Xbox Cancels Another First Party Game - Kinda Funny Games Daily 08.07.25

Summary

Kinda Funny Games Daily: Xbox Cancels Another First Party Game - August 7, 2025

Released: August 7, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, hosts Tim Geddes, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and guest Barrett Courtney delve into a spectrum of current events in the gaming world. From breaking news about Xbox's latest cancellations to in-depth discussions on PlayStation's financial performance and upcoming game releases showcased at Nintendo's Indie World, this episode promises a comprehensive overview of the latest happenings in the industry.

Major Stories

1. Xbox Cancels "Contraband" from Avalanche Studios

Timestamp: [15:33] - [23:34]

One of the standout topics of the episode is the cancellation of "Contraband," a first-party title from Avalanche Studios, known for their work on the Just Cause series. Drawing from Jason Schreier's report on Bloomberg News, the hosts discuss the implications of this move by Xbox.

• Tim Geddes remarks at [15:58]:
  “This was the type of game that never really felt like it was going to see the light of day.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. adds at [16:47]:
  “This comes back to Xbox slash. I think more so even Microsoft just being in a place where it is tough to look at them with trust as far as like the things that have been announced and my faith that those things are going to come out in great quality.”

The conversation extends to Xbox's broader strategy, highlighting concerns about the sustainability of third-party partnerships and the potential overreach in acquisitions leading to project cancellations. They express skepticism about Kojima Productions' "OD" and "Rise of Hydra," questioning whether these titles will come to fruition under the current Xbox management.

2. PlayStation 5 Shipments Surpass 80.3 Million Units

Timestamp: [25:22] - [43:25]

Moving to PlayStation, the hosts analyze the impressive milestone of 80.3 million PS5 units shipped worldwide, as reported by Solanm Gamatsu and shared by Shinobi on Twitter.

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. comments at [26:26]:
  “It's fun, it's... interesting to think about and talk about just for the sense of what PlayStation's output has been this year versus last year.”

They compare current performance with the previous year's releases, noting titles like "Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth," "Helldivers 2," and "Ghost of Yote." Tim Geddes reflects on the longevity and iterative advancements of the PS5, expressing satisfaction with its current state and the ecosystem's stability. Meanwhile, Barrett Courtney emphasizes the desire for more single-player games over live services, highlighting the balance between hardware excellence and game variety.

3. Sony’s CFO on "Marathon" and Bungie's Integration

Timestamp: [43:25] - [35:59]

Sony CFO Lynn Tao provided insights into the development and expected release of "Marathon," a highly anticipated title from Bungie. During a Q&A session, Tao confirmed the game's release is slated for March 2026, although she noted, “this is not a commitment” ([31:21]).

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. expresses frustration at [31:00]:
  “This is such a CFO statement too, which is kind of wild and like it feels very cold and direct...”

The hosts lament the shift in Bungie's independence following Sony's acquisition, pointing out that initial promises of autonomy have given way to tighter integration within PlayStation Studios. They critique the lack of transparency and effectiveness in managing Bungie's live service offerings, referencing past issues like "Destiny 2" and "Concord." The discussion underscores broader concerns about corporate acquisitions impacting creative studios' operational freedom and game development quality.

4. Digital Foundry Leaves IGN to Go Independent

Timestamp: [30:59] - [38:57]

In a positive turn, the hosts announce that Digital Foundry, renowned for their technical breakdowns of games, has parted ways with IGN to operate independently. This move is facilitated by acquiring roughly 50% of the company's shares with the support of investor Rupert Loman, co-founder of Eurogamer.

• Tim Geddes enthusiastically states at [37:31]:
  “They are the industry standard when it comes to tech breakdowns and one-to-one comparisons of how games run on different consoles.”

Blessing Adeoye Jr. echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the value of independent media outlets in maintaining quality and integrity in game journalism. They compare this trend to other media entities like Giant Bomb, highlighting a resurgence of dedicated, passionate teams reclaiming their brands to deliver specialized content.

5. Nintendo's Indie World Showcase Announcements

Timestamp: [47:21] - [54:47]

At Nintendo's Indie World Showcase, several exciting indie titles were unveiled for the Switch and Switch 2. The hosts provide an overview of selected announcements, showcasing a variety of genres:

• "Gentlemen" by Top Hat Games
  Coming to Switch in 2026
  A 2D action-platformer where players control Glimmer, a bird with a matchstick weapon, on a quest to save his family.

• "Silk Song" by Studio Heartbeat
  Coming to Switch in 2026
  An action roguelite inspired by Hollow Knight and Vampire Survivors, featuring an avian protagonist battling marine beasts.

• "Demon School"
  Coming September 3, 2025
  A school-life tactics RPG blending elements from Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, and Italian horror cinema.

The hosts express both enthusiasm and skepticism about the showcased games, particularly noting the prevalence of cozy and pixel art titles, while yearning for more diverse offerings with elements like action and blood.

Dead Take: A Deep Dive

Timestamp: [00:00] - [04:21]

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing "Dead Take," a horror game that has garnered substantial attention. The game has received mixed reviews, with scores ranging from 5/10 to 8.5/10 across various platforms.

• Tim Geddes summarizes at [06:43]:
  “I love it, like when you got something, you got to just keep rolling with it.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. adds at [07:38]:
  “I'm curious to see if it hits for me.”

The discussion highlights the polarized reception of "Mafia: The Old Country," another key topic, drawing parallels to Dead Take in terms of community engagement and streaming experiences.

Listener Interactions and Super Chats

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage with live listeners through Super Chats, addressing birthday wishes and fan requests. Notable interactions include:

• Rails celebrating his 30th birthday with heartfelt thanks ([60:54]).
• Gold Boy and Guardian Azərbaycanın Raccoon sharing excitement for upcoming game releases ([61:13] - [62:30]).

These segments add a personal touch, allowing the hosts to connect directly with their audience and discuss fan-driven content and future show plans.

Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, the hosts tease upcoming content, including a special "Gamescast" episode focusing on "Donkey Kong Bonanza". They express their anticipation for future game releases and continued coverage of the evolving gaming landscape.

Tim Geddes concludes at [71:42]:
“We are closer than ever. That couldn’t be more true.”

The episode closes with enthusiastic sign-offs, promising more engaging discussions and insider insights in future broadcasts.

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Key Takeaways

• Xbox's Strategic Cancellations: The cancellation of "Contraband" reflects broader challenges in Xbox's third-party partnerships and resource allocation.

• PlayStation's Market Resilience: Strong PS5 shipments and rising PSN users indicate robust market performance, despite mixed game releases.

• Sony and Bungie's Uncertain Future: Increased control over Bungie signals potential shifts in Destiny's live service model and raises concerns about future collaborations.

• Rise of Independent Media Outlets: Digital Foundry's move to independence underscores a trend towards specialized, quality-driven game journalism.

• Nintendo's Indie Focus: The Indie World Showcase highlights a diverse array of indie titles, though the hosts call for more varied genres beyond cozy and pixel art games.

• Community Engagement: Active listener participation through Super Chats enriches the podcast experience, fostering a strong community connection.

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Notable Quotes

• Tim Geddes ([15:58]):
  “This was the type of game that never really felt like it was going to see the light of day.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([16:47]):
  “Xbox slash. I think more so even Microsoft just being in a place where it is tough to look at them with trust as far as like the things that have been announced and my faith that those things are going to come out in great quality.”

• Tim Geddes ([37:31]):
  “They are the industry standard when it comes to tech breakdowns and one-to-one comparisons of how games run on different consoles.”

• Blessing Adeoye Jr. ([26:26]):
  “It's fun, it's... interesting to think about and talk about just for the sense of what PlayStation's output has been this year versus last year.”

• Tim Geddes ([71:42]):
  “We are closer than ever. That couldn’t be more true.”

---

Looking Forward

Stay tuned for the next episode of Kinda Funny Games Daily, where the team will continue to explore the latest in gaming news, provide insightful analysis, and engage with their passionate community. Don't forget to subscribe and support the show through their Kinda Funny Membership for exclusive content and ad-free listening.

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This summary aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the podcast episode, capturing all key discussions, insights, and notable quotes to inform and engage both regular listeners and new audience members.

Transcript

[Tim Geddes]

Today's stories include Mafia, the old country, Reviews are in, PlayStation updates, the world on Bungie and live services. And everything announced at Nintendo's Indie World Showcase will have all this and more, including some breaking Xbox news. Because this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. What's up? And welcome to Kind of Funny Games daily for Thursday, August 7, 2025. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Geddes. I am joined today by the Poppy Trades blessing. Adio. Yeah. Junior. Good day, Tim, good day to you. Is your morning going well so far?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Morning's going pretty good, yeah. Woke up, went to the gym. Was a bit lazy at the gym today. Didn't feel super good about my workout but I did. I was on the treadmill for a while.

[Tim Geddes]

Okay.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I sweated today. It's always the goal is to sweat.

[Tim Geddes]

Get, get to get that good sweat.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Going, get that good sweat going, get the heart rate up, make sure that I feel awake for the day and I feel awake for the day.

[Tim Geddes]

Good, good.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

How are you? How's your morning?

[Tim Geddes]

It's going well, man. A lot of news to get to today.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

A lot of news.

[Tim Geddes]

We have stories all over the place covering kind of the entire gamut of the video but some, some interesting stuff, some sad stuff, some good stuff, you know all the stuff, all this stuff that kind of funny. Because this is kind of funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday we run you through the video game news that you need to know about live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the kind at funny membership. It gets you all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of this episode of this show, you should YouTube Super Chat in again. We have a ton of stories today so if you have thoughts on any of them, please subscribe. Super chat away little housekeeping. We are an 11 person business all about live talk shows. Today after Games Daily you're going to get a very special kind of funny games cast. A conversation about Dead Take with friend of the show Abu. Very exciting. You beat Dead Take.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yes.

[Tim Geddes]

You. You haven't officially reviewed Dead Take? I don't think.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No and I don't know if I will. Like I don't. I wouldn't want to review it on the games cast because game directors there kind of thing and I don't know if I'll have the ch. I don't want to review it now. Yeah, yeah. I'm not really like you're not ready for it. I don't think I'm ready for it. It's.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm still sitting with it.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. See I'm also still what I will say because I headlined this games cast already and the headline I have is that I forget what the headline is. There is a new horror game that you need to play.

[Tim Geddes]

Okay.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Essentially the sum of it, I think this is going to go down by the time you get to the end of the year is like one of the best horror games of the year.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

We were talking about it more over the weekend. We had streamed it together on Friday. You you on the sticks bless. And I think like you said it's like the biggest surprise of the year.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yes.

[Barrett Courtney]

And yeah, I'm definitely a surprise for me. I'm right there with you.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And what I will say if you haven't watched that stream I you should maybe check out that if you have any interest in Dead Take you should maybe check it out because I'm surprised. I went into the comments of the of the YouTube video and there's like a good bulk of the comments that are like this was my favorite stream of the year. Like I think Dead Take has something that's pulling people in. It had it pulled me and bear in so much that like me and him are tag teaming solving puzzles. He's like writing things down as I'm like looking around for taking screenshots.

[Barrett Courtney]

Just a great duo.

[Tim Geddes]

Bless.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You know, I mean put me and Barrett on the camera more often. You know what I mean? Let us all pull together.

[Tim Geddes]

Favorite combo.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. And so yeah, definitely either play Dead Take, watch a stream of Dead Take but I know enough of you enjoyed the stream of Dead Take that like I think this is going to be a good gamescast for people. I saw people requesting this one so awesome.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah it's going to be a fun time. And then after Gamescast is our Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer. In review this one not as off the rails as the fat Tastic for 2005 review but Greg still says some things that are, you know, questionable. Then the stream is the Battlefield 6 beta. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg way is being done by Snowbike Mike who not sick anymore but also not confirmed. Not dead. You know what I mean?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, we don't know.

[Tim Geddes]

We haven't seen him.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Has anybody heard from Snow Bike?

[Tim Geddes]

I haven't heard from him today, you know, last night. So I think he's okay but he's not here normally we'd hear him by now.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, yeah. Jabroni what's up? What's up homie?

[Tim Geddes]

Thank you to our Patreon producers Kyle Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining. Today we're brought to you by a kind of funny in review but we'll tell you about that later. For now let's begin with what is and forever will be. The Roper reports. Time for some News. We have 10 stories today.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

A baker's dozen. Dangerously close to an actual baker.

[Tim Geddes]

Exactly, exactly. That's a lot of stories that we normally don't get up there but there's a lot of like groupings of stories because we got a couple of them financial reports that usually get us just a lot of different tidbits. But we're starting with Mafia the Old.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Country Review my impression of Snowbank Mike. I don't know why I did it like that. I feel like I like to bet in some frame Mirabella into it as well.

[Tim Geddes]

There is a little Fran in Mike.

[Barrett Courtney]

Just a little friend in all of us.

[Tim Geddes]

There is a little all of us.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I'm sorry. Did you like that, Mike? You don't sound like that. Maybe when you're sick but you usually don't sound like that.

[Tim Geddes]

Here we are, Mafia the Old Country. We have not reviewed it. Why?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Because we got codes. How long ago, Barry? Like a night.

[Barrett Courtney]

It was Tuesday night at 8pm that we got codes for PC so people who requested console still don't have codes like myself.

[Tim Geddes]

Our plan right now is to play over the weekend and whoever's interested to review it next week. I forget exactly the day we put it down but just so everyone knows, Kind of funny's review, if there's enough interest, which it sounds like there is, will be to play through the game. Right Barrett, like where you at now?

[Barrett Courtney]

I mean like I. I want to play it throughout the weekend even with the. The reviews coming out. You know I. I'm a champion of mafia 3. This is the same team that made that game so I want to check it out. So whenever I can get my hands on this game I'll. I'll do my best to play through it over the weekend.

[Tim Geddes]

And so there you go. Let's get into the scores though so far. Metacritic at a 76, 76 open critic at a 77. Luke Riley at IGN gave it an 8 out of 10 saying mafia the Old countries an effective return to the linear and tightly story driven format of the original Mafia and Mafia 2. It doesn't reinvent stealth and there's nothing especially remarkable about. About its typical third person cover shooting, but with great writing, excellent voice performances, and a wonderful eye and ear for detail, the Old country is a potent and immersive time machine to a rarely explored era. This may be the Sicilian cuisine talking, as I've never played anything with quite as much Italian fruit and food on the show, but I think the Mafia games might have established themselves as the arancini balls of the business. That is crusty on the outside, but on the inside they're dense, tasty and a little cheesy. And if you keep bringing them out, I'm going to keep going back to the buffet until the kids and runs dry. You know what? I I love it.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Had a bit of. I had a bit of too much fun there.

[Tim Geddes]

I love it man. I love it. Like when you got something, you got to just keep rolling with it. Jake Decker at Gamespot gave it a 6 out of 10, saying, Mafia the Old country is at its best when things slow down, letting you take in all the sights and sounds of Sicily. Like previous Mafia games, it nails the look and feel of its real world counterpart by investing heavily in the details. Unfortunately, generic gameplay and dated mission design hold Mafia the Old country back, making it feel like a relic of the early 2000 and tens. Usama Mahmoud from Dual Shockers gave it an 8.5 out of 10, saying, Considering the ending in the fan service elements that cater to long term fans, longtime fans, this is not only the best Mafia game to date, but also one of the best modern linear action adventure titles. And then Nick Rodriguez at Game Rant gave it a 5 out of 10 saying, lacking the charisma and novelty of its predecessors, Mafia the Old country struggles to escape a sense of of constant mediocrity.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Tim, does this make you more or less excited to try out Mafia the Old Country?

[Tim Geddes]

Neither really, cuz it's the type of thing where I've been interested in this one just because everything they've been saying is like okay, I'm into that shorter game, very linear story based gameplay that's not incredibly like trying too hard, it's just hearkening back to a different time. I'm all about that type of stuff, but it's also the type of game that I was hoping for very high reviews because then I'm like all right, this is definitely something I'm going to, you know, kind of get out of my interest zone a bit because as we all established, I'm not the biggest Mafia guy as a concept. Not the games, just the people, you.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Know, which I don't understand. Sound races they're so cool, you know?

[Tim Geddes]

I mean. Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

What are your thoughts on Nick Scarpino, another Italian man?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What are your thoughts on the Penguin?

[Tim Geddes]

I'm. I mean, I'm Italian. Nick's Italian. Italian's okay. Mafia.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Am I crazy for not realizing Tim's Italian?

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

I didn't know that. He just a bit.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. Irish Italian.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Are you 2% Italian?

[Tim Geddes]

No, I'm like. I'm like a good percent quarter Italians.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I feel like Nick Scarpino wears it so strongly.

[Tim Geddes]

Well, he's 100%.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. He's like, all Italian.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That's cool.

[Barrett Courtney]

The Irish.

[Tim Geddes]

Irish one out for me.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, same.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

It's neat. It is neat, isn't it? You know how much percent pirate I am?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, God, no.

[Tim Geddes]

But these reviews, I will say I'm interested in how all over the place they are. I think it's fairly rare that we read the blurbs and we're getting a 5 and 8.5, a 6 and an 8. Like, yeah, like, to get to a 76 Metacritic, it really kind of like.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like, there's.

[Tim Geddes]

There are those games, no sevens that we read.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But, yeah, there are those. There are those. Sometimes you watch a movie or you play a game or you watch a TV show, right? Where everybody's like, this is a solid eight. Superman. This is a solid eight. Fantastic Four, even. This is a solid eight out of ten. Maybe some people might be more seven. Maybe some of you might be more nine. Right? But, like, there are those games that meet in the middle where everybody's like, okay, cool. Like, we all kind of agree that this thing was fine or, this thing was a solid good.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, I think this is one of those scenarios where it doesn't seem like anybody agrees on the. Like, out of all these, do we read 1 7? Like, no, this is. It is a 8.58. Dual shockers. Dude said this was the best Mafia to date. Right? And then you have Nick Rodriguez giving a 5 out of 10, saying it lacks. Lacks charisma. This has me kind of fascinated to try it out. Not of the thing of, like, what are these reviewers talking about? More so the thing of, like, I want to see, just as, like, a fan of video games, does it hit for you? I want to see if it hits for me. And I'm also fascinated to, like, kind of understand what makes a hit for some people and not hit for other people. Right. Like, I think those are the most fascinating games where you come out of it and people just disagree about it. I. I love That I love hearing that. This is exactly what we thought it was. Right. A shorter, leaner, linear experience. That's what I want. Driven by story, driven by like, you know, moment to moment cinematic gameplay. That's exactly what I want out of this thing.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I guess I'm mostly curious on Barrett. Like, where does this leave you? I think we were kind of concerned because we didn't get codes until recently. Yeah. And like, you still don't have console code. Is this, like, are you excited now? Like, are you. Does this bring your faith back up a little bit?

[Barrett Courtney]

The reviews don't change my excitement because, you know, the reviews for Mafia 3 were also kind of very like. I think definitely people came together to say that that was more of like a 6 or 7 just because of the open world gameplay of it all. But like that Hangar 13, when they made Mafia 3 and then when they remade Mafia 1, they did such a good job of like building out those. Those worlds and how like lived in they feel. And the kind of. I want to use a different word other than vibe, but like the. The kind of experience of going into these different places in different eras in time. Right. Like, Mafia 3 to me, succeeds so well in making you feel like you are actually driving around in the fictional. What is it, New Orleans.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

In like the 60s and 70s, like listening to the radio and all this stuff. They did that same thing with mafia1 as well. Even though, like, that is a linear game where there's like, it's kind of open world, but it's very, very limit linear in terms of what you can actually do. They do a really good job of letting you kind of just like take in those worlds. And that's. Reading some of these reviews, it seems like they do, at least for some people, that still is there. And so I'm excited for that. I'm excited for the story. I wasn't expecting the world out of the gameplay of it all. I think the. The linear going back to kind of the. The linear format I think will probably be an overall positive for. For this franchise.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Right.

[Barrett Courtney]

So, yeah, I'm. I'm still excited to check it out. I. I'm bummed that I have not played it yet, though.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Fair enough.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. I'm definitely excited to hear Barrett's thoughts because I know he's rocked for the franchise for a long time in a way that. Yeah, like he was just saying. You're not saying it's the greatest thing of all time, but it's something that you enjoy that is.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

And I with, you know, it's like, who's that one? You know, a lot of video essays have said like play more 7 out of tens. You know, like find. Find that like, you know, might speak to you. That doesn't speak to a lot of other people. Right. And even just besides my love for Mafia 3, I forget the actor's name for when they remade Mafia 1. But the. The lead actor there, I still hold that. They should have gotten some awards for their performance in that game.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

So. Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Matt Egman super chats in aka Disco Spider 13. Disco Spider. Seems like Mafia is the next South. South by Midnight. That's not right. South of Midnight.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Depending on expectations for gameplay and how the story hits for you, wildly changes your opinion. Yeah. That is another reason that I am interested in this is it does seem like it's harkening back to a simpler time of games that I do really appreciate and love.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Where it's like, yeah, you give me a story that I'm into, an art style that I vibe with and serviceable gameplay that's fun enough for me and like I'm going to be there. There's just. Yeah. This South Midnight speaks to me in a way that I look at Mafia and I feel like it doesn't. I need that a little extra push. But yeah, we'll. We'll see with this one.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

We'll see.

[Tim Geddes]

Dinesta says who's at the Door Might be the best horror game of the year over Dead Take. Check it out. Who's beautifully crafted in a great story.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Bear, can we see who's at the Door?

[Tim Geddes]

At the door.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I'm looking it up as we go to who's at the Door on Steam. Oh, it's opening. It's opening. It comes from Sconic Entertainment. You are trapped in a small house suffering from psychosis with no memory. Carefully observe your surroundings to distinguish reality from hallucinations and overcome your illness by taking medication from visitors at the right time. Fair. Showing it. It's another first person horror game.

[Tim Geddes]

Another first person horror game.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Another horror. Oh, it came out just. It just came out in July 18th. Only a few weeks old.

[Tim Geddes]

Interesting.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Is it safe or is it dangerous? The who the hallucinations don't persist. You're safe. Open the door and get the medication from those. This is my thing. I feel like every first person horror game has hallucinations to some extent. It's a staple of the genre. I think the thing that I really like about Dead Take is I'm so. I was just so Fascinated by the story and the performances. So I'm. I mean, I'm sure based on this person saying that it's their is, they're saying it's the best of the year. I'm sure there's a story here. God, this looks freaky.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, I don't like that. I don't like this bulbous eyes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But yeah, I need more than you telling me that there's hallucinations.

[Tim Geddes]

Do you need me to tell you that there's breaking news bless?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, I don't need you to tell me. Everybody's told me in chat already.

[Tim Geddes]

Xbox has canceled contraband. This comes from a Jason Schreier post on Blue Sky Breaking news. Xbox is canceling contraband announced in 2021 from Avalanche Studio. The creators of Just Cause after four years of radio silence. Sources tell Bloomberg News this news arrives weeks after a mass layoff in which Xbox canceled several other big titles.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What does this do for you, Tim?

[Tim Geddes]

I mean, this is not surprising at all. Like, I feel like there's a handful of those Xbox games that they just announced a couple years ago that we haven't heard from that kind of started to just feel like vaporware. And when you see all the stories of the last couple of years of teams being shuttered, layoffs left and right, this was the type of game that never really felt like it was going to see the light of day. It is also fascinating with how many teams Xbox has. Like, I think we're going to see this a lot where we'll get Xbox showcases announcing a ton of games and a percentage of them aren't ever actually going to come out. And I don't really see that ending. I think that we're going to continue to go down this path of more acquisitions and just like more, more, more. And it's going to continue to result in bad stories like this.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. I'm visiting the Avalanche website where they have the Contraband page, because I remember contraband being announced, but I don't remember seeing anything about contraband post it being announced to the point when. To the point where. When Schreier posted this, my immediate thought was like, wait, that's still like, that was still a thing that was still in development. Like I didn't realize is a thing that was still going on. Because it's. Because I don't. They've not really talked about it. It on their website. If you're wondering what is contraband, the. The Shrier mentioned it. Right. That it's Avalanche Studios, the people behind Just Cause the website Says it's a co op smugglers paradise. Welcome to Contraband, a co op smugglers paradise set in the fictional world of 1970s Bayan. Brought to you by Avalanche and Xbox Game Studios. Exclusive to Xbox Series X consoles. Incoming to Xbox Game Pass, steam and Windows 10 PC. I don't really have much of a reaction to this one. Right. Like this is one where I as this is breaking. I put it toward the bottom of games daily. And I've seen enough chat talk about it where I'm like, okay, I'm going to put this higher because people want to hear us talk about it. Right. There's interest here. My thing is this comes back to Xbox slash. I think more so even Microsoft just being in a place where it is tough to look at them with trust as far as like the things that have been announced and my faith that those things are going to come out in great quality. Right. In great form.

[Tim Geddes]

Perfect Dark was canceled.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Perfect Dark was canceled. I didn't think Contraband was gonna come out like.

[Tim Geddes]

And again, Contraband. I. I do want to stress Avalanche, man. The just cause games rock.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

People love them. And I also think that they're a level of developer that gamers aren't expecting the world from. They just want a solid game from. Right. Like, I don't think Contraband would have had to come out and be the greatest thing ever. It just would need to be good and service the co op gamers out there that just want to have that Avalanche fun. But that's not enough for where we're at right now. It needs to be explosive growth. It needs to be the biggest numbers possible.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

And yeah, Contraband wasn't going to do that.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. Shrier follows up the post saying, od, the collaboration between Xbox and Kojima is still in development. Microsoft spokesperson tells me, yeah, this, it feels like a leftover from Xbox making deals, Xbox doing the third party publishing thing and maybe just not having a place for it anymore. But of course you're not going to cancel Kojima's game because it's Kojima.

[Tim Geddes]

I mean, are you not od?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No, you are not. I don't think you can.

[Tim Geddes]

I think you can.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I don't think you can.

[Tim Geddes]

I really think you can.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I. I think that's the last one that you touched.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm not betting on it happening. But like I, I put Kojima's OD in the exact same category. I put Rise of Hydra where I'm like, all right, sure, it's real.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Which one is rice Hydra, the 1943. Yeah, but that's not canceled.

[Tim Geddes]

I mean, that's what I'm saying. It's not, but I don't believe it's real.

[Barrett Courtney]

Is that still slated for this year, by the way?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No, it can't be.

[Tim Geddes]

I don't know. Well, yeah, I don't have faith in either.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I think the difference, because Rise of Hydra. I understand where you're coming from from Rise of Hydra, but I think it's a different argument as far as like why and how that could get canceled or not come out or whatever. I think I would assume that OD is actively being worked on and more so like from the Microsoft Xbox side of it. Would Xbox cancel od?

[Tim Geddes]

They canceled Perfect Dark, the world's first quadruple A game. Yeah, but that was Crystal Dynamics on.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It that seemingly just wasn't coming together. Like, if OD wasn't coming together, then I could see maybe a thing of.

[Tim Geddes]

What makes you think OD is coming together?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I mean, what makes you think it's not coming together? I don't know. That's my thing.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm just Xbox's management of games at this point. Like, that's all that it is.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, I just.

[Tim Geddes]

We haven't heard enough about this for me to be like, oh yeah, that's a project that we're actually going to see through. Mind you. I would say the same thing about death stranding years ago. And I was clearly wrong. Here we are in a sequel that is a potential Game of the Year winner. Like, I'm not saying that like there's no chance this game comes out. And I'm also not saying there's no chance it's going to be good. Yeah, it's Kojima.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I think my thing is, my read on it isn't necessarily that these games aren't coming together as far as something like contraband or something like. I don't want to speak that way about because I just don't know about contraband. Right. But like, I think the third party partnerships that Xbox are doing is less so. Like, oh man, we can't. We can't get this game out. Like the game's not coming together and I think it's more so just, oh, we just don't have it in our budget allocation to support these things anymore. We have to focus in on things like Call of Duty. We have to focus in on our million first party studios that we bought over the course of the last seven years. And we just have too many resources that are in house that we need to focus on that we can't waste our time with these deals that we've made. Which begs the question, why did you make those deals in the first place? I think the one deal that you made that you have to really honor is the Kojima one. Because you cancel Kojima game and it's like, really, what the fuck are you doing?

[Tim Geddes]

Then you say that, but I just feel like, what?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And I'm. I'm like that already. I am like, Xbox, Microsoft, what the fuck are you doing? Yeah, but canceling od, I think is so far beyond like, oh, you guys are. It's over. Like, pack it up, it's over.

[Tim Geddes]

I don't think so. I mean, I think that for people like us that like, think of Kojima a certain way and understand how big a deal a Kojima game is. Yes. But I think overall for Xbox, like, it is just another game. And I don't think that OD is going to be the biggest thing ever. Like, I think that it's. It seems like a smaller project. Right? Like this seems like, like big names attached. But like, I don't expect this game to be a Kojima epic, do you?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No. But I also, I, I think for Xbox, a win is a win. And I think that for them would be an easy win if. Even if it is a smaller scoped Kojima. Kojima thing that comes out on the platform, as long as they can call it an Xbox title and like have it serve game pass and have it serve the brand. Like, I look at, I look at the rest of the things that have been canceled and especially like the third party partnerships that like, you know, between Contraband and the John Romero thing and like stuff behind the scenes that I've heard. Right. About Xbox third party stuff that just hasn't come together. And I think the one that you kind of have to hold on to is the Kojima thing. But I, I think beyond that, I just don't have faith in the third party stuff. I'm surprised that Ninja Gaiden 4 is. Was a deal that they made.

[Tim Geddes]

It's shocking.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It doesn't make sense. Right. Because it seems like they're trying to get out all this as Ninja Garden 4. Maybe one of the last ones before they're like, all right, batting up the hatches. We are focusing in on first parties. At least the ones that we haven't closed down are canceled. Like, it's tough to. I, I just, it's hard to read what the. Is going on and what the. The strategy is.

[Tim Geddes]

To me, it's like it's not hard to read. They're canceling everything. Whether it's a partnership or a first party title. It's like it's just being canceled if it's not looking like it's going to make an astronomical amount of money and like, you know, you. Hi Fi. Rush. Right? Yeah, like that. That is a partnership turned acquisition, turned shuttering. God.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

God. Contraband.

[Tim Geddes]

Contraband, everybody. We hardly knew you. Before we get to story number three, let's take a quick word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by our own show, Kind of Funny in Review. It is our movie review show and it is the best place to get all of our thoughts on all the latest in entertainment. Greg, and how has it been this year?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It's been awesome because I came back. Alien vs. Predator in review. Superman in review. Fantastic Four currently happening in review. It's been a great time and I've been crazier than ever.

[Tim Geddes]

You really have. It's been banger after banger after banger of episodes of Interview. Doesn't mean the movies necessarily work. Oh, they often are. We're talking about some all time greats sometimes we're talking about some of the worst movies ever made. But no matter what, Greg is drinking his Cokes and having a good time and saying some of the craziest things you've said on Kind of Funny Content ever. That's right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

If you're unfamiliar. Of course, In Review is us picking a movie series, watching them all, then.

[Tim Geddes]

Ranking and reviewing them all while meticulously.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Recapping the plot and not screwing anything up.

[Tim Geddes]

But here's the thing. I know a lot of you are watching live probably on Kind of Funny Games Daily or Kind of Funny Gamescast. We cover video games, but we also cover movies. And we have a great time doing it. Just best friends hanging out. So don't worry. We're getting back to Alien versus Predator, everybody. Right after we get through some of the big summer movies. But Fantastic Four, Superman, Alien versus Predator, it's been a great time. The good times are just starting. That's right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

So right now like subscribe share on your favorite podcast feed or YouTube.com kind of funny games and we'll see you at the movies.

[Tim Geddes]

That was good.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Thank you. I mean we stole it.

[Tim Geddes]

It's, you know, I think Cisco and Eras line. The chat is pointing out that Jason Schreier in the same article talking about Contraband being canceled does confirm that OD is still being developed.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yes, though that's where that conversation came from. Yeah, because I read that part that. That tweet as well.

[Tim Geddes]

Story number three. PS5 shipments top 80.3 million. Wowzers comes from Salmano Gamatsu. PS5 has shipped 80.3 million units worldwide. Sony announced its financial results for the three months ending on my birthday, June 30, 2025. A total of 2.5 million PS5 units were shipped during the three months ending June 30, which is up 0.1 million from the same period the previous fiscal year. Some additional statistics via Shinobi on Twitter say PS5 hardware sales increased 4.1% this quarter to 2.5 million. Game and network service is up 8% year over year. Operating income profit climbed 127. Software sales reached 65.9 million. That's up 23 year over year. And PSN monthly active users increased 6% from 116 million to 123 million during the same period in the previous fiscal year. That's a big jump for psn.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Huge jump for psn. And yeah, like, I mean, very impressive numbers overall. It's. It's fun, it's. Or it's interesting to think about and talk about. Just for the sense of what PlayStation's output has been this year versus last year. And I might need a little bit of reminder of what it was last year because what we had, Astrobot, we had Horizon, was Rise of the Ronin last year. Like, it was like a fine year, but it wasn't like the.

[Tim Geddes]

What Horizon did we have?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Sorry? Horizon. Lego.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, yes, LEGO Horizons.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then like the until dawn remake. Right. And like this year, Helldivers. Oh, Helldivers was big too. Yeah, yeah. But this year doesn't feel, I guess, as strong. Unless I miss.

[Tim Geddes]

Unless you had Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth as well, which is exclusive.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But Rebirth is a really good one to point out because, yeah, this year you're talking about death training too. And then you also have like Ghost of Yote coming up. But yeah, it feels like maybe third party is propping this up a lot. Yeah. As far as what that's doing, I.

[Tim Geddes]

Think it's interesting here. PS5 hardware sales up 4.1%, which is huge. So 2.5 million units sold there, bringing it up to the 80 we're talking about. This doesn't separate PS5 Pro and PS5. So this is just looking at hardware as a whole and PlayStation kind of looking at the whole console ecosystem as just one family, just similar to how Nintendo does with the Switch Lite and Switch OLED and all. That so, yeah, continuing to grow. PlayStation 5, dominant system this generation.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, like those number in five years. Like, those numbers make sense. The five years of the console being out. I just can't believe it's been five years of the console being out. Yeah, like it does not feel that way.

[Tim Geddes]

Five years, man. Yeah, yeah, it's. It is weird to look at consoles and how iterative they've become and to be where we're at now. They're like, I love my PS5 and it, especially my PS5 Pro. It runs games great. And the UI and just the way that all the systems work. And now that we're past the bullshittery of the PS4 to PS5 upgrade path and all that, and just like the weird kinks, now that we're just cruising in this generation, I'm just like, man, I love that I'm at a point that I'm like, I really don't have anything I want for PS6. Like, there'll be new shit that they'll add or whatever, but like, we're just at a point technologically and like, just gaming ecosystem wise where it's like, yeah, we made it.

[Barrett Courtney]

I would like more games. That's just me personally.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I was actually gonna say I want, I want the studios to focus less on live service and actually put out single player games. I think that's the one thing. Aside from that, it's like, yeah, like it's pretty golden as far as. Especially when you're talking about the hardware. The hardware does what the hardware is supposed to do. The games run great. I'm not playing games. And I'm like, man, this shit's fucking chugging or anything like that.

[Tim Geddes]

Right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And I don't even have a pro. I just have like a base PS5 and that's kind of across the board as well.

[Tim Geddes]

Right?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like, I don't play my Xbox Series X either. And I'm like, damn, this ain't running. Like, Switch 2 is powerful enough to do what I need it to do as well. I think we're overall, as far as the audience perspective, right. Of what we're getting from our video games are in such a good place. I wish the industry itself was in a way better place. But we'll talk about that more as the days go.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm sure we will. Let's get into story number four. Sony CFO says Marathon's expected to release before March, and Bungie's independence is, quote, getting lighter. This comes from Chris Scullion at vgc, Sony's chief financial officer. Has said she expects Marathon to release by March 2026. In a Q and A session following the company's latest financial results, Sony execs were asked about the current state of Marathon following the shooter's official delay and whether it was factored into Sony's forecast for the current fiscal year. The caller also asked for an update on the management of Bungie, as well as what Sony would do in the worst case scenario if Marathon was to be canceled outright. Sony CFO Lynn Tao responded by saying Marathon is planned to release within the current fiscal year, which ends on March 31, 2026. Quote first about Marathon, how we factored it in the forecast. We expect the launch to happen within the fiscal year, but having said that, this is not a commitment. No official announcement has been given yet. She added, we're now doing modifications in development and based on the progress in the autumn time frame, we believe we can communicate when we can launch Marathon either from Bungie or PlayStation. With regards to Bungie, Tao reiterated Sony's decision to take more control over the studio's management, with the eventual aim being to completely integrate it into PlayStation Studios. Quote about the governance of Bungie at the time of acquisition, we were offering a very independent environment, so that was one way of thinking. However, thereafter we have gone through structural reform as we announced last year, so this independence is getting lighter and Bungie is shifting into a role which is becoming more part of PlayStation Studios. Wow, an integration is proceeding.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I don't like that freezing.

[Tim Geddes]

So in the long term, you can see this as an ongoing process. The direction for Bungie is to become part of PlayStation Studios. As for whether Marathon would be canceled, Tao said she currently doesn't expect this to happen, saying, quote, we're now fixing the problems, so we believe this launch will happen. If this launch is canceled, we need to do the revision of the valuation. However, as of now, that's not expected.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Dude, how unfortunate that this is how things went when Bungie was acquired. The conversation was, man, we love what Bungie are doing, putting out Destiny, we love what they're doing independently. And it seemed like it was a big ask from Bungie as they're being acquired to still be able to operate independently. We want to put our games out on whatever platform we want, we want to do our own thing and in return we will, you know, help out PlayStation 1. You're going to get the Destiny revenue, all that shit, right? But then also we're going to help you evaluate what you want to do with this live service thing, right? We're going to come into Naughty Dog and, you know, look at last was online and tell you what's working, what's not working, and like, you know, be kind of. I think the drivers for what that live service outlook could look like at PlayStation. You fast forward years later, none of that shit worked out. And a big part of that is Bungie's fault. Right. Like, it seems like they weren't as transparent as they needed to be as far as, like, the state of Bungie and what the. The inner goings. And we had that new story a couple of years ago kind of talking about maybe a year ago, talking about, like, yeah, no, Bungie misrepresented, like, some of the numbers there and some of the shit they had going on. And now we're in a place where PlayStation's like, okay, well, now you're just part of PlayStation Studios and we're going to figure this thing out. Like, I fucking hate all of this.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. And, you know, this is definitely one of those stories that this keeps happening in the last couple of weeks. I keep saying this, but, like, who could have called this. We had conversations on this show talking about the inevitability of how long is it going to take until they are just a PlayStation studio. Because it felt fishy from the jump.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It felt weird.

[Tim Geddes]

And all of the big acquisitions and the amount of money being thrown around and just I truly feel like if the acquisition of Bungie were to happen today, and I know this is like a stupid exercise, but it just would be a PlayStation studio from the jump. Like, they wouldn't even try to be cute about it. And I try to figure it all out and try to phrase in a way of, oh, they're independent, like, now. Let's just call it what it is. And with where we're at now, like, I. This is very concerning because reading the quote here, it's like, all right, cool. Marathon's not canceled. They obviously are giving more information than I expected them to give.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It's kind of wild how much information they're talking about. Like, they're talking about a lot of.

[Tim Geddes]

Outs in case it's not. It's not going to hit where they're. They're saying it is. So, yeah, at the end of the day, Marathon clearly needs work and they're saying that we're fixing all the problems.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Right.

[Tim Geddes]

Which is what. What counts as a problem for them.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

They stole all the art because there's.

[Tim Geddes]

Been a lot of bad stories about them. Right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. The reception might not have been as poppy as they Wanted it to be. The art was stolen for a lot of legends driving their core art style of the game. Right. Like this is a. This is a core title release from Bungie and with that that means something. There is a weight to that. Right. When we think of Bungie, you think of Halo, you think of Destiny and not that Marathon used to immediately be the. The heights of either of those because that's just impossible for a new IP and you're making a extraction. You're right.

[Tim Geddes]

I mean I get in for all intents and purposes it is. But like yeah, it's not though. This is Bungie going back to one of the only things that they have access to to like yes, try to make it a thing. Because like they, they need more than just Destiny. Or do they?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I mean but in that's. I think that's more so the fascinating conversation of. And we're going to continue to have this conversation all the time. What is the future of Bungie? Does Marathon come and go? Are they able to find their footing with it? Even if they find their footing with it, is it a thing of okay, but we're still going to support Destiny as our main thing because that's still going to be our main money maker. Like do. Is there a plan for Marathon as far as how we're going to get this game to the heights of life service income? Like I don't know if that's going to be there.

[Tim Geddes]

Not right. Like that's the problem is like we look at this and the live service side of it, it's like, all right, cool. This was one of the whole initiative was hinging on Bungee and their support of these teams and getting it right. And if the leaders aren't getting it right, yeah, it's fucked to begin with. And I guess here we are now. But PSN numbers are up.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

PSN numbers are up. The cfo, this is such a CFO statement too, which is kind of wild and like it feels very cold and direct in a way where I'm like, damn. But yeah, them saying integrate integration is proceeding already is giving sci fi. You're entering a mech sort of situation. You're brain melding to drive a Pacific to Pacific Rim 2 Mech. But yeah, here talking about if this launch is canceled, we need to do the revision of the valuation. However, as of now, this is not expected. Like that's to your point of. They're giving themselves the out of like yo, maybe it is canceled but right now we don't think it's going to happen. But it could happen and we'll figure that out.

[Tim Geddes]

But even then, being like, it doesn't sound confident. No, it doesn't sound sound confident at all. Nor should it be. At least someone's being honest. Story number six Digital Foundry Leaves IGN to Go Independent this comes from Ethan Gatch. Akotaku yeah, congratulations to all of y' all Gaming tech experts Digital Foundry have gone indie. The YouTube channel announced it's parted ways with its new owner and will strike out on its own. The group's technical breakdowns of how new games run across different consoles and PC hardware have become the industry standard for many fans and game developers. What this means is that from now on, all aspects of DF are decided upon by df. The latest Digital Foundry direct states we answer to nobody but you, the audience on the latest episode of the podcast where the news was announced. Leadbetter Leadbetter said IGN's acquisition followed digital foundries sorry. IGN's acquisition allowed digital Foundry the opportunity to buy out roughly 50% of the company's outstanding shares and take it independent with help from outside investor Rupert Loman, the original co founder of Eurogamer. As part of the deal, the back catalog of Eurogamer Digital Foundry post will also belong to the group. The Patreon supporter program will now be the primary funding behind the venture. The team, which currently includes lead, better Will Judd, John Linneman, Oliver McKenzie, Oliver McKenzie, Tom Morgan, Alex Batalia and AI Sorley said they will be building an entirely new site to host. Their work on it will be doubling down on retro and PC gaming analysis.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Hell, some yes, some good news.

[Tim Geddes]

Really, really good news. I can't believe the era that we're in right now because here we have Digital Foundry. Obviously you hear us talk about them all the time. I imagine if you're watching this show you have also watched Digital Foundry videos at some point. They are the industry standard when it comes to tech breakdowns and one to one comparisons of how games run on different consoles. They do excellent work. They have great expert opinions on video games and in the industry and specifically the tech side of all of it. So congrats to them every which way for being independent. Also for just doing great work throughout the last couple years. They own their shit now. This is crazy. I have no idea how much this could have cost. It must have been a lot of money to get this from IGN and to get the back catalog of stuff like holy crap, I can't even fathom what the investor here would have had to get to to make to pull this off. But we're seeing it happen more and more. Game Informer a similar story, right? Like, there's differences. But Game Informer now doing their own thing, having their own destiny. Giant fucking Bomb. Our friends now own Giant Bomb and the entire catalog of Giant Bomb content. What the fuck world do we live in, man? Yeah, that is so crazy. And all those stories are different, but I think at the end of the day, it's talented groups of people that are very good at what they do different things. And I love to see it.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I do think that what they all have in common are people seeing the value, like people seeing the unique value that these outlets have and wanting to invest in the obvious in the Giant Bomb thing, right? Those are people that literally they are Giant Bomb and they came up with Giant Bomb and they've both watched and have been a part of Giant Bomb from its inception. And that is them going to fandom and being like, yo, like, how do we make, how do we make this work? Can we buy this from you? But they know. They know what makes Giant Bomb work in a way that all of the people that are passing around Giant Bomb, right, all those parent companies that just fucking kept passing them on to the next next one just never fucking got it. Digital Foundry, this person that invested and like bought the 50, right? And the people that are part of it, they know the value of Digital Foundry in Game Informer. The people that bought Game Informer, right? Like, I think you have to understand games media and have an appreciation for games media to be able to then manage a games media site in the right way. Skill up is another example, actually, with this weekend Video Game starting his own thing. And when I hear Skill up talk about this week in video games, I'm filled with confidence for that outlet because he's talking about it in all the right ways. He is connecting that brand to the skill of brand which has a gigantic audience. He is hoping that 1% of those people have that transfer of clicking over to the website and maybe and maybe supporting financially. Those are the kind of margins that you had to figure out and talk about and be honest with yourself with. You cannot go into games media thinking that you're going to make trillions of dollars because you never will. But if you go into games media and try to find the right talent and try to find the right audience and go about it the right way and like create something that's going to appeal to a, a number of people because you're doing something quality, you might be doing A specific thing, quality, like Digital Foundry does, right, with the hardware breakdowns. Or you might just be creating quality news, right? Writing quality news in the way that this Week in Video Games does. You got to find that thing and nurture it. And yeah, I feel. I feel so good about all these stories that we've been getting as far as these independent outlets buying out or rising up. So absolutely love all of it.

[Tim Geddes]

Very, very cool stuff. I'm still waiting for my first issue of Game Informer.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, it's not coming yet.

[Tim Geddes]

Did yours come?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Did you subscribe? I didn't subscribe. I should subscribe.

[Tim Geddes]

I forgot.

[Barrett Courtney]

I've been seeing them.

[Tim Geddes]

I've been seeing them in the wild too, but I just. I haven't got mine, so I need. I need to look into that.

[Barrett Courtney]

They saw your name on the list and they're like this guy.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Also, did you mean to skip story number five?

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, I didn't like it.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, that's fair.

[Tim Geddes]

No, I'm joking. Story number five. Sony CFO says its live service shift is not entirely going smoothly.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It was kind of in the same vein as the Marathon conversation, but this is all from the same call.

[Tim Geddes]

But they pledged to carry on and learn from mistakes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, thank God.

[Tim Geddes]

This comes from Chris Scullion at vgc. Sony's chief financial officer says the company will learn from its live service failures, but insists that progress has been made despite them. In a Q and A session following the company's financial results. This is what we got. The CFO replied that despite the negativity surrounding Sony's live service offerings, thanks to issues with Concord and Marathon, she still believes live service games are worthwhile because they've added a revenue stream that didn't exist for the company five years ago. Last year Concord shut down and this year Marathon was postponed. So somewhat negative news has been coming out.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, somewhat, somewhat.

[Tim Geddes]

But if we look at the past five years. Five years ago, live service games were almost non existent for PlayStation Studios. We now have Helldivers 2, MLB the Show, and Gran Turismo 7 and Bungie's Destiny 2. Wait a minute, man.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, you're right.

[Tim Geddes]

So we have these four live service games contribute to sales and profits in a stable manner. All right, let's see. Non existent. For PlayStation series, we have Helldivers 2. Cheryl, show them that Helldivers 1 existed. But I get it to different type.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Of game and I have a different conversation about Hell. I do. Because I don't believe that was part of their life stories push. I think that just fit the Box. But we can talk about that later. I don't want this.

[Tim Geddes]

Mlb the show fit everything or does that just like a cute little.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, yeah. The show was a. It was a brand new. Yeah. We'd never heard of.

[Tim Geddes]

Never heard that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Didn't exist.

[Tim Geddes]

The seventh Gran Turismo.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But it's the first seventh Gran Turismo. Gran Turismo 7. Didn't exist.

[Tim Geddes]

First Gran Turismo 7. Okay. Okay, cool.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

First.

[Barrett Courtney]

The first series to hit 7.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Good point.

[Tim Geddes]

It's a really good point. For Q1, the live service ratio is about 40%. For the full year, it's a little less, probably between 20 and 30%. So in terms of the transformation, it's not entirely going smoothly. But from a longer term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there's definitely better changes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This is why I wanted you to read the story, because it's so ridiculous. What are you saying? Okay, everyone, what are we talking about here?

[Tim Geddes]

Please listen to me.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It's not working.

[Tim Geddes]

Listen to the words that are about to come out of my mouth. I'm going to read this direct quote once again. For Q1, the live service ratio was about 40%. For the full year, it's a little less, probably between 20 and 30%. So in terms of the transformation, it's not entirely going smoothly. But from a longer term perspective, if you look at the changes over five years, you see that there's definitely better change.

[Barrett Courtney]

Nobody knows what the fuck they're doing.

[Tim Geddes]

Of course, we recognize there are still many issues. So we should learn the lessons from mistakes and make sure that we introduce live service content where there's less waste and it's more smooth.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

We should do. We should do better and not worse. We should keep doing the same thing. Ever played Far Cry 3?

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You know the villain, Voss, he gave a really great monologue, a monologue that I think about often. And it's funny because it is like kind of peak video game edgy shit. But I still fucking love it where he goes on this rant about the definition of insanity. And it's doing. And he's not the first to say this, right, but I like how he says he's like he's doing the same thing over and over again and expecting things to change.

[Tim Geddes]

Yep.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And he says that. And it's like a kind of a core aspect of his character because then he fucking kicks you down a fucking thing. He tries to kill you again because he's saying he's insane.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. Our CFO friend is going to do.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yes. Our CFO friend is essentially saying, hey, we recognize that we've, you know, we fumbled this quite a bit. We've had some struggles, but we're going to keep doing the same thing. I hope that is good because look at the numbers. Hey, if you look, it's been working because we just got. And we. Mlb the show exists and Gran Turismo exists. And also we. We bought Bungie and Bungie's doing great for us, apparently. Yeah. And Concord, forget the last story. No, not corn. Concord. Forget the last story. Read Bungie. What they're doing is great. And then what was the other game? Helldivers 2, which I still don't believe is part of this live service push. I think that just happened to fit the bill. I think that was the thing that was going to be greenlit anyway. Because you all love Helldivers because Shuhei Yoshida has great taste. I think that's how that worked. I don't think any of the choices they made have been good choices.

[Tim Geddes]

I mean, the moment that we started talking about MLB the show as a live service game, that's part of this thing. I'm not arguing that it's not a live service game. I was arguing that if that is, we don't need a fucking live service push for PlayStation.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Exactly.

[Tim Geddes]

It's just a multiplayer game that, like, you make some money from.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Tim, I can't stress enough how much how right you are.

[Barrett Courtney]

But it's also like, they sell it as if, like, it wasn't live service before, you know, like, it's been that way for so long.

[Tim Geddes]

I can't believe there are examples, Helldivers 2 notwithstanding, where MLB the Show, Gran Turismo 7 and Destiny 2 because.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Because they nurtured Destiny 2 from the crib. They fucking raised it. They turned that from rags to riches. It was all PlayStation. It wasn't fucking Bungie under Activision. It was fucking PlayStation apparent, apparently.

[Barrett Courtney]

You know what? And ignore the things Anthro Metal are saying in chat. Like, the Last of Us multiplayer God of War, multiplayer. Horizon multi. Ignore those things.

[Tim Geddes]

Spider man.

[Barrett Courtney]

Multiplayer Spider man multiplayer. Also the. That like Horizon, the game that's like ripping off Horizon and like that whole story. Did you guys talk about.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, yeah, that was talked about by some people, not me. I don't think.

[Barrett Courtney]

Do we think that.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That we did talk about it.

[Barrett Courtney]

Do we think that that was possibly the Horizon multiplayer leak? Since that was, like, part of that story?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Because, like, play. Because Horizon literally, like. Or the gorilla, like, they're hiring in House for the most. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. So that's still coming along with. Well, we'll see. That's still planned to be coming.

[Tim Geddes]

Story number seven. Everything announced in Nintendo's indie world. This comes from Michael McWhorter at Polygon. Yeah, the indie world happened today and we did not react to it. So we're going to talk about what happened now. You know the Hollower. We already knew it was coming. October 31st. There's a demo though. You can play it. You probably should. From developer Yacht Club Games. Coming to switch and switch two. Can't wait.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

October 31st. Let's go.

[Tim Geddes]

Fantastic. Well, drill well Dweller. Well, drill well Dweller. Play as Glimmer, a tiny bird armed with a matchstick to slay an evil queen to save his family before they become part of a royal gown in well Dweller from Top Hat Games. Coming to switch in 2026.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It looks cool. Like a 2D action platformer situation. I'm probably not going to play it, if I'm being honest.

[Tim Geddes]

Whoa, whoa.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Hold on.

[Tim Geddes]

Big old Metroidvania map.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

With your friends. Okay.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What does that do for you, Mr. Metroidvania?

[Tim Geddes]

You know, this is a. I. This looks cool. It does that art style puppetee thing that I don't like.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I feel you.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. Never way. Quit your job and work for an immortal deity in Neverway. A nightmarish pixel rpg. Pixel art. RPG with pixel art from the artist behind Celeste and music from the composer Faz and Hyperlight Drifter. Coming to Switch in 2026.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This is one that is on my esteem wish list.

[Tim Geddes]

I thought that was a titty.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Where?

[Tim Geddes]

Go back. No.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, the knee.

[Tim Geddes]

It was. It's pretty low, but.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What's the anatomy? She has a really long neck.

[Tim Geddes]

She got a long neck.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Dude, I need you to draw like what you think the body is.

[Tim Geddes]

You know.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

She'S a giraffe. Anyway, this game looks really cool. That's all I can really say about it. Right? Like the pixel. Like the thing mentions. Right? Pixel art from the artist behind Celeste and composer from the. The composer behind Hyper Hyper Light Drifter. Isn't that a disaster piece? I'm going to say disaster piece. Looks lit. I'm in.

[Tim Geddes]

Hurdling. Coming to switch. August 21st. I feel like this is one that we played at the Xbox.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It was. It's the one where you heard animals.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, yeah. This one's cool.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Heard animals. Yeah, it said that quick.

[Tim Geddes]

I like this one. August 21st. Come to switch. Is this seat taken? A pleasant puzzle game about seating people where they want to sit. It's a puzzle. Puzzle piece. People manager out today on Switch and.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It'S a puzzle poppy ass game. I'm excited for this one. So today I.

[Tim Geddes]

Man, is it made by the Scribble Nuts team, not Scribble Knots?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It is. I think it is a team. We know.

[Tim Geddes]

I'll look at Snipper Clips because it kind of has that vibe.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This is made Shapes with Faces by Potty Potty Studio. I mean, on Steam. This is their first game, so I don't think so. It is a whole. It is published by Wholesome Games, though.

[Tim Geddes]

It'S really not the Snipper Clips team. Okay, Little Kitty, Big City, let's go. It's a picture perfect update. A new update for cat game. Little Kitty Big City offers new cat summization options, new Nightmare Nightmares, New Nightmares to explore neighborhoods to explore, new friends, and new photo mode options. The picture perfect updates coming later this year.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Tim, you nailed the cozy thing, by the way, when we were talking about our predictions for this. Because I thought you're. I thought you're putting like too much cozy accusations on the indie world. And as I go through this, I'm.

[Tim Geddes]

Like, no, you're right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It really is like more cozy stuff, which I appreciate. Like I'm. I'm pro cozy games, obviously, but like what I want, I wanted to like surprise us a little bit.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Give me Little Kitty Big City, the perfect update, and then the next game, just Devolver Digital Murder Simulator. I want fucking guns and blood in action. Give me Mad World.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Remember Mad World?

[Tim Geddes]

Of course.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Mix that shit in in there.

[Tim Geddes]

Content warning.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Let's go.

[Tim Geddes]

Coming to switch and switch two in 2026.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That's what I'm talking about.

[Tim Geddes]

Perfect example. Right? Little Kitty, Big City. Boom, boom.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Terror God.

[Tim Geddes]

We got ball. Cross Pit. An action roguelite game inspired by Hold Down Loop Hero and Vampire Survivors. Coming to switch October 15th, my mom's birthday. And switch two sometime this fall.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I fuck with this. I'm curious about it. This looks like a game I could get really addicted to. It has sort of a. A brick breaker.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. It also has one of those. Like you're scrolling on Tick Tock and see an ad for a mobile game type vibes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Gameplay wise. But this looks like it's. There's game. There's a game surrounding it to like.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Make it worth it. Which is cool because like, look, those ads are on Tick Tock for a reason. People want to play that.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh yeah. You, you.

[Tim Geddes]

I love Brick Breaker. Type things.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This looks fun. I play. Dude. The only video game my dad would ever play growing up was Ark. Arkanoid on our PC.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And he was good at it.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, he played.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

He was so good at Arkanoid.

[Tim Geddes]

Poppy. Poppy.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And so like, I have a sort of the Arkanoid gene in me. And so you show me a brick breaker game. Give me. Give me in there, Coach. Also, what is all this? Is this still the same game?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh. All right.

[Tim Geddes]

Pretty sick. Ultimate sheep Raccoon coming to switch and switch to winter 2025.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Let's go.

[Tim Geddes]

Cool. Cool.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I love that it's gonna take over the company.

[Tim Geddes]

It's definitely going to cause some fights.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Glaciered. Set 65 million years in the future. You play an evolved avian creature as you explore an underwater world battling marine beasts to become the Overwinter's ultimate protector in Glaciered. Come to switch to this holiday. Interesting.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

You're a bird in the sea.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I didn't get this one, but it looks interesting. I. I don't understand it.

[Tim Geddes]

Echo the Dolphin.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It is like A. Yeah. 3D echo the dolphin except you have action elements to it.

[Tim Geddes]

Demon School. A school life tactics RPG with hints of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei and Italian horror cinema where movement equals action. We just got another trailer for this coming September 3rd, 2025.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This is one that Barrett predicted on the episode. One that looks really cool. Dope art style. When we say it's Persona. Like it is like, like the first couple of Personas in terms of the perspective and style of it. But then it has like this tactical based combat that looks fun.

[Tim Geddes]

Very PAX Coded is what you said.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Very. I said it was very pax. PAX Coded and fucking nailed it. It's here. Except it wasn't in the, like Western direct. This was a Japanese.

[Tim Geddes]

This was the one that was the extra five minutes.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

This was the extra five minutes of the Japan direct.

[Tim Geddes]

All right.

[Barrett Courtney]

So interesting why.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But hey, it's got a date.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm excited.

[Tim Geddes]

That is. I don't like that. Additionally, there's a Nintendo switch version of UFO 50 out today and additional updates from Nintendo Cozy management game Tiny Bookshop is out on Nintendo Switch now. Strange Horror Culture sequel Strange Antiquities brings its brand of caretaking for occult antiquity store to switch on September 17th. Opus Prism peaks come in. This fall. Go Go Town tasked you with becoming the mayor of a rundown tourist town out on Switch. Spring 2026. 2D turn based roguelite Caves of Kud. It's Q U D comes to Switch this Winter and then Undusted Letters from the Past. A cozy cleaning game with a touching story coming to Switch in October. Winter Burrow is a woodland survival game about a mouse returning home to restore the childhood burrow out this holiday.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I love how many games are starring mice.

[Tim Geddes]

Mice, man.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

My sir.

[Tim Geddes]

You're the mice.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You're the mice.

[Tim Geddes]

Cool. That. That's. That an indie world that came and went.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. I mean I think this is along the lines of what we usually get for indie world. Looking back, we were foolish. Talk about Hades 2.

[Tim Geddes]

We weren't silkscal. I stand by. We weren't foolish, but I also stand by. Like Nintendo. This is not. Not the best looks for the first kind of showcases for the Switch too. But I get where we're at. I'm just disappointed.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, fair enough.

[Tim Geddes]

Story number eight. Metroid Prime 4, Elden Ring and Silksong are all playable at Nintendo's Gamescom booth. This comes from Ollie Reynolds at Nintendo Life. Nintendo will be making an appearance at this year's gamescom and it looks like the company's full lineup of games has been revealed. Included on the selection are some pretty interesting ones. Metroid Prime 4 Beyond Pokemon Legends ZA Elden Ring Tarnished Edition Final Fantasy 7 Remake Integrate Hollow Knight, Silk Song and Hades 2. While definitively. Well, not definitively confirmed, we can reasonably assume that these will all be playable on the Switch too.

[Barrett Courtney]

And people are going to be able to play Mario Kart World?

[Tim Geddes]

Hell yeah, man. Cyberpunk.

[Barrett Courtney]

That's crazy.

[Tim Geddes]

Hell yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Silksong and Hades too. What the are we doing?

[Tim Geddes]

What are we doing, dude? Elden Ring and Final Fantasy. Where were you in the partner showcase? Those games are playable. What's that tell you? They're coming this year, probably. You don't think so?

[Barrett Courtney]

I don't know, man.

[Tim Geddes]

It's August, man.

[Barrett Courtney]

That's what I'm saying.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I mean it's already August months.

[Tim Geddes]

We're talking about ports.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

I think Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Elden Ring are not this year. What the fuck are we doing?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I'm more.

[Tim Geddes]

How are you not going to hit for the holiday season? You have to. And they're playable.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah. Them being playable is kind of. Yeah. I would expect all this stuff out by end of year. I'm with you. I'm just still shocked at silk song and Hades 2 being playable.

[Tim Geddes]

I mean, was playable at the New York event.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I guess so.

[Tim Geddes]

We just didn't play it because. Because we had it on PC and.

[Barrett Courtney]

With Silksong, it's like now we're expecting it even sooner. Right, right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Plus. What do you mean sooner?

[Barrett Courtney]

With the next story, you know, sooner.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yes, yes. Story number eight or nine?

[Tim Geddes]

Story number nine. According to Bill Buccoon, the Rog Xbox ally releases on October 16th.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You got it.

[Tim Geddes]

Toast that sooner then.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Well, sooner than. October 6th is Silksong's launching on this thing, Right?

[Barrett Courtney]

When it launches, Silksong will be playable.

[Tim Geddes]

Question mark.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You're picking up what we're putting down?

[Tim Geddes]

I. I am, but I mean, October doesn't seem sooner than August.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, like sooner than.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like, December. Sooner than the end of the year is what we're saying. Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, October sounds right to me. This adds up to me.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

October 16th for silksong. Or two months.

[Barrett Courtney]

Two months from now, man.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

They're gonna announce it at any point.

[Tim Geddes]

Gamescom.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Listen, I abstain. I abstained from. From predicting.

[Barrett Courtney]

I'm a Gamescom hater.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But hey, if this is the year that they go all out for it, I will never.

[Barrett Courtney]

I loved working Gamescom. Most boring show every year.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And don't y'.

[Tim Geddes]

All.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Don't y' all ever quote me on this. I will never predict another Silk song thing ever again.

[Tim Geddes]

You're going to. Every single.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I'm never going to predict.

[Tim Geddes]

It'd be silly not to.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I'm done.

[Tim Geddes]

We are closer than ever.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Reveal when you want to. Give me the release date. Whenever the you want to. I'm done predicting Silksong.

[Tim Geddes]

They're gonna. Here we go. Bill Bulkhoon. Xbox Ally. October 16th.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I love how we're talking about the Silk song. We're not even talking about the Xbox because who cares about it?

[Barrett Courtney]

It's gonna be expensive.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Greg Miller does.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm very excited for this thing. October 16th. Everything about this, like, adds up to me. I believe Bibble Coon. Great track record. October 16th. Yeah, why not? Before Black Friday, before the holiday stuff, like.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I believe it, too.

[Tim Geddes]

That's the right place to put this out. Anything else to add there?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No.

[Tim Geddes]

Cool. That wasn't big enough news for you? That's okay. If I wanted small news, where would I look?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You go to our last news story, the WE News Channel. We cover all the small news items you need to know about.

[Tim Geddes]

Jeff Keighley confirmed that the composer and singer From Claire Obscure Expedition 33 is going to perform an acoustic set live at Gamescom opening night. Live.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Really very excited for this. It's going to hit.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

You're not. You're not holding it for Game Awards.

[Tim Geddes]

Well, this is just an acoustic set, so I'm hoping Game awards and Game Awards. It'll be in the.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

The Orchestra Orchestra Game of the Year medley.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That's like a guarantee for Game of the year nomination, right?

[Tim Geddes]

100.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. We're gonna get some exhibition music, which is great.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What do we do?

[Tim Geddes]

Which bonanza form music are we getting? That's the big question.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, none of them.

[Tim Geddes]

You don't think so?

[Barrett Courtney]

No, it'll just be like the main kind of first theme that we hear.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like the first level. Because that's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Because it is a good song. Like that first level music.

[Barrett Courtney]

God of War, Ragnarok. They just use the 2018 theme again instead of like the better, more interesting.

[Tim Geddes]

Theme N they're going to do the.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

What do we become if Expedition 33 isn't nominated at the Game Awards?

[Tim Geddes]

There's not a chance in hell.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But like, what do we do if it's not?

[Tim Geddes]

I will.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like, who. What kind of people do we.

[Barrett Courtney]

I think we just. We just start becoming election deniers.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Like full. Full. Like what building do we storm? I'm just kidding. I'm kidding jokes.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. There's just not a chance in hell. There's not a chance in hell.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I don't know. Yeah. Strong fall. Silk Song. Hades 2.

[Tim Geddes]

But we just know how numbers work. People are going to. We know the way people talk about Expedition in the. The voting space for game awards.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah, but they all. They've also been talking a big thing about Don Kong with Nanza.

[Tim Geddes]

That'll be there too.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Ghost of Yote. Well, you don't think Ghost Yot is.

[Tim Geddes]

Gonna be in there? I do.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Okay, cool.

[Tim Geddes]

But you don't know yet. So we know about the other two.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That's fair. We only got five or six slots in this thing. That's all I'm saying.

[Tim Geddes]

You're saying a lot. Metal Eden launches September 2nd on our Xbox, PS5 and PC. Lego party is coming September 30th. Literally everywhere. And that's it for We News.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Wow, that's raining too. It's a strong year.

[Tim Geddes]

It is. It is. Let's see what super chats we got. Rails says birthday tax. I'm 30 years old today. Thank you for all the laughs and good times. You guys are a consistent relief from the chaos happening in the world. Thank you for all you do. Happy birthday.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Happy birthday.

[Tim Geddes]

Happy 30. Dirty 30.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Love that dirty 30.

[Tim Geddes]

Ghostly con says Tim. The OG turtles from the TMNT live action movie are going to be at my Comic Con this year in September. I'm going to get their autographs for sure. That's freaking awesome.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That's really cool.

[Tim Geddes]

They're bringing that movie back for the 30th anniversary in next week into theaters. Me and my brother are gonna go.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, that's awesome.

[Tim Geddes]

Very excited.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Let me know if they ever bring back the second one, because that's the one.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I had that on vhs.

[Tim Geddes]

What a time.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Chef's Kiss.

[Tim Geddes]

Ty Wilkin says, you cancel od, you're screwed. You'll never get Kojima back. Also, first thing they showed was fake gameplay. Perfect dark. Never existed. Sorry to say. You gotta read some articles, my friend. I don't know about that, man. What do you have to say?

[Barrett Courtney]

Well, that, like, there were reports. No. Of like, that vertical slice that they showed was like, just made for that or something like that.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

But isn't that every vertical slice?

[Tim Geddes]

But I mean, that's how. Yeah, that's how game slices work.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

It was a game. It was. It just had to be played a certain way. But it was playable. Banderasan says watch K Pop Demon Hunters last night. I need Tango or Shift up to make a game with Sony about it. That'd be sick. Tango. I'd be in for that.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, Tango.

[Tim Geddes]

Let's go.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

That'd be really cool.

[Tim Geddes]

JB Beneficio says when's kind of anime Dan to Dan season two's peak right now.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Bear was telling me about it on the way out yesterday. Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

Dunnadon Season 2 kicking ass so far. We're looking to do an episode, I think sometime in late September. We want to see the Demon Slayer movie that's coming out next month first before we record another kind of anime Basunish.

[Tim Geddes]

Sick. Robbie Palmer says. Are y' all gonna do a spoiler talk about DK Bonanza asking. You shall receive tomorrow this show Gamescast. It'll be this crew, me, Barrett Bless, spoiling the living fuck out of Donkey Kong Bonanza.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Hell, yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

My official review, finally.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, Barrett will give his review and we're gonna watch a couple reactions from Bless and Barrett, some key moments of the game. So, yeah, if you have any questions or thoughts on DK Bonanza, please tweet them at me or super chat them tomorrow and we'll get through them. But I'm very excited to talk all about Donkey Kong. Unrestricted.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Raw. Raw.

[Tim Geddes]

Con man. She had some low titties, you know. Shambo Baggin says thoughts on Insomnia. Posting Sunset Overdrive on their Instagram a few days ago.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I didn't see that on their Instagram. I Feel like this happens all the.

[Barrett Courtney]

Time where they always post that game.

[Tim Geddes]

I really.

[Barrett Courtney]

Nothing.

[Tim Geddes]

I really, really want Sunset Overdrive to come to PS5. Like, little tiny upgrades here and there, trophies. Because I just love getting platinums and insomniac games.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Oh, I feel like that.

[Tim Geddes]

That to me would be like the enticing thing of like, all right, it's time. Sunset Overdrive.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I feel that. Something I'm looking up, I'm gonna see because. Is it just a screenshot or is it a screenshot that's like, whoa, what if we release this right now? Dare us. Somebody dare us. We're gonna release it.

[Tim Geddes]

Goldfish Boy says Spyro like the day before.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Okay, get the. Get out of here.

[Tim Geddes]

There's getting nostalgic.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Gold Boy. Goldfish boy says, got my Waterfield. City Slicker Switch two case hype. Dude, what a nice case. Beautiful. Very expensive, but very, very, very high quality product there. You were gonna love it for years to come. I can guarantee that. Jamal Hayes says birthday tax love. We all do. Been watching from the start. Love the fair and legal or let the fair and legal trade happen. You know, Too late. It's too late.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

They found. They found a way to make it happen anyway.

[Barrett Courtney]

Which again is like, why didn't they just do it that way in the first place?

[Tim Geddes]

Because they didn't actually have a plan. They had no things happened. And then they retroactively, like, put a string through them. If you follow the story that Roger gave us, there really isn't a plot.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, it's like the burnout reading at the end of that movie where, you know, they. The kind of two people who are trying to put it all together, come together and they're like, yeah, none of this made sense.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It'S gonna make less sense when we get the actual scores of these games. Games by the end of the year.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

We're gonna look at it and be like, you all did this for nothing.

[Barrett Courtney]

Also, I want to clarify because people took my doubting of the remaster of Final Fantasy Tactics as just hating Final Fantasy Fantasy Tactics.

[Tim Geddes]

That was hilarious, by the way.

[Barrett Courtney]

That's a amazing game. I just have. I think people are going to be. People who love Tactics and are going to review this remaster are going to be disappointed by what this remaster does as a preservation to the legacy of that game, is all I was saying.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

And I think Ninja Gaiden 4.

[Barrett Courtney]

I think it's gonna score better than.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

It's gonna score better than Will Roger thinks.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah. Napoleon blown apart says Richard ledbetter couldn't get into specifics, but said that the remaining shares cost more than his house support. Independent Games Media. That's what I'm talking about. That adds up to me, like, absolutely. It must have been millions of dollars. Crazy.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Hope he gets that back.

[Tim Geddes]

Crazy, man. Yeah. The idea of getting millions of dollars back is terrifying. Good luck to y'.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

All. Good fucking investments, man.

[Tim Geddes]

Uncle Death says, just an FYI, the Rooster Teeth website's back up and you can log back in if you had an account before and you can watch all the old content. Excellent stuff. I know Bernie's been working on on that and trying to get the old school boards back to how it used to be in the early 2000s, which is super cool. Blue Night Jedi, says Tim. And bless if you want the ultimate auto battler, JRPG and tactics game play. Unicorn Overlord, Check out the Open Critic. I bought it last week based off Yalls reaction to a Nintendo Direct. It's incredible.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Hell yeah.

[Tim Geddes]

Didn't you play this?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I. I tried it.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, I tried it too.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I liked 13 sentinels. That came out like, quite a few years ago. And like, I think just the setting and style of game that was versus what Unicorn Overlord is works better for me. But like, I heard. I've heard a lot of great things about Unicorn Overlord. Like, if you're a listener watcher and those things that they just mentioned in that chat sound good to you, you should definitely check it out.

[Tim Geddes]

Omega Buster says Square didn't want to mix the marketing message. Focus on Philibilia.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Phillipilia. I still don't understand. So Phillipilia is the kingdom or what? The location that they're in the land. Just call it. Because you're gonna get to the end of the game. It's gonna be revealed to be Philadelphia. We're all gonna be like, whoa, that's crazy.

[Tim Geddes]

Oscar Navarro says Tim and Greg should have a Pokemon battle to determine who reviews. Zah. I don't know if you saw Greg's. Greg's on vacation right now. He beat Pokemon Violet and he's been posting screenshots of him playing Pokemon Arceus. And I'm like, damn.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No.

[Tim Geddes]

Wow. He is.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

No way.

[Tim Geddes]

Greg's going all in. Going all in.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

He's a different man.

[Tim Geddes]

He is a different man, you know.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Out here just loving Xbox, playing Pokemons. So that's not the. That's not the beyond host I used to listen to.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Different man. Trader Child has changed everything about him.

[Tim Geddes]

Change it all, man. Still stinky though, looking at. You're wrong. You know, we get a lot, Ron. There's a lot of words. I look at this and I'm like, do I want to read it? Do I want to be called out for my flaws?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Portland Kevin says the classic Italian rice ball dish arancini is typically pronounced arancini. Oh, wait, what'd you say? I don't know because I would have said arancini.

[Tim Geddes]

So would I. But did I?

[Blessing Adiojunior]

He definitely did it.

[Tim Geddes]

I don't know, man. I feel like this seems kind of like people are picking on me.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I mean, listen, that's Additional information. Stephen Totillo has an article on the Contraband cancellation. All these are big quotes. In a statement on the website, Avalanche stated that the active development has now stopped while we evaluate the project's future. The studio has also noted that we're thankful for the excitement we've seen from Community since we've announced, and we'll give an update on what's next as soon as we can. Contraband's official trailer had been set to private on Xbox's YouTube channel several weeks ago, stoking rumors that the game was in jeopardy. Less widely reported were cuts in Xbox's publishing division, a group that worked with outside development studios to supplement Microsoft's internally developed games with projects made by partners such as Games have Such games have included Nights as Dusk. Nights as Dusk Falls. Isn't it called as Ducks Fall? Oh, I see. Interior Nights As Dusk Falls. Don't nods tell me why. Two game file sources said that the team has been significantly impacted with multiple producers Cut and its longtime leader Peter Wise also exiting the company. Microsoft still has plans to publish games with Kojima Productions and Platinum Ninja, Gaiton 4 and Asobo for Flight Simulator, according to a source familiar with the matter. This is what I'll say is that all that lines up with things that I've heard as far as people who have worked with Xbox's publishing division and are just like, yeah, no, like shit's on fire over there. Like we had a game and now we had a game that was supposed to be published by them and now it's not. Like that seems. Yeah, all of that seems true. From Steven Totilo's article, which comes back to the thing of like, if you're I just don't understand what the fucking strategy is now with Xbox's like, I guess third party stuff, it comes back to what you said. I guess we're just canceling all of it. I still find it tough to think that they would cancel OD just Because I don't think you piss off your entire audience and piss off Kojima at the same time. I think it's just Xbox wouldn't want.

[Tim Geddes]

To, like, wouldn't be okay with pissing off their entire audience.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I mean, you make a good point. I think it's something you don't want to do.

[Tim Geddes]

Yeah, of course they don't want to. They don't want to, and I don't. I mean, obviously it's not the goal. I'm. I'm just saying that not only is it not impossible, I think that it is something that we should prepare for and be surprised if the game comes out and is good.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Surprised.

[Tim Geddes]

Surprised. That's where I'm at.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Fair enough. And then Nitro says, 1943, the rise of Hydra got delayed to 2026. Thank you. I think that game is coming out.

[Barrett Courtney]

I think.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Is it good? We'll see. But I believe in it.

[Tim Geddes]

I'm happy that you do. Because I want it to be good. I want it to be real. Gotta be come out. 2026, an Amy Hennig game.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Whenever. Whenever companies come out. Whenever companies announce a year, that means it's coming out. Think about it. What was that Quantum Dream, Star wars game, Eclipse. Is that ever gonna get a year? See? Not coming out.

[Tim Geddes]

Night Seal, Republic remake.

[Barrett Courtney]

I would really hope. I really don't want that game to come out.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Ah, you know, was that supposed to come out? 2023 or some. Maybe.

[Tim Geddes]

Well, everyone, this has been Games Daily.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

I know. It's been an episode.

[Tim Geddes]

It's been an episode.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

10 news stories. You got through it all.

[Tim Geddes]

What the. No getting invited to birthday parties. We already went to a birthday party for this person. You don't get to do another fucking party. Show some respect.

[Barrett Courtney]

Maybe they have two birthdays, Tim.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Birth month.

[Tim Geddes]

Think about it. You're right.

[Blessing Adiojunior]

Maybe it was like, this is the public friend, like, everybody's invited thing. But now here's like the thing for the close friends.

[Barrett Courtney]

No, I was thinking that they got birthed two different times somehow.

[Tim Geddes]

Oh, my God. Climb back in. Wow. All right, everybody. I love you all. We're about to do Gamescast. It's going to be awesome. You're cool, we're cool. Bye.