Kinda Funny Games Daily: Video Games News Podcast
Marvel Snap Gets Caught in The TikTok Ban - Kinda Funny Games Daily 01.20.25
Mon, 20 Jan 2025
Go to http://shadyrays.com and use code FUNNY to get 35% off polarized sunglasses. Go to http://rocketmoney.com/kindafunny to cancel your unwanted subscriptions with Rocket Money. Marvel Snap got banned but it's on its way back, Bluepoint and Bend employees didn’t know their games were cancelled, and Dragon Age’s director is leaving Bioware. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Chapter 1: What happened with Marvel Snap?
Today's stories include Marvel's Snap got banned, but it's on its way back.
Bluepoint and Bend employees didn't know their games were canceled, and Dragon Age's director is leaving Bioware. We have all that and more on today's Kind of Funny Games Daily. Good morning and welcome to Kind of Funny Games Daily for Monday, January 20th, 2025. I'm one of your hosts, Snowbike Mike, joined alongside the Nitro Rifle, Andy Cortez. Andy, happy Monday. It's great to see you, Mikey.
We're back together after a weekend away. We didn't spend any time this weekend. I'm not happy about that.
I had stuff I was doing. You can't just buy a game for me and expect that all of my friends are going to be there at the same time to play this game that I bought for all of my friends.
Well, six out of the seven were there. And only one was missing.
I'm sitting on my PC. I'm doing work. And then I hear the little notification from Steam. And I'm like, and I saw you have received a gift. And I immediately knew this is going to be some bullshit. Yeah.
And it was. It was.
Received a fast food simulator or something from Snowbike Mike.
It was fantastic.
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Chapter 2: Why were Bluepoint and Bend employees surprised?
This is why you never have money near the end of a paycheck.
Well, it's just like you have to do it for your friends. You know what I mean? I want everybody to be together. You bought six copies? Six copies. Okay, hold on. I'm supporting the devs team. You are. I'm supporting games industry. Yeah, you are. You spent $90 on this. $90 for four and a half hours of fun. It was worth it. You can't put a price on friendship.
You can't put a price on good times with your friends. You know what I mean? Andy, it's been a big weekend. We didn't spend any time together. So tell me about yours. How was it?
My weekend was good. My weekend was good. Yeah. You know, put in some work on this little on this Nick Locke 2.0.
Nick Locke 2.0. I love that.
NickLock 2.0. It's in development. You know, a good game is never canceled. It's only delayed. That's good, that's good. So I've been working on that. And then I tested out some multi-streaming, doing the Twitch and YouTube simultaneous things. I watched them both. I played so much Hyper Light Breaker. I have 36 hours in this game already. It's like not...
It's wild that I put that much time in it because it's a game that I'm obviously really, really enjoying while I can see all the faults. And not even faults, it's just like this game's early, right? I think Hyper Light Breaker is unfortunately being released in a time where Baldur's Gate 3 was in early access and so is Hades 2. And you have all of these big, massive games being released now.
That feel very, very complete and kind of like feature ready. You know, there's some content that isn't quite there. Hyper Light Breaker, I think it's a lot of freaking fun. And it's so early in development that I'm so happy that I'm still finding the fun, even though there's a lot of stuff that still needs to be developed for it.
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Chapter 3: What is the significance of early access games?
So will that turn people away? So let's break it down right now. It's in early access. Was there a price tag to that early access? And then on top of that, when you say it's like lacking features and you can see some of the, you know, the issues here, is that going to turn people away? You know, we talk about first impressions mattering here and this kind of being the welcome to the world.
Should this have just stayed in the studio and just gone with some small game tests to try to elevate it? What's going on here?
Well, I mean, the point of early access is to put out a game in hopes that your fan base trusts you and you say, hey, have this early money for a game that is still in development that I know still needs time, a year and a half, maybe two years of development. I'm going to give you all money. I'm kind of like mortgaging this, right? Here's some money because I believe in what you can make.
I am investing in this product right now. And if I want to be further into the sort of co-development with you all, with giving you all notes and things like that, even better. And yeah, it will turn some fans away. I think the Steam reviews were mixed at some point because I think there's a lot of good feedback. There's a lot of good constructive feedback that I've seen on the Steam pages.
And I'm like, yeah, that would be great. That would be great. And it's a lot of people that are just totally rational. And there's some people that... may have bought the game and are like, hey, why doesn't it have this feature? It's like, well, it's early access for a reason. You're not buying a demo of the game. You are sort of investing in the development of this game with us.
And, you know, that could turn some people off. That's not for everybody. I get it. I understand not wanting to give money to a game that is not complete yet, but I am having a lot of fun with the runs and the builds and finding that a couple of awesome power-ups that go, oh, shit, this turns the run around. This could be really awesome if I am able to succeed here.
I'm having a lot of fun with it, and I am... I think I'm just really happy that I enjoy the game where it's at right now.
Okay.
Knowing that this thing is maybe halfway done in development.
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Chapter 4: How does the TikTok ban affect gaming?
It was a really good game.
Thank you all so much for tuning in. Of course, this is Kind of Funny Games Daily. Each and every weekday, we run you through the nerdy news you need to know about live on YouTube and on Twitch, and of course, on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, consider supporting us with that brand new Kind of Funny membership available on YouTube.
uh patreon and now spotify and apple podcasts to get all of our shows ad free watch us as we record them live and get your daily exclusive show greg way which was taken over today by you andy cortez sure was yeah greg ways today it was a little behind the scenes peek of making the nuzlocke 2.0 oh snap that's showing off uh just kind of where i'm at in the process and how i'm
Having to be really responsible with all the files and file structures and folders. I'm having to really turn it on. It's not something I'm used to. I'm a pretty messy dude. Let me get some folders down. Let me name everything correctly.
And is that because of the game making process of you modding it? Or is that just because this time you wanted to turn it on on like last time? Like what's the difference from the last time you made it to this time?
The difference is that the program I was using last time for the Game Boy Advance sort of ROM thing, Hex Maniac Advance, was a lot easier, and now I have a bunch of different programs with folder structures that I need to know where everything goes, and it's a whole thing, right? Like, if you see the main character in Pokemon SoulSilver, You're not just replacing one instance of him or her.
They're kind of everywhere in a bunch of different spots. You have to kind of understand and know, all right, I replaced this sprite because it's in this folder. Okay. But that same sprite also exists in this other folder. Even though they're kind of identical, it still needs to be kind of put into the right spot.
So just kind of learning all that, showing off the different pixel art configurations and, you know, getting ready for what could be Nick Locke 2.0 in the, you know, in the future.
Great way to check it out over on today's Greg way. So if you support us on patron YouTube, and of course now Spotify and Apple podcasts, you can go behind the scenes with Andy and see how he works. He's working real tight this time with a lot of folders. I like that.
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Chapter 5: What's next for Bluepoint and Bend Studio?
Yeah, we love Jeff Grubb.
That's my guy. Congratulations.
Nobody's doing it like him. I looked into this a little bit. Grubb explained, yes, all this is true. The two studios found out at the same time as everyone else. So people will be going into work today wondering... Hey, okay, what are we doing next? End quote. And here's a new quote that says, and what they're going to have to do next, very likely, is pitch something to Sony.
And the landscape of that has changed pretty drastically. End quote. Grubb suggested that both studios will have a harder time proposing a new idea to Sony because its closure of numerous live service games means it's not currently clear what types of new games it's looking to greenlight. He explained, a couple years ago, you'd bring your PlayStation pitch, you'd bring...
A couple years ago, you'd bring to PlayStation your pitch. That is, it's a live service game. We know you want to hear that. And can we use the God of War IP? We know you want to hear that. And then they get the green light and they get a budget. Then they get funding and they can grow their studio, hire more people. The people working there are safe.
And now they have to go back to the drawing board, come up with a pitch that PlayStation wants to hear, which no one really knows what they want to hear, so it's a rough situation. And that's the end of the story from Chris Scullion right here. Another kind of weird situation we're dealing with, Mike. Yeah.
For all of them to be caught off guard, for them to come into work on this Monday wondering, what is next? What are the things that we may have pitched that got sort of shut down? Can we revisit any of those old pitches? Or are a lot of those pitches similar to a lot of these live service games that were kind of being made? Are all of those also trapped in the past in a different era of...
successful video game thinking, you know?
Yeah, that sucks, Andy. That's some weird stuff going on there. Of course, now manager, whoever's got to come out on a Monday morning meeting and say, okay, well, all the projects canceled. Who's got ideas? And now we've got to reset. What is the idea? What's the pitch here? Because live service games clearly aren't the pitch, but it's got to be some sort of blend of live service.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of canceled games?
Yeah.
This other thing by Sony Ben already got canceled. So they're already at a point where you have this gigantic moment with Concord getting canceled. Mid-development, halfway, you know, the game gets released, the game gets shut down immediately. Yeah.
With these games not even coming out, with Sony Ben's game not even coming out and getting canceled, with Blue Point's game not even coming out and getting canceled, that signals to me that they have sounded the klaxons. There's like, hey, no more of this. We are not going to make money on this. And maybe Helldivers is the safe spot where they realize, let's take care of this baby.
Let's keep nurturing this little baby so it can keep on making money and maybe not try to take massive risks anymore.
It's an interesting spot to be in, right? Because you have to first look at the two studios, like you said. Who are the teams that are about to pitch you, right? They're known for single-player games. They were working on live service games, so maybe they have a little talent in both, right? But, like, what are they going to pitch you? Clearly, what does the market say? Where do we want to be?
Am I really doubling down and saying, yeah, here's all the budget in the world. Take... five to seven years to create the ultimate third-person action-adventure single-player game like we're known for? Or is it, hey, you have two to three years, make some smaller project, and let's hit this thing going right now?
Because it's very interesting of, like you said, right, they've been shell-shocked by Concord. Where are they going to go? Clearly, they don't want to go fully into live service because the audience doesn't want that. But the global audience clearly shows that Fortnite is still dominant and we want a piece of that pie. But we're known for this.
Do we just double down on the giant blockbuster single-player games that we're known for? But is that making enough money? We constantly see all these stories of, hey, it was a big-time game. It didn't technically make enough money or it made just enough. They want more than that.
Yeah, I think that... If I were them, you would be looking at the sort of double-A lower budget space. Can we put out a 15-hour campaign that does not have to bloat our budget like crazy? Can we make something that isn't going to be...
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Chapter 7: What's the future of single-player vs. live service games?
Yeah, of course, Bloodborne. But I think all the criticism they get for the remakes and stuff is really only having to do with the games that just came out a decade ago. The fact that Last of Us has the remaster that then works on PS4 and then it gets remade for PS5. That's where a lot of the criticism lies. There's plenty of dormant IP that can be revisited and that can be remade.
And I don't necessarily know... I think that they're looking at their catalog right now and wondering what are our weaknesses and how can we kind of... What sort of niches can we fill? What voids can we fill here with these two developers? Or it could just be, do we make more single-player stuff? And I think that's probably the most logical choice. That's also...
It's also wild that you're losing so many years of development. Can you get any of that development back? Can you use any of that for another project? My gosh. I don't envy them for the spot that they're in right now.
What a tough week it's got to be coming back to work and going, okay, back to the drawing board. What are we pitching this?
And you obviously feel extremely bad for everybody at Bend and Bluepoint, but I also try to see the glass half full side of things where... In this case, it does feel like Sony saying, hey, we know Concord massively fucked up. We're going to cancel your shit. And in a way, I'm like, oh, that means that they realize that they're at fault for kind of greenlighting all this stuff. Great.
Well, as long as we don't see layoffs come from it or studio closures.
And it's also extremely naive for me to assume that that won't lead to layoffs, but I hope it doesn't. you know.
Let's, of course, keep it going. We have Flying Penguins and Smokin' Joe. Smokin' Joe, both on Bluepoint, should remake Ben's Uncharted games or they should be making Bloodborne remake.
Yeah, I mean, we know the story there. Yeah, we've kind of assumed that. We've heard in back channels for why the Bloodborne thing was never happening, and that's what I always assume. When Shu talked about it, I was like, yeah, we've kind of been hearing that.
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Chapter 8: How do remakes fit into Sony's strategy?
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Welcome back. Let me take you into my pitch room real quick.
I think you're right. Yeah, yeah.
Let me take you into my pitch room. Hey, Mr. Sony, a.k.a. Andy Cortez, I have a pitch for you. Yeah, go ahead. Have a seat. Okay, you know what's hot right now?
Yeah.
Football. Oh. You know what's even hotter right now? The love of Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift. All right. Global phenomenon. Okay. Playoffs are happening right now, so I'm high on football. You're high on football. I'm high on it. What if I brought back NFL Blitz? Nothing bigger than big hits. Security, can you get this?
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