750: Sea of Thieves A Pirates Life, ESO and more

Larry Hryb:
Hi, it's Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, and here we are, back on the show. Let's go to bring everybody in. Here we go. Jeff, I know...

Jeff Rubenstein:
You just love that shot for some reason. Did someone give you a new webcam? And you're like, "I have to use it. Here's what I'm going to do I'm going to place it low, really low."

Rebecca Gordius:
Extra dramatic.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. Look at that.

Rebecca Gordius:
Should place it even lower next time.

Larry Hryb:
It's funny. Well, Rebecca, you weren't on the spread.

Jeff Rubenstein:
This is your captain speaking.

Larry Hryb:
But there was this... I'll tell the story, Jeff. Rebecca, you went to Newhouse, so you've been our own production. Jeff I and have been in TV for a long time. And I sent Jeff a clip a few days ago of this... It was a network television. It wasn't a network television. It was a local news show in a major market, and they were doing cuts so fast. I even took the time. Jeff, you didn't even give me a little credit to download the clip and then show you just what I wanted to show you. In 10 seconds, it was clip, clip, clip, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. It was mind-numbing.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You know old man-

Rebecca Gordius:
It's supposed to be.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... yells at cloud, and like, "Get off my lawn"? But when you start complaining about the cuts on a new station in a city you do not even live in, I had to wonder. I had to wonder. Also, why am I getting so stuttery?

Larry Hryb:
Because, apparently, the internet gods are not pleased with you today. But anyway, good to see you guys.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. Thanks. Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein:
What am I supposed to say?

Larry Hryb:
Wait a minute.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Rebecca, it's great to see you.

Larry Hryb:
Wait a minute, wait a minute. This is such a trope in the games industry. I'm going to have to call you out. What's up with the T-shirt, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's a shirt. It's just a shirt. It's a Philly sports thing. This is Gritty.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, I thought it was Sesame Street.

Jeff Rubenstein:
The Phillie Phanatic. Well, aren't all mascots effectively Sesame Street rejects? It's just like, "You don't get to be Big Bird, but you get to jump off a trampoline and do a dunk. Try not to get hurt."

Larry Hryb:
"Sorry, you can't stay on Sesame Street, but we're going to send you to Philadelphia. That's where you get to live."

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah, hey, even better.

Larry Hryb:
Let's be clear. The takeaway from this show is Philadelphia is where Muppets go to die, I guess. I don't know.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Philadelphia would be-

Rebecca Gordius:
This just in.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... like if all the Muppets were Oscar the Grouch, and it was just all Oscar the Grouch. That's Philly. And I say that with pride.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway, let's talk about what we're playing, get into this stuff, Jeff. You and I were talking a bunch of stuff. Rebecca, we're going to start with you. How's your week been? You're in New York City. How's it going out there? How's your acclimation going to the city? And what are you playing?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. I actually stayed in last weekend. I wasn't feeling great. I've been playing Wilmot's Warehouse, but I'm not going to lie, I got really frustrated and I stopped playing it after a while. I did not finish it. I'm notorious. I never finish any of my games, I think.

Larry Hryb:
Really?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. I know. It's a bad habit. I love the BioShock franchise, but I never finished Infinite.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, did you finish the first one at least?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. Would you kindly lay off my back? Thank you.

Larry Hryb:
Touche. Well done.

Rebecca Gordius:
Thanks. But after last week's showcase... Last week? Yeah. I was inspired to get back into Halo, because I feel bad. I love Halo, but I couldn't really remember how the story went, aside from the Osiris team meeting up with Master Chief and Cortana going crazy. Spoilers. Sorry. I jumped back into the campaign, so I've been going through that. Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
Are you doing it co-op with anybody?

Rebecca Gordius:
No. I feel like I'm an antisocial gamer these days, but I'm open to it if you guys want to play.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, we should.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Send the invites.

Larry Hryb:
We keep saying we're going to play together, but Rebecca, you and I still haven't played a game together. I think you and Jeff did once or twice, but you and I need to solve that problem.

Rebecca Gordius:
I agree.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's been a while. It's been a while. There's so many co-op games to play. Any of them. Just send me the invite. Sea of Thieves, Dark Alliance. There's a lot.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. You've been playing Sea of Thieves, right?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yes. Yes. I'm just looking right now at my friends list here, and A Pirate's Life is out.

Larry Hryb:
Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's pretty great. I spent two hours. I have yet to meet Jack Sparrow, because there's an open area. Wait. There was a hidden treasure. I think there's something hidden here.

Larry Hryb:
Hey, no spoilers.

Jeff Rubenstein:
We spent two hours figuring it out.

Larry Hryb:
No spoilers.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm just saying. We figured out a secret. There's secrets in Sea of Thieves.

Larry Hryb:
There's secrets.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Imagine that.

Larry Hryb:
There's a lot of secrets.

Jeff Rubenstein:
There's a lot of depth. It's not just-

Rebecca Gordius:
There's a lot of depth.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's a lot longer than the Sea of Thieves. Depth. I didn't even... I'm so good at that. So good at that. It's not just like the Pirates ride, over in five minutes. There's definitely elements of it, which is really cool, but there's just so much to do. There's so much game here. Go on, Larry.

Larry Hryb:
Jeffrey, I'm disappointed in you.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Why?

Larry Hryb:
You lived in Orlando. Those things are not rides. They're attractions.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh. Well, I was not a cast member either, so to me, it was a ride. But there are parts in it, and I will say, early on, where there's remixed... There's voiceover stuff where it kind of... I'm like, "Wait, did they say that in the ride?" It even is coming through kind of tinny.

Larry Hryb:
Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You can almost smell that smell of the attraction.

Rebecca Gordius:
The attraction, Jeff.

Larry Hryb:
Jeffrey.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
Jeffrey, Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein:
What? Go on.

Larry Hryb:
I have an interview with the folks from Sea of Thieves later on with Joe and Mike, and they are going to talk about that. The audio is directly-

Jeff Rubenstein:
I want to hear that, I want to hear that.

Larry Hryb:
The audio is directly from the rides, from the attractions.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I knew it!

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, that's so cool.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. I don't want to talk-

Rebecca Gordius:
Wow, good catch.

Larry Hryb:
... anymore about that. Let's just say it's a lot of fun.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That's great to hear.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, we got some good interviews this week, one of which is the Sea of Thieves guys. It's funny. They only had 30 minutes for me, and I could've gone on with two hours. You're going to hear some stories, behind the scenes stories, and all sorts of cool stuff and some other interviews later on. We'll get to that, but first, we're talking about... Are you playing anything else, Rebecca? Or should we go over to Jeff?

Rebecca Gordius:
No, let's go back to Jeff.

Larry Hryb:
I hope you feel better.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah.

Rebecca Gordius:
Thank you. I feel okay. I don't know if you can hear Pumbaa snoring, though.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, I thought that was your stomach.

Rebecca Gordius:
No. It's always Pumbaa.

Larry Hryb:
Okay. That's my excuse, too. Go ahead, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. A few things. One, I finished Judgment, the spinoff, if you will, from the Yakuza series. So good. I almost cried at the end. There's emotions, there's highs and lows. The Yakuza series, there's eight of them. A lot of the same characters, so you build this rapport, almost a parasocial relationship with them, much like you might [crosstalk 00:07:00]-

Larry Hryb:
Did you say parasocial?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... somebody that you follow. Yeah, that's that thing where... Look, a lot of people probably have a parasocial relationship with you, Larry. And what that is, is they've been following you for so long, they feel like they know you.

Larry Hryb:
Oh.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh. I see. That's what that is.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That's what that is. That is a very real thing, and there's been people that I've met. You were one of them, actually, and I was like, "Oh, man." And you almost want to pick up a conversation, and then you realize, "Wait, I've never actually spoken with you, and you have no idea what I'm talking about, and it's just really creepy, because I follow you."

Larry Hryb:
But in this case, it worked.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Wanted to reference something.

Larry Hryb:
In this case, it worked, and you now have a career.

Jeff Rubenstein:
See? Parasocial relationships, the career-builder. Anyway, you kind of have a parasocial relationship with Kazuma and all these people that aren't real. This game has new characters, and I was like, "Am I really going to like these characters?" At first, it's a little... By the end, you're like, "I love... I would die for these not-real characters." That's why I'm glad Lost Judgment's coming out in September. We get to have essentially another season, if you will, with them. Really enjoyed that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
There's games now that I'm playing that I really want to be playing with you guys. Obviously, Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life is one of them. Also, Dark Alliance, which is out on Game Pass, which is a third-person dungeon crawler. I've been playing solo, but it's made for multiplayer.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, I think I saw the trailer for that. Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
There it is right there on the dashboard.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. And it's a third-person beat-'em-up, if you will. A little more complicated controls than that. I'm using that white-haired elf character, who's fast. I don't know. I'm having a pretty good time with that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And then I've just started playing, because it's out today, Scarlet Nexus, which is a game by Bandai Namco. The story. Proof is killing me. Anyway. I'll talk more about that next week. I've only played the first hour or so, but looking forward to playing more. And of course, that's out today.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Larry, what do you play?

Larry Hryb:
We used to talk about what we're playing. What am I playing?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah, what are you playing?

Larry Hryb:
I'm looking at my back here. I've got Tunic, I've got Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life on deck. Jeff, to be fair, I have not played the released version of it yet. I'm saving it until I... When you have this really exciting game, like I remember when the Halos came out and the BioShocks, I want to just block off the time, shut the phone off, and sit down, and let the story in. That's kind of what I'm waiting for, and I just haven't had a chance to do that yet. I'm really looking forward to that as well. And more importantly, the revisit the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. Well, let us know. You have no problem picking up the phone and calling for nothing. This is the time I want you to pick up the phone and go, "Let's play."

Larry Hryb:
No, I'm not going to call you. Let's be clear. When I call you or you call me, we're like, "What's wrong? Who died? What's going on?" That's pretty much-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Generally. Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
That's kind of the first reaction. Yeah. That's what I'll be playing this week. It's the summer. I don't know if you saw this, Rebecca, but Jeff and I and everybody here in Seattle, we're headed into a wee bit of a heatwave here in Seattle. It's going to be upwards of 100, is what they're projecting. Yeah, you're missing all the fun.

Rebecca Gordius:
Sorry. Sorry.

Larry Hryb:
It's okay.

Rebecca Gordius:
Like I said, I wasn't feeling great last weekend.

Larry Hryb:
Didn't mean to get you there. You all right? We've got that. The long story short is, because it's going to be 100 out, I'll probably be inside, staying cool with the Pirates of the Caribbean. Look for those phone calls, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay. I'll be ready, with no air conditioning, and just sweating all over my controller.

Rebecca Gordius:
I want to play, too.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Okay. Okay.

Rebecca Gordius:
I'd like to play, too.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Seriously. I'm going to...

Larry Hryb:
Jeff, my-

Jeff Rubenstein:
She's all choked up.

Larry Hryb:
We were looking at the weather this morning. I would extend this to you as well, Rebecca, but you're in New York City. My wife was like, "Do you want to invite Jeffrey and his family over for the air conditioning?" I'm like, "I'll see if he wants to come over."

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm planning on spending a lot of time at the mall, at the air conditioning. It's going to be great.

Larry Hryb:
I don't have a mall for you, I don't have a Zales Jewelers, but I do have a living room you can enjoy, and the guest room.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Maybe get my ears pierced at Claire's. We lost Rebecca. Don't turn it orange. She's back. Yeah. That's just one of those things.

Larry Hryb:
And go to Spencer Gifts and get your-

Jeff Rubenstein:
A lot of the West Coast is-

Larry Hryb:
... glow-in-the-dark poster.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yep. We'll see, Larry. All I know is I'll be spending a lot of time in all of the stores, because it will very quickly be 100 degrees in my house, and outside of it.

Larry Hryb:
We've got a bunch of interviews we're going to bump into right now. We kind of teased a little bit just a moment ago, so why don't we go ahead and do those? And then we'll come back. Jeff, you've got the news ready. Rebecca's got some news as well. We'll tick through that, and we'll get this show going. What do you say we do that?

Jeff Rubenstein:
What say?

Larry Hryb:
I am very excited. This week, it is an amazing, amazing time to be a gamer, especially if you are a Sea of Thieves fan, because joining me right now in the boxes to my left and my right, Joe Neate and Mr. Mike Chapman from Rare for Sea of Thieves. I'm really excited for what you guys have announced this week. First of all, congratulations. Joe, tell us what you guys have going out this week.

Joe Neate:
Yeah. Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life has released, and it's doing very well, and has been received brilliantly well, right? A crossover with Disney and with Pirates of the Caribbean, and something that we've been working on in secret for a while, as you know, Larry. Mike has been leading the design from the very first moments that we met with Disney two years ago now. Yeah. Been amazing, amazing journey together.

Larry Hryb:
Mike, I want to talk to you a little bit, because this is available now. It's available for Game Pass members. This is just a free add-on for the game. This is unbelievable. This is stuff that people would pay $20 or $30 for, but you guys are just rolling it in for Sea of Thieves members. That's pretty amazing.

Mike Chapman:
Yeah, I know. I've seen similar description of that online. We said right at the launch of this game back in March 2018 that, no matter what we release in terms of new experiences or content, we don't want to separate our players. Everybody gets to come in. The expansions to the world or new ways to play or new tools, it's there for everybody. Everyone's in the same world, and join it together. This follows suit with that.

Larry Hryb:
It does. Joe made a comment a little earlier, just a moment ago, about how this is done in secret. I want to talk a little bit about that, because this is actually a story, and Joe doesn't know. Joe, you know I'm going to talk about this. About three to four weeks ago, I think I emailed you both that I had made Pirate Legend, and I was really excited. I went through and I hit it, and I was so excited. And I knew you guys had some stuff coming up at the Games Showcase, so I'm like, "Hey, Joe, do you think you could let me in on what's going on?" Because I didn't know. And he simply wrote back, "Nope. Sorry." And that was it. I was like, "Okay." To be fair, this happens frequently in the games industry. As most people know, I'm a huge gamer, so I love... I want to be surprised. I was genuinely stunned when you guys rolled this trailer at the Games Showcase. Joe, talk us a little bit about that secrecy, because that's actually an interesting story.

Joe Neate:
Yeah. A big part of our plan for this was we wanted to blow people away with this huge surprise reveal, not only of the crossover itself, but also that it was coming in 10 days from the announce. As we know, secrets are hard to keep in the games industry, and a lot of things end up getting out early and things. We really, really, really had to change everything about how we operate. Especially on Sea of Thieves, we've leaked stuff accidentally before. Multiple times, probably, during the last few years. We changed how we worked internally, we codenamed everything, we changed what we put into our internal team reports to each other, we changed who we were talking to about this, so it was a really small group. Even the E3 review process of the trailers and things that get reviewed is part of-

Larry Hryb:
The internal review process that we have.

Joe Neate:
Yeah, the internal review process. Internally, as part of Xbox, we had a much smaller group that was just reviewing our asset, not as part of the wider kind of thing. There was a very, very small group of people that were brought into this, all with that intent. For probably the final month, every day, we were waking up, checking the internet, checking our Google alerts. Has it leaked yet? Has it not? It would've had a negative impact on what we wanted to achieve and what we wanted to set out. And that moment for all of our fans, of Pirates of the Caribbean fans, of Disney fans, it was so cool to see it play out the way it did, even just the way the trailer was constructed with all the little teases through it until the big reveal of Jack Sparrow.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. That's interesting, because... I want to point out, and the internet has pointed this out as well, is that I had you on the show probably about three or four months ago. In that, you and I were talking, and here's the clip right here. I actually talk about how... Mike, I know you've seen this, about, "Hey, I don't think Disney could do this better." And you have this look on your face. I didn't know. Clearly, you knew. You had this look on your face, which was like a deer in the headlights. I apologize that I put you in that position, Joe. I feel terrible, but it was a fun moment.

Mike Chapman:
I can't tell you how much I love that clip. Going back through the freeze frame, he's like, "When is the penny going to drop with Joe?" But even the fact that, Larry, you asked the question, in a weird way, was kind of like a pat on the back. Your mind went there in terms of it would be a natural fit. A lot of people would think that when we announced it. Yeah, I love that clip. To be fair, Joe, that was God level of composure, the way you handled that. It was very good.

Joe Neate:
Honestly, the amount of people on the team that clipped it and sent it to me the next day, going like they didn't want to play poker against me. It was great. Yeah.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, it was a... Again, I apologize. But again, that's the level of secrecy that you had. People think that I know all the secrets, and I certainly don't. I love being surprised, and you talked about that. Here, when we showed it in the Games Showcase, we see this come up here. This is the actual clip from the Games Showcase. We see Sea of Thieves. Okay, we know we're going to get some news about Sea of Thieves. But I'm watching this with everybody else, the millions of other people watching. I'm like, "What is that? Is that a new area?" And we're going through it.

Larry Hryb:
As somebody who's been to Disney theme parks many, many, many, many times, countless, and you talked about this, Joe, the buildup here to this moment. I'll tell you, the moment when I realized that y'all were doing something was not right here. I was like, "Okay, this is cool." We're going through, we're seeing our group. I was like, "Oh, that kind of looks familiar, that tower there." But this moment, and this is an iconic moment in the ride of the Pirates of the Caribbean, is the dog with the keys. That, to me, I was like, "Wait a minute." I don't want to play the whole thing. You can go watch it on the internet. It's a beautiful trailer, and it's a lot of fun there.

Larry Hryb:
When we talk about working with Disney, Mike, you and I were talking just a moment off the air about how you got to go on the ride a couple times. What are you doing when you're on the ride? Are you taking notes? Tell us a little bit about that creative process.

Mike Chapman:
For me, I was lucky enough to go when I was growing up. That ride, that attraction, is probably my favorite attraction from across the world. That's the keyword. Happy to say, I've got an encyclopedic knowledge of that attraction. Absolutely adore it. I think it was working with the Disney team and being able to go to the parks with the Disney team and take a look at the attraction together. I think I know, for Joe, it was really powerful for you to see all the moments from the original creative pitch. To see it there right in front of you on the attraction, that was such a... It was nice to experience it with you that way.

Mike Chapman:
That process was, "How do we create an authentic story that not only pays homage to the movies, these five movies that have been incredibly popular, but can we cut to the heart of what the Pirates of the Caribbean means as a world?" And that all started with the attraction and, "Yo, ho, a pirate's life for me," that incredible song that's memorable to so many people. If we can tap into that as part of an authentic story, it's going to reach and touch so many more people. The chance to play in that world and to weave this story that brings Sea of Thieves and Pirates of the Caribbean together. But to do so with that attraction, which means so much to so many people, me included, it is a dream come true. It really is. You know the feeling when you're at a Disney park. There's nothing like it in terms of being transported to another world, and the atmosphere. Everyone's in an incredibly amazing mood, because it's such an immersive place. The chance to bring that to life in a game was a dream come true.

Larry Hryb:
Well, you talk about that, and I know you and Joe have been to the parks frequently, but that's exactly the feeling. From that clip earlier on that we talked about where I was complimenting you and the team, Joe, was exactly that. When I'm in Sea of Thieves, I feel like I am in a theme park, and the theme park is really just a real-life version of a video game in some regards, because everything's very controlled. Some parts are scripted, some are not, but I can decide where I want to go. Do I want to go to Adventureland, Tommorowland, Fantasyland? What do I want to do? That's the way video games are. Specifically in Sea of Thieves, I get in my ship, and I'm like, "Where do I want to go?" And now, I get to sail into a bit of Disney lore. That's exciting.

Larry Hryb:
You had your event earlier this week on a Sunday where you revealed some more about it and what the Tall Tales are about. Joe, tell us, in the game itself, what we can expect. Without too many spoilers, if you don't mind.

Joe Neate:
Sure. It's five tales, five very, very cinematic tales as well that really... They take you on this original story that Mike came up with and worked with our concept team to flesh out how it'd potentially look and turned it into this amazing creative pitch.

Joe Neate:
It was interesting just jumping back to the attraction itself. When I first went on the Pirates attraction and we went around twice, we'd actually Disney through the creative pitch the day before and were fully aligned around, this is the amazing thing we want to together. I was just sitting next to Mike at the front of the boat, and just looking and recognizing all these bits that had been woven into the story. That's, I think, the most amazing thing for me. Not just the films, but also the original heritage of the attraction is woven into this so beautifully and in such a great way, including the audio and stuff, like we were talking about off camera.

Joe Neate:
All of that stuff is in there, and it just makes it so authentic. For people who have been on that attraction have been to this, and they get to come back and experience this as part of a really compelling story that's completely original, but that just tells the story of what would happen if these characters came in. And the way Mike has woven it in, of almost that you're going through the memories of Jack Sparrow, which is what gives us the reason to go and visit these places and areas and stuff from the attraction itself. It's so clever, but just so beautiful.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, no. I also want to point out that, certainly, you took some inspirations, and there's certain things from the attraction that we'll see in the game. You actually took parts of the attraction and put them in the game. Let's talk about the audio part, Mike. I asked you this off camera. Is that the narrator from the actual attraction? Tell me about that.

Mike Chapman:
Yeah. It's that balance of being completely authentic to the attraction. You can be in that grotto from the start of the attraction. "Dead men tell no tales." You can hear the voice of the talking skull. Alongside the audio, even the lighting is that blue-green lighting that you see in the grotto at the start of the attraction. We've emulated that same feel as well. You really feel like you're there. Games, you're fully immersed in this location. Audio-wise, you mentioned Paul Frees. Some of the original narration lines are in there. A lot of the other pirate voices are there from the original attraction.

Larry Hryb:
Now, when you say they're there, you actually got the audio from Disney to put them in the game, right?

Mike Chapman:
Absolutely. There's this seamless mix of original legacy audio, down to seagull caws and wind whistling through the cabins to those awesome pirate VO lines. We've also weaved in original lines that we recorded with the Disney team on the original vintage mics that were used in the '60s to record the original attraction to capture that same legacy, a vintage sound that's so iconic that puts you right there in the attraction.

Mike Chapman:
I think, out of everything, we've created a lot of content in Sea of Thieves, and working with Disney has been an absolute privilege. But the chance to almost touch the original attraction in creating this narrative has been... Pinch me. It's one of those pinch-me moments. I don't think that'll ever sink in. It's completely surreal.

Larry Hryb:
It's out this week. You guys announced it, and then essentially just a few days later, a week-plus later, you dropped it. That's extraordinary to itself. Congratulations on A, the hard work with you, and I know it's a whole team behind you both. Congratulations on that, congratulations on keeping the secret. But also, congratulations on the continuing success of Sea of Thieves. Joe and Mike, I know I talked to you many times over the years. When I first came out there in February of 2018 and saw it, I saw the magic that it was. I want to just congratulate you. Joe, I want to see if you could just talk a little bit about the success that you guys have had over the past few years. Don't be humble.

Joe Neate:
Yeah. It's a labor of love, right? The project, it has been, and it's something that Mike and I have worked together on for, I think, about seven years now, right? I think we were in development-

Mike Chapman:
At least seven years. Yeah.

Joe Neate:
... for four years in the original idea to launch, and now, over three years since launch, so not too long. And will have been out live longer than we were in development, which is crazy to even think of.

Joe Neate:
Each year has been bigger than the last in terms of every kind of number and measure. I sent a mail today, actually, to the team after the launch of A Pirate's Life with some of the numbers, some of the momentum and things. It was a big day. There was a lot of play. People playing, a lot of excitement, a lot of buzz. Again, this year is going to be... Well, I think it already is bigger than the last. We're only halfway through. I think it's just that continued investment and that continued pouring of passion and love and of just an incredibly talented team that just has so many ideas to continue to enrich this and continue to grow this and just make it the pirate world to go and adventure in, like you were talking about, Larry. It's an attraction to come and have your adventures in. It's just richer than it's ever been, and we've got so many more ideas to keep growing it.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. If you had told me many years ago, "The best pirate game ever to be released is going to come out of a studio in the midlands of the U.K.," I would've said, "You're out of your mind." But Rare has a history of delivering that magic. By the way, I think you need to talk to the head of Rare, Craig, and have you guys maybe open up a remote office down in the Caribbean so you can continue your research.

Mike Chapman:
Okay.

Joe Neate:
I think that sounds great.

Mike Chapman:
Put in a word, Larry. Please, please. I think if we're going to top A Pirate's Life, that's the only way to do it.

Larry Hryb:
That's the only way.

Mike Chapman:
We're going to need some deep inspiration deep in the Caribbean.

Larry Hryb:
Now, one more thing before I let you go. A lot of people have tried out Sea of Thieves and maybe checked it out. You have a nice onboarding now. You've changed the main screen. If you haven't visited in a while, I urge you to download it and check it out again. But I want to point out that A Pirate's Life is a little bit different in terms of once you get into the experience, you won't run into other players, right, Mike?

Mike Chapman:
Yeah. There's a mix of that first tall tower that really introduces you to that story. And as you say, it's a great way to come off the maiden voyage. Once you've played your first Sea of Thieves experience, straight into that adventure to save the pirate's life with Captain Jack Sparrow, which is amazing even to say. It's incredible we've done this.

Mike Chapman:
But then, some of the tales also take place in the Sea of Thieves, but any time you go back to the Sea of the Damned, it's just you and your crew on this co-op adventure. It kind of weaves its way in and out of the Sea of Thieves to tell the best story.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. Again, we can't really talk too much more about it, because I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. But again, if you have Game Pass, or even if you don't, sign up and check out Sea of Thieves, and then you can go into A Pirate's Life and check it out.

Larry Hryb:
Gentlemen, again, I'm so excited for you guys, for the studio, for what you've done here. I'm looking forward to seeing what you have on the roadmap. Out of the gate, this is an amazing, amazing experience. As a Sea of Thieves fan, you guys know I'm a fan. I'm not just a player. I'm a fan as well. I want to thank you.

Mike Chapman:
Absolutely.

Larry Hryb:
Any final words before I let you go? It's hard to follow up, though, what you just launched.

Mike Chapman:
Joe, when you said that they're working together the past seven years on this game, I do think, even when you say that, it's uncanny to think that... Sincerely, bottom-of-the-heart level stuff, we are still as passionate as ever to keep building this experience. I think this is one pinnacle that we've reached with A Pirate's Life, and a chance to work with Disney. It's incredible, but so excited more than ever for the future of this game and where we can take it.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, you guys are really... There's famous things written about the Disney Imagineers. You guys are game Imagineers, and that's what's exciting. I'm going to call it right now. I'm planting the flag. You guys are the game Imagineers. Thank you for this. Joe, any final words before I let you go? Mike?

Joe Neate:
For me, I think just following off what you said there about the game Imagineer stuff. I've worked with Mike for eight years now, seven years of which were on Sea of Thieves. The last two years since that very first meeting we had with Disney, and then as we've gone and Mike's firmed up this creative proposal, we took Disney through it. And then to see that Mike and the team, for the last 15 months, really, building this, I've never seen... I've never been as wowed or as impressed with someone as I've been so with Mike in terms of his understanding of the Pirates of the Caribbean world and of the Sea of Thieves world and the lore and how this has all been woven together to create this update. And the passion and the skill and everything that has gone into this for Mike, it's literally been a privilege to witness and to watch this happen. Yeah. Yeah. Never been more proud or impressed to work alongside Mike. I think he's been absolutely incredible.

Joe Neate:
Obviously, it's not just Mike, but Mike has been a huge part of this. The Rare team back at the studio, obviously, the last 15 months has been a worldwide pandemic. Everyone's aware of that, right? The development for this kind of started just as we shifted to working from home. For the whole team to be able to have worked on this and deliver this and surprise and delight and blow people away with it, it's been an incredible achievement for the whole Rare studio. Yeah. It's just a super special moment for all of us, I think.

Larry Hryb:
What I'm going to do is, before I let you say the final words, Mike, I'm going to go ahead and clip that out and send that to you so you can use that in your yearly review coming up.

Mike Chapman:
I was going to say. The only thing I ask, Joe... Wonderful. The only thing I ask is, "Can I change my job title to game Imagineer?" Because I'm sold on this. That's all I want.

Larry Hryb:
I think you should totally do that. Anyway, gentlemen, thank you so much. A Pirate's Life, now available in Sea of Thieves. Check it out if you're on Game Pass. What are you doing? Go download it now. Gentlemen, on behalf of gamers, Sea of Thieves fans, and Disney fans around the world, thank you very much for bringing our worlds together.

Mike Chapman:
Absolute pleasure. Thank you.

Larry Hryb:
Elder Scrolls Online has some great news this week. I'm very excited to be joining me, Matt Firor. Matt, how are you?

Matt Firor:
I am good. Thanks for having me on.

Larry Hryb:
It is my pleasure. You're the head of the studio over there. You're like the man.

Matt Firor:
Yeah, I'm the guy they hired to start ZeniMax Online Studios to make Elder Scrolls Online way back in 2007.

Larry Hryb:
I remember when it was announced. I remember being at E3 and going, "Oh, that sounds like a good idea." And you guys had a small team, a really small team. Wasn't it six or seven people that started?

Matt Firor:
Yeah. When we first started, yeah. It was just me, and I sat with the BGS crew and taught Howard's team down in Rockville for a while. And then I hired a small group that came up with the basics of the game, and then of course, a larger team was required to actually make the game.

Larry Hryb:
You guys got some great news this week, or recently. Why don't you go ahead and tell us what you got and what's going on? This is really great stuff for Xbox [crosstalk 00:33:19].

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Well, we've had a busy couple of weeks. We've had three launches in three weeks. We launched our big update for the year, Blackwood, which is our chapter, which is our annual big content dump with a lot of stories and a cool area of Tamriel to go explore. This year is Blackwood, which is a region you'll remember from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, called Blackwood, which is near the city of Leyawiin. We also have an area, Black Marsh, where the Argonians are from. This chapter tells the story of what Mehrunes Dagon, that big demon prince, Daedric prince from Elder Scrolls IV, how he set up the invasion that you then experience in Elder Scrolls IV. Elder Scrolls Online takes place about 700 years before that. That was the big news there. And then two weeks after that, we launched our native next-gen version ESO for the Xbox Series S and X and PlayStation 5.

Larry Hryb:
That's some pretty good news here. I have some screenshots here that you can walk through. This is like, "Here's the last gen. Here's the last gen, and here's the next gen." You can kind of see there's more trees, there's more shiny, but it's not just that. Tell us about some of what the enhancements bring, if you would, please, to the next-gen consoles.

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Yeah. Obviously, it was on the previous gen starting in 2014, and it still runs fine on the previous gen, just like it runs fine on lower-spec PCs. But this version, which we call ESO console-enhanced, really takes advantage of the horsepower of the new generation. It's not just higher fidelity, although it is. It's as good as PC ultra spec, because these machines are really, really powerful. Also, we have for the first time on consoles, we let the user pick between a fidelity mode, which is everything turned on all the way up, beautiful, at 30 frames a second, or just dial that back a little bit, a little less resolution at 60 frames a second. We call that performance mode. We let the user pick. Do they want the snappiness of 60 FPS, or do they want the really, really high fidelity of 4K? That's, in a nutshell, what it brings.

Larry Hryb:
And I'm looking at this list here of what... You simplify, maybe oversimplify it, but I see shadow settings and ultra texture settings, increased draw distance, ambient occlusion, always a good thing to have. [inaudible 00:35:45] plane of reflections. Native 1440p resolution, which I know a lot of PC gamers are excited about. If they have their console hooked up to their monitor, right?

Matt Firor:
Oh, sure. Yeah. The performance mode is native 1440 on the Xbox Series X, and 4K on the Series X. Yeah. When I say higher fidelity, it includes a whole lot of things, including some higher-res textures that we went back and touched up some art from the early, early days of the launch game and made it look better. And of course, very, very high-res shadows and reflections. The horsepower of these machines lets us do just as good as any high-end PC.

Larry Hryb:
I've had a lot of people... I want to point out that ESO's available in Game Pass, so if you have Game Pass, there's nothing stopping you from jumping in here. Is this the type of game that somebody could just jump into if they haven't really played, they've heard of Oblivion, or they've heard of something? That's the thing that some people go, "I don't know if I understand this." Right?

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Yeah, that is a preconceived notion of ESO that we go great lengths to talk about every time we do a show like this. ESO is very, very forgiving to new players, because it's not really level-based in the same sense that other games in the genre might be. What it means is basically, like any Elder Scrolls game, you can jump into ESO and play any of the new content right from the beginning. You don't have to grind through all the old game to get to the good stuff. You don't need to power-level your character to get up to level 50 just to start having fun. You can start having fun right from the beginning, because you can play the newest stuff just from the get-go, and then go back and do the older stuff in any order that you want

Matt Firor:
We're kind of unique in that, on console, PC, across all these platforms, fantasy, online RPG. We're kind of the only game that does that, and it's a huge advantage for us, because it's great for the beginning player to get into the game, but its feature is that it lets the community play together. There's no level-banding, so if you're level 50, it doesn't matter if you group with a level-10 person, because you can play the same content together. And it makes the game much more social, much more open, and much more friendly for new players.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. There's so much going on. Here's a little bit of the trailer that we're showing here. There's so much going on in this game, and there's so much to explore with you and your friends that you really just need to jump in and explore. If you love the fantasy RPG, this is the game for you. You guys have done amazing work in this space.

Matt Firor:
Yeah, thanks. What we always say is that there's really no wrong way to play Elder Scrolls Online. You can play it really any way you want. You can just craft items for your guild, you can just run co-op dungeons, you can PvP. There's no wrong way to play it. It's got it all.

Larry Hryb:
With all the enhancements that you're bringing, it's got to be great to have the power of these consoles, these new generations of consoles, available for you, because it really brings into parity your PC platform and your console platforms in a lot of ways, doesn't it?

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Absolutely. We actually have brought in a lot of our advanced PC tech into these versions. Back in 2014 when the last-gen consoles came out, they couldn't handle those kind of features. But now, this new gen is really, really strong and really, really powerful, and we could basically do all of the settings that PC players have been used to for a long time.

Larry Hryb:
You kind of alluded to it, because we talked about it's available as part of Game Pass as well. You said you're on Xbox Series X and S, you're on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC, Mac. You're on Steam. There's almost nothing-

Matt Firor:
Stadia.

Larry Hryb:
... you're not on, right?

Matt Firor:
Stadia. Yeah, we're on Stadia, too. Yeah. Seven platforms right now.

Larry Hryb:
Most people get freaked out when they have to ship a game on one, and you're like, "Nah, let's do it to seven."

Matt Firor:
You're assuming I'm not freaking out.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah, that's fair. By the way, nice poker face. You're playing it well, I got to tell you that. If you could give somebody who's listening to this interview now, perk their ears up, say, "Gee, maybe I should go check this out," what do you recommend they do to get started? What's the best way to do this, directly from the head of the studios?

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Well, if you're an Xbox player, just grab it on Game Pass, download it. It's free on Game Pass. It's included. Just download it and start playing. If you want to see some of the newer content, you can subscribe to ESO Plus, which is our subscription system, which gives you access to a lot of content that we've launched since the original game. But if you just want the essence of ESO, just download it and load it on Game Pass, jump in, create a character, and just run around and start exploring the world. It's all there.

Larry Hryb:
Do you have a lot of people going in and running multiple characters and re-rolling all the time?

Matt Firor:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I think we allow up to 18 character slots, and we have many, many, many players who have all 18 full, because they have a PvP-specific character, a crafting-specific character. In this new version, Blackwood, that just launched, which is included in the ESO console-enhanced, we have a new tutorial even. It helps new players coming in off Game Pass or anywhere else, explain the game to them, because it's grown so much since 2014. The new tutorial ties together a lot of the storylines and introduces the player to them and lets them choose which ones they want to go into first.

Larry Hryb:
That's actually really important. I know you talked about this earlier, but the fact that you can choose exactly what chapter you'd like to play. Maybe you have one area. I know. I play a bunch of different video games, and I like to go, because I like the area and I want to explore. For whatever it is, I just like a specific area. And now, players can do that. Maybe they can jump out and go to another area, and then kind of skip around a little bit, right?

Matt Firor:
Yeah. Like I said, there's no wrong way. You can really just start playing the adventure that you want. If you really want to go back to Skyrim right at the beginning, you can just go right there right from the start. If you want to go to some areas that weren't in the other Elder Scrolls games, you can just go right to Summerset or elsewhere. It really, really is very, very forgiving to new players and lets them do... You can't make a wrong decision, because you can always go back and change your character if you want or go somewhere else and try a new adventure.

Larry Hryb:
You know what? We need to stop talking about it. Let people go check it out themselves. If you got Game Pass, check it out. If you're on any of the other platforms, it's there as well. Matt Firor, the studio director at ZeniMax Online Studios. Matt, always great to see you and your team. Keep up the great work in bringing Elder Scrolls Online. Just keep moving it forward and forward and expanding. Thank you.

Matt Firor:
Thank you.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right. Thank you, Matt, from Bethesda. And Joe Neate and Chappers, Mike, from Rare. Actually, if you want to see more from them, right around the time this goes live, you should also check out Kinda Funny. They're going to be on the Xcast. Actually, it'll be probably tomorrow, if you're listening to this on Friday. On Saturday, they're going to be on the next episode of Kinda Funny, Xcast. I know I saw Greg Miller playing. He's a big Sea of Thieves fan. Playing-

Larry Hryb:
Is he?

Jeff Rubenstein:
... shirtless. Yes. Shirtless with an eye patch.

Larry Hryb:
As you do.

Jeff Rubenstein:
For some people, that's the right content. For some people, it's not. Clearly, it's been working for him.

Larry Hryb:
Should I get my eye patch out?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Clearly, shirtless Greg Miller-

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, no. Oh, no.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... has propelled him to the next level. Larry, we saw you one button down, and our viewership was divided in half last week.

Larry Hryb:
A lot of comments about this OnlyFans. They want me to run an OnlyFans.

Rebecca Gordius:
No, no. Sorry. Love you, but no.

Larry Hryb:
Thank you. I agree with you. Anyway, thanks for that. Yeah, the Xcast is also so good over there, those guys, that team.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, we're big fans. Parris Lilly, who was hosting the extended showcase last week. Was it only last week at this point? Yeah, obviously, a consistent host there. Also, Gary Whitta, who we know from Rogue One.

Larry Hryb:
We've had on this show. He's a friend of the show.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And SnowBikeMike is the host. You have had Greg Miller. We should have Mike at some point, and Parris.

Larry Hryb:
We need to get Parris on. We need to get some more folks on here. We're going to cycle them in. In addition to what we have here.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, I think that would be great.

Larry Hryb:
This isn't like replacing. It's addition to.

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's always replacing, especially when-

Rebecca Gordius:
I'm being kicked off already.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... Jason Ronald cuts you right off. Anyway, yeah. We can work on that. I think that'd be a lot of fun.

Larry Hryb:
I want to go from two people to more. Yes, Jeffrey?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Larry, I will forgive, but I will not forget. And I probably won't forget.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway, we should get into the news here. Following up from last week, we got some news, Jeff. Do you have your news? Do I have a news ticker? I don't have a news ticker. I know you're in New York.

Rebecca Gordius:
Do you? Do you?

Jeff Rubenstein:
You don't have the news ticker?

Larry Hryb:
I know you're in New York.

Jeff Rubenstein:
What, did you lose it?

Larry Hryb:
No, no, no, no, no. I'm just saying. I have that one, but I'm just saying, Rebecca, now that you're in New York, there's a... I know no one listens to radio anymore, but there's a radio station in New York called 1010 WINS, and they've got the teletype in the background. I feel like I should have that for Jeff. That's what kind of ticker I'm looking for.

Rebecca Gordius:
That's what we're missing. Yeah, that would be great.

Larry Hryb:
Exactly. Jeff.

Rebecca Gordius:
Okay. You don't have that?

Jeff Rubenstein:
That's what everyone says. "You know what I'm missing? Teletype."

Rebecca Gordius:
I'm surprised you don't have that sound effect already. You have all the other sound effects.

Larry Hryb:
No, I've got the achievement, because you got to have that, but I do need to have something a little more... By the way, I did get something specifically for when you're telling your dad jokes, and that, of course, is... Anyway, Jeffrey, let's go to the news, shall we?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Giving Larry sound effects was not the best idea. That's what all the comments in YouTube are calling out.

Rebecca Gordius:
I like it. I'm a fan of this.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right, all right.

Larry Hryb:
Thank you.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Let's talk about the news.

Larry Hryb:
Go ahead.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Xbox Game Pass.

Larry Hryb:
What do you got?

Jeff Rubenstein:
Hey, new titles announce for Xbox Game Pass. I will call out some games, like Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts, are now available to play via the cloud. But the new ones that are entirely new to Game Pass, we have Worms Rumble, cloud, console, and PC, available now. Iron Harvest will be following... Well, by the time you hear this, it will be available on PC.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered via EA Play. If you're an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you'll be able to get to play. I believe that is the latest of the Need for Speeds. EA Play, there's so many good games in there. You're never at a loss for what to play. I love how we sort it out, when you go into my games and apps, and can just look there.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All right, Larry, this is actually... I don't know if you've been having your daughter play games yet, but one of the first games-

Larry Hryb:
I am not.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... that I played along with my daughter was Gang Beasts. Gang Beasts is-

Larry Hryb:
That'll be fun to get by my wife. No, Gang Beasts. It's got-

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, first of all, I don't think there's ever been a bigger dichotomy or separation between what a game is called and what the game actually plays like. You're like, "Gang beasts? This is rated NC-17 or something."

Larry Hryb:
Rated M for mature.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Instead, it's actually... If you saw the Party Animals trailer during our showcase last week and you're like, "Oh, I want to play that now," well, you can't. It's not out until next year. But you can play Gang Beasts, which will be on Game Pass on July 1st. It's a physics-based, cutesy party game, where your goal is generally to knock-

Rebecca Gordius:
Kid violence.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... somebody off of something. But fun. Kid violence with a heart. It's just fun, slapsticky physics. You grab on to each other, and you're usually just trying to throw them off of something. It is very fun. I highly recommend Gang Beasts. What you're seeing here is Party Animals.

Larry Hryb:
I happened to have that cued up.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yes. Also, Gang-

Rebecca Gordius:
I love this trailer.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Right? I think this was one that stood out. I don't know if it's child-friendly. Yeah. Anyway, we're just going to leave that alone. Anyway, more games coming to Game Pass. Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars, and then Limbo, the all-time classic Limbo coming to cloud, console, and PC.

Larry Hryb:
So good.

Jeff Rubenstein:
All these by July 1st, which is just about a week away, which is very cool.

Larry Hryb:
So good.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Larry, here's something I'm going to want to ask you about. The design for Xbox monitors, which were announced earlier this week, so we're partnering with a number of different device manufacturers, Philips, ASUS, Acer, people that you know that make great monitors. I've had an ASUS monitor for a very long time. But these are made specifically to unlock the power of the Xbox Series X and S. What can you tell me about them?

Larry Hryb:
I can tell you that they're coming soon. With have three that we announced. One of them in Philips, and that one is going to be out, I believe, this summer. I don't want to talk too much about them, Jeff, because I am lining up somebody from our hardware team to come in and really talk about what the program means. This is the first time we've put, frankly, the Xbox logo on a monitor and gone into a program like this. These monitors are going to be designed to give you automatic low latency when you're playing that, and of course, high frame rate and things along those lines. I'm going to get somebody on from our hardware team to talk about what that means New York these monitors are just a little bit different, so stay tuned for that. But we did announce the program. They're shipping later this year, and I'm going to definitely get someone on.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. There's an article on Xbox Wire, and it's really cool, because that one monitor by Philips actually broadcasts color on your wall behind it that matches up to what you're playing, which is really cool.

Larry Hryb:
I have that on my... I put in some cue lights back here to do that, so that's why you'll see the different colors. I don't know if I can make it-

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, that's neat.

Larry Hryb:
There's one color. I'll make them blue back there.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh, yeah.

Larry Hryb:
I got a whole thing going on here, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein:
To say the least, Larry.

Rebecca Gordius:
It's a nice setup.

Jeff Rubenstein:
To say the least. Yeah. It'd be great to learn more about the monitors, I think, just in general. When Series X and Series S, when they came out, in the lead-up, there was a lot of new terminology, like HDMI 2.1 and VRR, variable refresh rate, and a number of things. I think these monitors take the guesswork away. It's just plug, and you know you're going to be getting-

Larry Hryb:
Plug and play.

Jeff Rubenstein:
... the best picture. Someone should copyright that.

Larry Hryb:
Plug and play.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Space Jam. We talked about Space Jam. Space Jam: A New Legacy, which is the... I don't know if you'd call it a sequel to the movie, but Michael Jordan 25 years ago. Now, with LeBron. It's coming out, I want to say, this summer. Yeah. July 16th. A few months ago, we announced some pretty cool stuff where we were working to help educate kids for coding, so a Microsoft coding workshop. But then there was also the opportunity where fans could enter in an idea for a game that would relate to the movie. Well, we went and we made it, and that game is going to be coming out for Xbox Game Pass first, and that's going to be coming out next month. But it's sort of like a beat-'em-up. It's also on July 1st. Again, another perk for Game Pass here is to be able to download that game on July 1st.

Larry Hryb:
I think I'm getting somebody on.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah, it's a beat-'em-up with LeBron.

Larry Hryb:
I think I'm getting somebody on to talk about that game. I don't have LeBron available, but I'm going to see if I can get somebody else.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And the last bit of this is a series of three different controllers that pay homage to Space Jam, and there's one for the Tune Squad, there's one for the good guys, the Goon Squad, which is the enemies, and then also the Serververse, where the whole things takes place in the internet. Actually, that one's the most interesting-looking of the three controllers. A lot of times, in the past, we've done different controllers, that they look cool, but you couldn't buy it. You can actually buy these. These are going to be going for sale on Amazon and on the Microsoft store. There they are. Serververse one is there on the right.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, I love it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
And you see, obviously, the other two. I like the Goon Squad one. I like purple. Big purple fan.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. You can check those out if you want, as Jeff said, over at news.xbox.com, so there you go.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I was waiting for, "That's all, folks," Larry. We do have some more news.

Larry Hryb:
I can't do Mel Blanc.

Rebecca Gordius:
Missed opportunity.

Larry Hryb:
Yeah. No, I can't do that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Somebody about as recognizable as the Looney Tunes, depending on who it is, maybe more, coming to Minecraft.

Larry Hryb:
Rebecca, can you tell us a little bit about that?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. We have the Sonic the Hedgehog DLC, which released in Minecraft. We've heard really great things from the community so far. But yeah, folks should definitely go check it out.

Larry Hryb:
Zing, zing, bling, bling. I just have those rings, that sound, in my head, because I remember going on a loop. That was satisfying. More of that.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Cool.

Larry Hryb:
Well, if you go back and look at some of those from the SEGA Genesis, they do have a blocky quality to some of those worlds, so it feels like it's natural, right, Rebecca?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. It's a really good partnership. They've been awesome to work with. I think it was a really natural fit to bring Sonic to the game. Yeah, people should definitely go check it out. There's a lot of really good content online already, too.

Larry Hryb:
Cool. All right, Jeff. Go on. I see you had something.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Yeah. It's not just skins, right? There's more to that, too, isn't there?

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah, there's actually a world. It's pretty neat.

Jeff Rubenstein:
This actually looks really cool. I'm taking a look at some of the content. It looks like there was a forest hill zone. Yeah. That famous first level, where you're going in the loop-the-loops. Putting that in Minecraft is just awesome.

Larry Hryb:
Hopefully, nice hidden areas, too. Or hidden areas. Remember those?

Jeff Rubenstein:
It's a platformer. Yeah, you could go through the wall on certain parts.

Larry Hryb:
There you go. I'm throwing it at you, Jeff, and you're finally-

Rebecca Gordius:
Sorry, I didn't play it.

Larry Hryb:
Oh, well, you should go check it out.

Rebecca Gordius:
No. Sorry. I'll check it out in Minecraft.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That was middle school, high school for me. Yes. There you go. There you go. Or you can just make your own hidden areas with a pickax, and you just dig your way through.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Last thing. State of Decay 2. Can you believe they're up to update number 25? The folks at Undead Labs, they just keep supporting the game. This one's a pretty significant update in terms of Blood Plague being super prevalent. There's this territory that has to be cleared out around the Plague Hearts, and there's outposts and other things that you can't even get to until you've cleared out that Plague Heart now. But that sounds harder. There's better rewards as result. I love that the folks there have been able to keep adding and iterating and making the game better. I would say once or twice a year, I'll end up going back into the game and picking up my world and usually end up starting over again, because there's so many new things. I just love the system-based fun of State of Decay 2.

Larry Hryb:
Did you really not have the segue there for... We were talking about Sonic. You could've gone into Sonic, the official video game for the for Tokyo Olympics.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Is that a screenshot from the game? It kind of looks like maybe it's somebody in the suit.

Larry Hryb:
No.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm just saying.

Larry Hryb:
This is on a Wire post.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Or basketball. There you go.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway. It's weird, because the Olympics were last year, but now they're this year, and everything's... We're in the Upside Down.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Well, same thing. Euro 2020 is happening here in 2021. They're like, "Nope, we're changing the logo. It's still Euro 2020."

Larry Hryb:
Tokyo got the bid for 2020. That's what they're getting. They're not getting 2021. Anyway.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Is it an embassy that's considered... The French Embassy in the U.S. is considered French soil. Is it like, when you're in the Olympics, in here, it's still 2020?

Larry Hryb:
It's 2020.

Jeff Rubenstein:
When you go out there and you go home, you're in 2021.

Larry Hryb:
Little bit of travel there. Thank you for the news there, Jeffrey.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I try, Larry.

Larry Hryb:
I know.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Not especially hard, but I do. I try.

Larry Hryb:
Well, you do your best. How you feeling over there, Rebecca? I know you've been struggling this show. By the way, appreciate you joining us, even though you're having a little bit of a coughing fit there, and you're recovering. I appreciate that.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah, thanks. I'm feeling okay. Actually, there is one thing I'll also mention. This weekend is Pride in the U.S. and a lot of other places around the world. I don't think we talked about it being Pride Month on the show yet, right?

Larry Hryb:
We talked a little bit at the beginning.

Rebecca Gordius:
Yeah. Yeah. We have an Xbox Wire post that we released, which has a lot more information. There's some cool stuff going on. We have a Pride gear collection that's available if folks want to get different... We have a specific liberty with the rainbow, and the progress flag. People can get that gear in real life, but then we also released the gear collection for avatars, too. I think there's new profile themes. Tell Me Why is free through the month of June, I believe, so folks can go experience that. Sorry. Still not feeling great.

Rebecca Gordius:
There's a bunch of other opportunities for people to donate via Microsoft Rewards, which I've plugged quite a few times now. Basically, if you use different Microsoft products, then chances are, you've been accumulating rewards, and you can use those rewards to send actual, real-life donations to nonprofits that Microsoft will match, which is really cool. And then there's just a bunch of other different collections and stories and ways that people can learn and hear perspective from other folks. Yeah. I'd recommend folks check it out.

Larry Hryb:
Check that out. In fact, I just was putting the blog post up there while you were talking about it, Rebecca. You can see some of the-

Rebecca Gordius:
There's a lot.

Larry Hryb:
I think the proper marketing term is, I like to call it, activation, things that they're doing.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Is it your job to just correct everybody? It's not a ride; it's an attraction. It's not a blog post; it's an activation.

Larry Hryb:
People like to call it... There's a lot of activities.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You should get college credit for watching this show in marketing. Or hospitality management.

Rebecca Gordius:
Learn all the right terms.

Jeff Rubenstein:
One or the other.

Larry Hryb:
Who needs the Kellogg School? Just come right here. Yeah. If you want to link off, if you want to check that out, just go to news.xbox.com, and it's all there, celebrating Pride and the whole post over there. That's a lot of fun.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You had a good point about the Microsoft Rewards, though. Just by playing games, especially on Game Pass games, you'll see something pop up sometimes if you've signed up. Definitely download the app. Every time you end up playing those games, sometimes when you unlock some achievements, sometimes there's other things you can sign up for. It's almost like Microsoft Rewards app is your quest-giver, and then it's the NPC, and then you go out and you do those things, and then you get those points, which can be exchanged for credit on the Microsoft Store. But also, I make a habit of, once I get up to about 5,000 points, I'll go ahead and I'll find... There's usually a number of different salient charities to donate to, and to donate those, and then Microsoft doubles that, which is awesome. I just love that. Your money just goes twice as far as it would otherwise to go to those worthy causes.

Larry Hryb:
What I have here, Jeff, is I have one of my favorite things. I do my pins. I don't know if I can cut over here to this. I do my pins. This is what I keep some of my Xbox pins in. But the Pride one is one of my favorites.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh, I have that one, too. I don't have it with me. Yeah, that's great.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Do they make special pin tongs?

Rebecca Gordius:
I know. Yeah. Are those tongs, tweezers?

Larry Hryb:
This is a funny story. This is a funny story. I was ordering some tweezers to do some electronic work on Amazon, and I was like, "Oh, these are great," and it came with a package of three. And it turns out, I didn't realize they were monster tweezers.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh my goodness.

Jeff Rubenstein:
That's if your splinter is a baseball bat got caught in my arm.

Larry Hryb:
Look at the size of these things.

Jeff Rubenstein:
You would use that.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway, I have these crazy... They're just basic tweezers, but they're-

Rebecca Gordius:
How?

Larry Hryb:
... just enormous, so I use them once in a while.

Rebecca Gordius:
I love that they look like actual-

Jeff Rubenstein:
What do you use that for?

Rebecca Gordius:
... normal bathroom tweezers, too.

Larry Hryb:
That's the whole thing.

Rebecca Gordius:
Someone hit it with a jumbo ray.

Larry Hryb:
I needed some tweezers, and I never noticed down in the description, "Length, one foot." Who knew?

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'm at a loss for that. Are you just really small? Did you shrink this week, Larry? Those are normal-sized tweezers?

Rebecca Gordius:
I just want to see you open a door and slowly stick the-

Larry Hryb:
That's them next to a phone, okay? They're huge. They're huge.

Rebecca Gordius:
Oh my gosh.

Larry Hryb:
And they came in a package of three.

Jeff Rubenstein:
One of them is not enough.

Rebecca Gordius:
We each get one?

Larry Hryb:
If you need one.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Get one for each of us. Where's my giant tweezers?

Larry Hryb:
I've never shown these to you before? I can't believe I haven't shown these to you. The moral of the story is-

Jeff Rubenstein:
I can believe that.

Larry Hryb:
The moral of the story is, read the description. A friend of mine, who you and I Rebecca know, who works with us, a friend of ours who lives in Canada, he was telling me how, when the pandemic started, he needed to give himself a haircut. He was so excited, because all the haircutting kits were sold out on Amazon and Target and everywhere. And he ordered one. He finally found one, he ordered it. It showed up, and it was for a dog. It was animal clippers. To be fair, they're probably close enough.

Rebecca Gordius:
Did he use them?

Larry Hryb:
Not only did he use them, but he got best in show.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Ah, there it is.

Rebecca Gordius:
Ah, there we go.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Did we tee you up for that? Did any of this happen at all?

Larry Hryb:
All right.

Rebecca Gordius:
Nicely done.

Larry Hryb:
Sorry. I had to go with... I'm sorry. I took your dad joke this week, Rebecca. I'm sorry. Do you have one for us?

Rebecca Gordius:
It's okay. No, I'll save it for next week. That was a good one.

Larry Hryb:
Okay. You can have that one for free. Anyway, gang. All right. We're going to wrap it up. We'll see you guys next week. Rebecca, thank you for joining us.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Not a moment too soon.

Larry Hryb:
I hope you feel better. Jeff, I hope you get less Gritty next week, I guess.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I'll feel worse.

Larry Hryb:
Okay. You'll be less Gritty.

Jeff Rubenstein:
As if that's possible.

Larry Hryb:
Anyway. All right, gang. You know how to find us online. Rebecca and Jeff. You can find us all. Rebecca, I follow her on Twitter. I follow Jeff on Twitter. That's our socials right there. And there you go. That's all you need to know. We'll see you guys next week. Hit us up in the comments. Jeff, go ahead and do a little spiel about this and this and the banging this, and the whole thing.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Oh my God.

Rebecca Gordius:
Someone had to do it.

Jeff Rubenstein:
Larry, you were peak Larry this week. You're peak Larry this week. Of course, we love it when you-

Rebecca Gordius:
I know. You're on a roll.

Jeff Rubenstein:
I know, I know. Please. We do ask, especially if you are subscribing or you're watching us on YouTube, please subscribe. The likes do help elevate the show, but really, we care about your comments. We do read the comments, and they tend to be very constructive. We do look for those. Please leave them, or Larry will come at you with his giant tweezers.

Larry Hryb:
All right. We'll see you guys next week.

Rebecca Gordius:
He was ready.

Larry Hryb:
Bye-bye, everybody.

Rebecca Gordius:
Bye.