PlayStation Wants to Put YOU in Their Games - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.07.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: PlayStation Wants to Put YOU in Their Games

Episode Date: April 7, 2026
Hosts: Blessing Adeoye Jr. & Andy Cortez
Main Theme:
Exploring PlayStation’s initiative to bring fans into their games through scanned likenesses, industry skepticism about data privacy and AI use, updates on the Mass Effect TV adaptation and Star Wars Eclipse, and more of the week’s biggest gaming news topics.

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Episode Overview

This engaging episode focuses primarily on PlayStation’s new "player base" community program, which aims to scan and insert the likeness of fans into big PlayStation Studios games, starting with Gran Turismo 7. Blessing and Andy debate the upsides and potential pitfalls of this initiative, including privacy, data use, and AI concerns. The hosts also dig into updates on the Mass Effect TV show, the troubled development of Star Wars Eclipse, Overwatch’s response to fan criticism over character design, the impact of AI on the games industry, and more. Delivered with the signature Kinda Funny blend of humor, skepticism, and tangential pop culture riffing.

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Key Discussions and Insights

1. PlayStation "player base": Fans in-Game

[09:54 – 22:44]

• What is “player base”?

  • Fans can apply to have their faces scanned into Gran Turismo 7, with future expansion to other PlayStation Studios titles.
  • One selected fan will appear as an in-game character portrait, help design a custom fantasy logo and car livery. Scanning/session takes place at a Los Angeles studio.
  • Program limited to certain global markets; application involves video interviews.

• Skepticism about Data Privacy & AI Use

  • Andy: “You know that you’re going to be put into a library of faces [...] that AI could pull features from to then use as a data model set. I don’t trust any of this.” (11:59)
  • Comparison to Pokémon Go: Initially harmless, later revealed as large-scale world-mapping.
    • Blessing: “He [a Niantic dev] was telling me about this in like the excited, tech bro voice... Internally, I’m horrified.” (13:13)
  • Cynical read: Is PlayStation trying to build future AI/NPC libraries under the guise of fan engagement?

• Other Concerns (Morality, PR Risks)

  • Blessing: “When is [there going to be] the Jared from Subway situation where you put somebody in your game... and then they go on to do some heinous shit?” (15:07)
  • Risk that someone featured could later become controversial and create headaches for PlayStation.

• Is this just cost-cutting/procedural content?

  • Blessing relates story of being scanned as an NPC in State of Decay 2: “They’d basically bring in a bunch of people and scan their faces... for procedural character creation.” (16:00)
  • May be a labor-saving method for populating games with realistic faces/names.

• Legal Language & Transparency

  • Both hosts urge: Read the fine print. Is Sony just using this internally, or selling/using data elsewhere?
  • Andy: “I want to be in a video game! But... people are gonna really want to read the fine print and find out is this going to be sold later on to anybody else?” (17:52)

• Host Takeaways

  • Andy: “It does seem like kind of a legal loophole to get you to sell your likeness away.” (19:18)
  • Blessing: “It reminds me of PlayStation Stars – there’s a team over there that gets a little bit bored and they land on shit like this.” (22:28)
  • Risks of tone deafness amid current AI/data scrutiny.

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2. Mass Effect TV Show: Catering to Non-Gamers

[22:58 – 28:33]

• Script Rewrite Ordered by Amazon

  • Amazon’s Peter Friedlander wants the show rewritten for broader appeal, less “gamer-centric” references.
  • Both hosts find this strange, since Mass Effect is essentially a sci-fi universe, like Star Trek or The Expanse.
  • Andy (on the reported studio note): “This is just a sci-fi world. That’s all it is. I need more clarification… this makes no sense to me.” (25:02)

• Source Material Is Story-Driven

  • Blessing: “One of the IPs I’d be least worried about in that sense... You’re just adapting the story.” (25:13)
  • They compare to the Mario movie, where overt game references make sense, but don’t fit for Mass Effect’s structure.

• General Optimism for Amazon’s Track Record

  • Andy: “I trust them more than I don’t… Mass Effect is one of the most easily translatable things.” (27:06)
  • Both hosts see ‘story-first’ adaptations as the obvious approach.

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3. Star Wars Eclipse: Development Hell

[35:16 – 46:57]

• Insider Report: “You’re never playing this game.”

  • Initial excitement at Game Awards 2021. Since then, “very little progress” and years from completion.
  • Blessing: “I will pizza bet a million pizzas you guys are never going to play Star Wars Eclipse after reading this story” (02:59)

• Financial Troubles at Quantic Dream

  • Studio/publisher NetEase refuses further investment until live-service game Spellcasters Chronicles generates enough revenue to fund Eclipse.
  • Currently only dozens of concurrent players on Spellcasters (Blessing: “There are 48 people playing Spellcasters Chronicles currently on Steam.” [42:31])

• Quantic Dream’s Uncertain Future

  • If Spellcasters flops, NetEase may pull out—threatening Quantic Dream’s survival.
  • Discussion of Quantic Dream’s narrative game legacy (Heavy Rain, Detroit), the unique talent but problematic leadership (David Cage), and missed opportunities (Sony not acquiring them).
  • Andy: “It does seem like there’s something much deeper than not even money can really fix.” (48:16)

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4. Overwatch: Character Redesign After Fan Criticism

[50:15 – 54:31]

• Omron’s Updated Look

  • Blizzard revises new hero, Omron, after critique of “same face syndrome” among female Overwatch characters.
  • Andy: “She pretty much just had that same kinda baby face that a lot of the other women characters have… I'm just glad they are becoming more and more aware of this sort of thing." (53:46)

• Changes

  • Tweaks include more mature features, less “innocent/playful” look, distancing from the generic template.
  • Hosts approve of the shift, wishing Blizzard pushed it even further for uniqueness.

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5. Indie & AI: Why Lucas Pope Isn’t Sharing WIP

[54:33 – 58:04]

• Game Creator Wary of AI Copying
  • Lucas Pope (Papers, Please; Return of the Obra Dinn) says he no longer shares in-progress projects due to fear of ideas being “slurped up by AI or copied.”
  • Andy: “I totally understand this standpoint... you’re better off [keeping it private] until the thing is done.” (57:27)

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6. “WE News” Roundup & Other Quick Hits

[58:12 – 68:49]

• AI Disrupts RTS Stormgate

  • Stormgate’s multiplayer servers going offline after infrastructure provider is acquired by an AI company and ceases gaming support.
    • “The shutdown shows how AI infrastructure expansion is now affecting not just PC hardware supply, but also the back end services that many modern games rely on.” [Required Reading, 59:48]

• Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 Pro Enhancements Announced

  • New PlayStation Blog outlines significant visual upgrades for next-gen, discussion on the need for OLED 4K TVs.
  • Andy: “You need an OLED. Period. That is a non-negotiable.” (63:21)

• Game Pass Additions for April

  • Notable upcoming titles: Hades 2, Replaced, Football Manager 26, EA Sports NHL 26, and more.

• Miscellaneous

  • Zentopia: Manage hell as a business sim (unique “God game”).
  • Saudi Investment Fund increases stake in Capcom.
  • Gothic Remake and Industria 2 launch dates noted.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On PlayStation’s Initiative

  • Andy: “Back in the day, I would have scanned the fuck out of my face... Nowadays, you know what it's going to be used for.” (11:59)
  • Blessing: “That's immediately where I went—where I'm like, that's gonna happen. You're putting real people in. Eventually, you'll get a bad apple.” (15:07)

• On Star Wars Eclipse

  • Blessing: “You're never playing Star Wars Eclipse. You're never playing that game.” (37:38)
  • Andy: “It does seem like there's something much deeper than not even money can really ... fix at that studio.” (48:16)

• On Mass Effect Adaptation

  • Andy: “This is just a sci-fi world. That's all it is... I need more clarification because this makes no sense to me.” (25:02)

• Pop Culture Tangents

  • Extended riff on Lord of the Rings, referencing Blessing’s first-time viewing and in-jokes about internet memes: “I had multiple Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV moments...” (06:04), “Shout out my guy Gandalf. I don't believe he's—I decide I'm not going to spoil.” (07:29)

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Segment Timestamps

• [02:00] - Roper Report/News rundown begins
• [09:54] - PlayStation "player base" discussion begins
• [22:58] - Mass Effect TV adaptation news
• [35:16] - Star Wars Eclipse development update
• [50:15] - Overwatch: Omron redesign
• [54:33] - Lucas Pope/Indie and AI feature
• [58:12] - WE News (quick headlines/news briefs)
• [63:50] - OLED TV talk & gaming setup banter
• [65:01] - Game Pass April titles rundown
• [67:03] - Zentopia indie spotlight

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Tone & Style Notes

• The conversation is casual, irreverent, sometimes skeptical, and packed with both technical insight and sidelong pop culture digressions.
• Hosts maintain a self-deprecating vibe, often poking fun at the industry, themselves, and each other.
• Episode blends serious industry analysis (data privacy, dev studio struggles) with trademark Kinda Funny humor (tangents about personal fitness, TV shows, and jokes about being “cozy” gamers).

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode offers a thought-provoking look at PlayStation’s new fan-scanning initiative—balancing hype for fan engagement with critical concerns about data exploitation and the risks of AI use in entertainment. It’s a must-listen for those curious about the future of digital likeness, ongoing challenges in video game adaptation to other media, and the pitfalls facing AAA development today. Peppered with gaming community chit-chat, meme references, and genuine advice (“Read the fine print!”), it’s a comprehensive and entertaining snapshot of the modern games industry in spring 2026.

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For Further Information

• PlayStation’s player base details: [Official Blog]
• Insider coverage on Star Wars Eclipse
• Eurogamer and IGN for Mass Effect TV details
• VGC for Lucas Pope indie insights

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Stay informed, read the fine print, and Game Daily!

Transcript

[Andy Cortez]

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[Blessing]

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[Andy Cortez]

Visit taxact.comadminknight for details. This episode is brought to you by Fandango.

[Blessing]

People say fans are too distracted these

[Andy Cortez]

days, but the truth is, when a

[Blessing]

great movie hits the screen, you show up. You stay glued, invested, part of the story. And without fans like you, there'd be no cinema magic, no shared moments.

[Andy Cortez]

So head to fandango.com to get tickets,

[Blessing]

stream or rent or buy top movies and series.

[Andy Cortez]

Fandango loves fans.

[Blessing]

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Co. 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 non alcoholic craft styles. Available at your local grocery store or [e-mail] your beer fit for all times to realize the future America needs, we

[Andy Cortez]

understand what's needed from us to face each threat head on.

[Blessing]

We've earned our place in the fight

[Andy Cortez]

for our nation's future. We are Marines.

[Blessing]

We were made for this.

[Host/Announcer]

Let rocket money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] kinda funny head to factormeals.com kinda funny 50 off and use code kindafunny50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscriptions only. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go

[Blessing]

to patreon.com kindafunny Today's gaming news stories include PlayStation's big new initiative to add fans to games, mass effects TV show wants to appeal to more non gamers and Star Wars Eclipse development is going slower than you think. We'll have all this and more because this is kind of funny. Games Daily.

[Andy Cortez]

I think we I think we know. Bless. I think we know it's going slower than we think.

[Blessing]

Like it's going even slower though. Yeah, like you read. Dude, I can't wait to get to that article. I had it like at story number four. I moved it up to story number three because you might have heard it. There was, like, a moment this morning where I laughed at my desk and,

[Andy Cortez]

like, Was that it?

[Blessing]

That was it. I was reading the story, and I had a moment where I chuckled. I was like, this. Damn. That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, you guys, spoilers.

[Blessing]

You're never playing this game.

[Andy Cortez]

You guys may not believe it, but development's going real slow. Like, we were well aware.

[Blessing]

I'm. Here's the thing. I will pizza bet a million pizzas you guys are never going to play Star wars clips after reading the story. This game's never coming out.

[Andy Cortez]

That's insane.

[Blessing]

That's my te's for story number three.

[Andy Cortez]

I cannot wait to get there.

[Blessing]

I can't wait to get there myself.

[Andy Cortez]

Shout out to Dario and Slippy8 for using your primes on us. When you have Amazon prime, you have Twitch Prime Prime. Use your prime sub on us, everybody,

[Blessing]

when you say, my shoulders looking good. Thank you so much. I've been trying to do more for my shoulders.

[Andy Cortez]

Me been trying to do more for the shoulder community.

[Blessing]

The shoulder community. You know, they've been asking to like them shoulders. Yeah, no, I have an ongoing thing with our friend Alyssa, who. I forget what. The conversation. We're having some conversation about me, not my roommate. Yes, your roommate. Your roommate, Alyssa.

[Andy Cortez]

The one who thinks I do a bad Michael Caine impression. Oh. Does she apparently show blushing?

[Blessing]

Oh, damn. That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

It's unbelievable.

[Blessing]

We're talking about Barrett's wife, Alyssa.

[Andy Cortez]

Yes.

[Blessing]

Where me and her. She. We're having a conversation about me being a himbo. And she's like, no, you're not a himbo. You're not. Your shoulders aren't big enough. And I was like, bet.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Blessing]

I bet I'm gonna be doing. I'm doing all these things right here. Wait, you want to be a himbo? I want to have the physique of a himbo. No, but, like, that's not what makes a himbo a himbo. What makes a himbo a himbo?

[Andy Cortez]

They're dumb.

[Blessing]

Yeah, it's really dumb. But it's two things, right? It's like, you're dumb, and then you look really good, and you're built. Yeah, but, like, do you understand? There's another. You could just be built.

[Andy Cortez]

You're. You're 50% of the way if you say himbo.

[Blessing]

It's a very. Like, you got to be a specific thing. Yeah, but, like, you know, who needs to be smart in this world? Everybody's dumb. In fact, it's probably better nowadays to be Dumb than smart. If you think about it. I think you don't have to think about World War three happening.

[Andy Cortez]

I was confused about Kevin being confused there and kind of like going way way because I thought he was going to go, wait, someone thinks you do a bad Michael Caine impression. Yeah, it's out. It's crazy. Yeah. And it's crazy to. That's wild. I can't. It's because it's crazy for me to think as well. Kevin Coed.

[Blessing]

That's really good.

[Andy Cortez]

I like that. Wow, man, thank you.

[Blessing]

Let me tell you, that Lord of the Rings movie, let me tell you, I don't want to spoil it in review, but, man, you know? You know what I mean?

[Andy Cortez]

Like, damn, I was expecting more texts.

[Blessing]

I was. I was too engrossed.

[Andy Cortez]

I wanted more texts.

[Blessing]

I texted you once. I was way too engrossed into what was happening to, like, take a break.

[Andy Cortez]

I got one text from Blessing and said this fight between these Gandalf and the other old guy was pretty fire.

[Blessing]

Pretty crazy. It's. Dude, what's crazier? And again, I don't want to spoil any. Watching this after watching Star Wars Episode 2 and it's like, this is what Star Wars Episode. This is what the Star wars prequel trilogy could have been. Adventure Journey, good action bars.

[Andy Cortez]

There's constant bars.

[Blessing]

There's so much happening in Lord of the Rings. And like, I. Thinking back to Star Wars Episode 2, I'm like, damn, this is what this could have been.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Anyway, enough about that, all right? That's for in review. Me, Nick, Andy, Joey, we're gonna talk about Lord of the Rings fellow. And dude, I had multiple Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV moments where I'm like, they said the Lord of the Ring. Oh, it's the Fellowship of the Ring. Like, I didn't realize they're just dropping all the names of the thing.

[Andy Cortez]

Also, the. I mean, how many meme moment moments did you have?

[Blessing]

Oh, my God.

[Andy Cortez]

You know, one does not simply walk into.

[Blessing]

That was the one where I was like, oh, oh. And then it was, you shall not pass. And I was like, oh, I know that one. I know that one.

[Andy Cortez]

We talked about it on the commentary, by the way, of Lord of the Rings for Patreon users or Patreon supporters of us on Kind of funny. Along with these in reviews, we've also been doing commentaries where we watch the movie along with you. And you can, like, leave us there for just audio or whatever. And you could watch the movie along with us as we kind of like Just yap over it. But I think my first tattoo ever will be one of the lines from Fellowship of the really. And it is, it's one of my favorite moments. They're in Moria. They're stuck there. They don't. They're lost. They're like, how do we get out of here? And it's just they're talking about, like, they talk about Gollum and they're like, yeah, I mean, he lost his mind. Like, do not, do not, you know, give out death and life. Like, you know, who are you to do that? But then he also tells, he also tells Froto, all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us, man. And that is just like, man, the hardest lie. I, I, it just gives me chills every time, gets me emotional. I think about life. I think about, like, what am I doing on this planet?

[Blessing]

And let me tell you something also, y', all, y' all ain't out here hyping up Gandalf enough.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, man, that mother Gandalf, man.

[Blessing]

Gandalf was out there getting busy. Like, I didn't realize this old man was getting busy like that in this movie.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, man.

[Blessing]

Shout out my Gu. Gandalf. I whole. I like, I was kind of said, oh, that's cool. You got the Elvish.

[Andy Cortez]

Is that the actual.

[Blessing]

That's the quote in Elfish.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, really? Nice. Okay.

[Blessing]

See, yeah, that's what you got to do.

[Andy Cortez]

That's sick as hell.

[Blessing]

That's really.

[Andy Cortez]

Get that on my forehead.

[Blessing]

Oh, God.

[Andy Cortez]

And he misread the R. He had

[Blessing]

a tattoo, but he's got back in prison. Put it in the worst place, but yeah. No, Shout out my guy Gandalf. I still don't. I don't believe he's. I decide I'm not going to spoil the movie in review for that. But enough about that. Let's get into the show. Remember, if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in on YouTube.com kind of funny games. Shout out to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining for now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today. Baker's Door. Starting with our number one. I'm pulling directly from the PlayStation blog written by Isabel Tomatis. Introducing the player base. Bringing PlayStation's biggest fans into blockbuster PlayStation Studios games over. For over 30 years, we've continued to look for ways to celebrate Our gaming community, which has a vital role in PlayStation's history and future. Today we're excited to offer an opportunity to bring some of our devoted PlayStation fans even closer to the PlayStation experience. We're introducing the player base, a unique opportunity for PlayStation's biggest fans to step into some of the biggest game worlds by having their likeness scanned and appear within a PlayStation game. The player base will start with Gran Turismo 7 and will be looking to expand and include Fans in additional PlayStation Studios titles in the near future. This community program will be available in select markets in the Americas, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia. For more details, including the official rules and a submitted application, go to the Play Race. Yada yada yada. After reviewing applications, we'll select a limited number of finalists to participate in video interviews to learn about them and their connection to PlayStation. From there, one PlayStation fan will be selected to be featured in Gran Turismo 7 as part of the player base, where they will have a special limited time appearance as an in game character portrait. Similar to how characters are presented throughout the game. The selected fan will also help design a custom fantasy logo and a one of a kind vehicle library. Is it livery or livery? Do you know?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know.

[Blessing]

Like the things. The car.

[Andy Cortez]

I have no idea because I see

[Blessing]

it forza all the time. I'm gonna say livery. Which will be added permanently. It's livery. I think. I think I also. Somebody double check for me. Which will be added permanently to the showcase menu. They'll be invited to a visual arts studio in LA for a scanning day and collaborate with the designer to create their fantasy logo and vehicle livery. Over time we look forward to expanding the player base.

[Andy Cortez]

Livery, Livery.

[Blessing]

Okay. Livery, like liver livery. I don't like that pronunciation. If I'm being real, I feel like we should change that.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't like the word. Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing]

What would you say? What's the other word? There's like another word we can call that, right?

[Andy Cortez]

I don't know. Rap? I don't know. Like. Yeah, but like a weird ass thing to say. It feels like a very. It feels like a British word that's meant to represent like. I don't know, it just feels weird. It just. Maybe I'm thinking of Liverpool.

[Blessing]

The definition brought up by Kevin here. Special uniform worn by a servant or official. Huh. Interesting. And we use that. We took that word and applied it to cars. Yeah, it's weird that it's like look,

[Andy Cortez]

it's a Beefeater and then a car. Like I don't like it. Yeah. Change it.

[Blessing]

Yeah, we got to figure out another one. Yeah, they're expanding that and then

[Andy Cortez]

more

[Blessing]

PlayStation studios are gonna participate, having fans featured in ways that fit each game's own world and style. Stay tuned for more updates.

[Andy Cortez]

This is. This is the, like the first episode of an HBO show. Yeah, we're like, by the end of it starts to go wrong and you start to. By the end of the. Of episode one, this pilot, you start to kind of see like, oh, there's some sinister stuff happening here.

[Blessing]

Oh, interesting.

[Andy Cortez]

It's bizarre. It's weird. Back in the day, I would have scanned the out of my face like I did in NBA Live. Tony Hawk, all of that stuff. Nowadays you just. You know what it's going to be used for. You know that you're going to be put into a library of faces. Oh, that AI could pull features from to then use as a data model set. And it's probably written somewhere in the terms and conditions somewhere. And you're going to need like seven lawyers to read over this thing. I don't trust any of this.

[Blessing]

I could, I could see that. I think that's definitely like the cynical way to look at it, but I totally understand where that comes from.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, it's. It's one of those things to go like, oh, don't be so negative, Andy. We didn't know while we were playing Pokemon Go that we were really just mapping out the world.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And like, at the time it was amazing. And then you find out like, oh, we are. We're kind of just a street team out there, dude, constantly scanning the world to then, you know, add to, you know, data model sets and to sell that information out there to me, it's like, it's a no brainer that whenever you read these terms and conditions, you find out you are signing out the rights.

[Blessing]

I was having a conversation with somebody. I will not, I will not name them, mainly because I don't even remember their name. But they worked.

[Andy Cortez]

They're gonna say their name rhymes with bim Teddies.

[Blessing]

I was talking to somebody who works at Niantic. There's like maybe like four years ago or so. And he worked like high up on a team at Niantic. Right. And he was telling me, he was like, oh, dude, yeah, with like the Pokemon Go and like with the stuff that we're able to do, like we have basically the world mapped out. Like, we have this technology. And like, he was very excited about the ideas of what you can do with the tech with what people have done with their technology, the fact that we've mapped out the world for them. You. He was telling me about this in like the excited, like tech bro voice of like, oh, and we could do this, this and this. And he's saying this to me. Internally, I'm horrified.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Internally I'm like, oh, we've given you the world. Literally.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Like, that's kind of. That's crazy.

[Andy Cortez]

I think. I think they are looking for legal reasons to likely use your face and use your likeness to put into a model set that then, you know, AI can pull, you know, your eyes and then put it on so. And so's nose or whatever. And it's just. It's all information. It's why. It's why so many times that. That AI images and videos are being used out there. A lot of the memes happen of like, does that look like Charlie Kirk? And it's because people use Charlie Kirk memes a lot. And it over trains the AI to then kind of just like, well, that's kind of in my. Yeah, that's in my bag. That's the most recent poll or whatever. And like all of this stuff, I don't know, this just. This feels bad. This doesn't feel great. But it's also like, if I were to look at it from the other side of. Of it, I'd be like, of course I would scan my face. I want to be in a video game.

[Blessing]

Bless. I mean, it's neat. So what's interesting is I didn't go the AI route at all. I think I went to two other places. And it's funny because I thought you were going to go a similar place of like, all right, when is the Jared from someway situation going to happen where you put in somebody in your game, in their face, in your game, and then they go on to do some heinous shit and. And now it's like, ah, fuck, we got to remove. We got to stop the program now. We got a terrible person in the game. We got to shut the whole thing down. No more player base. That's like immediately where I went. Where I'm like, that's going to happen.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah. That's not wrong. Whenever you. We think about any video game that includes creators and eventually bad stuff happens with that creator or whatever, things resurface.

[Blessing]

That was the first thing. My other thing. The. The other place my mind went is actually like, way less cynical as far as I think back to when I lived in Seattle. There's a studio in Seattle at least it was at the time. I'm sure it still is. Undead Labs. I had a friend worked at Microsoft and Undead Labs for state of decay 2. They needed faces to scan because the way they go about character creating in that game, because there's so many different characters, because you're pulling in and creating Procedural. Yeah, it's procedural. But the way they go about it is they would basically bring in a bunch of people and scan their faces and go, hey, you're just a model in the game. So I got my face scanned and into. Into State of the K2. If you're playing State of Decay 2, you can find my face in there. And that's because they just found that process way easier to do than to create faces from scratch. It's way faster, at least for them to just scan somebody. And so, like, they'll bring people in, be like, hey, we'll give you lunch, or whatever. They like. It's not like I got paid or anything like that. They just brought in a bunch of people and they're like, hey, bring your friends. Whoever will scan them, get. And get them into the game. And I read this as almost like a step towards something like that. Whereas. All right, we'll start it off with Gran Turismo. We're looking for just one face. I was surprised that they're just picking one winner. I thought it was gonna be the thing of, like, oh, yeah, we'll get 20 people in here, or whatever. They're just doing one winner, which I think is maybe them taking a first step toward the whatever game needs a bunch of NPCs. Let's say the Next Horizon needs an entire village of people. Cool. Let's do the player base thing. That way we can maybe get our audience involved and turn it into a sweepstakes and turn it into, like, a whole thing where we can get them excited to come through and scan their face. And then it's we kill two birds with one stone, where we make the audience happy. And then also we get a bunch of faces that we need into the game. You know, win, win for us. That's more so how I read it. But I definitely understand the fear nowadays of. All right, but let me read the fine print. You know, I mean, like, is my face being put into an AI like database for you to then pull from and use? I think that's a 1000% valid fear to have and have with this.

[Andy Cortez]

It would be one thing if that was, you know, if all they were doing was using it internally. I think that's one thing. I think the larger fear is that information being sold to other big companies to then be used on other platforms for whatever. Like, I. I think it'd be one thing to. For Hideo Kojima to invite you to his studios and say, I want to scan your face to put you in a game or whatever. I think that's one thing similar to what happened to you with Undead Labs. And if you know that it's just an internal use thing, fine, whatever. I think people are gonna really want to read the fine print and find out is this going to be sold later on to anybody else?

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah, to the highest. Definitely read the fine print on this one.

[Andy Cortez]

This. Yeah, this is fascinating. I don't know this. At first it kind of felt like a. Like a joke. Like, I wasn't really sure.

[Blessing]

I thought it was April Fools.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

When I first saw it.

[Andy Cortez]

It's a. It's a really bizarre sort of initiative that they're doing because it. The. The fact that it's. Yes, we're. It's going to be for Gran Turismo 7, but for all their. For other additional PlayStation titles in the future. Well, those are all different studios. How is that going to work?

[Blessing]

Like, are you. Or do other studios have. Buy into this?

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, you're not all interesting. You're not all using the same engine.

[Blessing]

You know, like, it's true.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, it's. It's kind of a weird thing, and I just don't know. It does seem like kind of a legal loophole to get you to. To sell your likeness away. And not just necessarily your likeness, but all of your facial features to be put into a data set. Yeah. To. To then randomize, you know, whenever they're doing character creations in the future. Randomize, you know, now. Now that's. Oh, that's my nose on that NPC or whatever the hell, you know. Yeah, very bizarre. I don't know. This all feels kind of odd and a weird initiative for someone to be doing. Yeah, it's very, very weird.

[Blessing]

I want to bring in some super chats. I'll start with this one from the homie, Cozy Bear, who says, well, watch Game Showdown if you haven't. Definitely watch Game Showdown. Shout out. Cozy Bear made an appearance on Game Showdown and put together a really fun trivia game for the.

[Andy Cortez]

Damn. That just got shown.

[Blessing]

That just got shown.

[Andy Cortez]

Holy shit.

[Blessing]

I know that feels like a decade ago that we recorded that Jacob. The. It gets caught off by the thing, but Jacob writes in and says, my menu keeps blocking it. I Keep trying to click off from it. There we go. Andy and Blessing, both your hairs look fantastic.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, thanks.

[Blessing]

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Let me tell you, I finally watched the I'm actually episode last night and it's so crazy seeing my hair so long. And I'm very. I'm so happy I cut my hair because at the time I was like, you know, I didn't at the time. I'll look in the mirror and be like, oh, yeah, this is how I look now that I look at myself from back then. I'm like, damn, I needed to cut my hair. I'm so glad I cut my hair. And then one more From Ty Wilkins, VO, who writes in and says 100% for data collection. Also, how fast does this get pulled after a person scanned and put into whichever first party game says the most racist or bigoted shit? 100%.

[Andy Cortez]

And maybe that comes down to this interview that they want to do. And, you know, they might want to do background check and make sure that you're not going to be an NPC in a game of. They don't want you to become bigger than the game. If there's like a controversy with you or whatever, you're just supposed to sort of blend into the background as a normal npc, we don't want any controversies. It just feels like a. There's a lot of work and manpower going into this and it's just. I don't know, I'm so. I'm so weirded out by this.

[Blessing]

Say you're the PlayStation lead on this project and I come in and your. Your task is to interview me. You got. You get to ask three questions to make sure I'm good for the role. What are the three questions you're asking me?

[Andy Cortez]

Let's see here. Who'd you vote for? Do you regret it? Do you?

[Blessing]

I gotta. I gotta answer.

[Andy Cortez]

What do you feel about Trump Derangement Syndrome?

[Blessing]

First question. Who did I vote for? I wrote in. Kanye West. Sorry. Yeah, he goes by. Yeah, I go.

[Andy Cortez]

I wrote in. Yeah, gotcha, gotcha.

[Blessing]

Do I regret regret it? No. Did you listen to Bully? No, I don't regret it. Those are, quote their question, something about

[Andy Cortez]

Chubter Ranger System Syndrome. I don't remember. Yeah, I don't know. This. This feels like such a weird initiative for a company like Sony to be doing right now. I think they're just.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I think it, it's. It. It reminds me of PlayStation Stars a little bit where I feel like PlayStation just tries like. I think there's a team over there that gets a little bit bored and they're like, fuck, we need a project, dude. We need, we need something to do here. And they land on shit like this.

[Andy Cortez]

Except for the fact that there are so many issues with AI and data scraping right now, it's just like, yeah, it's such a bad time to be

[Blessing]

asking for it is a little bit tone deaf.

[Andy Cortez]

I think we'll see what, we'll see what happens.

[Blessing]

I think for sure somebody's going to say something and then they're going to have to shut this thing down. Yeah, also somebody in chat to make it clear in chat. I didn't vote for ea. That was a joke. It seems like somebody might have taken that seriously. No, I did not vote for ea. Let's move on to story number two. Mass Effect TV show ordered to rewrite scripts and make them more appealing to non gamers. I'm pulling from Vicky Blake at Eurogamer. Amazon has allegedly asked for the TV adaptation of Mass Effect to be rewritten to make it more appealing to non gamers. That's according to the Ankler which reports that the new head of global tv, Peter Friedlander, has asked to read the scripts of all in development projects before awarding that all important confirmatory green light. As noted by ign, this leaves the drama sci fi series on the verge of a full order leaving the production and us in limbo while we wait while we await the decision. It's not clear what aspects of the script Freedlander thinks could pull off those coming into the franchise for the first or sorry, put off those coming into the franchise for the first time. Amazon's Mass Effect TV adaptation was officially announced in November 2024. Last summer it was revealed that Mass Effect would be helmed by many of the team behind Amazon's Fallout Show.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, apparent the script le leaked out and I totally get where he's coming from because there was a lot of moments in the script saying hit the right bumper button to do that. Hit the make sure you go into the menu and you know, exchange your items. This is such a stupid thing to say.

[Blessing]

It's so weird.

[Andy Cortez]

Hey, the project Hail Mary movie. Let's, let's. We got to make it appeal to non readers. To non book readers. What are you talking about? I don't understand what this means. You could just say the script is weak or lacking and that would make me feel a lot easier. But to say to appeal to non gamers. I need more there. I'm going to need you to clarify what you mean There's a part in

[Blessing]

the script where like the scene pauses and they had to choose Renegade or Paragon.

[Andy Cortez]

And you look to the right and it's like you look to the right and the screen turns kind of blue. You look to the left, turns kind of red. I need, I need more clarification from the dude here because this makes no sense to me.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I'd be very fascinated because I think Mass Effect is one of the least, like one of the IP I'd be least worried about in that sense. Because you're just adapting the story like it's a story rich world in game and universe. You know, like it is. You're just making a site. You're making something that is, you're Star Trek adjacent.

[Andy Cortez]

You're making the Expanse or Star Trek, Star Wars. Like it's, it's a sci fi universe.

[Blessing]

Like what, what. I'd be interested in the other way of like, like what about Mass Effect? Story feels too gamified.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. And that's, that's what I want. I need you to expound upon that. Like, let me know what, what exactly you mean by more appealing to non gamers. Because this is just a sci fi world. That's all it is. Yeah, you got, you know, Fallout out there. What? Was anything about Fallout too appealing to the gamer?

[Blessing]

Yeah. Too gamer focused? No, I don't, I wouldn't think so. Like, the only thing, like, the only thing I can think of of like an IP that is like, okay, you're maybe appealing too much to the gamers is Mario.

[Andy Cortez]

Mario Movie.

[Blessing]

The Mario Movie.

[Andy Cortez]

The Mario Movie.

[Blessing]

And the Mario movie is a success. And so I'm like, in the Mario in like to the Mario Movie, I get why they go that direction also. Because it's like, well, it's Mario, so just fucking throw a bunch of things in it. I don't know. Yeah, for Mass Effect you don't. Mass Effect doesn't really have the Mario Movie thing where it's just throwing reference after. It's like, no, I don't, I don't go to the Mass Effect movie or Mass Effect TV show thinking I'm going to get Paragon Renegade decisions or I'm going to open up a Codex. Actually opening up a codex would be

[Andy Cortez]

cool, but you know, opening up a codex would be the character learning about their world or something. You know, like there's. I don't know, man. I, I really, I hope this gets greenlit and I hope that we get more interviews and more information about this because this sort of Thing makes zero sense to me. I don't really understand what that means.

[Blessing]

Are you excited for this at least? Like.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. I mean, I think, I think Amazon's track record is awesome.

[Blessing]

I mean, it's, you know, like a fallout. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. They may, you know, not everything is going to hit or whatever, but I think, I think I trust them more than I don't. But you know, in terms of their live action offerings.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Or even, you know, invincible and stuff like that, I. I trust them more than I don't. And I think it is. I think the world of Mass Effect, at least until reading this article, is one of the most easily translatable things. Yeah. In terms like it's just a really good sci fi story and there are. There's awesome lore and depth about all of the different, you know, alien races or whatever. It's. It's just a really solid sci fi story. So until reading this, I would have said, yeah, that's the biggest. No brainer. I've always felt that, like, how is this not on TV or, or a movie yet? And then now this more appealing to non gamers. What the hell do you mean by that?

[Blessing]

It is a scary thing. It is. For sure. That strikes me as like, we got to make this less like the core. Like less like the source material.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

And that doesn't make me feel good about this.

[Andy Cortez]

But it's like, okay, but the source material is it. The source material is, Is the story like that? That's what the world is. I don't, I don't get it. I don't like it.

[Blessing]

Let's bring in some more super chats. Demon hacker says which episode is Tally removing her helmet? Tally Tali.

[Andy Cortez]

Talibas, Normandy.

[Blessing]

See, let's see, let's see. Let's bring in another one from Sketchy wizard who says several months ago, Tim told Bless he'd probably prefer the recent Avatar movie over Lord of the Rings. You have to hold Tim accountable. I can't wait for. In review, he said that.

[Andy Cortez]

That's a crazy thing.

[Blessing]

That was a. Yeah. In retrospect, now that I've seen both the first Avatar and Lord of the Rings, kind of nuts. And I get where his reasoning came from because he said even though he's. I think he's wrong, but you. He's. He did say Avatar or. No, he said Lord of the Rings is some white people. Which is funny because I think Avatar is some white people. Avatar. I was damn near offended by the first movie because I'm like, this is some like you got white man essentially coming in and like being the hero of this native. Like these native people. I don't know how I feel about what this is trying to say narratively. Lord of the Rings, just a group of people hanging out, protecting a ring. And that ring be them up. Oh man, that ring be tempting them.

[Andy Cortez]

It's tempting them, man. Oh man.

[Blessing]

I might re watch it today. Are you gonna watch the other movies? Two or three, I think.

[Andy Cortez]

Here's the funny thing. Here's the funny thing. On Saturday. Blu Ray set on Saturday.

[Blessing]

Kev.

[Andy Cortez]

I get a text message from Nick and it's like 12:30am almost damn near 1:00am it's just a photo of a TV screen and it's Lord of the Rings, the two Towers. And I was like, get it, Nick, get it, dude.

[Blessing]

Do you know what, do you know what's crazy again? I'm. I'm spoiling what I would say during interview. But like they get. They end Lord of the Rings by getting to Mordor. And like I, I played Shadow of Mordor and I love it.

[Andy Cortez]

What are you talking about? Oh, like we're headed to.

[Blessing]

We're headed to more. Sorry.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, yeah.

[Blessing]

And like I know so much about Mordor because of Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, so I know it's like, damn, this shit's over.

[Andy Cortez]

That place is evil.

[Blessing]

That place is evil. And now I'm kind of like, damn, I want to see what they're up to in Mordor. Like, do we get to. I want to see how they, how they survive in Mordor.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's. Let's just go to Tim's house, kick his ass out. He can go watch Avatar somewhere.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And this is coming from an Avatar enjoyer. That's a crazy thing that. For Tim to say that was crazy. That's a wild thing.

[Blessing]

And to shoot him some bail. Maybe he's talking about the more recent Avatar movies because that's gonna be like more spectacle. You know, I might appreciate the visuals more. I only saw an Avatar one, which is already kind of outdated vision.

[Andy Cortez]

He may have just been talking about the more recent one. But you know, even, even I tell you, Avatar 2 watching it in theaters on 3D is the way to watch it. And if I were just to watch it on a tv, I would definitely enjoy it less. Cuz it's, it's not this 3D sort of like amazing visual spectacle. I, you know, I think less of Tim now for saying that. You know, I think lesser of him.

[Blessing]

It's fair. It's fair. Sorry Tim. Sorry Tim. But I'm not sorry to you audience because we give you a special opportunity. If you're watching live, you can go over to patreon.com kindafunny and you can get the Kinda Funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[Host/Announcer]

This episode's brought to you by Factor. Let's be real. How many times have you had all the ingredients for a healthy meal in your fridge that that you should be making but you're just too tired to put in the work? For me, healthy eating isn't a willpower problem, it's a setup problem. Until I found Factor, Factor saved me so many times bouncing between shows or just after a long day and I can count on their quality fully prepared meals crafted by chefs delivered right to my door. Factor has meals built around your goals, whether that's weight loss, overall Nutrition, more protein or two GLP1 support over 100 rotating weekly meals, including globally inspired flavors like Mediterranean and Asian, so there's always something new to look forward to. Fresh, never frozen, they're ready in two minutes. Factor shops, preps, cooks and delivers straight to your door so you have more time for everything you love. This spring, head to factor meals.com kindafunny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off and free daily greens per box with new subscription only while supplies last until September 27, 2026. See website for more details. This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. The amount of times Mike has signed up for something, forgot about it after the trial period ends, and then charged month after month after month is quite frankly, terrifying. He didn't even realize he was paying for SoundCloud for for 10 years until Rocket Money helped find and cancel his unwanted subscriptions. But he's not alone. Rocket Money can track subscriptions and has the ability to cancel unwanted ones within the app with just a few taps, saving users over 880 million in canceled subscriptions. In the app, you can set budgets and goals, get personalized insights and regular reports, and receive real time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills, refunds, and low balances. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at Rocket Money.com kinda funny that's RocketMoney.com/kind of funny Rocket Money.com/kind of funny

[Andy Cortez]

K Pop Demon Hunters Haja Boy's breakfast

[Blessing]

meal and Hunt Tricks Meal have just dropped at McDonald's. They're calling this a battle for the fans.

[Andy Cortez]

What do you say to that Rumi? It's not a battle. So glad the Saja boys could take breakfast and give our meal the rest of the day.

[Blessing]

It is an honor to share.

[Andy Cortez]

No, it's our honor. It is our larger honor.

[Blessing]

No really stop. You can really feel the respect in this battle.

[Andy Cortez]

Pick a meal to pick a side

[Blessing]

and participate in McDonald's while supplies last.

[Andy Cortez]

Kraft Mac and Cheese is better than 90s hip hop. We'll remind you of your childhood without

[Blessing]

making you feel incredibly old.

[Andy Cortez]

Kraft Mac and Cheese Best thing ever.

[Blessing]

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[Host/Announcer]

conditions Subject to availability restrictions and terms@lowe's.com

[Blessing]

shippingterms subject to change and we're back with story number three. Star Wars Eclipse Development is going Very Slow I'm pulling from Mike Strah at Insider Gaming. What's really going on with Star Wars Eclipse? First announced at the game awards in 2021, information regarding the action adventure game from developer Quantic Dream has been few and far between. The last update anyone has heard in an official capacity was that work was continuing on the game alongside other projects. All that was said was that they were eager to share more with you in the future. Well, months and multiple discussions later, there's been or there's a bit of an update on where things stand with both the game and its developer. As first mentioned during the latest episode of Insider Gaming Weekly, development on Star Wars Eclipse has been very slow going. One source even mentioned the game that the team had been working or, sorry, the team had been making, quote, very little progress over months. For what it's worth, a good portion of the game has been completed, but for what, they still need to wrap up. Sources say it hasn't been going all that well. Well, the game at this stage is still looking to be years off from completion, one source said back in December. When asked what can be done to push up the timeline and get a game and get a game out, that same source said they had talks of expanding the development staff. But NetEase didn't want to invest at that moment while they decided what they wanted to do long term. Both NetEase and Quantic Dream, the source says, are really relying on Spellcasters Chronicles, which. Which entered Early Access in February to bring in revenue that can then be spent on Eclipse's development.

[Andy Cortez]

What?

[Blessing]

That's where I was laughing at my desk. That was the one that cracked me up. I will say that one more time if you don't remember. Spellcasters Chronicles, by the way, that's like the new live service game that Quantic Dream.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh my God.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Which I didn't even realize. Entered Early Access in February sitting at

[Andy Cortez]

a 59 on Steam DB.

[Blessing]

Yeah. So both Net Ease and Quantic Dream are relying on Spellcasters Chronicles, which entered Early Access in February to bring in revenue that can then be spent on Eclipse's development. You're never playing Star Wars Eclipse. You're never playing that game.

[Andy Cortez]

Quote.

[Blessing]

At this stage, the long term outlook is less driven by creative capabilities and more by financial viability, they said. Should spellcasters fail commercially, NetEase is expected to reevaluate. Reevaluate its commitment to the studio and could opt to discontinue further investment. End quote. Neither Quantic Dream nor parent company NetEase responded to multiple requests for comment on this story.

[Andy Cortez]

Whoa.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow. This story went places. Just like a. A random third party kind of just pops in out of nowhere with spellcast, even though it's their game. But I, I wasn't expecting, you know, to get whiplash from this random thing getting mentioned.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I think we all forgot about Spellcasters Chronicles.

[Andy Cortez]

And I'll be honest with you. Spellcasters Chronicles is a game that, yes, we all forgot about it, but it's a game that I didn't even think had come out yet or gotten a proper release.

[Blessing]

You know what's crazy? I remember talking about it. I think it might have been me and Mike, but I remember being like this doesn't look.

[Andy Cortez]

It looks cool.

[Blessing]

That bad. Yeah, like art. I think art direction wise. Like, it looks cool. The fact that it's. It came out in Early Access and none of us here knew. Yeah, bad sign. I've not heard anybody talk about it. Even Kevin brought up a gameplay and honestly, Kevin, if you can bring that gameplay back up, didn't look as compelling. Now that we have the A version of the game out. I mean, art style, I still, I still like. Yeah, it reminds me of Marvel Rivals.

[Andy Cortez]

I think the art style is really nice. It's it's a MOBA right a 3v3 third per like third person MOBA in

[Blessing]

it in intense 3v3 action strategy battles summon hundreds of creatures cast devastating yeah that's moba.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah Currently sitting the all reviews is a most is a mixed on Steam but the Recent reviews are 70% they are mostly positive. Yeah this is a this is a tough space to be in when your game has been in. You know it was announced what seven, six years ago five years ago when was it was Eclipse. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Oh my God.

[Andy Cortez]

We were at the old studio right?

[Blessing]

Must have been. Yeah. I don't think I worked here yet.

[Andy Cortez]

This feels like it's one of those that was announced at the old studio

[Blessing]

because we're talking about announced Game Awards 2021.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay. We were working from home. Yeah we're working from home then. So yeah it's been a long time

[Blessing]

this definitely or five years.

[Andy Cortez]

This definitely feels like one of those blessed that the trailer is shown and there's just a word doc that exists.

[Blessing]

Oh yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Similar to state of decay 3. The the idea that this game has kind of been gestating for this long and every kind of year we go all right, when we going to get some more information on this? This is probably the worst possible news to get that they didn't even bother lying or they didn't bother saying things are still moving along. They said we're kind of at a standstill right now.

[Blessing]

Well this is like whatever source that insider gaming has. But the fact that yeah neither Quantity Dream nor NetEase responded to any of this I don't think bodes well. I what's upsetting to me is that the more we see gameplay of Spellcasters Chronicles I'm kind of like this feels like it's almost something the art style and art direction reminds me so much of Marvel Rivals. But it doesn't have an ip which I think probably might have been where this thing feels like it's not being talked about. It feels like it's coming in under the radar because you don't really launching we all know launching a brand new live service style game in 2026 is an uphill battle when people do not have the time to give to all these different things.

[Andy Cortez]

Uphill battle is like just like the understatement of the year. It is damn near impossible.

[Blessing]

Yes. When you launch a game that looks like this, I'm like man, this kind of does. Even though I said it doesn't it didn't look that great. I do think there's A look here in a gameplay style that probably appeals to some people, but the fact that it's a new ip, the fact that there's nothing to really attach yourself to. Like what I'm saying is that if this had Marvel then I think you could see. I could see it hitting a bit more in that Marvel Rivals way. But it's also a mobile, which I think kind of limits it as well. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean to hope that this game that, you know, we've seen, we've seen more successful games get shut down quicker. You know, like we see, you know, High Guard got shut down way faster than this game did. Oh yeah. It's. We're in the middle of April right now and this game apparently, you know, was an early access thing and early. Obviously early access is something that you hope to build upon and you're not hoping for your early access to be the, you know. Yes. This is the game you're going to get day one. Oh, you just looked at the concurrence, didn't you?

[Blessing]

I looked at the concurrence.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh no.

[Blessing]

Guess how many people are playing this game right now. Oh, on Steam.

[Andy Cortez]

Let's see. Well, I got to make this good content, so I'll go with 500.

[Blessing]

There are 48 people playing spellcasters Chronicles currently on Steam.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Blessing]

And I'm not trying to like player numbers. Watch, you know, Steam DB Watch. Because I know that's become more and more of a thing.

[Andy Cortez]

But that doesn't seem great that for a multiplayer game. Yeah. 40 multiplayer game. No. Where. Where you can't even say this. Yeah. But what about the Xbox numbers? What about the PlayStation? I remember this is a Steam only title.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And marketing has been damn near non existent. Yeah. You just reminded me this game existed.

[Blessing]

I didn't know this game existed. Or I didn't know this. We knew it existed. I didn't realize this game released and I feel like we should at the very least know that this game released. I.

[Andy Cortez]

The. The thing is we're. We're sort of a place that we're in a place in time that we've been in for the last year or so where I don't even have time to play the stuff that I really want to play. Oh yeah. Much less the stuff that is maybe a little bit middling and not necessarily worth my time right now. I look at this and I go, okay, it seems like recent reviews are a little bit better. Let's wait for it to get better. Let me wait for, you know, I'll hop into this game once. Reviews are. Oh, what's that? It's shut down already. Damn. Never mind. Yeah, we didn't even kind of get a chance to kind of improve. And then to think that your big, massive Star Wars IP video game is kind of relying on spellcasters. I had to recheck the name because I forgot it already. Yeah. You're relying on this to kind of extend the life.

[Blessing]

Yeah. And I. To your point of, you know, this has been around longer like this so far has stuck around longer than like a high guard or whatever or like even a concord. I. I think there's probably the element of if this doesn't work, then it sounds like Quantic Dream is done. And so, like, I think when we hear about the shutdown of this game, you're probably also hearing about the shutdown of Quantic Dream or the restructuring. Restructuring or the selling of Quantic Dream, which sucks because, like, Quantum Dream is such an interesting studio. They have controversial leadership that have been in lawsuits in France and shit like that. You have David Cage, with which so many people hate that dude. Right. But he is the one that is leading your stories, writing your stories, directing these games. And these games are so weird and unique in the way that, like, they're putting out these narrative. Choose your own adventure things that have, like a cinematic presentation. They're one of the only studios that was doing that pretty consistently. When you talk about a heavy rain going into Beyond Two, Two Souls going into Detroit Become Human. And even though I think this studio has been steeped in controversy, there's still something about Detroit Become Human that resonates with enough people to where you. I'm surprised when I ever. When I. Every now and then I'll be scrolling on the algorithms and I'll see somebody playing Detroit become human.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing]

I'll see a content creator doing stuff in there. And I think there is an inherent appeal to how they do choose your own adventure. Because even though I'll. I'll talk about their stories and all this stuff, I like playing their games. I. I like seeing the different permutations when they do the thing between chapters and be in Detroit Become Human, where they show all the different ways that thing could have panned out. There is talent to Quantic Dream and it sucks to see because I think we see this all. Well, you see it all the time now with live service of. All right, let's chase the live service bag. The studio's done, right. Every now and then I think we see it with IP as well. I remember The Telltale thing of like, Telltale made it big with Walking Dead, and then they kept chasing these different projects because they're pulling in these different IPs, and they got spread too thin, and then Telltale is done.

[Andy Cortez]

Right.

[Blessing]

The fact that with Quantic Dream, they had Star wars in their hand, right. They had Star wars as like a, hell, yeah, we're going to make it.

[Andy Cortez]

And we popped off for it.

[Blessing]

We popped off for it, right? That trailer looked cool. But between Star wars and Spellcasters Chronicles, I think we're now seeing the doom of this studio. It's like, dang, dude, maybe you should have just made another. Another game. Just another regular thing.

[Andy Cortez]

You got to wonder where. What their finances are, because Detroit Become human as of January 2026 has sold 15 million. That's a lot of copies for a video game that 10 to 15 years ago would have guaranteed you another 15 years of development on several different games. Like, 15 million is a lot of damn copies. And if that can't even guarantee you, you know, funding for this next big game, now it also does sound like it would be one thing if Star Wars Eclipse development wasn't doing well because they just don't have the money to kind of get there. It does seem like they're. If I were to guess, pure speculation that they just. There's a lot of internal struggle as to what the game should even fucking be. And that's a different story. That's not even a funding story.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

That just seems like we need funding to try to figure out what it is we're trying to get to. If they were. If they had all their ducks in a row, this game would have been done in four or five years and would have been out by now or would have been coming out this year or something like that. It does seem like there's something much deeper than not even money can really kind of fix.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

At that studio. So.

[Blessing]

And I think part of that is. Part of that is you're shifting strongly, Right. You're going from creating these. These games that you own and you run and you can do whatever with to working on a big IP like Star wars that I think you have to pull in a lot more. There are a lot more voices involved in terms of what you can even do with Star Wars. There's a lot more pressure involved. There's Disney. There's the idea of, okay, this has to be our biggest thing. Like, we got to make this bigger than life. Right. We can't just run back what we did with heavy Rain and the other games, it sucks. Yeah, it's real tough. If I could go back and be a fly at the wall, fly on the wall at both Quantic and at PlayStation. I want to know why didn't PlayStation buy Quantic Dream? Was it because of David Cage? Because I. You. Heavy Rain, PS3 exclusive was a notable title there. Beyond Two Souls. I don't really like, I don't really like that game that much. Cool idea. Shout out to Elliot Page. Kill it.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, it seems like it was, it was a general failure anyway.

[Blessing]

General.

[Andy Cortez]

It's not like you're, it's not like you're, you know, different in not loving the game. It seems like not a lot of people.

[Blessing]

That game, Detroit Become Human, like you mentioned, 15 million copies. These were all PlayStation exclusive games. Any other studio, PlayStation is like, oh, we should buy them. Like, they're consistent for us. They're making games that are unique to the space and their games are sales successes.

[Andy Cortez]

5 million as of 2020. A lot of people are like, oh, they probably sold like 10 million on a five dollar steam sale. No, man. Like they had sold 5 million of Detroit Become Human by 2020. It sold 10 million by 2024.

[Blessing]

Like I, I, I want somebody, just somebody DM me, somebody who knows just DM me and tell me like, was it David Cage? Like, what happened to where you just didn't buy Quantic Dream? Because this seems like such a downturn. I mean, downturn is like putting it lightly, right? But this is such a, this is such a up way for this to go in terms of. Yeah, what a Bummer Chronicles.

[Andy Cortez]

We're never gonna see this game. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Let's move on to story number four. Overwatch reveals updated look for Omron following fan backlash. This is from Simon Carty at ign.

[Andy Cortez]

We know him.

[Blessing]

Overwatch has unveiled an updated look for one of its newest heroes, Omron, following criticism of how her face previously looked in game. Kevin, I'm realizing that I forgot to link the thing. I thought I put it in here, but I lost it somewhere. If you could look up, there is a blizzard or I think it's a play. Overwatch tweet. Actually they have a vertical video of them talking about Aynron and showing what she looks like now. The redesign has happened following an initial backlash from the community and the voice actor who portrays the fire fan wielding damage dealer Fariha, who claimed that, quote, this was a hill worth dying on after it was suggested that Omron was yet another victim of Overwatch's same Face syndrome. This syndrome is the suggestion that many of the female heroes in Overwatch suffer from the fact that they all have basically the same facial features, whether that be the Swedish Brigitte or is it Brigitte? Brigitte. This is the video. Thank you, Kevin. He'll show off some of what it looks like, whether it be Brigitte, British Tracer, the Japanese Kiriko, Martian Juno, or up until now, the Chinese on run. Back in February, Blizzard revealed that plans were underway for a rethink when it came to Anran's appearance, stating that, quote, we agree that she can be even better, end quote. Well, now we finally got a look at the result of those tweaks. In a video posted on Overwatch's social media, game director Aaron Keller says, quote, I wanted to take a moment to share the updated version of Omron's in game look. We want our heroes to feel unique, but we also want their visuals to match their personality. And we feel like we didn't quite land on that when Omron first released. We think she could come across older and that her original version was too innocent and playful. Omron is confident, determined, fierce and a natural born leader and we want her visuals in game to convey that personality. So we made some adjustments to her face. We focused on her eyes, eyebrows and mouth and we moved away from that baby face look and expression to something more sincere and more mature and even something less like a simple posture change can help Omron feel, well, more like Omron. We're happy. We're really happy with the way these changes turned out and also that she has a closer resemblance to her brother wuyang. End quote. In reply to the official games account, Keller added quote, we're really happy with the way Omron's personality is coming through with these changes and personally I'm encouraged by what the team can accomplish when players advocate for our game game, end quote. It feels like quite a bit ago that we talked about this, I forgot that this was happening and so it's really cool to see that we got here. Andy, how do you feel about these changes?

[Andy Cortez]

I like them. I like that she. I mean, I think they could have pushed it a bit further. You know, in the animated short, you know, her nose was a bit larger and that's what a lot of the community was hoping for, to get more the way that she looked in the 2D form of herself. But to me, I, when I looked at the first version, it didn't read like an older sister leader. Yeah, she pretty much just had that same kind of baby face that a lot of the other women characters have in Overwatch, which had already been a problem. Like it was. This wasn't the first time that we see Omron and the community goes, damn, she looks like all the other women characters. They've had this for the last couple.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And I, I'm just glad that they are becoming more and more aware of this sort of thing. It's. It's one thing to have your own art style. It's one thing to have the, the, the style that you go for when it comes to how characters eyes look or whatever. But when she came out, it was like the memes that really, really popped off were, let's just replace the hair and put another character's hair in it. And it looks identical because everybody, all of these, you know, women characters have that very kind of baby face, you know, you know, chubby cheeks and big eyes and it's like everybody looks the same. Yeah, I like the changes. I think they could have pushed it a little bit further. But I am. I, I think this look is way cooler.

[Blessing]

100 agree with. Yeah, with everything you said, I, I for sure think they could have pushed it further. But happy that we got some changes here.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Let's close out with story number five. Papers, please. Creator Lucas Pope says he no longer reveals what he's working. Working on in case it gets stolen or slurped up by AI. This is Chris Scolion at vgc. Papers please, and Return of the Overden. Creator Lucas Pope has shared some insight into his current status as a developer in an interview with Mike Rose from Normal Robots, the co founder, and Rami Ismail, the Vlambeer co founder. In their podcast Mike and Rami Are Still Here, Pope explained that he had no aspirations to build a team of developers and was simply content to. To sit at the computer, draw shit at the keyboard and write some songs and put together some programming code and try to make games. That's a quote. Ismail suggested that while he's the sort of developer who has, quote, one Foot in the medium, just like I want to make stuff quote in One Foot on the business side of things, Pope instead is foot first in the medium and creating things purely because he wants to. Until one of his projects reaches the point that he realizes he could probably release it as a game, Pope replied that he doesn't often get to the stage where a game is ready and that while he likes to work on things until they're finished, he also usually likes sharing what he's working on, but no longer has the inclination to do so because he's worried his ideas will be copied before he's finished. Quote I don't get to the point where it's done. Where it's done that much, he explained. Quote I do have this kind of curse that I really want to finish things, actually. I'm very production focused in the sense that I want the production to. To work. I want it to be efficient, I want it to finish. I want to actually produce something at the end. But I also like to talk about the stuff I'm working on. And I think just now the situation kind of feels different to me that you don't really talk about the stuff when you're working on it because I don't. I don't know it's going to get slurped up by AI or people are going to copy it or something else like that. I mean, it's not a hard rule. It's just. I got the kind of feeling about that and I just didn't feel as comfortable talking about the stuff I was working on again. So I hope that sort of breaks and I can feel comfortable talking about the stuff I'm working on. End quote. Pope also said he was more wary of releasing a major new game now because he enjoyed such critical success with Papers Please and Return to the Obra Dinn that he doesn't want to let players down. Ismail said he had similar concerns after releasing Ridiculous Fishing and Nuclear Throne, both of which were praised by critics and players alike. Another interesting one in terms of the effects of AI on our world and the ripples of. Oh, damn. Yeah. No, I don't want to show off or talk about my game because I'm scared that it might get scraped and copied.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah. If. If you put the idea out there that you're working on something and it's just a mere. It's just a hint of a concept. But you know that I am working on this and I'm using actual man hours to. To put the work into this.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

And then a team of five who is so I first and focused goes, oh, we can whip that out in fucking eight months or whatever. Yeah, that. That would be tragic. So I totally understand this, this standpoint. And it would be made a lot faster and a lot shittier and would probably, you know, cast like a really bad light on whatever the actual concept is. And then your thing comes out and then it's like, oh, that's like a copy of that other thing. No, no, no, mine was first. Yeah, I think it's better off. I think you're better off just saying until the thing is done, that's when it's going to fully come out. You know, Smart Andy.

[Blessing]

There's some big quotes coming from Lucas Pope and Rami Ismail, but if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[Andy Cortez]

You'd go to our last story, the WE News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to

[Blessing]

know about story number six, WE News. We're going to start off with the required reading from Amy, who emailed me this morning with a suggested required reading. I took a glance at it, liked what the article here is, so I want to shout it out. The title of the article is AI is Now Taking Over Game Servers and Stormgate is the first casualty. It was written by Sky Jacobs at TechSpot. I'll read from the first couple of paragraphs here. It says facepalm Multiplayer servers for the real time strategy game Stormgate will go offline at the end of the month after the infrastructure provider that hosts them was acquired by an AI company and began winding down its gaming services. The shutdown shows how AI infrastructure expansion is now affecting not just PC hardware supply, but also the back end services that many modern games rely on. Stormgate, a free to play StarCraft style RTS developed by Frost Giant Studios, relies on a third party game server Orchestration partner to run its online modes. Frost Giant told players on Discord that the provider had been acquired by an AI company, forcing a planned outage that will take Stormgate's multiplayer modes offline at the end of April.

[Andy Cortez]

And so that's crazy.

[Blessing]

I hate having to like, you know, add more reasons to fear shit. Because already I feel like we talk about how everything is because of AI, but in the purpose of keeping you all informed. Yeah, this is another crazy reason why AI sucks.

[Andy Cortez]

How do you think Simu Liu feels?

[Blessing]

Why do you ask?

[Andy Cortez]

This is the game that he came out and presented. Oh, like one of the game awards, I believe. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Oh, I didn't realize that.

[Andy Cortez]

I guess he's in the game as well. I had to just double check.

[Blessing]

Damn.

[Andy Cortez]

It's got to be really, really broken apart by this.

[Blessing]

Just make Shanxi too.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, you know. Where is Shangchi?

[Blessing]

Where is Shangchi?

[Andy Cortez]

That movie kicks so much ass.

[Blessing]

Like the easiest follow up in the world. Just make more Shang Chi. Ah God damn it. MCU play instead. Let's make Ant Man Quantumania and make it suck. Oh golly. More we news for you. Cyberpunk 2077 is getting some big PlayStation 5 Pro enhancements. This came in like really close to the show starting, so I didn't get to dive into the PlayStation Blog article. But it sounds like a serious upgrade that this is getting. So I'm kind of excited to hop into the PS5 Pro version of Cyberpunk.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, this could be really cool. I mean, again, just kind of showing, showing off. Exactly the amount of work that the pisser's been getting that PSSR2 or whatever. Really, really cool stuff. Make sure you enable that update in the settings. You have to like kind of go find that settings or whatever because according to some people that were in my chat and also according to Digital, to Digital Foundry, the, the, the PSSR2 games will. Only the official ones will get that sort of PSSR2 upgrade. But unless you check that box, then everything else kind of gets the, you know, like the blanket version of it that just kind of like covers all those other non official games or whatever.

[Blessing]

This is what I need. I need. And honestly I should be asking Tim this, but I need a 4K TV because in the living room we had a 4K TV.

[Andy Cortez]

You're asking for a TV?

[Blessing]

I'm asking. Okay, but I need like a good, like, what's, what is a 4K TV I can get. Right? Because like we had a 4K TV. Mike, my Michael, my roommate has taken it into his room because he works at hardware at IGN and so like now he needs to capture a lot of like 4K footage and so he needs to use that TV in his room. Do you need a great 4K TV and you need an affordable 4K TV? Well, I mean there's the one in the corner.

[Andy Cortez]

They've never been more.

[Blessing]

I told you this last time.

[Andy Cortez]

You want an OLED 4K.

[Blessing]

Oh yeah, I do want an OLED.

[Andy Cortez]

You want an OLED. And I love that. I love that Greg Miller has, has the understanding and recognizes where I'm coming from. Where. There was, There was one time I was in the chat talking because I was playing games from. And he was like, Andy, you said you were sick. Why are you, why are you talking in chat? And he said, no, just kidding. And he said he's going to play games at home. Yeah. And it's like we don't want it, you know. And he says, I don't want to play on my monitor. And I'm so glad he understands that because I get home and I play on my, my OLED Alienware monitor and it's the best purchase I've Ever made. And things look so freaking damn good on it. And it's like, yeah, I want to go home to play these games for review because I don't want to play on my shitty monitor. Like, you're so better than me.

[Blessing]

Because when. When I am like, oh, I'm going to play games at home. It's me playing on a small mon. My. A small 1080pmonitor but with a blanket around me. That's the difference. That's why I don't want to play at work is cuz I just want

[Andy Cortez]

to have a cup of hot chocolate.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Like make some tea. Get a blanket around me. Like my shirt's off.

[Andy Cortez]

Sounds so cozy.

[Blessing]

I just want to be cozy when I'm playing. When I'm playing in a dark room on the smallest monitor.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, no, I. I love, I love. You need a. You need an oled.

[Blessing]

Okay.

[Andy Cortez]

Period. Like that is a non. At this point. It's like, it's like not getting a 4K TV you have for the, for the, you know, field that you work in.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I think it's totally normal for normies out there to not have OLEDs. I'm not saying like you're an idiot to not have an oled. I think for you an OLED is a must for the field that you're in, for the tech that you're using, for the media you're consuming, whether it's video games or movies. That has to be like a non negotiable.

[Blessing]

Yeah, I think I'm ready.

[Andy Cortez]

I think you're ready.

[Blessing]

Somebody. Yeah, I need. I'll talk to you after.

[Andy Cortez]

Lg.

[Blessing]

Llg.

[Andy Cortez]

Lg.

[Blessing]

Get an oled. And they're affordable now is what you're saying.

[Andy Cortez]

I mean, compared to what they were. Yeah, you can get like a 65 inch for like 1200 or 55 inch for like a thousand or nine. Like they've gotten way cheaper than they were.

[Blessing]

That's still kind of expensive for me.

[Andy Cortez]

Okay, here's the thing, Blessing. Here's the thing. I want to put on my little blue shirt right now. My little name tag. Andy Cortez working at Best Buy. What about four year. What if I told you you sign up for a credit card? Well, what's your credit. What's your credit credit?

[Blessing]

Good. Oh my. I'm pretty sure my credit.

[Andy Cortez]

Run your credit while. Look at this. You are eligible for four years, no interest payments. About that.

[Blessing]

I mean that does help.

[Andy Cortez]

Maybe it's three years. I forget what it is, but it's like it does Help. It's crazy.

[Blessing]

Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

The amount of, like, no interest stuff. That money isn't real. Bless.

[Blessing]

You're right. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

Our idiot president is talking about killing a whole country. Like none of nothing matters.

[Blessing]

Nothing matters.

[Andy Cortez]

Y. Nothing matters anymore. God, I got so excited when the rumors over the weekend that he was.

[Blessing]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

I got so excited. Pictures of his hand.

[Blessing]

It's like the infection spreading. Hopefully it makes it. Coming to Game pass. On the 8th, you're getting Day Z and Endless Legend 2. On the 9th, you're getting Planet Coaster 2. On the 10th, you're getting Tiny Bookshop. On the 13th, you're getting Football Manager 26. On the 14th, Big Day. You're getting Hades 2 replaced. And the Thurge.

[Andy Cortez]

Wow.

[Blessing]

On the 16th, you're getting EA Sports, NHL 26. On the 17th, you're getting Call of Duty. Modern Warfare on the. Which Modern Warfare is that? I'm curious. On the 21st, I assume it's the new Modern War. Like the Modern Warfare one. The most recent Modern Warfare one, Not the oldest. Right. There's no reason they would put the old Modern Warfare 1 on there.

[Andy Cortez]

I started giggling out of nowhere last time when. When Paris is like, I. I think this Call of Duty, you know, is like a Return of Four. And Mike was like, we say that every year, man.

[Blessing]

Are we not at the place where every Call of Duty is on Game Pass?

[Andy Cortez]

No. No. Well, I don't think so.

[Blessing]

What was. Because wasn't there a moment where people were going crazy playing Black Ops? Because I remember booting up Black Ops because the player numbers were spiking. It doesn't matter.

[Andy Cortez]

I don't remember.

[Blessing]

On the 21st, people are saying, no, the 21st are getting vampire crawlers. On the 23rd, you're getting kiln. And then on premium, you're getting FBC Firebreak, the Elder Scrolls 4, Oblivion Remastered, Little Rocket Lab, and Sopa. Tale of the Stolen Potato.

[Andy Cortez]

Sopa.

[Blessing]

Sopa. More Wii News for you from Noble. Via Automaton, Saudi Arabian investment firm raises capcom stake to 6.04%. There's a. There's a game, Centopia. It launches April 16th on PC. Let me tell you about Centopia. All right, I'm going to read the Steam description for you. Manage Hell, manipulate the Overworld, build the resurrection business of your dreams. In Zentopia, you're tasked with managing the bureaucratic administration of Hell. Re educate the sinful, generate profit, play God and expand your hellish empire. All part of a day's work at Hell Incorporated.

[Andy Cortez]

This is it.

[Blessing]

Is this it?

[Andy Cortez]

This doesn't look like it.

[Blessing]

If you fast forward.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, this is it. Yeah.

[Blessing]

I think over time it becomes more like hell because I jump toward the middle of the trailer and it definitely looks a little bit more.

[Andy Cortez]

I like the art style.

[Blessing]

Maybe I lied.

[Andy Cortez]

I like a God game.

[Blessing]

Did I. Did I see a different game? Okay. No, this looks more like what I was thinking of. Yeah. God game where you managing hell? Yeah, this is what I saw. Yeah.

[Andy Cortez]

A totally different look of what the hell could be. Got Greg Miller's Satan right there.

[Blessing]

The glasses got a little gorgon from. From Doom Cademon. And that is Centopia Gothic Remake launches June 5th on Xbox PS5, PC. Industria 2 launches April 15th on PC. And Parasol Superstars launches April 14th on Xbox PS4, PS5 and Nintendo Switch. And that is it for Wii News. We're gonna get out of here. But before we do, let me shout out a couple of super chats that came in. We got one from Mad Rocks. It says, point out the changes because I don't see them. I think talking about on run a lot. Quite a few people in chat were saying they don't see the changes. Which I saw the changes immediately. But like, yeah, her features were a little bit sharp.

[Andy Cortez]

Smaller eyes. Yeah. Less puffiness in the cheeks, you know, which is usually attributed to being younger when your face is a bit, you know. Yeah. Softer. And I don't have the image up. I have to look. Yeah.

[Blessing]

I think the main thing I saw were like the sharper features. But also I think to both me and Andy's point, I think both.

[Andy Cortez]

I think they could have pushed it further.

[Blessing]

I think we put. They could have pushed it further too. Like, it looks different, but it doesn't look that different.

[Andy Cortez]

But the meme that I kept on seeing underneath was one dude. It's like that picture of me and the next one is him with a toothpick.

[Blessing]

I like that. Meta 318 says live service games are meant to pay for other games development. NetEase can't use Marvel Rivals revenue to pay for Eclipse development. I mean, I don't know. We're getting into a deeper conversation about.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah, we don't. We don't know what the. That's not how the company is formed, you know, or that's not how the company is built.

[Blessing]

This is what I'll say. I don't think Marvel Rivals can fund a game that's been in development for like seven or eight years. Like a triple A Star wars video game on its Own. I think you need some more juice there.

[Andy Cortez]

Now, on the flip side, this kind of goes back to just the quick thing that we were talking about during can Xbox be saved? You know, and you and me initially were kind of quick to say, no, we think that they're doomed. You know, and that's not to say because. Because they're just going to keep on failing and doing bad stuff. It's because there is money to absolutely save whatever they want to do, they have the money to do to make the company better. It's just. Will they. Is Microsoft willing to do that?

[Blessing]

Yes.

[Andy Cortez]

Like, of course NetEase has enough money to fund this video game, Star Wars Eclipse. But do they want to 100. Like bad money needs to go to shareholders. And then they need a lot left over from mama and papa up top. And this thing is the.

[Blessing]

The ballooning budgets slash. The rising expectations for revenue coming out from like the top of these organizations.

[Andy Cortez]

We need to get the. We need to get the equation on the screen. Yeah. Ballooning budgets, rising expectations, corporate greed.

[Blessing]

Corporate greed.

[Andy Cortez]

And like all of that gets kind of.

[Blessing]

But I'm gonna. You know what? I'm gonna find some time during my work day. I'm gonna crack the equation.

[Andy Cortez]

Get the.

[Blessing]

Yeah. I'm gonna get an equation together so we can talk about.

[Andy Cortez]

I need you to like A Beautiful Mind. This I need to like. Yeah. See Goodwill hunting type you on the board back here. Like make it look like a chalkboard. And it's like how much of the corporate greed is. Because after all these expenses, this is how much you actually have left over. It's not enough. It's only $17 quintillion dollars. Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because it needs to equal.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

This much money going to the shareholders. This much money going to the person

[Andy Cortez]

at the CEO needs. You know, how dare you only have two yachts or whatever.

[Blessing]

You know, and then you have to times it by like whatever Fortnite is bringing in.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Because that. There is an adjustment there for how that balloons expectations as well. The whole thing. Let's hop into kind of funny.com you're wrong where you write in let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong so we can correct it. For those watching later on YouTube, listening later on podcast services around the globe. Jetpo 1457. You know what you're wrong is for. It's not for that. All right. Be better. I recognize your name. Be better.

[Andy Cortez]

Don't be sorry.

[Blessing]

Okay. That's it. Kebabs. That's more of an editorializing and then tinder boy writes in with something we talked about yesterday. So we killed it. Know your wrongs here. Perfect game. If you're watching live right after this, the fun one Greg Miller is reviewing Starfield in 2026. Whoa. Yeah. Get ready for that. What? Also is that true? Let me, let me double check to make sure that's true. Okay. No, that's true. I got that right. And then after that, kind of funny podcast. And then after that we have a gameplay stream. Mike is going to continue investigating. He's going to investigate World of Warships.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh, wow.

[Blessing]

Yeah. Yesterday he investigated World of Tanks. Today he's investigating World of War.

[Andy Cortez]

What? Did he get to the bottom of chat? Did he, did he come to a conclusion with something?

[Blessing]

It was fun.

[Andy Cortez]

Oh. Oh, nice.

[Blessing]

Oh yeah. People are asking why Greg's reviewing Starfield in 2026. It's because they dropped the Terran Armada DLC.

[Andy Cortez]

Big old deal.

[Blessing]

Big old DLC along with the free

[Andy Cortez]

Lanes kind of free update or whatever. Yeah, but the Terran Armada is like a, a big old expansion.

[Blessing]

They're, they're dropping and the game is dropping on PS5.

[Andy Cortez]

Yeah.

[Blessing]

Right. So like there's a lot of reasons to review Starfield right now and so you want to tune into that. But of course this has been kind of funny. Games Daily if you love the show, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon and YouTube to get our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the games cast next KFP the stream everything happening after. But until next time, Game Daily Put

[Andy Cortez]

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[Blessing]

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[Andy Cortez]

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[Blessing]

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