SteamWorld, Thirsty Suitors and Building our own Xbox 360

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

[XBOX SOUND]

- Hello and welcome back to the official Xbox Podcast, the only podcast coming to you from inside Xbox. I'm Jeff Rubenstein. I am the guy who beat Lies of P and just has to tell everybody that I ever met within two minutes of meeting them that I beat Lies of P. And I'll get over that eventually.

But you're not here for me. You're here for our guests. And I am very happy that we are back from Thanksgiving with some new guests that, well, have never joined us on the show, Annette Gonzalez Porter. I've known you for a long time. But we got you here on the cheese couch. How you doing?

- I'm doing great, Jeff. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here, just long-time listener, first-time guest. So, yeah, just hype to hang out and talk about games.

- All right, you work on ID at Xbox, specifically the Developer Accelerator program. We'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. But we're coming back from a week off, a week of, for some of us, turkey or at least just not working. Do you have anything good?

- Yeah. So Thanksgiving was just the perfect time to just relax. I, instead of traveling home, which I used to do a ton-- which, home for me is Chicago-- I instead decided to stay put and have a little staycation here in Seattle. So--

- It's a little warmer here.

- It is, just a little bit, definitely darker, but warmer, for sure. So I definitely enjoyed, the time here with my family, played some games, which I know we'll talk about in a little bit. But ultimately, just made sure that we had some good food.

- What'd you-- anything good?

So [CHUCKLES] interestingly enough, so my husband is vegetarian, largely. And so we went the meatless route for our meal, which was I guess a tofurkey. But really, it was a plant-based roast. It is better than it sounds, I got to say. Put some gravy on that thing.

- Do they shape it a turkey?

- It's shaped like a little meatloaf, almost.

- OK, all right.

- But, you know, it's the illusion of eating meat--

- It's the thought that counts.

- --but you're not. And quite frankly, it's probably better for my stomach anyway.

- You're a very supportive spouse.

- I sure am. So, yeah, so we had some of that. And then, of course, sides are where things really shine, so had some wonderful stuffing and green beans. And I tend to like to infuse some of my home culture. So since I didn't get to visit my family, bringing some of that here, so making arroz con gandules, which is one of my favorite rice dishes to make and eat. It was absolutely delicious. And then of course a little holiday treats, which we call coquito.

- Oh, I've had a coquito. Oh, yes. It is wonderful.

- It puts eggnog to shame.

- It really does. It really does. It's just like a--

- What is coquito?

- It's essentially a mixture of every possible milk imaginable, largely coconut milk, which is where you get the really nice textured flavor.

- It sounds like it would kill me.

- It might.

- I'm not a big dairy guy.

- And there are ways?

- Really? You're sitting on the cheese couch here.

- Exactly. You're not safe here.

- Cheese is OK, liquid dairy, a little bit more dangerous.

- Yes, for sure. So definitely be careful, tread carefully, if you do have some.

- It sounds delicious.

- But it is quite good, yes. So put some cinnamon on it.

- Anyone ever offers you a coquito, just say yes, and consequences be damned.

- Don't ask any questions.

- Exactly.

- That's my advice to you.

- Take six lactates. You'll be OK.

- 100%, yeah.

- All right, Josh Stein, I was going to shave. I was at least going to trim the beard this morning. And then I was like, no one's going to notice because we have the bearded one himself, the meme master of Xbox, Josh Stein. Thanks for coming in.

- I'm going to have you intro me on the next monthly gaming update.

- Yes.

[CHUCKLING]

- Thank you. Same with Annette, long-time listener. I started listening to this show when I was in college, Steptoe, E, Larry, obviously--

- Oh, yeah.

- --listening to all those guys just rambling, talk about what was going on, I think 360 era. It was kind of the end of the 360 era, beginning of the Xbox One era, ish. So it's an honor to be here. I'm super excited. Thank you for rolling out the cheese couch just for me.

- Yes.

- I appreciate that. But, yeah, for those who don't know me, I work on the Xbox Social team. Haley Geller just was on the show, which was super awesome to see here over here.

- We're going through the whole team. So if there's anyone that's working on TikTok.

- Megan Decatur next. Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, exactly.

- But I get the honor of working with a lot of really great, talented agencies, and partners, and people, of course, like the ID team. And specifically, I focus a lot more on the hardware side. So any time you see a controller or a console show up on social, that's usually kind of my squad and my pod that works on some of that stuff, and some other fun stuff that we work on, which--

- Very good.

- --we'll talk about.

- How was your Thanksgiving?

- It was great. I don't know about everybody else. This Thanksgiving weekend felt like seven days long. And I don't know if maybe--

- Really?

- --maybe it was just my experience. But at one point, I turned to my wife and I'm like, which Saturday. is it?

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

And she's like, I think it's the third Saturday. I don't-- maybe it's just it getting so dark so soon. I felt like we had, like, 48-hour days. So I think I took, like, 10 naps, which is great. My kids all had a great time. We went to my father-in-law's this year, had, like, eight dogs there. So it was kind of a little bit of chaos. But--

- It sounds like it.

- --it was a lot of fun. He's a great cook. So we had the full rollout, no tofu. But we had the full rollout, the turkey, the cranberry, the sides. And I'm a big-- this is my dad in me. I'm a big mix and mash guy. So I just let everything touch. Let it all become one nice, delic-- yeah, see, so--

- Sweet and savory, separate plates.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- So I made a cranberry relish. But that had its own little bowl. Because if that touches the turkey gravy, it's all going in the trash.

- It's in the trash,

- See, I can respect it. My daughter's the same way. She's really big on that. She's like, dad, nothing can touch. But I'm like, put it all in a sandwich and eat it.

- I was going to say, what is your leftover strategy? You going sandwich? Are you doing wraps? I've seen all kinds of wild stuff out there.

- So I'm a pretty big sammy guy. So I love-- I'll do the sammy route, until I run out of good chunks of turkey. And then I'll switch to more of, like, just put it in a bowl microwave, it, mix it up, and just eat it.

- All right.

[LAUGHTER]

- I'm not picky.

- So you've eaten you're almost food coma. Did y'all pull any games out and start playing?

- Yeah.

- I'm seeing some nods.

- Sure, yeah. So always a good time to play is when you're just at your most relaxed state. So I definitely have a wild backlog of titles to go through. So I was able to chip away at that. So one of the games I got to play was Thirsty Suitors, which launched on Game Pass pretty recently. So this game comes from Outer Loop, a really awesome studio. I think they're just distributed all over the place, super rad team. They've previously worked on a game called Falcon Age, if folks are familiar.

JOSH: Oh, yeah.

ANNETTE: So it's definitely a really cute game. If you look at any part of it, just note that, yes, you can befriend a falcon and also fistbump them, which is amazing.

JEFF: A talon touch.

ANNETTE: Yeah, talon bump--

JOSH: Talon to fist.

ANNETTE: --I guess. So, yeah, so this is of their next big title release. So if you've seen any of the assets and you ask, hey, Annette, what kind of game is this? It's all of them. Yeah.

JEFF: Yeah, it seems like it's a skateboarding game with relationships and then maybe an RPG.

JOSH: Dating sim.

ANNETTE: Yeah, dating sim, cooking sim, skateboarding, a visual novel, in some respects. It's just kind of a little bit of everything.

JOSH: Kind of like the Thanksgiving leftover. I'm like, hey.

- It really Is. It's super relevant.

JEFF: I see what you did there.

[JOSH LAUGHS]

- Exactly. so it's a little bit of everything. So it's like, hey, I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for. It's kind of a really great game for that. And, plus, the story itself is just really heartwarming. So it's centered around a character named Jala, who essentially ends a very bad relationship that brought her away from home. So this is of her homecoming story and kind of trying to pick up where she left off. And where she left off was not a great place, so a lot of just bad relationships left and right, kind of having to confront things, like her strained relationship with her mother, and her parents, and her sister.

JOSH: Oh, wow, a true Thanksgiving replica too.

- Exactly. Exactly. It's perfect and timely for anyone who might just have been visiting home for the first time in a little while.

- Might need to work on some of those personal relationships, yeah.

- Exactly. So that's a lot of the arc of the story, is just you're kind of working toward confronting your past and just kind of just healing all of these different relationships along the way. And part of that is through things like visiting your different relationships, and friends, and family across town through skateboarding.

There are moments where you can actually just have a little bit of fun in a skate park and just do tricks, and grinds, and all kinds of stuff for points and challenges. And then there's also aspects of the game, which is probably the largest component, which is a turn-based battle system, which they've created in a very interesting way. So I think a lot of it is based on quick time events, and then also just banter, and going back and forth with your exes and other opponents, or the Thirsty Suitors that you randomly sort of confront. And they are thirsty, let me say.

[CHUCKLING]

And it's just-- I don't know. There's so much humor, and it's just really fun. They do things, like, can taunt your enemies with just like really snappy remarks. And it kind of puts a status effect on them that can help you just sort of defeat them with all these skills.

- Emotional damage.

[LAUGHTER]

- Yes. it is literally an attack. It says emotional damage.

[LAUGHTER]

Which is incredible.

- Well, that's great.

- And then as you keep going, there are things, like summons, a traditional RPG. But the summons are, like, your family members and some of your exes. So in one instance, you can summon your mom to come in. And she's just in this giant form.

- That is both terrifying, but also could be really in real life.

- Yes. And it is. It smashes your opponent with a shoe. I mean, like, what?

- Amazing.

- It's just quite incredible. So if you've seen any assets for this game, it is just over the top and incredible as it sounds. I had a wonderful time with it. It's emotional. It's fun. There's just a really beautiful story that wraps really nicely. And so I definitely encourage folks to check it out.

- And it's on Game. Pass.

- And it is on Game Pass.

- So go ahead, try it. One of those things had to have resonated with just about anyone. I'm not a skateboard fan, but I love turn-based RPGs and, you know, my mom.

- I love my mom.

- There's a lot of family story there too. And like I said, it's imbued in a lot of culture. And when you're cooking, you're cooking real recipes, and just learning about your family history, and things along those lines. And I think regardless of where you come from, there's definitely something that you can find relatable in these characters and in this story. So definitely check it out.

- Very cool. What about you, Stein?

- Wow, man. I have not been playing family therapy.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

But that sounds great. It actually sounds like I could maybe use a little bit of that.

- A little generational trauma.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a little slice of it with a side of cranberry.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

I've been playing two games, mostly, a little bit of Sea of Stars. But I just dabbled in it. That's been my go-to reset, like a nice warm cup of coffee.

JEFF: That's a game that a lot of people have been talking about as--

JOSH: I don't want to rush it.

JEFF: --as one of their favorite games of the year.

JOSH: I'm enjoying it the year.

JEFF: So this is more of a 16-bit RPG--

JOSH: Correct.

JEFF: --type of situation.

JOSH: Yeah. It feels very reminiscent of the old Zelda games I used to play, that kind of top-down. But I played maybe two or three hours of that. But what I really dived into were two other games, which is Alan Wake II and Diablo IV.

ANNETTE: Mm.

- All right, we are very much-- I've been playing Alan Wake II. Can you tell me approximately where you are, in terms of the-- no spoilers.

- Jeff, I go slow.

- OK, that's fine because so am I. Like, chapter whatever.

- I think I'm chapter 2.

- OK, so I'm maybe--

- No, no, three, three. Because I got the achievement for two. I saw that in my feed. So I'm--

- We're in the same place.

- --I'm in three.

- How are you feeling about this game?

- OK, I made a mistake, though.

- Go on.

- So anyone who's played First Down, kind of knows the setting, the vibe. It's Pacific Northwest.

- Very much, it's this, basically.

- But I should add this. I went to my father-in-law's, who lives in the woods, almost. He's got this little bed and breakfast he turned into a home. He remodeled it, got this old bed and breakfast, basically. But it's got those obnoxiously large Windows facing dark forest everywhere, which I don't know why everyone does that here. But it's creepy as heck.

ANNETTE: It's a vibe. Yeah.

- And so my kids went to bed, or they're all watching TikTok. My wife's gone to bed. My little one's gone to bed. It's probably, 11:00 PM. And I booted that thing up on my father-in-law's TV. And I started to play it. And I kid you not, I maybe made it an hour a night. So I got, like, four, five, six hours in, but I could only play an hour a night. Because that game is absolutely terrifying.

I'm not a tough guy when it comes to scary games anyways. I can do scary movies. Games, because you got to focus, you got to stare. You got to really concentrate look for the batteries, look for the collectibles, look for the clues you need to find. And I was like, ooh, it's a little creepy. I don't know about this.

- But you get the flashes. This game does not shy away from some jump scares.

- No. No, this is why don't play Call of Duty when they do the Halloween stuff and they spook the hell out of you. Nope, hard pass. So I'm a bit of a pansy on the scary games. So, again, I'm chapter 3. But that was tough. So now I'm back home, thankfully. And now I'm like, lights on, blinds open, turn the brightness up.

- That's how you Nerf it, yeah.

- To me, the ultimate nerf is no headphones.

- Same thing. And I keep my-- it's going to be terrible. But, look, I want to play this game. I think it's incredibly well crafted.

JOSH: It's really good.

- But like you, I get too into it. And I have dropped the controller in this game once. I've also done the thing, like, I fire off a shot. I thought I saw something.

[LAUGHTER]

I'm just like, oops, sorry.

- Desk pop, it's a desk pop.

- Yeah, yeah, it happens. Lights on. I've only been playing during daylight hours, which, by the way, in Washington State right now, that means--

- A very limited window. between the hours of, like, 10:00 AM--

- 9:00 AM and 10:00 AM?

[LAUGHTER]

- It's just shy of Iceland daylight. And like said, no headphones. And I keep the volume capped at 15 on my TV.

- Oh.

- So a lot of little creeks, I'm like, I know they're there. I'm like, I'm tuning it out. And I'm just going to rely on visual cues. What I've noticed, as time goes by, I think I feel like I have become a little bit more desensitized. And I'm enjoying the game more.

- It's like exposure therapy.

- I think I am. And then that thing goes [VOCALIZATION]. And then I'm just screaming. And my wife's like, what woman broke into this house and is screeching at the top of her lungs? I was like, it's me. And so it just terrifies me. Because the problem, I was at someone's house, so I had to have headphones. You can't play that thing at, like, midnight, loud. So I'm doing better now, making progress.

But it was just good timing last night. So I missed a Season of the Malfeasance, Season of Malfeasance, and Diablo. It's too much work, too much family stuff. Season of Blood came out. And I was like, all right, I'm going to get my vampire on. Last night, I hit level 100. And I beat--

JEFF: Congrats.

JOSH: --Uber Lilith, all in the same night.

ANNETTE: Wow.

JOSH: Which was like, I was jumping up and down. And my teenager, my daughter, her room's underneath my office. And she texts me at midnight. She's like, dad, I don't know what you're doing, but stop throwing a party. Because I was up there just celebrating. Because this Uber Lilith kicked my butt, like, 100 times. And so I finally beat her.

- I do appreciate a game in which you literally go to hell is like your comedown game off of Alan Wake. Because it's the more chill experience of the two.

- Oh, yeah, give me demons. Give me Lilith. Give me these helly belly-ripping monsters all day long with that top-down view.

- But a ghostly specter in flannel, heck no.

- If it means mine hunter with ghosts, no, I'm out.

- All right, very good, very good. What have I been playing You didn't ask. That's fine. I'll ask myself.

- What have you been playing, Jeff?

- Thank you. There we go. Well, in addition to Alan Wake, which I've been enjoying, after turkey, there's a game that I love, or game series, that is of like the great equalizer. Some of the people we had over are hardcore gamers. Some people-- actually, Tina had dropped by, which was great. I missed you here this week, Tina. The Jackbox games.

And so I found-- there's a lot. There's actually I think Jackbox 10 just came out. And there's a series of different games that are part of those little mini games. I didn't know which one was going to be the right one. And I saw something that was called, like, Jackbox Party Starter. And it was discounted. And I ended up picking it up. And it had three games in it.

It had one that was basically like Quiplash, which is where people just on their phones just type in something funny, and you just match the things together, and have funny answers. One were you design t-shirts, and then you match-- you draw things. The whole thing works on your phone, by the way. So people don't have-- once you start the game, you put the controller down, everyone picks up a phone, they go in through a browser. So everyone feels comfortable on their phone. And it really just levels that playing field. So you're drawing pictures. They look terrible. But then you're matching.

- I mean, there's always one artist in the family, though, who's, like--

- Puts everyone to shame.

- --drawing these insane photos.

- The gulf between what I think I'm going to draw and what actually comes out, couldn't be-- I've gotten significantly worse since second grade.

[ANNETTE CHUCKLES]

My stick figures have-- I'm like, many fingers did I put on it?

[JOSH LAUGHS]

But at the same time, inevitably, you end up with funny stuff. And then there was one that was a trivia murder mystery situation, so traditional trivia. But then if you get a question wrong, you get killed. But then your ghost can keep playing. And your ghost has an ability to impact the game and can still win. So we ended up playing that over, and over, and over again. That one was really fun.

And the good thing about these games is they have a toggle for, oh, there's kids in the room, family-friendly version. Kids go to bed, turn that off and then you can have more, whatever, rated R type of content, or at least PG 13. And so those, I love those games, could not recommend them enough, the Jackbox games. There's so many of them. They're usually affordable. And there's something for everyone to jump into. So that was the particular one I jumped into.

- I love seeing my friends list, every time there's a fam-- like, a Christmas or Thanksgiving. All the games turn to Jackbox, Jackbox, Jackbox, Jackbox. It's a great equalizer of everyone, any age, just jumping in and playing.

- Yeah. I was thinking that maybe we do Overcooked. But I was like, I want to be friends with these people later.

- Exactly.

- And as much as I love Overcooked--

- That's blood. You don't want to mess with that.

- Yeah, yeah, it gets a little bit serious. And if we're not close enough, irreparable damage could take place.

- Absolutely.

- All right, so--

- --in-house violence.

- --that was what-- your plan. I'm actually just curious. We talked about the Developer Acceleration program that you're the program manager of through ID at Xbox. Can you tell us a little bit more about that, Annette?

- Yeah, of course. So you mentioned it's part of ID Xbox. So I think the audience is probably very well aware of ID at Xbox and some of the work we do. But essentially, our teams are focused in supporting developers of all sizes to self-publish their digital games on Xbox.

So this year., In fact, we are celebrating 10 years of ID at Xbox--

- Congrats.

- --which is amazing.

- Literally thousands of games.

- Thousands of games. So, yeah, I think we've welcomed about over 5,000 developers into the program. And over 3,000 games have shipped since its inception, and obviously, some of the most innovative, unique, awesome experiences that we've come to know--

- Those changed lives.

- They've changed lives.

- Imagine how many lives have changed from all those games launch and passions pursuit.

- Absolutely. It's just such an incredible thing and such a very cool thing to be a part of. And in fact, if anyone's interested, there's some really great content on Xbox Wire and Xbox YouTube. I believe Tina worked on a mini documentary around the history of ID at Xbox, which is required viewing if you haven't seen it. So I definitely recommend that.

But, yeah, so I work among a very awesome team of just super rad indie advocates. And we're just huge champions of content and are just constantly working with developers and thinking of ways that we can set them up for success on our platforms, especially as we look at the next 10 years of ID and beyond. What's the kind of work that we're doing to do that? And then also, welcome new voices into the ecosystem.

So that's essentially where the Developer Acceleration program comes in. So ID has just always been a champion and just has this ongoing commitment to just promote and find and nurture awesome, unique titles for Xbox players around the world. And that's the type of work we want to continue doing with things like the Developer Acceleration program, where we're empowering devs specifically from underrepresented communities with resources and information to bring their games to Xbox.

So it's just been a really wonderful journey that actually started back in 2019. So we actually had a small V team, just working on this alongside their own day jobs within ID, to just essentially do the work to identify any barriers to console development and help lower those things with different initiatives, which I'll talk about in a second, to help support these creators and create pathways to bring them on to Xbox.

So some of that includes things like offering funding support. So if a developer has a title that maybe they're working on for Steam or a different platform, we can offer them support and resources to port their game to Xbox as well, which is super rad.

An initiative that we also started most recently is just around prototypes, so kind of talking to developers even earlier in the production process, pre-production even, to just hear about some really cool ideas and work with them very closely to help get these ideas off the ground and see where they land from there.

So those are just two different ways we support from a funding perspective. And then, of course, developers that we do sign into the program, we're very much invested in their success on the platform. And a big part of that, as we've learned from these different teams, is just education. For a lot of these teams, it's their first time maybe developing a game altogether. It's their first time developing for console. So there's just a little more guidance that they're looking for, as maybe they don't have the networks that some of the more established devs have to ask these kinds of questions. And we want to help them along the way.

- I feel like the technology's has changed so much too. It's way more accessible for anyone to pick it up and a one-person army. And granted, I'm sure 10 years ago, one person could've done it as well. There's games like that with those success stories. But the technology's probably changed so much. It's cool to see that we now have programs to match that. So that way, someone as eager enough to jump straight in can also kind learn maybe the biz side, maybe the prototyping side--

- Exactly.

- --maybe how to actually make the game ported over, which is really cool.

- Yeah. And that's exactly the kind of content that we look to support with these webinars that we do, for instance. So that includes topics like, hey, how do I get my game through assert? Any best practices on that? Best practices on marketing. We also have different subject matter experts across Xbox come in and talk about things, like accessibility and best practices to make their games more accessible to more people. So we've had leads from our first party studios come and do that work that shared the work they've done on our own projects, which has been really, really insightful for teams and super beneficial.

So it's just been absolutely wonderful to do this. I mean, I think just this year, as we're kind of approaching the end of the year thinking what's next, it's just been a really great time for reflection on how things have been going and where we can go from here.

We announced the program officially, publicly, at the Game Developers Conference earlier in March. And we're ultimately just super pumped to see kind of where we go from here. So we've had over 100 partners in the program. We've had over 40 games shipped. A couple are nominated for game awards, even.

JOSH: That's amazing.

ANNETTE: So we have Space For the Unbound, a super rad game that covers topics like mental health, space in Indonesia, very cool, super cool. Check it out. Venba, by Visai Games, which is a--

JEFF: That was a great game, another cooking game.

ANNETTE: Yeah, which is also rooted in culture and just telling a beautiful story. So we have something called an Emerging Creators Collection on the store. So you can check some of the games in the program out. And, yeah.

JEFF: And that's what it's all about, Is it-- some of this might've seemed a little inside baseball for people that are like, I just play games. But this, at the end of the day, means more games for you to play and experience.

- Exactly. Yeah, exactly. I mean, a big part of this, there's just a giant sign even as you walk in here, that says, we want to bring the joy of gaming and community to everyone on the planet. And part of doing that is delivering content that's reflective of all of the different lived experiences and life that happens around the world. And this program helps enable us delivering more content like that to help expand to more players. So we really hope you check those out, if you're interested in more titles for your backlog. There you go.

- It's a good time, I think, with all the huge like AAA games that have come out this year. I'm definitely focusing, here in December, once I finish Alan Wake-- there's a lot of smaller games, we'll talk about some of them, I think, a little bit later on-- that I want to play, and actually, and Thirsty Suitors as well, which is--

- They've sold me on Thirsty Suitors.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

- It's so much fun.

- Went to therapy, check. (LAUGHING) Yeah, exactly.

- So, Stein, I know you as the meme master. I know you as-- I have a question about Xbox Social. I generally come to you. Although, it is a huge team of really cool people that work on lots of stuff, not just Twitter, but TikTok, and Instagram, and everywhere else. What are you up to, man?

- Yeah. So we're not quite changing lives, which I appreciate

- Yes, you are.

- It's really exciting to see the ID at Xbox team grow and work on some of those programs. But we got to hype our fans up. We've got to talk to our community, both, I mean, press, content creators. My favorite thing about the Xbox Social team is we create culture, is how we feel and how we kind of approach it. And so we get to do that through many, many, many projects.

I, as you said, work on a big team, which I'm thankful for. I think a lot of social media managers can empathize. Sometimes they are the writer, the asset creator, the scheduler, the approver. And they're chasing all that stuff. Thankfully, we have a good team that we're rounded out about.

But we do a lot of fun things. So recently, we had this big Power Your Dreams campaign that launched. We had this really cool trailer, where this lady's, like, walking and she's breaking the fourth wall between all these worlds of, like Cyberpunk and Starfield.

Part of that, though, is we also ideate, like, how do we extend that to other platforms? Because it's a cool trailer. It's going to go everywhere. I think you see it when you go to the Marvel's movie, which is really cool, so roles before some of that stuff.

But we think about other platforms. TikTok was one of those ones where we have a ton of new fans, especially younger fans. How do we engage them? How do we talk to them? And so we partner with TikTok to do this On In 5 program, which is really cool, which is basically, we've all seen it. When we're playing video games, your friend messages you and says, I'll be on in 5.

And you're either the person waiting or you're the person who's 5 is really, like, it could be 50 minutes. It could be 5 minutes. Some people are quick. I'm probably more of a 15-minuter when I say on in 5. So my buddy Ethan, which will be like, all right, come on, are you getting on? Are we playing tonight? I played two rounds without you, man. You just got to get your snacks ready. Got to get your drinks ready. Use the restroom. Make sure everyone's tucked in.

But we did On In 5 challenge, which is basically where we just challenge TikTok, what happens in that on in 5 magic moment? What was really cool is we did this internationally. So we did this across five different regions, all spread out. And it was cool to see the cultural differences of what people in Mexico would do and what they're on in 5 is. Germany had a whole other aspect and view of It was a little bit more of, like, be ready in five. Versus over here, it was like-- or, I'll be back in five. And over in Mexico, it was more like, OK, hold on, let me get this thing done and then I'll be on in 5.

So it was really cool. The great thing, what I loved about it, is we activated so many different cultures and communities. So not only regional, but we had beauty TikTokers in there creating content. We had design artists, who were drawing cartoons and animating through the different things. We had sketch comedy content creators doing these little comedy skits.

We had grandmas, moms, aunts, uncles, grandpas. So we also had this multigenerational view. My favorite were these two ladies, probably grandmother age. They look like grandmas. And they were twins. And they did a little cute on in 5 together. And so I never would have thought of that, never would have reached them, I don't think, organically. But through this program, we were able to do that. So a big shout out to TikTok. They were a great partner with it.

But that's an example of how we can bring things to life outside of just this cool marketing trailer and these bus routes we're going to do, which are our epic, expensive, and cool. But how do we bring those to life a little bit more organically? You saw some of that. I think we share-- or, 0 was in the pod right behind you. But we did the Vegas sphere.

JEFF: Yeah. Yeah, which is exciting.

JOSH: Which is another moment of, our big marketing team is going to go do something. How do we show up on social? It's a really big question to a lot of things we do, both in games marketing, in console marketing, controller marketing, kind of campaign marketing. So the sphere was one of the biggest things. And that was a fun meeting pitch to see. Because it was very much like a did we get it? Did we get it? Did we book it? OK, we booked it. OK, when's it happening?

- We were in the wheel. And it was like, It's supposed to go now, right? And then it did. And it was great.

- It did, yeah.

- But we were halfway up. So it was--

- There was a good five minutes of, like, is this going to work? Is it the biggest half dome-- or biggest domed, I guess, screen in the world. I don't know how-- which is surreal. And I will say, the pictures make it look like it's photoshopped into the city. So does IRL. Like just being there in person, does not look real.

JEFF: It is a crazy-- you see it flying into Vegas. And you can't miss it.

ANNETTE: It's wild.

JEFF: I know with the F1 weekend a couple of weeks ago, it got so many looks. But it's such a-- it feels like the future that it's there.

JOSH: I still feel like when I was landing, someone, like, drew it on there and was messing with my vision. But it's pretty cool to see. I'm excited to see what other screens and what other things like, people create. As a marketer, I mean, you just look at those things and you're like, oh, this is really cool. How can we kind of do some fun stuff with that?

- I'll put you on. the hot seat. Because you got to look through hundreds of-- probably maybe thousands of submissions for On In 5. Is there anyone where you're like, you discovered a TikToker and you're like, I love what they're doing here, that folks should check out?

- Ooh.

- I did say the hot seat.

- Yeah, that is great-- the cheese seat.

- Hot cheese.

- I don't know her handle. I'll have to look it up. But there was one content creator I thought was really great. She was a cozy content creator.

JEFF: Ah.

- And I've seen enough crazy ones.

JEFF: A lot of cozy--

- Yeah, seen a lot of them. But she had this really cool flair on it, where she almost made a mini action movie. But it was the coziest thing I'd ever seen. So it was like this Bruce Willis epic Die Hard 5-minute action film. But she was completely a cozy wrapped in a blanket kind of content creator. So it was the most casual action movie I'd ever seen. I'll have to send you the clip. It was really cool. And her name's slipping me right now. But I'll have to send it to you.

- Oh, if we can put it up there, we will do that.

- That was one of the most unexpected TikToks I ever-- but again, the grandmas, the twins, that was really cool. It was just--

- Shout out to Tactical Grandma who's also a great grandma TikToker.

- Yeah, a good type of grandma. That's probably my favorite part of the job. We do these fun things, like On in 5, Power Your Dreams, turn on the sphere, make it look great all over social media. But we get to listen to community. We get to see what they want, what they kind of talk about. It's also great to know-- sometimes you ping me. Hey, are 100 people talking about this or 100,000 people talking about this? I can't tell. Because the algorithms are very tailored to make you fit in your little social bubble.

And if you click on one thing and then you've clicked on another tweet to be as someone who's looking at what content creators do, what are press doing, the algorithm will put you in that bubble. And then suddenly, you see 100,000 of those, you feel like. So it's kind of nice to be a bit of a barometer check. How good is this? How is this thing resonating? What are people really saying? Oh, it's 10 people posting 1,000 times. Oh it's 1,000 people posting 10 times. So it's kind of nice to be able to measure and weigh that and see where things are resonating.

And then the fun part is when the feedback goes all the way through the loop, and then something changes, or a piece of feedback gets implemented. So we've seen little instances of that kind of happen across our ecosystem.

- I really appreciate the attention to data that the team has, as some of-- of the folks don't realize how much work that there is--

- Yeah. I think it's more of an art than a science. Because there's a science to it. Is it 100 people or is it 100,000 people? But there's also an art to it. Because it's all tools based and people based. And someone might-- you might look at something. Wolfenstein's a great example. you'll do a social little listening dashboard. You'll go into these tools. I'm getting a little bit down in the deep there.

But you'll listen to it. And you'll be like, oh, the sentiment's, like, 90% negative. What the hell? Well, you click into it, and it's because the words they're using are very excited, mature words. And the system and tool might be like, oh, no, we're like 98% positive. People are loving this Wolfenstein thing. Doom's another great one, a lot of colorful language in expression of screenshots and clips and as everyone talks. And so sometimes you got to be able to art that and science it. So that way, you know, OK, how are people really feeling about it?

- But at the end of the day, people want games. And I am--

- They do. They do.

- And so let's talk a little bit about what's out, what people can play this week. And in fact, I actually just got a mail with the update for Game Pass for December. There's actually some really great stuff here.

- Hot of the press.

- So Why don't we-- why don't we just talk about what people are going to be able to play this week, available day one with Game Pass. SteamWorld Build. If the name SteamWorld is familiar, because there's been a number of SteamWorld games that have hit Xbox over the past few years. SteamWorld Build, though, is a day one Game Pass game. This one seems really very much up my alley, great review. I was reading on IGN this morning.

It's a city builder. But there's also some RTS elements that are happening underground. So I heard sort of on the more simplified easy to dip in and out to. And you can play through an entire map seven to eight hours.

So there are games that are city builders where you can play forever and ever and ever. I think City Skyline, City Skylines 2--

JOSH: But it's western, right?

JEFF: --are some of those games. But this is more of a western--

JOSH: Oh, you got me.

JEFF: --more animated.

JOSH: I'm in.

JEFF: You're playing with robots, who apparently I was told they sound like if Swedish people were in the Old West, but it works. And actually, Old West probably did-- I've lived in a Swedish neighborhood. And I live as far west as you can go.

- There you go.

- So maybe not as out of place as you would think. Granted, minimal amounts of robots in my neighborhood. But we'll give it time.

[LAUGHTER]

Another game that is out day one with Game Pass, Rollerdrome. This was a game you know quite a bit about, Annette.

ANNETTE: Yes. I've been super excited about Rollerdrome and very happy to see it coming to Game Pass. So in this title, I guess corporations have taken over. And the public is being kept busy and distracted with a shiny new blood sports. So it is quite intense. Don't let the very cool sort of--

JOSH: It's got a great art style.

ANNETTE: --yeah, exactly, art style, stylish fool you. There's a lot going on in this title. So I have played a little bit in the past. And essentially, I mean, you're basically skating in an arena trying to battle your opponents while you're shooting guns. You're skating, you're shooting, you're collecting objects. You're doing really sick tricks and moves.

JOSH: It sounds like an 80s Schwarzenegger film.

- It's, I think, based, or at least close to being based, on a '70s film called Rollerball, which has a very similar--

- It sounds-- I think I might've seen that as a really small kid. And it seemed intense.

- It's intense.

- I was not ready for the future at age six.

- Yeah. So this is also-- if you're not ready for the future, I don't know, you might want to tread carefully. Got a 2030 here.

- I don't know if I'll make it to lunch.

- But, yes, it is very cool. It just kind of takes a little bit to get the hang of it. Once you do, you just kind of hit a very nice flow state and you're just wrecking fools as you're going through the arena and trying to unlock new stuff.

So there's a campaign that you can play through. And then there's also a ton of challenges. So similar to Tony Hawk, you can kind of go back, revisit some of the arenas, try to improve your scores, make sure you go through collectibles, do tricks, and stuff like that.

- All right, so that is Rollerdrome, available now on Game Pass. Also, so this is a game that was available on PC Game Pass previously. But now Dune Spice Wars is also available for console and cloud players. This is game, it's what we call a 4X real time strategy game. Those are games where you're basically researching. You're generating resources. You're building. And you're advancing.

So the most famous 4X game I think of all time is probably Civilization. That was a turn-based one, so I think 4X, but real time. There's actually tons and tons of 4X games out there these days, quite a few in PC Game Pass. But it's always nice when some of these also hit console. And Dune Spice wars has also done that.

I also wanted to call out one other game, before we get into the next Game Pass games, but another game that is out this week, which definitely caught my eye, and there's actually quite a few games hitting this week, Motesolo: No Girlfriend Since Birth. So this is a full motion video game. They're actually making quite a few full motion video games that had a bit of a renaissance in the last couple of years. In fact, one of the Game of the Year nominees last year, I want to say, or Best Narrative, Best Performance, was a full motion video game that-- my memory's escaping me. It also was in Game Pass at one point.

But anyway, so this is about a game where a man who, in his 30 years, he's never been in a relationship. And it basically, it puts you in a K Drama of some sort.

- Oh.

- So I don't know if y'all have watched any K-dramas. OK.

ANNETTE: Yeah, my mother-in-law loves K-dramas. Every time she visits, our algorithm just completely flips into just a bunch of everything.

- The whole Netflix--

- Yeah, yeah, there are a lot of Korean dramas on Netflix. I've seen quite a few of them. And I think this might be one that my wife might be into playing alongside with me or alongside her.

- They look like quite an interesting-- I've never watched one, but I've seen the clips on social, like roll by or the reaction clips.

- There's all different kinds. There's ones that involve zombies. And there's ones that are sweet romcom situations, and kind of everything in between.

- Because the ones I see, it's a sports drama. They're a tough and rough basketball team.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

But they've got interpersonal drama relationships.

- If I can recommend one, it would be Vagabond, which was sort of an International thriller, in a way. They're all 16 episodes, for some rea-- There's certain-- I don't know tropes is the right word-- but themes or patterns you see and stuff. And it feels like in episode 15, the main character dies every time.

- Ah.

- But then they're not really dead, usually--

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

--usually.

- They have a Hitman after-credit scene.

[LAUGHTER]

- Yeah. Essentially, the final episode is the after-credit scene, I think, in a lot of these. So anyway, that's called Motesolo No Girlfriend Since Birth. It sounds interesting. It's one I'm hoping to take a chance at.

- I will check that out.

- So here, I'm going to read off my laptop here because coming soon to Game Pass, this is something that you could be able to check out on Xbox Wire now. It should be going up like right now. Far Cry 6, Remnant II, and more are coming to Game Pass, so available now. It's sort of a co-op Souls-like shooter, I guess. Is that the best way to describe this game? Yes.

JOSH: I'd say Souls-like shooter. There's a lot of dodging, a lot of rolling, played best with friends, I think. It's quite a good squad fun game.

JEFF: Yeah. This is a game you're going to-- I would say the same thing about a lot of Souls-like games, where you can bring someone in to help.

JOSH: I just need someone to pick me up.

JEFF: Yes, exactly. Also, so this will be coming soon. So I believe tomorrow is Spirit of the North. This is a cool game inspired by stories in Iceland, where you are a guardian of the northern lights solving environmental puzzles. This one looks cute. I believe it is-- there's a fox and a deer.

ANNETTE: I do recall there being some cute animals.

JEFF: Yes, exactly. So that's coming to Game Pass. Obviously, we talked about SteamWorld Build. Rise of the Tomb Raider, so out of like the modern Tomb Raider games, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, this one was probably my personal favorite. So that's coming December 5th to Cloud Console and PC.

There's a game called While the Iron's Hot. The story's hot. We just got it in, so we're figuring it out. Goat Simulator 3, this was my kid's favorite. She loves the Goat simulator game. So December 7th.

JOSH: It's a big hit with my kids too as well. Even my five year old loves to just run around as a goat and just absolutely just nail people.

ANNETTE: Who doesn't?

JEFF: It's just mayhem. Right?

ANNETTE: Yeah.

JEFF: It's a sandbox game where you're a goat and you can just do all kinds of weird stuff, and get challenges, and just have fun. So obviously, fun enough and popular enough that there is a third version of that.

Far Cry 6, coming December 14th to Cloud Console and PC. Let's see, Against the Storm, coming to PC. Tin Hearts coming to Cloud Console and PC. So quite a lot of stuff. Go ahead and please-- Oh, actually, some games coming to Game Pass Core. So that is sort of the entry level version of Game Pass, where it does not have the library that is constantly changing. And you don't get the day one games quite as often.

But some new games coming into the Game Pass Core library, Chivalry 2 and Totally Reliable Delivery Service. That was another one that was really popular.

JOSH: I would highly recommend Chivalry 2. That is a great game with some frie-- just get with some friends on a Friday night. That's a good wind down game.

ANNETTE: Oh.

JOSH: The physics are ridiculous. It looks very Age of Empiresey, like, what am I getting into? But it's hilarious. Because literally, you just flail. You just get some two-handed sword or ax and you flail. But you basically live out your Braveheart fantasies--

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

--where you literally charge and you mash X to scream. And you're like, ah! And you're wailing. And you literally charge a castle. And it's like, first step, put the ramparts on. Second step, take out the trebuchets. Second part is, like, breach the gate. And the third part, defeat the king

JEFF: Fourth is freedom.

JOSH: But you literally just smash.

ANNETTE: And learn what trebuchet is.

JOSH: Yeah. We played with a new--

JEFF: We've got a game for you for that.

ANNETTE: Exactly [LAUGHS]

JOSH: Yeah. This is a good rotation with me and my buddies, actually. We keep this one in there, just because it's literally just a-- it's hilarious. And we love bringing in New people because they're like, oh, man, I'm just dying and dying. And I was like, no, that's the point of the game. And I would just say there's some funny moments there, where literally, you'll get your arm lopped off. And your health is declining.

[LAUGHTER]

JEFF: One might say.

JOSH: Because you're going to bleed out and die. But before you do that, you can swing around--

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

--and you have a few min-- and it's so satisfying to take out the guy you were 1v1-ing here a little bit. And then like 30 guys just smash into you and keep rolling on. There's a lot of really great hilarious moments in that.

- So Chivalry 2, it seems like--

- It's really fun.

- We have a fan One last bit of news we want to touch on is an update to the Xbox app. There's a major update, which basically introduces compact mode to make navigation easier on handheld PCs, like the ASUS ROG Ally or the ASUS Roger Ally, as someone I know [CHUCKLES] calls it.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

And the Lenovo Legion Go. Yeah, it's Lucy James, calls it the Roger Ally.

- Of course she would.

- Sort of a shorthand for that. About the Lenovo Legion Go, actually, this is a brand new handheld. And I happen to have it here.

- Speaking of.

- Which I would love to show if off to you.

- Just careful.

- All right. Thank you. Thank you. So I'm a big fan. I've been using my ASUS Roger Ally--

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

--for the last six months. I picked it up in June when it first came out. And this Lenovo Legion Go, I will say, in a number of ways, presses the sort of handheld gaming PC forward. So I will take it out here. First of all, it comes with a case--

- Oh, that's cool.

- --which is really nice. And so I'll go ahead and I'll turn it on here. As you can see, it's a pretty--

- It is a large screen.

- Wow.

- It is a large screen. It's 8.8 inches. And--

- A little bit RGB on the sticks there.

- Ah.

- Yes, you've got a little bit of that RG-- so here it is. I just loaded it up. It wakes up right away from sort of sleep mode. These sticks actually come off, which I'll show you in a second. But you can basically-- a lot of the games we talked about, I went and I downloaded here. Sea of Stars. I'll just-- I'm going to bring up Cocoon because I know I've got that one.

ANNETTE: Oh, Cocoon is so good.

JOSH: It's a great game

- It's loading up real fast. And--

JOSH: Some games really just sing on handheld, but--

JEFF: Yes. And this is one of those games which I think is just perfect. Look at the size of that screen. We're zoomed out. We're zooming in here. And it is beautiful and smooth. And I think for games like this, is where it really excels. This screen is super bright. It's got high resolution. I want to say it's like-- well, I'll bring it up here in a second. But I think it's like--

JOSH: The fact that we can zoom in and it still looks crispy.

- It's well above 1080.

- Also, considering all the lights shining on it in this room, I can still see it very clearly from this angle. Wow.

- And so out of all the handhelds, like the Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, there's a couple of-- which I personally have never gotten a handle. But this screen, 8.8 inches, 144hz refresh rate.

- Wow.

- Wow.

- Obviously, you have to sort of balance our resolution--

- Ooh, there's a nice little rumble.

--and frame rate, depending on the game. But a game like Cocoon is running at 60 fps and looks really good. I also have Thirsty Suitors. And the game I've probably played the most on here is Persona 5 Tactica--

- Oh, what a great game for that.

- --which just right out of the box, ran exceptionally well. So actually, so the resolution on that is 2560 by 1,600.

- Oh, wow.

- Wow.

- It's also a touch screen. But where this really excels-- and I will ask for it back here in a second-- If you flip it around on the back--

- No, we're keeping it now.

- Well, that's fine.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

I'm sure that-- ah, see there's a kickstand.

- Oh.

- Oh.

- And it works exceptionally well in tabletop mode. So there's actually more than that.

- Oh.

- You can take the controllers off. Go ahead and snap them off. There's a button on the bottom. And you can just sort of-- it doesn't slide out like a switch. You could just sort of detach. So if you hit the bottom button. Do one at a time here.

- Yeah, yeah. Is it this button?

- Oh, I see.

- Yeah. And then you can just sort of pop it off.

- I'm so afraid to break it.

- Don't worry about it. There you go.

- Oh!

- Oh.

- OK, so--

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

--what you can do-- and this is where I think it excels compared to some of the other handhelds-- is you put that kickstand out and you can rest it on a table and you can play with it where you're holding hands, holding the controller in your hand.

- Bam.

- Now, hand me that right stick. This right stick slots into this little sort of plastic dock. And it turns into a mouse. And you can actually-

- Stop.

- --move it around, like this. And I downloaded-- I was playing Doom, like original Doom on this.

[JOSH LAUGHS]

And it was perfect. So you flip it around. You hold it like this. There's buttons that are on the side that are sort of right and left click. There's a scroll wheel on here. So I thought that was the most innovative feature here.

- Man, that's cool.

- That's really cool.

- Obviously, you play for a game. It's best for, I would say, we talked about RTS, a 4X game. You can go ahead and you can click around in a 4X game with this, and then hold the left stick, and hit other options and other functions there. It worked great for a shooter. So I thought that was one of the most interesting elements you can do.

And then there's even a spot, it's like magnetic. It actually fits in here magnetized.

- (WHISPERING) That's so cool.

- They thought of everything.

- It's really thoughtful, yeah.

- So this is the Lenovo Legion Go, it's out now.

- I'm waiting for you to transform it again and be like, [VOCALIZATION]

- No. And now it's a car.

[JOSH LAUGHS]

And then that just--

- And then it drive you to work.

- --snaps right back on there. One of the things we've been doing for the past couple of weeks-- and we're still feeling our way through it-- is bringing back Free Code Friday. We just love to give out codes. And we've been asking the--

- Free games.

- Mm-hmm.

- Free games, right? And so we give out-- we give the question here. And then what we'll do is at noon Pacific on Friday is tune on over to the Xbox Wire Twitter account. That is twitter.com/xboxwire.

- Yes, I know you're going to call it X I'm here with the social guy. And we will say, if you got the answer to this question, go ahead and plop it in here. We'll keep that open for about two hours or so. And then we randomly draw winners. The question, of course, is asked here on Thursday.

So with that, we were talking a little bit. We're in a cozy-- cozy vibe and comfort food. We're coming off a big comfort food week. There are things called comfort food games. What is the game that you go back to whenever you just-- you're in a place where you just need to center yourself.

For me, just to get you kicked off, it's Tetris. And right now, Tetris Effect Connected. I've been playing Tetris since I was, like, eight years old, maybe younger. I think it's the greatest pure game of all time. By the way, watch the Tetris movie on Apple TV. That was super good and a really good song, actually, that came out of that. So just to bring it all around to the K-dramas.

But, yeah, Tetris Effect Connected is a game I can just sit down at any time and I and I feel like at home and I feel good. Annette, do you have one of those comfort food games.

- I do. That is also a very excellent game. I quite love that. Mine will have to be Vampire Survivors.

JEFF: Ah, yeah.

ANNETTE: So it's just something that I can reliably go back to, just zone out, just go through each of the different levels, and ultimately get smashed by the end of it. But there's no hard feelings. Just keep going, keep trying, keep leveling up.

- Excellent choice. Mr. Stein.

- It's a great choice. It's not quite calming, but it it feels like home. It's Halo. I just love just loading up, Slayer, big team battle, CTF, just playing a few rounds. nothing-- I'm not going to go 40 rounds deep, go into anything crazy. But it's just kind of nice to boot it up. Again, it feels like home, get a few matches in, get a few kills, be like, yeah, I still got it. I'm not that bad. And they get my butt handed to me a few times.

[ANNETTE LAUGHS]

I'll be like, all right, homes enough, [LAUGHS] and then go back to something else.

- All right, so that is your question of the week. What is your comfort food game? What's that game that you always find yourself going back to? It can be on Xbox. It doesn't have to be. It can be on anything. Again, head over to Xbox Wire's Twitter account, twitter.com/xboxwire, noon Pacific on Friday. That is 3:00 PM Eastern. It is 8:00 PM GMT. You can look up the rest if you live in some other time zone.

And just answer the question. You'll see a Tweet. Reply to that. You have to be following. And we will randomly draw winners. And you'll find out by the end of the day, our time, if you have won the games. What are they going to be the games? I don't know yet, because we're pre-taping this. But you'll see it in the Tweet.

- It's a surprise.

- So something that was very comforting to me over the week, I wanted to take some time away from the screen a little bit. And this is something I showed off like in the second episode, I want to say, when we came back, was this Mega Blocks Xbox 360.

- These were hot on social.

- Oh, my God.

- Everyone was like--

- And they flew off the shelves.

- And they very quickly sole out. But I got good news. They are back in stock. And I wanted to show you what it looks like. Because I actually finished this over the break. So that first day when we showed it, I went home and I tried it out. And I built this lovely scale model controller.

JOSH: Aw, look at that

ANNETTE: It's so cute.

- It is adorable. But the thing that I love about these is there's these sort of light up elements everywhere.

ANNETTE: Oh.

- So if you can see it, when you press the button, it actually does light up. And there's a lot of those elements. But there's a lot of clever touches. Because the light actually is in-- if you remember there was the little battery pack in the back of a 360 controller. This comes off. And this is where the light element is located. So I thought that was just so clever.

All right, so I went and I built the controller. And the controller had been sitting there on-- our living room for some time. And my wife was like, are we going to finish building this? So, yes, I did, over the break. I finished building this 360.

ANNETTE: Oh.

- And it's over 1,000 pieces. And you would be like, wow.

ANNETTE: Wow.

JOSH: That's got the ports and everything.

- It's got--

ANNETTE: That's incredible.

- --everything. Again, light up elements there. There's the power button. And you would think, how long does it take to build a box? But you actually build all the interior. So I'm actually going to carefully take this apart so you can just see some of it.

ANNETTE: Nothing is hollow here, it looks like.

JEFF: No, no. You're literally building the motherboard out. And so this comes off.

ANNETTE: Wow.

JEFF: And then--

JOSH: Well, that's cool.

JEFF: I've never taken apart my 360. And I'm not about to. But there's all kind-- actually, you start from the motherboard. And there's all kinds of light up elements, which probably are not in your real 360. But a little Xbox--

JOSH: See, as a kid, when I had a 360, this is what I envisions the inside looked like.

JEFF: You imagined. Did you imagine that there's a little Cortana inside. Because there's also a-- and I might have moved it. There we go. A light up Cortana inside.

JOSH: Oh.

ANNETTE: Oh, my gosh. Look how.

JOSH: I would've absolutely believed that if you told me that.

JEFF: There's, like, a heat sink here. Anyway, little fans. This was so much fun to put together. I put it together while we were watching that sort of Squid Game game show that's on right now.

ANNETTE: Oh, yeah.

- Which is like oddly-- and I just had this, and that on in the background. And so I highly recommend this. So this is the Mega Blocks 360. If you've put together a complicated LEGO build or something before, you're going to be right at home here. So this took a few hours. But it was just incredibly relaxing--

- Oh, yeah.

- --to be able to do something like this. And so it was sold out, but it is available again at target.com here in the States. And if you just look up Mega Blocks Xbox 360. Even the hard drive, remember the removable--

ANNETTE: I was going to ask does it come off?

JEFF: --20 gig hard drive. Oh, yeah. Well, I--

ANNETTE: Sort of. a little too hard. But

[LAUGHTER]

JEFF: But it does it does come off. It does slip off.

JOSH: Well, even the detail, like the HDD hard drive always had that glossy texture to it. And they have that glossy texture.

JEFF: There's so many little touches here. And as complicated as it was to put this together, it's literally hundreds of steps. It made me wonder, like, wow, how hard would it have been to put together the real 360.

ANNETTE: You need to get one of the hardware guys on to just walk you through it.

JEFF: Oh, my God. Yes, here we go. There we go. That comes right off.

JOSH: There we go, yeah. Have Jason Ronald deconstruct it.

JEFF: Jason Ronald, he has to have one of these, if now, I'll have to give--

ANNETTE: It comes with a little game case. Is that what I'm seeing too?

- Oh, yes. So it comes with-- and you put it together a little--

- Aw.

- --Halo 3 kit.

- It's adorable.

- And this opens up. And there's even a little--

- There's a little disc--

ANNETTE: Ah!

JOSH: Look at that.

ANNETTE: It's so cute.

- Adorable. And then, oh, actually, there was the capper. I don't know if I brought-- I did bring it at the end. You put together a little achievement.

JOSH: Unlocked.

ANNETTE: Aw.

JEFF: A little achievement unlocked, build an Xbox-- 75 gamerscore. So I've worked a lot harder for less.

JOSH: Yeah, yeah. I'm glad they didn't do a one or a two.

JEFF: And you know what, you want to keep these round numbers.

[LAUGHTER]

- All right.

- That's great.

- So, yeah, that's what I had fun with. So I'll hand this over to you. You got to hit some of these buttons.

- I'll be very careful.

- But that is all we've got here for this week's episode of The Official Xbox Podcast. I want to thank you so much for joining us. If you're watching us on youtube.com/xbox, we are also in audio form on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Spotify, we actually also have video. Just search for The Official Xbox Podcast. If you happen to be listening to us, then you can find us on youtube.com/xbox. Annette Gonzalez Porter, Josh Stein, so glad for you to join us here on the cheese couch this week.

- Thanks for having us.

- We hope to see you back again.

- Thank you.

- We hope to see you again when we're back next week.

[XBOX SOUND]