Satya Nadella from Microsoft wants you to
stop calling it AI Slop because it hurts
his little CEO Fifi's.
Hmm. I agree. We should call it something
else. Like AI dog sh**.
I mean, did we stop calling
it AI Slop as per Mr. Nadella?
Well, he wants us to call it cognitive
amplifier tools because he had a rib
removed last week so
we could f**k himself even harder. Well,
I mean, this is not the bonus episode.
That is good. We
needed a cold open, guys.
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Off
the Console. This is the hottest podcast
that's all about 2026 gaming. It's about
2026 text news, 2026 anything.
We're covering the biggest 2026 news,
including, let's see, what
do we got? We have some CES
updates, which look, you know, CES is
happening like this weekend, right?
This week. It happens
after the episode comes out.
Yeah. And we have also got some Steam
charts, some GOG news
and a whole lot more.
Dudes, I'm excited about this week. This
is going to be a good one.
This is the first episode
of 2026, if you couldn't tell by the
intro. Yeah. We like to start off this
show with what we've
been doing over the week. And I don't
know, James, let's start
with you. What have you
been doing this week? I checked out of
life, essentially, and not
the... Yeah, I should have
rephrased that a little differently, but
no, I checked out and
played Outer Worlds 2. I've put
40 something hours into it in the last
week, less than a week. And so I put
like, that's all I've
been doing. I've been ignoring Discord.
I've been ignoring everything
else and just vibing through
that game. I love open world games that
are like Fallout and I
like Elder Scrolls, but it
doesn't quite catch me as much as a good
like sci-fi, especially
like Outer Worlds, which is
space sci-fi. And they're the same guys
that made the Fallout New
Vegas game. So just for some
context there. And they were so bitter
not being able to make
another Fallout New Vegas game,
I believe, that they essentially made
Outer Worlds is what they
wanted to do. So you can
definitely tell there's some inspiration
in Outer Worlds from Fallout
New Vegas. Even some of the
creatures like Bloatflies are in I think
New Vegas. I think there
might also be in Fallout 3, but
is one of the creatures that you attack
and they have something similar in
Outer Worlds. So a lot of parallels. I
think the game's actually
really good. It's really
deep story. I wish it would have gotten
more attention this year,
but there were so many other
good games that kind of overshadowed it.
And I just don't think it
got like as many good ratings
as it should have. Because so far I'm
playing it. It's really good.
It's not a whole lot different
than the first one, but it is as far as
bugs, as far as like
visuals, it is definitely a huge
upgrade over the first one. And the story
is rich. I love it. Like
those types of stories.
Like it's a rich world. You can go
through, explore, do it
the way you want to do it.
And that's how I like. Yeah. So that's
what I've been doing at a world.
That's awesome. What
have you been up there?
Not so much gaming as I have been trying
to hunt to finally upgrade
my computer. And I couldn't
have picked a worse time to do it. No.
This is the worst year.
Yeah. I was trying to do it
earlier this year, but graphics card
prices were way higher.
And I mean, they are now.
They were higher than they are now, for
sure. But, you know, are they? They were.
I think everything's bumping up.
Really shit. Oh, availability. You're not
wrong there. Like it was
really hard to get a graphics
card at the beginning of the year. Yeah.
And. 25 had I been able to
get a secure a graphics card of
any kind, I would have upgraded sooner
and it wouldn't have to
pay an arm and a leg for RAM.
Thankfully, it seems like Micro Center
might have some deals. You
guys live near Micro Center? No.
Thankfully, I have a brother that does.
So I can just tell him to do it for me
because he's also interested in upgrade
as well in his computer.
Is there a Micro Center in Vegas?
I'm sure. I'm sure. I'm sure there's one
in Vegas. Let's find out.
Yeah, I'm trying to. It's either Denver
or Vegas. That's the closest one to me.
According to and that's not correct. I
was going to say
according to their website,
the closest one to me is Columbus, Ohio.
But I think there's one in Boston.
That's crazy. Yeah.
How far is Boston from
you? It's about five hours.
The closest one to me is
like two hours away in near DC.
Oh, that's not far. I could theoretically
make the drive up, but I
also have a brother that lives
in Fairfax. So yeah, my the closest one
to me is in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, which is like
180 miles from my home. Oh, look at that.
You guys both live closer. I
Vegas five hours than Denver is. Oh, I don't even know. I don't make that drive. That's a
rough drive. I'm just saying microsonics
and sponsors. I've worked
with my microcenter before.
I like microcenter. I guess. Well, I
haven't gotten anything from them,
so I don't know if I like them. I like
their stores. I've been
to microcenter like I like
microcenter. I just wish a little closer
to one. Maybe they
should open one in my town.
Yeah, that'd be nice. They need to open one in Southern.
They need to open one in. I'll do a whole
video for microcenter. Yada, yada, yada.
But yeah, they have good deals like to.
That's the nice thing about
microcenter is that sometimes
you just walk in and get a really good
deal. But yeah, that's
what I've been doing the past
New Year's been having some celebrations
and having a terrible
time finding PC parts for
cheap. Well, Ram, particularly everything
else is OK except for GPUs, but.
But GPUs are starting to go up. I'm
reading some stuff that
we're probably going to start
seeing $5,000 five nights.
Guys, which at this point.
Interesting. Go ahead. No, it's OK. At
this point, I feel like
Nvidia is just going to be like, you know
what? Our generational name
is going to be the same price.
Like so the 6000 series is going to be
$6,000. Yeah. So I'm my I'm
looking at like the way the
market's going and I'm like, it's
literally not worth it
anymore. Like to buy a discrete GPU,
like the return on investment is like
negative. You know, it's not
like I don't know. It's like,
why not just get an APU? Well, the
problem is that they don't sell APUs for
desktops. Decent ones.
Anyways, like like if they made a Strix
Halo CPU could sock it, I'd
probably just get that instead.
They don't make that. I bet you that no,
no, there's no that's no
there's no desktop socketable
Strix Halo APUs. Like the framework
desktop is soldered on to the
motherboard and also like the
Mini's forum stuff, too. To get one of
those. Yeah, I don't want to have you
bought any option now
parts yet. No, I was going to, but I
might have locked onto a deal, but I'm not going to tell you
tell anyone about it because I want to
buy it. You've waited too
long. You're going to have a
fun time this year. God damn it. I need
to upgrade. I have an old, like I have a
3090 at least. So it's
lasting me, but it's the computers like
four or five years old and
I'll probably wait it out.
I couldn't have picked the worst time to
wait until the companies
decide GPUs are not, you know,
that are they're just going to I think
they're going to kill
this. I couldn't have picked a
worst time, but hey, CES is around the
corner. You know what that means? What's
what have I been doing?
Oh shit, Gardner, what have you been
doing? I have been actually kind of in a
similar boat to you,
high tech a little bit, at least with RAM
prices because Mini's
forum sent me this. This is the
the their motherboard. What is it called?
The BBD895ISE and it
has a Ryzen 9 HX in it.
Oh, is that Strix Halo?
Oh yes, son. Oh my god.
And it's got the Radeon 890M GPU in it.
See, they didn't even make
that a desktop socketable CPU.
AMD, but AMD won't for some reason. I
don't know why. Well, they don't want to
cannibalize their own
like exorbitantly priced GPU discrete.
This is why the GPU market's so messed up
because AMD won't do
anything. Not only. Dude, in a healthy
economy, AMD would be like,
oh, they're screwing over their
customers. We'll cut our prices instead
of increasing them.
Well, they're cousins. So,
but I mean, so I've been I've been
working on this. I'm going
to review this pretty soon.
I have, whoops, I have some, I'm like
scrounging for RAM from other
devices to actually test this
thing. But what was the other thing that
I've been doing? Oh, dude, okay. So
remember, I moved over
to that minutes form and five. Nass.
Yeah, how has it been? Dude,
okay, so it is awesome. It's a
really great device. But I keep fucking
up the hardware, the
software on it. And I thought that
I had lost all of my stuff again. I
didn't. But like some so someone came
into my discord, and
I'm not blaming them. This is entirely on
me. But someone came into
my discord and they're like,
Gardner, I saw you had an N5. How have
you dealt with this problem
in Proxmox? And I was like, oh,
I haven't because I I'm running Proxmox
eight. And I was like, well,
I'll just update to nine. It
shouldn't be that big of an issue, right?
Oh, brother, was that a
huge issue? Because I had like
made my GPU like the APU GPU portion of
the thing as like a shared resource,
which meant that the
kernel never like attached to it or
loaded the driver. So like,
oh, there was no, you know, like,
video output. And so when during the
update upgrade process, everything looked
like it had finished
successfully. And then I like rebooted
the machine. And it failed to boot. And
there was I there, I
didn't have like serial output, and I
didn't have video output. So
it was just like a, you know,
completely headless box with no way to
interface with it. And the
web GUI didn't load either. So
yeah, no SSH, no nothing. So I had to
just reinstall Proxmox. And I had to
like, reimport all of my VMs,
which was interesting, because I've never
had to do that before. So
anyway, that took up all day
Thursday and most of the morning Friday.
I'm very concerned that I
lost a bunch of data. But
well, I'm glad your your stuff's back up
and that you managed to recover it. Yeah.
It might not be a bad use case to get a
second NAS for that. Yeah,
you get your you get your old
server, right? That's been
decommissioned. Oh, might be I could
hypothetically, like bring it
back up, but I'd need to buy five more
drives. And I don't have
the budget for that right now.
Yeah, makes sense. Minis forums, mini
forums, send us some, send
us some now we can do that
offsite backup plan that we've always
had. Yeah, minis forum. I'm
gonna ask them to do that. I
did ask them once and they were receptive
to the idea. But they said
that they didn't have the
problem was that they didn't have any of
the N five in their
warehouse. They were all at Amazon's
warehouse or something. And so I had to
buy the one and then they
reimbursed me for it. So
I mean, if the offer is still on the
table, we could do that.
Yeah, I'd be sick. That would be so sick.
I do it. I do it. Anything I
get usually that's at least
interesting. I will. Yeah. Hell yeah.
It's definitely in that realm. And I'll
buy some drives too.
Yeah. It's I mean, dude, having offsite
backups would be awesome.
Excuse me. But yeah, anyway,
so that's what I've been doing. And this
week, we've got some
interesting stuff going on.
Let's get into the show proper. But
before we do, make
sure you get subscribed.
We have like 750 or something
subscribers. And we're trying to get to
1000. Because that's like
a nice round decimal number. Yeah. Yeah,
we were trying to get to
1000. I think last year, right?
Yeah. And I mean, we're close, right?
Very close. We're very close.
And that's pretty neat. And so
if you want to be on this journey with
us, share in our struggle as content
creators as a podcast,
subscribe. We're also on the Fediverse
podcast, subscribe to me.
There's an RSS feed there,
you can subscribe through any of your
favorite podcasting apps.
You can also engage with the
show in the comments on YouTube. And also
on the Fediverse at off
the console show at podcast
dot subscribe to me. And there's one
other thing that we're
supposed to do for call to action. I
don't remember what it is. What is it?
The Discord? So the
Patreon, that's it. The Patreon,
we have a Patreon, we have bonus content
over there. We have 11
episodes, like 11 bonus episodes,
something like, I don't know, three or
four hours worth of content. And it's
exclusive to our Patreon
subscribers. So if you want to if you
want more of this show,
which you know, it's debatable.
If you have a question over there, too,
we'll 100% answer on the show, too. And
we'll have some more
more goodies as well. And join the
Discord server, too.
Oh, yes, join the Discord. We have a
Discord server. There'll
be links to all of this down
below. All right. Now, let's get on to
the actual topics this week. And the
first one is CES 2026.
It's literally starting today when you're
watching this. Hi, tech,
tell us what we can expect from
CES. Well, we can expect a lot of AI
stuff, a lot of robots, but more
importantly, a lot of computer
parts and computers and like stuff like
that. So I mean, like you
said, by the time this episode
airs, CES will have already started media
only. So I guess we won't
know until that day. We won't
know what's happening until the day of.
So we won't be able to talk
about it till next episode.
But if you look at the if you go to the
other link card, that's in that topic,
you can actually search for who's going
to be there. Press exhibit directory.
Exhibit directory on the on the left.
It's the big button. Yeah. And I'm
assuming you don't want
to search through all of this so you can
filter by categories or by
name. So I've confirmed at the
very least that Lenovo is going to be
there. Well, Lenovo is like
it is pretty much confirmed
at this point. The leak is that they're
going to be having the
Legion go to SteamOS version.
Yeah, now it's going to be there. We
should be seeing this. Yeah,
we should be seeing a SteamOS
version, which is like kind of funny that
that mean they just slap
SteamOS onto it. I don't know
if it needs to be showcased, but
apparently that video is going to be
there, too. AMD is not going
to be there, though, surprisingly. Or or
maybe they're going by
their full name, Advanced Micro.
Oh, there will be there. Oh, never mind.
I don't know why they didn't
go by just a while. I guess
they are technically advanced micro
devices. They always I
think they always go by advanced
micro devices for these types of things.
Valve, I really doubt it.
It's not it's not there.
Oh, well, who knows? Valve may be both.
Valve may be going with
Lenovo like they did last year,
if you recall. True, because they didn't
go by themselves, but I
was hoping that they would
showcase maybe the Steam Machine or
something. You really about would
showcase anything at an expo.
They could have shown off. They could
have shown off Half Life 3 at the game
awards and they didn't.
No, I know. But hardware is a little
different getting people to
have hands on it, but they did
at their their place. So they really like
that control, man. That's
the only as well as things
where I wish Valve would play a little
bit more with other people
better. But I don't know if
it's a control thing or if it's just
these events maybe ask too much. Who
knows? I mean, I think
events like this require a little too
much planning and Valve is more seated
pants. That is true.
I mean, I'll make the booth for them.
I'll I had two weeks that I
did. I worked on my video game
and I played video games. I would have
spent that time making
their booth for them.
Valve, I'll do it. Honestly, if I knew
Valve was like I was pretty sure Valve
was going to be there
like maybe, you know, adjacent to Lenovo.
But if Valve was there for
sure, I would have been in CS.
But the closer I got, I was like, I don't
want to make this the five
hour drive to Vegas to go to
Vegas to go to CS this year, because I
just didn't nothing
sounded overly interesting.
I thought about going to CS because I got
invited by like Minus
Forum and a couple other
little like mini PC manufacturers. And I
don't know, I'm already
going to Fostem in Brussels
at the end of this month. So I didn't I
didn't fly twice in January.
That sounded like it would suck.
I'm going to be going for work in a
couple weeks. So it's another reason me.
Brussels is in Berlin. I mean, in in
Belgium. Oh, yeah. Belgium, Germany.
It's all European me did. Yeah. They just
wear slightly different clothes.
I'm also going to scale in in March. So
what's that scale
Southern California Linux Expo.
Oh, that's in Cali. I can't
go to Cali. That's too far.
Pasadena, son. I can
pass a demon besides scale.
Uh, I don't know. Hippies, probably.
That's California is great. I like
California. People give it to much crime.
I'm glad that it's not at the LA
Convention Center like it was or not. It
wasn't at the convention.
It was at another place. And last year
and I or the last time I went
and I was like not impressed.
But LA is also not walkable at all. Like
it you walk on the it's
not drivable either. It's
it's not it's not drivable. That's the
only problem with the only.
Yeah, I went to LA and I was like I was
like so disgusted. Like I
mean, just like I tried walking
down the street and it was like a five
lane road and I was walking on the
sidewalk and I felt unsafe.
I was like, how is this even possible?
How many paparazzis were stalking you?
None. I don't have paparazzi, thankfully.
Yeah. So I do. I mean, LA is so
it's so divided in the sense of like
there's areas where you're
like you're pretty safe to
walk other places. I think even it's
overblown. Even this place
that aren't safe to walk like
you're probably safe in the in the
daytime. But it's so dirty. It's like
what Vegas is cleaner
than than LA is nowadays. It's
unfortunate. But you know, car industry,
man, it's the car industry.
Yeah, yeah. I mean, Vegas sounds fun. My
brother went to Vegas
many years ago to watch
Floyd Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao.
He said the fight
sucked because but he got to
gamble there. So that was OK for him. I
do want to go to Vegas soon.
Oh, have you guys you've been to Vegas,
though, right? I've never been before.
Carter, but oh, neither.
Yeah, I haven't been either.
Well, I've been told many times that
we'll have a new way to go.
To some point, though, my brother is
insisting on going to Vegas,
but it just hasn't happened.
Maybe we just need to make the plan to go
to the next year. Yes.
Yeah. Too many kids that my
brothers have to deal with.
I can show you the ropes there. I know
Vegas fairly well, at least
where a lot of the convention.
Well, depends on where the conventions
are, but if it's
downtown Vegas, then I know it.
So are there any other companies that we
should know about that are going to CES?
That's what I'm curious
about. There's a lot of many forum.
Oh, many forum. See, if I would have
would have been like if I was
good at my doing this whole social
content creation thing,
then I would grow like a
connection with one of these companies
and go, but I'd like to go to if I was
invited, I would have
gone. Maybe it's minis and then space
forums. Yeah, I don't think so.
Huh, so many. I think it's like mini.
HK micro computer or something like that.
I see a lot of like a parent company.
Let's see. Does a does Mies form have
like a parent company?
Shenzhen, Shenzhen, HC, HKC.
It's one. I don't
know. It's one of those.
Let me look at this box here.
There's also product categories, too. We
can look at company. We can
also sort companies by that.
Gaming and eSports is a
company that you can do.
Gaming and yeah, go to
filter by categories.
Is it going to be
interesting? Yeah, to a degree.
To a degree. You can see.
Depends on what you
find interesting, James.
Yeah, I don't know
any of these companies.
You can go to Atari hotels.
Atari hotels. Let's stay
at an Atari hotel, guys.
What does Atari hotels have?
It's a.
If it has a capital.
Does it have a Atari 2600?
It's like the new Chuck E. Cheese, guys.
It's for adults. Chuck
E. Cheese for adults.
Nolan Bushnell founded
Chuck E. Cheese and Atari.
So it's the same thing.
Really?
You didn't know that?
No.
You act like that should
be a common thing, Tom.
Nolan Bushnell, man.
I didn't know the name either.
Oh, wait. No, no. Nolan Bushnell founded
Activision. I'm sorry.
Not.
Wait.
They both start with A.
Bywin is there. Bywin's going to be
there. The guys that make
that sim card looking SSD.
Oh, yeah.
Let's see. It wasn't going to be there.
Jsocks is going to be there.
Oh, both are going to be there.
Hmm.
Yeah.
So I'm kind of here.
These are guys that are
going to have like booths, too.
Like what is Discord do?
Because CES is more
hardware than it is software.
I'm kind of.
Obviously, they're going to make like the
Discord thin client.
Yeah, they're not doing that.
That'd be a good thing.
But that would hurt their bottom line.
Oh, look. We have
Vtuber companies there, too.
Gakugeki Inc.
Arias.
Wait, is it going to
be in the Aria or by?
So it sounds like it's
going to be broken up a lot.
They're going to be in the Aria.
What's the Aria?
It's one of the big hotels there.
Ooh, Genki.
It's going to be there.
Oh, God.
Sounds like they're going
to be in multiple hotels.
Random.
Oh, dude.
Aria is awesome.
That's a really good hotel to stay at.
I think it's the one that has the remote.
Like, yeah, the remote for
the windows and everything.
It's going to be there.
The HDMI forum is going to be there, too.
Yikes.
Well, I mean, dude,
like I don't I don't know.
Well, I think we'll have more to talk
about next week when after the
whole event's over.
Yeah, because there's a lot
of there's a lot to go through.
As it seems right now, launch checks
going to be there with their audio cards.
Can't wait.
As it stands right now, though, we have
something to talk about the best of 2025.
The results are in.
And if you voted on Steam.
Right.
This is in the Steam Awards.
This is sales.
Oh, oh, oh, yes, yes, yes.
Best sellers.
Oh, interesting.
Has the Steam Awards happened?
Wait, when does when does it end?
Because January the third at 1 p.m.
Oh, weird.
So at 1 p.m.
So like after this podcast ends, the
voting will include.
I guess we have an
opportunity by next week.
No.
Um, I'm surprised
Oblivion was so popular.
Well, remember, people
thought that Oblivion would kill
Expedition 33's
chances of selling anything.
If you recall.
I don't think Shadow
Drop on the same day.
Yeah, it's Shadow Drop.
But that's the problem with Shadow Drop.
They did probably hurt it.
But like at the end of the day, a good
game is going to out, you
know, it's going to shine.
Wasn't.
No, I'm pretty sure
people waited until now.
That's probably why it was bought right
here is because people
wait until now to buy.
Yes.
So true that true that wasn't the
performance like
garbage when it launched.
Yeah, it was OK.
It's Elder Scrolls.
I don't know.
I don't know why people expect Elder
Scrolls to be different than what it is.
Here's my question.
Was the Elder Scrolls ever good?
Because like playing some Bethesda's
recent games have made me
not allowed in terms of like
the games, because playing some of the
recent games have made me question if
I ever really liked Bethesda ever.
I honestly have never played a Bethesda
game that I've liked.
I'm different.
I don't like the Elder
Scrolls series that much.
Skyrim is the only one I've beat, and I
did play a lot of it.
It was fun to have dragons drop out of
the sky and eat your face.
That was interesting.
The lore was much better as far as a
fantasy, but yeah, I just
could never finish Oblivion or.
So yeah, look at that.
We have a Fallout series, though, is my.
So we look at the Platinum series.
We have a couple of games that we
expected to sell pretty well.
FIFA, Battlefield,
Borderlands, Arc Raiders.
And then we have Arc Raiders.
I think it was the best selling Steam
game from my understanding.
Article wise, like I read an article that
yeah, it's based on revenue, too.
It's not based on copies sold.
So it's even more impressive when
Silksong makes it on the list like this.
Yeah, that is crazy.
I am not shocked by that.
Well, it's like the fact is it's sort of
my revenue, like high tech said.
So it's like this game sold maybe twice
as many or even more
copies as some of the other
ones on here based on its price.
Yeah, you'd have to
make that revenue, right?
Yeah, but it's going up against like
games that are selling for 70 freaking
dollars and it's 20.
Yeah, let's look at
some other games here, too.
We've got let's go to gold.
We've got I thought people didn't like
Assassin's Creed Chat is what happened.
I thought we were boycotting because I
thought people boycott
because there was a black guy in
the game. Oh, was that too spicy for 12?
Don't listen to anything.
No, Twitter says
because they're all idiots.
Yeah, honestly, we talked about how
stupid Twitter is in the bonus show.
And YouTube.
There's some of YouTube videos on it.
It's funny because people go down in the
theories like crazy like
it's a grift, of course.
But like, did guys just enjoy the
freaking games and just
move on like it's a game.
Digimon's up there.
People have creativity.
Times changes up there.
That's pretty sick.
It's a pretty cool game.
Digimon where?
Right there.
Digimon times changes.
I couldn't I didn't
even see the text there.
They that that is a horror.
They really got to fix that artwork.
That is really bad.
There's nothing legible.
You can't read it.
Fought.
It's almost to make it bigger.
Yeah, I agree.
The titles.
The title needs to be bigger, but also
like, like, I don't know, like the image,
like the people in it.
I don't even know what I'm looking at.
Yeah.
Split fiction.
To be fair, though, they're using that.
That's crazy that you have games that
aren't even on sale that are like,
getting the high end.
Enjoy Europa a game.
It looks like The Sims, to be honest.
If my friend Carl has over a thousand
hours in Europa universe, Alice five.
Oh, is it good?
Apparently, it's good.
He's he's into those
like grand strategy games.
Oh, and then we have so I was happy to
see Civ seven in here, but yeah.
Civ seven.
I haven't played it at all.
I didn't even know it came out this year
until a couple of weeks ago.
I've heard not great.
I went and looked at the reviews and like
people playing it and
it doesn't sound like
it was that good, but they
complain about every year.
Every time there's a release, you can't
really make the Civ people happy.
So let's look at silver.
Silver's got some interesting ones.
We've got Delta room.
We've got the Last of
Us part two remastered.
We've got where wins meet.
We've got Final Fantasy seven rebirth.
We've got the first Berserker Kazan.
I've heard that game is pretty good.
Well, and we've got
RuneScape on there, too.
RuneScape Dragon Wilds.
It's not tech out of
world to out of worlds to.
I'm part of that statistic.
I bought it during the sale.
Some people in my in my Discord server
were saying they wanted to play that as a
group game.
That's a fun one.
It's one that you'll laugh.
But what's in the bronze?
Mega bunk.
Super Robot Wars.
Oh, that's out.
Let's see.
Ball expat.
Free to play.
So wait, is this is
this based on revenue?
Otherwise you wouldn't see
free to play games on here.
Would it be would it be what it would be
sales rate like in game
in app sales and stuff?
Free to play would be at the top.
And I don't think they
record in game sales, do they?
They'd have to.
So no, no, they don't base it on sales.
They based it on copies,
like probably added to library.
So I've played blue protocol star
residents because I was
looking for a new MMO and it sucks.
It sucks.
Yeah, it's just too many.
We said, of course, because I hate cars,
but I love car games.
How's the crashing?
I do.
Yeah.
What'd you say?
How's the how's the crashing?
I haven't played it.
I I played the first instead of course.
Yeah.
I don't know if that's a sequel.
I don't know.
But the precinct, I saw my Noah from
seeing the issue recommend the demo for
this during an XFES at one point.
It's like a cop simulator.
Seeing people play this.
It's hilarious.
And also the sonic
sonic racing crossroads.
Sonic racing crossworlds is on the list.
I've heard a lot of good things about it.
Yeah, same.
I I really like Sonic
All Stars Racing Transform.
That was a good one.
Was that the one with the
was that the one with the.
TF2 characters and record Ralph as well.
I don't remember seeing TF2,
but I know record Ralph in it.
Just one there was some TF2 characters in
that car in a sonic car.
I mean, it's been ages since I played it.
So in terms of steam deck,
Platinum games include Hades,
Bellatro, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3.
Four bucks for the Witcher 3.
Wait, wait, wait.
Last year you're looking at now?
No, this is Steam Deck.
This is Steam Deck.
Oh, I didn't know there
was a Steam Deck category.
Yeah, dude.
We got Hades 2 Hollow Knight.
The original Hollow
Knight beat Silksong somehow.
No, it's not sorted by.
Oh, it's not sorted.
It's not sorted.
It's random.
Okay.
All right.
So that's first to 12th place randomly.
Oh, that would make sense.
Yeah.
We got Vampire
Survivor, The Vulture's Gate,
Stardew Valley, Elvin Ring,
Silksong, Red Dead Redemption 2.
Interesting.
I mean, dude, if you want to know what
games are good, check this list,
because this is the games that sold the
best for the Steam Deck, right?
So it's a good list too.
It's a good list.
Like, if you need a
game for your Steam Deck,
I would use this list to probably grab it
with a few exceptions.
There's a couple of
games on here where I'm like,
they don't run.
It doesn't run that kind of list.
Expedition 33, one
more on the Steam Deck.
It runs okay.
Some people say it runs fine, but because
the FSR, like, it runs fine.
But the problem is
you're going to have...
It's not going to be as clear at times.
So it bothered me a little bit to where I
didn't play it on the Steam Deck.
Makes sense, especially since, you know,
you have to parry stuff
and like there's a lot of timing based
reactions to attacks.
Yeah.
It was just...
Well, it's such a beautiful world and the
art style is so great
that I wanted to actually
experience it in a better light.
Like, I think Witcher, Cyberpunk,
Expedition are all games.
I just can't play on
Steam Deck, I'll be honest.
Yeah. Check the demos out.
I want to see demos.
The most popular demos.
What is Half Sword?
Do there's Half Sword?
It's a broken image link.
Oh, it's down there.
It's not on your list.
Oh, it's like a knight.
Ooh, a knight.
We were just talking about
this in the bonus episode.
Knights and shit.
Half Sword.
It's got Bill Gates verse...
Idris Elba.
Did I pay for that DLC?
It's a physics based medieval combat
simulator featuring
historically accurate,
what is that, 15th century ARP.
Arms and armor.
We're not afraid to show the brutal
nature of medieval combat.
That music.
Can you hear the music?
Yeah, I can.
I don't like it.
I can hear the music.
It's really loud.
Yeah.
That is...
Yeah, I'll mute it.
Not sure about that music.
Yeah, I'm not keen on it.
But I mean, it kind of reminds me of...
It looks cool though.
Doesn't that matter, actually?
What about Hurdigirdie?
You ever listened to Hurdigirdie music?
Hurdigirdie?
Hurdigirdie, dude.
No, I can't say I have.
Fire.
Hurdigirdie.
You know what looks fire?
This game right here.
I kind of want to try it out.
There's a demo.
Try the demo.
Let us know what you think for next week.
Let's see.
We see some of the usual suspects.
We see...
Schedule 1.
Delta rune.
Stellar Blade.
What...
Let's see what else is down there below.
Oh, Mecide Super Popular.
I know some guys that are into that.
I have it.
I was going to stream
it one of these days
because it's one of those weird, crazy
games, but never got to it.
See, Haste is a popular demo.
Is this a game out yet?
Yeah, I have it.
It's good.
Oh yeah, it's been out for a while.
I've been playing it,
actually, on my Steam Deck.
Maybe I should get it.
And peek.
It's taking me a lot longer than I want
to actually get good at it, though.
It's okay, Gardner.
You'll get good at it eventually.
You have all the time in the world.
Yeah, unless I'm screwing up my...
My math.
That is true.
I gotta say, I like that
there's a lot more demos now.
Yeah, Valve's doing a
lot to encourage demos.
Oh, I forgot to mention something that
I've been doing this week.
Hold on.
Oh.
I'm not going to spoil too much, but this
is something that's going...
going to happen on my website.
PC Gamer Demo Disks.
I bought three years worth of PC Gamer
Demo Disks, 1999, 2000, and 2001,
which is like peak PC gaming for me.
And I've been playing it on period
accurate hardware, too.
So...
Where did you source
period accurate hardware from?
I found a PC at my old job.
And I was like, "Yo, can I take this?"
And they were like, "Sure."
So I've just had it for ages.
Damn.
I have a couple of...
I could probably almost build one.
I have everything pretty much done in my
basement to build one.
Do it.
Put it run.
Yeah, I need to.
It's time.
Outer Worlds has
taken all my time, though.
Well, I mean, you know,
demos on Steam are fun.
PC Gamer demos are also fun.
But GOG is also fun.
GOG is getting acquired
by its original co-founder.
What?
Hitec, give us the details on this.
Excuse me.
So basically, GOG is
being acquired by Michael...
How do I pronounce this name?
You guys know?
James, you might know, right?
Kinsky.
Michael Kaczynski.
I can't read Polish.
I don't read Polish either.
I can read Russian.
Oh, I thought they would be similar
enough for you to read.
Whatever.
They're not similar.
Whatever.
So basically, they're
getting back together.
I'm not sure why, though,
besides he just wants to.
But it is worth mentioning that he did
found GOG with the
original mission statement
that's still intact to this day.
So it sounds a little better than...
It sounds a little
better than like most, right?
Interesting.
So why?
Why is the original
co-founder acquiring it?
I'm curious.
I don't know.
And why does CD
Projekt Red want to get...
They just don't want
to manage it anymore.
So my understanding is that
GOG is not profitable at all.
For CD Projekt.
So like this is perhaps Michael is
interested in like turning it,
spinning it off into its own business and
making it profitable.
I don't know.
Maybe he's interested in keeping it
private so that it doesn't...
So that he doesn't have to worry about
the whims of like, well,
you know, investors and shit.
Whereas CD Projekt and CDPR are.
Yeah, they are a little
bit different of a public.
They're a European public company.
So I don't know if it's quite as
cutthroat as the American
kind of public companies,
but yeah, I'm wondering maybe they were
getting pressured to...
I could see it being that they were
getting pressured to
like make GOG profitable.
I doubt it was like a money sink.
But yeah, it wasn't really bringing
anything worth keeping it on.
So I'm wondering maybe they want to make
sure that it's going to
be in the hands of someone
that's going to make it profitable, but
also like keep it in the same vein of
being more consumer friendly.
So I mean, the truth is that we don't
know what's going to happen.
They say it's going to
be the same as it is now.
And that would be ideal if it is. But I have seen some
people... Sorry, go ahead.
Well, I was just going to say, like,
according to this press release,
this new chapter is about doubling down
on the vision of like, of having like
truly free DRM free games.
And I mean, preserving classics.
I mean, how much more
could they double down on this?
I mean, well, I feel like they've kind of
waffled a little bit on the DRM free thing.
Recently. Am I wrong about that?
I wouldn't know, to be honest.
I don't buy games on GOG, despite somehow
having 200 games on
there for some reason.
Yeah, I mean, I think they've...
I've only bought a few games.
They've been like toying with the idea of
letting some games not or have DRM or
something like that.
I don't remember exactly, but yeah.
I mean, I think they're going to be a little bit more like a little bit more like a little bit.
I don't know. I just I hope that like
they really kind of like...
Because GOG no longer
stands for good old games.
And they're doing like a lot of like
modern games and stuff as well.
They get that though. I mean.
They'll eventually become good old games
though. New games become old.
That's true.
Wow. Those good new games will be good
old games in like 10 years or so.
Yeah.
I...
As much as I like GOG and everything, I
just I don't know if the model is going
to ever be a breakout.
A sustainable.
Partially because you have to...
It's obviously sustainable enough to
where it's still alive.
I'll be honest, I'm a little...
I'm a little surprised.
That's why one of the reasons
I don't buy into GOG because
you have to convince a lot of these
companies to release
their stuff DRM free.
It's not just that too though.
They go into the back end of some of
these older titles and make sure they
work on newer systems.
And yeah, there's a lot of
games from like the dark ages.
Well, not the dark ages.
From like the older
days that don't really...
Enlightenment.
Yeah, that don't
really work out of the box.
And like unlike a newer system.
Yeah.
But GOG does the work of doing that.
They do the patches.
They apply the new features. They apply the no CD keys.
They apply a bunch of like modern patches
to make the games actually
function on newer systems.
But I mean, the big question now is how
much more of this can they do,
especially with newer games that'll
become old in like 10 or 20 years, right?
I mean, there's no telling if a game that
releases that today will run on like,
I don't know, Windows 20.
It'll probably run on Steel One.
Steel One's just
amazing at running old games.
Which also begs the question, why don't
they have like an
official Linux launcher?
I mean, it's the most
requested feature, right?
Yeah, I think so.
I think at this point, it's not strictly
necessary for GOG to support Linux,
like with their Galaxy launcher for a
couple reasons, right?
We already have Heroic and Heroic is
awesome for managing your games.
And also like the subset of people who
are using Galaxy, as far as I know,
is like pretty, it's
not, it's like 50-50.
Like most people, like half the people
who are buying games on GOG
don't even bother with Galaxy.
So I don't know.
I could be wrong about that number too,
but my understanding is like,
it's just, I don't think it's worth it
for them to develop a Linux launcher.
Oh, yeah.
Linux is still like a
subset of a subset of PC gaming.
So it's like, yes, like the Steam Deck is
pretty crazy awesome.
And it's like done a
lot for Linux gaming.
We're still like 2%,
two and a half, right?
It's a healthy 2%.
Yeah.
And I mean, like, and I think 2026,
especially with the Steam Machine,
we're going to see, and with the frame,
we're going to see that number grow.
And it's going to probably, I wouldn't say that, number grow and it's going to probably, I
wouldn't be surprised to see it around 6%
by the end of the year.
Like I'm going to have a wild take.
I'm going to have a really wild take.
I think if you, if you cut out some of
the older people that are playing on
really old hardware,
if you cut those people out, because it's
just, I don't know if
you'll ever get them
converted in a reasonable amount of time.
But if you do like the past five, 10
years, I think you'll see a 10%.
Yeah.
I think we'll see 10% Steam
OS at the end of the year.
That's a wild take, but I think we're
going to see a huge bump up.
And also because gaming is, so PC
hardware is scheduled
to drop 6% and sell.
Like it's going to, it's revenue is going
to be, we're going to have a bad year.
Let's just say that.
And as content creators, that's another
thing we're going to
have a really bad year.
I know we don't have it on here, but
that's one thing we should
have talked about is like,
as content creation with PC hardware and
PC stuff, like we're, it's
probably going to be a bad year.
Yeah, I would imagine.
But also like we're, we're, I mean, I
don't know how much like Linux specific
content you guys do,
but like most of my articles on my site,
like the top ones were all like Linux.
Here's how to use Linux, use Linux.
So, or they were Steam Deck specific.
So there's a ton of interest in that.
And I think you're right, James, like
with, with the cost of new
hardware being astronomical
and just fundamentally unaffordable for
most people, like, and
most people, you know,
most PC gamers already have a gaming PC.
So it's like, how can you
stretch your dollar more?
Well, put Linux on it.
You're going to get more for your, for
your, uh, more bang for your buck.
You know, you don't even
have to buy new hardware.
And windows 11, like I started using
windows 11 after like a
little after it was out.
Like it took me a little bit to adopt it,
but when I first
started using it, it was fine,
but they've injected so
much crap into it that it is.
I, I use windows right now because it's
still the easiest way to
do my game development.
And I use it in that case, then I'm just
like, I'll just play some of the games that I need to play
some of the games that I need to play
that it's like, do I play
any, I think arc Raiders and
actually hell divers
both play on steam OS.
So maybe I don't like, cause I play those
types of online games.
Like maybe, I mean, I could see myself
moving fully to steam OS
once there's a really good
port of the Unreal engine over to Mac OS
or steam, um, because I
don't know if I'd need it
for anything else.
Minecraft maybe because my sons do like
really like playing Minecraft.
Bedrock.
And so play Java.
Yeah, they play both.
They play both.
Java's on Linux.
I prefer.
Yeah, Java Linux, but I
think it's also played.
Yeah, I know.
But right.
You can also play as bedrock too now.
Yeah, they play both.
So they both, they, they,
and then add them right into
the Steam, non-Steam section.
And then boom, you can launch your games.
You can customize the Proton launcher.
You can customize if
you want it to be wine
or GE Proton or whatever.
It's so cool.
And if they went that
route, then that makes sense.
But I wonder if they're thinking,
well, we don't have really any Linux DRM,
like free binaries on our system.
They might have the Windows.
So they have a ton of Linux games.
Okay.
Like most of the Linux games
that they have are packaged.
Like they're like DOSBox
packaged with a native DOS,
like a native Linux DOSBox
or something like that, right?
There are some native
Linux binaries as well,
but frankly, native Linux binaries suck.
Like I think that the future
for Linux gaming is Proton.
Like through and through.
I'll be back in a second.
Sure.
Interesting.
So you'd say bundle,
ah, that's such a mess as
a game developer though.
I want like a universal system.
Dude, Proton is the universal system.
I truly believe that.
What? I'm sorry.
How would I build my game?
Without a Windows device to
then use the Proton system.
Cause if I build,
let's say an Unreal project for Linux,
which you can build for
Linux, that's native for Linux.
So what you do is you
build your game for Windows
inside of--
Yeah, but then I have
to have a Windows device.
You have to have a Windows device
to build a Windows version in Unreal?
Yes.
Any of the Unity, I
don't know about Godot,
but like Unity and Unreal,
like the biggest ones you have to have--
In Godot, you literally just say,
I want a Windows
package, I want a macOS package,
I want a Linux, I
want an Android package.
And then you click build and
it builds them all for you,
no matter what platform you're on.
It builds the Windows properly.
Yeah, there's DLLs
and I don't think Unity.
And I think Godot has the beautiful
nature of being newer.
And that's why I say,
I'm not sure about Godot
because I could see it being able to
download dependencies
or not have
dependencies based on some DLLs
and some older tech where
Unreal and I think Unity
have some older issues.
I mean, let's try it out.
I looked into it though, I'm
pretty sure in Unity or Unreal
you cannot--
My understanding is that for Godot,
you download like this
empty pre-built package
for your game.
And then it just like
compiles like any of your scripts
and then drops in your assets
into that like empty archive
and then you can just distribute that.
It uses C-sharp, I believe, right?
Well, it uses--
I think C-sharp--
It uses GDScript and C-sharp.
Yeah, I think that's
based off of C-sharp.
So I think it's all like,
so C-sharp is like Java,
it's much better at,
sorry, we're nerding out here,
but like it's much better
at packaging for anything.
It's not, it's
supposed to be OS agnostic.
Unity is also C-sharp, but I think it's,
you can do builds in the web
and so you can build for
Windows through their web service.
Sorry, I'm just, yeah, I hate that I'm
dependent on Windows
to build my games and
then distribute them.
I'd rather build a
Linux version, but yeah,
I think you're correct though.
I think, ah, that's still so messy.
Like I can't build a Linux version
and not have it be better on Linux
than the Windows version is.
Well--
Valve out to themselves.
Well, the thing is too,
like there are fewer development tools
for game developers on Linux.
That's, Valve is working
on resolving that issue,
but also because Linux
is such a small market,
game engines aren't like being pushed
or aren't feeling the pressure
to like optimize their games for Linux.
Also like ABIs on
Linux break all the time.
User space breaks all the time.
And so unless you're
building your Linux binaries
against like Valve's
Steam for Linux runtime,
your Linux version
will break the next time
GNOME updates or the next
time the kernel updates.
And it's like, it's such, dude,
like the reason that I
think native Linux games suck
is because ABIs are unstable
and like just
everything breaks all the time.
So I don't know.
It's not worth it.
Yeah, no, I can attest to that.
The best thing to do in my opinion
is to build against
Proton, test against Proton,
just build one
freaking version of your game
and then you can run it anywhere.
Do you think Valve
should come out with a way
to just build for its platform period,
which I guess could be
under the hood windows,
but like in the XE, but
at the end of the day,
don't call it windows,
we just call it like,
I don't know, Proton Universal or
something like that.
That's kind of what they've done,
but without calling it that.
I just look into it more.
I mean, I-
They need to marketing wise,
you got to market it though.
That's how you sell things.
At one point, Valve was
working on some kind of package.
Like it was like Flatpak.
Package manager.
And I don't know where that stands
because Valve kind of does things,
whatever, willy-nilly,
but at one point they were
working on something like that
and I would be interested
to see where that would go.
But I don't know.
I mean, for my
software I built in the past,
I've looked into doing with managers,
like application managers
where it wraps it all together
and it has all the
instructions built into the,
we don't need to get into all that,
but like I think that is
probably one of the biggest things
that Valve could probably figure.
Like Proton's running smoothly,
they have a whole team always
updating it and improving it.
They need the marketing on now,
hey game developers, this
is how we need to start,
I think, packaging it potentially.
Yeah, and I mean, if they--
And fix it and make it so
that runs anywhere Unix runs.
I mean, that would be ideal.
And if they could
approach publishers and whatever
and be like, this is
kind of the standard,
I think that would go a long way
to getting new games published on Steam.
And speaking of new games,
that was a terrible
transition, terrible segue.
I loved it.
What's going on with
this new game plus showcase
will take place on January 8th?
It's a new game showcase,
but they call it new game plus
because it's not just the new games,
it's also other stuff
like developer interviews
and all that cool stuff.
I don't need.
So it's 45 games, they
claim it's creator-led,
but how do we know this?
What does creator-led even
mean in this case, to be honest?
It's Ubisoft and
Activision, all their lead--
Okay, okay.
Creators.
Creator-led with suspicious eyes.
Yeah, which creator's leading though?
Yeah.
So it says indie games
and big AAA productions.
It says it's
self-funded too, no sponsors.
Maybe it's, oh, no ads.
Self-funded?
Dude, you know how expensive
doing these types of things are
depending on what it is?
I don't know, man.
I'm sharing that.
There isn't gaming world media.
I've never heard of gaming world media.
Let's do some research.
Gaming world media,
according to their website,
go to gamingworldmedia.com.
Oh my gosh, you got my--
Oh, there's a video that
auto-plays on the website.
That's stupid.
What is this?
Gamingworldmedia.com.
Bunch of broken images.
Have you seen broken images?
I see those broken images too, yes.
What is going on?
It's the home outside of the game.
Interesting.
Oh, so they own a bunch of
things like rivals assembled,
everything Marvel
Rivals, or Rivals Esports,
Marvel Rivals Esports
News, or Deadlock Intel,
number one source of all things deadlock,
or Marathon Game News, Marathon Intel.
Yeah, okay, okay, I
see what's going on here.
From Andy's to the world's largest.
There's also content
creators like Jake Sucky.
Is that his name?
That's his alias.
It's not Jake Sucky.
I spelled like Sucky, so it must be.
It's on him, man, that's what I do.
I thought it was Jake Sucky.
(laughing)
Oh my God.
But if that is his name, then that sucks.
Yeah.
Pun intended.
I think it's Jake Sucky.
Interesting.
So, creator, I guess
there's some measure of truth
to creator-led,
because they're probably
having their roster of creators
hosting it, I would imagine.
But that's speculation
on my part, I don't know.
And they also have a link
to their YouTube channel
on their website, so
New Game Plus Showcase
has 1,200 subscribers.
Wow, look at that,
they've got more subscribers
than we do, and they don't even have
anything up right now.
But any one of our
personal YouTube channels
has more than theirs, so.
At least until the showcase,
we don't know what they'll showcase.
Yeah, we'll see.
It's problematic that
they have X as their primary
(laughing)
social media listed here.
Should've put their website first.
Yeah.
Dude, any company that's
gonna be promoting something
like this should be promoting their
website before any--
So it looks like they have sponsors
on the Gaming World Media website.
So if you go back to that
website and scroll down,
you'll see they're
sponsored by Lexus, iBuyPower,
AT&T, Epic Gate,
scroll up, scroll back up.
That's not, those aren't sponsors.
I don't know.
No, they don't.
They're just from indies to the world.
I'm just saying, that
doesn't mean it's sponsored.
It just, it means that
they want brand recognition,
and so they'll, like
anyone that they work with,
they'll throw it there.
It could be sponsors, but--
This could be sponsors
that they have brought
to their roster.
Yeah, like these are
companies that they've worked with
before.
I see.
I just, do we need another showcase?
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't think we
need one, but you know.
If there's--
So, there are--
No, no, like they can
do it if they want to.
I'm just saying, like I'm
not trying to stop anyone.
I'm just, I'm already
fatigued from all the showcases
we do with Steam, with the other--
More than lifetimes.
I'm just exhausted.
No.
Not at all.
I'll probably be gone, is it in January?
It's like in a few days.
Yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see
what comes out of this, but I'm not,
I'm not gonna watch live.
Yeah, I agree.
I don't give a shit.
Like, I mean, also like
a lot of my exhaustion
from this stuff comes
from like the game awards
being so heavily like,
just add, add, add, add, add.
I mean, that's what,
pretty much what it's for.
Like a showcase is
like a bunch of marketing.
Right.
When you say add, do you mean like,
"Pissed by new games," or
do you mean ads as in like,
"Add ads."
Well, like, okay, so what I mean is like,
they're saying here,
genuine excitement in Cars 8,
no paid placements, right?
To me, paid placements are every trailer
that was in the game,
like almost every trailer
that was in the game awards.
I feel like there were one or two games
that Jeff was like just excited to show,
and then everything else was just paid.
I thought, yeah.
Yeah.
It's hard though,
because that's how you pay
for the event, those
events are really expensive.
Yeah, but like if this is,
And Miss Piggy, you know she's expensive.
Oh yeah, of course, that's Disney money.
But like, if this is just
being put on as like a livestream
in a room with some of their creators,
that's not that expensive, you know?
Like, so this, to me,
like this is exciting, right?
Like, if these are just indie games
that are on these creators' radars, I
could get into that.
But I'm so tired of like,
the showcase after showcase,
I'm like, just let me know, give me a
synopsis, I don't care.
They're just trying to break
Jeff Keighley's
monopoly on game showcases.
Yeah, he's got two of
them, for fuck's sake.
Two of the biggest ones.
He's got two.
I think the summer one's a little better.
I agree.
I think you get a lot out of it.
The summer one is
like, just kind of chill.
Yeah, it's just the games.
It's chill, and there's, yeah,
and I don't think it's at all,
there might be some
placed, like paid placements,
but they still probably
have a lot that's not.
Plus we don't have to
deal with award stuff.
Yeah, I can handle the
game awards once a year.
I'll be honest, I can
handle that, I'm fine with it.
Anything else beyond
that gets a little annoying.
The summer one's not bad,
this one being right
after the game awards though,
I'm like, I'm already fatigued.
So how much do you
think they'll spend on this?
I don't know.
A billion, huh?
That's interesting.
A million.
I don't think it's billion.
Well, what about a billion?
Because I know of one
game that's approaching
being a billion dollars.
That is true, Star Citizen.
I've been talking about
this game for over 10 years
and it's still not even out, technically.
Well, yes.
They could, from a marketing standpoint,
they should have definitely rephrased
how they're working on this.
They were like, yeah, no,
this is an early access.
It's never gonna be fully done,
and that's how I would have--
I mean, truth be told,
they call it an alpha,
but it could be more stable.
But it could be more
stable than some of the games
that have come at 1.0, right?
Some of the games we've
seen that come out with 1.0.
I mean, whether it's alpha, beta,
if people buy it and they
like it, then why not, right?
Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day,
I don't, Star Citizen made some promises,
and that's the problems that
they made promises early on,
that they didn't fulfill.
And then they went after cash cows
and they've kind of just been chasing
this weird money thing.
And so that's, I think, the
problem with Star Citizen.
I was interested in the beginning,
and then it looked like
they were chasing money
a little too
aggressively to develop their games.
It's a crazy situation, too,
because Star Citizen, I mean,
I'm vaguely interested in Star Citizen.
It looks like a pretty cool game.
I've seen some gameplay.
It's like part FTL,
part on foot ground combat,
part like space simulator.
It looks pretty cool.
Supposedly, the single player campaign
is supposed to be coming
out this year, Squadron 42.
Yeah, it's got big stars, too,
because Chris Roberts likes working
with big Hollywood
actors, like Mark Hamill,
and Henry Cavill.
Yep.
Ah, shit, speaking of Henry Cavill,
I wonder what's going on
with that Warhammer series.
I think it's been worked on.
I don't know if there's anything to
update on it, though.
Surely it couldn't take
that long to make a war.
Well, actually, no, I
shouldn't say anything.
In today's world, it
can take two, three years
to get a season out.
Yeah, look at the Stranger Kids kids.
They fucking, they're
like whole ass adults.
Have families, some of them have kids.
But what are you
gonna do up against that?
Your other option is AI them.
The other option is lower budgets
and faster turnarounds.
Or--
Yeah, you can do that.
I think it's just up to the creatives.
If they want to do
more expensive releases
every few years, it's fine.
Or animate them.
Yes.
Yeah, the real stranger things.
Truly the strangest thing.
Even--
Yeah?
Yeah.
I mean, but you can't convert from live
action to animate it
to finish a story.
That is true, that is true.
People would get upset.
If you want to do spin-offs, that's fine.
But yeah, no, I'm okay
with the way it's going.
It's just what it is.
If I'm gonna get better quality,
Fallout, I think took
what, two years to come out
with another season?
And I'm fine with that.
If it's good, I'm fine.
Instead of them just
milking it hard every season.
Well, the question is,
with inflated budgets
and everything in the TV series,
what's going on with
the, how much is too much?
I'm trying to segue too hard.
Sorry.
How much is too much?
Well, it depends.
How much can you afford?
Yeah, that's the problem.
I can't afford anything in 2026.
Man, this is the first generation
where we can't have shit.
It's okay.
All how, I have my Steam Deck.
I will spend the money I
would have spent on this,
on like, you know.
The Steam Chain?
A nice summer vacation,
because it'll be cheaper
to go on vacation with
my Steam Deck than it is.
Dude, will it be though?
Will it be though?
We will see.
The computers I buy are
like three or $4,000, so yes.
All right, but like, will it be though?
Yes.
It'll be cheaper to go on
vacation with your Steam Deck
than it is to buy a computer.
I mean, so what's going on here?
So, ASUS announces price
hikes starting January 5th,
which could raise the RG Ally prices.
This is a report from Steam Deck HQ.
Shout out to Noah.
He's been on our podcast a few times.
What's up, Noah?
Yeah, so--
But never when Garner's been around.
I just--
Yeah, I've never seen myself and Noah
in the same place at the same time.
Damn, it's almost like
they're the same person.
So what's going on here?
So ASUS is raising their prices?
They say strategic price adjustments.
So it sounds like
they're gonna raise prices,
otherwise they would have said,
"Oh, we're lowering our prices."
All these companies are
gonna be hiring their prices.
It's the RAM, is a big part of the price.
Yeah, so if you scroll down,
there's an English translation.
And some tariffs are kicking in finally
in the sense of they had some leeway
and some tariffs are
gonna be hitting this too.
That sucks.
Oh my God, in the new
era of AI-driven computing,
companies face both new opportunities
and new challenges in
operational planning.
ASUS values our partnership with you
and remains committed
to providing up-to-date
and reliable IT products and services,
growing together with your team and
creating shared value.
Just talking about reliable IT products,
sounds like not ROG, like not gaming.
Yeah.
But ASUS is better to
work with than the direct,
like GPD and not to throw
them under the bus fully,
but like you're gonna have a better time
having support from ASUS
than you are from some of the
more direct Chinese companies.
Absolutely.
So of course, they
don't mention what products
are being hyped up in price,
but I mean, we can
assume that full computers,
like the RG Ally or
whatever pre-buds they have,
those are gonna go up in price.
Their graphics cards
are gonna go up in price.
Anything with RAM or NAND is going up.
Yeah, I mean.
Yup.
So, I mean, this is
expected in my opinion.
I don't know if this
is like a crazy thing.
I think it's a little preemptive.
I still think some of the price hikes
that have been going on
are a little preemptive.
A little, because, you know,
a company is always
gonna take advantage of a,
of a bad situation to
make money off of us.
Like, I think the pandemic
just showed that, like 100%.
But would you pay for an ROG Xbox Ally X
that's more than $1,000?
I would freaking not.
It is not even worth it at $1,000.
I know, you returned yours.
Yeah, it was comfortable, it was.
I have the Legion Go 2 still, I like it.
I might sell it at one point
because I have the Steam Deck
and I have my main computer, but I'm
enjoying it as I have it
because it is the best screen.
It is an 8.8, but like size wise,
I don't feel it being a
huge difference over this.
Like the controller
handle does feel nicer on this,
but it is ruined by
everything else in between it.
So, AK that screen, I just,
it's so disgusting, sorry.
Just like, it's smaller
than the Steam Deck LCD
just because the aspect ratio.
It's just all around just
not a pleasant experience.
No, it's not, like, it's like,
I mean, I've thought about
upgrading my system, right?
Like I have a, I don't even remember.
I have 128 gigs of RAM in this thing
and it's like, if I wanted
to like upgrade from there
or even like just
stay in parity with that,
it would be like so beyond my budget.
Like that would, like
what I would pay for 128 gigs
of RAM today would be like.
Yeah, you don't have to
brag about your retirement.
I know, right?
Well, I mean, this is,
it's only DDR4 at 200,
2,667 mega transfers.
People are buying kits and buying DDR4
and other stuff to
convert down and everything.
You didn't do that?
Yeah, it's, it's.
I don't think they're backwards.
Yeah, I didn't think that worked.
What's that?
Well, I mean, if you, like,
the thing is like, if you
have like a DDR4 motherboard,
upgrading to a higher thing is like,
probably the smarter solution, right?
Then buying a new
motherboard and getting DDR5.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I just don't have.
I mean, people are.
I just don't have the patience.
Getting laptop kits too.
They're getting the laptop RAM,
getting kits to put into their desktop.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, that's
what this motherboard
that Minisform sent me.
It's using the SODIM form factor.
Yeah, it's using SODIM.
I mean, Steam Machine.
Yeah.
Also using SODIM.
Yeah, it's gonna be, it's
gonna be a, like, this is,
well, and the thing is,
Microsoft didn't realize
how popular the ROG Xbox LAX
was going to be and sell out,
because they just
weren't prepared for that.
And so they're upping production too.
We'll see though.
I have a feeling that this, like,
if they increase the
price at all this year,
I think ASUS will really suffer.
I think they'll have a lot of these
devices on in stock.
I think they'll
eventually fatigue themselves out
when the price increases, but we'll see.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know, dude.
It's all driven by AI,
and everybody wants AI.
And Satya Nadella
from Microsoft wants you
to stop calling it AI slop,
because it hurts his little CEO fee fees.
I agree.
We should call it
something else, like AI dog shit.
I mean, I think there's a difference too.
I don't like that if it's AI,
people just call it slop automatically,
where I'm like, no,
doesn't mean everything's slop.
That's, I think, what I'm fatigued with,
where I'm like, okay,
guys, AI slop or whatever.
I think we are overusing a
lot of these terms too much,
to where I'm like, it's
obvious this isn't slop
that you're calling slop.
Well.
But at the same time,
you're gonna have to up your game
in 2026 if you don't
want anyone to be calling it
anything slop.
And also in this context, yeah,
he's being a shithead on this.
Here's the thing, slop
to me evokes the idea
of just, you know, refuse, right?
Like it's like the
leftovers of what you would,
you'd feed like your
leftovers to your pig or whatever.
That's slop.
And to me--
It's undesirable and it's leftover.
Like yeah, it's undesirable, old food,
or in this case, undesirable content.
But that's not always the case.
That's my problem.
Well, to me it is.
Because AI can't do anything creative.
It can't generate new things.
It can only remix
what it already has seen.
So to me--
I would argue there's
some creativity in there,
but yeah, it's not like,
usually it's the prompter
that adds a flare of
the creativity to it.
But it really depends on stuff like it.
Yeah, I don't know.
I just--
It's an argument that I could get into.
It's one that we get
into frequently on the show.
I know.
But--
And I like, the thing
is, I think AI is going,
we're a little cooked
when it comes to AI.
I think we're going to
become more and more cooked
when it comes to AI in multiple ways.
But I'm going to
recognize that it will sometimes
create very interesting non-slop stuff,
but I have to massage it there.
I have to do a lot of work to get there.
That's fine.
But at the same time, is
that a good thing or not?
Is using generative a good thing or not?
I'm going off board on this, but.
Yeah, I'm a fence center
on this issue, I guess.
I don't like that.
He's like, you can't call it slop though.
Okay, then make sure it's
good then, as substance.
So, so Nadella wants to
talk about the arguments
of slop versus sophistication.
Do you guys ever see
anyone saying anything
as AI sophistication?
No.
I don't.
Sophisticated?
Sophisticated, yeah,
the technology itself.
Yeah, but the stuff that gets generated
from that Gen AI sophistication.
Yeah, now if you're
saying, hey, write me a story,
that's all you do, you're
not gonna get sophistication.
It is still to this
point, and I don't think
it's gonna change for a long time.
You still have to massage the way it goes
to get sophisticated stuff.
Right.
Also, you know what's interesting?
That just might be a problem.
Slop was the word of
the year, this past year.
Yeah.
There were actually quite a few.
I think the biggest diss is not making
something AI related.
I've had stuff called slop, AI slop,
that I've posted and stuff,
and that's the biggest diss.
I think you can just--
Well, there's other words on here too.
Like, this is just AI slop.
There's a little word on here too.
Garymander is another major word.
Garymander, you mean gerrymander?
Yeah, gerrymander, sorry.
I thought there was a new meaning to it.
Touch grass.
Performative.
Touch grass has been around for so long.
Touch grass makes me upset
because it was coined by an asshole.
So I just don't like that it's--
Well, usually when you're telling someone
to touch grass, you're gonna be an
asshole, to be honest.
Must be perfectly flake.
Yeah.
Yeah, sometimes you have
to be an asshole though.
Some people really do
though, to be honest.
See, performative, what does this mean?
Oh.
Terrace.
Yeah.
Performative macha.
I feel like some of these things--
That is so true.
Are like half a decade old.
Some of the stuff is,
they really missed it.
Ooh, tariff is another word.
Six, seven.
Yikes.
Six, seven, yikes.
I mean, it's just youth.
I say yikes because of
all of the reaction to it
and not because kids are saying it.
Like the reaction to it is so
ridiculously overblown.
What's the reaction to it?
That's the word of the day.
Okay, you don't know how
to parent if you do that.
Here's a secret guys.
I'm gonna give a secret
to anyone that has kids.
Just lean into it and it will fade away.
I even say six, seven sometimes
and you know what my kids don't know.
They don't say six, seven.
In fact, one of them's tired of it.
I don't care.
It is kid jargon.
I had slang and stuff
like this when I was a kid.
It does not matter if
this is ruining your life,
which I will say this is
annoying for the opposite reasons.
I live in the Bible
belt of Utah technically.
I live in Utah County right now,
which I'm trying to get out of.
Even though, you know,
the real Mormon housewives
or whatever like that
show is based in this area
but I'm in Costco line
and they start talking about six, seven.
They're like, yeah, I heard
something like it's demonic
or I'm like, not
everything has to be demonic
just cause you don't
understand it does not mean
it's up the devil.
Yeah, maybe you're just stupid.
Oh my God.
No offense.
They are stupid.
They don't, they explain,
and this is the Bible belt.
This is this area too.
If there's not an
explanation, it is up the devil
and you can't, if you want
me to judge your intelligence
that go that route, sorry, rant over.
That's the only part of six, seven
that I have been annoyed
about is because people try
to make it something
that's evil and I'm tired of it.
I grew up with that.
I'm tired of it.
Evil is what you don't understand.
Like Lake Jess, whatever this is.
I'm not even gonna try.
Yeah, what is this?
I've never even heard of this.
Oh, cause it was in a spelling bee.
What?
In the hit Roblox game
spelling bee, the name,
the lake's name.
Roblox stole the spelling bee concept
and made it their own thing.
Wow.
I mean.
What kid would that, what
kid would willingly play
the spelling bee on Roblox?
That's my question.
Why is it a hit game?
Yeah.
It's another six, seven thing.
I would just not worry about it.
It's a mod.
It's a game that they
created by kids, for kids,
that Roblox is making money off of.
So.
Yeah.
It has an alternate name, Webster Lake.
Wow, that's convenient.
Convenient coming from United Webster.
Yeah.
I mean, if they're
learning how to spell some words,
then you know, at least
there's a little veiled learning.
It's like that one viral British village
that I saw online.
A news report on.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I should, I'm not gonna try.
I couldn't tell you
what it was, but I know it.
So, should we, so I
got a poll for everyone.
Should we stop calling it AI Slop?
As per Mr. Nadella?
Well, he wants us to call
it cognitive amplifier tools
because he had a rib removed last week
so he could fillet himself even harder.
Well, I mean.
Oh, shh.
This is not the bonus episode.
Yeah, oh my God.
That is good.
English.
We needed a cold open, guys.
Nah, he, he, he welded
in some intelligent talk,
so it's good.
We're all good.
No, that's, that's hilarious.
But here's my thing
with cognitive amplifiers.
What is zero times any numbers?
I think I love you.
That was perfect.
That was so good.
(sighs)
I just, I'm sorry, that
didn't hit me as hard.
Like, it is good.
But I think there's some
decent AI stuff out there.
It's just, there's also Slop.
I agree.
So, to try to change
it from saying AI Slop,
yeah, no, if it's Slop, it's Slop.
And there will be Slop
for a decade to come.
But like, trying to change it
because it hurts your
feelings is bizarre.
The problem here is that
he's calling his AI chatbot
cognitive amplifier tools.
And, and like,
arguably you could say that
about maybe some like
interactive coding stuff with AI.
But like, you could call a book a
cognitive amplifying tool.
Like you can, dude, like, it's so stupid.
And these guys are so up
their own ass about this stuff.
They are.
They're the other thing too.
He needs to retire.
If you're talking like that, you're retired.
Here's the other thing too though.
We've seen on everyone's
favorite website, x.com,
home of Grock, the predator at AI.
But we've seen people
literally outsource their-
The predator AI.
Their cognitive functions to this AI.
Grock, is this real?
Grock, is this true?
We've seen it happen.
I mean, I'll be honest.
I do follow those sometimes.
I will go down that rebel
cause they will argue with Grock
and I'm just like, you guys are idiots.
And it's a little
hilarious, but at the same time,
it's like, Gardner's idea
of essentially banning people
on the internet is a good idea.
Grock, is this true?
Wait, what?
Your idea with the-
No, the library card thing.
But for the internet-
Library card thing.
Sorry, I was gonna go down there.
I mean, some people should
be banned from the internet,
let's be honest.
Timeouts.
We should put them in internet timeout,
put them in the North Korean internet.
I just, I also think it,
I'm tired of people thinking that they
need to have a voice
on the internet and
that they deserve one,
where it's like, you don't need to say
everything you think.
This guy deletes my comments.
Yeah, you're not, yeah.
I mean, I don't think
we're special either.
I mean, I like to think
that I'd have a voice,
but I also like to not outsource
my cognitive functions to Grock.
We're more reserved.
I didn't find having
people have free reign.
I just, you don't have to
say everything that you think.
And then on top of it,
don't get manipulated
and a lot of them get
manipulated so hard on the internet.
It's like the problem, I
know I mentioned it earlier,
we talked about cars a little bit.
Cars, dude, seriously,
like people put bumper
stickers on their cars, right?
And it's like, they're pithy
one-liners that people say,
they use them to like,
as a thought terminating cliche, right?
They use them as like,
these are memes that represent who I am.
And it's the exact same
thing on the internet, right?
And it's like, we're
outsourcing the creation
of those things to
these corporate colonizers
who want to replace
our critical faculties
with their AI models.
And I just won't do it
and I won't engage with it.
And I will be
critical of it for all time.
It's like, I don't know,
these chatbots are
just like meme factories
because they never create anything new.
They're just putting out
memes that people can pretend
that they invented or
pretend that represents them
in some unique way.
It's the same thing as
bumper stickers to me.
I'm not gonna lie.
I find bumper stickers very tacky,
no matter what the message is.
Yeah.
I think you've convinced me.
I think the internet's fine.
I can go look at X and look at that.
I have to choose to look at that.
Bumper stickers, I don't get to choose.
I have to look at it.
So let's ban bumper stickers.
I agree with you, Gordon.
I didn't say that.
No, I know you didn't say that.
I'm just having fun.
I, ugh.
What do you think
about people that put like
entire anime girl decals in their cars?
I've never seen that.
I think they're brave.
Really?
They're brave.
I think we should have gotten yourself.
I would never do that.
Oh, you might look in real
life or like on the internet.
Let's do it on the next bonus episode.
That could be a topic and
you could show him some of the.
This.
I've, what I have
seen are like, you know,
idiots from Massachusetts
who have like, you know, RGB,
like lighting up the
car, like underneath the,
underneath the car.
Have you seen those?
Oh.
Like.
My brother has one of those.
I've never seen any
car in the state of Maine
with a Maine license plate
with like LEDs lighting the
ground underneath the
car while it's driving.
But, but I have seen
those many, many times
in almost all of them
are from Massachusetts.
Cause that's one of
our closest neighbors.
My brother has a car that does that
and he installed them himself.
Oh man. I don't like them.
He's a car guy.
I think they're super distracting.
I'm okay time and place though.
If you're on the freeway and
I'm driving, let's say like,
cause I go visit my
parents four hours away.
If I'm driving that freeway
stretch and you have LEDs,
I'm going to be pissed off.
Cause it's just gonna be mad.
I don't know if it's, I
think RGB is pretty cool.
I don't, I don't.
No, I agree.
If you're in the city and
it's just every once in a while
or I don't know time and place.
If it's the middle of the
night and you're driving down
the highway and you got your
LEDs on and it's like rainbow
pattern RGB, I'm like, get off the road.
It's so.
It's distracting and it can be bright.
It's dangerous.
And I just don't like it.
Dude, as it like, okay,
I am 37 years old, right?
Like my eyesight driving
at night has like diminished
significantly.
It's like the less
distraction, the more I can see,
the better it is, the
safer it's going to be.
Like I don't like it.
I agree with you.
And if that's the case,
we needed band trucks.
What if you just, what if you just
accidentally crashed
into one of those
cars with the LED lights?
Well, then it's still my fault.
I wouldn't do that.
True.
Right, I crashed into it
and you're gonna have to sit
there for like an hour and
suffering while it's just
flashing in your head.
You know what else is?
You're just getting a
rave the whole time.
Yeah, you are also
suffering and flash in like,
gonna flash in your head forever.
That was a terrible, that
was a terrible transition.
You set it up though.
We got it, we got there.
You gotta finish it.
Anthem.
Anthem is dying.
Not only is it dying,
it's going to be dead.
And while StopKillingGames is still
raging on in the EU,
shout out to Ross.
We had him on, off the
console at some point in time.
I mean, the truth is
legal proceedings are slow.
The speed of litigation is insanely slow
and they're gonna kill
Anthem in like January the 12th.
Unless the law passes
super fast right now,
there's no way we can save Anthem,
officially speaking.
Yeah, and would it even affect that much?
Cause I don't think it's retroactive.
So it's already, like
it'd only be for games
that are coming out, I think.
I always imagined there would be games
that are still in service
when the law comes into play.
So if you say Anthem
were to still be around
by the time StopKillingGames becomes law,
then I would imagine Anthem would be
subject to said laws.
I don't know.
I'm not an expert on the law.
It would be nice though.
It's a good sentiment.
I'm just thinking about, sorry,
I kind of want to try Anthem now.
Well, you got...
That it's gonna be rare.
Well, you got nine or eight days.
I don't own it.
How do you buy it?
Oh shoot, you can't.
Oh, you can't buy it.
That's right.
Oh, I don't know.
Can you pirate it?
I don't know.
I mean, that would probably be the bit.
I'm not gonna mention that here.
Produce a playable game
after they shut down the servers.
Well, I mean, it really depends on
if people can make it
private server for Anthem or not.
Yeah.
You can reverse the engineer probably,
but do people want to tell?
Well, I mean, someone should.
Well, is Anthem?
Anthem's not only online, right?
Like in the sense of, it's a single
player game, isn't it?
It's an always online multiplayer, like,
looter shooter.
It's an always online multiplayer.
With like Iron Man suits.
I played the beta for it.
It was actually pretty fun.
The flying especially.
Yeah, I think, honestly,
this is one of those takes
where if they would
have done a No Man's Sky
and gone back and like
got a lot of feedback,
I'm like, hey, we're gonna fix it.
It's gonna give us two
years, we're gonna fix it.
I think they would have
had something, but nah.
Yeah, they tried one
update to like one Hail Mary
after they fixed the game,
and then they just kind of abandoned it.
It was a really bad
Hail Mary because it was,
like they thought they
could fix it all in like what,
couple months or something like that.
I don't know.
Wow, look at that face.
I love this. It takes time.
(laughing) It's perfect.
This has like essence of
like Mass Effect Andromeda.
Like my face is tired face.
Really?
I don't know, I feel like I've seen a
face like that, but.
Well, I mean, it's just
uncanny to me a little bit.
Like there's something strange.
Like I think it's
like the quality of the,
like the pores of the skin
look just weirdly detailed.
A little too realistic.
I'm thinking this is our next thump.
He's gonna be on our next thumbnail,
whoever that character is.
Absolutely.
That was a good image.
You're a gamer.
Good, props on you for getting that.
But dang, man.
I think that it's,
like stop killing games.
I'm totally for it.
Like it's the law that if
you produce a game like this
going forward that is only online,
you have to have a plan
in place for the community
to take up the stewardship
of the online servers, right?
Right.
In some way, that just makes sense.
Just if you're shipping it on Steam,
just ship a multiplayer client with it.
Like a lot of games do
it, or you can host it.
You can host the server.
But that's too much effort and resources
taken away from Mass Effect 5 from EA.
Yeah.
Last week I published an article
about the history of
Unreal Tournament, right?
And one of the things about UT is that
because they had the master
server list and everything,
the way it was built,
it was easy to set up
your own multiplayer server.
It was dedicated, it was private.
You could do it yourself.
And then when Epic decided
they weren't gonna host the
master server list anymore,
the community was able
to take up the thing,
change one line in the
config file, and then boom,
now the community runs
a master server list.
It's simple.
And the only reason
that they're not doing it
in these games is
because the profit incentive
to keep it locked down is
greater than the technical debt
of maintaining a config file.
It's proprietary software.
They think they have something special,
which is the stupidest thing a lot.
It's just the stupidest thing.
They're not special,
but yeah, it is different.
I will say hosting an Unreal game
at a master list is very different
than a very complicated
online multiplayer game
that has a lot of save states in it.
But they run it.
They run it, they
package it, they have it,
so it runs on multiple
servers, they could package it.
And they might have
to change a little bit,
but they could package it, I think.
It would be trivial.
They have to make it
deployable across Kubernetes
or whatever they're using.
So it's not like they have one server
that services everyone.
They have to have dozens of servers
spread out across the entire world.
So it's not like this is impossible.
They've architected it.
That gets more complicated though.
That technically
complicates the whole thing.
If you can make it so
that it can only support,
let's say like 40 people,
and it's still gonna
eat up a lot of resources,
but if you have to make it
so it supports a lot more,
and then you have to, we're
talking about distribution,
we're talking about a lot
of server configurations
and stuff that can get more complicated.
They don't have to,
but I have a feeling that
I'd like to see that server code
before I make a final judgment.
Whatever.
I don't, I just, EA
could say whatever they want,
and I wouldn't believe them.
So, like.
No, they can.
But yeah, once you start to talk about
distributed systems,
it gets a lot more complicated
to run it as an individual.
They could still do it.
I really think they could.
They could probably have one developer
that's a backend developer
probably package
something up and make it work
out of like a month's worth of work.
The point I was trying to
make with that was that,
not that it like having a distributed
system makes it easy,
but it's like, it's
not like when you connect
with your Anthem client on your computer
that you're connecting to this
distributed network of games.
You're connecting to one server
that is running their server code.
So that's what I'm trying to say is like,
they have to build this in
a way that they can deploy
multiple instances of this server code.
So it's not like they can't just give out
that the server application, right?
Like they can do that,
but they've architect,
they've engineered it in
a way that precludes them
from doing it for,
you know, money reasons.
And that's ignorant.
I am definitely going to
err on the side of both.
I think they definitely
don't want it, it's proprietary.
They don't want to have to deal with it.
I also think it's gonna
be, could be more complicated
than just easily
bundling it, but I don't know.
And I don't think
anyone's gonna know until
they're forced to reveal it.
So I'm all for
transparency, that's for sure.
So I wanna know.
Regulation.
Yeah.
I wanna regulate, I
want it to be transparent.
I want some transparency with this stuff,
parts because I'm also interested in it.
Like it'd be fun to see
how they can do it too.
Man, it's, honestly,
man, I'm not even sure.
EA remembers that it's gonna
be shut down in like a few days.
So we're gonna have to
pay attention next week
to see if EA makes a statement.
That'd be funny, they
forget to turn it off.
They're like, it wasn't, like our servers
weren't getting hit so hard.
Like we just, we forgot about it.
I mean, truth be told, I mean,
I would like the end
of them to stay alive.
I've played the beta.
It has, the gameplay loop is pretty fun,
all things considered.
I don't think anyone's really
playing it for the most part.
If there's anyone playing it now,
it's because it's shut
down. Oh yeah, for sure.
I don't think they should be upheld
to hold those servers open
if it's just eating tons of resources.
AI needs those
resources, by the way, guys.
But they need to give us
the ability to self-host.
Flat out, they have to do that.
Like games have to start doing that.
Yeah, so if there's any
enterprise in indie developers
that wanna take inspiration from a game
that no longer
exists, Anthem is your game.
Someone should make Anthem an indie
and not like a looter shooter with a
grindy RPG elements.
There's gotta be one already, right?
Not that I've seen. I don't know.
Maybe if some indie
developer like contact system
lets us know, "Oh, we're
secretly making an Anthem game,
but it's not a live service game."
I'd be down to check it out.
Well, it's not live
services, it's online multiplayer.
No, Anthem is a live service game.
Oh, so you don't play with other people.
No, you play with other people.
And it's also online only.
It's online only.
Well, it's like Destiny.
Well, okay, then yeah,
that's the type of live service
that makes sense though, I guess.
Well, it is single player.
It makes sense to a point
because you are in the main world
or like the lobbies
around a lot of people.
You have to have that be a live service.
When you go and play the
single player portion of it,
that doesn't make it,
it shouldn't have to be online only.
It's complicated.
I think there's a case for live service
games in my opinion.
I just don't think it's for most of them.
Makes sense.
So, yeah.
Well.
Might be a hot take for me, but.
Guys, I think yet another
depressing week of news,
tech disasters.
Wow, what a great 2026.
2026 is gonna be like this.
So we got to bring a
lot of good stuff too.
Like steam frame, steam machine.
We'll have a lot of good stuff.
It's just gonna be enhanced to be better
because the state of PC
gaming is gonna be worse.
So we'll have to kind
of do some contrast,
like look at this horror show,
but at least you have the steam machine
that you can rely on.
Well, I mean, yeah, that's
what you can look forward
to in 2026.
We're gonna have the tech disasters
and we're gonna have the good news.
So if you like what you're hearing here,
you can subscribe to our channel.
You can subscribe to our RSS feed.
You can become a patron
and listen to the bonus show
where we talked about stuff that was way
too hot for YouTube,
like way too hot for YouTube.
So Brock.
That sounds horrible.
Brock hot is a new, that's the new slur.
Slur, no.
Slur.
That's the new slop,
I was gonna say slop.
Oh, okay.
You're not gonna call it
Grock of Clinker or something.
Well, yeah, that's the easy one.
Anyway, thank you all for watching.
Thank you, James.
Thank you, High Tech,
for being here, my friends.
I have so much fun doing
this show with you guys.
Thank you.
Oh yeah, it's been a great time.
Yeah, and.
Oh yeah, another good year.
2025, that was the first
full year of us doing a show
and we're gonna do even more this year.
Yeah, we should do a
special Steam Machine episode
once that releases.
Absolutely.
Valve contact us.
Yes, Valve, please.
All right, we'll see you guys next week.
All right, take care.
Yes, later guys.
Peace out.