Game Mess Mornings

Jeff Grubb is joined by Lex Luddy to jump start your week with news! Today we're catching up on some of the bigger announcements coming out of Blizzcon, Wardogs selling a million copies in 24 hours, Polyarc shutting down, and more! 

0:00 - Intro
5:00 - Blizzard announced Diablo and StarCraft games that are years away ‘to show confidence’
19:50 - WoW Forever is basically Blizzard making its own alternate-history World of Warcraft
23:40 - Wardogs sold 1.25 million copies in 24 hours
28:50 - BREAK
30:13 - Moss series developer Polyarc shuts down
33:30 - SOMEBODY GOT YELLED AT: Level-5 CEO had to respond to AI backlash
42:00 - Sony secretly killed a different project last week
48:20 - Bloomberg: Apple to make gaming controllers for the iPhone
51:40 - OLD GAME NEWS: The other Xbox 360 exclusive JRPG from the creator of Final Fantasy now has a PC port

HAPPY FANELLI FRIDAY! We've got Jason Fanelli joining Grubb today to talk about updates with Kojima's Physint, Ubisoft and Steam, the upcoming EA merger, and more!

0:00 - Intro
4:24 - Saudi wealth fund weighs EA-Savvy merger, Bloomberg News reports
13:20 - PlayStation cancelled Hideo Kojima’s Physint because Death Stranding and its sequel did meet revenue expectations
22:50 - BREAK
23:07 - Ubisoft is 'testing' making its games far less annoying to launch on Steam
30:09 - That Zelda Direct was absolutely enormous
38:40 - Guess what was the biggest Nintendo Direct trailer in Japan
42:35 - VR headset shipments have fallen 18%
48:36 - Footage of PlayStation’s Fairgames allegedly leaks via playtest

We've got TurboShawn joining Grubb today for the news. We're talking Wolverine reviews, Sony trying to cancel Physint and Kojima finding a new publishing partner, a "Customer Appreciation Sale" at Nintendo, Matt Berry is in a Skyrim mod, and many more! 

0:00 - Intro
3:15 - Wolverine reviews
18:20 - Sony tried to cancel PHYSINT, and Xbox is now publishing it
33:33 - BREAK
33:50 - Nearly 1,900 Blizzard employees get a major union contract — including AI rules
38:40 - Nintendo announces a ‘Customer Appreciation Sale’ in America, says its tariff refunds made it possible
43:40 - Steam now requires Australian users to have a credit card to purchase R18+ games, and no, a simple bank debit card won't work
48:40 - Ikea has released a Skyrim mod where players are accompanied by a Kallax shelving unit voiced by Matt Berry
51:50 - SNK’s NeoGeo AES re-release delayed by nearly a year due to components shortage
53:00 - HEY WHAT IN ALL THE HELLS IS THIS DLSS 5 BULLSHIT?!
57:50 - Nintendo Adding VRR Support

We've got Taylor Cocke joining Grubb today to chat about virtually EVERYTHING from today's Nintendo Direct and we're getting ports, a new Kirby, AND A NEW METROID GAME! We also chat about the massive Steam leaks, EA using generative AI, and more for your Wednesday morning.

0:00 - INTRO
4:00 - Nintendo Direct
29:30 - Break
29:40 - Steam may have just suffered one of the biggest videogame leaks in years
35:20 - Xbox disc-to-digital: reports of publishers "opting out" were premature
39:10 - EA is reportedly using generative AI for NHL 27 commentary
45:35 - Riot is considering making normal, premium videogames
48:10 - PowerWash Simulator studio FuturLab reportedly laid people off without telling their managers 
51:10 - GameStop is becoming a collectibles company that happens to sell videogames 
53:50 - GOG is letting you print your own old PC big boxes
55:55 - This week

Jeff Grubb and Chuck Zimmerheld are ending the week with video game news! We're talking about Nintendo dropping two Directs on us next week, Sony's State of Play getting bombarded with negative comments, Xbox capping cloud gaming sessions, and more! 

00:00 - Intro
5:00 - Nintendo just announced TWO Directs for next week 
19:50 - Sony's State of Play got hijacked by “NO DISC NO BUY” and “DESTINY 3”
24:30 - Xbox is capping cloud gaming to 15 hours and charging for extra playtime
34:30 - break
34:45 - The physical edition of Final Fantasy 7 Revelation needs to download extra game data on all formats
38:40 - UK PS5 and Xbox sales jumped by a third following GTA 6’s Netflix reveal
41:35 - Something is happening with StarCraft
44:50 - Saber is now explicitly promising no generative AI in its big licensed games
47:00 - Konami had a surprisingly substantial showcase