Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Your Xbox HOT TAKES - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: January 23, 2026

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Go to boot.dev and use code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your first year on the annual plan. If you want to get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. What's up everybody? Welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, January 23rd, 2026. I'm one of your host Greg Miller alongside Forbes 30 under 30, a.k.a. New York Game Ward's nominated,

aka Leftover Popper. blessing Eddie O. Ye, Jr. Two weeks from the falloff. It's a new J-Cole album. Oh, thank you. I was like, I don't understand the reference. Very important. Okay, thank you, Ray. Fall off New Vegas.

Two weeks from the fall off of Xbox, Hot Take. Whoa. Right at all. That's the Master of Hype, Snow Bike, Mike. You still riding high on the Xbox? I'm still riding, really. I'm excited to hear your Xbox Hot Takes audience out there

because I was riding to my car this morning. Like, what they got to say? What they got to say? They just had a great job. showing. It's a 20th anniversary. You know the game's coming. What do you really got to say? And we'll find out. Was it a short trip to the office today? No, it was a long

one. I've made it. Two exits away from work. You know, it's not a long drive, but I'm two exits away from work. What happens, Andy? I've got that goddamn switch for party. Turned around. There I am getting all of time. Jesus. He walked in and he was like, he did the hello? And Roger and me were like,

he's uptight. When's he uptight him out? And then Barrett called him out. Like, oh man, he saw Barrett saw him pull out. So he's like, I was wondering if you'd forget. He's like, I was fucking two opposites. Hello, everybody. Good morning. Rounding it out. It's the Hispanic heartthro up Texas treat Latino heat. Clicking heads and ripping him to shreds. The globe trot and head shot and three point shooting rooting tootin. Nitro rifle from Twitch.tv. Andy Cortez. Hello. Blessing and Greg. He's mad at Mike. He's giving him Mike tight about you. He's getting me. I'm tired about you one last night. You went two and oh.

Why is a friend of mine rooting against my success? Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get it. What were you playing? Yeah, what were you playing? We're back in Valerant. Who's on that team? Good question. Who's on that team? That's a good question.

Who's on that team? Well, I'm sure Melissa with a why. If somebody checked an email from an invite that happened many moons ago, maybe over two years ago at this point. Sometimes you've got to resend it. Anyway, we had our Valorant team. We're 0 and 2. We went two and two or we won the last two games yesterday. and Mike's sitting here

right before the show starts it goes you got this fucking team you know Andy's team is up six to two and I'm like come on fucking other team do something and then suddenly you know and suddenly it's a tie game

and it's a close game and I'm like oh here we go watch out they're coming for you Andy and then they ended up fucking winning boring ass match he was in my YouTube chat going no competition here these games are easy they're too boring for them

like what is wrong with you no competition no competition no come. When he said rooting against you, I was thinking that he was streaming his reaction to your game. I just hated the whole time. I'm a current ex-girlfriend that's extremely envious and jealous because I just want to spend time with Andy. And I want to play Valor. You're a current ex-girlfriend. I'm not allowed on the team. That breaks my brain.

So I just watch through the screen. I just go, maybe one day that will be me, you know. But don't worry, I'm assembling my own team right now. You can join the Snowbike Mike superstars today. Reach out to me on X and or Blue guy, that's BS Tim. If you would like to join the Snowbike Mike Superstars, where one day we're going to battle Andy and his

Debronies, the Val-Frogs. And if we win, Andy has to come play with me from this point forward. That's the deal. He put out the call. He agreed to this deal. He put out the call, no, I didn't, and I will never. And he put out the call on Twitter and then said, I just want my best friend back. And it's like, he's like

the super villain that's like, I have to destroy everything on this planet to cure it. Like, you're going to, you're going to the ends of the earth to make my life wars. because you want your... That's not going to bring me back. I'm going to win. You agree.

He doesn't even like playing the game. He would begrudgingly play by himself, Greg. Yeah. Because Maddoch and Waspard said that he sucked. And then I'd out-level them. And he didn't like the game. And then he would just be like, I just played fucking four matches of valor.

I'm just getting my ass. It's like, why are you playing? He wants to be with me. He wants to play with you. He loves you. He just won't let me play with you. He doesn't have friends like you back home. You know what I mean?

You have an invite. Check your emails. Just search Valerant. There's about seven different emails tied up. You got to hit me up on the right line. It sounds like you don't want it bad enough. I just dropped a really funny post from the Reddit. Yeah, put it up.

While that happens, send Nuggy Super Chat and says, didn't a child call him out during a match? L.O.L. All right. Everybody, we're going to go in quiet. We're going to go in quiet. Nobody make a sound. Okay.

And we're all like, yeah, okay, 12-year-old. You're right. But nobody's going to make a sound. And I'm on the other side of the map. and I just hear, one single shot goes off, Brim, are you dumb?

Because Michael's playing Brimstone. And we're in the discos. He's like, this fucking kid. This fucking teenager checking me, man. And now the image here from the subreddit, Mike and his best friend, anyone killed releases,

and it's a ghost. We're going to be creating some pots. We're going to be spinning some pots. It's a very disturbing photo. I honestly thought that was a Photoshop of Greg. It did look like Miami. The hair. Yeah,

the hair looks like. Greg. Yeah. Yeah. Well, people call me Patrick Swayze a lot. If you didn't know everybody, this is the kind of funny games cast each and every day. We run you through the biggest topics in video games. If you're watching live right now, I need your hot takes about Xbox coming off that direct. It could be about the games. It can be about the platform. It can be about anything. I have a locked and loaded list here of people who are ready to fire from the hip and I appreciate that. Remember, of course, if you love us, we couldn't do this without you. You should go be a Patreon producer. Patreon.com

slash kind of funny, just like Carl Jacobs Omega Buster and Delaney, the Somme, Twining. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be, topic of the show. Remember yesterday when Gary Woodo was impressed by the graphic that we've had for seven years? Topping of the show is your Xbox hot takes.

Of course, yesterday we had a banger, live reaction and games cast post show with all of us, Paris and Gary, reacting and reviewing. Of course, the Xbox developer underscore direct where they talked about playground games is fable they talked about playground games this forts of horizon six they talked about game freaks beast of reincarnation and they talked about double finds kiln as is our tradition now a new one we've started recently when we do these big live

reactions and all the stuff we love to talk about we then ask you for your hot takes over on social media but more importantly patreon dot com slash kind of funny where you can go sign up for a free account and be part of the show there of course if you're watching live right now like I said, super chatting with yours. Maybe you missed them. You can still be a part of it here. Blessing, before we dive into the takes, where are you at the day after? We've settled. You woke

up this morning. You didn't look at the news because it's just horrific every day. You thought about Xbox, though. What did you think? I'm excited about the games. You know, I think the games that they have coming out this year are exciting. I'm very much looking forward to Fable, looking forward to Beath of Reincarnation, looking forward to Fort's of Horizon 6, right?

Like, looking forward to kill it and seeing how that does and seeing what it plays like, it looks different, it looks interesting. I think the games that they have slated this year are really good. And I think honestly, one of the strongest lineups from Xbox that I can recall in the last decade and a half, right? Like, I would say that it seems that strong. That's how I feel out the games. How I feel with the organization of Xbox, the organization of Microsoft. Yeah, yeah. I'm still in a place of like, I don't, they had me with their vision at one point, right? I really liked the idea of what Xbox was doing with everything's in Xbox, play anywhere. All of it felt so forward-looking and

feature-focused. And we would talk about it all the time on PS Love Your KFD about how, man, PlayStation is going to be in second place because Xbox is doing all the things you need to do to maneuver and shift and change with the business. That isn't my feeling anymore as far as kind of where we're just at in 2026 where I just don't know what Xbox is. I don't know where Xbox is going, right? There have been so many canceled projects. There have been so many shifts. There have been so many things that, you know, Satya Nadella has come down and made decisions that Phil Spencer may have not made himself. There are things that I'm like, I don't know if I'm feeling this, but the games look really good. Andy, what did you think about Xbox this morning when you woke

up? I thought about my excitement for Forza and Fable. I think my excitement for Fable has only grown since yesterday and just kind of thinking more about what the possibilities that that game can be. And how you're in a really good spot when you have a developer that could be. be putting out two game of the year contenders. And I didn't necessarily feel that way last year with, with Obsidian, because I, I,

we kind of know the, the quality of the obsidian puts out and it's always very, very good to great. And sometimes there will be an absolute goady contender. But I think, you know, with Obsidian last year going, wow,

they have avowed and outer worlds. Like, how awesome does that sound? And avowed, underwhelmed me and then Outer Worlds, I think I was just playing other stuff and didn't really find the time to get back to Outer World. Sure. But I think this year

it's like a definite step up in terms of not only what the games are, but what we expect from them. And Forza always being this big force in the gaming industry and how it's kind of like the genre changer where even if you're not into driving games, you still play Forza. Sure.

And with Fable being this game that seems to be making a lot of big promises, but I don't know if I don't know if a company makes those promises without feeling confident anymore I think there have been a lot of disasters We've seen enough CD Project Red Burns

Yeah I think there have been a lot of disasters In the past that it's really I think developers and publishers are a lot more cautious now to overpromise On stuff like that for fear or backlash And there was a lot of confidence In that fable showcase yesterday To piggyback off of your playground thing

Right back off me I think the way I feel about playground this year is that they, I think, can be what I wanted Obsidian to be last year, where I kind of am with you as far as avowed, underweld me, and I would say Outer Worlds, too, also underwalled me. And I'm somebody who I'm always going to put respect on the Obsidian name. I think Obsidian, they're a legendary, I was going to say JRP, but legendary RPG developers. But last year, I feel like they put out two, eight out of tens.

Even a Vowed to me, it's like, you know, I very quickly tapped out. It was just not feeling it. Playground, I think between Forza and Fable, I feel like have the potential to put out maybe number one and two on Game of the Year list. This guy. Duro wrote in on patreon.com

slash kind of funny, just like you could for this episode for free with your free account to get all the quips and the updates and thing and said, my warm take, we need to start talking about obsidian and playground being just as great as insomniac and maybe even better.

They don't miss. I mean, I think playground. I don't know if I would say obsidian. I don't know. I think it's a fascinating question to get into the weeds of it. I'm with you. But is even playground? Fable?

I came home last night. I was talking to Jen right after we talked about how horrible everything is. And it was like, I'm like, that is literally that fable presentation is somebody like, what if we designed a game just for Greg Miller? And we put it out here. And like I was watching and it was like, this is exactly the kind of,

that's what I'm wanting to play right now. It's why I started up, Fable anniversary edition. It's why I started up the Witcher 3. I'm looking for that kind of Western open world RPG. But my problem with giving them the crown already is I won't believe it until I'm on sticks. Like I just don't want to believe it until I'm on sticks. Forza, yes, Forza Horizon 5 is incredible.

Me and Ben at dinner last night, I was like, Ben, there's a new Forza Horizon. It's coming to Japan. He goes, what's Japan? And I was like, okay. I was like, all right. It's like, it's like, Pokemon. They make Pokemon there. We're stoked about that.

I get that. it's just yeah i need to see this and play this because i want to believe this is going to be if this delivers it's game of the year for me and definitely skyrockets into my top 10 of all time probably if it's this game if it is what they showed here to jump back to the obsidian thing this is a conversation i've had a lot i feel here at the end of the year as somebody who loves this western RPG loves that bethsda RPG and a vowed i forget what i gave it like a seven or something of that effect and then outer worlds i really enjoyed but I enjoyed it for the minutia and mechanics,

not the overarching thing. And it wasn't, I expected that to me. I said when I came away from SGF, this could be my game of the year. And it didn't, I think it ended up five or six. I forget Barrett would know. It was deeper on my list than I would have expected. But Obsidian is a developer I show up for.

If they're doing it, I'm stoked to play a 7.5-8 RPG for them. What I said about avowed, I am going to drop everything on February teens when they drop the anniversary update because new game plus, new races, bells and whistle fixes, like, all right,

is this going to tighten the screws on an experience I enjoy but didn't love, Andy? What's funny about that is, I feel like the only thing about Miston for me was the NPCs and forming these bonds and relations. Caring about them, right? Yeah, and, but everything else was just so fucking rock-ball.

Everything else was really, really damn good. I loved making a decision that was, it's never a binary thing. It's never, this is the clear cut, correct thing to do. Because you're always going to piss somebody else off. And I really enjoyed that sort of taking that angle with it. It's like they made such a solid RPG,

but what makes an amazing RPG is having these, you know, companions. If you are building a kind of a companion type of RPG game where you're always walking out with your crew, that's the only thing they missed on for me. And it's like, if they could just hit that, that would have been an all-timer for me. And did you not, out of world, you talk about, It's just not right place, right time.

Yeah, I forget what I was playing around. I also think that it was suffering some performances at the, when it launched on PC. Shocker, right? PC game. Shader's, I generated them every time. Yeah, it was one of those where it's like,

whoa, why is it taking this much to run right now? This is kind of crazy. So I was like, maybe give it a bit, but I think I was just busy with other stuff and never quite got back to it. Okay, okay.

Yeah, I think that's a warm take. You know, I think if you listen to a lot of Xbox podcasts, they already hold Obsidian in that regard. Playground games will be very fun to see this year. Let's just say Fort's Horizon comes out and is that banger that the follow-up to five is. Will it be finally nominated at the Game of the Year awards as the big six, right? Because Force Horizon 5 got accolades from IGN, got a lot of love from a lot of outlets,

but was not there on the big stage, right? And that's kind of like... I don't think it's ever going to happen. Well, that's the thing we get into, Blass, right? It's like, when do you talk about, oh, let's whole playground games, a team that's known for racing games before this up to the level of insomniac. There's kind of like this Xbox tax, but like there's just racing game. Think of like not many people out there in the giant open world are like,

I love racing games. This is my thing. Or I'm going to give it that a try as opposed to Spider-Man, which is like I see Spider-Man. I've seen the movies. Anyone in their mother would try that, right? So like not a lot of people have been on board with playground games and they're kind of how great that development team already has been.

to give them their flowers that they deserve over the years that they've been making Forts Horizon games. How do the forces of games sell compared to other games in the Xbox catalog? I would say pretty high. Because I think the place where I'd push back in regards to,

but they don't have like a spironamine thing, is just that like, Forza Horizon specifically is so easy to get into, so approachable, so many people play it and buy it and that those games also come out with a above 90 Metacritic. But you haven't heard that since four and five, right? We weren't talking about that in two

and three because it just wasn't on the map. I feel like three is where that started, at least for me. I think three is where it's, we turn the engine on. Yeah. It wasn't cooking where now people have that opinion that you're saying, where it's like, oh, everyone's doing that. That started at four and five. That started like late four into five, if I'm being real with you.

Yeah. But I think they're there. Like, I don't think they need a Spider. And Fable honestly could be that for them. But I think regardless, you erase Fable from the picture already, I look at playground games as a top three developer at Xbox, maybe top one, if I really think about it. How about, okay, well, let's delete Xbox in the world. As of a week ago, Fort's Arrides sold 5 million copies only on PS5. That's fucking crazy. You know, like, that's,

I think making, putting Xbox games on PlayStation's a failure. I think making, making a racing game this successful is the equivalent of making like a fighting game. Yes. This. Yes. Like, it's a genre that's like so specific. And again, a genre that I would have never tried out if it weren't for Forts Horizon 4 and like the early days of game pass and going, and let me give this racing game a try. I haven't played a racing game since Neverspeed Underground 2. And I've never given a shit. And it's like, it became the mainstream thing for me.

As one bullet point not to get in the way, I do think that's why Forts of Horizon 6 I look at and I say it does have the stuff and the possibility to make the game awards game of the year. Because I think five cooked for so long and got so many people in, let alone these PlayStation people that now you put it out. I wish it was day and date everywhere because I think you'd have any bigger pop. But you get it there. I think people are going to come to this that don't care about racing and really understand it.

And so like Play, for me, I'm in that conversation. Playground has already been up there. Mine is more towards Obsidian, actually, where your warm take comes in for me. I think Obsidian is great. I think if you listen to a lot of Xbox podcasts, people have said they are the workhorse. They are the insomniac.

Three games last year. I actually would look at you and say, well, to me, I think Insomniac is higher than Obsidian. Because right now, my opinion, I think Obsidian puts out good to great games. Yes. I think Insomniac puts out great to beyond great. games. And I think there is a level

that Obsidian is not quite there yet, right? And that maybe is the smaller projects, maybe it's the smaller teams working on different projects, but there's not the, hey, we have now changed the game like a Spider-Man is where Insomniac has earned that even before Spider-Man, but like

I think Obsidian's not there. My warm to hot take piggybacking off of that is that I think obsidian just needs to slow down. Why do we need to put out so many RPGs? I think the problem, one of the problems I had jumping from a vow to outer worlds to you is that they felt like different flavors of a very, very similarly made thing, which is cool. You have a bag. You have this thing that you're specialized in.

But I want to look forward to an obsidian RPG, right? Like Greg brings up the Bethesda of it of, you know, you loving these Western RPGs or whatever. I'm in the same boat. I love a Bethesda RPG. I love an obsidian RPG. I love Outer Worlds One. But I'm in this place now where I'm like, me and I've been there. I've done that. Yeah. And I've felt that very strongly with that in Outer Worlds, too. The problem with that, right, is now we get into the game of when they make that great one,

now we're waiting for so long for the next one, which is exciting. It is a you choose which poison you want, right? You can either make a great one and wait five years, or they have this interesting cadence now of like, we're making these smaller projects that come out in two to three, maybe just two, and we can get out there at a faster pace, which some fans enjoy, right? But yeah, I like this take.

I think it is warm here. Playground I would like to see get the credit that they deserve this year. If Orta comes out as a banger, Obsidian, that's my conversation. I don't know if they're there. For me, that's my take away from it too, right? Is that I think Obsidian is a workhorse for Xbox. Yes, I do not think they are at the level of insomniac.

If you were like, we're doing the fantasy publisher, you can have one of these devs. I'm taking insomniac 10 out of 10 times. No offense to Obsidian whose games I love. Playground, I accept the argument, but I need to see Fable. I need to see what happens when you're not just doing the car game. You know what I mean? And can you deliver again on Fort's a Six? Are we putting way too much credit on that?

And if that'll deliver, which I think it will. And then what happens? I think the car game is what brings them to, Mike was going to ask where, you know, where do I put playground just as far as developers, period. Yeah. I think I'll say they're top 10. Right now.

Right now in the game, top 10. I like that. And I think that's just with the car game. But in your fantasy critic, Jeff, you're not taking them over insomniac. No, I am. Okay. I like that.

I like that. My fantasy critic? If I was just say, if we're fake fantasy. You have first pick to pick a studio that will be underneath you. Based on, like, based on critical reception. Yes.

Oh, yeah. Every single time. I like that. But also, like, you should hear how I talk about insomnia. I'm not the nicest food on you. I know. I love that you do that.

But I said, I want more people to think of playground like that. And I think they are turning to that with the four and five thing that you and I just talked about. It's like, I think more people are getting on board

and seeing that. And I kind of, I had a fun one for you last, yesterday that I didn't bring up. That was like Mike's hot take. But I think Fort's Horizon has done to racing games what need for speed was underground back in the day that made them so popular and to a general

audience that everyone plays. I don't think there's been a racing game since Underground 2 to Forza Horizon that has been a mass appeal is there. Every person is down with this. I think there's been some stars, but I think those are the two here. That was kind of my one. I smiled at you yesterday. I wanted to say to you. Oh, yeah. Because like I think that's how it's been. I mean, I'm excited that this year there's this game coming up called Screamer. I don't know if you've seen the trailer for this, but it's an anime-style racing game that has a bunch of different modes and story, and it's supposed to be more laid back in arcade. And I've been, you know, we love burnout here. Oh, yeah, we do. Such a big burnout fan. All the time I'm asking for burnout.

Forta Horizon feels like it's cornered the market in such a way where it's like nobody else is able to kind of do it on that level. And I feel like they're the only, I guess, arcady style racing game that feels like they're able to actually dominate and go hard and do all that stuff. So I get excited for a game like Screamer coming up, but I think you're right. Yeah, Forrest Horizon is the only, the only arcade-esque racer that's doing it like Forks of Horizon. Foxy Steve's Super Chats in the middle of this conversation says, Not enough respect gets put on obsidian. They should get flowers for knowing the scope of their games and sticking to it.

It's hard to drop a single good game in a year, let alone two great ones. And again, you could argue three with grounded, obviously last year as well. But again, it's that argument of what are you giving these games? I think, yeah, they're that seven to eight window is where they are. I want them to be 8.5 to 9, which is where I feel insomnia. is in that conversation. They're in that conversation. They get a lot of love

from a lot of different outlets and podcasts, but it is cool to see the general audience now really start to attach themselves to obsidian in the name. We haven't seen that in a long time since New Vegas.

Sure. And then Tim Kane going back there, see what that brings in the future. But for now, I had marked that one for Andy because it was in line with what he was talking about. I'd mark one earlier in line for Bless. Okay, based on your comments to start the show.

Rich, of course, went to patreon.com slash kind of funny with a free account and said, No matter what the numbers say, Xbox has been far and away the better platform than PlayStation this console generation, and it's not even close. In what ways? Is that all they say? That's all they say.

They're throwing their hot takes out. I would imagine they mean in first-party production what Xbox games studios are putting out versus what PlayStation is putting out. How they're communicating. I'm filling in gap. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But as an experiment, right, what would we say are the best five Xbox exclusives this generation or Xbox published games doesn't have to be exclusive.

Yeah, it's so hard to say exclusive now. Yeah. Yeah, but what's coming from Xbox Game Studio? Yeah, versus 5 from PlayStation. Sure. I think that's the easiest way to come. Because PlayStation, I would say God of War, Ragnarok. No. Spirterman 2.

Last of Us Part 2. That was last gen. Oh, shit, yeah. Returnal, at least I would say returnal. Yeah, no, no, for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure. Yote? Yote. We're brainstorming.

We're tossing games out. That's raining two. I'll toss out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ration and clank. Demon Souls, maybe? Yeah, I think it's more of an acquired taste. Astrobot.

It's in me, it's, oh, look how long it took us to say Astrobot. Yeah. Kind of funny. The game that defines kind of funny. What would we say for Xbox? People are really up about Indiana Jones. Forza, Doom the Dark Ages. You know I'm going to come out and say Starfield, even though I know.

Don't get me wrong. I'm just like, in a real second. What else? I mean, that's where you get into Outer Worlds, too. You get into Avowed. It's like, and so then the question, the question then is, what are you all picking between those two lists?

Because for me, I lean toward PlayStation. Or the games we just listed. No matter what the numbers say, Xbox has been the far and away better platform than PlayStation. This console generation, it's not even close. So, they, they are, Rich is saying better platform.

When you say platform, though, that, you know, I can play those awesome Xbox games on PlayStation. Well, you add in the whole ecosystem. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like they've made this move now to play anywhere. Your cloud save going with you for play anywhere. The whole breakdown. You have PC gaming.

You have Game Pass. You have Game Pass third party deals, right? You have all of these ad on things that like, we're going to go with ecosystem. Yeah, you start to add in all of this stuff that would go, hey, blessing just gave you 10 amazing games. And the only counterpoint to that is like, well, I have good games, some greats. but good, but then I have all this laundry list that you don't have. And Bless is like, yeah, well, I'm here for the games. Not here because you can play on PC and the Xbox.

And I have only got so much time. Pick a lane here and what your argument is. And then I also think about interface as well. And nothing has frustrated me more this generation for Xbox than booting up an Xbox and just navigating everything. I mean, that just comes down to personal preference. Oh, wait, because I'm on the flip side of that, and I've had that argument before where I tried to stay that bad.

It's familiar. It's just, yeah. I mean, I hate every interface. It's given an iPhone user and Android and they're not going to know what to do advice. Yeah.

Let me bring this into the conversation then, okay? Because I think we're talking about game pass. We're talking about platform. Obviously, it's been a year for game pass. Red-eyed Eagles put it on Patreon. Xbox seems to be on a good run with the release of some bangers and what looks like some more bangers

after the direct yesterday. However, I can't see how there's any entry point or benefit into Game Pass with the current price cost for the different tiers. It seems that waiting for the PlayStation 5 versions are the best way to play these games. I'll start. I don't understand this argument.

I just don't. I understand GamePass went up $10. And I understand that pissed people off and a lot of people left. They went from 20 to 30, right? Mike, help me out here. That's right? 20 to 30?

Wasn't it? I don't know. Yeah. No, I think it's at 30 right now. Okay. Yeah. And I understand $10 is more. And I understand that gets to $30,

which is very close to $6. $60. I understand the girl math, gamer math, we'd all do about it. And it'd be one thing if everything was real cheap in the world right now. I just, I still don't understand that argument in looking at it and going, but they're coming to PlayStation. It's like, okay, so I guess the argument we're making as I try, I'm doing good faith. I'm not doing a bit. I'm doing the good faith argument that you don't have an Xbox already or you don't have a PC or like, so you're talking about the $60, $70 is cheaper than buying the thing. but like if you have the Xbox if you have the PC

the cloud you know what I mean like what are we talking about because it's yeah I want to play fable when that comes around I will buy one month of game pass for $30 rather than $70 on PlayStation. You get to keep it though I do think that's a big difference there of okay I own this thing for one and that's a great wrinkle that I just don't think about

because for me at least and I this is where the inverse of people I was like oh you don't understand what it's like to be a normal person they usually mean money I don't understand time where games for me aren't a marathon they are a fucking sprint finish this get as much as you can out to talk about it by embargo so that is an worthwhile point but even then

I guess I don't know how long a I'm a father of four I play one hour of games a night I don't understand how long you sit with a game in that argument then but I would still yeah okay so this actually helps me this actually helps to confuse my day because I'm still thinking of well you subscribe for multiple months and you get

all these other games but if I'm a father of four who gets one hour of play a night I think a lot of people, we see this statistics all the time of like most people are only playing a couple games a year. And then if you're a gamer, you're playing more than that. But I, like, I think we're way outside of the norm of like, but here's my, so many games. But here's my counter, my counterargument to that again is just the fact that that makes sense for that father of four playing, that father of four is not watching me live on YouTube right now. That father of four is not on Patreon submitting this question. We are talking about a group of gamers, right, who saw all

those games last night and probably go, I want to try three or the four. I want to try multiple things. I don't, so like, again, for the Xbox business, if Xbox is giving you a reason every month, every two months to have it, are we not making more, but again, then we get into how much you're spending. We get into you buy the physical, you, you know, you trade it in, you get money. Like, I get it. I just feel like, I don't know, for me personally, and this is the problem of the value

of your dollar, the value of your time is such a different argument where like the $10 increase, I would look at it. And I do think me as an outsider would look at it and go, still cheaper than 80 bucks. Yeah. I think it might be, for me, it's the way I treat Netflix where I am subbed to Netflix. And I look at my, the shows that I've watched in the last like two months and I've only watched his and hers and stranger things. Yeah. And like the values there, look at all the shows and TV shows and movies and all the stuff that I have access to. Like if I go dollars and cents, the amount I paid versus the amount I get, the amount I get is way over the amount I paid. But what are you using?

What am I using it for? Like, I'm probably losing. losing money on Netflix at this point. Yeah. Anybody else? Let me read it one more time for me, Greg? Sure. Xbox seems to be on a good run with the release of some bangers and what looks like some more bangers after the direct yesterday.

However, I can't see how there's any entry point or benefit into Game Pass with the current price cost for the different tiers. It seems that waiting for the PlayStation 5 versions are the best way to play these games. Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that Xbox and the Game Pass price has risen to a point now where we're having a really in-depth conversation. When they started, it was that sweet deal of like, such a no-brainer.

Oh, my God, $10 a month. Of course. Yeah, you said it and forget it. Oh, we're running the deal. One dollar for three months. Yeah, I'm on. Now you got me, right? It's like all of these subscription services were very much like that

when they first came out and you first signed up. Now as money's gotten tighter, you've been with them for years on years. Yeah, yeah. You've seen things come and go. We now start to have a lot more conversations of like, hold up now. Should I be canceling this? Should I be on. and off of this, right? And you still have that conversation back and forth, Greg, and you said it

well, it's like, well, what does it mean to you? Right. Are you just going to buy it straight up? And that's why you're the way you're gaming. There's going to be a lot of families out there. There's a lot of people that might prefer the game pass method of I want 120 games because I would rather shotgun blasts and try a bunch of things than be committed to one title, right? I think a blockbuster back in the day for me and my family was a huge one, right? Game stopped going in and trading in all those shitty games. I don't know. It's really up to you, but the $30 price point is getting to a

questionable level there, but it's still I saw somebody, oh man, a rare bad take from Greg. Well, first of I have bad takes all the time. But secondly, like, no, I'm not like iron clad in this. And again, I appreciate the feedback and the talking me through it. Because it's, it's, you can only envision how you play games and that. And so, you're seeing 30 versus 70. That's for me where I'm like, I just, no, but I

keeping a game and doing stuff ownership, a collection. That's shit, I don't want. And then also with we're talking about time, if someone is taking longer to play through a game three months, four months, they're not thinking $30, they're thinking $90 and all I have the time for, even without the

four children, just people also just living life even without children, like thinking about that time investment as well, that's the prices they start thinking about. And see, I double back to your point, bless of these so many subscriptions, right? I'm the king of, oh,

man, pluribus, severance, Apple, great. As soon as that shit's done, I cancel Apple. Yeah. Apple is I come for a specific thing, and I am not subscribed otherwise. I think for Peacock, too, when my show got canceled. I was like, fuck, you know what I mean? I'll come back for whatever I specifically need. I think to myself with video games,

at least before I started working this job, where I think I always have kind of the promise to myself of fallout for, I'm going to play the hell out of this game, and one day I'll platinum it. can't really have that promise to myself if I'm paying $30 for one month of it and then bouncing out and I don't have that game. Sure. There are so many different games where I'm like, oh, I'm eventually going to come back around

to this. And I think not having that ownership kind of mentally, at least for a lot of people, might not make that worth it. That makes sense. And waiting for the PS5 version like that, say, what console do you own? Some people have them all. Some people are only on PS5, right? And that is your avenue.

Or you might have a PC. You might want to be trying cloud gaming and dipping your toe into that. There's so many ways of going. into this. And again, right, you saw last year, me and the Rogg ally, even before the X comes around. Like, that was such a big deal for me. That's what it's all about. I want that on the

system would look great. I want it over here. I had a strange one the other day. As everybody who's been following me, knows, my wife has officially banned the Rog ally from the bedroom to goddamn loud, right? So, like, when I started it, when I started the Witcher again, right, I started it on Switch. It's got cross-save so that I can kick it down on my PlayStation 5 or whatever. Redacted,

came through the other day. Hey, who wants codes for Redacted? I requested a Switch 2 version of it over a PlayStation over a thing because I was like, I want it with me and I don't want a little bit of latency or whatever. And let me use this fucking thing for once. The Switch is so quiet. I love that. Switch is so nice. I've been using them a lot. I've been using him

a lot. Just like a lot of you have been using your Patreon kind of funny benefits and YouTube benefits. I screwed it up where I was going, but Apple and Spotify. If you didn't know, we have kind of funny membership. We could do our amazing jobs without it. So you head over to patreon.com slash kind of funny. YouTube.com slash kind of funny games.

Apple or Spotify, you toss us $10 and we toss you more than 80 episodes of content, ad free each and every month, plus your daily dose of me, Greg Miller, in a podcast series we call Greg Way. That's 15 to 20 minutes in my car every morning. And you get good karma for supporting an 11-year-old, 11-person small business. But right now you're not using your benefits, so here's a word from our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by boot.dev. If you're listening to this show, there's a solid chance that you,

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You seriously need to see a shrink or something before you get arrested for Dickie waving. Thomas Siddarsky. I don't have imposter syndrome. You should? John Cryer. You think I don't know bullshit when I hear it? I represent Sean Hannity. And John Boyager.

I was in Star Wars and Pacific Room. The second one. Whereup? See you in Hell. Wherever you get your podcasts and at see you in hell. TV. Hey you, join us in person for our live in review of Howard the Duck. That's right.

Howard the Duck joins MCU in Review Wednesday, January 28th at 7.30 p.m. at Cobbs Comedy Club for SF Sketch Fest. You can come watch me do all the podcasts within a podcast you love. Andy will be going do do do do do do do do. Nick will be shopping for pants starting it. But everybody else will be there too for you to come hang out and see. All you have to do is go over to kind of funny.com slash sketch fest right now to get your tickets before they sell out.

Because come and watching a bunch of people talk about a very old Howard the Duck movie is really selling tickets fast. Andy? Hey. Taylor wrote in with a hot take. Hello, Taylor. And said, what you got to say? Forza, Fable, and Beast of Reincarnation will be in the kind of funny top 10, 2026.

All three. All three. Okay, that is a hot take. Because piece of reincarnation, first off, has to be really, really good. And it has to have buy-in from a lot of people kind of funny. and that's like two gigantic hills that I don't know are super easy to sort of summit

I should just said mountain you don't really summit a hill to you yeah but you climb up it there's a big one by the farmer's market Ben always wants to climb at what point is a hill of mountain see when there's a goat there is that a hill or mountain

a hill the peak it feels too big to call a hill though yeah I would have said mountain no yeah because mountain I like I want like the frost whatever they call. You see it.

It's a mountain. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. That thing over there. Over a hundred. I get it though because you're like, I don't know what to call you too.

Over 100 feet of elevation, you become a mountain. Okay. 100. It's like you got to start thinking elevation. A hill or mountain. How big is a hill to you? Is it over 100? Vertical feet game.

I couldn't tell you what 100 elevation is right now. You know what I mean? Also, I had this conversation last night that I think we got to go. I think we have to fix the Roman numerals because you know, 7 is VII and 9 is I-X

8 should be I-I-I-X and not V-1-1-1. That's too many. It's always one-to-three. But why do you need three? That's four digits. That's four letters.

I was going to be four. I thought you were going nine to be four because I prefer nine to be four ones afterwards. Okay, so I'm on Reddit and they're quoting the US G-L service, there are no official definitions for generic terms as applied to geographic features. But on the specific matter, the U.S. Board of Geographic Names once stated that the difference between a hill and a mountain was 1,000 feet of local relief. But this was a ban in the early

70s. Broad agreement of such questions is essentially impossible, which is why there's no official feature classification. Yeah, I was going to say, I feel like 100 feet might be too small. Too small is probably small. Yeah, because I'm thinking about roller coasters, right? Like, Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point, that's 420. And that's like that's what I need. If you're getting, if you're getting past roller coaster height, I think

then we can start. Joe Mom's, this is how we lost Pluto. Hot take. So yeah, anyway, back to Beas of Reincarnation. I think the game looks awesome, but it still has to it has to be awesome. It has to be very, very good. Where I think

what we saw from Fable seems a lot more, I have a lot certainty that that game can be really, really great. At least eights and nines. And something like Forts, I feel like is such a given. I think, like, if I, if I were to go to Vegas and look at the betting odds at MGM grand, like, Forza would be. You're making a fraction of your money back.

Yeah. I'll bet $100 and make $102 because that game is like such a dead set. It's probably going to be up there. Yeah. But B. Cereon incarnation. I think there's too many questions for not only what the game is trying to do. for what the developer is and what they're known for.

And I think it's obviously a very, you know, they're swinging for the fences and hopefully they, you know, they can, they can land it. But I just don't know if we have enough people here that will try it. However, that being said, like I was mentioning yesterday, I think it's an interesting one because it's, because it's game freak. And I think people like Tim would give it more of a shot where

if this were any other developer, if this was from software, if this was some other developer, I don't think Tim would give it a shot, but it's game free. It's the Pokemon devs. What are the Pokemon devs that are so known for Nintendo games

going to do with this genre? I think more people would be curious to go, oh, wow, I want to see exactly what they're doing here, and maybe it hooks them in. Am I worry about it is that is going to be a jack of all trades, but a master of none, in the same way that I can't,

I don't know why I can't help myself, but to compare this game to Stellar Blade in my brain, where Seller Blade, of course, took inspiration from other action games whether it be near, whether it be like Sekiro with the pairing or whatever, and it's taking these different things and puts it all into a game that is very fun and very good.

And I forget if that was on my top 10. If I had a guess, I'd probably guess it was like either lower or not on it. But it's a game that I'd play again, right? Oh, I love Sillipa. You know, if Seller Blade came out today, I'd play it again. Why not? I feel like that's where I'm, I fear Beasts of Reincarnation might end up there, right?

Like where it is, oh, I don't remember the story really, but, you know, combat was fun enough. I liked the environments. You know, they had the vibes reminded me of X game, and, you know, I like control on the wolf or whatever. Yeah. But I don't know if that's enough to get it to that, you know, that top 10 in a year like this.

It's one of those weird sort of situations where Stellar Blade's action and cool moments in combat outweighed me not giving you damn about the story to where I still go, I really love that game. I think that game is so damn good. Whereas last year, something like Ninja Guide and 4, and I know I'm in the minority on this, that Ninja Gaiden 4 was like, I enjoy the combat,

but not enough to overlook how much I don't enjoy everything else about this video game. And it's always like that kind of push and pull, but if this game can land a couple of cool story moments that are super memorable, when people talk about, I always think about my enjoyment of Ghost Asusha, and it's like, man, I think about four moments

that will always be so memorable to me. If they can land really memorable story beats while having awesome gameplay and mechanics and cool abilities, I think it'll be a really, really damn good video game. I'll go for it, Barrett? One thing I wanted to add earlier, you said, y'all were saying this is a big swing for this company. Even considering the non-Pokemon games that they have already made, right? Like, there are plenty of game freak non-Pokeon games that have come out and have been very okay, seemingly,

from the reaction and this being such a big swing outside of even their Pokemon stuff. I think there's just like a lot of big questions on how memorable this is going to be how good it actually plays versus like how promising it looks, right? Here's what I know. Yeah. They believe in this game enough to make their whole office fucking green. You know what I mean? They got fucking shit on the walls, making it look like you're in the forest.

They got fucking conference rooms. They believe this is a franchise. Yeah. I'm super excited for this one. Again, watching the demo, like I feel the same questions everybody does. I think it looks fun to play. I look at that, I go flat eight, you know what I mean? Are you higher than the Mikey?

No, I'm lower than that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This one that gives me a wo-long fallen dynasty vibes. This feels like this will be another one of those games that comes out in the action RPG genre that just kind of comes out and it's like, yeah, it was fine. You're like, all right, that sounds good. I think another where I have is combat when the sticks get into your hands. Like there's one of the boss fights they showed earlier

with like one of the big bosses and they were doing the telegraph moves where you see where like the vines are kind of yeah that didn't look like that was that that that didn't look like it would feel as good as I'd wanted to be in combat. Like there's something about that coming out and the Dodge being so short where I see myself. I put myself in the like, you know, playing the game. And I'm like, I don't know.

I don't know. I disagree. That's the stuff that I love. And there's also the moment where she's fighting the Atomacons. Harder looks stiff. And it's the Sekhiro, thing, thing, thing,

and I'm like, oh, I want that. I want that feeling like that. See, I look at that and I'm like, oh, that looks like the boss battles I play and enjoy. Not the souls, not the, you know, this memorize him, fight a guy for eight hours kind of thing.

Like, I look at that. I'm like, oh, that looks like a fun action RPG. I think for me, I like it in theory. It's the, there's something about it that just looks stiff to me. And maybe it's the way that it's telegraphing. We'll wait and see. I guess it's coming up. Let's continue on this Game Freak conversation with Eric, who wrote him with a hot take.

This DevDirect made me annoyed that the system we live in forces Game Freak into rushing Pokemon titles to market. Beast of Reincarnation looks awesome, full of creativity, and the design magic that Game Freak is known for. But it also proves that given an appropriate amount of time, Game Freak is a competent developer that can make visually impressive games. Armed with that knowledge and knowing that Pokemon is too big of a franchise to little kids, to genuinely fail, parentheses if kids demand Pokemon like they always do. What recourse do we as fans have to show Nintendo that the slop they're releasing as quote unquote good enough

is no longer good enough? How do we incentivize Nintendo and the Pokemon company into actually letting game free cook? How do you do it, Mike? Change the world. I mean, it's fun because Blessing brought up a great topic, right? It was you blessing with the podcast that you watched and listen to about Pokemon's history

and Nintendo. This is post games, etc.? This is post games from Chris Lane. Yeah, go listen to that. I think that's a great topic and conversation. But like, Pokemon is almost call on duty, right? It is too big to fail. It is on this cycle that is hard to get off.

Fans might demand, hey, I want this, I need this, I want to see this. But guess what? The hamster wheel is rolling. And like, you are not stopping that. Even if you think you're going to protest it for a year and somehow the sales plummet, they're going to come back the next year and do that, right? And it's like, how do I do that? I don't know, right?

I'm just generic mic, right? If I was in the studio, I'd be like, yeah, like, we got to try to do something different. And it's the only way to win back for the fans is small increments, right? It's going to be small steps moving towards what you want that you think should be better, right? Whether it be a little bit of voice acting to start it off, right? Whether it be, hey, how do we get this running a little bit better when it comes out day one? Hey, how do we work on the fidelity? But like, as Blessing brought up with that podcast, there are cards to sell.

there are cartoons to make. There are fans to satiate. You are not slowing this down. It is, it's call of duty, right? It's like, this has to happen. And unfortunately, like, when you make that much money, you build the business around that. The business is expected to bring in this much money.

It's got to keep going. I think I love Pokemon too much to to fully go like, I am boycotting. And I know that that's a me problem. I am a big cause of, and my mentality is a big cause of why these games keep on doing well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The games have to be monumental pieces of shit for me to go, okay.

I'm not, I'm not doing it. Now I'm fully, fully out. And they could put out a five out of ten and then I'll still have those moments of Pokemon magic where I go, God, I just, I, it's hard to quit you. It's hard to hate you because you're still filling me with. With the nostalgia and the joy and, you know, I think a lot of also what was happening during, you know, Scarlett and Violet and how abysmal that looked and ran, I think a lot of that was like, I'm also just sad because of the pandemic and just so many lost years of life and what's going on. And like, oh, but I'm, I'm, here's my brief moment of respite. And I'm in this Pokemon world.

And if it were the biggest piece of shit game that was crashing every second that I'd be like, all right, this game sucks enough. enough, but it's like, it's still got me along. And it's sad that that's where I'm at. If I'm like, hey, minimal, whatever you're doing is like enough for me. And that's the, and that's why it won't change. It won't change until everybody votes to their walls and steps back and that's just not going to happen. And I think this is, you know, as the voice of the new Pokemon generation, this is always

my argument with Tim where he would get so excited about these Pokemon games. I'm like, but aren't you always let down by that? Like, aren't you always upset with what they do? And it was that idea of like, it's call of duty. And like we were talking about yesterday, right? it's mad. You have nine months, seven months to make the next one. So these are like glacial changes of like what you're actually getting. If it'll actually start answering those questions. But no matter what, even if they put voice acting into this next one, Gen 10, right? It would still be behind the curve in so many different ways. There would have to be some sinister, awful stories coming out of from Game Freak for me to be like, all right, I'm boycotting this. I can't, you know, oh my, they found 20 bodies in a refrigerator there. Wow, what's happening? We're boycotting her.

Mad. Barry brought up the sales for the different Pokemon games that have come out. Baird, if you can look up highest grossing entertainment IP and bring up the Wikipedia article, because number one with a bullet is Pokemon. Yes. Pokemon is the highest selling IP in terms of revenue. And when you look at the breakdown, and this is just loosely from Wikipedia, of course, my teachers taught me you can't trust Wikipedia 100%.

But when you break down some of that revenue, retail sales leads at $10.3.6 billion. You have mobile games coming in at $10.23 billion. you have box office at 1.16 billion dollars you have home video at 40 million dollars and apparently you have jet aircraft delivery sales for three million dollars for a total of 115 billion total estimated revenue and the second highest is mickey mouse at friends down to 61 bill most yeah it's unbelievable the only way you would see i think a big change or big i guess how about winning the poo good for winning the poo oh yeah winnie who's up there wow Oh, but also, it's one of those, like, your compiler.

You've been around for so long since 1924, like... It's a free agent now. Yeah. Anybody can make a Winnie the Pooh. But I think the only thing that would really cause for change would be if Pokemon games come out and they're truly, like, damaging to the brand, like, embarrassingly bad. And I think Scarlet and Violet scratched the surface of that. And you look at Pokemon Z-A and you look at the releases they did for Switch 2.

And they run better. Of course, a lot of that is just the hardware of the Switch. too, but, you know, I think we got that incremental, all right, we can't do that again. Like, we can't fuck it up that bad again. If enough people are like, yo, this voice acting is fucking embarrassing or allowed about it. I could see there being some movement on that, but really

it is just the way the weighing the scales of, all right, as game freak, what time do we have, you know, what are the things that we need to do? What does this conversation look like as far as what Pokemon needs to be on the video game side? And it's always going to be determined on what it does for the brand and how it kind of ripples effects. to everything else going on.

They would need to, in the similar vein to getting like, was it white two and black two? When they just kind of like made sequels to those. Like we would need to get of Scarlet and Violet too where it's like, hey actually we put in another year and a half

of development on Scarlet and Violet and added voice acting and added a new realm and kind of like improved a lot of things. But yeah, I just don't know if they have the time. It really all just comes down to time. Plumbers. Snowback Mike says,

Forza and Fable are both looking hot. How can both those games, a Halo reboot and a new Gears of War, all be coming out this year? Wherever these games been. Maybe they've been held off from release until the game pass hike. That's conspiracy shit at the end.

No, it's not all. I like the tinfoil hat on that one. That's some conspiracy theory. As a reminder, Kiel in the spring, Forsa in May, beast of reincarnation in summer, Fable in the autumn. Gears E-Day somewhere, Halo campaign somewhere.

Then, of course, is you're always so quick to go. You keep going. You got Diablo. Overwatch is doing shit. World Warcraft. Sea of Thieves will probably have something. Elder Scrolls online will have something. Guess what? They have a lot of things going on.

It is easy to point to the big four and go, how could you do that? Realistically, Microsoft and Xbox probably have about 12 to 15 project that they're going to hit you with each and every year throughout that, right? And it's crazy to think about that. The flip side of it is, most likely those four games actually won't come out this year.

I think that would be more of the conversation I would have with you of like, you say these four and I am a big ride or die of like, you know, I like to be in this little bubble of Mike of like, I'm here to talk about the positives. The mic's bubble. Xbox 25 years. We're celebrating the hardware. We're celebrating the memories, the fun.

We got four big games coming out plus all the extra stuff. Like this is such an awesome year to just celebrate Xbox and the memories and the good times like that's wicked and if it lands it's going to be so dope. In all honesty with GTA 6 looming in November like there's a high chance gears probably slips or if Forza I mean if playground games and Fable needs more time

because we saw that a lot of it looked good there was some moments where you go hmm when was this build last made here I hope they're still working on that this could easily go hey we need a game of the year contender here with Fable let's give them six more months and We all would go, yeah, okay, that sounds right.

So, like, more than likely you won't get all four of those games. In a great world, you would get those four games. Yeah, Christopher Burnett, Super Chat. It said, Gears of War, Eday won't come out this year. Microsoft has fours, it's a beast, halo, Fable, and more between May and October. I want Fable so fucking badly. I will not hold my breath. Fable is the one that I think looks amazing.

And if I get that in October, hell yeah, with the giant pumpkins around his, Hell yeah. But like I will also not be shocked when they say we're pushing it to this time period next year, which I think it would clean the fuck up. If you could drop Fable in January or February or March somewhere in there, that's a great time. And honestly, January, February. That would be amazing. Drop it right there. That'd be a great time period for it. And just to be clear, it didn't get a date yesterday, right? They just said like autumn. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's why I say. So you think someone that like late summer, early fall for autumn, right, of like when you hear that, then it's exciting. that game could probably slip. The four of them, how do they make it work?

Every single year, if you look back from third party, when you bring up beast of reincarnation, right? They balance so much on Game Pass third party promotions that are bringing on to the Game Pass that they celebrate, plus the first party stuff, they can easily do this. And some things will get overshadowed. Some things will be forgotten about. Or really, in all honestly, gamers just want games.

They're going to be excited. They're going to celebrate the ones that they want. Game Pass people are going to pick and try different things. Like, they can drop all four, these nothing. Everything will be fine as they go. We're obviously talking about these games, these four games this year. But let's talk about beyond that. Thank you.

Adam wrote in on Patreon and said, I really loved this direct. Probably Xbox's best so far. My question for everyone is after Fable comes out, what's the next big game from Xbox for us to be excited about? You already know it. All these boys know it. Say it. Elder Scrolls.

No, no. Taylor multiplayer? No, you know it. Look at, look at, look at, clockwork or not orange. Revolution. You're excited for revolution. Y'all love this game. You're excited for it.

I'm so excited for Clockwork. Very excited for Clockwork Revolution. It looks really cool. Is that the next big game? Is that the one's going to move? I'll dare you. Fuck you. I love it and I want it real bad too, but I'm saying.

Did you not see that trailer? I saw that trailer. It was 10 minutes long. It was a great SGF trailer that I'm excited to hear and see in some fashion again, this SGF. And probably the next SGF after that. I'm stoked about all of those. But Coco Monster writes in and says, overall, I'm very happy with the showcase.

The new games look amazing. However, maybe I'm DeLulu, but every time Xbox releases a direct slash showcase and it doesn't contain Elder Scroll 6 or the next Fallout, I get more and more disappointed. Am I wrong to think those will be talked about soon? Yes.

Are you wrong to think? They'll be talked about soon. Fallout, you're wrong about Fallout. Fallout so far away. Unless they're fucking smart and are just having someone else make another fallout, but they aren't. I mean, let's not count the remasters.

Let's just talk about the real. that's all out, right? Like, fallout way too far away. Elder Scrolls, right? Like, let's be real, really quick. This next summer, next year, next summer, right? 27, 27. You could see at the summer game fest a teaser for that. Sure. You could definitely see, you could see in your mind of like, we could get another, because you'd be an animated teaser. Because it's, let's say, less three to four years out. 29, 30. What I want to get a teaser for that. I think it's 2029. I want them to do this the way they did fallout four give me the trailer the re-reveal in summer drop it that fall

i don't want to see another trailer and then not see you for three years i don't know if we can do that because they already showed you that they already showed this game six years ago whatever it is and we've been we've been just holding on to it it'll be eight years ago the same thing though cyberpunk showed off that teaser in 2013 and was like hey the witcher devs are working on a cyberpunk game and it didn't show it off again until like five years later or whatever like I think that in my mind, they're not really worried about trying to make people remember they're working on a, like,

we'll get little new snippets here and there from Todd Howard going, yes, we're still working on, you know, enjoy these fallout remasters that just came out or whatever. Yes, we are still working on, you know, Skyrim 2 or whatever, L's Girl 6. I think this time around, they have a little bit more to prove, though, right? It's not like a wow, like first time thing. It is now like, hey, Balders Gate 3 has come out.

Starfield was not the game that they've needed to be. Like this team has a little more to prove here. And it might be, hey, we're going to show you a lot more than just say, hey, here's the big blowout. It comes out in four months from now. It is more. We got to get the fans back on our side because as of right now, they continue to point and go, you're not up to date. You're not here with the rest of us.

Get up there. And I think they've got to prove a little bit now. I think there's that locked into it. But I think the reason I pair of these questions is because I think that is the next big game. I think clockwork looks awesome and I can't wait to play it. It's a new IP. It's going to be an uphill battle. Only so many people will play it. I think when you talk about that next wave of big Xbox games, Elder Scrolls has to be maybe not the forefront of it in terms of releases, but in terms of hype in terms of things. And I also think it goes an interesting way. Yes,

I don't think they're going to take the fallout four method and summer, fall. I think you get dips on this. And I think one of the reasons you do is because Xbox is trying to justify to Microsoft why they purchased all of these things. And I think as Satya and Della looks down at them and goes like, what the fuck's going on? Why aren't you generating more money? Blah, blah, blah. You can pop in when you need it the most in Elder Scroll 6 teaser trailer to see the

hype from us and then hopefully the hype and a stock price as well of people seeing an uptick in that, even though I know it's hard for Xbox to move Microsoft stock. This is what I'll give, right? Please. And, you know, the state of video game hardware is in such a weird place right now with RAM prices. No RAM. But let's say we get a next generation Xbox hardware device.

A premium. Premium machine that'll run PC, yeah. Remember that one controller? They showed off like three, four years ago. It was like a new Xbox controller. And it just never looked this. No, did you dream this? No, I don't remember this at all.

Did you dream this? No, it's got, it has like a, it has like a half. It looks like the PS3 boomeret. It has a very specific look to it. That I was like, finally, they're re, they're remaking the, the Xbox controller. This is a Sarah Bond post, I believe. I say three years ago, maybe it was more like two-ish years.

There was a rumor recently about one that was like it'll connect to the cloud or whatever for no wait. Yeah, no, they showed off like a new body style. And I've just, and I feel like everything was put on the back burner because of. It's wearing pants? Because of, is that what? That's what somebody says over there. Yeah, it does have a weird kind of like look on the, on the handles of it.

Yeah. But I know I'm not crazy, but I'm just wearing. waiting for the damn controller. Well, I was going to say is that I think at the reveal of that next premium Xbox hardware, that's where we get an all of scroll six trailer. And that becomes the Hellblade or the fame of it until we wait and wait for it? Yeah, that becomes like, you know, the Avengers movie of whatever that. And then Halo.

Yeah, there it is. Oh, yes, I do. This is from the, yeah, the court documents. Oh. This was the Xbox court documents. There's a, uh, there's a Reddit post from two years ago that says, so what happens to that leak Xbox control that's supposed to launch in May 2020. And here I am two years later, wondering the same damn thing.

Direct to cloud. Okay. Yeah. I really, I really think that every, all the bad shit that happened with just layoffs and the hardware pulling back and Xbox, everything is an Xbox. I think all that stuff was like actually. That's a crazy.

I erase that for my brain. God, I just want back paddles standardly. Like, just give me back paddles on everything. I mean, Fallout and Elders calls the whole conversation. But what's next?

Yeah, Clockwork Revolution. it's going to be your next big game next year, right? Like, sure, Fable or Gears Push, that'll be the next. Like, clockwork is your next big one. State of the K-3. Somewhere in the next year to year after that. And that will be a big one. Your hope, Undead Labs, had some problems here.

Studio doesn't seem to be the greatest spot. But the game, when you think about the future of that, State of K-3, what State of K-2 was to State of K-K-1, State of K-K-3 should really be pushing this game and the survival crafting should. shared world with your friends genre and I think that one will be a banger that one will be good too. Damn I had a gym in that game

I canceled. I can see it you never know. What's next from Rare? Is that? See a thieves. Now they've reset right? You've finally canceled Everwild and it's like now it's time to look. But like see a thieves is like what's happening Blade chat is saying. Blade from Arcane

Blade is a big deal because it is the Marvel IP. It's a character that people love right. It is cane with that pedigree, right? So, like, you're hoping for big things from that. And Guima OD. OD is a great partnership right there as well, Blas for sure.

You never know what small things you'll get from a Mojang or a double fine as well. Compulsion now finishing south of midnight. They're going to be four years out when you start to look at it, four to five, right? The AIDS of Empires World's Edge team, like my big dream is they team up with a Starcraft or a Warcraft. You know, it's easy to think Xbox.

only think that. You also have all of Blizzard and Activision here. That means yearly call of duties will continue to be the thing, right? And we know one great call duty could be the big title for the year for them and that would carry what they need to do. Warcraft, World of Warcraft is still around? There's that Starcraft talk right of like, is there a first person Starcraft shooter in the mix of this? That would be big. But like I'd love to see World's Edge team up with them and make an RTS and also like somebody gives some love back to that moba that is here to the storm. Who knows?

Our final hot take for now comes from Derek. While this was a great showing of games, I'm very excited to play. The fact that they're openly stating from the outset that Fable Forza Beasts and Kieln are coming to PlayStation 5 rings like a full admission of defeat. Not saying that's really a bad thing. On the contrary, I applaud the honesty and fortrightness. However, I can't help but think that. shareholders will take notice and accuse Microsoft of

seating ground to Sony. How long are we going to do this for? Homie, welcome to 2020. How long are we going to do this for? I'm sure the shareholders are so upset that the fucking Xbox games are the best-selling games on PlayStation. Yeah, read that Forza Horizon. Exactly. I think they're going to be fine. No, no, no, no, no, Derek, you're reading it the wrong way. They're very happy that people are buying the games. They're investing millions of dollars in making. Five extra million units sold for Forza. At full price.

PlayStation at full price. At full price. Not game past. I feel like such like I woke up from coma. I woke up from coma the day before the developer direct. Man, congratulations, Greg, on launching this. I was listening to Beyond the other day. No, we're laughing. Yeah, they're very happy about

just money being, more more money being made, which definitely leads to less layoffs, right? Please. And on that note, we bring our hot takes to an end. No, give me more. Greg, I love being here. one more. We want one more? Hold on. I had one about.

Let me get up. Here we go. Partheses one says the excitement doesn't hit as well as, I'm sorry. The excitement doesn't hit as well, knowing one of these studios is going to be shut down in the near future. I remember when they shadow dropped high fire rush. The world was on fire and the game did well, but that meant nothing to Daddy Microsoft. They regret asking for one more. It's hard to be excited about the Xbox brand now. I mean, yeah, we can point to Xbox. We can point to Sony and Nintendo, everybody and their mother is all doing layoffs, all studio closures. It sucks that this is the world that we live in that.

You could release a game. It could sell well or it might not sell well. And that studio is like possibly going to be laid off and completely shut down. Indie dev teams, indie games all fear this every single day. So it's not just a Xbox only. I know we put our eyes on the trillion dollar company. But like, we had a zero in on somebody though. We can't just keep saying everybody's doing it.

Especially for a company that has bought. so much of the industry. Ubisoft just released half of their team and Prince of Pershing a Game of the Year contender. But we can't go, oh man, Xbox is having all these layoffs, but everybody's having layoffs. Let's get mad at everybody. I think you're right.

Like, spiritually, you're absolutely right. But Xbox has been on some bullshit, though. When Mike a little while ago mentioned will be four years out from South and Midnight, I immediately started Googling South of Midnight sales because I'm worried about compulsion. Yeah. I mean, half of those teams,

I'm thinking about even like, with them working on a blade game. Is Arcane still around to release that blade game in two or three years? I mean, let's talk about yesterday, Double Fine. I love Double Fine. Well known how much we love Double Fine. Andy, we're going to dinner with him. Can't wait.

Mike's coming for time. Hell yeah. But it's like, again, I don't expect Killen to do well. I expect Killen to find an audience. And then we're back to the same conversation. We have over and over again of Microsoft at the top, coming down on Phil, make more money, do more things. I believe that Phil's team brought in DoubleFind to make really cool artistic games,

but now that they're trying to make as much money as they fucking can on AI as Microsoft, what does that mean when Killen comes out? And as Mike said, it's fun for a weekend. We play it for a weekend and then nobody's playing Kim. I'm way less concerned about that because I think that, I think Double Fine's been around long enough and no, let's not put every worker on this Killen game. I think they look at the numbers and go,

hey this wasn't the biggest success but you also didn't spend X amount of money on it so whatever you're still working on that that wasn't a big success and then we look at the keeper that wasn't that big of a success and then I don't know psychonauts two sales or anything about that I think it did fine but it's also like yeah just because you know not a lot of people were on this one project you have to think about Microsoft looking down at Xbox looking down at these studios it's not just the project cost it's a oh how much is it to operate this studio at its entirety. I still think there's like something to,

at least they're putting out projects. The fact that they put out two games in the last six months, they're making some money compared to all these other studios that are making no money. I also think that like, I'm not too worried about double-fine

because if they do get closed down, I think Tim Shaver just opens up a studio and we hires all those same people. I'd like to think that. Yeah, I'd like to think that, but I worry about how much money's out there for it. I'd rather Tim Shape. Well, there's a lot.

There's a lot of money out there for that. Yeah, for the new Fortnite clone. Yeah. You're happy at the show now, Mike? I love it. Worried about Tim Schaefer. You wanted one more, Mike. Layoffs suck and fucking mega corporations suck, okay?

Fucking help each other out. And let's try to be better to one another. That's all I ask you. Each and every day, wake up, put your socks on, put your undies on, put your pants on, and say to me yourself, I'm going to try to be a little bit better today. I'm going to try and go make somebody smile.

I'm going to try to make the world a little bit of a better place. And I know that's a lot to ask. I know you said yourself, Snowbike, Mike, but I'm just, Rudy, over at the grocery store, I can't do much. I know. I've been there. I am that. And we're all trying. So if we keep trying a little bit more, maybe one day we'll fucking stand up and we'll fix this place.

But until then, mega corporations, chill the fuck out. Okay, you got a lot of money already. Just spread it out a little bit. Give them a little extra. Love you. Much like at 1147, talking about being better, messages were leaked to me from Snowmike to Roger McCordy. Wait, we're leaking. messages.

We're a message says, I'll be a late off tomorrow. It says, hi, I know I've been a little bitch today. Will you grab my juicy, juicy? Ladies and gentlemen and NB's, that's another episode of the Kind of Funny Games cast in the tanker. Final one for the week, but our live programming on our live talk show network isn't over. It's about to be party mode here on Twitch.tvs. com slash kind of funny games and YouTube. If you're watching later, of course, or listening later, check it out on YouTube.

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