Highguard Developer Lays Off Most Staff - Kinda Funny Games Daily 02.12.26

Summary

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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Highguard Developer Lays Off Most Staff

Date: February 12, 2026
Hosts: Andy Cortez & Snowbike Mike
Theme: Deep-dive on Wildlight Entertainment’s Highguard layoffs, current state of competitive multiplayer games, major news in gaming industry, notable leaks, and community hot takes.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the sudden, significant layoffs at Wildlight Entertainment—the studio behind Highguard—and broadens into a rich discussion about the challenges of launching new multiplayer games in the current hyper-competitive market. The hosts reflect on the impact of Highguard’s debut, the game’s reception, and the wider wave of studio layoffs across the industry. They also cover breaking stories like the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake leak and Raul Kohli starring in new Diablo 2 content. Throughout, Andy and Mike keep the conversation light, candid, and interactive, involving community superchats and candid personal asides.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Highguard Layoffs & Industry Volatility

[10:40 – 28:40]

• Wildlight Entertainment confirms layoff of "most" staff two weeks post-launch, with only a core group left to support Highguard

  • Quote [10:41]:
    “Highguard developer Wildlight Entertainment has released an official statement... confirming the layoffs at the studio after several staff members began sharing news online that they had been let go.”
    —Andy (reading Game Informer article)
  • The lack of specifics adds stress, but employee posts indicate a majority affected. Some roadmap content may never be released. [11:30]
  • Developer Alex Grainer laments “there was a lot of unreleased content… this layoff quote really stings”. [11:00]

• Hosts’ Reaction & Industry Analysis

  • Heartfelt reactions to another indie team’s struggle:
    “This is an indie dev team, a group that left EA and Respawn, went off to make their own thing… It is really disheartening to see that after, what, two weeks, we’re already on mass layoff situations right now.”
    —Mike [10:58]
  • Market is extremely volatile; player bases and revenue streams can evaporate in days. SteamDB: Only ~1600 players currently (not sufficient to sustain a studio with 100 staff). [12:10]

• The Launch Trap—First Impressions & Tribalism

  • Highguard’s placement as the Game Awards finale painted a target on its back (“Target on the back because it was a great game awards”). [15:06]
  • Initial confusion about the genre (“What is a raid shooter?”) contributed to poor uptake and negative online sentiment.
  • Quote [15:41]:
    “Us living in a culture where tribalism is at its strongest... you want to be on the right side of something. You want the haters to be wrong... And this [Highguard] showed that people were ready to be angry at something.”
    —Andy

• Marketing Missteps and Alternate Realities

  • The weekday shadow-drop “what if” scenario: Would a quieter launch have led to less backlash and more success? [17:50]
  • “Being good is almost not good enough. You have to be great.” —Mike, on the current standards for success among multiplayer titles [18:38]
  • Indie teams face growing fear of failure: “I’m afraid to release my game. I'm afraid to take that step...” [19:19]

• Scalability and Economic Harshness

  • 100-person team for a F2P game is risky unless you have a surefire hit or publisher support. [20:10]
  • Per Mike’s back-of-the-napkin math: “If we only sell them one $20 bundle throughout the month, that’s $62,000. I don’t know if that’s enough to—” Andy: “Not going to cut it.” [27:32]

• Responsibility & Community Hot Takes:

  • Is Jeff Keighley partly to blame for platforming the Game Awards reveal? Consensus: “You'd be stupid to turn [that chance] down.” [21:41, 24:22]
  • Community superchats emphasize industry empathy and speculative frustration at marketing/leadership decisions, but hosts defend developers and industry leaders’ tough choices.

Notable Quotes

• “I don’t know if a game has deserved less hate than it’s gotten than [Highguard]...” —Andy [15:41]
• “At the end of the day, being good is almost not good enough. You have to be great.” —Mike [18:38]

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2. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake Leak

[38:29 – 44:41]

• Amazon UK lists art book for yet-to-be-officially-announced remake

  • Hype is building despite no formal reveal—timing leaves room for a possible State of Play announcement.
  • Lack of major recent positive press at Ubisoft explained as the publisher clings to potential “W's.”
  • Hosts joke about ongoing Ubisoft leaks and wonder if the remake will drop soon to escape GTA VI’s shadow.

• Quote [39:46]:
  “Of course that makes sense. I don’t see why they would ever go like, damn, you guys got us…” —Andy, on Ubisoft refusing to confirm leaks.

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3. Diablo 2: Major Content Update Starring Rahul Kohli

[47:55 – 51:30]

• First major Diablo 2 update in 25 years: “Reign of the Warlock” with actor Rahul Kohli voicing the new class.
• Andy rejoices: hopes this starts a trend where beloved legacy games receive fresh content and DLC.
• Mike shares first-hand Playtest experience: “I played it before release… heard Rahul in your earphones and didn’t even know it!” [50:47]
• “This is wild! 25 years! 8th character in the game.” —Mike [50:41]

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4. Hideo Kojima X Vince Zampella: The Metal Gear Shooter That Never Was

[52:42 – 53:47]

• Fascinating ‘what-could-have-been’: Kojima and Zampella once discussed a Metal Gear shooter at Respawn after Metal Gear Solid 4. [52:45]
• Both hosts love industry “what-ifs” and the cross-pollination of creative titans.

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5. StarCraft Figures & Speculation

[54:30 – 56:51]

• Joy Toy announces StarCraft collectibles, sparking hope for news on a new game.
• Mike, clearly the biggest Blizzard/StarCraft fan: “Anywhere there’s smoke, there’s fire. There’s a blaze coming.” [54:34]
• Hosts long for a StarCraft RTS return or even a spin-off shooter.

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6. Quick News Beats (“We News”)

[57:08 – 63:55]

Includes:

• Steam Deck OLED sells out amid global memory/parts shortage fears. [57:13]
• Time Magazine celebrates Pokémon’s 30th anniversary with exclusive covers. [58:35]
• Ubisoft to cut 200 jobs at French HQ as part of ongoing “reorganization,” and hosts note French labor law’s union negotiations make layoffs tricky. [60:25]
• Nintendo Wii (!) getting a new physical game (“Metal Canary”) in 2026. [62:04]
• ARK Raiders, Pacific Drive, and other games' surprising sales stats. [62:35]

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Memorable Moments & Running Jokes

• Mario Tennis and Character Stats:
  Andy ranks #320 in the world; the banter about game meta and character choices (Rosalina, Donkey Kong, Bullet Bill) is infectious. [6:29 – 8:02]

• Lifestyle Banter:

  • The show opens with a delightfully absurd riff on underwear-at-home etiquette (!).
  • Extended digression about sock-wearing culture and home Crocs [3:04 – 5:43]
  • Pandemic car-talk about backup cameras, the value of old Hondas, and backup plans to sell to company friends for basketball hoop perks. [34:07 – 36:39]

• Community Engagement:
  Superchats turn into spontaneous polls: “When do you take your underwear off at home?” and “What’s your sock regimen at night?” [4:41]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [10:40] – Highguard layoff announcement and initial reaction
• [15:06] – Game Awards impact & first impression fallout
• [18:38] – “Being good is not good enough” – Mike on market standards
• [27:32] – Economic realities of sustaining an indie F2P multiplayer game
• [38:29] – Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake art book leak
• [47:55] – Diablo 2 gets first major update in 25 years, Rahul Kohli stars
• [52:42] – Hideo Kojima/Vince Zampella “what if” on Metal Gear shooter
• [54:30] – StarCraft collectibles and speculation
• [57:08] – “We News” lightning round (Steam Deck OLED, Pokémon, Ubisoft layoffs, Wii game, game sales)
• [59:28] – Pokémon Super Bowl ad and 30th anniversary celebration

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Notable Quotes

• On industry grief:
  “It is really disheartening to see that after, what, two weeks, we’re already on mass layoff situations right now. That is really unfortunate there. And goes to show you how volatile this industry is...” —Mike [10:58]

• On first impressions:
  “That first impression is make or break. You don’t get a second one…” —Mike [14:00]

• On being “good” vs “great”:
  “Being good is almost not good enough… you have to be great.” —Mike [18:38]

• On the Game Awards reveal:
  “I want desperately to see the multiverse moment... and it’s just shadow drops. Bam. High Guard, the people who made Apex, this is their new shooter…” —Andy [17:50]

• On burnout/competitive pace:
  “You need to excite, you need to get people interested, and you need to lock people in… Finishing off the game awards was probably an unfortunate situation. Target on the back.” —Mike [14:23]

• On classic game updates:
  “I want more of this. I want more of this [adding new content to beloved older games].” —Andy [48:24]

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Style and Tone

Conversational, honest, self-deprecating, with pop culture quips and a strong sense of community. Andy and Mike bring humor and relatability even while covering tough news, never losing empathy for laid-off developers and always contextualizing industry challenges.

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Summary Takeaways

This episode is a timely and heartfelt snapshot of a challenging moment in games: creative risks bring immense reward and sometimes crushing defeat, especially in today’s cutthroat multiplayer space. The hosts highlight both the industry’s volatility and its ongoing innovation—from Diablo’s surprise update to StarCraft hope and the exploits of Pokemon’s 30th birthday. The show remains fun, honest, and keeps listeners feeling both plugged-in and part of the conversation.

For anyone who missed the episode:
You’ll walk away understanding why the Highguard layoffs hit so hard, how multiplayer launches can fail even with the right talent and ideas, and the ways in which company strategy, market volatility, and internet tribalism combine to shape fortunes in gaming today. Plus, plenty of insights, laughs, and offbeat moments that make this one of 2026’s most memorable gaming news shows so far.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

How old were you when you realized you were the son of a president?

[A]

I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before.

[B]

FX's love story, John F. Kennedy Jr. And Carolyn Bessette.

[A]

I didn't think I could love someone.

[B]

Like this until you.

[A]

From executive producer Ryan Murphy. It's not a question of if I.

[B]

Want to spend the rest of my life with you, it's if I'm cut.

[A]

Out to be Mrs. JFK Jr. FX's love story, John F. Kennedy Jr. And.

[B]

Carolyn Bessette premieres tonight on FX, Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle.

[C]

Subscribers, we've teamed up with Star sand island to share this cozy tropical adventure with you. It launches in early access on February 11th, so click the link in the description or go to kind of funny.com star sand to start building your dream island, head to factor meals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kind of funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year.

[A]

If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com kindafunny.

[B]

Today's aiming stories. High Guards Developer Experiences Layoffs Assassin's Creed, Black Flags Remake Experiences More leaks and a big Hollywood star is coming to Diablo 2. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily I hate so much. Mike. Foreign welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Monday, February 12, 2026. I am Andy and I'm joined by somebody who is acting like it's a crime to wear underwear at home.

[A]

Exactly. Absolute crime. You got to get a I only wear underwear from nine to five. Okay. For the hours of five.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Nine the next morning, no underwear.

[B]

Okay. Okay. So the strategy is you get home.

[A]

And first thing I do, I literally walk inside, pants off, boom. Shorts on, no underwear.

[B]

Okay. And okay. Okay. So it's okay to have that preference, Mike.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I don't know if you can chastise me for or anybody else for going. You wear underwear at home as if it's like wearing socks in the shower or something like you are acting like it's the most insane thing to wear one underwear at home.

[A]

These are the questions that you have to ask your friends and your family because we need to have a forum of like what does everybody do? You know what I mean?

[B]

Kevin was right though. Reddit is the 4. Reddit is where people go to find like minded individuals. Like the bald subreddit where all the balds get together and go, just shave my head. And everybody's like, nice man. And everybody's just like, Everybody just dabs each other up. Yeah, it's creating a community. It's really beautiful stuff. Everybody. Welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily. We have a very, very different sort of schedule today because after Kind of Funny Games Daily is in review and then after that we'll get back into a little bit of that. Overwatch. I was going to say Overwatch too, but it's just Overwatch again. And then following that is the PlayStation State of Play happening at 2:00pm we're probably going to go a little bit live before like we normally do. Yeah, true. So prepare for that. We'll be live reacting with all of you at home.

[A]

What's one big thing you want to see?

[B]

Huh? I mean, you know my dreams have long been killed for a long time, Mike.

[A]

Oh snap.

[B]

So I would just say let's see some. I want. I gotta assume marathon will be there. I think Marathon's been like hyping things up quite a bit. I want it to look cool and in my mind to go, maybe I'll play that for more than a week.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But right now I'm just really into Overwatch. Right now I'm really into my late night solo Deadlock play.

[A]

That's crazy. You're sorry Guy. You're excited for Soros? Of course.

[B]

Super excited for Soros. Yes, absolutely. But they said no first party stuff, did they? Well, they said only third parties and.

[A]

There'S a lot of hopes and dreams out there. Some other games they said some. They said at 2 o' clock today.

[B]

They said some shit. They made it seem like, hey, this was not going to be a lot of first party stuff. Oh, it's first party as well though. I lied to you then I dreamt that. I'm so sorry, Chad. 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. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining. And also, if you're on Patreon anywhere, just leave a comment. When do you take your underwear off? Yeah, like, or. Or at all. Like, if you. Yeah. And also, what's the sock regimen at night? Mike was asking me about my sock regimen. I like. I like wearing a sock wherever I can because I don't like tracking dust and hair back to the bed. And so that's like that. That's the. That's my sanctity. That's my, like, safe spot, you know.

[A]

I want to buy you a nice pair of Crocs and just say, here, your home Crocs to replace the socks. Give it a try.

[B]

Also, Mike admitted to me that he likes buying the smallest socks possible. He buys children. He says, I want these socks to be so tight that they hurt my feet. That's just. Just imagine him in a department store. Give me the smallest sock you got. Give me the smallest one. That's so psychotic. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today. Actually, we have seven stories today. Cuz I'm. He's yelling off the mic. We didn't hear it out here. Yeah, yeah. He doubled up. We. That was just for you guys. We. I played some more Mario tennis last night.

[A]

Oh, snap.

[B]

Ranked.

[A]

Ranked.

[B]

I'm ranked 320 in the world.

[A]

This is a huge moment.

[B]

I think only Japan may have had it.

[A]

I was gonna say it's only gonna go down.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

We gotta ride this.

[B]

Yeah. Rank. Rank. B plus. I couldn't get back into a minus.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Was getting my. Was getting my. Kicked in by, I gotta assume some bad connection.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

You know, chalk it up to that. You know, I. I start up a game and if I see it, somebody with kanji katakana, I blank on the. The correct form of it. But I'm like, all right, connection here might be bad playing with somebody across the world get a hold of it. But it was like, actually pretty good for the most part. Okay. Yeah. So connection. I think Nintendo saw their.

[A]

Are you direct connecting into your switch?

[B]

No, this was just a WI fi. There's WI fi in it. Wow. On my kind of shoddy WI fi. Yeah.

[A]

Okay. That's a. That's a move. Okay.

[B]

And guess what? A lot of bullet bills out there.

[A]

Everyone's going bullet.

[B]

Everybody is bullet Bill and Mike and I don't like it. Yeah.

[A]

I get creative with it. What do we say? There's 30 plus rackets.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Play a little bit with it. Have some fun.

[B]

Yeah. Saw a lot of Waluigi out there.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I don't know if a meta has quite formed.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And I don't really know if I've quite found my character yet.

[A]

You know what? I'm gonna continue to say it. Rosalina for the stats. All bees across the board.

[B]

She does. Yeah.

[A]

That's a solid stat lineup right there.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I also like Donkey Kong. An A and then a dance, but.

[B]

He'S got that range.

[A]

He's got. Hey, hey. Can't beat that combo right there.

[B]

We will be playing Mario Party. No Mario Tennis Fever tomorrow for party mode. Mike.

[A]

Very excited.

[B]

Very, very excited.

[A]

Did you play motion controls unranked? Because, like, you know me.

[B]

No.

[A]

I want to do all motion control.

[B]

Oh, can you or did I. I mean, I didn't. I. I don't know if you can, though.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I'm sure you can.

[A]

I take the motion controls. That's what I'm gonna. I think you can find out from this game.

[B]

I actually think you can. Yeah. I gotta assume that you go into just like your. Where you actually set up the motion controls and then from then on.

[A]

Another question.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They let you pick which hand your primary on. I didn't notice that when we were playing with Greg.

[B]

They don't care about lefties. It's up. It's a.

[A]

It's a tough one because that determines my forehanded backhand. That's a strategy.

[B]

You're born lefty in Japan, Gulag. They teach you. They teach you the right way. Story number one. High Guard developer Wildlight Entertainment confirms layoffs at the studio. This comes from Wesley LeBlanc at Game Informer. High Guard developer Wildlight Entertainment has released an official statement on social media confirming the layoffs at the studio after several staff members began sharing news online that they had been let go. It did not state how many employees are affected, but this news comes after level designer Alex Grayner announced he and, quote, most of the team were laid off. Wildlight also states that a core group of team members will continue to support highguard, though it has not stated how the rollout of its content roadmap will be affected. Wildlight's statement reads as today we made an incredibly difficult decision to part ways with a number of our team members while keeping a core group of developers to continue innovating on and supporting the game. We were proud of the team talent and the product we've created together. We're also grateful for players who Gave the game a shot and those who continue to be a part of our community, end quote. In Grainer's post, he says this layoff quote really stings, as there were. There was a lot of unreleased content that I was really looking forward to and that I and others desired for Highguard, end quote. If we take his words literally, it sounds like the content might never be released, which would be shocking but not unprecedented in this industry which has been under constant disruption due to layoffs. It's already happened, Mike. Things are happening faster than I thought that they might have for a game like this. Things happen really, really fast with Concord, of course, I thought this one might be able to escape the Concord shadow a bit and maybe kind of coexist, you know. But then when I think about a 100 person team trying to sustain that with a lower player base than you were definitely hoping for at a time where I don't know if. If multiplayer games have been more competitive. Mike.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How does this news hit you yesterday when you see the, you know, everything sort of buzzing around the Internet?

[A]

Yeah, the team here, kind of funny. Our hearts go out to those affected over at Wildlife Entertainment, right. Like this is a indie dev team, a group that left EA and Respawn, went off to make their own thing. We always celebrate new and unique ideas. And I think when you, me and Blessed came out of our preview down in la, we said, wow, this is something different. This is something that players ask for all the time. Hey, stop doing Battle Royale. Stop doing the normal. Give us something different. And this team over at Wildlight created that, right? It was something different out of the box that had little touchstones to things that, you know. But it was truly a different kind of game. And it is really disheartening to see that after, what, two weeks, we're already on mass layoff situations right now. That is really unfortunate there. And goes to show you how volatile this industry is, right? Like at any moment, any one of these games could lose a player base and everything goes down into the toilet. So what do you do? What are the moves being made right now on Steam? DB we always talk about. These aren't the numbers that you truly want to follow because there's not consoles involved. But, like, it is a good representation of, like, if Steam is doing this, consoles are probably somewhere nearby in that number range, right? There's 600, that's 1,637 players playing right now. That is not enough to sustain a game for the long run. Especially two weeks after launch.

[B]

Yeah, especially when we talk about a game that had, you know, it has this content calendar, has its roadmap kind of guaranteeing, here's what's going to be coming out here two weeks after, here's this new character along with ranked mode and you start to see some things kind of turn around a little bit forward because after all the initial negativity, why, I don't really know. I think this will be the biggest question in the history of the games industry of like why this one? Why was this one? The, you know, some of the, I saw people tweeting out stuff of people, people banning people in their chats and the, the unbanned request being like, I hope you die in a fire like for playing this stupid game. And it's like, why, why was this the one that we chose to kind of target? And I don't think that any of the hate kind of goes well with an already super competitive industry. Like I, I would have been playing High Guard if it weren't for it coming at the most, you know, really, really, really bad times for me in my life where I'm just super back into Overwatch. And then Overwatch has another big massive drop. Deadlock is releasing their fifth character out of eight characters. You go to see how many concurrents are playing Deadlock, A an unreleased invite only game by the way. A game that isn't open to everybody. You have to be invited still and it's still around the128,000 mark on Steam only. It is just everything wrong that could have happened, happened for High Guard.

[A]

And I mean that can be said for many games, right? We always talk about this is like here comes the game. Two weeks later there's another game. There is more news on the game that you love. Fortnite now has another update, right? It is a very competitive market and it's tough to stand out, right? And I think a big one for me, Andy, is what you talk about that first impression. Paul Tassie has a really good article up on Forbes right now. Kind of talking about High Guard and Concord and how they just spontaneously combust, right? But he goes down list by list of like, hey, here's at first glance, are we tired of hero shooters? Right? And I think that first impression matters so much. We've talked about it with games before. That first impression is make or break. You don't get a second one, right? Especially for gamers who have a million games on their backlog. You need to excite, you need to get people interested and you need to lock people in and, and this game. Finishing off the game awards was probably an unfortunate situation. Target on the back because it was a great game. Awards. I think people did not want to see a multiplayer game end that. If this is in the middle, we probably have a different conversation of it comes and goes. But unfortunately it ends the game awards and its showing isn't great.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Having that final slot, you needed a great showing and it left too many questions unanswered to the point where people didn't know what this game was. What is a raid shooter? Even when we left, we had troubles clearly defining what this game is to others to make it say, here it is in 30 seconds or less, you understand it, you want to play it. Now, this game didn't have that because there were so many things going on inside the pot of creativity that made this game so unique and different. Right. And I think at first glance that first reaction was probably the make or break for this game, unfortunately. And it never recovered.

[B]

Yeah, I think having the target on its back there and us living in a culture where tribalism is, I think at its strongest and you want to be on the right side of something. You want to. You want the, the haters to eat crow. You want them to be wrong and you want them to like, I'm right about this, this game's going to fucking be dog shit. And I've already planted my flag in the sand for. For whatever reason. And it's just like this one more than any of the other ones, just kind of showed that people were ready to be angry at something. Even if I think of this game like you mentioned was shown at any other time. We've seen so many different shooters be shown at different points of any of these showcases. And this one, I think was the most negatively affected by people wanting to not like it for. From the get go because they, because maybe that has to do with Jeff Keighley hyping it up so much. Maybe that has to do with putting it at the end of a, of a showcase and also the, the thoughts and kind of rumors going along. Oh, they had all this money to pay for that final spot and then that ended up being disproven. But it's like once those false kind of things are thrown out there, then that becomes people's, you know, oh, you're paying for all of this just for that shitty game. You, you know, like, it's, it's such a weird time to be in this industry and I think, I don't know if a game has deserved less hate than it's gotten than, you know, like, when I think of Concord, at the end of the day, it was an arena shooter. And that was the underwhelming part of it. When I played Concord, it's like, I mean, I still prefer Overwatch payload modes. You know, that's where it was not doing the innovating. Right. I think highguard did a lot more and enticed me a lot more and brought that intensity. Even though I don't love Apex gunplay because I'm just bad at it. That's more of a personal thing. I don't know if, like, there's a game that had. That deserved less of the heat. A lot of that also has to do with their marketing plan and not planning to have marketing, just planning to be a Day One drop. I want desperately to see the multiverse moment where this happens in another multiverse in another universe, and it is just shadow drops. Bam. High Guard, the people who made Apex, this is their new shooter. They left EA and Respawn. Go play it. Let it speak for itself.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Would there still be people not liking it? Of course. Genres aren't for these. You know, not every game is for everybody. But I don't think it would be anywhere near as close to the hate that it has gotten. And now that also doesn't change what. That doesn't change what Overwatch would be doing. That doesn't change what, you know, Marvel Rivals would be doing with another hero being introduced. It's still like so insanely competitive out there.

[A]

Yeah. And at the end of the day, we talk a lot about this.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Being good is almost not good enough.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You have to be great. Right. And I think to High Guard's fault, we could talk and praise about how it was different and they tried to do something fun. Unfortunately, the hate really got after him. But at the end of it, I just don't know if the game was. Was great. I think it was good. I think there was some lackluster moments in that gameplay from being out in the open world and just looting and not enough. Maybe engagement. Maybe it was lacking the NPCs that now people are kind of clamoring for that PvE experience. There was something about this game that just wasn't head and shoulders great. It was a good game and a fun attempt at trying something different. Given more time.

[B]

You.

[A]

You saw them adjust to 5v5. Maybe they would add more teams, maybe they would add a different game mode. That's all in the future of what could be. But unfortunately, out of the gates, I think the game was just good. And unfortunately right now in 2026, when there's a million games to play and already forever shooters, being good is not good enough to even get into the rotation of what they wanted. Right? They didn't want to be your forever game. They just wanted to be a rotational player six man off the bench. And that's not good enough. You got to be great. And it is very hard. And now the big problem here is now we're going to look at a lot of teams. Go, man, I, I'm afraid to release my game. I'm afraid to take that step and leave this company, go off on my own and create an indie team. I'm afraid that me and my indie studio aren't going to make it because these games are coming out a dime a dozen and they're just getting washed away because there's so much.

[B]

Well, I think I, I think a lot of the responsibility also has to fall on the directors and these executives because like if you're an indie team spinning off, I think a hundred people just is. That's a lot of overhead to make a, to take that big of a risk, right? Unless you know, you have a surefire hit, unless you are breaking off and making your multiplayer game a decade ago, you know, where it's a lot more certain that you might have a hit on your hands, where it isn't as crowded, where not a whole lot of free to play exists, where there's a lot of people that are still paying $60 for a game and said they go dang. A free to play game with, you know, like they're 100 employees is still a lot of overhead to try to sustain a free to play game in today's current climate.

[A]

I mean there was, this is a, we'll call it senior team when it comes to the live service games. This team came from Apex. They knew what they wanted. They had 100 people because they made the roadmap, right? We sat down with this team and said, hey, we got content. We're not just turning out the game and then creating the content. We have been making this game while making the content. We are a year out, ready to rock and roll. And so this was a team that already knew what they needed, right? Maybe it was 100 people that was needed. Odd one to me that stuck out. I mean, no support, right? No publisher out there, no kind of safety net at all. It was just this team and their backing and their belief in the game and it just wasn't enough.

[B]

So we have a super chat from Spooge Booge. Remember, you can write in with your super chats your hot takes. Did High Guard deserve it? Spooge Booze with a five dollar super Chat says, I blame Jeff Keighley needs to be more responsible with his platform. I think now that thought may be in people's heads. I think before this, you would be stupid to turn this down.

[A]

That's a huge. That's a kind gesture, right?

[B]

Yeah, that's just Jeff Keighley wanting to be nice because he played this game early and liked it so much. It said, I would love to put a light on this. And I also do think that if it were any other genre, I think if it's a single player game, I think it's just so popular to want to hate multiplayer games nowadays. And. And once public sentiment turns Mike, it's like then you even feel discouraged to play the game because it's like, oh, I'm playing the game that everybody's on right now.

[A]

We saw that happen a lot.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right online. A lot of sentiment like that where people enjoyed it, but they were a little outcast into even playing it.

[B]

Right. Yeah.

[A]

But, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if you can put it on Jeff Keighley.

[B]

Yeah, no, I think, no, I think that's an.

[A]

I. I don't know if that's the right take there.

[B]

I do wonder, I do wonder if it is just sort of a genre thing. If it's maybe like we can break into this really, really packed sort of playing field with our product because our product is better.

[A]

You know, I think a multiplayer game ending the game awards on such a stacked year is a big uphill climb. Uphill to climb.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I think a lot of people, especially with lofty expectations or hopes and dreams, a lot of people were huffing the hopium of Half Life 3 was in the air throughout the whole lead up to this game awards and to end it with a lackluster Mega man showing and also go into high guard. And that is a tough way to end a really good game. Awards up to that point. And yeah, I think people go, another multiplayer game.

[B]

We should have put the target on Mega Man's back.

[A]

You know, Mega man got a little bit of it though. Mega man got a little bit of it.

[B]

We should have put the target there. Another super chat from Daniel Alonso who says the game was DOA because of the TGA announcement. Jeff announcing it put so much unnecessary pressure on its back they needed more quiet anticipation time. I, I, this is one of those hindsight 2020 situations that if they felt.

[A]

Like they needed more quiet time, they could have looked at Jeff and said politely no. Right. Like they looked at that as an opportunity to shine a, a large light, probably a larger light than what they thought they would have gotten if they just had press and media come a day before release, talk about it and then release. They clearly saw this as like the right avenue or else they would have said no.

[B]

Yeah. I also do think that if, if anybody was in that situation they would have said of course, of course I want my, I want all this publicity and advertising for my game that I'm working on. Like you'd be stupid to turn it down. So I do not blame anybody for the decisions made there. Charlie Reeves with a super chat that I'll get to after this. I want to get to this other super chat from kaner Acadian with a 10 super chat. Thank you for your support. Remember, your support helps keep the lights and the mics on. So thank you everybody. High guard situation is unfortunate. Thank you. These developers clearly care about the game and are passionate about their vision. Anyone would have said yes to the game award spot needs more teams like them. 100% agree. Director Donovan also agreeing with a super chat says it's a bummer the game hardly had a shot. And a Happy Birthday super chat to Cody J.

[A]

Happy Birthday Cody J. I mean now we look at the future, right? Here we are two weeks post launch. Like I just brought up 1600 players currently playing the game on Steam DB3100. The past 24 hour peak.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And we know that doesn't count consoles as well. What is the next move? You still have a core here. You clearly have content that is ready to roll out for the next year that you hope isn't too labor intensive. Right. Are they really going to hold out for a whole year? Will this end before we even get to six months, a year from now? Do they have a big enough team to even start to change and start to shift the ship a whole different direction?

[B]

I think depending on. Well, first off, I'm never right about this shit.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think at any time regarding multiplayer games, regarding the industry, every prediction I've had is always wrong because it's just such a, It's a lottery ticket, man. It's a. On that day, because the wind blew that way and the grass fell and the leaves fell that way, this is now going to be the outcome and the amount of successes random Successes we've seen from small indie teams that just completely pop off out of nowhere with their like, I think of like Battle Bit Remastered, where that has like a massive, you know, a massive couple of weeks or whatever. And a lot of it has to do with size of the team and scope. And I think depending on how much that they downsized, there could be a possibility of success here that says, hey, if we can get, get these numbers back up and also if the other teams, if the other games out there start up, that's what you're really kind of hoping for. Like, I know they never really intended for this to be the main genre game. Battle royales will always be battle royales. Tax shooters will always be tax shooters. There's no real encroaching on the Counter Strike 2 or Valorant Market as we've seen games like Frag Punks kind of come and go and a lot of other sort of tax shooters. But they always wanted this to be the rotational sort of player. And I think that depending on how much they downsized, a certain amount of player base may be able to sustain a smaller team. Now we don't know what those numbers are.

[A]

I was just saying here's my problem, right? I start to do quick math, right? And I'm no super finance fucking CEO over here, but I am looking like, how much you have in the bank? How much are we bleeding? And if it's a free to play game, that means no money's coming in. So it all comes off of microtransactions, which means those 3,100 players on Steam have to buy your $20 bundle. And if we only sell them one $20 bundle throughout the month, that's $62,000. I don't know if that's enough to.

[B]

Not going to cut it.

[A]

That team. Yeah, that's the problem is now you're free to play. No money coming in unless it's off of microtransactions or something.

[B]

I'm not seeing people playing on console.

[A]

As well, of course, but I'm just saying it's like you start adding it up. How many $20 bundles do we have to sell to support whatever this core team is? It's not. Not enough.

[B]

Yeah, unfortunately not enough. Unfortunately may not be enough. You bringing up microtransactions and you know, supporting teams just like everybody in the audience can support our teams. If you're watching on Patreon, if you're watching AD free after the fact. But since you're not watching AD free right now, here's A word from our.

[C]

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[B]

We have a $5 super chat here from Bander Sn who says friend at the studio was let go. High Guard's problem wasn't Jeff or online chuds as usual, it was the people at the top with dollar sign eyes. Sucks. I don't know if I fully agree with that because the people at the top at least that you know, some of the people that we spoke to.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Really just felt like it was a game at the Wrong time and like. And let me preface that by saying in the same way that I kind of felt that when Suicide Squad Killed the Justice League is in development for eight years in development hell. And it's a games as a service live shooter that was starting development kind of when Destiny was at its hottest. And then by the time it comes out, it's just, whoa, what has happened to the gaming landscape out here? And that's kind of how I feel about High Guard now. I also don't feel that High Guard ever quite had the visual stylistic sauce to stand out. Yeah. And. And, you know, I do think it's cool that they try to do this. Like, hey, we're medieval, but we also have guns. I think that's, like, different and weird, but stylistically, I just don't know if it ever quite hit for me. I liked the way the, the models and the characters looked and were rendered and, like, you know, clear that these are artists that are talented. But the art style was always just kind of like, clashing. And I never quite loved the way, like, you know, a lot of the. The game looked, unfortunately. And that has to do quite a bit with, you know, me necessarily, maybe not wanting to go back to it, especially when Overwatch and Deadlock are so near and dear to my heart right now.

[A]

Yeah, I was. When we spoke with that management team, we don't know what happens behind closed doors and afterwards, but I was impressed because I looked at Blessing and I said, where's the money coming from? And I asked him that and. And they seem to put the creatives first on that. And it seemed like something different that we didn't really hear of. Like, no, it's all about these guys and what they're making. We believe in it and we think it's going to happen. And it's like I was asking Andy and Bless, like, he doesn't care about money. This is crazy, you know?

[B]

Yeah, yeah. Turns out, like, you still need to pay people and feed people.

[A]

No, you do need the money.

[B]

Yeah, people need to. To feed their families. So, yeah, that's unfortunate. But, yeah, much like Banderas and I also have a. A friend of the studio who, who was laid off. And yeah, it's all quite the bummer. So, please, if you are a developer out there, you know, keep your eyes and ears open and looking on LinkedIn for a lot of very talented folks that are trying to be relocated somewhere. Shambo Baggins with a $5 super chat says, Great job, Mike. On the Overwatch interview. Just listened to it Yesterday. Twice.

[A]

Thank you so much. We're gonna be talking about more of my time at Blizzard because we're gonna talk about Diablo here in a little bit.

[B]

Also give us all your super chat hot takes and also let us know if your car alerts you when you have low tire pressure and how often do you check your tire pressure if your car doesn't alert you that I.

[A]

Feel like this should be like a once a month thing. How often are you checking your.

[B]

I like to chime in as someone whose tire recently exploded while on the freeway. I didn't know that. Oh yeah. Andy. It was bad. It's real loud. I bet, right? It wasn't. I mean, no, it doesn't make a lot of noise. It's more that like once it's like.

[A]

All the air is gone.

[B]

You're like on the ground on, on that side. Damn. Anyways, this is a serious thing of like, you got to notice that tire pressure.

[A]

You got to notice that tire pressure.

[B]

Yeah. So my car tells me. But you said your car doesn't tell you.

[A]

Yeah. I mean we don't have fancy cars. Yeah.

[B]

Some of us have 40 year old cars we're driving.

[A]

Cars are going to explode one day.

[B]

My, my decade old Honda Civic fancy car.

[A]

I mean. You got a backup camera?

[B]

Yeah, I do. Whoa. Wow. Well, that's pretty cool. Well, 2016 was the. Actually I think it was the first year where they mandated that.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

They're like cars from here on out have to have that. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what the car.

[A]

Next car.

[B]

Look that up. Look that up. Someone.

[A]

I could see you. Cadillac Escalade.

[B]

No, I, I want another. I would love a. No first Excel. You want me to. Gigantic suv. There's no parking anywhere driving.

[A]

No one either.

[B]

Ye just. Yeah. I would have nobody in the car. The worst gas guzzler. I, I want a Toyota Prius. I want the new Priuses. I just love the look of them Prius. The new, the new ones look so cool. I just love the body style. Or I just if the next I, I, I try to keep up with Honda Civic rumors.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I like kind of looking on the Internet because I don't like the current Honda body style. But apparently 2027 is going to be a big refresh and that's. I want to see like a different kind of look for him because I just don't like the way the Honda stuff looks right now. Andy, think about how nice it is not to spend any money on Your car. It's been great. It's been great. I paid off my car like four years ago and it's been awesome. Dude, keep doing that, do that for another five years. You know, just maintain the car. I have a lot of people here kind of funny that are looking to buy it.

[A]

Yeah, he's wheeling it. Yeah, he has the power and nothing.

[B]

Feels right now I. Yeah, right now I have the, the, the. The power's in my hands for the negotiation bike. Everybody's want. I have so many buyers here at the company who's going to give me the best sort of, the best sort of deal. I'm just saying maybe I. Maybe if I do sell to Nick because his car is always breaking down. It's crazy. Maybe if I do sell it to him, I work in the negotiation mic. I'll give you a discount if we get a basketball hoop here at the studio.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Something to think about.

[A]

Yeah, I like that.

[B]

Yes, something to think about. He'll like quick.

[A]

That's an unselfish lover type of move.

[B]

Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Street shadow with a 10 super chat says the issue for high Guard. It's revealed the game awards and lack of communication and marketing into the build up. No play tests, no betas. If Jet told me I was. If Jeff told me I was the last game of the show, I would say no. I don't know, man. I think I still would have taken that shot.

[A]

I think, I think. And at this moment, you have to take that shot. No matter what, you have to take it.

[B]

Can I ask you a question, Mike?

[A]

Tell me.

[B]

Did you dye your hair?

[A]

No. Does it look different?

[B]

Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

No, somebody said that last night. Is it darker?

[B]

It doesn't look darker.

[A]

Okay, someone said that last night, but Rob the barber's there. You know what I mean? Rob the barber, he's cutting me up. I'm gonna see him Saturday, Okay. For the big Valentine's Day.

[B]

Oh, what are the plans?

[A]

Just cutting my hair. Oh, get the haircut.

[B]

Sweet. No date. No special lady out there cutting my hair.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

Like unfortunate.

[A]

What if we went to a basketball game together?

[B]

Could have gone last night.

[A]

Mike and Andy's financial responsibility is very different.

[B]

Yeah, I have to. We have. We have gaming news.

[A]

Talk about a great way. We'll make it a great way.

[B]

We have gaming news to talk about. But I just have to say we'll tease a future Greg Gregory by me saying I don't feel great and I don't feel good. Give, you know, putting this financial Burden on you, Mike. So I won't ask you to spend this much to go to a Warrior spurs game because Wembanyama's in town. I gotta watch my sp. And Mike said the tickets were 800. I thought they were 8,000. I thought that's why you were freaking out.

[A]

You told me you wanted to sit courtside. I assumed when you said eight. Oh, 1000. Yeah, yeah. And I'm looking at going, okay. One night with Andy's gonna cost me a whole trip to Japan. Here we go.

[B]

He was so ready to spend $8,000. Story number two comes from Assassin's Creed Black Flag, the remaster and the art book appears at Amazon UK now for pre order. This comes from Robert Anderson at Ignition. The heavily rumored but yet to be confirmed Assassin's Creed Black Flag remaster remake is getting its very own art book, at least according to its recent Amazon listing in the uk. Pre orders are now available, strangely, before we've got official confirmation of the game actually being real and given its own release window, its art book is listed at 29.95 Euros and a slight reduction from the 39.99 Euro RRP. I'm assuming that's like their version of the MSRP.

[A]

That's a great, great price.

[B]

Yeah. Thank you. You going to buy that?

[A]

An Assassin's Creed art book? I don't think I need it.

[B]

I'm not an Assassin's Creed guy. Titan will be publishing the art book. They also did art books for Assassin's Creed 3, Unity, Syndicate, Origins, and more. And after years of internal leaks, relentless fan speculation, and even not so subtle nudges from the original games, lead actor Ubisoft still refuses to officially acknowledge that a Black Flak remake is real. I mean, it does. I mean, of course that makes sense. I don't see why they would ever go like, damn, you guys got us. Like, why would they.

[A]

You know, damn, guys, we're really behind on this. Everybody hates us right now going through massive studio restructuring. Maybe we should get a little win under our belts, try to announce something cool coming up here. You know what? We'll hold off for another six months. Take the bad press.

[B]

Well, they're waiting for the big moment. They want their big reveal. They want that thing to be real. It's this. It's this.

[A]

This is not enough. You still.

[B]

I still can't believe that Sands of Time remake gets just axed completely. That was like a massive, shocking day. We were at the High Guard event.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

When that thing comes up in the slack and I was just like, holy shit, I cannot believe this.

[A]

Right now we have the head of the division team. He's leaving the studio after saying, game's in great shape. It's looking real good. We're gonna do things you've never seen before. Yeah, that doesn't help.

[B]

That was like. That was one of the funnier back and forths we had of. Of. Yeah. Former division lead peacing out after saying, like, this one's going to change the game. This division's going to be the best thing you've ever seen in your life. It's going to be like a. A genre maker and going later. Good luck with that shit. That made me laugh a lot. So all but kind of confirmed.

[A]

What are they holding? What are they holding back for? What is this Ubisoft event that I'm not seeing? They're not. They wouldn't dare do another Ubisoft forward from the La Quinta Ballroom in Santa Fe.

[B]

Well, they had to. They had to change it to Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now, the problem is, though, it does seem like it's too far out to wait for something like Summer Game Fest.

[A]

Unless it's a fall title, but then it's going to get eaten up by gta. It's just a Black Flag remake. Why are we holding this as if it's like the next coming of the Assassin's Creed video game franchise?

[B]

Because when you're in the state that Ubisoft is in right now, that's the W you have. Like that. That's the big win that you have. It's going back to one of the most beloved of your most popular franchises.

[A]

Maybe I'm not seeing the picture and someone just wrote it in the chat. What if it's today? What if they team up with PlayStation, reveal it today at the state of play.

[B]

Damn.

[A]

Pre order went up too early.

[B]

Now, when would it go on sale?

[A]

The game?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, if I had full control this game, March would either be a shadow drop, which would be a big win, or I would drop this like March, April, right away, we'd get this out the door.

[B]

Yeah, you got to drop that.

[A]

But like we were talking about Grand Theft Auto, right? Mike and Greg a couple weeks back of like, you know, leaks and how that team is like, really on it.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And then you have Ubisoft where it's like this stuff is leaking left and right. You know, you just can't keep anything secret, Right?

[B]

Yeah. Well, that's the unfortunate thing is. Yeah, I. I saw Barrett in chat. Say this can't be their big win. But like, at this point, what else?

[A]

So much. They need a lot to get back the big win.

[B]

No, but I'm. I mean, currently in the next six month window. Unless everything we've heard about this Splinter Cell thing has always been in development. We've never like. Have they actually ever fully said it's in full production or is it like. Yeah, we're still in the pre pro kind of planning stages.

[A]

We'd have that. Squatch. I don't know what that the last update was sometime around either A Game awards. I. I don't remember when we got one, but someone was at like a bar. I think the guy was at like interviewed at a bar and he was like, yeah, we're in the movement.

[B]

Yes. Yeah, I see. I saw somebody in chat say beyond good and evil too. Of course. No, man. Like, that's just not reality. That game won't come out for another five years if they're still around, you know.

[A]

Next Far Cry.

[B]

The next Far Cry.

[A]

You got to go back to the tent poles. You always go to the tent poles. They got three tent poles here.

[B]

I think the next Far Cry has to get announced at Summer Game Fest. When was the last one we had Gustavo freeing in. When was the last Far Cry 6?

[A]

Far Cry 6 was 2021. But then you had, remember Avatar?

[B]

Right. But Avatar wasn't the Far Cry team. I don't think it looked and played like Far Cry, but I don't think it was the core Avatar. There's also just a lot of teams out there. It's like when we talk about Nintendo, we talk about, you know, all the different divisions of them. It's always kind of hard to keep track of that. Yeah, it wasn't. It was m. Yeah, it was massive. Who made. Okay, who made Avatar for next?

[A]

Far Cry would be next, which I still continue to say. Far Cry 6 was one of their best since about three. Okay. They've had a. They went 3, 4, 5. And it started going down a little bit. Right. So like Far Cry 6 was a nice return to form. Co op was good, but like, they need something big for Cry. Far Cry to be even close to what it was way back in the day. They got a Far Cry TV show coming though.

[B]

I mean, if they could kind of line everything up together with Rod Mack. Oh, that is right.

[A]

Rob Mack.

[B]

But he's not in it. He's just kind of like running it, right. He's.

[A]

Yeah. I bet he gets in an episode.

[B]

Yeah, he'll get in here and there. Lucid dream of the $2. Super chat says new Crimson Desert video out today. Boys. Man, Crimson Desert is.

[A]

Did you see they've been dropping some videos.

[B]

They are hitting the Internet hard. Mike with like, hey, we're serious.

[A]

Don't doubt what we're doing to get you more excited.

[B]

Yeah, it does.

[A]

You and I are the biggest Crimson.

[B]

Desert fans here, though, especially enjoying the Witcher 3 as much as I am right now. Like, I am the. The one thing I'm worried about is playing any other large open world game and just going, oof. Writing just isn't there. Characters just aren't there. But that's how I felt about, you know, Legend of Zelda, Breath of the Wild, where it's like, I don't give a about the story because I'm just so in love with the systems and how awesome everything intermingles together. And this seems like this is doing that. It's insane. Holy. I can't wait. Get that code to us immediately. Jay Dubin says with a five dollar. Super chat says Mike needs to save all the money he can for Ember and any new upcoming skins for her. If, you know, you know, first Gotcha game. What? Which got you.

[A]

I played arknights Enfield.

[B]

Oh, the one that is recently, huh?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. We had that big sponsorship a couple months.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

At the beginning of the year. And the game released in January. I've been waiting my time because it's so big and I just didn't know when to play it. And I said, I have a rule for 2026. There's three things I'm going to try. My first ever Gotcha game. We're going to play Warframe together. Yes. And I'm going to figure out what the hell is going on in World of Tanks. I'm going to get down to the bottom of World of Tanks.

[B]

But this sounds more like you want to do investigative journalism. Like, you know what I mean?

[A]

I just need to connect the dots. How is it still relevant who's playing this game? I think here's what so big.

[B]

Here's what I want to do in the year 2026.

[A]

Those are my big three for the year.

[B]

You do investigative journalism into World of Tanks. I want to do investigative journalism into. Man, I don't even know if I shouldn't mention these games because it's like maybe they sponsor us and we, you know, would love some financial backing, you know. But I just think about the games that like Twitch offers for sponsorship nowadays.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

Where I'm like, how do they. Where is this money coming?

[A]

Really fumbled the bag on that. They offered a sponsorship for Arc Knight Enfields. I played it anyways.

[B]

Nice.

[A]

Should have clicked the button.

[B]

Hell yeah.

[A]

I don't know what I was doing.

[B]

Hell yeah. Ember Baddie.

[A]

Six star.

[B]

Nice. Oh, that's nice. You can go six star.

[A]

Patty, you.

[B]

You came up big. Right now we're up, baby. Story number three, Diablo 2 gets first major update in 25 years with Reign of the Warlock starring Raul Kohli. This comes from Jennifer Moss at Variety. This is the. That gets me so excited. This isn't part of the article, but yesterday talking about, you know, it would be awesome if Nintendo added new content to something like Mario 3D world.

[A]

Snap. Yeah.

[B]

And with the rumors of this Witcher 3 DLC, this could be a really cool time for a lot of developers saying, hey, time, money is tough and money is not tough. It's just like, hey, maybe, maybe executive, you earned 30 million this year instead of 49 or whatever. Yeah. But it's like, if I hope that this kind of catches momentum and we can kind of create a new rhythm of adding DLC to, like, old Beloved. I think it's such a cool concept.

[A]

Wild.

[B]

I want. I want more of this.

[A]

I love that.

[B]

I want more of this. So this story comes from Jennifer Master. Variety says big news for Diablo 2 fans. The Blizzard Entertainment game is getting its first major update in 25 years. Titled Reign of the Warlock, the DLC will feature actor Rahul Kohli from Haunting of Lye Manor, Midnight Mass, and the kind of funny podcast in the year 2017. Starring as the voice of titular Warlock per Blizzard, the Warlock is disciplined, ominous, and incredibly knowledgeable. Lingering in the shadows for years and studying secrets. And studying secrets mortals should know. In addition to debuting in the new Update for Diablo 2, Resurrected, which is the remastered version of the original Diablo 2, the Warlock class will arrive in the upcoming Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred update in April and the mobile title Diablo Immortal this summer. Quote, this actually just came out of the. This actually just came out of the blue. That's Raul Coley fell into my lap. Coley said Variety. In the interview ahead of the official announcement, I received a text message from Ralph Ferguson who said, hey, Prof. Do you not want to do Diablo? And I was like, what are you talking about? And he's like, we haven't heard back. And I went to my team, I was like, oh, bro, going on with Diablo. And they basically forwarded this offer in the email heading at Diablo 2, which I thought, which I thought was a typo. He said I did the font instead of thought. I love that they do that sometimes.

[A]

Killing it.

[B]

Coley continued. Because I had also worked with Rod previously on Gears of War. I sort of assumed at some point Diablo 4 would come knocking and it never did. So I sort of resented him for that. And then when it came through, it was Diablo 2. Obviously I thought it was a typo, but then once I look through the character profiles, I realized, oh, this is new content for a game that came out in the year 2000. Obviously it's for the remaster, but it's still content for a 26 year old game. So I was very, very hyped. This is cool shit.

[A]

Shout out to Rod Ferguson making the phone call. Yeah, what an awesome grab right there. That's cool to have these two team up. And of course the Diablo team get some new content.

[B]

Just a wild thing out of nowhere.

[A]

Like they're celebrating 30 plus years. It's a big thing.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

It's not a wild thing. It's a big thing. 30 plus years of Diablo. First time Diablo 2 got any sort of content. 25 years. And get this. And he makes the 8th character class now in the game.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

I played it before release because I went down to blitz.

[B]

You heard Rahul in your earphones.

[A]

I heard him and I didn't even know it.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

First time I've learned about it.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

That crazy.

[B]

Very, very cool.

[A]

Let me tell you this very exciting stuff. Diablo 2 Resurrected, my favorite game. One of my top five all time Diablo 2. Diablo 2 Resurrected is a ton of fun to play. And like they said, it's the year of the Warlock. The new character class coming to all three Diablo games this year is awesome news and I got to play Diablo 2 and it was a ton of fun. It's really exciting to see a new class come to that and then be able to see the tease. Big Diablo spotlight yesterday. Of course, Blizzard's having their big spotlight throughout this whole past couple weeks. 32 minutes full of Diablo news. If you're a Diablo fan, you're going.

[B]

To get really excited.

[A]

If you want to go back to the old school, one that I love, you're going to really get excited as well.

[B]

Very, very cool. Shout out to Rahul. And congrats on the team Story number four. Hideo Kojima says he talked to Vince Zampella about making a Metal Gear shooter at Respawn. This comes from Neil Long at vgc. Kojima has claimed that he and Call of Duty co creator Vin Zampella once discussed making a Metal Gear shooter at Respawn, speaking during a video package at DICE 2026 during a Remember Remembering a Titan keynote on Zampello's life and work. Kojima said the conversations took place after following the launch of metal gear solid 4 in 2008. In 2010, Zampella and Jason west were fired from Call of Duty maker Infinity Ward and set up Titanfall on Apex Legends Studio. Respawn, the Metal Gear shooter discussed with Kojima, was one of the options being considered as Respawn was being founded, the Death Stranding designer said. When Kojima himself went independent to build Kojima Productions, he said he sought Zampella's advice about setting up his own studio after his experiences at Respawn. Quote without him, the gaming industry wouldn't be what it is today, said Hideo Kojima of Zampella. Very fascinating.

[A]

Always fun to get a little peek behind the curtain of what could have been, right? The stories, the meetings, the moments that we hear about later on. It's like oh yeah, that was a crazy idea that could have happened and that would have been pretty crazy. I think Titanfall might have been a better idea, but I wonder how big a Metal Gear Shooter would have been if they said yes to this.

[B]

Well, it also just seems like this was kind of another option to explore. Like I don't know if it would have taken the main spot, but I just love that talks like this even happen. I want to know more about these random sort of talks in the industry. I love hearing about sort of the secrets we don't really necessarily get to hear about. Yeah, of cool collabs and things of that nature. Always super fascinating Story number five. A new line of Starcraft figures has been announced. Mike just that's crazy. Pointed up at the heavens to thank God for this. This comes from Connor McCarr at Eurogamer. Joy Toy, a popular figurine production company has announced a line of small scale Starcraft models and as part of a collaboration with Activision Blizzard. In a blog post to the official Joy Toy website, the company announced it'll be making models for the Zerg, Protos and Taran. Exactly what those models are remains a mystery for now as they're silhouetted in those in the announcement post. Details on product information and pre order schedules are set to come to the future via Joy Toy channels. These figurines these figurines will be a compact size of rugly roughly 10cm with seemingly five available split across the three playable Starcraft factions. It is of course also possible these figurines are just a nice nostalgic way to show your love for the original starcraft and that nothing is going on with the starcraft as the IP remains dormant. Mike, do you think that this is actually maybe hinting at something possible in.

[A]

The future with StarCraft anywhere that smoke this fire.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And there's a blaze coming.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. There's something warming up right now. You know what else? I'm getting a lot of San Antonio spurs in the early 2000s on the plane playing Starcraft together. And I think to myself, I think we're back. I like to live in a world where we are back right now. It's going to be very exciting. They're celebrating 30 plus years. I think it's 35 years for Blizzard, which is a super exciting milestone. And it's like on the back of that there's Starcraft. And you know what we haven't heard from in a long time? Starcraft. You know what the people yearn for Starcraft. What do they deserve?

[B]

StarCraft. I don't know if you make a figurine for something that dormant. Unless it's just we're celebrating the anniversary.

[A]

I mean, this group makes like Warhammer figurines. So, like starcraft is kind of up their alley.

[B]

Right.

[A]

When I went over to Joy Toys, it's like, oh, they're, they're just making those kind of style of figurines. So it seems like an easy layup win of like. Yeah, we make Warhammer figurines. You got cool, you know, space marine monsters. Let's do that. You know what I mean? What's 10 centimeters into inches? Take a guess.

[B]

I'll go with. Let's see. Hold on, I'm trying to do the math.

[A]

Yeah, take a guess.

[B]

I'll do the math. 10 centimeters. Point 8 inches. Point 8 inch.

[A]

No, it's. It's 4.

[B]

Right. Yeah, yeah. I was thinking we don't talk enough about centimeters and we don't, you know, how tall are you in centimeters? You know, nobody talks about.

[A]

Nobody talks about centimeters. I would. I'm looking forward to seeing what we see out of Blizzard in the future. Right. As a big Warcraft guy, I was thinking millimeters.

[B]

I.

[A]

Okay, yeah. I want a Warcraft 4. Right. I want more RTS from Blizzard.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So we don't get that as those two are kind of dormant. Hears of the storm. I really enjoyed their take on a MOBA that's been kind of like it's on life support. We'll call it right. But like what do you do with StarCraft? We've had the conversation of a shooter, a first person shooter and like where do we go?

[B]

Right.

[A]

I'm hoping for more Starcraft. I'll take a first person shooter. I'll take Starcraft Ghosts. But I also would like an RTS.

[B]

I don't know if I needed. Kevin, show me 10 centimeters is 0.34 inches. 39 inches. Yeah, man. Starcraft Mike, that would be massive, huge news. That would be so huge. But if I want something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[A]

Andy, I take you to our last news story, the we new channel where we cover all the small news items.

[B]

You need to know about we news from Wario 64. The Steam Deck OLED is all sold out in America. And this is something worth noting from Kotaku. The whole situation has players and analysts scared that this is a sign of what to expect for this for the foreseeable future as PC parts and memory components used to make used to make consoles and gaming devices become harder to find and more expensive to buy due to the ongoing shortages caused by AI hyper scalers. But at least you get to see yourself hanging out with Peter Griffin and Samuel L. Jackson.

[A]

I saw Kobe Bryant in Arcane Fighting Jinx and I said, this is trash.

[B]

Right?

[A]

And it's ruining our our planet.

[B]

This is why we with like, this is worth it. You know, if I could see a video of Donald Trump and EPSTEIN Crossing over LeBron James, I go, you know what? Maybe this AI stuff ain't so bad. Maybe we need this. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

I saw LeBron cross over a tank from World of Tank and I said stop this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Right now.

[B]

Yeah. But hey, I got at least 38 likes on on Twitter, Mike. You know, I got a couple of replies.

[A]

We need to stop this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And I'm telling you to stop this. We need to stop this.

[B]

From IGN. Time magazine is celebrating Pokemon's 30th anniversary with exclusive covers. And you can buy them now. The 96 page special edition of the magazine is coming out with three different covers, each featuring iconic pocket monsters from over the years. One cover depicts Mega Charizard, X1 has Lugia and Ho. Oh. While the third shows Rayquaza. You can purchase any of the four covers for 14.99 on Amazon right now.

[A]

Yeah, they did this once before, I believe. But yeah, yo, 30th anniversary right around the corner. Big deal.

[B]

What's gonna happen?

[A]

Big deal. Very excited to celebrate Pokemon. What an awesome year to celebrate Pokemon as well. I can't wait for us to get the news at the end of the month and then throughout the entire year. It's gonna be so much fun.

[B]

It's Rayquaza. Damn. I've always said Quasa. Maybe it's Kwanzaa. Maybe, you know, I just always done that.

[A]

What did you think about the super bowl ad with Jigglypuff and Lady Gaga?

[B]

Dude, I loved it.

[A]

You loved it?

[B]

I loved it.

[A]

Everybody's saying their favorite Pokemon.

[B]

I want. I want that to be the marketing from now on. I want just. And I love the swerve of it. I love that. You didn't know. You didn't know what they were talking about.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You thought that they were just talking about the greats in their field or the greats of a certain athletic field. It kind of seemed like, well, he's the Goat man, you know, it sounds like Lady Gaga's maybe talking about, you know, who's a singer. Celine Dion or something like one of them. And then that. That soccer player, I believe it's like, oh, maybe he's talking about Messi or something. And then it's just a swerve and they're talking about Pokemon.

[A]

Pokemon.

[B]

Dude, I loved it. I want that from. I just. I don't know. There's some, like, dorky part of me that just falls for the marketing of, like, man, I love when celebrities just into the stuff that I like.

[A]

It's so cool. I still. I hold tight to that Call of Duty celebrity commercial where everybody was really. That was one of the greatest commercials of all time. It's just so much fun.

[B]

I need Mike as Wolverine in bed with the picture frame, but it's like a tablet instead. Just watching in bed, like, commercial. It's a better time for us. From Variety. Video game publishing giant Ubisoft has set a goal to cut the staff at its headquarters in France by 200 employees as it continues a larger reorganization of the company in line with group's ambition to reshape its headquarters into a leaner and focus organization. Consultations with employee representatives have been initiated regarding the objective to reduce headcount at Ubisoft HQ in France by 200 positions to a voluntary departure plan. The company said in a letter to shareholders accompanying its latest quarterly earnings Thursday quote, these measures are intended to support a more agile. Or if. Hey, if they can always. If they can be more agile.

[A]

Buzzwords.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Synergy.

[B]

We need agility here. And it can reinforce the group's ability to deliver Sustainable, profitable growth. Yeah, man.

[A]

This is like when the Tiger King said I'll never financially recover from this. We just see Ubisoft. It's like they'll never recover from.

[B]

Yeah, man. It's just like more like the fact that you go, hey, we're planning on doing this.

[A]

And well, in France they're like, actually you're not allowed to just lay people off. So you're going have to talk with.

[B]

The union and get them to agree.

[A]

You're not getting off with this.

[B]

So how are you going to make me voluntarily depart? Depart? Yeah. The Nintendo Wii is getting a brand new game called Metal Canary this year, including a physical disc version. Metal Canary. Why is this happening?

[A]

Getting a brand new game called Metal Canary.

[B]

I like the idea though that I always kind of see in email presses or email press releases of you could play this game on Game Boy advance or on Game Boy Color. It's always a super cute little gimmick, but I don't know how much. Okay. If it leads to much success for anybody. ARC Raiders has sold 14 million units to date and surpassed 960000 concurrent players. Speaking of another game that it's like at the time was a coin flip. Will this game do it? Who knows?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Will the mass market be cool with this sort of hardcore of a genre? It turns out way unbelievable.

[A]

Unbelievable that that team was able to find the secret sauce that that weapon X whatever it was that was like people are staying and they are into it and they want to live and breathe in this world and I don't. It was a special mix. Maybe it was the voice chat, maybe it was the pve. There was something special there that people attached themselves to where it wasn't. Oh, I'm just getting sweat lorded on all the time and getting absolutely dumpstered on and I don't know what to do anymore. I'm still having fun.

[B]

Great.

[A]

In a competitive game.

[B]

Yeah. I mean the great matchmaking of if you're more aggressive, putting you in the lobbies, more aggressive with more aggressive people. And I also think that I think back to the one of the first times previewing it. Then the big conversation that you have with every, you know, multiplayer studio of like, you're not going to go free to play. And they go, we were gonna be but we decided to go $40. That way we could concentrate on making content for the game that makes the game better and not just making content for cosmetic sake. To nickel and dime and keep the the studio open. And sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes you have a banger that just sort of hits at the right time and yes, shout out to them. That's amazing.

[A]

Two big games too. The finals Internet Embark Studios, Kingdom Come.

[B]

Deliverance 2 sold over 5 million copies in its first year Pacific. Pacific Drive sold 1.5 million copies in surpass 3 million players. That makes me very happy. That's a game I always wanted to try out but like never gave enough time to. So that's very, very cool. Absolum Threads of fate update 1.1 is now available and Dicey Tales is getting delisted on Steam. I don't even know what Dicey Tales is but that'll do it for look it up our WE news section. Let's get to some super chats and some your wrongs before we get the heck out of here. And again, a different schedule today. We're doing interview after this followed by a little bit of an Overwatch stream.

[A]

Yeah, it could be a little Overwatch, a little bit.

[B]

Yeah. It may not be super long but you know we got to get ready for the big state of play today.

[A]

PlayStation State of Play 2pm we'll be live about 1:45 with your predictions and hangout but we'll be live throughout the entire your day if you want to hang out with us here. Kind of funny.

[B]

I have. You're wrong. We got. Let's see from the 12th. Mad Rocko says Mike said he's going to play his first gacha game in 2026 when he played Uma Musume when it first released. And that's very much a Gacha game.

[A]

Yeah, but we don't count that cuz I was coaching helping the horse girls succeed. And I didn't fall tra. I didn't fall victim to the Gacha mechanics. This one I'm giving myself to the guy.

[B]

Yeah, you don't. You didn't understand the lore back then.

[A]

They were getting got by me.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I was doing the gotcha gotcha to the horse girls.

[B]

Yeah, I got you. Yeah. Kebab says Mike mentioned embarrass. He was trying to find the Weapon X. He probably meant Chemical X. Weapon X is Wolverine, who to be fair would be sick to add to arc Raiders. I don't know if Mike knew what he meant there at all. Like I don't think that's a correct.

[A]

Sometimes it just gets going and you got to. You got to catch up the wheels get you just. It's going to be a long day. I don't know if I I don't.

[B]

Know if I've read more into your mind than further than right.

[A]

The. I stayed up real late last night, okay. I played X Factor. I played Tokyo Scramble all the way through and it was X Factor. I played Tokyo Scramble in one sitting. My mind has been scrambled. Okay. I'm lucky to be here right now.

[B]

Ron Mexico with a $2 super chat says Mike and Andy is like watching Prime, Kobe and Shaq. Thank you. Ron Mexico.

[A]

He's my dude.

[B]

Short change.

[A]

I was going to spend $8,000 to spend Mike Andy, just so you know. I can't believe you.

[B]

It was only 800. Andy. 8,000 was what I thought. Are we doing short change hero? But I was on. It could not have been 8,000 because Steph wasn't even playing.

[A]

Oh, that would have been a tough $8,000.

[B]

You'd have watched, you would have been able to say I'm watching the greatest player of all time right now, Victor W. That would have been cool. Short change here with a $5 super chat says I understand the idea that tribalism could have contributed to high guard. However, if they made a truly gay game, great game, we'd all be playing it just by 2 cents. Oh, 1000%.

[A]

That's what I said. Yeah. Which is a good game. That's.

[B]

I think it's a, I think it's a mix of a lot of things. I think a lot of really good games been overlooked as well. So like I don't, I don't think, I don't think all good games immediately means success right now. It's, it really does feel like a crapshoot. Hugo Sanchez with a 10 super chat says World of Warcraft stream.

[A]

When are you ready to go back?

[B]

Like, let's be real, let's do it.

[A]

The last time we did it, we did hardcore. We won't do hardcore this time because when we lost you, we lost everything.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. I died about five times. It wasn't great for me. I, my, I, I forgot about Hunter's Mark. I forgot about all of my, you know, Eye of the Eagle, Eye of the Cheetah and stuff like that.

[A]

We're gonna have some fun.

[B]

Red mystery with a 10 super chat says Andy. You need to stop hating on 30 frames per second. Not every game has to run at an ultra fluid motion. 60 frames. The former provides a cinematic filmic effect for story based games. 60 is not great for everything. Hey, you know if, if you want to use a rotary phone, you're go. If you want to get to work on a fucking horse and carriage. You're more than welcome to be his guest. That's totally fine. You know, if you want to drink water from a lake, go. By all means.

[A]

Hey, make sure you boil that water.

[B]

By all means. Thank you for the 10 super chat that's gonna do it today for Kind of Funny Games Daily. Stay tuned for In Review after this, but until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you. Foreign it's tax season, and at LifeLock, we know you're tired of numbers, but.

[A]

Here'S a big one you need to hear.

[B]

Billions. That's the amount of money in refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud.

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Now here's another big number.

[B]

100 million.

[A]

That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it.

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Guaranteed.

[A]

One last big number.

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Save up to 40% your first year.

[A]

Visit lifelock.

[B]

Com podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.