As usual, my name is Jake Baldino, here to talk about all the video game news that has been going on this week. And we’re firing up the
rumor mill first and foremost with this crazy news, Sony potentially eyeing a purchase of some of Warner Brothers. Is PlayStation now going
to have an iron grip on gaming properties and franchises like Mortal Kombat and NetherRealm, and of course, Harry Potter video games, DC, Batman video games, and more? Well, let’s look into it. Well, yes, there is a
massive gaming angle to this. Warner Brothers’ whole
gaming wing is huge, despite fumbles. This is a whole thing, this is essentially Sony buying
a chunk of Warner Brothers. This comes from SEScoops, a website, I will admit, I
don’t know too much about, and from what I see, they are mostly a
wrestling-focused website, reporting on breaking news
in the wrestling world, but it seems like they got
an entertainment world scoop if this is legit. The quote is, “Sony is
considering a purchase of Warner Brothers Discovery’s
streaming and other assets. Sources have told SEScoops that Sony is considering a purchase of the newly announced WBD
Streaming and Studios company, which is expected to
complete its separation from Warner Brothers Discovery
Global Networks by mid-2026. Sony is interested in acquiring
HBO MAX streaming service, IPs, and its gaming assets.” There you have it. And honestly, this is the only source, I couldn’t find this corroborated
by any other websites, or entertainment world
websites, or anything like that. So it’s interesting that
this got over to this site. So take this all with a grain of salt, that it’s still a rumor, of course, but it’s interesting. I also think that it is
possibly a result of, you know, the whole Warner
Brothers Discovery changes and overhaul things going down lately. A lot of companies probably
coming sniffing around, just essentially eyeing
possibilities of acquisitions. All companies do this, a lot of big companies are always constantly running
the numbers, and running math, and doing reports on what they could buy and what it would look like. Is this concrete? We don’t know yet. And I think that’s partially because it hasn’t hit the major
entertainment trades yet. I really don’t know how much
we’re gonna see of this. I do think it’s interesting, and I don’t think it’s
completely out of this world. Sony, of course, has been
looking to buy, and has bought, many things in the past, but something like this
will be pretty massive. Again, a lot of the Warner
Brothers stuff is still ongoing, is still going down, so if it is true, it might
not happen for a while, but as of right now, I don’t know, I think this
is totally up in the air, I would not take this
as like concrete proof or anything like that. But if you wanna read up on
it and decide for yourself, click the link in the
description down below, like, all my sources and
everything I talk about are all down there. Hey, now before we keep going, Sony, of course, owns Bungie. Bungie has now officially announced that they are delaying Marathon. Yes, their big, live service,
extraction shooter game was slated to release this September. It has now been delayed with no actual release date in sight, just delayed, with more
news closer to the fall, with a detailed blog post saying
that it’s a direct response to a lot of feedback from the Alpha, with them tweaking
gameplay concepts, loot, art, obviously, they have
that whole stolen art scandal, more AI improvements, a lot of stuff. But that begs the question, is this enough? Is this enough to make Marathon better, but also just give it some appeal? Because from what I can see, just like scouring the internet, it still just seems like
Marathon has not really taken off with people personally. I have actually been able to
play quite a bit of this game, a work in progress of it, and I think it’s fine, it’s competent, it’s got some fun moments, but I still think it’s missing something. I think it’s just missing
that overall fun hook and that creativity, that really interesting stuff
that Bungie is known for. I didn’t really see that here. Now that begs the question, is that something that you can add in when you delay a game
for six months or a year? I don’t know. But it seems like they are
talking about working on a lot, so we’re just gonna have to wait and see. It’s probably gonna be a
minute before we hear anything, so we’ll just have to see how it goes. A lot of people are speculating that this is just inevitably
leading to it being canceled. I have no way of knowing, I can’t predict these corporations. God knows. Who knows? But if they can right the ship and actually put out a game
that’s good and people want, I’m gonna root for that. Still, we have no idea. They said they’re gonna double down also on the more Marathon elements of the game, which I think is good, because the original Marathon is cool, that IP is unique, and this new modern Marathon just kind of feels like
an extraction shooter with some kind of like random
sci-fi stuff stapled on it. So I’m curious to see if
they can right this ship, but we’re just gonna have to wait and see, it’s probably gonna be a minute. Also, check this out. This is just a really cool
game that was announced, interestingly enough, on its own time, not during last week’s whole
like, summer game fest chaos, and announcements, and PlayStation
Direct, and Xbox thing. This is Blood Message. This is gorgeous, this is apparently a new game
running in Unreal Engine 5, and it takes place in China during the real world event of the Dunhuang Uprisings in 848 AD. But this, to me, looks very much like a kind of cinematic
fantastical adventure. I’m glad we got to see some gameplay here, because not only graphically
does the game look incredible from yes, visually, graphics, art design, art direction, all that, but it looks very much
like a heavily inspired kind of like Uncharted, like an ancient Uncharted-style adventure, with lots of big action
set pieces and big moments, solving puzzles, and some combat. The combat, to me, kind
of looks a little bit like a modern God of War style combat. But like, overall, whatever it is, this just looks cool as hell. And it’s not just some like flashy trailer from something you’ve
never heard of before, it’s got something to back it up, it’s NetEase and 24 Entertainment. This is the folks behind
NARAKA: BLADEPOINT, which, you know, didn’t really
take off as much in the West, but is a big multiplayer
live service game. But it’s cool that now they’re taking
all that live service cash and just making what seems to be a big old action-adventure
cinematic thing, ’cause I like these types of games. Eastern developers seem
like they’re just continuing to rise up, hopefully the
bar is raised for everybody. I think this is pretty cool, I think this looks like
a pretty cool project. Again, this is called Blood Message. But it certainly made a splash when people first saw the trailer. As of right now, it’s just slated, “Coming soon to consoles and PC.” Next up, in case you missed it, Xbox made some big announcements, they are officially, once
again, partnering with AMD now to make their next generation console. So yes, Xbox is not
exiting the hardware game, they’re once again working with AMD, who did the chipset stuff
for the previous Xboxes, for the next generation. It also comes as no surprise, because also their handheld they announced like last week or so, the collab with Asus, the ROG Ally X, that also is running like
the newest AMD mobile chip. So, this announcement, you
can watch it for yourself, like just the language around it, it seems like they’re
really emphasizing Windows and the spread of Windows in the future, making Windows the thing for gaming, using possibly Xbox as like
the Trojan horse for that. That’s my theory, and, you know, there’s a
lot of speculation with VGC, Video Games Chronicles saying
that there’s potential, that this next Xbox really is going to be like this open Windows device that’s gonna be able to have games from all different storefronts. I’m curious to see how that all pans out, Xbox has been making a
lot of interesting moves in that direction. But for now, if you wanna read up on that, or watch the thing for yourself, like I said, it’s all linked down there. Next up, Nintendo did a whole big Direct for Donkey Kong Bananza, and holy shit, I don’t know, I just
think this looks cool, just good, simple, good clean, fun, man, featuring a giant monkey. We know Donkey Kong Bananza
is coming pretty soon, July 17th, and we got a full, detailed gameplay look. Lots of fun, different features, ZBrush kind of being a thing. Also the fact that the
game is heavily featuring like a little Pauline
riding on DK’s shoulders, which I think is just possibly
pretty interesting and fun as long as she’s not annoying. I think there’s a lot of creativity here, I’m excited to see how this goes. I did get to play this at a hands-on event a couple months back, and it seemed fun. I’m just curious to see how they can carry that
destructive formula through an entire game. I think it has a lot of potential, and honestly, I’m just, I have the Nintendo Switch 2, and I’m just waiting
for the bangers to drop. Speaking of bangers to drop, (chuckles) did you guys see this? In a London tube station, Nintendo Switch advertisements
were plastered on the walls featuring one that blew
up the internet overnight, it was a Metro Prime 4
banner that said “OUT NOW,” leading everyone to freak out and think, “Was this a mistake? Does this mean the game’s coming soon? Is Nintendo shadow dropping it?” That doesn’t seem to be the case. From IGN, “Nintendo has confirmed to IGN that the Metro Prime 4: Beyond advert currently at Oxford Circus
in London is incorrect, and the game still lacks
an official release date. We can confirm that the ‘Out
Now’ message on this advert is incorrect.” (Jake sighing) I almost had like, a heart attack, that like almost got me, ’cause that would’ve been awesome if it was suddenly coming very soon. It seems like it was mostly
supposed to be advertising that the Switch 2 is out now, and there was like some cross mix up with the art or whatever. But yeah, I guess we’re still waiting for Metro Prime 4: Beyond. This is another one I
played at a preview event, and I am so excited for it. As of right now, I have
the Nintendo Switch 2, and I consider, you know, like
Nintendo’s problems aside, I essentially look at having
this device now, it’s like, “Oh, I got my Metro
Prime 4 machine early.” It was just crazy to see, like Nintendo fans are
such interesting people, I love that so many people like
rushed to this tube station to take a photo or take a video of it. I just appreciate stuff like that, the gaming world never ceases to amaze me, especially when just like
weird stuff like this happens. At least in London, their
like, cool underground stations are getting like, cool metro ads. In New York, we just got Pizza Rat. God bless him though. We love him. Also, I’ve been kind of in the dark now, I’ve been like, avoiding any more Metal
Gear Solid Delta news, ’cause as like, a hardcore weirdo, I’m just ready to just dive in
and see how it is for myself. But Konami did unveil a little bit of that multiplayer mode they teased, it’s called Fox Hunt Mode, and it’s apparently not like Metal Gear Solid
3: Subsistence Online, or Metal Gear 4 Online,
or anything like that, it’s like something new
they tried to work in that heavily features
the camouflage system. But even though they have
this featurette video, they really did not reveal
a lot of details about it. Still, it is officially a thing, and I’m excited to see what
the hell it actually is. Now in terms of games releasing this week, last week, of course, don’t
miss, there was a bunch, like Dune: Awakening, and the The Alters that
were keeping us busy, but this week we have Rematch, which is the football/soccer
game from Sloclap, the people behind one of
my favorite games, Sifu. I’m really excited to check
this one out at some point, because they just have a good
way of rethinking gameplay, animation, and movement, and physics in a way that’s interesting, and applying that to
sports is pretty cool. Also releasing this
week is FBC: Firebreak. This is the newest game from Remedy. This is like a spinoff offshoot, it’s a multiplayer
shooter, a PVE co-op game, set in the world of Control, where it’s kind of like
a Left 4 Dead, Deep Rock, kind of Hell Divers thing, where you’re running
around trying to fix stuff and fight off The Hiss. It is not perfect, I had some issues with it, but in short bursts, I
found it to be a good time. It’s something if you have
PS Plus or Xbox Game Pass, maybe that’s how you check it out, but it certainly didn’t
keep me entertained forever, but, you know, I did
have some fun with it. I don’t know, judge for yourself. At the very least, Remedy is very quickly
seemingly jumping on feedback and updating some things, because some of my biggest
complaints with this were progression stuff, and it seems like they’re
pretty on the ball with adjusting that. So keep your eyes peeled on that, and, again, if you wanna
check out the Before You Buy and just see some gameplay,
that’s linked below. Also, in terms of stuff we made this week, we also did a Switch 2 durability test. It’s a really dumb video, we just kind of covered a Switch with Mountain Dew and Doritos and dropped it a couple of times, because some people make
these durability tests so technical, like these
big crazy YouTube channels, that we just tried to do some
real world dumb stuff to it. It was painful, and I know in the video I said like, GameRanx forced me to do that
video and people got mad. That’s not really the case, I was kind of exaggerating. But either way, (chuckles) we did sacrifice a Switch, we weren’t happy about doing it, but we did it, and it seems like people appreciated it, thanks for the feedback. Also, it’s been a minute since we heard anything
about Battlefield 6, but thankfully EA did kind
of come out and assure us that there is still an announcement of this game coming this summer. Some people were really thinking June, but EA had never really
confirmed anything for June, just this summer, and they have once again said yes, the announcement is coming this summer. Some people were kind of messaging me, like asking for news about it. Not like I’m the Battlefield
guy or anything like that, but yeah, nothing yet, but at the very least, we know a game announcement
is coming this summer. Very curious to see what
Battlefield can do now in the wake of live service, multiplayer, all that stuff really, really shifting. And after Battlefield
2042, all that stuff, curious to see how this goes down. But no date yet officially. But we just figured, for
some of you guys out there, I don’t know, maybe keep
it in your back pocket, something coming soon. Who knows? But that’s it this week, gotta get back to work. Big review, big Before
You Buy coming next week, I’m working on it all weekend, so keep your eyes peeled early
next week for something cool. But for now, let me know what you think in
the comments about everything, Bungie, of course, delaying Marathon. How could they possibly make
Marathon better for you? What would keep you interested? Sony buying Warner Brothers, or Warner Brothers IP. Who knows? I don’t know. We’ll see. Xbox with AMD, that platform change. Donkey Kong Bananza, seen some more gameplay of that. What do you think? Let’s talk about any of this
stuff down in the comments. Hit us up down there. Things get a little crazy though, so if you ever wanna yell at me directly, you can always find me on
Instagram, Twitter, @JakeBaldino, all those places. Search on YouTube, youtube.com/Jakebaldino, where
I talk about other stuff, I go more in-depth. So hit me up. But that’s it. Like I said, keep your eyes peeled next
week for some good stuff. That’s all I got for you. I’m Jake Baldino, I’m here every Friday, thanks for watching. Have a great weekend. Be safe. Pizza’s on me.