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Speaker 1: Get in touch with technology with text Stuff from how

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com either and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren foc Obam and we

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Speaker 1: are covering the Bungee story. This is part two. And

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Speaker 1: when last we left you, it was and I had

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Speaker 1: left it on the cliffhanger, or as much of a

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Speaker 1: cliffhanger as you can make anything that happened in the past.

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Speaker 1: Anyone with an access to the Internet could look up

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Speaker 1: and find out the answer, but still thrilling. Yeah. Bungee

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Speaker 1: itself was in a little bit of a financial pickle

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Speaker 1: that they had taken a break from FPS first person

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Speaker 1: shooter games, that is, in order to develop this this

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Speaker 1: tactics series called Myth And they had a tiny little bug, yeah,

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Speaker 1: a little bug and Myth two that that could have

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Speaker 1: deleted people's entire computers. Well, I mean, I guess not

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Speaker 1: deleted their entire computers. That's terrible, Yeah, no, big yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean who needs an operating system? And and fixing

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Speaker 1: this manually by replacing all of the discs and all

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Speaker 1: of the boxes basically cost them what they made on

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Speaker 1: the game. So they were in some issues. Uh, they

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Speaker 1: began to work on a project that in it internally

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Speaker 1: was being called Blam uh and it was another tactical

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Speaker 1: game that was like Myth, but it had a science

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Speaker 1: fiction setting rather than Myths dark fantasy setting. Uh. As

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Speaker 1: they were developing it, they decided that the tactical base

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Speaker 1: where you were controlling multiple units was probably less interesting.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to go with a third person approach, so

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Speaker 1: you're controlling a single character, but from the third person perspective,

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Speaker 1: and then it would eventually develop into a first person shooter. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: but that game by then would end up with a

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Speaker 1: different name. But that's we're getting ahead of ourselves, just barely,

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Speaker 1: not too much ahead of ourselves. Because in at the

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Speaker 1: Macworld conference and ex about a Bungee would show off

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Speaker 1: a demo of this game for the Mac that they

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Speaker 1: had in development called Halo. Yes, so Halo was originally

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Speaker 1: a title for the Mac. It was going to be

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Speaker 1: a Mac exclusive and perhaps eventually poured over to the

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Speaker 1: PC if it were successful enough. If you remember, Marathon

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Speaker 1: Too had ported over to the PC eventually. Um so

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Speaker 1: this was a really big opportunity for Bungee. In fact,

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Speaker 1: a pretty notable persona in the field of technology was

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Speaker 1: the one to introduce Jason Jones to come out on

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Speaker 1: the mac World stage and talk about Halo. Yeah, just

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Speaker 1: Steve Jobs. Yeah. So this is a video, by the way,

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Speaker 1: that is available online. You can go to YouTube and

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Speaker 1: watch this mac World presentation where Steve Jobs introduces Jason

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Speaker 1: Jones and he talks about the game Halo for the

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Speaker 1: first time. And if you watch the video, you've got

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Speaker 1: to see a lot of stuff that was in fact

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Speaker 1: included in the games. Oh yeah, yeah, the demo is

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Speaker 1: was rich with it. It was you get that that

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Speaker 1: trademark Halo soundtrack that uh and and master Chief and

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Speaker 1: a few vehicles that we that we all know and

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Speaker 1: love or yes, all of us, even those of you

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Speaker 1: who have never played the series, Lauren and I, no

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Speaker 1: one loved them. Yeah, the the ward Hog. I think

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Speaker 1: there's a phantom in their ghosts and guests. Yeah, some

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Speaker 1: of the some of the alien elites yep, yep. So

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Speaker 1: these were characters or creatures or vehicles or whatever that

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Speaker 1: would end up actually being featured in the the final game.

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Speaker 1: And as a result of this, Steve Jobs actually he

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Speaker 1: comes out and confidently says, you know, there was a

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Speaker 1: time when it was hard to find good games for

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Speaker 1: the Mac and that time is over because of companies

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Speaker 1: like Bungee, which was unfortunate as it turned out eventually.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, at that same time, around that same time

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Speaker 1: in Bungee would partner with another company called Take two.

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Speaker 1: Video gamers have I'm sure recognized that name as well.

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Speaker 1: So in exchange for nineteen point nine percent of Bungee,

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Speaker 1: so Take two to just under ownership of Bungee, Take

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Speaker 1: two would distribute Ony and Halo. Now, the reason for

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Speaker 1: that partnership was partly due to this kind of financial

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Speaker 1: difficulty Bungee had found itself in in the wake of

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Speaker 1: the myth To disaster. Uh So Bungee West was working

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Speaker 1: on on, which we mentioned at the end of the

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Speaker 1: last podcast. Ony was that third person anime inspired sci

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Speaker 1: fi adventure um and then they also had to figure

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Speaker 1: out how to recover from this this bug we had

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Speaker 1: talked about so so so partnering with Take two made

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Speaker 1: perfect sense. Yeah, it was not quite enough. Bungee was

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Speaker 1: still sort of in this this bleak well maybe bleak

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Speaker 1: is the wrong word, but dangerous situation, and so they

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Speaker 1: continued to look for opportunities, actually looking at possibly getting

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Speaker 1: acquired by another company. Well, they had supposedly been been

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Speaker 1: approached many times over the years by many different companies.

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Speaker 1: On I'm becoming absorbed, I think Activision was one that

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Speaker 1: they said had pursued them particularly a lot. They would

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Speaker 1: really great English guys. They would have to have a

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Speaker 1: deep relationship with Activision later on as well. Um. But

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Speaker 1: then on on June nineteenth of the year two thousand,

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Speaker 1: Microsoft announced that it was going to acquire Bungee. This,

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Speaker 1: as you can imagine, was a huge shake up in

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Speaker 1: the video game world. I mean, you had this, this

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Speaker 1: developer known for creating games for the Macintosh platform, a

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Speaker 1: platform that really did the lag behind PCs. I mean,

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Speaker 1: if you look at the market share of Max, if

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Speaker 1: you had a runaway hit on a Macintosh platform, you

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Speaker 1: might be talking two thousand copies of the game, because

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Speaker 1: they're just weren't as many Max out there at the

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Speaker 1: time as there were PCs. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: by a huge margin. Um. For for a little bit

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Speaker 1: of perspective here, that the release of Windows and nine

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Speaker 1: eight in those years respectively, had catapulted PC sales from

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Speaker 1: PC sales went from being a relatively near eight times

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Speaker 1: the number of MAX sales to being about thirty two

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Speaker 1: times the number of MAX sales in three years, and

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Speaker 1: they were in the midst of a second jump when

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Speaker 1: when Bungee was acquired by Microsoft that they had climbed

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Speaker 1: up to about fifty six times the number of MAX

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Speaker 1: sales by two thousand four. Now these days, Apple has

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Speaker 1: had another renaissance, but in the mid in the early

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Speaker 1: to mid two thousand's, that was just not the case.

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Speaker 1: And so while Steve Jobs was really doing his best

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Speaker 1: to turn Apple around, uh PC was really dominating in

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Speaker 1: the home market. So as part of this deal of

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Speaker 1: Bungee going over to Microsoft, some things had to change

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Speaker 1: because not all the development stuff could go the way

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Speaker 1: they had originally planned. One of those was that Bungee

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Speaker 1: transferred the rights to one and to the Myth franchise

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Speaker 1: to Take two Interactive Software. So when I mentioned at

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Speaker 1: the end of the last episode that there was a

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Speaker 1: Myth three game but not published under Bungee, it was

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Speaker 1: published Undertake two. H on E was still pretty much

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Speaker 1: considered a Bungee game because it was it was more

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Speaker 1: or less complete when it went to Take two to

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Speaker 1: be published on under their label, So Bungee would become

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Speaker 1: essentially an independent game studio under the Microsoft corporate umbrella.

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Speaker 1: They had their own culture that was very different from Microsoft.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, even though they did relocate from Chicago

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Speaker 1: to Redwood, Washington. Yeah. They they went into the offices

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Speaker 1: and this is on that that. Uh. In the last

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Speaker 1: episode I mentioned the twentieth anniversary documentary for the Bungee

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Speaker 1: twenty anniversary. They they went into the offices, and the

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Speaker 1: offices at Microsoft are laid out very much the way

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Speaker 1: you would imagine the stereotypical office with cubicles. They took

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Speaker 1: one look at and said, uh no, this isn't us.

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Speaker 1: They tore out all the cubicles to create a big,

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Speaker 1: open floor planned space that that was what they were

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Speaker 1: used to. And they said that eventually get to the

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Speaker 1: point where the people at Microsoft didn't even have a

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Speaker 1: key to get into the Bungee Studios area because it

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Speaker 1: was it was like a different world, so very interesting

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Speaker 1: that the culture was there. So and uh. And also

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Speaker 1: part of the deal, Take two sold their nineteen point

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Speaker 1: whatever it was percent shares in in Bungee too Microsoft's

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Speaker 1: and also Microsoft would gain exclusive rights to produce and

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Speaker 1: distribute Halo, mostly intending it to be part of their

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Speaker 1: upcoming Xbox console. That's right. They were getting to a

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Speaker 1: point where they were getting ready to release this console,

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Speaker 1: but they also needed to have developers to create content

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Speaker 1: for the console. They were real knew it this right.

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Speaker 1: This was before Microsoft had any entry into the console

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Speaker 1: gaming world at all, and they were going to take

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Speaker 1: on Sony and the PlayStation and Nintendo as well. But

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Speaker 1: Sony was really the big one that they raiming. Oh yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: The PS two, I believe, was also released in March

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Speaker 1: of the year two thou over in Japan. I I

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Speaker 1: don't have in front of me the day that I

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Speaker 1: released in the US, But you know, the stuff that

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Speaker 1: Sony had been doing with the PlayStation, that the PSX,

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Speaker 1: the PlayStation one, and also the PS two and and

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Speaker 1: Sega with the Dreamcast as well, was just blowing the

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Speaker 1: minds of everyone in the gaming industry. And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: even I mean, you know, I I understand that a

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Speaker 1: lot of Mac users felt very betrayed by this decision

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Speaker 1: of Bungee and felt like they had sold out, But honestly, y'all,

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Speaker 1: it was so savvy of them to get into the

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Speaker 1: console market at that point. You know, exactly. Yeah, I

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Speaker 1: mean it was it was a move that preserved Bungee,

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Speaker 1: because otherwise it may not have been able to stay

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Speaker 1: a unit. It would have would have broken apart from

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Speaker 1: all the problems that they had faced in the wake

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Speaker 1: of of Myth two and the other issues, and and

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Speaker 1: beyond that, it allowed them to get in on the

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Speaker 1: ground floor of this round of amazing consoles, right, and

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Speaker 1: so it was a beneficial relationship for both parties, both

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Speaker 1: for Microsoft really for Microsoft considering the phenomenal eventually certainly, um,

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Speaker 1: but you know, it's I'm not sure if it was

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Speaker 1: such an assured success for them at that point. They

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Speaker 1: said specifically, it was interesting in that documentary they said,

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Speaker 1: you know, there was nothing preordained about Halo becoming a big,

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Speaker 1: big success. In fact, originally when the Microsoft Xbox console

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Speaker 1: was coming out, it wasn't going to be uh heralded

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Speaker 1: as the main attraction. It was only there wasn't the

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Speaker 1: flagship at first. Yeah, it was that people began to

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Speaker 1: react to it, and particularly once they got to play

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Speaker 1: the multiplayer part, which we'll talk about in a second,

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Speaker 1: they reacted to it so enthusiastically that they quickly said, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: this is this is our our console killer. This is

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Speaker 1: what is going to sell units. But they didn't know

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Speaker 1: that at the beginning. So two thousand one would take

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Speaker 1: two releases only, right. Meanwhile, that would come out for

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Speaker 1: for Windows, Mac and the PlayStation two. And it was

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Speaker 1: originally supposed to come out, but there were so many

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Speaker 1: development problems that slowed things. Oh and the complication of

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Speaker 1: the Microsoft acquisition. Yeah. Absolutely, So here's the unfortunate thing

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Speaker 1: about this one. Take two had banked on only being

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Speaker 1: a huge hits. This is kind of like the opposite

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Speaker 1: side of the whole Halo thing where Microsoft was hedging

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Speaker 1: its beds. Take two said no, only because Bungee has

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Speaker 1: got this name and game, it's going to explode. And

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Speaker 1: then it didn't really at all. I mean, I mean,

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Speaker 1: there was certainly a hardcore group of of Bungee fans

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Speaker 1: that picked up on it very much, and and some

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Speaker 1: and some new converts as well. I remember a few

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Speaker 1: of my friends were very fond of the game. I

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Speaker 1: had never really looked into it until we started researching

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Speaker 1: this podcast, and when I watched the gameplay, I saw

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Speaker 1: that this game was ahead of its time, ahead of

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Speaker 1: its time, and and in terms of the gameplay, you

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Speaker 1: could you could do these combo moves that that were

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Speaker 1: very beautiful. Yeah, there was something like a thousand different

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Speaker 1: animations for hand to hand combat, which is crazy. Also,

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Speaker 1: you saw some Bungee favorites showing up things like learning

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Speaker 1: more about the world through terminals. So yeah, there's certain

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Speaker 1: certain tropes, like like you were saying Lauren at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the last episode, that Bungee had established that

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Speaker 1: they continued to really rely upon. Another big change happened

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Speaker 1: for Bungee in two thousand and one. They had already

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Speaker 1: moved over to Microsoft, Only had come out, and then

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Speaker 1: they experienced a pretty significant change in their structure. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: after only had published, their founder or co founder depending

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Speaker 1: on who you ask, Alex Syropian would leave the company

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Speaker 1: to found a new Chicago based game developing company called

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Speaker 1: Wideload Games. Yeah, so Seropian, of course, it was his

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Speaker 1: brain child. He and Jones together had really created Bungee.

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Speaker 1: Seropian was ready to leave by the time and had

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Speaker 1: moved over to Microsoft. He felt that I suppose that

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Speaker 1: it was really you know, this Bungee had transformed, had

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Speaker 1: evolved into something new, and he was interested in moving

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Speaker 1: on Whitelad Games would eventually get acquired by a little

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Speaker 1: company called Disney and become part of Disney Interactive. Seropian

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Speaker 1: would actually become a pretty important executive at Disney Interactive,

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Speaker 1: but then would leave in to found another company called

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Speaker 1: Industrial Toys. Yep, they're creating games for mobile devices like iOS.

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Speaker 1: So also in two thousand one, if that's not enough,

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Speaker 1: we've got Seropean leaving. Something else happened. Uh. Yeah, around

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Speaker 1: the same time, after Tony had published Bungee West, being

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Speaker 1: the subset of Bungee which had which had really developed

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Speaker 1: the game, would fold. Yeah. They just didn't make sense

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Speaker 1: to have two different office presences, especially now that they

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Speaker 1: had been folded into Microsoft officially. Soh so Bungee West

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Speaker 1: goes away. Uh. And in November two thousand one, this

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Speaker 1: is a big year for Bungee, they actually would release

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Speaker 1: Halo Combat Evault for the Xbox So it was a

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Speaker 1: launch title for the console system, huge deal for Microsoft,

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Speaker 1: and it was an enormous hit. Uh. It didn't feature

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Speaker 1: online multiplayer because Xbox five wasn't yet ready, so right,

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Speaker 1: this was one of those instances where Microsoft had been

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Speaker 1: trumpeting the fact, you know that they included an Ethernet

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Speaker 1: port in the Xbox at launch, but the live component

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Speaker 1: of it that the software was not prepared, so there

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Speaker 1: was no platform to support it. However, what you could do,

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Speaker 1: right was it was land your xboxes together and the

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Speaker 1: it was a lot less complicated than the process of

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Speaker 1: landing computer systems together. It's a plug in play type thing,

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Speaker 1: right right, And that was I remember the first time

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Speaker 1: that I saw this and it was so revolutionary to

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Speaker 1: the idea that you wouldn't have to go into all

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Speaker 1: of your settings and mess around with everything and go

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Speaker 1: through that frustration level. Uh that that yeah, that you

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Speaker 1: you really would just tuck them up together and they

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Speaker 1: would basically do it for you. Yeah. So uh, for

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Speaker 1: those of you who have never participated in the joy

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Speaker 1: of a land party, land is local area network, if

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Speaker 1: we have not mentioned that yet in this particular episode, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's um. So. The way Halo multiplayer would work is

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Speaker 1: that you would get multiple people on a single console

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Speaker 1: and that would create a split screen environment and that

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Speaker 1: would depend upon how many people were playing, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: cooperatively you could play a two player game and in

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Speaker 1: a versus kind of universe, he could you could play

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Speaker 1: for four on a single console, but you could you

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Speaker 1: could network multiple consoles together for a maximum of sixteen players.

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Speaker 1: So imagine that you've got these multiple television side by side,

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Speaker 1: all of them in split screen view, all of you

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Speaker 1: are playing a specific one. Uh there was This was

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Speaker 1: a time where multiplayer meant that you could engage in

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Speaker 1: some underhanded tactics. I'm talking screen lookers. I know you're

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Speaker 1: out there. Okay, it's part of the game. It is

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Speaker 1: not part of the game. It's not a legitimate strategy.

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Speaker 1: You should be looking at your own screen. Don't look

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Speaker 1: at my screen. It's like checking your rear view mirror.

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Speaker 1: There's nothing at all if you can't avoid it. Look,

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Speaker 1: you know it's it's a common thing on in in

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Speaker 1: games of war for you to be able to look

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Speaker 1: through the eyes of your enemy and see exactly where

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Speaker 1: they are. Look. This is why we always wound up

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Speaker 1: having having two rooms of of xboxes with Red team

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Speaker 1: on one side and Blue team on which the fantastic

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Speaker 1: because you only saw your fellow players screens, and you

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Speaker 1: could cooperate and you wouldn't get people shouting at you

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Speaker 1: about screen looking only about everything else. Camping. Yeah, now

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Speaker 1: that's a legitimate strategy that is not a legitimate strategy. Hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm sorry Red versus Blue taught it to me. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: so it was interesting because the whole first person shooter.

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Speaker 1: If you've never played Halo, if you don't know anything

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Speaker 1: about Halo, we can tell you everything about Halo. Well

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Speaker 1: we'll give you We'll give you the high level look. Um.

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Speaker 1: It was revisiting a lot of the ideas that Bungee

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Speaker 1: had explored in the Marathon series, but the two games

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Speaker 1: are not set in the same universe. The general plot

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Speaker 1: is that it's in the future where humanity has expanded

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Speaker 1: and colonized far distant worlds, and through this colonization process,

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Speaker 1: several things have happened. Some of this gets explored in

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Speaker 1: expanded universe material like novels or mini series, but the games,

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Speaker 1: as they unfold, you learned things like there were periods

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Speaker 1: of civil unrest where people on far reaching planets were

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Speaker 1: upset at Earth's kind of totalitarian approach to colonization other humans,

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Speaker 1: not alien exactly. Yeah, so this is there were there

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Speaker 1: were the civil wars, and at any rate, also during colonization,

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Speaker 1: we happen to come into contact, we humans with some

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Speaker 1: aliens um called the Covenant. Yeah, called the Covenant specifically

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Speaker 1: because it's a confederacy of different alien species who all

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Speaker 1: share the same religion, and part of that religion involves

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Speaker 1: this idea of a great journey where the entire alien

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Speaker 1: confederation will move on to an enlightened level of existence.

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Speaker 1: But they're also heretics, and humans are heretics because we

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Speaker 1: take advantage of ancient technologies that we come across that

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Speaker 1: we're not supposed to touch because they're very important to

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Speaker 1: the alien religion. All of that is the backstory, like

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Speaker 1: the background of what's going on in the game. The game,

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Speaker 1: you have a very very much more immediate problem than

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Speaker 1: this complex religious and political kind of turmoil is going on.

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Speaker 1: Although yeah, like like I don't think that the game

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Speaker 1: would have taken off the way that it did if

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Speaker 1: it hadn't had this background. Yeah. So, but you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's it's important, but not critical to the right. Again,

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Speaker 1: just like just like the earlier games, you could play

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Speaker 1: this just running guns straight through, or just play the

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Speaker 1: multiplayer and never even touched the single player and still

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Speaker 1: find it a very satisfying experience. But it was the

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Speaker 1: story that got a lot of people interested in saying, wow,

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Speaker 1: this is this is really complex. Yeah, there's there's like

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Speaker 1: a whole mythology. There's there's stuff going on besides what

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Speaker 1: your character is doing. A lot of computer games and

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Speaker 1: video games, I think give you the impression that whatever

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Speaker 1: you are doing is the only thing that's really of

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Speaker 1: consequence that's happening within that game world, and that's not

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Speaker 1: the case with the Halo games necessarily. So the game

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Speaker 1: opens where you are playing a character called the Master Chief.

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Speaker 1: Master Chief is is his rank uh in A. He's

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Speaker 1: a space marine essentially wearing superpowered armor. He's genetically enhanced. Um,

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Speaker 1: he's kind of the elite of the elite. And there's

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Speaker 1: a whole backstory to them that we're not going to

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Speaker 1: go into because that could be like a series of

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Speaker 1: podcasts at any rate. You're on a ship that gets

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Speaker 1: attacked by Covenant horses, and in the process you're trying

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Speaker 1: to kind of escape the Covenant. You're you're really your

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Speaker 1: goal is to make sure the Covenant don't figure out

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Speaker 1: where Earth is because they want to kill us. That

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Speaker 1: would be bad. So you try your your ship tries

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Speaker 1: to escape and slip space, which is kind of a

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Speaker 1: hyperspace sort of thing, and you just happened to come

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Speaker 1: out right at a gigantic ring shaped planet size space station.

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Speaker 1: Planet size in the sense that if you look at

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Speaker 1: the square footage of the surface area, it's like a planet,

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Speaker 1: although it is a it is an artificial construct built

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Speaker 1: by a mysterious race of aliens called the Forerunners, who

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Speaker 1: are no longer around. Huh. And but this thing is

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Speaker 1: called a halo. Yeah, Halo installation. I think it's installation. Oh,

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Speaker 1: for in the lore of the game. Um so in

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Speaker 1: the game, you the Covenant show up to they follow

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Speaker 1: right behind you, and they they see this thing and

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Speaker 1: they think, oh wow, this is interesting. We want to

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Speaker 1: check this out too, So it becomes of a race

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Speaker 1: to try and find out what's the purpose of this installation? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: But along the way you run into these aliens called

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Speaker 1: the Flood, which are these parasitic things that turn both

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Speaker 1: humans and aliens alike into sort of zombie things. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: And you find out eventually that the purpose of the

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Speaker 1: installation was twofold one, to contain the Flood for study

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Speaker 1: and to to act as defense mechanism if the Flood

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Speaker 1: were ever released into the galaxy. Because the flood can

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Speaker 1: essentially infect any sentient life form. So eventually what you

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Speaker 1: learn is that this installation, if turned on, will wipe

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Speaker 1: out all sentient life within a huge radius, like a

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Speaker 1: significant portion of the galaxy and um. And so you

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Speaker 1: come to the conclusion that that would be a bad thing.

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Speaker 1: Whereas the Covenant think this is the key to the

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Speaker 1: great journey, this is worthwhile. Yeah, if we push this button,

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Speaker 1: then we will totally move on to an enlightened form

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Speaker 1: of existence. So that's where the whole whole um conflict

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Speaker 1: comes in. By the end of it, you spoiler alert,

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Speaker 1: successfully destroy the installation and then, uh, you know, Cortana,

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Speaker 1: this AI, which again very important in the in the

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Speaker 1: lore of Bungee, is the artificial intelligence. Cortana, the AI

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Speaker 1: who's been looking after you and helping you along the way, says, uh,

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Speaker 1: it's over, and of course it's just getting started. That's

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00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,840
Speaker 1: a that's a good master Chief repression. It wasn't. I

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Speaker 1: was being kind. I don't have a deep I don't

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Speaker 1: have a basso profundo type voice. Uh so. Also, I've

393
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Speaker 1: been coughing a lot, so this is this is as

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Speaker 1: gruff as I can get. But yeah, it was. It

395
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Speaker 1: was pretty It was it was for for a console

396
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Speaker 1: based first person shooter. It was really complex and rich

397
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Speaker 1: and had satisfying gameplay for a lot of players, so

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00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: sure well. And and also the combat evolved part of

399
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Speaker 1: the title meant that the the AI in the game,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not talking about the articial intelligence characters. I'm

401
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Speaker 1: talking about in the game itself. The the enemies and

402
00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:09,919
Speaker 1: friendlies would we're really very smart and could react to

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Speaker 1: you in very interesting ways and and and form their

404
00:23:13,640 --> 00:23:16,280
Speaker 1: own kind of strategies as you moved through the gameplay,

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Speaker 1: and so and so it was. It was a very

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Speaker 1: fun experience, especially for anyone who you know, had had

407
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Speaker 1: dealt with very dumb AI in in previous right, right,

408
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Speaker 1: I And I hear that there are a lot of

409
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Speaker 1: people who um like like PC players first person shooter

410
00:23:34,160 --> 00:23:36,600
Speaker 1: players who who kind of look down on the Halo

411
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Speaker 1: series because the control scheme is it had to be

412
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Speaker 1: made specifically for the controller, not for a mouse and keyboard,

413
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Speaker 1: which means you have to give up a lot of

414
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Speaker 1: precision that you But I think that dismissing one type

415
00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,119
Speaker 1: of first person shooter based upon the platform is short

416
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 1: sighted as a as a person who likes both computer

417
00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 1: games and console games. I love the game play in Halo.

418
00:24:02,040 --> 00:24:06,000
Speaker 1: It's very satisfying to me. It's it probably feels very

419
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: different for someone who's more attuned to first person shooters

420
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Speaker 1: on computers, and I understand that. I think. I do

421
00:24:13,160 --> 00:24:15,359
Speaker 1: think it's also a little bit easier on the entry

422
00:24:15,440 --> 00:24:17,280
Speaker 1: level to need to get into it, and I think

423
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Speaker 1: that once once you are into it, there's a pretty

424
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:23,560
Speaker 1: there's a pretty good depth of of range of of

425
00:24:24,400 --> 00:24:27,440
Speaker 1: uh skill level, skill level that you can achieve. Certainly, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, based upon my online experiences with the most

427
00:24:30,840 --> 00:24:34,040
Speaker 1: of the Halo series, it's an easy game to pick

428
00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:36,440
Speaker 1: up and a difficult one for for me at any

429
00:24:36,560 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 1: rate to master. Moving on, though, so Halo huge success

430
00:24:41,840 --> 00:24:44,080
Speaker 1: both for Bungee and Microsoft, which are one and the

431
00:24:44,119 --> 00:24:47,000
Speaker 1: same thing right now. Yeah, and as of two thousand two,

432
00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: they would announce that they were developing a sequel Halo too. Yeah. Now,

433
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: this development process was not a smooth one. Uh. It

434
00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 1: actually ended up causing a lot of issues. The there's

435
00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:00,960
Speaker 1: a large section of that documentary I mentioned that's dedicated

436
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,400
Speaker 1: specifically to the development of Halo two, where they came

437
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:11,240
Speaker 1: up with these big ideas for different level designs, plot elements, weapons, vehicles, enemies,

438
00:25:11,280 --> 00:25:13,680
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff. But as they were developing

439
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:16,800
Speaker 1: the game, they realized that they couldn't really achieve the

440
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:18,960
Speaker 1: things they had originally planned. It just wasn't going to

441
00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 1: work out. Specifically, it wasn' going to work out as

442
00:25:20,720 --> 00:25:24,160
Speaker 1: the first person shooter type of game. Uh and so

443
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:30,199
Speaker 1: they started to really uh worry about the integrity of

444
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:33,439
Speaker 1: the single player campaign. Meanwhile, there was a new focus

445
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:36,919
Speaker 1: on multiplayer because now Xbox Live was going to be

446
00:25:36,960 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 1: ready by the time Halo two came out, so they

447
00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:42,440
Speaker 1: wanted to really nail multiplayer. Ah yeah, Yeah. It was

448
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: a huge Microsoft imperative to to get this flagship game

449
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,400
Speaker 1: of theirs on their new shiny multiplayer network. Yeah, because

450
00:25:49,400 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 1: you still couldn't play the first Halo on Xbox Live.

451
00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:54,359
Speaker 1: It just wasn't going to work. So because it hadn't

452
00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 1: been built into that first Halo. So Halo two was

453
00:25:57,000 --> 00:25:58,320
Speaker 1: going to be the first one where you had that

454
00:25:58,359 --> 00:26:00,840
Speaker 1: opportunity they really wanted to get right. They had to

455
00:26:00,960 --> 00:26:03,359
Speaker 1: pull a lot of resources onto multiplayer, which meant that

456
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: the single player campaign began to lag behind. Uh and

457
00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 1: so yeah, it was really getting kind of grim for

458
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:13,720
Speaker 1: Halo two. In fact, if you listen to the documentary,

459
00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:17,919
Speaker 1: they start talking like in really depressing language about it,

460
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:23,160
Speaker 1: saying that it was just a grueling process. Um, including

461
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:24,960
Speaker 1: a lack of leadership. You know, we had talked about

462
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,520
Speaker 1: Serapian having left the company. Jason Jones, meanwhile, wasn't working

463
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: on Halo two. He was working on a project that

464
00:26:31,640 --> 00:26:35,760
Speaker 1: was code named the Phoenix Project, also called Breach or

465
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: T T F K A M two, also known as

466
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,360
Speaker 1: the team formerly known as Myth two. Yeah, so its

467
00:26:41,400 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 1: the Myth two development team working on a new game,

468
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: which was never like, there's never been any public announcement

469
00:26:48,040 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: about what that game would have been. It never came out.

470
00:26:50,960 --> 00:26:53,960
Speaker 1: It never came out. They yeah, they scrapped it. But

471
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,000
Speaker 1: the leading theory is that it was a fantasy based

472
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:00,960
Speaker 1: strategy game, kind of some alert to Myth two. That

473
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:03,480
Speaker 1: would be why fans called it T T F K

474
00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:07,640
Speaker 1: M two. Um, we will will never know. They ended

475
00:27:07,720 --> 00:27:11,479
Speaker 1: up saying, look, Halo two is the most important project

476
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,119
Speaker 1: right now, and it's it's kind of floundering. So Jones

477
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:18,000
Speaker 1: would end up moving over to Halo two, uh and

478
00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:23,280
Speaker 1: trying to to add some more leadership to this development team. Um.

479
00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:26,000
Speaker 1: Moving on to two thousand three. Yeah, in two thousand three,

480
00:27:26,040 --> 00:27:29,680
Speaker 1: they would release a port of Halo one, Halo Combat

481
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:35,480
Speaker 1: Evolved for the PC and Mac platforms. Uh it. It

482
00:27:35,560 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: did allow for online multiplayer play, but it did not

483
00:27:39,200 --> 00:27:43,240
Speaker 1: allow for cooperative gameplay through the storyline. Yeah, the single

484
00:27:43,240 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: player campaign. Yeah, so yeah, that was that was a downside,

485
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,800
Speaker 1: although they did have other maps that the console players

486
00:27:49,800 --> 00:27:53,120
Speaker 1: didn't have access to, so that was one of those

487
00:27:53,119 --> 00:27:56,560
Speaker 1: things that got console players a little jealous. Um at

488
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:59,240
Speaker 1: any rate. At E three two three, Bunche would show

489
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,200
Speaker 1: off some footage from Halo two and fan boys lose

490
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,960
Speaker 1: their ever love and minds. That is an accurate trail

491
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:07,439
Speaker 1: of the events. And if you can again, you can

492
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,480
Speaker 1: find videos of the Halo to reveal at E three,

493
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,719
Speaker 1: two thousand three. And it's it's insane to hear the reaction.

494
00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 1: It's funny too, because I think out of all the

495
00:28:16,560 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 1: Halo reveals that I've either been present for or watched online,

496
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:24,880
Speaker 1: I think this was the biggest reaction out of all

497
00:28:24,920 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: of them, partly because you started seeing things in the

498
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 1: in the reveal, including the ability to wield two weapons

499
00:28:30,440 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: at once, which drove everyone bunkers. Yeah, you mean, I

500
00:28:34,760 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 1: can use my left hand to to needle Aera. So

501
00:28:39,360 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: apparently that was a real eye opening experience. Also in

502
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,640
Speaker 1: two thousand three, this doesn't have to do with Bungee

503
00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,200
Speaker 1: directly at this point, but a group of Bungee fans,

504
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:55,000
Speaker 1: or Halo fans specifically, would put out a small series

505
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:58,360
Speaker 1: known as Red Versus Blue. That's right. First episode goes

506
00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:01,800
Speaker 1: live April first, two thousand which, if you've ever listened

507
00:29:01,840 --> 00:29:03,760
Speaker 1: to any podcasts that the company has done, are gone

508
00:29:03,760 --> 00:29:06,640
Speaker 1: to any panels. They talk about how they regret that

509
00:29:06,920 --> 00:29:09,560
Speaker 1: simply because whenever they make an announcement on an anniversary,

510
00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:13,080
Speaker 1: people expected to be an April fool's joke. Um, it

511
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,480
Speaker 1: end up being a huge success. If you go back

512
00:29:15,480 --> 00:29:18,400
Speaker 1: and search the Tech Stuff archives. We actually did an

513
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:23,080
Speaker 1: interview with Bernie Burns, the the founder of Rooster Teeth,

514
00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: the company that makes Red Versus Blue, and it starts

515
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:30,600
Speaker 1: off with some playful references to stuff that's within the

516
00:29:30,640 --> 00:29:34,160
Speaker 1: Halo universe, like Master Chief and the Covenant Armada, and

517
00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:38,440
Speaker 1: then very very quickly forges its own path into madness

518
00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:42,880
Speaker 1: and comedy drama too. Oh sure, sure, but this this

519
00:29:42,920 --> 00:29:46,000
Speaker 1: was all footage taken our footage in in game footage

520
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,320
Speaker 1: taken from the Halo series. Yeah, essentially using the characters

521
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:53,480
Speaker 1: like digital puppets, right, And it was they were able

522
00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,520
Speaker 1: to to make these little digital puppets kind of talk

523
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: by by utilizing a glitch in the game that that

524
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:03,920
Speaker 1: would be erased from Halo two. There there's a little

525
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 1: bit of a concern right around now about whether or

526
00:30:06,480 --> 00:30:09,000
Speaker 1: not they would even be able to continue making this

527
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: series once Halo two would come out and they possibly

528
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: fixed the bug. Yeah, it was. It was one of

529
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 1: those things where Bungee was saying, oh, we should really

530
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: fix this, and wait, that's what loves us make their movies.

531
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: Eventually Bungee would code in. They did fix the bug,

532
00:30:23,720 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 1: but they allowed for they allowed for you to do

533
00:30:27,040 --> 00:30:29,720
Speaker 1: it basically on purpose. It was essentially head bobbing, so

534
00:30:29,760 --> 00:30:32,760
Speaker 1: that that way it would because you know, the Master

535
00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:36,479
Speaker 1: Chief outfit includes a full faced helmet that hides the

536
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:40,080
Speaker 1: person's head. You can't see the person, so you can't

537
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,600
Speaker 1: tell who's talking unless you have some sort of movetion. Right.

538
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,360
Speaker 1: So two thousand and four, in July, theatrical preview for

539
00:30:48,440 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: Halo two ends with a quick flash of the u

540
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:55,040
Speaker 1: r L I Love Bees dot Com, an alternate reality

541
00:30:55,080 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: game or a r G with with ties to really

542
00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:01,520
Speaker 1: far reaching concept in the Halo universe that had never

543
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:06,440
Speaker 1: really been explicitly stated before. Yeah, it's mostly AI and rampancy.

544
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:08,040
Speaker 1: That was the big one, which of course had been

545
00:31:08,080 --> 00:31:11,840
Speaker 1: introduced in the Marathon series. The rampancy wasn't really addressed

546
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,560
Speaker 1: in the first Halo well three for three Guilty Spark, Well,

547
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:20,280
Speaker 1: that's true, that's true. I was specifically thinking of human

548
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 1: design AI, but three four three Guilty Spark uh definitely

549
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: falls into that realm of if AI is left alone

550
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:31,160
Speaker 1: long enough, it goes crazy. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, and

551
00:31:31,160 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: and and so so this this I Love Bees game

552
00:31:34,160 --> 00:31:36,920
Speaker 1: would was was a huge Internet sensation. I had so

553
00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:38,560
Speaker 1: many friends who were playing it. I didn't catch up

554
00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: with it until much later, but I was playing to

555
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:46,040
Speaker 1: the point where I was strongly UH leaning towards going

556
00:31:46,080 --> 00:31:48,960
Speaker 1: to one of the public telephones that you could go

557
00:31:49,080 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 1: to and wait and there would be a call that

558
00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 1: would come in at certain telephone UH telephones during certain

559
00:31:55,800 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: times of the day in certain cities, and if you

560
00:31:58,040 --> 00:32:01,480
Speaker 1: responded with the right code phrase, you could actually participate

561
00:32:01,480 --> 00:32:05,120
Speaker 1: in this game. They actually recorded those phone conversations and

562
00:32:05,320 --> 00:32:08,240
Speaker 1: UH ended up packaging them together for people who had

563
00:32:08,280 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: been playing the game the whole time, so that you

564
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:13,000
Speaker 1: could go to a physical event with a real live

565
00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:17,000
Speaker 1: people there. That was all about celebrating this alternate reality

566
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,080
Speaker 1: game that was at that point tangentially related to Halo two,

567
00:32:20,640 --> 00:32:23,680
Speaker 1: and you could get a copy of all them. And

568
00:32:23,760 --> 00:32:25,280
Speaker 1: it was great because it would have things like the

569
00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:28,400
Speaker 1: AI on the other phone would ask you questions like

570
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:30,720
Speaker 1: what's your favorite song, and you would answer and just

571
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:33,120
Speaker 1: sing it for me. So you had all these people

572
00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:37,680
Speaker 1: singing into a phone, including and it brought tears to

573
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,160
Speaker 1: my eyes. I'll never forget. There was one female player

574
00:32:41,160 --> 00:32:44,080
Speaker 1: of the r G who said that her favorite song

575
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,520
Speaker 1: was Stormy Weather, so she started singing it, and the

576
00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:51,200
Speaker 1: AI ended up singing harmony. So it's fantastic. It's all online.

577
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: Oh yeah no. And and alternate reality games, if you

578
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: guys haven't heard of them very much before, are this

579
00:32:56,880 --> 00:33:02,880
Speaker 1: kind of interactive experience where it fyers players to to

580
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:05,160
Speaker 1: to go out into the world and answer phone calls

581
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:07,960
Speaker 1: at phone booths, you know, back when those things still existed,

582
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 1: or find clues and and enter them up into the

583
00:33:11,280 --> 00:33:15,000
Speaker 1: game world and and collectively figure out what's going on

584
00:33:15,080 --> 00:33:17,680
Speaker 1: in order to proceed in the game as a community,

585
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:20,440
Speaker 1: and it can be a very powerful marketing tool. I

586
00:33:20,720 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 1: think that this is probably the most successful one that

587
00:33:24,560 --> 00:33:29,640
Speaker 1: I have seen the Beast right AI. Although I should

588
00:33:29,680 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: also add in both cases you had people who were

589
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 1: obsessed with the alternate reality game who never really cared

590
00:33:36,400 --> 00:33:39,040
Speaker 1: about the Halo party or or AI for that matter,

591
00:33:39,120 --> 00:33:42,280
Speaker 1: the same sort of thing. But anyway, right, right, So,

592
00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:46,600
Speaker 1: so in November Halo two would actually release. Uh it

593
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,560
Speaker 1: did some some fair business, right. Yeah, It's sold more

594
00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:53,479
Speaker 1: than two point four million copies in the first twenty

595
00:33:53,480 --> 00:33:56,560
Speaker 1: four hours, hundred thousand copies an hour. That's not bad

596
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,480
Speaker 1: considering that again, back in their Macintosh day, they would

597
00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: consider a blowout success to be two d copies. That's

598
00:34:03,560 --> 00:34:06,719
Speaker 1: pretty phenomenal. And uh and in the plot of these games,

599
00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:09,439
Speaker 1: along with some of the backstory that was revealed through

600
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 1: I Love Bees, what would make this entire universe even

601
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 1: more complicated. So uh, the important thing to remember here

602
00:34:16,280 --> 00:34:19,520
Speaker 1: from a kind of a meta perspective, is that the

603
00:34:19,560 --> 00:34:23,280
Speaker 1: third act of Halo two had been truncated. They essentially

604
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: in order to get the game out before it was

605
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: no longer relevant. They had to make some serious cutbacks

606
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:34,080
Speaker 1: on the development side, and that involved removing an entire

607
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:38,200
Speaker 1: plot point that would happen uh after what ends up

608
00:34:38,239 --> 00:34:41,000
Speaker 1: being the end of Halo two. So it was essentially

609
00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:43,440
Speaker 1: a third shorter than what it was planned to be.

610
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:47,360
Speaker 1: Um again, it was such an arduous process. Team morale

611
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:49,120
Speaker 1: it Bungee was really low. It was just one of

612
00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,600
Speaker 1: those things where people felt kind of like they had

613
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:56,520
Speaker 1: failed in their attempt. And part of that was just

614
00:34:56,600 --> 00:34:58,879
Speaker 1: them saying, you know, if you don't if you don't

615
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,680
Speaker 1: aim for something that's scar Harry, it's not really worth doing.

616
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,640
Speaker 1: And sometimes you might fail in that, but that's what

617
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:08,400
Speaker 1: makes it worth doing. But they but they did achieve

618
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,680
Speaker 1: a really rich online multiplayer gaming. Oh yeah, no. Halo

619
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: two online multiplayer is one of those things that that

620
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:21,320
Speaker 1: the lovers of the consoles still cite as being a favorite,

621
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:22,839
Speaker 1: and in fact, I know a lot of people who

622
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:26,320
Speaker 1: are eagerly anticipating the Xbox One release of the Master

623
00:35:26,440 --> 00:35:31,280
Speaker 1: Chief Collection, which collects Halo's one through four and allows

624
00:35:31,280 --> 00:35:34,520
Speaker 1: you to have that online multiplayer with all of them

625
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: over Xbox Live on Xbox One and uh, and people

626
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,240
Speaker 1: are really eager to play Halo to multiplayer again because

627
00:35:41,400 --> 00:35:44,960
Speaker 1: otherwise you can't really do it. So yeah, no, no, no, no, absolutely,

628
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:48,280
Speaker 1: I'm still very nostalgic personally for some of those maps.

629
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:50,920
Speaker 1: I I get a little bit misty eyed. I love Ascension,

630
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:54,760
Speaker 1: and I do I do still really tear up about Bees.

631
00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:59,279
Speaker 1: It's so two thousand and six, Bungee would show off

632
00:35:59,320 --> 00:36:02,400
Speaker 1: a trailer for Hay three at E three, This once

633
00:36:02,560 --> 00:36:04,640
Speaker 1: for the Xbox three sixties. So moving on to the

634
00:36:04,680 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: next generation of game consoles, all right. Halo three would

635
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,600
Speaker 1: come out the next year, in September of two thousand seven,

636
00:36:11,040 --> 00:36:14,480
Speaker 1: and uh, you know, immediately go gold and sell more

637
00:36:14,520 --> 00:36:18,279
Speaker 1: than three hundred million dollars worth of this game within

638
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:22,840
Speaker 1: the first week. Yeah, phenomenally successful. And at that point

639
00:36:23,280 --> 00:36:26,719
Speaker 1: Bungee actually shortly before the actual release of the game,

640
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:29,600
Speaker 1: had announced that it would separate from Microsoft later on

641
00:36:29,680 --> 00:36:32,880
Speaker 1: the year, So by October two thou seven, Bungee would

642
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,760
Speaker 1: leave Microsoft and become its own independent game studio once again.

643
00:36:37,040 --> 00:36:38,919
Speaker 1: Although it's part of the deal, they agreed to make

644
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:41,680
Speaker 1: two more Halo games and then hand over the Halo

645
00:36:41,719 --> 00:36:44,480
Speaker 1: franchise to Microsoft to do with it what they would. Yep.

646
00:36:44,719 --> 00:36:47,000
Speaker 1: So they said that, you know, if it came down

647
00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:50,719
Speaker 1: to going out and and forming their own identity once more,

648
00:36:51,600 --> 00:36:54,080
Speaker 1: giving up their baby was a tough thing to do,

649
00:36:54,120 --> 00:36:56,759
Speaker 1: but it was the right thing to do, according to

650
00:36:57,160 --> 00:37:01,319
Speaker 1: the folks who stayed with Bungee. Everybody did. Now, it's

651
00:37:01,440 --> 00:37:04,200
Speaker 1: I think that overall, the the feel of Bungee was

652
00:37:04,239 --> 00:37:07,920
Speaker 1: pretty positive. They they set on Bungee deton dot Net

653
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:10,400
Speaker 1: on its own once again, with a horizon full of

654
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,840
Speaker 1: opportunities for the studio. What's next for Bungee? Hush, if

655
00:37:13,880 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: you're quiet enough, you can hear it on the lips

656
00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:18,480
Speaker 1: of unborn babes. Yeah. So, as it turns out, the

657
00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: folks that Bungee have a bit of a sense of humor.

658
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,960
Speaker 1: Uh So, Halo three picks up, We're Halo. Yeah, really

659
00:37:25,000 --> 00:37:27,319
Speaker 1: I think they I think they do have anyway, Yeah,

660
00:37:27,360 --> 00:37:30,040
Speaker 1: they're they're pretty well known for it. Halo three picked

661
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:34,040
Speaker 1: up We're Halo two left off, So no big surprise there. Essentially,

662
00:37:34,080 --> 00:37:35,719
Speaker 1: by the end of the Halo three I'm not gonna

663
00:37:35,760 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 1: go through the whole plot again. It's very complicated, but

664
00:37:38,360 --> 00:37:40,120
Speaker 1: Master Chief and Quartan at the end of Halo three

665
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:43,400
Speaker 1: are kind of set adrift light years from Earth in

666
00:37:43,520 --> 00:37:47,759
Speaker 1: half of a starship. Uh. Master Chief goes into stasis.

667
00:37:47,920 --> 00:37:50,839
Speaker 1: Cortana is kind of on standby, and that's the end

668
00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:53,000
Speaker 1: of the Halo trilogy is kind of they talked about

669
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,279
Speaker 1: as being a three act tragedy, and so this is

670
00:37:56,320 --> 00:37:59,400
Speaker 1: sort of the tragic end. Master Chief is alive, but

671
00:37:59,520 --> 00:38:03,200
Speaker 1: he has completely separated from humanity, and no one on

672
00:38:03,280 --> 00:38:05,759
Speaker 1: Earth is aware of whether or not he's they they

673
00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,279
Speaker 1: assume he's dead, and so that that was kind of

674
00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,160
Speaker 1: their way of saying, this is a fitting end. Master

675
00:38:11,239 --> 00:38:13,799
Speaker 1: Chief saves the day, but he himself has cut off

676
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:18,080
Speaker 1: off from everybody else. Um. The game did, though, also

677
00:38:18,160 --> 00:38:21,680
Speaker 1: feature a Forge mode um in which you could go

678
00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:24,040
Speaker 1: in and create your own maps and game types with

679
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:26,719
Speaker 1: all kinds of physics and weapons that you wanted to

680
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:30,480
Speaker 1: put in there. If you remember from U from Marathon

681
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:34,600
Speaker 1: three Infinity way back in six, this is a very

682
00:38:34,680 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 1: familiar feature. Ye. And what was also cool is you

683
00:38:38,320 --> 00:38:41,720
Speaker 1: could record footage as you're playing, so you could actually

684
00:38:41,719 --> 00:38:43,799
Speaker 1: make your own little machinima if you wanted to. That's

685
00:38:43,880 --> 00:38:46,600
Speaker 1: that's what the kind of animation that read versus Bleu is. Yeah,

686
00:38:46,640 --> 00:38:48,920
Speaker 1: I don't think said that. Yeah, I totally forgot to

687
00:38:48,960 --> 00:38:50,920
Speaker 1: mention it. But you could do your own if you

688
00:38:50,960 --> 00:38:53,239
Speaker 1: wanted to, and a lot of people did. Or you

689
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:54,920
Speaker 1: could be one of those people who you know, you're

690
00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 1: playing the game and you suddenly get sniped out of nowhere,

691
00:38:57,239 --> 00:38:59,919
Speaker 1: and you after the after the matches over, you were

692
00:39:00,040 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 1: view it to say, where the heck was that person? How,

693
00:39:02,600 --> 00:39:04,239
Speaker 1: how did where did they get to? What was their

694
00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:06,799
Speaker 1: vantage point? How do I get there? So I can

695
00:39:06,840 --> 00:39:09,960
Speaker 1: try can do things? So it actually made people better

696
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:14,600
Speaker 1: players too, because they could really examine and scrutinize what

697
00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:16,439
Speaker 1: was going on at any given time, and they could

698
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:19,200
Speaker 1: change camera angles. It's not like you were limited to

699
00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 1: you know, a camera angle in a virtual world is

700
00:39:22,680 --> 00:39:25,360
Speaker 1: able to go anywhere, so you could completely take a

701
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,400
Speaker 1: scene and do a three sixty degree sweep around. It's

702
00:39:28,520 --> 00:39:33,840
Speaker 1: really awesome. So UH Moving on. In two thousand eight,

703
00:39:34,320 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 1: Harold Ryan, who had served as the test manager and

704
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,799
Speaker 1: producer for Halo two, becomes the president of Bungee UH

705
00:39:40,840 --> 00:39:43,239
Speaker 1: and in two thousand nine, Bungee would release the first

706
00:39:43,280 --> 00:39:45,480
Speaker 1: of those two games they had promised Microsoft in the

707
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:49,520
Speaker 1: Halo series, Halo three O, D S T. Which stood

708
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:53,120
Speaker 1: for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, which was a class of

709
00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:57,520
Speaker 1: of marines some somewhat below the Spartans. The Spartans a

710
00:39:57,680 --> 00:39:59,879
Speaker 1: k a. That the Master Chief character is a Spark

711
00:40:00,840 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: in terms of technological and physical ability. Yep. It was

712
00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:07,200
Speaker 1: kind of set in the film noir type genre, like

713
00:40:07,239 --> 00:40:10,560
Speaker 1: they wanted to have a very dark, kind of gritty, uh,

714
00:40:10,719 --> 00:40:13,800
Speaker 1: desperate feel for the game. It was. It was pretty spooky,

715
00:40:13,800 --> 00:40:16,440
Speaker 1: it was. It was very desolate and also featured one

716
00:40:16,480 --> 00:40:20,399
Speaker 1: of the spookiest actors in the world, Nathan Nathan. Yeah. Yeah,

717
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,800
Speaker 1: wasn't that one too, Yeah? Um, and involved it involved

718
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,200
Speaker 1: a lot again of of back story told through these

719
00:40:28,239 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: found recordings. Yeah. And it was kind of set between

720
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,879
Speaker 1: Halo two and Halo three, like the events that that

721
00:40:34,120 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: lead from Halo two to Halo three. And it didn't

722
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,160
Speaker 1: feature Master Chief at all. You played as these other characters. Uh.

723
00:40:40,239 --> 00:40:43,359
Speaker 1: Bungee also would announce in two thousand nine Halo Reach,

724
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:45,880
Speaker 1: which would be the final Bungee backed game in the

725
00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 1: Halo universe. Uh. And meanwhile, Microsoft, not resting on its laurels,

726
00:40:51,719 --> 00:40:56,359
Speaker 1: formed three four three industries, So Guilty Spark three forty three.

727
00:40:56,400 --> 00:41:01,000
Speaker 1: That's where that name comes from Um I have I

728
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:03,200
Speaker 1: have a little bit of a thing to say about that. Okay,

729
00:41:03,239 --> 00:41:05,879
Speaker 1: I find it very strange that they chose three four

730
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,360
Speaker 1: three as as the name of this in house company,

731
00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:12,480
Speaker 1: because I mean, we we we mentioned it earlier. But

732
00:41:12,480 --> 00:41:15,280
Speaker 1: but three four three Guilty Spark was this floating AI

733
00:41:15,360 --> 00:41:18,320
Speaker 1: who was really integral to the events of the series.

734
00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: He showed up first in Halo one. He I mean it,

735
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,760
Speaker 1: I suppose probably had a dude voice. Yeah. Um, while

736
00:41:24,880 --> 00:41:28,440
Speaker 1: it wasn't necessarily evil, is definitely at odds with you

737
00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:31,239
Speaker 1: through most of the series and is more than a

738
00:41:31,239 --> 00:41:34,600
Speaker 1: little bit completely bonkers in that very charmingly murderous way

739
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,560
Speaker 1: that the video game AI characters tend to get. Um. So,

740
00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:41,880
Speaker 1: I just think that it's really interesting that they were like,

741
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:47,000
Speaker 1: that's our name, right, There's not like Cortana or something, right, right,

742
00:41:47,040 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: I would say that I would say that three four

743
00:41:48,719 --> 00:41:52,600
Speaker 1: three is at least a moral if not. He has

744
00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,239
Speaker 1: very specific parameters that he follows very very literally and

745
00:41:56,239 --> 00:41:59,080
Speaker 1: sort of the less Kersey el swhere engine of the

746
00:41:59,080 --> 00:42:02,719
Speaker 1: Halo series. You go, uh and the the lead over

747
00:42:02,760 --> 00:42:05,280
Speaker 1: at three four three is Frank O'Connor, who was formerly

748
00:42:05,360 --> 00:42:09,000
Speaker 1: Bungee's content managers. So some of the Bungee employees moved

749
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 1: on over to three four three stayed with that and Microsoft.

750
00:42:12,239 --> 00:42:15,080
Speaker 1: Others went with the rest of the company to become

751
00:42:15,120 --> 00:42:18,759
Speaker 1: their own independent h entity. Uh The next year in

752
00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:23,120
Speaker 1: Bungee would release Halo Reach. It's a prequel to the

753
00:42:23,160 --> 00:42:26,479
Speaker 1: first Halo game, so Halo Combat Evolved prequel. It takes

754
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:29,759
Speaker 1: place on the planet that you know I talked about

755
00:42:29,760 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 1: in in Halo. You're on a ship that's being attacked

756
00:42:31,920 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: by the Covenant. The ship is in orbit around this

757
00:42:34,640 --> 00:42:37,839
Speaker 1: planet Reach, and uh so this is the story of

758
00:42:37,880 --> 00:42:40,480
Speaker 1: the Fall of Reach, when Reach was invaded by the

759
00:42:40,520 --> 00:42:45,720
Speaker 1: Covenant and this group of uh Spartans who are charged

760
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:50,120
Speaker 1: with getting very important package to the Pillar of Autumn,

761
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:51,600
Speaker 1: which is the ship you're on in the beginning of

762
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,399
Speaker 1: Halo right right, And this the storyline is. I mean,

763
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,319
Speaker 1: anyone who is very familiar with the Halo series would

764
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 1: know that it ends in terrible magity. Um So, going

765
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,560
Speaker 1: into this game, I was a little bit upset. I mean,

766
00:43:03,600 --> 00:43:05,279
Speaker 1: I mean, the the story of the Fall of Reach

767
00:43:05,360 --> 00:43:07,920
Speaker 1: is why I cried so much during I Love Bees.

768
00:43:08,680 --> 00:43:10,799
Speaker 1: So I was, but I had a lot of friends

769
00:43:10,800 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 1: who had never played the games that deeply had never

770
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 1: paid that much attention to the backstory, so so they

771
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,600
Speaker 1: were all very surprised and end upset in real time,

772
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: which I kind of shot and freudly enjoyed. Spoiler alert

773
00:43:23,160 --> 00:43:25,759
Speaker 1: for those who who may have not played this game

774
00:43:25,760 --> 00:43:28,680
Speaker 1: but planned to U So, yeah, it doesn't end well,

775
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:31,160
Speaker 1: but you know that from the beginning of Halo. I mean,

776
00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:35,080
Speaker 1: it's it's clear what's happening. Um, but uh, at least

777
00:43:35,080 --> 00:43:38,440
Speaker 1: one member of Noble six does live. Well, there you go.

778
00:43:38,680 --> 00:43:43,160
Speaker 1: So there, It's probably not you, but one of them does.

779
00:43:43,480 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 1: Everybody dies. It was also the year two thousand eleven

780
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,839
Speaker 1: of Bungee's twentieth anniversary. That's where the documentary came out.

781
00:43:49,239 --> 00:43:52,279
Speaker 1: They also hinted at Bungee's next project, which at the

782
00:43:52,320 --> 00:43:55,240
Speaker 1: time was codenamed Project Tiger, that would end up becoming

783
00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:57,960
Speaker 1: the game that we now know as Destiny, which as

784
00:43:58,000 --> 00:44:00,920
Speaker 1: of the recording of this podcast still has to come out,

785
00:44:00,960 --> 00:44:03,080
Speaker 1: but they have done an alpha a beta on it.

786
00:44:03,560 --> 00:44:06,400
Speaker 1: In two thousand and twelve, a lawsuit between Activision and

787
00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: some former Infinity Ward employees included a publishing contract between

788
00:44:10,960 --> 00:44:14,880
Speaker 1: Activision and Bungee as evidence. The judge of the case

789
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:18,960
Speaker 1: unsealed this contract, and that revealed that the agreement covered

790
00:44:19,000 --> 00:44:23,360
Speaker 1: four games under the Destiny franchise developed by Bungee distributed

791
00:44:23,360 --> 00:44:25,920
Speaker 1: by Activision, so kind of laying the cattle of the

792
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:31,080
Speaker 1: bag through a completely unrelated lawsuit, the company Bungee began

793
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: to release information about the game in the wake of

794
00:44:33,239 --> 00:44:36,400
Speaker 1: various leaks that plagued the project. The budget for the

795
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:41,680
Speaker 1: game was reported to be five hundred million dollars half

796
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:45,160
Speaker 1: a billion bucks, although that might be for the entire

797
00:44:45,280 --> 00:44:48,839
Speaker 1: series and include stuff like like server costs and all

798
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 1: of that, so we don't know what that budget entails.

799
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:54,640
Speaker 1: I would imagine it has to be the entire series.

800
00:44:54,680 --> 00:44:57,279
Speaker 1: I can't five million dollars for a single game would

801
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:00,400
Speaker 1: be such a huge investment that I don't know how

802
00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 1: you would earn your money back. Um So moving on.

803
00:45:04,280 --> 00:45:06,719
Speaker 1: In two thousand thirteen, Joseph Staton, who had worked for

804
00:45:06,719 --> 00:45:10,840
Speaker 1: Bungee since n and co created Destiny, leaves the company

805
00:45:10,920 --> 00:45:14,000
Speaker 1: and joins Microsoft and in two thousand and fourteen, the

806
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,320
Speaker 1: release of Destiny is scheduled for September two thousand fourteen,

807
00:45:17,800 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 1: and they we are recording this. By the way, on August,

808
00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:24,680
Speaker 1: so it's still not out yet, so we haven't had

809
00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,040
Speaker 1: a chance to to really play with it, but the

810
00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:30,799
Speaker 1: alpha and beta programs both allowed prospective players to give

811
00:45:30,800 --> 00:45:35,480
Speaker 1: it a world and was widely shown as to be

812
00:45:35,560 --> 00:45:38,080
Speaker 1: a success, at least as far as beta programs are going.

813
00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:41,600
Speaker 1: It's a fully online first person shooter game with some

814
00:45:41,719 --> 00:45:46,000
Speaker 1: role playing game elements, persistent world that's supposed to change

815
00:45:46,040 --> 00:45:50,320
Speaker 1: over time as as players join and complete different missions.

816
00:45:50,320 --> 00:45:52,880
Speaker 1: So in theory, you'll be able to start playing this

817
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:57,439
Speaker 1: game and then eventually get brand new missions that unwrapped

818
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:01,800
Speaker 1: as the world itself evaults, So some missions may come online,

819
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:04,799
Speaker 1: some old missions may no longer be relevant. Um, I've

820
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:08,319
Speaker 1: heard rumors of an app that would alert you when

821
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:10,319
Speaker 1: new stuff pops up, so you would be able to

822
00:46:10,719 --> 00:46:12,520
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's supposed to be an alert that

823
00:46:12,560 --> 00:46:14,400
Speaker 1: would come to your character in the game, which your

824
00:46:14,440 --> 00:46:17,799
Speaker 1: character is called a guardian. The storyline of this is

825
00:46:17,840 --> 00:46:21,640
Speaker 1: just basically that you are one of humanity's last protectors.

826
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,320
Speaker 1: It's a sci fi world. We don't have a whole

827
00:46:24,360 --> 00:46:27,360
Speaker 1: lot about the story right now. Uh So we're not

828
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,399
Speaker 1: going to go into that too much because it's first

829
00:46:30,440 --> 00:46:31,839
Speaker 1: of all, it's a brand new game, and I think

830
00:46:31,840 --> 00:46:33,480
Speaker 1: a lot of people want to have the chance to

831
00:46:34,239 --> 00:46:37,799
Speaker 1: explore it themselves. Sure, but yeah, a few details here

832
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:42,040
Speaker 1: and there. Um there's there's another robotic ai yep, voiced

833
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:47,600
Speaker 1: by nonetheless than Peter Danklige. Who who doesn't need a

834
00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:49,799
Speaker 1: little more dink Ledge in their lives? That's we all,

835
00:46:49,840 --> 00:46:53,560
Speaker 1: we all, we all need. Yeah, so dink Ledge which

836
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,520
Speaker 1: I hear a lot of people referring to the Ghost,

837
00:46:55,600 --> 00:46:58,880
Speaker 1: which is the little robotic cube that floats around and

838
00:46:58,880 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: has Peter Dankledge's voice. A lot of people are just

839
00:47:01,280 --> 00:47:04,520
Speaker 1: referring to as the Dinklage. I have no idea how

840
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:08,360
Speaker 1: Mr Dinkledge feels about this. Um. I I hope he

841
00:47:08,440 --> 00:47:11,200
Speaker 1: finds it amusing and charming, because I'm sure that's the

842
00:47:11,200 --> 00:47:14,640
Speaker 1: way most people intended. Uh. There was actually an Easter

843
00:47:14,719 --> 00:47:18,120
Speaker 1: egg about Destiny hidden in Halo O dst. There was

844
00:47:18,160 --> 00:47:20,520
Speaker 1: a poster, or or rather there was some writing on

845
00:47:20,520 --> 00:47:23,080
Speaker 1: a wall. It was it was a Destiny and it

846
00:47:23,160 --> 00:47:25,480
Speaker 1: showed Earth with a little glowing orb next to it.

847
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:28,640
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's funny that all the way back then

848
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:31,880
Speaker 1: they had the little little easter egg there, which meant

849
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:36,600
Speaker 1: nothing unless until you know, like kindsight, it means something.

850
00:47:37,960 --> 00:47:40,759
Speaker 1: Just some other breaking news as we are finishing up

851
00:47:40,800 --> 00:47:43,760
Speaker 1: this episode. Uh, there was a story about Marty O'Donnell,

852
00:47:43,800 --> 00:47:47,560
Speaker 1: who's the composer who created all that really uh iconic

853
00:47:47,640 --> 00:47:51,040
Speaker 1: Halo music, who was fired by the board of directors

854
00:47:51,040 --> 00:47:53,960
Speaker 1: of Bungee back in April of two thousand fourteen Oddonal

855
00:47:54,000 --> 00:47:56,800
Speaker 1: would end up suing the company, and an arbiter decided

856
00:47:56,800 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: that O'Donnell should be granted his share in the company,

857
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 1: which was a mounting to three hundred thirty six thousand

858
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:05,720
Speaker 1: three shares a Bungee and forty thousand shares of common stock.

859
00:48:06,280 --> 00:48:09,279
Speaker 1: But Bungee has the option to appeal this decision, which

860
00:48:09,320 --> 00:48:12,560
Speaker 1: has not yet happened as of the recording. Then, also,

861
00:48:12,880 --> 00:48:17,320
Speaker 1: Destiny writer Joshua Rubin has quit his job at Bungee

862
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 1: to go and join tell Tale Games to be a

863
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:23,400
Speaker 1: writer on their Game of Thrones episodic video game series

864
00:48:23,440 --> 00:48:27,000
Speaker 1: that's coming out soon. So, uh, considering the Destiny is

865
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:32,319
Speaker 1: a persistent world that's going to continue evolving, I imagine

866
00:48:32,440 --> 00:48:34,839
Speaker 1: that's a pretty big deal over at Bungee right now

867
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:36,880
Speaker 1: that they're going to have to make sure that they

868
00:48:36,880 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 1: can continue and make it feel like it's a continuous

869
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:44,040
Speaker 1: of evolution of the story and not feel jagged or

870
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:46,879
Speaker 1: stop and starts. That's that's a tough blow for them,

871
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:50,680
Speaker 1: but that brings us up to speed. Bungee pretty amazing company,

872
00:48:51,160 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 1: huge history in video games, oh yeah, and and so

873
00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:57,240
Speaker 1: important to I mean the first person shooter genre definitely,

874
00:48:57,760 --> 00:48:59,719
Speaker 1: but but also also a lot of a lot of

875
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:03,600
Speaker 1: other stuff and in their history, very interesting and great,

876
00:49:03,640 --> 00:49:07,360
Speaker 1: great themes, great human people. It's funny because, uh, you know,

877
00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,200
Speaker 1: there were certain games like the Marathon series that I

878
00:49:09,200 --> 00:49:11,440
Speaker 1: had heard about but never really looked into until we

879
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,799
Speaker 1: did this episode. It's just interesting to see what elements

880
00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:19,160
Speaker 1: Bungee considers really really important because you can tell which

881
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:20,919
Speaker 1: ones they are. They're the ones that keep coming back

882
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,800
Speaker 1: all the right, the super deep, complex stories that reward

883
00:49:24,880 --> 00:49:29,279
Speaker 1: the players who go through the trouble of exploration and

884
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,040
Speaker 1: experiencing these things. Um and then you don't want to

885
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:34,400
Speaker 1: that's okay, yeah, yeah, you know, it is very easy

886
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:36,040
Speaker 1: in any of these games to to just run a

887
00:49:36,080 --> 00:49:37,319
Speaker 1: gun if that's what you if you have a short

888
00:49:37,360 --> 00:49:38,840
Speaker 1: attention span and that's what you want to do. But

889
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:41,120
Speaker 1: they can be very much deeper than that, and I

890
00:49:41,160 --> 00:49:44,600
Speaker 1: have a feeling as I was doing the research, I'm

891
00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:46,600
Speaker 1: gonna go back and replace some of these games. Actually,

892
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:49,279
Speaker 1: I'm thinking that I'll have to invest and get an

893
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:51,399
Speaker 1: Xbox One and the Master Chief collection because I want

894
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:55,080
Speaker 1: to play through them all again. And I did, in fact,

895
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:57,600
Speaker 1: because I had not yet played it. I played Halo

896
00:49:57,640 --> 00:50:01,040
Speaker 1: Reach but never played O DST so I BT today,

897
00:50:02,040 --> 00:50:04,480
Speaker 1: so it'll be waiting on my Xbox when I get home.

898
00:50:04,760 --> 00:50:07,680
Speaker 1: I enjoyed O d s T. I want I find

899
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:11,239
Speaker 1: Nathan Philly and to be dreamy, so I'll absolutely love

900
00:50:11,440 --> 00:50:15,160
Speaker 1: playing uh that game and listening to his melodious voice

901
00:50:14,920 --> 00:50:18,799
Speaker 1: and and and the character also is modeled very much

902
00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:21,960
Speaker 1: like him, so if you enjoy his rugged jawline as well,

903
00:50:22,000 --> 00:50:24,160
Speaker 1: then you will get to enjoy that in the game. Well,

904
00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:26,880
Speaker 1: that wraps up our story about Bungee. Lauren, do you

905
00:50:26,920 --> 00:50:29,120
Speaker 1: wanna Do you want to talk about what's coming next

906
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:32,319
Speaker 1: for you? Uh? Yeah? So, So, as I mentioned at

907
00:50:32,360 --> 00:50:35,640
Speaker 1: the top of our first episode about Bungee, this this

908
00:50:35,760 --> 00:50:39,439
Speaker 1: is my last episode of tech Stuff, and and I

909
00:50:39,520 --> 00:50:42,719
Speaker 1: have so very many emotions about it because I'm really

910
00:50:42,760 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: excited about moving on to other projects. That how stuff works,

911
00:50:45,680 --> 00:50:48,239
Speaker 1: and and getting to really pursue some of my my

912
00:50:48,360 --> 00:50:51,239
Speaker 1: interests because because honestly, y'all, tech has never really been

913
00:50:51,640 --> 00:50:54,480
Speaker 1: my my strong suit. So so I'm excited about getting

914
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:56,960
Speaker 1: into more of the science and the gross stuff that

915
00:50:56,960 --> 00:51:01,160
Speaker 1: our bodies do, hopefully very soon. But you know, I

916
00:51:01,160 --> 00:51:03,280
Speaker 1: I just wanted to to take a moment to thank

917
00:51:03,560 --> 00:51:05,719
Speaker 1: all of you guys for I mean, you know, I

918
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:08,560
Speaker 1: had never done podcasting before when I started on Tech Stuff,

919
00:51:08,600 --> 00:51:11,520
Speaker 1: and I had never really been a performer before, and

920
00:51:11,560 --> 00:51:13,799
Speaker 1: so the opportunity to do this, like you guys put

921
00:51:13,840 --> 00:51:16,520
Speaker 1: up with my learning curve, and I have so much

922
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:18,839
Speaker 1: gratitude for you for that, because I would not be

923
00:51:19,480 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 1: the person that I am. It's only been a year

924
00:51:21,080 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 1: and a half, but I would not be the person

925
00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:24,400
Speaker 1: who I am right now if it were not for

926
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,279
Speaker 1: this show. And I'm totally choking up. I feel like

927
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:28,680
Speaker 1: such a nerd um and and so you know, just

928
00:51:28,680 --> 00:51:30,520
Speaker 1: just thank you so much to all of you guys

929
00:51:30,560 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: for for tuning in and sticking with me and and

930
00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 1: being so supportive, and and a special thanks to well well,

931
00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,080
Speaker 1: first of all, to h to our wonderful editor Knoll

932
00:51:39,160 --> 00:51:41,239
Speaker 1: for making me sound so good on this show all

933
00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:44,719
Speaker 1: the time. And also to our original editor for the show, Tyler,

934
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,920
Speaker 1: who uh extra put up with my learning curve. That

935
00:51:47,920 --> 00:51:51,640
Speaker 1: guy was a saint. And and also also just too Jonathan,

936
00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:54,319
Speaker 1: so much for for showing me all of the ropes here. Well,

937
00:51:54,360 --> 00:51:58,200
Speaker 1: now you're going to end up flourishing on other other

938
00:51:58,280 --> 00:52:01,520
Speaker 1: shows and we will see, but we I am. I

939
00:52:01,680 --> 00:52:05,680
Speaker 1: encourage my listeners to go and subscribe to Forward Thinking

940
00:52:05,680 --> 00:52:08,480
Speaker 1: because Lauren will still be an active co host on

941
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:11,240
Speaker 1: that show, and of course we will keep you posted

942
00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 1: when Lauren has other projects. Make sure you tune into

943
00:52:14,640 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, the video series that both of us occasionally

944
00:52:18,080 --> 00:52:20,600
Speaker 1: appear on. Yeah, yeah you can. You can find a

945
00:52:20,640 --> 00:52:22,920
Speaker 1: bunch of goofy videos with the two of us over

946
00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,520
Speaker 1: at brain Stuff show dot com or on the YouTube's

947
00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,239
Speaker 1: um and uh and same thing with Forward Thinking that's

948
00:52:29,320 --> 00:52:32,560
Speaker 1: fw thinking dot com or the YouTube's and uh and

949
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:35,320
Speaker 1: and so so, Jonathan, where where are you taking tech stuff?

950
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:39,560
Speaker 1: It's exciting, uh and scary and terrifying and fun and

951
00:52:39,680 --> 00:52:41,920
Speaker 1: all these things all the same time. So here's the thing, guys, Uh,

952
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:46,640
Speaker 1: the emotions I'm having, we don't I don't have a

953
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 1: replacement co host um planned right now, but we're going

954
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:54,120
Speaker 1: to be doing a series of guest co hosts, including

955
00:52:54,320 --> 00:52:57,240
Speaker 1: a lot of people from How Stuff Works, the Stuff

956
00:52:57,280 --> 00:53:00,800
Speaker 1: You Should Know, guys stuff, Mom never told you stuff,

957
00:53:00,800 --> 00:53:02,919
Speaker 1: they don't want you to know, car stuff. All these

958
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 1: folks are at some time or another going to be

959
00:53:05,640 --> 00:53:08,200
Speaker 1: sitting in with me and doing special episodes of tech Stuff,

960
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:12,200
Speaker 1: and also people from outside of How Stuff Works. I've

961
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:15,880
Speaker 1: got some plans to chat with some notable personalities in

962
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:19,560
Speaker 1: the field of technology podcasting, including people like Tom Merritt

963
00:53:19,880 --> 00:53:24,200
Speaker 1: and Veronica Belmont and Scott Johnson and Shannon Morse, So

964
00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:26,640
Speaker 1: we'll be doing some special episodes with them and also

965
00:53:26,719 --> 00:53:30,080
Speaker 1: maybe some experiments with format. We might try some stuff

966
00:53:30,080 --> 00:53:32,600
Speaker 1: that Tech Stuff has never done before. But one thing

967
00:53:32,640 --> 00:53:35,719
Speaker 1: I can assure you, Tech Stuff will continue and we

968
00:53:35,760 --> 00:53:38,760
Speaker 1: will continue to publish twice a week, so don't worry

969
00:53:38,800 --> 00:53:41,120
Speaker 1: about that. It's going to keep going and it won't

970
00:53:41,160 --> 00:53:44,000
Speaker 1: just be the Jonathan Show. So if you're worried about that,

971
00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:46,560
Speaker 1: I want to set your mind at ease. I don't

972
00:53:46,600 --> 00:53:48,879
Speaker 1: want that either. So if you really want the job,

973
00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:50,879
Speaker 1: and show right in, because my ego could really take

974
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:54,879
Speaker 1: the boost. But otherwise, don't worry about it. So if

975
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,560
Speaker 1: you want to suggest a topic for future episodes of

976
00:53:58,560 --> 00:54:01,960
Speaker 1: tech Stuff, or you just send a comment. Maybe you

977
00:54:02,040 --> 00:54:04,759
Speaker 1: have a lovely farewell message for Lauren that you would

978
00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:07,560
Speaker 1: like to share. To do so, send us an email.

979
00:54:07,600 --> 00:54:11,280
Speaker 1: Our address is tex Stuff at how stuff works dot com,

980
00:54:11,400 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 1: or you can drop us a line on Facebook, Twitter,

981
00:54:14,640 --> 00:54:17,600
Speaker 1: or Tumbler, or handle is tech stuff hs W and

982
00:54:17,719 --> 00:54:21,640
Speaker 1: we I mean I We'll talk to you again really

983
00:54:21,719 --> 00:54:27,960
Speaker 1: soon for more on this and thousands of other topics.

984
00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:39,280
Speaker 1: Because it has stuff works dot com