Is This It For Xbox? - Kinda Funny Games Daily 02.25.26

Whether you're off to the big match, getting! Enjoying a trip to the coast to catch up with friends. Or exploring some incredible history with your family. With up to a third of most rail travel, a rail card can help you save on train journeys all around Great Britain. Find the one for you at railcar.co.uk Decent C's Apply. Eating cake on the go is hard. Trust me. Grab a confetti crease, five-hour energy shot instead. Vanilla E. Cake, flavor caffeinated cake, and no sugar. It's party time. Order now at 5hourenergy.com or Amazon. Today's gaming news stories include Xbox co-creator says it's being sunsetted. The new Xbox CEO denies AI theories and we have our first look at the back rooms movie. Well, all this and more because this is kind of funny games daily. Yo, what's up? Welcome to kind of funny games daily for Wednesday, February 25th, 2026. I'm one of your hosts, Blessing, Adelia Jr. join me is the Master of Hype. It's no bike, Mike. Bless my guy. Good to see you. I want everyone to know I did not know that this was going to be the title of today's ex episode before I jumped in. First of all, but I know how this works. You know how this works. That's all somebody in chat. I was like, oh, this is a dumb headline. Well, guess what? Till at the shameless black week. All right. He's the one who's saying it. We're going to talk about that. Okay. Same as black. Like, why are we doing? Okay. That's the whole conversation, right? And also you motherfuckers want to hear about Xbox. We're going to talk about it. We got to talk about Xbox. Big article just came out from jazz. Talking with. Okay. I'm not going to talk shit. I was going to talk shit. I'm not going to talk shit. Well, here's the deal. Yeah. It's a nothing burger because simply put this is it. She is coming into a new role. She has a lot to learn. This is it's like that little loser. Vert. I got it like yesterday. Yeah. I just got here. I just got here. I just got here. I don't have much to say. Yeah. You come back. Okay. And that's simply how this is. Is she is coming into a new role? She has a lot to learn on top of everything. Yeah. But like she's not making decisions tomorrow. So like you're going to wait some time. Here's my beef. Right. Tell me. You know, you had games in a street art biz. You have Bloomberg, Jake Shryer. You got the game business. Christopher Dring. You got you have you have IGN. You have a list of people that you can go to to have that first big interview. Big conversation layout. Like all right. Where are we at with Xbox? I don't know. I feel like the place that you went isn't the place that you go. If you're trying to have like a good interview. If you're trying to get something that is like window central. Jazz Windows Central has windows in the title of the website. Here's the I don't go to jazz for my fucking objective. Journalism about a big corporate shake up at Xbox. It's just a don't piss me off. There will be many more interviews in the next. It's your first one six months. It's it's just fine. There's nothing to be said. I just I'm going to go when we're going to go to the person that's going to that's going to make sure that they're okay with us saying nothing. Where do you want to do grill around day one? Ask questions that are have somebody that's going to follow up. Have somebody that's going to ask questions that matter. Have somebody that's not going to fucking serve you though most soft balls of questions. I'll have somebody that that's going to give you that's going to give an objective. Fucking stance. I'll get on the I'll get on the line with the crew. We'll get a hold and we'll get an interview for you. I'm crashing out my office and me on today. I'm crashing out. I'm crashing out. Talk to you. Before we start the show. He bless how are you? I didn't see what you did last night. Did you stream? What did you do? No, I went to Oakland. Oh my god. Yes, I went to the Grand Lake Feuders. So cool. I watched sinners in 70 millimeters at a Grand Lake, which is Ryan Huggler's favorite theater and Ryan Huggler, the director of sinners was in attendance. So sick. When I tell you I was so excited. Was there a vibe? Was there like an air to it all of like this is something special? Oh, for sure. Yeah. It was so shout out to the people that brought us out. This is part of this is being organized by SF film. But they reshot us as like a press outlet to come through and get to experience this. And so like it was cool to be invited shout out to Kevin who related the invite to me because they hit up Kevin because Kevin is our movie and he's contact. Movie bro. And so he relayed that to me and I'm like, well, yeah, I'm going to do this because I love sinners. And let me tell you, I watched it only one time last year. Our friends that have watched centers like five times in theaters. You said me, you love sinners. This is my second time watching it. And this being my second time watching it, let me tell you. The movie is twice as good. It's a little different. On the second watch, which is saying something because sinners is so good on the first watch. But getting to go in this time, 70 millimeter, beautiful presentation. There's something in the air because Ryan Cougler is in the building. And you're getting to like take in the details more. Are you getting to like listen to the music more and appreciate a lot of the subtleties in the film making of sinners? Oh, it's so good. And he got he did a Q and A afterwards with him. It was a Del Roy Lindo. It was the dude who did the music. I can't remember his name. Oh, I've already lost his name, not Ludwig Granson, but it was somebody who did like one of the major songs that appears in the movie. Rafael Sidiq. It was Rafael Sidiq. Okay. He had him doing the Q and A as well. And then two more people that were on the film crew, people who did sound, people who did music. Such a magical experience. Oh, bless. I'm so happy for you. That's what I did last night. That's an awesome night, man. That's a great way to kick off the week, right? Yeah. How's your night last night? It was fantastic, bless. I am feeling good looking good. I'm playing more Tomb Raider, of course. And now, of course, reviews are out. Rest in evil. Talk about it. I did play it before I had a review. Yeah. I'm ready to talk about it. I won't talk about it right now because we have a special games cast all about it. Yes. Coming up. Of course, if you booted up this KHD to hear us talk about Resident Evil, thank you so much for launching this episode. I'm talking about it like it's a video game. But thank you so much for launching this episode out of your executable. But you're going to want to go to over to gamescast right after this. That we're doing live in order to hear our Resident Evil impression. So when I say R, I mean, Greg's, I mean, you're Mike, you're on that? I'm not on that. You're not on that. But I'll just give you the look right now. He's nodding. That's all that matters. He's nodding. I gave you the look. That's Mike's review. But we will have, oh, do I want to spoil it? Because there's a surprise. I mean, let's just say, let's say who's in the building now? The Queen of screen. The Queen of screen. Yes. Madeline Stanley's here. Yes. I'm going to play it. And then a special. Is there a special calling him now? Big Raj daddy. That's what Mike calls me. I call him that all the time all the time. All the time. Really? Daddy. Yeah, here it's disturbing. I've not played it because of course, me and Andy are going to be playing it this Friday, doing a marathon stream where we're going to hopefully play through and hopefully beat the game. By the time we get around to it, probably going into Saturday. I imagine. So we're very excited for that. But you're going to want to tune into the review because there's somebody in the, who's going to be in the building. That you're going to want to hear all your thoughts. You don't want to miss out on that. But enough about that, Mike. Remember, if you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in over on YouTube.com. Slash kind of funny games. Remember, we couldn't do this without our producers on patreon.com. Slash kind of funny. So thank you, the Carl Jacobs Omega Buster and Delaney this song twining for now. Let's begin with what is and forever will be the Roper report. It's time for some news we have eight stories today. A big news does it. People in chat are telling me that they already know who it is, but I'm still not going to say it because there's, oh, okay. There's some audio listener right now that's like who are they talking about? Who the hell that? Yeah, so I'm not going to say, but everybody in the live chat. Because it's apparently a schedule. Okay. Mike, I apologize for crashing out. I don't know if that was too much energy to start the show with. You know what, bless. I like when you are passionate about something. And if that is what we're passionate about today, let's talk about it. Let's ride with it. Well, let's keep talking about Xbox because story number one Xbox is being sunsetted. That is from Shamus Blackley, one of the creators of Xbox. He thinks the recent shake up spells the end for Microsoft's gaming business. I'm pulling from Wesley Yimpool at IGN. Amid the official statements, many tweets that followed one of the biggest shake ups ever at Xbox, one of his creators believes Microsoft's true plan is to bring its gaming business to an end. Shamus Blackley co-created Xbox at Microsoft, bringing to life Microsoft's console hardware in 2001 before leaving just a year later. He has watched his former company hit the headlines as Phil Spencer and would be successor Sarah Bond announced their exit. And in a new interview, he revealed what he believes to be new Xbox CEO, Asha Sharma's actual mission, which sounds like nothing good for Xbox fans. Speaking to Game's beat, Blackley said that Xbox is not a core part of Microsoft's all-encompassing AI push. And so it is being sunsetted, drafting in Sharma, who Blackley points out, came from Microsoft's AI team with no gaming background. His further evidence of the company's true strategy he claimed. Quote, they don't say that, but that's what's happening. He went on, quote, I expect that the new CEO, Asha Sharma, her job is going to be as a palliative care doctor who slides Xbox gently into the night. And quote, part of the problem here, according to Blackley, is that Microsoft head, Hanjo, Satya Nadella believes that AI will subsume games like it will subsume everything. And that spells the end for the traditional video game business, much of which Microsoft owns. Quote, the job of all these people is to gently usher all of these business units into the new world of AI, Blackley said. Quote, that's what you're seeing here, whether or not you agree with it. Whether you agree with AI having the potential to do that, whether AI will be successful is a separate matter. But that's what we're seeing. That is a no way surprising. It would have been shocking if they had somebody in there in a meaningful role who was passionate about games, passionate about the creator driven business of games, because it would be in direct conflict with everything else Microsoft is doing. Microsoft is a company that is now about enabling its customers by enabling AI to drive things. That's at odds with the author model of any art, but specifically of games. Microsoft doesn't have the problem that Apple does or that Netflix does where they have an all-tour-driven content model to manage. Games are the only place where they have a content business end quote. Of course, someone else is crashing out like you today. Oh, you call this crashing out. I mean, that's an insane statement. Shameless Blackly, I really respect you and I get down with what you created back in 2001. But like 2001 and 2002 was the time that you were with Xbox. It's 2026. I don't know if we can jump off and just start yelling that we're going to put this thing down in the middle of the nights. That's just a crazy statement. But do you not see any validity when he's saying here though? Because as I read this, because I think the headline feels like a bit much, especially when it is like co-creator of Xbox, is saying Xbox is being sunsetted. When I read the framing here, I'm like, okay, well, it's just him giving his opinion on a thing. And honestly, I read through a lot of it. I'm like, I'm kind of nodding my head at a lot of the things you think. There's a pessimistic view that I have a piece of mind, I guess. I'm like, yeah, well, maybe that's right. They bring in a CEO that has no gaming background. That's AI-driven. Clearly, this is the end. They're in third place. They haven't had any successful moves in the past decade here to build off of that and actually make a splash in the market. Everything that we thought they were doing lining up these dominoes with great games. We haven't had any great games up until like this year was the domino push, right? Bring back Red Fall on these games. You bring back just sevens and eighths, right? No great games as you always bring up, bless. And it's like, none of that has led to a point where like, yeah, I should be feeling optimistic. I should be feeling like, oh, this is all going crashing and burning right now. Like there's no way. But there's also like the Mike Howard view where it's like, I have to give some people some grace. I have to let them at least try. There's no way that this giant corporation is going to shut down Xbox in the next 365 days. Oh, sure. Yeah. 15 years from now, maybe, maybe, shame is blackly is right. But like in the next year to five years, no way that that's happening, right? Two big investments in Activision Blizzard King, but that's the 20 plus studios already under the umbrella. Like, I don't think Xbox is going anywhere in the next five to 10 years. I agree with you for the most part, especially for the near and near future. Of course, Xbox is not going anywhere within the next year. I don't think it's going anywhere within the next two years. But I think the thing that sticks out to me and this is going to be an ongoing conversation. When we talk about the moves that Xbox is going to make, because we're not even in the place where Asha Sharma even knows what she's doing yet, let alone Xbox is a corporation like having this vision or Microsoft having this vision for what they're doing with Xbox, right? I don't think Microsoft hires Asha as the new CEO to go, all right, now kill it. Like, no, I don't think any company operates that way. Oh, I just don't want you to say that. I don't think this company is operating this way in this situation. However, I do think that things change, right? Well, there's a story number two that's going to be very relevant to what we're talking about here, especially when we're talking about AI and Asha Sharma being like, no, we're not going to use AI. That's not, we're not just going to do AI Slop or what you expect with that stuff, right? We think video games are made by people. Yeah, I think that's an opinion that's going to change very quickly without moving Microsoft. I think you can say that now. The plans the plan until it's not the plan, right? Blessing that's one of her quotes from that jazz article. And of course, master chief said it best as well and halo infinite, right? It's like plans change. They always do. And of course, for her, as it is day two of this job right now, she's got a lot of plans laid out in front of her. She's going to have to take in a lot of data. She's going to have to learn a lot with Matt Booty visiting all these studios. And then they're going to have to really chart a course of what they want next. But like the plan of Xbox like today is not changing radically for the next couple of months to years. I want to bring in the Osha Sharma statements here because it's very relevant to the conversation we're having story number two new Xbox leadership confirms no Microsoft pressure to increase AI use. I'm pulling from Luke Riley at IGN in the midst of swirling skepticism concerning the appointment of new Xbox CEO, and Sharma, who spent the last two years as president of Microsoft's core AI product group, Sharma and new Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty have discussed the role AI will play at Xbox. In an interview with Windows Central, the pair explained there will be no internal pressure on developers to use AI and that the Xbox ecosystem will not be compromised by slot. I think that with any new technology, it brings possibilities as a tool, but even more important, especially now, we need to draw lines on what we won't do said Sharma. That's what I attempted to do when I shared my opening letter. I will not flood our ecosystem with with slop. And quote quote, we won't have careless output. We won't have derivative work. I deeply believe in the words that I shared previously there. Booty noted that while game developers are typically quick to experiment with new technology, Xbox's goal for AI will be for it to function in a complimentary role. quote, just as a group, game developers are always eager to adopt new technology said Booty when Photoshop showed up, it took about one month for it to appear in every game studio on the planet because it was so useful. What I hear throughout our studios, it is the people are artists are coders, the writers, they're doing the creative work in my experience. In any time, there's a new technology, what happens is there is a need for more specialists, new specialists. It raises the bar on what the expectations are for the quality of games. According to Booty, Xbox developers will not be forced to use AI and having people behind the art Xbox makes is still the priority. quote, we've got no pressure from Microsoft. There are no directives on AI coming down said Booty. Our teams are free to use any technologies that might be beneficial, whether it's helping write code or check for bugs, things more in the production pipeline. At the end of the day, as Aasha said, we're committed to art made by people technology is only in support of that and quote, and to go back at echo, what you quoted Mike from elsewhere in the window central article, the plan is the plan until is not the plan. So it's interesting when we talk AI because this is the one where everybody rolls their eye everybody groans and huffs and puffs right and like we all know in our daily lives, AI usage is up. AI is the next big thing in technology right now, no matter how we want to slice it. We are at the cutting edge of technology right now and we know that in any work style lifestyle, people are using AI and we talk about video game AI. There's a lot of different ways to talk about it right there's the in the office use of AI. There's the gen AI, which is the big no buzzword right but like at the end of the day, the people will speak and just like shameless blackly put like like AI slop will not be taken by the gamers out there and the consumers once we get to a point where all of a sudden you've chosen AI down the wrong path. The gamers will speak the people who make the games will speak and it will stop like AI there's so many lanes of AI that we have to acknowledge that exists and it's like there's the one form that nobody wants and that's gen AI making games that are just city and bad taking other people's work and creating bullshit. And that's the AI that we're trying to avoid as of right now you have to take out a word of like that's not happening right we're not going to Google going make fable rip off video game please and hoping that AI can spit that out right. It's like offices are going to use AI how they choose to use AI will be up to them. We're going to kind of monitor that we're going to check in with them and make sure that we're okay with it. They're okay with it. But as of right now I don't think anyone on the Xbox Sony Nintendo teams are going into studios going you're going to use gen AI and they're going to make these scripts they're going to make these game codes. Yeah, no, I don't think it's happening like that what I think will happen is that Microsoft as they continue to lean into AI will look at the sectors that are bringing in that that that shareholder money and go all right we have X Y Z technology app. Systems that we are developing that do use AI that are bringing in money from shareholders because that's what their interest is in right now and we're looking at our video game studios and we're not doing as much or we're doing things that don't that don't feel as aggressive with AI. Now we have a de emphasis on like how much we want to support this thing that's kind of where that's where my fear is that that's where I come back to the shame is blackly thing of like I feel like there's going to be a conversation within the next few years as for as long as we keep pushing the say I should right. That is going to be hey either we push AI more in the video game sector and the video game side of the Microsoft business or we start cutting things because the money the money isn't flowing in as much as we wanted to be flowing in and we're not figuring out the strategy that's the it's the two prompting yeah where I don't I think they're so confused about what to do with the strategy. Asha Sharma apparently still figuring it out right. It sounds like they want to return to Xbox but me and you know that like. You can't just take things that you took non exclusive and just make them exclusive again like. I think the business side of Xbox is in such a weird place and I don't know if they're going to be able to figure that out in the big way and then on the other side you have the AI thing looming that I think is going to. Put either more pressure on them to use it or put more pressure on Microsoft Microsoft go well let's not put as much money into this thing yeah and that's what my worry is of like when. Probably when a lot of people are saying of like whenever this bubble pops right. How much is Microsoft still going to try to feed that AI promise that's going to give them over the hump and you know shoot them to this to the stratosphere and pay off all these share on. And if they try to keep pushing that. Do they start looking at other aspects of their business to cut to be able to keep up the money to invest in this technology that's giving them some sort of financial promise right. And that's the I think that's more so the worry. When asked about the return to Xbox she said for me the spirit of return to Xbox is about returning to the spirit that the team was founded on it's the spirit of surprise it's the spirit of building something nobody else was willing to try I have her to renegade rebellion and fun used that's what I was thinking about when I wrote that. What was his follow a question that I think that's when we rolled into we didn't ask a question of like what the fuck do you mean I think that's like all back in the day everybody used the word rebellion and renegade for the Xbox 360 because we were doing something different radical yeah it wasn't a mature. Business that we were running at this point where it's 25 years in and being a rebel is very difficult to do right we're not making a new console that is making splashes and changing the world right it's like there's something different now but there is something to be said about the wow factor these sense of discovery and surprise right and a perfect one is fable. Table is the surprise right now table is returned after a decade plus being gone right it is now surprised fans going oh wow they made fable fucking awesome right hopefully it lands at the end of the year but like when you watch fable that is the sense of surprise that you're looking for and that I think it's like the return of Xbox. So you think the ocean charm is saying we want to make more fables I think it's I want to surprise people in delight people with the games that Xbox has. I feel like I'm to be surprised and delighted by the console we have do you feel like like Phil Spencer in Sarabon weren't trying to do that no I think they were I think that's the problem is is like this person's out coming in off the back of what they just were building right and now she's going to have to take in years of data like she wrote in this with jazz and like figure out what they want to deal with this and it will be very interesting that's why I don't think Xbox is shutting down in the night right like James Blackley is saying sure yeah because we have a long time to start figuring out where they're going to be. We'll see it's a fun one bless I mean in all reality you're talking about a team that's in third place a team that is just declining in console sales you're talking about a team that's not going to be so like she's coming in tomorrow and canceling the next Xbox that thing has been planned for seven plus years we talk about this with the hardware teams of all these divisions right of like hey we plan out seven 15 20 years that we're already planning this out she wasn't going to come in and be like hey that next Xbox that's done right we already know AMD is ready to. Pounce whenever they want to start building this or if they're already building this right I don't see this console or next being canceled after that then we start having a conversation yeah I mean I think that the tough thing for me. Because I'm rooting I'm rooting for a shashar I'm going to turn the ship around and fake fix things or like make a version of Xbox that is better than the version of Xbox we have currently right I'm I want that to happen the issue I'm having is the words that are being said. Strike me as lip service and nothing of substance right I for me I read this whole situation as all right Xbox isn't as isn't bringing in as much money it's not doing for Microsoft what Microsoft wanted it to be doing and so we acts Phil Spencer we scapegoat Sarah Bond and then we bring in somebody else and just like. We hope that it gets better like we just we try to we try to fucking right the ship with that but like I think they're doing that without a actual sense of the plan because a lot of the things that come that came down on Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond in my opinion are things that came from Microsoft on top our Sotty and Adele commands of hey we got to make more money hey we just bought activation Blizzard what are we doing to bring in more revenue. All right we're going to put our games everywhere that way our games can make more revenue we're not making enough revenue like I don't know I would read those statements they say nothing to me well yes I think that's why we said it was nothing burger and we agreed on that at the beginning like what they wrote a lot in this article was the hey we have to get back to Xbox core gamers the people who invested in over 20 years plus of our console and we lost that there's a games daily or games cast where snow bike Mike had a powder face ongoing. Why would I invest in this you have now showed me that we're going third party we're selling our games everywhere and that the consoles on a major decline why would I invest in this right and so her first major statement has to be hey we're going back to the core audience right we have to ensure that you still buy this console believe in it yeah as you put thousands of dollars into this right because they're core gamers out there like me who are questioning should I even be riding this ship anymore right and the problem is is they've already lost that battle Phil Spencer said. At best you lost it when you needed to win it the most and that was that PS4 Xbox one generations when everybody created a digital library and a footprint that you could never get out of I have dug a grave into Xbox was so many titles so much dollars spent that there's no way I would want to jump ship over there and restart and lose all this baggage right and so they need to ensure that people that are in this ecosystem want to continue to ride I think Sarah Bond and Phil started to look at and go console on the decline consoles have matured we need to get over to the iPads the kids playing Roblox we need to get into a market that we're not in and they tried to make a splash and maybe it's still too early to tell if they really started to make headway if we gave them more time but they didn't right the Roblox market didn't come in here the move to mobile didn't pay off in a bagel really wasn't Microsoft pressure to do that though. I think it's a pressure with everyone right games are being more expensive to make than ever before we see that the console exclusive can only carry you so far even Sony is starting to show that right now right and on the flip side it's like well then the move would be to put your games everywhere to get those extra dollars to be able to fund those projects to continue when it comes to the console market there is one top dog and then tendo and it's like the other one isn't going to eat and that's Xbox at this time and so they had to do something radically different and I think anyone in that shoes whether it be Microsoft or Phil and Sarah were all in that room going yeah we have to try something else yes and they did some right moves Xbox play anywhere that's a brilliant idea right the cloud gaming department the crowd outgaming development is like yes we're not there right now for a lot of people but when you talk to people who use G force now the people who have used X had they're like yeah I can see myself doing this one day today is not that day right but in the far future will hopefully get there with internet and service providers doing that but I don't think we're just we're like they took a half step that was almost there but also not there but when you're losing the console market you had to do that so there's so many things to get back to the loss of charm of statement the idea of you got to return the return of Xbox we want to speak to the core gamers like you're talking about right we got to get back to them how how we have to promise them another you have to make sure that they know that this neck there's another console there has to be a generation plus right they know that though right like Sarah bond came out and said we're we we're working on our most powerful I forget the backwards but we're working on a powerful Xbox premium console I mean but at the same time right you just fired Phil Spencer or you just feel Spencer retired and Sarah bond just resigned right yeah you have question marks of like well is that still in play because like you said Asha Sharma and her plans at any moment could change yeah we could go double dip in the eye and just change everything my thing is what is what is she saying that is going to be any different from what we've gotten nothing I need anything she has said I know I know she keeps saying that I can too early of an interview yes and I am inexperienced in this area but I'm experienced in others I need to go get so much data that my head's going to spin and so I can make the right call which I and I understand that my beef with it is that that's not enough like my beef with it is that you can't leave us in the middle of a console generation the console generation that we're two we're two console generations in into that disaster of Xbox disaster this is the wrong time to go I'm going to figure it out what was the time you should figure it out decade ago and I know that was on Phil Spencer that's on Sarah and on like Xbox leadership I can't have another person coming in and being like I'm still going to figure it out what was the title that she had there was something that I was like Xbox has brought back before gotten back before the people who made it great before some crazy like that have they because that's right now the past decade to two console generations they've been losing they've been putting up a bad fight I don't think they've ever bounced back now sure you can call a little bounce back from the Xbox one announcement but like have we really ever gotten back to the Xbox 360 days absolutely not now I go as far as they like they didn't bounce back and fight back and make it where they need to be show me the people who got you there I don't think that's real. I'm excited to see what she comes up with plus you and I are going to be talking about this for a long time it's going to be very exciting to see what this new CEO does what the new had a Xbox sides I remember that booty have a wild couple of years here to prove to gamers that they know what they're doing or else we're going to be I'm I can't do it's blackly and say they're going to kill this I just can't do another generation and half of dominoes Mike. I can't do another generation and half of like they're building in a they're figuring you know we have to think they fired their leadership they brought a new leadership that's going to figure it out on the game side of things they are figuring it out right they are sevens and eights as you said before which is good to great but they're finding better games right there identifying that we're getting clockwork revolution hopefully next year from in exile that looks great and hopefully delivers right you have four major titles this year that all should deliver on high notes right that hopefully gamers who have not experienced a halo or a gears will open up their hearts and try something new right but like you're going down the list you have Activision Blizzard King hard to fuck that up world of warcraft Diablo Overwatch you have to really fuck up to make hard to fuck up Overwatch yeah still was great hard to fuck up a call of duty hard to call duty they're going to do numbers like don't give her all these things are these things are going to sell but I don't know I feel like it's too early to say that like they figured it out like they're figuring it on the game side because then I would have to say let's look at the last year right like would we say when we look at back at the last year of Xbox we say we figured it all on the game side and if the answer is yes I'm down for the answer to be yes okay but like what what is it we got keeper I love keeper right we got South of midnight yeah I like South of midnight empowering we love some action projects and games yeah oh well we got grounded to about a two yeah you got a vowed out of worlds to yeah two RPGs that were like you said solid seven and eights yeah but I think all the games I mentioned kind of fall into that 78 that doom doom the dark ages that was really good right there Indiana Jones cool yeah I think they're trending in a positive way game wise they want to see is seven and eights the goal I mean in a world that we live in right now seven and eights are the minimum goal yes okay then I say Xbox they're dream is the dream is to create a 10 it is very difficult to create a 10 nowadays yeah I think that your goal is to make seven and eights that sell well that allow you to contribute to fund a second game and go make another one there no all right let's have on this is some good shit I know I mean we're going to keep talking about this for what is probably going to be forever and so let's move on to a bunch of more topics that we have to talk about on this episode funny enough we have a big news day today whoa yeah they're going to get to the rest of us down my oh no I mean listen Xbox is still the biggest news of the last forever and so we're going to keep talking about it but let's talk about back rooms Mike but before we talk about that let's talk about patreon.com slash kind of funny and youtube.com slash kind of funny games where you can go and get the kind of funny membership which allows you to get shows and free speaking of ads let us tell you about responses this episode is brought to you by five hour energy meet the energy shot that tastes just like birthday cake confetti craze extra strength five hour energy tastes like a rich butter even ill a birthday cake frosting at all light the candles make a wish and get ready to celebrate with every sip feel unstoppable we energized with as much caffeine is your favorite 12 ounce fancy coffee but with zero sugar and zero sugar crashes for more information and to get the party started visit five hour energy or Amazon today this is your latest idea it's unique it's game changing it's huge but you can go even bigger with AI powered PDF spaces in acrobat studio turning your files and links into actionable insights and content plus share projects and collaborate seamlessly while keeping everything private and secure so your excellent idea stays yours do that with acrobat learn more and try it out on a doby dot com and we're back shadows people writing in with super chats I want to get did they write about oh we have so many super chats I'll read like a couple of them and I'll try to save some time at the end of the show to read even more hold on I'm trying to find the one not not two four six oh one right since that's fable equals start of the new age or the end you think fables the start or something or the end or something optimistic might will say it's the start of a new age thank you washa Sharma for delivering fable she did it she already did it come on going in with the box divinity we'll see I don't know fable I hope is as fantastic as it looks I have so much steak in my heart for unfable yeah because I think that game looks so phenomenal but I'm scared because I feel like I've been here over and over again with X yeah but like it looks good though it looks great it looks good to bring up a place a point from Paris in the chat who's been hanging out I think it's hard to like put fable as like this definitive point of you know a star or end because we're still going to feel the decisions from the last couple of years for the next couple of years oh 100% yeah that's why that's why joke of like thank you washa Sharma because no like I don't think fable marks anything like the next few years of Xbox are still going to be the ramifications of the field and Sarah like 10 year of being leadership there I don't think we're going to we're going to see some things that are of the osha char osha osha Sharma age right I think maybe more on the business maybe on the little bit on the hardware side will see those announcements announcements look like in the next couple of years but as far as games I mean maybe you see shit get canceled but the games that are coming out are going to be games are green that already already in yeah and then goldmorms PR says blessing put some respect on just name no Sun Lee boy one right and it says birthday tax from my 28 on the 27th happy birthday to Andy also also wanted to thank you guys for streaming advice episode last year that helped motivate me and has helped immense me immensely happy birthday happy birthday on the big 28 of course you know it's my birthday as well I don't know why we're just giving Andy birthday love so make sure to get me some birthday love and then what when is your birthday every day okay Jesus Christ in sky can't let somebody else have like a time in the limelight for a second not anything I got a share the light with Andy and then JVC double one says I saw black Panther opening weekend at Grand Lake theater the audience went nuts at the opening credits when it said 1992 Oakland oh man that would have been so cool that's crazy I wish I could have been there that's pretty sick all right let's move on to story number three we have our first look at the back rooms movie I'm going to read from a tweet from a 24 he says you're not supposed to be here back rooms a cane Parsons film starring Chiwoto at geoforr I apologize to have mispronounced that and Renate or Renate Rines V it's in theaters May 29th 2026 now bear it you have the link to the teaser I know movie teachers can be yeah shaky if we're not able to play it can we at least like show shots of it this shit looks awesome because this shit looks crazy shows shots let's get because I know just if you guys haven't seen chess been blowing up about the mortal combat two trailer as well that just dropped stop movie no way and that is like we can't we're not going to be able to strain that YouTube will definitely like flag us immediately yeah so I'm so same with with this I'm just going to show y'all images yeah show stills because might you play back rooms I have fallen in love with the back rooms myself Nick and Andy have stories along with Chris anchor stories for a lifetime in the back rooms we've been pumped up about this project from a 24 they got the kid who created essentially the back rooms to come and do this as crazy I watch this teaser trailer I'm excited as all can be I think we're nailing this I mean there's a weird project like the Elden ring project and we're cookin here yeah the still the stills that we're seeing the bear you can bring some of them up I'm for me as somebody who doesn't who like doesn't really care about the back rooms but I'm aware of it just through meme culture and like internet culture yeah I feel like they're nailing it like the fact that you have this couch no clipping through the wall like the weird eerie shit and it's all it's like in a weird way I know it's like live action or whatever but it looks low poly just no bless it's crevary trip into the back rooms and you get one phone call the phone a friend you call me I'll help you get out of the rooms I've never been more confident in my life that I get tripped into the back rooms I'm helping us get out of it okay I appreciate them I can see it in my mind I get through it to me says is it not CG I don't think it's CG I think that's just live shots because that if it's not if it's CG and that's probably just from the game because that's what it looks like we got some movement over here what's going to slide and then come in here yeah sure we's got a gigantic box okay we have a we have a kind of funny best friend in Larry Larry works over at square annex Larry sent three like square annexes swag before they're like oh we're cleaning up the basement we found this another gigantic box is just can't stuff came but there was one special thing he sent for you snow like Mike from Larry oh Kingdom hard Kingdom hard three to luxury three that's awesome do we have any like near a tomato stuff in there tons of final fantasy stuff I mean that's not near a time I do like hot dog man though I get you will yeah from what do you use hot dog man yeah he's a mascot he's cool you like hot dog man you fuck with hot hot dog man thanks Larry that's really nice to you man you're all in on this back rooms yeah I mean to I'll watch it okay I'll go to the theater especially eight twenty four like a twenty four movies oh that's not he's lighter than I thought he'd be yeah this is hot dog man you see he's keys I've never seen this guy my entire life I actually didn't know he's keyed I think I'm 100% say I've never seen you never seen hot dog man I've never played life is strange I think you like I tried one long time ago yeah hot dog man's lit I've been I've been a big fan of hot dog man for a while all right all right all right all right all right fuck god damn it fuck I came out for fun news bear throw up this one on the confidence monitor I'll read it Gamatsu reports skate developer full circle announces layoffs electronic arts subsidiary and skate developer full circle has announced internal restructuring that will impact certain roles as it aims to quote better support the free-to-play skateboarding games long term future the studio announced development they've been getting absolutely roasted as well I mean no I mean like this is writing on the wall shit no no no there's no no you are like what I mean this is heartbreaking and my thoughts go out to that whole team because I want nothing but success for them but man I mean we talked about it from the launch to now it has been disastrous yeah there has been no upside at all and the recent one where they were going to put the Grom island behind the wall they didn't want to get those those skaters who still scattered I quickly rose up and were like that's fucking dumb and they're like you know we're still sticking to how many times I'm going to show you this clip of you saying you wouldn't fucking paywall any areas we just did now the game plan there that's another one you wish you could have back like a Mario sports title was like call Greg call Mike up will help you you know let us consult like we know we're doing we know what I said though yeah we can make a little bit of money if we just sold a box version but what if we made infinite money yeah clearly everyone who's all the people who've said in the comments they want skate for they will be here live service day in day what if we made fortnight you know what is again I don't we've seen a lot of people fail but we can nail at this time enjoy Kingdom Hearts but here's the deal nothing feels better than getting on that skateboard sees the three drops March 11th not the better than getting on that skateboard blasts that's the issue last ride one last ride that's the issue blesses that's how they get you okay it's like you just get a little hit you get that frontside nose grind going on you get that backside blunt locked in I mean I know it's like you're laughing feels better than the one day that I got the stream skate during the launch with you guys was such a fun time and like eat almost got me like I could have been there with you guys but like I I just needed something more it didn't have it didn't have the sauce you hit that Christ air I mean yeah I'm like you're the right forever there's like the one challenge that like we got obsessed with doing where we would launch yourself through like the bridge that was at the top yeah through the manual and then come back down so much missing there so much potential such a miss heartbreaking news writing was on the wall there that's unfortunate some more heartbreaking news story number four Amazon abundance it's open world driving game with Maverick games this is from Chris Redring at the game business Amazon will no longer publish the open world driving game from UK developer Maverick games the game business can reveal the game is a triple a narrative lead game for PC PS5 in Xbox Maverick is a UK developer formed in 2022 by racing game veterans including co founder Mike Brown who was formerly creative director on the Forza Horizon series the studios run by former Sega hard light and summa Leamington boss herrinder Sanga Amazon has significantly scaled back its game publishing and development projects last year it caught most of its MMO development staff including those working on new world Eternum which goes offline January 31st next year and an unannounced Lord of the Rings MMO it is also ceased operations on the newly released co-op game king of meat and sold the unreleased MOBA March of Giants to Ubisoft the head of Amazon games studios Christoff Hartman left the firm last month another one bites the dust mic yeah this one was unfortunate because I was looking and following Mike Brown after he left the Forza Horizon team going why we leave in that what are we doing right yeah like the idea that they were going to chart their own path and like try something new was like okay let's see what happens of course unfortunately Amazon games has been absolutely lost in what they're doing here they've had a couple of hits they've had a lot of misses they just don't really have a directive here and I will see more of this from Amazon until they finally figure out what they really want to do that heartbreaking I'm always down for more fun like fast I was going to say fast pace every racing game is fast yes at least you wanted to be maybe not Mario Carl World but you want a new fun racing game especially when they say narrative led I'm like I want to I want to know what that is of course I've been asking for like racing games the stories I miss PS2 need for speed Mike yeah I we all do have you heard of this game called screamer that I won't stop talking about I'm going to screamer team is happy that you love this dude I'm so give me a preview code like I've seen other people do previews let me try out screamer I guess we're close enough I'll just wait for the full thing well never say never with this one bless because from my understanding Maverick games is still trying to find like they're going to keep working on this and try to find another okay that's a good that's a good thing to call out I appreciate that hopefully somebody pick this up play station you want your own forza horizon you know now when your own forza right now you can tear that up with grand tourism I'll just say just put the grand tourism on it we saw what forza motorsport did if you're waiting to cut half of that studio oh yeah that's real fuck shit if you're going to make a grand charisma open world like forza horizon type game will call it grand charisma horizon nice grand no you can't go on to his both frontiers so a grand tourism motorfest mom we're cooking we're cooking story number five discord is the laying global age verification until it's improved the process this is Chris Julian at video games chronicle the co founder of discord says the company missed the mark with its rollout of global age verification and it's delayed it until the process works better last year discord added a new age verification system for some users in the UK in Australia that requires them to scan their face or ID to access sensitive material it then announced earlier this month that it would be rolling out age verification globally in early March which would require users to confirm their age before viewing certain discord servers or channels now in a new blog post co founder and chief technology officer Stanislaw Vysch Navisky I definitely didn't know that Vysch is Nevsky I think is more accurate says the company is not delaying its global verification rollout until the second half of twenty twenty six as it addresses user concerns Vysch Nevsky noted that one of the main reasons for the backlash that was was that not everyone realized that age verification would only be required for discord servers tagged as adults only oh is that was that the problem as opposed to the entire service quote the way this landed many of you walked away thinking we're requiring face scans and idea uploads from everyone just to use discord hero that's not what's happening but the fact that so many people believe it tells us we failed at our most basic job clearly explaining what we're doing and why that's on us no shit and quote I hate these all men what we knew this you're almost there the official announcement of this we all knew that they were going to be rolling this back real quickly right there was also a little piece of me that was like discord might be almost too big to fail because you look around it's like no one's doing it quite like discord so like there was the feeling of like if they just do it will we just have to submit to it and just do it right because it is so vital and like so big but at the same time people rose up nitro can nitros subscriptions were definitely canceled and they were like hey we're stopping this shit and that shows you when you use your voice and you stand up the bullies you can stop the bull shit okay and that's 100% what just happened here 100% you think they're just going to reveal this and be like hey guys just so you know you not everybody needs to do this is only if you have the adult tag in the disc they just they just announced the exact same thing but they're like hey there's only the adult tag thing like I'm so curious on how on what the changes are with the quote unquote changes are because that's such the wrong thing to glean from this is the is discord like oh that's what people were mad about. Wow. Well, if I can throw a swear about you I know we can't watch the Mortal Kombat trailer could we do a thing where like me and Mike see it but the audience doesn't see it me Mike just talk about it is you going to see it I want to see it too. I really want to see the Mortal Kombat 2 trailer. The problem is it's not visually showing it it is definitely audio is how we get tagged there's no way for you guys to be able to hear it and for the stream to not hear it. Have a really that's how we viewed it and we just click on scenes from it so we go oh wow he looks good today I mean that's just a terrible way to watch trailer. We're going to find enough for the back room because the back room is so we walk out of here we're going to watch it together. Yeah I'm just so excited I'm sorry guys. We pulled it up on our laptops but like put the long is really if this was back in the days where we were just streaming on Twitch I'd say yeah fuck it let's go. I love that you like let's put the volume low I was going to watch it muted no matter what. All right let's talk about greed fall publisher Nikon with story number six Nikon files for insolvency weeks before the RPG sequels launch this is from Wesley LeBlanc at Game Informer. Nikon is it Nikon Nikon and AC oh I would it's pronounced out spilled. Thank you. It's a I was thinking of the other publisher you play on play on thank you. Nice. Buy on. Play on the publisher behind the upcoming greed fall the dying world and other games like hell is us in Robocop Rogue City has filed for insolvency in other words Nikon is out of money as such the publisher has requested the initiation of judicial reorganization proceedings. Insolvency in this instance means Nikon is unable to pay the debts it owes to a debtor and solvency typically involves companies that have assets with value publishing rights IP and the like in this case but lack the hard cash needed to make payments it owes and because the debtor is seeking payment non cash assets that might otherwise be up for sale have little leverage if they don't add up to the funds owed which is likely the situation Nikon is in. Quote in a video game sector marked by long investment cycles in significant transformations on February 20th, 2026 Nikon announced that the situation of his majority shareholder Big Ben Interactive which following an unexpected and late refusal by its banking pool was unable to make the partial repayment of its bond loan to its bond holders was significantly affecting its own operations the filing reads. As for what this means for upcoming games like greed fall which launches into 1.0 on March 12th after years of early access it probably means nothing. Greedfall the dying world which is a sequel to spider studios 2019 greed fall will likely launch as planned next month. In the longer term Nikon's filing says the aim of insolvency is to assess all possible solutions to ensure the sustainability of the company's activity under the best possible conditions protect employees and preserve jobs while renegotiating with its creditors and a calm and constructive framework. This procedure will enable the company to continue its business renegotiate its debts and develop a credible and effective continuation plan. Quote I feel like I was reading a legal document very much feels like very much like a legal document. I'm saying that's crazy. Time to get back into the boardroom. Let's go shake this deal. Let's make it right. I hope things land well for them because like add some games under that team under that division there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean what yeah we're talking about hell is us we're talking about greed fall which honestly I don't know much about greed fall. I feel like greed falls one of those one that's always been in the e-bass but I don't know anybody that's a fraud. Roger will shout out sticks he loves sticks. Oh Roger Robocop Robocop. Robocop. Yeah. We love Robocop here. Um but crazy. Hope for the best. Hope this doesn't lead to Nikon. Mass layoff. Yeah. Mass layoff. Studio shutting down. Yeah. Publish your shutdown. Let's close the story number seven. Assassin's Creed Hex director Clint Hawking has left Ubisoft as part of franchise up evil. This is Andy Robinson at VGC. Clint Hawking the creator director of the upcoming Assassin's Creed game. Co-named Hex has left Ubisoft VGC understands. The news was shared with staff this week in an internal meeting helmed by the Assassin's Creed franchise is newly announced leadership team. Development on Hex will continue without Hawking Ubisoft said. Jean Gueston the new head of content for the Assassin's Creed brand will take over the project as creative director. Gueston previously directed Assassin's Creed origins and Assassin's Creed 4 black flag. Hawking has worked at Ubisoft across two stints since 2001. Notably he was the creator director behind Splinter Cell Chaos Theory far right to and watch dogs Legion. Ubisoft there's a lot of shake up going on at Ubisoft. A lot of shape restructure redesigning rework the workflow. We know that right and so we're seeing a lot of faces a lot of heads of departments leaving coming and going as we know. This is going to be one that you like circle keeping your back pocket and you see how they track where they're at and where they go right because we saw that with the division team already. We know that they've reestablished all of the lines of you know the business order. At this point it's like all right Ubisoft show me what you got. Yeah show me what we're doing here because like you have clearly not hit the mark as of late. Let's see if you can even rebuild and fix this. Yeah I. The Clint Hawking's pedigree is like Ubisoft resume here shocks me because that man made Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Yeah a game that is so beloved a game that people would say is one of the favorite games on the original Xbox far right to another game that people hail is like yo this is brilliantly designed right kind of like a immersive. Semish elements you know a bit more I guess I said sim right simmy like you know. System system systemic that's the word I'm looking for a bit more systemic in nature doing really cool things and then watch dogs Legion. Which was a game that I think tried to be that but didn't land I think in a lot of those things. At least wasn't as hailed as much as a far right to or or a Splinter Cell Chaos there. Yeah yeah which makes me look less at Clint Hawking and more at Ubisoft for like man you have a brilliant creator here that was just not able to replicate the brilliance of these games in the 2000s toward the end of the 2010s. Is it two different Ubisoft's here. It's a hard one. It's a tough one video games getting bigger and harder to make as well. So it doesn't get to do a bunch of games in a short period. Yeah. Thank you even longer to make. Hawking was also the one of the leads I think on Assassin's Creed Infinity remember that I do remember the renamed the and the club infinity still happening. The right. I think it did happen it just not in the way that they sold it to us so yeah. But shout out to the director from Black Flag and origin taking over a little worried of like if he's the head of what was it content and then also directing this game little streps then especially for this game that's a you know been in development for years but we'll see. Man. People in China making this moral combat to trailers down real good. You know what I hear that the moral combat trailer ready for this is really big big talking big news. Man, but Mike if I want to something smaller say the tiniest news I need to know about where did I go. Bless I take you into my back room and I'll show you. I'll show you are fine. I don't want to be back. The we news channel where we cover all the small news items you need to know. Never say that sentence to me ever again. So number eight is we news PS plus essential titles for March have been announced you're getting PGA tour to K 25 monster on her rise. Slime we treat you and the oldest rules online. Ninja gotten four DLC the two masters launches March 4th. I put in a trailer here in the dock that a bear is playing currently. Oh, you'll see okay you'll see yeah which I didn't realize was happening. I don't know if this is a brand new announcement but either way hell yeah. I'm going to check out more Ninja guys. I'll just get you want to get back. We jump back in. I mean do I want to and will I are two different questions. Okay, I want to yeah a little bit will I. It depends on what I'm doing during the day. Okay, you know what days this again March 4th March 4th. Yeah, no. Oh, there's a lot of games coming out that first we can march. I know, but that's like 14 days. But now even that's not like seven days now. It's that it's definitely like 14 days, but like. Oh no, I thought you might be right. Oh, shit March for this exact is no you're right. It is seven days from now. The end that's crazy. Maybe you make a night. No, well, he's a good night. You're doing one night stream. You just try it. That's all. No, but the problem is do you know when ghostly yote legends comes out. I'm coming on soon. Come on. I think March 13th. Do you know when marathon comes out. Silver slam this weekend this weekend hunting or a horizon hunter's gathering. Also happening. I server slam this weekend. Why are they doing server slabs for two games under Sony? Because it's because marathon or not. Horizon isn't a server slam. Yeah, that's a that's a super alpha beta. Yeah, it's a lot of people were tweeting. I saw articles of people being like, whoa, play stations doing these two things are in the weekend. I'm like, when the fuck is I do two things are the weekend all the time. PlayStation can't do two things. Oh, we make it a thing about ever. Like I'm going to Oakland on a Saturday and then fucking grab coffee on over the hinge date on Sunday. Like it does at all. And I do it all and I make it happen. That's why you can play this ninja guy in four DLC. Because you can do multiple things at one. But I'm still playing new genics. Okay. You get past 20 past 10 hours. Yes, I say once you pass 10, then you're in. I am like 12 hours in to me, Jennings. Nice. Yes. It plays real well on steam deck too. Oh, even though like controller isn't the best way to play. It's definitely a keyboard and mouse game play. I was wondering that you can get it done on steam deck for sure. Okay. Okay. And then finally, go to gift drives overseas publishing rights are to be transferred from Banite Amco to developer art system works. And that is it for we news. Let's hop into super chats. See if we were talking about. Yeah, what is the super chats probably cycle back up to Xbox. I'm sure it's what they all be talking about. Jeff Bull Jr says, bless. How do you feel about Andy and Mike going to house a prime rib with Tim Schaeffer? It looked fun. It looked so fun. It was delicious. It was a blast. Tim Schaeffer has so many stories, so many jokes to tell you. It was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. I love house a prime rib. Yeah. We got one from last geek who writes and says to Mike Mike, you still tracking your calories. Which I eat tomorrow. Also shout out to blessings hoodie. That looks nice. Yeah, I like blessings like blue hoodie. I think it looks very nice. Yeah, it's a good color. Tiny tear wonderland. Yeah. Um, am I tracking calories? No, I have not started yet, but I did download the app. I have been mindful more of what I'm eating. I'm slowing down a little bit on the mid afternoon meals running right into dinner. So I've been slowing down. I've just been skipping a meal. That's what we'll call it. Mm hmm. Skipping a meal. Um, the truth, Gupta says Mike Brown has a tweet. Don't be worried. Yes, I think that's what bear probably brought up of like we're still in development here. We're going to try. I see. I see. Um, Raleigh says Mike, glad you know your liquid slash solid measures. This is a reference to the party mode. This is party mode yesterday, which is doing great numbers. Thank you all for tuning into that. Get me on one of them game show party modes. We got to find more games shows. I promise. Cause I was, I only saw the clip of the measurement thing. Yeah. And I'm pretty sure. I was, okay, can you tell me the answer to that question? Cause I have my answer. Okay. I think it's pint. Ooh, I thought it was leaders. I think you're right. I think you're right with pints. I think it's either parts are leaders. Cause the question was which of these is not a, um, which I'm going to call it metric measurement. Metric measurements. And it was like pint, leader, cheat and one other one. It was pint. Yeah. Cause my brain, cause I saw that and I was like, well, usually metric measurements. You can say like millie, whatever. Yeah. Just millie leader, centimeter, you know what I mean? Like those are all metric measurements. Uh, pint is like, that doesn't fit within that. I don't know anything naming structure. Yeah. Yep. That's a good one. Bless. Did you see, um, Rogers immediate instinct of saying what is a quarter after five? I didn't see that one was pretty wild. What is a quarter after five? What's a quarter after five? Like on the clock. What's a quarter after five? Five, 15. Okay. He thought it was five, 25 quarter. He was really fun. He was dropping payment. To be fair, we don't say that much in, in the US. Yeah. I feel like another overseas, they'll say quarter after five quarter after. When you make plans, it's usually top of the hour or at the 30 mark right for like, you're not throwing 45s at people. You don't throw 15. The only time you're doing that is when like a, like a, like a, a, a, a, a, a game is, is starting like a sports game or like you're going to see a movie and it's specifically at that time. Yeah. So you're running late, right? Yeah. I don't think you're not throwing 615 meet me for dinner. No. It's only text me meet me for dinner at 615. I'm canceling. I'm like, no, I'm, in fact, I'm not going to meet you at all. I'm staying home. What did they say? Can we have dinner a quarter after six? I'm going to play me. Genics a quarter after I see you at 25. You got a deal. What is the, let's see, Mr. Lowsley gaming says what excites you most about this project? Which project are we talking about? What excites you most about the sassons creed? Nikon. I like the sassons creed. Bless our bear. What was the one that we liked that was recent? Mirage. I like the sassons creed and Mirage lately. So I hope we can go back to form. Oh, maybe they're asking about back rooms. They're asking about back rooms. Oh, shit, getting lost in the back room. How horrifying is that, right? All of a sudden I push blessing into a subway wall. Disappears. Where's he gone? The back rooms. Why did you push him? That's how it starts. That's how you, that's how you go into the back rooms. Right. Teenagers are in the subway plan. All of a sudden, we're bullying this one kid. We push him. He's in the back rooms. Blessings rushing with his morning coffee. Into the office. He accidentally stumbles and falls into the wall with all the just boring office lighting into the back rooms. That's how fast it happens. I just like seeing the couch no clip through the wall and then you're trapped in there. You're trapped in there. Um, let's see here. What else we got? RGX says, Black Lee hasn't been associated with Microsoft since 2002. Why should we give his opinion any validity to what is going on with the company in 2026? I mean, you're right. I mean, but it's like any sports things, stuff like that. You go to people who have been there before. Yeah. To get their thoughts. James Black Lee is very well known, of course. One of the co creators of the original Xbox, right? Has been around in the gaming sphere forever. And he's still around. There's a lot of old heads. We still talk about to this day that are sharing their opinions online, right? And so it's easy to go to people who have been there, done that and asked them their thoughts, right? Especially when they're, might be the loudest in the room on Twitter or on Blue Sky, right? And just say, Hey, let's talk. Tell me what you think about this, right? And so you go. Anyone can armchair quarterback. Sometimes it's nice to have Tom Brady at the commentary desk because he's been there, done that as opposed to Mike who hasn't been done that 1000%. I also like, I don't fully agree with James Black Lee, but I also don't think his opinion was that crazy. No, I think we all, if we could rewind to last week, right? You get the announcements of what's happened with Sarah Bond and Phil Spencer. You get the announcements of Asha. You look at her resume. You immediately go, well, this is the end of Xbox. This has AI written all over it. She has no gaming knowledge whatsoever. Home Depot board of directors on that wall. And we got meta. We have, we have the other one is like, none of this is screaming to me or Instacart. None of this is screaming to me. We got a gamer who knows games or we have a merchant who is passionate about video games. Red missfit says, I love Phil, but folks should stop praising him. Many in the community don't think he was a great leader for Xbox at all. He made poor decisions, including launching series X slash S without exclusives. What do you think about that, Mike? I don't think the non-exclusive push happened until afterwards, but I will say that the launch was not strong with the exclusive lineups. That was because Halo got pushed back if you remember. Halo was supposed to be the big launch title. And then Halo, we all remember Craig. Yeah, Craig the brew. We all said, damn, Craig don't look good. And they're like, shit, we got to go back to the drawing board, which was probably very helpful for Halo Infinite because it did need that. But I will agree it didn't not launch with, hey, these are console selling game systems that you need. This is not a console selling game. None of them. Yeah. I think people shouldn't get too attached to big corporate CEOs. That's all that's just my take on it, right? Like I don't really care. I don't really, I guess care too much about Phil Spencer's individual input into Xbox as a corporation. Because like I kind of view it as a team. It's in the same way that when we were talking about the Sarah Bond story on Monday, you know, there's a lot of it seemed like there was a lot of like things being thrown Sarah Bond's way as far as like, oh, she did that. She did that. She was a sponsor for XYZ thing. But I read that and I'm like, well, at the end of the day, it's all y'all's fault. You know what I mean? It's Sarah, it's Phil. It's Satya. It's the entire leadership that has failed this thing because guess what? You guys are a team. And so if something's not working out, right? Like y'all are in this ship together. Y'all have meetings, right? Like Sarah can't make everything Xbox by herself. Like she has to have meetings with people. So does the new leadership take that advice then? Of what? Which part of being out of the line, like just being CEO? I hope so. Right. But like I don't, here's the thing. I think people would go either way with it because I think Phil Spencer, one of the things he did that worked for him was being very personable and being able to present himself as somebody who knows video games and loves video games. And honestly, he probably knows video games and loves video games. I believe that about him. But that doesn't automatically make you a great CEO. That doesn't automatically make you a great leader. And I think he had, he's a man that has a corporate leader had feelings and probably had things he did that were like probably good for the for the brand. I don't look at that and go, damn, Phil Spencer. That was a fantastic CEO. We're going to miss him. I don't really care. I'm more so invested in how Microsoft is moving. Like we're taking this, this CEO in this president, we're removing them and replacing them with somebody who previously did AI who was previously the head of core AI. For me, that's the thing that I find interesting. I don't care about the faces behind it. Now I say all that and I'll say, I think Phil Spencer as a person seems pretty cool. Right? Like I've, when everything went down on Friday, I was reading different tweets from different posts from people that are essentially like, Dude, yeah, I'm a journalist. When Phil Spencer, when I was sick, Phil Spencer, like, deand me and asked me if I was good. I think Imran said that I've had other people, I've seen other people say that. I've had good episodes of PSI Love You or me and Greg have had like good conversations on PS Love You where Phil Spencer has slid into my DMs and was like, Hey, I listened to your guys conversation. Those are really great conversation. Like I think Phil Spencer as a, just as a dude, pretty solid. Like I do believe that about him. And I'm saying this also as somebody who has met him at events and all this shit, right? As a leader, as a CEO, I'm not going to say here an act like he was the fucking best CEO in the world. In fact, I'm not even going to act here an act like he was a good CEO. But I think you, I think people are able to separate those things and talk about those things. Well said, that's what we, that's what said. Um, we're late in the show. So we'll do one more super chat from Lasky, who writes and says, what's your favorite demo from Steve Nexfest? Oh, I'm going to steal blessings because he was playing it. It's that croak game. That game looks absolutely awesome. And I want to play more of it. Yeah. I mean, that's the same one. I think Densh attack. I don't know if that was part of Steve Nexfest technically because the demo came out a bit before. But I'll shout out Densh attack. That's the train game that is like fast paced. You're doing like tricks with a train. The art style is like fucking crazy and vibrant and colorful. Reminds me of like a dream cast game sort of thing. But yeah, you're essentially doing all this is the crazy train game. Yeah, so you're basically like playing Tony Hawk, but you're a train and you're trying to like get the highest score and do the objectives. Pretty fun. But yeah, croak is definitely a croak is up there. That's going to be special when it comes to a lot of people talking about wind rows. Chat correct if I'm wrong, which is a survival crafting pirate game. Wind rose. I'm going to try that tonight. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a mic situation. Yeah. Okay, wind rose. Shit. Okay. Is this the what's the Ubisoft? Remember when Fred Meribella put ridiculous amount of hours into that Ubisoft title, fucking pirates beyond whatever the hell was called. What was that called? What was that? Scullin bones. Thank you, Scullin bones. This looks like the true promise of Scullin bones. Me and was she played Scullin bones for a grand total of three hours one night and we promised each other. We're never playing this again. It's trash. Fan Meribella on Twitch 40 plus hours into it. It's like, oh my God. What are you doing? Jesus, friend. Let's hop into kind of funny comm slash. You're wrong. Were you right? And let us know what we got wrong as we got wrong. So we can correct her for those watching later on YouTube and listening later on podcasts. Services around the globe. We have only one from Lovia, 1990, who says back rooms, the analog horror YouTube series was created by Kane pixels, but didn't originate with him. It's an ongoing lore creation by many people posting liminal spaces. Thank you. The more you learn about the back rooms, the less I understand it. Dude, bless. Yeah. Sometimes I think to myself, I'm like, I want to be pushed into the back room. I'm going to clip out. We can make that content. I think we can we can do that. You know, would be a great one. Halloween, Halloween, horror nights down at Universal. They make a back rooms giant maze. I like that. That would be fun. But you'd have to make it really big. Yeah. It has to feel kind of endless. And the back rooms is this feeling of like, I'm just seeing the same thing over and over again. And there is no end. There is no corner. There's no end of it. I just I go from one way to the other way and I'm just lost in this endless fucking sea. That's crazy. That's nice. Clip me in. I'm bear. What if we just put on the Mortal Kombat 2 trailer instead of fucking it? Well, let's let's take the stream. Let's take the like I'd really I'd I'd I'd I'm sorry. Tim's on vacation. You know, I mean he's CEO junior though. He's Tim junior too. I'm CEO and Tim junior. He has. Even though Greg is back from dice when he left for dice. He did tell me to keep you all in line. And so this is one where I have to put my foot down. I'm sorry. Damn. I mean, he's tough before. What if we go do a Gregway? I mean, now you're asked me to do more work. I do what I can pay to do here. Mike. I was going to do Greg. We're talking resident. I'll do Gregway. Okay, we'll do a Gregway together. I played Resident Evil. I'm excited to talk about it. I can't wait to hear the review today on the stream because it's a big deal. Games cast Resident Evil 9. How good is it? How good is it? You'll have to tune in to see. Of course, this has been kind of funny games daily. If you love what we do, remember you can support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get our shows ad free and get a daily exclusive show. Enjoy the resident evil Requiem review right after this. And a whole bunch of content after. But until next time, game daily.