The Inaugural KFGD Award Show! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 12.19.25

12:26Joey Noel:The employers were instructed not to work more than 60 hours a week. Staff were also told to return to the office five days a week for this period, up from three previously, sending some employees scrambling to find alternative care arrangements for children and pets. Representatives for Sony and Naughty Dog declined to comment. Excessive overtime, also called crunch, has long been commonplace in the video game industry thanks to the unpredictability of game development. But in recent years, following blowback from workers and in the media, many companies have tried to mitigate such practices.

12:57Joey Noel:Naughty Dog, one of the most respected game makers thanks to its hit franchises like Uncharted and The Last of Us, has earned a reputation over the years for its binge working culture. In 2021, after facing burnout and some attrition among its workers following the release of The Last of Us Part II, Naughty Dog began building a new team of producers charged, in part with alleviating the overload of work on upcoming projects. But many of those producers have since left the company, according to people familiar with the situation. Some teams at Naughty Dog worked long hours to finish the game's debut trailer, which was released last December.

13:31Joey Noel:But this is the first time in recent years that overtime has been mandated across the bulk of the studio. The game is slated to release in mid-2027, according to people familiar with the schedule, leaving some employees wondering if the overtime requirements will get worse later in the development cycle. For most staff, the recent period of mandated overtime ended this week as Naughty Dog finalized the demo. Management told employees that the company will return to its standard requirement of three days in the office each week through the end of January, according to people familiar with the communications.

14:01Joey Noel:The company said it plans to provide a more detailed schedule for 2026 after the holiday break. Earlier this year, members of the production team were each given customized metal coins that seemed to capture, purposefully or not, the current state of the studio's workplace attitude. On one side was the company's paw print logo, on the other, a quote from the trailer for Intergalactic, The Heretic Prophet, quote, The suffering of generations must be endured to achieve our divine end that's funny that's dark

14:38Blessing Adeoye Jr.:what do you think i guess a better question actually do you think playstation and or naughty dog care enough about articles like this coming out the fact that we're back here again after what feels like a repeated trend at naughty dog of mandatory overtime and crunch do you think this is just something where they like they're like chalk it up to the game like where jason strives gonna have an article push through it we want to be able to meet this deadline so we can have the

15:06Joey Noel:game for playstation yeah i do i i don't i don't it's so tough to be in that headspace and to be in that boardroom and wonder about what playstation what naughty dog thinks of any of this hullabaloo you'd get out there and then it's also this interesting thing of crunch is bad period end of statement you know what i mean it comes down to mismanagement it comes down to not planning for something blah blah why are we trying to get this before the holidays what what we don't know what it is i'm not and i'm not trying to justify it but it's one of those of like there's so many moving parts to this that do they care about this i have to think no you have to know that this is the cost of doing business again i'm talking as the corporation as both of these companies right where it's like yeah this article is going to come out you hope hope hope hope hope that the we it's going to happen it's going to come out we're going to ask these people do it we don't care because we know this is temporary that would be the hope the the only like seven weeks hey after

16:13Blessing Adeoye Jr.:that we'll you know get back to normal hours or whatever which they say they're doing until there's an inevitably like 2027 okay well now it's gonna be six months of crime yeah yeah yeah

16:21Joey Noel:that's hilarious gondor's condor the super chat says it's a quote don't forget you're here forever type of but yeah it's like you would hope that but again then it comes down to how do you want to package that and what do you want to say about that and you know what i mean like there's so many even even if this was the plan you would come down to the mismanagement of it of like why didn't you Especially when they bring up kids and pets. Like, right? Like, people, if you're only, I have to be there three days a week. Got it. I can plan my life around that. For them to throw a wrench in the works however many weeks before, days before they told them this was the switch, that sucks.

16:56Joey Noel:If you could give them a three-month heads up, which I know is not what this was, probably. You hoped you would be that. But again, three months, you'd hope you know you're behind on the down. Like, there's so many moving, shifting things of, like, I don't know. What you always want is the humanity of the people running the company to come through. So I always come to, if I needed you guys to do something like that, it would be like a, hey, everybody, this fucking sucks. This is what I need y 'all to do here. And then it would be the, so that's why when we come back, you're all getting three days off a week or what, you know what I mean?

17:26Joey Noel:To try to balance it. Have a like, we fucked up and we need to do this. And this is why. I know, sadly, that kind of ownership, that kind of responsibility, that kind of clarity is never in these corporate worlds of what you're getting. Because they know, what's better? Or is it better to have Shryer's article come out at the start of this problem or at the end of it? Cause right now, naughty dog can be like, I'm sure you all saw the article. We didn't understand, or we didn't talk to you or whatever. You know what I'm like? We, you know, some of you are upset. We'll be better from here on out.

17:56Joey Noel:Will they be later on? Who knows? And because you say all that, and then there is the dark side of it, right? Where it's like, we're naughty dog. Do you want to come work on the best games and video games? Do you want to come work on guaranteed game of the year contenders, generation definers?

18:10Blessing Adeoye Jr.:you got to come here and this is what it's going to be like and that's where i get very fascinated about the inner workings the inner politics of this when it comes to the naughty dog part of it when it comes to the playstation part of it and when it comes to the industry part of it right like we're here talking about they're crunching so they can get this demo in for playstation because they want to they want to be able to say hey this is where we're at with the game okay cool you're greenlit to keep going forward or whatever like this is how we're adjusting what our outlook is for the next year and a half as we as we barrel towards 2027 when you're talking about naughty dog who in the article they say have missed multiple deadlines right like what is what are those conversations like with playstation because from what i hear about naughty dog and playstation naughty dog is so much of a golden child that it is like take however long you want it's the opposite of insomniac where insomniac also a golden child but they're the golden child because they get games out they release games and they release successful games that people want to play right and they're able to get you a spider-man miles morales a spider-man 2 a ratchett and clinton grip depart we've already announced wolverine that's coming out next year right like we know where insomniac's going naughty dog it's like okay well you're putting out 10 out of 10 games every five years but now it's getting longer and longer because you guys are artists

19:23Joey Noel:you guys are you know pushing video games for we're pushing video games forward but for playstation

19:29Blessing Adeoye Jr.:which we know they care about the critical side but they must also care about the business side

19:33Joey Noel:and actually getting games out publicly traded company of course they are sony yeah like what

19:37Blessing Adeoye Jr.:is that conversation with naughty dog to then go hey we need this by january like you guys have missed deadline after deadline after deadline we're like we're putting our foot down get us get us this by january and when an article like this comes out what does that do to the conversations

19:53Joey Noel:that playstation and naughty dog have with each other yeah yeah i don't know i i it's back to your question at the top of does herman and playstation want bad news like this out there that they had to crunch and they had to do this whole thing or do they want an incomplete demo that isn't showing i yeah you wonder are what system are they trying to show what vertical slice are they trying to do what what is the thing that we couldn't see with temporary assets and temporary or whatever or is it just not even running and i'm not a video game developer i'm speaking outside of turnout what they'd have and how they're showing it kind of thing of like but where are we at that you can't see where they're at to see like okay cool and again you know it's jason reporting on a mid-2027 release date right yeah that's not confirmed that's not whatever the idea i bet we were

20:37Blessing Adeoye Jr.:gonna slide on that if we haven't already slid and that's what i wonder right like what is the we gotta ask a lot of questions here but that's all that's what it is right yeah you know like for this deadline that you're trying to hit is it a thing of hey if we don't hit this then we get pushed to later than mid-2027 right we're talking about late 2027 or even 2028 does that get us in trouble with PlayStation or missing out on bonuses because we're not hitting our deadlines right like I'm sure all that comes into play when you're Naughty Dog and trying to figure out when to put out your next game but like yeah it's such a weird thing to balance because we are talking about putting out something that the artists believe in is a 10 out of 10 and critically and everybody's satisfied and all that stuff versus like waiting forever for it and then there's this

21:17Joey Noel:big you know I think the question here of the man the not question but the scary thing if you're working at Naughty Dog is that fear of what happens from here on out you know what I mean because it is this idea of you don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and so like in 2021 after facing burnout they you know the release they began building a new team I remember that being a thing right where there were the headlines of like they crunched on the last of us part two and they're not going to crunch going forward and so you can sit here and say like oh well it's 2025 they've had four years of not doing that everybody makes mistakes everybody gets off schedule yada but it's like well sure but this is the next game it's no you know what i mean like you're not you don't crunch in pre-production you're not like this is when you're trying to hit these deadlines and make these moves and try to have it all happen that you actually get there so has anything really changed i mean the team sounds like it doesn't even exist anymore at least the way we had

22:06Blessing Adeoye Jr.:originally understood it yeah yeah you would hope that like to your point there's communication as far as hey like we're gonna give you time off or like we're gonna pay you a bonus on top of your bonus right like money speaks if you want me to be here that late like fucking pay me um maybe there's something like that but again who knows i think for me the words i read here as far as like the details of this right it being seven weeks it being you know you can't be here past 60 hours but we're still asking you to be here a certain amount of time past the 40 we expect of you like i don't i guess i worry less about that more so about where we at a year from now when the game is about to release hopefully about to release and it is all right two years from now right yeah two i'm thinking a year and a half when you say okay sorry but like i and i guess i say a year from now because that's when i would imagine it starts as far as hey we're crunching crunch yeah hey it's not seven weeks now it's six months toward the end like toward uh trying to barrel toward the mid of 2027 i think that's where the fear starts to pop up as far as the culture naughty dog and crunch culture and all that yeah yeah yeah omega buster's talking about i i'm

23:16Joey Noel:want to make sure he didn't their omega buster didn't miss my point of like that's what i'm saying is like now the rubber meets the road and if you're doing the same thing you said you weren't going to do after 2021 that the the time between that doesn't matter anymore yeah we're talking about this is the example right here where you need to be you know it sucks this is why we're always talking about unionizing you know have people there to fight for you to have you know it's the power of everyone working as one that collective uh arguing for better rights better management better whatever uh and you hope for the best but this sucks as always you never want i never want to hear the i hate when we get to that finish line and you see people who are like i'm dead this this killed me yeah my relationships and the years and the missed birthday parties and especially right now it's seven weeks and it ends right now so okay we're talking about christmas parties for your partners you're talking about just in general friends stuff you're talking about thanksgiving like we're seeing this swash swath of the holidays when it's supposed to wind down and get quiet getting ramped up and really cranking it yeah that sucks super sucks but you know what doesn't suck blessing what's that greg the kind of funny games daily awards that's right everybody if you haven't been paying attention over the past couple of weeks we've been planning the inaugural kind of funny games daily awards what's the purpose well as you know each and every day on this show youtube twitch podcast services uh we run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about but guess what we don't generate that news we read from people like jason schreier over at bloomberg we read sites like ign vgc etc etc etc and as you know we think those people deserve credit those sites deserve credit those stories deserve credit and so since you know we're not seeing that and not that i'm saying it's anybody else's place to do so we thought this year we'd do our own little award show just three awards on to the people who make this show possible uh we asked you of course to write in initially with your nominations you did so many of you did we then took those down to the top five put them on to a voting thing and more than 1300 of you showed up to come vote on what you thought were the best site the best reporter and the best story of the year and we can't thank you enough so it is time for our first award all right it is site of the year and the nominees are for site of the year for the inaugural kind of funny games daily awards aftermath game informer giant bomb this week in video games and vgc not to pick favorites because we're not going to do that but what a great loadout of sites here yeah like as you read as you read through these i think

25:42Blessing Adeoye Jr.:there's something individually each of these sites do that i would highlight is fantastic this year whether it's aftermath and how they continue to operate as an independent journalistic outlet that provides unique perspective and really good uh op-eds whether it's game informer that was this year the year that they came back from the dead yeah and now a magazine again fuck yeah game yeah doing big things yeah and being able to was there they just made an announcement for december i think that they're partnering with getting their magazine nobel they're back yeah thank you uh so that's fucking awesome giant bomb similar thing right of like turmoil there now they're independent and doing their own things yeah they did the impossible right of everybody

26:18Joey Noel:who made up giant bomb for this iteration leaving right there's all this chaos then a pax panel and

26:24Blessing Adeoye Jr.:guess what yeah they've bought the site they own giant bomb independently i i was in tokyo uh doing the death rating 2 preview event with uh dan reicher as this all was going down and like i'm not talking about the fact that like he was briefing me on things where i was like yo this is fucking crazy what's going on with giant bomb and so like to see where it ended up because like it seemed like it could have gone way worse as far as how these deals go and like when things are going down like this i'm so happy for them they landed in a place uh that is ideal for everybody involved and then you talk about this week in video games the skill up channel shout out to ralph right launching a brand new site looking at the looking at the ecosystem of games media and seeing a need and trying to fulfill that need and when i go to that site every single time i'm like i love the design of it i love to see them grow i love to see edmund train doing his thing right leading the site and it's what you talk about too of like what you love to see where

27:14Joey Noel:skill ups youtube is so popular right he's able to do so well he's like i just missed the written word so i'm making this site and it doesn't need to do great for me this is the you know just the

27:24Blessing Adeoye Jr.:benefit of having the channels we have and then uh video games chronicle of course like that's my

27:28Joey Noel:old reliable how many times on games daily has it been vgc vgc vgc and the reason for that is like

27:35Blessing Adeoye Jr.:they are my number one news source right they are my favorite site to go to because the they're so good at compiling all the headlines that i need to see they write things in such a concise and straightforward manner like they are i think the quintessential prototypical games media site and

27:51Joey Noel:how they operate and they're a small team and i love them for that well again your nominees are aftermath game informer giant bomb this week in video games and vgc and the winner is giant bomb kevin go ahead and roll their video i'm recording

28:13All right. Hey, Kind of Funny best friends, we're Giant Bomb. And once again, we are on Kind of Funny winning something, just like we do in every one of those gaming competitions we do. All right. Thank you so much, Kind of Funny. Thank you to all of the people who voted, all of the Kind of Funny best friends. We really support it.

28:33Blessing Adeoye Jr.:We'll see you next year when we win this award again. And it's not fun! Thank you!

28:47Joey Noel:And we're back. That's awesome. Oh, man. You know, you want to be excited for him, but then Dan, we just see so much Dan. I love Dan. I know the suit. Oh, God. Congratulations, Giant Bomb, on winning the inaugural site of the year here at the KFGD Awards. Of course, we still have story of the year. and reporter of the year. We'll get to that later. For now, we'll move on to story number two. Xbox's canceled Perfect Dark game had entire chapters of motion capture recorded and a doomed rescue plan to salvage a slimmed down version. This is Tom Phillips over at IGN.com. Doomed Xbox blockbuster Perfect Dark had quote-unquote entire chapters of performance capture work in the can before its shock cancellation this summer, according to Joanna Dark actress Alex Wilton Reagan.

29:38Joey Noel:In an interview with The Gamer, the voice behind Dragon Age's Inquisitor and Cyberpunk 2077's Alt Cunningham says she recorded scenes for the initiative Perfect Art Reboot over the course of several years, beginning in 2023. Quote-unquote, lots was done in 2024, with work continuing in early 2025. Quote, To my knowledge, we were pretty far along. I'd done entire chapters of this universe, Reagan said, adding that she was shocked to learn that Microsoft was pulling the plug with the initiative itself also set to be closed down as part of the wave of funding cuts and layoffs. Quote, I was shocked, surprised, and devastated as everyone else was when the funding was pulled and the studio was closed, Wilton Reagan continued, saying she learned the studio's fate at the same time as it was publicly announced.

30:22Joey Noel:I did not see it coming. I was absolutely blindsided when the project was defunded. It was devastating. So many people lost their jobs, an entire workforce was disbanded. A further blow would come as last-ditch talks to salvage the project also fell through, a process Wilton Reagan admits she had insider knowledge of. Increasingly, the actress mentioned that Perfect Dark may have changed the scope had it been saved, with a slimmed-down version ultimately seeing the light of day instead. Quote, I couldn't say much about it because I knew the initiative was in talks to keep Perfect Dark up and running in some shape or form.

30:58Joey Noel:Possibly a slimmed down version, possibly something slightly different, but certainly everyone was working really hard behind the scenes to bring Perfect Dark back. And then one day I heard from the creative director that the deal hadn't gone through and that really everything had fallen apart and production was fully stopping, end quote. A report from Bloomberg, which IGN.com, corroborated from its own sources, previously revealed that there had been a plan to keep Perfect Dark alive via the team working on the project at Tomb Raider Studio Crystal Dynamics. which had been serving as co-developer.

31:28Joey Noel:Leadership from both Crystal and the initiative reportedly spent two months looking for a new publisher and a funding source. While multiple parties expressed interest, the most likely candidate turned out to be Take-Two Interactive. However, the two groups couldn't come to an agreement, at least in part due to disagreements over long-term ownership of the property. As a result, the deal fell through, resulting in layoffs at Crystal Dynamics, as well as all hope of the project being reinstated, banished.

31:56Blessing Adeoye Jr.:damn damn damn damn damn damn damn i didn't know that that last part about um take two possibly being a contender to help continue to keep the perfect dark project alive yeah like i i'm i'm so fascinated by what that timeline looks like if perfect dark continued and finally got to that end spot would we have a game that is something that we're all blown away by or would have just like

32:18Joey Noel:landed with you don't think so no i don't think they would have and it's not a knock i think you know when she's talking about a slimmed down version or this that the other version i think it would have been cool we're bringing we're taking this on we're working with crystal or maybe bringing different people and what and it's like salvage from what you have already make a game you know finish a game do that thing and i just don't think that would work and i imagine that's why hopefully the deal didn't go through is the idea of like listen we can either spend x amount of dollars cheaply and get a shitty version of this out or put this much in bring all these people and get the full thing out but we don't believe in that vision of that game because we weren't here from the beginning and it's not the kind of game we want for our portfolio and etc etc yeah i'm still sad about this oh a thousand percent oh my god no i'm not doing me

32:59Blessing Adeoye Jr.:wrong i'm not like thank god this didn't happen oh for sure yeah i guess more so i'm me speaking from i actually believed what this game was going to be you know like i i think i've talked to you and even mike right who's like no this game this game didn't have the legs and like but i when i look at that trailer even though i think so much of that felt a bit too curated as far as okay this isn't real gameplay right this is like such a guided thing i love a good immersive sim i love a good you do like first person here's a bunch of gadgets here's some stealth elements here's this here's that and like being able to tackle a level with all these different options at your disposal i miss a deus ex i miss even like going back to the age of like a 007 um like for ncd4 yeah with my analog 3d i've been playing a lot of the world is not enough and even as i've been playing that game which i know isn't as good as golden eye but that was my 007 game even as i'm playing that i'm like oh yeah they gave me like really cool options to kind of like be able to do things in like different orders or have these different gadgets to mess around with the world in different ways that shit is a is a level of game design that i really appreciate that i i feel like nowadays you don't see on that triple a level anymore i feel like a lot of these games the dishonored of the world have kind of faded away and i'd like to see that come back i think there's value there and so I get sad when I remember Perfect Dark.

34:14Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I think could have been that, but RIP.

34:17Joey Noel:Yeah, exactly. It's always crazy to think about. I can't imagine the developers for sure. Don't get me wrong. They have their hearts, souls, and years of their lives planned in. But by the time a game gets to mocap and all this stuff, I would be so confident. And I mean, obviously now you would know not to be. There's other examples too. But so confident that this is happening. And especially, I think all the time of like, you know, you hear the story of somebody goes to the movie premiere and their scene got cut out. They're not actually in it. Or there's a deleted scene of this one and the other ball.

34:51Joey Noel:And it's like, oh, that sucks for them. But you know, like I'm assuming maybe, and I'm not misreading this, right? That Alex was Joanna Dark. I'm not even, is that confirmed? Joanna Dark actress, Alex. Yes. So I mean, like, imagine your cast is Joanna Dark. You're like, cool. You do the rehearsals, you do the thing. But then you're on set and you're seeing them working on the game and you get the giant debut at Xbox. Like I would be so confident of like, this is happening. Like the, whoever, uh, I don't know if they ever announced it. I think there was rumors, right. But whoever would have been voicing Wonder Woman in the monolith, right?

35:21Joey Noel:Like that one, I totally get, like, I mean, I would have been confident in it making the game, but like, I never had a trailer where I voiced stuff. I never, you know, did, I never had to have that. I never got that game awards moment or this reveal or whatever. Like it would be, that would be like, oh, that sucked, but I kind of get it. Whereas this one, I'd be like, I was publicly Joanna Dark. the world knew to some degree and then it's all gone ripped away and like i think it's just for me so much easier to wrap my head around a performer than obviously the developers because sadly i think every developer you know has in a game they were working on whether it be pre-pro or deep into it like this that got canceled along the way super tough super tough i hope crystal

35:59Blessing Adeoye Jr.:dynamics holds it down like i hope they give her like a role in the next tomb raider or something right? They did. Oh, they did. She's Laura Croft in the next Tomb Raider. You know what's funny? She landed on her feet. That was why I was like, I was like,

36:10Joey Noel:oh, I started following her on Instagram after the Tomb Raider announcement. And so then when I saw this and I breathed through it there, I was like, wait, is she actually, was she Joanna? Or was she, you know what's funny? Was she doing a Tomb Raider interview where she mentioned all this?

36:23Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Because as I read the story, I could have sworn I read that, but then I tried to Google it to make sure and I didn't see anything about her being Tomb Raider. And so I was like, oh, maybe she's not. I hope she's in the next two.

36:30Joey Noel:She had a fun or not a fun exchange, but a very sweet exchange with Camilla Luddington, Camilla Luddington, the Tomb Raider from the previous trilogy.

36:36Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah.

36:36Joey Noel:In the wake of all the announcements that we're all celebrating, Tomb Raider coming back, Camilla Luddington put up a post one day on Instagram that was like, to all my fans, you're asking. It was such an honor to do this. Like the women who came before me and the women will come after me. And I think she tagged Alex in there. And Alex had a little response to the, you know, thanking her for all her service and stuff. I was like, I like the baton passing. Yeah. Jeff should have done it on stage, but that's just me complaining. I mean, But yeah, at least she landed on her feet. I hope Crystal lands on her feet.

37:04Yeah.

37:05Joey Noel:Avengers. Fucking Crystal. Perfect Dark.

37:09Blessing Adeoye Jr.:They announced two games coming out in the next two years. Well, fuck them up.

37:12Joey Noel:Don't fuck them up. And I am still fucking confused. The Tomb Raider rights are now with Amazon, or are they with Crystal and then Amazon's publishing? Crystal has Tomb Raider rights, right? Don't you're wrong me. Just tell me in the chat. Crystal making Tomb Raider but Amazon has the Tomb Raider rights. Yeah, Phi Law says Amazon. I think we're good. I think we're good.

37:36Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah, I lost track.

37:37Joey Noel:Because what? Square had it and then Square offloaded Crystal and then this happened and then all the Western studios went out. Amazon. Once Embracer gets in there, you know, there's a fly in the ointment I can't deal with. Blessing, you know what I can deal with? What's that? More KFGD awards. Remember, this is our inaugural KFGD award show honoring the best in games, journalism and writing and stuff like that. This next one is an interesting one. We asked you for your nominations for story of the year. And as you know, while we've done many a game showcase, bringing the video games to you, we've never done a real award show where we've put it out there and done the whole thing.

38:18Joey Noel:And it turns out we need to explain the categories better story of the year. I thought in blessing thought in our minds, you're not wrong. People got it wrong. our thought was, Oh, I nice. Cause I said, give me a link to, so I thought you understood like this was the best story we read. I want a headline, an author, a site. I want a thing. So many of you understandably interpreted it as, as the biggest story of the year. Yeah. Like we were going to give a word to Xbox keeps fucking up or Hey, here's like the ongoing saga of grand theft auto delays or ongoing saga of grand theft auto. And this union thing, there was a lot of, a lot of people just tossing ideas out there rather than here's a story.

39:00Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Some people are riding in with their favorite video game story. Go see Yote. That did happen as well.

39:05Joey Noel:That's on us. That's on us. Sorry everybody. When we come back for the second annual we'll make more clear that. What we did for this one was we went through all your nominations. We saw what got nominated the most and then we went through and said okay well we'll pick this one from what we did. We'll be the votes that mattered. And so we're proud to announce that the winner of the story of the year KFGD award goes to why silksong took seven years to make by Jason Schreier at Bloomberg. Kevin, roll the clip. Hello, kind of funny. I got a text message from Greg Miller saying that I have won an award for my story about the making of a silksong.

39:47And I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who voted for me or nominated me who gave me this award. I really appreciate it. And thank you to the people at Kind of Funny, Greg and Crew, for making a kick-ass video company, content creation company, whatever you want to call it. And thank you for all the support over the years. I hope to come on the show many, many more times in the months and years to come. And I always enjoy seeing you guys talk about the stories that I write and the news that we break over here at Bloomberg News, the Big B. A lot of people have asked me how I wound up getting the scoop and getting the big story that a whole lot of people wanted to know about why Silksong took seven years to make.

40:35So I thought I'd give you guys the inside track, my own little scoop here about how it all came together. So what happened was I sent an email to Team Cherry and I said, hey, do you want to talk about the making of Silksong? and they responded saying sure big thank you to kind of funny all you kind of funny best friends out there i really appreciate you for the support over the years i hope you have an excellent holiday and i will see you many more times in the months and years to come we don't give enough credit how funny jason shrier

41:12Joey Noel:it's fucking that easy yeah it's that easy hilarious how many times on this show i can't wait for Shryer to break that. I can just call him. I can just email these people and say, hey, do you want to talk

41:21Blessing Adeoye Jr.:about it? To be fair, he is journalism. His name is Jason Shryer. So, you know, I think

41:25Joey Noel:also your name is Greg Miller.

41:27Blessing Adeoye Jr.:So I feel like

41:28Joey Noel:yeah, you should text people. What's the story we need to know about? See, not only that, like that's actually a good like I was going to say a good story that would be insulting. That's a good news story. Yeah. Lots of times you're like, how did this game collapse? Where was the mismanagement? Jason will get to it.

41:44Blessing Adeoye Jr.:That's definitely what I think I wanted to compliment about this pick is yeah, like 99 % of Jason's stories are naughty dogs crunching out. Right. Like the fact that the story that I think a lot of people took to this year that they really liked that came from him was, Hey, this is why Hollow Knight Silk Song took so long. And it's all good news. Right. Is they wanted to take their time. They had ideas. They wanted to see those ideas come through. That's a story you don't get as often, which is why I think that one stood out to people. Like, of course we picked it, but I think that was also the most.

42:10Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Oh dude, this one by a,

42:12Joey Noel:by a landslide was the most nominated one for the audience. So it stood out to you as well. And then, yeah, when we look through the other ones that were there great writing great reporting but this was such a again i think i've talked about this before as a you know journalist journalism degree person i have a journalism degree even though i'm not journalist anymore great journalism answers and asks the obvious question yeah and so i for years i've used that example of aaron andrews uh after a 49er seahawks game uh he's talking to richard sherman i was on a plane and richard sherman she goes up and you know how post games interviews are always garbage yeah she asked him some question and Richard Sherman started he want to come for my legs and I remember watching it on the plane and go who is he talking about and Aaron takes the mic back goes who are you talking about yeah Crabtree and it was like such a and it sounds so simple yeah but so many other people go all right but I had a question in mind about what you did on the third you know like no no you have to ask the fucking question and like Jason went and asked the question why the fuck did this game take for walk and they're like yeah we'll tell you the whole thing you know here it is so great work jason great work congratulations again we move on we haven't ad break yet have we no we've not we move on to ads remember if you want to support us to keep us here each and every weekday we'd love you to pick up a membership patreon.com slash kind of funny youtube.com slash kind of funny games apple spotify get all of our shows ad free get your daily dose of greg miller get good karma for supporting 11 person business and hey why not stuff a stocking with a gifted membership i'm sure one of these platforms allows that.

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44:51Joey Noel:If you live for high-stakes runs, tight teamwork, and that rush when the extraction timer is ticking down, this might be your next obsession. You've already seen us obsessing over Ark Raiders, the multiplayer extraction adventure, set on a lethal future Earth where mechanized killing machines rule the surface, and humanity hides below. As a raider, you brave topside to loot, complete quests, fight Ark robots, and extract safely if you can. Underground in Speranza, you'll upgrade your den, boost your abilities, and gear up for raids. On the surface, there are no rules. Swarms of drones, massive robots, and rival raiders make every trip unique.

45:29Joey Noel:Choose solo, duo, or squad of three, but rival players are never far away. Team up or take their loot. What kind of raider will you be in the Rust Belt? Arc Raiders is available now for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X slash S, and PC. This episode's brought to you by HelloFresh. You may have heard of HelloFresh. They're the number one meal kit in America, making home cooking easier with chef-crafted recipes and fresh ingredients delivered straight to your door. But this fall, they're serving up even more to love. This isn't the HelloFresh you remember. It's bigger. HelloFresh has doubled its menu.

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49:08Joey Noel:in an all new season now streaming only on disney plus they're hunting us it's time we started hunting them i can work with them this should be tons of fun marvel television's daredevil Born Again, streaming only on Disney+. What if you could have the most reliable Wi-Fi at the same price for five years? That's the Xfinity five-year price guarantee. No annual contracts, no hidden fees, and our best equipment included. Plus, get online in minutes with same-day Wi-Fi. Just five years of fiber-powered Wi-Fi that boosts speeds to the devices that need them most. Lock in your price and unlock the possibilities.

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50:21Joey Noel:and we're back we're back i'm gonna open the bubbly but guess what's working against me what's that i greased up my hands no what's the point the fucking why am i why you know what i mean why even try to i'm kidding i mean that's how it was supposed to go don't worry about it nice once shot my friend with a champagne bottle of cork i mean it hurt him you know what i mean

50:38Blessing Adeoye Jr.:he wanted it he wanted it he wanted to get shot with the champagne yeah where'd you aim his chest

50:43Joey Noel:or like his face yeah i believe he put his shirt over his head it was like some new year's eve party we were doing. Oh, interesting. It's rosé, too. In the Cana Cup? Fancy. We're only the finest here. My favorite was when, first off, shout out to Kevin and Cool Greg for making this happen. When Kevin gave us the glasses, he was like, oh, you might want to wipe them down. They've been sitting a while. Congratulations to a great year, boss. Cheers to everybody out there. And congratulations to all the winners today and nominees on the KFGD Awards.

51:09Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Hell yeah. While we're here, I want to give a shout out to People Make Games. I know you guys talked about them yesterday, but I've been going through more of their channel. I forget what the were you familiar with them yeah uh but like only recently like maybe a couple months ago whatever blast video they did about rockstar okay yeah yeah yeah yeah maybe even a bit before that but only recently familiar with them i like i started going through more of their stuff and since we're just shouting out you know creators and stuff like shout out shout out they have a channel that is so well organized and well made and well edited and like you talk about journalism and how like you know you having this journalistic background right like shit like this inspires me 100 % man making the story

51:46Joey Noel:talking to people so well done really great stuff everybody go subscribe number 3 on the Roper Report Baldur's Gate 3 developer will hold a fan Q &A about dev processes following AI backlash this is the one the only Rev Valentine at IGN.com following multiple days of criticism from fans and fellow game developers over the studio's use of generative AI Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity Maker Larian Studios CEO Sven Vinicki that's how I say it how do you say it?

52:14Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Sven Vink Vink? Vink Once I say it I just start saying Vinnicky

52:18Joey Noel:I like that though I don't know It's creative Thank you I like to compose at the keyboard Has announced in AMA Ask Me Anything typically on Reddit in the new year inviting people to ask members of different learning departments quote any questions you may have about Divinity and our dev process directly end quote In a post on Twitter Sven said since the announcement of the studio's next game Divinity at the Game Awards last week quote a lot has become lost in translation. It's been a week since we announced Divinity, our next RPG, and a lot has become lost in translation. Larian's DNA is agency.

52:52Joey Noel:Everything we work towards is to the benefit of our teams, games, and players. A better workday and a better game. Our successes come from empowering people to work in their own way and bring their best out of their skill and craft so that we can make the best RPGs we can possibly make. In that context, it would be irresponsible for us to... not irresponsible for us not to evaluate new technologies. However, our processes are always evolving and where they are not efficient or fail to align with who we are. We will make changes to give you more insight. We'll do an AMA featuring our different departments after the holiday break in which you'll get the opportunity to ask any questions you have about divinity and our dev process directly.

53:32Joey Noel:We'll announce the new date or when it's the date in the new year. In the meantime, I wish you all happy holidays and quote.

53:39Blessing Adeoye Jr.:The saga continues. Yeah, right. Yeah. this is like giving me the whole like when subnautica was having the whole controversy around um the owners i think crafting not wanting to pay the leads or whatever right like this is one of those ones where it's a story that has now lingered because the updates have been so interesting um and so for us to be here where they're not now like all right hey we're doing a q a we want to be open and honest that's the thing you want to be you want to be open and honest and so i think i think that's a good idea but also i think all people want is to hear that like you're not using AI anymore, but also it's that thing where it's so messy and weird, and I don't really know what to make of any of this.

54:21Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah, yeah.

54:22Joey Noel:I mean, again, it's such a weird, complicated, divisive. We can go back to Bruce Straley talking about it on Tuesday's Games Daily, right? Where it's like clearly AI, when it's not killing the planet, even though it is right now, and even though the worst people are promoting it there's going to be a use for it some way that can help everybody but it's when it's taking the fun stuff and plagiarizing everybody and making everything horrible and so for Larian like this golden child off of Baldur's Gate 3 with this amazing community and they keep winning community support to come out and say this it's just like dude read the room like no come on we didn't need to get into this and it's interesting because like the reaction since then has been so or not reaction but i guess reverberation right of a throwaway line that then caught so much juice and to the point that jason on bs that's blue sky tim uh put up the transcript of the article even said like if i knew this quote would have gotten that much traction i would have done more with it to me which to me means like jason didn't think it was a story the way it was and so here it is blah blah and then on top of that then it did the thing like i said where they were riding high i think off of baldur's gate three and can do no wrong and this then got I saw a reset era thread that I've pulled up right that was Zoe Quinn and then multiple other game writers bagging on the Larry and process of like of course the devs say they're okay with it because you make them move to your country and then if you get their whole lives are torn up so they don't want to lose their job and it's like now there's so much going on that isn't even just about the AI we're just like woo woof yeah why did you shut up you know what I mean you

55:58Blessing Adeoye Jr.:didn't need to do this but here we are yeah I'm I'm fascinated by the Q &A I want to hear more like i want to hear more about like the exact ways they're using it and all that stuff right like but it's like that's gonna fix it or anything but i think more context is better for people to make

56:12Joey Noel:their decisions on how they feel about this i talked about this on whatever our the episode of this originally debuted or whatever the update was yeah i was just like somebody pointed out on twitter maybe it was in our chat right i was just like hey what inevitably they're gonna they're gonna use this stuff and then something they're gonna miss and it's gonna get into the game and

56:28Blessing Adeoye Jr.:it's gonna be a fucking thing oh yeah you know what i mean so it's like why even bother why even open that door that like we've had multiple games that have come out in the last few years have that and i mean that also happens with other placeholder art right like yeah we've seen assassin's creed do that in trailers where it's like this isn't your art and they're like oh our

56:42Joey Noel:bad take this out oh shit we should not we should have done that you know what i mean always terrifying in the middle of the day when i get the little notification that ben's school has sent you a message so i gotta open the phone oh no he's had big emotions and tears oh yeah he's just he's over it he's just over he's just he's ready he's just already celebrate christmas yeah can i just go home please you know he was in a mood when we left the house today too you know what i mean put on your fucking shoes what's your problem let's go learn believe it or not everybody we've come to our final award of the inaugural kind of funny games daily awards it's reporter of the year like i said we asked you to nominate your favorite reporters and so many of you did.

57:27Joey Noel:Your nominees are Jason Schreier from Bloomberg, Jeff Grubb from Giant Bomb, Jordan Midler from VGC, Rebecca Valentine from IGN, and Wesley Yin Poole, that's W-Y-P, from IGN. And the winner is, I mean, again, great work from everybody. Of course. These are names you should all know because we talk about them all the time. I guess I should have made a, I should have stopped. We talk about the other nominees. I mean, shout out to the other nominees. You all know, you know all these names because we talk about them all the time. They're amazing. Yes. Great work from all of you. And the winner is Rebecca Valentine at IGN.com.

58:01Joey Noel:Kevin, roll the clip. Hi, kind of funny. Hey, wow. Thank you so much for honoring me, apparently by voting for me for reporter of the year. And also for just reading my work in the first place. I don't want to get too mushy in this, but I said on social media, too, that this has been kind of a really weird year for me personally. And I was ending 2026 feeling just kind of low about myself and my work. You know, that good old imposter syndrome demon. So just like knowing that people read my stuff and it resonated with them in some way is really seriously deeply meaningful to me. So thank you so much.

58:46Games Daily and you all have been really incredible supporters of my work ever since I started years ago. and journalism, you guys just do a really good job of supporting the work that we're all doing. Journalism's just in a really weird place right now. And so even having this community where you all get together every single day and read the news together and cite your source as well and talk about what it all means for you, that's really, really important. So please keep reading, keep talking, keep telling all the other incredible games journalists out there that you love their work because it really means a lot more than you know.

59:20So thanks, best friends. Have a good new year.

59:25Joey Noel:Congratulations to Rebecca Valentine. What a reporter. She's amazing. She is amazing. She is great. And thank you all for participating, whether you nominated folks, voted for folks, or just watching right now. Obviously, we love to, in a small way, give back. Maybe next year we'll be doing a bigger deal.

59:39Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah. I think now that we've established this inaugural version of this, I'm excited to go into next year knowing that we have an award show. And now we can think about it, too. Think about it, everybody.

59:47Joey Noel:You know what I mean? think about what start saving stories start thinking about you know who's the largest reporter you've seen or heard from largest just the tallest looks like shrek think about that big proportions hold on i gotta hold on let me bust out where i was on fucking bs2 ah shit forget it but like on the nominations when you could just free form write in names people would write in jordan midler obviously but so many people were like the big man the biggest man it was so bad even though i don't want it i can't stop it google's ai summary at the top was like you know rebecca valentine got nominated a whole bunch of shakes right and they're like jordan midler was nominated often referred to as the biggest man or the big man good lord ah good stuff out there congratulations to rev and all the winners and all the nominees a great year for games journalism in a place where it's terrifying to be a games journalist so awesome to see all that happen and thank you for helping us make this show happen we couldn't do without you.

1:00:43Joey Noel:Let's keep rolling with awards. Number four, the Indie Game Awards have happened, and we have the winners from the press release. The Indie Game Awards lit up the indie scene last night, honoring developers and teams whose games exemplify creativity, innovation, and emotional impact. The awards-only ceremony recognized standout achievements across a wide range of categories, spotlighting the independent creators from around the globe who are shaping the industry. Of course, you can go watch the Indie Game Awards on any of your platforms. probably YouTube the best. What I liked about it, of course, is that game of the year, Claire Obscure Expedition 33, an independent game from Santa Fall Interactive.

1:01:19Joey Noel:But what I liked so much is we always talk about the game awards and the categories. They had such a diverse run of categories here, right? Women Led Indie Game Award, right? Which went to Urban Myth Dissolution Center. Dissolution Center, sorry. Narrative Citizen Sleeper 2. Then they get into like, they really started drilling down. Industry Impact goes to games, game devs of color. uh emotional impact for and roger fuck yeah i love that game what stood out to you i mean african

1:01:46Blessing Adeoye Jr.:indie game award right being given to stick it to the stick man um and also australia new zealand indie game award being uh the drifter like these are i think categories i wouldn't i would never even have thought about right and even stick to the stick man i know that game i didn't know it was from an african developer that's fucking awesome right i think that sort of um that sort of visibility is very important and i echo everything you just said right i think finding categories that feel a bit more curated to be able to celebrate a wider amount of games and also be able to celebrate games in a unique way i think that's more exciting for me than action adventure whatever obviously not hating on the game awards right that's a different type of well i mean that's

1:02:25Joey Noel:that's the awesome part of having different award shows yes is that you can do it and not feel like to have a solo development one it went to tall trails right it's great to have a bite-sized game goes to time flies like yes thank you surface stuff so it isn't just glare obscure is the best game of the year so here's a million things for it exactly but the next year's indie game awards next year kfgd's awards these are big news stories if i wanted something small say the

1:02:49Blessing Adeoye Jr.:tiniest news night of my the champagne's hitting oh no i'm hungry and it's happening i can't talk

1:02:54Joey Noel:anymore i'm gonna throw my cork at barrett but tell me about we news you go to our last story

1:02:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:the we news channel where you cover all the small news items you need to know about number five the

1:03:02Joey Noel:we news uh from cecilia over at bloomberg riot games is working on a major overhaul of its flagship game league of legends a title played by more than 100 million player people every month the upcoming version internally called league next is slated to be the biggest update to the title's history according to five current and former employees it's planned to be released in 2027 from wario 64 pat upon one plus two replay brand new game mode is coming out on december 22nd via free update oh come on now i won't lie to you didn't even touch the replay because i just had the re-releases in the grand scheme of things you were on the mission accomplished episode of getting pat upon one released in pat upon two but like a brand new game mode tell me more you know what i mean i'm excited to see what that's all about on that and then godzilla is

1:03:46Blessing Adeoye Jr.:coming to sonic rumble on december 22nd what i'm just laughing the fact that like our first we news story is such like a monumental thing like league of legends getting a big overhaul like fucking ginormous nothing to say about it pat upon one plus two replay get the new new mode Greg has so much to say

1:04:03Joey Noel:I mean I don't fucking care about League you're dumb for playing Patapon you should play and Patapon 1 too you should replay but like what I loved about it is I forget if it was on BS or the subreddit or whatever but when this news got posted somewhere somebody put in there and it was this is any other this is for a normal show this is Wii news but for Greg it's gonna be story number two like we're gonna elevate it out of Wii news or whatever for this shit and that's it for Wii news your final Wii news of 2025 we got a whole bunch of super chats to get through before we get out of here the hip albatross that's Ted says birthday tax 40 today happy birthday I couldn't think of a better way to spend it thanks KF team for playing all the games I didn't have time for this year anytime the you who dude super chats says early birthday tax for tomorrow turning 42 happy birthday long time fan since 2017 you're all amazing and thanks for everything you do Dave bro says it's my first time i'm sorry my first time listening to kfgd uh no let me fuck i'm trying to go fast i'm fucking all my first time listening to kf day 2025 can't wait kf day 2026 i see what you're saying my first time listening was kf day 2025 can't wait for day 26 happy holidays all the way from kansas from the guy who didn't marry a family member wow i don't believe it you're from kansas that's a feat in kansas you come out making eyes at your sister is what i hear in kansas Jordan Vickers Super Chats Anyone seen the Missions and Rewards Page on NSO Someone needs to Report Luigi to HR

1:05:30Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I'm not

1:05:30Joey Noel:I'll check it out I don't know what He's up to What's going on Yeah exactly When you turn in Your little silver Coins for a bunch Of things I want me to be My icon Now will I keep Buying Samus ones Of course Animal Crossing Sure

1:05:42Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Metroid Prime For last night Went through the Vault Forge That's a good level That's a good level Right there Good for you guys Good for you

1:05:51Joey Noel:Retro Sphero64, birthday tax to my oldest kiddo James, he turns the big 10 to 1-0 today, happy birthday, James happy birthday, James happy birthday Ventura writes in and says, thank you guys for another great year of content thank you, we couldn't do it without you Mob Mob, I want to say, because it's ex you ex you, I can't, I started watching you guys in the summer of this year, you guys are amazing and make my love for games so much stronger even when the industry struggles, thank you so much Mob, thank you, I talked about this in today's Greg way It was so heartening to see somebody a lot of subreddits getting a lot of like, thanks kind of funny for the year.

1:06:25Joey Noel:Oh, yeah. And so many people are like, oh, I just found them this year. And it's so cool. That's so cool. Rocks 96 says, hey, kind of funny BFs wanted to share a personal project I've been working on inspired by Fantasy League, but for drag race, drag league. It's free. And I hope my fellow LGBTQIA plus use it and enjoy the new season. That's awesome. So there's drag leagues and we didn't put a link. So they didn't put a link. So search for Drag League, a fantasy league for Drag Race. That's awesome. That's really fun. Krabby Patty says, early birthday tax. Happy birthday. Never looked forward to my birthday, January 5th.

1:06:59Joey Noel:Ah, but since Kind of Funny started now, I always look forward to it. Cheers for another year. Thanks for everything Kind of Funny does. Thank you. Alex Foley Super Chats. Wanted to Super Chat in and give Blessing a shout out for cluing me into Backlogged. I've been using it to manage stuff I've been meaning to play. Recently struck Half-Life 2 and Metal Gear Solid 1 off that list. Oh, yeah. Shout out Backlogged. Yeah. sand says blessing has really been dripped out lately love the style man thank you so much i appreciate it uh inner jet stream says uh what a fantastic introductory year damn it to kind of funny i started listening in february and you've been my ride or die ever since gonna miss you the next few weeks cheers to many more years of kind of funny cheers to you remember while we are gone i think this is public right i don't give a shit now i don't give a shit twitch is we're gonna do the thing like we did at Thanksgiving and roll a playlist of stuff.

1:07:48Joey Noel:So you can still come. I think it's after it's either starting on Monday or it's right after your thing on Saturday. Here comes Barry, everybody.

1:07:54Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Reminder, we're doing the My Hero Watch Party tomorrow night. After that ends, we're starting at 5 p.m. tomorrow night. That'll go to roughly 9. Right after that ends, we will kick it into a replay of a bunch of stuff that Joey and Tim have put together in a playlist.

1:08:07Joey Noel:Love that. So you can still come hang out with kind of funny best friends and have a great time. Peaceful Warhead said, I want to dedicate this to my dog who passed away earlier this month. It's been hard especially trying to get into the holiday spirit but you guys have been making it feel a little less lonely thank you thank you peaceful warhead i know uh very well that pain and you have made me tear up already just talking about it there greg way about the cole portilla one is all about that too but uh yeah that sucks but remember of course uh you know the pain you feel is just your love for them and that means how important they were to you i fucking miss my dog mr hox i hate him he writes in and says I threw a great 2025 kind of funny more Fallout talk is coming from me on Story Moders weekly season 2 recap series with awesome guests each Tuesday I subscribe to Story Moders and you should too go check it out I think it's Story Moders god damn it you're right that was a joke I made on the fucking stream and now I'm saying Story Mode there's not two D's just one Story Moders it's a bad name if we're honest but as you will move on it's fine Jay super chatted but didn't say anything Jack super chatted oh god oh god i scroll and said you guys should have an award for best streamer that accidentally has spotify on in the background i don't understand that joke that streamer that

1:09:20Blessing Adeoye Jr.:mike oh mike does that okay oh no that's me that's me i was streaming lies with me the other day oh my god you're like man this soundtrack's hitting no i'll stream lies p and like i had my headphones connected to the to like my monitor and not my computer so like i'm not hearing computer sound i'm just hearing the game and somebody in my chat comes up and was like bless so you like to listen to music while playing games and i'm like oh yeah sometimes not realizing my spotify is playing and so it turns into a thing i get into an argument with this guy because he kept pushing the issue and i'm like hey man what the why can't i just listen to music sometimes and

1:09:51Joey Noel:then i listened to the vod later on i was like you don't even know the moment no i only until the

1:09:56Blessing Adeoye Jr.:next day i listened to the i watched the vod and there are comments that are like hey you should really listen to like what's going on in liza p and i'm like oh fuck chance the rapper's playing

1:10:04Joey Noel:in the background that's amazing that is amazing claw master says sorry greg you're the closest person to being from chicago need to say this go pack go packers will win tomorrow night in soldier field first off fuck the packers damn go bears all right bear down uh secondly i didn't even know the game's happening i'm so disconnected from the nfl uh el captain eight hours isn't crunch it's just regular overtime movie productions often have staff working 12 to 20 hour days uh and no one says anything because they want their next summer blockbuster to be all right cool people are starving in other countries.

1:10:36Joey Noel:We can still talk about how bad this is in ours. Again, and it's the mandatory forciness of it. It's the fact that it doesn't sound like there was a runway up to it. This isn't just like, don't get me wrong, that fucking sucks for movie people, but you're also part of a union so I imagine there's some collective bargaining agreement that I don't know.

1:10:51Blessing Adeoye Jr.:I also think there's the history of Naughty Dog coming off of how there have been big complaints about how they've had crunch culture. I think that inching towards back it is kind of like a thing that people will read the alarm about. All those, there's a difference between overtime on top of a regular nine to five, whereas like movie production site, that is your schedule for the day.

1:11:11Joey Noel:Ambrosia Jam says Larry and pissed away all their goodwill. They work so hard to build wolf. They got a lot of ground to cover to earn back that trust. I love you. And I understand that. Absolutely not. Absolutely. The fuck not. Everyone will pop for divinity and Boulder and not ball. You get four, but you know what I mean? They're fine. This is a bump in the road that we will not even be taught. I mean, if during the AMA, they're like, you know what? We fired the writing team. everything's AI different story but like if they write the ship and it's like we're just using it for ideation and we're not doing stuff with it it'll be fine this is not like when fucking CD Projekt Red had to fall on the sword for Cyberpunk Animotion says Larian's story feels like it simply got picked up by the algorithmic gods feels overblown when other devs have said similar things for their processes yeah you're not wrong about that that is the another refrain we see in common

1:11:57Blessing Adeoye Jr.:it's the fact that it's Larian and so we only have positive things to say about Larian you're amazing

1:12:01Joey Noel:all these choices and then you say the one thing everybody is worried about and hating.

1:12:04Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Yeah.

1:12:05Joey Noel:Anthro Metal. Birthday tax for December 30th. I turn 39. Oh my God, my bones. Happy birthday. He'll be fine. Captain Coot says birthday tax. Share a birthday with Joey Noel. Love you guys. Happy birthday on December 25th. Then Mob's back and says it's pronounced like the Pokemon spelled wrong. Again, have you ever heard me pronounce a Pokemon name right? Put fucking voice acting in the game. I don't know, but they say in the cartoon. I'm not watching the fucking cartoon. I mean, I am, but I haven't watched it all. It's a good cartoon, all of them. Mibs, my New Year's mission is to chat with you a lot about my passion using video games and education.

1:12:41Hell yeah.

1:12:41Joey Noel:Keep trying. You know what I mean? I don't know how good for you. And then the final one is Cozy Bear Live. Thanks again for the happy hour shenanigans. Thank you, Cozy Bear, for all of your support on that. Oh, Jesus Christ. Thanks for the trivia, Cozy Bear. Oh, this is interesting, actually. That's King Boo to you says next year would be the second annual awards. That's not right. The first year is the inaugural next year to be the first annual. Is that true? Well, that's why I noticed a inaugural rather than the first annual, but yeah, I guess that would be correct. Yeah. But I think, I feel like that's confusing.

1:13:11Joey Noel:We'll call them the 20th. It doesn't matter. Uh, Oh, here we go. And the, and then Eric Allen actually has something that's helpful. Sven Vicks name is pronounced Sven Vicka Vicka like kitchen sinker. Vicka Vicka. Oh, Vicka Vicka Sven Vicka Vicka. According to interviews, he's done and events that have introduced him by name, like the Game Awards. Thank you very much, Eric Allen. That's a great one. Are you the Eric Allen or are you just an Eric Allen? Who's the Eric Allen? Don't act like a champagne hit you, too. You're laughing at your own jokes way too much.

1:13:43Blessing Adeoye Jr.:Because Eric Allen works for his sites. He's a writer. Oh, fair. Yeah. So are you just a dude who happens to be named Eric Allen or are you the Eric Allen I know? Let me know. Are you related to Josh Allen?

1:13:55Joey Noel:Everybody, this has been Kind of Funny Games Daily, your final episode for 2025. thank you for hanging out thank you for voting the awards most importantly thank you for supporting kind of funny through an entire year our 10th year of business we can't believe it either remember of course there's more coming today we're rolling into the games cast where we'll crown the fantasy critic champion and talk about rules we're rolling in to the one the only game showdown where we'll crown me the champion because there's no way i lose with the lead i have then we roll into the white elephant holiday gift exchange kind of funny podcast party it'll be great you'll have a great time but most importantly if you're not going to check out any of that if you're listening or watching on demand later remember we are back january 5th 2026 for kind of funny's 11th birthday we hope you'll be here for a mega stream of course don't forget barrett and mike and alissa doing the my hero academia stream 5 p.m pacific on twitch.tv slash kind of funny games saturday that'll be great you can come hang out with chat in the twitch and do other stuff we got a whole bunch of shows to do today from the bottom of our hearts happy holidays and no until next time It's been our pleasure to serve you.

1:14:57Joey Noel:Eric Van Allen.

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