RIP Vince Zampella - Kinda Funny Games Daily 01.06.25

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1:51Go to boot.dev and use code KINDOFUNNY to get 25 % off your first year on the annual plan. today's gaming news stories include vince zampella has unfortunately passed away indie game awards disqualify as clear obscure and 007 first light takes gta 6's original release date we'll have all this and more because this is kind of funny games daily

2:20yo what's up welcome to kind of funny games daily for monday january 6th 2026 when your host blessing at eo a junior joining me is the la croix poppy tim ma gettys oh man there's nothing like the day after kind of funny day yeah you know it's i'm so tired right now and it's not because we worked very hard yesterday we did i think i was on more content yesterday than like maybe any kind of funny day in history that can't be true back in the original original old days but like in terms of the modern era i was on the most segments for sure for me yeah we had to get all of tim that we could get i know that's i love it i'm on a lot of things this week at any moment i'm gonna get that call and i gotta go so i'm trying to get it on as much as possible but it wasn't even that it's the thrill of going home and then just bathing in the in the the feeling you know what i mean and i get to look at all the the comments on youtube and social media and reddit and everything and just kind of take it all in the next thing i know it's 3 30 a.m and i'm like why did i do all of this and then i had no way you know what i mean that's the thing that they got me but how are you feeling i'm feeling good i i try to be responsible i have this thing where once i start to drink i become very aware of the things that i need to do i start drinking more water i'm incredible i'm the most responsible person i might be more responsible when i drink than when i'm over very very good value yeah i very much i haven't had a hangover in maybe like a year and a half now yeah congrats i had a hangover so bad that like i was you're like never again now when i drink i'm like all right give me water what time is it how long do i need to sleep when do i need to wake up tomorrow like i just become aware of everything that's so i went home at 10 30 and now i'm well slept yeah i'm ready amazing um how are you feeling after yesterday though like in regards to the announcements in regards to like everything going on this year honestly thrilled like everything went went so well i feel like almost every year in the like as long as i can remember now it's like oh that was the best kind of funny day we had at best might be for different reasons but like yesterday man we have such a great team we just had fun like there was like no drama and there's rarely drama within the team but like even just with the community with the announcements with just the energy overall it's like oh we're just we're just winning out here and it feels good to win you know i'm so excited to be back here doing games daily it's been way too long and yeah i feel like we've just take taking great content and made it just a little bit better so let's get it going well let's get right into it because remember if you're watching live you can be a part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com so that's kind of funny games we have a lot to talk about today because all the news that broke

4:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:over the break so super chat in have a conversation with us of course we couldn't do this without our patreon producers carl jacobs omega buster and delaney the psalm twining for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the roper report it's time for some news we have six stories today a baker's dozen starting with our number one kevin that was incredible i know didn't that sound like he had like an actual effect on it yeah like he's a dj very good story number one is a very very sad one vince zampella respawn co-founder and head of battlefield series is dead at 55 i am reading from wesley leblanc at game informer vince zampella respawn entertainment co-founder and the head of ea's battlefield series has died at age 55 nbc los angeles reports that zampella was killed in a car crash on sunday december 21st on southern california's eight Southern California's Angelus Crest Highway.

6:03Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Zampella founded Respawn Entertainment in 2010 with Jason West, which has since launched games like Titanfall and Titanfall 2, Apex Legends, and the Star Wars Jedi series. Before that, Zampella was the lead at Call of Duty Modern Warfare maker Infinity War. In 2021, Zampella became the head of Battlefield 4 EA amidst wider franchise changes that included the creation of Battlefield Universe. Zampela alongside Battlefield Studios helped make Battlefield 6 an inarguable success for the series. A tweet from Respawn reads, quote, We're heartbroken by the passing of our founder and dear friend Vince Zampela.

6:42Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Vince was a titan and legend of this industry, a visionary leader, and a force who shaped teams and games like Call of Duty, Titanfall, Apex Legends, Star Wars, and Battlefield for our community in ways that will be felt for generations. his impact reached far beyond any one game or studio we'll remember vince for how he showed up every day trusting his teams encouraging bold ideas and believing in respawn and battlefield most importantly he championed what he believed was right for the people behind those studios and our players because it mattered we'll miss him greatly our hearts are with his family friends and all who loved him and quote obviously this is like such a sad story to cover and there's no proper way to without saying rest in peace rest in peace and just to really like appreciate the fact that in a industry full of people that we can easily jump into talking so much shit about and questioning their motivations and what they've done in their choices and stuff vince is one of those guys that like i never heard a bad thing about yeah you know and it's like we know from so many personal accounts whether it's greg or andrea or just so many other people like he vince was awesome and really did care for the teams and care for the people and like obviously this is very very sad news but it is uh pretty rare and i think that we're kind of lucky that so far we haven't had major deaths in the video game industry like that many of them and like this is going to start to happen a lot more um and for it to happen this way is so sad there's no not sad way for it to go down but be safe out there you know drive safe like every single time you get into a car like there's so many responsibilities that you need to be aware of And I do think that all of these things are reminders to people to, you know, never push things too far ever.

8:30Just stay in the lane. There's a reason that these laws and rules and everything exists and don't speed. You know, you're putting yourself and others at risk and in a blink of an eye, this could happen. Yeah. Value your life. Life is short. And I think that's a there's another reminder of that, you know, him being 55. and yeah like you put it him going out in this way super heartbreaking especially when you uh when we see the news pop on december 21st right i think it was a shock to us all especially like seeing it pop up on the link on the khd slack i think i originally actually saw it when i just opened up and i was like no way that's true and i go to twitter i'm like no way that's true and then i see pop up in the khd slack and i'm like that's fucking crazy uh vincent pella who you mentioned right we don't really hear bad things about of course we don't know everybody we don't mean you don't know i don't well i don't know him personally i don't know if you ever met i've been i've met him a couple times but in a very very professional setting where i'm pretty sure i was behind the camera every single time yeah and so a lot of what we go by is word of mouth but that word of mouth that you hear about vincent pilla tends to be positive exactly like that's the thing is wild for a ceo i'm not just saying that from the perspective of just like oh no one's ever said anything bad about him i'm literally saying from my experience which i have experienced everyone I know was glowing about him he's one of those guys you want to be right like it's a Tim Schafer type you know what I mean it's the type where you're just like I love that guy like you'd get all the the positive stories from so yeah it's I also think it's it's rare to have somebody who worked on a franchise like in such a pivotal way like Call of Duty had such an impact right and is still on an upward trajectory as far as the impact they're having on their current games because you go from yeah working at infinity ward making call of duty modern modern warfare and now putting out battlefield six but in between titanfall titanfall right like yeah i mean you really got to think about that in the the framework of video games and how we are so stuck on console generations where titanfall was the next gen game like that was like the first true next gen game and like all gaming media uh outlets were talking about it that way and it's like yeah to go from a defining game with call of duty uh the generation prior to then move on to titanfall and then continue that and to help bring battlefield back yeah so many major wins yeah anyway so much clear influence right clear clear influence to to very talented uh developers out there and yeah it's Again, one of those names where if you see it attached to a project, you immediately have a level of comfort, right?

11:10Oh, Vince Zampella is heading up this team. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. All right. For sure. I could see that. I could see that panning out, right? Like, I think those are the names that are few and far between in this industry. And it's super tragic to lose one this early in his life in this way. Especially when there are so few expert level. They've been at this for decades doing this at a high level. Like, there aren't that many of them. Right. And again, a lot of them we look at and we don't trust a lot of them. We look at and we're like, oh, man, this is going to mean X, Y, Z and they're bad things.

11:42So it's like, yeah, this this is very, very tough for the video game industry and obviously very, very tough as people. Yeah. Right.

11:51Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Another one that broke over the break. Story number two, a controversial one. Indie Game Awards disqualifies clear obscure Expedition 33 due to generative AI usage. I'm pulling from Mike Straw at Insider Gaming. The Indie Game Awards took place on December 18th, and as many could assume, Claire Obscura Expedition 33 took home the awards for Game of the Year and Debut Game. However, things have changed, and the Indie Game Awards are making a big decision to strip Claire Obscura and the developer Sandfall Interactive of their awards over the use of Gen.AI in the game. In an announcement made on Saturday afternoon, 6-1 Indie, the creators of the show, said that its removal comes after the discovery, after voting was done, and the show was recorded.

12:37Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Quote, the Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of Gen.AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. the statement reads quote when it was submitted for consideration representatives of sandfall interactive agreed that no generative ai was used in the development of clear obscure expedition 33 in light of sandfall interactive confirming the use of gen ai on the day of the indie game awards 2025 premiere this does disqualify clear obscure expedition 33 from its nomination end quote 6-1 indie ended by thanking the community for being patient and providing feedback on the situation um quote the organizational team behind the ceremony is a small crew with big ambitions and the indie game awards can only grow with your help and support they said we already can't wait for the 2026 ceremony with clear obscures disqualification the awards will now go to the runner-ups that means the award for debut game goes to sorry we're closed while game of the year now goes to blueprints uh i added in i want to add in a little bit more context from Pauling on about what's going on with Claire Obscure.

13:39Blessing Adeoye Jr.:So Claire Obscure Expedition 33 launched with what some suspected to be AI generated textures that as it clarified to El Pais were then replaced with custom assets in a Swift patch five days after release. Tim, I think my first response to this is to say let's fucking go. Blueprints, we're up. I know. We're getting wins now. Let's fucking go. Blueprints, baby. Thank you for the Swift Award. we fucking did it kevin and tim yeah i'm just proud yeah i love you i love that for you i'll never forget ever bless getting off the airplane in new york me you and raj about to go to the nintendo switch 2 uh event and you just being like tim jason schreier put me onto this game called blueprints let me tell you about it yeah i was like you're just ranting and ranting and ranting like oh bless is in love oh dude yeah the conversation i would jason schreier about blueprints i was like man dude you're telling me about a game that i'm falling in love with in real time this is such a good time um there's a lot here tim where do you want to start there is a lot here i will say that i have i have a lot of different thoughts on it uh one to the indie game awards them's the rules they make the rules it's their award show and that's that's how they're going to play this where it's like yeah those are the rules that they're going by and it's disqualified because of that i do think that that's a very slippery slope of the fact of like all right specifically this expedition 33 with how ai was used in this specific case all right that is known how many other games is that not known about and if they were known does that change everything yes it does because those are the rules that's how that works so it's like this to me this is almost a non-story it's just like okay this an outlet has an award show and has rules that they're following and that this is how this all fell out i just think that because the ai stuff is such a hot topic like lightning rod thing so it becomes like this bigger thing and also shout out to the homies getting the branding of indie game awards and people giving a shit y 'all fucking did it and that's kind of y 'all fucking did it for me that's the conversation where i agree with you this is such a non-story but i guess for me it's the non-story of knowing 6-1 Indie, knowing what the Indie Game Awards is, and knowing how such a small operation is, but over the break, people made it big news.

16:02They made it big news? People made it big news to where all the big outlets talked about it. I saw it on my timeline non-stop for a week. And it's almost like people thought that it was the Game Awards that did this. But then I think there is that extra pro there of like, it's not the Game Awards, it's the Indie Game Awards, and they do things the way they're going to yeah and i feel like that's going to speak to a lot of people in a way that they're now going to be aware of this indie game awards and hopefully tune in and watch and learn about a bunch of dope games because maybe they heard you talk about blueprints but maybe they haven't heard anyone talk about sorry we're closed you know yeah so i feel like there's so much value there obviously that team uh does amazing work but yeah i hats off to them this is great there was a moment here whether they meant to create it or not it almost doesn't matter it happened yeah and they had rules that they are following i do think that this gets incredibly complicated but look what's gonna happen my show yeah exactly what's gonna happen as like the years ago and that's why i'm happy that like our game of the year is so it's very kind of funny right it's based off of us podcasting talking about things right it's a different thing it's about us and our passions and we don't have to super duper formalize it because we're not making a thing called the game awards or the indie game awards or whatever right i do not md being in the position being like hey we have to have we want to have a hard stance on a thing how that evolves over the years one i think they should have the freedom to evolve but also like people are going to get mad at them if they do evolve if next year it's like people are mad at them both ways anyways people are mad at them anyway yeah but like are more games over the years going to use generative ai as place in assets or stand-in assets?

17:44Yes, probably. I think as AI becomes more and more of a popularized thing, unfortunately, I could see that happening. To your point, can you track that? What does that look like? That's a whole conversation. The question that I will ask the audience, people online, you, me, the Indie Game Awards, is how much are y 'all willing to stand on business? because guess what the indie game awards they stood on business and a lot of people are mad at them for standing on business but all of us hate ai right like generative ai specifically yeah but having said that though like i and i i'm gonna upset people saying this but i don't care i stand by this this expedition 33 thing it's like all right cool it was patched out five days later there's two ways to look at that sure oh they got caught so they had to scramble to fix it or that clearly didn't align with their vision and that clearly somebody on the team did something that the team didn't want how many times does that happen in our lives you know what i mean yeah when someone on our team says some shit that i'm like why did you fucking say that but we now now that represents us and we have to deal with it and it's like hey how the team deals with it after that's what matters if sandfall interactive their next game has this problem again okay y 'all all the goodwill for me is gone and you can say oh tim you're just saying this because you like exposition 33 if there was another game i'd be saying the exact same thing but also i really just think it comes back to intent as all things do in life it comes back to really where is this coming from and i tend to uh fall on the side of the tracks here that this was not a sweeping under the rug like they caught us yeah type situation i it's such a tough thing to navigate around in terms of the right and the wrong of it right i think sure like it somebody did a thing that maybe the rest of the team didn't agree with it made it into the final thing whatever at the end of the day they didn't align with the guidelines of the indie game awards but i think it's still like i think if you want to fight against gen ai becoming more of a popular thing whether it is hey stand-in assets because i think you can make the strong argument against that even right hey you shouldn't have things as staining that are ai granted people are using fucking google images anyway or whatever people aren't using their own assets i think half the time when it comes to staining shit right but either way if you are against generative ai i think there's a strong argument against that as well for sure bringing the super chat to that though go for it go for it ejrpg says uh expedition 33 stated in an interview they tried the gen ai tools when they first came out in 2022 they generated a few assets determined that in liking their workflows and then they didn't remove an asset it's like different time different place when there's new technology if you if it's not inherently evil as the conversation point like if it's early enough it's like yeah i'm with you on the stand on it all that stuff but it's like if this story is the case but here's my thing right i you're right intent is important but But also, I think intent is just a piece of it.

20:50What was the action that you did? Hey, you used it. It ended up in the final thing. Hey, I'm sorry. Like, that breaks the rules, right? Like, I've done things that I've not intended to do that were wrong, and I had to apologize, or I can't think of a time I got disqualified from something. That is the thing, though. Yeah. And again, this all goes back to more power to him for doing it, the Indie Game Awards. Like, yeah. But I guess the thing that I'm wanting to say even more is that, not just for the indie game awards but for other award shows as well or for whatever like formal institutions we have in the industry if you want to be against ai if you want to fight against gender of ai you have to stand on business and a lot of people aren't going to stand on business a lot of people are going to realize oh shit everybody uses this and so we're just going to turn the other cheek we're just going to ignore it because guess what all the video games are doing it the biggest video games are doing it the altars did the exact same thing we got mad at the altars clear obscurity is doing it and we're like ah shit you know like but those are very different things though aren't they i mean i don't know they are wasn't it like was the altars the same like thing of like they had it and they took it out chat remind me if the altars thing was an accident or if the altars thing happened in the same way because i remember them having like an asset that made it in the game that people are like this is clearly ai i think i think they patched it out but i actually don't remember surely people are saying yes though okay i'm not up on that so like and if that's the case i feel the same about that yeah this is the thing that's happening repeatedly and to that i'm just saying like hey indie game awards they have a standard for it we're disqualifying games that use it if we're about it that's the right move right like that's the right thing to do even as minuscule as it is in clear obscure even as minuscule as it is in these other games if we're going to stand on business about this shit i think we got to do what the indie game awards are doing not us literally but like we have we can't get mad at the indie game awards for doing what i mean oh yeah i entirely agree with that yeah but we will

22:41Blessing Adeoye Jr.:see there's gonna be a lot of situations like this as you go into the future i want to bring in some more super chats for you raymond k hessel writes in and says miss kf day but been here since covid i only listened on pod and thought blessed was a nerdy white guy jesus christ you know what fuck you raymond hessel uh didn't realize until i saw his hair video uh also would love to see a Pana Bianco or Angry Joe collab in 2026. One love, y 'all. And I will miss Timothy when he leaves. One love, y 'all. Still fuck you. But also, man, I used to watch so much Angry Joe coming up. Did you really? I watched so much Angry Joe.

23:16I fuck with Angry Joe. I have nothing to say about him. I just don't know the content. I just know anything I've seen of it in the past. I've been like, this is just not for me. I'm an angry video game nerd kid. You know what I mean? There was like a level of acting involved. Like there was a level of I'm putting on a character. in a specific way talking about old shit when it was angry joe talking about like relevant current things it always like just felt like negative in a way that i didn't like yeah but i also don't watch the content so i could be speaking entirely out of line i'm talking to somebody who was watching angry joe in 2013 when i was like 19 and xbox did the whole fucking like e3 press conference where they announced the xbox one and everybody was mad at it let me tell you angry joe hit real every joke was hitting for me i was like i was like this man he's like he was like zeron mom donnie to me i'm like he's preaching the gospel we gotta do something about xbox we gotta do we gotta do something about it oh man here we are oh man uh tim we got a lot more

24:16Blessing Adeoye Jr.:news to talk about but before we talk about it i want to talk to you about patreon.com slash kind of funny youtube.com slash kind of funny games spotify apple podcasts so many places you can go to get the kind of funny membership that allows you to get shows like this ad-free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Boot.Dev. If you're listening to this show, there's a solid chance that you, one, like video games, and two, at some point in your life, have been interested in learning software development. Boot.Dev combines those things because they know that the smartest way to learn is to never get bored.

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26:44Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Story number three, IO Interactive delays James Bond video game 007 First Light to GTA 6's previous release date. This is Wesley Yenpool at IGN. 007 First Light is delayed two months for further polish, developer and publisher IO Interactive has announced. The James Bond Adventure video game was due out March 27th, 2026, but will now release May 27th. In a statement published online, IO said the delay would ensure it was able to deliver the strongest possible version at launch. It's worth noting that 007 First Light's new release date is just a day after GTA 6 was due out to be released before its latest delay to November 19th 2026.

27:24Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Essentially IO has snapped up the release slot left vacant by Rockstar's behemoth. Not a surprise at all right like I feel like we got a couple game releases earlier than GTA 6 as kind of like a hey we got a lock in a spot if we want to release our game in 2026 because the moment GTA comes out at the end of May, that's not the end of it. It's not like other games that's going to be like, all right, just two weeks surrounding it. It's going to be more like a couple months, if not more. Right. So I do think that especially for a game like 007, that is in such a weird positioning where I would say that it is a very big deal in video games.

28:05We did a kind of foodie episode yesterday during the stream where we talked a little bit about this, but I, I feel like this is a major blockbuster title in video games for multiple reasons. One, James Bond IP. Two, IO Interactive. Hitman, that's critically going to mean something to gamers, right? You combine those things. There's a lot of eyes on this. There's a lot of expectation. I'm not saying it necessarily looks great. I know that even personally, some of the presentations so far haven't got me thrilled about what the game looks like. But I'm still very hopeful. And I still think that at the end of the day, they could pull this off.

28:38but it's the type of game that needs as much potential to succeed as possible because it's not a guaranteed slam dunk win no matter how good it is it's not necessarily going to be the biggest seller right and i do think that as we see teams kind of evolve when we always talk about like sucker punch or gorilla going from the games they used to make to the games that they make now Now, this is kind of a big step up to a more mainstream plate for IO because of James Bond, simply because of James Bond. Hitman, I think, has a gamer ceiling, right? I know there's been movies and all that stuff, but like James Bond gives it kind of just this other level.

29:17And we need it to not be an Avengers. Yeah, right. It definitely can be an Avengers, but it could be a Spider-Man and not literally, but like more more Spider-Man than an Avengers. Right. and so uh take the time you need for sure and the march date always felt a little too soon and it definitely clearly now was because of gta 6 yeah i'm i'm very much anticipating this game of course i'm an io guy i loved the hitman series right specifically the latest trilogy i think is one of the best stealth experiences in video games point blank period shout out paris i'm also so nervous for this james bond game and i think it's to what you say right it could be an avengers it could be their spider-man and i think there's even a conversation about that as far as what that does to io as a company because i think the difference between who an insomniac was or who a sucker punch is before they had those breakout hits is io has a formula with hitman that has worked in such a unique way compared to everything else that it's formed the identity of their studio they made hitman one back in god what 2015 maybe correct me if i'm wrong and launched it as an episodic thing right their vision was very much like a live servicey type of vision for hitman and that's that drew and evolved hitman 2 launched with all the levels hitman 3 launched with all the levels but even then they continued to do like the um oh what they call it like when emin assassinations what was it the target elusive targets elusive targets continue to do the elusive targets they continue to add in um new features post-launch they did the whole like freelancer mode that i'm obsessed with which is essentially kind of like a roguelite style mode in hitman which is which honestly took the game to another level for me that's the way they treated hitman i don't get that vibe from 007 as far as what they want to do with it this seems like a i won't say one and done maybe they can make dlc but who knows it doesn't that's not a thing that they promised though right this isn't something i'm looking at as an as an investment to the next 10 years of live service 007 no definitely not i it makes me wonder what the barometer for success is is this a thing that it has to do well at launch i think year one half yeah for this game i do think that that's the thing when we talk about like the spider-man it's like we're not necessarily talking about quality there spider-man one of my favorite games ever but like when we're talking about it in comparison to some of the other sony titles right it's an 8 out of 10 you know it's 8.5 out of 10 it's a whatever like i think as a general consensus from from people despite the love for it yeah i think that with james bond it literally is in relation to spider-man sales right it's that sales difference between ratchet and clank and spider-man and the sales difference between what they would i think need from a hitman to a 007 and that isn't a long tail let's get all the dlc let's get all of the like live servicey stuff i do think it is this is a single-player narrative game it's trying to sell to uncharted fans as much as it's selling to hitman fans i feel like they already got the hitman fans dialed in being able to also sell to single-player narrative game fans is a different type of audience potential for them and the james bond is the perfect carrot on a stick to be able to pull that off yeah and i think that one of the things that i'm i'm a little bit nervous about and i think they'll pull it off but it is the idea that with hitman i'm buying into the world of assassination i'm buying into that continuous experience with james bond i'm buying into this one and done james bond video game that is taking elements of hitman but is also doing things that i've not seen io pull off yet as far as those like big action set pieces or seeing him get into these driving like you know action sequences and i'm like hey this looks this looks like what i'd want out of an uncharted which is fun right and like moment to moment action i think that's cool but as io you have the stuff yeah pull this off that's the big thing i'm nervous about we'll have to see in uh the chat's having conversations about like does james bond have it like that and this is giving me a little deja vu back to a couple years ago me and you sitting here talking about wolfenstein to indiana jones yeah and it's like look how that all panned out yeah right like indiana jones was a massive success yeah like more than i even expected it to be um and that's based off an ip that i think all of us can look at and be like who the fuck cares about indiana jones except the olds and it's like well turns out a lot of people it might be a lot of olds but there's new young you liked it i liked it yeah yeah but i honestly i would have taken a wolfenstein over it yeah oh i like that's i liked it though yeah would you take hitman over 007 i mean maybe i go not at this point maybe not at this moment but yeah well that's a that's a good conversation whole conversation uh we got

34:08Blessing Adeoye Jr.:another super chat in from ak.98 who writes in and says happy belated 11 years kf thanks for inspiring me to get into streaming and being some great friends thank you so much ak. that's the homie oh yeah let's move on to story number four asus confirms price increases starting january 5th as component costs surge yet again. We're so fucked, dude. This is from Adam Hales at Windows Central. And I should shout out, this is a story that was from the break. And so when they say January 5th, they're talking about in the future, even though we're reading this from after January 5th. It was likely only a matter of time, given current market conditions and the growing influence of AI across the industry.

34:48Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Still, Asus has now confirmed upcoming price adjustments in a private document intended for internal use and not intended for the public to see. The increases are set to begin on January 5th, 2026, according to the document. While ASUS has not yet confirmed which products will be affected, it has made clear that this will not be a blanket price hike. Instead, the company says it is implementing targeted strategic adjustments across select product combinations. ASUS specifically states, quote, After carefully reviewing market conditions, supply stability, and our commitments to product quality, and while continuing to invest in technical R &D, ASUS plans to implement strategic price adjustments for certain product combinations starting January 5th, 2026.

35:30Blessing Adeoye Jr.:This adjustment is a necessary decision after absorbing and responding to cost pressure over an extended period. The goal is to ensure stable supply, maintain quality and service levels, and continue supporting your long-term planning for key IT investment. I love business talk. I love business talk so much, end quote, because what did any of that mean? what did any of that what did any of it mean it just meant price go up asus also mentions explicitly quote upward pressure on costs for key components particularly memory d-ram and storage components that's nand and ssd these changes reflect shifts in capacity allocation by upstream suppliers end quote referencing that are that ram and d-ram shortage uh driven by ai dude it's wild we're fucked in a way that i don't think even the people that are trying to comprehend it are comprehending it like clearly at some point soon ish i'd say in the next year there's going to be the bubble burst of ai to some extent but it's not going away it's just going to be a different style less focus on every single thing possible because at the end of the day is there a use case or is there not and is that use case accepted or is it not in the industry and in the places and verticals that it's being implemented.

36:49There are so many examples of it working and it being in use, and that ain't going to change. When you look at healthcare, when you look at a lot of that tech space, it's like that ain't going to change. Automation, all of that stuff. When you look at the generative stuff, obviously very different conversation. Where's the use cases? Where's the acceptance level? All of that. The prices of this stuff, of how it affects every single piece of hardware, it's not just the prices. because the prices also mean, okay, well, that's where the money's at, which if the money's going somewhere else, guess what that means?

37:21More and more people backing out of where the money isn't. And if the money isn't in gaming, that means there will be less gaming support, which means right now it starts with it's more expensive to build a PC. Very soon it's going to be Apple's not able to get any chips for their phones. Then it's going to be, fuck PlayStation, good luck, guys. you aren't going to be able to get anything nintendo doesn't matter it doesn't matter who you are there's going to be less out there it's going to cost even more and then guess what that means it's going to cost even more for consumers to buy it and at a certain point they're not going to be able to it's just unsustainable and if there's not a install base of switch twos guess what's not being made switch two games yeah it's just going to continue down that path kev i sent something to assets um destin lagary posted this yesterday how much it costs to build my pc in 2023 versus 2026 keep in mind my rig is overkill even today and you look down to that bottom number so there's the total we can forget the bottom bottom number because that also includes storage ssd we can get rid of that yeah we're talking about 3500 versus just shy of six thousand dollars for the exact same build three years later.

38:38That's using outdated things from three years. And it is that much more money. And then you look at the storage, and it's similarly like that's insanely more expensive for what the storage is there. What advice would you give to people that are watching and listening and want to get into PC gaming, or I guess are trying to prepare for this? Do it now? it was legitimately due it three months ago and even then it's actually six months ago I mean I haven't talked about this I don't think on content maybe I have I've been waiting for the right time but like I built a PC over the break I've been building up to doing this for like the last year getting pieces here and there and I want to at some point get more into it because I'm very proud of myself I did it all by myself no one helped me no Kevin no anybody and it worked and I'm very surprised and I fucking love it changed my life greatest thing ever having said that i'm very lucky about when i acquired certain pieces over the last year i am not lucky when it came to ram i literally spent three times as much money as i would have three months earlier oh that hurts and it fucking hurts dude and as as i was buying it on black friday the guy was looking at me he's like i feel so bad for you dude he's like i literally bought this three months ago for a very different price and it's like uh so i quote unquote lucked out by being able to do that it is only going to get worse so what advice do i have i mean on one hand i'm like yo it's just not worth it don't do it but my real advice is you should have done it three months ago and that's going to continue to be true over the next year it's every three months it's not even going to be that long you're going to be like fuck this part was cheaper this part was cheaper this part was cheaper and like i was saying this is it's already affecting consoles and hardware and other places going to continue to very very very soon and like this isn't like doom and gloom like fear mongering yeah this is what's happening right now and on top of it we're seeing companies pull out from making ram period for anything that's not ai use like data centers and all that's like shit dude is there is there another side to the storm like is there do we get through this or is this just the new normal well i do think that it's again it goes back to at some point the bubble's going to burst of just this like infinite growth and infinite put everything put everything the ai stockholders are already like okay but what's the use case yeah like when you look at how much apple has fumbled apple intelligence like i don't know how much you followed this but like we're at a point now that it's essentially all but guaranteed that they're gonna have to partner with google gemini because apple just can't get it together and they're at this point where the last 18 months their whole like kind of push was apple apple intelligence apple intelligence apple it's coming it's coming the new series coming you buy the thing because the new series coming it's still not here i didn't know that yeah as somebody i use android obviously i just had gemini for a very long time now that's i mean even gemini is like the the real gemini is like a newer thing being like in its actual what does it have 1.0 or whatever it's at now but um then there's microsoft co-pilot like there's this battle happening right now and i think that groups are realizing what's the selling point to consumers with consumer products because they know what the selling point is to data centers and to you know the tech side of things but that's the big uh hurdle of where are we when is that are we going to pass that hump and what's that going to look like i do think at some point that will bring cost down but at that point who's still investigating gaming right i think from the gaming perspective i don't think it'll ever be the same again but i do think there's enough money in gaming right now and they will continue to be that i don't think it's over okay it is good i don't think it's over being the final statement here it's scary i don't think i don't think it's over story number five the witcher three is also apparently maybe not over uh it's reportedly getting a surprise new expansion this

42:38Blessing Adeoye Jr.:year i'm pulling from andy robinson at video games chronicle cd project red is planning to release a brand new expansion for the witcher three this year according to reports polish noble securities analyst matusz szurzanowski said last month that he was expecting the next paid add-on dlc for the witcher 3 to be released in may 2026 according to a polish website the report follows similar claims from a polish games insider boris nispielek who said last year that the new content was secretly in development at fool's theory the same studio currently remaking the witcher 1 for cd project eurogamer has since followed up with them who told uh and he told it that his information was verified by several independent sources he also pointed to a comment uh in cd project's recent financial report in which the cfo said that quote there is a chance that new content hinted upon in recent calls and reports may see release in the coming year having an impact on our results and quote it'd be pretty damn cool if they did this yeah it doesn't seem real to me but it seems believable it's like it's one of those things that's so weird that it's like why would people make this up yeah and here is one other thing that i'm just connecting right now in my head and and maybe i'd be i might be missing something is there a chance here that cd project red saw so much success with cyberpunk launching on switch 2 the way that it did them key cards we're committing all the way we're doing this we're going to act like this is a big thing we're going to be right alongside the launch and be the what third highest selling or whatever it was could they be like we're doing the switch 2 edition and if we're doing that obviously let's let's add more than get that triple dip up from all the other consoles as well i could see it maybe right i was thinking also cyberpunk 2.0 um or like whatever the big update for cyberpunk where they added a bunch of new features had the dlc that was a big boom of course you've had witcher 3 dlcs before with blood and wine and others um you also have like you're already marketing the witcher 4 and you've shown brief glimpses into that world mainly engine stuff but we've seen what the witcher 4 looks like the witcher tv show still going on so like maybe there is a way where you can have witcher 3 dlc that's the handoff into witcher 4 i think that could be neat but i wouldn't expect it to be anything major i know nvidia's had a lot of updates with with witcher 3 of making that game look great so i just don't know if we've already hit that the peak of just like it has all the fun features it has all of the rtx it has everything you could possibly need but if they did if they haven't hit that yet putting out that update as well i think could go a long way people love excuses is to replay Witcher 3 yeah or even just pop back into Witcher 3 yeah you know people love people love blood and wine right people love the Witcher 3 the idea of a Witcher 3 expansion and so maybe there's something there but I do find it odd I do find it weird yeah like the game came out in 2015 like that's 11 years I and here's the thing though it's weird because this rarely happens but that's because we rarely see games that succeed a decade after their release Witcher 3 is still selling right yeah every time a new witcher season drops on netflix the game sells more and you look at other games that have that type of long tail sales mario kart 8 how weird was it when mario kart 8 announced its booster pack dlc stuff yeah years after that felt possible at all yeah and they did that because there were 30 million mario kart 8s in the wild right so it wouldn't be crazy if they did this because they're one of the only people with and this is one of the only games that that would make sense for i'm doing a thing i'm looking up i know this is obviously not comparable to like a multiplayer game or anything i'm looking up the steam db for witcher 3 just out of curiosity damn there's 30 000 people playing witcher 3 which is actually a lot right now in game 30 000 30 000 people for a single player game that came out in 2015 is actually insane yeah so yeah maybe there maybe that is maybe maybe that is something man tim which are three dlc in 2026 would be big news it really would that'd be huge but if i wanted something smaller say the tiniest news i need to know about where would i go you go to our last story the we news channel where we cover all the small news items that you need to know about somebody in chat makes a good mention of that's just steam as well yeah that's 30 000 people on steam like there are console players for this game that's insane we got a beefy wee news for you let's start with one from vgc kojima productions is releasing its own gaming tablet and line of pc accessories in partnership with asus republic of gamers the rog flow z13 kjp is a two-in-one gaming tablet designed by death straining and metal gear artist yoji shinkawa featuring visuals inspired by kojima productions luden mascot um right now kevin's scrolling through the store page and let me tell you i love this i'm such a yoji shinkawa like man if you love metal gear then you're a yoji shinkawa fan i don't care if you love metal gear or not if you're not if you look at their art and don't love it i don't like you i'm gonna go as far as saying that i fuck with that i fuck with that energy because like whether it's metal gear or whether it's death stranding yoji shinkawa his art just fucking shines and i do like that some of these um designs that they have for these accessories and like the tablet specifically the tablet looks like a package from death stranding which i think is hilarious um but also i just love it aesthetically did they take they took these photos in the kojima room with the luden statue that's cool so cool i love this so much um from discussing film via the in snyder a fallout shelter reality competition shows in the works at prime video the show will follow competing players as they run their own vaults and must keep their citizens happy with food and other supplies i fucking love it i love this idea so much keep on hating everybody although food you might be pushing it with the food right because are these you must keep their citizens happy so these citizens aren't real people then they'll be real people bless you can't this is reality tv but you can't be like oh your task is to keep your people happy with food right i have you you're gonna let them starve have you heard of the biggest reality TV show of all time.

49:07Survivor? Yeah. But like, people died on Survivor? People have gotten real close. Damn, that's crazy. No one's died. I'll watch the shit out of this. Especially if it's real people. Let's fucking go. I hope, what I want, my big hope is I want the experiments. I want them to be doing weird shit in these vaults. Look, why are they doing this? Fallout is a success on Amazon Prime. Who's behind that? todd howard who's gonna be behind this to some extent todd howard todd howard i need you to fuck these people up fuck them up i need weird shit going on

49:43Blessing Adeoye Jr.:uh more renews for you game pass games for the first wave of january 2026 have been announced on the sixth you're getting little nightmares and bruise and bastards on the eighth you're getting final fantasy on the third just final fantasy final fantasy there's no way that's real uh on the 13th you're getting star wars outlaws on the 15th you're getting my little pony a Zephyr Heights mystery on the 20th you're getting Resident Evil Village and Mio memories in orbit and then for premium you're getting rematch Lost in Random the Eternal Die Atomfall and Warhammer 30k Space Marine remastered another one from VGC former ZeniMax Online Studios boss Matt excuse me Matt Fyroar has confirmed he resigned from the studio after Microsoft canceled its announced shooter project blackbird quote project black blackbird was the game i had waited my entire career to create and having it canceled led to my resignation wow heartbreaking wow piercing through the heart that sucks um new game blush showcase is happening this thursday coming from the homie blue thunder and some others blue thunder dm told me this is happening so uh so i wanted to share it with y 'all blue uh new game plus showcase is described as creator led uh they got no paid placements uh there's genuine excitement and conversation exclusive game footage and interviews and you're gonna have 45 games in this thing one thing that i i think is cool about this from what i've seen and i might be wrong about it but i think it's all games that we've already seen like i think it's there's it's no no announcements okay so it's kind of just like let's check in on joke games which i think is a pretty novel kind of take on this right yeah and I feel if they pull that off that's kind of cool I was scrolling through the new game plus because they have a twitter account and I was just scrolling through to see what's going on there and they had like developers and people and stuff quote tweeting with like the eye emoji or being like you know might be here or whatever one of them was don't nod oh they have the fucking nasa game that's what it is I know it's not nasa but like they have the space rpg that makes sense yeah so yeah you're gonna get a lot of a lot of games that you've heard about already get new looks hopefully they're cool new looks from wario 64 michael kicinski one of the co-founders of cd project and the co-founder of gog has acquired gog from cd project you'll love to see it love to see it it's so cool man arc raiders has sold 12 million copies and surpassed 3.2 million monthly active users wow i know insane arc raiders man one of the most popular games last year wild maybe what 12 million dude top five most popular game top three most popular game last year insane from vgc sony has patented a new technology that would see playstation games play themselves with the help of ai from vgc former naughty dog boss evan wells is set to receive the academy of interactive arts and sciences hall of fame award at this year's dice summit is being awarded by neil druckman himself very cool the final fantasy i just got a shirt with the og naughty dog logo can't wait to wear it i'm trying to picture how that looks oh it's the coolest dog of all time man he's he is a naughty dog let's go final fantasy tactics the evilese chronicles has sold a million copies cloudhead games uh who you know from pistol whip lays off 70 of its staff evil creo launches january 7th on pc what time is it we got time kevin if you can click this link i have it in we news this is the link under evo creo i want to i want tim to see this i saw this over break and i was like interesting um the steam description reads capture over 170 unique creo explore diverse regions that's whale lord and battle your way through a story rich offline friendly monster catching rpg that's fucking resheran start hydrogen start your adventure in the world of Zenith as you search your missing father and uncover the plot of a nefarious group, Shadow Hive.

53:48Okay. Cool. Cool. How mad do you think the Pokemon company gets when they see something like this? I don't. It's just so much busy work for them to sue everyone. You know what I mean? They're like, we're only going to sue you if you become successful. This is insane, though. But also, whatever, dude. Who the fuck cares anymore? Let anyone do whatever they want. I'm not going to lie. It's a lawless land. Because this comes out January 7th, right?

54:14Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I told you yesterday. I was like, I'm thinking about Pokemon lately. Yeah. I'm kind of having a craving for Pokemon. So when I saw the trailer for this, I was like, ooh, what if I play? I was like, I can just go play Pokemon. Yeah, what are you doing? No. I can just go play Pokemon. Although I think this does look good for what it is. Fantastic name. I don't like the name. Evil Creo? Yeah, no, it's not good. No, it's not good. Not as good as Power World. Power World nailed it. Power World was spot on. South Park is coming to Fortnite, January 9th. About time. Kevin was sad for it. I'm excited for it.