In short
News roundup on PlayStation dropping Hideo Kojima’s Physint (budget/profitability/exclusivity and missed deadlines), Fair Games seemingly returning as “Project Espresso” with a playtest, and Switch 2 adding VRR in docked TV mode via firmware 23.0.0.
Guests/backgrounds
Madeline Stanley (co-host; “queen of screams,” plays Halloween content; Blizzard RTS fan; attending BlizzCon with Greg). “Snow bike Mike” (co-host; discusses RTS/custom games and BlizzCon fandom).
Key claims
- Sony pulled out of Physint due to Death Stranding 1/2 not meeting revenue expectations, over-budget/missed deadlines risk, and reluctance to fund a game that wouldn’t stay permanently PlayStation-exclusive.
- Xbox’s Asha Sharma strategy focuses on flagship titles; Xbox is willing to fund Kojima, including film/TV rights expansion.
- Fair Games may be rebranded/reappearing under Project Espresso; trailer resembles Fair Games; playtest requires PlayStation account.
- Switch 2 firmware 23.0.0 adds docked TV VRR, plus handheld boost toggle and Mi editor music options.
Notable examples
Death Stranding/Death Stranding 2; Concord flop; Metal Gear Solid legacy; PT; Hood Outlaws & Legends heist gameplay; PS5/Xbox VRR baseline.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODiscussion on Halloween Gaming
0:33 to 1:01
Hosts discuss their experiences with Halloween-themed games and fun moments.
“It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once.”
Discussion on Halloween Gaming
3:01 to 4:25
Hosts discuss their experiences with Halloween-themed games and fun moments.
“I'm of course, snow bike Mike, and that's Madeline Stanley, the queen of screams.”
BlizzCon Excitement
4:25 to 6:20
Mike shares his nostalgia for Blizzard games as he prepares for BlizzCon.
“I just remember someone saying like, it's going to become an RPG MMO and it's going to be badass.”
Introduction to News Segment
6:20 to 7:10
Transition into the news segment covering various gaming topics.
“Of course, we have a big day of news because we're going back to Hideo Kojima talks and we learned some more, some fair game stuff as well.”
PlayStation's Decision on Kojima
7:10 to 11:10
Discussion on PlayStation's budget concerns leading to Kojima's game cancellation.
“You definitely want to go check out after today's kind of funny games daily to go dive deeper into this.”
Xbox's Acquisition of Kojima Productions
11:10 to 14:00
Exploration of Xbox's strategic move to secure Hideo Kojima's next project.
“A little deep digging, a little deep dive from Jason Schreier going into the back end of PlayStation's decision to part ways with Kojima Productions on Phyzzant.”
PlayStation's Decision on Kojima
14:00 to 17:45
Explore the reasons behind PlayStation's split with Hideo Kojima based on game performance.
“So this is a move that you probably have to make or want to make.”
The Impact of Game Budgets
17:45 to 22:00
Discuss the challenges of high game budgets and the expectations surrounding them.
“And now my money is kind of tied up with, I don't have the money to support you, Hideo Kojima, and your team on a five - or seven-year plan.”
Multimedia Potential and Game Adaptations
22:00 to 28:02
Consider the potential of game adaptations into movies and the multimedia approach of Kojima.
“It's like, does Xbox have the budget for this?”
Discussion on Kojima and PlayStation
28:02 to 36:21
Explore the implications of Kojima's departure from PlayStation and its impact on game development.
“But what I saw with death stranding, I'm excited to see if he can pull this off and like we get to the finish line, how cool and amazing that looks.”
Show all 24 chapters
Discussion on Kojima and PlayStation
39:56 to 40:07
Explore the implications of Kojima's departure from PlayStation and its impact on game development.
Gaming Community Anticipation
42:00 to 42:40
Discussion on excitement around gaming events and community engagement.
“I don't know where we are in the StarCraft world with Blizzard anymore, but, like, seeing that would be cool.”
PlayStation's Fair Games Update
42:40 to 46:24
Updates on PlayStation's new heist game Fair Games and its gameplay reveal.
“PlayStation's Fair Games seemingly reemerges with first gameplay, new code name, and private play test.”
Nintendo Switch 2 Firmware Features
46:24 to 48:50
Details on the latest firmware update for the Switch 2, including VRR support.
“Nintendo's latest Switch 2 update adds VRR support in TV mode.”
EA and Saudi Investment Fund Merger Discussion
48:50 to 52:52
Insight into possible merger between EA and Savvy Games under Saudi Ventures.
“And of course, on the flip side, the switch to console to another transfer.”
We News: Upcoming Game Releases
52:52 to 56:01
Overview of two upcoming game releases: Morose Protocol and Attorneya Lucius.
“I think this will be some time, but of course, EA and this deal, this was a big deal.”
Discussion on Recent Game Releases
56:01 to 56:25
The hosts discuss upcoming game releases and support for developers.
“Only me and Phil Spencer ever think about Hexen.”
Madeline's Streaming Ventures
56:26 to 57:21
Madeline shares her streaming schedule and the theme of her shows.
“You're like, I don't like this week ahead.”
Feeling the Friday Scaries
57:22 to 57:42
Discussion about the pressures and feelings surrounding work on Fridays.
Your Wrong Segment
57:43 to 58:50
The hosts address viewer comments and corrections regarding games.
Anticipated Games for 2026
58:51 to 59:51
Madeline and the hosts discuss games they are excited about for the year-end.
“Silent Hill Townfall, I'm very excited about.”
Discussion on ExoBorn Game
59:52 to 1:00:51
The hosts ponder the status and potential of the ExoBorn game.
“Light Tower with the super chat says, on the topic of multiplayer shooter games popping up again, where the heck is ExoBorn game at?”
Kojima's Project and Xbox
1:00:52 to 1:02:28
Exploring the implications of Kojima's project being funded by Xbox.
“Street Shadow says, I greatly appreciate that Mike is not intimidated intimidatedly going to Reddit Doomer.”
Industry Insights on Game Development
1:02:29 to 1:06:09
Discussion on the game's development landscape and funding strategies.
“I'm like, is it going to be 2030 before we see fizzing?”
Transcript
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2:06If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Today's news stories include PlayStation ditched Kojima because of budget concerns, Fair Games re-emerges, and Switch 2 gets VRR support. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.
2:34What's up, everybody? And welcome in. Happy Friday. You made it through the week. Happy Friday, Matt. Congratulations. Madeline Stanley, you've been killing it here in the spare bedroom. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad I could be here since Tim was bitten by snakes. Yes, Tim was bitten by snakes early this morning. Of course, we are bringing you all the nerdy news you need to know about. So welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Friday, September 11th, 2026. I'm of course, snow bike Mike, and that's Madeline Stanley, the queen of screams. Oh my gosh.
3:07It's been so fun playing Halloween this week. What a great week it's been. It's here's the thing. I was, I was tepid on it playing by myself, playing with y 'all. I'm back in a lot more fun. Yes. Yeah. If I really like Halloween with a four stack going up against a random killer where you and your squad are talking and working together to have some fun. And then I do really enjoy a five stack where it is. hey, we're teasing the killer or the killer's really good. And we're trying to have some fun. I think it's a great time. Very, very fun. Of course. Congratulations to our friends over at Illphonic for the latest game release.
3:41Madeline Stanley, I'm wearing my Warcraft Reign of Chaos t-shirt. And I've busted out the box sets. Okay. Wow. It's BlizzCon. BlizzCon weekend. Myself and Greg are heading down to Anaheim, California to celebrate BlizzCon 2026. And I'm pumped up because I'm a Blizzard kid. grew up with Diablo 2, grew up with Starcraft 64, grew up with Warcraft 3. It was a dream. I thought about it last night when I was having a shower moment, Madeline Stanley. Take a walk. Deep in thought. Deep in thought. And there I was as a kid playing Warcraft 3 and loving every moment of it, but dreaming what could be outside of the RTS boundaries, what this game could become.
4:24And I thought back to the schoolyard. You know, when you, back in the day, you'd play games and you and your friends would meet back at the schoolyard at the cafeteria and there'd be some crazy speculation some lie some kid made up like hey did you know in GTA Vice City they're gonna rollerblade you're gonna be able to rollerblade and you're like that would be the craziest thing ever how cool right I remember thinking with Warcraft 3 of like what would be the next thing how cool this would be and I was so young then I didn't know how to work the internet I don't think I ever saw speculation or whatever World of Warcraft would become.
4:56I just remember someone saying like, it's going to become an RPG MMO and it's going to be badass. And I never could wrap my mind around it, but it was the most beautiful thing I could ever think of when I thought about it back in the day. It was your dream. And here we are. I'm living my dream. Living my dream with, of course, my Warcraft battle chest that came with Reign of Chaos and Frozen Throne with the strategy guides. Big deal, of course. If you're a Blizzard kid, you love the battle chest. Diablo 2 had one with lord of destruction and of course uh diablo 2 and then my original box set here game of the year edition now they have all four races in the warcraft world on the cover i'm missing three of course undead night elf human if you have those let me know because i'm looking for i didn't know you were so deep in the duffy like this mike that you have your og boxes and everything have my og boxes i am a blizzard kid and i'm also a freak when it comes to the rts landscape.
5:53I love the RTS genre. I'm a big fan of Warcraft three in particular, but also the custom games. Many people don't know Warcraft three had a lot of user generated content and the custom games. Let me tell you what we're so much fun. Tower defense games, of course, footman frenzy Dota spawned from that. And of course we get league of legends and more. What a time to be alive. Okay. No more, no more. The people are going to say, Mike, let's get to the news. Madeline Stanley. Of course, we have a big day of news because we're going back to Hideo Kojima talks and we learned some more, some fair game stuff as well.
6:28Are you excited about this? About fair games or about talking to you? About the news. About talking to you. I'm very excited. Okay. I like that. I like that. Of course, we want to get excited with you. Don't forget that you can super chat anytime throughout the show with your thoughts, opinions, and discussion points on youtube.com slash kind of funny games with those super chats. Of course, we couldn't do this without you, our best friends supporting us live on Twitch and on YouTube and those who support us over on patreon.com slash kind of funny so thank you to our patreon producers omega buster delaney the psalm twining and michael pesavento that was my first time saying that thank you for supporting us you crushed that pesento okay now let's jump into what is and will forever will be the roper reports it's time for some news we have five stories today oh pickers madeline stanley audience welcome to the rope report with story number one playstation ditched hideo kojima's phyzzin on budget concerns and missed deadlines this coming from jason schreier over at bloomberg and i'll tell you right now the schreier guy he doesn't miss he put up another big time YouTube video right now.
7:45One take Schreier. You definitely want to go check out after today's kind of funny games daily to go dive deeper into this. But his report over at Bloomberg reads, Sony's PlayStation pulled out of the upcoming game, pulled out of an upcoming game by the well-known designer Hideo Kojima because of concerns over budget, potential profitability and exclusivity according to people familiar with the project. One major factor behind the decision was the commercial performance of kojima's previous two games death stranding and its sequel which did meet playstation's revenue expectations said the people who asked not to be identified disgusting information that's not public but the new project has also missed deadlines and was on track to be well over budget despite being years away from release, the people said.
8:37In addition, PlayStation was reluctant to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in another game that wouldn't remain permanently exclusive to the company's own hardware. Both Death Stranding games were timed PlayStation exclusives that were later released on other platforms. Kojima's closely held studio, Kojima Productions, retained ownership of the franchises. The new game, Fizzant, hasn't been yet shown publicly, but excited fans when it was announced two years ago with its promise of returning to the espionage action genre Kojima pioneered with Metal Gear Solid, the series that propelled him to industry stardom.
9:16Kojima surprised fans this week when he announced that he would be publishing PhysX with PlayStation's biggest rival, Xbox. Sony's software development has struggled in part due to an initiative to make more than a dozen live service games or those that can be monetized long after they come out through updates and microtransactions. The failure of many of these games, including Concord, a high-profile flop that was pulled from stores two weeks after it was released, has led PlayStation to enact stricter production milestones according to people familiar with the business. As a result, the company has canceled several games.
9:56The decision to part ways with Kojima is a significant move for PlayStation that may have ripple effects. Xbox, which has been facing its own overhaul under new chief executive officer Asha Sharma, saw Fizzins as a good investment opportunity for several reasons, according to people familiar with the company's strategy. One key factor is the PC platform, where the Death Stranding games have generated some revenue. Earlier this year, Sony decided it will no longer release single-player PlayStation games on PC, Bloomberg reported. Sony would therefore not benefit when Kojima Productions released a PC version of Fizzin on its own or with a different publisher, as it did for the first Death Stranding.
10:42But Xbox releases all of its games on PC and plans to publish Fizzins on PC and Xbox, said the people. The deal will also include film and television rights for both Phyzzant and a second title from Kojima Productions, the experimental horror game OD. Sharma has said that expanding Xbox's properties to linear media is a significant part of her strategy. Madeline Stanley, there you have it. A little deep digging, a little deep dive from Jason Schreier going into the back end of PlayStation's decision to part ways with Kojima Productions on Phyzzant. what are your thoughts there you know it's kind of what tim and i were talking about yesterday which was just yeah obviously it came down to the money it's interesting kind of having it jason try or break it down a little bit like this um one of the things that i don't feel like we really talked about yesterday i didn't fully know was the um television and film rights that come along with this xbox deal which i think is very interesting because we know how much kojima loves movies and i think that is a little pot sweetener that makes a lot of sense here my my question with this still and something we didn't really touch on yesterday either was xbox is here saving the day they said kojima we got you xbox just laid off thousands of people and is planning to lay off thousands of more people for the rest of the year so where is this money coming from are they in a better financial spot than sony is like they've already said they're trying to tighten in the belt cut cut costs and here they're coming into kojima with i assume a big pile of money to finish this game and i can imagine that feels pretty bad to the to the devs who are already with xbox uh you know what madeline stanley that brings up a great topic of discussion with the xbox side of things so we'll start there of course yes xbox has now backed up the money truck and probably has a long line of money that they will be tied to with kojima productions as this game continues through its production side thing.
12:41So let's talk about Xbox. Of course, five studios have just been disassembled and let go just recently. Xbox was set and Microsoft was set to lay off 3 ,600 employees. They did half of that at June, I believe, and the other half will happen over the course of this year into next. So yes, Madeline Stanley, they have completely disassembled their team. They are also struggling budget-wise, right, to try to figure out what they're doing. We do know that Asha Sharma now has the new leadership enacted here. The new goal is to find the flagship titles and focus on those and nothing but those. As before, it was, hey, we have Game Pass.
13:21Let's find a lot of studios to create good Game Pass games that will hopefully drive people to sign up for Game Pass and play Game Pass. Because it was about games, games, games. Now, on the opposite side, it's still about games, games, games. But great games, great games, great games. And so now on the flip side, right, you look at Xbox and you look at where they're going and to sign someone like Hideo Kojima and his team, especially on the follow up where it is the stealth espionage game. If you're a publisher looking for great games and you want to draw people to your console slash ecosystem when we talk PC, you know, there's none higher than Hideo Kojima.
14:00He's some of the top names. So this is a move that you probably have to make or want to make. and the flip side of it is let's talk about the budget the return of investment here right what does it take will we see the ripple effect similar to what we'll talk about with playstation in a second of well if you paid hideo kojima x amount of money where you're going to get that money right is microsoft coming in here with satya nadella to try to do something with that on the outside or is it hey we're going to have to cut more studios we have to lay off more people where is this money coming from but i think they this is a move that they probably looked at and go this would be so huge for us as we struggle to maintain our player base slash try to entice more people to come over here we talk about todd howard with bethesda right those kind of games it's like these are the titles that you have to have to compete with playstation who is known for killer cinematic action adventure experiences that have been whooping your butt all generation long well And I do think it is a good gesture of goodwill here, right?
15:03Swooping in to kind of save the day. I am, you know, the other thing that I was kind of keying on is the, I think Jason was talking about the sales numbers for Death Stranding 2 not quite reaching what they wanted to. And I just feel like it's a little apples to oranges. I feel like obviously you have to make decisions based on past experiences, but Death Stranding 2 is like a little weirdo freak game that we love and is cool i feel like the follow the sort of um emotional successor to metal gear is a completely different style of game and the expectation should be different for that i totally agree with you of course in jason schreier's bloomberg article it says one major factor behind the decision to part ways with kojima was the commercial performance of the previous two games death stranding and its sequel which didn't meet playstation's revenue expectations of course i totally agree with you on this, Madeline, right?
15:58We talk about what the expectations are for Kojima's follow-up to Metal Gear Solid with the stealth espionage title. That's where the money's at, right? I think it's hard to imagine when we rewind time to go to any general mass audience game player who knows Metal Gear probably and go, hey man, the guy who made Metal Gear, he's making a new game. And you go, oh my God, I'm so excited. I can't wait to buy it. It's like, well, hold up. You play as a post office guy and you're just going to deliver mail. And it's like, okay, well, that was more on the art side. I think that was Kojima getting in his bag and trying to do something a little bit different, right?
16:35A little bit that had different tones, a different theme, a different vibe than what we're all used to of like, hey, let me just be Solid Snake and hold a sniper rifle and go crazy out on a battlefield, right? Like this was not that style of game. And so maybe revenue expectations should have been different, but I'm sure when you look at that game, the budget was probably quite high for those games, right? So the expectations is you would return this investment. And so here we are now on game number three is what Sony would be tied up with. And they're going, man, we just hit two that were like good, but they didn't smash commercially for us.
17:10This is hard to want to back you for a third one, especially if you're missing deadlines. If you're going to need extended time, if this is going to be a project that has started production after Death Stranding 2, which wasn't that long ago. So now we're going to go here and go, this could be another five years. This could be more. I don't know if I have that kind of investment right now as my live service games didn't pan out, right? I've divested funds from a lot of big single-player games that we're known for because those were taking too long and were also gigantic through-the-roof budgets.
17:46And now my money is kind of tied up with, I don't have the money to support you, Hideo Kojima, and your team on a five - or seven-year plan. I don't know that speculation how long it will take but in reality I don't know how long this is going to take I don't have the money for it it is it's so funny because I think a lot about um I'm a big movie person film buff so I think a lot about the film industry in connection to the story specifically just because of Kojima's connection and I feel like so many directors like do the thing one for you being the studios one for me so you you do your big like metal gear so you can do death stranding right that's like in theory but with movies you can make a movie in a year you can't make well you could but you can't make the type of game kojima's making in a year so it's kind of hard to do the one for you one for me thing and it's like i want that to be something i want people to be able to make what they're going to make it it sucks that it ultimately always comes down to the these rising revenues and always making more money than you did the last time of course it's all about profitability that sweet capitalism here where i got investors and they're expecting returns and higher returns and so yeah it is tough especially in a medium like video games where it does take a long time right the return is much longer of a wait and see and it is a big gamble right especially after going off from two games that were death stranding one and two that weren't commercial hits and now with our goal if we bring it back to playstation single player games we want those to be console exclusive right we have a good large chunk of the video game audience here on playstation i want this to be exclusive here if kojima goes well i don't want that and we saw with death stranding one and two those got published by 505 games chat you can correct me if i'm wrong on that one but they were published by someone else on pc well now i'm not getting that i don't want that to happen either right so yeah i think this is just a back and forth of we're not seeing eye to eye this isn't worth our time and investment especially when playstation has their own situations to probably go figure out right now over just dealing with kojima yeah movies and tv what do you think about that of course xbox playstation nintendo they're all trying to get onto the big screens into your homes on televisions with just tv watching now what do you think about signing a deal with kojima for that because of course two years ago when we announced Fizzant with PlayStation, the big thing was the reveal of, hey, we're at a movie set.
20:14On the back lot. And I'm here on the back lot. We're going to make a movie and maybe more. Do you think that pushes the needle for Xbox? Is that a sign for investors to get incited of like, hey, we're also stepping big into movies with a guy who loves movies and television and could maybe find us a hit? Yeah, it's so interesting because I think about my, you know, I love Remedy, okay? remedy is one of my favorite devs they had a little game called quantum break great pull great pull and quantum break had an accompanying accompanying tv show that i don't know how many people watched i watched part of it it was connected to the game i don't think i'm curious what kojima has in mind with the multimedia sort of aspect with the tv is it something where it's like oh it's going to be like the last of us where we're just redoing stories are they connected universes i don't have an issue with multimedia and in fact i think it's really cool and interesting i just haven't really seen anyone do it in a successful way yet obviously we had the last of us tv show that the first season did super well um just a retelling of the game and i don't know i don't know if i if i can really wrap my head around a game that hasn't come out yet that's some many years in the future also having a television show or a movie that's exactly the same story coming out at some point also in the future so it's hard to it's hard to kind of wrap my mind around what this even looks like until we get more information but I do think as someone who like Kojima who likes being in that in that world it could be really interesting I'm I'm more obviously you know I'm the queen of screams OD is very appealing to me and I'm curious if they did some kind of anthology horror show or connection to connect with that that could be very cool it's a great pull right there of course uh just a joker justin joker writes and says do we think backing kojima that xbox is looking to vamp up uh the film side of things are they looking to dip their toes into it or farther uh per that report i totally agree with you madeline i think the dream of a metal gear solid movie any gamer would get excited oh my gosh right we've seen mission impossible james bond there are so many uh the minority report jason born there's reacher there's all these awesome stealth espionage oh my god it goes to another level type movies that we like and when you bring up metal gear solid in the video game world you're like yeah i would love to see that on the big screen and see how they adapt at the film same thing goes for if isn't as a hit uh i agree with you the horror stuff with od i think when you have kojima who really is interested in the movie scene and wants to go deeper into that yeah xbox who is coming off of what halo that was not not a success it's like i'm sure all these teams are looking around going we would love to jump into that right and with somebody that's interested in that yeah let's see where it goes let's first make the game yeah right let's try to get to the chickens before they're hatching it will be interesting of how they play this out right i think when we flip to Xbox, and we see a lot of your comments, right?
23:21It's like, does Xbox have the budget for this? Will Xbox make it to the finish line with Hideo Kojima? And at what costs will that come at, right? How does Xbox bolster their lineup around this now? As we know, this will probably be a flagship title for their next console or just in general, console exclusivity. How do we make it to their Elder Scrolls 6 we're still waiting on? Like, they have big titles here, but they have to make it there. And what are the titles that are going to fill in the gaps? We know Fable is coming out next year. That's looking to be big. Of course, Clockwork Revolution will be one of their larger titles.
23:56We have Gears E-Day still coming up this year. But, like, where will we be? I don't know. Two years, three years, five years from now? Will Xbox still have the budget to support this initiative? And if they are all in on this, how much does it cost at the end of the day? We'll find out. I don't know. Hundreds of millions of dollars. Let's see what else we have on the YouTube Super Chats. Of course, don't forget, you can get involved in all of our conversations throughout the show by super chatting on YouTube dot com slash kind of funny games. Let's jump in over there. Lucid Dream says Sony's bean counters fail to account for brand prestige, a.k.a.
24:35Kojima and customers goodwill and both have important financial impact in the long term. I very much agree with that. And that's kind of what Tim and I were talking about yesterday, which is just that there is sort of an X factor. there are there are not dollars and cents things that are very important and i think when you turn everything into a spreadsheet you are missing some of those um unnameable qualities that do really contribute to a brand feeling a sense of loyalty a sense of community like the playstation brand used to i feel like mean something to a certain group of people like this i'm a playstation gamer like that's the kind of games i play metal gear all these types of things and it's like i I feel like Nintendo still very much has that, but both PlayStation and Xbox, I feel like have kind of lost that sort of like identity.
25:23And I think having these specific game devs and directors and games of a certain type of feeling really add a lot of things that can't be counted on a spreadsheet. I like how you say that. And I like lucid dreams, a super chat here. And I agree with that. I think PlayStation still has their core identity. I think, you know, if you close your eyes, what PlayStation games are going to look like, right. and what that publisher is bringing to the table. I do think that we kind of muddied the water and got a little lost over the past decade, especially with the rise of live service games, Fortnite becoming so big, players playing now on Roblox, the younger generation's playing Roblox.
26:01There's a lot of titles here that have taken away from those core audiences because now there's just millions of games out all the time that are trying to grab our attention. But I think when you think of the core gamer and like what these publishers are trying to go for. Nintendo has their milestones. They know where they're going. PlayStation, I still think, has their identity. They've tried to dabble in some other identities that didn't work for them. And now they're trying to rewrite the course here. Xbox is currently figuring out who are we, right? That first-person shooter, bro shooter, isn't the move anymore in 2026.
26:35And we need to now find our big flagship titles and make sure that they're up to snuff. And as of the past decade, they have not been. And so they are struggling to find that. And I think when you grab somebody like Kojima that has that prestige name, if you could walk down the street or you talk with any of your fellow gamers and you say, the guy who made Metal Gear, everyone's eyes are going to light up because they know that, right? They know the team behind that. They know what's going to come with that. And now to say instead of, hey, it's going to be a mailman simulator with, you know, Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead.
27:10And a baby. this time you're going to be like no he's actually making the metal gear follow-up i think a lot more people are going to go oh wow i'm into that right and now you're going to have a generation of fans over on playstation it's been some time right that was a playstation 1 playstation 2 ps3 when that was at its heyday now we are far removed from the metal gear games they still have the cachet the pull rights but like we are now in a different world where metal gear isn't the biggest and baddest thing, but it still carries. But we are now in a world where, hey, it's not going to be on your platform anymore.
27:44It's going to be over here on Xbox because they're going to do everything to make that console exclusive slash on PC. You're going to have to make a decision on how big of a deal that is, right? Yeah. Same thing goes for the Elder Scrolls when we talked about that. If that goes console exclusive and slash PC only, you're going to have to look at yourself and go, how important is Elder Scrolls to me? Yeah. We'll see. We'll see indeed. um goldfish boy says imagine sony ditching kojima and keeping fair games okay i don't know if the budgets line up with that but i i see what you're talking about there right there i don't have to imagine it that's what happened i don't think the budgets match up with that but all right goldfish boy right there um i wonder if delta sales play into this of course that is bam bringing up metal gear solid delta we saw the metal gears come back and re-release we've seen a remake now is that something that sony looked at going you know these re-releases maybe didn't sell yeah as hot as they were like i said right like we talked about that name and it's been quite some time it's been years now does it still carry the same weight i think fizzin is a little bit different as it will be its own new thing it will be it will start off every trailer from the guy who made metal gear and everybody excited.
28:58But what I saw with death stranding, I'm excited to see if he can pull this off and like we get to the finish line, how cool and amazing that looks. I think it will look really awesome. Yeah, I agree. And I think it's important to push things forward. And I know like, obviously he has continually gone over budget on his projects and we would love to see that not happen. But also I think sometimes to push the medium forward, you kind of have to take these big risks. And I continually see companies afraid to take risks and i i think we see some games come out because they're the safest version and people aren't loving those either so i'm like take take a chance you might fail but hopefully you succeed risks cost money madeline i know but they're important a lot of money and they are extremely important but right now in this world it is very scary to just light the mat and hold it over the big money pile and go will this work or not i don't know and i totally agree with you i think the fun one about talking about hideo kojima kojima productions and this fizzing game right is this is a man that is returning to the metal gear solid s this is his successor to that yeah there's a lot things riding on that i'm sure for him internally of this has to be better than those i can't have people go ah well he lost his step like back then he had it here he doesn't right and so I'm sure he's going to have a lot with his team of like moments where they're sure they're not sure maybe they want to redo things maybe they want to bring it back and now your PlayStation or now Xbox in particular going okay well this looked good and he's like it's not good enough we have to go back to the drawing board we have to do this okay well how much time do you need how much money is that going to cost right this is we're chasing greatness here in my mind if I was an artist and I'm coming back to my painting to make a better painting I'm going to have a lot of moments where it's like this is going to take extra time because it has to be perfect you want it to live up to the expectations or even surpass those and i think that takes a lot of time a lot of time and effort uh another one coming in from not calvin perez says even the early snag of od always struck me as weird that playstation didn't jump on it given the reputation that pt had and still holds on the ps4 generation yeah i agree i i was surprised by that too because when i i think of oh if i if if i was just in my mind like i would actually have thought they would be swapped like od would be playstation and fizzit would be xbox and now both being xbox i'm like okay let's see what happens it it does seem strange that yeah pt had was such a success and everyone loved it so much and people are still selling playstations with it sold on it on ebay yeah uh and it didn't end up over there it's very interesting yeah i wonder at that time if playstation was just deep on the death stranding train of we've already backed up the money truck let's focus on death stranding one and two wherever this deal started kind of talking about and landing and then on the flip side it's like if he's pushing something so experimental so something weird and different and you're already tied up with one project you're probably like you know what maybe take that to someone else right now let's do this we wanted the mainstream thing and you still didn't give us that to us so we don't want either of them anymore especially at that time i think xbox was looking for a big win a good gets similar to how last night or yesterday we lit the beam right you do something we're gonna light the beam xbox was looking for a big draw big pull and the idea that we brought out kojima and then jordan peele at that moment and it's like yeah we're making a horror game with these two guys i think was a big win for them just in the public eye to celebrate that and talk about that for sure that did give me hype it was it was like when they brought out keanu reed at that e3 for cyberpunk and that game wasn't even exclusive but it was so hype we still remember keanu on that one you're breathtaking mike god thank you madeline i'm trying my best uh let's go in here with uh blessed with a curse says the article mentioned they had disagreed on exclusivity if kojima didn't want uh exclusivity if kojima didn't want it exclusive on PS5.
33:06There's no way he keeps it exclusive on Xbox. That's going to be the fun conversation that we'll get into. Of course, Xbox might not have the sway inside the boardroom to say yes or no, or maybe they do because they're the one who's going to foot the rest of the bill here, so maybe they do have a little more leverage on Mr. Kojima, but you are talking about a team here who for the past five years has said, hey, our games are exclusive. They're not exclusive. They are exclusive. They aren't exclusive. even right now at this moment in 2026 that we still don't know we're not sure exclusive or not so yes it's easy to be like hey when you have a big title and you want to sell more consoles and you want people to come to your ecosystem you would make them console exclusives but at the same time xbox has also seen a lot of success with putting their games out on other platforms they also know that over on xbox there's not as many consoles sold as a playstation and nintendo switch having all three of those only boost the sales right and return on our money on our investment so we will see but i mean xbox as of right now has been xbox and pc launches then we go from there i expect the same thing here if not having this full console exclusive if you want if the goal is to sell consoles and to have people come to your ecosystem it is this is exclusive to Xbox and also releasing day one on PC, come and get it and making those fans on the other side go, man, I really love Hideo Kojima.
34:33I want this game. I have to go over there. That that's how console exclusivity works. You make people make a decision. If you meet in the middle and go, ah, well, it'll release in a year from now, Madeline Stanley's not going to look at me and go, you know what? I got to go buy the mic box right now. She's going to say, you know what? I'll wait a year from now. And then I'll come right. And so, I mean, that's, this is a day-by-day decision that we're still making right now so blessed with the curse is not wrong but we will see once we get there yeah i think i remember either jason schreier alluded to this or he explicitly stated it which was i think the big thing oh allegedly i'm gonna say allegedly because i i'm not sure if i'm parsing this correctly but that the pc was the big sticking point maybe for kojima like that playstation is no longer partnering partnering with pc and that Death Stranding 2 sold a ton on PC so I wonder if it is going to be the PC was the sticking point here that was part of the issue with Playstation is that they wanted it on PC and I believe they didn't publish it on PC so they missed out on that money which they didn't want, you know, they want that money and so yeah, that's another side we talk about Playstation here on this deal if they want it console exclusive they want all their single player games they want it to be on console only not even on the PC and Mr.
35:51Kojima doesn't want to play ball with that. Well, now we have a disagreement in the boardroom and I've put a lot of money in here. We're only halfway there and you're not meeting deadlines. You're taking more time. This is something that PlayStation would go, well, you know, I don't want to deal with this right now. We're out. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see how this goes. Man, what a fun time, Madeline Stanley. We could talk for hours here talking about our Super Chats and more Hideo Kojima, be PlayStation and Xbox all day long. But you know what? We'll do more of that right after a quick word from our sponsors.
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37:46If you're serious about climbing the ranks, this is the weapon of choice. Stop playing fair and start playing faster. Go to LogitechG.com and use code KINDOFUNNY at checkout to save 25 % off Logitech G products. Exclusions apply. Non-stackable. Grab the Super Strike today. The winning click is finally here. This episode is brought to you by ProtonVPN. Recently, more and more content I've been trying to watch has given me a this content isn't available in your region message. And I hate it, but with ProtonVPN, it's easy to change your virtual location so you can access the sites and content you need no matter where you are.
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39:02That's ProtonVPN.com slash kindoffunny. This episode's brought to you by Factor. This gaming review season has been the busiest yet and sometimes hunger strikes and you're just way too exhausted to set up and prepare the whole meal you thought you'd have time for that's why so many of us here at kind of funny love factor factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking on many occasions factor has completely saved greg and jen when they needed it most every meal is crafted with functional ingredients we're talking lean proteins colorful veggies whole foods and healthy fats every week you'll find over 100 nutrient-dense menu items to choose from and new options like salmon burgers shredded pork collard greens and more let's eat real head to factorymeals.com slash kind of funny 50 off and use code kind of funny 50 off to get 50 off and one free breakfast item per box for one year while supplies last until october 31st 2026 that's code kind of funny 50 off at factormeals.com kind of funny 50 off at factormeals.com see the website for more details madeline stanley during our uh ad break here i thought about this can i bring these to blizzcon with me yeah too much to pack these in my bed but then i just walk around like a kid in the candy shop holding this all day i think you do it and then you can you get people to sign it that would be kind of fun do they still have members of the team that worked on you don't you can find out i'm there's a piece of me that's like you bring these mike but then i then i'm just walking around blizzcon like this you know i think that's a very endearing thing and you should do it just letting them know just let the fanboy out you know it's gonna come out tomorrow it's gonna be crazy it's gonna be crazy is there something you're looking forward to the most i mean just being a part of it right being a part of that community being growing up as a blizzard kid as I like to call myself, right?
41:00It's like those games defined me and my little brother and a lot of my friends' experiences very early on, especially with like the start of the internet and online gaming. And I think of Warcraft 3 and I think of Diablo 2 and those experiences, right? Going on to an online lobby in Diablo 2 was a wild west back in the day. It was a wild experience. Jumping into a lobby, seeing people run around the little camp going outside people murdering each other people hacking the game and like making super weapons those are all experiences i'll never forget going back home and playing warcraft 3 every day after school and like being online typing in the chat people typing back like those were my aim days like i didn't i didn't do instant messages now you're speaking my language i did baron's chat on warcraft i did i did you know just general chat warcraft 3 those were like my moments So, yeah, I think being around the community will be special.
41:57Seeing all the cosplay of my favorite characters. Lilith, come on. People walk around as Lilith. I'm going to freak out, right? StarCraft is a special one. I don't know where we are in the StarCraft world with Blizzard anymore, but, like, seeing that would be cool. We saw the big floor layout, and, like, there will be Warcraft 3, so maybe people will be playing it. You know what I mean? That would be big. Heroes of the Storm. I love a good MOBA. I like Heroes of the Storm. I'll be there. Overwatch championships. I'll definitely be there rooting on some people, trying to squeeze and see if I can show my skills off.
42:30But just celebrating the experience, the fun of it all. I think it's going to be really, really special. I know it will be special. I can't wait to hear the stories. Be ready. There will be stories. Let's jump to story number two. PlayStation's Fair Games seemingly reemerges with first gameplay, new code name, and private play test. This coming from Cade Under over at IGN. PlayStation's online heist game, Fair Games, has seemingly reappeared under a codename with first gameplay and invites to a playtest. The game has seemingly quietly reemerged under the codename Project Espresso. The game was added to Player.gg, a website that allows developers to connect with players for playtesting.
43:16Although the game is under a code name and the developers being kept under wraps, the listing includes a pretty sizable gameplay trailer, which looks strikingly similar to Fair Games. It has a similar art style and concept, and there's a disclaimer that the game is in development for PS5 and PC. Additionally, the game requires a PlayStation account to be played, something that wouldn't normally happen for a third-party game. it's all a bit odd but it's hard to imagine it being anything else and if you're interested in checking it out for yourself you can sign up for the play test on player.gg madeline stanley of course i did see the tweet yesterday i watched this gameplay slash announcement trailer just hype trailer for whatever this may be i don't know if this is going to be later on the announcement trailer used for fair games i don't know what this is or if it's just the gethypeplayer.gg, hey, are you interested in trying our game and playtesting this game, whatever it may be?
44:17Yeah, the sort of the bring people in to playtest it sort of trailer. So it looks like, hey, this may be fair games. This might not be. We don't quite know. We don't know 100%, but it seems like Project Espresso could possibly be fair games and there's a private playtest happening very soon. player.gg if you're looking to try a new game a shooter here um i don't know much to say on this one like for me i'd of course love for the team at fair games to announce it however they want to show it to me i've also learned a number of times especially in the shooter slash multiplayer genres that trailers do a number of cool looks or disservices but it really comes down to your time playing the game, right?
45:07Does it have a fun player loop? Is it a good time? Does it have great mechanics? It all comes down to being on the sticks and actually playing it. It's hard to show case your shooter game flashy or not flashy with just a two minute trailer. You got to play this game. Yeah. There's definitely always that thing. Well, that looks really cool. Will I ever actually get to do that? Will I actually be able to experience in the way that it's shown? What is this concept is it a distraction shooter is it a battle royale is it a team arena is it a hero shooter is it just a heist game how do you pull off this heist game right shout out the hood outlaws and legends who absolutely nailed the heist game a lot of you you don't know about hood outlaws and legends or maybe if you saw that for a 40 price tag you're like that's a bad game that can't be good they actually nailed a pretty fun assassin's creed meets um player versus player versus environment um heist stealth espionage game that i think was pretty good of course short-lived here and so we'll see what this project espresso uh play test will go like and of course if this is fair games what it will look like at the very end but i i think gotta play this game to know if it's not for me well and we'll see what the the testers on player.gg think of it.
46:27Let's jump in to story number three. Nintendo's latest Switch 2 update adds VRR support in TV mode. This coming from Tom Warren at The Verge. Nintendo always promised that the Switch 2 would support variable refresh rate VRR when docked, but the console launched without this key feature. A new 23.0.0 firmware update now adds VRR support to the Switch 2 when it's docked in TV mode. VRR of course adjusts a display's refresh rate to match a game's refresh rate, smoothing out gameplay and reducing screen tearing. It will be particularly useful for games on the Switch 2 that have an unstable frame rate and it's a feature that both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S all supports.
47:22The latest Switch 2 firmware also includes a new toggle for handheld boost mode in quick settings as well as an update to the Mi editor that lets you enable music for some nostalgic Wii 3DS and Wii U Mi creation. Nintendo also added the ability to perform a full system transfer from one Switch 2 console to another just in time for a Zelda themed Switch 2 next month. Nice. Added some features. There we go. It's like when they toggled on the Bluetooth headset situation. Yeah. I always wonder with these things and I'm, I'm wondering why, what was keeping it from being there at launch? Like the Bluetooth thing or like, why, what, what was the delay here for the V the VRR?
48:12Yeah. I don't know. I don't have any, any context for what it would be, but it is curious why it, you know, It is something that came in standard with PS5 and Xbox Series S and X, but took a little bit longer. Yeah, at least they didn't make you wait a long time for it. It was within the year, year and a half. So we'll take that as a win, and especially as that's what you want from your consoles in the modern age to be the biggest and the baddest. That is nice, especially with the Switch 2 getting a lot of big-time third-party games along with their first-party games. I want the very best out of this console in TV, docked mode, and handheld mode.
48:49So nice to see that they're both doing that. And of course, on the flip side, the switch to console to another transfer. I know that's not going to be used very often, but if I was going to get a new sweet Zelda theme switch too, I want it to be. Are you swiping the card, Mike? It looks really good, man. The joy cons are beautiful. I love the colors that they're using. The weird triangle design on the back. I don't really get or love. I guess it's just the golden triangle. Yeah. Of course, the Triforce, but they're not golden. So it's like hard to be like, you're like, wait, you miss them. It clearly is right.
49:25But they do look very, very good. It is unfortunate that we live in a world driven by AI data centers, the use of all this RAM apocalypse talk. And like we live in a world now where I don't get awesome new specialty consoles. Right. I do miss the 360 days where we got that. I appreciate that Xbox tried with the wraps. They don't seem to push that as hard as they wanted to. I think we'll see. Maybe it just didn't sell. I'm sure a lot of people just put these things in the TV platform. Yeah, that's good enough. It's just in there. I don't need to worry about a wrap or what it looks like. But I do love a cool console that's a specialty for something.
50:02Yeah, I do too. I think we should have more fun things. But unfortunately, once again, we don't live in that world. Let's go to story number four. Saudi Wealth Fund considering merging EA and Savvy Games. This coming from Mike Straw at Insider Gaming. Just over a month after the sale of Electronic Arts EA to Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, the PIF, closed in a$55 billion purchase. Changes could be coming for the California-based publisher. In a new report from Bloomberg, the PIF is considering a move that would see the merger of EA and its investment, development, and publishing holding company, Savvy Games Group.
50:47According to the report, executives within the PIF are, quote, weighing plans to create one of the world's biggest gaming firms to ensure better coordination between its assets, end quote. It said that no financial decision has been made, but no deal will happen before Savvy closes a$6 billion purchase of Chinese mobile game company Muntan. as far as what is this merger as far as what this merger could mean it said that it would give Saudi Arabia's continued push into gaming a single vehicle through which to make acquisitions develop games and exploit intellectual properties okay that was a word being chosen there throughout the industry exploit's never a good word throughout the industry it's known at this time It's unknown at this time if EA would remain a separate company still as part of the merger or if anything would be absorbed in the Savvy Games group or vice versa.
51:53Should a deal like this be attempted, however, there will be regulatory approvals that need to be obtained. Yikes. Of course, you make a big time acquisition like this. There will be talks of what is the next big step here? What is the right move for all of us? Do we let them run as is and just profit off of that? Do we bring them in? And we try to have ownership and kind of dictate where we want this to go without having to go through 17 layers of management, as we've heard before. So it will be a very interesting decision here. And what will be the repercussions of that afterwards? We think we all can jump our minds to what happens with that kind of situation.
52:35Yeah, they sure do love exploiting things. I don't like the word exploiting intellectual property, but I understand what you're getting at. Maybe different word uses. Maybe utilize. Utilize intellectual property is a better one. I feel like that's like the quiet part out loud when you use the word exploit in a sort of acquisition sense after you're already acquisitioning so many things and exploiting so many things. Yeah, yeah. So we'll see. I think this will be some time, but of course, EA and this deal, this was a big deal. This was a big deal deal. So we will see where this goes here in the coming days, weeks, months.
53:15There will be conversations about what's going on with EA. And of course, if you're a consumer, you will see what happens with your games and things that you love, right? How do they exploit their intellectual properties? How do they manage FIFA, Madden, right? to all these sports titles mixed with The Sims, Respawn, and what they're doing with Star Wars and other games, right? Where does EA go? Well, we'll see. We'll see. Let's go. Of course, Madeline, that would be big news. EA, Saudi Arabia, Savvy Games, this is all big news. It's all happening right now. But if I need something smaller to end the show, where would I go?
53:54You'd go to our last story, the We News Channel, where we cover all the small news that you need to know about. let's jump in to we news we only have two pieces of we news very small the weest news this might be the weest news we've ever had morris protocol is coming to ps5 switch 2 and switch 2 on october 1st can we get a look at morris protocol and then attorneya lucish lucius launches december 3rd okay two games i have no idea i've never heard of these but kevin i'm going to put you in charge of that as you take a moment i know i don't want to rush you if you give me looks at both these games we'd like to take a look at them december 3rd someone releasing a game in december not not often so we'll see a turna they said we got something gta 6 doesn't have and what that is is yeah space maybe a turn that gives me like fantasy or space vibes okay what's this one this one is a turna oh okay this is a turner we got a um a 2d metroidvania here but the art style is cool yeah kind of a sci-fi type type of vibe celeste almost platforming here oh hey now interesting i love her long braid i like the the character design a lot too okay you know what the art's i'm glad that we looked this up me too okay let's put that down it's like good job eternal lucis i'm intrigued by that next up we're gonna look at morose protocol Did I call it Morris Protocol?
55:30I don't know, but I forgot. Moro, Morris, Morose. Morose. Morose. M-O-R-O-S, Morose. That's how I go with that. I'm doing the Greg Miller now. I'm second guessing everything that I've done in my life now. Oh, it's inappropriate. Okay. It's rated M for Mature. PlayStation. Boomer Shooter. Coming to PS5. We got a Boomer Shooter. Okay. A sort of pixel art vibe. Yeah, giving Doom vibes. Of course, sci-fi setting. Interesting. Wait, is multiplayer? Man. You ever think about Hexen? No, never. Only me and Phil Spencer ever think about Hexen. Man, shout out to Hexen. If you know, you know. Those are your two games from Wii News.
56:16Of course, both games coming October 1st and December 3rd. You can wishlist those. You can go support those devs. Check them out. Take a look. Miss Madeline Stanley that is all of kind of funny games daily for today Friday September 11th 2026 we have some super chat still to jump into and you're wrong of course Madeline while I boot up all those things why don't you tell everybody where they can find you some cool things going on in your life yeah you can find me on twitch at twitch dot tv slash mad exposure and I stream usually most Wednesdays and Sundays I have Sunday scaries where I play horror games every Sunday to help you defeat your Sunday scaries.
56:55Okay. You're going into the week. You're like, I don't like this week ahead. I'm stressed out. I got things to go. The best way to do that is to watch me scream my lungs out at something terrifying me in a video game. You know, I don't have the Sunday scaries. I have the Friday scary. I know. Cause you love working too much. I told Tim on Friday last week, it was about one 30 and I looked at him with the sad puppy dog eyes. I was like, can we find anything to do? let's just let's just all stay for preferably another 10 hours because i would like to stay here and then just go straight to sleep i don't need anything else you you want to live in like the severance world where your only existence is in the work i call my mom and she must think i'm insane i'm like ah mom it's friday i'm uptight she's like you have the world in front of you could do anything ah but i'm not happy about that mom let's jump into your wrong uh here Marty writes in and says Mike 505 published Death Stranding 1 on PC PlayStation published Death Stranding 2 on PC there's some clearance for you on that one let's see um Bander says PS5 and Xbox launched with VRR however PlayStation 5 did not launch with it it was also added after the fact okay so there you go some VRR stuff right there and then let me see
58:25okay so let's take a look VanderSN says 505 published Death Stranding 1 on PC however, PlayStation did publish Death Stranding 2 on PC which they're no longer doing for future games, isn't able to come to PC, was part of the breakup according to Jason, which we talked about and yeah that was the big one there they're taking all their single player games away from pc they want you to come and buy that console of course they want you to be on their ecosystem all the time right unless it's a multiplayer game that needs a big player base where microtransactions and the live service would come in but single player games we know that's what playstation wants to do that's where they want to be let's jump into some super chats to end the day let's do it madeline give me two games as i boot this up that you're excited for for the end of the year?
59:12Silent Hill Townfall, I'm very excited about. You know, I reviewed Silent Hill F for kind of funny. You played it. Me and Roger played Silent Hill F. Yeah, yeah. Roger's still mad at me for that. Roger's not happy about what I made him do. So I'm very excited. And also, as Neo Aoshi said, Control. I'm very excited for Control Resonant. They happen to be launching on the same day. So it's going to be a busy, busy day. That's a pretty cool. That's a cool vibe, though. I love that kind of vibe. where it's like two of my games that I'm looking forward to launch on the same day. I'm going to get them both.
59:44I'm going to switch off and on. Maybe I pick one and go to the other one. Let's jump in here. Light Tower with the super chat says, on the topic of multiplayer shooter games popping up again, where the heck is ExoBorn game at? Light Tower. Okay, you and I, are you and I the only people on earth that still think about ExoBorn? Because I do. What's up with that ExoBorn? I previewed it down in Vegas a long time ago, came back, talked about that. That was at the moment that we were having the ExoBorn Marathon slash Ark Raiders. Who's going to come plant their flag as an extraction shooter. ExoBorn was bringing something a little bit different.
1:00:24They were bringing environmental hazards into the game. You got a cool Exo suit. You were super jumping, running around like kind of more like real world stylized towns. and then there'd be a giant tornado and stuff that would shake up the gameplay. And so, yeah, I wonder if they saw Ark Raiders coming in and Marathon. They were like, hey, let's wait a little bit and wait for our time to pull off the gas. We'll see. But yeah, that's another one. What's going on with that? We'll keep an eye out for that one. Street Shadow says, I greatly appreciate that Mike is not intimidated intimidatedly going to Reddit Doomer.
1:00:58You don't have to love everything, but judge it once they have but once you have tried it, meaning about Project Espresso, of course. Yeah, I want the devs to show me their game when they're ready. And most importantly, I think we've seen too many games that you cast judgment on very early and then maybe never jump on. But it always comes down to, is the game fun? You're looking at a jabroni that loves Gotham City Impostors. Okay, I love me some Xbox 360, Xbox Live Arcade, Gotham City Impostors. Well, here's the thing, Mike. I think I can only speak for myself, but I feel like you'll agree with me.
1:01:31I want every game to be good. like my hope is that every game that comes out is good and i just assume it's good until i play it or maybe it's just not for me yep light tower also writes in again and says i think this is a pr move first for xbox i hope we get to see it but if it's still six to seven years away i don't know if i have trust in them now of course uh positive pr is a big deal right now in the gaming landscape for all of these big time companies and anything positive here, especially if you can see it as a, the gamer side, Hey, they saved Kojima's big time project. They came in and we're like, Hey, we got this.
1:02:11We'll fund this on the flip side. Hey, as well, if you love Kojima games, it's coming to Xbox. It's a positive PR spin right now. Definitely. I think that's a big part of it. Of course we don't know timing wise, how long that will take someone in here with their super chats. Wondered, is this going to be three years, five years away? How long will this take to get to? I'm like, is it going to be 2030 before we see fizzing?
1:02:38In the water, DSM writes and says, Madeline, we loved having you here this week. Great job. Yes, the mask was creepy AF. It's a great mask. You're welcome. Not Calvin Perez says, we knew that you might have missed Mike. Twin Peaks producer confirmed the game is real and in the works. Very interesting. I'm skeptical of that if David Lynch was not involved. And he passed away this year. Okay. So without David Lynch's involvement, I'm skeptical. I would like him. Twin Peaks is his baby. Explain it to me like I'm five because I've never watched Twin Peaks. I don't know Twin Peaks. You know Alan Wake, right?
1:03:17Yes. Alan Wake is heavily inspired by Twin Peaks. Okay. Twin Peaks was like a horror drama show directed by David Lynch. it's kind of as if a soap opera was like weird alan wake style where there's like spooky things going on everyone is very dramatic but it has a very cult following like my like me i i love it um and it's just got a really cozy but spooky vibe that is very hard to hit and they there is a very specific vibe that it has and i think it's hard to recreate okay but sam lake did it well okay so would you be interested in a game version of this I would like I said I would love to know how involved David Lynch was before he passed I'll be curious because I kind of feel like I have Alan Wake but maybe they could do something interesting we could have more we could have more we'll see Street Shadow says the key thing if this game is five years away will Xbox still be trying to go exclusives at any level or will they be even more third party publisher or Street Shadow talking about what is the future of Xbox console exclusivity what does that look like yeah we don't know the timeline on this next Kojima game and we don't know where Xbox will stand five years from now whatever however long it is with console exclusivity but you would think if your goal is to get more people to buy your console and be on your ecosystem and you have Bethesda with Todd Howard and that kind of game this now your goal would probably to be these are console exclusives, come over here.
1:04:50Or if you're on PC, we just want your money. Buy this game. We'll see. Alchemist with our final Super Chat of the day. Thank you to everybody who Super Chatted. So many of you. I think I got to as many as I could. I think I... Okay, you know what? This isn't the final one. There's a birthday shout-out. I gotta give a birthday shout-out. Let's jump into Alchemist who says, Same for Sony. Imagine working at Bluepoint or Bungie. Sony pays Hideo millions, hundreds of millions of dollars for games that aren't commercial successes, at least to them. Of course, talking about the eye-rolling, when we talk about Xbox divesting out of a number of studios and games, we look at Sony doing very similar stuff and then footing the bill for Kojima.
1:05:31I'm sure there's a lot of thoughts, feelings on different sides if you're a developer, if you're looking for someone to fund your games, or vice versa, there's a lot of thoughts on that one. And both sides are doing it. And Kojima said it took them, what, three months to get a deal with Xbox too they were looking around so I wonder who were the people that they talked with yeah me too yeah I'm sure who else did they go to I everyone anyone that if if Kojima's calling we're answering and we're gonna at least we're at least gonna have the conversation and then go oh that's out of my budget that is so out of my budget my man I don't know if I got that let me uh let me find this right now let's get I'm on more of a value meal budget do you what do you have for me because you said nothing i hung up the phone on me is right uh let's go let's go
1:06:23um av nuts writes in and says birthday tax never get never forget my birthday when spooky buddies was released on home video mads is awesome mike you're the best of course happy fake birthday to you av nuts i don't know if you were trying to get me on that if that's your birthday or not It's not Abe's birthday at all, but happy birthday, Abe. Oh, okay. You were just trying to get me to read that comment. I appreciate that. Happy birthday to you. And, of course, happy birthday to everyone out there watching and listening. No matter what day is your birthday, I hope that you're smiling big. You're being celebrated for who you are.
1:06:55And you're playing the games that you love. That has been Madeline Stanley all week long with us. Of course, you can go check her out on her Twitch channel. You can go support her on everything that she does because she is truly incredible. You can celebrate the screams and the fun with her. And of course you can come celebrate all things Blizzard and Warcraft with me this weekend down in Anaheim, California. I'll be there living out a childhood dream at BlizzCon 2026. Come find me. Come celebrate. Tell me your favorite Warcraft, Starcraft, Blizzard product, your favorite Overwatch hero. I don't care.
1:07:29I want to hear it all. It's going to be so much fun. I'll see you at BlizzCon and we'll see you on our next show. of course if you're watching live on YouTube and on Twitch we're jumping into the Kind of Funny Gamescast your Nintendo hot takes after a week filled with Nintendo Directs. We're going to get your call in live and we're going to hear your hot takes and then after that it's a Kind of Funny Gamescast stream of Hot Wheels, the brand new Hot Wheels games, Hot Wheels Infinite Rush. That was me rolling the dice I don't remember the name. I think that's right. I think I nailed that. And then after that we'll be back on Monday so have a wonderful weekend gamers.
1:08:03Thank you for watching and listening leave your comments down below and what your thoughts are we love you and i care about you goodbye oh yeah
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