Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Andrea Rene (Special Guest) - Kinda Funny Gamescast Ep. 63

Episode Date: March 31, 2016

Andrea Rene drops by to discuss fake NX controllers, her story in the games industry, Lego Dimensions, and offensive games. (Released to Patreon Supporters on 03.25.16) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's up guys, this Wednesday, March 30th. Greg and I are hosting Uncovered Final Fantasy 15. It's a live event at 7 p.m. Pacific that's going to reveal the release date of the game, finally, along with a whole bunch of cool stuff. It's all going to be streamed. So make sure you come support us live for all the news, excitement, and shenanigans. What's up, guys? Welcome to episode 63, the first ever of the kind of funny games cast.

As always, I'm your host, Tim Getty, joined by the coolest dudes in video games, Colin Moriarty and won. now three time award winning Greg Miller what is it three times in four months three times in four months three times for months we achieve that's a really cool award yeah I like that one yeah the game of the year has a firewire port

and I think you might be able to use it as a real controller which means mine sucks so you gotta get on that next year Greg figure it the fuck out Kevin start making a game for me will you thanks keff my good lord and of course rounding us out we have the coolest doodette can we call you do that Sure.

You're gonna roll with that. Andrew Rene. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for having me, guys. I'm so glad to be back. Your thrice return? I think it's my third time.

Yeah. So you are now that the reigns champion of the kind of funny games cast. We're going to have a good show today. I'm feeling really good about this. Yeah. Yeah. So we sell that second championship belt. You go make the worst games cast title.

I mean, I did bring you candy. A lot of candy. She's very nice. She brought us a whole Easter basket, including a Batman. Yep. Kevin, can you get the Easter basket? Oh, you're giving her a, oh, oh, there it is. you're the reigning GamesCats champion.

Can you get the Easter basket? I want to show the people. This is awesome. Now that eventually will be needed for Monopoly streams as well. So I'll just hold it for a minute. Now you got it the whole show. Now you're locked in. Sorry. Yeah. So should I like put it on? You're probably

the only person in this house that it fits, yes. You can see the gaff tape all around it as we've tried to make it fit. Our lumpy lumpy bodies. So what do you've been up to, Andrew? A lot, actually. The last couple of months have been really crazy for me, which is really exciting. The biggest announcement I've made, or I should say the most recent announcement, is that's the Easter basket.

Batman's listing. You guys haven't tried the Batman candy yet, though. Happy Easter. Thank you. Batman's leaning back. The biggest announcement is? I am the new host of Yahoo! E-sports.

Yay! Congratulations. Thank you. That is awesome. It's been a very exciting opportunity for me to work with the awesome team at Yahoo Sports, who is heading up the ESports division over there. Just working with a production team who's worked with the NFL, the NBA, all of the major leagues,

and really seeing how they run their production for these huge live action sports events and how they're bringing that process to ESports has been very educational for me to see just how much goes on behind the scenes and also meeting more of the players and meeting some of our in-depth experts that we have on staff, Travis Gaffer and Dylan Walker and Taylor Cocker, and we're hiring more people

to kind of round out our coverage. So it's been really, really exciting. So you're telling me there's people out there that talk about video games not in their spare bedroom? Correct. Oh, my God. One day.

One day. The dream is real. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of funny games cast every week. we get together. We talk about video games and all the things that we love. And then you get to see it over YouTube.com slash kind of funny games. Monday through Thursday. There's a topic video day by day broken out. And then Friday, you get the full video. You get the full MP3 either at that same place or on iTunes, any of your favorite podcast places. But wait, Greg. Yeah. What if they wanted early? What can they do? If only there was a service called patreon.com slash kind of funny games to do that. Yeah. If there was, which there is, you can go there, throw some money our way and you get the show early and a bunch of other stuff if you want that stuff. So that's great. And in a Another exciting news, Greg. Yeah.

Me and you. Yeah. We're about to announce some release dates. Final Fantasy 15. Finally upon us. Yeah. We're hosting the Final Fantasy 15 uncovered event, which happens next week. If you're listening to this as a Patreon user, this week, if you're watching it on YouTube, it is Wednesday, March 30th.

7 p.m. Pacific time. Right. From the Shrine Auditorium in L.A. Sunny Los Angeles. Oh, yeah. It's really exciting. We're announcing the release date.

A whole bunch of other stuff, perhaps. Who knows? Maybe there is really. Maybe there are special guests. And when I say that, I don't just mean Andre the Black Nerd. I mean, like, people you've seen do things before in ways

you would say, they would never work with these Yahooos. Yeah. We're pretty Yahoo Lugans is what they referring to us these days. But yeah, it's very exciting. We get to host it. I am stoked. I want to know what the release date is. I've been waiting for this for like a bazillion years. How excited I'm very excited. February 2017.

Okay. I would die. I would write it even more 2019 fuck out of here well I even bother at this point I hate you so much Colin Wait before we go on

I had one more thing I wanted to talk about I'm also hosting for a gamer next door That's so here's the thing You're gonna get your whole own topic We're gonna talk about you So let's wait then So we're gonna wait on that Stop getting ahead of yourself

Over here I'm sorry I'm really hopped up on sugar now I appreciate it's I eat too many jelly beans And now Kevin's over here. Going to telling me is Reese's. See how Greg, so we're doing that. Yeah. They can find, there's going to be a live stream. So you can either, there's going to be thousands of people there.

I think it's something like 6,000, 7,000. Yeah, that sounds about it. It's crazy. Yeah. A whole bunch of best friends. I can't wait to see you all there. Then if you're not at the event, you can watch it on Twitch and YouTube and all the places. Don't know the URL, but I'm sure it's somewhere.

So figure it out. Kevin's putting it right there. Final Fantasy. Don't say that because last time Kevin didn't put any of the links in. I didn't send him, but you didn't remind me. It's a whole process. When you say there's a link on the screen, Kevin puts it in. When you say link in the description, then nothing happens.

That's not job? That's not Kevin's job? In that video, no, he doesn't write the publish information. Believe it or not, this isn't as well-oiled the machine as we let on sometimes. Yeah, it's crazy. And mainly we'll say things like, yeah, somebody should do that.

And everybody goes, well, it's not my job. And then no one does it. Exactly. Doing metadata is like, it's like the ultimate, like, intern work. Yeah, it really is. But I like it so much. I don't know why. I'm a sick fuck.

You're like, oh, give me that SEO. Yeah, I love SEO. Anyways, okay, yeah, Final FantasyXV uncovered.com is I think the website. It has all the information there, so you'll know, you'll know everything.

And by next week, you will not have the release date. Preview, you can't give us anything else. We can't give shit, no. If only I could give hints as to who the special guests might be. Oh, Craig. That's awesome. That would be cool if that were to happen. Anyways,

topic one of the show is The NX. Who's excited? Oh, X going to give it to you. But this is an exciting news. Now, you've already gone on the record as saying you are the biggest

NX fan of the Not the biggest. I'm number one. Okay, you're the number one NX fan boy, which means you have to like this. Bites me for that. Yeah, that doesn't mean that.

You watch Batman v. Superman. It doesn't mean you have to like it. It's true. but with this this is what I've been waiting for not happening and it did where we see this controller and we've seen this in like patent

kind of just diagrams and shit over the last couple months where it's like Nintendo had some patent and then you see some stupid ass looking thing and I'm like why is this hey Arnold shaped controller going on I'm not down for this but I'm like there's no way there's no way Nintendo would do that that's just too there's a thousand percent way too wrong

too wrong I mean you're talking about the people who made the we moat and the nunchuck That's true, but like that... That made sense from them trying something different perspective. This is them supposed to not do something different. They're supposed to be getting back into the normal shit, you know? That's what we all want. We all expect it at least.

Like we're talking about this console handheld hybrid thing. Which is so normal. I mean, it is. That's pretty like easy to wrap your head around. This is like, why? Like what's... I don't even understand what the thought process would be. What did you think the handheld slash controller would look like?

I don't know. Could be something more similar. So you think it would be like a 3DS with like grips or something? I thought it would have buttons. Oh, you know. I think it's how it doesn't believe in buttons. Look at the huge critical and commercial success the Wii U game pad was. It has buttons, Greg.

I know. But it has a screen that everybody loves. That's what you really use. All the games are using that touch screen. I hate you so much. And it was only one touch. I hope this is only one touch as well. You have two control sticks and one big button.

You just tap on. Oh, man. I mean, this is really kind of disheartening to me. because it this looks bad. Do you have any hope? For this controller, if this is the controller, I have no hope.

Wow. Yeah, no, this looks really, really bad. Because I feel like one, the Wii mode did come around. Like, we were like, what the fuck is this?

But it was interesting, and I remember getting excited for it because it was something different. You just had too much different, I guess. Yeah, but this, this isn't something different. This is something that we already know we're not going to like.

Like the Wii mo, we've never experienced gaming that way. This, I've experienced touch gaming on my phone constantly. I've experienced playing, trying to play real games on a phone. and it doesn't work out.

You know, even when there's, like, real games, like you play the old school Sonic games or whatever, or like any of the first-person shooters that they come out with or, like, the Final Fantasy games. You play Final Fantasy 7 on your phone. It doesn't feel right. What do you mean real games? Maybe that's a whole topic for another time,

but I think games that are developed specifically for mobile devices work really well on the mobile platform. And Nintendo has shown that they are a leader in innovation in many different categories. So maybe they've made something that you, just haven't thought about yet. That's true, but these are the people that made the Wii and that did all that stuff. So, and the Wii, which didn't do that, you know, like that, again, we were talking about

VR a couple weeks ago. Which didn't do what? Nintendo never, like, kind of, uh, came through on the promise of what the Wii moat could do. Like, what are you talking about? Like, what did it do? Like, 100 million units worldwide. Yeah, but we're talking about the games, though. We're talking about, like, the real games.

There were, and I love the Wii. I personally. love the Wii. It's interesting to hear you talk about it like this. But I mean, I mean the Wii is garbage but there were great games on it for sure. Okay, yeah, but what were the great games? Galaxy, Galaxy 2, like Zach and Wiki a lot. Twilight Princess.

Yeah. All games that didn't need... I can't go down the Twilight Princess road. We won't. We won't. No, but no, there's... Those don't need the Wii moat. No, no, I agree with you. I mean, I think the Wii was an awful system. And trust me, I was a, I was a Nintendo apologist for a very long time. We remember this when we first met, where I'd buy all my third party games even

on Wii because I was like it can't be this bad but it was we can't we can't quantify like we can't really talk about the sales success of we being intrinsically linked to how good the console is though you know that's just not the way it works otherwise you know a lot of albums that went platinum you know five times or diamond or whatever certified that or just garbage would mean that those are better than some of these records that sell that go gold or silver so I don't like we talked about this morning on on Colin Gregg live about Batman versus Superman about everyone judging it it's merits based on how much money I make it makes and I'm like who cares how much money is making people are going to see it anyway. Is it good or is it bad?

Nintendo makes unintuitive and shitty decisions and they have since the N64. I mean, we talk a lot about the things that they did pioneer that did make sense. The D-pad, shoulder buttons, rumble. I mean, these things did stick around, but then you had them making a console that was cartridge-based when it was obviously a bad idea. Then you had to make a console with the little mini-cds and minid discs instead of using normal CDs that people, you know, maybe put a DVD player anything to help push units. Then they made this motion control thing that wasn't very powerful. Then they made this console with a shitty Fisher Price tablet. Then they made these handhelds with gimmicky 3D on them that were not powerful at all. That can't even run. I just was reading

Hyrule Warriors 3DS reviews about how bad it is and so like that. So it's like they have a history along ago of making great decisions and then more recently making shitty decisions. So seeing this controller if it's real and we don't know if it's real or not isn't surprising to me since they don't make good decisions. I guess I forgot how much you hate Nintendo. I mean, I disagree with you wholeheartedly. I don't think they've made universally bad decisions. I think the 3DS has shown that that was a very great decision. They've sold millions and millions of units of 3DS

and hundreds of millions of units of software for that device. And we already talked about it. I'm down with the 3DS. He's against that shit. Vast library. Regarding the NX controller, I don't think it's real. I don't think it looks real. I don't think it looks like something that they would actually do.

I think taking away the iconic D-Pad, as you mentioned, is something that would be catastrophic for the gaming experience on a console that's meant to compete with PS4 and Xbox 1. So, I mean, I don't, I mean, you have to remember even if it is real, it's also just a prototype, so it's possible that they are going to be adding things into it.

I remember seeing the very first prototype of the Steam controller and how different the final version of the controller was from the original prototype. Did you guys ever see the original prototype? I mean, I still am not a fan of the Steam controller. So, I mean, maybe Nintendo is trying to take a page from, you know, Valsbuck and say, let's do something completely different.

You know, because the Steam controller is completely different than, you know, what you get with the dual stick, you know, controller that we get with the, you know, PlayStation and Xbox. So for you thinking it's not real, do you think it's just a mockup, somebody took off that patent to get up, we have a popular day on the internet? Yeah, totally. I mean, it happens all the time in tech where, you know, these leaks happen. Oh, it's real. I mean, it's very possible that there are certain things that are real.

The patents are real, right? doesn't mean that just because they've patented something that they're actually making it. I mean, many tech companies patent things that they never make. Like they never actually put into production. They only have prototypes of. Yeah. And you know, reading through the NeoGaft thread today, like, obviously, like these are the type of perfect conspiracy theory, just like flame bait where people are just going to jump on it and just kind of come up with a bunch of stuff. And then everyone has their opinion on it. And then that opinion kind of just becomes, you know, just more canon fodder to the whole thing. And it's interesting to look at like the thing, the facts are there was a patent that

that came out, right? And then the last couple that was back in, I want to say November. Like it was a while ago. And then the over the last couple, like the last month, we've seen this image like this this controller kind of come up in a couple different images in different ways. Like there was the one that we saw that it looked like there was actually gameplay on it. And that was the one that I'm like, ooh, like there's no way this can be real because this looks so bad where the gameplay takes up the whole football shape. And so then your thumbs would be blocking it. It's like how does that even make sense? You know?

Yeah. Like for games to be designed that way. It's like, so is it supposed to be this with the TV? But then if it's just portable, how does that work? And again, they'd explain all that stuff over time. But when I saw that image, I'm like, this is definitely someone Photoshop this, this is fake. Then today, when we see these new ones, I'm like, that looks exactly like that. So it's either people that are just making really convincing fake things or it's real.

And so I got a couple tweets here from Andy McNamar from over at Game Informer. He said, I heard the NX wouldn't have face button So the leak pictures match what he was told But unable to confirm And he's not saying the pictures are real But saying that the match information you had So it's like There's the patent and then there's also

All these like industry people Talking about all this shit And it's like the fact that it all kind of adds up Is what worries me the most And then the biggest thing is the internet Doing it sleuthing And the image that was out today The trees man

Where for people that don't know There's this image where You can see the MacBook And it's the Swedish MacBook and people looked up all the Swedish developers and found massive games and found a window with a tree outside of it

and the reflection on the controller matches the tree outside. And it's like, it's pretty wild. It's a little much. I don't know that that, you know, I don't know that this is real or not. I,

err on the side that it probably is. Just knowing, just being involved even in knowing a lot of things about PS4 specifically before anyone really knew anything about it and how those pictures started to leak and you're like, oh shit. like the things you here are true. So I don't, I don't, I don't discount it.

I also want to be clear that I don't hate Nintendo. I just find them funny. Like, I think GBA and DS were good decisions that they made. And you wouldn't have found any bigger Nintendo apologists than me during the N64 in GameCube errors. But I'm just not going to apologize for their decisions anymore. They make laughable decisions. And, and so, they make good games, though.

They do make good games sometimes. I mean, they're making fewer good games now than they ever did. And I think that, you know, like Star Fox, for instance, looks like it might be running on a jury's out might be running on GameCube. So to me it's just that's why it's like an intuitive thing to be like yeah, of course they're going to do something strange

because why wouldn't they? But they also don't want to compete with PS4 and Xbox One. Maybe they shouldn't. They're like in the space between which is an awkward place to be. I mean, Dreamcast was in that place for instance and it wasn't a good place. So I don't know. I think that I don't know if it's real or not. McNamara

who is very well connected saying that he's hearing things that are congruent with that controller, other people saying the same thing, but then other people saying that it's not real. I don't know who to believe or what to believe, but since the patents, since the patents exists, it would really be quite the long con to make something like this and then tease people with it. It's possible. You would have to really know what you're doing to put something like that together, and I don't think that that's true either. So I don't know. These things are eventually going to leak, just like the Orbis controller leaked and it was real. So I don't know, I'm interested and

I'm excited to see it. The big question that someone posed on Twitter, which a lot of people, it was Chris Kohler actually said, and we talked about this on Colin Greig Live today is, is this the whole thing? And that was like the, that was the interesting thing I hadn't thought about, which was, is like,

since it's supposed to be a hybrid, is this the car, is this, like all that they're going to release is this a little thing? And then maybe there's a set top, set by, you know, a receiver,

something, so I really should call it, um, for the unit that can be played on TV or whatever. I don't know. Assuming it's real, then we have bigger questions about like what the entire unit is, whatever.

but I don't know. It doesn't look fake to me, but who the hell really knows? The rest of the information along with the images on the Reddit post where only the upper nubs of the sticks move. The bottom section is static similar to the circle pad on 3DS.

So that's great news. Rollers on top resemble the mouse scroll wheel. So I guess on the top there's like... Yeah, you can see them. They look like shoulder buttons. Yeah. And then feedback similar to Apple's Taptic feedback, which I guess that's cool.

It's scary, man. Just a normal headphone jack. on the device itself, which kind of leads to the, that's good, that's modern bullshit. I think it's like simultaneously exciting that they're doing something different and also all I can think of is

I don't want to learn how to play something new. It took me so long to master dual sticks and the current, you know, controller layout that we have now that the idea of trying to learn something new just does not sound appealing to me. Maybe I'm just lazy.

No, I think it's real. I think it's real. I think it's fascinating. I'm more interested in the annex, the closer we get to it, because when we started talking about it, even when there was the rumor right that it was going to be the handheld version is what would hit. And then the next year, we'd get the console version or whatever the hell you want to call it. I still think it is this split thing. I think it is,

maybe not all of it, but that is the thing that you take with you on the road and you pop in your bag and you put out and you play in the plane and then you get home and you beam into your TV. That's interesting. And I think it sticks with, I, we always talk about the Nintendo we know or for each one of us, right? This sticks with the Nintendo I know. And the Nintendo I know is a brilliant toy company. They make toys.

They make a couple great games. They do a lot of great game stuff. But they are putting out toys for people. And I don't mean that that is not me taking a jab at them. I'm saying that they take chances on waggle, on the pad, on these different things. And they want you to experience their toys in a very specific way, a very interesting way. And I'm interested to see what they do. I still stand by that.

Just like with the Wii, you and just like with the Wii, they started deviating because they can't compete with Xbox. and PlayStation on what they're doing, let alone PC. And this, of course, though, falls into the same trap that Colin's always talking about, where my argument becomes that they're this toy manufacturer, they're putting out this toy, they're going to still have awesome Mario, Zelda, Metroid games for it, but then where's the third party? And then the argument becomes, well, Nintendo fans will support it if it has great Nintendo games, but then we look at the Wii U sales, and that's not what it is.

Well, the interesting good news is if that's sleuthing with the tree is real or not, it's so ridiculous that I can't believe that that's real. I mean, that's the thing is like, you know, the internet is not new. It's not a baby. So it's like people have been through these kind of like leaked things and trying to prove them wrong or right for years at this point. And I've seen it time and time again that if something's fake, it's most likely going to get, you know, shut down pretty instantly. People are doing like Photoshop, like file things of seeing how many times the image was re-saved and like all these weird like metadata stuff to figure out. And they're like these images look legit.

They look clean, which is the- Like CSI over there. And that's crazy. Well, what I was going to say was that, again, assuming it's real and assuming that that tree is really outside of massive, that's a Ubisoft studio. So that answers your question about third party support.

Third parties are clearly making games for it. For now. Well, I think that's jumping the gun. Ubisoft has been like the one standalone third party partner that has been consistently with Nintendo through all of the iterations of their consoles. Wait till you get your rabbits.

I don't, I mean, we haven't seen really any other major publisher sticking by Nintendo, especially through the Wii U era. Square Inix said they will make things for it too. Dragon Quest, for instance, is going to be on it. But, yeah, you're right.

We'll see. I mean, EA, for instance, doesn't seem like it's super, you're going to be super interested in my own way. They weren't super interested in, um, in Wii U. I don't know. I think if someone was like $10 bet, is it real or it's not? I'm like, yeah, that's real. So my problem with it, we were talking about it again on Colin and Greg was

it's really small. Like if you, and it, it looks like it could be comfortable to hold. the question I have is it looks like this is what I was looking at and I can't really tell like does it have shoulder buttons at all? Well has like the wheel things Yeah so It looks like the size of a Vita doesn't it?

Yeah but it has see that the problem with it Is that since you are right the overlay of the analog six with the screens Like it would have been More interesting to like I said to go to the widest part And then draw perpendicular lines out and make a box I mean because I just don't understand like Why you wouldn't want to have more screen if the if the idea was to make a portable that was contingent on playing on TV if you want,

then you would want it to be bigger. It looks like the Vita would, it looks like it would fit on top of the Vita, but it looks like it's missing some screen or whatever, but it looks like it could be wider too. So I don't know. This is very similar to the argument about PS4 and Xbox One were revealed and everyone's like,

the Xbox one is swanom like the Xbox one looks like huge compared to the PS4, but no one can really tell until people finally got them both and put them on top of each other. Yeah, I think the shape of it is the thing that throws me off and just turns me off the most. The oval? Yeah, because,

We're just not used to that. And I mean, it's, we're not used to that for a reason, you know, like movies, TV, there's a wide screen format. 16 by 9 is a thing, especially with video games. Like, there's no advantage to having it be an oval shape. Like I can't even wrap my head around thinking. And again, it's not my job to do that. It is their job. But, you know, I can look at the game pad and be like, okay, I can imagine things that I'd want to do on this.

Or even with the, the we moat and stuff. You can imagine wanting to do archery and, like, swords and stuff. this, it's like, I would rather a rectangle. It's probably more comfortable to hold long term in that shape than a square shape. Yeah, you figure you're even right. This is rounded on that, naturally like how your

fingers are rounded. Yeah, it's rounded so it would fit better. I'm scrolling up here. I'm looking at my news. Make it like the weed weather. Make it like the game bad. Where it's like the screen is still rectangle. I don't get it either. I don't understand the whole, I don't understand I have to keep qualifying. Assuming it's real. I don't know. I just don't understand

why the entire, the entire service also has to be screen. I don't quite understand that design. It's cool. Yeah, it's cool. I guess it's cool, but like I see, I want to have, and I did have an open mind about NX because I assumed that, and I still do, I guess, because we don't know what it is, that it could be something kind of revolutionary in the sense

that maybe they really do understand the console handheld hybrid. And handhelds, I think, really are more at their heritage of what they do right now than their console stuff. But like, I fear not having real buttons on it. Like, I think that, I don't know, this seems to be like the half step towards a phone. It's not a phone, but like in

I don't want to play games on a phone. I don't like touchscreen games typically. And I just, how is it all going to work? It seems like it's going to be cluttered. I guess is what I'm saying. Like where? I don't know.

Like I just don't, I just don't get it. I mean, that's the other thing. Like, imagine where would a button be on that? Where's a jump? Well,

imagine if a Nintendo takes their new mobile division and puts the majority, if not all of their resources into only making mobile games because that's where the money is at. I mean, look at. You know, some of the other Japanese companies are doing the same thing. Konami is kind of getting out of like the AAA, you know, a space in favor of mobile stuff. So I think that that's something to consider.

Like, maybe this is intended to be like a mobile device that they're not going to be doing these AAA console games anymore. That they're going to really focus on this, you know, generation that takes their phones with them everywhere. But why make a device then? That's the biggest question to me is like, swallow your pride and just use the phones that, yeah, using the existing platforms. They need to, not even,

I'm not even saying Xbox one and PS4, which would be awesome, but, you know, if you're going to make phone games, which they already are with DNA, then why I'm like, why make a platform? This is, this is the biggest thing. I just feel like they are,

they are struggling with for ideas, man. Like, I, like, if this hardware is real, again, I just feel like, just get, like, I don't know, I don't, I don't, I feel like they're, they're, they're, they're, genetically they make games. They've never really made great hardware.

Like the hardware ran great games and so we loved it. Like the NES is still my favorite console all the time because of the library. But it was a weak console compared to its competition and it stuck around for a really long time. I just wonder why they, I just wonder why they don't,

you can grab me the Wii U game pad. I just wonder why they don't just swallow their pride and make shit tons of money putting games on other platforms exclusively. Like what's the deal? Because you can see it. You can see the E3 press conference.

ladies and gentlemen the NX isn't your next console it's the next experience lights off xes all over the place so here's the deal looking at this

if I was to take this there is a game pad theoretical controller and I was to rotate it over and put it there it looks like the screen is about the width or yeah

length I guess right length there of the side of the controller maybe a little bit bigger right if I was to swing it over and then you figure so what you're dealing with then is two sticks on the sides here like that and that's about how big it would be now theoretically that way that screen's not that like no so stick with me here because what I'm thinking about like what about a traditional game right what you would then I would think looking at

these be easy enough to draw lines down black out the sides of it and you'd have the wide screen game not everything maybe looks like this where it's taking up the whole screen so suddenly you have a screen that wide sticks over here and then maybe a button on this like offset kind of like this right so that's the stick and then there's a button here so I'm up here and I can go down there to hit whatever I'm playing with again it's touchscreen gaming but that's where you

put your virtual buttons that's how you play a game that's more traditional and the view you want of it but even that screen less than the plus and you have a plus two I don't know man I'm what I'm curious about is like that screen would be about as yeah it would be that screen size even with the sticks

on the side of it's about as wide as iPhone 6 it's small I I I don't know. I'm more curious to see what the Nintendo faithful really, really, really think about this. And I haven't actually looked too much into it yet. Like, I've been reading the NeoGap I'm in everything.

And everyone seems super down on it. Yeah, I mean, even the hardcore people that I've seen, they all are like, what the fuck is this? I mean, that's me. Like, I don't want this. Like, I can't even. Maybe we do. Maybe we do want it.

That's what I'm trying to say is like, I don't know. Remember when we didn't want PlayStation move? Yes. I do remember. This is just, it's just, it's just, It's like, let's see. Let's see how powerful it is. Let's see what the games that it can be played.

Let's see how the controls work. We'll find out soon. I mean, it's, it's, it's going to force their hand. They have their plan. They're going to stick to it, and it's probably going to be E3. But, I don't know.

It's, uh, it's Nintendo Nintendo and this is what they do, guys. Stop trying to believe in your 8-bit Nintendo. You're 16-bit Nintendo. They are gone. No, but so here's my thing, though. I still love the Wii U games. Like, Wii U.

You're still going to get those games. But that's the thing is, I don't know if I am with this. You're buying that thing. You're going to get this use. Oh, I'm not saying I'm not going to buy it. Well, they came forward and said that if they're not ending production of the Wii U, as was

rumored earlier this week. And they're like, no, that's false. Why would we do that? So you're still going to get Wii U games. I mean... I'm talking about caliber games on this on the NX. The Nintendo first party games. You mean like the next generation of

Smash. I also don't believe them. Like, that's the other thing considering the source... Do you think they would blatantly lie about it? Well, Kataka made a good point that NakeaK like always gets their Nintendo rumors, right? Like, why would this be any different? They have to say something because otherwise,

You're just gonna, it's over now, like already? Like, why would I even invest any money in buying this? Why would I buy any of the games? Like, they have to say something. I, to them, I don't know, like, the source seemed compelling. If that came from some random forum in Japan or whatever, I'd be like, okay. But, like, Nickay, like, leaks all sorts of shit about Nintendo and it's right. So, like, this seems to be a weird one that they got wrong.

I don't think they're outright lying. I think, like, maybe. You're lying? Maybe they're still saying, well, we're still going to produce it for a little while. But I bet you they still. The timing is different. Well, we all know what's going to end eventually, but. Three years seems to be pretty right like pretty

You know a little over three years I guess is like Quick quick so all it's been since the Wii use been out It's 2012 right? Jesus Christ so Yeah fall 2012 So it was uh yeah before PS4 and Xbox one were even announced I just think that they have to get that thing out of the way And they probably are sitting on a lot of stock too

I mean the thing hasn't been selling very well so it's not like stupid business wise for them on the back end to say like just stop But I don't think they can like let the consumer know Otherwise like there's still games big games coming out So it would be disastrous for for them, I think, to say that, but I think that they know that they're kind of left with a, like, a lagging piece of hardware, and they have to do something with it. What I'm more curious about with this is, like, again, is this, like, the first image is plugged into something. It's probably plugged into a dev kit. And there's a black box.

That's, like, overlaid over something, right? Like, we can all agree on that. Like, someone's this is an older image. No, that I know. I mean, that's an image I saw a while ago. That is an overlay. So, I don't know. I, I, I, this kind of should annoys me like whenever I see leaks like this because then it just develops like a million questions about it that I don't have answers to because I don't have any connections. There's always when I wish I could time travel. Just jump ahead, see what's up.

Yeah. Come back, do less plays for all these games, have banked. Well, we'll see. I'm sorry that, you know, people expect me to be pessimistic about it, but I'm sorry to hear that a lot of the Nintendo fans are pessimistic about it. I thought that they would be a little more optimistic. No, because you understand they've all tricked themselves, Colin.

This was the return to a real controller and a box more powerful than the PlayStation 4, and all the real games would be ported to it, and it would be the one device to rule them all. I don't even need all that. Just give me one of those. To what Nintendo is. I think it's smart of them not to try to do that.

I think to try to compete against PS4 and Xbox 1 now is just, you know, it's suicide. Like, you're never going to catch up. I agree that this is the chance where you roll the dice. You're like, all right, this is what this thing's going to be. We see the rise in mobile gaming. We're going to embrace that. It goes everywhere.

One game is always with you. It's not like, you know, when Vita would play the Madden game. You're like, oh, this is terrible. And, you know, why can't I, even the show, taking your saves back and forth? This is the device. And if it doesn't work out, we will finally give up and make everything for third party call, you know. I feel like the Wii was that chance for them.

And, you know. The Wii, I think it was an inflated self of sense based on Wii. It was the we, the most successful thing of all time. Clearly we can do. That's what people want. That's what our audience wants. And they forgot that their audience was my mom who bought it and has it as like a cool party thing. When she has a barbecue, people end up mulling or doing something on there.

But they're not, there's not an attach rate to that. There isn't my mom being motivated to buy a Wii U. They got tricked, I think, with causation and correlation there on what was going to happen this next time around. For sure. So topic two of the day is the one and only Andrew Renee. I want to know who are you. How did you get here? What is your story and what do you do now? I can't believe we haven't talked about this before. You always come on. I don't think you've ever been, and you'll correct me of wrong, because you remember more. You always come on and help us out.

We bring you as an expert to talk about a topic or you're filling in for somebody. This one's like, you're the guest. This is, you know, this is where we give you the full treatment. Kevin rubber feet. No, no. Don't do it, Kevin. Sorry. It's not necessary.

I have my sneakers on. So I come from Fargo, North Dakota. That's where I'm from originally. Yes, like the acclaimed TV series and movie. Is that accurate? Is that an accurate depiction of your hometown? Well, no, because almost all of it's set in Minnesota. But Fargo is a much flashed.

your name than like brainerd or Bumigi. St. Paul. Yeah. I'm from the upper Midwest and I always knew I wanted to do something on TV. I went to school for journalism. I fell in love with the idea of being a journalist when I watched Channel 1 in middle school. Did you guys ever watch Channel 1? I know Channel 1.

We got in high school. In her early days. So that was when I was like inspired to like do something on camera. What is Channel 1? Channel 1 is like a, it was a news program. that aired in school systems. Yeah, like in the morning for kids so that they could be caught up on world events.

But it was approachable and it wasn't like super jargony. It wasn't about stocks and murders and something horrible. It was like, here's this pig farmer and he's done something cool. It wasn't all like fluff news though. No, no, I know. We're talking about international stuff. Yeah. So then I went to journalism school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

And after that, I am. My senior year, I knew that I wanted to not go the investigative route. I was like, even though my dreams of being Lisa Ling were strong, I was like, I don't think I've got the stuff to do what she does. I was like, I really like celebrities and movies and TV. This sounds fun. Let's go into entertainment news. So I moved to Los Angeles and started my career trying to be on red carpets and do junkets.

So did you move there, no job? You just moved out? No job. Oh, my gosh. What did you do for money? So I did a pit stop between graduating college in Phoenix where my mom was living and worked full-time two jobs for six months just to bank money. And then I left to go to L.A. But when I got to L.A., I did the very stereotypical thing that a lot of people in the entertainment business do.

I got a bartending job. I was waiting tables at night, going to auditions, taking meetings during the day until finally I was able to book my first gig, my first big hosting job. I say big in quotations was working for a company at the time called Music Plus TV. They were one of the first like live streaming music video channels on the internet in 2007. They eventually changed their name to Vlaise after they got into a lawsuit with Viacom about music plus TV and TV. A little similar. But what I did is every morning at 8 a.m. I would stream for an hour and I would do news. Local news, national news, international news, entertainment news.

And then in between the new segments, we would play music videos. And that was essentially my first paid hosting job way back when. I got paid $25 a day to do that show. I was super excited about it. I was like, yeah, my first job. But coming out of college, you know, you kind of have to take any opportunity you can, which is why I had to have like five jobs at one point in Los Angeles to pay rent and buy gas and things like that. So after that, I knew that I really wanted to go the hosting route and not really do.

journalism, which is why when people ask me, like, oh, you know, do you call yourself a journalist? I always say, no, I call myself an on-camera presenter or a reporter. Because I don't think what I do really qualifies as journalism, because it's very much like fluff news. You know, it's entertainment news. It's not stuff that's going to impact your life in a really crazy way, at least, in my opinion, it doesn't. I got into games specifically the summer of 2008.

It was a really rough time in L.A. was right after the the writer strike. A lot of people in Hollywood were out of work. So trying to get jobs in the entertainment field was impossible because you have like really big name people who are trying to get work who are taking jobs for a lot less money. So for a startup like myself, it was impossible to get a foot in the door anywhere.

And, you know, I had never thought about working in games. I'm sure you guys had that same realization at some point. You're like, I just like playing games in my spare time. You know, I don't think about like a career in games,

which is so much different than today, almost a decade later, not to date myself, but I saw an ad on Craigslist for a reporter for E3. And as a gamer, I was like, oh my gosh, the opportunity to go to E3, like, this is intense. I really, really want this job.

And he was like, well, I can't pay you, but I can get you into E3. And I was like, sold. I'm in. So I submitted my reel in my resume. And I got hired by Torrance Davis, this guy who ran on a site called thebitbag.com, which sadly no longer exists.

but that was my very first video games job covering E3 in 2008. And that was the weird year that it was like in Ketchah Hall, like in the basement. Oh, yeah, yeah. The main halls of South and the West Hall weren't open. It was like mini boots. So it was a little different, but I was like, I was hooked. Like after that instant, I was like, how do I make this a thing? Only work in games because I just have loved doing it for so long.

So after that, I kind of took random odd jobs here and there hosting for a variety of different shows. I did like a travel show. I did an internet dating game show. I did this weird like foodie show where we would go to new restaurants and like interview chefs.

And you can't really find any of this online because I don't think it's posted anywhere. YouTube, that'll never take off. Yeah, exactly. So, but the first job that really kind of led me into a full-time career in games was when I was hosting this week in video games with Lon Harris and Jessica Villarillo.

And you guys may know. know Jess, she's still working in in games today. And I really like that was the moment that kind of like pivotal moment in my career where I was like, I can do this full time. I can find a company and keep working and I started producing full time for this weekend.com. And that's when I also started working for Mahalo video games. And Mahalo was one of the first walkthrough channels on YouTube way, like way back before it exploded into the scene that it is to. today. And they had an army of predators, the producer editors, creating walk-through videos, not Nick.

Producers slash denucer out there. I mean, we had a team of like 20 to 30 guys working around the clock doing walk-throughs for every game imaginable. Mahalo's library is intense. And that's where I met Jovenshire, so hinky, laser corn, flits, all the guys at Smosh games. So we all work together there. and that's when, you know, I met them and eventually, you know, was able to continue working with them when I left Mahalo and this weekend

to go start clever games for clever media, which is now part of Defy Media. It used to be part of AlloI Digital, that crazy like... A lot going on there. Yeah, the business mashup that happened with those companies, so... Wouldn't you at Miss Shinema? Yeah, haven't got there. Oh, that's interesting. I didn't know, like, how

in-depth you wanted me to go. Gotcha. I mean, just keep going. So after I left Clever Games, I went to Machinima. So I had started Clever Games, but I was having trouble there because I essentially started at an outlet, an editorial outlet by myself, and I had no idea the challenges that were going to be in store for me. I found out about Metacritic and how important being on Metacritic is.

Because, guess what, PR companies don't care about you if you're not on Metacritic. And this was before the word influencer ever existed. So it was about forming relationships, being able to get review copies for games, being invited to these preview events, being invited to E3 appointments, things like that. Like that was a huge learning experience for me. And I think I was just a little overwhelmed, kind of doing it by myself. And so when the opportunity arose, when, you know, I had met some people working at Machinima and they were like, you know, we'd really love for you to come and work with us. Machinima at the time, like 2011. That's when they were like the top dog of the video game, you know, digital media business. I was like, yes, let's do it. I was super excited about it.

And I joined them and learned so much about like the back end business of YouTube video creation. I got to work with some really amazing directors creating content for the Machinima home channel. People like Manslayer, who's famous for Machinima series like Gamer Poop, which of you guys have never seen it, it's hysterical. He's like a wizard at editing. And people like JT. Machinima who do like music videos using machinima and in game music. So like a whole slew of like really creative people doing more like a high level programming, like creative director kind of work, which was different than what I was doing. And I really missed like interviewing devs and being on camera. And so I eventually left Machinima to go back to work with the staff that I knew at Clever Games.

Gotcha. Now it's coming together. And that's when I started working for the escapist. So I left Machinima to go work with now Defy Media. And well, at the time it was AlloI Digital and then they merged with break media to become Defy. And I started working for the Escapist and got to work with guys like Jim Sterling and Yatsy and a whole bunch of really talented people over there doing Escapist News now. And then I started running Smosh Games. I was, the senior producer managing all of their production on a day to day basis.

Let me tell you, those guys are unruly. They're really fun and they're really talented. But it was just so much going on. And so eventually they had to hire somebody to just, that was their one job,

because I was trying to do three jobs at the same time and I was like, I can't do it. So they hired a really talented guy named Matt Robb, who is now running Smosh games with those guys. And that's when

Defy Media made a strategic partnership with Viacom to, by game trailers. And when game trailers came on board, I went to my SVP and was like, please, please,

please, can I work with game trailers? I love the team there. Like, I respect everything they do. I would love to be on board. Had some great meetings with Brandon Jones and said,

you know, can we do something together? He was like, yeah, let's work together. And then I started working with game trailers. So that's,

I think, about the time when I met you. Well, we all met at VidCon when you were with Machinema. Right. So that was 2012, I think.

Yeah, because that was, it was the first year when, When IGN was doing start. So they sent us down there. And we were just kind of like, it was really just networking. And that's when we met you.

And we're like, we had breakfast at that hotel. Yeah. And that was really one of those like the first kind of opening experiences for us getting into the YouTube space. Because we didn't really know anybody. So you being at Machinmo was kind of like us finally leaving the IGN game spot, you know, kind of like bubble and then moving more towards the YouTube. side of stuff. Yeah. I mean, there's a whole

set of strategies that you employ when you're talking about making content for a dot com and like at this really proprietary audience and the things you need to consider when you're making content on YouTube when you have no control over how any of the back end of the platform works, what their algorithms are and how often they change the algorithm, what their priority for SEO is how important the first like four words of the title can be

to your success, like the technique to making thumbnails, Things like that that a lot of new creators have like no idea how to do. And when you're on a website, none of that matters because you dictate exactly what the design aesthetic and how, you know, your flow of content works. Yeah. So then eventually I moved, I moved to San Francisco. I was working with game trailers and it was the fall of 2014. And I decided, you know, to take my relationship to the next level and move in with John Drake here in San Francisco. Never heard of him.

He got this great job at PlayStation, loved Harmonics. And that's when I went to my boss at game trailers and said, hey, I would love to keep working with you. Can we figure out a way to do that? And I was working freelance with them for a time. And then some things, you know, started changing there. And I kind of saw the writing on the wall as happens with a lot of video game outlets these days, very sadly. And so I told Brandon, I was like, hey, you know, I know you guys are kind of strapped for resources. I'm going to pursue some other things, you know, and wish you guys the best of luck.

And now today I'm a 100% freelance independent contractor. I'm doing some really cool things, working with a bunch of people. Working with GameStop, it'll be my two-year anniversary working with GameStop in May, which I'm excited about. I know a lot of people have misconceptions or preconceived notions of who they are, but I just want to say, for the record, they are wonderful. Everyone have ever worked with a GameStop, whether it's managers that I've met or producers on their team or even the executives are really just fantastic people. So if you think they're evil, they're not. They're really great.

The stuff you with them is the you're on the TV. In store. Yeah. We go in store. So if you've heard the voice at GameStop, it is, it is her. Yeah. What's exciting about that is that we're taking a new direction. This year, we're moving away from some of the more like what I call kind of stiff

marketing copy. And I'm going to be involved with a lot of the writing there now, which is really awesome. we're going to make it more editorial focused, more like a preview, really kind of give gamers a sense of the game that they're playing instead of just kind of like blanket like pre-order this and get this. We really want gamers to feel excited about the game

and really know like, hey, these are the new features. If you're excited about, you know, Mir's Edge Catalyst, let me tell you what kind of gameplay you're going to get. If you liked Mirror's Edge, like, you know, kind of really telling gamers about the game instead of just,

you know, making it super vanilla, which is something I'm, super pumped for and then of course Gamer Next Door we already talked about Yahoo So yeah so what's gaming next door? So I originally You know talk to Playboy like like Six to 12 months ago at this point

About doing something with them We couldn't quite figure it out because they were in this transition As most people know now they are going non-nude They were like hey the internet's a thing Boobs are a quick Google search away So they really kind of made a shift in saying like hey We want to go more towards editorial I mean the running joke about Playboy was always

Oh, I read it for the articles, but the reality was... The articles are really good. The articles are really good. And so they said, well, we are known for our editorial. Let's expand it. And so I talked to the team there and they were like, hey, you do video game stuff. Do you want to do video game stuff with us? And I was like, yeah, that sounds awesome.

Pam and Amelia and Mike over there are really great. And I love working with them. And so I get to do my weekly news show from my home studio, which is fun. I love being able to have control over the topics I get to pick and being able to interact with people on Twitter for our tweet the week segment, which, by the way, if you guys ever have like memes or gameplay clips or videos and you want them to, you know, be on the show, you can tweet to me and Andrew Renee, but so that's been really cool. And then, of course, Yahoo has been awesome. So I'm just

really like, it's kind of like all come into fruition for me. That sounds like a lot. Sounds like getting a lot now. That's my question. It's really frustrating for me sometimes when people are like, oh, she doesn't know games. She's ever been in games. And I'm like, well, actually. So the question I have for you is, I think you have a different perspective than a lot of the guests we've had on, right? And definitely different than us, right? Because it's always like, oh, I worked this newspaper. And then I worked at IGN for eight years and now I do this.

Like my timeline's very simple where yours is all crazy. Like, how hard was it to keep going? I imagine there's periods, right, between jobs and this, that and the other. And freelancers a tough fucking life. And we don't talk about that a lot. Like, how do you, how has it been? I'm not, that's not a misnomer on my side, I imagine, but it hasn't been tough. And then how do you keep going through it?

It's definitely tough. There's been periods where I haven't worked. for months at a time where you're like looking for the next thing for the next fit, what's the right thing? You kind of just got to let your passion lead you.

And a lot of people probably ask you guys the same thing. They asked me, how did you get into games media? How do I get into games media? It's probably the most common question you get from fans, right? And I say you only get into it

if you wake up every morning and this is what you want to do. It never waivers. You're always wanting to do it. it. It's like the primary thing that you think about. If it's like, oh, I like doing this on the side, then this isn't for you. And for me, like, I always knew I wanted to be on camera. I always knew I wanted to perform and be somebody who's out there interviewing people. I love doing interviews with devs and with people like you guys. And I can't imagine not doing it. And that was really like

the driving force for me to continue on. And I think that there were times in my career where I wasn't happy with a specific role that I was given. But I look back and go, you know what, everything gave me knowledge or an experience that was overall really valuable to where I'm at today. So, I mean, yeah, it's hard. It's hard not having a paycheck and, you know, having to like dip into your savings and put things on credit cards and go, man, I really hope I get a paycheck next month. That's tough. I mean, you have to be really strategic about saving and being financially smart and going, oh, hey, know it's slim pickings right now maybe i don't go out to eat this week or this month maybe i don't go to that movie or to that concert or you just got to kind of really trim back what you're

doing and that's the life of being a freelancer it's like really having control over your spending and then because the the phrase is feast or famine when you are freelance like when the work is there like right now i mean like i'm working all the time but like six months ago i wasn't working at all you know so that's just that's just the way it is have you ever thought about kind of going the the route we did I we're in a different position just because like we're a group and we're doing the stuff but there's so many people that are doing the like single person influencer stuff and a lot of them are Twitch streamers or this or that have you ever thought about that I have um a lot of people have asked me why don't I stream why why am I not on Twitch and I look at the most

successful streamers and it is a full-time job for them like they're streaming five to seven days a week sometimes, sometimes three, five, eight hours at a time. And I just don't have that in me. Mostly because for me, gaming, when I actually sit down and play a game, is more of a private experience. And when you're on Twitch, you're on. You're sharing your experience with up to thousands of people at a time. And you need to be interacting with them. And to be successful, you really need to stick to a schedule. And for me, with the kinds of companies I'm working with my schedule is all over the place all the time. And I could never really find a set schedule. I mean, look at your guys, like the success you've had. And it's because you're very,

like, regiment. You're like, hey, you know, we got Colin Gregg live in the morning and we've got, you know, the games cast on this day. And you're programming and sets to your fans know, like, hey, when I'm ready for my kind of funny, I just know exactly where to go when to get it. And I just didn't, I wasn't ready to commit that kind of time to it. And that's really why I haven't done anything like solo. Yeah. And I think that for me, I, even though I have the skill set to do some of that stuff, there are so many more talented people that could edit better than I could edit that could do, you know, like video production better than me. That could help me with, you know, the technical back end of what it means to be able to do like gameplay streaming and

things like that. And that's what's so beneficial about your guys' team is that you have that really well-rounded, you know, skill set. Yeah, definitely. I will say, though, that I don't completely agree with that because, like, you're one of the few people that for as long as I've been doing this, you've been hustling, like, hard. Always. You're always there. You're at every event I go to. You're doing all of this stuff.

And what's cool about you is, you know, even when I was with IGN, we'd go and then we have the, you know, Greg and Colin would be on camera. I'd be behind the camera, shooting, whatever. And then I'd give it to someone else and they'd edit. You were there and you were doing all that stuff. And it's like maybe there was a camera guy with you, like following you around, whatever. But then you, when we go back to the war room and I'm handing the card off to someone else,

he's handing the card to you and you're editing it and you're putting it up and stuff. And it's like, I've always been like, man, like she could just do this. herself. You know, like I feel like you just, you have so many skills. And yeah, people could do it better, you know, better editor or better, you know, whatever it is, like production stuff. But it's like, I think you're underselling yourself in the sense that you are, to say you're good enough is definitely an understatement. I think you, you have all that it takes to like really knock it out of the park. And like, your hustling ability is second to none. And I respect the shit out of that. Well, thank you. That's very, very kind of you to say. I appreciate that. But I can't take

full credit. I've worked with some really amazing people over the years. And, and some really fantastic production people who have been crucial to my success. So I appreciate that, but I cannot take full credit, as I've said. But I think when it comes down to it, I just can't manage it all. And I don't want to manage it all because I tried that. I tried the one-man band like a lot of people out there are doing now, which hats off to them. I wish them the best of luck.

But any successful YouTuber, influencer, or streamer will tell you, it's a shit ton of work. We're talking like 10 to 15 hours minimum a day, six days or more a week. Like it's, I mean, you guys know. It's so much work. And I'm at an age now where I'm like, you know what, sometimes it's okay to not work. It's okay to like spend time with your family and spend time with your friends and have a life outside of your career. Career is super important for me. It has been for a really long time. But now I'm like, you know what? I think it's time to like scale back how much I'm doing and let other people kind of take that baton. And it's okay if I don't have a hand in every single pot anymore.

So my question is in that. You're scaling back letting the next generation come up. Somebody's watching right now. They want to be a freelance host. They wake up thinking about video games every day. What should be in their toolbox in terms of do they have to make a demo reel of vlogs? Like I can tell you how to be a goon on the internet like us, but I don't know how to do it in terms of like,

I'd like to one day work with Playboy or do this kind of. kind of job with Yahoo. I don't know how you build a portfolio or build a skill set like that. Well, if you want to be a professional host, do you have to have training first and foremost? Like, I highly recommend to people who want to do something professional and to either have some kind of communications or journalism degree. That's like the bedrock because a lot of these multi, you know, million dollar media companies won't even consider you if you don't even have a BA. You don't need to have like a master's degree, but like a four-year education is very important for a variety of reasons.

And then like additional training. Improv classes were essential for me. I did improv in high school all the way through post college. That's like so important if you're going to be doing any kind of interviewing on camera. On camera training is important. A lot of people who want to get into on camera don't realize that certain things, like you do things on camera. You move your arms in a certain way. You're face in a certain way. You do certain things with your head or with your voice. And you don't realize that until you actually start training with someone who's like, hey, you know, you'd, you'd do this thing where you flap your arms when you're talking on camera. That was my main thing. One of my hosting instructions was like, what's with the turkey arm? It's like you're flapping your wings. And I was something like I didn't realize until I worked with a professional, you know, a consultant about trying to get better. And I think that's really important. I think practice, practice, practice, practice.

Like you can't practice enough. Practice reading. If you want to host on camera, grab a magazine or a book and just read it out loud. And like practice, like, reading it in different ways and figuring out why it's. sounds different and just like little things like that, um, that are super important. And now with the way that, you know, online digital media is, you can use your webcam or even your cell phone to, to do vlogs. You know, that's a great way to start getting used to looking at camera and what that means to look at camera. Because a lot of people sometimes will just move their eyes around.

Just little things like that is super important. If you, you know, want to go down that, down that road. There you go. That's a great end of that topic. We're So where can they find you? I'm in a variety of places, but the best place is just to follow me on Twitter at Andrea Renee. That's where I post links to stuff that I'm doing, both on Playboy Yahoo or GameStop. I do have a website and a Facebook fan page and an Instagram, and I'm on Twitch. But I'm not really, I don't actively post on all of those. I'm the most active on Twitter.

So that's the best place to find me. So check out Gamer Nextdoor on Playboy. Check out esports. com. Yahoo.com. all that stuff and follow it on Twitter. Greg. Yeah.

Topic three, we're doing something a little bit different today. That's right. I'm a very big fan of Lego dimensions. I don't know if I've told you about this. A couple times. I was a lot of less place. I was super excited.

There are a lot of less place here on YouTube. com slash kind of funny games. So wave four just came out. Wave 5 is in May, but that's all we know. Okay. So I wanted to grab somebody over there at TT Games. Hug them tight.

Thank them for making the game. And then ask them, what the fuck comes next? And so when I said that, a whole bunch of people turning me down. But Mark, Mark Warburton, he accepted the challenge to come in, talk about what's happening, what the hell's going on, and where's Harry Potter? Your close personal friend, Mark.

My close personal friend, Mark, we follow each other on Twitter. I think we met once at Comic Con during the Doctor Who event. You think? Let's see. I mean, a lot of people, Andrew. Let's see the interview. Roll the clip, Kevin. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here with the one and only Mark Warburton. Hi, Mark.

Hello, how are you, my good man? I'm excellent. How are you? Not too bad. It's the end of our day here, so I'm looking forward to just putting my feet up and trying to relax for the rest of the evening. Understandable. It's an understandable move. You should do that. But first, I have to give you the whole rundown of Lego dimensions.

I don't know if you're aware. I'm a big Lego Dimension fan. Are you aware of this? Yes. Yes, I've seen quite a few of your tweets that have gone on. It's been great to see, actually. It's been really nice to have such a big fan in our corner. So thank you very much for that. No, yes. Congratulations. Good job on the game. It's been a huge pain in my ass for my wallet. So I want to yell at you for that to start with. But I'm still mystified.

I'm not mystified, I guess, because I get it, but it's so surprising that it caught me that I got the bug for Lego Dimensions because really I'd never given toys to life any kind of creed inside. You know, I played Disney Infinity here, saw this with Skylanders. I respected what they were doing, but I knew they weren't for me. And when you guys announced Lego Dimensions and then hinted at Ghostbusters and Superman, that's when I was like, well, I'm going to buy these things, but I'm sure it's going to be a kid game and da-da-da-da. But then I sat down and played it and, you know, at demos, then you had you guys over.

And then when I got the final version, and you, there's so much fan service in this game. Thank you so much for making it. No, no, it was our pleasure. I mean, that's the key. It was always going to be a game about fan service. We're fans. That's the key to everything we do. We love these properties.

We love Ghostbusters and Superman, and we grew up with them. Like Doctor Who, I grew up watching Doctor Who. So to actually get to make a game about to play around in that world is an incredible honour. And it's just so much fun. I mean, you know, you say you work on a game. Well, this didn't actually feel like work at all. it was fun from day one until we put it on the shelves and it continues to be fun for us to work on. And that's what I want to talk a bit about with, I mean, because I've talked about the game,

people've seen the let's plays, all that different stuff. For me with Lego Dimensions and having you in this opportunity, thank you so much for your time. What is it doing for you guys? I'm not looking for sales numbers, but I mean, is it exceeding what you expected it to do? Because it was coming up on it, there was already that conversation of like, well, there's already so many things vying for the Toys to Life market. can this one survive? And it seems like it's done well when I see NPD or I see numbers. We're unbelievable fulfilled. Oh, I can't even get my word out.

You're so happy about it. We're so happy. I mean, I think for me, as soon as we released and my Twitter started getting really blown up, I think is the term, we're building their own gateways and sending me photos of it. It's like, this is something else. This is something a little bit different from what we're used to. And then you start. interacting a little bit more and more people start talking about it to you. Irish is great. It's been a continuous exceeding of expectations for us.

And we're so happy that we've got to go on this journey and continue with it. So with what's happened, and I guess, you know, it's finding an audience, it doing all these different things. Has it changed the course of TT games? Because like, I always thought about it when it was coming up that if Lego Dimensions hits, it's not the death of, but it becomes this conversation internally of like, well, are we going to still make, there's this property we have, do we want to make a traditional Lego game for it,

or do we want to put it into Lego dimensions? Is that, is that me being newbie and not understanding the business? Is there really conversations like that that happen? No, I mean, you know, I think you're right to ask that question. But really, it's not really something that we've discussed as such. Our business has always been those core titles. I mean, we've got Star Wars, the Force of Awakens coming out of this year, which they dropped a trailer for today, and it looks great.

and those are things we're always continued to do. We did Avengers earlier on in the year, which was another Arthur Parsons game, which was really pleased of, I loved its bits. So it's great that we can try something new and we're in that position where we can't try something new. Lego Dimensions, it was a new thing for us, technology, toys to life, completely different brands across the road. We had the opportunity to do that and we can continue doing the games that we've always done,

people love, at the same time. It's a really good position that we put ourselves. thing. So going forward, is it, so now that Star Wars, you're doing this, you're back with Star Wars, which is crazy. I never thought I'd see that happen. When you guys announced that, I was like, I did not see that one coming. Is it one of those that then, as one of the Lego dimensions guys, do you then look at that and then start trying to figure out if you want to do a world for them, a dimension for them, some kind of level pack or whatever? I was just so excited when they showed that off. I mean, I am a fan boy first and foremost. I mean, that's kind of, I look,

of games and I was a big fan of TT before I even joined the company. So when these games start being developed, I really try and stay away from the ones I'm not working on. I just know. Like when Arthur was doing Avengers, I could see it in the corner of them. It was like, just no, turn it off. I don't want to.

I want to see when it's finished and I can sit down and enjoy it. It's the same with Star Wars. I can see them developing it. And it's just like, that looks great. Don't show it me. I want to be a fan. I want to enjoy it like everybody else. And, you know, It's a good place to being because there's so many creative people in that place and we do have different games on the goal. And it's really rewarding because people can look at different ways to do the games and different ideas.

And we've got different game directors who all have their own strengths. It's a real symbiotic relationship we've got going on. It's a lot of fun. You're dodging questions, Mark. What is next for Lego dimensions? That's what I'm asking. I want to know what happens with these level packs. You just put out Wave 4.

All we know after this is Wave 5 with Slimer. What happens next, god damn it? Well, let's see, Lord Vortex goes on a holiday. I think I might join him. You know what? Obviously, we've said from the off, we don't want this to be a one-shot thing. We don't intend Lego dimensions to just fade away. I don't know anyway, because it's my job rides on it.

You know, we really want this to be, and what we have, we built a system, in effect. We want something that is under your TV and stays there for a long, long time. and we can keep adding on and putting more content on whenever we want and whenever we see fit. That's, you know, why we've got the upgrade, we've got the download system, we did everything we could, so we can continue to add to the experience as much as we possibly want to. And that's certainly something that people will see in the coming months. And that's what I liked a lot about it when you guys came out, you know, and you were talking about, like it mentions, what you kept saying is that, you know, the portal's good for, I think, and correct me wrong,

I think you said three years, right? Like, you're not going to nickel in time, everybody. There's not, you know, if there is another Lego dimension, dis-based game, somewhere on the line, who would expect it? That you would still have the right portal for it. You wouldn't need to get something else. So clearly you guys are invested in the future. Yeah, no, absolutely.

I mean, it was always about trying to develop the technology that lived up to that vision in a way. You know, we tried as best we can. I think we succeeded in making everything that we needed in that hardware to last us a long, long time. That was very important. You know, I mean, we accept that it was a high asking point to get into Lego dimensions. It was, but you've got a lot of content in that, and we want you to see that as we

progress over the next two, three years, that he just continues to add and add and add, and it becomes this massive experience. So how do you get any work done over there? Because I imagine right now, you're, as, you know, Wave 5 is coming out, May it's coming out, wave 4 just came out. as you look towards, you got to start thinking about, well, what's next for you guys? And then I imagine it's got to be a million ideas from movie, TV, books, games. You're sitting there and you can, is it literally anything?

Do you come up with? I know you can't talk about going forward, but let's look backwards, right, in terms of what you've done when you have Simpsons and you have Wizard of Oz. And granted, I think, you know, the superheroes are a bit easier because of a relationship and everything else. But looking back with those, like, even maybe from the planning purpose, was it simply, we want to go do this, we want to get this property, and then you guys then talk to a lawyer

who then went and talked to their, like, I don't understand how you go and get these Doctor Who properties and bring them in. Yeah, I mean, it's really, it doesn't feel real still when you think of who we've actually got. Yeah, you know,

the Doctor Who one was a huge thing for me personally as well. I think personally, when we talk to them, we've got 11 years worth of games behind us now. You know, it's 11 years since the original Lego Star Wars came out.

Got a few old. Yeah. Tell me about it. Although I seem to be aging faster than some of the people who actually worked on that game, which is really impressive. But yeah, so

people know what we're about. They know we can take these properties and these brands and make it into something that's fun and pays respect to what it is. You know, we're not going to take the Mick. We're not going to make Batman

do something he would never in a million years do in a comic book or something like that. It'll be funny. It will be funny. cheeky, but it pays respect to the brand. So when we go into these meetings with someone, we've never worked before, the likes of Fox or Sony or someone like that,

we can say, look, this is what we're about. These are the games we make, and these are the games we want you to be a part of. Do you want to come on this ride with us? And we was very, very lucky with the dimensions that everyone just seemed to say, yeah, yeah, sign us up. Yeah, I think, you know, it speaks to your track record, right? That I think everyone knows Lego games, even if they haven't played them, they know about them in some respect,

that they're well respect. They've been around forever and people enjoy them. So, yeah, why not get on board and why not get behind this? That's what we hope. You know, and it seems to have paid dividends for us.

As you say, everyone's heard of the Lego games. Everyone's heard of Lego. Everyone's stepped on it in the middle of the night and cursed it. I have. But it's great. It's just anything,

you can make anything out of Lego and it just becomes something fun and unique. And that's what's great about it. And we can take things like Simpsons or Back to the Future, which you never see together in the same game. As soon as it's in Lego form, it just works and makes sense. Yeah, it does.

So the next thing I want to talk to you about is your community. Like, did you, when you guys went out in this, did you expect there to be a community that rose up around it? Because, you know, I've been on the Toys for Games podcast. They were already going. I didn't even think about the subsection of Toys Live games and how they'd be there, let alone then taking your Lego fans, adding them to it and seeing how they all go. It seems like there's a vibrant Dimensions community that does tweet you photos of their

builds and does, you know, put up less plays and does all the stuff. Were you aware you were getting in that? Or is that just the natural progression of what the Lego community was? And I just was ignorant to. Yeah, we are in quite a strong community, which was great. I mean, there's a few people who tweets us religiously about all things like, but then dimensions seem to take it to another level. And it was just insane.

I mean, that's the only way you can really describe it. you just daily bombarded with messages. And it was great. It's so much fun and rewarded to see people. And I think it was always nice when parents were getting to say, our kids have played the game. Our kids have enjoyed the game. That's great.

And it's always nice to get involved with the community as much as you can because that's who we make the games for. And for me, I think, what I want to talk to you about is hire a hero mode. Was that something you guys had planned for? Or was it based on the reaction when people got their hands in the game because of course if you're watching this you don't know higher here you you run into things in the you can beat lego dimensions with the starter pack you can get the platinum with the starter pack

but you do run into things in the game world that are like well if you wanted 100% the game the in game world you need you know you need the wicked witch here to get into this thing and if you don't have or you can't use it until it seemed like you guys responded and put that in there is that how it happened yeah so i mean we we had considered it during development we we considered something along those lines and it had been sort of paper written down and then the community spoke, they sort of said what they liked about the game, didn't like, so we reacted accordingly. There's no point in working on something we intend, as we said before, for many, many years, if people are really saying they're unhappy with something, we go in, we try and change

it, and that's why we've built it as a system. So we can change it, we can make alterations and make people as happy as they can be. Is that like the benefit you think to building a platform rather than a game this time around? Absolutely. Without a doubt, we can constantly look at it and see exactly what's going on. We can see what people are saying about it. If they're having problems or they're getting stuck. I mean, you know, at games, people still hit issues and we've got to address that and we've got to really

make it the most seamless experience it possibly can be. So building it in this way, we can continue to support it and really make it something very worthwhile and very special. Now, I'm dropping my interviewer type of putting on my

fan hat. Would you like a way to drive a whole bunch of people back into the game and get them really excited about the game again. Always, yes. All right, here's what you do. Yeah, I don't know if you got time, I don't have you enough time for Wave 5, but whatever Wave 6 is,

whatever Lego dimensions 2 is, whatever the hell you're working on that you won't talk about because you're a jerk. What you do when you do that is you put out, you know, how you have all the DLC trophies and achievements you add in there. Yes. Add in a ton of them for every one of the worlds.

Give me a reason to go back into the different dimension hubs and do all the stuff. stuff. Because for me, like you, you know, I platinum Lego Avengers and I platinum, obviously, all the Lego Batman games I could. When I go in there, I get excited that I'm about to do like a 30-hour experience of going through and having to get every gold brick and having to do every race and having to do that. And for me with dimensions, platinum dimensions, and then I felt, and I, granted, this is just video games being broken for me because of trophies. I, you know, felt like I didn't have that reason to go into the DC Comics world and do everything other than being

a fan. You know, I tinkered around, but I never got lost in it. And I'm just saying, you know, you go in there, you toss in a gold trophy on every one of these worlds for doing 100%. You got people in there playing for hours, tweeting you more photos. It's an easy win, except for all the money you waste, putting trophies back into the game. Well, so now comes the technical issue. So we have actually got achievements in all the level packs. Oh yeah, no, I know. I know that there's trophies in the level packs.

Yes, yes, yes. But you're limited to the amount of gamer score you can do per year on the consoles. So we have to find a way to distribute that over the life cycle of the project rather than individually. So that's why we have the number we do. Believe me, there was like a huge list of achievements originally. And it's just technical limitations of the systems. It's great.

You know, if we could get around it, absolutely would. And I think achievement, I'm an achievement answer as well. I love doing it. I was playing the original Sonic Edge. I got my PS3 just before this call just to try and get that last trophy. That's true. But, you know, it's one of those things. Microsoft Sony, if you can increase the limits, that will absolutely do it.

All right, I'll hit up Shuehoshita. I can get you on Sony. Yes, yes, please do, please do. And tell him to get that PSVita back going as well. No, the Vita is alive and well, sir. I'll have you know. Thanks to games like Lego Avengers, finally having a hub world and you get to go around to do all the free roaming stuff. So I think where it's eventually coming.

Axi Vervege is coming. I adore the Vita. I absolutely did. I got it day one and it goes with me absolutely everywhere and the redesign that they've done

on the slim version is just even better. So yeah, I really hope Sony continue with that for the long haul. I love it. Especially now PS2 is on it.

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. You know, the Vita, it's going to be this for the rest of its life, but that's enough for me.

I get some trophies. You get some cool indie games. That's good. I like that. Yeah. So, Mark. When do we, what do we, when do we hear from you guys?

Are you going to wait to wave, wave five is out and done? And then months later, talk about what's next and what you're going to do. We're like, how much, do I have to wait till E three? Like, and I know you can't tell me the right date, but I'm just, tell me when something's coming. Where's Harry Potter? Thank you.

Harry Potter. Wow. Did you play the original two games? Hell yeah. Yes, I loved them. I reviewed them. That was my first game at TT, the first Harry Potter. Oh, very well.

I assume you did everything on it. So good job. No, no, no. That was an Arthur game through and through. Arthur Parsons. I always trying to get all the credit. Well, he deserves it. It's very well. He's a great guy. Yeah, I mean, who knows when we're going to talk about it? You know, obviously we'll be at E3 for one thing or another. So maybe then, maybe not. I couldn't possibly comment. I hate you. I just like that.

I know. It's got to be coming. I mean, you guys did such a good job of, you know, getting, I mean, we're talking about things that are coming in May, which awkwardly is right before E3, and I'm sure was part of your plan. So you get to go there and you get to announce Lego Dimensions 2 and hear all things. Or you don't announce Lego Dimensions 2, and you just announce a bunch of level packs in team packs and stuff. And that's cool too. But I just want to know when it's coming so I can get more excited.

And this is back to the community thing that you've built a fan base like this. I'm going over to the Brickenquirer.com. I'm looking to see what leaks they got. Like, this is what you've made me to reduce me to this market. Yeah, that's true. The thing is people know they don't tell me these things because I have the worst reputation for just talking. I'm such a fanboy that I'll just talk to anyone about anything at any time. And I think people have learned that lesson now, so they don't tell me anything until I absolutely have to know.

Okay. Well, then let's do this. Then you know nothing. Good. That's what I like that. People tell me that daily anyway. So, you know. There's people on the street.

They're just your barista. You know nothing. It's just okay. Thanks. Sorry. I'll get out of the road. Doctor Who was a dream for you What are other dreams you'd love to see

Put in the Lego? It was the two, because I'm a big Doctor Who fan I'm a huge Superman fan Yeah So messing with him in any way, shape, of form was just a dream come true One of the privilege I had

When I started on the property It was actually my first time I'm over in LA So I went to the DC offices And I was just a quivering wreck Yeah It was, they were showing me around The offices and all these comic books

And stuff that I grew up with a fan I was just like, this is nuts. I, right, stop, try and be professional. You're here to do a job. Oh my God, it's Superman versus MoMAID Ali issue. Fail, fail. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can't pull it together sometimes.

Yeah, it was great. And then other things that are coming through, like Bob Gail was at E3, you know, talking about back to the future. This is insane. And then we do a sound record the week later, Gary Oldman. Wow. And she's just, what, what is going on here?

And I think my highlight personally was, we got J.K. Simmons to do the portal stuff the day after he won his Oscar. Wow. It's just, that's crazy. That really is. I do say, though, I would absolutely,

I still have a problem with Arthur getting Kevin Smith for, like, a Batman 3, because I'm a big Kevin Smith fan. Sure, us too. And I would love to have got him for Dimension. but Arthur went and swight him instead. You can still get them. You can do the, it'll be very aged up for your demographic,

but you could do the view of skew universe. I would love to. Right? That was awesome. Blunt Man and Chronic. It'd be so good. A lot of adults are playing. This is an expensive game, you know.

Like I see it all the time. All my friends, all the best friends out there from kind of funny, they tweet me. I know I got Trevor Starkey on this, and he's got units and units built up. It's weird because, you know, we do get a lot of messages from adults saying, put this into the game.

It's like, that's not really our demographic. That might be a little bit different. Thanks. Thank you for suggestion. But no, no, we'll stick with someone else. But yeah, I'd love to do anything with Kevin Smith, to be honest with you.

It's great. I mean, the dimension is just, you can't help but tripping over amazing properties. Yeah. That's the cool thing. I mean, Fox, Simpsons. It's the Simpsons. it's the culture of everybody

and we got to play around with it. It was brilliant. All right, so then I got two for you that you need to chase. Number one, my honorable mention, but I'm sure it's in the bag as Harry Potter,

but I'm sure you're already working on that. You already do these Harry Potter games. You know the universe. You got the assets. You just copy and paste. There you go. You made a game. But the two, you know,

yeah, that's all the consoles. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's easy. You put them, you put more shine on. More pixels in there. It's simple. Now you sound like a producer, and that's usually what I say

when I go and ask the Rappell people and then they throw something at me. Just tighten up the graphics on level three. It's simple. Do this. Can you do that? No. No, that takes a week's work. But no. So the two, what I loved,

I think the level pack that is, was awesome, doesn't get enough love is like a portal to, portal to the portal dimension. The portal dimension was awesome. And I was a big fan of it. And I'd love to see more crossover content with you and other video games. That's why. And I'm going to take credit for it when it one day eventually has to happen.

I demand uncharted. Neil Druckman was tweeting. about dimensions and I connected them with you guys and I've never talked to anyone about it. I assume Lego Uncharted is happening because of Greg Miller. Make it happen. Thank you, Kevin. I saw that tweet and I was like, oh my goodness. I was just like, I kept thinking, should I tweet him back and say only if you give me a copy of a bunch of it for him? No, but you know, those are all discussions with the lawyers going. That'd be great. And I think the cool thing about Portals was, I mean, Valve, the masters of video, there's no other way

you can describe them. They know a storytelling a video game and everything they touch is just got, that's all these. And then for them to say, yeah, okay, you can take our property and put into yours and, you know, do what you want to do with it. It was just like, is this actually happening? Is this, this real? Where's the other shoe going to draw?

And it was great because we got to get all the characters back that they'd use in the portal games and, you know, get them to do new lines, UV. And what an amazing experience. And, you know, if something else comes up with other game franchises, then, yeah, it'd be great. In my second, don't try to get out of this yet, because I'm pinning you down. This one I've done no work on, but I think would work really well for you was The Witcher. The Witcher's got a huge fan base.

It's a huge world. It's kind of like Lord of the Rings. Just copy those assets over. Make a little gerald and the Tris and the other one. There you go. You got a game. We did just talk about adult content in video games. You don't have to.

Okay, sure. There's adult content in portal. You know what I mean? They talk and they make references in joke. You don't have to put the Witcher sex in there. You don't have to have any of that. Well, so we don't collect Lego cards, you know, when, no, let's leave that one way alone. The witch is brilliant.

I love the witch and I think my boss has actually been amazing as well. They did a terrific job with that as well. I think the thing with dimensions is you're saying it now, we can go anywhere. We literally can go anywhere and it just sort of makes sense because of the story we've done. So I don't know. Who knows what comes next? All right, Mark. You're a real piece of garbage giving me no solid, solid.

leads here. But thank you so much for talking to us today. I will try my best. And hopefully if we're running to each other, E3, I can give you a few more secrets. There you go. Yeah, whispered all in my ear. I was the first person to ever have Superman, remember? I had it. Yes, she was. Yeah, that was. Months and months and months early. That's what happens when you, you're such a fan. Well, thank you. And it's easy to be a fan of you guys. You do so much great work. So thank you for everything you're doing and tell the whole team they've been great. Thank you very much. Keep on going with the podcast as well. We all listen to them religiously. So kind of funny is a staple of the office. So please continue with that as well.

We'll do, Mark. Thank you so much. Thank you. So Greg, yeah, that was cool. Thank you. So Harry Potter? No, you know. It's going to happen. Guarantee. My brother's not quite juiced about that. He's not? Well, not that it's not happening now. There's no way it's not happening. Because I mentioned in the interview, brickenquirer.com, of course,

my go-to-source for Lego Dimension News, right? Brick, and he's an addict. I like it. Yeah, it's a fan site all about Lego dimensions. So you better goddamn believe I'm all over. What a brick-in-quire. And they had the leaked list that would like, but it was all like code words, like abbreviations. And there was an HP in there. And again,

they've made the Harry Potter games. It's a Warner Brothers franchise. That's easy. That's gold. They're going to do that. And then like I said, when uncharted happens everybody, that's because of me.

I helped kneel up with TT games. It's because of me. Thank you. Brickenquirer. Brickenquirer. Is a website. Yes. Do you know what that website was built in?

No. Maybe Squarespace. It was Squarespace. It was Squarespace. Because this topic is brought to you by Squarespace. Building a website. can be tough. And even if you do know your way around coding, creating something that looks good and works well as a time-consuming affair, whether it's for a business site, a portfolio, or

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That's not true. I won't follow every fans. Anything. If you make a Lego Dementry site. Game over Gregy, your fan site that you made on Squarespace. Using promo code, kind of funny, to get 10% off your first purchase and show support for kind of funny games. We thank Squarespace for the support.

I'm on Bricklewiter. Build it beautiful. I'm on here. Jason Rear runs it here. I mean, this strike here, I'll go back to the front page. It looks like it could be a Squarespace, right? Because it's beautiful. It looks like it was built beautiful.

It does look like it was built beautifully. Good. It's got a blog roll. What was the other tagline? It's optimized very nicely for mobile. You should? The security on it seems airtight. All right.

Topic four, as always, brought to you by the Kind of Funny forums. Go to kind of funny.com slash gamescast topic to leave your questions and we'll get to them at some point. Just like we're doing right now with a Morton Joe. He says, Amigos. How are you? My question is simple. We talk all the time about games that make a sad, happy, laugh or cry. But if you ever played a game or came across something in a game that has offended you, don't think so.

That's offended me? Yeah. Oh, definitely. Like what? All of GTA 5? Really? Really? Listen, I'm in a camp that I don't play GTA anymore.

The one GTA that I went all in on was Vice City. But now I just like I started it and I had to stop because I just I couldn't deal. It's just not for me. It's just like I get that a lot of video games have violence. I play violent games myself. but like the way the GTA handles it, I just, I just don't like. Just don't like it.

So it's the violence of it? Like what? Like Trevor? No, the idea that like you're rewarded for, you know, like essentially like murdering women in the game. I mean, you murder guys in the game too, to be fair. I'm not trying to be sexist. The internet will explode if I don't recognize

that you also murder men in that game. But for me, I just like, I don't know. I just don't like it. What about you call? I don't really get offended by fiction, I guess, but things that are thought provoking to me, I still think Specops is a great example

of you're killing American soldiers. Not to say that their lives are any more or less valuable than anyone else, but it's just not a perspective that we have a lot. And so when you hear them chattering to each other, speaking American English to each other, and you're just lighting them up, it's just a different perspective that was

thought provoking. I don't think I was offended by it, but I was like, huh, I've never killed American soldiers in a game really before. I've killed Nazis and other people as you know like faceless soldier guy. But not dudes like talking to each other in a hallway about like their

family or whatever and going home and you're just capping them in the back of the head. You know, um, it was certainly an interesting perspective. I assume it's a similar thing that people in other countries playing games where you're killing you know, you know, like I'm not saying, you know, like if you're a German and you're playing a World War II shooter, not that you're a Nazi, obviously you aren't, but you are

killing people that, you know, are maybe somehow related to you, speaking your language, you can understand them. You know, like, that was a, that came to mind instantly when you said that was, you know, I wasn't offended by it at all. I loved that they did that. But yeah, that was certainly a thought provoking and unique experience. Greg.

Yeah, I've been offended lots of times. Going home. Firewatch. Metal gear solid five, the ground zeros. Where are the fucking platinum trophies? Like, it's an insult. It's offensive and it's a goddamn insult that these fucking games don't have platy. And then you get the fuck out of here with this shit.

My God. Steve Gainer. You're out of control with the gun home. How can you gone home? Gone home doesn't deserve a platinum. I love Platon. Tocco Master. I have a bachillian platinum troyes.

Did Taco Master. Yeah, Tocomaster probably shouldn't have had one. But it did, which means the scale's broken, which means gone home, which is more of a game. A better game than Taco Master deserves it. It was shocking. This isn't about, you know, fixing the system. It's about honoring great games, games that deserve platinum. with platyms. That is what a real game has. A platinum trophy.

It's not that I'm even mad at Steve Gainer. I'm disappointed in him. My God, Greg. You're a monster. And I appreciate that. Bez 87 has a really long question that I'm just going to kind of boil down. Hello, best friends. My question is, when are we going to see the death of in-game loading? I feel like in this day and age, loading shouldn't be an issue anymore. But playing Bloodborne. There's a lot of loading. GTA got a right by loading the game at the start, but then there's still a lot more. blah blah blah one's loading going away never yeah that's just how games work yeah it's not gonna go away but it will it will get better and and games are doing it and optimizing in different ways i think the division's a

great example of a game that that doesn't typically load it takes a long time to get into the game and then load the game but the game does run pretty seamlessly when you're going in out of buildings and then out of quest and so it does a really good job right when you go into your HQ that like that when you suddenly can't run anymore and like your friends disappear that's because it's loading your instance your hub world and then back out to the only game that stands out to me as the one game i've recognized as never seen a loading screen is God of War. Like, that's it. And again, it's because they hide them right.

Yeah, they're cutting through the rocks. Well, that's what we're talking about, right? Not like those epic Skyrim loading screens that you spend the whole time playing, right? Yeah. So I think like, yeah, it's a simple question. The thing about it is like, is, you know, load exists because of how big the game is, right? And how competent the machine is. But when the machine gets better, the games get bigger.

That's the whole thing. You're not going to ever see it go away because they're always going to be chasing each other. Yeah, I think it's just about hiding it properly. And, you know, like, Bloodborn's a great example. I know that they patched and made it better. But when Bloodborn came out, the low times in Bloodborm were fucking absurd. Like, it wasn't even long or like, I was like, you could literally go take a shower, like, during these low times. And this is a game where you're supposed to die hundreds of times.

And I'm sitting here for minutes and minutes at a time, like waiting. I was like, how did you ship the game like this? Yeah. A game, like, that was really a, for what I thought was a pretty great game. I was like, that's insane. I mean, I couldn't believe the low times in that. So it is unimmersive. Rise of the Tomb Raider did really well.

Their loads were quick. If you died, you instantly were right back in it. So back and Dave, like before CD games, like all the car base stuff, there was no loading at all, right? Was there any card game that had loading? No. That's crazy. Yeah, but we're never going back there. Unless Nintendo brings it back with the NX. Next question comes from AP Newman.

If console exclusives went to PC, how do you think it would affect console hardware sales? And is there a loss of sale overall? You're going to find out with Xbox One. Yeah, we're seeing it now. I still think these audience, there's a Venn diagram overlap of these audiences, but I do think that

it's obviously going to erode sales. I think Xbox one is going to be the litmus test now with quantum break, which wasn't going to sell very well to begin with, but you know, not because it's bad. Not because it's bad, because it's always just not going to sell very well.

It's the same thing with like sunset. It's just like a weird idea. Yeah. And it's just not, you know, it's not halo or gears or whatever. So it's like, I don't know that they have a lot of expectations for it. But the proof will be in the pudding with that

soon because they're certainly taking a different mark than PlayStation, which still hasn't put a first party Sony published game on PC. They put second party Sony published games on PC, but none of the first party. And still that happens until you see it uncharted or a god of war

or bloodborn or something like that on them. We're not going to know. We're not going to have an apples to apples comparison between the consoles. But my assumption is it's not going to affect it as much as people think. I don't think it's going to affect it at all. But it is important to note that

you know, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider sold way, way, way better on easy. So it could just say that that game's audience is there already or that that game's audience knew that it was coming on PC and waited. I'll be interested to see the quantum break numbers. Clintomis says, hey guys, I have a question about YouTube and creating content around games. I know you've covered the subject before on Game Over Grady's show, but I was hoping that you might go into more detail, specifically when it comes to making content for YouTube centered around

video games. I have high quality videos on my channel and me Let's playing games. They hardly get any views. I spent a lot of time in the description, title tags, etc. I just don't see any results. I thought this was interesting with you here. How do we make content around video games for other people? The first step, if you're on YouTube, is to read the creator playbook. First step, number one, just Google creator playbook and read it front to back. I think it's YouTube.com slash playbook. Yeah, don't skip any sections.

Like, make sure you're doing all of the best practices that they outline there. That's step number one. Step number two is making a niche audience. Right now, it's too difficult to do everything. you have to pick something and stick with it and be the best of that one thing. There's just way too much saturation with people trying to be like,

I'm going to do a generic gaming channel. It's like it's you and a million other people doing that. So pick like your favorite thing, the thing that you can spend the most amount of time with and won't get sick of and you love, whether it be Minecraft or a call of duty or, you know, destiny or whatever your game choice is,

pick it and stick with it and don't deviate. I think, you know, even going beyond that, and it's not just games too because I think a lot of people get hung up up on like, all right, it's Minecraft or it's destiny or whatever. I think that one thing could be video game news or video game reviews. Like you could do everything if reviews are what you're focusing on or if a news product is what you're doing. Like you look at like the daily fix at IGN

or like they're just news shows and stuff. That I think would be is great if you're into that side of it. If you're into the more just like reporting side and that's what you want to do, I think that's a great thing that not enough people on just like the starting out level are doing. I think a lot of people jump into the let's plays and stuff. I think that's such a the deep end of the pool and there's so many people swim in there already. Specializing stuff. I mean,

what you're talking about right now, PS4 trophies, right? When new game drops and I'm having trouble or I want to know how to get this, I immediately go to that because I know that's what he does. He puts those videos up and they're there. And then it's the same thing of what you're saying is, yeah, specializing something.

I mean, we've mentioned brick and choir and toys for games today, right? Because we're talking about Lego dimensions and they talk about that and then they collaborated with me. So do something unique, specialize in something and collaborate with people, right? Because then you get into the lexicon and their audience. and all these different things.

And obviously be genuine. I think that's the most important thing. No matter what you're doing, it's be true to your voice and what you believe in what you actually like. Like, I love Nintendo. So I'm gonna bring on Nintendo forever, even if Colin fights me.

But it's like, that's the fun of it. You know, and like that's kind of the whole point. People come to us because they know that we're gonna, we're gonna do that. And you guys with PlayStation and all the other things that you love. So it's like, and the games, toys-life stuff, you know? Like, you're gonna talk about Lego dimensions,

even if no one else is. Even if the let's plays don't get views. You're gonna keep doing them because that's what you want and fuse Kevin, don't worry. You know what I mean. He doesn't look worried. Kevin looks half asleep. He looks like he got clipped by a truck.

He's in a full on sugar crash right now. Do you need to go get more candy to keep going? Yeah, go get some candy. Bring the jelly beans in. Oh, they're here. God damn it, Kevin. I love that guy. And there he goes, dropping the beans.

Final. question the day, Colin, this one, this one's for you. I was curious as to why pixel art in games is so expensive and difficult to use. I've looked online and haven't really been able to find a thorough explanation as to exactly why this is. Having played Super Mario World in pixel perfect mode on the new Nintendo 3DS, I've kind of

appreciate the beauty of the game even more now than I did when originally came out. That was from popcorn shower. Wait, do you mean like buying the art assets? No, like making them. Like it's way more expensive to make pixel art than it is. So like Street Fighter 5. And we're always talking about Eager. Yeah.

Egany and stuff. Yeah, like, Egany is even 2.5D. So the, so there's multiple reasons why. A, like, if you look at a game like Castlevania Symphony in the Night, which I think is one of the most beautiful games of all time, like easily. These are, so these, these enemies or these characters, so, you know, Al-Card, for instance, or Dracula are animated frame by frame with pixel art. So it's, you have to like hand, you have to do this by hand, basically.

And it's super expensive. The other thing that Ega was saying to me, which is interesting, you know, because I've talked to Ega many times, about bloodstain, which I'm super excited about, is that there's just not that many people anymore that can do it and do it well. So like do it up to that level, because there's a lot of like pixel art 8-bit or 16-bit

inspired or even 32-bit inspired games out there that do pixel art not very well. So he was saying to me that like one of the big problems in why bloodstain is 2.5D and why Mighty Number 9 is 2.5D, which is not an ego game. But similar reason is that it's just really expensive because you have to find people

that can do it properly. And it's a dying art. And so these people can demand money and it takes a lot of time. And it might not be worth it. I'm super disappointed that bloodstained in my number nine are both 2.5D. But if they do that because it is just cheaper to make a model that you can then program to animate without having to do it literally frame by frame. So that's kind of a nutshell kind of reason why.

But it's even more complicated than that. Yeah. Because it's hard. Yeah. But it's beautiful. It takes a lot of work. It's beautiful. It's my favorite thing.

This episode is brought to you by Luke Crate. Luke crate is a monthly subscription box service for Epic geeking gamer items and pop culture gear. For less than $20 a month, you can get four to eight items that include licensed gear, apparel, collectibles, unique one of a kind of items, and more. Make sure to hit to luke crate.com slash kf games and entercode KF games to save $3 on any new subscription. Lou crate is more than just a subscription service. It's an entire community of fans that share their experience and interact with each other around the unboxing of each month's crate.

And they guarantee over $40 in value each and every crate. Sometimes there's a lot more. Every month there was a different theme and all items are curated around that theme. There's been, you know, themes for Zelda and Star Wars. There's the villains one with the... The verses, no verses. Mere, mere, bearded spock versus regular spock. April's theme is quest.

We're forming a party to explore everywhere from far off kingdoms to worlds hidden within worlds with exclusive items from Labyrinth. Awesome. Oh, yeah. Harry Potter, History channels, Vikings, and Uncharted Four. And of course, we've got our t-shirt and loup pin to help a quote. equip you for your adventures. Remember, you only have until the 19th at 9 p.m. Pacific to subscribe and receive that month's crate.

And when the cutoff happens, that's it, Jack. It's over. So go to lukegrade.com slash KF games and enter code KF games to save $3 on your new subscription. I missed the Mass Effect exclusive. Yeah, the Super crate. And I like had a full on like meltdown. I was like, no. Christine had me hitting up like contacts at Loucrate for that and stuff.

And then, but every day she'd ask me if they'd send you. I'm like, I'm not going to bug these people that I barely know. I would. You should too. Luke grate.com slash KFK. Speaking of Lute, are we going to open the swag bag now? Are you guys going to wait and do that later? Oh, we can do it now.

Sure. Let's do that. Let's do that. So, Andrew Renee moved. And now she has all this video game stuff she doesn't want. No. Hold on. Which is like our entire house as well.

That's only part of the story. So I have a lot of stuff that's unopened, stuff that I've gotten from conventions, stuff that, you know, publishers have been kind of, enough to send to me. And I haven't really had a place to put it. And now that I have a new studio, I realize I just don't have room for this all. And instead of just randomly, you know, giving it away, I thought I'd bring it to you

guys and we could see if, you know, the kind of funny friends wanted to maybe win some stuff. Of course, I'm calling and Greg Live, Twitch.tv.tv.com slash kind of funny games. Each and every day, we add something to the Friday price box and then give it away on Friday. Yeah. And you have no subscription necessary, though, it helps. So here's a hint at what you might be winning from the swag bag. This one's already literally says swag bag.

This one's getting a giving away on Friday, so it's not even worth putting in the video. So that's a whole thing? Yeah. That's just one piece. I want to put everything we put so far into this bag. There's a T-shirt and a sweatshirt inside that bag. Okay. So LA cops. Oh, wait, what was it? Was that game L.A. It was a great indie game. Yeah, we did a less play on it a long time ago. That was awesome. All right, we got. What do you got

Santa? That's a 1080P Call of Duty camera. Well, we'll probably take that. A 1080P camera. Yeah, you might want to keep it. Kevin loveskees. This came with like, this came with the hardened edition of Call of Duty Ghost and I've never used it. We got uncharted The Nathan Drake collection On the PlayStation 4

Oh god That is Some Assassin's Creed That is the Hidden Blade Oh Hidden blade Not that, well It does have a crossbow

Yeah Oh okay my apologies Kevin knows more Oh a PlayStation 5 That is a custom street fighter 5 PS4 Facebook 8 I'm not gonna show you I'll show it you just hand it over Don't worry all right

We're not giving it No, we're just showing it. We're letting people know We're still looking. We got the t-shirt that she's wearing. That is the men's version of the t-shirt I'm wearing with Bat-Max or Bayman, your choice, I don't know.

We're going to Bay Man. I'm going with Bay Man. We got the Street Fighter 5 designer collection book. The Walking Dead complete first season Plus 400 days on PS4. Season 2. Yeah.

I thought there's all going to be garbage. There's a good stuff in here. Battlefront. On PS4 There's a lot of big stuff in here There's like bags You don't have to show at all if you want There's some fun toys inside that with your bag

We got So this is actually a large But it's a ladies tea because I know you have ladies Fans as well Dungeons and dragons I always have trouble getting good gaming ladies stuff Sure

A CD SoundScreed Unity Soundtrack And then other stuff Okay We will reveal a little later Is there anything I want anything Anything? He's got some

Should I dig through it on my own? There's no bullshit in here Hey! Whoa, whoa, way, way. Until next week, make sure that you check us out over on Falling Fantasy XV uncovered.com. Unless this is Thursday or Friday, because then it's over. Yeah, but we're going to be streaming Wednesday, March 30th. Watch me and Greg do stuff.

Be nice in the chat. I'm sure a lot of people are going to be really, really, really mean to us. So just show up and say hi. And until next time, Andrea, thank you so much for being amazing and joining us. Thanks for having me, guys. And thanks for letting me talk about myself. for like 20 minutes. Oh yeah.

I love it. It's great. Until next time.