YoVideogames!

This episode is mostly about EVO, and what we expect coming for fighting games. There is a furry/waifu subplot though and you should be prepared for it. So, we didn't hit EVO this year and it sounds like we weren't alone. Do we think this is linked to there being multiple EVOs on multiple continents now? And... Wait... Are they already walking back how many countries that will have tournaments? And wait, did they already drop Invincible VS from future events? We got questions!

This episode is a discussion inspired by Mystic on Youtube. He recently made a video about why Sony can't/won't delay the release of the PS6. You can watch that video, here. What's it boil down to? Sunk cost. They already spent all the time and money to bring it to market, stopping now won't actually save them anything and can only cost them more. Personally, I think that's a fallacy, but Matt sees the logic of the argument. Additionally, we talk the steam machine, Xbox next gen, and more!

More layoffs. The pendulum always swings. We just had maybe the best not-E3 in close to a decade. Excitement is in the air for anyone that is a fan of games. So, naturally, Microsoft would go ahead and try to scuttle any good will by closing multiple studios. Including one that had a game announced at their event. So, who's getting the axe? Why? And what does it mean for the industry at large? Because while we had an incredible summer announcement season, the industry itself is still contracting. Not because it isn't profitable. It very much still is.

Ok. Maybe that's hyperbolic, but this really was a solid gaming Christmas. Is anyone mad? Of course, there are people who didn't get the exact thing they wanted, and so they are mad as hell. But this might be the first year in a decade or close to where there's not only something for everyone, but there's MULTIPLE big somethings for most people. I am already thinking about what I will pick up in September, and what I'll budget for over the following months. And really, that might be the only mark against this... So many things are coming out in September that I have to wonder how the rest of the next year will feel. What about you guys? How do you grade summer announcement season?

Sony kicked off gaming summer with an hour long State of Play. Naturally, expectations were high. Did they deliver? I'd argue, yes. They bookended the SoP by opening with extended Wolverine gameplay and then ended with 20 minutes of God of War: Laufey cinematic gameplay. In between was a mix of promising titles, and a couple small surprises, like Kemuri. It felt very safe. Even the release dates: all of them pointedly avoiding GTA6 release. That's not really a mark against Sony in my opinion, but it does mean nothing will absolutely melt your face or blow your mind. Still, this was a solid State of Play!

I love James Bond movies. I grew up with them. I just talked about having gone through every Bond film a few weeks ago (there's 28, if you include The Rock, and you should!). When I watched the marketing for First Light, it looked like a Hitman game. A very well done, excellently made, Hitman game. And that meant I was out. I'm not hating on Hitman. Blood Money is a classic, and as far as I'm concerned the peak of the series because after that I never got into it again. World of Assassination is supposed to be incredible - if you love Hitman and haven't played it - get after it. This is by no means trying to talk you out of anything Hitman. But... Is James Bond right for a Hitman game? It didn't land for me. For whatever reason, James Bond means car chases, fast action, gun fights. In game form, that screams shooter to us. First or Third person, but shooter. Not stealth, not sandbox, not puzzles. None of those things are bad, and judging by the reviews IO interactive did a fantastic job. So, why is the game tracking low sales? Well, who is this game for? Hitman fans? James Bond fans? Uhhh... Uncharted fans??

Sony is making a bit of an event out of their summer State of Play - coming June 2nd. Summer Games Fest is coming just three days later; so I guess we know Sony isn't making any big announcements there. If they are giving so much of a heads up , they must expect this to be big, right? What do we think/hope this is? Well, we know Wolverine will take up a big chunk of the hour long show - they've said so. It's been a long time since we saw anything from Naughty Dog's Intergalactic - so I'm betting we get something. Matt has a big brain idea about something else Naughty Dog might tease. There's high hopes that this will be a Single Player focused State of Play.

There's no snappy title for this. My internet was a mess last week and naturally that means a lot happened in the industry. This is our catch up episode! We talk Game Pass price drop, Nintendo price increase (and how they seem to be trying to soften that blow as much as possible). We talk Saros, and StarFox. Plus, we talk RE9 now that it's settled for us and Leon Must Die Forever has been released.

This week's episode comes from Patron Scott M. He asked: what's a console that is too primitive or old for us to go back and play? Now, I am young. A baby even. Just a forever young, some might say devilishly handsome - I won't stop them - man. So, while I played an Atari 2600, and have seen a couple other gen one and two consoles, really things started with gen three and the NES, or even Gen four and the Sega Genesis. That being said, everyone has memories of playing the oldest consoles from the 70's because there are pizza shops all over that have the arcade versions. Given that we talked about a new Neo Geo being made, and who might want that... Does anyone want newly manufactured RCA Studio 2? No. But do we want a modern version of the Coleco Telstar Arcade from 1977? Uh, yeah I'd be down for a modern upgrade to that for sure. Also, we talk about how I plan to spend my eighties. In a few words? Drug fueled spiral unto death.

This is an eclectic episode where we catch up on some of the news floating around. First, we talk about the new Neo Geo being released along with 10 games. The console itself will be 250 USD, and the games $90 each. Or you can get a bundle of the console, and all ten games for 1k even. Seems steep until you compare it to the price of the original Neo Geo: 1k for the console, 200 bucks per game in 1990 money. Personally, I have to ask: who wants this? In this day and age, is this anything beyond a collectors item? And then it hits me: that's exactly what they said about the original Neo Geo. Maybe the universe is healing. Then, we talk about the new, lower, Game Pass price, and finally we talk about Shuhei Yoshida's comments about Jim Ryan. They should shock people because comments like this just don't really happen in the game industry, and especially not from the Japanese side. Makes you wonder how poorly Jim's tenure is viewed if Yoshida casually dropped these comments.

I'm alive! I spent last week fighting a sinus infection - sorry for the missed episode but as you'll hear in the beginning of this episode: it was gross as hell and unavoidable. There's a few topics going this episode, but the theme seems to be companies having too much money to be doing the layoffs they claim are necessary. We also talk Crimson Desert, Pixar, Disney Layoffs, and the Rockstar financial leak.

In this weeks episode we talk rumors and how I got got by a Zelda rumor. We talk insane pricing and while the RAM crash has begun, we doubt it'll ever drop back to pre-AI craze pricing. Plus we talk about the Disney/Epic Games rumors. Then, we dive into how exciting 2026 is for FGC. Marvel Tokon, Invincible VS, and Avatar are all coming very soon this year. And pricing is reasonable on all three games. Especially reasonable on Avatar. So, while the bad news, and the rumors still swirl - it is still shaping to be a great year for games.

Epic laid off a bunch of leads on the Fortnite Team. Does this signal that Fortnite is slipping? Is this related to Epic going after Google and Apple app stores? We talk about this and more in this episode!

The guys at Digital Foundry put themselves in a bit of hot water because they absolutely glazed DLSS 5 - the new technology shown by NVIDIA - and it amounts to an advanced Snapchat filter. I'm willing to give them a pass if only because geeking out about tech is what they do, and I am sure this is very impressive on a technical level. However, NVIDIA is calling it "content control Generative AI" and they say it is just a tool. In one breath, they say it doesn't change anything about the art style or graphics, and in the other they proudly announce it makes changes at the "geometric level". But it's just a tool, guys. The devs have the control and it isn't meant to replace a team member, duh. Ofcourse then one need ask: why does it generate geometry, rather than say enhance/smooth like DLSS4.5?

Apparently this has been a thing for a few years now, but I just noticed it. March 10 - MAR10 - Mario Day. You get it. This caused us to start talking about the mainline Super Mario games and... Is there any other franchise as consistently good as Super Mario? And if there is: is it as long running as Super Mario? Probably not on either count. Additionally, we talk about current industry news (spoiler: more layoffs) and why Nintendo seems immune to making the same blunders everyone else is making.

We're talkin RE9 (mostly spoiler free). We're talking Capcom Spotlight (could have been a text). We're talking Xbox announcing Project Helix. (It's a PC).

It's like news breaks in chunks these days. Is that planned? It feels planned. In this episode we cover: Saudi Arabia buys the rest of EVO and announces plans for multiple cities worldwide to host their own. Phil Spencer has retired and his replacement is definitely a signal of what is to come. And Aussies are fun to hang with wherever you meet them. (Okay we don't really cover that but I do mention it.) In this episode we reference these articles a few times, and I recommend you read them if you have time because they add a ton of context: The Verge article about Xbox Leadership shake up (Sarah Bonds abrupt exit): https://www.theverge.com/tech/883015/microsoft-xbox-new-ceo-shakeup-notepad Seamus Blackley says Xbox is being sunsetted: https://gamesbeat.com/what-an-xbox-founder-thinks-of-the-new-xbox-ceo-seamus-blackley-interview/ Do I think Xbox is being sunsetted? No. If it gets back on track it is a big earner, and it fits with Satya Nadella's goals. Namely consumer cloud compute and AI adoption. I expect the next iteration of Xbox to have an AI assistant that you can't opt out of, and of course AI "tools" will be used in all projects moving forward. I expect it will be used as a selling point on every game. "New AI makes bots behave naturally!" "AI learns and adapts to how you play!!!!" " GenAI generated levels mean every playthrough is unique!!!!!!!!" Stuff like that. Do I think Xbox is being brought in line with Satya Nadella's AI push? Absolutely. Do I think Asha Sharma is going to bring about a new Xbox Golden Age? No. But I do think we need to wait a year to see what she actually does. Because this year will mostly be finishing up Phil's plans. We won't know her real priorities for 6 months minimum, and I am saying a year to be generous.  

In the 90's and early 00's you typically saw multiple (2 or more) entries into a series per decade. That meant you could really fall in love with a series, and it also meant you could overlook an entry that sucked. This is a story about DragonQuest. It's a story about Final Fantasy, Resident Evil, Mario, Zelda. Basically all of the beloved franchises today. As development costs soar, development time does too, and that means you aren't getting as many games in a series per decade. There's pros and cons to that I guess, but one major con is that any single game that releases can tank a franchise, or company. Is there anyone who still has an output that looks like this? We think there is, and they are clearly doing something right.

Sony's State of Play 2026 finally delivers a show worth watching. If it were a competition (it is), this would be the first big win of 2026! 30+ games over 70 minutes. Some weird, some wonderful. Lets dig in!

No big surprises this time, but not a bad direct. I think we all know partners will mostly be porting games for Switch 2. We talk about the direct, what Nintendo's year is looking like and then finally: the rumored Xbox Magnus.

The VirtuaBoy re-release is one of those things where the more you look at it, the dumber it gets, but also if it brings someone a lot of joy to own: who am I to judge? I hope it DOES make someone out there deliriously happy. But all the games will be on the e-shop only, and only accessible via a subscription. And THAT is downright criminal. Because there will come a day when you lose access to that. Then, the VirtuaBoy becomes detritus that sits on your desk or in a closet. All of this to say the High Seas will be the only place to find these things and it'll be (insert company here)'s fault piracy makes the comeback it does.

Are we burned out? Probably yes. 2026 has started with 20 days of constant churning news. But there are good games coming this year. Games we should be seeing lots of hype for. Instead it seems like the hype train has derailed. So, why is that? What brings the hype back?

Clickbait title is clickbait. Sorta. Because Matt is back from his honeymoon, and maybe the industry is entering a new spiral phase... But the title is about Matt's honeymoon. We cover a lot this episode. Matt finally saw Titanic and he's got some feelings. I go a little overboard talking about Billy Zane. We discuss games we waited to play and are happy we did because they are great. It's an eclectic but fun episode. And it won't make sense until you listen to the episode all the way, but I just want everyone to know I pronounce Appalachia correctly and Matt is wrong :P

As the year comes to a close we like to review the past twelve months in gaming with an eye on what to expect next year. What games missed the mark? What games ended up sticking with us (sometimes to our great surprise)? Was it overall a good or bad year for the industry? For the gamer? Happy New Year! We hope you guys are having a wonderful holiday. Here's to 2026 being a great year for games, but also a great year for each of us in our personal endeavors!

A Christmas Carol themed holiday episode? That's right. It's a Christmas Carol themed holiday episode. But... What does that mean? It means we are going to look at ghosts of Christmas Past (1995), Christmas Present (what it's looking like this year) and Christmas Future (if nothing changes) to try and figure out what is going on with the industry and where it might be going. So, if you're stuck driving to your in-laws, visiting family, or have to work this Christmas Eve and need the company of foul-mouthed nerds - we are here for you. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Small bomb dropped when indie darling Larian revealed it uses AI in the preproduction and ideation phase of game development. Naturally, opinions deviate strongly, especially because artists have left Larian over their use of AI. In this episode, we discuss Jason Schreier's Bloomberg interview with Larian CEO Swen Vincke. Specifically, we discuss Vincke's quote about how Larian uses AI, and what, if any positive effect it has had. For the full context and a great read - check out the full article here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2025-12-16/-baldur-s-gate-3-maker-promises-divinity-will-be-next-level It is no secret that neither of us are fans of AI, but I take the devil's advocate position this episode. I do actually think there are spots where AI could help creatives with busy work. (Our problem is: we all know that isn't what AI is targeting.)

Recently, both Marvel Tokon and Avatar: The Last Airbender had their beta weekends. In a shocking turn - the perception of each game FLIPPED. Where players expected Tokon to dominate attention, and Avatar to be a fun but forgettable curio tie-in game; we instead watched people lose their minds at just how good Avatar was while also being underwhelmed by Tokon. Nothing is set in stone and Tokon is by no means bad, but I don't think anyone was expecting how good Avatar has turned out to be.

Like all gamers, we sometimes get hit by ideas we just NEED to see made into a game. From extraction shooters to racing games, here are some ideas we have been noodling on for a while. Comment with your burning idea (unless of course you are currently developing it)!

Next year looks pretty cool for the FGC. Three promising games, from promising teams, are coming at some point in 2026. An interesting connection between all three games? They are all based on animated shows/comic books IP... Huh. Is this a good thing? Or is this a trap?   To all our listeners in the USA - Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a wonderful meal with family and friends.

Handhelds are on the rise! Where once the only option was a Switch or a Steam Deck, now we have Android devices like Ayn's ODIN line, Lenovo's Legion Go, and ROG's Ally series. Plus, Playstation and Xbox are expected to commit to hybrid or handheld consoles in the near future. So, how do you know where to start? Do OS's matter? Do price points differ greatly? Here's a casual guide to handhelds on the market today or coming very soon. Their price points, who we think they are for, and why you might choose one over the other. We aren't trying to be Digital Foundry. We aren't going in depth into tech specs. This is just an overview of what we like and don't like of each.

Sony dropped a State of Play just for its Japanese Developers. Matt and I are split on this one. He feels it fell flat, I feel it says: Sony is finally waking up to the type of games it should be pushing harder. Plus: We debate horror elements and their effectiveness. I love ambience and build up, he loves sudden unavoidable terror. We score the State of Play out of TEN. We talk Marvel Tokon and how maybe Sony didn't think this was going to get much attention (Kpop Demon Hunters all over again!?) And we close talking about alleged Rockstar Union Busting.

In the 90's tie-in games for movies and TV shows were pretty much BS. I mean most of the time they had little to nothing to do with the property they were tying into, and in the worst of cases actively made the original property worse by association (ET). Not to say that there weren't good ones, too. But more often than not, a tie-in game never raised expectations. That isn't true into the 00's and later though. So, we get to thinking, what would be an unlikely tie-in game for a movie, or tv show or book - whatever. And what genre/gameplay would the game have?

Hey, so all these layoffs? Well, it means lots of projects are dead in the water. And that means we are going to see a serious dip in games coming to market. Will that be next year some time? Maybe the year after? And I hear you - AI is gonna solve this problem! But what if it doesn't? What if AI goes bust? No your highly profitable money printing game business is limping because you shot it in the foot. Also, because it was fun we talk about theme parks and which, if any, are worth the money right now.

I liked the title The Freak Leak, but then who would click on it? GameFreak had a leak. It was possibly an old school phishing scheme, which is sort of hilarious. That leak did tell us what games they are working on for the coming five years or so, but that isn't what we are interested in - two guess what it the games are though lol. No they leaked GameFreak budgets and earnings for the last several games, and what that tells us is pretty interesting.

It's Microsoft. Rumor has it that Microsoft wants out of the hardware business (surprise, surprise!) and that means Xbox may not have a new generation next year. But does that mean Xbox is dead? Maybe not. As we have seen: Xbox branded portable could lead into Xbox branded gaming PCs and so on. So, if 3rd party is close to dead in the US, and Microsoft is considering taking up that mantle instead of 3rd party - where does that leave Indie Games? Kickstarter. I've never been a huge fan of crowdfunding games (or movies to be honest) but it is undeniable that good things have come from the platform.

What is the state of the gaming industry going in to Holiday 2025? Shockingly fragile. There is only one major third party publisher left in the US. Microsoft is backing away from hardware. Sony is facing down stagnation. And then there's Nintendo. Who's mostly fine. They aren't happy about tariffs, but for the most part they are weathering this storm exceedingly well? Why is that? Let's get into the State of Games!

Sony and Microsoft had their showcases this week for TGS 2025. We dive into what's exciting, what's confusing, and what is just plain bad. Join us for some musings on the next six months in gaming!

The price of gaming keeps going up. Sure, part of it for those of us in the US is tariffs. But gaming has become much more expensive world wide. Especially AAA gaming. However, with games like Clair Obscur and Silksong coming in well under AAA pricing, and punching far above their weight - we need to ask: will triple A games be worth the price next year?

Did Nintendo beat expectations? No. Well, according to Matt. While nothing was BAD in the direct, and plenty was GOOD: Nintendo didn't justify the new system or the cost increases (Tariffs not included). Personally, I was easier to please. Maybe because I know I am not going to buy a Switch 2 for at least a year. We gave the PS5 a year to try and justify itself, I think we need to be fair and give the Switch 2 the same amount of time. Positive side: at least Nintendo is supporting its platform. They have a slate of good games and a large one at that.

Game journalism is often derided as pointless or nonexistent. We ourselves have made those jokes in the past, especially when talking about the old school game magazines. But what happens when game journalism dies? Journalism in general is on its last legs, and game journalism seems to be on the very edge of disappearing. Content creators sometimes conflate themselves with journalists, or pretend they are doing the same job, and it is important to realize that much of the content we love could not exist without the work actual journalists do in investigating the business, and interviewing game devs.

Or "Old Men Yell At Cloud" There's a lot of great games. Honestly, there might actually be more good games than bad ones these days. But sometimes, even a good game, that people love, make us scratch our heads. We've talked about them here and there in the past, but now we are going to focus on them. For fun. Don't take this too seriously. Enjoy the goofs and hop in with some of your own. The more over the top, the better. You don't understand why people still love Mario games? Hell yeah, brother. Don't get how anyone could care about the new Shinobi game? Okay well, hey now... Wish people would shut up about Xenoblade? We're getting a little hurtful... Lets-- WISH PEOPLE WOULD JUST STFU ABOUT CLAIR OBSCUR!? Getting carried away boys!

I held it together and we recorded a little Gamescom talk. We didn't go super deep on any one game, but the biggest takeaway this year? Horror fans are gonna EAT. At least, in my opinion. Hop in, hang out, I only cough twice and never into the microphone. I was very brave: say it!

We're in the doldrums before Gamescom, so there is a tight lid on anything new and exciting. I just got back from a week of travel so bad I'm having flashbacks straight out of Apocalypse Now. And that means: we meander a bit this episode. We cover a bunch of small topics and tangents. Enjoy us in your ears as we cover industry panic, and the usual "back in my day" generational hate that corpos love to pump out whenever the newest punching bag is old enough to "kill industries".

Episode 500 is for the haters! We've been on a positive upswing for almost two years now, but it's time to return to our roots. We were born haters, and haters we shall remain! Actually, we've spent so long focusing on staying positive that we had sort of a hard time being too harsh - even when the games deserved it. But we still had fun and I bet you will too! So, jump in and enjoy the most trash games we ever spent our dollars on. Maybe, you also feel this way. Maybe, you played something worse. But if you say Blasto... Oh my momma if you say Blasto!

Something entirely new. Not based on an existing IP. Built from the ground up by a good team without the restrictions of making characters that match expectations. How do you do it? Matt brings out his Fighting Game Triangle: Content, Roster, Presentation and we dig into finding a balance among the three. He does not like my ideas. :P

Taking a suggestion from you guys: we decided to talk about games we hope don't get forgotten by end of year. And maybe a couple we know definitely will. So, let's talk early GOTY contenders, and a couple disappointments.

The reactions to Ghost of Yotei have been mostly positive, but one common complaint is that there was "no reason" to not continue Jin Sakai's story. In my opinion, it's okay that his story is done and it is more interesting to leap to a new time and new character. This provokes another conversation about sequels/franchises in general: do gamers want more of the same? Is there no market incentive for new ideas?

Microsoft has ruined all its goodwill from even six months ago. Is that Phil Spencer's fault? Probably not. In fact there is evidence that ol' Philly boy has done his best, but that doesn't help the thousands Microsoft laid off - so our sympathy is limited. I don't think Xbox is ever going to climb out of the hole it dug itself fifteen years ago. This may all just be the long slow death spiral. ANYWAY, it's Matt's birthday episode! Besides Microsoft we talk about Matt's strong thighs, Donkey Kong setting up for GOTY, Ghost of Yotei, and we fan-cast James Bond. 

Hey! Welcome back. You may have noticed a lack of episode last week, and that is because of not one, but three freak acts of nature. It is not an exciting story, but it does emphasize that I might be cursed. Anyway, the delay meant that I could buy and check out Death Stranding 2. I didn't play DS1. I had seen enough of it at several E3s to know it wasn't gonna be my jam. But it is a Kojima game. So, I'd be a liar if I didn't say I was always tempted. Now, here comes a sequel. It looks like Kojima has gone maximalist. The writing? Max Kojima. Now with more combat. More stealth. More weirdness. And it hadn't been shown to death at several conventions. So... I decided to go for it. Now, I am several hours in and I am beginning to think my initial instincts were right. This one isn't for me. If you liked DS1, though? You're probably going to love DS2. My yapping to Matt about it inspired the topic for this episode, because it turns out: Matt isn't sold on a coming sequel that everyone is amped for. So, what sells us a sequel? Why did I get DS2, and why isn't he interested in Resident Evil 9?

2025 Sony State of Play, Summer Games Fest, and the Xbox showcase have come and gone. We've had some time to step back, come down from the hype, and think of what really grabbed our attention last week. So, what stood out to you? What got you hyped in the moment, but now that you've had a minute, the optimism has cooled? Was Not-E3 a major success? For us: it's looking like a good year. Let's talk about why.