Nintendo’s Box Office Bet, Rockstar’s Bad Week, & Playstation Portal Ponies Up | Games For Breakfast

Good morning, Matt.
Good morning, Will.
Good morning to all of you.
Welcome to Games for Breakfast, the only internet talk show where we talk about this week's gaming and tech news, but also absolute cinema. Uh y'all, welcome to the show. I am flabbergasted, elated, splendidiferously delighted to be uh basically taking two of my passions and getting to smash them together and make them kiss a little bit
Make the war gross again.
and have a larger discussion about what that might mean for the media landscape. Uh Will, thank you so much for the wonderful thumbnail idea this morning. Um
It's just such like a spur-of-the-moment like, "Wait, hold on."
When we get to the story about talking about Nintendo and their and their movie-making plans, I have another graphic that I was trying to make work,

and while it is funny, it it it doesn't tell the story as well or as cleanly.
Yeah.
Um though I am still proud of it. We'll get
Oh yeah, absolutely. I I I I believe what I told Matt when I saw his image was you took entirely too long on this and I can't stop laughing. Uh so, perfect. Yeah. Um
Also, I want to shout out there were some early chats uh if I can find them. Oh dear, they might have been they might have scrolled away. Um Oh wow, I guess it only holds like a hundred of them in uh social stream?
Yeah.
Uh I I did We're over on Twitch during the pre-show, which by the way, you are invited to hang out over on Twitch if you'd like to see the first 15 minutes of us just sort of setting up and being goobers. Um but uh there were people in the YouTube chat waiting for the show to start being like, "I can't look away from this thumbnail."
Yeah.
And that is what you want to hear.
Yeah, that's great.
So, thank you for that.
Yeah. Um we have one small sort of piece of semi-business fun stuff, before we dive right into our stories for today.

And that is, mark your calendars for November the 29th. The last
Okay.
The last Saturday of November.
Two days after Thanksgiving, right?
Uh correct.
Okay.
Um for those of you who have access to a computer uh or just want to hang out you know, however, um maybe on your switch, we don't know yet. We're going to be having our community hangout day. So, uh chat through your J uh generous contribution to charity. I just tried to mash all those words into one word and it not a real word. Your generous contribution Yeah, that's right. Your generous contributions to charity unlock not one, but two community Saturday streams. So, the first one will be November 29th, the second one will be not it might be in the space between Christmas and New Year, but I don't think it will be. I think it'll be before Christmas in December. Um So, uh we're going to be voting on what it is. Current contenders, current thoughts to let you know the kind of thing you're thinking of. We've been talking about

maybe uh rebooting the community Minecraft server. We've been talking about maybe doing some Deadlock scrims, uh 6v6, where everyone is part of the community and I am not playing. I'm shot call I'm uh I'm shoutcasting, rather, not shot call.
that. I'd do that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right. Um in like a custom lobby. Uh other ideas, we might play Kirby Air Riders or Mario Kart World, depending on what how people are feeling. I'm a big fan of the Kirby Air Riders side of it cuz I want to see how many people we can cram in one city trial, because that just sounds like absolute cinema.
Um Do we know Do we know how many people can do that?
So, it's It says that lobbies will be up to 32 online, but I don't know if that's for all modes. And a 32-person city trial sounds like a disaster that is beautiful and glorious and must be witnessed.
Yeah. Yeah, that seems like a like a When does Air Riders drop or is it already out?
November 20th. There have been play tests and generally speaking

Yeah.
What what people have said about Air Riders is I have no idea what's going on, but I couldn't look away, which is accurate because that's how Air Riders was on the GameCube. I have no idea what's going on, but I can't look away. Correct.
minute since I've played Air Riders in the GameCube.
Right. Yeah, 100%. It's it's near near to my heart. My my little brother and I didn't settle things in Smash, we settled things in City Trial. Uh so, you know, um big deal. So, please mark your calendars for that. That will be again November the 29th at sometime, probably not 11:00 a.m. cuz I like to sleep.
We'll probably actually to be honest um over if you're watching on YouTube over on uh we'll probably do a community post right before it to remind folks cuz we're we're trying to I don't know if you've noticed uh I think it went live. Let's double-check that.
There was a community post that went live.
There was a community post that went live because we released our we're right back on schedule for our monthly animated series over there. Uh we just dropped uh one of my absolute favorite and uh and more personal ones I think in a long

time uh a treatise on why Night Reign actually works written by uh Jasmine that Bronze Girl Bilhar. Um I love that episode. Please if you have not watched it yet, please check it out. Please share it with your friends. I know that like Night Reign is in this weird this weird like um when's the DLC coming phase and they're like oh, 5 months. So, now like it's only going to be the hardcore people really talking about it. So, uh any any lift you can help with that would be great.
back to Elden Ring. So, we we we we played Elden Ring on Friday. I both beat um Rykard, big old big old snake boy. I hate that fight so much. I have so many critiques of that fight.
I'm a liar.
But I also beat Draconic Tree Sentinel. So, Tree Sentinel was like it kicked my butt up, down, left, right, and center uh in the early game. And I got Draconic Tree Sentinel dead in like three tries.
Yeah, because you kind of like learn it you kind of like learn
you learn it, but also there's a big difference, Matt, between the first one and this one.
Is it real lightning?
Uh no, it's that I have Moonveil this

time. And Moonveil is a fair and balanced weapon. It's a katana with a ranged attack attached. And that's fair and balanced somehow. Who knows? Anyway, lots of stuff happening here on Twitch. Um please look forward to that. Uh there will be design club this week. There was not last week cuz Jeff was traveling, but there should be a design club this week. I don't know on what, um but there will be one this Thursday, so please look forward to that. And I do believe that is all of our business.
The housekeeping.
Housekeeping. So, we should begin our story.
Yeah, at the beginning. A very good place to start.
Yeah.
Okay. Oh, god. When you begin when you sing you begin with ABC, when you story you begin with it's a me. Uh
Woohoo!
Okie dokie. Uh it's dawn of the first day of Nintendo's uh I guess commitment

to to to furthering their cinematic offerings. Now, as you might know, Nintendo has had um before the the Super Mario Brothers movie that just got released, Nintendo has had a bit of a of a stumble toward toward cinematic mastery with its Super Mario Bros. uh film, the live-action one back in the day. Now, I am still I still posit that that Bob Hop Hopkins masterpiece um is actually now, if you watch it it especially if you watch it next to the new Super Mario Brothers movie, it is in my opinion a more interesting and therefore like worthwhile for my specific time film. Is it Is it
a good
weird twist on exactly what Super Mario Brothers as an IP is? Yep. Uh and and if you're looking for what the video game offers you, it doesn't deliver that? Absolutely not. But, it

does get weird with it and I I was at um I was at um uh oh, Adam's birthday this week uh last week and we were at uh a bar and they were playing like old VHSs of things and one thing that was on was the Super Mario Brothers movie and half the room hadn't even seen it. And uh there's a scene where they have to I believe um the Mario character of of of Big Bertha, is that the character's name? It's It's usually um I'm trying to remember. Anyway, she's played by this woman in like this latex red spiky dress and Mario has to go like dance with her to get like a a shard of something and it's so weird and when they're when they're visiting the city of Dinohattan, I don't know if you remember this uh from the film, that's where the movie takes place. Um essentially, the entire movie is bonkers and everyone at the bar was looking at this like, "What could this possibly be?" And I had to give a history lesson on this um wonderment of cinema. But now,

Nintendo is basically saying after the success of Super Mario Brothers movie that uh their their slate is going to they're going to try to release things almost as quickly as you kind of can.
Yep.
Uh so, Super Mario Galaxy movie opens next year and then the live-action Legend of Zelda movie is in 2027. These are the two stars of it. Of course, Jack Black is not at this point playing Ganon or the moon. Um however, give it time.
But, he could.
But, he could.
He could uh because that seems to be a thing that worked for them real well. I I just like that Jack Black commits 100%. Like there is no part that's too weird or silly or like out of it for Jack Black to not just like commit.
Yeah, also Richard, yeah, Big Bertha is the big cannon. That's right.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and and and this all also comes out of um IGN has the article on their

on where we're getting this from. There's a presentation that they gave to investors uh last week on the 5th um where they said that they were quote building a framework for a consistent release cadence of movies. And that they uh were uh continuing to prepare for the ongoing release of movies in the future. So, my question is like severalfold. Like one, to to to Brad Janette YouTube comments, what Nintendo IP that's not the obvious ones do you want to see on the big screen?
Let's get some of those seated into chat real quick while we continue on here. Because there's obvious places for this to go. Um if the Zelda movie is successful, obviously that'll turn into a franchise. They've basically all but announced they have not announced this, but the way that they've been treating Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong, I am sure that Donkey Kong will get a spin-off. I'm sure a lot of the Mario characters will get a

spin-off.
Yep.
Um I bet you there's going to be a Luigi's Mansion. I know they kind of touch on it in the new Mario Brothers movie. Sorry, minor spoilers. Um but like I think Okay. I want to tell you what I anticipate and why even the Zelda movie is the one I'm the most excited for.
Yeah.
And I think that is the whole dealski about the Mario movie is you're essentially getting a super good-looking version of the game that you cannot play. Um with some silly jokes and some stellar to okay voice acting. And that's fine. Like I did not have a bad time watching the new Super Mario Brothers movie.
Mhm.
Do I ever think about it outside of this like conversations like this or the second I think about it do I just go

back to comparing and wanting to talk about the original live-action version? You darn tootin. So, what I don't really want is a bunch of like oh, it's this formula with this style and this vibe but now it's Donkey Kong.
Yeah.
It feels like at least the Zelda movie intrinsically by being live-action, even if it's bad, has a chance to be weirder and more different. Though, the director of that film, um gosh, I got to find their name. Um uh Ball, something Ball. Why am I Why am I blanking on his name? He did uh the Planet of the Apes films.
While Matt is looking, by the way, uh I'm going to um bring up uh some uh things that people brought up. Um Miguel brought up Fire Emblem.
Talk about that for a second. So, Fire Emblem, what I I I don't I just want to list them. I want to kind of break this down like What do we want to see in a Fire cuz that feels to me very uh for lack of a better term like game a

game of thrones-y political
Yeah.
and in a weird way.
and I think that that's the desire, right? Like Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a big deal and there's a lot of room for like backstabbing and intrigue and big battle scenes and romance and like geopolitics, right? A lot sort of like uh Fire Emblem: Fates Tactics, that kind of thing. So, I think that there's there's some meat there for like more than just a silly exploration of Fire Emblem, right? I think that there's room there.
Uh it is it's Wes Ball is who I was looking for. He known for just most recently did Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, but also did The Maze Runner series.
I feel like Maze Runner suffers from having YA source material more than actually being a bad movie.
Yeah.
But like
Also to to to Lumis's point, it would be a good show. Like I think I think Fire Emblem would be a lot better of a show than a film. I think Zelda, oddly enough, I'm so happy it's not a show.
Yeah, I agree.
Uh I think that because the story is

kind of what I mean we've seen throughout all the different iterations of Zelda across all the different games. Like it the same premise is sort of there, but then they just move it to different like styles of gameplay or sections of time, etc. It's kind of a timeless story anyway. Um
So I got another really good one. Uh a bunch of people, Dogbert among them, mentioned Metroid. I think Metroid makes for an interesting movie ala Tomb Raider, right? Because like it depends on which
to go Alien.
Well, either one, right? Because you've got like the Chozo sort of Metroid Prime style stuff, and there's a bunch of hype for Metroid Prime cuz the new Prime
Yep. Yep. Yep. Motorcycles.
Right. And you've also got like the OG sort of side-scrolly vibe with which is more Alien, I would say. But either of I think there's enough room there to have a good sort of adventurous story built around Samus and her um understanding of the Chozo, fighting the

Metroid, doing the space pirate thing. Like there's enough stuff there to have cool set pieces. And the really interesting thing is all of those could be divorced from being directly related to any individual game and just have like a Metroid movie that's not based on a specific Metroid game, just like you could have a Fire Emblem game.
I kind of Yeah. Yeah. I kind of want to take it in an opposite direction. You're You're talking about what is essentially like, um, uh, like a sci-fi action like thing, right? Like, uh, yeah. I would I almost want to take it into the horror genre. I want to take it into almost like Samus as, like it's so so the the the the mechanic of every Metroid game is essentially, um, uh, you crash, all your gear is gone, and now you have to go get more gear.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I think it should be like almost like, uh, a lot of the time of like not not putting it not spinning it on its head, but like the final girl trope, but in a sense of like, have you seen the film Ready or Not?
No.
Uh, it's a great, uh, mid-level horror film from maybe like 5 years ago. I

really, really like it. I don't want to spoil anything if you like that kind of thing, but essentially, uh, it degrades into this woman being chased around a giant mansion and with a bunch of people trying to kill her. Uh, for reasons that are actually quite interesting. But it sort of turns the trope a little bit, not like necessarily on its head, but like she just keeps getting, it feels like, more competent and more strong, and like it's not like I don't know. It'd be great to see Samus in a real like Ripley in Alien moment, and then have the same arc Ripley does in a sense that like it just like she just becomes more badass as she's surviving it.
Also, also, I saw requests from at least one woman in chat, Gwendoline Christie for Samus, you cowards. Do what you want. Do what you want.
That'd be pretty dope.
That would be pretty dope, right? Like, there's some good there's some good fan casting possibility there. Um, uh, let's see, what else? Uh, people were talking about, um,

Oh, uh, where was it? Uh, I just saw, sorry, I'm scrolling up. You guys you guys, uh, you guys
ones, right?
Let's go different. Almost Watchable says Pikmin would bring a lot of family-friendly energy and invisible gags. Yes, this is Nintendo's answer to the Minions. This is what this is. That is literally what Pikmin could be. I know that there is other bits of story and I am not familiar with all of it, but that feels like it is it is primed to be that and let's put that in its little bubble, you know, to to live in that section because you could have so much fun with that.
And it's it's primed in the same way that Metroid is like for teens and adults, right? Pikmin absolutely could be the the the the Minecraft-esque all ages family fun thing that's not Mario, right? There's like a different appeal to it because some people just don't want to do the Mario thing for whatever reason, but Pikmin is like not that.
A lot of people in the chat are saying

they want Yoshi to be Yoshi to be Minions.
That's a good that's a good thought cuz well, so baby Yoshi, right? If we do like if we go like the route of like Yoshi story, right? Then we've got the baby Yoshis and that sort of fits that vibe as well. Uh
Artemis brings up a great question, but do we actually want Nintendo to have their version of the Minions? Here Here's Here's where I'm going to I'm going to This is my overall thought on this entire endeavor. Um do I necessarily want Nintendo to do all of these things? Not really, but they're going to.
Right.
if I if I can try to figure out my both fan casting, directing, and vibing version of all of these pieces of media that will inevitably be made, I'm just yelling into the ether and hoping that someone sees some of our opinions and maybe leads something in that direction.
Well, yeah, right. Like if it's going to exist, I'd like it to be something I enjoy, but it's going to exist, right? Nintendo has decided, right? Nintendo, when it decides, just commits, right?

Also, yeah. Here can we just I'm sorry. Can we just Listen, I host a podcast, the only podcast about movies. I've been doing it for 10 years. I love movies. I went and a double feature. I saw the double Elle Fanning feature this weekend of sentimental value uh uh Predator Badlands. Very very different films. Both excellent. Both excellent. Go see them both. I think you should see them both in the same day. But my point is um So I my my brain is often in a lot of uh movies and cinema industry kind of discussions and thought. What along with video games? So what What is the most Nintendo Okay. In a In a time when when movie theaters are struggling, streaming is taking over, and the big screen experiences is sort of getting like pulled in a bunch of different directions, and movies are not performing as well as as Hollywood is used to them doing, essentially the business model changing with attention spans with video games and social media

and Tik Tok all competing for people to go get butts in seats at movies, the most Nintendo thing to do is triple down for cinematic releases in the year of our some Lord 2025.
That's correct. Oh, yeah.
And they're just like behind on everything, but they're like, "Nah, you move, bro." And they're just they're going to do this thing, which I think overall could have a helpful uh again push back into uh just another side of of movie making that might be able to get people a little more engaged in it.
I I think that the word that I would use to describe Nintendo's general strategy towards like its its je ne sais quoi, its like overall package of offerings is inexorable. Right? Nintendo will not be the first to market with a brand new shiny thing, but they will pick a direction and keep walking that direction and outlast
like it or not.
And whether we like it or not and outlast everyone else, right? Cuz they

just like Nintendo has a work offer that is unfathomably huge. They have uh executives who are willing to take pay cuts when things go poorly. Like they just keep going in a singular direction and eventually they'll get where they want to go or they'll like begin to pivot by slow degrees in a new direction, right? But like I think they're on this path. So if if they're on this path, we can hope that they stop at a place that we might want to visit, right?
someone brought up Starfox and talked to me. So like picture Okay. I feel as though Starfox should be animated.
Mhm.
With the caveat of if you want to get real weird, you find anyone who is still available or who has been had the knowledge passed jet down from Jim Henson's Creature Shop and you actually make a Ninja Turtles ask live-action suit version of all of the characters in Starfox and you make

like it's essentially like Howard the Duck but 2025, right?
Oh, yeah. No, no. I've I've also got Project Laika Starfox. Studio Laika is the group that did um Kubo and the Two Strings and Coraline and like that style of animation. They also have a new movie coming out. By the way, the only reason that Laika exists is that the lead of Laika Studio is the child of a Nike executive who like underwrites Laika, which thank you. Thank you for patronizing the arts cuz they make only things that I enjoy. Anyway, um you make Farscape but Starfox. Yes, make Starfox really weird.
Like I I hope This is my my hope with this entire thing and I have so many more movies I want to kind of like pitch as to what they should be, but I hope that they're I What I don't want is them to all feel like the Super Mario Brothers movie they did one. Like and

for instance, that's why I'm excited for a live action Zelda. But you know what they could do? Like someone in chat did say like, oh well it's more or like I don't know if this was they were being ironic or not when they said this, but like oh live action is more serious. And I think sometimes that is true, but I could also picture like Minecraft movie. Sure. But I But I could also picture Well, actually it's funny. Wes Ball has gone on record. This comes to us I believe from IGN saying, I want to fulfill people's greatest desires. I know it's important this franchise Wait, wait, where is it? No, no, no, no, no. Oh, he he wanted to say how he wanted this to feel grounded and real. And which is something that the New Zealand as backdrops will hopefully provide. Like basically he just came off an incredibly intensive green screen heavy apes movie and he doesn't really want to do that. So that's promising. But what I was saying is even if Zelda was animated, like I would love to see it from a studio that like brought us like blue-eyed samurai. Like you can do serious and heavier stuff in in gorgeous you know renderings and styles. But

I just I hope that like throughout Nintendo's offerings some are live action, some are animated, some are weird and silly, some are dark and and creepy. I was just looking at some of the IPs and we haven't even gotten to the Pokémon of it all, which I feel like should just stick with like anime and animation.
also think that when we're talking about Nintendo, I think
own like they yeah.
We should be very clear. This is going to be Nintendo first party. Pokémon has already had a movie like runs and does the movie thing on their own, right? So this is a different thing.
I'm trying to think like what what like I'm just sort of going through their their thing. What would Here's a question for chat. What would an Animal Crossing film be?
Right. That one also feels like it's going to Okay, hear me out. Hear me out. It's like a Bluey movie.
So you're thinking of the family-friendly version of this where I

go instantly like Tom Nook must die.
Right. Yeah, no, no, either one of those, right? But I I feel like the pitch well, because okay, so this is a Nintendo doing the pitch, right? So like they're in brain control. So I feel like the very like slice of life like fun easy to digest well, maybe not fun, but like easy to digest like you know, life lessons about like neighbors together. I feel like it's almost like Cocomelon weirdly even though that's not the target audience, but that is what the IP yields in a non-interactive setting. It's a Ren but really dark. Have you watched Ren recently? Ren is really really dark. Ren is horrendously dark.
9,000 2,500 6,000 bells. I don't know the numbers, but I was trying to think of it.
Yeah. Um What else we got here? What else we got? Advance Wars? Nah, I'm good. Um I'm going down the list. Oh, you know what I want?

This could be either of these two and they'll never do this. Cowards. I want either Wave Race or 1080° Snowboarding, but I want it to be done like an old school 80s like like raunchy comedy. It could be like updated to be not be like like offensive, but like still have like the body nonsense comedy of like uh cuz we just don't get those anymore and there's so many dumb movies that take place on a beach with like jet skis or at a ski resort with a bunch of like idiots running around being crazy.
Yeah, yeah. Counterpoint. Counterpoint. 1080° Snowboard
Sure.
in the style of Cool Runnings.
Sure.
Right? Like that level of like fun like make make a make the struggle of a team to like overcome their obstacles like a real thing and like now they they're not going to have like a real uh historical event to base it on. By the way, if you've never seen Cool Runnings
It's great.

It's great A, it's great, but B, look up the story of the first Jamaican bobsled team. It's wild. Anyway,
Will, we left something on the table. I know you were saying, what did you think was the bluey one? You were saying Animal Crossing. Will, we're so stupid.
What? What?
Nintendogs.
Yeah, you're right. Yeah, you're right. No, no, you're correct. Yeah, I missed that one.
That's I I can't believe we left that on the table.
Yeah. I I've got another I've got some really interesting ones. Fast and Furious F-Zero. Love that. An F-Zero movie but in the Fast and Furious style. 100%. Can you imagine Captain Falcon just riding off into the sunset in his in his machine just doing the, you know, racing means like family speech ala Vin Diesel. Actually, you know what? Go one further. Cast Vin Diesel as Captain Falcon.
Falcon.
No, he's perfect.
every It's the exact same cast

of all the Fast and the Furious movies but they're all playing characters from F-Zero.
Right, 100%.
Combs, I got it. F stands for family. This is Nintendo, we are giving you gold here.
Right.
Pure unadulterated Corona fueled gold.
Yeah. And it's 11:00 a.m. on a Monday. We're not even toasted. So, there there are a couple of other ones that I just wanted to like quickly call out um that I don't have specific ones that I could put on Kirby. Very interesting idea. Kirby is sort of a weird is in a weird tension with what it looks like and what people understand is going on in the world of Kirby. So, that one's a bit of a tension. I think they could balance it, but I also think that really needs a die-hard Kirby fan as the director.
In a way that Who would it be? Cuz I So, I'm not a die-hard Kirby fan. What What is What is What would it be?
Right. So, if it's Kirby Um okay. So,

there's some Kirby games where it's just like and then Kirby saves that saves the day with her friends. And some of them are like, "And then Kirby fights Satan." Like that world's version of like actual factual Satan. And so, like figuring out where to land that and also it has Kirby is one of the ones that they can't change the style because anything that's vaguely outside of the animated style of Kirby loses Kirby immediately. Like if Kirby goes in the Sonic direction, it like like the OG like horror Sonic direction where it's too human-like, it loses the Kirbyness. So, I think that they've got to find someone who is a really die-hard Kirby fan and make them the director rather than just like, "Hey, who wants to direct a Kirby movie?" Like they need to director shop for Kirby specifically.
Do you think Do you think that
Yeah. Th- This is
How do you get that across the finish line of a four-quadrant audience?

I don't.
I think so So, let's talk about Kirby for a second cuz I think it's very interesting. I think Kirby I think the reason Kirby is not as popular as Mario or Sonic or any of that is exactly like it's because it's niche, right? It's because the deeper you go, the weirder it gets. In fact, I'm surprised Sonic broke containment. I think maybe because Sonic was a was a mascot of an actual console for a very long time. Um but like that's not to say there's not a place for it, but I'm trying to think of like what What in current cinema or television do we think is like the like okay, um this is the wrong answers only. Let's let's start down a weird Kirby path. Kirby in the style of Twin Peaks.
Uh okay.
I again, I don't know much about Kirby

but that's weird.
I'm just going to pull a pin and lob this one into chat.
Sure.
The correct answer is Kirby in the style of One Piece.
Okay, I'm going to pull the pin and lob
than they're not. Like the style of combat and the style of um like storytelling and the at stake for the main characters along with the unbelievable power scaling of the main characters of both franchises fits. But like Kirby is most I would say similar in current media in the current media landscape to One Piece. Right? Okay.
If you I mean I I can't speak to that but I I
Chat's backing me up. Chat is backing me up. In fact, I got a uh hold on a a be correct less loudly, please from Nova which means I'm dead on. So
Let's keep it moving. Let's keep it moving. Let's go Dr. Mario. I think with the success of the pit even though the Crichton estate is suing uh I believe

Warner Brothers cuz they think it's ripping off ER which it's not but whatever. Um a medical drama. A gritty medical drama This is where you get weird. This is we're getting to the bottom of the barrel here but follow me because like picture Oh my god like it needs to be the same vibe as the 80s Mario movie but a but a medical drama. That's what I want. For Dr. Mario.
accept this only if they add a backstory where Mario has a pill-popping problem.
No, Mario has a pill-popping solution. That's the whole That's the premise of the game, Will. He's lobbing those pills in and the little viruses, they all die depending on the color.
Yeah. Um
I think it's great.
Yeah. Uh I see a lot of pitches for in the style of John Wick. I think you're missing the point. Um
Wait, what what in the style of John Wick?
I saw like Game & Watch and like a bunch of other stuff.
Game & Watch would be funny. Here Here's what I'll say. Bayonetta in the style of John Wick.

Bayonetta's rights are a little weird. I don't know that it's included in this, but it might be. And And if it is
credulity.
Okay, here's a really weird problem with Bayonetta.
Bayonetta in the style of Constantine.
Bayonetta not the Bayonetta in the style of Constantine is correct. Bayonetta also flirts with getting an X like a lot of the time or an NC-17. Um Uh
Oh, cops, I got it. Cops, I got it. Bayonetta is a modern Elvira crossed with John Wick.
You're not
Elvira is kind of like Elvira was always sort of like conscious that she was in a movie or a show even when she wasn't hosting the show.
Yeah.
And so And Bayonetta has a lot of winks like that.
Yeah. I think that that's fair. Uh and the last one is Splatoon. Splatoon is another one where I think they just need to lift the animation style and just Actually, I'll I'll get

I'll do you one better. Splatoon's a better show. Splatoon is a better animated show where it's like the world of Splatoon cuz if you've never played it, the world of Splatoon is actually really vibrant and interesting and full of weird characters and like
I'm a squid now, I'm a kid now.
Right. There's a lot going on there. I think that Splatoon makes a better show than it does a movie. And I think the show might lead into a movie in the same way the Pokémon anime led into a movie.
What if What if, follow me here. I don't know. Who saw the Freddy Wong uh series uh Video Game High School?
Oh,
yes. I love VGHS.
like a summer camp or a school and it's a bunch of the kids now squids now gangs in that school cuz that that contains it enough where it's not like a global thing but you could have like different elements of the world. It could be you could do it animated or you could go full-blown I you know what I want to see if it's live action I don't want the CGI to be any higher quality than like the level Alex Mack used.

Sure.
I want low-fi CGI for the Splatoon. I want Splatoon to feel like a kid show from the late 90s.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean we could go on with this for forever but we we do have other stories. I just
No, I like this. Let's keep going. What else What other
This is my This is This is
the bottom of the barrel of the of the IP here.
Yeah.
Um Big Brain Academy that is that that's a reality show where you have to it's all Nintendo trivia. I have no idea.
Mega Man is not owned by Nintendo. Um Let's see.
Is Mother?
Yes, they won't but yes.
No, there aren't enough drugs for that. Like there aren't just aren't enough drugs to make an Earthbound movie.

Like it it's unhinged. Like it is a style of unhinged that makes many modern indie games that have a reputation for being slightly unhinged look reasonable. Like it is a wild ride. Um Yeah. Professor Layton as a noir film I like.
Good, good.
Um
Somebody brought up Xenoblade Chronicles. Uh that would have to be a show and animated. It feels like. That's just too long.
Yep. Uh okay, and then
Pilotwings. Pilotwings, but it's just a soft reboot of the sitcom Wings.
Matt has now gotten through the bottom of the barrel and is attempting to tunnel towards the Earth's core. I just need all of you to know this, right? Like he is
The sitcom Wings was pretty good.
He is attempting to become Punxsutawney

Phil. Um he's just working on it real hard. Uh I I did I did want to add one. Um the the idea that Smash is the crossover style like these the baked-in crossover style thing for like an Avengers-style like big entire franchise crossover. I love the energy. It'll never work because one of the problems is that none of the backstory from all of the movies is going to be relevant to Smash because none of the backstory in any of the games is relevant to those characters' inclusions in Smash. Right? In the same way that all of the backstory from all of the MCU phase one and two was relevant to the crossover films when they made them. Right? So like I love the energy. I don't think it works at all.
Of course, of course. Uh yeah, and then Golden Sun

but in a Lord of the Rings style.
Golden Sun would be great. Yep. Yep. Yep.
There's a lot. Anyway, the point of this entire conversation is if we can't have fun with it,
Right. They're not going to Right. We're I'm going to scream.
for
disappointment in the future. And I'm I'm just trying to I'm trying to turn a frown upside down. I And again, I do think like there's no denying that The Super Mario Brothers movie was a huge box office smash, and it did help get butts in seats, and I want the movies to continue. So, this is another thing uh again, the most Nintendo timing ever. This wouldn't be a thing if like if Nintendo wasn't doing it 10 years too late.
Correct.
Um and I'm looking forward to seeing how they march down this path and uh defiantly tell everyone else to move.
That's correct. 100%. Uh okay, let's let's tackle some other stories that have that have made the rounds uh this week um that, you know, we should talk

about. First up,
Oh, is this like a RuneScape mod? Cuz that's what the graphics like uh RuneScape looks like.
Yeah, no, I wish. So, if you're going to be in Riyadh, cuz you know, we're going to be in Riyadh randomly, Mr. Beast is going to open a theme park in Riyadh called Beast Land.
This comes to us from Kotaku. Uh it is essentially the highest scale pop-up local fair you can possibly do. This is part of the Saudi Royals family's um um I'm trying to remember the name of the um It's like it's not a permanent installation. It runs for like a month and a half or something. But they're like installing a bunch of roller coasters and like games you can play and like it seems like leaderboards and stuff. I have no idea. Um It uh The I The information I have is from is

from Kotaku. It says there's three different kinds of tickets. There's a general admission for $7, which basically lets you get in there and look around. Um there is a $25 ticket that gives you access to games, challenges, and three rides. And finally, the Beast Mode Plus ticket that gives you it's around $65 and includes everything already mentioned, but you get access to every ride. Um Mr. Beast has said, uh when asked why do it there, he said, "Because a majority of my audience is outside of America and we have a big Middle Eastern fan base. Wanted to give them a chance to participate."
Okay.
Okay. Um I don't know the mechanics of any of this. Um but with all of the other things going on with the uh it because I guess it's called Saudi Vision 2030 is kind of like the the the umbrella, I believe, of this and like to it's it's it's um trying to make the country, which is essentially uh you know, its main profit

being natural resources and oil, um trying to get them more on the world stage of of culture. Um and I can't think of more culture
than
Like, I don't know, man. I can't like I'm afraid to go on local carnival ride You know the traveling carnivals?
Oh, yeah.
That are set up for like a week or two around your local area and the rides look like they've been driven through the nine levels of hell. That's right, two extras. Um and just Uh this again, but the very nature I don't care what creator is doing this. Let's take away even the politics, let's take away everything. A pop-up uh with renderings like this, I'm just sort of like I don't know, man.
Given given Mr. Beast's sterling safety record on all of his videos and all of the ways that everyone's always been

safe doing all of the weird, bizarre things for money that he's totally had people do live on camera, this will surely be a safe and orderly event at which nothing bad will occur. Right?
We can only hope.
Right.
Um
Yeah.
Yeah, we don't really got much else to say about that.
No, no. I just want I just wanted to say those words and look at that stuff and then be like, "Bro." And then move on. Um okay. Uh next up. Oh, I have stuff out of order.
Is it out of order?
Yeah.
This whole system's out of order.
Did I
That's okay. We can talk about this cuz this one I don't know. This one could either talk for a minute or or a little bit less. So, the PlayStation Portal, as illustrated in my hand, um is a thing that I really enjoyed as a Sony pony. I like it because it frees up the TV. I can you I can play my PlayStation games, uh you

know, in my apartment, etc. Um but they just knocked out of beta essentially a bunch of the ability where you can now buy a PlayStation Portal for uh $199, I believe. And if you have the highest-tier um uh PlayStation Plus account or whatever whatever the thing is. Uh you can stream I think over like 300 or something games just directly to the portal.
Without a PlayStation 5.
Without a PlayStation 5. Um you can also I believe I I haven't tested this yet. You can You can stream games you own not from your PlayStation 5. So, for instance, I I'm going to have to test this. Um like I can since I own Spider-Man, rather than use the internet to ping if I was away, use the internet to ping home to turn on my PlayStation to play that and bounce back to me, which is what you used to have to do, you will it would now spin up using my

cloud save of Spider-Man a closer cloud storage version of the game and stream it to my portable. So, uh this has been in beta for a while. I actually will don't have the highest tier PlayStation Plus because I it just for my lifestyle it doesn't add value to me. But that like this coming out of beta and from all reports seemingly working well kind of changes what the value prop of this thing that everyone said including what I was I was a hater of this thing in the beginning, too. Um it kind of changes the value prop. And there's a world there's a world where for the like for I mean, again, you're paying for service like services we have to think of both PlayStation Plus and your internet.
Right.
Right. Now, the initial setup means it's less than a PS5. Uh but also it's funny with a PS5 you also have like there's a monitor you have to think about, too. You have to have a television as well which maybe

you do. But like it it kind of it does open up an interesting for places where the internet is strong enough and interesting proposition to get into PlayStation's catalog.
Yes.
Um also uh I don't know this wasn't data mined. I'm trying to remember but this came from um I'm trying to find this was an IGN thing. There's also a a a tag found in this update that says PS5/PC.
Yeah.
And there's the idea is that they're they're thinking that perhaps there's going to be cross buy ability for these games. So, and I'm curious how that will function retroactively. If I own Spider-Man on PlayStation, could I use a PlayStation uh launcher on my PC and load Spider-Man without paying like how does this all function?
Yep. I I I I can I can see the Grim

Reaper with the giant bell screaming bring out your dead and someone just Hawking the corpse of Xbox onto a cart somewhere. Like
Uh Ryan, I'll also add this. It'd be easy to switch the portal between multiple machines and accounts. You can. Uh so I upgraded to the pro and I was cleaning off my my other my older PS5. And essentially uh I was linked to both across two different like I could easily switch also and that was right at the time the beta was coming out. So you switch between which PlayStation you wanted, which account you wanted, and uh if you just wanted to log in cloud.
Yeah.
Um it seemed easy. I I want to be very clear. I did not like actively do it a bunch, but I had to when you have it hooked up to different monitors and you have your HDMI what's that the DC MI or whatever setting on and off with to stream you have to when you have you when you turn it on to watch content on streaming service you have to turn it off to be able to stream.

Uh I had to go in and switch that a bunch between PlayStations and accounts. All that's being said is this is not a solution for everybody. Uh but it's an interesting and also the portal now has I believe taken over the majority of ways that uh remote play on PlayStation functions.
Yep.
Um like I think it has like 70 to 80% of it cuz before you could use like controllers with your phone. You still can. Um but there's something there's something nice about having like the form of a PlayStation controller with the screen in the middle of it and that you have the same um I play Returnal on it and you still feel the DualSense like rain like vibrations and things which is really nice.
Yeah.
Um Yeah and grass like this is kind of it, right? Like I don't and again everyone's mileage definitely varies. I personally I like having the physical thing and knowing that it's at my house. Um but I think that

this is I I like it that other people This is an Xbox. Yeah, kind of. Yeah, let's see. Uh I just I I'm glad this is not something that went into beta and then they scrapped. I will say it's not every game available and I went into I've been singing this thing's praises and now it's time to poop on a little bit. Uh I I basically Oh, what do you got?
Ad break soon.
So.
Okay. Um essentially, the way that this like there's tons of games on here. Find games to stream and I and I actually selected the PS Plus game catalog. Um and so you like the stuff that you're thinking of would be like the Grand Theft Autos, Blueprints, um Wild Hearts, uh New World while it's still around, Silent Hill 2, Until Dawn. But you turn off You turn off PlayStation Plus category and you put on any There's a lot It's like it's almost like every possible slop game on the PlayStation Store is also available to stream,

including many with questionable thumbnails.
Yeah. For sure.
Um so like I just got to one on page two called High School Dirty Secrets. Uh so there's like I think they're pumping the like Basically, there is how many on each page? 15 on each page with 160 pages. But you knock that down to instead of any game type you do PlayStation Plus catalog and that basically knocks it to 11 pages with 15. You know what I mean? So
Ads.
Yeah, there we go. We're now in ads now.
Um I can go first. Since you were just on that, I have one for ads.
Oh, go for it. Yeah, please. Ready? Here we go.
Hi there. Welcome to Back to the pitching you an idea you didn't know you needed or wanted. It's a Nintendo streaming service.

That's what I'm going to pitch. I think this is actually where it's headed. I don't I don't actually think Nintendo's going to save the cinema. This is going to hurt Matt a lot. I don't think they're actually saving the cinema. I think they're
saving
Or they're going to try and save the cinema. I think all of this is a big lead-up to them adding Nintendo expansion plus expansion pack plus movie streaming streaming thing where you can exclusively stream the movies on the play on the Switch too. That's all you can do. You can stream the movies on the Switch too and nowhere else. That's their new plan. That's my theory.
I hate that.
I just had to. I had to. Uh
I'll I'll pitch a streaming service.
Hey everyone, Matt from Extra Credits here. Also, you might recognize me from over on Nebula, which is a great streaming service, but I'm not talking to you about that today. Instead, I'm going to talk to you about a streaming service that I'm starting individually, me by myself. And that is finding every Game Boy Advance cartridge that has film

or television shows on it, putting that down on my desk on my original Game Boy Advance, and putting a webcam that probably is going to be like 720p on its own, pointed at that thing to so you can enjoy the 112p and 15 frames a second of every cinematic masterpiece that was available on the Game Boy Advance. Films like Shrek 2. Sign up today. It's only $20 a month. Yeah, Matt View Plus, Mattflix. I do still I still need to get a copy of Shrek 2 on the Game Boy Advance. And Will, I guarantee you we won't get copyright struck for this. We're going to a watch party where I do set up a camera and a microphone pointing at the Gameboy Advance and we watch Shrek 2. It'll be big. It'll be big. It will be small, but it it's going to be it will

be filmed from the Gameboy. I will not like hardwire this together. This will be pure jank. So fear this day, chat.
I'm afraid. And we're back from ads. Thank goodness cuz Matt had a was threatening us with a terrible idea.
It's It's terrible.
There's a lot of People have a lot of Matt streaming service names just on boat.
Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mattview Plus, Mattlu, Mattmax, Extra Matt and Extra Extra Matt, Matt B.
Yeah. Uh Matt Scuffathon, I like that. It's
Listen, if someone gets me that cartridge, I'll do it.
I think there is I think there is a cartridge floating around with your name on it.
Oh, there is.
Yeah, we just got to track that down. Somebody has one for you and I
a PO box.
Yeah. I think I think we set that up for that and then didn't follow through because you and I both lost a brain cell at the same time to something else.
Yo, it it Get you Get you a show where both hosts get

distracted by shiny things and you'll get this show, more or less. Uh okay.
Compsci just nailed it. Flixl Sticks Flix. Okay.
All right.
We got to keep moving.
We're moving We're moving on to our
cinema.
All right.
Cinematt.
Yeah, Cinematt. That's right. Okay. So uh there was a lawsuit filed last year, earlier this year, um against Roblox by a state. You'll forgive me if I don't remember which one cuz this year
Louisiana.
Louisiana. That's right.
state of Louisiana.
Louisiana. Um it's happening again. Uh Texas is now also suing Roblox. Similar charges, endangering kids, not taking child safety online seriously. Um unknown whether this is going to do anything, whether it's just them quasi virtue signaling. It's weird that it's Texas, but like that kind
virtue signaling, but it's the same quasi virtue signaling that they do all

the time. I mean, this is the government that also is has voted many, many times to not release specific files. Um which would be helpful to not endangering children.
This is This is This is state, not federal, but yes.
It's coming from the same state whose representatives
There you go. That's accurate. Right, have voted against releasing certain files that are pertinent to child safety in the greater United States as a whole. That's correct. Um
I don't believe that the great state of Texas has uh child safety on its mind that much.
I I don't
in the right direction.
I Yeah, I
Um
Yeah, I I think this is this is a weird This is a weird tack on. I cannot tell if this is smoke screen or chaff or something else. Uh I can't tell like what their angle is here, but
They saw Louis- I mean, this is my opinion. They saw Louisiana do something. They're like, "Ooh, that'll make us look good if we do that, too."
Yeah.
And that Who knows if they're going to actually follow through or not, but it's going to be It's interesting. I've been watching, and this is all different, of course, but I've been watching the I've

been playing the Mortal Kombat Legacy Collection, and I would just got to the part about the the lawsuits and the government and the formulation of the ESRB and like all that stuff. And you watch the footage of politicians talking about video games. And whether or not you agree with the the violence in that game was too much or whatever, or what Roblox is doing, like it doesn't matter whatever it is. But the thing that comes across is, no matter how true or untrue the bad thing is, they don't know how to talk about it because they don't understand it.
Yeah, that's the big problem.
it's funny because in their age bracket, you wouldn't expect them to understand it. But it's also their job now to understand it, but that's probably not why they got into There needs to be younger, more or it doesn't have to be younger, just people that are in the space helping with this. I think that's why, and don't get me wrong, the ESRB rating system has a bunch of problems, but that like that forming through the games industry

was a way better solution than the government trying to rate.
Yeah, because because there's a clear lack of understanding in how any of this actually works. And the Yeah, I agree. I think that's the biggest problem is that this I foresee that this will also come down to we don't actually understand Roblox and that scares us, rather than substantive commentary on what Roblox is or is not doing and the way that its practices do or do not harm children.
And and uh It is possible that through this virtue signaling something good actually happens with regulation on Roblox, right? Like it is possible. I'm what I am positing is I don't trust the motives of this beyond a what is essentially an easy political win. Look what we are doing to protect the kids, even though who knows if it will actually do anything.
Right. Yeah.
Um
So, this is another one we're going to

be tracking. We'll We'll let you know when more information comes out either about the Louisiana lawsuit or this one, but it is worth mentioning that it's happening again. We'll see how many of these rack up before they get welded together into one giant multi-state lawsuit thing. Um but yeah. Okay, next up.
I want to be very clear, I did not make this graphic. This is from a video from forever ago on a on a on a channel called um Recade Soup that they made a video called World of Warcraft on the NES. And this is their one of their thumbnail images or piece of it. Um and uh the reason why I pulled this is because you should watch this video. It's actually very, very funny if you have not seen it. Uh it is a NES rendering of World of Warcraft. Um it's so silly and fun. And if you know the if you play the game, it has a lot of in jokes.
Yeah.
But what we are talking about is the concept of the World of Warcraft

on a console.
So, there have been rumors circulating recently, not uh most recently by Wowhead themselves, that there is uh there might be an upcoming push to put World of Warcraft on consoles. Which makes sense. Final Fantasy XIV's on all the consoles except Switch too, and it could probably be on Switch too at this point if it wanted to be. They're talking about that, and I believe it's in the works. Um but that's a space that World of Warcraft had largely ceded Final Fantasy XIV as a major MMO. There are, of course, other MMOs that are console compatible.
There's a lot of them, actually.
Yeah.
Elder Scrolls, right?
Uh I believe ESO is. None of them are as big. Um I don't I But what I don't know is how many of those are bigger than 14 on console, right? Just the console market share. So, but it is a space that World of Warcraft hasn't been able to occupy before.
And it it it's interesting So, this was the rumor, right? And now uh one of the dev leads, I believe this story comes to

us I've got to dig through cuz we did reorder things.
This is also from Kotaku.
Uh basically says um I got to find the quote. Uh Ion has I'm going to butcher this name. Hazikostas says it's absolutely a director uh he says absolutely not happening. "If we were actively working towards bringing WoW to consoles or a bunch of other platforms," says the game's current lead, "we'd be saying, "We're actively working towards it. We know we have a lot of work to do, but it's in a place we want to land." And he said, uh, "To be fully transparent, there's no reason for us to hide anything about this."
Yeah. So,
Oh, sorry, go on.
The There are a bunch of factors that have led people to lend some credibility to this idea. Not the least of which, and I would argue probably the most recent and most important of them, is the move against add-ons and moving all of the add-ons into first-party WoW. Um, that's sort of necessary because you don't have the file system capability or the ability to run an extra launcher or

mod loader in most consoles, unless it's put in specifically for that game, ala Baldur's Gate 3. Um, uh, not that You get what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um,
Here's the interesting thing to me, too. Like, I think Final Fantasy XIV, when I played due to the charity stream, uh, reward where I played 6 hours as Taylor Swift, maybe she'll come back. Actually, again, I played a lot of my prep work on this.
Yeah.
Um, the There's no reason, once like from a from a tech from a from a horsepower perspective, there is absolutely no reason at this point consoles couldn't handle World of Warcraft.
Agreed.
Um, I'm curious, like, and especially with And this feels a lot like the Microsoft not actually like one hand's not actually washing the other. Microsoft owns Blizzard. They could I mean, again, this would be assuming that they actually want to move hardware.

Um, they could put WoW on Xbox. Like, they could do that. I won't say quickly, but they could do that legally quickly. Uh, they could do that uh, they could make that a a selling point if they thought it would be one.
Yep.
Uh, well, what do Is there anywhere you can find or that you know of Final Fantasy XIV players like on consoles. Like what the what the split is like PC to console?
No, I also and and here's the really interesting thing. It's all cuz you can't even split by control scheme because I know people who play on PC with controller.
Yeah.
So like
oopsies to oopsies point, like this is the thing. I always thought this too. You it's a like there's the way Final Fantasy 14 does it, once you get your head around it, easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Yeah, I I would say that my having looked at wow UI recently, I think it's entirely possible. Especially if you do it with the the PS5 or any or like a switch style

controller that has a touchpad for the mouse interface for like doing gear management, but like also you don't need that. There is like a whole system. If you're on keyboard by the way and you want to see how it works on 14, you can use your keyboard like a an arrow key system. Uh
Oh, interesting.
Like you can actually use your 10 key like the
Yeah.
That system, right? Like Um
Uh Neo brings up like there's some really excellent Reddit posts compiling various leaks about wow coming to console from 5, 10, 15 years ago. Yeah, I think this is something that's an old chestnut that kind of gets dug up every once in a while. It's just now obviously there's there's less barrier than ever if they wanted to do it. I don't think they're going to do it. Um but that would be a really interesting way to take it. Like
It introduces relevancy and introduces a new group of players to the game that were not able to play the game before.
I could see in a in a bizarro world where somehow PlayStation bought

Blizzard.
Yeah.
They bring it to PlayStation.
Agreed.
Um but X like Xbox if they again, all signs point to them not really caring about their like I think they're going to their next console is going to be either the handheld that is theirs or essentially a very expensive computer that you plug into your television. Like that's kind of what a console is anyway, but like they've even said like the next Xbox is not is not being designed with affordability in mind. Um so I think if they if if Xbox was in a place where they really wanted to push units, they would have already made a huge push with wow. Cuz even though wow is fallen off from its heyday, it still has what 8 million players active or something? Like that's not a
absurd number.
That's not a that's not chump change.
No.
So and again, I can we keep going back when when midnight launches, I do want to get an EC group together to play midnight and see like what how that functions and we'll stream that.

Yep.
Um yeah, so I mean it'd be it'd be nice and maybe smart, but maybe not also financially responsible to do it based on what Microsoft wants to do with consoles.
When does Microsoft or Blizzard care about financial responsibility?
Uh I maybe responsibility is the wrong word. They don't believe it'll make enough money, so they're not doing it.
That's fair. I think that that's accurate. Okay, speaking of things not making enough money. So
how it is done done done or how it will be.
Right. Uh Gamerant's got our story for today on Funko Pops. They um the Funko's recent SEC's uh filing shows that they have their sales of tanks 20% year-over-year um and they recorded a net $1 million USD loss in the third quarter of 2025 and it has substantial doubt about its ability to continue.

That's the quote as a company throughout the next year. Um so I'm going to be really honest. I don't know anyone who buys enough Funko Pops to like continue that business model? Like I see stores with like shelves and shelves of Funko Pops and nobody buying them.
Well, even like you know, other than like Comic-Con exclusives or things like that, it doesn't really move the needle. Um here's what I'll say about Funko Pop cuz I have three Funko Pops. I have a Darth Vader.
Uh-huh.
I have a Skeletor.
Uh-huh.
And I have a Cobra Commander.
Okay.
And I bought that was I was like these are my three. I was like villains and whatever. And something I noticed as I collected these over the course of a few years. This is ages ago. They're like in a storage unit at this point. But like here's a weird thing about Funko Pops that

chat, if I am wrong, please tell me in the comments or right now or whatever. Funko Pops are one of the most interesting collectibles because the more of them you line up next to each other, the worse they all look.
Agreed.
There is something about the design when you see a single Funko Pop, you're like, oh neat. That's uh uh not Pikachu. It could be literally anybody uh any game character at all. That's uh The Mandalorian. Wow, that's neat cuz it's a bobblehead and like whatever, cool. But the more of them you start putting next to each other
the more it's clear that they're all like way too similar.
Like yeah, they're Yeah, yeah, Bane kind of got it. One on a desk at work, sure, okay. A whole wall of them, ick. It becomes ick to me. Like and so I've never understood and maybe if there's anyone who

who is who's down with Funko Pops um I hope I'm not insulting your your aesthetic, but I whenever I see more than like three next to each other, I'm just like uh Yeah. Um Like and so I Are Funko Pops this era this era's Beanie Babies? No, Labubu, I think is actually at this point uh
Uh Well, I mean, so
Funko Pops have no resale value.
Correct.
That that's the other thing. Like okay, so I don't know Funko's full business model, I won't pretend to, but it seems like they're it's from an outsider's perspective, it seems like their business model is flood every market all the time.
Yep.
Which I think generates a lot of waste and I think genera and both both financially and uh I guarantee you there's landfills full of this garbage.
There are when I was looking stuff up for this story, there are landfills full of Funko Pops.
Yeah. There are some that are extremely

collectible. Yes, but the collectible market for Funko Pops and again, please correct me when I'm wrong, is much smaller than something that than the business model that Funko Pop operates for. Um Like it's interesting, Beanie Babies and then Beanie Babies collapsed too, Labubu, even I mean, you go down to like well, you could probably speak to this more, but like Magic cards. Like
So collectible card games, as long as the card game remains intact, tend to inflate. So, Magic is currently having some pretty big inflation, but that's also because there's a thing called the reserve list, which I do not have time to rant about. Pokémon is also rampantly inflating. If you have old Pokémon cards in a binder or a box somewhere, especially anything from like the first year that Pokémon was out, dig through those, look up how much they're selling for on eBay. It is unhinged.
Let's look actually, you know what? While we're here, I'm going to go to eBay and just look up Funko Pops and I'm

going to search by most expensive Funko Pop.
Yeah.
because I I want to know
what love is.
I want to know if I'm Funko Pop.
Yeah.
How expensive are you? Not best match. I want highest price.
And I I think Richard's got a really good point here, too, that Funko have they have no purpose, right? Like a collectible card or a pog, right, has a like there are there is a purpose and that is part of what drives the value. But because Funko Pops are purely aesthetic, just like Beanie Babies were purely aesthetic or pogs were largely purely aesthetic, right? Or Labubus are purely aesthetic. They don't have a function in a game or other structure that adds to their value, right? Their rarity is self-generated, right, in that way? Like demand is also self-generated by rarity, rather than like Magic cards where like some cards are valuable because they're sought after. Also, rip everyone who was holding Vivi hoping it wouldn't get

banned. It got banned this morning while we were live. Salutes to the Chinese child.
So So it's funny for a single Funko Pop, and these are these are like this won't sell, right? It's $499,999.99 for a Taskmaster Walgreens exclusive Funko Pop. Now, there's a couple that are like this, but once you get past the ludicrous nonsense,
Right, you should also be searching for sold listings, not for sale listings.
Oh.
Cuz sold listings will actually show you what someone was willing to buy, cuz anyone can say that they'll sell it for any price, but that doesn't actually tell you what the market's doing.
Copy that. How do you search for sold stuff on there?
Um I can do it.
Oh, yeah, please do.
Uh
I don't use eBay much.
Yeah, you you you talk and I'll I'll look.
But yeah, I mean I I I I I I am not um uh

I'm not terribly sad about Funko. I look, I don't want anyone to lose a job, obviously, but like I also don't think that Funko Pop is adding much to the social conversation anymore. There's much more interesting people doing collectibles, um I think, than Funko. Um case in point, hold on. I'm going to give a shout-out if I can find it. Um let's see. I see these at the last couple packs is um and I want to find that. Uh Tubs. Similar model, but a little bit more interesting. Tubs are essentially what if Funko Pops, but they are rubber duckies. And uh you can get them that actually do float and serve as a as an actual rubber ducky. You can get display ones and other ones. And uh I just I I don't know. This is at least doing something slightly different with it.

Yep.
Um
Okay, so uh I found it. Uh here's your here's your fast one. On if you go to eBay and you search for a thing on the left side, you uh down past category, franchise, themes, features, collections, sport, keep going, keep going, keep going. All the way at the bottom, you see show only, and you can tick sold items, and that will show you only listings that have been completed. If you're looking for Funko Pops specifically, you need to go down past Part of the problem is you you can't actually look at anything that's an or best offer because it won't disclose that.
Sure.
So, an or best offer isn't really a thing, but I'm seeing like a couple thousand dollars at least in theory for um like a signed limited edition graded Funko Pop.
Right. So, signatures have a lot to like that signatures to me are not a thing that is the healthy for the collectible space. You a person or or a group can sign a thing and make it more valuable.
Right. So so an example might be I've

got one that sold a week ago. It's a Natalie Portman signed Padme Amidala uh like Funko Pop um with like the the torn shirt look from the
uh Attack of the Clones.
from Attack of the Clones and it's a graded 10. So it's a perfect graded Funko Pop still in box and she signed the box and that's all for $3,500. But that is a perfect confluence of like all of the best circumstances. You have a liked character in a interesting variant outfit signed by a relevant personage in a perfect graded sealed container.
And if that is for $3,500 and that's sort of the the the benchmark of what perfection is from a collector standpoint like no one should I am I I'll say this straight up. No one should be collecting Funko Pops for the resale value.
Correct.
Like that's just not going to do it.
Yeah.
Um and look um there's also another thing in the room.

Uh and that is everything now is more expensive. And if I'm looking if I'm a collector of anything I imagine if Funko Pops are in my collectible repertoire, that might be the first thing I buy less of as everything gets more expensive and life you know, inflation etc. Um
Yeah. Uh Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh
Yeah, Bull brings up but her signature's worth 4,000 alone.
Yeah, probably. Probably. Okay.
Anyway, RIP Funko Pop. I mean it's not dead yet, but um
Yeah.
Okay. Uh we got two more stories. One fast, uh one big. Fast story, uh, 14 is experiencing DDoS attacks. This is weird.
I was proud of this thumbnail, by the
a very good thumbnail. It's a Tonberry hacker DDoS-ing 14. I love it. Um, so

specifically, the North American servers. So, the North American servers are getting hit with targeted directed denial of service attacks at intervals which suggest it is people specifically doing it themselves, like through a, um, like it's someone manually running a script to do it rather than like setting a timed attack, uh, because it looks like they're on during like times in It looks like they're awake at normal times for Pacific time zone. That's currently the theory and it's North America only. It's a very weird. Um, but it also They're also not the only ones. They're the ones that have talked about it the most. I know that, uh, anecdotally, I've heard evidence of other MMOs having similar problems recently. But this is a weird facet of the internet that we like have to contend with now, which is that just a good reminder, there's no good way to counter a DDoS of an MMO. Like it just doesn't exist. There isn't a great way to deal with this. And so,

lots of people are just frustrated and upset that like I was helping Jay last night get through some of the story for the current expansion and he got kicked in the middle of a dungeon.
Oh, that's
as I was logging on to try and help him and like it's it's a it's a big problem right now. Um, yeah, can't can't clap for an MMO, right? Yeah, players look like DDoS attacks, correct. Now, there's like data that shows that it's probably actually like a pinpoint DDoS rather than, um, like, uh, like getting hug of death or a server outage problem or whatever. Um, but it is it is kind of concerning that this is a thing. The current working theory of the community that we put together with this is that this is a proof of concept for someone's ability to take down a specific service for pay. That they are using 14 because 14 players scream a lot when the game goes down. That um,

that they are using it like that. But this is like weird cuz this has been going on for like it's happened occasionally over like weekends before. But this has been happening for like a week straight. Of like multiple times a day with no improvement. This is probably the worst it's been. Um, and it's kind of interesting.
and there's no real I mean like you were saying like you can't based on the structure of how this stuff runs, there's not a lot that can be done.
Correct. You can only you can in you can theoretically increase capacity so much, right? But that won't stop it because the point is that it's much easier to ask the server for information than it is for the server to give you that information. So the idea is that you overload it with requests which are easy to generate and it tries to fulfill all those requests and then craps out.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um, and so it's just fascinating to me that this is this is happening right now. Especially in an off patch cycle. Like the next patch isn't until December. So like nothing's really

happening. There's just some of us that are there cuz that's our game of choice. But it's it's really weird. Um, I just wanted to bring it up cuz like it's a it's been a thing that's been going on since like our last show and I just don't know what to do.
Yeah.
Yeah. That's the Yeah, I like this one. DDoS cuz people suck on the internet. Correct. Accurate. Okay. And now, uh, we wouldn't be a gaming news show if we weren't going to talk about it. All right. So last week we talked about how um, Rockstar had been accused credibly of union busting. That those accusations have become so much more credible since our show last week. We have all kinds of stuff. So, I'm going to say that they the accusations against Rockstar of union busting are like pretty rock solid in my opinion. Um based on
Rock solid Rockstar.
based on what I've read. Um there are first-hand accounts uh which will be linked in the show notes from uh the GTA forums where an anonymous uh staffer at

Rockstar who verified their identity with the head moderator of the GTA forums gave a first-hand account of the way in which this was carried out. It's pretty clearly union busting. Uh in addition, there are protests outside Rockstar's London offices about union busting led by the UK union that's involved uh with covering these workers. So, not not a great look for Rockstar.
And that Rock- Rockstar's excuse was that they leaked company secrets.
And no and they have no proof uh of that. They just don't
a convenient thing because if you say they leaked company secrets, well, they can't tell you the secrets. Those are secrets. But wait, weren't they leaked so they wouldn't be secrets anymore? Hmm. Hmm. I don't know.
Interesting. So, uh that's a whole thing. So, that's that's been part of their not very great week. And then the other part of their not great week was that they delayed Grand Theft Auto 6 by 6 months

to November. Which is anyone surprised?
I don't think they should have just made it that date to begin with.
Because that's a holiday 2026 release, which makes more sense. But uh
There's another like look we are the problem. We are part of the problem. There's another thing here. When did Okay. Tin foil hat. Um if I was Rockstar
Oh, you were going to say a young boy anyway.
And I yeah. Easy come, easy go. The there is a world where the holiday release was always the plan. And I want to stay in the news media a lot without releasing a lot. And so this is another thing. And again, sure, this is negative press. But it's not negative press that's going

to affect sales. Like
Okay. I I I'm not I'm going to let you finish
I'm not talking about the union busting stuff. I'm talking about the delay.
I I I have a completely different theory on the delay. So I'm going to let you finish and then I'll I'll spin you a different tale.
I'm not saying that I believe this. I'm saying this is the the the the the dumb lizard brain thing that comes to my head first. Um I just don't Like and there's reports that like, oh, every month it will cost them $10 million or like something like that. Like okay, like A, that's nothing to them, which is sad. And B, they could have also planned for that. Well, what's your what's your thing?
Um so my theory is that this was not planned. And that this is because when it turns out when you very publicly fire 30 people in a studio in a country that has pretty good union laws,

it turns out that a lot of other people don't want to work as fast. And it's
So I I disagree that this is that the the the delay is actually How do I put this?
A direct result of the union busting?
Yeah, it is not It's How do I put this? It's not that the labor is now unmotivated to continue.
Right.
I don't I think there's a world that this happened and then they announce uh uh this delay to move the topic of Grand Theft Auto 6 to the delay and off of the union busting. Does that make sense? Like again, if they had to delay anyway, whether it was planned or not, seems like a really solid move to dump that and so people talk about the delay as opposed to the union busting.
I don't think it's working, but yeah.
I I don't I don't know if it's working. Actually, no, I I if I had to bet and do

a bunch of research, I would say it is working. I don't think there's a ton of I think there's far more people and institutions talking about the delay as the headline of of Grand Theft Auto 6 than 31 or 36 people, I forget what it was, got uh fired for union talk. Like
I think it's that's fair.
Um So, yeah, like I I think this is definitely, regardless of the reasoning as to why, I think it's all connected, but I don't think it's oh, they union busted and now the the people are working slower. Like I I imagine that I they've even said this and who knows how true it is, but I imagine that GTA 6, not the online version cuz they're going to that it comes later. I I hear that GTA 6 is feature complete at this point. Like they're not making new stuff. They are they are they are polishing it and they're making sure that it functions.

There's also um oh, and thank you. Uh yeah, there we go. Oh, no, not not in Australia and Canada, I believe uh Merith. I believe it's 34 people, 31 in the UK, three in Canada.
I think that's right.
Um Uh Essentially, I just I don't
It's just a the end of this is November is a better release time. I know summer is also a big time for games, but not for like GTA is something that is so ubiquitous and well-known. Families will buy it for family members or weirdly kids, which is not the best move, but you know but you know what I mean? Like it is so ubiquitous
Yeah.
that of holiday release is an easier present for a family member to get their teenaged or young adult family members that are into video games because it's the ubiquity of the name.
Yeah.

Um so Blazing has a really interesting point. New date might affect or influence the Game Awards. So I assume that'll be 2026 or 2027. Um I'm going to I'm going to go way out on a limb and suggest that it does not matter.
Oh yeah, GTA doesn't give a crap about the Game Awards.
Correct. In fact, the Game Awards may shift to a make GTA the game of the year.
So actually to that's period that's that's to Blazing's point. It the effect is just the opposite of what we read it as initially, right?
Correct. The effect will be on the Game Awards, not on the game. Right? That they will shift the Game Awards to have GTA 6 be in whatever calendar year they want it to be because that that's intelligent, right? Because if they don't make GTA 6 Game of the Year for whatever award show it's eligible for, it will affect the credibility of those awards because there will be people who will never believe, and I need to stress that this is like true. There are people who will never believe that GTA 6 is

possibly not the Game of the Year for whatever year it's eligible for.
Yeah. Well, so here's the the other thing about Grand Theft Auto 6 is people were talking about I'm trying to someone was talking about like the speculation. I'm so sorry. I lost your comment, but like it's a publicly traded company and like there's like this people are making money betting on things about Grand Theft Auto 6 throughout, right?
Tom Colic Market and the other betting sites and yeah.
So Yeah, Dogbert actually said it. Sorry. Uh Boom. Given the cost of making GTA 6, it's needed to be one of the best selling pieces of media ever to break even. I would argue this is a financial incentive to make sure that they get their money back so as to avoid a bad launch. Because this is the thing when like when a game is so I'm trying to think if there's anything as ubiquitous as Grand Theft Auto at this point. Um if it comes out broken

that's the story. All the money, all the time, all the delays, still broken. It kind of does need to be at least from a from a usability standpoint, whether or not it resonates with people I that's one way or the other, but they need to do function perfectly or else the entire experiment does sort of collapse.
Yeah.
I'm not saying it can't be um salvaged or anything like that, but they will not make all the money as fast as they want to make it.
Yeah.
And I think that's if if for instance this is just to make sure that it is like totally as perfect as it possibly can be before launch. Again, we've said this multiple times. Yeah, delay games forever. Like we do want the games to be uh correct and working and functional and good when they are released.
I I have a weird this is as ubiquitous as
Okay.
Minecraft. I think the two games that that like

stand as monuments of ubiquity right now are Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto. More and maybe Fortnite. But uh and and to back that up, So, in um um in on Twitch's browse page right now, as we're recording this, Just Chatting is number one, then Arc Raiders, a brand new highly anticipated multiplayer game that's
It's super fun. Haven't played it yet.
Right. There's a whole bunch of controversy about that, too, but we'll talk about that another time. Uh then Minecraft, then League of Legends, esport heavy game, so maybe League is up there. Then Grand Theft Auto V.
Because the Grand Theft Auto V both modding community and like um and like No Pixel and a bunch of other like RP servers is just super interesting. And listen, I still play Grand Theft Auto online with my friends from time to time. Like it it's And God, the the the Rockstar jank and all of it and like

the game is so good that you ignore all the jank. Like
Yeah.
And the slowness and the everything like
Yeah. Counter-Strike might also be up there. That's a good one, though. Yeah.
Yeah.
But Counter-Strike actually I don't think I I'll I'll disagree on Counter-Strike. Um Counter-Strike I think is ubiquitous in gamer spaces, whereas Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto are outside of container.
I'm also going to say that um Counter-Strike and Dota 2, the Valve games specifically, are much bigger in Russia than they are in the US.
I'll also say this, they're bigger in I think their Venn diagram is wider, but not as wide.
Yeah, I agree.
Because there's also the gambling aspect, there's all there's a bunch of other speculation sort of things, where Grand Theft Auto weirdly is such a is a thing where I could go probably to anyone's grandparent and be like, have you heard of Like Grand Theft This is the weird thing about Grand Theft Auto.

I guarantee you more people know it as the name of a video game than the actual like crime.
Felony, yeah.
Which is kind of nuts.
Yeah, correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so weird. Also, it has more viewers right now than Fortnite with the Simpsons collab. Which is Yeah.
Right, so. Um
Uh GTA does have a casino that you can't actually gamble in it. You can gamble You can gamble You can put your fake money that you could buy with shark cards into You You can't take your money out of it. Does that make sense? Any influx of money you can't This isn't like uh Counter-Strike where you can sell skins or something.
Right.
Um you are stuck.
Yeah.
Uh I do But you know what I've done? In In Grand Theft Auto V, me and four of my buddies go sit down at a virtual blackjack table and and shoot the [ __ ] for like 2 hours and just play blackjack. And we're not losing money

like we're just playing and hanging out and our avatars are sitting there, and if your controller supports it, your mouth moves when you're when you talk. Like
Yeah.
I don't know. And then we get in our helicopter and fly away.
Yeah, right. Like you
To our yacht.
That's Oh, the fantasies of video games.
I know. I know.
Um Yeah, I think it's it's going to be interesting to see how this shakes out. I don't know if this is I don't know the Okay, I guess last question for you and for chat and for comments. Is this the last delay? Or is it getting delayed again?
I hm I Some Okay. Again, tin foil hat. I feel like they either planned for or at least banked the ability for one major delay when they made the first thing about summer of 2026.
Mhm.

I don't think Here's the thing. I actually don't know how profitable Rockstar has to still be very profitable in 2025. Like I I I still I've never bought a shark card like to get money in it but like I know people do their their business model of essentially obfuscating what you're buying when their expansions drop. Um Like the expansion is free but for your next like I think the next one that they're teasing for Grand Theft Auto Online is like actually being able to buy a mansion in the Hollywood Hills. Um That would like the content is free but you need in-game currency that you can earn by doing crime for a really long time, finding exploits which I totally don't endorse, um or buying shark cards.
Right.
Um Man, COVID COVID was a real interesting time for uh Grand Theft Auto Online uh

uh uh play.
Yeah. Yeah. Uh So really December 2026 in Australia.
Yeah.
I like that.
Anyway, um
Yeah.
I think there is not another delay unless something catastrophic happens but like again, if it is feature complete and they're doing a year of polish, cool.
Yeah. Agreed. Uh there is one
Oh sorry. Uh let's back up and sort of end on this because I think if Rockstar released this delay as a obfuscation tactic for the majority of our conversation, it worked. They still union bust they they still fired a bunch of people trying to talk about unionizing at Rockstar.
Yeah, that's also true and there is still ongoing protest outside the Rockstar headquarters and there is every possibility that there will be legal action taken against Rockstar because of them firing these 31 people in the UK

and potentially these three people in Canada.
And at the very least, like I just want more clarity. I don't I don't even need the legal clarity. I just want the UK or or whatever governing bodies would effectively go go would look into this to look into it. I don't need to know the If they leak secrets, I don't need to know the secrets. I just need someone, a third party, to be like, "Yeah, they did it." or "No, they didn't." Like to like actually do an investigation into this because Rockstar just saying one thing is not good enough.
I agree with that. Also, on a small, lighter, funner note, uh to to end our show for today, there is one interesting piece of news that comes out of the delay.
Mhm.
Which is that normally, you would expect a game is delayed and other games move in to fill the void, right? So, we expect that there will be games that are now moving into the space that uh Rockstar has vacated in the summer of 2026 because now that is a safe place to

release your game that GTA 6 won't be releasing in that space. One publisher, one, is taking the opposite approach. Because of course they are.
We'll give you Hold on. We'll give you three guesses as to what publisher Will is talking about.
Yeah. What publisher is delaying a secret project to be released the same day that Grand Theft Auto 6 is released?
Retrash gets the win.
And they're they're following them. Yes, Devolver Digital has said that they have a secret project that's ready to release and they are holding it to release until Grand Theft Auto 6 comes out.
Retrash is correct. However, Travesty in Motion has the best answer.
Forza Horizon. Poor Horizon. Yeah.
Cinema.
Cinema. Yeah. So, I I just love that

Devolver is like You have no idea Devolver is like the Joker of the publishing world for video games right now. You have no idea what they're going to do next. A reminder that they're
The tweet was you can't escape us. November 19th, 2026 it is.
Right. Like Who does that? Who moves their game to be the same day as the most anticipated game of the decade?
Yeah.
But Devolver Digital, right? Like props to them. Is the game going to succeed? I have no idea. What is the game? Also no idea. Is it a brilliant publishing move? Yes, absolutely no question.
PR move. PR move.
Yeah, PR. Yeah.
Uh yeah.
God, I love Devolver I love Devolver Digital just being absolutely out of their mind.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um
Oh, they commit to the bit so hard. All right, and that, dear friends, is going to be it for our show today. Thank you so very much for joining us as always. A

reminder, please mark your calendars for November the 29th. It is a Saturday. That will be the day that we'll be doing our community game stream here on Twitch while people dropping in and out of whatever game it is we're playing as a thank you to the community for all of the amazing generosity that you had during my birthday fundraiser uh last month. So, please look forward to that. Uh and
Um Oh, sorry. What where?
I was going to say and now all that's left is for Matt to get us out of here.
Oh, that's right. We have our patented goodbye that we have to do every time that's exactly the same um uh that we want to make sure everyone knows and is able to do at the exact same time because if you don't, then you don't have that sense of community that doesn't slingshot us into a great week uh with all the gaming and or work that we have to do. So, Will, could you actually for for this ending, which is the same every time, this should be very easy for you. Could you please put back up the Zelda Jack Black um image on the on the screen? Is that Is that easy enough to do? I It should be because we do this every We do this every time.
Yeah.
Uh so, everybody, thank you so much for joining us for Games for Breakfast. Have

a wonderful week, and until next time, say it with me, Cinema Jackie!