Take-Two CEO Addresses GTA 6 Price, Release Date - Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.29.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily 04.29.26

Episode Title: Take-Two CEO Addresses GTA 6 Price, Release Date
Air Date: April 29, 2026
Hosts: Greg Miller & Tim Gettys
Summary By: Podcast Summarizer

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Episode Overview

In this engaging, laid-back episode, Greg and Tim reunite after a while to discuss the day’s gaming news, focusing on Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick’s comments about Grand Theft Auto 6’s price and release date. The show weaves through review roundups, industry trends (like the shift to contractors), Xbox branding moves, and wild comedic tangents—typical hallmark chaos of Kinda Funny. There’s also a signature live call with Nakey Jakey, adding to the episode’s memorable moments.

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Major Discussion Points

1. Review Roundup: Aphelion/Aphelion/Afelion?

(Starts at 07:11)

• Greg and Tim discuss the mixed critical reception for “Aphelion”:
  • Metacritic: 65, OpenCritic: 68.
  • Review scores range from a 9.5/10 (“…hits hard with big emotions by embracing the best elements of science fiction.” — Kate Sanchez, 09:56), to critiques about frustrating gameplay and lackluster mechanics (Adrian Burrows & Oscar Taylor-Kent).
• Tim admits sci-fi doesn’t excite him much, while Greg says, “My interest is piqued… but seven hours of middling gameplay to get a good story? I could get a lot of good sci-fi stories elsewhere.” (13:38)

Notable Quote
Tim (11:00): “I feel like giving a 9.5 means you fucking love this thing… If you give something a 9.5, there's a specific love that you have for that thing."

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2. Take-Two CEO on GTA 6’s Price & Release Date

(Starts at 19:04)

• Reporting from ICON in Vegas, Greg summarizes Strauss Zelnick’s public statements:
  • Zelnick avoided specifics but implied GTA 6 will not have an exorbitant “super premium” price; value for players is crucial.
  • He claims game prices, relative to inflation, have stayed static or gotten “cheaper,” but the company prioritizes fairness.
  • Zelnick’s memorable tease: “I do think a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19.” (23:08)
  • Slim hope for L.A. Noire: “We're always looking at what we have... do we have a team that’s passionate?” (23:58)

Panel Discussion

• Tim and Greg debate whether GTA 6 will cost $70 or possibly $80–$100.
• Tim’s Take (32:29): “I would put the most money on it being $80… For how big and expensive this game is, I just don’t see it for less.”
• Greg’s Prediction (37:21): “I think they're going to do it at $70… there's a PR win for them there.”

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3. Industry Trends: Contractors over Full-Time Devs?

(Starts at 41:56)

• Monument Valley’s studio head says they were “too romantic” about long-term staff; will shift toward more contractors for future projects due to industry pressures.
• Greg’s Perspective (47:36): “It’s more them misreading what Monument Valley was going to become… you grow big, and when you can’t sustain that, you have to cleave it back.”
• Tim and Greg lament the instability and loss of culture with contractor-heavy studios, with some candid talk about their own business philosophy at Kinda Funny.

Notable Quote
Tim (48:14): “When you’re a contractor doing full-time work but not getting the benefits you deserve… that’s where shit gets real shady.”

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4. Xbox Further Commits to Xbox Branding

(Starts at 57:54)

• Xbox is giving all gaming employees “@xbox.com” emails; dropping “Microsoft Gaming” in favor of simply “Xbox.”
• Tim (59:25): “This is good. This is something I’ve wanted to see—take Xbox seriously… there is a unity to it that is important.”
• Brief discussion on whether these moves are too late to truly revive the brand, but Greg notes clear evidence of “actual effort.”

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5. NBA The Run Gameplay Impressions & May Game Releases

(Starts at 61:46)

• New 3v3 street basketball game NBA The Run coming in June. Blessing and Mike have a preview up today.
• Tim is excited, stating: “I hope this lives up to any expectation I have for it… NBA Street Volume 2, one of the greatest games ever made, and this looks the closest I’ve seen.”

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6. Variety, Tangents & Community Engagement

(Throughout, especially 50:34–57:10)

• Wild, memorable phone-in segment with YouTuber Nakey Jakey talking wiener dogs and dispelling Greg’s confusion about his name.
• Banter about video essayists, game nostalgia (Rockstar Table Tennis!), industry layoffs, and what it means for company culture.
• The live chat frequently steers the conversation, injecting humor, critiques, and encouragement for the hosts to apologize or clarify past jokes.

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Notable Quotes & Moments with Timestamps

• Tim (11:00): “If you give something a 9.5, there's a specific love that you have for that thing.”
• Strauss Zelnick (quoted by Greg, 23:08): “I do think a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19.”
• Zelnick (23:19): “Our job is to charge way, way, way less of the value delivered.”
• Tim (32:29): “I’d put the most money on it being $80.”
• Greg (37:21): “That’s what I’m predicting… I think they're going to do it at $70.”
• Tim (48:14): “That’s where shit gets real shady.”
• Tim (59:25): “This is good…take Xbox seriously.”
• Greg & Nakey Jakey phone-in (50:34–54:43): A fun, impromptu conversation about online personas, wiener dogs, and internet culture.

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Key Timestamps

• 07:11 – Start of Aphelion review roundup
• 19:04 – Introduction to GTA 6 price/release discussion
• 23:08 – Zelnick's remarks and “calling in sick” quote
• 32:29–37:42 – Price debate: $70 vs $80
• 41:56 – Monument Valley / contractors story
• 47:36 – Greg on Monument Valley studio growth
• 48:14 – Tim on full-time work vs. contracting
• 50:34–54:43 – Nakey Jakey call-in segment
• 57:54 – Xbox identity segment
• 61:46 – NBA The Run segment
• 62:38 – May game release previews

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Tone & Style

Playful, irreverent, densely self-referential, but with periods of authentic industry insight and a commitment to community interaction.

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Final Thoughts

For listeners and fans, this episode is classic Kinda Funny: gaming news meets comedic chaos, insider industry chat, and a genuine, transparent look at game culture in 2026. The episode will appeal as much for its off-script moments and spontaneous energy as its actual news coverage—particularly the substantive, nuanced GTA 6 discussion and the ongoing commentary on industry labor trends.

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Recommended for: KFGD fans, GTA followers, anyone curious about game industry trends, or folks who simply love podcast chaos with heart and humor.

Transcript

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[A]

today in the nerdy news you need to know about Aphelion reviews are in Are contractors the key to saving the industry and Xbox further commits to being Xbox? We'll have all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. What's up everybody? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games daily for Wednesday, April 29th, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30 aka the third best baby blues in San Francisco. Aka Sammy's father. It's at Tim Gettys.

[B]

Oh, it feels good to be back here with you, Greg. This has been on a long time coming. Me and you, we haven't been together in a long time talking video games.

[A]

I know, I know. We're too busy.

[B]

Feels like it's been months.

[A]

I took that week off, but then Nick took that week off, you know what I mean? Then I was in Las Vegas yesterday, my birthday on Monday, put out a new shirt.

[B]

How you feeling?

[A]

Year old shirt. Oh, I'm exhausted. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think since you and I will never travel to the stars, the last two days have been the closest time dilation I'll ever really feel of. Like working Monday but then starting the birthday stream streaming until a little after midnight than going to sleep here at the office, not being able to sleep.

[B]

I love that.

[A]

I finally went to bed at like 1:30. Then the alarm went off at 5:45. No, then I.

[B]

Wait, your phone alarm? Yeah, I thought you.

[A]

Oh, not the alarm.

[B]

It's so scary.

[A]

Don't worry about that. We got that unlock, got up, went to the airport, landed in Vegas, had went to Icon, the new ESA event that they're doing in Vegas right now.

[B]

Had a beautiful coffee with Jason schreib, creators of E3.

[A]

That's right, from the creators of E3 comes Icon. Then I hosted a panel with Ronnie 2K and WWE Superstar Montez Ford. Then I walked off the stage to the elevator to the Uber, back in the plane, flew back home, got home in time to finish Ben's dinner, get him down, do the whole thing. Then of course he was so excited that I was back, he wouldn't sleep. So then I ate dinner with Jed and then she was trying to talk to me and I'm just like, babe, I have nothing, I have nothing. But it was more the fact of like I was thinking about the driving the car home Tuesday night. Like I just parked the car at SFO Tuesday morning, but it still felt like I had been gone on multiple days.

[B]

I do love that you're saying Tuesday as if it was like a week ago. It was.

[A]

I woke up this morning and I'm like Saturday.

[B]

No, no, no, we gotta go, Nick

[A]

here, we gotta go. Yeah, well not nearly as bad as Nick. Mondays on Wednesday What a monster.

[B]

It's wild though because I, I'm coming back. I'm kind of still getting my bearings of like being back at work fully.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And just looking at the calendar I was like. Because I, I didn't know you were even doing this. So I'm just.

[A]

Yeah, we haven't caught up on that

[B]

and I'm just like all right, Greg's flying out. He's also flying back on the same day. Like that just felt wrong.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a crazy man.

[B]

You're here.

[A]

That's what I do. That's what we do. Because of your support of course. Get a kind of funny membership patreon.com kindafunny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple Spotify where you can get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me, Greg Miller and a Greg Way series we do each and every day. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person 11 year old small business. Of course if you're watching right now you have a special job. You need to be super chatting on YouTube.com kinda funny games where you can be part of the show.

[B]

Jump 004 in the chat says I thought the GTA 6 headline would be the title. Bless slacked us saying it's a historically slow news day so if we get any better headlines we should run with it jumps what's the headline and hey chat what? What's the headline we should use today? You know what I mean? Do we think that life is strange creator Sci fi game receives mixed reviews is good enough you know I don't think so.

[A]

I think we can come up with better news or better news would break let us know. I have not had I again yesterday I sat down I got like an hour before my Jason Schreier meeting. I'm like this is great. I'm going to build Gamescast for tomorrow, right? Open up releases.com site is crashed. I build the gamescast so I have not looked at slack to see any of these conversations. I'm glad you're talk talking to bless about it.

[B]

You know what I mean?

[A]

Okay, we'll figure that out of course. Thank you to our patreon producers on patreon.com kindafunny Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining for now let's begin the show with what is and forever will be the Roper report. Time for some nick six items on the rope report Baker's dozen. We begin with story number one an aphelion review Roundup. Am I saying it right? You said that was okay, Chat. You're the ones who like to make fun of me for everything.

[B]

You put a ph next to each other.

[A]

That's a fellow. Yeah,

[B]

we'll say it might be Aphelion. Something like that.

[D]

Apelian.

[B]

Apelian. I don't know about this.

[A]

Sounds like a lot on the ap.

[D]

Yeah, but that's what I. I think Chat was saying that last week.

[A]

I don't know, man. Feel it.

[B]

Alien.

[A]

A feeling.

[B]

Rely on.

[A]

Here's when you shut it right away.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Here's when you know the game's gonna be trash. When you can't figure out how to say it. That is always at no point during any of the marketing meetings did somebody go, hey. Lots of ways to interpret this. Just like, play on.

[B]

Yeah, like the game's gonna be good. If you know the name. Mind's Eye. We all know. Gonna be a great game.

[A]

Crush it if you. Mind's Eye. The top DLC of all time. Let's go after him. Error. Dirty laundry. Murder someone. You know what I mean?

[B]

I missed the murder part.

[A]

You got to murder an influencer in it, apparently. Like you're like a hitman or whatever in the game. Yeah, no, no, there's not murder in the real thing. But I mean, where does reality end? The story of the Mind's Eye.

[B]

How insane is it that you just said all that? And I just. I didn't even assume it was in the game. I assumed that the creators of Minds. I murdered somebody. And that's just what we talk about here. Because that's where we're at.

[A]

Greg. That's fair enough. That's fair enough. Instead, we will start with Aphelion. Aphelion. Aphelion is what Titanium is saying. We'll stick with that right now. Medicare. He's got a medic Crit. Not critic, not metacrit. Not the bug. Metacritic 65 open. Critic 68. Adrian Burrows of the 6th Access gave it a 6 out of 10 and says aphelion is a deeply frustrating mix of both brilliant and baffling design. Part gorgeous best in class narrative adventure. One boasting cinematic presentation backed by superb lead performances. Further enhanced by the year's most compelling science grounded sci fi story, but also part dreary third person action adventure. Undercutting the pace of the narrative with clunky platforming, tedious stealth and puzzle sections, and Thomas Oxygen management nonsense. In the end, this tight narrative adventure is stretched into an overlong slogan. Sure, it's well worth seeing through for the story, but with a sharper gameplay focus, Aphelion could have been essential. Meanwhile, Oscar Taylor Kent at GamesRadar gave it two out of five stars coming from Dontnod. It's a shame that both Aphelion's storytelling and climbing mechanics feel so lackluster. With uncharted like sci fi action failing to make much of an impact at all. Some gorgeous alien vistas and a decent premise fail to interest for long when simply controlling characters feels clunky and and uninteresting. And then Kate Sanchez at But why though? Gave it a 9.5 out of 10. Holy shit.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

Aphelion is a small game that hits hard with big emotions by embracing the very best elements of science fiction. It embraces humanity and connection while still showcasing the games. I'm sorry. The genre's love of alien planets and condemnation of evil corporations. In the end, Aphelion is one of my all time favorite sci fi games because of the romance, the heart and the regret we walk through. At just around seven hours. I'm sorry. At just around seven hours. This game doesn't overstay its welcome and still lands among the best dissension in the ranks.

[B]

Timothy Ascension in the Aphelion. That's crazy.

[A]

I want to give you a steam description. I know many audio listeners can't watch as we go. Okay. Hunted on a frozen planet, astronaut Ariane. Ariane must brave rugged landscapes and shifting realities to rescue her wounded partner, Thomas. This action packed sci fi adventure blends exploration, traversal, intense stealth gameplay.

[B]

You know what? I love a 9.5.

[A]

Oh wow.

[B]

Because I feel like giving a 9.5 means you fucking love this thing.

[A]

Yeah. Hell yeah.

[B]

You know you didn't give it a 10 though.

[A]

No.

[B]

You thought about it.

[A]

Fell short.

[B]

You thought about it. There was something. But you're like, you know what? This is more than a nine. I, I, I'm not even being an asshole right now. I'm not being sarc at all. I really do think that if you give something a 9.5, there's a specific love that you have for that thing.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

And I think that there's a lot of value there, you know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So hey, Aphelion might be for you.

[A]

Is it for you?

[B]

All caps mixed in.

[A]

That's why I put it in the headline.

[B]

Right.

[A]

That's why I put it in the headline.

[B]

As of now, it's not for me. I mean I'm looking at this and I'm just like, I'm not seeing real much of anything that like entices me. Them talking about, like an uncharted, like, gameplay, but then it's like kind of in all. It sounds like a lot of bad ways.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Not complimentary, you know, So I don't know. This. This don't like the look of it. I'm also just not inherently a sci fi guy. Like, space doesn't just excite me.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Astronauts don't get me going.

[A]

Yeah. Remember, you're infamously.

[B]

Infamously.

[A]

Infamously.

[B]

I've been trying to not bring it

[A]

up recently because we can move on.

[B]

Well, that whole. I'm joking. That whole conversation's been going on.

[A]

What Was that, like 24:15 with David? Right.

[B]

14.

[A]

It was. Yeah.

[B]

Of a Game Over Greg show. Yeah. With. With Damon. And he. He called me crazy for not caring about space. Here I am, 2026, not caring about space. I've learned a little bit more. Like, I've learned some things where I've heard some smart people talk and they're just like, hey, there's space. You know what I mean? And I'm like, I believe you. So I guess that's. That's growth in me. Right. Is I believe them now, but I look at this and I'm just like. It just feels. Not for me. I guess that that's really what it comes down to. What about you?

[A]

I am interested. My interest is peaked. I don't think I'll ever play it. Kate's review is the one that comes in and goes, oh, okay. And I don't even mean just the score. I mean the way she talks about it. Right. Because since we've seen this tra. These trailers before, it has been, oh, this looks interesting. Oh, this is different for. Don't nod. But can they land it? So all the gameplay criticisms we're seeing from Adrian and Oscar, I go, that seems like that would be enough to annoy the shit out of me. You know, I want to. I am firmly in my space sci Fi bag right now. I've talked a lot about this. So as I summarize, of course, my ongoing obsession with Starfield, but more importantly, the new DLC that just came out. Then, of course, reading Project Hail Mary. I'm finally going to go see it tonight. We got a babysitter. Finally. I know.

[B]

Greg Miller going to the theater.

[A]

I know, I know. Well, I've been waiting and waiting. Can we.

[B]

Are you going to the Alamo?

[A]

No, we're going just to. Well, it's too far. I mean, they don't have it anymore. If we can be honest and just Have a heart to heart here. I want you all to know that I had, as you know, I'm your messiah. I had my Jesus in the desert moment where Jen was like, what do you want for your birthday? What are we doing for your birthday weekend? What are we doing? This. And we had done it. We had run the numbers. Could we break away? Could we go see project Hail Mary in theaters? Because they keep putting it in theaters. It's doing so well. It's saving cinema, yada, yada, yada.

[B]

It's saving cinema.

[A]

And I had that moment, everybody. And this is again, I had my temptation in the desert where I looked at Jen and I said, jen, I almost want to hit up Tim and say, how do you get a movie illegally? I was like, I will buy it full. I'm gonna buy it full price on Amazon as soon as it drops. But, like, how do you get a movie illegally? I know it's possible, but I'm not gonna Google that. I don't want to be on a registry.

[B]

You know what I mean?

[A]

What's gonna say about me? You would know how to get it.

[B]

That's so freaking funny. But also, like, you know how to

[A]

get it and the best quality.

[B]

Well, yeah, but I'm also so happy you didn't ask me because that would have pissed me the off. You know what I mean?

[A]

No, I'll wait. I'll wait.

[B]

I want project Hail Mary. Can you get it to me so I can watch it? Like, how would you watch on your phone in your kitchen?

[A]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. That's a mic move. I would make Jen go downstairs to the nice tv.

[B]

I would hope so. When you watch it, do me a favor. Pay attention to the music, okay? Music's really good. It adds a whole lot. Same composer from across the spider verse and into the spider verse. Daniel Pemberton.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Give him enough love, okay. He has very, very unique styles, like, always thrown in instruments other people just never use. So it, like, makes things feel fresh and unique. It's that movie magic. Okay, good stuff. Movie's great.

[A]

Anyways, loved the book. I assume I'm going to love the movie. The book got me into the Babiverse books. I started these space books that I've been reading on audiobooks. And then I got. Then we were watching challenge or Apollo 13, and then I got another Challenger book to like. I'm very spacey right now. Part of it, of course, is through Ben. You know, Ben is obviously a kid. He's obsessed with space, too. So I'm reading him Space book. So the sci fi nature of this, I go, oh, that is. Ooh, the space stuff. Ooh. I do like those kind of things. Honestly, the thing that makes me have pause meow is seven hours. Oh, couldn't do it in four, you know what I mean? Like at four hours I feel like I can put up with some half assed. We're trying to uncharted this gameplay and then I'd go, and I can get to the story. Seven hours of middling gameplay to get a good story. I'm like, I could get a lot. I'm getting a lot of good sci fi stories elsewhere. The Expanse was the other thing. We did the preview the Expanse and then I got the book on tape and we started the show. People wanted me to start. We started the Expanse show. So like Kevin loves it. Yeah, I know. Yeah.

[B]

Question for you because I haven't talked to you in a couple months. Pragmata.

[A]

Thank you. Let's get into that because that was also kicking around the old brain here. Seven hours will be taking me away from a list of bangers. I have to go play still. I am working.

[B]

You haven't started.

[A]

I. Well, I was on whatever review and whatever review. Then I doubled back for the Starfield stuff for my birthday to get it out of my system. And then of course once that cleared, what's the first thing I did? Tim fucking started and I'm like halfway through replaced. And I am so with you on your review on the game.

[B]

Did you hear my. My updated review?

[A]

Fucking love this. No, I haven't heard.

[B]

So I was saying on gamescast I was just like so far critically, I'm kind of got to give it a 7.5 but in my heart it's a 9. But if it keeps going the way it is for me, yeah, I'm just giving it a nine. Yeah, I beat the game. It's a nine. This game is amazing.

[A]

I like don't get me wrong. I as we talk about this mixed review session here and Adrian, Oscar and Kate's reviews and pulling different things from them. I love dissenting opinions and I love being able to do that. When I was listening to the games cast and Mike was like it's just so slow at the start and this that the other. And then you were. And I'm like, I feel like I'm doing more like Tim when I started replaced and it was like all right, cool. Chapter one. I was like, oh, they thought that was slow. Like that was so my Hell yeah. So my of getting things and Reading it on my wheel like every collector. Well, I stop and I read it and I enjoy it and I'm like, yes. And I think it's appeals to what I want out of games so much where it is like, you know, Mike kept calling a cinematic action platformer. Right. Or a cinematic platformer. Yeah. And I'm like, yeah, exactly. Like I'm. I'm on the plane playing it yesterday on my rag and it's very much like so many times I'm just holding it like this and drinking my coffee like it's not hands on sticks or whatever. And I'm like, I love that experience for this game.

[B]

Yeah, no, it's great. I mean like I now I can actually say this. I played it a lot on my Steam controller.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

So the, the back paddles, there's four of them. Right. So I. Because of the nature of the control of the game, it is very slow.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I mapped them to just left, right up, down and so it was a very nice little.

[A]

Yeah, I like that.

[B]

I like that time.

[A]

So anyways, once I'm done with that. Yeah, of course. Pragmata right there. That's been chilling waiting for me as well. Vampire crawlers. I want to give time. I don't think it'll take me by storm, but I like vampire survivors so much. That and Punkle that. I want to make sure I give it a shot. But that's my thing of. Then you'll hear it's like do I want to take a seven hour detour? Mixtape is in two weeks, next week. Whatever.

[B]

That's crazy.

[A]

Do I want to take this seven hour detour?

[B]

I go forza.

[A]

Oh God, Forza.

[B]

Yeah man.

[A]

We're have a good gamescast next where we run you through all the games coming out in May. So anyways, I think that I already have code for this. It's been chilling. I'm not going to delete it from whatever. I forget if it's on PlayStation or PC. I'm not going to delete it from my hard drive. It'll sit there and then one night I'm sure I'll get that. What I what about this? And then give it that hour and see like did this. Is this enough to go on from it? We shall see. Everybody story 1.5 as we desperately try to change the headline on this take to CEO addresses Grand Theft Auto 6 price and the possibility for more L A Noire. This is [e-mail] speaking at Icon today. That was Greg Miller everybody yesterday speaking right there. A new conference for video game executives. Oh, okay. That's Icon. This is me reading from the Icon page. I had it pulled up in case you were going to ask me what ICON was, because even I'm not sure. Icon is a first of its kind event designed for business leaders and marketing executives to explore entertainment strategies, discover new revenue models and increase brand loyalty. Another reason for everybody in the video game world to go to Vegas. But I digress. Back to Boar. His name's Beaumore. You think? Never called him Boar growing up?

[B]

No. I like this guy, though. I've met him a couple times.

[A]

Call him right now.

[B]

Solid man.

[A]

Ask about Boar.

[B]

Call him. I don't have his phone number, Greg.

[A]

Doesn't sound like you know him that well.

[B]

I don't. A couple times. He's very nice.

[A]

Bow Moore.

[B]

If it's the bow that I think it is, I don't know that.

[A]

Here's what I'll tell you right now. If IG IGN's got two bows. Listen, I know. We know we haven't worked there in a long time. We haven't worked there in a long bows. That would be outrageous. There's no way that's happening. Trying to find out.

[B]

Here's the bow.

[A]

I know, I know this guy.

[B]

He's a good dude.

[A]

Okay, okay.

[B]

He's a guy.

[A]

Great guy.

[D]

Went karaoking with him once.

[A]

Can you call him right now for me?

[B]

We danced once at Imran's wedding.

[A]

Oh, okay. So Imran knows him.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Does Imran have an iPhone? Imran Khan. He does. Hey, Imran, it's Greg. I'm live on kfgd. Can you do me a solid? Call Beau Moore and conference me in. Thank you.

[B]

But what's the end game here, Greg?

[A]

I want to know when he's growing up. Do they call him Boar? Not as an insult.

[B]

Yeah, no. I thought that you needed to find out, like, were there too many bows in ig? But we like, solved.

[A]

Oh, no, no. Nobody's. Trust me, no one watching right now is trying to get to the bottom of two bows at ign. All right, we go to Bose reporting though. Back to ign. Starting at the top. Clear the mechanism. Speaking at Icon today, a new conference for video game executives. Take two. CEO Strauss Zelnick addressed the much debated question of how much Grand Theft Auto 6 will cost. He declined to confirm the game's price, but hinted away from the potential super premium price point that has been floated in the past. Quote, consumers pay for the value that you bring to them and our job is to change the way I'm sorry is to charge way, way, way less of the value delivered, zelnick said. How you feel about something you buy is the intersection of the thing itself and what you pay for. Consumers need to feel like the thing itself is amazing and the price they were chair they were charged was fair for what they got. He went on to mention that game pricing has actually gotten cheaper over the years, a reference to the fact that that major game releases have in price at $60 or at most $70 for more than a decade as compared to greater rates of inflation seen in the wider economy. Quote if you look at it through that lens, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But that isn't the lens through which we look. Instead, we look at how do we deliver something amazing and how do we make sure that what people pay for it feels very reasonable. How do we make sure what people pay for it feels very reasonable. Zelnick also said that he's terrified of the question of how to measure the success of GTA 6, but that he and the teams are more focused on delivering a fantastic experience than worrying about how it performs. What we think about is making the most spectacular piece of entertainment on earth in history, and it's a pretty daunting challenge. If we do that and if we're on, if we're of service to our customers, then the upside will take care of itself, end quote. That said, he did follow it up with a quick quip that he does, quote, think a lot of people will be calling in sick on November 19. Elsewhere in the talk, Zelnick gave some slim hope for fans of L A Noire that a sequel might happen one day. Quote Broadly, we're looking at doing something in the future with all of our intellectual property. There's nothing to announce for L A Noire specifically, and if there were, it would be Rockstar announcing it, not me. But in any case, with regard to our legacy ip, the teams are always looking at what we have and we're always thinking about it. The question is, at any given time, do we have a team that's passionate about working on that? End quote.

[B]

Tennis coming back. You know what's crazy?

[A]

State of emergency.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

Bully for Barrett.

[B]

State of emergency. What a weekend. You know.

[D]

But also, but also L A Noire for Barrett as well.

[B]

Yeah, you know, a noir boy.

[A]

Baron, I'm sorry we've given you.

[B]

You only get one thing. Well, that's just because I've got my

[D]

shaved head that looks like the main

[A]

kid did you ever. Did you ever cosplay him? Did you ever do anything with that? No, never too late.

[B]

Never too late.

[D]

Too late.

[A]

Never too late.

[B]

Nikki Jakey, you familiar?

[A]

No, I don't like pedophiles.

[B]

Oh, my God, no.

[A]

For the record, I don't know who Nakey Jakey is. So when you say nakey, I don't want to see some naked guy. Oh, my God. Who's this naked guy you're watching? No, I mean, we can all have a real. Let's have another serious conversation. Why are you watching naked people on the Internet, Tim? Why are you watching naked people on the Internet, Tim? Hey, everybody, it's me, Greg Miller, on a slow news day to remind you that the Internet meant for research, news articles, encyclopedia, reading your porn. Don't be looking at naked people on the Internet. You put naked in your title. I don't want to see you. That's what I say. No, thank you. Is that him?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, it's closed. He's wearing clothes.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Oh, see, okay, I'm sorry. Naked Jake. It. I wasn't familiar with you and what you do, so I did not realize you're. You're not naked. Maybe, just maybe put in Clothy Rosie. Call yourself Clothesy Rosie? You know what I mean? I'd be like, oh, clothes Rosie. Yeah, I know him real well.

[B]

I apologize to everybody. This is not how things should go.

[A]

Real quick, how popular is Nikki J. Barry. Barry.

[B]

And he's awesome. And it's like, not okay. Not okay what Greg just said. Let's like, make that clear.

[A]

Listen, we're just out here having fun, everybody. Yes.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

I thought Tim wanted me to look at naked people on the Internet. No, we all know how I feel about watching naked people on the Internet. God, thank you.

[B]

One of my favorite video essayists. If you'll.

[A]

If you'll call him on the phone and I'll apologize.

[B]

No, I don't have his phone number, Greg. But I. I love this because he. He makes great videos. They're always, always so much fun to watch. His most recent one was actually breaking down why he Loves Rockstars Table tennis.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

And I've heard this game's been a meme. This game has been a joke. You know, this loves this game. And he convinced me it's an amazing video game and there is some depth to this.

[A]

Oh, no. Yeah. They went hard on this.

[B]

I remember that stuff going on.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

In this video game. Yeah.

[A]

And so you want that to come back.

[B]

I mean, for him and maybe others. I don't know, dear. Oh, my fucking fuck, Jakey.

[A]

No, it's great.

[B]

No, like, I do not want to be a part of this.

[E]

Live on.

[B]

Every once in a while, guys, kind of funny, something happens that I'm just like, not today. Not this way. Not with me on camera.

[A]

Real.

[B]

You know, like, next time there's no news, this could have been Andy.

[D]

Next time there's, like, no news and it's you and Greg, we got to just tell Blessing, like, just make things up so Greg has to feel like he has to get through like, a whole thing, you know?

[B]

Yeah. Oh, God. Ro. Roger, in the chat, he just says, don't.

[A]

I'm not allowed to apologize to people.

[B]

Oh, my.

[A]

I'm not allowed to make it. I'm not allowed to make it right.

[B]

I don't like this, and I don't think it's good. It's not good, Craig.

[A]

Fine. Have it your way.

[B]

Not good.

[A]

Have it your way.

[B]

Go Support Nakey. Jake.

[A]

2.12 million.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Why'd you let me insult this guy? What does he do?

[B]

Fucking damn, dude.

[A]

Does he. Does he. What's he doing? Does he talk about the news? Why hasn't he been on our shows?

[B]

Too good for us.

[A]

Oh, no. I thought it was a positive Starfield headline. It's a negative.

[D]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[A]

That's bad. That's bad. I mean, he's not wrong, though. He's very right. That's what I said, I think, in my Starfield review, if you remember. Oh, man, look, he's defended Seven. You were wrong about this guy. This guy's cool.

[D]

Yes, you were wrong, Tim. This guy's really cool.

[B]

This is one of those times Eddie's gonna come in and just be like, greg, we went too far. Don't. And that was. I know where you're going.

[A]

What? Oh, that was a notification. I was trying to see if that was Imran calling in. Bo, we got a lot. Everybody, I know there's a lot of threads going on today. Let's keep them all straight, okay? We got to keep them all straight on what's going on. We'll get Jakey on the phone by the end of this. Guarantee. Story number two. Well, hold on. We never actually talked about Rockstar. We just jumped into table tennis.

[B]

Oh, yeah, yeah. The.

[A]

The.

[B]

The. I hate inflation. Just as a concept. Don't believe in it.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

The 60 to $70. The way they're talking about this. Something I always think about with video games is I'm old. I'm Very old at this point when it comes to playing games and talking about games, there are people older than me. And it always surprises me that there seems to be a very big gap between the way I view video game prices and the way older people view.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Laying on me, cuz like I grew up definitively with the Toys R Us catalog. You know, Holidays circle, like all that. And like the prices were all like there was an MSRP that like all the companies stuck to like Nintendo games, like Game Boy advance games, whatever. They were $30. The, you know, other games weren't $50, like a PS2 game, like whatever. There was a standard, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And like things would go on sale and then they'd be, you know, big yellow star sticker thingy with like a cheaper price or what.

[A]

Of course.

[B]

And that would kind of be it. Right? Then I see like from before my time, the Super Nintendo days of buying games, Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, like some of these games are insanely priced. It's like $80, $90. Like there was like variable pricing. It seems all over the place. I don't know when that shift happened that I experienced this moment where that just was not the case.

[A]

Okay. Where it was. All of a sudden we're locked into this.

[B]

It was locked like as long as I've been looking at video game prices, like they were. There was standards and like there might be like Majora's Mask was like what

[A]

GameCube that, that era. Right. When we talk about GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation.

[B]

$50. Those games are $50.

[A]

Yeah. I think, I think the variables were before then when we were talking about cartridges. Right. We were talking about what was in there in terms of a battery or this or that. I think that's when we were really seeing differences. I think when we standardized the media to CD ROMs. For the most part.

[B]

Yeah. But I'm pretty sure like wasn't like N64 games. Weren't they 50 bucks and then.

[A]

Yeah, but there was some that were more.

[B]

40 bucks. Yeah, but some that were more. There were very few. And like that was stuff like I feel like when I see the catalogs from a couple years before me, every game is a different price. And it seems insane. Like some of these things, I'm like, are these Australian prices? Like, what the hell is happening here?

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So I don't know what point I'm making.

[A]

The fact that this is still going on, this debate is still, you know, going. Zelnick is still dodging to a degree how much they're going to charge for all of this and what's going on. I think that's the. To get back to it, let alone then the weird call out of L A Noir here right where I think I appreciate. And there's nothing to announce about La Noire specifically why you're calling that. I guess because I. That's what Rockstar fans are the most allowed about, I guess in terms of wanting more 2k from old IPS, which

[B]

I don't really buy.

[A]

Yeah, me too. I would think as well there.

[D]

You know, shout out to my, my aunt, the number one Scooby Doo fan and the number one La Noir fan she loves.

[A]

Good for her. Yeah. But. Yeah. What do you realistically, do you think? What do you think they're going to charge for gta?

[B]

Realistically? I don't think anything being said here means anything at all. I feel that the, the likelihood that this game is $100 is just as likely as it being 70. I think 80 is the number that I settle on, like at this point. So April 29, like, I would put the most money on it being $80.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I do think it is interesting them talking about the. We need to make consumers feel like the price was amazing and like, fair for what they got. They don't need to say that, you know, again, I don't think the words mean anything at all. And their understanding of money is very different than our understanding of money.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So what they think is fair for the product that they are investing hundreds of millions of dollars into. Like, yeah, they might be like, yeah, it's worth. It's fair. It's $120, you know, but, but also,

[A]

are we just looking past the fact that we're really talking, like, what. How many editions of GTA are there going to be? I. I fully believe there will be A$70.69.99 GTA. Vanilla. Here it is. And I think we go up to the. Here's a $90 version that gives you all these bells and whistles and whatever and GTA online bucks. And then here is the. Similar to the Expanse thing we're making fun of the other day. Here's a $290 version, has X, Y.

[B]

And that should always exist.

[A]

But that's my thing where it's like,

[B]

I don't see Grand Theft Auto for, for how big that game is, for how expensive that game is. I just don't see it. It's not like they need motivation for people to be like, well, I wasn't going to buy it there, but I am going to buy it here.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm talking about the difference of 70 to 80. Mario Kart World was $80. I just don't see Grand Theft Auto 6 coming out at a price lower than the highest price of a normal video game in modern times. And modern Mario Kart World, there was no reason that game was $80.

[A]

Besides, that's where we thought we were going.

[B]

I don't know. Right.

[A]

I feel like the industry for a second was like, we can get away with this.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And then out of world, outer worlds is like, we're doing it too. And they're like, fuck you out. Okay, we won't do it.

[B]

Sorry. But that's the thing is.

[A]

And I know they're very different, but

[B]

like, you know what's similar?

[A]

What?

[B]

To grab the dotto. Mario Kart.

[A]

Yeah. I still think so. Am I naive, everybody? Yes. You know that I believe in the good of people and often to my detriment. The good of a corporation to some degree. I still fully believe that at take two Strauss Zelnick, in these conversations, they know how much money Grand Theft Auto is going to continue to make them. Right. The other day with those leaks or whatever. GTA lines apparently like a million dollars a day it brings in or whatever. So they're not hurting. And I know, of course, we live in the age of greed. More money, more money, more money. I still think that someone there enough people there are saying, yes, of course we could make $10 more per box copy of GTA. Yes, we can make $20 more. We can make blah, blah, blah. But we want to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Like even bigger than that. What that could possibly be.

[B]

But how do they count that? What is big? It's money.

[A]

I mean, I think it's movies running away from you, Everyone clearing their scheduled.

[B]

No, but I'm saying though, is like, it's money made, right? So, like you make more money selling it for $10 more day. Day of like, the argument you're making is against itself. Where it's like, but I'm think this launch is making the most money in one day.

[A]

But they talk. Yeah. Yes, but I think that's a guaranteed thing no matter what. And no one will ever be able to do this again other than another gta. I don't know. I think that. I think they want. This is the number of units moved as well as they want. Then here's the.

[B]

I don't know, like that's.

[A]

They want the world to grind to a halt.

[B]

That's the thing though is like I feel like the numbers of units. I think it's a simple math equation and I, I don't see any real. I'm not saying I want this, by the way. I'm just saying like from a business perspective, it makes no sense not to charge $80 instead of 70 for Grand Theft Auto 6. This thing's going, it will, the amount of copies it won't sell because of that difference will be made up a hundred times more. Way more than that with the, with the difference there and then that's the thing is they want the biggest launch and the biggest launch means the most money ever made in a day, a weekend, a week, whatever it is. Right. Like the number of copies, it's like that's the, the difference is going to be so minimal, I think. And the long tail of them making money over time, yeah, that's going to happen too. But this is just them getting everybody in, in the jump. But we'll see. These words don't back up what I'm saying, but I don't believe these words.

[A]

I think they're, they're, they're going to do it at 70 and I know they don't need to do seven. They can do more, they can make more money, yada. But I just feel like there's a PR win for them there as well that they know that they probably don't care about. But I also just think, I don't know, I see it. That's what I, that's what I'm predicting. Yeah, I'm predicting that everybody.

[B]

I mean, I don't think you're crazy for saying that. Thank you.

[A]

It's about time somebody said I wasn't crazy. Everybody. I couldn't be crazy without your support. Please pick up a Kind offunny membership. Patreon.com kind of funny YouTube.com kind of funny games Apple Spotify get all of our shows ad free. Get your daily dose of me Greg Miller in a series we call Greg Way. And of course get good karma for supporting an 11 person, 11 year old small business. But right now you're not using your benefits. So here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Do you know what I hate? It's having to track down my wallet when I finally make the call to buy something online. You know what makes that a breeze? That big beautiful purple pay button that has all my information stored. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world. And 10% of all E commerce in the United States, from household names like Heinz to skims to brands just getting started. Get the word out like you have a marketing team behind you. Easily create email in social media campaigns wherever your customers are scrolling or strolling. And best yet, Shopify is your commerce expert with world class expertise in everything from managing inventory to international shipping to process returns and beyond beyond. See less carts go abandoned and more sales go with Shopify and their Shop Pay button. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com shop kinda funny that's shopify.com kinda funny this episode is brought to you by Aura Frames. Mother's Day is right around the corner and you know what gift I gave my mom that just keeps giving an aura frame? Be like me. Ditch the Flower is an upgrade to the digital frame. All of Kinda Funny loves the Aura frame. With the Aura frame, I'm able to constantly keep my mom updated with photos of her grandson via the Aura app. It's free. I just clicked the photo of little Benny shredding on a skateboard here in San Francisco. Tap a button and it's up on my mom's frame in Chicago. Aura Frames come with free unlimited storage so you can add as many photos and videos as you want. But even cooler, for that Mother's Day gift, you can preload photos before it ships so it pops out of the box personalized and ready to go. Your mom deserves an upgrade. Make Mother's Day Special with Aura Frames named number one by Wirecutter. You can save on gifts moms love by visiting auraframes.com for a limited time. Listeners can get $25 off their best selling Carver Mat frame with the code kindafunny. That's a U R A frames.com promo code. Kinda Funny Support the show by mentioning us at checkout. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by nocd. You finally sit down to game just you, your controller and zero responsibilities. When your brain decides that's the perfect time to ask did I say something offensive earlier? And not realize it. And suddenly relaxing and enjoying yourself is impossible. No matter what you do to try to feel better, the doubt keeps coming back. Here's the thing. That kind of relentless thought spiral isn't just anxiety. It could actually be ocd. Unlike the stereotypes, real OCD involves intrusive, distressing thoughts that cause intense anxiety, along with behaviors you feel driven to do to get relief from those thoughts. But it doesn't have to be that way because OCD is highly treatable with the right kind of specialized therapy. OCD needs ERP or exposure and response prevention, which has proven to be the most effective treatment. And that's where NOCD comes in. NOCD is the world's leading provider of OCD treatment and is covered by insurance for over 100. All of their licensed therapists specialize in ERP therapy and will help you learn to take the power away from intrusive thoughts in live face to face virtual sessions. If unwanted thoughts are taking over, don't wait to get help. Visit nocd.com to book a free call with their team. That's nocd.com and we're back. Before we get to story number two, Danish 36 says Tim, please tell me you've listened to Ray's song with Hans Zimmer. It's an experience.

[B]

No, I don't know who Ray is.

[A]

R A Y E All capital. How they put how they spelled Ray.

[B]

Listen Later.

[A]

Thank you Alex Modder says Birthday tax for turning 37 today shout out to all the local comic book stores as this Saturday's free comic book day. Be sure to go in and say kind of funny. Sent you Happy Birthday Alex. Yes, go support your local comic shop. You don't have to. You don't have to mention us. They won't. They won't understand. But I appreciate that. Another birthday tax for Marsh Hero for my newborn daughter Zoe. Happy Birthday. And of course congratulations on Zoe. Accidentally woke her up last night laughing at Ben asking Jen about crying in Canada from the kind of funny pod. Much love. It was a good podcast. We're back together and we get to the rest obviously as we go or get to the end of the show. Number two on the rope report, Monument Valley boss says it was quote too romantic about giving staff quote long term job security. Thinks contractors are the future. This is Chris Scullion at vgc, the chair of the UK games industry trade body Yuki and the CEO of Monument Valley Studio. US two Games say it's becoming less viable for smaller studios to retain long term employees. In an interview with game developer Maria says the studio has been making games that cost between 7 million euro and 10 million euro with production cycles. Or is that pounds? That's pounds. 10 million pounds and 7 million pounds. 10 million pounds with production cycle lasting three to four years. Noting quote we need to lower that end quote the Boss explained that US 2 Games currently employs just under 30 people parentheses down from a peak around 40 while Monument Valley 3 was in development and parentheses before suggesting that the studio shouldn't have hired so many full time employees and should have hired more contractors instead of ensure less of a long term commitment. Quote We've been a little too romantic about the idea that we should have employees and give people long term job security. Sonia says, quote I think that got us into a place where reaching the heights of Monument Valley three production contractors were always a relatively low percentage of our employee base. I think that's something we've, we, we are looking to change going forward, end quote. She suggested that us two would hire more contractors in the future, noting that this wasn't something she ideally wanted to do, but that the industry is now headed that way. Quote I think going forward we'll see that we've got a core team and any growth will come through contractors, which is something I hate about the industry. She said. I've been in the industry for 20 years and those of us who joined in the early 2000s, we had it very good. You want to be able to give that kind of stability, but I think that's a shift in how we want to work with people going forward. According to her, by employing some more, by employing more contractors and co development teams, studios can keep their budgets and cash reserves more stable. U.S. 2 recently said it was pivoting away from mobile to become a PC first studio because it believes the platform no longer offers a, quote, solid base to build a long term business around, end quote.

[B]

Some things you shouldn't say, like, why would you say this? You know, and I, they're talking to game developers, so it's like, all right, this is a inside baseball type. Like we're, we're being real about the state of things.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

I mean, at least they're coming in here saying that like something I hate, this is something I hate about.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

But it's also like, man, like we gotta fix this. Like, this is, it's just not, it's not acceptable. And we see this in like any industry when it comes to maybe not any industry in many industries with the contractors and like that's always how this goes. Like, yes, contractors are, quote unquote, the right way to do this. If you want to just save as much money as possible and not treat a group of people right to be able to, you know, have a team, right? This is, that's not a team. You, at this point, you're just kind of like hodgepodging things together to like make your product, but then not reward anybody for making the product and cut

[D]

corners in the, in like the, the meantime, as Well, I mean like with not like, you know, giving health insurance and stuff like that. Specifically talking in America.

[E]

Right.

[A]

Anyways, yeah, I think you're right and it is for me it's more of them misreading what Monument Valley was going to become. It might be hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Monument Valley was the biggest fucking thing. Remember when it was in House of Cars? Everybody lost their fucking mind that this game had broken through that way. And I think you know what's salient at the end there is talking about becoming a PC first studio. We can't build a thing around mobile. I. I'm never one. I hate to sit here and especially not having all the information in front of me. Judge with hindsight 2020 what you made decision wise out there. But I think it's that idea of Monument Valley explodes and let's make the team even bigger. Let's go even bigger. Let's bring in more people to make to. To make three. Oh shit. The industry's dramatically shifted. We're not seeing the success we saw. I assume with two and three that we saw with one. Fuck. We need to figure this out. Get rid of this, get rid of that. Blah, blah. You grew too big. It's the conversation we talk about all the time here at Kind of funny when people are asking me what's the next 10 years of kind of funny look like? Which comes up all the time on Greg Way. Right. What it looks like is probably incredibly similar to this because no, we're not going to go and wow. Game showdown in kind of feudi. Do better numbers consistently than an a random episode of Game. Let's make us now the Game Show Channel. Let's hire more people to be on those shows.

[B]

Ba ba ba.

[A]

And then. Oh no, that isn't what that's actually going to lead to necessarily. Maybe it could, but that's a gamble you're taking. And so again, would we be having the same conversation about us too if it was that Monument Valley exploded? Awesome. Let's make. Hire one or two more people and make Monument Valley to. Or make a different pivot here. Do that. Like when you go and you say we're going to get so big and do this whole thing, that's when you have this problem, these contractions happen and for them, contractors are the answer because, well, yeah, you just went this large. Can't sustain that and you have to cleave it back. But now of course you're still going to want to make those kind of games or theoretically make those kind of games and go forward that way.

[B]

Yeah. And you know, there's a place for contractors, like, that's contractors. It's a amazing thing. And like they, A lot of them, like, that's what they're trying to do. And freelance work is awesome. But when you're a contractor doing full time work and you're an active employee at a company, which is what happens in these cases, but you're not getting the benefits and treatment that you deserve, that's where shit gets real shady. I mean, I remember and like, I'm talking about a long time ago. I don't know how things are now, so I'm not talking about currently, but when we were at Ignition, there was some shady going on and there was shady shit going on.

[A]

Oh, with contractors?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Like I experienced it. So it's like there's like, that's just how that goes. It's just like, you know, the people, it's. They know what they're doing. That's what it comes down to.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, different business models for different businesses and all these different things. There's a million different ways to run it. How many times do I see from all of you comments? Maybe not all of you, but a lot of comments on a subreddit or whatever. Why are they still in San Francisco? Why do they do that? Why? Well, it's because that's what works for us and what the company we've built and the kind of business we want to be. And we want to be in San Francisco because we love it and Da, da. And we make it work. Right. But you can look at other entities in our space that do it completely different. And it is all contractors. One person runs it. Everybody else were. And it's like, cool. What are you trying. I'm not saying ours is better than theirs, by the way. I'm saying that these are just different ways to run it. And right now you see, all right, cool. The genie's out of the bottle and we're trying to put them back in. How do we make that work? Kind of thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is rough.

[B]

And I don't, you know, it's scary.

[A]

I think, again, are these inside thoughts? Maybe. I think there's but inside your head thoughts. You know what I mean? I do appreciate the. This sucks. And I don't. I wish it wasn't this. Absolutely. But I also feel. And again, I feel like I'm going over the line here. Maybe I wish it wasn't like you kind of put yourself in that situation, you know what I mean? So is it really the industry? Yeah. But again, I don't know us two well enough to say and really come out. You know what I mean?

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

It sucks where it's at.

[B]

The pivot from mobile to PC. That is interesting.

[A]

Right?

[B]

But like, is that a solution? I don't know.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. I'll tell you what is the solution.

[B]

Oh my God. Oh, it's Bo. I forgot how many bits we had today.

[E]

Oh, it's my best friend.

[B]

What the hell?

[A]

Not much. Nikki. Jakey, I want to thank you for taking this phone call. How are you today?

[E]

I'm good, dude. I'm watching Counter Strike. I got my wiener dog chilling with me. I'm.

[A]

I'm good, dude. You got a wiener dog? I got a wiener dog, yeah.

[E]

What kind of wiener dog you got?

[A]

Well, his name is Cole. He's. I'll tell you right now, he's. I'm going to say black and tan, but you know, that's reasonable. No, he's not a black and tan. Right. Like he is this awesome brindle color. Everybody stops him on the street and say, oh my God, I've never seen a brindle. He's short hair. What about you?

[E]

Wait, can you break down what brindle means?

[A]

Sure, you've seen it on a lot of bigger dogs. Imagine like, you know, both a, a dark brown and then light brown caramel swirls kind of thing going on.

[E]

Delicious. Yes, yes. Well, I have a mini long haired dachshund and she's black and white, which I think is.

[A]

Oh crap, dapple. A lot of people say dapple.

[E]

Yeah, yeah, something like that. But she's like just black and white. She's cute as a button. Her name is Dottie. She's a year and a half.

[B]

She was in the table tennis video.

[E]

We're just chilling.

[A]

She was in the table tennis video, my friend Tim says. Have you ever met Tim? Tim's here.

[E]

No, I never have. And honestly I feel like I've seen in the Wild Tim wearing either something from my music or some sort of merch like shouting me out on like Twitter or something. So shout out him. He's the goat. But I don't actually know him like personally.

[A]

Well, it's funny you bring it up that way because Nakey Jakey. It turns out I didn't really know you personally. And so Tim set me up on this show a little bit. He got me in one of those traps he likes to put. Go wide, Barrett. Show Tim because he's trying to get out of this. He put me in one of those traps. He likes to do Nakey Jakey, where he introduces something. And again, I thought he wanted me to go look at a. A naked man named Jake Jake on the Internet. And so I said, I don't want to do that, Tim. And then they, they educate. Does that happen to you a lot?

[E]

It's something that I definitely navigate when I've talked to like the parents of women I've dated. When they're like, what do you do? And I'm like, how much. I'll like give the whole explanation of what I do first and then maybe just drop the name at the end. Sometimes I will just tell people Jakey, because I'm like, it's gonna pop up anyways. And they can. They can sort out how they feel about the first part on their own. I don't have to be around for that.

[A]

Have you thought about changing the name to Clothe Jacob?

[E]

I mean, I don't know. I still like being wild and free and ruthless. So I. I feel like I'll. I'll keep it for now, but in specific moments. Yeah, sometimes I wish that it was a little bit more buttoned up.

[A]

Hold on. Wednesday you say you like being wild, free and ruthless. Oh, Nakey Jakey. We're going to be best friends. I don't know why. Tim, when can you come on the shows? Where do you live? We'll bring you here.

[E]

Dude, I live in New York. Where do you guys film?

[A]

We're in San Francisco, so it's a hike. But if you want to come out, we'll bring you out.

[E]

Dude, I honestly love it out there. I was actually just in. I mean, not exactly there, but I was just in LA for like a week doing a bunch of stuff. I just got back yesterday, but dude, the Bay Area is awesome. My brother used to live out there. I loved going out there.

[A]

Okay, we're gonna make this happen. Okay. I'm sorry for the things I said about you again. I thought Tim was trying to get me to go look at naked men. I didn't want to do that.

[E]

No, no, Tim. Tim's the goat. I know. He has my back. Appreciate Tim, dude. Also, I gotta say real quick, like, as far as I haven't followed, I'm gonna be completely honest, like a lot of the kind of funny stuff since you guys have done that, but you've been doing it for a while, but.

[A]

Well, don't make it sound like I'm old. Don't make it sound like I'm old.

[E]

Just gonna say one of my favorite things I have seen out in the wild are I think, do you know Eddie? Eddie Burback? Do you. Do you follow him or know of him? We know Eddie Brandy thing.

[A]

Yeah, we know Eddie.

[E]

He showed me a compilation of clips of you just, like, hating on PC gamers and breaking down why. And as like a pretty lifelong PC gamer, I do kind of align with

[A]

a lot of it.

[E]

And I think it's hilarious because I. I have tried to get so many. Like, dude, in high school we do like, LAN parties for Left 4 Dead and Stuff, and someone's PC, something would go wrong. One of these drivers didn't, you know, blah, blah, blah, all these things. And so seeing someone just pop off about it, I was like, man, I'm on the other side. But he's not wrong. Like, this shit is stupid.

[A]

Shit sucks. But I play a lot of PC now, so I totally get it. But I'm right there with you. And thank you for understanding comedy and a character. All right. Because it was all Frodo. So he said, naked J guy said pedophile. He said, it's going to be a big deal. And I said, it's not going to be a big deal. We're going to be friends about it. Wild.

[E]

Exactly. Exactly.

[A]

Okay, Jakey, I'm gonna get your email off, off of this live phone call we're having, and then we're gonna get you out here, okay? Okay.

[B]

All right.

[A]

You're the goat. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you later, dude. You guys are great.

[E]

Good talking.

[A]

All right, Bye. Bye. Bye. Give me the one. Now, Barrett. I'm not gonna say Greg Miller's always right. I'm not gonna say Greg Miller's award winning antics elevate the product and the company and the staff. But I am going to say, how you doing, Tim? How you doing, Tim? Are you happy to be back?

[B]

This is insane. How did this all just happen? How did this happen? Andy Cortez, are you in the building? Can you come here? Because this is. This isn't fair. This isn't right. Nobody should be able to do this. Not Greg.

[A]

Why?

[B]

Greg called the man a pedophile. Andy, please come here. Please come here.

[A]

People understand comedy. That's what it comes down to, Tim. People understand comedy. Wiener dog. People get it. People who don't like PC gaming bullshit get it. Nakey, Jakey. And I'm gonna order shirts right now.

[B]

Stumbled upon a recent thread, you know when people just kind of A video game tweet goes out and then you

[D]

look at the comments to see what

[B]

people are saying and they'll. You know.

[A]

Sometimes you just see your.

[B]

Your company getting name dropped every once in a while. Sometimes good, sometimes it's bad.

[D]

But then recently saw a comment that

[B]

said, I'll never listen to.

[D]

Kind of funny.

[B]

Ever since that one guy called PC players pedophiles and we just have to stop. We have to stop. We have to put an end to this.

[D]

I don't know how. I don't know how to stop him, Tim.

[B]

I don't know.

[D]

I don't know.

[B]

And now naked Jake is coming here.

[D]

So maybe the lesson is that we don't stop.

[A]

Exactly. Maybe the lesson is, you know, Andy, you've been happy to ride my coattails for so long. I'm getting a T shirt. I'm getting a sweatshirt for Niggy Jiggy. He's awesome.

[B]

Oh my God.

[A]

I can't believe you didn't tell me about him earlier. You talked to me about so much bullshit. I don't want to see. Then this guy at Wiener Dog making cool videos. Damn sweatshirt. Sold out. No, there it is. And that to the cart too. That to the cart right now.

[D]

Shout out to Ball Creative.

[A]

Ball Creative. That's where I'm at.

[B]

Ballcreative.com store I can't believe it wasn't Bo.

[D]

I really thought it was Bo.

[A]

We never closed that thread, did we?

[D]

What's the thread there again?

[A]

Did they call them Boar? If we can get Boar on the phone too, this will be the perfect show. Imran did respond to. He said Bo's not answering. I'm gonna say okay, keep me posted. He could be the second biggest call in of the show.

[B]

What's story number three?

[A]

Story number three? Microsoft is giving its Xbox employees an Xbox email address. This is Tom Warren at the Verge. We were kidding about a slow news day, y'. All. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma wants everyone to know Queen quote We are Xbox. Just last week, she scrapped Microsoft Gaming as the name of Microsoft's gaming division in favor of simply Xbox. Now, to reinforce that message sources at Xbox tell me that all Xbox employees are getting an box.com email address. Next month, the new Xbox email address will replace the existing icrosoft.com address as the default way to send new emails. And employees will be able to opt out and keep their Microsoft email address as the default settings. Send from address Instead, Mojang employees will also be given an Oyang.com email address. And both Xbox and Mojang employees will still retain their icrosoft.com email aliases. The change is being made as part of quote unquote strengthening the Xbox identity inside and outside of Microsoft. According to an internal Xbox memo seen by the Verge. It's a small change, but Activision and Blizzard employees still use their own domain names for emails, so this will help the broader Xbox team have a similar email appearance to third party partners and developers. Some Xbox employees have been able to [e-mail] email addresses in the past by requesting one from Microsoft's IT department. But this is the first time Microsoft has actively pushed these Xbox email addresses to all of its gaming employees.

[B]

Obviously this is a hilarious headline and the stupidest story of all time, but this is good. Yeah, this is something I've wanted to see in terms of them taking Xbox seriously. I've been saying forever, you have Activision, you have Bethesda. Are they Xbox or are they not? When you have start Call of Duty up, why doesn't it have the Xbox branding on it? On PlayStation? Right.

[E]

Right.

[B]

They need to start doing that B Xbox. I'm loving a lot of what I'm hearing. The last couple weeks I haven't had a place to talk about it. I think these are a lot of very good smart moves being made. Is it too late? Absolutely. But hey, it's happening. And as dumb as this sounds, there is a unity to it that is important.

[A]

As you and I talked about the top of the show, we haven't been together in a while.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You say, is it too late? Absolutely. What does that mean to you?

[B]

How long have we been talking about Domino's? That's all I gotta say.

[D]

Fair enough.

[B]

You know, it's just too late. It's just there's. There's too much for the fact that I am at all sitting here celebrating

[A]

an email address like, all right, y'.

[D]

All.

[B]

But hey, that's what happens. This is. That's how this shit goes, you know?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like they acquired all these teams and yeah, they had different emails. So what's that going to look like? Yeah, it's fucking complicated.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now they're working on it.

[A]

Do you. So when you say it's too late for Xbox is basically what you're saying, does that mean too late?

[B]

It's just like. It's just too uphill. It's just so it's just going to be incredibly difficult for. For the brand to come back and mean something. But they're taking sales.

[D]

The emails. The emails will save the brand because we, we need to do Brand recognition outward with our hoodies and our sweaters. And then we also need to do brand service inward and do all work.

[A]

Yeah, you do. Yeah, that's my thing is where it's like, yeah, this is a goofy news story.

[D]

Right?

[A]

But it is again, like when we came in it was like, well, as Usher just hospice into them to the deathbed or whatever.

[B]

It's like again, I mean maybe, but not by design.

[A]

But here's my thing. Maybe, but she's trying. Maybe, but there actually is an effort here, right? There was this concern of all right, cool Satya just bringing in somebody who's going to quietly let Xbox die. And like clearly not. So it's like, okay, this is at least interesting.

[B]

At least they're trying to work. That's the question. You know, different conversation.

[A]

Yeah, of course. But this reminds me of when there were giant layoffs at Ignition and then I had to wait the appropriate amount of time to go over to it and be like, can I get that you laid off the Greg guy? Can I get [e-mail] and they said, yes you can. We move on to story number four. NBA the Run releases this June. There's a new Trailer Steam description NBA the Run is a fast pace online 3v3 street basketball game played above the rim and packed with posterizing moments, ankle breaking tricks and a unique signature style. Take your favorite NBA stars to iconic street ball courts around the world and stack wins, earn creds and become the goat of the Run. You're watching the trailer here. We're excited about it but you don't have to wait to see what we think of it. Blessing and Mike played it and they are doing a Games Cast plays today. After the kind of funny Games cast, there will be a closed beta on Steam happening May 1st.

[B]

I'm so jealous I didn't get to go play this. Yeah, once again going to Japan fucked me.

[A]

Should have never done it. All you got to do is hang out with Paris this point blank period.

[B]

I hope that this lives up to any expectation I have for it. Obviously NBA Street Volume 2, one of the greatest games ever made and this looks the closest I've seen a game to that game. And that's including NBA Street Volume 3 and NBA Street Home Court. He said it out on the next gen consoles back a couple generations ago when it was next gen. But yeah, just the style here. The over the top, the. The announcers. Like I'm hopeful. I'm really, really hopeful.

[A]

Yeah, me too.

[B]

And June, I'm a little surprised by that because like I've been following their social accounts, kind of following along what's going on. And I, I, I thought that this was going to be a bit more of like, hey, we're trying our best. We're small team. We'll see what happens.

[A]

But yeah, you'll hear all about it from Mike Ambless. Gamescast plays. Like I said, after the kind of funny Gamescast where we run you through every game coming out in May, I will let you know at that key art there, there's a guy in a Lakers jersey who has a mustache. When I walked in, they were playing and Mike was playing as that guy. And I said, oh, you created yourself. And he goes, no, that's, that's whoever from the Lakers. Like, oh, okay. I don't think Mike.

[D]

I thought Tim.

[A]

I think in this exactly this image, it looks way more Tim in motion. It looked like Mike, you know, a guy in a hood. He's wearing a hoodie with a thing and he's got things he's slamming, jamming.

[B]

I'm not a stache boy. Mike's a stache boy.

[A]

That's true. But one day, maybe we'll all be stash boys. That would be big news. If I wanted smaller news, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[B]

Tim, you'd go to the, the WE News channel. It's the place where we cover the small news. I don't fucking know what I'm saying. I got a weird text from Kevin.

[A]

Number five. We news. The Guild was an iconic web series. Nearly 20 years later, Felicia Day is reviving it as a movie. This is all very, very cool.

[B]

Shout out to Felicia.

[A]

Thanks for the raid on my birthday as well. Felicia, that was amazing. Blueprints patch 1.7 is now live on Steam. This includes the long awaited rollout of accessibility features including color support and remapping alongside other fixes.

[B]

Very cool.

[A]

Speaking of ads, Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection ads cross cross platform online, play 2v2 online and more.

[B]

Awesome. Should have been there at launch, but love to see it.

[A]

Fair enough. And then PlayStation plus essential games May 2026 have been announced. It's EA Sports, FC26, Wu Chang, Fallen Feathers and Nine Souls. Barry.

[D]

I shouted out nine souls in my last video essay that y' all should watch, which is called they, they want you to fight back. Nine Souls was a game I wanted to write about but decided not to. But that game hard. And if it's one of the. If you think to yourself, oh, I don't know if I like these hard games like Hollow Knight, Silksong or like cool 2D animated but like a lot of crazy combat. Nine Souls has a lot of great accessibility options and approachability options for you to tinker around with so you can have a great time with it however you want.

[A]

Tinker, Tinker away everybody. And that's it for WE news. We jump to the super chats that came in on YouTube.com kindafunnygames Dexter says, hey guys, for May 4th, please do a Star wars re rank with the Star wars crew before the Mando movie. Please. Barrett is so sad that Rise of Skywalker is too high. Love you.

[D]

Where is Rise of Skywalker on that list?

[A]

Don't look.

[B]

I mean Barry, like you're going to. You already know and you hate this. But it's like we came out of Rise of Skywalker and a lot of us weren't Last Jedi fans. And so the Rise of Skywalker review for me was the first time that I like ranked out of spite and hatred for how bad everything got and how fucked everything was. It was less about the movie, more about like oh we are. I'm reviewing how how Disney everything up.

[A]

Yeah Also while Barrett's on screen Ladondra says shout out to Barrett's aunt.

[B]

Shout out to what?

[A]

Barrett's aunt.

[B]

Oh yeah.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[D]

Love Scooby Doo and La Noir Kuma

[A]

super chats and says tim, have you seen the teaser for Godzilla minus 1? Any chance of KF doing Godzilla minus 1 in review and minus 0 comes out later this year. Also I Greg, I yes I have.

[B]

I am obsessed with that teaser. Love the direction they're going and I think that there is a very high likelihood likelihood we will be doing Godzilla minus Universe in review. Have you seen minus one yet?

[A]

Yeah, really good. Casper says more contractors doesn't work. Well look at Halo. Of course Jameson says I work for Adam. I work at a major home mortgage company. I got a job in a new department. Luckily my old department is contractors. They're currently training their overseas replacements and getting laid off. It's a problem with contractors. Sky says get Greg Miller is a God. Never forget it. Silver says Greg Miller is the true goat. Never forget it guy. Joshi says, is Tim going to apologize to Greg and Nakey Jakey Now I need to apologize? I mean you can wait till when he's in here and we're partying with wiener dogs. You're over there with your dumb palms.

[B]

I don't know how this turned into

[A]

a me apologizing I mean, you up?

[B]

I've seen it a lot in the chat. I'm seeing a lot of people apologize and I'm just like, what? What has happened?

[A]

I hate to agree with the chat.

[D]

It's getting to the point where it's like, if you don't apologize, we're going to have to take down the Tim Reaper collection.

[A]

Oh my God, you hate to hear it. Y says mini wiener dog owner here too. 10 months old. Laszlo is a dappy plus piebald. White cardigan on his upper half and a two tone face. One blue eye, one hazel eye. I know what all that means and that's fucking awesome. That's a good looking wiener dog right there for him. We almost broke and got a second wiener dog once and it was named Banana Split and it was very similar looking.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Christian says, this hurts me to say, but respect to Greg. What a day for me. What a day for me. Aaron Lime says, shout out. Oh, sorry.

[B]

Little La says Tim needs to apologize. Last Jedi is an incredible film. I love all 11 Star wars movies. I love Star wars so much. I want to be clear. It has nothing to do about my thoughts on Last Jedi. It has to do with my thoughts on where Last Jedi put the franchise. With one movie left in the sequel trilogy. J.J. abrams floundering, trying his best to figure out where Ryan Johnson left him. Why did they design this this way? Jedi left it?

[D]

Or were Force Awakens really left it? Let's be real.

[B]

Last Jedi because there was one movie to wrap up. The Skywalker Saga. God, what the pivots happen? Here we are with no. We can celebrate Darth Maul finally. It's finally. Well, first off, yeah, mall. But we can celebrate today. They're. They're finally right in the wrongs of all of this. Galaxy's Edge, the Disneyland area.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

They're just. They're finally giving up. Yeah. They're like, hey, it had to be canon. It's all the sequel shit. Not Darth Vader's here. We're playing the Imperial March. Have fun, you fucking losers. I'm a loser?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I'm one of the losers.

[A]

I've been saying that for years. Aaron Lime agrees. Shout out to Nacob Jacob. Greg would love his stealth and video. His stealth and games video. Tim is wrong as usual. Can't believe he acts like he left to piggyback. Can't believe he acts like he left to piggyback off Greg. And then Reuter says, now I sincerely wonder if it was my lucy james/FPS. Shout out that made Greg get in contact with clothed Jakey because that would make my day. No, I saw that super chat earlier, but I was already talking to him through my private means because I'm Greg Miller and there's not a goddamn person in this world I can't reach out to and get ignored by. Eventually yesterday post started, he's like, started texting me all these, hey, could you talk to this person? I'm like, why? He's like, I want him to come teach in my class. I'm like, I can try. I don't know if that'll actually work. Do you know anybody could talk to this person? Like, I guess maybe that's. Hey, but I got this power. I have this power. I have this power and I use the great responsibility, Tim, you know what I mean? I don't know what your problem is.

[B]

It's 11 over.

[A]

We just discovered the wheel over here and you're acting like I'm fucking setting back your caveman business. Everybody. This has been another episode of Kind of Funny Games Daily. We're gonna run you through the big video games coming out in May on the Gamescast and then preview NBA the run as the Gamescast plays. If you miss any of that, it'll all be up on YouTube.com kinda funnygames podcast services around the globe. But we'd love you to watch live on Twitch and YouTube and of course, pick up a Kinda Funny membership. Patreon.com kinda funny YouTube.com kindafunnygames Apple, Spotify, wherever you can support us. We'd love your support because we love hanging out and being goofballs together with all of you. For now, this is the end of Games Daily. So until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.

[C]

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[A]

Psst. It's mushrooms with Matty Matheson. Let me tell you the secret of how to look like you know what you're doing. Use mushrooms. Toss them in eggs, noodles. Boom. It's delicious. It's not magic. It's mushrooms. Hit up mushroomcouncil.com and get cooking.

[C]

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