EA Completes Acquisition, Studios Brace For Layoff Bloodbath - Kinda Funny Games Daily 08.05.26

0:00Head to FactiveMeals.com slash KindaFunny50 off and use code KindaFunny50 off to get 50 % off. Pre-order your Porty plushie right now at KindaFunny.com slash Portillo. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to Patreon.com slash KindaFunny. Today's gaming news stories aren't good, y 'all. EA's been fully acquired, its studios braced for layoffs, and Beasts of Reincarnation fixes are coming. That one's pretty good. We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily.

0:34what's up and welcome to kind of funny games daily for wednesday august 5th 2026 of course i'm your host tim gettys i'm joined today by the one and only andy cortez good morning timothy gettys how are you see your smiling face i feel like me and you haven't hung out in a while in that great body i don't know why um i guess i've been sick i've been out there's been a lot of just I haven't hung out with anybody. Yeah, I mean, you went sick, and then your whole body went into panic. Yeah, I'm good now, though. As of today, I'm back. Okay. I'm feeling so good about that. Yesterday was my first glimpse at like, wait, I'm starting to feel better.

1:10This doesn't suck. And now today I'm like, oh, I'm just back. Okay, that's great to hear. And I say I haven't hung out with you. I hung out with you for 12 hours playing Halo on Friday. Yeah, what the hell? Which I believe that VOD is still processing in the back end on YouTube. It's a big one. It's a long VOD, but we're hoping to, you know, do one of those Saturday premiere things. I like that. Put it live at like, here's what I want to propose right now. Let's make some company decisions right now. I would propose we put it live 7 a.m. Pacific time. That way it starts for a lot of people in our country and then overseas.

1:47It's starting right at like, you know, put the kids to bed for 4 p.m. I like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice sweet 4 p.m. that time okay johnny go to sleep it's 3 p.m you know what i mean it's halo time it let me and the missus we're gonna sit down and we're gonna watch this squad play hey i love that and then maybe they fully watch it all the way through until you know 3 a.m or whatever yeah a little for runner foreplay i'm thinking about that i mean dude i like that a lot also i'm so proud of us for actually finishing the game in one video like i thought for sure we're gonna have to break it up in some way but we finished the whole game and the bonus missions yeah that is gonna be a fun watch on saturday really blown away i i do want everybody to uh you know there was that awesome clip out of you just really shitting the bed yeah yeah yeah really unfortunate i will say i will say all of you guys gave me a lot of shit for that i gave myself a lot of shit for it too but the reality of it is bless didn't know what was going on all right i don't think mike was really paying attention you were the only one actively giving me shit i was more giving halo shit because like i i stand by haven't said this because i didn't want to get into it all the content i don't think i did anything wrong you said get out i got out and it did that halo bounce thingy i didn't expect to get out of the banshee and have it throw me fucking back 10 feet are you sure my bad but i hadn't been in a banshee in 10 fucking years andy it's like riding a banshee the warthog i know exactly how i'm getting out the ghost i know exactly that banshee just fucking tossed are Are you sure it wasn't a panic press jump when you landed?

3:24I guess we'll go back and check the input. Here's the point that I will stand by because at the end of the day, I'm not saying that I didn't do it too soon or whatever. What I am saying is I thought I did it at the right time. I thought that I was doing things correctly. So when I saw that fucking banshee hit the thing and me bounce out, I was like, oh, no. The momentum. But as it was happening, I'm like, oh, I know exactly what's happening. It was a great moment. It led to a really great piece of content. but yeah that playthrough was awesome i'm super proud of us that we did get through it and i you know there's still a lot of scuttlebutt about the sprint ruins it i completely disagree man i had a freaking blast i don't i feel like we're on crazy planet andy everybody that's talking not everyone because i'm sure there's a lot of people that agree with us yeah why but so many people are so mad that i enjoyed this game yeah and i just i had an amazing time i understand the remakes are a contentious thing for people because everyone holds something different sacred but i just i don't for how much i love campaign or uh not campaign combat evolved and then playing this i'm just like what it was a freaking great time and i do need people to just i would love kdg if you could watch through all 13 or 12 hours or 10 hours or whatever the video is watch through all of it um and then keep a kill death count for everybody nah please that's nah i don't even need it i'm sure i'm sure i was crazy like i was i was fucking crazy out there for real for real uh two dollars who would have from hand height says andy how did halo run on pc view phenomenally now during the multiplayer experience lots of drops here and there on playing solo no problems but that's always that thing whenever you introduce the multiplayer aspect other whatever the hell's going on in that back end that's what we were we were getting some pretty bad frame i mean my screen at a certain point was just a disaster but it never got in the way of my gameplay i'm also not good so it's like i don't really care i never i you know when it comes to to frame generation with nvidia dlss not sponsored there's always the discussion those are fake frames i don't really care about that it's that whenever i turn on frame generation which helps out people you know if maybe your game's running at lower frame rates because you're running all the crazy high settings or whatever i experience enough input delay that maybe the the layman may not notice but i notice it so i'm like i'd rather just not have that on i turned it on for this and it was awesome because during those framey segments where i was dropping to 40 something frames per second i turned that shit on i was back up to like 80 and 90 40 it was awesome like it really really helped in that case but that was but for my single player experience i didn't have to do any of that it was just like a smooth experience the whole way playing on the ps5 pro in certain moments we were not hitting 40 like it was it felt like it was a weird experience actually where most of it felt like maybe 40 but then a lot of the enemies were moving in like five oh gotcha It was doing the distant when you see like a goddamn Machamp off in the distance in Pokemon games.

6:37Exactly. And you're like, oh, you were at five frames per second. Kirby and the Forgotten Land where a lot of the enemies in like the far, far, far, they're just like at a weird ass frame rate. It was rough, man. But such a blast. Remember, if you're watching live, be part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. We couldn't do this without our producers over on Patreon. So shout out to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, Dilliany the Psalm Twining. and of course, Lax Nomad. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have five stories today.

7:12Baker's doesn't. Story number one, A, because it also will be a one B to this. A lot of thoughts. One A. A lot of conversations about this new story here. Electronic Arts completes $55 billion acquisition. acquisition ceo announces senior leadership changes this comes from sophie mcavoy at games industry.biz i'm gonna i'm gonna just go ahead and start off this you know this little dissertation right here by saying i'm gonna do um i'm gonna do the my snowback my compression the last time i was hosting and he was in the co-hosting chair and we were talking about some sensitive business stuff some stuff that's not great and it was when i accused him of like you gave me nothing yeah i'm gonna do that for you right now give me nothing okay i'm just gonna be on camera going yeah uh-huh i mean i don't blame him before we even get into this like it's not awesome socks yeah it's not awesome like i do not blame mike there is nothing to add there is nothing to say we're here covering this because we cover game news it's a really good impression of when he's doing that though it's a very specific thing he's trying to be part of the show he's contributing his own way i love you so much electronic arts has completed its 55 billion dollar leveraged buyout with saudi arabia's public investment fund now the majority owner as ea becomes a private company stockholders will receive 210 dollars per share in cash and the developer will be delisted from nasdaq ceo andrew wilson has appointed cam weber as chief studios officer and david tinson as coo both were also named company presidents somebody i see dougman in the youtube chat says and the occasional oh really

9:12that got me good leading the next phase requires bold creativity and exceptional execution wilson wrote in a memo to employees we have a deeply experienced leadership team across the company and as our opportunities continue to expand i'm excited to partner with cam and david They have helped EA lead EA through some of our most transformative moments. Together, they bring experience, humility, and deep commitment to our teams and players. They know what makes EA special, and together, we'll continue building the world's greatest games, communities, and creative culture. Wilson concluded, as we begin this next chapter, I'm more optimistic than ever about what we'll create together.

9:47The opportunities ahead are extraordinary, and they'll be brought to life by our creativity, our ambition, and our belief in what's possible. The acquisition was announced on September 29th and led by a consortium of investors, including Saudi Arabia's PIF, Silver Lake and Affinity Partners. As long-term investors in technology, we admire how EA's innovation fuels imagination and human connection, said Silver Lake CEO and managing partner Egon Durbin. We're proud to join with PIF and Affinity Partners to invest heavily in EA's growth, including what AI can do to enhance game development and player experience, and excited to partner with Andrew and the EA team as they raise the bar for fans everywhere.

10:24Affinity Partners CEO Jared Kushner added, We're excited to support the company as it continues to reach new audiences, inspire the next generation of creators, and expand the ways people around the world connect through play. man i wish that guy was cool because we'd call him the kush i know and like i just like we just can't have fun with names anymore everyone's we just have to assume they're an asshole it's just something we know they are it's a criminal family and like you know i want to you know when you read those messages of we are so excited about what they could build for the it's just like dude you don't care about games we have optimism about the creativity is what they're talking you don't give a damn about any of the things that you were putting out creative culture community greatest games and again a week ago after laying off battlefield six devs ea boss andrew wilson's bonus rose eight million dollars to 38 million last year because it was 30 the prior year just 30 38 just 30 million dollars bonus eight million just for the bonus and that's i think that's a i did some rough estimate bullshit math but it was that's like two years salary for about 30 something employees or something like that or it's whatever like it's just such a big amount of money for somebody who is really really stoked to the next story gets even worse like this yeah this is this this is the pr speaker yeah this is their side of it i'm like hey y 'all this is gonna be good like like the way that you could boil this down and just say ea's going private and if you just gave me that sentence i'd go great that's you know you're not under the pressure from shareholders that's fantastic and then when when you add all the details that's where it just kind of gets worse and worse and worse and yeah um did you know the pif the the saudi public investment fund is uh is 900 billion dollars something i learned today wow yeah that's a lot of money oh really i saw mike chat he was like i'm good at my job what can i say he's my goat oh man you know it really does before we even get into the second story or second part of this here it's like it sucks to be here august 5th 2026 to see what's happened to the games industry over the last couple years and like how on this show the amount of layoffs the amount of studio closures the amount of just bullshittery games canceled all of it that we've had to cover and then outside of games even just like across tech across media uh across so many things that we love to see how so much of what was just talked about here with like glowing praise has negatively affected our worlds and things that we care about it's impossible to look at this with any level of hope and it really does feel like ea when i say that those two letters a lot might come into your mind but one thing that i think the majority of people listening to the show will at some point think about within 60 seconds of thinking about the letters ea are the worst company on the world voted how many years in a row, whatever.

13:50I don't know when the last time that was, but that is just one of those things that was true for so long that it just sticks with you. It was about a decade ago now or something like that. I don't know. We just don't know what they were the last couple of years. If someone could look into that, I would be interested. Who was voting, by the way? I don't even know. We don't even fucking know. But that is something that we just have in our heads, right? And so it's like, all right, cool. This just sounds worse. It's just like, oh, my God. Like a company that we already talked about as being one of the worst things possible.

14:19It's like now is only going to get worse. And I feel like there's no argument to be made that that's not the case. And like, let's take that hyperbole out of it. Right. From back in the day to the last decade of electronic arts. We look at the games that they've made, the products that they've made, and they don't instill me with confidence that they believe even just EA in creative culture, world's greatest games. communities and all that and that's not to say they haven't put out good games they definitely have right like we look at um hazelite and like they're they're partnering yeah and like the game of the years uh coming out of that we look at the the star wars games and and a lot that um response been working on like we got some bangers out of that stuff but then we also just get a lot of floundering a lot of horribly placed goals when it comes to battlefields like oh we're gonna have, what was it, 100 million players or some shit like that?

15:16What world are you living in? You're living in a world that gets the$38 million bonuses. Have you heard of a video game? You're not actually creating something for these communities. You're not creating something with creative culture. You're moving numbers around to make certain numbers go up so you can let everyone go. We're not seeing any type of productive future to this. When you're talking about a publisher that has access to undeniably some of the strongest IPs in video games like you think about Mass Effect man how much have they fumbled Mass Effect Eddie what of your favorite franchises in the last decade yeah I mean you know a lot of it comes down to chasing industry trends right it reminds me so much of Sony's live service push where one of my other favorite franchises Dragon Age you know with Veil Guard being a game that took about eight years or so, or, you know, that's just me kind of putting an estimate out there, but it was close to a damn, it was close, damn, we were close to a decade of, we are working on the next Dragon Age, and it's going to be live service multiplayer, and then actually we saw the success that Star Wars has had and Respawn has had with Star Wars.

16:31We're going to pivot back to single player, but we need this shit out kind of fast because you guys have been working on it for such a long time. well damn we have all the bones of a multiplayer game how that's kind of impossible that's an impossible ask for us to okay shit we'll try to bring this all together and you know i think dragon age veal guard is such an easy target for a lot of people it's a game that i still really really enjoyed and had an awesome time with but there's no there's no doubt that business requests have hurt a lot of these studios and their portfolios and mass effect andromeda being a game that largely missed and it's a game that definitely needed more time in the oven to cook and that andromeda comes out and it's a joke to everybody because look how bad all the anime look how silly everything is it's one of those it's one of like the first internet gaming like let's shit on this gaming meme thing that i can kind of remember because i wasn't really i think of how social media was when something like skyrim came out and it just wasn't the same right it really for me it was andromeda that i saw social media talking about look how broken this is look what a mess this game is right yeah i do think that that's a good shout in terms of it being like a mainstream thing to like really call out these big games and that was at that same time of no man's sky coming out and it was like when we were getting an anthem even like We're getting these disastrous launches.

17:56And so there was, I think, a more willing, critical eye at game launches to look at things and be like, this is unacceptable. What the fuck is this? And to kind of shove it in everyone's face. And we haven't been able to move on for that because games continue to launch like shit. Yeah, absolutely. And now this doesn't give me any hope for the future of Mass Effect. I know that that game has been in the oven for four-ish years or something like that. and it certainly doesn't instill confidence. And that really, really stinks for one of my favorite gaming franchises of all time. Camel to God says, hey, watch your mouth about Battlefield.

18:34They turned it out and did their thing. We appreciate about them fixing the franchise. I'm not talking shit about the quality of Battlefield. By all accounts, people seem to enjoy that game. It's why Andrew Wilson got a bonus. It seems to check everything about world's greatest games, communities, creative culture, like those things. Yes, it did that. but it didn't hit the 100 million players or whatever it was they said like it didn't do the stupid ass pr bullshit stockholder stuff that they needed it to like and so that's why it's like and also what did it take to do that like what did how how many other teams had to die or what other what did it cost what did it fucking cost to make battlefields you know um so yeah it's just it's just rough like we've spent years now talking about ubisoft and it's impossible to talk about them in any form of positive light it just seems like they're spiraling a toilet it seems like we're constantly like it they're a fucking joke they're a fucking joke and it's like they might put out games that are good but there's not any sense of belief in them there's no sense of like oh man there's excitement around this like there's uh if a ubisoft uh forward showcase whatever were to happen like and we're live reacting to it i bet that the majority of people if not all of us i kind of funny would be like yeah we'll do it yeah we're gonna react to this i expect nothing from it and even if they do announce something we're excited about what's the chances of it getting canceled yeah you know track record not great it just seems so fucking empty and then ea is the same way and it's like there was a time when during the e3s where ubisoft and ea press conferences sure they weren't as exciting as playstation nintendo or xbox but every once in a while there'd be some major wins there'd be some major moments of excitement and surprises and it's like i just don't feel like that's even possible from them right now it just seems so on rails and as we've seen with so many other teams it's just like all right cut all of the fat but the fat is the things that we love the fat is the things that we care about and when it all just turns down to it's it's battlefield it's like homies battlefield lost a long time ago yeah you know like it's just it's that's not the thing to put all the eggs in the basket of and I don't want to get off topic about all this I'm just saying it's like we're already talking We're talking about An already Struggling situation Where it's like reading the words That I just did It's like I don't believe this I don't believe that you believe this You're just saying this Leading this next phase requires bold creativity And exceptional execution I just want to fucking jump off a house like it just it just all stinks but you know again when a company goes private then we know that that company is no longer going to be under the pressure from shareholders to put out stuff faster and to maybe you know uh to quickly just shit something out or you know follow this trend or whatever we know that this company is now you know independent in a way so let's get the story too man this gets me excited there we go story 1a everyone electronic arts completes or 1b oh sorry yeah you're right you're right you're right i'm all worked up 1b ea studios brace for layoff bloodbath as new owner debt demands 700 million cut 700 million dollars cost cuts this comes from robert ramsey at push square book he's about to gut itself in a bid to help settle its self-inflicted and eye-watering 18 billion dollar debt the company took said debt on when it was bought up by a consortium consisting of the saudi arabian public investment fund silver lake and affinity partners the buyout was officially completed yesterday as for the ever informative jason schreier the now privatized publisher will pay back most of the debt through its annual earnings but it also promised investors that it'll be cutting 700 million worth of cost 170 million of that will come from organizational efficiencies uh which basically means widespread audio listeners he did he did the air quotes audio listeners on organizational efficiencies and that basically means a bloodbath in terms of layoffs and potential studio closures.

22:37From Jason Schreier on Blue Sky, E's annual EBITDA, what's that? EBITDA. EBITDA. EBITDA. Can you Google that? I'm Googling it. Thank you. Is around$1.5 billion, which should be enough to service the interest payments. But the publisher has told debt investors that it will cut... Earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation. There we go. There we go. Jason is way smarter than me. It was spelled like a proper noun. Exactly. You know what I mean? It wasn't like acronymed out there. So, okay, let me redo that. EA's annual EBITDA is around$1.5 billion, which should be enough to service the interest payments.

23:16But the publishers told debt investors it'll cut$700 million in annual costs, including$170 million in organizational efficiencies per Bloomberg, in other words, mass layoffs. So, Jason's spelling it out for us there. $700 million cost cuts. And here, Andrew Wilson's getting$38 million bonuses. Well, right, right before the deal goes to perfect time. Perfect time. I love that. Let's just get those bonuses. And then, oh, fuck, where are we going to get this money from? Love that. Let's fucking lay everyone off. $18 billion debt is kind of nuts as well. Yeah. Like, I don't even know what the foundations of that are.

23:50And so much of this, like, I'm sure it's all in the up and up, Tim. I'm sure all this. All of those sound great. You know what I mean? There's like, there's the word debt, you know. Couldn't be that bad, right? 18 billion, you know. Fuck, man. Yeah, it's a sad situation. And not only are we going to, as a company here at EA, we're striving to be our creative best selves. And we are going to push the medium forward, whatever, whatever. $700 million cuts, annual or whatever. and that goes with not only cutting so much of your workforce but in order to try to continue to make up and eat into that debt and destroy the debt you're going to most likely continue to try to trend chase which is going to lead to bad decisions and more layoffs and then it'll lead to another trend chase which will lead to bad decisions and more layoffs like it's like these people do not understand how the industry works i don't know and like i just i've definitely seen the future another type of we want to make that type of game because that's what's hot right now and it's just never going to go well for these people i just i just don't see ea as the type of company that would like look at a trend like micro transactions and allow them to ruin their video games i'm gonna jump off two houses now but i mean dude real talk we're talking about the same fucking company that like has had some of the most major controversies of the mid-2010s right when we look at like star wars battlefield 2 battlefront 2 battlefront 2 and that's when and again those controversies in a much healthier industry i know and that's and that's the big double triple quadruple whammy of it all i was like you are you you are definitely going to compound all of these issues in the worst time possible they were some of the lead examples of some of the worst issues in video games we're in such a different spot now like you're saying but like 10 years ago that are antithetical to the world's greatest games communities and creative culture like that all of that none of that shit was making these things any better and then you continue through and it's like they were screaming nfts from the rafters right man and it's like the amount of just things that they've done where it's like like they have a pattern that makes us look and go okay we're listening to you we believe you you're gonna fuck this up yeah like there's nothing about this that makes me go oh okay they got their they got this under control snow mike in the youtube chat says it was a microtransaction mishap they fixed it microtransaction mishap definitely definitely um yeah i that again i'm going to keep on going back to this just inspires no confidence why would you like to just bring this all back you are going to destroy your workforce in this country period point blank period point blank you're going to destroy your workforce in this country when a company is going to as a private company go yeah shut all that workforce they're making how much there no absolutely not they're working where in what place that how long how much does it cost to live in that city no outsource outsource outsource you're going to kill the industry in this country and no person in this country is going to look at a job offer from ea whether it's respawn whether it's wherever and say that's a place i want to work my family of five my family of four that's a place i want to move across the country for and uproot everything because i just got laid off from wherever other place you are destroying the industry with moves like this oh yeah and it's just it's we are watching it die right in front of us and all of that it's like oh yeah i have i have nothing but faith now in mass effect five nothing but faith in the 10 star wars projects that we're never actually going to see you know any variation of republic the newest one yeah the newest republic the remake republic the new republic banana republic yeah specifically the banana um let's look at some super chats here we got ejrpg saying with ea being private how long does their child developer bioware survive for do we ever see mass effect 5 is it even recognizable I think Mass Effect is too far in development and too big of a name.

28:37If what Bioware was working on right now, and this is all just speculation and opinion. This is not coming from any sourcing or anything like that. I think if Bioware was working on unnamed IP, brand new IP, and they were in it for five years, that shit gets axed. Legitimately, that's how I feel. But they are five years whatever into making mass effect 5 that's too big of a name to fumble that's too big of a name to cancel we keep that shit going um but i also feel like it is likely too far in to make any massive changes to it i don't know if it would have a mass effect on it yeah i don't think there would be a mass effect to the game's ecosystem to like try to add this crazy store or whatever i i I feel like that game is too far along to really mess with.

29:31And if you go in and say, hey, we want to add this, we want to add this to try to monetize this and that. It's like, all right, well, that's going to add eight to 12 months of development time. Are you willing to pay for that? That brings in a lot of headaches. I think the biggest question is, will the gays be okay in Mass Effect 5? I mean, it's the biggest question. There will be no gays in Mass Effect. Will the gays be present? No. Will there be closeted gays that maybe hint to you at a bar? Yeah, I mean, fuck, dude. All that stuff just gets so dark so fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, because Veil Guard was the first game to introduce any LGBTQ.

30:15None of the other Dragon Ages or Mass Effects ever had a gay person. I don't know if you knew that, Tim. It was really Veil Guard. That was the first one. Yep. Really Veil Guard. If you have the memory of - The trans character in Dragon Age Inquisition, Don't worry about them. Oh, okay. Don't worry about all the gay romances in part one, two, and three of all the other games. Don't worry about that shit. That never happened. That was just, if you played it that way, then you're gay. Gotcha. But like, it was Veil Guard that like was too woke. And that's the one that ruined it all. Snowmog Mike says they will identify the flagship titles and focus only on them.

30:45And obviously he's joking about Xbox there. But I mean, yeah, that is probably what's going to happen here. But what's that even look like? and we you know have had many similar conversations on the xbox side about what does that look like okay cool it's fallout it is elder scrolls it's halo like it's gears like let's see what that all shakes out to be on the ea side it's it's battlefield it's madden it's the sims and then yeah it's mass effect we are gonna see a huge double downing on the sims man like i feel like what i'm saying right now doesn't even belong in this episode it's just like a side thought if i was listening to this but like i feel like this is going to be there's going to be a gigantic push for the sims to do some sort of like live servicey you know always And they're already there with Sims 4.

31:44Yeah, yeah. But Sims 4 sells a lot of expansions and things like that. Will the games be okay in The Sims? Shit. That's the biggest question. It's been over a decade since Sims 4 launched. Been a long time. Yeah. So it's like Mike and I were talking about Sims a couple days ago. I don't remember why. Why do they think you cough? I started this episode saying I'm all back. I'm not fully back. You know what I mean? Oh, gotcha. Mostly back. um but yeah everybody's hurt this time everybody's injured there's no it's a whole thing so yeah i don't know but yeah no i think sims makes a lot of money for them and yeah in the sims is the most obvious fucking milk the shit out of this with everything we have you know it's the kylo ren more piss off the audience when you make the sims 5 and none of your shit transfers over and they're like wait what and then transfers over it's piecemeal you need to buy every single fucking thing and then everybody in every sports game is like hey hey you knew here what first time i mean honestly just look at skate let's look at skate as like a small microcosm version of this i'm just like hey let's let's attack the niche you know what i mean let's like you do this experiment with this niche product that people really fucking care about and let's monetize the ever-living fuck out of it to suck the fun out of it all right and it won't stop some people from having fun but there's something wrong with those people's heads and you know what i'm talking about greg miller here i can talk as much shit as i want to about it that made it on our top 10 it did make it on our top 10 and it was tied with with some other game and i i recently was watching re-watching some of our game of the year stuff because we're working on top 100 shit and i saw that pop up and it was like skate tied with this other game i'm like that is such a disservice it's so sad fucking greg well mike voted for two but i believe greg but now apply that to mike doesn't deserve It was tied with Elden Ring Night Rain.

33:35It was tied with Night Rain. And it was above And Roger. Fucking Roger. $38 million bonus. Andrew Wilson. Hell yeah. Yeah. This guy says Sims is super LGBTQ friendly pronoun options. Top surgery scars binders etc. Everything trans. Everything computer. Everything computer. we'll see um what other super chats do we have relating to this disaster patrick says time to keep that support for independent gaming coverage going rough day for so many devs and players alike today thank you so much for the support we do really appreciate it dj kendall says ea wants to win me over need for speed underground reboot where they actually take their time and give it the polish it deserves i do i mean at this point like obviously i'm with you dj clutch obviously what about clutch oh yeah that's the one but it's like it just sucks because that was the answer i think that there was a time when ea could have strengthened itself instead of following these dumb trends and really leaned into this capcom level looking back while looking forward with its franchises like ea was dominant in the early 2000s they were putting out multiple games a year like they were like the kings of annualized games and that was a good thing i was looking forward to multiple franchises for them they were putting out lord of the rings games i was excited for like i just had faith in these motherfuckers they were putting out good stuff you know and yeah it's crazy to think that i understand licensing i understand that that is difficult but nba street volume two need for speed underground then things hit different there's a different level of conversation i'm not saying those are going to turn ea around but i do think that those in addition to anthem being a success and new ip actually working like god ea could have been in such a stronger place right now that it wouldn't need to be like in this situation with saudi fucking arabia yeah yeah and i i cannot stress enough how much the saudi arabia partnership stuff has ruined WWE and WWE already had so many issues and right always was a this and that whatever the fuck where it's at right now Andy is underneath a trash can like it's not even the bottom of the trash can it is it's so offensively bad it is so fucking garbage it's microtransactions the program like it is I I can't think of another fall from grace this big after like how high we were on it a couple years ago to where it's at now it's like and it's so much of it is directly because of this shit and you see it happening and so i'm like all right cool well that's that is an example of a group that would do anything for money there's another group that would do that and that's ea yeah it's all my great marriage no fucking faith in yeah um excision midnight says ea's over a barrel every sports league's gonna ask for more of the cut because they know EA needs the money and they can't lose the big names.

36:47Dude. That's super true. Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think those rights fees, I mean, those rights fees are not similar to what the rights fees of like television are or whatever. Like, I think that will be another expense, but I don't necessarily think that that's like the sports leagues look at what EA does and says like yeah you we're gonna charge you this and that you all are obviously making a lot of money with that project with that projects and with all the multiple different IPs you have but I don't know if it's something that's going to like double in price or anything like that yeah but rights fees are kind of all over the place right now with media and television and sports you know yeah I mean dude I I'm so stupid earlier I was naming and all the big EA stuff.

37:40FIFA is like the number one, right? It's the endless cash machine, or whatever the fuck they call it nowadays. EA FC? FC? Yeah, Football Club. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes. Alan Martinez with a$5 super chat says, birthday tax. I accidentally sent it yesterday too. Hello, thank you guys for everything, and see you in October for Top 100. Go to Beep's Burger, everyone. Hell yeah, dude. Happy birthday and go to Beep's Burgers. That's true. Go to Beep's Burgers. Even though Beep's is something I just overdid in my life. It's been years, so I am willing to give it another shot, but I just had it too much when we were at Kind of Funny at the old studio.

38:15You overdid it to the point where you're like, no more? Yeah. Oh, tell me about this Marifuku ramen. Dude, ceremony. It's the real fucking Marifuku. Damn. I lost my shit last night. It came up on Instagram, and it was like 11 p.m., and I yelled. What else got built there recently? A ton of stuff's coming. We got a fucking cheesecake factory on the way. That's the one. We're talking about a mall that's very, very close to our studio. yeah um and the san francisco malls have always been shits like there's never really been like oh my god these are fucking peak malls but like there's three specific malls in our area that have always kind of went back and forth competing on like which one was the best at any given moment um and then the downtown sf mall which is now that's the disaster everyone hears about on the news that shit's gone don't even worry about that shit but we have stone's town ceremony tan fran tan fran now on its way fucking out there's like i think there's like 200 storefronts at tan fran that's the one with the best buy right no yeah none of them have the best buy interesting but tan fran has like 200 storefronts and i think that only 17 of them right now have an actual store in them jesus and the stores are like it's like going to a mall in grand theft auto like these aren't real places there's places called t-shirts and you're like money laundering has survived much longer than i ever expected and well the thing is it's literally on its way out it It got bought by Science Tech.

39:36And so they're turning it into like. Data center? Not a data center. They're turning it into. Oh, you mean like the science and tech field? Yes. Not like a company called Science. No, no, no. In the field. Gotcha. I forget. Genentech, I think, is the name of the actual company. Damn, that sounds evil. Spider-Man tries to take them down in part two. And you see those big buses all around SF that pick up a bunch of nerds and then they go down south? Oh, okay. Yeah, that's that company. Yeah, but they're turning Tanfran into housing for those people. Oh, shit. Yeah, it's interesting that they get to own and control.

40:10Yeah. Love corporate control over commodity housing. The good news for us. Everything's great. So Stone Sound and Ceremony, they're in a fucking war right now. Wow. Of stepping up. Because there's this foodie thing in San Francisco has been popping off of just a lot of places from all over Asia are coming through and finding major success. So if you like look around Stonestown, it's a different place now. And ceremony is about to pop the fuck off. They're getting to Fogo to Chow. No. Oh, yeah. Dude, I haven't been to Fogo to Chow since like I went on a date with a girlfriend in Austin. Marigami Udon, Marifuku Ramen.

40:49Bro, we're about to be eating good. And Cheesecake Factory. I'll tell you what. The thing I'm most excited for is that those are going to be a lot quicker door dashes because when we were you know you order cheesecake factory it's like a 52 minute no one should ever be well during the order be ordering cheesecake factory during street i don't even care during the fact that the like mike and roger started a very important thing a foundational thing about these marathon that's giving it a lot of weight and you have to follow it you know I order from Red Lobster. The rule is spend as much money as you make.

41:28Exactly. And, you know, gain as much weight as you lose. More even on the treadmill. $18 billion debt of weight. Everybody, we're going to continue on with this show. We're so late in the show already. What are we even doing? Here's some ads. Oh, my God. 1042. This episode's brought to you by Factor. The last couple months have been wild here at Kind of Funny with travel and events, and when your routine takes a hit, it can be easy to get off track. Thankfully, with Factors chef-crafted, dietitian-designed, ready-to-eat meals, getting back to eating right is easy without having to choose between real food and convenience.

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42:45That's code KindaFunny50off at Factormeals.com. KindaFunny50off at Factormeals.com. See the website for more details. Long live the king. Long live Portillo the wiener dog. We partnered with the good people over at Make Ship for this adorable king porty to honor my late great pup, but we can't do it without your pre-order. Adored in his signature blue bow tie and coffee sleeve crown, now you too can have your own personal porty to sit with you through long gaming sessions, keep you company at your desk, or cuddle with on those cold, cold nights. I miss my little guy every single day, and I can't wait to share this with my son, Ben, and you, the Kinda Funny best friends.

43:26But King Porty only gets made if 200 of you pre-order. That's how makeshift campaigns work. So please, please pre-order now at kindoffunny.com slash porty to get your own special little guy. That's kindoffunny.com slash porty, P-O-R-T-Y. I need 200 of you to believe. kindoffunny.com slash porty I just want on the record like I personally don't even like Cheesecake Factory and I don't think I don't know I know Nick gets pretty excited about it really yeah I don't know that there's anyone here that's like I fucking love the food at Cheesecake Factory I can't I'll be honest with you I don't know the last time I ate Cheesecake Factory I do know the last time you did when?

44:07Pax Pax Prime we got those Buffalo Blasts oh shit 2016 or was it one of my birthdays during COVID and y 'all delivered cheesecake. Maybe. Maybe it was that. It may have been that. So I don't really know what they offer except the Buffalo Blast because we got blasted. The thing that I don't – I don't know what you're laughing about. Yeah. For me, I'm more excited about the get-together. See, that's my thing. I'm like, kind of funny, lax, a restaurant like that around us so that when guests come, it's like, let's just go somewhere that can easily sit 12 people right now. Yeah. That, like, we can all get food.

44:52I don't know about right now. Within an hour. Yeah. But, you know, when I think of Cheesecake Factory, I think of, like, when you're here, you're family. And you're here as well. I know. And you're here as well. And that gets me excited to just, like, let's all go as a company one day. Yep. We'll have Kevin do games daily by himself. And we'll eat at Cheesecake Factory, you know? You're on with it, Andy. I love it. Story number two, we take your feedback to heart. Game Freak is planning regular Beast of Reincarnation updates starting next week. This comes from Chris Scullion at VGC. Game Freak says it's listening to player feedback on Beast of Reincarnation.

45:27It's planning a number of updates. The game was released on Monday with critical reception being generally positive, if not overwhelmingly so. Its Metacritic score currently sits at a 73. three. Players are also divided on the initial opinion of the game. User reviews on Steam are currently sitting at mixed with 53 % of the 1 ,600 plus reviews submitted so far considered positive. Game Freak has now posted a message via its official account on X informing players that it's listening to the criticisms and taking them on board as they work on continuous updates. Thank you for playing Beast of Reincarnation.

46:00We take your feedback to heart and are currently planning a series of continuous updates. Please continue to share your feedback and suggestions with us. The first patch, which is planned to release within a week, will implement the following changes. Camera adjustments, increased text size, story pacing improvements with ongoing adjustments planned, changing the default setting from cinematic to performance, and other bug fixes. I like the sound of that. Do you? Yes. Why? But what will the frame rate look like? I'm not sure. Is it going to be 60, perhaps? Why do you ask? That's the game, dude.

46:46I'm sure that was a killer bit. You know what I mean? What is frame rate? What do you mean frame rate? I learned recently that this was not even a big portion of the Game Freak team. that it was one of the directors who has worked on like what they call battle planning that was according to Bulbapedia by the way Bulbapedia said that he did battle planning on like Ultra Sun and Moon back in the day and then more recently Jack of all trades is this son of a gun because he also worked on sound kind of like design sound management is what they called it or something like that for Scarlet and Violet and for Pokemon Legends Arceus and was the director on this game.