729: Welcome to 2021

Larry Hyrb:
Welcome to The Xbox Podcast. My name is Larry Hyrb, Xbox's Major Nelson. And it's a new year, 2021. The world continues to be a little crazy out there. So let me hit the button. Three, two, one. Hi, Jeff. Welcome back.

Jeff:
Hi. You have a small child, she's just past the age of where peekaboo is relevant. But it's just really funny that kids, they don't have object permanence. And so when you cover your face, they think you've disappeared. It's just-

Larry Hyrb:
Wait a minute.

Jeff:
It's great.

Larry Hyrb:
So you're telling me that I should disappear? Or what?

Jeff:
No, I was appearing. But then they think it's the funniest thing, man. I don't know. I found out I'm going to be an uncle, actually, yesterday. Maybe that's why I have this ... I found out yesterday. My sister called me and I'm going to be an uncle for the first time.

Larry Hyrb:
You're telling me this on the air? This is amazing.

Jeff:
Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hyrb:
Congratulations.

Jeff:
So I'm like, "Please remind me where to send the drum set and yeah."

Larry Hyrb:
It's funny, when my daughter was born, my sisters, who both have children, sent me, one of my sisters sent me these ... I don't even know how to describe them. They're just big plastic poles and they wail on them and hit them and they make all these different sounds. That quickly found its way into the garage.

Jeff:
Hours upon hours of fun.

Larry Hyrb:
Hours, exactly. I think that's even what it says on the box, hours of fun.

Jeff:
Kids, they love to bang things together. Yes.

Larry Hyrb:
Oh, man. Well, this is our first show of 2021. We've had a busy couple weeks. We're welcome back to you, welcome back to everybody listening and listening from around the world. Hopefully you had a great holiday. I know Jeff and I have been chatting back and forth on Twitter. You're probably following me on Twitter or Jeff. And we're just talking about games we're playing, we've got a lot going on. It's a fun time, isn't it? It's a fun time in the games industry.

Jeff:
In the games industry. Some amazing announcements this week. We can talk over them very briefly because-

Larry Hyrb:
Should we just jump into the news? I mean, this is kind of a quick show because some of the guests I was working on this week didn't pan out. So we're going to try to do that next week.

Jeff:
They were great. They were great. It was the technical part that was not ideal.

Larry Hyrb:
You're going to out me, aren't you?

Jeff:
It's not your fault. You weren't the gremlin in the machine. But these things happen. Well, where do we want to start? I mean, the closest I've come to seeing you was I went to your recommended Lebanese restaurant in your neighborhood.

Larry Hyrb:
It's Mediterranean.

Jeff:
They're Lebanese owned.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah.

Jeff:
And I looked into it, right? Mediterranean, it's a big place. Goes all the way from Spain, all the way. Anyway. So it was amazing. You don't live really all that close to me, but I will drive up there. My brother actually lives really close to you. So that's why we tried it. This weekend, the plan is to go back to him just so I can go to that restaurant.

Larry Hyrb:
I texted you last night. We were getting takeout from it last night. It's that good.

Jeff:
You can never have too much garlic. It's amazing. Do I have bags under my eyes, Larry?

Larry Hyrb:
Well, you don't look well rested. You look like you've had a rough ... What happened?

Jeff:
I was up until 1:30 in the morning last night beating Yakuza: Like A Dragon. It's my favorite game of the year. What they don't tell you is that ... So we've all played a game like an open world game or an RPG where they kind of let you know once you go past this point, it's the point of nowhere.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. The big pop up. And are you sure? And all the rest of that.

Jeff:
Yes. What they didn't mention is there is literally no safe points from this point forward. And it was great. It was a great final everything, but it was about three hours. I started it at 10:00 and I went to bed well after 1:00. And I knew I had to make a presentation at 8:00 this morning.

Larry Hyrb:
Oh, that's rough.

Jeff:
I was just like, "Blame Ichiban Kasuga." But how can you blame him? He's so lovable.

Larry Hyrb:
Now it's interesting because last night you and I played, I don't know if you can see it on my screen,-

Jeff:
Yes. A Way Out.

Larry Hyrb:
A Way Out. And we were having a great time with that. We should play again tonight. And it was a lot of fun and it was just a lot. This is a game that's made for us because you and I love co-op. Like it or not, Jeffrey, you are my co-op partner. And so you and I, this game was made for us. It's available in Game Pass because it's part of the EA Play part of Game Pass.

Jeff:
Yeah. So this is a game made by Josef Fares who, if you know that name at all, you might know him as the guy who went on a funny, yet very profane sort of speech during the game awards a few years back.

Larry Hyrb:
We were in the room for that one.

Jeff:
We were. He's also the person that is most recognizable with Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. I'm sure a whole team made that, but whether he's the game designer or the director, which is a phenomenal, phenomenal game. I really love that one on Xbox 360. Of course, it's been redone for Xbox One.

Larry Hyrb:
I think it's in back-compat.

Jeff:
Well, they actually did a special version for this generation. And I meant to go back and play through it again. And so this has been one of my stack of shame games. I knew we would eventually want to play and we were sort of talking like, "What do you want to play tonight?" We were kind of going back and forth and then it hit me and I texted you. I was like, "A Way Out, let's do it." And please stop calling me. And yeah, so that worked out really well.

Larry Hyrb:
And we had a lot of fun, and we played for probably for a little bit, an hour, an hour and a half. And it was just not the right moments. And we're going to go back to it again. But so obviously, you just decided after I left that you're going to go to Yakuza. And that's why you got-

Jeff:
Oh, as soon as you left, yeah, I immediately quick resumed straight over to Yakuza. And from that point, for three hours plus, I basically end gamed it and beat it.

Larry Hyrb:
At what point did you realize, "I can't turn back. There's nothing I can do."

Jeff:
Well, there was a number of very tough bosses after that, but I was like, "Surely they have to let me save it." Now look, at any point, I could have paused and quick resumed at another time. But I was like, "I'm an old school gamer." Until I can hit save and then I can save it again another way and then I can go back to the menu and see that I could load that save, I can't rest.

Larry Hyrb:
And then you go back to the dashboard and go find the save to make sure it's timestamped with a minute ago.

Jeff:
Every time. And so, I could have just powered off and come back today or something like that, but I pushed through and I'm glad I did. It's my favorite game of the year. I think my total run time on that was about 70 hours.

Larry Hyrb:
Seven zero?

Jeff:
Yeah. Seven zero. I may go back. I feel like I can 1K this game. I think I finished with about 700 gamer score on it. There's a couple things I was very close to. But here's the thing. It's two weeks from the time you listen to this, Yakuza three, four, and five will all be available on Xbox and through Xbox Game Pass. And maybe I should just focus on getting ready for that.

Larry Hyrb:
Right. Well, you should do that. I mean, you've had so much Yakuza. Well, we, you and I, have been playing. And then we'll talk a little bit about what we're playing. We're playing this, I've been playing Ori, as you can see right here because I've got this TV behind me that's 120 FPS.

Jeff:
Tell us about it. I want to hear it.

Larry Hyrb:
I mean, you saw I tweeted out the screen of like, "Hey, this does 120 frames. I'm going to change it." I was like, "Yes, please." And I mean, it's the smoothest of smooth, right? That's the only way to describe it.

Jeff:
It makes butter look like sandpaper. It's that.

Larry Hyrb:
I mean, I would show you here, but this is only in 30.

Jeff:
You can't. Yeah, that's right. Tell me about it. You can't show it to me. I'm barely getting 30 frames a second here on this recording.

Larry Hyrb:
No, but it looks amazing. So I'm playing that. The other thing I'm getting back into, as you've probably noticed, is ...

Jeff:
Sea of Thieves.

Larry Hyrb:
I have been playing the heck out of Sea of Thieves lately, and I don't know why. You and I haven't played, but I'm playing with a couple folks from the office who are into it deep, and I got sucked into it. So we're having a great time, that one. Rare and the gang, Craig and that gang over there are doing a great job with that.

Jeff:
Sea of Thieves is, in many ways, like Minecraft, which I've gotten back into because my kid was dragging me into it. And she needed help building something or mining something. She's been playing now for most of her life. And the thing I always notice is if I haven't played in a year is wait, when can you do that? When did that animal become a part of the biodome?

Larry Hyrb:
What is that thing?

Jeff:
Yeah. Where is that? I was even on unlocking some new achievements because I had the opportunity to go somewhere different. And I think that is a testament to the staying power of those games, but then also just the teams behind them who keep them interesting over the course of years. Are we at the three year anniversary coming up of Sea of Thieves?

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. Because we-

Jeff:
I want to say it's March of 2018.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah because remember we did, that was the very first Inside Xbox we did. I had the parrots on my shoulder, we had those folks in there.

Jeff:
I have a picture of that.

Larry Hyrb:
Right, yeah. So that is absolutely, you're absolutely right. It's coming up, I believe, March. And that game, if you haven't, again, Sea of Thieves is part of Xbox Game Pass. So if you haven't checked it out in a while, it's worth it. There's a lot more puzzles, the world is ... I don't know. It's fun to go in there and just play around. It's the pirate sandbox.

Jeff:
Indeed it is. It's always good to have a Sherpa or someone who is ... If you invite me in remembering that I still know the basics, I know how much I can drink before I vomit-

Larry Hyrb:
Well, you've probably heard. You and I have talked, I think, a little bit about this before is we have a friend of ours. In fact, he's the producer for Inside Xbox and he's a pirate legend.

Jeff:
Yeah.

Larry Hyrb:
He is a captain. And when I get on his ship, I just do exactly what he tells me to do. I don't question. Okay. Yes, sir. Yep. Okay. Sails down, sails up, sails whatever you need, just let me know, captain. So it's fun.

Jeff:
You may be a major, but when you're on that ship, he's the captain.

Larry Hyrb:
I lay down to him. And we've had some pretty epic battles in bringing down the megalodons and whatnot. So I highly recommend Sea of Thieves if you're on Xbox Game Pass. Or Ori. I mean, any of these. In fact, I think these are all Game Pass. We've got Sea of Thieves, Call of the Sea.

Jeff:
What's that over to the right?

Larry Hyrb:
Oh, it's Observation.

Jeff:
Tell us about it. Is that the game you got into over the holidays?

Larry Hyrb:
Oh yeah. I guess I thought we talked about this. No, Observation is, it's a Game Pass game. You're on a space station. There's an astronaut. Things have gone terribly wrong. But you don't play the astronaut. You play the AI. So think of like-

Jeff:
You're HAL 9000?

Larry Hyrb:
Exactly. So you're going through there and you have to go to different cameras throughout the ship, you have to solve some puzzles. It's been out for a couple years on PC. It came out earlier in, I believe, in 2020 on Game Pass. I just haven't had a chance to get around to it. And I opened it up, I was like, "Hey, this is a lot of fun." And quick resume works great because instantly you go right back to where ... In fact, I could probably do right now. You can go right back to where you were. And it's just so fun to just be able to play. You should see the quick resume up here in the corner. And boom, you're right back. I'm right back in the game.

Jeff:
Just unpause and go.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, just unpause and go. So it's great. I've always got that kind of running in the background. You're able to just quickly jump in and do that. And quick resume, there's no shortage of how much we love quick resume.

Jeff:
So over the break, we, just to get out of the house, we ended up staying at an Airbnb. We got a place just as a family. And they had a bunch of board games. And one of the games that we started playing was Pandemic. So perfect time for it. And you know where I'm going. So we don't own this game, but I ended up looking and I was like, "I recall this coming out on Xbox." And what do you know? It's in Game Pass. So when we got home, we downloaded it, and we just started playing it. And what's great about it is if you've played the board game before, it's a popular board game. They're not cashing in on an opportunity, this is a game that existed long before we-

Larry Hyrb:
They were the first pandemic.

Jeff:
They knew about it. They were planning. And they were training the next generation to handle the next one. But it basically is just a digitization of the board game. And so if you've played the board game, you want to play it again, it's not inspired by a pandemic, it is literally like if you could turn the board game directly into a video game. You don't have to shuffle the cards, you don't have to argue over who's putting the pieces away at the end. It's just there. And it's actually been something we've been spending time on. It's like a fun Saturday night thing. Seeing if we can-

Larry Hyrb:
Saturday game night at the Rubenstein's.

Jeff:
Saturday's hazmat game night. Exactly.

Larry Hyrb:
I love board games. I remember when Catan came out on 360, and Carcassonne, and all of those. It's just there's some classic games. And there's so many more. So yeah, if you're looking for some good board games, I've never played the Pandemic board game version nor this version. I downloaded this one because of what you just said.

Jeff:
Yeah, you'll definitely want to have someone sort of walk you through what's going on. It's a little complicated. But you get into this galaxy, but you feel really smart because it's a PVE. You're all together, you're not competing against each other. And you end up having seamless teamwork in order to take out these viruses. And when the plan comes-

Larry Hyrb:
Like A Way Out?

Jeff:
A little bit of luck, a little skill. It's really good. So yeah, A Way Out we'll keep playing, but we're working together, Larry.

Larry Hyrb:
We are, we are. We're always working together. Hey, I don't want to make a big deal out of this, but I'm actually pretty proud of this next moment. Can I share with you?

Jeff:
Please. Let's see it.

Larry Hyrb:
So as the show, we're recording the show a couple days earlier, but I'm going to put it up on Friday, Friday the 15th, which I celebrate my 20th anniversary at Microsoft.

Jeff:
Woo. 20 years. That's got to be a watch or something, right?

Larry Hyrb:
I have no idea. I just know that I looked up and I was like, "Wow, it's been 20 years." So anyway, I'm just pretty proud of that milestone. So I don't like to make a big deal out of it.

Jeff:
I mean, considering the Xbox is not quite 20 years, you predate Xbox. You weren't working on the Xbox team though, at that point?

Larry Hyrb:
No. It's funny, the funny story is, I don't think I've ever told this story to you, is I was working at MSN. I was the editor in chief of MSN Music because of my music background. Because MSN was kind of consumery and it was a consumer product versus some of the other products we have at Microsoft, so Xbox, this new team, was the next hallway over in where we work. Kind of all the consumer folks were together, consumer product folks. So I would see them and I would, hey, I got to be friends with them.

Larry Hyrb:
Remember what it was like when we would go to the office and you'd wait outside the meeting room and the meeting room clears and these people leave and you go in? It's kind of a class changing. Changes of class when you were at school. And I remember going in to see some of the ... Waiting for a meeting to come out and looking in and seeing gameplay up on the screen. And I'm like, "These people are playing video games in a meeting. I want in on that." So I just got to know a bunch of folks over there. And then the rest is kind of history, I guess.

Jeff:
So when I first started, because I hit seven years a couple months ago, so you would have, yeah, I mean, you've been here as long as there's been an Xbox.

Larry Hyrb:
Well, I've been here. Here, okay, you ready? This will date me terribly as if you guys can't do the math enough. Windows XP was still in beta.

Jeff:
In beta. I remember going out and buying Windows XP in box form. There was the green one and the blue one.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah.

Jeff:
And I just remember the green one was cheaper and that's the one I bought.

Larry Hyrb:
That was the home version. Yeah. Windows XP was in beta and I had just joined the team and they had just, at Microsoft, the corporate wide rule of ... And prior to me joining, you had to send an email to your manager and get approval to access the internet. Isn't that quaint?

Jeff:
Mama, can I please go online? What would you even have needed? I'm trying to think what would even have been like, "I need to go on there to check out my GeoCities page or something like that."

Larry Hyrb:
Could've been. MySpace. I mean, there's this-

Jeff:
Definitely pre-MySpace.

Larry Hyrb:
And so, what's interesting is you know who I share a birthday with in the digital realm? Or excuse me, an anniversary with in the digital realm. This is actually interesting. I started at Microsoft the same day, the very first day, of Wikipedia.

Jeff:
Oh. Jimmy Wales, I think, is ... That should be on Wikipedia and-

Larry Hyrb:
That's right. That should be. So somebody's go and edit my Wikipedia page that Wikipedia and I share the same anniversary. So anyway, I don't want to make too much time talking about me because I hate talking about me. But I'm just very proud of that milestone.

Jeff:
Well, it's no longer the Major Nelson Podcast in title. So that's how much you hate talking about you.

Larry Hyrb:
Well, that's true. That's absolutely true. So anyway, so I'm pretty proud of that, but like you said, I don't know, if I get a gold watch. And I'm not going anywhere. I have no desire to go anywhere. I want to keep playing games, I want to keep doing podcasts, keep talking about the great stuff, keep working with our great engineering team, keep doing A Way Out with Jeff.

Jeff:
Yeah. So I'm looking forward to, in 20-

Larry Hyrb:
21.

Jeff:
I signed up for math. 2033. That's when I'll hit my 20th.

Larry Hyrb:
Wow.

Jeff:
In November of 2033. It's also apparently, what was the game? Metro. That's also Metro games. So things might not be great.

Larry Hyrb:
You may be celebrating your 20th anniversary, yeah, you may be celebrating in the Metro.

Jeff:
Yeah, exactly.

Larry Hyrb:
Anyway. So yeah, we talked about what we're playing. Do we have any news? I usually have a couple of news headlines. I don't know if you want to go through those.

Jeff:
There was some nice surprise ... I have a bad habit. I think a lot of us have a bad habit. And that is your alarm goes off entirely too early when you've been staying up playing Yakuza. And what do you do? You grab your phone. And I just look and I'm like, "What is it today?" Well, twice this week, it's been, "What?" And so, one of those was a tweet from Bethesda.

Larry Hyrb:
What?

Jeff:
Which was the good what. Which has now been viewed, what? Six million times. And that MachineGames, who you know as the creators of the Wolfenstein series, who I know you're a huge fan of, and I enjoyed the most recent ones, that they're teaming up with Lucasfilm Games, which a couple days earlier had announced their return, not LucasArts, but Lucasfilm Games, to make an Indiana Jones game.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. That's kind of cool.

Jeff:
Yes.

Larry Hyrb:
And not a Lego version, but a real Indiana Jones. Not that the Lego games are not real.

Jeff:
Those are good games.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, they're great games.

Jeff:
And then the '80s are just having a heck of a week, as is Lucasfilm Games, which is they then announced, I want to say the next day, that they're working on a Star Wars game with Ubisoft specifically with Massive. So Massive is responsible for The Division one and two. So I'm like, in my mind, and then said it would be an open world. And I'm like, "What if ..." And we know nothing about it. I will caveat that. So anything we say is not a fact about this game. We found out about it when you found out about it on Twitter. And I'm just like, "What if we had an open world game that was took place on the Death Star or something?"

Larry Hyrb:
Wait a minute, wait a minute. This may tie back to, if you remember in December, you had that weird dream where you were working at Ubisoft.

Jeff:
Give me another Ubisoft open world game so I can continue my dream that I'm still working there because I've played so many Ubisoft. It's true. It's true. I've talked to a couple of friends there and they were like, they thought that was funny.

Larry Hyrb:
It is funny. But I don't know, maybe it ties into that. So your premonition, you have a ... Jeffrey, this is your magic power.

Jeff:
Now I got to go back. In the dream, was there any reference to Star Wars in there? Did R2D2 go by the office and-

Larry Hyrb:
Did you have the high ground?

Jeff:
That's good questions, that's good questions. So anyway, exciting stuff to look forward to. These games don't seem to have dates. I mean, it was just trailers only. But the idea that people, that developers that we like, are working on IP that we like-

Larry Hyrb:
That we love.

Jeff:
That we love, yeah.

Larry Hyrb:
Peanut butter chocolate, if that's your thing.

Jeff:
A reason to look forward down the line and be very excited. So there you have it.

Larry Hyrb:
What else we got?

Jeff:
Well, since the last time we talked, some new games were announced as coming to Xbox Game Pass. This is already last week's news, but some of those games are hitting this week. And so Neoverse is one of them that's coming to PC.

Larry Hyrb:
Look at it, you can see it on the ticker, there's a bunch coming in.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yep. And Justice Two is already there. Little Acre's already there. PES, Pro Evolution Soccer, which is a really fun alternative to FIFA Soccer. It's made in Japan instead of made in Canada. And so it's just a very different take on the beautiful game. And it feels different. And I'm a fan. I like it. That's already available. So Torchlight III will be coming to console and Android by the time you hear this, as will something that's coming to PC that has been out on Game Pass for console, which is What Remains of Edith Finch. That was a fun one. That was a really, interesting, unique-

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah, that was kind of a little bit of dark, it was a little bit of scariness, but it was a fun journey. Check it out, check it out.

Jeff:
It took place here in Washington state, I feel like on Orcas Island, out in these islands that are in Puget Sound. I want to say it took place out here. Obviously it's not a photorealistic representation of it, but it was just an interesting setting.

Larry Hyrb:
Inspired by.

Jeff:
Yes. And then YIIK: A Postmodern RPG set in 1999. Remember Y2K? Do you remember that thing?

Larry Hyrb:
Did you wear the button I'm prepared or whatever? Remember setting the clock?

Jeff:
Well, here's the thing. I was just out of college. I was in my first job. And what happened, I was working at a newspaper creating video content. And the people that were lowest on the rung, on December 31st, 1999, they were working. And so-

Larry Hyrb:
So you rung in the new decade or the new century ...

Jeff:
Because here's the thing. There were people like, "Planes are going to be falling out of the sky. Power out, this is going to go everywhere." And it's not that that was overblown, it's that thousands of engineers spent years redoing the code to ensure that that didn't happen. This wasn't something that was like ... It just was a false alarm. It was the correct level of alarm. It's just the average person, like me at least, and you were not quite yet working at Microsoft.

Larry Hyrb:
I was 15 days away, right.

Jeff:
We didn't feel anything. So I went up on the roof and watched the fireworks over downtown Orlando. And while my girlfriend at the time was out partying at Universal City Walk. She had a good time, I'll bet. But I was working.

Larry Hyrb:
Wow. Something going on there. Did everybody feel that? I sure did.

Jeff:
It's only 21 years ago. I'm allowed to still be mad about it, right?

Larry Hyrb:
Fair point, fair point. Anywho.

Jeff:
Anyways, the reason I bring up these Game Pass games is that these are the first Game Pass games for this month that have been announced and, in all of these cases, are now out. But there are other games coming this month. Like for instance, we know The Medium is coming. In fact, The Medium is a game made by Bloober Team. They've got their horror bona fides. They make scary games. Blair Witch came out, was it last year? It was, no, a year and a half ago at this point. I remember playing that at Gamescom 2019. Hugely scary also. Went into Game Pass. And so, The Medium is coming to Game Pass. It is exclusive to Xbox series S and X and PC. And they released a 14 minute gameplay trailer this week, which you can find, I think you find it on Xbox Wire, but it's on YouTube. You can just look for The Medium gameplay. And looks scary, looks really cool. It looks like a game I'm very much going to start. We'll see how freaked out I get. But you can download, you can preload that now. And then when-

Larry Hyrb:
Why wouldn't you?

Jeff:
[crosstalk 00:25:16] 28th comes out, then you can just go ahead and play it.

Larry Hyrb:
Why wouldn't you? I mean, this probably looks amazing, right? I mean, it's ...

Jeff:
Why wouldn't you, indeed?

Larry Hyrb:
Actually, it's funny. I was just clearing off some space on my console behind me because it looks like the final version's on its way down. So I'm very excited about that.

Jeff:
Oh, good. Yes. What else? There's sort of next week Hitman is coming out. Hitman 3, which people are really looking forward to. Have you ever gotten into Hitman-

Larry Hyrb:
I did a little bit. I know E got into them a lot. But I just really, maybe it's time. Maybe it's time.

Jeff:
Maybe it's time. Yeah. So Hitman, you can get Hitman 2 on, it was Xbox One X enhanced. I've been meaning to check that out to sort of follow the story. There is a story which apparently has progressed, based on the previews I've read, in Hitman 3. And so I feel like maybe jumping into Hitman 3 might not be what I want to do. Maybe, but I'm definitely planning on checking out a Hitman 2 now that I've cleared out some space finishing Yakuza. So that looks like that is going to be impressive and-

Larry Hyrb:
Fun.

Jeff:
Think there's some fun places. There's maps in Miami and stuff like that.

Larry Hyrb:
You can go home again to Miami.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah. Mom, I can't visit you, but I should get full credit for visiting you in Hitman 2. I'm sure that counts. A couple other little news bits I want to mention is Hi-Rez Studios, who they make really compelling competitive multiplayer games, Rogue Company, SMITE, Paladins. They have a Hi-Rez showcase. They started the year announcing a lot of stuff. And so we have a post from Alex Cantatore from Hi-Rez Studios over on Xbox Wire sort of talking about what these games are going to be planning. They've got a lot going on for all three of these games. And I think that's really cool how they're able to just really keep it going. And one of these days, I feel like I'm going to get into either SMITE or Paladins. Or actually, Rogue Company looks really cool. As people that play Apex-

Larry Hyrb:
Which we do.

Jeff:
Exactly. We could be into that. So something worth looking at. Had my eye on them for a really long time. I think I did play a little bit of Paladins when that first came out.

Larry Hyrb:
Hey, and I got something for you.

Jeff:
Yeah. Yeah, let's hear it.

Larry Hyrb:
This is it, right? Hold on a minute, let me bring it over here. There it is. There it is. That is the-

Jeff:
This was brought to my attention. Oh, go on, Larry.

Larry Hyrb:
The Pulse Red controllers, it's a brand new wireless controller that we just announced. Right, Jeff?

Jeff:
It is a beautiful controller. Everyone can sort of project what they want to see. I was like, "Ooh, it's an arsenal controller." But I noticed if you go back to it, when you're looking at the back view, you could just put a maple leaf in the middle of that controller, and it would be a Canada controller. You can see whatever you want to see from it.

Larry Hyrb:
That's the beauty of this controller.

Jeff:
Yeah, it is. It just looks really nice. So seeing some good feedback on the socials, people are into it. So looking forward to getting ahold of one for myself, and I'm sure you will too. That's coming out.

Larry Hyrb:
I was supposed to have one in for the show, but I don't know where it is. So I apologize, but I'll get that.

Jeff:
Well, so that is coming out in most markets February 9th. And so we've got a few weeks there. So I'm sure before then, you will see it. So keep an eye out for it. And as we're starting to ... It matches very nicely with the blue controller that was available at launch of the Xbox series S and X that has that sort of white background, but looking from the front a very different look.

Larry Hyrb:
Tri-tone.

Jeff:
Tri-tone. Let's go with that.

Larry Hyrb:
Why not? Yes.

Jeff:
So you had mentioned, I feel like we were talking, that you were very into Little Nightmares back when that came out. So I want to say 2017. Little Nightmares II is coming out, which also looks pretty horrifying. But you can find that out on your own. So the game comes out on February 11th, but there is a demo that is available now. So you can try that out.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. In fact, it dropped earlier in the week. So check it out now. I don't know what you're doing, but you should be checking it out.

Jeff:
And if you've never played the first one, it's actually part of Games with Gold through the rest of this month. So if you've got Xbox Live Gold, of course you have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, please claim that game, take it. It's yours to play. And you can enjoy it. And Little Nightmares II will only be $29.99 when that comes out as well. So there you go.

Larry Hyrb:
That's a lot of news. I mean, the news is starting to ramp up again. We had a little bit of a slow few weeks just as the industry kind of gets back up. But it's going to be a busy 2021. We've got a lot going on. We've got a lot planned. I'm really excited about what we're going to be doing, Jeff. You have a smile on your face, what are you thinking of?

Jeff:
I'm thinking the part that was missing the most for us for most of the year, you had mentioned a couple of times, the last thing you did was PAX East. And just thinking just how much I miss getting to see people, getting to walk the floor at a show like that. People that say that they listen to the show or they watched Inside Xbox, or for us to go and say, "I love your game that you're making here," and talk to the game developers and all that stuff. So definitely miss that. I hope we're able to get that back at some point this year. We obviously don't know. It really is very dependent on how quickly everyone gets vaccinated and keeps up the work of masking and everything like that. But man, I miss that. I'm smiling because I'm imagining it. I feel like there's a light at the end of the tunnel where we're going to be able to do some of that stuff again. Because this is fine, but doing this together in the studio, that's what we live for.

Larry Hyrb:
Yeah. And also, don't forget each week I do Inside Xbox or This Week on Xbox, which is every week. And it airs every Friday on your dashboard and then YouTube and so forth. And I kind of read through the news. So it's kind of like a speed dating version of this. So if you don't really care about hearing about Jeff's angst with his ex-girlfriends 20 years ago ...

Jeff:
It just wasn't cool, man. Wasn't cool. I had to work.

Larry Hyrb:
Oh man, you're the best.

Jeff:
We broke up like four months later, by the way. But that was the turning point.

Larry Hyrb:
That was the beginning of the end?

Jeff:
Yeah. It really was. Really was now that I think about it. I'm glad we worked through it. I had a real breakthrough today on the show.

Larry Hyrb:
Well, you know what? This is just some of the service that we provide here. You never know what's going to-

Jeff:
If we just sat here and read Xbox Wire, you could do that on your own.

Larry Hyrb:
You can do it on your own. It's really, it's kind of the backstory that you get with us. And you know what? You'll get that nowhere else. You will get that nowhere else.

Jeff:
Nor would you want to.

Larry Hyrb:
We're going to wrap it up, Jeff. I know we've been going on for about a half hour, but we'll come back next week. We've got a bunch of bunch guests lined up for future shows. So the shows are going to get long, but we definitely wanted to join you right after the new year here before January gets too far along and just say welcome back. Thank you for all your support. I know I said it during the Phil interview that I had last year, the last interview that we did, the last show before this, we know folks are looking for the Xbox Series X and S. We're making them as quickly as we can. Keep checking your local retailers because they're doing drops, I think, every week. So that's what it feels like. Right?

Jeff:
What more could I add to that, Larry?

Larry Hyrb:
Okay. All right. If you want to hit us up on social, you know how to find us. You can hit me at Major Nelson. You can also hit Jeff Rubinstein. That's the complaint desk. So if you want to see-

Jeff:
Keep them coming. It's always good to see them. We love it when people tag us in stuff, though. In good things like, "I just got an Xbox," or, "I have a question about this."

Larry Hyrb:
When we come back next week, CES is kind of wrapping up this week, we're going to have a chance to look at some of the CES, the Consumer Electronics Show, which was in Vegas, now it's all virtual. In fact, I think I've got an appointment later this week where I'm going to look at the new Totos.

Jeff:
The washlets? I want to know what's the latest in toilet technology.

Larry Hyrb:
I feel like, like I say, we've threatened this so many times, I feel like I'm just going to spit up an entire other podcast, which is just my toilet talk.

Jeff:
Or you could just do the show from your master bathroom. Think about it, think about it.

Larry Hyrb:
Want me to go get the remote? It's in one of our ... I won't do that to you.

Jeff:
That's a teaser for next week, Larry.

Larry Hyrb:
Next week. All right, gang. Thanks for listening. Make sure, Jeff, do your PSA right now about the comments.

Jeff:
Yes. Kindly like and subscribe this video if you're watching on YouTube. And please leave a comment. We love to read them and hear all about ... You all comment on some interesting stuff, and we do appreciate that. If you're listening on a podcast service, where the show was born, thank you so much. Reviews really do help, and comments as well. We want to know what you want to hear or see. So thank you.

Larry Hyrb:
All right. Thanks, gang. We'll talk to you guys next week. Be safe, everybody. And have fun, play fair, and we'll see you online. Bye-bye, everybody.

Jeff:
Bye-bye.