Destiny 2 Is Dead - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.21.26

21 May 2026 · 1 h 19 min · 28 chapters

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In short

Kind of Funny Games Daily (May 21, 2026) covers gaming news: EA allegedly killed Xbox Game Pass family plan; Ubisoft teases multiple new Assassin’s Creed/Far Cry/Ghost Recon entries plus a “first playable generative AI experience”; Owlcat’s The Expanse: Osiris Reborn is recasting its male protagonist after negative fan feedback; plus major Destiny 2 shutdown news and discussion of Bungie’s Marathon pivot toward more PvE.

Guests

Andres Cortez (host) and Paris Lilly (co-host; longtime Destiny/Bungie fan, esports/basketball fan; invited to a PlayStation State of Play watch party at Alamo Drafthouse).

Key claims

  • EA reportedly opposed Xbox Game Pass family plan despite Microsoft testing it in Ireland/Colombia; hosts argue EA should be removed from Game Pass to restore the feature.
  • Bungie says Destiny 2 will end after “Final Live Service content update” on June 9, 2026; Destiny 2 remains playable, and Bungie begins incubating next games.
  • Ubisoft expects new entries by March 2029 and is developing a fully “first playable generative AI experience,” with AI used for smarter NPCs/worlds and QC support.
  • Owlcat is changing the male protagonist voice (Ann Jay) due to fans saying he was insufficiently expressive.

Notable examples

  • Destiny 2 locations cited: Cosmodrome, Pale Heart, Lawless Frontier.
  • Marathon debate: adding PvE may help Destiny players, but extraction loot resets could alienate them.
  • Ubisoft references: Assassin’s Creed Hexa delays/director departures; Black Flag Remastered (July 9, 2026).

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Basketball Banter and PlayStation Event

0:45 to 4:20

Hosts discuss recent basketball games and a PlayStation event invitation.

“You're a very blessed fan of the San Antonio Spurs.”

EA's Impact on Xbox Game Pass

4:20 to 8:54

Discussion on the cancellation of the Xbox Game Pass family plan and EA's influence.

“Exclusive games, no ads on the home screen, and more make the list.”

Destiny 2's Final Update Announcement

8:54 to 14:00

The hosts react to the news of Destiny 2 concluding its service and future plans.

“I would like to get some more insider stats on exactly what are the games being played the most on Xbox Game Pass.”

Destiny 2 Final Live Update Announcement

14:00 to 14:41

Learn about the final live service content update for Destiny 2 and its implications.

“From the Cosmodrome to the Pale Heart to the Lawless Frontier, we have forged lifelong memories and friendships with you all.”

Paris Lilly's Bittersweet Reflection on Destiny

14:45 to 16:46

Paris shares his emotional journey with Destiny and views on its conclusion.

The Need for a Fresh Start in Destiny IP

16:46 to 18:26

Discussion on the need for a new iteration of Destiny and the potential for Destiny 3.

“But it is interesting because I think the division is another long term IP that I've been playing over the years.”

Reflections on Bungie's 10-Year Journey

18:26 to 21:07

Exploration of Bungie's accomplishments with Destiny over a decade and its narrative conclusion.

Insights on Marathon's Future Direction

21:07 to 21:56

Discussion on the potential changes and audience expectations for Marathon.

“a story and they ended it after 10 years.”

Community Expectations for Marathon

21:56 to 25:25

Exploring community reactions to Marathon's direction and the importance of PVE content.

“But I haven't personally talked to Paris about the news about Marathon getting a lot more PVE involved.”

Concerns About Live Service Sustainability

25:25 to 28:00

Discussion regarding the challenges and sustainability of live service games.

“And I want more of a reason to exist in that universe a lot more.”
Show all 28 chapters

The Live Service Bubble: Is It Bursting?

28:00 to 29:40

Exploring the potential decline of live service games and its implications.

“since we're pivoting kind of into this stuff do you think the bubble is about to burst on live service?”

The Future of Gaming: Single-Player vs. Live Services

29:40 to 34:40

Discussing the shift towards single-player games and the risks of live service models.

“years and years and years i think that from now on and i think it's a good thing that a lot of live service developers or any executives wanting to chase that live service high have been severely discouraged.”

Ubisoft's Upcoming Games and Generative AI

36:24 to 42:04

Analyzing Ubisoft's future titles and the implications of generative AI in gaming.

“It's review season, and it's only going to get crazier.”

Generative AI in Video Games: A Controversial Discussion

42:04 to 43:56

The hosts discuss the implications and concerns surrounding the use of generative AI in game development.

“That is a, we're not even using, we're not even saying we're going to be using Gen AI to help development on other projects, which we likely are anyway.”

Industry Impact: Community and Developer Concerns

43:56 to 48:23

The conversation shifts to the industry's struggles, job security for developers, and community feedback.

“Um, like that, that just looks like, like you typed in your prompt.”

Recasting in The Expanse: Addressing Fan Feedback

48:23 to 50:42

Discussion on how the developers of The Expanse are responding to fan feedback by recasting a main character.

“But it's like, man, you shouldn't be having to take a risk to be a game developer.”

Late Development Changes: Precedents and Implications

50:42 to 55:50

The hosts debate the significance of making character changes late in game development and the potential impact.

“Start the campaign here, right now, to be the voice actor.”

Sony's New Trademark: What Could Break-In Mean?

55:50 to 56:00

Exploration of Sony's recent trademark filing for 'Break-In' ahead of the State of Play showcase.

“Patent and Trademark Office website with the filing date of May 20th, 2026.”

Break-in Trademark and Fair Games Speculation

56:00 to 57:05

Discussion on the trademarking of 'break-in' and its potential relation to Haven Studios' Fair Games.

“Again, trademarking break-in less than two weeks away from the new PlayStation State of Play showcase.”

Concerns about Game Longevity and Community Engagement

57:05 to 1:00:06

Exploration of doubts regarding the sustainability and community interest in Fair Games.

“I mean, you know, I alluded to this when we're having that conversation.”

Bubsy 4D Review Roundup

1:00:06 to 1:04:22

Review of Bubsy 4D, discussing scores, perspectives, and gameplay experiences.

“or whatever story number five really important right here bubsy 40 review roundup did you play bear i did oh i didn't like that tone i don't think bubsy enjoyed that tone either uh what say you about Bubsy?”

Transitioning to We News with Small Game Updates

1:04:22 to 1:05:34

Introduction to We News segment, focusing on smaller game announcements and updates.

“And then conveniently, uh, the Bubsy 40 race got canceled conveniently.”

Highlighting New Game Releases and Updates

1:05:34 to 1:09:04

Discussion on various new game releases, updates, and their potential appeal.

“You'd go to our last story, the We News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.”

Super Chats and Community Engagement

1:09:04 to 1:10:04

Reading and responding to audience super chats about gaming topics.

“The whole Spider-Man model change was actually about how the model looked more like Yuri than Peter Parker.”

Discussion on Peter Parker's Look

1:10:04 to 1:10:22

The hosts discuss opinions on the portrayal of Peter Parker in recent games.

Super Chats and Community Reactions

1:10:24 to 1:11:56

The hosts read and respond to viewer super chats about gaming trends and announcements.

“Shloon with a$2 super chat says, Bungie says Destiny 2 is getting shut down in June.”

Bungie's Impact on Player Trends

1:11:57 to 1:13:28

They discuss the potential impact of Bungie's announcement on player trends in other games.

“a couple of years away from devs getting executed by CEOs if they try to slip handmade assets into a game.”

Division Resurgence Insights

1:13:29 to 1:14:15

The hosts share their thoughts on Division Resurgence and its gameplay experience.

“Have you downloaded Division Resurgence?”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Today's gaming news stories include a report that EA killed the Xbox Game Pass family plan. Ubisoft's teasing its first playable Gen AI experience. Hell yeah. And did PlayStation just rebrand Fair Game dollar sign? We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

0:25Hello gamers, good morning and welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Thursday. May 21st, 2026. I am Andres Cortez, and I'm joined by Paris Lilly, the best voice in gaming. What's going on, Andy? I have to say this right off the top. Go ahead. You're a very blessed fan of the San Antonio Spurs. I know they lost last night. Wendy is incredible. That dude's incredible. That's all I have to say. He's incredible. I've lived a spoiled life for sure, basketball-wise. I think you and I are both kind of on the same wavelength there where there are other teams that wish they could even sniff a playoff.

1:07And I do feel blessed in that way. Again, didn't get the W last night. That's okay. I hope Dylan Harper comes back healthy. I hope De 'Aaron Fox comes back healthy. Because Def Castle and these turnovers, I don't want to get into this, Paris, but good Lord, man. These turnovers are just egregious. It's just a sloppy, messy game. Sloppy and messy. But we're not going to talk about basketball right now, Paris. I saw you post on social media that you got an invite to a PlayStation event. I did. To the... I did. Is my mic okay now? Because I was using the wrong mic. Yeah, it sounds good. Do I sound okay?

1:44Yeah, it sounds good. Do I sound okay? If I can get him a little bit louder out here, Bear, that'd be awesome. But yeah, I saw that you post that you got an invite to an in-person view watch party, whatever the heck at. Was it at the Alamo? Yep, yep, at Alamo Drafthouse. So for the state of play that, what is that, June 2nd, it's happening. Yeah, they've invited me to come hang out with the live audience for it. So I'm considering it. I definitely might do it. Sounds like it'd be a lot of fun. Any in-person event is always fun. So I definitely think I might do it. And it tells me they got something.

2:17It's more than just Wolverine. They got something big that they're going to show. I think that's the biggest takeaway that I have. Yesterday, me and Roger were talking about this. the fact that they are doing a live person event does we were talking about do you want the do you want to set a precedent uh the precedent that it's only the hype stuff that you're going to do live person events for so that in the future whenever there is a live person event you say hey everybody watch out for this one or maybe we make it only the summer ones the fact that it is going to be in multiple Alamo draft houses, and then that they are inviting people from the press, people from the influencer space.

2:57I think that that gets everybody a little bit more excited than I normally would have been in Paris. Yeah, yeah, it did for me. When I saw that email came in, I go, huh, okay. They got something. They got something that they want everyone to see. They want everyone talking about it, social media, all the places. So I think this is going to be a pretty big showcase for them. And I'm looking forward. I honestly, with PlayStation, I think it's time. I can't remember the last big showcase they've had. I think, am I crazy to think it was the first time they showed Wolverine? It's been a while. I mean, they've obviously done state of plays and highlighted games over the years.

3:34Don't get me wrong. But I think a big showcase with a bunch of big first party titles being a part of it. And it's been a few years. Do you think they're going to have a custom menu at the Alamo? you know they did they did uh one for ghost of yote and it was they had a custom menu so i i expect another custom menu i look forward to it that'd be awesome that would be really well if i mean i guess we get into a a place where if the menu leaks it could give away potential uh game reveals you know what i mean like if they have something called like you know the mako juice or something it's like oh we know we're getting a final fantasy 7 part 3 announcement but enough of that paris thank you for watching live everybody you could be a part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com forward slash kind of funny games we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com forward slash kind of funny so thank you to our producers carl jacobs omega buster and delaney the psalm twining you guys are the goats for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the roper report it's time for some news we have seven stories today

4:52story number one ea killed the xbox game pass family plan this comes this comes from jez cordon at windows central and uh there's a bit of context at the beginning of this article Over at Windows Central, Jess Corden has an article breaking down the top requests on the Xbox Player Voice website, a portal launched by Asha Sharma and Xbox to log player desires. Exclusive games, no ads on the home screen, and more make the list. But there's an interesting tidbit in there at number five. We join the article in progress. Here's another painfully canceled project, although I heard this one wasn't actually Microsoft's fault.

5:34Microsoft was testing a family plan for Xbox Game Pass, giving up to four users access to the library in exchange for a discount. It even implemented it in Ireland and Colombia as a test run. I was told EA, who is a long-term contractee with the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem, fully hated the idea. It sucks because EA does the absolute bare minimum with its Game Pass involvement, refusing to put Xbox PC native versions with Play Anywhere or Xbox achievements out. If the above is indeed true, I would like to see EA get kicked out of the Xbox Game Pass ecosystem in exchange for a revival of the Xbox Game Pass family plan.

6:14Personally, EA barely releases games anymore anyway. EA shouldn't be allowed to hold back Xbox customers given how anemic its contributions have been. That comes from Jez Corden once again over at Windows Central. Paris, I know this has been one of those features that a lot of people have been requesting and to find out that there was a lot of scuttle, but there was something that was even tested in a couple of different markets. And the fact that EA is apparently saying, we don't want that, don't do that. How does this make you feel, Paris? I'm not surprised. I remember we used to talk about this a lot on XCAS when they were, like I mentioned in the article, they were testing this out and were thinking, hey, this is going to be, again, another great value, something for families.

7:00I was personally anticipating it because it's something that I would have integrated into my home with my kids. But for the fact that EA balked at it, I'm not surprised at all. But I think as the article highlighted, I always felt like EA did the bare minimum in Game Pass anyways. And to the point they didn't have like Xbox PC, you know, like Play Anywhere enabled titles. So that was always unfortunate. So you couldn't have the crossage. You essentially had to make a choice. Am I going to play it on the console? or am I going to play it on the PC because my saves aren't going to go back and forth?

7:33I am of the opinion, I think Xbox would probably be better off decoupling EA Play at this point because there's EA games I obviously like to play, but there's not enough that are a part of that Game Pass service that makes it worth it, that here's a feature. The good outweighs the bad, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. I would rather have the family plan than have EA Play in Game Pass. So if removing that allowed them to have a family plan that was at a reasonable price, I'd be all for it. I mean, let's be real here. EA would be perfectly fine with a family plan, but Microsoft probably has to pay more money.

8:13They got a bigger, a bigger cut of the pie. And maybe Microsoft or Xbox doesn't want to do that. Hence, this is why we don't have a family plan. Not to mention, obviously, all the shenanigans of last year where, you know, Game Pass Ultimate went up to 30 bucks. I know they've dropped it back down now, but taking Call of Duty out day and date. Maybe again, this is something they revisit. I hope they do. I think it's a great value add to have a family plan, you know, as a part of the subscription service. But, you know, how much is it going to cost at this point? That I think would be the bigger question.

8:45And people be OK with EA being removed from it. If so, I would. But, you know, obviously, I don't know how the overall community would feel. I would like to get some more insider stats on exactly what are the games being played the most on Xbox Game Pass. I think that would maybe be able to influence what I think would be a better idea for Game Pass to do. But first off, I think the family plan is something that should absolutely happen. You are one of the few subscription services that doesn't have a family plan. There are, I mean, all of the big hitters out there have something like this, right?

9:24When I think of EA and what their involvement with the Xbox Game Pass subscription, I wonder if the type of players playing the EA games are even on Game Pass. When we think of something like Madden and EA College Football or any of the sort of sports offerings, that's immediately where my mind goes to. and those are some pretty awesome values but i don't even really know if game pass users are gravitating a whole whole lot towards the ea catalog of games you know what i mean yeah completely agree man um and yeah i i would i would love to see obviously i totally agree with you i think ea should be taken off of this because i always saw the ea play you know uh integration i I always kind of compared it to when you get game pass and you get like a month of discord nitro or whatever, like it, it always felt like one of those temporary sort of offerings, even though it definitely isn't.

10:26I just don't know if the messaging was necessarily very good. Not even talking about EA play being the name of that service being included in there and EA play also being like that live event that they would throw. It was just like, Like, it was really hard to kind of even figure out what the hell EA was doing as a part of the Xbox Game Pass catalog. So I would, I'm with you. I would love to see Xbox say EA go away. And then from here on out, we can deal with you guys on a title by title basis and say, you know, hey, we would love five months after it comes out to put Madden on there or whatever the hell.

11:08You know what I mean? Like, I feel like they could go on a case by case basis. And that's kind of how I see it, too. I would rather them take that route with it than, you know, not bring a service to your customer base that the customers clearly want. When this first was rumored start getting announced, tested, everybody was on board for a family plan. I think ultimately, like I said before, it just comes down to how much is it going to cost? Does it make sense for a family? Like, you know, like I said, I got three kids, so basically four people that would be taking advantage of this. So let's say it was even, I don't know, 35 a month.

11:43That's still a pretty decent value for my family to be able to take advantage of versus what we do right now where, you know, I'm getting subscriptions individually for each kid. So I would save money. It would be a nice, you know, feather in the cap, you know, for Xbox as far as trying to win, you know, get goodwill back. There's a return to rebuild the brand, all that stuff. So, oh, look, June's almost here. I'm sure we're going to start hearing a lot of different stuff that they're planning to do with their services and obviously their games with Xbox. So maybe the family plan does come back.

12:15I hope it does. But if the only reason it doesn't come back is because of EA, I think that's a huge mistake. I would like to also, if you live in Columbia and listen to the show, or if you live in Ireland, I would love to just like, were you grandfathered into that plan? Do you still have the family plan? Did they strip it from you? Did they pull it away from you? Or were you able to keep it? And maybe they're just like, hey, don't say shit, all right? Like back in the day, Paris, when everybody was all about that AT &T unlimited data, oh my God, I'd be at Best Buy and everybody would be like, no, you better not take that unlimited data away from me.

12:52They would get so pissed off whenever we would try to push them away from that because it was just like they want that to go away. Paris, we have breaking news right now. I saw it, yeah. Breaking news. Massive stuff. I'm just going to include this into KFGD right now. And we'll say that this is story number two. From Destiny the Game. Destiny 2 over on Twitter. They put out a tweet that says, For almost 12 years, we have had the joy and honor to explore the Destiny universe with you all. Through all the ups and downs, surprises and triumphs, building Destiny alongside our players has been a monumental privilege.

13:32While our love for Destiny 2 has not changed, it has become clear that after the final shape, people thought the game was done. They didn't say that. That's what I'm throwing in there. It has become clear after the final shape, we have reached the time for our shared worlds and destiny to live beyond Destiny 2. Beyond. As our focus turns towards a new beginning for Bungie, we will begin work incubating our next games. Ooh, games plural right there, Paris. To that end, on June 9th, 2026, we will release the final live service content update for destiny two to begin that journey as a studio through though active development may be concluding we will ensure that destiny two remains playable just as the original destiny is today many changes in this final update will aim to ensure that destiny two is a welcoming place for players to return to we're proud of destiny two the place that took us and the legacy it has created because of you all our universe is vast built on years of shared stories, adventures, and victories.

14:29From the Cosmodrome to the Pale Heart to the Lawless Frontier, we have forged lifelong memories and friendships with you all. We're incredibly grateful to everyone who made the journey with us from the deepest part of our hearts. Thank you, and we'll see you in the stars. I can't think of a better person to have on this kind of funny games daily right now than Mr. Paris Lilly. How does this news hit you, Paris? uh it's bittersweet but it was time it was time honestly this should have happened a year ago um the final shape was the end of destiny 2 for me and a lot of people i mean i was there from the alpha all the way basically through the entire decade run of destiny um i i look at it as my son was nine years old and he's 20 now oh and we played destiny that entire time i mean strikes raids dungeons everything clans just all of it i have so many fun memories of destiny i've met so many people from around the world because of that freaking game that it will always have a special place in my heart but the final shape was it that was the end as it should have been that was their avengers end game moment it was very satisfying and that's when i put i put the controller down and i moved on i was like i don't need to play this anymore so them trying to hold on for extra amount of time just never made sense to me i know they were doing like some star wars stuff and some other things that they put in there but it just didn't interest me anymore and ironically enough i'm talking about my son like i said he's 20 years old now he actually went back and started playing destiny one he's not even playing any of the the newer content in destiny 2 because that's where we built the majority of our memories and the majority of our fun was in the original destiny so i look at it this way they again they probably should have done this years ago they should be making destiny three they they should i i think the ip still has value i just think in its current iteration the current story it ran its course i think like they're doing let's end it now just start over from scratch bring it back in a new iteration now a lot of the people that made destiny what it was are no longer at bungie so i think that also plays a factor into it so maybe they're not even doing a destiny anymore maybe it is brand new ip something else that they're doing we'll obviously see when when the time is right um and i know you guys have talked about marathon we've all played marathon i mean your miles may vary on that let's see what some of these season two changes are going to be maybe that needs to be the focus for them right now to try and build up that player base let's put destiny on ice let me miss destiny i think that's the best way to say it let me miss it for a while then bring it back maybe that reign nice my excitement for it maybe I want to jump back in and start playing.

17:19But it is interesting because I think the division is another long term IP that I've been playing over the years. And I don't really play the division to that much anymore. But I did my toe in every now and again. And, you know, they're still doing content. And matter of fact, they're having like a big celebration for division to return to Brooklyn right now. And it's interesting. I still feel a pull towards the division where I do want to jump back in every now and again whereas like i said i thought destiny told its story and it needed a fresh coat of paint a complete reset and ironically enough the division is they're doing a division three so that's probably coming in in a few years as well so we'll see how that goes and i know we got some ubisoft story coming down the road but um yeah it's bittersweet um this news doesn't surprise me at all about destiny 2 them winding down service i just think honestly they should have done it like a year ago and uh hopefully they can let us miss destiny for a while and then bring it back it's something brand new bingo right there paris i don't know if i have agreed with anything more on this show the fact that the final shape comes out everything after the fact has always felt to me like watching black widow in theaters during the pandemic right it is the post end game moment it is it always felt just like this filler stuff that i necessarily never wanted to go back to and i'm speaking from the most casual of destiny 2 fans i would always play during the big expansions i never played during the seasonal stuff so again take this for a grain of salt but i played the final shape and i loved it i was just so in love with that experience it was awesome i didn't even understand so much of the context surrounding the final shape but it still hit for me because the music was amazing and the art direction everything was awesome um i i wonder that if they could turn back that time machine and go back in time and say like did we make a mistake continuing this could we have started development on the next thing and and immediately start get the wheels turning and get pre-pro started on whatever the next project is because i would have to guess that they would probably say yes that that is such precious amount of development time and budget you know we know that but we know that bungie and the the spending that's been happening through bungie and what uh sony's been reporting hasn't been necessarily the best thing for their bottom line and i do wonder that if they could turn back time and say damn we may have fucked up not starting the next thing immediately because everything after that has just kind of we've had less and less return as we kept on going you know yeah and like i said i don't even think they necessary to your point i think starting work on the next thing but i just think final shape ends all right this is our last live update if y 'all want to go back and play stuff it'll still be there but now we're moving on to to working on the next thing and then you know like maybe it's obviously when these next consoles and all that come out now we're ready to go with all new destiny something else in this universe everyone's starting from scratch you're on an even even playing field here's new gameplay new mechanics new super like all these things that gets everyone excited again because you weren't trying to hold on to something that hadn't run its course again that story had been told there was nothing else i needed from that that destiny story that we got i mean think about it which in this current climate of gaming is damn near unprecedented they had a decade run with that game.

21:01I mean, it was a roller coaster up and down, but they did it. They did it. They started a story and they ended it after 10 years. So kudos to Bungie, kudos to everyone there, all the blood, sweat, and tears that were put in over those 10 years to get to that point. And you did it in a very satisfying way. I was satisfied. I was happy with how Final Shape ended. And I felt like it was worth my investment over a 10 year period into that IP that let it rest, like Tony Stark. You can rest now. Rest. You can rest now. Arcane. Yeah, no, let's move on to something else. We'll bring him back, but he's Dr.

21:40Doom, and we'll move forward. That's what they should have done, in my opinion. So, yeah, in hindsight, they should have just ended at the final shape and just started incubating a Destiny 3. And now that we're on the... We have a Games Daily to talk about. We have a lot of stuff to talk about. But I haven't personally talked to Paris about the news about Marathon getting a lot more PVE involved. And this is just my curiosity because I put in about 25 hours into Marathon and I really enjoyed my time with it. I still always wished it was something different, but I was surprised that I enjoyed what I did and that I kept on going back to it.

22:21What does that news come out do for you, Paris, that they are investigating a lot of pve experiences and possible ways to expand that in the future here's what i think and i say this as a huge fan of bungee and i always will be this say hail mary this is your audience who had been telling you this before marathon even came out this is these are some of the things that you should have been doing but you went with the down the extraction path that is niche. We all knew this. And I like, I like marathon. I like it just the way it is right now, but your audience is coming from destiny where you get to keep all the stuff that you have.

23:07It is very PVE focused. And then you're telling me to now go into a PVP extraction environment where I'm going to lose everything. And then when, when we reset the seasons, anything you got during that season, you're losing that too. Not everybody's on board with that. So I see this as you should have done this a year ago move, just like I said, with, with, with destiny too, they should have done this at launch when they delayed it and they were retooling. These should have been some of the things that they were incubating then to communicate to the community that this is the direction we're going to take marathon.

23:43I hope it works. I want to be crystal clear. I want this IP to succeed. I've, you know, I've been in a great state of Kentucky for the past couple of weeks, so I've not been really playing anything, but I would love to check out a season two of marathon, see how this works. And I hope it attracts more people so that it is sustainable because let's be honest, we know steam charts aren't everything, but the steam numbers are telling us not a lot of people are playing it and it won't survive in its current iteration. So hopefully this does work. I hope it does. I wanted to, but it could be too little too late.

24:19You bringing up the idea that players lose their loot. That's just something we know about extraction shooters, but it's just so funny to tell a community that's so precious about their weapons that they keep in vaults for a decade plus. And it's like, Hey, you you're probably going to lose everything. Like that's got a, that's a massive shock to the system. And again, we're just, I know we're talking about a game that's already been out for several, several months that I really, really would love to see some awesome stuff come out of this experiment because I've always said that if Marathon were just a PVE type shooter, if it was just another Destiny in a different skin, you know, in this awesome world on Tau Ceti with these amazing visuals and, you know, really cool lore and things like that, like that, there's something so special and precious there already and if you could further my engagement and enjoyment with it oh man i would love to get an awesome pve experience out of this game because it's it's it was so fun to play as it was and i wasn't even in love with the genre ever and i still went back to it in my own time at midnight going like yeah let me hop in for a run or two and i had so much fun with it because the world is so interesting and the the little story bits and And I never got to do a cryo run, unfortunately, but just unlocking that cryo with Ben Star, that little video package was like, dude, this is so sick.

25:52This world rules. And I want more of a reason to exist in that universe a lot more. I completely agree. I mean, again, like I said before, I hope it works. I hope this works because I think there's so much good with Marathon. But I think the problem, again, is like you said, you'll jump. I'll do a few runs. That's not for everybody. So as a live service game, can that be sustainable for the long run? Right now, it's not. And how long will, let's be real, forget Bungie for a second, how long will PlayStation support this? I think that's the bigger question. Well, speaking of that, we have a super chat from Aaron Lime, who says, Sony CEO said they're happy with Marathon and want to expand its base.

26:36So I imagine this is Sony reallocating resources within Bungie. That would be awesome. I hope that's the truth. I hope it's the truth, too. But let's let's be real here. You're not going to come out and say we're unhappy with Marathon. We're very disappointed. They're not going to say that. So this shit sucks, man. We'll see. Another super chat from Jay Dubin. Ten dollars. Thank you for your generosity. Who says Guardian since a Destiny 1 tester. This needed to happen post final shape. I hope this means Destiny 3, and that's something that's trying to force players into Marathon. I'll never give them money for Marathon.

27:18Now, let me ask you, you don't have to super chat back in, Jade Dubin. What if they said, we are working on a Destiny experience in the world of Marathon? What would that do for you then? You don't got a super chat in, I'll just try to look out for your chat. But I'm wondering, do you not want to give them money because you don't want the extraction experience? or it's just you don't like really mess with the world or you don't want to like exist in that universe. Let me know. Yelsing with a$2 super chat says, after two big DLCs, any game outstays, it's welcome. We got Street Shadow with a$10 super chat who says, Destiny as an IP is extremely powerful.

27:56Destiny 2 was holding it back. What this announcement says to me is that they have early backing from SIE to start the next thing. I assume this convo started months ago. I hope so. I have a question for you, Andy. Go ahead. since we're pivoting kind of into this stuff do you think the bubble is about to burst on live service?

28:21Well I mean who's to say it hasn't already? That's kind of my point. I think any future effort from any developer who says we just talked about Quantic Dreams game yesterday that 90 % of the people in the honest enemy you know existed saying that hey we're stopping this spellcasters game which is a MOBA live service I think that the mainstays will be here probably forever like I don't know if the main video games the games that have been there for people's eternities that are like their forever games I don't know if anything's going to happen to them maybe some of the weaker ones might start to see player counts drop and things like that but when it comes to a game like counter-strike counter-strike 2 or um fortnite or apex legends or you know war zone i think those games will be here to stay but we've had way too many efforts from different studios come out and immediately disappear and servers get shut down immediately and layoffs happen and money is lost concord a massive failure i think i think sony will be feeling the reverberations of the failure of concord for years and years and years i think that from now on and i think it's a good thing that a lot of live service developers or any executives wanting to chase that live service high have been severely discouraged.

30:01And usually I'm the type that's like, well, damn, that sucks because that means that people aren't going to want to experiment with this genre anymore. Like that stinks that because of these failures, we won't get more iterations. I don't know if we need any more, man. Like just my personal opinion, I don't know if we need more games to try to become a high guard in the good way. like not the fact that high guard shut down but like the way that high guard wanted to be a game in people's rotations and that just clearly didn't happen i think more and more developers and more and more executives are looking at all of these failures and saying never again i hope at least because i think it's a i honestly think it's a waste like i i you're going to make a game you're going to work years on it you're going to put it out and it's not going to have the player base that you were hoping for and it's going to get shut down and people are going to lose their jobs or it's going to get shut down before it even comes out and then developers go well there's two and a half years of resume and portfolio that i can't even post anyway you know what i mean and that's i think that's one of the big drawbacks for me um i as much as it feels wrong to say i don't want developers to really try in that genre anymore i mainly say that from the aspect of it's just going to lead to layoffs it's going to lead to another thing getting shut down and the only people that are going to hurt are the people that are making the art yeah i completely agree just to answer my own question i'm echoing everything that you're saying i i just look at it as the the risk versus reward is no longer worth it i couldn't imagine being a new ip coming into this this this industry right now hoping for success i mean if If you're already a Fortnite, a Forza Horizon or a Grand Theft Auto, Sea of Thieves as another example, you're fine.

31:57I mean, I even think of a nice comeback story with like a Fallout 76. They started off rough, but they rebounded. But now they've cemented and they have a very strong, dedicated community. If you don't already have that, I can't see a high guard is the poster child for this. You know, doesn't matter what you think of Jeff and how it was revealed and all that stuff. These are there was a team of talented people that worked on that game for years. And it just it just it was a blip on the radar gone. That's why would you even attempt to do something like that? And I think we have one of our stories talking about another live service game that's about to come out that I don't see it.

32:39I just don't see how it's going to succeed in this current climate. So. I don't know. It seems like we're starting to reverse course. were becoming more single-player focused, and maybe that's the way moving forward. Like the destinies of the world, I just, I can't see that being repeated anymore. I will add one more thing to piggyback off of that. I think that I would be sad if any of these developers stopped trying to do PVE-focused multiplayer titles. Like I think if you are good enough of a developer and you have an awesome story, you could put out something like a Destiny 3 that is a shared world shooter or whatever.

33:25I would feel way more confident about that than trying to chase the PvP angle. Similar to Last Flag from the, you know, funded by the dudes from Imagine Dragons. Last Flag, again, that didn't want to be a games of service. It was never trying to be a games of service live thing. But much like any other multiplayer game, it comes out and it's crickets, right? And I think we're going to see developers try to do and chase the high of what Peak did, you know, the friend slop genre, for lack of a better term, that sort of multiplayer experience. And I would be really, really sad if devs didn't try to do, if devs weren't trying to make a quality game and a quality experience similar to something like Destiny or The Division, Games that I love.

34:15Games with awesome structure and cool missions and awesome boss fights and teams and coordination. And maybe they just say, hey, we're coming out, but we're not going to be this live thing that every month you should expect something or every two to three months you should expect something. I hope that those I hope the developers still try to make multiplayer experiences with awesome loops and awesome boss fights because I still really chase that high. I love that high in video games. And for me, I would just say it's more of the PvP angle that I'm way more concerned about. That if you're trying to come out with something that is a PvP-focused video game.

34:52We talk about something like yesterday, Greg and Bless played Thick as Thieves. Which was originally a co-op extraction. You and your friends play against other friends of people. and you're trying to steal the loot and you're trying to get out before anybody can get you or whatever. And that game pivoted to being just a PvE video game. That game, midway through development, said, I don't think this PvP stuff is necessarily going to work. What if we just made it a co-op experience where you're just playing against the environment and you're not having to worry about having servers that are populated and having player counts and having when the game comes out, immediately people go, oh my god there's only 200 people playing this game well shit i'm not going to invest my money in that if there's only 200 people playing like that's where the mentality goes immediately nowadays and i think it's like the perfect fall for a game like the or the perfect call for a game like thick of these biggest thieves to say we're just going to be a pve game screw anything else screw anything competitive um but i would still love like i still want the division three pairs i would love for any talented developer to put out another shared world co-op shooter because i really love those experiences and i hope that we don't see those and um and i'll tell you what else i love everybody i love you guys for supporting the show i love you all riding in with your super chats i love the sponsors as well and uh let's go ahead and hear from them right now I think it's just us.

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36:25Do you smell it in the air? It's review season, and it's only going to get crazier. Forza, Soros, Lego Batman, and so much more is coming soon. And that's on top of Games Daily, InReview, Screencast, Kind of Funny Podcast, and our streams. Our small 11-person team couldn't do it without your support over on patreon.com slash kindoffunny. That's the best place to support us and keep updated on all of our podcasts as they happen. Get shows ad-free and access exclusive content. But if you don't got a buck to toss our way, we've got you covered. Head over to our Spotify podcast feeds, follow, watch, listen, and rate us.

37:02We've been getting a lot of support from new eyes over there, and your help goes a long way. And Spotify even has video versions of all of our podcasts if you like looking at our beautiful faces. So head over to Spotify, rate, comment, and follow to keep up with all of our upcoming reviews and daily gaming coverage. Unique Technique in the Twitch chat says, Andy and Paris in the same episode makes the show so easy to listen to. Warm vocal tones. Period. Point blank. You know what's so funny about that? Because remember someone did the research. I've never said it. I've never said that. No, the stats were, let the record show, Paris.

37:41The stats showed that point blank period was never said. I got the quote wrong. But you said period point blank nine times. in that order period point blank is the right quote i got the quote wrong so i fucked that one up my bad story number two i guess it's not really but you know what i mean we have to shift stuff because of some amazing destiny breaking news that came out story number two for now ubisoft is working on assassin's creed far cry ghost recon and the first playable gen ai experience this comes from dave aubrey at bgc news um before we even get into the article that sounds awesome and exciting and I can't wait to really dive in because so far everything just happening AI wise has been really great so far.

38:28Ubisoft confirms that the new games in the Assassin's Creed Far Cry and Ghost Recon series will be available by March 2029 and that the first playable generative AI experience is also in development. This info is courtesy of Ubisoft's 2025 to 2026 earnings report. Ubisoft expects a strong rebound from fiscal year 2027 onwards and it attributes this to Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon, indicating that all three will see new entries released prior to March 2029. They also state, We can't make an awesome game, so we'll let the computer do it for us. They didn't say that. I added that in there.

39:05The highlights for Q4 included strong performance for Rainbow Six Siege, The Division 2, Assassin's Creed, Avatar, The Crew, and For Honor. In addition, Rainbow Six Mobile and the Division Resurgence launched on mobile this year. And while Ubisoft confesses that the games, quote, had a slow start, it remains dedicated to growing audience of both games. Fans are eagerly anticipating more news regarding Assassin's Creed Hexy, which Ubisoft started or Hexa, I think is what I was corrected with saying the other day. Assassin's Creed Hexa, which Ubisoft started teasing in 2022. In February 2026, Hexa director Clint Hawking left Ubisoft.

39:46Just two months later, game director Benoit Richer also left the project. While it's possible that the game could launch prior to March 2029, it's equally likely that Ubisoft is simply referring to Black Flag Resynced, which is due to launch on July 9, 2026. The most puzzling part of the earnings report is when Ubisoft teases, quote, its first playable generative AI experience. The full quotes on AI use are as follows. Ubisoft is accelerating investments behind teammates, its first playable generative AI experience to enrich player experiences. While teams are making tangible progress organically on AI applications that can help manage the growing complexity of modern game development pipelines, this ranges from more intelligent bots supporting our QC teams to smarter NPCs and game worlds that can adapt to player behavior and react more dynamically in real time.

40:42The group is fully leveraging decades of expertise in open worlds, systematic gameplay, or systemic gameplay, and AI-driven systems, combined with years of pioneering AI and machine learning research through its LaForge R &D teams. Together with the many early adopters across its production teams, this gives the company confidence in Ubisoft's ability to remain at the forefront of this transformation and provides its teams with tools to enhance their creativity. End quote. A lot to unpack here, Paris. A lot here. Before we get to the abysmal trash fire at the end of the article, of course, it's no surprise they are working on Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon.

41:35We had a joke yesterday on Games Daily. Was it with Roger, I believe, where one of the games they didn't include was Splinter Cell. It's like, why not include that one? I guess, you know, maybe we want to just surprise people later. I'm sure everything is going great with development over there. A lot of this stuff isn't necessarily news, I would say. But the first playable Gen AI experience, that is the one that sounds the klaxons. That is a, we're not even using, we're not even saying we're going to be using Gen AI to help development on other projects, which we likely are anyway. We are going to give you just a full ass generative AI experience video game.

42:20This sounds like the most, like, no holds barred AI experience, right? Usually you have developers tiptoeing and getting very scared and not wanting to piss people off and say, no, no, no, we're only using it for this. We're only using it for this. We're only doing that with generative AI. But to say we're giving you a first playable generative AI experience, that doesn't sound awesome, Paris. What say you? I'd say it sounds like a complete disaster, number one. um i will fully admit as someone who loves video games and loves the art and the craft of making these amazing experiences i i hope it tanks i i don't want to see this succeed at all because this goes against the whole point of why we love doing this stuff and obviously again all the creators that make these games so in other words i'm just going to go into chat gpt and go make splinter cell boom and then make it no i don't i don't want that that's it's not going to be good i can't even wrap my brain around this being an enjoyable experience and then you're going to charge me money to actually play that no you know so why they thought that was even a good idea to include that you know in in an article i don't know they'd have been better off with just the first part of it all that stuff sounds great these are all games i want to play i want to see to your point we know ai is going to be involved in creating these at some level regardless but to come straight out and tell me we're just going to use the ai to make a whole ass game not a fan don't want to see it i think it's just so unbelievably tone deaf this sounds like this sounds like messaging from somebody who woke up yeah i made it like they woke up from a coma for the last three years and didn't understand where people how people felt about generative ai and I don't disagree with you.

44:18I want to fight back against this as much as possible and even talking like this, I feel like I'm conceding ground to generative AI but to say that you are working on something that is like a fully generative AI experience, people are avoiding games that already have AI in them. If you're telling them this whole thing is going to be fully AI, you know that this is like the first experience that you can have gaming wise that is going to be a triple a studio let's see the triple a version of it rather than you know when you see on twitter somebody says you know i typed in adventure game and here's what google deep uh deep mind i believe is what they is what it's called here's what google came back with and it's like okay well you just stole all the art assets from expedition 33.

45:10Um, like that, that just looks like, like you typed in your prompt. I'm sure you typed in assassin's creed and that's why it looks like this or whatever. Um, I, I feel like this is just so insanely tone deaf and I've never, I've never felt my heart and spirit stronger than when you said, I hope this tanks. Cause I was like, fuck yeah. I hope this tanks as well. Like you, you guys are struggling as a company. to connect back with fans. And it feels like you... I know that there are so many hardworking developers there that are insanely talented. There are so many artists at Ubisoft. You know, when I think of a game that I didn't play a whole lot of, but I look at something like Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, I'm like, dude, this is one of the most beautiful visually experiences that I've ever had, visual experience I've ever had.

46:03Similar with Assassin's Creed Shadows. like what the tech being used i think that their tech team has been like on another level for the last several uh iterations of games and then to say hey by the way artists we're doing other shit um keep working on your other games we're doing something over here generative with generative ai it just seems like such a miss and such a like i mentioned earlier just such a tone deaf message to put out there for your developers who continue to get laid off because of things like this yeah it's like you said who greenlit that who thought that was a good idea to put out and to your point with ubisoft you're already struggling with with community fan support right the brand's not in a good place they're obviously struggling financially and then you're basically telling your workforce hey if this is a hit we're going to do even more of this and we'll need even less of you so don't get too comfortable in your job because you probably won't have it in a couple years and that's another really shitty thing about where the industry is right now where if you're a talented artist it doesn't matter you you will get laid off a million times and you will be forced to relocate until you eventually just say fuck this industry i don't want to work here anymore i don't like i have a family of four now and i'm constantly having to move from place to place because a bunch of studios have shut down work from home and things like that and you are essentially backs up against the wall being told hey you can leave us if you want where are you gonna go get a job you're employed here right now with us good luck go going you know good luck on the job hunt because it's dire everywhere and i feel like that's just another that's just another notch on the like man everything is just super shitty right now because so many of these talented developers would love to say oh you're trying to replace me with your next project well fuck you I'm gonna go somewhere else where people would want me and it's like there's a lot of there's not a whole lot of of hirings and openings right now and it's just uh it just makes you feel like shit thinking about the amount of talented veterans that have left the industry because of what's happening just just all of it just all not just ai but you know the the job markets with uh you know the financial markets with just everything being awful and then there are so many people that probably would have been ace developers if they decided to give game development a shot and they look at this landscape and go yeah nah yeah why would you come into this industry right now like the only I think the only hope you have are the people that are super financially stable right now and super privileged to where they can take that risk.

48:59But it's like, man, you shouldn't be having to take a risk to be a game developer. You should be you should take a risk to like, I'm going to try to become a pop star. Like, that's a risk. You know what I mean? Like, I'm going to I'm going to not go to college or I'm not going to not get an education because I want to, like, pursue this music career or whatever. That's a risk. going to college to be a video game developer should not be a risk and it's just like really unfortunate with where we're at yeah it really is story number three the expanse osiris reborn is recasting its protagonist after negative fan feedback this comes from cade onder at ign the developer confirmed that it heard vocal fan feedback regarding the performances of the game's male protagonist character and his twin brother prompting them to actually take action Alcat Games says, While the voice actor for the male protagonist, Ann Jay, put in a lot of good work, they felt less expressive than what we wanted.

49:52The developer said in a blog post, Because of this, we are changing the voices of the male protagonist, Ann Jay. It was noted in a press release that the team is already in the process of searching for a new voice actor, but it's unclear how intensive this process will be on the production of the game. The Expanse Osiris Reborn recently held a beta, which got mixed response from fans. However, it did provide Owlcat games with a lot of actionable feedback. Thankfully, the full game isn't due out until 2027, so there's plenty of time to address player concerns. Owlcat noted it is also addressing concerns with gameplay, tone, and other quality of life elements to improve the game.

50:31Fans are hoping that The Expanse Osiris Reborn will be another high-quality sci-fi RPG that can go toe-to-toe with Exodus next year. Greg says, Andy, this is your chance. Start the campaign here, right now, to be the voice actor.

50:48Greg Miller, I would love to be the voice actor. I'm just going to like, that'll be my audition, just a Michael Caine impression. Okay, but I like that direction, Andy. I like that direction. Less Michael Caine. Now imagine, no, stick with it. Go further down, put Michael Caine in space. Go. Why do we fall, Master Wayne? because we don't have gravity here. Paris, how do you feel about the fact that the expanse Osiris Reborn is making what I would say kind of an unprecedented move what feels like this deep into development and this vocal and public of a move? Yeah, I mean, I don't have a whole lot on this because, I mean, I do want to understand the entire context of it because I've not heard the voice actors, you know, performance or whatever.

51:38But looking at this on surface level, if the community is being that vocal to the point that, hey, we obviously want this game to succeed. So we don't want this to be a reason someone would not play or experience our game. Then they made the right move. I mean, I think it's as simple as that. Yeah, it's late in development. But if they got the resources and they're able to make that pivot and do it, then this is what you do. for again for the health and the survival of the game itself if that performance was that divisive to people that they got that much feedback on and it's not just twitter trolls you know that are like hey we we got to do something then they should yeah i totally agree i think it's awesome to i think it i think it sets an awesome precedent to say hey we again we are late in development but we're still willing to change something that has been maybe this vocally, um, you know, brought up whenever people are talking about what the feedback is for expansive Cyrus reborn with that demo that people experienced.

52:42I'm just kind of shocked that we've seen so much of this game and making a pivot this late seems kind of wild. Um, but it's still kind of awesome. I didn't get to play as the male protagonist. I chose the female protagonist. So I didn't get to experience what his voice acting sounded like, but I wasn't super stoked with the female protagonist either, like with her voice acting. But a lot of it could just be direction and writing and things of that nature. Barrett, go ahead. Yeah, really quick. The thing that rubs me the wrong way, honestly, is, yeah, like putting it on blast and of like this actor's performance.

53:22and I wonder if there was any attempt to go back with him and say, hey, this was the direction we gave you, this is what we built together, but let's try something else. I think that's, I don't know, it's kind of weird to me, it rubs me the wrong way. It also, it reminds me of... Bayonetta? Not Bayonetta, but weirdly, in a similar vein, but not quite one-to-one. when they changed the model for Peter Parker in Spider-Man. And their public thing was bone structure and all that stuff. But I don't know if that's actually true or not. It just felt like a weird, I don't know. It's just one of those, hmm.

54:06I thought the Spider-Man thing was that the model for the dude was not awesome. I think that's the rumor that I had heard, that he was like publicly troublesome or something like that but i don't even know maybe that was just like some rumor or whatever but for this i don't i don't disagree i do i would love to hear from the original voice actor and maybe yeah we try to recast or we tried to do some re-recordings and some pickups but things weren't working and my schedule was busy now or whatever maybe i have other stuff happening in my you know whatever job that they may be working on right now but yeah I don't necessarily disagree with that I I I think it'd be one thing if they said we are recasting because a lot of y 'all said it sucked and we agreed like I think if maybe like I think the messaging isn't too bad but it is still kind of odd because how much of their performance is based on what your direction was as a voice director, you know.

55:08I think of, shit, I think of a movie we'll be reviewing later on today, Mandalorian and Grogu, where I'm just like... One of the best Star Wars movies I hear. It's like, like, Pedro Pascal, we've heard you act really, really well, man. And I don't know why we settled on, you know, the Mandalorian. You have to run. Go. oh, Kal-El, no, that's not his line, but it may as well be that. And it's like, yeah, how much of this was the voice direction? We don't know. And maybe we'll never know. Story number four, Sony Interactive Entertainment trademarks break in ahead of the State of Play Showcase. This comes from Dave Aubrey at BGC News.

55:52The trademark appeared on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website with the filing date of May 20th, 2026. Again, trademarking break-in less than two weeks away from the new PlayStation State of Play showcase. Break-in has been trademarked under IC009 and IC041, the first being dedicated to video game software and the second dedicated to entertainment services, including video games. It's clear that whatever break-in is related to a video game. Fans believe it is possible rebrand of Haven Studios' Fair Games, which was announced in 2023 and hasn't been since. In February 2025, it was reported that Fair Games had been delayed to 2026.

56:36A previous report from Insider Gaming appears to corroborate this theory, as it reports Fair Games will feature an extraction mode with the phrase break-in appearing in the alleged mode description. So this would be the second rebranding for Fair Games because they dropped the dollar sign several months ago. If this is true, Paris, what say you about break in after we just talked a lot of shit about games to service, PvE, PvP extraction video games? I mean, you know, I alluded to this when we're having that conversation. This has to be fair games. I'd be shocked if it wasn't. I think it's DOA.

57:16I don't see how this succeeds enough to have a long tail to where they're going to have a healthy community where people are going to consistently be there and play it. And I'm not trying to say it as a negative Nancy or a hater. I'm just trying to realistically look at what fair games has been, because I'm pretty sure this is going to be fair games. have they pivoted enough to make this interesting enough to to garner a crowd to get a dedicated community to want to keep coming back playing this day after day week after week month after month i think there'll be a lot of curiosity to it at first but what does this look like in month six on month nine didn't even make it that long and i hate to say that but just kind of where we are so i don't know yeah you're not wrong i you know is this another is this another phone stars is this another just one of these attempts another uh no well roller champions was ubisoft i'm thinking of uh destruction all stars um for playstation just another one of these multiplayer games it's it's it's hard to talk about these without without feeling just so like passive about the news because you're we're so used to hearing we're so used to sitting up on in this chair on this desk every day and saying a new multiplayer thing came out and then three weeks later a new multiplayer thing is struggling and then four weeks later new multiplayer game has been shut down like it's it's so hard to not feel to not have this a defeatist attitude about this because we've just been there and done that so many damn times and this game has always felt that way granted this game felt that way two years ago like a year and a half ago exactly and things have just gotten like exponentially worse uh for the industry and when we're talking about people and their forever games and sticking with their forever games and you know as me and bless we're doing games daily and we talk about playstation plus going up and how you need a free subscription or you need PlayStation Plus in order to play games online, but not for games like Fortnite and not for games like Warzone and games that are just naturally free to play.

59:38And in this struggling economy where people are struggling to make money and everything's getting more expensive and for their kids that go, I want to play that multiplayer game, mom and dad, I need the subscription to pay monthly. And they say, no, you play Fortnite for free. Go play that. you know that's things are just going to get harder and harder for titles like this and it's it's so hard to not just sound like i'm repeating every point from the last several months and year or whatever story number five really important right here bubsy 40 review roundup did you play bear i did oh i didn't like that tone i don't think bubsy enjoyed that tone either uh what say you about Bubsy?

1:00:25Give me the recap. Then I'll pop in at the end. Metacritic, it's sitting at a 62 as of 9.18 a.m. IGN's Alessandro Filari gave it a 7, saying Bubsy 4D easily stands out as the best Bubsy game ever made. Of course, it's not a particularly high bar to clear for the series. Still, while it does exceed at boosting Bubsy as a lovable character and a lovable vehicle, it did leave me wanting for more developed platformer. Push Square, Steven, gave it a six, saying in some ways, Bubsy40 is the best of the series is the best the series has ever been. The Bobcat's wide range of abilities affords him a huge amount of freedom to move through levels with style.

1:01:05However, a fairly narrow focus on movement means other aspects suffer. Game Informer's Wesley LeBlanc gave it a four. Not a four out of five. Four out of ten. And said, there is apparently a storied and infamous history to the Bubsy series, but I know little of it. and after enduring Bubsy 4D. You never want that to be the verb that you were. You had to endure Bubsy 3D. A modern platforming take on the orange and obnoxious Bobcat. I have no desire to learn of it. Bubsy 4D features a passable platformer style built upon comboing from one move to the next. I rarely felt the tide control I wanted over the mascot character and it held back by repetitive and bland level design.

1:01:46Barrett, what are your thoughts? Because this is from the devs who came out with Demon Tides. yeah i was really surprised really well a lot of people enjoy demon ties as a platformer and i don't know if you played it but i know roger really loved it how do you feel about bubsy 4d yeah i was looking forward to bubsy especially when we played it for the um uh mix showcase that we did earlier this year and i got to play like a very quick demo of it uh but from that it fell from the jump of like, oh, they understand the feeling of 3D platformers and how fun it is to kind of use and abuse all of these mechanics that you're given to try to speedrun things and all of this stuff.

1:02:30And with Demon Tides, which I have not touched yet, but I do want to check it out because people have been singing its praises, I kind of like stayed away from that because I was like, I want to check out Bubsy first. and I know it's the same team and I didn't want to get out 3D platformer before getting into Bubsy here. And yeah, I was kind of really let down. It's a very quick game. There's only 15 levels and especially with how much they build the gameplay to be kind of speed running, it feels kind of light on the things that you can really focus on to speed run, right? I was hoping for maybe another 15 levels at least with this, because if you're just focusing on the speedrunning aspect and just blasting through these levels, this is like a 45-minute game.

1:03:21And then everything around that, if you're not going to play it that way, all of the 3D collect-a-thon quote-unquote stuff is not very interesting. I think it does a bad job of introducing new players to these characters in this world. I think the aesthetics are fun. It's very 90s Nickelodeon. It reminds me a lot of Rocko's modern life, the way the UI and the art style kind of adapts Bubsy into the 4D realm, whatever that means. But yeah, it's the controlling of the platforming feels solid enough, but that's not enough to carry the rest of this game, which I would say overall is mediocre. Like I would give this a five out of 10 on the kind of funny scale.

1:04:06Unfortunate return for Bubsy. you hate to see a lot but i want to check out demon tides now because i'm like damn this is the same dev and that is like one of the better reviewed games this year what what didn't translate to them working on a bubsy game you know so this is going to be a very inside joke but uh but if you know ball you know ball i expect to see bubsy on the street with uh gwimbley from smiling friends uh later on and they're just they're just chatting up about being failed uh 3d platformers I will say this is a weird, uh, proud thing, but for at least the review period for most of the time, I was number one on 14 of the 15 level, uh, leaderboards for shit.

1:04:50So, uh, yeah. And then conveniently, uh, the Bubsy 40 race got canceled conveniently. Oh yeah. That was kind of perfect timing. We were supposed to do that today. Um, but I had mentioned that I was watching the boys and Tim was like, great. We got to get you on the screencast because Les can't be here for it. And then also we'll cancel the Bubsy 4D race. But would I have preferred to do the Bubsy 4D race? No. Probably not. No. Absolutely not. Glad we're not there. I'm tired of all that big stuff, Paris. A lot of big news today. Massive stuff with Destiny. I'm tired of all the big news. If I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?

1:05:35Andy? You'd go to our last story, the We News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

1:05:49Welcome to We News, everybody. There's a new studio from former Mass Effect and Dragon Age developers Studio Reset, a new Canadian independent game studio founded by developers whose credits include Mass Effect, Dragon Age, The Long Dark, and Anthem. today announced its formation and offered a first glimpse at the creative direction behind its debut project, a neon noir supernatural mystery game set in the stylized Canadian cityscape. That sounds sick as shit. I'm down for whatever the hell a neon noir supernatural mystery game is. We got Zero Parades for Dead Spies is now available worldwide.

1:06:30gamatsu says the total sales for the early access version of subnautica 2 has surpassed 4 million copies sold just five days after release developer unknown worlds entertainment announced and if you want to know anything about subnautica 2 we had a kick-ass review on the games cast about it yesterday so go check that out 1 million copies were sold within the first hour while 2 million copies were sold within 12 hours. From GameSpot, World of Tanks developer Wargaming has announced a release date for the new spinoff World of Tanks, Geat.

1:07:07It's awesome. We'll see if Stoleback Mike investigates that. Fasten your seatbelts, racers, because today, Milestone is announcing a free demo for Screamer, which is Blessings Game of the Year. Screamer, its newest arcade racing game, available on PS5, Xbox Series X and S and PC via Steam and Xbox Game Store. The demo offers a glimpse of Screamer's unique blend of innovative racing mechanics and fighting action set within the rich narrative unfolding in a dystopian world inspired by anime aesthetics and futuristic vibes. From RPGsite.net, Mina the Hollower, which is Yacht Club Games' new game that's coming out next week, will be getting a Nintendo Switch 2 edition physical release later, as per reply from the official Twitter account.

1:07:56Fuck yeah, I want that. I've been buying a lot of physical stuff recently, Paris, for like Switch, just because I love the boxes. I just love like the tangible thing. I am very, very excited for that. Where Winds Meet Imperial Palace expansion sets May 28th as a release date. Acclaim announced that it's publishing Kidbash Super Legend, a nostalgic roguelite action platform developed by Indonesian Indie Studios, Authentic Remixes, and Fat Raccoon, and Hyper Yuki Snowboard Syndicate, the arcade snowboarding racer from Mexican Indie Studio, Wabi Sabi Games, and previews for, oh this is a look at Hyper Yuki Snowboard Syndicate.

1:08:38which I think Greg put this in our Slack and was like some of y 'all may fuck with this yeah this looks like a Tim Mike bless myself probably Roger too very retro looking snowboarding game kind of cool old school you miss SSX play this one that's pretty much it looks pretty cool previews for Assassin's Creed Black Flag resync are out and Barrett sharing his first hand impressions next on the kind of funny games cast oh no i forgot to prepare that's it for we news everybody let's get to some super chats and your wrongs remember you can write into kind of funny.com forward slash you're wrong to let us know we got wrong on the show much like nobody did because we're so fucking perfect no never mind people did I was looking at the wrong part.

1:09:31My bad. The whole Spider-Man model change was actually about how the model looked more like Yuri than Peter Parker. So they tried to make it to look like Peter from the movies, and that's why people were mixed on it. That's what I heard. That was the urban legend. They wanted to be more like Tom Holland. White kid with small lips. Got some small lips. Let's homogenize everything. Let's make everything same. so well apologies for me like spreading that rumor that may be false at the original model of the look of peter parker was like not awesome i can't believe you do that barnall says it's not a fact that's a rumor oh okay well shit well fuck me then jeppo you're never writing it ever again thank you for your support jeppo um let's get to some super chats here paris before we round out the show.

1:10:24Shloon with a$2 super chat says, Bungie says Destiny 2 is getting shut down in June. Damn, Shloon. I wish we got to it. I wish we got to it, bro. Thanks for your$2 super chat. Bulk Dasher $5 super chat says, man, gaming needs a reset. Wish we went back to single player games that had multiplayer add-on modes. Halo? Halo Combat Re... What is it called? Reborn? Campaign Evolved. campaign evolved I like mine better which does not have multiplayer exactly that's what I'm saying that's what I'm saying Brian Kinsella with a five dollar super chat says stay to play to be in Alamo theaters but none in Austin damn it none in Austin really I only think of Austin when I think of Alamo Japheth house oh no there's out here in LA too yeah damn but like none of the shows are in the Alamo Japheth house in Austin which is kind of nuts to me yeah I'm surprised by that honestly Yeah.

1:11:21Volk Dasher with another super chat says, break in better not be fair games retitled. Has Bungie officially become part of the PlayStation yet? Or are they still separate? Do we know? I think they are because remember whatever the financial call or whatever that was last week, they had that screenshot up and Bungie was under the PlayStation umbrella. Yeah, and I could have sworn they were like, Like, hey, we'll take this from here. We'll kind of like lead the future of this. Sasquatch Oni says, a couple of years away from devs getting executed by CEOs if they try to slip handmade assets into a game.

1:12:03Cyberpunk future is near with this shit. Yeah, it's not great. Things are pretty rough and scary. Charlie Nuggets with a$5 Super Chat says, good morning, Andy and Paris. With the Bungie announcement, do you think there will be a spike in player count for Warframe or other similar games? Yeah. they're you know what's funny and that's a pivot i know we're about to get out of here i i've tried so hard to get into warframe oh i didn't know i i i can't get into it i try i try and maybe i need to give it another shot but to the point maybe some people will go check it out now yeah possibly i mean we've seen i know that i've just you know how twitter will just push you in certain algorithms and i've seen some people go man maybe now's the time for warframe seeing how the last couple of Bungie or the last couple of Destiny 2 expansions haven't been super satisfying like post Final Shape but yeah I mean that'd be awesome Warf we want we really want to dedicate a week to Warframe Paris there have been like there have been a lot of conversations here kind of funny and it's mainly just Mike saying we need a Warframe week where we all play it together And look, maybe something's changed in the past couple years, but the onboarding needed work.

1:13:17I think that was my thing. I needed a nice, easy ramp to get me in and then, you know, on my way. And I just felt like there was too much grinding and stuff I had to do. I was like, I don't want to do this. I have a million other things I want to do. Have you downloaded Division Resurgence? I have. It's pretty good. So I, when they said, hey, we're releasing a PC version as well, right? This is a mobile app, mobile game, but we are releasing a PC client in the same way that I think Diablo Immortal did back in the day. I downloaded it, and it was immediately like, why am I playing this? I don't know, Paris.

1:13:54It just didn't work for me, and maybe I need to be in the frame of mind that this is still a mobile game. You've got to remember it's a mobile game. Yeah, that's the thing, because I had been playing it on mobile, so then when it went to PC, I'm like, okay. You playing just with touch controls, or are you using a little ding-a-ba-jig? No, I did it on touch goals to try it out for you. It was fine. Yeah, it actually wasn't that bad. All right. Everybody, that's going to do it for today's Kind of Funny Games Daily. Paris, if people wanted to watch you on the internet and experience and enjoy your content, where could they find you?

1:14:27You know, I'm going to start it off by saying it this way. You know, Tim and I had an amazing time in Tokyo. Wow. And we were actually talking about this. I don't know how to define myself and where you can find me. you would have loved it and Tim gave me the great advice he goes Paris you are your own brand so with that said I want you to go to my YouTube channel and that is youtube.com forward slash Paris with two r's ml just go there he changed it I changed it brand unification Paris yes because I would come up here and I would say go visit uh vicious 696 and I don't even know if I numbers right i would always fuck something up me too i never knew what to say but yes it is paris ml that's my youtube channel um i i i know i'm gonna have some some stuff on there real soon but um gamertag radio obviously when i can here on kind of funny that's that's where you can find me vicious 696 on the socials i love that everybody go to youtube.com forward slash at symbol Paris ML.

1:15:33That's going to do it for today's Kind of Funny Games Daily. Thank you so much for everybody's support. We know it's a tough financial climate out there, and we appreciate anything you all do with your super chats and your resubs and listening with your eyes and your ears. Because remember, if you don't support the things you love, they go away forever. Appreciate you all hanging out with us. Stay tuned after this for Gamescast, where Barrett will be talking all about his preview experience with Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-synced. Until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Handshake.

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Run of Show -
- Start - EA KILLED the Xbox Game Pass Family Plan?! - BREAKING: Destiny 2’s Final Content Update Coming June 9th - Ad - Ubisoft working on new Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, and ‘first playable’ gen-AI experience - The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Is Recasting its Protagonist After Negative Fan Feedback - Sony Interactive Entertainment trademarks ‘Break In’ ahead of State of Play showcase - Bubsy 4D Review Round-Up - SuperChats & You‘re Wrong

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