Defining Duke: An Xbox Podcast

A little over a week after the industry's biggest news yet and with some time on our side, the dust is beginning to settle on Xbox latest acquisition. With things beginning to marinate, we now have an opportunity to dissect all of the legal hullabaloo that has been circulating. Sony's response, Phil Spencer's "intent" or "desires," and the revival of dead Activision IP are linger in the aftermath of an earth shattering deal. Joining us are Rand Al Thor and Jez Corden of Xbox Two in an Avengers like crossover to sift through it all. It's not just Activision in the cycle anymore! Gears Of War looks to be set to get the 'Master Chief Collection Treatment' next as rumors have cropped up for the long overdue remaster. There's plenty to be excited about, but it doesn't stop there as we also have a plethora of newly announced Respawn Star Wars games. All isn't well in a galaxy far, far away considering that the newly re-revealed LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga from TT Games has reportedly suffered from crunch. Oh, and other important things like is an onion sandwich legal or what condiment is Xbox? Ya know, the essentials. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For the long time Defining Duke listeners, we all know you have been waiting for a week like this. A time where a major haymaker is delivered by Microsoft and we can break it all down together. For the staggering price of $68.7 billion, Xbox has acquired publisher Activision and with it come a slew of development teams and IP that we're not quite sure even they know what to do with. Beyond inheriting a plethora of potential exclusive games and bolstering Game Pass, Xbox takes in damaged goods. Activision is far from squeaky clean as they have suffered from toxic workplace conditions for years with a leader at the top willing to purchase two companies with game's media in an effort to steer the narrative away from such a truth. It's ugly and there's a lot of tendrils to this conversation. Games, exclusives, monopoly, mobile gaming, and so much more. It's time to talk about about the industry's most historic acquisition yet in what will be a series of many from the hungry competitor moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2022 continues at its rip-roar pace for Xbox. One of the major pieces in its early year strategy, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, has received a significant seven month delay. With a new vacancy created and only CrossfireX and Tunic remaining, we believe Xbox needs to make a big move ASAP. This would come in the form of Game Pass, so Matty and Cog shake out the potential options. Separately, E3 2022 has already been canceled while the likes PAX and GDC are continuing on with their set plans. The reasoning? As always, the pandemic. However, there is enough reasonable doubt here to bring about another angle of the conversation. Last, but not least is the latest Phil Spencer interview with New York Times. From politics, to Activision, and the sales of Xbox, he divulges much about their current strategy. That's not to mention the likes of Dying Light 2's length, Final Fantasy's absense from Xbox, and plenty more that is left to be discussed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Xbox has hit the ground running in 2022 with a variety of announcements, news, and leaks. For starters, Ubisoft and Xbox have finally teamed up for a day one drop on Xbox Game Pass. The game? The $40 spin-off 'Rainbow Six: Extraction' or as the Dukes like to call it: Rainbow Six: Experiment. Indeed, it looks as if the seeds are being planted for more deals in the future for the two companies. Otherwise, a classic overdue for both a remaster and return is GoldenEye 007. In 2008, Xbox nearly succeeded in their attempt to revive the game, but it came to nothing due to legal complications. Again, the remaster has leaked, but this one is different. Furthermore, a new piece by Jason Schreier has arrived discussing Ken Levine and his status as an "auteur" in video games. The Duke have many thoughts to share on this that are too large to be simplified. That goes for the rest of the news in a week where Playground Games studio head made his exit, Undead Labs opened up a new studio, and much, much more. This is only the beginning! Let's ride. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hot takes ahoy! Matty and Cog have played a lot in a year that has often been referred to as a “down year for video games.” As always there are lists of games to sift through, but the Dukes shed their lists down to the top five of the very best and worst this year had to offer us. We promise these lists will shock, amaze, stun, and disappoint. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the holiday season and maybe Santa got some of you a shiny new Xbox! With that Xbox (or PC, we didn't forget!) you might find yourself perusing the catalog of hundreds of Game Pass games. It can be overwhelming to sift through page after page of alluring games especially with how great so many of them are. Matty and Cog are lucky enough to be able to sit down and play many of these games to help guide the audience towards or away from them. Today, we present to you our Top 5 Game Pass games of the year, Game Pass busts of the year, and even xCloud picks. It's a culmination of the must plays, precedent setters, fraud alerts, too-little-too-lates, and streamable games that filled out a busy 2021 calendar for Xbox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We'll give it to you straight. Hot off The Game Awards, it hasn't been a great look for "modern gaming." The NFT floodgates have burst wide open, massive delays are inbound, and now those sacred video game discs don't even arrive with the full game on them. Matty and Cog cut through the noise and get to the heart of each of these matters. Such as the highly anticipated reveal of Splinter Cell with a brand new remake. Should a company as creatively and morally bankrupt as Ubisoft be trusted with such a revered series anymore? This could be the cause of more harm than good. Beyond that, a timed Xbox exclusive has rolled out an NFT offering that is widely maligned. Developer GSC Game World has offered paying customers the chance to become an NPC in game through their own NFT program. It has not been pretty, so Matty and Cog offer no mercy on this one. In other news, we dig into the continuous offerings of Game Pass, Bully 2 rumors, and Forza Horizon 5 sales! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In an episode chockful of time traveling, we breakdown all that transpired during the bemoaned Game Awards. It was advertisements galore, television, celebrities and movies aplenty, where you had a sneaking suspicion that Joel McHale was going to make a surprise return somewhere throughout. Despite all of this, we at least had games and many promising ones at that! Among those was the highly anticipated reveal of Hellblade 2's gameplay which many thought were pure cinematics. Indeed, Ninja Theory wowed the industry with their Unreal Engine 5 developed exclusive and there was plenty more to feast on beyond this reveal. Matty and Cog also dig into the latest "PlayStation Game Pass" and what a real challenge could mean for Microsoft moving forward in a space that was controlled only by them. That, plus Battlefield restructuring, an XBOX HANDHELD, more Activision shake-ups, and yes, even Halo Infinite updates. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Game Awards marketing showcase is soon upon us which means significant game announcements are inbound. Xbox fans in particular should keep a close eye on this show as Microsoft has made important reveals on Geoff Keighley's stage in the past such as with the Xbox Series X and Hellblade II just in 2019. Matty and Cog pick apart both the nominations for the popularity contest and possible announcements to be made in what should be a fun cap to the year. Let it be known that Dragon Age Origins is a good game, but that era of BioWare is long gone. With turnover really damaging what this RPG titan used to be, they're in desperate need of a win. Now with Dragon Age 4 losing its creative director midway through development, another layer of uncertainty envelops this studio. This may not be a surprise, but what may catch fans off guard is Xbox putting FPS boost down along with their backwards compatible initiative. All this plus more video game fight stories, Halo band-aids, and Christmas games tie together our first December episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The festivities are beginning to heat up as turkey day is soon upon us! With that, news is slowing down a bit and gives us a lot of room for more audience interactions. As always, you are the stars of our show (besides Cog) and we think that's quite apparent in this episode. Beyond the love shared between us and the audience, we tackle Halo Infinite's master copy being sent to the production line. With the release date being stamped in ink, Matty and Cog gutcheck the hype levels. SEGA and Xbox recently announced an alliance together to work on a "super game" of sorts. As the two parties grew closer, more exclusives were safely expected from many. SEGA has got ahead of that line of thinking and shuts down the notion of this collaboration leading to more significant releases for Xbox. Is this just a step in Xbox buttering up SEGA or is there truly nothing to this deal? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices