NEVER apologize for hosting, Tina! Youre an amazing host!

Scoop! Also no apologies Tina for being the host. Glad to see you!

Congrats to Daemon on leveling up his family! And, I can’t think of a better way to kick off Labor Day weekend here in the states van spending it with the Goose Camp Counselors! Nicely job!!

Another half episode about crunch.

TINA. DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR BEING HOST. YOU ARE FUCKING GREAT. That being said, I must say: If a game that Daemon likes is a "daemy" game, does that make a game you like a "teeny" game?

Great job hosting Tina(:

GAME Scoop helps me keep what little sanity I still have. Congrats to Dameon on the new addition to his family !

I miss having Jared on show! He's always come off as being such a lovely person to talk to.

1.) no apologies needed, you are amazing 2.) no more hints during 20 questions!

I'm always defensive when I see a different SCOOP crew, but Alex was awesome! Clearly a fan of the show, obviously knows her stuff, and she did a great job of blending into the conversation, not feeling like a "newbie" at all. Welcome!

Alex is a welcome addition, and Tina is a fantastic host. Keep it up!

Gosh Dang It Justin...!!!! You know its not the same when we don't get the "SCOOP!" from you right at the beginning. The whole show feels wrong without that. :-D Also, awesome job Tina. You always do great as the host.

I had a bad ear infection and long difficult month because of it. Your Scoop videos really helped me relax during that whole experience. Thank you 🙏🏻

I'm going to start keeping a tally every time Sam refers to a game as a Resident Evil like or clone.

One of the bad Castelvanias!? Excuse me, but the first Lords of Shadow is really good. Second one does suck though.

We didn’t have a crunch on Just Cause 4. The experience making the game was good but at the same time there was a lot we wanted to do that didn’t get done because we tried to avoid crunch. Better planning can help with crunch and of course hiring more help. The problem is that once you have more people suddenly features you didn’t think you’d get to are attainable with a little over time and then suddenly you have crunch. At least that has been the experience I’ve had at some studios. Feature creep can be a major issue as well as just nailing down a feature you thought was fine until something/someone else comes in and wrecks it. Outsourcing alone can be problematic, as you generally have to clean up content from outsource teams which can slow down production if you can’t afford to expand the team and then bam! You’re scrambling to catch up so : crunch. It’s really tough to get around.

Great job Tina. You really should have your own show.

just an awesome crew. great job hosting, Tina

Ayyyy, Tina did a 'But first!' this time :)

You all get big 10s. Great show. See you next week. Tina - 10 Sam - 10 Alex - 10 Justin - 10 Scoop!

Great show! Thank you to all involved. Tina, you are a great host! Excited for Daemon and his new adventure.

Another excellent episode with the Scoop crew. Nicely job to Tina and a big congratulations to Daemon for baby #2!

For a moment I thought they had that Andre guy from Gamexplain as a guest.

For the RE movie all the doors should open slowly like the loading screens and make that creepy opening sound. Also no running and shooting

I just learned Tian Amini is editor-in-chief of IGN!

Congratulations to Daemon for the new arrival, and Tina was a great host.

Wow, that guy was going really fast!

Congrats Daemon! But wow, Leon Kennedy is looking like Luis Sera in the new live action Resident Evil movie lol

Strangers prey at night is one of the best horror films of the last decade, criminally underrated, I love the hair coming out of Lisa Trevors eye, can't wait

Man, during 20 questions I was telling myself "watch it be one of the bad 3D Castlevania games..." XD

Just wanted to say, I really appreciate that Justin is one of the few people I've seen mentioning real issues and asking relevant questions in the subject of crunch. It's easy to join a bandwagon either way, but the reality is that while crunch is indeed a real problem, like many other problems the solution is not as simple and clear cut as those not in the industry make it out to be. I personally think that the gaming industry is in a bubble of sorts that eventually will burst, something will have to give. Games will need to be either shorter, more expensive, take longer to make or fewer games made, monetize in different ways, or maybe just not exist any more as we expect them. The current path is not sustainable in the long run IMO. Advances in technology alone are not enough.

Don't apologize for anything Tina we love you!!!!

Regarding the "peeling" of the necromorphs in the Dead Space remake, Doom Eternal had something similar, where chunks of the demons will fall off, depending on the damage you're doing to them.

I don’t agree with raising the prices of games to negate the developer crunch issue. Surely crunch would just continue despite the price increase and consumers shouldn’t be made to suffer for a games development problem that’s not a fault of their own?

So true! Don't be sorry we love seeing you guys every week.! 😁👊🔥

I am interested to see how they really handle dismemberment. Think about it there’s a difference to cutting off a limb depending on where you cut the limb the ankle the knee the die depending on where you cut on the human body a person can have different levels of mobility. I’m interested to see what the game does with that idea. Also it was pretty cool to just cut off a leg in the previous older version of the game. Can’t wait they can have my money for this.

Please have her on more she was great!

I came to post about Tina not apologizing for being a host but apparently the comments got it so I'ma head out 😅

Great job Tina. The crunch debate seems pretty dumb to someone whos expected to work 80+ hours on holiday weeks just to keep the masses fed. (And were unionized)

Scoop! Crunch will never go away from triple A development. Raising prices and hiring more isn't the answer either. More "cooks in the kitchen" is just more people crunching.

I liked Alex, hope she becomes a regular

Cool, time for a cup of tea and some biscuits.

Don’t be sorry for being the host!! :-O :-)

I loved the contributions of the new person! Hope to see her on more!

8:31 Was that an old Burger King Empire Strikes Back R2/3PO drinking glass I saw?! I'm drinking out of a Burger King Star Wars Hans/Chewbacca right now!!

If Midnight Suns card system is more like slay the spire as opposed to hearthstone, I’d be ecstatic. I enjoy deck builders more then card collectors.

Alex is a mad cool addition. And Justin is back. yay.

What is the background music at startup?

Justin you mentioned playing Graveyard Keeper, but a lot of reviews say it's super buggy- have you experiencing any big bugs? I've been on the fence about buying it. Just got Horace for switch and it's amazing so I highly recommend.

Great work Tina. Justin, no scoop? :O

Awesome show! You guys are always entertaining! Tina you were a great host as always! Can’t wait to tune in next week!

For some reason Justin calling big games “Quadruple A” games bothers me. I realize this is a me problem but still.

Anyone know what the transition song is at 38:20? I can't place it

Wonderful to hear 👏🏻👏🏻😱😱

Why is there always technical hiccups in every episode? I could understand having issues when you guys first started doing the podcast remotely but now its been over a year. Anyways I still love listening to y’all but please fix the issues

You shouldn't apologize Tina. You done amazing job in the past and still are doing amazing job. Amazing episode again sorry I'm late to the Scoop.

AAA games aren't getting any smaller or less detailed, and each new release will just require more and more man hours to complete. Just as in any other industry that came before, western game devs are increasingly becoming less cost-effective when compared to their Chinese, South Korean or Indian counterparts, and dev work will increasingly be farmed out to those latter workers, who, as an added bonus to the big gaming corporations, won't complain about crunch as much either. For the same reason foreign gaming companies will become more competitive too. So as trends go I think we can expect bigger globalized dev teams, more western indie studios, games to still cost $60 for the forseeable future... and Genshin Impact 4 to be relased before Elder Scrolls VII.

Always refreshing to hear from Tina

Love Sam and Justin as well s2

That's not how you do 20 questions.

Tina, great job as always. Tech issues aren't on you. Alex is a great addition to the cast, I hope she gets to be on more. Justin, As someone who loves & owns the Midnight Suns comics, loves the rebooted X-com series, and loves Slay the Spire, like you, Midnight Suns is very Slay the Spire as in each round you get 6 cards from your deck dealt in random order, and you have to make those cards work as best as possible, and hope that you get good draws against tough enemies. You also get to upgrade cards through the course of the game, like Slay. Though it is combined with the movement, and tactics of X-com. Sam, you didn't play Lords of Shadow (thus how you don't know Patrick Stewart is in it), so no, it's not a bad Castlevania game. The 1st Lords of Shadow game is actually great, (both games, and the smaller SIdescrolling Castlevania game based in the Lords of Shadow story are all backwards compatible on xbox series X/S). The 2nd game isn't as good as the 1st, made it more of a vampire powered brawler with some bad stealth sections, but it still an average to slightly above average game. All 3 games often go on sale on xbox live, so I would recommend all of you giving it a shot if you have time. Especially the 1st game, as it does a really good job in it's storytelling, and has some classic Castlevania elements.

I'm not sure why 'crunch' is ever discussed. The reality is gamers don't care! No more than any other consumer cares about the work conditions and pay of the people who make clothes or grow, pick, package the food they eat!? Consumers are simply the embodment of humanity's selfish nature. Sure, ask any gamer, anyone for that matter, if 'crunch' is unfair to employees and every will agree in principle and publically express outrage at it. Let's be honest, it's pretty much a false concern. All gamers care about is the quality of the games they purchase. Worse still, some gamers will whine and complain if a game takes too long to produce, or is delayed. The problem is gaming is now big business, and actually gaming's popularity is the worse thing that happened to it. It's completely dominated by corporations. While every business exists for profit, corporations take it to a whole different level. It's not simply about profit, but an 'accountant'-set profit, specifically with investors in mind. It's not good enough that a profit is made, if a huge profit isn't made then the product's considered a failure and in gaming that either means the death of a franchise, or the closure of a studio by its overlord publisher! The gaming industry, at the AAA level, has ridiculously backed itself into a corner. As it has desperately seeked the highest possible sales it didn't take the suits that run these businesses much effort to understand that that big and complex, and importantly extremely pretty graphics all but guarantee massive interest and often translate to large sales. Every year or two the AAA type game sets a new, higher standard. The cost of which is the requirement of massive teams that require multiple years of production. Crunch is extremely poor management and a lack of respect for its workers mandated by the corporation's hunger for profit at the demand of its overpaid executives and money-obsessed investors. The end result is that rather than produce a realistic size/quality of game or a realistic deadline forcing the workers to 'crunch'. And corporations don't stop at a lack of respect for its workers, they spread it to gamers too as games are shipped incomplete or unfinished and require months of multiple patches. We all know this. And if we're honest; we don't care, certainly not enough to do anything. And yes, that includes games media too. Corporations excel at taking advantage of workers. And not only is everyone accepting of this, governments get in on the love for corporation attitude by allowing them to pay lower taxes! It's such a ridiculous situation I honestly don't understand the point of discussion when hard action and genuine commitment is what's required. We're all just a bunch of slaves to corporations. And if anyone genuinely cares about how any treat their workers, there are far, far worse corporations in other industries. And yet, here we are, buying cheap everything we can consume with no care or thought for why and how everything is so affordable and convenient.

...Oh Jared.

Lords of Shadow is fantastic!

Yes Tina is hosting. Scoop!!

15:41 "again I'm not defending crunch by actually defending crunch" lmao

To me generally, there's nothing wrong with Overtime - I did 5 hours this morning and if I get the chance to do a few weeks I will, it's great to top up the bank account - as long as it's not continual and it consumes your life - I've had that and it's not good. Not a fan of remakes, played the Destroy All Humans remake recently, while it was fun to revisit that game, I probably would've had as much fun playing the original

Your right no one wants to hear about prices of video games going up particularly when $60 is already too high IMO. Companies need to start looking at a subscription model like gamepass and up the price of that monthly maybe to $15 to accommodate. Also you mentioned marketing budget. That is often, similar to movies almost double again what the cost of the product was. That’s ridiculous and they could cut back there for sure. And “crunch” isn’t an inherently bad thing. These employees are not forced to work at the company and as such they should look for work at another studio that is not making do hours they don’t feel comfortable with. They would all be contracted and have to sign documents saying they are happy with it anyway so it’s all much ado about nothing

Since when did OT start becoming Crunch? And forget the game industry crunch what about the the healthcare industry crunch!?! Nobody talks about that and how that is wrong

Swain, Claybourne, Macy, and Davis that's all we want from game scoop!

I think Crunch isn't always a bad thing. People keep hopping on the hate bandwagon when all industries work Crunch aka Overtime. Even ign has crunch so let's not act like this is impossible to not do.

I don't know about others but i am not a huge fan of the gameplay video rolling for such a long period and the hosts being down in the corner. Kind of gave me motion sickness for TLoU. It works best when its for a new announcement and not something we've all seen. Otherwise great show as always!

Always loving my people represent gaming! GO TINA!

Tina rules dude

Woop woop,Tinaaaa Scoooooop!!!

Omg so tired about the "crunch" talk. Every industry especially IT its expected that salary employees work over 40 hours a week without overtime pay. This is a corporate America discussion. The videogame industry is not in a silo regarding "crunch".

Well no technically you can deal with crunch the problem is if you deal with crunch appropriately then you can’t have release dates and nobody really wants to get rid of the concept of a set release date. Gamers don’t want to get rid of it because they want to know what is this game coming companies don’t want to get rid of it because they want to be able to tell investors who is when you can expect to see some money come in. If you actually greenlight a game and said it will be finished when it’s finished and then sit work standards theoretically you don’t know when that game will be done because you don’t know what complications will arise. Now it’s best for a healthy workforce if you did that but then you have upset gamers and upset investors. With that being said if we are truly for eliminating crunch like we claim we are then you have to stand behind your game designers and you have to say hey 40 hour work week once you’ve worked your 40 hours go home will pick up where we left off Monday. When the game is done it will be done until then everybody has to wait. Now let’s see how many people are willing to truly get behind that idea truly supporting the worker.

25 min before any gaming news...

No need to apologize Tina! You're an amazing host! Lots of love from Argentina ♥ Scoop!

There’s also issues like team members leaving during development and new people having to come in and figure out their code to continue development and things like that can lead to crunch. It’s not an easy thing to avoid but it can happen.

How about looking at all the profits and start sharing the wealth. The programmers, artists and contract workers get shuffled every game so there is no stability in this business unless you're in the corporate area. There you get bonuses in the range of millions and the people who actually make the game and pour there blood sweat and tears into a game they get the bare minimum. Not singling out Naughty Dog or anyone at Sony but the industry itself needs to start showing some God damn empathy for the people who helped put thee on the top

Wow what a train wreck

I love Tina. I love how everyone else loves Tina. Tina is the embodiment of love.

I love this show. Tina, you the best, but y’all gotta step up the audio/video quality. Mainly the audio quality. IGN is a giant website. May be time to step your game up.

Where does the extra 10 bucks or however much you don't mind paying go, straight to the execs who are happy to continue crunching their employees. Nothings changed but our hobby is unnecessarily more expensive.

There is no excuse for crunch

Hey listener's!

Why do some people feel the self-righteous need to feel morally outraged on someone else’s behalf? That’s stupidly pretentious. If I wanted to work crazy hours and someone tried to tell me what to do, I’d be like fuck off and mind your own business!

The 2002 RE film had a $33 million budget and felt low budget at the time and feels even worst now. The RE reboot has aparantly a $40 million budget. How can it do justice to the scope and story of RE 1 & 2 games? Accounting for inflation the 2002 film has a higher budget 🤦

Love Tina s2

Hey, but like no way you guys saw those stills and think… this is going to be good. Those photo stills are absolutely horrible

You're right we don't like it ...we are not paying any more money to feed these billion doller company's ...why don't you make donations hero

Tina did a great job as host :)

Yay Tina as the host!!!

I love Daemon for sure, but I wouldn't mind him having a couple more babies. Tina is just great. Much love :)

games don’t need to be more than $60 in an industry that is making more money than any other. AI and tech won’t help with crunch because crunch is a result of GREED not time. If tech and AI cut development time in half then the devs will be crunching anyway to get the game out even sooner. then on to the next game that will get crunched.

🍔🍟🥤🤡💄

Timestamps 🤦🏽‍♂️

They need to pay them for overtime. Problem solved

Lol a bunch of simps in the comments