Welcome to Off the Console, the hottest and oldest… No, it's not
the oldest, but the hottest podcast out there about, all about gaming,
tech news, and anything nerdy.
This week we're covering a couple of interesting topics, including
Grand Theft Auto being s- uh, Netflix stealing the limelight there.
Uh, and also we have Xbox increasing prices and, uh,
other places are increasing… I mean, it's just price, price.
That is what the news is now, it's just increasing prices, uh, and decreasing our,
uh, love for expensive things, I guess.
So with that, covering all this is HiTechLoLife and Gardiner.
Welcome, guys
Good to
Thanks for having us
Yeah, yeah.
No, thanks for joining my podcast.
That's what you meant to say.
No, but, uh, but yeah.
No, it, it's, it's been a, it's been a good past week
for, I think, uh, some of us.
Some of us I think have had a, a rough time.
Gardner, how's your last week been?
Dude, my week has been bananas as usual.
Uh, been doing a lot of, uh, uh, tech triage as my, I had a power surge
here, and it destroyed the power supply in my PC, and it's caused
a lot of weird knock-on effects.
and also my home assistant went down, and yeah, a bunch of annoying crap.
Also, not annoying, I got the Pebble Time 2, and I reviewed it on The
Bryant Review and on my YouTube channel, and it's a really cool watch
I did see that, yes.
It look, it does look pretty cool
Yeah.
It's like the, the, the, um, uh, the operating system is entirely open
source, which is super neat, and so is the, uh, companion app on your phone.
Um, so lots of really cool stuff you can do with that
Nice.
Yeah.
I mean, I'm not really a smartwatch kinda guy, but I do think it's pretty cool
My favorite thing about this is that it's barely a smartwatch.
It's just a watch with a nice screen that you can, if you want to, run apps on
Do you run apps on it?
and stuff?
It has a, a heart rate s- uh, reader and you, it can do like pedometry,
uh, pedometer and was the other thing?
But, and sleep tracking.
So it can do those,
Okay
like they're, it's kind of like consumer grade stuff.
Like I, I use it just to keep me motivated when I go for runs and shit,
but like for the most part it's, it's just a cool watch that have some like
customizable s- smart complications on the watch face that I like
It's just simple.
It's not like any of those… It's, I, I have like a, um, uh, what's the other one?
I have a different smartwatch.
It's a Fitbit Sense 2, and that thing is like fitness tracking and like it's
all, like it's very locked down and you can't, like you can't do the things
that I would want from it, but also it's like way more complicated than
I want, and this is just much simpler
Yeah, I have the Apple Watch and I like it.
There's just
Yeah.
or two things I wish I could change, but It just simplifies my life though.
Yeah.
But it is annoying that I can't change those things.
If only.
Yeah.
I'll have to g- give it a try sometime
It's a good watch.
I like it
But yeah, no power s- dude, I had my power supply go out years and years ago.
This is like 20 plus years ago on my, like, because of like p- a power surge,
and it, same thing happened back then.
Like it, it just f- it just screwed everything up on my computer
Yeah, dude, it was crazy 'cause I was sitting here and I could, I started
smelling like some, uh, something smelled hot, like it was burning,
and then I heard just this pop.
It was the loudest pop I've ever heard.
And I, you know, I, I'm a gun enthusiast.
I go shooting.
Um, louder than a gunshot, and I'm like, "What the hell was that?"
And I was sitting h- right here, and it was my power supply, and within a couple
minutes of, of that bang, I, I mean, a couple seconds even, like my GP- like
the s- my screen was all screwed up.
Like, and so I pulled the power supply out, put a spare one that
I had in, and it, um, it, like everything came back to normal.
So it was just the power supply, thank God.
think it might have been undervolting the, the GPU or something
causing it to screw up, but
some issues to the motherboard too.
You might need to replace the motherboard and it could fix everything, but, ugh
Well, it's working now.
I'm using my computer now, so everything's fine on that front
Yeah.
I just know from power surges that it can affect other parts.
Just be aware of that
Yeah, I'm keeping an eye on it.
Like my motherbo- heck, the motherboard on… Like, I had a
power… Actually, I did have a power surge a couple of years ago.
It destroyed my, um, what are those?
UPC whatever they are, the
UPSs?
UPSs.
And, um, yeah, it destroyed it, but it at least protected my equipment enough.
But my main board on this, like, the computer that has the
3090 just hasn't been the same.
Like, the Wi-Fi just does not work well, and neither does the Bluetooth.
Mmhmm
that's actually-- To kind of go into what I'm gonna be doing, and
then we'll get to you, HiTech.
Sorry, this is just a good segue.
Is I'm building a Steam Machine killer while I-- It's still gonna
be, you know, $1,400 instead of $2,000 when prices go up.
uh, I'm ripping out 32 gigabytes out of this, uh, my main PC that I don't
u- I ha- Dude, it's been like, um, doesn't get used for the past few months
uh, I've been gaming on the Legion Go 2 and, uh, on the go, moving
and everything, and then I've been working on my Mac Studio or
MacBook, so it just doesn't get used.
So, like, getting the Ma- the Steam Machine a few weeks ago it even get
used less because it's just the Steam Machine just works really well, where
this, every time there's something wrong.
It runs games well enough still, but it just overheats the room.
It's, it's just too much.
I'm gonna rip 32 gigabytes out of there, so I'm gonna build, uh, I'm
calling it kind of like the Franken Phoenix, where it's gonna rise from
the ashes of old equipment of building my Steam Machine killer, uh, codenamed
the, the Franken Phoenix, and it's
gonna have 32 gigabytes of DDR4 in it, so.
Nice
I even got the… It's a little pricey of a case, but you can
see it probably right there.
I, I got
M- man, do you have a Franken deck?
Do you have a Franken machine and a real machine?
Like a Steam Machine and a … Well, my kids need, like they need a new computer,
so I'm building this for them for now.
We'll see though, 'cause I bet you I get it put together, I have Steam OS on it,
I'm gonna put it down here, and then I'm gonna be like two weeks and they'll be
like, "Where's my- where, where's our PC?"
I'm like, "Sorry guys, I need both now."
No.
Uh, but I have a bunch of hard drives.
I- it- it's just gonna be, it's gonna be fun.
I'm gonna try to price it out for people on couchtrig.com s- too.
You can, you'll be able to see some stuff on it.
But, uh, yeah, that's also what I've been working on a little bit more.
Still not ready to re- like fully release, so people can still go there,
but like I still need to get images and a bunch of other stuff updated on it.
I've been busy with other stuff, including buying the parts for this.
Um, yeah man, pulling the trigger on something where you're like,
I've never had to go back in time and buy parts for like DDR4.
Like, feels wrong to buy like parts that would be compatible with that, but
Dude, that's… Yeah.
oh, don't worry, we'll be talking about, we'll be talking more about the
RAM in this episode, let's just say.
What, uh, no, oh my gosh.
going on his villain arc. Hey, what have you been up to, man?
Uh, messing around with my Steam Machine, playing some vidya games.
I haven't really f- I haven't really done a whole, a really long play
session this week, 'cause I just haven't had the time to do so.
You know, fucking real world responsibilities and all that shit.
Been filming my Steam Machine master class, and I also ordered a new t- I
ordered a new tool set because, uh, the one I used to have I can't find anymore.
And I need a torque security bit or some shit to open the Steam Machine up, so
Well, I mean, I really like my iFixit kit, they're a little pricey.
Hasn't failed me yet.
I also… They have really good… I'm trying to where it is.
They're like little packs that you can get that have electric
screwdriver things in them.
They're like 40 bucks, 30 bucks on Amazon.
They're pretty good too.
Hmm.
that's what I use more than my… 'Cause it, I don't know.
I'd have to showcase this maybe next time, 'cause I don't think I'll explain it well.
But, um, HiTech, have you beaten any games on it?
I think, don't, I have put probably over 200 hours onto the Steam Machine
Wow
So I haven't started from start to finish any games, but I have
finished a few of my backlog games.
But hon- but
No,
honestly, man, I need
that's a
I need to f- I need to finish more games.
I have a lot of games.
I also need to stop buying games
Yeah
no, no, that's, okay, let's not, let's not go crazy here.
Like, you can still get games, just, you know, gotta finish them.
I don't wanna… I, I, there's so many games that I wanna get
in the next year, and, um, I, I know I have to get through it.
And the Steam Machine's perfect 'cause I can sit down, I have, I
d- I take a break from work, I can sit down behind me and just play.
you can see, like, the, I did just, I have that, the love sack or the, you know,
that's what I, that's what the brand is.
We talked about this a few episodes ago.
But it's where I make love to my beauti- beautiful, beautiful games.
Um, but yeah, it's… I beat the newer, I, I don't remember what the
name of the, like, it's an alien game that's like a single player
one that's like 10 hours, 12 hours.
I beat that.
I've put 30 hours into Baldur's Gate 3.
I've not be- um, pl- yeah, I, I don't know, man.
High Deck, it is, I, I'm liking it a lot more than I thought I would
Ballers get three of those Steam Machine
Steam Machine.
Baldur's Gate three is pretty good too, but it's really, it's a
lot, 'cause I was playing it on my main PC with a mouse and keyboard.
I just
don't like it with a mouse and keyboard.
With the Steam Controller, it just, it's perfect
So I definitely, I'm really liking the Steam Machine.
That being said, anyone can have one.
Like, you can build your own Steam Machine and have it be very similar, right?
Or take some old hardware.
It's just, it's nice.
It just, the box sits there.
It does a good job of I press the button, turns the TV on, just starts working.
It's really nice, it's more powerful than the Steam Deck, and that's
my problem with the Steam Deck.
I really like it, but the Steam Deck just has that power problem where you
can use lossless, you can do some other techniques, but it just doesn't It's not
I wouldn't say it's amazing, but have you
Yeah.
to your Steam Deck, HiTech?
My Steam Machine, you mean?
Yeah, from your Steam Machine to your Steam Deck.
I have not, but I mean,
It
I'll… Yeah, I can imagine.
I would hope it works really well.
It, it's
I'll have to, I'll have to do that, I'll have to do that at some point.
The only thing I would want though, for that particular
use case, is like wake on LAN.
Like I send a magic packet from the Steam application to wake up my
Steam Machine and it just plays, and hopefully CEC doesn't fucking turn
my TV on when I tell it to turn off.
Hmm
That's the one.
That, the… But I think Valve may have covered that at some point.
But yeah, I've, I've been messing around with my Steam Machine.
But I think it's time for us to get to the main episode
Sorry, I'm gonna nerd out about this.
It's just, it works so well.
Like, I have the PlayStation Portal and the PlayStation 5, and I think the Steam
Machine so far has been doing better job.
So, I think the time to switch from PlayStation to Steam is, is, is now.
Um, especially… I mean, it is now, but… Our first topic.
Well, I'll… Okay, before we get into our first topic, make sure to subscribe
on YouTube if you're here watching.
also you can follow our RSS feed at podcast.subscribe2.me.
Uh, we have other, uh, links and descriptions in the des- uh,
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Um, you can also go to, uh, offtheconsole.com and find a
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any way that you like us, Fediverse, whatever it is,
you're gonna find it there.
If you wanna support us, go to Patreon.
You can also go to offtheconsole.com go to our Patreon there.
So, with that, let's, uh, let's move on to the GTA VI kind of stuff that's
going on that… Exclusives, man.
That's, that's what it feels like.
GTA just loves to do exclusives everything.
And with this first one, High Tech, w- w- we have a very, I don't
know, it's a very weird exclusive.
What's this about?
Right.
So this is Grand Theft Auto VI.
Exclusive- the, the, the first gameplay trailer, presumably.
Suppos- supposedly, according to some data miners, it's
supposed to be 30 minutes long.
It's coming to Netflix first for six hours.
Like, what the fuck?
That's crazy.
The way our unlocking new biblical levels of greed
New biblical levels of just like, I don't give a shit guess.
Because if you can't wait six hours, come on guys.
Like I know people are really excited for this.
Now if they wanted to do their own like playthrough series on Netflix,
I think that would've been better.
But no, it's just six hours to get the gameplay that This game comes
out in a couple of months, guys.
And this is the first gameplay video?
Yeah, but James, it comes out in a couple months.
They can't wait that long.
They have to… They can't even wait six hours.
They have to see it now
To be fair, some of the trailers I've seen, it does look very impressive.
From a technical standpoint, I do wanna buy this.
From a, me not wanting to support sh- the shit that's
going on, I don't wanna buy it.
a very I don't know.
It'll be interesting.
So I guess I can wait until the 27th and we'll figure out, uh, we'll
find out how good the gameplay is if they've been hamming it, you know.
like, there's gonna be like three characters on screen with the PS5
'cause that's all it can handle.
I don't know.
We'll see.
It's gonna be like Cyberpunk all over again on PS4
Which that was pretty bad on the PS4.
It was hilariously bad.
Man, that feels like a whole other lifetime ago
a whole
Man
ago
Time really does fly by.
So, so GTA VI, I mean, realistically I would say I hope the game fails,
but like, I don't think any- I don't think it's gonna fail.
Unless it sucks ass, like really badly
I
Like, unless it's like, unless it's like ha- unless it's like saddled with the
game sucking or there being like massive performance issues or bugs and shit.
If it's really buggy, I could see there being problems.
But like, fuck man
I'd be hard-pressed to admit
I don't know
It's, it's hard to say.
I mean, I don't… I, with the amount of time that they've spent
building this game, it's like it feels like it has to be good.
But also, like, GTA's gameplay hasn't really meaningfully evolved in f- uh, like
since GTA San Andreas probably, right?
It's gotten better.
Like, when you go to and try to play some of those older games, you
can definitely tell that they've improved a little bit with every game.
But
But, but I mean, the difference between like Call of Duty 4…
Right, but like the d- yeah, like the difference between playing like Call
of Duty 4 versus like even the modern remake of Call of Duty 4, right?
It's like they're, they're night and day differences.
I, I
Right
It just, it doesn't feel like it's really evolved that much
Well, I
mean,
they
makes sense though.
the open world
So here's my,
yeah
so here's my thing though.
With the old GTA games, you had to mash like X on place- or A or
X, you know, whichever the bottom button is on your controller, right,
Угу.
to sprint.
Dude, imagine if they kept that.
You know how pissed off people would be
Я.
Yeah, it'd be, it'd be bad.
It would be
Dude, I don't know, man.
I, I, I don't fucking know, man.
So we can watch this on the 27th, which is a Thursday, and that's like tw- Man, l-
the time we'll, we'll be recording the show that week, it'll be on YouTube.
That's true, so we can react to it.
Yeah
I've heard Take-Two is actually quite litigious in terms of,
like, using gameplay footage from their videos for some reason
Yeah, 'cause they don't like free promotion.
The, the
the people that run these computer, they, these companies are just idiots, dude.
Well,
about biblical levels of something.
alone.
Apple, Take-Two, I've done both.
I've covered both and a couple other ones on my channel, like
trailers and promo, promo stuff.
Like stuff that's not like, "Oh, I'm playing the whole game and
ruining everything," whatever.
What, uh… was just stuff that they're getting free promotions, right?
Yeah.
ca- they will, um, do, uh, claims and stuff.
It's just so, so annoying
Yeah
Man, I, I don't know, man.
Th- this is some crazy shit, man.
I don't wanna… I, l- like, okay, I don't wanna say I, I don't wanna say
I want to see GTA fail, but at the same time, though, I think it has to
fail b- because, like, let's look at all the things GTA's introducing us.
It's introducing this shit right here, right?
Ne- like, six-hour Netflix promos.
By the way, it's not like it's free on Netflix's servers.
No, you have to pay for, you have to pay for, like, a month of Netflix
at least for this bullshit, right?
Igen
Second off
I think, I honestly, if people are doing it and they're getting
Netflix just for this, like I think that also says there's a societal
problem of you can't wait six hours
Yeah, it, it, I mean, yeah, it is a societal issue, but fuck, man.
What the hell?
It's just weird that they think they can, like, the… I don't know, like, what
did Netflix pay for this exclusivity?
It's not even worth it.
Whatever they paid, if it was $5, it's not worth it.
For
No
hours of, of just, like, exclusivity is just bonkers.
I,
Um
I could not tell you what's, I couldn't tell you what's
going through Netflix's mind.
Oh, man, what, what do you, what, what is happening in this world?
Wh- why is this even, why is this even a thing?
Imagine if like a Nintendo Direct was behind a paywall.
Or like imagine if E3, like watching anything on E3 was a, behind a paywall.
You know how fucked up that would be?
yeah, but this is a little different.
But yeah, it's
I mean, is it though?
paywall that a lot of people ha- Like, no, because it, it's, it's similar
to, like, uh, cable deals in the past.
A lot of people have Netflix, and it's a promo wa- Uh, like, just going
back to this is how people make money.
They, they have exclu- like, stuff that people want, and then
you pay for the subscriptions.
I think it's just, I'm more shocked that it's a six-hour exclusive.
I, and, and also, like, I don't know what it is, but GTA VI just does not
wanna give anything out for free, or… Uh, uh, stuff that should be free.
Like, it's releasing only on consoles day one, which is bizarre.
I mean, it's what past GTAs have done, but it's just like, why?
And then it also, you know, they're gonna standardize, I think, $100 games
soon, because it's $80, but to get the, the good edition, the, the good,
the edition that has everything that you'd want, you have to pay $100.
It, it's… I don't know.
They're doing a lot of stuff that's really weird.
So
It doesn't make sense to me.
I mean, like so much of Sorry.
So much of what they're, what they're doing now is, is just
to like squeeze every single potential penny out of everyone.
and, and I mean, that's kind of like the end game of, of the,
of what they're playing, right?
Like, know, they can't even allow like, indie developers, you know, who are not
even building… They're building stuff for free for community members, right?
And they won't, the, they won't allow like community-made mods
of, of GTA III and shit to exist.
Like they, you, you have to pay for the, Steam version of the
remake of GTA III or whatever.
It's like the definitive edition, that's the word I was looking for.
They just, they just have to, uh, just squeeze every penny out of everybody
They make… And I, I, I think what really pisses me off about a lot of
these studios, they act like they're not making enough money when if they
just held onto their money, if they didn't weird reinvestments into it,
they'd be just sitting on top of billions and billions of dollars.
And it, it's just bonkers how much money these companies make
while acting like they're poor.
It's like the Hollywood edit- uh, like Hollywood accounting thing all over again.
They really act like things don't go as well as they say,
and they just do really well.
And then they just… J- I think it's just so that they can take more from people.
They're like, "Oh, well, we have to charge more for this." I don't
Now,
it
is gonna, this is gonna be a head-ass take, but I think GTA VI has to fail to
maintain the soul of the gaming industry
I don't think it's going to.
I don't think… No, I'm not saying it, I don't, I'm not saying there's a chance
it'll fail, but I'm saying it, it has to, but I, I am, like, this close to giving
up hope on the entire games industry, especially given what fucking Epstein
Island visitor Strauss Zelnick is saying
Yeah
Who is Strauss Zelnick?
Take-Two CEO, the parent company of Rockstar Games.
So he's saying a bunch of crazy shit about how, A, physical disks don't make sense
for consumers, you know, in response to the whole Sony bullshit, and also the
fact that GTA VI doesn't come with disks.
And B, the fact that, uh, well, simply put, he thinks streaming's
gonna be the future in three years.
Remember that
Three years, huh?
He says in three years.
Wow.
Remember, I, I feel like Google Stadia was around for a little longer than
three years, and they never really made the same… They ne- they never
really made the impact they wanted to
That's Google though.
Like, Google's not good at that type of stuff.
If
Dude
held out a little longer, I think they would've been fine,
and they just gave up on it
think, I, I have been saying since Google announced Stadia that, like, Stadia was,
uh, just an excuse to do AI build-out.
Like, to, to, you know, put it, to mark it down on their books to
build, like, AI data center shit
Yeah, they repurposed it because AI denter- data centers and, and
the GPUs would've been much more profitable with that than Stadia
Right, so he says we're at the advent of streaming.
It's right around the corner in terms of having something that's low
latency and works well for consumers.
It may be, may, it may be if you live in, like, Japan or something where
there's fucking high-speed internet everywhere and it's a small land
mass, but not in fucking America
Uh, I, mm, I mean, d- that means there's a data center
going into your neighborhood, so
Well, the problem is that not ev- well, the problem is they're gonna
put data centers in, like, places that people have shitty internet in, though.
No,
There are, like, a lot of different
shitty internet, they don't have money, so they, screw them.
This, uh, uh, d- if they move more and more, let's say they even do
exclusivity stuff for streaming, this is just gonna hurt poor people more
becau- and, and poor communities.
P- communities that can't won't have,
high-speed internet or data centers near them.
That's just gonna hurt 'em more, and that's what's gonna happen.
So
Mm.
don't know.
I don't like it.
Rural people, people that, like farmers, whatever it is, like,
uh, we are not centralized enough to have this be the main thing.
If w- people want the option of streaming, I'm fine with that.
I don't like the idea that they want to do this all…
Like, it almost feels like they wanna do an all-in ga- gamble of like, "Well,
eventually we're just going to only have stuff on streaming." So if you wanna
go this streaming service, that's the only way you can play the game, that's
what I'm not, I'm not a fan of that.
I'm a fan of choice, both choices,
Hmm.
so
Well, you know, we, thankfully at Xbox we have an option for
people who wanna play offline.
It's called the Xbox 360.
Dude, ugh
Wait, wait, you skipped the EA one
it.
We'll, we'll move it.
We'll, we'll go, we'll go into Xbox.
Okay.
So yes, Xbox console price increases in Europe and UK fully revealed
with Series X now costing €200
more
Dür
Yeah, so I, we, I have a decent, I have a chart here for all the original prices
and all the prices that they are now.
And the most expensive SKU, the Xbox Series X one terabyte with a disc
drive, it costs close to ni- it costs over $900 US in Europe and the UK.
Is that not crazy?
That's more than a PlayStation Pro
Hmm.
That's crazy, dude.
It costs almost as much as a Steam Machine, but with less of
a library because no one releases games on Xbox anymore, and Xbox
releases their games on Steam
Wow
so the past 30 years when consoles come out, they almost always
have a big price reduction.
We're seeing the reverse of that.
And if you wanna talk about it, like hear us talk about politics a little
bit more, it, it does mirror a little bit of the politics, but also it's just
a RAM cri- crisis, which I think could be solved on the politics side too.
But guys, this is not what we're used to.
We- the Xbox Series out years ago and is going up exponentially in
price every year, I feel like.
It's n-
We're on the cusp, and we're on the cusp of a new console generation.
Yeah
pretty soon, like in a few years, we're gonna see the PlayStation
6 and Xbox Helix or whatever
I,
Я
think console gamers are gonna be really cooled off by this.
I don't think people are, are really happy with this.
Um, I think they're buying what they can now, so they might see
some price hikes, uh, or, uh, increase in purchases some way.
They, they might track that as, "Oh, well, it looks like…
See, people, we raised the prices, people are still buying it." I
think people are kinda buying just to hold out for a long time.
Yeah, like
That, that's what I'm getting from the industry, is that
people are just over this
Угу
let's look at what, let's, let's, let's imagine this.
They put themselves in a no-win scenario with the pricing of the
Xbox Series X, 'cause, like, let, let's look at Xbox Project Helix.
If it costs close to an Xbox One X, uh, Series X today, people
are gonna be pissed, especially those that bought an Xbox Series
X, like, around this time, right?
Or, you know, if the Xbox Helix is, like, 2000, is like 1,500 or whatever,
then people are gonna be mad that the Helix is so expensive, right?
It's a no-win scenario
I don't wanna buy, I don't wanna put $1,500 into a locked ecosystem.
I think that's the thing I hate the most that people don't understand.
Like, okay, if it's $500 and you're locked into the ecosystem, you're not,
what, you know, it's not that bad on the m- on the cost of, of side of things.
your games are gonna cost more than Steam.
Like, I, I think just all this needs to go into a pro- like, a
value proposition, uh, with Steam.
Like, your games are gonna cost more because there's only one store, and
this is for PlayStation and Xbox, right?
Like, if you buy one, into one, there's one store, so they can
control whatever the cost is.
Hmm.
consoles are, let's say $1,500.
That's the price of a PC, so just get
a PC at that point 'cause then you can do more with it.
And what's the benefit?
Like, with Steam we get amazing deals.
Like, and yeah, does the Steam Machine cost $1,000?
But it's gonna be able to, b- because of FSR, you're gonna be able to play games
for the next 10 years fairly well on it.
you are going to save hundreds of dollars just by switching to Steam as
opposed to being on Xbox or PlayStation.
I don't think people understand that.
Like, even if, let's say the Play- like, this Xbox costs, yeah, let's say
800, 600, whatever it is, if it's, if it's still less than the Steam Machine,
you're gonna save s- if you just buy a couple of games, you're gonna be
saving that money, um, uh, on Steam, and it's gonna work in the future.
Who knows what Xbox and PlayStation's gonna do with backwards compatibility, so.
Tyr- uh, my, my, my rant over a little bit
Dude, what the f- what is going on, man?
I don't understand
I, I… Now, if the costs were going to help with workers' rights,
whatever it was, okay, cool.
Like, work- no workers' rights in the sense of, like, they get paid more
'cause we use… of the reasons why things go down is 'cause we use world,
uh, countries and other s- like, we use countries that are developing
countries, I should say, not third world.
We use developing countries and their labor where they kinda get
abused in the labor market to build stuff and make it cheaper.
It's a very neoliberal, neoconservative thing to do.
But this isn't doing that.
Like, this is just going to sto- like, to… Oh, it's being r- hiked up, and
the only pe- like, the RAM companies are making a lot of money off of it.
I think it's gonna destroy them in the long run.
Yeah
stockholders are making a lot of money, potentially.
Potentially, I don't know.
We've seen it drop.
But, like, it's not actually going back to the production
or anything, so I don't know
It's… Ugh, I hate, I hate th- I hate this timeline so much.
normally
Yeah.
a g- uh, uh, the, the market would self-correct, but we're just, we can't.
Well, we don't have a market anymore
Yeah.
the Saudi government.
So
it's not,
ugh
not true.
It, it's a bunch of different players.
But, like, this EA thing, I was hoping that it was going to be a good thing.
Now I'm… Like, in the sense of, like, it's better than what was ever happening
with EA at, at, you know, the past decade.
Like, but I don't know, there's some bad news on the horizon for developers
at EA. Hi Tech, do you have some… I, I, I have some thoughts on this,
but, like, um, this is your topic.
What, uh, do you wanna give us a,
Yeah, sure.
So if you guys recall, uh, they were in talks with, uh, being bought out by
the Saudi government through their PIF and Silver Lake, who's r- that's, uh,
run by, uh, Jared Kushner, and Affinity Partners who, um, I don't actually
know what they do, truth be told.
Oh, wait, no, they, uh, wait, no, Affinity is Jared Kushner, and Silver
Lake is, uh, the guys that run US TikTok.
But
ー ん。
deal was also financed by, uh, JP Morgan, and from what I understand, their debt
went up in a whole order of magnitude
So we're never gonna see Command & Conquer again.
Well, it seems like, it seems that they're selling off.
It seems like rumors have it they might be selling off assets.
Oh, really?
EA selling
it could be
Oh.
but who's gonna buy it?
So that's the
Petroglyph,
is who's gonna buy it?
Petroglyph should buy Command & Conquer
Do they have
Who w-
money to do it
who is Petroglyph?
is the company that a, a bunch of ex-em, uh, Westwood employees that went
and started their own, another studio after they got acquired by EA. They
I c-
they've made so many great games.
Uh, and the, all the names are escaping me right now, but one…
Oh, they made Star Wars: Empire at War, which was fucking incredible.
and they did the remake of the Comma- original Command & Conquer
games that came out a few years ago.
Yeah, they're fantastic.
mean, if they can get like a loan or if they have the money
to buy it, I'd be for this.
Like,
And Dead Space is another one of those ones where I'm
Oh, yeah.
love… I- this is really weird, I'd love to see Capcom take on Dead Space
dude, that would be sick.
Dude, make it…
it and everything.
Dude, just make it canon to the Resident Evil series
Can… Dude, that would be great
That'd be kinda hilarious, but I don't know, man.
Fucking EA, EA being bought out by the Saudi government for $55 billion.
It's not as, it's not as much as the Activision buyout, but that's
still, like, very close to it.
It's an insane amount of money to spend.
I, I couldn't fathom… What would, what would, what could,
what could we, what could we even do with 55 billion all together?
'Cause I'm struggling to come up with things.
Like, I thought about buying a few yacht- maybe, like, a yacht or two,
a mansion, a Ferrari, but, like, that's still, like, not even a billion
Dude, all I'm, all I know is we need the off the console yacht.
That's what we need.
And then we just invite people onto our yachts.
Yeah.
Uh, uh, we should ask Gabe if he has, is, if he's gonna decommission
like a yacht anytime soon.
Yeah, if he can just give it to us,
yachts.
We'll take it
that'd be nice.
Right.
yeah, donate it to a content creator in need
Dude, do you know how much that's gonna cost to just park and have
permits and everything for this?
would be crazy
Dude, just live o-
just, just live in the ocean, dude.
Live in the high s- uh, sail the high seas.
the high seas
Oh, man.
But really though, this whole EA business is insane.
I, I don't think we've s- I don't think we've seen a
company as big as EA go private.
Mm-hmm.
BioWare, right?
It has
Mm-hmm.
Dead Space, it has Command and Con… It has so many IPs, but I
don't know if the IPs are worth $50
none of those IPs are worth nearly as much as EA Sports
I was gonna say EA Sports
Yeah
probably why they're buying it
Dude, I mean, I, d- realistically, I think Saudi Arabia's goal is to buy EA
and then just do mostly sports games.
I mean, what el- I mean, they, they don't even… They don't have,
like, the Star Wars license anymore.
What else do they have?
Like
Well, they could sell, uh, they could start by selling literally
every studio aside from, uh, whoever makes the EA Sports games
I, I hope they go that route instead of doing massive layoffs, 'cause right
now, from my understanding, they're gonna be doing massive layoffs 'cause
EA is, has a lot of debt apparently, and so partially because this acquis-
This is another thing with private ac- acquisitions, like there's al-
they always front load it with debt.
Like, people don't understand this.
Like, it's just all broken system that it's even allowed to work.
And I don't know.
I, I hope that they do the right thing of either, like… I ki- I mean, the
best-case scenario is that a company wants to buy the IP, like let's say Dead Space.
I'd rather a, a legitimate company, like a tr- a double A or someone that's
backed enough, or like Capcom, be able to buy the IP for an okay price
and keep on building than have the Saudi government build Dead Space.
I, I… Not gonna get in any jokes there, but I just rather see that happen.
But what we're probably gonna see happen is they're probably gonna
inject the prediction markets into, uh, uh, into the sports games.
Yeah
I hope that doesn't happen, but w- ugh, man.
Just what I needed, sports betting in my sports games with,
uh, sports betting already.
You know it's gonna happen
Yeah.
It'll je- uh, well, depending on how the ESRB handles it, they may
either keep it rated E for everyone, 'cause gambling's okay for everyone.
It's, it's okay for sports games.
We've already know that.
We already know that, so
Yeah, man
they won't have any problems 'cause it's so, makes so much money.
I don't know.
It's, it's rated E for sports games, but it's rated adults only for a Pokemon game.
You guys remember that?
No.
So Australia, uh, so people were criticizing, uh, Take- Australia's
government for letting, like, the Take-Two games, the, the NBA games, be rated E
despite literally having, like, a slot machine in it for, like, the gacha pulls
for your, uh, basketball characters.
Mm-hmm.
But then, and then people were like, "Well, if that's the case, then
Pokemon should be rated adults only." And you know what Australia did?
They retroactively made Pokemon, 'cause Pokemon, uh, first gen has the game center
Mm-hmm.
you play, like, slot, where you play, like, slot machines,
Oh, yeah.
and they made that, they retroactively rated it adults only
That's awesome, actually
I mean, it, I don't know, man.
Going adults only is crazy, but yeah
think gambling mechanics should, like any, even like anything that even
has a sniff, a whiff of, of gambling mechanics should be adults only,
What about Bellatro?
Balatro, yeah.
Fair enough.
At least, Garden, I don't know if I agree with Bellatro being that, but at
least you're consistent with your morals
Yeah.
I mean,
Yeah, I
Balatro, dude, I… Balatro's like its own thing, but it's still, it
f- it has like gambling, gambling
Steam.
so
Yeah, I mean, that makes sense that-
literally has a, the veneer of gambling because poker is a gambling game, so
problem is, is does it have… So the, the, the problem with, uh, gambling
is it increases the dopamine and it gets you addicted in that way, where
it's like, "Okay, this is exciting. I'm winning." If it has that type of
mechanic in it, which I don't think Balatro does, then yeah, we, we've
got, we, we have some serious issues.
But if the other ones are just mimicking kind of what gambling
is, maybe then it… I don't know.
I think 17 is fair, or we, like, re- Like, it has themes of gambling,
but it's not really gambling.
But once you have it, like, be, let's say, sports betting, but it's not
real money, but, you know, sports betting in, in a sports game, I'm
like, okay, that, you can say that y- you have to be 18 or older, right?
But… Or heavily regulated, 'cause that's not healthy to… Like, I
don't even think… I don't know.
You might have to, with gambling, with when it, when it introduces too many
real concepts of r- of gambling, real gambling into it, in the sense of not
real money, but, like, the mechanisms that drives gambling, you might need
to have it be, like, 24, 25 plus.
Because you know how many kids 18 to almost 30 that are… When I say kids,
young adults, th- that are just getting it… Like, they have of dollars of
credit card debt because of, uh, gambling.
It's crazy
Yeah
It's a blight.
And so,
And it's a, it's a blight just like literally the, all of 2027's memory
has, you know, has been booked out.
our, have a memory issue, and we've talked about this a few times now,
but, like, this is, this is crazy, guys, memory capacity for all of 2027
has reportedly been booked and sold with no more DRAM or HBM available.
And I think that Valve hinted at this a few weeks ago, right?
And
Yeah.
screwed.
Mm-hmm.
Like, if anyone wants to get into this market, like, if you If let's say the
RAM sells out on Amazon at Newegg, all that, Best Buy, it's e- they, they can't
restock if they don't have any more
Dude, it's over.
Like, seriously.
If
you, if you don't have,
at this rate.
if you don't have hardware today, then you're too late.
I mean, it's like buying… It's like the housing market.
You should've bought a house 20 years ago,
Mm-hmm.
right?
Yep.
Now, yeah, you should've bought a house 20 years ago.
Oh, you should've bought a gaming PC 20 years ago.
Now you can't afford it
is more affordable than RAM.
Oh.
Okay.
Hold on now
I'm sorry.
I had to say it.
It's more usable than RAM.
RAM is very useful, but the prices that I'm seeing is just out of this world.
Isn't it like $1,000 for 64 gigs?
Hmm.
That's, crazy, guys.
It was like, what?
200 f- 200, 250 a year ago?
Ah
It's
Man, I, I, I don't know.
I, I don't know what the hell's going on, dude.
I couldn't tell you why this is happening, but it is happening.
2027, you're screwed.
Oh,
because three companies that create, uh, RAM, and they're
not increasing production.
They have all the IP.
Uh, we're sanction- We're, we're trying to sanction China for having a c- There,
there's a company or two over there trying to, you know, inc- uh, produce more RAM.
Like we… A, a, a smart, healthy capitalistic society would've saw
the predictions in the future and would've, um, adjusted for it by now.
And we, like in the sense of adjusted where there's facilities
going up to increase production, and we're not seeing that.
That's why I say this is kinda like an end, like a big smell of end
game of capitalism where it doesn't function how it's supposed to
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I've been saying it for a long time.
Like, we don't live in a capitalist society anymore.
Like, we, we haven't…
and that's very different
Yeah.
It's w- I think we live in a leveraged society.
Like, the only thing that matters is not capital, it's leverage.
Like, having, being a debt owner, and collecting rent.
Those are-- That's the kind of, uh, economy that we live in,
and it's very clear that that of economy is not sustainable.
That's what we… Yeah.
That's where we're, we're at as a society right now.
I definitely wouldn't place my bet on, uh, the US coming out
of this unscathed 'cause we're,
No.
gonna look well in the
No, it will not.
Yeah, I mean, the whole reason why this thing even happened is because
we've gotten our- we've gotten ourselves into an AI arms race.
Mm-hmm
And like
one too in a lot of ways, where our companies are building everything and then
China just builds their models off ours.
So it's like…
Yeah, we
could have slowed it down a little bit.
I don't think China would have surpassed us 'cause they're just
cha- training off of our, Amer- like American-based company, AI companies
Yeah, I mean
Th- this whole thing's, this whole situation's messed up.
I can't even… I can't… Like, why?
Why did, how did things get so bad so quickly?
I don't think we've ever seen anything this bad before
I don't even know if demand 'cause, like, I don't see outages
with Anthropic or, or OpenAI.
I think it's artificial demand too.
Like, I think they say they, there needs to be more data
centers, all this other stuff.
I'm sure it would drive down the cost of these models and stuff so it makes it
more affordable, but, like, I don't think we need more data centers at this point.
I think we're pretty sustained right now, and
Угу
They're, they're… When we've, we've talked about articles or, um, where
they're buying up RAM just so that their, it hurts their competitors
or hurts other companies are AI.
I'm hoping…
which is crazy
I've made a note of every data center I have in my state so I can see if I
can try to fleece some when the, when, when the AI data center bubbles, I can
fleece myself some cheap server hardware
I think the
smart
the bubble will really pop to where that happens is if
it becomes more democratized.
And I think the only way that's gonna happen is because of China.
So we'll see
Man, it always comes back to China.
I swear we've talked about China a lot these last few episodes
I, also wa- this is a little conspiratorial, but like I also wonder
if they're trying to eat up as much RAM so consumers can't have as much.
Because right now with the, um, DeepSeek-V and with Kimi 3, you c- it, they have
open models, and it, they are just as good not better at like coding and
doing some other stuff than Anthropic.
if we, if you had 1.5 terabytes, which a year ago wouldn't be that crazy, like
it would be like, yeah, that's a lot.
But, um, if you could've bought, let's, let's say Mac came out with
one, you know, with their Mac Studio, 'cause they had one that was like
750 megabytes or something like that.
And, but if they could've come out with 1.5 terabyte, yeah,
it would be $10,000, yeah.
But you'd want to… It's, it's, uh, $10,000 once.
You don't have to keep on re- you know, paying for usage.
Uh, RAM could've gone down.
I don't know.
They're eating up RAM, and we can't have our own models now.
It's a lot harder, that is, I should say.
So, it's so that consumerized or democratized uh, is kind of less of a
thing now 'cause we can't even afford to build a, or buy gaming hardware.
So, I don't know.
This is, definitely does not ma- it makes… I'm glad that I, I bought some
s- hardware before everything went up, but now it's just what happens if it breaks?
Like, what if my MacBook or my Mac Studio dies, you know?
Hmm.
Dude, then you're, then you're gonna be homeless.
I mean, computer-less.
Well,
be un-computered.
my compu-
You're gonna be unplugged from the Matrix.
I don't have a job
Yeah
You're gonna be unplugged from the Matrix
What happens when, uh, Elon Musk uses his, uh, his space laser to, uh,
get, like remove, uh, just do an EMP or something and destroy hardware?
Maybe he did that already with my, with my CP-
He knew He knew, you were a threat, Gardner.
I'm sorry.
You've been, you're, you're
I've been advertising, uh, my, uh, how much of a threat I am on my website.
You've been musked.
He got ya.
He got you with his musket
With his
His musket, his space musket
he would call it a space musket too
Dude, but speaking of space muskets, let's talk about Roblox getting the space musket
Ah, there might be hope for the new generation after all
Just want more RAM.
Not… Yeah.
70% bill- sev- a $70 billion valuation loss.
That's 70%.
They were valued at $100 billion because there are more pla- there are
more people on Roblox than literally every other sector of gaming combined
That's
And like, you can't even pull, you can't even pull kids off
of Roblox with good games too.
And I, I'd be willing to bet you there are plenty of teenagers that would like,
that aren't willing to pull themselves off of Roblox to play Grand Theft Auto
I mean, they have their community there.
Like, they're… Roblox I think gets a little bit of a bad rap sometimes, but it
reminds me of the good old days of, like, modding communities and stuff like that.
It's just they've monetized it, unfortunately.
And I think maybe of the rare, uh, people out there.
I liked that, and w- and that's a whole other debate, that Steam
was gonna come out with p- with, uh, paid mods and all that.
But
Yeah, I remember that
the extreme of it is all controlled by Roblox.
The economy is controlled by that.
Yes, people… A- a- and they have so much gacha stuff in there, and I
have to… Like, it's a way that I'm teaching my kids how, yeah, don't
waste your money on these gachas.
Oh, I wanna resurrect.
I can pay this much Robux to resurrect in the game.
Essentially pay to win kind of stuff, and it's just like…
Mm-hmm.
Teaching kids how to pay to win
there are a lot of games that are free, so you can go, and I've played
games with my son, uh, where, uh, 99 Nights in the Forest, I think you
can pay s- for it, but you don't… You can have a fun time without it.
It's just essentially you're going around collecting resources, putting them onto
the, uh, uh, like wood to, to build the f- campfire up to protect your base, and then
you go and you explore areas and build up.
It's a, it's a fun mechanic.
Um, and it's one that I haven't quite played anywhere else in another
game, so it's unique to Roblox.
Uh, but yeah, like there's a lot of other games that are not, that are predatory,
like we talked about in the bonus episode where, uh, there's predators
there, and Chris Hansen's, uh, uh, is a hunter or at least was in Roblox.
But man,
It, yeah, the game that we saw and that Chris Hansen got banned from,
well, he got banned from Roblox as a whole, but the one he was, like, on,
it doesn't… It's not even a game.
It looks like Omegle.
Mm-hmm.
Omegle, and it's, I, I… Fuck, man.
What the hell?
Dude.
I don't.
I just don't anymore.
Yeah, it's, it, I mean, it, I just think this is kinda cr- I don't know.
I- being worth $100 billion as a game company that has one game is kinda crazy.
Being, even dropping down to 30, and they still have a huge revenue, is
And people s- people say Valve has a monopoly
Yeah
There, is a, is a complicated one, but yeah, Roblox,
people don't have to play it.
They can, like, all the games are kinda like,
kinda copied based off of other games, but in very poor amount
of, uh, in a very poor way.
But people c- they can go and scroll through and easily
get in and try new games.
There's a, there's a whole reason why it works well.
But definitely th- I don't know.
I do think Roblox might need to get regulated a lot more, 'cause I think
some of the, the mechanics in it still aren't very good for, like I
think those gotcha ones for, let's say, pay to win, uh, how it treats
money is a little bit gambling-esque to me, and should be regulated
Yeah.
Yeah, I agree, man.
It … But Rolex isn't gonna do that.
They make 80% off of these developers.
No,
Like, even, like
get super defensive too.
Like when Chris Hansen comes on and is like trying to catch predators, which,
you know, it's like, okay, if you don't have a predator problem, then you
wouldn't have a problem having him there.
But no, you don't want him there 'cause you know he's gonna catch someone
Угу
He caught multiple people.
Well, I gue- he, I guess he didn't really catch them per se, but he ca-
the
definitely came acro- Yeah, he c- definitely came across
a few creeps on Roblox.
I don't know, man, but dude, I, I, f-
I just…
My hope is that kids eventually outgrow Roblox and, you know, I'm not
saying they have to play real video games, but at the very least I think
they should outgrow Roblox and that they want something more meaningful.
Like, 'cause like Roblox… Like, listen, listen, I'm sure there are some fun games
on Roblox, but like there's m- there's more… Like, none of those games I
would consider to be art per se, right?
It's creativity.
I'd call it more cr- uh, like it's the creative aspects of art where,
um, it takes some creativity.
Some of them are built by just kids too.
Like, it's Legos but online, but has been ve- I don't, I
don't like what Roblox is doing.
I think it needs to be, regulated more.
Um, I think Minecraft, if you want to replace Roblox,
Minecraft's a better way to go.
So
Yeah.
mean, do you, you heard about, uh, what, uh, Xbox is doing, right?
Like they have like a bunch of pie in the sky ideas, but like their,
their number one idea is to make Minecraft the number one platform.
They wanna make Minecraft Roblox,
Yes.
what I'm worried about.
So I
I can see it.
I-
Ugh.
I will say I think, like, I've never played Roblox.
I, I don't have kids, so I don't need to.
like, dude, legitimately, Minecraft seems just on the surface level a much
better platform than Roblox to me.
It is.
Yeah
you know how kids are, even when you get into teenagers, they do their own thing.
They have their own what's in their zeitgeist.
So what's the cool thing?
Like, so it's really hard to say like, you know, you've gotten older, "Oh,
well, they should be like, they should be liking what I like." Well, it, it
just happens with every generation.
It's just, it needs to be regulated though, and, and because some parents
just don't know what's going on with it.
It's just brain-rotting their kids, so
I don't know.
It's, it's hard.
Roblox is a really thing in my f- I, I don't wanna crap on it
too much 'cause my kids love it, but like it's, it's a hard thing.
They get… Y- you can definitely see some of the mechanics are a little addicting,
and so we've had to ban certain things.
But yeah,
Wild
it, it, it, it's, it's real.
It is, it's crazy.
Um
Well, I don't have any segue for this next t- next topic.
The PSA Marvel Token Fighting Souls has day one issues on PC
I wanted to play Marvel Tokan on my Steam Machine, and well, A, they won't
even let me have that, and B, it runs like shit on PC anyways for some reason.
I like… It's, it's like, it's, it's a fighting game.
Fighting games don't tend to be super graphic demanding.
Even something like Street Fighter 6, which has like fairly realistic graphics,
isn't super graphic demanding compared to like a bunch of other games, right?
So like, I don't know, man.
I just wanna play this on my fucking Steam Machine and Steam Deck.
Is that so hard, Sony?
Ugh, I don't know.
I, I just wanted to add this 'cause I wanted to bitch about this
wasn't Sony like one of the biggest champions of the
Steam Deck in the early days?
Yes.
dude, it's so disappointing.
Well, it's 'cause they saw the Steam Machine as a threat, a- a-
Yeah.
and as they should because of this bullshit
Goddammit, man.
Couldn't they have waited till after Till Con released to make
s- to, like, stop doing this shit?
So it just, it doesn't play well at all?
Or does it
it does- it, it doesn't play at all.
Like, it's blocked on the Steam machine.
Like, you can't run it.
It says, "Easy Anti-Cheat blocked," yada, yada, yada.
"No anti-cheat module." It's blocked on Steam OS and Linux as a whole.
Yeah
On PC, there's, like, weird stuttering issues and other… And, you know,
on a competitive game where 60 FPS is not only the standard but also
straight up mandatory for things like frame data and whatnot, it matte-
it, it matters a great deal having…
It's the one genre where…
worthless
Well, it's not worthless on PlayStation, but, like, fuck that noise.
I'm not buying this game on PlayStation
Isn't PlayStation Linux-based?
So they do like
No.
Linux.
It's not, it's BSD.
Oh, it is BSD.
Okay, yeah.
You're right.
They're cousins.
Yeah.
It's not quite the same thing.
I always mix that up
Yeah, there you go.
So Sony s- uh, Sony was on such a good track.
Like, I feel like we were on such a good track, and then some orange
head dude had to f- screw the whole thing up a year and a half ago,
and now I feel like everything's
I,
I
I feel like peop- the comments are gonna talk about how
political this episode has gotten
This w- said some orange-haired guy.
Like, it's on you if you think of someone specific, that's your fault.
Wait, Co- how did Conan O'Brien screw this up?
He made fun of the other orange-haired dude.
So, um, no it's more or less I just, I don't know, everything trends to where…
I, I know that, like, the Sony thing doesn't relate, probably doesn't relate
much, but I don't know, a couple years ago Sony was on a good track record.
We were getting amazing games from Sony on Steam, and now they're just pulling back.
And I know it's more because, you know, Steam Machine and some other stuff,
and they wanna be more competitive.
They want to own their franchises again on their, only their
devices, but, ah, it just
We're getting a big retraction in PC gaming.
PC gaming was doing so well and now the, the retraction's happening.
And it's still gonna be the best platform to be on
Yeah.
Basically
you
shouldn't you shouldn't buy a console for anything except
for exclusives, let's just say
Well,
will
shouldn't buy a console for any reason.
Like PC gaming is just the best option
It is
Okay.
one.
You're not gonna stop people from buy- you're not gonna stop people
from buying the Switch 2 for the next Super Smash Bros., dude
Yeah.
It's, it's really hard.
I bought a
of
PS4 for Bloodborne.
Oh, go ahead.
Speaking of
speaking of Nintendo, the US government's Mario, Pokemon, and
Naruto meme posting could damage these franchises, officials warn.
So they're finally g- and it's weird that it's the Japanese government
now coming in for this company.
Oh.
Well, N- Nintendo, um, I think Nintendo distances themselves from this.
I think every, almost everyone distanced themselves from this officially speaking.
I think the Pokémon company did.
Uh, the US government recently, uh, recently posted a Spider-Man ad
though, where Spider-Man's webbing up all of the illegal immigrants.
You guys see that?
No
They posted that just, it's AI slop obviously, they posted that just in
time for, um, just in time for the Spider-Man movie to big, to break
movie box r- uh, box office records
So wait, was it the White House?
It was either the White House or like the department or some, some
government account, let's just say
White House one is become, uh, it's crazy how d- like political it's…
Like, in, in, like, political as in it's p- uh, it's partisan.
Like, it's crazy.
Um, it's not ever been treated that way.
Huh.
I'm sorry, I'm getting a little political here.
I'm trying to find that
The Spider-Man ad? The… You j- I can, I…
right
I'm just gonna say, from a political side, I don't want e-
either side to be doing this stuff.
I don't want anyone to be utilizing these IPs for political reasons
See, I'm trying to find it.
Oh, it was an Instagram post, yada, yada, yada.
Let me see if I can, let me see if I can't find that image.
Ah, I found it.
I'm gonna post it on our, uh, Discord, and you can share it with everyone
Oh.
Yes, this is the ad
Let me get it up.
Uh,
see if I can get it to come in.
Okay
Yeah.
Oh yeah, you can
is now deporting people, even though like co- like the, the craziest
part about this is that comic books are always very progressive.
Comic book heroes' stories, progressive.
They're to push for a better society.
They're in no realm, unless it was the d- like a dark of… 'Cause they,
they do like doing like the dark chapters of s- heroes or doing like
Like alternate universes?
Like
And so unless it was an alternate universe of like a darker
theme, this would never happen.
This is crazy
Dude, ah, what, what the f- dude, what, why, why is this even happening?
We used to live in a sane society where even the right-wing guys in
the past didn't post Spider-Man promotional pictures or, like,
pictures of Ash catching illegal immigrants in a Poké Ball or some
bullsh- wh- what happened to shame?
Like, even if it… Like
Yeah
I- don't get me wrong, some immigrants and so- like, some undocumented
immigrants and stuff like that need to go.
Like, but that's, that's a whole other thing, you know?
Uh, like especially ones that, you know, commit like really atro- uh, atro- uh,
atrocious crimes and stuff like that.
But like, all this does is I feel like it just dehumanizes.
It's like these are not humans.
This is Nazi shit.
Like, and I'm just gonna say it, like this should've been more for the bonus
maybe, but the number one way that fascism like rises is by having an enemy
and you dehumanize them especially.
If like… how, that's how it is.
Like you g- If you guys, if anyone on the internet wants to argue with me,
go for it 'cause you're gonna be wrong.
Like, that is how it is.
So I will get off my soapbox.
No, you're 100% right, man
yeah, get onto something more fun I guess, and that is Valve's
official 30th anniversary.
It was Monday, which I think might correlate with something else
Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
Yes.
Steam Deck Two announcement.
Oh, you mean Steam Machine?
Or I mean Steam Frame?
I was thinking Half-Life 3.
Oh.
would like to see
three zero
I was not thinking anywhere that
James has really lost his way.
a fucking Half-Life fan.
James has lost his way, man.
He used to, he used to think Half-Life 3 was coming to every event.
Now, look what Valve has done to James
They, they've ruined me.
Uh
I can think about now with a Valve is like, "Okay, when's the Steam Frame
coming out? When is Gabe Newell gonna finally accept my resume to be on one of
his yachts?" And yeah, stuff like that.
I
For shame.
They wouldn't… It would be denied, but I should do it just for fun.
Um
Do it, do it.
Valve needs more people there, to be honest
write that resume.
Okay, sorry
Valve needs more people though.
W- w- you'll figure that out.
But essentially Gabe Newell, uh, 30th anniversary.
This is the… August 24th was the day Mike Harrington and, uh, Gabe Newell
left Microsoft to found Valve, and then they would cha- they would eventually
change the course of gaming forever, uh, come the early 2000s with Steam.
It's not Steam's 30th anniversary, by the way.
I should mention that, uh, viewers in case
it's the company that, and the,
It's the company
Valve changed a lot of gaming, the gaming industry no matter what.
Same thing with Doom, like, um, it unfortunately got gutted, but like
it changed a lot of how gaming… Like, it, uh, made it so that
first person shooters were a thing.
Valve came around and, you know, it w- it d- uh, grew on top of that whole trend.
So like they're a huge part of why, uh, like, why we… mean, heck,
Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam, so much stuff in the PC gaming
world is, is, uh, affected by them.
And I, now that you s- it has 30 in the name, Valve could release the
new orange box with Half-Life, oh, oh my gosh, I'm… Half-Life 3, Left
4 Dead 3, Portal 3, we've talked about this before on the podcast.
Like, oh, it's the perfect timing
Yeah.
30
Right
30. But three, 'cause that's got three in the na- in the thing, right?
I
Yeah.
Dude, if Valve did Half-Life 3 and the Steam Frame all at once,
that would be fricking cool.
That's all I'm gonna say
Dude, Half-Life 3 as a Steam Frame game, as a… I wonder how…
Dude, the internet would explode if Half-Life 3 was a VR game.
Let's, l- l- let's, let's be real
specifically that it's not
going to be, but
Yeah, but, you know, Valve, Valve Time, they say, they said the
Steam Deck was gonna be out early.
They said the Steam Machine was gonna be out early 2026
Okay, I- to be fair, Rampocalypse really effed with all that
Yeah
Dude, the rat apocalypse fucked with Half-Life 3 too.
Yeah, probably.
Probably
Yeah, there's a… my gosh.
I, I, I'm not gonna get my hopes up too much, but it's gonna happen.
Dude, Half-Life 3 is literally around the corner in two weeks, dude.
That'd
In two…
that's
In…
not this Monday.
For some reason I was thinking this Monday.
Oh
Yeah, let's
That…
another week already.
I'm, this, my year has gone by too fast.
Dude.
Wait, so, all right, hold on, hold on, hold on.
So in two weeks we're getting Valve's 30th anniversary and
Grand Theft Auto VI gameplay?
Oh, no.
Oh, no, they're pitting GTA… They're pitting Half-Life 3 against GTA VI.
This is crazy
You know what?
I think GTA VI would outsell Half-Life 3, but if any game has a chance to like,
like not be affected by GTA VI, I think Half-Life 3 would sell just as much if
it was sold the same day as GTA VI as
Yeah.
wasn't
Well, I mean, like, I mean, like you said earlier, GTA VI
is coming only to consoles and
Yeah.
Ha- Half-Life
would only
3 certainly, yeah, it would be PC first
even if it wasn't that way, I think Well, the, the they're two different,
um, fans and communities, right?
Yeah
with some of the overlap, I think people would probably just buy both.
Um, Half-Life 3's such a big deal, would be a big deal.
I don't know.
I just want them to do it, honestly.
That's why I'm just, I'm just coping here
Getting my hopes up now.
James, put your fanboy away.
It's kind of, uh, it's making me uncomfortable.
No, no, let him, let him, let him, let him fanboy.
Let him cook.
yeah.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just teasing
got a … He's been waiting 20 years or so.
How long… Wait, when was Half-Life, uh, when was the last, like, console Hal- like
was the last one.
Yeah.
people would
All right.
2, but Half-Life: Alyx was really good, and that
It
out,
was so good.
it's
Well it's almo-
10 years ago?
almost a decade.
Holy shit.
Alyx was almost a decade ago?
Fuck
So…
was thinking 2017 for some reason.
because it was, uh, it was during the pandemic when it came out.
Was it?
yeah, I was playing it.
Or it was just before the pandemic, 'cause it came out around
the same time as Doom Eternal
Hold on, hold on.
I need, I need to check.
Half-Life.
and I was playing Doom Eternal on my living room gaming PC,
and I was playing, um, uh,
2020
Yeah
feel like it came out in like '98.
Alex?
Yeah.
Okay, okay, James.
Uh,
sorry, 2020.
Sorry, 2018.
'18.
I thought it was 2017, to be honest
Yeah.
No, it was 2020
I don't do dates very well.
Ugh,
I am s- like really like scary good at dates.
don't know why.
So is my wife, but she's a historian.
like,
she, like, she went… Yeah, she's got that stuff locked down.
I am always leaning on her for dates
This still look, uh, for a VR game, it looks amazing.
yeah.
Dude, Alex is amazing.
HiTech, you need to play Alex
I'll get Half-Life: Alyx when…
look at that
I'll get it when the Frame is out, all right?
I'm not trying to play this shit on my Quest 2.
be able to afford the, the frame?
Like, ugh, I'm
Don't worry, enough
the chips are going up, it's gonna be like $1,500.
Dude, don't worry.
I've saved up money.
Okay
have, I have a bunch of money just in the bank, in the bank right- I
could buy, I could buy… I don't know how much the Frame is, but I
could probably buy it today if they, like, announce the price today.
Or they could just delay it a little more and I save a little bit more money
Yeah.
And then, you
I, I mean, as much as I hate to say it, I
know
I could wait until the beginning of next year for the Steam Frame,
save up a little bit more money 'cause I've bought so much stuff.
But I, I do have it set aside to where if it comes out, I could get it, but I'm
hoping to get on s- on, like, the wishlist and, like, in a month I'll get it, so
Uh, so much stuff going on.
But if it's $1,500, I'm not gonna lie, like it's gonna be
a, it's a tough sell.
And I hate Meta so much.
A Meta
Bro,
Well, don't worry.
I'm sure that, I'm sure they'll go up in price too, the Meta Quests, 'cause
they also use Qualcomm chips too
They do.
M- Meta, AKA Facebook, is a weird company though when it
comes to that type of stuff.
They… It's already subsidized.
It could … OLED can subtilize it so much, I would imagine
I, they can only do it so much, I agree.
But like that's, their whole VR is all subsidized.
Um, yeah.
I, I'm, 'cause I collect everything, I, there's like no chance I'm not gonna, I'm
gonna pass up on like a Steam frame, but it's getting to the point where I n- I
wanna play some more VR games and I don't wanna set it up in my new house because
it's kind of awkward, and I don't know.
Hmm.
Have you tried this?
How well does a Steam Machine run Half-Life: Alyx?
you even r- wait, can you even run s- uh, VR on, on the Steam frame?
I'm sure Valve has made some improvements to let VR run a little better.
Yeah
' Cause they, they mention using the Steam, they mention using the Steam, at least in
the, like, trailer, they mention using the Steam Machine to stream to the Steam Frame
Yeah, but I'm talking about like hookups li- wise.
Like what does it require?
It's a USB like… Yeah,
The
I
The…
think it…
Wait, are you talking about the frame?
uh, 4.
Okay.
Uh, yeah.
The frame?
Y- yeah, I'm pr- yeah.
Oh
I know that the Steam Frame is gonna work, but the Steam- or the Valve
Index, I probably didn't say that all right, but like I'm curious if the Valve
Index works with Steam Machine well
I, I don't know.
The Index has like, uh, you need a USB port and you need a
DisplayPort available for the Index.
the Steam Machine has
Okay
Yeah, the Steam Machine, the real Steam Machine has a display port, 1.4 I think
but the… Well, yeah, and, and it sh- so it should work, but the USB… That would
be probably the better option, 'cause it's just got USB 2.0 on the back and
then USB, um, 3, uh, USB 3.0 on the front.
And so you're gonna have to do some, like, weird hookups.
It's stupid,
Yeah
You could use the USB-C port in the back
You could.
You'd have to get a converter thing for it, but… 'Cause it's USB-A.
But yeah, it's, eh, mm. That's another thing with the Steam Machine that I, it
kinda pisses me off, is that I just wish they would've modernized all the ports
a little bit more and not go so, like, save a penny, is literally what it feels
like sometimes with the Steam Machine.
Yeah
I'm like, "I'd pay 10 cents more," or whatever, 50 cents
more to have, uh, better ports
Uh, what- whatever, I guess.
Um, yeah, so… Oh man, Half-Life: Alyx is so good
Yeah, thir- Valve 30th anniversary, man.
Keep that marked in your calendar.
It'll be the same week we talk about Grand Theft Auto VI's
stupid Netflix, uh, exclusive
He's gonna, you're gonna come back and you're gonna be like, "Dude,
Grand Theft Auto's the most amazing game ever. I'm a believer now."
I'm, I'm willing to wa- I'm willing to watch the trailer to give it a chance
six hours after the fact on YouTube, but
Yeah.
Yep.
So, well, we'll see.
I'm hoping that they do like th- they did with the hardware announcement,
but they usually like doing announcements later in the year.
But I'm hoping that they do some type of announcement for like a couple of games.
Even if it's not Half-Life 3, if they just have some like cool new games
that they're coming out with, like, "Hey, here's, for our 30th, here's a
couple cool things we're com- we're working on." That's what I hope they do.
Hope… 'Cause I, w- hardware-wise, we're satiated.
Like, we, we just need the Steam Frame to come out, and we're gonna be eating well
for Steam hardware for the next few years.
But we need some games, man.
S- Valve needs to give us some games
I agree.
' Cause there's
games are so good compared to like most other games, in my opinion.
Well, and they're unique.
Yes
company, dev studio really makes like stuff like h- Portal 3, Half-Life, all
these games that are just so unique.
So
Dude, Portal, oh man.
I could just, dude, we could just, we should just start another
podcast called Valve Fanboy, and we just fanboy on Valve games.
That would be very… We'd have to, it'd have to be NSFW on that one, but…
Put it on OnlyFans
OnlyFans, Valve podcast on- only on OnlyFans
Only fans of Valve may listen to this podcast.
There you go.
And it
Man, wow.
Includes feet pics.
Oh,
And dude, not the feet, not the feet, bros
Eh, well, if it pays the bills, I'll do about anything these days.
To get that Steam Frame.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, updates.
There are updates coming out, man.
I have a couple more, uh, articles for us to chat about 'cause
we have a little bit more time
It'll pay for your Steam frame.
All right, well
Nice
Yes.
And this is just a small little update for the Steam, uh, Steam
Deck and Steam Machine, Steam OS.
There are a couple of things actually.
Um, for example, we have a little fix for, um, for HDMI-CEC sometimes bugging out.
If you guys recall, HDMI-CEC, you're supposed to be able to control
your… You're supposed to be able to control your TV with the
Steam Frame, I mean Steam Machine.
But sometimes when you put it to sleep, it'll just inexplicably
wake up, which is bullshit
Hmm.
bad too
Yeah.
And have, Gardner, have you figured out HDMI CEC yet?
I have not even attempted it yet.
It's on my to-do list, unfortunately
There's supposed to be, there's supposed to be a, uh, UGREEN adapter
you can use, like a US- like a UGREEN, uh, DisplayPort to HDMI adapter
one.
There's a couple other ones that you can find.
I'll have, uh… I have one I haven't bought yet, but I wanna
build a computer first and then I'm gonna be running a, uh, an adapter.
I'll let you guys know
Yeah.
an adapter and I have not tried it yet.
Like it's, I've been so busy this week
Dude
I'd do the same.
I mean, my parts are right here and I'm gonna probably stream
to put together my Steam Machine killer, but, uh, I also wanna just
build it and start playing with it
It's time.
It's about time, James.
It
Let's see,
So
right, so let's see.
Yeah
thing though that they're fixing things and, and that's like… I'm gonna have my
review out sometime soon, like full review of the Steam Machine but, it, it, it
Same.
all over again, right?
Угу
it… With the Steam Machine feel… And, and this is nice that they're at
least coming out with, with updates and everything and fixing it, and
that's the thing I usually tell people.
It's like if you hate it now or if, like these things are really annoying
for you, they will fix a lot of the big ones, so in the next few months.
Yep
the fix out yet, so I don't- we'll see if it does fully fix it, but we'll see
Yeah, I've been messing around, dude, and I'm getting some new tool- I should
be getting my new tools today, so maybe eventually at some point I may
be able to finally replace that SSD.
'Cause I have a two terabyte in my original LCD Steam Deck that's just not
being used right now, and I'd like to harvest it and, like, actually use it
Угу
So yeah.
Yeah, no, I, that's what I, I swapped over and I have four
terabytes in that Steam Machine.
It's awesome.
But it eats s- I'm shock- I'm still shocked at how much games eat up
space though, 'cause I have like 100 games on there, and that's
about, um, 150 games on there.
But I have a lot of AAA stuff too on there that are really eat up a lot of space.
But
Yeah
Good news, bad news, whatever you wanna say, but for like this next
thing is… Well, we can go to the actual like one of like PC Gamer one.
Um, Machine reservation queue should be caught up by the end of 2026, Valve says.
Nice
good news.
So for those people that have been waiting, like, um, so the, yeah, the
queue is… It sounds like by the end, everyone that's on the list or that's
queued up should having a Steam Machine.
Is that what I'm thinking?
That like there's no more queue system, you'll just be able to buy one?
Or that everyone on the queue will be able to be put, uh, will be put on the
list to eventually be able to buy one?
I'm not quite sure if I understand this, but
The way I understand that, just my interpretation would be that
whoever is in the queue now will get theirs by the end of the year
by the end of the year
Yeah, that's on, that's what I'm thinking too.
But people have been getting moved up to the, uh, from the wait list to the queue.
So
Oh, okay.
yeah
Uh, they are… Yeah, it, it will be interesting.
So I, I think it is.
Anyone that's really wanting a, uh, that's on the wait list now that they, that
they're thinking of it will probably end up being in the queue by the end of the
year or potentially even have theirs.
I think there's a lot of people that don't end up buying the Steam Machine 'cause it
is a lot, and they got put on the, on the queue, and they're like, out, hold out."
I know a couple people that, um, they h- they held out, and once they got
the email, they're like, "I just, I don't wanna afford this right
now," and so they didn't get it.
So I think we'll get through the queue much faster, and that's
probably why they're saying this.
Like, yeah.
So hopefully we go into 2027 and people can just buy the Steam Machine, but…
And not have to wait, but we'll see.
I don't know.
The prices helped cool it down, I think, a lot.
People don't… Like, the deal-- Like, if this was, came out for
$1,000 a year, like a year ago, people would've just gawked at it.
Like, that's a horrible deal, right?
Угу
But… 'Cause a year ago it should've been like $600 in my opinion.
think it's still a little over, uh, it's just a little more than it should be, but
I think it's to help accommodate for price hikes too and the RAM and issues that
are going on, and RAM is super expensive.
And this thing has 24 gigabytes of RAM in it between the system and video memory, so
At the end of the day, go get on the wishlist now.
If you d- if you were a little afraid that, hey, you're too late to the
party, I'd go get on the wishlist now, and then you'll probably get
queued up by the end of the year.
So go do it now before it's too late.
Um,
Absolutely
yeah, it, it's definitely worth it.
I think if you d- unless you have a really powerful machine, you don't
have any use for the Steam Machine, I get it, but, like, for most people you
could find a pretty good use for this.
I love it
What I don't like is that we're going back in time.
Did you guys see this?
That, like, the new
I did
9050 cards are gonna be four gigs and eight gig variants.
Like, four gigs is, me
Yeah.
We did talk about this last week, I think.
But, and
we, and we, yeah, we f- and we determined… Well, a website
tested it, and it seems like it's weaker than the Steam Machine.
Both the four, both the four and eight gig models
I was gonna say, like, that four gigs gonna super… It's gonna limit it.
You're gonna get much better fidelity on the Steam Machine than
you will with this with four gigs.
Eight gigs is matching it, right?
crazy
I, I, I don't know, I, I don't know what AMD's doing.
The, the, well, you know what they're not doing, they're not
being competitive against Nvidia
No, they, they, th- they're… once again, uh, like this capitalistic broken
system where like in the past AMD would've been like, "Oh, we got the he- we're
getting ahead of things because price." Or they usually would try to get ahead.
Each one would try to leverage and, be a leader.
And now it's just like, "Okay, well, we'll raise our prices
once Nvidia raises their prices."
Like, so you don't have to raise your prices.
You're just doing it 'cause of Nvidia?
Yeah
Instead of just being like produce a lot more, sell more if
you can afford it at this price.
You don't-- If you don't raise your prices, then people are
gonna buy your cards more.
Like, I would r- I'm already recommending people buy AMD over Nvidia, but if
Nvidia keeps on upping their prices on everything, I'm-- like, there's no reason
to get an Nvidia card, in my opinion.
I think a mid-range AMD card is totally worth it, especially 'cause
it supports Steam OS so well.
I mean, I'll, I'll test out the one I have and let people know, but that's
on paper it looks really good, so.
Kind of my, my say on this.
I know you guys talked about it last week, but…
No, you're,
Yeah.
You're good.
You're good
So yeah.
Um,
that's pretty much it.
That's all the topics I have unless there's anything else.
I don't think there's much, I don't think there's much else.
We did talk about a lot this week
We did.
did.
But we're hitting, we're… This episode is only gonna be 100, or
not 100, an hour and 20 minutes, so
Hmm.
I think that's probably fine.
not that bad.
that's fine.
Yeah, there's a whole other episode over on the bonus o- on our Patreon
If you want more, you can go over and subscribe or, you know, to Patreon.
Become a Patreon, um, me- uh, member and you get, like, 50 minutes.
We have a 50-minute, uh, long episode over there
Hell yeah, man.
It's spicier there
Oh yeah.
It's like way too hot for YouTube this week.
Heck, we even went a little crazy in y- in the YouTube episode, and you can just
imagine what the other episode looks like.
Yeah
yeah.
So with that, thank you guys for joining us.
Thanks everyone for listening, watching, whatever.
Go to offthecuffsel.com to find the other ways that you can support us and,
and/or just w- watch or listen to us.
So yeah.
See you later
See you later.
Ich sag euch später.
Bye