405: Xbox Goes To Japan And Game Pass Rumors

Morgan (Baundiesel) (0:20)

Welcome to the Baunfire Gaming Podcast. I'm your host Morgan, aka Baundiesel. This is episode 405, and this week we'll be talking about Xbox's Japan Game Show Surprise, the power of Xbox Rumors, the Division 2 DLC news, and much more. Be sure to subscribe to the show on your favorite podcast app, leave a review on Spotify or iTunes, and subscribe to the Baundiesel YouTube channel to get all of my videos including this podcast. I'm gonna interrupt this intro. As a reminder, please, please rate the show on Spotify and iTunes. On iTunes, leave a review if you want. I haven't gotten one in a while. If it's nice, that'd be pretty dope. It does help me get more, you know, listens and stuff on the show, and we bring more people in, and that's always a good thing.

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Hey, we're going to jump into it. Just as a disclaimer, probably kind of a shorter show this week. There wasn't any huge gigantic news, and I'm recording earlier on Friday than I typically do. So if anything happens this afternoon, we'll cover it next week or I can make a video. We'll see. Well, let's talk about the Xbox Japan Game Show.

There was a handful of things they announced at this thing. They've definitely been trying to improve their appearance, and their interaction in Japan where while Xbox is well behind PlayStation, especially in console sales and stuff like that in general, this generation, what it looks like it's probably like three to one in the overall and in the world, maybe even getting close to the four to one. We'll see. I'm pretty sure that it's like PlayStation to Xbox. It's like six to one in Japan. It's a big difference. I remember at one point when console sales were being reported more accurately when companies were actually releasing numbers, there would literally be weeks, or I think it was weeks, where they would sell like 50 Xboxes in Japan. Like it's just, you know, obviously not a strong market for them, that one that's heavily dominated by Nintendo and PlayStation. So them doing this, they've been doing it for a while. And I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing for them, even if it's not going to change the tide today. You know, these companies play on 10 years ahead. So that's what they're going for. There are a handful of game announcements that I have no connection to. I would be kind of weird to even talk about them because I've never heard of these games. I kind of don't care about them. And this is my show. So I talk about the things I care about, or more so the things I think matter to like a bigger general audience. One of those things would be that Kojima made a surprise appearance at the Xbox Japan Game Show this week.

I mean, surprise, like right, like, I mean, I don't think he's been the one before, so I guess it is surprising in that way. And obviously, this is more interesting after the recent announcement of his, not next game, but the game after the next game, Fizent, which is supposed to be kind of a spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid, being now under Xbox and being supported by Xbox and presumably being an Xbox exclusive, at least for a time.

Yeah, and it's notable that his next game is OD, which is supposed to be this, like, thriller horror game that was always meant to be an Xbox exclusive and a partnership with them. I mean, this was cool, like, it was interesting. There wasn't really a ton that came out of it. There is, like, a four-minute video out there. Where Kojima is giving some really vague kind of broad details and some insight into what's going on with OD and Fiznt. OD, they have some clips of doing some performance capture with a couple of the, you know, fairly high-profile actors and actresses that are going to be in that game. Hunter Schaeffer, I believe, is kind of one of the more notable ones for OD.

And that looks cool, you know, kind of doing his I wish I could make movies, but I make games instead thing. OD, I don't have a ton of interest. I think if I'm being completely honest, I can acknowledge that I haven't really been super interested in what Kojima's had going on since like Metal Gear Solid V. And even that game kind of left a sour taste in my mouth because it like isn't finished. Like it's not done. They didn't, you know, finish it essentially. And that's obviously not completely Kojima's fault. They had all the drama with him and Konami. And, you know, that fell apart back in the day when that game came out. But for me, like Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2, just I don't, I can't get into it. I played Death Stranding 1 a little bit.