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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Microsoft Reveals Next-Gen Xbox Details - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.12.26
01:06:08
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- [00:01]
Snowbike Mike
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Stella Chung
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Snowbike Mike
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Stella Chung
It's good to be Hawaii.
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Snowbike Mike
Hey, new girl. Hey.
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Stella Chung
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Snowbike Mike
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Stella Chung
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Snowbike Mike
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- [02:05]
Snowbike Mike
get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com kind of funny today on the gaming news, you need to know about new details on Project Helix from Xbox, a new game announced from Overwatch's former director. And Valve breaks down the Steam machine's verification program. We'll we'll have all this and more on Kind of Funny Games Daily. What's up, everybody and welcome into your Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, March 12, 2026. I'm one of your show hosts, Snow Bike Mike, and today I am joined by the lovely, the incredible and the powerhouse, Stella Chung. Hi, Stella. How are you?
- [02:52]
Stella Chung
Good. How are you?
- [02:53]
Snowbike Mike
Are you feeling. Gdc, It's Wednesday. How are we feeling?
- [02:56]
Stella Chung
I know. I saw you. To look down to make sure you had the date right. And that's how I feel.
- [02:59]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. Yeah. I'm feeling it today. I've had a long week right now and. And I'm ready for the weekend, but I've been having a ton of fun and that's all that matters.
- [03:07]
Stella Chung
I was just saying we've. We've been running into each other at events all week. Great. We just discovered our shared love of Pikmin.
- [03:13]
Snowbike Mike
We've just been nerding out about Pikmin and I'm sure one of our incredible best friends out there, Lakerhead, just heard that and freaked out because they love Pikmin as well. Yeah, we love Pikmin, you and I.
- [03:25]
Stella Chung
I saw someone in chat say you almost died to a light breeze.
- [03:28]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. Yeah, light breeze. Almost took me down. Stella, a lot to tell you. You know what I mean? I'm. I need some time. Are you. You know what? We should have talked beforehand. I think I. You know, I think you brought it up recently. You had something going on with your nose and getting feeling stuff.
- [03:43]
Stella Chung
Sinuses.
- [03:44]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
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Stella Chung
Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's what it was.
- [03:46]
Snowbike Mike
I've been feeling that for the past two weeks.
- [03:47]
Stella Chung
Okay.
- [03:47]
Snowbike Mike
So I've just been really stuffed up in one nostril. And of course that affects everything about you, so I'm just. I'm thrown off.
- [03:54]
Stella Chung
Okay.
- [03:54]
Snowbike Mike
And I've been telling the chat. I'm like, if you want to kill me, now's the time because I'm at my weakest. Okay. But just know I'm going to bounce back. Yeah. That window will be closed.
- [04:02]
Stella Chung
There's no honor in that, though. I want to fight you at your strongest. No.
- [04:06]
Snowbike Mike
Stella. Stella, how are you doing? It's great to have you in the studio. I know you're going to be doing a bunch of stuff with us today.
- [04:12]
Stella Chung
Yes.
- [04:13]
Snowbike Mike
Because you're here for gdc. But how's your GDC week going? What have you been attending and doing?
- [04:17]
Stella Chung
Pretty good. There's. I do it. I can't even name all the different games that I've been previewing, but I've been doing a lot of previews. A lot of, let's see, a lot of. Yeah. Game previews, developer interviews. There's one with that I'm very excited to share, which is from a game called Sound System, which the original Guitar Hero devs have been working On. Which is very cool.
- [04:35]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [04:36]
Stella Chung
Yeah, it is as cool as you think it is. So, yeah, that's probably one of my favorites that I've looked at.
- [04:40]
Snowbike Mike
That's great. Of course, for all the best friends out there who know you and maybe some of the audience members that don't know you. Stella, where would all these previews and all the cool coverage that you're going to put out from your GDC go where we can watch it and find you?
- [04:52]
Stella Chung
Yeah, it would be on my YouTube parallax, Stella. So then. And that's everywhere on Twitch and stuff. Stuff as well.
- [04:58]
Snowbike Mike
So yeah, find it all there. What have you been playing? Before we get into the show, one final question for our gal, Stella. What have you been playing lately?
- [05:07]
Stella Chung
You know what, honestly, I've been playing a lot of Abiotic Factor.
- [05:09]
Snowbike Mike
Oh, great game.
- [05:11]
Stella Chung
Have you? You played it.
- [05:12]
Snowbike Mike
Me and the boys played a long time ago. Thanks to one of the best friends recommendations. Didn't give it enough time. It's one of those games you have, you play it for a night, you laugh, you have a good time. You're like, I'd play that again. And. And then you. You got to really dive into that one.
- [05:24]
Stella Chung
Yeah, it's. It's really good. It's. We're getting into like the. The really gritty part of the story. So it's. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's like we can't really stop quite yet.
- [05:33]
Snowbike Mike
Okay, so you're really going after.
- [05:35]
Stella Chung
Oh, yeah. I think we're like endgame. Ish. So. Okay.
- [05:37]
Snowbike Mike
Okay, Great to know. And are you streaming that?
- [05:40]
Stella Chung
I am, yeah. Far too long.
- [05:44]
Snowbike Mike
Before we jump in, shout out to sky who super chatted away and says, stella, my queen. Well, Stella is here all day with us, so get your super Chats in. You can ask her about GDC and of course ask her about the news because this is Kind of Funny Games daily, each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on twitch and on YouTube. Of course you can be part of the show by super chatting your thoughts, opinions and questions on YouTube.com kind of funny games. And of course, we couldn't do this without you. So thank you to everyone who supports us over on Patreon, on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, no matter where you are. Thank you for your support and thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining for supporting us on patreon.com kind of funny. Let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today, Stella. We got a lot of news and some fun stuff to talk about because of course, story number one Microsoft's next Xbox project Helix won't reach Alpha until 2027. This coming from Jay Peters and Sean Hollister at the Verge. We're here at the 2026 Game Developers Conference where Microsoft VP of Next Generation Jason Ronald is talking about a topic near and dear to many gamers hearts the future of Xbox. Ronald says that the next Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will have a custom AMD chip with quote, an order of magnitude increase in ray tracing performance, end quote up to and including path tracing. It will also include a next gen version of AMD's FSR upscaling technology that relies on machine learning and includes MA includes frame generation that can improve and the perceived smoothness of a game by imaging imagining new frames between existing ones. In a post on X, amd, Exec called it called it FSR diamond, saying it's designed to be natively optimized for Project Helix and deeply integrated into the gdk. But don't expect the next Xbox soon. Microsoft will begin sending out alpha versions of Project Helix to developers in 2027, Ronald revealed here at GDC. Ronald also confirmed that the Xbox and Windows are getting closer together beyond the fact that Project Helix will play PC games too. Quote PC is becoming an increasingly important part of Xbox. We're bringing the best of Xbox to Windows itself, says Ronald. Microsoft is bringing the Xbox mode that originally shipped with the Xbox Ally handheld to more Windows computers to select markets starting in April, as well as Advanced Shader Delivery, which pre compiles shaders so you can download them alongside a game or its updates instead of having to wait when you launch a title, which Stella we're going to talk about that, okay? Okay. A lot of time wasted waiting on these shadows shaders to compile. I'm ready for that. Ronald says the Microsoft Teams been doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make the Xbox mode to feel distinctly Xbox and stay consistent as you migrate between devices and cloud. He says gamers play three to five games at any one time on average and you should be able to pick up and play whether you're on console, PC or cloud. As we spotted outside the key as we spotted outside the keynote, Microsoft wants game developers to just build once for the for both Xbox and Windows instead of building twice for both. It's creating a unified development environment where the vast majority of code that Your game runs on Xbox is the exact same code that runs on other platforms, says Ronald. And while he isn't promising all games will be this way, Ronald suggests that you won't have to buy those games multiple times too. The already existing Xbox Play Anywhere program lets you buy once and play on any screen, he says. The the catalog of Xbox Play Anywhere games now has more than 1500 titles. Ronald says, I promise I'm almost done.
- [09:57]
Stella Chung
You're doing great.
- [09:58]
Snowbike Mike
Part of the 25th anniversary of Xbox, the game preservation team will also re release an unspecified number of older Xbox titles under its Xbox preservation program. Ronald says as one of the largest publishers in the industry, we feel a deep responsibility to pre preserve games games from the past. And he hints that some of our most iconic first party franchises are returning this year. Does X does game preservation mean classic Xbox games are coming to PC? An official summary of his remarks make it sounds like that as part of the Xbox 25th anniversary later this year, we'll be rolling out new ways to play some of the most iconic games from our past. Ronald won't tell us when, but we asked him outside the venue, only saying that more news would come when Microsoft announces those 25th anniversary plans.
- [10:49]
Stella Chung
Yeah, take a deep breath.
- [10:51]
Snowbike Mike
A lot to talk about. Let's go back up to the top. I should have broken down by each one. Let's talk about the hardware 2027 for the alpha version. Teaming up with AMD. What do you take from all of that?
- [11:04]
Stella Chung
Yeah, I think I'm very interested to see how this is going to work. We know that Xbox has been getting pretty close aligned with PC now for the longest time. I know a lot of hardcore fans are like, oh my God, why PC? I don't know. They kind of go hand in hand at this point and it's fine. And we do see Xbox expanding outside of the box. Right. And we see that it's actually been working out a lot for them. So working with amd, that's pretty good. I am worried about how, okay, so rolling out alpha versions in 2027, that means they can make a limited amount, which is great because we all know that it's impossible to get all these different parts for hardware now. So that does make me a little bit concerned about the consumer models whenever they do end up releasing, which I feel like they might get delayed. But as long as the developers have them ahead of time, that's perfectly fine. Because we did see with the current generation, a lot of developers were actually not ready to move on to that technology, which Honestly is why I'm glad that we're kind of taking this slowly so developers can learn what new tech they need to get on board with and you can take your time with it so that it's not like catching up after three years. To be fair, there was a pandemic, but you know, still, yeah, it's, it's, it's going to be interesting. I, I do want to know if then in turn PC games can be played on Windows or on, on Xbox, but I don't think it'll go that way.
- [12:23]
Snowbike Mike
Okay, well, I do agree with you. It is exciting to hear that 2027 Alpha models will be going out to developers. Right? It's all about GDC is about the developers, not Mike the consumer. So it is about, hey, we are ready to ship these units to you so you can start building games for the next generation of Xbox. Clearly they're reaffirming. Xbox isn't going anywhere, right. And we want to make sure that games are there. We talk about launch lineups being always important. The sooner you can get out to developers, the better to make sure that launch lineup is stronger and get them ready for the next level of tech. I also love the idea of like unifying, hey we whatever code you build for Xbox is going to be what it is for PC or vice versa, right? I think the big one here is playing PC and Xbox games. How can we make it easier? We talked about Xbox series X and S and then also adding on PlayStation, Nintendo PC. How does Xbox in third place make it easier for more developers to come and make great games on their platforms? As easy as possible, right? If you're worried that your project won't sell as well on the third place console, that it better be as easy as possible to put it on there. So, so you have an easier justific justification for that. I also am excited about AMD teaming up with this. Right. We talk about it all the time with Andy and Nvidia here. Kind of funny, but like the next tech and what you see on PC compared to your console, right? We talk about path tracing, we talk about neural network, deep software learning, right. We talk about these multi frame generations. It's like when you see it on PC running it is somehow a different level than on my Xbox and I'm always impressed by that. So I am excited to see what, I mean what the console can do this next generation as well.
- [14:03]
Stella Chung
It's very funny to see consoles finally catch up to where PCs are. Like it's a long time coming finally, which Is great. Yeah. It's so funny because, like, frame generation and that relying on machine learning has been around forever, right? And I actually did see someone comment on like, oh, I see that Xbox changed their wording from AI to machine learning. And it's like, okay, here's the thing. AI is kind of the new buzzword, right? Like gluten free. It was the buzzword for a while, right? For. For stuff that you already knew was gl, like fucking rice. I was like, yeah, of course that's gluten free. What the. Yeah, so they're like, oh, machine. They did machine learning instead of AI. It's like, it's a real thing. Just look it up, you know.
- [14:41]
Snowbike Mike
Of course, of course, we also talk about your back catalog. This is the next one. Oh, God, what will happen here? They kind of tease it as if, hey, this back catalog, I took it as maybe more new titles. But then I think it's also, hey, we're going to bring PC. We're going to bring the Xbox back catalog to the PC gaming.
- [15:06]
Stella Chung
That's really interesting to me because I know a lot of PC gamers, they're not going to want to give a keyboard and mouse, right? So with game preservation, obviously, yes, it's going to work really well with a controller. You can hook up a controller to the PC. But I'm wondering if people want to play with keyboard and mouse, how is that going to work out? Because that's like a whole other thing that they have to account for.
- [15:25]
Snowbike Mike
Of course.
- [15:25]
Stella Chung
But also, we were talking about, you know, PC verification, you know, the verification for that new platform. So it's going to be interesting either way. I think it'll be really cool.
- [15:36]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. I mean, at the forefront, the Xbox mode, right. Being unified across all the platforms is the big deal here, right? Of like kind of having that Xbox feel on every device that you go to and making sure it's aligned with every device is a big deal. And of course, putting controller at the forefront. We see it, we'll talk about it with the Steam machine and that being like, hey, everything has to run with a controller, right? Of like, they want you to feel like you're playing an Xbox no matter where you're at. But bringing four generations of Xbox titles no matter where you are to every device is a big deal, because we talked about that. Game preservation is a big deal for gamers and, of course, developers. You want to see those games you love come with you. You want to see that digital library follow you to every console, right? And the idea that, hey, I loved this last generation. And Xbox One was, hey, we're gonna make a big push to bring back all these old titles that you probably purchased and loved. We're gonna upscale them and make them run better. They're gonna have better frame generation as well, because they're running on stronger hardware. But now as we kind of talk about this PC console hybrid, it's like, all right, well, all my games coming, will I be able to play this on another device? And it sounds like Jason, Ronald and his team definitely want that to make sure it's a big point that it will happen.
- [16:48]
Stella Chung
Yeah. I will be curious to see how they do backwards compatibility because you can't talk about game preservation without talking about physical media. Yes. Having a digital library of these older games that have been restored, that's great. But maybe you want the original experience. And if you already own these older games, I think this new console has to be able to play those physical discs. So that'll be something that I'm very interested in looking into because with all the tech that they have in that little box now, there's gotta be something that helps that base game kind of run better, especially if they do work on the original game's coding and everything. So I think it'll be interesting to see physical media is coming back.
- [17:26]
Snowbike Mike
So, you know, you saw that this generation, they didn't. They didn't disc. Didn't ditch the disk drive. Right. They still had it. I had a lot of Ds on that. But they didn't ditch it. Right. They kept it. And we know with the backwards compatibility program, if you do have the disc, you can plug it right in and play. So. Yeah, of course. I. I would wonder if this is going to be the same thing for the next generation.
- [17:48]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [17:48]
Snowbike Mike
On your PC that might be a little bit different. I think it. I assume it would go down to the digital library side of things where, yeah, you might own 50 cent blood on the sand, and it might be on disk, but you can't play it digitally unless you, you know, have it already. So. One of those. Stella, we got a lot to talk about. Let's jump into some super chats over here. Birthday tax coming in from the peaceful warhead says birthday tax for my lovely girlfriend, Door Blob. Her birthday. Her B day was her bday. Wishes to meet Snowbike Mike someday. Well, thank you so much. Happy birthday to your girlfriend. I'm sure one day you'll have a chance to come see me. We will have some fun. I'm sure. With the kind of funny crew out there.
- [18:35]
Stella Chung
Is that a family name?
- [18:36]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. Door blob. Amazing tree. Roy writes in and says it sounds like Xbox may be prioritizing optimization the same way Crimson Desert is, which is huge. I mean I. You talked about pre loading Shaders Stella optimization. What do you think about that?
- [18:55]
Stella Chung
Please. I'm so tired of I leave it on and I walk away and I come back and it's stuck at 99% every time no matter what game I'm playing.
- [19:03]
Snowbike Mike
So I'm excited for that because there's nothing worse than play than being ready to gear up and play with your squad or your friends or yourself. And next thing you know you're hit with another loading screen of we have to pre render all these shaders. Right. I just updated the game. I'm ready to play. This should be locked in. No, it's shaders time which is just like such a gut punch. I know it's not as long as you think it is kind of long still though. But like it's one of those. Nothing is worse than that right there and it will be interesting to see how they do that. Right. He talks about taking your update also like updating the shaders wall to doing the update. What does that look like? I'm excited to see. I hope it's one smooth transition because. Yeah, nothing worse than that.
- [19:44]
Stella Chung
No, you know what, you actually bring up a good point that makes me think about, you know, we know that Xbox has been trying to be a little bit more eco friendly. If all these things can happen, I wonder if the Shader compilation would happen happen like overnight when you put your Xbox or I guess this new project into sleep mode and such. I wonder how much power it's going to consume to do that sort of thing and how it's going to work passively. So that'll be something that I'm curious to see because I know they've been trying to dial back in the power consumption and also be more eco friendly going forward.
- [20:14]
Snowbike Mike
So C. Barry writes, it says, I don't believe Helix is going to have Steam support like previously rumored. I do not see anymore how they will make money off those purchases.
- [20:27]
Stella Chung
I don't know. I don't think. Yeah, that that was my question. Whether or not PC games would be able to be playable on. Okay, that console I like from Steam. I'm sure people are going to jailbreak it but you know, I don't know if like directly really.
- [20:41]
Snowbike Mike
You don't think they talked about having an open marketplace welcoming different storefronts. Like that has been the messaging. Now, of course, that is under a different leadership change. We don't really know where Asha stands, but as of right now, it still does feel like it's like, hey, we're going to put multiple storefronts on this. You see with the Xbox Garage, ally of like you can boot up into Xbox mode, quickly swipe that away and you are on a desktop. When they say PC and Xbox gaming, I do feel like we're going to see that.
- [21:10]
Stella Chung
Okay. I do. It depends on Steam. It depends on Epic, on, oh my God, EA Goggles or Gog, however you say it. There's so many different platforms. I wonder if there's a way to consolidate all of that. Please do. Just any way to make it easier. But I do feel like Steam would be a huge get because we already have Xbox games that are available on Steam now and a lot of the crossplay is on that. So if, if they're going to pick any platform, I would think that it would definitely be Steam for sure. But I don't know. I don't like to speculate until we get actual.
- [21:40]
Snowbike Mike
I mean, yeah, that's the fun part is like we are talking about gdc, all about game developers, which is not us on the opposite side, which is the consumer waiting for the actual announcement. And what does all this mean to me? Right? Like you can hear all the specs in the world, you can hear about play anywhere, you can hear about this. But it's like once we get the real stuff, then we'll know. But as of right now, it is exciting. Xbox getting out in front, making sure game developers know it's a great place to hopefully build and sell your game and live your game here. So we'll see if that works out for them. But I am excited for the next generation. I'm looking forward to seeing what this hybrid console will be. Kind of big expectations and a lot of excitement for it. Stella. Yeah. Let's see if we have any more super chats going on. Aaron Lime writes in and says this console sounds expensive. Why would people want a thousand dollar console for PC games with Blur Blur frame gen. Okay. We're just slapping things together. Blurry frame gen dev should optimize. Not really on frame gen. Okay. So they don't like frame gen. Don't rely on frame gen. You know you've
- [22:48]
Stella Chung
already been experiencing that on your TVs, right? That's tech. That's everywhere already.
- [22:52]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [22:53]
Stella Chung
Also on your phones. I mean it's not new and I Understand what you mean that you want it to be purely from the game standpoint. You want that tech to be crisp, clean. I totally get that. Honestly, this just lets developers who may not be up to date on that sort of thing or haven't been able to have hardware that is that strong to be able to play those games. Because, let's be real, not everyone is like us. Like, we are in the very upper part of like gamers, like where it's a little bit past a hobby. Right.
- [23:18]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [23:19]
Stella Chung
So of course we're going to have all the best gear, build the best PCs, right? Yeah, exactly. But some people, they just play on, on like really small laptops or stuff. So it's like you have to understand that there needs to be a wider range of playability for these games. So that kind of just allows us to upscale it to, you know, the fancy rigs that we have.
- [23:39]
Snowbike Mike
I mean, I expect the next generation to be the very best possible.
- [23:42]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [23:43]
Snowbike Mike
And when I hear them teaming up with AMD and they say they talk about all the tech behind it, I'm hoping that I get the best possible thing. And if that's where the technology is taking gaming and game developers, then yeah, I want that for sure. Now, the price of the console, that's yet to be determined. Right. We're still waiting on the Steam machine. We don't know the price of that. You don't know the price of the PS6. We don't know the price of the next Xbox. Nintendo, they just came out with their console and they, they are fighting off the tariffs the best that they can before they have to raise any prices. We don't know where we're going to be next year, two years from now. We will see when all these prices come out. But of course, it does seem like a new generation of Xbox.
- [24:23]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [24:24]
Snowbike Mike
Can they hit the console price that we usually are about or will it be higher? I don't know.
- [24:30]
Stella Chung
I think it'll. It will most likely be higher, but I don't know. Well, I, I definitely wouldn't be ditching my PC for this, but it would be very tempting just because I want something in, in the living room to play games that I can play at my desk. Right.
- [24:45]
Snowbike Mike
That's what gets me excited. Stella, is that PC in the living room, my dream situation and having it, if it is shared with Xbox and somehow Steam is on that and all my libraries follow me around. This is what I've always wanted in the living room. So we will see if that does come true. But yeah, Jason Ronald had a great presentation on that during gdc. I'm sure that will go live to the GDC vault one day. You'll be able to read that there's a big Xbox wire post from Jason himself detailing all of this and they are celebrating the 25th anniversary. I'm sure announcements will be right around the corner. Stella, we got plenty more news to get through so let's kick it to ads and then we'll be right back with story number two.
- [25:25]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
This episode is brought to you by Shopify. When we started kinda funny in 2015, boy, let me tell you, I had a harsh lesson in what it takes to run your own business. We were the hosts, writers, producers, art department, tech support, garbage men, and so much more. We needed help. And that's exactly what Shopify does for millions of businesses right now. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses already around the world and 10% of all e commerce in the US from household names like Aviator Nation, Chubby's and Death Wish Coffee to brands just getting started. Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to processing returns and beyond beyond. Start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify and start hearing. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com kindafunny. Go to shopify.com kinda funny. That's shopify.com kinda funny.
- [26:32]
Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body relax and let go of whatever you're carrying today.
- [26:39]
Stella Chung
Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast.
- [26:47]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
And breathe.
- [26:48]
Stella Chung
Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts.
- [27:02]
Snowbike Mike
Well, it is a decade old. My PC.
- [27:04]
Stella Chung
Yeah, we were starting the crazy thing.
- [27:06]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. So I started streaming 10 years ago, which probably would have put me buying my first streaming PC seven years ago, which probably would have been. I bought the gaming PC a year or two afterwards. So both my. Yeah, yeah. Both my PCs right now are probably, I would say, close to anywhere between five to seven years old. I've only upgraded the GPUs.
- [27:29]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [27:29]
Snowbike Mike
So I've never gone past that. And I'm sure if you tell Andy and Kevin that they might be doing this of like, maybe we have to look at that. Well, you know what? They run great. I have a ton of fun. I am also the very basic PC user, Stella, as the audience knows and like my friends knows, I have a rule. It's like you turn on the one streaming PC that does Google to go to Twitch and it does obs. And then I go over the other one, that one goes to Steam. Epic Xbox. You keep it on that and you just stay focused. Stay focused, Mike. Don't be. Don't ruin it. That's what I say every time. Don't ruin this.
- [28:02]
Stella Chung
Yeah, just don't deviate from any of that.
- [28:04]
Snowbike Mike
Nothing more frustrating than that screen going all blue, Stella, and not having answers. You know? God. That's my rule on PC gaming. Very simple Story number two. Former Overwatch director reveals the Legend of California. An open world online Wild West FPS Coming this from Chris Scullion at vgc. We have a trailer. Former Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan has revealed his next game, the Legend of California, the debut offering from Kaplan's new studio, Kinitsuga Kanitsu Gamma. No, that's not it.
- [28:43]
Stella Chung
Kintsugiyama.
- [28:44]
Snowbike Mike
Thank you so much. Like, holy shit, I didn't do the Greg where I reached up. But you know. You know what? I don't got that. Thank you. Say one more time for me, Stella.
- [28:54]
Stella Chung
Okay. Kintsugiyama. Kinsugi.
- [28:59]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, yeah, I'll hold that in my back pocket. You're there for me. The Legend of California is a Wild west themed first person shooter set during the Gold Rush, but in a fictional island of California rather than the real life version. Quote Explore, gather, craft, build, hunt and fight your way across a vast, untamed frontier. The game's description on Steam reads. Whether you choose to travel alone or work together with friends, your mission on on this mythical island is not just to survive, but thrive, stay strong, stake your claim, and become the true Legend of California. End quote. The game has multiplayer at its core and offers procedurally generated islands which have key landmarks in the same place each time, but randomly moves other elements around. We handcrafted the world, so the shape of California is always the familiar shape of California, except it's an island, Kaplan explained on the Lex Friedman podcast. The game's description adds master FPS combat that rewards precision and skill whether you're hunting wildlife to stay alive, tracking down hostile encampments for some quick coin, or defending your territory against enemy players in optional PvP leverage. Robust gathering and crafting systems to transform the California wilderness into everything you need to survive. From weapons, for protection and, and tools for expansion to delicious meals to stay fed and ready. Establish and expand your own ranch, build a mine, add stables and unlock powerful new crafting stations to further customize your slice of the wild. Play online in play online on persistent multiplayer servers where you can forge your own legacy solo or form a company with up to three other players sharing resources, buildings, progression and more. Stella, what if I told you that two days ago, I asked my friends, I said, whatever happened to Jeff Kaplan? What's he working on? And then quite literally 20 hours ago, Lex Freeman put out a five hour long podcast with this guy.
- [31:03]
Stella Chung
Five.
- [31:04]
Snowbike Mike
Five hours long. So I'm sure we're going to get a lot of news coming from that podcast over the week. But a five hour long podcast also talking about his new game. What a weird coincidence that is.
- [31:16]
Stella Chung
You know what, I just, I think you can just predict the future.
- [31:18]
Snowbike Mike
That's great.
- [31:19]
Stella Chung
You have like this weird form of like, oh yeah, whatever happened to that one thing? And it disappears.
- [31:23]
Snowbike Mike
We were sitting there going, man, because we brought up Aaron, who's the new game director, and we said, oh man, what's up with that guy? Jeff Cavill? What's he working on? And boom, here it is. An open world survival crafting game set in a California island. What do you think about this?
- [31:44]
Stella Chung
So, okay, the description. Hold on, I want to go to that real quick. It says master FPS combat that will reward. That rewards precision and skill. And then they show one of the clips of hip firing and he hits someone's kneecap and they die. And I'm like, I suppose back then they would have died with one hit. So it's like I. I want to know the definition of that. As someone who really values the FPS skill, skill and such, I'm like, okay, I want to know. This does kind of. Look, I know people are going to make this comparison, but it does kind of remind me of Red Dead Online. And a frog star could just get it together and like support that. That would be amazing. Yeah, because it's constantly ruined by hackers. Anyways. Yeah, not a big fan of the name.
- [32:27]
Snowbike Mike
Let me rewind the name on that one.
- [32:28]
Stella Chung
Let me, let me see the Legend of California.
- [32:30]
Snowbike Mike
Legend of California.
- [32:32]
Stella Chung
Okay. Anyways, I swear, okay, Chat. I'm sorry, I swear to God, I'm not going to just. On this game. Okay. I'm just. First reactions. Okay, okay. It's my reaction. Just my first reactions.
- [32:42]
Snowbike Mike
Stella reads survival crafting game that I've seen a thousand times. Stella.
- [32:47]
Stella Chung
So like the biotic factor and Stuff. Yeah.
- [32:49]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [32:49]
Stella Chung
I think this is cool. I. I like the look of it.
- [32:52]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [32:53]
Stella Chung
I. The setting. Sure. It looks like there's a lot of snow. Okay. Well, I don't want to. Okay. All right. Sorry. There's a lot that I'm like, where is.
- [33:02]
Snowbike Mike
Sell it wherever you want to go.
- [33:03]
Stella Chung
Where is this coming from? This. Where are we going to be at? It's an island now. Also, I might be one of the weird people that doesn't like procedurally generated things in survival games like this.
- [33:14]
Snowbike Mike
Oh, okay.
- [33:14]
Stella Chung
Because I like knowing, you know, in playthroughs, right. You know where to go for certain things. It may or may not be there, depending on, like, the time of day that you're there, if other players have been there to, like, farm certain resources. But I'm. I'm not really a big fan of that.
- [33:28]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [33:28]
Stella Chung
As much anymore. Having set things for a map, I think is very useful.
- [33:32]
Snowbike Mike
They said they'll have set pois that kind of are in the same spot for you, but then procedurally generated around that. There will be new, fresh areas for you to explore. Which I do like. Right. Like for me and my friends, as we play a lot of survival crafting games, I do find. I like when it is fresh and different every time to kind of give you that wow factor. I appreciate having the set touchstones of like, hey, this is where we're at. This is where we kind of know where the map is. But I do. I do like it fresh for me.
- [33:59]
Stella Chung
Yeah. I don't mind if it's something like in a. In a puzzle game where, you know, puzzles are slightly different for each person. Right. Just because how. How are you going to know where to go for a certain quest? If you look it up, it's like, oh, it might be on one of these three islands, you know, so that's one thing that does concern me. The crafting element. We didn't really get to see a whole lot of. We got to see someone building.
- [34:22]
Snowbike Mike
We saw him. Well, of course, he's chopping wood.
- [34:24]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [34:24]
Snowbike Mike
He's building the cabin. We saw mining ore as well. They touch on a lot of it. Right. You'll have hunting, so you have to cook. You have to make meals for yourself. You have to feed yourself. You'll have different crafting stations. So it's giving like Icarus vibes to me. Of course we play lounge. Kind of funny. It's giving Icarus vibes meets Wild Wild West.
- [34:45]
Stella Chung
So. Okay. What I'm curious about is the way they described this is actually A little bit confusing. Okay, so play online or in persistent multiplayer servers where you can forge your legacy solo or form a company with up to three other players. Okay, a company, yes. So I think that means like a team that you can party up with, I suppose.
- [35:05]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. This will be your crew, your group, four people running around.
- [35:08]
Stella Chung
But then it says defend your territory against enemy players and optional PvP. So I'm wondering how many players will be in a single server.
- [35:15]
Snowbike Mike
Yes.
- [35:16]
Stella Chung
And what will be the persistent multiplayer server? Like, what will that look like? Because there are different ways that you can host and there are different ways that you can buy servers to host as well. So I'm wondering, is this going to be kind of like a Dune Awaken, Dune Awakening sort of thing where it's almost like an MMO rpg? Yeah, slightly. Slightly. Where you can go and build your base and, you know, other players will also be progressing through and such, where just time just goes.
- [35:43]
Snowbike Mike
I'm kind of thinking Rust and how that works. Right, Rust. Back in the day on that one. It is interesting, as you brought up Stella. Right. Like, when I think of the different ways we've played survival crafting games, it is usually me and my friends versus PvE, the AI. So it's like, hey, my base is always there. We spread out. We never worry about other people and their bases. Right. And that's where you get into the Rust of it all. There's been a couple other games. Dune Awakening is a great pull. There's one more. That sci fi weird game that we played with the crazy bus in the arms and everybody built homes right at the beginning area and then they had to like tear down everybody's homes because there was too many homes at the starting area because that's as far as we all got. I forget what that one's called, but it will be interesting how many players on the map at the same time. That is, am I loading into a new map every single time and, like my base placement is being put around those places? Maybe that's how it goes. But yeah, it's an interesting one. Once human. Thank you, chat. That was the game.
- [36:38]
Stella Chung
Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It seems like Rust. Why she's so perplexed? Because I ask questions. Timber.
- [36:46]
Snowbike Mike
You have to ask questions.
- [36:47]
Stella Chung
Timber. Because we don't know. We've been given. It's like we've been given details, but not really details.
- [36:53]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [36:53]
Stella Chung
It's vague descriptions of something and also, I don't know, become the true legend of California.
- [37:00]
Sponsor/Ad Voice
What?
- [37:04]
Stella Chung
What does that mean? To you? What does being a true legend of California mean to you?
- [37:09]
Snowbike Mike
What does that mean to me? Yes. Me and Chris Senka giving orders to Washburn, Andy and JD all the time of Go get me more or go get me more wood. As we build this gigantic estate in the middle of the country and then we get bored three days later because we've just been doing nonstop resource gathering and we just hate that, you know? So I'm hoping for some like, I don't know if I'd call it mission structure because it will be interesting of like, what this looks like. They clearly, like, got to a little bit of like, there seems to be a jail, so maybe you'll have some sort of heist or breakout sequence. I don't know if it will be gta, GTA online with the missions or if it will just be, hey, here's a survival crafting open world game. You make the fun, you make the memories. But I do like banging into other teams, so I will. I mean, I am interested in that.
- [37:58]
Stella Chung
Yeah, it'll be interesting because we weren't given a whole lot about the story, which even with survival crafting games, we are usually given an underlying story. And if it's like Rust, there really isn't much to progress in a story. Right. Because that's more about survival. But then if you play Abiotic or if you play any other survival games, I'm blanking on them right now. But it's like, oh, like the forest and such, right? You're just like, okay, there is a story here. And I think that would be the most interesting part to this. But also, I bring up the server space because what if you open up? How do you move servers? If you want to, right? Say your server is now less populated. Can you move over? But that's if they do have persistent servers that they officially support. So I know I'm getting into the weeds of this. I'm so sorry.
- [38:40]
Snowbike Mike
No, that's all right. I mean, these are the questions you gotta ask. I think for me, it's like one of those. When I hear this, I go, oh, I did not expect this from Jeff Kaplan. Yeah, I guess like a survival crafting open world western game was not like my, oh, this is something I would think Jeff Kaplan just reemerges in my life and it's like, this is what I got. I was thinking something a little bit different. So it did kind of hit me with the one, two punch of, yeah, oh, I'm going to have to reset my expectations. I saw it And I go, okay, a wild west open world survival crafting game. Is this something I want in 20, 26 and beyond? I'll keep an eye out for it.
- [39:15]
Stella Chung
I'm not opposed to it.
- [39:16]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [39:16]
Stella Chung
But it really depends on what the gameplay loop is like and what else they offer other than just being the Wild West.
- [39:22]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [39:22]
Stella Chung
See now, Legend of California. Maybe me becoming the legend. California would be opening up my first in and out.
- [39:30]
Snowbike Mike
That's brilliant.
- [39:31]
Stella Chung
In and out cabin franchising, that. Yeah. But it would be like the shittiest first rendition of burgers.
- [39:36]
Snowbike Mike
Right? You could do that.
- [39:38]
Stella Chung
I know.
- [39:38]
Snowbike Mike
So you can do that Masters cooking. You could build up a big place and play around. You know what I mean? What do they. What do they call that in the GTA online world?
- [39:48]
Stella Chung
Oh, rp.
- [39:49]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. You could RP as the first ever in and out and you can have some fun.
- [39:52]
Stella Chung
Yeah, that could be cool. If they've RP servers, that would be cool. But again, we have no idea what the server is going to be like.
- [39:57]
Snowbike Mike
So you just tell people that you're rpm. Please don't shoot me. And then Mike and his boys. I'm not on comms. I didn't hear anything. I murdered them. That's how it goes. Let's move on to story number three. Valve finally details the Steam Machines Verified program. That's coming from Jacqueline Thomas at ign. While we continue to wait for Valve to launch the Steam Machine amidst painful hardware shortages at the hands of AI hyperscalers, the company has released some details on its verification program at GDC 2026. Much like the Steam Deck, one of the big selling points for the Steam Machine is going to be the quote, Steam Machine Verified, end quote program that'll let you know at a glance whether or not a game will run on the Steam Machine. We've known that this program has been a thing since Valve announced its mini gaming PC back in November. But at GDC 2026, Valve laid out the actual requirements. The biggest difference from the Steam Deck Verified program is that for a game to be verified on Steam Machine, it needs to run at 1080p with 30 frames per second. Beyond that, any game that's verified on Steam Deck already will automatically be verified on Steam Machine. Valve can carry over the verification because like with the Steam Deck, a game needs to be able to use a controller 100% of the time to earn the that green check mark, Valve is also working on making more games playable on SteamOS as a whole. In the same presentation, the company claims that it's working on improving Steam OS's anti cheat support. Developers should be able to opt in to bring their Anti cheat programs over to Steam os, which should allow more competitive games to run on the Steam Machine, the deck, or whatever other hardware people choose to install Steam OS onto.
- [41:49]
Stella Chung
Interesting.
- [41:49]
Snowbike Mike
I like that endpoint.
- [41:51]
Stella Chung
Okay.
- [41:51]
Snowbike Mike
More games. Because the Anti cheat was a big deal at the beginning of the lifespan of the Steam.
- [41:56]
Stella Chung
Right.
- [41:57]
Snowbike Mike
Deck, where it's like, oh, I want to play Destiny. I want to play this game. It's like, oh, well, the Anti cheat doesn't work with that. You can't play. And you're like, oh, what a letdown. Now it seems like they're working with that. Which is great. The big one there. Of course, to be Steam Machine verified Stella, you must be 1080p with 30 frames per second minimum. Yeah. Yep.
- [42:17]
Stella Chung
I think that's fair. Honestly, at this point that is very fair because we're not. It's not. Let's see. Yeah. Steam deck. Yeah.
- [42:25]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [42:25]
Stella Chung
So it's not the Steam deck anymore. Right. It's a machine now that should be able to actually play slightly heavier games like Helldivers. Helldivers 2. You can actually. You can technically play it on the Steam deck, but it's very bad. You have to lower everything super low. And it's. I do believe you get maybe under 30fps when you're playing it on that. This feels like the bare minimum for something from Steam specifically. It is interesting that they're saying that it should allow more competitive games to run on the Steam machine. I would be curious to see that. Say, I'd be curious to see how Apex Legends would run.
- [43:00]
Snowbike Mike
I was gonna say. Yeah. I mean, what are some of the ones that you go to? Right. When you think of anti cheats and their games. Right. My mind doesn't jump to how well it will perform. It is strictly just the. The Anti cheat being the wall of. We're not allowing that through right now. And so I do like that they're trying to work with developers.
- [43:17]
Stella Chung
Yeah. Because I do. I think I remember when the Steam deck first came out, there was a game that people bypass the Anti cheat by downloading it on Steam Deck and then playing it that way. So I'm sure they are looking at that. I know they probably have a very comprehensive team that is looking at different possibilities, but it would be very interesting. I don't know. I'm really excited for this. Okay. If you could only buy this.
- [43:38]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [43:39]
Stella Chung
Or Project Helix.
- [43:43]
Snowbike Mike
That's a tough one still.
- [43:44]
Stella Chung
I know Right.
- [43:45]
Snowbike Mike
As of right now, with the details in front of me, I would probably go Project Helix. Even though like a lot of my gaming library has shift over to Steam where the Steam Deck has been great for me. I really play, I play 90% of my games on Steam right now. So it's like the idea of bringing the Steam Machine into the living room, having a controller verify, having a controller compatible with the big Steam os, big screen mode like this sounds great for me. But on the flip side, I've been really in tune with my Xbox Rog Ally and I love that it plays my Xbox games and my Steam games. Right. And if that is the sell of the Helix where it is this PC and console with other storefronts and all of a sudden I am accessing my Xbox and I got my game pass and I have my cloud and all of this. And then on the flip side, I can somehow still get Steam in like that's the ultimate machine. Yeah. So I will say Helix is going to be on my first to do, but I am interested in the Steam Machine. Great question because I was going to ask you, are you interested in the Steam Machine?
- [44:47]
Stella Chung
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. When it first, when we first heard about it, I was like, oh, getting that immediately for my, for my living room. But it is, it is going to be interesting too because we've got like finite money, right. So we've got to be able to plan things out. Games are also getting more expensive. We know hardware is getting more expensive, including this. So I'm also torn. But I think I really do love the Steam Deck verification.
- [45:11]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [45:11]
Stella Chung
So Steam Machine or whatever it's going to be called, that verification process, I think that'll be very valuable. That is kind of why I chose the Steam Deck over the Rog or Rog Ally stuff. So I think I'm gonna need more information on both.
- [45:25]
Snowbike Mike
Of course, of course. I mean we are waiting on the consumer side for way more information, right. Like we're waiting for a release date, we're waiting for price points, we're waiting for those wow factor buzzwords to sell me on this and also to show me all of this. Right. I think Xbox did such a great job last generation with quick resume. Right. Smart delivery was a big deal. Play anywhere was a big deal. So it's like when we go to GDC and Jason Ronald is talking about that, but not talking about that on the consumer side of things, those are the things that your mind jumps to is like are they going to bring quick resume somehow to PC on This Xbox mode, are they going to bring smart delivery where everything is ready to rock? I would assume those are the touchstones that they're going to go for.
- [46:04]
Stella Chung
I do not envy the software team trying to figure out how to do just resume like, you know, quick resume. Because I don't know how you would do that on a PC like device. But you know what? That's. That's not my problem.
- [46:15]
Snowbike Mike
We'll see if that carries over. Is that.
- [46:17]
Stella Chung
Yeah, yeah.
- [46:17]
Snowbike Mike
Is that a major player for this?
- [46:19]
Stella Chung
Would that be our make or break for you?
- [46:20]
Snowbike Mike
No, not at all. I actually surprisingly less and less use Quick Resume. The less, the less I play my Xbox and the more I play Xbox games on Steam and on PC. Of course I don't think about it. But when, even when I was on my Xbox, I wasn't a quick resume guy. I am a jump out of it. Full close that go to the next thing I would say I rarely used Quick Resume. I think it's a cool and novel feature, but I am not someone who juggles three games at once and needs to be bouncing between them with no load times like that is a crazy thing to me. At least I do think that's a crazy.
- [46:55]
Stella Chung
Everyone with adhd, me included, is offended. How dare you.
- [46:59]
Snowbike Mike
What do you mean by jumping between three games?
- [47:01]
Stella Chung
Yeah, what do you.
- [47:02]
Snowbike Mike
Screens. I never do that.
- [47:04]
Stella Chung
Okay, that's. That's very fair.
- [47:06]
Snowbike Mike
No identity coming in with the troll. But thank you for the super chat says I think it's cute that people think the Steam machine is will still be released. Do you think this company backs out all of a sudden and doesn't release this though?
- [47:18]
Stella Chung
No, it is far too early to make any assumptions about that. Right. We also don't know what the fuck's going to happen in the future. Like whether or not we're all still here. So let's just like, you know what, we'll just take it one day at a time, you know.
- [47:31]
Snowbike Mike
Let's go to story number four. Pokemon Pokepia launch sales announced. This coming from Tom Phillips at Ignition. Pokemon Pocopia has launched big on Nintendo Switch 2 and sold 2.2 million copies over its release weekend. Across four days, the new Pokemon life simulation game shifted 1.11 million copies in Japan alone, despite supply constraints for its physical version being reported in several countries. Indeed, such has been the game's popularity that Amazon recently raised its price on of the box copy by $10 up to $80. Nintendo shareholders have also reacted positively to the game's performance, sending the company's stock price shooting upwards. While 2.2 million copies is less than 5 million already sold by Resident Evil Requiem. It's important to remember that this game is an exclusive for the Switch 2. A console which is still relatively modest, has a relatively modest user base. Just over 17 million Switch 2 consoles and have been sold so far, meaning just shy of one in every eight owners already now has a copy of Pokemon Poke Opia Stella. Are you one of those human beings that has Pocopia?
- [48:46]
Stella Chung
I. I literally posted on Blue sky asking if I would like it because I don't know. So here's the thing. I'm gonna get a lot of in chat about this.
- [48:54]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah.
- [48:54]
Stella Chung
I didn't grow up playing the Pokemon game, so I don't have that close of a connection to Pokemon. Except for the show. Right. The original. Original series. So for me, seeing this being a more casual intro to Pokemon, I'm like, oh, I think I could be into this. And it's crafting. Right. And it's very cute. But it was the $70 price point that was holding me back because I wasn't sure if I would like it. Right. It's not the fact that it's $70. It's just that I wish there was a demo or something that could tell me how it would be. Right. You know, even if it's just like the intro thing. Okay. Okay. So that's what's been keeping me from.
- [49:26]
Snowbike Mike
Well, let's rewind for a moment. Let's dig a little bit deeper. Are you into games like Animal Crossing?
- [49:30]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [49:30]
Snowbike Mike
Maybe Minecraft Dragon Quest Builders.
- [49:33]
Stella Chung
I haven't played Dragon Quest.
- [49:34]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [49:34]
Stella Chung
Someone else brought that.
- [49:35]
Snowbike Mike
Those are the three big. Kind of like Touchstone, really. Okay. Of this game that would be in the similar genre. So if you're into that and you have a curation and a Maybe a fantasy of one day becoming a Pokemon master, and you're like, I'd like to get to be in that world.
- [49:50]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [49:50]
Snowbike Mike
It is very much Animal Crossing meets Pokemon. It is Minecraft Craft your own little world meets Pokemon. Right. And so I will say in the office, Roger and Joey, both non Pokemon people, like this game a lot. And it's their kind of first Pokemon game.
- [50:07]
Stella Chung
Oh, really? I'm not alone. Okay, cool.
- [50:09]
Snowbike Mike
If this is going to be your first one, I think it's really well written where the Pokemon are fun. It's not just Scyther. Scyther. Right. Like, they all have their own dialogue. It is actually cute. Heartwarming. It is a really fun, whimsical Little kind of story and world that you get to be in. You're not catching or fighting them. Right. It is just you're attracting them with their habitats and then they show up. Yeah, you build a home for them. But I'm loving this game and really you're excelling very, very well. Is no surprise to me. One, Pokemon rules. People love Pokemon. Two, Animal crossing took over our lives in Covid and we're of course chasing that high like wanting another animal crossing. But the idea that this is Animal crossing mixed with Pokemon. Yeah, that's called a major win. So I'm seeing everyone in my life buy it, play it, buy a switch to for it. Like it's been a wild weekend. So 2.2 million over what, four days this weekend. I expect that to continue to skyrocket.
- [51:06]
Stella Chung
Okay, but now Mike, should I buy this game or should I buy Mario Tennis Fever? Because that also looks really fun.
- [51:12]
Snowbike Mike
I love Mario Tennis Fever and if you're a competitive sports jibart like me, then Mario Tennis Fever is your game. But if you're looking to have a low key chill weekend with your friends and just sit there and binge watch One Piece live action season two, then you should be, you should be playing Pocopia.
- [51:30]
Stella Chung
Oh man. It's my two different gamer personalities clashing right now.
- [51:33]
Snowbike Mike
I know. You're just like Stella. You and I are so similar.
- [51:36]
Stella Chung
Yeah.
- [51:36]
Snowbike Mike
Guess what? You have to buy both.
- [51:38]
Stella Chung
That's what I'm going to end up doing. The Nintendo Pokemon or Nintendo store is right there. So I might just stop by and get it so that I don't have to pay the 10 extra dollars on Amazon.
- [51:45]
Snowbike Mike
Of course. Let us know if you are the one in every eight switch two owners with a copy of Pocopia. That is insane to say number five, the B or story number five. The BAFTA Game Awards nominees have been announced. The nominees for best game are. Arc Raider, Blueprints, clair Obscure, Expedition 33 Dispatch, Ghost of Yote, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Anything wowing to you. Stella, you did a fantastic job hosting the DICE Awards with the one, the only Greg Miller. The two of you, another killer year. Awesome opening, great ceremony throughout. Awesome to see incredible people of course got their flowers awarded, shown so much love. It's a great show.
- [52:28]
Stella Chung
It is.
- [52:29]
Snowbike Mike
You look at the BAFTA awards, best game of the year. What do you think about this?
- [52:33]
Stella Chung
You know all of these games are really good and I honestly at Dice we weren't. We never look at who wins. We'd like to discover it with the crowd Right. So we were like, oh man. Blueprints actually might take it because it had been winning quite a few. I would love for them to win it. But I do think. Oh, you didn't ask me who I think is going to take it, but I think it's going to be Clara Obscure.
- [52:57]
Snowbike Mike
Oh, okay. Of course, of course. I mean this seems in line with most of the shows that we've seen. It's probably missing a Donkey Kong in this that I think I've seen with most of the other games. Like if I was to compare Jeff Keighley and all the things that we see in the top tens of most outlets. Donkey Kong is usually in that. But I mean we've seen Indiana Jones get a lot of praise. Go Sevyote got a lot of love. Dispatch was phenomenal. Expedition 33 has won every award show there's been known to man. Of course, Blueprints, Arc Raiders, all these games are great. So it's not like anything doesn't fit here.
- [53:31]
Stella Chung
No, no, no.
- [53:32]
Snowbike Mike
And I. I don't think there's crazy snubs out there either.
- [53:34]
Stella Chung
No.
- [53:35]
Snowbike Mike
Hollow Knight Silk song Somebody brought up.
- [53:36]
Stella Chung
I know.
- [53:37]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, you'll see Hollow Knight Silk song in this. Great poll chat.
- [53:40]
Stella Chung
Yeah. I don't know. It's tough. Oh yeah. Death stranding too. It's. It's tough. There were a lot of really good games that came out, so they can't all fit into best game. But I'm sure there are other categories that they've been put into which helps a little bit.
- [53:53]
Snowbike Mike
Stella. Yes, of course. If Blueprints were to win the BAFTA Game Awards nominees and become the number one spot, that would be huge dues. But if I need something smaller to round out this show, what would I do?
- [54:06]
Stella Chung
That was very good. You'd go to our last story, the new the We News channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.
- [54:12]
Snowbike Mike
Love that. Let's go to the Wii News Network right here we have from vgc, Peggy has announced that all games with loot boxes in them will soon be rated 16 and up. The European Game Ratings Board announced today that starting in June it will be introducing a a number of minimum age ratings for games with certain interactive risk features.
- [54:36]
Stella Chung
But they call that be curious what they give Roblox. Then again.
- [54:40]
Snowbike Mike
Hey now I have. I have so much to talk about with Roblox.
- [54:45]
Stella Chung
Okay, we'll talk. We'll talk.
- [54:48]
Snowbike Mike
Ball Pit now available for iOS and Android. Play that at all.
- [54:54]
Stella Chung
No, I need to.
- [54:55]
Snowbike Mike
Hey, that's a good one took over the Borderlands 4 DLC story pack number one, Matt Ellie in the Vault of the Damned launches March 26th. I was. I feel like I'm like one of the only human beings that enjoyed Borderlands 4. And so it's like for me, I'm like, oh, I'm. I am excited for that. I might give that a try. Yeah. Yeah.
- [55:12]
Stella Chung
No, I'm not. I'm not going to shit on a game that you're like, yeah, enjoy it if. If it brings you joy.
- [55:17]
Snowbike Mike
I. I had a good time. I had a good time. From Noble. My dude says Super Meat Boy 3D launches March 31, according to an. According to the Nintendo eShop. Hey now. Played the demo on Steam. Really enjoyed it.
- [55:33]
Stella Chung
It's really fun. I'm so bad at games like that, but it's very fun. I'll watch you play it.
- [55:38]
Snowbike Mike
Okay, well, you should play it yourself. It's a really good time because, you know, Stella, you're competitive like me. You're going to love it. You said that first time and you're like, no, I can be better. And then you get a little bit better. Then you get a little bit better.
- [55:49]
Stella Chung
But I would have been good at it immediately. My.
- [55:51]
Snowbike Mike
And you whip the controller across the wall. You get a new new controller and you get right back after it. I'm so excited for this one because I'm pumped up to play the game. I've never played a Super Meat Boy besides this. Really my first one. What? I should go back and play the games, of course. But I really like the cute art style. I love the 3D look of it. I love the gameplay. I'm all in on this. I also drafted it for my fantasy critic. Just a big deal of like, I need big points. 92.
- [56:16]
Stella Chung
Okay, so you're biased.
- [56:18]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, exactly. Don't list the mic when you want this game. Silent Hill 2 remake surpassed 5 million players. Wow. You like Silent Hill?
- [56:29]
Stella Chung
It's very scary. So I like watching people play it.
- [56:31]
Snowbike Mike
I love that.
- [56:32]
Stella Chung
So I can live it through them.
- [56:33]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah. We've been a Silent Hill household over here with me and Roger inside the studio. We've really enjoyed Silent Hill 2 and of course F as well. So that's been great. Stella, let's go into some super chats. And then of course you're wrong where I asked the audience watching live to keep us honest while we are moving on with the show. Jumping into some fun ones right now. We got Darth Anslo writes in and says, stella rocks. I met you at the mix. You were so kind and fun. Keep up the great work. Oh, shout out.
- [57:02]
Stella Chung
Oh, that's so sweet. Thank you.
- [57:04]
Snowbike Mike
Some fun events over this week that you've gone to. What have you enjoyed?
- [57:08]
Stella Chung
Oh, well, I definitely enjoyed the mix put on by. Kind of funny. That was.
- [57:13]
Snowbike Mike
Thank you. Thank you. That's great. That's great. Shout out to Justin, putting on a great show. Teaming up with Tim and Greg and the whole crew here has been fantastic. But the mix, late night, when you go there and actually have all the velvet, it's an awesome party. Really good time. I. I'm a Day of the Dev Stan. I love Day of the Devs.
- [57:30]
Stella Chung
This is my first year.
- [57:31]
Snowbike Mike
My favorite.
- [57:32]
Stella Chung
So fun.
- [57:32]
Snowbike Mike
It's so San Francisco. It's the best.
- [57:34]
Stella Chung
It is actually.
- [57:35]
Snowbike Mike
It's free for all ages. You can bring your families. It's in the heart of sf. It's the coolest. It's so good. Next one coming out from Jordan White who writes in and says, do you think Microsoft will come out with their own Xbox mouse and keyboard peripherals? So if so, what features or buttons would you like?
- [57:55]
Stella Chung
Huh?
- [57:55]
Snowbike Mike
That's a great question. I will say that they've already teamed up with so many other teams for Xbox peripherals. I believe there's already. Well, I know I have the razor Master Chief edition mouse and keyboard. Very clickety clackity. The office is mad at me every time I use it. Then there was a eight bit dough or you know what I'm talking about, Chad. But it was see through green and the mouse had the iconic green and red buttons on the side for your A and B buttons, which were very cool.
- [58:27]
Stella Chung
Oh, that's cool.
- [58:27]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, they have a bunch of.
- [58:29]
Stella Chung
Wait, that could be really cool. Okay.
- [58:30]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, they have a bunch of peripherals. Do I see them making their own? Probably not. Will you get some Xbox certified with the logo on it ones? Yes.
- [58:41]
Stella Chung
Ooh, I would love if on the keyboard there was like a button for like muting and unmuting.
- [58:46]
Snowbike Mike
Okay.
- [58:47]
Stella Chung
You know, kind of like on controller and such. That really great because some of you on console don't know how to mute your fudgeing mics. So that'd be great.
- [58:54]
Snowbike Mike
Gone are the days of the Xbox Kinect. I miss it so much. Where you just hear everyone's entire life story.
- [59:00]
Stella Chung
Oh, my God. Yeah. You hear their marital problems in the background. You're just like, oh my God.
- [59:05]
Snowbike Mike
You hear the fridge opening and closing. It's like, okay, how is this microphone so good? We gotta. We gotta mute it. I think that's a lovely idea. That's actually a really good one that they should think about. Of course, you'll probably have the Xbox Jewel, which will take you to the homepage. But I, I like the mute, Stella. I would appreciate the mute. You know, I guess I'm. I'm saying this. It's like, well, Mike, you could just map it to any button on your keyboard.
- [59:28]
Stella Chung
It's nice to have a dedicated button for it.
- [59:30]
Snowbike Mike
Dedicated. You know what happens is I'll map it to some crazy key over on the far side and I'll forget it. One of these. And then I'll never use it. So that's on me. That's my bad. Kebabs writes in and says, legend of California. Sounds like a soaring update from Soarin, California.
- [59:44]
Stella Chung
Of course it, dude, it sounds like an amusement park ride.
- [59:49]
Snowbike Mike
It's.
- [59:50]
Stella Chung
It's like one of those, like, here's, you know, it's one of those really family friendly, like little rides that you go through and you go through like a mine shaft. It's like, oh, and here's where we farm for gold. I don't know.
- [60:00]
Snowbike Mike
I. I'm just a. Billy writes in and says, just here to say hi, Stella. Hi, Mike. Hello, Billy. Thank you so much for saying hello to the both of us. Goldfish Boy writes in and says, I finished getting all the achievements for High Guard hours before it closed. My brother and I are staring through a window waiting for the enemy to plant the bomb just so I could defuse it. It was hilarious. Of course last night was the end, I believe of High Guard. Saw some tweets go out right there. Cool to see people. I know a lot of people were like, I really enjoy this game. I've gotten all the achievements before it shuts down. Pretty.
- [60:32]
Stella Chung
Holy crap.
- [60:33]
Snowbike Mike
I know a lot of people like that. So yeah, pretty cool that you had some fun with that with your brother and friend. That's great. Let's see what else I got here for you. C. Barry writes in and says, I do not believe Helix is going to have Steam support like previously rumored. Oh, I already read this one. I don't see it anymore making money variants. I'm really interested to see like, like you said previous generations. I'm like, there's no way Xbox would put any other storefront on there. Why would Snowbank Mike buy Xbox games when I can just buy them on Steam, right? But like it will be interesting there in third place, they're going to do something weird. They do something different. They're trying to get you to jump on board. What will be that consumer wow factor, right?
- [61:13]
Stella Chung
Yeah. But also Snowbike Mike will do what Snowbike Mike wants to do. You know what I mean?
- [61:17]
Snowbike Mike
Of course. I mean, I'm a PC gamer now. It's crazy. I play so much PC. I'm a mouse and keyboard guy.
- [61:24]
Stella Chung
I do agree. High Guard did deserve better.
- [61:28]
Snowbike Mike
Gazer writes in and says, stella Tax Happy to see her again. The best host. Shout out to Stella right there.
- [61:33]
Stella Chung
Thank you.
- [61:34]
Snowbike Mike
Science D writes in, says, give this to Stella, please, Stella, $5 out of my pocket to you.
- [61:39]
Stella Chung
You gotta give me that $5.
- [61:40]
Snowbike Mike
There you go with the $2. Stella rocks. Mike rocks. That's it. Love that.
- [61:45]
Stella Chung
Love that.
- [61:46]
Snowbike Mike
All for the super Chats, of course. I ask you to keep us honest throughout the show with you're wrong over at Kind of funny Dot com. You're wrong. Let's see what I got here. Jeppo writes in, says, mike, where's Pirate Yakuza at the baftas? It deserves a nomination. Not a year wrong, but a fun little call out. You got me.
- [62:03]
Stella Chung
We're not the ones who made that list.
- [62:04]
Snowbike Mike
Chat knows that Mike reads a mile a minute. So you just put something in there. I'm like Ron Burgundy. I'm going to read it. You know what I mean? I'm trying my best not to read it.
- [62:11]
Stella Chung
Oh, no. You should not have told me that.
- [62:12]
Snowbike Mike
You got. You got me on that a little.
- [62:14]
Stella Chung
You should not have told me that.
- [62:15]
Snowbike Mike
Let's see, let me see, let me see. Kebabs writes in not a year wrong, but just adding two weed news items you missed. You got to send this to Blast. Okay, you can't just be sending me weed news items after the end of the show. But let's see. On the Peggy story, NFTs and blockchain stuff now guarantee an 18 rating AO on ESRB. Of course, adults only. Also, the original this is an Xbox announcement video has been taken offline. I did see that. Of course, that was old Xbox marketing stuff. Now they've changed that, so they've removed that stuff. So, yeah, we will see what the new marketing stuff in there.
- [62:53]
Stella Chung
It's so funny because, like, with major, major companies, people always like to assume. Yeah, the worst immediately. But it's like, no. You see a lot of campaigns get retired. They take all the ads down and, you know, they swap over.
- [63:03]
Snowbike Mike
Yeah, it is a funny one to me of, like, everybody's, like, looking that up again. I'm like, didn't really think much of it past this. You know, very fun. All right, cool. Stella, that is all the news that we need to talk about here on Kind of Funny Games Daily. It's Thursday, it's March, it's gdc. You're gonna knock. You're not going anywhere because you're on gamescast after this.
- [63:23]
Stella Chung
It's so funny. Yeah. Greg was like, okay, so Chad, here's the thing, right? Greg was like, oh, hey, do you want to be on kind of Feuding? I was like, yeah, okay, great. I can redeem myself, maybe. And then like, three days later, he's like, hey, do you want to be on gamescast? I was like, yeah, okay. I'll just come a little bit earlier than, like, the week before gdc. He's like, fudge it. You want to be on Kind of Funny Games Daily too? And I'm like, oh, my God. Fine. I'll just spend my whole morning here. It's fine. I love you guys.
- [63:49]
Snowbike Mike
So you got to tell them, buy me lunch. That's what we tell.
- [63:51]
Stella Chung
Oh, yeah, exactly.
- [63:52]
Snowbike Mike
Lunch. Craig and I'll do it all. Stella, it's great to have you. It's great to be spending time with you. You know, I love that the audience here loves hanging out with you, and you're not going anywhere, so I won't keep you all. Let's keep the day rolling. We going to move into games cast. Paris, Emron, the Don Con Stella and Blessing all taking over your games cast. Then after that, we have a very awesome games cast play stream. It's going to be Blessing and Roger playing Ghost of Yot Legends. So they'll show you and inform you all about that. That's the day for you. It's a whole lot coming at your way. So thank you all so much for tuning in. It's been our pleasure to serve you. Have a wonderful day.