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 licensing things, and that the licenses can be revoked. An Activist Investor wants Ubisoft to sell to a private equity firm, and has the support of 10% ...
Oct 08, 2024•56 min•Ep. 909
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. IBM has won a patent lawsuit against Zynga using patents for the old 1989 online service Prodigy - of which my family were founding members of and I ...
Sep 29, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 908
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 to failed negotiations to become independent. Unity has cancelled their controversial runtime fees, and just raised the prices of subscriptions instea...
Sep 22, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 907
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 Master Series. SAG-AFTRA has made a deal with 80 game studios for an interim contract for voice actors seeking more protections from AI. Since we last spok...
Sep 15, 2024•57 min•Ep. 906
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 features as the 2600+ with a 7800 shell. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is closing down after 7 years of service, but Nintendo is doing the right thing for...
Aug 28, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 905
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 developers that the successor to the Switch is not expected until April or May of 2025. This means it won't be announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live...
Aug 25, 2024•54 min•Ep. 904
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 announced a new version of SNES Doom that even works with a new controller with rumble support. WB Games might be up for sale, as Warner Bros Discovery...
Aug 18, 2024•59 min•Ep. 903
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 for classic games has been taken offline by its owner. We discuss if there is a lack of gaming news because there is a lack of actual gaming news sites,...
Aug 11, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 902
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 video game voice and performance actors over concerns about AI. Not all games are affected yet, such as Grand Theft Auto VI, or any other game that is al...
Aug 04, 2024•58 min•Ep. 901
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 Southern-Fried Gaming Expo this past weekend, and talk about the pinball and arcade games that were there, as well as some of the panels I was on. Then we ta...
Jul 28, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 900
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 than they used to be. The Switch is now the longest-running console in Nintendo history. Then we talk about VR and people's first experiences in VR - as ...
Jul 19, 2024•58 min•Ep. 899
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 as a host/donation reader, and we raised $2.54million for Doctors Without Borders. I talk about some of the things that happened at the event outside ...
Jul 14, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 898
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 its DMCA takedown powers against the community, this time taking down properly licensed sheet music arrangements. Then we talk to Rob about the Nintendo...
Jun 29, 2024•59 min•Ep. 897
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 Call of Duty is NOT 308GB after all - that's only if you literally install every version of COD included. Then we talk to Rob about Twitch adding super...
Jun 26, 2024•59 min•Ep. 896
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 paid tribute to the closed studios and the laid off workers from the past year. Then we talk about the actual games from Summer Games Fest and the Xbox...
Jun 17, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 895
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 what you should know about how not ALL of the cartridges work in every Evercade device.
Jun 09, 2024•56 min•Ep. 894
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 scoring my favorite video game of all time, Katamari Damacy, on a recently released "objective" review card from a gaming website, only to find that, obje...
Jun 02, 2024•53 min•Ep. 893
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 legal obligation to keep older games playable. Take Two says that they didn't actually close studios Roll7 and Intercept Games - they just merely laid off...
May 24, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 892
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 because they can't actually afford to run all of the studios it bought. Xbox says that they need more smaller scale award winning games coming out of the...
May 19, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 891
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 on hold - until this weekend. (This decision was reversed three hours after this episode was recorded.) There was review bombing and even the game ...
May 12, 2024•53 min•Ep. 890
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 to Rob about Eiyuden Chronicles and how it is very much an old school JRPG, for both better AND worse.
May 05, 2024•56 min•Ep. 889
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 equipment. Target is scaling back how much physical media it carries in stores - but it's not eliminating them entirely yet. Arcade1up has partnered with T...
Apr 28, 2024•56 min•Ep. 888
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 money for Make-A-Wish Georgia - we've smashed the original goal, so we just made the goal bigger. Then we talk to Orange Lounge Radio about their historic...
Apr 21, 2024•51 min•Ep. 887
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 to believe. Then we talk to Rob about our playing time and more about him not starting Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (and me not continuing with it often ...
Apr 14, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 886
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 headsets because nobody is buying them. Then we talk to Rob about evergreen vs. topical content.
Apr 07, 2024•58 min•Ep. 885
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 Series is out - Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story. It shows that Jeff is a master of the VIC20, but ends abruptly in 1994 - even though Jeff's story is stil...
Mar 24, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 884
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 in 2025. However, earlier this week Nintendo and the Yuzu emulator team settled for $2.4 million, shutting down the emulator team that worked on Yuzu a...
Mar 17, 2024•53 min•Ep. 883
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 leaving Microsoft after the Activision merger. Sony Interactive performed a Reduction in Workforce this week, closing several studios and canceling othe...
Mar 10, 2024•1 hr•Ep. 882
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 PC - which would be fantastic for the hardware. EA Sports will be paying college football players $600 plus a copy of the game if they opt in to EA Spo...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 881
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 - but don't expect Halo to be on PS5 any time soon. Of course Phil Spencer says he'd love to see Sony exclusives on Xbox, but he's not holding his breat...
Feb 26, 2024•57 min•Ep. 880
