transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] Today's gaming news stories include, Elden Ring gets a cast and release date reveal, Shuhei Yoshida says Jim Ryan fired him, and Rebecca Valentine reveals her next move. Well, all this and more because this is Kinda Funny Games Daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kinda Funny Games Daily for Monday, April 20th, 2026. I'm your host, Blessing Adeoye Jr. Joining me is the one, the only, the best gaming journalist in the business, Rebecca Valentine.
Speaker 2:
[00:35] I feel so weird to be a floating head. I've been in that studio multiple times, and now I'm simply hovering ominously to your side.
Speaker 1:
[00:44] Yes, but it's going to be a very fun episode even though you're not here in person, because we have to talk about some exciting stuff, Reb, because what, a few weeks ago you announced that you were leaving IGN. Catch us up to what's going on in the life of Rebecca.
Speaker 2:
[01:00] Well, it's funny because I guess I'm the news. That's very strange to me, but I did a very normal human thing, I think. I left one job and I'm going to a new job, is what's happening. I had a teensy little baby sliver of time sort of between where I had nothing to say. And now I think I think I can talk about what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:
[01:23] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[01:24] Do I just say it?
Speaker 1:
[01:25] I mean, yeah, just say it.
Speaker 2:
[01:27] Yeah. OK, I'm going to Kotaku. By going, I'm already there, actually. I had a byline go up a couple of hours ago.
Speaker 1:
[01:35] That's super exciting, Rep. Of course, for people that have listened to this show for a very long time, even before I was on the show, I remember when they launched KCD in 2017, I started listening Daily, and one of the names that will continue to pop up was the name Rebecca Valentine, because you start off at gamesindustry.biz before moving on to IGN, and doing a lot of really great games reporting, like so great that at the end of last year, KCD, we gave you an award for, I forget which one because Jason got one and then you got one. I think one was Best Story and the other was just like Best Reporter. But you got one of them. Best Reporter. There we go. Don't be humble about it. You're amazing. But yeah, like it's really exciting to see you move now over to Kotaku. Do you want to talk a little bit about what you're doing at Kotaku?
Speaker 2:
[02:20] Well, honestly, a lot of the same thing. Like really, if you read my stuff, I think your impression of my output is probably not going to change a whole, whole lot. If you like long-form investigative reporting, I've been doing a little less of that, I think over the last couple of years. So I would like to do, I think I will be doing slightly more, we're going to amp that up a little bit again. I'm still going to be doing, I have the background at GI Biz, so I have the background in Biz kind of stuff, reading numbers, reading complex legal filings, and telling you interesting things out of them. So there's going to be, that's still happening, just like day-to-day news, that's still happening. But then I think maybe the other piece of that too is Kotaku is known for having this, allowing writers a little bit more freedom to have a really strong writing voice and to be like people and individual writers, in addition to just reporting things very straightforward when they need to be. And I have some experience having a stronger voice or a more critical voice, but not as much. And I'm really excited to work with people who are very good at having this very strong and cool writing voice and learn to develop my own, alongside of course, developing my reporting skills even further under Ethan and Carolyn, who are freaking incredible writer and editor.
Speaker 1:
[03:38] So, yeah, yeah, I love that. And I also love, I mean, you're talking about what Kotaku can bring to you as far as giving that more personality based. I get to be my own person and kind of like hone and own my own voice here. But I think what you bring to Kotaku is just as exciting, right? We're talking about that reporter skill that you're able to hone at GI Biz and also at IGN. You're somebody who I associate with breaking news. You know what I mean? You're somebody who I associate with, if I see a big article break out from IGN, if I see a new story about the history of a studio, or this studio is going through this thing, or something that's a bit more in the weeds or internally going on in the industry that many people might not have eyes and ears on. Rebecca Valentine is one of those names I put alongside Adjacent Shryer or any other big names in the industry who are known for doing great reporting work. And so I think Kotaku is very, very blessed to have you. Very excited to see the work they're able to bring to the website. And yeah, I think this is going to be a very exciting next step for Rebecca Valentine.
Speaker 2:
[04:39] I think it is. I think it's exciting, too, because Kotaku hired a whole extra person. I'm not a backfill for somebody. I am a new hire. And seeing a games website in 2026 grow? Yeah. That's so cool. That's such exciting news for them. Like I love that they have the opportunity to grow. And I think there should, I think there might be an article later today. I don't want to put this on them in case something happens, but I think there may be something at gamesindustry.biz about this later today. And when we were having conversations with them about that, Ethan said this really lovely thing about, like the pyramid of game websites is very often like, like the big base of it is sort of the just day-to-day like, kind of churn of the news that's already out there, and then there's like features and criticism, and then that little sliver is the investigative reporting and like the original stuff. And he wants to flip that pyramid at Kotaku, and I thought that was a really, really cool insight. He said it way smarter than I just explained it, so I hope that quote makes it into something. But I love the support for the kind of work that I think is really, really important to do, and that I would like to be my bread and butter. It sounds like to some people it is. So yeah, I'm just, I'm stoked. I'm really, really stoked to be there.
Speaker 1:
[05:53] Well, Rebecca, that's really, really exciting news. Thank you so much for joining us and breaking that news here. I know that wasn't originally the plan, but it's still cool that we get to break that news here on KFGD. We also have other really exciting news. Of course, as many people know, Nick Scarpino of Kinda Funny has been gone. You know, he took a break. Many people know, yeah, he's been gone, and he's back as of today. And so to celebrate Nick returning to the studio, Barrett, if you can bring up those listening, kindoffunny.com/store, we've launched a new shirt, the Welcome Back Nick shirt. Of course, if you're watching, if you're listening via audio, I encourage you to turn on the video just for this moment so you can check out. You know, we have the welcome back Nick text on the left. Mike missed you on the right, you know, fun outline of Nick's face. On the bottom, it says Andy forgot you were gone. But wanted to celebrate Nick, of course, you know, it's not easy when, you know, one of your bosses, one of your founders leaves for a while and then comes back. But it's really exciting to have Nick back in the office. Again, kindoffunny.com/store. If you want to pick up the Welcome Back Nick shirt. Thank you, Nick, for returning to the studio. But enough about all that.
Speaker 2:
[07:02] New job, new shirt.
Speaker 1:
[07:03] I know, big day, very big day. Remember, if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in the YouTube channel, and you can also be a part of the show by subscribing to our channel over on youtube.com/kindafunnygames. We couldn't do this without our producers over on patreon.com/kindafunny. So thank you to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney, the Psalm Twining. For now, let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper Report. It's time for some news. We have six stories today. A Picker's Dozen. Starting with our number one, Alex Garland's Elden Ring will be in theaters March 3rd, 2028. I'm reading directly from a press release. Bandai Namco Entertainment and A24 have announced the live action adaptation of the famous game Elden Ring, written and directed by Alex Garland, will be filmed for IMAX and released on March 3rd, 2028. Production begins in spring 2026 with the full cast announced. The cast looks like this. You got Kit Conner from Warfare and Heartstopper, Ben Wishaw from Skyfall and Paddington, Kaylee Spaney from Alien Romulus and Civil War, Tom Burke from Furiosa, Mad Max Saga and Black Bag, Havana Rose Liu from Bottoms, Sonoya Mizuno from Ex Machina, Jonathan Price from The Two Popes, Ruby Cruz from Willow and Bottoms, and Nick Offerman from Last of Us, which is crazy because I would have said from Parks and Rec, but I guess that makes sense. John Hodgkinson, Jefferson Hall, Emma Laird and Peter Serafinawix. And that is your cast for Elden Ring. Rebecca, I know you're somebody who really loves Elden Ring.
Speaker 2:
[08:49] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[08:50] How are you, how much are you looking forward to this movie?
Speaker 2:
[08:53] Ah, man, video game adaptations, you know, there's this is, oh, they're traditionally terrible. Oh, but they've been getting better. Like we have the same conversation around them every single time. I'm curious. I think 824 is a really interesting choice to do this. I also think the world of Elden Ring is, I mean, it seems like very likely they're going to tell like probably one of them like like a basic story of Elden Ring. Like either they're going to follow the tarnish or they're going to follow, like sort of the main historical plot line of that. Most likely, we actually don't know what this is about. But I do love the amount of possibility for us to see different aspects of Elden Ring portrayed in some way, because Elden Ring and all FromSoft games, by the way, are full of little freaks. Like every character in those games is a total weirdo.
Speaker 1:
[09:39] That's why Nick Offerman kind of excites me here.
Speaker 2:
[09:42] Yes, because they announced a bunch of new people today. Nick Offerman, we already knew about, but Nick Offerman, when I first heard that, I'm like, okay, that doesn't make any sense. So then I thought about it for two seconds. I'm like, no, that's gonna rule. I don't know who he is, but they're gonna make him a weird guy, and I'm gonna love it. I actually, I went through the new people that were announced today. This was actually my first article for Kotaku that I published while I was learning how their backend works. And I was trying to guess who all these new people were going to be. I was just shooting in the dark based on some of their past work and stuff. They got a lot of Shakespearean actors in there, like Sir Jonathan Pryce has done a bunch of Shakespeare. Sorry, I'm looking down this list. John Hodgkinson and Peter, you nailed it, Sarah Finowicz has done a bunch of Shakespeare stuff. And I love the big Shakespearean actors doing the delivery for Elden Ring stuff. Like we got, oh, I feel so bad, I've forgotten his last name, Richard, his last name, the fellow who did Curse You Bail. Like he is all the Shakespeare experience, like he's so good at it. And so I'm just, you can just, this is gonna be fun. This is gonna be really weird and fun. I was also excited to see Ruby Cruz. I really liked the Willow revival series. I was sad that that just crashed and burned the way that it did.
Speaker 3:
[11:02] And it no longer exists on the internet.
Speaker 2:
[11:04] It's gone. Yeah. I hate that shit. Ruby Cruz is great in that. I enjoyed Willow a lot. I also thought the only really obvious one on this list was Emma Laird. Just like Google her and tell me she's not either Millenia or Queen America. You can't tell me that.
Speaker 1:
[11:20] Oh yeah. Bring up an image of Emma Laird. Because it actually is very like, no, I could see it for sure. That's the most Millenial looking person right there.
Speaker 2:
[11:30] Yeah. You know they got to put Millenia in this. Like somehow, even if it's just briefly, she's got to be here.
Speaker 1:
[11:36] So like when you see this cast, because you mentioned either maybe you're going to follow the tarnished or you tell more of the like historical story they have there in Elden Ring. When you look at this cast, do you lean one way or another for what you think they might do here?
Speaker 2:
[11:53] I think they probably have to follow to some degree, the journey of the tarnished simply because looking at a lot of these people and also the different characters in Elden Ring, like that's what people are going to be the most interested in. Like a lot of these people are immortal or very old in Elden Ring, but a lot of these characters do not exist in the history of, like the old history, right? Like the ancient stuff that sort of came before that leads up to the journey of Elden Ring. And so I think you inherently miss out on some of the fun stuff that people cherish about Elden Ring if you sort of leave that out. At the same time, maybe you make new stuff, I don't know. But I do sort of inherently also think that maybe following the tarnish, like the tarnish is not an interesting character. It's not an interesting person to stay with the whole time. It's honestly, it's kind of the same. Oh, this is going to be a hot take almost, but I really want to asterisk it. This is kind of the thing I worry about with The Legend Of Zelda film. Like, I'm not saying Link has no personality. Link has infinitely more personality than the tarnished Elden Ring. But he's still kind of this quiet guy who just sort of stands there and lets people talk at him. And so I feel like they're going to have to do a lot of work in that film to make Link someone who's interesting to stay with the whole time. It's very doable. But I just think they're going to have to work kind of hard at it. This I think they have an even harder challenge if they're following the tarnished, because you've got to make the tarnished somebody who I am okay to hang out with for two hours or whatever. It's not as interesting if they're a blank slate. But I do think it's interesting to look at this cast list and any of these people could be the tarnished. We don't know.
Speaker 1:
[13:32] Yeah, that's a really good call, right? One of the things that you touch on there, regarding the story of the tarnished, being this character that's more of a blank slate, you're kind of moving through this world, and the tarnished itself as a character not being an interesting character, I think is very interesting for what you can do, because I want a little bit of both, if I'm being honest. I want, because in the video game, you get the lore, you talk to the characters, you get all the backstory of the Shattering, but it's all done through your own exploration and told. And whatever pays, honestly, probably told to most of us through Vati video, if I'm being real. I feel like for most people, you probably play Elden Ring and go, Dan, that was fun. All right, time to learn the story from a YouTube video that explains it all to me. And I think that would be a very fascinating focus for a movie, because there's more action there. There's more, even plot and I think interesting things, there's more relationships there of people interacting with each other and you're gonna get characters interacting with each other in the shattering, in the historical tale, more so than in the present day tale of what's going on with the Tarnished following them through their journey. And so I wonder if you can have it be a flashback flash forward situation of 70% of the movie being about the history, but then every 30 minutes you get a flash forward scene of the Tarnished like at a pivotal point in their journey as they make their way to, I can't do, not Mickela, no Mickela as they make their way to the through the tale of present day Elden Ring.
Speaker 2:
[15:05] Yeah, I did just as we were talking, have a thought and I'm going to do not roast me in chat. I do not have Elden Ring lore right at the top of my head. I am not. It occurred to me, they could follow the story of what's his name? Vike? He was like the potential Elden Lord who came before you and failed because he messed around with the mad chaos god under the ground or whatever, like the chaos guy, and you find him at one point. There's a lore video out there about this somewhere, but there's a character, I don't know, it could follow him, and I think that that would be recent enough history that he would have a character and he would have an arc, but you would still get a lot of the highlights that you get through actually playing Elden Ring. But also A24, I don't know, just do something weird. Maybe they'll follow the Turtle Pope. Maybe it's just a movie about the Turtle Pope.
Speaker 1:
[15:55] I mean, I'd watch it. Starring Nick Offerman, yeah. Like, well, 2020 is really exciting. Less than two years away at this point. Like, I'm looking forward to this. I think it was a tough one a little bit at Reveal when they first announced it, because I'm like, Elden Ring movie, is that something I want? But the more details we get about it, the A24 of it, the director, Alex Garland, who did Annihilation, which Annihilation was fucking incredible. A lot of it's coming together in a way where I'm like, I would like to see it.
Speaker 2:
[16:24] Also, Martin's involved, George RR Martin is involved, which he wrote the back history of Elden Ring before handing it off, and him being involved in the movie is, I don't know what that's supposed to tell me. Is it very historical? Do they just want him around? I don't know. Maybe he just likes being called.
Speaker 1:
[16:45] My opinion on it would be they just want him around just to say, hey, the person that made Game Of Thrones, they're responsible or are working on this movie. This is the next Game Of Thrones.
Speaker 3:
[16:55] And he wants to be a part of it as an excuse to not finish Game Of Thrones.
Speaker 1:
[16:59] Exactly.
Speaker 3:
[17:01] One that I want to throw out there, specifically the Nick Offerman of it all, because I was thinking, like, who could Nick Offerman play? I think he could play Hugh. And this is your Smithing Monster.
Speaker 2:
[17:12] Oh, I see it. Yeah, the face. I see it.
Speaker 1:
[17:18] I love this.
Speaker 2:
[17:19] Oh, that's good. This is fun, too, because there's a lot of opportunities in Elden Ring for people to either play play characters that are not like fully human. So then they're either getting into weird practical suits or they're getting some like very interesting CG things happening or they're just voicing weird little guys. Like I love that.
Speaker 1:
[17:38] I love dude. I love Nick Offerman because equally I could see him being a Hugh as I could see him being Rodin like there's something about Nick Offerman that is very like he just has a versatility to him. I wasn't the movie. What's the show? I think it's called Devs that Andy Cortez will never stop talking about. I've only seen like the first episode of Devs. But even in that, I was like, man, this Nick Offerman guy, this guy, he has something. He's got something here.
Speaker 2:
[18:00] He's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:
[18:01] Reb, I want to keep talking about video game movies because with story number two, we might have just got our best look at Link in The Legend Of Zelda Movie. I'm pulling from Ollie Reynolds at Nintendo Life. With principal photography now wrapped up on The Legend Of Zelda Movie, it's likely that Nintendo and Columbia Pictures will want to start the hype train engine ahead of its release on May 7th, 2027. The movie's director of photography, Guyula Paros, may have jumped the gun slightly though. In a now-deleted post on Instagram, thanks Wario64, he showcased a clipboard to presumably commemorate the completion of principal photography. The key image on the clipboard depicts Link standing next to the Triforce. Meanwhile, the word Umami is displayed prominently on the right, with director West Ball and camera Guyula Paros just underneath. Very interesting. One interesting that is the project name for the Zelda movie Umami. That would be my guess.
Speaker 2:
[18:57] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[18:58] That's an interesting project name. But also, Reb, what's your first reaction to seeing this image?
Speaker 2:
[19:05] This actually is my first reaction because like I said, I've been learning a backend all morning and I did not see this news. I had no idea this was out there and no one showed it to me yet. Okay. This is significantly more interesting to me visually than the other photos that we got, the set photos.
Speaker 1:
[19:23] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[19:24] I mean, I know this is like clearly very doctored and I'm like, oh, I'm trying to look cool, pose sort of way. But I, I, the, the green outfit, I think I was very worried it would look corny and fake. I think it mostly looks okay. The hat, I still am kind of like, eh, you didn't need to wear the hat.
Speaker 1:
[19:44] Oh, you're not messing with the hat?
Speaker 2:
[19:46] Well, I just, it looks silly, right? Like the, like a pointy green hat looks right in cartoon, right? Sure. In video game form, it makes sense. But when you put a pointy green hat on a person, like a real person, I think it's very difficult to make that look like somebody, someone woke up in the morning and put on their head on purpose.
Speaker 1:
[20:04] I feel that. I think for me, it's the fact that I associate Link with kind of being a silly character. Like he's the hero of the story. He's the swordsman. He's a warrior and all this stuff. He's also it's weird because he said it during the Elden Ring story. But Link very much is he's a blank slate, but he has personality. But it's hard for me to visualize what the prototypical Link is. I think I would think Ocarina Link.
Speaker 3:
[20:31] I think the one thing that carries throughout the entire series is that, speaking of silly little guys, he's just a silly little guy. Yeah, it's mainly his main character trait.
Speaker 2:
[20:42] He's quiet and he kinda reacts to people, but usually in sort of quietly silly ways. He's cool because he's the hero, but if he were not the hero, he would just be sort of an awkward dude.
Speaker 1:
[20:54] For sure. What's Link at his most serious? Is that Twilight Princess?
Speaker 2:
[21:00] Twilight Princess has weird little guys in it too though. He's a weird guy in that one. I don't know, maybe one of the top down ones where he doesn't have as much going on. Maybe linked to the past, there's a little bit less of his own personality that's able to come through. Actually, honestly, Original Legend Of Zelda is probably the most serious he is.
Speaker 3:
[21:16] Yeah, I would say that. The less story there is, the more serious kind of tone you can imprint on him. Because even linked to the past, I would say he's a silly little dude in that as well.
Speaker 2:
[21:28] He's a silly little dude, yeah. Yeah, this is kind of cool. This is kind of cool. The presence of the Triforce on that is interesting. I'm trying to think in Zelda lore what that's supposed to tell us about, because that's the big question, right? What game is this? What story is being told? We don't know.
Speaker 1:
[21:48] I mean, I look at this and I think Ocarina. I know this is kind of like, this link kind of does look like if you were to tell, and I don't mean this as an insult, but if you're to tell an AI to make link from Zelda, this is what this link looks like. In the sense of this feels like it's pulling all the elements of links we know and just spitting out like, hey, this is what people visualize when they think of a live action link.
Speaker 2:
[22:12] But I would also say the Triforce would be an interesting inclusion if you were going to say it's Ocarina. And I say this, having played Ocarina of Time for the first time earlier this year, all the way through, very enjoyable. The Triforce is not very present in Ocarina. It's there, but my impression of it was it was like an afterthought. Like somebody was finishing the game and suddenly looked down at a document. It's like, oh, crud, we have to get the Triforce in here somewhere. And then wrote a couple of cutscenes about it and put it on their hands. Like there's not a whole lot of Triforce going on in that game.
Speaker 1:
[22:45] So, but I don't know, maybe the I read into the Triforce of when you're thinking of iconic Zelda iconography, like I think you have to have the Triforce in the in the thing, no matter how big or small the role it may play, which I think if you're making, I mean, you're making a movie, right? It has to be, it's going to be a narrative, I'll say narrative focus, but it's literally a movie, right? So I think in a form of Zelda where you have to be fully in on story, I think the Triforce has to be a big deal because the Triforce is one of the interesting facets of that, of how those three characters interact between Zelda, Zelda Link and Ganon.
Speaker 2:
[23:29] You can very easily, I think, tell Ocarina of Time with a little more Triforce added.
Speaker 1:
[23:34] Oh, for sure.
Speaker 2:
[23:35] You could, you could do that. I do, I actually, you know what I will say confidently looking at this image? I do not think they are making a movie about the Minish Cap.
Speaker 1:
[23:44] You know what?
Speaker 2:
[23:44] Fair.
Speaker 1:
[23:45] I'm with you there.
Speaker 2:
[23:46] I don't, I think that is as confirmed as it can be.
Speaker 3:
[23:50] I was really hoping for that one, you know.
Speaker 1:
[23:51] That, that, that, ooh, Mommy font. Is that Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom font?
Speaker 3:
[23:56] Yeah, it's a bit, it's pulling a bit more from the kind of like modern Zelda.
Speaker 1:
[24:01] Which could just be there.
Speaker 3:
[24:02] Like less broken down because those are always decaying, which I find interesting.
Speaker 2:
[24:06] Oh, yeah.
Speaker 3:
[24:07] This is a bit more like, this is shiny new. So yeah, I don't know what their intent with that is. My, my-
Speaker 2:
[24:15] Placetically, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1:
[24:17] Yeah, people are saying classic Zelda font cause that's a good point that I believe the Echoes of Wisdom has that font too, right?
Speaker 3:
[24:22] Mm, okay.
Speaker 1:
[24:24] Double check me on that, but I'm pretty sure.
Speaker 3:
[24:26] I'm just thinking of like the, weird kind of like, like shapes in, within the, the letters there. Like that doesn't stand out to me as like something inherently something from the rest of the series, but maybe I'm just having a tired morning and not remembering things well. My guess, my best guess, and my hope, honestly, is what they're pulling from story wise would be linked to the past. I think it's the most straightforward story you could tell. I think, I think a lot of people think Ocarina of Time, but half of that would, if you want to really do Ocarina of Time well, half of that would have to be a child link. And as far as we can tell, I don't know if they're secretly cast a child link to be the co-star in this movie, so.
Speaker 1:
[25:12] That's a good haul.
Speaker 2:
[25:13] I could see them not wanting to reveal a child actor in a very dramatic fashion super early on too.
Speaker 3:
[25:20] That's true.
Speaker 2:
[25:21] Just for privacy reasons, people are gonna be weird about that kid. Yeah. And I feel like they wouldn't want to expose them to that until they absolutely had to. I will say aesthetically about the font, I think it's really difficult to tell nowadays what is, about this movie, what aspects of it are, oh, this is an indicator, what kind of movie this is going to be, and what aspects of it are, oh, this is just what Zelda is now. Like the font, I think the fact that he's wearing the blue tunic in those photos too, or no, he's not wearing the blue tunic, she's wearing the blue. One of them is wearing blue in the other set of photos.
Speaker 3:
[25:52] I think he was, but I also think that was just test footage as well.
Speaker 2:
[25:56] Oh, maybe.
Speaker 3:
[25:57] Yeah, I don't think that was actual, like, they're on the set, like, they're ready to film. I think that was, like, really early, like, just to make sure that they worked together as characters.
Speaker 2:
[26:06] But regardless, I mean, the blue, the blueness of it is like, that's kind of what we recognize as Link now in a lot of respects. It's maybe it's not quite as iconic as the green, but it's close. And so I think, like, some of that is just this is Zelda now, and it's just part of it, regardless of which story we're telling.
Speaker 1:
[26:24] Yeah, I think we're I think with the with the rumored Ocarina remake, which I'm not 100% convinced anymore after people started talking about Nintendo Ninjas, but like, if that is happening, I think you want to have a return to, like, quote unquote classic nostalgic Zelda. You know what I mean? I think post Breath of the Wild, Tears of the Kingdom, obviously those games are fantastic and successful. Some of my favorite games of all time, right? I think we're we're firmly in an era where people, I think, are have that nostalgia for Link in a Green Tunic, right? Those classic Zelda stories. And I think now is the time to strike with that. And so like to coincide with an Ocarina remake game, I think you would want to have a story that feels, yeah, either more linked to the past or more Ocarina. I think we're going to be firmly in that realm. And then like, if that works, then we get a little bit weird with it. If that works, maybe we go Majora, maybe we go Twilight, maybe we go Skyward Sword, if you wouldn't really want to get crazy.
Speaker 2:
[27:27] Phantom Hourglass, let's go.
Speaker 1:
[27:28] Let's go, Minish Cap, let's fucking do it.
Speaker 2:
[27:30] Oh my God. I would lose my mind for a Majora's Mask, like film or something. Oh, man.
Speaker 1:
[27:38] Listen, these days, it's not impossible.
Speaker 2:
[27:41] I can see Majora being like a serialized show too, where every episode is a new three-day cycle and it focuses on a different subplot each time. Oh my gosh, I'd lose my mind.
Speaker 1:
[27:50] I love it. Reb, we're going to talk about story number three, which involves Shuhei Yoshida revealing why he was fired at PlayStation. But before we get there, I want to tell you about patreon.com/kindafunny and youtube.com/kindafunnygames, where you can go and get the Kinda Funny membership which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. And we're back with story number three. Shuhei Yoshida says Jim Ryan fired him from PlayStation Studios, quote, because I didn't listen to him. This is from Edmund Tran at This Week in Video Games. Shuhei Yoshida, the former head of Sony Worldwide Studios, has remarked that he was fired from the role by then CEO Jim Ryan, quote, because I didn't listen to him, end quote. Speaking at the 2026 edition of Australian Games Festival, Alt Games, the 31-year PlayStation veteran introduced himself by recounting his long career, including his transition from leading PlayStation's first party studio efforts for over a decade to becoming the company's indie game evangelist as head of PlayStation Indies, quote, I helped Santa Monica to make God of War, Naughty Dog to make Uncharted in The Last of Us, and Sucker Punch to make The Beautiful Ghost of Tsushima, he said, describing his work during the 2000s, quote, Ghost of Tsushima was one of the last games that I worked on as the president of Worldwide Studios. But in 2019, after 11 years leading the first party development, I was fired from the role. Jim Ryan went to remove me from first party because I didn't listen to him, he said jovially, prompting laughter from the audience. Quote, he asked to do some ridiculous things and I said no, end quote. When Guerrilla Games co-founder Herman Holst was announced, the new head of Worldwide Studios, Sony, was vague about the terms of the transition. Simply saying that, quote, Yoshida will leave his current position as President Worldwide Studios to become head of a newly formed initiative that will focus on nurturing external independent creators, end quote. Jim Ryan, who joined Sony Computer Entertainment in 1994, served as CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment from 2019 to 2024. Quote, because I grew up with Jim from the PS1 days, you don't want to have one of your friends as one of your subordinates, Yoshida remarked. However, Ryan offered Yoshida the role to focus on improving PlayStation's support for indie development. Quote, because everybody in the company knew how much I loved indie games. I really enjoyed the role of promoting and evangelizing indie games, he emphasized. Yoshida eventually left PlayStation in January 2025, after 31 years with the company and formed his own indie game consulting firm, Yosp Inc. Rebecca, Shuhei Yoshida fired at PlayStation. Is this something that is shocking to you?
Speaker 2:
[30:36] No, but also it's hard to tell how serious he's being. On one hand, it definitely seemed to me when he changed jobs, that this was an effort to sort of, we need you to not be in this part of the company anymore. I think it's always felt that way to a lot of people. And Shuhei Yoshida has been very, very vocal, both towards the end of his time at PlayStation and since, delightfully so in fact. But I also, like he's saying this in such a very cheerful way, it's hard to tell if it's cheerful because he's like pleasantly throwing shade, or if he's being cheerful about it, like, aha, yeah, they fired me.
Speaker 1:
[31:21] I mean, in the article, like when he says the quote, Jim Ryan wanted to remove you from first party because I didn't listen to him. The article goes on to say he said that jovially, right? Prompting laughter from the audience.
Speaker 2:
[31:31] Yeah. So I just like, like, totally it's hard to get around sort of what, what actually is happening here. But I mean, I do think it's like, I think it is pretty clear from, from this and from the other context that we have about him, that there has been, there was some disagreement about how things should go when he was in that role. And, and it was easier to have him go do something else instead, whether he was excited about that or it was his idea, or whether he was sort of pushed away. I don't think we'll ever know for sure, but it's interesting. This like introduces like this, this more concrete layer of tension to this whole story than I think necessarily existed there before.
Speaker 1:
[32:17] And I'm, I'm for some reason with the story, I'm getting a sense of deja vu. I feel like he might have either implied this before, or this was something that people have talked about. But when I read the story this morning, this wasn't something that I took as like brand new news. You know what I mean? Like even like you mentioned him going from worldwide studios president to being head of the initiative for Indies. That is definitely, that's a, that's a big jump in position, Rebecca, right? Like that's not-
Speaker 2:
[32:41] No matter how much you love Indies. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[32:42] No matter how much you love Indies, that is, oh, I'm stepping down from being president here. Like that is a, that's a monumental shift in position that like maybe you do that by choice. Maybe that is some, maybe that is a version of firing. But like either way, that is you giving up something and going, all right, cool. The company is moving past me as far as being in this big leadership role, which of course we can talk about. There's stuff to dissect there that I feel like we've dissected already within the last year of Shuhei not being in PlayStation. But yeah, at the end of the day, right? Like I see this and it strikes me as very much something of Shuhei Yoshida has been a part of PlayStation for decades, right? And he was at PlayStation when PlayStation 30. Yeah, like you're there when PlayStation is something a lot smaller and PlayStation is something a bit more, I was gonna say honed in focus. Those aren't the right words, but a bit more contained is what I'll say. When you turn into this industry that is now balloon, balloon, ballooned, you are one of the main players in the video games industry, you're a platform holder, and you have all of these studios and you go from working within the millions of dollars in the billions of dollars, right? Like, yeah, things might pass you by, things might change. And there are so many critiques that I have and that we can have about Jim Ryan's time at PlayStation and decisions made there as far as what that output looks like. But yeah, none of this surprises me.
Speaker 2:
[34:10] No, this is very much a look at the headline and go, yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker 1:
[34:14] Yeah, 100%. That said, I do love how much he talks. I do love how much Shuhei talks.
Speaker 2:
[34:21] I wonder if this is online. Again, I woke up and was trying to figure out a CMS. So I did not have time to go try to look up this talk somewhere. But I would love to hear the rest of it and hear what the tone of it overall was and kind of the context leading into this discussion and leading out. I might go look that up later and see if it's online somewhere because he's a really interesting man. And yeah, he talks.
Speaker 1:
[34:46] Yeah. And I want to say, I mean, I'm excited that he's still in the industry. I'm excited that he's doing this. His like indie game consulting firm. Because the one thing I believe the most out of this story is that Shuhei loves indies. In fact, I kind of miss that Shuhei is not in the indie initiative at PlayStation anymore because Shu is like how I would learn about certain games, right? Like I played Chicory because Shu was tweeting about Chicory nonstop when that came to PlayStation. Like I think there was a different energy regarding the indie titles that they were putting out earlier on in the generation when they were doing the whole PlayStation indie thing a bit more, I think, outwardly and publicly. There was a different energy then than there is now with it, where sometimes I forget that certain games are even coming to PlayStation on the indie side.
Speaker 2:
[35:33] I also do think, well, I hesitate to say this because I don't want to try to get in the heads of people at PlayStation. I have no idea what's going on or what anyone is thinking. But reading this to me, there is a sense that they moved him out of one role into another. You don't make him head of indies if you want to just get rid of him. If you really want to get rid of him, you put him in a job that sucks so that he'll quit, right? You know he loves indies. They were clearly trying to get him... They need him out of this one department, whatever. But they're clearly trying to give him something that he is both good at and passionate about. And so it's not a promotion, and it certainly shouldn't be viewed that way, but it doesn't feel like...
Speaker 1:
[36:21] Malicious.
Speaker 2:
[36:22] It doesn't feel wildly malicious, no.
Speaker 1:
[36:24] Yeah, like you can tell... Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2:
[36:26] I don't know.
Speaker 1:
[36:26] Again, not to get in the heads there, but I don't think there's people at PlayStation that hate Shuhei. You know what I mean? In fact, meeting Shuhei, I think it'd be impossible to hate Shuhei, at least on a personal level, right? But also, I could very easily see a situation where you're like, all right, we like you, but we don't like you in this position. We got to shift you over here or something, because we got different plans for where the company is going. We got 10 live service games. We did a green light, and you are getting in the way of that. So boom, which again, I don't want to project too much and get in their heads.
Speaker 2:
[36:56] No, I truly have no idea. And I don't know. Shuhei Yoshida, I can't like speculate.
Speaker 1:
[37:03] Yeah. Let's move on to story number four. Clear obscure and dispatch lead the twenty twenty six BAFTA Game Awards. This is Andy Robinson at Video Games Chronicle. Clair Obscur Expedition 33 won Best Game at the 2026 BAFTA Game Awards in a ceremony that saw a broad spread of titles honored. In total, the Sandfall RPG won three of its twelve nominations, including debut game and performer in the leading role for Jennifer English. Dispatch the debut superhero narrative from ad hoc also won three BAFTA awards for animation, audio achievement and performer in a supporting role for Jeffrey Wright. Indie puzzle game Blueprints won the Game Design Award, while Rebellion's Atomfall won Best British Game. PlayStation picked up three awards for artistic achievement with Death Stranding 2, technical achievement with Ghost of Yote, and music with Ghost of Yote. The Fellowship Award was given to Supercell boss Lika Pananen. Reb, I saw somewhere floating online that Clair Obscur has earned the EGOT for video games via this, where it's won every one of the major gaming award shows, and I think it's the first game to do so.
Speaker 2:
[38:17] I have not done math on this. I have not Googled every single award ceremony out there and tabulated everything going back decades, but vibes-wise, I think Clair Obscur is probably the most decorated video game ever. And I guess unless you're counting all the things Tetris has won over the years for whatever reason. Oh, sure, sure. I don't know. It seems like for game of the year sort of stuff, I think Clair Obscur is probably the most decorated thing. It's interesting. I know there's this whole sort of, I don't want to say discourse, but this conversation around, oh, is it winning too many awards, crowding out all these other things? And it is sort of like this weird feeling of, you want this game that is clearly very good. That game is excellent. It was my favorite game last year. It was freaking incredible. Like you want it to be celebrated rightfully for its accomplishments. And also there's like this kind of feeling of disappointment, like, oh, but I played a bunch of other really good things last year and no one's talking about them because everyone's only talking about Clair Obscur. So I like looking at this and seeing that, okay, it won three and Dispatch won three and Blueprints got one and Adam Fall got one and PlayStation got three for two different games. Like that's that's really nice. Nice spread. Yeah, I'm glad other things are getting celebrated too. Everybody gets their flowers.
Speaker 1:
[39:30] That's the same reaction I had when I was reading through these. I'm like it won three of twelve. Oh, thank God. That's some of the other games I loved are getting awarded for their very hard work on those things.
Speaker 2:
[39:39] Yeah, you want it to be celebrated. Like I don't want to take anything away from Claire Obscur. I love that game. It's so good. But I also in addition to want to see a lot of other things celebrated because it was a great year last year.
Speaker 1:
[39:51] Yeah, like I have the the Video Games Chronicle article opened up with like the winners listed. So to shout out even a few more, right? Multiplayer game was won by Arc Raiders. Evolving game was won by No Man's Sky. We mentioned British game was Adam Fall, which I saw somebody in chat mentioned. Why is there no American game? Remember, this is the BAFTAs. And so we're going to bring it over here.
Speaker 2:
[40:13] British game awards are not going to give the best American game award.
Speaker 1:
[40:17] Exactly, Rebecca. Yeah, game design was the Blueprints. Family game was the Lego Party, which kind of warms my heart. I love Lego Party. I think we all here love Lego Party, but I could have easily seen it not getting awarded for anything because it feels like it's a bit under the radar. So shout out to that.
Speaker 2:
[40:34] I love being awarded for that. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1:
[40:37] Yeah. Narrative, you had Kingdom Come Deliverance too, win that. They have a new IP award, which I like that as a category, which was won by South of Midnight, which I'm surprised that wasn't won by Clair Obscur. There's a few categories here. I'm like, damn, Clair Obscur didn't win that. Music being won by Ghost of the Yote. No shade to Ghost of the Yote. I like that game. But that seems like such a slam dunk for a Clair Obscur.
Speaker 2:
[41:02] Can I just raise my hand and say that as good as Clair Obscur's music is, and it is, again, freaking excellent. Loved it. I listen to the soundtrack all the time. I think it's criminal that Deltarune Chapters 3 and 4 didn't get nominated for music in more award shows.
Speaker 1:
[41:16] See, Rebecca, this is why we're homies.
Speaker 2:
[41:18] Like, what are we? Did nobody? Nobody played that game. That's the problem. But that soundtrack is ridiculous. It should have at least been in contention. I am just floored that nobody listened to that. I think that is some of Toby Fox's absolute best work.
Speaker 1:
[41:32] OK, well, you have me excited to go to it at some point. Because I played chapters one and two of Deltarune. But I think last year I just hit a point where I was like, just release all of them and I'll just play them all together.
Speaker 2:
[41:44] No, I don't really like the chapter release. You got to get on this train. This is like Kentucky Root Zero. When that was coming out, like, you know, every couple of years or so, you get a chapter. We're on this train together. We all, you see a chapter and then you have a whole year to develop a bunch of ridiculous theories and obsess over it and wonder what's going on. And then a new chapter comes out and they're all blown to pieces.
Speaker 3:
[42:07] Ah, it's like it's weekly television, but way more intense television. But like, but it's being done by Toby Fox. So it's also just fucking incredible every time.
Speaker 1:
[42:17] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[42:18] Chapter three, I think is a little, I like chapter three more in retrospect than I did in the actual moment of playing it. So chapter three, it's one of the lower ones. Chapter four is like the best one so far.
Speaker 1:
[42:30] It's so, so good.
Speaker 2:
[42:31] The cliffhanger it ends on, you gotta play it, dude. You gotta do it.
Speaker 1:
[42:36] Okay. I mean, the Deltarune soundtrack is one that I still listen to to this day, like regularly. Like the Field of Hopes and Dreams is like such, it sounds like such a classic JRPG soundtrack. That and Rude Buster are like, oh man.
Speaker 2:
[42:52] You gotta catch up, man. You've got to listen to the chapter three and four soundtrack. I'm telling you, especially four. Oh my gosh. Losing my mind here.
Speaker 1:
[42:59] You're convincing me. And then a few more awards are given, right? Game Beyond Entertainment was given to Despalote, which shout out to Despalote. Love that game.
Speaker 2:
[43:07] Go Despalote. That game rules.
Speaker 1:
[43:09] Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[43:11] The ending of that game, I've never seen anything like that before. I don't even want to, I'm not going to talk about it, but like the thing that they do with the ending, there's this very particular scene that I've never seen anything like it before, and I thought it was really cool.
Speaker 1:
[43:25] Hell yeah. Reb, we're going to move on to story number five. ID8 Xbox presented by IGN April 2026 showcase has been announced. This is Adam Bankhurst at IGN. IGN is proud to partner once again with ID8 Xbox for another exciting showcase on April 23rd, 2026. That'll feature tons of indie games headed to Xbox and PC, including Miss Fall Hunter, There Are No Ghosts at the Grand, Aphelion, Solo Leveling, Arise Overdrive, and more. There are only a few of the games, that will appear in the showcase. That will be filled to the brim with exclusive trailers, new looks, and gameplay from titles headed our way in the future. The next ID8 Xbox will kick off on Thursday, April 23rd at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Exciting stuff.
Speaker 2:
[44:11] No Ghosts at the Grand looks good.
Speaker 1:
[44:14] Remind me what that game is. I remember that name.
Speaker 2:
[44:17] You would ask me to recite what that game is, having looked at a trailer months ago and forgotten about it.
Speaker 1:
[44:24] Hold on, I do have a Steam description here.
Speaker 2:
[44:26] Yeah, I'm pulling it up to glance it at myself so that I don't... Yeah, okay. So you've got like this hotel thing, and it's haunted, and you're going around the hotel, like ghosts are messing with you the whole time, but it's not like a... I think it's like... I don't wanna say it's not a scary game, but it's not like a weird sort of... It doesn't seem like it's a sort of weird like jump scare situation. It seems like it's more magical and playful was the vibe that I got from it.
Speaker 1:
[44:56] There's a man on this gun that is just straight up the Pip Boy from Fallout mixed with like maybe a little bit of Cuphead art style to him.
Speaker 3:
[45:05] But then like also like what if Nick Scarpino was that man, you know, a little bit.
Speaker 1:
[45:10] Hold on. What does that mean? Oh, actually, no, you're right. I see. Look at you're right. You're right. Yeah, that is Nick Scarpino. Damn, that's upsetting. I can't play this game now.
Speaker 2:
[45:24] It just seems very charming, you know, stuff throwing books at you. I don't know. The more I watch of this, actually, it does seem like there's some creepy stuff in it. But I don't know. It has this playful tone to it.
Speaker 1:
[45:35] It looks really neat.
Speaker 2:
[45:37] I think it's very, very nice.
Speaker 1:
[45:38] It reminds me like a little bit of like a Bioshock or something. Not gameplay wise, but presentationally. Then I'm looking at these other games. Of course, we know Solo Leveling Arise here because we were sponsored by them, I think, a while ago. Ophelia, that sounds familiar. Hold on. I'm looking that up.
Speaker 3:
[45:55] It's the Don't Nod game.
Speaker 1:
[45:56] You're right. It is the Space Don't Nod game, which I am looking forward to seeing more of, even though I'm on the fence about it. Isn't that out very soon? That's out next week. The Space Don't Nod game is out April 28th, 2026.
Speaker 2:
[46:15] I feel like we don't hear enough about what they're doing.
Speaker 1:
[46:19] I feel like we don't have codes for that game. That seems like a game that we should have codes for, which could be honest. Maybe Greg forgot because this one stuck up on me. I'm going to ask Greg about that later. All right, that's cool. And then Miss Fall Hunter I'm not familiar with. I'm going to Google that real quick.
Speaker 2:
[46:36] Yeah. What is this?
Speaker 1:
[46:38] Miss Fall Hunter is a third-person action PvPVE extraction RPG. Combine skills, talents, and gear for each class in thrilling combat. Whether you team up or go solo, one thing remains certain. Only by fighting your way through can you return with a full haul. Good luck, Guild Hunter. All right, cool.
Speaker 2:
[46:57] God, have fun.
Speaker 1:
[46:58] Yeah, go with God.
Speaker 2:
[47:00] That's not for me. It's fine. Not every game has to be for me.
Speaker 1:
[47:03] 100 percent.
Speaker 2:
[47:04] Which is like most of them.
Speaker 1:
[47:05] Honestly, that's kind of the takeaway for me with this specific showcase, ID and Xbox, the one presented by Agen. Because I think I had the same thing last time, where last time they did the showcase, I think all of us were not feeling it. We're all very underwhelmed on the panel. A lot of people in chat were giving us pushback for that, I understand, we don't have to agree. But really, it is the thing of like, not every game needs to be for me. And I think when you get into a showcase like this, where it is indie focused, but even more so, it's like more of a casual showcase. It's not like it's the developer underscore direct, where they're putting all the production behind that and all that stuff, right? This is very much, hey, here's a bunch of indie games coming to the platform. For me, that's very much a time where you sit back, relax and just watch a bunch of trailers. And most of the games probably aren't gonna speak to you, but you might find one or two that do connect. And when that happens, Reb, it's a very big thing. But if I wanted something smaller, say the tiniest news I needed to know about, where would I go?
Speaker 2:
[48:05] You'd go to our last story, the We News Channel, where we cover all the small news items you need to know about.
Speaker 1:
[48:13] Story number six is We News. Pragmata has sold a million copies in two days. Winrose has sold a million copies in six days. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Re-synced Reveal Showcase has been set for April 23rd.
Speaker 2:
[48:29] Huh.
Speaker 3:
[48:30] I wonder what they'll reveal there.
Speaker 2:
[48:33] Can I be honest?
Speaker 1:
[48:34] Have they revealed? This is like deadlock to me, where I can't tell if this game was announced or not.
Speaker 3:
[48:39] It was announced, but more leaks, like another leak came out, I think, what was it, Friday, Thursday, something along the lines of that. And it's just one of those, like, it can't be an Assassin's Creed release without some leaks. Cause it happens every time.
Speaker 1:
[48:54] I just don't know if I would call this a reveal showcase then. Let's call it a showcase.
Speaker 3:
[49:00] Well, this is the first time they're properly like revealing it.
Speaker 1:
[49:03] Oh, we haven't gotten gameplay.
Speaker 3:
[49:04] We haven't gotten a trailer. It was a blog post that they announced this game.
Speaker 1:
[49:08] They're treating this game weird.
Speaker 3:
[49:08] Which made me think that like this game wasn't gonna come out this year. I was like, you're announcing it at a blog post?
Speaker 2:
[49:13] They're just fed up with all the leaks. They just had to throw it out there.
Speaker 1:
[49:17] Well, that's happening April 23rd. We got more games that are coming to Game Pass this month. On the 21st, you're getting Vampire Crawlers, very exciting. On the 23rd, you're getting Kiln, very exciting. On the 28th, you're getting Ophelion, very, very exciting. On the 29th, you're getting Trapang 2. On the 30th, you're getting Sledding Game, Teratek Legion and Heroes of Might and Magic, Old and Era. And then on May 5th, you're getting Final Fantasy V, interesting. And then for premium, you're getting Little Rocket Lab and Sopa, Tale of the Stolen Potato. Wait, hold on, you cut out real strong there, Reb. You peeked out.
Speaker 2:
[49:54] Sorry.
Speaker 1:
[49:54] What would you say?
Speaker 2:
[49:55] Sorry, Sopa's coming out finally?
Speaker 1:
[49:57] What is Sopa?
Speaker 2:
[49:59] It's this really sweet indie game that I've played a couple of at a couple of showcases where this little boy who's making Sopa soup with his grandmother, and she keeps telling him to go into the cupboard and get like ingredients like a potato or whatever. But every time he goes in there, it's like it's like a Narnia cupboard and he keeps going on these like mystical adventures to get the ingredients he needs. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. This looks so pretty. Yeah, since I played the early version, how is this coming out? And I'm only hearing about it like this.
Speaker 1:
[50:28] I love this art style. It sounds like people are saying it's been out, by the way. Since like since late last year, I think.
Speaker 2:
[50:36] Nobody told me.
Speaker 1:
[50:38] This is cool.
Speaker 2:
[50:39] I've never heard about this. I'm so upset that I didn't hear about this.
Speaker 1:
[50:43] Hold on. How did I not hear about this? This looks fucking awesome.
Speaker 2:
[50:46] Well, whatever. Soap is great. I'm going to go. No, I'm not going to play it right now because I'm stuck on other things I can't talk about. But I will play this soon.
Speaker 1:
[50:57] That is Soap, Tale of the Stolen Potato for anybody curious. Then we got a bunch of Dragon Ball news. Goku Super Saiyan 4 Daima joins the Dragon Ball Fighter's roster on April 22nd. Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, last DLC, future saga chapter 4 launches this summer. Dragon Ball Sparking Zero DLC, Super Limit Breaking Neo launches this summer. Then the exciting one, Dragon Ball Project Year 1000 turns out to be Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, which launches in 2027 on Xbox, PS5, and PC. It's gotten a new trailer and I am moderately excited for this.
Speaker 2:
[51:31] Moderately.
Speaker 1:
[51:32] Moderately excited. I played Xenoverse 1 in a little bit of Xenoverse 2, and I highly prefer, God, I'm getting very nerdy right now. I highly prefer the Sparking Games, Tenkaichi. I want more of a straightforward arena fighter that is more so about like skill than it is about like leveling up and grinding. Xenoverse is almost more akin to like an MMO-lite experience, right? Like there's like multiplayer aspects there. You're creating a character to almost be like Doctor Who style. I'm going through the history of Dragon Ball and correcting things. It's a neat concept, but not my favorite iteration of what a Dragon Ball game looks like. Either way, pretty cool that it got announced here. And I know there's the Xenoverse community, they love it. So congratulations, everybody. More Wii news for you. Forza Horizon 6 Limited Edition Controller and Headset have been announced. Reb, does this do anything for you?
Speaker 2:
[52:25] That controller is nice.
Speaker 1:
[52:27] Can we get this full screen, Barrett?
Speaker 2:
[52:29] It's a nice controller. I have the Forza 5 controller and it's my favorite Xbox controller. This is pretty good.
Speaker 1:
[52:36] Now that I'm really looking at it, yeah, I like this a lot. I like that they have the controller design being basically the map of the game, right? It's like a map of the map.
Speaker 2:
[52:45] I have the kind of money on the accessories right now though.
Speaker 1:
[52:48] Yeah. I also hate that they do the limited thing. Just release it.
Speaker 2:
[52:53] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[52:54] More Wii news for you. From Matt Piscatella, Starfield was the best-selling video game of the week in tracked physical and digital US full game dollars sales during the week ending April 11th. It's the first time Starfield has led the weekly US best-selling titles chart since week ending September 2nd, 2023. That was put in there by Greg Miller.
Speaker 2:
[53:17] From this outstanding accomplishment on Starfield's part, but what else came out last week or two weeks ago?
Speaker 1:
[53:25] What was that, Barrett?
Speaker 2:
[53:27] Got him.
Speaker 1:
[53:28] Oh, well, I think what's funny is I thought you said- I thought you said Progmata.
Speaker 2:
[53:33] Pokemon Champions came out, and Pokemon Champions is a free to start game that is digital only, meaning Starcraft doesn't track it. So there's no telling how well it did compared to Starfield. So I don't know. This is fine.
Speaker 1:
[53:44] Hold on. I'm pulling up numbers. No, I'm pulling up the calendar because now I'm seeing now I'm going to look now I'm going to fact check.
Speaker 3:
[53:49] Progmata, Mouse PI.
Speaker 1:
[53:51] Well, those were last week.
Speaker 2:
[53:53] It's the week ending April 11th.
Speaker 1:
[53:54] Ending April 11th. There's Terran Armada. Oh wait, that is Starfield.
Speaker 2:
[54:00] Starfield and Starfield.
Speaker 1:
[54:04] I'll be like, there's a game called Terran Armada. What do you mean? What is Terran Armada? There was Samson. What about Samson?
Speaker 3:
[54:11] Oh, Samson. What happened to the game?
Speaker 1:
[54:15] You know, Samson. Samson, Reb.
Speaker 3:
[54:16] You know, Samson.
Speaker 2:
[54:18] I'm sorry to the developers of Samson. I don't know it.
Speaker 1:
[54:22] Replaced. Well, that came out. Actually, I was after that was the 14th. People of Note. Yeah, you're right, Reb.
Speaker 2:
[54:30] People are not looking that cool, but yeah, it's fine.
Speaker 1:
[54:35] More Wii news for you. Ball Pit, the Shadow Update, launches April 27th. And then finally, Nioh 3, Free Update, launches April 27th. New skills as reward for completing selected high difficulty battle scroll missions. You got new side missions and you got the Stone of Penance, which increases accessory plus values and rarities in exchange for higher difficulties. And that is it for Wee News. Let's hang out in the Super Chats for a second. Zeke Speaks writes in and says, Rebecca, one time on Blue Sky, I mixed you up with the creative director of Warframe, whose name is Rebecca Ford.
Speaker 2:
[55:09] I know who that is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[55:11] They said you were like, hey, thanks for the kind message for wrong person. And I want to publicly apologize. Thank you.
Speaker 2:
[55:18] It was truly nothing and very funny. You are forgiven.
Speaker 1:
[55:23] Snaven Shake says, Rebecca, it's BK still waiting for new Golden Sun.
Speaker 2:
[55:29] Oh, my God. Wow. That's a throwback to my forum days. Oh, I too am still. Yeah. To my youthful days bouncing around a Golden Sun fan for ban this guy a lot of times. Now we're friends.
Speaker 1:
[55:43] I love that. Leprechaun writes in and says, birthday tax. Congrats, Rebecca. Kotaku has had its ups and downs, but to me, it's still the goat of video game news sites. Sorry, Greg. Here we go. Happy birthday, Leprechaun.
Speaker 2:
[55:58] Happy birthday.
Speaker 1:
[55:59] Artuotron Robobartender says, Rebecca is the best. Tell Imran more puns.
Speaker 2:
[56:05] I'm not going to tell him that because I have to deal with it. Actually, it was great.
Speaker 1:
[56:11] Gerardo is cool says, Happy Monday, y'all paying my birthday tax for my dad who's 69 today. Nice. He's an upside down calculator with 531-8008, typed in a way for the Holy Trinity. That's boobies backwards.
Speaker 2:
[56:29] Thank you.
Speaker 3:
[56:30] He's turning 69 on 420.
Speaker 1:
[56:32] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[56:32] He's a calculator with boobies written on him.
Speaker 2:
[56:35] I like that. I see.
Speaker 1:
[56:36] That was a coded message for the sickles out there. Corey Concaso says, it's worth noting that Peter Serafinawix voiced an NPC in Dark Souls 2.
Speaker 2:
[56:46] Yes, he did. Hate, specifically.
Speaker 1:
[56:51] I got to get to Dark Souls 2. I played Dark Souls 1 for the first time in January, and so I'm ready now. I'm fully in on the Dark Souls universe, but I've heard conflicting things about 2 that has me scared to boot it up.
Speaker 2:
[57:03] I actually, Elden Ring was my first from soft game that I played through to completion. I had played a lot of Dark Souls 1 so that I knew I liked their stuff, but I never finished it. I keep meaning to go back and finish DS 1 because I loved it. It was so good. I just got distracted.
Speaker 1:
[57:17] The Co-op Rose says, Kaylee Spaney is Ronnie, and I actually think Emmy Laird is Merica, and Rose Liu is Melania, in my opinion. We got to, at some point, maybe this is the games cast, maybe this is me and Andy hanging out off camera, but I want to cast each of these people. I know, go to your Kotaku article because you basically do that in there a little bit.
Speaker 2:
[57:42] It's like visualizing, right? I think if you gave me a nice headshot of each of them, and next to two bullet points of their most notable roles, and then pictures of the characters on the other side, I could sit there and rearrange them and get somewhere.
Speaker 1:
[57:56] GameBowsky says, birthday tax on my behalf. Oh, sorry, birthday tax on behalf of my daughter, Kalina, who turned 10 last weekend. Happy birthday, sweetie, love you so much. Happy birthday, Kalina. Unreal says, Reb, Golden Sun representation, all caps.
Speaker 2:
[58:12] Do I have a brand?
Speaker 1:
[58:13] I think, yeah, I associate you with Golden Sun.
Speaker 2:
[58:16] Yeah, you know what? I didn't think it would still be following me this many years later, but the love is real.
Speaker 3:
[58:22] Well, to be fair, you do have it right behind you as well.
Speaker 2:
[58:26] I do, actually.
Speaker 3:
[58:27] It is following you quite literally.
Speaker 2:
[58:29] It's my own fault, yeah.
Speaker 1:
[58:33] Kabob says, to be fair, I wouldn't listen to Jim Ryan either. That's very funny. Aaron Lyme says, seems like the root problem for Sony's problems is Ryan winning an internal power struggle against Layden for CEO and SIE, North America, EU, and Japan consolidating into one group and killing small game output in favor of big gambles. Yeah, I think there's a lot there. Again, it's the similar thing that Greg mentioned of, it's impossible to get fully into what's going on in their heads over there without being fed insider info or stuff like that. But yeah, I think when I think of PlayStation today and I think what the biggest problems are and what have led to the biggest problems, it really is the video games industry becoming bigger and bigger and bigger and the demand for more and more money and also like what we saw with the spike of how much money was coming into the video games industry, especially during the 2010s and into the pandemic, and then the industry maturing and that money evening out in ways that spooked shareholders. And so now you have not as much money coming in, which is spooking people at the top going, oh, now we got to lay off everybody. But I think that desire and chase for bigger and bigger profit leads to you making decisions like, oh, we're going to launch 12 live service games in the next few years. And we're allocating this percentage of budget towards life service and all this stuff. Meanwhile, you don't have the chops for live service, which end up where we're at now, where Concord was two weeks long. We got fair games that I'm not convinced is ever going to come out. Marathon is fun, but is it going to live? Like, I don't know. There's so many questions I have around that.
Speaker 2:
[60:12] Because you're also telling shareholders that each of those games is going to make them a billion, zillion dollars. And so even if any one of them is super successful, it's never going to live up to that. 100%.
Speaker 1:
[60:24] And I remember having this conversation when the statements first came out from PlayStation about their chase for life service. And I think me and Greg would talk about how, like, yeah, really you need just one Fortnite. If you can get one Fortnite, then that'll be the thing that is able to make all this money for you. But we've not even gotten close.
Speaker 2:
[60:44] Nobody will get the one Fortnite. And even if they do, several years down the road, as Fortnite is now, Fortnite will not be making enough money.
Speaker 1:
[60:53] Fortnite already is, yeah, isn't making enough money. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Man, I'm very interested in this Disney Extraction Shooter. Let's see here.
Speaker 2:
[61:04] I know that's not what it is, but please just give Mickey Mouse a gun again. I'm just ready. Like, just, just, let's go nuts.
Speaker 1:
[61:10] Again.
Speaker 2:
[61:12] Yeah, there's like a, if you Google, like, I'm so sorry. If you Google Mickey Mouse with a gun, there's like a cartoon that's really, really old where he has one.
Speaker 1:
[61:21] Hell, yeah. Dave Flores says, I always think of Link as quiet, steadfast, gung ho, a little lazy slash sleepy, naive and silly. A lot like kid Goku mixed with future trunks. I love that. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah, like a shotgun. Actually, that's like a hunting rifle.
Speaker 2:
[61:40] Yeah. But I, yeah, there's a couple, I think, there of him with a gun. There's President. He's had one before. He knows how to shoot it.
Speaker 1:
[61:47] Hell, yeah. Okay, we got time for one more here. Let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see. Kyle LaBeouf writes in and says, Reb, Isaac or Felix?
Speaker 2:
[62:00] Isaac.
Speaker 1:
[62:01] Damn. Damn, that's crazy. Do you want to explain that for the audience?
Speaker 2:
[62:05] No.
Speaker 1:
[62:06] Fair enough. Let's hop into kindoffunny.com/you'rewrong. Rewriting, let us know what we got wrong as we got wrong, so we can correct it for those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcast services around the globe. EJRPG says, Bless said Expedition 33 was the first game to win all major game awards or game award shows. The big five are generally the Game Awards, Golden Joysticks, the GDC Awards, Dice, and BAFTA. Expedition 33 is the second game in history to win all five. The first was Baldur's Gate III.
Speaker 2:
[62:37] That's right. Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[62:42] Let's see. Bander says, Bless commented on Final Fantasy 5 randomly come in a game pass. They've been putting out one Final Fantasy every month. Five comes out in May the fifth month. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah, it comes out in May the fifth month that they've been doing this. They've already done one through four.
Speaker 2:
[63:00] So if we wait like a year and a half or so, we're going to get like Final Fantasy 17?
Speaker 1:
[63:05] Yes. Unless they do the spinoffs. Maybe if they do the spinoffs, that might be Stranger in Paradise, who knows? But yeah, we'll get there.
Speaker 2:
[63:13] We'll get there.
Speaker 1:
[63:15] And then one more from Adork, who writes in his as you mispronounced Ophelion. But then they write the pronunciation. And I don't know. That's not how you would write out a pronunciation. If I pronounce it the way you write it, it's Apeleon.
Speaker 2:
[63:32] I mean, that's how it's pronounced.
Speaker 1:
[63:33] No shot. Apeleon.
Speaker 3:
[63:36] Apeleon.
Speaker 1:
[63:38] Say it again, Barrett.
Speaker 3:
[63:38] Apeleon.
Speaker 1:
[63:39] Apeleon.
Speaker 3:
[63:40] Apeleon.
Speaker 1:
[63:40] Are you telling me the P-H is not an F sound?
Speaker 3:
[63:43] Apeleon.
Speaker 1:
[63:45] Apeleon.
Speaker 2:
[63:47] I feel like if the P-H is not an F sound, you should not be required to know that on first look.
Speaker 1:
[63:52] That's on the word. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[63:54] Like you gotta put like a sign post or something if you're gonna be doing that with words.
Speaker 1:
[63:58] They say it's the point in an orbit where a planet is furthest from the sun. Interesting.
Speaker 2:
[64:05] Yes, a common word we are using every day.
Speaker 1:
[64:09] Speaking of, this is a non-sacrifice.
Speaker 2:
[64:10] Apeleon. Apeleon.
Speaker 1:
[64:11] Apeleon. There's no way that's how that's pronounced.
Speaker 2:
[64:14] Well, I've learned something today. Sort of.
Speaker 1:
[64:18] I watched Project Hail Mary over the weekend.
Speaker 2:
[64:20] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[64:21] Let me tell you.
Speaker 2:
[64:21] Yeah. It's a good movie. It's a really good movie.
Speaker 1:
[64:23] It's a really, really good movie. Reb, you're a really, really good journalist. You do great work.
Speaker 2:
[64:28] Thanks.
Speaker 1:
[64:29] And people can now read that work over at Kotaku. Is there anything you want to promote before we get out of here?
Speaker 2:
[64:36] Kotaku? I don't know. But you know what? I'll do it this way. I got this at IGN a lot, and I assume I'm going to get it at Kotaku as well, or any other mainstream. It's the one article I've published so far. Any other mainstream site that one works at. If you're somebody who's been sort of cynical in the past about mainstream games websites, places like IGN, Kotaku, maybe Polygon, or them and their game spot, whatever. Like, give them another chance. Because I think that there's a lot of people who sort of jump on the bandwagon to sort of complain about mainstream games websites, but who have not actually read those websites in a decade. And there's really good journalists at all these places doing really, really incredible work. And so I just want to combat the cynicism a little bit. I think the rise of independent games websites is freaking incredible, and I want more of them. I want more worker-owned places. I want all that stuff. I think it's incredible. And also, I want more cool workplaces like my past one and my current slash future one, where we've got some really cool people with a little bit of backing behind us to be able to do stuff that maybe smaller outlets can't. And also, IGN's unionized and Kotaka's unionized. So support your union-run games journalism.
Speaker 1:
[65:51] Hell yeah. Reb, thank you so much for joining me here. Where can people follow you on Blue Sky if you want people to follow you on the internet?
Speaker 2:
[65:58] I'm DuckValentine.BeastGuy.Social.
Speaker 1:
[66:01] There you go. Thanks again, Reb, for joining me. And congrats again on the new gig over at Kotaku. Very excited to see the work that you do there. I'm going to be clicking. I'm going to be reading all the articles that you put out. I'm going to be very excited when I see the Rebecca Valentine byline.
Speaker 2:
[66:16] I'll try to make them smart.
Speaker 1:
[66:17] Hell yeah. Of course, this has been Kinda Funny Games Daily. If you love what we do, support us at the Kinda Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube and get all of our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the games cast next, which is, I believe it's me and Greg hanging out with the one and only Troy Baker. You'd be correct. That's going to be a really fun one for y'all. And then afterwards, we got game show. Well, actually not game show. It is Kinda Feudy is after that. And I believe that's filled with special guests, if I remember correctly. And then after that, you got a gameplay stream, which is the 420 special that I forgot was happening. This is a jam-packed day. That's a really exciting day of content. So look forward to all of that. But until next time, Game Daily.