Next-Gen Xbox ‘Project Helix’ Announced - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.06.26

12:11Nicole Carpenter:a thousand dollar plus console you are not that you are dead in the water like i just don't especially the track record you have the i'm shocked

12:43Nicole Carpenter:Oh, everybody. It's Greg. Do you hear me? It is Greg. Do you hear me? There we go. Okay.

12:49Ryan McCaffrey:So restarting the point, I think it is so shocking to have her come out and say this and have this Project Helix and have the graphic. I understand the one point of like, hey, let's get everybody excited. Let's show we have stuff. But I really feel like they should have pumped the brakes and gone to the drawing board. Because when I read this letter she put out, right, when she took the job.

13:11Tim Gettys:Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox, starting with console, which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it. Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of a single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile cloud, Xbox should feel seamless, instant, and worthy of the communities we serve.

13:48Tim Gettys:We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise. obviously that last part speaks so much to a hybrid system to a hey this one where it works but when we're talking about a renewed commitment to xbox and that starts with the console talking about it connects us to fans and players the people who've invested in it like i don't think

14:10Ryan McCaffrey:you have the wins right now the track record right now to come out and be like cool the next xbox is

14:17Nicole Carpenter:1100 1200 and hopefully i'm way wrong on what that pricing would be if you scope that down low right what we were talking about with the steam machine when that originally got announced we're like man if you can price that at 600 right around the consoles you have a very compelling argument for that box and then to see fucking valve come out this spring and be like hey this ram thing is fucking up everything and so we are we will get back to you on what we're doing with this that if valve who has infinite money a war chest of money who i'm sure is encouraged to be weird and take losses and whatever be good to your user if they can't do it fucking sati and adela is not going to let them come out and take a bath on a console to get it to you cheaper at which way

15:02Ryan McCaffrey:they're going to put out a giant console it's not going to sell and that is the death of xbox in

15:06Greg Miller:terms of being a hardware maker imo yeah i mean the more i'm i'm thinking about it again with asha being so adamant about a return to xbox that has to be everyone that is invested into xbox and not just the diehards that will run out and spend any price on a device i'm now becoming more convinced there has to be sure microsoft xbox makes this big premium device that's high end all the bells and whistles does everything but there's there's got to be a lower tier a lower entry point as well

15:39Ryan McCaffrey:and i roll my eyes at that now i roll my eyes and not at you paris lily at that decision of like no

15:46Nicole Carpenter:no how many generations of fucking complicated here are all the passes of game pass ultimate and here are all the skews of the thing and then we're all like well the fucking S is clearly holding back the X no it's not shit isn't even run no no make one fucking box you want to be successful Xbox worry about games and making great games and putting them on one box that people can play like I'm not saying Playstation's got it 100 % right but at least them being like hey yo we're leaving the PC market because we've been that embarrassed like they're focused they have a message people know where to go get those games and it seems to be working for them it don't even get me started on how it works for nintendo like the message for xbox has been too fucking complicated it is time to make this fucking simple i'm sick of word salads and clearly so are the consumers and they don't they didn't believe in it when phil and sarah had been talking about it for years in years and trying to show the dominoes and here's what like this is a the band-aid is off we can have a fresh start if i if they said greg phil's retiring we're pissing off sarah bond she's quitting you're taking over i would immediately be like cool we've tried that strategy and it's not being accepted and i do not believe up top is going to give me time here i do not believe microsoft's going to give me the time needed to make that be a success so go make a very powerful xbox that we can put things exclusive on

17:11Greg Miller:so i'm with you on everything that you just said but it contradicts everything that you said prior to that because if you create this box that's premium that's high price then who the hell is gonna not everyone's gonna go buy it right oh but i'm saying make a normal box thing no okay and that's the point and that's where and that's where we need to see what asha's point was about a return to xbox is that about making one box that isn't the super high-end premium thing but is playing pc again what valve's doing with the steam machine that is playing pc games can play the legacy xbox games but is more affordable so everyone can go ahead and adopt it yeah are they now going to go back to subsidizing hardware so maybe that makes this premium device more affordable because you're not going to charge a super high price obviously the ram all these things factor into this again i think this year and starting with gdc and going into summer game fest into their 25th anniversary is a lot about them cleaning up the message of what xbox is and where xbox is going and who they want to come along for the ride as far as hardware goes because then you still have the multi-platform strategy i don't think they're going back to exclusivity so if i can buy a playstation playstation 5 pro and i'm playing forza horizon 6 and fable and gears e-day on that why am i gonna go buy that device when i can get the ps5 pro cheaper so all these things factor in on with hardware so i i keep coming back to the same thing again what does return to xbox mean because the messaging over the past few years told us that sure we'll provide a console but we don't care where you play but then you're telling us now you do care where we play so how does that work crypto c in the chat says why would xbox clear up the

19:07Nicole Carpenter:message all of a sudden because everyone who ran xbox left there's a new person in charge this is the this is the closest you're going to get to a clean slate protocol where it's like now we can go which is back to my point of i think it's cool to announce hey double helix and we have a super

19:28Tim Gettys:chat over here uh zero super chat and says this eight second announcement seems like a distraction

19:33Ryan McCaffrey:from last week lame there's definitely that to read into it all right let's change the narrative

19:37Nicole Carpenter:let's get going i'll just hear she loves games she's pushing and talk about it my take on this is knowing how bad everything's been going for xbox clearly and what i imagine sati and adela and Microsoft are saying, right? I think all of this seems rushed where I would not be shocked if you're saying this and then we're not going to hear about Project Helix anytime soon. And by the time we hear about the next Xbox or just what Xbox's future is, what Asha's and Matt Booney's vision is for Xbox if it has changed. And that's my thing where it's like, I understand you're making the money off of the games being on PlayStation.

20:17Nicole Carpenter:I don't think you're making money off the hardware anymore. I don't think a PC console hybrid is going to make the money. They want it to make Microsoft wants it to make, which again, I think takes them out of the hardware business. So I have to imagine you're sitting there like, what are we fucking doing? Why are we doing that? Why are we even trying? Like, just go third party now, just pull the plug. No more hardware. We're putting everything out everywhere and go like, I feel like there is so much change right now. This is a Xbox. Nevermind that they're 25 years old. Well, maybe, Xbox I guess at 25 is going through a midlife crisis all right what do they do are they buying the convertible are they gonna get into pottery nobody fucking knows but like this seems rushed this seems like you go through the breakup and you're on the phone you're like I am moving to Canada I'm gonna go do like whoa pump me in the you just got punched in the face in a prize fight you got to sit there take a breath and figure out what it is this does to me feel like yes let's

21:15Ryan McCaffrey:change the narrative talk about this but i will be shocked if the bean counters at xbox get to the point where one day we are playing project helix whatever they call it and it is a pc hybrid and it is running if it's giving me the performance i'd expect for 1200 and it's not just some it's the steam deck innards inside of a thing that also runs an xbox but i don't know i'm i feel like xbox doesn't know what they're doing so i don't believe anything they're saying they are my friend who just went through a painful breakup and i'm like we're at the bar and i'm like whatever

21:48Nicole Carpenter:sure man that sounds like a good idea that could be what you do yeah well why not yeah okay cool i don't believe any of it i don't believe it paris but but but do you think part of it could

21:57Greg Miller:be as simple as they've already gone into these agreements these contractual agreements with amd to make this chip we have to make this device we've already committed to it we we can't go back on it. So we can't just go all full third party, but then at the same time, we can't go full exclusive because that wasn't working. So there's some pivot happening here. And to your point, I think they got to get the message out on what that's going to be. And I don't think they even a hundred percent know what that message is just yet. But to the point of why they announced this now is because they have to start talking to their partners and developers next week at GDC.

22:41Greg Miller:I mean, Jason Ronald's literally hosting a keynote talking about their next-gen strategy. There's going to be so many questions that come out of that that they have to be prepared to start answering these things. But I agree. I think this GDC stuff happens. They talk about the concept of what Helix is going to be and this merging of console and PC. And then I do think Helix kind of goes dark for a while. I don't think we're going to see what Helix, the hardware itself looks like oh no way showcase no way maybe at the 25th anniversary maybe but i think they go kind of dark on that and then it's just more concept of how developers are going to take advantage of the new this and that and blah and the merging we're going to make it easier to develop on this and you just make it one time and it works on pc and on helix and all these things so yeah it's it's a lot it's a lot and a lot of this is xbox is doing because the messaging has shifted so much over the years that you don't know what to believe anymore i mean look let's just take it back to what playstation or obviously what jason tryer reported the other day they're basically saying we don't want to go all in on pc so we're just going to scale it back and go back to what we knew worked with you know keeping our single player games exclusive and there's the gta six of things the ps5 pro like they're doing their thing whereas i'm not sure xbox 100 knows what theirs is going to be for the next gen other than we are making this box it's going to run on windows it will play xbox games and it will play pc games and how they're messaging oh that's not i know this strays a little bit the game pass of things is that going to stay the same or you start to modify that day and day like there's so many things they still have to answer on that front but you ask it's going to start next week you asked the million dollar question i think at the front

24:38Ryan McCaffrey:of is it just that this is too far gone that sarah bond and phil's vision of a premium xbox that was xbox and pc is like already in some kind of production they've already ordered the parts the checks have cleared yeah i mean like i think that's the reality of it in a lot of different ways of why you wouldn't deviate from the plan is well fuck it's happening no matter what which again in my opinion a terrible time for phil to retire a terrible time to lose sarah over this but whatever i think there's a great chance that yes that is the point pairs they are too far gone down that road because again we've heard about it conversations have already happened with partners let alone yes devs and whatever you're doing at gdc and if you want to talk about the looming fucking Xbox's cooked headline.

25:23Ryan McCaffrey:It is the fact that like when Jason writes about this in five years and it is, they were saddled with this machine.

25:30Nicole Carpenter:The vision, they knew the vision wasn't working anymore. They knew the vision wasn't working. They had to put it out. They put it out. They did not have, like, we're fucked. They are fucked if that happens.

25:42Greg Miller:But, I mean, I don't know if you saw, was it Tom Warren posted a picture? I guess they did another internal conversation or whatever with Asha, but Satya Nadella himself was a part of it as well. Sure. He's like, where is all this

25:56Nicole Carpenter:money I'm spending going?

25:57Greg Miller:I need to see this place. It could be. But see, I think that's the one thing about Xbox, though, that, sure, and we talked about this already, Activision changed everything for them, but that is also part of it. They've essentially committed $80 billion to gaming, and whether they continue to make hardware or not, they're not going to leave the gaming space. I mean, look at all the games that are coming out over the next few years. So there's definitely a commitment to gaming. It's just how are they? You can't get rid of the Xbox brand. I think that is one thing as far as Microsoft goes, I think it's still one of their signature brands as far as name recognition.

26:37Tim Gettys:Yeah.

26:37Greg Miller:But how they evolve that and get people to understand what Xbox is going to be moving forward is the real thing. But I keep going back to what Asha initially came out and said and what she's reiterated. This return to Xbox, it starts with the console. We want to make it a core thing and all that. How do you do that in a world where the games are on other platforms? And how do you get someone to convince someone, I'm going to buy your, and again, I always talk about someone that can only afford one device. If I can only buy one box, why am I buying your box instead of buying a PlayStation or just building a PC?

27:16Greg Miller:Why would I buy it?

27:17Ryan McCaffrey:that's the thing they have to convince people of i love your optimism and i don't share it and maybe it's just because we're in a dark place and it's maybe i'm dr strange seeing a million timelines my concern is it's going to go this way it's too late to change this next gen plan so they have to keep going with this no one buys it so it shits the bed and there's another huge black eye for xbox and microsoft says great this is our chance they kill xbox it becomes microsoft gaming we have had 25 years 26 years whatever when they decide to be like of xbox and it's been fantastic but we're turning the page we no longer believe that it's all one box xbox doesn't really encompass what we're doing publishing on playstation pc cloud etc and we are folding all that into microsoft gaming and that's what it becomes but i also think that's why asha is now the

28:12Greg Miller:CEO. I think that's part of it as well. To save it or do the handoff? To try and save it before they hand it off because they easily could have just, all right, this isn't working. We're a Microsoft game and we're just, we're a third party publisher. Screw this. We're out. It seems like this is the last, let's try and save again, the Xbox name, the brand of Xbox. Let's see, because if you can, if you go over in her resume and if you ever watch her in an interview, man, hell, She got me convinced on AI. I just listened to her talk. But it seems like that's what she's good at. She's a good she's good at coming into something and basically growing an existing product, getting user engagement to that product.

28:55Greg Miller:So it kind of makes sense that, all right, we're bringing her in to lead us into the next phase of whatever Xbox is going to be. Let's see if we can salvage the hardware and make it still a thing. If not, then to your point, Greg, we just become a third-party publisher where Microsoft gaming, maybe game pass goes away completely. Just buy all the games. Who knows? But these are the things I think over the next calendar year, they have to answer before that hardware we assume is coming out. What holiday, 2027.

29:28Ryan McCaffrey:Maybe T-mails in the regular chest. How is Greg agreeing? Asha is there to grow Xbox when he just said, he thinks they should kill, they should kill it off. Well, I'm not saying that I'm, I was agreeing with Paris of, Oh, that's why she brought it. I think somebody made the point when it first happened of like, this really feels like when you bring in somebody for at home care to ease them to death. Like, I don't know. I don't know Asha from a hole in the wall. So I'm not saying it's her as much as Microsoft's bringing in this person who's not gaming, not in the gaming world to take over and learn, which is great.

29:59Ryan McCaffrey:And obviously you can run a business and not be a gamer, but I think they're coming in and be like, we need a business person to figure out if we can make dollars and cents off of this, which brings up this one from Onimus Prime

30:09Tim Gettys:who super chats and says how do you just go third party and not fuck over your players who have libraries built for over the years every Janus Xbox is dead and it's always wrong Onimus Prime I don't know if you ever watched a show called Game of Thrones

30:22Ryan McCaffrey:I would based on this question and this is all hyperbole conjecture you're on an internet talk show I really feel in a lot of different ways Hodor from Game of Thrones is the same thing as Phil Spencer from Xbox where Phil Spencer was the one trying to hold that door and make that make sense and make that matter.

30:39Tim Gettys:I see so many people in here saying, uh, Alex says, yes, that's me on multiple things. There was another super chat in here. Um, let me get it before I lose my point to, uh, from all the way up here. Thank you for chatting. Uh, Lord foosh, who said lifelong Xbox user Helix gives me hope the last 15 years of my digital games library depends on it. I hear you. I understand you.

31:01Nicole Carpenter:You are rare. you are very rare and microsoft is seeing how far that fandom library takes them and they're

31:13Tim Gettys:clearly not happy with the financials of it so for them to say it's done and you flip out that you have this xbox library and be pissed off they're gonna say cool hold on to your xbox series x what are you talking about and when you get mad about that they're gonna say what about when you

31:29Nicole Carpenter:had an SNES and those cartridges didn't go to your N64 like this isn't something that's radically different you've never heard of granted we're all spoiled understandably so and I'm not I'm the guy who preaches how much I love digital games and the people are always talking about Greg physical

31:44Ryan McCaffrey:this that your libraries I get it I'm not saying you're wrong I'm saying I don't think Microsoft gives a fuck about you and I think when they finally are like listen we need to make the money

31:56Nicole Carpenter:we spent 69 billion dollars on activision blizzard we need to make the money they're not mad that alex is mad they don't give a shit that alex is mad that his 15 years of digital games are gone and gone being that they're on a thing you have to get like and don't get me wrong i'm not saying this right i'm i'm the one out here all the time being like yo it fucking sucks that it feels like gaming corporations don't give a shit about you because they don't that sucks i'm sorry i'm not making that but i'm saying when the rubber hits the road these people don't care that a small percent of you are mad they care about getting money from people on playstation pc wherever they're putting these games i agree but at least trying to trying to be a little optimistic what

32:42Greg Miller:you just said and again this is we're so into the multitude like i i want everyone to be very clear

32:48Nicole Carpenter:I don't know the new regime. I hope I'm fucking wrong across the board. I hope they say we fucking love it. Here's the PC hybrid console for$700. I will be first in line to buy it. I'm stoked about having a console PC. I love that idea. I just don't believe anything anymore.

33:05Greg Miller:But that's exactly the point. We don't know the new leadership. We don't know the new direction yet. Like you said, I hope they prove you wrong. As a consumer, as someone that loves games, someone that doesn't want to see the Xbox brand, you know, just completely die off and become Microsoft gaming, at least hearing allegedly what the project Helix is going to be. This is the opposite of exact everything that you're saying that they do want to take care of that person, Alex, that has the digital library that goes all the way back to the original Xbox. We're going to bring it along with you. So you don't feel left behind in that way, but we're charting this new path into this hybrid environment we're gonna bring pc games into this hardware let's move forward but to what we said at the beginning none of that shit works if it's 1500 yeah yeah

34:00Ryan McCaffrey:that's what they got to still figure out yeah uh over here in the super chats lord foosh comes back and says i 100 agree but i have hope anyway and i want you to have hope i do yeah i will i

34:10Nicole Carpenter:I have hope that Xbox can do something.

34:13Ryan McCaffrey:It's heart versus head. I've seen, I mean, to be clear, I believed in Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond's vision. I think that that was a one, if you could have Xbox as its own business entity, removed from having Microsoft on top of it, I believe in that vision and where we were going in the future and having the ROG and having this premium console and having the cloud and having it on your TV app

34:35Nicole Carpenter:and having like, that is a, I think, functional and profitable business, but it's fucking Microsoft that said that's not enough profit. That is not enough profit for what we've put in. And again, they're the bean counters. They're the ones, they're the ones I think that fucked it up. And so now take Asha and the new regime out of it. I don't put anyone into it. Put Kevin in there. I don't believe that Microsoft's going to let Kevin make the decisions that are good for us and good for your library and good for games. No,

35:06Greg Miller:I mean, that's the reality of it. like, you know, we're joking at the top about, you know, my real job and how busy I am. We just went through leadership change at the end of last year. And my new boss is essentially like, it doesn't matter what the previous regime was doing. This is what we're doing now. And to the point, we don't know Asha yet. We don't know what mandates potentially have been put on her, you know, from the top. We have to still wait and see. I mean, everything she's saying sounds great but how does that play out in execution that that'll be the the reality of it and let me just say this one other thing before we move on like oh i got tons of stupid yeah yeah i'm a fan of xbox play anywhere i me too this is an xbox the mark the marketing of it some of it right but the idea of i buy a game once and i get to play it across multiple devices I'm all in yeah obviously x cast we're all big fans of game pass day and date the whole thing until it got to 30 bucks I'm like I can't call this the best value in gaming anymore because it cost a damn much but the concept of game pass sure fan of it look the genie's out of the bottle now that I think anyone thinking they're going to go all the way back to full exclusivity you're fooling yourself it's just I don't think that's happening to to what you said Greg 69 billion and Activision tells me they got to make money.

36:32Greg Miller:So they're going to continue to put their, make as many access points to their games as possible. I I'm a fan of that because I think screw exclusive play games, wherever the hell you want, who fucking cares. Right. But we are also in a reality and Phil obviously talked about this for many years. They are deeply in third place and it didn't matter what they're doing. They did not, they log again. What did he say? They lost the most important generation, the digital generation. So now they got to try and do something different. Obviously, what the previous regime was doing, I think a lot of that DNA will continue.

37:08Greg Miller:But clearly, you bring in new leadership, something changes. It will not be 100 % what we were seeing even just a week ago. Something has changed and how that plays out. Like, this is what I think. I think short term, you're really not going to see much. but i think over the next 12 to 18 to 24 months that's where we're going to start seeing the impact of whatever asha has planned and leadership has planned for xbox so we'll have to see but i am with the customer the consumer 100 look we we want we want the corporations to be the good guys we want them to do the right thing by us but the reality of it is we look at the real world right now, that is not always the case.

37:50Greg Miller:So if there is a very unpopular change or something that happens with Xbox, don't be shocked. That's all I can say on that. It would not surprise me at all.

38:00Tim Gettys:We, of course, have so much more show to get to and a few super chats. I'd still like to pepper in, but I'd love to do them after I tell you about the Kind of Funny membership. Of course, remember if you love us doing live talk shows each and every weekday on Twitch, YouTube, podcast services, we need you to go pick up a Kind of Funny membership. YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games. Patreon.com slash kind of funny apple and spotify you can get all of our shows ad free get your daily dose of me greg miller in a series i call greg way and of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business but right now you're not using your benefits so here's a word from our sponsors this episode is brought to you by factor my go-to shortcut for great food fast cold days big goals and no time to cook factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals designed by dieticians and crafted by chefs.

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41:02Ryan McCaffrey:A couple... We have breaking news happening on top of already other Nintendo White House news, but we're going to just get... Let me just knock out a few things here. Uh, Cody says in a super chat, I don't have$3 ,000 to build a PC. So a trusted$1 ,000 trusted PC and console sounds fine to me. My thing there is, do you trust them to do this and nail it right? Uh, over, there was another one in here talking about like that. They're in on this too, that they would be about, oh, here it was. Sorry.

41:31Tim Gettys:Casper, uh, at$1 ,000 or$1 ,200 for the performance of a 50, 80 or a 50, 70 TI is a steal. and it can also play GTA and console games. They don't need to sell more than five to 10 million to be successful. IMO,

41:45Ryan McCaffrey:this is for the hardcore. Thank you for all that you do. That's my problem. My point is that it's undoubtedly for the hardcore. And that is not what Microsoft wants. Microsoft wants everybody to fucking have this machine, have it under their TVs, ask for, for Christmas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that, that if you were to come out and have the launch, there's a pizza bed in here too. Yeah. uh claw master says pizza bet between the steam machine and the helix which one will sell more and i think no vision on the future stats prices etc very hard question answer but right now based on this conversation steam machine steam machine has valve and is talking to an audience that understands buying pcs and gamers that want to do that and i think that they would look at that and go oh i trust valve i trust steam they're gonna do this they're gonna blah blah blah blah i think you jump the other ship to all right well i bought a series x as super larry writes and it says i sold my series x a year ago after seeing the direction of travel uh what yeah i've seen the direction of travel why invest in a platform that doesn't have a future that narrative is wrapped around xbox right now and coming out with a very expensive machine that plays their games and pc games just doesn't i think drive home the message you want to be like i'm doing it i'm investing i'm jumping in on that so pizza bet between you me claw master i'll say steam machine but again maybe the helix comes on is like hey we are selling it for 500 and we did do all this stuff and i go holy

43:15Tim Gettys:shit that's great it all works out but i don't know about that paris you ready for some breaking news yes let's do it we turn our eyes to aftermath dot site where nicole carpenter writes nintendo suing u.s government over tariffs nintendo of america is suing the united states government over the sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump put in place last year. Though the Supreme Court has stymied the tariffs for the time being, the situation remains in flux for companies producing goods manufactured outside the U.S. and sent stateside. Lawyers write in the complaint filed Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade and obtained by Aftermath that since February 1, 2025, Trump has implemented quote-unquote unlawful executive orders quote, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries.

44:04Tim Gettys:the company is asking the court to refund quote unquote with interest, the tariffs it paid quote, Nintendo of America has standing to sue because it is the importer of record for goods that were subject to IEPA duties and quote lawyers, right? Noting the company suffered injury from those tariffs. You can read the complaint here. Aftermath has reached out to both Nintendo and the white house.

44:27Ryan McCaffrey:Go fucking get them. Nintendo. God damn. I'll go to the Nintendo store this weekend and buy something useless. that I don't need. Hell yeah. Go get him. Fuck yeah. That's great news.

44:38Greg Miller:Yeah, it's fantastic. Honestly, it's fantastic news. I've always thought the tariff thing is just freaking dumb. I don't know any other way to say it. And look at what it's done globally to all of us as a result. And just the increasing prices that are going on. The Supreme Court gave their ruling. Obviously, he's going around it. So yeah, I think Nintendo is setting a precedent that we will see more companies do the same thing and sue and want refunds and good but here's here's not to get too crazy on the tariff rant but what frustrates me about the tariff thing is even if it goes away we're already at this price point where they're not going to go back it's coming down that's what sucks about this no one's going to go down so even if they go away that's what i hate about all this stuff so good good on them suing it unfortunately i don't think we're going to be the ones we will benefit from it yeah i mean maybe it is nintendo that would bring your price down but

45:34Ryan McCaffrey:who knows uh bander sn super chat says wnds today stand the w stands for w rather than the weird nintendo decisions they usually do let's stick with what nintendo's doing to the u.s government we go to what was originally story number two pokemon distance distances itself from the white

45:50Tim Gettys:house uh using pocopia to promote maga this is kenneth shepherd at kotaku responding to the White House using its imagery for the second time was probably not on the Nintendo and Pokemon Company schedule for Pokemon Pocopia's launch day. But we live in the stupidest, cruelest timeline, so here we are. On Thursday, the White House posted an image that made using a popular Pocopia font generator to write out, make America great again, because they've got no other ideas. Now, in a statement to the New York Times, the Pokemon Company has distanced itself from the post, which included several Pokemon in the image and said it is, quote, not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda, end quote.

46:29Tim Gettys:Quote, we are aware of recent social content that includes imagery associated with our brand, spokeswoman Savarthia Dev said in the statement. Quote, we were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda. quote unquote bringing the world together sure doesn't sound like the agenda of a political group that is kidnapping and deporting people the trump administration has been relying on video game iconography and memes to spread its hateful rhetoric and this is the second time it's used pokemon to do so following a viral video using the original anime's theme song with footage of ice agents arresting people halo stardew valley and call of duty have also been part of this ongoing meme war pop artist Sabrina Carpenter was also dragged into this but she was much more straightforward

47:21Ryan McCaffrey:in voicing her disdain no another w for Nintendo and the Pokemon company congratulations there

47:26Greg Miller:yeah absolutely and didn't they just do this with Call of Duty as well yeah but they haven't said

47:31Ryan McCaffrey:shit about it yeah yeah they they did a whole drone thing and then today I think I saw a headline that's like they put out like a hype video of like a meal like Tom Cruise and Superman and x y and Z of a million different Garbo fucking posts as they have nothing and no respect for anyone. So as always, fuck Donald Trump and this administration. And I'm glad to see Nintendo and the Pokemon company pushing back. Nintendo really pushing back today by suing them. That's great. Go get them.

47:59Greg Miller:We got high schoolers running the government. It's insane.

48:02Ryan McCaffrey:I mean, that's giving them something. That's giving them too much credit. We have junior high washouts running the government right now.

48:10Tim Gettys:2020. Dexter says 2020 20 year 2026 is the year of Nintendo fuck Trump go Mario uh Demon Hacker says I think the Pokemon response is kind of neutered this is a company that sues everyone for even looking at IP sideways

48:22Ryan McCaffrey:but not the US government for it it's something we can again go back to all these other uh call of duties and whatnot that are saying jack shit so do something just do something poke him with the stick do something and again Nintendo suing them fuck yeah I'll take I'll take all I'll

48:38Tim Gettys:take all of this today we have so few wins right now in this fucking country every goddamn day

48:44Ryan McCaffrey:that i'll accept i'll accept a celebration on this front before we move on and get depressed by the next goddamn thing that's gonna happen number three on the roper report nintendo direct

48:54Tim Gettys:for mario galaxy movie is coming soon as yoshi popcorn buckets have been revealed this is eddie a game spot uh nintendo has announced the next nintendo direct and it's coming up very soon A Nintendo Direct dedicated to the Super Mario Galaxy movie will be held on Monday, March 9th at 2pm Pacific. This event will include the final trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy movie, and if it's like the previous Directs for Nintendo movies, we may see and hear from Shigeru Miyamoto and Illuminations' Chris Melodendry. The Nintendo Direct will not, however, feature any game information. Nintendo clarified to set expectations.

49:30Tim Gettys:tickets for the Super Mario Galaxy movie

49:33Ryan McCaffrey:go on sale Monday, March 9th. And the movie's Yoshi-themed popcorn bucket has also been revealed. You're seeing it right now here, of course, through Wario64 on BS. That's a blue sky, Tim. But if you're an audio listener, imagine Yoshi holding his egg and the egg opens up to reveal popcorn.

49:49Nicole Carpenter:How many popcorn buckets you got, Paris?

49:54Greg Miller:Zero.

49:58Greg Miller:I don't, I mean... But you know what, though? I think it's cool for people that are into that. It's awesome. Why not? Hell yeah.

50:05Tim Gettys:I still have the Superman daily planet, a newspaper box. Ben plays with all the time. Loves it. Keeps toys in it.

50:11Greg Miller:Yeah.

50:11Tim Gettys:Yep. Cool. We will not be live reacting to this direct because of course, Monday, March 9th, we are alive all day long with the X, the X, the mix cross kind of funny spring game showcase. We'll kick it off with a little over an hour polished produced showcase Monday morning at 10 AM. And then, of course, your usual Games Daily time. Then after that, we will go in and have 16 different video games come through with their developers to talk to us live and show you all those games. So we will cover this news on Tuesday's Games Daily.

50:42Ryan McCaffrey:But remember, Monday, streaming all day, a bunch of cool indie devs here in San Francisco. Going to be a great time. No regular shows, but plenty of it.

50:50Nicole Carpenter:The Real Garet says, Greg has the DeLorean, doesn't he, Lowell? Yeah, I have lots of popcorn buckets, yes. Nick and I have the DeLorean now in the streaming room. At home, I have the crypto one. at home. I have the other crypto one, but it's a daily planet one. If you're making a Superman popcorn bucket, I'm going to buy it. End of statement. We move on to story number four.

51:10Tim Gettys:Now it's pragmatic. So pragmata. Pragmata. Pragmata. It still doesn't sound right. I was saying pragmata, like stigmata for a long time and then people started making fun of me. Pragmata has been moved up and all the other Capcom news from the spotlight. We go to Michael over at Polygon who writes Capcom's latest game showcase. Capcom spotlight had some great news for fans looking forward to the developer publishers 2026 lineup and a surprise twist. Capcom changed the release date of pragmata first announced in 2020. One more time, the game is now coming one week earlier than previously expected.

51:45Tim Gettys:Capcom showed off new footage of the action adventure, third person puzzle shooter, as well as fancy new pre-order skins during its Capcom spotlight. Pragmata is coming to Nintendo switch to PlayStation five, Windows PC and Xbox Series X on April 17th. For the Nintendo Switch 2 version, Capcom is also releasing an Amiibo based on Diana. Kevin, I'd like to see that eventually if it's at the end of the trailer, but let the trailer play because we love Pragmata here. We want to see what's up. Mega Man franchise producer, Azumi, and Mega Man dual override producer, Minamitani, revealed one of the robot masters that will appear in next year's mainline Mega Man game.

52:24Tim Gettys:The twist is that this particular robot master is designed by fans, and the Mega Man development team has to choose from six designs out of some 10 ,000 that qualified as finalists. Alex, the pro wrestling-flavored fighter who first appeared in Street Fighter III, accomplished Street Fighter VI on March 17th as part of the Year 3 character pass. Capcom released a new overview trailer for Orimusha Way of the Sword. No release date was announced. producer of the Monster Hunter series revealed a launch trailer and cosmetics for the upcoming Monster Hunter Stories 3 twisted reflection that launches on March 13th and then producer Azumi detailed one or online features in Mega Man Star Force Legacy collection which will include casual oh here's the Amiibo where's the Amiibo nope that wasn't the Amiibo casual friend and rank matches it launches on March 27th

53:16Nicole Carpenter:look at this pushing it forward that's cool

53:20Greg Miller:are you excited for i have to say yeah so i have to say this i was today years old when i found out it was pragmata and that pragmata yeah i don't i don't know if i like that i like calling pragmata well guess what we're on the internet we can do whatever we want we say however you want stigma to pragmata i'm definitely excited for this um when i got to play the demo uh at uh summer game Fest and I played again at games.com. I was locked in right, right then and there. So really looking forward to this and the fact that they're releasing it a week early, you know, Hey, she was a little bit of confidence.

53:54Greg Miller:So I think they're, they're feeling pretty good about it.

53:55Tim Gettys:Yeah. I'm very excited for that game.

53:57Ryan McCaffrey:I've loved the demos I've played. I don't know if it's going to be a nine or if it's going to be a really fun 7.5, but the puzzling and the shooting and the thing, I'm like, yeah, I want to see where this game goes. So stoked to get my hands on that one. And then, yeah, from there on out, monster hunter stories three, I've done the demo. I wanted to like it more. I don't think I'm going to come back to that one deeply. Cool to see everything getting supported though. We don't react to Capcom spotlights after we got burned so many times. We've watched so many bad Capcom spotlights. No, no, no more of this.

54:23Ryan McCaffrey:Thank you very much. We move on to story.

54:27Tim Gettys:Number five, a mouse PI for hire, which of course got a full games cast preview yesterday from myself, Andy and bless. And we were very impressed. We'll be 29 99. We go to the tweet from the official account, which says just that it features 12 to 20 hours of gameplay, depending on how you play. Paris, back at you with the same question. Are you interested in mouse PI for hire? How does a$30 price point for 12 to 20 hours sit with you?

54:53Greg Miller:Yeah, yes to both. Was already interested in it, and to see that it's coming in at that price, that seems about right to me. So yeah, I'm looking forward to getting hands-on and playing this. And yeah, I think it's priced accordingly to get the most people to jump in and want to go try it.

55:10Ryan McCaffrey:Yeah, me too. This was a big conversation yesterday of how long will this game be? Is it going to overstay its welcome? I know some of us were talking, is this going to be, before we saw the Xbox documentary thing they did of like, okay, well, is this like a four hour long game having played it and seen it 12 to 20 sounds nice. I imagine, you know, that 20 really comes from investigating and trying to find the hidden blueprints. So you can upgrade, upgrade your guns and yada, yada, yada. Like that sounds awesome. I had a fantastic time with this, this week. So I'm very, very excited to play more than just an hour for it and see how it does.

55:41Ryan McCaffrey:And again, as I did on the game scouts yesterday, which please go watch and listen to because it also has Andy doing or I'm sorry plus talking about meugenics but Troy Baker's performance in this is really really well done just a really great noir detective cartoon that has so much style every part of it has style clearly has a vision very very excited to see more of mouse incredibly soon I hope so with April release date right around the corner

56:08Nicole Carpenter:somebody dropped the is there more information Is that what's happening?

56:12Ryan McCaffrey:Somebody at the very bottom of this dropped in the same thing from aftermath. It looks like Nicole story has been filled out with more information. Of course, if you're joining us late and already missed us, do the breaking news. Nintendo is suing the U S government over tariffs. We're still at aftermath reading from Nicole Carpenter.

56:27Tim Gettys:There's more information about the tariffs getting struck down. Is that the other unlawful?

56:35Ryan McCaffrey:Oh, then they were adding in context of it when they delayed pre-orders for the switch to, Let's try.

56:42Tim Gettys:This seems new for me. Okay. Through several pages of the complaint, Nintendo's lawyers recount the tariff situation beginning on February 1st, when Trump issued the executive orders imposing new tariffs. The months that followed were chaotic. The situation changed rapidly as tariffs were increased, paused, and increased again. Tariffs reached over 125 % for goods from China before those reduced to 34 % in May. Throughout multiple legal challenges, the Trump administration continued to impose the tariffs, Nintendo lawyers say. That's in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, Nintendo lawyers say, and why they are entitled to a refund of the tariffs paid during this since February 2025.

57:25Tim Gettys:This is the quote we had before, right?

57:26Ryan McCaffrey:All tariffs collected under the IEPA duties must be refunded with interest, the lawyers wrote. And then, yeah, so that's just a little bit more information. Nicole Carpenter and God's work over at Aftermath. Go check on that, everybody.

57:40Tim Gettys:Paris, Nintendo getting this administration to bend the knee and kiss Mario's ring will be huge news. But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about,

57:50Nicole Carpenter:where would I go?

57:52Greg Miller:You'd go to our last story, the Wii News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

57:59Tim Gettys:Number six, the Wii News. South of Midnight launches on PS5 on March 31st. We love South and Midnight here. Go get South and Midnight, everybody. From VGC, the artist whose work was used in Bungie's marathon without their permission or knowledge has been credited in the game. In May 2025, Scottish artist Fern, some kind of gamer speak, Hook, accused Bungie of taking assets from her previous work and using it in the alpha of marathon. Several months later, Hook posted a brief message on her X account simply stating, quote, the marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction.

58:34Tim Gettys:end quote marathon was officially released on wednesday and as spotted by illustrator uh ed kerwilsey on blue sky hook has been credited in the game in the role of visual design consultant good job there that's great uh echoes of incrad a new game in the sword art online universe launches july 10th on steam uh xbox and ps5 there's a trailer i think that might have ran a little bit earlier i don't know if the audience saw it i looked at this one looked cool i'm not a sword online guy by any stretch of the imagination, but a good looking trailer that they had. The King is watching one of Andy's favorite games of last year has sold over 500 ,000 copies.

59:14Tim Gettys:A Wii required reading how steam changes and a China strategy helped tiny bills. The

59:22Ryan McCaffrey:King is watching hit 500 ,000 in sales. That's over at games industry.biz. If you want to know more about that. And then speaking of indie game success,

59:30Tim Gettys:Greg way slay the spire two has surpassed 140 and I'm sorry 314 ,000 concurrent players on steam on launch day the shout out to them they are

59:40Ryan McCaffrey:fucking crushing over there oh and then here's the trailer uh for echoes of incrad which I can't be pronouncing correctly chat saying it's already gone above that now now we're at 430 ,000 over

59:54Greg Miller:there so that's insane yeah yeah are you jumping into marathon you know what I'm so glad that you said that because as you know i like to troll in the chat yeah uh as during the day watching kfgd and i've watched mike repeatedly talk about yeah i wasn't getting in i didn't like it did it not that he didn't like it but he had some issues with it yeah they upped the pvp interactions in there during the the weekend and it made it by sunday so much more enjoyable and now obviously the official game is out so i'm i'm very curious to see what mike how mike is going to feel you know when he jumps in and plays now.

1:00:33Greg Miller:Yeah. But yeah, I'm all in on Marathon. I loved it. I think if you get the right group of people together, obviously, even if you play solo, yeah, those encounters get intense, man. It's a lot of fun. I think Marathon had a lot of issues. They delayed it. I think they addressed most of them. And I think this is a pretty solid product. So I'm rooting for it to succeed. Absolutely. And I'll definitely be playing.

1:00:56Ryan McCaffrey:Excellent. Yeah, we do have Mike crunching on a review for it next week. It is going to be on Tuesday. it'll be him Fran and Jerrica joining us to talk all about Marathon

1:01:05Tim Gettys:and that is the We News we jump back over to the Super Chats to see what we need to clean up not ones that were about anything specific we have some birthdays let me get the birthday ones out okay oh actually start here more important Immersion Fragrances says started Pocopi on a flight last night and I'm 7 hours in and feel I've barely scratched the surface ask somebody who's played 40 hours of it, you have barely scratched the surface. I've barely scratched the surface. Number one, do you think it has the juice to do Animal Crossing numbers? And number two, how long until a Winnatalk show is on an island?

1:01:41Tim Gettys:Great question. Animal Crossing numbers, no. And I think not because it's not a quality game, not because Pokemon isn't big,

1:01:52Ryan McCaffrey:but Animal Crossing was such a lightning in a bottle, right? That game comes out right as we all get put into lockdown and you had no way to communicate with people and be with people and yada yada yada. I think it's going to do incredibly well. I think this is a system seller. I think this is going to put a lot of fucking numbers on the board. I don't know if it, I mean, Animal Crossing's numbers were insane, are insane. So I don't think it's able to catch up to that level of hype just because of where the world is, right? And then how long until Witta makes a talk show on it? He's got this fucking radio drama thing he's doing.

1:02:24Ryan McCaffrey:You know, he's not even paying attention. So who knows? I doubt he gets on it. but if Gary Witta smells a bucketed, he'll be there.

1:02:31Greg Miller:Absolutely.

1:02:31Tim Gettys:Are you going to play Pocopia?

1:02:34Greg Miller:I don't think so. Yeah, not your time. It's not a me thing, no. Understandable.

1:02:41Tim Gettys:John Six Super Chat says, birthday tax, 31 years. Thank you guys for being here through the ups and downs and my transition. Always a spot of joy in the world. Happy birthday to you. We're always happy to be here with you. Moving on. Cage Dish says birthday tax 42 years old today thanks for the whole kind of funny team I love everyone and everything the team does happy birthday we love being here for you Krabby Patty says promotion tax been catching up on kind of funny content the day after it goes live with my new positions scheduled as my new position is scheduled during peak kind of funny hours thanks kind of funny for being part of another milestone looking forward to the next congratulations on your promotion Krabby Patty I hope you still get to play Monster Hunter Mellowfellow Super Chat says birthday tax check out Horsey Game surprisingly deep mechanics and criminally underrated game that came out last month happy birthday I have no time for those games too many games Paris

1:03:39Greg Miller:am I wrong yes there's definitely too many games oh no you're not wrong at all it's it's look it's a good problem to have let's put it that way that is true too

1:03:47Tim Gettys:iCabraless Super Chat says late birthday tax I shared date with the Nitro Rifle but I couldn't Super Chat abroad and had to wait till I got back to the States. Also, I got married on my birthday. Kiddos. Hello, Paris and Greg, I guess. Happy birthday and congratulations on getting married. People having life achievements in the super chats. You got to like it. Yeah, man. Eli super chat says birthday tax. Just wanted to say thanks for the many years of content. Still remember hearing the dog poop on Tim's car story and then watching the animated version of it. LOL. Thank you, Eli. Happy birthday to you.

1:04:18Ryan McCaffrey:Never forget when that stranger was putting poop on Tim's car. I hope someone brings it back. You know, he's getting off too light. I think lately his paternity leave exactly be the change.

1:04:29Tim Gettys:You want to cease this pair, uh, uh, bear it off camera. Uh, Mr. Hawk says, thank you. Kind of funny and kind of funny. Best friends for the distraction today. Tell your people you love them. Every chance you get. Sounds like you're going through something. Mr. Hawks. We're happy to be here for you and we hope you're okay. Uh, uh, the cartel Dell says shout out to Paris, sharing opinions in front of psycho online gamers takes guts. You, you, you know, they come for you sometimes Paris.

1:04:59Greg Miller:Oh, I know they do. I, I know it when I say it, I'm like, okay, it's going to happen. But I think to what he's saying is don't be afraid to give your opinion on something. If it's what you think, it's what you think. Don't let the internet bully you out of an opinion. I never will.

1:05:15Ryan McCaffrey:I would love to give advice on that. It's just, my opinions are always correct. So no one's ever been mad about him. Nicholas Super Chats final super chat

1:05:22Tim Gettys:says hi Greg long time listener hope to see you at GDC and wish me luck on my interview for an internship at Obsidian good luck Nicholas I hope you go work at Obsidian and convince them to remake a Fallout game tell them that's where the

1:05:34Greg Miller:money is since they don't want it you better convince Matt Booty and Asha let them do it that's what

1:05:40Ryan McCaffrey:you need to do that's how you get a promotion on an internship right away I hope to see you at GDC too obviously

1:05:43Tim Gettys:the easiest way to see us at GDC

1:05:45Ryan McCaffrey:would be to come through the office which you're not invited to

1:05:48Tim Gettys:for the stream all day Monday when we have 16 developers in the showcase pop off here. But GDC evening, of course, is the in-person mix cross kind of funny indie game, jam dev, 60 some video games there. You can go play. Beers will be flowing. You can go to kindoffunny.com slash spring showcase

1:06:06Ryan McCaffrey:and register for a press pass or a game dev pass if you want to come through, see those games, meet those developers and see me after I put Ben to bed. So I'll be there late, but I'll be there.

1:06:15Greg Miller:And me too. I'll be there.

1:06:17Ryan McCaffrey:fresh off the plane going straight guarantee everybody when i show up paris is already gone guarantee this man is ducking and dodging me at gdc next week and i don't like it one bit

1:06:26Nicole Carpenter:when are you showing up at midnight of course i gotta get up put him to bed i drive in i'll be there what maybe not between eight and nine greg miller will arrive now that you try to call me

1:06:39Greg Miller:out live even if i want to leave i'm like nope not leaving until greg shows up see it worked everybody. It worked. It worked.

1:06:46Tim Gettys:Everybody, this has been kind of funny games daily.

1:06:48Ryan McCaffrey:Oh, there was one year wrong. That wasn't a year wrong, but it was Katie reminding you that of course here in America, I have no idea the rest of the country or the world. I should say our clocks spring forward Sunday. So if you're an international people, it always throws them off. If you, if you don't celebrate daylight savings time or whatever, we will be one hour ahead of where we usually are on Monday. So be ready for that. But other than that, this has been kind of funny games daily Paris. Thank you so much for hanging out as always. Where can

1:07:11Tim Gettys:people keep up with you?

1:07:13Greg Miller:Uh, you can keep up with me. Gamer tag radio, my personal YouTube channel, which is my name, Paris ML. Obviously I'm on social media with weirdos yelling at me and, uh, here when I have a chance to be on kind of funny, it's always a pleasure Paris.

1:07:27Ryan McCaffrey:I love you. Thank you for coming through.

1:07:29Greg Miller:Love you too. See you next week.

1:07:31Tim Gettys:You will everybody. This has been another episode of kind of funny games daily. We run you through the nerdy video game news. You need to know about if you like that, like subscribe, share, ring the bell. If you have Amazon prime, you have Twitch prime, we'd love your free 30 day subscription that they don't remind you about. However, the big way to go above and beyond, pick up your Kind of Funny membership, youtube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, Apple, Spotify, and of course, patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Get everything ad-free, get your daily dose of me, and get good karma for supporting an 11-person, 11-year-old small business.

1:07:58Tim Gettys:For now, it's time for Games Daily and the Gamescast to kick up and talk about the top 100 Pokemon? Is that what it is? Dang, that's a lot of Pokemon. Why am I not on it? Because, you know, I'll let these kids have my crumbs. Of course, after that, We're streaming other stuff. This is going to this happen. There's always something happening. So like, subscribe, share. And until next time, no. Been a pleasure to serve you.