Of Gods and Agents

Games in this podcast range from E to M.

Hello and welcome to the official Xbox podcast,

the only podcast coming to you from inside Xbox,

in case you missed the giant icon here behind us.

I'm Jeff Rubenstein from Xbox Wire,

and the first of September, I've got my fall palette on.

I've heard my first pumpkin spice latte of the season,

and the games are coming thick and fast.

There is far more than we could possibly talk about,

you know, any one of us.

So that's why we brought a lot of friends here.

Before I introduce you, I also want to let you know

we're going to be meeting with Riot Games' Arnar Gilfessin

about Valorant's latest agent coming to the game.

Of course, Valorant came to Xbox earlier this summer,

and we'll be talking more about that.

And we even have hands-on on a new controller

everyone's talking about, which is the Razer V3 Wolverine.

It looks really cool, and we'll be trying it out.

You're looking like you're going to want to go hands-on it.

So let's meet the cast of characters here this week.

First of all, our director of premiere broadcast, Tina Amini.

Great to see you again.

Hi. Great to be back, especially in the studio with you guys in person.

I feel like it's been a year that I've been on the road traveling for events,

so it's good to have my feet back on the ground.

But if you're a podcast viewer, we saw you just last week

when you were part of the deep dive for Atomfall.

Atomfall, yeah. That game looks incredible.

Joe Scrubbles and I were having so much fun talking about it.

And it had a really good time.

It was a really good time.

We had a really big presence at Gamescom, including on our stream,

but more to come on that one.

Yeah, pin in that one.

We'll be talking about Gamescom here in a minute.

Happy to welcome back our resident meme master

and pumpkin spice latte general.

I don't know.

Josh Stein. How's that taste right now?

It's cold brew, so I switched to cold brew a couple years ago.

Yeah.

As I'm getting older, I need something a little bit more of a kick in the morning.

Yeah.

I don't know if that's a bad sign or a good sign about my sleeping habits.

We'll see if you flip this table over by the end of the show.

Yeah, maybe at least.

At least twice.

But it's good to be here.

I also went on the road recently.

Not as much as Tina, of course.

About half the time.

Got to do the Gamescom spin and then did a back-to-back and thought,

two days at PAX, why not?

My sleep schedule's fully destroyed.

Why sleep when there are games?

Exactly.

Why sleep when there are games?

I like that.

So finally starting to recover, though,

dealing with 18 in-laws now coming to my house.

All right.

That's good.

That's your own podcast.

My own personal strife, yeah.

Yeah, we'll save that for your self-help familial podcast.

But we will want to hear all about what you did at PAX here in a minute.

But we're talking about all these games coming in.

And one of those games is Age of Mythology Retold.

And so I'm really happy to welcome you, Emma Bridle,

Director of Player Engagement for World's Edge,

back here to the show.

How's things going?

You released last week for early access.

I was at Gamescom, bumped into Josh on the streets of Cologne.

That was wonderful.

I got back, had like one day of sleep,

then started getting ready for early access.

So that's been good.

I've been going for about seven days.

And yeah, we're getting ready to launch.

And very, very exciting.

All right.

Very, very good.

So not too long ago.

Seems like a long time ago.

We were at Gamescom.

You two were in, all of you were in Germany, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

How was it?

I wasn't there.

I didn't get to have schnitzel this year.

I get to, we did do some stuff in LA.

You'll be able to talk about what you did, though.

That was pretty good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, we'll get to that.

But I want to hear what you did, because I had a little bit of FOMO.

I didn't have any tiny beers.

Tell me.

So funny.

What did you play?

What did you get to do?

Oh, my God.

I actually didn't play a single thing, because I was in our production compound the whole

time.

We had three days of programming, so that keeps you busy.

And it's basically just like kind of monitoring the feeds and the gameplay.

Everything's live, so we're punching things in like B-roll at the same time as someone's

talking about a subject.

And, you know, three days is quite a lot.

We had about three hours of programming every day.

You guys were hustling.

Very exciting.

Yeah.

Yes.

It was a big hustle.

You had like a Hollywood-level compound back there with like 18 trailers.

I walked in one.

I walked in one, and it was like a screen across the whole thing and like a bunch of

really important people.

I think probably our main like control production room in that case.

It's pretty cool.

Like you walk in, and it's like the, yeah, it's like a Star Trek.

Like, yeah, kind of like NASA.

Yeah.

Let's go the real world version.

We're not like doing anything impressive other than talking about video games.

That's impressive.

So we're doing the fun stuff.

When I got to our booth, you guys were filming B-roll.

So I walk up, and there's like gods and goddess cosplayers and people yelling for Stagma.

Yeah.

We had Age on the Street.

Yeah.

We had a lot of.

We had a lot of games featured.

I think it was like 40 to 50 games by the end that we had, like both in the booth, but

also in our stream, too.

I was going to say, the booth was the biggest booth I've ever seen for X-Men.

Biggest booth we've ever made.

I think it is officially the biggest.

Like half the whole, I think.

That was like half the whole that we were in.

Yeah.

We definitely expanded this year because we had, this was the first time we had Activision.

The new family members.

Alongside us with Bethesda and Xbox Game Studios.

So it was really momentous, I think, for the team.

Yeah.

To just have everyone in Germany in this like big community moment.

You know, this is kind of our chance to connect with fans this way.

And some big booths.

We had a temple.

We had a castle.

Two temples.

A castle.

It was really.

Just buy one, get one.

Yeah.

Catch you by surprise.

Like I think going into these, like we know some of the, like we knew like people would

probably be really excited about Avowed, for instance.

But when you have that many games from, you know, different creators, big and small, were

there any things where it's like, oh, I didn't, this game's on my radar now?

I did.

There was a really good juxtaposition.

I think that there were two booths, two games next to each other.

And I think it was Date Anything and King of Meat.

Date Everything.

Date Everything and King of Meat next to each other.

I love that they were next to each other.

And I just liked that they were next to each other.

Yeah, it was great.

But some friends of mine are working on King of Meat and that was a really great moment.

I have an image in my mind.

Opening Night Live.

I don't know how I feel about it.

King of Meat.

What is this?

It's very cute.

So did you, you spotted it in Opening Night Live.

They worked Jeff Keighley into the trailer as a cartoon.

Did you guys see that?

Yes.

Yeah.

And so everyone I was sitting with in the room was going, I don't know what this is,

but God, it looks fun.

I'm going to play this with my kids.

And I still am not 100% sure.

I just popped into the booth.

They had fake laxative adverts in all the restrooms.

Yes.

Did you see those?

I saw those at the urinals.

Yeah.

Got to read something.

It just looks like a lot of chaotic fun, like maybe like a Fall Guys type.

Okay.

Yeah.

But I was excited about Two Point Museum.

Oh, yeah.

I love the Two Point games.

Oh.

They, I love Two Point Campus, but also when they have the in-game radio stations, for

me as a Brit who lives in the U.S., it's like.

Home?

Yeah.

It's all like very British humor.

And so I was really excited to see that they were on the booth as well.

I'm really excited for that one.

Yeah.

Didn't get to play it because I was so busy, but.

Yeah.

That's the problem with us.

I know.

Gamescom.

I think Josh got right.

Yeah.

You did.

You're probably the most floaty.

We had to cover it for social.

Yeah.

So we were there with like a remote team and we were trying to cover everything.

We just have so many partners there, both first party and third party.

Oh, no.

I have to go and try everything.

I know.

So what'd you plan?

Let's talk.

Yeah, go on.

So I think one of the best things to start off was with a World of Warcraft experience.

You can't talk about the Gamescom without talking about that, which basically they bought

and built these like.

I saw those.

These riding rigs.

And so you hop on this thing.

Think of it kind of like a motorcycle and you hold on.

You put a VR helmet on and then they've got wind tunnels blowing at you and you get in

the game.

It's a cut scene and suddenly you're riding a dragon in World of Warcraft.

Whoa.

And I swear to God, there were moments where I felt like I was at a 90 degree like.

And then.

Like there's a video of me and I'm like two inches lifted and elevated going.

It's the VR and the imagination.

I heard that from a lot of people though.

But it's super.

And I didn't get nauseous.

I guess the fans is the trick.

You're supposed to have like.

If you have a little bit of air blowing on you, which is just me on a hot day, I guess

it just makes you feel all the better.

Gamescom is really hot.

So that must be a nice little break.

So I started with that.

Then I went over and did the Indiana Jones Starfield like theater experience.

Which is really fun.

I'm a big Indiana Jones fan.

Did you get your hat?

Your Indy hat?

I did get my hat.

I may have brought it.

Yeah.

Props.

I do have some props.

Props to props.

We went from that.

And then there's, it's worth mentioning, there's a two-story doom statue, like doomslayer.

Yeah.

I'm going to say it's two stories because it was, I mean, I'm only five foot four.

We didn't measure it.

Everything is two stories to me.

But it's okay.

It was eight feet tall.

But I literally, I mean, pretty much from around from there, the Diablo had an experience.

Yeah.

Then about had an experience.

Yeah.

I had an experience.

Then they got to play Towerborn for the first time.

I hadn't played Towerborn yet.

They had a great booth.

So I got to play Towerborn, which was really cool, which-

That's only a week away.

Yeah.

Right around the corner.

For early access.

Tied in nice.

I got a little windmill preview before I actually went to Amsterdam and saw real windmills,

which was kind of fun.

Oh yeah.

You do that point of comparison.

Yep.

And then curved around to like, was it Warhammer?

We had Warhammer booth and that's coming out like, I think on the ninth and like really

excited to play that one with friends.

And then tailed it back over to ESO had a like, or not ESO, Genshin.

Genshin was also on our booth.

Which is coming to Xbox.

Which is a big deal.

Yeah.

For sure.

People were really excited about that.

And so that was like my loop I made around.

And then of course in the middle was like the swag stuff.

So you could do like claw machine.

Did you do the plushie wall?

Because I was so excited about that.

All right, just go get your stuff.

Okay.

So what are you waiting for?

So yes, I did the plushie wall.

So they had a really fun game where you could buy a ticket to one of 12 doors.

And so I bought a couple of tickets and I have, of course, I have a young one at home.

And the cutest one of them was definitely this-

This collaboration Blizzard did with an artist where they could do murlocs.

And so they did this adorable little like hand-knit murloc.

And so I got that for my youngest.

She was like, Daddy, where are you going with my stuff?

I was about to say, how did you get away with that?

I said, I just have to show it at work.

She's like, you're going to bring it back, right?

You were like, show and tell.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And so I got out of the house, but I definitely got stopped by the plushie police on the way

out.

And then I might as well show it off.

And wear it, right?

We went.

We.

I went over to the Diablo booth and what was really cool about the Diablo booth is they

were giving out these like little coins, coin pouches, depending on which Vessel of Hatred

you played.

I think I actually may have dropped it.

You may have dropped it.

I think I dropped the coin out.

You've got the bag.

But I do have the little baggie.

But you got a coin for whichever class you pick.

So I did the centipede poison class.

So I have this cool centipede custom coin.

And this one wasn't in our booth, but it is coming out and I was excited for it.

This is the first Berserker Kazan.

I actually won a poster for this.

And I didn't bring the poster because I thought I'd be a giant nerd rolling out a giant poster.

I love that this is a postcard.

Like you were supposed to mail this back from Jersey.

Correct.

It's also worth mentioning out our accessibility team was there.

They gave me this.

We'll be talking a little bit about.

They gave me this really cool pin.

I'm going to wait and let you talk about what they brought to the booth.

And then of course they gave.

I'm going to look.

Put it on.

Yes.

B and D hat.

No, it's perfect.

It's like Indies in the room.

But they gave out these Indiana.

You don't know.

You can look it up.

Yeah.

You can leave that on.

Yeah.

It's in the theater.

It's good.

I think it looks terrible.

My wife's going to tell me I never should have put that on.

What about the souvenir that you got from the party?

Oh, yeah.

So can we show that?

I also brought back a permanent gift.

Yeah.

From Gamescom.

I brought back a tattoo.

Oh, wow.

So Diablo, our wonderful friends at Blizzard held an event.

It's upside down, but where I have to explain this.

So I'm with my friend and coworker, Ethan.

And we walk in.

Who we're going to see later in the show.

Yeah, we are actually going to see him.

So I walk into the event and it's beautifully decorated like Vessel of Hatred.

There are vines everywhere.

There's people cosplaying.

I walk in.

I see three DJ or DJ and two guys.

And they're in those inflatable suits.

You showed me.

I have a photo of this.

But they're in the inflatable cow suits.

So they're like dancing and thumping.

They're doing like remix of The Butcher.

And these big giant cow fat suits are just bobbling everywhere, which I think two of

them were developers, by the way.

I think I found that out later.

Just DJs on the side.

So I see this and it's thumping.

I turn around the corner and out of the vines comes this man and he's like, do you want

a tattoo?

And I was like, what?

He's like, do you want a tattoo?

And I go on the corner and you can pick one of 12 designs if you want and get a tattoo.

Please do not accept tattoos from strangers.

So I accepted a tattoo from a stranger.

Please don't do what I do.

And I got the Necromancer corpse explosion because I'm a Necromancer main and I felt

like it was very apt.

My wife was very shocked when I sent it a picture of that.

I was like, so I had a good time last night.

And then what is funny is right after that, though, they have, you know, we have places

in the U.S.

You can go and build stuffies.

They have destroy a stuffy.

Oh, no.

Kill a bear.

You can open this bear up.

Blood and eyeballs.

No, no, no, no.

But I mean, very in the theme of Diablo.

I guess.

So I have to say.

We've all seen the trailer from Showcase.

Yeah, right.

The splinter from hell.

Yeah.

So I have to say the Blizzard people know how to have a good time.

And it was great to just sit there.

Talk to the developers.

Yeah.

Enjoy.

I'm obviously a big Diablo fan.

I've been playing the hell out of Diablo four.

My season five character is maxed out, ready for the vessel of hatred as it comes and drops

here on there in October.

And so I had a good old time.

My little.

And then last but not least, I'm leaving that event.

And one of the fans at of Xbox, he opens up his bag.

His name's Daniel.

Oh, I love Daniel with the pins.

Yes.

Everyone knows Daniel.

Daniel with the pins.

Yeah.

And he's like, I have something for you.

I'm like, what?

He's like, my license plate.

And I go, what?

He's like, I have my license plate for you.

And so this is like a real license plate.

There's a picture of it on his car.

Oh.

And he gave it to you.

No longer registered to an address or anything.

Yes.

License plate has been changed.

But I came home and my wife was very confused.

She's like.

That's awesome.

So an Indiana Jones hat, a stuffy, a tattoo and a real.

And someone else's license plate.

This is how you know gaming is for all ages.

Yes.

This is why I love gaming in general.

There's something for everyone.

Exactly.

How many times can you say that kind of experience?

Wow.

So you had the most fun at Gamescom.

He did.

We just worked.

I bumped into him when he had the tattoo.

Oh, yeah.

I kept being like, it's a temporary tattoo, right?

And he's like, no.

No.

All in.

All in on this one.

So these were great stories.

Maybe I had too much fun.

I'm so sorry.

You failed the assignment where I asked if you played anything at all.

But that's fine.

You sound like a good time.

We were working.

We did a bit of a companion event, if you would, in LA for people that weren't able

to make it out to Germany.

How did it go?

I think it went really well.

We had about 75 creators in media.

You probably saw, if you saw anything from Paris Lily or Trisha Hershberger or a great

write up on IGN on Avowed from Destin Laguerre.

All those things happened at that LA event.

It was great to just reach more people there.

But then when we were wrapping up for the day, I was like, it's my turn to play Avowed

because I hadn't really been wanting to do that.

Everyone was coming down and saying, oh my God, we had a great time.

Again, you don't have to take my word for it because they wrote it or they made videos

about it.

It's really fun.

Yeah.

What I want to say about it, my favorite part, I was playing as a barbarian because that's

normally not the class I will do.

So I was like, I don't want to use my rogue quite yet, but there's a ton of flexibility

in the way you can play Avowed.

But I'm looking for the humor, the type of thing that you expect from an Obsidian game.

Obsidian, that flavor.

Exactly.

So I'm running a quest that's in the game and very early on, I realized I'm getting

played by this quest giver.

They're using me to get a thing.

But I'm going to play along.

Normally, I'm like, they're setting me up where I'm going to have to fight this dude

and keep whatever this thing I got is.

And I come back with the thing and he's trying to reanimate this robot god and it doesn't

work.

And then he's like, ah, I think I know what it is.

We need a human soul for this.

And so the choices, you can fight them immediately.

You can say no.

You can...

Different skill checks.

Yeah, I'm in.

And I was like, I'm in.

I will choose that.

When is Rome?

Yeah.

And they were like...

And your companion, Kai, and one of the things we love from an Obsidian game is your companions

have lots of dialogue and are like, you really should not be doing this.

You should reconsider this.

This person's playing you.

And I was like...

Please lead us.

And I'm like...

We need to go home right now.

Yeah.

And I'm like, nope.

I'm in.

And the game's like, are you sure?

And so then this quest giver's like, well, then you can stand right here and await the

shock.

And then your quest, you know, sort of the objective that appears on the left side of

the screen, it was just like, contemplate your imminent death.

And then I stood there and it killed me and I got a game over, but then you could reload

and then the next time I fought him.

I appreciate that it lets you follow through.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And that makes it go back.

Because it's just like rewarding your curiosity.

Yeah.

I was going to say, lean into it and go in.

Yeah, go on then.

Yeah, sure.

Why not?

I'm here.

Yeah.

And that was super fun.

And that's when you hit save and then you...

Exactly.

Save, yeah.

Exactly.

But even then it sort of took me back to, it conveniently had a checkpoint right before

I said, you know, yes, I'm going to stand here and sacrifice myself.

So anyway, very cool.

It was really great to play it and many other games that we had as well, but we will save

many of those for another time because there's a game that you all can play literally right

now because just coming to Game Pass, Age of Mythology Retold.

Yeah.

As we record this, it's been available for about a week.

Yeah.

It's live 5 p.m. Pacific last Tuesday so that people who had bought the premium edition

could have just a little over seven days.

We threw in a few extra hours of advanced access.

And so that's been going really, really well.

Fantastic reviews.

So thank you to everybody who's played.

We've been listening, gathering all the feedback.

We've already issued an update with a whole load of improvements and we're working on

our next one.

But the big global launch is, as time of recording, is tomorrow.

So as you listen to this, you can play right now.

And please do.

So yeah, have any of you guys played Age of Mythology, the original, played Retold before?

How familiar are you with it?

I got to start with it.

And so you're really, you're following...

So one thing that I thought was really interesting, I was doing an interview with Ernest Yuan,

who's the executive producer.

He's been working on the Age franchise for literally decades.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

And when he was talking about how people were playing the original, that you all went back

to the original game and were looking at like what people were saying in forums to see if

they could see what to address.

Yeah.

We've got 20 years worth of feedback to work through.

Which is wild.

Yeah.

And he was saying that where some people sort of didn't have as much fun as they could

have back 20 years ago, is they were playing it too much like Age of Empires.

Like too...

Yeah.

Like on the nose, too...

Like there's strategy involved.

Oh, there is, but it's...

You also get to throw lightning bolts out.

Oh, yeah.

Lightning bolts, earthquakes, laser crocs.

There's all this going on.

And so it's like really leaning into, we've said we're leaning into the mythology.

There's magic.

There's chaos.

There's god powers.

Those god powers used to be single use.

So a god would bless you with a power, whether that's meteor storms or the lightning bolts.

And you'd have it one use.

And people would hold onto it and they'd be like, I'm just going to wait for the right

moment to use it.

Every RPG gamer knows that feeling.

And they'd never use it.

So we've made them rechargeable now.

So it's just like, yeah, you want to do meteor storms, like multiple, we're going to do that.

We've added another age called the Wonder Age where everything just becomes cheaper.

So you want to just start spawning loads of myth units.

Can I get one of those in real life?

Yes.

And so there's just so much fun.

So yeah, it is RTS, but we think it's the most approachable game we've ever done.

The mythological theme, I mean, I feel like everybody's nerded out about Greek mythology

at some point growing up and gotten super into it.

And in what other games can you have sort of Odin go up against Ra, you know?

So there's so much good stuff in it.

There's more than 50 missions in our campaign.

So you follow Arkantos, our hero, as he sort of travels through the world, tasked by Athena.

You can play skirmish.

You can play multiplayer.

We've got another game mode coming post-launch that we'll be talking about soon.

We've got two expansions coming.

So whilst there's a ton of stuff to play right now, there's also a ton of stuff coming.

We released a roadmap just the week of Gamescom, actually, as we were talking about all of

that stuff.

So there is so much good stuff.

And this is the first age game that has launched on PC and on Xbox consoles at the same time.

Yes.

On day one.

Yeah.

So we established them on PC and then brought them to console later.

But this one, we've taken everything that we've learned from H2 and H4 and made sure

that we've got that console version ready to go on day one.

So if you want to play on console, if you want to play on WinStore PC, if you want to

play on Steam, you can play and you can play together.

And that's been really great because playing RTS with a controller is a challenge.

It's a different experience.

And we've had the opportunity to learn.

We've got systems that will help you.

Take out some of that micromesh.

We've got a lot of software management so that you can really focus on what you want

to focus on.

And I think we've done a really, I mean, I'm biased, but we've done a great job on getting

that experience really good with, and you can play on console with mouse and keyboard

or you can play with controller on PC.

So however you want to play, we've kind of made that possible for you.

Yeah.

I have to give you guys kudos.

So I grew up playing Age on PC, mouse and keyboard.

And then I tried the beta out for Age of Mythology and I tried it with just a controller.

And I was worried.

I was skeptic.

Yeah.

But it was super helpful that you guys built in.

It was super helpful and I had no issues with it whatsoever.

I played no part in it, but I will tell the team.

Voice of one here, but pass it on as someone who like grew up playing those RTS with keyboard

and mice and jumped to the controller.

It was really intuitive and I actually really enjoyed it a lot.

What's really interesting is like when I'm playing at RTS, I'm doing one of these.

I'm leaning forward.

I'm looking at my monitor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I also, when I played it on console, I'm like leaning back.

You're on your couch and you're just, yeah.

Just the A and B button for the most part to select and deselect and sort of move things

around.

So it's a different sort of mindset to play that way.

And I think it's really fun, especially for the playing through the campaign.

Yeah.

I mean, one thing I really like is a villager prioritization system.

Struggle with that one.

Where you can basically say, hey, can you just assign my villagers to what they need

to to start building the economy?

Because I want to go over here and I want to start planning my army.

You take care of my economy.

I love that.

And so you can do that.

There's just so many things that we've tried to build in so that people can play in different

ways.

If you want to be the super pro player that's micromanaging everything.

Every unit individually, you can.

But if you want to just have us take care of some bits whilst you go and start building

your army of laser crocs, you can do that too.

So I think it's going to be really, really fun.

And we're seeing a lot of new players come in who are new to franchise, possibly been

hooked by the mythology theme, which is just so much fun.

And so it's really exciting to bring it back both for the people that played it originally.

We did the original release in 2002.

It came to Steam in 2013.

So there's folks that have that attachment to it.

But also people who've never played it before, play it in 4K with ray tracing, with all these

great systems and have a great time causing chaos, bacchanal of chaos is one of the phrases

we like.

That's a good-

It's a bacchanal of chaos.

Put that on Twitter.

Put it on the box.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, all right.

Where can you play?

Where are all the different ways that you can play?

So you can play on PC.

You can play on Xbox.

You can play on Steam.

You can play on Game Pass.

You can play with your different inputs.

So if you have any of those platforms, go and add it to your library.

Join the fun.

So yeah.

It's so exciting.

Where can people find out more about the mode that you mentioned that's coming down

the line, the roadmap, all that stuff?

Yeah.

So we've just put a whole load of stuff on ageofempires.com that will detail all the

pantheons.

We've got the Greeks, the Egyptians, the Norse, and the Atlanteans.

And we've released in-depth pages so that you can go and research which pantheon do

you want, which gods do you want to pick, which myth units do you want to do.

So there's a whole load of stuff on ageofempires.com and then Age of Mythology social channels as

well.

We'll be publishing so that you can learn how to play.

We'll be helping new players.

It's just a really exciting time for us.

And we had a great showing at Gamescom and we had so many people come and tell us their

stories of how much they loved playing this growing up.

My favorite actually was I was speaking to a young woman who said, I've been playing

Age of Empires my whole life and it's so important to me.

And I tried Age of Mythology originally and I didn't like it.

Age of Mythology was just not for me, but I heard you were remaking it.

So I came to your booth.

And I tried it and she played our show floor demo and she's like, and I love it.

Retold has changed this for me.

I'm going to preorder it right now.

So the team has just done such a great job of just adding just more into the game.

And it's been so fun seeing them like passionately talk about it.

Oh my gosh.

Ernest and the team out.

Like after Showcase in LA, he did like a kind of a talk for the audience there.

He was incredible.

But on our Gamescom stream too, just hearing everybody so excited about how the team is

modernizing things.

In a really clever way and preserving the experience for old time players, but also

like that new players that you're talking about.

Yeah.

It's a lot of hard work by a lot of people all over the world who have just so much respect

for the original game.

And one of the things Ernest has been talking about is it had so much potential back in

2002, but there was limits with the tech as to how far that it could be pushed.

And so now we have the benefit of modern day machines that we can really just keep pushing

that envelope of just more.

A little bit more.

Yeah.

A little bit more fun.

More laser crocs.

And there is, that is not the only Game Pass game hitting this week.

We're actually kicking off September.

When there's a new month, immediately people start asking, what's coming to Game Pass?

So this September we're kicking off with truck driving, extreme outdoor sports, and a locomotive

situation.

One that has an interesting story.

Jump in if you've played any of these games, let me know.

First off, available now, Star Trucker, annunciation very important there, it's available day one

with Game Pass.

Get into the driver's seat of your rocket powered big rig as you haul cargo, scavenge

for salvage, and interact with an eclectic cast of star hopping truckers in this Americana

infused journey on the ultimate open road space.

That was the one.

That's the open road.

Also, and I know people that are very into this.

Oh yes.

A Mud Runner game out September 5th.

Hey, that's today.

Embark on a scientific expedition with this new off-road adventure from the creators of

Mud Runner and Snow Runner.

Lead research missions, drive a variety of all-terrain vehicles, use high-tech tools,

and manage your camp and crew to ensure your success in the wild.

Have you ever played any of these, the expeditions, the Mud Runner games?

I haven't, but you're right that there's a huge contingent of people out there that

love these games.

These are fun to watch.

Yes.

Definitely.

I have played this, Riders Republic, coming out September 11th on cloud console and PC.

I'm a bit of a snowboarder myself, not that I can do anything that you do in Riders Republic,

but this is really cool.

This is really cool because it's like an MMO in a way.

It's a massive multiplayer playground, but the mountain is sort of like the lobby where

everyone's at.

You can see other people skiing and snowboarding and doing all kinds of tricks and other things

like that.

It has some real-life parks across the US that are really cool, real mountains and stuff

like that.

You can do bikes, ski, snowboard, or wingsuit, which is very fun to do.

I will say you got to work up to that.

It's not the easiest thing in the world, in real life and in the game, actually.

It is.

It turns out.

Yeah, yeah.

Then also coming in about two weeks on September 17th, Train Sim World 5, available day one

on Game Pass.

The rails are yours in Train Sim World 5.

You take on new challenges, new roles, you want to master the tracks, go through tons

of iconic cities, and you immerse yourself into trains.

What I thought was really interesting, I was listening to a podcast with Rod Ferguson on

it.

Yeah.

It's the fourth wall.

Maybe it's the fourth wall.

Can't remember.

Game developer podcast, really cool, hosted by Alex Seropian, definitely worth checking

out.

Rod Ferguson's first game that he worked on was Train Simulator.

Was it really?

Yeah.

Wow.

I don't know.

He was brought in originally to work on Flight Simulator back in the late 1990s or early

2000s and ended up producing Train Sim and then ended up on Gears.

Rod's lore goes deep there.

I know.

You would not ... Not where you necessarily ... Maybe that's where Coltrane came from.

Yeah.

Maybe that's where Coltrane came from.

I don't know.

I'll ask him next time.

Maybe that's probably not true.

We should ask him, but we definitely need to have him back here before Vessel of Hatred

ships.

Mental note made.

All right.

This weekend, do you have plans?

Do you know what you're playing?

Call of Duty 6, Black Ops Beta.

Wow.

How did you know that?

Yes.

This is actually ... We're going into week two of the Black Ops Beta.

Last week was for people who pre-ordered.

This is open.

Everyone can try it.

That means even if you don't have Game Pass Core, you can play.

That's great.

No reason not to, right?

No reason not to.

Yeah.

This kicks off September 6th.

Going through September 9th includes all the other maps and modes from last weekend.

If you did play last weekend, good news is during this early access period, you'll find

that your leveling has carried over.

Oh, great.

You want to try to get up to level 30.

That will allow you to unlock all kinds of cool stuff.

There's going to be two new maps this weekend that weren't there last weekend.

Babylon and Stakeout, in addition to the gunfight and face-off kill order game modes.

People have been having fun with that one.

For sure.

Yeah.

There's people on my team that are already unlocking.

The hostage move.

Yeah.

There's some pretty great clips on social.

I did the whisper.

I was like, hey, little mama, let me whisper in your ear.

Like when I grab somebody, and I don't think they laugh as much as I laugh, but I was cackling

like a kid.

That's going to happen to me a lot.

It's just what I know.

I'm predicting for myself, too.

Yeah.

This is pretty good.

So Call of Duty Black Ops 6, of course, is launching next month, October 25th, on Xbox

Series X and S, Xbox One, Windows PC, and yes, it is coming day one to Game Pass.

Cannot wait.

I've always loved the Black Ops campaigns, but zombies, I feel like I'm already putting

together my zombies crew.

And if you're not sure, you should rewatch, because we just had it, gosh, last week.

Time is but a figment to me now.

But Call of Duty Next was right after Gamescom.

Yeah.

That was the whole thing of traveling from Germany and coming back, right?

You were there?

Oh, you were in D.C.?

Tell us about that.

Oh, please, because that museum looked insane.

It was incredible.

Yes, absolutely insane.

I mean, all of the creators walking through were just floored immediately, which, thank

you for all the people who came and thanked me, but I had nothing to do with that event.

I was completely Activision.

So happy just to be there and invited and checking out how they do a major moment for

Black Ops 6.

Yeah.

So this sucker, though, we have to like, this was in a museum?

Yes.

They cleared the lobby, moved the paintings and the marbles.

The whole thing, yeah.

The whole statue?

Yeah, 100%.

And had our own little statues there with like, you know, some of the blindfolding and

there was just huge drapes like scaling all the way to the giant ceilings.

And obviously, you know, the main event was the two stages, there were two round stages

and circling each of those stages were, I think, up to 250 creators.

Oh, it was hundreds.

Yeah.

Was it really 250?

Yeah.

I think it was 250.

It was the final count.

Don't quote me on that.

That's an impressive shot showing that whole circle.

And everyone was creating content.

Everyone was live.

I have to shout out SnowBike Mike.

I talk a lot.

It was the time of his life.

Yeah.

The sun.

He did his pre-stream stretches, which was adorable because I was up on the, like the

staff had access to some of the higher railings and I went to go take my pictures, of course,

and there's SnowBike Mike just doing his pre-stream stretches.

Get those hammies ready.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

But it was so impressive and they had a whole motorcade out there as well.

Of course they did, man.

Nobody does an event like college.

No.

We kind of like took over the city momentarily just for that weekend.

So it was a very, or we, couple days.

That's pretty cool.

Yeah.

But I love the strategy and actually on our podcast right here, back when things looked

a little different, we had the yellow couch and we had Phil out here post the APK acquisition.

I specifically named Drop Call of Duty next because I think the format is so clever.

They had tons of information just from that one broadcast stage.

Stephanie and Alex-

Of the Cod Pod.

Yes.

You need to check out the Cod Pod.

Very good.

We need to get Stephanie on the show.

Yeah.

Oh, that would be great.

I would love to have Steph out.

Yeah.

She's been hosting the event every year, hosting the event since they've had it.

So even just their content alone was really wide ranging.

They had a bunch of the dev team members out, come and talk about each of their disciplines,

talk about Omni movement.

They had Twitch drops.

I was collecting those while I was-

They had Twitch drops.

Nice.

That was all for you, Stein.

Thank you.

But they went through like a bunch of multiplayer reveals, bunch of gameplay, but they're also

simultaneously swapping and almost kind of casting, which Golden Boy is perfect for some

of the actual gameplay.

So I think SnowBike Mike, they had him up for a moment.

Our Xbox On team friends were also on the stream.

Sam actually won a game of Warzone.

Did he win?

He did.

Oh.

He's never letting that down.

No.

I was about to say, let's not give him any more air time.

We're going to hear about that for the next two years.

Yes, exactly.

But it was very cool to see how people were already adapting to the Omni movement system.

And then they also, at the end of the stream, Stephanie got to announce the very popular

Matt Verdant's coming back to Black Ops 6.

Yes.

It was jam-packed with news and I thought it was so, it's just such a clever event with

how it's intertwined with the community.

I mean, for those of us that work in community and events, it's great to watch the new family

members and be like, hey, could we do something like that?

And kind of join in on this news moment to get, because often it's like the post-release

content, but this is like, you know, leading up to the beta.

And so people get that opportunity to go hands on.

So if you want to know what Black Ops 6 experience is like, there's like four hours of content

out there online about it.

Times 250 creators.

Yes, exactly.

Exactly.

I want to know how they plugged in that many computers into one building and did all the

lights come on.

Oh, it's a lot.

I want to see the hat win.

I mean, I don't want to see the power bill.

Yeah, exactly.

So I'm going to tap you in here, Stein, because there was a really interesting and awesome

tweet that went out this morning, or earlier this week, I should say, from our friends

over at Capcom USA.

Can you sum it up for us?

That's right.

We are very happy to announce alongside with Capcom that Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection,

Arcade Classics, and Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will be released on Xbox One.

This is going to be coming in 2025.

It will work with your Series X, your S, your Xbox One.

Stay tuned for more information.

You'll want to kind of stay tuned to the Capcom official channels, but we're really excited

with this partnership and we're excited for the announcements drop date.

And we've already been seeing the reactions and people are thrilled.

Very cool.

Yeah, I love my Marvel vs. Capcom.

And then Capcom Fighting Collection 2 was actually recently announced.

I think it was doing a Nintendo Direct.

And so confirmation that's coming to Xbox.

That's some of the Capcom vs. SNK games, I want to say, which were really cool.

So a lot to look forward to, and we look forward to sharing much, much more.

Stay tuned.

So one of the things that we had talked about very briefly, in fact, your pin had something

to do with it.

We mentioned some big announcements over at Gamescom, and a couple of announcements came

out during our broadcast, involved our focus on accessibility in gaming.

So two things.

One is the Xbox Adaptive Joystick, and then also joystick toppers.

So the Xbox Adaptive Joystick is designed as a companion for the Xbox Adaptive Controller

and other Xbox controllers.

It's made to meet the needs of players with limited mobility.

And the Xbox Adaptive Controller is sort of a singular one-handed controller.

It can help make gaming be just more accessible for however you play.

We were showing this off on site, actually, at our event, and everyone really liked that.

What's really cool is you connect the Xbox Adaptive Controller, and this way you get

the full adaptive setup.

You can plug it directly into your console as well, or PC, or you can link it with an

Xbox controller to play solo with full controller functionality.

There's just a ton of flexibility.

You can just sort of figure out what works for you, and I think that's what's, you know,

the key.

It lets you cater to your specific needs.

Yeah, I have to really shout out the accessibility team.

I had the pleasure of working with some of them and the accessories team when we built

the social plans for this.

And through that, I got to see kind of how they built the video for this.

You got to meet three cast of characters who kind of use this IRL.

It was an adorable experience.

Adorable little boy.

I think his name is Leo, if I remember right.

And he was so, he was non-verbal, but he was so excited to see his reaction to this.

And the use cases of this, I just have, I think they're, I think our accessibility team,

you know, removing any bias, you know, working here, absolutely sets the bar extremely high.

And the 3D print is really cool.

That's brand new.

Yeah, let's get into that.

That's a brand new experience.

The toppers.

Yeah, so there are now, I believe, six toppers available online, and the team's obviously

looking at, you know, what kind of options exist.

But you can 3D print these for different needs.

They will pop on to that, pop off, depending on what you want to do.

I know a lot of libraries, at least here in the US, offer 3D printing services for free.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

So you can also take those plans to like a local library, and you could have it 3D printed,

and then bring it back home, and then use it.

Well, yeah.

So the way this works is you go over to Xbox Design Lab, and just, you know, search for

that in your search engine of choice, and it pops up, and you're used to designing controllers

and stuff to buy.

This is actually to design the right type of thumbstick topper for you.

And then we just give you the CAD files, and then however it is that you want to get these

printed out, you do that.

There's no cost.

Obviously, if you're going to get these printed, and you don't have the 3D printer or the access

to do that.

But the point is, we give you the design, and you just go ahead and do that, and you

make it what works for you.

And if you need to refine it and try it again, you just go back and readjust those things.

So that's it.

And it's worth saying, these work on the regular controllers, too.

It's not just the joystick.

So if you are a person who uses any kind of these accessibility services...

Or maybe you use...

Some people already use a one-hand on a standard issue, like Series X, Series S controller.

These thumbsticks will also work with that.

It just clicks right onto the existing thumbstick.

Correct.

Yeah, these are printed in a way that they snap right on.

It's just a really cool program.

And again, it's great to call it the toppers.

We're not charging for that.

You can preview the design, pick it off, and then go to, like I said, a local library.

I heard a lot of people talking about that.

And then the number one question at the booth was, can I do two at once of the joysticks?

And theoretically, you can.

You just need the XAC to be able to play it.

Yeah.

You need the adaptive controller.

The adaptive controller is one of the things that I always talk about that makes me really

proud to be at Xbox.

I'm an ambassador for an accessibility gaming charity called Special Effect.

Oh, yeah.

I've worked with them for a long time, and I was visiting Redmond from the UK the day

that we announced the adaptive controller and was in sort of the accessibility lab.

So it's really special, and just getting to work with that team and see how it changes

lives, and you can just customize it to what you need so that you can continue to play

and you can have that joy is just ... I get a lot of tears whenever they send me videos

because it's such wonderful stuff that we get to do.

There's so much thoughtfulness from that team, too.

I love that we sort of pioneered it with the adaptive controller, and there's all this

thoughtfulness going into, okay, well, how do you expand and innovate on that?

And of course, it's done in deep collaboration with the disability community.

And I love one of the stories coming out of our Gamescom broadcast, which I was very proud

to debut this news.

Yeah.

It was on our stream, was also, because we had conversations with the product marketing

team and the hardware designers, and they were just talking about how they actually

worked with people at local Seattle hospitals and working with people who use gaming as

rehabilitation.

So also just thinking about what is that experience, and how can we also come in and contribute

and help just offer more flexibility there, too.

Well, that's awesome.

I wonder if they worked with programs like Gamers Outreach, too.

That's another one where they put consoles in children's hospitals, so that way they

can play video games.

Yeah.

It has so many different things.

It has so many different applications.

You think about disability as permanent, temporary, and situational.

If you have an injury and you can't use your arm for a bit, then you can adapt your setup

whilst you recover.

Or if you've got a new sleeping newborn, and again, you've got limited movement, it can

apply to so many different situations.

And I just think it's such great work, and really makes me proud of Xbox.

Cool.

All right.

We had talked and teased a little bit earlier on a bit about Valorant, but recently our

friends over at Riot did a surprise launch of Valorant.

Valorant on Xbox, and recently they just released their newest operator, Vice, across

all platforms at the same time.

And of course, if you have Game Pass, no better way to get a hold of all of these different

operators.

So Riot's director of production, Arnard Gilfesson, sat down with Ethan Rothemel to

discuss everything going on in the world of Valorant.

So let's check it out.

Hey, folks.

I'm here with Arnard Gilfesson, production director of Valorant at Riot Games.

Arnard, how are you doing today, man?

I'm doing great, Ethan.

Thank you so much.

And thank you so much for having me on.

Excited to be here.

Of course.

I've been playing so much Valorant these last couple weeks, kind of leading up to getting

to meet you.

This is the first time we've met.

And so honestly, I've just been living, eating, breathing Valorant with my friends after work.

And obviously, the game has been out for years on PC, but it was a surprise launch on console

in early August.

I'm curious how the vibes have been at work and how reception has been.

I mean, the vibes have been immaculate, I think.

We're super excited to have launched the game on console now.

It was obviously a journey for us to learn how to take Valorant, both the product itself

and make it right on console, and also for the team to learn how to ship on console.

That's like a whole new platform that this team has not shipped on before.

And so I think we're...

We're pretty excited, both in player reception of the game and also just in our ability to

launch and now serve this entire new player base.

Heck yeah, man.

I am curious with that in mind.

I am a bit of a gamer on console and PC, and obviously, there's drastically different inputs,

drastically different play styles across them.

I got to ask, while I have you here, are you seeing any differences between the two?

Maybe agents that are getting picked more often on console.

I don't mean to throw shade at my console brethren as someone who plays with a controller

mostly, but we have a tendency to look up a little less than maybe a mouse and keyboard

player.

I'm curious if you've seen differences like that already.

Not, I would say, nothing that I would ascribe to console players specifically.

Valorant is obviously a fairly deep and complicated game with a high mastery curve.

And so I think what we're seeing is more just a whole swath of new players coming in who

are learning how to play the game and kind of understanding the...

the basic mechanics and the strategy behind it.

It's actually very similar to what we saw when we first launched the game on PC in 2020,

which is just people are learning how to approach the game and how to play it.

That said, there are some there are some very sweaty console players out there, and the high

skill bar of console play right now looks scary.

That's crispy, crispy gameplay.

I can vouch as someone who sat and ranked and is not the best at it.

I can vouch.

I can definitely vouch that there are some quality, quality players.

But you brought up you brought up a really good point, which I thought was interesting.

I've been playing a lot of the my friends I play with on Xbox.

They're not PC gamers.

This is their first foray into Valorant.

And so while I get to be better than them for maybe a month or two before they catch up, I'm

kind of curious in your mind, because there are things that they brought up that they like.

We played many games where they didn't realize, one, you could ADS, you know, like that was

that was, I think, something that was like, oh, I.

I didn't realize this was a feature.

I'm curious what features and mechanics in Valorant that may be unique to console players you

think would give folks an edge if they're booting up Valorant for the first time?

Yeah, I think the the sort of generally speaking, I think the important thing to remember

about Valorant is that it's not a game where you run and gun.

This is a game where you need to be methodical about the fights that you take.

You need to stop, aim and shoot.

And with that in mind.

Yeah, exactly.

But but with that in mind, having features like focus mode, which is something we made

specifically for controller play, is so important because it allows you to engage that trigger

and then slow down the rate at which hello, there's a new guest on the podcast.

I do get nice.

And it allows you to kind of slow, slow down the your turning rate when you engage the when you

engage.

Yeah.

So that's a really cool feature.

So you're using that to your advantage, kind of being able to quickly peak around the map, like taking in the sites, understanding, Hey, where's their potential threat?

Where is there an enemy?

And then when you take the gunfight coming to a stop, engaging that focus mode, slowing down your sensitivity to get that crisp headshot like that's really kind of that's a trick.

That's the magic behind it.

Right?

Totally.

And you feel I mean, it is extremely satisfying, but I'm glad you brought up focus mode.

because I do want to shout out you

and the team there for,

I think you do have to do some unique things

sometimes when a game transitions to console like this

and it feels so intuitive.

It feels so snappy.

You know, frankly and candidly,

I was really worried about the transition

as someone who was played a lot on PC

and it really felt effortlessly,

effortless, excuse me,

like in a few games,

I was kind of feeling it pretty quick

and it felt really responsive, really intuitive.

So I just want to take a moment to shout out the team

because it is, you guys did great work there.

Thank you so much.

Yeah, it was super important to us

that Valorant on console is still just Valorant.

It's not a different game.

It doesn't play any differently.

It's still that same, you know, 5v5 tactical shooter.

So while we obviously had to,

like we had to adapt the game to controllers,

we had to innovate things like focus mode.

We had to retune some of the agents

and think,

think about how does this game at the end of the day,

when you, whether you are playing mouse and keyboard on PC

or whether you pick up a controller on your Xbox,

how do we make sure that this game still feels the same

and plays the same,

even if there are slight unique variations

between the platforms that you play on?

I hope we got it.

I think we got it.

I hope we got it.

I think you did.

I mean, I mean, I'm just one man,

but I have played quite a lot

and I've really enjoyed it.

My team can vouch.

We may not be winning as many games as we'd like,

but it's definitely not because of the controls

that you implemented.

I promise you that.

I'd love to talk about Vice

because just rolled out,

brand new operator,

first agent that was kind of rolled out

simultaneously across platforms.

And she looks like a lot of fun.

I know, I imagine you're pretty excited

to see console players kind of jump in

with the new agent launch.

I'd love to talk about how that experience

has been on your side.

Yeah, it was one of the,

I mean, it was one of the fundamental questions

we asked ourselves.

Of like, how do we show up for console players?

And one of the key ingredients there is

Valorant should be one Valorant

no matter where you're playing it,

which means bringing content to all of our players

at the same time is very important to us.

And what's super exciting about Vice is

she's the first agent that we now ship

to all of our players at the same time.

So this is kind of the first time

that players on console and players on PC

are all getting access to,

a brand new gameplay content right at the same moment.

And so I think what's gonna be interesting now

is we see how they both adapt at the same time,

how they learn how to play the new agent,

how they, how it fits into team comps,

how they, what the play style is, et cetera,

is not something that console players

are gonna be looking to PC players maybe and say,

oh, how do they play it?

It's everybody's discovering it kind of at the same time.

Yeah, super cool.

As someone who works on the game,

is there something that gets you most excited

about a new agent dropping?

Like when you're watching the community,

like I know you highlighted a few things,

but like I'm curious.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's always like,

we do a lot of internal play testing obviously for agents

and we have our own theories about,

you know, how do you best play?

Like what's the optimal way to play this new agent

or play on this new map?

It's the same with Vice.

It's like, yeah, we've done tons of play testing

and we think we figured out how exactly

she fits into the lineup and where she's like

a power pick, et cetera.

And now players are gonna tell us like,

hey, how right were we?

How wrong were we?

You know, did we overbalance, underbalance?

But that's always the most exciting part

is just what will players do with this new thing

that we've gave them?

And what are we gonna learn from them

when they get their hands on it?

Yeah, never underestimate gamer's abilities

to get creative or come up with scenarios

that you guys didn't even think of, you know?

Absolutely.

I love that.

Arner, I gotta ask while I have you,

I appreciate all the time you've already given us today

for this interview, but I'm curious who you're,

maybe a cheesy question,

but I'm curious your favorite agents yourself

and maybe if you resonate with any agent the most,

maybe on a personal level.

Oh, on a personal level.

I don't wanna assume Breach.

I don't wanna assume Breach, but.

Let's make no assumptions there, yeah.

Actually, it's funny.

I have two favorite agents.

And they're very, very different.

So my favorite agent to play

when I'm kind of just having fun vibing out, you know,

is Raze.

Just like turn off my brain, satchel in, you know,

paint shells, guns, you know, just having fun.

If I'm playing ranked and I wanna sweat it out

and I wanna win, that's actually,

I usually switch to Silva and I play much more reserved.

I play for information and picks and I set up my team.

Nice.

But I would say that's more,

tryharding and then Raze comes out when I'm having fun.

But I would say that's more, tryharding and then Raze comes out when I'm having fun.

I love that.

Similarly, I am very much a Silva main in ranked.

I play a few characters.

Silva, I love and Reyna when I'm getting a little sweaty,

but then I also got a shout out Deadlock

because I just started playing Deadlock this week actually,

and just really, really fell in love with her.

But I always like-

Deadlock is super fun.

Yeah, yeah, she's awesome.

And I will say like the first three games with her,

and I'm telling you this transparently,

I was like, Deadlock sucks.

She's not my play style.

I cannot stand her.

And then I was like forcing myself to keep playing her.

And within two games, I was like, oh no, she's a new main.

Like I love her so much.

And it just comes down to like, you brought it up earlier,

figuring out your play style, figuring out your team.

Cause you do kind of have to roll with the punches of like,

what is your team doing?

And I love, even if I'm at the bottom of the leaderboard,

I like characters like Silva,

cause to your point, it's like, well, I'm the king of,

I'm the communicator, communication.

You wouldn't have got that kill without my-

Yeah, exactly.

That's right.

I helped, bro.

Yeah, I knew where that person was,

so you could get the kill.

Yeah.

Enjoy the top fragging.

That's all me.

Yeah, and I helped, oh man.

Arnar, I could talk with you forever,

but I know it's a busy week.

Vice is out pretty recently.

So I'm gonna let you get back to your team,

but I really do appreciate the time.

Any parting words for the fans?

Thank you so much.

I mean, it's been out for a while now on console,

but we are so excited about having

this entire new community of players to serve

and to work with and collaborate with.

And just excited to see where the next years take us

as Valorant continues growing

and players get more comfortable with it on console

to start seeing that, you know,

what does that real top tier gameplay look like on console?

I love it. I love it.

Arnar, thanks so much for your time.

Folks, Valorant is available now on PC and consoles.

And if you have Game Pass,

you have all the agents unlocked for free.

So get out there and enjoy it.

Thanks so much Arnar and Ethan for the interview.

Now this week Razer released its newest controller,

the Razer Wolverine V3s,

not to be confused with the Deadpool controller.

It's a tough as hell name, though.

It's true. It's true.

Wolverine V3.

Yes. Well, like the V2 was actually considered

a very great controller.

We'll have to see what happens with the Deadpool V2.

Anyway, this is Razer's first wireless Xbox controller.

And I don't, you didn't realize this,

but Indy snuck this in here.

It's right here.

All right, I'm going to, do you mind?

Yeah, sure.

Emma, you can open this up.

I'll release a little bit about it,

or reveal a little bit about it.

Okay, very nice.

This is a, like an elite level controller.

This is a high-end controller.

It retails for $199.99,

and it's got all of the bells and whistles.

If you hold down the Nexus button,

you'll see where it lights up.

They did not go overboard on the chroma.

Yeah, see, it lights up right there.

With a nice vibration there, yeah.

The V2 had a bunch of chroma on the side.

This is a little bit more restrained.

But it's all about for this one.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Xbox Elite controller V2.

Same.

This feels very different,

in terms of everything from its feel in the hands

to its clicks.

So they do have mouse-like clickback paddles

and claw grip bumpers,

as well as, I would say,

the face button.

They have the face buttons, as well.

Have a real pronounced click to them.

I like that.

It feels very, it feels a lot different.

There you go, do it again.

Yeah.

You can hear that.

It feels good, as well.

I love a good tactile feedback.

Yeah, it's a nice weight in the hands.

Yeah, and I do like that click sound.

I was playing a bunch of Star Wars with this.

Ooh, and the razor is changing color.

All those things are, of course, programmable.

It has hall effect precision thumb sticks.

People love the hall effect.

Magnetic.

It's anti-drift accuracy.

And this is, again,

the first wireless Xbox controller from Razer.

It has a dongle.

Once you pop it in there,

I didn't think about it again.

It was there.

It just worked like you would expect it to.

You can customize.

Of course, it works for Xbox and for PC.

You can unlock advanced features

and personalize it via the Razer controller app.

But, of course, it comes with the carrying case,

a 10-foot long USB Type-C cable.

So if you want zero latency,

that's how you do it.

You just go ahead and wire it in.

For that Black Ops 6 weekend beta.

Yes.

Oh, yeah.

They also worked with Snipedown.

I don't know if you know Snipedown.

He's a Halo professional esports player,

and so he consulted on this one.

Always good to get the pros in

to make sure you're doing it right.

Exactly.

What I would recommend,

because it feels quite a bit different.

You might say,

okay, I have an Elite.

Is this for me?

There are Razer stores around the country.

There's one here in Seattle.

I know there's a bunch.

This is one where you're going to want to go in

and you're going to hold it.

Yeah, you want to get it.

Because it feels,

to me, it felt a little bit smaller,

and just the angles are a little bit different.

I know what you mean.

Yeah, actually. Yeah.

That might be what you want.

I think in terms of the button,

the sticks,

all those things are great.

It's top quality.

It's all going to be about

how does this feel in your hands,

and do you like it?

Personally, I don't use back paddles,

but I will say the back paddles here,

they're not obtrusive.

No.

Which is good.

They don't come off,

but I never found them on my way.

I played about 15 hours on this controller

playing Star Wars Outlaws,

and I very quickly got used to this.

It's a really nice controller.

Yeah, because my controller at home

is an Elite, too.

Yeah.

This feels familiar.

It's a little different, right?

Familiar, but different?

Yeah, yeah.

Can you say that?

Yeah.

Try it out,

because it's a sizable investment

in a high quality controller.

Yeah.

I like playing controller on my laptop.

I would say try it out.

Yeah, and it won't work for that.

Maybe this is the solution,

because otherwise,

I have to keep unpairing my Elite

from my console.

There's actually a secret.

I can tell you about that.

Oh, okay.

Yes.

I can just tell everyone.

There's a little tip for that.

Yeah, yeah.

For any Xbox controller,

if you double tap the sync button,

it switches between

connecting the controller

to your console

and using the Bluetooth transmitter,

and you'll see

that it'll blink differently.

He's going to save me

so much time.

Thank you very much.

So you can look that up.

There's lots of YouTube videos,

but you don't have to

re-sync every time.

Oh, that.

Double tap.

There we go.

Life hacks.

Yeah, learn something

if you made it 58 minutes

into this episode.

Your controllers and your zombies

that double tap gets you anywhere.

There you go.

We buried all the value

to the very end here,

because that actually

just about wraps us up

for this week.

So please feel free

to follow the show

on twitter.com

slash XboxWire YouTube,

or you can search

for Xbox News on WhatsApp.

So is Age of Empires.

So is Xbox.

And so is Xbox.

Xbox has millions of followers.

If you're watching this,

you're probably already following.

But congratulations

on launching the Wire channel

on WhatsApp,

so now you guys are providing

the latest and greatest

Xbox News.

I had a bit of good advice

from somebody.

I'll make it.

Okay.

All right, so thank you,

Tina, Stein, Emma,

for joining us this week.

Any final thoughts?

Anything you're just dying

to say before we get out of here?

Play Age of Mythology,

we told.

You know,

plug that again.

We'd love to have you.

Way to end it.

I didn't get the chance

to talk about how much

I'm loving Star Wars Outlaws,

so play Star Wars Outlaws

as well.

Pack your whole skin with it.

Play all of it.

Play all the game.

Nyx did a little profile

takeover for us,

and we put a little cuteness

in there.

Oh, I saw.

Yeah.

I know.

Getting in a little place.

Yes, exactly.

Please give us a follow over

on the global channels.

Add Xbox on all your local

and favorite social media handles.

Very good.

Thank you all

for joining me.

And thanks to you

for joining us.

We'll see you on the next one.

Bye.