Sony’s Good News, Discord’s Supervillain Arc, and No Hogwarts at Wizards | Games For Breakfast

Good morning, Matt.
OH, GOOD MORNING, WILL.
GOOD MORNING TO all of you.
Welcome to Games for Breakfast, the only internet talk show we talk about this week's gaming and tech news, but we're also, and I'm sorry to report this slash, you're welcome. We are living in a postwing heights world. That is right. Emerald Fed's film has come out, and now we're all just living in the world where it exists. That's I know this is about video games, but don't worry. I'm sure there'll be the video game adaptation of it soon. Um, [laughter]
okay.
I went and saw it on Valentine's Day. It is fine. [laughter]
It is some things
a movie.
Uh, there'll be uh Jamie and I did a podcast on it. It'll be out uh for everybody on next Sunday, but I think I'm going to post it early on Nebula uh tomorrow.
Okay.
Um, but yeah. Hi everyone. Hello. What would the Hey, hey, chat. What would the

mechanics if you've only if you've read the book or seen the movie? What would the mechanics of the Withering Heights video game adaptation be? Like what genre do you think it would follow? You've read it, right, Will? Back in the day.
Back in Okay. Back in a period of time where I don't remember a bunch of the things that I read. So, yes, but also no.
Korean dating sim. Press F to angst. Yeah, it would be it would definitely be a dating sim. Uh a rhythm dancing game. I you know why not?
Yeah.
Here we [laughter] go. I like this one. Haven't seen or read it. So, it's obviously going to be a third person extraction shooter. Yeah.
I will say this. I uh to prep for for for doing the podcast on it, I went back and listened to our uh So, you haven't read episode on Withering Heights by R. Kevin. And uh God, I miss that series. I

wish I wish there was more. I wish it was financially viable to continue to do that series because it's so much fun getting to dive into books that like, you know, everyone has sort of like we and we talk about this in games too, right? Like everyone only has so much leisure time. So, it's really fun to dive in and sort of like do a light explainer of a thing that like maybe 80% of everyone in a certain space has done or played or read and then just got to try to get the rest of the people who who have fallen into that thing like like I still um you know, we all have those. I'm trying to think I've talked about them before on here, but there's just blank spots. We can't we can't we can't see or play or watch or read everything, you know.
That's true. That's very very true. But but I will say this, Will,
you say this. I will say this.
I will say this. Matt said to Will.
Matt, I will say that Sony uh is not for lack of trying threw

literally so much stuff at the wall in the State of Play
uh that I I will never have time to engage with at all. Yeah, I feel like that's so this is like a moment of adaptation, right? Like and I think this is a thing that we've sort of danced around and talked about obliquely a couple of times and I I think we may have talked about explicitly, but this is like a great single example. Even if you love Sony and everything they're doing, it is not going to be possible to play all of the games that come out in 2026 from Sony unless it's your full-time job, and it's almost nobody's full-time job, right? Like, there are just too many games. Fortunately, they didn't like I think one of the things about the State of Play that I really appreciated was that they didn't go super narrow. like we see

it was a broad stroke of
a ton of different types of games,
right? So like Game Awards, right? Let's let's go back to the last big trailer show we had, which was Game Awards. Game Awards said this is the year of blood, gore, and horror. [laughter] They did. They really did in like 12 different ways. And if you're not a big fan of blood, gore, and horror, you didn't get a lot out of the Game Awards, right? Not nearly as much as the people who are into that, right? And there's nothing wrong with being into that. But if that's not your thing, you felt like the Game Awards didn't have as much to offer for you, but I didn't feel like that with State of Play. I feel like State of Play this time was a broad offering.
So, whenever these showcases come out, um we tend to think like, oh, this is going to be something that we're going to talk about on on the channel. And often times it does feel like um you know we're as guilty of this as anybody, but there's essentially like what's going to be the thing to talk

about in it, right? What's the what's the thing that's wrong? What's the thing that like that would be the interesting thing to sort of pick at nits or even talk about like large problems or something like that. And this time, and again, I'm going to try to really take my full-blown Stony Pony kind of uh veneer off and look at this as as, you know, clearheaded and fairly as possible. When I I I sat down to watch the state of play last night and I kind of did it begrudgingly. I kind of wanted to do other things. You ever done that for work or or even even a leisure activity that you're just like, "Ah, I should be in the know of this, right?"
I have a secret for that, Matt. And I'll tell all of you the secret, too. It's the double speed button.
I know. I But I actually like So, that was my plan. My plan was to maybe play Hearstone in the background and like have this going and like look I did go sit on my couch and like put it on the projector. Uh, and when I did that after the first after the first uh uh Kina

trailer, which I was kind of blown away about, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Uh, I was like, "Oh, will this be my full attention for [laughter] the next hour?" And, [snorts] uh, I was I was shocked that it actually was that. I very rarely have I gone into watching one of these showcases, not feeling like watching one of these showcases, and then be won over by the showcase. So, well, we're talking about this today, and we'll talk about some some good some a little bit of like silly bad stuff, but mostly, I will say, good stuff, which is kind of refreshing in this space. When Will and I were talking about this this morning, we're like sort of figuring out like what the angle is, where we wanted to like, you know, take the conversation here. And I think the conversation is that this showcase was broad. It did a bunch of really interesting like both headline grabby, but also like nondestructive things. And I just actually felt pretty good about

like the state of this pool of games, which is a rarity these days.
I also think that it does help a bit that neither of us and I think the general public are not particularly and specifically annoyed with Sony at this moment, right? Like it's very easy when like the Overwatch announcement we talked about last week, right? There are plenty of people who for a variety of reasons, personal, professional, or otherwise, have an onst like a longstanding and ongoing hatred of Blizzard. Okay, I'm not going to tell those people that they're wrong, right? But it does cloud their ability to like ingest information about what's going on there, even from like a this is going to affect the industry perspective. And I feel like Sony hasn't done anything truly egregious in like the the
I think the last thing the last thing I can remember is the needing of Sony

accounts to play their games on uh PC.
Yeah,
I think to be fair that was the thing that kind of was the thing people were the most mad about uh for a while. Um but yeah, I don't know. I just I'm I'm looking forward to sort of diving into some of these games and figuring out what we are excited about and why we enjoy this kind of stuff.
Yeah. So, a thing that's happening that I love, by the way, is that chat is chiming in and about like the games that they're interested in and I I haven't really seen terribly many duplicates. People are are talking about Legacy of Kain, people are talking about Mina, people are talking about the Metal Gear Solid stuff. Um there's so there was a little bit of something, right? a little sample spoon of something for just about everyone I feel like which is really
and I and maybe as as a last generality I'll say there felt like reg look let's be very clear corporation's job is to make money and uh that is what every corporation including Sony will try to do the thing that's also happening at

the same time here is this felt like a celebration of Sony's corner of the medium
in a way that like I don't know like the The Game Awards is super broad and also I mean it's Game Awards Nintendo Directs um are earnest but also like I after what's going on with all the stuff in the background like that veneer kind of sort of fades. I don't know like there's just I just felt like it felt like in this presentation that Sony and the people behind it were proud of it.
Yeah. like like it felt like this was a diverse set of games that like they figured and knew and I think correctly so that there'd be a couple things for everybody in here. Well, so that's I I don't know. I I enjoyed that and it made me feel a little bit okay about [laughter] about the industry for a second. We'll get into the reasons why we're not later in the show.

Yeah.
So, uh let's start off with the big announcement. What? Oh, I'm gonna call the big announcement.
Okay. Yeah, this Yeah, that's the other thing. I think the big announcements are probably different for everyone.
That's true. So, they're remaking the OG God of War
s plural trilogy do Trace.
Correct. Uh with the original voice actor for Kratos.
Yep.
A+ move. Don't change a thing.
Mhm.
Right. Like, and it's in the works and coming eventually. Great. Tell us nothing more. You have announced that it is there. Those of us who are interested in this idea have begun sequestering money. Tell us when it is completed. Go forth.
And and they uh did release that sort of new uh Metroid Vaniaes God of War game that Vend just mentioned here. Um
Sparta,
Sons of Sparta. Uh so apparently game's

pretty fun. There is a weird thing just so everyone knows. Um, and this will be in the show notes, too, if you want to research a little more. It looks as though and says on the PlayStation store that is a two-player co-op game. You cannot play the game two player until you beat the game.
That is a choice that a human being made about a piece of art.
And I I don't know why that was it. Um, and maybe they'll patch it. I don't know. Um, but like there we have an article up from uh I believe it's a PC gamer. Let me double check. No, I think it is Gaming Bolt uh that is basically talking about that. Uh you have to unlock the challenge mode that can be played solo or with two-player couch co-op.
Interesting.
So, uh I guess it is designed to be a single player game and then they sort of put that in on the same Yeah.

Yeah. Uh, [laughter] I just I just like this comment. I know it's off topic. We're going to get there, uh, Brody, but I just really did enjoy that. I just wanted to pop that up. But no, I I'm psyched for uh I'm I'm curious because the action in the original God of War games is just so good and visceral and fun. I'm curious how they will maneuver around various other things that might not play well in the Year of Someone's Lord 2026. A certain face shaking mini game comes to mind.
Uh yeah, about many things. Uh but hell, who knows what they're going to do. Um I'm I'm psyched to do this. I'm I'm psyched to that they are going to to create this because while we still kick and scream to make sure that uh games are preserved like in their original form, uh sometimes these remakes are sort of the other end of that spectrum, right? It's not the same thing. It is not game preservation, but it is allowing u essentially a rhyme of

a piece of art to continue to keep going on for people that have not played it. And maybe there are folks who have been interested in playing the original God of Wars uh after Dad of Boy. Um which again, very different vibe.
Yeah, extremely different vibe. Right. Kratos is not the same character. Kratos and God of War and Kratos and Dad of Boy are not the same person. And that's the point.
Yeah. Yeah.
Right. which I like a lot.
So, I think the the God of War announcement was very very very fun. Um, if I was bouncing around mine, the thing that I actually I knew Resident Evil 9 was coming. They already have my money. I'm not, you know, it was nice to see Leon get all weepy when he walked back into the PlayStation. That's fine. I think that trailer might have already dropped already. Um, the thing I was kind of hoping for there and didn't and I don't think it's going to happen actually is uh even though uh the PSVR and PSVR 2 versions of Village of uh Resident Evil 7 and of Resident Evil 4 have been gang busters and help sell

hardware. So far, there is no announcement that Resident Evil 9 will be in VR at all, which does make me sad.
Yeah.
Um, but the thing that actually shocked me a little bit more was I uh was honestly Silent Hill Townfall. Um because it looked like a Silent Hill game and then you it's like setting it up like with like like in the trailer there was like a a tarp or something over a sign and you thought it was going to say Silent Hill and then it was the name of another town which I think I think that uh I I just I want that to sort of be I want Silent Hill to be like the vibe of it more so. And I think that this felt like a hopefully a fresh feeling take. I know they just did F, uh, which also felt fresh in its own right. And now I feel like, um, they're taking the radio mechanic, it seems, and turning a visual element to it, which does seem very fun. Um, so I'm looking forward to that as well. I was I was shocked. I was like, "Oh, okay. I'm I'm I'm a second time in a row I'm interested in the plot minations and

everchanging environment of a Silent Hill game in this economy."
Yeah.
Yeah. Uh my my next big um get was there's a new Control game. I just finished playing the main game of Control. Uh I have DLC to crack into yet, but that's on hold for our uh World of Warcraft midnight leveling and preparation for that whole uh shenanigans. Um the it looks really good. It looks very different. It looks how do I say this? In my opinion, the biggest weakness of control is the combat. It is good in some places and annoying in others. And it feels like what they did was they took the combat and went, "This is the weakest part of the game. Let's fix that." And then don't mess with the way that we tell the story at all because the story is great. The story of Control is absolutely unhinged. I like to refer to it as a donation to

Sam Lakes therapy. when you buy Control. Um, it is off the walls. If you have not played Control, I encourage you to look up nothing and then play Control. Um, it's very good. Uh, but the new Control game looks excellent and I'm very excited for it.
A lot of different um sort of I at first I was going to call it gravity mechanics. I don't think that's it. I think it's perspective mechanics.
Yes. down is relative.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Right. Because maybe it's the enemy's gate and maybe it's the ground beneath your feet and maybe it's the way that you're perceiving the endless space that this is taking place in. But yeah.
Um what was another one? I you know I'm I'm I have yet to play Ghost of Yoai, but it is interesting and I was I was heartened to see even at the very least because it means one of my favorite games of last year, Night Re seems like it's in influencing the space a little

bit. There's the Ghosts of Yoai Legends, which just seems like the Night Ree version of Ghost of Yoai, which uh since the combat there is good, felt like a natural like you can like I feel like this is the kind of game or the kind of style of spin-off game that I like seeing because if you're a fan of the genre, awesome. And if you're not a fan of the genre, they're still going to be doing their story games and their regular games. So like you can just sort of like either double dip or just take the one you like. So, I I enjoyed I enjoyed seeing that. Um, there was a lot of Will, you called this out, too. There was sort of a lot of um again with God of War, um there was a lot of nostalgia feelings in this in this showcase.
And I think this is okay. So, Jeff and I talked about this. This has been 20 years since the PlayStation 3. [laughter] I have cast bones to dust.

Right. The PS3 is 19 in and change. Teddy 360 was the first of the gen and then the PS uh three came later.
Um but uh the Bones to dust to dust, right? Um and so there's a lot of nostalgia baked into a lot of the properties that they're revisiting now, I think. And it's a good year for them to focus on that nostalgia because the PlayStation 3 was so pivotal,
right?
Yeah.
Well, the I mean the the the nostalgia games that we sort of had listed was obviously the God of War trilogy, uh Legacy of Cain Defiance, which again that is a that is a genre that a genre that is a IP that I have missed for a long time. Uh I think those games overall are excellent and I'm very happy that Defiance is sort of getting its remaster. They're doing a Dead or Alive 6 remaster before their new Dead or Alive game, which side note, there's moments in that trailer that I'm just like, "Guys, uh

maybe
guys don't
maybe maybe I mean, they know that element of who they're selling that game to. Uh but there was a moment when they were showing off the improved photo mode that I was like, you dipshits." Um like it was it was bad. But they have that as a as a remake. Um they also as uh Metal Gear Solid Collection Volume 2, which the big news there that is that there's going to be Metal Gear Solid 4, which as before I believe before this has not been able to be played off the PS3.
That is my understanding as well. And I I have seen messages in chat that people are very excited about that in particular. and like
a a game with like 36 hours of cutscenes or something which I have played and beat and like uh
crazy
and there there's some questioning because of the volume of cut scenes it was originally two discs and when they moved to the PS3 it was one disc so they replaced the cutscene where they ask you to replace the disc with the thing that

says wait we don't need to replace the disc we're on the PlayStation 3 and one of the leading pieces of like fans want to know is what that cut scene is going to on the PS5.
So,
yeah.
Um,
so that'll be I'm very much looking forward to that. Uh, and sort of seeing that and playing that again. Um,
I'm actually really happy to see Oh god, this is just like uh I'm just going to like toss this one into chat. Um, I'm more I'm really glad to see that more companies are getting the message from the Kingdom Hearts franchise that if you've splintered your entire story across multiple platforms in several decades, you will make a bunch of money if you consolidate it and package it to sell it all to your fans who want to play it but don't want to bust out the PSP.
Yeah.
Right. Like
I think Peace Walkers is on in this collection too,
right? So, like there's a there's a good there's a really good thing there that

like companies are getting the money that they want and consumers are getting a product that they really want, which is I'd like to play the whole game at one place. Unless you really wanted to play the mobile games, in which case [laughter] go watch a YouTube video.
Yeah. Um, and then the last sort of uh nostalgia thing which uh which will you said you were excited for was the Rayman Rayman 30th anniversary collection which is kind of doing the Mortal Kombat legacy collection and Tetris uh collection sort of uh
yes
vibe, right?
I Okay, I have a very soft spot in my heart for the mascot platformer era. Right. We have like Mario, Banjo, Crash, Rayman, right? All of those
Gex maybe.
G maybe. Yeah, we can we can we can go with that, right? And so I'm always glad to see when like those games get playable again because I remember I don't have like any 2D platformer in my gaming millu. I have a

ton of 3D platformer because of Banjo and Mario. And so, yeah, Spyro, that's another good one. Um, Sonic. Yeah. Uh, and so getting those back, I can imagine how I would feel if the like mascot platformers that I really loved as a kid weren't accessible and now they're accessible again. And I'm always glad for that. Um, I think that that's really good.
Yeah. And it's good. Apparently, there's going to be five five different Rayman games on there, plus a unreleased one that's not I I couldn't quite tell from the from the trailer. Like, it's it's a basically like a prototype that they're just sort of like in including and they're doing interviews with the teams that made it and art stuff and like a bunch of like it is going to be a collection for people that like actually really want to deep dive into how these games are made and as PlayStation's I think original platforming mascot kind of thing. Um,
I think it predates Crash.

I think it does.
Yeah, I think Rayman's pre- crash.
Um,
yeah, I thought that was really good. Um, I also, uh, I I have I have already declared shut up and take my money. There's going to be DLC for Nava. And if you've played NAVA, you're like, what? And I go, "Yeah, there's going to be DLC for Nava." So, we're going to play that on stream at some point. If you haven't played Na, go spend what is it like 20 bucks and cry. Just like you are spending I just need you to know that when you play Nava, you are spending money to cry. Just that that's the point of the game. Enjoy that. Just enjoy that experience. Uh, so yeah, Nava prologue I'm very excited for. Extremely excited for will be absolutely playing. And like I also loved that I don't know this is this is just going

back to the thing that Matt said at the beginning. I absolutely love when presentations are like, "Yeah, we've got this giant thing and it's this big remake of this original AAA franchise and oh by the way, here's DLC for one of your favorite tiny studio indie games that made you feel things in watercolor." and they're in the same presentation and they're both given time, right? Not the same amount of time obviously, but like good, great, excellent. You know,
you still need time for Leon's biceps, Will.
Yeah, I have heard things about the RE9 Leon where like they were like, "No, he's not he's not hot enough. Make him hotter. Make him more ripped. Make his shirt tighter." I I'm just It's really nice to see uh [laughter] the level of thirst from the RE community.
Yeah.
Brings everyone together, you know.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Um uh something that I actually went under my radar, which is interesting, I guess, because I believe it came out.

Actually, I'm not quite sure, was the new uh Kina game, which is uh Scars of uh Cosmora. Now, that was the thing that the showcase started with. And when I started watching it, I was just like, "Okay." like I was like cool the third person action adventure game or whatever and the more I was because the more I was watching it and listening to the dialogue about it was sort of about like uh and again it's a sequel to Bridge of Spirits which I believe was a not if not a launch title a near launch title for the PS5 I think it was supposed to be like a bigger deal than it was and apparent like I was looking it up it has like good
but not like rave reviews
it's good till about halfway through and then if you're super digging it you keep going But it does have like a it has if you look at the achievement data you could see the cliff where lots of people are like oh maybe maybe don't. It's super cute though. I've played like that half of it. Yeah.
Um
great game for that half.
But then what I really liked about the trailer and again you only see a little bit of gameplay. Um but the the story

essentially is like she has to go and like clear corruption in this land, right? Like and that's that's a plot point of so much stuff. so many video games like there's this corrupting magic or poison or something and you have to go punch it in the face until it goes away.
Can't imagine why in 2026 there would be some kind of recurring plot and a lot of art about the corruption of like the natural world and like fighting to preserve it. I'm sure it's just a coincidence. But then there's a moment near the end of the trailer where uh Kina beats a boss or something. And I urge you if you haven't watched that trailer, you can just skip to the end. Like you don't like skip to the last, you know, 15 seconds. She like punches it for the last time in the face. And when it dies, it was just I've watched it like a few times. It's the most beautiful cascade of the monster falling and like in its death throw like a wave or a burst of energy just flows out from that central

point and like nature just comes back
and it and it and it was
even in that little thing and I'm hope I'm I'm hoping that is not doctorred and that is like actual gameplay footage like using the things that the PS5 is good at with a lot of like um necessarily particle effects but like a lot of small elements it seems like even an astrobot and a lot of the games like it does it does do really well with a lot of small elements on screen.
Like when I saw that I was like that is a thing that I will actively want to do and hunt for. Like I'm getting the actual inworld visual representation of what the kind of major plot point is. I know that's not like blowing the minds of everybody, but it was just a really nice like oh it felt like a holistic experience. It felt like the the story of the game and the mechanics of the game and the art direction of the game all were playing in harmony in a really nice way. And oftentimes a lot of these games, these third person action games don't like like it'll be have a great

story but the art direction will be okay or it'll be it'll look gorgeous but like the UI is bad like you know something like along those lines. And this felt at least it was presented and advertised to me in a very effective way. So now a game that I was not planning on playing I will play. It has done its job.
Yep. That's all that's all it needs.
Um
the first game did that too, Daft.
Yeah.
I'm wondering how how uh like what the visual fidelity will then sort of change to.
Uh the little blurbos were also adorable. They're like little blobby spirit boys and they're the best. They're the best.
Um so there's that. Uh, one thing we agreed on uh, entirely and wholeheartedly uh, is that the new Star Wars Racer game looks sick as hell.
Yeah. Like when again when the and I hadn't watched like the full trailer outside of the Game Awards which I think was mostly a teaser and had Sabula in it, but like this showed off a little

bit more of like the different environments which I know there's only so many in the Star Wars video game cannon. There is dirty planet, ice planet, lava planet, city planet. But like I I think I don't know like this
it felt like the proper amount of fast and I this was the first time I saw that trailer and I was I I wasn't mad that it wasn't called pod racer. So I think it's sort of slowly winning me over.
I also think that they they correctly recognize that moving if they don't call it pod racer they can include pod racers but also other things
other racers other speeders. Yeah.
Right. So, like there's a speeder bike, right?
Yeah. And also, Surv brings up a really good point. It's done by the folks behind Burnout, which if you have played the Burnout series, this is the right move for a Star Wars racing game to go.
Yeah. Also, there's definitely a point where they're bullying pit droids, this is
as always.
Well, I mean, it feels like they like it's it's one of those it's like a green M&M's thing, right? Like it doesn't have

to be there, but I'm gonna look more closely at it if it's not there because if it's there, then it means you understood.
Sure.
Right. Yeah.
Um big thing for me on this one too was Castlevania's 40th anniversary with a with a new sidescrolling Castlevania game, Belmont's Curse. Um this was one that I am excited about in principle. However, I felt like it didn't maybe I'm too old, but it like all the Castlevanias, the sidescrollers that I have liked have been sort of like handdrawn sprite animation or or something along those lines. This is obviously moving into sort of that 3D space that many of the sides scrolling Metroid vanias have been in for a while now.
Um, there's something about the art style that is not winning me over yet. I still will play it. I still want to check it out. Um, but I I don't did anyone else

feel that way or am I am I the lone person uh screaming for for 3D for for 2.5D Castlevania graphics to get off my lawn?
So, I think the the um the main reason that it feels a little different uh is as uh a mentor uh put out uh it's No, not that one. Why? Okay, my mouse's not in the right spot. This this one
made by Motion Twin, so it's got a lot of Dead Cells DNA, which is weird that
Dead Cells, which had Castlevania DLC because it was based on Castlevania, is now making a Castlevania game.
Yeah.
The path for that is wild. Um the I I think that that is part of it, right? Cuz like I I watched that trailer a couple times and it never really clicked for me. Um because I don't particularly like Dead Cells. It's not bad. I just don't like it. Yeah. And

I think it gave me very much that same vibe.
Yeah.
Yeah. I I I'm still curious about it, but I I can't say that I it it won me over.
Yeah. So, that that'll be that'll be an interesting one. Uh
also, Janet apparently now has a sentient form.
Yeah. Hi, Janet. [laughter]
All right.
Uh, and then the last one for me, which is not a huge surprise for anybody, is is Sorrowos. Um, Housemark is continues to do the good work of I think making what will I'm hoping will be my game of the year 2026. Um, I've been not I've been trying to not watch too much more about it, but I did watch this and um, it does feel like there's a lot of I think they learned a lot of quality of life things from Returnal and are implementing them here as far as the meta progression system um, and the their sort of come back stronger mechanic. Yeah,
you there's and it there it seems like

so for instance in Returnal, if you're not familiar, you can get these parasites that you pick up that give you a benefit but a detriment. And often times in Returnal's minimalist um UI unless you dig in the menus, it's hard to keep track of your build. And I think that's by design. Like I kind of like it in a certain way, but if you're really trying to grind, I find it it's it's difficult. It feels like here Saros's uh benefit detriment system is very um clear and also balanced. Like it won't let you go out of balance in one way or another or eventually it will if you break it in a certain way. It's like has an actual like visual element to that like when you're designing what your build is going to be. Um, and I don't know, every time I watch it, there's sort of a new mechanic where I'm like, "Ah, I see. Here is a problem that folks had with Returnal. Here is how they are fixing it while maintaining the exact

frenetic gunplay and feel of nightmarish horror that that game had." It also has a hub world where you actually talk to people, which for me
feels weird in this genre. Like the thing I liked about Returnal was how alone you felt other than talking to various previous versions of Dead You. Um, but uh again, this game uh I we'll be playing it on stream day one when it comes out. Like there's no I'll dedicate the day to it. It'll be uh it'll be an all day thing. So, I'm very excited for that.
There were a bunch of um the the only thing that I think I I really wanted to highlight from our from our list of other honorable mentions and and other such was Marathon.
Yeah. So, Marathon's not had a great existence in the public eye so far. It's had a bunch of complaints, nitpicks, people ragging

on it for stealing art, etc., etc., etc. And it is really interesting that they're like, "All right, we're going to do it. We're just going to do the thing." So,
Well, they can't not do the thing. They could they could have pushed the thing back. They could have done more marketing ahead of it. They could, but they're just firing it off. There's going to be a server slam at the end of the month.
Uh where they they're essentially encouraging players to try and break it, but it also looks like it's an open beta weekend, which means that they're it's like they're one of their last big chances to let the game speak for itself, which I think is a very good move if they're happy with the state that the game is in, and then the game's going to launch. Um,
I think they there was something. Um, yeah, I did like how in their sort of their what with their lead dev there or their game director came on, they're like, "We want your criticism." Like, come on, tell us what you think about it. Like, it's pretty good in these kind of live servicey type. Uh, actually, is Marathon

going to be a livey game or do you buy it? I believe it may be by and it it may be in the same uh sort of silos as Arc Raiders and Dark and Darker. Dark and Darker chat. That's right. That's the dungeon crawling uh extraction looter. Right. Right. Right. I'm not completely losing my mind. um in that I believe it is a purchase once with live service elements for future ongoing.
Okay. So, yeah, it looks like it's saying for at least this is an older Oh, no. A well, about a year ago, uh it was going to say Marathon will have battle pass maps and that sort of thing. It will be a game you buy, but not like a $70 game you buy.
Yeah. The I think I think um Lark Lark's got it. It's it's the $40 live service Sony special,
right? Hell Divers, Concord, um, Arc Raiders is also 40 bucks. That

seems to be about the right spot for the purchase once. You don't need to buy anything else, but if you want some cool cosmetics, here's some additional ways to earn or buy them
kind of thing. Um, which I do feel like is an interesting emerging bracket, price bracket or otherwise. Well, again, I I'm sorry. No, I'm not to harp on Nightra, but Night Rain I feel like is a very complete experience. It's multiplayer roughly only. I know you can play it by yourself for $40. And if and if Night Rain keeps releasing new stuff in their like $15 packs every six to eight months, like that's my that's the equivalent of a battle pack. Like, you know, like it's I that's the kind of thing that I like. That's the payment structure I enjoy. Um I don't know. I'm curious about Marathon. We're going to get into a couple games that are having trouble these days once we get off the state of play. Um, but a lot of them are live service games or or free-to-play games that are hoping to hook you in with a different payment

structure that need a bunch of players to keep playing it for the games to stay alive. And um, Marathon obviously does fall into that category. I I so many high-profile versions of these things have just fallen by the wayside. And the ones that seem like they are the the victors in this space seem to always be from not necessarily the largest studio in the game trying to make it. Uh because like what's the last the last real successful one of these would be Arc Raiders, right?
It's very successful. Art Raiders is hugely successful right now.
Yeah. Um I think that I think so many people started developing these games trying to get on various different trains at the same time. And I think

Oh, here's a I might have just cracked a a thing. Brad, Janet, Will, Blue Sky. Message us on Blue Sky if you're watching this on Nebula. Let me know what you think about this. Other than the large companies that have stumbled onto this genre of multiplayer, looter shooter, extraction shooter, you know, that sort of vibe. And I'm talking or like battle royals like a Fortnite or PUBG or or even any of the other like all the big names kind of ate up other smaller games that were already doing it to make it big. Even Call of Duty and and you know all that stuff kind of those companies ate up that model and then became the large ones. And the only ones that seem to crack into public consciousness in a new IP form is from either smaller developers or

things that are shadow dropped like Apex Legends that the company thought was going to die anyway, but then it didn't because it was really good. I yes I I I would I would encourage us to not look too deeply into the gaping abyss that is Apex Legends right now having looked at it recently like it's
No, but I'm talking about when it came out they shadow dropped it like it was going to be nothing and then it became a thing. I don't know how much of a thing it is anymore. I'm just saying, you know,
u but then like
then you look at large companies trying to build this kind of thing from the ground up and make it a tent pole, right? Make it a thing that is the giant thing. You see of your your concords um and and and things like that and they never quite land. And I wonder if when you're that big, you need to have every possible element of that game firing on all cylinders when if you're

younger or scrappier or it's a mechanic that a larger company is already buying up. Like the core of the game is already like is the focus. Like I think Conquered died for a lot of different reasons, but like I think its art direction and a lot of its sort of the way that it was shown kind of got lost in the sauce. Like it feels like a lot of departments not fully talking to one another and not realizing that things aren't coming together as a cohesive hole.
It feels almost like there's a whole category of these that are trying too hard.
It's not trying too hard. It's
how do you do fellow youuds?
No. Well, but but you get I'm not sort of saying this correctly. That is what that is the problem. But how do you get how does that problem uh manifest? And I think that it actually is when a large company takes all of their resources and tries to smush them all together and make the blurbos kiss to to make an actual like game in this space

from scratch. when it's too big and not managed well, that doesn't ever come together because the methodology of building a AAA game in these studios might not be the same methodology that makes a cohesive multiplayer, extraction looter, whatever experience come together because we just keep seeing high-profile failures on this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know. I'll cook on it, but that's kind of my my my gut take right now. I hope Marathon does fine.
Yeah.
Uh I like that. Um was Shadow Heart the computer voice?
H
Jennifer. Um
Jennifer English.
Yeah. Sounded like her anyway.
Yeah. Um yeah. So that that's State of Play. I thought I think I think Sony's in store for a good 2026. I think they've got I think they're set up for success. I think the big thing that I like is that they're not doubling down on like one

slice. Yeah. Right. That they're that they're keeping it nice and broad. That we're getting a lot of stuff
and that uh everyone's got a little something to look forward to. Also, that John Wick game does look sick.
I hope so. I I I feel like
it does feel like it's a lot of cutscenes. It does feel like it's a lot of in engine press button receive John Wick execution cut scenes.
But like here's the thing. Look, the world of John Wick sure is shot cinematically and cool. And the action sequences because it's done all by stunt people like and designed by them are the best in the business. But when you put a John Wick movie next to the video game of it, the video game, even though it has its sort of like chains and restraints of reality lifted and the action doesn't look as intense or as cool as the movie, which it it looks good, but it like it didn't have a visceral bite to it.
Yeah. it, you know, and um which is the I I think the main core experience you get from watching a John Wick film. I hope it does great. I just when I was

watching I was like, "Huh."
Yeah.
Okay.
Um also, Swiper, hello. No swiping homework. Um
uh Okay. Anyway,
so before we move on to our next story, this is now the part of the show where we do fake ads for things you can't buy while uh Twitch chat gets real ads for things you can buy. Uh so we're going to do that for a couple of minutes and then we'll be back with our uh story on what what Discord doing? What
what Discord doing?
What the Discord doing? Uh so
what it doing?
All right, so we're going to run through bits of ads over on Twitch. Uh, and Matt, please, please tell these fine people something.
Oh, boy. All right, let's see. I'm going to think of something in five, four, three, two. Hey, everyone. Matt from Extra Credits here. Also, Will's here, too, but he's not talking yet. Don't worry, he will. But I am Matt. So when we watch the state of play, one thing

that we left out [music] is officially what token Marvel Token Fighter whatever forget the name of that game is is adding the X-Men. So what I would like to sell to you is whenever something seems like it needs a bit of a bump in the news cycle or you just need some hype really put into it. Just throw the X-Men into it. They're doing that with the MCU. They're doing that with a bunch of animation. And I feel like if you throw Storm or Magic or Wolverine or I think that fourth character that I'm not sure if they're actually a Marvel character or not is in there, it's just going to bump up your numbers.
Rivals is also doing it. Rivals is adding more X-Men. All right. Ready, Will?
As I will ever be.
Yes. Marvel Marvel token Fighting Souls. I just I never can remember. Never can remember. All right. Here we go.
Why could you?
Oh, and she is a real X-Men. Okay, cool.
Hi there. Will from Extra Credits here. Matt's here, too, but he already talked, so it's my turn to talk now and sell you

on something interesting, which is nostalgic. That's right. You are in fact allowed to live temporarily in the pleasant houseion memories of games from times gone by. You can in like it's okay. you can live in the nostalgia of playing like old games like the OG God of War trilogy or Metal Gear Solid or whatever. Just I I hope that like you know it's nostalgia, right? Just know that it's nostalgia going in. Don't expect it to be something that it's not cuz I do that and I continually end up hideously disappointed. Hey everyone, Matt from Extra Credits who just heard Will from Extra Credits comment on the things that Matt and Will from Extra Credits were talking about here on Extra Credits Game for Breakfast. Now, I think that Will has just told you something very effective is that nostalgia is coming and nostalgia is nice and that you should just remember that it exists and you should remember that that's what you're experiencing. But what if I sold you a different concept? What if I sold you

the concept of never realizing it was nostalgia? [music] That's right. All you have to do is pretend like you're actually back there and you don't ever have to actually engage with any part of reality ever again. That could never have any negative consequences for, say, the gaming industry or the entire country at large. Just forget everything's real. You have to wake up, Neo. Knock knock. This is also reminding me of when we did the wake up call at um Hagfest. [laughter] He's stuck like this. [laughter]

nostalgia. Okay. Um, [laughter] okay. We return. We return. Uh, okay. So,
I wish my extreme close-up could go faster because I would do the Wade's World extreme close-up, but that's literally the speed it goes.
Yep.
And I tried so hard I I'll just call it out. I was like I was stuck and I reached for the remote and I had it and I was trying to feel where the actual button for the zoom was and I couldn't find it. So that's why I started doing that cuz I had the it was lay like right here and I was holding it like trying to identify where [laughter] the zoom was.
All right chat we need to do an update on Discord from last week. So last
it sure is going great. Last Monday, Discord announced their new you're all teens again

idea. Okay. So, their plan was everyone is going to be treated as a teen until they verify somehow, and that's where this gets really interesting, that you're an adult. Sometimes it's robots. Sometimes it's vibes. Sometimes it's you scanning a government ID.
Correct.
Sometimes it's scanning the biometrics of your face. Sometimes it's stored on your device. Sometimes it's not. There's a lot of different things going on here.
Yeah. So, okay. So, let's start with something really simple. This is another company doing kind of sketchy, kind of scary things and claiming that it's to protect the children. And we we won't harp we won't harp on

the the the entirety of what we talked about last week either. If you'd like the full story of this thing, you can go back and listen to the story last because this is kind of
the next the next generation. Correct. um where essentially uh it came to light that one of the partners uh that they're going for is a company that uh Palunteers Peter Theal has done investment funding into uh that is going to be one of the things that is collecting the information for Discord to do certain things. Now, Discord has said that and this was a company. I'm trying to remember that because it's like it's not Palunteer. It's a company
starts with I think it's Persona
Persona Persona.
Um it is a uh company that is uh very heavily invested by Peter the in there and or Teal I don't whatever. Um but the the essentially it was a limited partnership to test some things that has since concluded.

When did it conclude? Moments after we found out that the public found out.
I mean, I don't know if that's true or not, right? But it's just not a great look for this kind of thing. Now, some people in chat and both Brad and Janet have been saying right now that like they didn't even notice that anything else had come into um that that Discord had been affected by this. um which is entirely like and even Discord has come out and said like oh well this is only going to affect so many me so many people blah blah blah blah blah but that's kind of how that's kind of how inshitification works.
Uhhuh.
It's not exactly the same but it starts sort of small and it doesn't affect everyone um until eventually it does. And this is just one of those things where it seems it seems like seems like Will that there's a lot of stuff in the news cycle lately where

people are like wait something's bad. Wait, this is bad. And then many people uh are screaming from the sidelines, we've been telling you stuff can get bad for a few years now. Now you see it. And and so my point behind this is uh this feels like another one of those inflection points on the discord side of things where it might not be affecting a a large swath of the the verbal people that are sort of uh going on with it. But just because any one of us is not individually affected by it doesn't mean that Discord's going to slow its role on collecting all of our personal data to then do whatever it wants with it. Um and and the fact that in the EU when they ran the test and again you can go back and listen to the episode last week to hear more about it when uh they're they're rolling out essentially the same process that they did where 70,000 uh

pieces of user data and personal information that were not supposed to be stored uh were just uh someone was able to access them.
So when they say these things
Yeah. UK roll out, not the EU roll out. The E roll.
Oh, I keep I keep doing that. God dang it. Yeah.
Uh, apologies. Apologies.
Uh, yeah. No, I I think this is just bad. It's annoying. And but I hope that the spin that they did on Persona is a sign that people bullying them is working. That's my hope. My hope is that they were that they were not um prepared for the level of backlash they would receive from the global user community,

including the number of people who cancelled their Nitro live on air in some cases. Um
I emailed them, too. I'm still waiting on my ticket.
Oh, I'm sure it's coming any day now.
The the feedback site for Discord is down. It's It's down entirely because
perhaps there might be a short coming out hopefully later this week about this very topic.
Yeah. Right.
Um
it's Yeah. Like also also Okay, all jokes aside, Skeletor wearing a Discord mask, yada yada yada. All of this is coming from a place of, "Hey, Discord, we really like your service. We don't want you to go down a path that makes it so we are uncomfortable using your service. Please provide different venues to make it worthwhile for both parties involved, you and your users to continue using Discord.

This ain't it.
Yeah.
Like this isn't like a like a call because it's an evil thing or like whatever. It's ju like as a company it's just this is a thing that's important to a lot of people beyond the bottom line of dollars. I mean I know you need it to keep going. That's no question. But like there's ways to do this
where you're not doing whatever it is you're doing now.
Yeah. And I'm I'm with Daft on this. I think the other group of people that this really sucks for the people in the trenches at Discord who are answering things and who are
Oh yeah. because they have they have talking points. They can't they have good jobs anymore.
And they and they didn't get told any of they didn't get prepped. They didn't get rated on any of this. Right. I'm 100% sure that the the brief went out on a Monday morning and a bunch of them were scrambling too. Or this this your perennial reminder to be kind to customer service employees because they did not make the decision that you are upset with.
Right. Ask them like explain to them that you are not upset with them and ask

them to record and you know transmit your complaint as is appropriate. But like don't don't be Yeah. Yeah.
So, fun thing, uh, hippie. Uh, yep. That's entirely true. You know what I stopped using and refused to use at all like three years ago, four years ago? Anything from Meta.
That's that. Um, and that's not saying that everyone can or should, but I chose to. And that's like it of they did it and now it's like, well, no thank you. Um, also I really like Mystics here. It's not super clear what qualifies as sensitive content uh that would be agegated. Surely it's naughty stuff, but like political memes, random things of spoiler tags, video game blood, gambling adjacent stuff. Like all of that, like nothing is nothing is put into stone. And it's funny because I imagine that especially with the way that um regulation is going with advertising and especially with gambling. I imagine that like we talked about it last week like I highly doubt that gambling ads or or things that have to do adjacent with gambling are going to be age gated

regardless because they make too much money.
Yep. Um, also important note, they are uh, and I found this out in a um, thanks to somebody hitting me up on Blue Sky about it. uh they have changed without notice the what qualifies as content that needs to be agegated because it used to be that any discussion of the acquisition or owning of firearms even in a purely like theoretical sense where we're talking about like gun legislation in the United States which is the thing we do on our discord in politics chat
in the section set aside for that needed to be agegated that's been removed from the community guidelines without notification um because I went and looked. I found I found the original post that said that it needed to be there and that language appears nowhere in the current version of the community guidelines. So, they've changed them once without notifying server admins and that is another like big old big old red flag to me that they are change they have changed the

guidelines without telling the people who are responsible for enforcing or understanding the guidelines. Just another note that goes with this.
Yeah.
So, we'll keep following it. Um, it's funny if if um precedent is anything to go by by Thursday, by the time this short is done that we have about Discord, they'll be all new information anyway.
Yep, that's true. So, continue bullying Discord. Cancel your Nitro. Send them a nice polite email. Um, and uh
yeah, I wouldn't say bullying. I would say exactly the other things. [laughter]
Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. Uh next up, let's let's Hey, speaking of nostalgia and blast from the past, Diablo,
that man is floating a mace.
Diablo 2 has been updated.
Yeah. Well, the the remastered or re-resurrected, whatever the new Yeah.

Yeah. has been uh with uh the warlock which got updated into resurrected, immortal, and D4 all at once. And I I feel like it's it's worth calling out as one of the weirdest, most effective ways to make me interested in a series that's never really grabbed my attention because I wasn't a Diablo kid growing up, right? And like ARPG wise, I prefer Last Epoch to either Diablo or Path of Exile. But this is a good move. Like props were due. This is a good and interesting move to be like, "Hey, we're we're updating everything."
Yeah, it's real fun. I look, I have not liked the path that Diablo has been on for a while, but this is a this is a step in the right direction in my opinion. It got like you said, Will, it it got me. I'm like, "Oh, maybe I'll check out some Diablo stuff at some point." Like, I I have I just think it's very very smart and good and nice. Um

whether or not the rest of the game is, that's neither here nor there. Um Diablo II, like what about me? Yeah, it's funny. I know a lot of Diablo II gets a lot of flak. I had so much fun with Diablo II. I have no problem with Diablo II. Um I well some problems but not nearly as I mean I didn't play four so that'll tell you that. Um and I know four a lot of people did like as well but uh I don't know I really like the story. I like that they chose to do this. Um, it's strange to me, Will. I'm wondering Blizzard games have been on a more positive kick, at least in our eyes lately, than they usually are. We've talked about things that they're happening at Overwatch that seem to be better. We're trying to check out WoW because it seems to be better. Um, now this with Diablo again, not company like it it company

culture air quotes, but like we all know the problems that Blizzard has had in the past. Do we think that like what what do we think is happening now? At least let's let's even step away from like let's talk about purely like game game stuff, right?
Yeah. decisions in the maneuvering of their IP and games seems to be more clear and in my opinion better than it was two years ago.
It feels like they're returning to the love of the game.
And I wonder yeah
like okay so let let's say for a moment that this only makes it into Immortal in four,
right? Let's say that Warlock gets introduced for immortal, right? which apparently still makes money in some places, but I don't I don't understand it, but apparently it does. And four, which is the flagship current iteration,

right? Then it feels like, okay, that makes sense. It's a new content update for new stuff. But the love of the game thing is, hey, we realized we could backport this to the remaster of Diablo II, so we did that for funsies.
And they balanced it in a way that makes sense. Like from all all reports that I've been seeing seems like it feels like it fits, which is very interesting.
Yeah. Like I think that there's like it it does it does feel very much like there's a fun like a whimsy to it almost. Hey, we we thought about this cool thing so we decided to do it.
Yeah.
Right. And I think that that's that's what's returning at least in my eyes.
Yeah. I don't know. I think it's good. I hope I hope a I hope that maybe the I don't know. I don't know. Every time I'm like maybe this good thing that happened will be a thing. I'm like yeah but what about all this other bad stuff?

It's like that meme where the with you the the happy thing and the bigger the guy who's smiling like hugging and pulling you away. That always feels like it with this. But we'll see how it goes. All right, chat in news that everyone probably expected. No, don't stop autoplay. Stop this. I need the data. I don't need your autoplay trailers. Thank you. All right, so this might be the last time we talk about Highguard because this might be the last week that High Guard exists.
I downloaded it. I will play it at some point. hopefully before,200 of other people who are online right now with a 24-hour peak of 2,000. It is
slipping.
I downloaded PS5 so I didn't have to deal with the
slipping away. Um, Wildlife Entertainment, the creators of Highguard have reported that they are they have laid off a

significant portion of the team.
Yeah. Uh, and those devs are now speaking out about their experiences having launched High Guard. And the general feeling amongst them regarding the public feedback and the general way that the High Guard launched was we were screwed the second it showed up at the Game Awards is the general sentiment because I'm guessing I'm guessing that for all that it looks pretty polished I'm guessing Highgard's budget isn't that big.
I don't think it is. No, not at And I think that everyone who's been ragging on it, and I think I've fallen into this a couple of times, and that's my bad, thinks that Highg guard's budget is much bigger than it is because I get the sense that this dev team was very scrappy. Here's here's what I was, this is kind of what I was hinting at when I was talking about like, oh, when a large company does one of these things, I don't think Highguard falls into this, but I think Highguard looks the part.

Highguard looks like a game that is made by a gigantic company,
right?
Uh and also I think this is the other side of that coin. Look, the and when you're the last thing at the game awards that it because because the Game Awards have conditioned people who watch it to think that that's the biggest most prestigious thing and even though Jeff did give away the the spot to them because he liked it, that's not normally what happens. Correct. Right. Like and so I go back to and again you can go watch our high guard episode of games for breakfast if you want more on this but I do think that the the that was the first domino to fall and I think also not focusing on your heroes in your three different kinds of hero shooter shooter in your marketing is it was the mistake and that feels like and again I am pontificating tinfoil hating whatever that feels feels like a mistake that is based around a a place that does not

have infinite budget to spend or focus time on things like that.
Yep.
Uh I'm very sad about this. I do want to I I do want to um play it. This game has felt like no game, movie, TV show, book, sound, uh, music, uh, YouTube video, uh, is owed your attention. I feel like, and if you go back and read the IGN article, which we'll list in the show notes, the things that some of the devs are saying here, um, I can't help but sort of agree with like at a certain point, even though like look, there's a there's a world where like Highguard was so good that it could that it could transcend this nonsense before it came out, right? Or it was marketed so well that it didn't matter. But

a decision was made by the the essentially like the negative uh the negative hive mind that this game was bad and that became its narrative. That became its story. And that it almost doesn't even matter whether it was good or bad because enough people jumped on that. And in our um constant negativity retention culture, that is what focuses like I I'll even back it up. I'm going to I know I'm sort of all over the place today and I apologize for that, but like when we were designing the thumbnail for this episode and deciding what we wanted the main story of this episode to be, um often time it's I mean we everyone knows this. I'm not saying anything that is a shock to anybody. Negativity will get more clicks than positivity. That is just the way of the internet and it's something that we struggle with a lot here and we struggle with you know I know other creators struggle with too and Will and I when we were putting the show together because we were like

actually felt good about a thing in the gaming space for once we're like no like we're going to do this we're going to talk about something that we're excited about that we think is positive for the industry as our main story even though we know that that will get less views than if we had put that Skeletor image of Discord up there.
Yeah.
Because like at the end of the day,
I don't want to be part of a negativity cycle that fed into something like this like insta failing.
And I think overall our our discussion points on Highguard have been
uh
observational I think
and fair like I I truly think its problem was its marketing which does include the game awards.
Yeah. And that's that has nothing to even do like games that are apparent like way better and way worse have also done fine in the past. Yep.
So like it feels like that's the issue here. But please read um what the devs are saying over at the IGN article in the show notes because it

it's kind of um it's kind of it's kind of like it a clarityinducing thing. Actually, I'll read this quote from Soil. Um, he said, "Basically, the trailer came out. It's all downhill from here. Content creators love to point out bias in folks who give positive previews after being flown out for an event, but ignore the fact that when their negativeleing content gets 10 times the engagement of the positive, they've got just as much incentive to lean into a disingenuous direction, whether consciously or not."
Yeah.
And look, that comes from someone who worked on this game for 2.5 years and actually loves it. So, there's obviously a little bias there, but the sentiment that they're saying is entirely true. Uh, no one on the team deserved the level of of [ __ ] that they were getting.
Yeah.
From this.
Yeah. The vitro was entirely unnecessary, right? Like I think if a game is bad or not to your taste

and those are two very different things as a reminder, you can simply radical concept not engage with it.
Yeah.
Rather than doubling down. And I feel like I'm preaching all the way to the choir here because I feel like this is not anyone here's
uh idea of a good time. Um, but it is one of the problems that people feel entitled to go after devs AND BE LIKE, "HAHA, I HAVE FEELINGS that you have to listen to them because I was I don't know felt like your game was going to be the best
because I downloaded your freetoplay game,
right?"
Or didn't, right?
Uh, anyway. Um, yeah. So, that's sad. I hope the um the the team uh I'm so I'm so sorry. I'm so sad and tired of saying yet again. Hope the team is able to find work like
and we've been I mean that goes back to the to the industry report that we

talked about a couple weeks ago where it's yeah
like there is a brain drain happening in the industry and the thing that happened to high guard is a great example of why right because a talented team put a game together for several years
and now all of them are looking for jobs all at once or a large number of them not all of them but a very large number of them are looking for jobs ones.
And I don't want to say that like you can't criticize or or give feedback on a game that is launched. In fact, I think if this game came out in a world that didn't instantly think it was going to flop before it did, um, people would have played it. It would have had mid reviews. People would have sent in their needs and things. Some people even in chat right now were talking about some stuff that it needs and eventually it might have found a a state of homeostasis. Um, now that's looking less and less likely. I also think um a season zero was the move and they didn't do it. And I think that that's that's the other I think there was some amount of desire to launch done.

And I think
right now understanding that no live service game is going to launch done or very few are going to launch done and that most of them need a season zero to shake out bugs and balance problems is is like a real thing. So
yeah. Yeah.
Uh, okay.
Moving on to a brand new story that has nothing to do with this story. [snorts]
Crap.
Right. So, the 2X KO team has also experienced a bunch of layoffs uh several months after their launch. Um they're they they're the comment from uh producer Tom Cannon is that the game quote hasn't reached the level needed to support a team of this size long term end quote which is

real disappointing because I feel like
I Actually, you know what? Larky Lark uh Lark just said this and it actually I want to sort of continue off it. Dang, they didn't blow the guilt genre wide open the first month. Time to shut it down. And they're not shutting down 2X KO, but they're they're minimizing the team.
The thing that I don't know, Riots's financials, I have no idea what other pots they got going.
Yeah, but like I know they have league money, right? But like who knows what other like nine other things they're developing, right? So, like I'm I'm not their their uh CFO. I have no idea. But like wouldn't it be wild if I was though? Um
as a prank.
Yeah. As a treat. Um but
right for [laughter]
But like that's kind of interesting. Like a game that did has had such a long like they have league money. they could like keep doing this. Like

they have they now they've they've made the highway and now they're like maybe we just like don't drive on it cuz like other people aren't driving on it. So like may is the highway bad? I don't know what's wrong with the highway. Like, or you just keep going because you, Bryant, are are in a financially possible position to keep supporting the thing you made. Like, the reason why Deadlock can work is because Steam has infinite money.
Yep. the like the reason why Epic Store can keep throwing free games at you to try to get you to shop there is because they have Fortnite money. Like I just feel like look I think 2X KO I think came from a small team to start

that had an idea and then they were really like hyped about it and then it ramped up and then they made it like a full release. But like just commit. Like this is not like just if you you you want to get in the fighting game genre then like get in the fighting game genre. So I'm I'm really I'm pissed about this. I'm sad for the for the devs of this as well. Um because it feels like now the story is your game is dying.
Yep. when you could have financially supported it until it found a moment of homeostasis, until you could get it into some larger tournaments, until you could get the fighting game community to really latch on or find a new audience that aren't even into fighting games that love your game.
What
because this was the game that I think even before and we're going to be releasing an episode on MOBAs uh that Jeff and Will uh crafted um that is coming out shortly about like why I bounce off MOBAs. I love the world of

League. I've just started Arcane. Finally, I've started it and it's a surprise. Don't need to tell you it's a delight. Um, but this was sort of my in on like wanting to know who these characters were.
Yeah.
And now, who knows how long it'll be around. Y.
So,
it's really funny, too, because I just looked up some numbers for Riftbound, their new card game.
Yeah. Because, you know, why would you take on something small like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat or Tekken when you could take on something, you know, reasonably sized like Magic the Gathering and Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon and they're doing it like it's really good.
Demand for Riftbound cards is high and the market price for them is really high. Like I'm checking the secondary market. It's a very good game and the startup and continuity costs for like in nonrefundables in not human time, right, for a card game is so high

because you have to produce all of the product and get it out to people and then like printing costs and everything else that is it's so much money to do the thing that they're doing with Riftbound. And it just boggles my mind. They're like, "Yeah, we'll take a shot at Riftbound, but we won't for 2x KO." And that just baffles me completely.
Yeah. Yeah. And actually, Grant Grant tank.
Yep.
Yep.
Yep.
God, remember when that first dropped? It was not great.
Yep.
Um, so hopefully uh I don't know. Hopefully the I don't know. I just want more fighting games, man. I just want And this one seemed good. It seemed like a good entry point to get people in. And I mean,
I'm sh I don't know actually who who amongst us who amongst chat has plays a

lot of League or is engaged in a lot of Riots sort of uh is in your algorithm. I'm curious how much Riot has been pushing this like have there been advertisements for X2KO like in League.
Do you know what I mean? Like even like show like cuz that seems like a very natural I I don't know how many ads are in League in general.
I mean they've got so they've got plenty of space to advertise to you because they've got a two-layer client system.
There's the launcher and then there's the actual client where you play the game and those are two different things.
Yeah. Yeah, there as for 2x KO on Twitch. Yeah, I don't know. Um, okay.
I'm just reading through it. A lot of Twitch ads. Twitch ads. Twitch ads.
Yeah. Nothing much.
I've [snorts] heard the name X2KO

before. Didn't realize what it was. Yeah. Also, also also
name sucks. name sucks.
Name's real bad.
Like you couldn't call it like
even Legends of Runa had a better name or Riftbound or like
Yeah, Riftbound makes sense because it hearkens to something in League but is not League chat Brad and Janet and message us on Blue Sky if you're watching this on Nebula. What's a better name for the League of Legends fighting game
than 2X KO
then? Yeah, because and no, not League of Legends the fighting.
Yeah. [laughter]
All right. Well,
League of Fighters. [laughter] Leagues Legends be fighting.
Yeah.
Wow. Wow. Okay. Okay. I should have known. I should have known better.
Yeah. I don't know why you expected real answers here.
I like [laughter] Artemis, though.

Literally anything.
Yep.
Project L would have been better. Yep.
Project L.
Project L also has um a throwback in the fighting game community to Project M uh which was a a Smash
offshoot that got shut down by Nintendo because of course it did.
There is something here though. Doride.
Yeah. Runa Rumble. I like
Yeah.
Legend of Leagues.
4x KO basically.
But yeah, that's that is definitely better than that's better than
Right. Right. right.
Oh, interesting. So So actually, Dad Panda, you like the name 2X KO.
Um I don't mind the sound of it, but it did take me a while to like get where the like I kept saying X2KO for some reason, but maybe that's just my backwards brain. Um, it doesn't scream to me League of

Legends.
Yeah,
that's my like and if you're leveraging your IP and your characters who have been beloved across a game and now a very successful Netflix series, that's what it is. League of Legends EX plus Alpha Extreme, Black Betty, Bamalam. Whoa. Um, I think that's probably the way to go.
Yeah.
Okay. Uh, I'm going to keep us moving because we got a couple more stories and this next one requires some explaining. So Hasbro had an earnings call and Hasbro earning calls are always very interesting because Hasbro earning calls very quickly turn into So we're down 4% in everything that we make except for Magic the Gathering. So let's talk about Magic the Gathering very quickly. Um Hasbro in general not doing so hot. Magic doing great. Hasbro. Um, so on that note, uh, the Avatar set that came out, uh, at the end of 2025 is the third bestselling set ever behind

only Final Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. So, and I think the thing that all three of those have in common is that they're um, universes beyond sets where the devs actually care a whole awful lot about the property. Again, we've talked about the the struggles of the Spider-Man set a bit, but the the the community response and the um design response to both of those sets was very good or to all three of those sets was very good. Orcish Spell Master and the One Ring aside. So, um that's one note. The other note is that Hasbro announced that they are going to be teaming up with Warner Brothers Entertainment to release a new line of Harry Potter stuff and before the call was over. I cannot stress this enough. This was before they finished the investor call.

The magic community was very upset, extremely upset, super duper upset. So, if you haven't played a lot of Magic or you are unfamiliar with the Magic community, the Magic community is very gay. It's extremely gay. The Magic community is also specifically very trans. There are a lot of trans content designers who work on Magic the Gathering. There are a lot of trans magic content creators. Um, one of the, um, biggest Magic the Gathering YouTube channels, Siren Community College, just ran his annual fundraiser where the Magic Community because a YouTuber told them to raised just shy of $600,000 in a weekend for Trans Lifeline. The community is very gay and very trans

and very much as a result does not like Harry Potter. Really doesn't. I cannot stress enough how big of a of a like a problem this created to the extent that in the middle of this earnings call, the Wizard community team, and my salute to whoever was running the Wizard Community Team Reddit account had to post a statement that said, "We have a magical school in uh in Magic the Gathering, it's Stricks Haven. We have no plans to visit any other magical schools in the foreseeable future. Period. Very smart message.
Very good message. Very excellent message. Now, and this is uh increased because Secrets of Stricks Haven is coming up this year. Um we're already receiving some previews for it. The preview season, by the way, is a complete mess. Um,
what are all of the different IPs that are talking and talking on over each other and having all of the different uh I guess I'd say date uh date

confirmations and contractually obligated release previews really messing up what everyone's information gathering uh might be.
It's even worse than that, Matt. Oh,
they accidentally bundled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle promos in some number of um Lurwin Eclipse pre-release kits. And because enough of the promos were in the wild, they nuked their own Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles preview season by releasing the entire card gallery early because they'd accidentally leaked their own cards. So, the whole preview season is a mess, even against the normal messy standards of a preview season. But Stricks Haven has already had cards coming out, and so they do have a pretty clean redirect to, "No, no, no, no, no. We do not do that here. We have our own very gay, very weird, very excellent wizard school. Do not worry about it.

We're not going to Hogwarts." But I I I do think that um for all that we've there's been a lot of discussion about like how much is too much on Universe Beyond, right? People have sort of grumbled about going to places that they might not like we're going back to the to the weird and wild wonderful planes walking existence of New York City, right? Like we could go to to to the magic equivalent of Valhalla or we could go to New York. We could go to a plane that is dripped in living oil that corrupts your soul or we could take a bus to Manhattan. Like there are people who are not a fan of the way that Universes beyond is being handled and the amount of it. None of that, and I cannot stress, none of that is in the same universe as the immediate

level of vitriol that was directed at the possibility that Wizards would ever do this. Like, people were like, "Yeah, if they do this, I'm out."
Like, I'm just I'm I'm done. I'm like hard like out.
Yeah. [snorts] And I think there's something interesting too, not that there hasn't always been some minor competitors in the TCG sort of game, like you got Pokemon, you got Yu-Gi-Oh, you got now Riftbound, like there's enough cardboard competitors out there where if a event like this occurred and the the community said deuces, all it would like there's places to go. And would it be sad and would a lot of people be upset and would it be awful? Yep. But there's places to get your fix.
Correct. And Riot would absolutely love
Oh, Riot would love nothing more than Hasbro to green light a Harry Potter magic set,
right? For real. Um, but it is

side note. Oh, I was going to say side note, I love this graphic. This would have been a wonderful negative graphic to have as a thumbnail. Uh, but I didn't want to do it. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm I am very much looking forward to Stricks Haven, mostly because uh my boy Qutorus returns. Qutortoous is amazing and has a cool story and is a formerly expelled elephant student who now is a lore master and wizard of great power whose story told through Magikards.
Uh Junior Computer Virus brings up too. I always forget Lorana, but Lorcono is a bit of a beast in its own right. So like
yeah, it's just because I I it's funny. I just don't engage with that like with the Disney sort of IP in that way. So I I just I just always forget. But I do know that it uh it's a beast.
Yep. Uh okay, cool. Great. Awesome. Excellent. Uh onward to Oh. Huh. Interesting. We're going to strike F
because I think we both we both missed it and we're short on time.
Yep.
Um

makes sense. Uh so um Ubisoft is on strike and when we say Ubisoft we don't mean like one of the Ubisoft like satellite satellite offices Santa Monica Montreal. No no no no no no no no no no no.
Paris Ubisoft Paris the home office had workers out in the street striking. Um, now to be totally fair to this story, striking is like a hobby in Paris to the best of my ability to discern as an American. Um, so my salutes to you. Go for it. Uh, but it is very interesting that um this is not this is not like out somewhere else where it's easy to ignore. This is Hey, the the the seauite of Ubisoft is here trying to work and there are people

literally dancing in the rain outside the office striking.
There are people singing the song of angry men. Is that what you're saying?
Yeah, something like that. Um uh so um the the the statement by the Solidar's information union rep was at this stage it seems clear to us that uh Gilma has no uh knowledge or understanding of his company or its employees. The company is continuing its cost reduction and layoff plans. Our teams are already working under pressure, often understaffed after several years without pay rises or very small increases. We understand that once again employees will not receive a raise this year. That is the fastest way to get all of your employees in the street. Well done Ubisoft seuite. You done goofed again. Salutes.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um yes. So this is spreading. My understanding is that this is spreading from the Paris office to all of the satellite branches, which is means that

Ubisoft is in for a nice long productive round of collective bargaining with their unionized workforce.
Who bought 10% of it a while ago? Oh, 10centent, right? No.
Uh I I wanted to say 10-centent, but man, there's been so many X bought 10% of Y stories that I didn't want to leap there. Anyway,
yeah,
we will continue talking about it as long as they continue striking about it.
Yep. Good job. Uh, up the unions.
Yep.
On a sadder, more somber note.
Yeah.
Uh, we thought it would it would it would be remiss of us not to mention uh the passing of Hideki Sato, who was the designer of the Dreamcast, among other many fine
down to the Master System, I believe.
Yeah. uh I could be mistaken there. Um but uh has passed away at 77. I mean you could not argue against him being the

architect. I believe he was Sega president of Sega at a certain point. Um yeah, Master System, Genesis, Mega Drive, Saturn, and Dreamcast.
Yeah.
Uh we're all under his purview. And
huge amount of the industry that is being influenced by this man's work.
Yeah. And look, there's some in an increasingly volatile world that I'm obviously very upset with on a daily basis. I think what something I've been trying to do on my personal end of things is start thinking more about the people in the background that have made um that have made various things I found important in my life possible. Yeah.
Uh
this man is one of those people. Uh I was uh I had the the Genesis. Um and the Dreamcast I think is the system that I

still hold the most fondness for. Uh it's just weird enough. Um and I don't know. It's you think about how much influence someone like this has on not only their own products but like the industry and the and the consumer base and it is uh vast and important and I think he did overall good work and um yeah sad sad sad when this stuff happens.
Y
but um
very much agreed. Yeah, very thankful for for what he did for the industry. So,
yeah. All right. Shall we move on to a completely totally different uh story to end our show on? Just a little Yes, please. Just just a little bit of dessert. [gasps]
Okay. So, there's like several components to this, right?
Total whiplash,

right? Complete whiplash. All right. So, there's several components to this. The first component is there's a Hell Divers movie coming out. It's going to be out in 2027 currently.
Yeah.
Okay, great. Awesome. The second part of this is that Jason Mimoa is going to be in the Hell Divers movie. Okay. I I just I'm sure you've already begun filming, but to to the Hell Divers production team,
I don't know if they've started filming.
That's fair. [laughter] That's fair. All right. If you haven't, I beg you. I beg you with every fiber of my being. Don't make Jason Mimoa shave. You did it for Dune and it was a bad move. Don't do it. Just let him keep the beard. The beard is great. Just let him. Just don't. Don't make Jason Mamoa shave for Hell Divers. Thank you.
Oh, Bane. This would be so good, but it won't happen. But it'd be so good.
Yeah.

Um,
oh my gosh.
Yeah. No, I mean, look, it makes sense. I am not mad at it. I I think it's kind of fun. Uh, he's the exact kind of energy you want in in Hell [laughter] Divers,
right? Which is completely unhinged.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, I think it's going to be so stupid.
Yeah. No, I think this is I but but like what else do we expect of a Hell Divers movie?
No, exactly. I don't I'm not looking for for deepseated drama.
Yeah. Right. Yeah.
I'm not looking for Sarat,
right? No. Yeah. This is this is going to be uh a wild ride and I'm I'm looking forward to it only because it's going to be so incredibly stupid. I will not go see this in theaters probably. I will wait until it is on I will wait until it is on streaming.
Come on. You got to support Super Earth. Will
do I though?
I mean contractually.

Do I though?
You did at the beginning of when you played Hell Divers 2. They make you sign a big old contract. You can watch a legal legal video about it. And so you are contractually obligated.
Okay. Uh I ask great question. Are we going to need to deal with people who don't get that it's parody? I my hope is that the movie will turn it up enough. Although now as I say those words, I am aware that there are people who don't get that Starship Troopers is parody. So yeah, probably pro probably. Yes.
Also, Copper Chef, what about Withering Heights? Well, I bet you now that we're thinking about it, we'll go back to the beginning of the episode. I would say that maybe perhaps the best mechanical adaptation of Withering Heights to video games would be a Hell Divers 2 mod.
Yeah,
just Heath Cliff running [laughter] around.
That's That's true. You know, you can

watch that Legal Eagle legal video on Nebula.
It's a streaming service made by creators for creators. Uh it's so funny.
Loosely sponsored, kind of sponsored. You might be watching this on Nebula, which is a kind of sponsorship in and OF ITSELF.
NO, NO. I MEAN, LIKE, here's the thing. Like, Nebula definitely does sponsorships. This show is not one of them. Nebula is just great. [laughter]
It's true. It's true.
I hope you're watching this on Nebula, too. Uh, message us on Blue Sky if you're watching us on Nebula. Even if you don't have anything to say about these stories, just to say hi. That'd be nice.
Just to say hi. Agreed.
And give us Actually, this is this is sort of a transition as we sort of close up the show. uh please message us whether you're watching us on Nebula, uh Twitch or YouTube on any stories you hear about over the course of the week so that we can add them to our list of things to possibly talk about. Y
because that would be incredibly helpful. We're always looking for stories that people are interested in and um if you want to hear uh your two uncle dad grandpa folks on the internet

uh talk about whatever story is important to you, that's the fastest way to go about it.
Yeah. Also, Matt.
Ah, yeah.
I desire a parody
of what?
I desire a Warhammer 40k parody of Wthering Heights.
Oh,
featuring an all orc cast.
Call that Wthering Heights. Thank you so much for coming.
That's pretty good. That's pretty good. Everyone, everyone, I need you to give Will your finest. Everyone, this is what we're doing right now. I I don't care if this is the end of the show. We'll do the real part at the end. Here's what we're going to do. On the count of three, we are all at home in front of our monitors, whether you are watching this live or not, give Will five seconds of golf clap for his amazing pun. Here we go. Ready? 3 2 1.
Excellent, Will. Excellent. I hope you felt that reverberate through the ether

of the internet.
It was It was very important to me. Thank you. Uh, we are getting a lot of claps in chat too, which is kind of nice. We got some claps there. We got some claps here. We got some claps there. We got this clap. We got that clap. We got golf claps. We got We got more of this. High and by. High and by. Well, that's not a clap, but I'll take it. We got more waves that are claps. We got all these claps.
We clapped back.
Yeah, thanks.
But this has been Games for Breakfast. Thank you so much for watching. Um, Will, what do you got going on right after this over on Twitch? Uh the rest of this week we're leveling in. Wow. I'm hoping to reach level 70 today so I can begin the war within on Wednesday. We're heading towards midnight. Bloop the miss.
You're five minutes to midnight.
Yeah. [laughter] Yes. Uh my my monk healer is uh is making progress. We're doing some dungeons today cuz uh folks are off work so I can get the crew together to do to do some dungeons. We're going to be working on that and uh we're going to be talking about the experience. So, if you like World of Warcraft or have never

seen World of Warcraft played, come hang out. We're talking a lot about the design, what works, what doesn't, how the game is saddled for better or worse with 20 years of history. Uh, and it's it's a very interesting time and I'm really enjoying it. So, please come along and and hang out.
There we go.
Yeah.
Well, that only leaves the thing we do at the end of every one of these episodes, which is first I'm going to add something to this. If you enjoyed Games for Breakfast and you made it this far, please do us the wonderful favor of telling people that you know to come watch it either live or the VOD. That is the best way you can possibly help us make more of this show. We love doing it and we'd love to get the audience to keep on growing in a very natural and and sort of a I guess um sustainable way, you know what I mean? Um and if you like it, uh chances are your friends will like it. And if you tell your friends that you like it and that they should come hang out, they just might do that. So, we'd very much appreciate that. And as always, we will end the show the same way we do every

time. Again, if you're new here, this is because we want to foster a sense of community and want to make sure that you understand there's something we can do together, not just golf clap for Will, as we go into the week and and deal with all of the nonsense we have to do to get back to playing video games. So, this week, um, same as always. So, just as you know, today is my mother's birthday. So, we're going to sing her happy birthday like we always do at the end of the show. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear. You could say Matt's mom, but my mom mom. Happy birthday to you. That's my candle. Sarabus.