Video Gamers Podcast - Ghost Of Yotei Gameplay Reveal, Krafton And Subnautica 2 Update, Switch 2 System Brick (TWIG) – Gaming Podcast

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

Gaming hosts Josh, Ryan and John look at one of our most anticipated video games of the year Ghost Of Yotei. Recent game play gives high hopes for what should be gaming gold! Was Krafton right in parting ways with Subnautica 2 developers? Can used switch video games “brick” your new system and Judas is looking to set a new standard in video games with its old school feel (if we ever get it) All that and more on this episode of the Video Gamers Podcast!   Thanks to our MYTHIC Supporters: Redletter, Disratory, Ol’ Jake, Gaius, and Phelps   Thanks to our Legendary Supporters: HypnoticPyro, Patrick, Jigglepuf and PeopleWonder Connect with the show: Support us on Patreon: patreon.com/videogamerspod Join our Gaming Community: https://discord.com/invite/Dsx2rgEEbz Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videogamerspod/  Follow us on X: https://twitter.com/VideoGamersPod  Subscribe to us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VideoGamersPod?sub_confirmation=1    Visit us on the web:https://videogamerspod.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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It's been an interesting week in the gaming world and we're here to make sure you're caught up on all things gaming. From the riveting drama over Subnautica 2 to the release of the Switch 2's premiere title, we've got your gaming news for the week. But first, some introductions are in order. I am your host Josh and joining me he likes his games like he likes his women without microtransactions. It's Ryan. I knew I'd get you on that one. I knew I'd get you. You caught me on that one man. I'm gonna get him this time man. That was a good one. Well we we're not in Vegas. So carry on. Yeah. And joining us, could he have been right about the Subnautica 2 drama all along? And if so, will we get, and I told you so, it's John.

USA, USA, USA. Go Corpo. You say you say you say go corpo Oh Boy, this is guys. This is We got a lot of stuff to talk about man. Did the gaming world is never boring man never ever It is a it is just a wellspring of entertainment It is a it is just a wellspring of entertainment roller coaster to in so many surprising ways Yeah, absolutely who would who would think so much so much like interesting drama would be what won't from this It's crazy. I love it. I it's crazy to me man. So guys we got a lot to talk about So let's just dive right into it. We got it

Look, I know we're all itching to talk about the Subnautica drama, but let's talk first about Ghost of Yote, guys. Yeah. Oh, okay. We, you know, they've been announcing the announcement for a while now. Hey guys, you know, we announced Ghost of Yote with like no gameplay and everybody went, oh, this is great. And then we got another thing with Ghost of Yote where we got to like see some of the cinematics

and they talked about the world. And then they were like, well, next month we're gonna give you gameplay. And we had to wait another freaking month. Well, we finally got our gameplay demo. They had about a 20 minute Ghost of Yote showcase that we got to see. There was the standard fluff in the beginning with like,

hey, we had, you know know we poured so much passion into This game and authenticity and this is our lives, and it's like bro. Just get to the gameplay So we got to the gameplay What did you guys think I? Think it looks fantastic dude like I it was everything that I was hoping for frankly I was really concerned that they weren't going to be able to top the gameplay from the first one Which I just recently played I thought goes to Tsushima was awesome and it would have been really hard to beat But I was super impressed with the gameplay the switching of the weapons and everything and that more kind of emphasis on the stealthy dynamic

I thought it looks awesome, dude. I thought it was going to need some time between diving back into feudal Japan in my last experience, but I am ready to dive back in, man. I think it looks awesome. What'd you think, Ryan? I'm kind of right along the same vein, man. I absolutely loved the first one. I played it pretty much right when it came out. Played everything. I think I mean I almost beat it twice. I just kind of tapered off near the end but it's one of those games that you just fall in love with exploring. You love the look of it. You love all those things and this looks

the same but better you know. It's just one of those that you're worried and you're concerned like how are they going to beat this? And it looks like they're hitting the marks from what we've seen. You know, like you said, get to the gameplay. We don't care about the fluff. We don't care about what you think or you feel. I want to see that this is going to be a good game and you guys made expanses on the universe that you created.

And it looks like they did so. And so I am beyond excited because I loved the first. Yeah. I'm going to preface this by saying I am in the quintessential gaming slump. Like no video game is grabbing me at all. And I have tried like a dozen games in the last week, too. I don't know what it is.

As gamers, we've all been there, man. It's just nothing is grabbing me. We're in the doldrums of summer. I've gone back and tried to play some games. And maybe I'm just grouchy with games right now, right? But it happens to everybody. So I'm watching this ghost of Yote gameplay thing.

And it's like, I'm, I'm, I'm like, you guys, I'm like, just get to the gameplay part, they start showing it off. And I'm like, bro, it's a beautiful game. Like nobody has ever questioned how good looking ghost of Tsushima was. Ghost of Yote looks incredibly beautiful as well. I'm watching like the first two or three minutes of this and I'm like, this doesn't really look that great, man. Like, I mean, don't hear what I'm not saying.

The game looks great. But like as a as a sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, I'm not seeing anything that's just knocking my socks off here. Oh, my goodness, was I wrong? The more I watched this trailer, I will say it took about like four to five minutes in, but dude, I think this looks insanely good and I cannot wait to play it.

Dude, Atsu looks fantastic, dude. And honestly, like, you know, there's this whole like weird internet thing where it's like, oh, she's a female protagonist. I don't care. She looks amazing. Like, and the thing that they pointed out

that I loved more than anything in this is they were like, Atsu was not honorable. Like she's not a samurai that's going around like trying to maintain honor. They were like, bro, you take people out, every you want to take them out. You want to fight dirty, fight dirty. And that's when I was like, oh yeah.

Yeah, there we go. I'm down. John, you mentioned it. The instantaneous switching of the weapons. I thought that was an amazingly cool touch, man, where she's just like got a sword one time, a staff another time, a spear. She's pulling out a bow and it's like, it's all seamless.

Oh. Yeah, exactly. That was one of the things. I don't know why I didn't think of that she's pulling out a bow and it's like, it's all seamless. Oh. Yeah, exactly. That was one of the things, I don't know why I didn't think of that as a potential improvement over the first one, because the first one you had the basically a katana and you had stances.

But, and I was like, oh my gosh, how are they gonna improve on this? Well, easy. There's like lots of awesome Japanese weapons that you could give this person and switch everything up. I wonder if they're gonna have different stances for the different weapons too, or if that's, uh, started just taking over that. That would get complicated.

I mean, I'm for it, but I'm for it too. It was like, you know, you know, when the, you see those trailers or those superhero movies where the characters like slide in and they switch and kill this guy that way and then kill this other guy the other way and stuff. That's what it felt like you're going to be able to do. Like there's just a fluidity. Well. Like a John Wick movie or something. Yeah, like, yeah, you're just changing, changing,

boom, boom, boom, whatever you need in that moment you can utilize. So that to me just opens up a world of possibilities that I'm so excited for. Yeah, I, dude, by the end of this trailer, I don't know that I've ever like gone from like mid, like knowing like dude You should probably be more like you should probably be into this more than you are to like by the end. I was like

Yeah I can't wait for this game man So I ghost of Yote to me is like at the top of my height meter You know what I mean like this trailer, seeing the gameplay in this, seeing the evolution, I mean, even the graphics, Ghost of Tsushima was incredibly beautiful, dude, but just seeing how they improved it, the part where they're talking about your horse and that if you follow the field of flowers,

your horse runs faster, what a perfect little touch to where it's like it fits into the beauty of the game, but it's that little gameplay element where you're like I get to be just a little bit faster Dude, the combat looks like they have improved it in almost every way Uh, I mean they really went into a lot of depth with this You see a boss fight where you're fighting some named guy in a village somewhere I like the fact that you don't have to be this honorable samurai and all this stuff and it's like you want to get down And dirty get down and dirty?

Get down and dirty. You wanna play stealthy? Play stealthy. You wanna run along the rooftops? Do that too. My goodness, man. And then they start getting into the different artistic modes.

Did you guys see that part? Like where they have the Kurosawa mode where it's all black and white? It's like that akin to like those old, like kind of Kung fu samurai movies, you know, where you just- Like Seven Samurai. Yeah. Yeah. That's what the curse out. He's the guy that, you know, originated the black and white like samurai movies. So this is absolutely a nod to

that. They had, and I don't remember the other mode, but they had the one where it's like way more blood and stuff like that. And I was just like The kill bill mode give me Would you guys play this in black and white like it's such a neat mode But I don't know that I could bring myself to play the entire game in black and white I don't think like honestly whenever games like introduce like a visual filter I tend to just very much district I might turn it on for a second go. Oh, that's cool And then switch it back to what it's supposed to be that game if it's gonna be anything like ghosts of Tsushima

Ghosts of Tsushima has some of the most beautiful landscapes and level design in any game ever I would put it up there in the top three of Games that I played and it's meant to be experienced that way Yeah, I you know, I think there's a gimmick. There's some gimmick value there, but I think honestly they're like Hey, we could probably do this very low cost and and sell it as a feature. And yeah, that's what it is It's a feature It's for the people replaying second or third time and to get maybe some cool screenshots here and there like, hey, look what it can also look like. But other than that, you're going to want to play it just a straight normal way. I love the aesthetic for the black and white. Dude, some of the scenes they showed off because they also accentuate the wind and some of the other elements. So it really does kind of change the vibe. And there were parts where I was just like dude. This is freaking beautiful, man

But I the game itself is so colorful and vibrant. I'm like I don't know if I could play the whole game in black and white Man, like I'm with you John. I think I'd switch over for a few minutes or something and then be like, yeah, okay I want to go back enough Ghost of yote knocked it out of the park man. What a what a gameplay showcase I am absolutely just super amped for this one now I was a little reserved like not just from this trailer but it's like bro you're trying to like make the sequel to an absolutely beloved game how good can you make it but man it looks like they it looks like they knew what they were doing things are promising it's promising yeah yeah so all right guys

the drama oh my goodness the roller coaster that has been the news over Subnautica 2 what the heck man all right so let me just try to summarize this timeline a little bit before we get into this okay last last twig episode we shared that hey the creators of Subnautica got canned They're out craft in studios stepped in like the big bad publisher They are and they said all you guys suck. You're not doing your jobs. You're out of here Okay, and then the gaming world Lost their minds there were you know calls to ban this game there were calls to boycott this game that you know

Hey, this was not fair. You can't fire the creators of Subnautica. You know, gamers rallied, right? And they rallied behind the creators and they said, yeah, you know, shame on you. And then things got worse, guys. Then things got worse for crafting because they came out and they said, hey, somebody discovered that there was an arrangement between Crafting and the studio, Unknown Worlds, I think is the name of the studio, where the studio was

due for a $250 million payout if they had hit some of their development goals for 2025. And if they didn't hit those goals, then that payout was null and void. And the feel good news is that, you know, hey, the creators were going to share this with the people in the studio. There's only about a hundred people developing this game, $250 million, a hundred people. That's a lot of money to go around, but then big bad crap. 90% of that was supposed to go to the exact. But then big bad crafting. 90% of that was supposed to go to the execs. Yes, yes, exactly.

And so then the gaming world just pulled out the pitchforks, man, and they were like, you don't want to give them their $250 million, man. The creators opened up a lawsuit against crafting because they were like, yeah, that's right. This is what's going on But then It really is man, this is like great drama I like I just I feel like I want some popcorn to just watch this whole thing unfold

This is where I joke that maybe John was right in this case Because crafting came out what did they say John? I'm gonna let I'm gonna let you just What did craft and say or provide evidence for that might change this story up a little bit? Well, so I think this was there were a couple of things that spawned this and and I may be a little off So so bear with me if there's some inaccuracy in this but I think I'm generally right here. So obviously there was the news and the public discord about the leadership being let go and at the same time I don't remember if it was Crafting that leaked this or somebody else but it was leaked. There were documents that were leaked showing that the development of this game was actually

far behind projections, far behind what would have triggered this $250 million payout. And Krafton at the same time basically stated that the reason that they were so far behind was because specifically the core leadership, the people that they were so far behind was because specifically the core leadership, the people that would have received the three people that would have received 90% of this $250 million were largely absent from the development of the game. They were not holding up their share of the bargain. So for me, from a, you know, I hate to say it, but I generally take the company's side in these things.

If I were this company and I'm just taking the solid face value and this was a game where I have $250 million potentially being paid out to three people based on Development goals like I have no idea how much subnautica made 250 million dollars for any game sounds like an astronomical amount of money Let alone a game like subnautica or subnautica 2 They had better be holding up their end of the bargain for me to have any leniency and paying that off and if not Hey, baby free market For you know, it's a, what do they call it? I don't know. Anyway, you're gone, buddy. Right to work state. Just to give you some context, Subnautica sold 5.23 million copies and you figure let's

just say 30, 40 bucks a copy Because it was an indie game an indie developer. I mean, that's an awful But how much money what is what is that math work out to be? I mean, what's that 200 million five times 40 is 20 so 200 million dollars. Okay. Yeah, and so that is just Then they had below zero to which I don't think was as nowhere near it but if we're if we're saying like the gross income of Subnautica was around 200 call it 250 million dollars

Like what about all the dev team costs and all the resources and all the assets and the marketing and stuff like that is an and all the assets and the marketing and stuff. Like that is an astronomical amount of money for that game. Like I don't even know how they arrived at it. Frankly, I have to say that that number, without knowing all the backend stuff, seems very irresponsible on the company's side to have even promised that amount.

Unless there's something we're not aware of, some sort of other marketing play or licensing play or something I'm not aware of here but that is a astronomical amount of money to pay three people it's it's I mean it's a heck of a lot of money 200 that's that's a quarter of a billion yeah 250 million dollars like Subnautica is such a well-known beloved franchise. And this is why it's making news, dude. Like you don't mess.

Like this is a beloved game, man. Like you don't mess with this studio. Like you don't mess with gamers when it comes to Subnautica. Like this is one of those things, man, where it's like there's a reason that there's been backlash. But my goodness, this news coming out where it's like the developers that got let go, maybe weren't doing what they were supposed to be doing.

And now it's like, well, wait a minute. Like if these dudes are just sitting around, you know, relaxing on their like laurels and not really like driving this home and the studio is faltering. Is it on the creators? You know what I mean? At that point, because it's like, dude, if I, I mean, you know, I'm not a corporate, you know, defender necessarily. But if you've got employees that ain't doing what you're paying them to do, that's a problem.

You know what I mean? Like, that's just straight up a problem. I in here is where it's going to get crazy, because now crafted provided evidence about these like these reports in these progress Reports in these like details and stuff like that craft and said dude We're taking all this heat here You go like just handed out the reports and the milestone markers and showed that they failed to meet all these things and it's like Whoa, wait a minute. I'm telling you right now, dude The next steps are gonna be these creators that got let go. They're going to come back and say, guys, the game was,

it's not in a good spot though. Like, yeah, okay. Maybe, you know, we wanted the game to be good. Crafton was trying to get us to rush it out the door, man. And do you want a good subnautica too? Or do you want, you know, this slop that the publisher is trying to make us put out there? I like, dude, if that's not the response that comes about about this like I don't know what what would be but that's what I Would say if I was to create Internet firestorm, baby. They're gonna make it out. Oh, but okay again. There's a flip side to that coin

It's not like hey, we're trying to rush this out. It's like guys. We're gonna pay you 250 million million and we have agreed upon these milestones and you're not hitting them. You know what I mean? Like, and we're not rushing it. This is what we agreed to. This is your end of the bargain. The counterpoint there, John, is that by letting the creators go, it will delay the release. And because craft and is intentionally delaying the release now Krafton is not on the hook for the 250 million dollars so there there is still that idea that this is why they let the creators go now they can try to argue

that no they weren't hitting their milestones but there is absolutely a world where I can believe that like hey if we fire the leadership of the studio things will think this will cause delays and because it causes delays and causes things to miss their milestone We're not on the hook for 250 million dollars, dude. I even if that's the case I don't think that's a bad like why would you hold that against them against crafting? Yes Wait a minute. No, no, no, hear me out. Hear me out. This is it. This is an agree. This is a contract They had with these guys. They said, Hey look, if you hit these milestones, we will pay you $250 million dollars and part of our interests are we need to get this game out there because if we're paying you

250 million dollars this game's got to get Billions of dollars to be solvent and so hey are you guys up for this and they go yeah we want 250 million dollars and then so we in closure inch closer inch closer and inch closer and this is what crafton has provided evidence of guys is that they said hey you know what you guys aren't holding up your end of the of the deal here 250 million dollars could correlate to a

Gigantic amount of the net revenue that we would have received from this game if it was released on time And you know what you guys didn't hold up your end of the bargain So now we have to take that same 250 million dollars hire a new dev team hire a PR team to explain this delay and mitigate all this social damage that is going to happen from this. But you guys no longer deserve it and we're going to figure out a better use of this $250 million. How could you hold that against them? The issue is, is that these milestones were for 2025, we're only halfway through 2025. You know what I mean? And according to the creators, they were saying, hey, this game is absolutely

ready to be released in early access. Like the creators are coming out saying it's ready for early access. And Crafton is stepping in and saying, no, it's not. And then the creators are saying, well, yes, it is. And then Crafton goes, you guys are out of here. They there's five months left in 2025. If the game released in early access, do you know how many millions of people

would have bought the early access? Which would have then led them to meeting the goals that Crafton set for a certain number of profits and milestones and things like that. And then Crafton would have been on the hook for the $250 million. So this is, this is the point, right? Nobody knows. Nobody knows all the details and we're all just speculating.

And then we're going bad craft and like, man, you guys are terrible. But then craft and it's going like, well, wait a minute. It's not all us guys. And then people like, yes, it is. We hate you. And then craft and saying, well, like, well, look at this. And then people like yes it is we hate you and then craft and saying well like well Look at this and then people go like oh oh Well, uh, oh crap now I don't know who to believe am I believing the creators of the game like see again imagine a world

There is it there is a misinterpretation of the evidence guys I'm looking at this from a from a corporate like litigation filter Okay The milestones that are in this example three, the game's content volume has been scaled down compared to the initial EA spec target, making it necessary to reassess the feasibility of plan launch.

There are specifically Q1, sorry, 2023 Q2 targets, 2024 Q2 targets, 2025 q2 targets 2024 q2 targets 2025 q2 targets q2 is april may june and they did not hit them This is not a nebulous 2025 target. This is a q2 2025 target that they categorically did not hit and so Again, I hate this. I hate this about the internet where people just go wild because it's like oh screw the man screw big Corpo it's like man this is a corporation filled with other human beings that are just upholding their end of the bargain so that they can try their best to

deliver a good product to you the users man devs are just as shady as any, like any big corporate publisher out there. Everybody is, it is an equal opportunity world for shadiness. Regardless, like I've met some of the poorest, most humble looking people that were some of the shadiest people I've ever met. And some of the most high up corporate minded people that were extremely benevolent. The evidence is showing at least apparently that the creators of Subnautica were not holding up their end of the bargain. And I hate the narrative that's online for this. I get it. But there is still a narrative that how many developers miss deadlines. You know what I mean?

How many times have we heard a game got delayed? You know, hey, this game, we're not there, man. Development takes a lot of time. Sometimes you can put these guys. Look at Cyberpunk 2077, dude. You think they wanted to release that game in the state that it was released in. They had all the pressure in the world from from investors and everything else saying, no, man, we cannot delay this

game anymore. We need our money. Release it. And it was an absolute disaster, dude. And I'm not arguing with you, John, believe it or not. I'm in the camp now where I go, I don't know who to believe at this point, legitimately. And I think as gamers, that's kind of where we probably should be at. Can you make the argument that a developer missing a deadline is like grounds for a $250 million

like hit to the studio where it's like, maybe the game was ready. I get they missed a milestone. You know what I mean? Like we all like, anybody in the corporate world has had like performance reviews and progress reports and stuff like that. And nothing is ever a hundred percent, you know, is that grounds to fire and then

withdraw a $250 million payout? Now I will say this, Krafton did also come out and say, Hey, while the leadership was supposed to get about 90% of this $250 million, what they did with it was up to them. Now the leadership came out and said, we were going to split it amongst of course. Oh, I'm sure they were. Right. But crafting actually did come out and say, hey, the 10% that was going to go to the studio, we're still giving to the studio guys. Now that's a pretty good sign of goodwill in my opinion too. I don't know what to believe in. $25 million. It's so fun because like I think ultimately we are going to see this come to light whether it's through a lawsuit Maybe it's a year from now. Maybe it's two years from now

But I this is one of those things where yes as gamers we generally tend to side against the big bad publishers I think that's deserved a lot of times But like you said John there are also Developers in studios out there that are probably doing some things that are not quite We'll just say that are a little shady and maybe not up to snuff And there's a reason that publishers risk losing a lot of money and things like that, too The whole point of all of this is this has been a roller coaster ride, dude We're gonna find out like honestly, we're gonna find out. Is it crafting that's the big bad evil publisher?

Is it the creators of Subnautica that just went, guys, we did it. We made a game that everybody in the world loved, and we're kind of done. It's time to be lazy and just go retire and enjoy our retirement. And we're really not that motivated anymore. That world absolutely exists, you know? So I don't know. We gotta move on.

We're gonna take a quick break because we have gotten well into this. We'll be back in just a second. All right, guys, we're back. I, do we have the heart to jump into this Switch 2? Yes! I think we do. Yes, we do.

I'll tell you what, this is a quick story. Let's cleanse the palette a little bit here. Judas, a game that was supposed to release already, I guess. Ken Levine, the creator of Bioshock. Judas is the spiritual successor to Bioshock. Ken Levine has been developing this game for a while. He had an interview where he got to talk about the development of Judas and he

was very clear and very PR on this. And he said, listen, I'm not slandering any studios or developers or publishers that want to go to live service and the micro transaction route, but Judas is not going to have any of that stuff. This is an old school game. I hate that we call it anything that doesn't include microtransactions, old school at this point. But he came out and he said,

guys, I'm gonna make a game that's just a game. No microtransactions, no live service. And he referenced some of the best games of this year that did that. And I love seeing this as he actually referenced Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, Expedition 33. I think Split Fiction was another one where he said, guys, you know, there's all these game experiences that if you do it and you do it right,

Baldur's Gate 3 was the other one that he mentioned where he said, you know, gamers will absolutely support a solo experience or a non-live service experience. And if you make it right, you'll make tons of money off of it. And that's what we're trying to do with Judas. I'm here for it, man. We've said time and time again, not everything needs to be open world.

Not everything has to have microtransactions. Just make a really good game and you'll make a lot of money, man. Yeah. You know? It's, I love to see it. I was playing a game today and again, I look and then there was like a huge list of all these microtransactions you can do

for all these different skins. And I'm like, I thought this was just totally a single player game and it's just in everything. It's everywhere you look now. So it is refreshing to see something like that to where they're just like, hey, this is what we're going to give you. We hope you love it. This is how much it is and that's it.

And those are the things you remember. Yeah. And on this topic too, people have said Ken Levine is hard to work for. He's not an easy guy. He knows this vision that he has he's demanding it there Judas has seen delay after delay The the kind of takeaway here is that here is an example of a publisher that either can't or won't Step in to try to rush this game out the door And I'm very curious to see what we wind up with with Judas man because what we have seen looks incredible

It looks like it is the true successor to Bioshock that we've all been wanting and craving and It's taking a long time. So is it is this time going to be well spent or is this game gonna come out and people go like So again, we'll see You know, but I guess we're gonna find out. All right, John's chomping at the bit for this one. And I'll be honest, this one's gonna be fun for me as well. So this Switch 2, Donkey Kong Bonanza's coming out this week. I think it actually releases in two days.

So the 17th is when this game comes out. It's the, I call it the premier title. Listen, I know Mario Kart World is like, hey, this is the game the switch launched for. Let's be honest, Donkey Kong Bonanza is kind of like the hot title that was coming alongside the switch to. I think it's probably going to be great. If I had to bet money, I think it's going to be awesome. There was some minor news that said, hey, we're not sure the Nintendo switch

to can Stand up to the performance of Donkey Kong bonanza. There's people that are already complaining about frame rate drops and stuff like that We're not really which is weird because it was originally supposed to be a switch one title I know right so then it's like well, we need better hardware. So let's have the switch to We're not really gonna get into that cuz we got a little something else to get into So a while back we covered the fact that Nintendo has this thing where they can brick your Switch to if you do shady things with it. And we, at least Ryan and I have said bad Nintendo, bad Nintendo, bad Nintendo. John has tried to give people insight into the corporate outlook and the protection of

IPs and things like that. I think probably not to success because I know I'm still going bad Nintendo, bad Nintendo. But we have gotten stories where people's systems have been shut down and bricked through various things. One guy had like cracked his open to do some kind of mod to it and it got banned. And then it's like, ha, we told you so, like bad Nintendo. Well, then a user came out and said, hey, I bought a used game off of Facebook Marketplace and I installed it and Nintendo said, no, that's that's a pirated copy and they bricked his system. And so that's the story, right, where it's like, oh, okay. Well, ha, we all told you. So, well, this article

goes on to talk about how easy it was for this person to overturn the ban. All he had to do was call Nintendo talk directly to a human being in the words of the article, which was pulled from this Reddit user. This was the smoothest customer service transaction that they have ever had in their whole life And it's nothing like dealing with Microsoft or Sony would be and I read this article and I laughed evilly and I went Bro, this is a paid for Like article that Josh you are will for Nintendo. You are so wrong man I love you. No, no Josh

I'm going to demand that you hear me out on this. Okay, the floor is yours so so first of all I want to I want to go back to this like evil Nintendo evil Nintendo thing when we posted the video clips about like There was this discussion we had about planned Obsolescence or planned bugs in the controller drift and then Nintendo wasn't supporting it. I created the reel for that and posted it and we got torched in the comments from people

saying, yes, they do support it. Here's how you do it. And like tons of people just said, yeah, it's a warranty claim and they'll support it. Like yeah, it's a little less than nominal, but like they're supporting it so when this article came out with this guy who was saying that His thing got or got bricked and they were reporting what a smooth process Your immediate reaction because you're anti Nintendo is to go bad Nintendo bad Nintendo bad Nintendo and I go, okay Well, let's do a little bit of digging, well let's do a little bit of digging, Josh. Let's do a little bit of digging.

So this article was drafted because somebody wrote a Reddit about it. And if you go to that Reddit post, this guy has been on Reddit since 2018. He's got, I don't know what post karma is, but he's got 1, post comment Karma this guy lives That is not that much though because I did cross reference and there's people that are in like the hundreds of thousands This is like those are bots. This is

You've got it. You've got a biased explanation for all this stuff John I'm getting a stuff, John. I'm getting, I'm getting opinionated gamer. Well, right. But, but like at least have some veracity in your opinions, bro. Like if, if Nintendo was actually going to pay somebody to create a story to enlighten them in some way, it would be

more than Joe Average Guy who's been on Reddit since 2018 and has posted extensively on not just Nintendo, but PlayStation and Steam and Xbox and his dog and the Avengers movies and all these other things. This is like cat. This is a regular guy reporting a regular, a regular experience that just happens to be pro Nintendo and I think that a you know a

News outlet found an interesting story and reported on it But it's coming from a reliable source who says hey switch to users Be careful if you're buying switch ones games if they're used you can get banned if it's a bad Bad actor dumped it that being said Nintendo support is Amazing will help you get get it back and running if you go back just a couple of months He's got lots of stuff where you saying Nintendo sucks Yeah, like this is Bro

Yeah, what you gotta say now Josh, huh? This is, you know, I have to say it's bad Nintendo. That's what I'm going to say because, Hey, if you have a system in place where me playing a used game on my switch that I paid for bricks, my system, you have an inherent problem with your product. If I have to go through customer support because of your stupid rules that you have, that's an issue in the first place, man. Like legitimately, listen, I like all joking aside,

I'm super glad that Nintendo is willing to step up to this. There is another story where Nintendo is actually like sending out surveys about their game key cartridges where the game's not on the game cartridge anymore because we don't want secondhand sales anymore. And they're like sending out a survey because they want to know what people think. And it's like, does Nintendo care? Do they really care about this survey? Or is this just a forward-facing like,

hey guys, we do care about you. I don't know. I don't think they care. But ultimately it's like, okay. They do care to the extent that if customers are unhappy, they stop buying your product. Companies have to care. Sure, I get that, and the Switch 2 is one of the fastest

selling consoles. As much as I love trolling Nintendo and the Switch 2, like bro, they're making hand over fist money out the wazoo. So Nintendo is happy no matter what in this case. I love trolling the article because of the way that it was written and the kind of tone that it has. Ultimately good on Nintendo if they're fixing the issue. Bad on Nintendo for creating the issue in the first place.

That's the problem. No, it's RIP. Ah! If you have a process in place that is like causing people to run into this, it's a bad process, dude. If you have customer support pain points, you need to alleviate those.

I work in customer support. It is literally half of what I do for my career, is dealing with all the people that have issues with the products that we sell. And the very first thing that we do as a company is go, guys, is this a pain point for the customers? Yes, it is. Let's fix it.

How do we fix it? Okay, so let's use your logic here, right? point for the customers? Yes, it is. Let's fix it. How do we fix it? Okay. So let's use your logic here, right? You work in customer service, okay? The reason that this happened to this user is because unknowingly to them, they acquired some games that had some bad patches, patches that were developed illegally for their games.

So let's relate this to your, like, I don't know how open we are about like what exactly you do, but I think we can speak in general terms what you do. You work for a, another podcast and, uh, it, it is a popular podcast and, uh, there's some propriety proprietary stuff there like the the personalities that are involved in your podcast have value now let's say that there is just some random schmo out there who decided to use AI to duplicate the voices and personalities of your hosts on the show that you work for. And then somebody decided to start selling it, not knowing that it was like proprietary stuff. Would that not pose a threat to you, regardless of whether they knew it was a problem or not? Yeah. I mean, but you're getting into trademark infringement. That's not a customer support issue. That's somebody spoofing a trademark and pretending to be a company that problem or not. Yeah, I mean, but you're getting in a trademark infringement. That's not a customer support issue.

That's somebody like spoofing a trademark and pretending to be a company that they're not. But that's what they're doing protecting this stuff, is that the reason this guy was banned is because apparently for as much as Nintendo can monitor the millions of people that play their stuff, somebody was using illegal patches. They were using patches on games that violated trademark and copyright protections. And so they

brick the system. And then- The issue here, John, is that literally what people can do is they can buy a cartridge. They can copy that cartridge over to an SD card and then sell the original cartridge But because Nintendo keeps track of everything that that cartridge that game that was sold has a unique ID to it So when they see that hey, I copied this cartridge I'm online with this unique ID and when I sold the cartridge to you and you tried to go online that unique ID showed up And then it went wait a minute You can't have these two games with unique IDs out there banned

Banned. Yeah, so what the problem what should they do just allow it to exist? Yeah, I mean piracy exists all over the place man. Oh, yeah I guess they're the hall monitor man like they're theicking systems over this, man. They're the whole monitor. Nobody likes it. So by that same logic, man, people are going to pirate your content on this other show that you work on. You just got to let it go, dude. You just got to let it go. No, I mean, you can absolutely fight it, but you don't, you don't punish your customers

for it, man. That's the problem. You're punishing your customers. You're punishing the guy that bought a used game off of Facebook Marketplace in a normal transaction that did absolutely nothing wrong. And that guy now has his system bricked and has to spend hours trying to get it resolved because of a policy that you put in place. It doesn't sound like it was ours.

It sounds like it was quote a fast painless process and get you'll get a live person. I can glaze Nintendo customer support all he wants man But it's still a bad. It's still I think I think you just like being wrong, man I think you just are like so committed to being wrong on these things You wait bro, this is I'm making this is gonna be a real bro Support the consumer and the consumer experience. The consumer says this is a fast and painless process. And we'll get you all in.

But they shouldn't have to deal with the process. The only consumer that has come out and said that. Yes they should. The thing is, Nintendo puts, they're so, so meticulous about how much protection they put on their IP to where they will alienate 95% of their consumer base for this small fraction that may cause an issue or do some piracy or anything. Everyone else has to suffer so they, nobody gets it. Nobody gets our stuff for free. It is not customer facing.

What would you propose as the alternative? What seriously? This is a genuine question. Don't track people's games. Don't track what people You see don't track people's games. What you are allowing for is the infinite duplication of your content and Dude, it's like Walmart Walmart knows that people steal from their stores all the time. They just don't care they go This is a this guy is the most most ridiculous statement I've ever heard in my life supporting shoplifting what I'm saying is that there are Josh listen to what you're saying Walmart doesn't care that people steal from them it is it is in prevention I'm never gonna support a company that is prioritizing their shareholders over their customers, dude

Yeah, that is agree to disagree, but that's what Nintendo's doing. I know you sympathize with that But I will never as a gamer my entire life I will never support a company that is prioritizing the almighty dollar Over their customer base if a company doesn't prioritizing the almighty dollar over their customer base. If a company doesn't make dollars, it dies. Josh dude, Nintendo's making plenty of dollars, dude. They wouldn't if they didn't protect their product. This is what happened. We can continue this later because at this point it's like we just agreed to disagree, man. Like we definitely got to wrap this episode up because you and I, I know we have fun with this.

I'm enjoying the show, man. I'm not doing it wrong. I'm just telling you right now, you will never sway me on this corporate mindset that the company takes precedence over the consumer, dude. The customer over the company, I can never, I can never adopt that mindset where the company is more important than their customer. You don't have a company if you don't have customers. Right, but you don't have customers if you don't have a product that you can sell them,

Josh. There are millions of companies out there that have both and are very successful. I work for one of them. That's my experience. You work for a small company in terms of people that doesn't sell a physical product that can be duplicated? Sure, we sell a digital product that could be screenshotted and disseminated to the world, very simply, you know? But people don't do it, because inherently most people are good. You're gonna have the trolls,

you're gonna have the people that will pirate games, but that's such a small percentage, and this is the point that Ryan made. It's such a small percentage of people that will do these bad things but Nintendo is making blanket anti-consumer rules that are affecting legitimate consumers at this point because of the small percentage of people that are doing this. And that's what I have a problem with. It's again, you are prioritizing your company and your profit

and your shareholders over the consumer and the customer experience. And you're worried about such a small part. And it all ties back to the fact that Nintendo absolutely hates the secondhand market. They hate the used game market. They're taking steps to prevent that because they want more and more and more profit.

There is never enough money in the world. We have to do everything we can to soak this. Nintendo is the perfect example of that. Whereas there are millions of companies out there that don't go down that road and they say, hey, we want good customer. We want happy customers. We want good customer support.

We want people to be happy. And maybe just maybe we don't make an extra half a million dollars because of that. But instead we have lifelong customers that are happy. Josh, do you like bacon? I love bacon. I love bacon, man. Isn't bacon awesome? It's the best meat. We actually had this discussion the other day. What is the best meat in the world? Bacon. That's it. I don't want to, I wanted to end on something. No, bacon!

No, I know I know. Stop it Ryan! I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Let's end agreeing on something. Dude, I love it. This is how people know. People that are listening are like, guys, these guys love them some games, man, because this is what gamers do.

And whether it's people, I mean, go anywhere on the internet, whether it's people arguing over Krafton being like the evil publisher, and then, hey, maybe we're finding out, maybe they're not. Maybe they are, who knows? But man, if it ain't fun to have opinions as a gamer, man, but hey, this is what we do, this is why we're gamers, just like you guys out there, and we're gonna argue

these things until we're blue in the face, but we have fun with it, man. Make your arguments not personal online. Yes. No, you're bald. I am bald, that's very true. Yeah, and I very well, John, I will give you credit. I very well could be very wrong on this as well, but I'm going to argue it's

own blue in the world. We're going to talk. We're going to talk about this. Josh. All right. Listen, everybody, thank you for joining us for this. So this one's been fun. If you haven't already, make sure you follow the podcast. Click that plus button, that follow button. There is a working link in our episode description to our Discord server. We found out that the link was broken for a little bit. So if you try to join and couldn't get it to work, it should work now. Come join our community, have these discussions with other gamers. You won't get yelled at, we promise. It's actually a really awesome community. We discuss all sorts of things,

and it really is an awesome place to hang out. Yell at us all you want, just don't yell at each other. Yeah, you can yell at us. We can take it. That's not fun at all. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode, everybody. Until next time, happy gaming. See ya.

Toodles. Thanks for watching!