Jason Schreier joins to talk Bungie cuts + Game Informer crew discuss closure (Friends Per Second #51)
PLUS live show announced!
Hey Users!
We’ve been guest-free for a while, but this week we’re back chatting to some fun industry folks - we just wish that some of them were joining to us under happier circumstances. Jason Schreier is here to talk about his reporting on Bungie’s latest cuts, Destiny’s future, as well as a temperature check on the upcoming Marathon. Brian Shea, Alex Van Aken, and Marcus Stewart join us to discuss the sad closure of Game Informer and reminisce on the magazine’s 33 year history. We also chat to James Turner and Jonathan Biddle all about The Plucky Squire.
Before we get into the episode, it’s 🚨 announcement time 🚨
We’re doing a live recording of the podcast at Gamescom!
You may have heard us mention that we’ll be going to Cologne for Gamescom in a couple of weeks, and not only are we going to check out a bunch of upcoming games, we’ll be doing the podcast live in front of an audience for the very first time. We’ll have special guests, live User questions, and of course, all the bants you can handle. If you’re going to Gamescom, we’d love to see you. Details:
🗓️ Thursday August 22
📌 Hall 11.3 Social Stage
🕓 4pm - 6pm CEST
🔗 Link to add to your schedule
If you’re not at the show, don’t worry, we are recording it and it’ll be up ASAP.
Anyway, on with this week’s newsletter. Tschüss!
Games mentioned: Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games, The Plucky Squire, Destiny
Misc mentions: Deadpool & Wolverine, Olympic swimmer getting sick, Olympic village #1 chocolate muffin fan, the pole vaulter (Google this yourselves), Hawk Tuah girl, Snoop Dogg at the Olympics, getting grounded for buying a Snoop CD, Bungie layoffs, Game Informer closure, the Basement Yard podcast, tiny beers, pork knuckle
Bungie woes with Jason Schreier
On July 31, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons revealed that 220 employees would be laid off, projects were being shelved, and the studio would refocus its efforts on Destiny and Marathon. We brought Bloomberg reporter and friend of the podcast Jason Schreier on to discuss how the studio got here and what its future looks like now.
Bungie Replaces Marathon Director Amid Leadership Shakeup, Fears of Layoffs - IGN
Massive Layoffs at Bungie | Game Mess Mornings 08/01/24 - Giant Bomb
Activision Bungie contract unsealed in Call of Duty case - LA Times
Games mentioned: World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Destiny, Among Us, Destiny 2: Nightfall, Marathon, Halo, Destiny 2: The Final Shape, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King, WoW: Cataclysm, Destiny 2: Forsaken, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Helldivers 2, Destiny: Trials of Osiris, Destiny 2: Into the Light, Warframe, Genshin Impact, The Last of Us Online, Concord, Horizon, Marvel’s Spider-Man
Misc. mentions: Triple Click podcast, Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment (Jason Schreier), Funko Pops, LEGO, Rolex watches, I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain,
,User question #1 - Taylor R.
What's your favourite game to showcase to someone for the first time?
It’s funny that we all leaned into story-heavy games for this User question when the correct answer was staring us in the face the whole time: The Sopranos Game.
Games mentioned: Half-Life 2, The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, Red Dead Redemption 2, The Talos Principle, The Room, Riven, Myst, God of War 2018, Tetris Effect, Beat Saber, Dance Dance Revolution, Marvel’s Spider-Man, Hotline Miami, Vampire Survivors, Super Smash Bros., Mario Kart, Super Mario Wonder, Super Mario Odyssey, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, The Sopranos Game
Misc. mentions: Spider-Man movies, Drive, American Psycho, Gamer Gran, Star Trek
Game Informer’s legacy with Alex Van Aken, Brian Shea, Marcus Stewart
33 years of Game Informer came to an abrupt and sad end last week. Parent company GameStop shuttered the publication, laid off the staff, deleted the Twitter account, and redirected all links on the website to a goodbye message that may or may not have been written by AI. We chat with Alex Van Aken, Brian Shea, and Marcus Stewart about the legacy of the storied publication, their favourite pieces, and what’s next for the team.
Games mentioned: Borderlands cover, Humanity, Broken Age, Tiberium, Spelunky, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Super Smash Bros., Animal Crossing, Yakuza/Like A Dragon, Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, Street Fighter 6, The Casting of Frank Stone, Another Crab’s Treasure
Misc. mentions: Edge magazine, Lost in Cult, Profound Waste of Time, Tokyo Vice, EGM, GamePro, Nintendo Power
Marcus’ picks:
Hades 2 cover story
The Real-Life Kamurochō: A Yakuza History Lesson with Tokyo Vice’s Jake Adelstein
Alex’s picks:
Behind The Dangerous Stunts Of Nintendo’s Iconic Mario Commercials
Double Fine Looks Back At 10 Years Of Broken Age | Roundtable Interview
The Making of Humanity, 2023's Best Puzzle Game | Video Game Documentary
Brian’s picks:
Cover stories: Sonic Frontiers, Sonic Superstars, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Street Fighter 6
129 Rapid-Fire Questions Answered About Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Visiting A Fighting Game Arcade With Street Fighter 6 Developers
Thanks for everything, Game Informer team. We’re sorry we weren’t able to get everyone on the podcast, but here are links to where you can find everyone:
Alex Van Aken: Viewpoint (Patreon, Twitter, YouTube), LinkedIn
Brian Shea: Twitter, All Things Nintendo (Patreon), LinkedIn
Marcus Stewart: Twitter, LinkedIn
Charles Harte: Website, LinkedIn, Twitter
Wesley LeBlanc: LinkedIn, Twitter
Laleh Azarshin: Website, Twitter
Kyle Hilliard: Twitter
Mónica Rexach Ortiz: LinkedIn
Margaret Andrews: Twitter
Jon Woodey: LinkedIn
Rachel Castle: Twitter
Sarah Hansen: LinkedIn
Matthew Miller: Twitter
Plucky Squire interview
What’s this, a THIRD interview? James Turner and Jonathan Biddle from All Possible Futures join Ralph and Jake to chat about The Plucky Squire.
Mentions: Pokémon series, Tembo the Badass Elephant, Stealth Bastard, Sword of Ditto, HarmoKnight
User question #2 - Lucas
Is there a studio you would like to see tackle a genre out of their norm?
- Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy finale will receive "revamped" Queen's Blood card game - Eurogamer
Games mentioned: Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Dark Souls, Alan Wake 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Forza Horizon, Fable, Marathon, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Return, Clickholding, I Am Your Beast, El Paso Elsewhere
Misc. mentions: Queen’s Blood, a spooky baby crying 👶🏻
What we’ve been playing
Ralph’s really been enjoying Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, despite reservations about its multiplayer
Jake’s played CONSCRIPT and has been embracing his British side with Thank Goodness You’re Here
Lucy’s been the man in the chair with The Operator, got sucked into SteamWorld Heist 2, and has obviously also played Thank Goodness You’re Here
Games mentioned: Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, Left 4 Dead, Knights of the Old Republic Remake, Valiant Hearts, Amnesia: The Bunker, SteamWorld Heist, Spilled!, X-COM, all the other SteamWorld games
Misc. mentions: The Simpsons, Shaun of the Dead, The Sopranos, celebrating being milkshy no more, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,
—
Show and tell
Here’s what we did this week when we weren’t getting our big gaming hours in.
Ralph’s finally watching Andor
Jake saw Deadpool & Wolverine
Lucy saw LiSA live at San Diego Comic-Con
Misc. mentions: Obi-Wan, The Bear, Robert Downey Jr as Dr Doom, Demon Slayer, My Hero Academia, Spyro the Dragon challenge runs, Spider-Man No Way Home, Dr Strange, Deadpool dancing to N*Sync, Age of Apocalypse, Wolverine, Uncanny X-Men, Deadpool 1 and 2, Taron Edgerton, upcoming Avengers movie
That about does it for this week, other than a shout out to our friends at VGC who launched their Patreon. If you love the site like we do, consider subscribing.
The next episode will be our Gamescom special, we hope to see you there if you’re at the show!
See ya! <3 L
First off thank you for answering my user question, it was definitely my highlight of the week. So this episode when Ralph asked which game would you show your gram, I knew my answer right away. So when Red Dead Redemption came out, my Gram walked beside me and saw the horses; she was absolutely smitten with the horses in that game. After that, she would seat with me while I played each and every game my mom or her bought for me. Sadly I lost her in 2017, so a bit of time later when Red Dead 2 came out I obviously bought it. When I started playing, I just broke into tears. Even to this day, just the thought of it brings me to tears. In that moment, playing RD2, I just thought "wow, if grandma could see the horses now". It's a bittersweet memory but I thank you guys for taking me back to that place.
This perhaps isn’t the spot for this comment, but I’d love to see more video game artists on the podcast, similar to what Corridor Digital does with CGI artists, so we get more behind the scenes on the technical/design of video games and the creative decisions needed to bring their video games to life. I would think there are plenty of professionals with solid portfolios of work that’ll be interested to be interviewed. Especially those that want to get more name recognition and highlight a recent successful project or promote an upcoming game.