Xbox Game Pass Price DECREASE - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.21.26

21 Apr 2026 · 1 h 9 min · 37 chapters

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In short

Xbox Game Pass price drop and what it means for subscribers, plus a review discussion of Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred.

Guests

Greg Miller (host) and “Mike” (host). Zanth is the Diablo Podcast host and an ARPG expert; he teaches high school and has ~45 hours on a Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred test build. (Other references include Xbox head Asha Sharma and reviewers at IGN/Eurogamer/PC Gamer.)

Key claims

  • Xbox Game Pass Ultimate drops from $29.99 to $22.99/month; PC Game Pass drops from $16.49 to $13.99/month. Future Call of Duty titles won’t launch in Game Pass; they’ll arrive about a year later during the following holiday season.
  • Hosts debate whether the decrease is enough, and whether removing Call of Duty creates a “chilling effect” on future value.
  • Zanth says Lord of Hatred fixes Diablo 4’s biggest flaws without making bad parts worse.

Notable examples

  • Zanth: 45 hours on test server; gives 9/10 for returning players and 9.5/10 for newcomers.
  • War plans streamline endgame by chaining activities (e.g., Helltide → Pit → Infernal Hordes) with teleport between them.
  • Review scores cited: Metacritic 82, OpenCritic 83; IGN 8/10, Eurogamer 4/5, PC Gamer 90/100.

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

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Episode Overview

0:13 to 0:27

Introduction to today's gaming news including Diablo and Xbox updates.

“Today in the nerdy news you need to know about our Diablo four lowered of hatred review.”

Introduction of Guests

0:39 to 1:40

Hosts introduce guests and discuss their backgrounds and gaming interests.

“Welcome to kind of funny games daily for Tuesday, April 21st, 2026.”

Xbox Game Pass Price Drop

1:40 to 2:56

Discussion on Xbox Game Pass price changes and implications.

“games daily for a long time so here i am and i'm ready to chat even if it is just about xbox for a little bit.”

Community Reactions

2:56 to 4:30

Hosts discuss community feedback on the Xbox pricing changes.

“Number one, Mike, the national nightmare is over.”

Future of Game Pass and Xbox

4:30 to 5:10

Exploration of what the future may hold for Xbox Game Pass amid pricing changes.

“future Call of Duty titles will keep learning and evolving game pass to better match what matters to players.”

Call of Duty's Impact on Game Pass

5:10 to 7:10

Discussions on how Call of Duty's pricing affects Game Pass subscriptions.

“Yeah, Greg, this is the positive news, right?”

Subscriber Experiences

7:10 to 9:01

Guests share their personal experiences and thoughts on subscribing to Game Pass.

“We're going to add a bunch of games to your library instantly.”

Concerns Over Game Pass Value

9:01 to 11:18

Concern about the long-term value of Game Pass for gamers.

“Do you think, okay, and that's what you're pointing at too, Mike?”

Discussion on Game Pass Benefits

11:18 to 13:06

Hosts discuss what benefits subscribers value most in their Game Pass experience.

“And I think like you said, Greg, you saw two things.”

Final Thoughts on Xbox's Strategy

13:06 to 14:00

Wrap-up discussion on Xbox's strategy moving forward and what it means for gamers.

“You have to go through what you really want out of this package and as Zanth brought up right with like Fortnite Crew, EA Play, Ubisoft Plus, are you taking advantage of that on PC Game Pass?”
Show all 37 chapters

The Evolution of Xbox Game Pass

14:00 to 15:00

Explore how Xbox Game Pass has expanded with various services and pricing.

“We went from just two PC game pass, console game pass.”

The Impact of Price on Subscription Services

15:00 to 15:40

Discusses the effects of pricing on user retention and service value perception.

“why don't I get a price decrease on buying the expansion we're about to review?”

Ownership vs. Subscription: A Teacher's Perspective

15:40 to 16:50

Examines the conflict between owning games versus subscription services from a teacher's viewpoint.

Student Engagement with Video Games

16:50 to 18:00

Looks at how high school students interact with games and subscription services.

The Challenges of Attracting Young Gamers

18:00 to 19:30

Explores why young gamers may prefer mobile games over traditional platforms.

Game Pass and Market Adaptation

19:30 to 21:20

Discusses the need for Game Pass to adapt and compete in a shifting market.

“I know everyone's cynical, but Asha changing things in this short of a time, I hope, leads us back to Xbox's pre-Activision Blizzard King plan.”

Xbox's Strategy to Compete with Rivals

21:20 to 22:40

Analyzes strategies Xbox could implement to regain competitiveness against rivals.

“I mean, that's a whole other conversation, right?”

Cloud Gaming's Viability and User Demand

22:40 to 24:20

Evaluates whether cloud gaming is worth the price and its current user engagement.

“and I never understood the but it's whatever, like, well, just do it month to month do it for those two months and you're still getting the game at the time, 40 bucks rather than 60 or 70, right?”

Potential Collaborations and Future of Xbox

24:20 to 26:00

Speculates on possible collaborations for Xbox to expand user base and influence.

“And could we see another one of like, hey, that could be another$7 to get you back down to less than$20 or$15?”

The Future of Xbox Game Pass Options

26:00 to 28:00

Discusses potential new tiers and options for Xbox Game Pass to attract more users.

“If they have 325 million, how do you get even just a piece of that would be a really fun conversation to have with something that you can bring to the table for them while they have something that you want as well.”

Maximizing Xbox Game Pass Benefits

28:00 to 29:32

Learn about the various benefits of Xbox Game Pass, including EA Play and in-game bonuses.

“I don't know if enough people take advantage of that and look deep enough into taking what could be some free money there.”

Future of Game Pass and Live Service Games

29:32 to 31:18

Discuss the potential improvements for Xbox Game Pass concerning live service games.

“And this is back, and this is a nice transition into our topic number two of our review of Diablo.”

Review of Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred

33:34 to 35:56

Explore the reviews and player reactions to the new Diablo 4 expansion, Lord of Hatred.

“Story number two on the Roper Report is our review of Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred.”

Deep Dive into Diablo 4 Gameplay

35:56 to 42:04

An in-depth discussion of personal experiences and gameplay in Diablo 4 and its expansion.

“It's important for everyone to know that this was a test server, so all that's gone.”

Early Impressions of Diablo 4: A Personal Journey

42:04 to 43:48

Learn about the initial experiences and excitement of exploring Diablo 4.

Diablo 4's Strong Story and Campaign Length

43:48 to 45:40

Explore the engaging narrative structure and expected campaign duration of Diablo 4.

Understanding Endgame Activities: War Plans

45:40 to 47:52

Discover how the War Plans feature streamlines endgame progression in Diablo 4.

Future of Diablo 4: Expansions and Class Evolution

47:52 to 50:30

Discuss expectations for future expansions and class improvements in Diablo 4.

“I don't have to open up the map or anything like that.”

Loot and Crafting Changes in Diablo 4

50:30 to 52:58

Learn about the new loot and crafting mechanics that enhance gameplay.

“This version of these classes is significantly better.”

Preparing for Diablo 4's Release and Podcast Coverage

52:58 to 54:54

Get insights into upcoming content and discussions around Diablo 4 before its launch.

“what is inherently there as you go and you fight bosses you're not a same kind of thing like that that level of loot is kind of filtered down and where they balance it out a little bit is crafting has kind of come back.”

Gameplay and Features of Splatoon Raiders

55:20 to 56:06

Explore the gameplay mechanics and features of the upcoming Splatoon Raiders.

“Splatoon Raiders hits the Switch 2 in July.”

Exploring Nintendo's New Game

56:06 to 56:50

Learn about Nintendo's upcoming game featuring mechanics and co-op gameplay.

“Here's the setup, according to Nintendo.”

Personal Insights on Splatoon

56:50 to 57:50

Hear personal stories about gaming experiences related to Splatoon.

Wii News: Game Cancellations

57:50 to 58:28

Discussion on Ubisoft's game cancellations and the state of the gaming industry.

Toei's Entry into Gaming

58:28 to 59:48

Examine Toei's new gaming brand and its implications for the industry.

“I don't think that trailer didn't look great, but whatever.”

Upcoming Titles and Updates

59:48 to 1:02:18

Overview of various upcoming game releases and updates in the gaming scene.

“Surprisingly, Toei's game's early lineup will not include titles based on existing IP.”

Super Chats and Community Engagement

1:02:18 to 1:04:44

Engagement with audience super chats and community news.

“And everybody's looking at me like a weirdo.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Nick Scarpino:Buy one prescription pair and get 20 % off any additional prescription pairs at warbyparker.com slash kind of funny. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. Today in the nerdy news you need to know about our Diablo four lowered of hatred review. Splatoon Raiders hits the switch to in July and Mikey Xbox game prices are going down. We officially won. We'll have all this and more because this is kind of funny games daily.

0:38What's up everybody. Welcome to kind of funny games daily for Tuesday, April 21st, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside the master of hype. He bleeds green. It's snow bike. Mike. Good morning, Greg. We have some good news from team Xbox. So let's talk about it. And of course, from the Diablo podcast, the one and only Xanth. Hello, Xanth. Excited to be here, guys. We have a lot to talk about. You know, it was supposed to be our Diablo 4 review. We're going to have a nice time, you and me, talking. Of course, Xanth, kind of funny, ARPG expert. But then Xbox has to come in swinging with something else.

1:17Well, the double block of Xbox. I was thinking about that, too, right? It's a double win. it's a double win but it's also like if you're blizzard yeah are you not like come on guys could you announced it monday could you announce it wednesday why is no one in this giant corporation of xbox talking about what the embargoes are for our stuff how are you zayf i am doing great uh it's been a while i've been excited i've wanted to get on kind of games daily for a long time so here i am and i'm ready to chat even if it is just about xbox for a little bit. At least it's good Xbox. It is good Xbox. If people don't know where you're from and who, what do you do?

1:59So I am Zanth. I host a little podcast about Diablo, the Diablo podcast. You can find us on Apple and Spotify and YouTube at pure DMG. Hell yeah. Of course you've been here many a time. You were here when we had Rod in and we played Diablo a bunch. You were here for that. You were here for other reviews. Of course, I listen to the Diablo podcast. Excited to talk to you about Lord of Hatred. But we'll get to that in one second, Mikey. Because first, I have to remind everybody that this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about.

2:31Live Twitch, YouTube, podcast services around the globe. If you love that, of course, be part of the show. You can super chat on YouTube.com slash Kind Funny Games with your questions, comments, concerns about the day's news. And of course, sound off with your thoughts and opinions about our review when we get there. We couldn't do this without our producers over on Patreon.com slash kind of funny. So thank you, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. Time for some news. Five items on the Roper Report. Baker's Dazzo.

3:10Number one, Mike, the national nightmare is over. Xbox Game Pass price drops officially. We're reading from Xbox Wire. Starting today, Game Pass Ultimate drops from$29.99 to$22.99 a month. PC Game Pass will also drop from$16.49 to$13.99 a month. Prices vary by region. Beginning this year, future Call of Duty titles won't join Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass at launch. New Call of Duty games will be added to Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass during the following holiday season about a year later. While existing Call of Duty titles already in the library will continue to be available. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers will continue to have access to hundreds of games on Xbox console and PC, including Call of Duty titles, in-game benefits, online console multiplayer, and major day one releases.

4:03our players cover a wide breadth of geographies preferences and tastes so while there isn't a single model that works best for everyone this change responds to a lot of the feedback we've gotten so far we'll continue to listen and learn thank you for being part of the Xbox community if that wasn't enough enough over on X Asha Sharma of course the new head of Xbox the big cheese says Game Pass Ultimate has become too expensive for too many players starting today we're dropping the price from$29.99 to$22.99 a month future Call of Duty titles will keep learning and evolving game pass to better match what matters to players.

4:40Of course, Michael, there has been so much conversation at Kind of Funny, both on Games Daily and on the Gamescast about what is going on at Xbox. What is Asha actually there to do? Can they change this? Will they change that? Yeah, that, that, that, that. You have one, two, three, four, five, six, five, I miscounted, pieces of paper in front of you. I got like six. No, you got doubles. I was right. It was six. All right. Mike, you helped us the X-Cast for a long time. You bled green for a long time. You know this beat better than anybody. What's your initial take? Yeah, Greg, this is the positive news, right?

5:12This is a big first step, especially in Asha's leadership. Of course, we've been asking questions of what will the new look be? What will Asha bring to the table now that Phil and Sarah Bond are gone, right? What is the vision for Xbox? And, of course, we start with Game Pass, something that got too expensive for players and a lot of people put down as a service and it's not the hoorah this is the best deal in gaming anymore it became a oh wow a 30 price tag is this worth it and for the past week we've had conversations with the community uh on our on the shows as well like what needs to happen to game pass and what needs to be taken off yeah and a lot of the touchstones from the community seem to be hey i'm not a big call of duty player that could go hey this fortnight crew, maybe I'm not taking advantage of some of these added benefits that could go, right?

6:01You have an EA Play in there, a Ubisoft Plus, and so there's just giant beast that is Xbox Game Pass. As you can see, I could give a TED Talk of what each tier is, and so you kind of go through with the big eraser and go, what needs to be scratched off? What needs to go? And Call of Duty seems to be the simplest answer for a first decrease. A first decrease? Yes. Would we like this lower, Greg? Of course. Because what we world of streaming services, it's tough because it's kind of where it's at right now. Correct me if I'm wrong. Obviously, kindoffunny.com slash you're wrong. We went from $19.99 to$29.99.

6:36That was the jump, and that was when everybody was like, it's too much. So we're still up$3 or whatever. We're still up$3, and so if you do the math, $22.99 times 12, you're hitting at about $274.80. You divide that by$70 price tags is what we used to do on the math, and that's about 3.92 full games. So about four full games a year is what you'd be buying in to Game Pass to hopefully you save. The big initial start of Game Pass was, hey, you get the Xbox first party games. All of these games that are 70 bucks like Halo and Forza and Gears, you save on those. And you're like, oh, I love that. And they're like, well, get this.

7:15We're going to add a bunch of games to your library instantly. And right now, Greg, there's like 900 plus games on Ultimate. On PC Game Pass, there's 535. five. There's gigantic collections of games that you jump into and have this instant like backlog catalog. And so how do you get the savings? How do you make this lower? Is this enough for gamers to jump in as of right now, this Monday is the positive news for Xbox. It's not enough. Oh, I want to put a pin in that, but pivot to that. Is this enough for gamers and go to Zanth? Of course, Zanth host the Diablo podcast plays a ton of games and all that stuff, but he's what I would call a normal person.

7:53When he goes to work, he goes and teaches children. He's, he has a job. You know what I mean? He's not just talking about games all day. From your point of view, Xanth, were you subscribed to game pass before the price increased? Did you quit afterwards? Are you going to come back now? What is your read on game pass and what it values for you, especially being a Diablo player? Like you are invested in battle net and Diablo and the ecosystem. Yeah, I, I think this is kind of interesting to come on to today. I canceled my PC games pass when the price jumped not that long ago. Yeah. I think I think I did what everybody does when, you know, a service that you're subscribed to goes up.

8:37Like I evaluated, like, am I getting the cost effectiveness of the service anymore when it when the price increases? And for me at the time, PC game pass just wasn't it. so i canceled um seeing this kind of get back down does seem a little bit more enticing okay um will you come back i'm like i don't know i i think i kind of go back with mike like it is it enough yet uh call of duty was not going to be the thing for me right sure but i also kind of worry of like from the pc game pass part of it does it just keep losing pieces that would be enticing to me down the road uh on my horizon fable is there right like fable is a game that i would subscribe to pc games pass for yeah if they're committed to starting to pull these titles that they think they can sell maybe more successfully off of games pass am i subscribing to something that's only going to lose value on the road.

9:45Do you think, okay, and that's what you're pointing at too, Mike? Are we worried about a chilling effect here? That is a piece of the conversation right now from the community on this initial reaction. Let me just jump in. I didn't even think about that. I thought, all right, we're taking the elephant out of the room. Call of Duty. It's weighing it down. We put too much on there. If you, I'm sure, back-end-wise, they've seen that we didn't convert the millions of Call of Duty players to Game Pass players, and we're just passing that problem on to the people that were already there. The fact that they still, right now, you know over when you click to buy it right they still have fortnite crew on there i was like oh did they strip that out no they left fortnite crew in there which again doesn't matter if you don't care but like oh it's still there it's still saying day one next month still is for it's a fucking horizon six like this is i i wasn't thinking about oh this is the harbor general thing has come there there's conversation like xanth brought up of like what could be next i don't see that happening as you know me and blessing at this conversation what do you subscribe to game pass for sure for me it was the first party day and date games for him it was the instant library of indies, oldies, kind of third-party titles.

10:46I come for the fables, the Forzas, the Gears, E-Days. Like, I'm doing this because I want to save on not having to buy Xbox first-party titles. And every gamer is different, as Asha says, right? Like, they have to look at this giant pie chart and go, what is worth it? And so, as you brought up, Greg, Call of Duty was the first move. Call of Duty was the giant elephant in the room. Call of Duty was, like, your giant juggernaut title that, like, can sell on its own no problem. But the thought process was, hey, what if we take the biggest title on Earth, package it into Game Pass? Subscribers got to go through the roof.

11:19And I think like you said, Greg, you saw two things. It didn't push Game Pass to the moon. And also, did it hurt Call of Duty sales? No and yes, right? Of course, yeah, it did hurt its sales. It was also an off year. But like, we know that that's going to sell every year. So why even take away money from the piggy bank by putting it in the subscription service? It seems like an easy, like, logical, yeah, just yank that out. Yeah. $7 is what they came down to for call of duty alone. So it's like, all right. Like if that's the move, I don't think gamers are going to be mad. Call of duty audience.

11:50Like me, he's going to buy it every year. Regardless. I think they had a nice one, especially on an off year where I was able to convince my friends of like, please play call of duty with me. And they're like, no, I don't want to buy this anymore. This is a bad year for them. And I at least got them to play a couple days out of it, but it's still going to sell well. And the positive is we go down$7. Yeah. real quick for a super chat. Derek says, seem still seems a little too much. Does it still need to have Fortnite crew? EA play Ubisoft plus classics? Of course not. But then we get into this conversation of, okay, well, how many tiers do you want?

12:24Right. Already looking at the page right now, we're talking about ultimate, but remember there is premium behind it. There is essential behind that where you start going into, okay, premium sounds like what you'd want Derek, right? Where it's 200 games that you could get off of game pass instead of the 500 on ultimate you'd still be getting the day no you wouldn't be xbox public games joins this one this is like this is what i can't stand about this about playstation plus about those two i guess i'm sitting here and going wait a second i gotta read the fine print on what i'm doing and where i'm going but to ash's point to what you just said mike there isn't going to be a one size fits all so we can't really be sitting here like wanting the cake and eating it too.

13:06Correct. You have to go through what you really want out of this package and as Zanth brought up right with like Fortnite Crew, EA Play, Ubisoft Plus, are you taking advantage of that on PC Game Pass? Are you on console going, hey, I gotta get my Fortnite Crew right? Like Fortnite Crew right now if you were to get exactly what that is that's$12 a month. I've just been letting it sit there. I've signed up and I can't wait to do it. Fortnite V-Bucks as of March 10th as well has changed and gone down has a price increase so you're getting less fortnite v bucks out of this right but like 12 a month is saving you 12 a month if you and your family were into that right yeah you jump over to premium and essentially you start going well what am i if xanth only wants to play one xbox title and he goes i don't need day one mike on you know gears e-day then yeah you start looking at these other ones and going this is where i should be it's a tough balance right we We went from just two PC game pass, console game pass.

14:06And then we've evolved. We've added on cloud gaming. You still have to add on. Of course. I can give a Ted talk about the benefits that you get. So it's like, yeah, it's a rocking service. But at$29.99, it was too much. At$22.99, it's right on the border of like, people will say this is still too much. Some people will accept it. Netflix is sending me emails every month saying, the price has gone up, Mike. Every service is doing this. Xanth, what's it going to take to get you to get back on PC game pass? Like, so you talked about fable, which God, I hope is this year still is, you know, they're tweeting autumn.

14:44So I'm not, I can take that to the bank according to the internet, like between here, they're like Forza doesn't do anything for you. Gears doesn't do anything for you. We're always me and Mike are always talking about what I'd really love to see out of Xbox game passes. Cool. It benefits me on every Xbox title where we're talking about Diablo. why don't I get a price decrease on buying the expansion we're about to review? Yeah, I think for me, and subscription services are really becoming tricky. You know, having kids, they've got subscriptions and all that kind of stuff. And it was just kind of startling to look, and I'm a high school teacher by day, how few kids actually own things now where i've really just loved owning games so when i had pc games pass i think the only game i really committed to was uh expedition 33 nice and all the time i had sunk in terms of cash i could have just bought the game and owned it so when i canceled pc games fast i didn't have it i think lacking ownership has really pushed me to kind of avoid subscriptions sure it just uh i i like what you're talking about in terms of all right if i am subscribed getting discounts on these expansions as we're going to go into with with lord of hatred that could be a way to kind of get me in of like all right i know i'm already committed to this franchise i'm going to keep going but outside of that it it just hasn't sunk its hooks into me uh if my 15 year old is really on my case then i will uh absolutely have him you cutting threads thank you driving me crazy he's got this one little guy out there i was like what is going on okay that's fair um but you know with a 15 year old at home you know he has a lot more varied interests for games pc games pass and and really does fit that niche for him um he has not been clamoring for it either i will state like and again like talking with students that initial price increase on on games pass did deter that backbreaker uh where i was talking with kids of like i frequently will post up on my smart board of like what game i'm playing and kids will ask like oh you know like where do i get that what's that about and i'll say oh yeah i think you know especially when it's diablo i'm like it's on games pass you can you can just go and they're like yeah i canceled it or you know that's a little pricey sure seeing these prices go down i think for uh you know in particular like my students that that's an awesome thing you know that that allows more access for them than they might have been deterred by 30 30 a month is pricey and i think it's easier for them to perhaps justify it kind of going forward this is a quick aside in the conversation but pulling from what you're talking about xanth how what is the percentage however you want to quantify this how many children are you seeing look at something you put on the board and want to play it and not just play minecraft fortnite roblox because that's always a conversation we have of like how can you actually convert this there's so many gamers now but they only play these things in the age out of it i guess as well as for me who would know some teachers in my life and know some kids what what age group are you teaching and what age group are we talking about here question uh so i work uh in high school so it's freshmen through seniors um my son is a freshman so i think that also gives a nice little perspective there and greg like you're right uh the percentage is smaller i think like having having it out in the open so that they can see like oh there's other games then yeah roblox or fortnight or so like you know when crimson deserts up on the board they're like what is that oh well it's actually really good your cliff but what's interesting is during lunchtime i have a lunch duty so that's a unsupervised time kids can't have phones during class so they're on their phones and what are they doing they are gaming kids are gaming all the time but it's not what we're talking about here it's for like all of last year i saw kids playing some version of tecmo super bowl on their phones or now they're playing you know it's like some sort of uh auto battler or they're playing something that they can all be connected on their phones right next to each other right yeah so it's just it is a little different some of that is the barrier right some of why are why aren't kids playing some of these games why aren't kids on games pass or whatever it is those games on the phone are cheap are free are loaded with ads and they have some quick access to it and that was a big thing that was a big thing that sarah bond and phil were trying to get to it's like zan saying it's like they're on their phones playing yeah they wanted to push game pass and cloud gaming as well of like how do we get to them during their lunch period and zan brought up they're playing these free games just littered with ads the thought process was like well maybe they don't want ads maybe they just want like game games and i don't think they want that i think they just want to play their tower defense balloon defense game during lunch and be on their way but there was something to be said of like when they made this big streaming initiative and shoved it in the game pass of like hey you can play that we're going to meet you where you are and every game pass level is littered with hey this has x cloud except for pc gaming but like the other three is like you can stream this anywhere on any device are you taking advantage of that right and were people buying into that if like this is my second console hey i don't want to buy an xbox right now another part of game pass was to try to slide in to a market that wasn't there exactly i think that's what we talk about in industry all the time where we talk and i'm gonna pull my own history here but like to talk about the vita and guess what it's 3g and a touch screen and it's like why are you doing or trying to capture that mobile market it's like that isn't what this is and i think as much as i loved what phil and sarah were trying to do of let's be there let's future proof everything is an xbox i think it was too soon and it didn't serve the core audience of what xbox gamers were and that's what we've seen right as you see now asha out here talking about the fact of like we've in so many words lost our way we're coming back to xbox that brings me over here to a question or i'm sorry Super chat from Onimus Prime.

21:14I know everyone's cynical, but Asha changing things in this short of a time, I hope, leads us back to Xbox's pre-Activision Blizzard King plan. Cram the genie back in the bottle. Deliver exclusives. Elder Scrolls 6 only on Xbox and PC. Mike, is that where we're going? I mean, that's a whole other conversation, right? Like, that is what Asha and her team will be talking about for days, weeks, months, years, right? It's like, what is the next step for Xbox? a lot of conversation is double down on exclusives. Make people come back to where you are. And if you watched the Xbox, how to fix the Xbox podcast with us on Gamescast, I talked about it, right?

21:51If there was no rules and Mike could do whatever he wanted, and I really wanted to dig in to that gigantic lead that PlayStation has and Nintendo, you would have to make great games and make them exclusive. And on top of that, you'd have to start probably getting more third-party partnerships with timed exclusives to say, hey, you can't play these over here. You have to be here. And that's tough when your games are just good to sometimes great. They have to be great to amazing all the time. You have to have a reason for me to come there. They haven't proven that yet. They've gotten close on many of times, but they haven't found the frequency of that.

22:25We're back to, I think, what Xanth brought up, right? Of like, okay, cool. I'm looking forward to Fable. What's between then and now? I've always said that, okay, well, Xbox Game Pass the best value of gaming when that was going around, right? It was true and I never understood the but it's whatever, like, well, just do it month to month do it for those two months and you're still getting the game at the time, 40 bucks rather than 60 or 70, right? Like, that's still an option and it still works for Xanth, but obviously now Osh and the team have to prove to all the Xanths and all the people out there of like okay, cool, no, you need to be subscribed all the time and here's why.

22:58Yeah, I'm more looking forward to the exclusive talk, we'll get to that and it'll be very fun when When we talk about adding new Game Pass tiers, what more can I do with this in front of me, right? Let's talk about cloud gaming. Let me, I want to break, because I know where you're going and I want to bring this comment in from Peebo, Peebo Super Chat and says, make Fortnite crew, Ubisoft and EA Play add-ons similar to phone bills. For people that don't want those quote unquote benefits, the price can drop even more. Is that what you're thinking is going to happen even with xCloud? Are we going to get to, hey, build your own Game Pass.

23:32here's what you get for let's say$10,$15.99, and you add on the other things you really want out of this. I mean, they're already there, right? I think the catch is like people point to Fortnite Club and EA Play, but it's like, well, if you read Xbox Game Pass Premium or Essential, they don't have those. So like there's already a tier for you with that. If you're not taking advantage of Fortnite Club, you can be on some other tier that's cheaper, right? It's like for me, it's like what is the shared thing amongst all of these? It's not day one games because we know that some of these have 12-month windows to them.

24:07It's not. It's clearly cloud. Is cloud gaming worth the price for you? Could I eliminate cloud gaming off of one of these tiers or all of these tiers and have that as an add-on? How many people are taking advantage of xCloud today on their smart devices, on their TVs, on their phones, their tablets? Are you taking advantage of that? And could we see another one of like, hey, that could be another$7 to get you back down to less than$20 or$15? I would go as far to say I don't think our audience that's listening right now takes advantage of xCloud as they could or should. We talk about NVIDIA and what they've done.

24:44We've talked about Xbox and what they've done. And it doesn't seem like it's become mass appeal. Everyone's doing it. I'm taking advantage of it. I don't want to download the game, so I just jump in and play. I'm playing off the web browser at work or at school like my dream is. but it's like I don't hear enough people taking advantage of that so my move would be hey what's the one thing shared amongst this that maybe people don't want or need it's xcloud how do I rip that out of one of these or rip it out by itself and say here's an xcloud platform over there tier and everything else gets got cheaper for you you basically kill xcloud then when you do that because I think it would I agree Greg I'm one of the few that likes it I I believe in it I'm I see it, but like you, you may believe in the potential.

25:25Yes. And I no longer, I think it's very obvious that Microsoft doesn't believe in the potential of X cloud anymore. So why should I continue to be like, ah, that's that fun conversation now of like, oh, what if Asha did pick up the phone or received a phone call from a Netflix 325 million active subscribers, right? How do we work with that? Netflix that has been not killing it on the game side has the active subscriber base. and somehow you go, hey, we got xCloud with some great games on it. You've been wanting more people to stay on your platform. How do we get a little piece of that? Because, man, what is 25 million subscribers adding on to Game Pass, right?

26:01What is 50, 100? If they have 325 million, how do you get even just a piece of that would be a really fun conversation to have with something that you can bring to the table for them while they have something that you want as well. 100%. Let me get you a few super chats. We could talk about this all day long. I know. Where's the one about the best? Here we go. Alex super chat and says, I'm a PC PS five switch to gamer who takes advantage of game pass. It was the best deal in gaming before the price drop. And it's even better now. The great P X M Lord says between Microsoft and Nintendo. I'm glad major.

26:37I'm glad major. It's a typo. I'm glad major publishers are trying to adapt to the current cost of living. Yeah,

26:45Nick Scarpino:no, I definitely think Xbox got dragged in the street and beaten into submission on this one, but sure. But I mean, one of the reasons they got beaten was like, hey, this costs too goddamn much in a place where I can't buy gas. I mean, when I look at all four of the tiers and options, for Xanth in particular, myself, who plays a lot on PC, the Xbox Game Pass PC option is their best option. It is filled to the brim with positivity, right? $13.99 now. Currently, when I clicked on it as of last night, there was 535 titles on that list. So when it says 300 plus, there's a lot of them, right? Of course, you can't do xCloud.

27:21That's fine. Day one releases, including first and third party. So you get all four of the big four horsemen this year, which is a huge saving. You don't get Fortnite crew, but you get EA Play, Ubisoft Plus. You get no online multiplayer. But a big one we don't talk about enough is that Xbox rewards, right? A lot of people, you talked about a long time ago with PlayStation. It's like, hey, if you want to be rewarded for your time, If you want to get sweet discounts, you want to get money back that can maybe buy your DLCs or buy your next month game pass. Are you looking into the Xbox reward programs?

27:52Because each one of these tiers has a big one of like, hey, you can earn$100,$25,$50. Here's what you got to do. I don't know if enough people take advantage of that and look deep enough into taking what could be some free money there. I like your breakdown here, Mike. Hey, I love, join my TED Talk. I'll talk about it anytime. time i i think you might have sold me again on pc games pass thank you working everybody and xanth on top of that my favorite that i always bring up ea play is such a big win for me and my friends who play a lot of sports games now mind you ea play has a bunch of ea catalog games so if you like star wars out there if you like uh maybe it takes two from hazelite there's a bunch of ea titles but what i love is you get ea games you get free trials on their new games which is 10-hour free trial.

28:40How many times has your friend said, I'm not buying the next NHL, but you want to play the next NHL? Get 10 free hours out of that. That thing freaking rocks. You get discounts on it. I educate your boy yesterday, before yesterday, because we have a Trello where we put in game request codes. And Roger, yeah, put on EA Sports, Madden NFL 26 for the 420 stream. I'm like, it's on Xbox Game Pass. Pete, you have. I know you people have Xbox Game Pass. And then, of course, the in-game benefits that I've always loved, Zant, that I think go so far that I want to see more of, the Riot partnership with League of Legends and Valorant, right?

29:13160 plus champions, day one new champions, 20 % XP boost, Valorant has all the agents. You get Call of Duty Warzone, Rainbow Six Seeds, like Overwatch. There's so many benefits that hopefully is adding up to being like, yeah, Mike, I guess$13 is worth it. And this is back, and this is a nice transition into our topic number two of our review of Diablo. but what you and me talk about all the time of like, I don't understand why elder scrolls online, fallout 76 Diablo for season passes aren't included or at least discounted. Yeah. Where if I'm getting fortnight bucks, that's awesome. Why are we not getting 500 credits or whatever it is?

29:54Five creation credits on star field. Like there's so many, I feel easy wins that in the long run, I don't think would sink your ship, but would give people who are, Oh, I placed, I own star field and I play people are sick, sicker than me. They're playing thousands of hours of it. Why not give them free credits every month for it? Why not have Diablo's passes be cheaper? It's fun. We talked about it on the gamescast, Greg. It's like there's a live service market that you have that has dedicated audience that would probably benefit from a lot of this and only make this even more of a, hey, here's more, more, more added to this.

30:26There's the one big elephant in the room, but it's very similar to Call of Duty, which is that WoW subscription. How do you save me money on that? But there's already jabronis like me who are paying$15 a month well it'll never happen we don't need to do that but yeah you have so much positivity with a lot of games that you could just add an added benefits but it all goes back to right now in that chat is 100 % of the people going I'd take advantage of that or is it like five people going I'd barely take advantage of that great questions the Asha Sharma regime congratulations first big move right there is a positive a price reduction you gotta like that But let's see what the next one is and the one after that.

31:06But I didn't know if we'd get an Asha Sharma statement move before June. I thought it would be like, hey, I'm here. I'm taking in all the feedback. I'm learning. Got a fun social media presence. But, like, you won't see me until June. No, she's out there in front. We've already had our first big move here. Let's see what she does next. Let's see what she does next. It's kind of a nice change of pace because it seems like every time I'm hearing gaming news about prices, they're going up. It's true. So nice to have something come down for once. Because they took it up. This is something we should look and do.

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31:46Let's raise the price of the Kind of Funny membership just to drop a back down. You know what I mean? Take it down. They take it down. Speaking of the Kind of Funny membership, Greg Way, we couldn't do Kind of Funny without your support. Pick up a membership over on Patreon.com slash Kind of Funny, YouTube.com slash Kind of Funny Games, Apple, Spotify, you give us$10 a month. We give you everything we do ad-free. That's more than 80 episodes of content a month ad-free. Plus, you get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, in a 15 to 20-minute podcast I do all by my lonesome. And you get good karma for supporting an 11-person, 11-year-old small business.

32:20But right now, you're not using your benefits, so here's a word from our sponsors.

32:23Nick Scarpino:This episode's brought to you by Warby Parker. Buying eyeglasses was always a whole to-do before Warby Parker came into so many of our lives. Greg, Gia, Joey, me, all of us hated how buying glasses always felt so complicated and overpriced. And often the styles were just super outdated. But Warby Parker, total game changer. Nothing comes close on quality, price, selection, and customer service. You can literally try on glasses from your phone before you buy it with their virtual try-on. Greg says it's wild how well it actually works. And a super cool thing is Warby Parker is covered by major eye insurance plans.

33:02Nick Scarpino:That's how Gia got hers. They make it incredibly easy to use. You just enter your information to see if you are eligible for benefits on frames, contacts, or eye exams. And if you are, they automatically apply them for you. Right now, buy one prescription pair and get 20 % off any additional prescription pairs at warbyparker.com slash kindoffunny. That's 20 % off additional prescription pairs when you go to warbyparker.com slash kind of funny. Story number two on the Roper Report is our review of Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred. Of course, the new expansion coming to Diablo 4 next week. Right now on Metacritic, it's got an 82.

33:47On OpenCritic, an 83. Travis Northup at IGN gave it an 8 out of 10, said, Lord of Hatred gives Diablo 4 an extremely satisfying conclusion. Excellent changes to build crafting and an end game that could potentially go the distance. Meanwhile, Will Judd at Eurogamer gave it a 4 out of 5. A polished bewitching upgrade that sinks its claws into you, featuring perhaps the best character class in Diablo history. Then Tyler Culp over at PC Gamer gave it a 90 out of 100, saying, The Lord of Hatred campaign is about accepting the past and moving forward, as its characters bring everything they've learned into new battles.

34:21The same can be said about the ways Diablo 4 has evolved over the last several years and in this expansion alone. The changes in Lord of Hatred target Diablo 4's greatest flaws. And instead of slapping on quick fixes, Blizzard has found creative new solutions that avoid the pitfalls of the past. The result puts Diablo 4 in a great position to keep growing, but it isn't necessary to focus on the potential here. It's an exceptional action RPG right now. There's never been a better time to play Diablo 4. Ladies, gentlemen, and NBs, blow all that out your ass, because we don't need to worry about what those chuckleheads said, okay?

34:59Xanth, me, we've been playing. Of course, Xanth, you are our action RPG expert at Kind of Funny. So I want to start, of course, with you. How much Diablo, in general, if people don't know you, have you played Diablo 4? And then dive in on what you think of Lord of Hatred. uh yeah i mean diablo in general uh this has been a great year for diablo um diablo 4 is really kicking off uh strong and we'll get into the scores and all that but diablo 2 just had a major release yeah rahul coley i know mike yeah rahul coley who's also just gonna have a good week right but diablo's habit has is having a great moment uh in terms of my total time playing Diablo 4 it's probably a thousand some hours at this point between PlayStation and PC and maybe it'll come to Switch 2 and then I'll add on hours I didn't think about that you're right yeah they'd be worse so a lot of hours but let's talk about Lord of Hatred let's talk about Lord of Hatred how much of it did you play what's your hour count there and then what is your score on the kind of funny review scale so I put in like 45 hours.

36:17Good lord. It's important for everyone to know that this was a test server, so all that's gone. You're gonna have to redo everything. You're starting fresh, but you dove in that much. Goddamn, man. Look, you don't bring me on to glance at a game, right? I'm coming here to give the full report, and I think 45 hours is a good amount to kind of dig in. I probably could have done more if i if i had the opportunity but it was only a week so you you do what you can uh but let's get into it like what what does this score for the kind of funny scale for me i think there are two scores i think for the kind of funny audience right for everybody out there that's coming back to diablo this is a nine out of ten god damn right amazing all right yeah it's an amazing game for somebody who's been in the game and hasn't left i think this is a 9.5 wow okay i didn't see that one coming i didn't see it going up for somebody who hasn't left okay explain the difference in opinion then i think if you're if you're coming in and it's been a while there's all these new tools and maybe you just don't necessarily appreciate them because you've been away whereas if you've been in it the whole time you're kind of finally given the things you've wanted that you've been lacking uh a big big upgrade in this version are skill trees uh skills don't feel lase they don't feel like just i have to choose 40 different passive points and the The general running joke was the skill tree was more of a skill twig.

38:08These skill trees are beefy and are fun and exciting to play through. That in and of itself is a major upgrade from what we had before. But then you add in the newer endgame activities, war plans, and the like. And it just feels so close to being almost done. There are still some nitpicky parts. that's why i just could never say for anybody it's a 10 out of 10 uh paradigm boards are still kind of a a thing i don't care for there's a lot of uh clicking it's a lot of points but it doesn't i i guess like this version of diablo 4 the bad parts got better and nothing got worse so it really feels good everything just feels exciting but i'm curious how much did you play greg and and where are you at so yeah i did not put in nearly as much time as you did to it um as i think a lot of people know if you followed my diablo journey i love diablo 4 i platinum diablo 4 on playstation 5 uh we know we reviewed it back then uh we did vessel of hatred i i went and played hours at the preview event at Blizzard.

39:25I then did just like you did, where I got obsessed with the review build, had all that wipe, then dove back into retail, yada, yada, yada. And my PlayStation clock, I think, says 160 right now. So 160 hours on that, everything I just talked about, not the new content. And so what was interesting about all of that, of course, as I've talked about in content, is that I burned myself the fuck out, where I loved Diablo 4 and was playing it consistently as my everyday game, or not every day, but seasonal, jump in, do this. I was there all the time, like you're talking. And then I went and did vessel of hatreds preview came back and I was like, I want to platinum this by the time vessel of hatred comes out.

40:02And so I just binged Diablo at a point where you still had to do very specific things to grind and not the most interesting things to grind, to get where you needed to be. And so by the time vessel of hatred came out and then retail came out, I was so stuffed with Diablo that I put it down and haven't come back. And even when they added in the new class, uh, paladin, right at what game awards i wanted to jump back in and looked at it and i was just like i just don't have it in me out and i was like i hope that lord of hatred will be enough to bring me back and so started up lord of hatred got in and was very much like it's diablo 4 i have done this world the druid which is the stuff we're seeing right now this purple stuff and i was like okay i don't know about this and then it just flipped man like it did exactly what you're talking about for me who's a very specific Diablo player I'm not the grind the end game have the best build yada yada yada like I play and continue to go long after I finish the story but this game and this expansion feels so fresh you know you and me joke all the time on the Diablo podcast when I guessed of course of like I could not tell you thing one about the Diablo story and that's not 100 % true but it definitely is that it's never grabbed me from the opening of what they do here with the main villain and I don't want to spoil too much even though I know it's out there to somebody but you know what I mean like the main villain what he's doing the hook to it I was like I texted you I'm like this dude is so fucking cool I love everything and that kept going and they kept giving twists and they kept doing stuff let alone then kept putting us in I don't want to say different environments because I feel like that takes away maybe it was that I just didn't vibe with the jungle aesthetic of vessel of hatred as much whereas lord of hatred you're fighting these monsters made of wood and brambles and I was like oh my god like the visuals of it were just so good let alone this story let alone playing as the new character druid where I was like damn I'm throwing you know I'm conjuring this gigantic purple beast I'm just feeding it my xp every time of like make that stronger make that stronger as it smashes and tears everything apart like i had so much fun i only i am so hesitant to ruin the experience for me i only put six hours in so like like i said a fraction of time but i was enjoying it so much that i was like i i honestly what i want to do is i think with not having the gun to my head of like okay let's review it i can do what we did with diablo 4 in a lot of ways and wait for jen jen and i played the shit out of diablo 4 together her and when vessel of hatred came i did the review thing and i was like all right babe it's out she's like but have you played i'm like she's like well i don't want to i i like experiencing the story with you and so i think there's enough hooks here that she's really going to get a kick out of this as well but i was like you know what i like this so much i want to keep it and i you know it was that thing of i was did my best to hold myself off but yesterday i was playing on that test server at 3 45 when they shut it down and i was like oh damn you know what i mean i i was sorry warlock is who I was playing as not drew the new that's the second that's the new class this one I was gonna jump in and correct I appreciate you just letting me rant and rave about it I appreciate that thank you so much Chad for keeping me honest I'm sorry sorry sorry sorry yes I was playing as the warlock the purple one dropping all the new stuff here uh yeah I was playing yesterday on the test server as they shut it down and I was so into that I immediately went to of course my uh ROG ally my xbox game pass ultimate downloaded it there so that I could actually have it on the go with me rather than remote playing as I often do and if you didn't know remember everybody this is a cross progression game so if you wanted it on multiple platforms yes you have to buy things on multiple platforms in terms of expansions but you could have your characters all over there so it's I I loved what I played and then seeing these reviews and then hearing you talk about it I'm excited to see how far they go with it yeah I I think you know touching on kind of what you said story-wise um one we we're not going to talk spoilers we can't anyway uh also that would just be crummy you know the game's not even out let's spoil it um what i will say is i know a lot of people were spurned by the vessel of hatred story because it it just some of the story beats were a little bit more predictable uh and the closing was lacking this doesn't have that this is this is a strong story throughout the entirety of the game it feels good to be in there are a lot of amazing story beats that that are cool to be a part of and like it just cements it being a good game right uh the the story itself you know i i tried to get through it quickly uh if those if anybody's curious like how long does the campaign run between eight to ten hours uh maybe a little bit more if you want to you know really kind of dig into every single side area that that is present but eight to ten hours solid story through and through and then you'll find yourself at about level 45 when the game kind of closes and then it the level cap is 70 so then you start jumping into all those end game activities you were kind of talking about greg uh war plans being the the big one that gets added and talk to me about that is because even i don't know what that is because i've been so uh diablo 4 i i'm phil i'm full that's that's fair normally when you finish the campaign you're kind of left to your lonesome of being like hey what is it i should be doing and they'll breadcrumb a little bit at the end of saying like you could go fighting some helltides you could go fight some infernal hordes but there was never like a good seamless way to to have that all presented so war plans are kind of like the the end game of it uh and kevin i did put that assets if you're able to get a hold of it uh it it's just the one from uh from uh blizzard in the in the war plans essentially what they do is they streamline the process where you can create like a little bit of a an end game curve you can say like uh i'm i'm choosing between two activities i'm going to do a helltide then i'm going to do as we see here oh this is hopping into them okay right so i'm gonna do a helltide and then the next activity will be a pit and after that will be an infernal horde and as i'm doing that i'm also getting experience for a tree i know more more skill trees people love trees that will i know uh but we'll actually modify the activities that i'm doing so by completing these war plans not only am i leveling up my character but i'm also adding experience to these activities that i enjoy and i can start to kind of target the more enjoyable activities there's certain parts of diablo like i enjoy helltides i i like being able to roam around a giant area for about an hour and just try to kill a bunch of stuff and find loot i could specialize in that i could start to customize what that actually looks like uh do i get more xp for each kill do i get more treasure from each chest that i open by committing to these war plans and in turn getting more gear and leveling my character up it just provides a more clear sense of direction while also just making it easier to go from thing to thing because built into the war plans one of my favorite features i can just hold down the trigger r2 to teleport immediately to whatever activity that I'm doing.

47:52I don't have to open up the map or anything like that. I'm just in the war plans, teleporting in between activities. Awesome. So then I want to bring in this question over here from Onimus Prime, who super chats, okay? What does Diablo 4 Complete look like to you, Xanf? How many expansions, axe, classes do we hope to get? I wonder if we're looking at a wow type of rollout. Obviously, Lord of Hatred here, the second big expansion after vessel of hatred do you see this as the bow on diablo 4 or is this going to be one of these games that we are continuing on with for years and years and years years i don't know um we are in a significant there's big hexi right there um there is there is uh it feels really good right now um but i can also see a lot of directions that they could continue with if they're choosing to not just let this lie um the the paragon system i think as i mentioned before is a little dated and i would love to see that get a another pass but it's also it feels better than what it did before because power for a character is so built into a the character tree that enhancing it on a paragon board feels better like everything just feels a little bit better with the systems as they are now so what does this game complete look like i don't i don't really know it could be this i would be saddened if there wasn't another expansion coming up because i think this is finally getting into where it should be but the other side is we're we're hearing rumblings of what what blizzcon will be and we've been teased that this is a big moment for Blizzard but also for Diablo and is another expansion that big moment or is is there another Diablo game coming it feels so early for like a Diablo 5 but also this game's getting to a good place where maybe they could start putting their sights somewhere else so I would say a complete version of this is really just fixing a little bit more on that end game I don't think we need more classes the classes themselves feel phenomenal uh I during my time I wanted to go and go back to the old classes that I had already played a lot with because just like you Greg I started with a warlock why wouldn't I like it's it's the new class you have to it's so cool yeah it's it's fun to play with to mess around with and everything's new but how do those old classes feel because that was a big problem with vessel too is the spirit born was phenomenal all the other classes got one new skill and they kind of just didn't feel as good so i went back and i played a druid i played a rogue i played a barbarian i tried to play a necromancer each class felt significantly better and exciting to engage with except for barbarian i just don't like barbarian um that's crazy sorry for the barbarian slander that i will put out there my wonder woman barbarian is untouchable i have you know it just wasn't my sure sure type of place find your fun i understand yeah uh i will state like going into the the new tree for each class felt significantly better um playing i played a druid for most seasons so going in and uh playing with that class that i felt like i knew really well and finding more joy in something that I had already liked has made me more anticipatory for next week because I want to get back to this version.

51:40This version of these classes is significantly better. And, you know, kind of going back to that super chat, feels complete. Like these classes just feel better now. Yeah. Of course, we have many friends in this industry, including the one, the only BeansGottGames. He super chats and says, same, Greggy. I was on the test server until the last minute and also downloaded to my ROG ally. I'm hooked again. I think that's gotta be what they're going for. Get lapsed players like us back here on top of the people like you that never leave and are always here and are excited to jump back into these planes and tear it up.

52:14What are the other big things we haven't talked about for Lord of hatred? I know it's an abbreviated review for you to get it all in, but what do you need to say? And then also, what are you talking about on the Diablo podcast so people can go catch that? uh in terms of like what else to to cover uh items themselves feel a little different uh i ended i got to level 70 without ever getting a unique item i got to level 70 and i was still in yellow and blue gear oh wow that's a big change from when like legendaries were littering right because all of those legendary powers are now on the skill tree so you are less reliant on on finding them to to make your character work and then you're finding items that are just enhancing what is what is inherently there as you go and you fight bosses you're not a same kind of thing like that that level of loot is kind of filtered down and where they balance it out a little bit is crafting has kind of come back.

53:14We have a Horadric Cube, which you can go and start to customize what you want from your particular gear. You can maybe be able to create something that will help enhance what your build is going for. And then you also have the Talisman feature. So the Talisman is introducing set abilities as well as your ability to just kind of find these charms over your leveling journey and into the end game that can go about changing the build that you have. all of that just culminates in a much more enjoyable end game where whether you're popping in for maybe two or three war plans or you're going to play for two or three days, you always have something to kind of chase after.

53:58Love that. To make it a little bit better, to like try to go to a different difficulty or just make your build that you're already enjoying stronger as opposed to like trying to make it work. Like that was the big danger of Vessel of Hatred and of the base game is you needed items to make a build. Now your build is there. You're just trying to make it better and maybe find a few tweaks along the way. And that in turn is more fun. It very much echoes Diablo 2 where you just click a bunch of skills, get them going and then you're finding items to make them even better. I can't wait. April 28th is when this officially drops.

54:40Of course, Xanth, you'll be covering on the Diablo podcast when's the new podcast episode go up i think we're going to record uh maybe this thursday will probably drop next week before release so people are getting hyped they can tune in and we'll be talking obviously all about this coverage i'll share a little bit about what i had kind of played uh and then yeah then we'll just go dark for a little bit because we'll all be playing so much even with right even with 45 hours it's not enough i i definitely am more excited for this than what I was for Bessel. Goddamn. Love to hear it. I can't wait to get back to it.

55:15It's a long wait until Tuesday, but not a long wait until story number three. Splatoon Raiders hits the Switch 2 in July. We're reading from Andrew Webster at The Verge, and we have a trailer. The Squid Kids will be back this summer. Nintendo announced this morning that Splatoon Raiders, a single-player spinoff of its competitive shooter series, will launch on the Switch 2 on July 23rd. It will be the first new entry in the space since Splatoon 3 in 2022. In addition to the date, Nintendo also released a new trailer that gives a better idea of what the Raiders will actually play like. Essentially, it looks like it retains the same ink-focused shooter gameplay and killer soundtrack from the main series, but translate it to a new campaign.

55:55That said, while Nintendo describes the game as, quote, single-player focused, end quote, Raiders does include some co-op elements as you can team up with up to three other players, both online and locally. Here's the setup, according to Nintendo. Quote, play as a mechanic working with Deepcut, a trio of swashbuckling musicians, and venture out into the mysterious Cipheralite islands. Customize your appearance, equip magical mechanical gadgets and ink-splattering weapons, and take on hordes of aggressive sea creatures called Salmonids. No Salmonids? Eh, well, Salmonids? It's Salmonids. Salmonids.

56:32In search of treasure. additionally from nintendo live splatoon raiders will set you back 49.99 digitally or 59.99 physically congratulations andy you've won there's more splatoon do you care about it did you ever play this i splatoon never really appealed to me but like my daughter is getting more into gaming i i don't think my son is necessarily intrigued by this but for her as a 10 year old i like i'm watching this trailer and seeing like the little character creator i could see where this would get its hooks in her and then as you're talking about having that local co-op being able to sit down and play games next door is phenomenal and anytime i'm able to find something that that really hits that that little moment i want to kind of jump at it so this is definitely on my radar now like i'm probably going to grab this for her and i to play because it probably will just be fun she cruised through astrobots so she's looking for a new game this might be a nice little challenge for her yes platoon's never done anything for me but everything you just said and watching it i'm like i can see where ben is going to want to play this all the time let alone have me hop in and help out uh i look at it and it's like i don't mean to offend kebabs in the chat it gives me like those it gives me like at a glance ratchet and clank vibes and i'm like that'll work really well with ben so i'm right there with you of like i'm excited to try this out uh when it drops in july july 23rd and see what it's all about but xanth my son getting into splatoon would be humongous news perhaps the biggest news in nintendo this year if i wanted something say smaller news the tiniest news i need to know about where would i go well you would go to our last story, the Wii News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

58:29Kebabs in the chat. It's like an ugly aquatic ration clank. Ha ha. Fair enough. I agree. I don't think that trailer didn't look great, but whatever. In terms of graphics, gameplay looks like it'd be fun. I digress. We have a stacked Wii News because we had to demote so much stuff. Number four, the Wii News. Exclusive, Ubisoft cancels Altera. It's Animal Crossing inspired game. This is Mike Straw over at Insider Gaming. His lead graph goes, another Ubisoft game has found itself on the chopping block. Insider Gaming has learned that its in-development game, Altera, has officially been canceled. I didn't even know that game existed, but Godspeed, Ubisoft.

59:06Figure it out. Then Japanese anime. What? Sad to hear. Yeah, of course. Japanese anime and film giant Toe, and I'm going to say Toe, right? Like Koe, because it looks like it's Koei Tecmo. So Toe, Toei enters game business with new Toei Games label. This is Amber V over at Automation. Japanese entertainment company Toei has announced the establishment of its own game brand, Toei Games. Best known internationally for its anime subsidiary, Toei Animation, One Piece, Dragon Ball. Toei has decided to branch out beyond television, film, and anime into the video game market. The new brand will initially target the PC market, specifically Steam, with plans for eventual expansion to PC or PlayStation Switch Xbox.

59:52Surprisingly, Toei's game's early lineup will not include titles based on existing IP. Specific information about the upcoming titles will be announced on April 24th. Fascinating that they're not doubling down on the things people know them for, but good for them. Entering the game space, more games is good. That surprised me, like not leaning into your strong suit. but maybe they got maybe they got an ace in the hole maybe they got something out there we don't know about now over there kebab says toe a greg got it the first time toe a yeah and i was saying tecmo co-ee was tecmo co-ee a got it co-ee we're on to it adjacent gaming news apple ceo tim cook is stepping down and gets replaced by john turnis on september 1st we'll see what that means for everything devil may Cry Season 2 is coming to Netflix on May 12th.

1:00:46From gamesindustry.biz, Sony is starting to introduce age verification for PlayStation users in the UK and Ireland to meet the requirements of the UK's Online Safety Act. Age verification is currently optional, but will be required starting June 2026, as outlined on its support page. If users do not verify their age, they may lose access to PlayStation communication features because, as Jim Ryan always said, it was about the children. That's why there couldn't be cross-play with Fortnite, remember. somebody think of the children back to automation Hello Kitty and Kuro Mi company San Rio announces its own game brand San Rio Games 10 games are titles are planned for the release the next three years people will be releasing games to publishers left and right what a good day for news at least they're also going to lean into Hello Kitty I would assume I would assume so yes I would assume so Clockwork Ambrosia launches May 12th on PC Hell Divers 2 XO Experts War Expert XO Experts War Bond drops April 28th and Roger is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and mobile June 18th we were all about and Roger here kind of funny get on that it absolutely broke me I was sitting at a ballet rehearsal surrounded by parents who are not on a switch and they already see me as the weird guy who's playing games while his daughter's dancing sure anyways I just break down stopping at the end of this game.

1:02:17Oh, no. And everybody's looking at me like a weirdo. So it was a choice to play in Roger in public. That was a choice. I didn't know it was going to do that. That's why Roger's great. Those of you who do buy it for switch to or mobile expect to have an emotional breakdown in public. Fair enough. Your final piece of we news comes from Gamatsu. by King will release a Switch version of Roguelike Match 3 Puzzle Adventure Game Dia Loop on June 17th. That's it, everybody. That's it for your Wii News. Let's check in on kindoffunny.com slash you're wrong. There's a lot of arithmetic here. Arithmetic superfluous.

1:03:03Kebab says we, we, we, we, we news, but I'm fairly sure Shoes blue sky account has been hacked. Greg, please let him know to delete that post and change the passwords. We'll check into that. Oh, Kebab says missed news. We'll probably get it tomorrow then, but Minds Eye is suing. The staff behind Minds Eye is suing developer Bill the Rocket Boy, according to IGN's Tom Phillips.

1:03:26I fought it as long as I could. I'm sure we'll have that for you tomorrow. However, before we close out today, let's check in on a few super chats. Obviously, there were so many about the Xbox. We got so many we could get in there, but there's a bunch that are just general purpose ones. And I'd like to get those out. Matt Grover, super chats and says, congratulations to kind of funny best friend, Jack Quaid, who got married. Is that official? I saw on the subreddit, like apparently it happened, but it seemed like they were trying to keep it quiet and people at the reception might've put up things.

1:03:56So we're going to zip our lips on that until Jack Quaid comes out and says it, unless he said it during the show, but it was, yeah, okay. Puny shop. Puny the Sharma three, three, two, zero platinum tax with my 55th platinum for Venmo. Uh, love the South Indian representation. Unfortunately, I share the same last name as our new Xbox CEO. Oh, okay. Okay. Oh, I see what's going on. Puny Sharma is your name. Thank you so much. And hell yeah. Venmo is a great game. Everybody go get that. Uh, up here, uh, zoo Ninja 22 says birthday tax. Happy birthday. Uh, my birthday is tomorrow. also posting today in case I can't tune in.

1:04:35I'm celebrating 34. Here's to 34 more. And everybody, that was your final super chat of the day. But believe it or not, kind of funny is far from done. We're a network all about live talk shows, which means from here you're going into the games cast where Andy and Blessing are talking about a bunch of goats. That's right. Game of the years. They're going to be talking, or greatest of all times, that they're reviewing for the first time ever and what they've been playing after After that, it's the kind of funny podcast. After that, it is a stream where I believe Mike is playing vampire crawlers.

1:05:08And I'm very excited to see that game in action. Of course, you should like subscribe, share youtube.com slash kind of funny games, twitch.tv slash kind of funny games, Apple, Spotify, wherever you can, wherever you can get it, pick up the membership. I've already promoted that enough, but I want to promote Xanth one more time. Xanth, where should people keep up with you? Well, you can find the Diablo podcast on Apple and Spotify and over on YouTube at pure dmg or blue sky uh hd xanth fantastic xanth you killed it as always always happy to have you thank you for coming through always happy to be here uh i'm gonna point out i'm free during the summers bring me back okay sure no problem come visit again i like that when you came out here i would love to by then we'll solve this whole gas crisis i'm sure prices will be down and everything everything's going down xbox yes it's gonna be great uh everybody we're all gonna die until next time it's been our pleasure to serve you

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Run of Show -
- Start - Xbox Game Pass Price Drops Officially, From Xbox Wire - Ad - Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred Review Round Up - Splatoon Raiders hits the Switch 2 in July - Andrew Webster @ The Verge - Wee News! - SuperChats & You‘re Wrong

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