ARC Raiders is Already Steam’s Most Popular Extraction Shooter - Kinda Funny Games Daily 10.31.25

0:00Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Heat up your 4th of July at The Home Depot with our wide variety of grills under$300 and make every gathering one to remember. Give your outdoor space a glow up. Whatever your budget is, with savings on seasonal plants starting at$5. With the grill fired up and your backyard set to perfection, you'll be able to invite friends and family over to kick off the party. Start celebrating with low prices guaranteed at The Home Depot. Prices may vary by store. Exclusions apply. See homedepot.com slash price match for details. Chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more.

0:35Botox, onabotulinum toxin A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It prevents on average 8 to 9 headache days a month versus 6 to 7 for placebo.

0:48Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.

1:24Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Why wait? Ask your doctor, visit BotoxChronicMigraine.com, or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more. So good, so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People. Join the Nordiclub to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle Woods in high school.

2:05Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Set in 1995, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is, until her family moves from Bel Air to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, 90s nostalgia, and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one thing. Law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of Legally Blonde, watch Elle, a new original series only on Prime Video. Watch now. This episode's brought to you by Ark Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game set in a lethal yet vibrant future Earth. Available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Arkraiders.com Today's stories include Ark Raiders is dominating on Steam, Battlefield 6 is dominating in sales, and The Witcher on Netflix is getting dominated by Rotten Tomatoes.

2:52We'll have all this and more because tonight I dine on Turtle Soup.

3:08what's up everybody welcome to kind of funny games daily for halloween 2025 of course i'm your host the shredder and i'm joined today by blessing strife himself good day shredder good day to you i'm gonna take it off to do the show obviously i mean Can't be too muffled. But it's cool. I have it on me, and I hear it echoing back into my own ears as well. So it'll be just a nice little shredder chin strap. You look good. Yeah. You look fucking good, Blast. Hey, thank you. Do you see those guns, everybody? Cloud's supposed to have a sword. He has the gun materia attached.

3:43Blessing Adeoye Jr.:You think I've been going to the gym for fun? I'm not going to the gym for fun. I've been training for this sword. You look amazing. I do also love the incredibly tiny Buster Sword, though. Oh, yeah. Well, here's the thing. You would think that Buster Swords wouldn't be that expensive on Amazon, but they are. This is actually a lot better than what I thought I was going to get for about$30 on Amazon. I mean, I was very disappointed when I have a very firm, my household, but it was led by me, ironically. Surprising, not ironically. We have a rule, a no swords rule. You know, I have a lot of nerd shit.

4:14It's totally cool, but it's like we can't be getting swords. What led to this rule? Just, you know, a core feeling inside me. Okay.

4:22Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Because if you get one, then you're going to imagine one night. Cool. Greg just brought home a fuck on his swords for some reason. No amiibos and no swords. Okay. And lightsabers don't count. But then I was like, oh my God. I saw the master sword a couple of years ago. And I'm like, I'm getting the master sword. I'm sorry. And so it was$200. I'm like, oh, fuck. Yeah. Like that's a lot of money. But like we could do that. It looks good. This is going to be great. So I got it. And it was plastic. And I should have known. I should have known. But I assumed if I'm spending$200 on a sword, I can cut a motherfucker.

4:55You know what I mean? No. No,$200 for a Master Sword. I should be getting the actual Master Sword. So now I have a plastic sword in my house. And it's a reminder every day of how big a loser I am. You didn't return it? No. You know, it's one of those freaking artsy-fartsy toy store things. I was on the pre-order. It looks dope. I'm going to be honest. Okay. Okay. Fair enough. How are you doing, Bless?

5:16Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I'm doing good. yeah this was a fun costume to put together because i it was like sunday maybe like late late last week where i was like man i need a halloween costume this is a week put together yes good for you this was me being like should i go to spirit halloween and being like i don't know if they have what i'm looking for spirit halloween and then just going through characters right i'm like what are relevant ish pop culture characters i went to like at first i was looking at sinners because Sinners is popping this year. But I was like, I need a twin. And it's a problem. If I'm going to do the Sinners costume, I need one person to be the other character.

5:52Did you see the Abbott Elementary? I didn't see the episode, but I saw the image going around of two of the main characters, Quinta Brunson, and then Everybody Hates Chris Kidd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do you see their costumes? No. He went as Coogler, and she went as an IMAX screen.

6:08Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Oh, that's so good. Oh, that's fucking awesome. But yeah, I went to that, was looking at other stuff, and I was like, I don't know if I can make anything work. So I just started looking up what were my favorite games of the last couple of years. And I saw Final Fantasy VII Rebirth come up and I was like, that's it. That's just it. I don't want to spoil anything. But actually, I think he might have already said, but still, I'm not going to spoil it because he'll be here later today. I'm very excited about a crossover we might be getting between you. Oh, yeah, that's a really good call. Those pictures are going to go hard.

6:35Blessing Adeoye Jr.:We also have a video wall. You know what I mean? We can put any background we want on this thing. Take some pictures. You know what's funny? there is a wee news item that actually points to this exact kind of collaboration oh what a day it is um i i never in my life thought i'd be the shredder never so this is an interesting one because like i you were talking about doing a group costume and family when i saw you as shredder i didn't i've been trying to do the math on what does that entail for the rest of your family well there's moose and toretto right of course um in theory they would be i if i'm being honest i forgot to include them oh which is really sad okay that throws off i might have to photoshop on top of them uh but if i'm the shredder of course they're bebop and rocksteady okay well what's gia gonna be that's what i've been trying to figure out she is very pregnant right now she's very rotund barrett can you bring up the picture of what she's gonna be oh my god she's gonna be crying everybody at approximately 3 p.m today she will come to this office after her job and andy cortez will paint on her belly she has a bald cap she has the visor she has it all and i can't wait i did not i could in a million years i would never have guessed this does g even know who this person is should we watch his debut episode last night the funny thing is she watched every single turtles movie there's a surprising lack of kang krang in those movie yeah like he shows up once in the michael bay movie uh-huh but it's like it doesn't look like it's not like this yeah but of course we got to go og and i can't wait for everyone to see it i love that yeah wow what a world we live in barrett what are you doing if anything uh i am dressed as uh well you can't see me because of course the director camera is broken today but uh you know just a man just trying his fucking best every day oh man it's supposed to be Halloween, Barrett.

8:27That's beautiful. You know? October was a... No, no, no.

8:30Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I'm just saying, but that's just you all the time. No, I know. I know. I didn't dress up. Just let chat and listeners know. It's been a busy month. We got a lot of costumes in that costume closet. There's a lot. That's what I did last year. You want to be a cat? You want to be a sexy black cat? You want to be Mario? Mario. Mario. There's plenty of options in that closet, Barrett. Remember, everybody, this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday, we run you through the video game news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch, and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, and now Spotify and Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad-free.

9:04Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of this show, YouTube Super Chat, and your thoughts on the stories, your thoughts on Halloween, what are you wearing? I want to know. A little housekeeping for you. We are an 11-person business all about live talk shows. Today, after Games Daily, you're going to get a gamescast that is a shit list, the best PS2 games ranked by IGN, I think? Yes, I do. This is in celebration of the PlayStation 2 turning 25 this week. So very exciting times. Can't wait to do that with Bless. Then after Gamescast is Games Showdown with a special guest.

9:37Then after that's a stream, an NVIDIA Arc Raiders sponsored stream. After that is another stream of an awesome game coming from 6-1 Indie, a Halloween stream. The Knicks on it is going to be a lot of fun. What will he dress up as? I am not sure. Who can guess? Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Som Twining. today's kind of funny great or today's gregway is coming to you from mike because greg is out with ben getting trick-or-treating starting early i think otherwise i don't know why he's not here

10:05Blessing Adeoye Jr.:you know like lessons probably usually halloween uh for like preschools and even elementary schools is like a day that parents will also come in to do a lot of festivities and stuff so i imagine he's at school greg's being festive at school everybody that's terrifying yes it is less Let's start with what it is and forever will be The Roper Report It's time for some news We have six stories today A Baker's Desert Starting with story number one Ridiculousness Cancelled at MTV after 46 Seasons Ethan Shadfeld at Variety.com Ridiculousness has been cancelled After 14 years and 46 Seasons the comedy clip series hosted by Rob Dyrdek will continue into 2026 with previously shot first run episodes, but no new episodes will be produced.

11:01Season 46 will be the last installment of the series as reruns continue to air on MTV and select season stream on Paramount Plus. This is a surprise I did not tell Bless that this was going to be in here.

11:12Blessing Adeoye Jr.:When I tell you there's a very big range of emotions I just went through. Firstly realizing that ridiculousness was still on TV. Yep, that's first one and then realizing it's been 46 seasons and then realizing it's been canceled now there's a lot that's fucking insane where is chanel west coast yeah man where's snoopy too drippy or whatever that other guy's name was i mean all right hold on ridiculousness take me back where were you at were you watching ridiculousness back in the day i mean no okay no but i have seen 45 seasons of ridiculousness. This is the type of show that nobody chooses to watch.

11:51It is forced and thrust upon you. This is the definition of an airplane of an airplane show where you might not be watching it, but someone else is. I had an ex-girlfriend who lived her home life like she was on an airplane at all times, and she would just have ridiculousness on at all times. That was just the default standard in the house.

12:13Blessing Adeoye Jr.:wow what what's the relationship i'm so foggy right now what's the relationship between ridiculousness and robin big i i i truly don't know i think they had a bad i think it's just i think it's just because i know big passed away what i just say uh passed away r.i.p is what i meant to say um wow yeah what is mtv now i don't think i've seen an mtv it's in its schedule it's reruns of ridiculousness is the actual answer and it sounds like it'll continue to be that until it no longer exists but anyway let's get to our real story number one arc raiders is already one of the biggest extraction shooters ever on steam this is from vicky blake at ign arc raiders has only been out a day but it's already surpassed a steam concurrent peak player count of 264 673 players making it one of the biggest extraction shooters ever on valve's platform given arc raiders ended its recent server slam playtest with big player numbers on steam developer embark studio was likely braced for a bumper launch day which is just as well as it's currently one of the biggest games on steam just battlefield 6 counter-strike 2 dota 2 pub g and viral hit escape from dukov clocked up bigger 24 hour peaks duck off dukov whatever man uh i i was caught up in the fact that it's like how are we really going to be like it's uh one of the biggest extractor shooters ever except for these other six i mean the other six are all congratulations i mean honestly this is big but it's also just like okay cool like that's the headlines a little i mean what these other games the only other extraction shooter in that six is escape from duck off which i'm not even sure if that really is an extraction shooter because that's basically it's a parody of tarkov but you play as ducks he plays a duh yes which is why they call it escape from duck off got it got it got it but i think that makes me feel better because i thought the duck off was a place a real place that i just didn't know and i was getting the name wrong and i'm stupid oh you thought there was no it's a duck thing i feel less spin off yeah um so i think technically like when we're talking about extraction shooters i think that's where the story is here as far as where we're at in that because i we talk about multiplayer stuff all the time as far as all these companies trying to make the jump into multiplayer i think one of the big ones to point out would be playstation when you see um you know marathon and you see uh fair games and all these things that they're that they're trying to make happen that feel like they've been shaky um extraction shooters feel like they've been in the center of the next foray or the current foray that like these companies have been trying to break into but have been struggling with it feels like there's been a lock as far as tarkov um hunt showdown and like a few others here right arc raiders to come through and now be at the top of the pack of course we're talking about steam tarkov hasn't launched on steam it's about to launch on steam that's going to take the title probably in a week when that happens um i think that's the bigger thing here as far as what the story is yeah and that that's the other thing too is i feel like uh you talking about the the race for the extraction shooter that race really does start and exist on steam right so these numbers being as big as they are there's a the story there is like steam is kind of the one of the if not at this point one of the biggest uh major places that we get numbers from active players that we can actually look at and compare to each other but also when you're comparing within a genre it's like that does tell a story that yeah these things are starting to become a major factor and the fact that uh even though that it might be number six seven or eight or whatever that is there are six seven or eight titles hitting numbers this big oh yeah i mean story number two is gonna be about battlefield six and how well that's doing as well right but like we're definitely in a place right now regarding multiplayer shooters where you know for a while there it felt like the only way to do it big as a multiplayer shooter was to go free to play like it felt like almost i don't want to go as far as to say that they're dead or anything like that but if you want to make a premium multiplayer shooter you had to be overwatch you had to be um valorant you had to like you know be something that's easily accessible and go all in on cosmetics battle pass all that stuff right not to say that these games aren't but um i think the fact that you have both arc raiders and battlefield 6 that are launching as premium experiences that people have to buy regardless of the battlefield 6 um you know battle royale that they just launched right but being premium i think that says something about hey you can still do this yeah as long as there's quality here you can still black ops the next black ops 7 i think we're on now like that's about to launch soon is that and that's going to be a premium thing i'm sure that's going to do great as well because it's call of duty we're a place right now where i think first person shooters third person shooters most player shooters are having a moment and i wonder what that's going to say going forward yeah that's the thing that's replicable absolutely so continuing here uh this means more people played arc raiders on steam in the last 24 hours than even free-to-play titles like Apex Legends and Marvel Rivals.

16:56The true number of players Ark Raiders has will, of course, be bigger than its Steam count, as it also launched on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S. Neither Sony nor Microsoft make player numbers public. It's also worth bearing in mind that Ark Raiders launched midweek, so the expectation for its player number to grow as the game heads into its first weekend. For now, we can say the launch is truly impressive on Steam, where Ark Raiders has a very positive user review rating after over 8 ,800 reviews. So, yeah, I feel like there's a lot of really smart marketing with our creators. I think they've done a fantastic job of having a good product and then presenting that product in a way.

17:33Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, we should we should acknowledge that we're sponsored by our creators. Exactly. Like that again, smart call, right? Go to where the gamers are. But I think that that is a much smaller version of what I'm saying. But the this game is everywhere. You're hearing about it. And again, when you have a good game, the buzz is going to kind of be there. but kind of magnifying it in ways and allowing like launching midweek is an interesting call but it does then allow you to get that swell and allow these numbers to buy the weekend it even harder right so um smart people over there smart people over there embark i i can't wait to

18:07Blessing Adeoye Jr.:to get back to it again like what we should acknowledge we are sponsored by our creators this will be the conversation regardless of a sponsor or not because it's kfgd news show this is the biggest news of the day um but like i think the thing that's surprised me and impressed me with arc raiders is how it feels like it's breaking through beyond just the core extraction audience right like i think there's something to be said about how many people could be into extraction shooters that don't know that they could be into extraction shooters yet seeing how much hype greg has i mean seeing greg play yesterday was hilarious yeah it looked like him falling in love with a secret that he wasn't supposed to have because he was playing like with the like prox chat or whatever the hell it was on and he was like just whispering because he was in the office space and every once in a while we just hear Greg go and it was like what do you it felt like he was hiding a secret lover in his closet yeah and I've been like in my own mind making fun of Greg Miller because he keeps saying like oh arc raiders we're not we're gonna I'm gonna play so much arc raiders and I keep making fun of him or at least I keep laughing to myself because I'm like he thinks it's division like he thinks he's gonna play arc raiders and it's gonna be division and it's not gonna be division but like to his credit I think he's gotten it like I think he understands what it is and the fact that like no he's there for the gameplay loop of go in get in some third person shooter action get the loot like it's the loot grind that's really doing it for him and i think there's something to be said so arc raiders for me is my the first extraction shooter i played i guess since i tried hunt showdown back in like 2020 and i think playing it after playing so many battle royale games now there's a freshness to the gameplay loop here that is capturing me where i'm like oh shit there's something nice about the risk of like hanging out with mike and andy and being like yo we got what we need we can just dip and then them being like oh we can do this too like we can do these missions for this person over here like yeah what if we just stayed a little bit longer and i'm like well we're risking risking it all do i speak up and be like no we got to go or do we just keep going for it i think there's something satisfying about that i think there's more to be explored there and yeah i'm i'm happy that we're getting more and more games that are trying to level up what this genre is doing yep absolutely let's get to story number two battlefield Battlefield 6 reclaims number one as EA dominates the European charts.

20:12This comes from Christopher Dring at the game business. Battlefield 6 has retaken the number one spot in the European charts, with Pokemon Legends EA dropping to number three. The shooter takes the top spot despite a 55 % fall in sales week on week. The game is closely followed by EA Sports FC 26, which means EA holds number one and two this week. The date is courtesy of GSD. It covers digital sales for most major game companies and all physical retail sales, too. other new games this week include ninja guy and four from xbox which didn't make the top 10 in the unit charts but is number six in the revenue chart all right i mean does any of this

20:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:surprise you battlefield 6 doing well i guess i've already gotten through the surprise of like how well it's doing because it's doing astronomical numbers or whatever i wouldn't be i'm not surprised that it's like top two or top one right like i think that's the one where cool they put all their stuff into it it's the new big for uh multiplayer first person first person game if they didn't nail it with this one then ea's ea would have been in big big trouble yeah yeah i don't know that there's much of a surprise here battlefield is that weird kind of enigma where the games do very well but i just think the kind of conversation around the last couple of them wasn't as high as it used to be back in the day where the war was between call of duty and battlefield it's like that war has ended it has went to the war zone uh but battlefield 6 really did kind of like set out with incredibly lofty goals that i they're not going to hit um if that one report was oh yeah but um still doing very very well and uh again this goes back to it's a good game people like it they're enjoying playing the game um so yeah it being number one is uh not a surprise but was not a guarantee as well i do think it just goes back to the quality of the game and the word of mouth around that and yeah pokemon dropping makes sense to number three it's still very high with FC coming in at number two.

22:04Ninja Gaiden not making the top 10, also not a surprise. I feel like if it did, that would have been the surprise, and it would have been like, hey, good for you, old IP. But yeah.

22:12Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Launched on Game Pass. And that too, that's always going to hit, especially saying it's number six in the revenue chart. So, you know, they're making money from it. Then let's go through the top 10 unit sales, the week ending October 26th. Battlefield 6 is number one. Number two is EA Sports FC. Three, Pokemon Legends CA. for Hogwarts Legacy. Damn. Still. I wonder why. I wonder if there was like some sale for Halloween or something. Oh, maybe. Or if that is just like a constant. It's also in the revenue chart. Or, yeah, the revenue top 10 at number eight. Yeah. So they're making money off of it too.

22:47I think this is Hogwarts. At number five. Plants vs. Zombies replanted at number six. Damn, EA's all over this thing. Yeah. Grand Theft Auto 5 at number seven. Titanfall 2 at number eight.

22:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Woo! Wait, this percentage is crazy. Because they list. They list all the percentages of like how up it is versus how down they are. And like, you know, EA Sports FC 26 is down 26%. You know, Pokemon Legends EA is down this week 84%. You know, are any of these up? I guess like when we get into the last three, they end up being up. Titanfall 2, though, is up 3 ,688%. Yeah, it is. Chat, were they selling that for a dollar? What was happening? For reals. Because I will notice it is not on the top 10 revenue list. It is not on the revenue list. and so that sale must have been i'm gonna look up right now to see if it's still on yeah what's going on uh red dead redemption 2 at number nine and then mass effect legendary edition at number 10 so it is kind of interesting to look at this and like you know we always understand the gta fives and the you know mario kart 8s and stuff like that games that are probably going to always be on the list in some form or fashion but to see things like red dead which maybe that's up there too but red dead mass effect uh and the hogwarts like there's a more and more of those games starting to pop up of just like these old games that just keep selling forever you know in the millions like not just in the like oh we're getting a couple sales here and there so then the top 10 revenue battlefield 6 ea sports fc 26 pokemon legend ca so same and then goes to number four um mario kart world yeah then mario kart well okay i would just try and see if this matched the units exactly but it doesn't oh it starts to spread a bit ghost of yotei at four mario kart world at five ninja gaiden four at six nba 2k 26 at seven hogwarts at eight outer worlds two at nine and ignacio rojas digimon story time stranger at number 10 uh the kids are loving those digital monsters i mean i love to see a game like digimon story time stranger like make it in there right a game that is i would describe as a nerdy ass game you know that is a jrpg for people that either still love digimon or people that i want to get into almost like a shimigami tensei type monster collecting thing um that's a game that i could see slipping through the cracks as far as when we're having the bigger conversations of sales and revenue and all that stuff so to see it make an appearance in the top 10 for revenue i think is that bodes well right i look at going back to the first list the just the units list right i look at something like hogwarts legacy which also is in the revenue list and hogwarts legacy is one of those ones that i'm fascinated by what the ripple effect of that looks like going forward as far as when we get hogwarts legacy 2 what like how they get a live service hogwarts legacy and it's you know it's gonna be what everyone's asking everybody it's exactly what everybody's asking for but yeah like there is like not not to make a i guess this is a pun right or like a very strong reference but they got the golden snitch over there at wb games with hogwarts legacy they have it like that is a i like no matter what we say like no matter what the thing is no matter what the controversy is because obviously there's so much bullshit wrapped up in that and jk rolling all this shit regardless of all of that that harry potter is such a fucking money maker they made a good game and they made that's what it goes back to turns out it sucked it wouldn't be here oh yeah i mean look at the quidditch game that they put out last year right like that shit came and went so quickly but you make a harry potter rpg people are gonna fucking show up for it and so yeah for that to be now a mainstay when we're talking about it and it's a single-player rpg like i don't and it had a successful launch on switch 2 as well yes where it had disastrous launch on switch one so there's i'm sure there's gonna be so many conversations in wb and outside of wb both when it comes to making big rpgs making ip games right like how do you make an adaptation all this stuff is there you'll finally get to game of thrones at some point but yeah that's the thing is also is there any ip that's like harry potter that you can make an adaptation of i don't know if there is that's not been done already you know yeah that's not yeah i think the answer to that is no not on that scale but uh let's get the story number three the witcher is getting its worst reviews ever this comes from isaac rouse at polygon the witcher season four has earned the franchise's lowest rotten tomatoes debut though that may have less to do with liam hemsworth replacing henry cavill as i'll never say his name right because i truly don't care this is my gary what a moment gerald gerald oh gerald fucking gerald gerald gerald sitting on that stupid new york uh the witcher season four has premiered on netflix with a 50 critics score on rotten tomatoes the lowest debut in the main series so far despite only six reviews available at the time of writing that number may shift as more critics weigh in but it's unlikely to surpass other franchise scores and given the audience's 25 score based on 50 ratings it's doubtful it'll be a fresh one this season marks hemsworth's first outing as the monster hunter taking over after cavill's departure reportedly due to creative clashes over his mustache.

27:40Sorry, the show's faithfulness to the source material and his wish to focus on other projects. Behind the scenes, Henry Cavill's exit sparked endless speculation about what really went down while he publicly described it as passing the torch. Reports suggest that the creative clashes have arisen over how closely the series would adhere to the books and CD Projekt Red's games. Former writers have even implied that some on the team didn't fully respect the source material while Cavill himself hinted he knew when to step away from a role but no longer aligned with his nerdy-ass vision. Now that season four is here, audiences can see scenes of Cavill's character being erased with inserts by Hemsworth and the book's story being rewritten to give Yennefer a bigger role, which may play a part in its reception.

28:22That said, showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hirsch has remained committed to adapting Sapowski's work in a thoughtful, modern way. Netflix clearly shares that confidence, signing her to a major deal in 2021 and backing her subsequent Witcher projects, including the well-received animated film sirens of the deep so while cavill moved on hers once again took the reins for season four have you been following this saga uh i mean unfortunately it's been in my periphery because i follow video games and entertainment news yeah

28:50Blessing Adeoye Jr.:this is both i didn't really realize it went this deep yeah i really thought it was just oh he's busy with superman and so he couldn't do this but no to see that it was like more creative like creative differences type situation right like to see where we're at with season four where it premiered premiered yesterday it premiered this week for sure and seeing i saw the reaction being the lack of reaction to it like it seems real bad over there for the switcher netflix show which at one point was the talk of the town when you want to talk about video game adaptations or not that's true and like you get what i mean obviously i just read that article so whether you've been paying attention if you have you understand how much of a disaster this is where at a certain point it's the ship of theseus thing you you have it you keep changing you keep changing at some point it's not the thing anymore yeah and so it's up to you of whether you're cool with that or not and i also think that season four of a tv show on netflix of all things like yeah how many shows made it that far period i mean yeah how many shows made that far and are still worth watching and still good like i'm not saying there aren't examples of it obviously cobra guy but uh really it's like yeah okay like i i'm not surprised that the quality is not still there um because i do feel like that that first season was to an extent lightning in a bottle that was one of the bigger examples of an early video game uh tv show specifically live action working right and it wasn't video game it's based on the book so it's like it does have kind of like weird elements there as well but the audience like the video game audience activated for it you know what i mean like even though i've never played these games i didn't watch this show i think i could sing the entire song to the fucking throw a coin to your witcher right like there was cultural relevance with this that's the thing is like for as much as we for as much as this is an adaptation of the book there is a strong connection with video game culture and the video in witcher 3 as a video game and how that feeds into the hype and excitement and then also how that feeds back in where you saw those witcher 3 sales skyrocket because of this adaptation people's growing interest right like it's the ip conversation that we're having off of harry potter a little bit but even more magnified as far as how these things can be connected and support each other and how like for me i if it wasn't for the witcher video game i wouldn't know who the fuck gerald is right but like now i see here i see henry cavill is that i'm like oh shit that's the guy oh he's being replaced by liam hemsworth that seems weird and i can follow all that because the game exists yeah um and so this is a such a fascinating one i guess just for how it's it's netted out even though you're right as far as like netflix tv shows getting to season four like oftentimes it could be a rocky road to get here um but i don't know still still makes me wonder what the other i guess the peek into the other timeline would look like as far as i don't know henry cavill's still in it like we are still sticking with this vision we're still doing like are we still are we talking about the witcher as being which netflix show is being like a main like a mainstay right like one of the ones you put next to stranger things and fucking um what was that show where all the people die within leftovers no in korea the game show squid games thank you got it the show i liked the leftovers full though people die yeah was that wrong all the people die in squid games you're right spoilers spoilers for squid game everybody a lot of people die very funny uh yeah i mean i will say bless if you if you want to waste your time going down an internet drama rabbit hole where you're not going to get any answers of which side is right go into the switcher show really oh yeah okay the um cavil stuff alone you'll read one article and be like wow they really played cavil and then you'll read another article you'd be like wow cavil's a piece of shit really it's just a back and forth and back and forth and it's one of the it's one of them dramas that i look at i'm like there's so much information out here that is conflicting that i i don't know i wasn't there i can't really make an opinion on it but what i do know is that type of drama ruins creative projects oh so i feel like that that is a perfect example of where we're at here but um yeah let's get to story number four but before we do that let's take a quick word from our sponsors this episode is brought to you by arc raiders a multiplayer extraction adventure game where most of humanity shelters underground but raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater in the rust belt danger isn't the end of the story, it's the beginning of the adventure.

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33:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Got a Sam's Cafe pizza order up. You know the best part about this spicy Italian sausage? I voted for this topping. Yeah, just another perk of being a member. Come join us. Sam's Club. Finance lead just opened the credit card statement. A charge she can't trace. No receipt. That's how most business travel gets managed. Not with Engine. Engine makes it easy to control spend at the swipe. Get real-time visibility and forced spend policy before, not after. 30 ,000 businesses travel with Engine. You can too. Teams travel spend. Managed. All for free. Sign up at engine.com slash control. Story number four, Fall Guys veterans established new studio, Panic Stations.

34:39This comes from Chris Kerr, a game developer. A group of former Fall Guys devs have established Panic Stations, a new UK studio. that will focus on building co-op multiplayer titles. The Nascent Studio wants to create games that bring friends closer through chaos, laughter, and shared moments. Panic Stations is part of Skeleton Crew, a new cohort of video game companies united by shared values, and Skeleton Crew separately. Also, a really fun Star Wars show on Disney Plus that not enough people watched. You want a good little Goonies-like adventure? Have I got this show for you. Skeleton Crew broke cover earlier this year and is the brainchild of Mediatonic co-founder Paul Croft.

35:15no relation to Lara. The collective intends to build and empower small teams with a penchant for creativity and kindness. Panic Stations is the first member of Skeleton Crew to officially take flight. Each member of the founding team worked on Fall Guys. The comical battle royale title launched by Mediatonic in 2020. After hitting the ground running, Fall Guys and Mediatonic were acquired by Epic Games in 2021. The game was subsequently made free to play and surpassed 50 million players. Around two years later, Epic Games laid off 18 % of its workforce. force it pledged to continue support supporting fall guys at the time but testimonials shared online by mediatonic workers indicated the studio had been decimated by the cuts i don't know if i