Forza Horizon 6 Release Date Leaked?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 01.14.26

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2:06Nick Scarpino:Today's stories include Forza Horizon 6's release date might have already leaked. What does share prices dropping mean for Nintendo in the first breakout video game hit of the year? We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

2:27Nick Scarpino:What's up and welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Wednesday, January 14th, 2026. Of course, I'm Tim Geddes and I'm joined today by Blessing Adeoye Jr. Very good day, Tim. Very good day to you. I feel like you might have had a good night last night. I did have a good night last night. Why is that? I started Final Fantasy X for the very first time. Really cool game so far. I'm like an hour and a half in. Of course, I know this is one that is near and dear to your heart. This is one that Snow White Mike played last year and fell absolutely in love with. And it's one that I've heard people talk about throughout the years, but I think I didn't realize how big the hype is for Final Fantasy X until very recently.

3:06I think it was Snow White Mike playing it that put me on to how much people just love Final Fantasy X. It was that and Claire Obscure Expedition 33. Oh, yeah.

3:13Nick Scarpino:well they're very similar they're very similar games in in terms of story and characters in a lot of ways so i i'm so excited for oh and you're streaming it too yeah oh this is so awesome now i get to watch you react to so many amazing moments in this game do you think you're gonna stick with it i know it's early but um i think so yeah this was one that i've been calling uh this month bbl january okay for big backlog of course it's kind of like we kind of have the space there are some video game releases but there's not anything that's too big that's really speaking to me and so i have the time yeah i have the space to check out a game like this and so so far i'm sticking with it so far i'm enjoying it i'm like i here's what i saw last night yeah i saw the sphere grid uh-huh and that shit overwhelmed me oh don't overwhelm me don't immediately don't let it overwhelm you it's it is very much uh uh it's at this point i feel like we've played so many video games that have role rpg elements right like the sphere grid is just a very very early example of just like a skill tree of a skill tree that's it you know what I mean but it's the dopest whatever and it's like like plus what if I told you that it's all one grid and they all start in different parts of the grid and over time they can connect to each other I love that it's so damn cool you can take characters any direction you want to go oh my god there's like a moment where they tutorialize it it's weird because it is like they hit you with a tutorial out of nowhere and one I love going back to a game from what year was this 2002 yeah 2002 going back to a game from this era and like being like okay yes this is bring me back to it but also seeing how i think far ahead maybe 2001 seeing how far ahead this game was in terms of like i mean even ff7 i talk about this but the pre-rendered cut scenes and how good that shit looks the fashion of the characters um the world i like i'm there's like you get to the bat you get to the um opening like segments of the game and you can see the city in the background and i'm sure it's just like some jpegs but they do a really good job of placing them where i'm like this looks beautiful yeah man the look the music of this game like besade island is one of like the standout locations for me in just video games like when you're walking around it like there's some shots that are just to this day breathtakingly beautiful like it's so damn cool i'm so so happy for you because i really think that this one's gonna hit with you what do you feel about the combat i mean i'm not i feel like i'm not far enough to really get a hold of it i will say i there have been segments that i really like so far there was one underground uh combat segment where it's me and riku yes me and riku and there's like a giant fish thing giant fish thing yeah and it does the thing where like it kind of swims away and then it gives us the option of like all right do you want to hang out or do we want to like try to pincer it and like come from both sides i like that type of shit that reminds me of kind of like what they do in even modern persona games and so i'm that i'm already into eddie eddie dean of the chest says tim tell him who plays waka oh i i learned this center i i realized because i was sitting there and i was listening to him talk and i was like what is the accent that is he samoa like i can't tell what his accent is and somebody in chat said bender and i was like oh okay yeah i can see it i can kind of put it together what i really love about the the combat in final fantasy 10 is that it's truly turn-based like final fantasies uh mainly have the like active time battle right which is yes turn-based but it's like so much more active this This is way more chess-like where, or like Pokemon even, right?

6:34Nick Scarpino:Where it's like, if you don't touch the controller, nothing's going to happen. Yeah. They're not going to attack you. And like having the, I forget what they call it, but in the top right corner, you see like the turn order of everyone. It's like, oh man, it's just like a different type of game. I love this. I love it so much. Guess what I'm playing right now? What's that? You'll never guess. In my final moments, which continue to just get delayed more and more and more. I went to the doctor yesterday for G and they're just like, this baby's continuing to grow. and they gave us a deadline date where if it's not out by like January 25th, they're like, we're making it.

7:04Nick Scarpino:We're taking this thing into the world. Wait, so you don't think I'm going to win the baby pool then for my birthday? Probably not. We don't think it's going to make it to February here, but I've been kind of just like, now that we've got a lot of the prep done, I've just been like, all right. Similar to what you're saying, it's a little slower in the year right now in terms of video games, and I'm about to be gone, so it's not like I'm playing things for a review or anything. So I'm like, I'm going to play some games for me. I'm just like, what are some comfort food things to go back to? So I've been playing through a bunch of the Metroid games.

7:32Nick Scarpino:I did Zero Missions and Super Metroid and Fusion and things like that. But I was like, I want to do something, switch it up a little bit. So I started playing for the first time in decades, Chrono Trigger. No shot, really. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. About four hours into Chrono Trigger, having a great time. It's just like, it's been so long. And I've been waiting because I feel it in my bones that we're going to get that HD 2D remake at some point. So I've been trying to hold off. But I'm like, this is a great time. I'll just replay it when that happens anyways. And I've been having such a nice time with this game.

8:02Nick Scarpino:And I feel like the heavens are shining down on me specifically because this morning, I didn't know this. This year's the 30th anniversary of Chrono Trigger. No shot. And they did an orchestral concert in Japan and released the CD of it. So now I have the orchestral versions of the songs to listen to. They've done it before, but this is like a 2026 version. And I'm like, oh, man, this is great. That's awesome. 30th anniversary. Yeah. what's the over under this year tim if they actually do it i've been waiting for it for years yeah i mean i think it's time at the clip that they're pumping out these ox path traveler games like they they could do it and the dragon quest games well they've also got the the man with the stupid hat game coming out this year too exactly though but it's funny because they're in their remaking things that they don't necessarily need to remake like they remade live alive a game that i didn't know i loved and i played it i was like oh shit if they're going back to live alive i think chrono there's a reason it's gotta happen maybe they're waiting for the 30th there's a reason they haven't done chrono trigger yet here's something i will say though four hours into chrono trigger and i'm playing on steam and when the steam release first dropped everyone hated it there was a trend a couple years ago that like all the square games from that generation were being ported and they did that smudgy upres bullshit where it's like the emulation the characters just look like garbage yeah and they've since fixed that and they've added ultra wide support they've added like all this stuff the steam version of chrono trigger is amazing and i'm playing it i'm like we really don't need a remake of this i want one i think it'll be good for the the game and the ip and getting out to a bunch of new players and like it'll look gorgeous in hd2d but the art style holds up especially in widescreen and the look of it now when they added like the original pixels back i'm like this is kind of just like the definitive version of this game like they somehow quietly pulled it off with updates but do they do with tactics and include voice see which that is the killer thing you read my mind barrett that would be amazing that would be amazing what who would you cast as chrono i don't know i i don't know ben star does his no he's he's he's frog yeah that's actually a really good killer frog that'd be hilarious I don't know Frog is so cool Anyways Let's story for another time I hope by the end of this episode I'll have a good answer I'm looking forward to a banger-beared answer for this Remember if you're watching live Be a part of the show by super chatting On youtube.com slash kind of funny games We couldn't do this without our Patreon producers on patreon.com slash Kind of funny so thank you Carl Jacobs Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining.

10:43Nick Scarpino:But now let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today. A baker's dozen! Yep. There we go. Damn it. I like that it was just one really angry spurt right out of the butt. We've all been there. Number one, Microsoft might have just leaked Forza Horizon 6's release date. This comes from Tom Warren at The Verge. Microsoft is getting ready to show the first gameplay of Forza Horizon 6 next week, and it might also be ready to put a date on its release too. X-Poster Xbox Infinite claims they received a Forza Horizon 6 pre-order notification inside Forza Horizon 5, implying the release date of the new title is May 19th.

11:30Nick Scarpino:I haven't been able to reproduce the message myself, but the X-Poster claims it appeared in the garage section of Forza Horizon 5. Sources tell me that Microsoft has been planning to release Horizon 6 in the May time frame, so this date does align with microsoft's plans the notification also notes that the premium edition of forza horizon 6 will include early access on may 15th as well as vip membership a welcome pack car pass and time attack car pack two premium expansions and an italian passion car pack wow are also coming post launch according to the leaked notification let's fucking go let's fucking go mid-may puts it a few weeks before 007 first light um and lego batman legacy of the dark knight um and really those are the only two big big game releases we have in may so far so this being a third one makes sense yeah it'd be awesome um forza rising 6 is in my top five most anticipated games of the year me too i'm really looking forward to this it's funny it i feel like whenever you they whenever games say they're they're taking place in tokyo or japan automatically there's a hype to that like yeah for some reason i want every open world game to go to japan and forza horizon 6 already they could have said they were going anywhere i would have been like i'm gonna play forza horizon 6 i'm excited for this i love the series of games but yeah i'm particularly excited about this one i want to see what that gameplay looks like i want to see like what the energy is i think one thing that i've appreciated about forza but i think it's tough to try to replicate each and every time is having like a that festival high energy oh we're in the countryside oh we're hanging out in europe oh we're in australia oh we're in mexico um i feel like when i for the first forza horizon game i played was forza horizon 3 when that first hit that hit for me like crack i was like man this feels good um and they've kind of been able to like replicate that but i feel like as we get further and further with forza horizon it kind of just feels like dipping into kind of like that same energy i want to see if in this game they can kind of like find not a new energy because i want that upbeatness to it but i guess like a unique kind of thing to it a unique vibe i don't know yeah horizon 5 was kind of my real entry point to the franchise like i played uh the final not final fantasy fast and furious dlc for what was that horizon 3 i think i don't even remember it might have been 4 like it was uh like 2015 or 16 but just played that for a little bit had a fun time with it but horizon 5 was really where i was like oh my god this game is awesome and i love that it took this long to get to japan because i feel like now is the time yeah like technologically uh technology wise uh because it's gonna be beautiful like i mean horizon five was already beautiful but like yeah just where we're at with this generation of consoles like oh man we're gonna see some vistas we're about to see some sunsets we're about to see so many cherry blossom trees and battles so many cherry blossom That's going to be so damn cool.

14:24Nick Scarpino:But yeah, May feels like a good date. The thing about Forza Horizon 6 is I feel like there's not really any bad date for this game. So no, like the only bad day would be the same day as GTA. Exactly right. GTA does have that vortex around it. But I feel like Forza, I feel, is kind of immune to that kind of sales conversation because of the type of game that is. And because of the prestige that the title has now. Like remember Forza Horizon 5 won IGN's game of the year when it came out. Like this, that's a big deal for a racing game. Like that, I think, put a lot more people on to what a ton of people already knew was an amazing video game.

15:02Nick Scarpino:But it's on a different level of conversation. So the excitement going into six, I think, is like at an all time peak here. So they have the road in front of them for a massive, massive hit. and uh i do think that it being in japan does allow i thought mexico had a lot of fun vibes too with like the the festival but i think the japan one could be even better yes exactly i'm i'm excited about this i think there's also the thing too where forza horizon kind of feels uncontested of course there's other racing games but at the level of quality that they're putting out a fast-paced open world racing game that kind of brings us that energy of a burnout paradise or brings the energy of something that leans more arcadey even though i think they kind of exist in between space of simi and arcadey there's nothing really like it so like really forza horizon is only contests forza horizon which i think kind of lends itself to what you're talking about as far as yeah there's hype for it right people are anticipating it it can kind of come out whenever and people will show up to it because there's not really many racing games like forza horizon even though have you seen this game screamer that's coming out screamer screamer yes it is the return of a of an older racing game series but it's being developed by people who make racing games i forget which one it might be like f1 or like some other kind of like semi type of racing game hot wheels unleashed no shot they made hot wheels unleashed yeah oh shit then they made that and they made others um but it's basically think what you think of when you think like sim like traditional racing game but with a bunch of anime bullshit okay injected into it like anime cut scenes oh shit a big story mode this was at game awards yeah yeah okay oh was it okay i was wondering where i saw this thought it was maybe i'm maybe not game awards but like this is now looking a little familiar this is another one i was doing a look through of all the games coming out this year and immediately i was like oh this is in my top 10 most anticipated i want to play this game desperately like oh that's cool you see how like this is and you're watching an anime right now with a really cool art style and all that stuff but then when you cut the gameplay it is a straight up oh this is a racing game barrett can you put yeah that was a story that was a story trailer specifically let me uh i'll pull up a gameplay trailer for you it's kind of also said it was game awards was it this year's game awards yeah i remember really in the bar when we were doing uh when i was down in la and we we saw it on the television i think they also just announced uh the the homie alex lee and uh uh troy baker his voice is in this oh that's awesome yeah and this looks freaking right this looks fucking awesome this is kind of what i wanted from the last knee for speed game yeah when they would you kind of scratch that itch a little bit a little bit just a little bit like tickled they add they had like like graphics and ui that would pop up that kind of had like an anime-ish flair to it but this is leaning all the way in into hey we have cut scenes in a story that is anime shit and then you get into actual races um and it looks really fun like it reminds me a little bit of like kind of like some old school or older need for speed games yeah i am a little concerned i don't really like it when racing games control where it kind of feels like you're loading a little drive you know what i mean like yeah so like the look of this a little concerned there uh damn it it went by in the chat but they brought up uh auto modelista do you remember that yes hell yeah i we talked about this we probably did this sounds like a tim and bless conversation yeah but auto modelista was a ps2 game that was like back during the cell shade boom of the early 2000s where every game had to be cell shaded but it was a racing game and it looked so sick like it was just the cool i want us to bring back and i guess we are with screamer and new forts coming out right like let's bring back just kind of like more unique racing games yeah you know what i mean let's get back let's bring back a burnout yeah you know what i mean what are we doing what are we doing back burn figure it out now to bring it back to this a little bit tim what does this do for you as far as fable that is interesting right so that kind of goes back to what i was saying of like this game can come out whenever yeah like i don't i really don't think it's going to be too affected sales wise and another thing to bring up is like this game killed on playstation 5 when it released years later and that was last year so again there's just more energy in a positive direction towards the forza horizon franchise than there's ever been so i kind of feel like they're in prime position um may seems to be like all right cool they're choosing that for a reason and xbox knows they have other games to contend with xbox also has proven they don't really give a fuck and they'll just put things out week after week if that's what they have uh because of their game pass model and everything so fable i don't think this release date has anything to do with where that game releases i mean i don't think it's going to be before may 19th uh i'm still not confident fables this year fable to me is a big question mark and we'll see next week but i'm not confident we're going to get a release day next week yeah i i think next week they'll say 2026 i don't know if i'll believe 2026 when they say it i think it'll be a wait and see of how when we get further into the year what does the lay of the land look like how much energy is gta absorbing does it just make sense to push fable into spring of next year instead of maybe releasing it in the fall because i guess for me forza horizon 6 you're right that like with xbox's strategy they could just release a fable in june maybe but i feel like from the same studio you almost want to at least like maybe have like a two-month buffer i feel like that's just a lot of weight on the studio yeah obsidian right yeah but even obsidian it's like all right you had your first game come out and when we're talking about last year right you had one in february one in july and then one in like october yeah so it's like a little different you know three games last year barrett my prediction next week when they announce a release date for fable it'll be september whether it actually comes out in september september okay we'll we'll we'll see there but i could see that kind of going from summer into the fall uh giving you know a couple months before they tried to release halo for its anniversary around the same time as gta 6 all that yeah i mean there's also gears and then there's also halo i think halo is the easiest one to pinpoint it's going to be november 15th like it's going to be the 25th anniversary oh okay um but i also think that that's the least consequential in terms of these games like it being you don't think that's too close to gta i mean it is it is what it is though right it is the 25th anniversary like i mean but like i don't know i feel like i i totally get that yeah yeah but i feel like what's more important is that the game gets air when it comes out you're right i'll just push it the month it's also a remake of a game or reimagining from what we've heard right of a game that we've already played before that is apparently only going to be the campaign that is a what 10 hour campaign yeah i remember like max well there'll be a couple of new levels but yeah like yeah 11 hours if i'm on the xbox marketing team i'm busting open the doors to halo studios and i'm like hey fuck your anniversary put this thing out at a reasonable place let's not put it out four days that is the same week as gta 6 it's not even just halo's anniversary it's xbox's anniversary and xbox is going hard with their xbox 25 thing right so i i don't know you're making very solid points yeah uh but and then there's also gears e-day right yeah which also is that this year or not i think i believe gears e-day being this year for some reason more than fable yeah yeah but i guess they're kind of in that same conversation we've seen more of fable but that's just because it was announced earlier yeah just keep talking about it um yeah it's tough it's tough to place all these things but i think yeah it's just the thing where xbox has so much happening on that bigger scale and i just don't know if it's even i don't even know if it's worth releasing everything this year like what what what does xbox have coming next year anyway for software yeah i mean i think it is worth if they have the ability to put out all their biggest titles this year on the 25th anniversary i think they should like i really think that like if and a lot of this is also the games need to be good you can't just put out games yeah especially when they are your core franchises like they need to kind of hit so i also think that the playstation 5 side of it is very interesting right this will be halo's first time on playstation 5 I imagine it's going to sell better on PlayStation 5 than it does on Xbox.

23:27Nick Scarpino:And that Game Pass is taken into consideration there as well, right? But, like, Forza is not PS5 day and date, right? Which sucks. Like, God, that would be so awesome if it was. Can you imagine how much it would sell if the day and date was on both consoles? Like, that might be one of the top five highest selling period of the year. Yeah. Yeah. God. GTA. GTA. It's such a factor, man. And is it even this year? At least it's so far in the end of the year that, like, if it were to get delayed, I don't think it's going to have too much of an effect on the end of 2026. You know what I mean? Yeah, sure.

24:05Nick Scarpino:Because it's like there's a lot. They gave the rest of the developers out there and publishers just enough runway to, like, have up to October. You know what I mean? Even early November, they're fine. Oh, yeah. I think as long as you're just not after GTA, then you're good. Right? And even the same way, I think that's where the Halo coming out on the 15th thing, I'm like, that's four days before. That's cutting it too close. We got Paris in the chat. I see him itching to get off the bench. Paris, can you call in? Barrett, do we have the capabilities to have him? Voice only we could do, just to keep this simple.

24:39Paris, our line is open voice only whenever you want to drop in. This is the one thing I'll say to extend this conversation even more than it needs to be. um i also think what's looming is hardware and how things have gone with ram prices and tariffs and all this shit and is next gen later now than sooner right like if you would ask me maybe a year and a half ago i would have said oh i think the next the next xbox probably 2027 now if you ask me i'm like hey maybe not maybe we're talking about 2029 maybe we're maybe we're seeing if we can stretch this thing out further past so if that's the case should you take your time should you be like yo fable doesn't need to come out because the x the next gen xbox like we're not racing towards next gen anymore we have more runway for you to maybe put your games out later

25:28Nick Scarpino:oh that's a conversation that i want to have but paris lily what's up man what's up tim am i gonna am i gonna see you next week are you still gonna be in the studio next week maybe it's out of my at this point the due date is uh three days from now so oh wow we'll see we'll see to see you but yeah if not it's not congratulations thank you man thank you i hope to see you but we'll see yeah i honestly i was being a little cheeky in the chat but i do have thoughts on what i think xbox's release schedule will be so clearly forza horizon 6 leaked in may i actually think they go with a cadence of halo uh campaign evolved in august fable is september gears e-day is october and you get call of duty week or two before gta 6 in november and that way they essentially go all right may june july we take off showcase they're going to show new stuff and then from august essentially to the end of the year they got a game coming out every month yeah i mean that that would be killer do you and obviously i know gta changes everything and and your call of duty point is is very important as well that i wasn't thinking about that but how much does that november 15th date mean to xbox 25 so it's funny because i originally was thinking oh halo duh you put it out on the on the 25th anniversary along along with xbox's anniversary but i think you get out get that out ahead because the 15th is about celebrating 25 five years of Xbox.

27:04So maybe they show the next Halo along with whatever this console is going to be on the 15th. Like here's the future of Halo on its 25th anniversary. And then here's the future of our new console on that anniversary as well. That's what I think the 15th is probably going to be. And then, like I said, you get all their games out for 2026 ahead of that.

27:27Nick Scarpino:Yeah, I mean, that'd be a good strategy. Are you confident in all the games hidden this year? No, of course not. Fable in the fantasy trap. Yeah, but where are you at right now? Like now that we have one of the dates, probably, like looking at Fable and looking at Gears, what's your confidence in each one coming out this year? I have a lot more confidence in Fable. And by the way, Snowbike Mike is a freaking maniac for what he bid to get Fable. But I have a lot more confidence in the fact that they're going to show it now. So that tells me they feel really good about it coming out this year. Gears E-Day would be the one now because it's not a part of the Dev Direct.

28:04I'm assuming we see this in June, and that would be the Dev Direct in June, but that would probably be one to have the least confidence in. I think the rest of them will come out this year.

28:14Nick Scarpino:All right. Well, thank you for calling in, Paris. Have a fantastic day. Yeah, you too. And like I said, I will see you all next week, and we'll be talking a lot more Xbox than Dev Direct. Hell yeah. Yeah, I think... All right, see you later. Call of Duty is the only one where I'm like... that's a bigger conversation as far as how much of a tail does call of duty need before gta hits the thing about call of duty is i feel like i've always associated as a november release but i feel like the last couple years hasn't it been october i think it usually straddles like it goes between october and november usually i feel like it coming october wouldn't be a surprise yeah this year i would i would if i mean obviously they they can't get everything they wish for here but if i could get in call of duty like three weeks three to four weeks before gta that might be the sweet spot i think the closer you get you're gonna like as soon as gta comes nobody gives a shit anymore right i think you're cutting off your sales at a certain point that shit is gonna fall off a cliff and not gta um call g more so than other games i think kind of relies on that continual like hey no we're we're call of duty we're selling for weeks and weeks and weeks uh for Black Ops 7 just recently came out November 14th.

29:30Black Ops 6 the year before came out October 25th. What I'm actually interested in, let's go to 2018, which is where Red Dead 2 launched October, late October. Okay, October, okay. So that was Red Dead 2 launched October 26th, 2018. Call of Duty came out October 12th. So like early, like kind of first half of October. And then this is a weird year, but the 2013 Call of Duty was Call of Duty Ghosts. Hell yeah. What was it? I think that would have launched.

30:03Nick Scarpino:That was a launch title, right? Yeah. Launch title situation. Yeah. And then GTA 5 was actually earlier. So that was September. So yeah, they didn't really have to worry about that for the for the end months there. So good. So good. So good. Spring styles are at Nordstrom Rack stores now, and they're up to 60 percent off. Stock up and save on Rag & Bone, Madewell, Vince, All Saints, and more of your favorites. How did I not know Rack has Adidas? Why do we Rack? For the hottest deals. Just so many good brands. Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more.

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31:13This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners. sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9 % of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new convenient pump makes cleaning even easier, so you can spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop now at palmolive.com. Man. We're going to see a lot get revealed. As we start to see release dates get planned, And we're going to learn a lot about what, like what strategies are, what publishers are like, think about these games, right?

31:54Like I would put, uh, maybe not money, but I would, I would bet nothing real that we see call of duty come out a little bit earlier than usual.

32:05Nick Scarpino:Yeah. Yeah. That feels right to me. Uh, but oh, everybody, we went long on that first story, but it was a good one. It was a good first. Uh, I want to let you know, you can go get the kind of funny membership to get this show ad free, but for everyone else, here's some words from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. The amount of times Mike has signed up for something, forgotten about it after the trial period ends, and then been charged month after month after month is quite frankly terrifying. He didn't even realize he was paying for SoundCloud for 10 years until Rocket Money helped find and cancel his unwanted subscriptions.

32:37But he is not alone. So many people have at least one paid subscription going unused each month. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Thanks to Rocket Money, you can see all of your subscriptions in one place and cancel them within the app with just a few taps, saving time and avoiding charges. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at rocketmoney.com slash kindoffunny. That's rocketmoney.com slash kindoffunny.

33:17Rocketmoney.com slash kindoffunny. This episode is brought to you by Factor. It's a new year, which means new goals and even more things to take up our time. That's why so many of us here at Kind of Funny love Factor. Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking. On many occasions, Factor has completely saved me and Jen when we needed it most. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options, including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp, at no extra cost. Enjoy even more GLP-1-friendly meals and new Mediterranean diet options packed with protein and good-for-you fats.

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34:39Andy will be going do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Nick will be shopping for pants during it. But everybody else will be there, too, for you to come hang out and see. All you have to do is go over to kindoffunny.com slash sketchfest right now to get your tickets before they sell out. Because coming watching a bunch of people talk about a very old Howard the Duck movie is really selling tickets fast.

35:02Nick Scarpino:We're back. Barrett. I thought a lot about a blessing. Yeah. A good answer for Mr. Chrono Trigger. And it's tough. It's a tough question when you have the idea of what these people sound like when they're walking around these pixels. thinking about them all the way back from your childhood. And there's one person that I think could nail the vision that I think of in my head for Chrono. He is the voice of the dude Hawks from My Hero Academia. He is the voice of my sad little boy Genya from Demon Slayer. He is the voice of Junpei Iori in Persona 3 Reload. It is the dude Zeno Robinson. oh i think xeno robinson would make an excellent chrono there's a dude named xeno oh you don't know xeno i don't know xeno's fucking cool he's cool fucking awesome he's a cool dude i don't know if i've met it's we've been twitter mutuals i'm pretty sure for a while so i must have done something it might have been related to roosterteeth or something but ever since i followed him i'm like i like this guy i saw him for a second at game awards i was too nervous to have a full conversation with him so i just like gave him a nod and he gave me a nod i was like all right hell yeah dude shouts i saw a pass by the actor who played zero from holes that was that's fucking oh yeah cleo thomas he was at the comic-con panel i hosted and he like told me good job afterwards and i was like wow he's everywhere i see him he's everywhere i just see him places and i don't know i was at disneyland for a bachelorette party and i saw cleo thomas and i'm like why are you everywhere i love it let's get the story number two nintendo's share price has dropped 33 % in the last five months in Japan.

36:43Nick Scarpino:This comes from Chris Scullion at BGC. Nintendo's share price in Japan is now 33 % lower than it was five months ago. As noted by GameSpark, Nintendo's share price dropped to$62.70 on Tuesday, the first time the price has dropped below 10 ,000 yen since April 2025. Back in August 2025, the share price reached a high point of$93.23, the highest share price ever recorded for the company, but has dropped notably since then. While the reasons for a company's rise or fall in share price can only ever be speculated, it appears likely that the record high in August was due to Switch 2's smashing sales records in Japan and the U.S.

37:21Nick Scarpino:following its June 2025 release. The subsequent drop then can be likely attributed to such factors as a slowing of Switch 2 sales over Christmas and a lack of a killer app six months into the console's life. Shareholders will also doubtlessly be concerned about the potential of future price increases as a result of the increasingly high cost of RAM and ongoing tariffs, most notably in America. Yeah, I think that last paragraph, like, does a lot of heavy lifting as far as why we're probably seeing this. Yeah, the RAM prices, the ongoing tariffs, but then, yes, I think also the holiday period. And in comparison to Switch 1, even though I think currently Switch 2 is still doing better than Switch 1 overall, I think you still had the thing with Switch 1 of Zelda Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

38:06I think that was such a trilogy of high sellers that when you get to that holiday season, oh yeah, I'm going to buy my child a Switch and have an assortment of games that they might love, not to mention other games. I'm not going to say it jokingly, but games like ARMS, you know what I mean? Games like Splatoon 3, I think, or Splatoon 2, actually, that came out that year as well. You had, I think, Xenoblade as well that year, if I remember correctly. just the craziest formative nintendo uh first gear titles for switch one i don't know if i'd say switch two compares you know and i think you could have the direct things of like well dk bonanza is the mario odyssey but as much as i love my guy dk he's not mario you know like there's not as all the breath of the wild necessarily like we have metroid prime but i that's more of a hardcore gamers game yeah like i think really for for big sellers it's like yeah mario kart world but Mario Kart World can only do so much heavy lifting as far as trying to get them sales going and trying to keep that stock price up for when we get to the holiday season so I'm this isn't something to worry about in my opinion except for the the tariffs and except for the RAM prices stuff but software lineup wise I think for me personally I'm just I'm looking forward to seeing what years two and three bring as far as like some of those bigger hitters yeah I don't look at this as

39:22Nick Scarpino:a concern at all specifically because like it was a very anticipated console launch so that's going to spike things so i feel like that kind of got it to a point of being potentially even overvalued so a drop like this isn't necessarily indicative of a problem you add on all the tariffs and ram and all that stuff that is something that tech across the board is going to be dealing with and we're going to see stock prices accordingly move down for a lot of different companies as uh price increases actually happen right now this is all potential fear of it happening with with nintendo it hasn't happened yet right um we're also when you compare the switch one to two the switch two we just don't have enough information we don't have the donkey kong sales numbers yet like we don't know how successful some of these games have been actually um and also switch one at this point was out what three four months longer than the switch two currently is given the the calendar year so uh it is going to be interesting to see how it keeps going what i do think might happen though is if the shareholders are angry and nintendo have to look at this be like we need to do something to address this i do have a feeling that this year we're gonna get a couple um black screens with text that say the follow-up to the legend of zelda tears of the kingdom is in development uh you have mario mario's next adventure is being worked on like things like that that like are the teasiest of teases yeah um and i know people don't like that but that's the type of stuff that gets shareholders to be like okay i have faith that this is going to be okay because the reality is like i i think you'd be silly to not have faith in the switch 2 at this point like to look at where nintendo was for the last 15 years and how bad it was during the end of the wii u and the 3ds and how that like god i i don't know why i did this to myself i really don't know why but i watched nintendo's was i think 2016 e3 why i don't know i think it was just autoplayed on my youtube and that just shows like what i youtube all the time that it would end up getting there it was it was the star fox zero one and just the games that they were talking about i think triforce heroes was there it was like the mario uh tennis on we like there was it was abysmal and it was so hard to be a nintendo fan back then and that was split libraries across two consoles and with where we're at now it's just like oh man we're sitting pretty like i'm looking at the next couple months of nintendo and i'm like all right cool there's not like the biggest banger titles coming but there's a consistent cadence of quality releases whether they're switch two ports with enhanced things to play uh with animal crossing and uh mario wonder and all of that but then also a new yoshi game coming very soon we have a new fire emblem coming this year we're still missing that like big rounds of like the big ones but they're coming what but what are they gonna be are they gonna release the zelda well that's the thing right like at some point yeah like at some point in the next couple years we're gonna get a big zelda game like what are we getting this year though it could be ocarina of time i don't think it is right now like i'm not confident and i was more confident last year that ocarina would be this year um now i'm thinking it might be 2027 but i really think it's gonna happen we're we're missing we're definitely missing and it's not even february yet that's when they do their big directs and so we'll probably know this time next month but yeah we're missing like a couple pieces of the puzzle because fortune's weave is definitely one of the big like okay cool this is gonna do great for your audience gonna sell all that stuff and then we're gonna get a new pokemon game announced that'll probably next month it's gonna be announced but like between all that there's like a couple of things you got to fill in um part of me is like scared that it is we're gonna have a couple of like those early 2020s i think 2020 might have been one of the ones where it's like oh shit you didn't have anything you know like we had a paper mario in the middle of that year and then it kind of felt kind of empty i'm not worried about that at all no this year no i mean i feel like like this this is we're still currently in the first year of the switch too right yeah like i think that there's that this makes sense for where we're at like i would bet that we're getting luigi's mansion for this year okay probably in October and like that has turned into a big heavy hitter like we're talking 10 million sales right like that's a big big game so it's like when you have a lot of those they add up right I think that it wouldn't be crazy to see a follow-up to Kirby in the Forgotten Land okay you know okay maybe early next year but still when you're thinking about like the years of the Switch 2 like that would be within year two yeah right so anyways a lot of their big selling games i think we're going to start getting a lot of those like five million here seven million here and that shit adds up do you think how much do you think dustblood sells i don't know man dustblood is such a roll of the dice to me where it's like i i have learned that i should never doubt from software at this point like armored core six fires rubicon felt like uh is it gonna have the sauce it had the sauce yeah uh night rain was like is this a cash grab it wasn't a cash grab it's just like yeah at this point yes i'm betting on dusk bloods gotta put mario hats in it i like i want to see i want to see the costumes i don't want to see the costumes no you can see them with the mario hitman uh crossover there you go yeah oh man let's get story number three hightail becomes the most watched game on twitch on early access launch day this comes from rebecca valentine and IGN.

44:55Nick Scarpino:It's been a banner launch day for Hytale, the new sandbox game from the creators of popular Minecraft server Hypixel. In addition to a surge of players and a lot of positive buzz, it shot up to become briefly the most popular game on Twitch with over 420 ,000 viewers. Nice. This was observed first by PC Gamer, who earlier today clocked that it was the most watched game on Twitch and the second most watched category, only behind just chatting by about 43k views. At the time, this piece was written. Hytale had dropped down to around 260k viewers, but it's still the most watched video game and third most watched category it's a heck of a comeback story for a game that half a year ago was thought to be canceled entirely hytale made by the developers of wildly popular minecraft server hypixel was first announced in 2018 with an incredibly popular trailer and garnered plenty of buzz at the time riot games took notice invested and in 2020 acquired it entirely however hytale was delayed several times as its scope grew and just this past year was canceled entirely by riot then in november the co-founder announced he had acquired the ip rights back from riot in an incredibly fast turnaround he and the team got the game ready for an early access release today what a story that's crazy story in addition to the popularity on twitch hytale's already made enough money to cover two more years of development and its modding scenes already bustling day one wow that seems like such a fumbled bag for riot like to acquire this game and be like ah we're canceling it and then for a few months later for it to come out and be doing this well yeah i started hearing about this yesterday as it released there was a big buzz around it like it even before like people started playing it it seems like there's a tim there are whole worlds out there there are whole worlds out there that we just aren't i know man i i never had a minecraft era i'm sure mike can probably speak to this more i'm sure roger might be able to speak to this more but like i didn't know how i don't want to hear about roger and minecraft i'm just gonna say that right i'm putting putting my foot you don't want to hear about roger and minecraft no why not i don't want to know what he got he did in them minds you know what i mean crazy stories and i don't want to know i don't ever want to know him same don't let it happen roger that's fair but yeah there was such a buzz for this that like for me came out of nowhere because i hadn't been paying attention obviously right um but it's super wild to see that yeah people want this people were looking forward to this follow-up to minecraft or like this like like a spiritual successor inspired game um from what hypixel i think was the name of the of the dev who had made stuff in minecraft that people people really adored it's just really cool to see a story like this yeah it definitely is it is also just crazy how like there are whole worlds out there it's fucking yeah no you look at it i'm like is this not just minecraft but maybe here's the thing did anybody just try making another minecraft did anyone just try did anybody just try hey what if you try to make minecraft maybe a little bit better wasn't that terraria no because that's like 2d pixel art 2d minecraft it's a minecraft like maybe oh oh we summoned him here he is he's coming i said i don't want to hear it uh yes people have tried to make uh multiple minecraft things especially uh around the xbox 360 arcade era and the indie game section because minecraft of course famously was a pc only game and did not come to consoles for a very long time so i was in the mines playing the z craft and all this bullshit all the time me and my friends were locked in so yes there was a lot of minecraft clones back in the day and some of them awful most of them awful but some of them less awful do they look like minecraft because chad is listing a lot of things yeah yeah for sure it's like lego fortnite and all but like hightail just looks like my if you showed me power world if you showed me minecraft and you showed me hightail i probably wouldn't be able to tell you the difference here yeah And maybe that's the move.