572: Stories from E3

Larry Hryb: Welcome back, welcome to the show. My name's Larry Hyrb, XBox Live's Major Nelson here. Back in the podcast, back in the studio, the full gang is on deck. Joining us is, of course, Jeffrey. Hello.

Jeff Rubenstein: Rested and ready, back from E3.

Larry Hryb: And then, right across from you is Laura, who's, uh, all rested, but, well, you never went to E3, did you?

Laura Massey: I didn't.

Larry Hryb: And you didn't need to. Do you know why?

Laura Massey: Why's that?

Larry Hryb: Because you could probably see my jacket from Seattle.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Jackets, plural, plural.

Laura Massey: Both of the jackets?

Larry Hryb: The red and the purple.

Laura Massey: Amazing.

Jeff Rubenstein: Look, if Family Feud ever needs a new host...

Larry Hryb: I'm ready. I'm available. Anyway, uh, we're- welcome, guys. This is our first show. We're actually recording this, uh, very early in the morning. Um, we normally do it in the- in the afternoon or the evening, 'cause that's- that tends to be when, frankly, we're a little bit fresher, but we really want- we- time didn't work out, so we're recording this early in the morning, and, uh, so I want to thank you guys, Jeff and Laura, for coming in here at 8:00 in the morning.

Laura Massey: You're welcome. And I want to-

Jeff Rubenstein: An e- an excuse for fast food breakfast.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, right?

Laura Massey: Do want to call out Jeffrey. Thank you very much for providing breakfast.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, Jeff. Jeff picked us breakfast at the- whatever drive through was open. It was very good, so...

Laura Massey: Yes. Very, very.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, it was a- a wise choice now, maybe less so later.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Speaking of that, um... (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, do we really want to speak to that?

Larry Hryb: Well, I- I do.

Jeff Rubenstein: You've spoken more than enough.

Larry Hryb: I do. So, so, we have this, there's a li- we're gonna get into E3 in just a minute. We're gonna tell you a little behind the scenes. So, Laura, what, uh- Phil-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry Hryb: Xbox P3, Phil Spencer-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: head of E3, he has a nice little staff event for the staff one of the evenings-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: of E3, you know, which is really difficult, because there's so much going on. But anyway, Jeff, you went to that.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Uh, a- absolutely my favorite year- it's, it's that thing where you, like, we work so hard-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: And it's all, it's all worth it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: That moment.

Larry Hryb: It's- it's just everybody hanging out, basically, you know, in a very beautiful part of Los Angeles, which-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: There actually is. And, uh, we were hanging out, and there's- we had food trucks there. They bring these food trucks in.

Laura Massey: Oh, really?

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And- (laughs) You know where I'm going with this. And one of them was a grilled cheese food truck, and what- what did I end up having? The Heart Attack, or something?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I-

Larry Hryb: Was it- did you get- I got the one with the, like, spicy chicken wings on it.

Jeff Rubenstein: I got something like chili, cheese...

Laura Massey: What?

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: On a grilled cheese sandwich?

Larry Hryb: It- it was a, these were crazy grilled- [inaudible 00:02:06] Food Truck. Anyway.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And I had this one with jalapeños, and it was so good going down,

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: I swear to god, Jeff.

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And, Laura, I apologize. You might want to plug your ears.

Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone, we apologize.

Laura Massey: Everybody, plug your ears.

Larry Hryb: It took three days for me to get that out of my system.

Jeff Rubenstein: Jesus! (laughs)

Laura Massey: Oh, my god.

Jeff Rubenstein: Not- not the level of specificity I expected.

Larry Hryb: Well, it was- it was brutal.

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: So, hopefully, we're not gonna- we're not gonna suffer the same fate with what we just ate.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's okay. We can say- e- everyone's already turned it off now.

Laura Massey: Exa-

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: We can just talk about whatever we want.

Larry Hryb: Right at the top of the show. Fun show, uh, great going down to E3. Hopefully, you enjoyed what we had to do. We had a lot. Jeff- Jeff will go through the headlines in a minute.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Laura, how did it- how did it play back here? You watched- did you watch the briefing?

Laura Massey: I did. Yeah, we watched it as a team. And I thought the briefing went pretty well, [inaudible 00:02:41].

Larry Hryb: Very tight.

Laura Massey: Yeah, very tight. Very tight.

Larry Hryb: Did- Now, I couldn't tell, because I talked to a couple people, and they're like, "Huh? What are you talking about?" Could you tell, at the Dead Rising 4 segment that it was-

Laura Massey: It was snowing.

Larry Hryb: Okay, 'cause they made it snow.

Laura Massey: They did.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Laura Massey: It was really difficult to tell what was going on for the first, like, five, ten seconds, but the camera kept doing pans of the crowd.

Larry Hryb: Of the crowd, right.

Laura Massey: And you realize, there's something sparkly in the air.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I put a Vine up on Twitter. I don't know if you saw it.

Laura Massey: I didn't see it, no.

Larry Hryb: Um, 'cause I knew, 'cause I had been through the rehearsal,

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:03:09]

Larry Hryb: so I knew the moment- I knew the moment it was going to happen,

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: So I walked out into the, into the, into the area, you know, into the arena-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And was positioned so that I could see it coming out, so that's why you'll see that Vine. Um, but, yeah, it was a nice show, wasn't it?

Laura Massey: Yes, it was. I think it was the first time it snowed?

Larry Hryb: Uh, first time it snowed-

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:03:22]

Larry Hryb: In, in, in LA, no- no- nonetheless.

Laura Massey: That's right. (laughs)

Larry Hryb: So, it was a, yeah, it was a beautiful show, and it was, uh, you know, Phil did a great job, as always.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: We open the show with the Xbox 1S, which, uh, as you guys know, well, you, you two know.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Now, the rest of everyone will know. I- I've had it home for about six or eight months, testing it, and, and having fun with it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Is it really that small, Larry?

Larry Hryb: It's 40% smaller. Did you see me do the unboxing on Geoff Keighley's show?

Jeff Rubenstein: I did.

Larry Hryb: The Geoff Keighley show, now- Laura,

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: I'll tell- did you have a chance to watch that?

Laura Massey: No, sorry.

Larry Hryb: Okay. So, here's the problem, when you- I, I love Geoff. Geoff and I have, have worked together a long time. He- he had- he was doing, like, a full day broadcast, so by the time we showed up, I think it was like, 4 or 5 o'clock.

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: He was kinda tired.

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: And,

Laura Massey: I can imagine.

Larry Hryb: And if you go watch that video, you'd notice is- is, he's just pretty tired. You know, rightfully so-

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: 'cause it's exhausting.

Laura Massey: Whole day is exhausting.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. And, um, and I basically just took over the show. His-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: At least, that segment, that segment.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's- that's your MO, though.

Larry Hryb: Well, no, no, no, no, no. I mean, look. You put- you put two people who are hosts on a, on a, on a- put two alpha dogs in a room, they're gonna battle it out. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: True.

Larry Hryb: Not that we were battling it out, but we were just- I'm a host, he's a host, we're gonna ha- we're gonna do hosty things.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry Hryb: Um, so, anyway, went on, went on Geoff's show and showed off. That was the very first unboxing of the Xbox 1S.

Laura Massey: Ooo

Larry Hryb: And if-

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, we're linking to that, right?

Larry Hryb: Yeah. And if you, if you look, apparently, on various gaming forums around the Internet, there's some animated GIFs. So, Laura, you- since you didn't see it, I'll explain a little bit.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: We had the full box.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: We call it FPP in the business: full package product.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And, I had the FPP, and the-

Laura Massey: Oh. (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Now, is that it? I can't remember.

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, that's the thread.

Larry Hryb: That's the thread. So, but, but- to prove that it was, you know, it was the real deal, it was sealed. So, I had not-

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: I had not unboxed this before.

Laura Massey: So it was a true unboxing [inaudible 00:05:02].

Larry Hryb: It was a true, true unboxing. So,

Jeff Rubenstein: That was a nice set.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, it was a beautiful set.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: And that's [Carl 00:05:04] with-

Laura Massey: Are you wearing a suit?

Larry Hryb: Well, I'm trying to, you know, when you go on TV-

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: You gotta bring it. You just can't sit there in a baseball hat, so-

Jeff Rubenstein: This was- just wasn't his game show one from later in the [crosstalk 00:05:13]

Laura Massey: I see.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, this, this, this was-

Laura Massey: The toned-down suit. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: This was the classy one.

Larry Hryb: In any event, we're doing, we're doing, I'm doing the unboxing, and I wanted to say, "Hey, do you know, this is really sealed up," so I had to get a, a knife from the crew.

Laura Massey: What?

Larry Hryb: It's 'cause I wanted to wanted to-

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: slice the plastic and open it up-

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: On air.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And there- apparently, there's a couple of animated GIFs of me, like, flipping the knife open, and having a crazed look on my face-

Laura Massey: Oh no, oh no.

Larry Hryb: While I slice it open, so be, beware of that.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah, this, this, this particular E3 was very, uh, GIF-friendly.

Laura Massey: I see.

Larry Hryb: I'll just say that.

Laura Massey: I see.

Larry Hryb: Did that, uh, that was Monday. Of course, we did the briefing, as I said, Monday morning. Monday evening was that, and, uh, it was at- we had [FanFest 00:05:44], which was great.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hundreds and hundreds of people.

Larry Hryb: Over five- I think we, we ended up at six or seven hundred. You know, I went out there on Saturday evening, out to the Microsoft Store, Westfield, which is right, uh- you know, I always love telling the story, is- you've never been there, have you, Laura?

Laura Massey: To?

Larry Hryb: To Westfield.

Laura Massey: Yes, yes! I have.

Jeff Rubenstein: No, th- you have. There's a picture of, of us, from, like-

Laura Massey: Couple years ago.

Jeff Rubenstein: E3 two years ago.

Larry Hryb: Oh, okay.

Laura Massey: We did a, a store event.

Larry Hryb: Oh-

Laura Massey: For Sunset Overdrive.

Larry Hryb: Right, okay- that's right, that's right, that's a-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: That's absolutely right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Someone on your team planned that. (coughs)

Larry Hryb: That's right, Jeffrey.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Hmm. [inaudible 00:06:14]

Larry Hryb: But it- what I was, like, pointing out is, is that if you go to the edge of that mall, you can look up, and see the Nakatomi building from Die Hard. The original Die Hard-

Laura Massey: (gasps) Awesome.

Larry Hryb: 'cause they use that building, and it's right there!

Laura Massey: Yes, yes.

Larry Hryb: That's one of my favorite points. Still there, right, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I believe it is, yes.

Larry Hryb: (laughs) Anyway, so, we did the fan event, we had a great time. Hundreds of fans were there, as Jeff pointed out.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Brought 'em in. Uh, I- so, okay. I gotta tell you this story. This- I have not told this story publicly before. In fact, I don't even think I've told you two.

Laura Massey: What?

Larry Hryb: We're at the, we're at the briefing, Jeff. And you remember, everyone's filing in.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And then there's, there's a thousand people. There's thousands of people, like, four or five thou- six thousand people-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Laura Massey: Yup.

Larry Hryb: In the, in the Galen Center in LA. And they're filing in, they're doing their thing, and, and at that point, I'm set up backstage. Jeff, you're doing your job, I'm doing my job.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And I'm, I'm like, "Okay, I got a few minutes here. I'm gonna go out, and kinda walk through the audience, and see the fans, make sure they're all set."

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: So I go down on the floor, talk to some of the fans, they're getting ready, they're settling down, and some of the fans are kind of up in the, in the, um, on the side here. And I, I walk up, and I'm chatting with them, and they all want to get their photo taken with me, which is fine.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: I, you know, I love, I love meeting fans. And the funny thing was, is, sitting right behind them, unbeknownst to them-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Is J Allard.

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: J Allard, who is, basically, one of the founders-

Laura Massey: Fa- yeah, fathers of-

Larry Hryb: Of the original, of original Xbox.

Laura Massey: Of the Xbox.

Larry Hryb: You, you remember J.

Laura Massey: I do.

Larry Hryb: You worked here with J.

Laura Massey: I did.

Larry Hryb: And, so, J was there, uh, 'cause he comes pretty much whenever he can-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: 'Cause he loves the business, and he's still in- and he, but he doesn't know anything what's gonna go on, 'cause he's co- showing up as a fan!

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: And they're all handing him their cameras-

Laura Massey: (gasps) What?

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: To take their photo with me! And I'm, like, "You guys know-" I'm thinking to myself, "You guys have no idea who that is,"

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: 'Cause he did- he didn't really want to let people know he was there.

Laura Massey: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: He didn't- he w- he just wanted to not-

Laura Massey: Yeah, he didn't-

Larry Hryb: Be disruptive.

Laura Massey: Right, right.

Larry Hryb: It was just really funny. (laughs)

Laura Massey: But, they had a very famous cameraman-

Larry Hryb: Right. 'Cause, like, they're all,

Laura Massey: Taking their pictures.

Larry Hryb: And J's just, like, "Sure, I'll take your photo!" And it was just, it was really funny. So, it's always good to see J. A lot of- le- it's always good to see everybody at the event.

Laura Massey: Did you and J have a moment?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, we-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Well, we, we s- we chatted afterwards-

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And we've chatted, we and I- he and I e-mail frequently, 'cause he's-

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: You know, he- back in the day, Laura, when you were on the team, when the team was much smaller-

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: Right? Back, back when we were, oh, so much younger. (laughs)

Laura Massey: So much, so much younger.

Larry Hryb: So much younger, and- anyway, a lot of fun. Smaller team, but, uh, anyway. So, it's j- it was good to catch up with J, as always, so...

Laura Massey: Yeah. Good.

Larry Hryb: So, what was, what was your, uh, what was your experience in terms of watch- you watched the briefing.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Did you watch any of the daily shows?

Laura Massey: I didn't.

Larry Hryb: Oh, come on, Laura!

Laura Massey: I'm sorry, Larry. I know, I'm terrible.

Larry Hryb: That, a- it's not about me, it's about the hundreds of people, you know, Ryan and the rest of the people that put in all their effort to-

Laura Massey: Yes. I'm sorry, Ryan and the rest of the people.

Larry Hryb: That, we're- they're in the production room-

Jeff Rubenstein: They're all encoded. You can watch them on You- uh, youtube.com/Xbox.

Laura Massey: That's true. I could still have a chance to watch them.

Larry Hryb: Could we- could we put links to those?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Laura Massey: You could see the fancy suits.

Jeff Rubenstein: I'll, I'll get that.

Larry Hryb: Uh, (mumbles) okay.

Laura Massey: Yeah? Yes?

Larry Hryb: (mumbles) okay. Look, I'll just say this. A lot of people,

Laura Massey: (clears throat)

Larry Hryb: You know, ask me about the- the reason is, when you do television, a good television- to make a good television appearance, you have to, like, dial it up, like, 20 or 30%-

Jeff Rubenstein: Right.

Larry Hryb: In terms of, you know, over the top.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: All right?

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And that's what I- why am I-

Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:09:02]

Jeff Rubenstein: And you went, like, 50 or 60, you know, just to be safe.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: I'm sorry in advance. I'm hearing this weird ground hum, so if you hear it, my podcast listeners-

Jeff Rubenstein: Groundhog? There's a groundhog?

Larry Hryb: Ground hum, not groundhog. Yeah, so, anyway. Uh, is that you, Laura?

Laura Massey: Is that my effervescent drink?

Larry Hryb: No, I (sighs) I don't know what's going on here, but we're just gonna power through it and keep talking. So, uh, in any event, um, so, yeah. So I, I like to dial it up 20 or 30%. You saw the photos, I'm sure.

Laura Massey: I did, yes.

Larry Hryb: Sorry.

Laura Massey: I'm, no, that's totally fine. You're welcome to dial it up.

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:09:27] In fact, if you, so, the funny- I'll tell you another behind-the-scenes story. Uh, Monday, or Tuesday, we did our first show, and on the show floor, the show floor was just spectacular.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: And one of the, one of the, one of the- (music)

Jeff Rubenstein: That's me, adding things to the list.

Larry Hryb: That's you. La- I- r- as we s- uh, as we s- as we were doing the show. So, you know, on the show floor, in a beautiful position, right at the front, Jeff, you remember this, is, is Sea of Thieves, from Rare.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Right? Which showed- which we showed at the show.

Laura Massey: We did. They had an awesome video.

Larry Hryb: And pe- a lot of people were really excited about it.

Laura Massey: Yes. Beautiful water.

Larry Hryb: Um-

Laura Massey: Gorgeous water.

Larry Hryb: No, the prob-

Jeff Rubenstein: See- r- beautiful. I've, I-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: I watched more of that taking people on tours than anything else, and the water is just stunning.

Laura Massey: It's fantastic.

Jeff Rubenstein: (sighs)

Larry Hryb: Now-

Laura Massey: Best water I've seen.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: Also, the rum looks good. That, that you can drink.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Now, now, so, so, so they're- we're showing this at the very be- top of the booth, and every couple hours, I don't know how frequency what- that, we had, they had a pirate band there. And this pirate band, like's the real deal, Laura. They're from, like, Disneyland.

Laura Massey: What?

Larry Hryb: I don't know where- that's where they hi-

Laura Massey: How- how'd they hire Disneyland folks?

Larry Hryb: No idea. No idea. And they're phenomenal. So, I see them on Tuesday. And I go back to our producer, Ryan, and I said, "I'm telling you right now.

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:10:34]

Larry Hryb: "I'm doing the show today," on Tuesday, "but if we don't have them on the show on Wednesday, I'm not doing the show."

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: I said, "We have got to get them on the show."

Laura Massey: You threw down an ultimatum?

Larry Hryb: I said, and I don't do that, but I'm like, I'm like, "They are so good, I'm not coming on the air unless we get that pirate band." And they were great!

Laura Massey: Oh my gosh.

Larry Hryb: And they're like, "Oh, I don't know if we could do it, because-" you know, when you have music on the air, Laura, you have to, you have to have-

Laura Massey: Licensing.

Larry Hryb: Licensing.

Laura Massey: Yup.

Larry Hryb: Well, it turns out, they were all trained in the music that Rare wrote for this.

Laura Massey: Oh, awesome!

Jeff Rubenstein: That's amazing.

Larry Hryb: So, I'm like, "That's not- that's not a problem!"

Laura Massey: No, yeah! "We own the licenses."

Jeff Rubenstein: My favorite part about this band is, so, sort of behind the booth, uh, there's a little area, um, it's very, sort of, just non-, uh, it doesn't call attention to itself. Uh, it- nondescript. Ah, where we can run in there real quick, grab a bottle of water if you're working the floor, grab a sandwich, something like that. So, at one point, I go in to just, uh, take a minute to sit, and there's a table filled with the band-

Laura Massey: Oh, yeah?

Jeff Rubenstein: And, so, you have all these pirates with all their implements, and their, their lutes, and their horns, and whatever else they had-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: All pirated up?

Jeff Rubenstein: You know, eating Doritos.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: And it was just, it was just the funniest thing.

Larry Hryb: Anyway, so, so, if you go watch day- at the very least, Laura, watch day two at the end of the show.

Laura Massey: Okay. I got them on.

Larry Hryb: And, and, and, but I'm warning you, okay, if you do watch this-

Laura Massey: Yes?

Larry Hryb: You will see me dancing a pirate jig.

Laura Massey: Oh no!

Larry Hryb: Okay, so just, just, just-

Laura Massey: Oh, no! I thought you said you would never dance.

Larry Hryb: I know, it, it- I don't know what got over me. (laughs)

Laura Massey: Pirate spirit got into you.

Larry Hryb: I don't know what, I don't know what came over me. I just, they were standing me, and they gr- all of a sudden, I'm dancing with [inaudible 00:11:59] and the rest of the crew.

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:11:59]

Larry Hryb: So, it was really, very quite bizarre. Anyway, um, Jeffrey, why don't you go over some of the headlines?

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure. So, uh, you want to keep it to the E3 side. There's actually a lot of stuff that's happened since we've last had a show. So, of course, we'd led off the show with the reveal of the Xbox 1S-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which will, uh, first-

Larry Hryb: 40% smaller.

Jeff Rubenstein: 40% smaller.

Larry Hryb: Internal power supply.

Jeff Rubenstein: That makes a huge difference.

Larry Hryb: Yup.

Jeff Rubenstein: Believe me. Having held it, it's, uh, it is small.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: It is really beautiful. Um, and, uh-

Larry Hryb: I don't have one with me. We'll be giving them away on my blog when they launch later this year.

Jeff Rubenstein: Can you give one to me, please? Thank you. So, uh, key thing to note is that, um, it supports 4K Ultra HD for Blu-Ray movies and, and content that is streamed from partners like Netflix and Amazon, thereby making it, um, beginning at $399, the least expensive 4K Blu-Ray player on the market-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Laura Massey: Fantastic.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which is pretty awesome.

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, so, uh, there'll be three different, uh, versions. We'll be leading off with the 2-terabyte SKU, but it will- you'll be able to get it all, uh, in 1-terabyte and 500-gigabyte versions.

Larry Hryb: Now, the 2-terabyte is very clear. Is- it- you can buy this separately, but it comes with a stand for mounting it vertically.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.

Larry Hryb: And if you go to that, the, the link that Jeff put in earlier, the Geoff Keighley Show, uh, that we were just talking about a moment ago, I show you that ve- at the very end, 'cause I was rush- they were kinda rushing me off the air.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative) (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Uh-

Laura Massey: 'Cause you were taking over? (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, I was taking over. They're like, "I'll kick this guy outta here." The, the shepherd's hook was coming out.

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: Um-

Jeff Rubenstein: So, perhaps, sort of lost in this, uh, excitement over the new form factor with the Xbox 1S, is the new Xbox wireless controller.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, um, it, it has a- some subtle differences, like a textured back, a textured grip.

Laura Massey: Is it textured similar to the Elite controller?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh-

Larry Hryb: No.

Jeff Rubenstein: The Elite is, is more rubberized. That's sort of a, you know, your higher level.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: But I would say there were a couple of other versions of-

Larry Hryb: There was the Lunar White one.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: It's, it's not as thick as the Lunar White.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: It's, it's got a little bit of hatching back there,

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: But it's not, it's not completely smooth.

Jeff Rubenstein: But you'll f- as soon as you pick it up, you'll know you'll have one of the new ones, 'cause it will be textured like that. Um, but also, uh, a key thing is that there's a Bluetooth radio.

Laura Massey: Yes. Right.

Larry Hryb: In addition to the Xbox one. Uh, so th- it's actually, to your point, Jeff, there's, there's two radios in there.

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: Xbox uses a proprietary connectivity to- that, that our engineers have worked really hard to reduce lag-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And, and reduce interference. And that's really great, but for those folks that want to take their favorite controller and wirelessly connect it up, perhaps, to their PC-

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: Problem solved.

Jeff Rubenstein: There you go.

Laura Massey: No dongles required.

Jeff Rubenstein: And that's, uh, one of the main differences there.

Laura Massey: No dongles required.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. That is-

Laura Massey: Because it's Bluetooth.

Larry Hryb: That is, that's co- unl- well. Unless you-

Laura Massey: Unless the computer [crosstalk 00:14:25]

Larry Hryb: Unless your computer needs a dongle, that's right.

Laura Massey: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And sort of related, uh, is the announce of the Xbox Design Lab.

Larry Hryb: Yeah!

Jeff Rubenstein: So, so the first one-

Laura Massey: Yes, excited about this.

Jeff Rubenstein: That we're revealing will be in white, um, and there's a special kind of white, I know that we- Robot White.

Larry Hryb: Robot White, which is the name of the, the-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Uh, but, you can create over, I think it was 8 billion different varieties of controller, and you can do that at the Xbox Design Lab right now. Um, and [crosstalk 00:14:49]

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Did you create the Lollipop one?

Laura Massey: I tried to.

Larry Hryb: What happened?

Laura Massey: I didn't actually pull the trigger to buy it, but I configured it, and took some pictures.

Larry Hryb: Oh, oh. Wh- okay. I want to take a look at that. I'd love to see that.

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Uh, I did one that I, I've done a couple of them already. I did one for my Syracuse University colors, with orange and blue-

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:15:05]

Larry Hryb: Put my gamer tag on-

Jeff Rubenstein: The, you, you mean the Gator colors, of orange and-

Larry Hryb: Yes. Oh, now, that's surprising me, Laura, 'cause I gotta tell you, that looks almost identical to the one I made my wife.

Laura Massey: Oh, really?

Larry Hryb: Yeah, except instead of the pink, t- I'm looking at Laura's right now, which is the blue background, now, you have the pink D-pad. Why the pink D-pad?

Laura Massey: That's the lollipop aspect of it.

Larry Hryb: Okay, I s- mmm, okay. That looks very nice.

Laura Massey: Sweet, like sugar.

Larry Hryb: Ah. Thank you. Sweet like sugar.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: What do you say to that? (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, it's Sugar Kisses, it was that song from the 80s.

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:15:29]

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, that is really nice.

Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:15:32]

Jeff Rubenstein: It's actually very similar to what- so, I had my daughter design one-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: 'cause I have no creativity-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: And I'm, uh, and so, I let her make her own. She wanted to be part Seattle Sounders-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: So you have, sort of, the, the neon green there, uh, we are, of course, a, a, [E-title 00:15:46] sponsor of the Seattle Sounders.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Laura Massey: That's right.

Larry Hryb: Coincidentally.

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and, uh, and also, just a little bit of, little bit of pink in there, because-

Larry Hryb: It's pretty.

Jeff Rubenstein: [crosstalk 00:15:54]

Laura Massey: Nice.

Larry Hryb: Nice work. So, yeah, you can go over to-

Laura Massey: It's light blue, and [inaudible 00:15:56].

Larry Hryb: You can go over there and, uh,

Jeff Rubenstein: We should share our designs there.

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Design. Now, here, here's my tip when you're going through the Design Lab, is, you're gonna go through, it's gonna say, "Save and go to next," or something like that. You have to look on the bottom. There's a little icon that says, "Laser engraving," and when you click on that, it'll, it'll let you either- it'll automatically recognize your Gamertag, if you're signed in-

Laura Massey: Awesome. That's fantastic.

Larry Hryb: With that Microsoft ID, or you can put something else in there. So, I recommend you make sure, laser engraving.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: It's a little extra money, but, you know. If you really want a- you know, you're going this far to personalize the colors-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Take it home.

Laura Massey: Yeah. Get your Gamertag on it.

Larry Hryb: So, yeah. Get your Gamertag on it. So-

Jeff Rubenstein: So, a lot of Xbox Live-related announces: there was, uh-

Larry Hryb: We know.

Jeff Rubenstein: These clubs looking for group arena, a number of different ways to, to, uh, interact with other folks that you, you know, may not have met yet that have similar interests and-

Laura Massey: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Similar sort of, uh, looking for the same level of competition [crosstalk 00:16:41].

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: I was trying to get, I was trying to get Mike Ybarra, who was on stage, uh, in to join us on the show this morning, but it's- it was so early and so last-minute, I didn't even bother him.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Larry Hryb: So, I'm gonna get him on a future show. We'll get him in here.

Laura Massey: To talk about it.

Larry Hryb: Sorry about that, Mike.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, we also talked about Cortana on Xbox One, and that will be, uh, when it launches, uh-

Larry Hryb: I've been using that. Have you been using it?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I've got access to it, but I haven't used it yet.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I used it the other, a couple- I think it was last week when we were playing, where I said, you know, "Send," uh, "Jeff a, a-" you know, "Start a party with Jeff Rubenstein."

Boom. "Starting a party with Jeff Rubenstein."

Jeff Rubenstein: And you can use my real name with that, too.

Laura Massey: Cool.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: All right. I'm gonna have to start doing that.

Larry Hryb: Assu- assuming you share your real name.

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah, yes. Of course.

Larry Hryb: You know, on the server.

Jeff Rubenstein: Otherwise, we'd just be rubes.

Larry Hryb: I tried it with Lollipop, and Lollipop wasn't online.

Laura Massey: Uh, sorry. (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah. Right. It's- I was just playing around with it to test it.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, and another one, and this is something that, as someone who was part of the original, uh, creation of, uh, Xbox Feedback, something that we would see a lot-

Larry Hryb: One, one would almost call you the grandfather.

Jeff Rubenstein: I, I-

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Hits a little too close to home here, Larry. Uh, was, is a langua- language region independence. So, based on the fan feedback, we're, uh, en- enabling, uh, gamers to have control over what language, uh, their, their Xbox, uh, speaks in, or displays language in, regardless of where they're from. And that's something that has been, uh, requested, and we're happy to deliver.

Laura Massey: And now we've delivered.

Larry Hryb: Ah, I'm sorry. Some- something, something, European Union, UK joke. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) Little, little too, uh, very timely.

Laura Massey: Li- little too soon.

Jeff Rubenstein: Very timely on that one.

Larry Hryb: Ugh, anyway. Go ahead.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and then, of course, uh, we talked, uh, a lot about games. So, uh, of the bigger surprises, um, there was, uh, Dead Rising 4, which I'm very excited for-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, the return of Frank West.

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: What?

Laura Massey: Why are you laughing?

Larry Hryb: 'Cause there's an- want another behind-the-scenes story?

Laura Massey: Yes, we do.

Larry Hryb: Should we tell the story about Frank?

Jeff Rubenstein: I don't- I don't have the story.

Laura Massey: I saw a Frank walking around the show before-

Jeff Rubenstein: I got a picture with him.

Laura Massey: And I saw pictures with him.

Larry Hryb: So he's (laughs), so he was really, this, just, we had a, a gentleman. I don't know where they found them, if he was an actor or, what, where he came from.

Laura Massey: Looks exactly like him.

Larry Hryb: But he looks exactly like Frank West. Well, apparently, he's from Germany, and he doesn't speak English.

Laura Massey: (gasps) Oh no.

Jeff Rubenstein: More like Franck West.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah, you, you c- (laughs) Yeah, Frankenstein. You couldn't, you couldn't interact with him. He, he couldn't say anything, 'cause he-

Laura Massey: I see.

Larry Hryb: My understanding, he was, he didn't really understand English. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, like, Frank's attitude, he probably wouldn't want to small talk with you anyway.

Larry Hryb: Right. This actor worked.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: I, the thing I loved is that his badge, his E3 badge, said "Frank West."

Larry Hryb: Yeah, (laughs) yeah, you saw that.

Laura Massey: It did, it did! I saw that, too.

Jeff Rubenstein: I was like, "I think he had to legally change his name to Frank West for the, for the show."

Larry Hryb: You saw him with the, with the Christmas tree bat with the lights on it?

Laura Massey: I didn't see the Christmas bat.

Larry Hryb: Oh, you- so, he had a ba- he had a baseball bat with Christmas tree lights around, it was kinda spectacular.

Laura Massey: Oh, funny. Funny.

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, definitely looking forward to that. Having, [crosstalk 00:19:16] all the previous ones.

Larry Hryb: If you watch, if you watch the daily show, you'd see him.

Laura Massey: Are you making a [crosstalk 00:19:20]

Larry Hryb: Again, the links are there. The links are there.

Jeff Rubenstein: The links are there.

Laura Massey: Okay, now they're-

Larry Hryb: It's there for you, Laura.

Jeff Rubenstein: No excuses.

Larry Hryb: Just go out. Close the deal, Laura.

Laura Massey: Super easy now, isn't it? Show notes.

Larry Hryb: Always be closing.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: See the coffee?

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Coffee here for closing. Uh-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Our, our, I think we've run over our allotted Glengarry Glen Ross references-

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: For the, for the fiscal year. Gotta wait until July. Um-

Larry Hryb: Get your set of knives, Laura.

Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:19:45]

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: [inaudible 00:19:44]

Jeff Rubenstein: More announces. Forza Horizon 3-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: Yes!

Jeff Rubenstein: Taking place in Australia, looks stunningly beautiful.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: We did a- we worked with a number of YouTubers from around the world, r- and, uh, Twitch broadcasters, and, uh, Facebook Live, actually, be- becoming a very big broadcast platform for gamers as well, um, to, to broadcast, uh, the E3 show floor demo and sit there with either, uh, Ralph from Playground Games, or with Brian Ekberg from Turn 10, and, and really get a first in-depth look. Some really cool stuff. That, that trailer was very good. I like that Chris Isaak Wicked Game-

Larry Hryb: So, d- I want to tell you a story about that. Um, kind of a sidebar, I don't know if you saw this, Laura. One of the questions we get asked all the time, when our marketing department releases videos, is they license music.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yes. Happens all the time.

Larry Hryb: And it's like, "Hey, what's that track?" So, I worked with them for the two weeks leading up to E3 to collect all the tracks and put them on a playlist.

Laura Massey: Oh, wow.

Larry Hryb: So, we should put a link to that.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.

Larry Hryb: And, so I, a- after our briefing, when all the, all the trailers were released, I put out the playlist. It's on Spotify and Groove. You can see that.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And, um, apparently, the Wicked Game, which is an old Chris Isaak song from the 90s- he's from Texas.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Uh-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: You gonna sing it?

Larry Hryb: Ah, I love that record.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Anyway, uh, he- the, I, I, who's the artist for Wicked Game? It's, it's- do you have that [crosstalk 00:20:56]?

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, uh, I'm bringing it up right now.

Larry Hryb: Okay. So, the artist, apparently, a w- like, earlier this week, so a week after E3, tweeted out that because of the trailer, and I think-

Laura Massey: And your playlists?

Larry Hryb: He was, like, the top track on Spotify.

Jeff Rubenstein: Really?

Laura Massey: Wow.

Larry Hryb: For a time. Yeah, I have that e-mail somewhere-

Laura Massey: That's funny.

Larry Hryb: And he was really thankful.

Jeff Rubenstein: He is really good.

Larry Hryb: So it's, it's a fun, it's a fun little take on it. Some, some, some, some- something with a V and a Sup, Supalda? Something like-

Jeff Rubenstein: We'll, uh, we'll ha- Sepulvida? [Lacienta 00:21:22]?

Larry Hryb: (laughs) Exactly.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah.

Larry Hryb: Uh, so, anyway. That's, um, actually, uh, you know, I'm gonna look it up right now. So, keep going through the, uh, keep going through the, um-

Laura Massey: The news.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, yeah. So, uh, more titles that were announced- uh, so we- not really announced, but, um, we did give a-

Larry Hryb: Ursine Vulpine.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Not even close.

Jeff Rubenstein: Ursine Vulpine, is it, is that- isn't that a Pokémon?

Larry Hryb: I don't know.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: It's, uh, it's- it's what the character's name is.

Jeff Rubenstein: All right.

Larry Hryb: It was n- I'm sorry, it was number 2 in the Global Spotify Viral top 50. I don't even know what that means.

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's- it's, eh, a huge prop.

Laura Massey: Yeah, exactly.

Larry Hryb: So, so I'll, we'll put a link to that playlist and, and it's- listen, have you, have you heard it?

Laura Massey: I...

Larry Hryb: Well, you follow me on, on Spotify. Just go, go see it.

Laura Massey: I do follow you on Spotify.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Laura Massey: I'm one of the few.

Larry Hryb: Thank you.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, we announced the date-

Larry Hryb: I apologize.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Of Inside. Uh, Inside is by Playdead, who made Limbo.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and, uh, we actually made Limbo for, uh, free-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: For, um, all Xbox players.

Larry Hryb: If you haven't played L- Limbo yet, I don't know what you're waiting for.

Laura Massey: Oh, it's fantastic.

Larry Hryb: What are you waiting for?

Laura Massey: One of my, one of my favorite games, ever.

Jeff Rubenstein: From what I'm hearing about Inside, and I've seen a couple of pieces, one on Kotaku and one on GameInformer, they were like, "We n- it's too early, we can't review this yet, but, um, this is an unbelievable game," is what they're saying.

Laura Massey: Oh, great. Fantastic.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I'm, I may be somewhat misquoting, but not mischaracterizing that they said, just, uh, "This is a game we're all gonna be talking about for a long time." And that comes out on the 29th-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Which is, uh, next Tuesday.

Laura Massey: Ooh, looking forward to it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, next Wednesday.

Larry Hryb: I think, I think Jeff and I have her downloaded. We are pre-loaded, ready to go.

Laura Massey: I see. Pre-ordered?

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. Can't wait. So, very much looking forward to that.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, we showed some ReCore, some more Sea of Thieves-

Laura Massey: Yes!

Jeff Rubenstein: But we announced, uh, another announcement, State of Decay 2.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: So, I, uh, we did- we didn't, we're not saying too much about it, other than, uh, it will be available worldwide as an Xbox Play Anywhere title in 2017. But, uh, you know, having worked with Undead Labs, and loving, uh, both State of Decay and State of Decay: Year-One Survival Edition, very, very much looking forward to State of Decay 2.

Uh, Tekken 7 was announced, which, in a pretty cool trailer with Heihachi versus, uh, Akuma-

Larry Hryb: (laughs) That was bizarre,

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: When it came on stage, wasn't it? (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: It was, but it was, it was kind of great. It just kept going.

Larry Hryb: You're like, you're like, "What's going on here?" Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and it actually looked really good.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, we had it on the show floor, and it had a pretty long line to play that one. And, this was, uh, I'd say, one of the surprises for me. Now, we, we had, uh, We Happy Few had been announced a long time ago-

Larry Hryb: Oh boy.

Laura Massey: It did.

Jeff Rubenstein: I believe it was a Kickstarter. We had it in our, uh-

Laura Massey: [crosstalk 00:23:42] last year?

Jeff Rubenstein: Gamescom briefing, I want to say, last year.

Larry Hryb: Gamescom is where it made its big, big [crosstalk 00:23:47].

Laura Massey: And the, and the creepiest trailer ever.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, and [crosstalk 00:23:47] it looked interesting. Yes.

Laura Massey: Creepiest awesome trailer ever.

Jeff Rubenstein: But, here we saw gameplay-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, it very quickly, like, rocketed to the top of, of search engine charts.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: 'Cause people wanted to know more about it. This was, I think, a, a sleeper hit of the show, in that, uh, they on- they had, I think they had, like four kiosks, and it was one of the hardest games to get on on the [crosstalk 00:24:07]

Larry Hryb: Yeah, they were, if y- where we did the daily show, we were kind of elevated, and I could look right behind us, and that's where ReCore was, Joe Staten and the ReCore team were there. Then, right to the right of that was We Happy Few, and that was a- (claps) just jammed, all the time.

Laura Massey: Oh yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and it it looks amazing.

Laura Massey: It does.

Jeff Rubenstein: It looks really good.

Laura Massey: I was really, really excited about the game after I saw it. I think it was one of my favorite ones in the briefing, was We Happy Few.

Jeff Rubenstein: It definitely had a BioShock meets-

Laura Massey: BioShock meets Fallout, I was gonna say.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, meets Fallout.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: And, I would say, uh, meets, um, Clockwork Orange.

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: Oh, oh, oh. Without a doubt.

Jeff Rubenstein: You know? Yeah.

Laura Massey: With the creepiness.

Larry Hryb: It- it was was very Ku- Kubrick-esque.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. So, um, very interesting stuff, and watching people play it, it looks, um, frightening, intimidating, beautiful at the same time, and very, just, uh, yeah.

Laura Massey: It's a, it's a feeling I've never felt before when looking and playing at a game.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Laura Massey: Like, creepy-awesome is, is all I can [inaudible 00:24:54] to describe it.

Larry Hryb: All right.

Laura Massey: It's just a new feeling.

Jeff Rubenstein: And then, uh, and then there was one last announcement at the end.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Are you gonna take this one?

Larry Hryb: Ah, Project Scorpio! So, we rolled out Project Scorpio. Uh, Phil set it up, which is, you know, talking about a new addition to the Xbox One family that we will be sharing details with as we move closer to launch.

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: Uh, which is going to be, uh, the, you know, we looked at it as the most powerful console ever.

Laura Massey: Which is really exciting.

Jeff Rubenstein: That's a-

Larry Hryb: Go back and watch the video.

Jeff Rubenstein: A statement.

Larry Hryb: Don't quote me, quote the video.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Laura Massey: Yup.

Larry Hryb: In fact, in fact, uh, Kareem, who's one of our Dev managers here, I believe, called it-

Laura Massey: A monster?

Larry Hryb: A monster.

Laura Massey: A monster. It's a monster.

Larry Hryb: It's a monster. So, um, anyway, we're, we, we don't have much more to say about that, but we will, uh, go watch the video that Jeff has linked to, and we can put up a- you know, we'll share details with you as we get closer to launch, but we're very excited about it.

Jeff Rubenstein: So there's a-

Larry Hryb: [inaudible 00:25:42]

Jeff Rubenstein: There's a bunch of releases, there's a bunch of, uh, backward compatibility things, things like that, but, let's, let's- what did you play?

Larry Hryb: I got-

Jeff Rubenstein: Let's talk more E3.

Larry Hryb: I got, so, I've, I want to talk about my EA experience.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yes.

Larry Hryb: So, on Sunday, I went to EA Play. I was invited to EA Play to play Battlefield 1.

Laura Massey: Awesome.

Larry Hryb: Got to play Battlefield 1, Laura. Uh, which-

Laura Massey: Tell, tell me about it.

Larry Hryb: Was delightful. Did you watch the stream?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I didn't see the stream, but I, I showed up there later, and I played as well. So-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: I wanna- yeah, let's talk about our experience 'cause it's really good.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah. So, it feels really good, I mean, it feels exactly what you would expect. It just feels [inaudible 00:26:17]. So, I was there as part of their celebrity event.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: So- (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: I did see this part, never mind.

Larry Hryb: Okay. You don't know this part, do you, Laura?

Laura Massey: No, I don't.

Larry Hryb: Okay. So, I'm sitting here. To my left is Richard Sherman, from the Seattle Seahawks. Richard and I had a great time s- across-

Laura Massey: You've, you've met him before. You've-

Larry Hryb: Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've met him before. He and I had a great chat, and we talked. Across is Zach- what's his name?

Jeff Rubenstein: Zachary Levi?

Larry Hryb: No, not, I know Zach.

Laura Massey: Zac Efron?

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, Zac Efron.

Larry Hryb: Zac Efron.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And, and so, who, you know who Zac Efron is.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: I could not believe- what's he doing in terms of his movies right now?

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, he's in, yeah, I think he's in the-

Larry Hryb: Is he in the superhero movie?

Jeff Rubenstein: The wedding date one, uh, with, with Adam Devine.

Larry Hryb: He had, he had guns that I, were ma- I almost thought they were like-

Laura Massey: Oh, his biceps, you're talking about? Okay.

Larry Hryb: His biceps were huge! I was like, "What is this guy-" I mean, I know what he's doing, but is he getting ready for a part? Anyway, so, Zac Efron's right ahead of me. Uh, we've got a couple more of the Seahawks over to the left. And then, to the right, about three or four, um, stations down is Snoop Dogg.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: Now-

Laura Massey: Interesting mix of celebrities.

Larry Hryb: Now, now I'll just say this. Now, about s-

Jeff Rubenstein: Everyone loves gaming.

Larry Hryb: About five or six months ago, um, there was an issue with Xbox Live with Snoop Dogg, who'd put out a video. I don't know if you remember seeing this.

Laura Massey: I think I do remember seeing this.

Larry Hryb: Right. So, obviously, it was quickly resolved. Snoop was very unhappy. So, I went over to him, and I said, "Hey. Are we, are we all set now?" And-

Laura Massey: "We cool?" Yeah. "Are we friends again?"

Larry Hryb: You saw, you saw my tweet, where I said we're cool.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, it's linked. Yes.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And, uh, and, so we go back to playing, and, now, um, Snoop is, um, he participates in some extracurricular recreational drugs. I'll just say that.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: Okay?

Laura Massey: That's fair.

Jeff Rubenstein: We live in, we live in Washington. There's nothing wrong with any of these things.

Larry Hryb: Yes. And he decided that, during the, while he's playing-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: He wants to blaze up. (laughs)

Laura Massey: I see. But that's not legal in California.

Larry Hryb: I, I'm not a judge or a lawyer, so I-

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, it could be medicinal.

Larry Hryb: I don't, no, I don't have any visibility into that. All I know is, it completely changed the game. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: That's all I could- I'll just say that I had a great time. I'm not sure I, I saw unicorns in the game. I don't think they're in the game.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: (laughs) I saw some other things in the game that I need to go back and play again, 'cause I'm not quite sure, Laura, to be honest with you. So, Jeff, let's talk about your experience with the game. I had a great time. Oh, before I get that- and then I went upstairs and played some Titanfall 2.

Laura Massey: Ooo. Fantastic.

Jeff Rubenstein: We played the same games. Titanfall 2, I, I picked it up, I played it, uh, I can't wait to play with my, uh, Elite controller.

Larry Hryb: Yeah! Best controller ever.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, but it, just in my, my brief match, I, it, it's still incredible. Uh, we played so much, so much Titanfall back in 2014, and I think we're gonna play so much Titanfall 2.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, it feels good. It feels good.

Laura Massey: It's great.

Jeff Rubenstein: Feels really good.

Larry Hryb: It was nice 'cause I saw- I talked to Vince. We had him on the show.

Jeff Rubenstein: Nice.

Larry Hryb: I interviewed him on the, on the daily show, and it was great chatting with him and catching up.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, Battlefield 1.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so, we had that in the booth, and I was, uh, most of the time at E3, I was taking YouTubers and other sort of VIPs and stuff, uh, through the booth and showing them select things.

Larry Hryb: Jeff had this little plaid vest on, kinda like you wear at Disney. (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: And I had the, the sign. You had to follow my, my little, my little sign with the flag on it.

Larry Hryb: "This way, please."

Laura Massey: Those ears.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. You can't point. I had to point with two fingers it was really weird.

Larry Hryb: You know that, right? You can't point [inaudible 00:29:22].

Laura Massey: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Anyway. Uh, so, little, little Disney cast member, uh-

Larry Hryb: Inside stuff, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So-

Laura Massey: Were you a Disney cast member? Since you know a lot of tricks of the trade.

Jeff Rubenstein: No, I just, I lived in Orlando, so I dated a few Disney cast members. I, living in- well, they didn't call them cosplayers, but, you know-

Larry Hryb: Costumed character?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes. Exactly, thank you. Uh, We'll, we'll leave alone what and who.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, (laughs) so,

Larry Hryb: The only one who dated Ursula. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: She was- she was a bad guy. Girl. From, from-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: I'm sure she was. (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: One of the, one of the animated-

Laura Massey: N- now, we're really intrigued.

Larry Hryb: You know, aren't we?

Jeff Rubenstein: Anyway, so-

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: It was, it was an interesting time. Uh, taking people through, and I was taking some folks through Battlefield. Battlefield had one of the largest stations. We had 64 stations in our booth.

Larry Hryb: In our booth, Laura.

Laura Massey: Oh my goodness. [inaudible 00:30:10]

Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, and it was busy the entire time. And, uh, at one point, I was taking some folks through, and I noticed there was one open, and I'm like, "You mind if I jump on that?" You know, to even out the teams.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: Purely.

Larry Hryb: Sure, of course.

Laura Massey: Make it fair.

Jeff Rubenstein: In the- in the spirit of fair play.

Laura Massey: Exactly.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, man. I had such a good time.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, a couple things that I noticed, uh, right off the bat, is that, um, when you're on the map, and you're choosing where to spawn, um, instead of just, sort of snapping to the ground, and then you have, like a second or two of, like, sort of, disorientation-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: It zooms you down.

Jeff Rubenstein: It zooms you down smoothly.

Laura Massey: Ooo

Larry Hryb: Into first person.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Laura Massey: Ooh, cool. Great.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, so, immediately, you know exactly where you're at, what you're facing, and where you're running to.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, and even in the direction you're facing, even. Yeah, it's really extraordinary.

Jeff Rubenstein: And then, uh, ditto when you get into a vehicle. Um, you don't just snap into the vehicle and you're like, "Okay, wait. What side of the- am I a driver?" You see yourself get into the vehicle, into the correct part of where you're going to be.

Laura Massey: Oh, good. They- so, you never mistake being a passenger, or accidentally jump into the driver's seat and playing a helicopter [inaudible 00:31:03].

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. And, and these were two things that I think were presentational, but that made a huge difference in terms of gameplay.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, my very first time I spawned directly into- not a tank, because tanks didn't really exist, but some sort of armored vehicle, and the first time I pulled the trigger, the very first time, I hit another vehicle, blow it up, and, and wipe out two players on the other team.

Laura Massey: Nice.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I was like, "You know what?"

Larry Hryb: You're done.

Laura Massey: You're done?

Jeff Rubenstein: "We're gonna be good."

Laura Massey: (laughs) [inaudible 00:31:27]

Jeff Rubenstein: But, yeah. There's nowhere to go but down. And, and, it, it, I had such a great time with that game.

Larry Hryb: Now, now did you get up into the, into the blimp, the dirigible, the zeppelin?

Jeff Rubenstein: I, I did not. I was doing so well. I finished in first place on the team, out of 32.

Larry Hryb: What?

Jeff Rubenstein: So, um-

Larry Hryb: Good for you.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: I, which is very rare. We lost, but, I'll take, uh, I did my part. I did my part, and I had such a good time.

Larry Hryb: Well, h- 'cause, here's my tip is that, so, at least, and the, I mean, this w- what I'm about to say may change completely by launch, 'cause we're playing a pre-, pre-release version.

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: But it, with the particular mode and map we were playing, is, the zeppelin comes in for the losing team. And, so, you can spawn into it.

Jeff Rubenstein: Ah.

Laura Massey: Whoa.

Larry Hryb: So you can, I think there were three positions, um, and I was- they were all gunner, so I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm in it, and it kinda goes through the map, kinda like it w- I think it was the- was it the B-52 or the B-8, remember the bomber on the last one? Where it kinda go through the maps-

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Larry Hryb: Anyway, so, so, it goes through the map, and what I found out was, I was like, "Okay, I want to parachute out." When I, when I went to parachute out, it put me on top of the blimp.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And then I realized, "Wait a minute." So, and, uh, my team kept spawning on me on the top. So, we had the three positions, plus our squad on the top-

Laura Massey: On the top? Could you shoot down? (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Laying down fire to, to- so that's, that was, hopefully, they'll keep that in for, for the final game.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. I, it's, uh, there's a lot more, I mean, as someone who really doesn't know all that much about World War I, other than trench warfare, the variety-

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: Of things that there were to do in it, um, I was initially worried, "Oh, you know, there's not gonna be as much-" 'Cause I, I'm not really just, uh, I like to play in vehicles-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative), mm-hmm (affirmative).

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: I like to do, sort of, the more unusual things in a bat- there's plenty to do. It's really [crosstalk 00:32:57].

Larry Hryb: So this, I want to be very clear. This is a, this was, World War I brought a lot of, uh, a lot of technology revolutions. Um, that people may or may not be aware of.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: I mean, there were the, certainly, biplanes, there was air war, there was ground war, there was armor, there was all sorts of things, so it's really, it's really quite extraordinary.

Jeff Rubenstein: And there were horses. It was, like, a weird transition.

Larry Hryb: So, yeah. So, we never, I never played the map with the horses on it. We saw that in the trailer, which had this incredible, incredibly beautiful Lawrence of Arabia-esque panorama, so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Cool. Uh, what else did you play?

Larry Hryb: Uh, I want to talk about Titanfall, uh, I played a little bit of Mafia, what else did I play? That was about- I mean I, the, the, when I do the daily shows, you know, we start, we start working on those at, like 11 AM. You know, I gotta get my makeup and costume, the wardrobe, and read the script, and rewrite the script, and, you know, I'm throwing my little fit of, like, "I'm not going on until we get the pirate band."

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: It was for, it was for, it's for the viewers, okay?

Laura Massey: It is, it is.

Larry Hryb: It's not for me, it's for the viewers. I thought it made good television. So, I didn't really have as much time as I wanted to to hit the show floor.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, same thing.

Larry Hryb: Even, even our, even our own.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup.

Larry Hryb: I did play, I did play Sea of Thieves.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh, yes.

Larry Hryb: I played that at our, uh-

Jeff Rubenstein: That was very, very popular at, uh, at the show. All the people that we were taking through on tours, they all wanted to play, and they all had a very good time.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, pirates.

Laura Massey: Exactly. It's a fun game.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, basically, the setup, the way we had it is, we had 15 stations, uh, and they grouped people into fives. And then, the way they spawned you was right next to a ship, so everyone instantly got in there.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: And then you see another ship, what are you gonna do?

Laura Massey: Try and-

Jeff Rubenstein: You're gonna start shooting it.

Laura Massey: Try and battle it.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, you sort of had, like, this crazy, three-way-

Larry Hryb: I rammed it.

Laura Massey: Oh, no.

Jeff Rubenstein: What? That's what you do.

Laura Massey: Did it work?

Larry Hryb: Uh, well, if you, define "work," 'cause it sunk, it sunk our ship. So ... (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs) It didn't do the work. If it didn't sink them-

Larry Hryb: Yes. No, we-

Laura Massey: And sunk yourself ...

Larry Hryb: Well, it's funny. When we sunk, and then we were like, "Okay, we'll just swim up, and then we'll just, you know, climb up," and, but, it basically re-spawns you, when you sink.

Laura Massey: Yes, it does.

Larry Hryb: At least, in this mode. But Craig and the team over at, uh, Rare did a real nice job with that.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: And I'm look- I think I may go, Craig, I think I may want to come over to Rare.

Laura Massey: I'd love to, too.

Jeff Rubenstein: I, I- bring me with you?

Laura Massey: We should all play together. That would be amazing.

Jeff Rubenstein: Our dollar will go a little further this trip.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. So, we'll- well, Craig is- Craig listens to the show, is the head of Rare.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: So I know he listens to the show, so-

Jeff Rubenstein: @Gamerboss

Larry Hryb: @Gamerboss (sputters)

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure.

Larry Hryb: So, yeah.

Laura Massey: We should all play the game together. I think it would be an amazing Team Dysfunction game.

Larry Hryb: Well, I, I agree.

Laura Massey: Could you imagine Team Dysfunction trying to sail?

Larry Hryb: Great. Well you can- well, you have- you have, you also have to remember, like, at least in, in this version, when you're the pirate, and the sails come down, you can't see ahead of you.

Laura Massey: (laughs) I know.

Larry Hryb: So, you have to, you have to rely on your crew to tell you what's going on.

Laura Massey: To turn left and right.

Larry Hryb: Turn right, you know-

Laura Massey: Slow down.

Larry Hryb: Port and starboard, Laura. Uh-

Laura Massey: Excuse me. (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yeah, port and starboard, please.

Laura Massey: Need to work on my nautical terms.

Larry Hryb: You know how to do that, right? The port and s-

Laura Massey: I do.

Larry Hryb: Okay, good. Uh-

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Port is left.

Laura Massey: Port is left.

Larry Hryb: Port is left, so-

Laura Massey: So, you gonna, you gonna help?

Jeff Rubenstein: Starboard's the other one.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Laura Massey: Do you know how I remember port is left?

Larry Hryb: It's four letters.

Laura Massey: It's four letters, and left is four letters.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh. That easy.

Larry Hryb: That's the mnemonic.

Laura Massey: Yes. Makes it easy.

Larry Hryb: And my last name has four letters, ergo-

Jeff Rubenstein: Where were you when I was a young sailor?

Laura Massey: (laughs) When you were a young sailor?

Larry Hryb: When you were crewing on the Schuylkill?

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs) If only. If only I'd went to that school.

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Exactly. Uh, all right. We're, we, keep going here, 'cause we've got- so, I just want to point out, we're gonna, actually, not gonna be doing, um, Name the Game.

Laura Massey: That's right.

Larry Hryb: Uh, in fact, why don't we do this? We're, we're actually, we're gonna use the same Name the Game as last week, so why don't I go ahead and just drop that clip in now?

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And, um, I want to give people another chance.

Laura Massey: And we can repeat it.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, we had a few, we had a few proper entries, but I want to give people enough time. So-

Jeff Rubenstein: And then we'll come back, we'll do new releases, 'cause there's a lot.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. Yeah, let's come back, we'll do those. So, here is Name the G- here's the latest Name the Game. You're gonna have another chance at it!

Laura Massey: That's right.

Larry Hryb: Okay, here we go. (video game sounds)

Laura Massey: All right, so that was the sound clip for Name the Game.

Larry Hryb: Same as, uh-

Laura Massey: It is the same as last time.

Larry Hryb: As our, as our last show. We're just extending it here.

Laura Massey: Exactly. We'll give you another chance to enter.

Larry Hryb: And-

Laura Massey: But-

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: If you have already entered, you don't have to enter again.

Larry Hryb: Nope, nope, nope.

Laura Massey: Your, your, your guess is as good as it can be. [crosstalk 00:37:09]

Larry Hryb: We've got s- we've got some cool Razer gear.

Laura Massey: We do.

Larry Hryb: And some games to give away.

Laura Massey: Okay, so, we've got fabulous, fabulous prizes. We always do.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, I, I always have fabulous prizes.

Laura Massey: We always do.

Larry Hryb: Including the red jacket! No, I'm not gonna give away my red jacket on my show.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Can I have the purple one? Dibs on the purple one.

Larry Hryb: Really? You like the purple?

Jeff Rubenstein: I'm a, I'm a purple man.

Larry Hryb: Okay. That's good to know.

Laura Massey: All right. So, if you think you know what game those sounds are from-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Laura Massey: Super easy to enter. E-mail me, [email protected], and CC [[email protected] 00:37:31].

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Laura Massey: Again, if you already entered, you don't have to enter again.

Larry Hryb: Nope.

Laura Massey: But, if you haven't entered yet-

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Laura Massey: You have a chance now.

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Laura Massey: So, please send me an e-mail.

Larry Hryb: Please, please, please. All right, Jeffrey. Let's get into some of the releases, 'cause we're gonna keep this show tight-

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure.

Larry Hryb: 'Cause we've got- we've gotta get to our meetings [crosstalk 00:37:47].

Jeff Rubenstein: So, if, if, uh, you are, like, one of the, uh, many, many millions of people that own, uh, Minecraft on a, on a console, uh, Battle Mini-Game is out now, and it is free. It, uh, released earlier this week. Uh, I've messed around with this with some friends.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, basically, it, uh, takes away a lot of the f- focus on, on, on the original PC version of the game. They would set things like this up, and you'd have to stock chests. This is, you could just jump in and start fighting. You don't have to craft, and it's, there's some- it's a cool arena. So, if you own, um, Minecraft, uh, on any of the Xbox, PlayStation, or the WiiU platforms, uh, this update is free. So-

Larry Hryb: Speaking of Minecraft, let's talk about if you have Minecraft Mobile on- or, if you're on Windows 10-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Our pocket P- pocket edition, I almost said pocket PC, um, you now have access to Realms.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Which is, for those of you that missed that announcement at E3, you can sign up for Realms and, basically, have your your Realm cloud hosted. So, you can join, and people can join when you're not online, and so on and so forth. So, check out Realms.

Jeff Rubenstein: Sure you will.

Laura Massey: Awesome.

Larry Hryb: And it's really cool, 'cause you can actually, so, Laura, you can now sign in on your iOS or Android device, and get achievements.

Laura Massey: My favorite!

Jeff Rubenstein: So, I mentioned that, uh, Inside is coming out on June 29th. Something else that we're gonna be playing together-

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, whether you like it or not, but you will like it: Warzone Firefight, coming to Halo 5 Guardians-

Larry Hryb: Woohoo!

Laura Massey: Awesome.

Jeff Rubenstein: On June 29th.

Larry Hryb: (sings fanfare)

Jeff Rubenstein: So it brings the new mode, the Warzone Firefight, which is, uh, easily the biggest content release since Halo 5 launched. Uh, very much looking forward to that, and have you seen the Grunt Goblin boss?

Larry Hryb: I have heard about him, but I have not seen him yet.

Jeff Rubenstein: It, this is the first, uh, sort of badass goblin, uh, or grunt, that you've ever seen.

Laura Massey: Ooh. Super cool.

Jeff Rubenstein: It's really cool. He's armored, and, uh-

Larry Hryb: Is he in a Mech?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, kind of. Like, like, sort of like a, like a, I wouldn't say a full Mech, but like, definitely bigger and badder-

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: Than your typical grunt.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, it, like, boss level. So, I'm very curious to hear if there's any interesting dialogue or anything.

Larry Hryb: Man, those guys [crosstalk 00:39:41] they just keep churning away on this content. It's, it's breathtaking.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: There's a bunch of new maps, too. Attack on Sanctum, Prospect and Molten, um, so those will be across multiple game modes. Uh, there, there's really a lot here. Uh, I can link out to everything that's coming, but, suffice to say, the biggest new mode will be coming, uh, next week.

Larry Hryb: You know, what I forgot is, should I, should I talk a little bit about FanFest, and how great that was?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, you, you kinda did.

Larry Hryb: Well, I didn't talk about the, so, J- John DiMaggio was there.

Laura Massey: Ooo.

Larry Hryb: Who-

Jeff Rubenstein: You, you know him as-

Larry Hryb: You know, well- Bender.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: The voice of Bender, uh-

Jeff Rubenstein: "Bite my shiny, metal ass."

Larry Hryb: And, and, of course, you know him from the Gears of War franchise, playing the role of:

Jeff Rubenstein: Marcus Fenix.

Larry Hryb: Marcus Fenix.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: So, he was there, and he, and I, I, basically, did my, my Marcus Fenix impression for him, and he was not impressed.

Laura Massey: (laughs) You what? You did himself to him?

Jeff Rubenstein: What did you say?

Larry Hryb: Well, so, what we did was, we had, we brought, in FanFest, we brought everyone into this theater, and we're showing them some game- we were doing game demos and things like that.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And we showed them the, the demo that you saw, uh, in the briefing, where it, it fades black, comes up, and it's, "Welcome home, James." Right? Do you remember that? Where he's standing up?

Jeff Rubenstein: Yup, yup.

Larry Hryb: So, I did that at the end, and then no one in the theater knew that he was there, and he had a microphone at the back, and I said, "Let me try this: 'Welcome home, James.'"

Laura Massey: Hmm.

Larry Hryb: And I said, "What'd you think of that?" And, of course, John, in- on the mic in the back of the house, goes, "That sucked."

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And then proceeds to deliver it properly.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And he, he was there, and it was just, the fans-

Jeff Rubenstein: He's a funny guy.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: He is ridiculously funny, and incredibly, um, blue.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yes, yeah. I worked with him, uh, last year at Comic Con. We did a, a Gears of War panel.

Larry Hryb: Oh, I remember that.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, and I got to have lunch with him, and I couldn't even eat I was laughing so much.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Just, he's that funny of a guy.

Larry Hryb: Anyway, so, that w- just FanFest. I've said a, said a bunch about that, but I want to thank all the fans that, that were in line for a couple days, and I apologize to the fans that couldn't join us, but hopefully you enjoyed what we, uh, what we gave you with the daily shows, and the briefing, and all the awesome news, so there you go.

All right, sorry. Back to the news.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so, lot of backwards compatib- we're at, like, the one-year announcement of backwards compatibility, aren't we?

Laura Massey: Oh, that's right! That is right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And a number of new games hit this week. Uh, which you can always find, if you're following uh, this guy, Major Nelson, @majornelson.

Larry Hryb: Heyo.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, Crystal Quest, Comic Jumper, I Am Alive, uh, Blood Knights, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, Joe Danger, which was very fun, and, uh, Fallout: New Vegas.

Larry Hryb: What?

Laura Massey: What?

Jeff Rubenstein: Um, and D,D: Chronicles of Mystara. All of those, uh, coming to Backwards Compatibility t- well, this week.

Laura Massey: That's great.

Larry Hryb: Now, if you want to, if you want to know what's going on, all you need to do is head to my blog at majornelson.com. On the very top, or I think it's on the left, if you're on your mobile, uh, you'll see a Backward Compatibility link. Click on that, and that kinda gives you, it's like an UberFact of everything, and I also drop in there all the titles we release, and when they've been released. You can sort it by title, you can sort it by type, you can sort it by studio, you can sort it by release, and, gives you all the details on that, so ...

Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh, nine new titles came out this week. I'm not gonna go through all of them. I want to focus on a couple. But, also, a couple demos.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, Doom has a demo. So, if you didn't get to try the, the all new-

Larry Hryb: You finished that, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Dude, I haven't even gotten started yet.

Larry Hryb: Oh, I finished it. It's so good.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, so, that is a demo now.

Larry Hryb: Laura's still on level 2.

Laura Massey: (laughs) I haven't finished it, no.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Laura Massey: Still, still working on it.

Jeff Rubenstein: And LEGO Star Wars, which is coming out this summer.

Laura Massey: Which is awesome.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh-

Laura Massey: The Force Awakens. Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: The Force Awakens has a demo. Uh, so, very much looking forward to that one.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, as far as the new games, wanted to call out Mighty No. 9.

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: From, uh, Keiji Inafune. Pac-Man 256. Have you ever played this?

Laura Massey: Yes. I play this on a mobile device.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay.

Laura Massey: Yes. Super fun. Super fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: I played it at- it's multi-player. You can play it with four players. I played at, like, two years ago at E3. Konami, or some offshoot of Konami, had a, or Ba- or Namco Bandai, I should say, uh, had a, a booth, and you could play it with arcade joysticks, and it was so fun.

Laura Massey: Awesome.

Jeff Rubenstein: So it's not, it's not your father's Pac-Man.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: Or, grandfather's Pac-Man, really, at this point. Uh, it's just, it's, you're, it's constantly moving, but you're playing against other folks at the same time. It's, it's five bucks. Highly recommend. Have fun picking that one up.

Larry Hryb: Five bucks. Pac-Man.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, uh, also wanted to call out Drawful 2. So, I don't know if you've ever played, um, Jackbox Party Pack?

Larry Hryb: Of course.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: I think it's the single best party game, regardless of gaming skill, that I've ever played. You use your phone, um, it, it just works. Everyone seems to enjoy it, whether they're gamers or not. And, I'd say, the highlight in playing the original Jackbox Party Pack, for, for me, and, uh, in my neighborhood, really, was Drawful. And now, uh, standalone for ten bucks, is Drawful 2, uh, with a, a bunch more, uh, different, terrible drawings.

Larry Hryb: Did they have the same streaming capabilities? 'Cause I remember, I was streaming it, and we'd have people participate.

Laura Massey: Oh, that sounds super cool.

Larry Hryb: It was.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. If you give out, I think if you give out the code, and then everyone can sort of watch along, and they can participate.

Larry Hryb: There's a code you give out. And you punch the code in your phone, and it connects you to the game. I, I, I mean, I should do that again.

Laura Massey: Yeah. It looks like fun.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah, it's really fun. So, uh, Drawful 2 is now available for Xbox One.

Larry Hryb: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Laura Massey: Very good.

Larry Hryb: And those are some of the headlines. Do we have anything else?

Jeff Rubenstein: We need a stinger for that.

Larry Hryb: Yeah. (sings) I'm, I'm working on that.

Jeff Rubenstein: Wow.

Larry Hryb: I'm freshening up the audio.

Laura Massey: Oh.

Jeff Rubenstein: Hmm.

Larry Hryb: 'Cause, just, I don't want to say-

Jeff Rubenstein: Brightening it.

Larry Hryb: Brightening it.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Refresh.

Laura Massey: Very good.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, those are some of the, the E3 headlines. Uh, we're, we've been, we've been very busy. It's kind of like we get to take our breath, um, and then maybe take a few days off, and then, guess what? We start all over again.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh yeah.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: Already talking about Comic Con, what are we doing there?

Larry Hryb: You're gonna go to Comic Con, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, it's looking that way, yes.

Larry Hryb: 'Cause I'm going down.

Jeff Rubenstein: Okay, well, then I'll be there.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah. We gotta-

Jeff Rubenstein: 'Cause, we, we should stop by the San Diego store. That's a great store.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, yeah, that San Diego store. 'Cause there's also an In-N-Out out there.

Jeff Rubenstein: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, I, uh, yeah. (laughs) Ran right through me.

Larry Hryb: I know exactly what you're up to.

Laura Massey: I like how you plan your meals first.

Larry Hryb: Well, that's, that's important, isn't it?

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Look, if, if you're traveling, if you're away from your family, you should at least enjoy yourself.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Jeffrey and I have been many places around the world, and we, we, we have experimented, and-

Laura Massey: You've eaten some things.

Larry Hryb: So, I, I will, there's a- there's a little bit of inside baseball here, since we're sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: Jeff is a very adventurous diner, and I am not.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: At all.

Larry Hryb: So, we're like the, we're like the Odd Couple.

Jeff Rubenstein: Yeah. When we go out, I have to, "Is there something weird enough for me, and something, uh, traditional enough for Larry?"

Larry Hryb: I just, I just, I don't like, I don't eat shellfish or any of that, so, just, the sushi is all off the menu, as you know, Laura.

Laura Massey: Yeah, yeah.

Larry Hryb: So.

Jeff Rubenstein: I did find so- an interesting place, in the Bay area. Next time we're there, there's some places that I'll take you that I think you'll like.

Larry Hryb: Okay. Anyway. So, the story is, when we travel, usually, is, Jeff is navigating-slash-yelping, and I'm driving.

Laura Massey: I see, I see.

Larry Hryb: So, that's the way it works. Jeff is my copilot. So,

Jeff Rubenstein: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Anyway, uh, so those, those are some of the things we- I guess, we're gonna wrap up the show in just a minute or two. I wanted to keep this under an hour-

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: 'Cause you guys have meetings to get into, and our listeners are just so busy.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: We want to make sure they could get as much behind-the-scenes and E3 data that they could here. Do you have any gadgets you want to talk about?

Jeff Rubenstein: I got a new ceiling fan. Now, normally-

Larry Hryb: (laughs) Woo!

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Normally, that would be boring, but now, so, we were looking- Seattle, nobody has air conditioning, or very few people. At least, in the city. You go, you both live, um, in an- I'm assuming you do have air conditioning.

Larry Hryb: Yes.

Laura Massey: Thank you.

Jeff Rubenstein: But, in the city itself, because it, it traditionally does not get that hot, but, uh, you may have heard, the world may be slowly warming up.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, and, uh, maybe that having- not having air conditioning is maybe not the most comfortable thing certain times of the year. And last year was really hot, and it wasn't super comfortable, and we were like, "You know what, we need to get air conditioning." Air conditioning is super expensive, if you don't have it. I mean, thousands and thousands of dollars.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, we very quickly backpedaled and said, "Hey, what if we got a ceiling fan?"

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: Sure.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, uh-

Larry Hryb: To push all the hot air down.

Jeff Rubenstein: Exactly.

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: Well, we haven't had a hot day yet, so I may or may not enjoy it, but last night was actually the first night we had it. And now they're all, it's like an Internet-of-things thing. Like, it's all completely connected through-

Laura Massey: You have a wireless ceiling fan?

Jeff Rubenstein: I have an app for my ceiling fan.

Laura Massey: What? To control-

Jeff Rubenstein: It connects to my WiFi.

Larry Hryb: Right.

Jeff Rubenstein: And, it, it learns when you're there, and when you're not.

Laura Massey: What?

Jeff Rubenstein: And, it, it, it has different modes, where-

Larry Hryb: It's on and off. What kind of modes do you need?

Jeff Rubenstein: No, no! It has what it calls a Whoosh mode, that's meant to uh, imitate the, the ebbs and flows of a breeze coming through your window.

Larry Hryb: So it's starting and stopping and slowing down?

Jeff Rubenstein: It, it, it doesn't-

Larry Hryb: That's disturbing.

Jeff Rubenstein: But, it's completely silent.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Jeff Rubenstein: So, anyway. Very excited about my ceiling fan.

Larry Hryb: Okay.

Laura Massey: Goodness.

Larry Hryb: That's fair.

Laura Massey: That is one technology advanced.

Jeff Rubenstein: And I saved a hell of a lot, compared to getting air conditioning.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: So, we'll see.

Larry Hryb: And I assume you can control the direction of air flow?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yup.

Larry Hryb: [crosstalk 00:48:03]

Jeff Rubenstein: You can do that, uh, thermostat. It has, uh-

Larry Hryb: A light?

Jeff Rubenstein: It has an LED light, so that it goes, and it can dim, and whatever, and it's all controlled by an app.

Larry Hryb: Woo. Is it colored?

Jeff Rubenstein: And, actually-

Larry Hryb: Can we disco it up?

Jeff Rubenstein: It, it's- you could put some LEDs on it.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: And it has a sensor. You can, when you just walk in the room, you can make it so it'll just turn on.

Laura Massey: My goodness. This is-

Jeff Rubenstein: This is, it's not your father's ceiling fan.

Laura Massey: No, it's not!

Larry Hryb: Clearly.

Laura Massey: No, it's not.

Larry Hryb: All right, so. I don't know if I can top that, Laura.

Laura Massey: I don't think I can, either.

Larry Hryb: Well, I, I've got a little something. You probably saw me tweet about it last week. I installed a new, I've been retrofitting my home network. So, I, I installed this new system, Laura, called eero.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: E-E-R-O.

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: And this is a, what it is, it's a company. It's a bran- it's a brand new company. I think it was a Kickstarter. They make these devices that look, uh, they, they're about this big, and I'm holding it, Laura can see it. It's probably, like, four inches by four inches. It looks very Apple-esque: white, and it's got a little light on it. And you sprinkle these around your house, and, essentially, creates a, a like, commercial-level mesh network. Which is, basically, dramatic WiFi coverage all over the house, um, and they all talk to each other, so they- you only put in one SSID. You don't have to put in two for the [crosstalk 00:49:11]

Laura Massey: Oh, really?

Larry Hryb: And it just seamlessly roams. And, here's the cool part, is, it all- talk about app driven, it's all app-driven. So, Laura, I can open up the app there, and I can see the status-

Laura Massey: Oh, you can see your speed?

Larry Hryb: I can see the upload and download speed.

Laura Massey: You're getting a really, really good speed down.

Larry Hryb: Yeah, so, well, I- and then, if you click on the devices, you can see- how many devices do I have connected right now?

Laura Massey: 35.

Larry Hryb: So, I have- see, so you can click, you can click on that, and then you can actually see all the dev-

Laura Massey: You can see all the eeros that you have.

Larry Hryb: And, well, if you click on the 35 devices, you can actually click in and see all the different devices I have on my network. See all the Sonoses?

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: So-

Laura Massey: Wow.

Jeff Rubenstein: You have, literally, six times my internet speed.

Larry Hryb: Yeah.

Laura Massey: Oh my goodness.

Larry Hryb: So-

Laura Massey: You have slow internets.

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Laura Massey: I feel for you. I feel for you.

Larry Hryb: So, anyway, eero is amazing. It's a little pricey-

Laura Massey: Okay.

Larry Hryb: Um, but it is, and put a link to that, Jeff, but it, it solved a lot of, um, network issues.

Laura Massey: Yes.

Larry Hryb: Where, you know, these areas where you don't have it. So, instead of having this really, super-powerful router in one point of your house and trying to (grunts) push it all the way, I don't know how power they are, but I'm just saying, it just covers a more consistent internet, and the beautiful part about it, Laura, is when you, you put one connected to your cable modem, or your DSL modem, and you light it up, and then you start adding other ones, they don't have to be connected wired. They have, like, a special, they call it a backhaul.

Laura Massey: So, it's similar to Sonos, where only one has to be wired.

Larry Hryb: Exactly. Very si- it creates, creates its own mesh network, precisely. And, everything's so fast, and it's, it's been, it's been amazing.

Laura Massey: Oh my gosh.

Larry Hryb: We haven't had any problems at all in the house. And, what's really cool, as you saw, I'm here at the office, and I can see what's going on at home-

Laura Massey: Right.

Larry Hryb: In terms of, "Did my internet go down,"

Laura Massey: Are you connected?

Larry Hryb: "What are my speeds," you know, "who's connected?" You can create a guest network and all that stuff, so.

Laura Massey: That sounds cool.

Larry Hryb: So, it's really kinda cool, and they're, they're actually really active. And they're, like- what's really cool is, they push firmware updates really frequently.

Laura Massey: Oh.

Larry Hryb: So, I woke up one morning, and I got an e-mail saying, "Hey, your eero's been updated, here's all the new features."

Laura Massey: Ah.

Larry Hryb: I was like, "That's cool!"

Laura Massey: Yeah! That's fantastic.

Larry Hryb: So, did it in the overnight. So, anyway, eero is, is kind of awesome. Big fan of them. But, Jeff, I recommend it. But, actually, you may not need it, because-

Jeff Rubenstein: I might not need it, because, I'm, I'm just slightly above dial-up.

Larry Hryb: So you've got, yeah, you've got the Hayes modem option, right?

Jeff Rubenstein: Uh, yes.

Larry Hryb: ATDT?

Jeff Rubenstein: It's, uh-

Larry Hryb: 206?

Jeff Rubenstein: Man.

Larry Hryb: (laughs)

Jeff Rubenstein: I, occasionally, I just go into DOS and I do, like, [inaudible 00:51:21]

Larry Hryb: Why not? Just- I think they had, you know, it's interesting, is, you know, 'cause you were telling me about your, your internet speed, Laura, and I'm pretty sure, based on the conversation we just had, that the International Space Station has better connectivity than you, Jeff.

Laura Massey: Ooh. I bet they do.

Jeff Rubenstein: But, but their ping is horrible.

Laura Massey: (laughs)

Larry Hryb: And they don't have a ceiling fan, I bet. So, anyway. All right, I think we're gonna wrap things up here. I want to thank you, Laura, for coming up, uh, into the office so early into the studio. Jeff, thanks so much for the breakfast, and coming in early-

Laura Massey: Yes.

Jeff Rubenstein: Happy to be here.

Larry Hryb: And, dear listener, thank you for downloading the show, and, uh, there's another chance for you to hop on the, uh, on the Name the Game train, as it were.

Laura Massey: Yup, if you missed it.

Larry Hryb: If you missed it. We'll try to be back next week. I think, you know, I'm going to Vancouver next week.

Laura Massey: Ooh.

Larry Hryb: I got- I need to go up to coalition.

Jeff Rubenstein: Oh.

Larry Hryb: So, I'm going to see Rod and the team up there to see what- [crosstalk 00:52:05] get an update from them. So, I don't know when we're gonna do a show next week. Hopefully, we can do it early. We gotta figure that out. We could barely figure this one out, right? That was a lot of, "Can't do it, can't do it, let's do it, let's do it!"

So, all right, gang. If you have any questions, hit us up on Twitter. You can go over to my blog at majornelson.com. At the very top, you'll see a little podcast link.

Laura Massey: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Larry Hryb: And if you, uh listen to this elsewhere, that'll have all the show notes. Go there, and otherwise, follow me on Twitter @majornelson. You can follow Laura-

Laura Massey: @Lauralollipop.

Larry Hryb: She tweets, pretty much, every hour. And then, Jeff?

Jeff Rubenstein: Rubes- I tr- I tweet every minute.

Larry Hryb: Good for you, every minute, so, yeah.

Jeff Rubenstein: If you, if you, if you're into the European football, I highly recommend you tune in on Saturday mornings. [inaudible 00:52:39] how will the Brexit vote affect the transfer market? I don't know.

Larry Hryb: He- he's very chatty. So, anyway. All right, gang. We'll talk to you next time. Bye-bye, everybody.

Laura Massey: Bye-bye.