Last of Us Online was 80% Complete?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.02.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: "Last of Us Online was 80% Complete?!"

Date: April 2, 2026
Hosts: Andy Cortez, Michael “SnowBikeMike” Howard, Barrett

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Episode Overview

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.

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Key Discussion Points

1. The Shocking Details of The Last of Us Online’s Cancellation

[05:00 – 22:00]

• Vinit Agarwal (project director) revealed: The Last of Us Online was approx. 80% done before its cancellation, after 7 years of development.
• Context: Sony pivoted to focus on its narrative single-player strength, with resources diverted to Neil Druckmann’s next big game ("Intergalactic the Heretic Prophet").
• Sony’s Live Service Gambit: Initiated during the 2020 pandemic as they tried to capitalize on online connectivity, but pulled back as restrictions lifted and long-term engagement fell short.
• Employee Impact: Many devs potentially unable to show their multiplayer work due to NDAs—frustrating after seven years.
• Bungie’s Role: Bungie reviewed the project, reportedly not rejecting its quality but highlighting the full-studio commitment required for live service titles. Resulted in Sony/Naughty Dog’s "very expensive oops" of refocusing and canceling the nearly completed project.
• Armchair Analysis: The hosts repeatedly question Sony’s priorities: "You can get that far into a project and then be like, we're done with that?" (Andy, 10:41).
• Speculation: Hosts lament that, given the IP, the HBO show’s success, and live service famines, The Last of Us Online could have been the "diamond in the rough" (Andy, 17:12).
• Studio Balance: Concern that if it had shipped and succeeded, it might have forced Naughty Dog into becoming a live service-focused studio at odds with their single-player legacy.

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]

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2. Super Mario Galaxy Movie Breaks Box Office Records

[22:11 – 29:00]

• Record-Breaking Opening: $34M Wednesday opening—best April opening ever, surpassing the first Mario movie’s debut.
• Prognosis: Projected weekend (and five-day) grosses suggest it’ll land just below the first movie overall, but still massive for Illumination.
• Industry Context: Discussion of the movie’s broad appeal, the special aura of the first flick, and how sequels tend to have less "event" energy.
• Critical Debate: Dissent on the film’s humor and "kid’s movie" status, with a plea that children’s content can—and should—be creative and engaging for adults as well.
• Review Reactions: The hosts note a wide spectrum of critics’ views, particularly the divide between gamers and non-gamers.
• Audio-Visual Praise: The movie is “gorgeous” and features more orchestral than licensed music, to the delight of the hosts.

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]

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3. Sony Acquires Cinemersive Labs for Visual Computing/AI Initiatives

[29:14 – 36:44]

• Acquisition: Sony buys UK-based Cinemersive Labs, specializing in computer vision and machine learning.
• Purpose: Tech intended to improve "PSSR" (PlayStation’s visual upscaling), gameplay rendering, and overall graphical fidelity.
• Industry Arms Race: The move is framed as keeping pace with Nvidia, AMD, and PC graphics innovations.
• ROI Concerns: Hosts question the logic of spending big on hardware/tech R&D while laying off creative studios.
• Goal: Ideally, better visuals, shorter optimization times, and making PlayStation competitive with high-end PC gaming (at a fraction of the cost).

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]

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4. Xbox Fan Fest World Tour 2026 Announced

[45:54 – 49:49]

• Announcement: Xbox Fan Fest heading to key cities including LA, Cologne, London, Mexico City, Seattle, Sydney, Tokyo, and Toronto.
• Hopes & Concerns: The hosts hope these will resemble previous "EXO" (Xbox Experience) events—mini-E3s with games, themed spaces, and big community interaction, not just light social gatherings.
• Event Design: Each location will reflect the unique local Xbox scene.

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5. Themed Experiences: Pokémon’s Immersive Space, Video Game Hotels

[50:35 – 56:47]

• Immersive Experiences: Discussion of Pokémon’s store events and a new "Pokopia"-themed pop-up in London. Mixed feelings about quality of themed hotels/installations.
• Comparisons: Legoland’s effective room theming cited as a “how to do it right” versus Pokémon’s less impressive execution.
• Desire: The hosts strongly advocate for more—and better executed—installations worldwide.

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Notable Short News and Fun Moments

• Star Field Action Figures: Brief discussion—confirmed as collectibles, not poseable action figures.
• SandBox announced: The spiritual successor to Garry’s Mod launches April 28.
• TMNT Empire City launches April 30.
• Apple Arcade adds: Hike Northern Lights and more.

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Memorable Quotes & Banter

• "Enjoy a little whimsy a little bit? Wow. Why don’t you want things to be better?"
  — Andy, [43:45], pushing back against taking kids’ media at face value.
• Frequent running jokes about stadium food, themed hotel rooms with "just stickers everywhere," and Bionicles nostalgia.
• Gary Whitta drops by chat to judge Andy's Michael Caine impression.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [05:00] – Roper Report/Last of Us Online deep dive begins
• [10:41] – Hosts react to the 80% completion/cancellation
• [22:11] – Super Mario Galaxy movie box office and reactions
• [29:14] – Sony’s Cinemersive Labs acquisition explained
• [45:54] – Xbox Fan Fest global tour discussion
• [50:35] – Pokémon immersive space and themed hotel banter
• [62:03] – Rapid-fire news (TMNT, Harvest Moon, Apple Arcade, etc.)

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Final Thoughts

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.

Transcript

[Andy Cortez]

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[Michael Howard]

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We've earned our place in the fight

[Michael Howard]

for our nation's future.

[Andy Cortez]

We are Marines. We were made for this.

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[Andy Cortez]

For your free quote, go to endurance warranty.com that's endurancewarranty.com if unwanted thoughts are

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taking over, don't wait to get help. Visit nocd.com to book a free call with their team.

[Andy Cortez]

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

[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]

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[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.

[Sponsor Voice]

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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.