DF Direct Weekly #254: Xbox Project Helix, Sony Exiting PC? Starfield PS5, Crimson Desert Console!

Hi there and a warm welcome of sorts to this digital foundry direct weekly number well 254. This is our show discussing the latest gaming and technology news. Let's get straight to introducing the panel. Hello Oliver McKenzie. >> Yes Rich, an exciting week ahead I hope as we go through this DF Direct. >> Yeah absolutely. And uh joining me also John Lman. >> Hey Rich. I got Pepsi for TV game here. got a copy of Pepsi Man finally for the PlayStation one. It's a great little game. Just look at that. You just want to play this game. He also was in Fighting Vipers, if you remember, as an unlockable character, I believe. >> Yeah. >> And in the back, we've got another special guest for for the podcast listeners. Mike Mark, not Mike, Mark Triforce Studles is back there recording footage for the latest episode of the DF Retro Super Show, which is about '90s 2000s like awesome water games with a focus on Wave Race, but we go into a bunch of them, so be sure to check out that episode. >> Awesome. Okay, well, let's crack on with our first news topic. >> Okay, our first news story of the week. This one came in last night. Asha Sharma, the new CEO of Microsoft, has announced that the next generation Xbox, part of the return of Xbox strategy. It has a code name, Project Helix. Um, and she's saying it will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. So, effectively black and white confirmation of things that we've been talking about what, for two years now. Um and uh it turns out that Jason Ronald, the head of next generation at Microsoft, is going to be giving um a talk at GDC discussing the path ahead. Uh John, what do you think about all of this? >> Wow. It's inter it's it's interesting to me that they've chosen to announce it this way. Um and I say that because I don't know. I I wonder if this is the right strategy or not. We're going to have to wait to see. I hope I hope so. But, you know, Xbox Series X was all because it kind of just dropped as like a thing back at the Game Awards, if you recall. >> Yeah. >> And it it just kind of had this like slow buildup and I wonder if like a more like hype thing that really shows what they're trying to do would have been more effective cuz they're trying to make a comeback here, right? >> And like should having a vision the way Apple does it or the way Nintendo does it, I think is possibly more effective, but I don't know. But since they have gone this route, I'm excited to see like what the heck this actually becomes. Um, and I would say by announcing it now, they're basically saying, "Yeah, we're going ahead with this no matter what." Right. >> Mhm. >> Which we've obviously been concerned about the state of of things in terms of new hardware with the memory crisis, storage crisis happening right now. So, obviously, we discussed PlayStation 6 arriving later. We don't know what the state of their handheld thing is. like it just seems like a really difficult time the Steam machine but with this it seems like Microsoft is planting the flag and say we're moving ahead with this product and I get it. I think that makes a lot of sense. And uh I recently said that Xbox Series consoles were dead and a lot of people didn't like that. But dead, when I say that, I mean like that they have to focus on what's next, right? And being dead, so to speak, from a marketing perspective does not mean bad, does it? Like, you know, Saturn and Dreamcast are two of my favorite machines ever, and they failed miserably. A lot worse than the Xbox did. That's for sure. It doesn't change how awesome they are. And that's the same here with with Xbox Series. It's a great machine. It's just that Microsoft going forward, clearly they have to find a different path. And I think this is the beginning of that new path. And uh do do we have more details about the PC connection and everything? >> Nope, we have nothing. So, we don't really, but they do say play your Xbox and PC games, right? >> Which suggest that it does indeed offer what we've kind of been theorizing in that this is no longer going to be just a normal games console that's isolated with its own sort of SDKs and everything, but it's going to be a PC style platform. Uh, which again the benefit here I think and I'll be curious to see what they say at GDC is that this should conceivably allow developers to more easily target Xbox without having to do extra work of going specifically for a different bespoke platform. Right. >> I don't know. I reckon they'll do both. And I think what's going to happen is there'll be a um a section of the of the storage that's specifically for for Xbox. >> Okay. And then there'll be like a sort of standard Windows 11 that you access and run your game. >> I guess I guess now that you say it, that makes sense when you consider the name Project Helix, right? So, okay. Okay, I get it. So, I guess >> it basically means that, you know, I mean, how do you maintain a secure ecosystem within Windows 11 as tight as as Xbox uh OS at the moment? The answer is you can't really. So, you know, the idea of having things partitioned off kind of makes sense to me and it it's basically like a uh the way I see it as a as a sort of dual function machine. I think that sort of makes sense. >> I like I like Okay. Yeah, that's actually a really good point. And that >> what you've talked about in the past actually, John, where you've got Steam OS where you've got like Steam OS, the the the sort of Steam Deck front end, and then you can just dip back into the Linux desktop if you want. That's kind of what I'm suspecting. >> That's kind of what I've been hoping for. And but I guess with Steam OS they're still linked technically, right? >> Yeah. >> And I guess in this case they may do something where the Steam OS like game style portion of whatever they're making would be more walled off than it is on the Steam Deck and that it's like a bespoke secure place to play Xbox games from whatever you know their Xbox marketplace. I guess the question I have is whether there'll be a way to sort of like link those together like Steam cuz like from the Steam OS menu you can't do that much but on the desktop side you can at least link up things into that menu so you can have games and custom stuff >> like actually appear within your like quote unquote like collection >> on the the main interface. And I think that's really valuable and that's I feel like that's something that they should probably try to get right because you got to imagine like um you know if it's two completely separate things that might not be that appealing to people but if you're able to bring PC stuff like custom over into that game uh OS experience that makes it like extra compelling because that solves >> the problem that a lot of the home theater PCs have had for a long time. That's what that's the problem that Basite kind of solves, right? Where you basically have a PC in your living room and you can just use that front end, but you can bring things into the front end if you want. So, I'll be curious to see if they can pull it off because I think that would be awesome. >> Mhm. Okay. What do you think? Yeah, I am really curious to see the extent to which like you can play maybe PC games in the Xbox interface. And indeed, if they are intent on continuing to ship Xbox games at the same time as they're shipping PC software beyond just its applicability to Xbox Series, they'd be shipping a version of the game that might run on Xbox Series, but would also run with enhancements on this next generation Xbox and that Xbox partition. That's an area that I'm kind of cur c curious about and I'm particularly curious about because I think this is probably a smaller volume play than Xbox have been traditionally or at least this initial product I think will be a smaller volume play just based off of its likely die size and price. So would Microsoft really have the power to kind of push developers to ship multiple versions of the same game to target the PC platform? Fundamentally this will be um a PC. it can play those PC games. Uh depending on how the the the porting process goes to the GDK, I mean, maybe it's uh acceptably easy to do so, but um that's something that I'd be very curious about. I think you can probably take it as read here that Microsoft is basically staying the course on next generation Xbox going full steam ahead despite the change in management here. Um, this aligns with like all the rumors that we've heard for years and years at this point that Magnus spec leaks would place it as the most powerful console and both Xbox and PC games are obviously implicated here. Um, but I think like there maybe there's a bit of a different push with this because obviously the console aspect of it is front and center. There's none of this like this is an Xbox framing about this device. It's not really being positioned as one of a family, one of part of a family of devices. it's being positioned as its own unique next generation Xbox console device. It's a very different kind of framing even if the underlying strategy is not that different. Um, I'd expect to see probably more forward announcements for Microsoft going forward than Sony because they're in a position where they don't really have a very good console platform at the moment. They need to promote the future to give people hope in their console platform efforts. I think that's something they're very concerned about. And it's especially concerning because obviously we see that the current generation Xbox platforms are not selling in such wide numbers. You know that Xbox series consoles are selling at a small fraction of their PlayStation equivalents. But that also extends to confidence in the installed base that the consoles have. So for instance, there was a recent estimate that Resident Evil Reququum has sold, I think, 2.3 million copies on Steam, 1.6 million copies on PS5, and only 300,000 copies on Xbox. So I think there's a sense as well that among the installed base of Xbox Series consoles that those players are less willing to part with their money presumably because they have less confidence in that platform as a going concern going forward. Right. >> Mhm. Yeah. I mean um yeah this whole concept of having a machine that is also a PC uh it it could lead to confusion and um I mean the more I think about it the more confusing it could potentially get. So, if you have your Xbox partition, well, what happens if you go to your Windows partition and load up the Xbox store, uh, you know, do you do you get two versions of the game? One the curated version and one the PC version. That's a sort of curious idea. It's not sort of uh something you sort of uh think probably a good idea, but I do think they have to be separate because you know the the the bottom line is you know you think about some of the stuff that Windows has issues with malware >> um viruses. Well, yeah, basically functionality at this point in my case putting in a USB flash drive and waiting a minute for it to turn up. Um but um other stuff like um you know um yeah you know the whole concept you know um Xbox simply wouldn't want their uh ecosystem to be in any way hackable uh which Windows certainly is right so I do think there has to be some level of segregation but how does that actually all work in practice >> you can use Linux >> um we got a question here from supporter Michael PDF team with the Helix nextbox confirmed as a quote unquote console, but that runs PC games, what chance will it be that you no longer have to pay for basic Game Pass just to play multiplayer games? If that basic internet charge is gone, will Sony follow suit? It's a little silly in the year of our Lord 2026 that it's free to play Marathon online on a PC versus PS5 requiring a plus subscription. Uh that's a fair point, but this also sort of takes us into the whole concept of um affordability because you know if it is an open Xbox then basically it's got to be an expensive Xbox. And uh I had push back uh I had an email the other day from a guy with the hacker alias Majestic Bowler. >> Oh, don't just sort of made it part made it sort of up there on the spot. Um but basically uh his contention is that um the next generation Xbox might be a game pass box. So basically you would get it uh at a relatively affordable price. Let's say he's suggesting here $700 like you know like a PS5 Pro. However, you can only um play games that are on Game Pass Ultimate. If you want to play your PC games, then you can do so, but again, you'll need a Game Pass Ultimate subscription to do so. Uh, which would kind of make sense in terms of like being able to provide an affordable Xbox, but surely strikes at the heart of what the PC is all about. And if they're looking to unify Xbox and PC, >> um, how, you know, that that doesn't that doesn't particularly square that circle, does it? I think Microsoft is really positioning this as a much more open console box. But at the same time, I think they run the risk of people basically just booting this into this device and just using like Steam big picture mode all the time, which is honestly how I kind of foresee myself possibly using a device like this. But I don't really think they go down the road of like here's an aggressive subsidy based on the idea that you're going to spend money in our ecosystem. That's like completely opposite from the model that Microsoft is suggesting they're going to go down for this box. uh world, but they do have to make it affordable, right? >> Well, do they I mean, this is something I'm wondering about like when it comes to pricing, how do they market this? Cuz let's say it's $1,000 or something. That would be very, very expensive for a game console, right? But >> not that bad for a powerful PC, right? >> Yeah, that's the argument we've used in the past. >> So, what what do you call it? >> I don't know. you know what if it is, you know, basically uh an OEM uh design that the likes of Asus and MSI can make their own versions of which wouldn't have which yeah, which wouldn't have like a a game pass tie in. >> Uh I don't know, you know, I think there's a number of challenges facing this particular project uh which hopefully we'll get some clarity on uh GDC with from this Jason Ronald's talk. But um yeah, I mean all bets are off really. We just don't really know at this point. Interesting discussion point though. Special Agent Cooper, our supporter, asks, "Was an 8-second logo reveal teaser and nothing else the right move to get us all excited about Project Helix?" Um, well, you know, probably not, but as a kind of teaser that you might be getting something a bit further along, possib possibly. I don't know. >> I don't know. I mean, we can't say what's what's going to be right or wrong until it actually happens and we see the results, right? >> Cuz that that's the challenge they're facing right now. >> This is kind of just how it tends to work with new console launches. There is a slow drip feed of information. But in this case, we already know so much about the makeup of the console or the of the PC like console box. We already know so much about the Magnus chip. We already know so much about I think about the relative product positioning of the device. We already know all kinds of different things about the chip from various leakers, people who are well informed about it. So, I don't really feel like there's that much. I mean, there there's there's a bit of interest, I think, in the actual mechanical technical like how are they going to separate Xbox and Windows? Do they do a partition? Do they have some equivalent for the Xbox full screen experience in the Windows partition? Exactly how does that operate? But in terms of the basic kind of contours of this thing, I feel like there's not that much suspense. I don't know. >> Mhm. Yeah, I think basically they've got to um just get people excited about Xbox. Again, I still think that none of this actually addresses the core strategy or or the core problem rather, which is, you know, at at one point this is an Xbox. Everything was an Xbox, but now that isn't the case. And so, what is an Xbox? That's kind of like, you know, what they've got to fundamentally address at this point. Um, I guess we'll find out. You think they could get it down as low as like I don't know 6700 or something >> or you think it's going to be like a thousand plus? >> Well, you know, the rumors are talking about this uh comparatively massive die um for the for the Magnus chip chip chiplet design. Um they're also talking about let's just say a generous amount of memory unified memory. >> It's 36 in the in the leaks, isn't it? 36 GB is apparently I mean it could be wrong. That's the one thing that you can change in the design at pretty much any given point. Um but you know >> man that would be I mean they could go to 24 but there aren't too many options if they keep the same >> uh bus there right. >> Yeah. So it's really really tricky. I mean, the pricing of this um the timing of it, I suspect tail end of 2027. Um if they're going to if they're still talking about announcements right now, it's got to be uh next year at some point, likely the end of next year. I think that would make sense, man. Who knows what's happening here. It's quite exciting though to to actually see official stuff appearing. >> I mean, I'm just happy that they're they're they're not throwing in the towel. They're they're going for it again. I think that's great because we need this. We need a I think just reducing the industry to just PlayStation, Nintendo is boring, right? A third player is so critical to like keeping things fresh and keeping these companies on their toes. >> So, Mhm. Okay. Well, wait and see, I guess. Let's move on. Okay. Okay, so we had an interesting report this week from Bloomberg's Jason Shrier, effectively uh suggesting that the days of Sony's AAA single player games appearing on PC are now over. And it's funny because um Jason was talking about this for the last week. He's finally posted his report, but it is quite funny that people were talking about both Jason Shrier and John Lman. John Lman, you're you're the guy who actually unearthed all of this information. I don't think you did. I think I think you were just sort of spitballing. Hey, I haven't seen much on uh uh PC from Sony recently. >> Was I? >> Um yeah. Um let's have a look at this question here from Zephr. Hi DF wanted to express my extreme disappointment in Sony ceasing their PC porting efforts. While I now have a PS5 that I got used, I much prefer playing on PC and have enjoyed numerous Sony published games over the past few years. Going forward though, I feel it's likely I'll just play something else. If sales didn't meet expectations, it's likely due to these ports landing after most people have already moved on with numerous technical issues to boot. Exclamation point. Is there no room in the industry now for modest successes? Seems like these port jobs should have always been at least somewhat fruitful and that they're now going to be leaving money on the table. Uh wishing you all the best and hoping that Nixis will be all right. We actually had a lot of supporter questions saying, "Hey, well, you know what's happening with Nexus now?" They were brought in effectively to take point on the PC push. Um, John, what do you think about this from a strategic perspective? There's been discussion that across the years, I think it's like five, four, five years now of PC ports, Sony made $2.2 billion. Uh, it does sound like money is being left on the table. So the concept of them pulling back from PC seemingly this hasn't been confirmed. Um it must be more strategic in in nature the the decision. Yeah, this is a very strange situation and I sus so Sony has occupied this very uh unique sort of central point in the market between the two players where Microsoft with Xbox has gone fully all in on everything PC and other platforms. In fact, while Nintendo has stuck with you only get Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware, period, they've been kind of in the middle. There there's so many factors here, but like if you look at it just from a pure like outside perspective, you see, all right, these are the two approaches these companies took. Which one was the bigger success? Obviously Nintendo, but that's also Nintendo. So, it's a their software is just renowned for what? And I actually think Nintendo has shown interestingly um they it's beyond just like appearing on other platforms. Nintendo is a company that said we're going to keep our software. We our software is valuable. We will retain prices. Sales will be minimal. Like this is what we make. This is what it sells at. This is what it's worth. And they found huge success doing that. And obviously this hinges on Nintendo games being Nintendo games, right? Whereas Xbox has been arguably devaluing its content with this focus on Game Pass and sales and just the way they they dole out content is like the polar opposite to what Nintendo does. Now this again though this gets into the question of like who actually has the strength to do that. Nintendo could do it. Uh Microsoft even though their games are they put out so much amazing stuff like I I don't know if they could pull it off and they haven't and they've obviously taken a different strategy. Sony kind of occupies a middle point there as well where I think some of their franchises almost have the appeal of a Nintendo game, right? Like I think you could argue that for certain games like TU is huge. >> Spider-Man God of War 2018 those were huge but not every game. So like this gets back to this question about like do console exclusives help drive success of the platform. There's I think both sides of the coin have a fair argument there and that in some on some metrics I would say yeah like exclusives on consoles can drive the success of that platform. But on the other hand you can make a lot of money if you're releasing on PC. And I guess I'm wondering where Sony's metrics might be coming from on this kind of stuff cuz they already had policies in place for things like uh you can't ship simultaneous big single player games on PS5 and PC, right? The PC game has to come later unless it's like a multiplayer style game or like a remaster or something. But if it's a brand new game, new single player game, it has to ship on PS5 first. That seemed like a good strategy for me based on the numbers. But then again, as we saw in the last couple releases, I think God of War, Ragnarok, Spider-Man 2, they didn't do quite as well maybe >> as they might have wanted. Um, but I don't know. I still feel like they left a lot of lowhanging fruit like off the table. Like you look at I think Demon Souls remake probably would have made a good amount of money on PC for instance, more than some of the other games they did. >> Yeah. >> And I think Ghost of Tsushima did really well on PC, right? >> And not bringing Yote to PC seems like a miss. But again, like maybe Sony's deciding that they're going to go back to the Nintendo strategy. Maybe maybe the people joking about like, "Oh, now Xbox can play Sony games on this new Project Helix." Uh, actually pisses them off and they're like, "Oh, heck no, you're not." You know what I mean? Like there is a there is a thing like if you're releasing all these Sony games on PCs and like the Xbox is what it is that now you're playing PlayStation games on your Xbox. >> Yeah. And potentially your Steam machine >> and potentially your Steam machine. So like maybe all this like rise of PC in the living room actually has Sony Sony a little bit scared. >> Mhm. Yeah. I think it's a probably a reaction to that >> because at some at some point everything is going to be on PC and everything is a PC >> apart from a PlayStation. >> So yeah, I do think it makes a lot of sense strategically, you know, to to take >> I just want to reach in the background here. Mark Triforce Duttlesen, you're a console gamer first and foremost. How did you feel about PlayStation ports? Very quickly, did you mind them? He didn't mind them. and he he is a hardcore console guy. So the you know little data point >> I think though you know basically if there is a point at which um an Xbox is playing uh PlayStation games you know the the the ones you know the system sellers the ones that we would consider to be system sellers >> it's going to get a lot of attention and the same with Steam Machine it's like here I am on my console in the living room and it's not a Sony console but I'm playing Sony games. I I think the whole thing needs to be understood in the context of like this was never Sony's primary console moving game moving strategy in the first place like they were never fully in on PC. They never had a Sony launcher which is probably a good thing but you know if they were committed maybe they would have had a Sony launcher or a Sony store. They had no cross progression in most games. It was more of a kind of kind of halfb butdded PC strategy so to speak and they did have those late releases like you point out here. So I think in that context when you look at Steam Machine and next generation Xbox where all of a sudden you're creating all this confusion around okay well this thing that's called an Xbox this thing that's called a Steam Machine can play my same Sony games as I would play on PS5. All of a sudden you're introducing a level of confusion into the marketplace that I don't think is helpful for Sony when they are trying to push PlayStation 5 console so aggressively and when I'm sure in the future they'll be pushing PlayStation 6 consoles so aggressively. It's also not helpful for Sony in the context that we think they have a handheld coming soon. They're going into a market that already has a large PC handheld presence. That's going to create some confusion if you're saying, "Hey, you could play Ghost of Tsushima on your PC handheld or you could play it on your Sony PSP3, you know, and that I think introduces an additional problem for them." So, if it's just a rounding error for them, if it's just a small fraction of their overall incomes and overall revenues, as it does seem to be in in console software, in game software, then I think there's a a decent case to be made that you should not confuse your brand. You shouldn't dilute your brand by continuing to ship on PC if that means shipping on these boxes that are very competitive with your uh main console box. >> Yeah, I think there's also a quality issue as well. Um, Sony has a a a particular standard that it wants for its first party games. And to be frank, you know, Marvel Spider-Man 2 on PC wasn't particularly good. Um, I'm not sure that it's the way they'd want their games to be presented. You know, going back to like Sack Boy Adventures that launched with gigantic amounts of stutter. Um, it's not really the headlines you want. I guess there's all manner of contributing factors uh that could um that could sort of make Sony pause and and take stock on whether they should be supporting PC with these uh with these AAA single player games. Um I guess something else. Yeah, you're quite right to bring up the handheld because the handheld side of things in theory, if everything goes kind of like the way I think it's going to go, it's going to be quite a revolution I think for handhelds. Certainly. And it's certainly going to be um challenging to the PC handhelds. If you can imagine a PlayStation handheld that will play all of the PlayStation 4 back catalog as is. >> I think just think that's amazing straight away. Then you get your PlayStation 5 games that have been expertly retoled to run on a handheld and look great. And then you're going to get uh hopefully a range of PlayStation 6 software that's been sort of uh ported across specifically for that device. all of those third party games as well. Well, suddenly maybe I'm not taking my Steam Deck on holiday anymore. Maybe I'll be taking a Sony handheld instead because you you're getting that curated experience that you just don't get on PC handhelds at the moment. So, yeah, that would be another reason perhaps not to be uh allowing your games to be running on uh other people's hardware which is competing with yours. >> What about the multiplayer question? I guess like stuff like Hell Divers 2 on PC, obviously marathons on multiplatform. Um, but then again, like looking back at the beginning of the generation, Sony was all about multiplayer games as a service. And in reality, >> they've released almost none. They've canled most of them. There's like I guess there's that fair game still happening. Marathon just came out and then we had the failure of Concord which is done and then there was Hell Divers. Was there anything else? Any other game as a service? I guess >> that Horizon thing could be argued to be that beyond. >> Well, there are two Horizon multiplayer titles. >> Um Hunters Gathering and then the uh and Seesoft was it um Horizon. >> Right. Right. Right. I forgot about that. >> And then there was the Last of Us game that was canceled Factions. >> But that was Yep. >> There was the cancelled um game at Bluepoint. the God of War game at Bluepoint and then yeah going forward I don't know of any titles that are in development. >> So it's I seems like their multiplayer efforts probably winding down. There's not not much came out and there's not that much in development. >> I think there's always a market for them. The question is the extent to which it's going to be a key point of their strategy going forward. >> But I do think those games deserve to be across multiple platforms and you kind of need as many people playing them as possible to to make them viable. It's a long It's a long day. It's a long time since the days of MAG. >> Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense for those games to be across platforms, even to the extent of shipping hell divers to an Xbox. You know, a lot of people heralded that as potentially a major shift in Sony's strategy, but it doesn't really seem to be. It just seems to be they want the largest player base possible for their games like Marathon, for the games like Hell Divers 2 in order to sustain like a really strong player base across platforms. >> Okay. Well, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the extent to which we actually get any kind of official confirmation or whether we just won't see any more uh games beyond Death Stranding 2. Who knows? Guess we'll find out. Uh let's move on. Okay, so adjacent to the whole Sony PC discussion is the release of Marathon. It's out now. It's out now on multiple platforms. Uh, John, I think you participated in the quote unquote server slam and uh you've got some interesting stuff you'd like to share about it. >> Oh, sure. Yeah, cuz um I I actually like it. >> Really? >> Yeah, I really like it. I think it's super cool. Uh and I say this as someone that's largely against these kind of service games, but also did enjoy Destiny. I have to admit, uh it's among the few. I think there's a there's a thing that Bungie just has a certain sauce to their games. There's a feel to them, a vibe, atmosphere, the gameplay feel. All of those things are very very unique. And usually with these sort of like multiplayer types of games. It just feels like bam game. Like here's title screen, you go play game, you press start. These are game mechanics. This is game game game. And that's that's often good. But like when speaking in multiplayer parliament, I don't love that. Whereas you load up Marathon and it's like here's a weird like moth like eating a weird thing and there's these strange colors and these menus don't make any sense and look at these neon colors and what the heck is even going on? Like why is this happening? I love that stuff. It's just like it has that little bit of mystery that that you get. And honestly, I feel like my favorite times with Destiny were honestly the early the early times. I know that's when it was at its weakest in terms of content, but it was the time when like nothing really you didn't understand it yet. Like when that first like raid hit or whatever. When I first did that, I was just like in awe at like all the stuff that happened in there. It was so unusual and cool and I loved it. But then all these other service games started hitting and every time I tried one, I just fell off right away. It just didn't interest me. But there's something magical about Bungie games and Marathon I think has that. And even right away, so like when I first dropped into the game, I don't understand like what is even happening here, right? It looks cool. You're you're in this world. I love the visual style. Like it's not the most cutting edge, but it runs I played on PC. Runs super well. um those unique contrasting colors uh with the rainstorm happening. You're like sneaking into this base. I still don't understand exactly what I'm doing. I'm not huge into extraction shooters. I don't have the loop down. Uh but after getting past that initial sort of thing, I'm in the game world again. And I remember I'm scavenging around looking for stuff and then I actually hear something happening in a room nearby. And I run over and I look around the corner. It's like four dudes like spawn in. And the thing is is like I was just testing the game in solo at this point and I knew there was AI enemies around and human enemies, but the way they like just appeared and were like with like the proxs chat stuff and like just their like appearance in that world and then I kind of hid from them and I and I like go into a room and I'm looking out trying to see where they're going to go cuz I don't want them to attack me and I see them run across like a glass bridge that's like on the other side of the map. You actually see like the silhouettes of them. Like it's so cool looking that it almost looks scripted but it was actually like you know like a team and like I'm following them around and just like watching what they're doing cuz again I don't understand what I'm doing in the game yet. I'm just seeing what they're doing and like at one point one of them breaks off and I go follow him and he like goes into a room and is doing stuff. I close the door on him and then hide behind these like plastic like uh like protectors that are sometimes between the doors. And because I close the door he immediately knows like okay what's going on? He comes back out and opens the door and I'm hiding back there. He runs into the room and I managed to just kill him from behind and I just like it's just like a satisfying kind of like moment, right? Nothing major. It's like one kill and like a series of however many thousands you're going to do in this game, but it just felt special because of that whole mystery of not understanding what's going on at the time and just like this weird presence of these people there. like I let my imagination run wild for a second. And I think that's what really compelled me to keep going, but then eventually you start to like learn more about the loop, learn what the game's about and how to play it. And you actually see it as a pretty compelling loop there. And it's just somehow I don't know, it really it got me. And I'm I I haven't had time to sit down with the full game yet, but I'm planning to do so because uh it actually seems fun. And that's why I feel like, and this is the thing, is like a lot of times these these types of service games feel like they're built by committee where it's like, okay, we need to make money. How do we make money? Let's look at the game that's making money and just do that. Uh, but something like this, and I would argue something like art creators as well, which is really cool. Uh, they feel like they're still built by a creative team that's trying to do something, >> right? >> Right. And I think that's it really just shows the difference there where you can feel like there's there's something behind this that's beyond just like the cynical cashg grabby kind of nature that we see with a lot of this stuff and it shows and yeah of course you know this being Bungie it's beyond beyond the weirdness which I love and that's something Bungie's always been known for like it just plays great like just the act of aiming your weapon and shooting at other things is awesome. that the basic loop is good and that's ultimately what matters a lot. But I say all this and then I check the Slack chat and Rich, you're like, "Uh, I played marathon. I don't understand it. This this kind of sucks. It's probably going to fail." >> Well, my my my sort of take on it was pretty straightforward. I think if you're playing it with a bunch of people and you're working together as a team, it makes a lot more sense. But I wasn't. >> I wasn't either. I played >> some well somehow you managed to wake work your way through it but from my perspective it was basically uh work your way through the tutorial mission fair enough that you know it's interesting I mean visually it's very uh distinct and I think that's to its credit I think it looks fantastic I was also also quite amused that the PS5 pro version lets you choose between PSSR FSR2 and CMAA which is like a sort of throwback to like >> like decades old anti-alias intelligence >> but you know basically I got through the trading section. Uh got into the game and uh quickly gunned down. Uh nobody to revive me and that's it. >> And Rich, I think that that just shows like the interesting thing about a game like this. It's like the mystery and the lack of understanding of what's going on to me was engaging, but to some players may just be like annoying, right? Like it's not going to work for everyone. >> Well, you know, at least in prior Bungie games, I felt as though I stood a chance against the >> True. True. And I didn't feel feel like that in this case. You know, I guess it's early doors, but you know, if the first sort of um uh proper um fight with enemy opponents ends in death, which then results in you exiting the level. >> It's not great. >> No, I agree. I I >> think whoever came up with that decision needs to sort of possibly have a rethink. But yeah, that was, you know, I didn't really go into it um uh with any kind of opinion whatsoever because um I was aware there was some controversy over the graphics back in the day, but you know, I loaded up this. I thought it looked fantastic. It really does look great, by the way. It's so different than uh your typical shooter, and I love that. You know, reminds me almost going back all the way to like The Darkness on 360, which just didn't look like any other game at the time. and you look at this and it looks completely unlike any other sort of extraction shooter to its credit, but I just couldn't engage with it. There's also the sort of things where you're sort of wondering about you're picking up loads and loads of items until your in inventory is full. Do I care enough about those items to investigate them and see, you know, not really, you know, I'm kind of like um just sort of um checked out of the current sort of thing about uh loot and uh and and associated loadouts, stuff like that. Um and you go back to the game like the original Quake multiplayer. >> Oh yeah. >> It's just so immediate and so brilliant, so engaging. It's funny you say that, Rich, because that's what my son is playing actually. Essentially, he's playing Quake. He plays a game called Rivals in Roblox, right? It's Roblox, but like he shows me playing. It's like, "Dad, check this out." And he's like starts a match and he immediately rocket jumps into the air and then he fires No, he fires a grenade first, runs and jumps off the grenade, goes into the air, and then he rocket jumps off the wall and then goes flying across using some kind of blade thing to propel himself. And he pulls out like a precision rifle and like takes out four dudes before touching the ground. He's just running around and being acrobatic and I'm just like this is like Quake, right? And it it does have leveling up, but it is ultimately like like Quake. And I think it's really interesting to see a younger generation not even knowing it, just like gravitating towards playing a game like that. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I suspect this cave is going to be loved by the people that love it. Does it do enough to appeal to a a mainstream audience? That's my concern, >> right? Because I bounced off it pretty quickly myself, but >> it's it's a tough cell, but I think being unique and maybe difficult to chew >> is possibly to its credit, I think, because and that it might be what allows it to find a dedicated audience, right? >> Yeah. >> It does not feel like a game that was made for everyone. Okay, Oliver, >> I do feel like extraction shooters, there's a certain brand of them that I like, which is more PVE focused extraction shooters. Like I covered Rainbow Six Extraction for the channel probably four years ago. I quite enjoyed playing that game in my time with it because it was very PvE focused and you had this consistent level of challenge and it felt very fair, felt very nice. Um, and I'm surprised they didn't go that route with this title given that there is a lot of PvE in this too though. Yeah, but there's also uh player enemies. Lots of player enemies as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. >> So, it's it's a little bit surprising to me because obviously the the Destiny approach is mostly to flood you with enemy AI and go that route. So, I'm a little bit surprised I didn't go that route with that. >> I guess you could call this PVP. >> PVP V. >> PVP VP. >> Exactly. Exactly. Um, but I did find one element to this title interesting. I'm not so interested in the game itself, but I did find one element of this title interesting, which is that people were tagging me pre-launch on Twitter about a weird line that was present in the game's promotional materials for PS5 Pro, which is they said that the game used PS5 Pro enhanced PlayStation spectral super resolution to blend 5K internal rendering into a clean, stable 4K image, so your run few plays stay sharp even when the action gets hectic. which to me suggested, hey, maybe we're using PSSR to go to 5K downscale to 4K. Weird approach, but if the game is light enough, maybe that could work. But then they've updated that language to say that PS5 Pro PSSR enhanced PSSR leverages higher resolution internal rendering to deliver a clean, stable 4K image. They've kind of made the language a little bit vagger there. But I wonder in particular that note about enhanced PSSR that's nomenclature I've not heard from Sunny before, but is that indicating that this is PSSR2 in our own nomenclature or the upgraded PSSR and their other materials. Is that what this is indicating? And indeed, are they going to like 5K or some crazy internal resolution with this and then downscaling it to fit 4K? >> Yes, we can find out. >> Yeah. Um Okay. Well, uh, anything more to add to that before we move on, John? >> Oh, I mean, I'm always up for a pleasant surprise. I still would have loved to have seen a proper marathon single player campaign, to be honest, but this is a lot more interesting and enjoyable than I initially had imagined. >> It still it still has some Bungee magic for sure. >> I think in retrospect, I wish I'd gone into it playing with a team as opposed to on my own. >> Maybe. Man, I wish we had time to do like a DF uh team. That would be a lot. I wish there was just time. >> Time in general would be nice. We found much of that. >> Yeah. Um, okay. Uh, well, maybe some more soon on Marathon. Let's see. But uh, with that, let's move on. Okay. So, Resident Evil Recreum launched uh, last week and it's fair to say it's been a massive, massive success. We lorded the game particularly in its console form on PlayStation 5 Professional where you got a combination of PSSR2 and some excellent raid facing. Uh, but John, less than a week on and the raid tracing has has been quote unquote adjusted. It you might even consider it a downgrade. What's going on? >> Oh boy. Yeah. So, obviously, um, there was the whole thing with the RTGi and the Dinoiser from Capcom, and it definitely produced some artifacts. Um, this always gets to a difficult part of of talking about these games for me because I feel feel like I'm not really bothered by that stuff as much when you're doing cool stuff, but some of the public gets really agitated by it. And it's just like what my brain wants is so different from what a lot of other people want clearly. Uh, and so there were complaints and Capcom took that to heart it would seem. And their solution to fixing it isn't to adjust the deninoiser, which I would imagine not so easy actually. Uh instead, they're like, "Well, the most egregious area, the area I could not show in my uh review, by the way, is Leon's section in Raccoon City. Uh they just they just turned off the RT completely, >> not including reflections or just >> everything's off." >> All right. Okay. >> Now, if you load up other saves, range tracing's there as before. And I already noticed there was a couple scenes where they disabled RT reflections anyway >> for whatever reason, like that city street with Leon early on at night, >> which might have been just too heavy. But most of the game had all the RT stuff. But then suddenly here, I remember there's this gas station early on in Raccoon City where there's a lot of like dark light uh contrast and the noise the noise could be even for me a little bothersome at points. I get that. But it all that RTGI added so much nuance to the uh overall image in the shadows because it's a very gray monochromatic place, right? And the RTGI I felt was very important in terms of making it look appealing. And by taking that away, they did get rid of the noise. Uh but it just >> they got rid of the RT. >> It just looks so flat now. I think I just don't like how that area looks without the RTGI. And so I guess my confusion here is like why they decided to get rid of it entirely as opposed to like making it like an option. I think the better solution here would have been to do have an option when you turn off ray tracing to run at 60 Hz with PSSR. >> Okay? >> Cuz right now if you do the ray tracing off it does the 120 mode. photo there. You can force, I guess, 60 Hz like Oliver did, but that runs without PSSR, which looks a lot worse. There was no middle option basically for the good image quality, but without the RT stuff, and now they just kind of compromised it, so like parts of the game just totally lack RT. I don't think this is the best solution. I think it was done just to like sort of like address those complaints. Um, and it's probably the fastest thing they could have done because again, obviously if their dinoiser has major issues, but you can't just solve that in a week. It's not that easy, right? This is a difficult problem to solve. >> So, I'm not really sure what where they go from here. I think they should restore it, but make it optional >> or but I again that requires UI adjustments and there's a there's a lot to deal with there. So, it's a tricky situation. Uh, is the raid facing mode available? Um, if you don't have a 120 Hz, sorry, is the the non-radef facing the performance mode available if you have a if you don't have a 120 Hz screen. >> Yes, it is. But it still runs it still runs without PSSR. Although I didn't check it after this latest patch, but uh before it definitely did not. No matter what you did, it was still running with just like normal upscaling like FSR1 stuff. So the point I'm trying to make is that effectively there is already a mode to turn off raid tracing if you don't like the effect. It's just that you don't get PSSR2, >> right? >> Mhm. >> Yeah. So well, you know, it's it's not ideal, is it? I think ultimately if you don't I mean there there are trades with raid tracing always, but you know, uh if people don't particularly like the effect, turn it off. That seems to be the most obvious thing to me. Make it a user selectable choice. If that user selectable choice does also downgrade the image quality, however, it's not great. But um >> make PSSR an option. I don't know. >> Yeah. Well, exactly, Oliver. >> Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that mode. I counted it out at about 1296p, the mode at 60 Hz with PSSR off and rate tracing off when you turn that RTS toggle off. And 1296p I think is considerably above the PlayStation 5's resolution, which is closer to 1080p if I'm right there, John. little bit above 1080p. >> Just above 1080p. So it's slightly higher. >> There is actually an enhancement there. Now I certainly would not take that enhancement over just having PSSR and certainly if the GPU time is there for PSSR to 4K output with RA tracing. Certainly it would be there uh without the rate tracing you'd presume. So that seems like a more obvious option to me for people who are uh uncomfortable and disappointed with the rate tracing presentation in Raccoon City. Um, but myself I'm not particularly bothered by ray tracing noise because in some cases it's kind of nice to have a bit of RT noise because it lets you know, hey, you're dealing with real real uh god-fearing ray tracing here. You know, you're not dealing with some big lighting technique that looks perfectly stable, some probes or some light maps that you can't really tell that it's being done in real time because it's not being done in real time. Um, I would hope that they would bring this back after some tweaking, hopefully after some improvements to their dinoiser, which would be appreciated across all platforms here. My worry though is that they won't because of the uh user backlash. But I did actually see some footage of the game before this update operating in Raccoon City with that um rate tracing enabled, with PSSR enabled and rateracing enabled, and it did not look too handsome. It looked conspicuously bad in a way that I didn't really see in other areas of the game. Now, there's like maybe one or two areas in the early game where you do see more rate tracing noise like in that area with Grace right after the cut scene with the police officer at the very beginning of the game and you're looking around there and the RT is like really shaking and speckling and it kind of blends in nicely with the raindrops. But it is very very noisy in that area as well. So, I can tell that if it's if it's a similar presentation to what I saw there, but throughout a much larger fraction of the game, that is obviously something that should be addressed, but it should be addressed hopefully through improving the rate tracing presentation and not turning it off. And certainly, I don't think turning rate trace reflections off makes really any sense in that in that environment either because I don't think the rate trace reflections were the cause of most of that uh visual annoyance in that area. >> Final thoughts, John? Yeah, I mean it's um it's a bummer because they're so close to just having such a cool thing here, but that it all stems from that dinoiser just not being good enough. But I don't know. I don't know where they go from here. It's a difficult problem to solve. But >> yeah, I'm pretty sure Nvidia has its own dinoiser that isn't related to ML. So, you know, there are dinoisers out there that they possibly could have used. I don't know. Obviously, we're sort of operating within uh an area where we only have limited knowledge. >> Um well, let's hope for improvements further on down the line then. But with that, let's move on. Okay, then. So, uh interesting story that emerged on X from Billy Kun, a noted leaker confirming as much as it can be confirmed by a leaker that Starfield is coming to PlayStation 5. And uh it looks like it's going to be appearing also in physical form on April the 7th, 2026. So it's you know pretty much just like a month from the time of taping this particular direct. >> It's quite interesting that um you know if this had happened a couple of years ago then it would have been big big news. >> Mhm. >> In the year of our lord 2026. It's kind of like I was debating whether to include it in the direct at all. It's just kind of a thing that a thing that happens now isn't it? I would think that the surprising thing about this announcement is that it's taken so long at this point because we're used to a faster clip between the Xbox release and the PlayStation release by this point. Um certainly we've seen many many 2024 titles and 2025 titles shipping on PlayStation 5. So this is quite a quite a long lag here. I think this is good. Um it seems to be be part of a part of a vehicle for like some wider technical update to the game which maybe could improve performance elsewhere. That's what I'd hope for. Indeed, Starfield's performance is pretty good across the game, I would say, at this point, except for in cities like Akila and New Atlantis. It's quite problematic there. So, hopefully there could be some engine upgrades and hopefully that might dovetail with another thing that I'm possibly looking forward to. Um, I I don't know if this is coming or not, but if there was to be a Switch 2 port, because Bethesda's been shipping all their other recent titles on Switch 2, we've seen Fallout 4, we've seen Oblivion Remastered, we've seen Skyrim Anniversary Edition, um, with somewhat mixed results in the latter title, but that was patched up eventually, as Tom noted, and improved quite a bit. So, could a version of this game work on Switch 2? I think basically everything outside the cities feels like it could could work pretty well, I think. And then if they were able to improve performance in the cities to a level where it was hopefully, you know, not too far off that 30 fps marker, perhaps it could be a good experience overall. So that's what I would hope for. But in terms of the PlayStation port, I mean, the only area of real interest to me with Starfield, I believe Starfield, I covered it on Xbox consoles a couple times. It seemed to be fixed resolution, I believe. Um, upscaled to 4K um 4K 30 on on Series X, 1440p 30 roughly speaking on on Series S. And then, of course, it had the 60 FPS modes coming in later on. On PS5, I would presume they would basically duplicate that. Maybe some slight alterations, but they'd basically have a very similar setup. PS5 Pro could be a little bit different. Maybe they issue the FSR2, move over to the next generation PSSR. That would be quite nice. Uh, with these Microsoft efforts though, there don't seem to often be that big of pro upgrades. The one major exception to that would be Forza Horizon 5, which had some excellent PS5 Pro upgrades. So, I'd hope to see them actually putting some elbow grease into the PS5 Pro version, and delivering maybe hopefully much better image quality would be the the only thing I could really think of because there's no real like bag of ray tracing goodies or draw distance, uh, whatever. There's not too much else they could do with this title outside of improving image quality substantially through the use of that upscaler. >> Mhm. Yeah. I'm not uh anticipating any huge upgrades and I don't think it really needs them as such. Uh it' be interesting to see what they do with the with the professional though. Um what do you want to see from it, John? >> Uh I think Oliver, you're barking up the wrong tree here. I don't think that this is about resolution or performance. That stuff's not really a big deal right now. I think what it's going to happen and we'll see. I think the game itself is going to be massively overhauled. >> Okay, >> this is my guess. My guess is that they're going to try to do and I I I don't know for sure, but I I suspect the reason it's taking so long isn't that they just are porting Starfield to PS5. I think this is going to be part of a whole campaign to sort of like like a Starfield 2.0. It's funny you said that because I think Todd Howard basically specifically shot down claims that there would be a Starfield 2.0 0. In a recent uh in a recent interview, he said it is not Starfield 2.0. I've seen some of that for expectation setting. I think that's the kind of thing where if you like Starfield, we think you're going to love this. It's updates and things that change the game, but in, you know, not uh not a way that's uh indicative of some kind of massive overhaul to the game. So, I think they are doing some of that work. I think they are updating the game. I think they probably will have some UI tweaks, some changes to the way that things work. But he's specifically saying it is not Starfield 2.0 in this particular interview. >> I guess I just threw down 2.0. Not to say that it's just like I think the game is probably going to going to undergo some change, but how about how about we throw down right now? Let's let's take a bet. I bet you um one I don't know you you have to do an FPS video for me and I have to do one for you depending on the victor. If it's exactly the same game as Xbox, then you win. If it's changed in gameplaywise, then I'll take it. So, let's go. >> Well, I think the gameplay changes will be across all platforms. One thing I don't think there'll be a difference. >> Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. >> You're suggesting that there's going to be a significant change to the actual game itself. What do you mean by that? Do you think maybe like um you know, like what they did with Cyberpunk for instance? >> Yeah, closer to that. Maybe something like that. not like not like a completely different game, but I think there's going to be some changes that'll come to all platforms and including PS5. >> Uh so that's that's my guess. I could be completely wrong. I I I'm just guessing here. So, and if Todd Howard said that, then that's more likely as well. But >> since since I already threw it out there, let's I think it'd be fun to have that wager. When we find out for sure, Oliver, when you turn out to be right, you can gloat on the DF director. >> Okay. >> Wow. All right. I've never heard of this before. Wagering to do favor videos. I mean, crazy stuff. Um, I don't know whether I should step in as a manager to prevent gambling within the workplace. >> I don't know. Uh, well, it looks as though regardless, uh, you've only got like a month or so to wait until we find out the outcome. >> Find out. >> Um, but with that, let's move on. Okay. Hey, so there's been some really interesting stuff happening in terms of the budget GPU market, which is having to kind of like reposition itself in the light of RAM again, but I didn't quite uh sort of anticipate that it would be reconfiguring itself like this. Um, there's talk now of a new version of the Nvidia RTX 5050, which will actually ship with an improved amount of memory over the existing model. There's talk of a 9 GBTE version of the 50/50 uh as opposed to the existing 8 GB version. The way in which they're going to achieve this apparently according to the leak which is unconfirmed is that the 128 bit memory bus is going to be um reduced to 96 bit which historically has been oh no reduced memory bandwidth reduced um performance. However, they're going to be shifting from GDDR6 to GDDR7 memory, which basically means that net you get a slight increase in memory bandwidth. So, in theory then a model that we suspect is coming to market because of um memory IC shortages. Typically that means a bad deal for the game, but this one could actually be on, you know, on aggregate a slight a slight win uh simply by virtue of the fact that they'll be using a different type of memory module. So you can get away with using fewer of them and you end up with more RAM and slightly more memory bandwidth. >> Um concurrent to that, there is also um apparent confirmation from the channel that there is going to be the return of the RTX 3060 possibly later in the month. I'm not sure what to think about that. Um, but Oliver, this is uh kind of curious, right? >> Yeah. I mean, gamers did ask for more VRAM, so I guess this is one extra gig >> satisfaction what they wanted. I mean, it seems reasonable enough, I suppose. You know, normally the route here would be to do like some kind of super series, you'd think, with the 3 GB modules and have a card potentially with 12 GB of frame buffer VRAM there. But in this case, like you said, by basically decreasing the number of uh memory channels in there and increasing the size of the uh modules, they're getting a much more modest like 12% I guess increase in memory, which is not quite as exciting. Um, and the memory bandwidth situation just seems to be basically uh equals there. On the RTX 3060 side of things, I think our comment from um Nvidia when Alex and I asked at CES was technically that the RTX 3060 has never left inventory channels, but I guess in this case they may be bringing it back into wider supply in in accordance with market pushes, but I don't think they specified what kind of RTX 3060 would be coming back. If it's the 12 GB module, I think that's very promising. I think it's a lot less exciting if it's the 8 GB GPU. Um, but honestly, any way you can get new capacity into the market at reasonable prices, I think is something you have to support at this point. And the RTX 3060, you know, it's still a fast enough card with TLSS. It can do 1080p, it can do 1440p, and at 12 GB, you basically can run just about anything you want to from the kind of console suite of AAA at good settings and have a reasonable experience. Even if like in raster terms it's not as powerful as like a Series X, I think it's a fair bit off that mark, it's still capable of delivering a good experience in console software when you tie it in with upscaling. Um, so I think that's a good good route to go down and and even though these cards are quite aged at this point, you know, six-y old cards, 5-year-old cards, I think they're still in a reasonable position to actually deliver quite a lot of value for gamers in 2026, which is maybe an indictment of Moors law or the broader GPU market as a whole or AI or however you want to take that, but I think it's probably a a positive move for gamers, even if it's not necessarily a positive sign that Nuity is considering doing this on the back of pressures elsewhere. >> Okay. So, John, I'll come to you for a bit of comment on that. Although I know that you're not particularly interested in the budget GPU market. >> I I know that's the thing is like I really don't have any interest in these budget GPUs personally, so it's hard to get excited about it >> or horrified as well. You you don't care either way. That's good, >> right? >> So, there's a sort of silver lining to it. Um, yeah. I mean, I'm quite interested in looking at this 50/50, I have to admit, because the concept of a 9 GB GPU. I mean, we've kind of gone from like um 8 to 10 in the past, and the 10 GB GPUs obviously have a considerable advantage over the eight, although they have the limitations of their own. That's quite interesting. But 9 GB, I'm kind of almost want to get hold of one of these things and compare it to the 8 GB version just to see what difference that 1 GB actually makes. You mean how much more memory do you really need? Because I've noticed with the uh 11 GB 2080 Ti that actually seems fine. Um and um yeah, so so kind of curious about that. I'm also um I've never reviewed the 5050 generally to be honest. Um, I missed out on that. It looks like just a sort of um Blackwell version of the 4060, which isn't particularly exciting, but at the at the same time, it's not the sort of complete disaster that everyone else seemed to think it was cuz, you know, it's a fairly capable PS5 performance level card. It just doesn't have a lot of memory. That's the bottom line there. Um, the 3060 returning, I think we have to kind of like embrace reality and it probably is the 8 GB version, which, you know, not great. Um, I think you should, you know, consider going out and getting a used 12 GB model cuz they're dirt cheap now. But, you know, it's all going to come down to the pricing on that one. I think that's the bottom line on that. It's all I've got to say about that. Um, but with that, let's move on. Okay. Okay. So, to round off the direct, typically we talk about content that we've produced. Uh, for this one, we're going to be talking about content we haven't produced yet. And, um, it's really interesting because last week we put out a video showing Crimson Desert running um, on ultra settings on PC on a Radeon 7900 XTX and the game actually scales higher than that. But the point is with that particular class of GPU, you could run 4K native at 60 frames per second. Showcased all of these amazing features in it. Everyone online seems to be particularly caught up with the fact that there hasn't been a lot shown of the console version of the game. And um I guess um a lot of people have I don't know some sort of uh gaming level PTSD about um Cyberpunk 2077 where we didn't actually see much of the console build pre-launch. It launched and it wasn't particularly great. Uh similar accusations have been sent towards Pearl Abyss. However, um we've got an interview here be uh from Fighting Cowboys preview um where he's saying I did ask about console performance since all the footage including my own up until now and has been has been on PC and the answer I got from them was actually quite respectable. They said quote unquote regardless of what we say people probably won't believe us. Fair fair point. So instead, we're sending the game to Digital Foundry and have a full analysis of performance across all the platforms at launch. Uh so um uh I guess that is a pretty respectable uh response. We will be looking at Crimson Desert. We'll try to get something out at launch regardless of whatever happens. We'll certainly be able to tell you at launch, you know, if there are any specific problems, even if our review isn't ready, a full review isn't ready. But um John, I think it's fair to say that Pearl Abyss have been actually very open with us, far more open than a lot of other developers in this sort of crucial runup to launch. And they are going to make this stuff happen. And um they seem to be genuinely proud of everything they've done. And um they're not um they're opening doors for us rather than slamming them in our faces. >> It's very refreshing to see. I think I'm super It's really exciting. I can tell that they have a lot of pride in what they're doing. Uh, and what they're doing is is pretty darn ambitious, right? Cuz they're like out here trying to build this massive like wide open open world experience uh with a lot of unique mechanics and ideas that kind of separate it from the pack and they're doing it all with their own engine, >> right? >> Uh with lots of ray tracing and all that. So, uh, obviously the console version then becomes a bit of a question because it does seem very ambitious. You saw that PC video. It looks it looks insanely good. Uh, so, but we will be looking at the console version indeed. >> Mhm. >> As we can say, >> Oliver, is it really the case that there hasn't been any footage released on console so far? >> Well, I did a bit of digging. I don't think it's strictly true. Uh because there was some footage that was released in September when they announced the release date for the game, which I think is March 19th, and that was PS5 Pro footage, and it did look pretty good, although it was unlocked for that showing. So, some was 60, a lot of it was in kind of the 30s, not running too hot there. Did not have a frame rate cap um with that game. Now, I actually think I spoke to their marketing director at CES. I think his name was Willpowers. Um, I Alex and I spoke to him at CES and at that point they indicated that their console specs were still in flux and they did not really want to commit to any particular console targets. They said they would be talking about it closer to launch and I suppose they will, although this is awfully close to launch to not be talking about your console spec in too much detail or be showing off console footage. Although obviously I respect that hopefully we'll have a have a good story on that in the future when we do take a look at the game. Um, but there are some interesting details in the PlayStation blog entry that was published uh alongside this most recent update. They say they're making heavy use of the PS5 Pro's high CPU frequency mode, which I believe that mode takes the PS5 Pro up to a maximum of 3.85 GHz on the CPU there. Now, that isn't super promising necessarily for keeping the CPUbound frame rates uh very high. on the base console in particular, which operates at a lower frequency. That could be an area of some concern with streaming and all that in this game. Um, and they also talk about making it possible for Crimson Desert to hit 4K resolutions at higher frame rates with the use of PSSR2, which is an interesting sentiment. On the plus side, I think PSSR2, very promising upscaler for this kind of game, but obviously only specifying higher frame rates. Again, they're waffling a little bit on exactly what those frame rate targets would be. Ultimately, I just think we need to see this game actually deliver the visual quality that that we see on PC. I think we need to deliver a good fraction of that on console hopefully. And it does seem like a game that's reasonably scalable and reasonably friendly on AMD GPU architectures. So hopefully it will be able to do that on PlayStation 5 Pro and PlayStation 5 and obviously the Xbox Series machines. It's just an unusual roll out where they aren't showing up console footage or talking much about the console builds and the game is coming out in like two weeks. I I suggest that's not the best strategy in the world. Even if we uh might have the ability to take a look at that in in in due course here, I think they really should be a little bit more open about their expectations for the console build and actually show off more console footage. >> Okay. Well, I think it's fair to say that they are trying to, you know, help us here in terms of getting hold of the actual game and putting it through the paces digital foundry style. And that's not really historically what happens when a developer has got something to hide pre-launch. Maybe it is just a case that hey, you know, it's coming in a bit hot, but we stand by the work. >> And uh I guess we're going to find out very very soon, right, John? >> Yes, indeed. I think we will find out very soon. And I can't wait to find out myself. >> Yeah. I mean, I've got to admit, the level of um expectation and excitement for the game, I think, is um something I haven't seen for a long, long time. So, to put that into perspective, last week we put out three really good Resident Evil Recreum videos. Um all of which had compelling stories to tell, all of which um did really, really well for us. And then the very next day after we' released that video, Alex put out his video on Crimson Desert. And in terms of view counts and excitement level, it was basically like, you know, a 2x multiplier on the best of what we'd done with Resident Evil Recquum, which I I knew it was going to be hot, right? But I had no idea the level of expectation for this game was was that high. So, if we can actually replicate that with the console versions and if the quality of the game is everything that Pearl Abyss says it is and they're willing to, you know, give it to us, no holds barred coverage, I think that's going to be very very very interesting and I can't wait to to find out what the game looks like. And there's another thing that's really cool about this whole situation is like this company sort of did the inverse what we saw in a lot of western studios this gen where they built themselves up with Black Desert Online, right? Like they focused on mobile and for like these sort of like massively multiplayer online games and then they leveraged all the money that they made doing that to into making a gigantic single player game. And I think that's super cool. are like, "Hey, we've we've made a ton of money doing this. Rather than just keep doing that, let's also make this big single player adventure and just go nuts." And I think that's that's really commendable and cool. And I hope it pays off for them. >> So, I guess basically pretty much in the same way that I've concluded every new story in this direct. Can't wait to find out more. Let's wait and see. But, you know, I'm particularly interested in seeing what's going to happen on this one based on the the quality of Alex's video and the what we saw in it because the stuff we were seeing there was just absolutely fantastic. But, you know, I I kind of do think it's viable certainly from a a GPU perspective because, you know, 7900 XTX native 4K ultra settings. Maybe you don't need ultra settings on a console. You certainly don't need native 4K resolution. Uh there are upscales that can be done there. um you you know obviously you'd like to see 60 frames per second but it's not a given. If it was at 30 then that basically reduces the uh requirement still further. If they've got you know 30 40 60 modes in there brilliant. >> Mhm. >> I mean there's a lot of leeway I think based on what Alex's video showed there. It's not you know nothing in there that was going to rule out um a console level GPU >> based based on what we know about the way these uh GPUs kind kind of scale down. And it also, I think more importantly, means that um if there is that level of scalability in there, it also means that PC users with less capable GPUs u are probably in for a pretty decent experience, too, assuming all of this pans out. >> Yeah. >> Um yeah, but uh any final thoughts, Oliver? No, my my understanding at the time from speaking to their marketing director was that they had high expectations and that they thought the console versions were going to come in in good shape, but console performance and console performance targets were a moving target. So, it was hard to commit to the specifics at that stage. And indeed, they have not committed to those specifics in public. But again, based on the PC showing, I would have fairly high hopes and fairly high confidence in this game on consoles, given that, you know, 7900 XTX is a lot more powerful than the consoles in terms of rasterization, in terms of rate tracing, in terms of all this stuff. But at native 4K, like you don't need the consoles to operate at native 4K, you've got FSR, you've got PSSR2, you've got a lot of tools in your in your workshop to get that game up to a good performance level. To me, the key question would be um okay, that makes sense for 30 fps, it makes sense for 40 fps, but how do the CPUbound frame times look at something like 60 fps? Are they able to maintain that? That's more of an open question for me at that point, but it's one that I I mean, I would not be surprised if that's resolved pretty satisfactoryy. I just I just don't know cuz I have not seen the game running on these consoles as of yet. Right. >> Man, I love the I love those Oliver moments. I call them Rich. just happens often where Rich is like, "Uh, any more thoughts, Oliver?" And he's like, "No, but" and then proceeds to talk for like 2 or 3 minutes. I love it. It's so good. Okay. Well, uh, I don't think we got too much more to say about this at this particular juncture, but uh, that was the last discussion point, therefore the end of the show. We'll be back with the Q&A offshoot in a couple of days. But for now, uh, well, what can I say? If you enjoyed the content, please do like, subscribe, share, ring bells for you in terms of uh getting instant notifications for Digital Foundry content, potential algorithmic boosts for us. But if you really want to help out the team, please do consider supporting us on Patreon. patreon.com/digitalfoundry. Join us. Join our amazing community. Uh highquality video downloads of everything we do, early access to DF Direct, and usually the Q&A show, too. But that's all from us on this one. Thanks for watching and supporting Digital Foundry. We'll see you next time.

Digital Foundry is now fully independent! Join the DF Supporter Program and support the team: https://bit.ly/3jEGjvx In the run-up to GDC, Microsoft has given the new Xbox a codename - Project Helix - and there's confirmation that it'll run PC games too, but what else will be revealed and how much will it cost? Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that Sony's stepping back from bringing its triple-A singleplayer games to PC, John tries Marathon and bemoans RT changes made to RE Requiem, and Rich wonders what's going on with the reported RTX 5050 9GB. Finally, Pearl Abyss stands by the quality of Crimson Desert on consoles - and says that Digital Foundry will have full access to review code. Nice. Examine the DF Website: https://digitalfoundry.net Go here to check out DF merch! https://store.digitalfoundry.net Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: http://bit.ly/DFSubscribe 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:03 News 1: Microsoft teases next-gen Xbox 0:17:30 News 2: Report: Sony to halt single-player PC ports 0:29:58 News 3: John tries Marathon 0:42:37 News 4: RE Requiem drops ray tracing in key area on PS5 Pro 0:50:11 News 5: Report: Starfield landing soon on PS5 0:56:32 News 6: Is RTX 5050 9GB about to launch? 1:02:30 News 7: Why hasn’t Crimson Desert been shown on consoles?