VR Gaming Officially DEAD?! - Kinda Funny Games Daily 01.13.26

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: VR Gaming Officially DEAD?!

Episode Date: January 13, 2026
Hosts: Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr.
Podcast Theme: The daily pulse of gaming news with irreverent discussion, focusing this episode on the fate of VR gaming, shifting trends in game development, and the realities of the industry.

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the day's biggest stories across VR, the fate of Sega’s classic franchises, industry layoffs, emerging tech like wearables and AI, and personal reflections on industry trends. The hosts dissect news of Meta's substantial VR studio closures and what this means for the future of virtual reality gaming, while considering the ever-increasing costs and risks faced by developers. The tone is candid, passionate, and laced with classic Kinda Funny banter.

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Key Topics & Insights

1. The State of Sega’s Classic Franchises

00:35 – 09:45

• Jet Set Radio & Crazy Taxi: Will They Ever Actually Return?

  • Immediate speculation about the absence of new info on Sega's Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi games.
  • Blessing and Greg debate whether these beloved IPs have long-term viability or will ever escape development limbo.
  • The increasing cost and risk for corporations to revive niche titles is emphasized.
    • Blessing: “I could see a reality where these games just never pop up again... is Crazy Taxi the thing you really wanna put out?” (02:18)
    • Greg: “Corporations are dumb. And shareholders, you know... Sega doesn’t want one digit profits. They want double digit profits.” (03:09)
  • Trend of classic games being “fortnited” (turned into service games) called out, with both hosts skeptical about its organic fit for properties like Crazy Taxi.

• Arcade-Style Games in the Modern Industry

  • The difficulty Sega faces in justifying an arcade-style game in a AAA-focused industry.
  • Greg proposes a small-scale $4.99 digital-only version as the “sensible” approach, lamenting that big corporations rarely go for such modest returns.

• Nostalgia and Soundtracks

  • Chat prompts a discussion about the importance of licensed soundtracks (Offspring in Crazy Taxi), comparing the past and present about music in games.
    • “Music is in such a different place... back in the day, I didn’t have Spotify, so if I wanted to listen I played Tony Hawk for those songs.” (11:35 - Blessing)

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2. Meta Shuts Down Major VR Studios—Is VR Officially Dead?

14:53 – 24:22

• Significant Layoffs at Meta (Formerly Oculus) Studios

  • Meta is shuttering Twisted Pixel and Sanzaru Games, among others, following large layoffs in its Reality Labs division.
  • Emotional responses as Greg has personal connections with developers affected.
    • Greg: “My heart goes out to these guys. This sucks, right? …My head is like: yes, VR’s dead.” (15:14)
  • Discussion of Asgard’s Wrath 2: critically acclaimed 10/10 game, but even that wasn’t enough to save its studio.
    • Blessing: “Deadpool was nominated at the Game Awards... and a month later, ah, this studio is closed down.” (17:03)
  • The downfall is pegged to corporate expectations for astronomical profits, not just modest success: the “gold rush” mentality.

• Shifting Hope to Wearables & AI

  • Meta’s pivot is now toward AI and wearable technology like smart glasses—something both hosts find more interesting than VR gaming’s prospects.
    • Greg: “Fuck the metaverse... ooh, smart glasses and wristband. That’s exciting to me.” (19:23)
  • VR’s fundamental challenge: never delivering meaningful, sustainable growth or mainstream adoption.

• The Future of VR Tech

  • Apple Vision Pro is cited as an example moving away from game-focused VR to general utility, with the hope that form factor, comfort, and utility will eventually open new doors for games.

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3. Will Handheld & Mini-PCs Like Steam Machine Matter?

26:01 – 28:31

• Steam Machine’s Place Next to Steam Deck
  • Valve’s “Steam Machine Verified” status will be easier to achieve than “Steam Deck Verified,” but both hosts question if it will matter unless the hardware has significant, widespread adoption.
    • Greg: “For those less powerful machines... if I see this badge, I’m going to be like, okay, this means it can run.” (26:12)
    • Blessing: “I’m not sold that this is going to be as successful as I thought... they might have to sell this thing for way more than they actually want.” (27:32)
  • The sustainability of new “console-like” PC hardware in the face of rising component costs is questioned.

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4. Ninja Theory’s Future & The Evolution of Hellblade

31:34 – 37:29

• Hellblade 3 in Early Development, Project Mara Shelved
  • Ninja Theory refocusing on a new Hellblade game “with more gameplay” after Project Mara is put on hold.
  • Hosts are wary: original Hellblade was special, the sequel stagnated, so skepticism is high about a third outing.
    • Blessing: “I just don’t know if you have as much more to say in this world. I’d be down for a new IP.” (37:12)
    • Greg: “Yeah, that was a downside to Hellblade 2 for me… I want to do things in the game, right?” (35:49)
  • General agreement: Ninja Theory is technically brilliant but needs a creative pivot.

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5. Industry Reputation and Publisher Critique: EA’s Surprising Defender

39:14 – 45:00

• Joseph Fares (Hazelight) Defends EA

  • Director Joseph Fares argues that EA is no worse than other publishers and that its “evil” reputation is exaggerated.
    • Fares Quote: “Sometimes I feel that EA is getting more shit than they deserve... I'm very open about it. If it was bad, I would have said that... we have a great relationship.” (from 39:14)
    • Hosts admit that the current focus should include all big corporations, as predatory monetization is now industry-standard, and EA’s notoriety comes from being first, not unique.
    • Blessing: “Think about how much we love Valve… Nothing is more egregious than the gambling that goes on at Counter Strike.” (41:44)

• Caveat: The Saudi Arabia Acquisition

  • The hosts reflect on the recent PIF (Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund) investment/acquisition, acknowledging the real ethical and practical concerns it raises for EA employees, but distinguish that from everyday developers.

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6. The Cautious Adoption of AI in Game Development

46:25 – 55:43

• Stellar Blade Dev Says Small Studios Need AI to Compete
  • Shift Up's CEO claims that without AI, smaller nations can’t compete with the vast manpower (1000–2000 people) behind Chinese and US game projects.
    • Kim Quote: “Using AI will not result in job losses… it will make employees more valuable as one person can perform the work of 100 people.” (reported at 46:25)
  • Greg and Blessing express concern: Maybe don’t make massive projects if you can’t staff them? Celebrate small teams’ personality and vision.
  • Blessing connects this to the blurry, sometimes “generative” feel of Stellar Blade itself.
  • Broad and nuanced discussion: Do we need ethical, fully ‘locally-trained’ AI for production? Could it be ok if it empowers, not replaces, artists? No clear answers—just caution and hope for community-led “vote with your wallet” approaches.

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7. News Rapid-Fire: Layoffs, Animation, and More

55:43 – 60:44

• Short updates on Ubisoft layoffs, Resident Evil showcase, Arc Raiders sales and patch, One Punch Man World shutting down, and Major Nelson (ex-Xbox) being laid off from Unity after 18 months—a further sign of industry instability.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “VR never got the traction people wanted it to get... It was a gold rush. It was NFTs, it was AI, it was this thing… Where at the time we were a maturing market, now we are mature. It’s gonna expand, bring in new people—it’s money, money, money. And that’s why you saw people like Meta go all in and gamble on it.” (Greg, 17:14–18:33)
• “If my grandma had wheels, would she be a bicycle?...We don’t live in that reality.” (Greg on if VR would have caught on if it was more affordable, 65:44)
• “Music is in such a different place — back in the day, I didn’t have Spotify so if I wanted to listen I played Tony Hawk for those songs.” (Blessing, 11:35)
• “Shout out to Sega for sending me this sweatshirt, which started this entire tangent about Jet Set Radio and Crazy Taxi.” (Blessing, ~00:35)
• “Maybe they have a good head on their shoulders. Maybe they set their expectations correctly. We just don’t see big businesses do that often.” (Greg, 08:15)
• “Sometimes I feel EA is getting more shit than they deserve. Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, everybody’s done something... For us, it’s a super good collaboration.” (Joseph Fares, via quote, 39:14)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Sega/Classic games conversation: 00:35 – 09:45
• Meta VR studio closures / VR industry analysis: 14:53 – 24:22
• Steam Machine and hardware trends: 26:01 – 28:31
• Ninja Theory’s future / Hellblade 3: 31:34 – 37:29
• EA’s reputation defended: 39:14 – 45:00
• AI and the future of game dev: 46:25 – 55:43
• Rapid-fire news roundup: 55:43 – 60:44

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily is a frank assessment of the industry’s shifting priorities, calling out both the creative and economic pressures bearing down on developers, and the players’ wishful thinking for the revival of classic series. The hosts bring both personal experience and community perspective, keeping things energetic, skeptical, and humorous throughout.

For listeners:

• If you want real talk about why VR’s glory days may never come, and what’s next for the people and companies left in the aftermath, this is a must-listen.
• Expect honest industry critique, dashes of nostalgia, and a healthy dose of Kinda Funny’s self-aware, conversational charm.

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Topics like AI ethics, studio closures, and wearables are likely to remain hot in future episodes, so stay tuned for ongoing coverage and debate.

Transcript

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] Kinda funny this episode is brought to you by Factor. Make healthier eating easy with Factor. Head to FactorMeals.com KindaFunny50OFF and use the code KindaFunny50OFF to get 50% off your first Factor box. Plus free breakfast for one year offer only valid for New Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase.

[B]

Today's gaming news stories include Meta closes, some big VR studios, we finally have some Steam Machine news and Ninja Theory is no longer working on Project Mara. While all this is more because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Tuesday, January 13, 2026. I'm one of your host blessing Addie Oye Jr joining me is the legend Greg Miller.

[A]

Hello. Bless. How are you?

[B]

I'm doing well. Greg, how are you doing?

[A]

I'm hanging in there.

[B]

Hanging in there.

[A]

Hanging in there. It's a good looking sweatshirt.

[B]

Thank you. Shout out to Sega for sending this to me yesterday. The back is cooler. I actually don't.

[A]

Show them back. Show back. They won't hear you. I'll talk but like oh yeah, there's the jet set folks. They're there. They're doing their thing. Yeah, the front I get. Yeah. If I would go with one. If you're an audio listener, there's two logos on like the nipples where if you just had one like the party mode sweater I'm wearing kind of fun dot com.

[B]

See that one I like a lot. Yeah, that one I really like.

[A]

It's oversized so go down a size.

[B]

When do we get a new jet set radio? I know they announced it.

[A]

That's one of the super mega games or whatever, right? Yeah. Where is Crazy Taxi? Where is this goddamn Crazy Taxi?

[B]

Yeah. Are those. Do we see them in the next 12 months? Like even just a trailer?

[A]

Yes, you have to.

[B]

We have to.

[A]

Those seem. I of course pay more attention to Crazy Taxi. You pay more attention to jet set. Yeah, we don't have much to pay attention to because they're always together thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm not saying both for sure, but I could easily see both. Those seem like slam dunk John Stockton from downtown. Easy points for summer game fest. Right. They have to be at this point. They always supporting Jeff. Always having a thing at the SGF bungalow.

[B]

Can I be honest?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I don't know if we ever see these Games. I could see a reality where these games just never pop up again. I know I just said shout out SEGA now. I'm shitting on your potential games. But it's not even like. It's not. This is no fault of Crazy Taxi or Jet Set Radio. It's just the fact of like we're seeing video game costs go up and up and up and up and is crazy. Like a console. Crazy Taxi, the thing that you really want to put out.

[A]

What is.

[B]

I think it is. But do you think that it is a corporation?

[A]

Well, here, you know, corporations, CEOs and structures. Corporations are dumb. And shareholders, you know that Crazy. Crazy Taxi. What do they call it? Super game.

[B]

Because they show you. Show me a Crazy Taxi and I'm like, okay, so you're just gonna put it on a mobile.

[A]

See? No, no. Don't you remember this? No.

[B]

Yeah, but like that's what I'm saying. Of like my jaded business brain sees this and I'm like, this isn't a mobile game, it's a real game.

[A]

The next Polygon, the new Crazy Taxi is going to be a large scale open world online game. Because of course it is from July 2024.

[B]

But that. Those words don't make sense. That's not a real. That's not a real thing that happens in 2026.

[A]

Exactly. But you know, companies love to think it is.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Fair games. Yeah. I mean we love this idea that we're. I mean, skate. We love to think that we can take a classic game. Not fair games, obviously, but skate. But we can do this and modernize it and what's modern? Fortnite. So we'll fortnite it. We'll just fortnite it, everybody.

[B]

But I. In a weird way, I think that makes more sense for skate because skate is like just. Just big enough.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And like community based on all this stuff. Which Crazy Taxi. I. I guess could be. I guess that's a weirder fit. But I see it a little.

[A]

It's one of those things of. I think when you look at the state of video games and I don't think it's right or wrong. I don't think it's right. I'll just say that I think when you're talking to the company, they look and they go, well, there's no way we can make money off of an arcade game. And I don't mean literally an arcade game. I mean a video game, arcade style. Just Crazy Taxi again in modern, you know, all this. Like, there's no way we could make enough money. What they mean is enough money. Right? You can make money, but Sega doesn't want one digit profits. They want double digit profits. Right. Everybody does. And so you fall for this siren song of. But what. Listen, we've seen a lot of live service.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Fucking immediately smashed on the rocks. But what if we're not one of them? What if we. What if we take the brand of Crazy Taxi and go further with it?

[B]

But I totally understand that. But it breaks my brain once you get into the Crazy Taxi part of it. Not because Crazy Taxi isn't beloved. It is beloved. But even like skate I think just gets over the line of like, no, we should do this with skate. Because skate is just popular enough. Hey, sorry. Really quick, Miller, can you unplug your microphone and plug it back in? This one's not used. All the dancing. I'm dancing. There you go. Skate, I think, just gets over the line. I don't know if skate. Are we staticy? Yeah, let me maybe. Let me change that mic.

[A]

Yeah. The wire box.

[B]

I muted you, Greg, just because it was making so much static. Give me two seconds. Okay, cool. Well, while he's doing this, I'll explain my point. Right. I think. And we can share the microphone if you want to come over here as well. But I think this. Tell me this is crazy to say. Crazy Taxi doesn't have the juice of skate. Is that. Is that crazy?

[A]

That's why we're the best friends. No, I don't think you're wrong. Right. Because what are we talking about? Every time there was any ea. Anything for seven years, it was Skate.

[B]

Skate where?

[A]

Skate. Skate four. Skate four. And like you, when I'm watching the RGG direct from Sega, they're like, where's Crazy Taxi? Yeah. No.

[B]

And so I think I come back around to it of the thing of. All right, I totally understand where you're at as Sega wanting to put out these games. I just get. I get worried that they're not going to come out. Even if they come out and fail, I don't give a fuck if I get to play these games.

[A]

It's just one of those things of. I think that, you know, the money's down, It's a sunk cost.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

They've talked enough about their super games and they've done these little tease videos of what they're doing.

[B]

These things are coming that's worse. I'm gonna.

[A]

Worse. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

I'm sorry. I'm gonna change out the XLR cable. Really?

[A]

Give me a stick mic when you come through, turn on nine. I'll get nine.

[B]

So my thing is, as Greg goes to do that, I. I would think that there's two paths here, right? You do the Crazy Taxi thing, open world, live service, yada yada, or you go the exact opposite way and go make it small.

[A]

Of course. I mean, like, well, that's you and me being sensible. Yeah, that's you and me understanding the video game business. Like, yes, what they should have done probably is like, yes, we're doing a downloadable only499 crazy taxi. Yeah, you know what I mean?

[B]

Which is why I come back to like the mobile game thing, which I wouldn't want a mobile game. Right.

[A]

But like, like the big problem too is like, you know, Crazy Taxi, at least for me. I mean, I think the Offspring. I mean, I think a Pizza Hut. I mean, it's like when you go to 499, that's when nobody's. Nobody's giving you money to license any of that. Oh, you know what I mean? Now I think it'd be interesting of like, again, are we getting that with this new our Business Brain, you have to. You have to have a good soundtrack, Right.

[B]

Do you in 2026 anymore? I think you do have Spotify open anyway.

[A]

Yeah, but nobody ever accepts that as an answer, right? I think for this one, yeah, you would have to have that. And I think you would. Business Brain. I would look at it as, you know, fucking Build a Bear Workshop, Domino's, Whoever wants to have a business in the thing, let's be frank. Build a Bear is an untapped marketing resource Inside Think. I don't know.

[B]

Crazy Tag.

[A]

Take me to Build a Bear.

[B]

I think you partner with like a platformer or something with a character.

[A]

No, no, you got to go to Build a Bear. Take me to Pizza Hut. Take me to Build a Bear. You know.

[B]

Okay. What do you want it like that I can see it get us to do VO in the. In Crazy Taxi.

[A]

We're available. What the fuck, man? You know what I mean? We'll work cheap, I think. Can I. Should I wait Kev to go to. Okay, sure, sure, sure. So, yeah, I don't know. I think in general, I think with the economic headwinds we face as a video game industry, Crazy Taxi and Jet Set are doomed to fail. Yes, yes. But it's like doomed to fail no matter what. And maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Sega has a what?

[B]

Oh, no.

[A]

Maybe Sega has a good head on their shoulders. I'm going to turn off 9 then. But I'll keep it out here in case anything else happens.

[B]

That's working a lot better. Right, there we go.

[A]

Maybe they have a good head on their shoulders. Maybe they set their expectations correctly here in terms of what they're going to, you know what they can actually what the juice they can extract from this. We just don't see big businesses do that often.

[B]

What was the, what was the 2D platformer that everybody here loved?

[A]

Oh, I can see shinobi art of. Oh no. What was that one shitty one they put out? Balance Wonderland.

[B]

That's the opposite ones.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The 2D act.

[A]

I didn't know. I thought you were doing it in.

[B]

A position second made that. And I think they had the right head on their shoulders with that. Hey, let's give it to these people that know what they're doing. Let's make it a 2D thing. Let's not overcomplicate it. Like let's make a good ass video game.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's all I'm asking for for these things. So when you read that I'm like.

[A]

As a Crazy Taxi fan and I, I, I don't look at this and go that's going to be dog shit. Because I think of how much I love Tetris 99, how much we liked Mario 35. 99, whatever. Where I assume it's going to be. Hey, hey, it's however many players are playing at one Albert's in it. That's how you remember that. Hey, hey, hey. You all ready to make some crazy money? That's how Crazy Taxi starts. Do your fucking research. You know what I mean?

[B]

I was playing.

[A]

You came in here story number one.

[B]

I was playing Simpsons Road Rage but.

[A]

It'S gon and then 10, 15, 100, whatever taxis take off and it's just all competing for fares getting the thing and it's like how long can you outlast everybody else? That should be the game.

[B]

And that sounds, that does sound fun. Yeah.

[A]

It sounds like it also be kind of easy to make. Yeah. We've been waiting a long time.

[B]

All right, well we'll see if and why.

[A]

Nice blight says is this an actual story? No, this is because blessings wearing a jet set, radio sweats.

[B]

Yeah, I wore a sweatshirt. Just led to the whole conversation. Let's get into the actual show. We remember if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting on YouTube.com kindafunnygames I'm gonna do a quick check to see if anybody's in there. Talking about Crazy Taxi. Demon Hacker writes in and says Crazy Taxi without offsprings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When was the last great licensed soundtrack? Think about that. Let's see here. Brandle, Josh says Fortnite and spongebob. Crazy Taxi. Just put it. Just put it Fortnite. That's what they say. They say just put it Fortnite.

[A]

Fortnite. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Oh, just put it in Fortnite. And then we have some other ones that are unrelated. OMGLX writes in and says a day late but RIP Anthem. Is there a possibility that Anthem being Sunset is to set the scene for a proper reveal of EA's Iron man game? Absolutely not.

[A]

We have to get. We have to kill this one before we can. We gotta make sure nobody remembers one in, one out. A life for a life, a soul for a soul.

[B]

And then the captain here writes it in and says, this is my birthday tax. Thanks for being awesome dudes. Happy birthday, Captain.

[A]

Happy birthday.

[B]

Yeah. Another birthday tax from Chikirita who says birthday tax. My name is Nick and it's my birthday too. I am also old as hell. Thanks for all the laughs. Kind of funny.

[A]

Happy to be there for you. Happy to make you laugh.

[B]

Those are all the super chats. What was the last great licensed soundtrack?

[A]

Here's what I'm going to say. It's a cop out answer. I feel like I'm not up to date anymore. On your Maddens. On your. Okay. Because I feel like Madden always. Not always, but they would often bring a banger soundtrack of stuff. Lucky boys. Confusion in there that one time like, you know, I mean they had stuff going on.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So I don't know.

[B]

That's fair. There's a.

[A]

Speaks to nostalgia and to your point, I don't know what the youth wants when they turn on a video game. If they are turn off all this shit. Probably right. Turn off all this shit. And I want to listen to my music.

[B]

Yeah. I think. I think music is in such a different place especially like the accessibility of music because oftentimes I'm playing Tony Hawk so I can hear those songs. Back in the day, you know, I didn't have Spotify so if I wanted.

[A]

To listen I haven't been on it. But you guys have referenced a few times the GTA stories stations in the country music. Yeah, Hell yeah.

[B]

I remember that. Like I used to leave on GTA radio because in San Andreas you could. There's like a pause menu thing where you can just listen to the radios. I just leave that on in my room.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I think it's a different time, but also like there are people in chat that are mentioning other sports games. Somebody mentioned hi Fi Rush, which does have a great licensed soundtrack, but that's also a music game.

[A]

See, I feel like, I think the.

[B]

The option would be for Crazy Taxi if you could get back all those songs. I think that's how you do it. I just don't have trust that you'll be able to do that.

[A]

No, I don't either. Yeah. Yeah.

[B]

Thank you to our Patreon producers. By the way, Karl Jacobs, we'll eventually.

[A]

Get to the news.

[B]

Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have seven stories today. Baker's does hey, Tech keeps saying Brutal Legend, which is a game that. Okay, that's a long time ago though. I'm looking for recent games. I'm looking for modern games. Story number one, Speaking of modern gaming, in a very sad way, Meta has closed several studios, including Explosion Man Studio, Twisted Pixel and Asgard Wrath. Sanzaru Games this is Chris Scolion at Video Games Chronicle. Meta has closed several of its VR studios, according to developers who have announced they have been laid off. The New York Times reported on Monday that Meta was planning to cut around 10% of the employees in its Reality Labs division, which works on products including the Metaverse. Reality Labs is also home to Oculus Studios, the division of Meta that runs its first party game development studios. These layoffs appear to have now started, and the game studios appear to be part of the cuts. Andy Gentile, a designer at Twisted Pixel Games, posted on X that he had just lost his job as part of the closures. Quote I've just been laid off, he wrote. It appears the entire Twisted Pixel game studio has been shut down since Zaru Games 2, end quote. This was corroborated by Ray West, a senior level designer at Sanzaru, who wrote on LinkedIn, quote well, as many will hear soon, several metagame studios were closed today, including Sanzaru. End quote. Twisted Pixel Games was founded in 2006 and 2006 and was responsible for critically acclaimed Xbox Live Arcade titles the Maw, Explosion Man, Missplosion man and Comic Jumper. The studio was acquired by Meta in November 2021 and released Marvel's Deadpool VR on Meta Quest 3 last year. Saint Zaru was also founded in 2006 and mostly worked on ports and remasters of Sony titles Like Secret Agent Clank, the Sly Collection, and God of war collection. In 2019, the studio released Asgard's Wrath on the original Oculus Rift before being acquired by Facebook before it became Meta to work on Asgard's Wrath 2, which was included as a free launch game on Meta Quest 3. It's been reported that Meta plans to reduce its focus on VR devices and the Metaverse as it pivots to focus on other divisions such as AI research and its wearables division, which includes smart glasses and wristband computing devices.

[A]

Greg Boo, this one hits harder than usual in terms of the amount of layoffs we had. I saw this on the way in because kind of funny Games Daily Roger shared it and then, you know, the day already started getting away from me. So of course sitting here the first thing I do is start texting the people I know. Sanzaru, a studio that's been around my life a long time. Of course they did this like Cooper Games as you just talked about right after Sucker Punch. They are Bay Area. They are right down next to PlayStation HQ which is why it was cool when they worked together and then crazy when they didn't. And then of course movies over to Meta and becoming this stuff. I know those folks well. I know Glenn and Matt very, very well business wise and have bumped into them in the Bay Area a few times and stuff like that. So it's like that sucks and that's crazy and like I'm of two minds about it. This is an interesting story and a fun one to talk about from our perspective right in our job where my heart goes out to these guys. Like this sucks right? And then my head of course is like yes, VR's dead. You know what I mean? To try as hard as you want in might like VR never got the traction people wanted it to get. The fact that Zanzaru, the folks who did Asgard's Wrath, which was like 10, it got a 10 out of 10.

[B]

As guard's wrath 2.

[A]

10 out of 10 like it was a full fledged gamers game. This is what VR can be for the gamers. Yada yada yada. The fact that they're the studio closed. Yeah not that it's like we've whittled it down and does and I'm not even trying to be rude and at all say kill them, save them, that kind of thing but like Camouflage a studio we also love that's now owned by Meta. Of course that did Iron man VR. We know Ryan Payton, he's been a supporter of Kind of funny for a long time. Iron man VR, Batman VR. If you were telling me, hey, one of those studios is going to get closed in this, I would go probably camouflage. Right. Just based on the fact that Asgard's wrath was so good, it got bought by Meta to then make Asgard's Wrath 2. That got a 10 out of 10. Like, clearly you're going to keep them around and I'm not. That's, again, fair. I'm picking between people. I literally know my name and bring to my house.

[B]

Twisted Pixel just put out Deadpool. So I. That one surprises me as well a little bit. Not even for the fact that Deadpool sold a billion units. But we're talking about. When we're talking about the scope of VR games, you'd say all those things about Asgard's Raft 2. That's true. It got a 10 out of 10. It gets highly regarded, all that stuff. And Deadpool was nominated at the Game Awards.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Which might be more. Yeah, I don't know. But it might be more of an indictment on where VR gaming is at. Where it is. All right. These are the games that we have that are nominated.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

A month later, ah, this studio is closed down.

[A]

Right. 76 right now on Metacritic for Deadpool. Right. Nothing to sneeze at. It's a VR game, you know, but it's the same thing where it's like, I did the preview for it before Game Awards, before sgf, and it was like, yeah, it's Deadpool, but it's like not what I want to go do. That's not what I want out of an. I'm a flat screener. You know what I mean? Like, I understand, like, there is a passionate audience there for VR. And I say this and I understand there's a passionate audience for you. I understand there's incredibly talented developers that I'm texting with right now that love VR and all this stuff. The problem here is that when people saw VR, it was a gold rush. It was the next big thing. It was NFTs, it was AI. It was this thing that we can go to expand video games. Where at the time we were a maturing market, now we are mature. It's gonna expand, it'll bring in new people. It's money, money, money. We can make money. And that's why you saw people like Meta go all in and gamble on it. And let's go, let's do this thing. Let's. Apple Vision Pro over at Apple. Let's get all the. And here you are where that didn't pan out the way they want it to. Whether it was good, bad or otherwise. It didn't get the astronomical profits these companies wanted from it and expected from it. And now what do they see? AI on the horizon. There's the gold rush run to that. That will be the money. That will be the thing. Buy up all the fucking RAM in the world.

[B]

You bring up the Apple Vision Pro and I think that one is very fascinating just for, I guess, seeing what juice is left, if there is any juice left in VR period. Not just VR gaming. Right. Because the Apple Vision Pro I view as more of like a equivalent to a desktop experience.

[A]

Agreed. I toss it in there because of course there was the gaming component to it, but they were smart about it. Of this is going to replace your monitor, this is going to do this thing. And it's even that thing where I am so sad to see this happen. I hate my friends losing their jobs. I hate the industry trying to find its way. I get excited at the end of it though. It's reported that META plans to reduce the focus on VR devices and the metaverse. Fuck the metaverse. First off, as it pivots to other divisions such as AI research. Fuck that. And it's a wearables division where I go, ooh, smart glasses and wristband. I'm wearing my meta Ray Bans right now.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which are good for filming and listening and taking calls and stuff. But I want the heads up display and I want it to be. And I want better battery on these and I want wearing my Apple Watch. Like I like that. That's exciting to me.

[B]

Yeah, I think there's a, there could be a balance out here because right now I look at all this on the gaming side, I'm like, oh, damn gam. Like even, even the biggest or the most. More of the notable VR studios we're seeing are getting closed down, are seeing layoffs. The Pistol Whip developer we talked about this last week saw layoffs as well. And so we're seeing this kind of across the board. But I, I'm, I don't want to write off the technology because the technology, I think there's something there. I think there is something special about being in VR and like, like my first time playing a beat saber, my first time like, oh yeah, watching like a VR video, like it's, it's, there's cool shit to do there. Right. And I think even with the Apple Vision Pro there could be cool shit to do there. But I think now that we're kind of past this video game wave, or we're seeing this video game wave kind of like, I guess, crater a little bit. I guess we. I'm curious to see as we get into more of the utility of it, does that then bring the video game part back up? That is, settle into the utility. Now there's more space to make video games around it.

[A]

The question about, like, you know, Apple Vision Pro, I think looks ridiculous and it's huge and clunky and all this stuff. But again, it's the same reason I never would have bought Google Glass back in the day. But I was happy people were, and they were experimenting because I know eventually it'll get to this form factor. And that's my thought as well. If you go and do Apple Vision Pro and it's giving you the widescreen monitor, it's doing all the stuff our xreal glasses do. Right. In terms of like, plugging, if you're eventually going to get it down to this form factor, then I think there are interest and audio listeners. I'm pointing to my glasses and I'm wearing. Then you come back to, all right, what are the gaming applications there?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Because if it is all of a sudden that I'm sitting here and I am just grabbing my dual sense Xbox controller or whatever, you know, the new Xbox controller that goes to the cloud or, you know, I mean, boom. And I'm hitting it and I'm saying, whatever. I'm. I'm playing a game in my thing. I'm looking and it's like I no longer feel cut off from the world.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I no longer feel like I have to have so much space around me. It's like if we start designing, if we can get the, the factor and the form factor wearable, if we get the experience. Cool. That doesn't feel lame. Like, VR feels lame. You feel lame when you're wearing, period. Yeah.

[B]

When I bust out my closet, dust it off, wear it at my desk, and I can feel people watching me or whatever, but I'm like, hey, this.

[A]

Is the only way I can play.

[B]

Luminous.

[A]

Arise. Yeah, you know, the only way in.

[B]

This specific way, you know.

[A]

Yeah, there's a lot interesting there, but I think, I don't know, it's back to what we're talking about. Sega and in general, video game companies. Right. In companies in general, of like, they're not in this for the little profit, they're in this for the big profit. So I think you could have done something, you know, if you, if, if VR, if there was A VR headset that was made by a small company. Think of the Nex playground thing. That's right. And it was like, cool. We are just doing this and we're gonna make cool games for it. Play Date. We're gonna do this thing and make.

[B]

Stuff for xreal its own company. Or are they owned by their.

[A]

Their own company? To my knowledge.

[B]

Because I. I'm not that this is like a direction that they want to do or whatever, but, like, I could see the way that you're talking about smaller wearables, more wearables that are more. I can wear this and not feel like an idiot.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think that's like the kind of company you're talking about. Right. Like, if they were to pivot into, hey, can we make exclusive. Not even can we make software that is catered to this experience.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I do think you're right in that. That could be something really cool.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And maybe have a bit more potential to see.

[A]

But, I mean, that's why. That's where you again, get to trying to put the cart before the horse or just design for an audience, you know, actually be there and so on and so forth. Right. And I think that's why, like, you know, for as much as we talk about video games and peripherals and yeti, it's interesting we don't talk about Play Date more. And not. Not in a way of, like, I've, you know, whatever. I'm not interested by the games. I know lipo came out to other things that I haven't done it. But more the idea that Panic was just like, cool. Yeah. Like, you know, we published Goose Game and Fire Wash. And so, like, I assume we're doing pretty well monetarily. So we're gonna make this little weird thing. Yeah, we're just doing it because we want to. You want to buy. You don't want to buy it. No big deal. You want to make games. Like, that's like the kind of, like, we are making a device for artists to make things for. And if we're making for an audience, that'll come to it. And like, yeah, that's what we're doing. Not like we're like, that was a kiss to death here. Right. Of like, I'm sure. I'm not saying you shouldn't have done it. Don't get me wrong, but when Zanzaro gets purchased by Meta, that's all Rosie. While Meta cares about VR. But as soon as they don't, boom. And that's why I do. If I'm camouflaged. Like if I'm Ryan Payton, like fuck. Oh yeah. You know, I mean like I assume I know nothing that they're working on another Batman game because that was successful enough, but now when the new WB overlords come in from Netflix, are they gonna want this? And Meta is like, I don't have.

[B]

To linger on this topic too long. But like yeah, to the Saint Zaru thing, I that sucks to be able to put out Asgard's wrath one and have this idea for Asgard's wrath too. Right? Get acquired, you put it out, it's a masterpiece. And then get closed down because. Because Meta doesn't have the vision for you where it's like we're we did the thing, we put out a 10 out of 10 game. We're so we're big in VR right now and we fucking.

[A]

We're doing the best.

[B]

We're doing the best we possibly could be doing. We get shut down because Meta doesn't have a vision for us. That sucks.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Story number two if I can scroll down Steam Machine Speaking of more VR stuff, even though Machine specifically is in VR, Steam Machine Verified requirements will have fewer constraints then Steam Deck says Valve this is from Brian Francis at Game Developer as interest in Valve's recently announced Steam Machine continues to swirl, developers have had plenty of reason to wonder what will be needed to attract player interest on the platform. While the company still hasn't released pricing info for the Steam OS based hardware, it has shed some light on its verification process in a new interview with game developer, according. According to Valve designer Lawrence Yang, developers hoping for a Steam Machine Verified badge can expect fewer constraints and than a Steam Deck verification quote. One easy rule of thumb is that your title is verified on Steam Deck. It will be verified on Steam Machine, yang continued. VR developers seeking Steam Frame verification may expect a different process, though Yang said Valve will, quote, be going through the same rounds of testing and providing developer feedback, end quote, as it does for other verification programs. The Steam Deck Verified badge has proven to be more than a mere quality assessor when releasing games on Steam. It also has been a major marketing beat for developers. Once so potent, companies like Microsoft owned Bethesda are publicizing Steam Deck Verified status for classic games like Quake. A Verified badge also means your game might appear on the Great On Deck section of the Steam Store, the default store page found when accessing the marketplace on the device. Valve didn't provide additional technical requirements for earning the Steam Machine Verified status. That was a lot to say there.

[A]

Slow news day kind of Funny.

[B]

Yeah. Like a little bit of slow news day. But the question I have out of this is, do you think the Steam machine, that Verified Badge is going to mean anything remotely close to the Steam Deck Verified Badge?

[A]

I do. No, no, no, I definitely do. I think, you know, again, to bring it back to the headlines of this week and last week, as we talk about RAM prices, I think you're going to see a chilling effect on building the next great PC. And I think it's going to be people who are sticking with their hardware longer. And so I think it suddenly becomes that if I look at this and I have, of course, the razor blade, that's fucking awesome. And top of the line right now. Right. But I have a couple towers sitting around the house like, you know, old Lenovo. And then just one, I think I bought out. No, I bought off Anthony Gaius. I don't know if it's still that one. It doesn't matter. But it's that idea of like, for those less powerful machines, if I see this badge, I'm going to be like, and this is what I assume are comparable to a Steam machine. I'm going to be like, oh, okay, then that does mean it can run. And I think as you see people who are trying to figure out what they can still do with their machine, I think that, yeah, this will speak to them in terms of, okay, cool, this is able to run on a less powerful system. Yeah, you think so what you're, you know, you, you PC game a lot too.

[B]

I think the Steam Deck is such a one of one thing. It's hard for me to think that that will be as exciting. Like the great Honesty Machine page. Right. Like, is that a thing that even needs to exist? Is that a thing that. I think it.

[A]

Well, I mean, you know, I think it does because there's going to be the. This runs like dog shit on the Steam machine page. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[B]

But it all comes down to the sales of the Steam machine.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I'm. As we've had these RAM prices and as we've had the overarching conversation around video game, video game hardware prices particularly, I'm not sold that this is going to be as successful as I thought it was going to be when it was first announced.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Just based on like they might have to sell this thing for way more than they actually want to sell this thing. I think the ideal world would be this comes out for $600, 500, $600. That's not going to happen. Yeah. And so if there's not a wide adoption for this thing. And when I say wide adoption, I'm just talking about like enough people have it so that there is like kind of an impactful oh, we need to make a store page for it. We need to do XYZ thing for it. Because people like developers are going to use this as a marketing beat in the way that they're using the Verified for Steam Deck thing as a marketing beat. I don't know if we're going to get there.

[A]

Interesting. Yeah, okay, I see that part. I see that part. Yeah, I don't. I think it would be. You're. What you'll get is the combo over Steam Deck slash machine Verified. I think that's the marketing beat. Right. Of what you put out there.

[B]

Yeah. Combine the two. Yeah, that makes sense. Greg, let's move on and talk about Hellblade. But before we do, I want to tell you about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com kind of funny games where you can go and 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.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Rocket Money. The amount of times Mike has signed up for something, forgotten about it after the trial period ends, and then been charged month after month after month is quite frankly, terrifying. He didn't even realize he was paying for SoundCloud for 10 years until Rocket Money helped find and cancel his unwanted subscriptions. But he is not alone. So many people have at least least one paid subscription going unused each month. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscriptions, monitors your spending, and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. Thanks to Rocket Money, you can see all of your subscriptions in one place and cancel them within the app with just a few taps, saving time and avoiding charges. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. [e-mail] Kinda Funny that's RocketMoney.com Kinda Funny RocketMoney.com KindaFunny this episode is brought to you by Factor. It's a new year, which means new goals and even more things to take up our time. That's why so many of us here at Kinda Funny Love Factor Factor makes it easy with fully prepared meals designed by dietitians and crafted by chefs so you can eat well without the shopping or cooking. On many occasions, Factor has completely saved me and Jen when we needed it most. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meal options including premium seafood choices like salmon and shrimp at no extra cost. Enjoy even more GLP1 friendly meals and new Mediterranean diet options packed with protein and good for you fats. Feel the difference no matter your routine? Head to factor meals.com kinda funny 50 off and use the code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off your first factor box plus free breakfast for a year offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase. Make healthier eating easy with factor. Hey you. Join us in person for our live in review of Howard the Duck. That's right, Howard the Duck joins MCU in review Wednesday, January 28th at 7:30pm at Cobbs Comedy Club for SF Sketch Fest. You can come watch me do all the podcasts within a podcast you love. Andy'll be going, Nick will be shopping for pants during it, but everybody else will be there too for you to come hang out and see. All you have to do is go over to kind of funny.com sketch fest right now to get your tickets before they sell out because come and watching a bunch of people talk about a very old Howard the Duck movie is really selling tickets fast.

[B]

And we're back with story number three, new Hellblade that's more of a Game reportedly in the works Ninja Theory is no longer working on Project Morrow. This is from Tom Phillips at IGN Xbox studio. Ninja Theory is working on a third major Hellblade game, a new report has suggested, this time with more interactive elements. Two Hellblade titles have released to date, featuring Celtic warrior Senua in battles against monsters and her own mental health. Both have been widely praised for their visuals and story, though, have also caught flack for prioritizing cinematography over gameplay. A new third Hellblade title in development at Ninja Theory will respond to that criticism by focusing on being more of a game, according to Windows Central editor Jess Corden speaking on the Xbox two podcast. At the same time, Cordon said that Ninja Theory was no longer working on Project Mara, an experimental title announced by Microsoft back in 2020. Quote from what I understand, the next game from Ninja theory is Hellblade 3, Corden said, and it's going to be a bit more interactive than Hellblade 1 and 2. I don't know what the exact nature of Hellblade 3 is going to be like, if it's even going to be Hellblade 3, but it does sound like it's going to be in the Hellblade universe and does sound like they want to make it more of a game you know, and broaden the appeal to some degree. End quote. Project Mara was announced as one of the several titles being worked on at Ninja theory back in 2020 alongside Hellblade 2, Bleeding Edge, and a separate R and D project described as an ambitious, ambitious combination of technology, game design and clinical neuroscience. The years since have revealed that the studio has been working on Microsoft's generative AI model Muse, as part of a project that. That generates clips of simulated gameplay. Quote, you guys. You guys shouldn't expect Project Mara to be a thing. Corden claimed Project Mara was just a concept. It's not a game, and it's not a game that they're currently working on. It might be something they work on eventually, but Project Mara is not a game that's currently being worked on at Ninja Theory. End quote.

[A]

I like how they're like, oh, you shouldn't expect. I mean, I know it's jazz or whatever, but it's like, why would we not expect that? When you made a trailer and it was. The whole thing is like, you don't know what's real or not. Do you remember this thing? I was about to show it.

[B]

I remember loosely. I remember because I remember it was probably in the same drop where they posted, I think, an image of their office lobby.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. It was this one where. And it's going to go back to those stairs. And we were all like, all right, stairs. Like, those are in game. We're like, whoa, what the fuck are you talking about?

[B]

Yeah, I. Man, Ninja Theory is in such an interesting place to me because pre Hellblade 2, Sidu Saga. Yeah, Hellblade 2, I was in a place where I would have even told you, even post Bleeding Edge, I was like, yo, Ninja Theory, they got the stuff. They got the stuff. They are one of the most innovative studios in the game. And I still stand by that. From the technical aspect, I still do think Ninja Theory has so much good to provide. I get worried that they're not used in the right way because Hellblade 2 came through. I wasn't the biggest fan of it. Even though I loved Hellblade 1, the stairs stuff did actually kind of excite me just for, like, oh, yeah, I want to see what they're doing with. With innovating on technology. Because Hellblade 1 did a lot of that. But hearing that a lot of their work is being put on the AI model Muse, I'm kind of like, oh, okay, yeah, this studio that's doing big things is now working on AI.

[A]

This is what happens I feel like when you have something hot like the original Hellblade, that catches people off guard. Put on the headphones, we're doing this thing. It's a deep dive into this. It's a small team, it's a small game. Oh my God. And then you start going, all right, well what's the next one? And the next one. And I know Ninja Theory has been around for a while, but in terms of this is the sophomore slump, right. It's the second one and it's like, oh, okay. It's not that you're a one hit wonder again. They've made more games than the summerware, but it's the idea, like you did something truly special there and you followed it up with, oh, oh, okay, this wasn't. It didn't take the lessons people wanted you to take from the first one and really apply to the sequel. And so then you had to have them then pull the plug on Project Mara. Okay. And it's like, well, we weren't, we were excited when you were the studio that's doing random ass weird shit. But then you had a sequelitis situation and now you're out of that. And so now we're looking at a third one. It's like, well, can I get. I'm not going to get excited for the third Hellblade until I know what it is and why, how you've changed it and what it's going to give me that the other ones.

[B]

Does it being more of a game do anything for you?

[A]

Yeah, I mean, that was a downside to Hellblade 2 for me. Like, Hellblade 1, I wasn't even a big fan of either. I watched Jen play through the entire thing, platinum it. And then it was. Hellblade 2 came around and I jumped in there and reviewed it and I was not vibing. I didn't feel like I was. It was. It's beautiful. Sure. Great performances, sure. But like, what are we doing in this game? Like, I want to do things in the game, right. I'm playing a video game. I need to be playing it, enjoying the gameplay loop.

[B]

Yeah, I, I'm in such a weird place with it because Hellblade 1, I don't look at these Hellblade games and go, these aren't a video game enough for me. Even, even Hellblade 1, like, Hellblade 1 didn't have the best combat by any means, but I think they did something so good with the art of it and conveying Senua's psychosis and even like the Rot thing. Right. Of if you die too many times, the rot will consume you and you lose your save file. Even though that's a lie. And that's all part of the theme thematic element of the game. I thought that that was very cool and satisfying and like, I even like the puzzle design. Right. They had a lot of weird.

[A]

Line up the rooms.

[B]

Line up the rooms and do the thing. Right. And for me, that worked for me, that was great gameplay. I just don't know if Hellblade 2 brought the same level of that for me. And it's not that there's not enough game for me. It's just the thing of. I don't know if you have as much more to say, like in this world necessarily. I would be down for a new game, like a new ip.

[A]

I would be. That's my thing. I'd be way more excited if it was cool. We are. We have a new ip, we're doing a new thing.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Now we're doing a Hellblade 3, but it might not be Hellblade 3, but it might be in the universe, but it's like, no, no, no Hellblade.

[B]

But we have count. We have parries this time. Even though I'm pretty sure they had parries.

[A]

Yeah. But they weren't satisfying. Yeah.

[B]

But yeah, I mean, I want good things for Ninja.

[A]

I want good things for all these developers.

[B]

Yeah. Story number four. EA is getting more shit than they deserve. Split Fiction director Joseph Ferris defends Hayes Light's publishing partner. This is Chris Scolion at Video Games Chronicle. Hazelight Studio founder Joseph Ferris has defended Electronic Arts, saying he believes the publisher has been vilified more than others. EA has published all three of Hayes Light's games to date. A way out. It takes two in Split Fiction. And Ferris is adamant that his studio's relationship with the publisher is a strong one. In an interview with the game business, Ferris was asked about Hayes Light's relationship with ea, given that the studio has a reputation for being rebellious and EA has a reputation as a large corporation. Ferris replied that the partnership continues to work very well in his opinion, and that he believes EA gets more criticism than it warrants at times, quote. There are a lot of great people at ea, he explained. They know how we work, they respect it, and they leave us be. Let's be honest, there's. There's not a publisher in the world that hasn't fucked up now and then. Sometimes I feel that EA is getting more shit than they deserve. I mean, come on, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, everybody's done something that's not good. For some reason EA has become the bad guy. Or he has. EA has become this bad guy for us. It's a super good collaboration. I'm very open about. If it was bad, I would have said that in this interview as well. But we have a great relationship. I'm not saying that they haven't done any mistakes like every other publisher. All the, all the people I'm surrounded with at EA are gamers. They love games. It's not like I'm sitting with corporate people with suits. It's not like that. And people should not worry because Hazelight will always do what it wants. End quote. Another one that leans a little bit non newsy, but I like the conversation. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

I mean, spoiler alert. He's not wrong. Like it's not a popular thing to say. If anything, EA was just the first corporation that dropped the mask. EA was the EA was light years in front of everyone. You've seen recently pick profits over people. Like they were just always, they've always been that, they've always been that. And so when it was I was at IGN and they were consecutively getting voted the most evil company in the world, it was because why you're not making another crazy taxi. You're, you're, you're doubling down on the sports games that make bajillions of dollars. You're putting in Ultimate Team and doing this stuff that now every game, you know what I mean? Like the same thing. People wanted to drag fucking people out of the goddamn EA building. Peter Moore and well, Peter Moore was pretty good, especially with the unraveled bit we always talk about from 2015. But you know, going in there and grabbing all these CEOs, right? Andrew Wilson, drag them into the streets and just hard feather them. Like that's 2K. Does the exact same thing with NBA. And granted you could be like, well, EA started it. Well, sure. But inevitably somebody in the corporate capitalism conscious was going to figure this out of how to monetize every fucking thing out of video game. And so yeah, he's not wrong. And I mean especially for the argument he's making of like, yeah, I'm in room, I'm in the room with gamers all the time at EA, you 100% are. And then you go up that fucking food chain to get to the top and it's some fucking guy in a blazer and a blue collared sweatshirt or I'm sorry, blue collared shirt, no tie, khaki pants, talking about all the Acquisitions and the things and the synergies and the whatnot. And it's like. And I mean, like, obviously, the thing I'm ignoring for the argument I'm making right now is Saudi Arabia.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Yeah, of course, Saudi Arabia. Right. But I would say let's take Saudi Arabia out of the conversation, for one.

[B]

Let's take Saudi Arabia.

[A]

Well, because I mean, like, let's.

[B]

Well, here's the thing. I was going to make the same argument as you because I was going to be. I was going to say pre Saudi Arabia acquisition and Kushner, like, yeah, I would have been all the way with him because I make the argument that I. EA has been on an upward trajectory compared to where they were in the 20 times.

[A]

And that's my thing is if to take away the Saudi Arabia, because we will get to that. I'm not giving him a pass on it. It's the thing of. All right, what are the horrible things EA has done? They up Battlefront with Loot Boxes.

[B]

Oh, yeah, I was going to say loot boxes.

[A]

Monetization in these games, of course. But again, this is where I'm like, everyone does that.

[B]

Ultimate team.

[A]

They were just the first people to really get there on that scale and do it. Like, are we going to look at. For. Are we going to look at Fortnite that just fucking yesterday or whatever activated in game purchases and immediately in the games that the people are making? And there's one, like, fucking $15,000. It's like, here's the thing.

[B]

Think about how much we love Valve.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Think about how much we talk of Valve. Not just me and you. I'm talking about the gamer world at large. Look at Counter Strike. Nothing is more egregious than the gambling that goes on at Counter Strike. Absolutely Nothing. Like, watch YouTube video essays, y'. All. That shit is fucking crazy. We should be dunking on Valve and hating on Valve, like maybe multiple times more than we do on ea. But, like, I do think that comes back to kind of what you're talking about, right? Of like, EA was kind of. They kind of paved the way for like this level of why they're the.

[A]

Biggest publisher in the United States. Right. That was like their whole thing, why they got acquired by Saudi Arabia.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So to bring that in, which is a completely different ball of wax to bring in the pif, right. And talk about what Saudi Arabia is doing and they're coming in and they're going to own the Maduro. Like when I. If you want to talk about that. And then you Want to talk about this quote from Ferris and the conversations he's having? Yes. And this is why I feel so fucking terrible for the hundreds, probably thousands of people who work at EA and aren't like, first off going to get any benefit from Saudi Arabia owning them. Are just trying to make a living. Are just trying to make video games. Are just trying to do that. Fucking be the accountant for ea. I don't care if you're like. But like, you don't want to fudgeing. Be owned by Saudi Arabia. And now you got bought by Saudi Arabia. It's like, what the fuck do you do? Because your whole. You're the breadwinner of the family and you all live around the EA campus. If. Yeah, they're forcing you work like you need. That's your fucking job that just got bought. Like, that's. Now you got everybody fucking mad at you on the outside. And on the inside you're like, are we about to get fucked over? Who's getting laid off? What are they going to do? How long? Like, there's so much turmoil to that to begin with. Yeah. Let alone then the. The fact that Saudi Arabia sucks, right? The PIF sucks. They murder. They were okay murdering a Washington Post journalist. Crown Prince Muhammad, you know what I mean? Like, and he's the guy in charge of the pif. I'm not saying anything about Saudi Arabia, the people of Saudi Arabia. You know what I mean? I don't. I don't know you. I don't know anything about it. I'm talking about the pif. I'm talking about the Crown Prince. I'm talking about this, like. And they're coming in to buy this thing, to continue to use video games to wash the reputation around the world.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So, yeah, I feel really bad for EA in that sense. The people who work at EA not.

[B]

Even start with the Jared Kushner side of things. Right.

[A]

Like, don't even.

[B]

The whole other bag of worms.

[A]

What if I was like, well, he's a pretty good guy.

[B]

He'll turn. Yeah.

[A]

So. But it's like, yeah. Like, I don't know. Back in the day when they were the most evil corporation, I was like, well, this is very overblown.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And so even now, I think it's. They've. They're on the uptick. And again, minus the anger of Saudi Arabia buying them, it is then just the thing of, like, for the longest time it's been like, yeah, they're just doing it. And like, I saw what I was like, what are they doing people like buy. Where it's like, all right, well should we start going through every fucking studio? Microsoft and Xbox have fucked up. You know what I mean? Like PlayStation, like we're. I mean, there's a million of these things and it's all chasing the almighty fucking dollar.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

How can we go make people, make us money. We'll fucking make Anthem.

[B]

That'll work. Yeah. So you don't put. You don't file this under CEO. Say the darndest things for Joseph.

[A]

Yeah, no, I think it might be that thing of like, you know, we've listened to. I've talked to Joseph, obviously. We've listened to him on many things. I think it's that thing where he's just very casually talking about this and like they're getting in the weak question I'm sure in a society threw out there and it was when I. I don't know. I think he. I think he's got a. A real good argument to stand on. I just think it's not fun to say that you don't hate EA or that EA isn't evil or whatever.

[B]

Well, let's see about how you feel about this next CEO story. Number five, Boss of Stellar Blade developer says it needs to use AI to compete with overwhelming manpower of China and US studios. This is from Vicky Blake at ign. Stellar Blake. Stellar Blake. Stellar Blade and director. I have a friend. He's stellar. His name is Blake. Stellar Blade CEO of Shift Up Young Tae Kim has stated that without the use of AI, developers in smaller nations will struggle to keep up with studios in places like the US and China. At first, as first reported by Game Mecca and picked up by Automaton, Kim addressed attendees at South Korea's 2026 Economic Growth Strategy event and said that countries like China have an overwhelming advantage due to the sheer number of staff it can throw at any video game development. Quote we devote around 150 people to a single game, but China puts in between a thousand and two to two thousand. We lack the capacity to compete both in terms of quality and volume of content, Kim said. Using AI will not result in job losses, Kim insisted, but instead make employees more valuable as one person can perform the work of 100 people. This week, Shift up gifted its 300 staff an Apple Watch, AirPod Max, and a $3,400 cash bonus. A sequel, Stellar Blade 2 is in development as well as Project Spirits, to be published by Level Infinite. Those bonuses are awesome though.

[A]

If you want me to forgive you.

[B]

For your AI usage, tell me you're Giving all your employees AI, Apple watches.

[A]

And so CEO say the darndest things.

[B]

CEO say the darndest things.

[A]

I let's, let's try to clinically take it apart and not get mad at each other. Chat is who I'm talking to. Right. For what he's saying, he's probably not wrong because it sounds to me of Mr. Kim maybe shouldn't make a game that big. You know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? It's like that's the idea of like I have to use AI to make this fucking game. Well, why aren't we making a smaller game that's handcrafted in doing this? And obviously maybe the vision is to be as big as possible. We're talking on the heels of stellar Blade, a game people really liked and how they would want it to be bigger, I'm sure. And yet you get into that conversation. But it's also the fact that I think when you talk about China putting out games, between a thousand and two thousand people working on them and yada, like, are those games? I, it's hard to talk about this because every gamer is different, right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But when we get to those kind of games that are that mass produced, that are that watered down, that are that what is the vision of it? Don't we get into this blase, like, what, what is this game? Like, I'd rather it be 150 people are working really hard on this game and I see their fucking thumbprint on it. I see, I know a person made that and that that's why it's quirky in this way or different in that way. But it's got a personality to it that I think would resonate with more audience members than the giant whatever. Like we talk about these China games all the time that come out that are free to play, that are this, that the other, that are, you know, the hero, the Genshins and all that jazz, which I know are successful. But like, yeah, are they people's favorite games of all time? What are we trying to create here? I guess with Shift Up.

[B]

Yeah, I mean, I think that's a really good question to ask. Right. What are we trying to create here? I I, there's so much to talk about here. Right? I, I, I think when he talks about like the China game, that's like being that that's being worked on by a million people who are competing. Right. Blackmith Wukong is the first that comes to mind. I don't know how many people worked on Black Myth.

[A]

Wukong Samson shouts out where winds meet, which is what I was looking for. And I don't remember. That is a China game, right?

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

I think so. Maybe not. But that one, I mean, that's an action RPG and several things. And like, we got it in review code. And I tried to get it and it was humongous. And I was like, whatever. And then it's like it got sixes and sevens and like, nobody's talking about that. Like, I know the numbers were great because it's free to play. People jumped in. But Chinese. Thank you. Yeah.

[B]

See, I'm in the conversation. I look at a Stellar Blade versus if Werewens beat it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Is a Chinese game, right? Or Black Myth Wukong. I'm sure people would go either way on Solid Blade versus Black Myth Wukong.

[A]

Fact.

[B]

Maybe more people would lean on the Black Myth thing. But I really, really liked Stellar Blade for the gameplay aspect of it and kind of like the loose vibe of it. I think a lot of the things that I don't like about Stellar Blade come back to. I don't think. I think they said they didn't use generative AI, but some of it feels like generative AI.

[A]

Some of it feels the graffiti on the walls. Remember the graffiti on the walls?

[B]

Graffiti on the walls. But even the. The dialogue, the music, the aesthetic, so much of it feels like they took near and Devil May Cry, put it in a blender and said generate.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[B]

Like, that kind of is the vibe, which I think might lean to thinking like this, even though he doesn't. They don't specify the kind of AI, don't specify how they're using AI. And so we can only really speculate a little bit here about what they mean by this. That said, I would look at them and go, hey, Stellar Blade isn't a worse game than Blackmuth Wukong inherently, because it was made by a smaller team or whatever. Right. Like, I think some of the things they got right in terms of combat, in terms of bosses, in terms of some of. Some of those nuts and bolts of it. Even more right than Black Myth, in my personal opinion. Keep on with that shit. I think the problem, if I'm going to be charitable here, right. Of course we're anti generative AI. We don't like AI being used in, like, the creative way to make our shit. I. I do think that people are trying to solve for how long video game development is, how much, how many resources video game development takes, and we talk about it all the time about how hard video games are to make.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so I don't necessarily blame the thought process of, well, they got a thousand, two thousand people working on it. If we're, if we're gonna make Stellar Blade 2, it's gonna take us five. Like. Yeah, yeah, I totally understand that. I don't know if. I guess I don't know is really what I'm coming down to as far as like, how do we get around these things? Yeah, I get wanting to turn to AI for that shit. If you can find ways to use AI that are ethical and make sense and doesn't water down the creativity, you know. One of the things, my brother in law works at Microsoft and during Thanksgiving I was having a long conversation with him because he picked me up from the airport.

[A]

Just boom, the whole time about AI.

[B]

And like, I mean he is so like he, I mean he, his job is AI. That is his thing. He is like lead of his team. Like, that is how much into this world he is. And he's asking me questions and I was very fascinated by how much he knows, but how much he didn't know about like how audience receives this stuff. One of the questions he asked me halfway through the drive, because we were talking about video games, he asked me like, do you consider video games art? And I'm like, yeah. And that was like something that he didn't even think about. And this is somebody that works.

[A]

He was like, gemini, do you.

[B]

He was having a conversation with me about how he sees the future of it being that we tell an AI the game that we want to play and I makes that game. And he's excited about this, this technology. He's excited, like, we can, you can go to Netflix one day and just be like, hey, I want to watch a movie with this, this, this and this, and Netflix will just make the movie for you. And I'm looking at him, I'm like, that doesn't sound good, man. Like, that doesn't sound exciting. I think we just got to. Well, one of the, one of the things I'll bring into this too is one of the things he said to me that I thought was very interesting was the idea of like in making video games, are there tasks that people do? Or if like you gave that same task to like 100 different people, they would just make the same thing. Can that be an AI thing? I'm like, I guess, like, I think we just have to have the conversations and figure out where it makes sense. Yeah, but it's so complicated and yeah, obviously I don't have the answers here, but I think there's room for conversation.

[A]

Something I've gone around on, thinking about in, again, way outside of my field of view and probably not with the actual answer. Yada, yada, yada. Is that for Larian when we were talking about this last week and Sven, you know, coming out and be like, all right, cool, we're not going to use it. We're not going to use generative AI for. We're not using AI for any of the stuff, for the creative stuff. But there still might be processes. We do, but we'd only feed it our stuff. And we were like, I don't know, that's how that works. I'm like, yeah, I'm interested to see if we can get it to a point where someone does make an AI where it is like opening a blank word document. And it is like, cool. Look at all of our games. You do that, you know, I mean, like, look through all my files. I don't know the fuck I'm talking about, obviously, but, like, look at our hard drive of all the files we made from our last game or our lore. We. You do feed the AI the stuff you are it already know. You know what I mean? And then have it be of like, again, don't write the story for me. But now when I know, I ask you to make a template, a thing, I know you're pulling from my artist, my writer, my cree, you know? And again, I. We as creatives go to the creative portion of it, of the. I shouldn't even say that because that's insulting the fictional narrative acting, blah, blah. I don't know about building a project in Maya. So I don't know if in my example, somebody makes one level and it's like, all right, cool. Make a hundred variations of this for a procedurally generated. You know what I mean? And then they. You go through and you approve and deny. Like, I wonder if there's a future where somebody could do that, if that's what we're doing with AI. So it is that I'm selling this AI to everybody. Not everybody, but people who buy it. But it's personally yours. It's personally your studios. It isn't scraping the Internet and pulling some art project off a Boston university page from 20 years ago.

[B]

Yeah, there's so many if ands and butts about it, right? And, like, I think we're far from finding a truly ethical way to go about it. Because with every new stuff, there's so many questions of all right, but how does this affect the environment? How does this affect the quality of the final product? Like do we believe that this is like, you know, there's so much of that. I hope we find a place where either there's a solution or everybody agrees like yo, okay this doesn't work. Throw this shit out. But I'm afraid that we've crossed the line. We're not going to talk about it.

[A]

I mean again, the what I. Which sucks to throw out there but for me when you're talking about like I. We're never. I don't think we can force everybody to see it sucks by saying it sucks. Right. I think it needs to be people that are the smaller teams being like no, fuck that. We're not going to do that. You go and make a game that is fucking awesome. You know, I mean I want to throw out clear, obscure. But I know they did use it at some whatever time, right. Wasn't that the reveal after game?

[B]

Oh yeah. They had like a placeholder asset.

[A]

So it's like but something to that regard like you know we yesterday for a game of the year, no spoilers if you didn't watch it. I'm kind of funny yet but like the top five are all indie games, right? So it's like that I think starts to speak in terms of quality but then in terms of financial success as well. Where it is if we're seeing all these big bloated companies go and make AI and think that they can do it because they're giant corporation X and those games start falling and they are the drivel and they are the ones nobody gives a shit about and there are the ones we're not talking about. Inevitably you'd have to. The pendulum would have to swing back to ethically using it or shit. Fuck. People want that kind of stuff because they're going, these companies are going to go where the money is. So if we can decide where the money is. Yes, we put our money. We put our, you know vote with our wallets. We always talk about 100%.

[B]

Let's close out with story number six. Backyard Sports animated special reveals first look at voice cast. I'm pulling from Variety and I should add the author name here. Jennifer Moss at Variety here. This was originally WE news and I started reading through this and I was like this has to be a real new story. Backyard sports fans are going to are going back out to the 90s era ball game. This month with the release of a new animated TV special starring Pablo Sanchez and his Iconic ragtag team of kid athletes. The special stars Tiffany Haddish as Keisha Phillips, Chris Mintz Plass as Dimitri Petrovic.

[A]

That's McLovin.

[B]

Donald Faison as Dante Robinson. My guy from Scrubs. Ego Nuadim as Stephanie Morgan. Andrew Cinda Smith. Ashley Crystal Harrison as Sunny Day. Adam Pally as Pete Wheeler. That's my guy from the Mindy Project. Oh, okay. Utkarsh Ambudkar as Ahmed Khan, Arturo Castro as Pablo Sanchez, Lindsey Barnett, who is the CEO of Playground Productions, as Vinnie and the Weber twins. Deborah Barker Jr. As Jimmy and Michael Vlamis as Tony Del Vecchio. Per this. Per the official description for the animated special, quote, it's opening day at Steel Stadium, but team superstar Stephanie Bubbles Morgan is in crisis. She's lost her. Gotta have it. Never play without it. Lucky bubblegum. With just 30 minutes until game time, the backyard kids embark on a wild mission to track it down and save their season. End quote. The backyard sports animated special will launch later in January on YouTube after first debuting at Dave and Buster's as part. As part of a new partnership with Backyard Sports IP owner, Playground Productions. The exact release date for the special will be announced soon. What a thing.

[A]

We're going to David Buster's brother.

[B]

I'm so down to go to David Buster's for this shit. Of course, something like Mike is our backyard sports, like, super fan, super fan. But I think to some extent, multiple of us here dig backyard sports because I played a lot of backyard soccer and I love these castings. These castings are way more insane than I would have ever expected Here.

[A]

Good shout out.

[B]

Donald Faison as Dante Robinson.

[A]

Chad was mad at you. I think they said, phase on.

[B]

Phase on. Sorry. Not saying his name out loud that much. Greg, this backyard sports TV special, some big news. Can we go to Dave and Buster's, Watch this thing live. But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I need to know about, where would I go?

[A]

You'd go, do you remember when the time the old kind of funny story when we went there and then Nick had that giant cheese crisp and shit his pants. He got so sick, I think he actually pooped his pants. He's just like. But he was sick. You'd go, of course, to our last story, the WE News channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[B]

It happened to me at what's the bookstore, the famous Barnes and Nobles. Yeah. Where I walked into Barnes and Nobles one time to buy a board game. And two minutes into being there. I was like, I got a shit. Yeah, and had to like rush home to drive.

[A]

They got nice bathrooms at Barnes and Noble, though.

[B]

I don't like public bathrooms. It's a thing. Yeah. But I learned it's a. It's a phenomenon.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Bookstore people want to poop. So number seven we News from games industry Biz Ubisoft has announced SAF cuts at its Swedish studios, with 55 jobs expected to be lost at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm.

[A]

But Ubisoft Definitive Edition. No, no Division Definitive Edition Battlefield 6.

[B]

Season 2 has been delayed mid February. Season 1 is being extended. Resident Evil Requiem showcase is set for January 15th at 2pm Pacific time.

[A]

Oh dear, I missed that.

[B]

From IGN ARC Raiders developer Embark Studios has released update 1.11.0 along with its patch notes. It adds the Abyss cosmetic set along with some fixes and balancing changes to trigger nade and kettle. Arc Raiders has also sold 12 million copies in under three months. Oh from VDC a UK judge has denied a request from a group of fired Rockstar employees to continue to be paid while their legal case is ongoing. The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain alleged that the employees were fired by Take 2 Company because they were part of an IWGB Game Workers Union channel on Discord and were either union members or attempting to organize a union union at Rockstar. Of course we talked about that story in previous episodes of KFTD as it's been breaking. But yeah, they've been denied getting paid. One Punch Man World shuts down on February 27th. Star Trek Voyager across the Unknown launches February 18th and finally, Major Nelson. I don't know. I said finally. There the last part of we News Major Nelson has been laid off from Unity.

[A]

Whoa. Oh.

[B]

He posted this today on Twitter. Quote as many of you, as many of you have been with me during my career in gaming, I'd like to share personal news. Like many in the gaming space, recently I've been laid off from Unity.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Crazy.

[A]

That's crazy.

[B]

He has like a small thread talking about it a little bit. I'm trying to see if I can.

[A]

Open it on my yeah, after leaving Microsoft, I joined the unity team in 2024. I'm proud of the goals my team and I accomplished and just just 18 months. And I am grateful for the creators and teams I had the chance to support. Now I'm excited to explore the next chapter. I've had an I. I've had invigorating conversations over the past weeks with companies in tech and non tech spaces to Discuss partnerships. I love what I do, but I also believe change is necessary. I'll let you know where I go from here. Connect with me anytime at Herb Co. Wow. We bring back the X cast. We bring him back while as a permanent host. Part time. Permanent. Yeah.

[B]

Okay. And that is it for WE News. Let's hop into some super chats before we get out of here. Mr. Hawk says it's tonight. The night Snow Mike. Mike finally shows up for Story Motors. Let's find out together at 7:30pm Mountain time over on Story Motors. Twitch Stream.

[A]

We'll find out.

[B]

We'll find out. Mike did promise him on that episode of Happy Hour.

[A]

So Happy Hour.

[B]

Altered Rain writes in with the birthday tax. Birthday tax for me and nick. I'm now 30 and I first meet host of KF at. Oh, fuck.

[A]

It's Nick's birthday. Happy birthday, Nick.

[B]

First met the man. KF or first met KF at. Let's play live Chicago. Greg, I was the guy who picked your pepper.

[A]

Oh, thank you. I had it during hot pepper. Oh.

[B]

I thought it was like a. I don't know, euphemism. Sasquatch Oni says, Greg, been aware of you for 15ish years. Sometimes I hate you, but just wanted to say I tune in every day and realized I kept watching because of you. Happy 11 years.

[A]

You're welcome. Fuck you.

[B]

Yeah. Backhanded.

[A]

Norm.

[B]

Norm Chacho says saying EA is the worst company in the world. Where Nestle and Exxon exist is crazy. What, like Nestle? Like the.

[A]

Like the water and chocolate people? Yeah.

[B]

A lot of slave labor stuff?

[A]

Yeah, they're not. That's why you're always doing the ethically sourced cocoa and stuff and.

[B]

Yeah, Gotcha. Openness. Prime says they need to abandon the Hellblade ip. It's so boring. It's all flash and no substance. Make something with more personality and good gameplay. Okay, first, that's too much. No, we're not going to say that. It's all style and no substance. Play Hellblade 1. That game is almost. It's almost too much substance in that game. It's good. That's crazy. Muggle Prince says first time watching live this year. Happy 11 years. You guys make my days that much brighter.

[A]

Happy to be here.

[B]

Sergio says it's kind of feudi permanently on Mondays.

[A]

It is. We've done a really bad job of messaging that, but there's just been so much going on. Yeah. Feudies. And I believe when Showdown comes back, they go to Monday.

[B]

Mondays. Yep.

[A]

Yeah, but Mondays we thought Were better than we are all winding down for the weekend and gone.

[B]

Jeff Bull Jr says so sad. A note. There are still VR studios out there working well with little profit and passionate fans. Reminder to support independent business. Love if you can. Heart emoji. Last night you sent me a link to the dreams Reddit.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And like it breaks my heart when you have people that are so passionate about a thing like doing the good work, creating and they're creating really good stuff but like, you know, they're just stuck on a platform that isn't getting the support that it deserves.

[A]

Real quick. Speaking of independent developers. Don't say anything.

[B]

Uh huh.

[A]

I just got codes for this. I'm very excited.

[B]

Oh that's cool. We got another one from Dexter Schwarzer who says my heart goes out to all of those laid off. Hope they land on their feet. When do we stop seeing mass layoffs and is there anything we can do?

[A]

Oh, that's a large question. Probably for a longer show. Right. Will you ever see stop seeing mass layoffs? I mean yeah, when all the big companies are gone and have set their profit margins and projections appropriately. So when will that happen? Probably never. What can you do? I think the easiest way, of course, as we already talked about it, vote with your wallet and support who you want to support. Remember, supporting, you know, independent developers is the easiest way and the most direct way. Wish list games like we're always talking about. Obviously there's tons of big games that need your support too if you want that kind of thing. But it is about buying that thing. You know, it all goes back to that Ubisoft quote. Right. When are you going to stop annualizing Assassin's Creed? When you stop buying it and people stopped and they stopped and they brought it back in, yada yada. But it's the same way for like if you're fucking Mike out there who I love obviously, but like, oh yeah, 2K, they rip you off. It's such a Rambo. Yeah. I drop 200 extra dollars on the game every year. It's like, well no, you know, no, you can't be like, yeah, that sucks, but I still do it. You got to. If you're buying something, you got to say I know what I'm doing and I want this and that's why it's going to happen.

[B]

Yeah. And when you see people who do get laid off or people that creators that you have a passion for, like support their work.

[A]

Yeah, of course.

[B]

What the work? Follow them. Nightlife says meta earnings on February 4th. You will find more reports of layoffs slash Microsoft, Sony as earning season approaches. Big headsets are dead. Wearable. The future. Yep, we got a lot of people talking about VR in here. Yelsing says if VR was more affordable, would it have taken off? I mean, I. I think that is a good question.

[A]

If my grandma had wheels, would she be a bicycle?

[B]

What are we talking about?

[A]

Yeah, I don't want to be John Cena about it, but we don't live in that reality. That's not what it. You know what I mean? Like, that would be part of it for sure.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But I also think it would have inevitably ended up being the same. We don't have the vision for what VR wants to be. There are the people like me who liked it and thought it was cool and then just. I expected it to progress and grow a bit more than it did. In terms of the not quality, but types of games. The fact that what I could play right now on a PlayStation VR 2, not quality wise, but in terms of what I'm doing is so similar to PlayStation VR1. And it's just like I just don't want the floaty hands and the disembodied thing and the bop in my head, oh, am I low enough? And I'm like, it's just not the game I want. And there are tons of people who do want that, that just want to play VR and love it. But I think VR. VR reminds me so much of what. And I know I've used the arcade analogy. It's an arcade machine. It also reminds me so much of what I think so many people's experience were with nes and, well, nes. I wasn't gonna throw the master system in there, but hey, I bought this toy. It does this very specific thing called Mario Brothers or it does these other things here. And they weren't buying a million games. Maybe even the Wii is a good example. You're not buying a million games for it. You bought this thing to do that thing and it's like, that is what it does. It could do so much more. But people think that's what it does and that's all it does. And that's why it's stagnant in terms of what it's doing.

[B]

Yeah. I also in that same thing, for me, it's the evolution of the headset as well. I think the conversation we had earlier about like getting VR to a place where it's easy to put on.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Maybe it is a wearable thing. You just put on your glasses and now you're in the VR world.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

@ a certain point. Yeah, we're kind of transitioning that from VR to air or whatever. But I. I just don't think the hardware improvements have been meaningful in the right ways to me. They've been getting more powerful. They've been adding like eye tracking and things like that, which is cool, but not cool on the consumer level for me, which will make me go, oh, everybody needs to buy VR. There's nothing headset wise or hardware wise that makes you look at Tim, or maybe Tim that makes you look at a friend and go, you should get.

[A]

This.

[B]

Sure. You know, I would look at Tim and maybe Michael Haim to be like, hey, played Gran Turismo 7 in this. But that's such a. It's such a limited thing.

[A]

So. Exactly. Yeah. Not to be dead horse, but I put in it like Tony the pasta man, who, you know, does the kind of funny pasta and whatever, all that.

[B]

Jazz.

[A]

Yeah. He got, he dusted off a headset to play with his girlfriend's son or whatever and he was like, oh man, I haven't used it in forever. Like, what games do get? And I gave him like the five games. He's like, oh my God, these are awesome. It's like now they're satiated, they're not like on the store crawling for more stuff. Nor are they expecting, I think a lot more great stuff.

[B]

Coming. Meta 318 says, got a quest 3 over the holidays and I'm having a blast. Flight Simulator, Half Life, Alex Asgard's Wrath, Batman and Resident Evil 4. Just name a.

[A]

Few.

[B]

Yeah. Faint Aphid says both Death Straining soundtracks are so good. Talking about licensed soundtracks. Yeah, that's a good one to shout out. That's training the license soundtrack incredible. Loyal freak writes in and says, the Eidos Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack was.

[A]

Amazing. Okay, good example.

[B]

Sure. Good.

[A]

Examples. They just don't hit the same way anymore. And it is because of like exactly what you said. Like, music's everywhere, everything is on your.

[B]

Phone.

[A]

Yeah. Like, I'll think about that every so often when I'm on the car and I throw some CD on, you know, that I remember owning. And it's that idea of like, man, I remember, like I had to go to the record store, I had to buy this thing, I had to bring it and then I just listened to it non stop because it's all, you know, I mean, I have like 12 albums or whatever, so this is what. Whereas now it's like anything you.

[B]

Want, you can go get the difference. So you make such a good point. I think when I think about my Destiny 2 experience in regards to music and even in regards to the music player they have in the game that I kept talking about during the preview period, one of the differences between how I played that game in that 30 hour preview that I did when I was at productions and they wouldn't let us even have our phone at the desk. Right. It's just me in the game for 30 hours straight versus playing at home. When I was playing in. When I was at Kojima Productions, I was so into the music player. Right. I was so into listening to the soundtrack and taking all those sounds.

[A]

In.

[B]

Yeah. When I played at home, when I was walking from point A to point B and there's not much going on, I was listening to my own.

[A]

Music.

[B]

Wow. I was turning on like podcasts and stuff. And it's just inherently different now. Yeah, it's just inherently different. And that's an us.

[A]

Thing.

[B]

Right? I don't even think. I don't. That's not on the fault of the video.

[A]

Game.

[B]

Absolutely. That's just the way that we play and the way that we've transition into just having that accessible accessibility when it comes to music. The postman says the campaign for Blessed to Play Trails begins today. I think I'm gonna go with Final Fantasy 10. I think that's the.

[A]

Move. Dragon Quest 7.

[B]

Reimagined. I don't know that one, doesn't it? I like the art style. Except for when they have grown men in that art style, there's one character that's supposed to be like a big brawny man. I look at him, I'm like, you look. Looks stupid.

[A]

Dude. Stupid puppet. I hate.

[B]

It. Oh, let's hop into kind of funny dot com. You're wrong where you write in. Let us know what we got wrong as we got it wrong so we can correct it. For those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around the globe. Jeopa, we're gonna ban you. All right. Stop talking about Yakuza. Oh, wait, is this the same person? I'm still.

[A]

Waiting. Yeah, no, that's it. Or.

[B]

Them. And then we're gonna ban.

[A]

You. Stop talking about.

[B]

Yakuza. Jeppo. I forget. I don't know if this is regarding anything. Fallen Wonderland wasn't made by Sega. It was made by Yuji Naka who was still in.

[A]

Prison. Yeah, it was made by that. Remember I referenced when you were like that one game that everybody loves and I was like battle and Wonderland.

[B]

And that is it for Kind of funny dot com. You're wrong. And that is it for this episode of kfgd. If you love what we do, remember, support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show after this. Me, Tim and Roger sit down, talk about our top.

[A]

10. Roger's taking you to the woodshed. They all hung him out to.

[B]

Dry. Yeah, we kind of did, Kirby. Yeah, we're gonna have a lot to talk about. We'll see though, because Roger could have jury duty. Tim could have a baby on this podcast. A small chance. Enjoy the games cast after that. Or after this. And then everything after that.

[A]

Kpod. Yeah, we're doing a Kind of Funny podcast today. Tim's last kind of funny.

[B]

Podcast. Until next time, Game.