Fans ANGRY Over Pokemon Champions Messy Launch - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.08.26

Summary

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Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.08.26

Episode Title: Fans ANGRY Over Pokemon Champions' Messy Launch
Date: April 8, 2026
Hosts: Roger Piccornian, Andy Cortez, Barrett (occasional), Super Chat interactions

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Overview

This episode dives into a chaotic launch week in gaming, with a spotlight on the controversial release of Pokemon Champions, a competitive-focused game that's facing serious backlash for bugs, missing features, and disappointing the core fanbase. Roger and Andy break down why the community is angry, debate Nintendo’s live service woes, react to No Man’s Sky's wild new update, discuss delays and remakes, and cover the whirlwind of “cube confusion” that’s become a meme all its own.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cube Confusion: Industry’s New Meme (00:48 – 05:37)

• What Happened?
  Hosts get tangled up trying to distinguish between “The Cube Save Us,” “The Cube” (in the Atomic Heart universe), “Q.U.B.E. for Loop,” and the general “cube hype” in gaming culture.
• Key Moment:
  Multiple games referenced have "cube" in the title, causing confusion across developers, genres, and even fake game listings leeching traffic off SEO.
• Quote:

  “A lot of people are typing in The Cube Save Us as in they're excited for The Cube and they think it's going to save the industry. So it's a very confusing situation.” – Roger [04:13]

• Vibe:
  Amused, slightly exasperated, meta—fans in chat joining in on the confusion.

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2. The Messy Launch of Pokémon Champions (10:50 – 20:51)

• Summary:
  The main topic. Pokémon Champions launches to widespread discontent in the competitive Pokémon community. Major critiques include:
  • Buggy gameplay and missing features advertised in trailers (e.g. Mega Raichu X absent)
  • Shrunk roster: only 186 Pokémon, exclusively fully evolved (except Pikachu), missing key meta items and battle formats (no 6v6)
  • Inflexible and grind-heavy team-building with progression locked behind Victory Points you earn in ranked matches
  • Oddly, no microtransactions at launch—a rare move for live service titles, possibly due to unfinished systems
• Quotes & Reactions:

  “Everything they're mentioning, this doesn't feel like one or two key things are missing. This feels like, shit, you had another half a year to keep on going on development and you decided to launch this way too soon.” – Andy Cortez [12:18]
  “If this, the story was, hey, Pokémon Champions is in early beta and it has a lot of issues, I think a lot of people would be able to give it the pass. But the fact that the game is just fully out... it's a weird—makes sense for Nintendo to just put out a full release game because they don't do early access. But this is the time to do it.” – Roger [13:56]

• Community Perspectives:
  • Varied. Some, like Super Chatter Jammy Cove, argue the “revolt” headline is misleading: competitive Pokémon always rotates formats/items.
  • Others, like Kevo D.W. Stone (8 hours in), say it’s still fun but clearly incomplete for a launch.
• Host Analysis:
  Nintendo's old-school approach (eschewing betas, early access) is failing them in live service launches, and a lack of key communication is fueling fan mistrust.

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3. No Man’s Sky Goes Full Pokémon (21:14 – 27:46)

• What’s New?
  The Xeno Arena update brings pet battle mechanics—essentially Pokémon-style combat—to No Man’s Sky.
• Trailer Reaction:
  Hosts are floored by the scale and depth of the new mode, noting No Man’s Sky's penchant for wild, free expansions.
• Quote:

  “There’s been about 18 free updates to No Man’s Sky and everybody just going, let us give you a dollar.” – Andy [22:23]

• Deeper Analysis:
  • No Man’s Sky has redefined itself with constant free content, making it a model for post-launch support.
  • Sean Murray explicitly references Pokémon, Palworld, and WoW’s pet battle features as inspiration (Roger reads quote at [23:49]).
  • These ancillary activities (Gwent in Witcher 3, Star Wars chess vibes) add major value to explorative sandboxes.

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4. The Ongoing Switch 2 Conversation: 007, Delays, and Speculation (34:19 – 41:27)

• Main Takeaway:
  • 007 First Light’s Switch 2 release delayed—now coming after other versions.
  • Hosts speculate it’s an optimization issue, comparing to other games (e.g. Mortal Kombat 1) that tanked their reputation with bad ports.
  • IO Interactive under pressure due to prominence in the Switch 2 reveal event.
  • Broad speculation: Call of Duty and possibly Halo, Gears on Switch 2 in future, but technical hurdles are significant.
• Memorable Comment:

  “If a reveal event video game runs like shit, isn't up to the standards, then that's a very bad look on Nintendo.” – Roger [39:17]

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5. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake (“Resynced”) Incoming (42:18 – 51:18)

• News Item:
  Insider leaks say the long-rumored AC Black Flag remake will be announced April 16—possibly timed to a PlayStation State of Play.
• Discussion Points:
  • Uncertainty over internal vs. outsourced development.
  • Hopes this is a proper remake (not just a remaster).
  • Ubisoft’s reputation as a studio (“always something in the cycle”—layoffs, controversies, constant news churn).
• Quote:

  “If Ubisoft is S tier at something, it is on the tech side: visuals, path tracing, everything. Assassin’s Creed Shadows... Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen.” – Andy [50:37]

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6. Quick Hits & Memorable Moments (51:38 – End)

• Rebecca Valentine Leaving IGN
  • Important industry news: respected reporter moves on, hosts reflect on her influence.
• Mario Galaxy Switch 2 Bundle
  • Odd discount bundle, sparks quick Mario/cubes joke.
• Nickelodeon Extreme Tennis
  • Hosts mock the art style and Garfield’s “Nicktoon” status.
• Plants vs Zombies 3 Evolved:
  • LIVE early access: hosts critique new art style (“trad peanut” joke!).
• Audience Engagement:
  • Multiple Super Chats: people chiming in with corrections, questions, and fun asides.
  • Running joke: “The Cube confused us” used as shorthand for gaming confusion/meme.

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Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• “Everything they're mentioning, this doesn't feel like one or two key things are missing. This feels like shit, you had another half a year to keep on going...” – Andy Cortez [12:18]
• “If this, the story was... Pokémon Champions is in early beta and it has a lot of issues, I think a lot of people would be able to give it the pass. But the fact that the game is just fully out...” – Roger [13:56]
• “There’s been about 18 free updates to No Man’s Sky and everybody just going, let us give you a dollar.” – Andy [22:23]
• “If a reveal event video game runs like shit... then that is a very bad look on Nintendo.” – Roger [39:17]
• “If Ubisoft is S tier at something, it is on the tech side... Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is the most beautiful game I’ve ever seen.” – Andy [50:37]
• “The Cube confused us.” – Running meme from both chat and hosts [refrain throughout the show]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Cube Game Confusion: 00:48 – 05:37
• Pokémon Champions Launch, Community Reaction: 10:50 – 20:51
• No Man’s Sky’s Pokémon Update (Xeno Arena): 21:14 – 27:46
• Switch 2 Games & 007 First Light Delay: 34:19 – 41:27
• Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake Leak: 42:18 – 51:18
• Industry Quick Hits (Rebecca Valentine, Mario Galaxy, Plants vs Zombies 3): 51:38 – End

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Tone & Style

• Tone:
  Breezy, irreverent, meta-aware, full of inside jokes and playful jabs at the industry and each other. Frequent audience acknowledgment via Super Chat.
• Key Dynamics:
  Roger and Andy bounce between deep-dive analysis and rapid-fire, snappy banter. Barrett drops in for clarification or jokes.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode encapsulates the currently restless state of the games industry—rushed launches (Pokémon Champions), surprise hits and enduring content machines (No Man’s Sky), high-stakes hardware transitions (Switch 2), and the ever-present storm cloud of delays, layoffs, and uncertainty (AC Black Flag, Ubisoft). Through it all, Kinda Funny’s balance of expertise and absurdity keeps fans engaged—even when, as in life and gaming, “the cube” makes everything confusing.

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For more detailed discussion on any segment, refer to the timestamps above!

Transcript

[Roger]

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[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

That Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at Rocket Money.com kindafunny Head to Factor Meals.com/kind of funny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscriptions only. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go

[Roger]

to patreon.com kindafunny Today's gaming news stories include bugs, limitations and false advertising in Pokemon Champions. No man's Skies launches their own Pokemon Pokemon game. And 007 has been delayed on the switch too. We'll have almost this and more because this is kind of Funny Games Daily. What is up, everybody? And welcome back to Kinda Funny Games daily for Wednesday, March 8, 2026. I'm your host with the most, Roger Piccornian. Today I'm joined by the number one games journalist in the universe, the Andy Cortez on Instagram.

[Andy Cortez]

Big week.

[Roger]

Big week. Tell me.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know. I have no idea.

[Roger]

You and I were trying to figure out a Cube thing before the show.

[Andy Cortez]

Right? Right.

[Roger]

Okay, let's go through the. The what we were thinking.

[Andy Cortez]

Chad, we need your help with it.

[Roger]

We need your help, everybody.

[Andy Cortez]

We saw that there was a game called the Cube comma save us, and that was canceled.

[Roger]

No, it's. Sorry, it's.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it is comma, the Cube comma save us.

[Roger]

I thought it was a column.

[Andy Cortez]

Hey, Cube, save us.

[Roger]

Save us. Of course. Question mark.

[Andy Cortez]

Getting delisted after three weeks.

[Roger]

Sad.

[Andy Cortez]

Never heard of it. Sad. How. How does that even happen? We talked about yesterday about this. The Spellcasters game.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

From freaking God dang Detroit. Become human devs. Star Wars.

[Roger]

And like everything's riding on that.

[Andy Cortez]

And it's like that's another game where you're like, how the Cube save us.

[Roger]

Barrett. Showing us gameplay.

[Andy Cortez]

The Cube save us. This is the Cube save us.

[Roger]

Oh, I do know the Cube, save us. I do know the Cube save us.

[Andy Cortez]

And this isn't.

[Roger]

This is Mudfist.

[Andy Cortez]

This is this.

[Barrett]

What's the weird cyberpunk with the hot

[Andy Cortez]

robot ladies what the. That's the one.

[Roger]

That's this.

[Andy Cortez]

That's this.

[Roger]

That's this. Wait, what? No, what's the game?

[Andy Cortez]

Andy?

[Roger]

What's the game? Oh, Atomic. Whoa, wait.

[Andy Cortez]

No, there's no way. Yes. No, wait, wait, wait. A different thing.

[Roger]

What do you say? What are we all saying right now?

[Andy Cortez]

So, so okay, so we talked about the Cube save us.

[Roger]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

And then I said what was the one PvE game that is set in the universe of another video game? That is this. That is this. That is this.

[Roger]

No, people are saying different Cube, different Cube. Wait, what? It's related to Atomic Heart. It is same dev. This is XL Games. I'm gonna go to the developer right now on Steam. Okay. But they only have made the Cube Save Us and Arch Age Chronicles to be announced date. This is.

[Barrett]

It's published by Mundfish.

[Andy Cortez]

See, there they are. Dude, this is the same game. You got to be shitting me. I didn't even know this came out. We saw this on a big presentation on a big stage and we're like whoa, this actually looks pretty cool. This is.

[Roger]

Ok. Blessing has some breaking news about the Cube Save us.

[Andy Cortez]

The people who made Atomic Heart.

[Roger]

And this people are also saying this is not what this is.

[Andy Cortez]

That's called the Cube. Ok. Because I was listening to the

[Roger]

conversation because like I was also confused

[Andy Cortez]

cuz I saw this pop and I was like is this the Atomic Heart game? And then I was like no, that

[Roger]

game's not out so certainly this can't be it. So I didn't include Cube.

[Andy Cortez]

I did include in kfc. Cuz I was like there's no way that that's it. Is that it?

[Roger]

No, I think this is a different.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, okay.

[Roger]

Oh okay.

[Andy Cortez]

That just said the Cube.

[Roger]

Okay, so that's the Cube we're talking about the Cube Save us. Okay, gotcha.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, see?

[Roger]

Okay, that's the Cube save us. The Cube save us.

[Andy Cortez]

That was the first thing that popped was the trailer I just showed. So that's. That's on me. Oh wow.

[Roger]

But I helped solve a mystery though.

[Andy Cortez]

I helped solve a mystery.

[Roger]

Yeah, you did. Well, a lot of. A lot of people are typing in the Cube save us as in they're excited for the Cube and they think it's going to save the industry. So it's a very confusing situation. And this just happens to kind of jump. Yeah, one of those is jumping on the SEO because so many people want the Cube to save the industry. So that's what's happening.

[Andy Cortez]

A lot of cubes also a lot

[Roger]

of cubes and the Q, U, B, E for loop.

[Andy Cortez]

The. The game for loop.

[Roger]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

From the devs of, of left from J.J. abrams.

[Roger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

They got a big cube in that game too. Cubes are hot right now.

[Roger]

Cubes are bigger.

[Andy Cortez]

Having a moment.

[Roger]

Big for raids and stuff. People are shooting at the cubes and stuff.

[Andy Cortez]

Siding six side. And that guy's got a.

[Roger]

That.

[Andy Cortez]

The. That's a baseball zombie. Okay, so the cubes save us being shut down after three weeks. We're sad about that delisting.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

But not to be confused with the game called the Cube, which is in the atomic universe, the atomic heart video game universe, which is a different video game.

[Roger]

So is it the atomic universe?

[Andy Cortez]

It's an atomic universe. Oh, wow. Yeah. When the logo falls on them. For real? For real. No.

[Roger]

Atomic heart universe.

[Andy Cortez]

You're right.

[Roger]

No, just the atomic universe.

[Andy Cortez]

Atomic universe. Yeah, the atomic universe right there. You're. You're right.

[Roger]

No way.

[Andy Cortez]

You're not wrong about feeling that way. About being like.

[Roger]

That's like being like. Okay, Glass onion from the knives universe.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

Yeah.

[Roger]

No, no, no. Your knives out. No, no, no, no, no. Don't be doing that shit. Don't do that shit.

[Andy Cortez]

So the cube might still be saved. The cube save us. Gone.

[Roger]

They're gone.

[Andy Cortez]

Delist after three weeks. Never heard of it. Didn't know it came out. What is going on in this industry?

[Roger]

You know what did come out though?

[Andy Cortez]

What?

[Roger]

Samson.

[Andy Cortez]

Samson did come out.

[Roger]

Did you put that in the link in the assets?

[Andy Cortez]

Because I wanted. No, I felt bad.

[Roger]

Oh, you felt bad. Okay, never mind that.

[Andy Cortez]

It's just, you know, Samsung is out now and it. There's like, you know, buggy videos out there and games launch with bugs all the time. But it's one thing to launch with really, really low review scores and also have very debilitating bugs like that.

[Roger]

I don't know.

[Andy Cortez]

I feel bad.

[Roger]

I. I get it. I know nothing about Samson. But I did see a headline because I was like, oh, reviews pop. Let me see it. And it was like, I think it was something like, Samson is not a good game, but GTA 4 lovers would like it or something like that. I was like, is that like a diss towards GTA 4 lovers or is that just saying that this is a really high quality game that one day people look back on and say it's the best in the franchise?

[Andy Cortez]

Samsonite. That was way off. You started with an S though. What? Nobody knows dumb and dumber quotes anymore, man. It's unbelievable.

[Roger]

Yeah, that came out.

[Andy Cortez]

Blessing. Making fun of negative Jim Carrey saying like he doesn't love the Sonic movies because of Jim Carrey.

[Roger]

Not wrong.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know really.

[Roger]

I mean he's fine nit. He just becomes very Jim Carrey. Carrie heavy when it's like I care about the the hedgehogs.

[Andy Cortez]

I see what you mean. Yeah.

[Roger]

Okay well everybody, you'll see what I mean when I tell you about kind of funny games daily. Because if you're watching live, be a part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kinda funny games. We couldn't do it out without our Patreon producers over on patreon.com kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Sum twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. Five stories today. Dozen forgot we killed those. Story number one of five Pokemon Fans Revolt as Champions Launches with bugs, Limitations, and False Advertising this from Kenneth Shepard over at Kotaku. We have a bunch of tweets that we can show up as we're talking through this, but Pokemon Champions came to Switch last night and is supposed to be the future of competitive Pokemon, but with less than 12 hours on the clock on a lot of the community is already calling the game a failed experiment. After spending a bit of time with the game myself, this is Kenneth speaking. I'm kind of astounded by the limitations it puts on what has typically been a pretty expressive competitive game and how cumbersome it is to actually build teams to use online. There's a pretty long list of issues following folks are having with Champions right now, but broadly speaking, it feels like the game is constricting competitive play in a way that not even the mainline RPGs Pokemon RPGs did when they stopped including the full roster of monsters with sword and shield. Champions only supports fully evolved Pokemon with the exception of Pikachu, and even those are fairly limited, with only 186 monsters across all nine generations in the initial wave. Even with those included Pokemon, there are odd restrictions, as some characters that are included should have Mega Evolutions, but the held items required for the transformation are not found in the game. Raichu, whose Mega Evolution was shown in the trailers for Champions, seems unable to actually achieve this form in the game at launch. Some will rightfully argue that including a small roster at the outset is a way for Champions to contain the meta, but I don't think anyone expected the game to. Sorry. The game touted as the definitive stage for competitive play to be as sparse as Champions is. The limitations don't stop at the Pokemons themselves, as several held items that have been key to competitive strategies before, such as Life Orb, choice Band and choice Specs, aren't featured in the game and thus wouldn't be usable in official competitions. The battle formats are also restrictive. Even when you're creating a private room to play with friends, you can't have a full 6v6 battle with where both players use their entire Pokemon teams, and instead you're stuck using either three in single battles or four in double battles. Within those battles, players are discovering several weird quirks from what seemed like bugged moved interactions to straight up being unable to use certain moves in specific situations where historically those moves have been doable. On top of all those problems, the actual team building and training mechanics are a massive grind that incentivizes you to actually play online in Champions, but makes it fundamentally inefficient as a way to create and take teams online or prepare them for an upcoming in person tournaments. Stats and movesets changes are locked behind the in game currency victory points, which you can only unlock through playing ranked matches. You accumulate them fairly quickly, but trying to make even one Pokemon Battle ready is a lengthy process. Imagine trying to cultivate an entire team using these tools. This is the same currency you have to use to purchase held items and cosmetics and to recruit Pokemon to your team. I'm frankly surprised the game doesn't have microtransactions to let you pay to skip the grind. Players are still sifting through the game and will likely find more frustrating limitations. But Champions has not made a good first impression on the competitive community which is being forced to use it as their go to platform for official tournaments moving forward. Forward. I'm not even a VGC player and I'm annoyed that it put Mega Raichu X in its trailers and it seemingly doesn't include it in the game itself. A lot there, Andy. First I just want to see like where are you when it comes to Pokemon Champions? Are you going to check it out? Have you already checked it out? And what do you think about all this?

[Andy Cortez]

I was never planning really on checking this out. I. You know, this game really seems to be something for the competitive community and something for people who are really into games like Pokemon Stadium to check out. And I was neither of those. Right. Like I, I never played Pokemon Stadium. Battling was never like the most exciting part of Pokemon for me. It was just kind of like role playing and having, you know, making your squad and your Roster. And so last night, as I'm streaming and more and more people are popping and going, damn, Pokemon Champions is out. I get kind of excited. I'm like, oh, cool. That seems like, you know, for the community to have this brand new online thing that this is going to be. This is the avenue you're going to take.

[Roger]

This is the only. Yeah. This is the competitive thing they're going to use at Pokemon Champions and the

[Andy Cortez]

future of it all. Right. You know, like, you know, to see all of the disappointment this morning, I don't want to say it's surprising because we've, you know, Nintendo and Pokemon and games and all that stuff has. Has been known to disappoint before, but this feels like you are maybe in a hurry for worlds or whatever it may be, and you just launched this. You launched this like three months too soon. Everything they're mentioning, this doesn't feel like one or two key things are missing. This feels like shit. You had, like another half a year to keep on going on development and you decided to launch this way too soon. Pretty problematic, Raj.

[Roger]

Yeah, no, especially when you're looking at the multitude of different ways that players are engaging with this. Right. Even as a casual fan. Right. It sucks that you have over here that you can't have two friends basically doing like the. What was it, 6v6. Yeah, like, you can't do a traditional version of that.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, that's crazy.

[Roger]

That's something that, like, we were talking about in the office because we were initially pitching, like, what if we, you know, have like, community days where it's like 6v6 and we, you know, Nick builds his six and then we get a bunch of people in the office to do that. And it's like, I was like, oh, they have to surely allow you to do that. Right. And everyone kind of looked at me like, not that they knew anything. It was just more of like, it's Nintendo. Like, they're going to fuck this up somehow. And of course they do. Of course, there is some weird limitation when it comes to playing with your friends. Of course, there's weird things where they show in the trailer. You can't even do it in the game. Like, this is to be expected, but we shouldn't give this the pass because, oh, it's Nintendo. They don't know how to make a live service. They haven't really done this in this type of capacity. But this is the promise, as you're saying, like, this is the thing that they should have taken their time with or they should have done it like, you know, any other fighting game or big live service where it's like, hey, it's early access, we're in beta, we're figuring this out, we're working with the community to learn all these things. If this, the story was, hey, Pokemon Champions isn't early beta and it has a lot of issues, I think a lot of people would be able to give it the pass. But the fact that the game is just fully out. Yeah, it's, it's, again, it's a weird, it makes sense for Nintendo to just put out a full release game because they don't do early access. But this is the time to do it. This is the time to say, this is an alpha, this is a beta.

[Andy Cortez]

And to, yeah, to, especially in a day and age where, you know, so many studios are doing that and you, you have the excuse of, you know, we're going to continue developing it with you, the core audience. I, I, it's not only those features that are missing, it's also just like the things that were being advertised. Yeah. If this isn't a situation where Pokemon fans go, when you're releasing a game like this, we expect this and that. It's like, no, you showed us certain things that just aren't possible in the game yet.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

How did that get, you know, missed? You know, who, who pulled the trigger? Who said like hit the green light on Steam or whatever the hell.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Hit the green light on the, on the Nintendo store and iOS or whatever without those features even being available. Like, that's kind of nuts to me, you know.

[Roger]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a wild situation. But it's also like, it's also interesting like reading through this article of like, there isn't a way to just pay through and just get everything. Like that is, I guess. Yeah. It's a weird because you assumed that this was going to have a ton of microtransactions, this was going to be able to just pay your way through it. Like any free to play game, really.

[Andy Cortez]

So it's, yeah, the trading card games.

[Roger]

Yeah, exactly. Right. So it is not weird, but it's like almost like, oh, like is that a good thing? Is that, do you like out of a free to play game like this, do you want to have that feature to just have people play through it and like be able to pay to get to that point or I mean,

[Andy Cortez]

if I were to get, if I were to guess that feature wasn't ready yet.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Based on everything else not being ready you know, like, it. Leave it to Nintendo and the Pokemon company to. To nickel and dime you and just like in TCG Pocket, allow you to kind of pay and force your way to get all the bonus little bits and currencies and things like that. But in a game that is seemingly very, very feature light, I kind of assume that the pay to. The Pay to Access, you know, platform, or the Pay to Access sort of structure is also just a feature that wasn't included.

[Roger]

Which is so funny because that is the priority for somebody free to play games. Right. It's like, hey, we got to make sure that people can pay their way through this entire thing. We get more money. But the fact that they are that. That side in the game, so many other little small things are not there. So many Pokemon are missing. Right. Of course, other than Pikachu not having, you know, any evolved version. Just Pikachu right there. So what's. What is it? So I want to bring in Barrett really quick when it comes to this TCG Pocket. I know it's a different situation. Right. Like, but that you could just pay your way through that. Right? That's how this goes.

[Barrett]

Yeah. So it's. It's like one of those, like, time things where you get to unlock, like, two packs every day, but you have to, like, wait 12 hours after that to, like, unlock that. But yeah, you can pay for, like, a currency to, like, speed that time up and all that stuff, which I was fully expecting to be in this at launch. Yeah, you know, like, blessing. And everybody else who got to preview it didn't really get to see anything of that. And I assume it's like, oh, they're. They're holding that off until launch, where people are going to have a harsh realization of what this game is. And no, it turns out it's just like, no, we just don't have it, which is really. Yeah. I wonder what the. The goal for this game is.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Roger]

And it's not like we're saying, like, oh, we wish there's microtransactions. Just a weird one because you assume that every free to play game would have.

[Barrett]

Free to play.

[Roger]

Yeah, exactly.

[Barrett]

And so with it not having that and then it being limiting on, like, competitive play, even though it's being sold as, like, the competitive play, like, hub. Again, I question of, like, what is the goal of this game?

[Roger]

I want to bring in a few Pokemon experts from the Super Chat segment over here. We got Kevo D. W. Stone over here, super chatting and saying, I play Pokemon competitively for a Few years now and in writing this, I'm eight hours in. Wow, you're gaming. I love that. Battling is still fun, but it's surprisingly limited in this first regulation. I suspect more is added next season, but that may be Copa. Yeah, I mean that brings up the good question of like, this should be a live service that is being updated weekly, monthly. Right. Like has Pokemon. I don't know how the Unite. I'm very ignorant when it comes to Pokemon Unite.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Roger]

It's the Moba. Yeah. I don't know how well that's been, you know, worked on and how the live services. I would love to see the chat and if anyone has any more information about that.

[Andy Cortez]

But yeah, I don't really know what they're sort of release and time schedule

[Roger]

is if they have, if they have anything like that going on there. And then we have Jammy Cove Super Chatting and also saying throwing it out there. The majority of the community is not feeling this quote, revolt. This, this article has a lot of misinformation and competitive Pokemon always has different formats with different Pokemon items that switch every month. So that's a different point of view right there from somebody else in the audience right there. Yes. Very hot to leave out Pokemon Weird online. Awesome. And then we have bam over here, Super Chat and says glad people are voicing concerns about a Pokemon. Usually it's oh well, it's Pokemon and move on. Anyway, try Digimon time Strangers coming to Switch. I don't know if that last part really connects there, but you know, I mean, Digimon, Pokemon, very different things.

[Andy Cortez]

Also important. Super Chat here from Star Fox says the Cube confused us.

[Roger]

The Cube does confuse us. The Cube really confuses us. A good sentence and then yeah, it's people I see D D in the chat says, why is it 30fps? This is a Switch 1 game.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Roger]

So that's. It's also coming as phones and everything. That's this. You would assume that once this eventually comes to mobile, you have the big coming out party. This is essentially their beta version of it. And then, then we have all the huge microtransactions. Then we're actually going for the larger, larger whale audience right there once it's on mobile.

[Andy Cortez]

This would have made a lot more sense though if it were the test weekend or the test week.

[Roger]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, like for this to be launch our big day where we are finally, you know, opening the floodgates on this title. It's just. It seems like there's too much. It seems like there are too Many problems to be ignored.

[Roger]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

There's too many concerns from people that are in the community that are entrenched, you know, in the competitive Pokemon, you know, competitive Pokemon scene to have issues with it. Like, there's seem like there are too many issues and. But I do love the super Chat from Jacob Novak. Just saying, like, hey, this. There are metas constantly. There are constantly, you know, timed items that are, you know, being rotated in and out. That makes me feel like, okay, maybe not everything is all awful with this release, but it does seem like there's. There are enough concerns to be concerned. Yes.

[Roger]

I just put a pin and all that Darth Reeven super chats and says the Cube confused us as well. Yeah, I think that's a perfect way to end that story. But we're not done talking about Pokemon Ish. Story number two, no Man's sky gets a Pokemon inspired update. That's basically an entirely new game. This from Patricia Hernandez over at Polygon. We have the trailer over here that honestly, we should just live react to.

[Andy Cortez]

Andy, I'm down for this.

[Roger]

Yeah, let's do it. Let's watch it. Introducing no Man's Sky, Xeno Arena.

[Andy Cortez]

I thought this is April Fool's thing.

[Roger]

This is awesome. And battle your pets for the ultimate rewards. Assemble your team and discover new Xeno species with rare abilities. Wow. Complete your pet log. Genetically modify your eggs.

[Andy Cortez]

This is insane. What?

[Roger]

The battle with friends together, your bond can overcome anything. Take on daily challenges in the arena. Journey across the galaxy. And face new competitors. Battle together and reach for the stars in Xeno Arena. The no Man's Sky Championship continues. How.

[Andy Cortez]

Yet another update to add to the long roster of people saying, Sean Murray, please let us pay for an update.

[Roger]

Yes, exactly.

[Andy Cortez]

There's been about 18 free updates to no Man's sky. And everybody just going, let us give you a dollar.

[Roger]

Yeah. Come on. Let me, let me, let me give you an expansion money right there. Yeah, it's. It's so funny seeing this of like one shout out to them for continuing to put out DLC for free. That is changing the game and always adding something weird or wacky or something that you never expect to be in this game. And then two, like, this actually, like, looks like it feeds into the, like, main core of what you're doing in no Man's sky in a really fun way right there of like, hey, I have all these creatures anyway, so like, why not just have me fight them together? I think that's super fun.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Adding these little ancillary activities, talking about, you know, traveling across the galaxy and traveling across the world to play Gwent against players is like, this is their. This is their little competitive in game, in world game that I feel like a lot of games are trying to have, you know, in the last, like five to 10 years. It's like we need our version of that little in game, in world mini game. This is really cool. This is super neat. I love that they are also kind of holographic versions of the animals that you are.

[Roger]

Yeah. So they're not actually getting hurt or whatever.

[Andy Cortez]

And you're also not in a gigantic arena doing, like the Pokemon battles. You're just kind of like over this little holographic table that looks like Star wars chess vibes. Yeah, yeah. Star wars chess. That's a game looking for.

[Roger]

I want to read a little bit of an interview over here from Sean Murray where he says we are huge fans of Pokemon pal world and pet battling in World of Warcraft. Hello. Games founder Sean Murray said in a press release. Now, when discovering a rare robotic creature in a far flung purple system planet, you can check their abilities and for instance, discover a powerful neutron blast attack. Suddenly it brings a new dimension to exploration. Rare creatures and beautiful pets that become something exciting to show off in the arena. Yeah, I mean, this is. I saw somebody in the chat had passed by. There's never been a better time to hop into no Man's Sky. And I saw another person in the chat talking about how they downloaded this right after no watching Project Hail Mary, which I just watched last night. So I kind of feel that vibe. I get that vibe. I want some space exploration. So if you're looking for that, everybody. There's been. There's not never been.

[Andy Cortez]

Never been a better time. I am apparently. No, no, not no man's guy. Project Hail Mary. Coming back to imax, a lot of people have been kind of reassuring me and telling me, andy, it's okay you missed out on the initial run. Also, shout out to the guy in the on my threads. Replies going, that's on you, man. You. And I was like, okay, you. I don't need that attitude. Like I'm saying, what did you say? What was your thing?

[Roger]

What does that to you, bro?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm saying that I'm sad that Mario came along and took all the IMAX screenings because I was waiting. And every time I would look at every future date for note for Project Hail Mary, the only seats available were like back corners, front rows, and I was like, I'll wait for like better seats or whatever. And eventually it was just now there's Mario in those seats.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And it, you know, and that sucks. But apparently it is coming back.

[Roger]

It is.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Roger]

But I think it's coming back two weeks from now is what I saw. I think the 17th, the week of 17. So you probably honestly, if it's up right now, you should probably buying tickets right now because you know San Francisco's crazy. They're going to take all those things.

[Andy Cortez]

Let me read, let me read through a couple of the no Man's Sky.

[Roger]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Patch updates. The first one was Foundation Pathfinder Atlas. Right. I'm going to try to do this all in one breath. Foundation Pathfinder Atlas Rises Next Abyss Visions Visions Beyond Synthesis Living Ship Exo Mech Crossplay Desolation Origins Are you bored yet, Roger? About a third of the way through. Next Generations Companions Expeditions Prisms Frontiers Sentinel Outlaws Endurance Waypoint Fractal Interceptor I'm about two thirds the way through. Singularity Echoes Omega Orbital Adrift Worlds Part 1 Aquarius the Cursed Cross Save which is a different Update Worlds Part 2 Relics Beacon 2 Voyagers Breach remnant and then now I guess this is the newest one.

[Roger]

Wow. Shout out to them.

[Andy Cortez]

Unbelievable. Like to continue doing this, to continue putting out quality and making people want to exist in your world is just so sick. And it's a game that I need to give another shot. As somebody who's always looking for it

[Roger]

seems like a very you game.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean I love no Man's Sky.

[Roger]

When.

[Andy Cortez]

When the game launched I put in about 70 hours and I was like a lot of y' all aren't happy that this is the game that was advertised to you. I've put in so many hours. It's just like. So it may have been my first like survival sort of, you know, just zen out. It was like video game ASMR to me. Yeah. But breaking down things, building things up or whatever. And I try to go back last year and other just kind of came in the way, you know just sort of reviews inevitably sort of, you know, take priority. But I man this is definitely the game that I know that I would love and appreciate were to. Were I to give it like its full sort of especially with ship building in one of the more recent updates and I loved shipbuilding in Starfield. I need to give no Man's sky like a third shot and I probably should have done that at the beginning of the year when we were a bit slower. But things are starting to ramp up in because I'm smelling the flowers and the. The. The azaleas are blooming out there. It's it's about to be review season.

[Roger]

Oh wow. You know what else I smell? Well, this transition.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh wow.

[Roger]

To our sponsors because remember from Kind of Funny membership people, you guys can go over to patreon.com kind of funny or YouTube.com kind of funny games to get the show ad free. Speaking of ads, let me tell you about our sponsors.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

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[Roger]

KindaFunny this episode is brought to you by Fandango. People say fans are too distracted these

[Andy Cortez]

days, but the truth is, when a

[Roger]

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[Andy Cortez]

no cinema magic, no shared moments.

[Roger]

So head to fandango.com to get tickets, stream or rent or buy top movies and series.

[Andy Cortez]

Fandango loves fans.

[Roger]

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[Andy Cortez]

make every sip sip a good one.

[Roger]

Two good coffee creamers, real goodness in every sip. Find them at your local Kroger in the creamer aisle. Hi, everybody. Hey back.

[Andy Cortez]

Hello, Roger.

[Roger]

Hi. How you doing?

[Andy Cortez]

I'm okay, man. I've been eating a lot of sodium lately.

[Roger]

What time? Why? What type of salt?

[Andy Cortez]

Sunflower seeds.

[Roger]

Oh, you gotta stop.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, they're so good.

[Roger]

You gotta stop that.

[Andy Cortez]

I get to. I get two.

[Roger]

Are you bringing it to the office? Because if we had a week or a month where we had some of our seats in the office and it was the grossest month ever. Was awful. No spitting into the cup.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I know that. Like, I generally try not to eat some of our seeds in front of people because of the noise factor.

[Roger]

That's the cup factor for me. It's like the dip cup for me.

[Andy Cortez]

It's like, oh, really? Because here's what I do. Here's what I do. I get my. My box of empty pop Tarts that all the pop Tarts are out of. Right? Like, it's just a box.

[Roger]

Okay. So you just throw them on the floor.

[Andy Cortez]

I need a box to store my sunflower seeds. Buy some pop Tarts and get rid of them. But after I eat the pop Tarts, I haven't then an empty box. Yeah. Almost the shape of a cube.

[Roger]

Okay. Bringing it back.

[Andy Cortez]

And that's where I saved myself.

[Roger]

It saves you because you need a place.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm like, where am I gonna put my sunflower seeds? And I get like, you know about a cube's tall worth of. Of sunflower in your room? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Roger]

Nasty.

[Andy Cortez]

What I also used to do, I used to. When I would. I would chew bubble gum and then I would put it on my table.

[Roger]

I know you used to do that. We all know I Think you did at the office a few times. And Nick put the kibosh on. We got it. I mean, you guys have seen his, his desk on the buzz.

[Andy Cortez]

So I get, so what I do is I get two bags of Spitz dill pickle flavor and I get one bag of Dave's sunflower seeds, but spicy dill pickle.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Mix them all together, you get a little bit of the spice with the normal. I like that. But it's like I wake up so bloated my face.

[Roger]

You don't.

[Andy Cortez]

Because of all the sodium.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Just drinking water, trying to upset it.

[Roger]

Drink 5 gallons of water right now.

[Andy Cortez]

It's one of those where, like, you know, when I, I used to, like when I played little league baseball.

[Roger]

Okay. Last year.

[Andy Cortez]

Last. Yeah. When I played little league baseball as a kid, you would always get like the white sweat on your baseball hats.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And that doesn't happen to me anymore. And I'm like, why did that happen as a kid? It was probably because I was so, so DMed up as a kid.

[Roger]

It's like, it's all, all the salt is.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Why do, why like every, every young kid always had just white, like, see?

[Roger]

Okay. I'm gonna be honest. Yeah. I said yes to that. I don't know what you're talking, really. I, I, I just. Yes.

[Barrett]

And are you playing baseball like you were back in the day, though, and like, wearing a hat at the same time?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know if I've worn a hat, actually. Are you sweating like that while wearing a hat? I don't think I've worn a hat in about a decade. Yeah.

[Barrett]

Because as somebody who famously wears hats, despite what Blessing believes, what, like, I've worked out in a hat and like, I'll, every once in a while I'll get that.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, yeah. Too many sunflower seeds.

[Roger]

Too many sunflower seeds. But there's not too many Switch 2 games.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, you say Super Chats.

[Roger]

Yeah. Oh, you want to go to Super Chat.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. My bad. Left to Super Chat and said people of note, a turn based RP JRPG inspired musical game is out now for 25 bucks. Really good stuff. If you want to scratch that PS1 PS2 era JRPG itch, shout out.

[Roger]

But if you want to scratch that 007 itch on the Switch 2, you're not going to be able to because story number three, the Switch 2 version of 007, First Light has been delayed until this summer. From Chris scullion over at VGC, the Switch 2 version of 007 first light has been delayed until later this summer. Developer and publisher IO Interactive announced a delay on the official 007 First Light account on X, where it also reiterated that the other versions of the game are still set to release on May 27th as planned. Quote 007 First Light comes to PS5, Xbox Series X&S and PC on May 27th, 2026 and Nintendo Switch 2 later this summer. The post reads. We're excited to see players discovering James Bond's reimagined origin story and we are looking forward to bringing you the best game experience possible across all platforms. Does this surprise you, Andy?

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, a little bit, but you got to assume that maybe they, they assume switch 2 is maybe the least of their priorities right now. We need to optimize for the other consoles where we believe more of our player base will be at. And I got to assume it's an optimization issue. Like that's also me just assuming that that's what this all is. But when we first saw that initial trailer, it was granted a long time ago, but still it was obvious to see that this game is running at 30 frames per second on the PlayStation 5 and struggling to get that in so many of those sequences with the explosions. And that was the very, very first time we saw it, granted. And I know that obviously development takes time and you know, things will get better and better over time, but that first look was really rough.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And it's like anytime there was an explosion on screen, you're getting 10, 15 frames per second. Things look choppy as hell. And then we saw the GeForce Nvidia GeForce now version of it. And I came outside, I was like, Roger, you got to rewatch that because it's a different video game. Like seeing it perform on, on a, on a really high powered machine. It's, it's a different trailer. And I, I, I gotta like let anybody know just to go back and watch the place or the PC version of how the game looks and operates. Because on PlayStation it was really, really, really rough. So again, this is me assuming that they are just hoping to optimize more and more for Switch similar to what we saw with Borderlands 4, right?

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Did that game come out?

[Roger]

That got canceled.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, damn.

[Roger]

Switch to. Yeah, tough man. Elden Ring. Of course that's out there. I want to bring in Jameson Peters who super chats and says what, what comes out first on the switch to elden Ring or 007. You have a prediction? Do we have a date on Elden Ring?

[Andy Cortez]

Elden ring has to come out before the end of the year, legally. Yeah, I'm gonna say elder ring comes out in June, so after this.

[Roger]

Wow, really? Yeah, June. It's weird that we just don't have a date on this.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know when they would announce it. Like.

[Roger]

Yeah, that's true. You know, like Nintendo Direct or something.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. We would have to wait for whatever this. Yeah. I mean, do we know of any upcoming leaked directs or anything like that?

[Roger]

No, but I mean, there's that bullish thing of like there's a Star Fox game and it's getting announced soon and it's like, you know what I mean? Like that. So I would assume we would hopefully get something before June.

[Andy Cortez]

So.

[Roger]

Yeah, May. Ish.

[Andy Cortez]

Because then you got dust buds in.

[Roger]

Yeah, you got to figure out dust bloods. We got to figure that out.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm gonna say Dusk. I'm gonna. Yeah, I'm gonna throw this out here. Dustbox is gonna be October.

[Roger]

Wow. Spooky. Halloween time. Spooky. Scary game. Yeah. I mean, we come down to the thing of like, you're so the Switch 2 is the least of the priorities right now. You can always get. The Switch audience is different. It's a different beast right there. They're excited to get a game when they get it right. So it only behooves them to take their time, make that game right. Maybe put resources that they had on Switch, put it on the main. Making sure all the main consoles and PC run well, and then eventually be like, hey, guys, you guys, People like this game, it's on Switch 2 right now and rocket through the charts and people have that big boost right there. So it makes a lot of sense,

[Andy Cortez]

especially because you've seen what you've seen, how badly you can, you know, how bad games can look and how, you know, how much you change people's perspective of you or perception of you. When you put out a game like Mortal Kombat 1 on the Switch and that game comes out and you become kind of a laughingstock because of how drastically. Yeah, yeah. And you see stuff like that and you go, damn, like, I'm not touching that ever. Right.

[Barrett]

That.

[Andy Cortez]

That's an easy no buy regardless of how bad. This isn't just a resolution drop. This is like you are running on potato settings all over the board.

[Roger]

And you have to think, I don't know these really. This is me purely speculating.

[Barrett]

Right.

[Roger]

But you have to think that there's a little bit of a pressure on these studios that are coming out Putting out AAA games on the Switch to. To from Nintendo. Or maybe just it's an implied thing of like, we don't want you to make it seem like our hardware can't handle it all.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, right.

[Roger]

We want you to take your time with this. If you need to delay it, delay it. Right. Like it's a bad look for don't fuck us IO I Interactive. Who, by the way, we forget about this. They announced Double oh seven coming to the Switch shoe at the Switch to reveal event. Right. So if a reveal event, video game, you know, runs like shit, doesn't look good, isn't up to the standards. Right. Then that is a very bad look on Nintendo. Especially if you're mentioning the end of the Switch one life cycle when we were trying so hard to capitalize on how many people were playing on the Switch one. Let's put Arkham Knight on there. Let's put, you know, Mortal Kombat 1 and it looks like it runs like. Yeah, they are trying to get away with that as. As fast as possible and shout out everybody. People are, you know, talking about, like, oh, this game is going to look on Switch too. I mean, Hitman looks pretty good on Switch too. Like, Hitman, I played it. It came out at launch for the Switch too. It looks pretty good. It doesn't run at 60, but, you know, it's a solid 30. It looks fine. So I don't. I don't think it's going to run poorly when it gets there. I'm hoping for the best.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, I think, I think just this is already good news. Yeah, like that they're even thinking about delaying it for optimization purposes.

[Roger]

And then this is the big year. Because I was thinking about it today. I was like, man, this is probably the year we're getting Call of Duty on Switch to. You would assume. So you would assume Xbox starts putting out. Maybe Call of Duty is the first thing that they put out. And like, hey, now we're slowly going to start to put out some of our first party games on Switch too. I could see maybe 20 and a 2026 going into 2027 being the time when they start pushing that to maybe Halo. Dude, forget Call of Duty. Halo Gears on Switch. Come on.

[Andy Cortez]

Is that about. Is that.

[Barrett]

Does that feed under the directive of bringing players back to Xbox? And think of that about that console first, though.

[Roger]

Yeah, that's true. But I also, I mean, Call of Duty for sure, they have to do it legally like that. That's in the paper, that's in the ftc. Things like they legally have to put work with Nintendo and announce that. But when it comes to like Halo and everything, I mean, we're already putting Forza on PS5, right? Why not just put it on Switch as well?

[Andy Cortez]

Well, but I think a lot of those directives happen before the Switch up, you know.

[Roger]

Yeah, we're already doing it though. I mean, it's not like they're canceling Forza on PS5.

[Andy Cortez]

No, you still do it. You still, you know, you still have to.

[Roger]

But you think Switch is too far. Like, I mean, at that point, if we're trying to make money, like let's just put these games that are already third party on Switch. Let's put Gears of War Ultimate Edition or whatever the fuck that's called on the Switch.

[Andy Cortez]

That makes more sense for sure. I. I think just more from a power perspective where.

[Roger]

Oh, okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. I don't know if like at that point then, I mean if, if developers already had trouble trying to get stuff running on series S. Oh, I can imagine what the.

[Roger]

Yeah, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, that the amount of optimization and the amount of money that would be spent on port houses or whatever trying to get it to run on the Switch 2 might be a bit of a bridge too far. I don't know.

[Roger]

A lot of money though. A lot of money in the Switch Story number four Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake announcement is planned for next week From Tom Henderson over at Insider Gaming, a new report claims that the Assassin's Creed's Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake called Resynced, is to be announced next week. That's according to a Reset Era user Black Bait who said that the announcement is currently planned for April 16th. Insider Gaming is also understands that the announcement has been planned for April 16 for some time, often citing the mid April release window on the Insider Gaming podcast. According to internal documentation obtained by Insider Gaming, if it does not go public, the game is scheduled to release in fiscal year 2027 quarter two, which is anywhere from June to August of this year. Year 2027. This year. Maybe they meant 2026. Some sources have suggested that the game will release in July, but given Ubisoft's tendency to delay or outright cancel its games, we suggest taking this date with a grain of salt.

[Andy Cortez]

No, June and August are of the fiscal. Like the fiscal year is like pushed to 2027. Like it's a. It's a different window.

[Roger]

It's the different year though fiscal year 2027 Q2 should be 2020. You can't keep on doing this motion. Doesn't help me, everybody. I don't think that's true. Why are you saying. People say, is that true?

[Barrett]

I think it's so.

[Roger]

It's like Madden years.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Roger]

We're doing this. Like Madden.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Roger]

Is that really how we always done it? We're just always in the.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Like, Q4 to us might be Q2 to them, you know? Yeah.

[Roger]

It's like time dilation.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. On Miller's planet, you hear only 11 minutes has passed.

[Roger]

Oh, wow. That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Like. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Roger]

That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

That's crazy, man.

[Roger]

Andy, are you excited?

[Andy Cortez]

This could be the one.

[Roger]

Shut up. This could be the one, bro. I love pirates, you know, like, do love pirates.

[Andy Cortez]

Army matey, you know.

[Roger]

Megan, man, you like pirates, bro?

[Andy Cortez]

I love pirates. And this. This might be the one. This might be the one to bring me back in.

[Barrett]

Yeah. Saw a clip out from your time on actually from Dropout, where you're talking a lot of. About the modern day of Assassin's Creed. And let me tell you, Andy, this is the one with the least amount.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. This is the one with the least.

[Barrett]

With the least amount.

[Andy Cortez]

There's still some Ethereon or what, what are they called? Assimil. Assimilon. The Animus. That's what it is. Wow. I just get out of my face.

[Roger]

Desmond's on this one.

[Andy Cortez]

Ah, Desmond. Old Desi.

[Barrett]

That's the first one without him, I think.

[Roger]

Yeah, he's.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Really?

[Roger]

Yeah, it's a big deal. It says dedicated to Desmond.

[Andy Cortez]

He died at the end of three.

[Roger]

It says dedicated to Desmond at the beginning of this one.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow, that's beautiful.

[Barrett]

I said this on the Fantasy Critic check in on Monday where it's like, I. That game on my team, I feel. I do feel like is my weakest link. Which goes back to the article you just read, Roger, of like.

[Roger]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Barrett]

Ubisoft is out as a company. If this thing actually comes out again, like, with the way they announced it, which was just like a blog post, it's like, I don't know how. I don't know if I have a lot of confidence, but we'll see next week. The thing I was thinking about when I saw this this morning, though, Raj, tell me, is why would they just be randomly announcing this on, like, whatever it is, whatever day that they're talking for next week? Well, it's just being written up. State of play with third party PS5 reveals tips for next week. According to Notorious Snoop. This is coming from Nate. The hate that State of play is coming next Thursday, which makes much more sense rather than just a random black flag trailer drop.

[Andy Cortez]

Is Notorious Snoop just like another way to say press sneak.

[Barrett]

Fuck

[Roger]

Notorious Snoop. And that is Thursday as well. The 16th.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. Things are all lining up.

[Roger]

Lining up. It is funny because I was going to talk about my next point. My next point was like, what if it's a Ubisoft forward? What if we see Splitter Cell? It all comes back, it's a state of play.

[Barrett]

Focus on third party.

[Andy Cortez]

Doesn't mean it's the only Ubisoft thing.

[Roger]

My favorite prediction that we, that I, I think most a lot of us do is like the Ubisoft or like a block of like. Oh, like multiple publisher shows multiple games. It's like that never usually happens.

[Andy Cortez]

But I love.

[Roger]

My favorite prediction is always to say Ubisoft block. We're going to show four games and

[Andy Cortez]

then you see the three lives.

[Roger]

It's always the three lives. So it's always, you know, Jeff ke's in the middle of conversating, talking to the Muppets, talking about the Muppets and

[Andy Cortez]

then the just banging, banging Miss Piggy and then boom. Okay, so question for anybody. Question for anybody, really. Okay, question goes out to anybody. Mainly Barrett. Oh, does. Do. Do we know if this is an internal Ubisoft team or is this like a porthouse? That's a great question.

[Barrett]

I would have to go and look at the Black Flag resync.

[Andy Cortez]

What else they working on?

[Barrett]

Confirmed?

[Andy Cortez]

Because I know a lot of this is still obviously rumored and things like that, but I don't know if there's like ever been a. It's rumored that similar to when we talk about PlayStation Nixus might be working on this or whatever, you know.

[Barrett]

Well, I'm trying to find the official announcement from Ubisoft because they did announce it like two.

[Roger]

Oh yeah, that is true. They said here's the logo.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Roger]

And the key art I'm.

[Barrett]

I'm struggling to find. Here we go. Ubisoft finally confirms Assassin's Creed. Black Flag resynced. The remake we all knew was coming. This was written by ign. I think it was very little info that we got from this. So I don't even think we even know like who's developing it, working on it.

[Roger]

All right, well, I do hope it's a bigger one. I hope this game is like an actual remake and not just. I mean they've re released it. Right. Like you can play that game on PS5 or there's like a PS4. There's a well or there was a

[Barrett]

PS4 one because it like it came out like a month before the PS4 and Xbox and all that stuff.

[Roger]

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Barrett]

It just like came out with another version of that. Yeah, it's been available to play.

[Andy Cortez]

I would love to see what they

[Barrett]

could cook up with. Not just like the boat stuff which I think was. Is still great even to this day, but like all of the, you know, that was still the era of Assassin's Creed combat where it was like just, just press y over and over again and auto kill a bunch of dudes.

[Andy Cortez]

I would love to see if they

[Barrett]

could find a mix of that like power fantasy of playing like a really competent assassin mixed with some sort of elements from the modern stuff to give a little bit of a challenge.

[Roger]

But we'll see. Want to bring in a super chat from Silver J. Hawkins. I was a huge fan of the games, but I'm just tired of Ubisoft. I mean I feel like, I feel

[Andy Cortez]

like they haven't done.

[Roger]

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Like I, I don't, I. For me, like Ubisoft is like a literally last generation company. Like I don't feel like they're like putting out so many games where it's like, oh, I'm tired of you. Like last like PS4 generation. They were putting out so many games where it's like. I totally understand that sentiment. They're putting out a far cry every year. Primal, all this crazy stuff. But now it's like, yeah, it's like actually kind of nice to like look at it Assassin's Creed 4 and be like, oh, like Ubisoft has been, you know, two Assassin's Creed every year.

[Andy Cortez]

Now on the flip side, you could be looking at them the way some people in sports look at the Greek freak Giannis Antetokounmpo where you're like, I'm just tired of you being in the news. There's always something with you. There's always something with you wanting to leave Milwaukee. Do you want to stay with the Bucks? Do you not With Ubisoft is pick a lane, bro. With Ubisoft there's always, it does seem like there always is a controversy. There's other. Always is a, a layoff thing happening or Eve Gilmore wanting to, you know, either stave away investor, whatever. There, there does always sort of some. There's always something in the cycle.

[Roger]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Whether it's Assassin's Creed Shadows controversies

[Barrett]

or

[Andy Cortez]

the fact that, you know, for honor exists. So Division 3 comes Division 3 is announced, and then the Julian, the game director of the game, leaves. It's like, yeah.

[Roger]

Oh, and then the Splinter Cell head left and then came back again, like, within like a month.

[Andy Cortez]

Prince of Persia getting canceled. Yeah.

[Roger]

There's always something.

[Andy Cortez]

There is always something in the news cycle.

[Roger]

Always something.

[Andy Cortez]

And. And I totally. I kind of get that attitude. I understand now. I really, really hope that this is more than just a kind of really awesome remaster. And I hope that it's in the Anvil engine like a lot of their more recent games have been in. Because if Ubisoft is S tier at something, it is on the tech side, what they do with visuals, what they do with everything having to do with, like, path tracing and everything. Like, holy. Assassin's Creed Shadows. Avatar Frontiers of Pandora is the most beautiful game I've ever seen. Their games look awesome, and I hope that they continue to really kick ass on the test.

[Roger]

And I remember there was a report talking about the Splinter Cell game and what they're doing with the shadows. People are saying, man, there's a game called Satisfied Shadows, but imagine how many shadows they're going to be in.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. It'd be so dark in those corridors.

[Roger]

Yeah. It would be so dark. And that would be huge news. But I'm tired of big news. If I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[Andy Cortez]

Andy, you would go to.

[Roger]

Totally forgot.

[Andy Cortez]

You would go to our last story, the WE News Channel. We cover all the small news items you need to know about. Sorry. What I was thinking about was tell me the time that somebody was making fun of Kojima and was like, kojima is overrated.

[Roger]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

So. And I was sitting next to you and I said, they were like, if it wasn't Kojima, it would just be another stealth game. I said, no, if it was just another stealth game, it would be Splinter Cell. And I was like, why am I talking to you?

[Roger]

Rods so mean. And you looked at me.

[Andy Cortez]

You're like, man, you. I was like, I don't mean that.

[Roger]

It, like, actually hurt a little bit. I was like, damn. Like, bro, I don't be talking about Mega Man. Where the you, like, I don't know.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know why I said that, man.

[Roger]

Some sad news, everybody.

[Andy Cortez]

No drop. Isn't you in my bed?

[Roger]

Some sad news. Which I'm learning right now. Rebecca Valentine is leaving ig.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, no.

[Roger]

This is Reb on bs. That's Blue Sky. Good morning. I highly recommend anyone who thinks they might possibly be interested to apply for my job at ign. It's a fantastic union job working with the absolute best people. I have loved it with all of my heart. You will too. Which is, I suppose, how I say that I'm leaving ign. It has been a joy and an honor and I am genuinely so, so sad to go. This was probably the hardest career decision I've ever had to. To make, but I am not going far at all. It is all. It is a rare and precious thing in the media landscape to be able to leave a place on my own terms for the sake of a new challenge and a new adventure and personal growth. I am so, so blessed to be able to do so. More on that in a little over a week. Congratulations to Rab. Incredible work. She's one of the goats.

[Andy Cortez]

What a legacy.

[Roger]

What a legacy. And I'm excited to see what she does.

[Andy Cortez]

You rock. Crib.

[Roger]

From VGC. Nintendo has announced a new deal for US players considering buying Switch 2 soon. From April 20. From April 20. From April 12 to May 9, anyone who buys a Nintendo Switch to console along with Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2 will get $20 off the combined price. That's a weird one.

[Andy Cortez]

It was like a net.

[Roger]

Yeah, exactly what you get Mario Galaxy

[Barrett]

1 and 2 for. For slightly cheaper.

[Roger]

Yeah, exactly. You're playing too. Oh, is it worth $20 off?

[Barrett]

Should we go?

[Roger]

People go running out and get this.

[Andy Cortez]

I'm. I mean, I've. I've already made the statement. It's my favorite 3D Mario game. Wow.

[Roger]

I gotta play it.

[Andy Cortez]

It is so damn good. Concepts. Roger. Tell you the concept concepts moving left to right.

[Roger]

Do they have cubes in that? They don't have round things?

[Andy Cortez]

No, there are. Oh, there are cubes. A plenty.

[Roger]

Right. There's cubes.

[Andy Cortez]

Cubes. You would be surprised.

[Roger]

Are you going around with cubes?

[Andy Cortez]

Can they save us in some. In some situations, yeah.

[Roger]

Okay. That's a good tease. Everybody from VGC Xbox is set to announce a special edition controller and headset to celebrate the release of Forza Horizon 6. That's according to the ever reliable D Labs insider bill Bill Coon, who has a lengthy track record of correctly revealing upcoming hardware and software announcements and including Xbox controllers. Big news, everybody. Nintendo Extreme Tennis next is coming to Nintendo Switch May 28th.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's go.

[Roger]

Let's look at the chart. I mean, I want to look at those.

[Andy Cortez]

They're coming for you. Mario Tennis.

[Roger]

This is definitely gonna be a party mode. Wow. I was gonna say this looks good. It does. I think it does. That's my opinion. Now I think this does look good.

[Andy Cortez]

You don't believe that. I have seen it.

[Roger]

I mean, I look at it, I'm like, yeah, it's not. It's not bad.

[Barrett]

It looks like it came out in 2005.

[Andy Cortez]

It really does. It looks like the first time we saw Cat Dog.

[Roger]

That.

[Andy Cortez]

That's.

[Roger]

Let's talk about everybody. Just because Garfield is bought by Nickelodeon, he doesn't make him a nicktoon fucking character.

[Andy Cortez]

You can't just.

[Roger]

You can't just say, oh, yeah, we bought this guy, now he's part of it. No, no, no. He was on Cartoon Network. He was on Cartoon Network. You can't fucking do that shit.

[Andy Cortez]

Look, if you buy. If you buy. No Bethesda, the Wolfenstein is your IP now. All right?

[Barrett]

Yep.

[Roger]

Why is everyone defending Garfield in the chat?

[Andy Cortez]

Garfield is a nicktoon, all right?

[Barrett]

Ourselves.

[Roger]

But he was never a Nick. He was never a Nick. Tune.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't like the art style.

[Barrett]

Art style looks like it makes is what I'm talking about. Like this game coming out in 2005. It legit looks like some of the games we grew up playing. But like.

[Roger]

Oh, and they have the. Is that like.

[Andy Cortez]

Like Danny Phantom and Invaders in playing tennis.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like the first time we ever saw a Toon Shader

[Roger]

go back a little bit.

[Andy Cortez]

Look, I think. I think you're into like trad Garfield too much. You need your trad Garfield and we are in era where Garfield is so many things to so many different people. Okay? Yeah. You need to understand that Garfield is a different being now.

[Roger]

Yeah. He's not the same Garfield.

[Andy Cortez]

He's Chris Pratt.

[Roger]

Yeah, drop Dutchy. Complete Edition is coming to PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch on April 21st. And now everybody, this is the big news. Plants vs Zombies 3 Evolved is now live in early access in select territories. Oh, I need to see some gameplay of this. I was not aware. No one told me about this. I remember the leaks. I don't remember it actually being announced. So I need to see what this game looks like. Is it a free to play situation? Like. Like Plants vs Zombies 2? Are we going back to where Plants vs Zombies 1 was after replanted recently was re remastered and it's awful, but it's fine. Plants three. We're on three, everybody. I need to see what's going on with three. Okay. It just looks like Plants versus Obvious.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks like.

[Roger]

I don't like this art style. Oh, this is definitely. Is this like a mobile game?

[Barrett]

Yeah, it's on iOS.

[Roger]

Oh, oh. I do not like that art style. Why is the peanuts look like that? That's not good.

[Andy Cortez]

You're used to trad peanut.

[Roger]

I am. I need to grow up. This is what the kids want today.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a new era of peanut corn at the bottom. What is that, like, yellow? Yeah. There. I like his face.

[Roger]

I like.

[Andy Cortez]

I think that's corn.

[Roger]

No, no, no, that's a peanut. That's a nut. That's a shell at the very, very bottom.

[Andy Cortez]

Very, very bottom on the. On the icons. The 50?

[Roger]

Yeah, the 50. Yeah. That's a walnut.

[Barrett]

That's a walnut.

[Roger]

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of. It's kind of up. He's like the Tank character and then like, they eat him and he's just like all fucked up.

[Barrett]

Like he has no thoughts going on.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Roger]

Wow. This does not look good. Okay, that sucks. Everybody ruined my day.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, you haven't played it yet. Give a shot.

[Roger]

I just don't like the art style. I can just play one again. We got some super chats before we round out. This is the end of we need everybody. That's it. Demon Hacker super chatting and saying will kind of funny review the adaptation of Exit 8 out Friday. I don't think so. I think the only people that will probably watch are me. Joey, I don't think I'm gonna watch it.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't even know what that is.

[Roger]

It's a adaptation of a indie game. They're making like a Neons putting out a, you know, a version. Apparently the reviews are for. One review I saw was. Was like, oh, it's fine. But yeah, I don't think I'll be watching that one. I will be watching you me in Tuscany upcoming weekend, you know. Come on, Shout to you. Me and Tuscany.

[Andy Cortez]

Andy, it's a.

[Barrett]

It's a game where you get stuck in like, a train station, like, hallway loop. It's kind of a backroom, back room style kind of vibes.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Roger]

Oh, wow. Never mind. People are saying that it's Demon Hacker saying it's the highest reviewed video game movie of all time.

[Andy Cortez]

Whoa.

[Roger]

Maybe I just saw one bad review. I saw the one bad review out there. Bam says no man's sky game bigger than what they first said. I think that's pretty funny. That is a great call. Yeah. They initially pitched this game and now they're fucking way bigger than they could have ever thought they would. 0sp super chat says reb is the goat. Hope she kills it wherever she goes. All the luck. Absolutely. She is the goat and the sweetest person. AK98 the home. And Asin says it's the Snowdrop engine. Anvil is the UB's old one. Got a few more.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. Shout out to. I knew it was Snowdrop. Shout out to me for trusting Google AI for that.

[Roger]

Oh, it said, yeah, I googled what

[Andy Cortez]

engine does Assassin's Creed Shadow use? And it popped up. Anvil. I was like, I don't know if that's right, but I'll say it's the AI, bro. I knew it was Snowdrop. It's on me if you're trusting it.

[Roger]

Chiku Super Chat says off work this week playing back a backlog and weed pen. Shout out. Finished Mario Galaxy before watching movie. Finishing metaphor today. Finish Cyber. Finish next. Cyberpunk or Yotei. I like the way you type. You go.

[Andy Cortez]

That's probably because of the.

[Roger]

The Wii pen.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that too. And the limitation for the super chat.

[Roger]

Cyberpunk or Yota?

[Andy Cortez]

Cyberpunk.

[Roger]

Yota Yota is awesome.

[Andy Cortez]

Cyberpunk is like generational, you know?

[Roger]

Yeah, I still need to do it. I just keep on stopping. Every time I do it. Justin Mars says, I love you guys. Please start eating like adults. There is no kind of funny third generation waiting in line. No chains. Eat local, healthy. No boomer snacks. Just stop. Was this because you said you're eating some sunflower seeds?

[Andy Cortez]

Sunflower seeds?

[Roger]

Maybe that's healthy, though. Yeah, but it's healthy. And then our final. Actually not. Super Chat, a member for eight months. Christopher, My favorite. The goat in the chat says Nirvana. The band, the show. The movie BYOB showing at Philly Film Society tomorrow. You in, brah? Is that in Philadelphia? I don't think I can go there. But that's a quick.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, that's a quick.

[Roger]

Yeah, it's a quick turnaround. So that is pretty sick, though.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Roger]

I'm gonna go over to. You're wrong, everybody. I don't think we got anything wrong.

[Andy Cortez]

No, everything's right. The holographic Star wars chess game is De Jerich. Thank you, kebabs. Everything else looks right.

[Roger]

Yeah, everything else looks good. Someone talking about breaking news. That's just a leak. We didn't want to. We didn't report on that because we didn't know if that was true. And yeah, everybody, perfect show. Perfect everything. And we figured out the Cube saved us. The Cube made us all.

[Andy Cortez]

Couldn't save itself.

[Roger]

Could not David self. Everybody remember this has been kind of funny. Games Daily, if you love. We do. Support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon. Or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show called Greg White. Enjoy the games cast next and the stream after that. But until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. To realize the future America needs. We understand what's needed from us to

[Andy Cortez]

face each threat head on.

[Roger]

We've earned our place in the fight for our nation's future. We are Marines. We were made for this. The right window treatments change everything. Your sleep, your privacy, the way every room looks and feels. @blinds.com, we've spent 30 years making it surprisingly simple to get exactly what your home needs. We've covered over 25 million windows and have 50,000 five star reviews to prove we deliver. Whether you DIY it or want a pro to handle everything from measure to install, we have you covered. Real design professionals free samples, zero pressure right now. Get up to 45% off with minimum purchase plus get a free professional [e-mail] rules and restrictions apply.