BIG Picture Mode + #2: "Me a money, needing a lot now."
A bi-weekly tabloid report simplifying the eccentricities of the Gaming World. (Monday, March 10th.)
"BIG Picture Mode +" is a satirical take on Gaming news and the Games industry. Made by and for, those who love video games, but find it hard explaining to others why any of this shit matters.
TLDR
Mom says it’s my turn to pay!
All the best things in life are free. Well, until they can be monetized, and according to Microsoft, Fortnite may have been too free for too long. Courtesy of Redphx, the creator of Better xCloud, who uncovered the information regarding the back-end code of Microsoft’s Xbox Cloud Gaming service. We learned earlier this week that Microsoft has plans to add time limits on how long players using the service’s “free tier” will be allowed to play as “Ice Spice1” while doing the Tootsee Roll2 after every sniper kill. Since May 2022, Fortnite has been a free-to-play game on Xbox’s Cloud Gaming Service, accessible by players on mobile, console, and PC, making it one of the few free-to-play games with cross-platform3 access. Unsurprisingly, this accessibility resulted in significant success for Epic Games, Fortnite’s parent company, even after being de-listed from Apple’s App Store in 2020. Back then, Epic began allowing players to purchase V-Bucks, Fortnite’s in-game currency directly in the app, attempting to dodge Apple’s 30% commission on in-app purchases. That power move, coupled with Epic Games calling out Apple’s App Store mafioso shakedown commission techniques, got Fortnite bounced out the app store.
However, now it’s Microsoft’s turn to do some shaking. Fortnite is free and popular, so it doesn’t make “cents” for Xbox Cloud Gaming Services. Especially since alternative popular titles on the service are pay-walled behind a $19.99 monthly Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. In contrast, Microsoft is witnessing a large percentage of potential paying customers gobble up their Cloud gaming service bandwidth only to play Fortnite and pay for Epic’s in-game currency, and that ain’t helping Ol’ boy Billy Gates’ subscription numbers. Nevertheless, setting a “timeout” for free users could create a dangerous ripple effect for their service and other cloud services within the games industry.
So once again, Microsoft Gaming finds itself between a rock and a hard place, especially after a recent report from Mat Piscatella, the executive director and video game industry analyst at Circana, who stated, “More than 40% of all time spent playing on PS5/XBS in the US during January went to 10 live service games.” and Fortnite is one of them. For now, we can only wait and see if Microsoft treating every Fortnite player like a parking meter will increase subscriptions or have players packing up their V-Bucks and Tootsee rolling off the platform.
Biggest L: Capcom & Monster Hunter Wilds PC Players.
PC players discovered they were the "monsters" all along. Just last week, “Monster Hunter Wilds,” Capcom’s latest multi-platform action role playing game, dropped a cool 8 million copies onto their financial sheets within three days of it's release, making it one of the best-selling games of the year so far. However, 1.3 million of those total sales were made by PC users, who soon found that the game's performance was, well…monstrous! Steam user's have since flooded the game's review section with complaints describing the game’s constant crashing out due to a typo in the game's code, high-performance graphics looking like clay models, and problems concerning multiplayer connection drops4.
Capcom is no stranger to releasing poor PC ports. In 2023, players encountered a game-breaking issue in Capcom’s well known horror game, "Resident Evil 4, " which prevented them from completing the game due to using a weapon before an on-screen approval icon appeared. Consequently, Capcom responded by giving players a hokey-pokey list of instructions before eventually resolving the issue. PC players are facing a similar situation with the release of "Monster Hunter Wilds." From running benchmark tests5 to discourage players from running the game with less than godlike PCs, to the game outright skipping celebratory meal cut scenes due to performance bugs.
On the back end, rumors are circulating that Capcom intended to address PC issues after the initial sales figures came in, recognizing the demand for the game among PC users. According to a Capcom financial report, the company had an earnings forecast for the fiscal year from April 2024 to March 2025 set at 165 billion yen. However, by December 2024, they had only reached 88 billion yen (Big ups to"Dragon’s Dogma"). Thus, Q4 was Capcom’s last opportunity to release "Monster Hunter Wilds" to boost their revenue and bankroll investors. Those actions resulted in PC players being left holding the bag and hokey-poking their way to a new patch this week, hopefully getting them back on the hunt for monsters and maybe more game-breaking bugs.
On a positive note, Nepali restaurants in Japan are skyrocketing their profits with those who can play Monster Hunter Wilds by offering the same “Cheesy Naan” from the game’s meal cut scenes. Eat up hunters.
Biggest W: LocalThunk & Balatro
It seems LocalThunk, the solo developer of Balatro. Just. Can’t. Lose. Last year, during Balatro’s stratospheric rise, (PEGI) the Pan-European Game Information Complaint’s Board upgraded Thunky and their Joker’s rating from (3+); a rating considered suitable for all ages, to a HARD (18+), which indicates content suitable only for adults. All the commotion had European digital storefronts6 issuing “prominent gambling imagery” warning labels on Balatro’s purchasing page and even expulsion from Nintendo’s UK E-Shop. Balatro’s publisher PlayStack and LocalThunk were shocked waking up to the news, especially since they had talks with PEGI about this same concern before the game was launched in the EU. Despite Balatro having zero in-game gambling mechanics, PlayStack pleaded with PEGI’s review board to appeal the (18+) rating. In that same month, PEGI responded with this statement to the developers: “We have reviewed your product and determined that the disclosure of gambling themes was unwarranted," and then followed up by doing nothing for almost TEN MONTHS! While the entire time, PEGI has been allowing EA Sports’ FC 25 “Ultimate Team” mode to keep their (3+) rating and slip past the dreaded gambling warning. The same “Ultimate Team” mode where you purchase in-game credits, with real-world money, to spend on the CHANCE to win an in-game soccer player to play matches within their multiplayer. LocalThunk even took to Twitter joking that he could get Balatro’s rating back to a (3+) if he added real gambling mechanics like FC25. But it is what it is, and “football is life.”
So February comes, and after Balatro wins multiple game awards, PEGI revealed themselves to be the true jokers by re-adjusting Balatro’s rating from (18+) to (12) with an accompanying statement:
“On the basis of these appeals, the PEGI Experts Group will develop a more granular set of classification criteria to handle gambling themes and the simulation, teaching and glamorisation of gambling in different age categories, which will now include 12 but also keep 18 as an age category for games that simulate gambling typically played in casinos and betting halls."
Ultimately a huge win for LocalThunk, who stated on his twitter
“After an appeal from my publisher, Balatro has been reclassified by PEGI from 18+ to 12+ This is a good step from PEGI - bringing nuance to their ratings criteria that used to be 18+ or nothing. I hope this change will allow developers to create without being unfairly punished.”
Congrats to Thunky and Balatro, may you continue to take multiple hours of our lives and to PEGI "Looks like the joke's on you!"
Rumor Mill: Happy Holidays Hydra!
At Big Picture Mode +, we don't observe any holidays since our offices remain open year-round. However, we always take the opportunity to highlight Amy Hennig, the designer behind "Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City" and the "Uncharted" series. So, you can imagine our excitement when we learned that Amy is leading the new game "Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra" at Sky Dance New Media.
Since the game's announcement 2021, not much has been revealed, except that the studio has brought in Marc Bernardin, a comic book writer known for the "Eyes of Wakanda" mini-series on Disney+, to assist Amy and Todd Stashwick, who served as head writer on the mixed-reviewed 2023 PlayStation title "Forspoken." Uhhh.. you know what... This project will be okay... Nonetheless, Khary Payton, the voice actor for Black Panther in the game, stated:
"We’re still working, but we’re planning on seeing the game in 2025, we’re thinking like a Christmas situation, but I’m so excited.”
Fans of “Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra” have been in a drought for information regarding the title. So hearing that the release could be a Christmas miracle gives us hope that Sky Dance New Media could have a win for the holiday season and establish a strong reputation for their video game brand. Because who knows how that “Wolverine” game is going over at Insomnia studios. Until then we’ll be saving 1994 NBA NPCs from the clutches of Doctor Cranium, “fuck it, we ball.”
Top Games of The Week:
Every week, we at Big Picture Mode + scour the net to keep your bank account empty and buy new games. To accomplish this ambitious task, we interview only the top minds in this creative industry to keep your library expansive. That said, these are the following recommendations this week. Enjoy.
Our Grandma’s Favorite Game of the week: “Jenny Solitaire - Card Games” by Oakever Games.
When we asked what happened to the "Solitare Free" review, we asked for last week? Grandma responded, “This game has a puppy in it, and when you win the game, the puppy gets a bone and does a little wiggle; it’s cuter than that clown card game you talk about so much.” Once again, we appreciate Grandma’s critique for the week; check back next week for hopefully a review of her favorite "Spot the Difference" game.
Hottest this week: Whatever that Death Stranding 2 trailer was about.
Credits: Kojima Productions
Most movie trailers aren’t 10 minutes long, but this new Death Stranding trailer clocks in at ten minutes and 13 seconds, and honestly, it's got us even more confused than we were back in 2016, when Death Stranding 1 dropped its first game trailer at an exhaustive 7 minutes and 55 seconds.
Getting gameplay and story across in a limited time is tricky, but Hideo Kojima has Michael Jordan leaped over the industry standards and is aiming to be a movie director while making video games.
Within the trailer, we're getting all the classic Kojima hits: walking, outlandish weather, eldritch horrors beyond our comprehension, and... SOLID SNAKE… at least we think. It’s tough to figure out what’s going on, and we have a feeling Hideo might be just as confused. Nonetheless, we’re excited about the release on June 26, 2025!
Best of the week!: Blood Typers
Credits: Outer Brain Studios
Most of us here at Big Picture Mode + were weirdo mall arcade lurkers, and what's more cool than spending cash to stomp the illuminated arrows of a DDR machine7 to UKGarage?8 Spending that same money blasting on hordes of zombies plastered onto the screens of a “House of The Dead 2” machine. So in 1999, when “House of The Dead” found its way to haunting Sega Dreamcasts9 with a typing gimmick swapping out light guns for a keyboard, us weirdos thought things couldn’t get any cooler.
Flash forward 30 years later, and “Bloody Typers” must have been lurking in those same arcades shadows with us weirdos because Outer Brain Studios have re-animated our love for the typing horror genre.
Players dive into a spine-chilling haunted movie studio, armed with a unique set of characters, each boasting their own special skills. Your mission? To survive and escape together! Everyday horror premise? Yeah, but the real magic lies in the typing mechanic! You’ll need to type your way through each pulse-pounding level, defend against terrifying foes, reload your weapons, and unravel intricate puzzles—all by typing and teaming up with close friends or daring online randoms. Beware: a single typo can crank up the anxiety more than your favorite horror flick, leading to even more chaos as your nerves take over! But maintain that typing streak, and you’ll reap life-saving bonuses like; enhancing your character’s skills increasing your likelihood of survival. Even alone, Blood Typers has improved our keyboard prowess more than any productivity software could ever while being a fresh take on the new co-op viral stream game. Take that, Ms. Mavis Beacon;10 Did y’all know she’s not even a real person? She was created for marketing purposes. This week keeps getting scarier and scarier.
Coming Next Time.
Next time on Big Picture Mode + we check back with Activision the parent company of The Tony Hawk Franchise and beg them to include Bam Margera as a playable character… PLEASE…. Enjoyed the wrangle up? Drop a subscription, it’s free! Tell ya people! we drop every other Monday. Remember, Drink more water. Love yourself a bit more, and actually play the games you buy.
An American Bronx Born Female Rapper
A directional party dance similar to the electric slide created by the 69Boyz in 1994.
The ability for a game to be played with others regardless of the platform the user owns.
Internet connectivity dropping and eliminating a player from accessing the game.
A test determining if a user’s computer is capable of running a game with high performance standard settings.
An online store where video game software is sold and distributed.
Dance Dance Revolution arcade machines.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods.
The Dreamcast is the final home video game console manufactured by Sega. in North America on September 9, 1999
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is an application software program designed to teach touch typing. Released in late 1987 by The Software Toolworks, the program aimed to enhance users' typing skills through a series of interactive lessons and games.