I finally got to the part in Metaphor: ReFantazio with the mandatory stealth section...I don't like stealth. Nintendo has launched a new music app, and it has a feature that Spotify doesn't - extending the game loop for up to an hour. However, they don't credit the artists on any of the songs, and this is partially due to how Japanese companies wor…

If a AAA game studio is closed, was it ever a AAA studio? Netflix closed their AAA game studio before even announcing a project. The US Copyright Office declined a DMCA exception for Video Game Libraries looking to help researchers access their materials online. A Larian Studios executive made comments about Ubisoft's drive to be more subscription …

There is a sad update to the new-to-me retro console that I acquired last week...Anybody have a disc tray for a Philips CDi 220? It was a slow gaming news week, but the Bluesky social media network got a lot of growth this week from certain gaming circles, so we talk about its pros and cons. A judge ruled that Google does not have to open up its Pl…

I made my GDQ Commentary debut on Disaster Relief Done Quick, doing a part speedrun commentary and part voice actor interview for a run of TMNT: Shredder's Revenge. I got a new toy - a Philips CD-I, and yes, it also came with Those Games that you're thinking of. Steam has already complied with a California law saying you must disclose that you are …

Microsoft has discontinued the HoloLens 2, which was only available to businesses, and have decided to merely support other hardware with their software. Ubisoft has listened to an activist investor, but instead of selling to private equity firms, they are looking into selling to Tencent. This goes into a discussion about art and risks, and why the…

I did my first speedrun commentary for Doronko Wanko at Multithon Rivals 2024! The Atari 50 DLC The Wider World of Atari is out, and has 19 new games and another chapter of video interviews and historical memorabilia. There's a new California law stating that digital storefronts must disclose that you do not own what you purchase, you are merely li…

The Hallmark Keepsake ornaments are out, and this year's gaming console ornament is the original Xbox, and yes, I do have it. I'm doing my first ever speedrun commentary on Multithon Rivals 2024! I'm commentating a race of Doronko Wanko on Friday, September 27, at 7PM ET/4PM PT. Minecraft is dropping PSVR support on their PS4 version in early 2025.…

We start off remembering Andrew C. Greenberg, the co-creator of the Wizardry series of RPGs, who passed away earlier this month. The Crew 2 is $1 until September 23rd! Ubisoft has proclaimed that The Crew 2 and Motorfest will have offline modes before their servers are shut down. The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive quit earlier this week due …

We are back from Dragon Con, and I go over the activities I was involved with from a panel perspective. Be sure to check out VOG's YouTube channel for a much deeper dive into Dragon Con outside of video game talk! Tetris Forever was announced at the Nintendo Direct, and it turns out it is Digital Eclipse's latest entry in their fantastic Gold Maste…

I'm going to be moderating and appearing on panels at Dragon Con! Maybe I'll see you there? Amazon Games boss says that AI is okay because their games have no acting, and AI will only take away the boring work that junior employees use to train up to become senior employees. Atari has announced the 7800+ retro console, which has all of the same fea…

My Dragon Con schedule is out! I'm moderating several panels on the Digital Gaming Track, moderating a Video Game panel with voice actors from Mass Effect, and I get to introduce a Doctor Who companion on stage! The Borderlands movie that bombed at the box office is going to be available on streaming before the end of the month. Nintendo has told d…

We actually start off discussing the Olympics - primary the Breaking competition - and why I loved it and thought it was phenomenal, and why I am sad that it's not returning and all anybody saw was the Australian. Apparently the Borderlands movie wasn't that good? At QuakeCon, Doom and Doom 2 got both a 4K remaster as an update. Limited Run Games a…

Gamestop has shut down Game Informer magazine, laid off all of its writers, taken all of its content offline, and used AI to generate a farewell post. Bungie has laid off or transferred another 17% of their workforce in what was described as "inevitable" due to previous spending. A popular resource for video game translations and homegrown fixes fo…

In a followup to a comment made in last week's show - there is a certain NES game actually listed in Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition that we totally assumed would not be mentioned. The Xbox 360 digital store has closed - thankfully, it was still a console that had copious amounts of physical media. SAG-AFTRA has authorized a strike of vid…

It's Episode 900 and our 19th birthday! Episode 1 was recorded on July 24, 2005. Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition released, and I have some thoughts on it from someone who is speedrun adjacent. I also (finally) tell the full story about how I was technically a city semifinalist at the Nintendo World Championships 1990. I was at the Souther…

I'm going to be on a panel and hosting a Speedrun Showcase at the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo next weekend in Atlanta. Come say hi! I was on a virtual panel about doing solo podcasts on the Dragon Con Digital Media Track's "Be Awesome Together" podcast. Microsoft has hiked the price of Xbox Game Pass, and also made the tiers a bit more confusing tha…

We dedicate this episode to the memory of Lt. Commander Eddy, host of the Starboard Power Coupling podcast, the Star Trek podcast you hope doesn't fail. I will be at the Southern-Fried Gaming Expo on July 19-21st in Atlanta, and will be on a panel Friday night and hosting a Speedrun Showcase on Saturday night! I was at Summer Games Done Quick 2024 …

I will be once again hosting at Summer Games Done Quick 2024! Check out my schedule to see what I'm hosting on Day 1 and Day 3 of the event! Is there a cheaper Apple Vision Pro coming? Signs point to yes. Larry Hryb, better known as Major Nelson, formerly of Xbox, is joining Unity as their Director of Communications. Nintendo is continuing using it…

I will be once again hosting at Summer Games Done Quick 2024! Check out my schedule to see what I'm hosting on Day 1 and Day 3 of the event! VRChat has laid off 30% of their team due to incorrect staffing and the inability to scale. Cities: Skylines 2 had to remove virtual landlords from the game because it made the rent in game too high. The new C…

I will be once again hosting at Summer Games Done Quick 2024! Check out my schedule to see what I'm hosting on Day 1 and Day 3 of the event! The cost of being featured on Summer Games Fest is pretty high - but there are some indies that can get in for much, much cheaper...if a particular someone likes you. A billboard outside of Summer Games Fest p…

Bungie has won a lawsuit against a cheat maker on copyright grounds - which has caused the cheat maker to countersue on DMCA grounds. Evercade has announced the Evercade Alpha bartop arcade units with Capcom games - so now you can use (almost) all of the Evercade cartridges in a small arcade setup! Then we talk to Rob about the Evercade Alpha and w…

Atari has acquired the Intellivision Brand and many games, but not the Amico console itself. IGN has bought several media properties of the Gamer Network sites such as Eurogamer and Rock Paper Shotgun, and already started laying off their editors. We do talk a little bit about Little Kitty Big City in this show, as well as do an exercise about scor…

Warner Bros Discovery has announced that they won't retire Adult Swim Games published titles after all, instead they will transfer the store pages to the indie developers. New Tesla cars were going to get native Steam integration until Tesla learned nobody actually cared during the beta phase. The UK Government says game companies don't have a lega…

The requirement for Helldivers 2 requiring PC players to link a PlayStation Network account has been reversed - for now. The 2024 World Video Game Hall of Fame inductees have been announced! Microsoft closes four studios from the Bethesda/ZeniMax side of the house, including ones that released smaller scale award winning games. They say this is bec…

We start off with some clarification from a listener about using the Meta Quest 3 wirelessly with Virtual Desktop to play PCVR games. Dave & Busters is going to be introducing a new feature that may or may not be legal in all states. Helldivers 2 was supposed to launch on PC with a requirement to link your PlayStation Network account, but was put o…

After the first six hours of Eiyuden Chronicles: Hundred Heroes, there are some early impressions...And why I may not continue. Meta Quest has once again partnered with Microsoft and the Xbox brand, but it does not mean that VR is coming to the Xbox console. Valve has closed a refund loophole with regards to games in Advanced Access. Then we talk t…

The Game Boy has turned 35 years old in Japan! I try my old Game Boy, as well as discuss how my entire Game Boy library was stolen by a classmate and we never caught him or got any of it back. (And also nobody believed me.) We talk about a viewer comment about having high fidelity VR in an untethered headset - as long as you have high quality equip…

Indie gaming studio Possibility Space has closed its doors, claiming it's because of questions from a journalist for an article that hasn't even been published yet. Star Wars: Outlaws will require an online internet connection to install the physical disc - which makes the game preservation aspect of physical media useless. We're still raising mone…

I'm helping raise money for Make-a-Wish Georgia with the Stream Atlanta meetup group this month - let's make some kids wishes come true! Gaming has reportedly fallen to pre-pandemic levels, meaning we aren't playing games as much as we were just a few years ago. Are emulators coming to iOS? Yes, but no - not in the way the media headlines want you …

Kotaku is deprioritizing news in favor of guides - which leads into a discussion of "Evergreen Content" vs "Topical Content" when it comes to content creation. We go over the Game Developers Choice Awards - which is the awards show everyone wants when The Game Awards happen, but nobody actually watches. Sony halts production on the PlayStation VR2 …

We revisit the emulator settlement from last week with some clarifications from someone who is more knowledgeable in the inner workings of that scene than we are. Some emulator developers have gotten spooked enough to take their emulators offline, others have more resolve with more safeguards. Digital Eclipse's second entry in the Gold Master Serie…

We start off this episode by remembering Akira Toriyama and all of his contributions to gaming and anime. Happy MAR10 Day! Several Mario themed announcements were made, such as adding more Mario games to Nintendo Switch Online, and bringing some Gamecube and 3DS titles to Switch, and a LEGO Mario Kart set (a building set, not a video game) coming i…

I finished Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and moved on to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and no, you don't actually know the story, so be wary of spoilers. (Not from me, though!) Octopath Traveler has been delisted temporarily from the Nintendo eShop, most likely due to the change in publisher. Toys For Bob, the studio that brought us Skylanders, is le…

I tried the Apple Vision Pro at an XR meetup for three minutes, which means I'm an expert on it now - and I also met an Apple fanboy who actually believed that everything the AVP did was revolutionary and was never part of any VR device before it. (It was wild!) Sony announced that they are investigating making the PlayStation VR2 headset work on P…

We start off talking about the return of EA Sports College Football 2025, because it was teased this week to be returning this Summer, and how it relates to one of the quotes in the show intro. Xbox is bringing four games to other consoles - Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, to expand the reach of Xbox Games Studios franchises - …

I will NOT be wearing an Apple Vision Pro during a taping of this podcast, because I'm not buying it. This version, at least. I visited a new pinball arcade in Atlanta, and noticing a new trend in "Eatertainment" venues to bring back Third Spaces to society. Retailers are starting to drop physical releases, which means that game preservation is goi…

Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out, and has been taking up all of my evenings. While the game is great, there are some people that take issue with the fact that New Game Plus is locked behind DLC. Palworld is the new hotness, and The Pokemon Company had to make a statement saying they'd check to see if there was any IP infringement. Microsoft an…

Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 raised over $2.5 Million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation! I was fortunate enough to be a host in-person for multiple games throughout the week, and I talk about my experience both behind the scenes as well as just attending the week long mini-convention in snowy Pittsburgh. Then we talk to Rob about all of the gaming…

I'm going to be hosting at Awesome Games Done Quick 2024! I will be reading donations on Thursday night for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and on Saturday afternoon for Lies of P and Lost Judgment. I am already sick and tired of Steamboat Willie... A 13 year old gamer has "beaten" Tetris by getting it to soft lock - something only a Tool Assisted Speedrun ha…

Yes, it's an episode recorded in the afternoon of Christmas Eve and not posted until the new year...the holidays were a thing. I'm going to be hosting at Awesome Games Done Quick 2024! However, my schedule changed since the 24th, so be sure to check the GDQ website for my name to get my updated times. Insomniac Games had a lot of data leaked about …

Our December 24th show will take place at 2PM ET/11AM PT/7PM GMT instead of our usual Sunday night time! I was at DreamHack Atlanta this weekend, hosting some events on the Main Stage and playing some neat indie games. The Game Awards were before I left for vacation, and I have some thoughts that might go against what you've heard from others. The …

I'm going to be MC'ing three events at DreamHack Atlanta from December 15-17th at the Georgia World Congress Center! Hallmark has taken my money once again with their gaming themed Keepsake Ornaments. PlayStation is going to delete TV shows and movies that people have paid for due to a licensing lapse with Warner Bros Discovery. EA has patented a t…

Intellivision has now released Amico as an app, where you can buy $15 versions of their games on Android and play them there. GameMaker, a 2D-focused game engine, has changed their licensing structure to be more friendly to smaller developers. I finished the LEGO Pac-Man set finally! One of our chatters claims that Everybody 1-2 Switch is not just …

I finished Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name on Game Pass and I really enjoyed the bite-sized nature of it compared to the mainline games. It also acted as a good entryway into the brawler side of the Yakuza/Like A Dragon series. I also played a little bit of Persona 5 Tactica on Game Pass, and I'm not sure it will get me to really …

I'm going to be hosting again at Awesome Games Done Quick 2024 in Pittsburgh from January 14-21st! Unity told shareholders that there would be more layoffs at the company, as the fallout for their new revenue pricing policies continue. I got some new additions to my home arcade - a custom built 4-player generic arcade cabinet, and a custom built vi…

Microsoft is going to ban unlicensed controllers from accessing the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles - and there are multiple communities worried about the impacts of this, from members of the Fighting Game Community as well as disabled gamers who can't get an Xbox Adaptive Controller. We use OverClocked Remix on our live stream, and their founder…

We are back from Las Vegas and TwitchCon! We start by talking all about Vegas and then TwitchCon, and then why the two shouldn't be together. (We were not alone in this thinking!) I also talk about my time with Games Done Quick Express, and raising over $35k for AbleGamers. I briefly visited the Pinball Hall of Fame, and my reaction might surprise …

I'm going to be at TwitchCon 2023 as one of the hosts of Games Done Quick Express! Best Buy is going to discontinue selling physical copies of movies in 2024, and games might be next. CD Projekt has used AI to replace a deceased voice actor in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty with the family's consent. We play some clips of the 1992 ad campaign from…

I'm going to be hosting at Games Done Quick Express at TwitchCon on October 20-22nd! Pac-Man 99 shut down its online servers on the night this episode was aired live. Nintendo is shutting down 3DS and Wii U online services in April of 2024. Microsoft is reportedly close to finalizing it's merger with Activision Blizzard. (It actually closed on Octo…

I'm going to be a host at Games Done Quick Express at TwitchCon! Tune in on Friday and Sunday at 1PM ET/10AM PT to hear me and possibly see me? Unity backtracked...kind of. They changed some of the policies about charging developers per install of their game, rather than on the sales of their game. Epic Games laid off 16% of its workforce because t…