637: Xbox 3rd Party Accessories and more

Larry Hryb: Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson. Welcome to the show 637. Sitting here at the end of April 2019. Hi, Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's been a little while.

Larry Hryb: You know, I was looking through our notes. Last time we were on the air was at Pax East.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's a lot quieter now.

Larry Hryb: It is. We're back in our studio. We're hanging out. It's lovely.

Jeff Rubenstein: But it's not as quiet as it normally is when we do one of these.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's other people in there! Do we know who they are?

Larry Hryb: We do. Don't worry. Don't look at Jeff in the face! We've got special guest, Mr. Scott Weber is joining us. Hi Scott.

Scott Weber: Hello. How are you?

Larry Hryb: You are... you work on the third party accessories team for Xbox.

Scott Weber: Correct. I do.

Larry Hryb: So, you are responsible for a lot of things. In fact, I was tweeting out earlier this week, and we had you on this week on Xbox to talk about the new headset.

Scott Weber: Indeed, yeah. A new steel series coming out. Arctis 9X.

Larry Hryb: We're going to talk about that later on the show, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein: I just want to... What is 3rd party accessories? What does that mean? For those listening. Want to start [crosstalk 00:01:30]?

Scott Weber: Okay.

Larry Hryb: Let's get in the nitty gritty of it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, [crosstalk 00:01:32].

Scott Weber: 3rd party accessories is anything you walk into the store, and has that green Xbox bar across the top of it, designed for Xbox badge. That means it came through our program. So, they're the license partners. We have 30 plus license partners, and we make accessories for Xbox. We work with them in all sorts of categories. So, audio is probably our biggest category. But then-

Larry Hryb: Headsets and stuff.

Scott Weber: Yeah, headsets, Chad Headsets, big like, and super expensive. Cool. High-end headsets like Astro.

Jeff Rubenstein: I love all of them.

Scott Weber: All the super premium stuff. And then steering wheels is a big thing for us. Storage, working with CGate. And then, yeah, all sorts of other fringe stuff that's on the periphery.

Larry Hryb: So he brought a bag of stuff later. Some cool accessories.

Scott Weber: I got goodies.

Larry Hryb: Stuff that has been announced and stuff that we... I've never seen before.

Jeff Rubenstein: Well if you haven't seen it, does it really exist?

Larry Hryb: Well, I'm telling you. So we're going to talk about that later, but I wanted to just bring Scott in since he and I chatted on This Week on Xbox, and like "I got to get you on the show."

Scott Weber: Alright.

Larry Hryb: Got to get him on the show.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know there's a lot of other stuff you have to talk about to?

Larry Hryb: We talk about what we're playing. I already prepped him.

Scott Weber: I'm ready for it.

Larry Hryb: I prepped him. So do you want to start with what we're playing? Do you want to go into the headlines, Jeff? What do you want to do?

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's stick with the plan.

Larry Hryb: I mean, what are we going to sample?

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's ease into it. Like an old man into a warm bath.

Larry Hryb: [laughter] Okay, that's something I didn't need [crosstalk 00:02:45].

Jeff Rubenstein: That was a Seinfeld line or something.

Larry Hryb: Well, I'm playing Human Fall Flat.

Jeff Rubenstein: Really?

Larry Hryb: Yeah. Have you played that Scott?

Scott Weber: I have not.

Larry Hryb: It's a puzzle game. You can use... There are multiple... You should try it, we should try co-op sometime.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay. Wait, okay.

Larry Hryb: It's co-op. Basically you're this...

Jeff Rubenstein: Like a rag doll, right?

Larry Hryb: Yeah. You're like this blobby, oozy old man sliding into a bath tub.

Jeff Rubenstein: See, I knew where we were going with this.

Larry Hryb: And it's, it's you have to solve puzzles. And it's a lot of fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: I believe it's like one of the more popular games on Xbox Game Pass.

Larry Hryb: I think it is too.

Jeff Rubenstein: I just feel like a lot of people were introduced to that game via the power of it being included within the 100 days.

Larry Hryb: Right. Because the barrier to entry, as they say, is like "I'll download this," and download it and hey, it's actually kind of fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: I've downloaded it, I've just never gone to it. Because I've watched people play on streaming services, and it just really fun. It just looks ridiculous.

Larry Hryb: It is. It is. So that's why I know there's a multi-player component to it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Alright.

Larry Hryb: Or co... I should say co-op, it's not multi-player. It's not PvP.

Jeff Rubenstein: Got it.

Larry Hryb: PvP.

Jeff Rubenstein: Can I smack you, though? Because I feel like I would probably do that.

Larry Hryb: Probably.

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's do that.

Larry Hryb: So I'm playing that. Of course I've been racking up the wins in Apex in the latest season of Apex.

Jeff Rubenstein: You're pretty... So, okay. So last week was Inside Xbox.

Larry Hryb: Yes.[crosstalk 00:04:02].

Jeff Rubenstein: And I was watching, and I love watching the chat as it's streaming by at near the speed of light.

Larry Hryb: It's faster than light.

Jeff Rubenstein: There was an Apex reference that you had in there.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And someone was like-

Larry Hryb: Mozambique.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Well, someone was like "Oh, he doesn't play Apex." And I was like "Excuse me."

Larry Hryb: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: The comment was gone before I could possibly reply.

Larry Hryb: Well, I sent you my Battle Pass number. My Battle Pass level.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. You're like in the 40s.

Larry Hryb: 43 and seven eighths. It's like a hat size. [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: Really big hat. Considering I'm at like 15.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, because, you know, it is a grind to unlock all that stuff.

Larry Hryb: It is.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's pretty far ahead.

Larry Hryb: I'm grinding away. Do you play any Apex, Scott?

Scott Weber: I'm not an Apex play, no.

Larry Hryb: Okay. What are you playing, by the way?

Scott Weber: I'm on FIFA 19 all day, every day.

Jeff Rubenstein: I was playing a lot of that this week too.

Scott Weber: Yeah. So I'm deep into the Ultimate team levels there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Fut, you're Futmen.

Scott Weber: I'm a Futmen. Yeah. So we got team of the season coming out here in a couple of weeks, hopefully.

Jeff Rubenstein: Tots.

Scott Weber: Tots.

Larry Hryb: Tots, that's right.

Scott Weber: Tots, yeah. Very, very excited for that. Hoarding those coins, waiting for those new packs to drop.

Larry Hryb: Cha-ching, cha-ching. That's... Yeah, we've played FIFA a couple times.

Jeff Rubenstein: We have, you know, occasionally. I'm a big FIFA fan.

Larry Hryb: Yep.

Jeff Rubenstein: And you're a Madden fan.

Larry Hryb: In fact he's such a big football fan, sometimes Jeff will actually tune out of meetings to watch games live stream.

Jeff Rubenstein: Here's what I found out.

Scott Weber: Well, the champion's league is in the middle of the day. How are you not going to put it on?

Jeff Rubenstein: A lot, I'm mean... There's a lot of games during the middle of the day right now.

Scott Weber: It's very true.

Larry Hryb: I have to show you this. So if you follow me on Instagram, I put up an Instagram story. You can find me[crosstalk 00:05:40].

Jeff Rubenstein: Instagram.com, slash Major Nelson.

Larry Hryb: But I put up an Instagram story yesterday of you playing.

Jeff Rubenstein: I know. Like I can't do anything-

Larry Hryb: So I have that up there.

Jeff Rubenstein: -if I am not eyes focused on the monitor and typing out an important memo. Larry seems to be able to capture it, whether I'm playing Apex or watching Arsenal play during a meeting.

Larry Hryb: Let me show you this. Someone across from you in the meeting that we both know. And look at the bottom. He sent me a DM. Who's a big friend.

Jeff Rubenstein: [laughter]

Larry Hryb: This is one of the Game Pass guys, who was in that meeting. He's like "I knew it, I knew it!"

Jeff Rubenstein: That's not great. Yeah.

Scott Weber: Matt, where you going to call him out? I know him too. [laughter]

Larry Hryb: I have no shame.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, no, that's... At least wait like a week, so they go "Wait, was that in my meeting?" You know, "Could I have been more interesting?"

Larry Hryb: Well, it turns out, so Graeme Boyde, AceyBongos, you're familiar with him, he saw that and he ran into me in the hallway. He's like “Yeah, I kind of do that to.” Apparently when it's on he'll sit in the back of the meeting, quietly in a corner.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. That's when I put the laptop, I take it off the table and I put it in my lap. And I have it a little folded down. Look, it's the time zones. We have to deal with what we have to do. I'm finding my own work life balance at work.

Larry Hryb: We're going to talk about, so we talked about FIFA, we talked about that. So here's something you don't know. This is actually-

Jeff Rubenstein: It's going to be a very long list. How much time do we have?

Larry Hryb: It's a... So Scott here, on the third party accessories team, he actually hosts his own podcast on Mariners baseball.

Jeff Rubenstein: Really?

Scott Weber: I do.

Jeff Rubenstein: They're doing pretty well this year, aren't they?

Scott Weber: Yeah, they are. We'll see if it lasts.

Jeff Rubenstein: I know. The Phillies started five and one, and I was pretty happy too.

Larry Hryb: We're make sure we put a link in the show notes. We'll talk about it towards the end of the show as well.

Scott Weber: Sure.

Larry Hryb: But I just want to say he's also a fellow podcaster.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's good.

Scott Weber: Set up not as nice as this. We were talking about it before we came on.

Jeff Rubenstein: This is quite the setup.

Scott Weber: It's pretty nice.

Jeff Rubenstein: Up in here in Major towers.

Larry Hryb: This is a nice studio. We're fortunate because we've been doing this. I don't know if you know this, but... So I've been doing the podcast, my podcast, this podcast for how long, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein: 16 years?

Larry Hryb: 16 years. So we've done over 500 episodes.

Scott Weber: I heard the number at the beginning. It's impressive

Larry Hryb: It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous.

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's not get into the specifics of the number.

Larry Hryb: Yeah the number... It may be a hundred less. I don't know.

Scott Weber: It's hotly contested.

Larry Hryb: But I will say we have hundreds and hundreds of shows.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Can you agree with me on that, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein: I know. This is still one of my favorite times of the week. We actually talk about the things we do. I mean, we just play so much Apex, Larry.

Larry Hryb: You have to remember. So Jeff and I, obviously we're very good friends. I see him during the week. We're playing Apex at night. On the weekend sometimes I'll stop by your house, or we'll meet up somewhere.

Jeff Rubenstein: You're always in my neighborhood. I must have good stores near where I live.

Larry Hryb: Oh, it's the Asian food.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's pretty good. We have some... There are five Thai places I can walk to.

Larry Hryb: That's true.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Alright, alright.

Scott Weber: You live on the Ave.?

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, no, no, but not far.

Scott Weber: Got it.

Jeff Rubenstein: And you know what else came out this week?

Larry Hryb: Oh, bring it back [crosstalk 00:08:38].

Jeff Rubenstein: I hate to keep us on track.

Larry Hryb: We hate to talk about games, but go ahead.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mortal Kombat.

Larry Hryb: That's right.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good. Mortal Kombat 11. Have you played any of the recent Mortal Kombat? Nine or ten?

Scott Weber: I played, the one, I think it was ten.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Scott Weber: Came out in like 2015.

Jeff Rubenstein: You can call it X.

Scott Weber: X.

Larry Hryb: Right, it's always that "Do I call it X or do I call it ten."

Scott Weber: Mortal Kombat X. Going to give it to you.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Scott Weber: Pretty fun. Pretty fun. And I'm not like a fighting game guy, but I mean I grew up playing Mortal Kombat. Right? That's a-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, who didn't? I used to go to a bowling alley.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Well, just so you know, Scott. Sitting in that very third spot one year was Ed Boone, the creator of Mortal Kombat.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's right.

Larry Hryb: Remember, we had him on the show.

Jeff Rubenstein: E3. Actually when Mortal Kombat X was first playable.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And we had him on, and he told us how he designs all of the fatalities as stick figure drawings. And what's amazing is now playing Mortal Kombat 11 where there's the most just insane fatalities. You would think after now 11 games plus a number of like sort of side spin off games, there's no further ways to do a fatality. You're wrong.

Scott Weber: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: You're wrong. The level... He's the nicest guy, and the weirdest stuff comes out of his brain.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, he's great.

Jeff Rubenstein: And they've gone over into like parody. I remember, if you go back to 1993-

Larry Hryb: Have they jumped the shark?

Jeff Rubenstein: No.

Larry Hryb: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: You go back to 1993, and it was like "Oh, this is gruesome and uh." But now they're like, they're kind of funny.

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:10:07].

Jeff Rubenstein: They're so over the top, especially Johnny Cage's stuff, it's legitimately laugh out loud funny. And Cassie Cage. A lot of these fatalities-

Scott Weber: I saw one of the Cassie Cage ones, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: -you're like, did that really happen. Yeah, where she does the heart, the thing. Anyway. It's just, you have to play it. There's even a fatality trainer.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So you can just practice those.

Scott Weber: That's great, that's great. Would have been great in 93.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my. Back then, like back in the day. Because I didn't have internet. I'd never even bought a computer om 1993. I was a kid. You had to like go, and you had to watch people's hands, like at the arcade.

Larry Hryb: Right, at the arcade.

Jeff Rubenstein: Because people would not want to share it. Like maybe if I lost to someone like six times in a row, they'd be like "Here's how you do that kick."

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know, or whatever. But like you had to write it down, and you had to like memorize it. It took a lot. And then what you would do is you would hoard that knowledge. So I remember one time for Mortal Kombat 2 when it first came out, this must have been, I don't know, 94, 95. My neighborhood had one, and I had been, again, jealousy watching people, and I had picked up quite a bit.

Larry Hryb: Is this when you're Philadelphia?

Jeff Rubenstein: No, this is in south Florida. This is Miami.

Larry Hryb: Okay, south Florida.

Jeff Rubenstein: And then one of my best friends at the time, his parents where split up, and he was like "Hey, come on up. We're going to my mom's house. She lives in Boca." [crosstalk 00:11:21]. We went up to Boca. Boca Vista, phase two.

Scott Weber: There we go. It was number two.

Larry Hryb: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: And Will Chamberlain, like basketball player, hall of famer Will Chamberlain had a restaurant called... And it was sort of like an arcade. Sort of like an early bar-cade. Like a restaurant as well. And we get there, and they'd just gotten their Mortal Kombat 2 machine.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And people were flocking to it, but they had never played Mortal Kombat 2. They didn't know anything, and I knew all the moves.

Larry Hryb: Uh oh, so you were-

Jeff Rubenstein: So we get there, and there was like an hour wait to sit. And I put my quarter up, and I start playing. I'm starting winning. And then it's like "Okay, the table's ready." "I'll be right there as soon as I lose." "Okay, we're putting in our order." "I'll be there as soon as I lose." "The foods here." "I'll be ready as soon as I lose." "We're paying the bill."

Larry Hryb: You ran the table? [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: 24 straight matches that I won. I lost on the 25th. It was not fair, because I knew all the moves for like five different characters, and one person came up like five or six... I took him for like three bucks, which this was the 90s, that's worth like 80 dollars in today's dollars. And anyway, now you can just look it up. And now actually you just pause it and all the moves are there. Which is great for being able to level the playing field, and you find out whose actually good. I needed that level of like government secrecy to hold that over people in order to rack up that win streak. Didn't eat dinner that day, though.

Larry Hryb: There's a lot more things we needed to remember back in the day, you know. Like we've got... We needed to remember directions, now you've got it in your phone. You've got GPS in your phone.

Jeff Rubenstein: Life is so much better now.

Scott Weber: It is. You know, back then you could hoard that knowledge, or you could have someone call like the... If you had like Super Nintendo or something, they could call 900 number.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, yes.

Scott Weber: The Nintendo Power 900 number. And that was like three dollars a minute or something.

Larry Hryb: We actually-

Scott Weber: I mean it was absurdly expensive.

Larry Hryb: We actually work with somebody on our team who used to work on that line.

Scott Weber: That's amazing.

Larry Hryb: Because Nintendo is right around the corner from us. So he would tell us stories about that. How back in-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, and advanced really high into the industry with that as their first job. Like sitting there with this giant book of tips.

Larry Hryb: Oh yeah. And he was describing the book to us on the Zeldas. It was... Anyway. So yeah, so Mortal Kombat. In fact, we like to surprise and delight on this show.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, go on.

Larry Hryb: You ready?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Alright.

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm surprised.

Larry Hryb: Get your NATO alphabet ready. Whiskey Three Seven Foxtrot Yankee Juliet Hotel Delta Queen Three. Foxtrot Nine Four Whiskey. Victor Foxtrot Delta Four Delta Kilo Hotel Whiskey X-raY Three. And then there's one more. If you can figure out what the one more is, you can get a copy of Mortal Kombat.

Jeff Rubenstein: Did you just activate a sleeper cell from like a Tom Clancy book?

Larry Hryb: I'm just, that was a code for Mortal Kombat 11.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, hey.

Larry Hryb: But you need to figure out what the last one is. And I'll give you a clue. If you watch, if you play FIFA or if you're from not the United States, it's how you refer to...

Jeff Rubenstein: That sport?

Larry Hryb: No. How do I say this? It is a... It is what... It's the last... I don't want to say anymore.

Jeff Rubenstein: People are like hitting fast forward right now to get this explanation.

Scott Weber: I mean, what do we got. We got 36 possible combinations of what I'm told.

Larry Hryb: It's the first letter of another name for zombies.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Scott Weber: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: Where did FIFA come from there?

Larry Hryb: I don't know, I went off the rails.

Scott Weber: There's a connection point later.

Larry Hryb: No, there may not be a connection. Anyway, good luck to anybody who got that. I'm sure it's already gone. So don't email me if you say it didn't work.

Jeff Rubenstein: No, you'll tweet at me, I'm sure.

Larry Hryb: Wow, that was a waste of time. Let's move on, Jeffery. Shall we? [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So Apex, we've been playing a ton of. And then Operencia. I know I've talked about his once or twice. This will be the last time. This is an Xbox Game Pass RPG.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Old school sort of in its make up, but very new in the way it looks. Just highly recommend it. It's just really fun. Based off of Hungarian mythology, which if you're like me, you know nothing about it.

Larry Hryb: What, that was your minor in college, wasn't it?

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, no. That was Bulgarian. One country down.

Larry Hryb: Okay, sorry.

Jeff Rubenstein: Or two. Now I got to look at a map. Anyway, Operencia: The Stolen Sun. It's on Xbox Game Pass. Definitely worth getting after.

Larry Hryb: Yes. Get after it.

Jeff Rubenstein: You can. Oh, one more thing. Guacamelee 2. I think I've talked about before. So good.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, you have talked about before.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's so good.

Larry Hryb: Have you played that one, Scott?

Scott Weber: I have not.

Jeff Rubenstein: The original Guacamelee I believe is still on Xbox Game Pass. One of the best Metroidvanias. You're playing a luchador, an undead luchador. It's really good. It has the right level of challenge, fun, great music. Guacamelee 2 is more Guacamelee, which is-

Larry Hryb: Guacamelee-er.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Scott Weber: I've got a lot to play.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: You do.

Scott Weber: I've got a lot to play.

Larry Hryb: We all do.

Scott Weber: This is what happens with FIFA and Ultimate team. You'll like "I should play something else." And then they go "New content." More, new content.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's me with Apex. It's like "Alright, I'm going to play a game I haven't beaten yet." And then I'm like "Oh, all these people are on? Where are we dropping, boys?"

Larry Hryb: And then the new content for Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. I downloaded[crosstalk 00:16:22].

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: Oh my gosh.

Jeff Rubenstein: It looks so good.

Larry Hryb: Have you played that?

Scott Weber: I... Have I played it. I decided like a fool to 100% the game.

Larry Hryb: What?

Scott Weber: I did.

Larry Hryb: Now, Jeff, you did that, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: No.

Scott Weber: Every single location completed.

Larry Hryb: Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the latest one. How did you... How long did that take you?

Scott Weber: 110 hours.

Larry Hryb: Holy cow.

Jeff Rubenstein: And you know what, worth it.

Scott Weber: Ah, there's a sense of self accomplishment to it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure.

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:16:44].

Scott Weber: You know, and I like that. They changed the achievement, which is really annoying. In Origins, when you got every single question, completed them all, there was a rare achievement that you got.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: And then they changed it. They made it easier in Odyssey, that you just had to travel to every location and not complete them. Even travel to like every island.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: So I didn't get that big, like, ding when I got every single one, but in my heart I felt it. I knew it. For me I felt it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Cassandra or Alexios?

Scott Weber: Cassandra.

Jeff Rubenstein: You are allowed to stay for the remainder of the show.

Larry Hryb: You passed.

Scott Weber: Cassandra.

Jeff Rubenstein: So this Fate of Atlantis DLC looks so good.

Scott Weber: It looks really cool.

Jeff Rubenstein: Because is spent, I think I only spent a mere 80 hours in Odyssey, and I can't wait to go back. So that's something I'll do this week. If stop being online for Apex, Larry, then I will be doing this. It came out this week. I'm going to link to a trailer, because I looked at this. This is not the first piece of DLC for the game.

Scott Weber: Correct.

Jeff Rubenstein: But this one was just like, this is the one you've been waiting for. And it's going to be a three parter, as well.

Larry Hryb: As any good story is.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. And epic in three parts.

Larry Hryb: An epic in three parts.

Jeff Rubenstein: I will link out to the trailer.

Larry Hryb: An epic Greek tragedy in three parts. Or is it? I don't know.

Scott Weber: Indeed.

Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know.

Larry Hryb: Alright. What else do we have for news there, Jeffery?

Jeff Rubenstein: Alright, so Mortal Kombat like we talked about. Now available on Xbox One. There are a couple different varieties. If you didn't pre-order to get Shao Khan, well you can still pick him up. He is an addable purchasable character, as well as Frost.

Jeff Rubenstein: Kingdom Hearts 3.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: I think I saw something that said this is the best selling game of the year so far. So congrats to Square Enix. They definitely... You know, good things come to those who wait. And if you've beaten Kingdom Hearts 3 and said "This is too easy." Well, there is a critical mode update to challenge you.

Larry Hryb: Is anybody saying that?

Jeff Rubenstein: I don't know.

Scott Weber: If they are, we've got them covered.

Jeff Rubenstein: I mean, it's not... I didn't beat it. So I would say it can... The battle was a lot of fun, I don't know if it was super hard. But anyway, this critical mode cuts Sora's hit points and magic points in half and decreases the frequency of situation commands and magic. Like when you summon like the electric light train or something like that that definitely helps sway the balance in these big battles. Anyway, it's now available as an update in Kingdom Hearts 3. You will see it if you try to start a new game. Don't forget, that game is enhanced for Xbox One X.

Larry Hryb: Yes. And it looks so good.

Scott Weber: Beautiful.

Jeff Rubenstein: So new trailer came out just the other day for Shores of Gold.

Larry Hryb: Oh.

Jeff Rubenstein: Shores of Gold is part of Sea of Thieves Tall Tales.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which is a more story driven element coming to Sea of Thieves. Their anniversary update, April 30th. Which is really soon.

Larry Hryb: And also past their anniversary, but... [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: This is their anniversary year.

Larry Hryb: It's the same area, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, coming for Xbox. If you have Xbox Game Pass or on Xbox One you have the game. Windows 10 PC coming out. There's a ton coming. There's the arena. But Shores of Gold, this tall... There's nine distinct Tall Tales. Each of which-

Larry Hryb: Is each one taller?

Jeff Rubenstein: -you can tackle as a solo player.

Larry Hryb: Is each one taller?

Jeff Rubenstein: We don't want to give away spoilers on this. That's no spoilers on Tall Tails.

Scott Weber: It's [crosstalk 00:19:59]progressive.

Larry Hryb: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: No spoilers on Game of Thrones, and no spoilers on Avengers. Which I don't know if you've seen yet either. It's going to be a crazy weekend.

Larry Hryb: Yes it is.

Jeff Rubenstein: Like the next four or five days, it's going to be nuts. Anyway, so there is a trailer, if you want to get an idea of what's coming. But so many things are coming to the game. Besides Tall Tales, things like fishing, which people have been asking for.

Larry Hryb: I'll tell you what I'm really excited for.

Jeff Rubenstein: What?

Larry Hryb: Go ahead.

Jeff Rubenstein: Is it the harpoon?

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: [laughter]

Larry Hryb: That harpoon. I can't wait to thump, stick in the side of a ship.

Jeff Rubenstein: Put in the side of a ship, put it in the side of a shark.

Larry Hryb: Right. Oh, there sharks.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's so many things you'll be able to do with it.

Larry Hryb: We can finally get, we can finally play again with Sketch from 343.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Whose afraid of sharks. [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: He's not going to be any less afraid. And now that the megaladon can appear at any place and any time.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And then also ships are going to be damageable, that's a word, in more places than one. So you can like take out the mast, and you can take out like the...

Larry Hryb: Have you played Sea of Thieves?

Scott Weber: I have, yeah.

Larry Hryb: It's a lot of fun, isn't it?

Scott Weber: It's really fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: This is going to be a good time to go back, and I have a feeling a lot of people are going to be playing that. Jumping back in next week.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. I'm trying to get Craig from Rare on the show, or at least Joe. But they're getting busy to ship. And we had a little bit from Joe on Inside Xbox last week. Go back and watch that show. You'll get some more details of what Jeff talked about.

Jeff Rubenstein: Alright. Minecraft. Another game millions of people playing. Big update, if you have the Bedrock version of the game.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which is basically if you were to download it now, that's what it would be on Xbox One, Windows 10, IOS, Android, and Nintendo Switch.

Larry Hryb: Wait whose missing? Oh, never mind. Go on.

Jeff Rubenstein: The Village and Pillage Update is out today.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: And it really changes the different sort of villagers that you would encounter. First of all there's going to be a lot more of them. More things you can trade for. There's going to be a wandering-

Larry Hryb: Are they angry?

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, some of them are. The pillagers, these are like the newest mob that will appear. They can attack with a crossbow. Fortunately you can also now craft and attack a crossbow. So they've just added so much more to the game in the last couple... Like, if you haven't played Minecraft since like, let's say a year after it came out on Xbox one, there are so many more things, so many more animals, so many more things to do, so many more things to kill you. So many more materials to build with. Highly recommend you jump back in.

Larry Hryb: There's more, more, more.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's just a lot. And I love the building, but I really love, like the survival elements of the game, and so a new mob is good. And we will link out to our Minecraft dot net, where you can find more about that.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: If you this weekend aren't busy with the third episode of Game of Thrones or Avengers-

Larry Hryb: Oh. are you watching Game of Thrones, Scott?

Scott Weber: Oh yeah.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, we are too.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we're have to have a spoiler cast this summer. Not this one. If you're looking for something else to do between those episodes and that movie, Gears of War 4 and the Crew 2 have free play days this weekend.

Larry Hryb: Two different types of games.

Jeff Rubenstein: So if you have Xbox Live Gold, and if you're listening to this I'm assuming you do, by the time you're hearing this, you can find and install Gears of War 4 and the Crew 2 standard edition. We will link out to where you can find those links. Make it a little bit easier. You can play them free through midnight on Sunday, and they're also on sale... Well, the Crew 2 is on sale up to 70% off.

Larry Hryb: Fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: And Gears of War 4 is of course available as part of Xbox Game Pass, but if you don't have Game Pass, you want to try out Gears of War 4, why there's never been a better time to do it.

Larry Hryb: What are you waiting for?

Larry Hryb: Bless you, you alright?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, that's it.

Larry Hryb: Okay. Little [inaudible 00:23:36] there, little sniff going on.

Jeff Rubenstein: A little. We're good, we're good. And that's the news.

Larry Hryb: That's just a little bit of the news. You want to catch up all of it, make sure you tune in to This Week on Xbox every Thursday on your console YouTube mixer.

Jeff Rubenstein: Facebook.

Larry Hryb: And this week you're have Scott on the show if you want to put a voice to a name and actual voice and a face to all that.

Scott Weber: See this mug.

Larry Hryb: By the way, you see what's going on across the table from you, Scott?

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Jeff's... What are you drinking there, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein: That's a taste of Japan right there.

Larry Hryb: Is that saki?

Jeff Rubenstein: No, no. That will be after noon.

Scott Weber: What time is it right now? [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: So I'm a big fan of Japan, of visiting Japan.

Larry Hryb: As am I. Have you been, Scott?

Scott Weber: I have been to Japan. My parents are actually in Japan right now, believe it or not.

Larry Hryb: So you've been?

Scott Weber: I have. I've been to Tokyo.

Larry Hryb: Okay, because we love... We talked a little bit earlier about you're a Mariners, you run a Mariners podcast. What's it called by the way?

Scott Weber: It's called Dome and Bedlam.

Larry Hryb: Dome and Bedlam.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Larry Hryb: Okay. But yeah, when we go over there, we usually go to the Tokyo Game Show, which is right next to where the Mariners Farm team plays.

Scott Weber: Ah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Chiba Marines.

Larry Hryb: Chiba. Yeah, the Chiba Marines.

Jeff Rubenstein: Well not only that, but I believe the Mariners were the first Japanese owned baseball team.

Scott Weber: Correct, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: That the owner of Nintendo or the president of Nintendo owned them for a long time.

Scott Weber: Indeed. No longer.

Larry Hryb: Okay. Who owns them now?

Scott Weber: It's basically all the minority owners that were a part of the team before all stepped up and they are the primary.

Larry Hryb: So they've gone from minority to majority.

Scott Weber: It's a collective group.

Larry Hryb: Got it.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it's safe to say that everyone here at this table is a friend and a fan of Japan and Japanese culture. And one of my favorite things-

Larry Hryb: Wait a minute, I have to ask one question.

Jeff Rubenstein: Please do.

Larry Hryb: So you're a fan of Japanese culture.

Scott Weber: Sure.

Larry Hryb: Jeff and I, independently, have Japanese toilets.

Scott Weber: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: Toto washlet.

Scott Weber: They're serious about their toilets.

Larry Hryb: Do you have one?

Scott Weber: I don't.

Larry Hryb: Okay. We're not going to hold it against you.

Scott Weber: But I would absolutely, if given the choice.

Larry Hryb: Okay. It is the... I'll tell you this-

Scott Weber: This is more a lack of handyman.

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:25:30]

Scott Weber: The thought of slapping on a toilet is like terrifying.

Larry Hryb: If Jeff can do it, you can do it.

Jeff Rubenstein: No, if I could. Believe me, it's not difficult.

Scott Weber: Okay. Alright.

Larry Hryb: But yeah, that is the ultimate accessory to your bathroom.

Scott Weber: Oh, it is.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Japan is living in the future, and I realized it when I sat down.

Jeff Rubenstein: So one of the things that I love about Japan is that there are in all parts really of Japan that I've been to, vending machines everywhere.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And they have for a very low price, sometimes as low as a 100 yen or less, which is like, I don't know, 90 cents or something, all kinds of delicious treats. And among them, their canned coffee is just phenomenal.

Larry Hryb: The leader.

Jeff Rubenstein: And out of all of them in my mind the leader is Boss Coffee, which is part of Suntory-

Larry Hryb: Appropriately named.

Jeff Rubenstein: And Suntory makes tons of stuff like whiskey and many other things that I don't have until after news.

Larry Hryb: Suntory time.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly. Until after noon.

Scott Weber: Okay, got it. So saki, okay during this part of the podcast. But the whiskey comes later, right?

Larry Hryb: [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, exactly. So last week Suntory USA or whatever twitter tweeted out “We are making Boss Coffee available in the US for the first time.”

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Scott Weber: Wow.

Jeff Rubenstein: And this is like the real Japanese Boss Coffee.

Larry Hryb: It even has Japanese characters written on top.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, there's kanji on the top there. And I just cracked it, this is the first can I've had.

Larry Hryb: Oh, it is?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Oh my gosh.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I wanted to have it here on the show.

Larry Hryb: Well thank you Ann.

Jeff Rubenstein: So this is Boss Coffee flash brew cold café au lait, and my god.

Larry Hryb: It's good. Yeah, the good the stuff. Jeff got a couple of those.

Jeff Rubenstein: That is a little sip of heaven.

Scott Weber: I have not had mine yet.

Jeff Rubenstein: Right there.

Scott Weber: Want to get that.

Jeff Rubenstein: I brought a couple for you.

Larry Hryb: Yes you did.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I hope you enjoy them.

Larry Hryb: I will.

Jeff Rubenstein: And they're now selling them here in the US.

Scott Weber: On Amazon, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And you owe it to yourself.

Larry Hryb: Can you put a link in that. Let's put a link in the show notes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yes. I'll be more than happy to do that. I'll bring that up. The world just got a little bit smaller, is how I would put it. Something I could never have except when I'm there, I can now have here. Obviously there's like 50 varieties when you're over in Japan. I like the one with the embossed can. This is good enough.

Larry Hryb: Okay. [crosstalk 00:27:28] the black one, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: There's a lot. Well, there's so many.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, right.

Jeff Rubenstein: But the one with the embossed can has like Boss anniversary or something like that.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's amazing.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, look it up online.

Scott Weber: Nice.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: So, anyway.

Jeff Rubenstein: I will link out to Suntory USA.

Larry Hryb: Let's get back to games, shall we?

Jeff Rubenstein: This is my gamer fuel.

Larry Hryb: This is... Okay. Gamer fuel, the Japanese edition.

Scott Weber: Japanese coffee, Mountain Dew code red. Like whatever you want.

Larry Hryb: Alright, Scott, I want to talk to you about accessories. We talked at the top of the show about what you do. So you work on the team here that works, that kind of works with our partners to bring some cool stuff to the market. So tell me about some of the projects from the past you've worked on, and then we'll talk about some of the newer ones.

Scott Weber: Yeah. I've been on team for four years.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: So we've done a lot of cool stuff. A lot of cool co-branded stuff.

Larry Hryb: What were you doing before this? People always ask that. How'd you get [inaudible 00:28:18].

Scott Weber: Yeah, I have kind of a strange path. Business in college and then I was in music industry for a while. And then I did market research kind of on my own. Actually did market research for Microsoft for a little bit as an independent contractor. I kind of freelanced. And then I had kind of a side gig in journalism, writing about baseball for a while.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: And I ended up here.

Larry Hryb: Here we go.

Scott Weber: And then I didn't write about baseball anymore, because that's too much to do at one time.

Larry Hryb: But you're doing your podcast.

Scott Weber: Exactly.

Larry Hryb: And we'll link to that in the show notes as well. So you worked on a lot of different things. Some of the examples people are using right now are...

Scott Weber: Yeah. If you use any sort of audio headsets, like from Razor, from Turtle Beach, anything like that, we've had our hands on that.

Larry Hryb: Lucid.

Scott Weber: Lucid Sound, indeed. I mean, I've done a lot of cool co-branded stuff. That's some of the stuff I really like to do. Like for Gears 4, we did a headset with HyperX.

Larry Hryb: Yep.

Scott Weber: It's really, really cool. Going up to the Coalition and meeting with Rod and the whole guys up there to get the leather just right on the headband.

Larry Hryb: They're great like that, aren't they?

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: It's the details.

Scott Weber: All the stuff with ID and getting that just totally cool is rad and being able to include awesome stuff in the box and all that.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's my daily driver, by the way, is that Gears HyperX headset.

Scott Weber: Oh, I love it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Scott Weber: The audio quality in that thing is amazing.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's very good.

Scott Weber: Just so cool, yeah. So love that, and then... Yeah, anything from Seagate that you've seen come out in the store space?

Larry Hryb: The hard drives for storage.

Scott Weber: Yeah, so you know storage is storage, but we do extra work to make sure it's a great out of box experience.

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Scott Weber: Console. And then we also include stuff like trials of Xbox Game Pass or like for Sea of Thieves, there's an exclusive weapon that you can only get when you buy the Sea of Thieves hard drive. Midnight Blunderbuss, or something or to do-

Jeff Rubenstein: That's a beautiful hard drive, by the way.

Scott Weber: It's great, yeah. And so it's really fun, you know, working with the controller team and everyone on ID to make sure that we're like matching hardware so we can just like cool, kind of like for the ultimate collector. Like if you're a huge fan of a franchise, you want to own everything that there is to do about it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure.

Scott Weber: Just make this amazing portfolio of stuff that you can all put on your coffee table living room setup, whatever you want.

Larry Hryb: And this week we had you on This Week on Xbox because we announced a new headset. Now you have it with you, right?

Scott Weber: I do. It's in my bag of goodies.

Larry Hryb: So this headset is one that's Steel series, which everyone knows, is familiar with. But this is a special Xbox one, right?

Scott Weber: Yeah. So-

Larry Hryb: Jeff, take a look at that. I'm using that at home now.

Scott Weber: Like I said...

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, that feels nice.

Scott Weber: It's really nice. I mean the Arctis line, they've had it on PC for a super long time. It's like, they say it's the most awarded headset. That's their whole thing, and when you put it on you kind of understand why.

Larry Hryb: Put it on, Jeffery.

Jeff Rubenstein: I will do that. The thing I like about, and I'm taking this one off, about Steel series is they've always had this like secondary band underneath there, because one at my work desk. I use a Steel series wired, and it always made it really comfortable.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's like from ski goggle technology. That's what they did there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Scott Weber: And it has velcro on the sides, so you can like adjust it. I mean it's like two points of tension release that you can have at the top. So you can move it up and down if you want.

Jeff Rubenstein: And the microphone is very unobtrusive.

Larry Hryb: Until you pull it into action.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's a pull out, pull in. And so...

Jeff Rubenstein: I still like it.

Scott Weber: The thing I like about that though, is that I love to have a headset that like, take it on the bus. Play it anywhere you want.

Jeff Rubenstein: Because this has Bluetooth in it.

Scott Weber: It has Bluetooth. So if you're looking to like really splash on a headset that has this incredible sound quality, you can use it for music, you can use it for your apps, you can use when you play on a console, because it Xbox wireless so it connects directly to the console, just like your controller.

Larry Hryb: That's one of my favorite features. Check this out. When you mute it-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: -it's red.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. So you know. You can see it out of the corner of your eye. That's really smart, and I think you touched on something here. I have my gaming headsets, and they have... And I love them, but they've got like a big, rigid microphone there, and even if I can remove it, it's my gaming headset, and that's that.

Scott Weber: Right. They look very gamer-ry.

Jeff Rubenstein: Right. And then I have a separate pair of like Bose headsets or something. That's what I would wear on a plane or something like that.

Scott Weber: Yep. Me too.

Larry Hryb: But these are, so these are exclusive for Xbox, because they do have our wireless chip in it, which is-

Scott Weber: That's correct.

Larry Hryb: Which is, it has Bluetooth in it so you can connect to a mobile device. You can actually probably connect that to a PlayStation 4.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Right. If you wanted to. But we have a different technology, which is our Xbox wireless technology, which there's a reason we have it. Why don't you talk a little bit about that.

Scott Weber: Yeah. I mean if you've ever played Bluetooth before, or anything with Bluetooth before, you know that there's degraded quality in your audio, and there's latency too. Like I mean-

Larry Hryb: It's also not reliable.

Scott Weber: No. It's really not. And if you have multiple devices connected via Bluetooth, I mean... We all use it, right? We know how noise and unreliable the tech can be. So for audio, like especially with wireless, I mean you know when you're playing [inaudible 00:32:58], it like drops and you get anything like that. It ruins it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Scott Weber: So we want to have the most reliable connection possible. And so that's why we have Xbox wireless, where we just... I mean, we took the chip out of our, like, our controller and it's a little... Industry talk, but we externalize it and you just get like really, really great, reliable... And it's easy. The experience is so easy. Because everyone knows how to... You know, everyone using Xbox knows how to pair their controller.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: You just do the exact same thing on your headset.

Larry Hryb: Now on this headset-

Scott Weber: It will turn your console on.

Larry Hryb: I noticed that. Because I've had one for a few weeks. I was like, this is actually kind of cool. You press the power button on the headset and the console powers up.

Scott Weber: I've been playing with this a little bit, too. One of my peers on the team, and every time I power it on, it will like turn on his Xbox, and then switch his monitor.

Larry Hryb: Oh, that's troll, troll.

Scott Weber: And he's like “Stop doing that.”

Larry Hryb: Now, I've had some questions, because, you know I've had this for a few weeks. You guys got me one, so I've been playing around with it before it was announced. There's a lot of things, like it supports virtual surround. I mean, all the stuff you'd expect in a quality headset, right?

Scott Weber: Yeah, definitely. It supports Window Sonic and Dolby Atmos and all that kind of stuff. The quality, I'm sure you know, but the sound quality is top-notch[crosstalk 00:34:06].

Larry Hryb: And you can go in there, and I noticed there's a Windows app you can download, plug it in USB, and you can actually customize it.

Scott Weber: Yeah, you can.

Larry Hryb: Because a lot of folks have asked... I was answering some questions on Reddit about it. You should probably drop by there. But there's a slider for how much side tone, which is how much... They call it, what do they call it? Voice monitoring.

Scott Weber: Yeah. Mike monitoring.

Larry Hryb: So how your voice... Mike monitoring. So it's...

Scott Weber: Yeah, that's a very subjective thing.

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Jeff Rubenstein: I can't live without it.

Scott Weber: Some people despise it. I like a little bit.

Larry Hryb: Just a little bit.

Scott Weber: Just to know the mike is hot.

Larry Hryb: And so what we're talking about is when you're talking in a headset, is you hear just a little... It's kind of like you're on the phone, you hear a little bit of your voice back in your ear, so you know hey, this thing is working.

Scott Weber: Right, right.

Larry Hryb: There's a whole fascinating story about side tone and the Bell engineers back in the 60s that they discovered. We won't go into that.

Scott Weber: I was ready for it.

Jeff Rubenstein: On this we'll... On telecommunications today, our other podcast, we're cover that.

Larry Hryb: [laughter] But you can actually control side tone, you can decide when you turn it on if Bluetooth is on or off. The app has a whole ton of things you... You can certainly do the EQing and so forth, so it's a lot of fun.

Scott Weber: Yeah, I love this headset. And Steel series has been around for so long, and they're a great partner of ours.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, they make a lot of other really cool stuff. I think I have a Steel series keyboard.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Scott Weber: I mean, I've been using Steel series stuff forever. I mean, when I was in college playing Counter-Strike 1.6, I used Steel series headsets and microphones and all that.

Larry Hryb: So good stuff.

Scott Weber: Yeah. Great stuff.

Larry Hryb: So those are available, those are start-

Scott Weber: Today.

Larry Hryb: You can pre-order today, and they are available today.

Scott Weber: Yeah, you can buy them today. Microsoft stores and GameStop.

Larry Hryb: Right on. Alright. So what else did you bring? Because you got a couple things. Lets go to the other headset that you brought by. Because this one is one that I have a little bit of an emotional connection to, because when he pulled it out of his bag-

Jeff Rubenstein: Is it made out of wood?

Larry Hryb: No, you remember this one.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh my god. I do remember that, yeah.

Scott Weber: Look at that.

Larry Hryb: So this one was in... This is the... What's the name of this product?

Scott Weber: This is the Hyperkin, oh the number is slipping my mind. Hyperkin chat headset.

Larry Hryb: So this is the one that a lot of people have been asking for.

Scott Weber: They're been asking for it forever. You've heard it, I'm sure.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.

Scott Weber: I mean, I see it, because I go to the Xbox One Reddit too, you know, and I see what people are asking for and what the latest features. And everyone's like, bring back that mono-chat headset.

Larry Hryb: So this is one that was like based on the same design as we had in the 360.

Scott Weber: Right.

Larry Hryb: It's a single ear-

Scott Weber: Modernized.

Larry Hryb: It's a single ear headset. It of course has a microphone on it. There's your batteries. And this one is... I think they announced this last year, right?

Scott Weber: They did announce it last year. Yeah they announced it I think at FanFest last year.

Larry Hryb: Right. So it's coming out, though, finally.

Scott Weber: It is. It is coming out. It's coming out in July.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Scott Weber: That's when we're slated for now. Yeah, so this is wireless too.

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Scott Weber: This doesn't use the Xbox wireless technology. It just has a little USB dongle that plugs into. The same kind of wireless experience.

Larry Hryb: Into the console?

Scott Weber: Into the console, yeah.

Larry Hryb: Now, how much is that one?

Scott Weber: This is going to be 35.

Larry Hryb: 35 bucks for that guy.

Scott Weber: Yep.

Larry Hryb: And that's pretty straight forward.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's really cool. I mean, we're always trying to listen to the fans and like execute on... Our job is to like fil the gaps in the whole ecosystem, right? So if there's something you want on the console, if it's possible for us to do it, we're going to do it. And sometimes there's challenges in getting it to market and just like executional stuff that... You know, and things happen. There's politics and stuff. But like we're doing everything we can. So please if you have feedback, continue to voice it, because we watch all that kind of stuff and drive to get solutions.

Larry Hryb: Now you had something else in there that you wanted to show us as well.

Scott Weber: Yeah, something else from Hyperkin here.

Larry Hryb: This is really cool, Jeff. I don't know if you've seen this one. Look at that.

Jeff Rubenstein: That, oh wow. Yeah.

Scott Weber: Alright. This is the Hyperkin...

Jeff Rubenstein: Hand it over.

Scott Weber: I mean, on radio here. Check the link the description below.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, this is the...

Scott Weber: Yeah, Hyperkin S wheel. So it is effectively called a speed wheel.

Larry Hryb: So it's a fully wireless wheel.

Scott Weber: It is a fully wireless wheel. You can see its fairly small form factor. You can actually, I see what you're pointing to on the back. You can mount it if you want.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's so cool. This reminds a little bit of a much, much, much better version, if you recall, way back in the day of Mario Kart on Wii.

Scott Weber: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: You could stick the Wiimote into essentially just a plastic ring.

Scott Weber: Just a shell.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it felt like it. But this is like fully realized.

Larry Hryb: Well, we had one of those on 360. Right.

Scott Weber: Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, so it was-

Scott Weber: It's... Yeah. I mean, Hyperkin, they also did the duke. So like they love the retro kind of stuff and modernizing it. So this is also Xbox wireless. It is, I mean, it's so cool. It is, yeah. You just hold it in your hands and you turn it from left to right. It's got paddles on it, your shifter paddles.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, exactly. And they have like a really good mechanical feel to it. Listen to this.

Scott Weber: It's got a pop. It's very clicky.

Larry Hryb: Now those are the paddles underneath now. Before you came here, off the air before we start, Scott, you were saying this is a controller?

Scott Weber: It is a controller.

Larry Hryb: So you know what that means, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein: We have to play FIFA with it.

Larry Hryb: Or Dark Souls.

Jeff Rubenstein: [laughter] Can you beat Dark Souls with the wheel. I love it.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's a functional controller. And actually has like the right thumb stick. No left thumb stick.

Jeff Rubenstein: Left thumb stick, yeah.

Scott Weber: Left thumb stick is turning the wheel, with the accelerometer, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Right.

Scott Weber: And then the right thumb stick is up there, it's actually on the upper left.

Larry Hryb: So you're right thumb stick is in the upper left to really screw with your head.

Scott Weber: Right. Exactly. But yeah, all the other buttons are on there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hold it upside down. You'll be fine.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's pretty cool.

Larry Hryb: And this wireless and it's also rechargeable?

Scott Weber: Yeah. Wireless. It comes with a charging dock. 120 bucks. And that is available actually on the 30th.

Jeff Rubenstein: You really, you need to feel that. You obviously feel, but I mean like the listener. I've never felt a controller quite like, and it's really high quality.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's really nice. It's got kind of like a soft touch [crosstalk 00:39:30].

Larry Hryb: Got a nice weight to it.

Scott Weber: Good balance and weight. We've been using this around the office a lot. It's just... I mean, right now with Horizon 4 and everything that's like more... You know, it's a hardcore game, but it's more like casual than-

Larry Hryb: Sure. [crosstalk 00:39:43] Forza.

Scott Weber: It's more like you can lean back on your couch and play it and it's not as competitive. This is just perfect for that.

Jeff Rubenstein: Alright, I found it on the Microsoft store and I'm going to be linking out to the Hyperkin S Wheel wireless racing controller.

Scott Weber: There you go. That's it.

Larry Hryb: Now there's a whole bunch of stuff coming out, but one of the things that you brought by here, and I have not seen this before. Jeff, take a look at this. This is a prototype for what we're showing, but this product is... So explain what the product is and what it's going to do.

Scott Weber: So this PvP Mars, and this the light gun technology coming back. It's very, very cool. They've been working on this for a number of years. I believe I first saw this three years ago.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Scott Weber: Behind closed doors at E3. The way that it works is it has actually a camera that plugs into the console via USB and it just-

Larry Hryb: So there's this little webcam-y kind of thing, separate device.

Scott Weber: Yeah, it's a little webcam. Just sits on your coffee table, sits on your couch, wherever you want. Just points at the screen, captures all four... It doesn't matter if it's projector, it can project on a wall. It doesn't matter. It just has to see-

Larry Hryb: The display.

Scott Weber: The display of it. It will calibrate. And then it's a low power laser that communicates back and forth. And what you get is you get this-

Larry Hryb: You turned it on.

Scott Weber: You get better latency, like really low lag-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Scott Weber: And the best accuracy you've ever seen. I mean, we all play Duck Hunt, you know.

Larry Hryb: Right, of course.

Scott Weber: This is a-

Jeff Rubenstein: Just shoot the dog and the duck will die.

Scott Weber: Yeah, just shoot the dog. I want to get a port of that game where the dog is shootable, because in my mind for years I[crosstalk 00:41:08].

Larry Hryb: You're going to call it Dog Hunt?

Scott Weber: Yeah. [laughter]

Larry Hryb: PETA will have a word with you.

Jeff Rubenstein: I was about to say.

Scott Weber: I was like, well, you know it sounded better in my head.

Jeff Rubenstein: We're fine with the ducks. Yeah, yeah, maybe dial that one back.

Scott Weber: Maybe just scare him off. We're just scare him off, yeah, yeah. Whatever, he can just stop mocking you, essentially.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, yes.

Scott Weber: Yeah. So this is, I mean it's really, really cool. It is coming in July.

Larry Hryb: But what's great about this is there's... It's a nifty gun, so it's... You can actually click it back, Jeff, you'll get a reload mechanic if you wanted.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Like a pump action.

Larry Hryb: On the barrel. But what's also interesting on this one is you don't see the laser. You only see on the screen the reticul.

Scott Weber: Yeah, you just see it on the screen. Yep. That's it.

Jeff Rubenstein: What game would you use this for?

Scott Weber: So, there are two titles that PvP the company is actually bringing to market with this. They'll be bundled. One of them is called Cubit's Quest, and it's a platformer kind of. So there is a dog, you don't shoot the dog.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Scott Weber: You shoot other things that... [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: They did focus testing.

Scott Weber: Yeah. It didn't test great. So you shoot like a crane and it will drop a power up, or... You're doing things to get through a level, essentially.

Larry Hryb: Sure, sure.

Scott Weber: Really, really fun. And there's a bunch of mini-games that come with it, and it's a blast. I've played it. And this supports up to four of these at once, too.

Larry Hryb: Wow. So is this one camera that supports four?

Scott Weber: One camera, and then you get up to-

Larry Hryb: This is actually more of a sensor, right?

Scott Weber: Yeah, I mean it is a camera that points at it, but that's just what the communication is.

Larry Hryb: What is going on there? I noticed that when you tilt it.

Scott Weber: Yeah, interesting. I've never done that before. [laughter]

Jeff Rubenstein: What are you?

Larry Hryb: Look in the lens.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, it doesn't... It's got like a gyroscope or something.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. It's got a little something in there, I don't know what that does.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's like a magic eight ball.

Scott Weber: They're really making sure. Answer unclear. That's my answer to this.

Jeff Rubenstein: [laughter] Well done.

Scott Weber: So it supports up to four of these, and so you can it all at once. And then the other one is more mature. Rated M for mature. Where it's called Voyage of the Dead, and you're on a cruse ship and zombies have taken over.

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm already sold.

Scott Weber: And it's very like kind of campy and funny humor and...

Larry Hryb: The cruise, is it the cruise part or the zombies?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I mean, “You thought the norovirus was dangerous, this cruise really has news for you.” I love like [inaudible 00:43:18]games. Like Time Crisis is one of my favorite games ever.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Really?

Scott Weber: So you'll love Voyage. It's like a super similar experience, right? You're shooting weapon power ups and things like that and it's tracking all your stats at the top. So you're against your friends and all that. It's just so fun. And it's kind of that like on-the-rails as you're going through type experience.

Larry Hryb: Now has this been announced?

Scott Weber: It has been announced. Yeah. So it's coming in July. Early July.

Jeff Rubenstein: We need to get this. So in my neighborhood there's a fully functioning, there's a bar with a fully functioning Time Crisis 3 machine, which I've beaten so many times.

Larry Hryb: I know, because whenever I call you, you're down there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Usually. And like having this back in my home again would be amazing. It's been a long time since there was a home version.

Scott Weber: It has, yeah. I mean, that's one the... Hey, fill the gaps. That's what we try to do, right? When a partner has a... I mean, it's not like we told them. This is their idea. It's really, but you know. You know we played around with it and it's just such cool tech, it's really awesome. So we're very, very excited about this.

Larry Hryb: So that comes out in July?

Scott Weber: Comes out in July?

Larry Hryb: And how much will that be?

Scott Weber: Yeah. I believe... I don't want to speak on the price, because I'm not final on it, but it's super affordable.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Scott Weber: And then we'll be, yeah, we'll have a bunch of announcement beats and futures on this coming up, so stay tuned for more on this.

Larry Hryb: So that's just a look. These are just a few of... How many accessories do we have in the portfolio now?

Scott Weber: Oh, so many. Hundreds.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Scott Weber: Yeah. Easily hundreds. I know we did over a hundred last year.

Larry Hryb: Wow.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Lot's of stuff going on. Now this one, we'll need to find a link to link out to the light gun, because it's a pretty amazing... It's a fascinating update of the technology.

Scott Weber: It is.

Larry Hryb: This kind of old creaky technology from back in the day that's been really modernized and from the sound of it made really usable and quick.

Scott Weber: Yeah, definitely.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I feel like the original light gun games came out probably in like the 60s or 70s or something like that.

Larry Hryb: I think Ralph showed us some when we were up here with Ralph Baer.

Jeff Rubenstein: And there is something about... It's just fun. Like you don't have to explain it to anyone.

Scott Weber: It's just so casual, yeah. Point and shoot. That's it.

Jeff Rubenstein: There you go.

Larry Hryb: It's kind of like a camera.

Scott Weber: Uh-huh [affirmative]

Larry Hryb: There you go.

Jeff Rubenstein: I like it. Bring it by.

Larry Hryb: Alright. Well, we're going to... Those are just some of the accessories we have, and like you said, we'll have links to those and all of the in the show notes here. And then maybe we'll have you on again in a few months to talk the refresh and whatever you guys got coming.

Scott Weber: Yeah. There's always a ton coming for a holiday, and you know, we're in so many different categories. I mean, we did keyboard mouse, and all sorts of stuff.

Larry Hryb: That's right. With Razer.

Scott Weber: Yeah. Razer Turret Keyboard and Mouse is out there, and... You know, there's just, there's so many different... We did a TV tuner once when we were backing that. So there's always a lot of fun stuff going on. And this holiday will have some.

Larry Hryb: What's you're favorite third party accessory? Do you have one?

Scott Weber: Oh gosh, I mean probably-

Jeff Rubenstein: Choose your favorite child.

Larry Hryb: Now, now.

Scott Weber: Probably for me it's my Seagate two terabyte SSD.

Larry Hryb: There you go.

Scott Weber: [laughter]

Larry Hryb: There you go.

Scott Weber: Just because every single day I use it, and it just improves the loading time so much, it's just really incredible. I'm fortunate enough to have worked on that and bring it to market.

Jeff Rubenstein: I have a friend who has one of those, and he said his load time in... He plays a lot of The Division 2.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And it speeds up loading by like 75% or something crazy.

Scott Weber: I mean, it obviously varies per title.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure.

Scott Weber: But on some of the titles, you know you forget, and sometimes you're like “Oh, I'm playing this off the internal,” when it starts to take more than ten seconds to fast travel somewhere.

Larry Hryb: Right, right.

Scott Weber: Or when the-

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I have my SSD and I had it loaded with games like Overwatch.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: And I always get to choose first.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yep.

Scott Weber: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Because I load in. Oh, okay, I'll choose first.

Scott Weber: That's a nice little. See, it can be a competitive advantage.

Larry Hryb: Well, in that mode, and I don't know if elsewhere.

Scott Weber: [laughter]

Larry Hryb: Yeah, there's just a lot of great of stuff, so we'll put a link off to all those things and we'll have you on again in the future.

Scott Weber: Sounds good.

Larry Hryb: And then, also, how do they find your podcast?

Scott Weber: Podcast, we're on Twitter at Dome and Bedlam.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Scott Weber: And then we have a SoundCloud link to our podcast there. You can also find us on Apple podcasts or Castbox, whatever you use. Dome and Bedlam.

Larry Hryb: Whatever your thing is to listen to shows.

Scott Weber: Yep.

Jeff Rubenstein: Linking out to that.

Larry Hryb: Thank you Jeffery. Alright, we're going to wrap it up here, because we've got lunch to get to. We've got the rest of our day, and Jeff has...

Jeff Rubenstein: I've got to move on to a Suntory high ball. Because I finished my flash brewed cold café au lait.

Larry Hryb: Because it's that time. Alright, any thing else you guys want to leave before we go? I mean, we've got a crazy few weeks coming up. Jeff and I and are going to try to do another show on Mixer before E3.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, we should do that.

Larry Hryb: We'll want to do that. We've got of course E3 coming up with Inside Xbox. We're going to be doing that. It's a-

Jeff Rubenstein: I can't wait.

Larry Hryb: Really?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, I'm really excited.

Larry Hryb: E3. Now how many E3s have you been to, Scott?

Scott Weber: This will be my third E3.

Larry Hryb: Okay. So it's, yeah, it's going to be fun this year in the Microsoft Theater.

Scott Weber: It's going to be really, really fun. Yeah. Jeff's trying to think how many he's been to.

Jeff Rubenstein: 13, I think.

Scott Weber: 13.

Larry Hryb: I think that's how many I've been to as well.

Scott Weber: Actually, this might be my fourth.

Larry Hryb: Okay. Yeah, you lose track after a while.

Scott Weber: If I'm already losing track, I'm not going to be able to know 13 when I get to it. [laughter]

Larry Hryb: Now one thing I did forget is the guys over at the gear store, Gear dot Xbox dot com, sent me an email today. When we post this show, which is April 26, I wore a green sphere on Inside Xbox. Those pins are now available.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, very cool.

Larry Hryb: You can download those.

Jeff Rubenstein: I've also seen a look at the things that they'll be making.

Larry Hryb: Hey, hey, hey.

Jeff Rubenstein: Coming up.

Larry Hryb: Spoiler. Don't.

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm just saying it's good.

Larry Hryb: Be cool. I know, I know.

Jeff Rubenstein: Can't wait till you get to see them.

Larry Hryb: Different bunch of stuff there, but I'm looking forward to it. Alright gang, we will... Scott, thanks so much for coming by.

Scott Weber: Thanks for having me.

Larry Hryb: And good luck to your Mariners this year.

Scott Weber: They're going to need it.

Larry Hryb: Okay. And Jeff and I will see you sometime in the future. We don't know when or where. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at-

Jeff Rubenstein: Jeff Rubenstein.

Larry Hryb: That's where you hit the complaints as well. You can follow me at Major Nelson, and we will talk to you guys later. By-bye everybody.