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Andy Cortez
This episode is brought to you by Fandango.
Michael Howard
People say fans are too distracted these days. But the truth is, when a great movie hits the screen, you show up.
Andy Cortez
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Andy Cortez
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Michael Howard
for our nation's future.
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We are Marines. We were made for this.
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Andy Cortez
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Michael Howard
to patreon.com kindafunny Today's gaming news stories include A Last of Us Online Dev Speaks up about its soul crushing cancellation. The Mario Galaxy movie is breaking records and Sony Interactive Entertainment makes a new acquisition. I just, I've just been notified they may be getting shut down very soon. We'll have all this and more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, March 2, 2026. It's April 2, March blessing Adioia Jr. When you typed in this document. I am Andy Cortez and I'm joined by Snow Bike Michael Howard.
Andy Cortez
Little Jokester today.
Michael Howard
Little jokester. Little Jokester.
Andy Cortez
It's not April Fools, but you'd be fooling today.
Michael Howard
Mike, what'd you get into last night?
Andy Cortez
Last night I got deep into the dungeons of Zelda.
Michael Howard
Ignored my calls, ignored my text, ignored my slacks.
Andy Cortez
Not happy about it, you know, but not happy.
Michael Howard
At who though. At who?
Andy Cortez
Yeah, at myself. Like, did I want to go to an awesome bathroom with my best friend? Yeah, of course.
Michael Howard
Right?
Andy Cortez
Like, not happy about it. Did I want to see Wemby put up MVP numbers in his final campaign to be chosen for. Yes.
Michael Howard
He's pushing for it.
Andy Cortez
And did I want to sit in nice seats with Andy Cortez? Yeah, super nice seats.
Michael Howard
Those are the seats we need to get from now on.
Andy Cortez
How much. How much did those run?
Michael Howard
240.
Andy Cortez
Not bad.
Michael Howard
240 left. It was like. It was. I was 18 rows up. It was real nice.
Andy Cortez
Wow. 18 rows up.
Michael Howard
Real nice. Real good angle. Yeah.
Andy Cortez
What you eat?
Michael Howard
Had a big ass pretzel.
Andy Cortez
Because, you know, I like eating when
Michael Howard
we go, dude, had a big. I had nachos and I had a big ass pretzel.
Andy Cortez
Nachos too.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
You dip the pretzel in the nacho cheese.
Michael Howard
Well, they gave you different cheese with the not spicy cheese. I think it was about the same cheese. I think it was the same sort of cheese. Yeah. Yeah, it was kind of spicy.
Andy Cortez
It's all coming out of a bag.
Michael Howard
Yeah, it's all coming out of some, you know, some distributor, wherever the hell it's coming in from. But the pretzel was. It was. It was really damn good. There was a dude in front of me who kept on going. Good rebound. Whenever the warriors would get a rebound. And then there was a little kid next to me who kept going. You suck. To all the little tallest spurs guys whenever they would miss a.
Andy Cortez
Hey, when you're in the lower bowl, you can do that. They hear it. They hear it.
Michael Howard
I mean, we weren't that close, but it was like, it was still really, really damn good. Shout out to game time. I use the. I use promo code. Dan. Shout out to game show. Yeah, that. This is not sponsored. Use those tickets.
Andy Cortez
It worked.
Michael Howard
Yeah, it worked. It worked. Yeah.
Andy Cortez
I love that.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Cuz I always feel like they say all that and it's like, that never works. But I also, like, never see the tickets go on sale that are like, oh, that's worth it, you know?
Michael Howard
Yeah, Tam was at the game too. He was in se. He was in. He sits in like section 200. So he was like the section above me and he texted me in the third quarter, I'm leaving. I can't watch this anymore.
Andy Cortez
They're getting smacked.
Michael Howard
They're getting smacked up. Yeah, the warriors are getting smacked up. They had like, nobody available, and it was a great day. Also, check this out. They was a player for the warriors whose right hand super hurt. They were down to nobody. They only had like nine players. He had to shoot his free throws with his left hand and the whole audience was like, oh God. Like it looked really, really bad. Poor guy, man, that's crazy.
Andy Cortez
They didn't call you down and they should have. They knows that you would have signed a 10 day.
Michael Howard
Steve Kerr knows. Steve Kerr should know. If you're watching live, be a part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kind of funny games we couldn't do this without our patreon producers on patreon.com forward/kind of funny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining we got a packed news day today. So 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, Baker's dozen that poor Smoke machine story number one last of us online dev says that it was around 80% complete before its soul crushing cancellation. This comes from Kenneth Shepard at Kotaku. It's been just under three years since Naughty Dog announced it was canceling a planned Last of Us multiplayer game in order to redirect resources to its single player to its signature single player narrative games. I stuttered quite a bit during that first sentence there, Mike, because I can't believe it's already been close to three years.
Andy Cortez
When I read the notification it was pretty wild of like man, how fast time goes.
Michael Howard
That is crazy. Not like yesterday it, you know. So they again are re they wanted to redirect resources to their signature single player narrative games, including the upcoming PS5 game Intergalactic the Heretic Profit. From the sound of it, the multiplayer game was in the late stages of development when the studio pulled the plug. Vinit Agarwal, the director on the project who has since left Naughty Dog and moved to Japan to found a new studio, sat down for a lengthy interview with Lance E. Lee to talk about his life and career. When the topic of the Last of Us came up, Agarwal revealed that the game was around 80% complete before it was canceled. Agarwal also gave some insights into Sony's misguided live service Pivot, which he says the company started pushing around 2020 at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic, and as online games become a way became a way for people to connect with their friends while quarantined in their homes as restrictions have loosened in the years that followed. People are playing online games as much as they were, and as such, all that investment into forever games Was pulled back. The combination of that and a weighing of the Naughty Dog's internal resources led to the last of us online cancellation. Quote. Basically, at one point a decision had to be made. All right, make this next game or make the next game that Neil Jucman was directing, the president of the company. And so kind of naturally you can understand what happened there. They had to pick the game that was kind of the bread and butter of the studio, rather than this experimental game that I was working on that I believe was going to be really big, but unfortunately couldn't see the light of day. That was a devastating moment for me because I spent seven years working on that game and it was soul crushing. I remember honestly finding out that it was getting canceled 24 hours before it was announced to the public. That's how I found out about the game getting canceled. And it was just unfortunate they had to do that because they have to control the messaging. Oh, like a player learning that he's getting shipped out, going to another team on the bench, you know, I mean, that's tough.
Andy Cortez
Very unfortunate stuff right there. And it's wild to start finally hearing a little bit of the story behind the scenes. Right. Talking with the director of the game. Seven years of development time, all to be cut short at about 80% markers. Wild.
Michael Howard
It's obviously insanely. It's got to be insanely soul crushing. And you gotta hope that so many of those employees are able to put some stuff on their portfolios, But a lot of it is likely NDA'd. Oh. And then you go, well, hey, I. I should be hired at this next studio. I just can't show you the stuff I worked on for the last seven years because that game got canceled and now Naughty Dog and Sonyard letting me show it. So all of that kind of gets into a weird, you know, like, gray area or whatever. But when I think of this game, I think that if Sony could see the future and if they could see how massive arc raiders became.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
With the last of us being a big name, having a huge TV show, I think that this would have been the one that they decided actually, no, let's go forward with that one and. And let's cancel the other ones. Let's find out a way to keep this thing going so that Neil can continue intergalactic. It's. It's just insane to me that that's the project that gets canceled still. Like when we look at all of the other live service stuff that eventually ended up happening and ended up going through a lot of it got a lot of it probably has to do with the fact that it is Naughty Dog going. Well, we'd rather you work on that big thing rather than this. Like Vinit mentioned this experimental multiplayer game, but for all the other multiplayer projects to get through and to get greenlit, and for the last of Us, one, with two seasons of an HBO show that everybody fell in love with, to be the one to get canceled just makes you go, there had to have been a way to kind of keep
Andy Cortez
this going, call up another studio for support.
Barrett
Handy.
Andy Cortez
Why can't we break off a small team with Neil to maybe start the intergalactic run and build out while the team finishes this up? Right. It's like one of those. You wish you could have been there in the room to hear it all. Because, yeah, you would think after Hell Divers two, of course you would look at Marathon. Now, of course you've had some stumbles with Concord, but you would think you would look at that and go, okay, let's get to the finish line here because those are going to pay off. What do we need to support you? But, yeah, the bread and butter is with Neil with this single player, narrative driven game. We're going to go back to that. No matter how far you are wild to say that we're at 80% and be like, you know what? You can get that far into a project and I'd be like, we're done with that.
Michael Howard
Yeah. And a lot of it comes down to that, you know, can we even recoup any of these losses? Right. And I think if, you know, again, this is armchair finance, you know, marketer or whatever, but if you're that close to it, you got to assume. All right, put it out. Let's try to get something back from this. Let's try to sell some microtransactions. Let's. Let's sell this base game. But again, I. When I think of what Naughty Dog was doing, trying to have this, not just. This isn't Factions one, right. Everything we've heard about Factions two felt a little bit more extraction, like, yeah. You know, and. And I think in that moment, without knowing that something like Arc Raiders could come along and succeed, they go, well, this is still kind of an improving game type, you know, And I think a lot of that has to do with them going, actually, no, we'll go ahead and go forward with Concord because it's a game type that people are more familiar with. It's an arena shooter.
Andy Cortez
I mean, at that time, they are. They're basing this all off the ip, right? Just like you could point to Tarkov at that time, you could probably point to the division Dark Zone, but they're just basing this all off of like, hey, the IP is going to carry this and hopefully people will jump on and find themselves really enjoying this new game mode that we're going to try to put out to the mass audience right now. I wish we could have learned more, right? What a time this would be to go get drinks with this game developer and be like, hey, point to some of the things you were doing. What were some of the highlights that you thought would, like, blow up in this game? I want to learn so much more about this game and to think what was behind the scenes and to think
Michael Howard
that this would have likely been one of those dual releases, PS5 and PC. Yeah. That there's a big player base out there. It's the Last of Us. It's a large ip. I'm just like, oh, there has to be people at Sony right now going, damn it. We. We had something there and we shut it down. Because obviously you need those employees to be working on the intergalactic game.
Andy Cortez
And we also know, yeah, you're 80% there, Andy, but 20% still to the finish line, which is going to be a lot. And then also, you have to keep this game alive.
Michael Howard
Right?
Andy Cortez
So, like, what does the studio look like if this does become a massive hit? Are resources now diverted from Neil Druckmann and his team over to this side, where now we have to build up a stronger crew that keeps up with this updates for the extraction shooter, whatever faction was, and maybe that slows down Neil and his team. Or does it die right away and then all of a sudden we have a massive loss. The Last of Us name takes a hit, which we've talked about before. We don't think it would have, but if it did die, how big of a hit would that name have taken?
Barrett
Question from the pool here, if you may. I do wonder, though, like, how much was Naughty Dog, like, ramping up and, like, bringing talent in for this, right? Because we talk about, like, oh, like, we needed to cut this thing to fully support Intergalactic, but for years, if y' all were kind of building this up as something bigger than Last of Us factions for this Last of Us to Part two multiplayer, don't you think, like, they would have brought in more people for that? That's just something that I've always thought about as well. Like, were you not thinking far into the future of those outcomes of like, you know, having that team there or like having like extra people there for this multiplayer team while not having to redirect resources from Intergalactic.
Michael Howard
Well, you got to assume as they look back on the development of this, you would ask them how long is it going to take to make this game? They wouldn't have said it would have taken seven years of production. There's likely a good chance that they wanted this to be much shorter. Well, and then scope and other games coming out and other ideas and then things sort of snowball and suddenly it's a much larger project than maybe you're willing to sort of fully take on. But they were fully taking it on for damn near a decade, you know,
Andy Cortez
pretty impressive stuff while still doing their normal games, mind you. Right. And it's like we hear stories out of Obsidian with their smaller teams doing grounded. Right. We talk about pro projects with Pentiment. Right. How big is this team that's working on that? Seven years. Yes, is a long time, but for the first two years was it eight people building out a small prototype and then it got bigger and bigger. The chat also reminds me that like, yeah, they said in an interview that if this game were to hit, they would become a live, live service studio only, which I don't think would actually be the case. They would 100% fund that team and also get back to their bread and butter with Neil of single player narrative games. Like there's no way in a world that if this game does come out and it hits all of a sudden, Naughty Dog. Naughty Dog is only Bungie making a live service game. No, they would still 100% double down on that and give them even more to go make more games.
Michael Howard
Now the, the kind of closest analog I can think of is Bungie, who's making Destiny at the time. And then that small team spins off to work on the frog game or whatever that multiplayer, the gummy. Whatever the hell project. Gummy Bear.
Andy Cortez
Gummy Bear, yeah.
Barrett
But they.
Michael Howard
There's also like a frog thing. A frog type.
Barrett
It's a frog game.
Michael Howard
Yeah, frog type game is what they were saying. And that that project alone was. That warranted a different team getting sort of spun off and becoming a different team. Hey, you guys worked at Bungie. Now we're kind of going to give you a different name. You're going to go work over there on this project for a little while or whatever. And that's, you know, again, armchair studio director or armchair Sony director at that point. That's it's worth going all Right, everybody, we need you back on Neil's project. But the stars of that project. Let's get you on multiplayer. Yeah, let's. We're going to shut down Blue Point in five years. Let's get you over, you know, like it's. Man, I feel like there could have been something here. And for all of us, for all the times that we make fun of how badly ideated and how awful of. Of a directive this whole life service push was, this is the one that could have been the one that they could have stuck with.
Andy Cortez
It's a little head scratching to me of like, oh, like during COVID we saw everybody at home playing games together. But then after Covid, like people just stopped playing. It's like, well, people didn't stop playing online games. Like they kept going. I know that the bread and butter is single player games, but it is interesting of like this whole live service push has quickly become like, oh no. People are back to playing just single player games. Cut it all down. Right? It's like, no, you just haven't found the game that works yet. Right. So it does take time. It does take a lot of losses. But like there is a diamond in the rough there. Last of us probably had a better chance than a lot of other Sony Live service pushes that they had.
Michael Howard
Yeah. Where's. Where's Fair Games Mass affection with a $2 super chat says could have had Bluepoint take over the last of us online could have had a lot of like really talented employees go off and continue that.
Andy Cortez
That's the odd one you would love to be at the moment of like when they said hey. Which like it sounds like hey. He didn't find out until his game was going to be canceled 24 hours ahead of time. But there had to be a conversation in the room of like right now we only have enough for resources for either Neil and his team or for you. Let's start to hear the pitches of why we should do both.
Michael Howard
Right.
Andy Cortez
Or why we should pick one or the other. This team Sony couldn't go, let's make both happen right now. If you really thought this was going to be the game gonna be so special. Eight years, seven years of work and then just drop down the drain. That's crazy.
Michael Howard
Yeah. We need, we need like the, the full deep dive. Because I, you know, looking at Naughty Dog to, to online estimates, they're around a 400 employee company.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And you just got to wonder how many would it have taken to. To work on this other game and not all of those 400. We're working on the Last of Us Online. You know, a lot of them were already in pre pro for Neil's game, so kind of just makes you wonder what kind of powers could have been diverted. You know, 20% more to the engines, 24% more to the whatever. You know, Bailey Walker says with a five dollar super chat says, wasn't it Bungie that came in and raised the red flags on the last of Us online just for their own studio to be thrown in potential peril. Yeah, there were reports that, that Bungie was kind of the. Hey, we'll. We'll be kind of consultants on a lot of these live service pushes. Okay. And that they were one of the studios that I guess looked at the Last of Us online. I, I don't have it down perfectly. I don't like the look of it. But I, I do think that Bungie were one of the people, you know, one of the consultants to be like I don't know if this is working,
Andy Cortez
but if we would think that it was actually an extracted shooter and makes an extracted shooter pretty wild right there.
Michael Howard
Yeah, yeah.
Andy Cortez
Not a great look.
Michael Howard
Yeah, I like again, that's very much a. You know, we'll have to find the exact story because. But I do remember that coming out, you know, I'm seeing some stories here from Forbes here. This story from Paul Tassie talking about Bungie reviewing. Reportedly reviewed the last of those factions and found it lacking. This is a five month.
Andy Cortez
I mean that also could be true, right? I mean you brought it. You purchased Bungie. Sony purchased Bungie for of course Bungie and the team, but also their expertise of like, hey, help us. We're trying to make a Big 12 game, live service push. Come in here and bring your expertise. And so you have the team went in there and said, yeah, it's not the best. Then you probably take them at their word cuz yeah, they kind of know live service games in and out for sure. I would love to know more. I want this guy to open up and tell us all about this game. I need to know map size, how many maps, what was the actual objective of the game was an extraction shooter? Was it just teams of threes banging into each other? Like I want to know all about this game.
Barrett
This is from Forbes. When this was written about with the. The whole bungee of it all early last year, despite saying that when he played the Last of Us online it was quote unquote great. Says that Bungie explained what it takes to make live service games and naughty Dog realized, oops, we can't do that. If we do it, we can't make intergalactic. So that was a lack of foresight. A very expensive oops that costs years of development resources and tens of millions of dollars, no doubt. So I think, you know, there's been a conflation of, you know, people saying like, oh, Bungie saw the Last of Us game and said it was like bad and it needed to be canceled. But I think that's like over dramaticizing like what actually happened there. It wasn't that like they came in
Michael Howard
and said this isn't working.
Barrett
It's just like, hey, these are going to be the steps that you need to take in the future. And again, seems like they gave them
Michael Howard
enough hesitation for Sony to go. You don't get again that lack of foresight.
Barrett
Yeah, it's just like a weird.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, it sounds like Bungie came and it's like, hey, just so you know, we've gone down this road and once you do it, you become destiny. Right? We've done destiny for 10 years. Don't see any other Bungie titles out there.
Michael Howard
Right.
Andy Cortez
So like if you're going to do it, you're going to have to commit the whole team to it, which then I still believe Sony would. If Neil Druckman was like, hey, my studio now only makes a live service game. I still want to make single player games. They're going to figure out a way to make sure Neil Druckman is happy and making a game with him. Now would we get intergalactic? Maybe not. But would we get a Neil Druckman single player game?
Michael Howard
100%. Yeah, 100%. Story number two, Super Mario Galaxy Movie has a better opening day than the first film and is expected to finish behind for the weekend. This comes from Chris Sculling at vgc. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has started off well at the box office, outdoing its predecessor on its first day. As a reminder to listeners out there and viewers, we're doing our interview today. Very excited to talk about it after gamescast. Most likely, yes. When the Super Mario Bros. Movie launched on April, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, it brought in 31.7 million in the U.S. box office that day. Now, as reported by Deadline, the Super Mario Galaxy Movie has bettered this, hitting 34 million on Wednesday. This not only surpasses the first film, but is also the best ever, opening Wednesday in April. Despite its strong start, the publication notes that it's harder to tell whether it'll keep up its momentum over the course of its first three day period, parentheses up until the end of Friday and then its 5 day period ending the weekend, Universal is estimating that the film will reach $1 $128.2 million over three days and 186 million over five days. Which would be less than the first Super Mario Bros. Movie, which hit 146 million in three days and 204 million in five days, but would still be Illumination's second best opening, beating out any of its minion movies. Should the Super Mario Galaxy pass 100 million domestically by Friday, as expected, it would become just the fourth animated franchise to have two movies pass 100 million in their first or in their opening three days. Along with Shrek, Toy Story and Minions.
Andy Cortez
Damn.
Michael Howard
It does feel like the first Super Mario movie. Mike had a lot more legs. Okay, Once more word of mouth kept going. Like it. The way that Super Mario 1 gained money reminds me a lot of the way inside out 2 gained money, okay. When I would suddenly just hear about Inside Out 2 has made how much. That's still. Are you fucking serious? Like it's still continuing to do that. I feel like Super Mario 1 had a lot of legs. And it feels like maybe they're estimating that Super Mario 2 may not have that much, but will still be way up there along with their other franchises.
Andy Cortez
Super Mario 1 at the time I think felt kind of like the, the first one, right? A new thing coming out here. Something special and different of like, oh, we weren't used to like video game movies being so, so good. And also the first time a animated Mario movie is like on the big stage and like nailing it. So I think there was like a little bit different of like now we're sequel. We know what it's capable of. Still incredible dollars here, right? If, if I'm to believe the Google search right here, $110 million is the budget for the new movie rights to Mario Galaxy. Movie 2026 was 110. That's a lot. They're going to make a lot of
Michael Howard
money making all that a lot of money pretty quickly.
Andy Cortez
I mean, do you think we'll take over number one or do you think it will slow down like these estimates?
Michael Howard
I think I think it will slow down. I think there was just something so special about that first one and maybe word of mouth not being there. I think the economy not being there either. You know, I think we were still kind of not quite pandemic era. We were still like we're on the way out of it definitely in. In 2024, I believe that or 2023, but I think money's just a lot tighter now.
Andy Cortez
Okay. I mean, it's interesting because when you think about it, right, we're about to go into Easter Sunday or Easter weekend. We also have spring break right now. I think these numbers will start to get up a lot higher come the weekend. Right. I think we just got to get there. Wednesdays, it's an interesting one. We're reading this on a Wednesday into Thursday, which I love that, like the box box office opening weekend has become like a week now.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Like not a weekend, but they're just
Michael Howard
pushing further back and further back.
Andy Cortez
Exactly. I do feel like by Friday you're going to see something different. You might see a different energy here.
Michael Howard
Do you plan on watching it?
Andy Cortez
Oh, yeah, I do. Well, eventually. Yeah.
Michael Howard
Yeah. Okay.
Andy Cortez
Like, I'm trying to hesitation there.
Michael Howard
What's going on there?
Andy Cortez
It's like this is this movie for me at where I'm at in life is like a perfect mic on the couch or on my phone watching movie, like when it comes out, you know, so it's like there's no rush. Right. But yeah, I'd like to see it in theaters. I saw Project Hail Mary two nights ago. Loved it.
Michael Howard
And so where was my invite?
Andy Cortez
You want to go see the IMAX was so good. Damn, that rock hit me, dude. The rock hit me.
Michael Howard
I don't want to know. Don't tell me the rock. I don't want to know.
Andy Cortez
Talk about Dwayne.
Michael Howard
Oh, okay. He was in it. I didn't know that. Yeah. So the, you know, when we were heading out for Super Mario Galaxy, the movie, and we were like, who's. Who's going to the screener? And Mike said, oh, you know, we're not invited anymore.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, me and Roger and Barrett.
Michael Howard
And then he said, I. He's like, well, you know, Andy, you know, probably told him that I fell asleep 40 minutes in or whatever. There was a lot of that. Well, you know, I, you know, I got the gist. I got the gist as he was snoring next to. I still have that photo. My Google photos will bring up like the memories or whatever and just it's blessing to your left looking at you. You just like knock the out. Good one. It's a real good one. But we will be talking all about Super Mario Galaxy movie today for In Review and Tim Gettys is coming back to the studio to do the interview with us and I'm very excited to
Andy Cortez
have him it's gonna be a big deal. This movie's gonna be big. I just. Even if it falls a little short
Michael Howard
of the first, I swear. Better. I just wish it were better.
Andy Cortez
I. I know it's so interesting to hear you guys talk about it, but then, like, Roger saw it last night. He's like, it's a movie. I enjoyed it. Like, it's a good time.
Michael Howard
You know, it's like, it'll make you smile.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, it's gonna be a very interesting reaction of, like, now that people are out there watching what they think, because there's been some wild reviews. Oh, yeah, there's been some wild, wild reviews, Andy. From afar.
Michael Howard
Like, yeah, I.
Andy Cortez
Those.
Michael Howard
Those first several reviews from press people that you could tell have never picked up a video game in their life. I don't even blame them for feeling that way. Yeah, but it's like, you shouldn't. You sports fans should not be going to an NFL game to, like, review the game, you know, like, if you don't really know what's happening, if you don't understand the references, this is. This movie is so reference heavy. This movie hits you with, like, some crazy deep cuts that, to an outsider would be watching this. Go. I don't know what the fuck any of this means. Like, this means nothing to me, you know? And it does hit you with a lot of that now. It is beautiful. God dang, this movie is gorgeous. And the soundtrack, way less licensed music, which was my favorite thing about it.
Andy Cortez
They had a lot of licensed music in the first one.
Michael Howard
I mean, you know, they had like, I need a hero.
Andy Cortez
Oh.
Michael Howard
And famously, like, yeah, like, during the Donkey Kong segment up, dude, they. They got rid of so much of that we got. And it's like, don't worry about, dude. The orchestra stuff is like. I was getting goosebumps. So much of it. And then the characters were talking. He was like, man, y' all can't be funnier. Like, come on, man. Come on, dude. Andy. But it's a kids movie. Okay, but so are the Lego movies, and those are great, dude. Barely.
Andy Cortez
He's always.
Michael Howard
Hey, you know that. You know in the first movie how that Peaches song blew up and was so popular? Yeah, we're gonna do that for the second one. No. Okay. Got, like, what? Get me in there, man. Get me in there. Let me help write some jokes. Story number three. Sony Interactive Entertainment acquires Cinemersive Labs. There's a press release at Sony Interactive Entertainment, the company behind the PlayStation brand. We are continually exploring new ways to Push the boundaries of visual computing and deliver richer, more immersive gameplay experiences. Today we are pleased to announce that SIE has entered into an agreement to acquire Cinemersive Labs, a UK based machine. A UK based machine learning and computer vision company. Computer vision, what does that mean?
Andy Cortez
You know what, it's a lot of cool words. Computer.
Michael Howard
We see the vision.
Andy Cortez
That's all you need to know. This is cool words AI.
Michael Howard
You ask the computer and their computer's like, I got something, don't worry about it.
Andy Cortez
You type into the computer what you want, it says, I'll give you the vision.
Michael Howard
I got the vision.
Barrett
Yeah.
Michael Howard
Founded in 2022, Cinemersive Labs brings together a specialized team with deep expertise in computer vision and machine learning. Following the acquisition, the Cinemersive Labs team will join sie's visual computing group, vcg, not vgc, vcg, and contribute to our broader efforts in advancing state of the art visual computing within games. This includes applying machine learning to enhance gameplay visuals, improve rendering techniques and and unlock new levels of visual fidelity for players. We look forward to welcoming the Cinemersive Labs team to SIE and continue to make PlayStation the best place to play. We are really excited to talk about it. Now. I hear all this, let's talk about it. And you immediately go, oh man, they want to do a lot of like AI stuff, but on the flip side, flip it. I'm flip it for you, Mike. Let me flip it. Seems like they want to help improve Pisser a lot.
Andy Cortez
When I read it, Andy, when I've learned from you and you and I doing a lot of Nvidia stuff, I, I was like, oh, this sounds like a lot of things that Nvidia does, AMD does, right? It seems like this is a team that wants to improve upon their visuals and fidelity and the stuff that they have going into their hardware and their software and all their programs. It's like this seems aligned with everything else that we're seeing from, from other companies in the tech space that are pushing kind of the medium forward. It seems like they are trying to find a group to help them do that.
Michael Howard
That's, that's the hope. That's certainly the hope.
Andy Cortez
You know, I mean like that's what it seems like, right? Like to me it's like, okay, clearly that's what it is. Then I type in Cinema Cinemersive Labs.com to find the website. It's like, oh, let me see what the website is. Pretty low key website, but AI is the second word there. Just so you know, like, as to be expected.
Michael Howard
Okay.
Andy Cortez
But I was looking for like an About Me page. Not much on the About Me, but some cool stuff going on with like taking a photo and then bringing AI to help it like become a larger photo.
Michael Howard
Being able to get 3D space scope around him, you know, it's, it's fascinating and I hope that they can continue to make pssr, you know, more improved and continue to make that technology more competitive. Because when I hopped in and checked it out over the weekend, I was super impressed by what I was seeing. Like, I, I, it, things look a lot better and things are improving with pssr.
Andy Cortez
I mean, that's got to be the goal, right? It's like to make your hardware stronger through this different technologies. Because you're now competing with PCs and Nvidia and AMD and all these different graphics cards, you are competing with a possible Steam machine. Right. It's like you still want to be the top of the line hardware to push all these incredible games that you have. So they got to stay in the running with it.
Michael Howard
Go ahead, Barrett.
Barrett
I just, I just wonder what's the, the, the roi, the return on investment for a technology that is exclusive to a machine that is now $900 while also laying off studios for, you know, the creative side and actually making, you know, software that's available for all PlayStation customers? You know, that's just, that's just another thought.
Michael Howard
I, you know, so you gotta shut down one studio to buy another one,
Andy Cortez
you know, you gotta how many to make money?
Michael Howard
So in my mind, yeah, the reason I love these technologies is there are a lot of studios that could use this technology in a way that could help quicken the optimization process.
Andy Cortez
Okay.
Michael Howard
You know, when we talk about, hey, can we shave off eight months of development optimization time and have Pisser make things look and run better?
Andy Cortez
Okay.
Michael Howard
Without requiring you to spend that much time at the end of like developing the game or whatever. That's pie in the sky. That's idealist, Andy. Thinking like, here's the best case scenario.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, right. That sounds like a lot of what the CEOs are trying to preach to us. Like, that's what we're aiming for.
Michael Howard
Right.
Andy Cortez
But really it's just like a lot, a lot of, a lot of lost jobs. But yeah, it does seem like, hey, we're trying to use this technology to cut down on a lot of development
Michael Howard
time and you know, we'll see if any of that actually works in the future because these, the games are just getting way, way. They're Getting increasingly expensive to make horse and that, you know, that development time is not great for. It's not great for the bottom line. You know, when people look at these, these, they look at all their development teams and say, it's costing us. How much to make this game.
Andy Cortez
How many people at Naughty dog? Again?
Michael Howard
Around 400.
Andy Cortez
How long do you usually make a, you know, narrative cinematic game?
Michael Howard
Six or seven years.
Andy Cortez
Okay. They're all getting paid a hundred thousand dollars minimum, you know, a year. A lot of money.
Michael Howard
A lot of money.
Andy Cortez
A lot of money. A lot of time.
Michael Howard
And then you also look at what the money gets, what money gets brought in. You go, okay, but do you need that much? And the shareholders go, yes, we do. Yes, we would like more.
Andy Cortez
So I supported you, I gave you money, I wanted you to make me more money. So one of the things that we're looking for from this acquisition, though, on the real you brought up maybe helping, Helping shorten development time and optimization time for devs. What are some other things? Pisser. Getting an upgrade picture becoming on par with other, you know.
Michael Howard
Yeah, being more competitive, I would say
Andy Cortez
tech that we see.
Michael Howard
Yeah, showing. Yeah, showing PC gamers that, hey, if you were really, really looking forward to upgrading or buying a PC in the future, everything's getting more expensive. Not just us, everything is getting more expensive out there. You know, possible PC player in the future. What if you came to us?
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And we could be, you know, we could push that tech forward because you're going to PC for those insane visuals running at 4K and it's going to be like the most near lossless experience. Everything's going to look so crisp and so good. We can deliver a facsimile of that. We'll get like super, super close. But we will be. We're still an $800 machine or a $900 machine. And that is not close to your 35 to 4000 or 3500 to $4000 machine. You know what I mean?
Andy Cortez
That's the conversation we always have is like, you know, I say all the kids want PCs. And it's like, well, the PCs are super expensive. I man, when I saw Path Tracing for the first time with you on Cyberpunk, I'm like, I want my game to do that on console.
Michael Howard
Right?
Andy Cortez
Like, do that. It's like, well, Mike, it's going to take a lot more to get.
Michael Howard
If you want it to look like that, you're going to have to run it at 720p or whatever and then. But if your upscaling technology is so damn good then you could push that. Yeah, go ahead Bear.
Barrett
If you want to afford a console, probably not going to buy a PS6 are we?
Andy Cortez
So we think that PS6 and X console will be $1,000. Is that what everybody's lining up with right now?
Barrett
I think if it, if the base model, if there are different models has pisser. Yeah. And they're putting all this like same technology that we've been investing in PS5 Pro. Like yeah, it's gonna be expensive.
Michael Howard
I do wonder if at any point they just notice. I, I just want to know if they will ever notice. Like just a massive slowdown in sales and go let's course correct this could
Andy Cortez
be the moment right. Of like if that is true, let's say it's a thousand to twelve hundred dollars and all of a sudden people are like not spending that much money. My PS5 or my PS5 Pro still running this, you know, will they see that?
Michael Howard
Well you know they, this is also
Barrett
the same company that said, you know, you'll get a second job for your PS3 when that initially launched. Like I, I think it's one of those when you invest for so long in a technology you can't just like reverse course on like oh, we're going to take back the PS6 after we reveal it and it's you know, $1,000 right.
Andy Cortez
So damn.
Barrett
People are going to go buy, you know, a slightly more expensive Switch 2 but it's not nearly as much as all the other shit that is on the market.
Andy Cortez
So we don't expect the big two, not including Nintendo here, Xbox and PlayStation to be a thou in the thousand dollar price range here for this next console.
Michael Howard
Wow, everything really sped up, really skyrocketed out of Sandy. Yeah, everything really.
Andy Cortez
We went from man, $400, $500 to we're up there now. That's crazy.
Michael Howard
We went from talking about a fun Super Mario Galaxy movie to just how bad everything else in the world is. And things don't always have to be bad. Mike, if you Support us on Patreon.com because we need your support. Because if you don't support the things you love, they go away. That's a warning for all of you. Bear laughing in the background. We will be back after a word from our sponsors. Hopefully we'll be back.
NOCD Representative
You finally sit down to game, just you controller and zero responsibilities. When your brain decides that's the perfect time to say what if I'm secretly a terrible person and everyone can see it but me and suddenly relaxing and enjoying yourself is impossible. Instead, your brain grabs onto that thought and will not let it go. Here's the thing. That kind of relentless thought spiral isn't just anxiety. It could also be ocd, a condition that's way too misunderstood and way more common than most of the people realize. But it doesn't have to be that way. OCD needs erp, or Exposure and Response Prevention, which is proven to be the most effective treatment. And that's where no CD comes in. NOCD is the world's leading provider of OCD treatment and it's covered by insurance for over 138 million Americans. All of their licensed therapists specialize in ERP therapy and will help you learn to take the power of away from the intrusive thoughts in live, face to face virtual sessions. If unwanted thoughts are taking over, don't wait to get help. Visit nocd.com and book a free call with their team. That's nocd.com
Michael Howard
it's tax season and at LifeLock we know you're tired of numbers, but here's a big one you need to hear. Billions. That's the amount of money and refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud. Now here's another big number. 100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it, guaranteed. One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for the threats you can't control. Terms apply.
Andy Cortez
Spring is starting at the Home Depot and we're bringing you low prices guaranteed so you can wake up your yard this season. Shape up your lawn with top brand outdoor power tools. Tools like this Ryobi 40 volt mower with up to 50 minutes of runtime. Bring in a splash of color with spring blooms and fresh plants from the Home Depot Garden Center. Then refresh your garden beds and keep them clear of weeds with Vigoro Mulch free bags for $10. Start your spring with low prices guaranteed only at the Home Depot exclusion supplies. See homedepot.com pricematch for details.
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Michael Howard
Meal and Hunt Tricks Meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans. What do you say to that, Rumi? It's not a battle. So glad the Saja boys could take
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Michael Howard
It is an honor to share. No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor. No, really, stop. You can really feel the respect in this battle.
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Michael Howard
and participate in McDonald's while supplies last. And we're back. Let's get to some super chats, shall we? Kebab says PSSR will become Nvidia's yasser. Oh, it's a joke about, you know, Nvidia making.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
Everybody pretty looking diddly with a five dollar super chat says everyone should be outraged. They close a studio so they could buy an AI company. Spend money to make money.
Andy Cortez
Is that. I don't know if that's how it works.
Michael Howard
Spend money to burn more money.
Andy Cortez
I don't think that's how it works, but. All right.
Barrett
Give in to the bubble that's eventually gonna explode in all of our faces.
Michael Howard
Oh, did you see that? That AI actress girl is being deactivated. Was it. What? Maybe that was an April Fool's meme. Maybe I'm getting. God, I just kind of realized that.
Andy Cortez
But I saw AI actress girl. There was an AI actress, right, that we. Yeah, that was getting put out there.
Michael Howard
She was going to take over Tilly Norwood. She was taking over Hollywood. Everybody was really excited for her. And then apparently I definitely, now that I'm thinking of it, I definitely got tricked.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
Yeah. But like, the post is like, I'm being deactivated. This is really funny. Recipes, Tilly. Livia with a $5 super chat says critically reviewing a movie that's clearly made for kids is cringe, imo. I don't give a fuck about your opinion, okay? Because a kid's movie can still make adults laugh.
Andy Cortez
Why would.
Michael Howard
Why would you hold yourself back? Why don't you want things to be better?
Andy Cortez
Enjoy a little whimsy a little bit? Wow.
Michael Howard
Why don't you want things to be better?
Andy Cortez
So you're mad about this person saying you can't be critical of the kids movie?
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Oh, you married?
Barrett
We don't need to think deep about children's ip.
Michael Howard
I've watched so many kids movies. We've done Pixar and review again. The Lego Batman movie, the Lego Movie. Like, all of those movies are kid movies.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And they got the. The Ninja Turtles movie, the, you know, that animated one. Those are kids movies.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And they got really creative writing and funny, witty moments between characters. And like, honestly, those things shouldn't exist.
Barrett
They're just made for kids. Kids are stupid.
Andy Cortez
They'll.
Barrett
They'll consume anything.
Andy Cortez
We come out of the movement and say, hey, it could have been a little bit better.
Michael Howard
Yeah, but, like, why don't, you know, why don't you just. Why accept it? You know what I mean? Why don't you just want more? It's okay. It's okay to expect more.
Andy Cortez
Oh, yeah.
Michael Howard
It's okay.
Andy Cortez
We walk out of it and go, man, they could have been better on that.
Michael Howard
Yeah, yeah, it could have been better.
Andy Cortez
You could have said that.
Michael Howard
Could have been better.
Andy Cortez
Take notes. It could be better. You're making me watch Chris Pratt as Mario get a little bit better.
Michael Howard
Get a little bit better. Exactly is all I'm saying.
Andy Cortez
You're making me watch Chris Pratt.
Michael Howard
DJ Deit with a $5 super chat says, in a world where studios are forced to make games that kill their studios, we should celebrate when a studio saves itself by listening and pulling back.
Andy Cortez
Celebrate Naughty Dog by saying, hey, we shouldn't do this. Let's pull back and go to our bread and butter.
Michael Howard
I just don't know if this, like, this doesn't have to kill. This will. This would have only killed Naughty Dog. If you are dog at managing companies because the smart people know you don't make this Naughty Dog's number one priority. You move people like, yeah, you're acting like, like, like there's no autonomy here. Like, it's all just like, it's gonna happen regardless. We have. Jesus took the wheel.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And if we.
Andy Cortez
The one and done situation. Yeah.
Michael Howard
It's like, no, there's other things that could have been done to, you know, it's not like, hey, we gotta stop this video game or else Naughty Dog's gonna die. It's like, no, there's other. Other things that could have been done.
Andy Cortez
I can promise you Naughty Dog would not have died.
Michael Howard
Yeah. Yeah. Story number five. Story number four. Sorry. Seems, Mike, that maybe some executives high up decided to listen to the Gamescast of how to fix Xbox. Yes, because story number four is that Xbox Fan Fest Tour 2026 has been announced. This comes from Sal Romano at Gamatsu. Microsoft Gaming has announced Xbox fan Fest Tour 2026, a series of global events featuring experiences unique to each host location. Xbox Fan Fest will begin with the Los Angeles Fan Fest in June, which will occur alongside Xbox Game Showcase 2026, followed by Cologne in Germany, London, UK, Mexico City, Mexico, Seattle and Sydney, Australia, Tokyo, Japan, and Toronto, Canada, with more locations to be announced. That's a lot of places to world tour. Yeah. Are there. I mean, we'll see how it looks. I'm waiting to see, like, how it's
Andy Cortez
going to Be like one of those orchestra ones where it's like, hey, we've done half of it, you know. Yeah, we have to slow down a little bit.
Michael Howard
Yeah. I hope it's not like that willy wonk experience.
Andy Cortez
Well, it'll be very interesting because I have some big expectations for this and I will be interested to see where they meet. This of like. Yeah, what does this look like? The final product, Andy, when we do walk in at Seattle, Toronto, Mexico City. Right. Like I think cologne, you clearly line that up with Gamescom.
Michael Howard
Right.
Andy Cortez
La, you're lining it up with Summer Game Fest right there. Right. Tokyo, you're probably tgs. But these other stops, where do they go and what is the expectation level? Because I, as an Xbox, you know, mega fan there, I have some high expectations for this.
Michael Howard
Well, let's continue on with the story. It says expect in person experiences that brings the worlds of Xbox to life with opportunities for players to connect with one another and the developers and creators behind your favorite games. Developers, be careful and just maybe have
Andy Cortez
I excited to see them.
Michael Howard
Maybe just have security on you. You never know. You just never know. You never know. The each Fan Fest event will be unique to location in which it's held. Celebrating the local Xbox community and the ways they engage with gaming and the people that make it special. That's pretty neat. Every location gonna kind of have its own theme, you know.
Andy Cortez
Yeah. Your own unique vibe and theme. So when I first saw this early when I woke up, I was like, oh, they're just doing Fan Fest around the globe like they've done the past couple of years where it's like more fan kind of oriented, almost fan run of like, hey, we're just lining up Summer Game Fest with whatever city you're in and hosting a little mini party. No, it seems like it's beyond that, which I'm very excited for because for me we're talking about the 25th anniversary. We're talking about a new console possibly being announced. Most importantly, some great games coming out this year. And Xbox trying to win back the fans in a big way. I want to see them do what they did with EXO London and EXO Mexico City having a big party. A big.
Michael Howard
Those were huge.
Andy Cortez
Those were massive. Andy. I think, I mean, I don't want to say massive, but like they were big events right there. And so Mexico City was a big win. They had Gears of War there. They celebrated that. EXO London I think was the kickoff, if I remember right. So it's like if you get to that size on These events, then I'm very happy because that's what I want it to be. I do want it to be a mini E3. Right. We rented out a big warehouse. We have PlayStations all around the game stations. You can play everywhere and like, people are celebrating, having fun.
Michael Howard
D'. Oeuvres.
Andy Cortez
Yeah. There'll be snacks.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Food trucks. Food trucks. We're not walking around with.
Michael Howard
Everybody wash your hands, guys. Everybody wash. Don't touch your mouth. Don't get sick.
Andy Cortez
Okay, But I hold these. So, like, I hope this is exo level fun, but mind you, exo, they only did like two of those. Maybe three. But like, those were.
Michael Howard
It feels like the new kind of generation.
Andy Cortez
I wanted to. I wanted to happen. I mean, somebody wrote in, well, I guess East Coast. I mean, Toronto is East coast. Yeah, sure. Like, yeah, it's like, sure, you didn't get New York, but like, Toronto's close enough.
Michael Howard
Yeah. Booted up my Xbox last night for the first time in a. In a while. Well, for gaming, okay. I use my Xbox all the time. It's my media thing. Yeah, yeah. Booted up to play that Preview for Forza Horizon 6, which we cannot talk about, but we'll be able to talk about it. But you can say, we could say it.
Andy Cortez
Say it.
Michael Howard
Booted up that Forza Ryden 6. Okay. In Japan.
Andy Cortez
Hey now.
Michael Howard
Hey now. Hey now. Mike. Story number five. Pokemon has opened a Pocopia themed immersive space in London. This comes from Jordan Midler at vgc. And just real quick, before we get into the story from the lovely Jordan Midler, reading this title of this article, Mike made me. It reminded me of this. The immersive hotel. The Pokemon immersive hotel that we're getting a lot of press releases for in our emails.
Andy Cortez
I haven't seen it. You don't know.
Michael Howard
And it looks so bad. And I'm so sorry.
Andy Cortez
For Galactic Cruiser.
Michael Howard
Not even close to anything. Like, it looks like a kid's bedroom. Who's a big Pokemon fan. It's like we're putting. They're like, you'll never be more immersed in the world. It's like, okay, what does that mean? Am I going to be like, is there going to be a Pokemon center? Is like, yeah. Are the. Are the room service going to look like Nurse Joy or something? The wall, it's just like, here's wallpaper and the bed sheets are that as well. And it's like there's a Pokemon on the wallpapers and Pokemon on carpet. It just looks so bad. I don't know, Barrett, if you could look this up, it's not a very cool thing.
Andy Cortez
Now, the hotels are tough to capture. Now. I will say there's a number of hotels that we could point and be like, they captured that. Essence Hotel's a little bit tougher to capture the essence of. It reminds me of the recent Pokemon theme park that they just opened. We're like, the excitement. Okay, that's a lot. It's a lot going on there.
Michael Howard
The immersive Pokemon hotel, and it's just shit all in the ceiling.
Andy Cortez
We bought a thousand fatheads. Yes.
Michael Howard
Exactly what it is.
Andy Cortez
Mike, wait. Into every room. And we didn't say theme it with, like, water types only. Mike said, just put up every fat head we got in this.
Michael Howard
It's all over the place.
Andy Cortez
Okay, we all are back. That's a little. A little bit worse. It looks like. It looks like the back of my.
Michael Howard
My binder in middle school, you know, like, I just put stickers all over the place.
Andy Cortez
Hotels are tough to capture. The theme and the essence. This is very far from capturing that. So I'm not going to give it much love. You're.
Michael Howard
You're so right on. Like, man, they could have had, like, one of the rooms be like the fire room, where it's like, here's a bunch of firepower. That's the water. It's just all over the place, just everywhere.
Andy Cortez
Barrett, I don't know if you could, but could you look up? Legoland has a cool hotel that has very fun themed Lego Land rooms. And so maybe we could bring up that when they have a Legoland Ninjago hotel room, that's very well done, and we could point to that and be like, this is what we're looking for. It's still classy, it's still enjoyable, and it's a nice, modern hotel room. But, like, whoa. You have the theme of it. All right.
Michael Howard
Whoa.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
I don't know. I don't know if kids with Ninjago that way. Oh, oh, Ninjago is big.
Andy Cortez
They do.
Michael Howard
I mean, I knew that it was, like, a big thing, but I didn't know, like, yes, it was. It warranted a hotel.
NOCD Representative
Lego.
Andy Cortez
Yeah. Legoland has a hotel. Like, a lot of these resorts will have hotels next to it that are themed appropriately for it. Disney, of course, being the one that figures it out.
Michael Howard
Right.
Andy Cortez
But, like, even Disney, it's like, this is a hotel room.
Michael Howard
No.
Andy Cortez
All right, Pokemon, get your game up a little.
Michael Howard
Get back into the story. Sorry, Jordan Miller, we interrupted.
Andy Cortez
Oh, we got really lost on that. I Thought that was.
Michael Howard
Pokemon Co. Has opened a Pocopia themed immersive space in central London. Open from now until September 30, the space is open at the Mount in Acton, London. It's free to attend for fans and has been developed in collaboration with local businesses in the area. Attendees playing Pokemon Go will also be able to find new pokestops and gyms and at Popopia Gardens available for the duration of the event. Peter Murphy Senior, this is.
Andy Cortez
Wow, is that my cousin, Peter Murphy? Yeah, that's my cousin.
Michael Howard
What do you mean?
Andy Cortez
That's my cousin's name.
Michael Howard
Oh, you thought that was worth interrupting?
Andy Cortez
I love interrupting him. That was put me to send me to the penalty box.
Michael Howard
A reference nobody knows.
Andy Cortez
Go.
Michael Howard
Walk into the ocean. Walk into the ocean. Peter Murphy see senior director of marketing at the Pokemon Company International said in Pokemon Pocopia players create a Pokemon paradise which everyone can live in. We wanted to bring some of that same feeling of growth and brightness to real world communities. Creating a space that is full of Pokemon Pocopia's magic and open to all. Earlier this week, the Pokemon company announced that it will collaborate with IKEA in Japan for a series of Pokemon Popopia themed in store events. A special in Game island made in collaboration with Ikea will also be added to the game.
Barrett
Now you say this is cool, but like we just looked at the Pokemon hotel and yes, that's a lot visually, but this is just like, like a, like a printout just stuck into.
Michael Howard
Oh, it's not even a figurine of the. Dude, it looks 2D. Oh, that don't look like figurines.
Andy Cortez
Is it 2D? It's not a 3D thing in that.
Michael Howard
It's hard to tell now, but it's also an immersive space. This is a temporary thing. This is like when I, when Roger was in New york for like five months last year or whatever. Remember that 12 way last year and I told him they're having a Smiling Friends exhibit in Brooklyn. It's a temporary thing. Go down there. You should go check that. He's like, oh, nice. Oh yeah. I don't even think he fucking went fucking Roger. But like, you know, it's a little temporary thing. But I do. I don't disagree that we should get some. Just little small statues in there, you know.
Andy Cortez
Yes, it should be like the Pokemon museum exhibit that is currently going to Chicago with the fossils. Right? We should, we should get more of these. We got to. We got to loosen up the budget, y'. All. Yeah, like if I'M Pokemon company. I'm putting Pokemon installments everywhere.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
I'm getting people to come down everywhere. Maybe I'm charging $10, but, like, there's going to be a Pokemon installment all the time. There should never be a time when there's not a Pokemon installment somewhere in a large city.
Michael Howard
That would be your directive as Pokemon. Yeah.
Andy Cortez
I be like, yeah, let's make. Let's bring Pokemon to the people all the time. I'm in Brazil. I'm going over to Europe. I'm down in Australia. I'm going to every country, every continent. I'm putting something there.
Michael Howard
Are you going to invite Peter Murphy, your cousin?
Andy Cortez
Is that my cousin?
Michael Howard
It's useless. All that stuff, Mike. I'm tired of all that big news that we just talked about. If I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?
Andy Cortez
Andy, I take you to our last news story, the WE News channel, where we cover all the news, all the small news items you need to know about.
Michael Howard
One thing I needed to point out about that Pokemon little immersive experience.
Barrett
Yeah.
Michael Howard
The Pikachu. That's, like, really desaturated. I don't know what's happening with that.
Andy Cortez
That. I think that's a story.
Michael Howard
It's in. It's part of the story. But, like, not the best one to use in this game because it just looks like a kid drew on a poster board and, like, didn't color hard enough, you know?
Andy Cortez
Yes. Like, all of those inside of those pokeballs should be 3D.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
Like, every. Everything in there should be a 3D model that's three feet tall. We're 3D printing so many things. Why are we not 3D printing these Pokemon for these events.
Michael Howard
You're so right. You're absolutely.
Andy Cortez
Everybody's 3D printing nowadays. Let's. But also send me that Pikachu mascot
Michael Howard
outfit, that walk, that sort of like, what. What's the word I'm looking for? The little park that has just statues of Pokemon, everything.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, yeah.
Michael Howard
In Japan. Get some of the leftovers from there. Throw them in those, you know, little pokeball cases or whatever. From Games Radar Illumination CEO Chris Melody says Glenn Powell was cast as Fox McCloud in the Super Mario Galaxy movie after the actor called up the studio directly, quote, his dream was to one day be a part of a Star Fox movie.
Andy Cortez
That's fake. There's nothing you're getting. I'm calling out for that. But, like, respect to Glenn Pal. If he was really down with Star Fox 64. And he was like, one day I'm gonna be in a Star. Like, no.
Michael Howard
Maybe he played Smash Bros a lot. Maybe it's Fox.
Andy Cortez
I think his homie called him. I was like, yo, this Mario movie's really big. How do we get you involved?
Michael Howard
It also felt like, like, I don't know what came first, the inclusion of Star Fox into the movie. Movie, or, hey, we're gonna be working on a Star Fox game that's rumored to be coming out soon or whatever.
Andy Cortez
Here's what I'd say. Put your money where your mouth is. Glenn Powell. If, like, you're for real, for real, you should voice Star Fox in the next video game. Let's get right.
Michael Howard
You're so.
Andy Cortez
Let's get real.
Michael Howard
If you really care about Star Fox, you'll take a lesser page.
Andy Cortez
Exactly. And you will be the voice actor for Star. For Star Fox in the movie and in the video game.
Michael Howard
That's great.
Andy Cortez
Show me what you got. Also pretty lit, though. Like, I dog on Chris Pratt as Mario. But like, Glenn Powell. That's my dude. He was. He was good. I like it.
Michael Howard
I liked him.
Andy Cortez
He was good.
Michael Howard
I didn't love Benny safdie as Bowser Jr.
Andy Cortez
Okay.
Michael Howard
I thought. I was like, he didn't do a bad job. But I listening to it, I'm like, we could have gotten a lot of other, like, really good voice actors to do this, and it. It would have been better. It was like, if he just did that out of nowhere, I'd be like, wow, that could be a really good Bowser Jr. But not in a serious way, you know?
Andy Cortez
Now we've gotten two people to call up. If this is correct. It's like Glenn Powell calls up about Star Fox, and then Donald Glover called about Yoshi.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
So now's your time. Who do you want to be? Because, like, they're just taking phone calls at this time.
Michael Howard
They are. They are.
Andy Cortez
Who are they missing and who do you need to be?
Michael Howard
I'll think about it. I'll think about it.
Andy Cortez
Okay.
Michael Howard
Hello. Oh, we already have. He's already.
Andy Cortez
Oh, we already got Toad. Damn. Yeah, yeah, we got Toad dude.
Michael Howard
Maybe Kirby. Well, he doesn't really make sounds.
Andy Cortez
Did we get maybe just using the
Michael Howard
Toad Boys for Kirby? What did you say?
Andy Cortez
Did we get Diddy Kong in the first one? I fell asleep
Michael Howard
from Gamatsu Exploration roguelite turn based climbing game. Ascenders beyond the Peak has been announced for consoles and PC.
Andy Cortez
Run that back. Exploration roguelike turn based climbing game. That's a lot of words together.
Michael Howard
That's a lot of climbing.
Andy Cortez
Can we get a video of this? Can we get a video of this?
Michael Howard
What's it called? Ascenders beyond the Peak.
Andy Cortez
And you also skipped one that we have to talk about.
Michael Howard
Oh, Starfield Colony war action figures coming soon. Excuse me.
Andy Cortez
That's what I said.
Michael Howard
What?
Andy Cortez
Stop.
Michael Howard
No, this is a April Fools. That's gotta scroll up. No, second. April 2nd. Okay.
Andy Cortez
I mean, are these the first ever Bethesda?
Michael Howard
But they're not even like action figures. They're just like little collectibles, whatever, you know. But Hollow Knight makes merch or whatever. You know, it's whatever I was expecting. Like Todd McFarland making. It's like. I don't know if people are making
Andy Cortez
Sarah, who's going to narc on you all the time making space drugs.
Michael Howard
Yeah. This is Ascenders beyond the people.
Andy Cortez
Show me this.
Michael Howard
We're watching it right now.
Andy Cortez
It. Oh, wow. Okay. It a rog like turn based climbing game.
Michael Howard
I wasn't expecting the look.
Andy Cortez
I was not expecting to see that they. You know what? I'll eat my words like.
Michael Howard
You got me, Chad. Imagine a tactics game where you're walking on the ground, top down and you're selecting the squares that you want to be in. But this is a wall climbing game where the wall, the grid is the wall.
Andy Cortez
Yeah.
Michael Howard
And that's how you're kind of traversing. It's fascinating.
Andy Cortez
It's X Com. But climb it looks pretty neat. Okay, you know what? All right.
Michael Howard
Looks all right. From Wario 64 sandbox, the spiritual successor to Gary's mod. Releases April 28th.
Andy Cortez
We ever a Gary's mod guy?
Michael Howard
No, I was a piece of gaming like that.
Andy Cortez
No.
Michael Howard
The first time I played Gary's mod was one time with like Fun House. So I was like, I don't know what this is. I've never been hunter.
Andy Cortez
I've never even played Team Fortress 2.
Michael Howard
I don't know if I have either. I don't think I booted it up with the orange box like maybe once.
Andy Cortez
But like, yeah, I don't have any memories of Team Fortress 2. And me.
Michael Howard
Yeah. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Empire City launches April 30. Coffee Stain who makes Goat Simulator shutters its Malmo office. 17 employees are. Oh, damn. Harvest Moon. The Wind of Anthos complete edition is coming to Nintendo Switch Sony PlayStation 5 on May 8th. I am. Jesus Christ. The full game is out now and there'll be real. There will be a stream of it today.
Andy Cortez
It will be a Gamescast place of this today. Get excited and you, you Know what? Let's just say right now, if you're watching this live, maybe a little bit later, you don't want to miss it. No, we have our best jabronis on this.
Michael Howard
This is going to be a real.
Andy Cortez
This might be something special.
Michael Howard
This might be a make or break moment.
Andy Cortez
This is one of those.
Michael Howard
Yeah. If we're not around tomorrow, know why. Apple Arcade update. Today the action RPG Hike Northern Lights is making its exclusive mobile debut on Apple Arcade Dredge. Plus navigate delightfully eerie waters in the App Store Rewards in the app store awards 2025 iPad game of the year unpacking plus explore a life story in this relaxing puzzle game. We know about unpacking great games. My Very Hungry Caterpillar Nurture the beloved iconic character by famed children's author Eric Carle. My Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Barrett
Plus the full title.
Michael Howard
Yeah, they got a bunch of.
Andy Cortez
I don't know about that one.
Michael Howard
The pluses mean like it's the. Well, you never did My Very Hungry Caterpillar.
Andy Cortez
No, I never heard of that in my life. You know. What is that, Mike?
Michael Howard
It was a popular kids book.
Andy Cortez
Can I see a video up? No. No.
Michael Howard
Really?
Andy Cortez
No.
Michael Howard
This is like something you would read in elementary.
Andy Cortez
There weren't many books in my life. There was a lot of.
Michael Howard
I'm not surprised.
Andy Cortez
A lot of balls being thrown at me.
Michael Howard
The way you spelled the world.
Andy Cortez
Oh, I've seen that. Yeah, yeah, I've seen this. Okay.
Michael Howard
I've seen spell benefits for me.
Andy Cortez
B M, I F. You got it wrong again.
Michael Howard
Nope, you got it wrong again.
Andy Cortez
Benefit days.
Michael Howard
Yeah, not. Not quite it. Let's get to some super chats and remember, if we got anything wrong, you can write into kind of funny.com your wrong jeo asked. I mean these are just. You're just asking questions.
Andy Cortez
Just writing questions.
Michael Howard
Just asking questions, asking if we're. If we're going to do a ding and raa games cast like shout out to Jeff. You're wrong, Samson. With not a year wrong but just a really neat little fact.
Andy Cortez
Okay.
Michael Howard
That Bionicle died because Ninjago was so successful. That hurts my heart.
Andy Cortez
I mean that hurts my heart. You can definitely see it. But like that's crazy.
Michael Howard
I was a bionicle sicko.
Andy Cortez
Dude, those cool canisters.
Michael Howard
Oh my God.
Andy Cortez
The different colored bionicle jabronis. Then they made a show and they had a video game. Couple video games.
Michael Howard
I think that's really, really tough.
Andy Cortez
Shout out to Bionicles.
Michael Howard
God, I love Bionicles, man.
Andy Cortez
But like you see it and you're like, I get it. Right?
Michael Howard
There was just nothing cooler to me than. Than the elements. You give me anything with the elements.
Andy Cortez
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Michael Howard
This one is the earth one. That's the fire one. That's the ice one.
Andy Cortez
That true that.
Michael Howard
And, and. And then it was at the same time that I was buying these. I was buying so many bionicles. And then I was also really into snapples element drink.
Andy Cortez
Oh, man.
Michael Howard
They had. They had the fire one.
Andy Cortez
It was the gecko one. What was the gecko? Giant glass bottles. We were drinking back in the day.
Michael Howard
Sobey. So be. So be. You was crazy. Yeah. The white elements one were big glass bottles too.
Andy Cortez
Oh.
Michael Howard
And they had, like, a really cool logo. And I collected all of them, and it was like. It was like my thanos rings, you know?
Andy Cortez
Look at those Sobey bottles. That was crazy.
Michael Howard
Yeah.
Andy Cortez
It was the good days.
Michael Howard
I really hated that you couldn't see through them.
Andy Cortez
They were so thick.
Michael Howard
I like that you're getting that good. I hate it that they weren't transparent. What am I? Is this paint? What is this drinking paint? It looks so gross. Let's get to some super chats after. The yurongs are just a bunch of recommendations. And thank you all for that. We have claw master who says, Andy Kirby does make sounds. Do your best poo.
Andy Cortez
Oh, Kirby.
Michael Howard
I don't know what poo means, but thank you for the $2.
Barrett
Do something like.
Michael Howard
Like here.
Barrett
This is, you know, voice acting director, you know.
Michael Howard
Okay.
Barrett
You don't know how Kirby would do it, but give me your best. Hornet doing that line.
Michael Howard
Hornet.
Barrett
Hornet.
Michael Howard
Okay, Hornet. Okay, go for that, Andy. Okay, let's see if we can get
Barrett
something out of you.
Michael Howard
My name is Michael. No, no. And I'm very disappointed that Barrett's wife Alyssa watched me do my Michael Caine impression and said, it's a very bad impression. Oh, will I ever forget this? Never. It was chat.
Barrett
It was so good because it's the first time she had ever heard it. I pulled up Andy streaming Arkham Asylum. And unprompted, she hears this for the first ever time. She's like, who is he doing? I was like, michael Caine.
Michael Howard
She's like, that's awful. Gary Winner in the chat says, that's not bad, actually. Thank you, Gary.
Andy Cortez
Gary winner in the building.
Michael Howard
But it's just funny because she said it was awful, and it's not like Andy heard her. But right after that, on his own stream, he said, damn, that's my best. That's my best one.
Andy Cortez
Best one shouldn't Gary winna be a twitch partner. Why does he not have a twitch partner badge?
Michael Howard
You could select your thing how you're thinking.
Andy Cortez
So yeah, you think he's going to select the bare minimum bit donation badge
Michael Howard
but it's like it just defaulted. Whenever, whenever I go to anybody's chat it always defaults me to like you gifted subs.
Andy Cortez
Stop it.
Michael Howard
Yeah, it always like changes the icon for you. Yeah, it's really. It's really.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, it's weird.
Michael Howard
Anyway, great, great. Michael Kane, right?
Andy Cortez
Shout out to Gary Whitta.
Michael Howard
Yeah, shout out to Gary Witta. Gary Witt is beginning to marathon lately. When are you me and bet in the marathon? I. I've been seen to ask questions about God.
Andy Cortez
Yeah, he's helping me and Nick make a video game.
Michael Howard
Really? He wrote one line. Look what you did Gary. What do you got? Like you forced that. This is on you Gary. $50 super chat from Alex OMGLX but birthday tax hit the big 40 today. This past year has been pretty wretched but kind of funny in this community. Help me get by when things feel bleak. Thanks for everything you do and the joy the KFBF spring Love you all.
Andy Cortez
Happy birthday.
Michael Howard
Thank you for the massive generosity and happy birthday to you.
Andy Cortez
Happy to celebrate.
Michael Howard
A big 40 for you man. That's awesome. Ten dollar super chat from Sal Erra says Andy. What. What about gamers getting pre built? I mean 16 gig 5070 and 32 gigs of DDR5 will run you about 1800 and then I get the graphics plus steam cells. Sure it's double the price but I mean I don't know if that's exactly what the price is. I mean maybe you're looking at an awesome deal but if.
Andy Cortez
If we were to walk into a best buy right now. What do you think the pre built PC number is at?
Michael Howard
I mean now? Oh, I mean I. I'd say probably around the 2000 mark.
Andy Cortez
I believe it is. I think me and Kevin HX walked
Michael Howard
in there if you want something and
Andy Cortez
it's more than I thought. I. I thought they would be like 16, 1800 like pre built. Buy your kid this. Say get out the door, go.
Barrett
So this is the NZXT Pre built for $1900 with a 5070 but only 16 gigs of RAM. I. I imagine that goes up another 3 to 400 bucks. That's gonna be pretty good if you want to get 32.
Michael Howard
I mean it's just, you know, we're just such a tough spot. I. I'm so close to like. I'm so close to just breaking apart my laptop and being like I'm gonna sell this RAM to the highest bidder, you know, you know we're gonna pawn this. Okay A that that does it for our super chats Mike.
Andy Cortez
And that does it.
Michael Howard
Okay. Our show. Thank you so much everybody for watching and supporting us here. This has been kind of funny. Games Daily, if you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the games cast next and then the in review of Super Mario Galaxy movie where Tim Gettys will be returning. And then the I Am Jesus stream where we will be streaming I am Jesus and I really really hope you show up for it. I am Jesus Christ. Yes, sorry. I am Jesus Christ. But until next time it's been our pleasure to serve you.
Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Andy Cortez, Michael “SnowBikeMike” Howard, Barrett
In this episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, the crew dives deep into staggering developments and big stories across the gaming industry, with a particular focus on the shocking revelation that Naughty Dog’s canceled "Last of Us Online" multiplayer project was reportedly about 80% finished before being axed. The team also discusses the Super Mario Galaxy movie’s record-breaking box office launch, Sony’s acquisition of Cinemersive Labs, major Xbox event news, and quirky goings-on in the world of themed hotels and immersive gaming experiences.
[05:00 – 22:00]
Notable Quotes:
"I spent seven years working on that game and it was soul crushing ... I remember honestly finding out it was getting canceled 24 hours before it was announced to the public."
— Andy paraphrasing Vinit Agarwal, [07:13]
"For the Last of Us, one with two seasons of an HBO show that everybody fell in love with to be the one to get canceled just makes you go, there had to have been a way to kinda keep this going."
— Michael Howard, [09:35]
"No matter how far you are—wild to say that we're at 80% and be like, you know what? We're done."
— Andy, [10:41]
[22:11 – 29:00]
Notable Quotes:
"This movie is so reference heavy … it hits you with some crazy deep cuts that to an outsider would mean nothing."
— Michael Howard, [27:58]
"You’re making me watch Chris Pratt as Mario—get a little bit better. That’s all I’m saying."
— Andy, [44:51]
[29:14 – 36:44]
Notable Quotes:
"I hope that they can continue to make PSSR more improved and… more competitive. When I checked it out over the weekend, I was super impressed."
— Michael Howard, [32:14]
"You still want to be the top of the line hardware to push all these incredible games that you have."
— Andy Cortez, [33:04]
"Games are just getting way, way… increasingly expensive to make… that development time is not great for the bottom line."
— Michael, [34:40]
[45:54 – 49:49]
[50:35 – 56:47]
This episode delivers a robust, passionate, and occasionally irreverent breakdown of the shifting sands in major game studios and brands. From the painful "Last of Us Online" saga to box office shenanigans and tech industry moves, the Kinda Funny crew balances expert insight, industry context, and plenty of laughs, making this a can't-miss check-in for any gaming news aficionado—especially those wondering what really happens behind the scenes when a AAA project “almost” sees the light of day.