Report: Nintendo Direct in July, Donkey Kong Movie Happening - Kinda Funny Games Daily 07.14.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast Episode: Report: Nintendo Direct in July, Donkey Kong Movie Happening
Release Date: July 14, 2025

---

1. Nintendo Direct Rumors

Timestamp: [06:50] - [09:40]

The hosts kick off the episode by discussing rumors surrounding an upcoming Nintendo Direct slated for July 2025. According to YouTuber Nate the Hate, as reported by Ollie Reynolds from Nintendo Life, a Nintendo Direct is anticipated to occur later this month, likely in the last week of July, just before Nintendo's earnings report on August 1st. Blessing Adeoye Jr. highlights the limited information available but emphasizes the excitement surrounding potential announcements.

Notable Quote:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [08:18]: "Speaking on his latest podcast episode, Nate states that a direct will take place after Donkey Kong Bonanza releases on July 17, 2025."

2. Donkey Kong Movie Announcement

Timestamp: [10:12] - [19:40]

The conversation shifts to exciting news about a Donkey Kong movie in collaboration with Universal Pictures. Blessing and Snowbike Mike express enthusiasm over the announcement, comparing it to the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie. They speculate on the movie's potential direction, questioning whether it will incorporate classic characters like Candy Kong or introduce new elements to redefine Donkey Kong's cinematic presence.

Notable Quotes:

• Snowbike Mike [15:02]: "The idea of seeing Donkey Kong getting his own movie after what we just saw with the Mario Bros. Movie. Yeah, I'm totally in."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [17:30]: "I think Nintendo has to look at their roster of franchises and decide which ones deserve a movie."

3. Subnautica 2 Scandal

Timestamp: [24:26] - [34:01]

A major segment covers the ongoing controversy surrounding Subnautica 2, developed by Unknown Worlds and published by Krafton. Blessing provides a detailed breakdown of internal conflicts, including the ousting of key leadership from Unknown Worlds and conflicting statements between the developers and Krafton regarding the game's readiness and development progress. The discussion delves into leaked documents revealing disagreements over content volume and release timelines, highlighting the strain between creative teams and corporate expectations.

Notable Quotes:

• Snowbike Mike [32:34]: "While the game includes a variety of content, it currently lacks the freshness and volume expected of a sequel."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [34:01]: "There's a he-said, she-said scenario now. It's them trying to win the court of public opinion."

4. ZeniMax Union Statement

Timestamp: [43:20] - [44:03]

The podcast addresses the union's response to Microsoft's cancellation of an unannounced MMORPG developed by ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOSU). The union, Zosu CWA Workers United, explains that despite the project's cancellation, members retain their employment with full pay and benefits. They outline ongoing negotiations with Microsoft to ensure fair treatment and support for affected employees, emphasizing the community's loss and the importance of union advocacy in such situations.

Notable Quotes:

• Zosu Statement [27:00]: "Our union has stepped up to provide clarity and support."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [44:03]: "I just want the developers to have right done by them."

5. EA's Use of AI in Job Postings

Timestamp: [45:24] - [48:38]

The hosts discuss a controversy where a Microsoft employee used AI-generated artwork to advertise open positions on Xbox's graphics team. The image garnered criticism for its poor quality and the perceived insensitivity given the recent mass layoffs at Xbox. Blessing and Snowbike Mike express frustration over the timing and quality of the AI artwork, debating the broader implications of AI integration in creative processes and corporate communications.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [46:32]: "Nobody's looking at this and questioning it."
• Snowbike Mike [46:37]: "We need to tighten up society because we're losing grip right now."

6. EA Halting the Need for Speed Franchise

Timestamp: [54:28] - [60:37]

EA faces backlash as reports emerge that the Need for Speed franchise is on hiatus. The podcast delves into the reasons behind the decision, including shifting resources to more lucrative projects like Battlefield. Blessing reminisces about past Need for Speed titles but acknowledges their decline in recent years. The hosts critique EA's management of the franchise, comparing it unfavorably to competitors like Forza Horizon and highlighting the challenges of sustaining interest in racing games amidst fierce competition.

Notable Quotes:

• Snowbike Mike [55:20]: "We're living in a Forza Horizon world where that dominates the spot."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [58:54]: "EA just did not know how to treat the Need for Speed franchise."

7. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Deluxe Edition Easter Egg

Timestamp: [70:07] - [75:12]

The podcast highlights a new Easter egg in the Deluxe Edition of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3/4 remakes, which features a hidden SpongeBob SquarePants tribute accessible only to those who purchase the Deluxe version. While some listeners express frustration over the practice of locking content behind higher-priced editions, Blessing and Snowbike Mike debate the value and nostalgia associated with such unlockables. They lament the shift towards monetizing Easter eggs and secret content, contrasting it with earlier practices where such features were freely accessible.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [65:04]: "You're hiding an Easter egg behind a Deluxe Edition of the game."
• Snowbike Mike [66:33]: "We're losing our way when it comes to microtransactions and fun unlockables."

8. We News Highlights

Timestamp: [73:06] - [75:12]

In the "We News" segment, the hosts celebrate the remarkable sales milestone of "Ransom Peak," which sold 5 million copies within a month of its launch. They also announce the official launch of the Gaming Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering LGBTQ+ professionals in the gaming industry.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [70:48]: "This week marks the official launch of the Gaming Foundation..."
• Snowbike Mike [70:51]: "That is insane. Congratulations."

9. Listener Super Chats

Timestamp: Throughout the Episode

Throughout the episode, listeners engage via Super Chats, posing questions and sharing opinions. Topics range from suggestions for future game franchises (e.g., "Burnout" remasters) to discussions about the viability of Battlefield as an alternative to Call of Duty in the current market. The hosts interact dynamically with these inputs, providing their perspectives and fostering a community-driven conversation.

Notable Quotes:

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [73:36]: "Would you play Eclipse video game? If you're saying it's like..."
• Snowbike Mike [75:12]: "Yes, back in the day it was an alternative and I really enjoyed that."

---

Conclusion

In this episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, the hosts navigate through a series of significant gaming news, from the anticipation of a Nintendo Direct and the excitement over a Donkey Kong movie to the contentious developments surrounding Subnautica 2 and EA's dwindling Need for Speed franchise. They provide insightful commentary on industry practices, the impact of corporate decisions on beloved franchises, and the evolving role of AI in game development and marketing. Engaging with listener feedback, Blessing and Snowbike Mike ensure a lively and comprehensive discussion, making the episode informative for both regular followers and newcomers to the podcast.

Transcript

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two factor authentication, strong passwords and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast for 40% off. Terms apply. Today's stories include a rumor Nintendo Direct in July, a Donkey Kong movie is becoming more official and another chapter in Krafton Subnautica 2 scandal. We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily from Monday, July 14, 2025. I'm one of your hosts. Blessing. Adio Ye Jr joining me is the master of Hype, Snow bike Mike, my main man.

[Snowbike Mike]

Bless. Good morning. Happy Monday, big dog.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

How are you feeling?

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm feeling wonderful. You know, it's my favorite day of the week. I'm happy to be back. Getting to see you and Greg Miller's faces when I walk in always makes me smile.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I love how Greg was like, how was your weekend? Or whatever, and you just started saying buzzwords. You're like smiling, energy, relaxation. I'm like, say what? What? How was your weekend?

[Snowbike Mike]

Because I, I stunned him. I stunned him. He doesn't know what to say. So I walk right by him. I got his ass. You know what I mean?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What do this weekend?

[Snowbike Mike]

What did I do this weekend? I played a lot of Lost Planet, Extreme Condition.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I went to see that's the Answer.

[Snowbike Mike]

I Want in Pacifica and hung out with my main man, Tom Bach, which was really, really nice. I then proceeded to watch all of the rehearsal and a lot of Game Changers, a show that you put me on from Dropout. I have a lot of positive things to say about that rehearsal. A lot more negative things to say. I did not vibe with the rehearsal.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

At the end the new, the season that just dropped.

[Snowbike Mike]

Brand new episode, six episodes. Him a pilot and like him trying to help the pilot.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you finished it?

[Snowbike Mike]

I finished it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And you're and you're not feeling it?

[Snowbike Mike]

No, I, I, I've been lost a lot on that one. There was moments where I was feeling it and then there was moments where like I didn't vibe with it at all.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's very particular. Yeah, it's very much like when you go to a fancy restaurant and they give you A piece of food and everybody's like, oh, this is the fanciest thing ever. Then you eat it and it's like, what was that? Like what? First of all, the portion was real small. Second of all, the taste was kind of weird. Like I liked hints of it. Like, there's things about this that I like, but you got to have like a particular taste.

[Snowbike Mike]

I think that's me with the rehearsal. So that was my weekend. Finished up Lost Planet extreme condition, an Xbox 360 gem, some would say for me it was one of those classics where I look back, I remember the box thinking, man, when I had an Xbox360 at that time, I thought this was like the coolest game out there. I. I never played it. I just always wanted it. Played it in 2025.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's crazy. That's wild that you played in 2025.

[Snowbike Mike]

Not happy with it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, of course, ended the day lost.

[Snowbike Mike]

Ended it all. Not happy about it. Okay. The first 90% of it, I'm like, okay, I can see what it is. It's a 2000 game. So it's kind of empty. It's kind of barren in some spots. You kill some bugs, you can run past 90% of them. You fight some big bugs. There's some really cool on foot combat. And then all of a sudden you get in a cool mech that's. There's a bunch of different mechs. So that was really cool story. Nonsensical, just absolutely insane. But at the end it wrapped up. I get it, right? Like I'm missing my dead dad. He gave me the power to succeed. I got in this new mech robot and then out of nowhere they're like that, forget about the bugs. We're playing Armored Core 6. And it's the most intense mech fight I've ever had in my entire life. Took me two hours to beat this one jabroni. Every other level took me 15 minutes. Bless this one. Took me two and a half hours.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Plus raged I think last Planet because I played. I remember playing Lost Planet 2 and Last Planet 2 was I think the first co op third person shooter. I remember playing like my friend Anthony had invited me over to. He was house sitting. And they happen to have the PS3 with Last Planet 2 on it. And we played it all fudgeing day. But I don't think that's a game I could go back to. Like, I think there's a category of game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That if you miss the boat on it the year that it came out, don't touch it. Don't. Like I played Lost Planet 2 at the right time. I don't think I could play a Lost planet game in 2025 and have a good time.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, bless. I'm happy to report that I'm going deep in my backlog. Yeah. And I'm. I'm playing those kind of games, and sometimes you play one, you go, you know what? We got to find a better game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

On the next game. Can I tell you, yesterday, I went on a YouTube search, okay. For this game, Area 51. Do you remember Area 51?

[Snowbike Mike]

I remember the Arcade Cabinet being one of the most iconic and memorable moments ever. The Arcade Cabinet.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I had a demo disc. I don't remember the Arcade Cabinet, but it was probably. Maybe it was the more popular form. I don't know. But I remember having a PlayStation 2 demo disc with Area 51 on it and playing it over and over and over again. Being obsessed with it. Right. Like, it was probably the first, like, I guess aside from goldeneye, I guess I'll say. This era of first person shooter that I remember, like, having direct access to, in a way. And it felt realistic and gritty and adult. I was a kid, so I'm playing this and I'm like, it's blowing my mind. It's the most graphically intense, like, oh, my God, I can't believe this is a video game that I'm playing kind of thing. And I think I put it in that same Lost Planet bucket where I look back at this gameplay. Honestly, so far, this doesn't look as terrible as I would have thought it would look. Looking back, even though this is like 1080p, I'm sure, emulated type shit. But, like, I'm sure this is a game that if I picked it up today, I'd be like, what is this?

[Snowbike Mike]

What if I go back to Red Faction?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Do it.

[Snowbike Mike]

I think you would enjoy Red Faction one. Holds up still.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Define holds up. I think. I think you would have at the.

[Snowbike Mike]

End of it, I'm not gonna look at those six to eight hours and go, man, that sucked.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I stand by Red Faction. I stand by Red Faction one.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know, I ride with that game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bless Mike. Enough about that. 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 all podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify, and Apple podcasts. 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. So today you've already gotten a kind of funny screencast. Really Where Greg talk. Okay. Where Greg talks to the folks behind Tiny Chef and the plea to save the show after Nickelodeon canceled it. You can go check that out right now on I imagine YouTube.com kind of funny games.

[Snowbike Mike]

Go check it out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Screencast podcast feed I think in review.

[Greg Miller]

Podcast feed we, we put those together, right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We did merge those. And then after KHD you're going to get Gamescast which is a fantasy critic 2025 check in. And then after Games Cast is the kind of funny podcast Greg went to the Monster Monster Jam World Finals. Then the stream is Dune Awakening. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way is all about Greg's return to comics. Thank you to our Patreon producers Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney. The Psalm Twining today are brought to you by Shady Rays. 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. We have seven stories today of Becker dozen starting with our number one. A Nintendo Direct is set to take place later this month, it is claimed. This is from Ollie Reynolds at Nintendo Life. YouTuber Nate the hate has claimed that Nintendo Direct is due to take place later this month. And honestly I can just stop reading there because that tells us all we need to know. Nate the Hate said it is going to happen. Yo, Super Chat in this is what I want to know because I wanted to do the research for this as I put this on khd. Sadly I ran short on time because it's a big news day. But what are the remaining questions we need answered for Nintendo for the rest of the year? I'm talking Kirby Air Riders release date. I'm talking. Do we have a Metroid Prime 4 release date?

[Greg Miller]

No.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What are the Nintendo questions that are burning that we need answered that we would get at this direction? Let me know. Speaking on his latest podcast episode, Nate states that a direct will take place after Donkey Kong bonanza releases on July 17, 2025. He goes on to stress that he does not know any further details, including specific dates, timings and potential content. He does, however, speculate that a direct could happen in the last week of July. Theorizing that Nintendo will want to put a new showcase out before its three months earnings release release on Friday, August 1, 2025. Here's what he said. Quote, what I've been told there is a direct this month, so the month of July, but that direct will not take place until after Donkey Kong Bonanza releases. Beyond that, beyond, I have no additional information. I do not have information as to the exact timing at this point. If I had to speculate, I would say probably the last week of July because Friday of that week is August 1st first. Right. Which is Nintendo's earnings report that day. So I could see them having a direct that week leading to that investors report and Whoa, Mike. Nate the Hate. You believe the words that are coming out of his mouth?

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what I got to believe on this one? Nate the Hate batting above average right now.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

On a lot of these rumors and speculation. So I'm going to ride with it and I'm also going to get excited about it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bless.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right. We're going to have Donkey Kong like later this week and it feels right to continue the big Nintendo Switch to press junket. Keep people in the know, keep people excited, keep pushing those sales as much as possible. And so yeah, for you, who says, hey Mike, like what are the questions that need to be answered? For me, I'm looking at it as, yeah, continue to excite me to spend my money on your console, your platform, your ecosystem, or if I wasn't already in, sell me some more on why I need to be in this summer season, into the holiday season.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What would excite you?

[Snowbike Mike]

What would excite me? Third party announcements particularly. I mean, I'm already in. Right. So Donkey Kong was that big excitement factor. I would love to learn more about Kirby. I think anytime you put Kirby on after the Forgotten Lance, for me in particular, I'm jumping in and I'm excited for that. But for this one in particular, I already know Air riders. I already know about Metroid. I know those will probably get their own stuff later on. I'm looking for now, hey, third party releases that will hold me over some cool indie titles into the, you know, the holiday window.

[Greg Miller]

Elden Ring date. Because we know it's coming.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that makes sense. Right? Like I think when you're talking about third parties, Elden Ring, there are a couple of, I think the biggest questions, right. Elden Ring is one of them. Hollow Knight Silk Song is another one. They announced it with Nintendo and yeah, why not? They. They showed up at the Nintendo 2 or Nintendo Switch 2.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's exciting.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's exciting. Now here's the thing is I don't want to. I don't want to keep getting into the pattern of every single event being like, Silk Song got to be there. Silk songs got to be there. But at some point, and I know we say this every single fucking time, Silk Song's got to be there. Right? Right.

[Greg Miller]

It doesn't have to be.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

Doesn't have to be.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Where else would it be?

[Snowbike Mike]

2026. You got to wait for 2026. It's got to get.

[Greg Miller]

They did say that it is coming out before the Xbox Raj Ally X thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Close enough. Plus yeah, X. The Raj Xbox Ally X. X maybe. Yeah, there.

[Greg Miller]

I think there's another X at the end there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I.

[Greg Miller]

They could show it at Gamescom.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Show Hollow Night Games.

[Greg Miller]

No, man.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like. Like Jeff Ke's gamescom. Yeah, absolutely not.

[Greg Miller]

I know, I know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Absolutely.

[Greg Miller]

Someone who's also the, the biggest doubter of Gamescom shows. Yeah, I don't see it.

[Snowbike Mike]

The audience has brought brought up Hades 2. Do we see any Hades too? You bring up. I think probably a lot of third party and indie titles will probably be shown here. There'll be the big first party stuff, but you'll probably get a lot of third party here.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I. I do also think it depends in terms of third party hopes. I think it depends on, you know, when were certain teams given dev kits and all that stuff because we know that there's that weird like rollout of oh, only some places are getting dev kits. Only now there's like some places that are finally getting them. So that's another weird one of like, all right, how quickly do we start to see indies really start to make games specifically for Switch 2? Although for games like, like Hollow Knight and maybe even Hades two, maybe they don't even do like a Switch to specific version at launch or whatever.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think this is such a weird year, like obviously a very non standard Nintendo year because we had the console launch and like I think in a typical traditional year you would have had a summer showcase happen in June which would have set the tone for. All right, this is what your fall slate looks like, which I put out there because I think there's the idea of a Nintendo Direct could be anything. It could be a third party direct, it could be Indie Direct. Right. It could be a partner showcase. I think there are too many question marks on the calendar for this to like not have those. I don't think you wait until September to like talk about Kirby Air Riders and like The Hyrule Warriors Age of imprisonment. That's still supposed to come out this winter. Right. Like, I think we got the release date for Dragon Drive. Right. And so we don't have to worry about that. But I think there's that small handful of Nintendo things that we're still Metroid prime for that we're still waiting for info on. And so I would expect a first party direct and then maybe some smaller first party things that might be coming next year. I'm not even thinking of like, you know, anything big for the time being. Maybe. Maybe you get a small trailer for Dust Bloods.

[Snowbike Mike]

Don't get me excited about that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That'd be cool though, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

You know, I'm excited for that. You know, I can't wait for that one. Bless. Yeah, it'll be exciting stuff. I mean, we have this in the Gamescom, of course, Tokyo Game show after that. So we got a nice little rollout for the remainder of the summer season and then we look forward to the holidays. But you're so right. When do you start that kind of big first party blowout and start showing off all the cool games that you would have seen in the normal summer months? When does that happen? You got time. All these companies have shown they can turn on the YouTube channel and put out a video any, any day, any month that they want.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exactly. Moving on to story number two. Speaking of Nintendo, Nintendo and Universal are planning a Donkey Kong movie. This is Jordan Midler at Video Games Chronicle. Nintendo and Universal have filed copyright information for an untitled Donkey Kong movie. The filing, which was made in May of this year, declares both Nintendo Studios and Universal Pictures as the co producers of the film project. Speculation that a Donkey Kong film could could be in the works has circulated for some time. And this news comes as the as the character has received more prominence in the last few years. Does this excite you? A don movie?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you guys are the Donktober boys here and you should be as excited, if not more excited than me, right? The idea of seeing Donkey Kong getting his own movie after what we just saw with the Mario Bros. Movie. Yeah, I'm totally in. I want more Nintendo characters getting their cool animated films or even liveaction films. We'll see if that's any good. But of course the animated stuff I think is an easy layup for Nintendo to start making. The question will become, will there ever be a moment where they just become like direct to DVD type vibes where you're like, ah, you could Skip Donkey Kong number five. But like these first initial ones, heck yeah, you're in the theater. This is exciting stuff.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I, I really like that question because you're thinking of like maybe a decade ahead of where we could be and like, what's the right way to foster this? Because yeah, you're right. Like, hey, you could just be keep making Mario Brothers 1, Mario Brothers 2, Mario Brothers 3 and like keep going until we just, we get tired of it. How do you maintain that flow in a way that's going to keep people interested and excited? I think the Legend of Zelda movie being live action is such an interesting one and also being produced by Sony is such an interesting one because now you're making it a thing of like, this isn't an mcu. This isn't like a, hey, we're keeping these all the same style in case we wanted to do like a cool smash Brothers thing. It's like, no, they're not doing that. And so I think Nintendo, they're going to have to look at like their roster of franchises and go, all right, which, which of these deserves a movie? Right. Do we get to a place where we're talking about a Metroid movie or Star Fox movie? We're not going to that.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know, that's just, that's a Netflix movie. But like it would be so lit. See, But I want it to be more than that. But like that's a Netflix movie.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think those would be so fudgeing dope.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because we're talking about me and you. Right. But I think we get an animal crossing movie before we get some kind of like Star Fox or Metroid thing. I think we get a Pikmin movie. I, I look at it the same way that Nintendo looks at the Nintendo Store and going, yeah, what are the IP that we own that people want to interact with outside of the video games? Right. That we can sell the merch of. And there's something that like an animal crossing and Pikmin has that for some reason Star Fox and Metroid just don't.

[Snowbike Mike]

Animal Crossing is a six part miniseries or six episode season. Like animal. I don't know about an animal crossing movie maybe. But like, yeah, the whole lineup, bless. You could see, right. Kirby's in there. Star Fox, as we said, like Kirby.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think we can get.

[Snowbike Mike]

Luigi's definitely getting Luigi's Mansion.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Luigi's Mansion.

[Snowbike Mike]

That right. And so, yeah, let's start with Donkey Kong first. I want to know what is your excitement for Donkey Kong?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, I'm super excited.

[Snowbike Mike]

For it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think, first of all, Seth Rogen is. Donkey Kong is something that I'll never get tired of. It's such a hilarious casting that I'm all in for. I think the Donkey Kong is such a weird franchise because for most of Donkey Kong's like, existence, the most of the main titles have been handled outside of Nintendo. It's been rare and it's been retro, and so, so much of what has defined Donkey Kong has not come from Nintendo. That's why I find it so fascinating that for Donkey Kong Bonanza, this is a Nintendo, like, this is the Mario Odyssey team, which means that Nintendo has their hands directly like. Like making a mainline Don Kong thing. Which means that they redefine it. Right. Which means that they go in and they redesign what Don Kong looks like. Right. They redesign with the world. They rethink what it means to be in the donkey world and all of that. And so what that makes me wonder about is how much of what we get in a Donkey Kong movie is new shit versus classic shit. Right. Do we get Candy Kong? Do we get lanky and chunky and funky and like all these different Kongs? Or is Nintendo trying to pave a new road for what DK is on the big screen as well and it's.

[Snowbike Mike]

Just Donkey and Diddy Kong or who knows what that. Yeah, I like that. Bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, and like a lot of this, I think the tone will be set by what's in Don Kong Bonanza. I think Don Kong Bonanza will be responsible for laying the land as far as what is the world we're playing in now.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, I'm excited. Bless you saw the Mario Bros. Movie make a gajillion dollars. You have to assume that if they were to make a Donkey Kong movie of that caliber, it's going to make just as much, if not maybe a little bit less if it stumbles. But, like, it's going to print money. I think Nintendo has that, like, family market, those console mascot characters that we all know and love. And it's just a box office win if you were to jump into this. And I do expect in the next 10 years, we'll see a lot more of those.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Like, Nintendo could have its own streaming service and put out TV shows and movies of all this and make the collection just like they did with the music if they really wanted to.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

But, you know, that's years out. But I do think Super Mario Bros. Two, you'll get one of those. Donkey Kong. Yeah, that's a layup.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What Would you. What would you predict would be next after. After Zelda, Donkey Kong and Mario Brothers two New franchise like Nintendo's like all right, one. We're calling one of you up to the big leagues till Ron smacked.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's not one of those.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Which NXT Nintendo franchise do you call up to get. To get a movie next?

[Snowbike Mike]

Luigi's Mansion.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, you know what?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I, I think Super Mario Bros. 2 will lean more into Luigi and Mario having that brotherhood right there. Right. It will be more of that. So you'll get to know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Give me something character because that's an easy answer. I think it's either, I think it's either Animal Crossing. Even though that's a tough movie to make because you gotta make a story.

[Greg Miller]

I don't think they make a movie out of Animal Crossing. What I, I could see is you know they did the. Was it like Pokemon resort on Netflix and that was like, you know, like mini episodes and that like weird claymation style or whatever. I could see them doing something like that for Animal Crossing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That'd be cool.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean Star Fox is my movie answer. Star Fox would be the most fun.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

With the movie I think for what Nintendo does. I think they'll go splatoon. Splatoon movie. Yeah. Yeah. Platoon is a lot of, a lot of platoon lore.

[Snowbike Mike]

What about Metroid? That could be a live action.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean it could be but I, I think met for where Metroid stands and like what me and Tim talk about as far as like what's the top five Nintendo. What's the top ten as far as like IP power and money making potential. Metroid just doesn't hit for people like on that money making side. Obviously people love Metroid like the hardcore gamers. They. With Metroid I. With Metroid you. I don't know if you play.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm going to play Metroid when it comes out. That's going to be my time and.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think you're going to with Metroid, right? Like we love Metroid, but Metroid. I think as far as like what the natural choice is for an IP that you think is going to like make money on the big screen. I don't know.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, Metroid will have a big comeuppance at the end of this year.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

This will be a lot of first timers jumping in. A lot of classic fans will be excited about this. Now you get into the territory of like that's not making a billion dollars like Super Super Mario Bros. Right? Like now you start to get into like could that make It, I don't know. That's my problem. It's like there's guarantees and then like you said, there's a second tier here that's like. I don't know if that's a guarantee or not because all of a sudden we could maybe making a bad live action movie that we've seen a million of them in the 2000s and Metroid easily could have been one of those.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think to make a good Metroid movie, you would have to. Here I want to bring in a super chat.

[Snowbike Mike]

You make it an anime.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exactly. Ty Wilkins, VO in chat says Metroid isn't a movie. It should be an anime series. And that's my thing is I think Metroid would have to be a smaller anime thing because if you're going to put Metroid on the big screen, I think to make it pop would. It would. It would be like a. You'd almost have to give it to Alex Garland and go make a rated M or rated T Metroid thing that can be as gruesome as it needs to be and like all that shit, like realistic and all that stuff. But Nintendo is never going to do that because they're Nintendo.

[Snowbike Mike]

Metroid and Star Fox would be dope animes. Like what we're seeing with Castlevania right now and Devil May Cry. Those would be a lot of fun to watch as like a six to eight part Netflix show.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Animal Crossing similar to that. None of them coming off the top of my mind are billion dollars. Like Mario Bros. Yeah. Bear, what do you got?

[Greg Miller]

I was thinking the newer Voltron and then like Legend of Korra animation team, I think would be really fun for Metroid.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, even for Zelda. But we're.

[Greg Miller]

We're getting literally anything animated would be better than what we're actually getting.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Kebabs writes in with a super chat and says, where's the animal crossing? New Horizons 4K HDR patch talking about the Nintendo Direct still. Right. Like, I think, yeah, that could be a place where maybe we talk about more of the Switch games that we're doing, like updates to switch 2. 4. You know, I mean, I, I would. Do we have it? I imagine we have a date for Kirby in Kirby's Update. Right. Kirby in the Forgotten Land. Plus, yeah. I think Sago, whatever it's called. Oh, I'll look it up. Yeah. I don't know. I'm very excited for whatever Nintendo could be cooking on the movie side. Because I do. Even though at this point I don't think it's, it's happening. My dream would be a Smash Bros. Style crossover thing, but like their direction already is not that Pokemon Mortal Kombat.

[Snowbike Mike]

But it's Smash Bros. Everybody, every world gets an invitation. Their fighter has to step up.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, man. Oh man. Yeah. Like here's the thing. Pokemon is doing their own thing, right? Because that's the Pokemon company. Sonic is live action.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Zelda is live action. Right. Like they don't have the, the like, you know, foundation for it set. But man, I could dream.

[Snowbike Mike]

Kirby is August 28th, 2025.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Next month.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, that's super soon. Bear. What's up?

[Greg Miller]

I was literally just going to say the same thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hell yeah. Let's move off of the Nintendo conversation and onto a conversation we've been having for quite a few days here on Kind of Funny Games Daily with story in the latest Subnautica 2 twist, Krafton confirms this leaked internal review document is real. This is Vicky Blake at Eurogamer. Now Mike, before I get into the article itself.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Can you do a loli Lulay lore on where we're at currently with the Subnautica 2 scenario? Unknown Worlds versus Crafted.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let me unpack it out of my, my mental box here. Now please give me some room to be a little wrong there. I'm sure the chat will correct me, but blessing. Let me take you back. We'll call it. Two weeks ago, Crafton threw out three of the key leadership groups from Unknown Worlds. Some of the founders of Subnautica and that company said, you're out. We're putting in a new person here. Then we said, what's up with that? A week later we got the big Reddit post saying, yo, they pushed us out because we were all guaranteed a lot of money and we wanted the game to release this year because of it. We if it released this year and it hit certain sales numbers, we had an opportunity to get $250, $250 million in the pot right there that we were going to share with a lot of the employees throughout Unknown Worlds. And so we were like, oh snap, that's crazy. Crafton pushed you all out because they didn't want to pay. And then Crafton was like, well, we're delaying the game because it's not up to par. It's not about the money. And so now we had a he said, she said. I of why did these three founders of this company get pushed out? Is it because Crafton didn't want to pay this bonus before the end of 2020? 5 or is it actually because the game isn't up to snuff now? The founders said it is ready to rock and roll. We're sitting on our hands. Let's do this thing. And the opposite side said, well, we brought in a new guy and he says it's not ready to rock and roll for prime time. We want to make sure this is prime time, then get this Bless. After that we we then heard that one of the founders was like, yo, we're going to take them to court for this and we're going to get our money, we're going to make this right. And we said, okay, get after him. But then on the flip side, Crafton then said, hey, they were pursuing other things outside of Unknown Worlds and focusing on the game. Which is why we said, hey, it's not releasing this year because you don't seem to be on the ball like we need you to be right now. And so that's where I finished on Friday with a back and forth between both teams.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exactly. And that's where we finished on khd. So we're going to hop into this story again coming from Vicki Blake at Eurogamer also. Fantastic work there.

[Snowbike Mike]

Thank you. I tried my best on that. That was intense. I got it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Subnautica developer Unknown World's parent company Krafton has issued another statement, this time confirming that an internal milestone document leaked online is authentic. Just ahead of the weekend, pages from an internal review document popped up online. According to the leaker, it quote, clearly shows the state of the development progress and why Krafton and the Subnautica team disagreed on the release schedules, end quote the document purports to show where the development of Somnaraka 2 was deemed to be versus expectation at this point in the development cycle. It criticizes the as is position, saying quote, while the game includes a variety of content, it currently lacks the freshness and volume expected of a sequel and quote, falls short of meeting the high expectations of the OWSC and the Asian market. End quote. It also clearly states it expects a quote content volume increase of over 30% compared to version 1.0, end quote. At the bottom of the second slide, the author, which remains unknown, states quote Compared to the originally planned early access launch specifications, the current target volume has been reduced or adjusted across various elements such as biomes, creatures, equipment, slash, progression and features. Due to a gap between the current state and the content volume assumed during the initial launch planning, it is necessary to reassess the release timeline and roadmap rather than refute the leak however, Krafton has confirmed the document is real, saying it was approving the credibility of the report because that would, quote, minimize speculation and ensure accurate communication with the players, end quote. So another chapter, another one saga, another.

[Snowbike Mike]

Little footnote here on this story. Bless. I mean, who are they trying to win over? Right? Because we're going to court. That's where we should be showing all these documents. Are they trying to win me? The game are over. So then I have trust in them or don't want to boycott the game and want to pay for the game. Like what is the point of releasing this to the general public? We don't have. I'm not the judge, jury and executioner here, but I get like, maybe they want to sway because of course Reddit all weekend long was a mixed bag of emotions, right? If you were on the Subnautica Reddit, it was, hey, I love these guys. This is messed up. I'm not paying for the game or hold up, should I be buying the game? I, I don't know where I stand anymore. Right. And so is this for that? I don't know. But, but clearly when we dive into the leaked documents, who leaked them? Who knows? Crazy greedy corporation would leak those documents.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Themselves and went, ah, this is real.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's crazy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Who knows?

[Snowbike Mike]

That's crazy. But they are saying that it wasn't up to snuff where they wanted it to be. And there is a push and pull to this reality no matter where you fall. Early access titles are different. Beast, right, of how much do you release with you? And I talked about it last Thursday when we brought up Subnautica 1.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

And how beloved that was, how it grew with the community, but that takes time.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right?

[Snowbike Mike]

And so when you come up with a sequel, and it is a highly anticipated sequel that has a lot of money on the line, right, Craft? And put down a lot of money to purchase the Outer World or the Subnautica team.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, Unknown world.

[Snowbike Mike]

Unknown World.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I forget it every single time too.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's a lot of money on the line here for this to hit and probably hit early, right? Because as much as we would love to say, oh, this is a 10 year endeavor, I'm sure Crafton's looking at like I would like my return in the 1 to 2 years here, not the 5 to 10 years, let's fire this baby up.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right?

[Snowbike Mike]

And so they're saying that it's not up to snuff. You need more. They even here they have the nice guy line. Like we reduced it as well. Like we didn't expect him as much as we wanted it. So we reduced it here so they could meet this deadline. But I, I don't know.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bless.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean I go both ways on this one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. I mean I think that's the whole point of this, right? Is like there is, there, there is what I was saying on Friday, it's a he says, she said scenario now, right. It is them trying to I think win the court of public opinion. Because you're right, you're right, they're getting sued. They're going to go to court, to actual court over this and like whoever is successful right in that is going to get the money and it's gonna like, you know, that's going to determine how things go for the parties involved.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But I think right now at the same time, I think there is enough wiggle room here for Crafton to, if they have the stuff to fight in that pub, the court of public opinion so that they can maybe not get boycotted as much so that they can keep the like any sort of goodwill. As somebody who's publishing a game that could be one of the biggest games of the year, the year that it comes out, that's what they're going to do. And so I don't know, there's more, there's more to be determined here from this story. I'm just an outside observer at this point of seeing what the fuck happens. I just want to, I just want the developers to have right done by them. You know what I mean? Like I don't really care about the publisher or even like the leads at this point, right. Whether they did right, whether they did wrong. Honestly I don't know. I just Hope that, that 98% of people under them are done, are done justice by this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hopefully they get paid out their bonuses if they do meet those sales expectations. I thought last week I missed in the lalelool. I thought Krafton did say they were going to pay some of that out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So like they, they, they said it in kind of a V way of like, you know, we're going to get people what they're promises.

[Snowbike Mike]

But I mean when you read this, right, and you, you get to the quote parts like quote. While the game includes a variety of content, it currently lacks a freshness and volume expected of a sequel.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right?

[Snowbike Mike]

And so it's like, well what is that right? That could be judged by any which way. But for me, right, I do want the sequel to feel pretty fresh. I know what I want from subnautica and subnautica2 I still want the wow moments. I still want that. I don't want to really feel like I've been dumped back into the same fishbowl, but now it's just me and a buddy. Right. Like, Subnautica 2's got to have a different feel to. It's got to have a wow factor, especially on that initial launch, to get millions upon millions of players in. Does it have that? I mean, anybody could tell you yes or no on that one. It's really personal preference.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And they have like the. They have the explicitly stated, hey, like, we're looking for a content volume increase of over 30% compared to 1.0. Right. So, like, those are the. I. This is going to take a while for this story to really, like, get to a conclusion here because the lawsuit is going to take a while and all that stuff. Right. But that's something that you can argue in court. Like, that's something that I think, I would imagine is somewhat provable info. Of course. 30% of a video game. How do you count that? Yeah, so that, hey, that's going to be one of those ones where, like, I'm fascinated by how a jury, how the judge, how like the people making these arguments are going to be like, yo, no, this is where we landed. Of course. Also they said what you mentioned. Right. As far as like reducing expectations or. Or the current target content volume has been reduced, yada yada. Right. But you imagine that there is still a percentage in there of. All right, want this 15 more than what you had with 1.0 subnautica 1.

[Snowbike Mike]

The wild part that I think about Bless. Is not the three found. Well, I mean, the whole story's wild, but there are people inside of this studio right now that are like, possibly listening to you and I or seeing all the Reddit posts, following the news stories, and they can't say anything.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I know, and I know it's frustrating.

[Snowbike Mike]

They're doing this, they're freaking out because they would love to say what the hell is going on, but I'm sure they would most importantly like to say, hey, we've been really working hard on this game that we love and we just want to get to the finish line and show you this incredible title that we got. And I think on the outside it's like, that's where I want to be. But now I don't know when that will be. Yeah, clearly it seems like it's not 2025, so I will have to hold my breath.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Can you imagine? It came out in 2025. If somebody fucking leaked it, somebody like there's have an internal agent that's like no, that shit's ready and they fucking hit publish. Mike, we got a lot more to talk about on this episode of kfgd. But before we get there, let me talk to you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. And speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors.

[Barrett Courtney]

This episode's brought to you by Shady Rays. Get ready for the season ahead with quality shades built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have you covered with premium polarized shades that won't break the bank. Shady Rays is an independent sunglasses company offering a world class product rated 5 stars by over 300000 people. They have hundreds of options to choose from so you're bound to find the perfect pair to match your style. If you don't love your shades, exchange them for a new pair or simply return worry free within 30 days. There's no risk. When you shop, their team are always there to have your back with personal and fast support. Y' all know I've been outside a lot playing Pokemon Go and it's such a great experience wearing Shady Rays when I'm out and about looking dope. Exclusively for you. Shady Rays is giving out their best deal. Head to shadyrays.com and use code funny for 35% off polarized sunglasses. Try for yourself the shades rated 5 stars by over 300,000 people. Again, go to shadyrays.com use code funny to get 35% off polarized sunglasses.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And we're back. Let's hop into some super chats real quick. Gaming Worlds UK just writes in and says birthday text. Happy birthday.

[Snowbike Mike]

Happy birthday my friend.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Count on me. Thank you so much. One day I'm going to bring the party the party poppers and like making a thing. I'm gonna. We're gonna some lucky birthday haver out there.

[Snowbike Mike]

You're gonna get.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It is gonna get celebrated for real because y' all been asking for it. I might bust out a cake. Count on me. 23 writes in and says just secure the Sonic magic cards. Yeah. I've been seeing people in chat.

[Snowbike Mike]

People said it's live.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Saying that the sonic hearts are live. I'm I. Here's the thing. I got a person. I got a friend. She's gonna do the work for me.

[Snowbike Mike]

He's got a person chat.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I have a friend.

[Snowbike Mike]

Just a Venmo Away for bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes. Yeah. I have a friend that' trust her with my life. Especially when it comes to magic cards.

[Snowbike Mike]

And these are must have for you, right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean they're. They are. I'd like to have them.

[Snowbike Mike]

These are high.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I don't think they're like must have. But I'm like, I. The shadow card. I think I might want to make a deck around it. That's what I'm. That's what I'm hoping for right now. But yeah, Lexi, she's going to hold me down. Cuz she's like the friend who. I feel like everybody plays magic for a different reason. You know what I mean? Maybe you play for the competitive aspect. Maybe you play so you can collect cool looking cards. Lexi is in the market. Like she is flipping like she's wheeling and dealing. She's wheeling and dealing in a way where I'm like, I've never seen the side of you before.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let me tell you what, you can wheel and deal. If you got game like that, you could wheel and deal and let me. Those collector boxes for Final Fantasy. That was crazy to see those price tags. Yeah, dude, Coraze.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I should have hit her up for those, honestly.

[Snowbike Mike]

Wheeling and dealing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Claw master writes in and says, congrats to SGDQ for raising over $2.4 million to charity. Congrats.

[Snowbike Mike]

Awesome week. Did you see any good runs?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sadly, I missed the whole thing. Okay. Usually I tune in because I do. I remember maybe a year or so ago watching just like all the GTA speed runs that they would do and watching somebody just speed through Vice City. Coolest thing ever.

[Greg Miller]

Did you see or did you hear about what the blueprints speedrun thing was? No, it was essentially bingo where they like had like bingo cards of things that like they could possibly do in a run. And then whoever got like bingo first, like, and it was a race between two people, I think and.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, that's cool.

[Greg Miller]

Whoever filled bingo first of just like random things that you could possibly do due to the rng of it one and it's like, God, that's so fun.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I love that you watch them.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah. Favorite two weeks out of the year. SGD Q&A GDQ. They're the best. I mean it's just.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

They're like a favorite game you love to watch.

[Snowbike Mike]

I love the gta. I love Bloodborne and anything are Dark souls.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I love that kind of stuff. I love the weird wacky stuff. When we get into Pepsi, man, or all of a sudden we're playing some random game you've never heard of. They played backyard baseball this week, which was fun, but 7 days, 24 hours of content. Always live. Always somebody on the couch in the panel doing something fun. I think it's great and all for a great cause. Fantastic.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Congratulations. Sgdq. A brown spot writes in and says, this is a re dropped balls shit list from Friday show Atreus from God of war 2018 to Ragnarok should be on. Oh, my God. Should be on that list. It's a bad joke. It's a bad joke. We made a joke or we had a conversation on Friday about, like, the biggest dropped balls in. In. In gaming. Mainly about, like, things that you fumbled. Biggest fumbles. Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

And they're saying Atreus was fumbled as a character?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, they're saying that he went through puberty.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, I got that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You guys. You guys got to keep. You guys got to keep up. Oh, let's see here. We got one more from JBC who writes in and says if we're going by Nintendo SF Merch Breakdown, it's clear that Animal Crossing slash Splatoon slash Metroid is. Is next on the dock for movies, slash shows.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's just got to kind of be the right project. Yeah, all of these 100 could be shows and maybe shows or movies. Maybe we'll see that. There's a lot of deals being made. There's a lot of content providers out there that want these kind of IPs that would come over to their little live streaming service and make something out of it. We've seen a lot of good and bad. So I'm sure dollars will be thrown.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Dollars will be thrown. Let's move on to story number four. ZeniMax union responds to Microsoft canceling unannounced MMO quote. A feature has been stolen from us. This is from Rebecca Valentine at ign. Following a wave of mass layoffs that impacted an estimated 9,100 employees at Microsoft, many of whom were in its Xbox Gaming division, the union of employees at Xbox subsidiary Zenimax have responded with a statement explaining the current employment status of its members. Here is Zosu's statement, published in full. Earlier this month, Microsoft indefinitely shelved an unannounced MMORPG at Zenimax Online Studios, a shock to the 222Zosu CWA developers working on the project. It has been heartening and validating to see our game mentioned in the press and by players that would have loved to see the results of our work. Undoubtedly, a future has been stolen from many of us and our community will never experience an amazing game. However, despite discussions regarding the status of our employment, the fact is we have not yet been laid off. While we understand that for most of us, something like a layoff is inevitable, last December, both the teams behind the Elder Scrolls Online and the Unannounced project voted overwhelmingly to form a Union and establish ZeniMax Online Studios United CWA, aka Zosu CWA Workers Volunteer. Sorry, Worker volunteers elected to represent in the interests of our union are currently bargaining with Microsoft for the benefit of our impacted teammates. While Microsoft and Zosu bargain over how we move forward following the project closure, the developers behind the unannounced project remain employees of ZeniMax with full pay and benefits. On July 2, our lives were upended without prior notice or communication from Microsoft leadership and without clear understanding about the status of our employment. In light of this, our union came together with urgency, gathering and distributing information and resources to our affected members. Where Microsoft has failed to support the talented craftspeople who have generated billions in revenue, our union has stepped up to provide clarity and support. It is true that a layoff may be in the future for some of our members. However, as a result of our organizing, we are able to ensure that those impacted will be able to depart with dignity. More importantly, the work of ZOSU will continue so that our remaining teammates, the stalwart developers of eso, can follow in the in the footsteps of our colleagues across other departments and studios at Microsoft, including our union siblings at ZeniMax Workers United States. We look forward to other units who will soon ratify fair contracts that will guarantee the rights we all deserve. Kind of like a last statement about their canceled project there from the union.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, chilling, heartbreaking situation there. Just statement there, right? Our future has been taken from us. And that's something you and I discussed afterwards, right? Of when they had all those layoffs and canceling those projects. When you think about Rare and of course ZeniMax Online Studios, it is Elder Scrolls Online, it is Sea of Thieves, it is these live service titles. And of course when you start to get long in the tooth in those games and the money starts to run up, then the question is, is well, what's next? Or is it time to just shut it all down and to have the next project taken from you? You have to question your future, right? And there's no layoffs yet, but as the statement says, they're preparing for that and that sucks. Bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And that's like I. I think part of the importance of having unions. Right. To like be able to advocate for you, be able to fight for you as an employee and then also be able to help you prepare for what could be inevitable. Right. As far as what you're talking about, hey, our big NEXT project got canceled. What does that mean for the people that we're working on it? What does that mean for the people that are working here? I think the security provided from a union to be able to go, hey, let's prep you. Hey, let's work with Microsoft and bargain for like, bargain for the, I guess, what's the word I'm looking for? Bargain for the help you might need when you, when you end up losing your job. Right. Like, I think that stuff is important. Did you hear about what they're working on? Because remember watching a video a little while ago saying that like what, like the kind of like next MMO they're working on was like looking promising behind the scenes?

[Snowbike Mike]

No, I was unaware of what they were working on there. So I don't know what it was genre wise, I think it was another mmo, but I don't know what kind of like vibe it was at all.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Gotcha. Yeah, I mean the fact that they're saying here that like yo, this is something that we believed in and this is something that like, you know, was taken from us, I think is again very sad. But hopefully, I don't know, I, I would want to see maybe a no clip or somebody break down maybe a Jason Schreier breakdown. This is exactly what this was going to be and this is why they believed in it so much. You know.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, we'll probably get that. Become another scale bound situation again.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh yeah, you know, story number five. Speaking of Xbox, Microsoft employee has been criticized for advertising Xbox Graphics role using AI slop artwork just weeks after mass layoffs. This is Tom Phillips at ign. A Microsoft employee has drawn criticism for sharing a widely ridiculed AI image to advertise empty roles on Xbox's graphics team. The image, which features a woman sat at a computer typing code shown on the rear of monitor. The rather than its screen is clearly made by AI. Accompanying text states Xbox Graphics is hiring. Reaction to the post, which went live on LinkedIn over the weekend and is still available at the time of writing, is a mixture of bafflement and outright anger with many responses criticizing the embarrassment quality of the image and the timing of the post. Just weeks after mass layoffs at Xbox as Microsoft doubles down on AI. Yeah, I saw this making the rounds on social media the other day. A lot of people. A lot of people dunking on this.

[Snowbike Mike]

We got to tighten up. We got to tighten up as humanity, as a society. We got to humanity. We got to tighten the up, people, because we're losing grip right now.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And there's just too many dummies out there that are in control doing some dumb stuff. We got to tighten.

[Greg Miller]

Too many CEOs drinking that AI Kool Aid.

[Snowbike Mike]

Tighten the up.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What are we.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, it's just stepping on rake after rake like we talked about with especially Xbox and Microsoft. You had so many wins. You start to finally get into the good graces and we just absolutely throw all that down the drain. And then we have this, right? The audacity, after all these layoffs to be promoting jobs. And then we have this. Nobody's looking at this going, yeah, what's up with that? Nobody questions that. Or do we all just go, you know what? Great job.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Can I tell you, this was the moment where I realized I give people too much of the benefit of the doubt. Because I saw this and in my brain I was like, oh, it's like a clear monitor. That's why. That's why you're seeing the text. That's why you see the text on the back of the screen. It's because it's a see through.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nobody.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Certainly nobody's dumb enough to like, look at this and be like, I'll publish it. Certainly there's some kind of thought process that goes behind. Like, oh, yeah, you know, we got.

[Snowbike Mike]

To tighten it up. I was like, got to tighten it up.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Maybe I'm not ahead enough of the technology that we have.

[Snowbike Mike]

Just remember, in the next 10 years, this AI shit is just going to continue to run rampant unless we put our foot down and try to stop this shit. Because we're going to get lost in the sauce. We'll get lost in the sauce, y'.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

All. This, this is what I'll say. Or, Barry, you popped up. What's up?

[Greg Miller]

No, you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You go ahead. Well, this is. This is what I'll say. Because I think Barry mentioned earlier, right? Love, like, you know, CEOs keep drinking the AI Kool Aid. I just want to make it clear. Clear. Microsoft is the AI Kool Aid. Like, they're not drinking it. They are the AI Kool Aid. This is something that, like, we're going to see more and more. And, like, I don't want to be. I guess I will be a downer here, right?

[Greg Miller]

Like, be a fudgeing downer.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because, like, I. I'm of the mind and hopefully maybe I'm proven wrong. Right. But like, we've already lost the air race. No, there's no putting the, there's no putting it back.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's videos all over Facebook, Tik Tok, Twitter, where you're going, what in the hell? Why does it look so real? And then it's quickly becoming AI and.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You'Re like, oh, fuck, yeah, we're already here.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's going to happen.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sorry, Bear, you said.

[Greg Miller]

I, I, I think they're, I don't think we've lost.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Greg Miller]

Facebook videos and stuff like that. That's going to be a show for a while, especially under this current administration that has no interest in regulating any of this. I don't think we've completely lost the fight in terms of AI being forcefully, forcibly integrated into kind of everyday work, workday, office life type of shit. I think there is still, there is still a very clear kind of like hatred towards AI that I think it's going to take a little bit for higher ups and C suite of execs to like fully see and to kind of wind back on. Especially when they eventually see, and this is unfortunately going to be the thing that takes this step to happen is when they see the amount of money that they have to spend and infrastructure that they have to build to make AI such a large part of their company and the very little revenue that they're going to get back from that push. See how long it takes with Microsoft. But yeah, literally every facet of their company is just they're trying to push this out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I, the only part I disagree with there is the low revenue that they're going to see. I, right now AI is how you get high revenue in the tech business, right? Like you make the turn to AI so that you can get that shareholder money so that you can make that graph continue to go up for you. Now I'm not saying that that's not going to crash and burn at some point because I think it will. Right. I think we're going to hit a point where like the quality of the stuff we're getting that's spat out by AI is going to be so bad. And I think we'll see enough people be like, no, this shit fucking sucks. Right? But I think right now we're still descending into the shit fudgeing sucks. Right? Like, I think the battle that we're going to face is more so about regulation and more so about like how much ground can we as consumers be like, yo, stop here, right. I don't want to listen to my music, artists, you know, make AI albums. I don't want to play games that are developed by like that have like AI generated dialog or AI generated story. I don't want to like. I think people don't necessarily want to interact day to day with I guess create like generative AI stuff. Yeah, right. And I think there is going to be a line drawn as far as that. But I think AI has become such a big factor in so many tech things. Right. Like when we talk about dlss for example. Right. Or like a lot like in the tech world AI is everything. AI is like pushing everything forward. And I think that battle is already lost and we're seeing the drips of it and we.

[Greg Miller]

That's been a thing for a while. I'm talking more so in the, the generative AI and like the assist tools that are just kind of worse versions than prior assist tools and stuff like that in terms of like Google Docs and like shit like that. Right?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sure.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

But yeah, in terms of like development side things like yeah, I think that battle is like definitely like that's been cemented. But in terms of like creative process that AI as we understand it now, as we've understood it in the last couple of years is like I think, I don't think it's going to be as long for this world I think as people are expecting.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And I, I hope for that. The one thing I will say, I was watching a Tick Tock on Saturday. It was a girl. It was two people in the front of a car. Was there. Are you the one with the cow?

[Snowbike Mike]

One with the cow. The one with the cow face?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yes.

[Snowbike Mike]

Melted. And I thought looks so real.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I thought it was real. And it terrified me because it's basically two people sitting in a car and like a girl has her window down and like a cow comes in the window and I'm like, oh, the cow is going to like eat her food or whatever and then the cow, it looks like the cow essentially like vomits on her face and then she disinter. Disintegrates.

[Snowbike Mike]

Crazy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And it was until like real. It looks way too real. And I was like, oh, we're fud. Where I'm maybe this is me becoming a boomer in real time. Right. Of like I'm aging up. But I legitimately, I'm like, oh man, we're already here. Yeah. In five years from now like they're.

[Snowbike Mike]

Going to be making videos of you.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm yeah, in five years from now, you're gonna be listening to me on a podcast and it's not gonna be me and you and you won't know Terrifying Story number six EA is reportedly hitting the brakes on the need for Speed franchise Jackson Chen at In Gadget it's crazy to shift to this story. It's crazy shift because like here I'm like, okay, this is something that I. This is, this is something that brings me back to earth. You know what I mean? Like, I hate this new story, but at the same time I'm like, I can talk about reality. This is reality. Now I'm back to the world that I'm from. The need for Speed franchise could be making its last lapse, at least for the time being. Matthew Everingham, a photographer who frequently contributed to car culture websites Speed Hunters said in social media posts that EA has shelved need for Speed and is quietly parking the series. Speed Hunters, which was funded by EA and was last updated in April of this year, will also reportedly cease operations for now. EA hasn't released an official statement on the fate of the need for Speed franchise, but several internal decisions point to an uncertain future. Earlier this month, the publisher announced that it would shut down online servers for the cult classic need for speed rivals on October 7th. Before that, the developer behind need for Speed, Criterion Games, shifted most of its employees to focus on the Battlefield franchise, leaving only a core group to continue working on the racing series in 2023. However, Battlefield head Vince Zampella told Eurogamer earlier this year that the rest of the need for Speed team would be, quote, joining their colleagues working on Battlefield. End quote.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, we knew about this. They're focusing on tentpool revenue generating games here and unfortunately that meant a lot of studios that were making maybe the smaller title games or just games that you enjoyed, like need for Speed. We're going to come over and help them with their other games that they deemed more fitting. It's crazy bless to think about need for Speed. Maybe, you know, parking in the garage and calling it quits for a little bit, but also at the same time, bless. I haven't been a Need for Speed kid when I look at this since probably like 2008 with Undercover. I mean I was there for the undergrounds, the, you know, hot pursuits. But when I look at all these titles from really 2009 onward, right, I probably gave Unbound a chance. Didn't really vibe with it, didn't love with it, didn't love it. Need for Speed Heat. There's just a lot of titles here between 2022 an8 here.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is what I'll say.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Is that EA just stopped trying with need for Speed. Like I Need for Speed. Unbound was kind of cool. That was the last one, right? That was the most recent.

[Snowbike Mike]

That was the last one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, yeah. If you remember that game came out, it had like these cool like little anime flourishes that they would have and like the graphics package and stuff. And like I. It had almost like an underground feel of, you know, you're driving around the world and you're getting into races and you're building up a cred and all this. Right. That game was fun. Obviously it wasn't like fantastic or anything, but it was cool. They didn't announce that game until like a month before it released and it released in December. Do you remember this? This is like we're like, oh. It kept being rumored throughout the year of like EAs work on a Need for Speed. And then we got late into the year and it's like, well, there's no way. And then, yeah, they announced it and released it and it felt like they just shouted out and the game didn't deserve to be released that way. It was a game that you could have marketed better. It was a game that you could have put more behind need for Speed. Heat, the one I believe before Unbound also had a cult audience to it that swears by that game that will tell you that that game's actually pretty good. I just think that. I think EA just did not know how to treat the need for Speed franchise.

[Snowbike Mike]

Maybe. Yeah, maybe they didn't. Maybe they did. I think the issue is, is we're living in a Forza Horizon world where that dominates the spot. And then on top of that, like the racing car culture world in video games is already super small. And on top of that you already have juggernauts that are kind of running it right now. Especially with the boom of F1 globally, that has become a hot title that people want to play. The Gran Turismo's are still going to sell. We just saw Microsoft really cut half of Forza Motorsport over there with that team and now it's clearly just going to be Forza.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Are cars not doing it anymore?

[Snowbike Mike]

I think with cars, I think Cars.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I thought cars were the safe bet.

[Snowbike Mike]

I don't know if they're doing it anymore.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I didn't hear. I thought cars was the same bet. I've actually never seen that.

[Snowbike Mike]

And then you think of Ubisoft with The crew. Right. It's like, here's a bunch of games coming at you that like, I just don't know if there's a mass audience.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. But like, even the crew, it's like, I feel like Forza works because they put money behind Forza. They like Forza is developed as a thing that like Xbox cares about and they want to see you do well. And like that shows in the quality, quality of the final product. I don't think that shows in the quality of the crew. When we get there, I wanted to.

[Snowbike Mike]

Be like, oh, EA just might not have the money, but he has the money. That's the problem. It's like they can sink dollar after dollar into this and it can continue to come out and either be middling, it can fail. It could be a big hit. They have plenty of money to do this, but like, they've clearly identified we are going to go after only money makers from this point forward. And probably a big gamble right now if we really roll it all back. Bless. There's a huge gamble on Battlefield right now. They've taken like seven studios to go out and support Battlefield to make sure that the next Battlefield is that and more. And like after the last Battlefield and what happened with that game, it's like, oh man, you're putting a lot of chips on the table for this one. I hope it succeeds because if it misses, went to another five to seven year revamp of something else and all those other side projects are going to be gone.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I think that's the thing that I'm, I'm trepidatious about is like Battlefield, you look at need for Speed and you look at Battlefield and for me I see two similar franchises of varying scales because like, okay, Mike, when was the one was the last, like big Battlefield win?

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, I mean you have the juggernaut that was Battlefield four, then you go into Hardline, then you go into one and five.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And so like it has to be that one right there. Then they mess up. They went double World War. You don't do that. You always go World War. Then you go back to, you know, present day. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Futuristic.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. So like they went double on that. You don't go down Battlefield.

[Greg Miller]

One was the last one. I remember people being hot for.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. One I think was the one. Right. Like, well before that you would have said Battlefield 4, which came out like around March of 34 and Xbox One. Right. Like, but I feel like there. But out of five Battlefields that have come out in the last decade and decade And a couple years, right. Like, we're talking about two of them coming out and being pretty good.

[Greg Miller]

And the last one being pretty good was literally nine years ago, I think coming out a month after I started working in this industry.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, the catch is, like, in that time, since then, let's just go Back to Battlefield. One, since 2016, you've had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, need for speeds.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Hell yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

To come out and be forgotten about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But I think it's the thing where I see two franchise that EA just doesn't know what they want to do with. And obviously with this new Battlefield, EA is trying to lock in and they're like, all right, everybody, all, everybody's on Battlefield now. We're all just doing Battlefield. But I, I don't have the faith that like the world wants Battlefield that bad right now.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, but they're all looking at the Fortnite market and Call of Duty and they're going, okay, well, we need to be in the shooter genre. We need the shooter. Because the shooter market is way bigger than the racing market.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But you have Apex, you have like, you had Titanfall, you had like. I feel I, I think the. Here's. Okay, I think this is what I'm trying to say. Yeah. Or this is what I feel. I think the all in BET is the thing that I'm scared of. I think I would have liked to see maybe like you split the difference of. All right, let's put out a Apex, let's put out a Titanfall, let's put out a Battlefield, but like market them separately and try to grow them as opposed to going all in on Battlefield. A franchise that I think is lost right now, a franchise that I think is, is that I think found its way when it was competing directly with Call of Duty. And it felt like a real competitor to Call of Duty. But like, that was 2010.

[Snowbike Mike]

See, I'm there with you and I would have gone the Titanfall route or I would have even called up our friends over at Disney and Lucas and said, hey, let me try to get back on the Battlefront. Now that's a whole different beast. But like, I would have in my mind if this wasn't going down, it would have been Battlefront. And if this falls and fails, it will be, hey, how do we get on Battlefront? Yeah, because I don't think Titan, Titanfall's got the juice and it's good. But like, I would go for the Star wars market of like, let's bring a new Star wars shooter into this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I Agree.

[Snowbike Mike]

Let's see if we can get a better foothold here.

[Greg Miller]

But they also don't want to do a lot of or too much like license ip outside of that. If you really want it to succeed. Mike, what do you have to do? Bring back bad company.

[Snowbike Mike]

Bad company?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, I was going to say make it free to play. Make it free to play.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know what, bl, it might be free to play. You don't know. You don't know yet. We never do.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Do you think it's going to be free to play?

[Snowbike Mike]

No, I don't think so. We going to give you a full package.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

This is going to fail, bro. This is going to fail.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's coming into a real.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well, you're going to put out a full price Battlefield game.

[Snowbike Mike]

Nobody does like Battlefield in the current market. Right now Nobody's doing a 64 vs 64 online player match with full destructible environments having this stuff. Now I say all that and we literally just did this in battlefield 2042 and it failed. But that's because it came out and it wasn't right. Right. There was server issues, there was problems with the game. Now on the flip side, when I look at the market, I go, okay, well, Fortnite's got battle royales covered. Call of Duty's got the normal team arenas covered. We got Overwatch, we got Marvel rivals, those got those hero based games covered. So there's not much of a market here. We okay, I gotta bring in something no one's doing. And that is 64 versus 64, big large scale battles. Now I still say that Battlefront with Star wars would have been better for this, but generic military dude is going to have to fit the build. So that means they have to have a killer campaign. They got a dominated multiplayer, they got to have some other game mode that is an extraction slash battle royale hybrid. But this is all what we already did in battlefield 2042, minus the campaign. So now we're just betting on the campaign to carry this when we just proved that it doesn't work.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Mike, what are we doing? Let's bring back Burnout. That's all I want. That's all I want. I know it's not a, maybe a money making move, all this, right? Just bring it back for me. Just for one guy. Just bring me. Just give me Burnout.

[Greg Miller]

Just play paradise again.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, I could, but I. Dude, I played paradise so many times, fair game. I've played so much Paradise. I played so much burnout 3. I guess I could play more revenge But I prefer Burnout three. I digress, Mike. If we brought back Burnout, that'd be big old news.

[Snowbike Mike]

That'd be big news. Bless.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know, where would I go?

[Snowbike Mike]

You'd go to our last news story, the we News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm just saying, like a burnout, I feel like would make more than like another need for Speed especially. You're not going to market a Need for Speed.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that. Bless. See, now you're thinking. Yeah, now you got to get in there. You got to come with the Hot Wheels.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Of it. Of like, oh, wow, this isn't need for Speed anymore. This is something that different.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Right.

[Snowbike Mike]

Like that's where you need to get lost in right there. Because need for Speed unfortunately isn't doing it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Forz Horizon is already doing that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh my God. Somebody in chat says Burnout 3 remaster give. This wouldn't work because different companies, right? But if you can find a vicarious visions like studio, if you can find an Iron galaxy like studio, the way that they're doing these Tony Hawk remakes, give me just that. But Burnout. Burnout three. Burnout three plus revenge story number seven is Wii News from video games Chronicle. Speaking of Tony Hawk, Tony hawk's Pro Skater 3/4 locks a SpongeBob SquarePants Easter Egg behind the 70 Deluxe Edition of the game. The THPS series has a long history of pop culture easter eggs, and the newest pair of remakes is no exception. However, players have now found out that several Easter eggs are locked behind the Deluxe version of the game. On the Skater island level, there is a hidden area that pays tribute to the Nickelodeon cartoon spongebob. However, the Nickelodeon branding in these areas is locked behind the Deluxe Deluxe edition of the game. Mike, you want to know what happens if you go there without the Deluxe Edition?

[Snowbike Mike]

It's an empty pirate ship.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's an empty pirate ship off so.

[Greg Miller]

Well, wasn't that what it was in the original version?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Probably, yeah. But like you're hiding an Easter egg behind a 70 version.

[Greg Miller]

That's insane. Like, I get characters, you know, Like, I think this article mentions like the Doom guy and stuff. Like, if you want stuff that's like actually like, I don't know, quote unquote valuable in terms of like how you can play or what your character is and stuff, but like you're talking about like a 10 second Easter egg.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I will say intrusive wombat in chat says incorrect. I paid for the standard edition and still got into that area.

[Snowbike Mike]

Did it have. No, but the catch is, is it just an empty pirate ship?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Or does it have the hidden.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's a spongebob.

[Snowbike Mike]

You have to remember that. That's the difference is you can get into the area, but they're saying it's an empty pirate ship. If you paid, that pirate ship would then have the SpongeBob Easter eggs.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Here's one I want to bring up really quick. DQ Roman over on TikTok. Love this guy. Watch a lot of his content. Brought up a great one of like, a lot of companies are losing their. Losing the vision of what is it like hidden earnable and like me paying for stuff. There's a lot of these cool secret unlockables have been a lost art where. Like that back in the day where you'd unlock Doom guy as he brings up was a fun one. It was a wow factor. Now I have to pay for that. I have to pay for songs. That's ridiculous. So like we pay away. Oh, people, additional songs in there if you pay.

[Greg Miller]

It's just like the Doom soundtrack.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

That is like we've lo. We're losing our way when it comes to microtransactions and just fun, like cute unlockables in the game. And so we gotta. Especially with Tony Hawk. We got to find a better way with that. Give me a kiss.

[Greg Miller]

Someone else in chat can also confirm I'm on game pass and have the Easter egg because I assume game pass only gives you the like, basic version.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

In the article they also mentioned, yeah, the game passer standard, which is interesting. I wonder what's going on with that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Then I gave him like 14 bucks so I can play the game early.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Jesus Christ.

[Greg Miller]

Did you actually play it early?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Codes.

[Snowbike Mike]

I forgot the request.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Jesus.

[Greg Miller]

Did you actually play it early?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I played it early. I played all of four. I'm bad at that game. There's a lost art to Tony Hawk that I lost a long time ago. I feel like if you don't keep up with your Tony Hawk skills or really devote yourself to it, you'll never really hit in the combos and the wombos. Like, yeah, but I love getting back. That's why I became a skate guy, is because skate to me felt more like I could pick up and play. I could hit that sick nose blunt down a 14 stair rail and call it good enough. Tony Hawk. It's like, oh, Mike, you suck. And they taught me I suck.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want to say two things. Firstly, I keep having this issue where my save data doesn't make it to the different device. Like I played on my Steam deck throughout the review. I couldn't like I. The save for some reason wouldn't make it to my PC. And then I like, they, I lost your cloud file. My cloud file. And then like something happened when they finally, I think, I assume they finally synced it, but it erased my data.

[Snowbike Mike]

You have to remember that a lot of the times on the early stuff and like you're pressed and you're doing it before. Sometimes the cloud data isn't enabled, but.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Usually, usually you can tell that it's not enabled because it won't show you the thing here it said my cloud data had synced. And so I don't know what that was. But anyway, my data got erased on my steam so I played it again. And then also I streamed it here where I played it. For some reason that data didn't make it to my home PS5. And so I've done the campaign for Tony Hawk three like four times in the last week. But no, don't say oh no, because I love it. Every time. It's been a blast. Every single time. I love Tony hawk Pro Skater 3. I forgot how much I love this game.

[Snowbike Mike]

I was trying to save the painter over at the docks and you gotta grind this ball, unlock the rope on the ball. But then you gotta line yourself off and kind of bounce off the ball to go roll into the shark. Couldn't do it. You know what I mean? Everybody's like, you gotta like, no bone it. And I'm like, I can't no bone this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You mean you gotta boneless. It is how you're trying to say no bone.

[Greg Miller]

We call it no bones.

[Snowbike Mike]

No bone this ball, right?

[Greg Miller]

Crab Gaming says, I didn't see the Easter egg when I went into the Ocean. I'm on PS5 basic edition.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We gotta get to the bottom of this because there is a weird mystery going on with this. Yeah, the second thing I wanted to say about Tony Hawk is that I've been getting a lot of Tony Hawk tick tocks. And I'll look at the comments. And a really fascinating thing is happening. There are so many people that are mad at Tony Hawk. Not the person. The Hawkman. No, not mad at the Hawk.

[Snowbike Mike]

You can't be mad at the Hawkman.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Because it's not skate. I've seen so many comments that are like, the two minute run is ruining it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay, well, we do have to cut the time I've seen.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I've seen. But I've also seen people like all the grinds are too magnetic and all. And they're like complaining about things that are inherently Tony Hawk's pro skater. And I assume it's kids that grew up with skate that are now seeing Tony Hawk and being like, yo, what the is the two minute thing is.

[Greg Miller]

A big contention though, because four wasn't designed around two minute runs. Four was. You go around these like kind of bigger areas, go up to people, get missions and stuff like that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

But I don't think that's what they're talking about. I'm pretty sure they're just talking about like the things they just don't like. Tony the. Tony Hawk's pro skater because they're complaining about like a list of things that are all like, oh man. Like, you know, you're just doing these annoying. It was some. I was watching like a hardcore Tony player, like get a million all this, right? Yeah. And they're like, oh, this looks whack or whatever. I'm like, brother, this is. This is a classic. This is where skating games.

[Greg Miller]

This is arcade skateboarding.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And they just said, baby, they weren't vibing with it. They wanted skate.

[Snowbike Mike]

They want skate. The people yearn for skate. Bless.

[Greg Miller]

Let's just boot up skate three Mike.

[Snowbike Mike]

We call. Come on, Barrett.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm real late in the show, so let's move on with we news. So I'm the one ranting too, so this is fine. Hey, we're ransom peak has sold 5 million copies under a month.

[Snowbike Mike]

Congratulations to that team. Isn't that insane?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's crazy. It's like PlayStation first party numbers.

[Snowbike Mike]

That is insane. Congratulations. Fun game as can be. So much fun with your friends from Aggro Crab to this.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Unreal from what was it? Going under. Going under and. Oh, you're talking about another treasure.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Another Crab's treasure is crazy.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Moving on. This week marks the official launch of the gaming foundation I.e. gaming spelled G a Y. A newly established non profit organization dedicated to uplifting and empowering the LGBTQ+ games industry workers, aspiring professionals and players to affect change, celebrate inclusivity and drive forward representation in games. People can donate to the gaming foundation by visiting gamingfoundation.org donate that is gaming spelled with a Y. And then lastly, Rexblood joins the invincible versus roster.

[Snowbike Mike]

Do you think I'll enjoy this Invincible Roster?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I just.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm not a big invincible guy. They have some standout characters because you came back from your Preview. And it's like the kind of samey.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Will you enjoy the roster? I mean, no. Like, I. I think you should watch the Invincible show so you can appreciate the roster.

[Snowbike Mike]

Okay.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think if you just hop into the game without watching the show. Yeah, you're just gonna see a bunch of people that are super strength beings, but watch the show and then you'll be like, oh, I love Adam Eve. I love. Maybe not Rex Bullet, but I like Invincible.

[Snowbike Mike]

I fell off that show really hard.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Really?

[Snowbike Mike]

Still I hold a grudge because of The Poor Season 2 launch.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hated that. That's really lost me.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's fair.

[Snowbike Mike]

And it never came back.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That is it for We News. Let's hop into kind offunny.com. you're wrong. So he said, superman, you're wrong. This is not the show for it. That's not wrong. People are telling me there's already been an animal Crossing movie from the mid-2000s. It was Japan only.

[Snowbike Mike]

Well, how is Blessing gonna watch that as a child?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'll tell you right now. I was not gonna watch it anyway as a kid. I'm not watching an animal. Oh, this looks cool. Hold on. I take that back. He's in. He's in. His art style looks cute. Oh, 2006.

[Snowbike Mike]

It does look kind of lit.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And that is it for Conway.com. you're wrong. Let's take a peek real quick at the super chats, see what people are saying. Bless. Would you play Eclipse video game? If you're saying it's like. It would have to be like, 50 cent blood on the Sand, I imagine, but, like, you are selling cocaine on the streets, and there's a whole narrative to it. Would I play it if. If the entire soundtrack was clips music? Yes, I play it.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's really cool. What rapper do you want a 50 cent video game made after?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, see, this is interesting because it's not just about, like, what rapper do I like? It's about what rappers lived the coolest life.

[Snowbike Mike]

And you don't get to say Def Jam, right? Like, we're not doing wrestling.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Which rapper has. Would have the most fun video game? If I played through, I feel like Jay Z might, right?

[Snowbike Mike]

Was JG getting shot at nine times, like 50 Cent and then got up?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean, I don't think he got shot nine times. The thing is, honestly, 50 Cent is kind of the final boss of. Of rappers when you think about it. Chief Keef maybe or like, Bobby Shmurda might have, like, a good video game associated with him. Anybody from Chicago. Really? But like not the con, not chance, not like the conscious folks. Yeah, Chance can have like a telltale. Choose your own adventure game. But like if I'm looking, if I'm looking for like an action game, like drill rappers from Chicago or like maybe.

[Snowbike Mike]

Some drill rappers from the uk, people are saying dmx.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That'd be fun. A DMX game would be fun. Yeah. Easy E. Okay, I'm just thinking now I'm just thinking San Andreas.

[Snowbike Mike]

I like that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Snoop Dogg. Let's see. Do we have any more super chats? Costa, the creator says Heat was the most recent great game. Core need for Speed vibe with great street racing on current gen. Kebab says how long until Xbox is one last thing is an AI generated Halo sequel. Kebab's just in there making jokes now. That is it. Oh, we'll do one last one actually from dose of nostalgia from that says I like Battlefield as an alternative to COD at the time. Do you think that it's still a viable alternative in 2025?

[Snowbike Mike]

Yes, back in the day it was an alternative and I really enjoyed that. I'm probably similar you when I was calling it Call of Rage and Call of Booty and I switched over to Battlefield and had a blast. I do think that Battlefield's bread and butter is not the 4v4 or 6v6 smaller maps. I think the bread and butter of Battlefield is that big wow factor which is those larger scale. 32 on 32, 68 on 68, whatever the number is. I think Call of Duty has kind of cornered the market of this is that smaller team arena that is 4v4 5v5. Battlefield is not that alternative for me. But I think if you're just looking for a multiplayer generic military shooter, it will be the alternative if it's good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah Mike, that is it for kind of fun and games Daily where 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 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 and the stream after. But until next time game daily.