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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Borderlands 4 Receives GLOWING Previews - Kinda Funny Games Daily 06.18.25
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- [00:00]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Today's stories include a Borderlands 4 preview roundup, Warner Brothers Games gets a huge restructure, and Death Stranding is getting an animated film. While all this and more, because this is kind of funny. Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Wednesday, June 18, 2020. I'm one of your hosts, Blessing Adioye Jr. Joining me is Game Informers, Wesley LeBlanc. Wesley, how's it going?
- [00:35]
Wesley LeBlanc
Hello. Hello. Very excited to be here. I was just talking to you before the show. Last time I was on the show, I was with you, which was awesome. But it was the day after I got laid off the first time at Game Informer. So it's very cool to be here, employed by Game Informer and in good spirits, stoked to be on the show. Thanks for having me.
- [00:53]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, I'd love to have you back in way better spirits the last time. I want to hear more about Game Informer and what the current Stitch is and like, what the vibe is. Because, of course, like, everybody, I think, who or most people in our audience, right, like, know about Game Informer, probably love Game Informer Variant Greaves, right? And like, I know for me, as somebody who's reading video game news every single day, right, Like, I frequent Game Informer often. And then you also have people in the office that order the magazines, right? Like, there's so much love for the outlet from our community since coming back to Game Informer. Like, what's it been like? What's the vibe in?
- [01:25]
Wesley LeBlanc
Well, it's one. It's just like, it's still kind of hard to believe. We're about to ship our first issue this week or next week and announce the COVID story tomorrow. But it's just like, crazy. The entire team is back. Like, everyone that was laid off last August came back, which I think is a feed into itself. We're making hires behind the scenes. Like, we are actively, like, growing, which I think is something to be excited about in this industry. And yeah, we have our first issue back shipping next week and we are trying to push subscriptions. We want people to be able to get the best possible price because right now we're running like a. A very limited time discount. You can get a full year of issues for 48 bucks, which is more than our old price. But, like, not just for any reason. One, we're kind of a startup now. You know, we've been around for 34 years, but we have new owners. We are trying to do our own thing now. We're trying to branch out from our history and become something else in this new era of gaming news and industry type stuff like that. So our issue has more pages, better paper, more quality. It's a higher quality cover, stock image on the front and back. We're going to have fewer ads on the website, exclusive features on the website. You get digital archive access to every single Game Informer issue we've ever released, which there's some like really cool stuff. Like we have an EA game that got canceled right before the issue went live, which is a fascinating piece of history. Our Borderlands 1 cover is Borderlands before. They went the whole cel shaded route. So you can see like the original art style. There's a lot of history in there that I think is really cool. And then something that we're all really proud of on the team is the that 5% of every subscription purchase goes to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. So like, not only are you getting informed about your gaming, like we're going behind the scenes, talking to studios, you're getting some exclusive stuff with our magazine. But like you can also feel good knowing your purchases. Like going out there to help a charity that we all know and are thankful for. And that's something we really wanted to push with this new era of Game Informer. And we're stoked we were able to make that happen.
- [03:29]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Hell yeah.
- [03:31]
Wesley LeBlanc
So we're, we're announcing our cover tomorrow, which I can't say anything on right now, but it is an exciting cover, it's a big game. I think people are going to be really excited. And if you want to be, if you want to get that first issue at the best possible price, you can subscribe now. And it's just 48 bucks a year before it jumps up to 70 sometime in the future.
- [03:50]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Oh yeah. Leslie, for those who might have missed you on the last show or for those who might need a reminder like what do you do for Game Informer? And then also, what are some video games you love? What are your top three? Give me those.
- [04:02]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah. So I'm a senior associate editor now, which kind of just means I do a lot of stuff At Game Informer. We all are kind of doing everything. There's not any one person that runs news or reviews or reviews or anything like that. So I do it all just like the rest of the team. Which if you go on game informer.com, you'll find a lot of my work is the daily News. I tend to log on a little bit earlier before everybody else and get started on my day, because I'm on the East Coast. So. Yeah, like, I'd recommend checking out game informer.com if you want to see what we're all up to, because we're updating the site constantly. For me, my top three favorite games. Number one, Final Fantasy 13. Obviously the best Final Fantasy 13. Not a controversial take. No, yeah, it's. It was the first game I bought with my own money. It has, like, probably the best score in any video game ever. Like, I truly. I actually stand by that. For all the problems of 13, that musical score is top notch. And then I don't know the other. The other two games. It's hard not to be, like, kind of basic, but, like, Elden Ring, Breath of The Wild, Persona 5 Royal Something.
- [05:08]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I fuck with all those answers.
- [05:09]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I like to put Final Fantasy 13 first because, like, it's a different answer. And then all the other ones, it's the. It's the same answers we all have. Those games are just goats.
- [05:17]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
It's like, it's the same way that I love to Rep Donkey Kong 64 or Jet Voice, Gemini. But, like, if you ask me what I think are the actual best games ever, is this. I'm saying Breath of the Wild. I'm saying Mario 64. I'm saying GTA San Andreas. You know, the. The regular picks that you. That you would hear before.
- [05:31]
Wesley LeBlanc
Exactly. Yeah.
- [05:32]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Before we get into the show proper, we were talking. I know you mentioned you were covering the Donkey Kong Bonanza Nintendo direct this morning. I want your quick thoughts, like what you think of the direct. Did this one get you more hyped for the game?
- [05:46]
Wesley LeBlanc
So going into it, I've been kind of of the mind. You know, there's these rumors that it's the Super Mario Odyssey team. And I'm on one hand, I was a little bummed if those rumors end up being true, because I just want Odyssey 2. And it's like, you guys are making a Donkey Kong king. Where's Odyssey 2? On the other hand, if someone is going to make a 3D platformer Donkey Kong game, I don't think you could give me a better answer than the Super Mario Odyssey team. So I was like, little apprehensive, but excited nonetheless. After today's direct, I'm all in. Like, I am. This game looks. This looks so good. There was one point where he rolls and then jumps, and then, like, does another jump after that. And I was like, oh, that's Super Mario Odyssey tech. I'm. I'm in. This is going to Be. I think this is going to be a contender for sure.
- [06:30]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Hell, yeah. Yeah. I'm kind of the same way of, like, I think my. My one thing that I want to see more is how those movement options feel, because that's what I love out of Super Mario Odyssey. And I know this game is going for a lot of more of the destructive. I know Tim Gettys, he compares it to more of like, a Wario land and like 3D as far as, like, how bulky he is and, like, how much he's moving through shit. I want to see more of those moving options and how that stuff develops over time. Because when I got to play it at the Switch 2 event, it In New York, right? Like, I didn't have it for long enough to where I could really, like, wrap my brain around. All right, how is Donkey Kong supposed to move? But when I think back to playing DK64, like, even though that didn't control like a Mario, there were still those movement options that made that game feel like fun to play, right? The way that he rolls, the way that I'll jump and then do, like, his, like, little downward chomp with both hands, right? Like, those things still enhance the way that the game feels. And so even if he feels chunky, even if he feels like a destructive force, as long as he feels fun to control, then I'm all in.
- [07:28]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, it was a the. When they first revealed the game, it was kind of like a weird showing. I don't know, a lot of people, including myself, didn't really vibe with the art style. And then they didn't show much. They were just like, you can break stuff and it's like, okay, that's not that exciting. I think if they were able to show a little bit more of what they showed in this direct, people would've been more excited. But like, this direct really, really sold it for me. I can't wait for this game.
- [07:50]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Well, Wesley, enough about all that. Remember, this is kind of Funny Games Daily, each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube and now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show, some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Go Housekeeping for you. It actually happened last year Roger gave Carolyn Polach's album to Kojima and he loved it so much that he had her create the title song for Death Straining two. And now Roger sits down for a one on one interview with Carolyn Polach for tomorrow's Games cast. So get hyped for that. Remember, we're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. So right before KHD because we mixed up the schedule today you just got the Gamescast which is our DK Bonanza direct breakdown. And then after KFCD you're going to get Uncharted 2 gameplay with Greg and Barrett. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way's Greg talking about pride. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shakity Rays, but we'll tell you 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 five stories today.
- [09:16]
Wesley LeBlanc
Bakers does it.
- [09:21]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Starting with our number one. Borderlands 4 Hands On Previews are here and they are fantastic. I'm going to pull from Paul Tassie at Forbes who did his own review roundup for us, or preview roundup I should say. I've yet to see anything in Borderlands for previews that suggests to me that it's not going to be great. And in the wake of pre orders at the $70 price launching this week, now we have a large batch of hands on previews that have dropped from various outlets and creators. Well, the good news is that the Borderlands 4 previews are almost all universally positive and have a general sense of the series being back. The bad news is. Well, I'm not really seeing bad news. Here's a Here is a smattering of highlights from the previews which come from both outlets, and YouTubers do a deep dive into the scene, starting with IGN. After several hours dipping our toes into what is sure to be a massive looter shooter, we're much more optimistic about its odds of recapturing our affections after years apart. Game Informer says with Gearbox, it truly feels like Borderlands 4 is taking those steps to change the direction of a franchise that had been drifting away from me more than a decade while still remaining staunchly true to its overarching identity. And then Screen Rant says, quote it's hard to distill everything I loved about my time playing Borderlands 4 down to a digestible length. I could go on for far too long about how great the new throwing knives are or how this is easily some of the best written Borderlands content, thanks to the game's humor staying grounded in its own world as opposed to relying too hard on dated Internet culture. Wesley, where are you at with Borderlands? Do these previews get you excited?
- [11:03]
Wesley LeBlanc
They do get me excited. You read one from Game Informer. That's from my boss, Brian Shea, and I'm most excited because of his thoughts on the game. He was kind of in the same boat as me where loved 1 and 23 was just not it. I don't. For me, it was like the humor of 1 and 2 maybe stayed with 3 and it didn't grow up with me and I just wasn't there for that anymore. You know, all the same things people have said about three that I think Borderlands and Gearbox knows they need to address. So for him to walk away from his preview hands on and be like, yo, it's back. This game, this is. They're not only like making Borderlands better, but they're looking at the mistakes they've made in past entries and fixing those, especially three. So for me, that's like music to my ears. I. I can't wait for Borderlands 4.
- [11:50]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Now, were there. What were the things for you from three that stood out as, oh man, I really hope they fix this for the next game.
- [11:57]
Wesley LeBlanc
Honestly, a lot of it was probably just the writing. Like the gameplay was still pretty good. It's. It's Borderlands. It's a really solid looter shooter. It was just like. Not to say what everyone else has said about it, but like the toilet humor, the, like, it's just too much of it.
- [12:11]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. Like the Internet, like Mimi stuff.
- [12:13]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah. Like the. The twins weren't especially coming off a handsome Jack. It's. That's going to be a hard bar to cross anyway. But like the twins did not do that at all. And I think they're aware of that. They've kind of indicated so with the tones of the trailer so far and if these previews are an indication, they really took that to heart.
- [12:31]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. Yeah. This excites me. Like Borderlands has always been one of those ones. For me, that has been the game that it's been a time waster in a good way. Right. Like when a Borderlands comes out, if I have friends that play Borderlands. Right. Or if whenever it's in vogue, it is the game that I'll jump into, not necessarily out of. Oh, I'm playing this because I'm Looking for the story to blow my mind or I'm looking for it to be a game of the year. It's always been a Borderlands is a fun game to just exist in and shoot things and loot things in and get the better gun and kind of have that like repeated gameplay loop. Like, that's always worked fairly well for me. But I've never been somebody who's like, die Hard Borderlands. And I know plenty of those people exist. I back the back, like in college I had, I know I probably talked about this before, but like I had my friend Joey who he was in like the engineering school and he had access to like 3D printers. And this is like when 3D printers were like first starting to become a bit more accessible, at least for certain groups of people, especially if you worked at the engineering school. And U of I like, we would play Settlers of Catan together all the time. And he ended up 3D printing his own Borderlands themed Settlers of Catan board that like came complete with like cool like lighting shit and like Borderlands like style like designs to it. And that shit was so cool. But he was him and like his immediate group of friends were Borderlands Die Hard folks. And I know that shit exists, right? And I think like, I know those people are probably looking toward Borderlands 4 and being like, yo, I'm in. Either way, it's a new Borderlands. Like, it's a new generation. We're going to hop in. But I think for the me's and you's of the world, right, like three was one where I think I kind of hit a bit of that fatigue. And part of that was just that, like, I think the more things have changed in video games, the more things kind of stayed the same in Borderlands where I'm like, dude, I feel like I'm just playing A Remastered Borderlands 2 to some extent, right? Or like I feel like the writing that I'm getting isn't moving me, it's not making me laugh. It's like, all right, it's there. And I'm kind of doing the same gameplay loop that I'm known for reading here, right? Like, I love reading Screen Rant Talk about this being easily some of the best written Borderlands content, both from your point Wesley of Handsome Jack and how much people love and vibe with the story of Borderlands 2. But then also just the moment to moment, what's the humor that I'm getting? What are the jokes that I'm getting? You know, I've me and Andy have pointed out the fact that, like, you look at the team of people that are riding this game, and I think those, it was probably at a certain embargo or something where I saw multiple people who, whose work I know and trust come out and say that they're riding for Borderlands. It was Ify Nwadi. Yeah, it was Xaliver Nelson, Emma Kidwell, and I think Emma Kidwell.
- [15:10]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [15:11]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I was about to say, yeah, like, the list goes on of like, oh, okay, you got some good people working on the story, on the writing for this game, which is, which gives me so much confidence for it.
- [15:21]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I mean, like, I think they, I remember that embargo or whatever you're talking about, where, like, all these writers came out and were like, we're working on this game. I don't think that was like, by mistake. Like, that was like a part of marketing almost to be like, look, we, we know what went wrong with three. Like, we're cooking with four. We, we hired some really good people for this, and so far it seems like it's working out. How do you feel about the art style now that we've seen a little bit more of it? It's like a little different, but not too different.
- [15:47]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, I, I think when they first, I think the original reveal for Borderlands 4 did it a disservice because it was more of a cinematic reveal, but I think it gave people the impression that they were taking a larger step as far as changing the art style. And like, I look at this and I'm like, it still looks like Borderlands, but also, I don't really have much of an issue with it. Like, it does. I, I, I think it's a battle that, like, is, is going to be tough for the studio because, like, the, the Borderland style is so distinct and so established. I almost don't know how you do much more with it unless you completely revamp it, which for me, I think would turn it into a different thing. I think it's almost more risky to change the art style. But, like, for you, what, what do you think of it?
- [16:33]
Wesley LeBlanc
I'm really enjoying it so far. I kind of was hoping. We had joked, like, internally at Game Informer when this got announced, like, what if, because they needed a revamp, what if they just went back and finally did the art style that I mentioned earlier that was on our cover, like the canceled Borderlands?
- [16:47]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [16:47]
Wesley LeBlanc
Art style. If they did something like that, I kind of want to see that happen one day. But to your point, the art style Is more than most games, like, really critical to Borderlands?
- [16:58]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [16:58]
Wesley LeBlanc
I don't. I think it's because just when it came out that cel shading was so new and like unique to Borderlands and now it's kind of inseparable from the series. Like if you take away that it's. I don't know, what is it? Just another looter shooter. Like what differentiates itself other than maybe some of the humor. So I guess ultimately it's probably a good thing they're sticking with the art. I do kind of hope to see them do some kind of revamp one day though.
- [17:20]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, I think for me, as far as presentation wise, one of the things that stuck out to me during the last state of play that they did was they were talking about this being like a different planet. Like you're not on Pandora, you're in a different location. And I, I think for me the biggest critique I'll give is that as I'm watching the gameplay, I would not have been able to tell you that this is a different location. Like everything still kind of looks the same way that previous Borderlands games look. I think, I think to your point, there is an identity that Borderlands has that is with the art style, that is with that cell shading. But I could see maybe the environments just looking different. I could see maybe a different direction as far as, I don't know the shapes of things or really just making it feel like you're on a different planet but you still keep the cell shading with that. I think that's.
- [18:08]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, there's like other games where you are only not only but on alien planets. Often it differentiates itself really well. Like Destiny, for example, another looter shooter. Even like the Halo games, like, I can look at screenshots and be like, oh, this is Halo 3, this is Halo 2, this is Halo 1. Just by looking at the planet and how different it is. And to your point with Borderlands, that's kind of something that's tougher. But I don't, I don't know, we haven't seen so much of Borderlands for that. I'm like willing to write that off yet. But I am hoping that we do see some more like variants in this new planet. Otherwise why go to a new planet if it's basically just Pandora?
- [18:43]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. The other thing I want to shout out from Paul Tassey's write up is later on in the write up he mentions that, like, it seems like there's two areas that have been significantly addressed One of the areas being the writing that we're talking about, but then the other one seemingly to be the dramatic increase in mobility. And he says, ranging from grappling hooks to gliding to make the combat feel more fast paced and modern. And I remember that being one of the big things that stuck out from watching the Borderlands direct that they did is like one of the early things they showed off was, I think, either mantling or. No, it was gliding. They showed you gliding from one point to. To the next. And for me, that's a huge thing. Like, I want the game to feel more natural to play. You know, I. That goes back to the thing I said earlier as far as games change, but Borderlands tends to stay the same. I think looking at what. What are the. What are modern FPS games doing right. What are the best feeling FPS games right now? For me, I think of like 2019, when we got Apex Legends, of how good that game feels in terms of movement, in terms of mantling, glide, sliding, all these different things. Like, I want to see. I want to see every game kind of like, level up on each other and like, learn from each other. I think Borderlands, since the last one, has quite a bit to learn from as far as FPS games that have come out in the last five years. And so that fills me with a lot of hope and excitement for this game.
- [19:59]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I'm kind of the same way you are where I want my games to grow with me. Like, I know that you're a Perry Poppy. Like, I'm also a big fan of the parries. Like, put a Perry in this game. Put like, some dodge. Like, I want to be fast and action oriented.
- [20:11]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [20:11]
Wesley LeBlanc
But I'm also curious if, like, because there's got to be a step too far. I'm. I'm thinking of, like, Halo Infinite right now. They did the Halo 3, like, throwback playlist, and the entire community is like, this is amazing. There's no sprinting, there's no mantling. It feels like Halo 3. This is what Halo Infinite should be. And so I'm like, I wonder if you can go too far where you take away the spirit of movement that people fell in love with originally. It's a tricky balance and I'm glad that I just play and write about these games instead of having to worry about that 100%.
- [20:44]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Let's move on to story number two. Warner Brothers games restructures development into Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat and DC Universe divisions. I am pulling from Jennifer Moss and I forgot to write down the atlas. I'm going to copy this. I'm going to copy the whole, whole thing. I'm going to paste it into Google from Variety. So it's Jennifer Moss from Variety. It reads Hogwarts. Legacy maker Warner Brothers Games has set a new leadership team for its development, production and tech operations and restructured into divisions based on its four key franchises, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and the DC Universe. Per wbd, three current studio heads have been promoted to the role of senior vice president as part of the Warner Brothers Games restructure. Warner Brothers Games Montreal studio head Yves Lachance has been promoted to senior vice president development, overseeing the development teams working on Harry Potter and Game of Thrones games. NetherRealm studio head Sean Himerich has been promoted to senior vice president development overseeing the Mortal Kombat in DC Games and Warner Brothers Games. New York studio chief Stephen Flanary has been promoted to senior vice president, central tech and services, overseeing game and publishing, technology, customer service, QA and user research. Under the new WB Games development, production and tech leadership structure, Lachance, Himerich and Flannery will all report directly to J.B. perrette, Warner Brothers Discovery's CEO of global streaming and games. All teams across development, production and tech will report to Lachanze and Himerich, quote aligned to the franchises for which they are creating games, end quote. The gaming publisher. The gaming publishing division's leadership will continue to be overseen by Paret. Variety has confirmed that this restructuring did not include any layoffs or exit of any executives, which is some good news. Wesley, what are your thoughts on this?
- [22:41]
Wesley LeBlanc
First off, very excited. The restructuring did not include layoffs because so often we see these kind of moves happen and then hundreds of unnamed people in a story like this no longer have jobs. So it's really cool that that didn't happen. My second thought is I have a hard time having any faith in anything Warner Bros. Is doing these days because, I mean, they're just merging and unmerging and creating new names all over the place. So it's kind of hard to know what to make of this. I guess it's cool that they're staking a claim in games and like these are the IP they want to work with. But on the other hand, it kind of takes away the excitement of games because it's like, okay, you're the Harry Potter team and all you're doing is making Harry Potter. You're the Game of Thrones team and I Don't know. That's a little boring and corporate to me. Like, I feel like there should be some wiggle room and this doesn't seem to be any. Yeah. Odd news.
- [23:37]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, I 1000% agree with that. Right. I think for a gigantic company like Warner Brothers Discovery, I understand the idea of we have our main IPs that we want to focus in on and dial in on and have our studios make projects for. Make games for. At the same time, I think having a studio be. All right, you're the Harry Potter studio. Okay, you're the DC studio. Okay, you're the. This studio. Like, I think it's a bit restrictive and for me doesn't necessarily solve the problems that we've read about as far as like, you know, Monolith being going from IP to ip, trying to figure out, like, okay, we want to make our next game, but Warner Brothers really wants it to be a big ip and so, okay, let's try to make a Flash game. Okay, well, that doesn't work. All right, let's try to make a. Oh, I forget the name of the. There was like a character that was kind of in the Arrow. Arrow verse, but not necessarily Arrow verse. Did like demonic shit chat. Let me know who I'm. Who I'm thinking of. But, like, they went through a bunch of different. Constantine. Yes. They pitched a Constantine game. And then I think WB just didn't really answer of like, oh, is this greenlit? Is this not greenlit kind of thing. And then, like, they kind of just fell down this path of, like, not really having a strong direction. Right. Like, I think you really have to have somebody who is at the top with a strong vision for. With a strong. Both a strong vision and then also a strong understanding of the capability of your studios and what fits and what works to really be able to guide the ship. I know Greg and our team talk a lot about Marvel games in the way that they do things. Right. Oh, man, Insomniac would make a great Spider man game. Let's partner up with that. With them having meetings with PlayStation and being like, oh, you know, you want to make a. A fighting. A Marvel fighting game? Who do we know? Oh, Arcsys makes great fighting games. Let's connect these dots to make something fantastic. I am way more of a believer in that approach than in this approach of. All right, Hogwarts Legacy Studio. Like, that's your. Continue making Hogwarts games. And hopefully, like, they're all. They're always going to be fantastic. All right. You know, Netherrealm I think the one thing that I take from this as far as the Sean Himerich who was the studio head at NetherRealm overseeing the Mortal Kombat and DC Games thing, the only, the main thing I take from that is like, all right, injustice is still on the table. That's like the one bit of like good news that I really see here. But yeah, as I read into these, I'm like, I don't, I don't know if this is the approach, but I want to hope for the best because I want these games to be good and I want Warner Brothers Studios to be like to put out good games because historically when they put out good shit, it's really good shit. You get Batman, Arkham, you get Mortal Kombat, you get Injustice, you get these great things.
- [26:30]
Wesley LeBlanc
It kind of silos everything a bit much too like it's so rigid now that to your, to your point earlier about Insomniac doing Spider man. Like now it seems Warner Bros. Is kind of axing out any chance of maybe reaching out to a random studio to make this type of game. Like instead it's like, oh no, if it's going to be a Harry Potter game, it has to be our in house Harry Potter, one of our teams on that division where it's like, why not let somebody else try to make a Harry Potter or a Game of Thrones? Yeah, I mean we'll have to see how this plays out. But yeah, I don't know, it's, it's just another strange decision by Warner Bros. I hope that all the teams there are okay and maybe this ends up being a good thing, but I just have a hard time trusting any anything that Warner Bros. Is doing these days.
- [27:14]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I agree we're going to move on story number three. But before we do want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.
- [27:31]
C
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- [28:37]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
And we're back. During the break I was reading chat and people in chat were like yo, where's the Teen Titans game? And that's my other thing not to double back on the, on the conversation but like there's so many ips that WB Discovery has at their disposal that they just don't do anything with and like there's so much potential in my opinion for a Teen Titans game. And like I, we're gonna double all the way back to the conversation because like I my other thing with it is that everything doesn't have to be the biggest scope. Everything doesn't have to be. We need a triple A Arkham game that's co op. We need like the biggest suicide squad game that's going to take us seven years to make and it's going to be a failure. Like brother, give a Teen Titans game to dotomu like the team that's making the like all the beat em up games. Right.
- [29:24]
Wesley LeBlanc
Like Inora for Teen Titans. When I saw Wu Tang, the rise of Deceiver, that brass line.
- [29:30]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [29:31]
Wesley LeBlanc
That art style and everything. Like give them a Teen Titans game and then kind of base it off that old Cartoon Network show we all watched. Yeah, like the OG Teen Titans. Yeah, to your point. Like it doesn't need to be this photorealistic seven year development thing. Like give a cool smaller team this and see what they can do. Which I don't know if you can do that now with your silos.
- [29:48]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, like I would hope that obviously like they're trying to figure a lot of shit out. Right. And good for them for trying to figure out figure this stuff out. I hope part of the restructuring is and they've not said this right so it's hard to infer but I hope part of that restructuring is maybe looking more toward outside stuff because I, I, I think one of the coolest things Idea wise that I've seen from a big publisher in terms of green lighting games is Nintendo with Cadence of Hyrule, where they gave one of their biggest franchises to an indie developer and went, hey, like we saw, you know, you made a fun. You made crypto the Necrodancer do that, but with Zelda. And they did it and it looked cool, right? It's such a cool, it's such a fun idea that's gonna feed a certain sect of the audience and at the very least, like, it's gonna give you another addition into that franchise that's going to be a. A w. It's going to be a win. Might not be the most gigantic moneymaker that you're. That you're looking at, right? But guess what? Neither is Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League.
- [30:41]
Wesley LeBlanc
So, like, exactly. Like it's gonna pad out a flop like Suicide Squad. Exactly. Fortunate to say, like, these smaller projects can help, you know, make the impact of something like Suicide Squad less.
- [30:52]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, exactly. It reminds me of like EA with the originals as well, where it's like, all right, we start this, this initiative, we're greenlighting, like more indie titles. Slash, like double A titles from studios we don't necessarily own. And then guess what, a few years later you have It Takes Two winning Game of the Year at the Game Awards, right? Like, it's a thing that you can cultivate and that you can grow and like have relationships with these other developers. Then, you know, get these wins that we're talking about, but then also, like have those developers having something to do that see, that can be stable as long as that, as long as that's going well. I mean, I want to see that more.
- [31:25]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [31:26]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Story number three, let's talk about Death Stranding. Death Stranding animated film has been confirmed with an original story in the works from Raised by Wolves Rider. This is Jordan Midler at Video Games Chronicle. An animated film based on Death Stranding has been announced. The film, which is a co production between Kojima Productions and LA based animation studio Line Mileage, doesn't have a release date. The animated feature will be set in the Death Stranding universe, but doesn't seem to be an adaptation of the original game's story. According to Deadline, Aaron Guzikowski, who has served as a writer on both Raised by Wolves and Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, is attached to the project. The film will reportedly seek to achieve a tone similar to that of Predator Killer of Killers, a recently released animated project. Quote, I love the world of Death Stranding. It's so creatively freeing, so beautifully dark and yet hopeful. I'm so excited and honored that Hideo Kojima, whose work I've long admired, has invited me to dwell within his creation, to birth new stories into his. Into this fertile mind bending universe, said Guzikowski. God dang.
- [32:35]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [32:35]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. Wesley, what do you think about this?
- [32:38]
Wesley LeBlanc
I'm a death stranding sicko, so I will end all of this. I'm very excited for this. I did not see the part about Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners, which. That is a fantastic and dark and hard movie to watch, but very good. I haven't seen this predator movie yet. I still got to watch Prey and I don't know. I'm all in on more Death Stranding animated film. I think Kojima announced there's an anime happening last month. I think he told IGN that or something.
- [33:04]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
For Death Stranding.
- [33:05]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [33:06]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
God dang.
- [33:06]
Wesley LeBlanc
That Training two is out this month. Like it's a. It's a good time to be a Death stranding sicko, which I am. So.
- [33:13]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Oh my God, I missed this. Yeah. This is from May 28th, written by Eric Van Allen on IGN. Death Stranding is getting an anime adaptation. Kojima says. God, like, here's the thing. I think all this is dope. I'm like you. I'm a death training sicko. I really love the world. I. I really love how wacky it is. I really love how weird and very like, specific of like a world it is as far as like what it's doing and how the rules of that world go. I like that it's getting adapted. I wonder if like, there's a such thing as too much with Death Stranding because it doesn't strike me as an IP that is like. And maybe the movie can change all of this. Right? But it doesn't strike me as an iPad that's going to resonate with a, like a large audience outside of video games. I feel like the Kojima ness of it really carries like the video game side of things as far as like, all right, Kojima released a new game automatically. You're going to get millions of sales because people want to see what the creator of Metal Gear Solid is doing next. And like it looks different, looks weird and all that stuff. Right? I'm so fascinated on a narrative side, like does how I'm. I'm already fascinated about the movie and how well or nonwell the movie is going to do. I think it's going to do well because they have a really great director attached to it. But like doing that plus an anime plus an animation. Like, that seems like a lot for this.
- [34:37]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah. I think them not using, like, the original game story is really smart because there's so much of death stranding that is wild and crazy. But it's all specific to Sam Bridges and, like, his story.
- [34:50]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [34:50]
Wesley LeBlanc
You could easily do a really cool animated film where it's just a delivery guy, like another porter out who has to get from point A to B. And there's bad guys, there's bts. There's all kind of stuff along the way. You could even. I mean, you could do like, a horror where someone's like, trapped in an environment by bts. I just watched no One Will Save you. That alien movie with Caitlin Dever, and it's just her trying to not be killed by aliens. Like, this doesn't have to be something as grand as the scope of death straining. It's just in that world. So, like, give me, like a haunted house with some BTs and someone who does not want to become a void and I'm there.
- [35:26]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Is there any of the characters that you think a animation revolving around would make sense? Like, that's one of the things I really like about the World of Death rating. And like, even coming out of my preview for Death straining to like, one of my big things were that, like, I feel like in this game, like, Kojima is really in his bag as far as characters and as far as, like, kind of restoring the feel of what Metal Gear, the Metal Gear Solid games did a lot as far as, like, the groups of characters now fleshed out, so many of the individuals feel. I think that's Training two is doing a lot of that as well. But, like, for Destroying One, is there anybody that stands out trying to see a fragile animation?
- [36:02]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I was going to jump to fragile just because her story is one of the, like, bigger ones in the. In the game. But also it's a very, like, tragic and traumatizing story outside of the events of death stranding, like, finding out why she wears the suit and all that kind of stuff that she wears. So I'm not sure it's. I think I'd prefer it to be completely, like, untouched by the original story. Like, I just want, like, a new Porter. Maybe in a different. I guess we did the entire United States, but, like, bring them somewhere that we haven't seen before and just create something new, but using, like, the logic and the physics of, like, this world.
- [36:41]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I mean, the fact that the death rating 2 is taking place in Australia. Yeah, like, you don't. It could be in a completely different country, right? Like, we could go somewhere in Africa. We can go somewhere in Asia. We can go. Like, the options are kind of endless. And I do. I. I like the idea of it being about a porter, but at the same time, I also, like, I would. What I want to see or what about what I'm curious about, even though I don't know if we'll ever see this. But what I'm very curious about is, like, what's going on in these settlements. As sand porter bridges, we're always on the outside because our main role, our only role really is delivery man. And so you're only seeing the outside of these structures. And as you're approaching a place, right, it'll tell you there's 3,000 people that inhabit this city. What the fuck is going on in the city though, right?
- [37:21]
Wesley LeBlanc
Like, what is it? Like what? Yeah, like that's actually. Yeah. Is it a Fallout Shelter type of situation?
- [37:28]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [37:28]
Wesley LeBlanc
Is it like a metropolis down there where people are thriving and they just have no desire to come up top? That's a really good point. Yeah, I'd love to see that. Or like, where. Go somewhere on earth where there's still like, lots of buildings.
- [37:40]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Like, what if we.
- [37:41]
Wesley LeBlanc
For the anime, what if you're in Tokyo and like, the metropolis of Tokyo is still standing? How does that kind of architecture, like, play a role in death stranding? Because largely it's just like a vast empty landscape with like, you know, the cities, but it's mostly just natural environment.
- [37:58]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. Let's move on to story number four. PS5's Stellar Blade is reportedly coming to Nintendo Switch 2. This is Jordan Midler at Video Games Chronicle. Stellar Blade is reportedly coming to Switch 2. That's according to a new report which claims that Stellar Blade developer Shift up is currently developing a Switch to port of the game following its massive Steam success. According to Playform, translated from Korean, the popular action game is currently in development for Nintendo's new console. This comes as Developer Shift up gifted hundreds of Nintendo Switch 2 systems to its employees. Developer Shift up told Playform that, quote, nothing is confirmed regarding the development of a Switch 2 version, but that it was reviewing various possibilities internally. That's cool. I read the story about the Switch 2s being gifted to all of its employees, and I started doing the math because I think it was like 300 people receiving Switch 2s, which a lot of money to spend on gifting everybody, but also fucking dope that they did that for their employees.
- [39:01]
Wesley LeBlanc
This is the same studio that did that with the PS5s, if I recall.
- [39:05]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Oh, is it?
- [39:06]
Wesley LeBlanc
Or maybe it was PS5 Pro. I think he gifted the. The whole studio PS5s as well. So the Stellar Blade money is.
- [39:14]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. Yeah, the Stellar Blade and probably the. The. Their mobile game from before that. That money probably goes.
- [39:22]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, yeah.
- [39:23]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Because that's like 300. Wait, what? 450 times 300 people plus tax or whatever. Like you're talking about 150. I don't know, whatever math that maths out at.
- [39:36]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, this is cool. It's awesome. I mean, I'm all for everything and anything coming to Switch two at this point. And I think it's possible knowing that Cyberpunk runs well and stable on Switch 2. I feel like any developer can get to running on Switch two if CD Projekt Red can. Cause that's a very demanding game. So I'm all for this. I spoke to the game's director last year for a story I did for Game Informer about South Korean game development, and he's a pretty chill dude. It's a very interesting story on like why they made Stellar Blade, which is basically that the gotcha well of Korean mobile gaming is running dry. And he was like, we got to get new fans because like we can only have so many on Nikkei. I think Goddess of Victory is what it's called. And so they made Stellar Blade and sure enough, Stellar Blade has been a hit on PS5. I think it's Steam numbers were incredible last week or this week. So yeah, props to them. That's great. I. I liked Stellar Blade. It wasn't like my favorite or anything. I think the action was great and the story was. I don't even know.
- [40:43]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, same though. Exact. Exactly same. Right. Like there was a story, but I could not tell you anything really that happened in that video game after playing it only like a year ago. Yeah, but like, that was. That was one of those ones for me where I really like the action, I like the tone, I like, I like the atmosphere. But I really needed, like, I really need a sequel to just fix everything that they couldn't do the first game. Right. Like, if you give me a sequel where the side quests are more interesting and the story and like writing is a lot better, we're going to have. You could have something really special with Stellar Blade because they really, they like, they nailed the action of it in a way that like, is really impressive for your first big AAA action title.
- [41:19]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah. For sure. I'm in the same boat as you. Like, I think probably nailing that type of action is maybe harder than creating a story to go with it. So like they've got a really solid foundation now. They just need to maybe hire up some writers or figure out a story that I don't, I don't even think the story was bad necessarily. I just really don't know what it was like.
- [41:41]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, I think it was. I mean I just, I think it was just boring is what it was like. I think they just didn't have like engaging, I don't even want to say not engaging characters, but I guess the character writing because like you look at the characters, you know, you look at like the style and visually I look at the game of Stellar Blade and I'm like, oh, they got something. But I play the game of Stellar Blade and I like hear what they're saying and I like, I look at the quest and I'm like, I don't really care. Like I, at no point am I really caring about the journey of these characters or what they're going through. Like the, the Naytibas and like how, how all this stuff fits together.
- [42:13]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [42:15]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
So like that's work to do. But I also think that it's work you can figure out. Like there's so much of that game that is inspired by a game like Near Automata and like best part of Near Automata is the writing. And so like you just got to get that last little bit. Yeah. I mean, which is. It's hard to follow that up but like, yeah, yeah, that's the one thing that I think will make this puzzle fit together.
- [42:36]
Wesley LeBlanc
Sure. Yeah. I hope they can do it.
- [42:37]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I want to bring in the super chat from volkdasher who writes in and says so would that be Sony Publishing on Switch? It's their IP and they published on PC too. It's considered a first party with shoes explanation. Yeah. Wesley, what do you think about this? Right, like this is a technically a PlayStation Studios title even though it's developed by a non owned studio. Like do you see this being a thing of PlayStation publishing on Switch too?
- [43:01]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, that's interesting. I actually have not thought of that. We don't have any examples of that. Right. Like we've never had a PlayStation Horizon, the Lego game. Oh, that's right. Okay, so there's, I think that's the.
- [43:12]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
One example because then there's the other. There's like, I think Pat on in like everybody's Golf, but like those are published by Bay9namco. Even though they're PlayStation, like Sony owned things.
- [43:23]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, that's okay. So there's a relationship there. Could happen.
- [43:26]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I think it'll be the show Chad is saying as well.
- [43:29]
Wesley LeBlanc
Okay then. Yeah, I don't see that. I don't think that would be a problem necessarily. Especially since PlayStation is just the publisher, I think. I mean ultimately as the publisher, your job is to help sell the game and make money doing it. And stellar blade on Switch 2 would certainly make money. So I don't know why PlayStation wouldn't. It's not like it's an IP they want to protect as an exclusive. We already know that's not the case since it's on Steam. So yeah, I could see this happening. I think it's very plausible.
- [43:59]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. I think I see this similar as a death stranding situation where Death Stranding was a PlayStation first party PlayStation Studios game, but then on PC it was published by. I forget the name of the publisher.
- [44:11]
Wesley LeBlanc
505.
- [44:12]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
505, yes. Correct. I could see it being a different thing. Right. Like all that, all that really comes down to what the fine print says. And like, you know, like the super Chat mentioned that it's a Sony owned ip. Like, is it a Sony owned ip? Like I wonder if that's like what that conversation was.
- [44:32]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [44:33]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
But either way, like, even if it is, like, even if this is a PlayStation push for it, I could see, I could see that making sense. Right. Like I think if you're at a place of PlayStation where you're not looking at Nintendo as being like as direct of a competitor as maybe they were once once upon a time, I could see the conversation being like, yo, we just want to, we want to make sure that this game by the studio that like we are partnered with does as well as it humanly can, does like as good as possible, so that we're doing them a justice while also making the money that we can make off it. So.
- [45:06]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, exactly. And now that Switch 2 is out, like it's a known quantity, Sony can I would imagine pretty confidently be like, okay, they're not directly competing with us. Like Switch 2 is continuing in its lane, which is a great lane for it. But like it's not trying to be this powerful piece of hardware that the PlayStation 5 is. So like it doesn't need to sweat it as much. So why not bring a game like Stellar Blade over?
- [45:28]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. And also seeing a lot of people in chat mentioning that, yeah, Sony doesn't own Stellar Blade. Shift up owns it. Sony only publishes Stellar Blade, which makes a lot of sense.
- [45:37]
Wesley LeBlanc
So if Sony probably wouldn't even be involved in publishing this on Switch too, I bet it would be like a death stranding situation.
- [45:42]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah, exactly. Now, Wesley, I know you mentioned you're on the show back in August. We have a special thing we do here for transition. Do you remember what we do here?
- [45:51]
Wesley LeBlanc
I do.
- [45:53]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Good. Because we just talked about a lot of big news. But Wesley, if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?
- [46:03]
Wesley LeBlanc
You'd go to our last story, the We News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.
- [46:08]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Absolutely. Fucking nailed it. Story number five is WE News. Let's start from vgc. Sega has made nine of its mobile retro rereleases free, but before they're delisted in the future, those games are crazy. Taxi Classic Golden Axe Classics Shining force Classics Sonic CD Classic Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 Streets of Rage Classic Streets of Rage 2 Classic Super Monkey Ball Sakura and Virtua Tennis Challenge the film adaptation of Silent Hill 2 Return to Silent Hill is set to release on January 23, 2026. Peak the new game from AgroCrab has sold 100K copies in its first 24 hours. The House of the Dead 2 remake launches August 7 on Switch and PC. Pokemon TCG Pocket's next booster, Eevee Grove launches Thursday, June 26. This one is from Noble. Beat Saber is ending support for PSVR and PSVR2 versions. It'll still be available, but no new content after June, and multiplayer will no longer be available after January 21, 2026. Which sad news for me, actually. I wonder is. I wonder. Yeah, does Beat Saber not have as much like his community engagement on PlayStation? I guess with PSVR 2, I wonder how much that sold.
- [47:26]
Wesley LeBlanc
That's because I think there's. I think they're still doing meta quest updates.
- [47:30]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
So yeah, and I guess they're owned now, just not it by meta. So maybe they just want to focus in on that.
- [47:35]
Wesley LeBlanc
True.
- [47:36]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
That sucks. Next one, the third Hades 2 update, the unseen, is now available on Steam Square. Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy Tactics the Ivalice Chronicles will not include content from the War of Lions or new characters slash missions. Dora Rainforest Rescue is coming to console's MPC on October 24th. Disney Dreamlight Valley's next free update, Mysteries of Skull Rock, is now available. Fortnite Blitz Royale, a new fast paced 32 player battle royale mode is now live through July 15th and then finally, Harvest Moon, Home Sweet Home Special edition is coming to Switch, Xbox, PS5 and Steam this year. And that is it for WE News. Before we get out of here, let me take one peek into super chats to see what people are saying. Yelsing writes in and says, any chance of selling prints of old covers?
- [48:31]
Wesley LeBlanc
Ooh, we don't have like a huge catalog of just old covers laying around but we do have like at least one copy of each. It might be cool to take that and do something like you make prints of them. That's a really good idea and I will bring that to the team. We were tossing around some, some cool Ideas to celebrate 34 years of covers because there's a lot of cool stuff when you have 34 years of history. That is not something we have talked about but I am absolutely going to bring that to the team because I love that idea.
- [49:03]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Oh yeah. I want to bring in one more super chat from Norman Vader, Bakong Vada Veda Bancour. I'm going to nail it one day. Who says I spent some time with Climate Station earlier and it's really well done, 100% recommend checking it out. Kevin, could you look up Climate Station? I don't think I've heard of this one. Wesley, do you know what this is?
- [49:26]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I think I saw a Blue sky esquite earlier about it. It's like a PSVR 2 game. I think it used real world science about CL climate change and turned it into a game in some way. I don't know.
- [49:39]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Interesting. I have. So the PlayStation Blog put up a post about this one about five hours ago. Dive into a compelling data driven experience of the planet. What if understanding climate change wasn't a lecture but a journey you could take yourself? We're pleased to introduce Climate Station, a new experience that transforms decade of climate science into an interactive story. This looks fucking awesome. Holy cow. Yeah, this is for psvr or sorry ps5 and psvr2 and right now we're looking at visuals of planet Earth and yeah, you can kind of see like as things change, things getting hotter, a lot of chart, a lot of, a lot of data. I guess it's a data driven experience but holy shit, this is cool.
- [50:20]
Wesley LeBlanc
But also like it's kind of scary because I'm aware that the of Earth's climate and global warming and all that. So like this would just be like showing me even more in depth how the world is dying.
- [50:34]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [50:34]
Wesley LeBlanc
And I would just have to be like sick nothing. Nobody's doing anything about it in our.
- [50:38]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Government, take off your headset and like, just fucking tears and sweat. Like, I can't believe we're all going to die.
- [50:45]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah.
- [50:46]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Damn, that's cool.
- [50:47]
Wesley LeBlanc
It reminds me of. This is for Florida listeners, but Living with the Land is a ride at Epcot, at Disney World, and it's fantastic. And it's kind of about that, like, real science and how it shapes the earth. Very cool.
- [50:59]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
The more I read about this, more it seems wild too. So this is developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, they say, as part of our collaboration with the United United Nations. Playing for the Planet Alliance Climate Station turns complex data into an immersive interactive experience. Whether you're a curious explorer, a data detective, or just looking for something totally unique to dive into, this free app is available today on PS5 and PSVR2. It is your gateway to understanding the forces shaping our world. Holy shit. Harnessing the same tech innovations used in blockbuster games as a visually rich experience. Yada yada. Holy shit. Yeah. Totally missed this. Yeah. Thank you so much for that super chat.
- [51:37]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I'm going to reach out to that team and try to do a feature on it for Game Informer because that is very cool. And I feel like, why did they just shadow drop this?
- [51:47]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
I feel like this is one of those things that should be talked about more. Like, you should market this. That's cool, Wesley. That brings us to the end of the show and you're wrong. Of course, if you go to kind of funny.com you're wrong. You can write in, let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong so we can correct it. For those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around the globe, Bob writes in and says Jason Schreier clarified what the WB move means on Reset era. This is his. His post verbatim. WB has been saying for a while now that they plan to focus on those four franchises. What this news actually means is that rather than replacing former president David Haddad, they're promoting three guys to senior vp, presumably to see which of them is the best leader to eventually step up to president. This is not a signal about their future products. Just a corporate politics move. Is really interesting.
- [52:40]
Wesley LeBlanc
Okay. Yeah. That's not as. That's even more corporate and not cool that.
- [52:46]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah.
- [52:46]
Wesley LeBlanc
Than we thought earlier.
- [52:48]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Honestly, it makes me worry more of like, all right, so the way that you're testing this out. Testing this out is by giving three men control over distinct IPs. Good luck.
- [52:56]
Wesley LeBlanc
Like whoever gets us the most money standing.
- [52:59]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Yeah. Last man standing. Like, either make us the most money or take the other two out like you guys. Figure it out yourselves. Damn, it's crazy. And then we have one more kebab Yurong from Kebabs, who says the claim that the FF tactics game won't use any content from War of the Lions isn't entirely correct. The translation for the Retro PS1 mode uses the War of the Lions translation of the game, which is considered by fans to be superior to the original PS1 translation. That's a good year. Wrong Kebabs. Thank you so much for that, Wesley. Before we get out of here, do you have anything to talk about, anything to promote? Anything that people should check out from Game Informer?
- [53:38]
Wesley LeBlanc
Yeah, I should probably promote game informer.com subscribe. That's the easiest place to subscribe. And again, it's 48 bucks right now. It's going to jump up to 70 sooner than later. We're announcing our very exciting cover story Game Tomorrow, so tune in for that. It's not one you want to miss. And if you subscribe now, you are guaranteed to get that first issue, which is really cool. And like I've only mentioned, you know, a big part of Game Informer is the COVID story. But like we are a magazine in 2025 and we know what that means. That means people are reading news and reviews and that kind of thing online. Like we, we have game informer.com for that. And so our magazine is kind of built to be more evergreen. You know, we are going to talk about topical things. I did a big feature on AI last year, but we also have a really great freelance piece in this first issue about a very cool horror game that came out over a decade ago and this person spoke to the team behind it on the AI of the main horror figure in that game. Try not to spoil about why it still works all these years later. And that's something that doesn't necessarily work online as a pitch, just because we're so guided by SEO and like Google's whims these days. But what I love about our magazine is like we can have a six to eight page feature about a game that came out 15 years ago, diving deep into the minutiae of it. And I think that's the kind of stuff you'll find in Game Informer that you won't really find elsewhere. Of course I'm biased, but we really are cooking up something special. We pay attention to what people are saying, we know what people want, and we feel more supported than ever before from our new owners. And we're just really excited to get into people's hands. It kind of sucks just having to be like, we have more pages, our paper's better, blah blah blah. But like it really is something special. When you get into your hands. It's going to feel like a new era of Game Informer has begun and we're all really excited about it.
- [55:35]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Well, that sounds super fucking cool. And yeah, I cannot wait to get my hands on new Game Informer magazines. And yeah, absolutely love what you what you guys are doing. I'm a big fan of like essays and video essays in general. So like to hear people just go off on a topic or go off on like a really interesting point in the written form like speaks to my heart. And so I love what y' all what you guys are doing. And thank you so much Wesley for joining me on this episode as well. It's been lovely hanging out with you.
- [56:01]
Wesley LeBlanc
Thanks for having me back. It's awesome to be here well employed. Thank you for making that happen.
- [56:05]
Blessing Adioye Jr.
Hell yeah, dude. Of course. This has been Kind of Funny. Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the stream after this, but until next time, Game Daily.