Game Mess Mornings 09/06/23

My bet is that the voice of Mario will be the AI synthesized voice the same as James Earl Jones as Darth Vader. That's why they're being so cagey about it, and the suddenness of the decision, IMO.

One note about Major Nelson: his mom died very recently and was likely fighting serious illness for a long time. I think that is a more likely impact on him leaving than any behind-the-scenes weirdness. Which is not to say there was no MS weirdness but I like to follow Occam’s Razor.

The Martinet thing (especially with the benefit of another 24 hours of news) is just plain weird.

Saying maybe they will have to do something different with F-Zero made me instantly think of some marketers trying to sell the idea of a reboot of the series confusingly turned into an extraction shooter. I think Nintendo has enough self-control to avoid that at least.

We should ALL want optical drives included on systems (and PC). It's much more consumer friendly in the long run. Also, how big of a % is the digital sales for games that are NOT available for physical purchase anymore (which makes up 2 categories, those with only digital releases and those that are aged out yet available online thanks to Steam and GOG). I really wish Giant Bomb would push the consumer rights side of things more instead of the shrugging "this is just the way things are going".