714: Xbox Series S, The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon

Larry: Hi [inaudible 00:00:00] here at Xbox Live's Major Nelson. What a week around Xbox land I got to tell you. We have a lot to talk about this week. Jeffrey, good to see you.
Jeffrey: What a week!
Larry: What a week.
Jeffrey: Did anything happen this week? That's the real question. Anything at all?
Larry: It was a crazy, crazy week. Here we are, we've had a big week of news. Of course we have Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, we have price for both, we have pre-order, we have EA Access, we have all access, we have everything access. Here we go, Jeff.
Jeffrey: EA Play.
Larry: Right, EA Play, it used to be All Access.
Jeffrey: There's Game Pass, there's all the things.
Larry: Now I just want to be very clear-
Jeffrey: [crosstalk 00:00:43]
Larry: We're going to talk about what we're playing, first we're going to get into the news. So we are recording this shortly after we made the announcements. All the stuff we've talked about we'll talk about that later in the show.
Jeffrey: We've been up since, what, before 6 AM? This was a morning but you know what? Couldn't go back to sleep after that.
Larry: Energized. Energized. This is-
Jeffrey: Just keep drinking my coffee.
Larry: This is the third time I've watched a console. This is your second, third, forth?
Jeffrey: I was here at the very beginning of Xbox One.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: So I was here for the Xbox One launch but not the buildup in the same way.
Larry: Right, not the buildup.
Jeffrey: Two weeks before it but let's count it. So that's it, just two, but I was a media person the generation before that. The 360 era.
Larry: Do you have the coffee cup? The newsroom coffee cup to show it.
Jeffrey: As a matter of fact I do because when the 360 launched I remember very well. They sent it. They didn't send it to me, the games reporter, they sent it to the tech reporter and so he wrote about it and I was like, "Chris you don't know anything about games. Go ahead and just give that to me." So he gave it to me but the first like 500 gamers score was him puttering around and playing Call of Duty 2.
Larry: Call, oh yeah. Puttying?
Jeffrey: You know, just puttering around. Need For Speed: Most Wanted.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: That was, yeah, that was the one that jumped out of me. I remember playing it in the boardroom because none of us had an HDTV but they had an HDTV in the boardroom.
Larry: That's right.
Jeffrey: That was a good time but I will say this will be something different. This will be a fun one.
Larry: Now we've got, you know, we've got like HDTVs in our pocket. It's crazy, right?
Jeffrey: It is. The world is speeding up here, Larry.
Larry: Anyway, welcome to the show. We're going to talk about what we're playing and I don't know if I can do this Jeff. Can I-
Jeffrey: You can do whatever you want. Just put your mind to it.
Larry: I want to talk about, because you and I have been quite busy and I'm going to my profile here and I posted this on- no, did I post this on? I don't think I posted it but you and I played one heck of a game the other night. We're still playing Apex. I jump in, Jeff and I and his daughter play and we were, I believe you called it surgical. You have the screenshot there.
Jeffrey: Oh man we-
Larry: You tweeted it.
Jeffrey: You can take a screenshot, you can take it right there on the Xbox app and there it is.
Larry: And push it to your phone.
Jeffrey: If you played in that game of Apex with us you had a one in three chance of being wiped out by our team. That was probably our best team performance, 19 total kills. I think I had seven.
Larry: We were really feeling it. We just kind of, you know, did I-
Jeffrey: [crosstalk 00:03:22] came to us.
Larry: Did I drop us? I can't remember because remember your daughter did? She was like, "I don't want to go there." Right? Remember I dropped us.
Jeffrey: Oh you did. That was you. We went to sorting factory.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: You know, she didn't want to go there and it was funny. Everyone just took a number and it was like oh, it's our turn to come in and get wiped and then we're looting. Oh, I think there's someone else.
Larry: Yeah, we're at the base.
Jeffrey: It just all came together.
Larry: We're in that train station and everything just kept coming to us and we were just ... Well, anyways so it was a good- it was awesome. It's been a heck of a week and that was just kind of a capper.
Jeffrey: That was the exclamation point. It felt real good.
Larry: It was the icing on the cake. But, I see you've got ... What you got up there behind you? Looks pretty interesting. A classic.
Jeffrey: So we talk about what we're playing and I've been playing a lot of ... Oh, I'm so all in on Wasteland 3 right now.
Larry: Yep.
Jeffrey: That game is just speaking to me. I think I'll be playing it for a really long time. So I'm sort of letting that simmer in the background. I'll play it for a couple of hours here and there on my PC but on the Xbox this is actually my next game that I want to be playing which is Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning. I just got it, it just came out yesterday and so I haven't had a chance to jump in yet.
Larry: And there it is.
Jeffrey: Yes. I'm very excited. This is a game that I have some fond memories of from last gen. I actually played it on PS3 which makes sense. I was working there. But it's sort of like it was a group of people that came together, sort of a super group in a way, like Todd McFarlane was involved I want to say.
Larry: I remember that. I interviewed him for this game.
Jeffrey: Yeah.
Larry: I remember this.
Jeffrey: And RA Salvatore wrote it.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: It was like a lot of people came together for a game they had [crosstalk 00:04:53] made.
Larry: Well would you call it a super group?
Jeffrey: You know, super groups are not always more super than the individual component.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: But they tend to be a lot of people known for other things that come together for one express purpose and I think that's [crosstalk 00:05:09]-
Larry: Nowadays we call it a collab.
Jeffrey: It was a collab. Now it would've said, you know, Todd McFarlane x RA Salvatore.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: X, you know, whomever. [crosstalk 00:05:20]
Larry: Back in the day it was called the joint.
Jeffrey: It was, it was. So, anyway, I have some fond memories of it. I never finished it, so Re-Reckoning is out now. Starting over on Xbox and, you know, it was available on backward compatibility for 360, it still is, but this is the way to do it. They've made some quality of life improvements, they've added a new difficulty level, the graphics have gotten a buff, so very much looking forward to this.
We're in the middle of it Larry. I don't know if you realize, like things are hitting like crazy. All the games are coming out right now.
Larry: We have DLC coming out later on. We're going to talk about the Outerworlds DLC. I've got the game director on for the DLC, we'll talk about that as you can see in my background here. I know that we love that game.
Jeffrey: Yeah, and I'm very excited because that was one of the top games of the year last year, the Outerworlds.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: We knew DLC was coming but it's been nine months or, well, we're nine months into the year so it's going to be really fun jumping back into that one. It was such an approachable game for a deep RPG, you know, with sheer mechanics and everything and not too much loot and stuff that you had to manage and too many weapons so it was pretty straight forward.
Larry: My biggest concern is I got to go figure out, you know, it's always the struggle I got to learn all of the mechanics again and all of this and that.
Jeffrey: Well that's my point. I dipped out of The Witch. I didn't finish The Witch at first and I took like a year break and then I had to come back to it and I was like awful at it for a little bit but then I got it back. This, because it's shooter mechanics, I feel like I'm just going to jump right back in. I might just have to reacquaint myself with the map or something like that.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: But I think it's going to be right up to speed in just a few minutes so I'm looking forward to it.
Larry: Well we'll hear more about that later on in the show. We'll learn more about that.
Jeffrey: Exactly.
Larry: What else came out this week?
Jeffrey: You know what else came out this week is, and I played this last night, is a new update for Minecraft Dungeons called Creeping Winter. So this is the second add on to Minecraft Dungeons. The first was the jungle area which some of the toughest maps. Really, really long maps. So, the tundra came out, the Creeping Winter came out this week. That's great. There's new maps, it's fun, ice, there's new achievements for it including sliding on the ice and you can get a couple of other achievements which is great. But, what really has jumped out at me is even if you don't have that extra content they've made some great changes in the hub world, in the village.
The way it used to work is you'd get emeralds and you basically were buying random boxes and you'd hope you get something better. Well, now you can directly buy, there's a number of new merchants, you can directly buy certain things in the store. Some things are expensive, some things are less. You still have that sort of surprise box. That's still there too but then there's a blacksmith. So if you have something that you just love, but you've leveled up quite a bit and I have some sort of thing that shoots out- you absorb soles and it shoots out a beam, kind of reminds me of the charge rifle in, yeah, in Apex. I love that weapon because it just cuts through everything.
But I'm on level, I don't know, 40 something now and that thing is level 30. It's just not that powerful anymore and I was hoping to get another one. Well now I can drop that off at the blacksmith and then I have to complete three missions and when I come back it will be upgraded. So, we started last night. Of course you have to successfully beat the missions. I was playing one of the DLC missions. We were not successful, they are much more challenging, but I will say I got amazing loot. It just seems like the loot ... The RNG was a little bit friendlier. The loot was dropping faster. So, head on over to Minecraft.net, check it out. But it just ... It was just the fine tuning of the game and it felt great so I'm right back into Minecraft Dungeons. Really one of my favorite games of the year.
Larry: Yeah it's worth checking ... And, on Gamepass.
Jeffrey: And it's part of Gamepass for PC and for Xbox One so there's no reason not to get into it.
Larry: Speaking of PC and Xbox One and you know what we should talk about though Jeff? Here's what we should talk about.
Jeffrey: Let's talk.
Larry: We should talk about, and just get right into it, because this is what everybody wants to hear about, you know, hear us talk about is these two guys.
Jeffrey: Ah, yes.
Larry: These two folks here. The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Both going on sale, pre order, later this month but there you go. That's what they look like and Jeff and I have been playing around with both of these consoles at our respective homes and, yes, the S is that tiny. Would you agree?
Jeffrey: It's tiny, it's quiet, and yet it's powerful. So, I got a great question this morning as we got the news out. Someone reached out to me, you know, I work with a lot of YouTubers and influencers and they said, "How could you boil it down? What's the difference between these two consoles?" And the reality is despite being small, like don't look at necessarily things like teraflops and stuff like that. It doesn't tell the whole story. But the CPU is roughly the same-
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: ... in the Series X and the Series S. It's super fast, like Orders of Magnitude faster than Xbox One and it is super quick. It's got the SSD. It has the trappings, the speed.
Larry: All of that is the same between the X and S.
Jeffrey: Exactly. That's like the feel of next gen. Now, the difference is in resolution.
Larry: Yeah.
Jeffrey: So if you've got a 4K TV and that is, you know, that is your priority and I totally get it. I've got a 4K TV right back here then the Xbox One X is going to be the one you're most likely going to be interested in. But a lot of people don't really care about 4K gaming. I was actually kind of ... It was interesting to see the reaction when the Series S was revealed this week and people were like yeah, I'm not really into 4K gaming. I'm still running 1080p or maybe I play on a 1440p monitor which is how I do my PC gaming.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: The Xbox One S, unbelievable bargain at $299. It outputs ... It's optimized for that level of output, for 1440 and for 1080 gaming but at high frame rate and then at all of the speed, all of the enhancements that you're seeing across the Xbox Series consoles.
Larry: Can I say this? I don't know if I can say this, Jeff, but I guess I will. It has the same memory slot in the back, so you can take your memory slot out of the back of your Series X, plug it into the back of Series S and run games right off it and go back and forth. So-
Jeffrey: Yeah, and if you want to run current gen, or what will be called back in pack games-
Larry: At that point, yeah.
Jeffrey: ... when we get into that next generation in November you can run those off of the hard drive as well, like if you have an external USB 3.1 hard drive.
Larry: Yeah.
Jeffrey: If you want the speed and you want the faster loading and like, you know, quick resume and things like that you'll want to put that onto the SSD but if you just want to move it over there and you want that ease of convenience it will especially be great upgrading from your current Xbox One to an Xbox Series S or X. Just plug that hard drive in, copy it over, and it actually moves super quickly because it's moving to an SSD.
Larry: And there you go. Those are pre order September 22nd. I'll be sure to remind you on social. I'm working on getting Jason Ronald back next week. He, of course, the engineer. This was a little bit of a ... I think Phil Spencer, did you see his quote? It was an unscripted week let's just say that. Would you agree with me Jeffrey?
Jeffrey: Here's the thing, sure, but I feel alive and I'm just so glad that it's out there and that we're getting to talk about it. We're seeing the reactions, people are super into it and I just love that. This is why we're here, this is what we do, we know that the next generation starts on November 10th and I don't know if you saw but Assassin's Creed Valhalla actually moved up the release date so they're joining us. So, you know, the next generation we're going straight into Valhalla on launch day and that's going to be pretty awesome.
Larry: Yeah, you're absolutely right Jeff and it's straight into that. It's going to be quite the November. We're very excited about that. The one thing to point out though is Jeff and I record this, so we'll put this up on Friday, you know, everyone is like, "Oh I wonder what Sony is going to do." We don't know what Sony is going to do. Jeff doesn't know, I don't know, so they may announce it between now and the time this show airs. We don't know. If they do then we'll deal with it next week but there you go.
Jeffrey: Listen, this isn't the PlayStation Blogcast. I've been there.
Larry: You've been on it. You started it.
Jeffrey: I did. I was on the first 50 episodes. They're not talking about Xbox over there. You know?
Larry: Why not?
Jeffrey: I have good friends over there. Well, it's not what they do.
Larry: Oh Sid.
Jeffrey: You're listening to this for Xbox news. You'll listen to Sid, he's a great guy, you're listening to them for the PlayStation news. Between the two you've got them covered.
Larry: Yeah.
Jeffrey: I'm just super excited about this coming generation. It's going to be super fun.
Larry: Yeah, so we've got that coming up. We have a bunch of other news as well. We gave some tech specs on the series S this week, over on the right hand side there. Jeff we've also got some other news that we should probably share as well. Can you kind of do a roundup on that?
Jeffrey: All right, yeah, of course. So we announced the prices of these Xbox One S, I'm sorry, Series S, is $299 and the Series X is $499. But you don't just have to go to a store and plunk down cash or a card and pick it up.
Larry: Yep.
Jeffrey: You have the option through the Xbox All Access program, which we did have for the Xbox One X, a couple of years ago and it's something that exists, but we're expanding it in multiple ways to new countries and also to new retailers. What that allows you to do is for, starting at $24.99 for the Xbox Series S or $34.99 for the Xbox Series X you get the console and you get Xbox Gamepass Ultimate. After 24 months you own the console.
Larry: Boom.
Jeffrey: If you do the math on that it is a heck of a deal. This isn't a low interest loan or a no interest loan. It's like a negative interest loan. If you add it all up ... I was talking to my buddy Clement, we've played games with Clement before.
Larry: Oh yeah, Clement.
Jeffrey: He's like, "Why wouldn't I do that?" I'm like exactly Clement! I don't have a reason why you wouldn't do that. So, yeah.
Larry: No, it's great, great news and also I want to point this out, we got this on news.xbox.com and majornelson.com it's also going to be available in the following countries this holiday; Australia, Telstra, Canada at EB Games, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, UK and of course here in the US. So, we'll have all the details up on the blog there but yeah, this is an incredible program that is, as you said Jeff, it's a no brainer.
Jeffrey: It's just amazing that you can get into the next generation at no money down and $25.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: That can get you in on the next generation. I think that's ... Where was that when I was a kid?
Larry: [crosstalk 00:16:16]
Jeffrey: I wasn't able to get into the next generation until a year or two later.
Larry: And here's the deal, you sign up for this you get access to Gamepass Ultimate, as we say in the games biz, got a huge buff with EA Play is coming to Gamepass at no additional cost. This is, again, a no brainer. You love Gamepass before you're going to really love it now, right Jeff?
Jeffrey: Yeah, so if you're a member of EA Access or you've seen EA Origin, their PC version of that, if you have Ultimate it's all combined in EA Play. It's over 60 games in there and it's like super recognizable household names like FIFA and Madden but if you look back into the vault like Deadspace is in there.
Larry: Ah, so good.
Jeffrey: And Mass Effect. The Sims is in there, Sims just got a new update actually with Star Wars which is really cool. And it also you get discounts of games, you get trials where you get to start the game earlier. EA Access is an amazing deal. It actually predates Gamepass and so I've been an EA Access member since pretty much day one and always take advantage of it to try out games before they come out. I'm looking forward to, let's say, Star Wars: Squadrons is coming out in October so that'll be fun and you get to try it early.
Larry: Oh I think Unravel ... Oh, what happened to my screen? All the sudden it went auto focus on me. I think Unraveled is in there too, isn't it?
Jeffrey: Yeah, I believe Unraveled is on there. So, just so you know, this will be coming this holiday. We don't have a specific date as to when EA Play is going into Xbox Gamepass so just, if you're subscribed to both, let it go. But then it will I believe that EA Access extra months, if you overlap, will roll into just continuing to have it longer.
Larry: Yeah, I put a tweet up on that so you can go back or just hit me up on Twitter and I can point you in that direction but we're going to do the right thing here because we don't want people to be in a situation like, "I don't know what to do." Don't worry about it. Just subscribe to Gamepass and the rest is all yours.
Jeffrey: Yeah, I'm just excited that this ... There's always an inherent excitement with a new generation but the fact that it's so affordable and there's many ways to do it, that all these games are coming together with Xbox Gamepass Ultimate and EA Play there's just going to be a ton to play and a ton to do right away on day one.
Larry: Yeah, and you can look at we've got a blog post up on Major Nelson Xbox Wire which is basically from Phil, our good friend Phil Spencer, I got to get him back on the show too, kind of talks about all the news. We've got some good photos over here on the right if you want to download some photos and get your wallpaper on. That's a lot of our news this week. It's been a ... I don't know what else we could possibly ... We've given you the two consoles, the price, the pre order date, the release date, amazing portfolio of games that you'll be able to play at launch. So, wow I think we can take October off. Right Jeff?
Jeffrey: I'll tell you, my job, I just want to play as many games as possible so that I can clear the decks.
Larry: As fast as possible.
Jeffrey: Because we're going to have an incredible run. At the end of October is when Watchdogs Legion comes out and that will be updating and enhanced, or optimized for Xbox Series X which I can't wait to see what they're doing with retracing and stuff like that. So we've got that and then quick on their heals that that's pushed up, Assassins Creed Valhalla, Yakuza: Like a Dragon and then a little game called Cyberpunked 2077 which is coming up on-
Larry: Forgot about that.
Jeffrey: ... November 19th. All of those in like a three week period so I just got to play as many games as possible before that to just keep that area clear because that is going to be a leave me alone zone. I'm closing this door, not doing a show with you Larry I'm sorry. I'm not putting the controller down that entire time.
Larry: I just need you ... All you have to do is I can see your TV, just turn and talk to me. That's all you have to- and the viewers. You don't even have to leave your chair.
Jeffrey: You're like a train wreck. I can't take my eyes off you Larry. If we're doing the show I'm right here, I'm locked in.
Larry: Likewise.
Jeffrey: But it's a good train wreck.
Larry: Some type of train wreck. I don't even ... Anyways-
Jeffrey: I cannot look away.
Larry: Well, enjoy your coffee there. We should probably take a break here and talk about the Outerworlds DLC. Do you think we should do that? Here's what we're going to do, Jeff.
Jeffrey: Let's talk about Peril on Gorgon.
Larry: Let's roll the trailer first and then we'll go ahead and we'll start that up and we'll talk about that. How's that sound?
Speaker 3: From the furthest reaches of the universe comes the biggest mystery in the galaxy.
Speaker 4: An abandoned research facility and now shady corporate intrigue.
Speaker 3: Marvel of the Gorgon asteroid. A sword and stomp over, fool of salacious secrets and scandalous strangers.
Speaker 5: Greetings attracted patron. You are looking downright [inaudible 00:21:26] today.
Speaker 3: With the right kind of case-
Speaker 6: They wanted us to develop a miracle drug.
Speaker 3: ... can put you on the wrong side of a gun, or sword, or this thing. Thrills. Danger. Intrigue.
Speaker 4: A word of advice before you go, Captain, trust no one.
Speaker 3: What will you find on Gorgon?
Larry: There you have it, the Outerworlds the DLC is now available. Joining me is Carrie Patel. She is the game director for the DLC. Let's bring you in here. Hi Carrie, how are you?
Carrie Patel: Hey, I'm great thanks. How are you?
Larry: I'm lovely. Congratulations on shipping the DLC. It's always a milestone. I have an old saying that I like to share with people that I'm sure you've heard before. "The most important feature is shipping it" and you shipped it, so congratulations.
Carrie Patel: Thank you so much.
Larry: Hey, it's been some time since some folks may have visited the outerworld so why don't you tell us a little bit about the DLC. I've got some screenshots here, we'll go through it, and tell us kind of what we can expect because this is no small bit of gameplay. This is quite beefy, isn't it?
Carrie Patel: Yeah, it is. So, with all of the gameplay in Peril on Gorgon it's roughly equivalent to the experience and the rit of content that you got on Monarch which is one of the biggest areas of the base game.
Larry: Right.
Carrie Patel: So Peril on Gorgon is a [inaudible 00:23:11] theme story DLC that takes you to a new location in Halycon, the Gorgon asteroid, which was the site of an old spacers choice lab. Over the course of your exploration and everything you do there you're going to discover some secrets about an old project that was run there and how it has shaped life in Halycon as we know it.
Larry: Now when you look at this game is this something ... The question always is, "Oh I haven't played the whole game or I haven't completed it" so how does this fit into people that haven't started the game or haven't finished the Outerworld. Are they okay to jump in here or what's the story there?
Carrie Patel: Absolutely. So, the entry point for Peril on Gorgon begins after the critical path of Monarch wraps up. So, I mean depending on how you play through the base game that's a bit more than halfway through but it is definitely before the end game. This is higher level content so we wanted to make sure that players have some experience, some levels and some good equipment before they jump into it. But once you've completed the critical path of Monarch, radio free Monarch specifically, when you're traveling around in your map you will trigger a specific event that starts everything for the DLC and you can do it again anytime up until the point of no return save. So even if you've beaten the game and you just want to jump back in and do this, load up that point of no return save, travel around your map and you'll kick this off.
Larry: When you look at the game and, you know, you've got this great game that everyone really enjoyed last year and I was looking at some of the really high ratings that the game had what were you guys thinking when you came out with the DLC? Is it like, "Oh let's just do this" or were you kind of stretching your legs and arms a little bit and trying some things differently? Tell us about the creation and that process.
Carrie Patel: So, we realized ... We saw the things that players responded to really well in the base game and a lot of it was good story, writing that balances humor with some very dark undertones, memorable characters and also just a very flexible approach that allows players to get through the content in the way of their choosing and that's both different mechanical ways of approaching the content as well as different ways the player can just role play their own character. So, for the DLC we wanted to make sure to really deliver players a lot more of those things that they enjoyed so much about the base game. So, you know, a good story with memorable characters, a good balance of humor and a very flexible, critical path that accounts for players role playing their character in a variety of different ways.
Larry: Now one of the things that we all remember from the Outerworlds is, of course, the companions and all of our great companions. Tell us how ... I mean, I assume, again, since it's an extension here we're going to take them along and we're going to enjoy [inaudible 00:25:45] and the rest of the gang right?
Carrie Patel: Absolutely. Your companions are really important part of this journey. I mean, unless you're a solo player of course but, yeah, one of the challenges for us in making this DLC is part of the backstory of the spacers choice facility is that it's been abandoned by the scientists and managers who used to run it and while there are people there, you know, a lot of the dungeons where players are going to make some of their biggest discoveries don't really have a lot of NPC's to talk to. However, the companions have a lot to say about what you discover on Gorgon. They chime into conversations as they did in the base game and they have just a lot of things to observe about what you discover on Gorgon because this has really affected their lives as well. So, we really leaned into our companions for a lot of these bigger moments in the dungeon to let them help tell the story and sell the impact of why everything you're discovering here is so momentous.
Larry: When you're working on DLC like this you talked about how you were looking at what was resonating with the audience what are some of the things you're able to pull out from the base game or the original game to pull it forward? Because I know that I talked to a lot of folks in the game industry and the game is never finished. You know, they eventually have to finish it. Are there some areas that you're able to tie up with this DLC or is it really just a completely new chapter?
Carrie Patel: So it's definitely related to the story of the base game and in fact the story that we followed for the DLC is based on a particular piece of lore that we, as developers, knew about the base game and that we hinted at in a number of sort of optional pieces of found content and side quests in the base game but that we never fully explored. So, for us this was an opportunity to, you know, answer some of the questions that we saw players had about the Outerworlds. Specifically what are marauders and how did they get here? And also to better explore a particular story that we'd hinted at but that we'd left a lot unexplored for.
Larry: You know it's also important to point out that The Outerworlds is on Gamepass so if you're a Gamepass member this is a great place to jump in and really just start to explore this amazing creation. Do we get to introduce to any new characters? Because that's the one thing about the game, the original game, we had such amazing well-defined characters, like I was a Victor fan, but I'm just curious if we buff any areas out there.
Carrie Patel: Yeah, so no new companions but definitely a whole cast of new characters and that's one of the things we're seeing people responding to really well in the reviews already which is fantastic but, yeah, your story kicks off with a pretty interesting introduction to Lucky Montoya who then leads you to Minnie Ambrose who is a wealthy heiress who lives in this really abandoned sort of mansion kind of around the Gorgon asteroids. So, yes, players looking for new characters will definitely not be disappointed.
Larry: Looking forward to that. Well I think people really should check this out. If you're an Outerworlds fan you owe it to yourself to go check this out. I'm really excited to jump into it. Carrie, really appreciate you taking the time to talk to us today. Hopefully we'll have you on again in the future and talk about some more of your projects but thanks again.
Carrie Patel: Thank you so much.
Jeffrey: Thank you Carrie Patel. The Outerworlds Peril on Gorgon is available right now and IJM was saying it's more of a good thing and so I want more of a good thing.
Larry: [crosstalk 00:29:09]
Jeffrey: As much of a good thing as I can possibly get.
Larry: I want all the good things.
Jeffrey: And more.
Larry: And more. I'm tired.
Jeffrey: It's been a day, Larry. It's been a day.
Larry: It's been a week, Jeffrey. It started off on Sunday night. You know, apparently by the way when you drop news in the middle of the night people listen.
Jeffrey: People listen and they notice. I had just gotten back on a quick vacation and checked mail and I was just like oh, oh! I guess it was a Monday night. It was a holiday.
Larry: That's right, it was Monday night here in the US.
Jeffrey: It felt like a Sunday but, yeah, that's right it was Labor Day and it's here. I'm excited, you're excited. We're doing this thing.
Larry: That's the beauty of the industry and, first of all, I got to tell you something. Our social team, our teams are great, our engineering team, our marketing team these are all amazing people that work very hard to do great things for our customers. You know, Phil has always said put players at the center and that's what we do. So, anyway, it's been a-
Jeffrey: It's true and, look, we have a date. Launch day is November 10th. We have a, what, it's only two months away from now? [crosstalk 00:30:17]
Larry: September 22nd and November 10th. Those are the two dates you need to know. Okay, there's only two things you need to know.
Jeffrey: September 22nd being pre order.
Larry: Yep.
Jeffrey: Preorder date. We'll of course have more on MajorNelson @XBoxWire so stay tuned. We'll have that for you.
Larry: We'll also have them on or social stuff which you can see right here. See? Over there with Jeffrey and me over here.
Jeffrey: You're fancy. We'll retreat all of the tweets.
Larry: Do you have anything else you want to talk about here because otherwise I feel like we should get people on their way? We've had such a-
Jeffrey: On the way. I'm ready for a nap.
Larry: Yeah, it's certainly tiring.
Jeffrey: Take this time, be strategic, work through your backlog, okay? You're going to be able to play these games through backward compatibility on Xbox Series X and S of course, but clear the deck so you can be there on day one and you can load up Assassins or load up Gear Tactics which is coming to the console or, you you know, Cyber Punk or whatever you're going to play on that first day. You don't want to be thinking, "Oh man I never finished Yakuza Kiwami 2.
Larry: Right.
Jeffrey: I'm speaking from ... I don't want to think about that. I need to finish that line which is incredible.
Larry: I've got-
Jeffrey: [crosstalk 00:31:27]
Larry: ... a stack of games over there or, you know, when I say stack, you know, the digital stack of games. It's interesting because we've got the ability to pin them on the dashboard, you know, when you go through you can pin things there?
Jeffrey: Yeah.
Larry: I almost kind of want to create a separate ... I don't know, I got to talk to the engineering team. I got a couple of ideas for managing your library.
Jeffrey: I have a thing of just my backlog so everything I load up my Xbox I see it and I'm like got to finish that one, got to do that one.
Larry: Can you show us what it is?
Jeffrey: Yeah, I guess I can do that.
Larry: Before I let everybody go I mean it's ... I don't mean to put you on the spot, Jeffrey.
Jeffrey: No it's fine. Well right there. So, you see Apex, you see Wasteland 3-
Larry: Yep.
Jeffrey: You see Yakuza Kiwami [crosstalk 00:32:13] Sky.
Larry: It's a little blown out.
Jeffrey: Yeah, it's a little washed out. No Man Sky which I didn't get to. Battle Toads. Mad Max and Avengers. So that's all.
Larry: Oh that Mad Max game was great. That Mad Max game. I forgot about that one. That was a great game.
Jeffrey: I know. Avalanche I think made that one and our boss was playing. He was like, "Just get it" and I was like, "I think I might have it." Turns out I had bought it during a sale at some point and I played like an hour and I was like, "This is awesome. I got to get back to it" and so that's why I have it up there to remind me.
Larry: We've got a big show next week as well. We're going to work on getting Jason Ronald back on so we can talk about Xbox Series X. Xbox Series X which, as Jeff and I just talked about, there you go. There are the prices for both and there's the design of both and then here's another and, of course, they go on sale September or, excuse me, pre order September 22nd. You know, it's funny because the one on the left there, the Series S, it feels smaller than that, right? When you're holding it.
Jeffrey: Oh my, it's the smallest Xbox we've ever made.
Larry: Yeah.
Jeffrey: And it feels like the smallest Xbox we've ever made.
Larry: Remember the first time you saw it? That can't be right. Months ago you're like, "What is that thing?"
Jeffrey: Yeah.
Larry: I remember seeing it months ago and I was like wow that's-
Jeffrey: I saw it produced from like a handbag I think is the first time I ever saw it. It was like, "Oh I have it with me."
Larry: It doesn't quite fit in your pockets but it's definitely highly, highly portable if that's your job.
Jeffrey: Highly portable. I think that if travel picks back up and we're going to start going places again that'll be the one I'm bringing with.
Larry: Or you can just use Xcloud, right? Just get your phone-
Jeffrey: Or you can just use Xcloud, of course.
Larry: Get your phone out and you can just use Xcloud and problem solved. All right, well we're going to let folks go because they've had a big week. We know you all want to digest a lot of the news this week. If you have any questions you can hit us up on Twitter. You can find Jeffrey at, Jeff, where can they find you of course?
Jeffrey: At Jeff Rubenstein. All the complaints. I live off of them. I feast.
Larry: You can find me at MajorNelsonBlog at MajorNelson.com. A lot of sales going on. You can see what's going on there. News.Xbox.com is where we have our official news site. You can download all your images and all that other fun stuff there. All right gang, next week we're going to talk more about Xbox Series X and S with Jason Ronald but, for now, hope you have a great week. Jeff, anything to say before we go?
Jeffrey: Thank you. This is great. Enjoy it. See you November 10th.
Larry: All right gang, we'll see you later. Bye bye.