New Xbox CEO Could Make Game Pass Cheaper?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.25.26

0:00If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. Today in the nerdy news you need to know about, Asha Sharma reportedly considers making Game Pass less expensive. PlayStation shuts down another first-party studio, and Tim's review of Mario Wonders Switch 2 edition is happening. That's right! Sammy's dad is in the building! We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily!

0:35What's up, everybody? Welcome to kind of funny games daily for Wednesday, March 25th, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside Samira's father at Tim Geddes. It feels so good to finally be able to get out of the shower, get ready, leave to go to work and look at my daughter in the eyes and say, daddy's got to go to work. You know what I mean? What'd she say back? There's a lot of rah right now, and it's just like, it's a very pretty rah, but like, it's a... What's the count? We're two and a half months in right now? Ten weeks, yeah. Yeah. Two and a half months. She's vaxxed up. Vaxxed.

1:10Yep. Yep. You believe in that stuff, huh? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. If you're new around here, get fucked. We believe in vaccines and science. But yeah, things are good. Right now, G's taking her to a mommy-daughter yoga class. Okay. I like that. Which is her third one, I think. She's not doing much yoga. Yeah. I'm well aware. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mommy and me yoga classes really are doing much better. She's out there, man. She's in these streets. There's all these mom groups. Oh, yeah. I'm just like. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You have a new life. For sure. For sure. But I'm like, are there dad groups? I'm like, looking around, there are.

1:43Yeah. Definitely are. We can start our own. I don't like that. Kevin, we keep Kevin up. Oh. I'm kidding. Let Kevin in. Let Kevin in. How are you? Good. I mean, I'm old news. I'm more excited if you're here. How are we doing sleep-wise? What are we? You're sleeping through the night? Well, that's been an interesting thing because no, it's been bad. What a statement. I feel so bad for your cough, dude. I've been following the saga. No, no. Now it's an allergy cough. I've gone from being the cough cough to just the allergy. Yeah. Well, but even whenever you have like the slight laugh that it turns out, I feel bad.

2:17I know me too. Well, the great news is that Ben developed a new cough. So now that I, by the time I'm done with these allergies, I'll probably pick up the new cough. I'll be all. Yeah. That's a, that's a whole thing, man. But yeah, sleep, not really been happening too much. But yesterday, since she got vaxxed, the doctor was like, hey, if she's sleeping well, which she sleeps really well. Yeah. To the point that we have to wake her up every time. Good job. Yeah, I guess. For sure. But the bigger problem is they're like, oh, yeah, you can let her sleep. Like you can sleep through the night and just wake up in the morning and feed her and that'll be totally fine.

2:49There's a little TMI for the world, but I'm going to say it anyways. Jeez, fucking boobs. Those things about to explode. Sure. Yeah. She gets woken up throughout the night. And then I'm awake anyway You know what I mean No no no But it's just like man It's just always something You think you get the big win You're like oh man we were so excited We get to sleep all night No we don't But besides that everything's been great Well not everything This ice stuff really bummed me out Don't like that at all Fuck ice fuck this shit And then hard turn away from that It's not bummed me out No, let's get Screamer.

3:29Oh, Screamer. Yeah, of course. Blessings Review at Gamescast on Monday. Go check it out. Yeah, Bless's Game of the Year so far. He's saying I am almost done with it. I'm like four fifths done. I would say absolutely obsessed. I remember when they first showed it last night, we're both like, that looks like our type of shit. And then I got a code, but things have been going on. So I wasn't really prioritizing. And it wasn't until Bless in the Slack was like, I beat this game. It was a religious experience. I'm like, that's all I need to know. I need to jump in here. And yeah, it's delivering so hard.

3:59This game is awesome. I highly recommend it to anybody that likes arcade racers or just likes anime bullshit. Like the type of bullshit that, you know, I like. Okay. And a lot of fast and furious stuff. A lot of Cobra Kai. It's just so, so good. The story is incredible, which is not something I expected from this game. But also the gameplay is just, it's so solid and it's unique. It's like it is a lot more mechanical and a lot more gameplay focused than I would have expected. I thought it would just be kind of like hold down the accelerator and make it to the end before the other people do. And there's a lot more going on in this in a way that it's like kind of rhythm game mask.

4:38It's just very, very cool. I love it. Not quite outpacing Resident Evil on my game of the year watch so far, but this is a solid number two. Oh, yeah. That's what I'd like to see. And I also want to give a shout out to the shirt. If you're an audio listener, it is a white shirt. if you're a video listener, it's a white shirt, but it's got like a quilted pattern to it. Ribs for your pleasure. Let me get in there because it looks like terry cloth. Oh, yeah, that's a good vibe. I like that. Where did that come from? Guess. Guess? Walmart. TikTok shop. Oh, I thought you always TikTok shop. I thought you were I thought we were doing a bit where it was from guess and I was going to keep guessing.

5:13You're like, no, guess. I thought that as well. Is that still a thing? I don't fucking know. I don't think guess is a thing. I wear Kirkland pants. if you didn't know everybody this is kind of funny games daily we run you through the biggest news you need to know about each and every weekday of course if you want to be part of the show be part of it live youtube.com slash kind of funny games with your super chats they should be about the day's news that we're jumping into talking about whatever little shenanigans you want like Aaron Lyme welcome back Tim glad you're back how about the rocks wig in that Moana trailer lol Jesus fuck they just didn't even try my god we got him they're like rock record it go for it What'd they do to my boy, Tamatoa?

5:51I don't know who that is. I didn't watch the trailer. Oh, the shiny guy? Is he bad, too? I don't like how he looks. Is it the same voice? I don't like anything about this. I'm going to be honest. Okay, fair enough. Finally. James Jameson says, Tim, we missed you. Claw Master Super Chats, with the return of Daredevil Born Again Season, can we get an impression quote of the Kingpin saying, Vanessa. Vanessa. Vanessa. Vanessa. I doubt you did. I didn't realize that that was out. Vanessa. Episode one. Watched it last night while I did my taxes. that's some good shit that is some good shit i am so happy we're back and also this release schedule leading right into punisher the one last kill yeah special at the end of may oh yeah good i enjoyed myself last night yeah uh aol america online says oh my god it's tim i hope you've been doing well it's so nice to see you thank you very much tim one question that isn't in the super chats but was in the regular chats it was at my breakfast table today when my wife asked me when are you coming back do we have a are we are you honing in on a date here yes that is something that I do have the answer to that I haven't actually.

6:49Let me look. You don't have to debut it now. I'm debuting it right now. Everybody, we have breaking news. Monday the 13th of April. Monday the 13th. Like two weeks away. Tim will be back. Maybe by then the other fog machine works by then. Of course, we couldn't do this without our producers on Patreon.com slash kindoffunny. So thank you Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Psalm twining. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. time for some five items on the Roper Report a pick a dozen okay we used it all up in that well I figured since it was only doing the one I just wouldn't do it you know you could have done the one and done the sound effect doesn't matter see that's nice number one on the Roper Report new Xbox CEO could make Game Pass less expensive report says this is Eddie over at GameSpot.

7:47Microsoft Gaming has a new CEO with Asha Sharma take, damn it, fucking Mike put it in my head yesterday. Asha Sharma taking over for Phil Spencer. And one big move she is reportedly considering is the change to Xbox Game Pass to make it less expensive. The information reported that one of her ambitions is to help make quote future consoles and products like Game Pass more enticing to a broader range of consumers. To that end, the report said Sharma might look to revamp pricing models for Game Pass to quote-unquote offer lower-priced tiers. In October 2025, Microsoft raised Game Pass prices with Game Pass Ultimate going up by a whopping 50 % to$30 a month.

8:28Game Pass Premium, meanwhile, costs$15 a month, while Game Pass Essential goes for$10 a month. PC Game Pass costs$16.50. So used to percentages as we talk about layoffs per month. in terms of a lower price tier for game pass it has been reported that microsoft could offer an ad-based tier for game pass in the future in fact it was reported that people may be able to watch ads in exchange for playing game pass titles for free lots of other entertainment services offer ad-based tiers that are free or discounted compared to ad-free versions with one prime example being netflix its plan with ads starts at eight dollars a month which is a hefty discount compared to the standard plan of$18 a month.

9:14GameSpot has contacted Microsoft in an attempt to get clarification on the suggestions made in the information's piece. Intriguingly, in the same report, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said he and Sharma have kicked around ideas for how Netflix and Xbox could work together on subscription bundles. Nothing has been confirmed, but Peters said he, quote, wouldn't eliminate any possibilities. Quote, you would have to do it in a way that works for the consumer and works for both companies. And frankly, I think Microsoft's still trying to figure out how to make the Game Pass bundle work for Microsoft. You don't say, Mr.

9:48Peters. You don't say. But what I like about Asha's thinking is it's all about how do we do more? And it's already been exciting to watch. Has it? It's been exciting to watch from the outside, Greg, as I sit here, not at the desk, but watching episodes of Games Daily and Gamescast over the last couple of weeks with so much news going on. some good most bad some hey we'll have to wait and see uh with all of this i do think it's not misleading but this headline being they the new ceo could make game pass less expensive there's a lot of heavy lifting with that could of course and then on top of that it's like everything that you just said doesn't scream to me like they're making it cheaper it's just they might offer cheaper tiers which to me doesn't seem like it solves problems you know what i mean i feel like the best value in gaming it's like we're talking about the the value of the first party titles like when we start talking about the lesser uh xbox game pass tiers or xbox live gold all of the things playstation i'm gonna bring them into it too because there's been a lot of talk the last couple weeks about them playstation plus getting rid of playstation plus simplifying it what does that mean then there was a rumors that probably were the type of things that the rumors popped up because that news dropped so people can come up with a rational sounding hypothesis uh which would be that they're trying to just make playstation network just like a one like one tier that people can get and exactly simplify it and all the different ways maybe you get crunchy roll maybe you get all these like bonus things because people have found a lot of value there like when you look at the streaming tv side of things like it is wild how successful the like cross bundles have been where it's like you get hbo and disney plus complete competitors but they found value in bundling together to be able to maximize subscriptions and all of that stuff there's just such a wild west that we're in right now and it feels like we've been in the wild west of this streaming subscription service for video games and tv and music and all of it for so long yeah that it's impossible to call what any of these people are going to do the only thing that we know for sure is that HBO is going to rebrand again at some point.

12:02Of course they have. That's the only constant. It has to be. But taking it back here to the Xbox stuff, it's like, yeah, this nothing bad is being said. I think that that's something to highlight, right? It's just like, hey, okay. It's not like this is inherently bad news. I just don't think that it's necessarily good news. And I just, I don't think it's all the problem. I just think it's crazy to me. the amount of headlines we're already getting out of Asha being CEO when clearly it would be like right now if Wendy's walked in and said, Greg, you're, and this isn't me insulting. This isn't an insult to Asha.

12:36Greg, you're now the CEO of Wendy's. I'm like, oh, maybe we make biggies. Maybe we fucking, what's the fucking thing? The drink. Frosties. Frosties. Biggies. That's a good idea. Maybe we call Frosties biggies. Maybe I should be in charge of Wendy's. It could happen. But I'm like, I don't know. we lower the price of the baked potato maybe we give free and people are just shouting headlines at her she's had a fucking conversation probably over a cocktail with this guy of Netflix what if we bundle it together I don't know what if maybe we got games don't we we got games don't we do we have games we let a lot of those people go yes but no but kinda but not really but with that though like that there is you know a system here that could make sense where netflix of course to be invested in video games xbox if anything has the games sure they just brute force their way into doing that but they do yeah um so yeah coming up with some type of i don't know like that my answer my question is this does making to your point none of this is bad news does any of this solve the problem xbox currently has no game pass is too expensive but but the thing the the problem it could solve is people playing xbox right and hey there's a good it tim well i mean if you've had all these other tiers and cloud gaming and xbox anywhere here's a fortnight fucking thousand bucks every time you do i'm specifically saying this from the if they partnered with netflix netflix the number one subscription service that there is in terms of signups right like i just feel like that is something that is way more enticing than how do I play Hades on my Netflix account I don't really get it at least there's a lot of normies out there that I think that that could be a selling point to that would never sign up for Game Pass otherwise I'm reaching here okay I understand that but like just trying to find the conversion rate would be so small I think yeah but like if it's not a conversion rate if it was just like you have it you know I don't know yeah but then we're back to the bullshit right where they like how they're oh we're gonna this is the thing uh barrett help me out who called this out imran when they brought co-pilot into xbox now so that they could probably wrap up next time they say how many active co-pilot users they have they can just include these fucking numbers yeah make it look like this is happening but back to netflix already has games you could already be playing oxen free and oxen free 2 and all this shit yeah it's actually doing that yeah i mean okay i i talked myself out of it you talked me out of it whatever it's one of I mean, like in the long run, if this, and I, you know, I'm already Xbox game pass subscriber.

15:09If this get a Netflix person, if I get one bill now and I get both cool, you know? Yeah. But even then, even then, am I going to go through the loops of doing it? I don't know. Cause I see it all the time. I know there's a million HBO Netflix Hulu's going on. Yeah. But going back to the, the game pass conversation here, it's just like, it's, it's too early for any of this to even matter. I do think that the biggest thing is the Xbox brand needs to figure out what it's doing. They're clearly trying to figure that out. I think that it is, they're not in a great position because the, I don't need to retread everything that's happened in the last 10 years, but where we're at now, it's like we now have a new CEO that's talking a lot and that could be a good thing, but I feel like there's so much kind of hesitancy towards believing in Xbox at this point.

15:58100%. That you, every single headline is kind of taken with the eye roll and laughs. You know what I mean? Yeah. Sneers and jokes. Well, it's back to it. It was just like, I'm shocked how many headlines we've gotten from Asha talking project Helix, et cetera. Whereas like, again, if Wendy's is still looking at me to come in and be the new CEO, the first thing I would say is cool. I'm going to go quiet for like six months. So I forgot how to make a fucking frosty. I mean, that's a biggie. I don't know. I'll get back to you. I'm right there with you where it's like how to, how to fix Xbox, the, you know, the God, remember when the question was how to fix Halo?

16:31Yeah. That was how to fix Xbox. I feel like the answer would be, at this point, with everything we know about how things have happened with Phil and just with Sarah and everything, it would be they announced this, they announced the Project Helix thing, even that I personally wouldn't have done. Or you wrap it into the messaging of, hey, we're taking some time to figure this out. We will be back with an announcement. put a time on themselves like hey we're celebrating the Xbox the 25th anniversary you know what I mean give us a second we're fucked up we're fucked up you know maybe don't say that own it you know what I mean we're all turned around here because she kind of said that in her opening statement right yeah and we need to fix this but it's like own it just I think a little bit more and then just yeah be quiet and just come back and then have a big blowout reintroduction party that can get people excited and be like, oh, this is what Xbox is.

17:33Any questions you might have had, they're answered now. This is an Xbox. No. This is Xbox. This. But they're not doing that. Instead, they're talking to Netflix. And again, maybe they will eventually do that, but I would just not be talking yet because I don't know how to do that. Tim, would you like breaking news that's good news? I would love that. We have breaking news, everybody. It's about Nintendo Switch 2 game pricing. We go to Nintendo press release. Beginning in May 2026 and starting with pre-orders for Yoshi and the Mysterious Book, new Nintendo published digital titles exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2 will have an MSRP that is different from physical versions.

18:13Nintendo games offer the same experiences, whether packaged or digital format, and this change simply reflects the different costs associated with producing and distributing each format and offers players more choice in how they can buy and play Nintendo games. As always, retail partners set their own prices for physical and digital games, and pricing for each title may vary. We go to Wario64 who reports, Wario and the Mysterious Book Switch 2 Physical is$69.99. Digital is$59.99. so we're looking at a ten dollar discount from nintendo if you buy switch to exclusive software digitally i mean it's an interesting move right i feel like this should have been something that existed for the last generation of yeah yeah um but yeah with pricing getting as outrageous as it is just as a standard you know for yoshi to be 70 like i know that the price of games conversation can get kind of tiresome but like i just i personally like i i do think that like having played so many of these nintendo games it's like there is a difference like all of these games are not worth 70 they're not equal and it's like for them to be 70 like i really hope that i'm wrong there's very few things i love more than yoshi's island but other yoshi games that hasn't necessarily been the case and my expectation of this game is i think the 70 price tax probably going to be too high i hope i'm wrong i hope this game's awesome but it reminds i think it's going to be closer to princess peach showtime than to yoshi's island and um with that it's like all right cool this is good news i wish that them exploring the price scale that they've been talking about a lot recently uh had a little bit more exploration uh to it but this is at least i don't want to say it's a step in the right direction it's a step because i feel like this it's not enough for me uh and even then i do think that there's going to be people mad that like buy physical games instead of digital like me but yeah i was going to ask you from that perspective you are buying all the physical stuff there's just i get it you know i i i'm a realist to the point that physical games are on their way out and that physical media in general is on its way out as a um mainstream entry level or entryway uh entry points to getting products because yes there will always be vinyls are selling more now than they ever have right there is a market for physical things and like gen z are revolting against the digital era there's all this fucking that you see but it's like the reality is that's still a niche thing compared to like the main way people are buying them it's going to be digital nintendo has been the the standout opposite of that in the in the last couple years because people do buy physical nintendo games the split between physical and digital Nintendo is vastly different than it is on other consoles.

21:06So maybe they're starting to see a difference. I do think the game key cards have a lot to do with that because the Nintendo games specifically are game key cards. Like we, I don't think have seen a Nintendo published title that is actually that uses the, you know, the key card shit. So that makes sense to me. It's not the best news, but hey, at least these things still exist. Yeah. Yeah. As a digital person, I mean, not even as a digital person, because whatever. I just like them exploring the scale to some degree. This has always been the conversation from the moment PlayStation entered this system.

21:41And I say for us as a real quick, I said that backwards. To be clear, Nintendo games are on the thing. They're not key card game. Oh, I thought I see. I was the opposite of a star. Whatever. Anyways, I've always thought this should be the case that we should do. There should be a break somewhere. But I understand not pissing off suppliers, but I understand, or, you know, retailers. but yeah we're in a different place we were we're in a completely different place like that almost doesn't matter right of course yeah yeah like that there's always differences when it comes to the stuff but it's like it's crazy when it's like you look at nintendo's history of working with retailers like the fact that they for years on and off just aren't on amazon what yeah that's wild they just don't give a fuck yeah good for them we'll see uh when when yoshi hits in may doesn't help you with your tomodachi but of course that was a switch one game so i guess it would be exempt from this to begin with.

22:30I digress. Story number two, technically. PlayStation reportedly shuts down another first-party partner studio. This is the one, the only, kind of funny, Games Daily Award winner. Rebecca Valentine at IGN.com. PlayStation has reportedly shut down Dark Outlaw Games, a studio hired by the console maker to make an unknown first-party title, as well as laid off a number of other individuals involved in mobile development. This comes from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who posted the news on Blue Sky Today. Dark Outlaw Games was founded by Jason Blundell at Sony's behest, and was only quietly announced by Blundell on a podcast in March of last year, after having been rumored the year before.

23:12At the time, he said they had been, quote, working away in the shadows for a while, and noted that it was on a first-party project for Sony, but the studio never officially announced what its project was. dark outlaw was staffed by a number of former members of deviation games blundell's previous venture blundell a venture a veteran veteran of activision and treyarch on call of duty founded deviation games in june 2021 with fellow treyarch veteran dave anthony similarly to work on a first party sony project blundell left the studio in 2022 layoffs took place in 2023 and in 2024 deviation similarly shut down before it could announce its project Schreier notes that this decision seems to have come from Sony which has also laid off a number of individuals in mobile development internally with roughly 50 jobs lost overall man just more and more and it's so tough too because it's hard to not get into the doom and gloom sense when so much of this news starts to add up in a way where we're like alright we're waiting on the Playstation games you know and this generation of Playstation 5 there was more of a lull in the middle than we had in the PlayStation 4, right?

24:23Just I think like where the lulls fell is just a different place. And that's, I think, upsetting when it felt like there was so much momentum. And now there's a lot of questions and we look at all the live service stuff and it's like, all right, cool. It feels like that's all getting in the way. Then there's also these mobile initiatives. Like there's a lot of stories we've covered on Games Daily over the last forever. And we're just like, why are they doing this? Why would they put effort here? What are they trying to do? They're chasing this thing that like, why? We don't need Uncharted mobile.

24:47like that's not what are we doing yeah um and then you get the fortnight layoffs yesterday and it's like damn fortnight the golden standard the example of what a live service game what all these people are striving to do and it's like it's not working well enough for them because the decisions they're making to continue to try to do more and more and more even themselves though right it's like fortnight chasing the need to reinvent and add more and more and more and more and more which like on paper is a good thing but then in reality it just creates this monster that always has to change and always needs something new to buy something new to to like play or think about or talk about and it i think gets in the way of just allowing video games as a whole to be their own thing and to not put other developers in situation or publishers specifically in positions where they need to chase these random highs when fortnight's like creating new ones yeah um so yeah this is like again just another casualty of a war that didn't need to happen for sure yeah i mean it's an interesting one because we didn't know anything about the studio right so they weren't ready for prime time to begin with at least according to sony so i'm sure i wonder behind the scenes blundle saying it on a podcast if that was a calculated move of play station be like well keep quiet it's a way of something to say no let's not go about and he's just like i can kind of see writing on the wall i feel like i'm being shoved in a corner here i'd rather say something so that there's a flare out there that we're doing something than to have this inevitable closure or not inevitable closure but in the yarn i'm spinning right now for him the writing was on the wall do the thing get here and this happens and now at least there can be an article about it to say this is happening but it's like two interesting different tangents to go off on, right?

26:35Of number one from reading this alone and going through not only dark outlaw games, but then bringing up deviation. Brainstorm with me and Chad get involved as well. Outside of Vince, outside of, I guess what, Condry and Glenn, like, this is yet another example of the, I worked on the biggest IPs, the triplest of A's and now I'm going off to start my own studio and make the quadruple A game. It's me and a talented. It's that no moon studios. It's the one who did the game I can never remember, but just up North Ascension Studios. It's like, hey, here we are. These names that you don't necessarily know, but we've been on the biggest games of all time and now we're going off and they go off and they discover how hard it is to make a fucking game on their own as a new team.

27:25They bit off more than they could shoot. They went for the giant thing and we get a game that just cannot doesn't happen here because now we're killing things before we even let them get that point i mean the difference is though this is a first party sony project right like yes but no i i mean so like let's bring that i love that bring that thread in i don't think being a first party sony studio soon sony studio means what it used to mean i think when they started adding people to the roster and especially brand new studios to the roster then you're no longer talking about you you've worked with insomniac for years they've made some of your most cherished ip your most cherished games they're your ip and you go you know what time to put a ring on it like that shit isn't happening anymore because the market seems to be so competitive when this was happening with xbox snapping up studios and shit we need people making stuff exclusively for us yes i i do think though that there's still a difference though between all the other situations you named and this because i think those be like hey we're gonna go off and do our own thing is very different than we're gonna go off and do something with playstation and now it's scary that oh even that isn't gonna work sure right i feel like that's that is the thing is like what's gonna work you know playstation we're looking at him now and it's like we have sorrows very very right it looks awesome i hope it's as awesome and he went inside he'll talk about it soon um and then we have wolverine at the end of the year so hey cool we're about to have a uh potentially banger playstation 5 year like something that we've been looking forward to um and then of course we have uh intergalactic at some points yeah right and we have cory barlog's next project whenever that is so there are things that like we are expecting to see it even if they haven't been announced yet but then what you know it's like it's scary that it kind of feels like things are drying up uh in in the first party sony side of things and then when you look at the third party even that like left and right studios are closing or uh getting acquired by microsoft which may or may not affect playstation like right now they're still putting games on playstation will that change probably not but who knows i don't know it's just the All of this is like very disturbing and scary as a fan of playing video games on any console.

29:33It doesn't matter where. I think the other thing I would take away from this ride is, again, I don't think it matters as much to be first party. Because I think they were pushing this live service thing and chasing that initiative and bringing people to make games like that. Rather than what they've done before and what has worked before of. Cool, you're making games with us. Insomniac, now we'll buy you. We want to live with you. You're great. I think the fact that they are jettisoning projects, they are killing the live service things. I think the message has been received loud and clear. And especially with them even saying we're retreating from PC.

30:04Like we need to go back to being the PlayStation. That was the PS three PS four, mainly PS four. Like that's who we need to be. That's our identity. And that's what, again, as they said in their financials, right? Milking money out of the established PlayStation audience, which isn't chasing a live service. Yeah, no, I mean, and that's so true. It's just like that. The question is, is it possible to make up lost time? Like games take a long time to make. Games take a lot of money to make. And I just feel like the magical shift to, oh, hey, games of yore are back. And it's going to take three years to develop this game.

30:38And the budget is going to be a fraction of what you're expecting. And audiences are going to be okay with it. That last part is going to be a very, very big, tough pill to swallow. And everything I just said, I don't even know if it's possible. you know like with the rapid uh increase in in what tech is allowing like when you look at things like pisser it does allow games to look a lot better uh and you know less dev headroom needed to like actually hit all of these tech specs that are kind of the expectation at this point the expectation because that's what we've been sold and that's the product that we bought so So it's just like a double-edged sword that I am really not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on.

31:20Right. And like that is very scary because I do think that the getting rid of PlayStation Plus, whatever that ends up looking like, it's probably not going to be that big of a deal or like that big of a rebrand or whatever. But it could be part of a refocusing PlayStation. Yeah. Which I think is, I mean, what's needed. You go back to the episode, you've been gone, but the predictions episode where I was like, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. Like all these people need to fucking be, and people is the right word. All these shareholders need to eat shit. And it means that there's gonna be a lot of layoffs and it'd be a lot of closures and all this stuff, but you need to eat shit so you can get back to having realistic expectations.

31:55So PlayStation, if it can be, we're going to make single digit profits back to your fortnight stuff. Right? I wasn't on yesterday's episode to talk about this. Like the fortnight stuff is once again, flying too close to the sun. Cause you're too fucking greedy. And it's almost in the same conversation we keep having about AI of like, we're the biggest thing in the world, but we got to keep being the biggest thing in the world. So let's make, why does Fortnite need to be one game? It can be seven games. We'll put out the Rocket League knockoff, even though they are the Rocket League people, the Rocket League thing, the music thing, the Lego thing, and then guess what?

32:24Nobody fucking wants to play those. So shit, now we lay off a thousand people, close up some of those games, keep the ones that work, even though I would not hold your breath, they're going to be around forever. Unless there's a licensing deal with Lego that needs to happen. It's like, why didn't you just fucking be happy being the biggest fucking video game in the world? Oh, shareholders aren't going to be happy seeing you just make your profit stagnant. You need to go up. You need to go up. You need to go up, which is inevitably going to lead to this. What's the scariest part about this is really thinking about you saying it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.

32:55And the fear I have is it getting worse and shareholders losing the money and things not going in. It doesn't mean, you know what, let's go back to the drawing board and figure out a new way to make money with PlayStation. It means PlayStation's gone. That sounds impossible. I say that right now on March 25th, 2026. It sounds impossible that PlayStation might not make a console, might not exist, whatever. There is a reality though, that if we keep going down that path, it's like, it's not like the console is going to get cheaper. You know, they have no choice. PlayStation can't sell a PS five for$300.

33:29They just can't do it. That's just not the reality we are in or ever will ever be it again. And with that, it's all right, cool. Then why would people spend more money for less? yeah and like people will until they don't i know i know super chats uh case case dilla jason blundell is speaking on things on jc backfires twitch at the top of the hour i just love we live in a time where that's a statement yep sounds like he's gonna be on cnn but he's on jc this isn't me talking shit about jc blackfire i have no idea who that is but it's just funny that's the thing yeah i mean hey that's cool maybe hopefully that results in some good games daily stuff tomorrow.

34:09Aaron Lime says, considering how much, how the purchase slash creation of dark outlaw was under Herman Holst and Sony's closing things. Now I wonder how stable Herman's position is. Yeah. Herman, uh, you know, obviously handed an interesting, uh, ship to drive or to pilot here. And we'll see how this all nets out for him as we continue to see the repercussions of Jim Ryan. But I, for one, can't wait for fair games any day. Now we'll see there from Haven Studios. The amount of dollar signs in that title, it's going to be big. Kids love dollar signs in the titles. Speaking of dollar signs, I got them in my eyes because having a staff of 11 people in a studio in San Francisco is very expensive.