Epic Lays Off 1,000 People Amid Fortnite Downturn - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.24.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.24.26

Epic Lays Off 1,000 People Amid Fortnite Downturn

Hosts: Andy Cortez & Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Date: March 24, 2026

---

Episode Overview

Today's episode delivered an in-depth analysis of the massive layoffs at Epic Games—over 1,000 employees let go as Fortnite engagement declines. Andy Cortez and Blessing Adeoye Jr. broke down the news, explored broader industry implications, discussed related topics like Nintendo’s Switch 2 production cuts, and touched on the latest milestones and studies within gaming. The hosts combined industry insight with their signature humor and honest, critical perspective.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Epic Games Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees

• News Recap: Epic Games, the publisher behind Fortnite and the Epic Games Store, announced over 1,000 layoffs (~23% of staff) and the imminent shutdown of three Fortnite modes: Rocket Racing (ending October 2026), Ballistic, and Festival Battle Stage (both offline April 16).
• Reasoning from Epic: CEO Tim Sweeney cited a downturn in Fortnite engagement starting in 2025, industry-wide slower growth, low console sales, and Epic-specific challenges as driving factors. Notably, Sweeney clarified the layoffs are not related to AI replacing workers:

  "Since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI... we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can." — Tim Sweeney, company statement [09:14]

• Host Take: Andy and Blessing criticized Epic's management and "overshooting estimates" after years of explosive hiring during Fortnite's peak:

  "These companies could be safe if they just didn't need the millions and billions up top." — Andy Cortez [11:28]
  "We shouldn't be in a place where a few failed updates or a few chapters not performing as well as previous chapters means we've got to lay off a thousand people." — Blessing Adeoye Jr. [20:34]

• Scope: The layoffs number dwarfs most recent industry cuts, typically in the dozens or hundreds; 1,000 is more like large-scale tech layoffs.
• Epic’s Recent Strategies: The downsizing comes after failed Fortnite sub-modes and a costly focus on litigation (vs. Apple) and expansion:

  "Could you all afford to not be on iPhone? Is that a thing that you could have done?" — Blessing [18:59]

• Industry Pattern: This is Epic’s second round of major layoffs (830 in 2023). Over 2,800 games jobs lost industry-wide in 2026 so far [25:46].

Memorable Quotes

• "When elephants fight, it's the grass that suffers." — Andy Cortez, referencing the African proverb about leadership squabbles impacting workers [19:44, 66:55]
• "Tim Sweeney's TL;DR? It's not that we're losing money, we're just not making record profits now. It's just regular profits." — Super Chat read by Andy Cortez [20:08]

Data Points

• Engagement Drop:
  • Feb 2025: Avg. PlayStation player spent 21 hrs/month on Fortnite
  • Feb 2026: Down to 16 hrs/month
    [21:29]
• Layoff Context:
  • 830 employees (16% staff) cut in Sept. 2023
  • 1,000 employees (23%) in 2026

---

2. Nintendo Cuts Switch 2 Output by Over 30%

• Headline: Switch 2 production slashed by a third following softer-than-expected US sales, especially over holiday 2025 [26:40].
• Context: Despite cuts, Switch 2 is the second-fastest selling hardware in US history (behind only Game Boy Advance), outperforming other consoles over the same period [29:54-30:08].
• Stock Reaction: Shares dropped 6.3%; lackluster software lineup cited—but recent Pokemon hit (Pokopia) may change momentum.
• Host Analysis: Nintendo’s struggles reflect industry-wide external factors (US tariffs, global economic instability).

  "Tighten up the backpack. Let's fucking go." — Blessing’s analogy on Nintendo bracing for a 'blizzard' of challenges [31:10]

• Future Outlook: Hosts speculate Nintendo will rely on system-sellers (Pokémon, Mario, Zelda, Animal Crossing) and exclusive software to drive Switch 2 adoption rather than backpedal to the previous generation [34:52-35:46].

---

3. Industry-Wide Trends and Analysis

• Games as a Service (GaaS):
  Super chat and host discussion assert the dominance of service-based games like Fortnite locks player time—hurting ecosystem diversity—while chasing this model has led to unsustainable growth and risk [41:43-42:36].
• AI in Games:
  Circana’s Player Pulse survey shows only ~25% of gamers would avoid a game if it used generative AI; most players are neutral [57:33].

  "Most people making themselves look like Studio Ghibli characters..." — Andy, on why the backlash doesn’t (yet) move sales [59:08]

• Layoff Fallout:
  Massive industry uncertainty discourages both veteran talent and new entrants, risking a loss of industry legacy knowledge [23:41-25:37].

---

4. Other News in Brief (Roper Report Stories 3–7)

Crimson Desert Hits 3 Million Sales

• Pearl Abyss’s open-world action RPG Crimson Desert sold 3 million worldwide since its March 19 release [43:43].
• Hosts compare its rapid success to games like Black Myth: Wukong and discuss its development, quirks, and potential.

Scientific Study on “Post-Game Depression”

• RPGs cause the most profound sense of “post-game depression”—a wistful, empty feeling after finishing a long/invested title [50:42].
• Discussion compares this to 'Post-Avatar Depression' and 'Paris Syndrome'—and the real impact of emotional investment.

Generative AI Sentiment

• Minority of gamers (25%) express resistance to AI-generated content; majority are neutral, but trendline is up from prior years.
• Hosts remain wary of industry practices and public apathy—citing recent “oops, we forgot to remove AI-assets” controversies [59:54-60:33].

WE News Segment (“Small News”)

• Dying Light: The Beast gets a major update with restoration mode and perma-death [60:47]
• Pokemon Champions launches April 8, set to be competitive standard for Pokemon communities [62:41-63:29]
• High on Life 2’s Switch release delayed; various small delistings (Battlefield Hardline, Horizon Chase, Jurassic Park Collection)
• Brief tangent: The “Cliff McDuff” name debate for the Crimson Desert protagonist (ongoing jokes and confusion; IGN once referred to him as such) [67:04]

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Industry Mismanagement:

  "This is showing you don't care about making video games. This is just all about appeasing the shareholders and hitting those record profits." — Andy Cortez [23:07]

• On Developer Exodus:

  "You are discouraging so many new employees from wanting to even get in the games industry. Who the fuck, who in their right mind would go, I want to work for a big studio right now?" — Andy Cortez [24:05]

• On Superficial “Downturns”:

  "It's not that we're losing money, we're just not making record profits now. It's just regular profits." — [Super Chat, 20:08]

• On Post-Game Feelings:

  "I feel it for long games. It's more so because of the amount of skill points...I'm just saying goodbye to all this investment. It's a child. You raised them." — Blessing & Andy [54:40–55:03]

---

Timestamps & Important Segments

• Epic Layoffs Main Segment: [08:35–26:07]
• Nintendo Switch 2 Output Cuts: [26:40–39:13]
• Games as a Service/Industry Structure: [41:43–43:47]
• Crimson Desert Sales and Impressions: [43:43–48:35]
• Post-Game Depression Study: [50:42–56:09]
• AI in Games Discussion: [57:33–60:33]
• WE News (Short Stories): [60:47–66:24]
• Q&A / Super Chats & Cliff McDuff’s Name: [66:24–end]

---

Final Takeaways

This episode captured widespread concern and frustration over industry volatility—with Epic’s layoffs as the latest, largest domino. The hosts drew connections between growth-at-all-costs mindsets, live service unsustainability, and structural flaws hitting everyone from indie hopefuls to Nintendo. Their lively, candid exchanges balanced industry critique with real empathy for affected workers and nervous newcomers—all while keeping things distinctly “Kinda Funny.”

---

For More:
Full episodes and ad-free shows at patreon.com/kindafunny
Super chats, community discussions, and further breakdowns at youtube.com/kindafunnygames

Transcript

[Host 1]

This episode is brought to you by White Claw Search. Great podcast pick friend. No surprises there. After all, you're all about finding the tastiest flavors out there, just like White Claw Surge. And with big, bold flavors to enjoy like blood orange, BlackBerry, cranberry and more, it's time to go all in on taste. Unleash the flavor. Unleash White Claw Surge. Please drink responsibly. Hard Seltzer with flavors 8% alcohol by volume White cloth seltzer works Chicago, Illinois

[Andy Cortez]

it's tax season and at Lifelock we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money in refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it. Guaranteed. One last big number.

[Host 1]

Save up to 40% your first year.

[Andy Cortez]

Visit lifelock.com podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

This episode is brought to you by Palmolive. Family time isn't just the big moments. It's weeknight dinners, sitting around the table, everyone talking all at once. So when the plates are empty and the sink is full, use Palmolive Ultra. Palmolive's most powerful formula removes up to 99.9% of grease, leaving your dishes sparkling clean. And the new, convenient pump makes cleaning even easier so you can spend spend less time tackling dishes and more time together. Shop [e-mail] Chronic migraine is 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting

[Andy Cortez]

four hours or more.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Botox Onobotulinum Toxin A prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine before they start. It's not for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. It prevents on average eight to nine headache days a month versus six to seven for placebo.

[Host 1]

Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems or muscle weakness can be signs of a life threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions including als, Lou Gehrig's disease, Myasthenia gravis, or Lambert Eaton syndrome and medications including Botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects.

[Andy Cortez]

Why wait?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-844botox to learn more.

[Blessing Adio]

If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go

[Andy Cortez]

to patreon.com/kind of funny Today's gaming news stories include Epic Games cuts over 1000 employees, Nintendo cuts Switch 2 output by over 30% and Crimson Desert reaches another sales milestone. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily.

[Blessing Adio]

Foreign.

[Andy Cortez]

Gamers welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Tuesday, March 24, 2026. I am Andy Cortez and I am joined by Blessing. Adio. Yay, junior Good day, Andy. Hello. Good morning, Blessing. We were talking about some basketball a while ago. Saw a really, really bad injury from Moses Moody. Prayers up to Mos Moody and all his family. Just a really don't look it up. If you get kind of queasy when it comes to injuries. Not a great one.

[Blessing Adio]

Can you show me the video? And legitimately I let out like oh yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That's really, really rough. Unfortunate stuff, but spurs did beat the Heat last night. Let's just talk about sports because there's nothing good happening in the gaming world.

[Blessing Adio]

But I'm happy for you.

[Andy Cortez]

Or the world. But spurs got it. I mean just dominant WEMBY 26 points in 26 minutes. I mean, God damn.

[Blessing Adio]

What's Wemby's outlook, let's say four years from now? Are we talking about him like he's LeBron, you know what I mean? Like, is he just the goat of the.

[Andy Cortez]

He's already there, man.

[Blessing Adio]

Man, it's, it's. Imagine being that.

[Andy Cortez]

It's crazy.

[Blessing Adio]

Genetically gifted.

[Andy Cortez]

It's crazy. Dude, like just look up at this man.

[Blessing Adio]

And I'm like, what is that?

[Andy Cortez]

The biggest.

[Blessing Adio]

Is that Slender Man?

[Andy Cortez]

The, the, the biggest thing is can he not get hurt? That's the biggest thing.

[Blessing Adio]

He will get hurt.

[Andy Cortez]

Tall dudes never ever farewell in the NBA. The tallest of the tall right? 75 and up. Yeah, I think Wemby's. I think he was 74 when he started and then reports were that he's grown because he was like 19 when he started or whatever. So like he, he's, he's getting up there but so far things are looking great. Ghost spurs go.

[Blessing Adio]

I'm. I, you tell me that right. Of like will he get hurt? And I still suffer from the post traumatic stress of being from Illinois and Derrick Rose getting injured left And. Right. And him being, like, supposed to be the one. He was supposed to be the guy.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, he got an mvp. I don't know if he deserved it, but he got an mvp.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, but he was our messiah.

[Andy Cortez]

It was one of those where it was like, they got to give it to someone else. But LeBron, you can't just always give it to LeBron. Derrick Rose is one of those. Similar to Steve Nash taking it from Shaq and Kobe. Steve Nash winning MVP back in the day.

[Blessing Adio]

We talk about, like, you know, right now being kind of like a sad time for.

[Andy Cortez]

For video game new and everything and in the world. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

But I'm kind of in an exciting window where.

[Andy Cortez]

Tell me.

[Blessing Adio]

I was looking up game releases because, of course, we're coming off of. I'm free from the Shackles of Crimson Desert, even though I know everybody loves Crimson Desert. Right. Which. Awesome. That's great. And they're doing updates that are fixing a lot of the things that I had problems with in the game. And I'm like, damn, that's dope. I don't know if I'm going to go back to it anytime soon. Maybe later in the year, we'll see. But either way, I'm free from the Shackles. I'm, like, wrapping up my. Trying to complete Screamer.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing Adio]

Doing all the missions that I didn't get around to during my first run of it. And I'm closing in on completing Pokemon Leaf Green. And so I'm in an interesting place where I've been seeing everybody picking up Slay the Spire, too. And I've been purposely.

[Andy Cortez]

You haven't.

[Blessing Adio]

I've been purposely not picking it up because I know that that is, like, the exact type of game that'll take over my life. But I think I'm finding a window where I might finally be able to get to it. I'm excited about that.

[Andy Cortez]

I think it's time. I think it's time. I have. No way. This is true. No, that can't be true. My. No, my hour count has to be off because I probably left it running on my Steam deck or something like that. It says 70 hours. There's no way. I'm probably around, like, maybe 10 to 15 hours. I'll say the spire, too.

[Blessing Adio]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Love it, love it. Really, really good. Very, very fun. Has just an awesome loop and kind of everything that everybody's been talking about. Mugenics of just the, you know, the. The variety in the build and the quality in the.

[Blessing Adio]

The.

[Andy Cortez]

The thing to make you happy about going Oh, I think I just found like a cool thing that might help out whatever. You know, I. I just love a feeling like that. I love feeling like I am outsmarting the design game, even though it's designed to make you feel that way. You know, I'm scared.

[Blessing Adio]

I'm scared that, like, once I pick up Slay the spire too, I might never pick up Mugenics again. Like, I love Mugenics. Right? Such a good game. And it. But it fills that slot for me right now of, oh, I need a rogue light that I can hop into. Think about my builds.

[Andy Cortez]

You're already eating pizza at Pizza Hut.

[Blessing Adio]

Exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

You're trying. No, you're not trying to get pizza somewh.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, it's like, now you're gonna take me to square pie, guys. Yeah, I'm sitting at Pizza Hut right now. And so I'm. I'm kind of scared to hop on that.

[Andy Cortez]

I have the garlic breadsticks here, you know?

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

God, those are so good.

[Blessing Adio]

It's like, I hear the garlic breadsticks over there are kind of. Kind of better.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, I don't know about that. No, I mean, well, I mean, just like Pizza Huts are amazing.

[Blessing Adio]

Well, no, I'm not. I'm. No, I'm with you.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, no, got you. My bad.

[Blessing Adio]

Is the goat, like, don't get me

[Andy Cortez]

wrong, we were back. We were back to game design.

[Blessing Adio]

Sorry, I'm back to like, you know, the addictive nature of what you offer is.

[Andy Cortez]

I'll still think about pizza, man.

[Blessing Adio]

What if we get pizza later?

[Andy Cortez]

So freaking good. I mean. I mean, I might be down. It might be a. It might be a Hut day. Remember everybody, this, if you're watching live, be a part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com forward/ kind of funny games. We couldn't do this without our producers. On patreon.com forward/kind of funny. Remember, if you want the things you love to stick around, throw them a dollar every now and then, you know, because you never know. So thank you to our producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney. The Psalm twining for now.

[Blessing Adio]

Sorry, I just remembered that Roger. Roger owes me a pizza.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, Roger.

[Blessing Adio]

Well, not yet. Here's the thing, right? We'll get into it a few stories from now, but Crimson Desert, he said that Crimson desert will sell 10 million in a week. Which I had to keep a poker face because I was like, there's no universe where Crimson Desert is going to sell 10 million. But I was like, you know what? I'll take you on that pizza bet. Roger yeah, let's see. Let's see if he can sell. He was not selling 10 million.

[Andy Cortez]

You were doing the thing where I almost picked Judas on my fantasy Critic. You're like, that's a good pick. Andy. Pick that. I'm like, no, I don't like this. I don't like what you're giving me right now.

[Blessing Adio]

I think technically he might still have like two days or something like that.

[Andy Cortez]

Pizza time.

[Blessing Adio]

Just, let's just catch it in now. Ron.

[Andy Cortez]

Pizza time for now. Let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have seven stories today. Baker do. Story number one. Epic Games lays off over 1000 people will shut down Fortnite Rocket Racing we'll shut down Fortnite Rocket Racing, Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage. This comes from Charles Hart at Gaming

[Blessing Adio]

Fortnite Rocket Racing is all one word.

[Andy Cortez]

Fortnite Rocket Racing. That's why I said it again because I was like, I don't want you to think there should.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, there's not a combo between Fortnite and Rocket.

[Andy Cortez]

Fortnite Rocket still alive Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite and Epic Games Store, is laying off over 1,000 employees. The news dropped via a statement posted on the company's website signed by Epic's founder and CEO Tim Sweeney. The announcement is also prefaced with the sentence this note was sent to Epic employees today. Fortnite also posted an update to Twitter stating that it will shut down three of Fortnite's newer modes, Rocket Racing, Ballistic and Festival Battle Stage, which is Fortnite Festival's PvP mode. QUOTE We've built a lot of Fortnite modes and in some cases we failed to build something awesome enough to attract and retain a large player base. End quote. The post states Rocket Racing will be live until October 26th October 2026, while Ballistic and Festival Battle Sage will go offline April 16th with Fortnite's 40.20 update. Presumably many of the laid off workers will have been working in these departments. Sweeney's announcement cites quote downturn in Fortnite engagement as the primary reason for the layoffs, claiming that the decline began in 2025 and that the studio hasn't recovered since. It also blames broad industry wide changes like slower growth and low console sales, as well as challenges unique to Epic. End quote. All of which generally have to do with constant Fortnite updates on console, PC and mobile platforms. Notably, the message does not say the company plans to replace workers with AI, quote, since it's a thing now, I should note that the layoffs aren't related to AI. Tim Sweeney writes, to the extent it improves productivity, we want to have as many awesome developers developing great content and tech as we can. Thank you for the article, Charles Hart. Thank you for the work. And in other news, you wrote here that the new Peak skin cost more than $20.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, this is when that was going to be we news. And then this story broke and I'm like, well, I feel like it's a little, it's a little bit related here, right? When you talk about this post from Kotaku where they say the newly added Peak Scout skin in Fortnite costs more than $20 in V Bucks. Peak is only $8 on Steam and

[Andy Cortez]

on sale right now for 495.

[Blessing Adio]

I come back to the raised Fortnite prices that we talked about a few weeks ago where they talked about, well, we got to do this to pay the bills. And I'm like, well, if you're laying off a thousand people, like what bills are we talking about here that we got to pay?

[Andy Cortez]

Right. I mean, I think for me, blessing seeing this news in the morning, it just immediately hits you that I want to say no one is safe, but that's not really the right word because these companies could be safe if they just didn't need the millions and millions and billions up top. Yeah, like, like how companies could be safe. But it's one of those things where you go, damn, even Fortnite, the company that is or the game that is largely responsible for a lot of games not succeeding because people are stuck in those ecosystems.

[Blessing Adio]

When we talk about the amount of player time that is spent in games that are six years old or older, right. We talk about like, oh man, the attention, the amount of attention that people have that they can spend on certain games, the amount of players that there are in the ecosystem that aren't able to hop into maybe XYZ Indie game or XYZ Triple A game, it's because we're talking about the amount of people that are playing Fortnite. Right. Fortnite, Call of Duty, Valorant, Counter Strike,

[Andy Cortez]

Roblox, Overarch, all that. Yeah, I really struggle with that word right there. That's going to be a fortnight is one of those.

[Blessing Adio]

Fortnite arguably is what, the most popular video game, the second most popular. It's top two.

[Andy Cortez]

Right?

[Blessing Adio]

Right. And we're at a place where even for a top two performing video game right now in terms of player Numbers in terms of attention, in terms of just notoriety. We got to lay off a thousand people because we can't keep up with the times. Which leads to the question of how do we get here? And I feel like there's so many different things that we can at least point to, to be like, all right, like this, factors in, that factors in.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, what are some of the main factors you think?

[Blessing Adio]

I would say, overall, the video games industry, Like, I don't want to say downturn, because I don't even think that's accurate. Right. Like, I think player numbers have only grown, if not maybe, I guess, plateaued a little bit. But there aren't less people playing video games. There might not be just as big of a jump of people playing video games.

[Andy Cortez]

Sorry, it's maybe an overshooting of a. Of a estimate.

[Blessing Adio]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing Adio]

And I think that is not Fortnite. I think that's the video games industry. But I think when. When you have a game like Fortnite that is one of the biggest in the video games industry, when you start to see that industry, I guess like that industry chart, start to even out a little bit, that happens to Fortnite and then they have to go, oh, shit, we didn't plan for this. Which I look at as such a failure of leadership over at Epic Games. So I think that's a. That's one of the factors. Another. I think there's a million things to talk about. I think when we're talking about Rocket Racing and Fortnite Festival and these side modes that they obviously have a lot of investment in, those things just didn't have the promise. Like, I liked Rocket Racing for what it was. Rocket Racing never came off to me as something that was going to live that long because you play it and it's like, it's a cool little racing mode. It has some of those Rocket League mechanics that we like. But that didn't feel to me like the next up. Right. Even Fortnite Festival, I like that mode quite a bit. But that didn't feel like the next Rock Band. Right. Of course, they're only shutting down this PvP portion of it. But even still, it's like I wanted more from that Ballistic as well. Ballistic is one where I'm like, all right, you're trying to do a valorant counter strike style mode here. But this doesn't have the sauce of a valorant or counter strike. Which leads me to ask, what were your expectations for this thing? Did you want it to really compete with those things or was this an experiment for you?

[Andy Cortez]

I think from the outside looking in, these things always seemed like experiments. They always seemed like we got extra people, we have extra workers, and we have a lot of extra money. Not to say that they don't have a lot of extra money now. They still obviously do. They have more money than God, and they could easily retain all these employees if they really wanted to. The problem is trying to. I, I think what I just mentioned earlier, overshooting the estimates of what you think you're able to do. Right. And it's like, it's this. It's the strive for more. And you are banking on hoping that these things succeed. And then when they don't, because you were just sort of experimenting, then that leads to, like you just mentioned, I mean, it leads to layoffs, obviously, but it's also just mismanagement, in my opinion. I think that you don't really try to reach for these things unless you know that you have the most amount of leeway and slack to be able to afford these things. Now, does Fortnite kind of have in a bit of a dip like he mentioned in 2025, and maybe the, the engagement has dropped a little bit. Does that also factor in and going, hey, it's all right that these things aren't succeeding like we hoped that they would. However, Fortnite is also kind of struggling a little bit too. Therefore, the layoffs will occur. This is also their second round of layoffs since 2023. In September 2023, they laid off 830 employees, which is approximately 16% of their staff. The 1,000 they laid out today is approximately 23% of their staff. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Which is so gigantic numbers. Just. That's one thing that, yeah, we should mention a thousand people. That's a lot of people.

[Andy Cortez]

When.

[Blessing Adio]

That's a lot of people.

[Andy Cortez]

When we talk about layoffs happening in the industry, which is nearly every day. It's. We, you know, several times a week at this point, unfortunately, we're talking about studios with 100 or 200 people or 60 people or whatever. And it's always, you know, we laid off 10, we laid off 20, we laid off 50 or whatever.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's. Those are always. Still. Those are. Those are really large numbers. And you go, damn, that's 50 super talented people that are likely going to be discouraged to stick in the industry because of just how volatile things are. 1000 employees is way more akin to. Whenever we hear Oracle is having layoffs or Google or Amazon. Those are massive tech industry amounts of layoffs. A thousand people. Not only just. I mean, these aren't only developers. A lot of them are, you know, maybe people working in, you know, finance or whatever. We don't have the exact numbers and how the numbers net out or whatever. But that is still just a disgusting amount.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Of people being laid off.

[Blessing Adio]

One of the things they mentioned, I don't think they mentioned in the Game Informer article, but they. I think they. They're trying to save through these layoffs, like, $500 million. Something. Something around that. I'll double check as I'm talking here, but that those are the numbers that we're talking about when we're talking about, like, what they're trying to even out here. I want to reference Bloomberg's article on this matter. Shout out to Bloomberg. This is written by Jason Schreier and Cecilia Donastasio. I definitely mispronounced that. Donna. No, I actually nailed it. Donna Donastasio. They have a little paragraph here talking about when we're talking about, like, that downturn, when we're talking about the numbers. I highlighted it and then I lost it. But they're talking about playtime here. Hold on.

[Andy Cortez]

And the plate. Average playtime, I'm assuming.

[Blessing Adio]

Or yeah, like the play time that went down. I might. Okay, I might need a second to find it. But either way, they're talking about how. What those numbers were, right? As far as player averages, like, let's say in 2020, the average Fortnite player was putting in, like, 20 hours within a certain amount of time. Like, those averages were down year to year, right? It was down to, like, 16 hours. I'll find the exact quote, but that's what we're talking about as far as what that downturn looks like on the Fortnite side and why we're seeing them tighten up their wallets as far as, oh, we got to get these prices up. Oh, we got to save $500 million via layoffs. And all this stuff, which, again, I think just all comes back to management, how you do all this stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Right?

[Blessing Adio]

Like, another thing I point to as well, for Night and Epic, they spent a lot of time going after Apple. They spent a lot of time and effort and energy going after Apple and the App Store and all that stuff. And what that meant was Fortnite wasn't available on the iPhone. And we're talking about, like, we got to cut this, we got to cut that. It's like, brother, could you all afford to not be on iPhone? Like, is that a thing that you could have done? Here. I feel like there are so many places where it is. We could have maybe not done this. Oh, we could have maybe saved money here. That should not have led to a thousand people getting laid off.

[Andy Cortez]

Definitely sound seemed a lot more personal. It just felt. Felt more like a personal vendetta.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah. Which I felt like a Tim Sweeney. I want to do this as opposed to. Let me think about the well being of the people that work at my company.

[Andy Cortez]

And what do we say? What do we always say? Bless. What's. What's the old. I don't know why I say we, but the old African proverb that I brought up that one time when the elephants fight, only the grass hurt. Gets hurt or some like that.

[Blessing Adio]

No, that's good. I think that was it.

[Andy Cortez]

What do we say? What do we say? I've never heard what do we say? Well, I brought it up one time

[Blessing Adio]

on a show, both of us being out.

[Andy Cortez]

I impress a lot of people with that saying. We have a super chat here from Wilfredo who says the Tim Tweeny tldr. It's not that we're losing money, we're just not making record profits now. It's just regular profits.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's. That's where the world is now, unfortunately. You have to be setting the world on fire with how much money you're making as opposed to just being super sustainable, which is crazy because you're Fortnite,

[Blessing Adio]

you know, no matter what, you are setting the world on fire with the amount of money that you're making now. Is it as much money as you were making five years ago? No. But we shouldn't be in a place where a few failed updates or a few chapters not performing as well as the previous chapters means we got only half a thousand people. Like I think that is. That comes back to the whole live service conversation and how volatile live service can be where it is. We don't have to just put out a good game every four years. We have to put out an update that's going to keep the money flowing every month, every few months. Right. Every chapter, whatever it is. And that is not an easy task to continue to do consistently years on end. Right.

[Andy Cortez]

Where it's clearly not sustainable.

[Blessing Adio]

Not sustainable. Fortnite launched in 2017. Like we're almost 10 years and we

[Andy Cortez]

have to keep on speaking with the caveat that, no, it is sustainable. It's just not to them. To them, it's not sustainable.

[Blessing Adio]

It's not sustainable. When you have the expectations that the chart is going to continue to go Up. By the way, I found the paragraph that I lost before. Right again. This is Jason Schreier and Cecilia d'. Inostasio. They say Fortnite still ranks among players favorite games, topping the charts for monthly active users across PlayStation and Xbox consoles in the US in February, according to Matt Piscatella, an analyst at video game market research firm Circana. But average engagement time has fallen. Piscatella said, writing on LinkedIn that the average PlayStation player spent 16 hours on Fortnite last month, a drop from 21 hours in February 2025 Xbox players averaged 15 hours compared with 19 hours the previous year. So there is that drop off in terms of player time, which I think could lead into a conversation about, all right, what went wrong there, what happened, what you should, what should you have done?

[Andy Cortez]

But again, I feel like it was high guard. High guard came for the king.

[Blessing Adio]

But like, I mean, that's a good point though. Like maybe not high guard, but competition.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, of course, being a thing, right?

[Blessing Adio]

Fortnite, their competition might not necessarily be video games. I know we're talking about like Battlefield and all these things, but yeah, we're really talking about TikTok and YouTube and I was gonna say Twitch. I feel like Twitch probably isn't as much of a competitor. It's really TikTok, if we're being honest. Mainly short form media, of course, that's come over and take over, take it over the mind of the kids. But man, like, we shouldn't be in a place where that industry thing, the big industry thing leads to Fortnite being like, ah, well, a thousand people, you're done. You should have the space to be able to adjust and maneuver and hopefully not lead to this many people being laid off.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. If you, I mean, it just goes back to if you care about the industry and if you care about the art form. This is showing that you don't. This is showing that you don't care about making video games. This is just all about appeasing the profits or, you know, appeasing the shareholders and, and hitting those record profits. And we are just gonna continue to, we're just going to continue to lose so many talented senior employees, people that have been in the industry for 10 15 years or whatever.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That are eventually going to go all right. I mean, I'm headed towards early retirement most likely because I just can't do this anymore. Like, this is, you know, whatever, six job, fifth job in the last couple years or whatever it is just, it's so discouraging and once again, you are not only doing, you're not only, you know, making people want to leave the industry that have been in it forever and that have so much knowledge and, and you know, you know, tutelage that they could give other employees. You are discouraging so many new employees from wanting to even get in the games industry. Who the fuck, who in their right mind would go, I want to work for a big studio right now. Oh, like there is no, like it would, it makes no sense. The only way that you are trying to get into game design right now is if you go, I want to have, I have my own idea. I want an indie game. I have, you know, I want to get into the indie development market. I have my own game that I want to maybe start my own studio, whatever that, whatever the case may be. But like I'm gonna do the. Back in my day, but like back in my day when I was, you know, going to art school and you know, wanted to be in game in the games industry, there were so many, like, there were so many studios that were just doing great and there were so many places to want to go to and now it just feels like, why would you ever invest in that?

[Blessing Adio]

Oh yeah, you know, I mean, obviously we have plenty of friends that work in the games industry. I feel like this last, this last year to two years has been I've seen the highest amount of my friends not have jobs and I've seen multiple of them in the process of trying to find a job in the industry and it just be a grueling process of like, you know, not being able to find space and applying, applying, applying and like, you know, a couple of them thank, thankfully were able to land back on their feet, find a role or like get rehired or whatever it is. Right. But like still not all of them have jobs.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

And that's the scary thing is like I think that then leads to, all right, I'm just going to leave the industry, right. I'm going to find a job outside the industry because I can't afford to keep on looking and looking.

[Andy Cortez]

It's March 24th and approximately 2800 rules have been lost when we're talking about not only, you know, epic, obviously donating a large portion of that. A thousand, a thousand of the 2800, but it just sort of, the industry just continues to bleed, unfortunately.

[Blessing Adio]

I want to bring in another quote. This is directly from Tim Sweeney's blog post. But I think this will clear up slash, maybe even correct some of what I said. Earlier, right? So the quote goes. Quote and this is Shout Out Jason Stryer and Cecilia here. Quote we're spending significantly more than we're making and we have to make major cuts to keep the company funded. This layoff, together with over $500 million of identified cost savings in contracting, marketing and closing some open rules, puts us in a more stable place, end quote. So there's the $500 million quote that they have have there that they're trying to cut down on.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's keep an eye out for exec bonuses soon. Let's keep an eye out for how much Fortnite makes in 2026, and I'm sure we'll continue to feel the rage bubble up in our bodies. Story number two Nintendo cut Switch 2 output by over 30% on weak US sales this comes from Takashi Mochizuki at Bloomberg Nintendo is cutting back the production of Switch 2 after demand for the 20 for the 450 gaming console trailed the company's expectations during the year end holiday season, particularly in the US the company plans to make 4 million units of its flagship device this quarter, a third less than the 6 million it had originally planned to produce, people familiar with the matter said. The reduced output rate is set to continue in April, the people said, asking not to be named as the figures aren't public. After a record setting debut in June, sales of the Switch two have failed to meet Nintendo management's high expectations. Though demand for a lower priced but unprofitable variant in Japan has remained strong. Sales in the US haven't met with similar continued success. Nintendo shares fell as much as 6.3 in Tokyo, their steepest intraday decline since February 4. The stock momentarily dropped to 8,000 yen, erasing all gains from a rally earlier this month spurred by surprise success of the new Pokemon Pokeopia game before paring some losses. The successful launch of Pokemon Pocopia hasn't prompted the management to again accelerate production of the Switch 2. Instead, it's waiting to see if the hit game and other new titles have enough staying power to to merit an output increase, the people said. Quote this hardware shortfall in its first year during its big holiday season is awful news, said Amir Anvar Zadeh, the Japan equity strategist at Asymmetric Advisors. Quote clearly, the software lineup has been poor, at least until most recently, with Pokemon showing some hope, end quote. The output cut shouldn't affect Nintendo's ability to meet the average analyst estimate of about 20 million switch two units sold in the fiscal year through this month. The People said. And here's an interesting stat from Matt Piscatella over on Blue sky.

[Blessing Adio]

One that, that, that I added in there because it grants like interesting context to where we're talking about this dip like the cutting the output by over 30% from Nintendo. But then you look at the Switch to install base compared to other consoles install base in the same nine month period on the market. And it's so fascinating because the Switch 2 is killing everything. The Switch 2 is beating everything I should say, right? Like it's over 29% of the PS5 is beating PS4 by 30%. And then like it goes in order, right? Then the Wii, then the switch, then the PS2, Xbox One, Xbox Series, 3DS with the plus 96%, 360 with the plus 120 GameCube, GameCube with plus 139% and it's beating the Wii U by 302% with the.

[Andy Cortez]

God damn. And so like running up the score.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah. So like Switch 2 might be failing to meet Nintendo's what they forecasted, but it's still one of the fastest selling consoles that we've had.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Here's a follow up from Matt Pescatella on. Over on Blue sky says it remains the second fastest selling hardware in tracked US history from 1995 to current behind only the Game Boy Advance.

[Blessing Adio]

And it's like, brother, what are we doing here? That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

That is pretty damn wild because when this news drops and this news I go, wow, even Nintendo is hurting and they're not really, you know, it's just, it all comes down to just shooting way too far for the moon. And they could have like, they could have shot for that, the stratosphere and, and still been totally good. But it just all comes down with what these expectations are. Especially in such a volatile like not just market but economy where people are struggling, man. Oh yeah, that's what it comes down to. People are struggling. Did we ever get a follow up as to what's happening with Nintendo suing Trump and like the government?

[Blessing Adio]

Not yet about that.

[Andy Cortez]

We'll see, we'll see how that nets out. But yeah, yeah, this is another one of those where you just gotta wonder if things would be going it, you gotta wonder what the economy would look like without the mass tariffs that were put on everything. Yeah, without you know, a war starting.

[Blessing Adio]

Like that's the thing is like Nintendo in a weird place. Like I look at them as a, a traveler that's been, that's been like, you know, seasoned right they know how to. They know how to get from point A to point B. They've been through the, They've been through this. They've hiked before. And now like, you know, they're on this adventure and they were prepared. They got their bag full of resources, they got their coat, they got all this stuff. But a blizzard is coming and they're like, oh, shit, we've not seen a blizzard like this before. Yeah, but we're the guys, right? So, like, they're going to face that blizzard, they're facing the tariffs. You know, I think the Switch to. Either the price of the Switch 2 is going to go up or the Nintendo Switch online or the software or multiple of those, something's going to go up. And they're going to have to figure that out sooner, sooner or later. But, like, right now we're in that place where there are fucking like, all right, tighten up the backpack. Let's fucking go. And you know, I'm curious to see because one of the quotes here from one of these analysts was talking about the first year, or I guess the first six months of software output, like, not being that great. And I don't agree, I don't disagree, but I don't agree fully.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing Adio]

Because, like, you know, you had Metroid, you had DK Bodanza, you had Mario Kart. Were any of those the killer app? No, I don't think so. And I think that's where, that's where I agree. Pecopia, I think, is the killer app. Copia. I've seen so many of my friends who were holding out not getting Switch Twos break because of this game.

[Andy Cortez]

I think the Pecopia release may be a little bit too recent to, you know, because these decisions.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, sure.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, so I, I think we'll see what the, I don't want to say the, the fallout of Pocopia, but more of like how much that, you know, how many hardware sales. And you know, when we talk about the, you know, the, the package deals of, man, they bought a Switch 2 and Pocopia, like, we'll see exactly what the numbers there are. Yeah, when I, I mean, I don't disagree that it hasn't been the strongest offering yet, but, you know, for a while there we were like, all right, well, Nintendo might be kind of crazy to not put Cope. To not put Procopia everywhere. And now it just kind of. I think it. Now we see the other side of things where you go, no, it needs to be a system seller, needs to

[Blessing Adio]

be a system Stellar.

[Andy Cortez]

And you know, if, if the switch to output continues to drop and they start, you know, you know now it's going to be instead of 60% now they're dropping into whatever the hell or you know, like if we continue to see a lowered output, do we start to see what Sony did with the PS5 where a lot of our games are coming out? They are also going to be backwards compatible. We are like, do you think they're in a moment right now with their games that are in development going, shit, the Switch 2 not selling like we were hoping. We're still waiting for hopefully some Pocopia news that like, you know, whatever the analysts say, like holy shit, Switch Twos, you know, sales spiked like crazy. But if that doesn't happen, do we need to look at the rest of our output and go, damn, maybe we need to scale some of these titles back to also be runnable on the Switch one?

[Blessing Adio]

I'm going to say no because I think Nintendo cares that much about the hardware business. I think they'll, there's enough Switch Twos out there where like you'll get the software sales. It might not be the record breaking software sales, right. Like if you release a new Animal Crossing right now, it might not be the fastest selling Animal Crossing, right? Because there are so many Switch ones when the last one came out. But I think they know that if they continue to put out the first party games on the Switch 2, it's only gonna sell the Switch. Like right now I think they're, I think over at Nintendo at the Nintendo building, right? Miyamoto and the President and all the, you know, Shintaro Fukawa, they're at the top floor, they're looking at each other like, thank God we made Picopia exclusive.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Because if we didn't make Picopia exclusive, like we might not be like, we might have had to like forecast even lower during the next fiscal quarter or whatever it is, right. Like I think they're looking at their.

[Andy Cortez]

However, we also would have sold about 7 million copies.

[Blessing Adio]

I mean you would have sold more copies. But we care a lot about getting the Switch two out there. I think they're looking at the, they're upcoming outputting going, all right, what's going to be the next Pacopia? We need more Pacopias on this thing. We need more reasons for people to be like, I have to get a Switch to.

[Andy Cortez]

Right, right.

[Blessing Adio]

And like I think they're looking at, oh, I actually I don't, I don't know what game would be the Next Pacopia, it might be Pokemon winning waves. Honestly, it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's definitely. It's got to be winning waves. Yeah. Because I. I mean, you. You got to assume there's a. There's a Mario game being worked on. There's a Zelda game being worked on. I think that Pokemon is the one that will.

[Blessing Adio]

Pokemon is special.

[Andy Cortez]

Double those sales.

[Blessing Adio]

Right now. What you need is Nintendo is you need Pokemon winning waves, and we're going to get there next year. But I think you need those mini Pecopia wins as well. So, like, I look at Duskbloods as one of those.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Dust Bloods is going to make waves, pun intended. I think, man, if this Zelda Ocarina remake that we try to dream up into existence, if that ends up being real, I think that's another mini pickopia.

[Andy Cortez]

You're gonna be all excited, man.

[Blessing Adio]

Like, if you can get a 3D Mario in there, that's a mini pickopia, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, a 3D Mario should be more than a mini Procopia.

[Blessing Adio]

I feel like it puts them.

[Andy Cortez]

Put some respect on Mario.

[Blessing Adio]

I like Mario more than I like, like, a Procopia. But, like, Mario Pokemon is just a different breed.

[Andy Cortez]

No, I know.

[Blessing Adio]

It's a different beast.

[Andy Cortez]

I know.

[Blessing Adio]

But I mean, literally, Animal Crossing will be the next one. Not even a mini one. That'll be a major.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, that'll be a major one. Yeah, yeah. Damn. Mario somewhere going like you. I'm a mini Bocopia. Okay, bro, man.

[Blessing Adio]

All right, listen, I'll be like, mario, do you want to look at the sales numbers? Like, your cart. Your cart ain't doing it like that. You know, actually, cart probably is selling,

[Andy Cortez]

you know, the clout you have. Mario, don't worry about it.

[Blessing Adio]

Make a Mario. Somebody chesses Mario farming game. That's what we'll need. Mario Crossing, if you really want to be on that level.

[Andy Cortez]

Are we ever gonna get Mario Kart World dlc? Are we ever gonna get an added little world here? A little added island? Like, where is that?

[Blessing Adio]

I think that's a lever you pull maybe in the second half of the Switch's life cycle.

[Andy Cortez]

It's also only been out for a year. I don't know why I'm freaking out in it, but, like, yeah, I guess a year is enough. That is a long time.

[Blessing Adio]

I think it's gonna be a weird thing where we're gonna wait a few years, and Nintendo's like, oh, yeah, this exists. Let's get some more money out of this thing, because we know how much people like Mario Kart.

[Andy Cortez]

Gotcha. Well, a lot of people love Mario Kart. Bless. But I love paying bills for me and for the company. And right now I'd like to hear from a word from our sponsors. Great transition.

[Greg Way]

This episode is brought to you by patreon.com kindafunny yeah yeah yeah yeah. We'd love you to come give us $10 to get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me and get good karma because Patreon is the best place that gives us the best revenue share on the Kind of Funny subscription. But if that's not your style, we'd love it if you came over and signed up for a free account. That's right, a free patreon.com kindafunnyfollow gets you the weekly schedule, access to quips, Patreon's version of Twitter, and as an exclusive bonus, this Friday, March 27th, it gets you access to a live Greg Way. That's right. At 9:30am Pacific, 30 minutes before kinda Funny Games Daily, I'll go live, answer chats and record the day's Greg Way. Any free member can come ask me questions in the chat. What have you got to lose? Sign up for a free sub on patreon.com kindafunny and I'll see you Friday, March 27th on Patreon at 9:30am Pacific. Who else are you going to talk to?

[Blessing Adio]

A shoe

[Andy Cortez]

now at the Home Depot. Receive 12 months special financing and free basic installation on carpet projects with Lifeproof Lifeproof with pet proof technology, Home decorators collection and traffic Master carpets bring a new look to your floors or give them a durable surface that stands up to life's tough messes. Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12 through March 29, 2026. Exclusions and additional charges may apply for licenses. See homedepot.com licensenumbers

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

refreshing wild cherry Cola meets smooth cream. The treat you deserve. Pepsi Wild Cherry and Cream Treat yourself.

[Blessing Adio]

Protein is now at Starbucks and it's never tasted so good. You can add protein cold foam to your favorite drink or try one of our new protein lattes or matcha. Try it today at Starbucks.

[Andy Cortez]

This is your fix.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I am your host Stassi Schroeder. Welcome to Tell Me Lies, the official podcast. What's the most unhinged thing of season three?

[Andy Cortez]

Steven because he's so evil, I do

[Host 1]

think he is misunderstood.

[Andy Cortez]

You see everyone face consequences.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It's intoxicating. The writers just Know how to trick. Yeah, there's always a twist in this show. Tell Me Lies, the official podcast, January 6th. And stream the new season of Tell Me Lies January 13th on Hulu and Hulu on Disney.

[Blessing Adio]

So good, so good, so good.

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Springstyles are at Nordstrom Rack stores now and they're up to 60% off. Stock up and save on Rag and Bone, Madewell, Vince, All Saints, and more of your favorites.

[Blessing Adio]

How did I not know Rack has Adidas?

[Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Why do we rack for the hottest deals? Just so many good brands. Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite Rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack.

[Andy Cortez]

We've got some super chats from our lovely supporters all over the world right now. We have a 10 super chat from Opponent's prime who says, I think games as a service are the industry's problem and have been since 2014. If they never existed, people would buy more games and not be stuck in free to play loops. Games that are content, complete and you move on. I've. I've been of that sort of. I've been thinking that for a while as well. I mean, brings in a lot of more gamers, right? Like the. Obviously, I think the industry has doubled, tripled all of that stuff. When we talk about these free to play games and services and then you, you hope for that to be the trojan horse for those gamers to also explore other experiences. Maybe that hasn't quite netted out as much as we would like, but yeah, that is, it is a, it is a big deal. And yeah, games as a service will continue to try to, you know, compete and battle for your time.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I don't inherently, I don't disagree. I don't inherently hate games of service though, but I do hate the need to chase games as a service from everybody. You know what I mean? Like, even with Fortnite, the idea that we want to do not only just have Fortnite as the biggest games of service, we're going to have multiple games as a service that are within Fortnite, like Rocket Racing and the Valorant game Ballistic and like all this shit, right? It's like we don't have to do that. We can just make. What if we just made a game and just put it in there and it didn't have to be a game that continually got updates and continually like got XYZ thing and had to get a road map and all these things, right? Like, what if we just did one and done games. That's why I keep looking at a game like Rematch or a game like Elden Ring Night Rain or Outriders where it's like, we can make a multiplayer thing. It doesn't need to have a five year life cycle or like this whole thing, we can just put it out and just charge for it and let people have fun with it.

[Andy Cortez]

The, you know, sad as it is for a lot of people to be let go, the only tiny positive that I have from this is I hope that it stops Epic from wanting to always do the big hot thing and make their version of it.

[Blessing Adio]

I mean, that's been, that's been Fortnite's whole thing. I know, but I was birthed from seeing the hot thing and going, this ain't going well. Let's make a battle royale because pubg is hot right now.

[Andy Cortez]

But seeing something like Ballistic shut down, seeing, you know, whatever the rocket racing is or whatever. Yeah, like I, I hope that they look at that and go, maybe we shouldn't take this risk. If the next big game pops off and then they go, oh, let's make our version of it. Let's hire up, you know, let's shift some employees over there. Let's hire up more people. I think they've seen what happens when you try to do that without, you know, the amount of slack and leeway that you would hope to have. And then that eventually leads to layoffs and failures.

[Blessing Adio]

I'm going to tell you, by this time next year, we're going to be playing a Disney extraction shooter within Fortnite. Write that down.

[Andy Cortez]

What happened to that one? What happened to like the ESPN World?

[Blessing Adio]

That's what I'm talking about. Like Disney invested billions of dollars into Fortnite and we've yet to see, I mean, we've seen the collabs, we've seen Marvel and all that, but I think we've yet to see the big result of that because they talked about a Disney World that has the ESPN island and has, yeah, you know, Mickey Mouse World, I don't know, has all that different. I think we're still due for that.

[Andy Cortez]

ESPN island just has highlights of Moses Moody's knee. Oh, man, so tough, right? So tough. Marcus Marcos Garcia with a five dollar super chat says, I know it's not specific to the games industry, but my heart breaks when a friend says their badge doesn't work anymore and you just know what's next. Oh, what? Yeah, that's always, that's always a sadly new experience. Alex Frazier five dollar super chat says people are broke because our world leaders won't fix the issues plaguing normal workers, their families. Affordability is the crisis of our time. 1,000% agreed. Alex.

[Blessing Adio]

Yep.

[Andy Cortez]

We have a lot of other super chats that I will hope to get to throughout the rest of the show. But for now, let's move on to story number three. Crimson Desert reaches another sales milestone. This comes from Eddie McCooch at GameSpot. Korean developer Pearl Abyss has announced that its RPG Crimson Desert has now reached another sales milestone. The game has surpassed 3 million copies sold worldwide, up from 2 million units sold over the game's first 24 hours after releasing on March 19. In a statement, Pearl Abyss said, quote, to everyone who has stepped into pie well and shared this journey with us, thank you. End quote. The developer went on to say to continues to listen to fan feedback to help shape the experience and that effort will continue as a team aims to make Crimson Desert even more enjoyable for our players.

[Blessing Adio]

They call it an rpg, which I don't know, a success, a super success.

[Andy Cortez]

A success like thank God somebody out there is making money. And you know, hopefully this continues to. Hopefully this trend continues to go up. Did you ever read the article about the. The anonymous sort of game developer.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, that was talking about.

[Andy Cortez]

Talking about the issues that happened with.

[Blessing Adio]

They're saying like the story came together very last moment.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Because of like a power struggle up top or whatever. And then.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And then Tears of the Kingdom was out and they're like, oh, we need these sky islands. Let's throw that in there. And like none of it ended up kind of like making sense. And so that's why the, the game Crimson Desert is a very like, it's a hodgepodge. It's a mixed bag of just a bunch of different. A bunch of different ideas. I did play a bit more last night. It feels a little bit better but I still not what what I want. But I have been chopping down some trees and my pickaxing, you know, some of them, you know, minerals out there.

[Blessing Adio]

Dude, that was my. Weirdly, that was my favorite part was pickaxing the minerals because I had to upgrade a sword to fight Hornswoggle or whatever his name is. Horn Splitter.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, right, right, right.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I had to fight Horn Splitter and like my sword wasn't. And like I was like, man, this sword ain't working. And so I went back to the town and I talked to the blacksmith in the. And I was like, oh, I need, I need. I think Iron Ore. And so I was like, I don't know about anything about iron ore. And I was like, wait a second. I got knowledge. I got knowledge about iron ore. So I went into the knowledge menu iron ore thing and it was like, oh, it's on the side deposits of like game design rivers and like cliffs or whatever. And so I found like a cliff near a river.

[Andy Cortez]

Not when Cliff McDuff, the character. The main character.

[Blessing Adio]

No, yeah, not. Is not Cliff, really McDuff. No, it's not. It's not. That's crazy. But yeah, then I went to the side deposit of a cliff and I was like, oh, shit, I think that's a mineral. I think that's some iron ore. And I bust out my pickaxe, start picking at it, and I was like, all right, I can see it.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

I was like, okay. You see the vision. I see the vision here. Like, this is a video game right here.

[Andy Cortez]

But man, I mean, it is a. It's awesome that this game is selling a shitload. When I think about games that would only sell this much this quickly, I think about how Black Myth Wukong was like. Like 10 million in the first several days or whatever.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And a lot of that stems from the Chinese audience backing the fuck out of. Out of that experience. It's awesome to see a Korean developer come out. Oh, yeah. And have this massive impact. And hopefully it continues to reach the people out there that maybe have been waiting a long time for a GTA like experience where it's sort of like this open world, just kind of explore and do whatever you want at your own pace. I hope that more non. I hope that more non gamers are able to sort of go, damn, I kind of want to with that. I was really into Red Dead Redemption 2.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I only played Red Dead Redemption 2 GTA and I'm a ball and gun gamer. Let me try out that experience and see what that's like, you know, 100%. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Like I. I want to try Crimson Desert out again. I'm going to wait a lot longer because I think knowing Pearl Abyss and their MMO roots, I think they're going to continue to give updates and continue to like make the game better and better. And so, like, have fun beta testing the game for me, everybody.

[Andy Cortez]

I. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Thanks.

[Andy Cortez]

There is a mod out there that does allow you to have unlimited sprint outside of battle, which is.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, that's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

I can't wait to download that one because it really does suck when you are just kind of running around, it's like, why is my dude again? Why is Cliff McDuff getting tired? Cliff McDuff's gotta get his.

[Blessing Adio]

I don't believe his Last name is McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

It's McDuff. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you, man. I'm telling you. We have a super chat here from axu. Five dollar super chat. Thank you for your support. Says I could write an essay on why I appreciate you guys so much, but thank you for caring so much about the gaming industry. Love you guys and the content. Thank you.

[Blessing Adio]

So nice.

[Andy Cortez]

I expect the essay on my table on my desk by Friday afternoon. Thank you. Actually, it got to be in MLA format. No, it's not McDuff. It's Mac. Duff. It's like Mac.

[Blessing Adio]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Duff MacDuff.

[Blessing Adio]

I mean, it's still kind of crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Still, like.

[Blessing Adio]

And I don't know why that's crazy to me.

[Andy Cortez]

No, it is. It's silly as hell. When I first heard that, I was like, that's silly as hell. That's a silly fucking name.

[Blessing Adio]

Cliff McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, it's just like, he does it. I mean, know it. It reminds me of, you know, Bert Meg.

[Blessing Adio]

You know, I want to make it clear, right? I don't. We're not making fun of the last name McDuff, because I know y' all probably listen. No, no, but, like, this is Cliff McDuff for this character.

[Andy Cortez]

It's both of it together.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, it is Bert Meg.

[Andy Cortez]

Energy. Like it. It could have been, you know, any other Scottish name, though. Chat. It doesn't have, you know, Cliff McDuff with a K. It's just, it's. I don't know, man. It should have been like Strider, Hornswoggle or just Striders, like a sick. You know what I mean? A lot of. A lot of other cooler options out there. Story number four. Scientific study concludes that finishing RPGs evokes the strongest post game depression. This comes from Lewis Parker at Kotaku. The first ever scientific study into the feeling of post game depression. The oddly empty, wistful feeling of sadness you get after finishing a video game. Has unsurprisingly deduced that RPGs evoke, quote, a stronger post game depression than other games. And I'm feeling it right now with the Witcher 3 right now. Oh, my God.

[Blessing Adio]

I was gonna ask you about that.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm feeling it. I'm. I. I already told Chad I'm saving the DLCs for later in the year. And I've been like, looking at them like, maybe I just go in right now, maybe I just keep on going. However, participants for the study were recruited via Reddit and discord, which implies they were probably already prone to feelings of misery before the testing took place. It's a great addition. Lewis Parker the study, published in the Current Psych via News Medical Life Sciences, was conducted by researchers from SWPS University at the Stefan Battery Academy of Applied Sciences who set out to measure the sense of emptiness that arises after completing a deeply immersive game. Post game depression, or PDGs as they refer to it, was measured across two separate studies with a total of 373 participants. As noted in the study's abstract, the researchers also measured four specific subscales, Game Related Ruminations, Challenging End of Experience, Necessity of repeating the game, and Media Anhedonia. Turns out media anhedonia, the diminished enjoyment of all forms of media, was the least intense aspect of PDGs, whereas game related Game Related Ruminations, parentheses dwelling on the thought of the game being over, was the most intense. The study also states that, quote, stronger depressive symptoms and disturbances in emotional processing were most apparent among those who had completed RPGs. While this is the first time that research of this kind has been carried out for video games, the findings do line up with a 2012 study on the same topic for fiction books. Very similar to Post Avatar Depression syndrome.

[Blessing Adio]

What?

[Andy Cortez]

We spoke about this earlier in the year when Avatar 3 was coming out, but when the first Avatar movie came out, people were so into the world of Pandora.

[Blessing Adio]

No, they weren't.

[Andy Cortez]

That when that they were so depressed they couldn't live there. They were so depressed that they weren't also, you know, Na' Vi and that they didn't exist in the world and they were so sad that world didn't exist.

[Blessing Adio]

You're joking, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm not joking.

[Blessing Adio]

You're joking.

[Andy Cortez]

You're pulling my leg pads. Post Avatar Depression syndrome. Look it up.

[Blessing Adio]

This is something that was. Wait, hold on. What's the. What was the acronym?

[Andy Cortez]

P A D S? Post Avatar Depression Syndrome.

[Blessing Adio]

I don't believe you.

[Andy Cortez]

Maybe it was Post Pandora or something like that.

[Blessing Adio]

But I'm saying post Avatar to real thing.

[Andy Cortez]

No man, this is.

[Blessing Adio]

This is invented by the director. What the.

[Andy Cortez]

Is it James Cameron?

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, James Cameron made that up. There's no shot Avatars world's not that interesting. And I'm like oh man, I wish

[Andy Cortez]

I could live there. I mean but all the colors of the plants and everything.

[Blessing Adio]

If anything I got from Avatar what the. What people get when they go to France and They see the Eiffel Tower where, like, have you heard of this? Where people will go to France, and there's.

[Andy Cortez]

So.

[Blessing Adio]

No offense to France because I didn't make this up. They get so depressed.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't shoot the messenger.

[Blessing Adio]

Don't shoot the messenger. But people. People will get so depressed because France is so underwhelming that. That they get. That they get physically ill.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn, this kind of sucks, man. Yeah. Like, I don't know.

[Blessing Adio]

Like, it has a. It has. It's like Paris syndrome.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, my God.

[Blessing Adio]

It is. Paris syndrome. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Is a sense of extreme disappointment exhibited by many individuals when visiting Paris who feel the city does not live up to their expectations.

[Blessing Adio]

That was me when I watched Avatar for the first time. We're like, I felt physically sick. I was like, this movie is not that great. Sucks.

[Andy Cortez]

You had to watch part 2 in 3D. You had to be there. But that's the whole thing. So. Okay. This is a fascinating little study. And I. I mean, I definitely feel it, and I understand the feeling of experiencing something in pop culture that you're so into and knowing, oh, it's about to end, man. Yeah. Like the sea. You know, being there for the Breaking Bad series finale gave me those vibes.

[Blessing Adio]

That makes sense.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn. This. This journey is about to be over.

[Blessing Adio]

I feel it more for shows than for games, but I guess I feel it. I mean, the study says this, right? I feel it for long games. And I think it's more so because of the amount of, like, skill points and, like, the amount of, like, specking I've done where I'm saying goodbye to this character that I've built up so much. And, like, I'm just saying goodbye to all this investment.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a child. You raised them.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I raised this character.

[Andy Cortez]

I reared you and you.

[Blessing Adio]

What?

[Andy Cortez]

Reared you.

[Blessing Adio]

That's not how that works. That's not what that word means, is it? I reared you.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought so.

[Blessing Adio]

No way.

[Andy Cortez]

I reared you. Is that's a real thing, right?

[Blessing Adio]

I can't be what that means.

[Andy Cortez]

I think that's a real thing. I think it is. It is. Yeah. Child rearing.

[Blessing Adio]

Child. Child. Oh, okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Careers to raise. Well, I reared you.

[Blessing Adio]

That's an interesting way to phrase it. I've not heard it used that way. That's cool.

[Andy Cortez]

You. You reared this RPG character. You saw them grow up. You taught them how to ride a bike. You taught them how to throw a baseball.

[Blessing Adio]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Child rearing.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I reared my. My character.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't like the way I say it. Maybe.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah. Maybe it's the way you're saying it.

[Andy Cortez]

I think it's my pronunciation reared. It reminds me of like how I pronounce Karen and everybody goes, you're saying Karen like. No, I'm saying Karen.

[Blessing Adio]

The word is child rearing. I don't think you can just use rearing.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm a rear you right now, Kevin. If you don't watch that, be careful. If you don't be careful, I'm not too weary.

[Blessing Adio]

But you see what I'm saying? Like the word is child.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Child rearing, I think is the full phrase.

[Andy Cortez]

Man, you reared him real good out there.

[Blessing Adio]

Who's the main character from Final Fantasy would have been.

[Andy Cortez]

Honestly, I can't imagine going to Paris and be like, man, this sucks.

[Blessing Adio]

Look at the Eiffel Tower.

[Andy Cortez]

You're like so mean.

[Blessing Adio]

I want to throw up right now. Such a mean thing.

[Andy Cortez]

16. Clive Rossfield.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I reared Clive Rossfield. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

God, a lot of.

[Blessing Adio]

A lot of the Ben Star characters you rear because he plays a lot of like RPG characters.

[Andy Cortez]

Thank you. Blessing story number 5 gen AI in games most Players Just Don't Care Studies fine. This comes from Eddie McCooch at GameSpot. New data shows that most gamers just do not care about the use of generative AI in video games, and that a vocal minority is making a lot of noise on the subject. At the same time, there is a growing share of people who say they are more likely than before to refuse to buy a game if they found out it used generative AI. New data from Circana's Player Pulse showed that just over 25% of US video game players surveyed in December 2025 said a game using generative AI would make them less likely to buy it. The majority were neutral or unsure. Circana's Matt Piscatello said. At the moment, a vocal minority is against gen AI usage, while the majority of video game players don't currently care that much either way. The Player Pulse survey specifically asked respondents, quote, how would you feel about a game if you found out it used some type of generative AI to create its in game art, character dialogue in game text, music or voice acting. End quote. As you can see the chart below, sentiment against the use of generative AI is growing as a percentage of panelists who said they would refuse or be less likely to buy a game using generative AI grew from about 22% in March 2024 to more than 25 in December 2025. The percentage of people with a neutral stance Neutral ass bitches stand for Something

[Blessing Adio]

for something for something.

[Andy Cortez]

Come on. The percentage of people with a neutral stance also grew between periods, while the percentage of people who felt unsure dropped significantly. The percentage. The percentage of respondents who said a game featuring generative AI would make them more interested in buying it dipped slightly. Piscatella went on to say that strong sales For ARC Raiders, Expedition 33, and Crimson Desert provide evidence in the market that. That people don't care or accept, reluctantly or otherwise, that the use of generative AI is a growing trend. Another factor to consider here is that the Player Pulse study was conducted in. In December 2025, so sentiments may have changed since then. Based on the numerous progressions to generative AI systems since then, it remains to be seen how people would react to generative. Generative AI being more heavily featured in games than exists today.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I hate talking about AI every single day on the show, but I always think it's relevant to bring up, like, studies and, like, bring up, I guess, things that, well, assist conversation, because we're gonna have to talk about it as we move forward.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing Adio]

And, like, I don't think this is gonna be super news to anybody that, like, oh, yeah, most people don't care about this, but it's interesting to see numbers that show, like, most people don't care about this doesn't mean that we shouldn't care about.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, most people making themselves look like Studio Ghibli characters.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, like. Yeah, the. The Facebook slop of it all.

[Blessing Adio]

Exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

The uncles and aunts on Facebook, you know, putting themselves in a movie with the minions.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, 1,000.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And you just want to put a gun in your head.

[Blessing Adio]

But I do still think those smaller percentages of people can matter, especially when we see things that we're vocal about them. Right. And so.

[Andy Cortez]

Absolutely. I mean, speaking of Crimson Desert, you know, like, all of that art on the wall is like, Yeah, I loved seeing that quote from. Or, oh, gosh. From Obsidian.

[Blessing Adio]

That's how you got to do, like, a number J.

[Andy Cortez]

Starts with a J. Josh. Damn it.

[Blessing Adio]

I was hypnotized by the snap.

[Andy Cortez]

Sorry. Yeah, just mentioning, you know, hey, whenever you put in a temporary asset, it is meant to be so obvious and so loud that you remember at all times. I got to take that out whenever I'm ready. So it's like, oh, we meant to take out those generative AI assets. No, you didn't. Yeah, you got caught.

[Blessing Adio]

Exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

And that. That shit sucks. But I hope that we can continue to call people out and discourage people from doing this more and more so that they don't have to undergo the. That shame cycle of, you know, the news, the pr, all that stuff for the week and a half or two weeks or whatever it takes.

[Blessing Adio]

Bless Andy.

[Andy Cortez]

That news was so massive.

[Blessing Adio]

It was so big.

[Andy Cortez]

But if I wanted small news, where would I go?

[Blessing Adio]

You go to our last news story, the WE News Channel, where you cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Andy Cortez]

Dying Light the Beast announces the restored land edition that adds lots of free content.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, this is one I can sum up for you. They put up a overview trailer that Kevin has brought up here. Basically they're adding in what sounds like a survival mode where like, you can turn on perma death, right? Like you are. You can essentially kill enemies and like have them die permanently. And then that land that like, you cleared the enemies out at will, like kind of go revert back to like it's pre apocalyptic cell, like, you know, without the scourge. Without the scourge.

[Andy Cortez]

Pretty interesting, you know what the Dying like the Beast, because I did not hear much about it. I think it released at a really odd time and we were all busy playing a lot of other games as well. Yeah, last year was one of the more busy years regarding game releases and game releases that we are super interested in. Dying like the Beast reminds me a lot of 28 days later, the Bone Temple.

[Blessing Adio]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Which is a movie that came out and seemingly everybody loved it. And just like the. When I say everybody, it only felt like 10 people watched that movie. Like it was this thing that came out, did really, really well, like in terms of critics consensus on it, but just didn't quite have the numbers or the juice. And I hope that Dying Light the Beast can maybe find new audiences with these modes.

[Blessing Adio]

I hope so, because I really like Dying Light too. And I just never got around to playing the Beast because of that busy time. But I also am like, I don't know when you would release because now every time's a busy time. Like, I look at High in Life two, which is a game that I was looking forward to because I really liked High on Life one. And I didn't get around to it because I was juggling a bunch of different games at the same time, whether it was me, Genics or Resident Evil or whatever. And so it's like there are too many video games coming out. Yeah, we got them all, you know, I don't know. Find space from each other.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know. Other WE news. Andy Cortez went to Helsiki, Finland and played Soros.

[Blessing Adio]

Whoa.

[Andy Cortez]

And we'll be able to talk about it real soon, everybody.

[Blessing Adio]

That's crazy. Oh.

[Andy Cortez]

Pokemon Champions launches April 8th on Nintendo Switch. Oh, you excited about this one?

[Blessing Adio]

I'm excited about it, yeah. Yeah. Battle some Pokemon.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm excited to see the, like, the. The. The actual community kind of rally around it, because I want to see if it becomes, like, the next big important thing, that if you're playing competitive stuff, this is. This is your avenue because they're basically.

[Blessing Adio]

They're using it as the main platform for competitive, like, Pokemon worlds happening in San Francisco later this year.

[Andy Cortez]

And the.

[Blessing Adio]

This is gonna be the main thing that people are gonna use to battle because you can take your Pokemon from Pokemon home into it and all that. They put up an overview trailer about it if you want to learn more of the details about what goes on in Pokemon champions.

[Andy Cortez]

High on life 2 switch 2 release has been delayed. Speaking of Switch games and, like, physical stuff.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I really, really want and hope that Cana Bridge of Spirits comes out with a switch to physical. I don't think it is, but I want one because I, like. I've been on my Switch physical collecting grind.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I really want that game physically.

[Blessing Adio]

That'd be.

[Andy Cortez]

I like. I like buying games that, like, meant a lot to me at a certain point in time.

[Blessing Adio]

I didn't realize Kina was, like, one of them ones for you.

[Andy Cortez]

I fucking loved Cana Bridge of Spirits. Yeah. This is an awesome video game.

[Blessing Adio]

I feel like Hina. If we had, like, a kind of funny consensus of games that we all loved that were, like, underrated. I feel like Hannah, because I think we all liked Hannah.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

Like, it's not one that comes up in conversation often. And I feel like Sifu is a similar one where it's like, we all love sifu.

[Andy Cortez]

We talk about sifu all the time.

[Blessing Adio]

We talk about Sifu. I feel like the industry doesn't talk about Sifu all the time. Like, we do.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Mouse P has getting a physical. That makes me very happy. That makes me very happy. Battlefield Hardline, PS4 and Xbox One is delisting. May 22. Online services end June 22. Single player will still be playable. For people who own the game. The PC version will remain available, including online services. Behavior Interactive has acquired the Fun Pimps.

[Blessing Adio]

You can't name your game studio the Fun Pimps.

[Andy Cortez]

Maybe it means something else because our pimps internationally.

[Blessing Adio]

Pimps aren't usually fun. Oh, you think there's another word for maybe? Okay, I was gonna say pimps.

[Andy Cortez]

Are mean, aren't they?

[Blessing Adio]

Because don't pimps be like, I feel like the only fun pimp is cat Williams in 2007. There was pimping. Pimping.

[Andy Cortez]

There's a really funny. There's a really funny line of dialogue in the Witcher 3 where some lady wants to bang Geralt and he goes. He goes, I'm a witcher, not a gigolo. Made me laugh. So funny. Horizon Chase and Horizon Chase Turbo are getting delisted on June 1st. Man, they're just putting Aloy in every game, man. Like, she's getting way too many spin off.

[Blessing Adio]

She's driving.

[Andy Cortez]

Unbelievable.

[Blessing Adio]

I hate that you can D list games, by the way. I know this has been a thing forever, but I don't.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, every. Sucks ass.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah. Every single time I read a games game delisted, I'm like, why you? What's going on?

[Andy Cortez]

What's it doing?

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Is it holding up a space on your hard drive?

[Blessing Adio]

Like 5 cents a day out of here. Like, I'll buy it.

[Andy Cortez]

Put back up. I'll buy it for you. Albion Online is coming to Xbox on April 21st. That's a new Peter Mullen. You join. Right? I believe that's. No, no. He's making a game with. He's making that God game. Yeah. And the world is Albion.

[Blessing Adio]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know. People are like, we don't know if you could do that.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, we know you made Fable and. But I don't know if you could do that.

[Blessing Adio]

I'm going to look it up. Look up the name of that game.

[Andy Cortez]

It's going to. I'm going to assume it's survival crafting.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh my God, you're right. Masters of Albion.

[Andy Cortez]

Ah. Albion Online is something else, though. I don't know what that is. It's just like the same game online.

[Blessing Adio]

I mean, I mean, I'm about to see. Because I put it in there because I'm like, oh, Albion. That's a name that we all know.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

But I don't think I've even heard of Albion Online. It's an MMO RPG by Sandbox Interactive.

[Andy Cortez]

Everybody, thank you for being here for us. Our Wii News segment. That's it for we News. Let's get into super chats and you're wrong. You can write into kindafunny.com forward slash. You're wrong. To let us know what we got wrong. Thank you, kebabs. This is the good year Wrong. This is the. This is a great year Wrong. It's Swahili the saying, oh, when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.

[Blessing Adio]

Damn. Damn.

[Andy Cortez]

That's such a bar.

[Blessing Adio]

That's so good.

[Andy Cortez]

We've been here before. I have definitely told you this in the same manner. And we both said, like, what a bar.

[Blessing Adio]

Oh, man, I didn't realize you're into, like, Swahili culture like that.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I read it somewhere. I forgot where I read it. According to the Crimson Desert Wiki, Cliff doesn't have a state of last name, so McDuff is still. It's definitely McDuff. Where?

[Blessing Adio]

Where'd you hear that? In the game. Did you make that up? Did you make that up? Chat.

[Andy Cortez]

Did I dream?

[Blessing Adio]

Did you just.

[Andy Cortez]

Did you.

[Blessing Adio]

Are you with me, Chad? Is he with me?

[Andy Cortez]

You're.

[Blessing Adio]

You're with me.

[Andy Cortez]

Where did I get McDuff at?

[Blessing Adio]

I was like, there's no way his name is McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

McDuff.

[Blessing Adio]

She was just made up, McDuff, I swear. And, like, you corrected it and you're like. But it's with an A. That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

I see it. I see it. It's. It's a premonition thing to do the extreme. It's just. It's a premonition. I swear. It is. Ernie Cooper says It is absolutely McDuff. I'm telling you, man. Before the game came out, I remember watching their videos that they were putting out being like, here and in this world, Cliff McDuff is the guy. And I.

[Blessing Adio]

Because I don't remember seeing his name McDuff in the game.

[Andy Cortez]

Pizza butt. Pizza butt. McDuff. Pizza bet.

[Blessing Adio]

Because I don't. Totally not. I actually. You. Fuck it. Pizza Bet.

[Andy Cortez]

It's got to be McDuff.

[Blessing Adio]

His name is not McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

It's McDuff, man. It's gotta be. Oh, and golden spider with the yurong says Albion is ancient British myth. It's not copyrighted by a fable. Okay, good to know. Thank you for the yurong.

[Blessing Adio]

How do we even figure out this McDuff situation? Because, yeah, Internet is divided.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like if. If you let us know in the comments down below, not in the live YouTube chat right now. Let us know in the comments. If you're watching this after the fact,

[Blessing Adio]

man, let me tell you, I just typed in Cliff, and the first thing that comes up is McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, ass.

[Blessing Adio]

But hold on. I'm on the fandom website.

[Andy Cortez]

It's because they're listening to us talk.

[Blessing Adio]

That's why I'm not seeing. Yeah, maybe it's. It's real time. Yeah, I'M not seeing anything about McDuff on like this wiki page. I'm gonna. I'm gonna research.

[Andy Cortez]

He's trying to keep it a secret.

[Blessing Adio]

Yeah, I'm on the Wikipedia. I'm gonna control F. Mikda, the homie

[Andy Cortez]

Del walker with the $2 super chat said, which by the way, Del Walker put out an amazing video recently on their own YouTube channel. They'll walker put out a video talking about why games just are a much harder to make these days when it comes to budgets. Because how recouping your costs was way easier back in the day and it's just a lot harder to do that.

[Blessing Adio]

So now here's the thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Right. Great video.

[Blessing Adio]

Well, I went to the Wikipedia for Crimson desert control F. McDuff. Nothing to be found. This IGN article, however, they do refer to him.

[Andy Cortez]

This is games journalism.

[Blessing Adio]

But this is like before the game came out. So this might be based off of like pre release information. Simon Carti does refer to the main protagonist as Cliff McDuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Carti? My guy Carti.

[Blessing Adio]

Where does he get that information?

[Andy Cortez]

I went to Helsinki with Cardi. Got to spend time with him. Oh, and some sorrows. Yeah. Del Walker says Cliff's OG name was going to be Macbeth. Imagine that.

[Blessing Adio]

You can't do that. Imagine a generation of gamers knowing Macbeth from the video game Crimson Desert. The Post to the Shakespeare play.

[Andy Cortez]

Man, Tough Gondor's Condor says. I know this depression is coming for me. After Death Stranding 2, I was gonna go with DS2 being Dark Souls too. Which by the way, I never beat Dark Souls too. I gotta go back and beat that game one day.

[Blessing Adio]

I never beat Dark Souls.

[Andy Cortez]

I needed like the final boss. When the Silksong came around, I'm like. I'm like, maybe a boss or two away.

[Blessing Adio]

We gotta do like a stream where you beat Dark Souls 2. And I beat the Elden Ring DLC.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh my God.

[Blessing Adio]

Finally beat redone.

[Andy Cortez]

We have to.

[Blessing Adio]

Every now and then I just go back and open up that boss fight. Give it two tries. I'm like, not today.

[Andy Cortez]

You can't do that.

[Blessing Adio]

This still can't do.

[Andy Cortez]

That's like saying I'm. Yeah. Every once in a while I go to the gym and I try to bench 350 and I can. And so I give up.

[Blessing Adio]

Radon has been whooping my ass for two years. Is crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

The Portland Kevin $2 Super Jazz says the Jurassic park collection is also getting delisted. That's bullshit. Elevate 4K. $2.

[Blessing Adio]

Not.

[Andy Cortez]

Not that you're Bullshit. I'm just saying it being a bullshit tactic for delisting. Starkzilla says real question. What's the difference between generative AI and procedural generation? Generative AI is scraping stuff on the Internet that you do not own or have the rights to. And procedural is a developer and artist saying, I'm gonna make 20 different types of torsos for this alien here in no Man's Sky. I'm gonna make 30 different heads and 12 different legs and three different tails. And then procedurally go boop. And engineers will make that procedural button. They'll go boop. And then suddenly that tail is now with that head and chest combo. And then now that legs are. It's all like about it. Like, procedural is all over the games industry. We've never had an issue with that because procedural generation has been in games for about 15 to 20 years now. Yeah. Probably longer.

[Blessing Adio]

Procedural generation is almost like, remember you remember the Mario 3 minigame where you would have, like, the faces and you would, like, have like, the spinny things. So, like, you had the top of the head, the middle of the head, and the bottom of the head. Right. And like, you would have to try to match them, but you have all these different options that could possibly come out. That's more like procedural generation.

[Andy Cortez]

Exactly right. He's right.

[Blessing Adio]

And then generative AI is very much like, here's a machine that is very. A lot more complex. And we're feeding everything into this guy, Right? Like, everything is fed into this guy. And now you ask him the color of the sky and he's like, blue. And it's like, hell, yeah, I just killed a bunch of trees.

[Andy Cortez]

And it's all about scraping from things that you don't own. Now we'll probably get into a really, really tough conversation when they go, well, but we made all of these things, so But. And we're generating from there. But also we laid off all the employees. And then you start to get into a real tough conversation that I don't really, frankly want to have right now. Like, I'm ready to end the show, to be honest with you, because it's going to get real tough. But shout out to the. Shout out to embark for getting real voice actors in arc Raiders being like, yeah, it is way better. Yeah.

[Blessing Adio]

CEO being like, damn. Real voices actually sound pretty good. Damn.

[Andy Cortez]

Not bad. Pretty. Pretty good. Really convincing. Thank you everybody for supporting us here on kind of funny Games Daily. We have a games cast after this, which is all. Are we able to say, like, is the embargo already?

[Blessing Adio]

I think it is. Yeah, I saw somebody. What time is it? I mean, it was going to start right now anyway, so. Yeah, I think we can say it.

[Andy Cortez]

I think it's in this.

[Blessing Adio]

I'll say it. I'll be the one to get in trouble. Tomodachi life.

[Andy Cortez]

Tomadachi life.

[Blessing Adio]

Living the dream.

[Andy Cortez]

We got a preview gamescast after this, and then after that we have kind of funny podcast followed by a stream with Mike and Nick where they are playing that simulation game where they run a video rental store. So look forward to that retro rewind. Yeah, yeah. Stick around all day because we got tons of content. And remember, support the businesses that you love, or else they will die. Thank you, everybody. It's been our pleasure to serve you.