Battlefield 6 Officially Revealed, Will This Save EA? - Kinda Funny Games Daily 07.22.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Episode: Battlefield 6 Officially Revealed, Will This Save EA?
Release Date: July 22, 2025
Hosts: Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Tim Gettys, Blessing Adeoye Jr

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1. Battlefield 6 Official Announcement and EA’s Prospects [00:35:17 - 00:24:56]

The episode kicks off with an exciting revelation about Electronic Arts (EA) finally unveiling Battlefield 6. Host Andy introduces the news sourced from Rebecca Valentine at IGN, highlighting that the official trailer is scheduled for release on July 24th at 8:00 AM Pacific Time. The trailer is expected to showcase four soldiers engaged in a metropolitan battle scene, featuring ships, helicopters, and planes.

Andy remarks, “After years of waiting, EA is finally ready to officially fully reveal its next Battlefield game” (04:35). The game, anticipated for a release before March 2026, has seen leaked footage from closed playtests revealing modern settings, destructible environments, and a potential Battle Royale mode.

Mike expresses his enthusiasm, stating, “We get our first look shout out to Kind of Funny” (06:40). Both hosts discuss the implications of introducing a Battle Royale mode to the Battlefield franchise, debating its potential to capture a new audience and compete with established titles like Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone.

Andy shares his excitement about the possible innovations, saying, “I'm really stoked about a Battle Royale” (08:43). They delve into the challenges EA might face, including balancing vehicular elements and ensuring the Battle Royale mode stands out in a saturated market.

Mike adds, “Battlefield battle Royale is very cool to me. I love the idea of it” (07:49), emphasizing the potential for unique gameplay mechanics that blend Battlefield’s large-scale combat with the intense, competitive nature of Battle Royales.

2. Supermassive Games Delays Directive 8020 and Announces Layoffs [04:17 - 05:08]

The conversation shifts to Supermassive Games and their recent announcement of delaying their upcoming sci-fi horror title, Directive 8020, to 2026. Additionally, the studio has undergone a round of layoffs affecting 36 employees. The news, reported by Andy Robinson at VGC, underscores the challenging environment within the gaming industry, particularly for studios navigating financial constraints and project delays.

Andy cites the official statement: “This decision was not taken lightly and we know this will be an incredibly, incredibly difficult time for everyone” (25:36). The hosts express their disappointment, with Mike stating, “Layoffs suck? This is very unfortunate” (26:41), lamenting the impact on the affected employees and the potential ramifications for Supermassive’s future projects.

Andy reflects on the broader industry trend, noting, “We’ve had so many awful stories of gigantic amounts of layoffs” (28:55), highlighting the precarious nature of game development and the frequent financial struggles faced by studios.

3. Critical Role Launches Its First Video Game [03:27 - 04:17]

Critical Role, renowned for its tabletop Dungeons & Dragons web series, is venturing into the video game industry with its first title set in the beloved world of Exandria. The game, Dispatch, is being co-developed with indie studio Ad Hoc Studio, founded by veterans from Telltale Games, Ubisoft, and Night School Studio.

Victoria Phillips Kennedy at Eurogamer reports that Dispatch is described as a “superhero workplace comedy” and an “interactive narrative game” (37:00). Matt Mercer and Laura Bailey, prominent voice actors from Critical Role, are integral to the project. Chief Executive Officer Michael Chung praises the collaboration: “We’re thrilled to get the team up and cause some trouble together” (38:40).

Mike shares his excitement about the partnership, saying, “This is wild Ad Hoc and them doing Dispatch” (38:40), and discusses the seamless blend of Critical Role’s storytelling with Ad Hoc’s narrative-driven game design. The hosts speculate on the game’s mechanics, pondering whether it will adopt a turn-based approach similar to Baldur’s Gate or explore more innovative gameplay elements.

Andy muses, “This could be really, really fantastic” (39:38), envisioning a rich, choice-driven experience that leverages Critical Role’s strong narrative foundation. They also humorously discuss the potential for Easter eggs related to Resident Evil 6, tying back to the voice actors’ previous work.

4. Ubisoft’s Mixed Financial Results: Assassin’s Creed Shadows vs. Rainbow Six Siege X [43:10 - 55:57]

Ubisoft’s latest financial quarter presents a mixed bag, with Assassin’s Creed Shadows exceeding expectations by attracting over 5 million unique players, while Rainbow Six Siege X underperforms due to technical issues related to pricing exploits and prepaid currency cards.

Tom Phillips at IGN reports that Ubisoft CEO Eve Gilmot described the quarter as having “mixed results” (43:10). Assassin’s Creed Shadows integrates well into the Ubisoft Plus subscription service, maintaining steady player engagement as anticipation builds for its first major expansion, Claws of Awaji.

Conversely, Rainbow Six Siege X experienced significant setbacks. The hosts discuss how Ubisoft’s handling of microtransactions and technical glitches hindered the game’s performance. Mike sarcastically remarks, “We fucked up with the money” (45:33), highlighting the frustration with the mismanagement of in-game economics.

Andy reflects on the evolving gaming market, noting, “I still think this is in my opinion, below what I would expect for now” (46:33), emphasizing that while meeting expectations is positive, Ubisoft likely aspired for greater success with both titles. They compare the performance of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to Ghost of Tsushima, considering how timely releases and standout features can significantly impact player reception and sales.

Mike adds, “The gameplay side. Right. It is just version 1.2” (53:49), suggesting that Ubisoft’s incremental updates may not be sufficient to rejuvenate player interest or generate substantial revenue compared to flagship titles like Fortnite or Warzone.

5. Additional News and Announcements [57:00 - 60:06]

In the final segment, the hosts cover additional gaming news and engage with listener super chats. Notably:

• Fate Has Been Delayed: The game’s release is pushed to October 31st.

• Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Revival: Saber Interactive announces a first-person action horror survival game based on the Hellraiser franchise, featuring voice work by Salivir Nelson.

• Nintendo Switch 2 Bundle: Nintendo reveals a new Switch 2 bundle that includes the Pokemon Legends Z game, aiming to capitalize on the enduring popularity of the Pokemon franchise.

Listeners’ super chats provide humorous and enthusiastic comments about upcoming games and nostalgic references to classic titles like Layers of Fear and Resident Evil 6.

6. Fun Segments and Community Interaction [34:31 - 59:00]

Throughout the episode, the hosts maintain a lively and entertaining dynamic, often diverging into playful banter and personal anecdotes. They interact with fictional friend Kevin Ace X and respond to humorous listener comments, adding a personable touch to the news delivery. Notable moments include:

• Mike and Kevin’s Banter: Mike humorously introduces Kevin, leading to playful exchanges about video gaming and personal jabs (35:19).

• Listener Super Chats: The hosts read and react to listener messages about Pokemon, birthday wishes, and D&D rulebooks, fostering a sense of community and engagement (62:50).

• Trailer Reactions: They review trailers for Hellraiser Revival and Age Field High Rock the School, providing candid and comedic feedback on the visuals and gameplay concepts (59:33).

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Conclusion

In this episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, the hosts provide an in-depth analysis of significant industry developments, from the much-anticipated reveal of Battlefield 6 and its potential impact on EA, to critical updates on Supermassive Games and Ubisoft’s recent financial performance. Additionally, the foray of Critical Role into the video game realm with Dispatch marks a noteworthy expansion for the popular tabletop franchise.

Amidst the serious discussions, the hosts ensure an engaging and entertaining atmosphere through their dynamic interactions and community engagement, making the podcast both informative and enjoyable for listeners.

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Note: Timestamps correspond to approximate points in the provided transcript and are intended for reference.

Transcript

[Andy]

Today's stories include Battlefield 6 will be revealed this week. Supermassive has Delays for Directive 8020 and critical role is working on its first video game. We'll have all this and more because this is kind of Funny Games Daily. Hey gamers. Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Tuesday, July 22, 2020 25. I'm Andy and I'm joined by Mike. And thank you, Mike for correcting the date in the dock because Roger had the date of July 7th and we kind of came to the conclusion that he was trying to sabotage me.

[Mike]

He's trying to get after you as if you don't got it. You're not on top of the ball.

[Andy]

Well, I wasn't. I wouldn't have known.

[Mike]

Your best friend wouldn't have let that happen.

[Andy]

Thank you, homie.

[Mike]

And that's why I'm here. I feel good today, Andy. Yesterday I didn't feel good because they wanted us to predict Pokemon stuff so I didn't have it. But today I got you covered. I got good energy. I'm feeling good. I'm ready to bring it for you.

[Andy]

I thought we had a kick ass show yesterday as well. I thought we had fantastic.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, I'm coming. With a different demeanor lately for Games Daily. I'm giving you soft, easy mic.

[Andy]

Okay.

[Mike]

Not wackado Mike.

[Andy]

Yeah, no more wackadoo Mike.

[Mike]

I'm giving. I'm just going to give it to you like this.

[Andy]

Yeah. Let me tell you about my. My water shoes or whatever the hell you're talking about.

[Mike]

Problem with the water shoes. Oh, God damn it. Get a message from Amazon. If you don't get the water shoes by the 26th, please message us. So clearly my $6 water shoes were far. They're not real and they're not coming. But don't worry. That's why I ordered the backup pair for $29.99 that'll arrive today.

[Andy]

$6 to a backup of $29.99.

[Mike]

Well, $29.99, they had the special lace, the zip up lace to make sure it stayed on my foot.

[Andy]

This is kind of funny. Games Daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the nerd news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the club. So off right there.

[Mike]

Do it again. I nailed that. Play the tape back. I nailed that.

[Andy]

You weren't on camera. I wish you were, but it was on podcast services around. Nailed it so early. The Globe, if you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube and Spotify and Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show a chance to be a part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. And in the Wii news section there'll be a little bit of some Pokemon Z and that's where we can maybe read a couple of the Pokemon Super Chats that we were unable to get to during the Gamescast. Apologies on that. We will get to some of them through there but there will be plenty of opportunities to leave some super chats and support a small little 11 person business like us because we're a small little 11 person business. Talking about video games. Remember the Gamescast already happened and it was breaking down and reacting to the Pokemon direct. Today after KFGD you'll get the stream which is Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Why did I really struggle with that with the devs and Greg? So get stoked to watch some Marvel Cosmic Invasion. Pretty pumped for that. You're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg weighs 15 minutes all about the Rog ally X and what it means for your Steam deck. Pretty pumped about tomorrow, Mike, because I get to talk about a couple different games but mainly Wuchang Fallen Feathers.

[Mike]

You can say it now.

[Andy]

Oh, I've been able to say it.

[Mike]

Yeah, you've been playing.

[Andy]

Yeah, you've been playing it. Shogun with the final boss last night. But I feel like I think it's the final boss. Feel like I'm gonna take it down today.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Okay. I'm very happy to hear in your thoughts on it.

[Andy]

Yeah. Look forward to the games cast tomorrow. We'll be talking about that. Well as another review that we may be embargoed on that I don't think I can talk about as well as other gaming fun. But thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining. Today we're brought to you by Mood and Factor, but we'll tell you all about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today.

[Mike]

Baker's dog, cousin.

[Andy]

He sounds like Shakira so much and I love him.

[Mike]

Hear a cough after this sometimes you got to get it out afterwards too. I've been.

[Andy]

You're right there, Kev. You good there? Yeah, good there.

[Mike]

Big so fine.

[Andy]

Battlefield 6 to be officially revealed this week. This comes from Rebecca Valentine at IGN the Homie thank you Rebecca for this reporting. After years of waiting, EA is finally ready to officially fully reveal its next Battlefield game. The the official title seems to be Battlefield 6, and we're getting a first trailer this week on July 24th at 8:00am Pacific Time. This comes from a YouTube listing that popped up on the official Battlefield channel for a scheduled stream at that day and time. The listing itself is devoid of further details, though it does include some official artwork showing four soldiers overlooking a battle in a metropolitan area, complete with ships, helicopters, planes and more. It's been a long wait for Battlefield 6. It was first announced way way back in 2021, sort of mostly as EA confirming they're still working on more Battlefield games after Battlefield 2042. Since then, we've seen an early piece of concept art and had it confirmed that the game would take place in the modern setting. While the game is currently expected for release sometime during the current fiscal year before March 2026, EA CEO Andrew Wilson has implied he's willing to consider moving it depending on the release windows of competitor games such as GTA 6. In recent months, footage of Battlefield 6 from various closed play tests has started leaking online, showing the game's modern setting, various firefights, destructible environments, quality of life improvements, and the start of a battle royale match. EA has had a rough year laying off workers in multiple waves, forcing an unpopular return to forcing an unpopular return to office mandate, and shutting down both planned upcoming games such as Cliffhangers Black Panther and existing games such as Anthem. O that's the fog machine's really hitting right there. Really hitting. That's hit hit at the end of the story. So again officially announced yet. You know we we got the rumors yesterday with that sort of titled Battlefield 6. I mean I feel like that was kind of confirmed but today it's actually.

[Mike]

Confirmed now we now we can say is officially confirmed. And guess What? This week, July 24, which is two days from now at 8:00am, we're getting a trailer. We're getting the first look and I am blown away. I am actually surprised that we are this soon into Battlefield. Even though you and I talked about it yesterday, they had the big announcement that they will release this game by the end of their fiscal year, which is, you know, March next year so in the spring. So they have about six months we'll call it to do this or oh I guess almost a year. But yeah we have like six to nine months. But yeah, this is exciting stuff. So we get our first look shout out to Kind of funny. Best friends, New Jersey Devil got me doing some research into. We were talking about the Battle Royale versus Extraction shooter. What will they do? We saw with Rebecca Valentine talking about that. There's been some data mines, there's been leaks. There's been talk from the pre existing Alphas that people have played now kind of talking about that. It looks like they will do a Battle Royale. Which gets me excited.

[Andy]

Exciting.

[Mike]

It's. It's exciting. It's a little nerve wracking from the business side of like will this hit? Will this be the one? But a battlefield battle Royale is very cool to me. I love the idea of it.

[Andy]

I don't think that there's a way you could have got me super stoked about this game. Other like we mentioned yesterday, aside from the fact of just playing a first person or third person shooter with your friends, which you know, there are plenty of games that can be fun with friends. Man, you're just housing that water, huh? Got some.

[Mike]

Got to get a hold of it.

[Andy]

Yeah, a little bit fell out. It looked like see it all leaking out. But with yesterday with us talking about how I just generally don't really care a whole lot about the gameplay loop of Battlefield 1 or, or Battlefield period. The massive capture the zones. I never really feel like I have a whole lot of agency. And some people say Andy, get good. You know, you got to dictate the battlefield. But it's like it just always felt like a war zone pre game lobby. And this has really ratcheted up my excitement to like oh my God. I'm really stoked to the announcement of.

[Mike]

The idea of a battle Royale.

[Andy]

I'm really, really stoked about a Battle Royale. And it is one of those weird things where we talk about, about four to five years ago Battle Royale is kind of like, all right man, we're getting a lot of these. We're having a lot of people trying to get into this market and usually leads to failure, usually leads to low player counts, people not super enthused about the product, people having complaints about server issues or player lobbies or skill based matchmaking. And then it ultimately leads to everybody going back to Warzone, everybody going back to Fortnite. This, this has me excited in a way because we, we had talked about how Extraction shooters became the next sort of the last bastion of where developers are looking to try to fill those gaps of can we kind of be the console version of what Tarkov is on PC. And there's always been a part of me that's that Thought I feel like there will be a return to Battle Royale sometime soon. And it does feel a little bit too soon to even say that. But when you think about it, there haven't been a whole lot of Battle Royales aside from Pubg and Warzone and Fortnite, that have really owned the marketplace.

[Mike]

Apex.

[Andy]

Apex. You're totally right with Apex. My fault. But even with Apex, some, you know, Apex introducing, I'm blanking on their, their mini game modes.

[Mike]

Oh, the valorant like mode that.

[Andy]

Yeah, they had, their 3v3 mode. You've seen a lot of these developers try to kind of also add on and ultimately that rarely works out. But for a company like EA with the budget that they have, and boy, do they have a budget again. This Andrew Wilson guy making like, you know, 30 million in bonuses a year, crazy. Could pay for about 300 employees for a full year of employment. But for a company like EA to have the budget, to have the, the amount of employees that could try to make a Battle Royale work and to make it successful, that's a really big challenge. But I am from, just from the player side, I'm super stoked about this. Mike.

[Mike]

I am glad that you are stoked.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Because I am a big Battle Royale fan. The audience knows that, that's listening. You know that I really love the game mode battle Royale. My first person shooters in any shooter genre. Right. I, I have gravitated towards that. I am into that. I really enjoy battlefield. I love what they've done on the large scale combat that no one else really does as well as they do. The only in battlefield moments always get me excited about gameplay. Right. And so the idea of jumping into a battle Royale is exciting to me because as you said, you know, you thought like Battle Royales have dropped off. Battle Royales for me have just always stuck around. Right. It's not a. We're re. We're coming back all of a sudden. It's just, yeah. Battle Royales are still the big marketplace and people are still trying to find a way to, to pull you away from Fortnite and Call of Duty and get a little piece of that pie. Especially in the shooter genre. That's what we're talking about right now. If you are not a Marvel Rivals where you are encroaching on a, you know, team hero based game like an Overwatch, if you are not a dedicated team arena like a Call of Duty, you have to find your own kind of space. And that's this battle Royale market right now that seems to be where People want to be and live in. And I think the idea of what you saw with Battlefield, with the destructible environments, Levolution, what they showed you back in the day with of course, fire.

[Andy]

Firewall, Fire, break, fire, Firestorm, Fire, Storm.

[Mike]

So Firestorm. The issue was, of course is Firestorm was very exciting and it actually was fun to play, but it was set in that old time of World War I back in the day. Right. So now the idea of putting this in a modern setting and kind of competing with, with the Call of Duties, the Fortnites, with the ARS and just like the modern guns is exciting to me. I think you could really do some really cool stuff with this. Especially if you add in Levolution where teams are now really incentivized to go find a bunker, maybe blast off a nuke or be able to say, hey, we, we fought through these, maybe enemy AI, NPCs or just other teams to get to this certain area that will allow us to close off a certain section of the map or give us the tactical advantage of. Now we're higher up than everybody because we got to the top of the spaceship and nobody else could. Like there's some really cool opportunities here that they could play with and make.

[Andy]

Especially with the vehicle. The vehicular madness that in. That always happens with Battlefield. Again, it's just always been the gameplay loop that never had me stoked about it. But when you talk about that Firestorm Battle royale that they had with Battlefield 1, or was it. Was it Battlefield 1 or Battlefield V? Battlefield.

[Mike]

Battlefield 5.

[Andy]

Battlefield 5. So when we're talking about that one, that mode comes out when everybody's trying to do the battle Royale modes and when we're seeing a lot of these fail, we talk about, I mean in 2018, as early as, you know, radical heights with Cliffy B's sort of failed. But then we think about the calling to Hyperscape, Spellbreak, Rumble Verse, which wasn't a shooter, but still a battle Royale. We've seen a lot of style of these games come and go. I just think that the appetite for a new Battle Roy Battle Royale experience is kind of on the come up because we haven't had a new version of this to. We haven't had a new one to fail is what I'll say. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like devs have kind of over the last three or four years understood that's not the space for us. Yeah, it's so hard to penetrate that market now. Let's go after these extraction Shooters or whatever. But I feel like now there's just. We're in a different time in 2025 compared to when Battlefield 5 Firestorm came out.

[Mike]

I brought up yesterday with you, of course, you know, you look at the Call of Duty side, right? It's just like some Battle Royales are getting long in the tooth. Especially with Call of Duty.

[Andy]

Right?

[Mike]

Call of Duty fan bases die hard, just like me. I love the yearly releases. I like the hamster wheel that we're on of. Hey, I get very excited the first three months. I get in the honeymoon phase. I start to wear out by the six months. By six to nine month in a year, I'm going, give me something new. Right? But when they created War Zone, it was a special time, as we know. COVID Lockdown, a brand new kind of game mode. We don't really talk about Blackout mode or the blackout version before that from the first Battle Royale.

[Andy]

Right, right.

[Mike]

That was good. But Warzone was better. And it's like they created something so special there.

[Andy]

But.

[Mike]

But now we're in a day and age where there's a lot of hackers, a lot of cheaters. People want something new and Call of Duty can create something new. There will be something new in the Call of Duty Battle Royale space eventually, I'm sure of, right. They will reinvent themselves. But right now you're on this hamster wheel going, hey, I want something new and exciting. Right? You look at the Fortnite market, I don't know if kids will gravitate towards this to leave their world of Fortnite with all of their cool V bucks and costumes. But there is a different shooter genre market that is like, hey, I would leave Warzone or Apex Legends for something at least new to try. And if it catches fire in, if it sucks, guess what? We're out. You know what I mean? We go back to where we're comfortable with. And EA is now poised with a great opportunity. Especially with Battlefield, where they have the money to fail, right? They this could be a flop and we'll go right back on the EA hamster wheel as opposed to other teams like you and I talk about where it's a smaller dev team and you can find success with like a cool little indie idea like Super Animal Royale. Or you're at that mid tier level where it's like if we fail, we're all getting let go. Like there's no back seats here. So EA is one of the few that has the opportunity to do this. So on the Battle Royale side, that's exciting and I'm excited for you to be excited about that. The idea of vehicles will be so much fun to find the balance and proper way with that. Right. How do you get a tank in a battle royale? Make it fun or where it's not the ultimate dominant force? That's cool. How do you get a jet fighter to skirts through the center of town as you're looking up, going, oh my God. And then Andy's sniping in a window like, it's going to be awesome. And if they have some fun gadget tech like we've seen before, you can make something great.

[Andy]

The grapple hooks, the zip lines, all that fun stuff. What do you. What do you think it will take for this to become one of your mainstays? Because you have, I would say, the most battle royale experience between the both of us, where when I sort of fall off a war zone just because I. I get kind of tired of just getting, you know, on in the same sort of areas by the jumping shoes, whatever. When I fall off of that and you continue playing Call of Duty Warzone, was it the ranked mode that kept you playing that with Nick Scarpino and Chris Anko? Was it you trying to get to that next level rank? Do you want a competitive mode that will, like, what's going to keep you in this game for as long as possible?

[Mike]

I mean, my friends, right? Like, that's a simple answer for everyone. It's my friend base. Are my friends interested in this? Will they stick around and want to play this? Do they have fatigue? Like some of our audience in the live chat right now who say, we don't need another battle royale. I don't want this. Right? Like, they're fatigued out of this. They're looking for something new and different as where I'm at, it's like I will play any Battle Royale every day of the week because I enjoy that game mode. I like the suspense, I like the thrill, I like the competitive nature. And so when I look at Battlefield, of course it has to be my friends who kind of carry that load. But on the flip side, yes, Andy, I would love a ranked mode eventually. It doesn't have to happen day one, but in that first six months to a year window and beyond, there should be a ranked mode of like, I'm progressively getting better and seeing those stats, that would be fantastic. Also, what grab why I gravitated towards Call of Duty and Apex as well, I'll give a big shout out was the movement. The gunfield, the gun Play all felt great. Battlefield. I enjoy the gunplay, but it also is a large arsenal of weapons that can be used at various different range. Especially in battlefield where you're sniping someone from truly across the map. So how do you play with those guns? How do you litter them across the map and make it exciting to go grab a power weapon that could change the dynamic of the game? And is it possible for me, who doesn't have the ability to click heads like you, to still feel like I'm in this with just a basic assault rifle? Right. So like I'm very excited to see. I'm excited to see the gameplay but like for me this is an easy layup win. I. I'm in on this no matter what it will be. Does the mass audience like this? What are they looking for? Because I'm. I'm looking for some simple stuff.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Levolution destructible environments. I would love to have big set pieces that blow up and explode just like on all their maps. There's always one kind of big set piece, Night Rain. How every single time we logged in and there was a different piece of the map every other time we played. I would love for that to happen. There should be five big set pieces around that. Every single time you play those set pieces are in play and something could happen right to finish the battle.

[Andy]

They're super destructible and they'll have crazy rare guns or crazy rare loot their armor, things like that.

[Mike]

Just how big is this? Is it 64? Is it 128?

[Andy]

I think the biggest question for me will, do you think this is a free to play add on making its.

[Mike]

Own free to play launcher or just like part of it here to get other people involved and then hopefully get you excited.

[Andy]

The same thing that Call of Duty does where Warzone is free. But if you want the core multiplayer experience where you can level up things faster, then you get Battlefield 6 where you're playing your big modes, you're playing your sort of, you know. Yeah, I, I never know the game terms. I'm always. I always say like hard point or King of the Hill or whatever the hell.

[Mike]

Conquest.

[Andy]

Conquest, right. Like are you playing the conquest modes to level up for free? A possible free to play battle royale or is it a paid battle royale? Because if it is a paid battle royale, we, we know how that goes at some games. Battlefield I feel like has the cachet.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

To maybe last longer than an unknown ip.

[Mike]

But you bring up a great point, Andy, of where does this stand right how do you do that? Do you copy and paste what Call of Duty does with War Zone, have that standard? Hey, you can level up your guns here a little bit faster than the normal multiplayer that will then be used in this. This is what you want to do. Or you can just do it all for free and level up your guns while you're playing the game in B in Warzone. I think that's a great call, Andy. It will be very exciting to see this week in the future how they announce this rollout, what it really looks like. But also, you know, we haven't really talked about just Battlefield in general. I know we kind of spoke about it a little bit and how you're not the biggest fan of it. But the idea of them returning to a campaign is a big deal. I know a lot of people in the comments yesterday were excited about Battlefield Bad Company, an old school title back in the day from them that had a lot of heart and charm. So something different than the just generic military guy telling his war story. Right? And so like, so McTavish. Exactly. Right. So Battlefield Bad Company is near and dear to the people's hearts. And I, I get that. Right. I always say Battlefield 4 is the goat for just what it was in the gameplay. But like, when people are looking for that campaign, that fun story, the wacky wackadoo moments, that's what they look for. And it's like, how do you blend that? And I don't think that this battlefield is giving those vibes. We'll find out, right? If like the campaign is that. Will the campaign excite you after what you just saw with Call of Duty? I think it's a big deal as well because. Right. We're selling this 60, $70 product at the end of the day and the campaign is going to be a large piece of that. Will people even. I mean, when I say that I know the Call of Duty market as well. It's like people aren't playing that. They'll play one to three levels. They just go to multiplayer. Right.

[Andy]

The campaign excites me though. You know, I love a first person shooter campaign. Had a lot of fun with the most recent Call of Duty campaign. And then even thinking back to Summer Game Fest with the. The big sort of bait and switch of. What is this game? Whoa.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Oh, it's called D. But it's like, no, it worked because you all reacting this way probably didn't play the last Call of Duty. And they're trying to show you, hey, our campaigns kick a lot of Ass. It's not what you're expecting anymore. And I'm sure you see that Call of Duty trailer. You think, whoa, this looks like remedy. What is this? Call of Duty? Ah, boo. No, man, the con. The campaigns are good.

[Mike]

Like that 8 to 12 hour campaign.

[Andy]

We fed you the diet calorie free snack and you said, oh, this is really tasty. What is it? And you go, oh, it actually has no cat. And you go, oh, I don't know about that, but hey, it worked on you. And I think that, you know, if people enjoyed. Now we're talking about Call of Duty, but if you enjoyed what they showed recently with at Summer Games Fest before you realize it was Call of Duty and then you were kind of like, ah, damn it. Kind of like when I think of Battle Aces having that awesome trailer and they're going, oh, it's a. Yeah, yeah, they got. It's a MOBA or whatever. It's a free, you know, a short rts. Short rts. Yeah, rts. I think you owe it to yourself to play the most recent Call of Duty campaign.

[Mike]

And then of course the multiplayer, right. Their bread and butter is the Conquest and breakthrough modes. These large scale battles that no one else has where it's five points on the map. You're going to run over there with your squad, try to bring the rest of the team there, hold down B, then move to C, move to D. Breakthrough is a really fun one that they brought on a couple years, couple generations back, which is like the hold the line mode. Right. We started A, you and your team are defending B and C. We take those two points, we go to the next mo, the next E and D spot. Right. They've had some really fun breakthroughs with that that people really like. I know you in particular, Andy, and also me. I don't really care for that larger scale stuff because I feel like I don't have an impact. That's why I kind of get off on Warzone where it's like, oh, when you win, you had the clutch. Did it. Right, right. That was a big moment. Not, oh, 128 people kind of work together and we took over five.

[Andy]

You got Jimmy and all his homeboys just really up site.

[Mike]

We ran through your tickets, right. So yeah, I mean those are the bread and butter that will be here. Is there something else? Right. Is there a different game mode that they will try or do you stick with all that? Which they will, but it's exciting stuff. I. I cannot wait. I'm really, really pumped to see the next Battlefield.

[Andy]

Yeah, I am so much more excited about this than I was yesterday. Yeah before knowing that there would be a Battle Royale mode available. Let us know what you all think about Battle Royales and the state of them and what you all think Battlefield will be doing in this iteration. In the comments and in super chats. Story number two Mike Supermassive has delayed Directive 8020amid a round of layoffs. This comes from Andy Robinson at VGC Dark Picture Dark Pictures studio Supermassive has announced a round of layoffs and delayed its sci fi horror game Directive 8020 into 2026. In a statement published on its social media channels, the studio said that it had begun the redundancy process for around 3680 employees. QUOTE this decision was not taken lightly and we know this will be an incredibly, incredibly difficult time for everyone. End quote quote Our absolute priority will be to offer full support for those effective we for those affected. We remain focused on our upcoming projects and have made the decision to move the launch of Directive 8020 to the first half of 2026. The response to the game so far has been fantastic and this additional time will help us deliver the very best experience for for our fans. We're deeply grateful for the patience and support of our community. There is no impact on the little on the development of Little Nightmares 3. End Quote Directive 8020 was originally due to release on October for PC via Steam, PS5 and Xbox Series X and S. The British developer based in Guildford, Surrey, is best known for its PlayStation horror hit until Dawn. The game, which was adapted for the silver screen earlier this year and was popular with both hardcore players and fostered a new, more casual audience. Where are you at with this Mike?

[Mike]

Layoff suck? This is very unfortunate that a team like Supermassive has to let go of a number of their staff and also push back their largest game of the year. Little Little Nightmares will be big. Hopefully it will land and be really good. But it does suck that you're pushing this until next year. We know the juggernaut that is gta right? Like sure this is a horror game, but Grand Theft Auto will suck up a lot of the air in the room in that first half of 2026. This is something that I brought up yesterday, Andy, with all of us on the most anticipated games and I brought up Olis and I know a lot of people got mad that I took too much time on games that weren't the big three, you know, that I.

[Andy]

Had to talk about, but you had nothing to apologize.

[Mike]

I Wanted you to know that even I, from the outside looking at super massive, was worried about this. Right. Directive 8020. Just when the previews that I've seen and Greg got to play it. So he had a little bit different vibes. But, like, the previews weren't hitting what I was expecting from supermassive. When I think until dawn and I think the quarry, there was something about it. Maybe it's sci fi horror and I don't click. Maybe it was like, man, you're going into a world with dead space. Now you have Kronos coming from Bloober Team. There's a lot of this sci fi horror stuff going on. And this right here, whatever I'm watching isn't clicking right now. And sure, this game is much different, right? You have to go hands on the sticks. You have to be the one dictating, hey, what decisions will you make? When will they die? And I'm sure it will be like that kind of fun. But there was something throughout this where it's like, this doesn't look like it's gonna land. And I'm glad that they were like, hey, let's delay this. But I'm also not happy that we're like, hey, let's also lay off 36 members of the team. That just sucks.

[Andy]

It kind of feels just at odds with itself. Right. You know, you're delaying a game because it's not done, but then you're losing workforce to work on said game. Now, granted, we don't know exactly what these roles were that were let go. Maybe they were, in their eyes, they're doing the redundancy process, and in their eyes, hey, we already have those avenues covered. But, yeah, a big bummer. You know, I. It's really, really sad that I look at this positively and I go, only 36.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

You know, that sucks. We've had so many awful stories of gigantic amounts of layoffs, and these layoffs are never, ever good. But we're gonna get them what seems like weekly now. And I look at 36, I'm like, oh, thank God it wasn't more. And that's what's like, that's the sad state that we're at where that's my.

[Mike]

Takeaway, and that's a large chunk. And you know that, right?

[Andy]

Like, we're a team.

[Mike]

Like, we're a team of 11.

[Andy]

Exactly.

[Mike]

I'm sure that team isn't massive. Like, just 11 people in a room is a lot of people. 36 in a room. It's a lot of people to look at and be like, you've been cut. And I was driving in today, Andy, as I saw this news, right. And I was thinking to myself, it's like, would this be better if they just told me why, hey, this game's already done. These staff members are going to move on to something else. We were going to cut these jobs, but it doesn't matter because it just sucks that it's like how, how are we not finding money to pay them until the end of this or for another year? Where's the giant loss margins that supermassive is going under?

[Andy]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Mike]

I mean it can't be that much money for 36 people.

[Andy]

I'm looking right now, Supermassive is as of 2025 or as of 2024, around 350 people. Yeah, it just, you know, money's getting tighter around the, around the world. Tariffs are, you know, it's not like people are already making buttloads of money as it is and tariffs are making things tougher and the economy and everything just kind of going around and it all just sort of culminates into, you know, studios needing more money. Which is unfortunate because that is usually all it comes down to. It's, you know, it's how much money do the people up top have? And unfortunately for these 36 people, they. Their roles have been made redundant and hopefully they find work elsewhere. But for 80, 20, I just for me, for the first half of 2026, you have to stay out of the way of where wherever GTA will land.

[Mike]

GTA is May. So that means you got to come out. January, February, you better be in there. Right?

[Andy]

I would say March at the latest.

[Mike]

It's a new, it's an odd one because it's its own kind of view. It's its own thing. Is this a budget title? I'd say budget, like just a 40 or $50 title. Is this really coming out at 70 to $80, the world that we live in right now? Because these super massive games for me personally don't warrant, hey, this has got to be a big number title this year. All of these really say these should be in the 40 to $50 ranges.

[Andy]

That's kind of where they, most of them have been at. When you're looking at the quarry, the quarry was a sixty dollar game. And I granted that was four or three years ago rather the devil inside me, the devil in me was 40 bucks. And we're seeing all the other sort of anthology games being 30 and 20 and 40 so I would expect this to be around a fifty dollar experience because I now look at 50 as the new 40 where you know, 70 is the new 60 and with Nintendo, you know, 80 is now, you know, something that's a possibility. But yeah, we'll see what happens there, Mike. And hopefully, you know, we can keep on funding our employees here, Mike, and we're able to do that with the help from our sponsors. So let's hear from them now.

[C]

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[Andy]

I love all of the comments, you know, focusing on Tim's hair. Yeah, it's great.

[Mike]

I want him to focus on us.

[Andy]

Focus on us.

[Mike]

Yeah. Focus on you and I, man, in this friendship.

[Andy]

Just so annoying. And yesterday at the movie theater chat, we're watching Fantastic Four. Mike just leans back and looks at me and goes, I'm mad at you.

[Mike]

Why?

[Andy]

Like, leave me alone.

[Mike]

And you know what that is. I want your attention. But I want you to know that I'm back on Dune, doing well. Okay? And I'm ready. I'm ready to admit that I was wrong.

[Andy]

We're in.

[Mike]

And I'm ready to say sorry. And I'm ready. I don't want to destroy the base, but I'll destroy the base for you.

[Andy]

We're in the discord.

[Mike]

I'm gonna destroy the base.

[Andy]

We're in the discord, and our friend Kevin Ace X, answers a call and has it on speaker.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

And Mike is like, I'm mad at you. You're talking about me today.

[Mike]

Very mean to me.

[Andy]

And Kevin Asex goes. So they just go back and forth. And Mike goes, all right, well, I'm going to need you to fly me around in doom, but you can't tell anybody I'm playing. He's on speakerphone. So we're all hearing it.

[Mike]

Just, Kevin's the best. I love you, Kevin. Kevin got me right and I'm feeling good. I also was referred to as the Rizzler of the friend group by someone last night. Because I'm fat.

[Andy]

I said that.

[Mike]

Then another friend also got off and excited about the snacks that I ate during the movie, giggling about how fat I am. Nick Scarpino.

[Andy]

Well, it's because Chris, at some point, Chris Anka asked, now we're just getting into, like, the personal relationships. This was not me calling you fat. This is me comparing you to the Rizzler. Because at one point Chris Ankas asked, are you all just feeding him at this point? As much as possible. Because every conversation revolves around, oh, I gotta eat that, Nick.

[Mike]

I got a little gremlin. And. And so.

[Andy]

So, like, gosh, it's just a disaster.

[Mike]

I'll get it right, though. January.

[Andy]

What's January?

[Mike]

You never know. You never know.

[Andy]

Oh, getting in shape.

[Mike]

That's right. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see.

[Andy]

That's right, we'll see. Story number three Critical Role working on its first video game, which will be set in Exandria. This comes from Victoria Phillips Kennedy at Eurogamer. The team behind Tabletop web series Critical Role is making its own video game. Critical Role has become a bit of a juggernaut since its debut over a decade ago with an animated series on prime video, sellout, live shows and more under its belovedly nerdy belt. Its core team is made up of many, many famous video game voice actors including Laura Bailey, Matt Mercer and Travis Willingham, to name just three. But while there's plenty of video games pedigree there, Critical Role is yet to make a game of its own. Until now, Critical Role game itself is still Critical Roles game itself is still a way off, but we do know that it's being co developed with an indie team at Ad Hoc Studio. As reported by Variety, Ad Hoc was founded by veterans from Telltale Games, Ubisoft and Night School Studio. Meanwhile, the upcoming release will be set in Critical Role's role playing world of Exandria. The collaboration between Critical Role and Ad Hoc Studio came about as when came about when Willingham auditioned for a role in Dispatch, which is described as a superhero workplace comedy and quote, an interactive narrative game that has been built on In Ad Hoc's signature style. Quote. Just from looking over the audition of game materials, I knew there was something special about what Ad Hoc was creating and I immediately reach out, said Willingham. The design, tone, style and storytelling of Dispatch jumped off the page and I knew given the pedigree of the folks at Ad Hoc, this is a team that we wanted to collaborate with. Critical Role is always looking to build with people who are innovating around new ways to deliver story, character and world building and Ad Hoc fits that perfectly. Dispatch is currently set to Release later in 2025 in collaboration with Critical Role and also features the talents of Mercer and Bailey. Ad Hoc CEO Michael Chung called the collaboration the kind you hope for adding. We've known Critical Role team for years, so when we finally started kicking around ideas it all just clicked. It made sense in the best way possible. So we're thrilled to get the team up and cause some trouble together. This is exciting for them.

[Mike]

This is wild Ad Hoc and them doing Dispatch. This does seem like the perfect blend, the two of them. I really enjoyed the Critical Role TV show on Amazon prime, the animated one.

[Andy]

I get to watch all of it.

[Mike]

Okay. I enjoyed that one a lot. I've never watched the Dungeons and Dragons stuff that they're known for their bread and butter, but I am clearly aware of how big they are, what they do, and that is. It's kind of a match made in heaven. I kind of like this vibe of like ad hoc in their style of what we've seen from Dispatch. The telltale, like nature of everything meeting maybe medieval, of course, medieval fantasy set in their world. This to me, I like this, man.

[Andy]

If we could get a. I mean, now I'm just sort of reaching for the stars and just thinking about Ballers Gate and choices and permutations and what, you know, what a fantastic D and D experience that was brought to. You know, brought to more of a turn based style thing. But obviously with all of the rules of D&D 5 or whatever the rule book is.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

That this could be really, really fantastic. Me and Ray Narvaez were talking about the creation of Critical Role and believe that we all came to the conclusion that we think it was Resident Evil 6 that's the cause for Critical Role because of the voice actors in Resident Evil 6. Laura Bailey's there and like her and Troy Baker, like the introductions of friends to friends. And we think Critical Role would not exist without Resident Evil 6. So that's just kind of like our headcanon. Maybe that's true, maybe it's not. If it is lanky Dragoon said it's actually the last of us. I'm gonna go with Resident Evil 6. I think it's more funny.

[Mike]

Yeah. If it is, put a Resident Evil 6 Easter egg in the video game.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Just let us know. He's right.

[Andy]

Could be a lot more fun. Oh, oh. Matt Mercer is. Is in Resident Evil 6 as well, I believe.

[Mike]

Great poll. Damn. Yeah. It's interesting because I think of Telltale, I think of the ad hoc style of this kind of animated nature. How beautiful that is in the fantasy setting. But what gets me excited is you bring up Balder's Gate blessing who played the Dispatch demo, talked about, oh, the gameplay was different than what I thought it would be. Right. That kind of hook of like, oh, this is a lot more fun.

[Andy]

The management sim. It's, it's. It's seeing a. Of, you know, with Dispatch being the superhero game, it's seeing this person's in. It's. When you think of it, it's kind of like, oh, and you know, if. If there's a fire Pokemon, you use a water Pokemon on It. It's like, oh, this. This person's in need of rescue for this. I should send this superhero over there because they match up better with what those skills are required. I think that's super cool and that's way more than what I thought the video game would even be. So it's like, wow, they have. They have the sauce to try to do something really dramatic with a lot of awesome characters and writing, but also mixing and matching these sort of cool game style mechanics.

[Mike]

The gameplay is like, yeah, what is it going to be? I'm excited to see what they finally land on. Is it just straight up a virtual DND like we saw with Baldur's Gate? That kind of vibe? Is it something different to keep it maybe the scale down a little bit and get this. To be able to have a sequel. Turn it out faster, move on to a. Of course, Dispatch two, something like that. It will be interesting to see, but let's team up.

[Andy]

I like that you think about it.

[Mike]

Congratulations.

[Andy]

You think about it. Back in 2016, Mike kind of funny. Really could have been right with Critical Role if they just said, let's drop all the podcasts and let's just do what they're doing.

[Mike]

Let's go do dnd. Can you imagine you and Nick, Greg and Tim doing DND would be crazy.

[Andy]

I mean, they were on that podcast with Kind of Funny. Kevin was there. Kevin was running it at the. At the apartment. There was about 19 people in that small little baby room. Could be a different future for Kind of Funny. We'd be on top of. We'd have Amazon prime show.

[Mike]

Had to believe in that.

[Andy]

Yeah.

[Mike]

It could have been it.

[Andy]

I really want to do dnd. We need. We need Nick to just say, buckle the up.

[Mike]

Can you tell him? I was on my knees. I was on my knees begging him, Nick, this was such a success. We had so much fun as a group. The community loved it. Give me another one. And he looked at me and he said, no, stiff. That's too difficult. That was a lot of work. I said, no, Nick, no. The people want it.

[Andy]

It was such a great time. We did our Fast and Furious. DND would have been a great time. Anyway, that's a story for another day. Story number four, though. Ubisoft suffers mixed results as Assassin's Creed Shadows hits 5 million players, while Rainbow Six Siege X struggles. I forgot that game came out, Mike.

[Mike]

Yeah, but that's not a different game. It's an update to Rainbow six.

[Andy]

It's kind of Counter Strike Two.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Like updated engine it's yes, you know, it looks better or whatever. But I I forgot it happened because I was pumped about going into it. I was pumped about like, oh, this could be my. This could be me. You know, I'm always like, I don't want to hop in right now. I'm so behind. But like, it feels like an excuse to hop. This is fresh.

[C]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I was just totally missed it.

[Mike]

That would have been the moment.

[Andy]

This comes from Tom Phillips at IGN Ubisoft has announced lower than expected results for its latest financial quarter and blame the newly relaunched Rainbow six Siege X. Just a straight up, we're blaming that. That's a great first sentence. Assassin's Creed Shadows, meanwhile, has continued to perform in line with expectations and recently passed 5 million unique players. Ubisoft has to date not provided an exact sales figure for the game, which is also offered as a part of its Ubisoft plus subscription service. In a statement, Ubisoft boss Eve Gilmot described the quarter as featuring mixed Results. Launched on June 10, Rainbow Six Ejects saw Ubisoft's veteran team shooter essentially go free to play with access to various modes and operators unlockable without the need for premium edition. Separate to this, Ubisoft said it suffered from quote pricing exploit and prepaid currency cards that temporarily inflated virtual currency wallets, end quote. Something that's now been fixed got him. Today's new player figure for Assassin's Creed Shadows, meanwhile, sees the game continue to do what Ubisoft needs it to do as players wait for Claws of Awaji, the game's first big expansion due at some point this fall. Quote the first quarter delivered mixed results, guillermo said. On the positive side, Assassin's Creed Shadows delivered on its expectations with now more than 5 million unique players since its launch, and Rainbow Six Siege X received highly positive player feedback thanks to its renewed gameplay and enhanced features that drove significant player engagement growth. However, players spending in Rainbow six Siege faced temporary but significant disruptions due to technical pricing issues, which is now which have now been identified and addressed. Despite this one off setback, the growth potential of the game is strong with solid traction on activity and in game spending.

[Mike]

Damn significant player engagement, enhanced features, but we fucked up with the money. Damn, we fucked up with the microtransactions, y'.

[Andy]

All.

[Mike]

Damn it, I had y'. All.

[Andy]

Really a tough thing to kind of overlook there. I mean I'm happy about Rainbow six Siege or about Assassin's Creed Shadows being being on par with what they are looking for and it not, you know, it's not kicking anybody's doors down, but 5 million unique players. I, I think we, we're in such a different day and age where 10 years ago random fucking video game could sell 18 million copies. Maybe 15 years ago, I'll say, right? I think 10, when I think 10 years ago, it's like, oh, that's. I was almost had. Kind of funny, you know what I mean? 10 years ago seems like, you know, a different lifetime ago. But you're not going to get those type of sales anymore with just random game x that sells 12 million out of nowhere. It, it was just a different era. I still think this is in my opinion, below what I would expect for now.

[Mike]

It's a little bit of a double edged sword is right.

[Andy]

Yeah, it's definitely below what I was expecting them to be at. But for them to say, hey, Rainbow six, Siege X disappointing us. Assassin's Creed Shadows, however, it's doing what.

[Mike]

We wanted to do, it's performing, that's called better expectations. Right. But the, the issue with the double edged sword is like, it's great to hear that it was meeting expectations. I think they were hoping for Assassin's Creed Shadow, the big prestige title from Ubisoft, finally doing the Samurai Warrior that we've always wanted going to Japan. I thought they wanted to blow the doors off. I think we all wanted them to blow the doors off. And so like them being like it met it, it's like, okay, that means it was good enough. But like I think everybody secretly wanted that one to be the Ghost of Sushima where it's like you just did it. You finally landed it. Especially with Assassin's Creed over the past couple years where they've changed up the style starting with Origins and onward, where they were like, hey, we really want to make this the one. We're going to figure it out. And then finally going to Japan and being that setting that the players wanted, meeting is good but not great and exceptional like I thought it would be.

[Andy]

Well again, you know me talking about this, you know, 10 years ago, I think games just sold better inherently because there was less to play, there was less to play. There was no free to play games. Right. And when we talk about Assassin's Creed Shadows, the story of it for me is this game was ten years too late. This everybody wanted the samurai setting for over a decade.

[Mike]

That should have been when we were in like the far cry primal days of yeah, the other one satisfied unity, brotherhood or whatever. That other one with the friends, you know that.

[Andy]

Yeah, yeah, you launch, you launched Shadows in 2014, this thing's probably at 9 million by now, you know, 10 million by now. And I. It's just a different day and age where you wait forever to do the samurai setting. And, you know, the last Assassin's Creeds have sold well. Right. That's why we keep on getting a lot of them. But for Ghost of Sushima to come out, go to Sushima, since, you know, this is just kind of estimated sales, but since 2020, over 13 million worldwide. Super impressive stuff. We already. We got that Samurai open world game. It was awesome. I just don't know. I just think it was like too little, too late.

[Mike]

Yes. As Red Hudson says in the live chat over on YouTube, it stole its thunder. Right. Came out and it was better. It stole the market. It said, hey, we're going to elevate this of what the players and fans want. And then when you come out with Assassin's Creed Shadows and it's just more Assassin's Creed in the desired setting, that's not good enough.

[Andy]

And for Ghost to be console exclusive, you know, again, we'll see where these numbers are a year from now, of course, because. Or I would say February, whenever, you know that. The year anniversary of it. Because I think Ubisoft games kind of go perfectly in line with like something like Black Friday sales and things like that and Steam sales. And so I expect to maybe see this number at around 8 million by February next year.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

Which I would see as a success.

[Mike]

Get a little bump with DLC 1.

[Andy]

Right.

[Mike]

Get a big. Get a smaller bump with DLC 2 when it goes on sale. But what we should also be highlighting, like you said, is the expectations were met, which is a positive. We didn't blow out the expectations of a hundred million players like we're going to talk about with EA and Battlefield for the next week. Right. But, like, that was good. Rainbow six Siege X, that's a conversation here.

[Andy]

Right?

[Mike]

Right.

[Andy]

Not hit me with a big dog.

[Mike]

I mean, clearly what they're really nailing is we fubbed up. We messed up with the microtransactions. Right. We didn't account for X, Y and Z. All of a sudden we got the players coming in and bang. We didn't capitalize on that moment and get into their wallets like we wanted to. And that's why we're talking about on the financial side also on a gameplay side. Right. It is just version 1.2. It's not like we're changing this to Rainbow Six Siege 2 and it's officially a New game on all new maps. And you have to jump onto that. It is still Rainbow six Siege at its core. How many new players are you really bringing in with this? I'm sure it was enough, but not enough at the same time. And when you don't capitalize on the microtransactions being ready, moment one and there's a small oversight and you miss out on millions of dollars of revenue off of selling a gun skin. Yeah, that one's going to hurt a little bit.

[Andy]

Yeah. Apparently these prepaid cards having more money than they should have had. That's not a fantastic situation. I love that. I look up CJX on, on Google and I bring up a subreddit post from four months ago where a question asks, what is cjx? I haven't played in a while, just heard all the CJ stuff. What is it actually? Is it a new game? Just an update? And the first comment is. I love how you got downvoted for asking a question. Lovely community.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

For me, I am, I think I'm more surprised that they are surprised that this didn't blow the doors down. I wouldn't expect this to do a whole lot. Like, I, I don't. When I look at Counter Strike two coming out, that's a big deal for the gaming community because everybody had been playing the first iteration or was it 1.6 or whatever, you know what I mean? It had been a long time since we'd see a massive visual overhaul.

[Mike]

When you hear they're making a counterpoint Counter Strike Two, like, holy.

[Andy]

What I. I think of that as a much larger deal than Siege X, which is visual upgrades. We're, we're kind of tuning some things and figuring things out a bit more. But I think I'm more surprised that they look at how CJ performs and go, we expected this to kind of kick ass. We really like fumbled the ball here. I, I just don't know what they were expecting though. I don't really see Siege X as holy. This is the time to like bring in a massive player base. This is where we can overtake Valorant.

[Mike]

Well, I think they did think that, right? Because as of right now, I don't know how though. Well, you're riding the high off of social media, right? This kid Jinxy is now bringing in thousands upon thousands of views on Twitch, on Tick Tock. There is now a large audience of younger generations of kids who are now talking about Rainbow six Siege and want to play this tactical shooter that once was, was like just a little project. It was good, but it wasn't the massive stakes that it was now. Right. And now you are really sitting at the dinner table and they're eating. Right. Like, mind you, this game, when you look at steam charts, 24 hour peak was 95,000 players. Right. And there's consoles all over the place. There's a lot of people still playing.

[Andy]

This game is a console player.

[Mike]

Exactly. So, like, this game is very good. Right. Like, there's no question that, like, they have an audience. I think they just flubbed up with the microtransactions. I, I don't know. I, I think it's still just a major player. I, I don't think you can get down on this. You got people playing it, you got the younger audience interested. The question is, is like, what is next for Rainbow Six Siege? How do you make a next.

[Andy]

We thought this was going to be it and I think if anything, you know, when we're talking about Ubisoft struggles and hearing a lot of negative news and layoffs and this game is canceled and this game is on ice and it just, it's, it's always felt like a barrage of, of negative negativity coming from, from the studio. My, my whole sticking point was just, you gotta double down on Siege. That's your big win and you double down it. And I think they did. They have with, yeah, yeah, doing this. Siege X. You have to make this and continue to make it your main thing. I think maybe they're just looking at it from a monetary, you know, perspective of them saying, yeah, these, maybe these digital wallet cards were messing up and messing up the income or whatever, but I think CJX will be fine at the end of the day.

[Mike]

Well, they need CJX to generate money like Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone does. Like that's their aspirational goal there. Yeah, right. It's like, how do we take this and make it our golden goose? Because it is one of our top performers, it is one of our flagship titles. We have cut other studios with other games that were Game of the Year nominated, that ran amok with metric Metacritic scores, but aren't generating money like this could. Right. And so now it's just a question of when I look at X, Y and Z, how do we do that here? And that's a tough one. As you know, Andy, right. Of there isn't a bunch of skins that you're putting in the game. Weapon skins now have to have this delicate balance of how much money do you charge for a Weapon skin. How much do you put out? Right. Because when you talk about Valerant, that's a whole different beast. This isn't Fortnite with Peely and the boys showing up with the Rock. And Batman and I could charge you just $10 a skin. And we do that every single month. This one's like, well, there's only a set number of characters. How many skins can you really sell at what price? There's only a set number of guns. Okay. How do I make a bunch of money off of that?

[Andy]

Yeah. The fascinating little place that they're in with Siege. And I'm also just, you know, again, looking forward to whatever the future is for. For Assassin's Creed Shadows.

[Mike]

I would still play that game with you, though, just so you know, cj. Yeah. I would play seats.

[Andy]

Me too.

[Mike]

I would play.

[Andy]

I'm not kidding. Me too. Like, when I saw. I saw Maddock and Kevin ASX login.

[Mike]

Yeah.

[Andy]

And I was like, oh, CJX is out. I had no damn clue. And I forgot what I was really busy with. You know, according to our Chris. Our friend Chris Anka, you're. You're stuck playing constantly replaying mid tier Souls games and you're starting this negative.

[C]

I'm not happy with you.

[Mike]

Catch you enough to make you love him, but also go. That hurt.

[Andy]

I'm not happy with you because you continue this narrative that you. And he's playing Liza P. For the fifth time. I played it twice.

[Mike]

Play Peak with me.

[Andy]

You didn't invite me.

[Mike]

I want you to play Peak with.

[Andy]

You didn't invite me.

[C]

All right.

[Mike]

We play Peak.

[Andy]

I'm sick of you, dude. I'm also sick of just hearing all this big news, Mike.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

If I wanted some small news, say the smallest things you would want, where would you go?

[Mike]

And that take you to our last story, the WE News Channel where we cover all the small items you need to know about.

[Andy]

I was. I was legitimately so confused right now with like, where did my Games Daily dock go? Why does it look like this? It's because I had the Games daily or I had the games cast stock up.

[C]

Oh.

[Andy]

And I was like, oh, that's why this looks so different. That's why the text is so tiny. Super chats or I'm sorry, we news.

[Mike]

Yes.

[Andy]

Terminator 2D. No. Fate has been delayed till October 31st. Clive Barker's Hellraiser revival from Saber Interactive has been revealed. It's a first person action horror survival game coming to PS5, Steam and Xbox series consoles. Also, Salivir Nelson is the voice of the main character. Hell yeah.

[Mike]

There we go.

[Andy]

That right.

[Mike]

Cyber Interactive Saber Double A Experience.

[Andy]

The king of Double A. Hey, now, Kevin, can you bring up this trailer? I know you're doing a lot with the setup, right. But I would love to see the trailer for the Hellraiser revival because Barker's. Hell, I saw some of the clips. Do you want audio? No, it's okay. It just. It looks fantastic.

[Mike]

Really?

[Andy]

If you could just like kind of fast forward midway through. Yeah, visual quality wise, it looks great. It. They're doing a lot of just weird with.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

It seems like the next kind of big single player horror game that all of Twitch freaks out about. And everybody, like, wants like an outlast. Yes. Or when I think of Bloober Team and the. What. What were the scary games that they made?

[Mike]

They made the medium Silent Hill and then they're doing Kronos.

[Andy]

No, but the ones before that. They were making ones before that.

[Mike]

Casting a Frank Stone. No, that's. That's super massive. No, I don't know.

[Andy]

You know which ones I'm talking about. Chat. We did a party mode of them once.

[Mike]

Oh. Layers of Fear.

[Andy]

Layers of Fear. Nailed it. Thank you, Garcia.

[Mike]

I beat you.

[Andy]

Yeah, he beat you, but Garcia. Too bad. So shout out to Saber for working on more and more. Cool. We got Age Field High Rock the school has been announced. Please watch the trailer. Okay. Okay, can you bring up. Can you bring up a trailer for age.

[Mike]

Need audio, they say. Okay.

[Andy]

For age feel High Rock the school there. And Barrett says we want audio for this one.

[Mike]

Do I need to know who Hellraiser is? Is that a person that I need to know?

[Andy]

I don't know if he's ever existed before this.

[Mike]

Okay. Because like, the Terrorizer got introduced to me and he's got a bunch of movies.

[Andy]

Well, he. That's a relatively new guy. Razor has been around since the 80s.

[Mike]

Oh, so he is a guy.

[Andy]

Yeah, he is a guy.

[Mike]

Okay.

[Andy]

Yeah, I was just lying to you. All right, let's see this trailer for H. Field High Rock the school. You know what's hella whack? Oh, no. Leaving school as a loser.

[Mike]

Yeah. Yeah. Me and Kale have been talking about it for years. About how cool our senior year was gonna be. We haven't done about it, so we made a plan to change that. This feels like. This is like a 17 plus steam game. About that. Yeah. I don't want to see this.

[Andy]

Welcome to class, boys. What is not going on?

[Mike]

I haven't seen you before. New here in Hfield. This is like those sim games that I play all the time man. Try to get to in. I'm playing firefighter sim Landlord Sam just like me.

[Andy]

I have a three step plan. Kick the jock's ass, throw a massive.

[Mike]

Party, get the girl and rock the prom.

[Andy]

Your teachers. That party was off the.

[Mike]

That's his car. Let's tag it. Booyah. Hey, stop.

[Andy]

Today is the day I want to look. I'm not. But my father doesn't like the idea.

[Mike]

Yeah, dude. Yeah, bro. So dude.

[Andy]

Huh?

[Mike]

I'm gonna.

[Andy]

Someone tagged me in this last night just like, like, oh, what do we think about this? And IGN had posted this saying HVL High rock. The school wears its bully inspirations very clearly on its letterman jacket in this early 2000 set. No American Pie era open school game due out early 2026. And that might possibly be one of the worst trailers I've ever seen in my life.

[Mike]

No man, I have a lot of concern on that one.

[Andy]

Chad says streaming. I need you guys to stream this. I. I saw somebody in chat say this is pissing me off. Look, I'm not. Here's the thing. I'm not in any place to speak right?

[Mike]

Not a game developer.

[Andy]

I'm not an authority on. On voice acting.

[Mike]

Oh, okay.

[Andy]

Right. I've had two roll one 1.5 roles that I've been casting in my life. I say 1.5 because the other one, they ended up cutting like everybody's lines and only had effort sounds in boyfriend Dungeon. So you could just hear my character be like, huh. Ah. That's all it was. So I'm not in any place to like, you know, cat. To cast a stone, like Frank Stone. But man, like if you chat, like if you watch my streams and just like when I do my stupid like voice acting real you gotta call it.

[Mike]

Bandy and Nick, like they would do this for you.

[Andy]

I would do it for $12.

[Mike]

Yeah. Buy him a pizza. He'll. He'll give you an hour. He'll give you a day.

[Andy]

Why? She said that's about to be Dr. Disrespect's game of the year.

[Mike]

Yeah, there. There's something there that I don't like. I don't like looking at that going, oh yeah, we're towing a line here. We're towing a line. Line.

[Andy]

That's tough right there. Nintendo announced a brand new Nintendo Switch 2 bundle that combines a Switch 2 system with Pokemon Legends Z, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition game. And I wanted to just read a couple super Chats from our missed super chats when we were doing the games cast earlier today talking about Pokemon. Silver J. Hawkins says there's a Pokemon fossil museum tour going right on, going on right now. And it ends in, it ends its tour in Chicago 2026.

[Mike]

This would be so much fun, right? To be able to make the props visualize what you would do inside of cool museum areas. Like man, imagine an aerodactyl skeleton. Imagine the cool helix fossil for the little ammonite. You know you're nailing these names, you know what I mean? Kabuto. Right? But then on top of that like I would, I would go, oh, you want me to give you some more fossil ones? Let me see. Caboodo Kabut.

[Andy]

I think, I think that's. Oh, that's a fourth one you name.

[Mike]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Andy]

You know that's more than I could ever ask for.

[Mike]

But like I'm, I'm. Someone's got to let me be a, a fly on the wall for the Pokemon theme park for this kind of stuff. Cuz this has got to be so much fun.

[Andy]

Let me pitch, let me mark it.

[Mike]

How, how do we get in the room and just say let's make the aerodactyl skeleton so it looks like a T. Rex skeleton at any museum. Let's get these things riding an aerodactyl. Love that Kevin.

[Andy]

This is so sick.

[Mike]

This stuff should be larger than life. I would have made that caboodo seven feet tall. Like I, I love that. We're like it's there. I, I'd make this mad.

[Andy]

But isn't it to scale?

[Mike]

It doesn't matter. I want the.

[Andy]

Wow, look at that, look at that.

[Mike]

There we go. There we go.

[Andy]

Big ass fossil. But this is cool. I love this.

[Mike]

But also you see that? You see the room that it's in? No, no, no. Well, I'm in the front walkway when you walk in and like it's a New York museum. They got these stunning ceilings, these giant. Where the T. Rex Is that T. Rex I'm in there now is what I tell them. I'm Pokemon like you. Well I mean like my exhibit here, this guy right there would be at the grand entrance of the New York New York museum.

[Andy]

I see what you're saying.

[Mike]

Okay, let's be all over that.

[Andy]

That was very cool. Thank you.

[Mike]

Fantastic.

[Andy]

Thank you for that super chat Silver J. Hawkins. We also have a birthday tax from Zacky641 who says birthday tax. Appreciate you lovely people. Thank you Zacky.

[Mike]

Happy birthday.

[Andy]

Happy what's up, kid? Do you see that? Pikachu is dressed up like the dude from Jurassic Park. Oh, he is. Whose name I don't remember because I don't remember anything, which is why I'm the worst at game showdown.

[Mike]

Is that Roger typing that? I'll put Roger in the headlock.

[Andy]

My favorite genre of Mike's quotes are him saying, I'd do this with no thought of practicality or reality.

[Mike]

It doesn't matter. Your Pokemon. You have more money than God.

[Andy]

Put him in any of this.

[Mike]

Roger. Are you crazy?

[Andy]

Put him in a headlock, Mike. But let's get to the your wrongs for today. We got Tundra Boy. Who says I'm your wronging myself? Those supermassive layoffs took place in 2024, not earlier this year. Thank you, Tundra Boy. Gondor's Condor says The most popular DND rulebook is commonly referred to as the Fifth Edition. It was originally released in 2014 with a revised version last year. That WotC? Still Wrath of the Lich King? No, WotC. What's WotC?

[Mike]

Not Wrath of the Lich King. Yeah, that was pretty lit though.

[Andy]

Watlick. Yeah, man, that was a time, man.

[Mike]

Dude, they got all the coolest ones. That was a catalyst.

[Andy]

I got that for Christmas from an ex girlfriend. Rocked.

[Mike]

Oh man, they got cool stuff.

[Andy]

Chad, this has been kind of funny. Games daily. Each and every weekday, we run you through the nerd news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the games cast next. Which already happened that you know Roger again, he's trying to sabotage me with like not taking out the info.

[Mike]

Your hosting skills are so good. He's trying to bring you down a level for he's. He's feeding into the YouTube comments. Oh, Andy can't host. He's miss. He's misspelling words. He doesn't have it. No, no, that's Roger's fault. It's like cupboards and cupboards and drawers.

[Andy]

Cupboards Cupboards and drawers. No, don't check me on that. Chad Blessing spelled it wrong. That's how it spelled. Oh, don't put that on me. Everybody enjoy the stream after this. Greg is playing Marvel's Cosmic Invasion with the devs and we'll see you next time. Gamers, take care of yourself. Take care of each other.