Delayed Input 605 Post-Show Assessment

This was a weird episode. If you're not familiar I used to do these battle of the bands bits on the Final Bosman, the spiritual predecessor to Delayed Input, nine years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkzAzklIf1k

It had a fun run and I never went back to it, you know I don't like to drag out old things. On my coffee walk this week, thinking about the old-fashioned vibe of the Xbox showcase, I thought, "Oh I should do the battle of the bands thing." Obviously my next thought was, "No wait, I shouldn't" but the hard part about coffee walks is that you're trapped out on there on the sidewalk with only your thoughts. So I kept walking and thought more about how it could work.

I think this was just a uniquely appropriate time to bring back a long-dead bit, when the point of it was to show things really aren't the same anymore. I'm always trying to be aware of what new viewers might think, so I tried not to make it too winky or callbacky. (It is insane I didn't have a Don Mattrick cameo, he was my favorite part of those old ones.) 

I think the script could have been stronger, the dialogue could have been tighter, and the song could have been a bit sweeter, but I'm pretty cool with how the ep came together in the end. Fun to make.

QUESTIONS FROM YOU!

So with Xbox, Sony, and SGF/TGA sliding into Kojima's DMs, any thoughts on why Nintendo isn't interested, and if they were, what could we expect to see from a Kojima x Nintendo announcement?
Honestly I don't think it's worth the money to Nintendo, who has all the quadrants locked down without needing to fund Kojima-tier budgets. If they will ever do something together, it's a social horror game where everyone wears dog masks and every action is controlled with a single button. 

When did you decide you wanted to do a little bit of a song?
The old battles of the bands bits always ended with a song. If it wasn't there, I feared people would be disappointed. The track I used was actually a discarded attempt at one of the songs I made for some concept album Twitch streams a couple of months ago, so I at least had a head start on a what "Vanilla Space Song" would sound like. I think I ended up spending less than an hour on that part.

Beyond Japan and North America, what would you say is the most coveted sound?  Could it be... Finnish?
I honestly can't think of many countries that have their own distinctive video game style, but I know Germans love farming simulators.

The chess candidates tournament is starting today. Who's your favorite to challenge Magnus?
The best chess player I know is Charles Xavier.

if you had known so many space/space horror games were going to be annouonced this summer, would you have still gone with the space/overalls theme?
Honestly, no. It was a shocking look a few weeks ago, now it's practically ordinary.

What game or service would Phil Spencer be “confused to announce”?
He seems very understanding to me. I guess he would be confused to announce an exclusive partnership with gamer sweat.

When you bring back old bits or segments, do you consider them to be fan service, or do you just do them for your own enjoyment (or for the sake of the bit itself)?
As I kinda implied in the post, I really worried fan service references because they can come off as cheap. I like to only do it when it feels organic and works for both new and old people. "THIS IS" is a good example of a bit that I do for the sake of myself, that one is at least short.

Was there an intended meta commentary with the topic by going back to one of your "previous gen" ideas of Battle of the Bands?
Yeah definitely. I think it could have been a little more overt with the meta aspect, like it could have deliberately fallen on its face as I'm clumsily trying to cling to old joke patterns. I actually had a whole dumb bit for the Sony band too, but at that point I was just writing jokes for the sake of it.

Any thoughts on why Nintendo decided to skip "E3" this year?
Nintendo is a strong, independent corporation. Without the need to set up floor spaces there's really no rush for them to make announcements in time for E3. They're just in a unique position where people will flock to them whenever.

Are your overalls shorts or pants?
Full pants, they're very uncomfortable.

And that's it for today. Sorry this post came late this week, Father's Day festivities were back in full force this year. We just came off of three back-to-back weeks of hot new game news and that's been really fun, but I get the impression we've got a dry news week coming up. Now is the time; we've got the momentum. Imagine, Delayed Input's first-ever funny joke.