In short
Kinda Funny Games Daily: PlayStation ABANDONS PC?! - Episode Summary
Podcast Information
- Title: Kinda Funny Games Daily
- Hosts: Greg Miller, Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr. & guests
- Date: March 4, 2026
- Episode Overview: Covering the latest video games news, including PlayStation's shift away from PC gaming, Ubisoft's confirmation of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, and issues surrounding the upcoming release of Crimson Desert.
Key Topics Discussed
- PlayStation's Shift from PC
- Report by Jason Schreier: Sony plans to abandon releasing major PS5 games on PC.
- Reasoning:
- Recent PC game sales haven't met expectations.
- Concerns that PC releases could harm the PlayStation brand and hardware sales.
- Implications:
- Focus will return to console exclusivity for single-player titles, while some online games will remain multi-platform.
- Discussion:
- Speculated reasons for the change include a mixed reception to past PC releases and concerns about competition with Xbox's capabilities.
- Commentary:
- Hosts debated the potential impacts of this strategy on Sony’s future revenue and market positioning.
- Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced
- Announcement by Ubisoft: Confirmation of the remake and a release of concept art.
- Expectations:
- Discussion about whether this remake will be enough to revitalize Ubisoft amid declining franchise popularity.
- Critique:
- Hosts expressed frustration with Ubisoft's vague communication and the reliance on nostalgia without substantial innovation.
- Crimson Desert Review Drama
- Marketing Director's Response: Assurance that they are not hiding information despite limited review codes being available prior to launch.
- Concerns:
- Speculation that the late review embargo could indicate problems with the game.
- Comparison to Cyberpunk 2077: Reflection on past instances where similar strategies led to disastrous launches.
- Hosts' Take:
- They hope for the best for Crimson Desert but are wary given the circumstances.
- Bungie's Marathon Post-Launch Plans
- Details from Bungie: Free seasonal updates planned every three months with evolving gameplay and content.
- Expectations Moving Forward:
- Hosts discussed how this strategy could improve player retention and engagement compared to other recent titles.
- Concerns:
- Mixed feelings about the gameplay experience from previous previews; hopes for substantial improvements.
- Tencent and U.S. Government Scrutiny
- Discussion on Tencent’s Stakes: The potential implications of the U.S. government’s evaluation of Tencent's investments in major gaming companies.
- Speculation:
- Possible motivations behind the scrutiny, including geopolitical and economic factors.
- We News
- Highlights of Small News:
- Announcement of new games and updates from various developers, including:
- Mike Bithell’s new game, Amber Spire.
- Updates on Unity and its operations.
Key Takeaways
- Market Dynamics: The landscape of gaming is rapidly changing, with companies reassessing strategies that once seemed viable.
- Expectations vs. Reality: Players have high expectations for upcoming titles, and transparency in communication from developers is crucial for maintaining trust.
- Community Engagement: The ongoing dialogue around new releases reflects a community invested in the success or failure of franchises that they love.
Conclusion The episode covered a variety of crucial topics affecting the gaming industry, highlighting the challenges and successes of major players like Sony, Ubisoft, and Bungie. As the gaming landscape continues to evolve, the discussions emphasized the importance of strategic decisions, community feedback, and the potential for both growth and decline in established franchises.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIntroduction to Today's News
0:19 to 0:35
Overview of the major topics being discussed today.
“Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-synced.”
Discussion on PlayStation's Strategy
0:46 to 3:17
Deep dive into PlayStation's shift away from PC games.
“Welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Wednesday, March 4th, 2026.”
Impact of Sony's Decision on Gaming Market
3:17 to 6:43
Exploring how Sony's decisions affect the gaming landscape.
“We're not even using them at all anymore?”
Debate on Console Exclusivity vs. PC Releases
6:43 to 9:23
Hosts debate the pros and cons of console exclusivity.
“because we talked about this last week with the rumor of Jason Schreier possibly putting out this story.”
Future of PlayStation and Live Service Games
9:23 to 14:06
Discussion on the future of PlayStation and its gaming strategy.
“I want more and more people to come back and stick with Sony, right?”
Understanding PlayStation's Strategy
14:06 to 14:52
Explore PlayStation's approach to exclusivity and partnership deals.
“Let's make sure people know that they got to be over here.”
The Fate of Nix's Studio
14:53 to 16:00
Discuss the implications of Nix's acquisition and its future.
“Announced by head of PlayStation Studios, Herman Hulse, Nix's has been brought on for an undisclosed fee.”
Leadership Changes at PlayStation
16:01 to 19:17
Debate the leadership of Jim Ryan and Herman Holst and their impact.
“As expected, Nix's was acquired to help Sony create PC ports.”
PlayStation's Market Strategy
19:18 to 22:28
Analyze the market strategy and the potential impact of PC gaming.
“Let me see a couple of chats in here for you.”
The Cost of Gaming PCs
22:29 to 25:55
Discuss the affordability and accessibility of gaming PCs for consumers.
“$2 billion on the table and also saying they want to monetize their users more means they expect customers to make up the gap.”
Show all 23 chapters
PlayStation's Strategic Shift
28:39 to 29:48
Discussion on PlayStation's move and its implications for the gaming market.
“We go with breaking assets to Costco.com slash gaming dash computers dot HTML.”
Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake Announcement
29:48 to 34:33
Analysis of Ubisoft's confirmation of the Assassin's Creed remake and community reactions.
“Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed Black Flag resynced.”
Crimson Desert Review Drama
34:33 to 38:16
Examining the review embargo and community concerns around Crimson Desert's launch.
“valhalla and shadow selling very well um you know i i i get the apprehension but there is still a a fervor for Assassin's Creed, especially for a fan favorite like Black Flag.”
Reflections on Gaming Industry Practices
38:16 to 42:00
Discussion on transparency in game reviews and industry implications for consumers.
“is there's so much excitement for the game that can do anything and everything, right?”
Speculation on Game Delays and Expectations
42:00 to 43:23
The hosts discuss the uncertainties surrounding game releases and the impact of speculation on player expectations.
“It sounds like they're cooking down to the wire, which of course, as we all know from the past and other games has blown up in people's faces before where you can't land that plane and you can't get it done.”
Crimson Desert's Anticipation and Marketing Strategy
43:23 to 45:45
Discussion focuses on Crimson Desert's marketing strategies and the balance between hype and delivery in the gaming industry.
“what you assume is happening with the console version is that they are working down to the wire to get it as good as they can to put it out there.”
Bungie's Marathon: Expectations and Concerns
45:45 to 53:01
The hosts analyze Bungie's upcoming title Marathon, discussing player expectations and the challenges of live service games.
“Regular Special One says, I need to see it running on an Xbox Series S.”
Kind of Funny's Interest in Marathon
53:01 to 54:29
The hosts reflect on Kind of Funny's team dynamics and their varying interests in the upcoming game Marathon.
“Bungie, the team that, of course, known for their Halo legacy, but really known right now for Destiny and what they did with the live service MMO first person shooter type vibe of a game.”
Tencent's Impact on the Gaming Industry
54:29 to 56:00
Discussion on the implications of the U.S. government's stance on Tencent's investments in gaming companies.
“He's playing Witcher 3 for the 50th time.”
Speculation on Saudi Investment in EA
56:00 to 57:26
Discussion on the potential implications of Saudi investments in gaming.
“In 2016, it bought a majority stake of Supercell, the Finnish mobile game developer behind Clash of Clans, for about$8.6 billion.”
WeNews: Small Game Updates
57:26 to 59:44
Coverage of smaller game announcements and updates from various developers.
“you need to know about number six the we news uh biffle games of course friend of the show Mike Bithell has revealed a new game, Amber Spire.”
Discussion on Game Sales and Company Moves
59:44 to 1:01:04
Analysis of recent game sales and company acquisitions in the gaming industry.
“Foxy C says, I personally enjoyed Marathon's gameplay.”
Mike's Video Editing Struggles
1:01:04 to 1:04:06
Mike shares his frustrating experience with video editing and file management.
“Hundreds of monkeys says, any risk of Sony delisting games already ported to PC, I wouldn't put it past them.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Andy Cortez:Be like me and head to Factormeals.com slash KindaFunny50off and use code KindaFunny50off to get 50 % off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor.
0:11Blessing Adeoye Jr.:If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to Patreon.com slash KindaFunny.
0:18Andy Cortez:Today in the nerdy news you need to know about, Schreier's report is in. PlayStation is abandoning PC. Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-synced. and Crimson Desert's review drama is giving shades of Cyberpunk 2077. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.
0:46Andy Cortez:What's up, everybody? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Wednesday, March 4th, 2026.
0:53Greg Miller:I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller, alongside the master of hype, Snowbike Mike. Good morning, Greg. Mike, it is a lovely day. I get to see your smiling face. Everyone has returned to work. There's an energy now. Oh, you said they were distaste.
1:06Blessing Adeoye Jr.:You said they were disgust.
1:08Greg Miller:I look back on Monday, and it was like Mike and Greg, Barrett out here just feeding, looking for anyone's energy. Now they're all back, and I'm happy I can see them. Yeah, it's nice to see Bless out there showing off those biceps, flexing. Flexing on us is right. You got a big day with Bless. I got a huge day with Bless. We get to talk Resident Evil 9. Look back on their big marathon stream, him and Andy. I want to know about some of the moments that really got them. You know what I mean? They played off so cool. You know, I'm not scared. I'm not screaming. What were the moments that got them?
1:36Greg Miller:And then after that, me and Bless will return to the big table to play Magic the Gathering. A fun co-op mode, Greg. They got a new one, and it's a great way to get beginners back into it. Are you using the turtles? Easy way to learn. The turtles. I love that. It's really cool. Yeah. This one's really fun. We're going to do the turtle team up. So it's you versus like a deck of cards that are essentially a boss with an X amount of health. And then you play magic against it.
2:02Blessing Adeoye Jr.:The one thing I know your reviews, obviously, Andy and blessed reviewing Resident Evil. Yes. Talking a bit about their stream. Yada, yada. In the moments, I really haven't heard you officially weigh in. How did they do on ordering food? Oh, thank you for asking me.
2:16Greg Miller:You're the expert. They did a terrible job, a poor job this whole weekend at ordering food. I don't think they took more than 10 minutes to order food. Awful.
2:27Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I didn't see any big TV screens. I don't see them looking at burgers.
2:30Greg Miller:They ordered food once. They got pizza delivered without even telling anybody. Didn't ask me any about pizza. Yeah. Didn't ask you about pizza. I was probably already calling it. Just selfishly ordered pizza for themselves. Wow. But yeah, they did a really terrible job at ordering food. Me and Roger will give them that review today during their one-on-ones. We'll talk about that. We're doing the weekly meeting.
2:51Blessing Adeoye Jr.:You should follow the feedback for them that they did a bad job ordering pizza. Not enough food was ordered here is right. Everybody, we have a lot to get into.
2:58Andy Cortez:So let me remind you, if you want to be part of the show, super chat, youtube.com slash kind of funny games. You can sound off on the day's news with your thoughts, opinions, and more. Of course, you can also be like our Patreon producers on patreon.com slash kind of funny. Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney, the Psalm 20 who keep the lights and mics on. For now, though, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. Time for some news. Six items on the Roper Report.
3:29Tim Gettys:A big dozen.
3:35Tim Gettys:We're not even using them at all anymore? No, I just figure we wouldn't. They're resting today. The left one is just not that.
3:42Andy Cortez:He's not been doing it. He's not been doing it. number one Sony pulls back from PlayStation games on PC this is the one, the only the Shry guy, Jason Schreier at Bloomberg Sony no longer plans to release its big PlayStation 5 games on PC, a major shift in strategy that sees the video game maker returning to console exclusivity for after six years of flirting with multi-platform releases according to people familiar with the company's plans online games such as Marathon and Marvel Toe Consoles Fighting will still be released across multiple platforms, but single-player titles such as last year's Samurai hit, Ghost of Yote, and the upcoming action game Soros, and Jason doesn't put it here, but I'll say it, starring Supergirl's Rahul Kohli, will remain exclusive to PlayStation 5, said people, who asked not to be identified because they weren't authorized to talk publicly about the company's strategy.
4:35Andy Cortez:The people cautioned that things could change in the future due to the unpredictable nature of the video game industry and that Sony's plans are constantly shifting. Mike, is the industry that unpredictable?
4:47Blessing Adeoye Jr.:That's how every story feels like. At any moment, I could take this all back. I believe it was Asha Sharma who said, the plan is the plan till it's not the plan.
4:55Andy Cortez:But in recent weeks, PlayStation scrapped plans to bring Ghost of Yotei and other internally developed games to PC. Two games made by external developers, but published by PlayStation, Death Stranding 2, and the upcoming Kenna Scars of Cosmora will be planned for release on PC this year. A spokesperson for PlayStation declined to comment. There are likely a few reasons behind this shift. One is that several recent PlayStation games have not sold well on PC. A faction within PlayStation has also expressed concern that releasing the games on PC risks damaging the console's brand. It will hurt sales of the PlayStation 5 and its successors, according to people familiar with Sony's inner workings.
5:36Andy Cortez:For decades, Sony's tactic of selling PlayStations was to keep tentpole franchises exclusive to its own consoles. In 2020, it pivoted and began bringing games to personal computers via Steam. Since then, the company has put most of its biggest franchises on PC, such as God of War and The Last of Us. But the strategy has been muddled and confused many players. Most PC releases arrived months or years after the games came to PlayStation. The cadence was never consistent, and the announcements appeared to be haphazard. The company also upset PC players by asking them to create a PSN, that's a PlayStation Network account, Greg, to access many of the games.
6:13Andy Cortez:Now, Sony is looking to take a more straightforward approach, going back to console exclusives. Another factor behind Sony's pivot may be Microsoft's next Xbox, which is rumored to use Windows and be capable of playing PC games. Some executives at PlayStation might not be thrilled at the prospect of one of the company's flagship games, like God of War, running on the next Xbox console. Yeah.
6:37Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Snow, bike, Mike.
6:40Greg Miller:What do you think? Yeah, Greg, this is a fun conversation to have because we talked about this last week with the rumor of Jason Schreier possibly putting out this story. And now here it is in full force. If we could talk about it right, over the past six years, PlayStation has played with this. They flirted with the idea of putting out their games. I thought for sure we'd be getting more into the, hey, we've tested this. Now we want to get a little more solid with this. whether they be day and date six months a year and just kind of have a little more locked in we like this we love selling more games let's do this right because as we constantly hear in the video game market game price or making games are ballooning costs are through the roof right there's not enough gamers we got to get to where the gamers are at right and so i thought a pc port how much is that really getting put into dollar wise to make and then sell how much are they selling right and so i guess they're seeing the numbers it's not enough to keep that going then on the flip side we talk about console exclusivity right you have xbox who is absolutely down in the dumps right now you want to get players over there you say hey we're going to only sell these games on playstation now it's the time to start taking even more player base away from xbox yeah for sure boot on the neck yeah how much do you buy that has anything really to do with
7:56Blessing Adeoye Jr.:the Xbox being a hybrid?
8:00Greg Miller:Just a little bit. Not like a huge amount, but just a little bit. Of course, I think the next Xbox sounds enticing when you say, hey, we can also put Steam games on this, right? That is something that PlayStation isn't doing. PlayStation is going to be just your normal Sony PlayStation box that will play the PlayStation games and third party games. When Xbox says, hey, we are going to open this up and make it more like a home PC that you can put in your living room, right? I think players start to perk their ears up and go, oh, okay, that's kind of interesting. Now I can get PC games on my Xbox inside the living room.
8:32Greg Miller:Like, that's what I want. But was there going to be a huge shift in the market that PlayStation players would leave an abandoned PlayStation? Absolutely not.
8:40Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah, that's my take on it really is like to go from the bottom of the story back up to the top is like, I understand as Jason, you know, alludes to from talking to people. Maybe some executives don't like that idea. I think if we're in reality, if we were in reality, these PlayStation games coming to PC, if they were selling an additional 4 million, 5 million, six, you know, nobody gives a shit where you're playing them. They're lighting cigars with a hundred dollar bills. I think this really comes down to what Jason leads with of like, listen, they aren't doing gangbuster numbers over there.
9:09Blessing Adeoye Jr.:So why? Yeah. Are you putting in the work to get them over there? And then why are you putting out something again? Even though Xbox is in such an interesting place, the flip-flop the reverse of it when xbox publishes on playstation the headlines on igne are circana release data in the top seven seven of the top 10 games are made by microsoft like that's huge whereas playstation is hey concurrence aren't that great and they didn't sell this many units and what are they doing why are they doing it let alone bringing in the message of we are doubling down and figuring out how we are going to focus on uh the console player of course and less excuses
9:45Greg Miller:for any players to get lost on the PC market side of things, right? I want more and more people to come back and stick with Sony, right? Of course, the more you launch on PC, the more Greg has an excuse of, well, PlayStation games are coming to PC. What if I just stuck with that, right? You got to make sure they're there. I think it is an interesting conversation, though, of like we talk about the console market kind of stagnating and like not finding new players that we've heard Sarah Bond and Xbox talk about because it is dominated by PlayStation. But at the same time, if that market is just kind of getting stuck and plateauing, why aren't you going and chasing that VC dragon?
10:20Andy Cortez:Because that's not where the money is. This morning, this news broke, and the one, the only, Matt Piscitella, the numbers man from Circona, quote, blue sky, or BS, I'm sorry, that's a blue sky, Tim, himself, and said, going back to CFO Lin Tao's comments during Sony's February 5th earning call, quote, dot, dot, dot, our hardware sales strategy can be adjusted flexibly, and we intend to minimize the impact of the increased memory costs on this segment going forward by prioritizing monetization of the install base. End quote.
10:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:And Matt said back then 27 days ago, very interesting. I'm going to try to goose the ARPU even more. But how is the question? Here's your answer. Yeah. Times are tough right now. This Ram thing sucks. We don't need to be worrying. Let's get, let's all of the agents that are out in the world, bring them home. Let's protect the home front of the PlayStation console of the PlayStation fan base, which I do think they have over this generation really shed what PlayStation fans, what it meant to be a PlayStation fan.
11:20Andy Cortez:like PlayStation 4 was such PlayStation 3 into PlayStation 4 prime podcast beyond years so of
11:26Blessing Adeoye Jr.:course I am biased on it but PSX what it meant Adam boys Jack Trenton Shuhei Yoshida Herman like it felt like PlayStation had this identity that you glommed on to in a way of like yeah I rock with this thing yeah of course and now it is so PlayStation silo corporate we publish games to do this thing i think that identity would help them a lot and currently what you're trying to do of batting down the hatches and monetize monetize the install base but one of the way they're doing that obviously will be to make sure that they're selling as much on their playstation 5 as they can of course especially as this uh memory leak continues me and blessed talked about that do you
12:05Greg Miller:expect prices to go up in the playstation world then right we talked about them trying to monetize more of the player base to offset the price of ram going through the roof now we talk about playstation exclusive only here so you are now cutting off an extra revenue source here do you see yourself with playstation online going up in pricing and those tiers going up like we saw with
12:26Blessing Adeoye Jr.:game pass well it went up not too long ago right in the grand scheme of things i mean i think all options are on the table i think raising the price of playstation 5 is probably more likely in terms of getting in that way and trying to do that. And again, that's punishing people coming in, monetizing who you already have is a different conversation. But in terms of how you're doubling down to what you're doing, what are you having people make? You know what I mean? We're coming off of this god of war that wasn't a full-fledged god of war, but it was somebody experimenting with the IP. And while, yeah, I would say a lukewarm reaction to it, I still think PlayStation has more juice there of taking their established IP and working with the second part of the studio to make something for them.
13:06Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Of course.
13:06Greg Miller:Do we see them chase more live service games? No. We see them slow that down. But we still put out multiplayer games. There's only so many that they have lined up, right? But do we see an influx? If you are at PlayStation right now. Drop the negative word, live service games. Yeah. Do we see them make more multiplayer games? I say no.
13:29Andy Cortez:If you're at PlayStation right now, and we talk all the time about trend chasing and what you're doing. If you are here ready to misread the tea leaves again and say, shit, things are going bad here. We need to keep people on the PlayStation ecosystem. I know what we'll do. Five years from now, we'll have a dope multiplayer game.
13:46Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Absolutely the fuck not. You know what you do right now, Mike? You want to monetize the player base? You make Horizon 4, Last of Us 3. You make Uncharted 5. You remake the God of War trilogy. But I mean right now, guys.
Read the full transcript
13:58Andy Cortez:I don't mean, you know what you do? you get on the phone to fortnite to minecraft to all these places and you say what exclusive value
14:06Blessing Adeoye Jr.:can we bring to a playstation audience what is the pack what is the thing what is rockstar what can i do what can i do rockstar like and i that would be the dream obviously they're all holding their breath as la gta gets here because they know what that'll do for that but you go out there and you make fucking deals with people to make them understand hey you should be we are the best place
14:24Greg Miller:to play that timed exclusivity. Give me that special content. Yep. Let's make sure people know that they got to be over here.
14:31Blessing Adeoye Jr.:That's the way you got to go and do it. Now, the big elephant in the room, if you are a kind of funny fan, if you are a long time podcast beyond PS, I love you, Greg Miller person. What does this mean for everything? And kebabs ask the question. Nix is screwed, isn't it? Acquired in 2021. Oddly says, do you think Nix's will be shut down next?
14:51Andy Cortez:Let's jump into this. Of course. Well, I'm sorry. BG25800 super chats where does this leave Nix's as a studio you might not know what the fuck we're talking about everybody and that's understanding who's Galactus we go to the one the only Joe Scrabbles when he still worked at IGN this is dated July 28th 2021 PlayStation acquires Nix's a PC porting specialist as expected there's this thing PlayStation has acquired Nix's a Dutch studio that specializes in porting games to PC. Announced by head of PlayStation Studios, Herman Hulse, Nix's has been brought on for an undisclosed fee. The studio will provide high-quality in-house technical development capabilities for PlayStation Studios, according to a press release.
15:34Andy Cortez:Nix's has worked extensively with Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and IO Interactive since forming in 1999, porting the recent Tomb Raider trilogy and two of the most recent Deus Ex games to PC. While no specifics have been given about the work for PlayStation, it feels likely that the studio will support Sony's increased focus on porting its console exclusives to PC. There was an update here because I guess this was like rubber or whatever. As expected, it was acquired to help. Oh, sorry. As expected, Nix's was acquired to help Sony create PC ports. In an interview with Famitsu, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan said via Google Translate, quote, we are happy with our efforts to provide our IP to PCs, although it is still in its infancy and we look forward to working with Nix's to help with that.
16:22Andy Cortez:right now, Herman Hulse loading the shotgun,
16:24Blessing Adeoye Jr.:taking Nexus out back.
16:27Tim Gettys:How many would this be with all the studios that they've acquired in the last six years?
16:32Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah, I was going to say that chart was, we just talked about that. That's true. Whenever they close blue point, go, you go look at the blue point, run a show. Cause we put it in there. I think didn't we, I don't know. It doesn't matter for right now, but my, my, of course, what do you see when you die? You die back in there. There he is.
16:48Greg Miller:Jim Ryan. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? We are riding the ship after what Jim Ryan took us on. The course that he took us on, we got a course correct on this.
16:55Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I was talking to somebody the other day, and they were talking. Everybody will remain nameless in this story. But they were talking about how every time PlayStation shoots itself in the foot, Microsoft shoots itself in the head.
17:08Andy Cortez:So it's like, blue point. Oh, my God, you fuckers. Phil, Sarah, this, AI, shit, what the fuck? Now we got this. let's see what PlayStation does in X's to then see what else Microsoft can fucking do right afterwards to steal a spotlight. But again, for as much as you want to sit here about Xbox and go into Phil or Sarah Xbox everywhere. Every time we trace one of these, Oh, this is bad news. There's Jim Ryan. You don't see Jackie T out there.
17:34Tim Gettys:You don't see Jack Trenton's decisions ending badly. My, my one hope as we see here, they're doing additional work on sorrows, which is coming out next month. So I would hope my, I think the best case scenario here is that they start pivoting to just being a support studio.
17:52Blessing Adeoye Jr.:And that would be the thing about it where Nick's is from what we see and hear occasionally is an incredibly talented studio. So to have been working this long on PlayStation architecture, I could easily see you are hanging out and you are just a support studio helping people get across that finish line. Okay. But I would not be stoked if I was over at Nick's right now, hearing all this information. Mike. Yeah, Greg. Lucid Dream Super Chat that says, is it time to cut Herman Holst loose?
18:20Greg Miller:Really?
18:21Blessing Adeoye Jr.:That's the question they're asking. I didn't ask him.
18:23Greg Miller:No, I don't believe so. I think he's trying to right the ship that we just talked about with Jim Ryan, and a big course correct is going to take some time. I think you got to give him a little more time and grace here on this one.
18:34Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I agree with that. You know, Herman, I've known personally through this job the entire way, right, from coming on and talking to him about Killzone, an incredibly smart dude who does love games and does i think to me at least speak to what that old playstation identity was i do think that it's always hard especially with a playstation in 2026 that is so closed off and quiet and doesn't talk right we did even with a hermit they don't have a fill they don't have him making the rounds and going on our podcast and the giant bomb couch and yeah and granted saying stuff you go back i know why don't they because every time phil said something he'd eventually go back on it six months and everybody would get mad it's like well that's business right i do feel that like herman was dealt a bad hand here as he is picking up the pieces of a bunch of decisions from jim ryan and that playstation that was let's chase the trend let's be the next fortnight let's make that happen now that doesn't help you right now as you're closing studios and getting rid of this and doing all that stuff and even in these articles we have herman in there saying it's a good thing but it's not like he's had 100 control and even now it doesn't have 100 control throughout this so it's like i find it hard to blame him for this I just feel like I wish there was someone at the head who was grabbing the wheel and being a little more Phil Spencer about it, but that's just not what PlayStation's identity is.
19:48Greg Miller:No, not at all.
19:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Let me see a couple of chats in here for you. Okay.
19:52Andy Cortez:Don't get mad. Matt Sanders says PlayStation is getting back to more Japanese sensibilities. I mean, I think that's a broad brush. We'll see. I mean, I would like that. I would like that to be the point.
20:09Andy Cortez:these pitches love Sosa. Oh, like Sammy Sosa. Oh, pitches like bitches. I see what it was. I see where we're going with it. Returnal is an all time favorite and I'm considering holding off on sorrows till PC and returnal was$70 on PlayStation five and$6 on PC. Maybe Sony sees red flags.
20:29Maybe they say,
20:30Andy Cortez:so that that is still coming. I thought they just, Jason said it wasn't. Yeah.
20:34Blessing Adeoye Jr.:And the upcoming action of Soros will remain exclusive to PS5. So unless I'm misreading what you're trying to say here, you ain't holding off till PC. I wouldn't be holding your breath on that one. I would say, Sammy Sosa, it's time to go over there and just fucking buy it on PlayStation 5. Do you also think that, I saw this on BS, that's a blue sky, Tim, from other people in the press of just like, this is PlayStation, I forget, God, I wish I had it pulled up, I'm sorry. I want to, maybe it was, I'm not going to name names because I can't remember. But it was, somebody was like, this is PlayStation saying they hate money.
21:00Blessing Adeoye Jr.:You are never going to get the PC fan to go buy a PlayStation 5. so why not just take the moderate returns here
21:09Greg Miller:that's what when I woke up this morning and read that my thought was oh I thought we were over the six years learning about the PC market trying to get in on that and seeing that PC players wanted your games right but maybe they didn't want to wait a year and a half right what could you do to better satiate that audience because and also gotta remind you what are the games they released out on that, right? The banger was going to be Spider-Man. They wanted Spider-Man. We knew that, right? Then you get into the conversations of like, well, what didn't do well, right? Probably God of Wars are in the middle there.
21:43Greg Miller:They're not Spider-Man level of hype, but they're in the middle, I think. I think probably Horizon that was too late came out there, and it's like that's probably on the lower tier of it all. So it just kind of depends on like what are the game lineup? You're telling me Wolverine wouldn't go crazy on PC? Day and date? Yeah, day and date or in the first six months. Yeah. Like, I think they just didn't test those kind of things because they didn't want to start flirting with the conversation. Because you're half and half out. Exactly. Once you go too far, then they're going to start expecting it, and then they're going to get mad at you.
22:14Greg Miller:But at the same time, it's like, I do need to really test the market and see would they go crazy for a Wolverine, which we all know they would. If this came out on PC, day and date, that would sell very well.
22:26Andy Cortez:Yeah, but they want you to buy that box. Of course, they want that box. Uh, simple Jack says PlayStation is PlayStation saying they are moving away from PC, leaving $2 billion on the table and also saying they want to monetize their users more means they
22:40Blessing Adeoye Jr.:expect customers to make up the gap.
22:41Greg Miller:Count me out on that, Herman. That's what me and bless talked about. And I still, I worry a little bit about that because I do think they're going to try to raise prices. How crazy will that be? We don't know, but yeah, you are, you're cutting off a revenue source and you got to find that revenue somewhere else and saying, Hey, all these games are going to be exclusive and PlayStation. I think the thought process is, hey, Xbox is in the absolute gutter. These people will leave Xbox on this next generation. They're going to come here when we say nothing. You can't find any of these games anywhere but here.
23:11Greg Miller:And that is exactly right. We saw that with PlayStation 4 into 5 now. Xbox One was the time when everybody left. It's like, this will happen again. This will be the next one of like, we're leaving Xbox for sure this next generation, and we're going to PlayStation. You're going to see a lot of that. I think, you know, yes, you're not wrong there.
23:31Blessing Adeoye Jr.:How many people do you think are going to make the jump to PC? That's always the real conversation here, right? And what I continue to hear from the kids, the parents of kids, right, is that all the kids are watching their favorite streamers play on PC and they're wanting PCs. And I know even Post-Son wanted a PC.
23:50Greg Miller:The kids want PCs, 100%, right? We're talking about an iPad and iPhone generation now that is growing up with like the tablets and the phones being anywhere. Now they're seeing people that they watch and admire. They want to be in the PC market of things. I think the Steam machine, if that was anywhere closer or more affordable, that would be the alternative there. And I think PlayStation is probably talking about that internally as well, of going, if this thing could absolutely explode in our face here, we can't let that happen. Let's make sure all of our games are here. Because, yeah, we're battling for living room space, right?
24:24Greg Miller:We know what the PC looks like at the desktop, at the big desk, and all the computers. No, we're trying to be on the couch and be that other one right there, but at an affordable price.
24:34Andy Cortez:Sort by first name says, PC gaming is a choice, not easy or cheap. I don't think this makes PC gamers get into the PlayStation ecosystem.
24:41Blessing Adeoye Jr.:It just gives them no reason to become fans of their franchises. There's enough to play. There's enough to play. Steam has plenty of games for you to go get lost in it.
24:50Greg Miller:There's always a sale. There's always a sale. There's always some Steam sale going on. And it's like people talk about PCs being very expensive. PCs on the lower end that you would be getting a child aren't as expensive as you think, right? You're not going to get them the Andy Cortez$1 ,200 to$3 ,000 PC, right? You are going into the Best Buys, finding that$500 to$700 Costco PC. Like, we talked too much about like— Does it run Fortnite and does it run Roblox? We talked way too much about like, oh, man, PCs are super expensive. walk into your local Costco and Best Buy we're not buying the child of 5070 here like we're buying a very basic computer
25:27Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Costco does sell ones with really nice memory cards in there or you know RTX cards I love Costco I digress Mike I love Costco I love video games I love talking about video games I love kind of funny I love our audience and if you love us audience
25:45Andy Cortez:you should pick up your kind of funny membership patreon.com slash kind of funny YouTube.com slash kind of funny games, Apple, or Spotify. You can pick up the membership, get everything we do. That's more than 80 episodes a month, ad free. Get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, and a series we call Gregway. 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 sponsor. 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.
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27:00Andy Cortez:Eat like a pro this month with Factor. New subscribers only, varies by plan, one free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active.
27:10Tim Gettys:When you want your spring break to feel like and your kids pool day to feel like and your hotel bed to feel like ooh and room service to feel like because at Hilton hospitality feels like
27:29Greg Miller:your cabana's ready would you like fresh towels?
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28:07Greg Miller:We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greeting, lightsaber clashing, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dropping, Banshee flying, Space Mountain launching,
28:24Tim Gettys:galaxy rewinding, what's the whole deck with galaxy rewinding, fireworks igniting,
28:29Greg Miller:World of Other Worlds, for whatever you love. Infinite worlds await at the most magical place on Earth.
28:36Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Walt Disney World Resort. And we're back. We go with breaking assets to Costco.com slash gaming dash computers dot HTML. There you go. Look at this, Mike. All right. You're telling me little Billy doesn't want to get that$2 ,300 unit with a 50, 80 in there.
28:54Greg Miller:A 50, 80 in there. Little Billy is playing Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft. I can promise you they're not buying them that. I mean, the mom and dad, they don't know what they're getting. I saw something right and it's like the normies are only searching the internet It's like you do know Roblox can run on like a brick right?
29:11Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah there you go look a straight grand you get an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Why not little Billy? Don't you want to go play PC games with your friends?
29:21Greg Miller:So yeah I mean I think the PC market will be fine Sony doing this Well there's memory leak shit who knows Yeah well yeah that's a whole different situation Memory loss Yeah Thank you I knew I was saying it wrong PlayStation doing this is a very interesting move. I think it's the right move for them and the console space. It's just an interesting one going into 2026, but with the memory loss that we're having. The memory loss. I mean, it's the right move.
29:46Andy Cortez:All right, we move on to story number two. Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed Black Flag resynced. The remake we all knew was coming. We go to IGN with Tom Phillips reporting. Ubisoft has just released the first piece of concept art for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, finally confirming its long-awaited remake that has been rumored for years. The company included the image in a blog post that offers more detail on the blockbuster franchise's future, including word that post-launch support for Assassin's Creed Shadows was being wound down. Ubisoft's focus is now firmly on the future, though the series' next all-new entry, Assassin's Creed codename Hex, sounds like it's still some ways off.
30:27Andy Cortez:In the meantime then, Ubisoft has at last begun acknowledging its upcoming Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake, which is expected to arrive at some point later this year. Quote, Speculation around Assassin's Creed is not new, but it's worth repeating, nothing is true. Everything is permitted, Ubisoft wrote. Well, except in this case, some whispers have been a little more wind in their sails. Some whispers have a little more wind in their sails. Keep your spyglass on the horizon parrot emoji.
30:56Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I got more angry as I read that quote Yeah of course Fucking speak fucking plainly We're doing the fucking thing And say it's coming out of this Why are you dropping a parrot fucking emoji Look through the spy guards I'm aware no I know I understand the references Stop trying to be fucking fancy If Yusef was still there he would put a stop to this
31:19Greg Miller:Ubisoft just so lost Like what world are we living in Just say it Let's get this out there. We've had art books. We know this is happening. Just get it out there. Let's start, maybe instead of this, the teasing stuff, let's start drumming up some excitement. Yeah. Because you got a lot of losses. Is this, are we really banking on Assassin's Creed Black Flag to try to fix the ship? It's not going to sink the ship? Like, are people going back to Assassin's Creed Black Flag?
31:45Andy Cortez:They are expecting people to jump in and buy this
31:47Blessing Adeoye Jr.:because people love Black Flag. I love Black Flag. I don't know if I'll play a lot of Black Flag re-synced, but, like, it's cool. but no Ubisoft is clearly putting all their chips on this because it's all they fucking got all they got
31:57Greg Miller:that's all they got and I don't think many people you say a lot of people love it and I love it and I get that right but in 2026 are we dropping everything that we're doing to go to this if they would have done that fucking
32:09Blessing Adeoye Jr.:oh that was Prince of Persia when I was out there
32:11Greg Miller:are sales going to be bonkers for this what is it really going to look like
32:15Blessing Adeoye Jr.:good yeah
32:17Greg Miller:solid not meeting our expectations
32:19Blessing Adeoye Jr.:good probably yeah probably when it's like this has got to save the entire fucking company until somebody else buys them or whatever weird splintering thing they're doing, whatever. I'm annoyed by Ubisoft in general. Not even just them putting fucking parrots and trying to get wax poetic in there. Well, except in this case, some whispers. So they're just holding off until in their sales. Keep your spyglass on the horizon.
32:40Tim Gettys:Yeah, that's the confusing thing here is like how they finally acknowledge this, which is, I think, a really weird first step for this as well. Because, yeah, when do we get an actual first look at this game that isn't concept art for a remake of a game that just looks like concept art for the original game, you know?
32:57Greg Miller:And then exactly better. So we're waiting until summer to announce this, and then we're going to get into the fall and get mixed up with Grand Theft Auto 6, the biggest entity on planet Earth. Is that the plan here from Ubisoft? I don't know if they're going to get close to GTA 6,
33:11Tim Gettys:but I could see it being, well, Keeley's thing is early June. Yeah. See announced for June coming out August. something like that. I mean, I feel like this has got to be
33:22Blessing Adeoye Jr.:fucking you announce it and just release it, right?
33:25Andy Cortez:Are we going to do a whole fucking preview cycle and everything else?
33:27Tim Gettys:There was a whole, you know, I think the original plan was, at least through rumors, is that this was supposed to come out like a month ago or something like that. Like, they're trying to get this out before the fiscal year ends. And so, yeah, it could just be a shadow drop or something like that wherever they finally showed off properly.
33:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Aye, aye, aye. You know, Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed. What is left to say? How is this? You know what I...
34:02Andy Cortez:Just fucking show the game. Yeah. Why are we doing concept art for a remake? Yeah.
34:10Greg Miller:The art book's out there. Somebody's got their hands on the art book already as well. We already know that. They got the art book.
34:19Tim Gettys:uh black flag is the best-selling game in the assassin's creed franchise with 15 million copies sold as of 2025 there you go eat that so yeah that was back in 2008 when it was hot well it was 2013 but it was also uh for it to still be the best-selling one even with uh valhalla and shadow selling very well um you know i i i get the apprehension but there is still a a fervor for Assassin's Creed, especially for a fan favorite like Black Flag.
34:51Andy Cortez:Story number three. Dive into more news. Crimson Desert marketing director response to review drama. Quote, we're not hiding anything. End quote. This is Ethan Gotch over Kotaku. Crimson Desert has been on a slow rolling takeover of online gamer hype. Months of new footage and features trickling out. Yeah. capped off by a recent glowing pre-release assessment by Digital Foundry has players excited but also worried that the hyper-polished-looking, sprawling open-world adventure game from a studio known for MMOs might be too good to be true. Underlying that concern is the recent news that the review embargo for Crimson Desert is only 24 hours before launch and outlets that have received code have been told they can only get a code for the PC version.
35:38Andy Cortez:Is this another Cyberpunk 2077 situation? Quote, we're not hiding anything, and I'm sick of having to repeat myself, Pearl Abyss marketing director Will Powers wrote on X last night. Quote, I've repeated hundreds of times that we'll reveal things ahead of launch to give people adequate time to still pre-order the game for themselves. We're saying this openly, dot dot dot, let us cook, please and thank you, slash rants, so end rant, end quote. Some are taking it as a sign that Pearl Abyss will release additional deep dives on Crimson Desert's console performance prior to release. Maybe another digital foundry audit, but others are writing it off as, quote-unquote, bullshit PR spin, end quote.
36:18Andy Cortez:It's unclear what the holdup on console review codes might be. Games need to pass platform certification to come to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X slash S. Any delay could signal that there are still Last minute issues being addressed before Pearl Abyss Can get the console versions into the hands of reviewers Quote, I don't think that's a good idea Wrote Rockstar and CD Projekt Red News account Video To Chuck Quote, CDPR did this And look what happened with Cyberpunk I think being transparent and giving reviewers Keys to the console version will show some Confidence, end quote Damn
36:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Who's that? That was Video Tech UK.
37:07I apologize.
37:08Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Maybe intercap your name because I said Video Tech.
37:12Greg Miller:Exactly. To whoever that is, I guess I apologize. He did call you Video Kachunk. So I don't.
37:19Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Here's the other thing. Maybe, you know, if we're quoting a news account, Video Tech UK, put some spaces in there, some intercaps. or maybe have a fucking person assigned to it. So it's Greg Miller from Video Tech UK. Let's get something going on here. Instead of me having to read every night out here on this fucking show, I'm reading fucking Reddit comments all the time where it's like, Tootie Hooter is 69 and said this fucking review. Anyways, back to Crimson Desert. Where are you at with your expectations for this console? Of course, as this calls out, and we've said publicly, we are some of the reviewers who have Crimson Desert on PC.
37:56Blessing Adeoye Jr.:it's important to know that we are talking strictly about what we thought about this game before we ever got the review code. You've heard me talk about Crimson Desert quite a lot on these shows. So we're going to talk that way rather than obviously spoil anything from the review embargo that does lift the day before. You can catch our review on the 17th.
38:12Greg Miller:Yeah, I mean, let's get real about this that we've seen up until this is there's so much excitement for the game that can do anything and everything, right? And there's so many questions of can they do that? And then they put out a bunch of pre-launch information and videos and you go, oh, wow, it might actually be doing just that. Right. And then you get very excited and people want to know, is this going to run on my console? Right. Too many times have we seen all these crazy PC specs and then it comes to console. It's not quite ready for the showtime of it all. And so, yeah, of course, people are a little worried or excited to find out how well is this going to run on console?
38:49Greg Miller:Then when you hear on social media, hey, PR guy, it looks like you're not giving out Xbox consoles. What's the deal? And they're like, well, okay, well, like, this is how we're rolling this out. Then people start to steamroll that and get really worried.
39:01Blessing Adeoye Jr.:So let's talk about a little thing called damned if you do, damned if you don't. The amount of times I've answered in my career, but on a Greg way here, kind of funny of whatever, of like, I don't understand why you have to say you're playing redacted. Why can't you say what game you're playing? Why do you have to hide your activity? Why do PR and marketing companies want you to do that?
39:19Andy Cortez:Because this is the flip of it. The flip of it is that to Will Powers, marketing director at Pearl Abyss, we're not hiding anything. And I'm sick of having to repeat myself. We had to go to a pre-briefing call. They gave us the codes and they said, once you have the code, you're allowed to say you have it and you can confirm the review and you can confirm the time and you can do all that stuff. And it's like, awesome. But then that opens a can of worms where suddenly it is,
39:40Blessing Adeoye Jr.:well, I only have a PC code. Why? Well, they don't have consoles. And then it is just wild speculation now for two weeks of gamers who have been burned so many different times. And then you bring in the conversation of, you know, as Ethan calls out here at some point, right? Of like the concern that the review embargo is the day before launch or whatever that lines up with, with like, you know, or international launches, right? Another thing that back in the old days, right? IGN readers used to know, oh, there's no review for this PlayStation or Xbox exclusive a week early. They're not confident.
40:12Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Something's going on. Yada, yada, yada. that I don't think holds water anymore in this day and age review embargoes are all over the place Nintendo's usually what like they release stuff usually on a Thursday and usually you get a review on a Tuesday is a Wednesday wiggle room or whatever that much different everybody does their own thing in a different way I don't think that's that's no longer a rule of thumb to follow in terms of like oh well it's this that or the other but they've been trained on following that so that's where we get yeah and I again we have the code we're talking about beforehand I am so fascinated and cannot wait to see what happens.
40:45Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I have talked openly about this when we saw it originally and you know, you're gliding in this. We're like this game. He's in a robot next suit. Everything. What are you talking about? No way. Then you saw another trailer. No way. Then I played at SGF and I was like, listen, control scheme was very complicated. They threw me to the deep end of this thing, but by the boss fight at the end, I was like, okay, I'm kind of feeling it. And then of course, there's a preview cycle that just went up where people are interested in it. Pearl Abyss has been not hiding anything and putting up videos of here's what the game looks like and here's what you're doing and here's what's going on they did the digital foundry thing they we talked about it recently this article that popped of like hey playstation wanted timed exclusivity on this and they told them to kick rocks we want to publish it everywhere it's like i have from the beginning been like this looks too good to be true and it looks every time we turn a corner that pearl abyss goes well we're gonna prove it
41:35Andy Cortez:We're going to prove it. We're going to prove it. And so the console thing here is interesting. I mean, scary. Again, you look at a game of how good it looks here running on PCs and whatever specs it's running at. You go, man, can they nail that on a thing? But there also is the convoluted thing. We all know extremely well that yeah,
41:53Blessing Adeoye Jr.:submissions on PlayStation Xbox do take time. And as we'll writes here, right? We're saying this openly, let us cook. It sounds like they're cooking down to the wire, which of course, as we all know from the past and other games has blown up in people's faces before where you can't land that plane and you can't get it done. But I don't know. It's, this is what I'm saying is who knows what the fuck's about to happen, but you're seeing the other side of the coin where we're going to say nothing and let you say nothing, or you can say you have it. You can say this, but then this kind of stuff happened.
42:24Greg Miller:Now we have weeks of speculation. Yeah. We're going to be talking about this. Yeah. It's tough. I mean, everybody's going to point to cyberpunk, right? And then now we have to deal with refunds or people playing a broken game. Right. And so, yeah, you're just, there's too many great games out right now to be upset and sad that like, Oh man, I just bought this game and now I have to refund it or it's totally broken when it's like, I could have just been playing X, Y, and Z and waited for this. Right. And so in the live chat over here,
42:51Blessing Adeoye Jr.:uh,
42:55Andy Cortez:June Dow says, I think the game went gold a month ago.
42:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Dot, dot, LOL.
42:59Andy Cortez:I will also throw this out in 2026.
43:01Blessing Adeoye Jr.:going gold means jack shit going gold and be like we are content complete and that will be the disc you print doesn't matter anymore because it's all about fucking hey guess what we're gonna have patches and this and that and day one things and you have to like yes every developer nowadays publish goes gold and then works on bug squashing in that day one patch forever and clearly that's what you assume is happening with the console version is that they are working down to the wire to get it as good as they can to put it out there. And clearly, again, we talk about what can you read from a review embargo and X,
43:33Andy Cortez:Y, and Z. Like, remember for us in the press, and I'm talking not even about Pearl abyss, but what the window they've given us here,
43:41Blessing Adeoye Jr.:no one is owed a review code. You don't need to do it. And frankly, the way y 'all are foaming at the mouth for crimson desert, they could have said no review codes.
43:50Greg Miller:Yeah.
43:51Blessing Adeoye Jr.:We want to do right by the fans and put it out there. Yeah. Yeah. Cause like when we did the March game, the every game coming in March, the fervor of people who are like, I bought a new PC for this game. It's like, oh shit. Like Crimson Desert is going to be just fine. Sales wise, if they have a review or not, the fact that they gave it to reviewers two weeks early.
44:09Andy Cortez:Okay. You know what I mean? They got something to say and they want you to get in there. They want you to get into the figure out if you like it or not. So we'll see how it shakes out.
44:15Blessing Adeoye Jr.:But I am very interested to see where we get with. Yeah. To this thing of what Ethan's reading between the tea leaves here of like, well maybe they're still going the way will is talking in his tweet maybe they are going to still put up videos like here it is running on a playstation 5 here it is running on whatever maybe they do their own comparisons maybe another digital foundry etc etc what does that look like what are review scores on this x y z but yeah crimson desert one of the most anticipated games of the year crazy it's an excitement and it's that that's my thing about it as someone who i would still say and again we are i'm making this very clear i'm saying this as somebody pre-review code because you've heard me talk about this on shows i'm just repeating myself as someone who doesn't fully believe like i i again they keep showing up i keep saying stuff and they keep putting out a video or doing the thing like they're they're they're trying to turn me as somebody doesn't fully believe i want them to nail this yeah i want them to fucking crush this and just score the touchdown be the homecoming king run off be carried off the field yeah because again this isn't the story we see a lot in video games again like this clearly for Pearl Abyss they want this to be their Witcher 3 they want this to be their breakout here we go we've planted our flag you may have known us from the MMOs now you know us as a team that can do something fucking incredible and we didn't do the exclusivity and we didn't do this thing we've been openly talking to you here we go so I hope they crush it could be a great story could be a great we will find out
45:45Greg Miller:very soon.
45:46Andy Cortez:Not that far.
45:47Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Not that far. You know what I mean? Regular Special One says, I need to see it running on an Xbox Series S. You don't need to see anything running on an Xbox Series S. You know? I got that one over on my bookshelf. I look at it every so often. I'm like, oh, thank God.
46:00Greg Miller:I wanted the toaster.
46:03Andy Cortez:I understand that. Yeah, you know what I mean? I wanted the toaster. We move on to story number four. Bungie Details, Marathon's post-launch seasons, which will be free and evolve gameplay. This is the one the only Andy Robinson at VGC dot news. Bungie has detailed Marathon's post-launch content, which it says will launch around three months per season. Well, last, I'm sorry, around three months per season. Be free to everyone and change the way players experience the game. Marathon is due to release as a premium title on PlayStation five, Xbox, and PC this Thursday, this Thursday, March 5th. And for the first time being at, and for the time being at least it's new content.
46:43will be made available for no additional cost in an update detailing its post-launch plans
46:48Andy Cortez:bungie and marathon's seasonal updates will introduce new gameplay gear runner shells zones events and quote unquote change the way you master survival grow your power floor and progress throughout a season end quote at launch players will eventually unlock the game's fourth zone corio archive an end game area with puzzles to solve and vaults to unlock bungie said Then, in the second half of March, a ranked mode will unlock, allowing players to obtain valuable loot rewards. Bungie has also offered some details on what to expect in Marathon Season 2, which will be called Nightfall. That sounds familiar.
47:26Quote,
47:26Andy Cortez:Your activities on the Lost Colony have not gone unnoticed, and the UESC are stepping up their security measures in responding in force to your criminal activities, end quote. Quote, it said, each season of Marathon will have a different theme and a unique combination of new features, content and stories that continue to evolve the world in gameplay. We'll also be tuning all of our loot and progression systems, creating space for new metas and ways of play to emerge. End quote. Each season will introduce new ways to play existing zones. The developer claimed, for example, season two will feature a nighttime version of Dire Marsh.
48:02Andy Cortez:in addition to its next runner shell, new weapons, mods, cores, contracts, and more. Mike,
48:12Blessing Adeoye Jr.:High Guard's body isn't even cold yet. And here we come running in as Marathon, as Bungie with something to prove. Concord hot on the tip of tongue, yada, yada, yada.
48:24Andy Cortez:First off, what's your expectation for how Marathon is going to do? The audience is going to find. And then what about this?
48:31Greg Miller:Yeah, we'll flip it. We'll talk about this first. This is exactly what you want to hear. We're two days from launch. Everybody expecting. Everyone nowadays in 2026 says, what is the roadmap? What is the content I can look forward to? I'm already invested in your game from the server slam or on day one. I want to know what's next. We always talk about this. Players are going to dive in. They're going to eat up every piece of content you have, and they're going to say, what is next? And so you have to have that answer right away, if not beforehand, just like they're doing now. And they're doing the right thing.
49:02Greg Miller:They're saying the right things, right? Content is free for everybody, which means the player base is going to stick together. You don't want to start segmenting the player base and having people get lost because they didn't buy the DLC. That's a big deal now in this stuff. So this all looks good, sounds right, right? Everything we're talking about from three months per season, that's on par with the course of live service games. That's exactly what we want to see. A ranked mode for the sweats out there to grind and get better at, that's what you want to see. a map with puzzle and raid-like mechanics.
49:33Greg Miller:That's exciting and different, right? That's what you want to see in these kind of games is how do you continue to elevate the gameplay, make it more stimulating when you're playing it, make it more of a team-focused game of we got to do X, Y, and Z to achieve a goal. That's fun. Instead of just running around and doing the bare minimum. On the flip side, right, how do I think Concord will do? Nope, nope, Marathon. A Marathon, thank you. I left Marathon a mixed bag of emotions. We talked about this yesterday on the podcast, and Paris wanted to call in because Paris is high on this, right? And Andy was high on this.
50:03Greg Miller:I was like, hey, there's a lot of Bungie core here. That is so great, right? Bungie does a great job creating a world. They have awesome first-person shooting gameplay feel, movement. All of that is great, right? But during my time of playing, there was too many times where it was just boring. There was 10 to 12-minute segments where we weren't clashing with the team. We were just fighting the AI bots. or we were just walking around aimlessly. Like, it just wasn't a fun time for me. And so I left it going, I don't know how I feel about this. I don't know where I really stand. Is Washi going to play with you?
50:37Greg Miller:Oh, absolutely not. No, Washi is Washi though. He's Washi. Like, now you look to others and see if they're into it, right? But for me, this is my probably second most anticipated game of the year conversation-wise. Where does Bungie land this, right? because there's so much weighing on this for Bungie and PlayStation, and there is so much anticipation for this coming hot off of Ark Raiders, Concord, High Guard, right? This conversation of live service, first-person shooter, multiplayer games is so hotly just talked about, and you're either for it or against it. You hate it. You love it. You want to see things fail.
51:16Greg Miller:It's very weird out there, but, like, will this game land will be very interesting. I think it's going to have a much better launch, and probably road than High Guard. I think there will be a player base that sticks with this. I don't see a world where we look at Marathon two weeks from now and go they lost 90 % of their player base. But also my prediction here is I don't see we see a world where they have more than 75 % of the player base. I think it dips to about 50, maybe 40. But I think they have more of a roadmap, more of longevity than what we saw with High Guard. do you think it's something that sticks around i think you get i think you get a year out of marathon okay of like you get a full year of like hey you have time and grace here to build off of this to learn what the community likes and dislikes to build and continue to hopefully a year from now it can either be a different game that people want or still be a great game that people love okay so it's kind of right down the middle of the road we wait with bated breath of course like we
52:19Blessing Adeoye Jr.:said this is coming out thursday march 5th that is tomorrow mike it comes out tomorrow
52:27Greg Miller:if you're in the know you're in the know we just had a whole weekend with it no i don't even mean
52:31Blessing Adeoye Jr.:i i just think it's crazy that it's out tomorrow it's not me i've heard about marathon obviously it's not me so it's not it's not my kind of game so i'm not going to be like all yeah i mean
52:38Greg Miller:it we will see arc raiders is still red hot greg right like crazy people want to continue and stick around with arc raiders uh overwatch is hot right now there's so many games competing in this We had such a great conversation about this yesterday with High Guard of like that AAA space of first person shooters is so intense. And like it is hard to break into that space. And here it is. Bungie, the team that, of course, known for their Halo legacy, but really known right now for Destiny and what they did with the live service MMO first person shooter type vibe of a game. Right now they're saying, hey, we're doing an extraction shooter and we're kind of betting the betting the farm on this.
53:18that that's a fun conversation to have so now i want to get inside baseball with you are you down for that let's get a little bit deeper here tomorrow marathon comes out yeah
53:31Blessing Adeoye Jr.:you andy nick the jabroni boys yeah riding the bench so we can play pocopia then friday like okay well sure friday me and joey do the games cast plays do pocopia friday you somebody else Nick, I'm going to try to get out of the thing I have to come do. We're doing a Pocopia server. Is this a comment on how much kind of funny cares about Marathon?
53:55Greg Miller:Yeah, this is a comment on kind of funny on like the interest in Marathon, right? Of like our team is not the diehard first person shooter team. We were back in the day with Call of Duty Warzone, but I think we have flown and changed on how we want to put out content, what games we want to play, what games we engage with the most. And right now. To be clear, don't be wrong. I'm not. I think Foucault is the right call. I just want to talk about it. The team is not like, hey, we're playing marathon. It's very much of like Mike wants to sweat in marathon. Nick really isn't engaged and interested in extraction shooters.
54:27Greg Miller:He'll come along for the ride. Andy is 50-50 on the. He's playing Witcher 3 for the 50th time. We don't know what Andy's doing, right? So it's like.
54:35Andy Cortez:It's famously his first time.
54:37Greg Miller:But it's more the thing where he calls me every.
54:39Andy Cortez:I'm sick. I can't come to work.
54:40Greg Miller:And then I see him streaming. Are you ready to sweat? And the team is not ready to sweat like that. And so we choose games that we want to put out content with. We want to play some Bulbasaur. And we want to, hey, you're telling me there's a Minecraft Pokemon video game? Yeah, we're going to play that. Let's do it. We're going to play that.
54:56Andy Cortez:Story number five on the Roper Report. The Trump administration debates allowing Tencent to keep its gaming stakes. We read from the Financial Times reports via Reuters. The White House is debating whether to allow Tencent to keep its stakes in major video game groups as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet Chinese President, ooh, well, it's Jinping, right? You don't put the G on. Jinping, okay. In China in April, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Top officials have held internal meetings to assess whether 10 cents investments in U.S. and Finnish gaming firms pose a national security risk, the newspaper said, citing several people familiar with the deliberations.
55:36Andy Cortez:A meeting among several cabinet officials scheduled for Tuesday to review the issue was postponed due to scheduling issues, the Financial Times said. Reuters could not immediately verify the report. The White House and Tencent also did not immediately respond to Reuters' request for comment. Hong Kong listed Tencent holds a stake in video game developer Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, and owns Los Angeles-based Riot Games, the developer of League of Legends. In 2016, it bought a majority stake of Supercell, the Finnish mobile game developer behind Clash of Clans, for about$8.6 billion.
56:13Greg Miller:yeah i don't really know my feelings on this one it's more like a yeah you show me you go have that conversation show me i don't really love this this is tiktok all over again this is like hey they got your data we want your data actually so we got to get involved here uh before i even read this thing because i don't want to of course regulation looking into these things that's
56:34Blessing Adeoye Jr.:great we're going to do it for the public investment from for saudi arabia as well oh no they're working with Donald Trump's son-in-law of course we won't do that this is Ibron Khan quoting the article
56:45Andy Cortez:if I had to speculate my guess at the order of operations here is Kusher and Saudi invest in EA they like the prospective ROI and see more gaming companies like Riot as opportunities they use Trump to force Tencent out with added xenophobia they pick up the pieces financially
57:01Blessing Adeoye Jr.:oh shocking we're going to see that coming
57:02Greg Miller:yeah this fucking place can't have anything but at least we don't have to use pronouns anymore
57:15Blessing Adeoye Jr.:mike yeah greg the fall of democracy and upsetting an authoritarian regime is huge news if i wanted something smaller say the tiniest news i need to know about where would it go this huge news man
57:25Greg Miller:i'd take you to our last news story the we news channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about number six the we news uh biffle games of course friend of the show
57:37Andy Cortez:Mike Bithell has revealed a new game, Amber Spire. Amber Spire is out May 6th. Construct buildings, manage resources, and build in harmony with an alien ecology. Beneath the glow of a gas giant, Amber Spire will grow and prosper into a flourishing city atop the ruins of an abandoned moon. Wishlist now on Steam. Congratulations, Bithell. We love seeing you make that game. Congratulations.
57:59Greg Miller:I love a fun city builder. He's always doing something different. I'll tell you what. I wasn't going to peg him for this. Yeah. I wasn't going to guess on this one. I like it. You got dice in there, too. Hey, my birthday, May 7th. I'll be playing this. I'm checking it out.
58:12Andy Cortez:Everhood Hunters has been announced for 2027. It's a roguelike based on the Everhood series. We have a trailer. Let's jump in there. I don't know what this is.
58:19Tim Gettys:I don't know what the Everhood series is. I don't know what that is either. Everhood. Let me bring this up. Sorry. I think this is added in late. I know EverQuest. Everhood is very aesthetically very inspired by Undertale, but it's also like a rhythm game as well. People really liked the first game. I had the second game on my fantasy critic. I think maybe last year didn't do as well as the first game, but it's got its audience, you know, very quirky, weird world. And then leading into doing more kind of like rhythm stuff with a roguelike. Seems fun.
58:54Andy Cortez:Yeah. From gamesindustry.biz, Baylor Games, maybe Balor Games, formerly known as Good Games Group, the company from former Humble Games staff, has acquired the entire Humble Games and Fire stock back catalog. Many required reading from Bless. Games industry biz has a full breakdown with interviews about how Baylor Games wants to invest in triple-I video games. Oh, okay. I like that. Resident Evil Requiem has sold over 5 million copies. Damn. That's what I'm talking about. Good job, Capcom. More games are being added to Nintendo Classics on March 10th. On Virtual Boy, you can get Mario's Tennis and Mario Clash.
59:30Andy Cortez:On Game Boy Advance, you can get Mario vs. Donkey Kong. Okay. From Noble According to a new report from Origami Unity is shutting down its office in France Unity France has nearly 100 employees
59:44Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Woof And that's it for WeNews Glad we ended on such a high note here Yeah Talking about everything else Really took a wicked turn there on story 6 You knew it would You knew it would What else is left to say The entire fucking thing is rigged
59:58Andy Cortez:Yeah Scorpion Brew says I just got God of War sons of sparta's platinum i loved the story 7.5 i love you all thank you for doing so much great
1:00:08Tim Gettys:content and getting me through the overnights nice i respect the dedication of getting a platinum for a game that you admit is a 7.5 hell yeah also yeah way to find the fun way to play through it and have
1:00:18Blessing Adeoye Jr.:a good time i barely like platinum in games that i love yeah exactly how outrageous is that platinum do you even look at it uh it seemed just like quick glance 100 percenting the main campaign
1:00:29Tim Gettys:and I think doing stuff in like the co-op boss rush roguelike whatever the hell that mode is. Okay.
1:00:39Andy Cortez:Foxy C says, I personally enjoyed Marathon's gameplay. I did find myself in PvP battles often and the gunplay feels good. I have an issue with the UI as it feels messy.
1:00:48Greg Miller:Yeah, the UI is crazy, Greg. UI is crazy, Greg.
1:00:54Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Raleigh says, has Andy used his honey pack yet? That was his birthday present. Has he used it? I don't know.
1:01:00Andy Cortez:Okay.
1:01:01Blessing Adeoye Jr.:He wouldn't go to a basketball game with me. Outrageous.
1:01:03Andy Cortez:What a fucking comment. Hundreds of monkeys says,
1:01:06Blessing Adeoye Jr.:any risk of Sony delisting games already ported to PC, I wouldn't put it past them. Dot, dot, dot, dot. Never say never, but I don't think that's at the top of their to-do. No. Let the money trickle in. So, yeah, insignificant. Except for this one executive who's going, they're going to put it on Xbox and take a photo of it on Xbox. Oh, yes.
1:01:23Andy Cortez:Dolphin Corner says, little Billy wants to be like Nick with a good PC. Yeah, he does. Yeah, they do. And then our final two super chats are among our first super chats. The one, the only Radek super chats and says birthday tax on behalf of my son who turned seven today.
1:01:39Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Happy birthday, Carol. I love you, little buddy. Happy birthday to Radek's son. Happy birthday, Carol. Heck yeah. Seven years old. What up, homie? Love some fun. Buy a gaming PC from Costco. Tell your dad to buy you a gaming PC.
1:01:51Greg Miller:Hell yeah.
1:01:52Blessing Adeoye Jr.:He must have a great PC.
1:01:54Andy Cortez:WonderGirl109 says, Mike, please, when are you posting the rest of your Resident Evil 9 playthrough on YouTube?
1:01:59Greg Miller:Greg, you know the computer broke me this weekend. I didn't know this. I tried to get into my computer Duffy. Tried to become Andy. I tried to become Roger. I said to myself, I've made nine parts of this playthrough. All about an hour long. Pretty happy with that. Uploaded them all. And I said, you know what? Forget that. Let's just jam it all into one video. And so what did I do? Went to Adobe Premiere. I thought, yeah, this is the move. I exported it. Takes seven hours. I get to the end. They say, no, no. This part doesn't work. They give you a bunch of code that you don't know what that means.
1:02:31Greg Miller:Nobody knows what that means. So I look it up. I try it again. Same code. Two or a third time. Same code. Now, this is two days in. Yeah. It's so big of a file that the computer doesn't have enough space for the file. And so then I start deleting parts out of it. It's still too big. Then I go to Roger. I go, Roger, what the hell, bro? Yeah, of course. He goes, Mike, you got to go to Shutter and Coder. Just merge them all there. Why are you exporting? I go, Roger, that's a brilliant idea. What do I do? I go to Shutter and Coder. I put nine in there. This thing is 575 gigabytes big. It's a massive file.
1:03:06Tim Gettys:Are people walking you through what settings you should be clicking to make sure it's not a 600?
1:03:12Greg Miller:I'm making 1440p videos. These things are crystal clear. It's like looking at Lake Tahoe sparkling.
1:03:18Tim Gettys:Yeah, you can do that with AV1 encoding and not have it be 600 gigs. What do I do, Greg?
1:03:23Greg Miller:I take half of it. Take half.
1:03:26Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah.
1:03:27Greg Miller:225. We go, here we go. We're cooking now.
1:03:29Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah.
1:03:29Greg Miller:Go to the second half. Put it together. No, that's 375. Too much. Ooh, I don't got to do a third part. So what I did after four days, deleted it all. I said, I'm going to go one by one. It's going to go back to where I was.
1:03:42Blessing Adeoye Jr.:When you talk to Roger and you're like, hey, was that a conversation here over coffee? Where are you bugging him?
1:03:48Greg Miller:I text Roger and I go, how do you do that? Roger leaves me on red, of course. Roger, no help when it comes to making the size smaller. You know what I mean? That's on Roger. Mike, buy him a hot dog. I'll take him to In-N-Out. I'll put my body down, let him step on me over a puddle. Take him to box seats. Roger can't type in and just say, hey, Mike, to make the file size smaller because it's the size of your whole computer's memory, let's do this. Also, this computer's got nothing on it. Why is 300 gigs taken up? Great question. What's inside these 300 gigs? I'm going to find them.
1:04:22Tim Gettys:What's the size of your solid state drive? I don't know
1:04:28Greg Miller:If 300 is in there I got like 500 available So it's clearly a terabyte right But then like what's the 300 I go through it all There's nothing that's that big
1:04:38Blessing Adeoye Jr.:What's getting eaten up Go in there and do the thing where you go into Windows And you put the greater than and whatever gigabytes And then it shows you everything What a nightmare
1:04:45Tim Gettys:Are you exporting to the right Solid state drive or hard drive
1:04:49Greg Miller:It just feels like Zoolander The files are in the computer And you just want to smash this thing That's why I keep it very simple.
1:04:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Have you ever thought that maybe this is God punishing you for trying to make content outside of Kind of Funny?
1:05:02Greg Miller:Oh, 100%. Yeah. All those long nights? Yeah. Wasted. Right. You feel tired in the morning? You shouldn't have done that. You could have just stuck with Greg's side, just stuck around here. Just make me money. Exactly. What do you have to worry about? What are you worried about, Mike?
1:05:17Blessing Adeoye Jr.:You're fine. I thought the health insurance was kind of like that would keep you motivated here. But if I have to remove that to get your 536 gigabytes of files, I'll do it if I have to. You know what I mean?
1:05:28Andy Cortez:Everybody, this has been another episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily. But our live programming day is far from over. Of course, we're going to go from this into Andy and Bless's review of Resident Evil 9. Requiem, where they're going to have a good time there. After that, it's going to be in review. Interstellar, our first time watching. No, I'm looking at yesterday, tomorrow. It fucks me up every time.
1:05:50Blessing Adeoye Jr.:So we did. How did you weasel your way on three shows back to back? You tried to pull me off. I said, nah, I got it. I fucking hate you. I'll host.
1:05:58Andy Cortez:Andy, you're a recommender review. Then it's going to be the co-op experience for Magic. And that is your day because we're recording something else that isn't live. Everybody, like, subscribe, share, pick up a membership. Patreon.com slash kindoffunny. YouTube.com slash kindoffunnygames. Apple, Spotify. And, of course, until next time, no. It's been our pleasure to serve you.
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Schreier’s report is in: PlayStation is abandoning PC, Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, and Crimson Desert’s review drama is giving shades of Cyberpunk 2077.
Thank you for the support!
Run of Show -
- Start - Sony Pulls Back From PlayStation Games on PC - Ad - Ubisoft Finally Confirms Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced - Crimson Desert Marketing Director Responds To Review Drama: ‘We’re Not Hiding Anything’ - Bungie details Marathon’s post-launch seasons, which will be free and ‘evolve gameplay’ - Trump administration debates allowing Tencent to keep its gaming stakes - Wee News! - SuperChats & You‘re Wrong
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