#241 | ANOTHER Canceled Game Hits Xbox... - What's Next?

Defining Duke: An Xbox Podcast

Last Stand Media & Studio71

Video Games, Leisure, Hobbies

4.9 • 947 Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2025

⏱️ 229 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Contraband was announced back in 2021. Since then, we've seen just about nothing from the game. No messaging beats, no trailers, and even the Xbox executives didn't yap about this one! After four years of development, this collaboration between Xbox and Avalanche has come to a close. Adding it to the list of canceled Xbox titles, this one feels different to Dependable Cog and Choco Matty. Part of it is apathy, but it's also a new angle from the previous shutdowns where we really don't know much about what was lost. It's a valuable lesson in why Xbox shouldn't announce things early. Beyond our headline, we get into Xbox's president offering her talents to Tyson Foods (?!), Halo coming to PlayStation, a legend leaving Xbox, and diving deep into Matty's recent interview with ex-BioWare vet, Mark Darrah. Please keep in mind that our timestamps are approximate, and will often be slightly off due to dynamic ad placement. 0:00:00 - Intro0:10:29 - Cog wears diapers & Matty goes viral for cleaning0:40:34 - Health Is Wealth0:48:38 - Mafia: The Old Country "Controversy"0:58:16 - Are games giving what the fans want?1:04:19 - Ex BioWare dev on Dragon Age remasters1:25:35 - PlayStation is moving away from hardware?1:43:25 - Rod Ferguson is leaving Blizzard1:51:15 - Sarah Bond joins… Tyson Foods2:00:50 - An update on the future of Forza2:05:48 - The release date for the Xbox Ally has leaked2:07:58 - Heretic + Hexen re-release shadowdropped2:12:09 - A Halo game is coming to PlayStation2:17:13 - Halo ODST is coming to Helldivers 22:21:52 - Bungie’s leash tightens with Marathon2:28:48 - S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is getting a massive roadmap2:34:14 - LEGO Batman is getting the Skywalker Saga treatment?2:44:11 - Crimson Desert has been delayed to Q1 20262:45:40 - What We’re Playing3:25:42 - Contraband has been canceled3:33:39 - Game Pass Pick Of The Week Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Salutations, everybody, it is Maddie here today.
0:33.7	Welcome to episode 241 of Defining Duke and Xbox podcast. Today I'm joined by Mr.
0:40.6	Met Himself Lord Cognito. We got a new home run record holder. We got to win last night.
0:49.4	How are we feeling good? We feeling good. It's been a long time for a W so we got to celebrate. We've been on the hunt for one for a while. Exactly. We've been finding new ways to lose. The game that broke me was against the Brewers when the pitch clock violation happened. That one, I was sitting on the couch and I'm, and Laley's in the other room. And when that happened, I went, you gotta be went you got be fucking kidding me like she authentically thought I got hurt or something that happened
1:14.3	because of how like tangibly sad my reaction was that's the one that broke me I was like
1:20.8	all this team's in a bad place right now such a Mets way to lose yes and I'm sitting there and did even, like I said, a shout of first of all, let's put
1:29.9	all respect on the polar beer real quick.
1:32.7	Yes, sir.
1:33.2	The home run king.
1:34.1	I have to admit, I had this conversation with Shaw Mason at the game last game he went
1:41.0	to.
1:42.3	And look, I am a David Wright guy. I'm a best fed. And I always try to look at who my favorite players are. And I've watched Pete and I'm like, damn, the only thing I used to hurt Pete was the playoff stuff. Because I was like, all right, home runs in the regular season. But then he conquered the major demon last year with the Milwaukee, the three, one,
2:02.6	it's out, it's on. And the Howie Rose call. So I was like, that now solidifies you, right?
2:08.1	So I'm like, okay, cool. Now don't get me wrong. I still let a captain still my man, but I told
2:11.8	show, I was like, he continues this trajectory. He's the all-time home run Met King.
2:19.9	Mm-hmm.
2:20.9	All we have in the discussion?
2:22.3	The show is like, no, it's still David Wright or whatever.
2:24.2	And I said, I get that.
2:25.9	I'll just say, look, I will admit like,
2:28.0	Peter slowly become like one of my favorite mental time.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Last Stand Media & Studio71, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Last Stand Media & Studio71 and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.