Significant Layoffs at Amazon Games - Kinda Funny Games Daily 10.28.25

28 Oct 2025 · 59 min · 21 chapters

Ask about this episode

Ask anything about it. ChatGPT or Claude reads this page and answers with the times it was said.

Connect VO and ask about every podcast you hear, including the moments you saved. Add to ChatGPT · Add to Claude

In short

Kind of Funny Games Daily (Oct 28, 2025) covers Amazon Games layoffs, a Netflix Crash Bandicoot animated series report, and a historical note about the Wachowskis asking Hideo Kojima for a Matrix game; plus discussion of EA pushing AI and other gaming chatter.

Guests

Roger and “Snow Michael Michael” (Ian/Mike). They’re hosts, not interview guests. No outside guests are introduced in the transcript.

Guest backgrounds (hosts)

Roger and Mike are long-running Kind of Funny Games hosts; Mike is a JRPG and anime fan (One Piece, JoJo) and mentions visiting SF’s DeYoung Museum manga exhibit.

Key claims

  • Amazon will cut jobs in its video game division (Bloomberg/Jason Schreier), with cuts focused on offices in Irvine and San Diego and central publishing; shift away from big-budget MMOs toward Luna and “casual and AI-focused” cloud games.
  • Netflix is reportedly developing a Crash Bandicoot animated series via WildBrain.
  • Konami reportedly turned down the Wachowskis’ request for a Kojima-designed Matrix game.

Notable examples

  • Amazon titles cited: Lost Ark, New World (900k+ concurrent), Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics), March of Giants (Montreal), and Luna games like “Courtroom Chaos” (Snoop Dogg).
  • Crash franchise: 1996 debut; later entries like Crash Mind Over Mutant and 2020 Crash 4.
  • EA AI: staff claim AI tools generate flawed code and are used for tasks like summarizing playtest feedback and advising managers on sensitive HR topics.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Spooky Season Vibes

2:34 to 4:00

Hosts discuss their recent gaming marathon and Halloween preparations.

“Today I'm joined by my second half, my beautiful bestie, Snow Michael Michael.”

Weekend Adventures and Art

4:00 to 6:15

Hosts share weekend experiences including a visit to an art exhibit.

“You know, that I feel like I can still become the mayor of Tahoe.”

Final Fantasy Tactics Enthusiasm

6:15 to 8:01

Discussion around Final Fantasy Tactics and its impact on the hosts.

“But go out and check it out if you're here in SF.”

Fantasy Critic Scheming

8:01 to 10:00

Hosts strategize about Fantasy Critic and upcoming game releases.

“I got a lot going on, but I'm just kidding.”

Amazon Games Layoffs Discussion

10:00 to 11:28

In-depth discussion about Amazon's significant layoffs in the gaming division.

“Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show.”

Amazon's Cloud Gaming Strategy

14:00 to 15:10

Discusses Amazon's focus on the Luna cloud gaming service and its upcoming titles.

“In recent months, the company has doubled down on Luna, the cloud gaming service.”

Layoffs and Market Challenges

15:10 to 18:10

Explores the impact of layoffs at Amazon Games and the struggles in the video game market.

“Earlier this month, the company also put out a party game called King of Meats that didn't receive much attention, peaking at 253 concurrent players on Steam.”

The Future of Amazon's Game Titles

18:10 to 21:30

Speculates on the future of titles like Tomb Raider and the implications of recent decisions.

“They come in and they're like, man, we have infinite money glitch.”

Cloud Gaming Comparisons

21:30 to 24:00

Compares Amazon Luna's strategy with other services like Netflix and Microsoft.

Debating Amazon's Commitment to Gaming

24:00 to 28:00

Debates whether Amazon is truly committed to the video game industry given their limited IPs.

“videos and scrolling on Amazon shorts or whatever it is.”
Show all 21 chapters

Amazon's Commitment to Gaming

28:00 to 31:07

A discussion on Amazon's gaming strategy and its potential future.

“the bit larger sales in corporate history with Activision.”

Amazon's Commitment to Gaming

31:18 to 31:56

A discussion on Amazon's gaming strategy and its potential future.

“You've seen the boys playing Ark Raiders, and they're absolutely loving it on all those streams.”

Amazon's Commitment to Gaming

33:48 to 34:11

A discussion on Amazon's gaming strategy and its potential future.

“Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto.”

Crash Bandicoot Animated Series Development

34:11 to 42:00

Discussion about Netflix developing a Crash Bandicoot animated series.

“Everybody, we're back with some lighter news.”

Kojima and the Matrix: A Right Decision?

42:00 to 43:51

Discussing the implications of Hideo Kojima's decisions regarding the Matrix franchise.

“An original story that they recorded during the filming of the second Matrix movie.”

EA's AI Integration Controversy

43:51 to 47:11

Exploring EA's push for AI tools and its impact on staff and workflow.

“According to the report, some staff say the AI tools they're encouraged to use produce quote, flawed code that has to be manually corrected.”

The Ethical Dilemma of AI in Gaming

47:11 to 51:05

Debating the ethical implications of AI use in the gaming industry and its effects on creativity.

“that can be ethically and helpful implemented into these workflows.”

Small News Items Roundup

51:05 to 51:47

A brief overview of various smaller news items in the gaming world.

“This is not them using AI to try to solve a coding issue that no one in the team can figure out and they need some type of machine learning to kind of help them through this.”

Discussing Don't Nod and GOG's Initiatives

51:47 to 55:43

Analyzing Don't Nod's development agreement with Netflix and GOG's preservation efforts.

“We'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.”

Super Chats and Community Interaction

55:43 to 57:02

Engaging with audience super chats and discussing future plans for the show.

“super chats only two for us today over here gives us super chat fantasy critic collusion at it again can we get this DLC let's get in the discord let's just kind of put a little bug in there.”

Wrapping Up Viewer Questions

57:02 to 58:05

Hosts address viewer questions and comments about gaming news.

“See if anyone wants to say that we got anything wrong.”
Hear the part that matters, and keep it.Open this episode in VO. Double tap your headphones to save a moment as you listen.
Get VO free

Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Fourth of July savings are happening now at the Home Depot with select appliances starting at$398. Plus, get free delivery on appliance purchases of$398 or more, no membership required. Upgrade your kitchen with a modern and sleek GE profile refrigerator featuring hands-free autofill for the perfect pour every time. And make laundry day easier with two-in-one washer-dryer combo innovation that completes laundry in about 90 minutes. Shop top brand appliances now at the Home Depot. Offer valid June 17th, July 8th, U.S. only C-Store Online for details. Good energy in. Good energy out.

0:38Storm. Zero sugar, 200 milligrams of caffeine, and immunity support. Storm. Energy for life.

0:45Joey Noelle:This summer, Prime Video takes you back before Legally Blonde, before law school, and into the world of Elle Woods in high school. Set in 1995, this Gemini vegetarian knows exactly who she is, until her family moves from Bel Air to Seattle. Packed with iconic fashion, 90s nostalgia, and a throwback soundtrack, Elle proves one thing. Law school was hard. High school was harder. From the world of Legally Blonde, watch Elle, a new original series only on Prime Video. Watch now. So good, so good, so good. New summer arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now. Get ready to save big with up to 60 % off brands like Rag & Bone, Levi's, Adidas, and Free People.

1:28Joey Noelle:Join the Nordiclub to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. This episode is brought to you by Ark Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure video game set in a lethal yet vibrant future earth. It's coming October 30th, 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S and PC. Arc Raiders dot com.

1:58Tim Gettys:Today's stories include Amazon Games experiences substantial layoffs. Crash Bandicoot is getting an animated show. And did Kojima almost make a Matrix game? We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

2:23Tim Gettys:It's almost time. It's almost October 31st. It's almost spooky time, everybody. Welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Tuesday, October 28th. I'm Roger. Today I'm joined by my second half, my beautiful bestie, Snow Michael Michael. That's my man, Rod. Where you fucking go, man? Welcome, Ian. Happy Tuesday, Roger. Yeah. And you know what? You say spooky season is almost here with October 31st, but you and I already delivered. Yes, we did. Spooky season to the kind of funny office and to our audience on Friday night. I love that. Yeah, we did. Mike and I, we ripped it. We ripped it so fast and we finished this entire game.

3:02Tim Gettys:That is silent. Hill F of course, no replays. We only played it once to the point where people woke up the next day after watching us all night and said, Hey, where are the boys? Why aren't they live right now? We fucking did it. They were confused. We actually gamed. We ripped. We split a controller and we actually did it. That was good. Okay, there's a lot to talk about, of course. First off, thank you to the Kind of Funny audience, all the best friends around the globe for tuning in to twitch.tv slash Kind of Funny Games for our big monthly marathon stream where we help fundraise to keep the lights and mics on.

3:30And this month, we wanted to bring the spooky vibes. Yes. Because honestly, the team here at Kind of Funny, not big spooky gamers, which is totally all right. But me and Roger, we took that mantle and we said, you know what, we'll play a scary game for you. Absolutely. And we're jazzed up for Silent Hill F. And so we teamed up and we put on one hell of a show. I had a great time with you, Roger.

3:48Tim Gettys:Yes, Mike and I, you know, we dressed up. We dressed up. You know, is it demoralizing? Will I be looking back at this in 20 years from now and say, hey, Roger, maybe you shouldn't have done that. Now you can't become the mayor of New York City. You know, that I feel like I can still become the mayor of Tahoe. I think I'm all right. I think I'm all right. You know what I mean? Actually, honestly, with the way that things are, I think this is actually helpful. I think I'm OK. They're going to be like, that's a human being. Yeah, that's a dude right there. That's a man. That's a man. No, we dressed up.

4:19Tim Gettys:We were handcuffed. We split a controller, and we finished the entirety of Silent Hill F. That VOD will hopefully be out by the end of this week. And we played it together. That was the craziest part. We kind of like, it hasn't set in for me because I've been like, Roger beat that game. But like, we beat that together. We split the controller in half. I was the move and focus. You were the action and attack and interact. It was a pretty interesting moment. I was doing a lot of the work. I was doing a lot of the work. I don't know about that, man. I was moving. I was doing a lot of the work. I was doing a lot of the work.

4:50Okay, you get 60. I get 40.

4:52Tim Gettys:Okay, deal. I'll take that. But yeah, Mikey, how was your weekend? You doing well? Yeah, Roger, I'm feeling really good. I got some good rest after our big marathon stream. I actually went out to the DeYoung Museum, and I saw the Art of Manga exhibit. I loved it. I went on stream last night talking about it and showed off all the cool prints that I bought for One Piece. But, man, I learned so much about manga, its history, A lot of the artists, they highlight. There's about seven rooms you can go through. And then, of course, most importantly for me, being a One Piece mega fan, there is a whole room dedicated to One Piece.

5:25They also actually have a fantastic JoJo's Bizarre Adventure room. I love that art. JoJo has style. JoJo. Man, and get this. I'm behind this elderly woman and her grandchild, right? And this little boy knows every single JoJo character and all the backstory. and I got to experience just the whimsy of him telling her every character while she's looking at the most outrageous art. I mean, we're posing left and right. You can tell she's getting hit by a lot, and she's just smiling because her grandson is going, I love this character because X, Y, and Z. They did this in this episode, and I'm just sitting there going, this is the coolest.

6:03She's looking at me. I'm smiling at her going, I'm here for the tour, too. Let's go, you know. You're like, I should have brought my kids. I should have made that happen. Yeah, you know what? little Billy and Susie. They're not big anime fans yet, but we'll get them. We'll get them. We'll get them one day. We'll get them soon enough. But go out and check it out if you're here in SF. For sure. Check that out. I'm excited to do that as well. And shout out to Danny. Thanks, Danny, for the tickets. Shout out, Danny. Kind of funny, best friend.

6:23Tim Gettys:But I've been playing a game, Mike. I just want to talk about it really quick because I was getting that itch in my stomach, in my chest, just everywhere. I was getting itchy where I was like, I really want a JRPG. This is a turn-based JRPG specifically, which is insane to me because a year ago, over a year ago, if you told me that, that Roger would want a turn-based RPG, I'd be like, you're fucking insane. But metaphor, ReFantaggio changed my entire life. Last year, I had an amazing moment. So I was like, oh, what do I play? I don't really know what to play. I've already played Expedition. What am I looking for?

6:55Tim Gettys:Final Fantasy X. Final Fantasy X is up there. But I was like, I want to play games that have come out this year. And it's not, it's a JRPG, it's not the traditional JRPG that I was thinking of, but I was like, you know what? I already have a code for this. Let me boot up Final Fantasy Tactics. I've never played this game. I've never played the original one. I drafted it, of course, famously. Somebody said infamously. I say famously, okay? We fucking, you and I, we killed it. Ken, I got another scheme for us. So why don't you tell your story? Because I need to. I need us to get into the Discord.

7:24Tim Gettys:So I booted up for the first time, Final Fantasy Tactics, on a whim. And I am about halfway through this video game. I am in love with it. Am I jealous of this? Yes. It is a game that I am going to be screaming out loud to everybody at this office to please try. It is so good, and I can already tell that it's going to be super high on my Game of the Year list. It is something special. The voice acting is incredible. I love the art style of it. I think we gave it a lot of shit because it's not H2 2D specifically, but the way that it looks, if you compare it to the original game, it's such a great art style, the way they up-res this and made this something special.

7:59Tim Gettys:So yeah, everyone, check out Final Fantasy Tactics. I'm this close. I got a lot going on, but I'm just kidding. Because you know I love Tactics games. I've never played Tactics Oh, like that. Never. You play XCOM? No. For like five seconds. You ever play Fire Emblem? Three Houses? No. Maybe I go there. Maybe I stop playing this. I go there. Tell me the scheme really quick before we continue the show. Here's the deal, Raj. So as many of you know, Fantasy Critic is coming to an end here. We have about a month and a half left until the end of the year. And your boy, I guess two months, but your boy still like Mike is scheming.

8:31Okay. I have one pick left. We will be cheating. I have missed the October games. and now I move to the November games and there's two there's a couple on my list football manager 26 Anno Pax 117 Romana is over there as well you know what I mean there's a couple games but then I thought to myself you know what I mean here's Snowbike Mike is pandering to the audience just loving Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 they have a DLC oh shit what if I ride the back of this video game and get this DLC can this DLC carry me to victory? So I went to the thing. I went over there, tried to type it in. They don't have it popping up.

9:11We need to go into the we need to get into the Discord and mind freak them. Okay? Let me know.

9:21Tim Gettys:We gotta go mind freak them in the Discord. I feel bad. I don't want to annoy them. But what is the DLC? Is it something special? Is it just some fucking skins or something crazy? No, no, no, no. I don't know. I think the DLC is... Roger, just so you know, I'm deep in the video game. I haven't even thought. I'm not ready to accept the DLC of my heart right now because I'm deep in this right now. Okay. Chad, let me know if this is good DLC because I see a review from May 15, 2025 on IGN that there's an expansion that already came out that was called Brushes with Death. Yeah. And that has on IGN a 6 out of 10.

9:56Tim Gettys:Ooh. Might want to. Okay, but like what if, you know what I mean? This one's got Henry in it. just a guy named Henry well he's the main character he's like oh okay we got the main character in this DLC that's exciting for you uh well Mike I'm excited to hear more about your scheming and everything revolving that but we can't talk about that right now because this is kind of funny games daily where each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube Twitch and on podcast services around the globe if you love what we do support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon YouTube and now Spotify Apple Podcasts and YouTube Music to get all of your shows ad-free.

10:34Tim Gettys:Watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be a part of the show, submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube Super Chats as we go. We want to hear all your thoughts about Amazon, about what Mike should be drafting and also Crash Bandicoot an animated series? Come on. We'll talk about that in a second. For a chance to be a part of the show, of course as I said, head us up with some YouTube Super Chats. A little housekeeping for you we're an 11 person business all about live talk shows if you uh you just got gamescast so don't be waiting around for gamescast because that already happened that was our idea at xbox live reaction and review hence us starting a little bit later uh after kfgd you will get a kind of funny podcast episode and then mikey what are we doing big day today roger it has happened battlefield 6 and ea have dropped a brand new battle royale battlefield red sec we're gonna to play it.

11:28Only squads. I don't love the name, but you know what? We're just going to call it the Battlefield 6 Battle Royale. No one's going to be like, you know what I mean? It's Battle Royale. But fours and duos. Squads. Squads of four or twos. So I had to recruit my boy. Blastmaster Blessing, you know what I mean? Had to come up with something with B. Ballistics Bless. Blastmaster Bless is insane. You know, you got to put a B on it somewhere. And so I'm very excited about this. I have not watched any Twitch streams of it. It dropped at 8 a.m. this morning. You'd think I'd be all over this, but I'm ready just to go into it completely unaware and excited as you can be.

12:07I'm so pumped. Did you think about waking up at launch and just playing it? A little bit, Rog. A little bit of it, Rog. But I did stay up way too late playing Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. That game has taken over my entire

12:17Tim Gettys:life, and it's a big problem. So I feel about Final Fantasy. It's all I want to do. I love it. If you're a Kind of Funny member, today's Greg White is about ethics and grandkids. An interesting topic right there i love that uh thank you to our patreon producers carl jacob omega buster and delaney the sum twining today we're brought to you by arc raiders but we'll tell you more about that later for now let's begin with what is and forever will be the rubber reports it's time for some five stories today oh baker's dozen

12:51Tim Gettys:Story number one and one that I will say is currently being updated and from the coming out. And also now the story has been updated from Jason Schreier over at Bloomberg. So chat, if things are changing, if things are being updated, I will try to bring that into the story as we go. But story number one, Amazon makes quote significant cuts in video game division is from Jason Schreier over at Bloomberg. Amazon is gutting its video game division as part of a sweeping layoff that will eliminate more than 14 ,000 corporate jobs. The company didn't say how many roles it will cut in the video game units, but noted in a memo to staff on Tuesday that the cuts would largely fall on its offices in Irvine and San Diego, as well as its central publishing division.

13:40Tim Gettys:The company will reduce the amount of work it does on big budget titles, particularly surrounding massively multiplayer online games or MMOs. Steve Boom, vice president of audio, Twitch, and games, said in the memo reviewed by Bloomberg that the company is, quote, leaning into the things that Amazon does best. In recent months, the company has doubled down on Luna, the cloud gaming service. The company's Montreal studio will continue to develop, continue development of the strategy game March of Giants. Amazon will continue to release, quote, casual and AI-focused games for the cloud service, according to the memo.

14:19Tim Gettys:The San Francisco-based external studio Crystal Dynamics is still working on a new Tomb Raider game, and UK-based Maverick Games continues to work on a racing title. Amazon has been trying to crack the video game industry for more than a decade, but has struggled to make a dent despite a few hits such as Lost Ark, a Korean game the company published in Western markets. With the cutbacks, the company is moving away from online games such as New World, which reached more than 900 ,000 concurrent players on the PC platform Steam following its release in 2021. Amazon had also been working on an MMO based on The Lord of the Rings.

15:01Tim Gettys:Last week, Amazon released Courtroom Chaos, Yes, a Luna party game featuring an AI-driven digital version of the rapper Snoop Dogg. Earlier this month, the company also put out a party game called King of Meats that didn't receive much attention, peaking at 253 concurrent players on Steam. Woof. Okay, Rog, that is a big yikes. That's a big unfortunate. That sucks to hear about layoffs, especially in the space with Amazon, who felt like they were trying to throw their weight around just a couple years ago, where it's like, oh, they're trying to make a splash. And they did with a couple of those titles that you brought up from New World, Throne and Liberty, Lost Ark.

15:42These were a couple of games where you're like, oh, wow, Amazon. Okay, you kind of... There was a moment. You have some quality here. You have some fun gameplay. Like, what's going on? And then you fast forward to now, and it shows you how tough this market is, especially to jump into a couple of these different genres that they have. So, yeah, this is very unfortunate to hear about the big layoffs. Absolutely. It is the way of the world that we're seeing with these mega corporations and how fast and fickle this, you know, genre and video game space can be. So, yeah, it's just unfortunate to start.

16:11Tim Gettys:Yeah. And of course, that 14 ,000 number of layoffs is for the entirety of Amazon. Right. So we're trying to figure out how many of those that number is related to the video game space. But this is a larger purging of jobs that is happening throughout Amazon. But yeah, it is interesting to see the direction that they're taking when it comes to Luna, right? I actually literally had the moment, I think it was two days ago in the office, where I looked at Andy, and I was just like, can you believe that Luna still exists, right? Like that is one that I think we saw coming, and we're like, oof, that's not going to last too long.

16:45Tim Gettys:And the fact that they're still promoting it, they're trying different things with it, and it's kind of the, not their bread and butter, but it's the thing that they're focusing a lot of their resources on to try and compete. And I had the epiphany today of what this all is, of what they're trying to do. It is that they see Netflix. They see what Netflix is doing. They see kind of Netflix trying to get into the sphere of party games, trying to push gaming down people's throats in the living room, trying to bring new releases, hot new indie games, but also a lot of party games into people's living rooms like Jackbox.

17:17Tim Gettys:I saw people were excited about Boggle on some random podcast I was listening to, like some old boomers were like, man, Boggle's coming to Netflix. Like that's actually a legitimately big deal for me and my family. So like they see that that is probably the way forward for them is to maybe integrate their Luna subscription service, potentially with their prime service and kind of have that be the way forward in, in order to kind of get casual gaming into the hands of the millions of people that are already subscribing to Amazon. But man, this is, this is definitely the moment of like, I'm scared of the future of Tomb Raider.

17:51Tim Gettys:I'm scared of the future of this racing title. of whatever this Lord of the Rings MMO is, if that actually is happening or not. It seems like this pulling back of the AAA, of them realizing that this is not a space that they're going to make a fuck ton of money in and they're just going to be able to come in and dominate. Because that's what all these big corporations come in as, especially these tech people. They come in and they're like, man, we have infinite money glitch. We can just come in and just spend all the money and we can make a banger. It's like, no, you just spent a lot of money and sure you had your big enough hits with Lost Ark.

18:24Tim Gettys:you have these games that are doing well enough, but isn't enough for you guys. Is that the thing that you're going to be able to kind of create the next, you know, 15 years of your business in? No, these are fleeting situations, especially if you're not able to capitalize it on it. And you have like King of Meat, right? Where it's like that game came and went like we literally in this office, we had people, we had somebody come go and like do a preview of it. And then we talked about it months later. And then like everyone forgot that that was a thing. Like it's that forgettable of a video game and clearly only 200 people playing it.

18:52Tim Gettys:That's tough. Yeah, it unfortunately was not the hit party game that I think they wanted it to become. You bring up your feelings towards Tomb Raider and Lord of the Rings, and I think I feel the opposite way of that. I definitely get the scared nature of it all, but I think Amazon has shown over the past six months that they are starting to slowly kind of cut things out so they can only focus on the bread and butter, which is these giant established IPs, and how do we play on that, right? You look at a game like Hogwarts Legacy, and I think they point to that. of like, well, we have Lord of the Rings.

19:23Let's go, right? We have Tomb Raider, a beloved IP that is within the video game space. I do agree with you on that head nod of like, maybe it's not as big, but they have, I think they have like two to four large, well-known IPs. And I think the goal that they're having here is like, hey, everything else isn't working. We're only going to double down on this. And that's what we're seeing out of this team. You bring up Luna is a fun one because yeah, when you talk about Cloud, Luna was celebrated because of the Luna controller was so well done, but also the integration with Twitch. The big sell was Amazon owns Twitch.

19:58The goal was to watch Roger stream some awesome game, and then me go, oh, wow, I want to play that game. And by a couple of clicks, I should be able to access that game via my Amazon Prime subscription, my Luna subscription, and play that game immediately, right? You go to Luna and you think, like you brought up, right? You think of xCloud with Xbox and Microsoft. You think of Stadia that we had before and Luna have been kind of the big cloud competitors along with G-Force now. That's getting a whole lot of love and attention right here. But with Luna, you bring up their top new games, right? You have Snoop Dogg's Courtroom Chaos, Angry Birds Flock Party, Hogwarts Legacy, Sonic Mania, Jackbox Party Pack, Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Indiana Jones.

20:43Oh, wow. They have a number of, you know, kind of larger scale games under this umbrella. but like you said Roger I don't know anyone that's using this service but having it as a vehicle from Amazon Prime just like Netflix where I could be watching a show hit with an ad or you know my children one day when they want to play games it's like hey it's already bundled in this Amazon subscription that I can't get off for two-day free shipping all of the Amazon Prime movies and TV hey just play any game that's on this hand them a controller and go yeah I just a lot of things to

Read the full transcript

21:16Tim Gettys:breakdown right like let's let's go back to the laura croft's tomb raider element of it i am genuinely the the fear that i come from that is that sure maybe that is in their mind like the bread and butter they're producing a uh movie or show with i believe sophie turner uh playing laura croft which by the way she posted that image of her with her abs she's fucking ready to play laura croft she's fire that's awesome um but either way they think that that is a big deal and then when that show comes out and it's probably gonna you know do just fine and then the game comes out and it does about what you expect for a for a tomb raider thing and it's not this major uncharted moment then what happens right like what happens to amazon and their commitment to video games when they see that tomb raider which they think in their head is this big fucking franchise is just kind of like middle of the road doing just about fine i think that's what we all expect but i mean the pushback would be it's like i'll give you tomb raider sure or new world i'll give you throne and liberty or tomb raider i'll give you lost ark or tomb raider these are just names that you've never heard of you don't connect with and if you're not gaming and getting into it you wouldn't know how good some of these games are but like the the moment is is like when you're in the boardroom and you're in this office i say those three names and i give you tomb raider yeah all of you would point to tomb raider over any of those three because we don't know it and that's and that's when everything falls apart right is when we we have a hit when it comes to a lost arc right where we're able to capitalize on that i don't know what the numbers are right now i don't know how many people are playing on it clearly not enough to you know have them lost are currently has 10 000 okay in game right now not steam db that's steam only not the end of the world but like a small indie team can make that continue for the next 10 years but amazon's not going to look at that and be excited about that number right uh but either way you have these these big these hits that they weren't able to capitalize on or continue the momentum on and then you have you know tomb raider which again when inevitably when that doesn't hit the numbers that they're looking for what are we doing here we're just pulling out of everything i think in my mind what is going to happen sadly is that we're going to probably we're going to get this crystal dynamic tomb raider game it's going to be probably good i'm excited for it i'm excited for another tomb raider game i need that in my life it's not going to hit the numbers they're looking for so then they just pull back they pull back from a triple a they go straight into more we get Chris Pratt and he's doing AI generated, you know, courtrooms or something weird like that.

23:42Tim Gettys:And we just do weird little mobile games. And hopefully they figure out a way that that keeps people in the ecosystem just enough so then they can have the bottom, the number go up every year of, hey, in Amazon products, we have 50 million combined hours per year of everybody playing on our products and watching videos and scrolling on Amazon shorts or whatever it is. And if that that is what they see Luna as is just a little thing that they can add on to continuously stretch out the number of hours and to have that number go up every single year. And they see video games as that. I would also push back.

24:18What about Lord of the Rings, though? A large scale MMO, right? Like these are the things you've learned from Lost Ark, New World, you know, Throne and Liberty, these larger scale RPGs that have the MMO elements to it. Right. And it's like, now you're putting that into a beloved IP. We just saw Dune with a survival crafting game. Absolutely blow up the sales charts. And that was a survival crafting game. A Lord of the Rings well-done MMO could really hit, right? And so, like, that is that live service subscription model that keeps you coming back. I do agree with you of, like, you do have to start to flood Luna, the product, with a bunch of experiences and titles that people can play.

24:59But I also don't know what the average Netflix owner is clicking on when they go to the game section. We saw Netflix double down and try to get the auction free team to make games for them. We've seen them double down and try to get these well-known games to come over there. And it's like, is it the giant games that are pushing this? Or is it the, hey, I'm playing Angry Birds for 15 minutes while I wait for my best friend to make popcorn. I don't know who's playing this.

25:27Tim Gettys:I think it's that, and this is me sort of talking out of my ass, but also not. It is the definite, the thing that is continuing the growth of these platforms is the mobile games, is the easy pick-up and play. My mom is going to accidentally press it and then be hooked on Candy Crush or whatever it is. That is what continues it. What then gets the buy-in from the companies is them going out there and making deals with indie teams, making deals with bigger companies in order to get these IPs and to continue kind of this this this nice buffet of video games right but the thing that's actually holding it up is clearly the number one game on Luna which is Snoop Dogg's AI court right like that is that is the thing that's holding up when it comes down well Hogwarts Legacy is number three sure and Sonic Mania is number four yeah Jackbox Party Pack which kind of fits in those experience is number five right so like you do have a very large scale triple a game with a well-known ip at number three right here right i would love how many users are actually and also that's i would love to see the the number of hours right like is that the amount of people that are booting it up because they see they see harry potter and then they realize it's an actual like rpg and it's like you have to have a controller and it's like a big deal to play that and then how many people are playing how many hours of time are people playing the snoop dog thing which is just your phone you boot it up and you can play that for hours and hang out with your friends and people can actually go back i mean maybe similar to microsoft right now they are seeing something in the water five years 10 years 15 years from now where it is a very similar situation to netflix where we all kind of were like well we get dvds right go to blockbuster and like i get i get this i'm not accustomed to just pressing a button right now it is of like we're very much moving towards the hey i just boot up an app and i click on whatever game i want right and like amazon wants to be in that market especially with what they They already sell in the subscription service.

27:17They have the idea of like me now sitting on my couch controller is going to be somewhere, right? Like where these controllers are being made easier and easier to make on top of that. They're finding ways to put it on your phone, probably even a TV remote one day, right? Like with these experiences. So they are looking for like, hey, how do I add this on? Because other groups are still in this. Microsoft is still in this. So it's showing you like Microsoft probably wants to be in that too.

27:41Tim Gettys:Absolutely. I, it's interesting, right? Because it's like Microsoft has that inherent commitment with Xbox. We talk about them kind of walking it back and changing that brand, but they're committed. They're in bed with video games no matter what. Xbox and Microsoft is - But they don't have to be. Sure. But that is a huge amount of things to walk back, especially when they purchased one of the bit larger sales in corporate history with Activision. That's a huge deal. A lot of money and commitment that they are built into. Amazon can pull the trigger. Amazon could walk away from this. at pretty much any time.

28:14Tim Gettys:And it's truly no sweat off their back in the grand scheme of things. Like this is not the thing that Amazon is almost known for in a lot of places. It's a small little like, oh, fun fact. Did you know Amazon has a streaming service? What? I didn't know that. Same thing with Netflix. But how much are they really in if they're only producing four games? Exactly. Like if their IPs are only Lord of the Rings, Tomb Raider, and a racing game, and one other thing, how deep are they really in? Really now it just comes down to, hey, how do we make deals to get your game on this. Yeah. Which we're seeing so many third-party games everywhere, right?

28:46Tim Gettys:Which is good for the marketplace. It's nice for the developers to get more money and to have more opportunities to do this stuff. But I look at the future. We talk about that Lord of the Rings thing, right? Like you say... That could be a hit. It could. I mean, that's gonna be a hit. It could. But then also I'll push back and say you mentioned Dune Awakening, right? Which is a smaller IP, right? That game does really well. But right now we checked this morning actually with Nick because we're seeing how many people were playing this game. 10 ,000 people concurrent right now are playing that game.

29:10Tim Gettys:I think a 14 ,000 person week high was where it's at. That's about where Lost Ark was, right? Is that number, let's say this Lord of the Rings game. But Dune Awakening sold 1 million copies. Totally. Right, so we start with that. Now with Lord of the Rings, is it going to be a subscription service where you have to pay$15 a month like World of Warcraft? Is it going to be a straight up sale? There's money to be made in that. If Dune Awakening can come out at$40 to$60, whatever that price tag was, and sell 1 million units, you got to look at a Lord of the Rings MMO and go, that's got some gas to it.

29:45Shout out Gollum.

29:46Tim Gettys:It has gas, but again, what is, what is Amazon looking from this? What do they want from this? Do they want it to be as big as World of Warcraft? And that is their number internally. And then if that doesn't hit, and if it's about, it's doing better than most other MMOs in the market, and then they're just going to pull the plug or they're going to be happy with that. I don't know what they also, what is when it comes to an IP situation, which they don't outright own, like there's costs involved there like there's a lot of elements here that i just don't believe in amazon's commitment to gaming and i think that their future is what they're showing us and they're saying in this article is they are committed to uh small casual experiences i they you see the snoop dog thing that is what they're committed to i think everything else is kind of hey if tomb raider hits fuck yeah if this lord of the ring mmo actually comes out and hits fuck yeah but we're not gonna be doing this anymore i to me this is what this reads as but i would be very surprised if we see i think they're going to have a lot of also um third-party deals where they're going to work with like io interactive making a james bond thing which they own now right they're going to do more of those things which are less internal development and more hey we're just going to partner with this cool team uh as we'll talk about a story of netflix doing later on uh but yeah this is this sucks and i sucks for everybody uh laid off and uh our hearts go out to everybody this fucking sucks but everybody we'll talk more about other things that suck and also some other cool stuff like crashes back everybody after a quick word from our sponsors this episode's brought to you by arc raiders a multiplayer extraction adventure game where most of humanity shelters underground but raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater in the rust belt danger isn't the end of the story it's the beginning of the adventure every journey above ground is a gamble against the relentless machines of arc and rival raiders chasing the same dream explore a lethal yet vibrant world scarred by old conflicts and reclaimed by nature where shifting conditions makes every high stakes run unpredictable.

31:40Adventure isn't a choice. It's the price of thriving. You've seen the boys playing Ark Raiders, and they're absolutely loving it on all those streams. You can join them too. Ark Raiders, pre-order now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, S, and PC.

31:56Joey Noelle:When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like, all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel right in one spot. And turn real-time reporting into big-time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. Honey, did you invite the Minions over? Well, you know how we talked about getting Wi-Fi from Xfinity? Yeah. I ordered it this morning. It was online in minutes. Then they showed up. So they just came over to use the Wi-Fi?

32:36Joey Noelle:For what?

32:40Better not to know.

32:41Joey Noelle:Get online in minutes with same-day Wi-Fi from Xfinity. Plus lock in your price for five years and see Minions and Monsters only in theaters. Xfinity, imagine that. Restrictions apply. Not available in all areas. Learn more at Xfinity.com slash same-day Wi-Fi. Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

33:16Joey Noelle:Upfront payment of$45 for three months, $90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required. $15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms.

33:28Joey Noelle:This summer, serve up the cookout classics. Craft mayo and dressing. Toss green salads with delicious ranch dressing or zesty Italian. Serve smooth, craveably creamy potato salads with mayo. We all know it's not a cookout without craft. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast instead of doom scrolling? Smart move. Another smart move? Getting help from one of State Farm's 19 ,000 local agents when you choose to bundle home and auto. Bundling, just another way to save with the personal price plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer.

34:06Joey Noelle:Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state.

34:11Tim Gettys:Everybody, we're back with some lighter news. Netflix reportedly developing a Crash Bandicoot animated series. This is from Austin, Manchester over at Polygon. Tim is not here, sadly, everybody. But we will have to bring the hype for Crash Bandicoot. And I can do that. You're a Crash kid. No, you're not. Put some respect on Crash Bandicoot 4. Are you putting respect on it? I'm not doing anything. Because the game is really good. The game is really fun. And Crash is back. And Crash had a fun party game for your multiplayer enjoyment. That was actually pretty fun. How much did you play of it? We played it for three nights.

34:43That's a win. That's actually huge.

34:45Tim Gettys:That's a big win. Did you buy for your entire team? I definitely did. I definitely did. From Tomb Raider to Splinter Cell, Netflix has been steadily churning out animated series based on video game franchises. Next on the docket, reportedly, is Activision's Crash Bandicoot. What's on Netflix reported Monday, the streamer is, quote, quietly developing an animated series starring everyone's favorite mutated marsupial. Animated studio Wild Brain is said to be working on the series. It's previously partnered with Netflix for series like Sonic Prime, Ninjago Dragons Rising, and Carmen Sandiego. Whoa!

35:24Tim Gettys:No shit. No, my... They're bringing back Carmen Sandi. Oh, that's been back. That's like four seasons already. That's lit. Shout out. Shout out. Big Carmen Sandi. I'm never watching that, but I love it. That's sick. Wild Brain is also developing a Minecraft animated series for Netflix. Whoa! I don't think I knew that. That's sick. Details are scant, including whether the Crash Bandicoot series would directly adapt any of the games, or it would be an original series. Stories, rather. Story. uh crash bandicoot made his debut in the 1996 platformer of the same name from the last of a studio naughty dog the franchise started as a playstation exclusive before eventually going multi-platform 2008 crash mind over mutant was the last console game for uh the jortstead jortstead uh bandicoot before the franchise went on ice for some time eventually coming back for crash Crash Bandicoot insane trilogy.

36:14Tim Gettys:And of course, Crash Bandicoot for it's about time in 2020. Mikey, this seems like a slam dunk, a layup. Some would call this. This is surprising that we haven't done this. In my mind, maybe we've had a crash animated series that I don't know about, but like, this is a ratchet and clank level. Like this could be something that I would get behind for a movie for a series. This just gives animated TV animated kids show vibes through and through. and I feel like with the right writing, maybe a good idea story-wise, this seems like a layup. Yeah, absolutely. I love Sonic Prime. I still haven't finished the second season.

36:52Tim Gettys:Really enjoyed it. Love what they were able to do with those characters. I thought it was a fun twist on the Sonic formula, bringing in some multiverse type deal. And of course, Sonic 4, it's about time. Isn't there a little bit of that? It was time travel. There's all that good stuff there. So there's some good stuff there. I'm excited. I like this team. Again, they did great stuff with Sonic Prime. I'm not a Crash Bandicoot person, but I'm always down to turn on this stuff. I always think it's so important to have these now adaptations and these other pieces of media with these franchises, especially ones that are not being actively, you know, continued in gaming.

37:27Tim Gettys:That's all we're going to get from Splinter Cell. Guys, let me just say really quick. Let me look at the camera. I saw, I get personally angry when I see anybody in the chat, Reddit, wherever, talk about Splinter Cell, Death Watch as an L. i feel like i feel like i feel like you were talking about uh uh what was that game what's the xbox game that was like four hours that was like uh the the super realistic one it was the sequel uh it's like a story-based game came out recently somewhat recently whatever it'll come whatever you can't call this an l there's no way that you can call this an l when it comes to splitter cell splitter cell is a dead franchise we haven't had a game in in 13 years going on this is awesome, this is great we have Liev Schreiber playing fucking Sam Fisher, we got a new Splinter Cell agent, it's incredible, it's exactly what you want, what'd you want?

38:17Tim Gettys:Did you want him to just be in a corner, be like, oh I'm in the darkness, oh and then that'd be the episode of course he's gonna do John Wick fighting of course he's gonna beat up people, of course he's gonna be old it's good, grow up, Hellblade I was talking about Hellblade. Oh Hellblade was great fuck yeah dude, Hellblade 2 was fantastic. I think it was that episode where you were like, man you can't call this a Nell. You can't call this a next box. You can't call that Nell. That's crazy. If we're running around calling Hellblade 2 and L, that would be nuts. You're talking about fucking Splinter Cell, Death Watch.

38:46Tim Gettys:Oh, an awesome animated show that feels like John Wick but espionage. Fuck everybody. What are we talking about? That's the fun. So you get passionate about it. And they've done such a good job these past five years of adapting these video games into TV and movie that we all can rally around and enjoy. And there's been some really good wins. There's been some that you absolutely skip. And not all are going to be for you. Not all are going to be winners. But we've seen a lot of good. And it is something as gamers, I think we all rally around, right? And we just get excited, right? I still represent Master Cheeks to the fullest when he banged that alien, you know what I mean?

39:21I loved that shit, but I hated that shit. But I'm into this. Crash Bandicoot seems like a layup. There's like 20 other family-friendly 3D mascot platformers that could easily be made into this. Banjo! banjo that's how you do it bad fur day mature on that we just throw you watch out there it seems

39:40Tim Gettys:like netflix just has infinite money and they don't give a fuck like they're just like we will take any garbage ip you have and we will make it into something so yes please you took splinter cell you can take everybody just take all of xbox's uh take blink blink blink the time cat blinks blinks thank you i'm sorry voodoo vince i don't know about that one okay brute force you're just making sure brute force could get a sick i thought you're gonna be like brute force can get it i'm not giving a ball of brute force story number three the wachowskis asked metal gear creator hideo kojima to make a matrix video game but konami reportedly turned them down this from vicky blake over at igm the wachowskis writer directors behind the matrix movies once asked metal gear creator hideo kojima to design a matrix video game but publisher konami reportedly turned it down that's according to time extension which said that while a december 1999 edition of next gen magazine stated kojima has was apparently in the development in the running to develop a game based on the blockbuster movie konami exec uh kasumi kata kata uh shot down discussions in favor of keeping kojima focused on the metal gear series instead quote the wachowskis were big fans of kojima uh konami digital entertainment vp of licensing christopher bergsteer told time extension quote so kizumi uh kojima aki uh saito who still works at uh kojima and i were at the were at the konami hq and we got a call from the wachowskis who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima, so they did.

41:21Tim Gettys:Quote, the two of them came in with their concept artist, and effectively, they said to Kojima, quote, we really want to do the Matrix game. Can you do that? Aki translated this into Japanese for Mr. Kitayu, and Kitayu just looked at them and told them plainly, no, we did still get to enjoy the Matrix Japanese premiere and after party, though. That's pretty sick. interestingly that's quite that's not quite how everyone recalls events another former konami employee this one unwilling to go on the record claimed konami had actually shown quote strong interest in the game and there were immense disappointment when the project didn't go ahead that's hilarious news from 20 years ago everybody i this was hot take the right call oh i don't i literally did you want kojima to move away from the metal gear franchise let's just say this hot take it was the right call from both parties yes because yeah i would love hideo kojima working on a matrix game yes we're going to fly across the globe to pitch him and his team on possibly taking over that ip on the flip side yes we got a hit here we're not stopping that and we're not getting distracted we have and we got some pretty good matrix games like it's not like they were like Metal Gear solid levels, but like in the crop of like adaptations, like we had Enter the Matrix.

42:49Tim Gettys:Enter the Matrix was cool. Sick. Back in the day was cool. An original story that they recorded during the filming of the second Matrix movie. Like that's a sick idea. It was fun. It was kind of revolutionary for the time. Like that was dope. And then they had Matrix Path of Neo, which is kind of a vignette story where you go through all of Neo's history throughout all of the movies. That came out after the movies came out, I believe. that was also pretty solid too so like it's not like we never got a good matrix thing well you know thing but like what if we had more sure what if we had a kojima one sick yeah what if what if but also also and the matrix mmo which was pretty solid so like yeah i don't feel bad that kojima said no to that one that's not that's not keeping me up at night of like a what if what are you looking up no i'm just looking at matrix video games that's right i have to look back on the catalog yeah of games we were playing yeah we had some good ones it's a it was the right decision for both parties is right yes but also it might not have happened like that apparently apparently one conami person's like that didn't happen that's not how it uh story number four ea staff are struggling with management urging them to use ai for quote just about everything report claims this from chris scullion over at vgc business insider spoke to a number of current EA staff speaking under anonymity, who say the company's leadership has spent this past year urging its roughly 15 ,000 employees to use AI for a wide range of tasks, from making code and concept art to advising managers how to speak to staff about sensitive subjects like pay or promotions.

44:24Tim Gettys:According to the report, some staff say the AI tools they're encouraged to use produce quote, flawed code that has to be manually corrected. Others on creative teams worry that they're being expected to train AI software by feeding it their own work. The demand for character artists and level designers will drastically fail. One former Respawn employee who worked in a senior AQ role says he believes one of the reasons he was among 100 colleagues laid off this past spring is because AI was reviewing and summarizing feedback from playtesters, a job he usually did. Business Insider also received internal documents that show EA employees are expected to complete AI training courses, use AI tools daily to speed up their work rate, and treat generative AI like a, quote, thought partner, asking it for advice on things like how to phrase questions when a promotion is denied.

45:28Tim Gettys:Holy fuck, okay, there's more. As the article notes, EA stated in May as part of its annual 10K Securities and Exchange Commission's filing that while it was making more use of AI tools, it had to acknowledge the dangers of these tools being used incorrectly. Quote, we are integrating artificial intelligence tools and technologies into our business and development processes. EA's filing read, quote, the use of artificial intelligence might present social and ethical issues that, if not managed appropriately, may result in legal and reputational harm, cause consumers to lose confidence in our business and brands, and negatively impact our financial and operating results.

46:10Tim Gettys:That's nice. I wish they listened to that. That's crazy. They're thinking about that now. Yeah. I've been thinking about that the past five and ten years. That's interesting. After just destroying the brand? After just doing what they've done? Yeah, exactly. That's cool. One lone person at EA is thinking about, what about the brand? What about me? Oh, shit. Maybe we should have thought about this for a second. Yeah, Mike, what do you have to say about it? I mean, this is a big oof, right? This is tough to read, tough to listen to, and tough to experience on the outside. I'm sure inside, it is even worse, right?

46:41Like this is just insane. I mean, we're at this weird moment of AI, right? Of like, it's getting there, but it's not there. But then people want it. They're pushing it. They're saying, use, use, use. I don't want to use. I don't want to train this to take my job. and I'm clearly making better code, I'm making better art, and you're disrupting the workflow, and then we're just seeing dollar bills and yelling, cut, cut, cut, AI, AI, AI. We're just in a weird moment, and it just sucks to hear. Clearly, it's not the right move.

47:10Tim Gettys:Yeah, we are in this weird moment where I think there are tools of AI that can be ethically and helpful implemented into these workflows. Now, really quick, if you're using AI to talk to staff about sensitive subjects, That's fucking insane. That's dystopian. Maybe you shouldn't be a leader. Maybe you're not ready for the role. If I'm going to AI to be like, how do I tell this guy he's fired? Give me a good sentence. Homie, you're not the guy. You're not the human being for that role. Right. Using AI to then figure out what to say next after someone is denied a promotion is fucking dystopia. That is absolutely insanity.

47:48Tim Gettys:But going back to what I was saying, I think that there is a world where we are able to thoughtfully and consciously add on AI. integration to some forms of generative AI, specifically not trained on other people's art without their consent, specifically trained on other people, the consenting artists throughout the studio that actually want to create things and use that in order to create ideas or whatever it is. There's ways to make that happen. The way that they're doing it right now is completely unethical it is breaking the workflow and in general in general is just adding on to more and more issues that we have with ea in a space where they're fucking selling to saudi arabia it's like this is not this is not going to end well this is clearly not helping out with uh the morale over on uh the side of ea and uh this thousand employees this is very much them focusing in on, hey, we got to put AI because this is the thing that they see in stock markets, in these markets of people trying to give and invest into EA.

48:57Tim Gettys:Oh, they want to see AI. AI is the new buzzword. We're just going to throw AI into everything. We're just going to say AI needs to be part of every single task. We're not going to think about it. And we're just going to think that it's going to make us more efficient because that's what it should do. But clearly, when you're creating something and you're building something, you're coding something from the ground up and you have people that are intimately familiar about the ways that they need to build these things adding on a third party which is a fucking generative ai is going to break everything and then now people have to fix it it makes it harder i when we talk about the doom and gloom of it all right everything's fucking doom and gloom for sure right now i think there's a small part of me a small part of me a hopium if it were that all this shit is going to break there is we are not in the place right now where generative ai and ai the way that they're implementing it into these workflows is working out in a way that is actually helping out these companies in the bottom line.

49:49Tim Gettys:If anything, it's probably losing the money, losing them morale in the company. And also they're probably paying into a lot of these services, right? There's a small part of me that hopes that they see this and they see that it's not making them any money. So then they pull back. There's this pulling back of AI to a certain degree. Because I think it's bursting a little bit. You're starting to see the limits of what AI can do and what it should do. I think Greg brought it up once, the storming and norming, right? He used that term before of like, there's the storming where you are weathering the storm, you're going through all that.

50:18And then you kind of get into the eye of the storm and we kind of settle back in. And right now we are very much at the forefront of the storming with AI, right? Of like, this is being pushed in at the completely wrong way. It is not being implemented well. And there's a moment, there's a happy medium that will be used, but both sides have to understand the other sides, right? And we have to hear from the people who are going to be using it day to day. And if they're telling you that it's disrupting it, it's not working, right? So you need to then listen to that feedback and pull back. And you have to find this area right here, right?

50:51There's a way to use AI that is beneficial. And clearly what you're doing right now is not beneficial. It's not the right way. So you better pull back and figure it out.

50:59Tim Gettys:And especially, I think the biggest fear of AI for me personally is the idea that we're not going to think critically anymore. And we're already seeing that clearly here of like, This is not them using AI to try to solve a coding issue that no one in the team can figure out and they need some type of machine learning to kind of help them through this. It is like, hey, how do I respond to not getting a promotion? What the fuck? You can think, your brain can figure that one out. You can talk to people. You can kind of work through that thing. You have the thought process in your brain to make that work.

51:30Tim Gettys:And if we're just relying on AI, everybody gets dumber. No one learns. We're not able to grow. And we're not able to fucking be better people. Yeah. But Mike, it would be big if we can become better people. But I'm looking for something smaller. We could try every day. We could try a little bit every day. That's why I'm going to take you to something small. We'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. During the chat says, this is the same argument Roger used for the calculator. I wanted a calculator. And you know what?

52:04We used that calculator. But I am doing a lot of mental math. I'm crushing it with the mental math. You're killing it. Thank you.

52:11Tim Gettys:This was breaking earlier, but I'm sure it's going to be brought up tomorrow. But this is kind of like the top level. Don't Nod announces the signing of a development agreement with Netflix for the creation of a new narrative video game based on a major IP. Through this agreement, Don't Nod will develop a new narrative experience that builds on the studio's recognized expertise in the genre. What is that IP, you think, Mikey? Yeah, I mean, of course, we're riding the high right now. Blessings said it well. of like Stranger Things. We are right at the moment where Stranger Things is going to take over everyone in the general audience here from November through January.

52:46So you would jump to Stranger Things being one of its leading, you know, kind of IPs and names in there. I don't know many others that would take my mind from Netflix here, Rog. Squid Game was mine.

53:01Tim Gettys:Squid Game is good. Squid Game, I can see. I mean, Squid Game or that, or, you know, bring back house of cards the cards okay okay uh i don't know yeah chess what was the chess one uh queen's gambit they already have a game yeah yeah uh yeah i don't know i think it's oh k-pop demon hunters oh shit but that's this is a narrative experience i think squid game i could see that of like them of them trying to do a thing where you play as you you do that you do all the all the things you try to get to the ending or whatever but stranger things yeah would be stranger things um gog preservation program grows to include a few new games this is actually really cool i don't know if you're aware of the gog preservation program what they do is they take pc games that have kind of been left uh in the bygone era that haven't been updated and they themselves try to add fixes and kind of make these games be preserved in a way that you can play on most computers uh so they added a bunch of games here i'm not gonna read them all but splinter cell the first one uh the first hitman hitman codename uh 47 uh tomb raider game of the year uh and also big one for for the nerds out there spore spore is a big one that is finally being preserved.

54:04Tim Gettys:So shout out to GOG and their preservation program over there. Monument Valley 3 gets free DLC. The Garden of Life launching on December 3rd. It's from Mario 64. Anton Blast is coming to PlayStation in 2026. This is from Noble. Shout out to Noble. Sayonara, Wild Hearts, and Lorelai, and the Laser Eyes are coming to Switch 2. I love that game. Great soundtrack. Made me cry. Give me right in a moment. Yeah, yeah. I was going through a breakup. Oh, yeah. So I really resonated with the character. And then Queen Latifah came in. Aw, dude. Fucking hit me. Don't fucking hit. Stop that, Queen Latifah.

54:39Tim Gettys:Biggest pop of the year. I think I played it this year for the first time. And I could not believe it was Queen Latifah. That's one of my favorites. Shout out to the GOAT. She's the equalizer. Noble. Noble again, my guy. Escape from Duck Off has sold 2 million copies. Now, is this friend slop? We're putting this as friend slop? I don't like the term. Congratulations, 2 million. I love that. I hate the term as friend slop. I don't like it either. Why are we saying it so mean? Have fun with your friends. Why? All of a sudden. Oh, a video game. Oh, God forbid people have fun. All of a sudden it became a bad thing to have fun with your friends playing video games.

55:10I don't know what world. Yeah, exactly.

55:12Tim Gettys:Let's all fucking play single player games alone and fucking be depressed and let the AI fucking chat with us all day. Oh, it is? That's fucking crazy. Never would have guessed that. Get the fuck out of the time. Single slop. Single slop. And of course, Battlefield 6, Season 1, and Battlefield Red Saka. the free to play battle royale launched today it's for single player there's no way you know what might have to try this now and that is it for we news everybody we got some super chats only two for us today over here gives us super chat fantasy critic collusion at it again can we get this DLC let's get in the discord let's just kind of put a little bug in there.

56:00Make it biddable. That's all. Of course they will.

56:03Tim Gettys:Well, it's not. Well, no, they will. It's just an oversight. It's very easy to do that. Well, Roger, make it happen. No, I don't want to get it. No, you're not done with that. You're done when I say you're done. No, the issue with it is when you try to go in there and say, hey, maybe Galaxy 1 and 2 should be a partial remake because they added two pages. We collude to the fullest, Roger. Don't you back out of the collusion now. We got two months to win. You're so right. I need to secure this. And if you win, I win. Roger, we have big plans. Big plans. We have plans that have never been done in this studio before.

56:36You know what I mean? Oh, my God. Oh, do you hear that? Is that someone singing?

56:40Tim Gettys:Like, we have big plans. We might do it either way. We might do it either way. Company's paying for it, though. Kebabs, the final super chat. Fun fact, this is the third attempt at a crash show. The original game was also to have an animated intro in the style of Looney Tunes. 100 % concerned. That's fun. That's fun. And that is it for our super chats. Let's go to your wrong. See if anyone wants to say that we got anything wrong. We didn't get anything wrong. You know, the vibes, you know, the vibe. Oh shit. A lot of people saying the missed, missed out today. Uh, this is from Adam Blaine, who says that, Guild Wars 2 is a sex, sixth expansion.

57:15Tim Gettys:Visions of Eternity is out today. Always wanted to play Guild Wars as a, you know, World of Warcraft kid, city of heroes, city of villains. I always looked at Guild Wars. I was like, man, Guild Wars looks cool as hell. Uh, Jeppo, this is not a super chat, but I will let you get this one off. He's trying to tell you to go to get Tales of Zillow remastered. You can't do that because we only do partial remakes. Oh, he wants me to pick it. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Can I get that? No, I don't think you can. It was remastered. Good try, though. Kebabs writes in regarding the Crash show. A spokesperson for Wild Brain has stated that they're not working on the Crash show.

57:54Tim Gettys:whether this means the show is made by another studio or is not happening at all is unclear. And that is it for super chats and you're wrong. And the entire show, Mikey, I think we had a good one. Thanks for a great little afternoon. Talk to the game with you. A little bit of the news. Yeah. Fantastic. Mike, of course, this has been kind of funny games daily where each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy news. You need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love, we do support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free.

58:29Tim Gettys:Watch to record them live and get a daily exclusive show. What? A great one. Mucka just wrote in about how we'll be held responsible for our crimes by punishment of AI. We should somehow get Snoop Dogg to weigh in on what we've been doing. The AI Snoop Dogg. See if we can blow this thing up. There's a Chris Pratt movie about this very subject. Well, it's like the AI tells you if you're right or wrong. It's like, it's come out in January. So, you know, it's going to be garbage. but by colluding, enjoy, of course, the kind of funny podcast right after that. And of course, Mikey, let's get to it.

59:01Tim Gettys:Let's get this. We're going to get, we're going to get, we're going to get to battlefield. Until next time. It's been our pleasure to serve you.

59:12Uncovered windows can make your home feel up to 20 degrees hotter. Stay cool and save up to 50 % off custom window treatments during the 4th of July mega sale at blinds.com. From outdoor shades to room darkening blinds, finding the perfect fit is easy. Get free samples, expert design help, and professional measure and install services. Or DIY with confidence and support every step of the way. Shop up to 50 % off site-wide, plus huge savings on doorbusters, right now during the 4th of July mega sale at blinds.com.

59:42Joey Noelle:You want to get your backyard summer ready, but you don't want to break the bank? Wayfair gets it. Planning on dining al fresco or relaxing poolside? Wayfair has everything you need to prep your space. Shop now and save up to 70 % off during Wayfair's 4th of July clearance. Score huge deals on outdoor furniture, area rugs, and more. We're talking thousands of products for every style and budget. Plus, surprise flash deals July 6th. Don't wait. Shop Wayfair's 4th of July clearance now through July 6th at Wayfair.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Starting a business can seem like a daunting task, unless you have a partner like Shopify.

1:00:18Joey Noelle:They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website, to marketing, to selling, and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer.

From the publisher

ARC Raiders is a multiplayer extraction adventure video game, set in a lethal yet vibrant future earth. It’s coming October 30th 2025 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. Check out https://arcraiders.com/

Thank you for the support!

Run of Show -
00:00:00 - Start00:09:15 - HousekeepingYou just got Gamescast which was a ID@Xbox Live Reaction & Review.After, KFGD, you’ll get:Kidna Funny PodcastThen the STREAM is Battlefield’s new Battle Royale mode.If you’re a Kinda Funny Member:Today’s Gregway is about ethics and grandkidsThank you to our Patreon Producers: Karl Jacobs,OmegaBuster, & Delaney "The Somm" TwiningThe Roper Report   -00:11:15 - Amazon Makes ‘Significant’ Cuts In Video-Game Division - Jason Schreier @ Bloomberg00:29:30 - Ad00:30:23 - Netflix reportedly developing a Crash Bandicoot animated series - Austin Manchester @ Polygon00:36:20 - The Wachowskis Asked Metal Gear Creator Hideo Kojima to Make a Matrix Video Game, but Konami Reportedly Turned Them Down - Vikki Blake @ IGN00:39:55 - EA staff are struggling with management urging them to use AI for ‘just about everything’, report claims -  Chris Scullion @ VGC00:47:58 - Wee News!00:51:51 - SuperChats & You‘re Wrong

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More from Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast

All 300 episodes
Significant Layoffs at Amazon Games - Kinda Funny Games Daily 10.28.25Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast · 59 min
Listen in VO