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Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
PlayStation's Jade Raymond Leaves Studio She Started - Kinda Funny Games Daily 05.16.25
01:09:21
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- [00:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Today's stories include Fair Games loses its lead developer, Bungie's been caught stealing artwork for Marathon, and a bunch of Nintendo news. We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Friday, May 16, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Blessing Addie Elieh Jr. Joining me is the Lacroix Poppy, Tim Ma Yetis.
- [00:34]
Tim Gettys
Man, I don't like days like this, Bless, where I look at the run of show and I'm just like, can we just get to the good stuff at the end?
- [00:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Me and you are opposites because as soon as I saw this news yesterday, I looked over at Roger and I was like, who's on KD tomorrow? I hope it's me.
- [00:48]
Tim Gettys
So much to talk about. Much to talk about. That is correct. That is correct. I just, I just want things to get back on track, you know what I mean?
- [00:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I feel like story number one, story.
- [00:57]
Tim Gettys
Number two, this just is not good for PlayStation in particular.
- [01:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You're telling me that PlayStation's multiplayer online online live service strategy is off the rails.
- [01:09]
Tim Gettys
Having some issues.
- [01:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You're telling me that they're having some, some bumps in the road.
- [01:13]
Tim Gettys
Well, you know, I mean, maybe they'll find the money somehow. Unless they lose the money. Unless they purposefully choose to get rid of the money. We'll get to it in a second.
- [01:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We'll get to it in a second because remember, this is kind of Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube and now Spotify and Apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a daily exclusive show for a chance to be a part of the show. Some of your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Today after KFCD you're gonna get Gamescast which is Tim talking about Tony hawk's.
- [01:59]
Tim Gettys
Pro Skater Fox 3/4 with Jake Baldino and my new homie Stu.
- [02:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let's go.
- [02:05]
Tim Gettys
That formerly worked at Gamespot and now is the editor for Skill Up.
- [02:11]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
A lot of skill up lately. Yeah, I like it.
- [02:13]
Tim Gettys
It feels good.
- [02:14]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And then after Gamescast is Star Wars Andor Season 2 finale screencast and then the stream is doom. If you're a kind of Funny member you can get today's Greg Way, which I believe is coming from Andy. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Rays or Frames and Rocket Money. But we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news.
- [02:45]
Tim Gettys
We have Kevin's breaking.
- [02:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Eight stories today.
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Kevin Coelho
A baker's dozen.
- [02:57]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I did that knowing that he's been sick this week.
- [02:59]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [03:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And he said that his throat was. Was hurting, so I wanted to see how far.
- [03:03]
Tim Gettys
See how long we can go. I like it that Friday pushing through.
- [03:06]
Kevin Coelho
Bless. You're gonna have to take your laptop. I have to keep working on your computer. Sorry about that.
- [03:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Wait, really? Oh, look, he's messing with me.
- [03:13]
Kevin Coelho
No, no, I'm serious. This thing happened. There was a weird error.
- [03:16]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It happened while you're in the. In the room you're in right now.
- [03:20]
Kevin Coelho
Yeah, well, I know. I. I told Tim earlier.
- [03:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, you. You.
- [03:23]
Kevin Coelho
You heard it.
- [03:25]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Kevin's been helping me get a better GPU in my system, and it's been a whole. A whole thing because, like, really, I. Because, like, we need to. He. Listen, I brought it on Friday, and it was looking good, but then we realized we had the wrong cables. And so Kevin ordered.
- [03:38]
Kevin Coelho
He has a very unique power supply. Everything else has a Corsair power supply. For whatever reason, this one computer has a different power supply.
- [03:47]
Tim Gettys
And so compliment bless on his power supply.
- [03:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
A lot of people do. Listen, a lot of people say I got a unique power supply, but, yeah, I got the better cables and then got them on Monday. Turns out they were the wrong cables. So then we got the better. Better cables that came in while I was out of town on Tuesday. Turned out, though, on Tuesday, Kevin would go on to get sick and then not be back until today. So I get back on yesterday and I'm like, why is my computer all gutted still? Why isn't it fixed? And I look at Joey, and Joey's like, oh, Kevin's been sick. And I'm like, oh, no, I don't have a computer. So then I try to do it myself and. And then very quickly I'm like, nope, I. Very quickly, I turned into Greg Miller.
- [04:23]
Kevin Coelho
It's crazy how little he tried. All he had to do was plug it in, but he couldn't get it to.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I plugged one thing in, and then it's just like, I didn't want to figure out how to get it to the other side of the computer.
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Tim Gettys
I get it.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And then I started turning into Greg Miller. I started to get angry. I started being mean to Roger and I was like, I'm just going to.
- [04:40]
Tim Gettys
Go right to Roger.
- [04:43]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Story number one PlayStation executive Jade Raymond leaves the studio she founded this is coming from Jason Schreier at Bloomberg. Jade Raymond, the founder and head of Sony's game developer Haven Studios, has left the company. PlayStation leadership didn't give Haven staff a reason for her departure, but it came several weeks after an external test of Haven's first game, the online shooter Fair Games, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Some developers at Haven were concerned about how the game was received and its progress, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak publicly. Quote Jade Raymond has been an incredible partner and visionary force in founding haven Studios, a PlayStation spokesperson said in a statement. Quote we are deeply grateful for her leadership and contributions and we wish her all the best in her next chapter, end quote. The spokesperson added that the company is committed to supporting Haven Studios and excited to continue the journey with new co studio heads Marie Eve Dani and Pierre Francois Sapinski. Fair Games, announced in 2023, is one of the few entry one of the few entries remaining in the slate of live service games greenlit by PlayStation several years ago. Fair Games was originally slated for Release in fall 2025 but had been delayed to next spring, the people said in addition to this it's important here. It is very important. I'm pulling from Noble who tweeted about this. Fair Games has dropped the dollar sign everybody. The it's now just a regular S this comes from I believe this is Reset era where somebody responded to Jason's post saying Jason, you keep misspelling Fair Games as Fair Games for some reason. And then Jason replies, I guess I buried the real scoop here, but they dropped the dollar sign.
- [06:32]
Tim Gettys
You know social network taught us that, you know, it's cleaner you drop the here. They just realized we got to be realistic, we got to drop the money. We're not making any. This game's not going to work for us. So we're just putting this out here.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It's a game bitcoin thing of we got to separate ourselves from the crypto.
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Tim Gettys
Bros. You think so?
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I would think so.
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Tim Gettys
That's very generous of you. This isn't great news, right? I feel like we hear the names Jade Raymond and Amy Henig a lot and I feel like whatever one comes up, you bring up these other I don't know that that's entirely fair, but I do think that there is reason for it. Right. When it comes down to these are two people that have worked on legendary projects and keep almost doing something and then it ends up not happening. And it's been a long time since we've actually seen the fruits of their labor. And looking at this, it's like we still have Amy Henig on 1943, Marvel's Rise of Hydra, which recently, I think I said it out 1943. I got. I got the parts, the gut that got delayed recently to 2026. I still have my hesitations on if that's actually a video game or if it is more of a very glorified tech demo of a game that is majority like, vast majority like way more even than like a Metal Gear Solid four cutscenes, you know what I mean? Like, that's my theory on it so far. But when it comes to Fair Games, it's like that's a game, you know, like we, we've seen it. We. We know that it is going to be a video game. We kind of fully understand what that game's going to be. And I think that it's easy to say the vast majority of us look at it and go, don't know about that one. And that's adding on to other games that PlayStation's been working on and putting out similar to. You can't not bring up Concord, right? You can't not bring up Marathon. We'll talk about that even more later. But Fair Games, I do think is one of the ones that most of us kind of like, we use as a butt of a joke when we talk about these games, right? Like for the last year plus we've been talking about Fair Games, like, oh, and when will we see that? Like, what's that going to look like? I bet that's going to win. And we're all being assholes. And it's. So this happening now, like after a play test, an external play test. I saw someone in the chat implying that they are actually playing it now. They're indeed. But they're just like, you know, maybe I'm playing it.
- [08:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Are you having fun? Let us know in chat. Is it good?
- [08:51]
Tim Gettys
So that is interesting, right? It actually is being played right now by some external people. Yeah, but we all got to play Marathon recently too. So it's like it's. We're getting to the point that these games are going to be released, right? I guess. Let me start there. Bless. Does Fair Games get released If I'm.
- [09:09]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
A betting man, I would say no.
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Tim Gettys
Really?
- [09:11]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
They lost Jade Raymond. Yeah. No, like, the Jade Raymond founded the studio. This game exists because of Jade Raymond. If Jade Raymond's out, then, like, and this game is a year away.
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Tim Gettys
Like, do you think it is, though?
- [09:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Do I think this game is actually.
- [09:24]
Tim Gettys
Slated for fall 2025, but been delayed to next spring?
- [09:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like, yeah. So internally they're talking about next spring. Does that even happen? Who knows? Probably gets delayed further. I think if we're that far out from it, PlayStation. I think it'd be different if Concord didn't happen. Yeah, if Concord didn't happen, I could see PlayStation being like, we're close enough and we have a team, like, see it through. If this game, if this is happening weeks after the external play test and they're like, oh, we got to get rid of Jade Raymond. This thing from the top down is not looking good. Get rid of it. Like, cancel it. Like, no, this is. I don't think this is going to. I don't think this is going to happen. I go back to the PlayStation Blog where when they first announced Fair Games, they talked about what it was and, like, I think one of the core issues is that the pitch of Fair games I don't think excites us. Right. It's a competitive heist game coming to PS5 PC. I'm trying to get deeper into it where they talk about the PvPve aspect of it. Right. Fair Games came from the desire to create a new type of PvP game with emergent sandbox gameplay. We want to deliver a fresh multiplayer experience that rewards creativity and mastery and delivers surprising stories each and every time you play. I read that and I go, what does that. What does any of that mean? Yeah, you sound like every multiplayer game in existence. Right. And they go on talking about. Talking a bit more about it. Right. But, like, I don't know, even aesthetically, I look at Fair games and I see so many games that kind of give me that same vibe. Right. And like, so many games that seem like they're doing it maybe even slightly more competently. I look at something like the finals, and the finals kind of came and went a little bit, but at the very least, it seemed like there was a spark in finals that was connected to people. I just don't, as of now, I just don't see anything about Fair Games that is connecting as far as, like, the marketing of it, the word of mouth of it, like, how it fits into the PlayStation ecosystem. Jade Raymond leaving for me is like the. Oh, then this is, this has nothing like you. It really is an uphill battle for you. I get me on the side.
- [11:16]
Tim Gettys
I'm so with you with all of that. I don't know how important the Jade fact factor is though. Like I feel like like a lot of what we're talking about here is like that's probably the ideation and just like the initial leading of the project. But with how far we're into this now I assume, I mean people play testing it and them even internally having a release date set for within a year of of now. Like I feel like it's too late to just like rip the, the cord on this one. Like I feel like it has to come out. But what form does it come out in? Right. I think that that's, that is interesting but like, yeah, because like I, I'm with you as a person that doesn't fully understand the intricacies of where all the money goes with this stuff. Like we look at this and go, hey, Concord didn't work. So learn from that. Just don't do it again. You know. But at what point is that just not tenable because they have to make money.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But the reason why I bring up Concord happening is specifically how badly Concord performed. Right. Like Concord was the, was at the point where it's like oh, just put it out at that point. Right. Like you're that far with it. You know, people might, the word of mouth, the pre orders, all that stuff aren't looking great but you're there. So just put it out. And they took it off offline in two weeks.
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Tim Gettys
Unbelievable. Honestly one of the most unbelievable stories in video game history, period.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
One day we're going to understand the amount of money that was lost with the launch of Concord.
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Tim Gettys
Yeah.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I don't think, I think they'd rather cut something this far out than to have another Concord.
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Tim Gettys
Yeah. And that's one thing is like again I, I just want to see if that happens. Like I don't know that they have the means to do that at this point. If they do like, like I know they did it with Concord backwards. You know, like they did that after the game launched. Doing it before is going to be very, very interesting and I put Sony in a very bad spot. Honestly.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I guess like I could see the, the conversation being if they weren't thinking free to play. Like maybe it is a free to play game, right? Like maybe.
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Tim Gettys
Absolutely.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I my worry with Fair Game so far and you have like a lot of room for marketing and advertising left Right. Like, if this thing is at least a year away to get people on your side, I worry that there's not going to be any fans of this game going into it.
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Tim Gettys
Yeah, absolutely.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So you got to do whatever you can to get a player base. And I think that has to be either free to play, that has to be putting this game on PS plus so that any people that are part of that service can. Can jump into it.
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Tim Gettys
It has to be that.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
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Tim Gettys
Like, I don't think that a $40 price tag is an option for this.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh, absolutely not.
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Tim Gettys
Yeah. So, I mean, I feel like we know that. I'm sure that they know that. Will they listen to that or not? That's the big question. But I do think that I would bet that this game is released free to play over it being straight up canceled. I can see that at this point.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I can see.
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Tim Gettys
It is interesting though, with Marathon coming out. I just checked September 23rd this year. Like, there was no point in which we were like, oh yeah, they should definitely have Fair Games and Marathon, you know, but having them now like that close to each other, like that sounds like a horrible idea.
- [14:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I want to bring in some super chats. Samson L. Writes in and says Jade Raymond's track record got to be not great by now. Right. Also, Fair Game sounds like an Extraction shooter. And they got Marathon coming again. As for that, for that second half, again, that's why I'm like, you guys have so much marketing and convincing to do as far as selling people on what Fair Games is. Because I read it on paper. I think about so many other games that are out right now that I would probably rather play.
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Tim Gettys
Yeah.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Like, you got to really show why this thing is special and why it sticks out from the pack.
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Tim Gettys
And not to rehash the exact same conversation we've been having for years now, but I do think that it's been long enough that it's important to bring up again. PlayStation was trying to rebrand what PlayStation games means.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
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Tim Gettys
And they're failing at that. And this is where we're at now. Of course, they are trying to make you think extraction shooters. You think about like those PC games that Mike plays on stream. You know what I mean? PlayStation was like, oh, there's money and value there. Let's have it. So it's not just third person dad games. Right. And big gigantic budget narrative experiences on PlayStation. Let's also find ways to make money from quote unquote, smaller multiplayer experiences that we can kind of nickel and dime in different ways. Like Whether it is a free to play model or if it is a, hey, it's a budget title. But then we'll get them on the micro transactions and all that stuff later. It's not working. It's just not working.
- [15:36]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So to add to that, I also think they know that it's not working clearly. I just think about how. How long we've known about Marathon Fair Games, like all these things Concord and think about how long it's been since they've announced another one of those.
- [15:50]
Tim Gettys
I know, but so it is interesting. We can't have this conversation without bringing up Hell Divers. Like there was a success. A success out of nowhere. A success that is. Oh man. There was no marketing. People weren't convinced on that game and all it took was for it to be good and it worked and it convinced people. Right. I'm not expecting Fair Games to be another Helldivers. I'm expecting it to be another Concord.
- [16:11]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. You know, and I also wonder if Helldivers, as far as PlayStations jump into, we want to make these 10 live service things 12. The number changes. Right. Like we want to invest this much into the live service things. I don't want to take it away from PlayStation that held Ivers 2 is unequivocally a success. That is a huge success. Was that a part of this conversation though? Or was that them green lighting a sequel to Helldivers because they liked Helldivers?
- [16:34]
Tim Gettys
I would bet it was part of this conversation. And I think that it being a sequel to Helldivers and that team wanting to make that and all that stuff. Sure. The type of game it is compared to Helldivers1. I do think that that was a combination of factors, but I do think that it must have started at some point from, hey, we're looking for big PlayStation branded multiplayer games that we can like kind of like rest on. Like this week they put out the PlayStation sales for games and like Helldivers was insane. I think it was like 16 million. That's nuts, man.
- [17:06]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And like I would love to see more of those. We got a lot more super chats coming in. I want to bring in. Oh, actually no, I want to answer the other part of it because somebody. They also asked about Jade Raymond's track record. And that's the thing that I think it's tough when it comes to video game directors is like you're part of. You're part of a team. And so when it comes to what makes a project great at the end of the day, like the director has A gigantic part in it.
- [17:29]
Tim Gettys
Right.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But, like, I don't know. I. I think the Jade Raymond conversation stuff, when so many of her games haven't seen the light of day, both for the circumstances of, like, well, you work for Google Stadia. Google Stadia went down. What are you supposed to do?
- [17:41]
Tim Gettys
I mean. Well, that's not what happened, though. Like, Stadia did not go down before she did. You get what I'm saying? Like, there was a platform there. They just didn't see it through and that there's business factors there. But I'm just saying, it's like, there was money involved and, like, things did not shake out. They all knew what Stadia was going to be at that point in time. And again, Stadia had to walk so that all these other cloud services can run and we're running now. Yeah, but y' all made your bets there, and there was a lot of money being thrown around.
- [18:09]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, and that's more. So the point of, like, what are the reasons why the projects didn't see the light of day? I don't. Maybe Jade Raymond knew that her project at Stadia wasn't going to see the light of day, or maybe she knew there was a chance that that was going to happen. Right. But, like, the reality is that, yeah, like, stadium, there's a bunch of Stadia projects that we just didn't see or that got, like, bought and turned into, like, other things. I think the Quarry was one of those that ended up as an actual game that came out outside of Stadia. But then I look through, I have the Wikipedia open for, like, for Jade Raven projects. Right. And, like, you know, she's mainly known for executive producing multiple Assassin's Creed games during that Assassin's Creed 2 era. Right. So she did. She was a producer on the original Executive Produced two and Bloodline. She did Splinter Cell, Blacklist, she did Watchdogs, and then she'd managed directed Assassin's Creed Unity, Far Cry four. I don't know. I think Jade Raymond is one of those ones that I don't look at necessarily like a Kojima or even, honestly, like an Amy Hennig. Like, I don't really put them in the same conversation. Aside from the fact that a lot of their projects have gotten canceled. I think Jade Raymond, for me is just a name I hear because she's happened to have, like, directed stuff that was popular at Ubisoft in an era. But, like, I'm not. When she got pulled into PlayStation for this, I wasn't like, oh, snap, a new Jade Raymond. Game like.
- [19:26]
Tim Gettys
Well, I think that might just be a time and place thing for you of just like she was very important. Like Jade Raymond is talked about and was talked. I mean, we're talking about him now in that way.
- [19:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, but I guess my thing is do. Does the general audience talk about her.
- [19:39]
Tim Gettys
Like that as much as they do Amy Hennig? If not, probably actually more because. No, yeah, definitely. Jade Raymond was like on stage and like presenting in a way that Amy Hennig we just are all nerds about because we know the quality of her stories. You know what I mean? Yeah, we're. We're in a level deeper, I think than even the Jade conversation and even that. I'm not saying Jane Raymond's a household name. I'm saying more people would know who Jade Raymond was over the time of talking about all these games just because of how public facing she was during certain points of her career. Again, world fucking man, talking about all this stuff. So. And it's been a long time since either of them have released a product. So that's I think the big conversation there. But in terms of the track record being not great, it's like, yeah, I think the track record is only not great because things haven't been added in a long time and the next time something's added, the expectation is only going to be higher and higher and higher. So I do think it's unlikely. I think two things. Personally, I think it's unlikely we ever see a Jade Raymond project ever actually happen just given the state of the industry and how time works. And second off, I do think that if we did. Yeah. Then we'll be able to say the track record's not great because I don't think it's going to live up to expectations. And that's.
- [20:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
See and. But my thing is, I don't know, I don't think there's expectations for like a Jade Raymond thing. Right. Like for me, I don't view Jade Raymond as like an auteur or like somebody who is like, oh, Jade Raymond. I just view Jade Raymond as like another person in the industry who directs games. Right. And I think that's perfectly fine. I'm not even trying to take anything away from Jade Raymond. It's more the sense of like cool. Like you have a, a past working on, on cool games. But like, I think maybe we know the name because she's been on stage like for those times during those games. But I think it's different when I think of like the big name directors that I'm Looking forward to the next thing. Like. And Amy Hennig. Honestly, I am looking forward to Marvel 1943 to see if, like, she can give me back that uncharted feel from back.
- [21:31]
Tim Gettys
Absolutely. Yeah.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I get. I don't have, like. I'm not looking to. For.
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Tim Gettys
You're not an Assassin's Creed guy like that, though. I think that's another big thing, is that you weren't even a guy when. When they were, like, the shit. When she was involved.
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Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. But, like. And this could be me asking Chat or me asking the audience. Right. Like, if you are an Assassin's Creed person, are you following Jade Raymond wherever she goes?
- [21:50]
Tim Gettys
I think a big difference, too, is the idea of what Amy Hannig does versus what Jade Raymond does. Like. Like, the being. Being a fan of a writer, I think is easier than being a fan of Jade's skill set, which is more on the production side of things. Right?
- [22:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [22:05]
Tim Gettys
So it's like Kojima is the easiest one to throw around, like, when we use the word auteur, because it's like he does a little bit of all of it. Right. And so it's like this. We're. We're conflating the stories with him as well. Whereas, like, we're not doing that with Jade necessarily.
- [22:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [22:19]
Tim Gettys
You know. Yeah, it's.
- [22:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I hear you.
- [22:22]
Tim Gettys
It's a moot point because at the end of the day, it's like, I'm with you. It's like, I'm not looking forward to a Jade Raymond thing. And it just does kind of feel like a butt of a joke at this point. Yeah. This headline was inevitable.
- [22:31]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I think to ultimately answer my point with Sam Sannell's question. Right. Of Jade Raymond's track record. Got to be not great by now. Right. My thing is, I'm like, I don't really care about Jade Raymond's track record to that extent. And as far as it not being great, I think that's true for a lot of people in the industry. Like, especially currently, when you're talking about projects getting canceled over and over again and what video games are and how long they take to make. Right. Like, I have friends that work in the industry where if I look at their resume, it's like, cancel thing, cancel thing, cancel thing. But they've been working for the last decade. It's just the fact that oftentimes, many times in video games, things get canceled. Things don't. Don't come to fruition. And I think Jade Raymond just happens to be a name that we see attached to quite a few things because she has a higher up position. But I don't look at this and go, damn, Jade, Jade's up. Or anything like that. I just go, man, another one bites the dust. As far as I. I more so honestly blame the the live service strategy that PlayStation is trying to push and maybe a bad curation on what those games should be like. If I'm at PlayStation and I see what Fair Games is and I read it on paper and I like decide to acquire them as a studio, I think hopefully there's a backup as far as like, okay, you're going to make this, but you're also going to do XYZ thing. Because if it's just the Fair Games heist multiplayer thing, I think that's a really bad decision and I guess that's what we've been saying for the last year. But like, yeah, it's just a bad decision overall. What's going on?
- [23:54]
Tim Gettys
Last thing I want to say about this is we don't know if she left by choice. We don't know if she was forced out. We don't know any of that stuff.
- [24:01]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [24:01]
Tim Gettys
So there's a lot of different variables here.
- [24:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We, we do know that it was a few weeks after the from Jason Schreier's reporting at least. Right. A few weeks after the external play test of Haven's first game or PlayStation didn't give a give Haven staff a reason for departure. But it came several weeks after an external play test of Haven's first game.
- [24:20]
Tim Gettys
That doesn't tell me anything though. That could be her being upset about it and just being like, fuck, this is not worth it. I'm out. You know what I mean?
- [24:25]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But even that's a sign.
- [24:27]
Tim Gettys
True. Oh, oh. A sign of the game not being good. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not questioning that far.
- [24:32]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Sure. Yeah. Let's bring in a couple more super chats before I move on. RVB Jeeps writes in and says birthday tax. Thanks for all you guys do every week. What are your plans this weekend? Wrapping up AC Shadows and starting Doom? Hell yeah.
- [24:47]
Tim Gettys
Hell yeah. Man, what a weekend.
- [24:49]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm finishing Expedition 33.
- [24:50]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [24:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I've been told I only had maybe about five to six hours left.
- [24:54]
Tim Gettys
Okay.
- [24:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And so I'm gonna lock in and try to finish that. And I'm having such a good time in that game because me and you.
- [24:57]
Tim Gettys
Are reviewing it on Tuesday.
- [24:58]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh yeah.
- [24:59]
Tim Gettys
And I'm very.
- [25:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I can't wait to talk about it.
- [25:01]
Tim Gettys
I can't fucking freaking weight.
- [25:03]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And you, you've beat it, right?
- [25:04]
Tim Gettys
Oh yeah, I beat it. Plus I beat it like two weeks ago. And I don't think an hour has went by that I've been awake that I haven't thought about something about the game.
- [25:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Dude, I knew I. I knew I liked this game. Where I was on my trip, went to LA with Andy to go check out that Laza P dlc and I was like going through my Spotify and I saw that Clear Expeditions soundtrack was just on there and I go and I just clicked the first song and I was like, oh, this is.
- [25:28]
Tim Gettys
Oh, this is my life.
- [25:29]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, I'm in. I'm into this so much.
- [25:30]
Tim Gettys
I've listened to that soundtrack. The thing about the soundtrack is it's all good. Like it's very few standouts, I'll say. But I think that all of it is just social. You just put on shuffle. You're just gonna have a good time, man.
- [25:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'll tell you a standout right now. Falling Waters Go Blue, I believe is what it's called. It's like one of the fights in falling one like the water level.
- [25:48]
Tim Gettys
Oh, oh, oh.
- [25:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
They're cooking.
- [25:51]
Tim Gettys
They're cooking everybody.
- [25:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I'm taking one more look at Super Chats because you guys got a lot to say about this PlayStation Live service business. You know what, our next news story has to do more with PlayStation's live service business. So we'll save some of them for that. But before we get there, I want to tell you about patreon.com kindafunny and YouTube.com kinda funnygames where you can go and get the kinda funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.
- [26:19]
Greg Miller
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- [29:29]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And we're back with story number two. Bungie has been Caught Stealing artwork this is Ash Parrish at the Verge. Bungie has issued a statement on social media saying it is investigating how unauthorized artwork appeared in the closed Alpha test of its PvPVE shooter marathon. Earlier this week, Scottish artist Fern Hook posted on social media that her work had appeared in the Marathon Alpha without her knowledge or permission. Quote, its environments are covered with assets lifted from poster designs I made in 2017, Hook wrote on X. In an interview with the Washington Post, Fern says she was suspicious that her art may have been used without her permission when Bungie first revealed the game in 2023. In her thread, Fern posted side by side comparisons of her work in what appears in Marathon. She also made a post on Twitter in 2024 saying that she hit a reference to the Control Alt delete webcomic loss in her designs. A year. You got to be deep online for that shit. A year later, a player posted a screenshot from the game that includes a coded reference to the comic. Bungie says that it was made aware of the issue and determined the art team did not know the artwork was stolen and that a former employee was responsible for adding the assets. The studio also said it reached out to Fern to discuss the matter and that it is, quote, committed to doing right by the artist. End quote. This is not the first time an artist's work has been used for a Bungie product without their permission. In 2024, Bungie agreed to compensate the artist Tofu Rabbit after she discovered that that the Design for a Destiny 2 themed nerf gun was ripped directly from her fan art. Bungie has also been accused of using other creators Destiny 2 fan art for references and cutscenes without permission. Bungie says it's reviewing its in game assets, especially those done by former employees, to ensure this won't happen again.
- [31:24]
Tim Gettys
Everyone's all up in arms about AI stealing people's art. You know what I mean? But what about the people stealing people's art?
- [31:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We forgot we are the walking dead.
- [31:32]
Tim Gettys
We are the walking dead, everybody. Oh my God. We are the thieves ourselves. This sucks fucking ass. Bungie. What the fuck? This is so bad. This is not the first time they have stolen arts. Yeah but also, this is the most egregious time that I know of that they've gotten hot. And specifically bless this Is it's so hard to Talk about these PlayStation Live service games and have any level of positivity because it all just feels so dire. And we're reading the tea leaves here and just being like, this is a problem. This isn't going to work. Xyz. You look at marathon, and what's the one thing most people that have talked about marathon can agree on?
- [32:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh, man. That the art style is pretty cool.
- [32:14]
Tim Gettys
It's cool. It's so cool. Oh, wow. That's stolen.
- [32:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's not theirs.
- [32:19]
Tim Gettys
Oh, man. Dude, they can't catch a break. And hey, they're the ones stepping on the rakes. This is bad stuff, man. Bungie was acquired by PlayStation for billions of dollars.
- [32:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I forgot. I forgot all those billions of a B.
- [32:31]
Tim Gettys
That's a B.
- [32:32]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's a B. Oh, I. Where do you think. What do you think happens from here? Because I. I imagine the routes. The possible routes are you dump the bag on Fernando.
- [32:44]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [32:44]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Hey, Fern, here's a lot of money. Let's just use. Just. Just use your ass.
- [32:48]
Tim Gettys
There's one of them bees. You know what I mean?
- [32:49]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Here's one of them bees for you. The other route is this game gets delayed to hell. Otherwise canceled, I imagine. Delayed to hell, though. Like, there's.
- [32:59]
Tim Gettys
Oh, no, I don't. I don't think so. I. I think there's, in my opinion, no way. Like, yeah, they pay money to. To like, get the art, whatever. That's the end of it. Or they just then deal with the legal stuff and, like, move on. I think that this. As shady as it is, they keep on trucking.
- [33:15]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [33:15]
Tim Gettys
Like, I don't. I don't think this changes any. They're not changing the art style of this game.
- [33:19]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Their friends.
- [33:21]
Tim Gettys
I don't know. Maybe then they just change enough stuff to, like, get around it. Do you remember this game called Pal World?
- [33:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I do.
- [33:28]
Tim Gettys
Remember how those weren't Pokemon?
- [33:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Remember how quick they changed Sonic in the Sonic movie? Like when people didn't like the original thing? So, like, it's not for sure. You can go in and redo a bunch of stuff and make it adjacent to what the art style is here already without it being plagiarism. But I don't know. I do look at Fearne's art and just the inspiration of it all of like, oh, wow. Yeah, this is. It's not just like a poster on a wall. It's not just a one texture.
- [33:56]
Tim Gettys
No. It's many, many elements style.
- [33:59]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Fearne stuff is like the inspiration for what the art style is of marathon. And with that being the case, like, yeah, I think that's tough to get around as far as, oh, we'll go in and replace stuff like. That's gonna be a lot of work.
- [34:11]
Tim Gettys
Yeah. It's possible though, that style is even based on the style. The fact is though, these are assets being ripped. Like, these are assets that are legit, legit, like burns. Assets like ferns, iconography being used and letters and actual order of letters and all of that stuff like in terms of style and stuff. Like. Yeah, I don't know the name of this, but it's like other people can emulate and do similar things and, and whatever. Like the COVID of Gary Whitta's book Gundog.
- [34:40]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [34:41]
Tim Gettys
Has a similar. That retro NASA, whatever. Or I don't even know. I don't know the right words to apply to it. But the retro point is this is theft. This is.
- [34:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh yeah.
- [34:51]
Tim Gettys
This is as blatant and egregious as you can possibly get. Like, there's no. It's not just, oh, there's two triangles on top of each other. It's those specific shape triangles.
- [35:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean, when you hide a meme in your art and you see that meme pop up in the actual game. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's where you.
- [35:07]
Tim Gettys
That one too.
- [35:08]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Red handed. Yeah. Get the bag, Fern.
- [35:13]
Tim Gettys
Get the bag, get the bag. Yeah. Get them to not settle for an M. You're looking for a B. I.
- [35:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Don'T know if you're going to get the B.
- [35:19]
Tim Gettys
You ain't going to get that B. You might, but you fight for the B. Everybody.
- [35:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You might have to settle for six figures. No, you might have to settle for five figures. I don't know if you're going to get, if I'm being honest, but you can get a lot of money. Yeah, I think you get a lot of money, honestly for this. You know, you got six figures for sure.
- [35:36]
Kevin Coelho
Look at the, the, the image.
- [35:39]
Tim Gettys
The.
- [35:39]
Kevin Coelho
What is it? Six icons or. No, eight icons. Like the last one's like, that's my logo.
- [35:44]
Tim Gettys
Mm.
- [35:45]
Kevin Coelho
It's just inverted.
- [35:46]
Tim Gettys
Mm.
- [35:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's crazy.
- [35:47]
Tim Gettys
It's that. Yeah. I mean, that's insane, man. Very, very, very not good. And here's the thing. What really sucks about this is at the end of the day, somebody chose to do this. And we don't know how many people were aware of the origins and this and this and this. But what we do know is at the very least one person did this claiming that it was theirs. And we are now talking about this on our news show, many, many other people are talking about this. People want this game to fail. People are out here like, and you are just giving them even more reason to tear down this project that hundreds of people if not a thousand people are working on to some extent.
- [36:31]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah.
- [36:31]
Tim Gettys
And like your stupid ass, selfish ass choice to steal is affecting those people. It reminds me of the plagiarism at ign, the Philip Musen story and all that stuff. Like you forever IGN will be associated with plagiarism because of your dumbass decisions. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. Like this, this. Oh yeah, this sucks for so many people that could not have known. You know.
- [36:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Do you believe that when they say former employee, if I'm giving like the ultimate benefit of the doubt. If you wanted to explain this away as Bungie, you would say, yeah, former employee was using the assets as like stand ins for other things and when they left we didn't realize that they were stand ins and they just made it into the final game. I could see you want like, if you wanted to like, you know, make that argument. That's like the biggest benefit of the doubt here. It's the fact that this is like not the first time that this has happened where it becomes nefarious.
- [37:23]
Tim Gettys
Our flow in the chat says, and I don't remember if it was in the article you read here, but I did see this earlier today that many people at Bungie follow her, which is very bad. Yeah, it's like, yeah. And again what I just said, like all I know is that there's one person, but however many people there are, if you knew about this, it's like, dude, you are making a bad call that's going to affect everyone around you and that really freaking sucks.
- [37:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Bringing in some more super chats again. Shout out to everybody riding in today. A lot of people have a lot of opinions, including a brown spot who writes in and says hashtag justice for Mike. I agree.
- [38:02]
Tim Gettys
It's up up, man.
- [38:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Fucked up. Volkdasher. What did Roger do?
- [38:10]
Tim Gettys
You missed a lot.
- [38:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, there's a lot happened in the last few days. Volkdash writes and says, so marathon is doa. We know how this ends. Marathon fails. Bungie becomes an official PlayStation managed studio and Bungie is either shut or PlayStation managed to reinvent them. Doubtful. I'm going to say this and I'm going to be proven wrong in probably three years. I don't think there's any way Bungie shuts down, but I do think, yeah, I could see PlayStation taking like the full control. Hey, Bungie, you are operating now as a PlayStation studio as much as Sony Santa Monica operates as a PlayStation studio. And we're going to lock you in on Destiny. And I don't even know from there, like something that's going to be guaranteed success.
- [38:48]
Tim Gettys
I'm right there with you entirely. I don't think Bungie goes away. I think it looks different. And I also do think it'll be taken under PlayStation.
- [38:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Rick L. Says, calling it right now, Jason Shire is going to cook with his next book, the dark days of PlayStation. Can't wait to see what he uncovers. I'm going to actually pair that with another super chat that I saw way earlier. Killian C. Writes in and says, I feel confident saying this could be one of the worst place, worst generations of PlayStation ever. Tim, are we being too doom and gloom on PlayStation as a whole this gen?
- [39:19]
Tim Gettys
This is a very nuanced conversation. My personal opinion is that generations have just changed so much of what they are. And I've said this many times, but you'll look at the games that have come out on PlayStation 5 and if you're solely talking about exclusives, then, yeah, Compare this to PS4. It doesn't look that great, but we're at a point that a generation is tech updates and better graphics and faster RAM and SSDs and all that stuff. And in that case, I've had an amazing generation with my PlayStation 5. But if you're looking at it for just exclusive experiences, it's like, yeah, this doesn't at all compare to PS4. I think it compares to PS3. And then you go back, PS2 is different. Ass beast, PS1. Every generation just has its pros and cons and it's just different. But I think that to me, the biggest takeaway is that this is undeniably the most iterative generation split we've ever had. But the people playing on PS5 versus PS4 are having an infinitely better experience. And I'm saying that from experience.
- [40:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, yeah, it's. I think it's a weird thing to measure in terms of is this like the dark era for PlayStation whatever? Because I don't think it like the PlayStation 5 is still selling, there's still great games happening on the platform. If we're doing the game where we're ranking generations, it still gets weird in terms of, to your point, every generation is just different as far as what it brings to the table. P.S. 1 is special for a different reason than P.S. 2 is special for a different reason than PS 3 or PS 4 is special. Now if I am ranking them, PS 5 might be at the bottom. PS 5 and PS 3 are competing for that bottom spot. Right. Because for me, number one, PS2, followed by PS4, I guess PS1 and the rest are like bottom three fighting it out. But I don't look at them as comparable as much.
- [41:01]
Tim Gettys
And again it's. And we're all bringing different things to this, but I feel like ranking them, I would have to put PS4 on top because I think that it's PlayStation Studios Rise. Right. And to me that there's so much value there where you're getting these unique, exclusive experiences from PlayStation to define the generation. Whereas PlayStation 1 was defined by third party RPGs and Metal Gear. You know what I mean? Yeah. And the PS2 was kind of just like a major hit in a lot of different ways. But like that, that was kind of a little, A little bit of everything.
- [41:33]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know, that's why I love it.
- [41:35]
Tim Gettys
Yeah. But also I would say that the reality is PS2, it's kind of like Jack of All Trades, Master of None, Jack and Daxter of all Trades. You know what I mean? But still. And to say Master of None even is like a little ridiculous. But it's. We have the, the, we have time on our side, to be honest.
- [41:51]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It was a lot of quality.
- [41:52]
Tim Gettys
Oh, absolutely.
- [41:53]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And I know I'm definitely looking back with Rose Tenant.
- [41:55]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [41:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But also not because like, oh, we're.
- [41:56]
Tim Gettys
Talking about some of the best games of all time, for sure.
- [41:58]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Like, you're talking about like, like, I mean, what I consider like the height of Metal Gear. When you're talking about Metal Gear Solids two and three, you're talking about NBA Street Volume two. Like the fact that we can get an arcade sports game, it can be, it could be that good. The fact that you can get a racing game like Burnout 3, it could be that good. You know what I mean? Final Fantasy 10, I haven't played it, but I heard good things.
- [42:18]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, but see you adding the third party stuff, that's to me where it gets like just a very complicated thing is like, are we gonna say Elden Ring's not and that damn good?
- [42:25]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And like all the, that's what I was gonna bring back to as far as like this generation of games. I can't look at the PS5 generation and get mad because we just talked about. Clear, obscure.
- [42:34]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, absolutely. We're talking about blueprints, but also Elden ring also on PlayStation 4. Right, sure. That's what I'm saying. It's just like we're getting to this point of just like the generations are like kind of stupid. But where do I play the most games that I fucking love? Yeah, I love my PS5. I really do. You get what I'm saying? This generation for me has been awesome. But yeah, you compare the details between the others, it's like, yeah, okay, no, but every generation had its version in form of Concord. It was just a different thing.
- [43:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. Let's move on to our next news story. Story number three. Red Dead Redemption 2 is reportedly coming to Switch 2 as Take 2 commits to Nintendo. This is Andy Robinson at Video Games Chronicle. Red Dead Redemption 2 could be coming to Switch 2 later this year alongside a current gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles. That's according to Game Reactor, which says it's heard from sources close to Rockstar that the acclaimed open world game is in the works for Nintendo's new console. Citing its own sources, Nintenduo also says RDR2 is coming to Switch too. That's a great name for a website, Nintendo. It's claimed that RDR2 is switch to for Switch 2 could release around the same time as an update to the game for current gen hardware with graphics and performance improvements. It's happening, Tim.
- [43:50]
Tim Gettys
It is. And that's cool. You know, I. What matters to me most is third party support being expected on the Switch too. And I think that this is a. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a technical powerhouse of a video game. And yeah, it could scale down, but I want it to be able to scale to a playable state on the Switch too. And if they can pull that off, we're sitting real pretty because what we just were talking about of the generations kind of blurred and stuff.
- [44:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Cool.
- [44:17]
Tim Gettys
If the Switch 2 can play those high end PS4 games and beyond beyond, we're in a great spot for video games being able to be released on multiple consoles and sell potentially millions more than they would have otherwise. And that's only good for everybody that likes games 1000%.
- [44:34]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know, maybe I'll return to RDR2. I was harsh on it. I mean, I played like a lot of hours of RDR2 and I just was not feeling it. But like, I don't know, I think about that game sometimes. Boring. It is boring.
- [44:45]
Kevin Coelho
You got to ride your horse places.
- [44:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But people swear by the story and I'm somebody.
- [44:50]
Kevin Coelho
I mean, you got to. You got to ride the horse so much till you get there.
- [44:54]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I get. I just Get a lot of FOMO.
- [44:55]
Kevin Coelho
First 45 minutes of riding the horse, I'm just like, oof.
- [45:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We got a lot more Nintendo stuff to talk about.
- [45:02]
Tim Gettys
Got to wait.
- [45:03]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This is like. This is kind of a Nintendo Wii news in the middle of the rope report. So story number four, Nintendo details what we're getting with the free Switch 2 updates to Switch 1 games. Pulling directly from Nintendo.com highlights include for Pokemon, Scarlet and Violet, you're getting for Visuals optimized for Switch 2 display and high resolution TVs for improved image quality. And you're also getting frame rate being improved. Yeah. Improved for smoother movement on Switch 2 for Mario 3D World plus Bowser's Fury. Similarly, you're getting optimized Switch 2 display and high res TVs for improved image quality and optimized for smoother, smoother movement on Switch 2, including Bowser's Fury. Additionally, you're getting HDR support for Bowser's Fury only and then also Game Share support.
- [45:47]
Tim Gettys
I can't wait for launch, man. I can't wait to just tinker and see what all this actually looks like. You know, this, this is detailed, but it's still not detailed, if you know what I mean. Like I want to see like what are the numbers we're talking about? Like what, what are the actual improvements here? But I do think that this is a good sign, the fact that these are all free updates. Like think about the last two years we've talked about. How's Nintendo going to handle this stuff? And so far it's like kind of the best case realistic option. Like sure, best case would be everything's free and everyone gets everything they want always. But the reality is they're going back to the majority of games that people would actually care about. Getting a technical increase. They're giving it to them. And in most ways this is all the good news. Like there's some things there that are a little bizarre. Like why is there no HDR on Mario World but there is on Bowser's Fury? Reason?
- [46:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Echoes of Wisdom and Links Awakening. They get increased resolution and HDR support, but they don't mention frame rate stuff.
- [46:41]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [46:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Which is like, what are we doing?
- [46:42]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, for sure. So it's like some things are weird, but we'll just have to see how it all shakes out. And of course, I've said this a million times, there are glaring emissions here. Where's Animal Crossing? Where's Mario Wonder? Where is Super Smash Brothers Ultimate? I imagine those are going to get plus versions like Enhanced Edition Switch two editions like we're seeing with Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Party and Kirby, and three Forgotten Land.
- [47:04]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Smash ultimate plus Subspace. Make it happen. Give me my subspace.
- [47:09]
Tim Gettys
Keep dreaming. Keep dreaming, man.
- [47:11]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Give it to me. Story number five another Wii Nintendo update via Wario 64. Nintendo confirms VRR is only supported in handheld mode on Switch 2. QUOTE Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR and handheld mode only. The incorrect information was initially published on the Switch 2 website. We apologize for the error.
- [47:30]
Tim Gettys
This sucks. It's not great news. Obviously we would want this. It is a amazing feature and especially with Nintendo focusing this generation seemingly so much on the options of having 120 frames per second mode and things like that, and higher resolution, all of it. This sucks. Having said that, I personally, as the Nintendo guy and a tech guy, I'm not that upset about this because I do think that it being on handheld is already a major win and I'm very stoked about that. But also, this is something they can fix with firmware and they did with the PlayStation 5. It's a bummer that it's not here and there's no guarantee it ever will come, but if I was a betting man, I think it will come eventually.
- [48:12]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And that is a variable refresh rate. I realize I only read the letters. Story number six. More Wii Nintendo news. Diddy Kong is saved, everybody. This comes from Scott McCray at GamesRadar. A user on Reddit spotted that Nintendo updated a thumbnail on the OG Switch's Nintendo News app featuring Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, where the original thumbnail used their designs that have been present since Rare redesigned DK and created Diddy in 1994. The update changed it to that new DK we've seen in Bonanza, as well as a brand new render showing a fresh Diddy Kong design.
- [48:44]
Tim Gettys
Can you read me the differences? Please bless from Stealth on Twitter.
- [48:47]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Right there changes. Number one, teeth. Number two, Nintendo logo on his hat is gone. Instead, there's something else. Number three, stomach is a bit bigger. We won, we won.
- [49:01]
Tim Gettys
We won.
- [49:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let's go.
- [49:02]
Tim Gettys
Me and you were just at the Nintendo Store and you've been saying they're trying to erase.
- [49:08]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Diddy Kong erasure and.
- [49:09]
Tim Gettys
He was all over. Oh, not all over, but he was over enough. The Nintendo Store, it's like, okay, cool, maybe they're not trying to get rid of our little guy. Yeah, and now here they are redesigning him. They put out new renders of all the classic Mario and Donkey Kong characters today for the Switch to era, and it's like, he's right there.
- [49:24]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
He's right.
- [49:25]
Tim Gettys
He's going nowhere.
- [49:26]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Everybody shout out, Diddy Kong.
- [49:28]
Tim Gettys
Resilient, resilient.
- [49:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Always with us. You got to love it.
- [49:32]
Tim Gettys
Yes.
- [49:33]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Story number seven. Fortnite players can speak with Darth Vader through a James Earl Jones voiced AI this is Charles Pulliam Moore at the Verge. When Fortnite players meet Darth Vader in the game's ongoing Star wars event, they'll be able to speak with the Sith Lord directly, and he's going to respond with a voice that sounds exactly like James Earl Jones. Though Darth Vader has previously appeared as an NPC in Fortnite, Epic Games announced today that the character's latest outing will be a bit different thanks to the use of AI after finding and defeating Vader on the map, players can recruit him onto their teams and speak directly with him. Using Fortnite's In Game audio chat functionality, Invader will respond in an AI recreation of James Earl Jones's iconic voice, whose answers vary depending on what players say. Now, there's a video I put in here. It's a minute long. We can probably fast forward halfway through.
- [50:22]
Tim Gettys
Do you believe that?
- [50:22]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Some people talking me into battle.
- [50:25]
Greg Miller
What freaking fucking food is that? Darth Vader, tell me.
- [50:31]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You can hear him respond here. Freaking. Such vulgarity does not become so. The article goes on to mention that, you know, it's supposed to be. He's supposed to not curse.
- [50:45]
Tim Gettys
Oh, oh, is that what he's supposed to not do?
- [50:48]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
So, like, there is a fun function, so you can report. You can report inappropriate reactions from Darth Vader. They're working on it.
- [50:55]
Tim Gettys
Are you telling me that James Earl Jones voice, but it's not him, it's. AI is not supposed to be swearing at these children, but here he is saying freakingy boo.
- [51:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, seven fingers. Also, that's a. Yeah, that's AI.
- [51:07]
Kevin Coelho
You know, it's crazy because he said, like, the perfect thing of, like, oh, you shouldn't be cussing. You know?
- [51:13]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, like it.
- [51:14]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
He always saying, good Lord. It's almost like the AI got fed up. And they were like, all right, you kids, you calm yourself down.
- [51:21]
Tim Gettys
I don't like that. I don't like that.
- [51:23]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
How do you feel about the future of video games? We're be talking.
- [51:25]
Tim Gettys
Oh, man.
- [51:25]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
We're gonna be talking to Trevor from GTA 5.
- [51:27]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [51:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Not too long in GTA Online for GTA 6.
- [51:30]
Tim Gettys
This sucks. That's all I'm gonna say. This sucks.
- [51:33]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You don't want to Talk to your favorite characters.
- [51:34]
Tim Gettys
No.
- [51:34]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What if it was Spider Man?
- [51:36]
Tim Gettys
What if.
- [51:37]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What if you could. In Spider Man.
- [51:38]
Tim Gettys
Which face? Which original Spider Man? Yeah.
- [51:42]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What if you be playing what's a. What's a Tim Gettys game? What if In Final Fantasy 7 Remake 3, you're playing as Cloud?
- [51:49]
Tim Gettys
Yeah.
- [51:49]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
And you can have a whole conversation with Tifa and Tifa response. Well, you're actually. You're talking to your mic. This was good. Tifa's like, not much. Tim, how are you?
- [51:59]
Tim Gettys
I don't like it.
- [52:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What would you say?
- [52:01]
Tim Gettys
What would I say?
- [52:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What would you say?
- [52:02]
Tim Gettys
What would I say? Nothing. Good. Nothing good. Bless.
- [52:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Whoa.
- [52:05]
Tim Gettys
No, I wouldn't want to post that on the Internet. I'd be so fucking embarrassed that I'm talking to a goddamn computer getting all turned on and shit. Because that's what these kids are doing. No, I'm just saying it. I'm just saying it. These kids are getting off on Darth Vader calling them names.
- [52:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
No, it's. It's dynamic.
- [52:22]
Tim Gettys
It's dynamic.
- [52:24]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
It's dynamic because, like, you get to feel like you're in the game. Imagine where VR in doing this. It's gonna make VR game Earl Jones way more engaging. Tim, if we can get this in more games, we can get this in all the games. That's gonna be big.
- [52:40]
Tim Gettys
It is gonna be gigantic.
- [52:41]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Just me hanging out with Kratos, having a son. God, talking to my son. But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?
- [52:50]
Tim Gettys
You go to our last story. The ween. I'm upset now. The WE News Channel, where we cover all the small news items that you need to know about.
- [52:56]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Story number eight is WE News from vgc. Metal Gear creator Kojima says he's reevaluated his priorities since turning 60 and becoming severely ill during the pandemic, and has even left a will containing game ideas for his staff to use after his death. Kojima turned 60 during the production of Death Training 2. But the game designer told Edge magazine in its latest issue that an illness he suffered during the pandemic was what most inspired him to seriously considered what to do with his remaining years.
- [53:25]
Tim Gettys
Pretty cool.
- [53:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Wait, really cool?
- [53:28]
Tim Gettys
I think it's pretty cool. I think it's pretty cool. Do I also think that there are inherently some, like, potentially problematic things about this? Yes. But do I also think it's pretty cool? Yes. Both could be true.
- [53:42]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
If I'm. If I'm the next leader of Kojima Productions and Kojima's like, hey, I'm gonna retire. I have a few years left. Here's a usb stick with 10 ideas. Go make these games. I'm like, I'm gonna say, kojima san, thank you so much. I'm gonna put in my pocket, I'm gonna walk into the next room or Kojima can't see me putting that in the trash. I'm not wasting my time making your ideas.
- [54:03]
Tim Gettys
All right, you're right.
- [54:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I gotta make new ideas. Do you, you're here.
- [54:08]
Tim Gettys
Are your ideas as good as his ideas?
- [54:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I mean. No.
- [54:11]
Tim Gettys
Okay. That's my only thing then.
- [54:13]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know what?
- [54:13]
Tim Gettys
Again, I, I, there's two sides to this for sure, but this is cool.
- [54:18]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Fair enough. This next one.
- [54:20]
Tim Gettys
Tell me you don't want to know what's on that usb.
- [54:21]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You know what? You're right. I do want to know what's on that usb. But I'm not spending my remaining time making another man's game. Yeah, it takes so long to make video games. I'm a game director. I'm going to make my own ideas.
- [54:31]
Tim Gettys
All right, maybe I'll see how well that goes at Kojima Productions.
- [54:35]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
If I worked at Bungie, what I do is I take those ideas, use them, and I say I came up with them. Like, these are my ideas.
- [54:42]
Tim Gettys
All right, Come after me onto something.
- [54:44]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
This next one's from Fortnite on Twitter. Nope, you're not getting me, Kevin, There's a banana in there. You're not. Apple has blocked our Fortnite. That's good. Also, you replaced Apple with banana. Apple has blocked our Fortnite submission, so we cannot release to the US App Store or the Epic Game Store for iOS in the European Union. Now, sadly, Fortnite on iOS will be offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it.
- [55:11]
Tim Gettys
I mean, duh, like the wars continue.
- [55:15]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, like you, you step on their feet and up their day. Yeah, they're not gonna let your game back on the App Store immediately. Yeah, but keep an eye on it from Eurogamer. Stellar Blade will release on PC on June 11, but its availability on Steam has been blocked in over 120 countries, surprising even the game's developer. Shift up shared news of the release on social media, but a number of fans responded with Steam screenshots showing the game is unavailable in their region. Shift up responded to confirm that the PC version does not require a PSN account and appeared surprised in the replies at the game game's unavailability. Checking SteamDB, it appears that Stellar Blade has been restricted in over 120 countries. Most of these are where Sony's PSN is unavailable. So seemingly there's an error here.
- [55:59]
Tim Gettys
You would hope.
- [56:00]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, hopefully.
- [56:02]
Tim Gettys
They gotta figure that out. They got a little bit of time to figure it out.
- [56:06]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Next one. Speaking of Eurogamer, Tom Phillips is leaving Eurogamer at 15 years old. I've read that name many a time.
- [56:14]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, dude. Shout out to Tom Phillips. Congratulations.
- [56:17]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Congrats. Next Leech and Kelly McCormick will produce the Gears of War movie for Netflix.
- [56:23]
Tim Gettys
Sick.
- [56:24]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Hell yeah.
- [56:24]
Tim Gettys
David. David Lights. Who I think did Deadpool 2 if I remember correctly. So it's cool.
- [56:30]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
What was the video game movie that was announced a couple days ago while I was gone? And I said enough. There was something. I'm gonna come back to it. There's something ridiculous announced a couple days ago where I was like, we gotta stop. Yeah, we gotta stop. Killer Instinct Gold is now available for Switch online and expansion pack Persona 5. The Phantom X launches June 26 on mobile and PC. Blue Protocol. Star Resonance is coming to the west in 2025. And then future game shows.
- [56:55]
Tim Gettys
Riders Republic.
- [56:56]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, we gotta stop. Enough. We don't need a Writer's Republic movie.
- [57:01]
Tim Gettys
I want to watch it though.
- [57:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I also want to watch it still.
- [57:04]
Tim Gettys
We don't need it. But I do want to watch it.
- [57:05]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
You don't need it, but I will be there. Future game show is set for June 7th. And that is it for WE News. Before we get out of here, let me take one last look at the super chats. Dave Woochter writes in and says boating the birthday tax.
- [57:27]
Tim Gettys
Hell yeah. Happy birthday.
- [57:28]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Happy birthday. Thank you so much.
- [57:29]
Tim Gettys
Dave. Dave.
- [57:32]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Oh man. We got a lot of good ones here. We got a lot of good ones here. Sort by first name says who knows, Maybe the creator did it as a quick rough mockups. Literally ripping inspiration into the design as is done. And gross businessy manager person was like we'll use it as is deadlines blah. I mean we can speculate a million things. Yeah, right. Like I think it's. It's tough to know what happened when you don't know what happened. But what we do know is that this has happened multiple times which turned this turns this into a very bad. You guys need to fucking get it together.
- [58:02]
Tim Gettys
Get it together.
- [58:02]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Be better. Fix your processes. If it is a process issue. Stop it.
- [58:08]
Tim Gettys
Stop it.
- [58:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Anthony writes in and says quick question for bless hype level for Final Fantasy Magic. I'm really hyped. Here's the deal though. And this always happens to me with the crossover stuff. Is that the deck that plays closest to my playstyle is the game that I haven't played, which is Final Fantasy 10.
- [58:27]
Tim Gettys
Oh, yeah. Well, there's a way to fix that. Bless.
- [58:29]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I was looking on Steam to see how much Final Fantasy 10 is.
- [58:34]
Tim Gettys
Am I? One by one, I'm gonna win legitimately.
- [58:37]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I was like, well, I think I gotta play Final Fantasy 10.
- [58:39]
Tim Gettys
So let's do it. Stream it on your own channel. Just do it. Have the fun. I might like Mike did.
- [58:46]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I got. I got the fomo. Like watching Mike have such a good time.
- [58:49]
Tim Gettys
Oh, this is great.
- [58:50]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, we'll see. I want to do it. Let's see here. Let's see here. Looked at you, writes in and says, I know we hate PlayStation for live service, but look at the revenue they make without live service. All they need is one or two live service games to hit to hit and all the loss becomes a profit. Maybe Jason Blundell. Jason Blundell had the deviation studios that got shut down and he's now working for, like, working on another PlayStation Live service thing.
- [59:21]
Tim Gettys
Yeah. I mean, look, what you're saying is very true that, hey, if we find a hit that works, then that hit will work.
- [59:29]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
But it sounds like the guy from speaking of red Dead Redemption 2, right? The guy who's like, you know, just one more. I don't know if that's the line, but the guy, he was like the leader of Arthur Morgan's crew. He was like, oh, those Damald Driscolls. And like, he was like, just one more and we'll be able to go to team One more.
- [59:46]
Tim Gettys
There's one more. We'll go to one more, Everyone.
- [59:48]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's what Dutch. Dutch Vanderland is Andy out there because he does a really good Dutch.
- [59:53]
Tim Gettys
Just one more.
- [59:55]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Well, that's what we sound like. He has a plan, you know, one last ride. Sure, you can bet on the fact that, hey, one success in the space is going to pay for it all. But think about how tough it is to make a success in that. In this.
- [60:07]
Tim Gettys
Yes. It's impossible. It's lightning in a bottle.
- [60:10]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yes. And so like, yeah, be out here trying to catch lightning in a bottle. But, like, you're going to watch everything else crumble around you. That's what your main focus is. I don't know what this means. CJ splits and writes in and says, bungie, the biggest lemon in gaming history.
- [60:29]
Tim Gettys
Lemon just means like a dud. Like, like you bought something and it doesn't work the way you wanted it to. I wouldn't go that far. But honestly, it's in the conversation. I do think that it's like, if we did a gamescast topic that's like, what is the biggest lemon in games history? Like, studio wise, it's like, at this point, Bungie is kind of racking up some. Some Ls, but they've also had a lot of wins.
- [60:49]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
That's the thing is I can't look at them as that because, yeah, like, they. I mean, Halo and Destiny.
- [60:54]
Tim Gettys
PlayStation though, for PlayStation, for the purchase from PlayStation.
- [60:56]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Okay, that's fair. Yeah, I think that's fair. But then, like, I mean, we'll see long term because I could see the Destiny money, like, leveling out. Like, I could see. I could see Bungie getting back to a place where it's like, all right, cool, you're doing your thing and, like, you're fine as Bungie. Whereas I forget what the name of the Concord studio is now, but Firewalk Fire Sprite. One of those. Aloy walks up a mountain. No, but she enjoys Sprite. Fuck, I forgot the integrate. I forgot the association shit.
- [61:28]
Tim Gettys
But fuck, she likes Sprite.
- [61:31]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Aoi drink Sprite. Is that what it is?
- [61:34]
Tim Gettys
Oh, Lord, we have a Gamescast to get to. We have guests. Let's fucking wrap this shit up.
- [61:38]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Let's hop into kind of funny dot com. You're wrong. Rewrite and let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong so we can correct it. For those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around the globe, Baner sn says Link's Awakening and Echoes of Wisdom target 60fps on Switch 1. So there's a likely no frame brute. So there's likely no frame boost going on for Switch two.
- [61:58]
Tim Gettys
That's all. See, that's what I'm talking about. It's like the. We don't have all those details, but that makes sense because we don't need the like, higher frame rate because already was set to the right frame rate. We just weren't getting it.
- [62:07]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah. And then Bander also writes and says Tim said it's been a long time since Amy Hennig released a prod, a project. Amy Hennig, last project released in 2023 for spoken.
- [62:17]
Tim Gettys
Yeah, but that wasn't an Amy Hennig project, was it?
- [62:20]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
I don't know. I think she just happened to write on it. Like, I wouldn't. I don't know if.
- [62:24]
Tim Gettys
I'll call me if I'm wrong on that, but I don't know.
- [62:27]
Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't look at that as a Amy Hennig project. But yeah, correct. If we're if we're wrong and that is it. Or you're wrong, of course, this has been Kind of Funny. Games Daily each and every weekday we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch, and all podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch us record them live and get a Daily exclusive show. Enjoy the Games Cast Next, which is going to be us Talking about Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 +4 with Tim, Jake Baldino and Stu. But until next time, Game Daily.