Our Predictions for 2026

The future remains uncertain, but one of us always manages to predict it a little better than the other two. Whom shall it be? Welcome to TripleClick, where we bring the games to you. This week we go over our video game industry predictions from 2025 and see which of us got the most correct from their list. Of course we make predictions for the year to come. Is this the year that Waluigi goes to Hollywood? I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Schreier. And I'm Kirk Hamilton and Happy New Year, friends. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. It's good to be back. Pow pow. Fireworks going off in the background of this recording. They're not literally. That would be tough. Guys, last week I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic in Punta Cana, which is gorgeous. My kids had a blast. We were at a resort. It was a lot of fun. Went swimming at the pool, hung out at the beach. And then on Saturday, the U.S. invades Venezuela. And someone on my group chats, I didn't even think about this. Someone on my group chat is like, hey, Jason, you know they canceled all the flights from the Caribbean. And I'm like, oh, my God. And then I look into it. Turns out somehow we were supposed to fly the next day. And somehow we lucked out because the Dominican Republic was not included in the cancellations. Every other Caribbean island pretty much was canceled flights on Saturday. We were supposed to leave Sunday anyway. But yeah, we could have been screwed or at least majorly delayed. Or we could have had the benefit of having a whole new, like another, an added week on our vacation, which has its pros and cons. So I'm actually in a group chat with Marco Rubio. So I asked him if he could. I was like, we really need Jason to be back next week. And your signal chat. Yeah. Yeah. We explained about the predictions. And of course, he's a huge fan. So we already knew. And he was like, we got to get Jason back in time for that predictions episode. It's mostly a thread to talk about video games. But sometimes, you know, we talk about national security. What is Marco Rubio into? What does he play? Hell Divers. Does that surprise you at all? Huge fan. But he likes it. He likes it. Yeah. He thinks it's completely serious, which of course it is. He thinks we live on super earth, honestly. We do now, I think. Surely. It's becoming super earth. Yeah. And if you love living on super earth along with the rest of us, then you love triple click. And that means that perhaps you might want to get just a little bit more triple click in your life than you ordinarily receive. And in order to do that, you would have to go to MaximumFun.org join in order to become a member and get our monthly bonus episodes. Our most recent one was our one more other things of the year. We did our games of the year episode concurrent with this one. And we talked in the bonus app about albums, newsletters. I'm trying to remember the other ones. Podcasts, movies and books. That's right. And TV shows. TV shows. Yeah, so we did a whole roundup of our One More Things of the Year. All the stuff. All the stuff. And we got another bonus up coming down the pike, which we can say now, which is that we all watched the first season of a show called Pluribus. And we all did it. And we're going to do a Beans cast about that for this month coming up. So definitely check that out. There's a whole host of bonus episodes in there. So MaximumFun.org slash join. is where you gotta go to get those bonus apps and also support the show. I mean, that warm, fuzzy feeling, that doesn't go away. Bonus apps are no. It's all worth it. Okay. Jason, what are we doing today? I mean, we already teased it. Everybody knows it. It is time. It's the annual predictions episode. Everybody's highlight of the year. This week, we are going to go through our 2025 predictions and see who won our bet. and make some new predictions for 2026. So just as a refresher for everybody out there, every single year, each of us makes 10 predictions plus a bonus for the year to come. And then we all pick a game. Each of us picks a game. And whoever wins the prediction bet, that game is selected for us all to play throughout the year. So whichever of us wins today's bet of 2025, we will play that game in the months to come. and uh the losers don't we don't play that game they get punished by not getting they don't actually get to play any games that year that's right we only play what the winner wants us to play for the entire year we just don't make that obvious it's exactly so we did uh we did some tiebreakers earlier and we'll get into those if we need to um but for now let's review the 2025 predictions and yeah let's go see how many points we each got so okay we're gonna go in uh this order maddie jason kirk so maddie why don't you start and read each of your predictions and then we'll figure out which ones you got right sure thing so oh wait actually start with the game uh oh yeah sure why not i my game was super metroid so if i win my predictions we're going to play a frankly amazing video game so no complaints there we're all pulling for it right i mean we did get to play my game last year and it was pretty good so it's true you have a good taste um okay 2025 predictions the first one was a deadpool video game will get announced not only announced but it came out folks there was a deadpool vr game i would say i won this one you sure did got a point number two the guillemot family will get pushed out of controlling ubisoft No, did not happen. The opposite happened. They like maneuvered it so they didn't get pushed out by doing this like spinoff subsidiary with Tencent and retaining control. I mean, this was a very unlikely prediction even at the time. I like doing that sometimes. You never know. You never know. Okay, number three. Metroid Prime 2 and 3 will get remasters released on the Switch in 2025. Also didn't happen. Not even going to reprise this one. I've given up on this. I don't know. Number four. A full-length film will be screened in Fortnite. Also didn't happen. Okay, I'm taking your word on this one. I had no idea whether or not this happened. I know, right? It didn't happen. Number five, a game made on Roblox will become a huge hit slash phenomenon on the scale of Pokemon Go or Among Us. So I would not say I won this, but I just wanted to give a shout out to Grow a Garden. Of course you won this. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Maddie, you 100% won this. All right. Seal a brain rot. I know. Seal a brain rot is the biggest thing on every single playground everywhere. Okay. Yeah. This is depending on how we classify hit slash phenomenon. Right. So like Pokemon Go and Among Us, they were talked about in the news, whereas games like Grow a Garden and now Seal a Brain Rot. Grow a Garden had headlines that described it as like the biggest game you've never heard of. So I was like, I don't know if we're going to count this because even though it's a huge game, would we say it's a social phenomenon? grow a garden had multiple new york times articles about it i disagree strongly i think take the point jason maddie i think both of those would count just each of them on their own would count the fact that there were two of them steal a brain rat and grow a garden i mean grow a garden had 22 million concurrent players in july 20 what was it 20 million you said 22 million 22 million yeah that's like half of the entirety of my point i mean i took my i took out my stats here people I was willing to argue it. I guess that counts as a phenomenon. I think this is like unquestionably a point for you. I don't know. It seems like Jason just really wants to play Super Metroid, but I'm not mad at that. I would do too. Okay. No, I just think that we, the games press and people our age, millennials tend to underestimate the power of robots. I think that that's true. And I am convinced by that argument. I think that's right. Great. So I've got two points so far. Number six, Microsoft slash Xbox will remove the requirement for new Xbox games to be able to also run on Xbox Series S. This has yet to occur. Number seven, Half-Life 3 will be announced. And as we all know, this happened, right? Just kidding. It didn't happen. Number eight, Silksong will get a release date announcement that will be, quote, it's out right now. This came so close to happening. I'm not giving myself the point, but like, damn, if I had just given myself like within the month, I would have gotten a third point here. But no, I had to make it hard for myself. It got announced with a two-week release window. Number nine, there will be two more prominent live service game failures in 2025 in the style of Concord and Suicide Squad. Very glad this did not happen. I'm kind of surprised. I know, but genuinely, this is like, you know, you do a bad prediction and you're like, we're rewarded by the fact that this did not come true. Well, I guess what is prominent? Because there were some live service game failures. but I would not describe any of them as this level. I mean, well, Marathon is eventually going to come out and we'll see what happens with that game, but that would be an example of something I'm concerned about. Number 10, Waluigi will figure into a new Mario game. This hasn't happened either, but there's still hope. There's always hope. My bonus prediction was Half-Life 4 will be announced. and as we all know this also happened yeah it's crazy coming out this was such a good bonus prediction i really nailed this one um anyway so it looks like i got two points all right not too shabby yeah okay cool all right i will go next go through my 2025 predictions and my game was chrono trigger so if i win we play chrono trigger number one ubisoft will be sold did not happen No. Although the year before this one, I think 2024, I predicted that Saudi Arabia would buy a video game company. I know you did. We're always off by a year. We're always off by a year. This is why it's good to sometimes reprise a prediction from a previous year. It's true. But we always pick the wrong ones. I know. I know. We're cursed. I probably did that this year too. Number two, an Xbox Studios game will be nominated for Game of the Year at the Game Awards. Nope. Didn't happen. Number three, a non-VR Half-Life game will be announced. Nope. Number four, a single player PlayStation game will be announced for PC within three months of its PS5 release. Nope. Number five, Ace Attorney 7 will be announced. Nope. Number six, Bobby Kotick will get involved with the Trump administration in some way. Nope. Number seven, EA CEO Andrew Wilson will step down. Nope. Number eight, Switch 2 will have an availability crisis. I feel like it did. Really? I don't remember the specifics. I guess I don't either. I don't know. But it didn't seem to me like there was a crisis on the level of, you know, the PS5 in 2020. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to argue too strongly about this one. But it didn't. It seemed like you couldn't just go into a store and buy a Switch. But that's a console launch. It seemed like that went away pretty quickly. And then it became possible to buy. Hard for me to make that case. I wouldn't call it a crisis, I guess. I agree. Number nine. Metroid Prime 4 will launch on Switch and Switch 2. Day one of Switch 2. that did not happen number 10 there will be fewer industry layoffs than last year that did happen hey i will read you guys a headline from games industry.biz games industry layoff figures were down slightly in 2025 but it was still horrendous you know what okay i'll take a win is a win okay people a win is a win yeah man if you're gonna get one right the one about that's a nice one that's a nice one to get and my bonus was that amazon will pull out of the video game industry this came pretty close i know you almost this was almost too normal of a prediction in retrospect like because it almost happened well no the reason it wasn't kirk is because like they didn't if they like it would be shocking if they were like we will stay get out of the video game industry entirely said that i think a normal to a normal prediction would have been amazon will downsize a lot and like scale back but that would be so much harder for you to have proven. I mean, this is why the predictions game is difficult. It's because we have to have binary predictions that are provable and like how would... Right, you know, Amazon will close five studios or something. Right, exactly. Well, it would be them saying we are shutting down Amazon Game Studios, which as an entity, that's what... Right. But anyway, that didn't happen, fortunately. Unfortunately, they did downsize a lot. Anyway, I get one point. We will not be playing Chrono Trigger. Kirk, let's see how you fared this year. All right, let's see how I did. Here we go. So the number to beat is two. Maddie has two. That's right. All right. First of all, at least one game will be released and then unreleased within the year. So I looked into this and there was one game in particular that this happened with, which is a game called Steel Paws. Do the two of you know this game? No. I thought you were going to say a different game that it happened to. That was a lot more prominent. Yeah, me too. Which one are you going to say? Because it could be that there's just one I'm not thinking of that's also very prominent. But Steel Paws was like a used from Yu Suzuki's studio. It was published by Bandai Namco. I've got the Wikipedia page here. None of us played it, but it was a real video game. It was released by Netflix and then unreleased by Netflix the same year. So it was released in March by Netflix and then unreleased in November. I'm going to drop the link into the Discord so you guys can look at it. I was thinking of Horses, which had a pretty complex pulled from stores situation. But it was released. Yeah, I thought about Horses too. Wait, guys. Splickate. Do you not remember this? Splickate 2, it was announced by that guy with the MakeFBS Games Great Again hat at Summer Games Fest. Okay, go ahead. It came out a couple weeks after that. It flopped so hard that they pulled it from seeing it. It sounds like Kirk wins this no matter how he plays it then. So Steel Paws, which is not a game that we were aware of. Splickate, I do remember the guy wearing the hat, but I didn't really follow its release. How could we forget the hat? And how cool it was. This is like a very easy, straightforward story. Like Splick 18 came out, was a bomb. I totally forgot about that. Oh my God. And then it came out like a couple of weeks ago. It relaunched and flopped again. Great. My prediction should have been one game will come out three times and be pulled from stores each time. There you go. Anyway, so that's a win for you. Okay, I get that one. All right, next. Hollow Knight Silksong will actually come out. You got it. You played it. Yep. Yes. Number three, Valve will announce a new non-VR Half-Life game that did not happen. Number four, the new Nintendo console will have the word Switch in the name, a.k.a. Jason Schreier's favorite prediction. Uh-huh. He loves it. Did happen. I mean, I'm just going to spoil this for you. One of my predictions this year is that the next PlayStation will be called PlayStation 6. Is that really? So instead of using my prediction to raise the bar for all of us, you're going to use it to lower the bar. No, I'm just kidding. That's not actually my prediction. All right. Let's see. Next, we have got number five, Death Stranding 2. So this was actually initially one version and then we reworked it. This is the reworked version. Death Stranding 2 will feature one of the following people, Sidney Sweeney, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Timothee Chalamet, Christopher Nolan, or Daniel Craig. No, it did not feature any of those people. It so easily could have. Yes. It was a good list, but it didn't feature any of those people. If only I'd put churches on here. Damn. All right, number six. Valve will announce a new Steam controller that's on par with the Steam Deck. I got this one, and I'm delighted about it, because I can't wait to use that controller. And also, I get another prediction. Do we think Kirk is psychic Because this is getting weird I just saying Is this the most predictions anybody gotten right in one year These are the kinds of predictions we tend to make a year too early or something it just that a few of mine happened to come on the actual year that i predicted them number seven is a little wild though i predicted you will be able to pet the dog in the game awards game of the year winner i.e the game will have a pet animal interact prompt believe it or not i believe that you cannot pet the dog in uh in clara obscure expedition 33 i don't think there's an option anywhere i looked i didn't play the whole game but i've like read the whole story and everything and looked into it i don't i can't believe this like this game seems like the kind of game that would totally have like a cat that you can pet in the opening area you can't pet that thing that you ride that's like no and he's even based on like the dog i think their dog from the studio like the studio dog like he is based on a dog there are there's like a room full of dog paintings there is a there are dogs in the game but you can't pet them so the answer is no i didn't get this which i i think is really correct um in the end i've gotten enough already that it won't matter but i just kind of couldn't believe that i didn't know that does feel like you should have just had a layup there like every game lets you pet the pet the dog okay anyway number eight at least two game of the year nominees will be for studio's first game got halfway there claire obscure was sandfall's first game all the other ones were not they were all sequels so nope i have two bad blueprints got robbed. I know. It's true. That would have given me another one. We don't need any more points for Kirk. It's fine. I want to run off the score. Number nine. In the new fable, you will be able to plant an acorn and have it grow into a tree unresolved. The game still has not come out. Maybe I should push that one to next year. I assumed you're going to repeat this. I got to just keep making it because I got to call that shot. It's a good prediction. And another one actually that we don't know yet is number ten. Square Enix will announce Final Fantasy VII Return. So basically the prediction there is that the third Final Fantasy 7 remake game will be called Return. And of course we do not know. It has not been announced. No. And my bonus was Nintendo will announce they're bringing games to Steam. Did not happen. As likely as that seemed. I feel like Kirk forgot to say the game we were all going to play, which really upped the drama. Well, because now we get to find out what we're going to do. That's true. Because Kirk is the runaway winner with four points. I know. So Kirk, what are we playing? Four. A huge The whole points. I win. We are going to be playing Soma. Yay. The horror game Soma, which is going to be pretty fun, I think. It's not super long, and it is very thought-provoking and interesting. So I think we'll probably play that just for a spoiler episode in the main feed. We'll talk about it down the road, but I think we can just, anyone who's thinking about replaying that or playing it, just play the whole game. Because you've got to talk about the whole game and all the spoilers and everything. So I think that's just what we'll do. We'll play it. We'll talk about it. Yeah, we'll figure out the timing and then tell people in advance so they can play it alongside us. Yeah. Anyway, there we go. It's cool. I played it back in the day and I remember really loving it. So I'm excited to talk about it again with you two. Yes, it is. That's really why I picked it is because it's just one of those concepts. A little like Pluribus, actually, given that we're about to record our Pluribus episode, where it's just like the concepts behind the game are fascinating. And I love talking about them. And I think it would be very fun to talk about with the three of us. All right. it is time for 2026 predictions uh we're gonna rotate it's gonna be me and then kirk and then maddie here are some quick rules to preface this off this whole thing um rule number one no inside info aka no predictions that are based on things that we have heard about from people we talk to within the video game industry rule number two no game delays too too easy too obvious um too many games get delayed all the time. And rule number three, this is a new one for this year. We decided it would be too boring to make predictions about whether Grand Theft Auto 6 will come out this year or not. So instead we all decided we will each pick a specific feature of Grand Theft Auto, a specific element of Grand Theft Auto to make a prediction about. So we're going to get a little specific, a little granular. And if it doesn't come out, then all three of us just don't get that one prediction. Then we just lose that point. Seems kind of equal. and then yeah i mean in the spirit of kirk predicting that the next nintendo console will have switch in the name i went a little bit easier on myself this year although not that easy um i actually it it's so there's some things where like i can't actually make a prediction because of that inside info rule so like i'm looking at like the calendar for the year and like the game companies and i'm like oh well i can't make any blizzard predictions because i know everything blizzard is doing yeah so i can't be like oh they're gonna announce this thing at blizzcon because i kind of already know um that said uh still have have 10 predictions and a bonus for you all you guys ready okay so my game is going to be chrono trigger again not letting you go because that just feels like i i i'm sick of uh making picking uh games that'll feel like punishments for you guys and i feel like chrono trigger is a good one that we'll all actually really enjoy um okay number one grand theft auto 6 will have an in-game version of tiktok like you can make tiktok videos on your phone likely but in the spirit of easier predictions that yeah that seems pretty likely do you think that like i mean i think that's like been in trailers that there's like social media on phones do you think that part of it is like you make your own videos. It has to be something that you actually use and post to. It has to be interactable in some way. In-game interactive version, I should say, of TikTok where you can make a video of yourself or whatever. You can make a video of something in the world and then put it on this social media feed. It can't just be that you're scrolling through videos. Or that it's in a cutscene that the characters are using. Yeah, it has to be something that is like a feature in the game. It's a feature in the game. Alright, number two. Persona 6 will be announced. number three xbox will announce that first party games will no longer be day one on game pass yeah this is a ballsy one yeah sure people will be calm about it um just feels like something that they might do uh number four the steam machine will slip to spring or later because of ram issues uh ram you want to keep because of ram issues you don't want to just keep it as oh no no i mean i guess that's that's kind of in parentheses like that i'm assuming that's really hard but no i'm just saying sea machine will slip and what's it's currently announced for what what's the what's their date now early 2026 they've said early 2026 okay i mean spring or later is like isn't that like april or something like that's that's pretty soon okay let's say summer or later let's say summer or later i think that's fair um summer or later because they said early 2026 I mean, when I hear early, I think February. But yes, April, I guess. Let's say summer or later. So June or later, let's say. Also, Chrono Trigger is a good game. Yeah, I mean, this is the thing is that it's fine if somebody wins. I'm putting in June or later to be more specific than summer. Agreed. Five, another Elden Ring DLC or sequel will be announced. Okay. Six, Danganronpa 2X2. You guys remember this? this was announced a few months ago. It's a remake of Danganronpa 2 called Danganronpa 2X2. Will secretly be Danganronpa 4. Okay. This is the theory that you shared that is pretty exciting. It is. It is. That's my theory. The way that we decide that is basically this is a continuation of the story after the end of Danganronpa 3. Yes. Okay. Sure. Or I guess it feels like a sequel in some way. It doesn't have to be a continuation necessarily. The idea is, it's kind of build right now, it's Danganronpa 2, like a remake of Danganronpa 2 or something? Yes, with extra content, they're saying. Extra content being a whole new game. Yeah, so I'm saying it'll be substantial enough that it'll feel like a new game and not just a bonus scenario for Danganronpa 2. Sure. I think we'll know it if we see it. Number seven, another Zelda remake will be announced. Okay. Okay. Number eight, one of this year's Game of the Year candidates of the Game Awards will be two-dimensional, 2D, or HD 2D, which counts for the purposes of this. Okay. You mean like it'll have really flat, underdeveloped characters? Yes, exactly. Which, I mean, wasn't that last year's? Oh, damn. Bada-bing, bada-boo. no um so like i was thinking about mina the hollower um could be a few others that kind of qualify or like if absolum had absolum qualify that kind of game um hayes 2 or maybe you can make the argument i'm not sure but i mean silksong is true yeah if it's silksong sea of sorrow then that definitely qualifies but yeah so i'm saying one of this year's game of the year candidates will be 2d or hg2d number nine final fantasy 14 will be overhauled again a realm reborn reborn it'll get another big overhaul that'll be announced won't necessarily happen this year but it'll be announced this year um yoshida the director of the game has kind of hinted that they need a fresh start and i think that this year they're going to announce like some big massive something more than an expansion something that's really just like a complete overhaul of the game. Okay. Will they call it a Realm Reborn reborn? We can't all of them. As good as that name is. They will call it a Realm Rebirth. That should be your bonus prediction is that they'll call it a Realm Reborn. A Realm Reborn Rebirth. Reventions. Number 10. This one is the most mean-spirited, but I don't know. I gotta go with my gut here. Marathon will peak at less than 10,000 concurrence on Steam. You know, I had a similar prediction that I took out because I thought it was too mean, but sure, dude, Jason will go there. Yeah. All right. Yeah. With, with apologies to everyone out there listening who may work at bungee. It's one of my extra predictions that I might have to put back in if y'all overrule any of mine. We're worried about that game. I think that's justified. Yeah. We're worried. Okay. We're concerned. I'll, I'll be happy if it's, if this doesn't happen and we don't have to worry about layoffs and whatnot. Yeah. My bonus is that EA will sell or shut down BioWare. EA will sell or shut down BioWare. Okay. This is another bonus that is like another industry move that feels at least somewhat like it. What makes this outlandish? Yeah, it needs to be a little crazier. Only because I'm looking at my bonus prediction and I'm comparing it to the idea of EA selling a studio and I'm like... I'll tell you why it's outlandish, because this is contingent upon the Saudi deal closing and then also them making a move that massive, like within a couple of months of them, like of new owners of the company, which isn't something you typically see that often where like a company will close and then make some humongous move like that right away. That's true. Yeah, I mean, it seems unlikely. It's just more in the realm of reality. Listen, Chrono Trigger's a good game. Yeah, listen to Maddie. I've never played it. Chrono Trigger's a good game. And Kirk, by the way, you got a point for saying that the next Nintendo console will be, will have Switch in the game. Hey, we aren't allowed to use that as a bargaining chip, okay? Because if we are, then I am. So my issue, I should just say, like, it's not really, like, with the prediction, like, the likelihood of it. It's more that these crazy predictions, like, they're kind of supposed to be a little more ridiculous. or I don't know, like that's just a little more like, yeah, something that might happen. Where like, you know, I don't know, I think we've predicted like really crazy stuff in the past and we're moving a little more toward like just extra difficult regular prediction, which isn't a huge deal and whatever. Just when you hear my prediction, you will maybe see the difference between the two types of predictions. Got it. Got it. So like something like... Remember I predicted once that like an AI will become sentient or something? Yeah, like I predicted Half-Life 4 would be announced. Right. It's not going to happen. It's sort of like a joke prediction. Right. EA closing Bioware is something that may well happen in the next few years. Got it. Okay. So EA will announce Bioware 2. Yeah, that's a little more. That's great. It will be called Bioware 2. We're closing Bioware, but we're opening Bioware 2. No one's ever done that. so yeah i mean they're gonna be breaking new ground ea will announce bioware a realm reborn that's actually a great idea that's a good prediction hire some more people all right get some new blood in there uh okay nice should we go through those one more time i guess we'll do this at the end we'll go through them yeah we'll read them all again at the end but again my game is chrono trigger all right kirk you are next up okay here we go uh some of minor repeats because I just want to see if they'll come true. And they haven't yet. Number one, Square will announce Final Fantasy VII Return. This is a repeat. I just really want to know if I can call that shot, if I'm going to get it right or not. I think you will, but I'll allow it. We'll see. Well, the announcement seems pretty imminent. But I also think the title is very likely. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, the problem, well, one advantage for you, The problem is that Reunion seems like the obvious one, but they use that already for the Crisis Core remake. Right. That's my thinking. And like Return, there's like a bunch of like stuff about Return to the Planet and stuff in Final Fantasy. And yeah, I think they won't use Reunion, even though that would have been my guess. All right. Number two, GTA 6 will feature a character based on Charlie Kirk. Oh, God. So initially I was thinking that your character would like kill this character. I don't think that that's exactly GTA's speed, though, but I do think that there will be a controversy about this because there's a character who's pretty clearly based on him. Not just a right-wing provocateur or whatever. Yeah, I feel like that's the hard part of your prediction, actually, is proving that the character's based on Charlie Kirk as opposed to being sort of a template right-wing. I think we'll know. I think we can kind of debate it at the time. But if he's like going around to college campuses and debating people and stuff, like if it's a little more clearly Charlie Kirk inspired. I mean, you're the one with the hard predictions. It's funny. I would think I would think if that were the case, they would have removed him by now. But that's part of the prediction is like that they're going to be like YOLO and leave it in and maybe soften it a little bit or something. But but leave it in because it'll have been long enough by the time the game comes out. I don't think this is going to happen. So keep it on, man. Keep it on. Right. Number three, all three consoles, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch will get a price increase this year. So the base console will become more expensive. All three of them. So is this not counting the price increases that already happened? Like in addition to those that they'll get new price increases this year? Yeah, new ones this year. New ones. Okay. Okay. That'd be crazy. Right. Number four, a Roblox game will be nominated for a game award on its own. Like a game made in Roblox will be nominated for any game award. Any game award, presumably? Okay, yep. And this doesn't count, obviously, like Roblox being nominated for Best Community Support or whatever. Right, it needs to be an individual game. Specific game. Or a Roblox native game. They should have a category. Maybe at some point they'll do a category for games made within other games like Roblox and Fortnite. Yeah, or just Best Roblox Game. I guess Roblox has its own award ceremony, so they don't even need the game awards. Okay, number five is a repeat. Valve will announce a new non-VR Half-Life game. Let's go. Let's go. It's finally going to happen one of these years. When you say non-VR, what if it's playable in VR and also in non-VR? That counts. It's mostly just not a Half-Life Alice-type thing. Not just exclusive to VR. Something to go with their new VR headset that set in the Half world All right Number six Sony will announce a new PlayStation Portable So this is discreet from the whatever it called portal is that what it is The cloud streaming version of the handheld that they have now? Yeah, it's not a streaming, but like a, you know, portable, like maybe, I don't know what, PS4 level, like kind of a new portable gaming device that plays Sony games. A PSP-like, but maybe bigger and nicer. A new PlayStation Portable, they'll call it PlayStation Portable something, with like a subtitle. I don't know. But the prediction is just they'll announce a portable console. Seven, one more repeat. In Fable, you will be able to plant an acorn and have it grow into a tree. That game is coming out, I swear to God, and we're going to see if that happens. I'm kind of increasingly pessimistic about this one coming true. Oh no. Just because like seeing footage of that game, it kind of just doesn't seem like it has anything in common with the systemic Molyneux junk that was in the original ones, but maybe they'll still have it in as an easter egg all right number eight team cherry will make the knight playable in silksong so somehow there's going to be a playable knight and by the night i don't mean the boss knight i mean like the playable character from hollow knight the vessel the knight like in a dlc maybe or like there's some they add another mode where you can like select and play as the knight or i don't know they'll just add them to the game one way or another you will be able to play as the night. Interesting. How would that even work? I don't know. It just seemed kind of like a fun prediction. It's fun. It's a fun run. Number nine, Xbox Game Pass will come to PlayStation or Switch. Sure. And number ten, Nintendo will announce a Star Fox movie. You want that to not be your crazy bonus prediction. Nope, that's just a regular prediction. A real one? okay okay all right that's my 10th prediction and my crazy bonus prediction epic will add joe biden to fortnite i really just made this prediction because i just thought of it and then started laughing and laughing and i was like i think i have to make this my prediction that should happen honestly just imagining that like kamala and joe are like play like of all wouldn't that have been last year no it's even better because it's like so far past either of them were in any way relevant and that they're just like now coming to fortnight joe biden and he's like hey what's up and he says i'm amtrak joe i'm gonna go ahead and say that if they add dark brandon we're gonna count it because i think we should i think we should even meme versions of biden count for this for sure any version of joe biden but it has to be an official announcement has to be has to be approved by joe biden himself to have his image appearing it'll be developed by bioware 2 kirk once again you forgot at the top to say your game i know i thought i'd say it at the end because it will make you both delighted if i win my game will be the legend of zelda twilight princess oh i love that game we talked i was just listening back to our ocarina episode which we ran in the main feed and we talked some about how like i've never played that game oh right i'm actually picking a game that i haven't played right and i think it would just be super fun to play that and talk about it with you both that's so yeah the problem with that pick is that it kind of it prevents us from just being like hey let's all play charlie princess well i better win then i guess i guess i guess we better have kirk win maddie you're up okay Okay, number one. In Grand Theft Auto 6, Lucia will be revealed to be queer slash not only attracted to men. It's trendy. I just feel like it could happen. Yeah. Number two. Leon Kennedy is going to turn out to be Grace's dad in Resident Evil Requiem. Whoa, dad reveal. Okay. This is just a popular fan theory. I actually hope it doesn't happen, but that's neither here nor there. number three a triple a game advertisement will brag that the game doesn't use generative ai so like the ad will yeah like that like a trailer will say like we didn't use gen i to make this okay and this is triple a like specifically yeah it has to be a big game yeah it has to be a big game and that has to be part of an ad oh that's easy yeah that's easy it's got to be one of the big guys okay okay number four laura kinney aka x23 will have a cameo in the wolverine game oh okay this being the the female wolverine the female clone of of yeah and she's in the movie logan that's right by the girl from his dark materials i'm forgetting that yeah daphne keen yeah daphne keen right and she's got blades in her feet that's right and she messes dudes up in that movie super hard she's a she's a real fan favorite character but much like my spider gwen prediction i i feel like i've never gotten one of these right i'm always predicting female marvel characters will appear in insomniac games i just i'm trying to manifest this okay so you when you say appear you just mean like like in some spider gwen i predicted she was playable and i didn't even come close she didn't even show up so right now i'm walking it back i'm like she'll just show up at all like even if it's at the very end there's like a teaser post credits that's like she's going to be in the sequel yeah yeah yeah i that's it has to be that she is in the game she has to be in the game so we're not going to count like a post credits reveal or like an easter egg that's like a file with a photo of her or something i was going to say a post credits reveal if it shows her face seems like it would apply i'm saying that like if it's like you find a collectible that references that doesn't that doesn't count she needs to have been like a model that appeared in the cutscene i think post credits should definitely count for that purpose okay great It's just like you have to see her face. Yeah. Right. And it can't be a scene where they're in a lab and two guys are talking and they're like, it's time for X-23. And they're like, we're going to make a clone. And she doesn't exist yet. That won't count. She's in the game. Okay, cool. Number five, the Switch 2 will get a $50 price increase. That's very specific. I know. It sounds like I have inside info. I don't. I just made this up. Yeah, I was going to say that's easier than mine because I guessed all three, but also it's harder because it's specific to the amount of money. Number six, Phil Spencer will step down as CEO. number seven halo will come to switch that wasn't announced that it's coming i guess not it's just heavily rumored okay near as i could tell so i mean you can you can always overrule me if you feel like it's too no i just again i have no inside info on any of these these are just things i think could happen no no no this isn't i was i just didn't remember if the remake was announced for switch too but i guess it wasn't it wasn't that i could find okay uh okay number eight uh ff7 remake part three will get a release date well that would have to be a specific yes it would have to be a date spring to be a specific date that's right i'm saying date i'm saying they've given it a date and even if that date changes later that doesn't matter it just gets a date yeah okay uh number nine waluigi will be in the mario movie sequel hmm waluigi yeah no no no who cares well this is in the spirit of last year's prediction that waluigi will be in a mario i just feel like that guy has got to show up sooner or later okay we're all waiting for waluigi i just think he's a cool guy uh number 10 luigi's mansion 4 will be announced hmm okay there's my bonus prediction this is part of why i clowned on one of kirk's predictions nintendo will announce a metroid film given metroid prime 4 that seems even less likely exactly i was like this seems crazy enough that it won't happen possibly well that's definitely not far-fetched to your point earlier kirk about the bonus one but it would never okay should i make it more no no i'm not saying i mean mine is ea will sell slash that's a sequel to buy you know like they'll announce a metroid movie that's entirely in first person i don't know okay you know trying to think it's a silent film i think entirely first person it's a silent film can you imagine a metroid film i mean how would they go about announcing that it was silent like that's in the ad they're like don't worry like no talking a legend comes to the screen we we heard you guys hate all the talking and I'll make it a little harder even though I don't know why I'm doing this you don't have to I think you're fine all right fine fine um the game that I chose is Bioshock 1 I just thought this would be fun for us to replay yeah that'd be great and talk about it's an old-timey game yeah would you kindly etc just thought it'd be a fun one so those are my predictions cool nice all right so all of our predictions will be in the show notes as always so you can peruse them easily and yeah we're excited we'll be keeping keeping tally throughout the year and seeing what we have to play as for now we will be playing soma at some point when we're off there we'll discuss when we're gonna play it and we'll let you all know so you can play along with us all right let's take a break and then we'll be back with one more thing I'm Jordan Cruciola, host of Feeling Scene, where every week I have a different actor, director, or writer as my co-host. And whoever that co-host may be, it is a sure bet that we are digging deep and having a great time doing it. I love that you just did that. Yeah, I mean, if I were going to join a cult, I think this might be it. A fresh look at your favorite film and a peek behind the curtain at how movies get made. Okay, I'm going to tell you this whole story. Okay, I almost got fired from that movie. You should be listening to Feeling Seen. I had so much fun. I love what you're doing. I hope I did okay. New episodes every week on Maximum Fun. On Judge John Hodgman, the courtroom is fake, but the disputes are real. Brian would say, I'm the Gumby of this family. He's just not. Claiming to be Gumby is an un-Gumby-like claim. No, it's just Gumby and I being our authentic selves. So what's your complaint? Too many sauces? There are no foods on which to put the sauces. Have we named all the sauces on the top shelf yet? Not even close. You economize when it comes to pants. Truly, it's not about the cleanliness of the pants. Well, why isn't it? This is what I want to know. Judge John Hodgman. Fake court. Weird cases. Real justice. On MaximumFun.org, YouTube, and everywhere you get podcasts. And we are back, Kirk and Maddie. It is time for one more thing. Maddie, kick us off. I have been playing a video game called the 100 Line Last Defense Academy. I have joined with the two of you in playing a really great game. Of course, Jason has already completed it and gotten all 100 endings, apparently. So perhaps joined is the wrong word. I'm jumping on the bandwagon. I mostly am saying this because I want to convince more of our listeners to try this game. I think most people would hear like kind of, oh, it's got 100 endings. It's 100 hours. The real game doesn't even start until you're 30 hours in. I mean, these are all turn offs when I hear them. But I just wanted to say I really love this game. I think the story is thrilling and exciting. The mysteries are gripping. It's kept me really glued to it and fascinated by it. I think the characters are clever and funny. There's a lot of moments that I laughed, especially in the first 30 hours. There's some kind of low stakes plot lines that unfold. And then there are some high stakes plot lines that unfold later on life or death plot lines. But I just really enjoy all of these characters and hanging out with them. And there's a lot of twists and turns along the way. So I'm really digging it. And I also just think that even And if you hear, oh, the game doesn't really start until 30 hours, those first 30 hours are still pretty freaking fun. I just want to go ahead and say that. Also, Kirk talked about it a little last time around when this was his one more thing. But there are strategy battles that kind of interrupt the visual novel piece of the game that is the bulk of the game. A lot of this game is reading. But the strategy battles are really, really fun. And I just dig it a lot. I think that that blend of two different, super different kinds of gameplay really works for the game and just has made it a favorite of mine and probably would have made it onto my game of the year list if I had managed to play it earlier in the year. I'm just playing it now because why not? So yeah, I really recommend it just all around. If you like a good story and also if you like something that kind of has Danganronpa vibes, but has some of that turn-based tactics stuff, like what we were talking about when we were discussing how great Final Fantasy Tactics is. It's kind of like a, it's not quite like that, but if you like that sort of thing, you'll probably like the tactical gameplay in this as well, because it's turn-based and grid-based at least. And you have a bunch of characters with different kinds of abilities to control. And yeah, I'm just digging it. So once again, it's called the Hundred Line Last Defense Academy. I think more of our listeners should check it out. It's really good. Really fun. I'd say the strategy combat is a little bit more like Into the Breach or like Tactical Breach Wizards. That's a good comparison. Where it's more just trying to solve a puzzle by like doing things in optimal order as opposed to tactics, which is more like an RPG in that you can customize your characters and your loadouts are more important than what you're doing. Yeah, there's very minimal customization in Hundred Line. It does exist, but you're right that it's not as like half the game or perhaps over half the game of Final Fantasy Tactics is customizing your characters. Whereas in Hundred Line, it's kind of rudimentary, but still. Yeah, it's exciting that you're both playing through it because it makes me feel like we should do a beans cast, a spoiler cast where we really dive deep into this game. That'd be fun. We were talking about this, I think just the three of us in chat. And we were talking about a difference with Danganronpa that I thought was interesting that I just want to mention on the show, which is that it starts out at the beginning, it really feels like Danganronpa, but then it over time feels less and less like it because a huge difference from Danganronpa is that in Danganronpa, characters are dying off throughout the game. And so the cast is getting smaller and smaller. And really the ending of a Danganronpa game for me is always kind of the hardest part for me to get through. Because I want to see how it ends, but it's also so few characters. And some of the best characters are usually dead. They kind of die early or they get convicted and executed or whatever. Or punished, I should say. So this game has the opposite effect where everybody sticks around. And then because of the branching nature of the narrative, you actually get more characters the further in you are. So once you're like 40, 50, 60 hours into the game, you have the biggest cast ever and things are even more complicated and you've gotten to know every character so well. That's like a great structural change that really allows you to get to know the characters. One other thought is I do kind of want to do a beanscast on this. It's so freaking long. I realized and looked around on PC there are mods that are like these QOL mods that let you just like skip fights that let you like speed things up in a lot of ways that make it way easier to see a whole bunch of endings where you can kind of experience the story. And then if there comes a point where you're like, I don't need to do another strategy battle because I've played 80 hours of this game or whatever, you can just start skipping them or like fast forwarding through things or making yourself really powerful. Exploration quest, you can just fly through them or you can have infinite resources to just make stuff, make it so that your social links level up faster. Like you can speed the game up in a lot of ways to like reduce that friction and make it so you can just focus on the story. And I think I'm going to mess around with that and do that because that seems appealing to me, given how much I've played at this point and how I want to see a lot of endings. But I'm kind of like, OK, like I have other things I want to play. I have other things I want to do. Yeah, I get that. I'm not at that point quite yet, but I could see myself getting there. I'm already starting to hit the point where I'm like, OK, another battle. I really just want to see what happens next in this part of the story that I now entered into because I I just trying out different choices and seeing where they lead So that a that a really fun part of the story that I now entered into because I just trying out different choices and seeing where they lead So that a really fun part of the game that the story just becomes the best part. And so I get how the other pieces are just the part you want to skip. You guys have no idea. Well, Jason has also warned us that some of the endings are not. Right, it's your feedback. Jason, it's your warnings that make me think like, I think I should do some things on my end to mitigate this stuff to make the game more enjoyable. I think that's a good idea. But even then, like some of the endings or some of the routes that you can go on are just so grueling and repetitive and monotonous that you have to kind of, I would recommend just kind of looking up which are the best ones and how to get those if you can find like a spoiler free guide. At some point I'm going to ask you. Yeah, or I'll tell you. Yeah, why haven't you written a guide personally? Yeah, I should. Don't you have enough to do? Yeah, I should. Who's going to pay me to start writing GameFAQs guides? For Bloomberg. the other thing i'll say is that like uh you can skip battles if you've already done them right and you can skip explorations now or at least i can yeah they added that i think finally which is nice but yeah the mod makes it so you can skip any fight at all like you can skip every fight for the rest of the game got it um okay kirk what's your one more thing my one more thing is a book that i finished a few weeks ago that i've been waiting to make my one more thing to talk about called The Rosefield by Philip Pullman, because it's amazing. And I just haven't read a book like it in so long. So The Rosefield is the third book in what's called The Book of Dust, which is a trilogy by Pullman that is a follow-up trilogy to His Dark Materials. So His Dark Materials, if you don't know that name, you probably do know the name of the first book, The Golden Compass, which was sort of adapted into a pretty bad movie that I've never seen. And then later adapted into it. I would say quite good beyond serviceable and quite good HBO series that I have seen that I enjoyed that actually forgot about that. And then we just shouted out that Starks X-23. I would, but I would have to stress to anyone who hears that read those books. If you are at all interested in this series, don't watch the show, even the good show, or definitely don't watch the bad movie. Read the books, because the books are amazing. They're some of my favorite books. The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. So that's the original trilogy, which tells the story of a girl named Lyra Balacqua, who becomes Lyra Silvertongue in her adventure. It is... Not to be confused with Matt Bevilacqua. Right. Not to be confused with... It's a hard book series to summarize. It is fantasy. There's so much that happens. I've read them several times. And I would say that Pullman writes in a realm of pure imagination that I think is very rare. He conjures worlds that are so evocative and yet so mysterious and dreamlike that there are times where I read a whole section, especially in Amber Spyglass and the third of those books. And then I'm like, wait, what just happened? And I go back and read it again because it almost becomes like abstract. It's hard to describe. But of course, the coolest thing in these books and the thing that I'll, I guess the one bit of world building that is worth keeping in mind is the idea of demons. So in this world, it's kind of a parallel world that the technology seems more or less like mid 20th century-ish. There's, you know, there's differences in technology and similarities. But the big difference is that in this world, in the world of the Golden Compass, every human being has a demon. And your demon is a small animal that goes with you everywhere. That is typically, I think, almost always like your opposite gender. So like men would have a woman, like I would have a cat and she would have a name and she would talk to me and be my like, the best way I can describe it is that your demon is your soul. It is essentially your externalized soul. And then it's also your life mate. And if your demon is killed, you die. And if you die, your demon evaporates. So it's like every person is really two. And that's this incredibly beautiful and interesting idea that is like at the core of the whole thing. Like, you know, there's a lot of stuff that happens in these books. But the relationship between the human and the demon is like the idea that is maybe the most evocative and also the most deeply explored. So, cut to 2017, many, many years after the original trilogy, Pullman announces a new trilogy called The Book of Dust, which begins with a book called La Belle Sauvage. And that's a great book, and it's very interesting. It takes place in Oxford, which is where Lyra, the main character of the original trilogy, lives, and it's about her when she's a baby. So it's actually a prequel. It takes place before the events of the new trilogy, and it tells the story of a new character named Malcolm. A couple of new characters, really. But Malcolm is kind of the central character. He's a young boy, kind of around the same age Lyra was in the original trilogy. So that's La Belle Sauvage. Came out in 2017. A really great book. And I actually went and reread this whole trilogy before the Rosefield because I wanted to refresh myself on what happened. So then cut to The Secret Commonwealth. That came out around 2020, I think, 2021. 2019. 2019. This tells the story of Lyra 10 years after the events of Historic Materials. So now she is 20 years old. and I remember it having kind of mixed feelings about it at the time I went and reread it knowing that I could just go straight on to the third and final book and it made it so much more enjoyable of an experience just because it's like it's half of a book like I would really say that the secret commonwealth and the rose field are one big book and I mean la belle sauvage really is an integral part of it as well but timeline it takes place like 10 years earlier and feels a little more like a standalone thing. But I really, it was so much more pleasurable to read Secret Commonwealth and then just go straight into the Rosefield. Anyways, this is a lot of buildup to say the Rosefield is the final book. This is just a straight sequel to the Secret Commonwealth. It picks up literally immediately at the end. The Secret Commonwealth ends on a like mother of a cliffhanger. And you're like, what? That's the end of the book. I have to wait five years, six years for the finale. Yes, people did. And now the finale is out. And so I read this book just like in a kind of, I don't know, in a dream state. I just like read through the entire thing. I couldn't believe that I was reading it. And it was such a bittersweet experience. I mean, this is, you know, Pullman is 79 years old. He's pretty, he's getting pretty up there. His health is apparently not great. He has described this as the final of the stories of Lyra and it's him saying goodbye. And like, I just can't, I can't spoil anything about this book. It would almost be impossible to do so. But like, I can't believe this book. reading it compared to every other book I've read in the last four or five years. It never does what you expect. He doesn't, he's just not interested in like giving closure or in like pursuing plot beats in a way that gives you like the full satisfaction. Instead, he just explores these ideas, these really beautiful ideas about religion and capital and money and creativity and ultimately imagination. And that's what this whole trilogy is about. It's about imagination, especially these last two books. Lyra and Pantalaemon, who's the name of her demon Pan, have been split up and he leaves her. They separated in the original trilogy. And so ever since they've had the ability to separate from one another and they kind of fall out with one another. And it's this really heartbreaking thing that happens at the beginning of Secret Commonwealth. And he leaves and he says, I'm going to find your imagination because you've lost it. And that kind of winds up being the central question of these books is like, what is the imagination? and what does it mean that Lyra has lost hers and why did she lose it? You know, these books she was reading, these thoughts she was having, what was it? And what's happening to the world? And is the world losing its collective imagination? Is that causing something to happen to the demons? And like, there are all these big questions, but throughout the book, and especially throughout Rosefield, like characters just talk to one another about what the imagination is and they never settle it. There are a couple of really beautiful summaries of what it is, like how it's like, you know, the world of thought and spirit becoming real and the imagination is the process through which those like two things are connected, but it never like nails it down for you. It just leaves you thinking. And every conversation the characters are saying, I don't even know what imagination is. I don't even know what dust is. Like they're still questioning that all these books later. And I just walked away from it, like totally enchanted is the, that's the only word I could use. Like I ended it and I was like, oh my God. Like it was just, it was totally overwhelming for me to finish it. I want to reread it, but to give it some time, but I just haven't read something like that. Like a work of towering imagination of like pure fantasy in a really long time, like that, that affected me as in such a complex way. So I just can't recommend it enough. It's a beautiful book. I'm sure anyone out there who's a fan of these series has been waiting for this book forever and has already read it, but I just wanted to say, I read it. I really loved it. And yeah, I hope anyone hearing this who hasn't engaged with Pullman's writing will, because he is like one of the great fantasy writers. Yeah, I really loved the Golden Compass, his dark materials books as a young adult, and I actually didn't know that he did another trilogy. So this is information for me specifically. Yeah, they're really good. yeah I remember you having mixed feelings about that second one so it's nice to know that this offers some some sort of closure or non-closure I suppose it's it's really complicated I would need to have a like four hour conversation with someone to really get into it which I obviously won't do but but yeah I'd love it if the two of you read them and just just to hear what you think of them yeah uh I also enjoyed the original trilogy but have not read the new ones um okay cool my one more thing is also a book that I read on vacation and it's called that's not how it happened by Craig Thomas. Craig Thomas is a former screenwriter or screenwriter who is the co-creator of the sitcom how I met your mother and he wrote this book that is about that is about a screenwriter who had a big hit and has since been unable to get much in the way of work and also has to deal with a son with um down syndrome um and craig thomas's son doesn't have down syndrome but has a similar like sort of chromosome disease um and so immediate fun parallels there and that as you're reading the book you're like all right how much of this is craig thomas's life versus not um and And it's really, it's a fun kind of breezy, not mind blowing, but a fun book. The story is that this screenwriter wrote this film ages ago and it was so popular that it helped carry him through his career. And it's about his life with his family, his wife, who feels underappreciated because she had to stay at home and watch the kids while he was like kind of jetting back and forth between Hollywood and New York where they live. And then the son who has Down syndrome and his kind of his ways of progressing through life and his struggles and how he like operates in the world. He works at this coffee shop that has been set up by the wife who started this small business, this coffee shop that is for people with Down syndrome and other similar issues to work at. And then also the daughter, the younger sister, who feels underappreciated because she's neurotypical and just hasn't had the same issues as her brother. And therefore her parents just kind of like assume that she's totally fine and they can just let her be and they don't have to pay her any attention. So it's really interesting family dynamic. And the plot is that the wife, Paige, she writes this book about their family. It's kind of like a memoir about raising this kid with Down syndrome and what it's been like and what their journey has been like. And that memoir is picked up by this Hollywood star who then wants to turn it into a movie. And so the roles are kind of reversed and the story goes, follows the saga as like they go through this journey of like trying to get this movie made and what it means for the family and all the changes that get made to their story. and them like seeing these actors who are playing versions of them like they find this hot shot young like timothy chalamet type to play the kid the boy with down syndrome even though this actor doesn't have down syndrome and that becomes a whole question um uh the husband the father of the family uh rob wants to be the screenwriter on the on the movie and wants to write the film version which page isn't entirely comfortable with and so the way the book is structured it alternates between each character's each of the four family members perspectives in these kind of short blurbs um which is a fun way to do it it gives it a little bit of a cinematic quality and um feels a little breezy again it's not it's not like it's not a literary novel by any means it's not something where you'll be reading it and thinking about imagination the way you might uh come away from the book you just described kirk but um but it's fun it's a fun read And it's very fun reading something that kind of like feels in some ways like it might be a thinly veiled biography and trying to figure out what's true and what's not, what's based on this guy's life, what isn't. It's always fun to read about family dynamics and how they unfold and the dysfunctions plaguing them. What was it? Tolstoy says all happy families are alike and all unhappy families are unhappy in their own ways. This one is a fun, unhappy one to read unfold. and also it's a really I think really strong portrayal of um Down syndrome and what it's like raising a kid with Down syndrome and what it's like for a kid to have Down syndrome and what his life is like and just kind of the struggles they have to face um at some point they talk a little bit about like uh some of the bullying that he faced and his sister trying to protect him and him being like no don't fucking protect me like it's even worse for me if like my younger sister is trying to protect me. Let me deal with this. And just a lot of really interesting, just kind of, um, very true point of view, points of view on what it is like to raise a kid with, um, those kinds of chromosomal issues. So yeah, it's a cool book. It's called, That's Not How It Happened by Craig Thomas. And if you enjoyed How I Met Your Mother, uh, the audio book, which I did not listen to, I read the physical book, but the audio book is actually read by, uh, the characters who play, the actors who play Ted and Robin and How I Met your mother over Josh Rayner and Kobe's mother. So it's a, it's a, it's a fun read. And I bet that is also really enjoyable. Kobe Smulders, not Smothers. And yeah, it's cool. Nice. Yeah. That sounds good. All right. That is that for this week's episode. We will be back as usual next week. Kirk, Maddie, I'll see you both next time. Yeah. See you both next time. Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier Maddie Myers and me, Kirk Hamilton I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music Our show art is by Tom DJ Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network and if you like our show we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at MaximumFun.org slash join. Email us at tripleclick at maximumfun.org and find links to our merch store and our Discord server in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time. Maximum Fun, a worker-owned network of artist-owned shows. Supported directly by you.