me anything. Just upgrading the one on my PC, I format it, put it in a case and now I've got a USB 3 hard drive.
Laura Massey: That's a great tip.
Albert Penello: Yeah, so getting your stuff on a hard drive you will save so much time re-downloading. We have a really awesome, the team has put together a really awesome sort of like upgrade process where you can basically backup your settings if you haven't moved it, it'll just do one button press and it'll move all of your games over to the hard drive so when you get ready for Xbox One X all you're gonna have to do is put in your log in with your gamertag and your MSA password and there'll be a day one update, it'll be very small it's not gonna be a huge update, and then boom! The console's yours again, everything will just be restored and all your games are there and ready to go.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, I want to talk about that because we've talked a little bit about the transfer, of course when you have your games on an external hard drive we'll have the option, you'll get an update soon, to transfer the settings.
Albert Penello: Yes, that's one of the big things that's changing now.
Larry Hryb: Cause there's three components that I look at. So, the games obviously you download those and you put them on a hard drive. You put them on an external hard drive, unplug it, plug it in, done. Settings are more of the what's my background, kinda that stuff, right Albert?
Albert Penello: Yeah, and some of that stuff is stored in the cloud. We'll have more details about what all settings are gonna get transferred over.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: But, yeah, it's just gonna save you so much time on that first day experience and for people who are bandwidth limited.
Larry Hryb: Right, and there's a lot of people that are.
Albert Penello: And there's a lot of people that they're gonna, like you won't have to re-download all your stuff, so the only downloads you'll take are the ones for the Xbox One X Enhanced titles but we're even allowing people to do that ahead of time on the Xbox One S.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: So if you know you're gonna upgrade, maybe you're not gonna upgrade for a while, maybe you didn't get your pre-order, you're not gonna get one on launch day.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: You can still go ahead and manage your bandwidth caps by taking those updates early on an Xbox One S so that when you plug it into the Xbox One X you're, like, not only are you ready to go but the 4K upgrades are there as well.
Larry Hryb: The other thing, there's a third category of things ... that we forgot about, because we were one of the very first to do it and that is, of course, your game saves. You know you never have to think about game saves anymore, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: They're just there.
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: Back in the old day we used to have those, what were those little-
Albert Penello: Memory units.
Laura Massey: The MU's.
Larry Hryb: The MU's, right.
Albert Penello: The MU's.
Larry Hryb: And we're like "Where's my Halo save? And where's this save?" No, we haven't had to think about that for years.
Laura Massey: It's true, I remember carrying it ... carrying it on my keyring.
Larry Hryb: We had the little cases, right?
Laura Massey: Yeah.
Albert Penello: The keyring, yeah. You had a key chain for them.
Laura Massey: Yeah, and freaking out if I lost it like "Ah! That's everything! That's everything."
Larry Hryb: Right, cause that's all your games. Now you don't have to worry about that.
Laura Massey: Now, no more.
Larry Hryb: But yeah, so obviously that'll all work-
Albert Penello: I think it's gonna be, like for people that are, for games that are coming out now that are gonna get enhanced, what's gonna be awesome is just this concept that you're like in the middle of a game ... You're gonna get an Xbox One X, you're gonna get the 4K update, you're gonna pick up that game exactly where you left off-
Jeff Rubenstein: But your cataracts have been removed.
Albert Penello: That's right.
Jeff Rubenstein: You're seeing it for real.
Albert Penello: Your vision is so much more clear. There's just so much cool stuff that we're doing and it's fun to talk to people about this stuff and I can't, you know, we're not that far away from [crosstalk 00:30:36]
Larry Hryb: Yeah we're getting ready, we're getting ready, of course, and then we talked about, of course, this week pre-orders lit up.
Albert Penello: That's right we had our second round of pre-orders, so and I've talked a little bit about this. Pre-orders are interesting because there's, you know, you're trying to execute these globally, like all around the world. You're trying to coordinate times and you've got different retailers with different customers and so with the Xbox One X Project Scorpio Edition that we announced at Gamescon, that was our program.
Larry Hryb: Sure.
Albert Penello: Like we worked really closely with retailers, it was primarily done online, we wanted people, we knew there was gonna be a lot of enthusiasm, we wanted people to get online and those things, we sold more of those units faster than any Xbox ever and I've been here from the get go, so I know.
Larry Hryb: You've seen them all.
Albert Penello: I've seen them all. Then we had people asking "Well, what if I want the standard edition, the one without the Project Scorpio packaging and the ID changes?" And so that's what we launched yesterday on the, well now on the 20th.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Albert Penello: And so that is really run by retail, so what we do is we tell our retailers "Okay, this is how many units you're gonna get on November 7th, you obviously want to have some in store for people to go shopping and it's up to you how many you want to decide to pre-order." So, this program, what I'm telling people is like I think go to the stores if you can't find them online, they're probably not sold out. A lot more retailers are gonna want you to go in-store so that you can pick yours up on launch day. So, if you're having a hard time finding one check your old fashioned brick and mortar store.
Larry Hryb: Yeah and I've got a link on my website on the pre-order post. I've got a link off to Amazon and the Microsoft store and Target and Best Buy and GameStop and the rest of those, so.
Albert Penello: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: There you go, so that's exciting.
Albert Penello: It is exciting.
Larry Hryb: So that's that. Now it's all done, now we just got to launch it. Right?
Albert Penello: Now it's about games and getting the console out and demand and making sure we got enough for all the people that want them and, you know, it's all the logistics of getting them shipped over from ... from factories.
Larry Hryb: From overseas, yeah.
Albert Penello: And getting them in peoples hands.
Larry Hryb: What happens now, so does this mean you get to hang out at home and finish Destiny now for the next few weeks? Since you've been on the road?
Jeff Rubenstein: One never finishes Destiny.
Albert Penello: I'm hoping that I have some more time to play games and now I'm in that, one of the most interesting questions I got, which I'm probably breaking into jail, was "What do you tell people who want to play the Xbox One X versions before the Xbox One X is out? What do you do?"
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: So now I'm probably the guy who's just gonna backlog everything and just wait until the console comes out and then, cause I'm gonna want to play everything. I'm not gonna have time to replay everything, so anything I finish or beat or just get done with now I won't go back so part of me just wants to wait til the box comes out.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, there's a ... that is a little challenge, right? You want to enjoy it.
Albert Penello: It's kind of like a six week problem.
Larry Hryb: Right.
Albert Penello: Because really, like, there's a lot of games coming out over the next six weeks but once the Xbox One X is out then the decision is easier so, you know what, I'm gonna tell myself I'm gonna play Destiny but I'll probably just gonna wait and play it when the Xbox One X comes out. That's my excuse anyway.
Larry Hryb: That's cool, that's cool.
Laura Massey: Sounds like you're gonna have to take some vacation to get through your backlog.
Albert Penello: To get through my backlog. Spend some time with my family as well, try not to get divorced.
Larry Hryb: I can't even think about, I mean I'm thinking about all the events that I have to do between now and launch-
Albert Penello: Oh yeah, we're all over the place.
Larry Hryb: You know, I've got a New York, I think I'm going to Mexico again. I've got a bunch of stuff going on so we've ... There's no shortage of things to do and places to be and stuff to talk about.
Albert Penello: Oh, yeah the two or three weeks leading up to launch, you and I and you guys are-
Larry Hryb: Everybody-
Albert Penello: We're all gonna be-
Larry Hryb: Laura's gonna be back here doing-
Albert Penello: Doing work.
Larry Hryb: - smart stuff.
Albert Penello: Making sure the thing actually works.
Larry Hryb: That's true! Anyway, alright Albert well listen I appreciate you coming by. You're welcome to hang out if you-
Albert Penello: It's always a pleasure. I am going to bail.
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Albert Penello: Because I actually do have work. This is one of those days
Jeff Rubenstein: You gotta spend time with your best friend.
Albert Penello: I have to spend time with my best friend, the Xbox One X. Launching on November 7th.
Larry Hryb: Alright, actually, so we're gonna take a break now, don't go yet. Why don't we take a break and we'll do name the game.
Laura Massey: We should do Name the Game, it's been a long time.
Larry Hryb: Then while we're rolling that you can step out so we don't have to-
Albert Penello: Sounds good, thanks.
Larry Hryb: Are you ready?
Laura Massey: Yeah, let's do Name the Game from a long time ago.
So, that was Name the Game from a long time ago and it was actually a pretty difficult one.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: It was Black The Fall.
Larry Hryb: It was so difficult we only actually got like a handful of correct entries.
Laura Massey: That's right.
Larry Hryb: And the winner is, I have their name in front of me, is-
Laura Massey: You have to pull it up [inaudible 00:35:23]
Larry Hryb: His name is Dylan!
Laura Massey: Dylan! Congratulations Dylan!
Larry Hryb: Dylan has not provided a gamertag or location, he asked us to refrain from that so we will respect your privacy, Dylan. So you'll be in touch, you'll get an email from me at [email protected] and with all the prizes and there's actually quite a few prizes here, Laura. Let's take a look at that, watch them all plugged in here, so.
Laura Massey: Okay, so, Dylan.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: You have won a copy of Morphite which is an [email protected] ... [email protected] game, right?
Larry Hryb: Correct, yes.
Laura Massey: Yes, okay. And ... Pankapu.
Larry Hryb: Pankapu.
Laura Massey: Which is another [email protected] game.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: That's not all. You also get a copy of XCOM 2 plus the War of the Chosen DLC.
Larry Hryb: Nice.
Laura Massey: Which is a fun game.
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Laura Massey: And ... Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite.
Larry Hryb: So there you go.
Laura Massey: Wow.
Larry Hryb: What, there's more?
Laura Massey: Well, there is more.
Larry Hryb: There is more.
Laura Massey: Jeff will like this one.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Laura Massey: Dylan, you also get a copy of FIFA 18 the Ronaldo Edition.
Larry Hryb: Jeff! Is that your copy?
Jeff Rubenstein: Just make sure you have to look in the mirror and you have to, like, you have to give it blue steel before the game will load up. That's just part of playing with Ronaldo.
Laura Massey: I see, I see. Oh, so I'm feeling generous.
Larry Hryb: Oh, you are?
Laura Massey: I am.
Larry Hryb: You have more? What do you go, now you got something off your computer. What do you got there?
Laura Massey: I also have a copy of ... a one month EA Access Membership-
Jeff Rubenstein: Nice!
Laura Massey: - and the Xbox Game Pass for three months.
Larry Hryb: What? That's like a hundred plus games.
Laura Massey: You killed it today.
Larry Hryb: Dylan, well-
Laura Massey: It was a super hard one.
Larry Hryb: You know, we felt bad because we haven't done a Name the Game since July-
Laura Massey: That's true.
Larry Hryb: - because we were on holiday and God only knows what else.
Jeff Rubenstein: And Dylan is the recipient of your large [crosstalk 00:36:54]
Larry Hryb: Of that bounty! Of that bounty, so alright well, there you go. Congratulations Dylan, we'll be in touch. You'll get an email from us with the information on how you get all your games.
Laura Massey: That's great, and should we do another Name the Game?
Larry Hryb: This is your feature.
Laura Massey: We should because that one was a really hard one.
Larry Hryb: Alright here we go.
Laura Massey: So, let's do another Name the Game.
So that was the Name the Game for this week. Super easy to win fabulous prizes. All you have to do is tell me what game those sounds are from.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: Super easy.
Larry Hryb: That's it.
Laura Massey: Send us an email [email protected] and CC [email protected]
Larry Hryb: Let us know your name, where you're from and your gamertag if you'd like us to announce that on the air or not if you don't want to.
Laura Massey: That's right. We do respect your privacy.
Larry Hryb: This is like, by the way, this is like this weird thing I'm playing with on my desk, that's that sound you hear. This is like the poor man's fidget spinner. You've got the real fidget spinner.
Laura Massey: I've got the real fidget spinner.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's just a bolt.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just a piece of hardware. It's a microphone-
Jeff Rubenstein: It's really glossy, though.
Larry Hryb: It is. I like my microphones-
Jeff Rubenstein: That's a high-end thing.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, so go ahead and enter, let us know. Drop us an email, that's the way. Don't hit us on Twitter, I mean you're welcome to do that but it doesn't count as an entry.
Laura Massey: That's right, we only accept email entries for this one.
Larry Hryb: Only. If you want to win more prizes you can actually follow me on Twitter @majornelson, every Friday free code Friday.
Laura Massey: You do free code Friday.
Larry Hryb: Which I've been doing free code Friday for about a decade now.
Laura Massey: I know, right?
Larry Hryb: It's been forever, Laura.
Laura Massey: Goodness, it has been forever.
Larry Hryb: I'm not gonna say it to you, Laura, because I respect you too much. Jeff, we're getting old.
Jeff Rubenstein: What is this "we" business?
Larry Hryb: What?
Laura Massey: I know, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: No, I've-
Larry Hryb: I have some hair for you.
Jeff Rubenstein: I could use it.
Larry Hryb: Oh boy, alright. So, there we go. That's what's going on. That's the show this week. Jeff, you got some more headlines, you got some news to kind of wrap up here, that we could-
Jeff Rubenstein: I do, indeed. It's a very newsworthy week.
Larry Hryb: Yeah!
Jeff Rubenstein: First of all, for you Minecraft fans all many, many millions of you ... The Minecraft Better Together update is here. So, basically it allows people that are playing Minecraft on Xbox, on mobile, you know, on IOS or Android-
Larry Hryb: Pretty much everybody-
Jeff Rubenstein: - VR, Windows 10.
Larry Hryb: Pretty much everybody except one of the large major electronic manufacturers in Japan.
Jeff Rubenstein: I can't even figure out what that would be.
Larry Hryb: So, you ...
Jeff Rubenstein: Can play together! So, there's a lot of, there's details and information and all that stuff but it is overwhelmingly a good thing.
Larry Hryb: Better together.
Jeff Rubenstein: We have a link to Mincraft.net with details on the Better Together update.
Larry Hryb: Better together.
Jeff Rubenstein: But there's a song for it, apparently. Here's something you can play for free right now, which looks beautiful. It's called the Forza Motorsport 7 Demo on both Xbox One and on Windows 10 and, you know, you can play it now. Get that demo, get ready, the game's coming out rather soon.
Larry Hryb: Yes.
Jeff Rubenstein: First week in October and a little earlier if you've got, if you've pre-ordered the Bells and Whistles Edition. Make sure that you ... It's actually a pretty meaty demo, I've been playing it so you definitely want to get on that.
You know what else is coming up?
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: In just about a week and change. Cuphead!
Laura Massey: That's right! Cuphead's coming.
Jeff Rubenstein: Cuphead is coming.
Larry Hryb: I'm gonna be down in, I think I'm going to LA for the-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh are you going to that? Cause I was actually gonna talk about it.
Larry Hryb: Are you going?
Jeff Rubenstein: Well, if you're going I might have to go.
Larry Hryb: Laura?
Jeff Rubenstein: Join us.
Laura Massey: I'd love to go.
Larry Hryb: Join us!
Laura Massey: I'd love to go.
Jeff Rubenstein: So they're at Meltdown Comics in LA-
Larry Hryb: Have we announced this?
Jeff Rubenstein: - which is a pretty awesome thing. Oh, yeah. I'm reading it off of a-
Larry Hryb: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: - off of a public site.
Larry Hryb: I'll be there.
Jeff Rubenstein: There's a party going on at 7 o'clock on September 29th, which is launch day ... on Windows 10, on Xbox and Steam. And so you should come out to this party-
Larry Hryb: To say hello.
Jeff Rubenstein: - if you have the means to be there, it will be worth it. I've been hearing about some of the interesting things they'll be doing at the party.
Larry Hryb: Do you know if they're gonna have parked in the back?
Jeff Rubenstein: A taco truck?
Larry Hryb: No. I think, I think if I heard correctly, and please don't hold this to me. I think they're gonna bring in the mobile In-N-Out truck.
Laura Massey: There's such a thing?
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. It's a popular thing to rent out at weddings in California. I think I've been to one of those.
Larry Hryb: Really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Huh.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Okay, there you go.
Laura Massey: I wish they had them up here, you know.
Larry Hryb: Yeah, yes we do.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jeff Rubenstein: Here's pro tip: skip the fries. You heard it here first.
Larry Hryb: We have been-
Jeff Rubenstein: Great burgers though.
Larry Hryb: Yes, great burgers. Fries are, fries are ... you know.
Laura Massey: Ask for them well done, that's the tip.
Jeff Rubenstein: The fries are an acquired taste.
Larry Hryb: I've tried that, I've tried that.
Laura Massey: Double well done?
Larry Hryb: Double, how much do you want to-
Jeff Rubenstein: Is that a thing?
Larry Hryb: Double well done. I'm not gonna have them until the place is burning down!
Jeff Rubenstein: So, anyway that's happening down in LA and I'll go ahead and link to that so you have a little bit more details.
Larry Hryb: I'll be there, I'd love to see you. Jeff may be there, Laura's gonna be here doing work. I've already made the decision for you.
Laura Massey: Okay.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, dude, we're a little less mission critical.
Larry Hryb: Mission critical.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my God we've been spending too much time together.
Guess what-
Larry Hryb: What?
Jeff Rubenstein: - is now available on backwards compatibility?
Larry Hryb: Oh boy.
Jeff Rubenstein: [Two 00:42:12] Halo's.
Laura Massey: I saw that!
Jeff Rubenstein: So, your Xbox 360 Halo's. Halo 3, Halo 3 ODST, Halo 4 and Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary are all now backwards compatible for Xbox One, you probably have those. So you can try that out.
We played a bunch of Ghost Recon last spring. Ghost Recon ... Wildlands and a new version-
Larry Hryb: Was that last spring?
Jeff Rubenstein: - is coming. It was last spring ... and so now, that was mostly PVE you would jump in with three friends and you would go and you would wreak havoc in fictional Bolivia. They're adding a PVE, or a PVP version where you can play against other folks. It's coming for free and there's an open beta on Xbox One and you can try that, actually you can try it even if you've never played Wildlands you can get into that beta and I'll link out for more details on that.
We're in the middle of silly season of crazy amounts of games coming out, like I mentioned, Cuphead and Forza and FIFA are coming out in the next week and change. Out this week NBA 2K18, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, which is a very interesting looking game and I'm hearing good things ... and I actually can't wait to see how that one, how professionals are doing cool tag ins and outs with that.
And Minecraft Season 2, Story Mode, Season 2 Episode 3 is now available for X-one, and of course Xbox 360.
Larry Hryb: You know you can catch up on all the latest Xbox news each week,
Laura Massey: Where can I do that?
Larry Hryb: There's a lot that happens on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, of course, we have our show that we release but every Friday morning, at least on the West Coast, Friday midday on the East Coast, and then everywhere else around the world. You can catch it on This Week on Xbox.
Jeff Rubenstein: You had to think about that for a second.
Larry Hryb: Occasionally hosted by Jeffrey.
Jeff Rubenstein: Occasionally, and then it's really funny. So, I read the YouTube comments, you're never supposed to do that.
Laura Massey: No and you always do, eh?
Jeff Rubenstein: And they weren't too terrible, the first week I did it a couple listeners of the show or whatever were like "Oh hey Jeff's doing it this week, that's cool."
Week two.
Larry Hryb: Uh oh.
Jeff Rubenstein: People were like "Are you trying to usurp Larry?"
Laura Massey: Oh no!
Jeff Rubenstein: "Has a coup happened? What did you do with Larry?"
Larry Hryb: "What's going on?"
Jeff Rubenstein: "This isn't cool!" Once is like "Oh, just a one off." Two? That's a trend and it was a trend. Most people did not want ... and then when you came back it was like "Oh my God, thank God, Larry. We missed you." Sometimes you have to, I think, disappear for a little bit. They don't know how much they love you til you're gone.
Larry Hryb: You know what I'd love to do? I would love to have Laura host one of the shows.
Laura Massey: Oh I'd love to!
Larry Hryb: Would you?
Laura Massey: Yeah, that'd be super fun. Super fun.
Larry Hryb: Just don't read the comments.
Laura Massey: No, no. I stay, steer clear of that.
Larry Hryb: So anyway, This Week on Xbox you can catch it on your console or I put it up on Twitter in the afternoons, Xbox YouTube channel, it's quite the thing. There's plenty of ways to catch up on the news, you don't have to worry about hitting F5 and refreshing your browser on every news site on Monday through Friday. We'll take care of that for you, we'll give you the straight dope.
Laura Massey: Is that still a thing?
Larry Hryb: It is now, I'm bringing it back.
Jeff Rubenstein: Alright.
Larry Hryb: What else do you got Jeffrey?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I think that's more than enough for this week.
Laura Massey: That's the news.
Jeff Rubenstein: That was the news. That was it. I've linked twice.
Larry Hryb: So, I gotta tell you a funny story.
Laura Massey: I'd love to hear your funny story.
Larry Hryb: I was, where is it ... I had a meeting over in Bellevue earlier this week.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Larry Hryb: And, where is it? Hold on a second.
Laura Massey: That's like a 10 minute drive from ...
Larry Hryb: Yeah, it's just right next door. I had a meeting and I realized that I had a meeting in ... the same building that E works in.
Laura Massey: Oh, really?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, really?
Larry Hryb: So, basically-
Jeff Rubenstein: Pokémon central. You were at the Pokécenter.
Larry Hryb: So I texted him like "Hey! I'm in your building, you want to get together?" So look at that Laura, so you see it says "I'm in London." And then, so basically what I did is I went up to his floor cause I needed to get some work done and I'm trying to get on his Wifi. You can see the screenshot, I'm asking him for his Wifi.
Laura Massey: You did, you asked for the access code. He didn't even reply.
Larry Hryb: He never responded, he never even responded.
Laura Massey: He didn't even reply!
Jeff Rubenstein: He would be a terrible network engineer if he gave you that password.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, that was just a funny, I enjoyed it.
Laura Massey: That's hilarious.
Larry Hryb: You never know what I'm gonna be up to.
Laura Massey: Nope!
Larry Hryb: Alright, well, that's kind of the show this week. Next week we'll hopefully be back, do you have anything else you want to talk about before we roll on out?
Laura Massey: I think I don't, no.
Larry Hryb: You all set?
Laura Massey: No new gadgets.
Larry Hryb: No new gadgets. I'm still, you know we got a couple of emails and a couple of tweets about your ... your Roomba.
Laura Massey: Oh, that's funny.
Larry Hryb: And your inability to name said Roomba.
Laura Massey: I still haven't-
Larry Hryb: Just give it a name!
Jeff Rubenstein: The public demands it.
Larry Hryb: Alright, you know what I'm gonna name it?
Laura Massey: Give me your good names.
Larry Hryb: Steven.
Laura Massey: That's boring.
Larry Hryb: It's a better name than-
Laura Massey: No offense to the Steven's in the world-
Larry Hryb: No offense to the Steven's.
Laura Massey: - but a Roomba ...
Jeff Rubenstein: I think, like, Jeeves or something.
Larry Hryb: That's so obvious.
Jeff Rubenstein: Is it?
Laura Massey: Too cliché.
Larry Hryb: Of course, it could be Rosie.
Jeff Rubenstein: Steven.
Laura Massey: Roomba. Rosie Roomba.
Jeff Rubenstein: Little Jetson's-
Larry Hryb: Yeah, like from the Jetson's.
Jeff Rubenstein: - from the Jetson's.
Laura Massey: Yep, not too bad.
Jeff Rubenstein: Marvin.
Larry Hryb: Also a good cartoon reference.
Jeff Rubenstein: I was going with-
Larry Hryb: The martian?
Jeff Rubenstein: - Marvin the paranoid android from Hitchhiker's Guide.
Laura Massey: Oh, right.
Larry Hryb: Well I was going with Marvin the Martian from the Warner Brothers.
Jeff Rubenstein: Either way it works.
Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative), it does work.
Larry Hryb: Anyway, that's it for that. And meanwhile, Jeff how's your life living the life electric?
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it's been good. I think spent $2.48 this week, quote on quote, gassing up.
Laura Massey: Nice!
Jeff Rubenstein: I like that, that money's going straight into games.
Larry Hryb: Yep, that you can't play because you don't have time.
Jeff Rubenstein: Well we don't need to talk about that.
Larry Hryb: Alright gang, we'll be back next week. Laura will join us, I hope.
Laura Massey: Yep.
Larry Hryb: Jeff, you'll be here?
Jeff Rubenstein: Nope.
Larry Hryb: Where you gonna be?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm gonna be in Orlando.
Larry Hryb: What are you doing in Orlando?
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm going down for a non Xbox thing.
Larry Hryb: You've got some business down there?
Jeff Rubenstein: For some of the other parts of my job.
Larry Hryb: I wish I could go down.
Jeff Rubenstein: Then I'm gonna drive down to Miami to see the folks.
Larry Hryb: To see your folks.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm bringing my laptop.
Larry Hryb: I haven't really been paying attention, I only had a-
Laura Massey: Yeah, are your folks okay?
Larry Hryb: Yeah, everything else okay?
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, they're doing okay. I feel, my heart goes out to the folks in Puerto Rico. I have some, I don't have any direct relatives in Puerto Rico-
Larry Hryb: Yeah.
Jeff Rubenstein: - but I have a lot of friends who do and-
Larry Hryb: Well we went down there! You and I went to Puerto Rico.
Jeff Rubenstein: We did!
Larry Hryb: Right? We had-
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my God.
Larry Hryb: - that holiday.
Jeff Rubenstein: We had a great time. Met the nicest people. It was beautiful there, it's just terrible what's happening there.
Larry Hryb: This weather is crazy.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.
Larry Hryb: Everywhere, I mean there's so much goes out to everybody.
Jeff Rubenstein: I'm lucky that ... my relatives in Florida, they got a brush with it and obviously it made a mess but they're alright.
Larry Hryb: I was listening to this story, I think it was on the BBC, and they were interviewing this woman who was an alligator wrangler.
Laura Massey: Cool!
Larry Hryb: Who apparently, when some of the waters got, came up in Florida because there's salt water, there's regular, there's alligators in every body of water is what they all said.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's over a million alligators in Florida.
Larry Hryb: And apparently this woman, like she got calls to go take alligators out of peoples houses.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yeah. Occasionally you get them in a swimming pool or something like that.
Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.
Larry Hryb: That's like a nightmare.
Laura Massey: Yes it is.
Larry Hryb: Because those things are like pretty historic, right?
Jeff Rubenstein: They are. I mean, and they ... they're tough. You don't want to mess with a gator.
Laura Massey: No!
Larry Hryb: No, you want to go the other way.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good eatin', though.
Larry Hryb: That's nice.
Laura Massey: I haven't had them. I hear that they are very healthy, like to eat.
Jeff Rubenstein: They're ... I don't know if that's the case. They're tasty.
Laura Massey: The fat to protein ratio.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that's good. I think they also have mercury in them so, you know, you win some you lose some.
Laura Massey: Yeah, you might lose some too.
Larry Hryb: Alright, if you want to hit up-
Jeff Rubenstein: I got a good recipe for you for a gator burrito.
Larry Hryb: - @jeffrubenstein is you want to talk to him about gator stuff.
Jeff Rubenstein: Now I'm hungry.
Larry Hryb: How do they find you on social media, Laura?
Laura Massey: You can find me on Twitter @lauralollipop.
Larry Hryb: Yes you can, you can find Jeffrey @JeffreyRubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, not rey r-e-y, there is probably that person.
Larry Hryb: There is a Jeffrey Rubenstein.
Jeff Rubenstein: It's Jeff Rubenstein, thanks.
Larry Hryb: That's also, he also handles all of the complaints for the show.
Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, all complaints can go to @JeffreyRubenstein.
Larry Hryb: Of course, you can find me @majornelson and we'll see you, if I don't see you on Friday during This Week on Xbox ... then I will, did you see, by the way before we sign off and let me bring the music back down. Did you see the video I did with Aaron Greenberg? No, you didn't see it.
Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, I saw it.
Laura Massey: I don't think so.
Jeff Rubenstein: And LEGIQN.
Larry Hryb: That's right and LEGIQN.
Jeff Rubenstein: Jordan Payton.
Larry Hryb: Jordan Payton.
Jeff Rubenstein: Good guy.
Larry Hryb: Go watch that one.
Laura Massey: You recommend it?
Larry Hryb: I'll let Jeff do it.
Jeff Rubenstein: You know, I'm gonna link to it.
Larry Hryb: Okay, let's link to it. Alright gang, we'll talk to you next time. I don't know, maybe Laura and I won't do a show next week cause Jeffrey won't be here, we'll figure it out. We'll talk to you next time.
Buh-bye everybody!
Laura Massey: Buh-bye!