Hands on with THE Deadpool controller| Official Xbox Podcast

ANNOUNCER: Games in this podcast range from E to M.

[AUDIO LOGO]

- Hello, and welcome to the official Xbox Podcast, the only podcast that comes to you from inside Xbox. We're into July. And I know that's generally known as kind of a slow period for games. Not this July--

- No.

- --not July of 2024. This is an amazing period for games on Xbox, especially on Game Pass, There is so much to play. And we're going to be talking to the people who make those games this week. We have coming up on the show interviews with the people who make Flintlock, as well as EA Sports College Football.

And then we're going to talk tech a little bit. Because the follow up to my favorite handheld PC is coming up. And so we're going to talk to a podcaster about the ASUS ROG Ally X. I'm going to have to ask him first thing, is it ASUS R-O-G? Is it "rogue?"

- How do you say that?

- How do you say that? Because I don't know. And also, by the way, we're going to be unboxing later on, the most curvaceous of all controllers--

- Ooh.

- --that have ever been made, the special Deadpool and Wolverine controllers that you might have seen--

- Oh my gosh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --out there.

- I have seen it.

- Deadpool is in the building, well, in controller form. And we'll be unboxing that later.

- I've never been so excited to get my hands on something. [LAUGHS]

- OK, that's sort of a creepy sort of gesture, Wonder.

- What? I don't know what you're talking about.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But we'll allow it. Wonder Stormbreaker, welcome to the show for the first time.

- Thank you.

- You came in from Downtown Seattle. You are--

- Actually, I slogged here all the way from West Seattle.

- West? Oh, the island--

- Even further.

- --of West Seattle.

- The island, yes.

- Some local geography for you all.

- There were some ziplines involved, a waterfall. Yeah, I had to fight off an orca.

- You gotta go up stream on the way home.

- You look great, considering you fought an orca.

- Thanks, yeah. I just rolled down the sunroof.

- Yeah.

- So. [LAUGHS]

- So you're the head of studio marketing at Undead Labs, which is based here in Seattle.

- Yeah, here in Seattle. Yeah, we are in Pioneer Square, mm-hmm.

- That's where Jebediah Springfield first planted his flag, I think.

- He said, "Here is where we will build." And then it all kind of washed away.

- And then there was a fire.

- Yeah.

- And then some of that's underground. And now you make video games there.

- That's right.

- So it all works out.

- Yada, yada, yada, and now we make video games.

- That's the history of Seattle in a nutshell, folks.

- There we go. And then Kelly Lombardi, welcome back to the show. I haven't seen you in a little bit.

- It's so good to be here.

- It is good to have you here.

- Yeah.

- You are the head of marketing for Rare for Sea of Thieves.

- Yes, big week for Sea of Thieves. We have a season launching this week, so.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Ooh.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, very excited, Season 13, Flameheart's back. So I've been busy with that. But very excited to be here and be part of the pod again.

- You also have that ship that breathes fire, right?

- Yeah.

- The giant ship.

- So, yeah, if I can nerd out--

- Oh, please do.

- --for a second. So for the first time, you'll be able to battle Flameheart's ship. And you can either pledge your allegiance to the good or evil side. On the good side, you actually take down his ship and reap the rewards. But if you pledge to become part of his crew, you commandeer the ship and sail it for yourself. And the longer you're on the ship, the more rewards that you get.

- I love it.

- You can go solve different puzzles at these constellation islands that you get access to in these skeleton camps. So it's really cool. And all of that's to say, there's also a giant flamethrower on the front. So I'm not sure why you would choose to be on the good side.

- [LAUGHS]

- I'll ask you in like a month, what were the numbers like? 95%, huh?

- Yeah, yeah. Who doesn't want to captain a ship that has a giant flamethrower on it?

- Yeah.

- So, exciting times in the world of Sea of Thieves.

- All right. And it's exciting times, really, for Xbox players. Like I said, historically, if I put on my spectacles and think back to the history of gaming, July has generally been a pretty quiet time.

- Yeah.

- It's a great time to catch up on your backlog. Not this year.

- This is a hot July.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It is. It is very much so. So I know we're all playing games that have come out in the last two weeks or so.

- Yeah.

- And we have eye contact here, Wonder.

- Uh-oh. That means it's on.

- You're in trouble. The eye is here.

- [LAUGHS]

- You've been playing a couple of games that actually recently went into Game Pass. So why don't you tell us about them?

- Yeah. The one I just finished, I love a cozy, casual game. And so I'm a huge fan of the outdoors. And so actually when Jeff and I were talking sidebar, he was like, well, what games are you playing? And I like, I am playing hiking. Have you heard of this game? It is cooperative. It's very outdoors--

- Touch grass.

- Yeah. [LAUGHS]

- It's a walking simulator.

- Yes, exactly.

- Not a simulator.

- You will get some dirt on you.

- Amazing.

- And I have been doing tons of hiking this year. And he recommended this game called A Short Hike. And I was like--

- Yes!

- --relevant to my interests.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Ah, and it's so cute.

- It's so cute.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Mm-hmm.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: So I started playing it on an afternoon. The whole day flew by. I played through the whole game that day. And I enjoyed it so much. It's so charming, the art style. And I love being able to explore. I'm not fully a completionist, but I loved the little side quests here and there.

And then without giving spoilers, there's a little setup in the beginning and then the whole point is you need to climb to the top of this mountain. And it has a little puzzle, like, how do I get up there? And it's a little bit difficult. And by the time I got to the top, there's a payoff. And I fully had this emotional moment where I was like, [SOBS]. And it made me want to call my mom. I'm not kidding.

- Wow.

- It was so beautiful. I was really impressed. And it was just like one of those games that just makes you think about just how, how do you make a game that brings so much connection in a single player game that connects you so deeply and pulls on your heartstrings in just those couple hours that you just spent.

KELLY LOMBARDI: In just a short hike.

- Yeah, in just a short hike. And did I take pictures along the way?

- Yes.

- Yes, I did.

- Uh-huh.

- Yeah.

- It seems a lot better than regular hiking, where I go hiking--

- [LAUGHS]

- I'm like, I've got the bites to show for it.

- You know what?

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I did a tick check.

- --I did not have any knee pain--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: A lot of--

- --afterwards, so I love that for me.

- So that, A Short Hike, is available on Game Pass. Apparently, it tugs at the heartstrings. If you like that, if you like climbing and heartstrings, I will say, you should check out Jusant. This is a game that came out, Jusant, apparently French.

- That's very fun to say.

- Maybe I'm just leaning a little bit hard into the accent.

- Why wouldn't you? It's probably "juice-ant" or something like that. Another game built around climbing, probably a heck of a lot different. But it debuted into Game Pass, I want to say, last fall. One of my favorite games--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: OK.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --of last year.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: I'll check it out.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'm putting that on your list--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: OK, yes, please.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --to take on next.

KELLY LOMBARDI: It's really fun. I have played both and can confirm.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Nice, OK.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I think that you'll like it. Unraveling the story as you climb higher--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Ooh.

KELLY LOMBARDI: It's very similar to A Short Hike, where in A Short Hike, they were like, well, you can't go there yet. And I was like--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: [MUTED] that.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I'm on it. I wanted to keep going. Jusant was the same way, where I was like, oh, you can't go up there yet?

- Is there any way to--

- Not on my watch.

- --get through the caves? Is there a way? That's the only thing I could not figure out in A Short Hike. There was a cave that I kept going in. And it was like, the way is blocked. And I used a pickaxe and I was trying to-- [GROANS]

- Well, good on you for not immediately going to YouTube or something to look that up. Because my tolerance--

- I'm not saying that I didn't go to YouTube. I'm just saying I didn't immediately go there.

- OK.

- [LAUGHS]

- I've also been checking out a game that I have downloaded that I've been wanting to jump into, which is "cha-chia?"

- Tchia, Tchia. I think it's just said "chia." But it's all in the language of the people, I believe in New Caledonia.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- And it's beautiful. I've spent a very small amount of time in French Polynesia. And it just brought that back. It's so warm and the community feeling of the island is just really beautiful and lovely.

And so it kind of starts there. I'm just very early into it, probably just toward the end of the tutorial phase where-- I don't think this is giving anything away-- but you've been exploring and playing around. And then basically who you know you're going to have to deal with comes and kidnaps your father. And all of a sudden, it's like, oh my gosh, now I'm going to have to grow up really fast.

But he's shown me these couple things. So I've got a slingshot. I know I can call out and make things appear on a map. I'm playing my ukulele with my friend here who's got the boat. So I'm having a really fun time with it. The music is beautiful. The sound of the language is beautiful. And it's all recorded by people who live there--

- Oh, cool.

- --which is really, really cool.

- Yeah.

- And it's an open-world game, right?

- So I'm just getting started.

- It's an open-world game, right?

- It will be. Right now they're kind of funneling me there.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Funneling through, yeah.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah, so, but there is the exploration in the little sandbox that I've been. So I'm about to go out into the world and rescue dad! So it kind of gives me, I feel like Moana, it's giving me big Moana vibes. And I'm excited to keep playing that. I really like it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very good.

- That sounds fun. I want to check that out.

- Yes. But you've got something first.

- I'm busy.

- I enforce you must finish a game before starting another game.

- Yeah.

- I'm the worst at that.

- I'm booked and busy.

- Yes.

- I've been playing Dungeons of Hinterberg. And I, last night, was like, you know what? It just launched into Game Pass. Let me try it out. It looks right up my alley. Yeah, five dungeons later, It's like 1:00 AM. I have a meeting in six hours. And I'm like, can I do one more dungeon? [LAUGHS]

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Just one more.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I had so much fun with it. I was one of those, like, I hadn't read up a lot about it. I know you did a great interview. You had a great interview on the pod.

- A couple weeks ago, yeah.

- Yeah. But I didn't want any spoilers, so I was like, OK, I like to go into things blind. And so I went in and I just fell in love. I was just like, I want to play a little bit more, a little bit more.

And the way it's set up is you go to this town and it's known for its magic. And it has these dungeons that you go and conquer. And you're called slayers. So basically it's a tourism town where the tourism is slaying monsters.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: The tourers.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah, and so you play as a character that's taking a break from her city job.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You're just, like, drifting into it. I want that.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I just--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I want a week there.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oh my gosh.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I want to go to there.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Let's kill some cobalts.

- Yeah, and she's just like, yeah.

- A stein and a sword, where do we sign up?

- And she's like the whole time turning red. She's like, and I have this corporate career and I love it. But I feel like I haven't stopped to smell the roses in so long. And I was just in such need of a break and to find myself. And I'm playing, I'm like, [INHALES]

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah, [LAUGHS]

- I love this.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

- Oh my gosh.

- What's the main character's name? Kelly?

- Yeah, yeah.

- No, Luisa. Yeah.

- I was like, they know me, they understand me. And now I want to go to a small European town and go slay monsters.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: That's so cool.

- So maybe on my way to Gamescom--

- There you go.

- --I will make a pit stop.

- I think you can do it on the way over in Hinterberg.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- But it's really great. You can check it out. It reminds me of Persona a little bit--

- Yes.

- --where you play a day at a time. And so the things that you choose to put your time into will progress your character's stats. And each activity that you do progresses the day forward.

And so depending on what skills you want to up and what you want to improve on, what people you want to befriend in the town, there's a bunch of different stuff to do. And so it's adorable. And I can't wait to stop recording with you guys so I can go home and play more.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right. So while you were up at 1:00 AM--

- Yes.

- --delving into yet one more dungeon, I was also up at 1:00 AM. The bags under these eyes are brought to you by Kunitsu-Gami-- Path of the Goddess, which I beat last night. This is a game that--

- Congrats.

- Thank you very much. 20 hours and 6 minutes playtime.

- Ooh, OK.

- A little longer than most people because I had to rebuild every village because I had to.

- Good job, yeah, obviously.

- You don't actually have to. So I think most people are beating it in about 15 hours. This is a game that came-- I don't want to say it came out of nowhere. Because we saw it in our showcase, our Xbox Game Showcase 2023, I want to say. And this was a game where you saw people dancing and people wearing masks and youkai. And everyone was like, that looks really cool. What is that?

- [LAUGHS]

- And we had to wait a little while to find out what it was. But a lot of us got to play, those who went to Summer Game Fest, the play days. In June, I finally got to try it. I got to meet a few of the developers. I wrote about that on Xbox Wire, news.xbox.com plug. Thank you. They pay me by the view.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Wow, that would be great. But a quick rundown on what this game is. Basically, this mountain has been defiled and it's just filled with disgust--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yuck.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: You gotta hate defilement in general.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yes, especially when you like hiking.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, exactly.

- A defiled mountain really ruins it for everyone.

- Very different than A Short Hike.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

- It's a somewhat longer hike through defilement. So you are basically escorting this goddess to purify the mountain. And so there's almost elements that I enjoy, like a Super Mario Sunshine or The Gunk. If you like cleaning up messes, like virtual messes-- because real messes in my house is not--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I'd rather clean up the virtual messes. And so there's a bit of that. But you're able to control in real time. So you're basically purifying and rescuing villagers during the day.

- OK.

- But that sun, you can see it moving quickly.

- Hmm.

- Because at nighttime--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: So it's time.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --these torii gates are going to open up and monsters are going to stream out. And they're going to try to take down the goddess.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Oh.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: And they are some pretty disturbing monsters, some of which, again, are based on youkai and other sort of Japanese folklore. And they are really gross. They do a really good job. So you want to protect the goddess from these horrible things that are all mouth or tentacles or spider.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oof, yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Some pretty nasty stuff.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oh, man, those are awesome monsters.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: But when you make it to the day and you've survived at night, literally everyone, all the villagers that have survived, are cheering and you're happy. And then you make it all the way through to the torii gate, you purify that village. You rebuild the village and you move on to the next area.

There's so much to this game. And it's got a really good loop. But then they continually add little bit more, like what if we did this on a ship?

- Oh, wow.

- And the Seethe, which is what these enemies are called, are trying to sink the ship. Or what if there was a mission where all the villagers are mysteriously gone and you've got to protect the goddess by yourself? So it was a combination of strategy and action. A lot of folks are referring to this as having tower defense elements, and I kind of get that. But I don't want people to be turned off going like, oh, I don't like tower defense games. Because this is not like any tower defense game you've ever played. It's very much more than the sum of its parts.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Just because you're in a village isn't the act.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah. And you do position the villagers in different places and they have different abilities. So I can see where you would get that sort of analogy.

- It's more of the overall strategy of, OK, this is the circumstances I'm dealing with, but still racing the clock with the sun here.

- Exactly. And you can do a ton yourself. You are a really powerful warrior who can do a lot of things. So sometimes I'll put all the villagers over here. I'm like, you're going to protect the goddess' flank over here.

I'm just going to one-person army over here and take responsibility here. But it gets really frantic and really fun. Anyway, I highly recommend it. Now that I finished it, top five game of the year for me so far.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Wow, that's awesome.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: No question. It's been an amazing run. So anyway--

- That's high praise, yeah.

- Look, I recommend things is what I do. Take it or leave it, but you should take it

- "It's what I do."

- Yeah. [LAUGHS]

- I'm sold.

- Well, good.

- I'll check it out.

- Good. You really should.

- After Dungeons of Hinterberg.

- Yeah.

- One thing at a time. So that's actually, we'll switch places. Because I'm going into Dungeons of Hinterberg next.

- OK, perfect, yeah.

- But that's not all when it comes to Game Pass. Every game that we mentioned is in Game Pass, most of them that have appeared this month. But plenty more to come because actually Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, one of the biggest games of the last year, is available now as part of your Game Pass subscription for console and PC. So if you've got PC Game Pass, if you've got Console Game Pass, if you've got Game Pass Ultimate, it is the first Call of Duty to be on Game Pass.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Quite a moment.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So obviously millions of people have been playing the game, but now millions more have access to it. And it times out really well with Season 5. So lots of new content that comes in all the time. And they've added some new maps. They've actually added in some WWE superstars, which people like. It's a good crossover here. So I was gonna say, yeah, Rey Mysterio from the old days.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Mysterio.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Awesome. [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: He did some of the most amazing stuff--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: I love it.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --in the ring. Cody Rhodes, Rhea Ripley are in the game. There's actually two new maps, including one that takes place on a dockside on a hot Florida day. It just reminded me and my high school years, but minus the Call of Duty.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Not being in school, basically what I got heard on that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Basically, skipping school and going to the beach.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: [LAUGHS]

KELLY LOMBARDI: Summer skipped.

- I saw that--

- I approve, I approve.

- [LAUGHS]

- --and it just took me all the way back there. So anyway, that's available now on Game Pass. Check it out if you haven't. A ton to it, there's obviously a campaign, there's multiplayer, there's zombies.

It's got basically everything that you would expect from a Modern Warfare game. And then, of course, Black Ops 6 will be in Game Pass when it comes out this fall. And I also recently went back and played Black Ops Cold War because that was really cool.

- Yeah.

- So anyway, a lot of the same characters will be seen coming up.

- Good to know, maybe.

- All right.

- Or I'll put it on the list after. My list is growing by the moment.

- That's the thing, I told you.

- This is what happens. That's what happens in here. This room is dangerous.

- There's so much.

- Yeah.

- There's so much. Yeah, I'm going to give you more things to play than you can possibly think of. Actually, a couple of other games that have come out this week. Nobody Wants to Die, this is a really cool looking game made by a team in Poland. It's a narrative game taking place in New York in the year 2329.

Immortality comes at a price that someone must pay. So following a near-death experience, Detective James Karra takes an off-the-books case with the help of a young police liaison named Sara Kai to a system. Time reveals all, as they risk everything in pursuit of a killer, uncovering the dark secrets of the city's elite.

This is made by Critical Hit Games in Poland. They're pushing the boundaries of storytelling. They're combining some really cool photorealistic graphics. This is what caught my attention. We had a great story on Xbox Wire out this week that they wrote. And we're taking a look. This might be one that catches your attention, especially if you're liking the video that you're seeing here.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Also available now, F1 Manager 2024 came out earlier this week. For the first time in the series, you can create your own team to challenge the Grand. And you can customize everything, the setup, livery design, logo, racing suits. You recruit your staff, you negotiate with sponsors, all the stuff that you would expect from a management game. And then you get to watch the races play out in broadcast quality presentation.

Also, in the last week, college football has returned with EA Sports College Football 2025. This has been a huge game. This has been like a landmark game because we haven't had a college football game in a really long time. And it's really cool to have it back.

One of the things I've noticed, I used to live in Orlando, the game is made near Orlando by EA Tiburon. And man, they nailed the details. And it was one of those things where as a Florida Gator fan, somebody who went there, little signs that would be in the stadium, in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium or other things that they would do leading into the game, like Mr. Tube. They would get all of those things right.

- Nice.

- And then in talking to other fans, they're getting the things right in Michigan and out in the West and in the Big Ten and all these other places. It wasn't just because they were close to Florida.

KELLY LOMBARDI: In order to get the feel of it.

- Exactly.

- Because it's a culture, right?

- Right.

- Every team has their mascot, their traditions, their signs, their sayings. And so, yeah, to be a part of a college game day is so different than any other--

- Exactly.

- --experience. So that's awesome.

- So with more on that, we actually got to speak to some of the developers. Rob Jones, the senior production director of EA Sports College Football, spent some time with our own Malik Prince to hype us up for this season.

- Close your eyes and take yourself back to where you were on February 2, 2021, when a single tweet confirmed that EA Sports was bringing back College Football. Then fast forward to this year when they confirmed that, yeah, it's really happening. And now fans around the world are excited for the return of College Football 25.

And so let's talk about it. Here with me to do that is a Michigan alum. His career comprises of over 30 years of development in the sports genre. We're talking about the senior production director of EA Sports College Football. It is Rob Jones. Rob, how's it going today?

- It's going great. It's a pretty exciting time for us these days. So just really happy to be here and be able to share some stuff with you all.

- What are you feeling? Are you feeling nerves? Are you feeling excitement? I can't imagine. I've never shipped a game. And so I can't imagine what that feels like. Can you explain how you're feeling?

ROB JONES: Well, it's interesting. Like you said, I've been in this for about 30 years. I've done a lot of big games, from Madden to NBA2K, College Hoops, at a certain point in time. But nothing really is kind of as exciting as what we're doing right now. When you really think about this, bringing something back that has been away for a really, really long time and has had such a clamor for its return, it's a little bit different of a beast than other games that may have done in the past.

It's like you said, we tweeted in 2021, we're coming out in 2024. You're looking at it, and it's like, hey, did we do enough? Will they receive it the way that we feel we've actually executed against our plan? We just can't wait to get it in people's hands so that we can see how well they received and how well they feel about the love that we've put into the game.

- Yeah, this is anecdotal, but I feel like just online and on social media, the excitement for this, as you were saying, it is not just a game release, it's not just a sports release. This is something that makes it and takes it to a new level. But I want to start top level.

All right, so for fans who may have just been finding out, maybe they were living under a rock. They're just finding out that College Football 25 is back. Can you tell us a little bit about what that means, what the game is, and what you all are trying to achieve?

- Well, you can see behind me, as a Michigan alum, I come and I actually represent my colors every single day. We really just believe that people who are fans of college football are part of a community. And it's kind of greater than fandom. It's more like, hey, it's me, right?

So when those teams go out on Saturdays, they're actually representing me. They're representing the students that went there. And it's almost like a second skin that we carry. So I think at the deepest level, we aimed to represent faithfully every single school, every single team, from a football perspective.

Obviously, we're a video game, and we're an American football video game so that had to be represented faithfully. But at the core, what we wanted to do was really tap into that emotion, that community, that feeling that, hey, you know what? They get me and they get what I feel about my school.

And then we had three main pillars, three authentic and explosive college football game plays. We had the authentic sight, sounds, and traditions of college football. And our third pillar was deliver really deep, connected, emotional experiences like being a coach and taking over a program and doing everything from recruiting to coaching on game day and dealing with student athletes in every different kind of way, to things like, hey, I want to get recruited and I want to go to my school and I want to show my legacy in a mode like Road to Glory.

So delivering those three pillars was at the foundational place that we started. But the most important one is represent each school as if it's your own favorite. So the motto of the team was, "Every school is someone's favorite." And we didn't want to leave anyone behind. And that's the main component of everything that we did.

- Yeah, and I think you all nailed it. When you all decided that you wanted to tackle this game, what was the feeling? Was there a certain level of pressure? And what was needed to bring that to life? Because as you said, you wanted to build an authentic game.

- So I think two components that we'll talk about. So the first one was getting the right people together. And that meant skill and passion married together. One of the best things about this is that when I got here, that was kind of one of the first things that I was asked as I was hired. And I said, hey, right people in the right seat will deliver the greatest things. They'll deliver magic.

So, I started by grabbing a couple of folks that had actually done the last NCAA, way back in the day. The one that people are still playing with their modded Xboxes and different things. It was grabbing those folks and saying, hey, you know what? We want you back onto this team because we know you have this particular passion and you know what it takes to do this.

We also went out into our community and grabbed some newcomers, people who had actually worked on some of those PC mods for college football. And so we're like, hey, if you have skilled people who are just doing this for free, I guarantee you that they'll bring that passion into this team and kind of infuse us with what we need in order to deliver at the highest quality.

We decided that we wanted to build inside out. And what we mean by that is, what's the most important thing? Well, the most important thing is Saturday game day for all of us. So we start there, and then everything else is kind of built from there.

And then it went to, hey, how do we get every single little detail, in terms of the things that they do on Saturdays? Or their mascots, how do their mascots act and all those other things? And how do you bring that all together into one single product. And that's kind of the genesis of what we did.

- That must have been a huge undertaking. Can you tell us a little bit about what all is a part of the iconic atmospheres and how you build that?

- [LAUGHS] Well, look at it from multiple angles. One of the things that we're really, really proud of is the fact that we were able to bring in all these players onto the roster for the first time. The excitement around the comeback of the game, we were just overwhelmed by how many players decided that they actually wanted to be part of it because it heightens that experience. It makes you feel like, hey, you know what? This is not just real, it's tangible.

But on top of that, one of the things that we really spent a lot of time is cataloging all the traditions for these schools. We had people sitting in forums. They'd sit in a Terps forum just picking up on all the nuances of things that you all do on Saturdays at game day so that we could bring that into the experience.

From what are the stripe-outs? Where do the fans sit? Where are the run-outs and how do they look? What does the mascot actually do when they're performing? Because every mascot, it isn't the same. And then just bringing all those little pieces together was just super, super important.

A rivalry game is different than a regular game. Those moments when people come in and they're like, wait, I didn't know that they got that. One of the things here at UCF, there's a rocket ship that launches in the background. That happens every once in a while. And because we're right here and people know that, it happens.

It doesn't happen every time you play. But when you see it, you're like, I can't believe they got that detail, too. And that's how important these things were to us. But again, I like to keep thinking as it's a labor of love to just bring that detail to all 134 schools, soon to be 136 in the coming year.

- Oh, so impressive. Going back to what you said a little bit early on, it is not just a game. That atmosphere is built by students who are, they're learning who they are as human beings at the time of these games. They're hanging with their friends, some that they will be lifelong friends with.

They're learning the traditions of their school as they come in as freshmen. It's all of those things that you put it together and it builds this incredible atmosphere. And then for you all, as you were talking about, to go in and analyze each individual thing and try to get it as close as possible to the real thing, it just got me so excited.

Another thing that I did watch was Dynasty Mode, just from the recruiting, to the small things like players that you want to recruit and how close they are to home affecting whether or not they decide to come to your school. Can you give us a quick deep dive into what Dynasty Mode is and what players can expect?

- I find the two words "quick" and "deep dive--"

- [LAUGHS] A little, yeah.

--kind of being like--

- Yeah.

- But, you know, like, let me help you out here.

- We'll see. Yeah, we'll see.

- So obviously, Dynasty was always at the heart of the deep experiences, The moment you look at your team and it's not doing well enough, you start thinking, hey, if I took it over, I could do better. And so starting at the top, creating yourself as a coach, finding out what you are good at, choosing what you want to excel at.

Do I want to be a recruiter? Do I want to be a motivator? Do I want to be a tactician? And every one of those different skill sets gives you a little bit of an advantage over other people. And then you choose the school that you're going to. And those schools have a certain number of characteristics that recruits care about.

It's like, hey, what is my exposure? How many things can you do to help me go pro? Or, hey, do I have great facilities? Or am I close to home, like you just said? All of those things mean something to our recruits. And they factor into how they receive your scouting and your pitches and your overtures about coming to that particular school.

So when you add up your abilities, you add up what that recruit is actually looking for, and then you add up what your school can offer that recruit along the way. Because you know nowadays so much power is actually in the recruit, especially given that with the transfer portal, if things don't go your way, you can literally just walk out and choose to go somewhere else and find your fortune at a different school. So managing all of those things becomes a way deeper thing than ever before.

And one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we captured is all the changes that have happened in the landscape of college football since we were last in the market. So when you look at things, you're seeing all the realignment with the Big Ten adding so many schools out, the Pac-12 almost no longer being in existence and everything that's happening, we needed to make sure that we captured all those things.

So a lot of people say, hey, you know what? In our game, will be the first time you can play the 12-team playoff. And the new 12-team playoff actually debuts in December in real life, but you can play it in our game right now. Being able to customize your conferences-- the recruiting is way deeper than it's ever been before. And it's kind of a three-stage thing that we love.

And then the coaching carousel and all the little mini things that make just running a program so important. And eventually it's like, hey, can I move to a bigger program? And all these other things that you would want to do, we just wanted to make sure that it was as accurate and as deep as people remembered and expected.

- This has been awesome, Rob. But before we go, any last words for the fans, the players out there who have been waiting so patiently for the past decade for the return of college football that you want to tell them?

- What I really want to tell them is that the moment they pick this game up, from the inception of hitting that button, getting the start, and that first time they get to play with their favorite team, they'll immediately know how much love we've put into it and how much painstaking detail we went through to deliver an experience that they wanted. The gameplay feels fresh. It's different. It's faster. It's explosive, just like you would expect college football games to be.

The features are deep. They're well thought out. They're everything that we thought. They're actually more than we actually thought we put in. It's kind of funny, when you're in it for as long as we've been in it, you kind of start getting lost in the weeds. And then you take that step back and you get to actually appreciate what you've done. And that's where we are right now.

And we're just hoping and we're just excited for everyone to get that into their hands, play it, and just give us any feedback. Because as a team, we're passionate about college football. We're passionate about the video games. And we just want to ensure that we're delivering the best experience that EA Sports can give.

MALIK PRINCE: Rob, this has been fantastic. I'm sure, like myself, everyone out there is excited to jump into EA Sports College Football 25. This has been fantastic. Thank you so much, Senior Production Director Rob Jones, for joining us. Yeah, and give the team our well wishes, by the way.

- Well, thank you. It was amazing being here. I really appreciate y'all having me. And, like I said, enjoy the game. It's been fun for us. I hope it's fun for you all.

- Go, Terps! Go, Terps!

- No. Go Blue. Go blue, here.

- Here we go.

- It's always "Go Blue."

- We'll settle it in the game. We'll settle it in the game. Thanks so much, Rob.

- For sure.

- All right, Rob, Malik, thank you so much. Looking forward to getting into this game this weekend now that I've cleared off a little bit of time, a little bit of time. But I've always been a college football fan. So many of my friends are playing it right now as well. And I'm seeing a lot of highlights, a lot of stuff on social. So very excited for that.

- Mm-hmm.

- I had a really interesting conversation with someone new on our team. And she was like, oh, yeah, I play a lot of games. I'm like, cool, what are you into? And she's like, I'm obsessed with The Sims. And this one's for her. Because out today, Love is in the Air with the Sims 4.

- Ooh.

- The Cupid's Corner, a dating app where you plan fun dates and discover what makes Sims swoon in the Lovestruck Expansion Pack. You get on Cupid's Corner, you plan dates, you do fun stuff. Once you've matched with a Sim you'd like to spend time with, you start planning your date. You choose the location. You choose which activities you'd like to try together. And Becca can just tell me, my coworker--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --all about that. Because I have not really played a lot of The Sims.

- Can I tell you, I have a few friends that love The Sims and are all about it. It's too difficult for me.

- How is that?

- I spent so much time customizing my Sim. Because the customization is--

- [LAUGHS] It's so deep.

- --is so good and so deep. So I spent all of his time. I was like, oh, she's amazing. She looks so cool. And then I built a house from scratch rather than buying one. Because I was like, oh, it's going to be perfection. So then I had the house. And I'm finally getting like a handle on the controls and I load in. And then my Sim's like, I'm hungry. So I was like, OK, cook something, I don't know. And she burned her freaking house down.

[LAUGHTER]

- Rude.

- I spent all that time, and then she just burned the house down. And then she was like, not smart enough to get out of the house. So she also burned down. And I was just like, what is this game?

- It sounds like user error.

- OK, maybe. But I always thought it was funny. Well, not funny, but--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I think it's funny.

KELLY LOMBARDI: --I've run into people that are like, oh, you play The Sims? That's not even a real game. I'm like, joke's on you. The Sims is too difficult for me. I can't even play that. Because, yeah, I spent all that time. It all burned down within seconds of--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Ungrateful creations.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah. I was like--

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So you're saying the Lovestruck Expansion Pack is-- let's just get the Live Through the Night Pack.

- Yes.

- Live Through the Night.

- Yeah, if I could get the Survival Pack.

- Cooking 101, Intro to Cooking Pack.

- Yeah.

- All right. I don't have a good segue here. We're going to talk about the Xbox 360 Store. Because guess what? You're into the last week before the Xbox 360 Store closes down. What does that mean for you?

Well, that means you can get over 150 Xbox 360 games at a discounted price. Batman Arkham City, one of my favorites of all time, $4.99. If you haven't played it, you got to get it. Get it for your library. Devil May Cry HD Collection, there was a good Mortal Kombat Arcade Collection. All these games are 70%, 80%, 90% off.

A lot of great deals. You can head over to Xbox Wire. We have it right there pinned at the top, full list of the games that are on sale. There's also a brand new Xbox dynamic background featuring the blades from the Xbox 360 era. People love the blades.

KELLY LOMBARDI: They do.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's very nostalgic.

- Yeah.

- It was probably the height of--

- It's iconic.

- --the X back in 2005. And to help celebrate, the Xbox Gear Store also bringing back some Xbox 360 merch for a limited time. I would show you, but I already took it.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Aw, that's fun.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I was a really cool Live shirt.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: I like that.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Yeah, it was cool. It looked like the back of the box from when you bought an Xbox 360 console. Anyway, I had it. It's gone.

- [LAUGHS] It's that good.

- It was the fit. It was the wrong size--

- It's that good.

- --for you. It was perfect for me. All right, another game that everyone is playing right now and which I need to clear off some time. I've gotten a couple hours in. But I want to finish, I want to take it all the way, is Flintlock. So this is a game that is made by A44 Games. Flintlock-- Siege of Dawn. They're calling it a Souls-lite. So Souls-likes are a little bit challenging, which they are a lot challenging, actually.

- I'm still going to die a lot.

- There are things you can do. You can make this one a little bit easier. There's a difficulty setting. I will tell you, still pretty demanding at certain times, which you want. You want that challenge. But if you don't want that challenge, you can turn that off. And I think there might even be an invincibility or things you can do if you just want to see the story. I appreciate that level of flexibility.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah.

- You're going to find out a bunch more about this game, however, as our good friend Ethan met up with Simon Dasan from A44 Games down in New Zealand. Let's find out what they have to share about the game.

- Folks, I am here with Simon Dasan, Creative Director at A44 Games from New Zealand. Debuting their first game back in 2018, Ashen, I was a big fan of that one. I know some of you might have been as well. And I'm kind of falling in love with Flintlock-- Siege of Dawn. Simon, how are you?

- Hey, thanks for having me, Ethan. Yeah, really good. It's a bleak winter's day down here in New Zealand. So what a perfect time to launch a game.

- Yeah, absolutely. Everyone's stuck inside, hours upon hours of time on their hands. It's a great time to launch it. I imagine that a lot of folks, they may have seen the game at Xbox Showcase, which it was featured there alongside so many other titles. But for folks maybe in the dark, could you give them a little overview about the game?

- Yeah, sure. So Flintlock-- The Siege of Dawn is an action Souls-lite game based on a Flintlock fantasy setting. You play as Nor Vanek, who is on a quest to close the door to the Great Below and seal away the gods once and for all.

- I love that. That's a great setup. Just a little bit at stake, it sounds like. [LAUGHS]

- Absolutely, yeah.

- Yeah. Now, back in 2018, when Ashen came out, I was a fan of that game as well, played a lot with my wife. And we're both very excited for this title. Could you take us through maybe some of the similarities and differences between your titles?

- Yeah, sure. So I know on the surface, they look visually quite different. But there are actually quite a few things with Flintlock that relate to Ashen, quite a few things that we've taken forward. So things like the rhythmic combat which we've evolved and expanded upon. Players really love the evolving town in Ashen.

And so we've taken that and expanded it into the caravan system where throughout the game you'll be bringing on board like your band of Sappers. And your caravan will kind of travel with you and grow over time as you progress through the game. And of course, we've kept our New Zealand native flora and fauna throughout the game as well. So we take a lot of inspiration from our home country New Zealand and kind of infuse it through the game, just like we did with Ashen as well.

- Oh, that's fascinating. I actually didn't realize that. I've never been to New Zealand. But that's a nice touch, a little bit of home in your game. Very cool, very cool.

- Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. We've gone the next step in Flintlock, and we've taken a lot of things. So we've used native New Zealand plants. And we've even brought back a few extinct animals from New Zealand's history as well.

- Oh, that's awesome. That is cool. Well, I want to talk a little bit about inspiration, obviously, your home country being part of it. But I love immediately when you're dropped into this game-- and I'm only a few hours in-- I was just blown away by the setting, I think you said in another interview, this Flintlock fantasy.

But there's aspects of almost World War I or the Napoleonic Wars where you're seeing these Sappers operating and digging the trenches, the cannon teams firing in the siege that's taking place. I just think you guys have blended an action RPG with the Souls-like elements. And it works so well. Could you walk us through some of that thinking?

- Yeah, absolutely. So for us, we knew that we wanted to make a really accessible Souls-lite experience. And so for us, really that meant taking the things that people know and love from the Souls genre, that rhythmic combat and a more uncompromising game and blending it with things that people know and love from more standard action RPGs.

So we've infused the game with things like rapid mobility as well as cool finisher moves, so a lot of glory kills and ultimate abilities as well. And so the fusion there, hopefully what we wanted to achieve was to create something that didn't really alienate true Souls players, but really gave people a nice gateway into this genre. And I think what we've ended up with is something more wholly unique, which is really great.

- Yeah, most definitely. I like that you talk about mobility and some of the executions. Because immediately, I really resonate with how fluid the combat feels. It's very responsive. Your first zoom in, that cinematic camera when you hit the counter and then attack with the heavy attack, immediately, it just feels epic and just again, very responsive. So I love that you guys were thinking about these things. I think you really nailed it.

There are a lot of characters. Like I said, I've had the opportunity to play. And I'm kind of falling in love with a lot of the characters. There's a lot of gods and people alike to fall in love with. And as the creative director, I'd love to ask you about a few of them, if you don't mind. Kicking things off with Enki. Because I love this fox-like character that Nor hangs around with. Tell us a little bit about Enki.

- One of the core pillars of the game was "gods and guns," right? And so we have this Flintlock fantasy setting, where Nor obviously represents the guns. And Enki is, throughout the game, your representation of the gods. And so obviously Enki is a god. And he's with you effectively right from the start of the game.

And as you go through, you'll come to know a lot more about his character, his relationship with the other gods, but as well, I guess the tension between both Nor and Enki. Because mankind and the gods don't really get along. And so as their relationship grows over the game, it's something that I'm really, really keen for the players to go through and discover.

- Yeah, it's really apparent right from the get go for sure that there's just a little bit of friction there to talk about. As a caffeine addict, I got to shout out the coffee shop mechanic. And not only that, but the first time I met the host, I almost physically recoiled in my chair. Not for any reason. They're not ugly per se, but I definitely was not expecting it, I suppose.

- Yeah.

- Shout out to whoever developed that character. I had to just get that in there. I have no real follow-up question other than I love it.

- No, thank you. And Wellington is really known for our coffee scene. So we knew that we had to work that into the game. We all are fiends for our coffee down here. And so the coffee shop was something that was found really, really early on. And the hosts have been something that we worked on for quite some time as well. And so just like a little Easter egg for you as well, the coffee shop hosts actually talk through sign language as well.

- Oh.

- You can go into the coffee shop and maybe fire off your gun and see what happens.

- Oh, OK. That's a hot tip. I'm going to literally get off this interview and do that.

- Yeah.

- That's awesome, man. That's awesome. Well, similar to that, two things. One, we in Seattle, we love our coffee. We're fiends for it, too. So I'm immediately resonating with this conversation. But I am curious, as that was my favorite surprise that I found in the game thus far, what are aspects of Flintlock that you are most proud of?

- I think honestly, like how the combat has come together, which is a pretty broad thing to say. But it was a big thing that we bit off, trying to make this genre accessible. And so we also added quite a few things into the game. Obviously, you have the skill tree. But we have a ton of different weapons.

And every single weapon has unique modifiers on it, as well as our armor system, which can completely change how combat works. So really, we wanted player freedom so players can find the way that they really enjoy playing. And so I'm really, really happy with the balance that we struck there. And I think as well, obviously, the mobility is a massive thing in the game.

I'm really happy with how that paid off as well. Because to give players effectively double jump and double dodge from extremely early on in the game, it meant that we could actually build the entire game with that in mind. And so the mobility that you can use for exploration, but also in combat being able to get in and out very, very easily is something that I think has worked out really well.

- For sure. I can already see the TikTok and YouTube compilations of folks doing different things and playing with different weapons. It's a sandbox, a beautiful sandbox you've built to play in, for real. It's really wonderful.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Of course. Of course. One of the things that maybe you haven't mentioned, but you should be most proud of, is kind of hearkening back to the sign language thing. The attention to detail, whether it's the quartermaster playing guitar while you're working with him, that just kind of puts you at ease in that moment of where you are.

It's like a moment of respite. To Enki sleeping on the lodestones, just curled up, these are really nice touches that I just think your creative team has done a great job with. Yeah. I think there's probably a lot to find in this game like that.

- Yeah, absolutely. I think that's what we really enjoy doing the most is building worlds. And so hopefully what we've come out with is something really wholly unique. We've put a lot of different inspirations together in this world to create the world of Kian that players can go in and experience.

And I think it's about finding all those little areas. And so, yeah, whether it is Enki sleeping on the lodestones or whether it's the players themselves finding a little nook or cranny or something in the world and rewarding them for going and exploring there. Or how deep the world lore can be through some of our sidequests and things like that-- there's a lot for people to go in and discover in Flintlock.

- That's awesome. And I think a lot of folks are going to take that away from the game as well. Simon, thank you so much for your time.

- Thank you so much, Ethan. It's been great to be here.

- Flintlock-- The Siege of Dawn is available now on Xbox, PC, and Game Pass.

- Thank you, Simon and Ethan, for the Flintlock interview. The game looks really good. I cannot wait to get to it or get back to it.

- Yeah.

- The thing is, I was playing a whole bunch of Kunitsu-Gami and attack is X. But then when I would jump over to Flintlock, that's heal. And you only have two healing flasks. And I just kept healing by accident. I was like, my brain cannot handle both at the same time.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oh, yeah, separation.

- I've thrown a lot of accidental grenades in Warzone that way, switching from Apex. And I think that's why my friends stopped inviting me to play with them. Because there's only so many friendly fire grenades you can throw out there before they just say, you know what? We're good.

- I'm also no longer getting those invitations. Speaking of invitations, Wonder, we brought you here because you're awesome and we wanted to hear what you had to say and what you were playing, but also because we know you and the American Red Cross are doing some really cool stuff. And as a result, you brought with us Betsy Robertson from the American Red Cross. How are you doing?

- I'm so happy to be here. And it's really fun to just be under the glow of the logo here. A lot of teenagers in my life who are going to be very jealous.

- Oh, hell yeah.

- Yeah.

- Oh, yeah, this is a moment.

- I would love to know what was your reaction when Wonder came to you and said, hey, we make a game about blood plague, but we have an idea.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Hmm.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah, well, since 2020, when we launched Juggernaut Edition, it was kind of like zombies, blood, the apocalypse-- blood.

- [LAUGHS] So much blood.

- It all makes sense. All this blood laying around, let's do something useful with it. No, we were looking for a way to get more involved with the community, to give back, to do something good, honestly. And Jenn Panattoni was talking about getting involved--

- Friend of the show.

- A friend of the show, awesome, we love Jen. And she was talking about getting involved with social impact. And like afterward, I went up and said, hey, I have this idea. I want to figure this out. And from there became this amazing partnership that we've had with the American Red Cross.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Yeah, I love hearing that backstory. That's so inspiring. And we have loved the partnership so much. I think a couple of years ago and one of the collabs that happened a couple of years ago turned into 60,000 new donors donating for the very first time, over 800,000 units of blood collected as a result of this partnership.

- Wow.

- That's wild.

- So we're hitting a new population.

- More than we could have ever--

BETSY ROBERTSON: Amazing.

- One of the first things we did was we put this vehicle that was called the bloodmobile in the game.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Yes.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: And we had to have a lot of conversations. Can this car hurt humans? Very, very clear-- no. Zombies-- yes. But they are very clearly undead. We're staying away from any sort of ethical dilemma on that.

BETSY ROBERTSON: But it's just so creative and it's and it's so much fun and a great opportunity to reach new audiences, to get a message out. What I love is that in the dialogue and in the interactions, you have a mission to do, to accomplish. I'm talking about the current version. And there is some dialogue that happens. Is that what you call it? Where you're learning things about blood along the way. You're learning about the difference of certain types.

- Yeah, we've put in, in the update that just came out this morning, actually--

- For State of Decay 2.

- Yeah, for State of Decay 2. It's update 37, Light in the Dark. It just came out this morning actually.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Yay.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Yeah, and there's this whole new mission arc. It's actually several missions together. And you help an enclave basically with blood donors. And all this information about being a blood donor is sprinkled through. They really leaned into the mission of the Red Cross, why we do what we do.

Plus it just works. It works in the world of State of Decay 2. It is about community. It's about surviving together. You're helping each other. You're always looking for ways to help the humanity that's alive that is in the world. So it all makes sense together. And it's a really fun set of missions. It takes you around. And there's a lot of really interesting, brand new to the game rewards.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very cool. So just tell me, how do you bridge what's happening in the game in State of Decay 2 to real life and having people donate blood?

BETSY ROBERTSON: Well, I watched it. And as I said, I learned a lot. Or I think the user, the player is going to learn a lot, again, about blood types, about the urgency. That is very, very current and relevant right now. We have a critical need for people to come in and donate blood this summer.

It's typically a time when donations go down. People are traveling. Sometimes traffic accidents are up. So there's that need that is elevated. And right now we're getting awareness out to people about the importance of those donations, making them, of making them recurring. We have to have a lot of blood coming in every single day to maintain and stabilize the blood supply.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: So can we talk a little bit about the blood mobile in the game? As I recall, the stats on it were pretty good.

- It's actually even better now.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: OK.

- So trunk storage is up from 9 to 15.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: That's pretty good.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: It used to be limited time only. We've now unlocked it permanently.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Oh, OK.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: So you can go in and call it in. We have also in the enclaves, once you finish the mission, there's two new traits. I think it's an EMT Driver and there's Blood Donor. And they have great new stats. And one of them, you can call in the ambulance and the bloodmobile almost at any time.

So we've put in a lot of incentives in the game that are themed to raise this awareness and call attention to this real-life need, kind of positioning it as like, hey, you're a hero in the game. Come be a hero in real life. When we talk about how summer can be a little bit of a slow month for games. And that's true for blood donations as well. And it's one of the things that we as State of Decay 2 and Undead Labs are trying to stand in that gap and really encourage people to make a new habit, you know?

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: And it still is surprising to me. We can't manufacture blood. You can't make it. There's no such thing as synthetic. We can grow ears, but we can't make blood. It has to come from volunteers. It comes from ordinary people like all of us sitting at this table.

- Yeah, so I have questions around blood donation in general.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Mm-hmm.

- I don't think it's a secret that there's a little bit of a stigma around it or just unknowns, if you haven't done it before--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Absolutely, yeah.

- --people are like, I don't even know where to start. So one of my questions is, we're sitting here talking about blood types, and I was like, I don't think I know my blood type. So that was one of my questions, how do you find out? And do you need to know in order to go donate blood?

- And that's the most important thing, you don't. And studies have shown that about half of the population knows their blood type, so half don't.

KELLY LOMBARDI: OK.

- And even that percentage is higher for Black and Brown potential donors. And thinking that is a limitation to coming in--

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

BETSY ROBERTSON: --it's absolutely not. So come in. That's one of the things that you will learn throughout the process. You do a little mini health check. You take your blood pressure. And then you go through the donation process and the recovery process. As Wonder mentioned, that takes about an hour in all.

- Yeah, from walking in the door to leaving. And the actual collection is maybe 10 minutes.

- Yeah, that's right.

- It's really quick.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yeah.

- And then after that, there's a gamified sort of element to it where you can, on our app, track to see where your blood goes.

- This is my favorite part.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- It closes the loop. I'll get a notification maybe two weeks later, it says, hey, your blood was needed and it was sent to this hospital in this city.

- Amazing.

KELLY LOMBARDI: That's really cool.

- What?

- We had a hiker who got lost in the woods--

- Yeah, right?

- Trying to get to the peak.

- Yep.

- And also, I didn't know my blood type, actually, before I went in.

- Yeah.

- And that's the only reason. And so I actually still forget. And I'll open, Red Cross has the blood donor app. And I'll open that and be like, oh, yeah, that's what I am.

- There you are.

- That's good to know. So there's probably more basic questions that people have and want to know. Where can viewers and listeners go to find out more about this campaign and about blood donation in general?

BETSY ROBERTSON: redcrossblood.org is a great place to start for information, to book an appointment, to ask questions or learn about eligibility requirements, all of those sorts of things can be found in that one house.

- And specific to our campaign is that link redcrossblood.org/sod for State of Decay.

- OK.

- So you'll have more information about our partnership, what we're doing. We'll have some more interesting things that we're doing with Xbox. There's a give away that you would have a chance to win an Xbox.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: All right.

BETSY ROBERTSON: Definitely check it out. These are exclusive opportunities just for players and users.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very good. Betsy, thank you so much for joining us. And we actually have one more guest. So one of these things that I've talked about quite a bit over the course of the past year on this show is my ROG Ally. We actually tested it out here on the show about a year ago. And then these are the things they don't tell you. You have to give it back.

- No!

- It's a review unit. I had to give it back. And I found after like a day or two, I was missing it. And I went and I pre-ordered it. And since that time, this is the one that I got. And you can see a bunch of the games on here are games that we were just talking about, like Dungeons of Hinterberg and Flintlock and Tchia and Kunitsu-Gami.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: --is legit.

- Because I was just on a trip and I was playing a ton of Octopath Traveler. Anyway, anything on PC Game Pass you can download on here--

- That's great.

- --and it plays really well. Well, the team over at ASUS, they're getting ready to launch the next version of that, the ASUS ROG Ally X. And actually there's a podcast that is all about that. And we have the host of that, Whitson Gordon. He spent some time telling me and everyone else about the ROG Ally X. Let's go take it away.

It's always a little weird when I pitch to myself, but I insisted on doing this interview. As I talked about in the lead-in, huge fan of the ASUS ROG Ally. And so I'm bringing someone in from ASUS directly to tell us all about the Ally X. Whitson Gordon, you're the Senior Manager of Marketing Content at ROG. Welcome to the show.

- Thanks, Jeff. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.

- And you're a fellow podcaster, right? Head of ROG Pulse on YouTube?

- Yeah, yeah. So the two things that I do at ROG, among other things, is I write a lot of the articles that you see on our site. And I do some of our live streams with our full-time streamer, Jake, yeah, including ROG Pulse, so fellow podcaster.

- All right, well, we got the right person here. Fellow podcaster, thanks for joining the show. I've actually watched a lot of what you've been doing. Because as a big fan of the Ally, I've been really paying attention to what's going on with the Ally X, as we showed walking into this.

I now have had hands on. I've been playing with it for the last week to 10 days. I've been very impressed. We'll get into it. Two things I've noticed right off the bat. The battery seems to last a really long time compared to the original one. We were talking about in the lead in. I have yet to have the pop up saying, oh, time to charge in the time--

- Yeah, same.

- --that I've been playing, which is amazing. And also, I've noticed a lot of games are playing even smoother. So I would just love to know where the team has really spent their time focusing on the Ally X.

- So when we first released the Ally, we saw this really fervent, passionate community pop up around it. And so we got so much feedback from the first generation unit that we started going to work on an updated version with trying to get all of that feedback incorporated. And one of the biggest ones, like you mentioned, was battery. With these handhelds, you're on the go, you want as much battery life as you can possibly get.

So our engineering team was like, OK, how can we fit a bigger battery into this? And the wizardry inside this thing is crazy how they crammed literally double the battery into this unit. But yeah, there was a ton of other stuff that went into it too. When you say games play a little bit smoother, it is using the same chip as the original Ally.

But it's got a little bit more RAM. It's got faster RAM, which helps eliminate some of those bottlenecks in certain games. Yeah, things like that. And because we have more battery in it, we were able to boost the wattage a little bit in some of those performance modes, which means that everything is just going to feel a little bit smoother. And you're not going to have any sort of battery anxiety while you're doing that.

- Very cool. What are some of the other improvements that maybe are a little bit more subtle, a little less obvious to someone looking from the outside that the team has focused on? Because it feels like you really did look at everything top to bottom on the device.

- It does feel like that, yeah. So honestly as cool as the battery is, the thing that excited me the most were some of the subtle ergonomic changes. So if you just look at a picture of the Ally X, it looks pretty similar. But when you actually hold it in your hands, the grips are a little bit more curved, the triggers are bigger, and your fingers just kind of slide right into place.

It just feels really, really natural in your hands. And then we upgraded things like the joysticks have slightly tighter springs so they feel a little bit more similar to typical controllers like Xbox controllers, things like that. The buttons are just a little bit clickier. It all kind of comes together to just feel better in your hands while you're playing all around.

- I can't thank you enough, by the way, and the team for just having A, B, X, and Y exactly where I want them to be.

- Yes, agreed. [LAUGHS]

- Speaking of that, what games are you finding really jump out for you as just a great fit on the form factor? Obviously you can play just about anything on it. For me personally, I really enjoy a lot of RPGs, I think work really well. I've played dozens of hours of Diablo IV.

WHITSON GORDON: Yes.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Because it's just really fun sitting on your sofa playing that way. Or I've actually even gone, I was on a trip with a friend who's also into Diablo and also had an Ally. And we were just sitting by the pool playing Diablo. It was kind of an amazing experience.

WHITSON GORDON: That's awesome.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very freeing, yeah.

WHITSON GORDON: Yeah, that is cool. I really like a lot of the single player, cinematic, story-driven games. So I play a lot of that stuff on the Ally, just like I play it on my TV. And the cool thing is I can pick up right where I left off. Because my cloud saves will sync and all of that.

But the other thing that's fun about the Ally, because it is a portable device, you want a game that you can sit down and play for a couple hours, but you also want some of those games that you can just pull out for 15 minutes and mess around in. So my most played game by far is probably Forza Horizon 5. Because that is a game that you could play for two hours or you could play it for 15 minutes. Or you could say, I'm going to play it for 15 minutes and then two hours later, you're like, wait, where did all the time go?

I love, love Forza Horizon 5. But also games like Dead Cells really hooked me in, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-- Shredder's Revenge, of course, all these on Game Pass. Even games like Goat Simulator 3, where it's just like, I just want to mess around for a little bit while I'm at my kids swim lesson and then put it away and move on.

- Very good. Yeah, I've certainly been in the car doing soccer practice--

- [LAUGHS] Yes, exactly.

- --getting in some gaming. Besides just the device and something I really enjoyed as I was trying out the Ally X, and then I noticed this update came to my original ally device, which is updates to the armory crate, which is the overlay, the software that helps you launch things.

And it's really cool just seeing things that are on Game Pass next to things that are on Blizzard, that are next to things that are on Steam next to the HoYoverse launcher or any of the different sort of things I'm playing across all of these different methodologies that you play across Windows.

- Yeah, that's what really attracted me to this. Before I even knew we were making this, I was on the hunt for a Windows handheld. Because I have games spread out over so many different platforms. I love Game Pass. I have years of games worth in Steam plus, like retro games in GOG and stuff like that. And the way the Armory Crate brings all of those together is just so nice and seamless. And it's got this beautiful interface.

And I love that it's kind of this one-stop shop for everything. And I am so thankful, just as an enthusiast. Obviously I'm a member of the team here. But just as someone who's really into this, I love that our team has been updating it so frequently and bringing in new features that the community has asked for, including things that I've asked for, and just trying to make it more intuitive and easier to use and kind of slightly more console-like experience as we go.

- Are there particular areas of the community, I know we were talking before we started here that I spend a fair amount of time on one of the Reddit subreddits that talks about handheld gaming, and specifically about the Ally. Where does the team pay a lot of attention to in getting that feedback?

- Yeah, so Reddit is a big one, like you mentioned. But I also manage our Discord server, the Republic of Gamers Discord server. And there's a big Ally community in there. And there's another Ally Discord that's popped up from the subreddit, too. And so I kind of track all those and see what the kind of feedback that's coming in and synthesize it and send it to the team.

And then, of course, we also see a lot of stuff on YouTube, YouTubers both big and small showing us how they're using the Ally. And making us think like, we never thought of putting that feature into Armory Crate. Let's see if we can build that in or let's see if we can make that a little bit more seamless for people. Because we're seeing how people are using it in ways that even we didn't necessarily intend.

- So we're obviously really excited about the launch of the Ally X. That's available now, but it's not the only Ally. You have a variety of devices at different price points now, right?

- Yeah, we have two models of the original Ally, one with the Ryzen Z1 processor, one with the Z1 Extreme. Those are both still available to buy today at Best Buy in the US and at retailers around the world. And the Ally X is now on shelves as well.

And what's cool is all three of those devices come with three months of Game Pass built in. You just open up the Microsoft Store or the Xbox app, and you've got three months that you can even stack with your existing subscription, which makes it an even better value, if you're already a Game Pass subscriber. I can't take my hands off it. I'm addicted, personally.

- Very good, very good. And what's the best way for people to keep up with you at work and with everything ROG?

- The best way is to come join our Discord server, like I mentioned, but also to come follow us on YouTube at ROG Global. That is where we do our weekly live streams and podcast talk show stuff. If you want to keep up on everything Ally-related and everything ROG-related, that's the best place to do it.

- All right, Whitson Gordon from ROG, thank you so much for joining us. Congratulations on launch. I'm not just happy to have you here because we're professionals working in the gaming space, but also because I'm a big fan both of what you do and what the team has created. So congratulations and thank you.

- Thanks, and likewise, Jeff. Thanks so much for having me today.

- All right, thanks so much, Whitson Gordon. To check out Whitson's ROG Pulse podcast, head on over to @asusrog on YouTube. Do you know what ROG stands for?

- No.

- It's Republic of Gamers.

- Oh, that' makes sense.

- I'm a dual citizen of that republic. Actually, this is the ROG Ally X. I freaking love this thing. I've been testing out this review unit--

- It's so cool.

- --for about a week. You should try it out. All the games that I mentioned are on there. And my favorite part about it is actually it comes pre-installed with the Xbox app as well as Steam and EA Play and Ubisoft, all these different portals.

You just sign in and, boom, you start shopping in your own closet, downloading games that you've either previously purchased or games that are in Game Pass or anything else. So this is the only place where I get to have the Hades 2 beta sitting right next to--

- Sea of Stars.

- --Sea of Stars, which plays awesome on this, as you can imagine. I love playing RPGs on this thing.

- It's crazy that this went missing after the interview.

- Yeah, really, they can prise it from my cold dead hands, which actually I might have just condemned myself.

- Wow.

- You can handle this here, as well, for a little bit. State of Decay 2 runs great on it, I'll mention.

- Ooh.

- We have one last thing that we have to unbox. And this is a thing that you might have seen on social, maybe on Xbox Social, maybe on Ryan Reynolds social. We have one of the very few--

- Oh my god.

- --cheeky controllers.

- Cheeky is the correct word.

- This one, one of the very few here on the planet. This will eventually be given away to somebody. But before that--

- Yes.

- --let's see what it looks like in real life.

- OK, I'm gonna give you my water because I'm gonna--

- Please do not spill on the butt.

- --get excited.

- Yeah.

- It's a very special moment.

- This box is luxurious.

- Oh my god. So in anticipation of Marvel Studios Deadpool and Wolverine-- oh, open, open. Coming to theaters on this coming weekend on July 26, Deadpool himself has teamed up with Xbox to design a controller, a custom Xbox wireless controller that everyone will want to get their hands on, modeled after Deadpool's much discussed, perfectly rounded tush.

- Yes.

- All right, what's this?

- It's America's other ass.

- OK, so we have the Deadpool Wolverine Marvel Studios. "Hey, gorgeous, it's me, Deadpool." I'm not going to read this whole thing, but it's pretty cool with a metal card.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oh, nice.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Cheeky Polaroid of Deadpool. "X-O-X-O, Deadpool."

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Cozy, cute.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Very good.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Something for the fridge.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: Now I know what Ryan Reynolds handwriting looks like.

- I can't--

- All right. Oh. [LAUGHS]

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Amazing. It's amazing.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We have unboxed a lot of controllers. They're usually face up.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: [LAUGHS]

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: I've never seen one that is face down.

- I was just thinking--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Until now.

- --how I was going to dive into this with keeping any sort of dignity.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Both hands.

- But I don't think--

- I think both hands is the way to go.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I think we just-- I think I just-- we gotta really get in there.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Oh, excuse me. Excuse me, pardon me, Mr. Deadpool.

KELLY LOMBARDI: This is the funniest thing I've ever done in my life.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: This is known as the cheeky controller. It channels Deadpool's buns of steel. And it's firm, yet surprisingly comfortable grip. How's the grip feel?

- Can I just tell you how naturally my hands fall on these cheeks?

- It's like it was born to be in your hands.

- Tell me why this is so comfortable?

- I have a reason. I think we know why.

[LAUGHTER]

- OK. Well, what can you say that hasn't already been said about this controller?

WONDER STORMBREAKER: You need a little koozie, but they just look like little boxers.

KELLY LOMBARDI: I want to say--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Amazing.

- --it's a pretty good replica of Ryan Reynolds' butt. Just throwing it out there.

- Yeah, well, this may be the closest any of us gets to Ryan Reynolds' butt. We don't get to keep it because this will be given away. There's actually a custom sweepstakes, a global sweepstakes going on right now alongside other custom Xbox hardware. So what you want to do is you want to head on over to Twitter or X, whatever you prefer. Wonder, you gotta get your hands on this.

- I just gotta know.

- I'm like, do I have to?

- You have to let it go at some point.

- Oh my god.

- Just, real quickly.

- Always remember that you were the first.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Yes.

- Just cherish the moment.

- We need to get this over to the Elite controller team and just reconsider designs.

- You know?

- Yeah, there we go. Wonder, let us know what you think.

- Oh, yes. Oh, come home. Come home to mama.

[LAUGHTER]

- Don't forget who unboxed your first little controller.

- Do we even need to play games with this? It's hard to say.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It is functional. It came with some batteries there. Also is an--

WONDER STORMBREAKER: It's a nice weight.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --Xbox Series X. Because it is chunky, thick even. And of course, you don't want to forget that Deadpool and Wolverine is out in theaters July 26. That's tomorrow. Very much looking forward to this. Now, here's the thing.

KELLY LOMBARDI: Relax, just relax.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It's not surprising that the Merc with a Mouth was the first out the door with the butt controller. But Wolverine's wearing some pretty tight tights as well.

- Uh-huh.

- And a couple of days later, it was announced he has a cheeky Xbox controller of his own in the yellow and blue. We have some pictures of this up here. And we do like some competition. So, yes.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: It's the battle of the butts.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: It is.

[LAUGHTER]

And you can pick sides on the rivalries. You want to head to the Xbox-- good positioning.

- You like that?

- Yeah, I think you did a good job with that.

- I should do marketing.

- Yeah, I know, right?

[LAUGHTER]

Sea of Thieves team is going to be getting jealous. Where's our butt controller?

- I asked this morning--

- --Pirate's Booty controller?

- --if we can do a Pirate's Booty one.

- Pirate's Booty controller.

- So the Microsoft Cheeky Sweepstakes, you want to check out Microsoft on Instagram, where you can pick sides, Deadpool or Wolverine, whose Canadian booty is--

- I can't believe we did this.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: --is your favorite.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Man, amazing.

- I can't believe this exists. I can't believe we're talking about it on the pod.

- Well, I also think--

- What a time to be alive.

- --we're completely derailed. So I think that pretty much, you have until August 11. That's the key thing.

- Yeah.

- Check out Xbox Twitter. You'll learn more. We've tried it. It's real. It's spectacular.

KELLY LOMBARDI: It's incredible. It's unfortunately not for sale. Because the logistics of that, I feel like, would just be marvelous.

- I don't think that just anyone can handle this controller.

- No.

- And in fact, this one is going to go back into the pile, is going to be given away. We'll clean it off nicely, I promise you. Thank you.

- [LAUGHS]

- Why do you?

- What?

- I'm saying, there's fingerprints. We're getting the fingerprints off of this.

- Correct, correct.

- Say it out loud.

- It's going to be like new. All right, there you go.

- Are you catching it?

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Reflecting.

- It's beautiful.

WONDER STORMBREAKER: Bounce a quarter off of it.

[LAUGHTER]

- Quarter not included. All right, that about wraps us up for this week. You can follow us on twitter.com/xboxwire, YouTube, on all of your favorite podcast apps. Wonder Stormbreaker, thank you so much for joining us here on the show.

- A pleasure.

JEFF RUBENSTEIN: We will welcome you back anytime, whether there's something going on with State of Decay or not. But we know you all are very busy at work working on State of Decay 3. So I think we may have a chance to bring you back--

- That would be nice.

- --to this side of town. Kelly Lombardi--

- Yeah.

- --awesome to have you back.

- Of course, happy to be here.

- I think you're very pleased to be here.

- Yeah.

- Someone please, security, make sure she does not leave with this.

- [LAUGHS] There are several things that are at risk of being stolen after this podcast.

- Actually, the Ally's gone.

- Yeah.

- So I don't know where that went. And also thanks to Betsy Robertson from the American Red Cross for joining us this week. If you have the opportunity and the ability, please donate blood. So thank you, all of you, for listening to us. We will see you next week with even more unboxings, more games to talk about. We'll see you next week.