← Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Next-Gen Xbox ‘Project Helix’ Announced - Kinda Funny Games Daily 03.06.26
01:10:24
Loading summary
Transcript125 lines
- [00:01]
A
Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax and let go
- [00:05]
B
of whatever you're carrying today.
- [00:08]
A
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. And breathe. 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. This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Company. No matter how you do game day, on the couch, in the crowd or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles you can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out for water. In the second half, stock the fridge for tip off with a variety of
- [00:52]
B
non alcoholic craft styles.
- [00:54]
A
Available at your local grocery store or online@athleticalbrewing.com your beer fit for all times.
- [01:00]
B
It's tax season and at Lifelock, we
- [01:02]
A
know you're tired of numbers, but here's
- [01:05]
B
a big one you need to billions. That's the amount of money in refunds the IRS has flagged for possible identity fraud.
- [01:12]
A
Now here's another big number.
- [01:14]
B
100 million. That's how many data points LifeLock monitors every second. If your identity is stolen, we'll fix it.
- [01:20]
A
Guaranteed.
- [01:21]
B
One last big number. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for the threats you can't control.
- [01:29]
A
Terms apply. Be like me and head to factor meals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kinda funny today in the nerdy news you need to know about. Xbox confirms its next gen console as Project Helix. Pokemon takes on the White House and another Nintendo direct has been announced for the Mario movie. We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. What's up everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Friday, March 6, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside the best voice in the business, Paris Lilly. Hello, Paris.
- [02:28]
B
Hello Greg. Good morning. How are you doing, sir?
- [02:30]
A
I'm great and I'm excited for my apologies from you.
- [02:34]
B
Oh, what's that apology?
- [02:37]
A
Ladies, gentlemen and bees, the kind of funny community. I see it, I hear it you want more Paris? You want more Paris? I'm like, yeah, I'll give you more Paris. I'll give you more Paris. Paris says, I'm coming up for GDC next week. I'll be. I'm like, great. I try to book this motherfucker on everything. Next week I can't. I got a meeting. I can't. I got this interview. I can't. Like, I don't even know what we're doing anymore. I don't know what we're doing anymore. Paris, what is up with our relationship, right? It's like, here we are, year 42 of the marriage and you're just taking me for granted. I'm making the casseroles. You come over at the office like, what are we doing?
- [03:15]
B
I'm a busy man. I don't know what to tell you.
- [03:17]
A
You know, I used to be your priority. I used to be your priority. Why is it when you're down there in the Southern California, it's easier to work with you than it is when you're five minutes away in a hotel?
- [03:31]
B
Look, Greg, as. As I told you, I'm busy. The next couple months are going to be busy. The fact I'm even at GDC next week is a miracle with my schedule. But once that clears, let's say mid to late April going into May, I want to be in this. I want to be in the studio more.
- [03:47]
A
You just keep stringing me along. Keep stringing me along. Fine. That's what I'm doing. No, we are getting a lot of you next week and in the upcoming weeks. I appreciate that. Thursday you're going to be in here doing a gamescast. I like that. An in person one. Kind of a reunion blessing. Hosting Imran the Don Khan, Paris Lily, Stella Chung going to be in here. So a whole cast of characters I'm going to get. I'm also going to record a game showdown with you, or I guess technically a few with you in the afternoon. And then, yeah, we got you on Friday the 13th dialing in to talk about all the stuff you saw at gdc. And then of course, the big one, everybody, you can look for Paris to be on Wednesday the 18th gamecast. When we review Crimson Desert, obviously we can say we have it. We can say the embargo is the 18th. We'd say Paris is going to be here at a special time. 3pm is when that embargo lifts. So we'll be going there. I'm excited to talk to you about that, Paris.
- [04:34]
B
Yeah. Yeah, me too. Yeah, like you said we've been playing Crimson Desert and definitely looking forward to giving some thoughts on that.
- [04:40]
A
I mean, of course next week you won't be able to play it. When are you playing this game? Because you know you're out there hobnobbing in San Francisco, not hanging out with me. But I digress. It doesn't matter.
- [04:48]
B
So it's funny. It's funny you say that. I'm going to have to power play it this weekend, then I'm in gdc, then play it a whole bunch when I get back. And then I have to travel for work stuff. So it's. Yeah, I'm gonna have to carve out some time, but looking forward to it.
- [05:04]
A
Well, I'm looking forward to talking to you today. Obviously a big day of Xbox news alongside a bunch of other video game news because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about. Live Twitch TV kindafunnygames, YouTube.com kinda funnygames Podcast services around the globe. If you're watching Super Chat, go over to YouTube.com kindafunnygames give me your thoughts and opinions about Project Helix, about Xbox's future, about the White House using Pokemon and propaganda. We'll get to it all you can super chat throughout the show and throughout these conversations, so don't worry about it. Of course we couldn't do this show without our patreon producers on patreon.com kindafunny so thank you Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm Twining for now, we begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. Time for some new five items on the Roper Report. Five time. Five time. Five time we begin on Twitter with number one, Xbox confirms Project Helix, its next gen console that will also play PC games. This is the one, the only Ryan McCaffrey@ign.com New Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma took over who, I'm sorry, who took over as the head of Xbox business last week as longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer retired, has confirmed the codename for Xbox's next generation console, Project Helix, and also confirmed long swirling rumors that the device will play Xbox and PC games. Quote Great start to the morning with Team Xbox where we talked about our commitment to the return of Xbox, including Project Helix, the codename for our next generation console. Sharma posted on her X account, Project Helix will lead in performance and play your Xbox and PC games. Looking forward to chatting about this more with partners and studios at my first GDC next Week, end quote. This came out of nowhere. This came hot on the news of Asha taking over the job. Paris, what do you read from these tea leaves?
- [07:14]
B
First of all, I think it was smart to announce this now because going by what the message was saying is they're going to be talking about this a lot at gdc, so get out in front of it now. It's going to be an open secret next week anyways. Yeah, as far as the tea leaves goes, I mean it's pretty much a confirmation that, yeah, this will be a hybrid device that will do console and it will play PC games as well. So they're officially going all in on that strategy. I think all the rumors and speculation about will they, won't they do hardware? I think we can put that to rest now, if anything. Now the question is when do we get it? When will we see it?
- [07:54]
A
Yes.
- [07:54]
B
But I'm glad that the conversation and we're at GDC next week, so I'm glad the conversation about it starts next week. So at least we understand how they're going to do it because I'm fascinated to know will this do true backwards compatibility for the Xbox Digital Library? And we'll see obviously if it does anything physical, but will I be able to play all the way to the original Xbox, up to the series X and S to Digital Library and then obviously it'll carry on beyond that. And then how are they integrating Steam and the other third party digital stores into this? How are the compatibility with this? Are they still going to do achievements? Is there a multiplayer pay? Like there's so many questions they're going to have to start answering with that. That. Yeah, looking forward to seeing what, what starts at gdc.
- [08:41]
A
So now let's take our hands and get deep into this because I have so many questions that we don't have answers for, but so many things to talk about, debate, et cetera. I think at the top of the order, my big question, before I give you a bunch of subheads and you and I dive into it probably for way too long, is this the right move? I asked this question for a multitude of reasons, but Sarah Bond, very vocal, obviously before she left, before we knew she was leaving, before maybe she knew she was leaving, talking about the next console is going to be this, it's going to be a premium thing, it's going to be X, Y and Z. She said that before memory loss started, before we had all this ram pricing insanity, everybody panicking, yada. That and you know, the market's flailing when Phil retired, Sarah left, etcetera, etcetera, And Asha got announced on February 20th. My knee jerk reaction was I wonder, or I guess first question was, what does this do for that next Xbox? Because the way Asha was talking in the tweet, in the Jazz article, right, doubling down on Xbox, going back to making Xbox great. My thought really was I wonder if they just fucking jettisoned this idea because is this the right move? Paris, I'm asking because of price. Xbox does not have right now the notches on its belts. I think with the audience to justify them going, I believe in Xbox and this new vision and I'm ready to put down what when Sarah said months ago, six months, nine months ago, whatever it was, when she said it was going to be a premium device, I'm like, oh man, they're pushing a grand. That's going to be a 999. And that was before all of this. Now I look at, I go, is that a $1200 box? Like where? Jump in. Paris, I've been talking, where are we going with any of this?
- [10:40]
B
Yeah, see, and that's the big question on this. How much are they going to pivot from whatever the previous administration's plan was going to be? Or is this just simply the plan? Because if you go by what Sarah Bond was saying, this will be a premium product. They're going for something that is high performance, premium. You're going to pay a lot for it. So I think the conversation starts at $1,000 and goes up from there. But then you have Asha, who has repeatedly said now in, in various, you know, interviews and tweets, it returned to Xbox. I think that's one of the big questions they gotta ask right away. What does that exactly mean? And is a return to Xbox? Okay, you got a commitment to hardware, Is it a commitment to hardware for all consumers or are you just simply targeting, you know, high end enthusiasts consumers? Because that's what this device sounds like. It does not sound like it's going to be cheap. Are they going to variants of it that are at a lower cost? Are we getting OEM devices? There's all these things that are on the table about it, not to mention the actual functionality of the box that I think they got to get out in front of to get people excited about. You know, I, I will, I will take a small pat on the back that one of the last interviews that Phil Spencer did was, you know, with Danny and I on Gamertag Radio. And I asked them straight up when all the multi platform stuff, if I can play your games anywhere. Why am I buying an Xbox? And he said then it was because they were going to do something unique and the hardware itself was going to be, you know, enticing enough that you would want to buy it despite you being able to play our games on a PlayStation or just simply build your own PC. So, you know, like I said, GDC, I think that's where the conversation starts. And price is a huge factor in this because if this is 1,000 plus dollars, you're done. You've essentially, you are dead in the water. Yeah. More than half your audience. Because only the true diehards are going to go run out and spend a thousand twelve hundred, fifteen hundred dollars.
- [12:43]
A
And I'm not trying to stoke fanboy fires by any stretch of the imagination.
- [12:47]
B
Yeah.
- [12:47]
A
But I feel like the true die hards are few and far between these days. When you got Snowbike Mike, who hosted the X cast, openly switching over to PC because of course, well, whatever, I'll do it. That's where everything is and yada yada yada, like, that's well beyond the canary in the coal mine that the coal miners are dying of. Oxygen deprivation at that point. Like, there's still people I know who are ride or die Xbox, but I really feel like $1000 plus console you are not that you are dead in the water. Like, I just don't Especially the track record you have the. I'm shocked. Oh, everybody, it's Greg. Do you hear me? It is Greg. Do you hear me? There we go. Okay, so restarting the point. I think it is so shocking to have her come out and say this and have this project Helix and have the graphic. I understand on the one point of like, hey, let's get everybody excited. Let's show we have stuff. But I really feel like they should have pumped the brakes and gone to the drawing board because when I read this letter, she put out right when she took the job. Second, the return of Xbox. We will recommit to our core Xbox fans and players, those who have invested with us for the past 25 years, and to the developers who build the expansive universes and experiences of that are embraced by players across the world. We will celebrate our roots with a renewed commitment to Xbox, starting with console, which has shaped who we are. It connects us to the players and fans who invest in Xbox and to the developers who build ambitious experiences for it. Gaming now lives across devices, not within the limits of a single piece of hardware. As we expand across PC, mobile cloud, Xbox should feel seamless instant and worthy of the communities we serve.
- [14:48]
B
We.
- [14:48]
A
We will break down barriers so developers can build once and reach players everywhere without compromise. Obviously, that last part speaks so much to a hybrid system, to a, hey, this one works. But when we're talking about a renewed commitment to Xbox, and that starts with the console, talking about it connects us to fans and players, the people who have invested in it, like, I don't think you have the wins right now. The track record right now to come out and be like, cool, the Next Xbox is 1100, $1200. And hopefully I'm way wrong on what that pricing would be if you scope that down low. Right. What we were talking about with the Steam machine when that originally got announced, and we're like, man, if you can price that at 600 right around the consoles, you have a very compelling argument for that box. And then to see fucking Valve come out this spring and be like, hey, this RAM thing is fucking up everything. And so we are. We will get back to you on what we're doing with this. That if Valve, who has infinite money, a war chest of money, who I'm sure is encouraged to be weird and take losses and whatever, be good to your user. If they can't do it, fucking Satya Nadella is not gonna let them come out and take a bath on a console to get it to you cheaper. At which point they're gonna put out a giant console. It's not gonna sell. And that is the death of Xbox in terms of being a hardware maker, imo. Yeah.
- [16:10]
B
I mean, the more I'm thinking about it again, with Asha being so adamant about a return to Xbox, that has to be everyone that is invested into Xbox and not just the die Hards that will run out and spend any price on a device. I'm now becoming more convinced there has to be. Sure, Microsoft Xbox makes this big premium device that's high end, all the bells and whistles, does everything. But there's. There's got to be a lower tier, a lower entry point as well.
- [16:40]
A
And I roll my eyes at that. Not. I roll my eyes not at you, Paris Lily. At that decision of like, no, no. How many generations of fucking complicated. Well, here are all the passes of game. Pass ultimate, and here are all the skus of the thing. And then we're all like, well, the fucking S is clearly holding back the X. No, it's not. Shit. Isn't even run. No. No. Make one fucking box. You want to be successful Xbox, Worry about games and making great games and putting them on One box that people can play. Like, I'm not saying PlayStation's got it 100% right, but at least them being like, hey, yo, we're leaving the PC market because we've been embarrassed. Like, they're focused. They have a message. People know where to go get those games and it seems to be working for them. It don't even get me started on how it works for Nintendo. Like, the message for Xbox has been too fucking complicated. It is time to make this fucking simple. I'm sick of word salads. And clearly so are the consumers. And they don't. They didn't believe in it when Phil and Sarah had been talking about it for years in years and trying to show the dominoes. And here's what, like, this is a. The band aid is off. We can have a fresh start. If I. If they said, greg, Phil's retiring, we're pissing off Sarah Bond. She's quitting. You're taking over. I would have immediately been like, cool. We've tried that strategy and it's not being accepted. And I do not believe up top is going to give me time here. I do not believe Microsoft's going to give me the time needed to make that be a success. So go make a very powerful Xbox that we can put things exclusive on.
- [18:12]
B
So I'm with you on everything that you just said, but it contradicts everything that you said prior to that. Because if you create this box that's premium, that's high price, then who the hell is going to. Not everyone's going to go buy it. Right.
- [18:25]
A
Oh, but I'm saying make a normal box. All right.
- [18:29]
B
That's the point. And that's where. And that's where we need to see what Ashes point was about a return to Xbox. Is that about making one box that isn't the super high end premium thing, but is playing PC again. What Valve's doing with. With the Steam machine that is playing PC games can play the legacy Xbox games, but is more affordable so everyone can go ahead and adopt it.
- [18:53]
A
Yeah.
- [18:55]
B
Are they now going to go back to subsidizing hardware? So maybe that makes this premium device more affordable because you're not going to charge a super high price. Obviously the ram, all these things factor into this. And I think this year and starting with GDC and going into Summer Game Fest into their 25th anniversary is a lot about them cleaning up the message of what Xbox is and where Xbox is going and who they want to come along for the ride as far as hardware goes because Then you still have the multiplatform strategy. I don't think they're going back to exclusivity. So if I can buy a PlayStation, PlayStation 5 Pro and I'm playing Forza Horizon 6 and Fable and Gears E Day on that, why am I going to go buy that device when I can get the PS5 Pro cheaper? So all these things factor in on, on with hardware. So I keep coming back to the same thing again. What does return to Xbox mean? Because the messaging over the past few years told us that sure, we'll provide a console, but we don't care where you play. But then you're telling us now you do care where we play. So how does that work?
- [20:06]
A
Crypto C in the chat says, why would Xbox clear up the message all of a sudden? Because everyone who ran Xbox left. There's a new person in charge. This is the, this is the closest you're going to get to a clean slate protocol where it's like, now we can go. Which is back to my point of I, I think it's cool to announce, hey, Double Helix. And we have a super chat over here. Zero super chats. And says this eight second announcement seems like a distraction from last week. Lame. There's definitely that to read into it. All right, let's change the narrative. Let's get going. Ash is here. She loves games, she's pushing and talking about it. My take on this is knowing how bad everything's been going for Xbox, clearly. And what I imagine Satya, Nadella and Microsoft are saying. Right. I think all of this seems rushed where I would not be shocked if you're saying this. And then we're not going to hear about Project Helix anytime soon. And by the time we hear about the next Xbox or just what Xbox's future is, what Ashes and Matt Booty's vision is for Xbox, if it has changed. And that's my thing where it's like, I understand you're making the money off of the games being on PlayStation. I don't think you're making money off the hardware anymore. I don't think a PC console hybrid is going to make the money they want it to make. Microsoft wants it to make, which again, I think takes them out of the hardware business. So I have to imagine you're sitting there like, what are we fucking doing? Why are we doing that? Why are we even like, just go third party now. Just pull the plug. No more hardware. We're putting everything out everywhere and go like, I feel like there is so much change Right now, this is a Xbox. Never mind that they're 25 years old. Well, maybe Xbox, I guess at 25 is going through a midlife crisis. All right, what are they. Are they buying the convertible? Are they going to get into pottery? Nobody fucking knows. But, like, this seems rushed. This seems like you go through the breakup and you're on the phone, you're Fred, like, I am moving to Canada. I'm going to go do like, whoa, pump me that you just got punched in the face in a prize fight. You got to sit there, take a breath, and figure out what it is this does to me feel like, yes, let's change the narrative. Talk about this is. But I will be shocked if the bean counters at Xbox get to the point where one day we are playing Project Helix, whatever they call it, and it is a PC hybrid and it is running if it's giving me the performance I'd expect for twelve hundred dollars. And it's not just some. It's the Steam deck innards inside of a thing that also runs an Xbox. But I don't know, I'm. I feel like Xbox doesn't know what they're doing, so I don't believe anything they're saying. They are my friend who just went through a painful breakup, and I'm like, we're at the bar and I'm like, what? Sure, that sounds like a good idea. That could be what you do. Yeah. Well, why not? Yeah, okay, cool. I don't believe any of it. I don't believe it. Paris.
- [22:56]
B
But, but, but do you think part of it could be as simple as. They've already gone into these agreements, these contractual agreements with AMD to make this chip, we have to make this device. We've already committed to it. We can't go back on it, so we can't just go all full third party, but then at the same time, we can't go full exclusive because that wasn't working. So there's some pivot happening here. And to your point, I think they gotta get the message out on what that's going to be. And I don't think they even 100% know what that message is just yet. But. But to the point of why they announce this now is because they have to start talking to their partners and developers next week at gdc. I mean, Jason Ronald's literally hosting a keynote talking about their next gen strategy. There's going to be so many questions that come out of that that they have to be prepared to start answering these things. But I agree I think this GDC stuff happens. They talk about the concept of what Helix is going to be and this merging of console and PC. And then I do think Helix kind of goes dark for a while. I don't think, like, I don't think we're gonna see what Helix, the hardware itself looks like.
- [24:12]
A
No way.
- [24:14]
B
Maybe at the 25th anniversary, maybe. But I think they go kind of dark on that. And then it's just more concept of how developers are going to take advantage of the new this and that and blah and the merging. We're going to make it easier to develop on this and you just make it one time and it works on PC and on Helix and all these things. So yeah, it's, it's a lot. It's a lot. And a lot of this is Xbox is doing because the messaging has shifted so much over the years that you don't know what to believe anymore. I mean, look, let's just take it back to what PlayStation or obviously what Jason Trier reported the other day. They're basically saying we don't want to go all in on PC so we're just going to scale it back and go back to what we knew worked with, you know, keeping our single player games exclusive. And there's the GTA, six of things, the PS5 Pro, like they're doing their thing, whereas I'm not sure Xbox 100 knows what theirs is going to be for the next gen other than we are making this box. It's going to run on Windows, it will play Xbox games and it will play PC games and how they're messaging. Oh, I know this strays a little bit. The game pass of things. Is that going to stay the same? Are you going to modify that? Dan? Like there's so many things they still have to answer on that front. But you keep saying it. It's going to start next week.
- [25:36]
A
You asked the million dollar question I think at the front of is it just that this is too far gone, that Sarah Bond and Phil's vision of a premium Xbox that was an Xbox and PC is like already in some kind of production. They've already ordered the parts, the checks have cleared. Yeah, I mean like, I think that's the reality of it in a lot of different ways of why you wouldn't deviate from the plan is, well, fuck, it's happening no matter what. Which again, in my opinion, a terrible time for Phil to retire, A terrible time to lose Sarah over this. But whatever. I think there's a great chance that, yes, that is the Point Paris. They are too far gone down that road. Because again, we've heard about it. Conversations have already happened with partners, let alone yes devs and whatever you're doing at gdc. And if you want to talk about the looming fucking Xbox's cooked headline, it is the fact that, like, when Jason writes about this in five years, and it is. They were saddled with this machine, the vision. They knew the vision wasn't working anymore. They knew the vision wasn't working. They had to put it out. They put it out. They did not have, like, we're fucked. They are fucked if that happens.
- [26:43]
B
But, I mean, I don't know if you saw. Was it. Tom Warren posted a picture. I guess they did another internal conversation or whatever with Asha, but Satya Nadella himself was a part of it as well.
- [26:55]
A
So he's like, where is all this money I'm spending going? I need to see this place.
- [26:59]
B
It could be. But see, I think that's the one thing about Xbox, though, that. Sure. And we talked about this already. Activision changed everything for them. But that is also part of it. They've essentially committed $80 billion to gaming. And whether they continue to make hardware or not, they're not going to leave the gaming space. Look at all the games that are coming out over the next few years. So there's definitely a commitment to gaming. It's just, how are they. You can't get rid of the Xbox brand. I think that is one thing. As far as Microsoft goes, I think it's still one of their signature brands as far as name recognition. Yeah, but how they evolve that and get people to understand what Xbox is going to be moving forward is the real thing. But I keep going back to what Asha initially came out and says and what she's reiterated. This return to Xbox box, it. It starts with the console. We, you know, we want to make it a core thing and all that. How do you do that in a world where the games are on other platforms? And how do you get someone to convince someone, I'm gonna buy your. And again, I always talk about someone that can only afford one device.
- [28:10]
A
Yeah.
- [28:10]
B
If I can only buy one box, why am I buying your box? Instead of buying a PlayStation or just building a PC, why would I buy it? That's the thing they have to convince people of.
- [28:20]
A
I love your optimism, and I don't share it. And maybe it's just because we're in a dark place and It's. Maybe I'm Dr. Strange, seeing a million timelines. My concern is it's going to go this way. It's too late to change this next gen plan so they have to keep going with this. No one buys it. So it shits the bed. And there's another huge black eye for Xbox. And Microsoft says great, this is our chance. They kill Xbox, it becomes Microsoft Gaming. We have had 25 years, 26 years, whatever when they decide to be like of Xbox and it's been fantastic. But we're turning the page. We no longer believe that it's all one box. Xbox doesn't really encompass what we're doing publishing on PlayStation, PC, Cloud, et cetera. And we are folding all that into Microsoft Gaming and that's what it becomes.
- [29:10]
B
But I also think that's why Asha is now the CEO. I, I think that's part of it as well.
- [29:15]
A
Save it or do the handoff to,
- [29:18]
B
to, to try and save it before they hand it off because they easily could have just all right, this isn't working. We're Microsoft Gaming. We're just, we're third party publishers. Screw this, we're out. It seems like this is the last let's try and save again the Xbox name, the brand of Xbox. Let's see. Because if again if you go in her resume and if you ever watch her in an interview, Magic hell, she got me convinced on AI just listen to her dog. But it seems like that's what she's good at. She's a good, she's good at coming into something and basically growing an existing product, getting user engagement to that product. So it kind of makes sense that all right, we're bringing her in to lead us into the next phase of whatever Xbox is going to be. Let's see if we can salvage the hardware and make it still a thing. If not then to your point Greg, we just become a third party publisher where Microsoft Gaming maybe Game Pass goes away completely just by all the games. Who knows. But these are the things I think over the next calendar year they have to answer before that hardware we assume is coming out what holiday 2027 maybe
- [30:29]
A
T bills in the regular chess is how is Greg agreeing Asha is there to grow Xbox when he just said he thinks they should kill. They should kill it off. Well I'm not saying that I was agreeing with Paris of that's why she brought I think somebody made the point when it first happened of like this really feels like when you bring in somebody for at home care to ease them to death like and I don't know, I don't know Asha from a Hole in the wall. So I'm not saying it's her as much as Microsoft's bringing in this person who's not gaming, not in the gaming world to take over and learn, which is great. And obviously you can run a business and not be a gamer, but I think they're coming in and being like, we need a business person to figure out if we can make dollars and cents off of this. Which brings up this one from Otis prime, who super chats and says, how do you just go third party and not fuck over your players who have libraries built for over the years, every gen it's Xbox is dead and it's always wrong. Otis Prime, I don't know if you ever watched a show called Game of Thrones. I would, based on this question, and this is all hyperbole, conjecture, you're on an Internet talk show. I really feel in a lot of different ways, Hodor from Game of Thrones is the same thing as Phil Spencer from Xbox, where Phil Spencer was the one trying to hold that door and make that make sense and make that matter. I see so many people in here saying, alex says, yes, that's me on multiple things. There was another super chat in here. Let me get it before I lose my point too. From all the way up here. Thank you for chatting Lord Foosh, who said, lifelong Xbox user Helix gives me hope. The last 15 years of my digital games library depends on it. I hear you. I understand you. You are rare. You are very rare. And Microsoft is seeing how far that fandom library takes them. And they're clearly not happy with the financials of it. So for them to say it's done and you flip out that you have this Xbox library and be pissed off, they're gonna say, cool, hold on to your Xbox series X. What are you talking about? And when you get mad about that, they're gonna say, what about when you had an SNES and those cartridges didn't go to your N64? Like, this isn't something that's radically different, you've never heard of. Granted, we're all spoiled. Understandably so. And I'm not. I'm the guy who preaches how much I love digital games. And the people are always talking about Greg physical this, that your libraries. I get it. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm saying I don't think Microsoft gives a fuck about you. And I think when they finally are like, listen, we need to make the money. We spent $69 billion on Activision Blizzard. We need to make the money. They're not mad that Alex is mad. They don't give a shit that Alex is mad that his 15 years of digital games are gone and gone. Being that they're on a thing, you have to get like, and don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this right. I'm the one out here all the time being like, yo, it fucking sucks that it feels like gaming corporations don't give a shit about you. Because they don't. That sucks. I'm sorry, I'm not making that. But I'm saying when the rubber hits the road, these people don't care that a small percent of you are mad. They care about getting money from people on PlayStation, PC, wherever they're putting these games.
- [33:38]
B
I agree, but at least trying to, trying to be a little optimistic here, what you just said.
- [33:43]
A
And again, this is, we're so into the multi. Like I, I want everyone to be very clear. I don't know the new regime. I hope I'm fucking wrong across the board. I hope they say we fucking love it. Here's the PC Hybrid console for 700. I will be first in line to buy it. I'm stoked about having a console PC. I love that idea. I just don't believe anything anymore.
- [34:05]
B
But that, but that's exactly the point. We don't know the new leadership. We don't know the new direction yet. I would, like you said, I hope they prove you wrong that, that as, as a consumer, as someone that loves games, someone that doesn't want to see the Xbox brand, you know, just completely die off and become Microsoft Gaming, at least hearing allegedly what Project Helix is going to be. This is the opposite of exact everything that you're saying that they do want to take care of that person, Alex, that has the digital library that goes all the way back to the original Xbox. We're going to bring it along with you so you don't feel left behind in that way. But we're charting this new path into this hybrid environment. We're going to bring PC games into this hardware. Let's move forward. But to what we said at the beginning. None of that shit works if it's fifteen hundred dollars.
- [34:59]
A
Yeah, yeah.
- [35:01]
B
That's what they got to still figure out.
- [35:02]
A
Yeah. Over here in the super chats, Lord Foosh comes back and says, I 100% agree, but I have hope anyway. And I want you to have hope. I do, yeah. I, I, I have hope that Xbox can do something. I, it's heart versus head. I've seen I mean, to be clear, I believed in Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond's vision. I think that that was a one. If you could have Xbox as its own business entity removed from having Microsoft on top of it. I believe in that vision and where we were going in the future and having the Rog and having this premium console and having the cloud and having it on your TV app and having like that is a, I think, functional and profitable business. But it's fucking Microsoft. That said, that's not enough profit. That is not enough profit for what we've put in. And again, they're the bean counters. They're the ones. They're the ones. I think that fucked it up. And so now take Asha and the new regime out of it. I don't put anyone into it. Put Kevin in there. I don't believe that Microsoft's going to let Kevin make the decisions that are good for us and good for your library and good for games.
- [36:06]
B
No, I mean, that's the reality of it. Like, you know, we're joking at the top about, you know, my real job and how busy I am. We just went through leadership change at the end of last year, and my new boss is essentially like, it doesn't matter what the previous regime was doing. This is what we're doing now.
- [36:24]
A
Yeah.
- [36:25]
B
And to the point, we. We don't know Asha yet. We don't know what mandates potentially have been put on her, you know, from the top. We have to still wait and see. I mean, everything she's saying sounds great, but how does that play out in execution? That. That'll be the. The reality of it. And let me just say this one other thing before we move on.
- [36:45]
A
Like, oh, I got tons of super chats. Yeah.
- [36:48]
B
Yeah. I'm a fan of Xbox play anywhere. I.
- [36:51]
A
Me too.
- [36:51]
B
This is an Xbox. The mark, the marketing of it, some of it. Right. But the idea of I buy a game once and I get to play it across multiple devices, I'm all in. Obviously, X Cast, we're all big fans of Game Pass, day and date, the whole thing, until it got to 30 bucks. I'm like, I can't call this the best value in game anymore because it cost too damn much. But the concept of Game Pass, sure. Fan of it. Look, the genie's out of the bottle now. I think anyone thinking they're going to go all the way back to full exclusivity, you're fooling yourself. It's just. I don't think that's happening to. To what you said, Greg. 69 billion in Activision tells me they got to make money. So they're going to continue to put their make as many access points to their games as possible. I, I'm a fan of that because I think screw exclusive play games wherever the hell you want. Who tricking cares, right? But we are also in, in a reality and Phil obviously talked about this for many years. They are deeply in third place and it didn't matter what they're doing. They did not they log again. What do you say? They lost the most important generation, the digital generation. So now they got to try and do something different. Obviously what the previous regime was doing. I think a lot of that DNA will continue. But clearly you bring in new leadership, something changes. It will not be 100% what we were seeing even just a week ago. Something has changed and how that plays out, like this is what I think. I think short term you're really not going to see much. I think over the next 12 to 18 to 24 months that's when we're going to start seeing the impact of whatever Asha has planned and Leadership has planned for Xbox. So we'll have to see but I am with the customer the consumer 100 look, we, we want, we want the corporations to be the good guys. We want them to do the right thing by us. But the reality of it is we look at the real world right now. That is not always the case. So if there is a very unpopular change or something that happens with Xbox, don't be shocked. That's all I can I can say on that. It would not surprise me at all.
- [39:00]
A
We of course have so much more show to get to and a few super chats. I still like to pepper in but I'd love to do them after I tell you about the kind of Funny membership of course. Remember, if you love us doing live talk shows each and every Weekday on Twitch, YouTube podcast services, we need you to go pick up a kind of Funny membership. YouTube.com/kind of funny games, patreon.com/kind of funny Apple and Spotify. You can get all of our shows ad free. You can get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller in a series I call Greg Way. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Factor. My go to shortcut for great food, fast cold days, big goals and no time to cook. Factor makes healthy eating easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs. So eat well without the planning or cooking. I love Factory because I get to pick from 100 rotating meals, get them delivered to the studio and then have a meal ready to eat in those precious few minutes I get between shows. Factor uses quality functional ingredients including lean proteins, colorful veggies, whole food ingredients and healthy fats. Always fresh, never frozen. Ready in about two minutes. No prep, no stress. What's not to love? Be like me. Head to factor meals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free breakfast for a year. Eat like a pro this month with Factor New subscribers only varies by plan. One free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active. A couple we have breaking news happening on top of already other Nintendo White House news, but we're going to just get Let me just knock out a few things here. Cody says in a super chat, I don't have $3,000 to build a PC, so a trusted $1,000 trusted PC and console sounds fine to me. My thing there is do you trust them to do this and nail it right over There was another one in here talking about like that they're in on this too that they would be about oh here it was. Sorry Casper at $1,000 or $1,200 for the performance of a 50, 80 or a 5070 TI is a steal and it can also play GTA and console games. They don't need to sell more than 5 to 10 million to be successful IMO. This is for the hardcore. Thank you for all that you do. That's my problem. My point is that it's undoubtedly for the hardcore and that is not what Microsoft wants. Microsoft wants everybody to fucking have this machine, have it under their TVs, ask for it for Christmas, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And I think that that if you were to come out and have the launch sale, there's a pizza bed in here too. Yeah Claw Matt Clawmaster says pizza bet between the Steam Machine and the Helix which one will sell more And I think no vision on the Future, stats, prices, etc. Very hard question to answer. But right now based on this conversation, Steam Machine, Steam Machine has Valve and is talking to an audience that understands buying PCs and gamers that want to do that. And I think that they would look at that and go oh I trust Valve, I trust Steam, they're going to do this, they're going to blah blah blah blah blah. I think you jump the other shift to, all right, well, I bought a Series X. As Super Larry writes in it, says, I sold my Series X a year ago after seeing the direction of travel. What? Yeah, seeing the direction of travel. Why invest in a platform that doesn't have a future? That narrative is wrapped around Xbox right now and coming out with a very expensive machine that plays their games and PC games just doesn't, I think, drive home the message. You want to be like, I'm doing it, I'm investing. I'm jumping in on that. So pizza bet. Between you and me, Claw Master, I'll say Steam machine. But again, maybe the Helix comes out and is like, hey, we are selling it for $500 and we did do all this stuff. And I go, holy shit, that's great. It all works out, but I don't know about that. Paris, you ready for some breaking news?
- [42:54]
B
Yes, let's do it.
- [42:55]
A
We turn our eyes to Aftermath site where Nicole Carpenter writes. Nintendo Suing US Government over Tariffs Nintendo of America is suing the United States government over the sweeping tariffs President Donald Trump put in place last year. Though the Supreme Court has stymied the tariffs for the time being, the situation remains in flux for companies producing goods manufactured outside the US and sent Stateside lawyers right in the complaint filed Friday in the U.S. court of International Trade and obtained by AfterMath, that since February 1, 2025, Trump has implemented, quote, unquote, unlawful executive orders, quote, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of swath of countries. The company is asking the court to refund, quote, unquote, with interest the tariffs it paid, quote, Nintendo of America has standing to sue because it is the importer of record for goods that were subject to IEEPA duties, end quote. Lawyers write noting the company suffered injury from those tariffs. You can read the complaint here. Aftermath has reached out to both Nintendo and the White House. Go fucking get him, Nintendo. God damn. I'll go to the Nintendo store this weekend and buy something useless that I don't need. Hell yeah, go get him. Fuck yeah. That's great news.
- [44:11]
B
Yeah, it's fans, honestly, it's fantastic news. I've always thought the tariff thing, it's just fricking dumb. I don't know any other way to say it. And look at what it's done globally to all of us as a result and just the increasing prices that are going on. The Supreme Court gave their ruling. Obviously he's going around it. So, yeah, I think Nintendo is setting a precedent that we will see more companies do the same thing and sue and want refunds. And good. Here's here's not to get too crazy on the tariff rant, but what frustrates me about the tariff thing is even if it goes away, we're already at this price point where they're not going to go down.
- [44:54]
A
It's coming down. That's what it sucks about.
- [44:56]
B
No one's going to go down. So even if they go away, that's what I hate about all this stuff. So good, good on them suing it. Unfortunately, I don't think we're going to
- [45:02]
A
be the ones we will benefit from it. Yeah, I mean, maybe it is Nintendo that would bring your price down, but who knows? Bander SN Super Chat says WNDS today stand the W stands for W rather than the weird Nintendo decisions they usually do, let's stick with what Nintendo's doing to the US Government. We go to what was originally story number two Pokemon distances itself from the White House using Pocopia to promote Maga this is Kenneth Shepard at Kotaku responding to the White House using its imagery for the second time was probably not on the Nintendo and Pokemon company schedule for Pokemon Popia's launch day, but we live in the stupidest, cruelest timeline. So here we are. On Thursday, the White House posted an image that made using a popular Procopia font generator to write out Make America Great Again because they've got no other ideas now. In a statement to the New York Times, the Pokemon company has distanced itself from the post, which included several Pokemon in the image, and said it is, quote, not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda. End quote quote we are aware of recent social content that includes imagery associated with our brand, spokeswoman Savarthia Dev said in the statement, quote, we were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property. Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda, quote unquote. Bringing the world together sure doesn't sound like the agenda of a political group that is kidnapping and deporting people. The Trump administration has been relying on video game iconography and memes to spread its hateful rhetoric, and this is the second time it's used Pokemon to do so, following a viral video using the original enemy's theme song with footage of ice agents arresting people. Halo, Stardew Valley and Call of Duty have also been part of this ongoing meme war. Pop artist Sabrina Carpenter was also dragged into this, but she was much more straightforward in voicing her disdain. Another W for Nintendo and the Pokemon company. Congratulations there.
- [47:00]
B
Yeah, absolutely. And didn't they just do this with Call of Duty as well?
- [47:03]
A
Yeah, but they haven't said shit about it. Yeah, yeah, they. They did the whole drone thing. And then today I think I saw a headline that's like, they put out like a hype video of like a mill, like Tom Cruise and Superman and X, Y and Z of a million different Garbo fucking posts as they have nothing and no respect for anyone. So, as always, fuck Donald Trump in this administration. And I'm glad to see Nintendo and the Pokemon company pushing back. Nintendo really pushing back today by suing them. That's great. Go get them.
- [47:32]
B
We got high schoolers running the government. It's insane.
- [47:35]
A
I mean, that's giving them something that's. That's giving it too much credit. We have junior high washouts right now. Oh, 2020. Dexter says 2020. 2026 is the year of Nintendo. Fuck Trump. Go Mario. Demon Hacker says. I think the Pokemon response is kind of neutered. This is a company that sues everyone for even looking at IP sideways, but not the US Government for it. It's something we can again go back to all these other call of duties and whatnot that are saying jack shit. So do something. Just do something. Poke him with the stick. Do something. And again, Nintendo suing them. Fuck yeah. I take. I'll take all. I'll take all of this today. We have so few wins right now in this fucking country every goddamn day that I'll accept. I'll accept a celebration on this front before we move on and get depressed by the next goddamn thing that's gonna happen. Number three on the ROPA report. Nintendo Direct for Mario Galaxy Movie is coming soon as Yoshi popcorn buckets have been revealed. This is Eddie at Gamespot. Nintendo has announced the next Nintendo Direct and it's coming up very soon. A Nintendo Direct dedicated to the Super Mario Galaxy Movie will be held on Monday, March 9th at 2pm Pacific. This event will include the final trailer for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie and if it's like the previous directs for Nintendo movies, which we may see and hear from Shigeru Miyamoto and Illumination's Chris Meladandri. The Nintendo Direct will not, however, feature any game information Nintendo clarified to set expectations. Tickets for the Super Mario Galaxy Movie go on sale Monday, March 9, and the movie's Yoshi themed popcorn bucket has also been revealed. You're seeing it right now here, of course, through Wario 64 on BS. That's a blue sky, Tam. But if you're an audio listener, imagine Yoshi holding his egg and the egg opens up to reveal popcorn. How many popcorn buckets you got, Paris?
- [49:27]
B
Zero.
- [49:31]
A
I don't. I mean.
- [49:32]
B
You know what though? I think it's cool for people that are into that. It's awesome. Why not? Hell yeah.
- [49:37]
A
Ben. Well, I still have the Superman Daily Planet newspaper box. Ben plays with it all the time, loves it, keeps toys in it.
- [49:44]
B
Yeah. Yep.
- [49:45]
A
Cool. We will not be live reacting to this direct because of course Monday, March 9th we are live all day long with the Ix the Mix Cross kind of funny Spring Game Showcase. We will kick it off with a little over an hour polished produced showcase Monday morning at 10am and then of course your usual Games Daily time. Then after that we will go in and have 16 different video games come through with their developers to talk to us live and show you all those games. So we will cover this news on Tuesday's Games Daily. But remember Monday, streaming all day. A bunch of cool indie devs here in San Francisco. Going to be a great time. No regular shows, but plenty of it. The real Garrett says Greg has the DeLorean, doesn't he? LOL. Yeah, I have lots of popcorn buckets. Yes, Nick and I have the DeLorean now in the streaming room. At home I have the crypto one. At home I have the other crypto one, but it's a Daily Planet one. If you're making a Superman popcorn bucket, I'm going to buy it. Understatement. We move on to story number four now. It's pragmatic. So pragmata, pragmata, Pragmata. It still doesn't sound right. I was saying Pragmata like Stigmata for a long time and then people started making fun of me. Prague Mata has been moved up and all the other Capcom news from the Spotlight we go to Michael over at Polygon who writes Capcom's latest game showcase. Capcom Spotlight had some great news for fans looking forward to the Developer Publishers 2026 lineup. In a surprise TWIP twist, Capcom changed the release date of Pragmata, first announced in 2021. More time. The game is now coming one week earlier than previously expected. Capcom showed off new footage of the action adventure third person puzzle shooter as well as fancy new pre order skins during its Capcom Spotlight. Pragmata is coming to Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X on April 17 for the Nintendo Switch 2 version, Capcom is also releasing an Amiibo based on Diana, Kevin. I'd like to see that eventually, if it's at the end of the trailer, but let the trailer play because we love Pragmatic here. We want to see what's up. Mega man franchise producer Zoomy and Mega Man Dual Override producer Min no Minamitani revealed one of the robot masters that will appear in next year's mainline Mega man game. The twist is that this particular robot master is designed by fans, and the Mega man development team has to choose from six designs out of some 10,000 that qualified as finalists. Alex, the pro wrestling flavored fighter who first appeared in Street Fighter 3, comps to Street Fighter 6 on March 17th as part of the Year 3 Character Pass, Capcom released a new overview trailer for Odimusha Way of the Sword. No release date was announced. Producer of the Monster Hunter series revealed a launch trailer and cosmetics for the upcoming monster hunter stories three twisted reflection that launches on March 13th. And then producer Izumi detailed one or online features in Mega Man's Star Force Legacy collection, which will include casual. Oh, here's the Amiibo. Where's Amiibo? Nope, that was the mebo casual Friend in Rank Matches. It launches on March 27th. Look at this. Pushing it forward. That's cool. Are you excited for a brag, man?
- [52:54]
B
I have to say, yeah. So I have to say this. I was today years old when I found out it was pragmata and not pragmata. Yeah, I don't. I don't know if I like that. I like calling pragmata.
- [53:06]
A
Guess what? We're on the Internet. We can do whatever we want. We say however you want. Stigmata.
- [53:11]
B
Pragmatic. I'm definitely excited for this. When I got to play the demo at Summer Game Fest and I played it again at Gamescom, I was locked in right. Right then and there. So really looking forward to this. And the fact that they're releasing it a week early, you know, hey, shows a little bit of confidence. So, yeah, they're feeling pretty good about it.
- [53:28]
A
Yeah, I'm very excited for that game. I've loved the demos I've played. I don't know if it's gonna be a 9 or if it's gonna be a really fun 7.5. But the puzzling and the shooting and the thing, I'm like, yeah, I want to see where this game goes. So stoked to get my hands on that one. And then, yeah, from there on out, monster stories 3. I've done the demo. I wanted to like it more. I don't think I'm gonna come back to that one. Deeply cool to see everything getting supported though we don't react to Capcom spotlights after we got burned so many times. We've watched so many bad Pratt Capcom spot slides. We're like no no no more of this. Thank you very much. We move on to story number five, Mouse PI for Hire which of course got a full Gamescast preview yesterday from myself, Andy and Bless and we were very impressed. Will be 29.99. We go to the tweet from the official account which says just that it features 12 to 20 hours of gameplay depending on how you play. Paris back at you with the same question. Are you interested in Mouse PI for hire? How does a $30 price point for 12 to 20 hours sit with you?
- [54:26]
B
Yeah. Yes to both was already interested in it and to see that it's coming in at that price that that seems about right to me. So yeah, really looking forward to getting hands on and playing this. And yeah I think it's priced accordingly to get the most people to jump in and want to want to go try it.
- [54:43]
A
Yeah, me too. This was a big conversation yesterday of how long will this game be? Is it going to overstay its welcome? I know some of us were talking is this going to be before we saw the Xbox documentary thing they did of like okay well is this like a four hour long game? Having played it and seen it 12 to 20 sounds nice I imagine. Yeah. You know that 20 really comes from investigating and trying to find the hidden blueprint so you can upgrade your guns and yada yada yada. Like that sounds awesome. I had a fantastic time with this this week so I'm very very excited to play more than just an hour for it and see how it does. And again as I did on the Gamescast yesterday, which please go watch and listen to because it also has Andy do it or no, I'm sorry Bless talking about Mugenics but Troy Baker's performance in this is really really well done. Just a really great noir detective cartoon that has so much style. Every part of it has style. Clearly has a vision. Very, very excited to see more of Mouse incredibly soon. I hope so. With April release date right around the corner. Somebody dropped the Is there more information? Is that what's happening? Somebody at the very bottom of this dropped in the same thing from Aftermath. It looks like Nicole's story has been filled out with more information of course. If you're joining us late and already missed us do the breaking news. Nintendo is suing the US Government over tariffs. We're still at Aftermath reading from Nicole Carpenter. There's more information about the tariffs getting struck down this that the other unlawful then they were adding in context of it when they delayed pre orders for the Switch 2. Let's try this. This seems new for me. Okay through several pages of the complaint, Nintendo's lawyers recount the tariff situation beginning on February 1, when Trump issued the executive orders imposing new tariffs. The months that followed were chaotic. The situation changed rapidly as tariffs were increased pause and increased again. Tariffs reached over 125% for goods from China before those reduced to 34% in May. Throughout multiple legal challenges, the Trump administration continued to impose the tariffs. Nintendo lawyers say that's in violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers act of 1977, Nintendo lawyers say and why they are entitled to a refund of the tariffs paid during this since February 2025. Oh and then wait, this is the quote we had before right? All tariffs collected under the IEEPA duties must be refunded with interest, the lawyers wrot wrote. And then yeah, so that's just a little bit more information. Nicole Carpenter and God's work over at Aftermath. Go check on that everybody. Paris Nintendo getting this administration to bend the knee and kiss Mario's ring will be huge news. But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?
- [57:25]
B
You'd go to our last story, the We News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.
- [57:32]
A
Number six, the Wii news South of Midnight launches on PS5 on March 31st. We love south of Midnight here. Go get south of Midnight, everybody. From vgc, the artist whose work was used in Bungie's Marathon without their permission or knowledge has been credited in the game in May 2025. Scottish artist Fern Some kind of gamerspeak, Hook accused Bungie of taking assets from her previous work and using it in the alpha of Marathon. Several months later, Hook posted a brief message on her X account simply stating, quote, the Marathon art issue has been resolved with Bungie and Sony Interactive Entertainment to my satisfaction, end quote. Marathon was officially released on Wednesday, and as spotted by illustrator Ed Kerwilzi on Blue Sky, Hook has been credited in the game in the role of visual design consultant. Good job there. That's great. Echoes of In Crab, a new game in the Sword Art online universe launches July 10th on Steam, Xbox and PS5. There's a trailer I think that might have ran a little bit earlier. I don't know if the audience saw It I looked at this one looked cool. I'm not a Sword Art Online guy by any stretch the imagination, but a good looking trailer that they had. The King is Watching, one of Andy's favorite games of last year has sold over 500,000 copies. A Wii Required Reading, How Steam Changes and a China Strategy Help Tiny bills. The King is watching hit 500,000 in sales. That's over at Gamesindustry Biz if you want to know more about that. And then speaking of indie game success, Greg way Slay the Spire 2 has surpassed 104. I'm sorry, 314,000 concurrent players on Steam on launch day. The shout out to them they are crushing over there. Oh and then here's the trailer for Echoes of Aincrad which I can't be pronouncing correctly. Chat saying it's already gone above that now. Now we're at 430,000 over there, so that's insane.
- [59:29]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [59:30]
A
Are you jumping into Marathon?
- [59:33]
B
You know what, I'm so glad that you said that because as you know, I like to troll in the chat.
- [59:38]
A
Yeah.
- [59:38]
B
As during the day watching KFGD and I've watched Mike repeatedly talk about, yeah, I wasn't getting it. I didn't like it. Not that he didn't like it, but yeah, yeah, yeah. They upped the PvP interactions in there during the the weekend and it made it by Sunday so much more enjoyable. And now obviously the official game is out. So I'm, I'm very curious to see what Mike, how Mike is going to feel, you know, when he jumps in and plays now.
- [60:06]
A
Yeah.
- [60:06]
B
But yeah, I'm all in a marathon. I love it. I think if you get the right group of people together, obviously, even if you play solo. Yeah, those encounters get intense, man. It's, it's a lot of fun. I think Marathon had a lot of issues. They delayed it. I think they addressed most of them and I think this is a pretty solid product. So I, I'm rooting for it to succeed. Absolutely. And I'll definitely be playing.
- [60:29]
A
Excellent. Yeah. We do have Mike crunching on a review for it next week. It is going to be on Tuesday. It'll be him, Fran and Jerrica joining us to talk all about Marathon. And that is the Wii news. We jump back over to the super chats to see what we need to clean up. Not ones that were about anything specific. We have some birthdays. Let me get the birthday ones out. Okay. Oh, actually start here. More important, Immersion Fragrances says started Pocopi On a flight last night and I'm seven hours in and feel I've barely scratched the surface as somebody who's played 40 hours of it. You have barely scratched the surface. I've barely scratched the surface. Number one, do you think it has the juice to do Animal Crossing numbers? And number two, how long until a widow talk show is on an island? Great question. Animal Crossing numbers. No, and I think not because it's not a quality game, not because Pokemon isn't big. But Animal Crossing was such a lightning in a bottle, right? That game comes out right as we all get put into lockdown and you had nothing, you had no way to communicate with people and be with people and yada, yada, yada. I think it's going to do incredibly well. I think this is a system seller. I think this is going to put a lot of fucking numbers on the board. I don't know if it. I mean Animal Crossings numbers were insane, are insane. So I don't think it's able to catch up to that level of hype just because of where the world is, right? And then how long until when it makes a talk show on it? He's got this fucking radio drama thing he's doing, you know, he's not even paying attention. So who knows? I doubt he gets on it. But if Gary Whitta smells a buck in it, he'll be there.
- [62:04]
B
Absolutely.
- [62:04]
A
Are you going to play Poia?
- [62:07]
B
I don't think so.
- [62:08]
A
Yeah. Not your time.
- [62:09]
B
I don't think that's. It's not, it's. It's not a me thing. No.
- [62:11]
A
Understandable. John six super chats and says birthday tax 31 years. Thank you guys for being here through the ups and downs and my transition. Always a spot of joy in the world. Happy birthday to you. We're always happy to be here with you. Moving on. Cagedish says birthday tax 42 years old today. Thanks for the whole kind of Funny team. I love everyone and everything the team does. Happy birthday. We love being here for you. Krabby Patty says promotion tax been catching up on kind of funny content the day after it goes live with my new positions scheduled as my new position is scheduled during peak kind of funny hours. Thanks kind of funny for being part of another milestone. Looking forward to the next. Congratulations on your promotion, Krabby Patty. I hope you still get to play Monster Hunter. Mellow fellow. Super chat says birthday tax. Check out horsey game. Surprisingly deep mechanics and criminally underrated game that came out last month. Happy birthday. I have no time for those games. Too many games Paris. Am I wrong?
- [63:13]
B
Yes, there's definitely too many games. Oh no you're not wrong at all. It's. It's look it's a good problem to have.
- [63:18]
A
Let's. That's true too. That is true too. I Cabrerla super chats and says late birthday tax I shared date with the nitro rifle but I couldn't super chat abroad had to wait till I got back to the states also I got married on my birthday kiddos Hello Paris and Greg I guess happy birthday and congratulations on getting married people having life achievements in the super chats you gotta like yeah man Eli super chat says birthday tax just wanted to say thanks for the many years of content still remember hearing the dog poop on Tim's car story and then watching the animated version of it. Lol thank you Eli. Happy birthday to you. Never forget when that stranger was putting poop on Tim's car. I hope someone brings it back. You know he's getting off too light I think lately this paternity leave exactly be the change you want to see says parent off camera Mr. Hawk says thank you. Kind of funny and kind of funny best friends for the distraction today. Tell your people you love them every chance you get. Sounds like you're going through something Mr. Hawks. We're happy to be here for you and we hope you're okay. The Cartel Dell says shout out to Paris sharing opinions in front of psycho online gamers takes guts. You. You. You know they come for you sometimes Paris.
- [64:32]
B
Oh I know they do. I. I know it. When I say it I'm like okay, it's going to happen. But I think to what he's saying is don't be afraid to give your opinion on something if if it's what you think, it's what you think. Think. Don't let the Internet bully you out of an opinion. I never will.
- [64:48]
A
I would love to give advice on that. It's just my opinions are always correct so no one's ever been mad about them. Nicholas Super Chats final Super Chat says hi Greg, longtime listener hope to see you at GDC and wish me luck on my interview for an internship at Obsidian. Good luck Nicholas. I hope you go work at Obsidian and convince them to remake a Fallout game. Tell them that's where the money is since they don't want it.
- [65:09]
B
Better con you better convince Matt Booty and Asha. Let them do it. That's what you that's how you get
- [65:13]
A
a promotion out of internship right away. I hope to you GDC too. Obviously the easiest way to see us at GDC would be to come through the office, which you're not invited to for the stream all day Monday when we have 16 developers in the showcase. Pop off here. But GDC evening, of course, is the in person mix cross Kind of Funny indie game jam dev 60 some video games there you can go play, Beers will be flowing. You can go to kind of funny.com springshowcase and register for a press pass or a game dev pass if you want to come through. See those games, meet those developers and see me after I put Ben to bed. So I'll be there late, but I'll be there.
- [65:48]
B
And me too. I'll be there fresh off the plane, going straight.
- [65:52]
A
Guarantee everybody when I show up, Paris is already gone. Guarantee this man is ducking and dodging me at GDC next week and I don't like it one bit.
- [65:59]
B
When are you showing up? At midnight, of course.
- [66:02]
A
I got a kid, I put him to bed, I drive in, I'll be there, what, maybe eight, between eight and nine, Greg Miller will arrive.
- [66:11]
B
Now that you try to call me out live, even if I want to leave, I'm like, nope, not leaving until Greg shows up.
- [66:16]
A
See, it worked, everybody. It worked. Yeah, it worked, everybody. This has been Kind of Funny Games Daily. Oh, there was one. You're wrong. That wasn't a year wrong, but it was Katie reminding you that of course, here in America, I have no idea the rest of the country or the world, I should say. Our clocks spring forward Sunday, so if you're an international people, it always throws them off. If you, if you don't celebrate daylight savings time or whatever, we will be one hour ahead of where we usually are on Monday, so be ready for that. But other than that, this has been kind of Funny Games Daily. Paris, thank you so much for hanging out as always. Where can people keep up with you?
- [66:47]
B
You can keep up with me. Gamertag radio, my personal YouTube channel, which is my name, Parrisml. Obviously I'm on social media with weirdos yelling at me and here when I have a chance to be on Kinda
- [66:59]
A
Funny, it's always a pleasure, Parris. I love you. Thank you for coming through.
- [67:02]
B
Love you too. See you next week.
- [67:04]
A
You will. Everybody, this has been another episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily. We run you through the nerdy video game news you need to know about. If you like that, like subscribe, share, ring the bell. If you have Amazon prime, you have Twitch Prime. We'd love your free 30 day subscription that they don't remind you about, however, the big way to go above and beyond. Pick up your Kind offunny membership. YouTube.com kind of funny games, Apple, Spotify, and of course patreon.com kind of funny get everything ad free. Get your daily dose of me and get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old small business. For now, it's time for Games Daily to end the Gamescast to kick up and talk about the top 100 Pokemon. Is that what it is? Dang, that's a lot of Pokemon. Why am I not on it? Because I'll let these kids have my crumbs. Of course, after that, we're streaming other stuff. This is going this happened. There's always something happening. So like subscribe, share and until next time, no, it's been our pleasure to serve you.